I think the current economic and political system is failing a vast majority of Americans and like other authoritarian demagogues in the past, Trump misattributes that problem in ways that resonate with the bigotry and racism that exists in American culture.
You just explained in one sentence what I bumbled my way through in four paragraphs. Well written, my friend.
A lot of old-fashioned "good old homegrown" folks who feel that the world is changing and the economy is leaving them behind. Think of coal towns, mid-west mining towns, etc...
Insert a republican who tells them enough times that it's not the fault of big business screwing literally everyone over, it's actually the fault of the immigrants/LGBTQ+/Mulsims/Blacks (insert marginalised group of choice here) coming and taking what should rightfully go to Good Honest Working Folk/Christian Evangelicals (Insert the group you're trying to court here) and then promise to change that.
The low-key greatest quote came from LBJ in an off-hand remark to an aide. Not even from a speech.
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
True then. True now. And true internationally. There is no country where the Conservative Right Wing doesn't play by that exact rulebook.
That's how they stay alive in that place. Literally anything that wants to kill them just stops and goes "awwwwww"
True. Point taken. I just meant that he was in his Mogul height during those years.
I get that. But there's no way these people stay Democratic in four years time. Their purpose is to take Trump's loss as a means to wrestle back their party from MAGA. They know that it's the only way they have a chance to win in four years is IF they start a Republican civil war after this (hopefully) loss of a great deal of power.
It's absolutely insane that our media is so linked to the United States that our Conservatives only start to fall when people see American Conservatives getting beat-down and shamed in the presidential race. (and rightly so)
Are we, as Canadians, unable to tell how shitty our own Right-Wing is unless the American Mirror tells us so?
He's seen plenty of rails, just not the political kind. He's a product of the 80's after all.
They'll never come out and say it openly, but I sense a strong theme in the Harris campaign of "we're also running to give the republican party the impetus to kick Trump and his cronies to the political nothingness that they deserve to be in"
With so many people saying "I'm a republican but I'm voting for Harris", it's very clear that this election is just as much about Republican's reclaiming their "grand ole' party" from the cult of personality that has taken it over. It's a shame that they have to literally vote with their opponent in order to make that happen. But the thought process seems to be "Let's get dominated, spend the next four years purging ourselves of Trump and his idiotic sycophants, and then come back in the next election and fight with dignity again."
The Quokka marketing department enters the chat...
Edit 2: Oh well. It was used incorrectly so often, that it now can also mean trivial facts.
I hate it when that happens. It sucks. It literally sucks.
The scorpion and the frog.
People don't change their nature, they just learn to hide it better for the sake of public conformity.
I don't disagree. But even the worst candidate (besides Trump) was still a human being. Trump jacked the evil up to a whole new level, because not only does he contain all the worst aspects of ALL of those other people, he doesn't even have the shame or the tact to hide it behind "politicking".
Yes. It's all a charade. Political candidates are humans who are selfish, arrogant and don't always have their constituents best interests at heart; especially conservatives. But there was always an unspoken agreement to hide all of that behind professionalism, proper decorum, debate and policy arguments. We do that because the alternative is chaos. When the evil is laid bare for all to see, then civilization itself is no longer truly relevant. If Trump can get away with all this shit, well fuck it, then so can I. The entire country can YOLO.
We pretend. We and our politicians share a pleasant fiction where they're "just like us" because everything collapses hard once Pandora's box is open.
Trump's danger lays not in what he says or does. But in the shameless, unapologetic way that he does and says it which emboldens every one of his sycophants to start doing the same. Hold him accountable, in any way necessary, and yes...those assholes are still going to exist in the republican party to some degree (They're like cockroaches after all). But we might, just might get back to running the country with at least a faux sense of civility and proper debate.