The last time this came up everyone agreed Trump is in fact a dummy, but still spent the whole thread fighting with each other over when exactly he became dumb.
Y’all I can’t go through this anti Trump circlejerk anymore. It’s exhausting. Imprison him or something but god I don’t give a fuck about this shit anymore.
Unfortunately the pro Trump propaganda is strong. If the opposition isn't reminding people how horrible he is he'll get free advertising again and win.
If you don't want to see it either block all political communities or get off social media.
Trump is old, but he appears energetic. He's boisterous and aggressive, both traits appeal to his base. They don't care if he gaffs or gets countries wrong.
Edit: based on people's reactions, somehow you seem to think I'm endorsing him or like him. I do not.
To be clear, I'm trying to honestly assess why he might have a chance at winning. Our republic is fucked if he wins.
Trump and Biden are some of the most unpopular candidates ever to run for president but neither party seems able or willing to put someone more likeable up. Dems wholly rejected the candidate who had every chance of beating Trump in the general, in favor of the one more friendly to donor interests and had a pretty likely chance of losing. This is basically the death spiral of the system producing these results right now ad infinitum.
It's giving me flashbacks to early 2016 when I first realized this ornery duffer could actually be elected president, right when major news outlets started to cover him as a frontrunner, every tweet was analyzed as breaking news for the morning segments, it was just the Trump show 24/7. Himbo news presenters looking vaguely shocked through the layers of makeup and botox, in effect just crafting the brand he needed.
I generally like the Atlantic too, but I find them and New Republic have been on the extra-Trump editorializing lately. IE taking things known about Trump and re-emphasizing them with "it's official now," as if it wasn't before, or as if something significant has developed. Jacobin has been really good at steering clear of this sort of pedestrian approach and it's been nice to have them around the last few years.
Is it complacency or just raw genitals? There isn't any debate to be had here. At this point nobody is going to read this thread and go, "oh, yeah, these are some good points. I guess Trump really isn't someone I should be supporting."
It's just a bunch of people standing in a circle jerking it and that can be fun... for awhile, but eventually you just need a break.
A bunch of people metaphorically standing around masturbating each other to a particular topic doesn't seem a relevant allegory to you? It's a bit overused, but I think it gets the point across very clearly.
I'm genuinely curious what will happen to the GQP when trump dies, no matter what the reason is.
There's lots of talk about how someone worse would step in and take his place, but I can't help but notice that every "replacement" that has been put forward (like Desantis) is made fun of and rejected by the rightoids.
There are people now who have made "trump supporter" their personality. Those are the people who still vote for him, those are the people all the other conservative weirdos are trying to court for votes. So what happens when he dies?
Maybe one of his sons would take over? It's hard to imagine the MAGA crew moving on. Even people Trump explicitly endorses don't always seem to get their full support...
Eh, they'll probably just call the obituary 'fake news' and try to elect his corpse into office.
Even people Trump explicitly endorses don't always seem to get their full support...
That right there is the issue. There are of course two ways that the former president could leave this world - suddenly, or over a period of time. Does he spend two weeks slowly getting worse, giving The Apparatus time to make plans, or does he fall over dead one night facedown in his chicky nuggies?
Either way the "supporters" will get mad and loud and threaten violence but... I'm not as worried about that as I used to be. I live in a deep red state that went 85%-90% to trump in 2020. I know many of the people who support him. Remember that middle-aged couple in 2020 that were waving guns around in front of their mcmansion to protect themselves from "protesters" that were nowhere near them? That's a pretty typical template. If there were actual people in the area doing actual harm they would be hiding inside behind locked doors.
Nobody is going to rise up when he dies. They'll scream and cry and blame gay people, and they will continue to do so until the Next Thing distracts them.