Disclaimer: This is a subjective view, my opinion and not a general population study. It also includes a bit of conspiracy theory backed by a few facts.
The Campaign
First of all I will put my view on the presidential campaign in one word, and this is not hard to do: I am disgusted.
Disgusted by all this mud throwing and people getting really aggressive and not least the lies on all sides.
Interestingly, I read 2 days ago, more then half of the US people are disgusted, too. You could interpret a lot into this number, but you don’t need a German for this.
The Candidates
If I wanted to describe the candidates with abbreviations, I would opt for WTF and OMG.
WTF is for Trump, the women-hating, nuking-loving, idiotic liar who does not even know the meaning of the word fact. He is an abomination who has more right to be in a lunatic asylum then in the White House. Who votes for him?
OMG is for Clinton, the war-loving socket puppet of Wall Street. Are there really voters who thing she will do something to benefit the lower 90%? Even if she wanted to, her complete network is from the top 10% and will not allow this.
As a German I thought a Finance Minister that does not even understand the basics of double accounting and thinks a countries finances are like a piggy bank is bad, but this pair… poor US voters.
But why do you have those candidates?
Hillary, ok, she was the candidate for the establishment. She was pushed by the big boys in the Democratic Party, who also used every means they had to not let Bernie Sanders be the candidate (The only good one I know of, but of course he is anti-establishment and cares for the small people, so he is a no-go for the bigs.)
But in all hells, how did you get to Trump?
Well, there is a “conspiracy theory” backed by some of the leaked emails. Just read it for yourself: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/11/elevating-trump/
The Filter Bubbles
You dont’t believe that mass media could have such an influence? Strange. After all, lots of people buy expensive brands that are no better then store brands. Because of mass media and their advertisements. And I think most people put more brain in deciding who they want as president then which brand of shampoo they use.
Have you ever looked at a Trump-newspaper-website and a Clinton-newspaper-website side by side?
The Trump site is blasting full steam how successful Trump is in beating Clinton, how he let her dance to his words and – Holy Shit! - see what bad thing Clinton has done AGAIN!!!!!!
On the other side the Clinton website is boasting how Clinton smartly outmaneuvered Trump on every single point he made, a crushing defeat. And look, he did bad things to ANOTHER woman!!!!!!
Granted, an uncooked egg could probably outmaneuver Trump. Just look how he jumped on Clinton calling him Donald (which he hates) as often as possible even after he pleaded for a bit more courtesy from the Secretary.
But another part in this drama goes to the social networks. The inner workings and logic of those dictate that the user only sees what is already his opinion, and even if there is sometimes something showing he is wrong, it just makes his believes stronger – a strange psychological mechanism, possibly explaining a well known bias from police etc. that a suspect where you can’t find evidence is just good at hiding.
Anyway: This campaign is not an election but a diversion of the people away from the topics they need to care about. And the self-reinforcing bubbles most people are in make it even worse.
Trump has faults and has not turned out to be a good politician. However, he has staked out bold positions on core issues, and would make a good to great president.
That statement is so wrong. We have seen every institution in America corrupted. This election is the last chance. If the Establishment completes it personal destruction of Trump, who would run against them ever again? And it won't make any difference. The FBI, Justice Dept., IRS, EPA and ever other branch of government has been weaponized against the people. If Hillary takes control of the Supreme Court, it's over. There is no longer any justice for the wrong sort of people. Hillary will be untouchable.
Trump, maybe flawed, is the last hope for America to avoid a period of near revolution.
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Have you read the linked article? If not, do it.
When I wrote this piece I thought about writing about your topic, but I decided against it. It is quite a different.. ah, spin. And I could/would make it several pages more. Too long.
What you say is congruent to a lot of "uprisings". In the USA Bernie Sanders. In the UK... forgot his name. In Germany the extreme right wing AfD. Other "hold them accountable" right wing movements, using hate of asylum seekers, are strong. In Island we have the Pirate Party probably getting the most votes next(?) weekend. Even in Japan, if you count the green+transparency movement, there is a deep feeling of people not getting their rights.
In a way even the arab spring could be counted in this list. All those movements have at least a little part from the indignation against the banks that crushed the economy in 2007 and where the banksters got bonuses for it.
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Your linked article describes a WikiLeak where the Dems figured Trump would be easy to beat. Hence, the MSM gave Trump favorable coverage until the minute he secured the nomination. Since then they've been 91% negative in one study.
As usual, the Left was wrong to think Trump was a weak general election candidate. The media would have destroyed any Republican candidate, and Trump was easily the most appealing of the bunch. He is promoting modern or neo-conservatism, which is traditional Americanism (see Understanding Trump).
Micheal Moore, a far left Hillary supporter, said this last week that Trump will win because the forgotten people in our corrupt system are going to give an historic huge middle finger to the ruling establishment. I hope he's right.
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I'm also a German and this is my reason why I think Hillary would be maybe the better choice: She is the most transparently corrupt politician in history. If she wins more and more people will wake up and see that their system is rotten to the core. I dont think we will see a voter turnout of more than 40% while the mainstream cable news networks are collapsing over the next few years. So from an educational standpoint of view a Hillary presidency would be better. But on the other hand she would likely start WWIII so thats a little downside but Trump could also start a war because starting wars is what presidents do.
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you have a new follower :-)
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welcome ^^
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Right what you are describing is exactly what is happening here. However it is our own fault that we let the happen as people. Nobody cares about the issues everyone only follows the mud.
But to be fair is this not what always happens? Look at your analysis. Are you looking at what the candidate stands for? No. All you do is look at the mud. So what you are complaining about you actually enforce. Its what everyone does. Complain about the mud throwing and then throws some mud.
I can't disagree with you, but then again this is what people want. I hope they are all entertained!
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Hillary stands for Finance Industry. Trump stands for himself, pathologically. What should I look for?
Also this is not mud throwing, I look at the candidates but I don't write my opinion about them except 2x2 lines which only include what is blatently visible.
Also compared to what I wrote about some of Germanys leading politicians this is nearly friendly ;)
And yes, I know what journalists make out of your program and words even if they don't try to be unfriendly. I was a candidate once, too.
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naja.
to me you were not discussing what they stand for at all and clearly their programs don't agree with your assessment.
It was a nice article, but in the end you focused on all the things the other media focuses on as well. Just personal attacks. That's what sells and is easy to produce. Its good strategy but for me personally not helpful. But the majority of people i think likes it.
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