President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

You know, if I was Trump I'd want a full investigation into the Russian role in the election to clear my name.

 

Problem: Trump is Trump

 

In front of whom? People will believe what they want to believe.

When intelligence said Iraq had WMDs, some wanted to believe it, others didn't. Turned out to be false.

When intelligence says Russia hacked, some want to believe it, others don't. Whatever the "investigation" concludes, one side will say, "Ha, told you so!", the other will say, "Sorry, I don't believe it."

Solves absolutely nothing.

 

At some point, there has to be an effort to learn facts and make them public even if they don't change minds. Otherwise, representative government has little meaning.

 

If the Electoral College won't stop Trump* (spoiler alert, they won't), then it should be abolished. It was set up to be a convoluted system precisely so it could serve as a fail-safe to guard against an unqualified charltan riding in on populist discontent.

* Not saying they should necessarily elevate Hillary Clinton, although given her popular vote win it certainly should be considered. But if the Republican electors went with a Romney, Cruz or even Pence (dicier because we don't know if he was in on the plot), I could live with it.

 

Yes, but if the President had questioned whether the WMD data was real and decided not to invade a country because he didn't just listen to the angry little devil on his shoulder, lots of lives my have been saved.

If the President-Elect decides that it's in his best interest to fully investigate whether the Russians messed with our election, it doesn't really matter what Joe The Plumber thinks about that.

 

True, but the whole concept of "classified/declassified" means someone is always pulling the lever on what the public sees.

 

Meanwhile, seems everyone has forgotten how Teddy Kennedy offered to lend Yuri Andropov a hand in dealing with Reagan if the USSR president would help the Democrats challenge Reagan in 1984.

Ted Kennedy's Soviet Gambit

 

No, nobody has forgotten it - mainly because it's been brought up several times on this thread to excuse what's happening in 2016.

That was wrong then and so is this mess in 2016.

 

How will Trump and his policies help these people? Or will he actually wind up making their lives worse?

Stuck

 

That's always the rub, though, isn't it?

People are only willing to admit something was wrong long after the fact.

If this had been brought up AT THE TIME it was happening . . . think Teddy Kennedy would have been thrown out of office?

Of course not. There would have been the usual round of denials and/or deflections. "Er, ah, uh, he's just trying to foster better relations with the Soviets. AND WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT!!!!!!"

 

The public knew about the Russian stuff when they pulled the lever