Interesting times-does anyone speak for rational debate anymore?

by fulltimestudent 3 Replies latest social current

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  fulltimestudent

  Australia's coming to the end of a long election campaign, marked as usual by mistruths and half-truths by both of the main contenders for government.

  And in the USA - is it different?

  I read today of D. Trump's promises to bring back US industry and then saw this Clinton tweet:

  

  Trump has some interesting things to say, but why does he try to con some of the poorer people in the USA, in this way? Promising something that he is unlikely to be able to deliver. Is he just acting as though he was taking over some badly run business with fake promises to the shareholders.

  What he's saying now (about out-sourcing) he defended in 2005, according to a report in a newspaper here.

  Quote: in 2005, blogging on a website associated with his now defunct Trump University, he said:

  "We hear terrible things about outsourcing jobs – how sending work outside of our companies is contributing to the demise of American businesses. But in this instance I have to take the unpopular stance that it's not always a terrible thing."

  He seems to have demonstrated his faith in out-sourcing as a way to make money by buying shirts made with cheap labour in Bangladash and selling them in the USA.

  The same newspaper article commented:

  "Trump's offering is outlandish – the historical reality is that US manufacturing jobs peaked at 38 per cent of all jobs around World War II and today they represent just 8.5 per cent of the total. It's a cruel pipe-dream to promise to bring back those jobs in those numbers."

  That newspaper article can be accessed here: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/world/trump-dumps-on-free-trades-rape-of-our-country-in-pennsylvania-address-20160629-gpujwc.html
  

  Does Trump really stand for anything, except what he may gain as President of the USA?
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  jws

  I think Trump is filled with a lot of bluster and image. What's underneath, I don't think anybody knows. He simply craves power. He'll contradict himself all the time. I saw a friend go from candidate to candidate in the Republican Party as they all fell. And finally, probably his last choice, Trump, became the nominee and now he's all behind him.

  I think he's a fool for not having any principles and sticking with a party and not a person, but so be it. He's a fool in many ways.

  Trump will say whatever he needs to for whatever audience he is addressing. Immediately after winning the primaries, he started to pivot left and say things to appease the other side. I pointed this out to my friend who unfriended me.

  And on the other side, Clinton does the same. She's supposed to be a member of the liberal party, but is not very liberal. She too will say what she needs to when it's politically right to do so. She was for TPP, now she's against it. She was against gay marriage, now she's for it. Not to mention the questions surrounding her donations from Wall Street and her loyalties to them. This woman started off as a republican until she met her husband. Now she's going to ride his coattails with his party.

  I HATE the choices I have. I've heard they are the most hated candidates since they started tracking the likeability. And not only on one side. #1 (Trump) and #2 (Hillary) as most hated ever.
  
  And here in the US, we don't really have a 3rd party that can so much as challenge them, much as they'd like to think they could. Maybe Gary Johnson can get enough of a vote to get federal funding for his party next time, but I don't see him being a factor. And look at what good the turnout and the funding did for Ross Perot's party. What was that party's name again? See? I'll bet over 75% of America doesn't know so it didn't help them get off the ground. So I don't give things much hope for us to get beyond the 2-party system here.
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  TerryWalstrom

  I've been disgusted with Politics a long, long time. I don't buy into the idea that 300 million people are best served by a person only 150 million agree with. That guarantees half the country is always pissed off, disaffected, negative and ready to undercut the leader.
  
  The structure of our Political contests are downright silly.
  The people who vote are usually ignorant, misinformed, emotional, and motivated by their worst instincts.
  Until every ballot contains a box marked NONE of the Above, we are stuck with the lesser of two evils.

  Let us face a truly condemning fact:
  
  If you vote for the lesser of two Evils; you are still choosing Evil.
  Any choice which compels you to choose Evil is a decision best abandoned.
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  JeffT

  we are stuck with the lesser of two evils.

  No we're not.

  http://www.cthulhu.org/