Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
Its still a tight race in the swing states. Crazy to think anyone supports this guy. He has no respect for the country, or anyone in it. There's so many people blindly voting against their own interests. I just don't get it.
25 years of organized propaganda (fox news, talk radio, etc.). I live amongst Trump supporters, they truly believe prices will come down and they will make more money.
my mom believes that we're being "invaded" by illegals. i said, "stop using that term. it's offensive and racist."
"that's what they are. they broke the law," she shot back.
"and you're offensive and racist. and i suppose that means you're an illegal, too, since you jaywalked earlier?" I replied.
"illegal immigrants are felons!" she shouted at me.
"like Trump? so, he's a 34-times illegal, then? and you're voting for him?"
"that's different!" she screamed
there's no reasoning with these people
You can't reason people out of a position they didn't reason themselves into
Ain’t that a fucking truth. Ironically, it was my grandfather, my mother’s father, who first told me that
my favorite wisdom that has been passed down and not followed is: "Don't believe everything you see on the Internet"
Gullible turds.
trump the illegal, I like it.
Third generation draft dodger.
His grandfather escaped Germany so he didn't get drafted for WWI.
All in the family.
It's my understanding that illegally entering the country is a misdemeanor, and illegally reentering the country is a felony. It is an amplifying action for a huge number of other felonies though. Am I wrong? 8* Usc section 1325 vs 8 Usc section 1326.
It was always my understanding that entering the country to claim asylum was not illegal at all
It's also a civil violation, not a criminal one.
Not all laws are just.
I was on a grand jury once and most of the charges were for marijuana. I tried to convince the jury we should nullify, because sending teenagers to jail for pot is cruel. No one took me up on this. (A grand jury is simple majority, and the defense has no role in the proceedings. Side note: every time a cop isn't indicated it's because the prosecutor didn't want to.)
There was a little old white lady who sat behind me on the jury. She said well that's the law and if it's bad we should change it. Fine, I said. But imagine it's 1950 and you're on a trial for a black man who sat at an all white's counter. Would you indict? Would that be the right thing to do?
She went, "oh.. mm I don't know". And I don't think she meant because of peer pressure or imagining she only had the perspective of a white person from the 50s. I think she was just a very Lawful-Neutral person.
Anyway. The point I was trying to get at is a lot of people have garbage moral reasoning.
Fox News is absolutely one of the cause, but we can’t ignore Rush Limbaugh. He corrupted SO MANY people over the years, it’s absurd. I feel like a lot of people forget about that.
yep, racism is a helluva drug. It's the poor brown peoples' fault, not the billionaires who actually decide what happens.
Conservatives live on symbols. The Bible, the Constitution, the flag. They don’t even understand them and don’t need to because it’s really all about their emotions. They are in it to win and to feel confident, not to rule.
Team sports.
"My team win, your team lose."
The extent of their thought process.
this is why high school pep rallies were invented-- it takes a special kind of stupid to bleat about "individual liberty" while pledging your soul to a party of collectivist ultranationalism which "others" everyone who doesn't toe the line
Nobody asked him to run in 2016... he only did because he thought he could hustle the donation process to pay back his debts to Russia, but then the whole of GOP decided to back him, because who else could they unite on?
GOP is a coalition of people who can only find common ground with others on the absolutely lowest common denominator. Trump is just that. The uninvited but seemingly popular stranger at a party where everyone hates each other.
The look on his face when he won... He never intended to win. Now he has to, because he fucked up, and will need the power to dodge the consequences..
If Democrats win it is clear that the GOP party is fucking over. They might actually break up into different directions if they lose hard enough.
no respect for the country, or anyone in it.
that's why those people love trump. because the venn diagram of people he hates somewhat overlaps the circle of people they hate. and since they're stupid, it doesn't even matter that they are themselves within the circle of people trump hates
I think the World in general would be better off if Trump loses.
Not just Trump, the entire GOP needs to take a serious, undeniable shellacking this election cycle. The sort of loss that forces them, and it won't be easy, to do some serious introspection regarding the future existence of their party. We will need to force them to lose so badly that they're toxicity is blatant, absolutely radioactive. At all levels from city dog catcher on up. If Harris/Walz doesn't have a sympathetic Congress they won't be able to pull our proverbial bacon out of the fire.
Yup. I'm no republican, but the country would be better if they jettison the rightmost christiofascist wing of the party to the fringe that they are.
Again not that I'm seeking it, but a more centrist "sane, sober" republican party would be a real challenge for centrist democrats to contend with.
It's like they're currently in a ketamine induced fugue state. Some day, maybe still a few years from now, the record is gonna stop and they'll realize the palin-jones-trump arc has run it's course.
I'm crossing my fingers that Florida flips, because IF Florida flips there's a really good chance Texas flips too. At least I hope so, based on the trends in the polls. But then it'll be a real landslide 🌊
So they created a monster and the monster is now out of control. What a surprise, huh?
Well, I've got something to tell you: fuck you and all your shitty GOP. If you didn't see this coming, you only deserve an absolute defeat and disappearing into oblivion.
But what's actually happening here is not that. No, what's happening here is that your fucking party got so unhinged (by your own hands) that only the most deranged people are willing to vote for you, and that's scary, right? That's scary because there are not enough wackos to make you win an election, and now you're really fearing the fact that you might be losing elections for generations thanks to all the damage your monster did to yourselves.
Well, you know what? I'm glad. I'm happy you're so fucked right now that you prefer losing an election over winning it because of how much damage the win can do to yourselves.
Everyone will be better off if Trump loses. Billionaires, Republicans, progressives, climate activists, Wall Street bankers, and congresspeople of every party.
Trump’s second term will be a Project 2025-enabled attempt to simply destroy the United States government and inflame a civil war in order to keep MAGA in power forever. I guess under the assumption that it’ll work smoothly and everything will continue as normal after, just with MAGA people in charge of the magically-still-working-smoothly machinery of the country?
It’s like those people who bought plane tickets to January 6th, thinking they would go there and violently overthrow the transfer of power and kill any congresspeople that stood in the way of it, and then they could go home and show up to work with Trump now in power and everything would go back to normal.
It’s naive to the point of absurd self delusion. And roughly 95% of our media and government is going along with the delusion. Anything reporting on “Trump is ahead in polls in Wisconsin” instead of “Trump wants to kill anyone who opposes him and destroy the Department of Education and deploy the military against any domestic opposition” is feeding into the comforting cognitive dissonance that things will be within the normal parameters if Trump wins and abortion or “the economy” will be on the table as issues, and not “what can we do to get water and charge my phone today” and “which side’s forces is my governor on the side of”.
I’ve been saying since the primaries that the best plausible scenario was for Trump to get the nomination, then botch the election and drag the weirdos and loyalists in his party down with him.
Trump has spent years purging anyone that was moderate, even slightly principled, or just willing to put the good of the country ahead of his gigantic ego. Not to mention the way they treat the party’s warchest as their personal piggy bank, and it’s rank and file staff and volunteers as disposable. He’s made a party that’s blindly loyal to him, and which is a huge threat to the country, but which is ultimately far less effective as a party.
A more normal candidate would likely be dominating the race given public opinion on the current administration and the economy, to say nothing of the obscene amount of money being thrown around. But instead, Trump looks like he will cause the Republicans to underperform for the fourth time in a row.
If Trump loses dramatically enough and drags his people down with him, the party will likely collapse in on itself as opposing factions get locked in a power struggle. Plenty of big donors just want lower taxes and to not have to deal with regulations, and they will probably want to shift the party away from the MAGA weirdness and back towards something normal that isn’t going to alienate voters on all sides of the aisle. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of the more prominent anti-trump Republicans suddenly got a big boost in support, and a lot of Trump’s parasites suddenly find themselves getting driven out.
Best scenario for who?
I think the best scenario for everyone is that Trump loses, Dems win Congress control back, and Harris absolutely fucking nails this job and gets another term.
The best scenario is that the Republicans get destroyed so hard they stop being a party, and leftists take over, thus making democrats the right wing of mainstream politics while remaining approximately where they are on policy.
Best scenario probably results in the dissolution of the Republican party, and its key players in jail, dead, or otherwise removed from the political landscape.
But the roots of the problems there- the xenophobia, the tribalism, the (deeply ironic considering some of their slogans) supremacy of feelings over facts - that stuff isn't likely to go away. So even if the Republican party collapsed, there's still plenty of people ready to believe outsiders are bad, climate change isn't real, etc etc.
I don't really know how to fix that. Probably spend 100 years investing in education for all, removing lead and other toxins from the environment, and smashing apart anything that consolidates too much power (eg: Facebook, Sinclair media)
Your scenario and mine would go hand in hand, we're just focusing on different things.
My point was that the Republican party would benefit from a significant change in direction back towards something more normal. And the country as a whole would be better off as well, because there aren't many upsides to teetering on the edge of a fascist dictatorship, and anything that moves us away from the precipice is a good thing.
It goes to show how republicans are cowards. They don't want the wrath of MAGAs so they nominate him hoping he'd just lose and go away.
They have the power to make this happen.
So do something about it you cowards.
They didn't, when I'm 2020 he attempted (and failed) a coup. If that wasn't your wake up call, I don't know what would be.
The Reaganites are eager to get back to the business of cutting corporate taxes and welfare and the highly profitable war on peace. They don't wanna deal with Chumps drama anymore.
They will be better off, but not just if Trump loses, they have to de-MAGA the whole party, then they'll be in good shape.
they have to de-MAGA the whole party, then they’ll be in good shape.
Hopefully not because conservatism itself is a morally and intellectually bankrupt position. So I'd be much happier if they burn themselves to the ground, and/or conservatism becomes unpalatable to the vast majority.
I saw a clip of an ex-republican voter saying the republican party is like a mattress with bedbugs. You can't save it by spraying with insecticide, you have to take it out and burn it and buy a new mattress. I thought that was a pretty good analogy, but the bedbugs/magas will still be out there and there's a huge number of them.
The party is already in Hospice.
I'm subjected to a few hours of Fox News/right-wing YouTube a week, and it's certainly felt like the vibe has shifted. Reading between the lines with some of the talking heads, it sounds like they'd rather Trump lost and the GOP made gains in both the House and the Senate.
They can still run the party status quo ante that way for at least a little while. If Democrats get through voting rights legislation, the GOP will be forced to come up with an actual party platform beyond "loot the treasury."
Glass cannon build.
Everyone knows this, but most Republicans are still going to hold their noses and vote for the guy. It's unreal.
They know how to vote.
The fascists can always wait, they only have to win once.