I don’t think he’s “insane” - his transgressive behavior, his greed, and his lust for violence are no different from term one. Like any good predator, he reassessed his environment and made sure to surround himself with people too weak to even try to stop him. That’s the only difference. Saying he’s crazy lets him off the hook. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
I don't know how much of Democratic unpopularity is due to the right-wing media complex pumping out hate for forty-five years and how much is due to Democrats acting like spineless weasels who can't possibly make a move without three committees to discuss it, ten polls, five focus groups, and fifty consultants to tell them what to do.
It's the indecisiveness. Both Bill Clinton and Obama had absolute filth directed their way. Clinton finished with a 60% approval and Obama is still one of the most admired men in America. Decisive, charismatic people can overcome a lot.
Ass kissers like those cowards in the GOP are not forgiven because they KNOW better whereas we consider cultists as zombies who only dream of eating of brains.
The cultists know exactly what they're doing. Take it from someone whose stuck living in a house with some of them. They walked into all this with open eyes and (for most of them) a prayer on their lips.
It’s worth considering how Democrats got to the point where Trump can be so obviously unfit for office and yet this hasn’t resulted in Democrats blowing him and his cult-party out of the water. It’s not as simple as “everyone is racist” or “Dems didn’t embrace Bernie” or “Dems were too nice to the trans”. Somehow a media and communication complex, an intimidated unfocused party filled with focus-grouped robots, Fetterman-esque freaks and carrying the image of an overeducated self-styled “hip” elite that fits right into the Right wing caricature—we somehow saw the party that seems most focused on improving the lives of everyone just become so unacceptable to an alarmingly large portion of the country that their opposition—the Republicans—can line up behind that demented psychopath without fear of being wiped out for a generation.
I know this sounds like blaming the Democrats, but it’s really accepting that the Republicans by any objective measure should go the way of the Whigs and trying to comprehend why they haven’t been destroyed yet.
As the analogy goes, we want the arsonists stopped and jailed and it’s natural to ask why the Fire and Police Departments have been unable to do so.
And to further the analogy. The Democratic voter base is the people in the neighborhood who have been calling the fire and police department over and over again because there are buildings on fire. Firemen can't pretend that they don't know what the fuck is going on.
Thankfully, America's Pilonidal Cyst TACO'ed out. We still do have the permission structure that allows great deference to him to do things like this, as well as the numerous people cosigning this bloodthirstiness. I don't know if it's a fundamental problem with a lot of Americans but APC is the symptom of it.
OT: Groff was talking years ago about being nominated for awards for his role in Hamilton and said something to the effect of "Yes, another instance of people of color coming up with something, doing almost all of the work and the white guy comes in for seven minutes and wins awards."
Someone should tell Cory Booker that if his colleagues were "good people" then they would not refuse to speak up and say what they really believe about Trump. That they don't is evidence that they are not, in fact, good people. Evil is as evil does, to paraphrase Forrest Gump's mom.
Whether he truly is charmed by them in personal interactions (I’m sure if I had lunch with John Thune and discussed his family and shared sports anecdotes I’d find him human too) or thinks there’s some swing voter who gives points for being nice to the other side, it just comes across as fake. A good example of a Democrat who can’t tell how normal people see him.
There is nothing that will shame these people, they are monsters, all of them. Anybody saying there's good people on both sides can fuck right off. If there were good people on the right, impeachment proceedings would have taken place by now. The Supreme Court would not be letting the orange madman get away with it. Why do they all have NO shame? Stephen King had a post on Bluesky yesterday talking about The Dead Zone and how there are two ways to remove a president. It got me thinking about the end of that book (spoilers for a 50ish year old book) where the guy who would be the madman king has it all derailed by trying to shield himself from a gunshot with someone's kid he grabbed. The picture of that ruined him. Can anyone imagine that today? Someone died when trump supposedly got his ear shot but somehow trump's the hero.
I've been saying since Trump term 1 that americans really want a king. they are getting exactly what they voted for, i don't care that they are crying at gas pumps. its gonna get worse and they are going to say they regret voting for him but they'd do it again because they don't want a democracy. and democrats, in theory, do.
trump may be mad, but he's also an evil moron, and has always been. It's worse now if he's truly mad, or has dementia, or both. George III went mad, but he lost the American colonies before he went mad, and when he was mad, he didn't start any wars - it was Napoleon who did that. Besides, George III was put away and his oldest son, Prince George, became regent, because the British Parliament and the royal family weren't as spineless and as stupid as today's American Congress and trump regime are.
That trump is both stupid and evil, and has surrounded himself with stupid and evil people needs to be emphasized more because it explains why we can't get rid of him.
I've been saying this for a while now, that many GOP voters are not especially MAGA or big Trump fans, they simply *despise* Democrats-even to the point they'll accept a potential nuclear holocaust as an acceptable cost of keeping them from power. That is a real problem if Dems ever want to be more than just the only alternative when the GOP goes off the rails, as it routinely does, even pre-MAGA.
That’s the conundrum—how did Democrats get so unpopular with so many people that a putrid gang of nuts and criminals like the Republicans can win as often as they do? And how to fix that?
Christianity is a large part of it. Ever since Reagan fused the party to the evangelical Church (not that conservative politics and the church were ever that far apart), someone like trump getting into office was inevitable.
He embodies the willfully ignorant, sadistic sociopathy that evangelical Christianity instills in people.
It would require knocking some heads, questioning some orthodoxies and pissing off a lot of people, something Dems are allergic to, especially where big money is involved. I mean, they won't even make their 2024 retrospective public for fear of offending someone.
I've seen Democrats argue that they aren't liked because they are viewed as the "scolding mom," which was presented as a larger "fuck the patriarchy" point rather than "well, no one likes the scolding mom."
Maybe there's sexism in the sense that Republicans can get away with being "drunk, abusive dad" (though not always). However, that doesn't mean "scolding mom" is an effective political identity. Note, also that many working class woman reject "scolding mom." It's not entirely a gender issue.
Even women don’t want to be the scolding g mom! Just like men don’t want to be the complaining Dad. Decades of pop culture have taught us that slobs are better than snobs. And here we are trying to argue that snobs are better.
People tend to resist messaging that feels moralizing, condescending, or like they’re being talked down to, which is a persistent complaint about Democrats. That reaction isn’t limited to men—plenty of women reject it too, working class AND professional, including me. So it may be less about patriarchy as the explanation and more about tone and approach. If voters feel judged rather than understood, they tune out.
In other words, even if sexism plays a role (and it surely does, just not maybe the biggest one IMO) it doesn’t follow that leaning into that dynamic is a winning strategy. I hope all that makes sense.
The fact that it can be warped in this way is what tells you of its faults. If you think a document written by wealthy men who believed in owning other people is “fine” then you’re another flavor of voter who is looking for the good ole days, where the board is tilted in favor of some of the people.
Time for a new party? I've been saying since the 90's if we keep only voting for two parties, we will keep having to choose between the lesser of two evils. There is nothing in the constitution that says there must be republicans and democrats. Let's think out of the box!
There are a number of different coalition within the party. I just think that the progressive coalition is going to become much much stronger than it's ever been in the next few years. The centers are on their way out. Progressivism is on the ascendant
I've thought a lot about this. How bad would a Dem candidate have to be before I'd vote for a Republican, were the tables turned? I've never once voted GOP since I started voting in 1982. I'm not sure I could do it, ever.
I guess my bigger point is, many Dems have crucified Republicans for not voting Dem just to stop Trump. Were the situations reversed-were there a Trump like figure holding power as a Dem-I'm not sure I could be convinced to vote GOP for that reason.
I don’t think he’s “insane” - his transgressive behavior, his greed, and his lust for violence are no different from term one. Like any good predator, he reassessed his environment and made sure to surround himself with people too weak to even try to stop him. That’s the only difference. Saying he’s crazy lets him off the hook. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
"...it’s always sunny in his West Wing fantasy world." LOL. Oy. Cory Booker. High on his own supply (and some of Schumer's, plus some of Hakeem's).
Whatever they've got has got to be pharmaceutical grade.
"good people on both sides of the aisle"
Jesus Christ, he's literally doing what trump did after Charlottesville. Not a hint of self awareness.
"It’s almost better if Trump were a king. A democratically supported tyrant is far worse."
That's the nut of the matter right there.
I don't know how much of Democratic unpopularity is due to the right-wing media complex pumping out hate for forty-five years and how much is due to Democrats acting like spineless weasels who can't possibly make a move without three committees to discuss it, ten polls, five focus groups, and fifty consultants to tell them what to do.
It's the indecisiveness. Both Bill Clinton and Obama had absolute filth directed their way. Clinton finished with a 60% approval and Obama is still one of the most admired men in America. Decisive, charismatic people can overcome a lot.
It's both.
Ass kissers like those cowards in the GOP are not forgiven because they KNOW better whereas we consider cultists as zombies who only dream of eating of brains.
The cultists know exactly what they're doing. Take it from someone whose stuck living in a house with some of them. They walked into all this with open eyes and (for most of them) a prayer on their lips.
It’s worth considering how Democrats got to the point where Trump can be so obviously unfit for office and yet this hasn’t resulted in Democrats blowing him and his cult-party out of the water. It’s not as simple as “everyone is racist” or “Dems didn’t embrace Bernie” or “Dems were too nice to the trans”. Somehow a media and communication complex, an intimidated unfocused party filled with focus-grouped robots, Fetterman-esque freaks and carrying the image of an overeducated self-styled “hip” elite that fits right into the Right wing caricature—we somehow saw the party that seems most focused on improving the lives of everyone just become so unacceptable to an alarmingly large portion of the country that their opposition—the Republicans—can line up behind that demented psychopath without fear of being wiped out for a generation.
I know this sounds like blaming the Democrats, but it’s really accepting that the Republicans by any objective measure should go the way of the Whigs and trying to comprehend why they haven’t been destroyed yet.
As the analogy goes, we want the arsonists stopped and jailed and it’s natural to ask why the Fire and Police Departments have been unable to do so.
And to further the analogy. The Democratic voter base is the people in the neighborhood who have been calling the fire and police department over and over again because there are buildings on fire. Firemen can't pretend that they don't know what the fuck is going on.
Thankfully, America's Pilonidal Cyst TACO'ed out. We still do have the permission structure that allows great deference to him to do things like this, as well as the numerous people cosigning this bloodthirstiness. I don't know if it's a fundamental problem with a lot of Americans but APC is the symptom of it.
Calling him that is an insult to pilonidal cysts.
OT: Groff was talking years ago about being nominated for awards for his role in Hamilton and said something to the effect of "Yes, another instance of people of color coming up with something, doing almost all of the work and the white guy comes in for seven minutes and wins awards."
Someone should tell Cory Booker that if his colleagues were "good people" then they would not refuse to speak up and say what they really believe about Trump. That they don't is evidence that they are not, in fact, good people. Evil is as evil does, to paraphrase Forrest Gump's mom.
Whether he truly is charmed by them in personal interactions (I’m sure if I had lunch with John Thune and discussed his family and shared sports anecdotes I’d find him human too) or thinks there’s some swing voter who gives points for being nice to the other side, it just comes across as fake. A good example of a Democrat who can’t tell how normal people see him.
This
There is nothing that will shame these people, they are monsters, all of them. Anybody saying there's good people on both sides can fuck right off. If there were good people on the right, impeachment proceedings would have taken place by now. The Supreme Court would not be letting the orange madman get away with it. Why do they all have NO shame? Stephen King had a post on Bluesky yesterday talking about The Dead Zone and how there are two ways to remove a president. It got me thinking about the end of that book (spoilers for a 50ish year old book) where the guy who would be the madman king has it all derailed by trying to shield himself from a gunshot with someone's kid he grabbed. The picture of that ruined him. Can anyone imagine that today? Someone died when trump supposedly got his ear shot but somehow trump's the hero.
I've been saying since Trump term 1 that americans really want a king. they are getting exactly what they voted for, i don't care that they are crying at gas pumps. its gonna get worse and they are going to say they regret voting for him but they'd do it again because they don't want a democracy. and democrats, in theory, do.
trump may be mad, but he's also an evil moron, and has always been. It's worse now if he's truly mad, or has dementia, or both. George III went mad, but he lost the American colonies before he went mad, and when he was mad, he didn't start any wars - it was Napoleon who did that. Besides, George III was put away and his oldest son, Prince George, became regent, because the British Parliament and the royal family weren't as spineless and as stupid as today's American Congress and trump regime are.
That trump is both stupid and evil, and has surrounded himself with stupid and evil people needs to be emphasized more because it explains why we can't get rid of him.
I've been saying this for a while now, that many GOP voters are not especially MAGA or big Trump fans, they simply *despise* Democrats-even to the point they'll accept a potential nuclear holocaust as an acceptable cost of keeping them from power. That is a real problem if Dems ever want to be more than just the only alternative when the GOP goes off the rails, as it routinely does, even pre-MAGA.
That’s the conundrum—how did Democrats get so unpopular with so many people that a putrid gang of nuts and criminals like the Republicans can win as often as they do? And how to fix that?
Christianity is a large part of it. Ever since Reagan fused the party to the evangelical Church (not that conservative politics and the church were ever that far apart), someone like trump getting into office was inevitable.
He embodies the willfully ignorant, sadistic sociopathy that evangelical Christianity instills in people.
And why did we concede Christianity to the side of cruelty and hatred? Why let them define it? To me that political malpractice.
It would require knocking some heads, questioning some orthodoxies and pissing off a lot of people, something Dems are allergic to, especially where big money is involved. I mean, they won't even make their 2024 retrospective public for fear of offending someone.
I've seen Democrats argue that they aren't liked because they are viewed as the "scolding mom," which was presented as a larger "fuck the patriarchy" point rather than "well, no one likes the scolding mom."
Maybe there's sexism in the sense that Republicans can get away with being "drunk, abusive dad" (though not always). However, that doesn't mean "scolding mom" is an effective political identity. Note, also that many working class woman reject "scolding mom." It's not entirely a gender issue.
Even women don’t want to be the scolding g mom! Just like men don’t want to be the complaining Dad. Decades of pop culture have taught us that slobs are better than snobs. And here we are trying to argue that snobs are better.
People tend to resist messaging that feels moralizing, condescending, or like they’re being talked down to, which is a persistent complaint about Democrats. That reaction isn’t limited to men—plenty of women reject it too, working class AND professional, including me. So it may be less about patriarchy as the explanation and more about tone and approach. If voters feel judged rather than understood, they tune out.
In other words, even if sexism plays a role (and it surely does, just not maybe the biggest one IMO) it doesn’t follow that leaning into that dynamic is a winning strategy. I hope all that makes sense.
It's the constitution that's the problem.
The Constitution is fine. How it's been warped to meet undemocratic ends is the problem.
The fact that it can be warped in this way is what tells you of its faults. If you think a document written by wealthy men who believed in owning other people is “fine” then you’re another flavor of voter who is looking for the good ole days, where the board is tilted in favor of some of the people.
We'll just disagree on that, but thanks for making it personal. That's *always* SO helpful in these conversations.
CYA
All politics are personal.
If it was fine, we wouldn't be here.
We'll just disagree on that.
Time for a new party? I've been saying since the 90's if we keep only voting for two parties, we will keep having to choose between the lesser of two evils. There is nothing in the constitution that says there must be republicans and democrats. Let's think out of the box!
There are a number of different coalition within the party. I just think that the progressive coalition is going to become much much stronger than it's ever been in the next few years. The centers are on their way out. Progressivism is on the ascendant
Time will tell about that.
I agree that would be a great option, but it wouldn't come to fruition anytime soon and in the meantime we still have to deal with loons.
You make a good point. What these repub voters are doing is cutting off their noses to spite their faces.
I wish they'd cut their throats to spite their heads. Too far?
I've thought a lot about this. How bad would a Dem candidate have to be before I'd vote for a Republican, were the tables turned? I've never once voted GOP since I started voting in 1982. I'm not sure I could do it, ever.
Same here. But in our defense, I refuse to vote for them now for exactly the same reasons I refused to vote for them way back when
I guess my bigger point is, many Dems have crucified Republicans for not voting Dem just to stop Trump. Were the situations reversed-were there a Trump like figure holding power as a Dem-I'm not sure I could be convinced to vote GOP for that reason.