is it really possible that Donald trump could be president????? [Part 2]

[claig]

From now on the race becomes winner take all. If Trump wins Florida on March 15, it is probably all over.

'The Republican Party now has 14 days to stop Trump'

www.vox.com/2016/3/2/11144812/super-tuesday-results-donald-trump-wins

And more to the point, and this has been addressed before, how can you believe this man is better than any politician if you say yourself that he will say whatever just to get elected and you do not know what he will do at all?

I really don't understand how you can support a candidate that you actually don't know what he stands for. Other than revolution. Have you been in one?

'Actually, that is an observation from his actions and what has happened in the last few days. My impressions based on events. Not my gut feeling.'

So you mean that your observation, which is subjective, is correct and everyone who observes it differently is wrong?

'Rather more evidence than I just want to believe.'

I didn't claim evidence, you are the inquisitor and the judge and jury who wants to convict me for what I believe based on what I feel instinctively.

I am not you and you are not me. I support Trump and you don't. Get over it, that is how the world is. We are all different and we don't need to be grilled through nine degrees and the whole nine yards in a court of law by a barrister like Blair to be allowed to believe what we like and to believe that Trump is a good thing and better than barrister Blair and his sidekick.

'And more to the point, and this has been addressed before, how can you believe this man is better than any politician if you say yourself that he will say whatever just to get elected and you do not know what he will do at all?'

How old are you? How many different people with different beliefs have you met? Don't you understand that people are different? Can't you understand anyone else but yourself? I understand you and don't judge you for it.

I like Trump because I feel that he is "real" which means he has his heart in the right place and will work for the people. It doesn't matter to me if he exaggerates and lies and calls Ted Cruz "Lying' Ted" and says that Ted holds the Bible up in one hand and then puts it down and starts lying because everyone knows that Ted doesn't do that, it is a metaphor. I don't care if Trump outsmarts the Establishment and if Blair "doesn't understand it" and if Trump uses tricks to win because I care only that he works for the people when he wins.

'I really don't understand how you can support a candidate that you actually don't know what he stands for.'

Then you need to try and increase your level of understanding of human nature. I support him because I think he will do the right thing. There are no guarantees in life, I choose the best option available.

'Other than revolution. Have you been in one?'

No I haven't, but this is not a violent revolution. As former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, said "this is a peaceful revolution ... the government is being overthrown before our eyes". It is peaceful, it is democratic and it is beautiful thing because it is the will of the people and the will of the human spirit in the freest country on the planet, the great United States. The whole point of the "peaceful revolution" is to give power back to the people from the self-serving elites.

Stop seeing millions of Trump voters as evil, nasty racists as the media is trying to portray them to save the Establishment from being overthrown, and increase your understanding and empathy for human beings

"In line, I met a middle-aged woman who had quit her job to care for her ailing father, who was too weak to stand, so he rested, in his “Make America Great Again” cap, against walls along the way. Her eyes filled with tears, she professed her own dedication to Trump, whom she saw as an authentic advocate of the downtrodden. But most of all, she wanted to show her father something special, an American moment that would make him proud. Next to her was a family with a baby, decked out in Trump gear like her parents. Other Trump fans offered the young family assistance as the line dragged on. Behind them were a couple who had driven three hours from rural Missouri."

Claig, can you not see how bonkers your processes are for justifying supporting this man?

You admit you've no idea what he will do, you don't care about his lies, so you are literally trumpeting him based on your own blind faith.

I suppose at least we have got you to admit that much

'I suppose at least we have got you to admit that much'

I have never denied it. That is how people in general vote - on gut feel, on instinct and on emotion, with the heart, not by reading reams of documents and promises and five point plans and manifestos and Oxbridgese which everybody knows are lies.

"Donald Trump is a walking political science course. His meteoric rise is lesson No. 1 on leadership: Most voters do not listen through their ears. They listen through their stomachs. If a leader can connect with them on a gut level, their response is: “Don’t bother me with the details. I trust your instincts.” If a leader can’t connect on a gut level, he or she can’t show them enough particulars. They’ll just keep asking, “Can you show me the details one more time?”

Trump’s Republican rivals keep thinking that if they just point out a few more details about him, voters will drop The Donald and turn to one of them instead. But you can’t talk voters out of something that they haven’t been talked into.

Many have come to Trump out of a gut feeling that this is a guy who knows their pain, even if he really doesn’t. Many of his supporters are from the #middleagewhitemalesmatter movement, for whom the current age of acceleration has not been kind and for whom Trump’s rallies are their way of saying “Can you hear me now?” and of sticking it to all the people who exploited their pain but left them behind, particularly traditional Republican elites. They are not interested in Trump’s details. They like his gut."

www.nytimes.com/2016/03/09/opinion/only-trump-can-trump-trump.html?_r=0

That's why poor old Blair turns up on TV interviews and says "I don't understand it". They can train and tutor Blair how to speak mockney and use glottal stops and pregnant pauses and use meaningful hand gestures and speak baloney and barristerese, but they can't teach him to be "real", they can't get him to copy Trump because he hasn't got it in his gut and it can't be taught at Oxbridge by the best spin doctors money can buy.

Stop seeing millions of Trump voters as evil, nasty racists

I don't see millions as evil or nasty or racist, although I do think some of them undoubtedly are.

I see them as misjudging him badly. As you are.

Sadly, I do understand human nature, more than you realise, and possibly more than you. That's why I don't have blind faith in any politician. As you have (and have had) for some. I find it worrying that you (and other followers) are prepared to accept Trump almost as the second coming when this man is just as flawed (or more) than any other candidate. I find it worrying for you that you embark so easily in campaigns by consumate populists and demagogues, as are Trump and Farage.
I understand why large groups follow Trump, as group psychology is one of the few areas of psychology where predictions are often accurate. He is a good manipulator.
The question is if he would make a good president. (which you will simply reply that he will)

I can pretty much predict most of your replies to my posts, after this long. I think I understand how your mind is working, which is why I am trying to challenge your blind faith in this man. Because you have given no indication that it is anything but blind.

'Sadly, I do understand human nature, more than you realise, and possibly more than you.'

I thought you might be a psychologist based on your basic naive nitpicky questioning and arrogant dismissal of my views, which I think misunderstands human instincts and nature and motivations.

'The question is if he would make a good president. (which you will simply reply that he will)'

No, your psychology training has made you see things in certainties. I have no certainties, I think he will, I don't know it.

'which is why I am trying to challenge your blind faith in this man. Because you have given no indication that it is anything but blind.'

This shows you arrogance and your view that you are better informed and have more knowledge than me. I understand why I like Trump because I have analysed it and it is why I find the Trump phenomenon fascinating whereas you see it as essentially stupid and bigoted. What looks "blind" to you with your psychological external examination is actually based on human instinct and gut feeling which is beyond your comprehension and to which you are "blind".

We are in the midst of a revolution, a rebeliion of the people against the elites. You're not with the programme, you don't feel it, it's not in your gut. Blair "doesn't understand it", the elites are in panic, but it is very simple and very human because it is based on truth and freedom and the human spirit. No books can describe it, no theses can capture it because it is based on feeling, on human emotion, the instinctive feeling that is within every one of us and helps guide us to choose what is "real" and what is "good" and what is "phoney" and what is "bad" - whether Trump is better than Blair, for example.

You said you read the Telegraph, but you would probabaly find your beliefs more closely reflected in Blair's autobiography - The Journeyman, because he thought he knew better than the people and that the people couldn't be trusted to make the right decisions. It is because of arrogant people like him that the people are choosing Trump - for freedom, liberty, free expression, no political correctness, business opportunity and someone who is on their side and not on the side of an edcuated, arrogant clique of Oxbridge barristers and metropolitan elites.

"Trump, Sanders and the American Rebellion

As institutions lose respect, voters think: Let’s take a chance.

What is happening in American politics?

We’re in the midst of a rebellion. The bottom and middle are pushing against the top. It’s a throwing off of old claims and it’s been going on for a while, but we’re seeing it more sharply after New Hampshire. This is not politics as usual, which by its nature is full of surprise. There’s something deep, suggestive, even epochal about what’s happening now.

I have thought for some time that there’s a kind of soft French Revolution going on in America, with the angry and blocked beginning to push hard against an oblivious elite.

www.wsj.com/articles/trump-sanders-and-the-american-rebellion-1455236273

You can't see it, you are blind to it, you don't get it, you don't feel it, you're with Blair. But keep watchng what happens in America, because it is going to change the world.

Hillary can't beat Trumo because she is part of the Establishment, part of the status quo and the people are in rebellion and in revolt against the elites which is why Trump is leading the revolution that will bring huge chhange and it will change the entire world which is why the political elite across the world is petrified.

But so what if you find Blair and Brown funny? They aren't the politicial opponents of your object of worship. Are they the only people you find funny? If you find other people funny, why aren't you dragging them in as well? Honestly, your continued harping on British politicians who are long out of power in relation to a US election makes you sound more than slightly hysterical.

What is the difference between "reading reams of documents and promises and five point plans and manifestos and Oxbridgese which everybody knows are lies" and listening to hours of Trump rhetoric which everybody knows consists of lies?

When you say "I understand why I like Trump because I have analysed it", have you analysed why you are attracted to someone who you know repeatedly lies? Would you, for instance, trust a man who repeatedly lies to look after your children or your finances?

'They aren't the politicial opponents of your object of worship'

No but neither is "low energy" Jeb Bush a real opponent of Trump but Trump still throws in the gags about Bush and the crowds still laugh out loud and love it. What is funny because of its pomposity and uselessness remains funny throughout time even if it is no longer present.

'If you find other people funny, why aren't you dragging them in as well?'

Because when it comes to uselessness, there is no better example than Blair and his sidekick. They will live on in history for decades to come as an shining example of uselessness. Nothing current compares.

' Honestly, your continued harping on British politicians who are long out of power in relation to a US election makes you sound more than slightly hysterical.'

OK, that is how you feel. I think it is funny in the same way that Trump uses Jeb Bush as the butt of his jokes. We all have different senses of humour. You probably wouldn't find a Trump rally funny whereas the people who are there roar with laughter.

'Would you, for instance, trust a man who repeatedly lies to look after your children or your finances?'

No, but Trump's "lies" are in general "lies" of exaggeration, not lies to deceive. Hardly anyone believes Trump's "lies", they are transparent lies and the public discounts them all. No one takes them serious because they aren't serious.

In the 1980s Ben Elton made a living on Thatcher gags, as the great comedian Alexei Sayle says in those days you could get laughs just by shouting Thatcher. To me Blair and his sidekick are similar - the comic buffoon duo, the undynamic duo. But not everybody thinks they are funny and that's OK.

I thought you might be a psychologist based on your basic naive nitpicky questioning and arrogant dismissal of my views

Do you have a problem with psychologists?

I don't find Corbyn funny in the sense of being useless because I like Corbyn, I think he is "real", but I dislike Blair and his sidekick which is why I laugh at them in the same way the Trump rallies laugh at Jeb Bush, Lindsey Graham, the media and the elites.

'Do you have a problem with psychologists?'

Only cod ones. I think psychology is a fascinating subject, probably the most fascinating along with philosophy, but basic psychologists who think they understand the complexities of human nature and arrogantly ignore the views of others and incorrectly dismiss people as stupid or bigots or racists, I am not a fan of.

An interesting article on the psychology of why Trump is so popular, and a big part of it is his humour which resonates with the people and creates a shared sense of feeling against disliked elites and "low energy" Jeb Bushes.

"How does Trump do it? Understanding the psychology of a demagogue's rally

His popularity continues to befuddle many. But attend one of his rallies and it begins to make sense: make them laugh, then draw them into your world where danger lurks around every corner and you’re the only one smart enough to stop it

The thing that is hard to appreciate about Donald Trump before you personally enter a room with him – in this case, the hangar deck of a wartime aircraft carrier – is that his first weapon is humor. Long before he fires up his loyal supporters, before he hits them with outrageous comments that send shockwaves around the world, he makes them laugh.

He looks like the man he is: a real estate developer with dodgy hair. But don’t underestimate the guy – he has the intuition and timing of a standup comedian."

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/08/donald-trump-rally-psychology-humor-fear

He is an entertainer, a comedian, he makes people laugh about things they also think are funny and when they are laughing, they are in a good mood and on Trump's side and vice versa.

Understanding Trump means understanding human nature and psychology and his Republican opponents (and, of course, Blair) don't get it which is why their attacks on Trump all fall flat.

"Trump's lies are lies of exaggeration"

Someone might have linked to this before, but it's probably a good moment to drop Politifact's bullshit-meter into the conversation.

www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/

A large majority of the Trump statements they fact-checked were rated "mostly false", "false", or "pants on fire".

'A large majority of the Trump statements they fact-checked were rated "mostly false", "false", or "pants on fire".'

Absolutely, but all Trump fans and everyone else already knows that so they discount and ignore it. That is why the Republican opponents keep failing in their attacks on him - Rubio calls him a "con man" pretending to be a conservative, but nobody cares because they already know that and they don't think it matters.

Trump's appeal is very simple - he is "on our side" against the elites. Nothing they can do can shake that unless Blair and all the rest of them start shouting "Get 'em the hell outta here" at PMQs and unless they all start saying that Trump talks real sense and is the most fit person to lead the country, which is when the people would start to abandon Trump thinking he was with the Establishment.

There's only one way to stop Trump and that is for Obama or Hillary to endorse him as the very funny New Yorker piece spells out

"Concluding his endorsement with an emphatic closing argument, Obama said, “If you love me, vote for Trump.”

In several G.O.P. polls taken after the President’s stunning endorsement, Trump sank from first to fifth place, trailing the retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson by several points.

As news of the President’s endorsement spread, former Trump supporters across the nation gathered to vent their anger, with some burning signs, trucker hats, and other campaign paraphernalia at impromptu bonfires.

Harland Dorrinson, who had attended a massive Trump rally in Alabama just a day earlier, said that he now felt totally betrayed by the billionaire. “I guess when all is said and done, Donald Trump was just too good to be true,” he said."

www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-derailed-by-obamas-endorsement

DONALD TRUMP says that in the Philippines more than a century ago, Gen. John Pershing "took 50 bullets, and he dipped them in pigs’ blood," and shot 49 Muslim rebels. "The 50th person, he said, ‘You go back to your people, and you tell them what happened.’ And for 25 years, there wasn’t a problem."

So what do you make of that statement then? What was his point?

Btw, I'm not a psychologist, but I'm a scientist. Nit picking is my game. :)

'So what do you make of that statement then? What was his point?'

Yes, I didn't like that or approve of it. It was tasteless and nauseating to be honest. I think he was trying to show he was tough. I think it was bad to say that and hope he cuts it out but he has said it more than once.

I don't agree with everything he says, there is a lot I disagree with, but amazingly most people seem to ignore his outrageous statements.

'I'm a scientist. Nit picking is my game.'

Yes, that is a good thing in that field. Logic, detail and all the rest are very important. Trump, on the other hand, has very few of those but no one cares.

So, in simple terms:
He lies (a lot) but we believe in him when he says he's on our side.
Does that summarise it?

And:
He lies (a lot) and I don't agree with much that he says, but he's very different from other politicians (who lie).

Do any of those make sense to you?

I'm currently watching the Cruz rally in Illinois. He is rather grim too. Just in a less entirely insane sort of way.

Yes, the pickings are slim this year.

And just because I've just noticed it:

'So, in simple terms:
He lies (a lot) but we believe in him when he says he's on our side.
Does that summarise it?'

No because he doesn't say "I am on your side". If he said that we wouldn't believe him. That is the sort of thing that someone like Blair wouuld be trained to say. We already know that Trump is "on our side" by gut feel, there is no need for him to say it because he is "real".

'He lies (a lot) and I don't agree with much that he says, but he's very different from other politicians (who lie).'

He lies in order to win but we have gut feel that he is "on our side" so we discount his lying and ignore his wild statements, we don't believe them, we know he is a showman who exaggerates and doubles down when challenged. We don't care because we think he will be "on our side" over important issues when he wins which is why we ignore his pointless lies. It is all about priorities. The fact that he lies about something is not as important as the fact that we think he will be "on our side".

'Do any of those make sense to you?'

Yes, because that is how most people vote and make decisions. We aren't robots whose circuitry does not compute if Trump tells a lie, we evaluate its importance in the big scheme of things, we look at the big picture which is that he is "on our side".