Will you be watching the inauguration tomorrow?

[Lipstick Vogue]

Any American who at all cares about the future of their country should be watching this. The "not my president!!!!!!" nonsense is a) objectively wrong and b) the opposite of helpful. If you have an issue with something, the first thing you should do is learn about it and what it means (i.e. listen to Trump and his plans) and then, if you still have the issue, you're in a better and more informed place to do something about it. Don't bury your heads in the sand because you're unhappy with the result. If you have an issue with Trump, it's your responsibility to follow his presidency closely, imo to an even greater extent than his own supporters.

You could do that or you could go out onto Washington streets and smash stuff.

Edit - Bloody hell, Donald. You already won, you can stop promising this stuff now.

 

[SirBoglor]

Any American who at all cares about the future of their country should be watching this. The "not my president!!!!!!" nonsense is a) objectively wrong and b) the opposite of helpful. If you have an issue with something, the first thing you should do is learn about it and what it means (i.e. listen to Trump and his plans) and then, if you still have the issue, you're in a better and more informed place to do something about it. Don't bury your heads in the sand because you're unhappy with the result. If you have an issue with Trump, it's your responsibility to follow his presidency closely, imo to an even greater extent than his own supporters.

Most of the people who get sick to their stomach from thinking about the carrot man already know his intentions. Anti-Trumps followers aren't uneducated about him and the whole situation (at least, most aren't.) And I'm definitely going to see what crap he says. I just know that most of it is going to be "blah, make America great again, blah, Russia, blah, Muslims, blah, I'm the greatest." I'm just going to watch the recaps, so I can cut out the propaganda nonsense and hear the actual valid things he says.

Plus, it drives me insane when many of the same people who get annoyed about "not my president" are also the ones who have been screaming "Impeach the Muslim leader Obama!" for the past eight years. Not accusing you of that or anything silly like that, just a thought.

Regardless, I hope that the country can find a little unity in the future. Because I doubt that unity will be today's theme.

 

[Nah]

So it's basically over now, or at least the important part is.

Pretty much what his speech was about what I believe was a core message in his campaign: that for some time now the American people have basically been completely screwed over by the government and the 1%, who don't seem to ever be working towards actual solutions for anything and have forgotten that a nation is meant to serve its people, that America has become overly interested in other countries at the expense of itself, and that the country needs to unite and people need to understand that at the end of the day we're all human beings.

All of those things are true, and honestly, regardless of what you think of the man or any of the political parties or anything about this country really, not a bad message at all. There were a few specific things said that I did not agree with, like the stuff about American industry and factories, or all the Christian references, but it's not like I was expecting to agree with everything he was gonna say anyway.

But now the question is, can he actually deliver? Does he even believe half of what he says? What about other potential issues regarding Trump (y'know, like the racism and sexism stuff)? Are we really heading towards a great new America, or hell on earth? Most people already feel they know the answers to those questions, but now we'll see if it plays out that way or what.

Also, yes, he did say his slogan.

p.s. I'm not a Trump supporter just in case you thought that cuz I'm sure somebody would think that for some reason

 

[Alex]

I watched it. The speech was pretty critical of past government and a lot like his campaign speeches, promising change and attacking the establishment. Overall, not much different from what you'd expect.

 

[EC]

It's time for everyone on all sides to get to work then. These violent protests make me sad though. Protest, sure. Quit smashing stuff.

Like Starbucks.

 

[Somewhere_]

so i ended up watching it at school. too bad the speech wasnt specific. Just a feel good speech, and im not a fan of feel good speeches.

I like speeches that call to action and lay forth a plan. Feel good speeches are useless and pointless.

But I guess thats all the inauguration address is usually..

 

[Alex]

so i ended up watching it at school. too bad the speech wasnt specific. Just a feel good speech, and im not a fan of feel good speeches.

I like speeches that call to action and lay forth a plan. Feel good speeches are useless and pointless.

But I guess thats all the inauguration address is usually..

I wouldn't call it a feel good speech. He criticized past government a ton, talked about how badly America is doing. How weak America is. How their wealth has been taken away and distributed to foreign nations. How the establishment has done nothing but serve and protect itself. Sure, he ended on a hopeful note. But I wouldn't call it a feel good speech by any means.

 

[EC]

Actions speak louder than words anyway.

 

[Somewhere_]

I wouldn't call it a feel good speech. He criticized past government a ton, talked about how badly America is doing. How weak America is. How their wealth has been taken away and distributed to foreign nations. How the establishment has done nothing but serve and protect itself. Sure, he ended on a hopeful note. But I wouldn't call it a feel good speech by any means.

I was thinking that the list of bad things was a great transition for a very strong hopeful note, thus making it a feel good, but you are probably more right.

 

[pastelspectre]

i didn't watch it and don't plan on watching any clips bc trump makes me disgusted.

 

[Aeroblast]

So who voted for Trump? *sheepishly raises hand amidst awkward stares to inevitably follow*

I wasn't exactly enthused in casting my vote for him due to his character flaws (over-exaggerated but the mainstream media but they're there nonetheless) and there are quite a lot of moments where he contradict himself. I just wanted to partake in the voting process for the first time in my life and I live in a solid blue state (MD) so my vote didn't matter much anyways. Not to mention Hillary is awful.

I didn't actually expect him to win, and like the rest I was surprised at first when he handily won the election (don't come at me with the popular vote nonsense), though reasons for his victory became more obvious as I realized that DNC and the Hillary campaign were a giant train wreck.

All that aside, not to mention I had to "spill the beans" eventually and I don't like lying (I'm not good at it anyways), of course I tuned in to what's obviously going to be one of the most important moments this year. Honestly most of the stuff was pretty boring, the constant prayer services didn't really mean anything to me because I'm an atheist - would like to learn when and why this became a thing.

To the meat of the whole thing i.e. the inaugural speech, it was pretty much what I'd expected from him based on his campaign messages by appealing to nationalism/populism and rejecting globalism and the political elite. To be honest I'm still not too enthusiastic about his chances of doing well in the WH, nevertheless I'm willing to give him a chance to fulfill his campaign promises because let's face it, he's proven a lot of people wrong already.

 

[EC]

i didn't watch it and don't plan on watching any clips bc trump makes me disgusted.

Good luck on doing that for 4-8 years.

 

[yrmrku]

So who voted for Trump? *sheepishly raises hand amidst awkward stares to inevitably follow*

I didn't, but unlike most of PC seems to be, I'm not offended just by his existence. I voted for Clinton because I'm at the bottom of the barrel so the Democratic methodology only benefits me. Though with my state going red, it's not like it mattered anyways how I voted. But yeah, if the DNC hadn't practically defecated on Democracy (funny that the party named after democracy doesn't have a shred of it in them), Trump wouldn't have won. They spat on too many Democrat faces.

That said, I don't blame anyone for voting Trump. If Clinton had won, I probably would have felt disgusted with myself for helping a true scumbag become our president. A lot of people accepted the Democratic loss and put their vote into Libertarian just to avoid the chance of that feeling of self-disgust. It was a terrible situation for pretty much everyone but the most insane of our country, and I feel they'll be disappointed when Trump's wild fantasies never happen. So really no one won.

 

[SirBoglor]

I didn't, but unlike most of PC seems to be, I'm not offended just by his existence. I voted for Clinton because I'm at the bottom of the barrel so the Democratic methodology only benefits me. Though with my state going red, it's not like it mattered anyways how I voted. But yeah, if the DNC hadn't practically defecated on Democracy (funny that the party named after democracy doesn't have a shred of it in them), Trump wouldn't have won. They spat on too many Democrat faces.

That said, I don't blame anyone for voting Trump. If Clinton had won, I probably would have felt disgusted with myself for helping a true scumbag become our president. A lot of people accepted the Democratic loss and put their vote into Libertarian just to avoid the chance of that feeling of self-disgust. It was a terrible situation for pretty much everyone but the most insane of our country, and I feel they'll be disappointed when Trump's wild fantasies never happen. So really no one won.

I honestly hated having to pick between the lesser of two evils here. I ended up going Democratic, since I disagreed with way too many of Trump's opinions, mainly being his appeal to racists and sexists. I live in the rural south, where white supremacists, LGBT haters, and men treating women like property are everywhere. So you can guess who everybody and their grandmother voted for here. I get thoroughly disgusted when I think about all of those votes of hatred. But the ones who voted out of simple disgust of modern politicians and Washington? I get that, totally. I'm never going to ridicule anyone for voting for a completely valid and just reason. I just wish that someone other than Trump had to fill that role, if you know what I mean.

I tend to blame most the Democratic loss to lack of voters from the primary, as well as the big vote. Out of the number of democrats that I know here, almost none of them supported Hillary, myself included. However, barely anyone voted during the Democratic Primary. So...what were they expecting? Hillary would just magically go away? Idk, but not voting is a large part of this mess. Also, voting third party? Can you not waste your vote? Please?

P.S. Smashing stuff for a protest is idiotic. To everyone, please don't.

 

[pastelspectre]

Good luck on doing that for 4-8 years.

i highly doubt he will be re elected lmao. he's already caused enough destruction and lies and he's spreading lies on the white house official website. it's no longer reliable. after 4 years no one will want to re elect this cheeto puff.

 

[Nihilego]

i highly doubt he will be re elected lmao. he's already caused enough destruction and lies and he's spreading lies on the white house official website. it's no longer reliable. after 4 years no one will want to re elect this cheeto puff.

i highly doubt he will be elected lmao. he's already caused enough destruction and lies and he's spreading lies on his campaign's website. it's no longer reliable. in november no one will want to elect this cheeto puff.

js. if 2016 showed us anything, it was to never assume that something nonsensical "won't" happen in politics.

 

[Alex]

i highly doubt he will be re elected lmao. he's already caused enough destruction and lies and he's spreading lies on the white house official website. it's no longer reliable. after 4 years no one will want to re elect this cheeto puff.

this type of complacency is, in part, what lost Hillary the election. I don't support Trump, but the democratic echo-chamber sounded exactly like what you're saying. Don't be so sure he can't be re-elected.

 

[Somewhere_]

Trump's election was largely reactionary I think. And lets not forget he's a right-wing populist, and populism usually has an upper hand in elections.

 

[Alex]

Trump's election was largely reactionary I think. And lets not forget he's a right-wing populist, and populism usually has an upper hand in elections.

It was very much a protest vote against the establishment. The type of passion he brought to his rallies, despite his outrageous misogyny and demagoguery, and his own blatant contradictions, was enough to get people out and vote. He spoke to their anger and discontent with the status quo and ran with it. The 2016 election should've been the independent/outsider election. It should have been Sanders vs Trump. I'd like to think Sanders would've blew Trump out of the water. Hillary was a horrible candidate, and the DNC will have to live with that for many years to come.

 

[Somewhere_]

I disagree, actually. Sanders shot himself in the foot as soon as he showed up and announced to America that he was a far-left socialist outsider running for president (essentially). As soon as the loyal democrats heard those words, he lost. Say what you want about Hillary's style of campaigning, but to the minorities, Hispanics, and African-Americans that helped her win the primaries, she chose to mirror herself in the eyes of Obama, which is what appealed to these demographics. While Sanders undeniably had a lot of momentum (surprisingly so for being a dude that showed up out of nowhere) and did a fantastic job of getting the biggest portion of his demographic (which is what, somewhere between 18-30 year olds?) involved in politics, the fact of the matter is that the very demographics that people claim would help him win against Trump didn't even show up in the primaries.

I mean, we could've had a President Sanders about now, but his message failed to deliver over Hillary's. Let's not pretend that Sanders is blameless in this situation, because he isn't. He lost very important states like Florida by a whopping 30 points and lost New York by 16 points. Those aren't measly numbers, people just weren't moved or compelled or as drawn to Sanders as they were to Clinton in these states. New Jersey even became a landslide win for Clinton, which is a state that Sanders desperately needed (along with California) to make up any sort of ground whatsoever, but he didn't.

Say what you will about the DNC conspiring to help Hillary win, but to the best of my knowledge, no DNC officials went door-to-door and forced people to vote Hillary. Her message naturally resonated towards those that were loyal to her and loyal to the party, while Bernie's fell on mostly deaf ears. He was a good speaker (a far better speaker than Hillary on all levels), but for some reason or another, failed to turn out his base (or attract any voters from Hillary's side) for the victory that he needed.

If we're going to blame Hillary for her faulty general election campaign, then it is only fair we should blame Bernie for his equally messy primary campaign. He's not flawless.

I used to think Bernie would have beaten Trump, but looking back, I doubt that. I think it would have been close... here is my reasoning:

Both Trump and Bernie were populists. Both appealed to economic fears, but Trump ALSO appealed to fear of the "others," aka the establishment, illegal immigrants, Muslims, etc. So thats +1 for Trump.

In addition, everything Trump advocates is precedented at one point or another. Bernie's Democratic Socialism is new and radical for the US. High taxes are feared by most Americans that lived through the Cold War.

Not to mention, Bernie's base of support was from young people, who disproportionately vote less than other ages.