Tuesday, September 27th, 2016
The First Debate
Author: Stephan A. Schwartz
Source: Schwartzreport
Publication Date: 27 September 2016
Link: The First Debate
Source: Schwartzreport
Publication Date: 27 September 2016
Link: The First Debate
Stephan: Several readers have written to ask me what I thought of last night's debate; who I thought won.
By any number of objective criteria I think Clinton won. Trump can't stop lying; he wants to sound smart and knowledgeable but he is too intellectually lazy to actually do the heavy lifting to become expert about something. He just "goes with his gut" as he says and makes up numbers to make it look like he actually knows what he is talking about. And he has the ethics of a snake oil salesman.
That said I don't actually think who won will make much difference. Trump's followers aren't interested in facts, so fact checking really has no effect on them. And they have a desperate need to tell someone off, and through Trump they can live that fantasy.
The truth is I think Trump may well win the Presidency. I think he will have a high voter turn out, while many social progressives will vote for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson, which is to say they will vote for Trump, although they cannot seem to understand that.
If Trump wins by the end of his term I am not sure America will be recognizable. History makes it clear that nothing is forever, and this may be the long goodbye.
-- Stephan
Well said, Stephan. But I wish you would say more. Your perspective is what draws us all to this site, and your take on this election is extremely valuable. Your observation that Trump’s supporters “…have a desperate need to tell someone off, and through Trump they can live that fantasy” is the best summation I have read as to “what’s going on” (in the immortal words of Donald Trump, who once promoted the revelation that he “went to the best schools…and has the best words!” Such a claim is unique in the annals of history!
I’m sorry you’re so pessimistic. I just can’t go there myself or believe that people are really so ignorant that the’d elect such a phony candidate. I know many on the left, which I consider myself a part of, who will vote for Stein, and I would, too, if I thought my purity of conscience was worth more than a pragmatic choice to hold the country in some sort of recognizable shape. My hope is that somehow there’s a force of higher consciousness determined to work through humanity rather than letting us screw things up to the point where we have to start all over again. I know we’re between ages of the world, and I’ve heard that the beginning of the coming age may not be democratic, but I hope it’s not a return to barbarism, with a Trump Presidency pointing the way. Seems I’m all hope these days with little evidence for hope to support it!
To post in the future you must reveal your name. I put my name on everything I say on this site, and require others do so as well. No anonymous posts, and no gratuitous ad hominem snark.
We’ve got to be strategic. Did I say Supreme Court?
In a state that’s in play – what could someone hope to accomplish by voting for a third party candidate in a potentially close Presidential election between these two major candidates?
I have nothing against people expressing authentic choices in life – but not here, not with the current rules: Winner take all by state. Electoral college. Voter ID laws. Voter list purges.
That’s how Bush got elected and – along with his Supreme Court – moved the country to the right, putting progress on the defensive.
The Presidential race gets so much attention, people want to participate. But we can’t confuse voting our conscience with moving society forward.
Any other strategy that was consistently so counterproductive would have been abandoned long ago.
The world is changing too fast to risk the next four years on a protest.
Amen and Blessed Be to all the above posts urging us to vote for Clinton regardless of who we might prefer in a perfect world.
I am mystified, truly mystified, why Greens and Libertarians and others fed up with the two party monopoly that dominates out country today have not sought to change the rules from plurality to majority vote with ranked choice. It has long existed in some cities and Maine’s voters will vote on it this November, where it got on the ballot by initiative. My understanding is well over 50% of Maine’s voters favor it.
It will not directly impact presidential races, but it will all others, national, state, and local. It means voting for a third party as your first choice will never result in it becoming a spoiler because at worst, if your party gets fewer votes than others, all your second choices are added to remaining candidates’ first choices. And that removes the reason many people do not vote for third parties.
My understanding is third parties did nothing much to help get this on the Maine ballot- it was done by voters upset that Paul LePage won twice with plurality rules because decent Mainers split the vote.
For more on this issue see rcvmaine.com
You are “right on” Stephan. Although Bernie Sanders would have been my write-in choice, I will “bite the bullet” on this one and hope Hillary will listen to all of us who wanted so badly to have Bernie win the primary, we must keep Trump away from the highest position in our country, or we will loose it. By that I mean we may loose our country and maybe our world especially if we do not address climate change, and stop the stupid wars that we started with Bush Jr. in charge; Trump would harm this country in many ways.
The question of who won the debate is superficial. Both GOPerDEM candidates are of the corporate oligarchy. America always wants a hero to worship or admire. It’s a step up from being a movie star to be POTUS. Remember Mr. CHANGE Obama? So please, will someone step up to the plate and add what changed over the past 8 years? True change comes from the bottom up, not from the top down.
A ground swell of support created the Bernie phenomena. If third party candidates have something to say about the current situation, try asking for proportional representation or PR. 4 countries are holdouts within the western world: Britain, India my country, i.e., Canada and yours, The US of eh? 🙂
All of this is simply a circus to distract us from two current realities that rule our sphere:
!) We have capitalism based on unlimited growth upon a small planet.
2) We have climate change where no science can tell us if the tipping point has been broached.
As my pop used to say: “All else is shoe cream!”
C’est tout.