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At What Point Does Voting for Trump Become Virtue-Signaling?
With the exception of his convention bounce, Trump has been behind Clinton from day one. His paths to victory are extremely narrow and the predictions markets have consistently favored a Clinton win. On a state-by-state basis, Trump’s chances look no better. It’s a little too early to say that he’s going to lose, but its likelihood is both high and rising.
So, barring some major change (which, again, I concede is still just possible) we’re rapidly approaching the date where we can say it’s over and Clinton’s won. And if we reach that point, a vote for Trump will simply be a matter of virtue-signaling — whether to yourself or others — one’s justified loathing for Hillary Clinton and will have precisely the same impact as voting for Gary Johnson or even Evan McMullin.
Now, one might say that it doesn’t matter and that we should still hold out hope even when the odds are gone … but that’s been one of the main complaints against NeverTrumpers for months.
If we’re going to go down fighting, I’d rather do it under a banner I can be proud of.
Published in General
Hiding behind “extreme ferocity” because you have no argument to my points is cowardice. If pointing out cowardice is “extreme ferocity” then perhaps we should create a special safe space for you.
You blame this on Trump, but I think the fault lies almost entirely with the Left for fostering the victim narrative and with the black community for embracing it. I think Trump is doing all he can to counter that narrative without resorting to pandering, which is often a Republican response.
As for aspirational messaging, listen to Trump’s recent outreach to the Black community.
I watched part of it and he was arguing about law and order. It was, in terms of how it referenced to other things, was negative. It was about how bad things are right now. Not about how good things could be with law and order. But that is trump’s usual play. He points to bad things and then says blank is solution. That is how the left points all problems though. Workers are allegedly underpaid because of greedy corporations so we need minimum wage.
Elderly are dying on the streets from poverty because of greedy corporations so we need welfare. Implicit in these solutions is the assumption that life is good but for certain things. But life isn’t good but for. Life is chaotic in terms of conditions (sometimes people behave well freely and other times they do so wrongly).
If trump painted a picture of life with conservative policy implemented instead of simply attacking thugs as threats he would win over more blacks. As to the issue of the media I concur they bear some culpability but Republicans at the national level have done poorly in messaging conservatism for a while. trump has poorly attempted to sway blacks in similar ways to his predecessors and thus falls in that category.
If conservatives and Republicans want minorities to vote for them then they must offer them something to vote for (better life) and not against (simply fighting crime).
Don’t use the phrase “You have to at least try” with an Israeli in the post-Oslo era. We “tried” ignoring our common sense, our instincts , and our experience, and we got bus bombings and suicide bombers killing our civilians on an unprecedented scale.
My advice: Don’t try this at home.
From the Torah, right?
Hmm? Wondering how Jesus fulfilled this one in the Beatitutes?
It’s actually a pretty common metaphor in contemporary Hebrew.
I am using it with a ‘true conservative’ who is by inaction supporting Hillary. Without trying there is no result, no progress.
@podkayneofisrael
If something needs to be done, someone must try. To say it must never be attempted because the cause was foolish on another effort is to never attempt anything.
I will say what I please, thank you. Your admonition to shut up is duly noted. No.
Cowardice charges because someone is tired of talking to you. It is common sense, not cowardice. I converse with people who do not bore me and engage in mutual respect. You do not. Now run along.
You only converse with those who agree with you. Every time someone brings criticism to trump or the concepts of nationalism or protectionism you cry they are behind some establishment conspiracy or that they want clinton to win. Those who care to engage in discussion don’t hide behind “it’s tempting but I won’t”, they engage.
You are hiding behind your typical excuses of “the editors told me not to type against you” because you can’t actually back up the false narrative you have peddled. Your argument that trump has done more to make the GOP nationally competitive has no grounding and when compared against 2 years ago is very pathetic in terms of performance.
You have no countering evidence (if you did you would have used it because that is the best option) and so you hide while complaining about “engagement and mutual respect”. I didn’t insult you (did not mention you, only your argument) with my comment but I mentioned the facts of the matter and you cowered.
Next time if you come actually looking for discussion then actually try to back up your points rather than typing the same year old talking points of trump and crying foul whenever someone points to some facts that disagree with you.