Oh No, The New Awesome Primary Thread

The problem with polls is that they manipulate how people behave based on perceived support. I'd wager that if all polling was blind, Trump would be about where he was during the 2012 campaign... damn near dead last. He's only bolstered by the polls increasing so that more and more people go in his direction.The media and polls manufacture these results; which is the unintended (or perhaps intended) consequence of it. I wish nobody would pay attention to polls because they are irrelevant to who you think which candidate would best serve as president.And to prove my point, a poll conducted on this very topic indicated that 67% of people agreed with me

While I also understand why he felt as though he has to hide his support, I still have no respect for any candidate who conceals such things just to remain popular. Who gives a shit? No matter what you do, somebody is going to take exception to it, so you might as well stand up for your actual beliefs.Ron Paul never sold out on his principles, and although I disagree with a great many issues with Bernie, at least he comes across as honest and principled; something that has been desperately lacking in the White House for decades. That goes a long way with me. Hillary is a walking, talking lie. You can't trust her on ANY topic. It's politicking, pandering bullshit. She can't even say "hello" on television without it first having been scripted down to the punctuation.Hell, a lot of people like Trump because he has no political correctness filter which pretty much is the polar opposite of conventional wisdom when it comes to politics. I think he's reprehensible, but at least you're getting an honest answer versus Ted Cruz who would tell you anything just to get your vote.I don't know. I don't like sellouts or liars. If that's your thing, then Hillary is definitely your gal.

Then how do you ever expect anything to change by keeping up appearances with the status quo?

I didn't say keep up with the status quo.What I mean to say is in order to get votes from bigots like yourself, we have to put forward a candidate that appears to be a bigot. It's sort of like wolf in sheep's clothing.To hell with honesty. if Obama had been honest about his stance on gay marriage, he would not have been elected. At the time, most democrats were against gay marriage themselves. Look what happened with prop 8.Permit me to invoke godwin's law on this. How many Jews did the righteous anti-nazis save versus how many Jews did people like Schindler save in Nazi Germany in the late 30's and early 40's?There's one thing I've learned in life is that conservatives will fight tooth and nail against change. The only way to get them to play along is to lie to them in order to nudge them along and get them warmed up to the new idea... like equality and human rights.

Depends on what issues he/she supports I would say. It's even possible in my mind that such a person could win conservative support by espousing conservative positions. If paranoia rules of course, meaning if conservatives are called racist for opposing illegal immigration, or a preacher is accused of wanting to kill gays when he's doing nothing more than identifying homosexual behavior as sin, then all bets are off. But I know there are gay conservatives and I don't see why it wouldn't be possible for a gay atheist to garner conservative support. It's not about the person, it's about the issues. Yes, probably not likely many exist with that point of view, but it's not impossible. What you are really saying is that we're too prejudiced to override God's word about gay marriage and that sort of thing, and that IS true.

True, but I seem to recall quite a few black supremacists voting for Obama and even resorting to voter intimidation. All things being equal, I hope your condemnation and scorn for such things was the same as it is with white supremacists voting for Trump. A lot of people aren't buying my theory on Ted Cruz, but I think he is gay as fuck... obviously, if so, a self-loathing homosexual. And Hillary, well, c'mon...

Claiming that Mexicans are rapists, with the provision that he assumes some are good people, or banning all Muslims in to a country is pretty close to overt racism, Faith.It's really pointless to try and defend someone so transparent.

Why did you quote mine me?Obama denounced all the racist groups that came out in support of him. He even disowned his pastor for goodness sake.What Trump has done is welcome their support with open arms. Sure, he's never said he supported white supremacist ideologies. That would be political suicide. But he has welcomed their support.

Sorry to see you having such a failure of cognitive acumen. To translate "illegal immigrants are going to have rapists among them and I happen to know of cases of rape by illegal immigrants" into "Mexicans are rapists" is a really really sad failure of thought. You are going positively PC. PC fosters the inability to think by telling you what to think. If the illegal aliens we are dealing with happen to be Mexican, and rapists and other criminals are very likely to be among illegal immigrants, we aren't allowed to think about those facts because PC tells us that makes us racist. There's nothing racist about the recognition of such facts but PC has defined it as racist. And instead of thinking for yourself, you've bought the PC line.And why can't anybody get it right that Trump did NOT "ban all Muslims?" What he said was that they should not be allowed into the country UNTIL WE"VE INVESTIGATED THEM. Which is normal intelligent concern for the nation's security, NOT RACISM.And again, sane countries have standards for those they admit into the country. They are looking for cultural compatibility and basic adherence to the nation's mores and values. The accusation of racism is nothing but a PC deterrent to common sense.

LOL, what did I say to get that reaction? Oh, nice. Quote of the day. So what? What did he do to further gay marriage? He could have left a legacy but chose to sit with the cool kids at school. Shame. You're comparing a Nazi occupation with supporting gay marriage? Yeah, I think I will call you out for violating Godwin's Law since the two aren't even remotely comparable. I guess the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree! I certainly understand the strategy, but it doesn't make me agree with it. The bottom line is that the ONLY reason you are now free to marry is because of people overtly stood up for change and demanded it, so that that national conscience was forced to adapt or die.I think we should be more focused on getting rid of this awful two-tier political system which creates the strategy that you've adopted. By doing away with the status quo, people can simply vote on their principles and stop choosing the lesser of evils.

I lurked this forum for years before. I don't remember anything specific, but I do remember posts made by nemesis juggernaut made my blood boil.Anyway, to hell with honesty.Do you honestly think Trump is religious? Just a little bit of lie and he's managed to secure the support of half the evangelicals out there. What are you talking about? The strategy worked. For a while, those on the left wanted to go the honesty route by putting it up for referendum vote. 9 out of 10 votes were struck down via popular vote, even in the most liberal states.One good thing that came out of it, though, was the hand full of states that managed to pass gay marriage didn't get fire and brimstone raining on them. Warmed people up to the idea.What did Obama do? He effectively killed DADT and the military's ban for gay soldiers.By lying to get elected, he furthered gay rights more than any other president in the past or future.Edited by Lammy, : No reason given.

Nobody has claimed Trump is "religious." Why should he be? As I said above, I'd vote for a gay atheist as long as he supported the same causes I support.EDIT: Trump is a Cultural Christian. He said he was a Presbyterian which means he had exposure to the Christian worldview, and I personally think his stopping to join with Carson instead of walking out on stage when his own name was called and leaving Carson standing there is a sign that he is a good representative of the Christian world view and culture. That doesn't make him religious and there's certainly no sign he's a born again saved Christian (we can pray for him). Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Edited.Edited by Lammy, : No reason given.

LOL, it's inaccurate to say that "Illegal Mexican Immigrants are rapists" too! Yeah, I know of illegal immigrant Mexicans that are arrested for rape too. I'm a corrections officer in Texas. But then again, I know of illegal Mexican immigrants who aren't rapists, as well as legal citizens who are and aren't rapists. That's kind of the point. You can never make sweeping allegations like that. A very interesting comment given my exchange with Lammy where I specifically was addressing that NOT being PC is a better quality than suppressing one's true beliefs. That's not an example of Trump being not PC, that's an inaccurate and racist thing to say.Replace illegal Mexican immigrants with "Christians" and you'll see what I mean. Unless the same metric is applied to everyone, then it is very racist since it is selective of a certain class of people. Again, substitute the word "Christian" with Muslim. You'd be outraged, Faith. Give me a break. Edited by Hyroglyphx, : No reason given.

Well, that makes a lot sense. My beliefs have transformed over the years. Wow, that was a long time ago. You must have been a serious lurker. As RAZD would say, welcome to the fray. Great point to illustrate what I'm referring to. Doesn't that kind of pandering bother you? It didn't work. No public policy did anything that didn't follow the people. I think of it in terms of the Civil Rights Act. Government was forced to pass legislation in accordance with the Civil Rights Movement, which was an impromptu gathering of demonstrations. The point is that it wasn't by the hand of politicians that could be credited for any of it, but rather the outspoken critics of those denying gay marriage. After he ran on a platform of keeping marriage between a man and a women, which repealed a bill passed by Bill Clinton. He could have been honest from the get-go and would have had plenty of support. Bill Clinton "didn't inhale." Obama said inhaling was "kind of the point." People respect the honesty, they don't like the disinformation.What some people are reminding you of is that Republicans are going to smear Democrats regardless, just as Democrats are going to smear Republicans. If Bernie doesn't get the nod, do you really think the accusations that Hillary is a closet-socialist is just going to go away?So what will the dishonesty bring, besides solid confirmation that you're voting for a liar? And if they lie about that, what else will they lie about? That's kind of the problem with lying. It undermines trust and makes it more difficult for people to believe you when you really are telling the truth (the boy who cried wolf).