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Comment by op00to | Hacker News Reader

We didn't elect Donald Trump. He was installed by the Russian government.

Please keep partisan flamewars off HN.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14643682 and marked it off-topic.

You age giving too much credit to Russia, it easy to blame someone else, like in Russia people blaming Obama for bad roads and high prices, and simply ignoring corruption that ruins everything. And here in Ukraine everything bad is blamed on Russia, no one in power will take the blame, it is simple to say "Putin did it"

Alas, this excuse won't get you out of the conundrum. Its one thing to take zero responsibility for the actions of your government, and by definition, ones own people .. but its another thing entirely to continue to fail to take responsibility in face of the disaster.

He's not your President, okay .. we get it, Americans. He's not our (non-American) President, either. But .. Russia or no Russia .. YOU are the only ones who can do anything effective about this disaster.

So, start taking responsibility and quit the whining, kids. America is a disaster waiting to happen: DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

(Don't wait for Russia to fix it.)

Well ... Trump lied to a bunch of disenfranchised blue-collar workers and added them to the patriotic isolationists. If you weren't part of that group but had previously voted republican, you probably wouldn't vote for Clinton either.

My biggest hope is that this lasts only four years (or less) and that a) the two major parties come to their senses or b) we end up with more than two viable parties.

For those of us in the U.S. who are sane (but surrounded), I'll simply say "I'm very sorry Daniel". P.S. I use cURL most every day - thanks!

In your experience, has the leader of the political party opposing your beliefs always told the truth in the past?

No, of course not, but we've never seen anything like what we're witnessing today. There's reality, and then there's Trump's version of reality, and the 40% that believe everything he says, despite facts to the contrary.

In the past, there be at least some shred of truth in the politician’s otherwise untrue statement. So the worst one could say is, “okay, that’s not 100% correct”. Trump takes it to a new level in that there often isn’t the slightest bit of truth in what he says. IOW, other politicians stretch the truth, but mostly don’t outright lie. Trump‘s statements, OTOH, appear to often be completely unconcerned with facts.

In my experience, none of the political leaders tell the truth ... I wasn't always this cynical but I've learned to not trust their words as I got older. I became "politically alert" during the Reagan years and didn't realize until much later that things weren't quite as rosy as his pleasant sounding speeches made him sound (he was a great communicator). I also thought Obama could have used his speaking ability to be a great president (he showed his chops as a junior senator).

As far as opposing my beliefs, I think I'd like to be a libertarian and so, in general, they all oppose my beliefs? I guess it's a matter of which one least opposes them? Promotes my rights (to privacy!), etc. I used to think my best-case scenario in Washington was a grid-locked house and senate but that seems too optimistic now.

Russia seems to have influenced the American voter. But non-American-citizen HN commenters weren't exactly refraining from commenting on the election out of a desire for electoral purity. Granted, the Russian approach was especially scummy, but it was American who voted for Trump at the end of the day. And for better or worse foreign speech will influence the American voter at times.

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