Opinion on Donald Trump?

[Imagination]

Fair points indeed, and I have to respect another who knows their history.

[Noedig]

Thank you, sir!

History is made to learn our ancestors' mistakes, atrocities, and achievements.

No matter the circumstances, we are here now because of them.

And some people just don't care enough that they tend to make the same mistakes as the many previous generations have.

[SteelEagle]

It is difficult to elect anyone of worth in the news environment of the day. Recency bias and messaging, especially during campaigns, reign supreme over voting records and fact-checking. Say something long enough, hard enough, it becomes truth and that misinformation becomes the information we suck up. The surest path to failure remains an uninformed voting populace, but today the answer to this problem has become a poison pill. Nowadays there is no real sense of journalistic integrity because there are so many sources and, frankly, no one seems to care about what the facts are.

 

And why should they? If someone disagrees with what they read, they are much more likely to find a source of news that they do agree with and parrot that. Punditry and bias pass for news reporting and fact checking nowadays. The American populace has become blocs of people shouting at one another ad naseum, and the politicians know that. So they appeal to those elements, and then round up the more moderate (and less passionate) people in the middle when they need them. And the cycle goes on, and it will go on until either underpinning structures are torn down or the American populace regains much of their voting awareness and mental faculties.

 

Voter informity is a huge problem, perhaps. You could have six parties putting up Presidential candidates and receiving equal billing and it wouldn't give us any better Presidents (Who was the last honest to goodness leader we had?) if the people who do the voting aren't informed. It would help in the lower houses however- creating coalition building is vital and almost impossible with how partisan we've become.

[TheFinestSorcerer]

Let us not forget that the people who do the voting aren't even the American public. The Electoral College(which is outdated and I fear to be quite corrupt) is actually the party in charge of electing the President each term. We put our votes through which then go to them. At times, a state like NY could theoretically endorse a Republican President... and the member of our electoral college could vote democrat if they wanted so long as they feel it's better for them. Essentially these are some of the men/woman who DO rig the election.

 

Also thank you Magi for pointing out the rally video bluff.

 

Also Steel emphasizes that people are incredibly misinformed and consistently argue with one another rather than uphold the facts. Once convinced of something that makes them feel good and justified in their actions they will make it known.

 

Noedig also makes an incredibly good point with starting from the bottom and slowly working toward the top. No one really tends to think about the smaller man. If we're built like a chain, then surely modifying it near the bottom effects the outcome of the rest, not the top. Though the top can make a difference that doesn't neccasarily mean he's the ONLY one who can make a difference.