Please lock if already posted, but I thought this deserved its own thread. EJ is a great guy, and I really appreciated the candor and openness of the discussion on the pregame show tonight. Edit: Just found some posts from the GARM and Dish. Please merge if possible.
Big fan of EJ, but that was hard to watch. He and the rest of the media are part of the problem, suggesting that Clinton is actually just as bad as Trump. It's not even remotely close and his justification for voting Kasich was disappointing to say the least.
You are right it is not remotely close. She is much, much worse. She is the most corrupt politician in modern history. The fact that someone like Trump could beat her is proof positive.
Here's the entire segment, which is also worth a watch. I am really impressed with all of them: You are putting words in his mouth. He did not say that she was as bad as Trump - he said that he didn't feel comfortable voting for either one. The media isn't the problem, people like you are. People who think they know what is best for other Americans to say or do - and then you twist their words to fit your narrative. The man couldn't look past Hillary's lies and deceit, nor could he look past Trump's sexism and bigotry. The only wasted vote is voting for someone you don't believe in, so I have tremendous respect for people who refused to vote for the lesser of two evils. The fact that as a whole, we continue to vote for the lesser of two evils is what got us to this point in the first place. While I agree Trump winning backs up the fact that she was corrupt, defending Trump's actions by saying Clinton was worse is the wrong way of going about it. As they said, we hope that President Trump, is a better man than Candidate Trump, and over the past 48-hours, I think it is clear that he sees that he needs to change his tone and actions. Now will that happen for the long term? I don't know, but until he proves otherwise - he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
I was originally a Ted Cruz supporter and could not stand Trump. I was for a short time a #nevertrump person until I realized the alternative was Hillary. While I did cast a ballot for Trump it was more of a ballot against Hillary. Unfortunately, Trump was the only one who could beat her so I had to vote for him. My vote was almost 100% due to the SCOTUS ramifications of Hillary becoming President. I still do not care for Trump but I am glad he won. I do hope Trump can become a President everyone will be proud of. The ball is in his court. Only time will tell.
EJ will come to realize that Trump will be the worst president in the history of the US. You don't walk in as naive as Trump about gov't - he's already bring in ultra-right wing insiders who are influencing his policy. You can expect the deportations and wall with a radical reversal in immigration policy. I was hopeful for about 30 minutes until I saw how he was building his cabinet.
You completely miss the point, which seems to be a common theme from the left these days. The fact that you, or anyone think that they know what the next four years will bring us is shortsighted, and just as ignorant as anything Trump has said in the past.
I respect Ernie's position. I think reasonable people can disagree on what's the right choice to make at the ballot box -- voting for the "lesser of two evils" or going with your conscience. The outcome isn't what a lot of us wanted, but rather than blame voters we should look deeper at how we got to this point that these were the two major party candidates to choose from. *That's* the problem to be fixed. Clinton's fatal flaw of needing to hide all her vulnerabilities to the extent that she's willing to skirt the law to do so was a major red flag. I voted for her, but I had no illusions that she'd be an effective president despite her positive qualities (intelligent, hard-working, experienced). Not with so many in the country despising her (rightly or wrongly) and her lack of charisma to draw people to her side. Hillary supporters need to get over their despair, and just as importantly both sides need to get over their anger and resentment. Hating others, as good as it may feel, really doesn't accomplish anything. We need to figure out how to move forward together (or, at least, mostly together) or not at all. It may be a frustratingly slow process. But being united while understanding there are differences we need to work out is a much better place to be compared to being a divided country with each side trying to push forward their agenda as aggressively as possible, the other side be damned. Sorry, that was a bit of a ramble.
That's not true, people do it all the time. Just as people who buy entry level vehicles pass the speed limit on a regular basis. That's the point, you have no idea how people are going to drive until you put them behind the wheel... you also don't know how they'll drive once they get a feel for the road, and the vehicle they are in. You can make an assumption based upon how you've seen them drive under supervision, but you don't know for sure how they'll react with the power once they are the ones in control. Case in point, Obama the candidate was much different than Obama the President - and George W. the candidate, was a completely different person than post 9/11 George W. Long story short, until proven otherwise - Trump should be given the benefit of the doubt. The election results should afford him that right. That's how our constitutional republic has operated since 1787. Well said.
When you say you will do x and start building a cabinet that reflect what you will say you will do, then not expecting them to follow through to a large degree or at least try to in naive at best.