They might have thought that in 2016. Any who still think that, however, fall short of the bar of being called sentient.
That’s part of the package the Republicans offered us in 2016. We were promised there would be “adults” in the room helping Presiden Trump make rational decisions. The problem is that it didn’t take long for Trump to either fire or drive away all the adults in his administration. Past behavior is the best indication of what we can expect in the future, so we won’t be seeing any adult in a 2024 Trump administration. Any Republican expecting there will be adults in the room is a fool.
Well the problem with that idea was that the President is the President, and within the walls of the White House he is the boss. Someone serving “at the pleasure of the President” is doing exactly that. The career officials/officers and the responsible sane appointees in the various agencies would not obey an unlawful order but if it is within his authority it’s his call.
I wonder if part of it is “Even if things go to hell, those in power, the ones we followed blindly, will have our backs”.
Yes, I think there is a significant percentage that is hoping for autocracy and carnage.
That’s exactly the problem. At the time, I think many people were hopeful, including myself even though I didn’t vote for him, that Trump had the best interest of the United States at heart and would surround himself with experts. I and many others did not realize just how toxic the man really was.
Because that’s worked so well in the past with deranged autocrats.
It certainly didn’t work the last time with him in office.
One of the few Trump followers I engage with about politics on a semi-regular basis is my mother, a woman who until Trump came along took very little interest in politics. It occurred to me this morning as I was reading my mother’s attack on Nikki Haley that I had never seen her criticize Trump. What suddenly dawned on me was that I’ve never seen her say anything nice about Trump either. The closest thing to nice she’s ever said was something along the lines of, “He’s never done anything I would find embarrassing in a president,” or something to that effect, which is incredulous on its face I know. She’s a true believer, and things anyone other than Trump is going to lead this nation into ruin.
My mom’s a Trumpist also, and the worst thing she ever said about him (when we were pelting her with all the nasty things he’d said up to that point), “Oh, I know he’s an ass!” Accompanied with an eye roll that conveyed she thought it was pretty cute when he acted up like that.
That’s pretty much what everyone thought the last go-round, and look how that turned out. A few of the “Adults in the Room” tried this for a year or so, but then they basically gave up. And Trump hated every minute of them trying to rein him in.
If he wins this time, he’s not going to make the same “mistake” he did last time. He’ll personally appoint every major office, and his only criteria will be how big a bootlicker the person is.
A Trump voter explained to me, “I think he’s an idiot, but I like his policies.”
This makes sense when you consider, most of his “policies” are nothing more than figuring out what a person wants to hear, and then saying that out loud. His one true skill is an ability to just lie to people. “You want X? I’ll give you X, you’ll have so much X you’ll be begging me to stop giving you X!”
What policies? He doesn’t have any actual policies. He has things he will promise to do in two weeks (and never will), things that require immediate funding at great taxpayer cost and with minimal oversight (the funds for which will get funnelled into his and his cronies’ businesses), vague and meaningless statements about things he likes or doesn’t like at the moment, and occasional reminders of who his supporters are supposed to hate this week.
Trump has always been the same. I just read a book on the USFL and he was the same there. He got his way, they tried to move to the fall and it was a complete failure, never played a game and killed the last spring season as well. But he got his way.
You can’t have Trump in the room and have any other result. You can’t have him on a committee. He will dominate and fail. It’s just going to be a bunch of gofers making sure he gets his next Diet Coke. And even at that it’s a pointless effort and it’s not going to add to your resume or anything. Don’t waste your time. But people always think they know better.
It makes me wonder why they directed so much hatred at the likes of DeSantis, Liz Cheney, and Nikki Haley now. You can depend on all three of them to reliably support much of what Trump says he’s all about. It’s not about policy, they just love Trump.
But that’s just it: I’ve never heard her say anything bad about DeSantis, or Cheney, or Haley. I’ve only ever heard her say that (a) she voted for Trump, and that (b) she thinks Trump is an idiot.
Trump was the man who, as president, suggested the injection of bleach, and the shining of a light inside the body [cite: It’s been exactly one year since Trump suggested injecting bleach. We’ve never been the same. - POLITICO], as a means of dealing with Covid while ignoring the science; since before his election said that the subsequent election would be (and was) rigged, based on no evidence whatsoever except that he said so; caused or inspired an insurrection attempt; said during a white supremacist rally that there were “very fine people on both sides” at the rally; and consistently undermined the credibility of of the mainstream media which, for the most part, were conducting responsible journalism.
Additionally, he, and his party, don’t want to support Ukraine, the fall of which could precipitate further aggressive action (okay, invasions) by Russia; and because of his hero worship of dictators, could very likely contribute to a weaking, if not a collapse, of any sort of rules-based international order.
So please explain to us how any GOP voter or supporter, given the above, can regarded positively.
Right. That’s what puzzles many people: that the voters could be getting most of the things they claim to want, from someone who is not an embarassing excuse for a human and who’d do it the right way. But it has never been about that. No, what they really want is to see someone piss on the Establishment’s shoes and get away with it.
The sad truth is that, in terms of policy, Trump wasn’t that bad. Sure there was the ugly Muslim ban and the really ugly child separation policy, as well as the foolish and half-assed building of the wall. Plus, two shitty Supreme Court justices (Gorsuch wouldn’t be my pick, but he’s not absurd). As harmful and evil and idiotic as those were, there were only a small fraction of basic, everyday policy, and the fact is that Biden has reversed and changed very little. The tariffs are still in place, most of the executive orders, etc.
OTOH, Trump had no vision or vector and didn’t make any big policy pushes either.
You take away the ugly showmanship shit, and Trump was a pretty normal Republican president. The problems were 1) the everyday crazy and divisiveness, 2) election denial, 3) 1/6.
Had Trump just chilled a bit, he easily could have been reelected and held the Senate too. Ultimately, however, the crazy and evil are what both he and his base wanted.