Welcome to the Trump Dark Age

[nhboy]

"Donald Trump was the most unpopular major party candidate in modern history, lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly three millions votes, and enters office on Friday as, by far, the most unpopular incoming president since record-keeping began. Meanwhile, he is inheriting an economy near full employment; a relatively stable international order; increasing wages, modest deficits, and record-low levels of uninsurance. It’s a fair bet that some of these metrics would deteriorate even under a serious-minded president, but the Trump-GOP policy agenda threatens to reverse several of them fairly quickly.

The question is whether, decades hence, Trump’s presidency will be remembered as an aberration that the country quickly reverses, or as a harbinger of a longer turn away from liberal democratic traditions and increasing tolerance. And this, in turn, will determine exactly how history remembers President Barack Obama.

Many bizarre factors contributed to Trump’s unlikely victory, but the one that should trouble Democrats most, is that across the country, and particularly in states Republicans needed to flip to carry the Electoral College, working-class whites responded to Trump’s racist campaign by voting in the same lopsided way that minority communities typically vote for Democrats. RealClearPolitics elections analyst Sean Trende told me in November that if what happened last year turns into a trend, Republicans are going to be winning national elections much more regularly than their demographic slide would have you believe. That may well include Trump in 2020. After all, most presidents get reelected—even bad ones, like George W. Bush, who also lost the popular vote in winning the White House."

https://newrepublic.com/article/139969/welcome-trump-dark-age

 

[itsbob]

"Donald Trump was the most unpopular major party candidate in modern history, lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly three millions votes, and enters office on Friday as, by far, the most unpopular incoming president since record-keeping began. Meanwhile, he is inheriting an economy near full employment; a relatively stable international order; increasing wages, modest deficits, and record-low levels of uninsurance. It’s a fair bet that some of these metrics would deteriorate even under a serious-minded president, but the Trump-GOP policy agenda threatens to reverse several of them fairly quickly.

The question is whether, decades hence, Trump’s presidency will be remembered as an aberration that the country quickly reverses, or as a harbinger of a longer turn away from liberal democratic traditions and increasing tolerance. And this, in turn, will determine exactly how history remembers President Barack Obama.

Many bizarre factors contributed to Trump’s unlikely victory, but the one that should trouble Democrats most, is that across the country, and particularly in states Republicans needed to flip to carry the Electoral College, working-class whites responded to Trump’s racist campaign by voting in the same lopsided way that minority communities typically vote for Democrats. RealClearPolitics elections analyst Sean Trende told me in November that if what happened last year turns into a trend, Republicans are going to be winning national elections much more regularly than their demographic slide would have you believe. That may well include Trump in 2020. After all, most presidents get reelected—even bad ones, like George W. Bush, who also lost the popular vote in winning the White House."

https://newrepublic.com/article/139969/welcome-trump-dark-age

Trump WON!!

 

[Chris0nllyn]

It's a bit unfair to have the media constantly paint him as a demonic person hell bent on destroying America then tout the poll numbers that show he's the most unpopular going into his presidency.

Remember, polls told us Hillary was going to win.

There was so much back-and-forth about how Trump would act if he didn't win. The left declared that he better suck it up and not be a sore loser; accept the outcome of the election. Now the left is losing their #### over the fact that he won. It's all fine and good to act like the world is coming to an end if you live in the major cities, but middle America voted him in. The middle class who felt like the status quo in Washington had gone on long enough voted him in. The folks that continually get forgotten about during major elections finally got their say, and acting like a group of immature babies who can't fathom that someone besides their "guy" won isn't going to help in 4 years.

 

[Clem72]

"Donald Trump was the most unpopular major party candidate in modern history, lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly three millions votes, and enters office on Friday as, by far, the most unpopular incoming president since record-keeping began. Meanwhile, he is inheriting an economy near full employment; a relatively stable international order; increasing wages, modest deficits, and record-low levels of uninsurance. It’s a fair bet that some of these metrics would deteriorate even under a serious-minded president, but the Trump-GOP policy agenda threatens to reverse several of them fairly quickly.

The question is whether, decades hence, Trump’s presidency will be remembered as an aberration that the country quickly reverses, or as a harbinger of a longer turn away from liberal democratic traditions and increasing tolerance. And this, in turn, will determine exactly how history remembers President Barack Obama.

Many bizarre factors contributed to Trump’s unlikely victory, but the one that should trouble Democrats most, is that across the country, and particularly in states Republicans needed to flip to carry the Electoral College, working-class whites responded to Trump’s racist campaign by voting in the same lopsided way that minority communities typically vote for Democrats. RealClearPolitics elections analyst Sean Trende told me in November that if what happened last year turns into a trend, Republicans are going to be winning national elections much more regularly than their demographic slide would have you believe. That may well include Trump in 2020. After all, most presidents get reelected—even bad ones, like George W. Bush, who also lost the popular vote in winning the White House."

https://newrepublic.com/article/139969/welcome-trump-dark-age

Nanny Nanny Boo Boo, Stick Your Head In DooDoo

 

[Gilligan]

.....liberal democratic traditions and increasing tolerance. ..]

I bet the moron that wrote that even typed it with a straight face too...

 

[PsyOps]

I bet the moron that wrote that even typed it with a straight face too...

It just gets more entertaining watching liberals running around telling people to be things they refuse to be - like tolerant.

 

[SamSpade]

It's a bit unfair to have the media constantly paint him as a demonic person hell bent on destroying America then tout the poll numbers that show he's the most unpopular going into his presidency.

Remember, polls told us Hillary was going to win.

There was so much back-and-forth about how Trump would act if he didn't win. The left declared that he better suck it up and not be a sore loser; accept the outcome of the election. Now the left is losing their #### over the fact that he won. It's all fine and good to act like the world is coming to an end if you live in the major cities, but middle America voted him in. The middle class who felt like the status quo in Washington had gone on long enough voted him in. The folks that continually get forgotten about during major elections finally got their say, and acting like a group of immature babies who can't fathom that someone besides their "guy" won isn't going to help in 4 years.

Good to hear. I have way too many liberal friends who conveniently forgot the insanity during the debates about what a sore loser Trump was going to be - and what a disgrace it would be if he couldn't accept the outcome of the election.
It is EXACTLY the opposite, and not a one of them sees it as somehow hypocritical or being a sore loser.

I remember every election from '68 onward - and I've never seen the like of this before. Even 2000 wasn't this nasty, and the left never accepted Bush's win. They still don't.
I've never seen the opposition candidate THIS hated, THIS vilified and I sometimes think it has to do with the younger crowd - because that's where I am hearing most of this - simply never been aware of politics and that sometimes, you lose.
I have a few nieces and nephews and relatives for whom this is the FIRST transition from the left to right that they remember.

You did nail it with middle America. I think they were patient for a long time. They were patient with being "flyover" country.
I think they finally said they'd had enough of stuff that favors the cities and for that, the urbanites are calling them rednecks, bigots and so forth.

What they don't get is, demonizing Trump beyond all rational thinking is going to ensure his re-election. It helped him win. Comey did far less to help him win as did Hollywood and pop culture.
When I get the likes of Madonna and Katy Perry giving me political advice, I know who NOT to listen to.
When they ask for recounts and accuse the right of *cheating* - and the recounts actually HELP Trump - when they then ask electors to just vote for Hillary ANYWAY - and it goes against her?
When CNN actually ran a piece suggesting that if the top GOP are MURDERED today that an Obama cabinet member would automatically assume the Presidency - what IS IT with these people?

When I grew up playing Little League, the end of the game was ALWAYS the same - you congratulate the winning team with a gauntlet of high fives.
Did these people never play ball?

 

[tommyjo]

"Donald Trump was the most unpopular major party candidate in modern history, lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly three millions votes, and enters office on Friday as, by far, the most unpopular incoming president since record-keeping began. Meanwhile, he is inheriting an economy near full employment; a relatively stable international order; increasing wages, modest deficits, and record-low levels of uninsurance. It’s a fair bet that some of these metrics would deteriorate even under a serious-minded president, but the Trump-GOP policy agenda threatens to reverse several of them fairly quickly.

The question is whether, decades hence, Trump’s presidency will be remembered as an aberration that the country quickly reverses, or as a harbinger of a longer turn away from liberal democratic traditions and increasing tolerance. And this, in turn, will determine exactly how history remembers President Barack Obama.

Many bizarre factors contributed to Trump’s unlikely victory, but the one that should trouble Democrats most, is that across the country, and particularly in states Republicans needed to flip to carry the Electoral College, working-class whites responded to Trump’s racist campaign by voting in the same lopsided way that minority communities typically vote for Democrats. RealClearPolitics elections analyst Sean Trende told me in November that if what happened last year turns into a trend, Republicans are going to be winning national elections much more regularly than their demographic slide would have you believe. That may well include Trump in 2020. After all, most presidents get reelected—even bad ones, like George W. Bush, who also lost the popular vote in winning the White House."

https://newrepublic.com/article/139969/welcome-trump-dark-age

That's a pretty stupid post.

To say that we are entering a "Dark Age" is a little bit premature. No one knows what this man will propose, hell he doesn't know what his positions are from one minute to the next. Mr. Trump's own cabinet nominees don't agree with any of his stated positions from the campaign. THAT combined with his utter lack of experience and qualification for the job are what is scary...oh and let us not forget his temperament of the constantly offended 5 yr old girl.

At this point, Paul Ryan is more likely to set policy for the country than Donald Trump.

 

[Chris0nllyn]

Good to hear. I have way too many liberal friends who conveniently forgot the insanity during the debates about what a sore loser Trump was going to be - and what a disgrace it would be if he couldn't accept the outcome of the election.
It is EXACTLY the opposite, and not a one of them sees it as somehow hypocritical or being a sore loser.

I remember every election from '68 onward - and I've never seen the like of this before. Even 2000 wasn't this nasty, and the left never accepted Bush's win. They still don't.
I've never seen the opposition candidate THIS hated, THIS vilified and I sometimes think it has to do with the younger crowd - because that's where I am hearing most of this - simply never been aware of politics and that sometimes, you lose.
I have a few nieces and nephews and relatives for whom this is the FIRST transition from the left to right that they remember.

You did nail it with middle America. I think they were patient for a long time. They were patient with being "flyover" country.
I think they finally said they'd had enough of stuff that favors the cities and for that, the urbanites are calling them rednecks, bigots and so forth.

What they don't get is, demonizing Trump beyond all rational thinking is going to ensure his re-election. It helped him win. Comey did far less to help him win as did Hollywood and pop culture.
When I get the likes of Madonna and Katy Perry giving me political advice, I know who NOT to listen to.
When they ask for recounts and accuse the right of *cheating* - and the recounts actually HELP Trump - when they then ask electors to just vote for Hillary ANYWAY - and it goes against her?
When CNN actually ran a piece suggesting that if the top GOP are MURDERED today that an Obama cabinet member would automatically assume the Presidency - what IS IT with these people?

When I grew up playing Little League, the end of the game was ALWAYS the same - you congratulate the winning team with a gauntlet of high fives.
Did these people never play ball?

I like the baseball reference.

Unfortunately, normalizing this behavior will only make things worse. Don't get me wrong, I have my gripes with Trump, but it's certainly not because I believe he's the second coming of Hitler, or that he'll round up all the gays and blacks. That's completely ridiculous.

I also don't believe that every liberal feels this way, just that the media sensationalizes these stories. Everyday Americans don't give a damn who you voted for, but the fact that people are afraid to perform at an inauguration is sickening. I heard yesterday that Spike Lee was making a Netflix show and was looking at a particular song from a certain singer (can't remember their name), but since she'll be performing at the inauguration, Spike pulled the plug on that.

The mind numbing things that have come from both sides during this election isn't going anywhere. If anything, this election set the precedence of presidential election decorum and each election going forward will, piece by piece, resemble an event similar to "America's Got Talent". My guess is we'll have live text voting during upcoming debates and while America focuses more on the little picture items of a candidate, less focus will be on freedom and liberty, real liberty, for everyone. Level the playing field for everyone. Unfortunately, that includes (in my opinion, anyway) getting rid of special interests for special groups of people. You can't go around screaming about equality for all while at the same time advocating for special interest groups and/or entire months dedicated to a segment of the population. As Morgan Freeman said, "Why should there be a black history month....isn't American history black history?"

 

[SamSpade]

Something else that has probably been noticed by many --

One of my favorite sites on the Web - and I mean, just favorite is this one:

http://uselectionatlas.org/

It has a ton of information in a very simple format, and it's not overcomplicated with new features.

Notice how much Hillary won by, in California. NO other state except Hawaii went so heavily for Hillary as California. Not even Massachusetts. (Well, DC did, but it's not a state).
Drill down to the areas around LA and SF. Even more so.

Hillary won CA by more than FOUR million votes. If she'd won with just a million more, she would have lost the "popular" vote as well.
Her main claim to popularity stems from California alone. Without California - she loses. Without heavily Democratic LA and SF - she loses the state.

Part of the reasoning for the Electoral College was - mass appeal. The argument was that populous Virginia would ALWAYS dominate the states if it were direct popular vote.
Now also part of that was the assumption that each state would likely turn to one of its own - that there was little chance of national candidates with a handful of exceptions.
And that IS the pattern until parties come into form.

But the idea was still, it's better to have one person who has wide appeal than one person who has a GREAT deal of appeal in a very narrow geography.
THAT can be seen here - Hillary has a lot of "over votes" in heavily Democratic states. One out of every five votes she got came from NY or CA.

 

[Hijinx]

That's a pretty stupid post.

To say that we are entering a "Dark Age" is a little bit premature. No one knows what this man will propose, hell he doesn't know what his positions are from one minute to the next. Mr. Trump's own cabinet nominees don't agree with any of his stated positions from the campaign. THAT combined with his utter lack of experience and qualification for the job are what is scary...oh and let us not forget his temperament of the constantly offended 5 yr old girl.

At this point, Paul Ryan is more likely to set policy for the country than Donald Trump.

You never know when to quit.
Who could be more petulant and arrogant than Obama.
Who could be less qualified.?

As for Paul Ryan setting policy. LMAO

 

[SamSpade]

I also don't believe that every liberal feels this way, just that the media sensationalizes these stories. Everyday Americans don't give a damn who you voted for, but the fact that people are afraid to perform at an inauguration is sickening.

Even Steve Harvey was getting grief just for MEETING with Trump. Geez. Steve freakin' Harvey. Who doesn't love this guy?

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...hurt-by-backlash-following-trump-meeting.html

But I can tell you, I already have relatives who are blasting their family if you didn't vote Hillary. One IS actually setting up a temporary move to Australia.
A few others have unfriended and cut off family who voted differently.

You hear the snowflake stories - I'm in the snowstorm. Most of my local relatives WILL be in the marches and protests.
One is flying across country to do it. Hitler, Stalin etc. Some of my friends have REALLY surprised me with their acrimony.

I wouldn't say I am *afraid* to tell them I voted for Trump - but I'm not telling. I do want their friendship, but this behavior is like a disease.

 

[Larry Gude]

Many bizarre factors contributed to Trump’s unlikely victory, but the one that should trouble Democrats most, is that ]

...18 months ago, or so, he was a Democrat.

Think about that. Had the D party not been so painfully beholden to the Clinton's, they could have Trump, today.

Had they note screwed over Bernie Sanders, they could have had him today.

 

[GURPS]

I like the baseball reference.

Unfortunately, normalizing this behavior will only make things worse.

Progressives have been 'normalizing' this behavior since the Seattle WTO Riots in 1999 ... the longer they get away with it, the bolder they become

 

[Clem72]

Hitler, Stalin etc. Some of my friends have REALLY surprised me with their acrimony.

You were friends with Hitler and Stalin?

 

[Hijinx]

Even Steve Harvey was getting grief just for MEETING with Trump. Geez. Steve freakin' Harvey. Who doesn't love this guy?

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...hurt-by-backlash-following-trump-meeting.html

But I can tell you, I already have relatives who are blasting their family if you didn't vote Hillary. One IS actually setting up a temporary move to Australia.
A few others have unfriended and cut off family who voted differently.

You hear the snowflake stories - I'm in the snowstorm. Most of my local relatives WILL be in the marches and protests.
One is flying across country to do it. Hitler, Stalin etc. Some of my friends have REALLY surprised me with their acrimony.

I wouldn't say I am *afraid* to tell them I voted for Trump - but I'm not telling. I do want their friendship, but this behavior is like a disease.

They have no trouble with belittling you and despising you for your views, why should you not tell them how stupid they were.
Take no prisoners.

 

[Chris0nllyn]

Progressives have been 'normalizing' this behavior since the Seattle WTO Riots in 1999 ... the longer they get away with it, the bolder they become

Part of the behavior is the constant blaming of the "other side". Everything my side does that is bad is okay because the other side did if first or worse mentality has to stop and we, as a whole, need to realize we can't keep up this behavior as it helps no one.

 

[SamSpade]

You can't go around screaming about equality for all while at the same time advocating for special interest groups and/or entire months dedicated to a segment of the population. As Morgan Freeman said, "Why should there be a black history month....isn't American history black history?"

But that much I get (and Freeman has walked back some of the significance of that with a few charged racism remarks). My middle daughter is African American. She gets excited about February, because she gets to do a project about a famous African person. Yesterday she showed me her suggested list, and I told her there were several very good ones that weren't on it. No Flo Jo, no Marian Anderson. When we were being taught about adopting someone African, Asian or Latino, some of the instruction focused around - what color is your pastor? Your doctor? Your friends? The mailman? The dentist? What color are most of the people at church, school, sports? You may not notice the differences, but they won't be lost on your children. They can grow up in an environment that is FRIENDLY to them - but wonder why the most prominent among them do not look like them.

Because I *get* that part of the idea of a republic is that at least the states themselves are special interest groups. You send someone to represent you and I have to think the Founders knew that some districts would resemble just "the Quakers" or "the Catholics" or the people on the frontier or in the mountains or the "flatlanders". We were a fairly disparate people even back then.

I get - that while you're protecting everyone you can overlook others - THAT is how this election turned. While Washington was "helping everyone", it was once again ignoring a lot of the same people.

I get what you're saying too, but I think it's what Ben Carson touched on - equal rights, but not special rights.

 

[SamSpade]

You were friends with Hitler and Stalin?

Yes, we evil Trumpers consult with their ghosts nightly.

 

[Larry Gude]

Yes, we evil Trumpers consult with their ghosts nightly.

Two reasons why Trump-phobia is so absurd. The dude could have, easily, be being inaugurated today...as D President absent the Clinton paradigm. And, 2, if there is one thing Trump is not, and those two folks were, is an ideologue.