What does American support for Trump say about this country?

[fskimospy]

So 12.5% of the country supports him. Still a sizable group. Bigger then the number of illegals liberals love, bigger then the number of islamists the left always defends, etc etc. Tons of groups.

Half the country does not identify as Republican.

Try again.

 

[dank69]

I agree, every damn politician is a damn joke. At least this Trump character doesn't give a shit. Those other politicians on the outside say they give a shit, but down inside they only care about getting re-elected, they could give two shits less that they are fucking up this county. I think that is what the population is trying to tell us.

No, the population is just exposing how uninformed they are. One of the primary reasons people say they support Trump is his "honesty." A ten second internet check will show that he is one of the least honest people in a race that includes Ted Cruz.

 

[michal1980]

As much as I dislike Hillary at least she has political experience, not to mention some successes in her life.

Trumps biggest success was manipulating the system to get himself cleared of every business disaster he's created. He's an evil, incompetent, mean, nasty, lazy, hateful, fat, evil piece of shit. And for some sick reason theres more than a handful of people in America who honestly think he's fit to be president.

LOL

oohh political experience.

What are Hilary's good qualifications? Woman? Married To Bill?

Resetting relations with Russia? Peace in Libya?

what life success? That unbelievable streak of future trades?

Killing witnesses?

 

[michal1980]

Half the country does not identify as Republican.

Try again.

half the country that votes.

 

[fskimospy]

half the country that votes.

Nope. The polls that have him at 25% ask self identified Republicans. Somewhere around 25% of Americans identify as Republicans so we are talking somewhere around 6% of Americans there.

 

[Jhhnn]

LOL

oohh political experience.

What are Hilary's good qualifications? Woman? Married To Bill?

Resetting relations with Russia? Peace in Libya?

what life success? That unbelievable streak of future trades?

Killing witnesses?

Oh, God! Killing witnesses! It's a Conspiracy! That's why she had the Ambassador killed in Benghazi!

Those old dried out turds you're flinging won't stick to anything.

 

[Jhhnn]

It says that Repubs are losing control of the monster they created with decades of hateful & bitter agitprop. Those are precisely the qualities in Trump that resonate in the Repub base. They love him for the same reasons they love Cheney- because he's a total dick.

 

[WelshBloke]

I think that you're reading way too much into it.

People love watching car crashes, and he's very much a car crash.

I was enjoying the entertainment value for a bit, but to be honest, he's far too annoying to watch for long.

 

[Hugo Drax]

When creating trump threads can you add a number so it's easier to keep track. Ie trump topic #35

 

[Hugo Drax]

Trump embodies America and I would love to see him as president. Regardless who becomes president America gets screwed.

At least with trump your still gonna get screwed but at least there will be laughs and entertainment as America follows in the same footsteps as the Ottoman Empire.

 

[Jhhnn]

I think that you're reading way too much into it.

People love watching car crashes, and he's very much a car crash.

I was enjoying the entertainment value for a bit, but to be honest, he's far too annoying to watch for long.

I don't think so. Trump projects a very authoritarian "I"m the Boss so I don't have to make sense" image that some people respond to positively at a very deep emotional level. Despite Libertopian trappings, Righties crave authoritarian order even if it's irrational.

 

[DrPizza]

It says a couple of positive things though.
It looks like Fox is poised to have a tremendous amount of influence on the Republican primary - they apparently got to tweak the method of choosing the top 10 at the last minute. They're 'controlling' these debates. And, it appeared that they tried to bring Trump down a few notches - yet after the debates, his lead grew. So, it says that people are starting to see through Fox news. And, it says people are sick of some of these politics as usual politicians.

 

[WelshBloke]

I don't think so. Trump projects a very authoritarian "I"m the Boss so I don't have to make sense" image

Does he? He comes across as a particularly unpleasant 6 year old child if you ask me. He gets stroppy if you ask him a difficult question then calls you a poopoo head.

 

[KK]

No, the population is just exposing how uninformed they are. One of the primary reasons people say they support Trump is his "honesty." A ten second internet check will show that he is one of the least honest people in a race that includes Ted Cruz.

uniformed? No that is nothing new. Could it be people are sick of people that choose to be career politicians screwing us over? He is something different than the usual dipshit politician. What can he screw up more than any of the other tards?

 

[WelshBloke]

What can he screw up more than any of the other tards?

Just about everything?

Can you imagine him negotiating things with leaders of other countries?

 

[Jhhnn]

Does he? He comes across as a particularly unpleasant 6 year old child if you ask me. He gets stroppy if you ask him a difficult question then calls you a poopoo head.

Yeh, but he's rich, so many righties automatically afford him a certain amount of reverence & adulation.

I mean, how could he be so rich & so fucked up at the same time?

They're incapable of putting that together, particularly when he preaches what they want to hear.

 

[bradly1101]

TV star trumps political experience. Trump trumps them all!

The scary thing is, around this time in 1999 I watched GWB's rise and thought, "Nah, can't happen." I caught myself thinking the same thing about Trump. All that's left for Trump to do is choose Christie for Veep (cuz why not double-down?).

 

[soundforbjt]

TV star trumps political experience. Trump trumps them all!

The scary thing is, around this time in 1999 I watched GWB's rise and thought, "Nah, can't happen." I caught myself thinking the same thing about Trump. All that's left for Trump to do is choose Christie for Veep (cuz why not double-down?).

No, he'll choose Carly since he's so great with The Women. Real double-down since she's a businessman too.

 

[CitizenKain]

So 12.5% of the country supports him. Still a sizable group. Bigger then the number of illegals liberals love, bigger then the number of islamists the left always defends, etc etc. Tons of groups.

Look at you trying to understand math like a grown up, how precious.

Trumps numbers are, like his supporters, completely meaningless.

 

[flexy]

It says a couple of positive things though.
It looks like Fox is poised to have a tremendous amount of influence on the Republican primary

No it doesn't. Stupid and often inconvenient questions are normal part of a debate, this is what debates are about, this is WHY YOU WATCH THEM, this is the purpose of a political debate on TV.

In reality, a TV host/bimbo whatever you want to call it asked him a legitimate question about his comments in regards to women. While not constructive, this is exactly the stupid, trivial and irrelevant I expect on a political debate in America.

You, Trump and his followers are now turning this trivial question by the host into something bigger than it actually was...complete with #rage on Twitter etc. - it's hilarious!

It's not only that Trump felt he needed to rage about entirely justified and legitimate questions including insults and everything....you are now also bending it like it was intentional "because Fox doesn't like Trump".

In other words: You now too think that this questioning was "not ok", which is amazing seeing that you live in a nation with free speech and where there shouldn't be censorship and the media INDEED have a right to ask whatever questions they'd like, regardless how silly, insulting, inconvenient or whatever.

If you don't agree with that I'd recommend you move to China or Iran!

There you and your candidate sure would be "protected" from the bad, biased media...

 

[DrPizza]

No it doesn't. Stupid and often inconvenient questions are normal part of a debate, this is what debates are about, this is WHY YOU WATCH THEM, this is the purpose of a political debate on TV.

In reality, a TV host/bimbo whatever you want to call it asked him a legitimate question about his comments in regards to women. While not constructive, this is exactly the stupid, trivial and irrelevant I expect on a political debate in America.

You, Trump and his followers are now turning this trivial question by the host into something bigger than it actually was...complete with #rage on Twitter etc. - it's hilarious!

It's not only that Trump felt he needed to rage about entirely justified and legitimate questions including insults and everything....you are now also bending it like it was intentional "because Fox doesn't like Trump".

In other words: You now too think that this questioning was "not ok", which is amazing seeing that you live in a nation with free speech and where there shouldn't be censorship and the media INDEED have a right to ask whatever questions they'd like, regardless how silly, insulting, inconvenient or whatever.

If you don't agree with that I'd recommend you move to China or Iran!

There you and your candidate sure would be "protected" from the bad, biased media...

*sigh* I'll attempt to explain it to you, since it apparently went right over your head. First, I'll preface this with there's no way in hell I'd vote for Trump. Fox controlled the questioning, Fox had a huge influence in who got to be in the debate. Fox could have given him softball questions; Fox could have given any of the candidates softball questions. Fox could have selected questions that would make him look better than the other candidates, or worse than the other candidates. Other candidates have skeletons that Fox could have addressed to knock them down a few notches; they didn't hit some of the other candidates as hard as they hit Trump. Yes, they were fair questions. Nonetheless, if you evaluate the types of questions the others had, it seemed pretty clear to me, definitely not a Republican, that it wasn't quite balanced. There did seem to be a bit of an underlying agenda in hitting Trump harder than some of the other candidates - AND, they succeeded in making him look bad.

My point was that even though Fox made Trump look bad, it appears significant that Trump's lead grew. I.e., Fox is the mouthpiece of the Republican Party, yet there are plenty of idiots who like Trump in the first place who aren't necessarily the idiots who believe every word that comes from Fox. Having had my share of idiotic relatives who reposted Fox stuff on Facebook, it seems that there are at least some people who believe everything Fox says like the gospel. I thought that the percentage of voters who fall into this camp was a lot higher than it apparently is.

edit: it also demonstrates just how much the Republican Party is screwed when there are so many candidates, their Party's mouthpiece is being ignored, and a completely unelectable person is still in the lead in their party.

 

[First]

What does American support for Trump say about this country?

Not all that much. I originally thought his support was a phenomenon among a tiny segment of the poor, white and non-college grad right-wing working class of Americans. But I have now seen reasonably intelligent people show support for Trump, despite the fact he has disqualified himself from running a lemonade stand, let alone this great superpower of a country.

 

[dank69]

No it doesn't. Stupid and often inconvenient questions are normal part of a debate, this is what debates are about, this is WHY YOU WATCH THEM, this is the purpose of a political debate on TV.

In reality, a TV host/bimbo whatever you want to call it asked him a legitimate question about his comments in regards to women. While not constructive, this is exactly the stupid, trivial and irrelevant I expect on a political debate in America.

You, Trump and his followers are now turning this trivial question by the host into something bigger than it actually was...complete with #rage on Twitter etc. - it's hilarious!

It's not only that Trump felt he needed to rage about entirely justified and legitimate questions including insults and everything....you are now also bending it like it was intentional "because Fox doesn't like Trump".

In other words: You now too think that this questioning was "not ok", which is amazing seeing that you live in a nation with free speech and where there shouldn't be censorship and the media INDEED have a right to ask whatever questions they'd like, regardless how silly, insulting, inconvenient or whatever.

If you don't agree with that I'd recommend you move to China or Iran!

There you and your candidate sure would be "protected" from the bad, biased media...

As a liberal with zero love for Trump or Fox, it was clear from the beginning that Fox was going after Trump right from the start and throughout the debate. That question about women was legitimate. The opening question about endorsing the eventual winner and not running third party was not. Fox isn't even pretending to be impartial with a question like that. An impartial journalist would not care who endorsed who and who decided to run for what party. The fact that the GOP requires that lockstep thinking is the biggest travesty, but not unexpected given the CBD's premium placed on loyalty. The fact that Fox is all too happy to push for that loyalty to their party is not unexpected, either.

On a side note, Fox was also giving Cruz a hard time about his shitty answers as well.

 

[shady28]

...
My point was that even though Fox made Trump look bad, it appears significant that Trump's lead grew...

If you look at the debate and reactions from Republicans on various forums / twitter feeds etc, the main loser was Fox not Trump. The attack was that obvious.

You'll also find that the reason people like Trump has little to do with his ideas or even the fantastic things that seem to emerge from his mouth.

It's because, very simply, he appears to say what is on his mind and tell people what he really thinks.

At this point anyone with even a modicum of objective / critical thinking skills can not reasonably believe anything that a normal politician - Dem or Repub - says. What they say is meant to do one thing and one thing only - win votes. Once they get those votes, they may 'deliver' something along the lines of what they say - but always with a twist. 'If you like your plan you can keep your plan' and various interviews where that was constantly reiterated is just one of the more recent examples. "We have proof of WMD in Iraq", "I did not have sex with that woman", "Read my lips, no new taxes".

This is a good one from Reagan :

During a 1983 Congressional Medal of Honor ceremony Reagan told a story about military heroism that New York Daily News columnist Lars-Erik Nelson wrote never happened. Nelson had checked the citations on all 434 Congressional Medals of Honor awarded during WWII. The scene Reagan described did appear, however, in the 1944 film A Wing and a Prayer. Larry Speakes’ response? “If you tell the same story five times, it’s true.”

Think Hillary is different?

http://reason.com/blog/2015/02/04/will-brian-williams-get-away-with-misrem#.gxgtko:epg6

In a speech in Washington and in several interviews last week Clinton described how she and her daughter, Chelsea, ran for cover under hostile fire shortly after her plane landed in Tuzla, Bosnia.

Several news outlets disputed the claim, and a video of the trip showed Clinton walking from the plane, accompanied by her daughter. They were greeted by a young girl in a small ceremony on the tarmac and there was no sign of tension or any danger.

So my theory is that people like Trump because he is appears to be 'genuine'. Genuine in this context meaning he says what he thinks, as opposed to saying something in order to manipulate the listener, ultimately for the specific purpose of their own personal gain. You may not like what he thinks, but at least you know what he thinks.

Do you as a liberal believe you know what Hillary thinks? Or any of the candidates for that matter?

I would submit that history has shown that we know nothing about what any of these professional politicians think, we only know what they say, and they only say what they think will get them a vote - Dem or Repub. Trump obviously isn't like that, hence his popularity.

Of course, every once in a while one of those pro politicians slips and bit of who they are comes out.


“White folks was in the caves while we [blacks] was building empires … We built pyramids before Donald Trump ever knew what architecture was … we taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it." -- Al Sharpton

Greek Homos?


"A few years ago, (Barack Obama) would have been getting us coffee." -- Bill Clinton to Ted Kennedy

I thought that ended in the mid 1800s.

“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” -- Joe Biden

Really, Obama was the first articulate bright and clean black guy? Maybe Biden doesn't get out much?


“The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t. But she is a typical white person…” -- Barack Obama

I had no idea Biden and Obama were so much alike.


"We got to do something about these Asians coming in and opening up businesses and dirty shops. They ought to go." -- Marion Barry

Yeah, them damn Asians, opening up businesses and creating jobs, that's just gotta stop.

 

[WelshBloke]

The opening question about endorsing the eventual winner and not running third party was not [legitimate].

If you're trying to get a party and it's supporters to support you it seems reasonable to ask that don't stand against that party.