US Politics Mega-thread - Page 4333

On July 20 2016 04:39 GGTeMpLaR wrote:
"Trump has lost my support. I have stuck with him through allegations of Racism, Sexism, Anti-Semitism, xenophobia, bankruptcies, and the bringer of WWIII. But after Melania's plagiarism, I'm getting off the Trump train."

On July 20 2016 05:18 Dan HH wrote:

What's your point? You made it perfectly clear a hundred times before that there's nothing Trump can do to lose your support, that doesn't mean all criticism of him/his campaign is invalid.

On July 20 2016 04:16 PassiveAce wrote:

I'm pretty sure trump would much prefer that we be talking about how unexpectedly smoothly the convention is going rather then whether his wife ripped off a speech from the secret Muslim presidents wife.

I don't understand how people think the trump campaign is the product of cold calculation, and not, you know, what one would expect of a campaign headed by a birther real estate developer with 0 political experience and run by a dictator lobbyist who hasn't had a major role in a presidential campaign since the 70s.

On July 20 2016 05:21 Plansix wrote:

Its like they don't understand that their vote isn't the one that is going to decide the election. No one in this thread matters to the candidates right now. Its the undecided voters, who will file this little blunder away with the 2000 other blunders Trump has committed.

On July 20 2016 03:54 GGTeMpLaR wrote:
Alright boys let's do this!!



+ Show Spoiler +

+ Show Spoiler +

+ Show Spoiler +

Source

OH THE OUTRAGE!!!

On July 20 2016 05:26 Nyxisto wrote:


It's still troublesome that basic democratic mechanisms don't work anymore and a candidate can act as disgusting as the worst parts of the country while still drawing considerable support. Sure there's always a solid core of people in every nation that are bringing out the worst it has to offer but the missing backlash against Trump's campaign is scary.

On July 20 2016 05:28 Doodsmack wrote:


Your Biden example just showed that there was a media frenzy for him, too.

This example shows Obama's response to it was very different than Trump's. Also the "just words" idea, in and of itself, is not "plagiarism" if discussed.

On July 19 2016 23:49 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
Everyone is having a field day with the plagiarism

This concept that Michelle Obama invented the English language is absurd.

On July 20 2016 05:36 hunts wrote:


Is that a joke or did she really do it so mindlessly that she read it as she was a black woman?

On July 20 2016 03:55 Seuss wrote:
It's plagiarism and it's ironic, but I don't think either of those things are as important as how this gives the lie to Trump's assertion that he'll make up for his deficiencies through his staffing.

There's the possibility that this was an intentional move by the Trump campaign to capture a news cycle, or distract from other problems, or set up contrast because they have opposition research that shows Clinton plagiarized speeches or something. However, it's far more likely that this is simple incompetence, and everything else we've seen coming out of the convention thus far points to the latter rather than the former.

On July 20 2016 05:36 hunts wrote:


Is that a joke or did she really do it so mindlessly that she read it as she was a black woman?

On July 20 2016 05:26 Nyxisto wrote:


It's still troublesome that basic democratic mechanisms don't work anymore and a candidate can act as disgusting as the worst parts of the country while still drawing considerable support. Sure there's always a solid core of people in every nation that are bringing out the worst it has to offer but the missing backlash against Trump's campaign is scary.

Melania Trump could comfortably crib from Michelle Obama because contemporary political speeches are almost nothing but a string of empty nationalistic platitudes. Barack Obama himself, supposedly a brilliant speechmaker, has almost never in his entire political career uttered a single memorable phrase (can you think of one? No, that waffle about the red America and the blue America doesn’t count.) The difference between Obama’s rhetoric and Ronald Reagan’s consists of little more than slight variations in word choice. (Reagan: “I am speaking of the problem of our national security. Our nation is in danger, and the danger grows greater with each passing day.” Obama: “I’ve authorized U.S. forces to take out terrorists abroad precisely because I know how real the danger is. As Commander-in-Chief, I have no greater responsibility than the security of the American people.”) We know the whole phrase bank: no greater country in the world; the security of the American people; our hopes, aspirations, and dreams; my parents always taught me; the values that unite us. Thus even if Melania hadn’t directly plagiarized from Michelle Obama, she would almost certainly have ended up saying essentially the same thing. Her main sin seems to be that she forgot to jumble the words around a little.

If anything, the whole plagiarism scandal reflects somewhat poorly on Michelle Obama. One reason Obama’s words were able to play so well at the RNC was that in the lifted passages, Obama was speaking using the conservative language of “bootstrapping.” Obama’s sentence, that “the only limit” to one’s achievements is the height of one’s goal and the “willingness to work” toward it, is the Republican story about America. It’s the story of personal responsibility, in which the U.S. is overflowing with opportunity, and anyone who fails to succeed in such a land of abundance must simply not be trying hard enough.

People on the left are supposed to know that it is a cruel lie to tell people that all they need to do is work hard. There are plenty of people with dreams who work very hard indeed but get nothing, because the American economy is fundamentally skewed and unfair. This rhetoric, about “hard work” being the only thing needed for the pursuit of prosperity, is an insult to every tomato-picker and hotel cleaner in the country. It’s a fact that those who work the hardest in this country, those come home from work exhausted and who break their backs to feed their families, are almost always rewarded the least.

Far from embarrassing Melania Trump and the GOP, then, it should be deeply humiliating for Democrats that their rhetoric is so bloodless and hollow that it can easily be spoken word-for-word in front of a gang of crazed racists.

On July 20 2016 05:38 Plansix wrote:

It is a joke. But I get that you might think twice this election cycle. Poe's law is in full effect.

On July 20 2016 05:18 Dan HH wrote:

You made it perfectly clear a hundred times before that there's nothing Trump can do to lose your support,

On July 20 2016 05:41 Gorsameth wrote:

Democratic systems still work. The troublesome reality is the amount of people who make up the 'worst parts of the country' as you call it.

A long time ago (so it seems) at the beginning of the primary I said that people who would vote for Trump are stupid and someone replied that so many people vote for him, you cant call them all stupid.
But they are, and that is the scary part. That there are so many stupid people in a country like the US that a man like Trump can have a serious shot at becoming president.

On July 20 2016 05:21 Plansix wrote:

Its like they don't understand that their vote isn't the one that is going to decide the election. No one in this thread matters to the candidates right now. Its the undecided voters, who will file this little blunder away with the 2000 other blunders Trump has committed.

On July 20 2016 05:41 Gorsameth wrote:

Democratic systems still work. The troublesome reality is the amount of people who make up the 'worst parts of the country' as you call it.

A long time ago (so it seems) at the beginning of the primary I said that people who would vote for Trump are stupid and someone replied that so many people vote for him, you cant call them all stupid.
But they are, and that is the scary part. That there are so many stupid people in a country like the US that a man like Trump can have a serious shot at becoming president.

On July 20 2016 05:54 CobaltBlu wrote:
They may not change their vote based upon his spouses plagiarism but they could be concerned about his campaign's willingness to lie about the most trivial matters.