RIP John McCain

[slag]

I'm not talking about personal attacks ...

The only similarity between Palin and Trump that I see is the "drain the swamp" shit that got traction because the country was sick and tired of business as usual in Washington and she initially looked attactive to some like something different ... at least until she was exposed having the intellect of a box of hammers.

However, not-business-as-usual isn't the key reason he got elected ... IMO he got elected because Clinton was too smug and didn't get the blue collar (predominantly white) job angle in key states and because, as Dave Chappell indicated on SNL, blacks weren't going to get up and go vote for a wrinkly old white woman.

[BigSlizz]

Omarosa actually touches on Lewis' games in her book. That's expected, and I'm not personally offended by it. He's got his own issues and constituency that he needs to answer to/advocate for.

[Dim Bulb]

lol hadn't heard that

I'm not talking about personal attacks ...

The only similarity between Palin and Trump that I see is the "drain the swamp" shit that got traction because the country was sick and tired of business as usual in Washington and she initially looked like something different ... at least until she was exposed having the intellect of a box of hammers.

However, not-business-as-usual isn't the key reason he got elected ... IMO he got elected because Clinton was too smug and didn't get the blue collar (predominantly white) job angle in key states and because, as Dave Chappell indicated on SNL, blacks weren't going to get up and go vote for a wrinkly old white woman.

Probably the best take I've heard! Clinton was a terrible candidate. And a feckless politician who would say or do anything to get elected. Both back in '08 and in '16. Tough to vote for her. I think Trump would've beaten Bernie too because they'd have painted him as a communist or something. Trump is who he is. I'm not a hater (although I think he is sort of a clown). I look at the 65 million people who are more or less totally loyal to him no matter what and ask the same question you're asking. Why? I think the drain the swamp thing is part of it, but I also think there's a deeper emotional attachment to someone who makes things simple and gives voice to the politically incorrect incoherent "they're the enemy and they are evil and that's why we're having all these problems" voice. It's powerful and it's more than drain the swamp.

Even the "hope and change" people who bought into Obama were really looking to drain the swamp. But the thing that Trump and Palin bring to the party is more than that... it's allowing people to release their anger and express it simply. Those damn liberals are trying to destroy America. The MSM hates you and is manipulating you. Are they really? Probably not, I just disagree with some of their policies, maybe. To take it to extremes and convince the people that one part of America is evil is powerful, but not worthy of the intelligence of the people of this country. We're way smarter than that.

[Dim Bulb]

Oh I don't take offense

Omarosa actually touches on Lewis' games in her book. That's expected, and I'm not personally offended by it. He's got his own issues and constituency that he needs to answer to/advocate for.

Lewis does what he does. Trump does what he does. They all do. The question for me is are we as a country smart enough to hear and evaluate on our own? I think we are. Taking a politician's word for anything and running with it is like trusting Jerruh to... well to do anything worthwhile.

[slag]

PS - And my main point remains that the demographic that voted for McCain due in any part to Palin (and then for Trump) has been a foregone conclusion for the right since Og.

[tjl88]

...because it was never a dominating narrative and therefore it didn't have to change. I never really heard it as a "thing." Some idiots on the left tried to smear him, but it was never a mainstream thing. John Lewis for example is a cynical politician who plays games with his constituency for his own purposes. But as slag so adeptly points out, who doesn't? You want this to be a "narrative" because you want to make some MSM bias point that serves your world view. Right wing snowflakism. Kind of like watching Jim Boeheim scream about officiating in a Syracuse game. Amusing, but useless.

Google is your friend, it was the narrative. Kind of like Jim Boeheim ignoring what was happening at his program, you choose to see what you want because it doesn’t fit your narrative.

[Dim Bulb]

PS I'm just passing time this morning

I knew he didn't have long to live when they said they were ending treatment.

God Bless and much respect for his service to this country. I didn't agree with him on every issue but he was a true hero and Patriot.

...until I go in to have the screws removed from my ankle that they put there almost 13 months to the day. I get PTSD just thinking about it so thanks for this distraction!

[BigSlizz]

I'm glad you think we are, because I'm starting to wonder.

[Dim Bulb]

lol

Google is your friend, it was the narrative. Kind of like Jim Boeheim ignoring what was happening at his program, you choose to see what you want because it doesn’t for your narrative.

You're smarter than that. You can see nuance. I see both "sides" being hypocritical. You only see one. You're smarter than that. To you finding ANY evidence is positive proof that a "narrative" exists and that it is powerful. You can find any evidence on the internet to back up what you want to be a narrative.

For me, I evaluate and discern and find that there was no mainstream narrative that McCain was a racist. Just cynical politicians floating that narrative which was probably picked up by MSNBC crazoids for their own purposes. You see a locked down, solid state, no bullshit narrative. I guess when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Remember what Ralph Waldo Emerson said (I paraphrase because I won't remember the quote precisely): "People seem not to realize that their opinion of the world is a confession of their character."

[art vandelay]

that wasn't the prevailing narrative as much as it was the focus of op-eds from BS websites like huffington post and slate. i guess those websites deserve some blame for crying wolf, but sources like the new york times and CNN didn't focus on those things.

maybe some of those websites have changed their mind because they realize that what mccain offered then was preferable to trump's inflammatory rhetoric. but there are plenty of further left-leaning op-ed websites that haven't changed their mind about mccain, and have run articles about how he doesn't deserve to be remembered as a hero.

[Dim Bulb]

we are

I'm glad you think we are, because I'm starting to wonder.

The person who can win the next election for POTUS is the one that can appeal to our discernment and our intelligence and look at Trump and the hate on both sides as if it were in a petri dish and explain to us that isn't who we really are. Hard to do, but that's what it'll take. Someone has to appeal to the "better angels of nature." (I said that to a friend of mine who is pretty right wing and he said that sounded like an Obama snowflake bullshit line. It was too good to be true. When I told him it was a Republican, he told me I was lying. When I told him it was Lincoln, he said, "well times have changed.") Times might have indeed changed, but people have not (like Og!)

[Dim Bulb]

I've been trying to combine "Og" and "slag"

PS - And my main point remains that the demographic that voted for McCain due in any part to Palin (and then for Trump) has been a foregone conclusion for the right since Og.

"slog?"

I agree with you but there are a small percentage of swing voters out there. I think Trump won those handily because Clinton was not an option. I think those people are swayable. I also think that the mass of Blue and Red voters, if someone appeals to their intelligence, are able to see what's what. Not saying that's easy.

[Overbrook]

Bwahahahahaha!

Why did you bother to write that all out.

You could have just instructed the reader to turn to page 89 of The Beautiful Catastrophe of Wind

[TerpEagle]

Yeah that was quite the moment when he directly confronted the woman calling Obama an Arab.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIjenjANqAk

McCain's biggest mistake IMO was his selection of a running mate. My immediate thought at the moment of that announcement was "Oh No".

How low is the bar that a politician telling someone that their opponent is a family man is "quite a statement"?

[Dim Bulb]

Is that the bit where the guy does the thing

Why did you bother to write that all out.

You could have just instructed the reader to turn to page 89 of The Beautiful Catastrophe of Wind

with the other guy at that place? I can't remember. You old goat. I'm going to surgery again today to take the screws outta my ankle. Another week on crutches then another two in the boot. Fuck.