President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

I guess the thing that bothers me is that it doesn't do any good, and might actually do some harm, to spend one's energy ranting and raving about every little thing that reinforces one's belief that he is a fucked up individual. To a certain extent, I get it. It's therapy. I hate the guy too, and I can't say that about many people in this world. There are a lot of murderers who inspire a degree of empathy and understanding that I simply cannot manage for Trump. I can't quite figure out if he is evil, or mentally ill, or some combination of the two. I think there's a good chance that if, he had not been born into hundreds of millions of dollars, he'd long ago have ended up institutionalized somewhere.

But what purpose does it serve to jump on every opportunity to point out how awful he is? Aside from one or two outliers, everybody here agrees about how awful he is, and the same goes for the country as a whole. That battle has been fought. But there are still a lot of political issues that are worthy of discussion that are a lot more interesting and impactful than Trump being an asshole. My frustration extends to the "Resistance" as a whole, because Dems are currently squandering their chance to brand themselves as a reasonable, solutions-based party that has the ability to address a lot of the things that everybody agrees are a problem. Instead, they are defining themselves strictly in relation to Trump, which is not a viable strategy on something like immigration. It's a complex issue, and Dems need to figure out where they stand on it, and offer a path forward that isn't simply, "Trump hates brown people. We love brown people." The average American understands that isn't a viable policy position, and the more time Dems spend on that line of rhetoric, the more the average voter feels like he/she has to pick between "Open borders" and "Wall." It's been clear for decades: in that sort of proposition, a strong majority of voters will pick the wall. I mean, I would too, even though I think it is the second stupidest option in existence (just behind open borders).

Same goes with the whole Syria thing. I mean, jesus christ, Trump apparently has the power to turn all of us into died-in-the-wool neocons overnight. I'd love to hear a nuanced, intelligent debate over what, exactly, our end game is in Syria, and why, exactly, withdrawing our piddling 2,000 troops is the biggest domestic military blunder since McClellan. Instead, all I get is, "OMG Trump's is single-handedly destroying our foreign policy and national security" while citing a bunch of generals and think tankers from same military-industrial establishment that failed to predict what would happen after we went into Iraq.

 

He’s also made his own bullshit statements on women here.

 

Let's not forget the racism.

 

It's a good feeling to know you were sledding with little people on Xmas Eve while the friendless joyless loser in the White House was rage-tweeting (sadly to a captive audience).

 

Of the three — health care, education and border security — which one is the federal government’s mandate, and sole responsibility?

 

What it comes down to is this: Trump’s base, guys like YankeeFan, have no interest in an honest debate. Their world view is that it is every man (plus friends and family) for themselves, and that anyone who thinks the world is a more complex place, and that all of our fates are inescapably intertwined, and that a nation needs to be governed thusly, is a soft, starry-eyed sucker who can’t accept the hard truths of life. They like Trump because they think the best government is a dead government, and the mores he pisses people off while killing it, the more fun it is for all. They are sadists, and your squeals give them pleasure

 

Nailed it, but I'm sure you mean sadists.

 

Which one benefits your country most?

 

Yes, fixed

 

Pretty much agree with all of this. I hit outrage fatigue a long time ago, and I am concerned that we need to be more selective on picking battles. Of course, it is important to make sure Trump is never normalized. It's a balance.

Hopefully the Mueller investigation and the SDNY investigations will start to pick up some serious steam early in the New Year. Not just drips and drabs. Indictments for Trump's inner circle.

Short of just winning in 2020, that is the best way legally expose Trump for the criminal fraud he is.

When the Dems take control of the House, they do need to keep the heat on, with necessary probes into the misdeeds of the administration. And they also need to act the way the did in the midterms -- Offer solutions and be calm and calculating.

That's what got them a midterm landslide. And that's what's going to win in 2020.

 

George Washington tried to cure pneumonia by bleeding himself out. Things fucking change

 

LOL. Unlike liberals suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, I didn’t talk politics with family on Christmas.

Instead I talked to one cousin about her two week old baby, another about her baby that’s due in March and inquired about the health of an uncle’s elderly father.