The Trump Presidency

Trump himself isn't as terrible as the people behind him but I guess he chose those people (or at least determined they weren't losers). Bannon isn't the cherry, Bannon's half of the fucking cake. It's really weird for me to think "this is how people saw Obama".
Part of me was hoping, as much as I hated him, Trump wouldn't be bad, maybe the racist rallying was for attention, maybe he wouldn't flat out make up shit, maybe he wouldn't be the ass he's always been, but here we are. Bannon's the new Dick Cheney while everyone's paying attention to the buffoonery of the guy they think is in charge.

Finch is cursing.

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Originally Posted by Finch

It's really weird for me to think "this is how people saw Obama".

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This is the key point. Look at the abortion executive order. The first day in office Dems sign an EO saying the funds can be used for abortion and the Republicans sign an EO saying they can't. This has been going on forever. Each side views each of these orders in an inverse way. I remember reading conservative articles talking about what an outrage it was that Obama was signing this his first day in office, and they read exactly the same as left-wing articles did when Trump signed it. Yet neither side realizes this, and automatically say their side is Good and the other side is Evil.

Is there a right and is there a wrong here? Well, depends on how you think of abortion I guess. My instinct now is to shrug and say either side gets the policy they get when they win elections. I'm not sure what there is past that.

Does that mean this administration making everyone go at each other's throats is according to keikaku because of Obama's "we should all be friends"

Can you be friends when you're signing things ideologically in opposition to them? It will be seen as nothing more than lip service.

The thing he said was something like "we can be friends until someone brings up politics"

That does confuse/interest me about people, especially Americans right now - we so desperately feel the need to align our personalities (and who we love!) with our politics. For instance, our politicians are basically just brands. Elect Nike, elect Adidas, elect New Balance, whatever. As brands, I'm going to prefer one of the other, I like Adidas more than Nike because they are a little hipper and aesthetically pleasing imo, less child labor used, whatever. Joe Whoever over there lives and dies for Nike, he won't wear anything else, he doesn't care if they employ child labor in Vietnam because he loves that gosh darned brand so much. Now we fight over it, unfriend each other on the twitter and Facebook, etc. I mean, is that worth it? I don't know exactly. I know I own both Nike and Adidas and I use them for different things, I would hate that a simple brand could determine my entire personality. But I guess some don't mind.

That's the whole problem. Politics shouldn't just be brands, it should be about important rights that you actually care about.

Given the pathetic voter turnout stats, I can only assume that there is a significant number of bare feet that don't give a fuck one way or the other.

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Originally Posted by koda

If you're a fan of Hillary, that's cool, and I support everyone standing up for what they believe in. I do feel like there's a big element of identity at play that's influencing a lot of the general population's outlook right now, from both sides. I could be wrong, or I could be applying this to a broader group than it should be applied to. It's largely based on my personal exposure via news outlets and social media, and I don't mean to discount anyone's principles, whatsoever. At the same time, this shit feels cliquey as hell to me.

Trump just may be a boorish racist, but Hillary's a crooked harpy too.

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No, I'm not a fan of Hillary. This is a big part of the problem here, in fact. The belief that accepting the lesser of two problems makes you a fan of one, or puts both issues on equal footing. Donald Trump is toxic to America. Hillary Clinton was a Business As Usual candidate when we had the opportunity for something better. That's not equal. Not even close, in fact. The thing I'm honestly angry about is the belief that the two can be put on the same footing when the Trump side so clearly destroys so many things while Hillary simply wouldn't have made anything better. Shitting all over the country vs leaving things as-is is not, by any stretch of the imagination, equivalent.