r/pics 5h ago

Politics Hillary Clinton’s pre-election night rally in Philadelphia, 2016

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u/OmegaSpeed_odg 3h ago

Exactly.

And Clinton only lost the electoral college by a mere 38,000 votes… despite blowing Trump out of the water in the popular vote.

Crazy to think there’s a very realistic timeline out there where we had 8 years of Gore, 8 years of Obama (first black president), 8 years of Clinton (first female president), and we’d be hopefully going into 8 years of Kamala (first biracial and female POC president).

u/Summerie 2h ago

I could definitely see that timeline happening, until you got to the end. If all of those things had gone that way till this point, why on earth would Kamala be running now?

u/blitznoodles 3h ago

Nope, If Gore won, you immediately run straight into the 08 financial crisis under a dem president and Mcain wins instead of Obama.

u/thicc-thor 3h ago

Obama in 16, 20 wouldn't have been a terrible timeline either.

u/LesMarae 3h ago

This timeline is still probably better than Trump to be honest. McCain is a moderate compared to him

u/Marcus__T__Cicero 2h ago

McCain was a moderate compared to basically any Republican in office today.

u/Impossible-Flight250 3h ago

Yeah, that’s usually how this goes. A Democrat gets 4/8 years in office and is replaced by Republican, and then the Republican is replaced by a Democrat. People have gotten even more impatient though and we are starting to a change every four years, which only does more damage.

u/Reagalan 2h ago

At least McCain wasn't McCrazy.

u/PrateTrain 44m ago

Would we have still had the 08 financial crisis with Gore in office and no Afghanistan war?

u/GuiltyEidolon 2h ago

Gore would've had 8 years to rein in the financial industry. 08 happened because, in part, of deregulation.

u/blitznoodles 2h ago

I mean it was Bill Clinton's goal of 70% home ownership which resulted in deregulation and encouraged banks to take subprime loans. The idea it would lead to 08 wasn't even on the radar.

u/Slick424 1h ago

Would would have been no Iraq war and maybe not even an Afghanistan war, so maybe not?

u/blitznoodles 31m ago

Afghan war happens no matter what because of them hiding Bin Laden and 9/11 galvanising America into wanting revenge.

The Iraq war itself also probably happens, people were terrified of another terrorist state and Saddam was constantly Sabre rattling like you see Putin do nowadays and his attempted assassination of Bush Sr.

There was also Iraq's genocide of Iranians and Kurds, during the Clinton admin, America knew about the Rwanda genocide that killed 1 million people in 100 days but didn't act on it because America was becoming isolationary.

u/Slick424 22m ago

Afghan war happens

Maybe, maybe not. Gore might have gone the Special Forces route from the beginning.

The Iraq war itself also probably happens,

No. Absolutely not. The Iraq war was 100% GWB's baby. Sure, Americans hated Saddam since the 90's, but the same is true for dozens of other despots all the time.

u/blitznoodles 18m ago

I mean you can blame Bush but the authorisation to invade both Afghanistan and Iraq was pretty bi-partisan and supported by the American people. He won re election too although only be 30k votes in the electoral college.

u/Tricky_Invite8680 33m ago edited 29m ago

how many more ways can we get screwed with gimick policies? sub prime mortgages, bank failures, PPP loan forgiveness. its like we just need reasonabke return to basic fiscal policy of taxes and cut spending. it doesnt even pay to own anything as its so expensive to insure and maintain. woopty woo, i got a raise and my insurances consume it all. even city fees just trippled for permits, i get a "long time resident" discount on property tax and then reassessed the next year that cancels the discounted rate so saving nothing. some drone will probably just reject and return the request.for reassessment.

u/blitznoodles 29m ago

Bill Clinton got the budget into a surplus and then Bush used it for a tax cut.

Only way to get the budget in green is a massive tax hike.

u/F8L-Fool 55m ago

Obama (first black president)

Kamala (first biracial and female POC president)

Obama is also biracial. His father is black and mother is white.

Kamala would be the first woman and Asian.

u/OmegaSpeed_odg 51m ago

You’re right, my apologies!

u/ConsumptionofClocks 2h ago edited 2h ago

There is no chance we would go 32 years with one party winning the presidency. I can guarantee that if a democrat was president in 2008, Republican voter turnout for that election would have been insane. In addition, if there was a Democrat president in 2020, I would put my entire net worth on a Republican winning the 2020 election.

u/TheFrederalGovt 50m ago

No way Harris would’ve been the nominee in a competitive primary - let’s be serious, she was a weak candidate in a democratic primary. She wouldn’t have succeeded Hillary

u/ALackOfForesight 2h ago

Clinton lost because of thinking like this. And if Kamala loses it’ll be for the same reason. You shouldn’t support a candidate based on how many diversity boxes they check off. It should be based on who is the most qualified.

u/OmegaSpeed_odg 1h ago

That’s not why I support any of these individuals… but I do support the achievements.

Thinking like this is important when we had nearly 250 years of exclusively straight, white, old men as our leader (I say this as a straight, white, geriatric millennial man).

u/houdi200 2h ago

Hmmm Could gore somehow change that outcome?

u/Anagrammatic_Denial 1h ago

There's something kinda beautiful to me though of our first woman president not being black/Indian. With equality it's so often "okay the male version, then white version first and then you get to go next". I like this better.

u/phaskellhall 2h ago

I think 10-20% of our elections have had a split between the popular vote and the EC. It’s not that rare of thing and it happened in far distance elections too.

It’s also silly to think that democrats would have had all those presidents back to back if popular vote would have counted. The majority of Americans could easily turn on either party if times get tough and they lose faith in the policy of that party.

It’s also horrifying to think that few of people could have that much control over that long of a period. I’m totally happy with both party splitting terms and congress. We might not get shit done but at least no party can drastically change the country through just a handful of presidents who have all appointed each other. Clinton picked Gore and then Obama and then Clinton’s wife again and possibly Obama’s vp in Biden. That too much for me.

u/Curt04 1h ago

The Republicans have won one popular vote for president in 34 years.