I agree with that much.
And I think a mass rejection of MAGA is quite possible.
Where I disagree is the implied equation of locking up prominent Trumpers with deep rejection of MAGA.
Universal health insurance would be a rejection of MAGA. Bondi in jail is just Bondi in jail.
Are there any Trumpers that don’t support MAGA?
I don’t get what you mean here.
Bondi and Blanche should be disbarred. Then we can look at prison time. That’s easy to understand.
Make it illegal for a person or organization to contribute more than $1,000.00 to a candidate.
Illegal for Supreme Court Justices from receiving any gifts.
As mentioned above, keep the DOJ non political.
Return to the very steep rate of taxing the wealthy before Reagan.
Require candidates to be tested on our system, and publish the results.
I mean reversing MAGA policies, and replacing them with liberal policies, is more practical than punishing individuals. Also wiser.
Both are necessary. There needs to be an incentive for people to not destroy the US.
Bolding mine. Yes, both are necessary. If we walk away from this mess, all it does is give the next wannabe dictator a playbook. They will know what to avoid, and what to try.
Trump was not punnished for his inserection. Look at what we got. He can do pretty much anything.
Ah, mishit the button. Disregard.
Somebody tell me this is wrong. No woman is electable; no person of color is electable; no LGBTQIA+ person is electable. Not in 2028 nor the foreseeable future.
I do not like it, but I am a realist.
Trumpers will figure that the next time they gain power, they’ll make sure it doesn’t slip away. So they are even less likely than normal criminals to be deterred by prison.
Well yes, indeed but of what? La grandeur, l’ éclat, le prix or la merde?
Those very steep upper tax brackets were combined with intricate ways to get around them. One example would be the way capital gains were and still are handled. If you hold your stock for more than a year, the money you make is taxed at a much lower rate. If you’re a day trader, you pay the full amount. It was a way to control how people made their money and get them to do good things with it.
There were other ways to get around the high rates. If you made enough to need them, you could afford the accountants to sort out how to use them.
From an international relations perspective the US has lost a tremendous amount of soft power and influence. And I predict that a future Democrat administration is going to underestimate just how much has been lost and when they can’t get their way fall back on bullying as a tactic. Which will further erode US standing on the world stage and strengthen alliances and agreements between other countries.
Carrying on as if Trump never happened is not a viable strategy and I see no evidence that the Democrats understand this, at least not from this outsiders perspective.
I agree 100%. Democrats don’t seem to understand that some of the damage is permanent.
I don’t see the Democrats bullying too much. They’re going to want to avoid appearing Trump-like. I don’t know if anyone truly appreciates the amount of damage to America’s credibility and soft power.
As a fellow Texan, do you think James Talarico might pull off the trick? I think if he can beat Paxton this fall, he has a shot at being a dark horse candidate in '28.
I think that’s putting the philosopher way ahead of the equine. Let’s see how Talarico does for Senate, and then we’ll talk further.
I have doubts. He comes across as kind of the worst of both worlds for many voters, IMHO. Too bland, white-bread, and calculating for many progressives, and appears as a wolf in sheep’s clothing to the conservatives.
We’ve had this discussion before. I don’t think most Americans can conceive of the US becoming a petty dictatorship. We are already an international pariah. No one is going to help us as we slide into ignominy. These are in no way normal times. Treating them as such is a path to failure.
I’ve said this before, we need to prosecute Trump and everyone who has participated in his criminal conduct. The argument that “We don’t do that in the US” is what got us here. I think the Democratic campaign should consist of promising to take every dime that was obtained illegally from Trump, his family, and every politician who participated in fleecing the country. We should prosecute them as hard as possible for any and all frauds against the US. We have a new weapon that previous administrations didn’t.
previous thread from 2019 NO pardons for Trump and his cronies
That’s not what he said. I’m not fan of Ocasio-Cortez, but the reason she’s not doing well with the moderates/centristts/light-red Rs versus Obama is probably 80-90% her actual stated policy positions, which are pretty far left in American politics.
Put simply, most of the moderates/centristts/light-red Rs aren’t looking for “change”. Maybe they want certain things fixed or implemented, but they don’t think the system needs to be torn down and replaced- by either end of the spectrum. In my experience, they’re typically little-c “don’t fix it if it’s not broken” conservatives combined with a fairly liberal social view of things.
So Ocasio-Cortez is kind of scary to them, because her message is one of pretty radical change and disruption of the status quo. They’re not bothered by the fact that she’s a woman or Hispanic, they’re bothered by stuff she advocates, like abolishing ICE outright, the Green New Deal, or tuition-free college. Not that they’re against reforming immigration law and enforcement, environmental protections and changes, or college tuition changes, but they’re not at the point where they’re on board with abolishing federal agencies, making college totally free, or any of the other stuff.
Maybe nationally, but in Texas, he’s fighting the Republicans on their own turf. He doesn’t give them any ammo to attack him- he is, or was a seminarian, he’s white, he’s male, he’s Texan, he’s not a vegetarian, he’s smart, quick, and funny. Pretty much every time they’ve attacked him, he’s pretty much demolished it without any fanfare.
IMO, the senatorial election is going to come down to how well the Republicans have managed to suppress voters and gerrymander stuff in their own favor. Paxton is NOT well liked, and is only going to get votes because of the R behind his name. Talarico has the disadvantage of having a D after his name, but he’s pretty much everything Paxton is not, including not crooked, not fugly, and hasn’t hitched his wagon to Trump.
Yes, this. I don’t think most Americans understand the extent of this. The rest of the world does not see what is happening as a “Trump” problem. It’s not just one crazy person. He has plenty of support from those around him, including billionaires who think that humans are drinking too much water, and taking it away from their valuable AI infrastructure.
We see that the US voters saw exactly what Trump and cronies were, and said “yes please, let’s have more of that!”
They US will never be the leader of the free world again. That is gone. Treaties, agreements, negotiations - The US can simply never be trusted on the world stage.
Trump’s 2nd election resulted in a curtain being ripped away to show a broken, corrupt, degraded political system. Slapping a “D” on it is not going to fix anything, and the countries of the world are going to back away from the US slowly and consistently.