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[Neonivek]

It was a White Cis Gendered Male versus a Woman.
A Man who is a business "expert" who is known for being incredibly rich Versus a Career Politician
A Slogan driven populist candidate who dominated the news... Versus A serious minded politician.

Trump isn't a anomaly but a product.

The USA was bound to get a Trump eventually. Someone who had no business in politics.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It was just a bad year for Presidents in general, really.

In 2000 we had two low-key fanatics, in 2004 "Low-key Fanatic" and "Boringly indistinct", in 2008 we had an upswing with two respectable candidates, followed in 2012 by "respectable" and "I'm literally going to die of boredom", which was bad but at least an easy choice.

And then came 2016, where we were given a choice between "I'm literally going to die of boredom" and "What the actual fuck?". There's...not really anywhere to go down besides two WTF candidates for all eternity...hopefully we'll rebound instead.

[misko27]

It was just a bad year for Presidents in general, really.

In 2000 we had two low-key fanatics, in 2004 "Low-key Fanatic" and "Boringly indistinct", in 2008 we had an upswing with two respectable candidates, followed by "respectable" and "I'm literally going to die of boredom", which was bad but at least an easy choice.

And then came 2016, where we were given a choice between "I'm literally going to die of boredom" and "What the actual fuck?". There's...not really anywhere to go down besides two WTF candidates for all eternity...hopefully we'll rebound instead.

I don't (just) mean in terms of candidates, I mean in terms of their behavior as President. What if Kanye West ran and won? If he acted like Ahnold did, he'd be ok; if he took cues from Trump, we could actually be looking at a mortal, if insidious, threat to the American experiment.

[Pwnzerfaust]

Cis

Why not just say "normal"?

[Frumple]

And unironically preferring incompetence to malevolence will face a rude awakening when a big crisis occurs. Every modern President has faced a few: The Arab Spring, the Financial Meltdown, Katrina & Sandy, the fall of the Eastern Bloc, the Iranian Revolution or any other unpredictable massive crisis (and, of course, 9/11).

Estimated to be somewhere between 2018 and 2020, actually, if you're looking for something basically guaranteed. We're due for a recession.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It was just a bad year for Presidents in general, really.

In 2000 we had two low-key fanatics, in 2004 "Low-key Fanatic" and "Boringly indistinct", in 2008 we had an upswing with two respectable candidates, followed by "respectable" and "I'm literally going to die of boredom", which was bad but at least an easy choice.

And then came 2016, where we were given a choice between "I'm literally going to die of boredom" and "What the actual fuck?". There's...not really anywhere to go down besides two WTF candidates for all eternity...hopefully we'll rebound instead.

I don't (just) mean in terms of candidates, I mean in terms of their behavior as President. What if Kanye West ran and won? If he acted like Ahnold did, he'd be ok; if he took cues from Trump, we could actually be looking at a mortal, if insidious, threat to the American experiment.

At least the way it's going now it doesn't seem like that'll be the takeaway. Some people might try to ape Trump's campaign trail act, but I don't see anybody aping his administration. You basically have Republicans running a 24/7 PR train over everything that's wrong with it, and people still hate it.

And fuck, we're still early. It's like you said, eventually there's going to be a real crisis, and then people won't really have a choice but to judge Trump directly.

[Neonivek]

Cis

Why not just say "normal"?

That implies that other people are abnormal. In what way are people who are not cis gendered not normal? Because they are less common?

[Lord Shonus]

If anything, the reverse is more likely. If you look at the post-Nixon Presidential elections, you'll see that honesty and integrity (or at least the appearance thereof) were critical factors. Carter won election almost entirely on his personal morality, Regan championed the Moral Majority, both Bushes deliberately courted the "kindly, trustworthy old uncle" image. The correlation is weaker with Clinton and Obama, but still there - note that the only successful attack against Clinton was built around personal morality rather than policy, even after his approval rating mysteriously tanked after he pushed the assault weapon ban through.

[smjjames]

I mean, is he the first ever president to institute an executive order that was found unconstitutional afterward?

Obama had a couple stuff knocked down in the courts (mainly ACA related), but I don't know about unconstitutional.

E: Oh, though there is at least one thing that's pretty damn unusual. Trump's not actually divested himself of his previous business connections, so far as anyone seems able to tell.

E2: Amusingly enough, apparently Nixon was the last one to really trip over that, too, ha.

I didn't know that Nixon hadn't divested himself of whatever stuff he had, at least it wasn't the issue of the day anyhow.

@MSH: You make it sound like it hasn't been a so great two decades for Presidents, but yeah, Bush comes off as brilliant compared to Trump, and at least was able to own up to mistakes and not rant all over.

And unironically preferring incompetence to malevolence will face a rude awakening when a big crisis occurs. Every modern President has faced a few: The Arab Spring, the Financial Meltdown, Katrina & Sandy, the fall of the Eastern Bloc, the Iranian Revolution or any other unpredictable massive crisis (and, of course, 9/11).

Estimated to be somewhere between 2018 and 2020, actually, if you're looking for something basically guaranteed. We're due for a recession.

Yeah, that's the one inevitable thing for Presidents since WWII (actually, since ever), they'll face at least one major crisis during their term, and modern Presidents often have at least one per year due to everything going on in the world.

I don't know if we're due for a recession or not, the economy has kind of been coasting along recently and the momentum from coming off the Obama years is still going, but it definetly won't last.

[Neonivek]

If anything, the reverse is more likely. If you look at the post-Nixon Presidential elections, you'll see that honesty and integrity (or at least the appearance thereof) were critical factors. Carter won election almost entirely on his personal morality, Regan championed the Moral Majority, both Bushes deliberately courted the "kindly, trustworthy old uncle" image. The correlation is weaker with Clinton and Obama, but still there - note that the only successful attack against Clinton was built around personal morality rather than policy, even after his approval rating mysteriously tanked after he pushed the assault weapon ban through.

Remember that Trump isn't a politician and his... Business activities are less known.

So he is essentially "Not corrupt"

I mean nevermind his shady and immoral business practices (many of which are illegal or have been patched up)... But that wasn't politics.

[smjjames]

If anything, the reverse is more likely. If you look at the post-Nixon Presidential elections, you'll see that honesty and integrity (or at least the appearance thereof) were critical factors. Carter won election almost entirely on his personal morality, Regan championed the Moral Majority, both Bushes deliberately courted the "kindly, trustworthy old uncle" image. The correlation is weaker with Clinton and Obama, but still there - note that the only successful attack against Clinton was built around personal morality rather than policy, even after his approval rating mysteriously tanked after he pushed the assault weapon ban through.

Remember that Trump isn't a politician and his... Business activities are less known.

So he is essentially "Not corrupt"

I mean nevermind his shady and immoral business practices (many of which are illegal or have been patched up)... But that wasn't politics.

Businesses can also suffer from corruption.... it's not limited to politics.

Also, while Trump handled yesterdays issue the normal way, it's not a MAJOR MAJOR crisis. It's a patchy silver lining, but still....

[Neonivek]

Businesses can also suffer from corruption.... it's not limited to politics.

Business corrupt doesn't count for the political realm as far as the public is concerned.

How many times did people criticize George Bush for his shady business practices in terms of going to office?

I know Hillary was but
A) She is a woman, thus anything she does is 10 times worse than if a man did it.
B) It was related to politics because it was political speeches.

[smjjames]

Businesses can also suffer from corruption.... it's not limited to politics.

Business corrupt doesn't count for the political realm as far as the public is concerned.

How many times did people criticize George Bush for his shady business practices in terms of going to office?

I know Hillary was but
A) She is a woman, thus anything she does is 10 times worse than if a man did it.
B) It was related to politics because it was political speeches.

Which Bush? George H. W. Bush or George W. Bush? I don't remember George W. Bush's business stuff coming up as an issue, at least it wasn't a major topic. And it seemed more like the Hillary thing wasn't because she is a woman, but because she is a Clinton.

[Frumple]

... in other news, news seems to be saying the criminal investigation into trump has officially begun. Could be some fun times ahead.

[NullForceOmega]

Cis

Why not just say "normal"?

That implies that other people are abnormal. In what way are people who are not cis gendered not normal? Because they are less common?

Because it's asinine labeling and that is what we're supposed to be getting rid of.  It's also being improperly used by an extremely small vocal minority to create an us vs. them mentality.  It and all other such labels should burn in perpetuity for what they represent.

Hell, your own statement can be easily construed as claiming that heterosexuals are 'abnormal' because they need a modifier attached to them.