| ▲ | stackghost a day ago |
| Trump is but a symptom of an underlying sickness. Things won't magically go back to normal after he dies. |
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| ▲ | majormajor a day ago | parent | next [-] |
| Very few other people have Trump's ability to channel frustration in a nonspecific-but-charismatic way that connects the various extreme factions of the American right. None of those factions will be gone, but their battles will weaken their cause more than they have since 2016. Some of this can be seen by how even his own popularity falls any time he actually has power, since there are no effective ideas there, only misplaced blame, and that doesn't sustain support for four years. Without him there at all in an out-of-power period, the "blame the Jews"/"blame the brown people"/"blame the women"/"blame the baby-killers"/"blame the anti-Semites"/"blame the sexual deviants" factions will likely fail to find another person they all rally around. |
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| ▲ | goosejuice a day ago | parent | next [-] | | The extreme factions of the right are a very small portion of the electorate. They generally don't decide elections beyond the primaries and generally turn out in favor of the right regardless. Dems lean more on moderates/independents. Trump won because he persuaded that group, particularly the young men. https://www.thirdway.org/memo/why-republicans-can-win-with-t... | | |
| ▲ | fakedang a day ago | parent [-] | | 25-33% of the electorate is no small fraction. There's a group of people who have been consistently supportive of this government's policies since 2016. Take any policy survey, and the fraction that supports the right-wing side of action always amounts to a consistent 25-33% of the votes. | | |
| ▲ | goosejuice a day ago | parent [-] | | You're going to have to define extreme right with those percentages. You think 25-33% of the electorate is extreme right? | | |
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| ▲ | intended a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | While being largely correct, looking at his popularity misses the forest for the tree. Trump is very much a symptom, not a cause. He is simply the kind of personality most fit for the media environment. The media environment on the right has essentially eschewed journalistic standards for political and economic velocity. Fringe theories get introduced during podcasts, which then get brought up by guests on Fox. Members of the government point out that the news media is talking about fringe theory X, which then gets repeated by the news media. Eventually the government opens up an investigation or creates a task force to address the issue. It is not that people don’t come up with objections or counter narratives on the right, it’s just that they don’t get platformed. Verification is the expensive part of journalism. If you eschew verification. You can be more efficient. Today the right is simply the more “efficient” political consensus manufacturing machine. This is foundation upon which the rest of the events occur. This is why there will always be space for another character to appear. | |
| ▲ | fakedang a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | > Trump's ability to channel frustration in a nonspecific-but-charismatic way If Trump is the most charismatic political personality America has to offer... |
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| ▲ | malfist a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Did someone say they would? |
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| ▲ | lyu07282 a day ago | parent | next [-] | | Many liberal people think he is an abberation, they would gladly return back to "normal". The point is, he is a symptom of a larger unaddressed sickness, there is no return to business as usual, it will only return far worse. To prompt with something more specific: there is a possibility of a Gavin Newsom vs. Tucker Carlson in 2028, it's crucial to understand why Tucker might win and why he would be ten times worse than Trump. | |
| ▲ | greenavocado a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | Most people think Trump is the lynchpin, when in fact, its his masters that decide what happens next. | | |
| ▲ | andrewflnr a day ago | parent | next [-] | | Even if he was, a lot of things have been destroyed that will take a lot longer to rebuild. Notably, trust. | |
| ▲ | stuaxo a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | It would delay things, he has a "charisma" that his followers look like. But it's true he is a symptom. | | |
| ▲ | greenavocado a day ago | parent [-] | | He is not a symptom he is an actor that is playing a part in a script. He is manipulated, bullied, and blackmailed into submission. |
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| ▲ | JeremyNT a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Having somebody less incompetent, senile, and corrupt at the helm may not make things "magically go back to normal," but it's a step in the right direction. Necessary but not sufficient. Perhaps you'll be explicit though, what is the "sickness" you perceive? |
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| ▲ | stackghost a day ago | parent | next [-] | | >Perhaps you'll be explicit though, what is the "sickness" you perceive? It's that a significant number of Americans are mean, selfish, racist, arrogant, and delight in the victimization of those they perceive as belonging to an outgroup. 2/3 of your electorate either voted for him (meaning they liked what they saw) or were sufficiently unbothered by him to not vote (meaning they were more or less okay with Trump). These crocodile tears about how "we were bamboozled" are just that. It was plainly obvious to the rest of us looking in from outside, even before his first term but certainly after, that he was exactly the person he is now, and fully two thirds of American voters accepted this. | | |
| ▲ | LeChuck 21 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Has been the case for decades: http://exiledonline.com/we-the-spiteful/ >The left won’t accept this awful truth about the American soul, a beast that they believe they can fix “if only the people knew the Truth.” >But what if the Truth is that Americans don’t want to know the Truth? What if Americans consciously choose lies over truth when given the chance–and not even very interesting lies, but rather the blandest, dumbest and meanest lies? What if Americans are not a likeable people? The left’s wires short-circuit when confronted with this terrible possibility; the right, on the other hand, warmly embraces Middle America’s rank soul and exploits it to their full advantage. The Republicans know Americans better than the left. They know that it’s not so much Goering’s famous “bigger lie” that works here, but the dumber and meaner the lie, the more the public wants to hear it repeated. | |
| ▲ | morkalork 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Today is MAGA, yesterday it was the "Tea Party" faction, before that it was something else, and tomorrow there will be another. Every time there's a cycle of fringe-right blowing up in popularity, pushing an agenda and flaming out, it's still the same people they're appealing to who are voting for them. |
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| ▲ | throwawaytea a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | The main problem with your thinking is that you fail to realiZe that a lot of conservatives criticism of Trump is that he is too weak on the things he promised to be hard on.
They want MORE ICE, more cuts to government programs, more police. |
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| ▲ | michaelhoney a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It will be a lot harder to convince voters when he's gone... if the US still has elections |
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| ▲ | nozzlegear a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Could you enlighten the class as to what you believe the underlying sickness is? |
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| ▲ | jb827 a day ago | parent | prev [-] |
| America has neglected working class people for decades. The economy has shifted from supporting earning income to make a decent living, to protecting assets (bail outs etc.) Trump tapped into this and tricked these people into electing him, bringing along right wing or whatever they are.. and they got hold of power. Don't think numbers are there for this culture war crowd to stay in power unless they hitch a ride with someone.
(edited: typo) |
