Trump

[Cazmonster]

I just want him in cuffs, getting perp walked out of the tower that sports his name in gold letters.

[Elle]

[Elle]

in Iraq.

At this point, I'm sorry, but I question the moral integrity and decency of anyone who would support this man. He is completely mentally unfit to assume this office, regardless of whether you think his ideas are good/bad right/wrong. He is willfully and gleefully ignorant, he has no concern whatsoever for facts, evidence, or truth, he hates pretty much everyone, he's totally narcissistic, and he has the unbelievable gall required to attack the mother of a son who died serving this country in war. Good fucking God, what happened to Republicans? They used to be, if nothing else, worried about patriotism. I guess it's a thoroughly hollow notion now. People who would vote for him must believe in nothing. It's sad and scary but that is the reality we are now dealing with. Most of the Republican party now cares only about winning, even if it means permitting a completely incompetent, petty, erratic person to wield the enormous power of the Presidency. I would vote for Mitt Romney or John McCain right now today if it could somehow guarantee we did not have this outcome. This is not about winning anymore, this is about whether you even give a shit about your country or not.

[Cazmonster]

I can only hope that come October, when they meet face to face, everyone will come to understand what he is.

[Ronster]

[Elle]

Well, I can sympathize with that to some extent because I don't have much love for Hillary. The people angry with her for lying are justified imo; her first instinct always seems to be the coverup, and that's infuriating when she would fare SO much better if she simply came clean from day 1. Like the emails thing - she could have spelled out what she did wrong, explained why it happened, and committed to changing course, and I doubt it would have blown up into the scandal it did. On the other hand, some things people are tagging her with, like Benghazi, are exaggerated gotcha attempts rather than meaningful criticisms of her failings. Still, she's going to change the course of the Supreme Court (just like any next President will), so if you don't want her direction of change, I can see why that would be bad. In short, people just don't trust her, and rightly so. Any other year, this would be a problem.

But. She's running against someone who isn't just difficult to trust - he's a complete maniac who says whatever comes into his head and seems like a good idea at the moment, with no regard whatsoever for truth, for other people, or anything good besides his own self-aggrandizement. And he's a full-blown outright card-carrying Hater of nearly everyone. And he has zero respect for or understanding of the Constitution, the rule of law, human rights! And he's entirely incompetent to run the executive branch! Would anyone here, regardless of political persuasion, not pick George W Bush over George Wallace? Or Mussolini? Or Mr. Magoo? Good lord. This isn't one of those situations where both candidates are equally offensive. Hillary is a poor candidate in so many ways and I wish we had a better alternative. But we're talking about TRUMP here. I am seriously terrified by what will happen if he's elected. At this point the crazy things he says make you wonder if he's even mentally competent, and he appears to be a Russian dupe of some sort. It's UNBELIEVABLE that this is even real. My husband's theory that it's a Bill Clinton plot is actually just as reasonable as anything else at this point, and maybe moreso. Most middle-of-the-road Republicans who came across as decent guys would have beaten Hillary, I'm convinced. In Trump they have someone that maybe Hillary can beat. I seriously wonder if that's how/why this happened.

[Elle]

Ok, I'm done. Second amendment people? Do you see him as a gracious loser at this point? An Al Gore type? I'm almost as scared if he loses as wins now. Nothing good comes of this. I'd like to live, please. If you support this man, are you ok with this?

[akiva]

And his later claim that he was trying to rally gun rights to vote is crap. It's absolutely clear, from the context, that he was talking about*after* the election.

[Ronster]

silence is consent, right? If so, I cannot say anything good about that comment. It was stupid. The man has no filter. He is a narcissist that never has had to think about the consequences of his words.

Conversely, none of his political loose ends are dead (a la Seth Rich). That family is surrounded by "suicides" and accidents. If they are not complicit, then they are the most singularly unlucky persons one could ever have the misfortune of meeting. That scares me more.

I do not want Clinton to be the one choosing the next Supreme Court Justice.

[Elle]

I have had the good fortune to witness some of the resurgence of white nationalism recently. Trump is their beloved hero. There's a reason he won't publicly disavow them. It is utterly terrifying to see what is going on there. I would like to know what the ADL and SPLC are finding recently with groups they are monitoring.

Rubio and other R senators have bad polling numbers right now. I wonder how far that will go before some find an excuse to unendorse. But if you're a politician with Trump right now, I think you can no longer easily benefit from detaching in these last two months.

[Elle]

Seems likelier by the day that Trump will win. It's very sobering, isn't it? It's not like this is news but I guess I never truly grasped it until recently: he is really a white nationalist at the core, and he wholly embraces fascism. Journalists will be detained and assaulted and prosecuted (already happening - why wouldn't this expand dramatically if he wins, given his constant criticism of all media and specific journalists in particular?); due process will be disregarded and we will be an official torture state, not just in secret but right out in the open. Never thought I would see this day - it's very scary. Even if he loses, the fact that he's so close is enough. I don't know if it's just that people haven't gotten to a place where they can look objectively at what's going on and reconsider what it all means? Or if this is really a permanent change in our politics that we're going to have to deal with henceforth, as if we are now Europe and the National Front is one of our two major parties. I wonder if people really get what he stands for and are down with it, or if they just feel he's the better alternative in a situation where they don't like the alternatives.

[Tahlvin]

IF he wins, my one hope is that he'll be so outlandish that Congress will get its act together and take back some of the power from the executive branch that should not be there.

"Oh, you want to bomb that nation over there? Sorry, you can't do that without authorization from Congress. We'll get back to you after our committee has reviewed your request and it has been debated in open session."

[Zen]

I really am paying no attention to politics this year... Sigh... I can't move to Canada until my daughter graduates from high school either. Oh well.

[Cazmonster]

My only hope is that after Hillary wins, she decides to square off against militias and the alt-right. Local terror is just as harmful as foreign terror.

[Elle]

[Elle]

[Elle]

James Fallows from the Atlantic put the Cruz endorsement of Trump very well: "Cruz endorsing Trump resolves a cognitive-dissonance tension. Before: can’t stand Cruz but respect anti-Trump stand Now: can’t stand Cruz." LOL, I was just recently thinking how perfectly played this was for Cruz if he wants to become a leader of whatever opposition force develops vs. Trump in the GOP, and now he's cooked. My guess is that he thinks Trump's support within the party is really solid within his state, regardless of what happens, so he has to show allegiance. But he must know Trump isn't going to pay him back for it! Trump is not the pay-you-back kind of guy, or the pay-you-at-all kind of guy.

Another humorous take from Mark Harris: "The hardest part of this for Ted Cruz must be admitting that his dad killed JFK." LOL!

[Elle]

The alt right people freak me out. I have never seen so much internal anxiety about not being pure white, from people who probably aren't as white as they wish they were. Something is really psychologically awry. So fearful! So insecure. And so much visceral loathing of other people. I really don't get it.

[salvation122]

The final question at last night's debate was "will you abide by the results of the election?"

Hillary's response was "Of course."

Trump didn't answer the question.

I have yet to see a single news organization discuss his failure to publicly accept the will of the people.

In case you missed it, this was the beginning of the end of American democracy.

[akiva]

I thought he did, after hemming and hawing. Am I wrong?