Republican Election 2016 - Donald Trump Megathread [OFFICIAL]

[LaserSharkDFB]

Are you saying that a real estate mogul having an affair 29 years before he decides to run for office, is the same as a sitting President of the United States having an affair with a White House intern?

Um. Yes?

I'm not sure why you think running for office is some sort of magical process that transformed Trump into a new being, all old sins forgotten. Men in power cheating on their wives is a tale as old as time, and isn't significantly changed depending on where that power derives. Unless Bill had pulled a Petraus and leaked state secrets, which he didn't, it was a failing of the man, not the office. I recall that we were pretty bored by the whole thing before the GOP was.

But as you say, attacking Hillary for what Bill did isn't kosher, and Trump's house is extremely glassy in that respect.

[Merkava]

Um. Yes?

I'm not sure why you think running for office is some sort of magical process that transformed Trump into a new being, all old sins forgotten. Men in power cheating on their wives is a tale as old as time, and isn't significantly changed depending on where that power derives. Unless Bill had pulled a Petraus and leaked state secrets, which he didn't, it was a failing of the man, not the office. I recall that we were pretty bored by the whole thing before the GOP was.

But as you say, attacking Hillary for what Bill did isn't kosher, and Trump's house is extremely glassy in that respect.

I'm not saying that Trump's sins should be forgotten. I'm saying that conduct while in office should be judged with a little more scrutiny. We hold our elected officials to a higher regard, do we not? At least until this year. And if you do want to get into it (not saying we have to) Clinton's use of military assets in his attempts to distract from his extramarital affairs are will known.

[Wells]

Why we should give a shit about Bill Clinton here is beyond me.

[Merkava]

Why we should give a shit about Bill Clinton here is beyond me.

I'm not saying that we should. I even said that

Edit - To be clear, I don't think that Bill Clinton's affairs are fair game in a Trump vs Hillary election, though. Maybe that's what you were getting at. If so, sorry for not seeing that.

I'm just here for the discussion.

[Blur4stuff]

even if Bill's cheating was relevant Trump has cheated as well so how could he even use it?

[DeadmanWalking]

Um. Yes?

I'm not sure why you think running for office is some sort of magical process that transformed Trump into a new being, all old sins forgotten. Men in power cheating on their wives is a tale as old as time, and isn't significantly changed depending on where that power derives. Unless Bill had pulled a Petraus and leaked state secrets, which he didn't, it was a failing of the man, not the office. I recall that we were pretty bored by the whole thing before the GOP was.

But as you say, attacking Hillary for what Bill did isn't kosher, and Trump's house is extremely glassy in that respect.

Conservative women also don't appreciate it when you hold a wife responsible for the husbands cheating, or pulling out the mistress to rattle the wife.

[LilSaihah]

even if Bill's cheating was relevant Trump has cheated as well so how could he even use it?

Because Hillary is the cuck, not the bull.

I don't know if that matters too much. I just wanted to use the word cuck.

[Cybran]

Why we should give a shit about Bill Clinton here is beyond me.

Because he is a sexual predator with a long list of victims since the mid 70s.

Trying to paint trump as a misogynist when Hillary has been enabling a monster is despicable.

[PACOX]

If Bill's infidelity on the table then what about Trump's creepiness and sexism?



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If Bills infidelity is a disqualifier for Hilary, and shouldn't sticking with your life partner be a plus for Conservatives - especially the religious right, then what about Trump's multiple marriages, children from multiple women, sexism?

The only innocent person in that fight is Hilary.

[Wells]

Because he is a sexual predator with a long list of victims since the mid 70s.

Trying to paint trump as a misogynist when Hillary has been enabling a monster is despicable.

No, I'd think comparing an aggressively sexist man to a woman who said mean things about her husband's mistresses is whats despicable, but w/e

[Cybran]

No, I'd think comparing an aggressively sexist man to a woman who said mean things about her husband's mistresses is whats despicable, but w/e

Because you are out of touch with reality. Every night you guys watch the echo chamber around Meyers, Colbert, Oliver and the whole MSNBC circus. You are so deep in the narrative that blatant double standards don't even register.

How often have Meyers, Noah, Colbert and others called Melania Trumo
- A trophy wife
- gold digger
- prostitute
- made fun of her English/Accent

Yet you don't come here talking about how it affects women and how it's blatant misogyny. You applaud it, because it tears down the wife of your political enemy. Your don't care about women. Hillary doesn't care about women. She uses them and black people to get ahead.

Your hypocrisy is incredible. This is why you will lose.

[Trump]

Because you are out of touch with reality.

Anyone that supports Hillary is out of touch with reality.

Bill Clinton is a serial sexual predator and to try and somehow equate Trump's infidelities to Bill's history of abusing women is absolutely ridiculous and goes to show just how monumentally stupid and obtuse Hillary supporters are (as if merely supporting Hillary is not enough proof already.)

[Deletedaccount1]

Yeah, anyone saying Bill's infidelity is relevant is just idiotic considering Trump was disloyal in all of his marriages while his actual opponent has no history of such a thing.

You have to love politics. They are both reprehensible in their own right but put the two against each other and suddenly it becomes a game of which person is the worst.

Gotta love the tribalism of politics.

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Anyone that supports Hillary is out of touch with reality.

Bill Clinton is a serial sexual predator and to try and somehow equate Trump's infidelities to Bill's history of abusing women is absolutely ridiculous and goes to show just how monumentally stupid and obtuse Hillary supporters are (as if merely supporting Hillary is not enough proof already.)

How the fuck did you manage to register that name in March of this year?

[Macaquerie]

Because Hillary is the cuck, not the bull.

I don't know if that matters too much. I just wanted to use the word cuck.

You and every other annoying prick on the internet these days, it seems. People just need to stop saying cuck, it sounds silly and doesn't have anywhere near the punch that you think it does, it just marks you out as being in a very specific category of online troll with predictable political beliefs.

And besides, nobody has ever been under any illusions that the Clintons have a warm and loving marriage, they stay together because it's a mutually beneficial partnership politically. If Hillary had walked out on Bill after the Lewinsky scandal, she would have thrown away what she REALLY loves - power, influence, connections, and above all, a chance to become president herself some day. So instead, she made a very cold, calculated, and rational decision to stick around and endure some personal humiliation rather than sacrifice her political career for emotional reasons, and that's an alpha move if there ever was one.

Trump on the other hand is such a deluded little man that he actually leaked details of his own affairs to press because, hey, sleeping around is what all the cool kids are doing, and if he lets everyone know about his affair, maybe they'll think he's cool too! And hey I get it, who wouldn't want to live the life of a billionaire playboy with supermodels hanging off his arm and paparazzi crowding around him? Problem is, Trump tried and FAILED to become that, sure he's married to someone who used to do some modeling, but you'd think that given the amount of money that he has and the amount of effort he has put into creating this image for himself that he'd be doing better at this than he is.

[Deletedaccount1]

It's unfortunate that that's the case since it's not even a close contest. It's just easier to spin the story that some life long politician is some super evil villain than use any sort of rational argument. Of course she has her flaws and has made mistakes but they're all about very complicated issues involving government policy and involve many more people than Clinton herself. She really doesn't have anything super controversial going on, most people are just too dumb to realize that and fail to stay informed and it's easier for them to chalk everything up to some sort of conspiracy she's involved in.

I think you misunderstood me. I am directly criticizing people like you.

The fact that 90% of America can't wake up to the fact that both of these people are terrible and have ruined a lot of lives and stepped on a lot of toes to get where they are today is pretty indicative of the flaws of democracy as well as the sheer amount of voter apathy in the US. People love acting like politics is a football game where there are two sides and one winner with one outcome.

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But just to play devil's advocate, based off the sheer amount of misery that has been caused by their actions, Trump is the more innocent candidate than Clinton. That said, he would likely be the worse president.

[Macaquerie]

I think you misunderstood me. I am directly criticizing people like you.

The fact that 90% of America can't wake up to the fact that both of these people are terrible and have ruined a lot of lives and stepped on a lot of toes to get where they are today is pretty indicative of the flaws of democracy as well as the sheer amount of voter apathy in the US. People love acting like politics is a football game where there are two sides and one winner with one outcome.

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But just to play devil's advocate, based off the sheer amount of misery that has been caused by their actions, Trump is the more innocent candidate than Clinton. That said, he would likely be the worse president.

You always see people making the argument that both candidates are terrible because the two party system is broken, but who exactly would you want in there instead? It's not like there are a bunch of talented, energetic, and honest candidates out there who are just being shoved out by a corrupt system. The problem these days is fundamentally that we don't have many good candidates to pick from period, mostly because we made politics into such an ugly and dirty career choice that most of the smart and capable people stay as far away from it as possible, and we're just left with a bunch of idiots making for a perfectly depressing self-fulfilling prophecy.

[LilSaihah]

And besides, nobody has ever been under any illusions that the Clintons have a warm and loving marriage, they stay together because it's a mutually beneficial partnership politically. If Hillary had walked out on Bill after the Lewinsky scandal, she would have thrown away what she REALLY loves - power, influence, connections, and above all, a chance to become president herself some day. So instead, she made a very cold, calculated, and rational decision to stick around and endure some personal humiliation rather than sacrifice her political career for emotional reasons, and that's an alpha move if there ever was one.

It's a beta/omega strategy. If you think that's alpha you just don't know what alpha means.

I knew you were criticizing me, you must have failed to notice I was including you as one of the simple minded fools who think that Clinton's "scandals" are anything close to the caliber of Trump's. He had a much greater role in the controversial issues he was involved in from his fraudulent university to his slush fund joke of a charity. Trump has even admitted to stiffing people under his employment, possibly evading taxes and even bribery.

I find this an extremely bizarre assertion.

Hillary Clinton was, per James Comey, found to be extremely careless with classified information, to have risked classified information to exposure to foreign actors by her carelessness, and to have cultivated a lax security culture in the state department.

Frankly, refusing to pay contractors that didn't fill their contracts, and minimizing taxable income, are small peas.

You always see people making the argument that both candidates are terrible because the two party system is broken, but who exactly would you want in there instead? It's not like there are a bunch of talented, energetic, and honest candidates out there who are just being shoved out by a corrupt system. The problem these days is fundamentally that we don't have many good candidates to pick from period, mostly because we made politics into such an ugly and dirty career choice that most of the smart and capable people stay as far away from it as possible, and we're just left with a bunch of idiots making for a perfectly depressing self-fulfilling prophecy.

Ted Cruz has been making an honest showing with this ICANN debacle, has distinguished himself with his reticence towards supporting Trump, and he was the last one out of the Republican primaries. If it weren't for the underhanded tricks he used he'd be in a good position.

[Deletedaccount1]

I knew you were criticizing me, you must have failed to notice I was including you as one of the simple minded fools who think that Clinton's "scandals" are anything close to the caliber of Trump's. He had a much greater role in the controversial issues he was involved in from his fraudulent university to his slush fund joke of a charity. Trump has even admitted to stiffing people under his employment, possibly evading taxes and even bribery.

I'm not disagreeing that Clinton played a part in some controversial issues such as Benghazi but they're much more complicated. Somehow people break down the event as Clinton herself was responsible for four american deaths and that's just idiotic. If you think she made any of those decisions in that event without the input of several other people then you're delusional.

The reality is that currently there are only two sides and regardless of the number of sides, of course there's only one winner.

Here's the problem. Scandals are not what make Clinton bad, it is her policy positions and her past actions. She has been at the forefront of policy decision making for two decades. She has sided with policies that have ruined thousands of lives. She voted for the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, anti-gay marriage legislation, numerous anti-first amendment bills and dozens of other things which have expanded government power at the expense of innocent people.

As Secretary of State, her hawkish positions caused many deaths during the Arab Spring and her support for drone strikes and withdrawal from Iraq has caused many, many people to die.

Now look at Trump. He is a businessman with a record of using government to expand his own wealth and he cheats on his taxes. He supports eminent domain to make himself richer and steal people's property with government approval and supports awful Democratic designed zoning laws which geographically isolate people by race and class and cause poverty and decadence.

Clinton lies, Trump lies more but at the end the sheer amount of human misery caused by their actions is far greater with Clinton but like I said earlier, she would probably be the better president.

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You always see people making the argument that both candidates are terrible because the two party system is broken, but who exactly would you want in there instead? It's not like there are a bunch of talented, energetic, and honest candidates out there who are just being shoved out by a corrupt system. The problem these days is fundamentally that we don't have many good candidates to pick from period, mostly because we made politics into such an ugly and dirty career choice that most of the smart and capable people stay as far away from it as possible, and we're just left with a bunch of idiots making for a perfectly depressing self-fulfilling prophecy.

I don't think the two party system is terrible in and of itself and America was clearly designed with it in mind. America's flaw lie within democracy. People are not rational and so any system they design where a bunch of irrational people make decisions for everyone else will inevitably cause problems.

There is nothing rationally consistent about modern liberalism or conservatism but people will stick to their guns about both and make it a tribal war at the expense of societal betterment. Even worse, people can be rationally irrational. Basically what that means is they have biases which cause detrimental policy decisions by voters and who they chose to vote for.

They include things like bias towards self-interest, self-image, social bonding or coherence. The problem with politics has always been voters, not politicians.

[Cybran]

It's even more amusing how the democrats who bitched and moaned about bush are now acting like the biggest patriots and war hawks. CNN and MSNBC are touting neoconservatives who openly call for war in Syria.

Even if Hillary wins the democrats, minorities and women will lose. Good job on them shooting themselves in the foot.

[Aggrophobic]

Because you are out of touch with reality. Every night you guys watch the echo chamber around Meyers, Colbert, Oliver and the whole MSNBC circus. You are so deep in the narrative that blatant double standards don't even register.

How often have Meyers, Noah, Colbert and others called Melania Trumo
- A trophy wife
- gold digger
- prostitute
- made fun of her English/Accent

Yet you don't come here talking about how it affects women and how it's blatant misogyny. You applaud it, because it tears down the wife of your political enemy. Your don't care about women. Hillary doesn't care about women. She uses them and black people to get ahead.

Your hypocrisy is incredible. This is why you will lose.

You seem a bit delusional... Just a bit.