General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI'm trying to imagine an alternate reality where Hillary won and...
was under investigation by a special counsel after she had fired the head of the FBI which had been investigating her and she even openly admits this on a prime time interview. A year later her lawyers come out and say, "clearly she cant be guilty of obstruction of justice b/c the President can't obstruct justice." Many times over the next few weeks she floats wild conspiracy theories about the FBI and Special Counsel's office, attacks those investigating her and says the investigation is a "witch hunt". Once again her lawyer goes on tv and says even if subpoenaed she doesnt have to testify and even if she were 1 day found guilty she could pardon herself.
Can you even imagine the outrage and cries of attempting to be above the law? They cried about her having a private server for God's sakes! The judiciary committee would likely already have voted on articles of impeachment and the House would be taking them up by mid summer at the latest.
Meanwhile, in our reality....crickets from Congress.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)noise from the right, but goodness knows that had become normal. Now and then Hillary's schedule would include giving a deposition or testifying before congress. As before.
Professional swiftboaters, Judicial Watch, boasted in 2016 that they had 5 big new "scandals" all created and ready to launch after Hillary took office, presumably mostly one at a time.
Right now we'd be rebuilding ports, highways, bridges, burying power lines, restructuring our entire power grid, building rural hospitals, and that's just a little infrastructure bit of what'd be happening. Many state colleges would have made tuition affordable already, Medicare eligibility age would be dropped and the ACA expanded further, taxes raised more from where Obama had raised them on the wealthy, heavy sanctions and NATO forcing Russia to mostly behave, the new national minimum wage implemented, labor laws improved, and on and on and on and on.
former9thward
(32,028 posts)1) Clinton could not do those things on her own.
2) She did not run on most of those things.
dsc
(52,163 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)We were in line all year not just to elect a Democratic president by a large margin but to get a majority and very like even control of the senate. It was even seriously discussed that we might get a majority in the house, but for sure many more seats. And many state governments would at very least have had increased Democratic power.
When Hillary was taken out, her presidential coattails were also and it all collapsed into Republican control.
And please remember that, on average, presidents are able to come through on about 73% of what they campaign on. Take a look at her issues and plans on her site.
We lost/delayed a LOT. My list above is just a fraction. Making coal country places where grown children could make good lives instead of having to leave parents behind to find jobs? What would the 5-10-20 plan have meant to the people of those communities if being implemented now? Growing the taxing down of the very wealthy, as Obama had started to do even with a Republican congress? Filling judicial positions with people who believe in the nation we've always thought we had?
former9thward
(32,028 posts)Please link.
Before the election the Republicans had Congress and a majority of governships. The idea that a shift of 50,000 to 100,000 votes in key states would have changed that is not realistic.
There would have been a opportunity in the federal judges but with a R majority in the Senate I don't think that would have gone too far.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)term "coattails"? If the election hadn't been hijacked we wouldn't have won by only the margin we lost but by far, far more.
As for to what age, GREAT chance to finally learn what so many foolishly rejected. The projected age being discussed was 55.
But I'm very disgusted with people who have chosen to not know or forget and instead continue denial. They are responsible for what they've done and for the suffering they've caused, and no amount of denial will calm even one frightened child for even a minute.
This is the end of discussion.
Yavin4
(35,443 posts)And the media would be demanding that she resign for the good of the nation.
And people would have died if she would have tried the seat the Supreme Court Justice.
Honestly it would be just as ugly in a different, more violent way.
dawg day
(7,947 posts)But we should at least keep saying, "Stop for a moment and imagine this: What would you say if it was Hillary Clinton who had done (list 1-2 Trump nasties)."
"What if Hillary Clinton was begging the Communist dictator Kim Jong Un to meet with her on an equal basis, only she offered to pay hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for his hotel and meals?"
Delarage
(2,186 posts)Where democracy happened in Florida and Gore had won....
betsuni
(25,544 posts)"The real damage that this sort of propaganda does is to democracy itself. Robert Parry is one of the few journalists who actually bothered to investigate and debunk the media's portrayal of Gore-as-liar. 'How can voters have any hope of expressing an informed judgment when the media intervenes to transform one of the principal candidates -- an individual who, by all accounts, is a well-qualified public official and a decent family man -- into a national laughingstock? ... What hope does a candidate have when the media can misrepresent his words so thoroughly that they become an argument for his mental instability?'" (from "Banana Republicans" )
jimlup
(7,968 posts)I'm thinking we are the unlucky suckers who ended up in the low quantum probability world where Trump won. Meanwhile most of the other universes in the multiverse are going on about their happy way with Hillary as PROTUS ... we're stuck here and we can't quantum tunnel to another more reasonable reality. Ah!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation
ThoughtCriminal
(14,047 posts)Multiverse travelers report that this is only one that known reality where Donald Trump is President of the United States. It is considered the least popular destination, even when compared to realities in which the Earth's crust never solidifies.
jimlup
(7,968 posts)and we are the unlucky victims.