Realistically... How fucked is the US?
Realistically... How fucked is the US?
(Disclaimer: I voted against Trump and anyone who supported him in my state.)
The US is just as fucked as everything and everyone else, which is 100%
We should remember that most Americans still live in blue states with sane governments. The federal government can't just barge in and do whatever it wants, and if tries to do so, the social contract that binds the nation together is broken and secession becomes a real possibility. But that's unlikely because Trump is far too clueless to know about any of the problems he'll run into if he tries to implement any of his plans.
Which is fine for him because it was always a con anyway. He talks and acts out of his ass. What he will do is anyone's guess, but it'll at least be restrained by what's realistically possible.
And what about the ones, like me, in red states? How fucked are we? (I know the answer and hence drunk and high rn)
Join us in the PNW! We have legal weed!
And what about project 2025. That total teeheee not our plan teeheee thing …
It's actually likely to be better as long as trump waddles on. He's just so god damn bumbling that even with all the cards, he'll find little ways to not get his shit done.
Mind you it won't be enough, and it will be god damn fucking horrific. But decidedly less smooth while Narcissism Jones keeps grabby-handsing the wheel from his handlers and derailing his own goals.
He seems to lack competence in many ways, but some of the guys around him are a whole lot more conniving and potentially effective.
It's also not likely Trump feels any urge to hire a somewhat moderate(ish) cabinet of professionalls like he did last time. I assume he learned his lesson given that they all eventually turned on him.
So let's see. I think he's spent the past 4 years surrounding himself with some bad hombres, to borrow a saying, and now he's ready to act with fewer guardrails.
It depends...
Do you think Jimmy Carter has seen the season 4 finale of Breaking Bad?
Trump was pretty ineffective in his first term, largely because he did a terrible job of supporting people who really agreed with his agenda, and an even worse job of removing people from influential positions who didn't.
He said during his campaign that he knew much better who to trust, but now he's got Elon Musk and RFK Jr. prominently featured. I don't think he has learned anything, and I think he will be just as ineffective this time.
It's possible that some of the Republicans in Congress will support more of his agenda, but even there if they have to overcome the filibuster, I don't think mass deportation, a federal abortion ban, or most of the rest of the potential worst of it is in the cards.
anywhere from not really, to literally world war 3.
trump is a loose cannon.
We do not win here.
depends on how much of his immunity he chooses to exercise. also be intrtesting to see how many of the new repuglicans fall into line with his shit policy
Honestly who knows, it's literally on the whims of the giant toddler and who he listens to last that afternoon.
I'm more scared of the JD Vance than Trump. He's much worse
I’m worried about this too. It wouldn’t be surprising if Trump dies in the next four years. Vance is not qualified for the job. He’s smarter than Trump though so scheming would be much worse.
7
Weirdly, it depends on how honest Trump is.
If he forgets about everything he talked at any part of the campaign, and just decide to maximize his tranquility during his term, not as bad as if he decides to keep his promises.
Trump has never kept a promise in his life
Then we are good.
Hopefully.
I'm hoping he just focuses on enriching himself. Clearing his convictions and then lining his pockets with more NFTs and corruption. That'll keep him sufficiently occupied to not fuck too much with the lives of everyday people.
The world is fucked. A climate change denier was elected to one of the most influential countries and we're already past mitigating some of the worst effects. There is no coming back.
Probably fine
Well, they want to dismantle a lot of the stuff that protects the middle and working classes. The country will be fine. The people will suffer. Democracy? Judgement is reserved. If he follows through on his idea of a third term without a legitimate amendment to the Constitution then it's very very dead. But we won't know that for years.
We’ll be fine. Yes shit will be fucked up but democracy will not die. We’ll try again in 2028 and thankfully Trump is capped out after this. Maybe midterms will show some shift
trump just barely failed to steal it last time, this time he has the fucking supervillain crackpot team behind him.
If he wants to do it, all he has to do is make the call.
He has the executive, he has the house, he has the senate, he will most likely completely have the supreme court, there is literally nobody to tell him no anymore.
I took this attitude the first time Trump was elected, and boy was I wrong. Not this time. Now, I'm seriously considering what his options might be for eliminating the election in 2028. He needs to clean the military brass of people disloyal to him, which he can easily do as Commander in Chief. Once he's got a loyal military, there's virtually nothing he can't do; and this SCOTUS will let him do anything he wants, so long as it aligns with the view of Evangelical Christians, who have been wanting a theocracy for decades. He can conjure the specter of "Democrat corruption" to justify eliminating any opposition politicians as an official act, completely re-stock the FBI with loyalists to wage any legal battles he needs to make his actions seem legitimate and "official," and arrest any problematic judges under the same "corruption" myth so that he can then replace them with loyalists.
Honestly, we've seen this playbook before in countries that are now dictatorships and Trump has already made it quite clear he wants to be a dictator. There is absolutely no reason to be convinced this will not happen. It might not happen, but there's no reason to think definitely will not.
he doesnt even have to touch the military, just has to certify fraudulent voter slates, that's it.
I hope you're right.
Naive.
Edit: I’m guessing you’re a straight with male with no children or family who are lgbtq.
That's right, bringing race, gender, and other demographic variables into it totally makes your argument stronger. It definitely doesn't expose your own prejudices at all, no siree.
Only part you got right is a straight male.
You are the naive one to think 1 moron can destroy America. Trump can not be a moron and a master manipulator at the same time. The reality is he is too stupid to break anything beyond what can’t be fixed. We will have to rebuild in 2028. Yes there will be hardships but nothing we can’t fix. The only thing he fumbled hard with was the COVID response. So here’s hoping we don’t have another pandemic
Let me put it this way: we will see the true beginning of WW3 in the Baltics. Trump will predictably not act upon that and the response will be 100% up to Europe itself.
That response better be an armed one, and quick too, or we all better start practicing cyrillic here in W-europe.
Regardless if we are lucky, "only" tens of thousands will die. More likely it will be millions.
So yeah, Trump kinda bedazzled us there, no way around it. Won't be until the people who voted him in will start hurting personally that they'll finally realize they've been conned. But too little too late.
Won't be until the people who voted him in will start hurting personally that they'll finally realize they've been conned. But too little too late.
Cute that you think they won't just blame Mexicans when they do start hurting.
As long as they have a group to scapegoat
Oh he'd act. He'd assist Russia and be the other Axis power.
Germany's fatal mistake in WW2 was not being America instead.
Who, exactly, is to take its place along with the British Empire and USSR in holding back fascism?
Glad you asked.
We must come to the realization that America is deeply racist and sexist, incapable of electing a Black, Asian woman to its highest office because of our culture’s innate, widespread, and unreconciled bias and hatred.
If that's true, then why on earth would the DNC do everything in their power to ensure that was the only "choice" available to voters? Do they like losing?
Lol, "the fault is not hers"
Objectively, the standards applied to the two candidates is wildly different, I'm not sure why we blame anyone other than voters, at this point.
Before, his power was checked by legislature....but now GOP has full control over the gov, and the supreme Court has 5 members nominated by Trump, soon to be 7.
Hand maidens tale seems possible. Destruction of the middle class through tariffs, union busting, tear down of heath coverage, teardown public schools, force colleges to abandon certain studies or no federal money....
Add in non stop fossil fuel promotion with drill baby drill attitudes, tear down NOAA and the nhc because strong hurricane news reinforces climate change.
I guarantee in 4 years Trump will try to name a successor instead of holding an election.
Add in non stop fossil fuel promotion with drill baby drill attitudes
Do you remember a few years ago when the orange idiot hugged a piece of coal and called it "beautiful clean coal"? Ugh, what a dip shit.
I guarantee in 4 years Trump will try to name a successor instead of holding an election.
And it'll certainly be one of his moronic children.
I guarantee in 4 years Trump will try to name a successor instead of holding an election.
No. He will not name a successor, he will remain president. Either he will eliminate elections or he will do like his idol, Putin. Arrest and murder anyone who dares oppose him.
He is an extreme narcissist and egotist. Like extreme extreme. He cannot see a future where he's not on the throne.
Goddamnitalltohell. I forgot we're going to have to subscribe to private disaster warning systems. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Perfectly describes everything they want to do.
in 4 years Trump will try to name a successor
That would require the narcissist to not think he's still young and vibrant and will never die. He will go the same way his father did, being manipulated by the worst around him as he drifts into dementia. He will be propped up as a puppet as Reagan was.
Here's a horrifying thought: JD's Silicon Valley puppetmasters wait until Trump has served just over 2 years into his term, then invoke the 25th and install JD. In the meantime, the MAGA types work the system to ensure they can guarantee a Vance victory through whatever means necessary for the next 2 cycles (since his first abbreviated session won't count as an official term), or a total of 10 years, before most Americans even realize we have sleepwalked into a Vance dictatorship funded by and primarily benefiting oligarchs like Musk and Thiel
He will go the same way his father did, being manipulated by the worst around him as he drifts into dementia. He will be propped up as a puppet as Reagan was.
I'm quite sure that this is already the case.
tear down NOAA
Fuuuccckkkk.... Add to the list of things I forgot... The AccuWeather guy is about to become even more wealthy....
The billionaire class are the only winners of this election, but then again when aren't they the winner? Money is literally power.
Trump had a Republican majority in the House and Senate when he entered office in 2017. They were incompetent, and it took them a while to get anything done.
They didn't have a Project 2025 game plan going in like they do now.
Yeah but he probably thought he was going to have 8 years in a row. Now he has bigger ass-kissers.
Wanna bet he'll put up one of his kids (hell perhaps even Barron?) and bend the whole sycophantic side of the GOP into endlesdly propping them up?
In 4 years, you may simply get Trump III. I want to say this notion seems absurd, except that it absolutely isn't.
Pretty fucked, but not as fucked as Ukraine, Palestine, Lebanon, or Taiwan.
NATO will be fucked for a while if the US withdraws, but other NATO countries may ramp up military spending over time.
This situation is a worldwide danger. The US is/was a world power, it has/had the largest national economy in the world, it has the largest military in the world.
Previously, we could be concerned that democratic countries (including the US) weren't putting enough pressure on authoritarian countries (like Russia, China, and North Korea) to improve. Now we have to worry that the US will actually become a fully authoritarian country, like Russia or China.
On the bright side... the rest of the world is realizing that being reliant on one country for military power and maintaining stability was a terrible idea. The UN and NATO only have power if the countries are willing to enforce those decisions, and if the US doesn't, there isn't really a comparable backup option. The US military was always the elephant in the room keeping things generally less extreme just by its existence and not reacting impulsively.
If NATO fades into oblivion, that would be a great opportunity for European countries to make a news defense organization where a single country like Hungary or Turkey can’t play their political games.
Technically the EU already is an defence organisation (Lisbon accords), even with a stronger mutual assistance clause than NATO. What is different is that there is no integrated command structure. But that is currently rapidly changing, Germany and the Netherlands already are fully integrated (more than NATO standards are), the Baltics are making great progress.
There is at least a chance
I expect that the EU is going to have to claim defence competencies to continue the Union's defense. There are way too many small countries in NATO that can't contribute meaningfully to a military beyond some basic battalions and the EU needs something more robust than France and Poland.
I have spent all day crying and drafting escape plans since my life is now in extreme danger. I'm a Latina immigrant, trans, and drag-adjacent performer
If push comes to shove, I sincerely invite you to look at Mexico as an alternative as a trans Latina. Sure, your life won't be a luxury, but you'll be happy and free. You'd be surprised at how well we're doing now, how accepting the Mexican population is regarding important LGBT+ issues and what a bright future we have ahead of us.
Good luck and I wish you the safest journey to somewhere safe as possible.
If you’re in a blue state you will be much safer. If you’re not, see if you can relocate to one even if that means you sleep on someone’s couch for a while. I wish you the best.
Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine are desperate for people to move there... And the Canadian border is right there just in case
keep in mind this opinion also promises that it can't be fixed, as the more blue voters that leave the red leaning states the more power those red leaning states have. Moving to a blue leaning state only removes the blue votes from the red leaning state in favor of increasing the power of an already blue state.
Of course if he somehow manages to find a way to do away with the election process this would be true, but currently the best bet overall is going to be stay in your state, honestly if you can lower solid blue districts in favor of saturating red districts that's the best option but that's a difficult task.
Our system does not operate under popular vote. It runs off the electoral college, its the main reason red states want to gerrymander the district lines to make all black areas be their own district, its less damage if every opponent is in the same district as it allows only one district to be in opposition instead of multiple.
I hate that i'm saying this, but Canada or somewhere in the EU are probably your best bets. If Project 2025 goes according to plan we're going to see a great upheaval come Q1 2025 that probably clusterfucks everything.
Long term with christian school mandates via defunding education and funding vouchers will further create a hostile nation for anyone who does not conform to a heterosexual white nationalist christian identity.
I wish you luck and safety.
What does your escape plan look like?
Edit: lmao people LARPing
Maybe not a great idea for some individuals to advertise their escape plans in open channels online?
Honestly, the internet doesn't feel "safe" anymore, in general. I've already stopped myself saying certain things a few times in the last 24 hours.
"Great Firewall of China" style internet incoming.
Put on your pirate hat and get while the gettings good. Sneakernets makin a comeback.
We're going to have a great 4 years. The first 2 will be amazing if we actually get a super majority.
The first year will be him living off Bidens reduction of inflation. EVERY policy Trump has discussed increases prices. So we will have hyper inflation.
Name One policy he has discussed that will cut costs in his 4 years please.
Extremely, tarrifs will erase the middle class. All regulations will be repealed allowing even more corporate power and influence. We're about to experience the Gilded Age on crack mixed with the burning hells of our mother Earth scorned.
They're done with the middle class here. They don't want to raise the poverty level worldwide, they want to bring us down to match the rest of the world. It's strip-mining time, we're too expensive for the international rich's tastes.
Time to stock up on the automatic rifles they want us all to have so much, and learn carpentry to build some guillotines.
Maybe the French will help us again, they've got some experience with this.
Tariffs will not only erase the middle class but also erase our topsoil like it's 1924 all over again if farmers aren't subsidized and everything is left to go fallow. In terms of dollars we're pretty even in terms of agricultural imports and exports, but in terms of acreage... We push a shitload of soy, corn, and wheat. We're more than a little fucked in lots of ways if we're hit with retaliatory tariffs, but the biggest one is if farmers don't have any reason to plant crops and don't have any money to do it, we're doomed for dustbowl days.
Don't even get me started on water, fluoride is one thing but if they start removing a lot of other stuff like phosphate and permanganate the entire country's municipal water supply will be as bad as Flint MI.
I'm hoping Trump doesn't pull off 95% of the stuff he talked about due to unbridled incompetence because if he still manages to pull off 80% of it we're gonna be fucked
No they'll keep things like the farm subsidies, may even expand them. The tariffs will leave those out. That's the socialism their base is 100% reliant on. They won't risk turning on the rural farmers until the end when it they're not a threat. They've already shown a complete willingness to ignore absolutely everything else until this point.
100% fucked, the USA is now going to join WW3 on the side of the bad guys and get rid of vaccines and the EPA and ACA and so many other things
the USA is now going to join WW3 on the side of the bad guys
What do you mean "join"?
The evil empire that militarily supports dictators across the global south to prevent economic development and keep cheap labor and resources flowing out are the bad guys, this hasn't and will not change short of a revolution or the empire's control collapsing.
The truth is it's unlikely anything historically big is going to happen in the US. We saw what Trump did last time he was in office, and it was really bad, but it was recoverable. The fear isn't that it's likely, but that it's far from a non-zero chance, and there's very little we can do about it. That uncertainty is scary when we've had a relatively good time in recent decades.
Will we see a sudden shift toward a state where you can get jailed or murdered for being a dissident? Maybe, but probably not.
Will we see an escalation of the wars involving Israel, such that we see a WWIII and/or the first nuclear strike since WWII? Maybe, but probably not.
Will we see economic collapse causing widespread hunger and homelessness that we haven't seen since the Great Depression? Maybe, but probably not.
The only thing that's really a guarantee is that we're another four years away from dealing with climate change, and while that's massive for humanity down the line, individuals currently living in the US are probably going to be mostly fine. Not to say nobody will be affected - hurricanes, floods, fires, and so on - but it won't cause catastrophic failure of society in the near future.
Finally a level-headed take. The world isn't ending overnight, it'll just get shittier
We saw what Trump did last time he was in office, and it was really bad, but it was recoverable.
Except putting people in cages at the border and separating children from families. Many families still have not been reunited.
Except the million people that died from Covid-19 due to the government putting the economy over human lives.
Except the stuffing of judicial positions, including the supreme court, that same court that basically made him a king and free from any consequences from all the laws he broke.
Except for our air, land, food and water becoming more toxic and polluted due to Trump's rollback of EPA protections.
Except all the pregnant women who are dying or forced to carry their rapist's baby due to that packed court overturning roe v wade.
Except the people of color who rebelled and rioted during the george floyd protests but then the government showed up in unmarked vans and took people away, while the police shot more innocent people and busted heads, and almost nothing changed for the better regarding police violence.
Except the trans people who are now illegal in the state of Florida for having a driver's license that matches their gender identity, or the bounty on trans people in a town in Texas, or the governor of Texas trying to get lists of trans people to hunt down and prosecute. Or insurance companies refusing to cover trans-related healthcare. Or trans people being shunned by their peers and excluded from sports. Or the violence against LGBTQ people that's doubled in the last year. All enabled and emboldened by Trump and Trumpism.
I haven't recovered from any of this shit.
With or without Trump, the new normal is fascism in America. Every american needs to fight every bad policy, every bad law, every bad decision, every threat -- every day -- until there are no more fascists in power.
Let me be clear here. If we have a global nuclear war, that's not recoverable, because every human on earth will be dead. If we enter a fascist dictatorship with today's technology, that may not be recoverable, because we may see the permanent end of anything resembling a democracy.
I'm not saying there weren't horrific atrocities committed during Trump's reign. What I'm saying is that so far, there's a chance future generations can live better lives.
Counterpoint (and please, I am literally begging you to talk me off this cliff): Trump didn't know anything about being President the first time. I believe that he thought Presidents could do whatever they wanted. The team he had around him, while you can call them assholes and pieces of shit and every other name in the book, understood how the government and the Presidency worked and were able to reign him in.
All of those people are now gone and he will be surrounded by purely yes-men. He will promote the Generals who will be loyal to him, not the country or the Constitution. Couple that with the newfound Presidential immunity, and Trump has all but free reign to do whatever he wants. He will also appoint judges, like Aileen Cannon, who are loyal to him. Those judges, thanks to the Supreme Court overturning the Chevron deference, will now be the "experts" instead of federal agencies.
I do agree that there probably won't be a sudden shift, but there will be a shift and we will feel it in almost every aspect of our life. He supposedly promised to put RFK Jr in charge of numerous health agencies and campaigned on getting rid of the Department of Education. And I very much recall at least two instances where he said this is the last election you'll have to vote in. Is he going to find/create a way to suspend the 2028 election and stay in power? Who's going to stop him?
It is worse.
Trump started with either incompetent yes men who didn't know how to govern or competent yes men who tried controlling the damage that the President caused.
You now have a group of coordinated people who see Trump as willing to agree with whatever as long as he looks good enough.
On top of what you just mentioned, rather than Trump surrounding himself with incompetent toadies and yes-men, I think a lot of smarter, more powerful, and more dangerous people have taken the last 4 years to worm their way into his ranks.
He's established himself as a useful idiot. During his first 4 years we saw the idiot part glaringly. It was scary and embarrassing, but we scraped by and experienced a few years of relatively boring politics. My big worry is that we'll see the useful part exploited much more effectively this time around.
And I very much recall at least two instances where he said this is the last election you’ll have to vote in. Is he going to find/create a way to suspend the 2028 election and stay in power? Who’s going to stop him?
That's why I said it's possible, I just don't think it's probable. People are loyal to Trump until they're not. Nobody's loyal to him because they like him or they think he's a good guy, or because they think he'll bring the country prosperity. They're loyal because they think they can get something out of it. Most people aren't in a position where they're willing to give up literally everything to help this particular asshole become a dictator. Those that are are typically incompetent - see anything and everything related to stealing the 2020 election. They tried a LOT of things, but nothing came even close to working.
So they'll try again, and I don't think anybody's doubting that. And I don't think our institutions are particularly strong, but they're probably strong enough to stop that kind of incompetence from leading to a dictatorship.
I can't leave.
I have a child with an abusive, vindictive ex-spouse. Regardless of me having sole custody, I would still need to get both the court's permission and his permission just to move out of state, so god knows I will not be able to get out of the country.
I'm at a loss. I will not leave without my kid.
The US? pretty fucking fucked. The World, so fucked it has no idea how truly fucking fucked it is yet.
Let’s be real we are fucked no matter who the president is. With or without him the world is headed down the toilet.
Remember all thay resistance he faced in 2016? Gone. That shit takes decades to build up and was out of steam four years ago.
After that I have no idea.
Pretty fucked. I'm already weighing my options here now that this has happened. My gf is a Brazilian here on a education visa, will Trump deport her? Maybe. If she goes back to see family during the summer will she be allowed back in? I don't have much faith she will be. My cousin is trans and in a red state now, he's very much at risk. My other cousin is queer and also at risk. If my dad wasn't already dead his disability money will have dried up, not to mention his medications and treatments would've been unaffordable more than they already were. Thank fuck I don't have or want kids so they don't have to grow up in this shit hole of a country, if there's even a livable planet left with Trump deregulating and adding to the climate crisis.
We're about to be bent over the table with no lube
With AMOC collapse underway, the entire planet is fucked. Hope this helps
On a scale from 1 to 10 its about 12 now.
BTW, 90 seconds to midnight!!!!!! Hell yeaaaaah!
*the world
Is that a JoJo's Reference?
Y'all realize there are three branches of US government right?
Trump commands only one. And he isn't an actual monarch or dictator. He won't be allowed to over step too much.
Either he's going to be rained in or section four of the 25th amendment will be instituted.
Republicans have majority in senate. Conservatives control 2/3 branches and are coming for the house
Y'all realize there are three branches of US government right?
yes
Trump commands only one.
for now.
And he isn't an actual monarch or dictator.
not yet.
He won't be allowed to over step too much.
like last time?
Either he's going to be rained in or section four of the 25th amendment will be instituted.
by whom? the magat controlled senate? maybe the magat controlled congress? oh no, it would have to be the magat controlled Supreme Court! maybe the magat controlled justice department? shit... well we can always count on Jack Smith... he's getting fired, you say? out of a cannon, you say?
well, when shit really hits the fan, I guess we can just ask NATO or the EU for help....
The other branches are now controlled by the same far right groups who largely fall in line with what Trump (or his masters) demand. There are no checks and balances now. Congress will propose and pass any legislation he wants and the supreme court will find no fault with the legislation. The public does not have to go along with anything. They have now given full control to the far right who is in lock step with their plan to dismantle the US government and rebuild it to suit their own whims. The guardrails are gone, there is no protection now.
most problems are state level problems, so generally unaffected, but any interstate, constitutional amd international problem is up in the air
Nothing will happen. We'll all get up in the morning, maybe eat some breakfast, go to work, come home, play with the kids, eat some dinner, may shag your wife/husband, go to bed. Repeat. I can't wait for four years to fly and be just as boring as the last four years.
surprise pregnancy, wife suffers from complications, isn't allowed to abort, dies painfully
surprise pregnancy
or rape. even incest. better not live in a red state if you have ovaries.
That could have happened in specific states anytime in the last 2.5 years. That's not specific to the next four years.
Oh, my sweet sweet summer child...
Actually, maybe that's what life will be like for a white, upper middle class, cisgender-heterosexual married male in his late 30s-40s, but for anyone who isn't that... oh boy are we fucked.
Well, I guess you better hurry up and become those things.
Someone joke bet $500 Michigan will be blue with a +4% lead so I think I'll joke bet $500 it will just be a repeat of 2016-2020 except 1.5x worse and then by next election maybe the DNC will learn to run a normal primary again and promote a popular candidate who actually promises to meet constituents' demands instead of ignoring them.
Also someone on this community asked what everyone would do if Trump won and I said I'd probably make a collage of a years worth of my comments telling people ignoring genocide would cost Democrats the election.
So I guess I might go do that now and say "I told you so" to everyone who told me I was wrong.
I wrote that Biden dropping out of the race would be a big mistake. My "I told you so" is worth about as much as yours.
I hate that this is true, just for 2 reasons: he is male and white
The ONLY thing I know for certain after this clusterfuck is that Biden would have lost by even more.
Him dropping out wasn't his biggest mistake. Him choosing to drop out months after the primary process was his biggest downfall. He basically fucked the democratic party because he couldn't swallow his ego and drop out when it was clear his popularity among the country was dwindling even in the party itself. Every advisor he had said "hey you likely shouldn't run again" but he stayed, Hell fucking Obama even told him "yo you aren't going to win this". His stubbornness to run for a second term is what killed the chances of a democratic win here.
additional note: I don't blame him though, like I could not imagine working my entire life up to that moment, and then having to say "I wasn't the change I wanted to be I need to let someone else take the reins", it must have been such a blow to his self confidence. The fact that he dropped out at all was a show of strength. I don't think him dropping out at the point he was in changed the outcome overall, the damage in my eyes was done as soon as he decided to continue with the primaries knowing he was losing support
I'm fairly certain Biden would have done the same if not worse considering his lower popularity that resulted in Democrats switching to Harris.
Had they planned this out and done a primary, there'd probably be a new candidate who would have done better and possibly won.
Of course that would involve letting people decide their candidate which is a big no no and too expensive to rig and risk losing anyway just like Hillary's campaign.
Realistically... what do you expect to be radically different this time in comparison to the four years Trump has already been president?
Last time, I don't think Trump was expecting to win. He ended up needing to scrape together a cabinet, and a bunch of those officials were old-school Republicans who chafed at all the crazy stuff he wanted to do.
This time, the Heritage Foundation is preparing him, and the new Senate will rubber-stamp all his appointments. He will pick people who intend to "dismantle the administrative state". Grover Norquist famously wanted to make Government so small he could drown it in fhe bathtub. He might get his wish.
100% his plan the first time was to lose, talk a lot of shit and complain. Sell a bunch of merchandise and try it again over and over, grifting millions from idiots.
You can see it immediately when he wins. Both his and Melania's expressions when they get the news show that winning wasn't the plan. It's also why he immediately started talking about fraud. He didn't have any prepared talking points for winning, they were all based on losing and using that to power his next scams.
They're organized, have begun implementing the government takeover that they've worked towards since Reagan, and he's officially been given immunity for anything he wants to do by the Supreme Court before entering office.
All of these plans have nothing to do with Trump, they've been being laid since Reagan and Nixon. Trump just stumbled on them, openly exposing them to the world because he's such an extreme narcissist he MUST brag about anything he even thinks gives him power. We stopped it the first time, and had a chance to correct, but enough of the population has been drinking the Republican propaganda Kool-aid through Fix News since it's inception. Fox News was started explicitly as a response to Nixon's impeachment to provide an open partisan propaganda network for the Republican party. Nixon was going to be just fine until the media started educating the electorate, who demanded something be done. Congress was completely fine with Watergate until that point.
We never recovered from the first time
Project 2025. Complete control of all branches of government. A Supreme Court that says he can do whatever he wants. I'm sorry to be pessimistic, but we're absolutely fucked.
I'm not as doomer as everyone else for the short term. It's the long term I'm worried about. He might get 2 more scotus members, and he's going to do everything in his power to undercut any attempt to tackle climate change. And that includes his scotus picks who will almost certainly declare any needed attention to address climate change as unconstitutional.
RIP Elana and Sonia
Trump doesn’t actually think he’d be president the first time and never planned for it. They’ve had since then to prepare this time.
There are less adults/competent/people with any morals in the room now. Swap John Kelly and some of the slightly more upstanding members of his inner circle for RFK Jr and some of the worst of the worst
Project 2025. They exposed their plan and now thry will implement it, and nithing can stop them.
Not much will change, this guy has been president before, he spend more time on the golf course then in the oval office.
I expect lots of embarrassing speeches and truths/tweets, but other then that the purple party autocrats will be running the country like they always do.
They have project 2025 now with hundreds of people ready to jump into government and make it happen
When he won before, he was outside the Republican party establishment and just put his own unprepared cronies in charge.
He's also not going to even try to do half the things he said because he's a pathological liar
He doesn't have to. He doesn't have to do much. Though since he now has unfettered opportunity, I think he will. The groundwork is laid for theocrats to run everything down to the dark confines of the womb.
Last time he was in office housing assistance programs were gutted so that will most likely change
Right now, this is what I am telling myself. Let's just hope he is only as bad as he was the first go around, and not as bad as he has been claiming he will be on the campaign trail. He is the lyingest sack of shit to ever hold office. Let's cross our fingers he was lying about most of the shit he promised his cult.
The headline in this comment is the 29 downvotes.
This is why I like you, Lemmy.
Yes, there's an awful lot of hysteria about Trump, when in reality he's just a shit president.
There is some panicking prompted by the horrible things he's promised to do but probably can't, but:
-He got Roe v. Wade overturned, stripping rights from Americans while also being responsible for a 3% increase in infant mortality in the US, the first significant increase in decades
-about as many people died of COVID as voted for Jill Stein, and while Trump isn't responsible for all their deaths he significantly worsened the problem.
So I'd say beyond shit
yeah, they are just being hysterical, it is not as if he publicly encouraged and condoned terrorism, right, comrade?
