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It's not your tacit support of Trump that earned my downvote, it's that your self-described motivation ("send a wrecking ball") will make the problem you identi

It's not your tacit support of Trump that earned my downvote, it's that your self-described motivation ("send a wrecking ball") will make the problem you identified ("fundamental problems with our economy") worse, not better. This sort revolutionary fervor is generally counterproductive, and is a large part of why our national politics has become to toxic.

update 10y ago
> This sort revolutionary fervor is generally counterproductive Do you have evidence for this claim? because to my mind, the exact opposite is true. I completely agree with OP. I'd prefer Bernie but would take Trump. Some other users were quite rude saying you have to be an idiot to think a rich person would help poor people. I think that's a pretty silly statement, take Bill Gates for instance. IMHO, members of HN are the vocal minority in their outright hatred for Trump. He will most certainly win the nomination if he goes against Hillary.
- uola 10y ago
  "IMHO, members of HN are the vocal minority in their outright hatred for Trump" Trump (followed by Clinton) is the most disliked candidates in (at least modern) US history. http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-distaste-for-both-trump-and-clinton-is-record-breaking/ http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-distaste-for-b...
  - api 10y ago
    That's fascinating when coupled with the black swan of Trump and the near black swan of Sanders. Note the fact that dislike for elected candidates has been rising for quite some time. The general theme is that Americans are done with the status quo.
    - krapp 10y ago
      >The general theme is that Americans are done with the status quo. And yet it's impossible to win a general election without appealing to moderates and independents.
      - dragonwriter 10y ago
        Independent voters are a very different thing than moderates, though; and, various studies have shown that they are as consistent in their major party voting behavior as major party voters. Often, rather than moderates, they are either people that, in addition to their preferences on the axis dividing the major parties, have strong preferences that don't fall on that axis and thus feel insufficiently represented by the nearest major party, or people who have positions that fall on roughly the same axis that divides the major parties, but are at a more extreme position on that axis than the nearer major party. Elections are one more turnout among the people usually inclined to vote for your party (whether members of independents) than by "swinging" votes that might go either way.
- davidw 10y ago
  Trump is like Berlusconi in a lot of ways. His time in power or looming in opposition was mostly a couple of lost decades for Italy.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- Angostura 10y ago
  So you support stopping any Muslims from visiting the US?
Aloha 10y ago
Right now the two major parties cannot agree even on the causes of the problems (or on some level even that there is a problem) - why would I expect politics as usual to produce different results?
- ocfx 10y ago
  They don't want to agree because then they lose issues to platform on that the general public is excited about.
- Frondo 10y ago
  It's funny, because if this were a large software project that was going awry for whatever reason, I don't think anyone here would suggest, "hey, this isn't going well, bring in that blowhard from marketing, at least that'll break it spectacularly!" Not sure why it's different when it's your government we're talking about.
  - maratd 10y ago
    That would be exactly what people would suggest, because they know from experience the "blowhard from marketing" will screw things up so badly, that the only viable option will be to start over with a clean slate. And that's exactly what's needed for a "large software project that was going awry" but it's always easier to say patch this here, tweak it there. Only when you can no longer patch and tweak yourself to anything functional will people actually clamor for a clean break. That's why they vote for Trump. Nobody expects him to fix anything. They expect a clean slate at some point. Whether it's during his tenure or after, it's irrelevant. He's the catalyst.
    - harryjo 10y ago
      It won't be a clean slate. It will be a very dirty slate, with the detritus of millions of ruined lives spattered around it. A lot of what people hated about GWB was how he tried to turn Iraq and Afghanistan into a clean slate, and made a huge mess. Why would you want to do the same to USA (except out of some sense of radical fairness...)

update 10y ago

> This sort revolutionary fervor is generally counterproductive Do you have evidence for this claim? because to my mind, the exact opposite is true. I completely agree with OP. I'd prefer Bernie but would take Trump. Some other users were quite rude saying you have to be an idiot to think a rich person would help poor people. I think that's a pretty silly statement, take Bill Gates for instance. IMHO, members of HN are the vocal minority in their outright hatred for Trump. He will most certainly win the nomination if he goes against Hillary.

uola 10y ago
"IMHO, members of HN are the vocal minority in their outright hatred for Trump" Trump (followed by Clinton) is the most disliked candidates in (at least modern) US history. http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-distaste-for-both-trump-and-clinton-is-record-breaking/ http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-distaste-for-b...
- api 10y ago
  That's fascinating when coupled with the black swan of Trump and the near black swan of Sanders. Note the fact that dislike for elected candidates has been rising for quite some time. The general theme is that Americans are done with the status quo.
  - krapp 10y ago
    >The general theme is that Americans are done with the status quo. And yet it's impossible to win a general election without appealing to moderates and independents.
    - dragonwriter 10y ago
      Independent voters are a very different thing than moderates, though; and, various studies have shown that they are as consistent in their major party voting behavior as major party voters. Often, rather than moderates, they are either people that, in addition to their preferences on the axis dividing the major parties, have strong preferences that don't fall on that axis and thus feel insufficiently represented by the nearest major party, or people who have positions that fall on roughly the same axis that divides the major parties, but are at a more extreme position on that axis than the nearer major party. Elections are one more turnout among the people usually inclined to vote for your party (whether members of independents) than by "swinging" votes that might go either way.
davidw 10y ago
Trump is like Berlusconi in a lot of ways. His time in power or looming in opposition was mostly a couple of lost decades for Italy.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
Angostura 10y ago
So you support stopping any Muslims from visiting the US?

Aloha 10y ago

Right now the two major parties cannot agree even on the causes of the problems (or on some level even that there is a problem) - why would I expect politics as usual to produce different results?

ocfx 10y ago
They don't want to agree because then they lose issues to platform on that the general public is excited about.
Frondo 10y ago
It's funny, because if this were a large software project that was going awry for whatever reason, I don't think anyone here would suggest, "hey, this isn't going well, bring in that blowhard from marketing, at least that'll break it spectacularly!" Not sure why it's different when it's your government we're talking about.
- maratd 10y ago
  That would be exactly what people would suggest, because they know from experience the "blowhard from marketing" will screw things up so badly, that the only viable option will be to start over with a clean slate. And that's exactly what's needed for a "large software project that was going awry" but it's always easier to say patch this here, tweak it there. Only when you can no longer patch and tweak yourself to anything functional will people actually clamor for a clean break. That's why they vote for Trump. Nobody expects him to fix anything. They expect a clean slate at some point. Whether it's during his tenure or after, it's irrelevant. He's the catalyst.
  - harryjo 10y ago
    It won't be a clean slate. It will be a very dirty slate, with the detritus of millions of ruined lives spattered around it. A lot of what people hated about GWB was how he tried to turn Iraq and Afghanistan into a clean slate, and made a huge mess. Why would you want to do the same to USA (except out of some sense of radical fairness...)