The 2024 presidential election

[Bahamut810]

Originally Posted by Galactus

His policies were a complete joke though. Think of the main ones he campaigned on in 2016:

• A giant yet hard to see wall across the entirety the US/Mexican border including private land, mountains, lakes and seas which every engineer said was impossible and he would somehow force Mexico to pay for it.
  
• A ban on Muslim people entering the US. Something which is both unconstitutional and morally reprehensible. He also had no plan on how to enforce it and would have exemptions for Muslims from Saudi Arabia and Egypt...y'know the two countries that export the most radical Islamic terrorism which defeats the whole point of having a Muslim ban in the first place.
  
• Repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act with something which covers everyone but would totally not be Universal Health Care because that's s..s...socialism.
  
• Tax breaks for billionaires...the last people who need tax breaks.

And how many of these did he actually do in office? Only the last one. The rest were completely unworkable and he never had any intention of trying. Trump (and most modern GOP candidates) popularity is not based on policy it's based on personality. It gives them a thrill when he's a bigoted asshole and emboldens them to be the same. What even are his policies now? He's not running on anything other than him being loudmouth asshole.

on the first two points...

1. He was fought ever step of the way on wall funding. Arguably he did make Mexico (or try to depending on if the policy was going or not) shoulder some of the financial burden in the meantime with the Remain in Mexico policy (which was also fought tooth and nail) where migrants were sent back to mexico while we got them figured out making them shoulder the burden that is breaking multiple large cities in the USA (like New York).

2. I don't recall him ever banning Muslims. When he first took office he banned travel with a few different Muslim majority countries but never required a religious litmus test.

He has enough that makes him a bad candidate, so making stuff up is bad form.

[Galactus]

Originally Posted by Bahamut810

on the first two points...

1. He was fought ever step of the way on wall funding. Arguably he did make Mexico (or try to depending on if the policy was going or not) shoulder some of the financial burden in the meantime with the Remain in Mexico policy (which was also fought tooth and nail) where migrants were sent back to mexico while we got them figured out making them shoulder the burden that is breaking multiple large cities in the USA (like New York).

This is the excuse that everyone uses, that he was continually blocked but Republicans for a while had control of Congress, the Senate and the the White House. There is no reason why they struggled to get anything done.

Again the kind of border wall Trump was proposing was physically impossible and everyone knew that. He didn't even start trying to build it until he was campaigning for a second term and he had to make it look like he was at least trying. We know he had no intention of building any kind of border wall getting Mexico to pay for it (directly or indirectly). There is video of him in the first few weeks in office on the phone to the President of Mexico promising him there were no plans to build the wall and that was just something he said while campaigning.

2. I don't recall him ever banning Muslims. When he first took office he banned travel with a few different Muslim majority countries but never required a religious litmus test.

His words were "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States". It was only ever amended to a temporary travel ban when it became obvious simply asking "are you a Muslim?" was never going to be an effective means of stopping Muslims entering the country.

[IndigoErth]

FYI, the people who cross the boarder are coming and eating our pets. According to Trump.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

FYI, the people who cross the boarder are coming and eating our pets. According to Trump.

And according to the actual people in Ohio. I've seen their video testimonials. Now, could they be lying? Sure, I guess.

[Autbot_Benz]

I think this fan favorite line from Billy Madison works for Trump perfectly especially after this debate

[Andrew NDB]

There's a pretty funny "Duck Tales: Ohio" meme I probably can't share here.

[RaphaelinSTL]

She roped a dope. On to November.

[Cowabung-Gal]

Speaking of Ohio memes

[Mayhem]

Kamala laid a lot of bait out and Trump ate it all up, wasting his time answering the questions by trying to push back at her points instead of putting his own policies and thoughts forward. Like Ali, she completely roped a dope. The live fact checking to push back Trump was chefs kiss.

Executive babies and eating the pets memes are doing the rounds now…

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

And according to the actual people in Ohio. I've seen their video testimonials. Now, could they be lying? Sure, I guess.

The whole thing about the animals has been debunked after dribbling through news channels last couple days. The only actual truth part is the illegals arriving there, and how does a town handle its size growing by 25% overnight.

[Zulithe]

Right wing fearmongering has reached a new heights with this “they’re coming to eat your pets” line. Wasn’t on my bingo card but it should’ve been

Do they realize how desperate this makes them look

Oh and Taylor Swift officially endorsed Kamala/Walz in the wake of diaper don posting fake AI pics of her being MAGA. The taste is sweet.

[member_removed]

Eating pets.

He has to be trolling us now!

I don't think Trump's ever eaten pussy... unless it was Ivanka's.

[Zulithe]

Just getting around to watching some clips of the debate since I couldn't watch it live.

Damn, she burned the hell out of him. And he sounded like a loon especially with that whole eating our pets thing.

Has never been more clear to me who is more capable of leading our country in this upcoming election. Taylor Swift (who i'm not a fan of, though I respect her) said it best... we need a President who leads with CALM and not CHAOS. We all remember what his Presidency was like... chaos incarnate... the media may love it (big ratings for them) but it's a disaster in every other way.

Kamala also brought up a very powerful and strong point... look at the massive, massive line of people who formerly worked with trump since he goes through staff like toilet paper, and how many of them had awful experiences and have spoken out against him. This is not how a leader operates. He's a user and abuser, a con man, not a leader.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by Zulithe

Damn, she burned the hell out of him.

In what world? She was stuttering, nervous and anxious throughout the entire thing, all the while looking pale.

Trump destroyed her, and it wasn't even close. He oozed confidence throughout and his serious natured aggression made him look a dominant alpha male.

[Zulithe]

Incredible how an entire country can watch the same debate video and come to wildly different conclusions. Just goes to show how polarized and entrenched people are in who they believe.

But let's be clear, there is one side spreading very high-profile disinformation that is a laughing stock and it's Trump's to own.

fact checking the pet thing:
https://x.com/krassenstein/status/1833210544188281282

Oh and Trump is a dominant alpha male to you? Man, oh man...

[Mayhem]

A Disney version of the debate…

Originally Posted by Zulithe

Oh and Trump is a dominant alpha male to you? Man, oh man...

Oh yeah the whole alpha thing… as I work in software QA, that just says Trump is unstable, missing important features, filled with flaws, and not fit for the public.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Policy wise, I love how Trump stayed neutral on the foreign conflicts as an America-first leader should.

I rolled my eyes out at how much Kamala sucked up to Israel and Ukraine, but Trump hitting back with 'you hate both Arabs and Jews' was pretty genius as far as appealing to both of those demographics in America who have legitimate grieviances with the current administration.

[Mayhem]

Well let’s face it, any policy decision there isn’t going to please everyone

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by Mayhem

Well let’s face it, any policy decision there isn’t going to please everyone

Fair enough. Though my prediction is that Trump is likely to win much more of the Arab and Jewish vote this time around, both demographics whom have been majority democrat.

[Zulithe]

"he may be a liar but he exudes alpha male energy. I like him." -- someone, somewhere

[Barkworm]

That whole part where he mentions the eaten pets is gold. Harris used the most simple bait (playing down his beloved rallies) and Trump completely lost his ****. He sure loves his rallies.

But as I mentioned earlier, winning this debate (and the only flash poll saw a very clear Harris win) was just one of the mandatory steps to victory for the Democrats. It is still going to be a complete nailbiter.