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Comment by Consultant32452 | Hacker News Reader

Third party voter here, so no real skin in the game between Hillary and Trump. I was talking to a friend of mine about the election and it suddenly occurred to me. Virtually every problem I have about trump could be summed up with a single sentence about that problem and you'd know exactly what I meant. With Hillary, on the other hand, virtually every problem I have with her requires a ton of contextual knowledge. Like if I said to you Hillary becoming president results in a greater chance of WWIII against Russia and millions of deaths than Trump, you really have to know a lot about the Arab Spring, what we did in Syria which was really a proxy war with Iran to depose an Iranian ally but wound up creating ISIS, that Syria, Iran, and Russia are allies, and tons of other stuff that most voters simply aren't aware of. It's so much easier to say, "This guy probably raped some people so I'm not gonna vote for him."

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Regardless of political affiliation, it baffles me a person like Trump can get even close to being president. Disclosure: I'm European and not allowed to vote in the US (yet)

Stop thinking of him as a potential leader of the free world and instead of as a living, breathing "Fuck you!" to mainstream politics and the wealthy elite. Donald Trump went to a big Detroit auto show, looked straight at the execs of the American auto industry and told them if they closed their American factories and opened them up in Mexico he'd slap them with a 35% tariff. That kind of shit resonates with a populace who has seen both parties sell off the middle class to enrich themselves and the wealthy elite. I don't support him and don't suggest anyone votes for either him or Hillary, but it's very easy for me to understand why people like him so much.

But isn't he part of the problem then? He has a big mouth but just as entitled and 'elite' as everyone else, except he lacks all the good traits of a leader. Whenever something doesn't go his way he resorts to acting like a 5 yr old. He is a joker of a businessman let alone let him run a country?!

Yep, he's an asshole. But, perhaps ironically, he talks to the electorate like an adult in a way that most politicians won't. He outsourced his manufacturing to Mexico, he's openly stated why, and what he's going to do about it so that it's likely that some of those jobs can come back to the US. He's talked directly about the tax breaks he and the wealthy elite take, why they're unfair, and what he's going to do about it to bring sanity back to the tax code. These are things you'll never hear from a Clinton or a Cruz. Yes, he has a big mouth and is kind of openly an asshole. I fail to see how his elite status or "good traits of a leader" is really different than Clinton. I mean she destroyed evidence in her criminal investigation and literally created ISIS by training, arming, and intentionally radicalizing Syrians during the Arab uprising. How could you possibly think she's got good traits of a leader? Because she doesn't cuss on Twitter?

When threats are well understood, there is a greater chance of those threats being constrained by a distributed system of checks and balances.

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