I don’t get how people live vicariously through a person. “If I like guy on TV, then I’m like guy on TV. If I post his image, then I become like him”. Never understood that – ok,, well, it kinda works in religious icons I suppose, maybe.
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I guess. I don’t know if they’re losers but I just don’t get personality cults.
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He’s a TV personality, not a revolution.
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Well, I will say he gets people who are typically non-voters to come out and party. Obama was good at that, Trump’s good at that, Sanders is good at that.
Who will show up in November to actually vote? I dunno. But they’re showing up for primaries at least. I suspect overconfidence at “assured victory” will cause a lot of people who typically don’t vote anyway to stay home that day, grab the Doritos and watch the numbers like sports.
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Most election cycles are. Not much ever changes for most people. I hardly noticed the Obama presidency.
Checks and balances are super powerful. That’s when politics really starts: this stuff right now is campaigning. Anybody can do that.
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I think it’s useful. President serves a useful function – several in fact.
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If you backtrack through past presidential promises, you’ll see a pattern:
Everything they promise, are precisely what they can’t deliver as President. They can only advise, maybe veto things that go against what they don’t like, PERHAPS stick a justice in that’s more politically aligned (they hope) to themselves. But mostly, they’re a shining face to take all the credit for the past president’s work, and to take all of the blame when things go wrong.
It’s a good system. I don’t mind it.
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As a little joke to myself, last Earth Day in 2015, I made myself President of Earth. It even became a Google fact for a few months. [years of ‘thinking like Google’ I guess].
Anyway, I did it for just that reason: I’m powerless yet I feel as if my opinion matters. We all do that. So, what if I was a President of Earth that declares that everybody can just keep doing what they’re doing, set up whatever govt and financial systems they like, and try not to kill each other TOO much, please?
I’d have the same effect as I do now. So as President of Earth, carry on. You’re doing fine.
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Still though, there’s War Crimes stuff they can pull if need be. Trump can’t carry out 9/10ths of the stuff he says. None of them really can. Then they can go, “Oh well, you know, Congress stopped me. But hey, I wanted what you wanted – you heard me! But yeah, hands are tied, so, yeah.”
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Yeah, unfortunately, Nicaragua is one of those countries that gets ignored on the world stage. There’s a number of countries like that, ’cause they lack decent allies.
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Born ‘n raised in the US, I’m continually embarrassed by the gaps of knowledge in world history. I was able to bulk it up during my Orthodox time with greek, Russian / byzantine history, so I got at least that part of the world covered, but I’m still lacking in China, India, South America, central America. Ugh, someday I’ll have it pieced together.
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Same. Keeps me learning. I live on Wikipedia sometimes and then I go into groups like these and test out my ideas to see if they float or if someone with more knowledge than me knocks me down. Keeps me nimble.
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Thanks smile emoticon I’m like a “word of the day” person: You know that guy that wants to bolster his vocab and learned a new word everyday, and then tries it out on EVERYBODY?
Well, I don’t do that with words, but I do that with concepts.
I *think* I got a concept, and then I go around talking about it everywhere. Other people fix me when I got it wrong, usually debating me, and I always end up winning even if I lose an argument ’cause I’ve learned something.
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hehe I’m just a know-it-all but there’s too much knowledge out there so I keep learning. I like getting knocked down: in a debate where I’m REALLY over my head, I got three/four tabs open, researching shit I know nothing about, and then I come back at them as if I know what I’m talking about. It’s part knowledge, part bluffing. It’s fun.
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I’m good with words and I try hard to be right, so it’s not really shooting in the dark bluffing… I debate in earnest. But my goal posts are friendship, rarely the debate itself. Some of my best friends started off as political/ideological opposites of me. I hate their politics, their beliefs, their whatevers, yet they’re good friends ’cause we made it through battle together. I respect people who can shake hands at the end. I guess I’m an egalitarian at heart.
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But I’m terrible at forming logical premise stuff in the proper way. I was never good at that. People that can do that impress me.
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