The fact people can’t get actual dirt on the clintons says other stuff too. Either the gop are ****ty investigators or Hillary is worlds better than them at hiding stuff. In either case she is more qualified than the gop.

Or they don’t have nearly as much to hide as everyone on the right seems to think

This has been going on for years, though, at an accelerating pace. I think there's something to right wingers being more susceptible.

The fact that we had the confluence of ever more aggressive right wing media, many olds getting into social media bubbles for the first time in their lives, and Russia deciding to use this social media to wage a propaganda war, all in the year Donald ****ing Trump runs for president, is just too much. Simulation ainec.

Yes I agree. But if you go along with the right wing premise as OP does these are the other possibilities.

Yes, it does seem like a perfect storm.

And ironically some social media platforms are now experimenting with avoiding algorithm-based detection of fake news and letting users choose what is true instead, which is actually making the problem worse.

I actually don't think a democracy can survive a setting where facts are determined by preference (at this magnitude, there will always be some bias of course), so it will be interesting to see the legislative future on this issue. I'm suspecting that the recent German model of aggressively holding companies responsible will become the norm in Europe, but a) it's not like it doesn't have pitfalls or ethical issues. b) it probably won't fly in the US.

if hillary were president right now the dow jones would be at 40,000 and every person would have 2 amazing jobs that they love

Probably not, but you are most likely going to lose your status as the world's leading nation to China - which is going to cost you immensely in the long run. The ineptitude of your current administration drips steadily into foreign affairs, and the Chinese already had a superior diplomatic service to begin with - a development which is long since over, since you started selling your top diplomatic positions to the biggest political donors some decades ago.

Nor is it a secret that Russia is gunning for a reversal of the tactics used by the US against Soviet in the 60s and 70s, by slowly isolating you. Again, your administrations ineptitude and also its instability is going to make that easy. They've already outmaneuvered you in the Middle-East. Not that I think the Russian house of cards is going to hold up well, but you'll definitely continue to lose influence.

And you're already losing your friends in historically allied countries. Politicians distance themselves from you and what you're left is mostly the screeching choir on the extreme right, which is just an economic disaster waiting to happen if they ever get power anyway. Not that your allies tell you this of course. They'll speak nicely to you while they discreetly shop for other agreements, and your administration will buy it because your man in charge is a sap for praise. Look for news of your former partners in agreements and pacts to announce new deals, it'll trickle in steadily.

Not that I these issues is going to matter much in US politics. But that's just going to make these issues worse. And the things you're spending 2-3 years on tearing down would take decades to regain, but I think that's hypothetical - as I doubt it will be regained.

However one thing is going to matter, and it's also a thing which makes the new-found US conservative ideals of isolationism somewhat of a pipe-dream. The minute your planned tariffs start to hurt, the US will be hit back with tariffs that target industries in your red states - which costs elections.

yeah the next administration will have to put in a lot of work proving that the usa is stable and honest broker, after trump spends 4 years proving we're absolutely not

Even if the Dems win in 2020 and the next admin does everything right why should the rest of the world even care if all that repair work will just be undone in another 4-8 years anyway?

Seriously, every 4 years there's a 50% chance the US loses its mind and elects a weirdo from the planet Alternate Reality. That is on open display and I don’t think the rest of the world has the short term memory issues the US does.

Yea, the US is screwed. Trump is completely undoing everything Obama did while president. Every year Trump is POTUS, the US moves back a year while the rest of the world advances a year. Let's say Trump serves 4 years and a Dem is elected in 2020. The new president will have to spend 4 years just getting the US back to 2016 levels. It might even take longer.

Meanwhile you have countries making advancements in stuff like solar, health and education. And here we are adding tariffs to solar. But hey, at least Jimmy in West Virginia will get to keep his coal mine job.

If that book has a section of color pages in the middle with pictures of Steven doing karate I'm totally buying it.

Seems appropriate that you would fawn over a fake master of martial arts the same way you did over a fake master of dealmaking

Europe hasn't forgotten about GWB and how his administration took a big dump on trans-atlantic relations either.

USA#1 now sees W as a moderate, status quo politician thanks to Trump.

ok this is just like an SAT question so sklansky should nail it:

Hillary Clinton is to Celebrity as Donald Trump is to _________

They're only talking about liberal celebrities, LDO, and I can confirm that they get right wing deplorables furious.

i wonder what woulda happened if hillary tried to play tit for tat with trump instead of playing the restrained diplomat angle. like if some random reporter mentioned emails she goes off like, "EMAILS?! emails are a total and complex hoax hitjob, trump is a traitorous puppet and idk why obama hasn't locked him up already, i expect my opponent to be in jail before election day, as a top lawyer with 40 years of government experience, that i can tell you."

i mean why not? obviously tight passive gets dominated by loose aggressive we've known this for 15 years now. but what always beats a 3-bet? a 4-bet. and that'll never change.

Think she might of won if she did something like that. Worst thing she did imo was listening to her handlers who tried to soften her image. She should of just let loose and been herself. Which is a smart, a little cold, hard ass.

Also in that one debate where he shadowed her on stage she should of grabbed him by the balls and twisted and said **** off. Maybe not but...

Perhaps, but the division of the nation would also have been guaranteed with that tactic.

Divisive tactics are irreparably harmful. The glues that matters for a democratic (which in this context also include representative republics) state is stability and trust. Remove those and they will topple.

This is what Russia knows and what they are exploiting. They don't need to create discord, they merely amplify it a little by pressing the buttons that are already there to get snowball rolling. If democrats ever go full warpath, except gleeful clapping in certain Kremlin offices.

"Sadly" the Russians are as incompetent as the current US administration, and division that is growing is completely ignorant as well. Basically we're at the mercy of idiots that grow powerful due to idiocy.

I was more saying she has always been seen as kind of cold and calculated in the public's eyes. Instead of just embracing that she listened to the people around her and tried to soften that image. Think she would of done better if she embraced the no nonsense hard ass women she is.


As far as getting dirty. If the dems dont start to get a little more dirty im afraid it might be gg for democracy here anyway. A good street fighter will beat a good boxer when they are in a street fight and the boxer is boxing.

And its not like dems have ever had a clean white undirtied suit anyway. Im just asking them to get a little dirty. Like gerrymandered NY and CA. And not worry so much about pointing out trump and the GOP are the enemy of America and democracy not the the press and libs. They dont need to go full republican but they need to adjust to the fight.

Massachusetts is the Dem gerrymandered state.

Is it? Only one of the 9 districts (MA-9) was even close (55-45 margin for the D). I have to imagine it's difficult to gerrymander your way into winning 9/9 districts, 8 by a huge margin, without doing the trick of packing all the Rs into one district they win. It's almost like MA-9 is the R-packed district and they still couldn't win there. Even Alabama sent one D (Birmingham) and had a close race in another district (the Republican won AL-2 49-41).