Trumps: White Angry Middleclass

[Williamsmith]

UA,

State sanctioned suicide would be discriminatory against age, sex and race. Not to mention morally incomprehensible. I'm going to list a few statistics from the CDC that should give you pause from your idealism and allow you to entertain realist thoughts for a moment:

In 2010, over 33% of descedents tested positive for alcohol, almost 24% for antidepressants, and 20% for opiates including heroin and prescription painkillers. So you have a situation where a person could be assisted in their wishes to kill themselves while under the influence of alcohol, antidepressants, heroin or prescription painkillers but they wouldn't be able to drive themselves to see that person without being subject to arrest. Not to mention, their minds are clouded by drugs and but for that influence they would not be wanting to kill themselves.

In 2013, the CDC estimates 9.3 million adults reported they had suicidal thoughts. Those that had serious suicidal thoughts were not spread out equally among all ages. In fact, the younger you are the more of you there are. An estimated 2.7 million people actually made a specific plan to commit suicide. Again the younger you are the more of you are in your group.

This next fact should really cause you logistical nightmares.

In 2013, among students of 9-12 th grades 17% seriously considered committing suicide in the previous 12 months. Females outnumbered males twofold. Almost 14% made a concrete plan. 8% actually attempted suicide.

Males take their lives nearly four times the rate females do. But females are more likely to have thoughts about committing suicide.

Among Native American/Alaskan natives the suicide rate is 1.5 times the national average.

If you are a mixed race......you are two times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than any single race person.

Hispanic students in grades 9-12 are have suicide thoughts consistently higher than white and black students.

Full time college students age 18-22 are less likely to attempt suicide than their counterparts who are not educated.

In 2013, almost half a million people were treated in hospitals for self inflicted injuries connected with attempted suicide.

These stats cry out for compassionate medical intervention not assistance in carrying out misguided, often temporary, intentions to harm oneself.

[Williamsmith]

Back in mid January, I started this thread mostly as a satire or lampooning of the state of affairs of the GOP. The WAMC certainly Has reason to be angry. The GOP in their arrogance has consistently chosen the wrong approach and disregarded the real disease and has been treating symptoms for a long time. Well, now the disease has taken over the party.

Last nights debate was so disgusting in its content, so demeaning to the American people and so bereft of leadership that I can hardly believe it.

Last night Donald Trump's statement about his role as Commander in Chief of the military chilled me. I don't think the man has the temperment to be our President without jeopardizing our very existence.

I cant make fun of the situation anymore. And so I would appreciate if the moderator of this forum would give an opportunity for people to make a reply and then after such brief time as deemed appropriate......lock this thread from further comment.

I am done with it.

[Zoe Girl]

[QUOTE=Williamsmith;234024]

Last night Donald Trump's statement about his role as Commander in Chief of the military chilled me. I don't think the man has the temperment to be our President without jeopardizing our very existence.

I cant make fun of the situation anymore.


I have also made a shift over the last weeks on this, it is not a joke. Even if Trump doesn't win the huge support tells me that we still have to deal with his followers. I have a half written long post/FB something that I want to get out. I feel like for years I have sensed some underlying crap in our society and heard a lot of people tell me to not worry about it, let it go, it really isn't a problem, but these things are real. They have been, it just took someone giving people permission to express hate and ignorance to do it. So yeah, I have shifted to something completely different.

[rodeosweetheart]

Williamsmith, I am very heartened by your realization that Trump is no joke, and poses a very real threat to our nation, to our fellow citizenry, and to the world.
Thank you for reaching this conclusion, and for acting upon it.
Thank you.

[jp1]

I was also chilled by trumps comment regarding the military. And equally stunned at the fact that he was discussing his penis size. I guess we've gone from "speak softly but carry a big stick" to "speak loudly and swing a big dick." No thank you.

[LDAHL]

I’ll admit to being torn about what to do. We have candidates like Trump or Sanders, who each in his own way wants to blow up what we have in exchange for a gimcrack Caesarism or a revolution to overthrow common sense. On the other hand, we have Mrs. Clinton, who won’t burn the house down, but will infest it with termites for a similar result.
Based on the primaries to date, the Trump supporters comprise about 34% of a party that typically has the allegiance of around 30-40% of the general electorate. Dismissing, for the moment, the Sanders supporters as at worst dangerously naïve, there doesn’t seem to me to be a mortal threat to the Republic (unless you believe it’s possible to die of embarrassment).

The longer-term threat in my mind is whether the Republican Party can continue as an instrument of principled conservatism. The possible outcomes right now, in order of my preference, would be a sound electoral thrashing for Trump on the Ides of March, a brokered convention producing an acceptable candidate, or four years of opposition to Clinton (hoping that Trump won’t trash the party’s down-ballot performance). The most radical alternative would be starting over with a new conservative party.

[Rogar]

I stopped any serious consideration of Trump after determining that he is a self-aggrandizing bully, a bigot, an anti-feminist, and of poor veracity and rectitude. His comments last night about the military the questionable activities around Trump University, and his vulgarity were mostly nails in the coffin. The confidential and unreleased comments to the press may indicate that his off the wall may have just been made to get attention.

To his credit, he has displayed more enthusiasm and courage than his opponents. And his confrontational style may have exposed the true nature his opponents, one of which has a ridiculous tax plan with no logical hope of succeeding, and another who wants to engage in a carpet bombing campaign. My take is that they are all con artists. So since we may lock out the discussion, that's the bottom line for me.

Bernie and Hillary are far from perfect, but they are in a whole different category of respectability.

[Zoe Girl]

I’l

The longer-term threat in my mind is whether the Republican Party can continue as an instrument of principled conservatism..

As a lifelong liberal I can say that is a concern of mine. The system works on a balance and if the conservative voters don't have any candidates that are basically ethical and support conservative economics then what is left. I read a fascinating article by an evangelical minister who realized for himself that they were being used by people like Trump to support a platform that was deeply offensive. There are going to be more of those people who cannot in any way consider him but are still conservative. The violence that has been reported in his rallies scares the crap out of me, especially if conservative voters are left with no choices.

[LDAHL]

As a lifelong liberal I can say that is a concern of mine. The system works on a balance and if the conservative voters don't have any candidates that are basically ethical and support conservative economics then what is left. I read a fascinating article by an evangelical minister who realized for himself that they were being used by people like Trump to support a platform that was deeply offensive. There are going to be more of those people who cannot in any way consider him but are still conservative. The violence that has been reported in his rallies scares the crap out of me, especially if conservative voters are left with no choices.

That is my conundrum in a nutshell. How to advocate for limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility and the other basic tenets without wading through a sewer to do so.

We may be heading into a period like the fifties and sixties, when there was a battle with elements like the John Birchers and the Ayn Rand acolytes over what it means to be an American Conservative.

[catherine]

I stopped any serious consideration of Trump after determining that he is a self-aggrandizing bully, a bigot, an anti-feminist, and of poor veracity and rectitude. His comments last night about the military the questionable activities around Trump University, and his vulgarity were mostly nails in the coffin. The confidential and unreleased comments to the press may indicate that his off the wall may have just been made to get attention.

To his credit, he has displayed more enthusiasm and courage than his opponents. And his confrontational style may have exposed the true nature his opponents, one of which has a ridiculous tax plan with no logical hope of succeeding, and another who wants to engage in a carpet bombing campaign. My take is that they are all con artists. So since we may lock out the discussion, that's the bottom line for me.

Bernie and Hillary are far from perfect, but they are in a whole different category of respectability.

+1

I really didn't know if I was watching the debates or a Jerry Springer re-run last night. And then John Kasich's attempts to redirect policy discussions seemed like a ill-timed PSAs.

I am in awe of Trump's tactics, although I think that they are fairly standard in the Narcissist Playbook.