American Politics the 2016 edition

progaardvark wrote: ^Isn't this the third or fourth cabinet position that has been slated with an individual that previously boasted about abolishing said department or agency? Perry couldn't even remember what DOE was called at one point. Madness.

Unfortunately, yes. Deregulate everything and lower the minimum wage with these super intellectuals that all think climate change is a hoax. Wonderful!   

Many people after the election said "relax, it's not going to be as bad as you think".

They were right. Of course it's not going to be as bad. It's going to be MUCH WORSE!

This is an absolutely brilliant article from Ta-Nehisi Coates. Moving, painful, optimistic and crushing.

^Some very interesting posts today.

Epic result in the state I live in which is all blue, Washington. Clinton actually lost 4 votes, 3 to Colin Powell and 1 to Faith Spotted Eagle, a native American activist.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-is-holding-a-government-casting-call-hes-seeking-the-look/2016/12/21/703ae8a4-c795-11e6-bf4b-2c064d32a4bf_story.html?utm_term=.568791245edfAnyone still interested in advancing the argument that there was no difference between Trump and Clinton?

I'm waiting for the day when Donald Trump looks at his nuclear arsenal and says: "You're fired!"

SteveG wrote: emigre80 wrote: Anyone still interested in advancing the argument that there was no difference between Trump and Clinton? You posted a very good article. But that's exactly the main difference between Trump and Clinton. As bizarre as Trump's TV antics are, it shows his personality. Flawed to anyone that's normal, but it's still a personality. Hilary simply doesn't project one. Bizarre or normal.

rogerthat wrote: As ridiculous as the notion of a casting call sounds, to an outsider it looks like Trump is simply taking the personality obsession of American politics to an extreme.  The last President who did not look charismatic was Gerald Ford and he was not elected to the post.  Maybe Bush Sr and again he simply rode the Reagan wave.  It cannot be a mere coincidence that so many of your Presidents have been charismatic; it seems to be a rather important requirement and one that perhaps overrides considerations of intellect or integrity.  Without commenting on the merits or demerits of either politician, I wonder if a John Major or Angela Merkel could ever win a Presidential Election in the US.  You converted the Presidential race into a reality TV show a long time back and now the reality TV star is spreading the disease through the Cabinet too.

You might consider that personality and emotion have figured prominently in Baby Boomer voters for their entire lifetimes. Boomers gave us actor Reagan, gave us W. over Al Bore, and now gives us reality T.V. star Trump over robotic Hillary. LBJ, Nixon, Ford, and Carter were nowhere near as people-pleasing as modern candidates. JFK was something in his day, but we didn't really take off with the popularity obsession until Reagan. I hate to be too reductive here, but that trend may be focused primarily on one cohort, which also happens to be the first to experience the mass media world. It seems that others have not opted not to turn on, tune in, and drop out: Trump lost by double digits among other age groups. Oh, and Boomers are also responsible for forcing us to listen to awful Christmas music from their childhoods every goddamn year, which is an unforgivable sin in my book.

Anyhow, an interesting read on how we got here. I highly suggest everyone read it, and I've been shipping it around where I can.

This is so true about the personality thing, and I just can't stand it. I was appalled by Trump, but Hillary made it unfortunately a lot about her, starting with her hogwash about the election being like a job interview. And political debates never contain much of any actual argumentation. They're just filled with candidates staking claims while trying to impart the most convincing tone of voice and body language. There's never any real evidence brought out, so no wonder a factually challenged candidate won. And we are still faced with supply-side economics from this President Elect. If we could base our communication on sound argumentation, the supply-side notion, I'm sure, would be on the trash heap.

I've tried to teach college students (Freshmen) over and over again about the difference between deductive, inductive and analogical reasoning. They just fail to grasp it every semester.