At first I thought for sure that my ex-wife must be your wife’s sister, but I guess there are a few of those guys out there. Your FIL is not an architect from Kansas is he?
Put me down for ‘yes.’ This one’s for all the marbles.
The GOP has been maintaining its hold on power by increasingly undemocratic means. Some are built in, like the Senate and the Electoral College. Others, like gerrymandering and a multiplicity of means of voter suppression, are the GOP’s handiwork. And Trump and his campaign and party are only piling stuff on to that pile, undermining the USPS in an election that’s going to set American records for vote-by-mail, threatening to end the count on election night, no matter how many mail-in ballots remain to be counted, suing states that try to make voting easier, threatening to send in Federal cops to monitor the election and Federal troops to contain the post-election rioting, and generally trying to create a climate of confusion and fear around this election.
This is not the approach of a party that believes it can win by majority rule. It’s the actions of a party that believes it has to find ways of maintaining control while only having minority support.
And they’re right. In an honest election, they’d be lucky to equal the 2016 popular vote outcome, and only lose by 2% of the vote. Young people, however they may feel about the Democratic Party, overwhelmingly want nothing to do with the Republicans. Our nation is moving away from what the GOP has stood for. It’s only going to get worse for them. If Trump is dislodged from power, I can’t see the GOP winning another Presidential election for decades. And Congress too, assuming the Dems pass laws banning the sort of voter suppression and gerrymandering, at least with respect to Congressional elections, that the GOP relies on. At best, the GOP might regain control of the Senate every now and then.
But if Trump holds onto power, the GOP will be able to rig the game far beyond what’s already been done. They’ll be able to maintain their grip on power, despite being in the minority, for a couple of decades probably.
So yeah, whichever side wins this election wins a lot more than just this one election. A second Trump inaugural wouldn’t be the end of democracy forever in the U.S. - no authoritarian hangs onto power forever - but given the demographics of this board, many of us won’t live to see the restoration of American democracy if Trump holds on.
Nope different guy. But the scary thing is that he is otherwise an absolutely brilliant guy. He’s the closest thing I’ve seen to a modern Renaissance man, able to do just about anything he puts his mind to, and do it well. Its just that for some reason he really really hates Liberals. Amazingly he likes me alright, but I do everything I can to avoid getting into political discussions with him. I once made the mistake of dismissing the idea that within 20 years Europe would be governed by Sharia Law. It did not go over well.
Revolt in 2100…
I have been voting since 1960 and yes, it really seems to be the most important election in that time.
Prediction: If Trump wins, he will stop caring about Covid-19. Not his responsibility. In fact the only thinks he will do is start to enrich himself.
So, no change.
Start? You can’t be serious!
I think you mean INCREASE enriching himself.
There is no “secret cabal.” They’re doing it all out in the open. Every chance that they have gotten to hold Trump to the prior expected norms of conduct, they’ve decided to give him a pass. And they have indicated every intent to continue doing so. It’s right there in their public statements.
Oh I know the type, but certainly a different guy.
Besides my former FIL, I have an uncle he would get along with great! Now retired from a major aerospace company, he was the best process engineer I ever met (even before that was a specialty). I copied some of his ideas into my own much less technologically advanced industry and gained huge success from it. In many ways perfectly brilliant – but very limited on his view of the world.
Not being as wise as you are, I was asked to leave a pool party a few years ago when I arrived and my kid was bothering me so I told him to go tell Papa Lorenzo and Uncle Dean that he donated $20 to Jane Fonda and that I matched it. The kid didn’t even get two steps before we were packing our stuff back up and loading everything back into the car. While we were leaving the wives of Lorenzo and Dean were trying to see if they had enough heart pills between them to last the day. Uncle Lorenzo is less interested in Europe than your FIL (but just as sure they are in decline), but he is sure California and New York will be under Sharia Law in his lifetime.
Still, you have to give these guys their credit. They have earned the right to believe whatever they want by their competency (I mean beyond the right every individual has to make their own decisions for themselves).
For those of us who aren’t Americans I believe that the answer to the question is a solid yes. Trump, deliberately or otherwise, has significantly compromised the international system so deliberately constructed after the end of WW II. If everyone else hops on board and regards everything as transactional then nobody will be able to trust anybody else, even if they’re nominally allies.
My daughter is 30, and this is the first election to really get her attention. She voted and she has been urging her friends to vote. Trump scares the crap out of her.