Thing is, Trump's actually notching quite a few defeats and doing things like paying no heed to laws that he really ought to sign. IIRC he should have signed the Russian sanctions since it passed with more than enough votes to override the presidential veto, but in spite of that he didn't. I think. I'm kind of hazy on British political structures, so foreign ones I'm not that great at. I still think he's authoritarian, just not in the usual way. He's used to a business environment where he can basically bully things through, but now he's president he's not a fish out of water, he's a fish that was quite happy with his water, even if he wasn't doing a great job of it, then suddenly found himself floating in the air with a pit beneath him that may contain water or it may contain lava, and nobody's too sure which it is but they're acting as if they are and this metaphor has run out. Anyway, guy's used to getting things his own way and is being authoritarian because he's no longer allowed to do that and can't, so he's basically, by sheer force of will or ignorance, bending it all.
I don't think that's authoritarian, that's just being a direct leader. Hands-off leaders must likewise have their workers work as directed, but they leave that to the managers to enforce
Basically I draw a difference between authoritative and authoritarian. It's actually pretty hard for any American leader to be authoritarian, because a great deal of the branches of US government, civil, military and intelligence, all run around doing their own thing and setting their own agendas. Contrast this with Xi Jinping, who has both overall command over every branch of government, and exercises actual control over every branch of government, directing all goals and targets under close supervision of his agents. People like Bannon, Carson, Pence and Mattis you can't see Trump ordering around for example. I actually disagree with the assessment of his competency in his work environments, I think he was pretty mediocre in the business environment, but has thrived in American politics. Very much a fish returning to water; force of will alone does not achieve anything, because Trump went against lots of people with strong forces of will too. It's the mistake in believing that Trump is a retard who defeated lots of clever people because he was too stupid to fail, when I would argue it's when clever people get arrogant, that they make success impossible. Just look at when the DNC had Clinton focus on swing states while Trump went off campaigning in areas like Pennsylvania that hadn't voted Republican since 1988. Everyone thought this was the action of a political rookie, an absolute moron, and he not only won the swing states, he flipped safe Democrat states. Why? Well for starters it's worth noting how honest fools are smarter than dishonest boffins; I always rather like the anecdote of the oracle telling Socrates he was the smartest person in Hellas, because he was the only to accept he wasn't that smart. And of course the other thing is that when it comes to gauging public sentiments, the guy's been touring the USA for years and before that, working well in the entertainment industry - where I think his true value comes not in business, but in branding. All sorts of stuff which makes for a potent President Mt. Dew III
...should we form a Pirate party ourselves for shits and giggles?
I mean, be more British to call ourselves the privateer party, actually.
Sir Francis Drake appreciation party
And the problem with staying and helping is... well, how? I know I can vote, that's standard, and I do go out and vote, but the problem is that there's no major party (See: The two major parties) willing to properly represent my views. Closest is Labour, and they're still a decent distance away. Wouldn't have this issue with proportional representation, but there's no way in hell that'll happen unless the Lib Dems or someone somehow gain a huge amount of massively temporary seats and try to implement reform before the whole thing collapses around them so as to give themselves a better chance in the future. Or massive public outcry, which seems unlikely.
It's better to go abroad, work and then go into politics with real life experience than join the absolute slaughterfest that is current UK politics. As far as I can tell only the libdems aren't cannibilizing themselves right now, and that's because everyone in the libdem has fallen asleep
Also what's in the youtube video? It's blocked for some reason for me
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Topic: The friendly and polite Europe related terrible jokes thread (Read 1002183 times)