Current or modern politics in the United States

[hound dog]

Originally Posted by Brian249x

The United States is increasingly resembling several other democratic republics: the German Democratic Republic, The People's Republic of China, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

No argument from me here. And one of the first rule's in those other republic's was the suppression of the press and free speech, when that speech differs from the message those in power want to push. No sitting president, until now, has ever attacked the press or tried to inhibit the speech of opposing viewpoints as president Trump and the current administration are doing.

Originally Posted by xyzde69

It seems that the strongest party in the US is the Abstention's one with 45.8%... That's huge.
How would it be possible to make American people more implicated by the politic of their country?

Disillusionment is hard to overcome. Real and positive results, seem to me, to be the only way of restoring lost faith. Actions, until this presidency, have always spoken louder than words. I would start with complete publicly funded campaign budget's, no private donations from individuals or companies/corporations, unions, or other organizations who exist solely to promote any particular ideology. I also think that all elected official's finances, (exactly how they made their money and who from), are required to be publicly released and subject to public scrutiny before one can run for office. Until then we'll always have self-serving con artists using their public office's to profit from. That's how most of our politician's are accumulating their personal wealth, from insider trading based upon restricted, (not known to the general public, yet), information and cronyism, (scratch my back by supporting or not supporting bills that affect my ability to make a profit and I'll scratch yours by funneling cash into your reelection campaign treasure horde).

[Puhbear69]

Originally Posted by xyzde69

An Anti-Hillary Vote with 3 millions votes more than the "Toupee".

Honestly... If Trump would have had 3 millions voters more than Hillary and due to the states that would have voted for him, he would have lost the elections, I'd have considered this as the greatest injustice in the world. Even if I would not like him.

[...].

Not the majority of the voters does count in the US-presidential vote, the majority of the electors of the single countries does count !!

[Rogerbh]

The Electoral College was not a surprise.

The "Battleground" states were not unknown.

Bill Clinton warned his wife that she was making a mistake. She chose to ignore him, probably part of her plan to ignore him for her entire presidency. She bought a house next to the White House to help her prepare to move in. She was so completely overconfident that she had a hard time accepting reality.

Kinda funny that so many others are also still not accepting it.

The idiot won because enough people hated Hillary. She should have learned from Al Gore, if you don't win the Electoral College, you don't become POTUS.

[Arturo2nd]

There is a lot of mythologizing about the U.S. Constitution. The founders had well learned the lessons of history and did a good job of distributing power. That they were not perfect is illustrated by the fact that they failed to anticipate and provide for the emergence of political parties despite the fact parties and factions were known to exist in all previous attempts at elective governments, were discussed during the convention, and were emerging at the convention. They also failed to foresee that the compromises made to allow for the continuation of slavery would lead to an extremely violent civil war in less than a century.

Majority rule has been the fundamental agreement underpinning democratic and republican governments since their inception. The fact that a party that has received fewer total votes in both the congressional and presidential elections has been able to claim power for decades and pack the courts with its ideologues is a clear sign that our design is flawed. Since it is quite clear that the wealthy and their political lackeys have no intention of correcting these flaws, it would appear that resentment will fester in the disadvantaged majority until violence and disorder overwhelm the society and force changes.

I will soon be 69 years old and had rather hoped to be gone before things collapsed. However, I keep reading that Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security will place the government in financial crisis at sometime in the next 5 to 15 years. (If Wall Street doesn't screw up again and wreck the global economy first.) McConnell, Ryan, and Trump are feverishly working on a tax "reform" package that projects to accelerate the growth of treasury debt. Mom just passed away at the age of 90, but Dad is doing quite well for a 92 year old man. (Not that most men live that long.) It really looks like my plans are to be thwarted. I hate it when that happens.

[TheBare]

Looks like a lot of people don't understand the reasons for the electoral college

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the...-matters-18331

http://www.historycentral.com/electi...collgewhy.html

http://www.factcheck.org/2008/02/the...toral-college/

[LadyLuck]

Originally Posted by TheBare

Looks like a lot of people don't understand the reasons for the electoral college

Nor do they understand that there is a very fine line between majority rule and mob rule.

[hound dog]

Originally Posted by LadyLuck

Nor do they understand that there is a very fine line between majority rule and mob rule.

Our president seems to like mob rule. Why else does he keep stirring up racial divide's and instilling more ethnic hate, by promoting nativism, repeating fake news as truth, and constantly lying?

[Puhbear69]

Originally Posted by hound dog

Our president seems to like mob rule. Why else does he keep stirring up racial divide's and instilling more ethnic hate, by promoting nativism, repeating fake news as truth, and constantly lying?

That's a product of his status of health respectively his mental condition, IMHO.

[hound dog]

Originally Posted by Puhbear69

That's a product of his status of health respectively his mental condition, IMHO.

I agree it's a product of his mental makeup. Whatever the cause is, the effect is dividing this country. I saw what was happening to the country during the late 60's to early 70's during the Viet Nam war and civil rights movement, I was born in '61. I lived in Ohio when Kent State happened, and my family was driving from Mobile, Alabama back to Cincinnati when the race riots began in Selma. The divides today remind me of then, and how I imagine emotions were running just prior to and during the Civil War.

We've been fighting wars for a long time now, racism is still something we struggle mightily with as a society. The hate and vitriol only continues to divide us further. As president, Trump should be using his office as a means of uniting, but he doesn't seem capable of it. To me, his constantly having to respond to _every_ perceived slight or criticism is greatly contributing to the problem. I would rather that the president acted like an adult and rose above it, ignoring the insults and concentrating on actually doing the job of running the country. Results will speak for themselves. But he's really had no results to speak of that he can claim as his own. That's not meant to be a stinging criticism, he hasn't been in office a year yet, but still his time in office so far is rather lack luster when compared to other president's accomplishments in their first year. A lack of real results coupled with his very real ability to divide rather than unite, or even seem to attempt to unite, (the only time president Trump appeared to me to be attempting to unite the country was when he said that some of the white extremist protesters in Charlottesville were good people too) and I don't see things getting any better for the remainder of his term. Blame who you want for this, the president himself, or critical liberal's, the result will still be the same, a continued division and subdivision within the country.

Donald Trump does not like to lose, I think we can all agree on that. I think he's going to pull an LBJ before 2020 and decide to not seek reelection. Not because he doesn't want to have two terms on his resume', he wants those two terms now more than ever, thinking of a one term president as a loser, but because he wont have the support to win the republican nomination, and will be able to say he chose not to seek reelection rather than face losing the nomination.

[hound dog]

Regarding the current outrage over athlete's kneeling during the national anthem, Colin Kaeperknick made it crystal clear what he was protesting. That is, what he saw to be the continued alarming, even escalating, rate of unarmed black men being killed during confrontations with law enforcement. He chose to kneel rather than sit, after meeting with a veteran and listening to his thoughts on CK's protest, wanting to demonstrate that it was NOT meant to denigrate those who served in the military defending our nation when called upon to do so, but point the spotlight on the many instances of abusive violence against people of color by a police officer in uniform, a patch of the U.S. flag on their sleeve. Actions that have almost no consequence for the involved officer themselves. These questionable instances usually result in paid leave for the officer followed by a return to duty.

It's not a political protest, it's a social protest. It's only target being the perceived social injustice. The politicization started with the president, and has since been enthusiastically adopted by his supporters. It's my opinion that this politicizing of a non-political issue has blown this very mild form of protest, based on a legitimate, valid concern, out of all proportion. It has changed the focus from CK's perceived social injustice to one of perceived patriotism in general, and has eclipsed the very real issue that was being protested in the first place. Appearances are more important than a concerning social issue. Very sad.