I agree with this. I think Trump is a very unique character with unique name recognition. I don’t think it confers on to anyone else. I don’t buy into the Trump dynasty theory for the reasons you say.
I don’t even think Trump himself could pull it off again, although I’m less sure of this. People seem very sure that Trump will continue to get the coverage he has been getting. But I’m doubtful. If his twitter account gets pulled, any other platform would have to be grown. That’s not as easy as it sounds. People forgot about Trump for years at a time before. Without the power of the position of the President, they might at least not take him as seriously. I’m sure he’ll do the speaking circuit but past Presidents seem to fade from view even when they’re dong that.
Trump was able to take advantage of some issues that divided the country that he used to maximize his power. If the same issues prevail or get worse, then the same thing could happen again. I have less doubt about that than I do that he will continue to dominate the media and the collective consciousness of the country as he has for the last 4 years. I think his star will fade for a while at least.
It was. I wondered at this sentence in the last paragraph, though: “The 2020 election had many losers: Trump, his supporters, and American democracy chief among them.” Why did American democracy lose? Because of all the denialism and fraud accusations by MAGAheads?
American democracy was certainly threatened and diminished by Trump and his supporters. It depends on certain conventions being followed in recognizing winners and losers. The senior leadership of one of the major parties explicitly attempted to disenfranchise many millions of voters simply because they voted for the other party, or at least made no objection to it. Democracy survived this time, but I shudder to think what might have happened if both houses of Congress were under Republican control, or if more state legislatures or judges went along with it.
Who are these European Trumpers? Are they Americans living in Europe? One is referred to as a British woman living in Amsterdam. How can this be?! Are these actual Europeans who are somehow pro-trump? It’s both fascinating and absolutely terrifying!
How many high-ranking Republicans in Congress have condemned the call by a three-star general, Michael Flynn, for Trump to suspend the Constitution, impose martial law, and use the Army to re-run the election until they get the right result?
As far as I’m aware, the answer is Zero.
That’s clear damage to the US democracy, when the leaders of a political party won’t condemn calls for the Constitution to be suspended because they are afraid of upsetting the leader of the regime.
Similarly, elector voters in Michigan had to meet behind closed doors, because of the security threats, while the electors in Arizona voted at an undisclosed location. Those are not indicators of a healthy democracy.
That may not be the same as saying ‘democracy lost’, but at the very least, the democratic system took a clear hit in this election, from my outsider’s perspective.
I don’t like to engage in hyperbole, but I don’t have much hesitation describing this as a coup attempt. It was an extremely incompetent and stupid coup attempt, but it was a deliberate attempt to seize power despite having clearly lost an election. This is the kind of stuff that goes on in banana republics, not the country that claims to be a shining example of democracy to the world. But some of the banana republics have the better of us, having exiled or imprisoned leaders of failed coups. I haven’t seen this kind of chicanery in Panama since Noriega was booted. Every single government since then has been defeated at the polls in the next election, and not one of them tried to hold on to power by nefarious means.
Betting money on Trump to win is not an indication that they support his policies. It’s just gambling.And they are protesting because they lost their money. They don’t want Trump in the White House, they want to win their bets.
You know, I disagree. A lot of the Americans betting on Trump were, I think, bonkers MAGAheads who thought he was absolutely bound to win and were, by putting their money where their mouths were, demonstrating the fervency of their support, and their adamant rejection of any counsel to the contrary, whether by pollsters, pundits or Democrats.
The world was extremely fortunate because of this, considering how easy it would have been to feign compassion while wisely admonishing the wearing of masks.
I don’t understand why he took the anti-mask stance that he did but, notwithstanding the absolutely tragic and largely preventable deaths of 300k people, as well as long-haul vivid survivors, the world will be better for it; though what an awful and appalling price to pay for the severe lack of critical thinking in 2016.