Below is today’s column in USA Today on the protests against President-Elect Donald Trump and why, despite having a house full of family members and friends who have come to protest Trump, I will not be joining them. Instead, I will be home with my kids as we have been in every inauguration – celebrating the peaceful transfer of power in our democracy and wishing the newly elected president (and our country) the best with an inaugural toast. I criticized Trump (and Hillary Clinton) during the campaign (and I will not hesitate to criticize Trump again for policies or actions that I disagree with). However, I find the claims of illegitimacy and attacks this week to be highly disturbing. I totally respect the right of people to come to protest Trump and his policies. However, there appears to be a concerted effort to delegitimize his presidency and create a type of political mythology about this election.
In this column I discuss that mythology and, more importantly, the meaning of the day of inauguration for many of us. Regardless of my criticism of both Trump and Clinton, I always knew that on January 20th I would raise a glass to the 45th President of the United States and wish him or her . . . and us . . . the best of luck in the coming years. It is a time when we reaffirm our commitment not so much to a politician but to each other. We reaffirm a common article of faith that, despite our disagreements and divisions, we remain one country joined by our belief in democratic transition and government. There is much to celebrate this week as a glance around the world at places like Gambia will readily confirm. Donald Trump will be the 45th President. Our President.
DONALD TRUMP IS OUR LEGITIMATE PRESIDENT
It is inaugural week and Washington is again the rallying point for hundreds of thousands of people. Indeed, my house in McLean, Virginia is hosting roughly a dozen people from Illinois and Florida. They are not, however, coming to celebrate but to protest. My brother Chris, his family, and various friends will be joining thousands protesting the inauguration and then will join the “Women’s March.” I will not be joining them. While I fully support their exercise of free speech and share some of their concerns, I believe that this week is about celebrating the 71st time that a democratically elected president has taken the oath of office (and our 58th formal inauguration). I was highly critical of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton during the campaign. However, there is a time to protest and there is a time to come together, even if only for an inaugural ceremony.
Over 50 Democratic members of Congress have publicly announced that they will not attend the inauguration, including some like Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who has insisted that Trump is not the legitimate president. (Lewis and other members also boycotted George W. Bush’s inauguration in 2001 because they insisted that he was not the true elected president.) Ironically, many of these members were the same people joining Hillary Clinton in denouncing the “horrifying” notion that Trump or his supporters might not accept the results of the election. Clinton decried how Trump, by not stating that he would accept the results of losing, he was “denigrating — he is talking down our democracy.” That was when Clinton was viewed as a shoe-in. Then came election night.
After the election, Clinton joined others in challenging results in key states and Democrats began to question the legitimacy of the election — first due to the fact that Trump lost the popular vote and later based on Russian hacking of Democratic emails.
It is of course immaterial that Trump lost the popular vote in a system based on electoral, not popular voting. (For the record, I have long been a critic of the Electoral College.) Moreover, while references to the “Russian hacking of the election” have become common shorthand, the Russians did not hack the election. Emails were hacked and those emails were not faked or tampered with, as repeatedly claimed by DNC chair Donna Brazile. As recently confirmed by the intelligence report, they were real emails showing incredibly dishonest and corrupt practices. Although there is no question that the leak appears selective in targeting Democrats, Washington seems most aggrieved by the fact that the public was given a true insight into the false and duplicitous behavior that defines the establishment. However, according to a new CNN/ORC poll, the spin is not taking: almost 60% of voters do not believe the hacking determined the outcome of the election.
In the end, the protests are not about legitimacy. Trump is by any measure our duly elected and legitimate president. It is about a refusal to accept legitimate results. Even the title of “The Women’s March” is dubious.
While Bill Clinton insisted that his wife lost because Trump figured out “how to get angry, white men to vote for him,” the fact is that it was the Democratic leadership that secured the election for Trump. Despite long-standing polls showing that voters did not want an establishment figure, the establishment pre-selected Clinton, who is not only one of the most recognized establishment figures but someone carrying more luggage than Greyhound. She is also someone who had even higher negative polling on character and truthfulness than Trump.
More importantly, it is a well-maintained myth that Clinton was the candidate of women who overwhelmingly rejected Trump. Clinton pulled basically the same percentage of female votes as Obama did four years earlier. Indeed, Clinton actually did slightly worse this election than Obama did in the prior two presidential elections with women. She received just 54% of women’s votes while Obama received 55% against Romney and 56% against McCain. Trump handily beat Clinton among many groups of women. For example, 62% of white women without college degrees voted for him over Clinton. Even among college-educated women, Clinton only won 51%. She lost the votes of white women by a whooping 52-43% against Trump. It was her margin among black female voters (over 90%) that eked out an overall majority of women.
Moreover, Trump won basically the same percentage of white voters as Romney. Indeed, according to Pew Research, the percentage was virtually identical with Trump beating Clinton by 21 points and Romney beating Obama by 20 points. Clinton actually fell in the percentage of black voters. Trump outperformed Romney among black, Hispanic, and Asian voters. For example, despite all of the coverage of Trump’s illegal immigration comments, he received roughly 30% of all Hispanic votes.
The point is not to belittle the basis or numbers of opponents to Trump. Yet, there is an effort to establish a mythology that Trump was elected by white men and heavily opposed by women. Worse yet, there is an effort to portray him as some presidential pretender to the office. In reality, it is Democratic leaders who have abandoned tradition and denigrated our democracy by refusing to stand with the new president at his inauguration. Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., said she would not attend because she did not want to “contribute to the normalization of the President-elect’s divisive rhetoric by participating in the inauguration.” That “normalization” is called the democratic process. We are celebrating not a particular victor but the fact that there was a victor — a democratically elected victor followed by a peaceful transition of power.
So, I will not be with my brother and friends at the protests. I will be home toasting the 71st oath of office . . . and, yes, the 45th president of the United States.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.
JT mentions Gambia, in his superb post. That country is going through turmoil over a dictator refusing to step down after promising to do so if he lost an election, which he did. I have followed this on the BBC. The discredited US MSM is too busy obsessing on trying to legitimize Trump.
Whether Donald j Trump is a legitimate president is yet to be determined. I am not ready to accept analysis when I know every election cycle is riff with white Republicans and Democrats manipulating my vote, which has been a problem since passage of the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution. I didn’t lose, I won’t be protesting either. I will be living in uncertainty while others celebrate the election of a documented racist white supremacist.
Care to provide some proof of that last statement or is it just the usual subjectivist left wing fascist bull shit? Your charge would be a lot easier to substantiate if Comrade Clinton had been elected. along with sexist, sex enabler, victimizer of women and a numbere of other categories.
However from the looks of things with the white collectivists flooding to the secular progressives control of the Democrats more properly known as Fascist Socialists is up for grabs. Why not consider taking over the old Democrat party and turn it into something useful – perhaps as the reverse racist party. It would be a lot more honest than they are right now and save the moderate centrists the trouble of destroying it along with the right wing OF the left RINOs.
Of course and this is the hard part for Democrats you actually have to DO something not just SAY it.
Jennifer A Thompson – so, you are not opposed to those black politicians and pastors with “walking around money” lining up the votes in their communities?
Paul —- a source for thinking people. Daily.Justia.com gives the latest on SCOTUS, Appellate and Circuit Court descision etc. Back to Jennifer.
It certainly is determined. Mr. Trump is absolutely not the legitimate President of the United States of America. But he will be at 11:30am tomorrow.
” I don’t know politics but I do know a fair amount about human functioning. I’ve spent my life studying why humans do what they do and don’t do what they don’t do. That is my lane. I do have advice for our politicians: Stop fighting with and trying to trip up the other side. Start doing only those things that help people. Stop the games, the obstruction, the chest pounding and the “my party is better than your party” stuff. Stop treating voters like idiots and start doing your job: Working for us. From our point of view, there is only one side.”
“We are all Americans, and we are all in this together.”
DR. PHIL
https://www.yahoo.com/news/dr-phil-advice-politicians-start-working-us-guest-172016743.html
The question is does Trump consider us all to be Americans? His rhetoric says otherwise.
Trump could reach out, ya know.
Well, Trump will be giving a big speech tomorrow, so let’s see what he has to say….
I hear he is going to keep it to about 20 minutes or so – a welcome change from the long-winded Obama lectures.
It’s possible that Trump’s reach only extends to the nearest pu**sy….
What a sad commentary on your role as a citizen. The question is how do you consider yourself and I don’t mean regurgitateing the half baked definition of the day.
Being – Conscious of being – thinking – reasoning – observing – evaluating usefulness – and having done that make a moral decision is it right or wrong.
The other way is just follow the leader who believes in fantasy worlds and fairy tails.
What a concept? Could it be that’s why so many of us voted against politicians this time?
As I read your column, I was intent on blasting it (as between an inauguration of a CEO and an act in furtherance of the Bill of Rights, the latter is the much more important), but unfortunately for my tireless ego it made lots of sense. Thanks for it.
Frankly, a more powerful message might be sent if no one were to show up at the Capitol building for the inauguration.
Democrats should hide their heads after voting for such a corrupted candidate. If they haven’t learned anything from the Clinton Global Initiative closing down as a result of its rainmaker in the foreign donative-transfer market and husband in business only not being elected as the dynamic duo of Wall Street, then they never will. Shame on them. I mean that: SHAME ON THEM.
Trump, nonetheless, is in the gate and should be criticized as soon as it opens. Not transferring his businesses to a blind trust, including what apparently is/are hotel(s) on federal land he’s leased is a glaring conflict of interest.
Time will tell. My bet is on a further interpretation of the sentence, “The President . . . shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Tax evasion, conspiracy to solicit a bribe, and making false statements to a grand jury – all of which having apparently been the basis for impeachment and conviction of federal judges – would seem to be within the briefcase someone else carries for The Donald.
We’ve had what we like to think of as some variation on democracy, but I like to think of it more as a place where one can speak his or her mind, calling a spade a spade, and with others protecting that speech regardless of the content, but I suppose formalities such as the pomp of an inauguration have their place for many. I can respect that.
Steve, re: “Democrats should hide their heads after voting for such a corrupted candidate. If they haven’t learned anything from the Clinton Global Initiative closing down as a result of its rainmaker in the foreign donative-transfer market and husband in business only not being elected as the dynamic duo of Wall Street, then they never will.”
Dems are not hiding their heads – indeed I suspect many of them are unaware that the CGI closed. They have firmly kept their heads in the sand during the last 8 years and truly believe the DNC is the righteous party of the people. They ignore all inconvenient facts and still hate on Bernie Sanders for taking “their” voters. Delusional and hateful rhetoric is all I hear from them.
Maybe the Donald will surprise us and turn out to do some good things. Or maybe not. But there is a chance. An HRC presidency would have been a horror show.
Making false statements to a grand jury didn’t result in a guilty verdict for Bill Clinton. Why should it for Trump?
Why should it for Trump?
Pretty good question. The answer is simple. If Trump does not continue to carry the water pail for the interests of the deep state and the neoliberal centers of power, he will be tossed aside just as Clinton would have been had he done the same thing. Otherwise, like Clinton and Obama, his pockets will grow vastly deeper. Crossing the establishment is the only offense for which US Presidents (and many other Presidents) are held accountable by iron rigid forces. For the rest, they can kill, torture, and maim entire countries with impunity as long as it doesn’t conflict.
So you think two wrongs make a right? How about three wrongs or four wrongs. But as for the rest of it the left IS the home of war mongering and the source of the military industrial complex if there is such a thing. The Reublicans are or maybe were if they learned anything this time the right wing of the left. Caving on command for puppy chow.
Issac,
I’ve been hearing what you just wrote all over the MSM. I will share some accurate information which differs from the MSM messaging.
First, you are correct that most people did feel a real sense of hope and joy upon the election of Obama in 08. That was due in large part to Obama’s carefully orchestrated brand-he was Advertising Age’s brand of the Year 2008. That hope and joy was also based on many people’s desperate desire for peace, for an economy that worked for all people, it was an expression of the hope for reconciliation between black and white people. I saw that hope. I saw people implementing that reconciliation. I saw that joy. I also saw that people were so desperate for a savior that they were willing to overlook the reality of Obama and instead go with the brand they were being sold. It was one of the saddest things I have ever experienced.
If you were willing to be an informed voter you would have known that Obama is exactly the president we have seen him be. He had a career in the FIRE industry where he worked with the powerful and brought low whole (largely black) neighborhoods. His vote for telecom immunity was a clear indication that he was not going to hold the surveillance state in check or to account. He was also busy threatening different Congress people to change their vote on bailing out the banks with no accountability. He served the banks well. He had also voted for numerous war appropriations. We now know that his cabinet was chosen for him by Citibank. At the time we could have found out that he was heavily funded by the banking industry.
For two years he had a Democratic majority. Instead of using this to pass universal, single payer healthcare, to reign in our wars of empire, to bring justice to those at Gitmo and other black sites, to bring those who had tortured to a court of law, to hold the bankers accountable under our law, he did not do those things. Therefore, when you claim it was only Republicans stopping him from doing great things, we can see this is not true. He worked easily and well with Republicans at every point, and together with leading Democrats they passed atrocities such as the NDAA, more funds and tools for banks, he rejected and told Congress to reject universal single payer healthcare, increase funds to build a heinous nuclear arsenal, engaged in mass, illegal surveillance on our population and has bombed more people even than Bush during his 7 wars.
Because he had such a strong brand which was difficult for people to see through, most of his voters remained silent as he betrayed them, our nation, the environment, and other people throughout the world. No Republicans stopped him from doing these things.
This leftist did not vote for Obama and this leftist did not vote for Clinton because I am not for wars, economic injustice, I am pro-environment and I do want justice for all people. Those are the same reasons I would not vote for Trump.
Democrats strike me as terribly pompous in believing they are the moral guardians of this nation while backing up war and financial criminals at every turn. Every person who voted for Trump is not an evil racist. That’s just not factually correct and if you are serious about opposing Trump’s actual policies then I would hope you would get right with reality and make common cause with your fellow citizens, who are pretty desperate for economic justice. You can also work with people who don’t want war, don’t want a destroyed planet and want justice for all.
You can either be a pompous, self righteous war criminal loving person or you can care enough about your planet and fellow citizens to stop running after such people, worshiping false god/dess and roll up your sleeve to help out.
Hear, hear Jill! A good point Progressives keep making is that with Trump people will scrutinize his every move and that is happening. If HRC had gotten in it would have been business as usual – Obama 2.0 – because, you know, Democrats are wonderful! =)
Heard nothing from the so called progressives here about the Trump appointments. 🙂
Well said Jill! You covered all the major points of an absolutely tragic sell out as well as the death knell of the Democratic party and it’s treachery to all decent things it once stood for. It’s important to understand, however, that Obama would never have had a chance at becoming president were he not fully vetted before hand as a continuation of what Scott refers to as our Uniparty in his excellent comment above; in Obama’s case, wrapped in a populist cloak with a silver tongue.
Upset or no, Trump is more than likely simply the next phase of the exact same process; the neoliberal takeover of Democracy itself and not just in the United States for the benefit of an international oligarchy in the form of corporations, banks and investment institutions. A most dangerous aspect of that transition of power is its close ties to the hugely powerful neoconservative, or warmongering, interests of our industrial military complex including the ever growing military private sector.
Trump’s economic populism and his distancing himself from the neoconservatve mania to confront Russia are alas belied by his cabinet choices. Such selections are likely as far removed from his own personal choices as those of Obama which you point out were directed by Citibank. Indeed it is likely that US Presidents are now simply hostages imprisoned lavishly for four to eight year periods of time in a TV and now Internet soap opera that could easily be called, As the White House Turns Trump may not have bargained for this going in – we’ll see how he comes out.
Regardless, I wish our President well in general and particularly in any and every effort to address and hack away at this Gordian knot. The French helped us in our last revolution, so I see no problem with Russia doing it now as long as it is indeed telling the Truth about our affairs which we seem to have lost the capacity for.
Three kinds of people in a discussion. The righteous who speak through blinders. The debaters – in it only for the points. And those who roll up their sleeves and go fix the problem Good Point!
Well said, Jill…
As of yesterday they totaled a paltry 11.7 percent of Congress therefore statistically irrelevant.
Partisan Democrats have grown so repellent in the last 20 years that the pain this causes them is now amusing.
I enjoy imagining the discomfort all the “I’m with her” types must be experiencing. And from the looks of my face book feed, it’s pretty significant.
I feel sorry for all the retailers who stocked up on “I’m With Her, Madam President, Hillary” memorabilia and have had to get rid of it with “buy one at 90% off, get one free” sales.
Really? I am seeing the exact opposite – almost a deranged joy as these women plan their “Women’s March on Washington” locally. Almost 1400 have signed up last time I checked. Crazy, but hopefully harmless – I may go check it out as I am curious to see who attends. I am betting it is mostly older white women.
My friends are taking their daughters and grand daughters to Washington. There is a large group of young women in my community. participating. The had a party at a brewery last night. The are protesting the “p” president.iYou are right though. They are looking to have a good time before the doom sets in.. Hope no harm comes.
They’re marching for what, Autumn? There is no such thing as a woman’s issue.
Autumn, There was a holier than thou, entitled, white woman who used to comment here, thinking her poop didn’t stink. She went by the name, Blouise. She is wealthy, myopic, Hillbot and she is marching. She is an old, washed up, white woman just as you surmised. I hope the DC area Walgreen’s, CVS, etc. are well stocked up on Depends.
The Women’s March has gone viral and gotten a lot of press and I believe it will draw large numbers (100k+ is my guess). It is being professionally organized and is coordinating ‘Sister Marches’ in cities across the nation for those who don’t travel to DC. Women like author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) and men like Harry Belafonte among many other celebs are in town for the march. Last I heard all are welcome to march – including anti-abortion pro-lifers. Michael Moore and CNN’s Van Jones (who I was surprised to learn is married to a white woman) are a couple of the many speakers lined up for the event.
https://www.womensmarch.com/speakers/
Why would you be surprised Van Jones is married to a white woman?
I don’t know why. Maybe just my impression of him is that he’s a leftist radical, BLM activist type and I had just read that his wife was white it surprised me. No need to have mentioned it, I suppose. Just one of those things.
and in the end line up for puppy chow and welfare
Women like author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) and men like Harry Belafonte among many other celebs are in town for the march.
Belafonte was a fine popular musician…60 years ago. He’s been given to the worst sort of sectarian politics in recent years. Gilbert’s a hoot. She dumps her age-appropriate lawyer husband (the father of her children) for no very compelling reason and marries a Brazilian who’s shorter than she is, bald, and was in need of a green card. (They’re now divorced).
When did she divorce the Brazilian husband? I hadn’t hear that. I just mentioned her name because I know she has a large network of fans and followers and when I saw she was marching, it made me think the march will likely draw large numbers.
If you’re a current Member of Congress, and you don’t attend the Presidential Inauguration, without good cause, you’re a self-rightious partisan hack who is boycotting a non-partisan American tradition demonstrating the peaceful transfer of power.
“Lewis and his cadre of Democratic lawmakers believe they’re taking a principled stand for democracy by boycotting the inauguration. In fact, they’re undermining it. No matter how much you disagree with the president himself, the office of the presidency and the peaceful transfer of power are greater than any one man, and they deserve unambiguous endorsement by our elected officials—in fact, it’s their sworn duty.
Our Founding Fathers knew what a pernicious influence rank partisanship could be on the fledgling republic. In his farewell address, George Washington warned against what he called “the spirit of party,” and urged his countrymen to “discourage and restrain it.” Such a spirit, he said, “agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection.”
Beyond these, there’s another grave danger Washington saw in the spirit of party—one that should resonate with us after an election in which Trump himself admits Russia tried to meddle: “It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passion.”
http://thefederalist.com/2017/01/17/inauguration-boycotts-harm-country-no-matter-president/
Excellent! Nice to see some evidence of education But don’t forget the oath of office the military takes. The last line of defense against these foreign influences.
When Obama was inaugurated, especially the first time, the only people that weren’t swelling with pride and beaming with hope were the racists and bigots who quietly slithered away to fester under their rocks. The Republican leaders were holding it in but even they breathed a sigh of relief after their shameful leader quietly disappeared. The country and the world was ecstatic. I was proud to be an American and elated at this momentous occasion.
Now the rocks have all been flipped over. The malcontents of eight years ago have slithered about these past months and for the first time in US history an accomplished and established liar, buffoon, and hypocrite is about to be sworn in as President. It seems that over 60% of Americans can see this at this point. Whatever one feels about Obama, coming in he was hope and truth. What happened to tarnish these hopes and truths can be primarily laid at the feet of the treasonous and obstructive Republican party as they labored to displace their shame of the eight years of the three stooges and focus it on the Democratic President. Obama wasn’t perfect but more than 60% of America believes he was a great President. Regardless of how DDT won the Presidency, he made it in on the slippery backs of those that would take America backwards, those who ignorantly complain of that which they have no understanding.
To suffer this abominable and horrific buffoon, we will indeed have to make America greater. We will see how great America can be. America was great enough to weather the eight years of the three stooges but with its collective short memory, went back to the treasonous Republican party. Most Americans are an ill-informed and mob like people. That is the only reason someone of DDT’s ilk could make it to the Presidency. Only in America. Limit the damage, impeach DDT.
He did have some help from Comey. Comey decided to go against protocol with regards to Clinton and stuck to the protocol with regards to Trump. I would like an answer as to why he made that choice.
“How do we hate Obama’s treatment of the press? Let me count the ways. Under his administration, the U.S. government has set a new record for withholding Freedom of Information Act requests, according to a recent Associated Press investigation. FOIA gives the public and press an irreplaceable view into the workings of the executive branch. Without timely release of government documents and data, vital questions can’t be answered and stories can’t be written.”
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/03/obama-hypocritical-journalism-lecture-213775
Bob – good article. We have yet to read the HRC emails re the TPP that Obama put on ice til after the election. Wonder if they will ever be released?
“It’s hardly news that the Obama administration is intensely and, in many respects, unprecedentedly hostile toward the news-gathering process. Even the most Obama-friendly journals have warned of what they call “Obama’s war on whistleblowers”. James Goodale, the former general counsel of the New York Times during its epic fights with the Nixon administration, recently observed that “President Obama wants to criminalize the reporting of national security information” and added: “President Obama will surely pass President Richard Nixon as the worst president ever on issues of national security and press freedom.”
Still, a new report released today by the highly respected Committee to Protect Journalists – its first-ever on press freedoms in the US – powerfully underscores just how extreme is the threat to press freedom posed by this administration. Written by former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie, Jr., the report offers a comprehensive survey of the multiple ways that the Obama presidency has ushered in a paralyzing climate of fear for journalists and sources alike, one that severely threatens the news-gathering process.
The first sentence: “In the Obama administration’s Washington, government officials are increasingly afraid to talk to the press.” Among the most shameful aspects of the Obama record:
Six government employees, plus two contractors including Edward Snowden, have been subjects of felony criminal prosecutions since 2009 under the 1917 Espionage Act, accused of leaking classified information to the press—compared with a total of three such prosecutions in all previous U.S. administrations. Still more criminal investigations into leaks are under way. Reporters’ phone logs and e-mails were secretly subpoenaed and seized by the Justice Department in two of the investigations, and a Fox News reporter was accused in an affidavit for one of those subpoenas of being ‘an aider, abettor and/or conspirator’ of an indicted leak defendant, exposing him to possible prosecution for doing his job as a journalist. In another leak case, a New York Times reporter has been ordered to testify against a defendant or go to jail.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/10/cpi-report-press-freedoms-obama
The word most frequently used to describe Trump is “buffoon”. This means that the most common observations about him are his excess girth and his illiteracy / dyslexia. People apparently vote for those they believe to be most like themselves. A very large percent of US Americans have excess girth and read and write only about 140 characters about any given idea.
A very large percent of US Americans have excess girth and read and write only about 140 characters about any given idea.
You’re still below the median.
Isaac keeps using 80,000 as the vote number Hillary lost. According to Joe Biden at 5:08 in the video of his appearance on The View, Hillary lost by 196,000 votes in 3 states.
Btw…..Isaac also says that “most Americans are ill-informed”…..and this is true – in large part because people actually watch shows like The View that are “repositories of all human stupidity.”
And people are also ill-informed because of how Obama has clamped down on the press and the inherent liberal bias in the MSM that Trump continues to call out and expose.
I also love how Biden suggests that Trump might not know enough to do the job! As if Obama’s community organizing and pot smoking qualified HIM to lead anything?! My God.
Trump’s victory margin smaller than total Stein votes in key swing states
© Moriah Ratner
In two key states that President-elect Donald Trump won, his margin of victory was smaller than the total number of votes for Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
In Michigan, Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton by 10,704 votes, while Stein got 51,463 votes, according to current totals on the state’s official website.
And in Wisconsin, Trump’s margin over Clinton was 22,177, while Stein garnered 31,006 votes.
In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, Stein’s total of 49,485 votes was just slightly smaller than Trump’s victory margin of 67,416 votes, according to the state’s latest numbers. Add the numbers. Isaac is right.
And that is constitutionally relevant how?
And we have VP Joe Biden going on “stupid talk” shows like The View saying 196,000. And People are worried about a Trump administration? My God.
Or, Inshallah – as Obama would say….
Bob –
Evidently you didn’t understand what he meant. He was not saying that the TOTAL nationwide was 196,000. Just the votes in those key battleground states. And the point was that Trump’s victory was a pretty close thing.
Mr. Basonkavich, did you ever consider that a whole lot of people in 2008 were frightened that a freshmen US senator with little more experience than managing a small non-profit was elected president, and that his race had absolutely nothing to do with with their fears? Similarly, do you give any credence that his mixed performance in office is a legitimate reflection of his lack of experience running large, complicated organizations?
You’re not from around here are you?
Isaac sits somewhere on the spectrum which runs from ‘blithering idiot’ to ‘headcase held together with psychotropics’. He utters not one sentence which is derived from a reality outside his static-infested head. The minutes you spend reading his words you will never get back, and with little doubt no one has ever profited from reading his words.
What you said! Poor Old Isaac is the political equivalent of a functioning alcoholic. You know, the kind of guy who stays buzzed on a regular basis, and then for even more fun drinks himself into a blackout stupor 3 or 4 times a week – – – yet still manages to hold a job and hide the DTs from his boss.
Well Isaac is that politically. He is never really sober and completely cognizant of reality, and numerous times a week he descends into sheer bouts of insanity – – – yet still manages to spell his words right and make complete sentences. Saying certain phrases over and over, calling Republicans intellectually stupid on a general basis, and thus implying that people who think like him are brilliant – all while being an advocate of policies that haven’t worked in at least 50 years. Because of that affliction, Isaac is still living in the 1950 and 1960s.
That’s the same kind of mindset that permits a Meryl Streep to falsely accuse Trump of mocking the gimpy reporter, while ignoring her own act of giving a standing ovation to child rapist, Roman Polanski. Roman didn’t just grab the 13 year old’s p*ssy, heck he hopped in the hot tub with her, gave her drugs and booze, and screwed her. All of which Meryl, and Isaac in a similar way, are mentally oblivious to.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeek, You are a superb reader of people. I would hire you as a PI.
Thanks! I thought about you yesterday when I stumbled across this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c48chG17FvE
while looking for this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjU0FSHLMrw
The Jazz Noir CD is fantastic. I have the 3 CD set which was only like $5 used at Amazon.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
He actually buggered her, among other things.
Thanks! That explains why Hollywood didn’t get mad at him. The whole worship of sodomy thingy. Now, if it had just been normal missionary-position sex, then there might have been a little pushback.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeek, great analysis. However, I think Polanski, despite his depraved predilections at least gave us some great movies. What has Isaac and his ilk contributed?
Comic relief??? 🙂
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I’m not from around here. Instapundit had a link to this column that went to a paywalled USA Today page, so I did a web search on the first sentence and ended up here. Funny, that column is no longer paywalled over at USA Today.
“You’re not from around here are you?”
“Around here” meaning the right-wing blogosphere that Turley’s site has become?
If the left was right, it would be called the right too.
Been using the mirror again or did Carville really come up with all that crap. Buzz of the day from the Collective Clone Cell of the left. Barf.
Trump won because of the disaffected voters in places like Michigan, Wisconsin, and other places where jobs have gone South. By South I do not mean to Mississippi, but South to Mexico and elsewhere.
Building up a Wall can have a job benefit aspect for Americans. Rust belters can move to any place in America which has jobs. So Rustbelters can go pick peaches in California. There will be other jobs. The same issue will come to fore in Britain if they Brexit. They can then chose how many to let in across their borders rather than be forced to accept all those people who sneak into Greece from Syria.
Britain and America need to build up Walls.
Regarding the media. It is at a low point. This week they are bashing every single candidate up for Cabinet positions. The media wants you to think that Russia stole the election for Trump. I fail to see one issue which was involved in any emails which was altered. The media wanted either Bushiboy or Hillary the 8th. The media failed to see he turnabout in the Rustbelt.
If Trump would quit tweeting or twiting thing he can simply yell out the front door anything he has to say once he is in the White House.
I am going to give him some time to show his metal.
Forty Fifth President.
Yep, She won by 3 million votes and she lost by 80.000.
Not 80k — 196,000 according to Joe Biden
Trump’s victory margin smaller than total Stein votes in key swing states
© Moriah Ratner
In two key states that President-elect Donald Trump won, his margin of victory was smaller than the total number of votes for Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
In Michigan, Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton by 10,704 votes, while Stein got 51,463 votes, according to current totals on the state’s official website.
And in Wisconsin, Trump’s margin over Clinton was 22,177, while Stein garnered 31,006 votes.
In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, Stein’s total of 49,485 votes was just slightly smaller than Trump’s victory margin of 67,416 votes, according to the state’s latest numbers. Add,… about 80,000. Maybe Biden threw in another state but she only needed these three.
No she lost by 1.8 per cent of the vote by not reading the rule book and running for the wrong level of office. Primary was over. And she didn’t win even then she lost by 1.8 percent because it was a four way race. Pluralities don’t count at the federal level. Never have.
In short she lost by being an arrogant air head. Like her supporters.
Jack-
“show his metal” ??
I think you mean “show his mettle.”
There is a difference.
I was being facetious. His “metal” is his “sword”. In this day in age you can still have your finger on the nuclear button and still brandish a sword if you are President. When you drain the swamp you can do so by pulling the plug. No sword needed. Pearl Harbor happened in 1941. We have had nothing like it since then. Until tomorrow.
Well said Lisa.
Need say no more.
To all the Liberal babies. . . .
You can thank Barack Obama for Donald Trump, not Russia.
Obamas legacy will be the fraud perpetrated on America. If people wonder why I insist he’s not an American citizen and or a Christian is because he lied about both.
I am deeply concerned that present politics are focused on everything but what they should. And that is revisiting Obamas uncertified history. If he lied about either of the two points then it would lead one to wonder what his true motives are.
And, more Importantly what danger our democracy and way of life are subject if Clinton had been elected. How, for one, can he explain 9 trillion dollars spent in 8 years?
On muslim interests. That’s what!
This is why he didn’t go to France to show solidarity against the Muslim terrorists.
Mr. Obama …it was you the “whole” time. . . . .
* It was you . . . who spoke these words at an Islamic dinner -“I am one of you.”
* It was you . . . who on ABC News referenced -“My Muslim faith.”
* It was you who . . . gave $100 million in U.S. taxpayer funds to re-build foreign mosques.
* It was you who . . . wrote that in the event of a conflict – “I will stand with the Muslims.”
* It was you who . . . assured the Egyptian Foreign Minister that – “I am a Muslim.”
* It was you who . . . bowed in submission before the Saudi King.
* It was you who . . . sat for 20 years in a Liberation Theology Church condemning Christianity and professing Marxism.
* It was you who . . . exempted Muslims from penalties under Obamacare that the rest of us have to pay.
* It was you who . . . purposefully omitted – “endowed by our Creator” – from your recitation of The Declaration Of Independence.
* It was you who . . . mocked the Bible and Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount while repeatedly referring to the ‘HOLY’ Qur’an.
* It was you who . . . traveled the Islamic world denigrating the United States of America.
* It was you who . . . instantly threw the support of your administration behind the building of the Ground Zero Victory mosque overlooking the hallowed crater of the World Trade Center.
* It was you who . . . refused to attend the National Prayer Breakfast, but hastened to host an Islamic prayer breakfast at the White House.
* It was you who . . . ordered Georgetown Univ. and Notre Dame to shroud all vestiges of Jesus Christ BEFORE you would agree to go there to speak, but in contrast, you have NEVER requested the mosques you have visited to adjust their decor.
* It was you who . . . appointed anti-Christian fanatics to your Czar Corps.
* It was you who . . . appointed rabid Islamists to Homeland Security.
* It was you who . . . said that NASA’s “foremost mission” was an outreach to Muslim communities.
* It was you who . . . as an Illinois Senator was the ONLY individual who would speak in favor of infanticide.
* It was you who . . . was the first President not to give a Christmas Greeting from the White House, and went so far as to hang photos of Chairman Mao on the White House tree.
* It was you who . . . curtailed the military tribunals of all Islamic terrorists.
* It was you who . . . refused to condemn the Ft. Hood killer as an Islamic terrorist.
* It is you who . . . has refused to speak-out concerning the horrific executions of women throughout the Muslim culture, but yet, have submitted Arizona to the UN for investigation of hypothetical human-rights abuses.
* It was you . . . who, when queried in India, refused to acknowledge the true extent of radical global Jihadists, and instead profusely praised Islam in a country that is 82% Hindu and the victim of numerous Islamic terrorist assaults.
* It was you who . . . funneled $900 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars to Hamas and over $1 billion to Iran.
* It was you who . . . ordered the USPS to honor the MUSLIM holiday with a new commemorative stamp.
* It was you who . . . directed our UK Embassy to conduct outreach to help “empower” the British Muslim community.
* It was you who . . . funded mandatory Arabic language and culture studies in grammar schools across our country.
* It is you who . . . follows the Muslim custom of not wearing any form of jewelry during Ramadan.
* It is you who . . . departs for Hawaii over the Christmas season so as to avoid past criticism for NOT participating in seasonal White House religious events.
* It was you who . . . was uncharacteristically quick to join the chorus of the Muslim Brotherhood to depose Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, formerly America’s strongest ally in North Africa; but remain muted in your non-response to the Brotherhood-led slaughter of Egyptian Christians.
* It was you who . . . appointed your chief adviser, Valerie Jarrett, an Iranian, who is a member of the Muslim Sisterhood, an off-shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
* It was you who . . . said this country is not a Christian nation.
* It was you who . . . said the Muslim call to worship is “the most beautiful sound on earth”
It was you Obama that sewed the doubts in my mind I have about you and early into your presidency but ironically it has only opened my eyes and many other Americans eyes about the true nature behind radical Islamic doctrine and the depth of deception they will excersise in order to accomplish their mission to destroy America from within.
Mr Obama, your legacy may have been America’s end until Donald Trump was elected. Now we might have a chance to be a Constitutional government again. So don’t blame Russia or Comey for Hillary’s loss. Blame Obama who tried his hardest to change our Christian foundation into a islam one and Hillary backed all the destruction Obama did.
Democrats don’t get it because their 1st priorities are themselves and not the country.
“* It was you who . . . said this country is not a Christian nation.” Lisa N. It not a Christian nation. There I said it again.
They may have not been a majority of Born Again Christians per se, but I would bet my life Our founding people on both sides of the Atlantic and our earlier native Americans believed in a Creator God. And would not concur with Darwin and Dawkins that we share a common ancestor with bananas and turnips. Lol.
Ter ber, So you think it is a “Christian nation” as does Lisa N? My family came to Virginia as Quakers.They were seeking religious freedom.
I doubt that you’re right. Had they access to all the information that we have today, I would bet that they wouldn’t discount Darwin’s explanations.
Here. Here. 🤗
And thank Christ you Professor Turley for showing us how a mature nation should act.
Where in the constitution does it say that the US is a “Christian nation” as you said, Lisa? I am Jewish and wonder why you would make a statement like that.
“* It was you who . . . said this country is not a Christian nation.” Lisa It is not a christian nation. An atheist should feel at home here as should a jew, a muslim, a hindu , a sikh, a buddhist, and everyone else. 🙂
Please…. People do not deserve to be classified by any particular set of ancient dogma. If people are to be classified, it makes more sense to classify them by their behaviors such as caring and compassionate, open-minded and practical, selfishly psychopathic, etc. We should strive to be a nation of caring, compassionate, open-minded and practical critical thinkers.
Selective interpretation designed to excuse mental instability; you need to see someone, get some help, and take off the blinders. Or you could continue on clip, clop munching from your bag of oats, down the road that leads backwards to the shame that once was.
“If Barack Obama knew how to slink, he would slink out of the Oval Office and completely offstage, bowed and beaten by his record of scandal and failure, as much or even more of a pariah among an American majority than Jimmy Carter was in the early 1980s.
Instead, he’ll try to stick around as a constant presence, lecturing us and hectoring us and insisting that we don’t live up to his exacting standards.
The best thing we can do is ignore him — and go about our business of rebuilding, purposely oblivious to his irrelevant fulminations.”
https://spectator.org/saul-alinsky-leaves-the-white-house/
Lisa N, Obama was right. You are wrong. This is not A “Christian nation.”
Excellent!
I’ll be filling up the SUV & shopping today. Just in case some crazy protester does something in Wash D.C. or Trump Tower in NYC. Got evacuation plans ready.
If I were you , I’d be filling up the SUV and laying out routes to remote areas for when the nuclear exchange starts.
Why? You war mongers got something in mind to change the election?
https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/01/18/trump-proposes-military-parades-in-dc/ Hope he does not do the military parades. I know, I know they do them in North Korea, China and Russia but still they are frightening especially with those nuclear warheads.
LOL! You can tell when someone is manically changing from one sockpuppet to another. In this case, the culprit has an extra ‘i’ in her name.
Trump will be President as of tomorrow. A few things are clear to anyone who has followed this circus. The system of obtaining democratic representatives is the most dysfunctional of all our peer nations. The representatives are determined by special interests and money to convince poorly informed voters-all voters. DDT was the best at orchestrating this sideshow and won. He has threatened to do some beneficial stuff but much that would put the US back a few generations. He hasn’t done anything yet. However, he has appointed some of the most inept people to head the most important departments. Case in point Ben Carson. Ben Carson is an idiot. He may be an exceptionally talented brain mechanic but he has never opened his mouth and not made a fool of himself. De Vos is another idiot. She may be a billionaire but she has absolutely no experience with the department she will head. It is as if on appoints a Muslim leader to fix Christian problems. The deck is stacked for a return to the messes we have been slowly evolving out of. DDT did say one good thing that he will nail big pharma and make them negotiate with the government. Let’s see if he continues on being the biggest liar ever to come down the pike or he actually does this.
That billionaire cabinet is long on money and short on knowledge as evidenced by their testimonies. Devos’s brother founded Blackwater and will be helping Trump govern from the shadows.
Guaranteed if I had said about Obama as you have said of Trump before he was sworn it, you would’ve called me a racist. Grow up and be mature about our Nations traditions. I didn’t like Obama in 2012 but I wasn’t a baby about it.
Anyone who says “get over it” or “grow up” or “you’re a baby” needs to realize this isn’t intelligent commentary.
http://www.businessinsider.com/rick-perry-didnt-know-what-department-of-energy-did-2017-1 He knows nothing about the nuclear arsenal he will be in charge of.
Actual knowledge as to the workings of the federal government is seen as a handicap, it would seem.
Idiots are not normally BRAIN SURGEONS.
I’ve heard that guy speak. He may have operated on himself.
He was the chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. He grew up in Detroit. You’re not fit to shine his shoes.
“The system of obtaining democratic representatives is the most dysfunctional of all our peer nations.”
If by dysfunctional you mean we do things unlike every other country, then I say that is a good thing. The fact you perceive this to be a bad thing is all anyone needs to know to reject your worldview on the purpose for government. You have openly denounced our founding documents as irrelevant to the complexity of our 21st century issues. That ideology is a threat to the security of rights for everyone. Your worldview is as much a threat to our constitutional republic as any terrorist organization on the planet.
Not a day goes by that you do no pretend to know the future and predict a coming Trump disaster. It is unoriginal depressingly repetitive guesswork. The underlying assumption is always that things would be better had people you like – Hillary Rodham Clinton – prevailed. This is a dubious proposition at best. Delusional at worst.
Under the status quo establishment Uniparty rule we have had two consecutive failed presidencies of GWB and BHO. We have two failed wars and a Middle East in flames; China expansionist – building islands in the South China Sea provoking Japan and other Asians; Europe enfeebled by the EU mess elites created; America ineffective on the global stage; Russia insurgent; and most bizarrely of all BHO has turned Iran into a regional hegemon and given it billions of dollars to destabilize that region and the world.
At home, the American government’s national debt is now $20 trillion – with more added during the BHO presidency than all previous presidents combined; median incomes are stagnant; borders are uncontrolled; the professional class are perceived to be profiteering at the expense of the working and middle class; no accountability for disastrous results in inner city schools; a heroin and opioid epidemic spiraling out of control among the hopeless; race relations have deteriorated; and the polarization between the cultural elites on the coasts; academics; media; and everybody else is wider than it has ever been in my lifetime.
After decades in charge this is the Utopia the establishment Uniparty created. They benefited. The four wealthiest counties in America now ring Washington D.C – a city populated with overcompensated bureaucrats who produce no wealth but survive by confiscating wealth from the taxpayers. The federal budget is now larger than the entire GDP of every country on the planet except China, Japan, German, and the American private sector itself. Yet consuming that much wealth is not enough to satiate its greed as evidence by the $20 trillion in national debt. The only people who live larger than the overcompensated bureaucrats in that Hunger Games like atmosphere are the rent seeking lobbyists – almost to a man all former members of the elected Uniparty or their aides – who rig the system to benefit themselves and their clients.
https://www.cato.org/blog/lavish-life-overcompensated-bureaucrats
BHO campaigned as a change agent but quickly fell in line with the donor class who fund the Uniparty. He blew it. Yet HRC promised to continue his legacy. As Professor Turley has correctly pointed out repeatedly, the electorate wanted to be liberated from decades of incompetent Uniparty rule. Bernie and Trump campaigned on change. Trump won. Time for you to join reality and accept that change is coming.
Except you’ve been posting the same inane comment with a few words changed every day for a year and a half, so I doubt you are capable of having an original thought.
Excellent post Scott.
BHO did not “fall in line.” He was stonewalled by the supposed Loyal Opposition. To go along with them, he would have needed to do absolutely nothing for 8 years, and thus falling into the Republican trap that the government is the enemy.
They had a majority in the legislature. They were under no obligation to embrace his tar babies. Partisan Democrats just cannot stop being self-entitled.
Obama lacked the motivation and skill to negotiate and reach proper compromises even on standard-issue appropriations bills. He was just a nothingburger.
“he has appointed some of the most inept people to head the most important departments”
This has also been true of past presidential appointments. But the good news is that more people are paying attention today than ever before. Now we know that Cabinet members are not respected experts but mostly heirs who make large political campaign donations and vicious military goons to protect the regime.
Did that happen in 2008 too?
You do realize that in our peer nations citizens don’t get to vote for the chief executive? That their prime ministers are always elected by their equivalent of our House of Representatives?
As a result those nations have zero conflicts re: Electoral Collage vs. popular vote because there is no popular vote for their “presidents”.
They have popular elections for head of state in Roumania, Poland, the former Yugoslavia, France, the Phillippines, and all up and down Latin America. With some exceptions (e.g Japan), the prime minister is formally appointed by the head of state. The degree of discretion the head of state has is dependent on the constitution, the configuration of parties in the legislature, and local custom.
And with some exceptions (e.g. the PRC and Taiwan), the prime minister serves at the pleasure of parliament.
In either case, and unlike the United States, voters don’t vote for the head of the executive branch and, as such, there can never be an Electoral Collage vs. popular vote conflict.
Probably because it isn’t a democracy number one and why it’s time to go back to being a Constitutional Republic build on a foundation of representative democratic principles. Instead of this left wing fascist secular regressive crap. But then I wouldn’t expect one of their component parts to be allowed that much knowledge. Soros must be tearng his hair out. All that money and his daily script writers suck and his collective daily mouthpieces can’t deliver their lines.
I am interested in Prof. Turley’s arguments against the Electoral College, especially considering that if the president were elected by popular votes, the country would now be governed by hard-line and elite liberals from New York City and parts of California only. Popular does not mean representative – at least not in the U.S.
Char, I am from Colorado and you appear to be discounting my vote.
Char’s comments were directed at Turley, not you. 🙂
You are char, too. 🙂
Not really Colorado is a suburb of California at best.
A majority in a few densely populated states does not represent the country as a whole. The electoral college served its purpose. This is a representative democracy. Trump and his campaign managers recognized this and out-strategized the Democratic party. Get over it.
My state of New Hampshire is not densely populated.
Not at all. You get to do what New York tells you to do just like the rest of the nation. No exclusion clause for neighbors.
Prof. Turley has written on his thoughts about the electoral college profusely on this web site. I suggest you look in the archives to see his views. I won’t speak for him but I believe one of his ideas is that if no candidate wins the popular vote by 50% + 1, you have a runoff with the two highest vote recipients. I come from a state with 4 electoral votes, Prof. Turley’s ideas makes sense to me.
Add in None of the Above it’s a deal and exclude anyone from the second go round who had less than None of the Above. If None of the above gets 50% plus one then the whole slate is banned for the second go round.
Why do I have to choose between crap and crap instead of sending a clear message I don’t want to say that stuff on my ballot.
No, if the country were governed by popular vote, we’d have had ordinal balloting or a run off contest, and Hilligula would have been in danger of losing (depending on how much the Democratic Party could stuff the ballot boxes with the votes of convicted felons and illegal aliens).
She didn’t get a majority 48.2% Trump was 46% popular the rest helped marginalize Hillary who didn’t know how to run a campaign. Somewhere I read Trump got 56% or so of the electoral vote in term so citizens voting.
But then None Of The Above wasn’t on the ballot . Had it been there NOTA would have had a landslide. Trump and Clinton would be barred from Round Two and we would get a whole new clean slate.
So who would govern. Under Act of Succession the Speaker of the House meaning the new one. Depending on how the NOTA law was written and passed – as an Amendment To The Constitution.
Sandra, I know a crazy Dem ideologue in Wisconsin who is so ashamed of how cheeseheads voted that she now lies about where she lives. LOL!
So where do you buy Tillamook Cheese in Wisconsin? Ha ha the state where Clinton met her Waterloo…..
geographical joke.
I applaud you and respect your openness. We are seeing a unprecedented cowardice among many!
Char Sandberg
Sent from my iPad
>
Every four years there is a peaceful revolution. The Democrats have never figured this out. Viva la Revolution!!!!
Trump won fair and square with some weird assists. Let the Trumpsters have their day and let the protestors have theirs.
Well said.
The “fair and square” part is not entirely clear at all. “Weird assists” is putting it mildly.
I like it when the target clearly identify themselves and while I’m at it let THEM wear Red Ties.
Protests are for losers — literally. If you want to resist, get your butt to work talking to people, organizing and communicating with your representatives. If you feel that strongly run for office, but to walk about wailing and cursing reality makes you infantile not patriotic. And for those who would delegitimize a democratic election, I can only say you’ve placed yourself in the same category as Mao and Stalin. The electorate has spoken and the matter is closed, your enraged bleating notwithstanding nor welcomed.
In a time of lots of people combining lots of words about this last election, this comes close to a perfect combination on the issue of a new President.