# Trump is not the end of the world. Trump gone is not the dawn of a new age of wonderfulness. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 16, 2018, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450 "2018-09-16T18:01:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450/21 "2018-09-17T03:35:40Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > People are more than capable of doing more than one-thing-at-a-time you know. Some are, indeed. The problems I am hoping people will start to address, primarily in themselves. are not, however, the ones that you mention. I am more concerned with underlying attitudes towards other people, the (apparently) ineluctable separation of humanity into Us and Them. If there is to be enlightenment, let it be there. The rest will follow; and without this enlightenment no other improvements will last for very long or do very much good. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450/22 "2018-09-17T03:42:50Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Some are, indeed. > > The problems I am hoping people will start to address, primarily in themselves. are not, however, the ones that you mention. I am more concerned with underlying attitudes towards other people, the (apparently) ineluctable separation of humanity into Us and Them. …what the fuck has this got to do with Trump? I’m not going to stop fighting people that want to take away the rights of the marginalised. If that means I’m perpetuating the ongoing battle between “us and them” then so be it. I’m not concerned about that at all. Do you want me to stop the fight? > [@](#): > > If there is to be enlightenment, let it be there. What the fuck does this sentence even mean? > [@](#): > > The rest will follow; and without this enlightenment no other improvements will last for very long or do very much good. The rest will follow what? What is “enlightenment?” What are you talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450/23 "2018-09-17T05:00:31Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Some are, indeed. > > The problems I am hoping people will start to address, primarily in themselves. are not, however, the ones that you mention. I am more concerned with underlying attitudes towards other people, the (apparently) ineluctable separation of humanity into Us and Them. If there is to be enlightenment, let it be there. The rest will follow; and without this enlightenment no other improvements will last for very long or do very much good. Before the ultra-right took control of the Republican Party, people from both parties worked together in Washington. The sides disagreed, but we had nothing like what that scumbag McConnell has instituted in trying to block Democrats from having any part in making laws. Back then any Republican marching around near a Johnson or Kennedy speech with a rifle would have been considered a wacko, not the mainstream. And probably would have been arrested. Let’s not pretend that both sides are responsible for this. And there is no enlightenment when one side keeps the shades drawn and watches only the darkness of the ultra-right. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450/24 "2018-09-17T05:07:06Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Trump isn’t the end of the world (probably - there’s still a non-zero chance he might start a nuclear war and literally be the end of the world). But Trump is a major problem. So we should be addressing the problem of Trump being President and doing all we can to fix it. At the very least, let’s try to make sure he’s only a four year problem rather than an eight year problem. > > At best, Trump is doing nothing on problems that we should be addressing. In some cases, Trump is moving us further away from the solution. And Trump is poisoning the well; he’s lowering the standards for what’s acceptable which will make it easier for future incompetents to become President. I wish he were only doing nothing. He is making things worse. So are his climate-change denying friends. North Carolina Republicans passed a law forbidding predictions of sea level rise inconsistent with “historical data.” In other words, you had to ignore climate change. [Unfortunately, not from the Onion.](https://www.sciencealert.com/you-can-t-outlaw-hurricanes-how-north-carolina-turned-its-back-climate-change-bill-hb-819-nc-20-florence) This despite that research centers in North Carolina did excellent work on this subject. If there were any justice, the morons who voted for this bill will get drowned in the rising waters. And Trump and his EPA minions are trying the same thing nationally. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450/25 "2018-09-17T07:08:14Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > He is not the end of the world. But, by setting the bar at that level, neither was Hitler. That sort of statement only helps Trump. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450/26 "2018-09-17T12:09:02Z")
Trump is a symptom that the US is broken, corrupt and irredeemably ignorant. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450/27 "2018-09-17T12:27:51Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Trumps voters will still be here. That is the problem. They will just vote for the next dangerously incompetent, treasonous white nationalist who hoves into their field of vision. +1 If Mueller finds there is a verifiable link between it will be a get out of jail free card for his supporters. Yes it’s as murky as hell and the stink starts from the head, but the Russian interference in 2016 is a bit about Cosy Bear and Fancy Bear getting their jollies and a lot about oligarchs wanting their accounts and assets unfrozen. But the domestic touchstones aren’t affectedand if it brings down Trump the supporter base will probably think “We are on the right direction, just he wasn’t the right guy” and they’ll wait on the arrival of the next plain spoken, populist, nationalist, non-swamp dwelling christian white male to MAGA,A. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450/28 "2018-09-17T12:36:23Z")
Its taken Trump to make George W Bush look good. Who is Trump’s Trump? Anyone you guys can think off who will take over in 2033 and make us miss the Donald? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450/29 "2018-09-17T13:02:04Z")
Yes, Trump will be gone relatively soon, but Trump \*voters \*we will have with us for many decades to come. The problem isn’t 1 person but 60 million and more. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450/30 "2018-09-17T15:43:22Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Trump is a symptom that the US is broken, corrupt and irredeemably ignorant. Donald Trump is a symptom that Donald Trump shouldn’t be President. Saying everything is broken is an idea conservatives want to sell. If they convince people that everyone is guilty, it takes the focus off their guilt. It’s a lie. There’s not a general problem in American politics. We have a specific problem; the modern conservative movement. Get them out of power and you’d see ninety-nine percent of our political problems disappear. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450/31 "2018-09-17T16:49:09Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Donald Trump is a symptom that Donald Trump shouldn’t be President. > > Saying everything is broken is an idea conservatives want to sell. If they convince people that everyone is guilty, it takes the focus off their guilt. > > It’s a lie. There’s not a general problem in American politics. We have a specific problem; the modern conservative movement. Get them out of power and you’d see ninety-nine percent of our political problems disappear. Donald Trump won a primary against several more experienced candidates because republican voters liked his naked racism and how emotionally unhinged he is. Nothing is stopping them from voting for another candidate who is just as bad. The problem is gop voters. In between all the white authoritarians moving to the gop, fifty years of the southern strategy, lead poisoning among older generations and a propaganda echo chamber we now have a huge conservative movement that is morally and intellectually bankrupt, and a major threat to western civilization. All the criticisms the right has against Muslims, moderate and liberal Americans have those same fears and criticisms against the modern right. They are religious extremists. They don’t value democracy. They make excuses for crime and terrorism. They threaten western values. They don’t respect women and minorities, Etc. I predict they will pick someone worse than Trump in 2028. Really a lot of us are just hoping as the silent generation and baby boomers die off, so will the radicalism in American politics. Something like three quarters of the tea party are over 50 years old. So every decade, about 1/3 of the gop base dies off which like it or not is good (it was also good when the Segregation forever generation in the south died off too, just as it was good when the slave holding generation in the south died off). But who knows. Generation X and the millennials may sadly turn out to be just as radicalized. ---
**Author:** ![senoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@senoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senoy)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450/32 "2018-09-17T16:53:30Z")
I think my biggest worry is whether Trump voters will accept him not being there anymore? Is there any doubt that if Trump loses in 2020 that he won’t cry ‘rigged?’ Is there any chance that if he loses, he’ll go off quietly into that good night to ponder imponderables? Is it far more likely that he will use his platform to delegitimize whomever comes next? How will his loyal followers respond? I’m not sure that it will be in a good, positive way that will benefit American institutions. He is the leader of a mob and mobs don’t just disappear when their leader loses. Mobs tend to do nasty horrible things instead. I’m just not sure how his mob will respond and I know with a bit of certainty that he will be encouraging its worst tendencies and not its best. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450/33 "2018-09-17T19:26:50Z")
Sure, but it’s abundantly clear that Trump doesn’t have a plan. Will he get on social media and say all sorts of outlandish things? Yes, yes he will. Will the things he says result in concrete action by his supporters? No, or at least mostly no. The modern conservative movement delivers on one thing: tax cuts for the rich. Everything else is window dressing. Trump has lots of people in the conservative establishment holding their noses and going along to get along, because while Trump can’t be counted on to do anything in particular, he can certainly be counted on to deliver tax cuts for the rich. However, any Republican placeholder can also be counted on to deliver tax cuts for the rich, and those placeholders don’t cause trouble. Trump has a base of supporters, the famous deplorables. He has absolutely no base of supporters in the upper ranks of the conservative movement. Sure, they’ll defend him to the death, as long as he’s still president. The second he stops being president is the second they drop him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-trump-gone-is-not-the-dawn-of-a-new-age-of-wonderfulness/821450.md?page=1)