[Edit:] I'm getting off-topic from Trump's wall. I'll just point out Trump did worse with whites than Romney, and better with every other ethnicity, and better with women than Romney. Hillary did worse in every category, compared to Obama.

[Edit:] I'm getting off-topic from Trump's wall. I'll just point out Trump did worse with whites than Romney, and better with every other ethnicity, and better with women than Romney. Hillary did worse in every category, compared to Obama.

I would say that some of that is also due to lower turnout amongst blacks in urban areas. Minorities didn't differ by that much from the margins that Obama had. That's more because Hillary was unable to fire up the base than anything else.

And yea, Gian-Reto has a possibility, the racists coming out argument could probably be best attributed to no leader to rally behind. Romney and McCain couldn't even remotely be called racist, nor was any of their rhetoric racist. Trump did appeal to racists (if he is racist himself or not, that I leave to you, I personally think yes, however).

Moreover, voting for a black man doesn't mean that one cannot be resentful of immigrants and globalization (the two go hand in hand, tbh).

In any case, as I said, it doesn't matter, because:

a): My guess is as good as any

b): I'm still more worried about the next 4 years than the why Trump got elected

And as far as the wall goes....now that he's going to put that asshole Steve Bannon, a well known white nationalist and racist, on a position...it's pretty tough to say what the hell Trump will do. Thing is that it's still pretty damned tough to build a goddamn wall.

Really neat little trick.

*EDIT* This was posted in the wrong thread, but I find it humorous in context, so I'll leave it here as well *EDIT*

Fewer people voted this election in general than last election.

For some reason there's been a lot of occasionally contradictory hype about voter turnout in this election, but this statement at least seems unambiguously false.

The voter turnout went down slightly relative to 2012 (from about 58.6% to somewhere still slightly above 58% according to the most current data at http://www.electproject.org/ which is the source cited by almost all of the headlines I've seen) but the number of eligible voters increased by enough that there's really no question that more people voted, at least in an absolute sense.

now that he's going to put that asshole Steve Bannon, a well known white nationalist and racist, on a position...it's pretty tough to say what the hell Trump will do

Which one is better, a white supremacist like Steve Bannon or a 'civil right leader' like Al Sharpton?

I think the reason Trump could thrive in the American politics or even get elected is not because Americans are down-right racist to the core. During the Obama administration, there was obvious favorable treatment toward the BLM movement. Not just that, the police were branded as criminals for their killings that it becomes dangerous just to be police officers. I am not justifying the killings, but a president should never favor one movement and jeopardize the other groups.

What about that Treyvon Martin "he could've been my son" speech?

What about the incident with the Southern flags, which had been no problem this whole decades then one day suddenly became a major issue? (and now nobody's talking about it anymore!).

Ever thought that perhaps one contributing factor to Trump's victory is not because of Trump or racism, but because Obama had not been a fair president that now the pendulum just has to swing to the other side?

now that he's going to put that asshole Steve Bannon, a well known white nationalist and racist, on a position...it's pretty tough to say what the hell Trump will do

Which one is better, a white supremacist like Steve Bannon or a 'civil right leader' like Al Sharpton?

I think the reason Trump could thrive in the American politics or even get elected is not because Americans are down-right racist to the core. During the Obama administration, there was obvious favorable treatment toward the BLM movement. Not just that, the police were branded as criminals for their killings that it becomes dangerous just to be police officers. I am not justifying the killings, but a president should never favor one movement and jeopardize the other groups.

What about that Treyvon Martin "he could've been my son" speech?

What about the incident with the Southern flags, which had been no problem this whole decades then one day suddenly became a major issue? (and now nobody's talking about it anymore!).

Ever thought that perhaps one contributing factor to Trump's victory is not because of Trump or racism, but because Obama had not been a fair president that now the pendulum just has to swing to the other side?

I'm not really a radical activist for anything, but the fact remains that Bannon is not the answer. You want someone who's levelheaded and in the center, not an extremist.

Confederate flags have been an issue for a bit, it's just that they were never really given voice. The Southern flags are an issue because of what the Confederacy represented to many people. It's not a Southern heritage thing, it's genuinely offensive because of the Confederate support of slavery, which was a reprehensible practice. If you think that's not fair, then, well, that's the way people think though. I mean, look at how swastikas are ostracized and used by right wing nut jobs only, when in fact it's actually a fairly prominent Hindu symbol (which you'd see literally everywhere in India should you go there) and not remotely representative of hate. Yet swastikas are considered a symbol of hate by many.

I would agree actually that it's possibly an extreme response to what many saw as extremism under Obama in some ways. That being said, none of us really know what went down. A lot of it is pure speculation.

Fewer people voted this election in general than last election.

For some reason there's been a lot of occasionally contradictory hype about voter turnout in this election, but this statement at least seems unambiguously false.

The voter turnout went down slightly relative to 2012 (from about 58.6% to somewhere still slightly above 58% according to the most current data at http://www.electproject.org/ which is the source cited by almost all of the headlines I've seen) but the number of eligible voters increased by enough that there's really no question that more people voted, at least in an absolute sense.

I've found so much unreliable post-election statistics, so that doesn't surprise me. I saw several different articles say "voter turnout" was "lower" (and the phrasings made me think significantly lower). Thanks for the correction! :)

Honest question to the guys that downplayed the fears that Trump would make true of some or most of his promises (which given the rampant fears some people have about the future might not have been the worst stance):

What do YOU make of the new members of Trumps Staff? Still thinking that we will get a more liberal, less racist and extreme Trump than what we got during the campaign?

Do you think he can really keep all these guys under control once he filled most of the positions with them? What is the chance that they actually, you know, are able to work together given that a) they seem all to fit into the extreme right, but with different flavours (thus different goals most probably), b) some of them seem to have little expierience in politics, and c) seemingly Trump loves to have his subordinates in constant battle to make sure he keeps the control?

Interested how you guys see that. Given that you might not care too much about racism and think liberal ideas are damaging the US I understand that you are not so much in a fuss about the general rightwing tendencies, but I guess even a rightwing voter might be a little bit worried about how Trump seems to forgoe the republican regulars (thus potentially provoking the party and causing a fight between the Trump fellows and the republican politicians), how he seems to fill his ranks with potentially VERY controversial people (and no matter how you see racism, more police violence and street riots is probably not what you want), and how he seems to already do things his own way.

Guess the decision on the Wall is still out, haven't seen him call a "magician" into his ranks to help build the impossible ;)

Maybe he finds out making whole border minefield costs less and good for local Acme Anti-Personnel Mine Company, so et voila.