Is it ok to come out as a Trump Republican in Biglaw? Forum

[Pomeranian]

I'm going to laugh at all of you when Trump is your President.

Luckily, even if he somehow managed to win, he'd do something to get impeached.

99% Donald Trump WILL be president. Who has the momentum? Hillary "Wall Street" Clinton? nope

[emkay625]

Getting butthurt over politics is a dumb person thing.

this should be shouted from the rooftops, but shitlibs have such missionary zeal for their political positions because they believe their "progressivism" makes up for their shitty, immoral lives

lol wut?

99.8% of progressives (i dont just mean democrats) are selfish and shitty people. Even democrats are finding this out re: bernie bros.

The religious right has this too. There is a distinct group of christians who are fucking huge peices of shit, but think they are saints cause they go to church every sunday and publically show their faith.

It's a form of "the lady doth protest too much." They are overcompensating for people pieces of shit.

grandinquisitor's comment came across to me as: all liberals live immoral lives. which kind of reads as all low-income and minority people (since they tend to vote D) live shitty, immoral lives.

but now it seems you're talking about a particular subset of liberalism. in which case, yup.

[B0bL0blaw]

It isn't "ok" to come out as a Trump Republican in general. Why would Biglaw be an exception?

[smallfirmassociate]

Lulz at the people ITT who think that everyone in their law office is voting Democrat in November.

You can come out as a Trump supporter and be openly mocked by half of the people in your office. You can come out as a Hillary supporter and be silently mocked by the other half.

Either way it's unlikely to help your career unless you really want to ingratiate yourself with a Trump-supporting partner.

[Nebby]

Aren't all Republicans a Trump one? They don't really have a choice now

[UVAIce]

Aren't all Republicans a Trump one? They don't really have a choice now

Blatant libertarian trolling.

[HonestAdvice]

Even if you don't like Trump, he just gained the support of a party that was colluding against him without any public donations, and turned his complete lack of experience into a positive. Any business minded person respects that. The fact he may be a crazy racist who will drive us into a nuclear holocaust doesn't make him less of a genius.

Is he a genius or is a good chunk of the republican electorate stupid?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpdt7omPoa0

You could make the same argument about the founder of McDonalds, but nobody minimizes their success because their customers are less educated.

[jnwa]

Even if you don't like Trump, he just gained the support of a party that was colluding against him without any public donations, and turned his complete lack of experience into a positive. Any business minded person respects that. The fact he may be a crazy racist who will drive us into a nuclear holocaust doesn't make him less of a genius.

Is he a genius or is a good chunk of the republican electorate stupid?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpdt7omPoa0

You could make the same argument about the founder of McDonalds, but nobody minimizes their success because their customers are less educated.

Fair enough.

[Nebby]

Even if you don't like Trump, he just gained the support of a party that was colluding against him without any public donations, and turned his complete lack of experience into a positive. Any business minded person respects that. The fact he may be a crazy racist who will drive us into a nuclear holocaust doesn't make him less of a genius.

Is he a genius or is a good chunk of the republican electorate stupid?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpdt7omPoa0

You could make the same argument about the founder of McDonalds, but nobody minimizes their success because their customers are less educated.

What a terrible analogy

[jbagelboy]

The fact that only anonymous posters will earnestly state some level of support for donald trump should be your answer.

Yes, you can say you're a trump supporter, and yes, people will ridicule you and think you are less intelligent. That's your trade off. It's an objectively stupid position; there's no educated theory of Trump support out there that doesn't rely on racism and misogyny (or Hillary-hate misogyny), which as political theories haven't garnered true intellectual support since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

This is as ignorant as some of the shit Trump says.

I don't back Trump, but you have to recognize that the concerns of many of his supporters are valid on trade, or immigration, or national security, or really anything that isn't the status quo. There's a lot of people who feel left behind and sold out by the "elites" on those issues, and if you look at the objective evidence over the past 40 years or so, they have pretty good reasons to feel like the "consensus" view on those positions was a crappy deal for them and that Trump's position might be better. If the Democrats chalk up everything to ignorance and racism and ignore those real issues, they're gonna get beat in November.

That said, you don't really need to think about whether it's a good idea to announce your Trump support in a job full of left-leaning cosmopolitan rich urbanites if you follow the simple "avoid discussing politics, religion or sex in the workplace to the fullest extent possible" rule.

I'm not disputing that he has raised some valid criticisms of the neo-conservative/traditional liberal political consensus. Maurras raised valid criticisms of the third republic. George Wallace raised some valid criticisms of the treatment of working class whites during desegregation. Franco raised some valid criticisms of the Zamora coalition. Pinochet raised some valid criticisms of the Allende government. Dollfuss.. well, no. The point is, almost every ethos that has captured the attention of the body politic has incorporated kernels of truth and legitimate criticisms of the prevailing constitutional order, but where they are entirely undergirded and driven by racial politics and demagoguery with little regard to policy principle--Trumpism exemplifies these qualities--the plausible "concerns" they raise are entirely subsumed and the platform becomes intellectually indefensible.

Again, there will be well educated, intelligent people in this country who will wind up voting for Trump or abstaining because they have so much disgust for Hillary and believe he can be "controlled" by the party structure and its grounding principles (basically sums up the Hindenburg bourgeoisie in 1933). But I have not read a single educated, well-conceived argument in favor of Trump that doesn't rely on some flavor of political racism or misogyny.

[sublime]

..

[jbagelboy]

Lulz at the people ITT who think that everyone in their law office is voting Democrat in November.

You can come out as a Trump supporter and be openly mocked by half of the people in your office. You can come out as a Hillary supporter and be silently mocked by the other half.

Either way it's unlikely to help your career unless you really want to ingratiate yourself with a Trump-supporting partner.

I doubt that it is anything close to 50/50, especially in like NYC.

NYC biglaw LOVES hillary. it's probably one of her few actually passionate bases of support.

[Aristogeiton1]

Answer: OP, it is a bad idea.
Reasoning: Xenophobia, racism, misogyny, blatant disrespect of elected officials, lack of genuine political knowledge, past history of willfully perpetuating systemic issues, generally not a nice guy.
If it would have sounded ridiculous to say "Donald Trump should be President" 4 years ago, it is viewed as equally ridiculous now.
Conservatives aren't a fan of Trump, with good reason.

I'd recommend talking about your Crossfit membership instead. That should get you on the fast track to partnership.

[Desert Fox]

My only NYC biglaw offer came from a tea party supporting Mayer Brown partner. We chatted about how dumb liberals were.

[smallfirmassociate]

Lulz at the people ITT who think that everyone in their law office is voting Democrat in November.

You can come out as a Trump supporter and be openly mocked by half of the people in your office. You can come out as a Hillary supporter and be silently mocked by the other half.

Either way it's unlikely to help your career unless you really want to ingratiate yourself with a Trump-supporting partner.

I doubt that it is anything close to 50/50, especially in like NYC.

I also doubt it's quite 70/30. Trump does well in NY.* Regardless of the actual number, the point is that there will be a lot of supporters of either candidate in a given law office. The Trump ones will just be a lot more likely to support their candidate quietly.


*During the primary, NYT said this in an article about the demographics of Trump supporters:

He fares best in a broad swath of the country stretching from the Gulf Coast, up the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, to upstate New York.

Mr. Trump’s best state is West Virginia, followed by New York. Eight of Mr. Trump’s 10 best congressional districts are in New York, including several on Long Island. North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and South Carolina follow.

[Anonymous User]

My only NYC biglaw offer came from a tea party supporting Mayer Brown partner. We chatted about how dumb liberals were.

Oh, hell. I'm a liberal and I talk with other liberals about that.

[jbagelboy]

Lulz at the people ITT who think that everyone in their law office is voting Democrat in November.

You can come out as a Trump supporter and be openly mocked by half of the people in your office. You can come out as a Hillary supporter and be silently mocked by the other half.

Either way it's unlikely to help your career unless you really want to ingratiate yourself with a Trump-supporting partner.

I doubt that it is anything close to 50/50, especially in like NYC.

I also doubt it's quite 70/30. Trump does well in NY.* Regardless of the actual number, the point is that there will be a lot of supporters of either candidate in a given law office. The Trump ones will just be a lot more likely to support their candidate quietly.


*During the primary, NYT said this in an article about the demographics of Trump supporters:

He fares best in a broad swath of the country stretching from the Gulf Coast, up the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, to upstate New York.

Mr. Trump’s best state is West Virginia, followed by New York. Eight of Mr. Trump’s 10 best congressional districts are in New York, including several on Long Island. North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and South Carolina follow.

dude: John Kasich won Manhattan (where all the big law firms are). John fucking Kasich, the governor of Ohio who had zero chance of winning anything ever, won Manhattan.

[ndirish2010]

Aren't all Republicans a Trump one? They don't really have a choice now

My choice is to leave the party. But I think you can stay in the party and not support Trump. I just won't do it.

[ndirish2010]

Lulz at the people ITT who think that everyone in their law office is voting Democrat in November.

You can come out as a Trump supporter and be openly mocked by half of the people in your office. You can come out as a Hillary supporter and be silently mocked by the other half.

Either way it's unlikely to help your career unless you really want to ingratiate yourself with a Trump-supporting partner.

I doubt that it is anything close to 50/50, especially in like NYC.

I also doubt it's quite 70/30. Trump does well in NY.* Regardless of the actual number, the point is that there will be a lot of supporters of either candidate in a given law office. The Trump ones will just be a lot more likely to support their candidate quietly.


*During the primary, NYT said this in an article about the demographics of Trump supporters:

He fares best in a broad swath of the country stretching from the Gulf Coast, up the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, to upstate New York.

Mr. Trump’s best state is West Virginia, followed by New York. Eight of Mr. Trump’s 10 best congressional districts are in New York, including several on Long Island. North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and South Carolina follow.

dude: John Kasich won Manhattan (where all the big law firms are). John fucking Kasich, the governor of Ohio who had zero chance of winning anything ever, won Manhattan.

The New York Trump supporters come from (Staten Island, South Shore of LI), is quite a bit different than the one inhabited by biglaw attorneys.

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

I'm not disputing that he has raised some valid criticisms of the neo-conservative/traditional liberal political consensus. Maurras raised valid criticisms of the third republic. George Wallace raised some valid criticisms of the treatment of working class whites during desegregation. Franco raised some valid criticisms of the Zamora coalition. Pinochet raised some valid criticisms of the Allende government. Dollfuss.. well, no. The point is, almost every ethos that has captured the attention of the body politic has incorporated kernels of truth and legitimate criticisms of the prevailing constitutional order, but where they are entirely undergirded and driven by racial politics and demagoguery with little regard to policy principle--Trumpism exemplifies these qualities--the plausible "concerns" they raise are entirely subsumed and the platform becomes intellectually indefensible.

Again, there will be well educated, intelligent people in this country who will wind up voting for Trump or abstaining because they have so much disgust for Hillary and believe he can be "controlled" by the party structure and its grounding principles (basically sums up the Hindenburg bourgeoisie in 1933). But I have not read a single educated, well-conceived argument in favor of Trump that doesn't rely on some flavor of political racism or misogyny.

Why would it not be an "educated, well-conceived argument" to say that immigration and trade policies have shredded the working class, and Trump's policies would mitigate that damage while Hillary's would exacerbate it?

I mean, we might disagree because most law students are middle-class people who are not in danger of losing their livelihoods due to immigration and trade policies, but it's not like there's not a real argument.

[SkinnyFat]

What BL shop is he using for the general?

Don't know if someone answered this previously, but I think he's been using Jones Day throughout his campaign?

[Anonymous User]

I'm not sure what your motivation is to speak up. Having to hold your tongue is par for the course in the corporate environment, and some would say essential for progression. This is a great topic to practice with.

[philepistemer]

You should be concerned about even coming out as a Republican in the workplace. The strategy of the new "progressive left" is to label anyone with different views as racist, misogynist, homophobic, etc.

Some [Trump supporters], I assume, are good people.

[kaysta]

I'm not sure what your motivation is to speak up. Having to hold your tongue is par for the course in the corporate environment, and some would say essential for progression. This is a great topic to practice with.

^Sums it up. OP has got to be kidding with this, or else just has no idea how to talk to people in an office.
If you go into the office and start sliding Trump leaflets under the partners' doors and generally making a nuisance of yourself, then it will be held against you. If you're more of a smooth operator and generally know how to talk to people without alientating them, then you can get away with making all kinds of outrageous statements on various topics and it won't affect your prospects. Though I don't know why you'd want to talk about, ie, deporting all Muslims, at work or elsewhere.


It was closer than you'd think: 41--45 Trump--Kasich in Manhattan.

[Aristogeiton1]

Why would it not be an "educated, well-conceived argument" to say that immigration and trade policies have shredded the working class, and Trump's policies would mitigate that damage while Hillary's would exacerbate it?

I mean, we might disagree because most law students are middle-class people who are not in danger of losing their livelihoods due to immigration and trade policies, but it's not like there's not a real argument.

Because globalization spearheaded by large corporations who outsourced their cheap labour, and the collapse of the auto-industry likely have just as much of an impact, if not more, than immigration and trade policies on the working class.
And his economic proposals would not mitigate the damage done, but likely exacerbate the issue. A trade war is not ideal. Nor is adding to the federal debt. Nor would repealing Obamacare and bleeding about 1/2 a billion dollars in tax revenue.
Nor has Trump fleshed out any of his policies.
The whole "heavy reading" thing should be practiced long-after law school.