pogo wrote:Eight years a similar dilemma led John McCain to pick Sarah Palin, and we all know how that turned out. Trump seems unlikely to make as bad a mistake but who knows?
I don't know.
They've already been lining it up for exactly that:
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
"Words ought to be a little wild - for they are assaults of thought on the unthinking."
- John Maynard Keynes
Dio wrote:All first past the post systems make really large percentages of the population voiceless.
It's not just that, though, is it. With no-hope Kasich continuing to run against Trump, at least the votes would have been held and people would have a place to voice their opposition to Trump... even if it did amount to nothing.
Now Trump can claim 100% of everything that's left.
Anyway; it's official, now. Kasich's out. The Republican world has ended.
South Park wrote:Stan: Dude, so my vote didn't even really matter!
Randy: Hey! That's not true, Stan.
Sharon: [genuflects behind Stan] You can't judge the merits of voting on whether or not your candidate won.
Randy: [genuflects behind Stan] Your vote still mattered.
Herbert Garrison: [rushing into the school] Hey everybody! [holds up a shredded PETA shirt. Everyone turns and looks] They just found all the PETA members murdered at their compound! [all gasp]
Mr. Mackey: What the? They're all dead? Well, that means...
Clyde: That we can go back to being the South Park Cows! [opens his jacket and shows off his Cows shirt]
All: Hooray! All right!
Randy: [to Stan] Now your vote didn't matter.
If they think you're crude, go technical; if they think you're technical, go crude. I'm a very technical boy.
And “shit other Republicans said about Trump”. Probably they’ve had these ready for a while, just waiting for the right opportunity to run them.
One problem Trump has is he does not have the sort of organisation candidates usually have at this point. He has relied on his own ability to make headlines and dominate the new cycle instead. He benefitted from being the only household name in a large field of mostly unknowns, and from the dysfunctional nature of the Republican party too.
So Clinton may be attacking him early knowing he does not have the ability to respond in kind. Even when he gets up to speed he’s going to find it hard to refute these, given that they depend mostly on his own words and those of Republicans he has already dealt with.
Dio wrote:All first past the post systems make really large percentages of the population voiceless.
It's not just that, though, is it. With no-hope Kasich continuing to run against Trump, at least the votes would have been held and people would have a place to voice their opposition to Trump... even if it did amount to nothing.
Now Trump can claim 100% of everything that's left.
Anyway; it's official, now. Kasich's out. The Republican world has ended.
The Bushes are not endorsing Trump's candidacy. The Republican Party is a long way from being united behind Trump.
Who he chooses as his running mate is now crucial.
I read something making a similar point the other day: that Trump arose perhaps as the US has “too much” democracy. The writer attributed it to the faith in “folk wisdom” that exists in the US. That for many matters large and small they turn to voters, where we would defer to politicians or officials. Ballot initiatives, elections for judges and other officials, and choosing candidates for major elections.
They seem to recognise the flawed nature of it. That’s why the primary process is so long winded, to weed out weak candidates and allow the best candidate time to rise to the top, and also make the process so expensive that no-one can buy the election. But this did not allow for Trump, who has managed to dominate the process without spending money, and rise above his obvious flaws and weaknesses partly by treating them as strengths.
gilesgoat wrote:.. imagine a world where you are out of EU and together with President Trump ..
You may have solved the immigration problem anyway, people would start to migrate OUT of UK
Isn't that exactly how it's supposed to work? Leaving EU doesn't necessarily mean leaving Shengen, but it will make the UK such a wreck that anyone with a right to live elsewhere (ie., a foreign passport) will run away screaming.
