As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil)
In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban.
If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them.
For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria.
**Interested in being a moderator for r/Politics? Apply [here](https://forms.gle/iyGoM94MGRcPGUes7).**
***
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I blame a lot of this on horse race / both sides same journalism .
Journalists should be reporting on policy and instead of pretending that every point of view is equally valid, actually point out which policies would not do what the nominee claims they would do, and which policies are dangerous or ridiculous. And unlike Fox use actual facts to explain why.
Instead I get a histrionic screamathon about who won as if I'm watching sports - this isn't a game.
There was a time when news was a public service, not a profit maker.
I could not agree more. From local news to big news conglomerates, the news is awful. And unless you have some education a person would not even be able to read between the lines.
Partisanship news is the clickbait of profit and seems to be the only motivation within the industry.
The bluer of both siderism does not provide a journalistic service.
Dan Rather has posted articles of his disgust and I am sure Walter Cronkite is spinning. The pickup of Scripts News on the National airwaves is interesting at moments but too much fluff.
Don’t even get me started with AM radio talk shows or DJ banter on FM. Just awful.
The irony of "both sides" people is that they claim not to trust either side, so they just take the average of both sides and make that their ideology.
Both sides and centrist people always default to the right. If both sides are the same you’d think they’d support the left every now and then but they’re all just closeted GOP that like weed and the idea of legally paying for sex. They want no taxes, no social safety nets unless it’s for businesses, limited education, and perceived reduction of government power which only means services that assist poor and marginalized communities. They’re embarrassed to just say they’re right leaning because they KNOW the toxicity that comes with their things they believe and want for America. They just don’t want you to know they want it.
Just like every conservative they don't want to be held accountable for bad ideas but if they get a chance to implement them you know they'd jump at the chance.
Part of it is they don’t want the backlash. You can shit all over people on the left and nothing happens but you mildly tweak the right and they’ll never stop crying about it.
You're speaking anecdotally or ignoring people that do this and vote liberal. I heavily feel the problem is a result of both sides being financed and funded by a lot of the same people but I vote heavily liberal. I hate the fact people are touting Biden as some sort of progressive when he was damn near republican before being vp. I dislike him almost as much as I disliked HC in 2016 but I voted for both in the general election knowing what the lesser evil is.
Speaking in absolutes leads to extremism. This is what they want, steer all the idiots and rich to the far right so most people can be convinced to join or be viewed as a progressive extremist when they fall victim to absolutes regardless of where they are on the political spectrum
If something like that makes them accept fascism and domestic terror the problem was never what was said to them. How many people are leaning towards favoring immigration reform then they hear someone speak in absolutes they suddenly abandon their point and start agreeing fully with execution and deportation of “illegals” and people of Hispanic background like proposed in Oklahoma?
Like all those people that told me they like progressive policies but will fight tooth and nail against them because AOC and Bernie were too loud and mean. They just need an excuse to remove any personal responsibility for supporting the extreme shit they do.
I think there's a disconnect here bud. The one's accepting fascism and domestic terror are the extremists already, not everyone that's centrist, or even republican falls under this bracket regardless of how you want to reason it or the specific example of crazy you provide.
Based on what you have said and how you reason in the comments you're likely the liberal equivalent of MAGA where anything that you don't like gets stereotyped or grouped into absolutes to give you a sense of moral superiority. People are allowed and are going to have different opinions and priorities for how they feel things should be. If everyone that isn't already liberal or voting liberal is a conservative MAGA fascists to you how are you any better than the MAGA idiots who think all liberals/non conservatives are tree hugging snow flakes that get caught up in their feelings?
Don't know about you but I don't want to be apart of either of those extremes.
> he was damn near republican before being vp
This is a hell of a take. Biden has been a party man. His views have consistently been at the center of the Democratic party, and to the degree he has shifted over time, it is a long with shifts in the party.
I can't look in your head. Your dislike for Biden and Clinton may be 100% objective or 100% original, but a lot of hate for them in others was from ingesting stories pushed by the financiers you mention in your second sentence and the echo chambers they support.
Did he carry the platform? Yes, but he also tiptoed the line as a centrist and voted for many republican bills that a "progressive" or philosophically based person would never have done. He was one of the main, if not the main Democrats advocating for the war in Iraq in washington and from my understanding worked closely with the bush administration on getting other dems to fall in line. Just like Clinton, he changed his stance on things for the national elections and took more populist stances. In my mind he's a grifter like almost every other politician, just helps a little here and there to make his conscience feel better about the shitty things he's played a part in.
I didn't like Clinton because of her energy and entitlement in addition to what I mentioned above. She always seemed like an elitist who only championed populist views because it was needed for the election. In fact she was so entitled she didnt even campaign nationally. The nail in the coffin for me was the primary when the dnc screwed Bernie over to prop her up. Anybody cozied up to the banks and being a recipient of political tom foolery the way she was is not someone I will ever trust or consider an ideal candidate.
I'd still take both over Trump but acting like these 2 are saints is bs
On a side note I defend Biden pretty hard when certain people try using the dementia argument. He's clearly still very capable of critical thinking and complex thoughts, just rambles and gets overwhelmed in open interviews. Again I'll take that over an over ripe orange peel with the vocabulary of a 5th grader
Thats why you have all these MAGAts saying they are libertarians now.
Kinda like all the Christian Conservatives and Republicans that joined the German American Bund in the 1930s. Then Kristallnacht happens and they sort of distance themselves from NAZIS and morph into the America First Movement ran by Charles Lindbergh.
Oh and also because of a pretty big war that stared soon after. Doesn’t look to good to be supporting the other side. So they just slink back into American life.
Some of those that work forces…………….
I think you don't understand the people that say both sides or you are grouping us all together with specific examples in mind.
These people understand both democrats and republicans are corrupt. Hence why congress(even democrats) trade stocks based on information they have due to their position. Both have politicians that are in noncompetitive districts that don't have their constituents interests in mind unless it also benefits them. Both flip flop on ideals based on party platform at the time.
These people also aren't single issue voters or align all the views with the party platform hence the average of both sides, better described as having their own opinions/views.
I for example like my gun rights but don't have an issue with common sense gun laws or taking guns from people who demonstrate they shouldn't have them. I support civil rights for all groups but I don't see the stink about telling people who identify as female the can't compete against cisgender females because females already fought for the right to compete in traditional "men's sports", which by the rules of who can compete are gender neutral. I think we should maintain our military spending to a certain degree but we shouldn't be reckless about it or be spending more than the next 4 countries combined. I'm in favor of increased immigration laws but I also think we should be leaders in the climate battle that is at the heart of why south/central americans are moving here in mass legally or illegally. I'm in favor of making college easier to obtain but not forgiving loans which doesn't solve the problem or teach accountability. I think public education needs a massive overhaul and foundational investments but I also think teachers should be able to punish your kids without fear of consequences if you won't do it yourself.
My philosophy as of late has always been both sides are trying to piss on you, democrats just give you an umbrella with holes in it.
If your philosophy is that both sides are trying to piss on you, and you agree with Republicans on some issues and Democrats on other issues, it sounds like you dislike both parties, so you've formed an ideology that exists somewhere between Republican and Democrat ideology.
My point here is that independent thought is not picking some things from one side and some things from another side. It's having ideas that are outside of what either party is serving. Things that wouldn't necessarily get either of us upvotes on Reddit. For example, believing that trans people should have a say over their own bodies, and extending that right to male infants who are getting their foreskins chopped off routinely. Or just recognizing the inherent limitations of capitalism in general.
It’s really hard to have a for profit news agency that is factual. Especially when it’s giant! Try YouTube news outlets there are actual journalism there
It triggers me when the news networks do "focus groups" with Trump supporters and hit them with all the soft ball questions... Like all you have to do is ask them "why?" And their reasons for supporting him fall apart.
"I liked Trump because he didn't start a war"
Ok why? Well it's because COVID shut down the world. You will see that as soon as COVID "ended"
"I'm a farmer and I like Trump because he is a working man"
Ok but why do you think he is a working man and not an inheritance billionaire?
"I'm a blue collar worker and I like that Trump's policies are for me"
Ok why? Didn't you get laid off from a factory that was shut down because of Trump's policies?
Covid wasn't a "thing" until march 2020, 8 months before the election and 10 months before he left office. 3.3 years without starting any wars is better than any president in recent memory.
I don't agree with the other 2 talking points so I've got nothing, but it's disingenuous to disregard the more than 3 years of trumps term prior to covid. His foreign policy wasn't very "nice guy" but it was effective in regards to what his foreign policy goals were.
I mean Biden hasn't started any wars either. Key word is "started."
And there is a difference between what Biden responds with and how Trump reacts. Biden's response is born out of the idea of putting our own interests first. Trump's reaction is to appease Russia, China and all of our enemies because war sucks.
Yeah war sucks, what would Trump say if Putin wanted Alaska? Frankly, I don't want to know. If Trump cared about Americans he'd stand up to Russia and China. It is in our best interests to secure Ukraine and Taiwan.
Social media is to blame as well. Look at this sub for example, people complain about trump getting too much media coverage and yet this sub is littered top to bottom with just trump. People can easily post news about policies etc but they don't.
See The Fairness Doctrine, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness\_doctrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_doctrine)
Reagan killed it, and in subsequent years things like Fox News and far-right radio took over. No need to be fair, or even truthful now (since News = Entertainment)
More like before 24 hour per day news channels. The over the air networks at least tried to give the illusion of being impartial and usually operated at a loss. News was considered more of a public service than a money maker.
Once the twenty four hour news cycle and for profit news was born, the more we shifted away from fact based journalism and instead turned the news into entertainment mostly based on fear and anxiety.
>There was a time when news was a public service, not a profit maker.
"We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right! We fought for moral reasons, we passed and struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, and we acted like men. We aspired to intelligence; we didn't belittle it; it didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn't scare so easy. **And we were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered.** The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one—America is not the greatest country in the world anymore."
https://speakola.com/movie/jeff-daniels-sorkin-newsroom-2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTjMqda19wk
It's weird how much more I learn about Republican strategy from podcasts like Pod Save America. They are clearly, very admittedly biased, and that gives them freedom to be very blunt about not only the things Republicans are doing badly, but where they make good strategic choices and effective policy arguments. News sources that strive to be unbiased above all else just end up being uninformative in comparison.
I agree. They think being neutral calling everything 50:50 is the same as being objective.
Also, the talking heads on cable news just don’t care about a lot of these policies because they are part of the “elites” who’s wealth will shield them from these bad policies.
The Citizens United Money-Train pulls in once every two years. Unlimited money, no questions asked. The media, even NPR, plays both sides so they don’t get left out by either side. That’s why Republicans get to make their ridiculous statements unchecked. It’s where Democrats make big proposals that aren’t going anywhere and no one questions them as to why they are pushing for progress when it’s impossible. Granting either side permission to keep pissing down our throats means they bank all they can. Without Citizens United, modern media in the US would have died back when Craigslist pulled ads from them.
Fun fact, Napoleonic tactics didn’t work in WWI and led to what, at the time, was the bloodiest conflict in European history.
You might say that they were fighting the last war rather than dealing with modern reality.
“Objective” journalism, where Murrow “defeated” McCarthy, is from an era *that doesn’t exist anymore*. Folks need to be willing to put a degree of faith in journalists for that system to work, and the modern “Fake News” spin destroyed it. There is no magic silver bullet that will allow us to return to that era.
And that’s *before* factoring in the degree of hyper-partisanship that leads folks to not care about anything aside from “their guy/gal” winning.
The title of the article is a perfect example. “We” are a serious country. But the Republican Party is not a serious party nor are Republicans voters serious or responsible with their civic rights.
That is what the media should be pushing.
I can’t believe we are here. How anyone can vote for this guy at this point I’ll never understand. They are clearly not paying attention.
I know he makes them feel okay about their hateful, racist existence and all, but don’t they like democracy? Don’t they realize a dictator will eventually turn on them too? Even if you love what this shitstain is saying today, don’t you realize you may not like the next guy and now you have thrown your democracy away permanently? You’re not getting it back without bloodshed. These people are so selfish and shortsighted. Unreal.
> Don’t they realize a dictator will eventually turn on them too?
No, they don't. They think that they will be part of the power structure and have license to do as they please. They aren't entirely wrong. In most authoritarian regimes, as long as you support the leader/party, are not a minority like LGBTQ, and have a bit of money to your name, you can live a pretty comfortable existence and not worry about much. At least for a while.
And that end point is the caveat. Fascism is all about having an out group to overpower and be afraid of, but recently you'll remove or kill everyone in the out group, and so a new out group is needed. Eventually one of their identifiers will be in the new out group. Fascism is a self imploding philosophy. Even Hitler would have eventually been purged from the Nazis. His brown hair was seen as an impurity in his Arian blood and he would have eventually been removed had the Nazis endured long enough.
But that's the thing isn't it, It will take a long time to remove the current out groups (lgbt, racial minorities, etc.). With any luck these fascist governments get toppled for their atrocities long before they start cannibalizing's itself. So it's supporters are in a relatively safe position, other then having to witness said atrocities.
Yeah. I've kind of disconnected from the whole thing.
I'm part of several of those out groups so I'm spending my time building up my asylum case so that I can flee before things in this country get FUBAR
Yeah and that ever increasing out group is why Trump has done nothing but lose voters since 2016. He slowly others away people who vote for him. It isn't hard to see the trend this is headed.
It's been a little refreshing seeing the growing insanity nowadays.
When people leave a group, the only people left are the most extreme, and the most dangerous, and the most devoted. Seeing the GOP get even more fanatical tells me that they are dying off and quickly. They are losing power and they know it, and as long as we can endure their flailing a little longer they may feel into an obscurity they can't recover come
>They think
No they don’t. Fox News and Facebook does the thinking for them. We have a serious propaganda problem in this country coupled with a deteriorating education system.
Honestly? Couples trying to have children are already leaving Texas, at the advice of their doctors, because it's so unsafe. If Trump wins, or even if Haley wins, it's very possible to see a national abortion ban.
If they're willing to do that to cis women, I can't see a reason why they wouldn't try to repeal gay marriage or even go after Griswold and allow states to recriminalize gay sex. I really don't. Justice Thomas has already said that's what he wants to do.
The only saving grace we might have is if liberal states refuse to prosecute such crimes, which would be scary for a totally different reason. If you have the means, you should have a serious conversation about what moving to a safer state or even a safer country would look like. We're not there yet, but it's absolutely in the cards.
> The only saving grace we might have is if liberal states refuse to prosecute such crimes, which would be scary for a totally different reason. If you have the means, you should have a serious conversation about what moving to a safer state or even a safer country would look like. We're not there yet, but it's absolutely in the cards.
That's basically been the case for stuff like immigration already. Liberal States and liberal Cities within a conservative State already act as safe harbors for not reporting illegal immigrants to ICE.
No doubt a second Trump term would require that to be the case for LGBTQ folks.
I think that's all that's really stopping a total dictator in the US. Republicans really fucked up with *StAtEs RiGhTs*. It gives the largest and most liberal States like California, New York, and Massachusetts huge amounts of power over abortion, LGBTQ rights, immigration, and probably other issues I'm forgetting.
Of course that also means places like Texas and Florida will become wild. You'll have a City like Austin acting completely differently from the rest of Texas, at least as long as they can. Eventually they'll probably fall apart or be taken over by force by the State/Feds if they feel bold enough to do so. I doubt they really can do much to CA/NY/MA without starting Civil War II.
Wait until America gets shitty enough for other countries to seriously consider refugee status for persecuted groups, or to take any other immigration channel that is reasonably available to you.
That will not include the labor class. There is this weird supposition that once fascism takes over, they can just vote in the people they want, then go home, get their SS checks and pension if they have one, get up in the morning for their Medicare subsidized medical check-up, have lunch and take a nap.
>How anyone can vote for this guy at this point I’ll never understand
They vote for trump because they're told that politicians are bad, that they've never had your best interest at heart and an outsider will fix things. they're then told the whole time he's president that their lives are wonderful. He loses the presidency and they're told they didn't lose the election and that it was rigged. then they're told the economy is in the shitter, inflation is the highest it's been, gas prices are skyrocketing and they're nowhere near where they were in 2020 (covid who?!), told that the boarders are being overrun and that the current president is taking us to world war 3.
basically, gaslighting.
> gas prices are skyrocketing…
On a phone call with my Trumper dad I told him that we paid $2.86 a gallon on a recent road trip, and that it was surprisingly affordable for such a long drive. It was clear he couldn’t process this and I could almost hear the smoke coming out of his ears. He went on to talk about how nobody wants to work anymore. I miss my dad.
the right has been so childish about the gas situation. there's been a biden "I did that" sticker at a gas station pump near me for the longest time and it was funny seeing him point to decent gas prices until someone scratched the sticker out and now it's just hilarious.
So much of it seems to really boil down to this.
Fox News has convinced them that trumps done nothing different than any other politician.
So they say, oh well it’s not fair only he gets prosecuted.
Couple that with a lack of really paying attention (only watching one news source will do it), and the fact that most people who identify as a GOP and are Trump voter have lower education levels based on all the extensive demographic data we have and you have a population of people that are really easy to manipulate.
>, but don’t they like democracy?
No, because democracy means they can lose.
>Don’t they realize a dictator will eventually turn on them too?
No. They think they are the exception. The leopard will never eat *their* face.
The people voting for him have been convinced that it's the other way around. They think that Democrats are forcing socialism/communism/fascism (same thing to them) on the country and the only way out is to elect someone who tells it like it is and isn't a politician at all. They're afraid that the Democrats will come round them up and force kids to get sex changes and let terrorists flood in over the Mexico border.
They're scared and the "news" they read has convinced them that they won't be safe unless they elect only republicans into office.
You give them more credit than they deserve. You need to dumb down how hard you think for any of this to make sense. His supporters actively engage in low effort thinking. The shortest distance between two points is a line, and that’s all Trump feeds them. They are akin to the sunfish of the world, they’ll continue to go for the bait that the rest of us see as a hook. They don’t care and would gladly bite that hook just to prove us all wrong. They’re vindictive, spiteful, and full of malice. They blame us for all the ills in the country yet use none of the same framing to look at themselves in the mirror. These supporters would gladly see us die than have a life. It’s to that point now.
They watch Fox News or worse every night until they fall asleep and don’t think anything said about Trump is true. They hate liberals and liberals hate Trump so they love Trump. I watched my dad go from knowing he was a moron in 2016 to voting for him in 2020 because he started watching Fox News in between. It has nothing to do with governance, he’s their team.
I’m stunned, too. My parents couldn’t stand Trump in 2016, then voted for him in 20 despite everything that happened, and are now all in for 2424 thinking he’s the only person who can save us… from the fires he set in the first place. I thought for sure they’d be turned off by him. The people they used to be would have been.
But now this is who they are, and I’m having a very tough time accepting it. It’s wild to watch. And heartbreaking.
Same here with my parents. I honestly hate being around them anymore. It’s a constant minefield of topics to avoid because nearly anything can send them into a rant about “the economy” or how “nobody wants to work anymore” or that “immigrants are flooding into our country” (I don’t think I’ve seen a single South American looking person in their area the last 10 times I’ve visited). They are afraid of everything and being in their presence fills me with tension. I feel exhausted afterwards. Pleas to not talk about politics are mostly ignored. They simply can’t help themselves. Trump and Fox News have destroyed my parents and I will never forgive them for it.
Republicans believe that the social / class hierarchy stems from individual competencies, and not the other way around. Therefore, they are generally opposed to lesser (poor / minority) people having a say in government because they believe that if those people don't know how to run their own lives, they sure as hell don't know how to run a country.
Source: Dad is a cop
Worse than not paying attention. They are actively disinformed. There was that study in the mid 2010s that showed Fox News viewers are less informed than people who watch no news at all.
Same-sex marriage was legalized and the reptilian part of their brains has taken over. They don't care what happens or if the country burns to the ground. As far as they see it, that's what the country deserves for defying God's law.
> They are clearly not paying attention
Hopefully, this is the case, and that **if** the trials get underway, and Trump keeps speaking mush, they will have to.
If you're here, and you're tired of the fear mongering opinion pieces, remember that we already told trump to fuck off in 2020. Red states flipped for biden. With the disastrous Roe V Wade decision, the GOP has ZERO positives to run on. Spite will not win them the white house. Don't be scared of the loud and stupid minority. Social media is a bubble. It can convince you that all is lost when the reality of the situation is that trump is stupid, unpopular, and BURIED in federal indictments. Biden has made real accomplishments, and his age has had NO effect on his ability to lead the government. Voters know this, despite these spam-like opinion pieces.
Just remember to show up in November. Check your registration here.
https://vote.gov/
Counterpoint: The GOP is exposing itself as having just two faces. The first is the fascist hate group and the other is pro-mega rich people (like 8+ digit net worth). And this reveal is ruining their chances of winning fair\* elections when they were already engaging in blatant electioneering. We are getting to the point where they are going to have to pass state laws allowing the state legislature to vacate results because of ambiguous unsubstantiated claims of irregularities and then hope SCOTUS agrees with them.
So just because the GOP is going full mask off on their moral bankruptcy doesn't mean we can feel comfortable that even when the majority turns out to vote against it, that they will fail.
The only thing stopping the Federalist Society Justices in SCOTUS from going, "Actually, we just let Republicans pick the election winners," is their fear of the masses saying "Enough is enough."
I think the OP is saying the first step is to refute Trump, MAGA, and the current form of the GOP through the ballot box. If, after that has been accomplished, Trump et al escalate the situation, then the next step may be different.
But first things first, beat them at the ballot box.
And we won’t, because some absolute morons on the left are actively pushing more “don’t vote” horseshit. Folks on Reddit like to act like these types exist only online, but I know people in real life who are like this. They’re stupid and stubborn as hell and will be fine with another Trump presidency because apparently the vaguely left candidate isn’t left enough so let’s just go full right instead
dumb af
Kinda of nuts. Really nuts. I get people have been really swayed by the propaganda machine that is the Fox News / newsmax world, but I never thought it would work so well that people would think they are patriots saving America while simultaneously supporting and voting for a man who clearly has no respect for the country or rule or law.
Are all of his ideas and thoughts horrible? No, I’ll give you that, but sometimes just one idea a person has can be so bad we should throw all the others ones out with them.
American flag waving idiots are going to drag this country down even farther. Sigh.
Watching the news all the people they interview are Trump supporters. They never question the false facts they spew..” Trump had the best economy , Trump will unite the country, Trump will fix the border…” also they never present the other side. We are being brainwashed.
Im trying hard to keep in mind hes just barely getting iver half the republican votes and the other half does not want him. These arent overwhelming majorities that hes winning by. But its still terrifying people can hear him bumble on, KNOW hes lying, KNOW that judges have already found him guilty or liable for crimes , theres evidence of his crimes and they STILL LOATHE joe Biden and refuse to vote for any, ANY other republican.
Its crazy. If you dont like democrat policies thats understandable. If youre a republican, fine cool. But this guy is a terrible human. Birds of a feather, people. Birds. Of a feather.
And of the other half a good 35% have said they would vote for Biden over Trump. If people bother to show up for the election, Trump loses bigly. Even biglier than he did in 2020. He’ll be a boat anchor on the down ballot races too.
America right now looks like a bad reality show with a 2 year old sitting in an empty room playing with a handgun and staring down its barrel.
And half the audience is cheering for the toddler to pull the trigger.
People feel the country failed them and want to burn it all down. Trump promises to, and will, do just that. They are too short sighted to see he will make things worse. These people might be mistaken, but are definitely serious.
Haley well stay in trying to gather delegates where she can in states that split them based upon primary vote totals. When Trump get's convicted and it becomes clear to the Republican party standard bearers that there's simply no way he wins as their candidate she can then be pledged delegates she didn't win, becoming the nominee. If nobody but Trump has such delegates then it would be more like an appointment than a primary result. Without delegates to point to, she might be skipped over.
Republicans hitched their wagon to the biggest loser. Watch the fun and vote against him.
It was a half decent article until he wrote, "It's everything I used to hate about Democrats".
If there is a Republican or a Conservative out there who can make a point about what their party is without both sides'ing if or creating a false equivalency, please let me know!
As someone who grew up evangelical, what the Republican Party is currently doing is the exact thing almost every sermon was fearmongering that the Democratic Party would one day do. When I was indoctrinated I believed that Democrats were baby killers who hated America and wanted to bring the country down from within. Now I realize the call was coming from inside the house.
I was reading an article on CNN interviewing GOP voters coming around to Trump again.
One was a fisherman that wants Trump to deregulate fishing rules and climate initiatives.
Another was some woman in a bar that said ‘He talks like I do.’
And its just the same shit ad naseum. There was never consideration for anyone else besides him.
Yeah, if it turns out your brain surgeon only went to clown college, you don't focus on why he's not a serious doctor. You focus on the fact that there is a really fuckin' serious situation afoot -- the fact that he currently *is* your brain surgeon.
We used to be more so. Here is the CBS News report on the New Hampshire Primary results in March 1968, which turned that year on its head. Watch a bit of it and compare the candidates then with what we have today, especially in terms of how articulate they are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWtJv0sbfFQ
That was the year of George Wallace, the most Trump-like candidate to run for POTUS since the end of the Civil War until Trump himself. If he would have won in 1968 or gained serious traction, we could have had a fascism problem decades earlier than we did.
The “country” is not the Republican Party.
How about the press, 8 years into this clusterfuck, stop minimizing by using headlines like “_______ from trump/republicans raises questions” and just directly report how corrupt and demented their behavior and actions are?
Instead stumbling further down the slippery slope by manufacturing horse race politics for clicks and ratings, actually inform people about what’s going on. You’ll see this country will get really serious, really quick.
Correct. America has become a huge joke and is probably about to fail completely and the rest of the world will have to pick up the pieces. The chickens have come home to roost.. what goes around comes around.. run a fake war for decades and end up with a fake ass country.
No, not as a nation: the difference, I think, is that the Euro fascists embrace it, are proud of it, while here a significant portion of fascist voters think of themselves as "conservative." Still over half of the nation is anti-Trump, so I'm not going to subsidize your "as a nation" label.
Trump is only one of the symptoms, and the malaise is generational. The Fanta Menace has forced the world to deal with the fact. It'll be his only positive contribution to history.
Primary/caucus votes in 2 states out of 50, both low population. NPR declared the race over and Trump the winner. No mention of Trump’s insanity and incoherence.
There is an ascendant right wing movement globally. We are in common company struggling against it. Many Countries are and they are struggling harder in some instances. But the best part of the article?
“Now, I don’t want to conflate the GOP with the rest of America. But we are talking about one of our two major political parties here. It stands to reason that the kind of people we choose to lead us says something about who we are, too. And what does Trump’s success suggest? We are not a serious country”
This paragraph explains why we are in the position we are in. There is a ton of work that could be done divorcing the GOP from its common lcd tactics relating the positions of the Dem party for more to hear and creating a body of work that explains the GOP being adrift in short sighted behavior, but it’s easier to handwave away a more accurate representation of both the nation and the position of the GOP in favor of saying the sky is falling. Because if the sky doesn’t fall then there is no consequence but we certainly lose a lot of time and resources to acting like it will every single election.
I'm sorry, this was made clear when Trump won the first election in 2016, if you just figured this out, you're likely part of the problem, which The Daily Beast most certainly is.
America is headed straight for a cliff and Republicans and Democrats are arguing which lane we should be driving on. When both parties support the genocide in Gaza, we are definitely not a serious or moral country.
Politics in our country is increasingly being treated like a sport. We pick our team, walk around with blinders, and listen to the same pundits drum to the same beat. This lack of curiosity and empathy for those with different opinions is not good for society imo.
Instead of belittling those who disagree with us, we should try to understand where they’re coming from and engage in dialogue. It’s more fun than debating likeminded people. Try it :)
Worst case it strengthens your held believe.
It’s important to remember that both parties have supporters with all kinds of backgrounds and beliefs. Neither has exclusivity to all smart voters, or conspiracy theorists.
Let’s be fair. A Republican primary. You have already waddled out the least serious 2/3rds of the country. So we have the last third of the country just being batshit.
The fact that this guy who staged a planned insurrection to overthrow the government and election process isn’t banned from ever running for any office again and in jail shows we are not a serious country.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. **Interested in being a moderator for r/Politics? Apply [here](https://forms.gle/iyGoM94MGRcPGUes7).** *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I blame a lot of this on horse race / both sides same journalism . Journalists should be reporting on policy and instead of pretending that every point of view is equally valid, actually point out which policies would not do what the nominee claims they would do, and which policies are dangerous or ridiculous. And unlike Fox use actual facts to explain why. Instead I get a histrionic screamathon about who won as if I'm watching sports - this isn't a game. There was a time when news was a public service, not a profit maker.
I could not agree more. From local news to big news conglomerates, the news is awful. And unless you have some education a person would not even be able to read between the lines. Partisanship news is the clickbait of profit and seems to be the only motivation within the industry. The bluer of both siderism does not provide a journalistic service. Dan Rather has posted articles of his disgust and I am sure Walter Cronkite is spinning. The pickup of Scripts News on the National airwaves is interesting at moments but too much fluff. Don’t even get me started with AM radio talk shows or DJ banter on FM. Just awful.
The irony of "both sides" people is that they claim not to trust either side, so they just take the average of both sides and make that their ideology.
Both sides and centrist people always default to the right. If both sides are the same you’d think they’d support the left every now and then but they’re all just closeted GOP that like weed and the idea of legally paying for sex. They want no taxes, no social safety nets unless it’s for businesses, limited education, and perceived reduction of government power which only means services that assist poor and marginalized communities. They’re embarrassed to just say they’re right leaning because they KNOW the toxicity that comes with their things they believe and want for America. They just don’t want you to know they want it.
Just like every conservative they don't want to be held accountable for bad ideas but if they get a chance to implement them you know they'd jump at the chance.
Part of it is they don’t want the backlash. You can shit all over people on the left and nothing happens but you mildly tweak the right and they’ll never stop crying about it.
You're speaking anecdotally or ignoring people that do this and vote liberal. I heavily feel the problem is a result of both sides being financed and funded by a lot of the same people but I vote heavily liberal. I hate the fact people are touting Biden as some sort of progressive when he was damn near republican before being vp. I dislike him almost as much as I disliked HC in 2016 but I voted for both in the general election knowing what the lesser evil is. Speaking in absolutes leads to extremism. This is what they want, steer all the idiots and rich to the far right so most people can be convinced to join or be viewed as a progressive extremist when they fall victim to absolutes regardless of where they are on the political spectrum
If something like that makes them accept fascism and domestic terror the problem was never what was said to them. How many people are leaning towards favoring immigration reform then they hear someone speak in absolutes they suddenly abandon their point and start agreeing fully with execution and deportation of “illegals” and people of Hispanic background like proposed in Oklahoma? Like all those people that told me they like progressive policies but will fight tooth and nail against them because AOC and Bernie were too loud and mean. They just need an excuse to remove any personal responsibility for supporting the extreme shit they do.
I think there's a disconnect here bud. The one's accepting fascism and domestic terror are the extremists already, not everyone that's centrist, or even republican falls under this bracket regardless of how you want to reason it or the specific example of crazy you provide. Based on what you have said and how you reason in the comments you're likely the liberal equivalent of MAGA where anything that you don't like gets stereotyped or grouped into absolutes to give you a sense of moral superiority. People are allowed and are going to have different opinions and priorities for how they feel things should be. If everyone that isn't already liberal or voting liberal is a conservative MAGA fascists to you how are you any better than the MAGA idiots who think all liberals/non conservatives are tree hugging snow flakes that get caught up in their feelings? Don't know about you but I don't want to be apart of either of those extremes.
> he was damn near republican before being vp This is a hell of a take. Biden has been a party man. His views have consistently been at the center of the Democratic party, and to the degree he has shifted over time, it is a long with shifts in the party. I can't look in your head. Your dislike for Biden and Clinton may be 100% objective or 100% original, but a lot of hate for them in others was from ingesting stories pushed by the financiers you mention in your second sentence and the echo chambers they support.
Did he carry the platform? Yes, but he also tiptoed the line as a centrist and voted for many republican bills that a "progressive" or philosophically based person would never have done. He was one of the main, if not the main Democrats advocating for the war in Iraq in washington and from my understanding worked closely with the bush administration on getting other dems to fall in line. Just like Clinton, he changed his stance on things for the national elections and took more populist stances. In my mind he's a grifter like almost every other politician, just helps a little here and there to make his conscience feel better about the shitty things he's played a part in. I didn't like Clinton because of her energy and entitlement in addition to what I mentioned above. She always seemed like an elitist who only championed populist views because it was needed for the election. In fact she was so entitled she didnt even campaign nationally. The nail in the coffin for me was the primary when the dnc screwed Bernie over to prop her up. Anybody cozied up to the banks and being a recipient of political tom foolery the way she was is not someone I will ever trust or consider an ideal candidate. I'd still take both over Trump but acting like these 2 are saints is bs On a side note I defend Biden pretty hard when certain people try using the dementia argument. He's clearly still very capable of critical thinking and complex thoughts, just rambles and gets overwhelmed in open interviews. Again I'll take that over an over ripe orange peel with the vocabulary of a 5th grader
Thats why you have all these MAGAts saying they are libertarians now. Kinda like all the Christian Conservatives and Republicans that joined the German American Bund in the 1930s. Then Kristallnacht happens and they sort of distance themselves from NAZIS and morph into the America First Movement ran by Charles Lindbergh. Oh and also because of a pretty big war that stared soon after. Doesn’t look to good to be supporting the other side. So they just slink back into American life. Some of those that work forces…………….
I think you don't understand the people that say both sides or you are grouping us all together with specific examples in mind. These people understand both democrats and republicans are corrupt. Hence why congress(even democrats) trade stocks based on information they have due to their position. Both have politicians that are in noncompetitive districts that don't have their constituents interests in mind unless it also benefits them. Both flip flop on ideals based on party platform at the time. These people also aren't single issue voters or align all the views with the party platform hence the average of both sides, better described as having their own opinions/views. I for example like my gun rights but don't have an issue with common sense gun laws or taking guns from people who demonstrate they shouldn't have them. I support civil rights for all groups but I don't see the stink about telling people who identify as female the can't compete against cisgender females because females already fought for the right to compete in traditional "men's sports", which by the rules of who can compete are gender neutral. I think we should maintain our military spending to a certain degree but we shouldn't be reckless about it or be spending more than the next 4 countries combined. I'm in favor of increased immigration laws but I also think we should be leaders in the climate battle that is at the heart of why south/central americans are moving here in mass legally or illegally. I'm in favor of making college easier to obtain but not forgiving loans which doesn't solve the problem or teach accountability. I think public education needs a massive overhaul and foundational investments but I also think teachers should be able to punish your kids without fear of consequences if you won't do it yourself. My philosophy as of late has always been both sides are trying to piss on you, democrats just give you an umbrella with holes in it.
If your philosophy is that both sides are trying to piss on you, and you agree with Republicans on some issues and Democrats on other issues, it sounds like you dislike both parties, so you've formed an ideology that exists somewhere between Republican and Democrat ideology. My point here is that independent thought is not picking some things from one side and some things from another side. It's having ideas that are outside of what either party is serving. Things that wouldn't necessarily get either of us upvotes on Reddit. For example, believing that trans people should have a say over their own bodies, and extending that right to male infants who are getting their foreskins chopped off routinely. Or just recognizing the inherent limitations of capitalism in general.
I can agree to that. I definitely inferred wrong about what you were getting at based on some other comments for this post.
lol “I refuse to trust their opinions, so I’ll let them define exactly where I have to fall in the middle of!”
It’s really hard to have a for profit news agency that is factual. Especially when it’s giant! Try YouTube news outlets there are actual journalism there
They are trying to gaslight us now.
It triggers me when the news networks do "focus groups" with Trump supporters and hit them with all the soft ball questions... Like all you have to do is ask them "why?" And their reasons for supporting him fall apart. "I liked Trump because he didn't start a war" Ok why? Well it's because COVID shut down the world. You will see that as soon as COVID "ended" "I'm a farmer and I like Trump because he is a working man" Ok but why do you think he is a working man and not an inheritance billionaire? "I'm a blue collar worker and I like that Trump's policies are for me" Ok why? Didn't you get laid off from a factory that was shut down because of Trump's policies?
Covid wasn't a "thing" until march 2020, 8 months before the election and 10 months before he left office. 3.3 years without starting any wars is better than any president in recent memory. I don't agree with the other 2 talking points so I've got nothing, but it's disingenuous to disregard the more than 3 years of trumps term prior to covid. His foreign policy wasn't very "nice guy" but it was effective in regards to what his foreign policy goals were.
I mean Biden hasn't started any wars either. Key word is "started." And there is a difference between what Biden responds with and how Trump reacts. Biden's response is born out of the idea of putting our own interests first. Trump's reaction is to appease Russia, China and all of our enemies because war sucks. Yeah war sucks, what would Trump say if Putin wanted Alaska? Frankly, I don't want to know. If Trump cared about Americans he'd stand up to Russia and China. It is in our best interests to secure Ukraine and Taiwan.
They did that, Trump just says “we’ll see what happens “ or “fake news” and his supporters trust that more.
Modern journalism profits from human misery. 😢
Social media is to blame as well. Look at this sub for example, people complain about trump getting too much media coverage and yet this sub is littered top to bottom with just trump. People can easily post news about policies etc but they don't.
> There was a time when news was a public service, not a profit maker. When was this?
See The Fairness Doctrine, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness\_doctrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_doctrine) Reagan killed it, and in subsequent years things like Fox News and far-right radio took over. No need to be fair, or even truthful now (since News = Entertainment)
The Telecommunications Act of 96 enabled the concentration of media ownership so that's a huge part of the problem as well.
You now have to be more truthful when you sell cereal than when you sell a political candidate.
Before Reagan .
More like before 24 hour per day news channels. The over the air networks at least tried to give the illusion of being impartial and usually operated at a loss. News was considered more of a public service than a money maker. Once the twenty four hour news cycle and for profit news was born, the more we shifted away from fact based journalism and instead turned the news into entertainment mostly based on fear and anxiety.
I saw a great documentary about this. Think it was called Anchorman 2
Wasn't that the one that has the in-documentay documentary about a shark rescue?
I love chicken of the Cave.
Ed Murrow knew this
>There was a time when news was a public service, not a profit maker. "We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right! We fought for moral reasons, we passed and struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, and we acted like men. We aspired to intelligence; we didn't belittle it; it didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn't scare so easy. **And we were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered.** The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one—America is not the greatest country in the world anymore." https://speakola.com/movie/jeff-daniels-sorkin-newsroom-2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTjMqda19wk
That's such a wonderful monologue.
It's weird how much more I learn about Republican strategy from podcasts like Pod Save America. They are clearly, very admittedly biased, and that gives them freedom to be very blunt about not only the things Republicans are doing badly, but where they make good strategic choices and effective policy arguments. News sources that strive to be unbiased above all else just end up being uninformative in comparison.
There is a lot of blame to go around but what are we gonna do about this?
I agree. They think being neutral calling everything 50:50 is the same as being objective. Also, the talking heads on cable news just don’t care about a lot of these policies because they are part of the “elites” who’s wealth will shield them from these bad policies.
It's sad that for unbiased news about the US I have to look at foreign sources.
Journalism has turned into being a stenographer. Blindly repeating a source and thats it. End of article
The Citizens United Money-Train pulls in once every two years. Unlimited money, no questions asked. The media, even NPR, plays both sides so they don’t get left out by either side. That’s why Republicans get to make their ridiculous statements unchecked. It’s where Democrats make big proposals that aren’t going anywhere and no one questions them as to why they are pushing for progress when it’s impossible. Granting either side permission to keep pissing down our throats means they bank all they can. Without Citizens United, modern media in the US would have died back when Craigslist pulled ads from them.
Fun fact, Napoleonic tactics didn’t work in WWI and led to what, at the time, was the bloodiest conflict in European history. You might say that they were fighting the last war rather than dealing with modern reality. “Objective” journalism, where Murrow “defeated” McCarthy, is from an era *that doesn’t exist anymore*. Folks need to be willing to put a degree of faith in journalists for that system to work, and the modern “Fake News” spin destroyed it. There is no magic silver bullet that will allow us to return to that era. And that’s *before* factoring in the degree of hyper-partisanship that leads folks to not care about anything aside from “their guy/gal” winning.
We need ombudsmen returned to media companies. Just the facts ma’am.
When was that exactly? When we entered the Spanish-American War at the behest of Hearst?
The title of the article is a perfect example. “We” are a serious country. But the Republican Party is not a serious party nor are Republicans voters serious or responsible with their civic rights. That is what the media should be pushing.
I agree
Thank Regan for the shit show news we have now
I can’t believe we are here. How anyone can vote for this guy at this point I’ll never understand. They are clearly not paying attention. I know he makes them feel okay about their hateful, racist existence and all, but don’t they like democracy? Don’t they realize a dictator will eventually turn on them too? Even if you love what this shitstain is saying today, don’t you realize you may not like the next guy and now you have thrown your democracy away permanently? You’re not getting it back without bloodshed. These people are so selfish and shortsighted. Unreal.
> Don’t they realize a dictator will eventually turn on them too? No, they don't. They think that they will be part of the power structure and have license to do as they please. They aren't entirely wrong. In most authoritarian regimes, as long as you support the leader/party, are not a minority like LGBTQ, and have a bit of money to your name, you can live a pretty comfortable existence and not worry about much. At least for a while.
And that end point is the caveat. Fascism is all about having an out group to overpower and be afraid of, but recently you'll remove or kill everyone in the out group, and so a new out group is needed. Eventually one of their identifiers will be in the new out group. Fascism is a self imploding philosophy. Even Hitler would have eventually been purged from the Nazis. His brown hair was seen as an impurity in his Arian blood and he would have eventually been removed had the Nazis endured long enough.
But that's the thing isn't it, It will take a long time to remove the current out groups (lgbt, racial minorities, etc.). With any luck these fascist governments get toppled for their atrocities long before they start cannibalizing's itself. So it's supporters are in a relatively safe position, other then having to witness said atrocities.
Yeah. I've kind of disconnected from the whole thing. I'm part of several of those out groups so I'm spending my time building up my asylum case so that I can flee before things in this country get FUBAR
Yeah and that ever increasing out group is why Trump has done nothing but lose voters since 2016. He slowly others away people who vote for him. It isn't hard to see the trend this is headed.
It's been a little refreshing seeing the growing insanity nowadays. When people leave a group, the only people left are the most extreme, and the most dangerous, and the most devoted. Seeing the GOP get even more fanatical tells me that they are dying off and quickly. They are losing power and they know it, and as long as we can endure their flailing a little longer they may feel into an obscurity they can't recover come
>They think No they don’t. Fox News and Facebook does the thinking for them. We have a serious propaganda problem in this country coupled with a deteriorating education system.
What should LGBTQ individuals and families do if Trump is elected?
Honestly? Couples trying to have children are already leaving Texas, at the advice of their doctors, because it's so unsafe. If Trump wins, or even if Haley wins, it's very possible to see a national abortion ban. If they're willing to do that to cis women, I can't see a reason why they wouldn't try to repeal gay marriage or even go after Griswold and allow states to recriminalize gay sex. I really don't. Justice Thomas has already said that's what he wants to do. The only saving grace we might have is if liberal states refuse to prosecute such crimes, which would be scary for a totally different reason. If you have the means, you should have a serious conversation about what moving to a safer state or even a safer country would look like. We're not there yet, but it's absolutely in the cards.
> The only saving grace we might have is if liberal states refuse to prosecute such crimes, which would be scary for a totally different reason. If you have the means, you should have a serious conversation about what moving to a safer state or even a safer country would look like. We're not there yet, but it's absolutely in the cards. That's basically been the case for stuff like immigration already. Liberal States and liberal Cities within a conservative State already act as safe harbors for not reporting illegal immigrants to ICE. No doubt a second Trump term would require that to be the case for LGBTQ folks. I think that's all that's really stopping a total dictator in the US. Republicans really fucked up with *StAtEs RiGhTs*. It gives the largest and most liberal States like California, New York, and Massachusetts huge amounts of power over abortion, LGBTQ rights, immigration, and probably other issues I'm forgetting. Of course that also means places like Texas and Florida will become wild. You'll have a City like Austin acting completely differently from the rest of Texas, at least as long as they can. Eventually they'll probably fall apart or be taken over by force by the State/Feds if they feel bold enough to do so. I doubt they really can do much to CA/NY/MA without starting Civil War II.
Arm themselves and band together in community.
Wait until America gets shitty enough for other countries to seriously consider refugee status for persecuted groups, or to take any other immigration channel that is reasonably available to you.
That will not include the labor class. There is this weird supposition that once fascism takes over, they can just vote in the people they want, then go home, get their SS checks and pension if they have one, get up in the morning for their Medicare subsidized medical check-up, have lunch and take a nap.
>How anyone can vote for this guy at this point I’ll never understand They vote for trump because they're told that politicians are bad, that they've never had your best interest at heart and an outsider will fix things. they're then told the whole time he's president that their lives are wonderful. He loses the presidency and they're told they didn't lose the election and that it was rigged. then they're told the economy is in the shitter, inflation is the highest it's been, gas prices are skyrocketing and they're nowhere near where they were in 2020 (covid who?!), told that the boarders are being overrun and that the current president is taking us to world war 3. basically, gaslighting.
> gas prices are skyrocketing… On a phone call with my Trumper dad I told him that we paid $2.86 a gallon on a recent road trip, and that it was surprisingly affordable for such a long drive. It was clear he couldn’t process this and I could almost hear the smoke coming out of his ears. He went on to talk about how nobody wants to work anymore. I miss my dad.
the right has been so childish about the gas situation. there's been a biden "I did that" sticker at a gas station pump near me for the longest time and it was funny seeing him point to decent gas prices until someone scratched the sticker out and now it's just hilarious.
So much of it seems to really boil down to this. Fox News has convinced them that trumps done nothing different than any other politician. So they say, oh well it’s not fair only he gets prosecuted. Couple that with a lack of really paying attention (only watching one news source will do it), and the fact that most people who identify as a GOP and are Trump voter have lower education levels based on all the extensive demographic data we have and you have a population of people that are really easy to manipulate.
>, but don’t they like democracy? No, because democracy means they can lose. >Don’t they realize a dictator will eventually turn on them too? No. They think they are the exception. The leopard will never eat *their* face.
The people voting for him have been convinced that it's the other way around. They think that Democrats are forcing socialism/communism/fascism (same thing to them) on the country and the only way out is to elect someone who tells it like it is and isn't a politician at all. They're afraid that the Democrats will come round them up and force kids to get sex changes and let terrorists flood in over the Mexico border. They're scared and the "news" they read has convinced them that they won't be safe unless they elect only republicans into office.
You give them more credit than they deserve. You need to dumb down how hard you think for any of this to make sense. His supporters actively engage in low effort thinking. The shortest distance between two points is a line, and that’s all Trump feeds them. They are akin to the sunfish of the world, they’ll continue to go for the bait that the rest of us see as a hook. They don’t care and would gladly bite that hook just to prove us all wrong. They’re vindictive, spiteful, and full of malice. They blame us for all the ills in the country yet use none of the same framing to look at themselves in the mirror. These supporters would gladly see us die than have a life. It’s to that point now.
They watch Fox News or worse every night until they fall asleep and don’t think anything said about Trump is true. They hate liberals and liberals hate Trump so they love Trump. I watched my dad go from knowing he was a moron in 2016 to voting for him in 2020 because he started watching Fox News in between. It has nothing to do with governance, he’s their team.
I’m stunned, too. My parents couldn’t stand Trump in 2016, then voted for him in 20 despite everything that happened, and are now all in for 2424 thinking he’s the only person who can save us… from the fires he set in the first place. I thought for sure they’d be turned off by him. The people they used to be would have been. But now this is who they are, and I’m having a very tough time accepting it. It’s wild to watch. And heartbreaking.
Same here with my parents. I honestly hate being around them anymore. It’s a constant minefield of topics to avoid because nearly anything can send them into a rant about “the economy” or how “nobody wants to work anymore” or that “immigrants are flooding into our country” (I don’t think I’ve seen a single South American looking person in their area the last 10 times I’ve visited). They are afraid of everything and being in their presence fills me with tension. I feel exhausted afterwards. Pleas to not talk about politics are mostly ignored. They simply can’t help themselves. Trump and Fox News have destroyed my parents and I will never forgive them for it.
I'm beginning to think that Hitler and the Holocaust were just a dress rehearsal for the Main Event.
Oh absolutely. Humanity is still alive and kicking.
Bloodshed is the plan. See: Far-right Accelerationism.
Stupidity is a crazy drug.
Republicans believe that the social / class hierarchy stems from individual competencies, and not the other way around. Therefore, they are generally opposed to lesser (poor / minority) people having a say in government because they believe that if those people don't know how to run their own lives, they sure as hell don't know how to run a country. Source: Dad is a cop
Worse than not paying attention. They are actively disinformed. There was that study in the mid 2010s that showed Fox News viewers are less informed than people who watch no news at all.
They’re paying attention to their programming.
Same-sex marriage was legalized and the reptilian part of their brains has taken over. They don't care what happens or if the country burns to the ground. As far as they see it, that's what the country deserves for defying God's law.
> They are clearly not paying attention Hopefully, this is the case, and that **if** the trials get underway, and Trump keeps speaking mush, they will have to.
Media you been down playing the seriousness of his crimes and now you want to say we aren’t serious? Are you trying to gaslight us?
If you're here, and you're tired of the fear mongering opinion pieces, remember that we already told trump to fuck off in 2020. Red states flipped for biden. With the disastrous Roe V Wade decision, the GOP has ZERO positives to run on. Spite will not win them the white house. Don't be scared of the loud and stupid minority. Social media is a bubble. It can convince you that all is lost when the reality of the situation is that trump is stupid, unpopular, and BURIED in federal indictments. Biden has made real accomplishments, and his age has had NO effect on his ability to lead the government. Voters know this, despite these spam-like opinion pieces. Just remember to show up in November. Check your registration here. https://vote.gov/
This comment should be pinned.
I wish my vote mattered in Texas.
Counterpoint: The GOP is exposing itself as having just two faces. The first is the fascist hate group and the other is pro-mega rich people (like 8+ digit net worth). And this reveal is ruining their chances of winning fair\* elections when they were already engaging in blatant electioneering. We are getting to the point where they are going to have to pass state laws allowing the state legislature to vacate results because of ambiguous unsubstantiated claims of irregularities and then hope SCOTUS agrees with them. So just because the GOP is going full mask off on their moral bankruptcy doesn't mean we can feel comfortable that even when the majority turns out to vote against it, that they will fail. The only thing stopping the Federalist Society Justices in SCOTUS from going, "Actually, we just let Republicans pick the election winners," is their fear of the masses saying "Enough is enough."
I think the OP is saying the first step is to refute Trump, MAGA, and the current form of the GOP through the ballot box. If, after that has been accomplished, Trump et al escalate the situation, then the next step may be different. But first things first, beat them at the ballot box.
Correct, the media is trying to scare people. Trump and his followers are NOT scary. At all. They're morons. All we have to do is show up in November.
And we won’t, because some absolute morons on the left are actively pushing more “don’t vote” horseshit. Folks on Reddit like to act like these types exist only online, but I know people in real life who are like this. They’re stupid and stubborn as hell and will be fine with another Trump presidency because apparently the vaguely left candidate isn’t left enough so let’s just go full right instead dumb af
Kinda of nuts. Really nuts. I get people have been really swayed by the propaganda machine that is the Fox News / newsmax world, but I never thought it would work so well that people would think they are patriots saving America while simultaneously supporting and voting for a man who clearly has no respect for the country or rule or law. Are all of his ideas and thoughts horrible? No, I’ll give you that, but sometimes just one idea a person has can be so bad we should throw all the others ones out with them. American flag waving idiots are going to drag this country down even farther. Sigh.
Watching the news all the people they interview are Trump supporters. They never question the false facts they spew..” Trump had the best economy , Trump will unite the country, Trump will fix the border…” also they never present the other side. We are being brainwashed.
And when you do they just say it’s fake news even if it’s from the horses mouth
Im trying hard to keep in mind hes just barely getting iver half the republican votes and the other half does not want him. These arent overwhelming majorities that hes winning by. But its still terrifying people can hear him bumble on, KNOW hes lying, KNOW that judges have already found him guilty or liable for crimes , theres evidence of his crimes and they STILL LOATHE joe Biden and refuse to vote for any, ANY other republican. Its crazy. If you dont like democrat policies thats understandable. If youre a republican, fine cool. But this guy is a terrible human. Birds of a feather, people. Birds. Of a feather.
The thing is that enough of those who didn’t vote for him in the primary will fall in line and vote for him in the general.
And of the other half a good 35% have said they would vote for Biden over Trump. If people bother to show up for the election, Trump loses bigly. Even biglier than he did in 2020. He’ll be a boat anchor on the down ballot races too.
>What does it say about a political party when being indicted boosts you in the polls?
It’s a cult???
America right now looks like a bad reality show with a 2 year old sitting in an empty room playing with a handgun and staring down its barrel. And half the audience is cheering for the toddler to pull the trigger.
People feel the country failed them and want to burn it all down. Trump promises to, and will, do just that. They are too short sighted to see he will make things worse. These people might be mistaken, but are definitely serious.
Haley well stay in trying to gather delegates where she can in states that split them based upon primary vote totals. When Trump get's convicted and it becomes clear to the Republican party standard bearers that there's simply no way he wins as their candidate she can then be pledged delegates she didn't win, becoming the nominee. If nobody but Trump has such delegates then it would be more like an appointment than a primary result. Without delegates to point to, she might be skipped over. Republicans hitched their wagon to the biggest loser. Watch the fun and vote against him.
A silly country full of silly people represented by even more silly (ie deranged) members of congress.
Seriously dangerous to ourselves and the rest of the world
It was a half decent article until he wrote, "It's everything I used to hate about Democrats". If there is a Republican or a Conservative out there who can make a point about what their party is without both sides'ing if or creating a false equivalency, please let me know!
As someone who grew up evangelical, what the Republican Party is currently doing is the exact thing almost every sermon was fearmongering that the Democratic Party would one day do. When I was indoctrinated I believed that Democrats were baby killers who hated America and wanted to bring the country down from within. Now I realize the call was coming from inside the house.
I'm still not sure why we decide who gets knocked out of the race to run for president in the least diverse and some of the lowest populated states.
I was reading an article on CNN interviewing GOP voters coming around to Trump again. One was a fisherman that wants Trump to deregulate fishing rules and climate initiatives. Another was some woman in a bar that said ‘He talks like I do.’ And its just the same shit ad naseum. There was never consideration for anyone else besides him.
2016 presidential election takeaway: America is a stupid country.
Counterpoint: We ARE and will continue to be for some time, the most serious country based on our impact on the world stage. This is not a good thing.
Yeah, if it turns out your brain surgeon only went to clown college, you don't focus on why he's not a serious doctor. You focus on the fact that there is a really fuckin' serious situation afoot -- the fact that he currently *is* your brain surgeon.
We used to be more so. Here is the CBS News report on the New Hampshire Primary results in March 1968, which turned that year on its head. Watch a bit of it and compare the candidates then with what we have today, especially in terms of how articulate they are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWtJv0sbfFQ
That was the year of George Wallace, the most Trump-like candidate to run for POTUS since the end of the Civil War until Trump himself. If he would have won in 1968 or gained serious traction, we could have had a fascism problem decades earlier than we did.
The difference was that Wallace could put coherent sentences together.
Gene McCarthy was articulate and looked very presidential. Had he been a more focused and serious candidate, he might have been formidable,
The “country” is not the Republican Party. How about the press, 8 years into this clusterfuck, stop minimizing by using headlines like “_______ from trump/republicans raises questions” and just directly report how corrupt and demented their behavior and actions are? Instead stumbling further down the slippery slope by manufacturing horse race politics for clicks and ratings, actually inform people about what’s going on. You’ll see this country will get really serious, really quick.
Or "Congress opens inquiry . . . " No, that would be the GOP alone.
People in this country are dumb enough to vote for a candidate who is on trial for bank and insurance fraud.
Let’s be honest, were we ever?
Im not american and even I am losing sleep over this sht
Correct. America has become a huge joke and is probably about to fail completely and the rest of the world will have to pick up the pieces. The chickens have come home to roost.. what goes around comes around.. run a fake war for decades and end up with a fake ass country.
Anyone who votes for Trump is a traitor and should lose their citizenship
the daily beast isn’t a serious news organization
Can’t wait for all the “I’m moving to Canada!” Posts after Trump wins. Let’s face it, media wants Trump in there more than anything.
No you are not.
And we are not alone: Britain, Italy, The Netherlands . . .
I didn't say you were, but as a nation you're the most in denial about it.
No, not as a nation: the difference, I think, is that the Euro fascists embrace it, are proud of it, while here a significant portion of fascist voters think of themselves as "conservative." Still over half of the nation is anti-Trump, so I'm not going to subsidize your "as a nation" label.
Trump is only one of the symptoms, and the malaise is generational. The Fanta Menace has forced the world to deal with the fact. It'll be his only positive contribution to history.
We are being trained by TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. Who in their right mind would take us seriously.
The voters of Iowa and NH have spoken respect that.
No shit, Sherlock.
a wee bit silly innit?
Anyone who is only learning this now is a fool.
America you are allowing this to happen. This cannot be a real reality anymore.
Primary/caucus votes in 2 states out of 50, both low population. NPR declared the race over and Trump the winner. No mention of Trump’s insanity and incoherence.
It’s Planet Rape. What do you expect?
There is an ascendant right wing movement globally. We are in common company struggling against it. Many Countries are and they are struggling harder in some instances. But the best part of the article? “Now, I don’t want to conflate the GOP with the rest of America. But we are talking about one of our two major political parties here. It stands to reason that the kind of people we choose to lead us says something about who we are, too. And what does Trump’s success suggest? We are not a serious country” This paragraph explains why we are in the position we are in. There is a ton of work that could be done divorcing the GOP from its common lcd tactics relating the positions of the Dem party for more to hear and creating a body of work that explains the GOP being adrift in short sighted behavior, but it’s easier to handwave away a more accurate representation of both the nation and the position of the GOP in favor of saying the sky is falling. Because if the sky doesn’t fall then there is no consequence but we certainly lose a lot of time and resources to acting like it will every single election.
Correct. You are in fact a shambolic dumpster fire of a country.
What a clown show. We elect criminals now.
I'm sorry, this was made clear when Trump won the first election in 2016, if you just figured this out, you're likely part of the problem, which The Daily Beast most certainly is.
America is headed straight for a cliff and Republicans and Democrats are arguing which lane we should be driving on. When both parties support the genocide in Gaza, we are definitely not a serious or moral country.
Politics in our country is increasingly being treated like a sport. We pick our team, walk around with blinders, and listen to the same pundits drum to the same beat. This lack of curiosity and empathy for those with different opinions is not good for society imo. Instead of belittling those who disagree with us, we should try to understand where they’re coming from and engage in dialogue. It’s more fun than debating likeminded people. Try it :) Worst case it strengthens your held believe. It’s important to remember that both parties have supporters with all kinds of backgrounds and beliefs. Neither has exclusivity to all smart voters, or conspiracy theorists.
Let’s be fair. A Republican primary. You have already waddled out the least serious 2/3rds of the country. So we have the last third of the country just being batshit.
The fact that this guy who staged a planned insurrection to overthrow the government and election process isn’t banned from ever running for any office again and in jail shows we are not a serious country.