Re: Can Trump Really Win the Presidency?
You are such a cynic. Why don't you go out a buy a 6 foot tall portrait of yourself?
I learned to be cynical by watching how partisans act and calling out their nonsense. I've seen people I know and have dealt with - and find them to be REASONABLY intelligent (not Mensa scholars or Machiavellian, but not folks who fell off the turnip truck) - I've watched them find any thing necessary to defend their candidate, and it doesn't matter which candidate we're talking about. Every person on my Facebook who has touted a candidate this year has gotten so ridiculous - whether Bernie, HRC, Cruz, or ESPECIALLY Trump - that I spend half my time gulping anymore. I had a Cruz nutbag defriend and get this - my problem with what he said was it was Cruz trying to rip Trump for 'attacking Ronald Reagan.' The problem was that the meme that circulated wasn't 'exactly' true, it was innuendo. The guy was pontificating as one of those guys who actually believed Cruz was a truth teller and everyone else was a lying sack of dog mess.
So I pointed out his error - very politely. I let most pass, but if you're gonna pull that moralist argument, I'll be nice and show you the error of your ways. He deleted my post and blocked me, which is fine, but also says more about him than about any of the candidates.
And I learned debating religious apologetics that people (and it's NOT just fundamentalists, folks - most of the liberal theologians are every bit as committed to their fundamentalist presuppositions as those they mock) will literally use any argument no matter how ridiculous, the favorite tactic being linking an article that prints out to about 50 pages and saying, "This answers all your questions."
Why can't most folks simply say, "I don't know?"
I have no idea whether the economy is good or bad. Define those terms. Of course, I'm also not one of these dweebs who thinks Presidents deserve a bunch of credit for it, either. Reagan had quite a bit of growth in the 1980s and the right-wingers insist it was his trickle down economics while left-wingers tell me that he destroyed the country. Personally, I think it had to do with things like lots of jobs in the communications industry over advances like proliferation of cable TV and the break-up of AT&T and all that defense contractor spending for WW3. And anyone who gives credit for the 90s to Clinton is a profound idiot, too, given the fact the expansion began in March 1991 and Clinton didn't even announce he was running until October 1991. And then came the Internet expansion.
My income has gone up but so, too, my taxes and what I have to pay for health care. So in terms of the 'are you better off' question, who knows?
