Imagine for a moment that it's the day after the election and Donald J. Trump has been defeated in a landslide. Or even defeated in a close race (though I much prefer the landslide scenario). Will he do the honorable thing? Call Hillary, concede the election, and make a farewell speech to his supporters? Or will he call the election "rigged" and the whole system a dirty cheat on his rightful place in the Oval Office? Attempt to sue his way into office? He's shown zero class throughout this election, so there's really nothing to suggest he would go out quietly or with any dignity or professionalism. I hope we get to find out, because the thought of this vulgarian as president is nauseating.
I think he's much more likely to concede in a landslide than a close election. I fear a close election (i.e. one state swinging to him and he'd have won, a la 2000) and him whipping up his supporters to consider the results illegitimate, or even whipping up his alt-right brownshirts (note I'm not calling all his supporters that, but let's not pretend some don't exist) to violence. In a landslide or a comfortable Obama-level victory in which he'd have to have won several more states, that would be much harder to do. Especially if she wins some of the more important swing states by comfortable margins. That doesn't mean he'll be gracious in any case. Maybe he'll surprise me. But I can imagine months and months of alternating tantrums and whining about how "the American people are stupid" or (more toxicly), some variation of "too many of the wrong people voted." Accompanied by him criticizing every little thing Clinton does and claiming how much better he would have been and how we blew our chance for greatness... and the media giving him that attention for that oh-so-coveted "controversy" rather than - FINALLY - ignoring him. (And you know they would - look how long Palin managed to stay in the media spotlight even as a failed Veep candidate.) This is why I'm hoping he's actually convicted of fraud (Trump U) or some other crime that comes to light after the election - and with his shady past and associations, this is possible. It may take actual criminal revelations to discredit him, finally shut him the hell up, discourage his acolytes, and get the media to drop him. Even if it's Club Fed a la Martha Stewart - though I'd prefer more like Denny Hastert. The other question is what happens to Trumpism, assuming Trump loses. Do the adults re-take control of the Republican Party? Or do the disaffected white people he's tapped into create a sort of Tea Party on steroids and continue to wag the dog? Does the country calm down and try to get along, or does the polarization continue apace?
You must be kidding he is going to do two things. First, he is going to insist that the system was rigged against him and that the Democrats planted millions of people around the country that threatened people that were planning on voting for the orange haired wonder that if they did they would use all the guns that Hillary was confiscating from the people and are going to blow away their families. A move that she learned from one of Trumps speeches. Second, he is going to blame Hillary for his loss which for the first time in this entire campaign will be Trump telling the truth. She beat him and it was her fault. Seriously, I cannot wait for that series of events to happen.
>>Accompanied by him criticizing every little thing Clinton does and claiming how much better he would have been and how we blew our chance for greatness... << I can definitely see that happening. He'll go on the talk show circuit and continue talking in non-specific terms about how everything is a mess and that he was the only one that could have fixed it all. And a lot of his followers will go on believing that stuff, too. I've given up on the adults retaking the GOP. I think that ship has sailed. Trump happened because this is what they have been building towards for a few generations now. What worries me most is that perhaps the next candidate is less egotistical, less offensive in terms of basic manners, less "braggadocios" than Trump. What if the same terrible ideas Trump offers were delivered in a nicer wrapping next time around, by a more personable, smarter candidate? Perhaps the GOP will splinter, which wouldn't be a bad thing. I'd like to have some reasonable options to choose from, rather than clearly unqualified candidates like Trump. Maybe by breaking free from the Tea Party, talk radio contingent, the GOP can become an option for younger people and non-racists.
Is it too much for me to pray that he will just go silently into that good-night? I do not ever want to see nor hear from him again.
Not a prediction, just a possibility: The election WILL be rigged against Trump - by the Russians, hacking into voter registration records. Imagine all the Republicans in a particular state showing up at the polls and being turned away because they aren't listed as registered. The Dems will be blamed by the idiot squad, evidence be durned. Pass the popcorn. And the plane tickets to Europe.
Has he ever? Do you really have any doubt? WAY too much trouble. Are you kidding? He'll just piss and moan, incite the riots and/or quasi-civil war and/or actual civil war, and they think of ways to cash in later. Duh. There ya go. What I wrote above will surely apply. Hopefully he doesn't tear the place apart in the process (not that it isn't already torn to shreds!).
At the moment that seems like the quaintest fantasy of them all. I don't know *what* it'll take, but just judging from friends and family it's only going to get worse.
<At the moment that seems like the quaintest fantasy of them all.> Yeah, I know. My one hope is that with a (gasp!) black family no longer in the white house, the explicitly racist contingent of the Trump coalition will have less to make them vibrate. Not that they won't hate Hillary. But the hatred may be less visceral. They may semi-calm down even if they don't realize they're doing it. The preternatural rage they feel in a place in their souls they can't even access may abate. Partisan bickering will no doubt continue. And what they throw at Clinton may be worse than that. But with the poison of racism largely removed from the equation, my hope is that we get something less toxic than we've seen lately. <Shudder at the thought, and bank on it.> Yes, I agree. Many people thought Pence was essentially auditioning for 2020 at the debate. He's more a traditional Republican than Trump, and doesn't hold his anti-immigrant or anti-trade stances (though he can't admit that now), but he's also nearly as religiously extreme as Cruz, but without the creepiness factor. He seems all reasonable and avuncular and soft-spoken. But he'd be awful. I don't think that the GOP will throw up another "Trump with better manners" in terms of his complete lack of qualification or some of his specific policies (especially anti-free-trade, which is 180 degrees away from traditional GOP thinking). But someone who is or has been a Senator or Governor who's almost as extreme in terms of getting America "back" in terms of "when straight white men ran everything and that's how it should be" but with better packaging... someone who goes back to the dog whistles rather than the bullhorn... that's absolutely possible.
The thing about Trump is that he is *mostly* adhering to the GOP's talking points. He's gone all in on the fringe of the GOP, which I think at this point is no longer the fringe at all but the core of it. The GOP keeps losing the presidential election, and they continually believe it's because their candidates are too soft and moderate, not hardline conservative enough. It's like they think that the next hard whack of one's skull to a tree will make it fall. Or the next... or the next...
What he will probably do is put Hillary down at every turn. Attempt to put women in their place to keep them barefoot and pregnant. What he tends to forget is that unlike himself most men do not have a bulging wallet to fall back on and exert power over women. All women have to do is withhold something special until the old fools get the message that they only think that they rule the country. Women actually have so much more power then men even if it is with a certain physical situation that all men, at least republicans, feel is their god given right. Add in the very powerful female brain and before long it will become very apparent who is the superior gender.
This article. Which I love not so much for the content (although I think it's spot on) but for the fact that Daily Caller is now posting anti-Trump articles that are THIS snarky. Are You Ready For… Trump TV?
This is another reason I hope Trump not only loses but loses very very badly. To put the loser stank on him, and cause at least a certain percentage of his acolytes to see him as that most unacceptable of all things in Trumpworld - a loser - and thus someone not worth following. Perhaps even blaming him for historic GOP losses up and down the ballot if we're that lucky. This is a scenario I see as unlikely, but still possible if there is another Access Hollywood-level revelation waiting to be released - perhaps from the Apprentice tapes that purportedly have him using the N-word, mocking Marlee Matlin's voice (and thus her deafness), and asking male contestants if they'd, um, sleep with (though he used the f-word) various female contestants in front of those very female contestants. If this happens, and Trump's support craters more in the polls, his fans might get discouraged, throw their hands up, and just not show up. This is probably the only way we get the "losses up and down the ballot" scenario, but that would REALLY put the loser stank on him. Absent that, and if the presidential race is close at all, he'll just claim it was rigged and probably start this network to continue the fleecing of his acolytes, who will gladly pay whatever he charges to be fleeced. And poison our national conversation yet further. Hoping for a huge loss for this con man. Hope hope hope hope hope hope hope hope hope hope hope...
Sad to say, but I don't think he'll lose all that bigly. Bigly enough, sure, but not *that* bigly. He'll have a leg to stand on (and grift with). Take that to the bank (as he surely will!). As much of a shock as it may be, 40-something percent of us are *still* voting for him after ALL we've seen and heard (and his numbers might just get a boost if he's caught saying even more vile things about blacks and women). What a world.
FWIW, here's my favorite article on Trump in a while, which I think nails him pretty well. Donald Trump's problem isn't a conspiracy. It's him. It's all worth reading, but I particularly liked the part that talks about Trump's almost pathological need to feel he is the dominant party in any situation. "This is the small talk of dominance. It’s the chatter of a man whose sole sorting mechanism for people is “winners” and “losers.” It’s one wannabe alpha male telling another wannabe alpha male exactly how alpha he really is, even though no one actually asked. It’s asserting dominance — they let me do anything I want, do they let you? None of the subsequent allegations of sexual assault against Donald Trump have been surprising. They’ve been horrifying, yes, but not surprising. Trump had already admitted to sexual assault. And, more than that, he had already admitted to a kind of motive for sexual assault: Another way of saying “when you’re a star, they let you do it” is if they let you do it, it means you’re a star. Sexual assault is about power, not about sex. Trump doesn’t seem to be a guy who ever lacked for willing partners — if all he wanted was to get laid, he had ways that were less reckless, less dangerous, and less cruel. What Trump always seems to have wanted was power, and society’s recognition of it — the proof that he was a star, the proof he could do what he wanted, the proof that he was truly dominant."
