Trump Victory: American heading towards Fascism? - Financial Times (London) 11/14/2024

[Smitty Jaeger-Manjenson]

You couldn't be more wrong if you tried. This election marks the beginning of the end of trump and MAGA and a start of a return to normality and civility. The people are sick of trump's corrupt, inept, cruel authoritarian regime and have rejected him and republicans with extreme prejudice. Your culture war grievances are largely contrived and greatly overblown to make you afraid and angry while you ignore what matters most to people like the cost of living, healthcare, housing, and decency.

You believe whatever is most comforting to you and live through wishful thinking. The voter base has largely rejected Trump, yes. That does not mean they woke up that morning embracing whatever values the Democrats stand for. The protest vote is a fickle mistress, think back to the ADQ's overnight popularity surge in Quebec and subsequent disappearance as a political force (not sure if you live in Quebec but this is a QC-based forum so it counts as a safe assumption until the contrary). You'd also be wise not to brush aside culture war grievances as you call them, because one of the major factors that propelled Trump back to power was the desire to vote against subversives and saboteurs of American culture and society who found a home among the Democrats (you mentioned decency mattering to people, well decency is under attack from the gender benders and you rarely find those in the red camp, I wonder why). And as long as said issues remain the flavor of the week, it will help the Republicans in the polls. Now if the Dems are smart, they will play the big tent game and aim to appeal to a broader base in order to keep their political gains, as opposed to catering to the aforementioned subversives within their own party. But I rarely accuse the Dems of being smart.

 

[Carmine Falcone]

Or perhaps the blue House and Senate will prove themselves to have all the legislative skill of a box of frogs and out themselves as worthless to the American electorate. Which will catapult a non-dinosaur MAGA candidate like Vance (not pushing 80) into the White House, to the anguished wails of well-intentioned idiots everywhere. Obama was devastated in the midterms during his first term and still went on to win a second term. The MAGA wing will not prove anywhere near as hazardous to the Republican Party in the long run as the DSA will prove to the Democratic Party, the latter will be tantamount to an outbreak of the bubonic plague in the blue camp if allowed to make their intentions known.

You're calling people "well-intentioned idiots" all the while not knowing that Congressional majorities flipping to the other party is pretty much the rule. So based on that reason alone, even absent of whatever Democrats do or fail to do, winning now has already put them on the back foot in a few years. There is one exception this century where the party in charge kept control after midterms: George W Bush in 2002, thanks to 9/11.

We have a lot of stupid people in America and people who don't pay attention but they vote like they do anyway. Trump's loss was self-made, in between the war and tariffs. The blame is accurate this time, but voters vote as if the president is a magician who is supposed to wave a wand to fix problems. High egg prices had nothing to do with the president (Biden). Rather, avian flu reduced number of available hens, which drove up prices due to scarcity. High beef prices have nothing to do with Biden or Trump. There are far less cattle in the US now than in the eighties.

So, if Democrats don't fix economic issues in two years (some matters like tariffs and cutting funding for the war are in their control, but others like high home prices are beyond their ability to quickly bring prices down), they will be voted out anyway.

In closing, yeah some of the DSA folks have extreme ideas, but there hasn't been a DSA person that started a coup that led to the storming of the US Capitol yet. It's rich to be complaining about DSA when regular Republicans aided Trump in a coup. Additionally, the current president said he was gonna be a dictator and didn't walk it back when a conservative personality (Sean Hannity) knew that wasn't a wise thing to say.

 

[Jazzman1218]

You believe whatever is most comforting to you and live through wishful thinking. The voter base has largely rejected Trump, yes. That does not mean they woke up that morning embracing whatever values the Democrats stand for. The protest vote is a fickle mistress, think back to the ADQ's overnight popularity surge in Quebec and subsequent disappearance as a political force (not sure if you live in Quebec but this is a QC-based forum so it counts as a safe assumption until the contrary). You'd also be wise not to brush aside culture war grievances as you call them, because one of the major factors that propelled Trump back to power was the desire to vote against subversives and saboteurs of American culture and society who found a home among the Democrats (you mentioned decency mattering to people, well decency is under attack from the gender benders and you rarely find those in the red camp, I wonder why). And as long as said issues remain the flavor of the week, it will help the Republicans in the polls. Now if the Dems are smart, they will play the big tent game and aim to appeal to a broader base in order to keep their political gains, as opposed to catering to the aforementioned subversives within their own party. But I rarely accuse the Dems of being smart.

You believe whatever is most comforting to you and live through wishful thinking. The voter base has largely rejected Trump, yes. That does not mean they woke up that morning embracing whatever values the Democrats stand for. The protest vote is a fickle mistress, think back to the ADQ's overnight popularity surge in Quebec and subsequent disappearance as a political force (not sure if you live in Quebec but this is a QC-based forum so it counts as a safe assumption until the contrary). You'd also be wise not to brush aside culture war grievances as you call them, because one of the major factors that propelled Trump back to power was the desire to vote against subversives and saboteurs of American culture and society who found a home among the Democrats (you mentioned decency mattering to people, well decency is under attack from the gender benders and you rarely find those in the red camp, I wonder why). And as long as said issues remain the flavor of the week, it will help the Republicans in the polls. Now if the Dems are smart, they will play the big tent game and aim to appeal to a broader base in order to keep their political gains, as opposed to catering to the aforementioned subversives within their own party. But I rarely accuse the Dems of being smart.

Wishful thinking indeed. My fellow citizens have rejected trump, and all that comes with his cruel, corrupt, and inept ways of governing, and the Republican party whose only policies were fewer regulations and tax cuts for the rich and corporations and fuck everyone else. For years republicans and right-wing media have stoked hate and fear of "the other". These aren't your so-called subversives and saboteurs but rather made-up or over-exaggerated bogeymen and cultural differences to frighten people and evoke hate. Is America still deeply divided? Yes. However, I believe the majority of Americans have turned the page from the politics of extreme division and toward a more sane future.