View Full Version : Could Trump really be president?
As a Canadian who doesn't fully grasp the ins and outs of the election process I just stand there with my jawing hanging. Could this really happen? What a ride.:0!
I'm still hoping we outsource the job to Canada.
It seems highly unlikely. I suppose anything's possible: There could be some confluence of earth-shaking events--a war, a major terrorist attack, a massive economic crisis--that would drive a sufficient number of people to desperately vote for a demagogue who promised solutions.
But barring something like that I don't see how it could happen. A number of prominent Republicans have stated categorically that they won't vote for Trump under any circumstances. He has systematically alienated huge segments of voters--women and minorities in particular. If he enters the Republican convention with less than the full majority of delegates needed to win the nomination outright, there will be a bloody floor fight that could permanently split the party. If Trump doesn't get the nomination, there's a good chance he might run as a third-party candidate. If he does get the nomination, he'll try to tack to the middle, but I don't think Trump is capable of convincing people he's moderate about anything.
All things considered, right now it looks like the Democratic nominee, whoever he/she is, is sitting pretty.
Williamsmith
2-29-16, 3:50pm
Yes, but don't worry......there are already plans for impeachment.
I doubt it, but my jaw is dropping, too. I have a number of conservative friends ranging all the way from conspiracy theorists to moderates and none of them like Trump. I can see Trump getting traction less on his own merits, but more a dissenting vote against the Obama/Clinton way of politics. Several have said if it comes down to Hillary or Donald, they will not cast a vote or will take a hard look at any third party. That could be a wild card.
Ultralight
2-29-16, 3:58pm
I think the Repubs are going to turn things around tomorrow. Just you watch.
I doubt it, but my jaw is dropping, too. I have a number of conservative friends ranging all the way from conspiracy theorists to moderates and none of them like Trump. I can see Trump getting traction less on his own merits, but more a dissenting vote against the Obama/Clinton way of politics. Several have said if it comes down to Hillary or Donald, they will not cast a vote or will take a hard look at any third party. That could be a wild card.
But what do your friends think of Cruz? Cause, despite the wishes of establishment repubs, Rubio just can't bring it. Maybe in 8 years or so, but not now So, it's going to be either Trump or Cruz.
I think the Repubs are going to turn things around tomorrow. Just you watch.
That would certainly spare me some hard decisions. I'm as willing as the next guy to compromise as expediency dictates, but what do you do if your own party nominates a candidate as bad or worse than the Democrat? If things get bad enough, I may need to throw my support to the Modern Whigs.
But what do your friends think of Cruz? Cause, despite the wishes of establishment repubs, Rubio just can't bring it. Maybe in 8 years or so, but not now So, it's going to be either Trump or Cruz.
Trump has been in the spotlight so much I don't think we've talked much about the others, but early on when it was more of a race I don't think there was a lot of objection to either. One day one of my conservative friends was pondering over who actually supported Trump. Coincidentally we were passing a Walmart. I pointed out the window and he nodded. I guess they are out there somewhere.
Last I saw from the pundits, Trump's odds in the primaries were 80% and Clinton 95%, but it's been a year of surprises.
Ultralight
2-29-16, 4:24pm
In about 30 hours things will be very different. There will be a new front-runner. I am predicting it right now! haha
In about 30 hours things will be very different. There will be a new front-runner. I am predicting it right now! haha
I hope you're right (this time).
I have to agree with Ben Sasse: "The presidency is not our national embodiment of Nietzschean Will".
Ultralight
2-29-16, 4:43pm
Tomorrow evening the Republican party awakes from its frightening fever dream.
If things get bad enough, I may need to throw my support to the Modern Whigs.
Join us. We have cookies.
Tomorrow evening the Republican party awakes from its frightening fever dream.
I don't see it happening in the real election. No way could I force myself to vote for Cruz, even though he's a Princeton man. His positions on almost every issue make my hackles rise. The top-5 candidates are so bad this time I did not even participate in the Republican caucusing. None of the likely candidates would get my vote in the general election.
I mean, I suppose there's a certain Trotskyite reasoning behind voting for Trump just to burn the place to the ground faster so we can get to the rebuilding sooner...
Ultralight
2-29-16, 4:58pm
I made my prediction and I am sticking to it.
Join us. We have cookies.
Constitutional cookies?
Ultralight
2-29-16, 5:21pm
Constitutional cookies?
The recipe has been the same since 1787!
The recipe has been the same since 1787!
As amended.
Ultralight
2-29-16, 5:30pm
As amended.
:laff:
freshstart
2-29-16, 5:33pm
I'm counting on oldhat's take because there is not a Republican left who does not truly scare me. oldhat's usually right!
Tomorrow evening the Republican party awakes from its frightening fever dream.
I hope so.
This is a party born in opposition to slavery, that brought the country through its ugliest years. This is a party that opened the franchise to women, and voted in greater proportion for civil rights legislation than the opposing party did. This is the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.
Donald Trump isn't fit to lead it to either victory or honorable defeat. If we're going from "with malice toward none" and "the most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency" to the taunts of a schoolyard bully, I want no part of it.
Donald Trump is not good enough to call himself a Republican. If the majority of the party decides otherwise, I want no part of them.
I always find it funny when something happens in the states that people don't like they often say "That's it, I'm moving to Canada." Now we do have a whole pile of you up here and love having you live here. But it isn't as easy as many US citizens think it is to emigrate to Canada.
You know how hard it is to move to the US, well kinda the same here. We have about 6 friends who have moved up from the States. I would find it so hard to leave my country because I was pissed off with what was happening.
Nontheless, it comes up a lot. I personally would welcome all of you, but I guess our immigration has a few bars they like to put up.
Thanks for all the insight on what is happening.
I hope you're right (this time).
I have to agree with Ben Sasse: "The presidency is not our national embodiment of Nietzschean Will".
can someone explain this a bit better to this Canuck?
Ultralight
2-29-16, 6:33pm
I always find it funny when something happens in the states that people don't like they often say "That's it, I'm moving to Canada." Now we do have a whole pile of you up here and love having you live here. But it isn't as easy as many US citizens think it is to emigrate to Canada.
You know how hard it is to move to the US, well kinda the same here. We have about 6 friends who have moved up from the States. I would find it so hard to leave my country because I was pissed off with what was happening.
Nontheless, it comes up a lot. I personally would welcome all of you, but I guess our immigration has a few bars they like to put up.
Thanks for all the insight on what is happening.
I looked into emigrating in detail. And it is not easy unless you marry a Canadian...
I wish it was easier because I'd be up there right now ice fishing.
I looked into emigrating in detail. And it is not easy unless you marry a Canadian...
It's not too terrible at all if you speak French, or have needed skills, or have sufficient capital (and not a whole huge amount really...). Even at my age.
I often balance the move-to-Canada equation. If my state implements an income tax, it will be cheaper for me to be Canadian. And it's not much bother, it's a short row in a skiff to where I'd want to live over there. Some of their gun control policies are problematic, but can be overcome - heck, they let me bring firearms over now when I visit. Plus, health care and quality ferry service. The main downside at least in BC seems to be that they have the environmental sensibilities of the US in 1880.
Williamsmith
2-29-16, 6:52pm
Trump is going to have a successful day tomorrow and one of the two runner ups will have to bow out to save the Republic....or so they will say. Rubio is truly very weak without Haley propping him up. Cruz is offensive in many ways. Neither have the support necessary to catch and overtake Trump.
I will be staying in my country because my distant relative is buried near me, fought in the Revolutionary War, was shot in the eye at Judge Chew Mansion and spent the winter in Valley Forge with Washington. In fact, George gave him 200 hundred acres in Western PA- the frontier back in the 1780s. He might just rise up out of his grave and haunt me if I voluntarily went back to the redcoats.
I will not vote for Clinton. I believe we could name at least five other Presidents whose term in office was tremendously harmful to the Republic. We will survive Trump if it comes to that.
I will be staying in my country because ...
I think if I *really* left, it would be to provoke succession and form Cascadia, though I'd draw the map a bit differently.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Cascadia_map_and_bioregion_vector.svg/800px-Cascadia_map_and_bioregion_vector.svg.png
It's not too terrible at all if you speak French, or have needed skills, or have sufficient capital (and not a whole huge amount really...). Even at my age.
I often balance the move-to-Canada equation. If my state implements an income tax, it will be cheaper for me to be Canadian. And it's not much bother, it's a short row in a skiff to where I'd want to live over there. Some of their gun control policies are problematic, but can be overcome - heck, they let me bring firearms over now when I visit. Plus, health care and quality ferry service. The main downside at least in BC seems to be that they have the environmental sensibilities of the US in 1880.
where would you be coming then, BC?
where would you be coming then, BC?
Yup, I can pretty much swim to BC from my house if I were to wear a wetsuit. Rowing is easy-peasy. There are some great spots in the Gulf Islands I'd happily live, they are basically just like here except for the superior ferry service and healthcare. I understand some of the agricultural laws are a PITA - I have a good friend who moved here from Saltspring who farms, who relocated because it is easier to farm here, and who has all sorts of terrible tales of production control, but I haven't verified the situation.
I suppose the grass is always greener on the other side of the channel, eh? :-)
You can get a lovely Cascadian flag--created with care by German craftsmen :cool:--at Amazon. Very handsome banner.
http://www.amazon.com/magFlags-Cascadia-Cascadian-90x150cm-Germany/dp/B00G7N4QAO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456793227&sr=8-1&keywords=cascadian+flag
well bae I am sure you would be very welcome. I am up the coast on a veritable "island" above Vancouver. You are right about the healthcare, but the ferries are so much more than Washington state ones. Still you could bring some of your good agricultural ideas.
Food is a lot more $$$ here too, and taxes I think will be higher. But it is a grand country and it looks just the same as where you live.
freshstart
2-29-16, 11:41pm
it's strange to think of how close and how similar we are in many respects, yet our country is practically beyond repair. You never hear similar things about Canada's leaders or potential leaders, racism seems to not exist, the universal health care works, etc. It's just a more peaceable country while peeking at it from over the fence, I have to say the grass looks greener.
Good heavens, bae, what's wrong with your ferries? We're always enormously disgruntled about ours it seems, and forever pointing to the Washington ones as paragons of ferry-ness. (I'm on the BC coast, though a bit to far to swim to the San Juans.)
freshstart, there are problems everywhere, certainly with aspects of our healthcare system, and we are not free from racism. I suppose no place is perfect and that there is plenty of country repair to be done both sides of our mutual border.
Canada is a lovely country, lots of room, spectacular scenery blah blah. But one of the reasons life is nice here is there are so many fewer of us.
we have plenty of problems but they just seem smallish. Guns are really not a big problem here. Perhaps they have got worse in the last 50 years but no one I know owns a gun (maybe hunting rifles) but no guns. Nobody. Not one of our friends or aquaintances. For most people it just isn't part of the culture.
Reality check.
Each country has its problems and challenges. I love Canada as an 10 year-old immigrant and citizen but I help at the Soup Kitchen and see the hungry and the poor. I see the denial of problems in our healthcare system, serious issues in our long-term care, our dealing with aboriginals, our loss of manufacturing because the corporate boards (as in every country) chose corporate profit over corporate citizenship or risk take over by predator corporations.
Yes, DH had tender supportive healthcare in his last years but his demands were modest. Yes, we have healthcare but the sense of entitlement that comes with it is scary. Over half our budget is spent on healthcare and this is not sustainable. Our governments keep avoiding this reality and kick the 'consequence can' down to the next generations by throwing more and more money at the problem. People want more and more of the advanced newer care included even if it rarely prolongs life. There are few of the measured outcomes that the US health systems demand and deliver. WE cannot afford our healthcare system with the increasing demands being placed on it. Something is going to give fairly soon. I believe in the universal care but the objectives need to change to more modest sustainable ones and certainly our current governments won't do that but simply throw more money based on deficit funding.
Yes, we have a modest population but life is expensive and concentrated in large urban centres as elsewhere in the world. I love our wide spaces but you need money and transportation to get there and our transit system is limited to the urban centres. Our exports are dependent on external markets and, as elsewhere, we keep on buying the cr*p from overseas and loading our disposal systems. Why does every house have to have those solar garden lights that need replacing every couple of years filling the landfills with junk?
DH and I had guns and he hunted and I kept him company. Never did it enter our heads that guns were for more than hunting at regular seasons in a sustainable fashion.
I love our excellent water supply, our sewage standards, our banking systems, our security and policing standards and approaches, regular contact with my elected representatives (I play cards weekly at the community hall with one), but most of all, I love that as a 72 year old woman I can walk my dog with no sense of fear at 10:30 at night. I hope never to have the feeling that I need a ready weapon as so many on this site have mentioned. That boggles my mind. I was shocked to meet one grouch recently and have since realized how wonderful that it has been so limited in my experience.
Make no mistake, my parents gave me a wonderful gift of immigration to Canada but it has its limitations as any other country.
The US is going through political turmoil but the wonder to many is that it is all out in the open without restriction. That's amazing! So many countries would love to be able to do that. Count your blessings and you have so many. I am going to start a thread on blessings of the US, I think.
Williamsmith
3-1-16, 9:43am
Thank you Razz........I make fun of a lot of what is going on in my country but I am blessed with the freedom to do so. I love having Canada on my northern border because it is like the perfect counterpoint to our country..... As a State Trooper in Pennsylvania I served many of your countrymen traveling through my state and I found them to be so very appreciative of the assistance I could render them. One particular woman wrote a nice letter to our local paper about me. The Uniited States is not just one President. We will survive whoever gets into office.
can someone explain this a bit better to this Canuck?
I think the point the Senator was making was that the US executive office was not designed for personality cults. And that we wouldn't want American conservatism to degrade into a European style "blood and soil" ethno-nationalism.
I would think it would feel somewhat creepy to Canadians to be the object of so many peoples' escape fantasies.
It's a perfectly fine country populated by civilized people, but holding it to the standard of a sort of moral superpower or social utopia seems too much to ask of anyone.
Ultralight
3-1-16, 10:09am
I would think it would feel somewhat creepy to Canadians to be the object of so many peoples' escape fantasies.
It's a perfectly fine country populated by civilized people, but holding it to the standard of a sort of moral superpower or social utopia seems too much to ask of anyone.
It is really just about the universal healthcare (non-existent in the US) and the general lack of a warlike ethos (so common in the US).
It is really just about the universal healthcare (non-existent in the US) and the general lack of a warlike ethos (so common in the US).
I don't think so. There are plenty of places with socialized medicine and lilliputian defense capabilities, but the escape fantasies seem to focus on Canada.
Ultralight
3-1-16, 10:44am
I don't think so. There are plenty of places with socialized medicine and lilliputian defense capabilities, but the escape fantasies seem to focus on Canada.
Proximity too. That makes it a more feasible fantasy, along with English being the main language.
Proximity too. That makes it a more feasible fantasy, along with English being the main language.
That and the beer.
Ultralight
3-1-16, 10:49am
That and the beer.
I wouldn't know. haha
But I know lots of my peers would go to Canada when they turned 19 (way back in the day) to go drankin'!
I wouldn't know. haha
But I know lots of my peers would go to Canada when they turned 19 (way back in the day) to go drankin'!
Back in 1969, we lived in Sarnia and would go over to Port Huron to a tavern for beer served with large bowls of peanuts in the shell and some entertainment. The crunch of the peanut shells on the floor was a special memory because they got quite deep with the progress of the evening.
DH would remember the name of the tavern but I cannot recall it despite being quite well-known in the area.
Funny that your comment should trigger that memory, UL.
gimmethesimplelife
3-1-16, 11:30am
I'm still hoping we outsource the job to Canada.Lol. Good one, Bae.......Rob
I live on this "island" with the town of Lund at the end of the 101 highway which runs all the way down through the states. Anyhow, this town got a huge influx of draft dodgers and is now the subject of an upcoming doc.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/draft-dodgers-of-lund-b-c-subject-of-upcoming-documentary-1.2962312
we would go down to Point Roberts in the US - WA to drink on a Sunday. Couldn't do that in Canada.
Right - I love living in Canada, but the US has some mighty fine traits.
Warmer weather options.
Job options
Great fireworks.
A huge military (so we don't have to have a big one)
Some fabulous scenery
All kinds of people from all walks of life.
Way bigger celebrations.
And the last one is hard to describe - a kind of big big noisy sentimentality that I sometimes see that I wouldn't mind a piece of.
Turmoil is a good way to describe what is happening, but I am glad you are our neighbour.
Signed From the Country of Fantasies
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