It would be one thing if the incoming commander in chief showed any hint of humility, of realizing that his duty to the nation requires showing some respect for the strong majority of Americans who voted against him despite Russian meddling and the F.B.I.’s disinformation dump.
The majority of Americans who voted voted against him but the majority of Americans did not vote against him.
A fairly important distinction there.
“It would be one thing if the incoming commander in chief showed any hint of humility, of realizing that his duty to the nation requires showing some respect for the strong majority of Americans who voted against him…”
It would be one thing if the author had any humility, he might realise that the vast majority of what he wrote applied to 2008 too…
Did Obama show any ‘hint of humility’ in his two terms? If so, I must have blinked and missed it…
@JuliaM,
The media seem to think so. The most humble president evarz. Or so I hear. I guess they were watching a different President Obama to me…
The popular vote was skewed due to California not being a proper democracy…
But in any event, as everyone else has already said, it’s no good only bleating about the tyranny of the majority when you’re its victim.
abacab, I think it’s partly short-term memory. Lots of the left excuse Obama because he apparently couldn’t get anything through Congress because of the Republican majorities in the House and Senate.
Point out that when he was elected he had a decent majority in each, and they don’t believe you.
Majority? From leftist scum whose POS President urged illegals to vote illegally?
Fuck of Krugman–Keynes preserved brain would talk more sense than you –and that would still be zero.
Someone feed him the dried frog pills.
Is it true that Mr Trump has nigger slaves?
Well, they’ve used every other sodding argument.
Respect must be earned.
I’m just glad that Trump is standing up against John Lewis. OK he did heroic stuff in the 1960s but that is no reason to close our minds to his stupidity today
Taking this analysis of the election result on it own terms: a majority of the electorate voted against every candidate. So we are left where exactly?
No. The result was valid and fair. Whether or not I think Trump is an arsehole -and I do – is irrelevant. The snowflakes can cry about it, Richard Murphy can tell lies about the EU referendum, the result was fair.
Is there a holy cow that Trump has not had to trample in his path to the presidency?
@Diogenes: “I’m just glad that Trump is standing up against John Lewis.”
No more mawkish Christmas adverts, hurrah!
Wait.
Oh, the heady days when the Left said that everyone had to get behind OUR president because he won? That he was the president of America, irrespective of your political affiliation?
Good times, good times…
And, as I pointed out on another thread recently, non-voters could plausibly be considered to be more likely to fall in the ‘leave me alone’ camp, which, arguably, makes them conservative, or at least non-elitist. In other words, had they been forced to vote I think that would have hurt Hillary more than Trump.
Dear Mr Worstall
Has anyone put Mr Trump forward for the Nobel Peace Prize yet?
DP
@DP, no, Human Rights Watch has put the US down with Iran and Saudi as violators of human rights, before he’s even taken office.
I want to start a rumour that Trump wants to convert the White House into a luxury resort and golf course
I think the Obama 8 years can be summarised by two things:
Obama and Biden awarding themselves medals.
Four black teenagers torturing a special needs white kid and streaming it to Facebook, while the MSM lies about it and tries to obscure what happened.
Thank fuck its over.
Thing is, if the majority of Americans had known the real Donald Trump (as he appears here: http://bit.ly/2joI0Rv ) they most certainly would have voted for him. Really they would…
Two points: first, awful though Obama has been, McCain would very likely have been worse. Secondly, however bad Trump may prove, Crooked Hillary Clinton would almost certainly have been worse.
They picked the lesser evil each time. Well done them.
What to do about all the mad ones shouting and screaming at present: how about decanting the marijuana traders from the prisons and incarcerating these holy-rollers instead?
“It would be one thing if the incoming commander in chief showed any hint of humility, of realizing that his duty to the nation requires showing some respect for the strong majority of Americans who voted against him ”
Or
If I win accept you have lost, put aside your differences and support my plans. If I lose respect that my wishes were different and modify your plans to fit in to mine.
Or
Heads I win, tails you lose.
I’m going to enjoy the next 4 years, much as I dislike Trump.
Johnnydub said:
“Obama and Biden awarding themselves medals.”
What medals did Obama get? I may have missed it, but I don’t remember any.
Wouldn’t surprise me if he had, but I’m surprised if it happened and I hadn’t read about it.
Evidently the New York Times is determined to gut Slate and Salon of their respective readerships and then square off with Huffington Post. Nothing else adequately explains what they are publishing these days.
Richard, I think he awarded himself some armed forces medal for being an outstanding C-in-C.
Got it, thank you Custard Cream. The Department of Defense [sic] Medal for Distinguished Public Service.
However it seems Bill and Bush II each got one while they were President, so it wasn’t just The Chosen One.
I’ve read elsewhere about BHO giving himself a medal. Did he really?
What kind of twerp gives himself a medal? It’s sad medallion man territory
@ dearieme
The McCain healthcare would have been better than Obamacare – and would have been passed in months, maybe weeks, if Obama had endorsed it in January 2009.
Edward Lud
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/01/05/obama-just-got-the-pentagons-medal-for-distinguished-public-service-its-more-common-than-critics-think/?utm_term=.dcf1dde894b9
Bush junior gave himself one too. As did Bill Clinton.
@Edward Lud I gave myself a VC and Bar – the chicks go mad for it. Mention that you got one for stuff you can’t talk about which happened ‘in some fucking sandpit’ and you’re golden.
Laci Green, one of TIME magazine’s Thirty Most Influential People on the Internet’ (me neither) pre-election on Twitter, when she thought Hills was going to win:
Regardless of the outcome, we are clearly a *deeply* divided and broken country. So much work ahead to mend, heal, and restore the U in USA.
Laci Green post-election on Twitter:
We are now under total Republican rule. Textbook fascism. Fuck you, white America. Fuck you, you racist, misogynist pieces of shit. G’night.
I think I just gave myself a hernia laughing.
@Dennis the P
Isn’t it The Onion’s readership the NYT’s going for? There’s certainly a remarkable similarity in the content.
Isn’t it The Onion’s readership [what] the NYT’s going for? There’s certainly a remarkable similarity in the content.
I doubt it. The New York Times lacks The Onion’s self-awareness.
LPT,
“And, as I pointed out on another thread recently, non-voters could plausibly be considered to be more likely to fall in the ‘leave me alone’ camp, which, arguably, makes them conservative, or at least non-elitist. In other words, had they been forced to vote I think that would have hurt Hillary more than Trump.”
The excellent Fat Bigot (opines) (who I see has started blogging again) wrote an essay in which he argued, convincingly* that those who don’t vote in any election are saying they accept the decision of those who do vote. I wish I’d saved it, maybe I’ll write to him.
*IIRC he’s a barrister so that would be expected.
It’s amazing how much the left have started to care about ‘respect’ and ‘humility’ since they lost.
LPT, BiND,
I thought it had been made clear that when a right wing party gains power, the people who didn’t vote would always have voted for the lefty option if only they… er… hadn’t been so terribly busy on Election Day.
@BiND
Abstention in any democratic vote* only has one legitimate interpretation: I have no strong opinion on this matter, and I will accept the views of the majority. That’s equally true whether you’re voting in the Board Room; on the Parish Council; or in a referendum.
* There may be an exception where there’s a threshold number of votes required, say a 60% turnout – but that’s not the case in any of my examples.
@John77: the McCain healthcare would probably have been irrelevant if the little twat had started a war with Russia.