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Presidential Election

everydayupsanddowns said:
I’m reminded of Douglas Adams’ wisdom on the subject:

The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. ​
​
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. ​
​
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.​
​
Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Restaurant at the End of the Universe)​
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I guess that would apply to everybody who has ever been President.
 
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Bruce Stephens said:
It's apparently something members of both major parties have done for some time (and people associated with Democrat and Republican parties have sometimes come to the UK similarly). I agree with Trump there's a risk (he's a very transactional thin-skinned narcissist), but I'm not sure we should pander to him even if it's possibly beneficial in the short term. Everyone should make sure they're acting legally, obviously.

(Nigel Farage has a nerve complaining about it: he's actually an MP (leader, even), and he went over there to campaign while the House is sitting.)
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It’s not so much the campaigning but the intemperate language. Was it Lammy who called Trump a Nazi? That probably gave Trump quite a few more votes, apart from anything else.
 
Inka said:
It’s not so much the campaigning but the intemperate language. Was it Lammy who called Trump a Nazi? That probably gave Trump quite a few more votes, apart from anything else.
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Sadly he appears to be a variant thereof, I I suspect the peoples of Ukraine and Gaza groaned on hearing the result!
 
I'm not a massive Trump fan, but at least with him, you know what you're getting. If he says he'll do something, he gets on and does it.

I have absolutely zero idea what Kamala Harris was thinking, or what her policies were because, in my time listening, she never stated anything, aside from "it'll be better", which doesn't cut it, without the how it will be better. Not good enough.

To be fair, Kamala Harris wasn't helped by Biden's camp continuing to put forward that he was/is fine and cognitively fit, when it was as plain as the nose on his and everyone else's faces he was not.
 
Inka said:
Was it Lammy who called Trump a Nazi? That probably gave Trump quite a few more votes, apart from anything else.
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Shouldn't have made a difference in this election. I don't think many of the US know or care much about UK politicians and the tweet was years ago. He said "He is a racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser.", which seem objectively true to me. Maybe MPs shouldn't say them; there's obviously a place for diplomatic language.

https://twitter.com/x/status/912640330239004672
 
Bruce Stephens said:
It's apparently something members of both major parties have done for some time (and people associated with Democrat and Republican parties have sometimes come to the UK similarly). I agree with Trump there's a risk (he's a very transactional thin-skinned narcissist), but I'm not sure we should pander to him even if it's possibly beneficial in the short term. Everyone should make sure they're acting legally, obviously.

(Nigel Farage has a nerve complaining about it: he's actually an MP (leader, even), and he went over there to campaign while the House is sitting.)
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I think it would be safest for us to stay out of 'taking sides' in any other country's democratic election: it's only a short step from there to being accused (as we've done with respect to Putin) of interfering with elections. I'm not sure the potential benefit (showing our support for a candidate whom we think will be most beneficial for our interests) is worth the risk either that that candidate doesn't win - or that that candidate wins but turns out to not be as helpful as we'd anticipated!

Let's not subscribe to the Hugh Grant myth in 'Love Actually' that we (still) have significant power vis a vis the US President 🙄

1730983279979.png
 
Bruce Stephens said:
Shouldn't have made a difference in this election. I don't think many of the US know or care much about UK politicians and the tweet was years ago. He said "He is a racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser.", which seem objectively true to me. Maybe MPs shouldn't say them; there's obviously a place for diplomatic language.

https://twitter.com/x/status/912640330239004672
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A Nazi sympathiser? I’m no fan of Trump but I hadn’t heard he sympathised with the Nazis.
I’m not a fan of Lammy either as he’s made some anti-women comments, so he’s a fine one to point the finger at Trump.
 
CliffH said:
I think there have been exceptions. For example, Roosevelt's 'New Deal' ended the Depression.
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Absolutely. I meant that the old "nobody who wants power should have it" chestnut is lame. And FDR was the counterexample I had top of mind.
 
Sally71 said:
And yet somehow he still has a lot of fans, and a lot of people seem to be either “I’m a Democrat” or “I’m a Republican” and never vote anything different regardless of who is in charge. Bizarre.
I’m also hoping and praying that Kamala Harris wins, no idea what she’s like but anything must be better than Trump! Fingers crossed that the people in the swing states have some sense!
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I think lots of people in the UK say either "I'm Conservative" or "I'm Labour" and never vote anything different regardless of who is in charge.
 
CliffH said:
I think lots of people in the UK say either "I'm Conservative" or "I'm Labour" and never vote anything different regardless of who is in charge.
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Yes, mindless tribalism. It’s everywhere.
 
nonethewiser said:
Would rather boil me head than vote Conservative.
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I guess it's sensible though not to be too fixed in one's prejudices about specific Parties. For example, in the 2005 General Election I voted Liberal Democrat, even though every time before and since I've voted Labour. This was because I thought that the Labour Party was drifting too far to the right (such as their introduction of university tuition fees) and that the Liberal Democrats had taken the 'traditional' Labour position. In fact, I'm still not sure that I prefer Labour to the Liberal Democrats - but I prefer Labour to Conservative, even though I'm very unhappy about much of what Labour stands for and does nowadays.

Presumably political Parties and their members are capable of evolution - or even radical change. Taking it to extremes, I doubt that the present day Liberal Democrats have many policies in common with their Whig ancestors! More recently, Oswald Mosley was a Labour junior Minister before leaving and eventually forming the British Union of Fascists.
 
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