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Hillary Clinton

Clinton: I Won the Places 'Moving Forwards,' Trump Won the Places 'Looking Backwards'

In the battle of smug liberals vs. conservative trolls, the former Democratic nominee makes a strong showing.

Katherine Mangu-Ward | 3.13.2018 12:05 PM

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Large image on homepages | Screenshot/India Today
(Screenshot/India Today)

"If you look at the map of the United States, there's all that red in the middle where Trump won," said Hillary Clinton this weekend at a speech in Mumbai. "I win the coast….I won the places that represent two-thirds of America's gross domestic product. So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. And his whole campaign, 'Make America Great Again,' was looking backwards."

Clinton goes on to explain that Trump's message was: "You didn't like black people getting rights, you don't like women, you know, getting jobs. You…see that Indian-American succeeding more than you are. Whatever your problem is, I'm going to solve it."

This weekend in The New York Times, I pondered the relationship between smug liberalism and trollish conservatism. I can only assume that it's because Donald Trump has been extremely busy with some H.R. matters that he hasn't made time for a retaliatory tweet about this speech. But these comments are a great example of the liberal side of the rhetorical breakdown in American politics:

Modern American political discourse can seem disjointed to the point of absurdism. But the problem isn't just filter bubbles, echo chambers or alternative facts. It's tone: When the loudest voices on the left talk about people on the right as either beyond the pale or dupes of their betters, it is with an air of barely concealed smugness. Right-wingers, for their part, increasingly respond with a churlish "Oh, yeah? Hold my beer," and then double down on whatever politically incorrect sentiment brought on the disdain in the first place.

These two terrible tendencies now feed off each other, growing stronger every day: the more smugness, the more satisfying it is to poke holes in it; the more toxic the trolling, the greater the sense of moral superiority. The result: an odoriferous stew of political rhetoric that is nearly irresistible to those on the inside and confusingly abhorrent to those on the outside.

I dug into the specific problem of what happens when you genuinely believe the narrative that Trump voters are primarily racist, sexist, or puppets—as Clinton clearly does—a bit more in a conversation with Issac Chotiner at Slate yesterday, as well at the idea that if Clinton's narrative is true, that she is obliged to tell it:

Slate: OK, but I'm a writer. You're a writer. I want to say what I think. I still haven't quite figured out how to not smugly say that I think Donald Trump is a con man taking advantage of his voters. I don't think every Republican, or the entire Republican Party's platform, or libertarianism, or social conservatism, is just about conning voters. I do think Donald Trump is a con man, and he is essentially conning his voters to enrich his family. I don't know how to say that without sounding smug and without immediately telling essentially everyone who voted for him, "You got conned." I just don't quite understand how to get out of that pickle when you have someone like Donald Trump as president.

KMW: Your response is very similar to a significant portion of the response to this piece. That is to say, of the people who replied to me on Twitter and elsewhere, the vast majority of people who were "team smug" offered some variant of what you just said, like, "But we're right, and they're wrong, and so what do we do?" All due respect to you and all those people, that's precisely the problem. You are the problem. That is to say, just because you have an analysis of why someone voted the way they did and you think that it's wrong, you don't have to say it out loud. Having said it out loud lots of times, and it having not been effective as a rhetorical move to shift the political landscape in the direction that you want, why not try another tack?

Clinton is clearly unlikely to be swayed into believing another version of the story about how she lost, and her belief is shared by many. Her account might even be the correct one (though as I said in the Times and at Slate in my uneasy oracular role, I don't think that's the case). But she's certainly not helping her political party find its footing in the new landscape, nor is she improving the quality of the discourse by rehearsing this version yet again.

The same is true, as Reason has frequently written, for Trump's trolling on Twitter and elsewhere. But in this week's round of smugs vs. trolls, Clinton has made a strong showing for team smug.

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NEXT: Drunk History: When the Government Banned Female Bartenders

Katherine Mangu-Ward is editor in chief of Reason.

Hillary ClintonLiberalism
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  1. colorblindkid   7 years ago

    Go ahead, keep talking, you condescending fucking demon.

    1. Zeb   7 years ago

      Seriously. What the hell does she think she's going to accomplish here? Further insulting and demeaning voters looks like a winning strategy?

      1. nrob   7 years ago

        She can't put a hit out on millions of people, she's left with petty passive aggressiveness and hopeless inadequacy.

        1. colorblindkid   7 years ago

          She is no less horrible of a human being than Trump is. Her cult following is just as confounding to me as Trump's is. It's actually more infuriating because it's led by a bunch of people who consider themselves to be enlightened intellectuals.

          1. nrob   7 years ago

            Oh I'm not making comparisons, just commenting on her past. Her past is the number one reason why she wasn't elected. This was a shit sandwich election, and voters picked the one with a hint of Dijon mustard aftertaste.

          2. John   7 years ago

            How many people have Trump abandoned to die like Hillary did in Benghazi?

          3. m1shu   7 years ago

            She's so horrible that the electorate took a chance on an inexperienced horrible person. That's a special kind of horrible.

          4. The Laissez-Ferret   7 years ago

            Trump hasn't had people killed so he does have that going for him.

            1. Gaear Grimsrud   7 years ago

              Pretty sure these folks would disagree.

              https://tinyurl.com/yctp52ac

            2. The ghOst of mcgOo   7 years ago

              Way, way, way too early to make such a statement. Now that Rexxon has departed, you will now witness the power of this fully operational Death Star. Or not. Tillerson was the only thing in Trumps menagere of deplorables that gave me a bit of hope he wouldn't step on his own dick and throw us into another war. That hope has left me today. Good luck America, buckle up...

          5. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

            Trump,tweets boorish things and The Hag has people murdered, commits treason, pushes Marxism, protects serial rapists, etc.. Yeah, that's the same.

            1. The ghOst of mcgOo   7 years ago

              He's just warming up...

              1. Brett Bellmore   7 years ago

                So was she.

          6. ravenshrike   7 years ago

            Did Trump create a fake charity that promised to help earthwuake victims and then not only not do so in any significant fashion but used a chunk of that money to pay for his daughter's wedding that I happen to be unaware of?

      2. Bubba Jones   7 years ago

        Fund raising.

      3. What's that smell?   7 years ago

        Her only goal is to keep her followers writing checks. Can be said of 99.9999% of pols.

    2. Derp-o-Matic 6000   7 years ago

      HILLARY 2020! MOAR FORWARDER! I'M WITH HER AND XER!

      Make it happen, progressives!

      1. vek   7 years ago

        Since she already mostly looks the part, perhaps she could officially go trans! This may or may not make her the first female president, depending on how someone views trans peoples gender, but I'm sure with such MASSIVE virtue signalling it would push her over the edge with all those white middle class midwest voters she lost last time!!!

  2. KevinP   7 years ago

    A great article by the liberal editor of Vox who warned, several months ago: The wages of smug are Trump

    The smug style in American liberalism

    Quote:
    There is a smug style in American liberalism. It has been growing these past decades. It is a way of conducting politics, predicated on the belief that American life is not divided by moral difference or policy divergence ? not really ?but by the failure of half the country to know what's good for them.
    ?
    It has led an American ideology hitherto responsible for a great share of the good accomplished over the past century of our political life to a posture of reaction and disrespect: a condescending, defensive sneer toward any person or movement outside of its consensus, dressed up as a monopoly on reason.

    1. $park? leftist poser   7 years ago

      a condescending, defensive sneer toward any person or movement outside of its consensus, dressed up as a monopoly on reason.

      Well there goes the bulk of the Reason commentariat.

      1. Zeb   7 years ago

        Especially the "monopoly on reason" part. Libertarians are certainly not immune from that kind of thinking (in many cases they fall for it the hardest).

        1. John   7 years ago

          What most people regardless of their politics do not understand is that reason is value neutral. You can reason your way to any position if you just start out with the right assumptions. That is why when people use reason to justify horrible acts it is called "rationalization".

          So when people call someone else' position "irrational", they are really just saying "you don't share my perceptions and values". I find that most political debates are two sides with fundamentally opposed values or perception of the facts talking past each other and calling each other irrational.

          1. BestUsedCarSales   7 years ago

            I think that's the big insight. It's also why some amount of emotion is required for any effective argument. Those core values come from emotion, we can build off that logically in an attempt to maximize or minimize some value, but that value must be asserted a priori.

            1. John   7 years ago

              I think you have to understand what people's perceptions and values are if you want to persuade them. If you don't, then you will just talk past them. For example, you can't convince someone to support an economic policy on the basis of it being more efficient when that person values security over efficiency or they see that overall efficiency coming at their expense. Time and again people will argue for economic policies in the name of efficiency when those policies benefit them personally and then turn around and call someone who isn't benefited by it and objects irrational. Their interests may not be the ones who should win the day, but their position isn't irrational and your position is no less self-interested or more legitimate than theirs.

              1. Iheartskeet   7 years ago

                Hmm. I agree on the persuasion aspects, but not the last bit. Being rational doesn't automatically mean their views are "legitimate", if you mean that in a broad natural rights sense.

                For instance, if someone doesn't like my hateful speech, it may be rational (being generous with that term) for them to want to silence me, but not legitimate.

                Indeed, it seems like we have a whole Bill of Rights to protect us from behavior that to many (sometimes most) is "rational" but isn't legitimate.

              2. Nardz   7 years ago

                I tend to use 'irrational' in the sense that someone's position is not rational - that is, their conclusions are unbalanced.
                "Trump doesn't want the military to admit transgender people, therefore Trump hates LGBT people and is literally Hitler. LGBT people should now live in fear," or, "Trump calls CNN and NYT fake news, therefore Trump is attacking freedom of the press because he is literally Hitler."

          2. damikesc   7 years ago

            I would argue that the Progs dont know what they are talking about.

            They live in mono-ethnic communities, send their kids to mono-ethnic schools, and work at mono-ethnic jobs.

            They "like" minorities in theory.

            In Chappequa, less than 1% of residents are black. Please, Hillary, tell me about my community's (20.16% black) racism.

            1. Nardz   7 years ago

              Damikesc, I'd agree.
              The southern public high school I went to was very "diverse" and integrated/fluid. The "elite" college I went to, full of people from Cali and New York and such, was a different kind of diverse and loved to talk about diversity, but I was thrown off because the atmosphere was actually extremely segregated.
              The more "socially conscious" people are the more self conscious they become, and the less comfortable everyone is. Everyone, that is, who is naturally resistant to arbitrary rules and regulations. Progressives are people who like PC because the strict illogic of PC is what enables them to succeed and gives them a competitive advantage against more inherently gifted natures.

              1. Nardz   7 years ago

                Herein is the battle between collectivism and individuality - it is the naturally dependent vs those capable and inclined toward independence.
                As civilization develops, there is a necessity to guard against those who would arrange the system to exclude self reliance, which is already difficult as cooperation can provide advantages to even the self-reliant.
                Cooperation is very different than compulsion though. Dependent natures (collectivists) compulsively seek to require All to live according to dependent conditions. That is why all socialism is totalitarian.

              2. Agnes   7 years ago

                I came from a small southern town which wasn't very diverse but that doesn't mean that all of those people were terrible and racist simply because we didn't have a lot of minority students.
                Believe it or not, small town white southerners can be open minded, too. And that's where she missed her mark.

                She had no issue hiding her snobbery and it pissed people off. You can't drive past half of the country and only show enthusiasm for the exciting parts, of which whom, you are hanging out with only the elite of the elite.

          3. Nardz   7 years ago

            Such responses are irrational. One may be uncomfortable with Trump's positions in those cases, and disagree/oppose/criticize them, but they so often immediately jump to the hyperbolic or superlative. That is what I'd characterize as irrational.

      2. CE   7 years ago

        Only we don't have a problem with monopolies.

    2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   7 years ago

      This has been a long time coming, and establishment Democrats have learned nothing. However, there are a lot of people on the left who do get it, and it behooves us to not lump them in with "Democrats".

      1. John   7 years ago

        What exactly do these people get? What positions can you hold on the left now that do not require you to have contempt for middle and lower class white people and especially straight white people? Moreover, if there are such positions, how can you renounce all of the leftist' positions that require such hatred and still fairly call yourself on the left?

        1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   7 years ago

          What positions can you hold on the left now that do not require you to have contempt for middle and lower class white people and especially straight white people?

          Glenn Greenwald, for instance, is someone who would describe himself as "on the left" who's done some of the best Journalism on the election and its aftermath, and understands the landscape. Watch the video I posted in the "Republicans conclude" thread.

          Brenan O'Neill who describes himself as a "cultural marxist" was pro Brexit, anti Hillary, anti-establishment, has a full trust in the individual to make his or her own choices and maintains utter contempt for PC culture, SJW tactics and New Feminism. He explains his position on these issues as not a result of him moving away from the left, but the left moving away from him.

          1. John   7 years ago

            Greenwald is persona nongrata among leftists. While I do respect his integrity for telling the truth about abuses of power under Obama, I don't see how you could call him particularly friendly towards the people we are talking about. As far as O"Neill goes, being a culture Marxist necessarily entails having some economic class that is the designated scape goat. Maybe he doesn't hate middle and lower class Americans who are not part of the minority grievance machine. But, I think it takes more than just hating PC to be that way. What positions does he hold that don't show utter contempt for the average American who doesn't want their community overrun with third world refugees and is tired of watching his standard of living go down in the name of globalism?

            1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   7 years ago

              Not everything is about Immigration, John. All I know is my youtube feed is starting to fill up with a combination of "conservative" and "progressive" channels. It's amazing how similar the sentiments are on certain issues. Many of these "intersectional" (if I may) sentiments are a distrust of elite institutions, a hatred of the Democratic party-- and a belief that the Democrats are a corrupt, lying bunch of thieves which have nothing but disdain for the working class (race not mentioned). A distrust of either "corporate" or "mainstream" media-- however you choose to describe it. A complete rejection of the "Russian meddling" narrative. The list goes on.

              1. John   7 years ago

                The far left has gotten so horrible, anyone who isn't insane can see it. So to that degree, there is some common ground. But I am not sure how big it is.

                1. Zeb   7 years ago

                  I'm starting to think that there is more common ground than I once believed. Like Paul says, you can go on Youtube and find people of all kinds of political views who have just had enough of the SJW identity politics shit. I'm a little hopeful that actual liberalism may have a resurgence in the center-left. The far left is just so insane now that they are driving off a lot of people who used to think they were on the same side.

          2. Paper Wasp   7 years ago

            Thomas Frank writes from the left and was heavily critical of Hillary and her fawning press throughout the election cycle. I went to see him speak recently, actually. He's very critical of globalism and what it's done to labor. He's also fiercely critical of the smug Clintonite hatred of poor, blue collar, and displaced suburban and rural whites, saying "you're never going to get them to agree with anything you say if you start out by talking like you're better than they are or they're nothing but racist troglodytes."

            He's pro-union, which I could never get behind, but he never talks much about "identity politics" or feminist glurge. His schtick is mostly about labor and what the last 40 years of both parties have done to it. A Frankian candidate would probably be another Bernie or socialist, but he is highly critical of the Dems elitist contempt for average people.

        2. Zeb   7 years ago

          It's perfectly possible to be leftist without going all-in for the identity politics bullshit. You might get beat up by the SJW mob, but there is plenty of room there philosophically.

          1. Nardz   7 years ago

            Identity politics and SJWs are an inevitable consequence of collectivism.
            Left vs right has become largely meaningless, as the approaches that used to characterize have become more confused. For example, anti-government sentiment is a position traditionally defined as being on the left, yet we see Leftists push for ever expanding government scale. Even as they decry the current government, socialists pursue more government. Strict constitutionalists are commonly place on the right, though such a position favors relatively less restriction on people.
            The proper opposition is collective vs individual. What else really matters but the question of sovereignty (individual vs state) and its extent?

            1. Nardz   7 years ago

              Collectivism cannot help but create identity politics and SJWs as it's fundamental perspective is that of the group.
              Anybody that pursues collectivism, whether they describe themselves as left or right leaning, must understand that they are pursuing exactly that which we see in political correctness and SJWs - not as an accident, but as an inevitability.

    3. Mickey Rat   7 years ago

      This has been a problem on the Left since the Jacobins instituted The Terror because their great rationalizations of society annoyed so many people on the provinces that those people started to resist the Revolution.

    4. BYODB   7 years ago

      I quote that Vox article a lot, actually. It's a really great read and seemed pretty spot on to me by-and-large.

  3. OpenBordersLiberal-tarian   7 years ago

    Hillary said nothing wrong. Successful people with good jobs vote Democrat. Pathetic losers with no money vote Republican. You can tell this is the case because blue states are on average richer than red states. So it logically follows that the poor vote Republican.

    If right-wing snowflakes get upset by these facts, that's their problem.

    1. Scarecrow Repair & Chippering   7 years ago

      You're losing your audience. Too predictable, not enough humor or sarcasm, and definitely nothing surprising left.

    2. nrob   7 years ago

      Many of those rich states were former Republican stalwarts until the Great Society.

    3. NoVaNick   7 years ago

      You can tell this is the case because blue states are on average richer than red states

      Ah, but these places have much higher INEQUALITY. In other words, wealthy progs who can live off their investments are supported by an underpaid peasant class who cuts their grass, raises their kids, and cleans their houses. Now go guilt some OBL bot, and come back when you find some of these wealthy successful people who are willing to redistribute some of their wealth through a huge tax hit.

      1. BikeRider   7 years ago

        I live in Southeast WI. A few years ago we took my son to California to look at a college. We landed in LA and drove a couple hours north on non-interstate roads. At the end of the drive my son commented on the wealth disparity. Compared to our area the poor are even poorer and the rich are even richer. My son was 17 years old and he could see the difference just from driving around.

        1. BestUsedCarSales   7 years ago

          Wealth disparity is a popular metric because it's pretty simple. But some of it is naturally true that in a rich area there will be more disparity, because you can only be so poor but there is no practical limit on how rich you can be. Maybe it's bad, I don't know. Certainly it's a point against many of those who choose to make income disparity a major issue, but I'm not sold overall on how important it is.

          I think the biggest thing to note is the cultural disparity. That socially, these two groups are increasingly isolated from one another. They don't know each other, they don't work with each other, they don't go to the same leisure activities. They do not interact. This is a very troubling trend I think, and it's been Charles Murray's major topic for the last while.

          It's why, I think, we have something I'm often fascinated about. When you see a certain type of elite, probably more intellectual than wealth but there is a lot of crossover, who talks about the poor in glowing terms. But simultaneously is derisive about many things a lot of lower class people care deeply about. It's an interesting isolation.

          1. nrob   7 years ago

            No better case than Washington DC itself for that.

        2. SimonP   7 years ago

          "Southeast WI" being essentially white-flight suburbs of Chicago and Milwaukee, it's not surprising your sheltered son hadn't seen income disparity up-close and in person yet. News flash! Income disparity in Wisconsin is on the rise! I trust that you guys don't go up to Milwaukee very often?

          1. Red Rocks White Privilege   7 years ago

            "Southeast WI" being essentially white-flight suburbs of Chicago and Milwaukee, it's not surprising your sheltered son hadn't seen income disparity up-close and in person yet

            It's always nice when shitlibs admit their urbanite bugman hives are a haven of wealth disparity.

      2. TrickyVic (old school)   7 years ago

        ""wealthy progs who can live off their investments are supported by an underpaid peasant class who cuts their grass, raises their kids, and cleans their houses"'

        But enough about Hillary.

    4. BigChiefWahoo   7 years ago

      People with good government jobs tend to vote Democrat. Blue state have more government and more government jobs, thus more Democrat voters. Self-interested Democrat voters, that is.

    5. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   7 years ago

      The biggest threat to Hillary Clinton? Stairs.

    6. vek   7 years ago

      Correction: People who went to college, and got indoctrinated, and then proceeded to work cubicle jobs, tend to vote Democrat. The very wealthy, like business owners and high level managers, tend to vote more Republican because they "get it."

      Basically mildly intelligent cogs in the machine vote Dem, and the actual gifted people tend to be libertarian or conservative.

      ALSO your real world standard of living, when comparing income to cost of living, is highest in the midwest, south, and southwest... NOT the coasts. Funny that. For all the smugness of Californians who think they're making the big bucks, that go in Des Moines or Kansas City actually has a bigger house, nicer car, more money in the bank, and can afford to take more vacations! Who is really winning there?

    7. ChuckNorrisBeardFist   7 years ago

      Except that most of the homeless live in CA. And by poor, you mean blacks right or Hispanics ? But they live in the big blue cities so they don't count.

      Sigh!

  4. Chipper Morning Baculum   7 years ago

    This actually makes sense. Progressives believe in history marching forward into progress, and conservatives believe history is degenerating from an idyllic past. Libertarians recognize that the chart of human progress does not follow a monotonic trajectory.

    1. mad.casual   7 years ago

      IDK, it seems like Progressives believe that we *must* march history forward into progress. If progress just happened, you wouldn't need government or social advocacy. Conservatives/libertarians just recognize that not every action (social or otherwise) implies progress and distinguishing them on the terms you have is ceding the progressive view of both ideologies. Conservatives don't actually want to go back to the 1950s any more than libertarians want to go back to the 1850s or 1776 or whatever.

      1. cgr2727   7 years ago

        I dunno, the 1850's seem like they'd be ok. Wasn't it fairly common for congresscritters to cudgel one another over the head with their walking sticks back then? I'll take that state of affairs.

        1. mad.casual   7 years ago

          Wasn't it fairly common for congresscritters to cudgel one another over the head with their walking sticks back then? I'll take that state of affairs.

          I'm going to assume, as a libertarian, you metaphorically want fewer elected representatives and/or representatives to be more openly hostile to each other. Rather than be a progressive asshole and assert you want women back in the kitchen, negroes, mexicans, and chinamen working on the railroad, and 3 of your 6 children to die before the age of 2.

          1. vek   7 years ago

            We just need the social conditions of the 1850s, but with microwaves and cars and shit. If we nixed slavery, but kept most of the rest of it, it would actually be a pretty fucking amazing world IMO.

        2. DarrenM   7 years ago

          I'd say pistol duels would be more entertaining, but that's just me.

          1. vek   7 years ago

            Or knife duels!

            Politics was so much more awesome back in the day. Hamilton vs Burr, Jackson knife fighting people... We need politicians like THAT again.

            I would literally give my left testicle to see Clinton and Trump have a knife duel to the death. Literally. I seriously would.

        3. Mickey Rat   7 years ago

          If you mean by "fairly common", that there was one infamous incident, then yes.

        4. Stony Lonesome   7 years ago

          But you also had people owning other people. IMO 1870s-1920s see most "Libertarian", perhaps non-coincidently, this was the period of highest US economic growth.

    2. sparkstable   7 years ago

      Marx believed in a march of history. Progressives believe not that the future is certain, but the opposite. They believe it can be made how the see fit. That the elite ought to place walls around the various choices of the yet-un-improved so as to mold him into an acceptable and perfected man. Thus, with perfect men you can have a perfect society and then perfect future. The mechanism for molding man is force, but naked force is vile. That is why the Progressive uses the state... It is the refined application of violence couched with a veneer or moral superiority.

      1. Nardz   7 years ago

        This is extremely well put.
        Extremely well put.
        (Have to say it twice for emphasis)

        It's why, to their great shame, they secretly/pathologically admire Hitler, Stalin, and Mao - the 3 most Progressive men of the modern era.

    3. Rebel Scum   7 years ago

      Progressives believe in history marching forward into progress

      They use the word "progress", but I don't think it means what they think it means.

  5. Paulpemb   7 years ago

    " I do think Donald Trump is a con man, and he is essentially conning his voters to enrich his family. I don't know how to say that without sounding smug and without immediately telling essentially everyone who voted for him."

    These people still don't understand: Every politician is a con man using his supporters to enrich himself. I presume he supported Hillary Clinton, who has done extremely well for herself from her career in public 'service'.

    Also, that being said, Donald Trump has almost certainly lost money by running for President. Most of his wealth comes from urban real estate and entertainment, two fields that are almost exclusively dominated by the Democratic party. He will never go back to what he was doing before running for President, and neither will any member of his family.

    1. colorblindkid   7 years ago

      The only thing different about Trump is he's bad at it. Also, only the most ardent Trumpsters actually fall for his shtick. Most Trump voters fully knew what they were getting. Democrats need to stop confusing the die-hard Trump supporters with Trump voters.

      1. John   7 years ago

        Judging by the results, I do not see how you can say Trump is a bad President unless your measure of a President is how well they kiss the media's ass. I think most people judge Trump by his actions and don't give a shit what he says or take any of it that seriously. The only people who do are people looking to virtue signal their alleged superiority over those evil Trumpsters, whoever the fuck they are.

      2. sparkstable   7 years ago

        The last part of your comment is lost of both the left and the diehard Trump supporters. I voted for Johnson (blech) but was super tempted to vote for the giant FU to the system and go for Trump. I KNOW he's a brute. I know he's unprincipled. I know he's unpredictable. But I also knew that one of two things were certain... he would be better than what we've had in song time (and he somehow seems to managed this, although not perfect by ANY measure... It's just a bar so low it's setting on the ground) OR he would break the system. The establishment wasn't going to let him be worse because that would mean playing with their ball and setting at their table. Either outcome was vastly better than the Hildabeast.

        1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

          At this point we really need to look at what to do with the progressives. Things are escalating. Something will have to be done about them. Sooner or later.

          1. Nardz   7 years ago

            Yes, Elias, we do.
            And it's a paradox.
            How do we stop them without becoming them?

            "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

            A hard question.

            1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

              The difference is that we're fighting to be left alone, and they're fighting to control and enslave us. Dealing with them is like fending off a home invasion. So if something bad happens to them. It's purely self defense.

              They should be given a chance to abandon their slaver Marxist beliefs. If they won't do that, and they keep coming, then any harm suffered is on them.

              1. Nardz   7 years ago

                Oh, I fully agree with you. The problem is that they control the 'means of production' in the information age - media, academia, gov't, multinationals. At the moment, I think the best we can do is to hold our ground and let them self-destruct. Avoiding their blast radius will be difficult, but more and more people are starting to see them for the psychotics they are. The more people refuse to accept their terms, the more unbalanced the progressives become.
                What will be key is communication. Much of what has been said in this comment section has to be disseminated to wider audiences. Simply pointing out the implications of their actions is important.
                The sane of us, who see the danger of progressivism, need to be better about organizing. Not necessarily for activism, but open lines of communication that can be used to bring us together in event of crisis. Progressives, as collectivists, have held a huge advantage in organization and activism. The difficult individualists have with joint action will have to be overcome and put aside. The founding fathers were able to do exactly that. At some point, the tree of liberty may have to be replanted.

          2. vek   7 years ago

            Honestly, I don't have any problem with violence in the right situation. I'm no psycho, and would never go randomly hurt people. But people who make non-violence this overly holy thing, that you cannot ever use force... They're idiots.

            Think about it. If the Founding Fathers had the mindset of people like the writers at Reason, we'd still have the queen on our money, and be living in a socialist hell scape with no freedom of speech, no gun rights, massive taxes, etc.

            The founders were reasonable men. Jefferson was a straight up poof of an intellectual really. But they realized force was needed to fix their problems. I'm not saying we're at the point where we MUST use force... But, depending on how things go, we might not be too far from it. I don't think we're in 1776 just yet, but there were plenty of grievances in the 1760s, and we could well be in the late 1760s...

            1. Nardz   7 years ago

              Vek,
              Agreed. I honestly think we're doomed without violence, and non-violence as an absolute value is simply suicide.
              My point above, unfortunately, is that I don't think we're at the point where violence will be acceptable to a large enough amount of the population. At this point, I think it would backfire.
              But I'm also a firm believer that the 9th amendment was included as, implicitly in conjunction with the other 9 amendments, the right to violent revolution. As an aside, the founders were big on numeric symbolism. This needs to be taken into account when analyzing the Constitution. And these men were revolutionaries - they foresaw the necessity of such.

        2. ChuckNorrisBeardFist   7 years ago

          I did decide to vote for the FU. I'll be honest, it's enjoyable so far. The left meltdown (Still ongoing), the media meltdown (increasing).

          Most people see his tweets, but if you look at his policies, I know didn't balance the budget..that's Congress though but still...he has been much better than Obama.

    2. jonnysage   7 years ago

      Exactly. They don't get that they are both wrong. Dems cons some people. GOP cons others. Slate cons people too.

    3. nrob   7 years ago

      "...I don't know how to say that without sounding smug and without sounding like I have decades of experience and international notoriety for doing this exact thing".

      There, fixed that for you Hillary.

      1. Cynical Asshole   7 years ago

        The original quote was some douche from Slate, not Hillary.

    4. CatoTheChipper   7 years ago

      Before WJC became Prez, he never had a job that paid more than $40k/year. Now he's nearly a centimillionaire and lives the lifestyle of a billionaire.

      But the Clintons were selfless public servants.

    5. DarrenM   7 years ago

      Yes. It's funny they don't recognize (or are unwilling to admit) that the clowns on their side are also con artists. I guess they enjoy getting conned too much to upset the boat.

  6. Longtorso, Johnny   7 years ago

    It's Time to Make Human-Chimp Hybrids

    ...In his book, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, David Livingstone Smith examined how dehumanization goes hand-in-hand with racism and genocide. Smith revealed a long-standing pattern whereby people, despite acknowledging that other human beings appear to be human, often maintain that in their essence?whatever that means?these others continue to be less than human. It is thus entirely possible that comparably stubborn biases will persist even if our biological continuity with other living things becomes undeniable. Moreover, people are certainly known to obscure inconvenient truths: It is said that when the wife of the Bishop of Worcester heard of Darwin's scandalous theory, she exclaimed "Descended from apes? My dear, let us hope that it isn't true, but if it is true, let us hope that it does not become widely known!"

    1. Longtorso, Johnny   7 years ago

      On the other hand, it seems equally likely that faced with individuals who are clearly intermediate between human and ape, it will become painfully obvious that a rigid distinction between the two is no longer tenable. But what about those presumably unfortunate individuals thereby produced? Neither fish nor fowl, wouldn't they find themselves intolerably unspecified and inchoate, doomed to a living hell of biological and social indeterminacy? This is possible, but it is at least arguable that the ultimate benefit of teaching human beings their true nature would be worth the sacrifice paid by a few unfortunates....

      1. Chipper Morning Baculum   7 years ago

        For what it is worth, I support the Great Ape Project that seeks to grant some rights to the great apes. I am also open to rights for dolphins and elephants. I say this as a hunter that supports trophy hunting.

      2. CE   7 years ago

        Shorter version: Humans already treat chimps badly because we view them as inferior, so let's make human-chimp hybrids who will still be inferior and still be treated badly, but will be better able to understand their predicament.

        1. BYODB   7 years ago

          Yeah, pretty much this. It's retarded.

    2. Enjoy Every Sandwich   7 years ago

      "God, schmod! I want my monkey-man!"

      1. Azathoth!!   7 years ago

        buy a mirror.

        1. Ariki   7 years ago

          Zoo, lubricant, and good aim?

    3. mad.casual   7 years ago

      dehumanization goes hand-in-hand with racism and genocide

      I don't know how to read this statement in a manner that doesn't also make the speaker a huge racist.

      Also, fuck biology.

    4. Mickey Rat   7 years ago

      It is a monstrous experiment that is suggested to make a rather childish and unconvincing point.

    5. vek   7 years ago

      The problem here is that there ARE gradients of how smart humans are. I still think everybody is owed certain basic rights, but to deny that some people are inferior to others is preposterous. Einstein IS better than some guy with down syndrome.

      Harsh but true! Nature is a very cruel bitch, but that's not my fault. I'm just a humble player, I didn't invent the game!

      1. Agnes   7 years ago

        But it's not nice to say...

  7. John   7 years ago

    What are the views that conservative trolls are supposedly doubling down on? Mangu Ward doesn't mention them. The article seems a bit thin without any actual examples of what she is talking about. What views does Ward think are so beyond the pale that even to hold them makes one a "Troll"?

    Liberals are smug but that can't be pointed out without also saying how conservatives are just as bad, even if we can't really tell you why. This is why people think the staff at reason are just leftists playing pretend for a paycheck.

    1. $park? leftist poser   7 years ago

      What are the views that conservative trolls are supposedly doubling down on?

      Read all of your comments in this article. I believe those may be the views you're looking for.

      1. John   7 years ago

        And those would be trollish why? What is trollish about saying that you can reasonably think Trump is a bad President because you don't like his policies but cannot reasonably say he is any worse than any other President whose policies you don't like? What is trollish about saying reason is value neutral? Or that the elite were more afraid of Trump succeeding than they were of him failing?

        What about those positions makes me a troll? What about any of them is unreasonable or even wrong?

        If you are going to make an accusation, you should have to back it up. If you can't, then shut the fuck up and stop wasting my time.

        1. $park? leftist poser   7 years ago

          Hey listen, you said you wanted examples and I told you where to find them. I get that you don't think you're being dumb or trollish but take a moment to think about what someone who has different views from yours might think. You made a pretty decent comment about people starting from different assumptions just a couple minutes ago. Apply that.

          1. John   7 years ago

            You gave examples and I don't see why they are trollish. So, please explain why those positions are unreasonable. You must have a reason for thinking they are. Give it. I don't see how asking for an explanation for why my posts on here are unreasonable is well unreasonable. So either back up your claim with an explanation or take it back.

            1. $park? leftist poser   7 years ago

              You gave examples and I don't see why they are trollish.

              That's actually what I just said. Holy shit, did you even read my comment? YOU don't see why they're trollish because they're YOUR thoughts. Now try reading them as if you don't agree with them.

              1. John   7 years ago

                Suppose they are. Just because they are my thoughts doesn't mean I can't see the error of them. If they are trollish explain why. If you can't, then perhaps they are not.

                You have yet to explain why you think these positions are trollish. Tell us your thoughts on this. Why do you think that? If you can't do that, then you must not really think that and were just talking shit like you usually do. If you can, then do so.

                Sorry but "you would never understand because they are your thoughts" isn't an answer. Give your reasoning for thinking that.

              2. sparkstable   7 years ago

                YOU said they were trolling. YOU explain what makes them so. That's how making a claim works. If my students wrote a paper and posited a thesis but the rest of the paper was "Now you, reader, go figure out why I'm right," they would get an F.

                1. $park? leftist poser   7 years ago

                  YOU said they were trolling. YOU explain what makes them so. That's how making a claim works.

                  I know it's late so you probably won't see this, but thanks for stopping by and missing the point.

                  1. John   7 years ago

                    No Sparky you missed the point. And it is a simple one; if you make a claim give your reasons.

                    1. Azathoth!!   7 years ago

                      John, Sparky's voice is coming from beneath a bridge.

                      And it has been for a while now..

                    2. $park? leftist poser   7 years ago

                      John, Sparky's voice is coming from beneath a bridge.

                      Says the guy who jumps in the middle from out of nowhere.

                    3. Azathoth!!   7 years ago

                      Everywhere.

                      from out of everywhere.

                    4. $park? leftist poser   7 years ago

                      I gave my reasons three times now and you keep refusing them. I don't know what else to tell you. Your sincerely held beliefs are someone else's trolling. Just like someone else's sincerely held beliefs are proggie emoting.

          2. John   7 years ago

            And I absolutely understand why someone would disagree with Trump's policies as president. Whether a policy is good or bad is a value judgment. What I do not see is how you could think that Trump is any worse than any other President who has policies that you don't like. It is one thing to say "I think Trump is doing bad things as president". It is quite another thing to say Trump is doing things which are a threat to the world or the Republic such that he is something worse than just a President whose policies you don't like.

            That is not failing to understand what other people think. It is the exact opposite.

            1. $park? leftist poser   7 years ago

              What I do not see is how you could think that Trump is any worse than any other President who has policies that you don't like.

              I don't, but for some reason there are people who do. Unfortunately I don't possess the spectacular insight into why other people think the way they do that many of the other commenters here seem to possess.

              1. John   7 years ago

                There are people who do. And if those positions are reasonable, then the reasons behind them should either be apparent or have been articulated by the people who hold these positions. You don't need to read someone's mind to conclude that a position is unreasonable or held for reasons other than necessary conclusions or reasonable assumptions given the facts. If a position is reasonable but just wrong, that should be obvious from the reasoning given in support of it.

                In this case, I have yet to hear any set of facts that could cause a reasonable person to conclude Trump is crazy, inordinately stupid or a uniquely bad President. That doesn't require the power of mind reading. It just requires looking at the facts and arguments given.

              2. Pro Libertate   7 years ago

                I don't understand how people think at all. I'm not sure I have total insight into how I think.

            2. Brett Bellmore   7 years ago

              Imagine that you're something of a utilitarian. The morality of an act is judged by it's consequences.

              Now, imagine that you're fighting a political battle with somebody who disagrees with you, but is just ordinarily bad. You're limited in what you can, as a utilitarian, justify doing to combat them; You can't do so much harm in fighting them that the sum of that harm and your (Presumably...) better policy is worse than your foe's policies without the collateral damage of fighting them. Utilitarian ethics limits the tactics you can resort to, possibly to the point where you might lose.

              Now, imagine that you're fighting a political battle with somebody who doesn't just disagree with you, but who is evil incarnate. A racist, sexist monster, the next Hitler, possibly even a genocide if not stopped.

              Suddenly you're free to engage in much worse tactics, and still be the good guy, because what you're averting if you win is so much worse. Anything short of marching your foes into ovens is ok, if you're fighting the next Hitler!

              That's the dynamic here, I think: For utilitarians, imagining the person you're opposing to be a horrible evil is liberating, so they have a strong incentive to exaggerate how bad their foes are.

              He who wants an excuse for becoming a dragon must imagine himself to be hunting dragons.", Nietzsche might have said.

              1. John   7 years ago

                That is a very good point, Brett. Also, imagining your opponent to be some great monster is a way of exaggerating your own importance. If people on the other side are just ordinary people who have a different opinion, then my politics and my political opinions are not that important. But if they are some great evil, then my politics and my opinions are a matter of great moral importance. I call it French Resistance syndrome. People want to believe they are fighting in the French Resistance instead of the ordinary people arguing over the ordinary issues they are.

              2. Nardz   7 years ago

                Brilliant.
                And it's funny, I just used that quote a few minutes ago up the board

            3. SimonP   7 years ago

              And I absolutely understand why someone would disagree with Trump's policies as president. Whether a policy is good or bad is a value judgment. What I do not see is how you could think that Trump is any worse than any other President who has policies that you don't like.

              So, sure. I think I can separate Trump's incompetence and preference for bad policy from his existential threat.

              On the one hand, you have the return to "abstinence-only education," opening up more natural resources for oil, gas, and mineral extraction while loosening regulatory oversight of the same, bad economic and tax policy. I'll even allow his re-shaping of the judicial branch to fall into this bucket, because even though that will fundamentally alter the politics of the judicial branch for a generation and will likely lead to the expansion of presidential power and rollback of hard-won rights and freedoms. Just "policy I disagree with," right?

              But here's what's "existential":

              Trump is undermining the post-war geopolitical consensus that has empowered the U.S. and liberal west against the forces of authoritarianism. He has simply abdicated from the global stage in this respect, and his emaciated State Department means that he now has a limited toolkit for dealing even with those issues he can be bothered to focus on. (A political resolution in Afghanistan, for instance, seems unlikely without full American engagement.)

            4. SimonP   7 years ago

              The story is becoming much the same on trade. We have the WTO for a reason: it serves American interests. But Trump can't wrap his head around multilateral deals with state actors that are as much about American security as they are about economic prosperity. He sees everything through a mercantilist lens, and the global economy will leave us behind.

              The same goes for his approach to climate change. Every year the window for avoiding the worst climate outcomes in the next century closes further, and the need to find ways to deal with the reality of climate change that we can't avoid increases. But Trump is seriously just punting on this issue.

              And then there's Russia. We now have a president who is unlawfully choosing not to enforce the sanctions law against Russia. Despite the intelligence consensus that the Russians sought to throw the 2016 election and are working to do the same in the 2018 midterms, he has shown no leadership or resolve to resist these efforts. He can't even bring himself to criticize Putin for engaging in politically-motivated assassinations in other nations. He is, for all intents and purposes, a Russian puppet, and you can see that in May's reaction to the assassination attempt the other day. One gets the sense that the Europeans have realized that they've been out-flanked by Russia and cannot count on the U.S. to have their backs, as long as Trump is president.

              1. BigT   7 years ago

                "Every year the window for avoiding the worst climate outcomes in the next century closes further,"

                The window was supposed to close in 1988, 1995, 2000, 2012, and 2016 according to the warmists. In reality it's all just alarmist BS. AGW is minimal or zero. Any changes are gradual, natural, and easily overcome.

                Goodbye chicken little.

              2. Nardz   7 years ago

                You've stated this well, Simon.
                But what looks so idyllic to you leaves me with a different impression.
                All that which you argue in support of, especially climate change activism/policy, is simply post-modern feudalism.
                The post war consensus may fight dictators... but what is the post war consensus other than a body of Lords who dictate through financial and legal regulation how the peasant masses must live?

          3. Kivlor   7 years ago

            Sparky, I think they hangup here is that for some reason KMU is calling what appear to be sincerely held beliefs to be trolling. But trolling is the opposite of sincerity. It's saying something just to mess with people and rile them up. I

            There's plenty of reasons that KMU may absolutely abhor the views of those on the right and beappalled that they are "doubling down" on these. But to call them trolling... that is a form of delegitimization she just won't bring to the table when dealing with the left.

            1. John   7 years ago

              Exactly. that is a great way to put it.

            2. $park? leftist poser   7 years ago

              I think they hangup here is that for some reason KMU is calling what appear to be sincerely held beliefs to be trolling.

              Maybe she is. I suppose that's much worse than calling someone's sincerely held beliefs unthinking emoting.

              1. Kivlor   7 years ago

                Maybe she is. I suppose that's much worse than calling someone's sincerely held beliefs unthinking emoting.

                I would argue it is worse. Both are insults. But the first one is basically saying "no one has to listen to you because you don't really believe any of that."

            3. vek   7 years ago

              I must admit, I do love me a little trolling from time to time...

              Lock her up! Then hang her for treason! Gas the beaners! Nuke Korea (both of them just to be sure!)!

              These are secret 2020 Trump campaign platform planks, I heard it from my buddy who works at the Kremlin... But don't tell the Dems... Shhhhhhh!

              1. Nardz   7 years ago

                Boris? Yea, Boris is a good guy. Great vodka recommendations.
                Btw, I hate Reasons comment system. Have to manually go back and check every article comments again just to see if there's a reply? Wtf? How hard is a notification or records keeping?
                Smh

                1. vek   7 years ago

                  Yup. It's awful. And a 1500 character limit on a site where there are actually lots of intelligent and insightful people willing to write out thoughtful responses... It totally is garbage.

    2. CatoTheChipper   7 years ago

      I imagine that most Reason writers would like to get a future gig at a major print or broadcast media outfit someday. Major media is left wing and they won't be able break through unless they make the "to be sure" caveats that keeps the cocktail party invitations coming.

      1. Iheartskeet   7 years ago

        This sounds most plausible. Work and otherwise, I am guessing they swim in a literal sea of people with a visceral hatred of Trump, and it results in a certain amount of social conditioning.

        1. BigT   7 years ago

          Groupthink at work.

      2. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

        Another good reason to bring McCarthyism back. To go after the Progressive propagandists in the media. Almost everything post election 2016 proves how necessary it is to stop them.

        1. vek   7 years ago

          McCarthy was right. That's why the left has always used him as an example of being a crazy witch hunt... To make him seem crazy, when in fact history has borne out him being correct. The communists WERE infiltrating government, academia, the media, etc. He may have been wrong about certain particulars, but he got the broad strokes totally correct.

  8. Scarecrow Repair & Chippering   7 years ago

    And Hillary and all her supporters quite naturally can't see her con or their own gullibility.

    What's that saying, that a con man can't con an honest mark?

    1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

      My progressive aunt things the Clintons are wonderful selfless public servants who only want to do good. She believes absolutely everything they tell her to believe.

  9. Jerryskids   7 years ago

    This is why the libs are praying for Trump's catastrophic failure no matter how badly it damages the country (especially if it badly damages the country). What does it say about your God-King style government if you can put a retarded chimpanzee in charge of the machine and the country just keeps trundling along no matter how many levers and knobs and buttons the chimpanzee fiddles with? Doesn't that maybe suggest that what the government does and how it does it isn't really very important?

    1. John   7 years ago

      What it suggests is that the retarded chimpanzee isn't who you thought it was. Maybe Trump is the retarded chimpanzee or maybe the people who were in charge who fucked things up so badly are the chimps?

      1. Zeb   7 years ago

        Maybe Trump is the retarded chimpanzee

        Nah, I'd say he has above average intelligence and social skills for a chimpanzee. And better self-control.

        1. John   7 years ago

          I know you are kidding. But in all seriousness, the idea that Trump is somehow not smart or some kind of uniquely bad President is just absurd. You can argue that Trump is a bad President because you don't like his policies. But to say that he is somehow different and worse than any other President whose policies you don't like is not a sensible argument.

          1. Zeb   7 years ago

            I personally don't think Trump is particularly or uniquely worse than other presidents. But I think all the presidents of my lifetime have been pretty bad.

            A lot of people do buy all the "dignity of the office" "represents our country" bullshit. I can see why those people think Trump is special in his awfulness, if only because of his style.

            1. I am the 0.000000013%   7 years ago

              I suspect that most of the people who judge Trump on his mannerisms and speech patterns would go to the mat to preserve all sorts of mannerisms and speech patterns I consider idiotic sounding.

              ... and, just to be honest, I think Trump sounds like an idiot. I often wonder if that's just the way people talk in his world...

            2. sparkstable   7 years ago

              At work I finally got a co-worker to admit that every time we argue about Trump that his only gripe is not what Trump said it did, but only how he said it or did it. I pointed out some issues where Obama said or did things in a similar way (even if not to the degree) and asked him how many time he criticised Obama. The answer we already knew. Facing the cognative dissonance created a rather amusing look on his face

            3. DarrenM   7 years ago

              Blame social media. We now have the ability to see just how stupid politicians are in real time. We no longer need to wait for decades after they've been in office.

    2. Jerryskids   7 years ago

      I mean, I think that's the libs worse fear, not that Trump won't fuck up but that he can't fuck up because, despite his title of Most Powerful Man In The World, the world really doesn't give a shit who's in office and it really doesn't matter all that much.

      1. John   7 years ago

        I totally agree with that and said it before the election. The liberals were terrified that Trump would succeed and reveal how badly they had fucked things up and how stupid our self-appointed elite actually are.

      2. SimonP   7 years ago

        Don't worry, Trump has fucked up plenty. Really, the saving grace of this administration has been that Trump doesn't actually like to work very much, so a lot of things he could be pushing just aren't going much of any where.

        1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

          What an idiotic statement. But then you buy into Al Gore's bullshit, so I shouldn't be surprised.

    3. CE   7 years ago

      What it says is that presidential power should be dialed back, before we elect someone really incompetent.

    4. BigT   7 years ago

      We just suffered through 8 years of retard in charge, so yes the country is fairly robust.

      1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

        Obama really was a man of meager accomplishment and talent for having been elected president.

  10. Enjoy Every Sandwich   7 years ago

    At some point, I wish people would start seriously contemplating how we got here. Trump didn't just come out of nowhere. What is it about our political system that candidates for office have to become increasingly outlandish just to have a shot at winning? Let's face it: anybody remotely normal who runs for President doesn't stand a chance.

    1. John   7 years ago

      We got here because liberals have used control of the culture to make saying any truth that they don't like or taking any position they can't refute vulgar and crass. So any candidate who tells the truth and takes positions that really harm liberals is going to be called rude and outlandish.

      1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

        I'm waiting to see how bad it has to get before everyone else decides they won't go away on their own and they will have to be stopped. An eventuality I forsaw many years ago.

    2. nrob   7 years ago

      "Mitt was the epitome of Normal McNormalson. He didn't stand a chance" -Mitt's tombstone

    3. I can't even   7 years ago

      More importantly, the leftists should consider what comes next. If they were to somehow tear Trump down via Mueller or other dirty tricks - the next guy to come along with be dramatically worse.

      1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

        They imagine that they will somehow get Pence too, after having retaken the House, putting Pelosi in the White House, who will then install The Hag as VP. Then resign, thus putting The Hag in her rightful place, as it was her turn all along.

  11. Inigo Montoya   7 years ago

    Clinton is Clinton, what can I say. If she had even an ounce of self-respect, she'd stay out of the spotlight at this point. Was Dewey embarrassing himself publicly more than a year after losing in an upset to Truman?

    But I'm more bothered by the smug idiot from Slate 2ho was interviewing KMW. He seriously lumps in Libertarians with so-cons and such? Get an f?ing clue, dude! As a journalist, maybe he should do some reading if it doesn't strain his brain too much.

    I really don't care which direction people who vote for turd sandwiches over giant douches are looking in. They're authoritarian statists either way.

    1. Cynical Asshole   7 years ago

      He seriously lumps in Libertarians with so-cons and such?

      To leftist douche canoes like him anyone who isn't also a leftist douche canoe all get lumped together in a category of "deplorables," AKA, "the people we'll put up against a wall in a heartbeat if given half a chance."

      1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

        "Douche canoe".......

        That's the second time I've hear that term in the last few days. Is that a thing now?

    2. John   7 years ago

      You get lumped in with SOCONs because you are either part of the leftists' hive or you are an enemy of the people. There are no degrees of being an enemy. Libertarians who don't understand that and think the Progressives don't hate them are first class, useful idiots.

      1. Inigo Montoya   7 years ago

        Oh, I understand they hate libertarians, but the feeling is mutual.

        The thing is, I'm all for live and let live. I just don't want someone else's crap imposed on me by force and "for my own good." Yet that's exactly what progressives wish to do.

        The thing about being libertarian is recognizing that the choices you feel are right for you may not be right for everyone else. For the progs, it's never that way. They know what's best for everyone.

    3. Enjoy Every Sandwich   7 years ago

      I confess that I'm often meanly amused by writers and talking heads who insist that they "know all about libertarianism". This "knowledge" generally consists of "I read a couple of chapters of Atlas Shrugged when I was a freshman. I decided it was bullshit and threw the book away."

      When you're face-to-face with such a person it's doubly hilarious when you tell them that Ayn Rand wasn't a libertarian. They get that "baffled golden retriever" look.

      1. Longtobefree   7 years ago

        Golden Retrievers are never baffled. Either there is a dead bird to go get, or it is time for a nap.

        1. Citizen X - #6   7 years ago

          It's more complicated than that. Often, the golden retriever will nap on the dead bird.

  12. Rufus The Monocled   7 years ago

    We're watching in the flesh a sad, weak, soulless and unfulfilled human consumed by rage and hubris fumble around yelling at clouds as people look on unsure of how to rationalize this depressing display of nothingness.

    But enough about Hilary.

    "...Donald Trump is a con man, and he is essentially conning his voters to enrich his family..."

    Right.

    And Obama leveraging his time in power to score a $65 million book deal and maybe even a Netflix show is totes okay.

    That many politicians come out of politics richer than they came in is completely ignored because....Trump and his stupid supporters.

    The arrogance is breathtaking. And then they wonder why....

    1. Tony   7 years ago

      Voting for a terrible person to be president is on you, whatever your whiny excuses may be.

      1. BestUsedCarSales   7 years ago

        You picked out the known Canadian to insult for voting Trump.

        1. Tony   7 years ago

          I prefer "one" over "you" as a pronoun, but then people just call me pretentious.

        2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   7 years ago

          You picked out the known Canadian to insult for voting Trump.

          Everyone knows the Canadians meddled in our Democracy.

          1. Rufus The Monocled   7 years ago

            It was diabolical! Genius!

            And we would have almost pulled it off if it wasn't for those meddling kids!

          2. Zeb   7 years ago

            By the standards of "Russian meddling", Rufus has been meddlesome as fuck. How dare you have an opinion about US politics!

          3. I am the 0.000000013%   7 years ago

            I know I voted for whoever Puoutine told me to vote for

            1. Zeb   7 years ago

              I think they call Putin "Putine" in France because "putin" means "bitch".

      2. Gilbert Martin   7 years ago

        What makes you think he voted for Hillary?

      3. Lurker Kurt   7 years ago

        Has anyone in H&R ever admitted voting for Trump?

        1. Red Rocks White Privilege   7 years ago

          I think lc1789 did, but I suspect he's the only one.

        2. BigT   7 years ago

          I voted for Trump because of the SCOTUS. And I'm feeling better about it every day.

        3. Azathoth!!   7 years ago

          I voted for Trump because there wasn't a libertarian ticket.

      4. Rebel Scum   7 years ago

        Voting for a terrible person to be president is on you

        Which is why I refrained from voting for Barry or the Hag. In fact, I never voted for a Republican for president until Trump. And I did that to spite people like you and your leftist comrades.

      5. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

        "Voting for a terrible person to be president is on you, whatever your whiny excuses may be."

        You voted for a murdering, serial rapist enabling, thieving, treasonous clinical psychopath for president. What are your whiny excuses for doing so?

  13. Hugh Akston   7 years ago

    We sent my grandpa to a home when he got that delusional.

  14. NoVaNick   7 years ago

    If progs were merely smug, it wouldn't be a problem. They are losing the votes of the average Joe/Jane because their smugness translates into laws and policies that target their lifestyles and jobs, or promotes other preferred groups over them.

    1. John   7 years ago

      There is no agreeing to disagree or living in peace with them.

    2. Gilbert Martin   7 years ago

      That is the crux of it.

      The two sides are not equivalent.

      It is principally the left that actively wants to use the force of government to make everyone else abide by (and pay for) their preferred priorities of life.

  15. Number 2   7 years ago

    Wait a second...

    I thought Hillary Clinton said she lost because employers and husbands wouldn't let their wives and female employees vote for "the girl" for president.*

    Or that she lost because sexist Matt Lauer asked her tougher questions that he asked Trump.

    Or because Putin hacked into voting machines and changed vote count.

    Or because of James Comey.

    Or because of sexist Bernie Bros.

    Or because of sunspots (OK, I made that one up)

    *I confess! I locked my wife, daughter and secretarial staff in the boiler room the day absentee ballots were issued and kept them there on a bread-and-water diet until the day after Election Day!

    1. Rufus The Monocled   7 years ago

      I'm surprised she didn't blame Brett Hull's controversial toe in the crease goal for the Dallas Stars against the Buffalo Sabres during the 1999 Stanley Cup finals.

      NO GOAL!

      1. Number 2   7 years ago

        Of course not. It was Maradona's "Hand of God" goal against Great Britain.

      2. Mickey Rat   7 years ago

        And the forward lateral that became known as the "Music City Miracle".

        1. Nardz   7 years ago

          You left out the frozen envelope in the NBA draft lottery that got the Knicks the first pick and Ewing. Also, the entirety of Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and Kings in 2001.
          Each contributed greatly to Hillary's loss!

    2. Cynical Asshole   7 years ago

      Or because of sunspots (OK, I made that one up)

      Don't give them any more ideas.

      "Solar flares and increased sunspot activity on or around the time of the election interfered with electronic voting machines in some blue precincts resulting in thousands of votes for Hillary going uncounted!"

      Or something like that.

      1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

        Did anyone look in The trunk of Al Franken's car to see if there were any more Hillary ballots?

    3. Inigo Montoya   7 years ago

      Well, it was all of those reasons PLUS Trump being a conman who tricked gullible fools.

      It's not an either-or thing, but more of a perfect storm that sadly robbed her majesty of the rightful recognition she deserved.

      Speaking of perfect storms, it was actually climate change that undermined her. Climate change was even behind all those other reasons you cite. Sure, the actual changes in average temperature haven't been as dramatic as models predicted, but that just means climate change is all the more insidious in the way it poisons the weak minds of Comey, sexist Bernie Bros, and hayseed gun-lovers alike into not recognizing what (or who) is best for them.

      This is why we must stamp out climate in honor of Gaia and her earthly avatar Hillary!

      1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

        Turns out 'Gaia' is actually a alien imprisoned within the earth for million of years. The Ckintins became aware of this and Hillary hatched a plot to release Gaia in exchange for enough power to dominate mankind for all eternity. The modern theory of anthropomorphic climate change is part of this plot, as industrial emissions help keep Gaia contained.

        Fortunately, the newly regenerated Jesus, and his companions ended up going back in time to stop the first attempt at releasing her in 2008. This resulted in Hillary losing the democrat primary. This is all chronicled in the upcoming story "The Easter Invasion".

    4. swizzlestick   7 years ago

      I think there's a great book in a fisking of all her excuses.

    5. Rebel Scum   7 years ago

      I thought Hillary Clinton said she lost because employers and husbands wouldn't let their wives and female employees vote for "the girl" for president

      I heard that one too. She doesn't think women have the agency to think for themselves. But somehow it is everyone who did not vote for her that is sexist...

    6. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

      Hillary had it all locked up, but Jesus and his companions found out and stopped her sinister plan. However, she got some measure of revenge when she took one of her minion's AR-15 rifles (known to be a notorious superweapon to the progressives) and using a bumpstock, instantly unloaded a full 30 round magazine in Jesus' back. Since both of his hearts were destroyed in the attack, he was forced to regenerate into the fourth Jesus.

  16. Tony   7 years ago

    Nope! Sorry. We no longer get to nitpick what presidents, presidential candidates, or past presidential candidates say. That's off the table now. "Pay no attention to his insane rambling" is what we've been told, and his defenders have bought into it, and we must be fair in applying this new standard.

    1. Rufus The Monocled   7 years ago

      Oh Tony.

      /gently playfully punches his jaw.

    2. Longtorso, Johnny   7 years ago

      Speaking of human/chimp hybrids.

      1. Bongo Supreme   7 years ago

        And before you get any ideas, Tony, this is not a race thing. You are just a buffoon.

    3. TrickyVic (old school)   7 years ago

      ""Nope! Sorry. We no longer get to nitpick what presidents, presidential candidates, or past presidential candidates say. That's off the table now."'

      Funny, every time Hillary gets nitpicked you have a stupid retort.

    4. Brian   7 years ago

      Speak of the devil...

    5. Rebel Scum   7 years ago

      insane rambling

      Enough about Hillary.

  17. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   7 years ago

    Keep calling your constituents "Deplorables". It's a winning strategy.

  18. Unicorn Abattoir   7 years ago

    What? A square foot of east coast financial office generates more profit that a square foot of Kansas wheatfield?

    Ehrmagerd!!!!

    1. Nardz   7 years ago

      This is a really foolish line of argument for the party that decries wealth inequality and seeks wealth redistribution.
      If individualist, self-reliant types ever take the Ds up on their rhetoric... well, it won't be pretty.

  19. TrickyVic (old school)   7 years ago

    Has Hillary even seen the voting map by county? She's insulting a very large part of the nation.

    1. BestUsedCarSales   7 years ago

      Everyone makes the mistake that California is monolithically Democrat. As you said, County maps show that to be less true.

    2. SimonP   7 years ago

      I hadn't realized that counties voted.

      1. Longtobefree   7 years ago

        Well, it turns out that damn near everybody is in a county, and they vote. For Trump.

        1. SimonP   7 years ago

          They voted for Hillary, actually. But I'll admit the fat asses of Trump voters were distributed across the country in such a way as to hand the electoral college to Trump.

          What I'm saying is that going by Trump's favorite map - the county-by-county red/blue map - is both meaningless insofar as it has nothing to do with how electoral college votes are distributed and misleading insofar as it doesn't reflect where people actually live.

          Of course, you have to know this. So you'd rather just lie through your teeth. Asshole.

          1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

            It's just too bad those millions of illegal voters are so concentrated in places like CA. So The Hag lost. Maybe if democrats weren't largely progressive drones in thrall to a hive mind directed by their DNC masters, they might actually hold their people accountable and have better quality candidates who aren't all sociopathic/psychopathic shitweasels, or absolute Marxist dimwits like Sanders.

  20. Weigel's Cock Ring   7 years ago

    Sick Hildog is still alive? Wow!! She probably needs a custom-made stasis chamber and tubfuls of embalming fluid just to survive the flight from New York City to Mumbai.

    Good to know she's still peddling the same old winning message about the bitter clingers and the deplorables that made her the beloved figure that she is.

    1. Inigo Montoya   7 years ago

      Stasis chambers and embalming fluid?

      My theory was a lazarus pit, just like Ra's al Ghul. Only difference is that hers doesn't work very well: she doesn't actually rejuvenate very much and she also remains a raving lunatic much, much longer after she emerges from the toxic brew.

      1. Weigel's Cock Ring   7 years ago

        It sounds like she still has a snuke up her snizz!

      2. I am the 0.000000013%   7 years ago

        Didn't the Lazarus pit make you almost uncontrollably angry, with the only way to momentarily establish control being to kill someone?

        I think you've completely figured out Hilary's secret.

        1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

          She's the current Ra's al Ghul?

          1. I am the 0.000000013%   7 years ago

            She would be if we could just get rid of the deplorables and their deplorable constitution and deplorable electoral college.

  21. CE   7 years ago

    Clinton: " I won the smart people and Trump won the deplorables. "
    She still doesn't get why she lost.

    1. Unicorn Abattoir   7 years ago

      Remember how she kicked off her campaign with a van trip/listening tour from NY to IA?
      Town halls with average people (who were all party staffers providing pre-rehearsed questions)?
      Going into a fast-food place in disguise so she didn't have to interact with the common people?

      That's why she lost.

      1. John   7 years ago

        In fairness to Hillary, she lost because her party has made a fetish out of hating large sections of the country. Sure, she was a lousy candidate. But it is a pretty tall order to expect a candidate to win the votes of people her own party makes a virtue out of hating.

        1. Unicorn Abattoir   7 years ago

          That's basically what I was getting at. But even though the party elite hated large swaths of the country, Hillary hated them all on her own, and always has.

          1. Lurker Kurt   7 years ago

            Think about this: Hilary was First Lady of Arkansas(!) for over 10 years, but still never learned how to relate to working class people.

            1. BigT   7 years ago

              Shoulda had Jennifer Flowers over for a barbecue!

        2. Mickey Rat   7 years ago

          She is not exactly decrying that trend by her party here.

          1. John   7 years ago

            No she is not.

          2. Red Rocks White Privilege   7 years ago

            As smug as Obama can be, he's at least made token efforts to point out that people in his political tribe shouldn't be condescending to those who aren't, and that doing so limits your understanding.

            Hillary's so entitled, arrogant, and paranoid, she can't even fathom why someone would not vote for her unless it was a conspiracy or a misogynist. Then again, Obama actually won counties that she couldn't, so he could afford to be magnanimous when he felt like it.

            1. BYODB   7 years ago

              Sadly, most of the attempts Obama made were immediately followed by a comment that instantly revealed that he didn't even notice the splinter in his own eye even while he was pretty sure you had a plank in yours.

            2. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   7 years ago

              'Smug' is Red Rocks for 'uppity black guy.'

              1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

                Blacks are starting to figure out how badly you progressives have fucked them over the last fifty years. 2016 showed blacks are starting to migrate away from the democrats and towards republican candidates.

                If republicans ever figure out how to properly market their message to blacks, you progs are fucked.

              2. Red Rocks White Privilege   7 years ago

                "Backwards" is Arthur L. Kirkland for "normal testosterone".

        3. Chasman1965   7 years ago

          IF the above isn't her fault, then why is she doubling down on it? If she's a victim of her party (and not a leader of it), why would she keep spouting the party line? Easy, she is part of that. The deplorables comment is what lost her the election. The speech in Mumbai is basically the deplorables comment on steroids.

          1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

            And she made sure to go all the way over there to talk that kind of shit too. Fucking cowardly democrat piece of shit.

            1. General_Tso   7 years ago

              Obama has also made it a point to travel the world and badmouth the United States.

    2. John C. Randolph   7 years ago

      Not only that, she's completely convinced of her own cleverness, despite her failure staring her right in the face.

      -jcr

      1. Lurker Kurt   7 years ago

        I read somewhere, maybe here, that Hillary still hasn't learned that hard work and intelligence are not enough to win an election. You have to be likable.

        Trump is a boor. Hillary is even more unlikable to many people.

    3. Tony   7 years ago

      She's not running anymore so she can tell the truth.

      1. Mickey Rat   7 years ago

        ...about the pit of malice that is her soul.

      2. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

        Tony, she's still telling morons like you what you want to hear.

      3. ChuckNorrisBeardFist   7 years ago

        I don't think she..or we..have that much life left for here to tell the truth about all her lies.

        Let's start with an easy one - Says she "never received nor sent any material that was marked classified" on her private email server while secretary of state."

        And go to a tougher one - Hillary, since you say are for women (Not just to date of course), what do you say about the rape victims of your husband?

        I know Tony, you care about a porn star that slept with a business man before he become president.

    4. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   7 years ago

      She lost mostly because of vestigial bigotry, persistent backwardness, superstition-laced gullibility, and widespread disaffection in our shambling rural communities.

      1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

        Funny, the electoral map says something else. But then I'm 50+ IQ points and magnitudes of knowledge beyond you. So I can see where such a stunted mind like yours could be this confused.

      2. vek   7 years ago

        I'm pretty sure she lost because most people in America aren't batshit crazy socialists... And she's an unlikable cunt.

      3. ChuckNorrisBeardFist   7 years ago

        Yeap, the same communities that voted that put Obama in office...twice.

  22. JoeBlow123   7 years ago

    She sounds mighty butt hurt. She should stop replaying this, makes her sound like the ultimate whiny sore loser.

  23. Leo Kovalensky II   7 years ago

    Doubling down on "deplorables"

    Stay classy Hillary. Stay classy.

    1. BigT   7 years ago

      Stay??!

  24. gormadoc   7 years ago

    This woman is such a bitch. When she says things like this I wonder how her supporters can keep a straight face when they complain about Trump's insults.

    1. Unicorn Abattoir   7 years ago

      Cognitive bias and willful delusion.

    2. Bongo Supreme   7 years ago

      Her insults are highbrow, so it's okay.

    3. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   7 years ago

      You want to take a crack at explaining how Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Wyoming, West Virginia -- heck, with most of the south, and most of our hicks-and-sticks rural stretches -- don't constitute an economic, educational, political, cultural, and moral drag on the United States of America?

      She speaks harshly, but her comments are accurate. Much as bigots no longer wish to be known as bigots in America (thanks to a great achievement by our liberal-libertarian alliance), the depleted human residue of our backwaters no longer likes to have its severe deficiencies mentioned.

      1. Red Rocks White Privilege   7 years ago

        You want to take a crack at explaining how Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Wyoming, West Virginia -- heck, with most of the south, and most of our hicks-and-sticks rural stretches -- don't constitute an economic, educational, political, cultural, and moral drag on the United States of America?

        They aren't filled with clueless shitlib wastes of carbon molecules.

      2. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

        "Much as bigots no longer wish to be known as bigots in America"

        Yet you progressives remain the same bigoted pieces of shit as you were back in the early days of the progressive movement, like your racist heroes, such as Margaret Sanger, who Hillary has publically idolized.

        Arty, if you want to reduce the number of racists in Maerica, commit suicide. Then there will be one less.

      3. sparkstable   7 years ago

        Those places generally don't hand out near monopoly previlages to elites and their businesses thereby forgoing the race to set up HQs in blue states. Those blue states all hate free markets. Why support free markets when you can buy favors from team blue? Then... Those companies rake in gazillions of dollars which makes the GDP of those places look nice.

        Stop having corrupt city and state governments selling favors and you would see a much more wide spread of industries across the county. Plus... Those places have geographic advantages such as ocean access and beachfront properties. Neither of those have to do with politics (except the subsidization of beachfront real estate by those of us in flyover country). I love OK. But it gets old to look at fast. Sure, it aint perfect... but I have literally never met nicer people in the world. Maybe an old woman in a German bakery but that might be it.

      4. vek   7 years ago

        You do know that most of the poorest states in the US, especially the south, are largely poor because they have large black populations right? Look up the statistics.

        If you look at white only income in a lot of those states, they're actually doing just fine. And even still, many of the poorer areas have less debt, more balanced budgets, etc. Oh, and the cost of living is a lot lower, so their real standard of living is actually comparable to better than living in coastal states. It's a fact, look it up!

        That said, their economies have done so so because the major industries in their areas have not done well in recent decades... It happens. What's hot one day can become not hot the next.

        San Francisco could be the next Detroit if China or India takes the lead in the tech industry in 10 or 20 years. Detroit was the wealthiest city in the country, and the rug got pulled out from under them by the market, AND they made it doubly worse with bad policy.

      5. ChuckNorrisBeardFist   7 years ago

        So...what are you Rev of Progressives - can you explain why 1/3 of homeless live in CA? What about why crime is so high in big cities in the NE?

  25. Pro Libertate   7 years ago

    I'm reasonably well-educated and intelligent. I didn't vote for Trump, doing the usual "Burn it for the LP" routine, but if I had to pick, I sure as hell wouldn't vote for Clinton. And I'm not at all a Trump fan. He might end up better than the last few presidents, maybe, but that's a very low bar.

    He sucks, too, and won't stop the spending or restore the Constitution, but screw the harpy.

    1. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   7 years ago

      Your appeasement of bigotry, ignorance, and backwardness is noted, and disdained.

      Carry on, clingers.

      1. Pro Libertate   7 years ago

        She is great, isn't she?

      2. Red Rocks White Privilege   7 years ago

        The hicklib's back to priss his way to another boilerplate shitpost.

        1. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   7 years ago

          Keep spouting your right-wing, authoritarian backwardness, intolerance, and ignorance.

          Perhaps a few young Americans -- the people who will continue to improve our electorate by replacing cranky old right-wingers who take their stale thinking to the grave -- haven't observed enough of the Republican-conservative approach yet.

          1. Red Rocks White Privilege   7 years ago

            Keep spouting your right-wing, authoritarian backwardness, intolerance, and ignorance

            Keep spouting your left-wing boilerplate shitposts. It keeps you from bombing buildings, at least.

            Perhaps a few young Americans -- the people who will continue to improve our electorate by replacing cranky old right-wingers who take their stale thinking to the grave

            I'm actually younger than you are, plus I don't believe only my experiences are applicable to real life.

          2. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

            Arty if you and your proggy pals ever want to go all in and play for,all the marbles, I'm game. I would love to have the kind of vicious, nasty street war with you commie traitors that I know we will win.

            But then you never would even try, would you, you coward?

            1. vek   7 years ago

              My fingers ARE crossed. I would love nothing more than a nice street brawl with some shit bag ANTIFA cunts.

  26. Incomprehensible Bitching   7 years ago

    The good parts of our democracy voted for Clinton. Only the bad parts of our democracy voted for Trump.

    And, aren't the good parts supposed to win, really?

    This is how you know that our democracy was hacked.

  27. C. S. P. Schofield   7 years ago

    Shrillary Dear,

    You're over. If you ever get to run again, it will be to the devastating detriment of the Democrat Party. If they had any sense they would arrange to have you terminated before you drag them any further down.

    You didn't win the 'looking forward' vote. You won the "We control the area so thoroughly we can file millions of fraudulent ballots' vote.

    You are a disgrace, a crook, and a frump. Go. Away.

    1. Unicorn Abattoir   7 years ago

      Some say Hillary Clinton still walks the Earth, wrapped in chains, prevented from passing into the great beyond by a destiny unfulfilled...

      - Excerpted from Contemporary Ghost Stories, ca. 2300.

      1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

        They also say that sacred objects repel her, and that she must return to her crypt before sunrise.

    2. Inigo Montoya   7 years ago

      "You're over. If you ever get to run again, it will be to the devastating detriment of the Democrat Party."

      This is what she doesn't seem to understand. At least going by the diehard Dem weirdos I run into (which are admittedly rank-and-file supporters and not party operatives), they've long since moved on from the old harpie.

      I've heard them talk about Cory Booker, Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Oprah, etc. All/most of these might be pipe dreams, but the point is NO ONE seems to be saying, "give HER just one more chance and she will win this time."

      1. BYODB   7 years ago

        Honestly, even during this past election no one I knew that was a Democrat was really shilling for Killary they were all Bernie types.

        The exception to that are Democrats that I know who are/were in their 60's who seemed to support Hillary but even then it seemed like their main reason for supporting her was because they were entirely clueless about her in particular and, more tellingly, they were all enamored of the prior Clinton administration.

        1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

          "it seemed like their main reason for supporting her was because they were entirely clueless about her in particular and, more tellingly, they were all enamored of the prior Clinton administration."

          Very true. What I get out of it is they so,ehow think she's like Elizabeth Warren, and not a vicious power hungry criminal psychopath.

  28. No Longer Amused   7 years ago

    I think it's time we acknowledge that Hillary is mentally ill.

    1. C. S. P. Schofield   7 years ago

      Since when has THAT been a disqualifies in the Progressive Left?

    2. John C. Randolph   7 years ago

      You mean, in addition to her narcissism?

      -jcr

      1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

        She's also almost certainly a clinical psychopath.

  29. Fist of Etiquette   7 years ago

    The Democrats should probably look into shutting her up.

    1. BigT   7 years ago

      Banana peel on the steps??

  30. SimonP   7 years ago

    Dismissing substantive, careful criticisms of Trump support as merely "smug" doesn't exactly help, either, insofar as it convinces those same "smug" liberals that you're more interested in playing the "whatabout" game than figuring out how to fix this clusterfuck we're in.

    I simply do not understand the logic of lecturing liberals to be less "smug" in criticizing a demographic consisting of people who (apparently) can't respond that kind of criticism except by doubling down on their own churlish idiocy. It is exactly like telling a parent not to scold a child, lest the child throw a tantrum. Either they deserve to be treated like children, or they don't. If they don't, then liberals' being "smug" shouldn't be a problem for them. If they do, then why is anyone telling liberals to pretend otherwise?

    1. John   7 years ago

      If you think people who disagree with you are children , you are smug. Fuck you if you don't like being called that. Get smarter. AndTrump won the election without dipshits like you. So no one needs to convince you and people like you if anything.

      1. SimonP   7 years ago

        For once, I would love to disagree with a Trump supporter who could provide an argument in favor of one of his policies. Tax cuts. Immigration reform. Whatever. Trying to discuss these issues with a Trump supporter is like trying to debate Trump's Twitter feed.

        I don't call Trump supporters children because I disagree with them. I call them that because they act like children. And I'm not sure whether you intended to be a case in point.

        1. John   7 years ago

          We had a tax system that punished corporations for bringing money they made overseas and investing it in the US. Our corporate tax rate was the highest in the world and put us at a huge competitive disadvantage. You have never heard of these issues? Just how fucking stupid are you?

          We 11 million illegal immigrants. We have no control over our borders and face a real threat from the crime and terrorism associated with it. Moreover, people have a right to demand their government control their borders and are under no obligation to let anyone who wants to come here in. Maybe you are really this stupid or live in a cave or something, but immigration is an enormously complex and problematic issue that strikes at the core of what it means to be a sovereignty. You have never heard anyone make an argument about this issue?

          You are a first class dolt. You are ignorant and think you can cover this fact up by being smug. Sorry but it doesn't work. You are pretty much a perfect example of the progressive idiot. Dumb as fucking post, totally irrational but convinced the proble is that everyone else is that way.

          1. SimonP   7 years ago

            We had a tax system that punished corporations for bringing money they made overseas and investing it in the US.

            We could have fixed that without charging $1.5 trillion to the national credit card.

            Our corporate tax rate was the highest in the world and put us at a huge competitive disadvantage.

            It wasn't the highest, and what this talking point conveniently omits is that most other nations use a different mix of taxes, including corporate and individual income taxes and VAT (which we do not have) to raise the same revenue. So this is just a false way to characterize the situation.

            We have no control over our borders and face a real threat from the crime and terrorism associated with it.

            "Crime" and "terrorism" the evidence of which is pretty conspicuously absent. And the idea that we have "no control" over our borders is laughable. We have quite robust measures in place to control the flow of immigrants into the country and to catch them while they're here.

            1. NotAnotherSkippy   7 years ago

              The US had the highest corporate tax rate in the OECD which, using hillary's definition (and yours) of what matters, does make it the highest in the "world." And I must say it's pretty rich for the guy who claims to win every argument to not know the differenve between a corporate income tax and individual income or excise taxes. You also seem to believe that we can tax our way out of debt.

              Then again, the lizard ppl probably haven't explained it to you yet.

            2. BYODB   7 years ago


              For once, I would love to disagree with a Trump supporter who could provide an argument in favor of one of his policies.

              You are pretty good at irony since none of the things you've stated qualify as evidence of anything other than your ability to make off-hand remarks without any evidence.

              There are pretty good arguments for lowering taxes. Many, in fact. Raising the deficit isn't something you'll find a lot of supporters of around here, but notably Democrats also raised the deficit. Is your claim that Trump's deficit (after 8 years of Obama deficit) is somehow worse? How? Why? Was Keynes right in your view, or wrong?

              The left also believes that it has a literal fundamental right to the labor of a selected class of citizens. Furthermore, they claim this will have no effect upon demand. RE: Healthcare. Delusional covers that base, I say, and the whole nation has eaten up this new notion of an enslaved class of public workers. (It's not new at all, in fact.)

              Ludicrous. Perhaps even worse is that the right, seeing how successful the free shit campaign has been, are joining in and getting back to their Progressive tendencies.

              So who should we vote for? The Progressive left or the Progressive right? Heads I win, tails you lose.

          2. SimonP   7 years ago

            Moreover, people have a right to demand their government control their borders and are under no obligation to let anyone who wants to come here in.

            Do they have a right to demand the government control the flow of individuals across state lines, as well? States are "sovereign" in our system too, you know.

            The flawed premise here is this notion that this country is somehow "ours," like a home that we own. But it's not our property. It doesn't belong to us. But we don't own the country any more than we own the city or state we live in. We don't have any natural right to control where other people want to move or live. How does the notion of "sovereignty" change that?

            Maybe you are really this stupid or live in a cave or something, but immigration is an enormously complex and problematic issue that strikes at the core of what it means to be a sovereignty. You have never heard anyone make an argument about this issue?

            I haven't heard anyone make a coherent argument that state sovereignty entitled populations to arbitrarily bar entry of any group of migrants they might happen to want to exclude. Present company included.

            You are a first class dolt.

            Like I said, one day, maybe, I'll find a Trump supporter who can actually piece together an argument worth responding to.

            1. BYODB   7 years ago

              Do they have a right to demand the government control the flow of individuals across state lines, as well? States are "sovereign" in our system too, you know.

              You say things with apparent disregard for what words mean or what idea's they represent. Odd. Tell me, have you heard of a thing called 'delegated powers' or 'enumerated powers' before?

              Side question, are you familiar with sophistry?

            2. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

              "The flawed premise here is this notion that this country is somehow "ours," like a home that we own. But it's not our property. It doesn't belong to us. But we don't own the country any more than we own the city or state we live in. We don't have any natural right to control where other people want to move or live. How does the notion of "sovereignty" change that?"

              The country is ours. Our sovereign borders are defined and universally recognized internationally. The control and security of those borders, plus the naturalization of individuals are all spelled out in the constitution. Did you never take a civics class? Are you truly ignorant of these most basic facts?

              States and cities also have defined borders and governments, also universally accepted. Again, how is this confusing to you? You're making vague philosophical arguments like some college freshman.

              That you don't agree with that means nothing. These are simple verifiable facts. Do you seriously expect anyone with an education to indulge you in some meaningless, endless faux philosophical argument based on cool,etc ignorance?

              It really is you regressive that are ignorant. Not Trump supporters.

        2. Zeb   7 years ago

          There are good arguments for some of the tax cuts, as John notes. I don't agree with a lot of the arguments for immigration restrictions. But there is a rational case to be made there too.

          1. SimonP   7 years ago

            I would have been in favor of revenue-neutral tax reform resulting in a simplification of the tax code. But what we got was a front-loaded tax stimulus plan that will force a lot of hard decisions in a few years, all predicated on the expectation that our economy will continue to do well for that entire period of time. What's more, we probably don't even know the worst of it yet. I'll bet that tax collections come in way under projections, due to confusion about the rules, lack of regulation and enforcement, and simple gaming of loopholes.

            1. NotAnotherSkippy   7 years ago

              1.5TT has no impact relative to the 80+TT in unfunded liabilities. Anyone who thinks this tax cut has any meaningful impact on the drivers of our debt is an idiot. But you are holding to the pattern of all lefties. Your set of real whole numbers ends when you run out of appendages so you just resort to "many."

            2. BYODB   7 years ago

              Revenue neutral is a bald faced lie, so I can tell you're drank more than your fair share of the Koolaid. There is no such animal in American government.

        3. Kivlor   7 years ago

          For once, I would love to disagree with a Trump supporter who could provide an argument in favor of one of his policies. Tax cuts. Immigration reform. Whatever.

          That's some Grade A trolling.

    2. Red Rocks White Privilege   7 years ago

      Dismissing substantive, careful criticisms of Trump support as merely "smug" doesn't exactly help, either

      Where exactly in Hillary's "woe is me" tantrum did the substantive, careful criticism appear? That clueless bitch ran one of the worst presidential campaigns in history, despite being considered "inevitable" by even the people who hate her guts, and she lost to a real-estate huckster and reality TV star as a result. And rather than taking responsibility for her failure, she's spent the last year-plus blaming everything and everyone other than herself, because in her hubris she expected that this would be the coronation she deserved.

      No one with a lick of self-respect should feel bad for her in the least.

  31. John C. Randolph   7 years ago

    the places that represent two-thirds of America's gross domestic product

    I'm old enough to remember when the Democrats pretended to represent the "have nots".

    -jcr

    1. SimonP   7 years ago

      Plenty of "have nots" in those blue states, buddy.

      1. John   7 years ago

        Yeah, there are. And that is exactly John C Randolph's point.

  32. Jim176   7 years ago

    Now let's think about this. If people do not think that the country is headed in the right direction, and 75% of the population had that opinion before the election, Isn't it normal and natural to look back to when the country was headed in the right direction and think that maybe we should get back to that? Doesn't that match the cliche; when you find yourself in a deep hole- stop digging? Her comment demonstrates just how badly out of touch with reality that she was and is. She thinks that looking back to see where we have gone wrong and find a better path is somehow regressive. Thank GOD she lost the election!

  33. Eidde   7 years ago

    This is the most butthurt I'm aware of from a losing (major-party) candidate since 1824. Back then, Andrew Jackson moaned that JQ Adams and Henry Clay, cheated him out of the election, but at least Jackson had the - I won't call it class but basic sense - not to blame the dumb retarded voters for his loss.

    So while Jackson made a comeback in 1828 as a populist candidate, it's hard to see Hillary doing it.

    "This time you dumb hicks better vote for me, what's the matter with you?"

    1. Eidde   7 years ago

      OK, maybe John C. Breckenridge showed more butthurt.

  34. Eidde   7 years ago

    "I won the places that represent two-thirds of America's gross domestic product. So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward."

    Large blocs of her voters were not exactly major contributors to GDP - and not exactly "moving forward."

    1. Gilbert Martin   7 years ago

      GDP is a bogus metric of economic success to begin with because the formula includes government spending.

      And government spending amounts to nothing more than forced transfer payments that can never net to any value greater than zero.

      1. Chasman1965   7 years ago

        Also, the GDP ascribed to certain areas is often actually produced elsewhere.

  35. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   7 years ago

    I regret the damage being inflicted upon my country, but I am grateful my children (properly educated, residing in successful communities rather than in our shambling rural and southern stretches) will have the same opportunity from which I benefited greatly -- the chance to compete economically with these yahoos.

    This may seem "smug" to some, but I lost my much of my taste for political correctness recently.

    I now call a bigot a bigot, a depleted backwater a depleted backwater, and a half-educated, economically inadequate, disaffected, intolerant, superstition goober an ardent Trump supporter.

    1. Pro Libertate   7 years ago

      Is that the whole South, then?

      1. John   7 years ago

        Arthur is a special bread of retard who washed up with the Volk conspiracy. The terrifying part is that he doesn't seem to be a troll or a spoof. He really is that stupid and backward. You shouldn't gawk but sometimes you can't help it.

        1. Eidde   7 years ago

          You know who else ran a Volk conspiracy?

          1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

            Volkswagen AG, with their 'dieselgate' antics?

        2. Inigo Montoya   7 years ago

          He is so disparaging in his left-wingness, that I wonder how he squares that with his faith as a minister. I mean, he'd probably be the first to acknowledge that many of the most religious-minded people are on the opposite side from him.

          I'd even bet some of his congregants would not see eye to eye with him. I hope he is tactful enough to keep his political views under his hat when he's ministering or shepherding, or whatever they call it.

          1. Eidde   7 years ago

            Arthur Kirkland is, I think, an Al Pacino character - a crooked lawyer in a crooked system ("the whole system is out of order!"), and "reverend" is - I don't know what that's about.

            1. Eidde   7 years ago

              (I refer to the cultural allusions behind the "rev's" handle - all I know of the "rev" as an individual is what he chooses to share with us)

              1. Paloma   7 years ago

                Wannabe Rev and wannabe cosmo who can't escape his own hillbilly roots.

            2. Inigo Montoya   7 years ago

              Okay. I vaguely remember that movie but would not have remembered the name of Pacino's character.

              I actually pictured this guy with a white clerical collar, pocket Bible, and all the trappings!

              But then I prefer to imagine commenters here according to their handles. So I picture Crusty Juggler as an actual circus clown, Fist of Etiquette is a very polite boxer or MMA guy, Best Used Car Sales is a sort of stereotypical high-pressure sales guy in a rumpled suit jacket and loosened tie, etc.

              And you can probably guess how I imagine Palin's Buttplug must look. Let's just say he is frequently uncomfortable and squirming in his chair as he types out his drivel.

              1. Eidde   7 years ago

                And Justice For All

              2. Red Tony   7 years ago

                Wait, so what am I then, Inigo?

              3. vek   7 years ago

                This post made me laugh!

            3. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   7 years ago

              Academy Award nominee.

              Damn that Ted Kramer.

          2. Brett Bellmore   7 years ago

            "I wonder how he squares that with his faith as a minister."

            I'd always assumed that, if he actually was a minister, he was an Anglican. Anglican ministers aren't actually required to be religious, as such. In fact, I get the impression it's frowned on.

    2. mad.casual   7 years ago

      "properly educated, residing in a successful community"

      You do realize that 'lived or moved to a place where people are successful' doesn't speak well of their education and that if they were truly educated in an apt or functional manner the success of their community wouldn't matter, right?

      Hollywood is rife with successful actors who didn't complete their HS education and there are tons of successful urban centers all over the country rife with Ph.D.s who are barely scraping by.

      1. Eidde   7 years ago

        If he hangs out with the smart guys long enough, especially if he shares their politics, maybe they'll take pity on him and give his kids jobs.

    3. SimonP   7 years ago

      I regret the damage being inflicted upon my country, but I am grateful my children (properly educated, residing in successful communities rather than in our shambling rural and southern stretches) will have the same opportunity from which I benefited greatly -- the chance to compete economically with these yahoos.

      These yahoos honestly need to spend a few years in some of the states and cities they so ardently hate, just to see how thoroughly outclassed they really are. They think liberals are "smug" out of some kind of empty elitism. Well, try applying for the same jobs they do, then, punk. Try keeping your start-up or small business afloat in the same market. Let's see what you're actually capable of, Biff, when you're no longer the big fish in the small pond.

      1. NotAnotherSkippy   7 years ago

        *Yawn* you mean like Chelsea Clinton? I like my streets with a little less feces and fewer needles too. I'm nutty that way.

      2. Red Rocks White Privilege   7 years ago

        These yahoos honestly need to spend a few years in some of the states and cities they so ardently hate

        It ever cross your stupid mind that maybe the reason we do despise those places is because we live in them, know plenty of people just like you, and that the proximity has bred contempt?

      3. sparkstable   7 years ago

        Or more likely... we weren't born with the silver spoon connections to the corrupt local govt/business cabal which is why we couldn't "hack it" in a place like Chicago or NYC. Maybe the start-ups succeed in the suburbs and middle America precisely because us backwater plebes believe in merit not family name. If I moved to one of those places and tried to start a business I would be sued out of existence PDQ by some connected and already estaished slush fund generator of some local politician. Of course I couldn't make it in such a market. To think I should be able to belies you ignorance of how the fixed game in those "successful" cities works.

      4. vek   7 years ago

        Yeah, I live in the Peoples Republic Of Seattle... I know all about it buddy! And I'm originally from the Bay Area.

        I've had enough of this shit, and will be moving out of here in the next couple years, AND taking my multiple businesses I own with me! The taxes and nonsense regulations are why the businesses need to move, but the idiotic socialists I have to deal with everywhere are my PERSONAL reasons I can't stand this place anymore.

        I am a conservative libertarian, BUT I'm not totally dogmatic. There are leftist positions I can understand why some people who don't understand economics might have. Same on social issues, since I largely agree with the left to a certain point on these. But the kind of Democrat that I can stomach is something like a JFK, or MAYBE Bill Clinton in the 90s. The modern variety, at least on the coasts, is batshit crazy. They've gone over the deep end. And I can't stand being around these type of people anymore.

        It IS fun to do real life trolling of lefties, but I've had my fill of making them look like ignorant idiots in bar conversations. I'm moving somewhere with better taxes, lower cost of living so I can be even more baller than I am here, and sane people! Bible thumpers will annoy me too on some things, but at this point I'll take them over champagne socialists!

    4. Red Rocks White Privilege   7 years ago

      I am grateful my children (properly educated, residing in successful communities rather than in our shambling rural and southern stretches

      What do you have against your kids living alongside poor black people, Arthur?

      1. Red Tony   7 years ago

        Too far, Red Rocks. We all know that he doesn't have anything against poor black people.

        He just hates black people and poor people. No extra hatred is added if the groups overlap.

        1. vek   7 years ago

          Hey man, he just doesn't want his kids bikes to be stolen... Since they're super proggie it's their only means of transportation!

  36. Citizen X - #6   7 years ago

    Christ, what an asshole.

  37. Longtobefree   7 years ago

    She lost the election. You can't win a part of an election.

    If she were a coach of a losing team, she would say "we won the last half of the third quarter, and the other team just scored more points, so we won". Or "we won 5 of the nine innings, and the other team just scored more runs, so we won".

    Doesn't her federal pension insurance cover mental health issues?

    1. Pro Libertate   7 years ago

      So much as changed. Years ago, a president might claim to represent all the people, even the ones that didn't for him.

      1. Eidde   7 years ago

        Maybe by this time she realizes that the only way to outflank her left-wing critics, who are mad that the Dem leaders rigged the system against Bernie and then proceeded to lose anyway - is to blame everything on Trump and Trump voters. And dialing down of the #resist rhetoric will give the old Bernie supporters the chance to focus on Hillary's numerous flaws as a candidate. But as a #Resistance leader, Hillary will be able to dismiss left-wing critics as Trump dupes.

      2. Eidde   7 years ago

        "Years ago, a president might claim to represent all the people, even the ones that didn't for him."

        Even a guy who thinks he's a chick is clear-headed enough to be gracious to an opponent (admittedly a losing opponent):

        "I don't attack my constituents. (My opponent) is my constituent now."

  38. I am the 0.000000013%   7 years ago

    Maybe Hilary is shopping around for a country that would like a candidate like her. I fully support her if that's her mission.

    I'm with her (as long as she's not on the same continent with me).

  39. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   7 years ago

    The divisions are plain:

    Education vs ignorance

    Tolerance vs bigotry

    Reason vs superstition

    Inclusivity vs insularity

    Science vs dogma

    Progress vs backwardness

    Strong universities and public schools vs backwater religious schooling and homeschooling

    Modern, successful communities vs can't-keep-up, backward communities

    Modernity vs pining for illusory "good old days"

    We should strive to help the struggling, the gullible, the disadvantaged. In particular, we should ensure a strong lifeline for young people who wish to depart substandard environments for education and opportunity on strong campuses and in strong communities. (We need all of the skilled, educated, decent citizens we can get.)

    We should reward effort, skill, and responsible risk, while diminishing unearned privilege.

    We should be empathetic and open-minded, but we should neither sugarcoat nor appease ignorance, bigotry, dysfunction, or backwardness. Competent people neither advance nor accept superstition-based arguments or assertions in reasoned debate among adults.

    America has experienced successive waves of know-nothing intolerance, often tied to immigration, religion, or skin color, before -- Jews, Irish, blacks, Italians, eastern Europeans, Latinos, Asians, Catholics -- and intolerance and ignorance have never been good long-term bets among Americans. This latest batch of bigots seems nothing special, its reliance on the charms, insights, and reliability of Donald J. Trump notwithstanding.

    1. Eidde   7 years ago

      You can always tell who the smart people are - they're the guys boasting on the Internet about their intelligence.

      1. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   7 years ago

        Why would you suggest that disparagement of ignorance and intolerance constitutes boasting about intelligence?

        Can't you develop a better argument for preferring backwardness, bigotry, superstition, ignorance, and dysfunction?

        1. Eidde   7 years ago

          I wonder where this guy fits into your taxonomy.

          Lives in New Haven: Check.
          Former barista: Check.
          Black: Check.
          Muslim: Check.
          Inspired by a speech by a guy who did a documentary called "Stay Woke": Check
          Masked bicycle vigilante who pulls over Uber drivers for running red lights: Check
          Homeschooled through seventh grade: Hmmm...
          Also pulls over taxis: Hmmm...

          So on balance, is he a goober or one of the Enlightened Ones?

      2. Gilbert Martin   7 years ago

        Pseudo intellectual bluffing with nothing to back it up is a universally distinguishing characteristic of leftists.

        1. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   7 years ago

          America's liberal-libertarian alliance has been generating American progress -- against the efforts and preferences of conservatives -- for more than a half-century. That progress has been shoved down conservative throats on dozens of issues.

          This appears to make right-wingers cranky.

          It makes me content.

          Carry on, clingers.

          1. Gilbert Martin   7 years ago

            Keep on bluffing.

          2. Hank Phillips   7 years ago

            Crikey! Proper use of pre-1932 English Language detected! Battle stations! Shoot to kill! Mayday!

          3. vek   7 years ago

            Haha. I can't say you're wrong about the left shoving stuff down half the countries throat... But "cranky" doesn't entirely describe how pissed some people are. I do often wonder what some leftists think is going to happen if/when they finally go too far. Those silly conservatives own like 80% of the guns, aren't pussies, and have far more utilitarian life skills than the lefties, which are either cubicle working corporate tools, or welfare queens... If the right ever gets pushed to far, it's game over for all the progtards in this country, and they seem to not even know it!

    2. Citizen X - #6   7 years ago

      I can't tell if the Reverend here is an OBL-style parody (only without any humanizing charm), or just really, really, tragically autistic.

      1. John   7 years ago

        People say that he came over with the Volkh conspiracy. He had been on there for years. He seems to be legitimately this stupid.

        1. Citizen X - #6   7 years ago

          I sort of like how he only knows a handful of phrases, which he repeats over and over and over again.

          1. Gaear Grimsrud   7 years ago

            It's called Hinn syndrome.

    3. Hank Phillips   7 years ago

      You lost me at strong government brainwashing academies... Mussolini, Franco, the Pope iv Rome and dot Fuehrer dude all harped on that one and it didn't turn out wonderfully as advertised.

    4. sparkstable   7 years ago

      Wow you missed the boat.

      It's people who believe force masked as government applied to others with a backstop of violence to ensure compliance is mortally good versus freedom.

      What you don't get is that in that first group there's a bunch of disagreement on which issues and upon which group the government should be used upon. Those disagreements usually run along liberal vs conservative lines (which usually looks like Den v GOP but in reality it is more likely to be Den AND GOP v conservative).

      What you can't seem to grasp is that both the left and right are both wrong for the same reason. They both don't tolerate freedom.

  40. Rebel Scum   7 years ago

    Good. Let the hate flow through you. Keep alienating the voters. With each insulting comment you make yourself and your comrades more un-electable.

    1. Hank Phillips   7 years ago

      Who needs to be elected? Every voter who slaps a libertarian vote on the table has ELECTED freedom as clearly as can be managed. That and the looters losing their seats in elections leveraged by libertarian spoiler votes is all it takes to change bad laws. If some poor bastard donating his time and effort is unlucky enough to be condemned to rub elbows with kleptocracy looters while explaining their chicanery to voters, that eternal vigilance is the cost of freedom.

      1. Anastasia Beaverhausen   7 years ago

        Um er... huh?

        Every looter who lost his or seat as a result of "libertarian spoiler votes" was simply swapped out with another looter.

        1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

          Hank is one of our resident nutcases. Look for the following in his rants:

          Makes everything about abortion
          Some childish scatalogical play on words as regards republicans (I.e. 'GO pee pee)
          Constantly raving abut 'looters' and 'kleptocracy'
          Frequent vague references to circa 1932 and the Hoover admin

          You get the idea. My theory is that while he is in fact a libertarian, he is also some kind of mental patient who does not take his meds reliably.

    2. Flinch   7 years ago

      Todays party is so... anti-JFK. Nobody's perfect, but he dreamed big, screwed up in Cuba, got a man on the moon and all that. He loved his country. Today's democrat nearly hates everything: God, country, their neighbors and themselves. Hillary wants to cater to that, which is a recipe for self destruction [where a nation is concerned]. She put out the hate, and it came back to her. Funny how the universe works...

  41. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   7 years ago

    The American electorate becomes less rural, less backward, less religious, less white, and less bigoted just about every day, Rebel Scum. Unless Republicans perfect a machine that mass-produces half-educated, unskilled, intolerance, rural, disaffected, superstitious, older white males (and figure a way to register the newly minted yahoos to vote), the demographic wave is my friend.

    Do you believe in sugarcoating or appeasing ignorance, intolerance, backwardness, and dysfunction? If so, why?

    1. NotAnotherSkippy   7 years ago

      Do we really need another Detroit?

    2. sparkstable   7 years ago

      Do you believe in sugarcoating the violation of the human rights of liberty and property in an attempt to enforce your personal view of morality? If so, why?

    3. I am the 0.000000013%   7 years ago

      And yet democrats are at their lowest elected ebb since the trend to urbanism began 50 years ago. Do you have an explanation for that?

    4. vek   7 years ago

      Don't worry Rev., whites still control almost the entire net worth of the country, most businesses, important professions, political offices, and just generally run circles around ever other group proportionally (other than those exceptionally gifted jews)... I mean apartheid was held down in South Africa by only about 20% of the population, and they decided to give it up peacefully, if they had decided to hold onto it they'd still be running things. Crackers will still be running most important things in this country for a loooooooong time to come.

    5. Azathoth!!   7 years ago

      Unless Republicans perfect a machine that mass-produces half-educated, unskilled, intolerance, rural, disaffected, superstitious, older white males (and figure a way to register the newly minted yahoos to vote), the demographic wave is my friend.

      Do we need another one? The Democrats have already built the one that produces half-educated, unskilled, intolerant, urban, disaffected, superstitious people. They've replaced academia with it.

    6. TxJack 112   7 years ago

      And yet you wonder why Democrats keep losing elections. To think that anyone who lives in a rural area, is religious or white is somehow less intelligent or worthy than you demonstrates the arrogance that so many of us find pathetic. I grew up in what is considered rural Texas and still live outside "urban DFW", yet I seriously doubt anything you claim I am is true. All you prove is progressives do all possess one defining characteristic, arrogance and they have it by the truckload.

  42. Just Say'n   7 years ago

    Does it matter that Clinton's statement isn't even accurate? If you add up the GDP of all the states she won their GDP only represents 48% of the national GDP

    1. Lurker Kurt   7 years ago

      Facts are sexist.

    2. Red Tony   7 years ago

      THAT'S A BUUUUUUUURRRRRNNNNN!!!

      I'm Just Say'n that's a burn.

    3. Brett Bellmore   7 years ago

      And, really, even that is only because the profits of corporations are reported at their offices, not their factories. At the places where the managers live, not where the profit is actually made.

  43. Hank Phillips   7 years ago

    Hillary's Party Platform: Democrats believe that carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases should be priced to reflect their negative externalities, and to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy and help meet our climate goals. ... We support President Obama's decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. As we continue working to reduce carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gas emissions... We will support developing countries in their efforts to mitigate carbon pollution and other greenhouse gases... Puerto Rico is the example of all this--a crippled Starnesville with blackouts instead of food and water.

    1. John   7 years ago

      And my platform involves clean energy from Unicorn farts and Kathryn Winnick deciding to have sex with me. It is actually more connected to reality than yours. At least Kathryn Winnick is a real person.

      1. Eidde   7 years ago

        I Googled her...she claims to have had training in marital arts...sounds good to me...

        Oh, wait, *martial* arts...well, close enough.

      2. Citizen X - #6   7 years ago

        She's way too thin for you, though.

        1. Eidde   7 years ago

          The Pillsbury Doughboy is too thin for John.

          I'm kidding, of course, I meant the Pillsbury dough*girl.*

          1. Eidde   7 years ago

            Seriously, I like a girl with lots of extra dough.

            1. I am the 0.000000013%   7 years ago

              Makin Bakin

        2. John   7 years ago

          She is not way too anything for me. She would work nicely.

          1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

            I too could make good use of her. And I need a new home entertainment center.

      3. vek   7 years ago

        In all fairness, she basically is the perfect woman. I mean you could take the rack up a cup size or something, but I'm fine with the whole package as is.

    2. Flinch   7 years ago

      Glad you picked Puerto Rico. As a fiefdom of our federal leviathan, it is the perfect indicator of the degree of rot happening in DC [that gets whitewashed by our government/media complex].

  44. Eidde   7 years ago

    Well, I've had enough of these rural tractor pulls and NASCAR races and moonshine likker and meth and superstition...it's off to the big city for me to bask in the high IQ and high culture.

    There's feng shui, pet psychics, chakra readings, British dramas on TV, progressive rock, interpretive dance...I can just immerse myself in the culture...

    1. Red Rocks White Privilege   7 years ago

      Don't forget needing a pharmacy's worth of anti-depressants and moaning to your therapist about how daddy didn't love you enough. That seems to be a requisite for the rootless cosmopolitan lifestyle just as much as the others.

      1. vek   7 years ago

        People who live in urban environments are statistically more depressed. It's a fact and stuff.

    2. Flinch   7 years ago

      Hand on to your wallet, Eidde. They have formed committes, and all manner of legal artifices so that neighbors can pick your pocket while hiding behind the curtain. If you want Bernie land, they will welcome a new sucker. Don't complain about your cost of living suddenly being 25-40% higher there: I am going to laugh.

  45. Chasman1965   7 years ago

    Hillary Clinton, Sore Loser Tour, live from Mumbai.....

  46. SuperNaut   7 years ago

    I thought her loss was due to sexism, Comey, and RUSSIA!

    I can't keep up.

    1. Paper Wasp   7 years ago

      No, no! It was due to Sanders, Jill Stein, the Electoral College, and the media!

      But the vessel with the pestle holds the brew that is true.

  47. TxJack 112   7 years ago

    She wonders why she lost? Yet again she calls the entire middle of the country racists and backwards but cant understand why she lost. Hillary has to be the most out of touch with reality human on the planet. She blames everyone but herself and is also too stupid to realize there is an entire country between those "forward looking coasts" she relishes. Every time she opens her mouth, I thank God and again acknowledge just how large of a bullet we dodged by her losing. If she would have been President, this country would have never been the same because like Obama she would have shredded the Constitution in the name of "progress" and the US would have likely ceased to exist. Hillary is a sociopath and her constant parade of excuses and attacks on those who did not vote for her only demonstrates how dangerous she truly is and why she can never be allowed to have any real power.

    1. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   7 years ago

      You prefer authoritarian, intolerant, backward, superstitious right-wing positions? Delivered by a reckless, vainglorious, vulgar boor?

      Try to enjoy it now -- the improving American electorate seems destined to be incongruent with your preferences.

      1. Elias Fakaname   7 years ago

        Trump isn't all that 'right wing'. More of a results oriented pragmatist. If you could pull your head out of your progtarded ass for a few minutes you might actually be capable of some rudimentary cognitive analysis of the facts.

        Not at my level of course, but that was never going to happen. Considering your limited intellect. I know how hard it is for most of you neuro typicals to sustain rational thought to begin with, and you are clearly at the unfortunate end of the bell curve.

  48. Anastasia Beaverhausen   7 years ago

    Heck, I've worked with a lot of LP activists over the years who were just as guilty. I can't tell you how many state fair booths I've shared with LPers who tell each other that the voters are all stupid uneducated lemmings for supporting the Republicrats and the Demopublicans, and if they only saw the light and understood, they'd all be Libertarians.

    1. vek   7 years ago

      In all fairness there is some degree of truth to this.

      Most people aren't that smart, and even those that are don't spend a lot of time really figuring politics, economics, etc out. So some dumb folks knee jerk to being socialists, and other knee jerk to being conservative. I don't think many people who hold correct views arrived at them by the proper methods in many cases, they just happened to go there by chance or gut instinct.

      That still doesn't mean I won't gladly side with such a non thinker against socialists though!

  49. XM   7 years ago

    The democrats have always won the coast. Trump won enough places that voted for Obama in two previous elections to prevail in the electoral college. He won two big swing states AND Pennsylvania and Michigan.

    So nothing changed, except that Trump actually gained on areas that were purplish to blue. Clinton got the votes from fellow elitist and wannabe Marxists below the bourgeois class (a certifiable legion) who would essentially vote for the likes of Nicolas Maduro in another land.

    Like 90% of Californians have nothing do with the GDP of the region. The state's bread and butter is tech, info, and stocks. They benefit from trade, but much of that field is union territory.

  50. Mickey Rat   7 years ago

    Apparently, the other great thing Hilary said in this interview is that married white women did not vote for her because their husbands and sons told them not to.

    The contempt Hilary has for women who do not fall at feet is amazing.

    1. Flinch   7 years ago

      That makes sense at the end of the day. As a great admirer of Margaret Sanger, Hillary can be nothing but a misanthrope. Dems mostly hate each other, with a tacit understanding of silence/hands off for those who get in line and put party uber alles. Hillary's list is dynamic, and ready to be applied to any opposition in Stalinist fashion.

  51. AlmightyJB   7 years ago

    FTC.

  52. Nuwanda   7 years ago

    Having said it out loud lots of times, and it having not been effective as a rhetorical move to shift the political landscape in the direction that you want, why not try another tack?

    Another tack? KMW obviously doesn't understand Trump Derangement Syndrome and the triggering effect it has on its adherents. It's an automatised, reflexive mental state. It's a psychosis. They *have* no other tack.

    Sure, they attempt cool, considered analysis but the mask soon falls away and the ranting begins anew.

    I do think Donald Trump is a con man, and he is essentially conning his voters to enrich his family.

    If that nutty, conspiracist view is widespread then there is no alternative tack. All you have left is hyperplexy.

  53. zombietimeshare   7 years ago

    Someone needs to hand Her Thighness a copy of "How To Win Friends and Influence People", by Dale Carnegie, as the job she is doing now sucks.

  54. JuanQPublic   7 years ago

    Great observations, Katherine. This shouldn't be so controversial when it's so obvious, but you're correct: they feed off one another. It's a feedback loop of mindlessness.

    This really goes to show just how out of touch the mainstream Democratic establishment really is. We're now over 1/4 of the way through Trump's first term, and we still have his challenger going overseas to explain away why she lost. No new insights. No introspection. No ideas.

    It's nothing short of amazing that Clinton's campaign could help rig her nomination with the DNC, insult rural America, shame fellow Democrats for not supporting her, and yet still believe she would get the votes.

  55. emkcams   7 years ago

    "I win the coast....I won the places that represent two-thirds of America's gross domestic product. So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. "

    Mrs. Clinton simply defines that the places representing "two-thirds of America's gross domestic product" are optimistic, diverse, etc. That definition is lame with no data in support.

    1. Flinch   7 years ago

      Nobody said it, but I would expect she attempted a rough extrapolation of population density vs. median income. The map that went up and kept turning more and more red in November of 2016 is burned in her brain. Like most commenters here, I breathe a sigh of relief knowing this bundle of screech and desperation did not get the levers of power.

  56. Jr12   7 years ago

    How embarrassing? a libertarian thinking that politicized thieves and bigots squabbling over who gets to loot their neighbors represents the oppositional politics of left and right.

  57. I'm Not Sure   7 years ago

    "So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. ""

    Courtesy of Warren Meyer, Coyote Blog:

    Progressive elements in this country have always tried to freeze commerce, to lock this country's economy down in its then-current patterns. Progressives in the late 19th century were terrified the American economy was shifting from agriculture to industry. They wanted to stop this, to cement in place patterns where 80-90% of Americans worked on farms. I, for one, am glad they failed, since for all of the soft glow we have in this country around our description of the family farmer, farming was and can still be a brutal, dawn to dusk endeavor that never really rewards the work people put into it.

    This story of progressives trying to stop history has continued to repeat itself through the generations. In the seventies and eighties, progressives tried to maintain the traditional dominance of heavy industry like steel and automotive, and to prevent the shift of these industries overseas in favor of more service-oriented industries. Just like the passing of agriculture to industry a century ago inflamed progressives, so too does the current passing of heavy industry to services.

    1. I'm Not Sure   7 years ago

      Continued...

      In fact, here is a sure fire test for a progressive. If given a choice between two worlds:

      A capitalist society where the overall levels of wealth and technology continue to increase, though in a pattern that is dynamic, chaotic, generally unpredictable, and whose rewards are unevenly distributed, or...

      A "progressive" society where everyone is poorer, but income is generally more evenly distributed. In this society, jobs and pay and industries change only very slowly, and people have good assurances that they will continue to have what they have today, with little downside but also with very little upside.

      Progressives will choose #2. Even if it means everyone is poorer. Even if it cuts off any future improvements we might gain in technology or wealth or lifespan or whatever. They want to take what we have today, divide it up more equally, and then live to eternity with just that. Progressives want #2 today, and they wanted it just as much in 1900.

      1. Brett Bellmore   7 years ago

        No, not if everyone is poorer. Only if everyone else is poorer. Look at Sanders, making his re-distributive noises, while owning three dachas and flying on private planes.

        The "progressives", (Which is just yet another euphemism for communists to hide behind.) want a government capable of redistribution, because the true owner of anything is he who dictates where it goes. When the government can redistribute, the government is the true owner of everything, and being run by 'progressives', guess who ends up wealthy?

        1. sparkstable   7 years ago

          When discussing what Communism is with my HS students they quickly saw the sham. We discussed how the ideology is supposed to be about equality and that the govt would manage that by taking everything. Hands went up... "If everyone is supposed to be equal, then what about the people in government? There's no way they're going to live like everyone else!"

        2. Quo Usque Tandem   7 years ago

          Revolutions start off with the ideal of egalitarianism, but inevitably progresses to "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."

  58. tommhan   7 years ago

    Stop covering this insane woman.

  59. Dread Pirate Roberts   7 years ago

    Shame on you, America. You let Hillary Clinton down.

  60. nepipigi   7 years ago

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  61. maddarter   7 years ago

    Change the name from Reason to Manners.

  62. DontLoseYourHead   7 years ago

    I celebrate every day that this lying, corrupt, fraudulent bitch is NOT OUR PRESIDENT.

  63. Flinch   7 years ago

    There she goes again. Hope she keeps whining, because as long as the Clintons are sucking up all the air in the room, the DNC will remain flat on its [intellectual] back. The coasts are where the media is, which is why they remain so warped: staying on the wrong side of the looking glass isn't easy, and requires continuous reinforcement so that individuals don't do their own analysis of events and conditions. Middle america only gets bombarded with bull during election cycles, with the intermittant propaganda piece in their local papers penned by one of their own during the interim - outsider columns don't carry the same weight in my estimation.

  64. TxJack 112   7 years ago

    Hillary amazes me. I really cannot imagine how one person could be so delusional. What she said was not only insulting, it was a very clear indication of exactly why she was not elected. She views the entire center of the country with contempt and thinks only those on the coasts should have the right and ability to govern.

  65. Butler T. Reynolds   7 years ago

    At this point I think Hillary has to tell that story 1) for her own sanity and 2) in hopes that whatever legacy she leaves will not be that she was a terrible terrible candidate.

    Even though progressives claim to f-ing love science, they seem f-ing terrible at math. If you spend any time reading about the election results, the smug narrative of why Hillary lost just doesn't hold water. Trump should have easily lost that election, but the Democrats picked a disaster to represent them. (An even more disastrous indicator is that their #2 guy was Bernie.)

    1. TxJack 112   7 years ago

      Hillary lost because every time she opened her mouth she lied and/or she said something that reminded voters why they hated her. Her attitude about "common people" has always been one of contempt and since her second loss, all she has done is make this fact crystal clear. The fact she is unable to accept she was why she lost is not new for her.

    2. Paper Wasp   7 years ago

      The multiple smug narratives of why Hillary lost don't hold water. Not one of them. Russia, Jill Stein, Bernie Bros, media coverage (like PLEASE, the media eye-fucked her every chance it got), electoral college blah blah blah. She lost because she's a lying sack of murderous shit and voters could see right through her.

      Sanders is a crazy old commie coot, but you've got to hand it to him, what's he been doing since Hillary and her army of smug, vicious, passive-aggressive menopausal cunts cheated like gypsies to wrest the nomination away from him? Working. He's been out there hustling. Doing his job and then some.

      What's Hillary been doing? Licking her wounds. Writing a bitchy, whiny, sore-loser book that blames everybody but herself and ignores the fact that you can smell corruption on her from 1000 miles away. Going on tour to promote the book. Not bothering to lift a finger to support her fellow party members in one-off races around the country, even though she and her flying monkeys went after Sanders in the primary season for "not supporting down-ticket Democrats." Holing up in Chappaqua to drink staggering quantities of liquor and bitch to other rich, blonde WASP hags about the great unwashed and how she was entitled to their votes, and yet could barely conceal her contempt for them during her campaign.

      It's too late for her to quit while she's ahead, that's for sure. She just needs to STFU and go away.

  66. ChuckNorrisBeardFist   7 years ago

    I wonder if the the Rev has an Obama in his pocket to help him though this tough times. He posts so much he can't have a job.

    As for Hillary, which is sadder, that she doesn't have the capability for self insight or that her handlers let her get away with it.

  67. ChuckNorrisBeardFist   7 years ago

    I wonder if the the Rev has an Obama in his pocket to help him though this tough times. He posts so much he can't have a job.

    As for Hillary, which is sadder, that she doesn't have the capability for self insight or that her handlers let her get away with it.

    1. ChuckNorrisBeardFist   7 years ago

      Damn, squirrels I only hit submit once!

  68. Longtobefree   7 years ago

    Dear Reason.
    This article is about a purveyor of hatred against specific people groups, and you have a moral obligation to refrain from assisting her in spreading those hate filled words. This is common sense free speech control.

  69. Inquisitive Squirrel   7 years ago

    I'm not sure about her response that basically says, "smug liberals are right, Trump conned the idiots, but don't say it out loud, that's what makes you smug." The smugness from the left goes way beyond simply not saying something smug. It's the attitude of smug and really the fact that the smugness is completely based on obvious falsity much of the time. I mean, the whole idea that you look at Trump and say, "oh, he just conned all the idiots", but then turn around and swoon at how great Hillary was without seeing her great attempt at conning you is the problem with the smug. The problem with being smug is when it is obvious your smugness is based on a fairly high level of ignorance and bias. That's what makes the smugness so distasteful and such a problem for the left. The lesson of simply not saying things out loud is such a surface level approach it ironically fits right in to what I said about the actual problem with smugness: expressing knowledge and elitism while clearly ignorant and biased on an issue. It's like when John Oliver does a whole show on how federal transportation taxes have not increased in a long time and how America's roads are falling apart because of it, but never once mentions state taxes and state department's of transportation infrastructure responsibility, thus showing a tremendous amount of ignorance and bias. That is the smugness that many liberals exude.

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