The Dreaded Political Poll...

[shadowkat]

[ETA: Apologies - apparently I spelled Bernie Sanders, last name wrong. But hey at least I was consistent about it.]

After Book Club and work, where we skirted around the topic and then skirted back again, I'm curious as to where the political landmines lie on my livejournal flist and the degree to which I should avoid all things political. (Book club was doing a better job of skirting, work not so much -- cubical mate likes to rant about Trump on a daily basis.) I already know where they lie at work and on Facebook, and with family. The people on Facebook are pro-Bernie Saunders, the people at work are either pro-Trump, Clinton, Saunders or staying quiet. And the book club seems to be leaning towards Cruz or no one. Meanwhile my mother is actively campaigning for Clinton.

So a poll. For this poll - I attempted to list all the presidential candidates currently running, but got tired after listing over 20 of them. Most of which, I'd never heard of. I thought, geeze, there's a lot of presidential candidates. And here, I thought only ten people were running, turns out I was wrong. In case you are remotely interested - the complete list of currently registered Independent Candidates running for President on the Independent Ticket, can be found HERE:

[Poll #2035065]

I forgot to list undecided. Damn it.

I tend to stay away from this topic, because...blood pressure inducing. But I'm curious to see where my flist falls. Are you all Bernie Saunder's fans? Or are you all Trump fans? (Ghod, I really really hope not. But one never knows...Honestly I can't imagine a Trump fan reading and enjoying my journal, but stranger things have happened.)

Currently, I don't feel strongly about any of the candidates...except that I'll probably have to move to New Zealand if Trump wins. The man has dead eyes.

[ETA: Apparently there is 1524 people who are running for president of the US. As an aside? This sort of reminds me of scrolling through television channels hunting for something to watch, over a thousand channels, and still, nothing is on!]

Comments

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Not speaking for anyone else... I think most everyone respects Hilary Clinton's intelligence. I think everyone appreciates her level of diligence. Setting aside policy and political position for the moment, every argument in her favor stems from these two traits.

On the left - her friendliness with the corporate world, Wall Street, and the business lobby is something people don't trust. Her support for the Iraq war, and degree of intervention abroad, is something a lot of people don't trust. Much with some of the Clinton's triangulations in the 1990s on stuff like welfare and crime.

(I also think there's some suspicions that her hawkishness is cynical - that she probably knew the Iraq war was a bad idea and would be fought badly, but went along with it because you just give that one to the people in power who want it. If she actually bought into it - that's a strong mark against her judgement - the same that hired Mark Penn and terribly misread and mismanaged the 08 campaign.)

But larger than that - I think she just rubs people the wrong way in the same way Nixon does. That her level of honesty is deeply questionable - we all know that lots of people hate her to begin with, so her calculatedness is public is understandable... and I know that lots of people in government use private email for official work... but her use of a private email server to such an extent just smells bad. Even if it doesn't rise to a high level of crime.

I think it can be hard to explain about what it is exactly that turns people off. I'm going to vote for her over Bernie Sanders anyway. But I certainly get how she comes across unlikable and untrustworthy - and it's very real to probably half the country.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. You've managed to articulate my issues with Hillary very well and why I supported Obama over Hillary in the last election. I can't say I trust her either, but I trust her more than anyone else currently running. And well, my job has a lot of political interaction and is directly affected by "politics" -- so as a result, I can't say I trust any politicians. Actually I think at this point...politics and trust is a bit of an oxymoron.

But, I'm going to vote for her over Bernie Saunders anyway for much the same reasons that you've previously articulated.

Curious what people on this thread think about the fact that there doesn't appear to be any fiscal conservative Republican front-runners in the race?

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Not much. The Republicans haven't nominated a Fiscal Conservative for president since Eisenhower. Republicans do not actually care about balancing the budget or fiscal responsibility -- it's just marketing. (see going to war while also passing massive tax cuts)

[honorh.livejournal.com]

I'd really like to see a true fiscal conservative in the Republicans. Fiscal conservatives are needed in government; you need someone who'll count the cost, even when it's not popular to. Unfortunately, they're in short supply.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

So would I. I think dlgood is right, the last one was Eisenhower. Right now, we have the Tea Party, who thinks they are fiscally conservative...which, really not.

[honorh.livejournal.com]

This articulates a lot of my difficulties with Hillary. Part of it is known issues, and part of it is intuition. I have no idea what her level of sincerity is, and that makes me skittish about her.