“The bars are different for people in life. That I’ve learned,” she said.
Without naming Trump, she continued: “Other people can be indicted a bunch of times and still run for office. Black men can’t. You just learn to be good. And in the end, you benefit from that extra resilience.”
I’m not American but what’s happening in the US and what will happen when/if Trump gets re-elected definitely worries me. It’s difficult not to sound overly dramatic or hyperbolic about the situation but it really does feel like the US is uncomfortably close right now to a christofascist state. And if you just rolled your eyes at that word, take a look at who’s currently second in line to the US presidency.
If Trump does win, I really fear for American democracy. Do you really think a man who encouraged an armed insurrection to support a subversion of an election will pause to think twice about removing the few rights large sections of America currently have? And if the process prevents him, do you think he’d think twice about dismantling the process? At gun point if necessary?
Even if Trump dies tomorrow, the problem still exists. Trump is the worm in the apple, but half the apple is rotten.
That is true, no disagreement here. That’s the truly scary thing about the man - he clearly does represent a lot of people.
But right now, he is the immediate danger.
I’m not sure anymore. He got so elevated by some people but they hate so much. Idk if anyone could just slide into his place. I think they could be lost enough with the infighting that would try to fill in that hole. As in, that confusion could give us the gap to secure our processes and/or elect reasonable people.
The problem wit this reasoning is that it does not understand what Trump actually did.
It is /worse/ than being a charismatic maniac.
It is that by being a charismatic maniac… he revealed the entirety of the American society and political system to be a cruel joke.
He essentially normalized extreme hatred and bigotry to the point that nearly every single other Republican had to either emulate him, or at least shift heavily toward his positions and rhetoric.
Infighting is and will continue to happen, yes. But Trump transformed the Republican party into what is essentially fascist in all but name now.
And the problem with this is that electoralism alone cannot defeat a rising fascist movement which shows no signs of slowing down.
We, with history as a guide, /cannot/ defeat this only via voting.
As much as it pains me to agree with Tim Pool on anything, to any degree: A civil war of sorts, or at least massive social unrest something akin to the Pre-Bellum American society is already happening.
The core voters of the Republican Party are now driven by QAnon style insano-anti-thinking. There is no known cure for this, and it is very easy for any random dumbass that wants to be a politician to appeal to these kinds of people, /so there will be more and more of them/.
To add to this: while it may sound hyperbolic to some folks, for plenty of us we’ve seen this brewing for decades. White evangelicals and right-wing politics unified in the 1980s in a way that was a clear danger to democracy, and they’ve only solidified their power since, given how mainstream their views are now.
IMHO Frank Zappa said it best in 1986: he got called out as being hyperbolic, but he clearly saw the writing on the wall. He’s of course not the most scholarly source, but damn it Jim I’m a biologist, not a historian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlePLLlfH4Q
I live in Japan and I’m sure Kim literally considered nuking my country during that dick measurement contest against Trump.
Hi, American here.
American domestic politics is absolutely fucked right now.
The Republican Party does not really even have any policy proposals for serious issues at the Federal level.
They spent years saying ‘Obamacare bad’, saying they could do healthcare better. Basically it is a decade later and they have no plan, not even a proposal.
Taxes? We still have morons like DeSantis basically saying ‘I dunno, maybe a flat tax?’ to applause during stump speeches and debates. The flat tax proposal is absolutely insane for a large number of reasons, but the Republican base eats it up.
Look, there are something like 50 million + Americans that believe in all or most of the QAnon conspiracy theories, that believe God himself appointed Trump as President.
Trump stacked the Supreme Court.
The Republicans have functionally made abortion illegal in about half the country.
Meanwhile the economy is /apparently/ recovering, though the prices of basically everything you need to routinely pay for have risen fairly dramatically while wages have remained basically stagnant. Wealth inequality has spiralled to obscene levels, rent has basically doubled in about half a decade.
As I write this, I believe that polls of Biden v Trump are still showing Trump ahead.
Even if Trump does not win, and even if the MAGA QAnon types do not do a bunch of terrorism (again), they still exist, and are hopelessly living in basically an alternate reality where anything that goes against their worldview is fake, a conspiracy, of the Devil.
It was about 3 years ago now that I told my friend group that the QAnon problem was so serious that we would need some kind of analogous concept to the de-Nazification program as was implemented after WW2 in West Germany to deal with it. They either laughed at or ignored me. None of those people are my friends any more.
We are fucked.
The only thing that motivates most Republican voters is hatred. Any politician who says Trans people bad, Critical Race Theory bad, Immigrants bad, Homeless People bad, anything like that receives applause from the audience.
And I write this /as a homeless person/ who will almost certainly not be able to vote in the upcoming election. I will be /lucky/ if I can even find and qualify for an actual apartment after basically a bunch of crimes that happened to me in the course of last year caused me serious physical injury and the loss of all of my possessions, ruined my credit score, placed my in incredible debt, lost me my job and my ability to do any other job until my physical injuries are healed, which I simply have to handle myself, while homeless, because the cost of engaging with American healthcare system to handle my problems now would be sufficient to outright purchase a modest home (outright) less than a decade ago.
Meanwhile, Trump has outright stated he would like to implement basically concentration camps for the homeless. He has stated he wants to eliminate the vermin leftists. He is very concerned with the purity of the blood of the nation, and has outright stated he will be a dictator.
And he is currently leading in the polls.
Again, this country is fucked. So, sorry Europeans, I would love to be able to assuage your fears, and become an activist or something.
Maybe send me some of your healthcare and I’ll get right on it.
Also American here. Vexikron is 100% correct. I will take my payment in Wegovy please.
I wish I could, I really do.
I appreciate the kind words.