I'd probably agree with much of that AV5 but I think viewing the political spectrum as simply left and right in that sense doesn't get to the heart of what is happening. When people are feeling affluent, things are going well, their sense of identity is not as important to them. When they are marginalised identity becomes much more important - you can see this in marginal groups of all types (right, left, anarchist, criminal, whatever), that their sense of identity is what keeps them going in adversity.

When it's possible for a demagogue like Trump to make a largely privileged group feel like they are marginal, or even when a large section of society is objectively marginalised, then it opens up the way for that group identity to become a major political force that can be exploited. Trump stooped pretty low to tell people they're being shat on by Muslims, Mexicans, free trade itself and anyone else he felt he could get away with offending. Objectively many of those people from the rust belt, etc, could rightly feel aggrieved as well.

Failing to recognise this is the same complacency that has seen the left fail elsewhere. I'd say accusations that the left is dominated by metropolitan elites who don't actually care about the working class voters they were once supposed to champion have substance, they certainly aren't addressing these problems seriously and if they continue to ignore divisions like this democracy as a whole is weakened.

The left no longer really have the option of reaching for the center because much of their base has been cut away or simply co-opted to their rivals. In the UK for example there is now a vast swathe of the working class that voted for Brexit that the Tory party, which would never have dreamed of gaining these votes in such numbers, is clearly attempting to parlay into permanent support with tough rhetoric, solidifying their grip on Parliament for a generation.

I think there is something more serious at work at the moment than the normal ebb and flow of party politics.

The thing is that during a period of clear sustained economic... well suffering might be too strong a word, but belts clearly being tightened, the left is supposed to be able to not only capitalise on that, but to have attractive arguments that appeal directly to people on those grounds, and to represent them.

It's an interesting pattern amongst the anti-establishment movements that are happening throughout the west that the successful ones are primarily right wing, that they rely primarily on ideas of identity while simultaneously pushing for the most part an even more right wing agenda that is very unlikely to benefit anyone who is voting for them.

It seems that the process that took place in the 1990s where left leaning parties became friends of globalisation and the markets has left them hopelessly exposed. New leftist movements now still appeal to left leaning well educated people, but they have no traction with their supposed base - unionised workers, low skilled workers, etc. There's no point pretending there was no swing vote - those people just came out for Trump in significant numbers, and they have abandoned Labour in the UK. The left as a whole needs to re-connect.

For the Republicans their entire system has been totally undermined by a complete outsider who has publicly shown contempt for those who are now his leading officials. Several of them have openly mutinied and voted against him. A lot of party members feel the same way about Trump as people who just voted against him, there is a real feeling the party has been hijacked. It runs a lot deeper than adjusting their process.

Sanders would have had an important advantage over Clinton, he's an old white male. That demographic voted against Clinton in droves, and Sanders would also have been much more difficult to outflank on the "insider" theme. There is no doubt he would have had his own, probably fatal, electoral weaknesses, but he is a much better orator than Clinton and would probably have had a much easier time appearing genuine when campaigning.

Clinton being a better politician within the confines of her own party didn't do them any good on the road. The democrat process just didn't produce a good enough candidate and in the wake of defeat they might want to look at why. The Republican party has plenty of work to do to figure out what just happened to it as well.

Menachem does set the context of his criticisms as the people that browse the forum rather than the wider electorate that have switched from voting democrat to voting republican. I think the misquote is slightly disingenuous on your part, and when properly framed in the context of the forum it's safe to say there are certainly some infowars fans here.

That graph actually applies to most people outside higher social classes and across more countries than the US. You can probably cut the demographics a few different ways to get niche results showing something different but it's a very broad trend including amongst professionals.

Also interesting is what the period before that graph shows, which is ascendant real wealth amongst ordinary working people since the end of the war. 1975 was an interesting year.

This leaves 2 questions:
1) if Trump gets the nuclear codes will he be like Lex Luthor and nuke the San Andreas fault to boost the property values of large tracts of desert he has mysteriously acquired?
2) do the Democrat executive regret stopping Bernie from winning the nomination? Would he have done better in the country against Trump?

Shit sorry, I apologise unreservedly and without exception

You're failing in your first duty as an Australian to control Mitch. As a country that is clearly exporting Mitch to NA TF2 (read up a couple of posts) regardless of the potential consequences, your contributions will now have to go through the Mitch vetting process to ensure you aren't contributing to Mitch, and you may have to pay for a Mitch wall.

Just trying to keep it relevant my man, you don't have to be heavily invested in an election result to spot an opportunity for a little satire.

In the new Trump era I think NA should have it's own whitelist and everyone else can only play with the unlocks banned by NA. Moreover to prevent further fucking with NA 6v6 I propose a "Valve wall" permanently blocking all new unlocks from NA.

Any suspected Overwatch inspired cosmetics to be banned until cleared by a special panel of item investigators.

"Global" whitelist in 2016, smh

Last day polling suggests that all the ground lost by Clinton over the re-opening of the email case is being regained, which would make more sense than a general conspiracy to suppress figures favourable to Trump.

Seems like Trump is looking for a last minute Brexit like surprise, it will be interesting to see if the general polling approach of the US polling companies is as incapable of detecting the true intent of voters as those in the UK proved to be.

EU admins yet to be found

538 has last minute polling leaning further in Clinton's direction, but not back to mid October levels. A lot of states are still on the edge. Could be the result of the email "clearing" although I'm not sure how many polls would have been after that, but floating voters could easily have been waiting on that decision.

There's apparently a 10% chance of a recount somewhere so a realistic chance there'll be an opportunity for one side or other to complain or drag out the result. That's probably true of any election, but it's been a prominent theme in this one so it's of particular significance.

Unfortunately odds on a meteorite strike don't seem to be high enough to register so many people's preferred outcome isn't accounted for.

Put down the Ayn Rand novel and back slowly away. We have people that can help you, but first you have to admit that you have a problem.

A reputation that won't be dented unless people make a fuss about it. Tweet their official account about their failure to honour the DHS prize pool.

She is very strongly favoured, that's just the facts. If Trump wants to become very strongly favoured instead he needs something new that will play well across the country, or he needs Clinton to fuck up somehow in a new way. His comeback is stalling short of the finishing line.

People aren't going to buy these smears in any kind of significant numbers, they're too incredible and don't have any official weight to them, sorry if you think they're electorally decisive content but they're not. If the FBI announces they're opening a sex offences investigation then that's another matter, but they haven't and nobody expects them to either.

Most people won't draw the conclusion that this is because of a secretive liberal elite in a child abuse cult, but that they're meaningless smears with nothing to them. That's why they're not going to make meaningful headway outside of people who already believe this, but those aren't the people Trump needs to convince to improve his chances.

Get it now?

e: I should make it clear that although their positions seem to be solidifying close to the date there is a clear margin for error that means that Trump could right now be in the box seat. It's just not likely. For both sides their best bet is to get their supporters out to vote which is what both sides are doing - if they had a big blow left to land they'd have done it. They're concentrating on motivating their existing supporters. In this sense the "Trump content for Trump supporters" activity makes perfect sense - it's basically saying don't forget to vote, just like the "Trump is an unacceptable human being" stuff for Clinton supporters is designed to do.