mxleader on 6/11/2024 at 02:45
Trump started out strong in 2020 but lost the lead, obviously. I'm willing to bet that there is enough sexism, racism, and enough economic issues being attributed to Biden and the Democratic party to give Trump a higher chance of winning this time around. I wonder if people should be paying more attention to who's going to dominate the house and the senate.
DuatDweller on 6/11/2024 at 04:00
Oh man we're going to hell...
Harris 113, Trump 210.
Nicker on 6/11/2024 at 04:22
It's bad enough watching this from Canada. Imagine being in Ukraine.
WTF is wrong with the USA?
mxleader on 6/11/2024 at 05:17
Quote Posted by Nicker
WTF is wrong with the USA?
Nothing really. The process works well every four years.
Nicker on 6/11/2024 at 05:25
"Nothing really?"
A serial rapist, pathological liar, serial fraud and twice impeached sociopath can even RUN for president and there's nothing really WRONG?
Quote:
The process works well every four years.
And if Trump really does win, that will be the last election in the USA.
mxleader on 6/11/2024 at 05:32
Quote Posted by Nicker
A serial rapist, pathological liar, serial fraud and twice impeached sociopath can even RUN for president and there's nothing really WRONG?
We Americans do love our criminals. We even erect statues of drug addicts on park benches.
Quote Posted by Nicker
And if Trump really does win, that will be the last election in the USA.
That seems like hyperbole to me.
Also, even the New York Times is predicting that Trump will likely win at this point. There's still a chance for Harris but it's quickly fading. I don't think that Nevada and Arizona will matter much this time around.
Vae on 6/11/2024 at 05:47
*** BREAKING NEWS ***
The Republicans have now won control of the Senate.
Nicker on 6/11/2024 at 05:49
Quote:
That seems like hyperbole to me.
Not to most of the world. If there are elections they will be Russian style coronations. Trump is the end of the American Experiment.
mxleader on 6/11/2024 at 06:08
Quote Posted by Nicker
Not to most of the world. If there are elections they will be Russian style coronations. Trump is the end of the American Experiment.
Are you saying that because of your experience with Trudeau?
demagogue on 6/11/2024 at 06:37
Quote:
Not to most of the world. If there are elections they will be Russian style coronations. Trump is the end of the American Experiment.
He'll try to make that so, anyway.
I like Timothy Snyder's summary of the (
https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-strongman-fantasy) Strongman Fantasy that is evidently driving this whole thing.
Quote:
Quite a few Americans like the idea of strongman rule. Why not a dictator who will get things done?
I lived in eastern Europe when memories of communism were fresh. I have visited regions in Ukraine where Russia imposed its occupation regime. I have spent decades reading testimonies of people who lived under Nazi or Stalinist rule. I have seen death pits, some old, some freshly dug. And I have friends who have lived under authoritarian regimes, including political prisoners and survivors of torture. Some of the people I trusted most have been assassinated.
So I think that there is an answer to this question.
Strongman rule is a fantasy. Essential to it is the idea that a strongman will be your strongman. He won't. In a democracy, elected representatives listen to constituents. We take this for granted, and imagine that a dictator would owe us something. But the vote you cast for him affirms your irrelevance. The whole point is that the strongman owes us nothing. We get abused and we get used to it.
...
In the fantasy of the strongman, politics vanishes and all is clear and bright. In fact, a dreary politics penetrates everything. You can't run a business without the threat of denunciation. You can't get basic services without humiliation. You feel bad about yourself. You think about what you say, since it can be used against you later. What you do on the internet is recorded forever, and can land you in prison.
Public space closes down around you. You cannot escape to the bar or the bowling alley, since everything you say is monitored. The person on the next stool or in the next lane might not turn you in, but you have to assume they will. If you have a t-shirt or a bumper sticker with a message, someone will report you. Even if you just repeat the dictator's words, someone can lie about you and denounce you. And then, if you voted for the strongman, you will be confused. But you should not be. This is what you voted for.
...
Once this process begins, it is hard to stop. At the present stage of the strongman fantasy, people imagine an exciting experiment. If they don't like strongman rule, they think, they can just elect someone else the next time. This misses the point. If you help a strongman come to power, you are eliminating democracy. You burn that bridge behind you. The strongman fantasy dissolves, and real dictatorship remains.
Most likely you won't be killed or be required to kill. But amid the dreariness of life under dictatorship is dark responsibility for others' death. By the time the killing starts, you will know that it is not about unity, or the nation, or getting things done. The best Americans, betrayed by you when you cast your vote, will be murdered at the whim and for the wealth of a dictator. Your tragedy will be living long enough to understand this.