- Joined
- Jan 5, 2016
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- Richmond, VA
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Whatever his secret to success...he has succeeded way past what I thought the American Republican voters would allow.
Either I have under-estimated his skill as a motivator...
...or I have VASTLY over-estimated the intelligence of the Republican voters.
Jury is still out on that.
November should help me decide.
If he, and the under-card, lose in a landslide like I think they will...the latter is where I went wrong...not the former.
I can't take credit for the comparison, but someone today compared Trump to Thornton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield) from BACK TO SCHOOL. It's just true enough to be hilarious.
I'm sick to death of Trump but I give him credit for this. As a fraud he's magnificent. I can't think of anyone in my lifetime to match him. What political candidate has ever had a spiel that when he's in office "you're going to be so happy!"? Then everyone cheers for the happiness that's coming.
Trump's great insight is that half the country has a below-average IQ, and has been raised to be entertained by television. And he is indeed brilliant at it.
Well that's a no duh! We are a large and diverse enough population to be a representation of the whole species population, so of course almost half would be below average - almost half is above average. The republican party has that mix just as the democrats do. And Trump took the above average members as well. Not to mention, the democrat members were also raised on the same entertainment. Has access and uses the same television and internet.
Trump's "great insight" has been known since the day we founded this nation and before. Eventually any peoples will get to the point where they are so tired of being told by their government, their so-called representatives what they want - and go for what they really want, even if it involves defying their own party/government.
The party, the government is supposed to be our servant, to express our will. That hasn't been the case for a long time now. We're past the point of straws breaking the camel's back. The party and the government will change.
I'm not sure that the average Trump voter is an idiot. I think they're paying more attention to his attitude than to his policies.Trump's great insight is that half the country has a below-average IQ, and has been raised to be entertained by television. And he is indeed brilliant at it.
I'm not sure that the average Trump voter is an idiot. I think they're paying more attention to his attitude than to his policies.
That shouldn't be too surprising. Lots of people are disengaged from politics, and the nitty-gritty of government policies is complex and often counter-intuitive.
Trump voters are also (similar to many other groups) very tribal in their thinking. His nativist statements in particular trigger this off. At this point, Trump could say he wants to murder puppies, and most of his followers would wave it off. That's not necessarily an indicator of intelligence either, as highly intelligent people can also be very tribal.
That being said, I think he's going to have a very hard time walking back any of his promises. In particular, he can't back down on building a wall to Mexico, or agreeing with any free trade agreements, without pissing off his supporters -- who are apparently already pretty pissy in the first place.
There are 318 million Americans now, and we don't agree on a lot of stuff. So whose will are the politicians supposed to mind?The party, the government is supposed to be our servant, to express our will. That hasn't been the case for a long time now.
Okay, and...? That doesn't change the fact that policies are not the same thing as attitude.Aristotle said that we are what we repeatedly do.
I assure you, there is no contradiction there. We're pretty much saying the same thing.I think these two pieces contradict themselves as well.
There are 318 million Americans now, and we don't agree on a lot of stuff. So whose will are the politicians supposed to mind?
What do you do if the citizens want services, but don't want to pay for them?
What do you do, when the citizens don't want to get involved in international affairs, but still want to demand that other nations do what we tell them to do, if we don't like their behavior?
What do you do, when the same people who demand high-paying jobs don't want to pay the price for the goods made by those high-paying jobs? Or when they are opposed to unions because.... they demand high pay for their workers?
What do you do, when the same people who fume about jobs going overseas don't even notice that huge swaths of jobs were eliminated not by foreign competition, but by automation?
What do you do, when 45% of the population wants one thing, 45% do not, and 10% don't care?
Well that's a no duh! We are a large and diverse enough population to be a representation of the whole species population, so of course almost half would be below average - almost half is above average. The republican party has that mix just as the democrats do. And Trump took the above average members as well. Not to mention, the democrat members were also raised on the same entertainment. Has access and uses the same television and internet.
Trump's "great insight" has been known since the day we founded this nation and before. Eventually any peoples will get to the point where they are so tired of being told by their government, their so-called representatives what they want - and go for what they really want, even if it involves defying their own party/government.
The party, the government is supposed to be our servant, to express our will. That hasn't been the case for a long time now. We're past the point of straws breaking the camel's back. The party and the government will change.
There are 318 million Americans now, and we don't agree on a lot of stuff. So whose will are the politicians supposed to mind?
What do you do if the citizens want services, but don't want to pay for them?
What do you do, when the citizens don't want to get involved in international affairs, but still want to demand that other nations do what we tell them to do, if we don't like their behavior?
What do you do, when the same people who demand high-paying jobs don't want to pay the price for the goods made by those high-paying jobs? Or when they are opposed to unions because.... they demand high pay for their workers?
What do you do, when the same people who fume about jobs going overseas don't even notice that huge swaths of jobs were eliminated not by foreign competition, but by automation?
What do you do, when 45% of the population wants one thing, 45% do not, and 10% don't care?
Whatever his secret to success...he has succeeded way past what I thought the American Republican voters would allow.
Either I have under-estimated his skill as a motivator...
...or I have VASTLY over-estimated the intelligence of the Republican voters.
Jury is still out on that.
November should help me decide.
If he, and the under-card, lose in a landslide like I think they will...the latter is where I went wrong...not the former.
Hillary Clinton!
Just to be clear, I'm trying to make a non-partisan argument.You make a great argument for the Conservative way. The schizophrenic nature of the voting public is a great argument for small government. Government is best when it protects the right of people to seek what they want from life and worst when it tries to provide it for them.
Trump's great insight is that half the country has a below-average IQ, and has been raised to be entertained by television. And he is indeed brilliant at it.
Just to be clear, I'm trying to make a non-partisan argument.
One part is that different groups often make conflicting demands. What seems like an unresponsive government can actually be a product of a divided populace.
Another is that within a particular interest group, its desires can be contradictory. E.g. "we want cheap goods" and "we want lots of high-paying manufacturing jobs" are in direct conflict.
A third issue -- not mentioned above -- is that lots of people don't understand the limits of government. E.g. as we all should know, there are consequences to a government trying to make goods cheaper (via subsidies or price fixing). Similarly, there is almost nothing a government can do to create jobs, except directly hire people. And yet, the expectation for government to do one or both of these things is often very high, especially among people who are disengaged from the political system.
Thus, the key issue is, though: What do you do, when the demands of the public are incoherent?
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