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[hector13]

Trump isn't even the president yet, and already he's a bad president?

[PTTG??]

So people have been talking about whether Trump is racist, or overtly racist, or blatantly racist, or pandering to racists, or preferred by racists. I'm not sure what I think, but I know one thing - it doesn't matter.

"What?!" Yep. I don't care if a candidate is a dick (which Trump totally is). It's only their policies (and their image/diplomatic style; they do represent America, and I'd rather not have a war) that matter.

Take, for instance, Jefferson. Jefferson was a dick, AFAIK. He was also pretty damn good at politicking. If we'd thrown him out because he was a dick, we would have lost who knows how much of the Declaration.

Imagine if your favorite candidate was a dick. (Sanders, that veteran woman from Hawaii, dream-candidate who agrees with you on everything, whatever.) What would you say if people screamed "he's/she's a dick!!!" Would you say "it doesn't matter, his/her policies are the absolute best!" I bet you would.

Trump is still an awful president. His policies and image look to be awful, and he's incompetent.

Trump is still an awful person. If he were my friend, I'd get him out of my life posthaste.

But do those two necessarily correlate?

His dickishness has a direct impact on his policies. For instance, because he thinks black people are criminals, he doesn't have a problem with stop-and-frisk. Because he thinks women are sex objects and nothing more, he'll side with Pence.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I love how utterly direct they are about putting the nation's current most notorious Black Republican as the head of Housing and Urban Development.

I think Ben would rather be Surgeon General though, if you know what I'm sayin'.

-

Nobody is suggesting Trump is a bad President because he's a dick. However, it is worse to have someone who is both a bad hombre President and a dick. Ideally you want someone who's a total bare-faced paragon, who understands practical means but uses them for ideal ends and is liked for that reason. In some ways, Obama fits this mold (I've never even heard a rumor of him being personally unpleasant, Fox News hysteria aside).

Being a dick isn't utterly destructive to politics, but it does have an effect, especially if you're such an unrepentant asshole that it overcomes your practical professionalism and nobody wants to be around you. Almost the entire White House staff are choosing to quit rather than work for Trump, and that's not something the Trump administrators want to happen either. Trump is so unpleasantly like your low-key-high-key racist grandfather who feels up the IHOP waitress that it has a meaningful effect on international diplomacy.

There was at one point a period where the personal endearment between JFK and Nikita Khrushchev probably saved the human race from nuclear annihilation. Trump is never going to make that kind of connection even if he proves more practical than he lets on. Trump's nature as involved in racist politics, to whatever degree, will also effect this.

Most of our discussions about Trump's racism have also been more about electoral consequences rather than personal dislike.

Trump isn't even the president yet, and already he's a bad president?

-Broke diplomatic protocol
-Met with major media figures to ream and threaten them
-Refuses to take his daily briefings most of the time
-Publicly declared flag-burners should be imprisoned and lose citizenship
-Literally everything about his transition team

Fine, he's not a bad President yet. He's a bad President-elect, a job that shouldn't typically need to be judged but in this case totally is.

[Shadowlord]

So people have been talking about whether Trump is racist, or overtly racist, or blatantly racist, or pandering to racists, or preferred by racists. I'm not sure what I think, but I know one thing - it doesn't matter.

"What?!" Yep. I don't care if a candidate is a dick (which Trump totally is). It's only their policies (and their image/diplomatic style; they do represent America, and I'd rather not have a war) that matter.

Take, for instance, Jefferson. Jefferson was a dick, AFAIK. He was also pretty damn good at politicking. If we'd thrown him out because he was a dick, we would have lost who knows how much of the Declaration.

Imagine if your favorite candidate was a dick. (Sanders, that veteran woman from Hawaii, dream-candidate who agrees with you on everything, whatever.) What would you say if people screamed "he's/she's a dick!!!" Would you say "it doesn't matter, his/her policies are the absolute best!" I bet you would.

Trump is still an awful president. His policies and image look to be awful, and he's incompetent.

Trump is still an awful person. If he were my friend, I'd get him out of my life posthaste.

But do those two necessarily correlate?

Even a broken clock is right twice a day in America.

P.S. The news said that Tulsi Gabbard is pro-Trump. I like people who aren't pro-Trump.

[smjjames]

So people have been talking about whether Trump is racist, or overtly racist, or blatantly racist, or pandering to racists, or preferred by racists. I'm not sure what I think, but I know one thing - it doesn't matter.

"What?!" Yep. I don't care if a candidate is a dick (which Trump totally is). It's only their policies (and their image/diplomatic style; they do represent America, and I'd rather not have a war) that matter.

Take, for instance, Jefferson. Jefferson was a dick, AFAIK. He was also pretty damn good at politicking. If we'd thrown him out because he was a dick, we would have lost who knows how much of the Declaration.

Imagine if your favorite candidate was a dick. (Sanders, that veteran woman from Hawaii, dream-candidate who agrees with you on everything, whatever.) What would you say if people screamed "he's/she's a dick!!!" Would you say "it doesn't matter, his/her policies are the absolute best!" I bet you would.

Trump is still an awful president. His policies and image look to be awful, and he's incompetent.

Trump is still an awful person. If he were my friend, I'd get him out of my life posthaste.

But do those two necessarily correlate?

Source that he was a dick to his contemporaries?

Sure, the whole Native American tribe removal from the Louisiana territory makes him a dick to us and definetly to the Native Americans at the time, but you have to look at it in a historical lens.

@MSH: Come on, he's not the first president or politician to ream and complain about the media. The rest I agree with you on though.

P.S. The news said that Tulsi Gabbard is pro-Trump. I like people who aren't pro-Trump.

I read it as trying to reach across the aisle, not neccesarily that she's pro-Trump.

[Max™]

I've said before that Gabbard was doing this because she is, ya know, not a moron, and recognizes that getting in good with Trump can provide a way to direct him away from certain policies and towards others.

In other news, read this, then see if you can guess who wrote it without googling the text or whatnot.

When government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent. Meanwhile, the invisible hand that best orchestrates a free people’s free enterprise system gets amputated. Then, special interests creep in and manipulate markets. Republicans oppose this, remember? Instead, we support competition on a level playing field, remember? Because we know special interest crony capitalism is one big fail.

Got a guess in mind? Post it before going through the hoops here:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Not quite yet!

[smjjames]

My guess on that quote:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm gonna say Trump, this is the kind of thing he ran on. I was going to say Palin, but it doesn't quite sound like her.

Those rogue electors are starting to organize (more). I've also heard rumors about 15 additional electors, so, expect the unexpected on the 19th. There are only eight, maybe nine, that have publiclily said that they won't vote for Trump.

[Max™]

My guess on that quote:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm gonna say Trump, this is the kind of thing he ran on. I was going to say Palin, but it doesn't quite sound like her.

Well, you were right about Palin and yeah I was shocked about that too.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://qz.com/852387/trump-carrier-deal-inconsistent-unfair-illogical-sarah-palins-warning-about-donald-trumps-carrier-deal/

[smjjames]

My guess on that quote:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm gonna say Trump, this is the kind of thing he ran on. I was going to say Palin, but it doesn't quite sound like her.

Well, you were right about Palin and yeah I was shocked about that too.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://qz.com/852387/trump-carrier-deal-inconsistent-unfair-illogical-sarah-palins-warning-about-donald-trumps-carrier-deal/

Dang, my initial guess was correct, then I thought for a second and it didn't quite sound like Palin, but I knew she had spoken out against the deal.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

So people have been talking about whether Trump is racist, or overtly racist, or blatantly racist, or pandering to racists, or preferred by racists. I'm not sure what I think, but I know one thing - it doesn't matter.

"What?!" Yep. I don't care if a candidate is a dick (which Trump totally is). It's only their policies (and their image/diplomatic style; they do represent America, and I'd rather not have a war) that matter.

Take, for instance, Jefferson. Jefferson was a dick, AFAIK. He was also pretty damn good at politicking. If we'd thrown him out because he was a dick, we would have lost who knows how much of the Declaration.

Imagine if your favorite candidate was a dick. (Sanders, that veteran woman from Hawaii, dream-candidate who agrees with you on everything, whatever.) What would you say if people screamed "he's/she's a dick!!!" Would you say "it doesn't matter, his/her policies are the absolute best!" I bet you would.

Trump is still an awful president. His policies and image look to be awful, and he's incompetent.

Trump is still an awful person. If he were my friend, I'd get him out of my life posthaste.

But do those two necessarily correlate?

Even a broken clock is right twice a day in America.

Who's the broken clock...? Trump? Me? (better not be me)

[Shadowlord]

It sounds just like her style of folksy-sounding nonsense, it you ask me. (too late to guess now, someone put her name in non-SPOILERed text)

Doze: Trump, etc

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

So people have been talking about whether Trump is racist, or overtly racist, or blatantly racist, or pandering to racists, or preferred by racists. I'm not sure what I think, but I know one thing - it doesn't matter.

"What?!" Yep. I don't care if a candidate is a dick (which Trump totally is). It's only their policies (and their image/diplomatic style; they do represent America, and I'd rather not have a war) that matter.

Take, for instance, Jefferson. Jefferson was a dick, AFAIK. He was also pretty damn good at politicking. If we'd thrown him out because he was a dick, we would have lost who knows how much of the Declaration.

Imagine if your favorite candidate was a dick. (Sanders, that veteran woman from Hawaii, dream-candidate who agrees with you on everything, whatever.) What would you say if people screamed "he's/she's a dick!!!" Would you say "it doesn't matter, his/her policies are the absolute best!" I bet you would.

Trump is still an awful president. His policies and image look to be awful, and he's incompetent.

Trump is still an awful person. If he were my friend, I'd get him out of my life posthaste.

But do those two necessarily correlate?

Source that he was a dick to his contemporaries?

Sure, the whole Native American tribe removal from the Louisiana territory makes him a dick to us and definetly to the Native Americans at the time, but you have to look at it in a historical lens.

He was ♫raaaacist as fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck♪

(I imagined that part as being sung, so of course I have to do this)

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

It sounds just like her style of folksy-sounding nonsense, it you ask me. (too late to guess now, someone put her name in non-SPOILERed text)

Doze: Trump, etc

How is he "right"?

[Shadowlord]

This is a bad time to ask me to remember. :V

P.S. I don't actually remember what I meant when I wrote that post. Migraine killed my memory. So I was just guessing. 

[Neonivek]

But do those two necessarily correlate?

They certainly can.

The reason someone can be a total jerk but still be a president depends on WHY they are a dick.

Because what a coincidence, the reason Trump so far isn't a very good president are the same reasons why he is a dick.

Now if he was a jerk who was completely unsympathetic towards other people... But was hypercompetent and gets things done. THAT is the Jerk you want as president.