US voters react: 'I don’t think either candidate is qualified to run the country'

[lannarebirth]

" I don't think either candidate is qualified to run the country. "

Such a simple sentence but oh so accurate.

A 2-party system cannot be qualified as democratic, not in these days.

A multiparty system would be the answer.

A prime minister in the European system appears to be a better way.

The chance is that a president quickly becomes a dictator. The danger with Trump.

There's not going to be any American dictator.

http://www.mauldineconomics.com/this-week-in-geopolitics/why-the-president-isnt-all-that-important

[CWMcMurray]

If there are more uneducated stupid voters......HRC would win!!!

The reality is that there are plenty of stupid people on both sides...

In general.. The stupid people living in the cities tend to vote democratic and the stupid people outside the cities tend to vote Republican

And while it is a shame that some of these people don't educate themselves before they vote...

One person and one vote is still better than the alternative

[Publicus]

Not being psychic, I don't know, but I'm guessing that he'll get the best people possible to run the executive ( like a business ) and to get stuff through the congress he'll refuse to sign their legislation till they agree to pass his. They'll be more desperate to get their pork through than he will be to get his approved so that shouldn't be a problem.

Not necessarily. Successful companies seek the best experts in their field to run their business interests. The best accountants, the best lawyers, the most creative designers etc. What they don't do is sack everyone every four years and allow the public to appoint a bunch of amateurs to replace them. Keep the clever professionals and if somebody doesn't measure up replace them when the need arises and not wait for years until their contract ends.

Make people accountable and don't give them the chance to screw up your business (country). If they are not up to the job then replace them immediately. You don't have to scrap the system completely but you do need to re-structure it dramatically.

run the executive like a business

What they don't do is sack everyone every four years and allow the public to appoint a bunch of amateurs to replace them

That is a central matter the right and other Republicans miss completely or do not know or understand. Which is a main reason why I distrust Republicans running for Potus and favor the Democrats. In this instance, Donald Trump et al on the Republican side vs HR Clinton the Democrat.

Most Democratic party members know the difference between the private sector and the public sector. We know that business exists for profit which it achieves by successfully providing goods or services (or both). And that, morover, government is a necessary evil by which the public's needs and wants are provided in the most reasonabe and cost efficient ways, while government is the servant not the master. The two are mutually exclusive and each is in fact the opposite of the other.

So if government is to be a business then the business of government must be to make a profit. That would mean government ownership and/or operating some, much, or all of the means of transportation, communication, production. In short, socialism. And governments that take this approach don't make money on it anyway while simultaneously risking or having undemocratic or antidemocratic government.

Yet conservatives and rightwingers want a small government that balances its books and runs a balanced budget. Don't know anyone to include myself who ever went in to business to have a small budget and come out 50-50 each cycle of measurement. And government operating as a business would also need a profit and loss statement, which is patently absurd.

The right is quite confused in supporting free for-profit enterprise and supporting small government that balances its budget, while simultaneously demanding government be run like or as a business which needs profit to survive, needs aggressive people to move their product through the free market, and create new capital.

So when is a confused capitalist really a predictable yet oblivious socialist? When he's a Republican and a right whinge nut!

Edited March 3, 2016 by Publicus

[arjunadawn]

The flaw in democracy is that there are more idiots than wise men, yet just one vote for each.

Do you really think the people who donate 10's of millions of dollars to campaigns don't have

more influence. With the propaganda and spin doctors the "idiots" are very, very easy to

manipulate. No real democracy, just cattle and sheep being herded along to an evitable

conclusion.

Exactly so, and it is the reason the money men that really run the government are cr***ing themselves at the prospect of a Trump win. The only one of the entire shower that is beholden to no one.

I hope that all those that support anyone other than Trump realise that their winner would be no more than a glove puppet for the back room boyz. There is no democracy, just the illusion that they allow people to cling to in the mistaken belief that their vote actually means anything.

One flaw in America is the flaw in Democracy- America is not a Democracy but through inculcating, dumbing down the Dewey education system, and always- repetition, repetition, repetition- most Americans believe they live in a Democracy!

Democracy is always mob rule. "The flaw with Democracy is that there are more idiots than wise men" and once you have a tipping point of majority then the mob votes to injure the minority endlessly. To this same observation Lady Thatcher was known to have said "The trouble with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money." Democracy=Mob Rule. One Man/Woman, One Vote- irrespective of investment, social contract, industry, or aptitude. Democracy=51%. It is this false assumption that America is a Democracy that shapes the grand design of some current candidates.

America is near the tipping point and that is why there is an all out Progressive/Socialist/Democratic Party race for voters, illegals, no ID for votes, etc., anything to create, extend, and stretch a constituency that once "tipped" with the already existing Democratic Party base will never release the entitlements of their voting- their stranglehold on the fruit of others. Socialist/Progressives are so... close... that they must take every chance now to race to the finish line, pull out all the stops, and flood the polls before a dark horse like Trump breaks to the finish. The finish line is this rough percentage where over 50% of the population, voting as "selfish gene" in the organism, become a permanent voting constituency to parasite off the industry of the others. This is the PNR (Point of No Return).

If people think the battle taking place in America is anything less than a battle regarding Communism/Socialism they are deluded. With the Socialist side of the house totally defined by (1) an avowed socialist and (2) a candidate who cannot distinguish herself from a socialist, (3) a capitalist enters the fray. Each is a polar opposite of their opponent. Each is an icon and emblematic of their ideology. Each is so diametrically opposed to the other as to be singularly defining of the two opposing ideologies. One is defined by the empowerment of the individual, the others by the empowerment of the State, the collective. One believes people have the right to the fruit of their industry with equality in opportunity for all. The others believe the fruit of any industry is by definition the result of the collective and eschew equality in opportunity for equality in outcomes. "If you've got a business, you didn't build that..."

One stands on a platform of promises appealing to nostalgia, to a lost Eden, to days past, to a better tomorrow. In the way are all those who are determined to see America continue on a course of Balkanization, fracturing, social engineering, racial politics, division, collectivism. Thus, appeals to nostalgia and a lost Eden shake the earth to those invested in reaching the Democracy majority, the permanent constituency of mob rule.

The others stand on a platform that is entirely based on re-engineering the social landscape with government as the nexus between every human intercourse. One requires the triumph of the person the other the supremacy of the State.

One is a curious, perhaps volatile, maybe even dubious candidate. The others are antithetical to every single core value that to this point enabled America to be the nation it is/was. When it is followed to its conclusion it is evident the core tenets of socialism require the destruction of everything that has made America exceptional and fruitful for it to fill the vacuum. Socialism, by definition, must destroy and is insidious and virulent, couching itself in the familiar as it "progressively" reshapes the American landscape.

[dunroaming]

Excellent post. It is not just the USA that has the dilema. Labels don't tell the story. China is not a democracy but is the most capitalist country I have ever visited. The very successful Scandanavian countries have strong socialist policies. What works for one country won't work for another. The USA is unique as is China. Poles apart but only one of them is moving up

[lannarebirth]

Socialism and Capitalism can co-exist very well. What doesn't work however, is when the benefits of capitalism accrue only to a few, while the downside of capitalism must be borne by the many.

[yrag]

This time next year President Trump will be in charge.

NBC, Vox, CNN, Yahoo and Huffington Post to name a few ( Big Government,Big Business, and Big Media ) appear to getting very nervous the threat to their billions of dollars partnership empire.... Out to TRASH Trump...Face it ...no matter how much you pay and say to belittle Trump...Your loosing the battle

YES it's become open season on Donald Trump. The left and the right are determined to attack his policies, harm his businesses, and, if possible, even keep him out of the coming debates. But they can't silence him. And they sure can't intimidate him. The more they try, the more the public will realize that he's the one telling the truth..loves and wants to take back America from the establishment..

[yrag]

NBC, Vox, CNN, Yahoo and Huffington Post to name a few ( Big Government,Big Business, and Big Media ) appear to getting very nervous the threat to their billions of dollars partnership empire.... Out to TRASH Trump...Face it ...no matter how much you pay and say to belittle Trump...Your loosing the battle

YES it's become open season on Donald Trump. The left and the right are determined to attack his policies, harm his businesses, and, if possible, even keep him out of the coming debates. But they can't silence him. And they sure can't intimidate him. The more they try, the more the public will realize that he's the one telling the truth..loves and wants to take back America from the establishment..

[up2u2]

“It’s a very big decision,” said one man. “I don’t think Trump is good for the U.S. and I think the strongest candidate right now is Hillary.”

Is the prevailing view so that is a Democrat win in a general election. A Republican is just so unthinkable so people opt for the best of a bad choice.

If the GOP endorsed Kasich they would probably have a hope of a policy based election battle but they can't get rid of Trump so that hands the election to Hillary by default.

What would be interesting is Trump (I) v Cruz® v Hillary (D) v Bernie (I) in a four way election battle. I just don't think Bernie can raise the billion dollars required and Trump simply does not have a billion dollars and wont get Adelson / Koch funding.

[JakeSully]

Trumpty Dumpty wants a big wall
Trumpty Dumpty will take a great fall
All the Grand Wizards and all the Klansmen
Won't put Trumpty together again

[gerry1011]

The flaw in democracy is that there are more idiots than wise men, yet just one vote for each.

Another big problem is that most idiots think of themselves as wise men...

[CWMcMurray]

The flaw in democracy is that there are more idiots than wise men, yet just one vote for each.

Another big problem is that most idiots think of themselves as wise men...

Don't you know..

Everyone that agrees with me is wise... Everyone who disagrees with me is an idiot..

The only problem is that everyone else believes the same

[thaibeachlovers]

"...And that could become a key concern leading up to the polls in November: how to make sure that voters remain engaged and turn out to the ballot box."

There's a misconception. R's are turning out in record numbers, fully engaged.

and like their candidate, ignorant of what being President entails and how the government functions.

Most of what Trump promises to do, can not be done by the executive branch of the government.

He is a promoter and marketer playing on uninformed people's emotions.

Good luck America!

can not be done by the executive branch of the government.

Never stopped Obama doing it with his phone and his pen. So many posters ignore that Obama is just as guilty as what they accuse Trump of doing in the future ( they must be psychic to know that ).