Yeah the main problem I have is, with the DNC and the 2024 election. While I actually thought Harris was a pretty good candidate, Biden clearly did not (I even suspect he may have chosen her as VP for that reason). Biden should have put his ego aside, and gone into his term with the assumption he was a one term president and chosen a VP he wanted as a chosen successor, who he thought has the best chance of beating Trump.
Anything?
I don’t know. Acknowledge there was a problem?
Not pretending everything was fine while the whole country suddenly couldn’t afford groceries.
You’re right, the DNC should have acknowledged that there was a problem, and done something, anything, besides pretend everything was fine.
And then they should have communicated effectively about their efforts so Donny couldn’t campaign on a platform built on cheaper groceries. You know? Like a real politician would?
Moderating:
This thread is about the problems and defects of Donald Trump. You are wildly off topic with discussion about Biden’s perceived failings, the DNC, yet again riding your hobby horse about Merrick Garland and quantitative easing.
Drop these sidetrack lines of discussion in this thread immediately. You can start a new thread if you like, in case all those that went before have not sufficed. Raise any of the aforementioned again and risk a thread ban.
Getting back on track: One huge problem with Trump is that the guy himself doesn’t even know what he wants. This is why, for instance, he is always so persuaded by the last person who speaks to him. To paraphrase a quote, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”
Again, that’s a valid argument if the DNC was running against Mitt Romney, John McCain, or one of the Bushes. ANY candidate has to be better than Donald Trump.
The problem is that partisan politics has divided people to the point where they believe a vote for the opposing party is a vote for Hitler and anyone who questions their vote is calling them a Nazi.
My friend who I mentioned has the same rant where “they’re sick of being judged and called Nazis so made the rational decision to vote for DT”. I know them personally and they aren’t Nazis. But they voted for the candidate that real Nazis and other white supremacists vote for who seems to be following the same propaganda and political playbook from 1930s Germany so his party can implement policies that marginalize women, minorities, the LGBQT community and who has implemented policies enabling balaclava-clad goons to engage in what might be considered “ethnic cleansing”.
Moderating:
Please regard the mod note two posts above. Do not respond to a poster who has been admonished to stop hijacking a thread. Thanks.
What he wants is to be “winning” at any given point and be lauded and applauded and admired for it.
Got it
Runner up for second worse. I will give the first spot to Kim Jong un. I mean, please. Trump hasn’t killed millions. Yet.
Next of course is another of T’s friend Vlad. Vlad has a brain though. So i don’t know how that factors in.
No, It’s simply “I can’t vote for a Democrat, what horror!”
Ha, before we moved away from the mountains. We invited a new ‘neighbor’ over to dinner with some other neighbors we where tight with.
This new neighbor went on and on about how horrible woke was and nobody could get a word in edgewise or offer a different opinion.
The new neighbors left first. Our friends, the other neighbors said “What in the HELL was that!” This person was clearly off her rocker. A MAGA off her rocker. The worst type. Only about 45 years old. But WOW.
WTF? Was all I could offer. I’m guessing they don’t get invited to many dinner parties. Or only once.
She needed help. Most MAGAs do.
Obviously he should have created That would have guaranteed reelection.
Getting back to the original topic.
First of all, Trump is a symptom, not the disease. His personal characteristics make him an eminent figurehead for the Christofascist takeover that seems to be taking place. Those characteristics can be boiled down to a diagnosis of malignant narcissism, which appeals to the basest instincts of his followers. In short, he is the epitome of evil personified. Intellectually lazy (and deteriorating, I don’t think there was ever much intelligence to begin with, but he’s visibly gone worse in the meantime), sadistic, devoid of empathy and opportunistic to the core. His biography as told by Mary Trump gives ample insight into this.
Added to that, the people behind Trump have a solid game plan to override anything but base instincts, which is in part why they are so successful.
For a deep dive into how they operate, I share this link:
Jim Stewartson has some conspirational thinking in his posts, but as a psychiatrist I side with him on this one. There’s a mass brain-hijacking going on worldwide, or at least in the Western world. My neck of the swamp has just had elections after our far right cabinet from 2023 collapsed (more specifically, because Geert Wilders pulled the plug), and it looks like we’re moving towards more sanity, but we’re not out of the woods yet. A particular nasty strain of neofascism has come to the surface in the last couple of months, that currently leads to violent protests and intimidation. It seems like the universal Fascist playbook has been dusted off in a lot of places, and is already being used in the US.
I personally think that Trump is past his prime and he is now basically guarding and feeding the smokescreen that’s been put up to keep us distracted from the fact there’s a massive power grab going on behind the scenes. The real crooks are the oligarchs and Project 2025.
Just my two cents from the other side of the pond.
I think your being optimistic that there a group of competent (if entirely malevolent) “adults in the room” that are behind Trump and have a master plan as to where we are going as a country (again even a really terrible one)
There is no master plan. There are just a bunch of incompetent fascist lackeys attempting to enrich themselves, first and foremost, and advance their particular fascist agenda (Steven Miller might seem competent compared to the rest of the fascist lackeys around Trump. But he’s not an evil genius running the show) .
Further out from trump there are the likes of Peter Thiel who are happy with the damage being done to the American government (and to Americans they don’t like). But the idea that Thiel or anyone else is some kind of mastermind carefully moving the pieces like a chess board is nonsense
You’re probably right. Hanlon’s razor strikes again.
They might figure out that they can’t get away with this shit. Then it’s scorched earth, which they are already doing.
Related to this point, the problem is that over the last few decades right-wing media whether through accident or design created all of the makings of a cult just waiting for a cult leader to step in. It made an environment where reality was what they said, and what they said was what you wanted to believe, and anyone who said anything different is a liar and out to destroy you. But by following us unquestioningly you can be the hero who saves the world.
It didn’t fully manifest before Trump because previous Republican politicians self-censored, relying on dog whistles rather then full on racism, and bending the truth rather than shattering it. Following the conventional wisdom that Americans would elect a racist liar. Trump was unburdened by this faulty wisdom because he didn’t so much want to win as he just wanted to make headlines. When it turned out that this was just what the cult was waiting for he jumped into the lead.
He was further assisted by the fact that the mainstream media which was the primary opposition to the right-wing propaganda, viewed objective journalism more as presenting both sides rather than presenting the truth, so they normalized Trump’s activities making him palatable to non-cult members who don’t pay too much attention and just see him as another politician, who you should vote for if you don’t like the status quo.
I donno how anyone could see it as just another politician. Sure many have their head in the sand, but I think it’s because they idolize him, and want to be just like him.
- Lie CONSTANTLY. Gaslight CONSTANTLY
- Be generally a stupid asshole.
- Have others clean up your messes that you make again, and again.
- Cheat on your wife with a porn star
- Fall backasswards into a HUGE pile of money
- Break law, after law after law
- Bully EVERYONE and order them around for no reason
- They want to BE him.
They admire this piece of total shit.
The key is not paying attention.
He lies? Sure all politicians lie. He’s sending troops into Chicago? Well I’m sure he has a good reason. Why are all my flights delayed?
Republicans.