Presidential Race 2016 Predictions

[Genersis]

I don't feel very American anymore

To be fair, the majority of voters have likely voted against Trump. A lot of those people just lived in the wrong places. Safe states like California and Texas rather than swing states like Ohio and Florida.

That brings the electoral college's failure rate to 6.8%. Neat.

 

[Genersis]

My mistake, looks like Trump will take near enough all the competitive states for say...310 electoral votes.
So...I'd guess he's lost the popular vote by around 1%.

 

[Tallguy88]

I don't feel very American anymore

Why not? The system worked exactly like it's supposed to. You might not like the result, but that just means you are in the same boat we were in eight years ago.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

I don't feel very American anymore

You are not the only one in shock.

Just remember this, be sure to take a stand and fight for the people he may try to marginalize and persecute.

It helps me to remember these following quotes.

"Social injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The injustice you allow against others will become the injustice that comes against you." - Leonard Peltier

And especially this quote too.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Martin Niemöller

 

[Mountain_Girl406]

Why not? The system worked exactly like it's supposed to. You might not like the result, but that just means you are in the same boat we were in eight years ago.

That's not what I felt...I see some Americans as now being second class citizens, such as our LGBT brothers and sisters as Pence confirmed. I fear for my Muslim friends as well, they are under a lot of scrutiny here now as they go about their daily lives. As an American, I think all should have the same rights and opportunities, and I fear we're loosing that.

America also used to have a can do attitude. ..up for fixing difficult problems, but now when faced with our biggest challenge, climate change, we're pretending it doesn't exist. We're like that person who feels the lump, and pretends it's not something to worry about until it's too far gone.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

That's not what I felt...I see some Americans as now being second class citizens, such as our LGBT brothers and sisters as Pence confirmed. I fear for my Muslim friends as well, they are under a lot of scrutiny here now as they go about their daily lives. As an American, I think all should have the same rights and opportunities, and I fear we're loosing that.

America also used to have a can do attitude. ..up for fixing difficult problems, but now when faced with our biggest challenge, climate change, we're pretending it doesn't exist. We're like that person who feels the lump, and pretends it's not something to worry about until it's too far gone.

I share your concern, my friend.

 

[Genersis]

It seems Clinton may narrowly take NH and possibly MI.
AZ looks close, but I don't think she will find those last few thousand votes.
Ugh, so close. Just needed FL or PA and one other state.

 

[Tallguy88]

You win some, you lose some. Democracy in action.

 

[Fish and Bread]

You win some, you lose some. Democracy in action.

I want to say democracy has failed us, but Hillary Clinton got the most votes, so a real democracy would have given us Clinton and staved off Donald Trump, just like a real democracy would have given us Al Gore over George W. Bush in 2000. What is really failing us is the small "r" republican form of government that gives rural voters more say than urban voters- in both the electoral college that selects the President and in the Senate- and House districts that mean elections don't matter as much as lines drawn on maps every 10 years shaping the districts.

Of course, petty distinctions like whether we go with a more democratic democracy versus a republic designed to favor certain groups a little bit more than others, could pale in contrast to what I think is a real risk with Donald Trump- that we won't have either a democracy or a republic, but an authoritarian dictatorship with the trappings of democracy. Trump was obsessed with the idea that the voting was rigged against him (Which it clearly wasn't), but he certainly seems like the right personality type to do something to the US like his good friend Putin did to Russia, keep holding votes and calling himself the President, but crushing political dissent and not giving the opposition a fair chance at winning elections, if he gets the opportunity.

You know, last night the results of the US Presidential election were announced before the Russian Duma (parliament) and they got a standing ovation. Putin's cronies were posting pictures to social media of themselves knocking back vodka and celebrating at parties after the session. They interfered in an American election and got their favored candidate in.

And even if Trump doesn't do a thing to squash democracy, he's certainly promised to a do a lot of things that will hurt the poor and the outcasts (aka minorities). And we assume we don't fall into those groups, until we do. The guy has the wrong values and the wrong instincts, and he doesn't even have the skill set to do the job, which means he'll likely botch whatever it is that he *is* trying to do, and maybe make things even worse than if he could just do them in a straight-forward competent way.

I don't have a lot of hope for our country right now. I think this is the beginning of the end. I really do. We're falling just like Rome did. Really, more like Germany circa 1938.

I'm not trying to be a "sour grapes" kind of guy, I'm just calling 'em like I see 'em. I am very, very concerned right now in a way I wouldn't be if Mitt Romney had won four years ago. I think Trump is uniquely unqualified and dangerous, even beyond other Republican nominees historically. Facism has come to America and it wears an orange wig.

 

[Tallguy88]

I want to say democracy has failed us, but Hillary Clinton got the most votes, so a real democracy would have given us Clinton and staved off Donald Trump, just like a real democracy would have given us Al Gore over George W. Bush in 2000. What is really failing us is the small "r" republican form of government that gives rural voters more say than urban voters- in both the electoral college that selects the President and in the Senate- and House districts that mean elections don't matter as much as lines drawn on maps every 10 years shaping the districts.

Of course, petty distinctions like whether we go with a more democratic democracy versus a republic designed to favor certain groups a little bit more than others, could pale in contrast to what I think is a real risk with Donald Trump- that we won't have either a democracy or a republic, but an authoritarian dictatorship with the trappings of democracy. Trump was obsessed with the idea that the voting was rigged against him (Which it clearly wasn't), but he certainly seems like the right personality type to do something to the US like his good friend Putin did to Russia, keep holding votes and calling himself the President, but crushing political dissent and not giving the opposition a fair chance at winning elections, if he gets the opportunity.

You know, last night the results of the US Presidential election were announced before the Russian Duma (parliament) and they got a standing ovation. Putin's cronies were posting pictures to social media of themselves knocking back vodka and celebrating at parties after the session. They interfered in an American election and got their favored candidate in.

And even if Trump doesn't do a thing to squash democracy, he's certainly promised to a do a lot of things that will hurt the poor and the outcasts (aka minorities). And we assume we don't fall into those groups, until we do. The guy has the wrong values and the wrong instincts, and he doesn't even have the skill set to do the job, which means he'll likely botch whatever it is that he *is* trying to do, and maybe make things even worse than if he could just do them in a straight-forward competent way.

I don't have a lot of hope for our country right now. I think this is the beginning of the end. I really do. We're falling just like Rome did. Really, more like Germany circa 1938.

I'm not trying to be a "sour grapes" kind of guy, I'm just calling 'em like I see 'em. I am very, very concerned right now in a way I wouldn't be if Mitt Romney had won four years ago. I think Trump is uniquely unqualified and dangerous, even beyond other Republican nominees historically. Facism has come to America and it wears an orange wig.

It's how the system was set up. Do you really expect little states to agree to be in a union with big states without some sort of safeguard to make sure the big states don't just push the little ones around? That's why we have the Senate, to make sure all states have equal representation. But the House is proportional and so most of the Electoral College is, since each states gets electoral votes equal to their congressional and senatorial representation. So you still end up with California having 50-something votes and Maine having 4.

You'd never change it without a Constitutional amendment and you would never get 2/3 of the states to agree to it since it would remove a lot of their power.

 

[Fish and Bread]

It's how the system was set up. Do you really expect little states to agree to be in a union with big states without some sort of safeguard to make sure the big states don't just push the little ones around? That's why we have the Senate, to make sure all states have equal representation. But the House is proportional and so most of the Electoral College is, since each states gets electoral votes equal to their congressional and senatorial representation. So you still end up with California having 50-something votes and Maine having 4.

You'd never change it without a Constitutional amendment and you would never get 2/3 of the states to agree to it since it would remove a lot of their power.

Factually, everything you just said is correct. I just don't like it. Not at this point in history. In 1789 where the states were nearly independent states (as in nations), sure, concessions had to be made to keep the country together, otherwise England and other forces from abroad would have divided and conquered.

These days, it doesn't seem nearly as necessary, and strikes me as unfair (Also, we have a lot more rural states than we used to, so combining their weight even in a pure popular vote system would likely prevent them from being completely ruled from the more population dense states). But, you're right, there's no viable way to change it, really. It's the way things are always going to be.

 

[scraparcs]

The more I read, the more I wonder. Should we wait and see how a Trump presidency turns out, or do we need to prepare for a president so temperamentally unsuited to the presidency that he poses a legitimate threat to the rule of democracy and the rule of law? I have no idea.