Hilliary vs. Trump: The 2016 US Presidental Election

Yeah, whereas the senate and congress would recognise Trump for the man-child he is and keep him in check while they get on with the business of serious and sensible government. I mean, it's not like Trump knows how to make deals; he totally is not known for making deals; he does not pride himself on deal making. He has no agenda here. He does not represent bad economic politics at all. He's just a humble patriot who wants to make America great again.

Seriously, if you think that Trump is going to be any less influential and damaging than Hilary Clinton, I've got some swamp land in Florida to sell you.

 

Both as bad as each other, if anything I hope Trump wins and pushes up the value of the pound.

 

Yeah, because a strong Pound is really going to help when the world burns.

 

Isn't the president just the fall guy for the actual government? Nothing really gets passed without congress' say so. Apart from who to invade of course, the president gets to decide that one I believe.

 

That is what makes him damaging. If he made good deals be wouldn't be a problem.

There is this strange narrative in politics at the moment that a populist uprising against a bad establishment must by definition be good. Not so.

 

No but it will help my holiday spending after xmas

 

May be our last. The Jackpot is coming. Better spend that money on canned food.

 

Don't be silly.

 

Ever since the second Bush era there has been a lot more media coverage in Europe about American politics (and since Obama took over it has increased even more), have you noticed how often Obama had stuff he had proposed stopped or extremely watered down by Congress / Senate / Supreme Court?

Not even to mention that the federal government has much less power internally than in other countries as a lot of laws are up to the individual states.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he would be good for America or the world, just saying he wouldn't do as much damage as some people fear.

 

People make the mistake of thinking Hilary Clinton will be more damaging because she is a competent politician who knows how to play the system, whereas Trump appears a bit of a bumbling fool. Well, we have seen how that worked out with Boris Johnson over here, and the damage that he has caused.

 

Don't forget this one...

 

Yup. The Donald would get access to the nuclear launch codes. And as one US general explained: The system is set up for a rapid response, not for careful consideration. There is no "Are you SURE you want to launch the nuclear missiles?" window.

 

The US will have more to answer to than congress if they ever nuked another country. It wont happen.

 

You say that but mistakes happen...

 

Exactly. There have been a number of close calls like that, averted only because one person in the system thought: "Wait a second: these are big consequences at stake here, let's just double-check...".

But that is not how systems generally work: stupid things happen because people can only see their little part in the machine and follow orders, not because they have a sense of responsibility for and overview of the overall process and consequences. Now, does Trump strike you as a person who double-checks his calls? Do the people he surrounds himself with?

 

That's basically how every organisation works

 

Yes, which is why mistakes happen all the time. Most systems have safeguards for that, but I suspect that the president being an idiot, albeit an obvious risk, is not a risk compensated for.

 

It's a choice between a cluster**** and a cluster****.

I don't envy the voting US population.

 

The US voting population got the presidential candidates it chose, so has the presidential candidates it deserves.

 

True but then again most other organisations aren't responsible for enough firepower to destroy over 1k cities the size of central London, they probably aren't face with a phone call at 3am telling them there's an incoming nuclear strike and they only have 5min to make a decision about whether to retaliate or not.