The Politics Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

Would it be weird if a grown ass lady started subscribing to Teen Vogue?  They've been doing some very good reporting lately putting the Newsweeks and the Time Magazines of the world to utter shame.

 

The First Witness in the Dylann Roof Trial Delivered a Terrifying Testimony

 

 

[Roman]

I am now reading more and more stories of people who voted for Trump who are now either angry they voted for him because he has now seemed to have left them behind (SHOCKER!) or that he will remove their health care. I have NO SYMPATHY for ANY of these people....their ignorance is about to cost them and millions of Americans mightily. 

[marceline]

 

Yeah, the only pleasure to be had for the next few years is going to be saying "I told you so."

[Skin]

I'm worried that Fox News and the like are going to end up brainwashing all of the people that view their news into believing that Trump is the great job bringer, they already started with Carrier and now they have continued with Ford and that Asian mobile company investing 50 billion dollars into the US. If those voters end up really buying this we may be in the red for generations.  

[Juliajms]

Nope. If you enjoy it subscribe.

[JaneAusten]

At the end of the day you have to ask yourself are all these jobs coming back or staying? That's really all that matters no matter what Fox News may say. The answer to that obviously is no. The Carrier situation is a good example. The CEO of United Technologies already has said those 700 jobs will be gone in 2 years due to automation. Some of the actual Carrier workers whose jobs are not being saved are already speaking out. I really think as jobs don't materialize and the infrastructure work so desperately needed in smaller communities doesn't happen there, we will see an even greater exodus to big cities and blue states.

 

 

I have read some compare Trump to Hitler. Ok they share some common characteristics no question but the one thing Hitler actually did do was revive Germany's economy. The depression for Germany basically ended in 1936 while ours was still going. But the difference in how he did it was he actually instilled a socialist model with price and wage controls, caps on businesses in terms of profits to help spread the wealth. A lot of what the German's saw as positives allowed the terrible things being done to those targeted to be swept under the rug. There is nothing like that being done here to help revive our economy - if anything the tax cuts and such are going to feed the oligarchs who are going to get richer and richer.

Edited December 8, 2016 by JaneAusten

[Khan]

I read this morning in the Washington Post that 4.5 million manufacturing jobs have been lost over the past two decades to outsourcing and automation.  Is that accurate?

 

Don't get me wrong -- four-and-a-half million people without livelihoods is serious.  But if those numbers are indeed correct...

 

1) Considering that over 300 million currently live in the U.S., the plight of white, working-class citizens who say they have seen jobs being sent over to Canada, Mexico, and other places might be, well, slightly exaggerated.  By that, I mean, the problem of jobs loss can't be as widespread as the candidates and the media have made it out to be since it apparently affected relatively few people.

 

2) It seems insane to me that a tenth of our country's current population is determining how the rest of us will be governed, or that the rest of us have to extend to them preferential treatment even though the numbers tend to be on our side.

Edited December 8, 2016 by Khan

[Soapsuds]

That was quick!  He isn't even Pres yet. An NBC analyst said this would happen. The Trump voters would regret their vote and they'd be in worse shape too!

[Juliajms]

One thing that struck me is that the average Trump voter had an income of something like $70,000. So it's not like it's necessarily the people who lost their jobs were voting for him or if they did they found new ones that pay a living wage.  Once I saw that number my sympathy for these people evaporated. But at the same time more than those people voted for Trump. He couldn't have won otherwise. 

[Khan]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: sooner or later, those people will come to grips with the fact that progress is leaving them behind.  No one likes to feel they've been forgotten, but that's exactly what will happen to them.

Edited December 8, 2016 by Khan

[DRW50]

 

Fox News is likely on the wane. More and more media is going to come from places like Breitbart, fake news, etc. The network was confused and ineffective for much of this election cycle. 

[Khan]

 

I'm sorry, but I see $70,000/year as damn good income.  If that's what they are making on average and they still feel they are "falling behind," then government is not the problem.

 

(Not attacking you, Julia.  IJS.)

 

No, the more I analyze this situation, the more I believe race (and Obama's race in particular) was the big factor in this election.  Trump is a white male who reinforces many people's base fears and prejudices.  Hillary, to them, represented four more years of President Parliament Funkadelic.

Edited December 8, 2016 by Khan

[DramatistDreamer]

 

LOL. After writing this, I immediately thought of my niece who is now a teenager. I was thinking of asking her parents if they'd be okay if I gave her a year's subscription as a gift.

[Juliajms]

You're preaching to the choir friend. I think it's pretty decent money as well.  If you want to make more than that you are probably going to have to have a marketable degree in most cases. Plus you have to figure these people are living in the rust belt, so it's not like they are living in a high cost of living area for the most part.  I see a lot of people on twitter railing against "trailer park trash" for voting for Trump, but I'm pretty sure that's a misconception.  It's not the working poor who put Trump in the white house, it's the blue collar middle class. Also, I think more educated republicans (including white women) voted for Trump then people originally thought would.

 

Sadly, I think it's the poor who will really be hurt the most, not that Trump will be doing anything for the middle class either. I think the best we can hope for is that we avoid a stock crash and ensuing great recession part two.

[Vee]

70K is the rock bottom minimum people make in my field in a staff position, though granted I am a "coastal elite" working in the liberal media. It is also a damn good wage. Yet I know some stupid people in my field voted for Trump from a position of comfort and 'crashing the system.'