Am I a horrible person...

@maxdancona,

A hypothetical question for Robert, or for anyone else who wants to play.

Let's say that you (as a moderately left of center person) woke up one morning and found yourself the front runner in the GOP primary. Wouldn't you do exactly what Trump is doing?

I would slowly say more and more preposterous things, taking each conservative talking point to its logical (extreme) conclusion, just to see how far I could take it and how much damage I could do to the conservative cause.

I can't think of anything I would do differently than what Trump is doing were I in that position.

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He's in too far to back out now. His last bombshell lost him a lot of business
in the Middle East. And I believe he really thinks he's going to win.

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@maxdancona,

Not at all.

Why give the others something to rally around?

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@izzythepush,

This argument makes no sense because it can be applied to anyone. "Oh yeah? well that's what they said about Hitler!" They said a lot of things about Hitler that can be said about ordinary people and it's a bad guilt by association fallacy and a good example of Godwin's Law.

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@George,

Quote:

Why give the others something to rally around?

If they don't rally around Trump, then they will rally around Cruz. Cruz has the ability to speak in code in a way that can make ugly things sound reasonable to moderates. The advantage of having them rally around Trump is that that he doesn't have a real chance of winning in the general election.

Cruz scares me more than Trump does.

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@maxdancona,

He won't influence people to start hating Hiliary, a portion of the populace already hates her. My Aunt hates her because she stayed with Bill after the Monica hoo haa, but my Aunt didn't leave her husband even when she found out about his affairs (which were a tad more involved). Can Trump win? I hope not, but the voters have surprised me before.

I was taking to my old pals from work, we wondered if he would tone down the bombast if he was read into some the agreements this country has. The consensus was that it would be too dangerous, he might decide he could make better deals and publically trash talk agreements that the U.S. has had for decades and would isolate us from our partners. I really don't want to see allies disengage because Trump thinks it might make points with his base. It makes me cringe when he makes these sweeping statements about banning Muslims or busing millions of illegals out of the country.

Before I forget, I'm not endorsing illegal immigration, I'm just at a loss on how this could be reversed without serious consequences for the U.S. in the following years. Compromise is not a dirty word.

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@Robert Gentel,

That's not the case here, it normally signals the end of an argument. Trump is running for president. He is using divisive rhetoric to galvanise a large part of the disaffected white vote. There are lots of parallels, the economic slowdown, and the feelings of losing control of your own country are there, as they were in post war Germany, admittedly not to the same extent.

It was when he started talking about putting Moslems in camps and barring entry of all others that I sat up and took notice. Everybody thought Hitler was like every other politician, that he'd tone things down once he got a taste of realpolitik, he didn't.

I think it's important Trump be relegated to the footnotes of History. Anything else would be a disaster.

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@Robert Gentel,

I'm still hoping he's just the next Sacha Baron Cohen character.

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@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

I think it's important Trump be relegated to the footnotes of History.

I would then suggest that you refrain from using hyperbole (like comparing him to Hitler), that kind of thing works against your goal. Overstatement does not make a case seem stronger, it makes it seem weaker.

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@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

I'm still hoping he's just the next Sacha Baron Cohen character.

Wouldn't that be wonderful. But I think there may be things even too odious for Sacha. And yes I did see 'Borat'.

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@maxdancona,

Or maybe he believes everything he has said and the public had better listen carefully to him and try not to elect a president who dosent care one bit about the constitution.

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@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

I'm still hoping he's just the next Sacha Baron Cohen character.

That would be wonderful.

Actually, I'm hoping hes a The Chaser stunt. They are a team of Australian TV satirists. Their most famous stunt was dressing one team member up as Osama Bin Laden when there was a huge heads of government extravaganza in Sydney, which included the US President, then George Bush, and every other world leader pretty much.

The security was crazy, as you can imagine.

Anyhow, they put Osama in a swanky vehicle and said they were the Canadian Ambassador.

They got past every security checkpoint, Osama and all, but got scared when they were being waved into the actual hotel where the meeting was to occur.

They were scared they'd get shot and were stunned that they had got so far. They had thought they'd be stopped at the first checkpoint! They surrendered nervously. The footage was amazing.

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@Robert Gentel,

Oh I dont know. Lash does pretty good at being over the top. She has turned several liberals on this site.

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@Robert Gentel,

I'm not using hyperbole, that's when you exaggerate to make a point. I'm not exaggerating, this is what I'm worried will happen.

The World is still recovering from the Bush presidency and he was just thick as mince and needing to make his dad proud. A similar level of stupidity plus a ton of bigotry and narcissism makes for a toxic mix.

It doesn't take much to frighten Americans and make them behave. Look how easy it was to Patriot Act and get people to support the illegal war in Iraq. When people are frightened they're easy to control, and your constitution is full of amendments, there's always room for a few more paranoid ones.

Trump banning the internet is such a big joke. It's no joke in North Korea, and creating an American intranet is not an impossibility. It all comes down to how much he can frighten people into giving him what he wants.

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The highly respected psychologist Gustave Gilbert reported this conversation with Hermann Goering:

Quote:

We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.

"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

In fact, a president can now employ war powers for 90 days without reference to Congress.

I could see The Donald dragging us into a foreign war. I don't see him setting up a fascist dictatorship, though, first because he's really not that bright, but also because there are too many people with a stake in the system as it is now constituted.

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@Robert Gentel,

Quote:

Am I a horrible person...

Yes. Very horrible. But it would be great to see the far right take a fatal blow from which they would never recover so on the second matter of Donald Duck for President, yes it would be fun.

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@izzythepush,

Hitler and Trump have nothing in common...Hitler had a funny moustache and Trump has funny hair.... Apart from having the same right wing whacko politics, I cant see any simi... Shocked

oh.

I think I'll stop now.

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@Setanta,

Once all the planet's tiny little wars start holding hands we'll all be too sucked in to worry about much else.

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@izzythepush,

I don't share your alarm.

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@Setanta,

I hope you're right. On this I really want to be wrong. Although I'd much much rather the question remained academic.

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