Which is a hilarious precedent. Besides which, Alexander the Great was a real bona fide badass who physically conquored the known world rather than just a yuge talker with orange skin and a penchant for gaudy gold.
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I would say fury and ED covered the majority of things I disapprove of on Trump. Well said.
Also Tyler, that quote makes me cringe. As did the interview…
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He likes his steaks well done. That I cannot abide.
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“Who knew healthcare could be so complicated?”
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“Presidenting’s hard. Who knew?”
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Bannon appears to be on his way out the door, and just in time - the nationalist agenda appears to be dead not even 100 days into the administration.
A dash of globalism with a splash of corporate cronyism. Trump is turning out to be the elitist wolf in populist sheep’s clothing.
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Laughing. Just laughing here. At least he did finally admit making a mistake instead of flat denying he ever said NATO was obsolete. Considering the size of the mistake though…not really reassuring he could say that in the first place.
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Adios, President Bannon.
Hello, President Kushner!
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Although, I did like that little finger to Putin Trump signed off on–Montenegro is going to be part of NATO, and Putin can’t be happy about that considering he has had so much behind the scenes work there to try to destabilize it.
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No big deal, TB…its all part of the game, right? They all do it… (sarcasm)
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I the real question I think is, Should Americans use polls in determining whether the president is doing a good job or not? I think a lot of people disregard polls not only because of how the election turned out but because they have been used for some time by certain outlets to sway public opinion. It works with the general uninformed citizen. “58% disapprove of the President? He must be doing something wrong.” Polls are supposed to reflect opinion, not create it. I see more and more becoming wise to that tactic and paying little attention to polls.
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I suppose I look at polls, especially approval, as “Am I the only one thinking this?” The echo-chamber nature of how people use the internet and social media make it difficult to decipher where those outside your “sphere” stand. So I certainly think there’s value to them. As to your question on whether polls should be a good measure of a president… not necessarily, but polls give a bit of “orientation” on how the rest of the nation thinks.
As for them creating opinion…I’m not sure about that. There’s probably a lot of dems who didn’t turn out to vote this past election because they assumed HRC would win (because polls); but, then again, that could’ve driven a lot of Trump voters to turn out. So I guess I don’t quite see it as cut-and-dry.
I think a very valid question is: are there way too many polls and are they shoved in our faces constantly? Absolutely.
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People didn’t show for HRC because she wasn’t exciting and nobody actually thought Manhattan douchepoo had a chance. The Dems shit the bed. Yea polls may be the actual biggest fake news turd nobody’s talking about. Just keepin it real 
I was not, in any way, blaming her loss on the polls. I was just remarking, to Alright’s point, that they could influence public opinion.
As much a game as Barack Obama saying he was going to have the most transparent administration in history.
They all play it Mufasa. If you don’t recognize it that means that they have “gamed you”.
Keep watching, as I said many weeks ago the “Trump is in bed with Russia” game the dems played will go no where. Just as the “Obama was born in Kenya” game the right played on Obama went no where. But where were they supposed to go? They did what they set out to do. Both of those games did gain millions of believers. The stupid…the naïve, the young and of course those who hate the other side so much that they will believe anything. And NO I never one time bought into the Obama Keya nonsense as you once alleged.
Politics is a game and those who don’t know it are doomed to believe the occasional pure nonsense coming out of both parties…they will be “gamed”.
No sarcasm just fact.
Dont forget Pussy grabbing, and the enviroment
Heh, yep. It’s just a game - political hack speak for “I need a reason to try to convince you not to punish him for not holding to his word and withdrawing your support, so I’m shifting the standards of what is acceptable. Lying or changing major positions is not a reason to abandon support, like it was when a Democrat was in office.”
So, we see hackdom laid bare:
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Trump tells the truth and sticks to all the things said/promises he made? He tells it like it is. Yay! Stick with Trump! Republicans rule!
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Trump lies and flip flops on the things said/promises he made and is a sham pretending to be someone who tells it like it is? Hey, everyone lies, that’s not a reason to abandon Trump, that’s no big deal, it’s just a game, not a disqualifying event. Yay! Stick with Trump! Republicans rule!
Excuse-making at its finest
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It seems like the issue most folks have (myself included) is that he gained popularity because he was not going to “game” the American people, the issue some seem to have is that you are now calling anyone who fell for that, “the stupid…the naive, the young and of course (the partisan)” I struggle to see how you reconcile the fact that he ran (seemingly) against the partisan, stereotypical politician and is now indistinguishable from them. It may be a, “game” but the fact that people are willing to see it as such is what allows it to continue. I am not attempting to personally attack you or your views, as I lean heavily right on most issues as well, I am just concerned that seemingly educated folks are quick to point to gamesmanship/dishonesty as a quality that he explicitly ran against as ok.
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Did you really just invite Zeb1 back into the thread??? What were you thinking?
Next thing you’ll be saying “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.”
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[quote=“Despade, post:6561, topic:223365, full:true”]
It seems like the issue most folks have (myself included) is that he gained popularity because he was not going to “game” the American people,[/quote]
Ha, that’s part of the game. Please name one candidate for President who eventually made it to the oval office who did everything that they said they would? In fact, I can think of examples where they did the exact opposite. George HW Bush said at the republican National Convention, “read my lips no new taxes” And yet…he raised taxes. Obama said he would have the most transparent administration in history. That missed the mark right?
I think most adults understand that politicians say things that they don’t always do and in fact sometimes do the opposite when they get into office. They do this for two reasons. The first is that, even though most are very bright people they really don’t know how they are going to react to a world crisis until one happens. Fair enough. The other reason is that most politicians at that level who are successful are liars.
By the way, everyone has told a fib, no one is perfect, even though one or two on this site think they are. So don’t expect more from your leaders than what we the people are like. That is not to say that they are not trying. But they must please many different segments of society in order to get elected and you know what that takes right?
As I said in a previous post in a different thread that is one reason to vote “The party” instead of “the man” because whomever the man is if he wants to get reelected he will more than likely look like any other of the same party…with some modifications of course. His “pitch” to become President was “Vote for me I am different” Well we’ve never heard that before have we? Well yes as a matter of fact we hear it every four years.
Who believes this? Certainly not me.
“He’s Making Us Proud Again”
“Kinder gentler Nation”
“For People For A Change”
“Building a Bridge to the 21st Century”
“Fundamentally Change America”
“Make America Great Again”
These are just a few of the campaign slogans that the past several Presidential campaigns have used. Do you believe any of them? It’s marketing…I hope that doesn’t make you mad. They are attempting to convince the masses that they should be elected. Some companies try to convince women to purchase their soap. Do women get mad if doesn’t their face as smooth as sheep skin?
It’s called advertising and part of every good ad campaign is H Y P E. When you hear advertising for any particular product do you believe all of it? Do you? No? Then why do some have wide eyed optimism when politicians advertise themselves…with lots of hype?
Do they see it as such? There are people right here on T Nation who are aghast that I’ve called it one big game. They are beside themselves with anger and stupidity. The fact is most don’t know that it is a game and THAT is the reason that it works all the time every time. But honestly I don’t think it matters much whether people realize it or not in the end the game will continue as it has for decades as it’s all they know how to do.
Oh I know you’re not Despade you are a very civil poster and I appreciate your posts.
[quote=“Despade, post:6561, topic:223365”]
I lean heavily right on most issues as well,[/quote]
OH GOSH you are partisan G A S P! Ha ha. Best advice that I can give you is to vote republican if you lean right. They will let you down on occasion (sometimes on plenty of occasions). But as a conservative the democrats will let you down every time. I am sure that you feel as I do that it’s a good thing Trump got elected as we now have Justice Neil Gorsuch a real conservative on the bench (as I predicted). Now let’s see if Hillary were elected, as some thought she would be (snicker) the new Justice would be who? Justice “Patty O’probortion-hategunsinski”