US Politics Mega-thread - Page 5976

Political Scientists' statement of concern about Donald Trump

Political scientists seek to understand politics, not engage in politics. Yet our profession has always had strong normative commitments at its foundation: a conviction that peace is preferable to war, freedom to tyranny, justice to injustice, equality to inequality, democracy to authoritarianism. As John Adams wrote in 1780, in the Massachusetts Constitution, the fundamental premise of American self-government is that it “be a government of laws, and not of men.”
It is in this spirit that we are voicing our collective concern about Donald Trump. Throughout the course of the U.S. presidential campaign, Trump has repeatedly questioned and attacked the core institutions and norms that make democracy work. Such attacks by a major presidential candidate are unprecedented in American history but they are entirely familiar to those of us who study other parts of the world. Specifically, we are deeply concerned about the prospect of a Trump presidency for the following reasons:

1. He has cast doubt on the validity of the election process, without any supporting evidence.
2. He has stated that he may reject the outcome of a free election if he does not win.
3. He has encouraged supporters to engage in voter suppression and intimidation.
4. He has threatened to jail the leader of the opposition party.
5. He has questioned the independence of the judiciary and the impartiality of judges based on their race, ethnicity, religion, and parentage.
6. He has impugned the loyalty of citizens and other persons in the United States on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, and country of birth.
7. He has endangered freedom of the press by intimidating individual journalists, banning major news organizations from his rallies, and promising to change libel laws.
8. He has called for the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
9. He has threatened to destroy the strategic basis of NATO, the most important security alliance of the last seventy years, by questioning the commitment of the United States to regard an attack on any member state as an attack on all.

For all these reasons and despite our own differences on matters of politics and partisanship, we stand united in the conviction that a Trump presidency would pose a grave threat to American democracy and to other democratic governments around the world. We call on voters to consider this threat when they cast their votes.

On November 08 2016 20:45 riotjune wrote:
So aside from President, Senator, and Representative, there were six other positions to be filled on my ballot with a bunch of candidates whose names I don't know. There were Councilman, District Attorney, and a Supreme Court thingy (get to vote twice for this) among other stuff. Not knowing what these positions do nor what the candidates stood for, I just voted the same/similar party across the board for the most part. Probably should've left those blank? *shrug

On November 08 2016 22:36 NukeD wrote:
The only way I can think of Trump having a chance in winning is low pro Hillary voter turnout. IMO Trump supporters are a lot more zealous towards him, while I think this isnt the case on Hillary's side as a lot of her voters will vote for her only as a lesser evil and also don't see her as a perfect candidate giving her flaws,