USA Presidential Election watch - have you got USA Presidential Election

23 watchers

McGoohan Nov 2016 6:52pm, 9 Nov 2016 26,691 posts	0 McGoohan Really? They were calling it a high turnout!
fartlek Nov 2016 7:53pm, 9 Nov 2016 213 posts	0 fartlek He's gonna build a wall He's gonna make it tall If the Mexican's don't cough up He's gonna roger them all
Scorge Nov 2016 8:01pm, 9 Nov 2016 298 posts	0 Scorge i for one welcome our new weetabix-headed overlord. (only joking, equally as doomy as everyone else. can we take this version of 2016 back to the video shop and get one that works properly?)
CStar Nov 2016 9:18pm, 9 Nov 2016 6,265 posts	0 CStar The trouble is while most reasonably well-educated people have an abhorrence of racism, sexism and homophobia, you have to remember that it is only a generation ago that much of this was widely accepted and considered normal. There are still huge numbers of people whose social conditioning and circumstances mean that they still think this. It diminishes year by year but it is a very long process. As HG said, when the chips are down it is human nature to circle the wagons with 'like-minded' people and put up 'barriers' of some form to distinguish the 'we' from the 'they' and this is often done on uninformed perception of what 'they' are. But that doesn't matter as it provides a perceived greater safety by distancing those threatened from those they feel are the cause or contributors to that 'threat'. BTW Jambomo, while I think that much of what you say is very fair and well-argued, categorising all politicians as rich people only in it for themselves is a poor generalisation. Yes there are certainly some around the world who are in it for this, but the majority of politicians, certainly in UK, actually work very hard, with minimal appreciation, but do it mainly out of a real sense of public service. It is easy for us to sit on the sidelines and point, but how many of us would actually put ourselves forward?
Chrisull Nov 2016 10:31pm, 9 Nov 2016 10,224 posts	0 Chrisull And we also , to some extent, consider ourselves immune from racism, sexism and homophobia when ALL of us are pretty much guilty of some ills, at even just an unconscious level. This isn't the case for self-flagellation - it's just let's not demonise others for failings that exist in ourselves.
CStar Nov 2016 10:37pm, 9 Nov 2016 6,266 posts	0 CStar Exactly.
Jambomo Nov 2016 10:45pm, 9 Nov 2016 6,048 posts	0 Jambomo We'll have to agree to disagree CStar. I think the UK as much as any country has a very high proportion of careerist politicians whose first rule is maintaining their career and looking after themselves. That's not to say that they are not working hard or even doing a bad job, however the needs of the people they serve isn't always the first consideration. I think the current Labour Party are a very good example of this, doing what they think will gain power rather than what the people who make up the party have actually voted for.
Dvorak Nov 2016 10:54pm, 9 Nov 2016 12,449 posts	0 Dvorak My MP was the local barber. He only gave that up totally when elected to Westminster. Before that he combined it with being a local councillor and volunteer coaching/organising local kids football.
Wriggling Snake Nov 2016 7:53am, 10 Nov 2016 13,639 posts	0 Wriggling Snake My local MP is a school teacher. Born in the area. University educsted locally. Gay man. Volunteers for the NHS and National trust. Tory. Hardly careerist. I also think one of the issues regarding the referendum US election the scots refetendum is social media. People get the impression one thing is happening because their 'friends' post similar stuff and they are not seeing the other side of the campaign.
postieboy Nov 2016 7:58am, 10 Nov 2016 3,927 posts	0 postieboy The Guardian is nothing but hysterical vitriol this morning, glad I only read it free online. I'm off to buy a newspaper with a balanced and more dispassionate view of events.