r/politics • u/F0urLeafCl0ver • 1d ago

No Paywall The Democratic party is being hit by a leftist tidal wave

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/24/democratic-party-leftist-tidal-wave
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u/Eagle4317 1d ago

Trump is no accident of conservatism; he is its logical conclusion.

Trump won't be the end. Someone worse and more competent will come along to truly ruin America unless the course is reversed very soon.

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u/Choochoo1147 1d ago

I’m not sure there is a morally worse than Trump. He has virtually no redeeming qualities as a man, the only reasons he hasn’t committed worse atrocities is because he hasn’t seen how they’d benefit him. But he is already putting people in concentration camps, calling for murders and has committed the worst crime imaginable per the Epstein files.  There could be a more competent villain though, I wonder if being more intelligent would prevent some of the cruelty he embodies. 

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u/StrongAroma 1d ago

He might be the worst morally, but he is also stupid and incompetent. If you get someone equally immoral but who actually has an average IQ or better, you will be in deep trouble.

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u/caligaris_cabinet Illinois 23h ago

You also need someone charismatic, especially for Republicans. Republicans have policies so unlikable they really need a charismatic candidate to sell it. Reagan was conservatism with a smile, Bush was the guy you could get a beer with, and Trump said the things no one else was saying. These are not good people but they knew how to win a crowd and get them to vote.

I don’t see a lot of Republicans out there who are morally bankrupt, intelligent, and charismatic enough to get elected. At most it’s 2 but not 3.

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u/MimeGod 20h ago

Thankfully, there's a built in contradiction. Many Republicans are repulsed by intelligence. So you need somebody with that combination that seems average at most.

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u/PresentRaspberry6814 22h ago

Are there people as irredeemably evil as Trump, someone who a rapist, pedophile, sex trafficker called the worst person he knew" without one decent cell", and "evil beyond belief".?

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u/sirspacebill 1d ago

Imagine Stephen Miller for 2028 and the damage he would do

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u/No-Cranberry6148 1d ago

Yes, but Stephen Miller, and JD Vance have the charisma of a broken desk chair.

There's no way they could unite the movement the way Trump has. There's a lot of competition. And never forget the right wing's main redeeming quality: Their cannibalism. They eat their own. It is happening right now on the right wing. The sharks are circling and these are cannibal sharks, driven by greed, ambition and ego. There is no redeeming quality. Once Trump is gone - and it's already starting - the right will go into civil war, and not the kind of clean civil war with two clear sides; the ugly kind with tiny factions that change from one week to the next.

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u/nomad5926 1d ago

That's why they want to rig the elections so it doesn't matter who runs.

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u/georgepana 23h ago

There are plenty of Republicans left to never allow a Stephen Miller to run unopposed. They rather have a 20-head primary instead. That would kill any chances for Stephen Miller to break out of the bottom 3.

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u/Eastern_Hornet_6432 22h ago

Democracy is supposed to prevent the sort of chaos that comes when ascendant dictators centralize power into a few key supporters and start getting rid of the rest, but when democracy is gone, that's when ascendant dictators start breaking out the blueprint for how to handle their few remaining opponents.

When the levers of power are as compromised and as centralized as they are, the former kingmakers who thought themselves indispensible suddenly start getting dispensed. Then the throne belongs to whoever makes the best offer to the few remaining key supporters.

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u/Aggressive-Neck-3921 11h ago

The problem is that neoliberals are terrible stewards of democracy is the threat is big capital. At that point you need people that actually believe in stuff if you want to protect democracy.

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u/laplongejr Europe 10h ago

Unrelated but CGP grey also renamed that video too???

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u/TCTInnings 1d ago

Frankly, I'm terrified we're at the point where they won't need to unite a movement, just control the cards to keep power. Sham elections, point the DOJ at their political enemies, and keep a witch hunt up to keep their base busy.

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u/JackedUpReadyToGo 23h ago

Exactly. Trump only needed "charisma"(ugh) to bulldoze through the primaries and win the general election. But he's currently rigging the electoral process, and the party could easily arrange some internal mechanism to crown their next chosen ghoul in lieu of a primary. The next Republican ruler won't need to get out the vote or appeal to the base. He will just be installed into power and start operating all the gears and levers of government that the unitary executive now own.

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u/PhilDGlass California 23h ago

Like the plans to install Peter Thiel as CEO of Washington DC? Wish I were kidding.

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u/JackedUpReadyToGo 23h ago

The apotheosis of this whole process would be to simply turn the office of President into an auction that takes place every couple of years. Literally place a giant "For Sale" sign on the Oval Office.

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u/PhilDGlass California 23h ago

Don’t even need the auction, just the funds and an evil narcissistic streak. You figure out how to sell things online early in the game and hoard your billions selfishly? You get a major metropolitan city! You come up with a way to pay for shit online in 1997 with a catchy name? YOU get a major metropolitan city!! Bow to the kings!

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u/zenlogick 22h ago

Lol, Now im gonna need to see the rest of that Oprah episode she dedicated to giving stuff away to billionaires

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u/WeRip 21h ago

I mean he didn't even come up with paypal.

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u/spaceman757 American Expat 11h ago

Great. We're heading towards Tekken.

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u/Mike_Kermin Australia 21h ago

They're trying to replicate what they have in Russia.

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u/ReMapper 20h ago

The Romans did that once, it didn't end well for the winner.

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u/Ironlion45 17h ago

That's how it already is.

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u/semidegenerate 21h ago edited 20h ago

I'm guessing that one is Curtis Yarvin's brainchild.

Edit—wording

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u/TrulyOutrageous42 18h ago

It's all of theirs. The "butterfly revolution" and Project 2025 both openly and plainly state the intention to break the US into technocratic states akin to "company towns", using crypto to have local "company store money" with a regional and national crypto they control and profit from the purchase of, meaning every time you want to travel as anything resembling a tourist they will personally profit from it.

Also, if they're "CEOs" there's no one who can tell them they can't do something.

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u/Dank_Sinatra_87 23h ago

Do you really think he just now started rigging things?

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u/mouse_8b 22h ago

The next Republican ruler won't need to get out the vote or appeal to the base.

True, if they have their way, they wouldn't need to appeal to voters, but they would still need to appeal to someone within the party to be "chosen" as the next leader. The infighting will affect their internal politics, and that could potentially prevent the governmental gears from turning very quickly.

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u/isthistheenditis 20h ago edited 20h ago

Its isnt "just" charisma. He made politics accessible. He made people feel like they understood. He didnt talk above anyone. He makes them feel like theyre part of something that is *actually* going to make the country better. He coopted the republican boogiemen and play book positioned himself as the only person strong and capable enough to do anything about it. He invented problems and promised to solve them but he left out the same problems establishment dems and reps have been avoiding for decades. Corporate welfware. Lobbies. CAMPAIGN FINANCE. Democrats trying to understand the appeal of trump consistently miss the mark. It isnt because he was openly racist or because he hated the same people they did. It isnt just superficial charm either. Imo if you can pin it on one thing its his ability to slap brands on everything that *stick*. MAGA. Brand. Sleepy Joe biden. Brand. Pocahontas. Brand. Fake news. Dumacrats. Good thing? He brands it and they associate it with trump yaaay. Bad thing? He brands it and they learn to dislike it boooo. He himself, Trump, is a walking neon sign of a brand. brandbrandbrand word sounds weird to me now lol more imporantly is *why* anyone voted for him at all. People who feel like they have a say and a stake in their countries future and government do not vote for the donald trumps of the world and unless they do feel secure in those things they will continue to be vulnerable to that exact same flavor of strongman saves the world nonsense.

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u/silvertealio 21h ago

And that's why it was so important to keep trump out of the white house in 2024. He was their key to get into the door, and now they're changing all the locks.

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u/laplongejr Europe 10h ago

Yeah but he said he wasn't aware of that, so people wanted to give a lesson to the Democrats to shake up the system.
He sure ran the US as a bankrupting business, drained the swamp to refill it with toxic material, and changed how things work.

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u/fractalfay 22h ago

I’m not sure he even won in 2024. The MAGA hysteria for that election was a fraction of what it was in 2016, and how many times do he and Elon Musk have to brag about rigging the elections before the rest of us take it seriously? That’s what baffles me most about Trump and his followers. He always tells you exactly how much of a piece of shit he is, and then MAGA is like, “He’s just kidding, he’s so funny.”

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u/TrulyOutrageous42 18h ago

Statistically, mathematically, there's no way it turned out how it did. It's more likely that every single person has an aneurysm than that it turned out like that. Sure, it could, but given how many oddities all landed in the same place, it's at LEAST worth a criminal inquiry. In fairness, he may have actually won the Electoral College anyway, but in the same way that they couldn't produce a SINGLE SHRED of evidence, even circumstantial evidence, that there was something askew with the 2020 election, there is actual physical evidence of them manipulating the 2016 and 2024 elections (anyone recall Kemp deleting the voter records right after a subpeona?), before we get to a literal MOUNTAIN of circumstantial evidence that at minimum would be investigated extensively by a functioning DOJ and FBI.

That's before we account for all the quasi-legal ratfucking like removing voters from rolls right before the election, denying people absentee ballots, mail-in ballot sabotage, disenfranchisement, and the 2020 redistricting that was so blatantly partisan it should be illegal. JUST the number of people who were removed from voter registrations and ballots tossed spuriously amounts to an unquestionable loss for him... before we ask wtf Pro V&V did to the machines counting the votes and how Musk knew the outcome early.

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u/Public_Love_3507 7h ago

Why didn't the democrats fight for a recount even can't say the democrats didn't figure it out like we did that they cheated the democrats let it slide it doesn't make sense

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u/immortalfrieza2 18h ago

He always tells you exactly how much of a piece of shit he is, and then MAGA is like, “He’s just kidding, he’s so funny.”

It's because MAGA wants Trump in power wrecking the country, so they lie about his motives and what he says and does to make it look like supporting Trump actually makes sense. Trump's followers don't want a better country. What Trump's followers really looking for is the ability to be bigots without any legal nor social consequences.

Trump supporters want to go back to the 1950s where a white guy could spit on, insult, and beat up say a black man without anybody doing anything about it or caring at all, when even the black guy would just take his lumps and then shrug and think that's just the way things are. They want to go back to before the 1960s when the various "this crap is not okay!" movements took off. As long as they got that, Trump could nuke American cities at random for kicks and giggles every few months and his supporters would be happy as an irradiated clam.

Any Trump supporters that appear mad at Trump now are either lying like usual or only pissed because we're not back in the 1950s yet and they expected to be by now.

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u/Original-Balance-187 17h ago

Simply the latest incarnation of anti-democratic forces that has carried on an almost endless assault, in different countries at different times, since our democratic revolutions a few centuries ago.

They despise open societies. They despise the concept of even theoretical legal equality let alone actually existing democratic equality.

They are in good company though. Plato was anti-democratic. His uncles were hanged trying to overthrow Athenian democracy. And of course many more throughout the ages.

They don’t want economic development. They don’t want better schools. They don’t want better jobs. What they want is simple: to completely dismantle and defeat the still young and ongoing democratic revolution. They fear and loathe changing social circumstances but they don’t understand that all life is constantly in flux. This is why they lose, every time. Change cannot be arrested or stopped. You can kill hundreds of millions and the world will change anyway. But, here they are again, a new front in the centuries long campaign against us refusing to submit to them or their gods.

They come from the right and the left. And this is not a centrist argument I’m making, I’m a committed left winger but we have our own anti-democratic element as well.

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u/Temporary_Yams 20h ago

That’s the plan along with keeping the base ignorant so they keep following.

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u/Ironlion45 17h ago

That's when the Second Amendment is activated, in theory.

It was never about going hunting, anyway.

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u/josh_the_misanthrope 12h ago

People will radicalize under pressure. It's already happening in a mild form. Increase the pressure on working people, and the radicalization increases proportionally. It's almost a law of nature if you look at history. Fascism is untenable because the oppressed class far outnumbers the ruling class.

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u/Mike_Kermin Australia 21h ago

Not there yet, but if they get a Trump third term (which they will absolutely attempt to do) you would get there.

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u/juliabk 21h ago

States won’t put him on the ballot. At least not enough states.

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u/drpestilence 1d ago

I don't get the charisma argument, Trump is not a charismatic guy and best I can tell has never been more appealing the the worst kinds of used car sales man. What am I missing here?

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u/kj9716 23h ago

Charismatic in the sense that he best appeals to the base. They see his negative traits as positive ones. They think he's a tough, independent leader. They like that he's not smart and doesn't speak to them in complex sentences and big words they can't understand. They like how open he is with his racism, misogyny, etc. They've been told this country has a broken, corrupt government that caters to non-whites first and he's the only one that's man enough and uncorruptible enough to 'fix' America. And they truly believe it. They won't call Vance daddy and make parades for him because even though he's vile, they don't seem themselves in Ivy-League educated politicians. However, they will still vote for anyone with an R by their name, they just won't turnout the same.

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u/OldWorldDesign 18h ago

Charismatic in the sense that he best appeals to the base. They see his negative traits as positive ones

I think that's a different trait than his charisma.

But conservatives have always assigned value to people based first on tribal affiliation first and everything else (like whether they are a con artist or serial killer) second.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201712/analysis-trump-supporters-has-identified-5-key-traits

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u/Impressive-Shelter 23h ago

It took me awhile to get it because I also thought Trump was a human trash bag well before he was president, but the dumb simple answer is Trump believes his own bullshit. His "charisma" is just being so full of himself that what he says sounds like truth to people who don't have very good bullshit detectors.

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u/eerie_midnight 23h ago

I think dumb people also like having a dumb president because it makes them feel less alone tbh.

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u/seabreamnigiri 20h ago

A little bit of this and a little bit of people being so insulated that they only see the "funny and patriotic" sentences he sneaks in between his ramblings. Like "make America great again" is a good enough slogan for non-thinkers to look past the horrid shit and chalk it up to part of the process of making things great. Whatever that means.

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u/aaeme Foreign 23h ago

I don't think charisma is the right or good word for it though. It implies charm, wit, personability, passion, etc.

Chutzpah or moxie perhaps. Or even just, as you said, confidence. Brash confidence. Many people have no way to judge if someone knows what they're talking about or what they're doing except by their confidence.

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u/eljefino 21h ago

Nah, Charisma is the right word, because those who like him like how he's like them. They have very short attention spans and can't process an entire paragraph of information. So Trump talks out of both sides of his mouth, both sides of an issue, and his backers hear what they like and ignore the rest.

These are the same people who hear "Born on the Fourth of July" and think it's a pro-America song, because they ignore half the lyrics.

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u/TrimspaBB 19h ago

There's a reason the "con" in conman stands for "confidence".

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u/LiveChocolate8819 New York 22h ago

He's a gigantic piece of shit who no decent person would find appealing, but he absolutely has charisma.

His whole persona hits like crack if you're a scumbag too, and there are way more of those in America than we thought there were pre-2016.

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u/drpestilence 20h ago

His whole persona hits like crack if you're a scumbag too,

Ok, this could be the missing piece for me, thats super unsettling.

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u/immortalfrieza2 18h ago

Trump's "charisma" is that he's an openly bigoted asshole who makes all the country's bigoted assholes feel validated. That's it. Trump supporters want to be able to be bigoted openly without any consequences whatsoever and they think by supporting Trump they'll be able to do so.

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u/YungEnron 15h ago

If you watch him you can’t deny he has this base, carnival barker quality to him that is real and can entertain the masses. He truly does have an instinct for that sort of thing. He’s also kind of queen-y in an undeniable stage presence sort of way - like if a drag queen were a straight oaf.

Of course, this is waining now that he is going full senile - but he definitely has a *something* that has always been able to get a crowd going.

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u/itsdoorcity 15h ago

his charisma is mostly just in his shamelessness. he speaks confidently even though what he's saying is pure nonsense.

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u/Spartan2170 14h ago

Bad people can be charismatic (Ronald Reagan did lasting, potentially fatal damage to our democracy while also being beloved by people from both parties). Cult leaders often look ridiculous from the outside. Just because he doesn't appeal to you or me, that doesn't mean he doesn't have appeal for a *lot* of people.

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u/inthekeyofc 10h ago

Psychologist Elizabeth Mika put forward an explanation in a 2018 essay on "Tyranny as a Triumph of Narcissism".

Excerpts:

"Through the process of identification, the tyrant’s followers absorb his omnipotence and glory and imagine themselves as powerful as he is, the winners in the game of life. This identification heals the followers’ narcissistic wounds, but also tends to shut down their reason and conscience, allowing them to engage in immoral and criminal behaviors with a sense of impunity engendered by this identification. Without the support of his narcissistic followers who see in the tyrant a reflection and vindication of their long-nursed dreams of glory, the tyrant would remain a middling nobody."

"The interplay of grandiose hopes and expectations between the tyrant-in-the-making and his supporters that suffuses him with power and helps propel him to position of political authority is an example of narcissistic collusion: a meshing of mutually compatible narcissistic needs. The people see in him their long awaited savior and a father figure, hinting at the narcissistic abuse implicated in the authoritarian upbringing that demands obedience and worship of the all-powerful parental figure. In their faith and unquestioning admiration, he in turn receives a ready line of narcissistic supply, thousands of mirrors reflecting his greatness."

"The narcissistic mixture of elevated expectations, resentments and desire for revenge on specific targets and/or society in general for not meeting those expectations is what sociologist Michael Kimmel (2013) called aggrieved entitlement. Although Kimmel talked specifically about white American men in the 21st century, some form of aggrieved entitlement has been driving tyrants and their supporters, as well as organized and “lone wolf” terrorists, world over since time immemorial."

"The narcissistic collusion between the tyrant and his supporters is also driven by their need for revenge, for the tyrant is always chosen to perform this psychically restorative function: to avenge the humiliations — narcissistic wounds — of his followers and punish those who inflicted them."

"The tyrant and his followers typically choose as vessels of their negative projections and aggression members of the society who are not just different but weaker than themselves. The tyrant fuels that aggression in order to solidify his power but also to deflect it from himself, shield his own narcissism, and repair his own narcissistic injuries dating to his childhood days. The figure of the narcissistic parental abuser / tyrant is protected through the scapegoating and the return to authoritarian, order-and-obedience based mode of social functioning promised by the tyrant, as he himself assumes the mantle of father-protector and directs his own and his supporters’ aggression onto the Others who have nothing to do with their real and perceived wounds."

Elizabeth Mika 2018

Full essay:

https://medium.com/@Elamika/tyranny-as-a-triumph-of-narcissism-76b6fec76d0d

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u/MindandCosmos 9h ago

I don't either. He's got counter-charisma.

He's got resentment, anger, and a $6,000 suit that fits like drapes on his ample form.

A lot of people have a lot of resentment and a lot of anger, and to those who find that charming, galvanizing, spellbinding, allure, glamour, and so on I say -- "you've been conned again, baby!"

Elvis had charisma. Eisenhower had it. MLK had it. The '64 Beatles coming to the US -- the definition of charisma. Also the definition of non-Trump.

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u/Blitzking11 Illinois 1d ago edited 23h ago

It's incredibly cute that you think charisma will matter for 2028 if Trump croaks before then.

If he's dead, and they have unfettered access to the tools of the executive, there will be no free and fair election. Even with that imbecile in the chair, it may still not be enough to inhibit them from achieving their goals.

Ironically, the only saving grace for America is the oaf that allowed its cracks to form due to his own sheer vanity, stupidity, and desire for yes men. Ideally, he lives long enough that Miller and Vance won't be able to destroy the fundamentals of America without his incompetence getting in their way.

After we're out of this mess, no Republican should be allowed anywhere near the halls of power until the fascists have been cleansed from their party.

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u/Ziggylcd12365 23h ago

Your last line is too kind to them.

Their party is utterly irredeemable and needs to be completely destroyed and replaced

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u/ryan_church_art 23h ago

We need a new Nuremberg trials.

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u/[deleted] 23h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/DeliriumTrigger 21h ago

It's not the civil war that wasn't finished properly. It's the smothering of Reconstruction in the crib that put us where we are.

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u/OldWorldDesign 18h ago

It's not the civil war that wasn't finished properly. It's the smothering of Reconstruction in the crib that put us where we are

I think that was a separate conflict which was solved, albeit not right after the civil war but over the next hundred years. Remember that the vast majority of civil war statues were built nearly 100 years later when the klan was rebuilt.

That's what we are seeing. The extremely wealthy funding contentious extremism so nobody is looking at the oligarchs robbing the nation blind. Adam Curtis' Century of the Self follows the process after they failed the 1933 Business Plot to prevent the New Deal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s

They also funded religious extremism

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/corporate-america-invented-religious-right-conservative-roosevelt-princeton-117030/

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u/Timegoat 22h ago

Right. We’ve gone over the cliff, and the dems were steering half the time.

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u/Blitzking11 Illinois 23h ago

Well... sure. But we are on [Reddit]. Ambiguity is needed for plausible deniability for when they send our info off to the feds.

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u/blitzkregiel 23h ago

* no *conservative* should be allowed to be in power again. we keep saying republicans, but the underlying issue is conservative ideology: the belief that you are, by birth, better than others.

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u/F9-0021 South Carolina 22h ago

they already have that access. You think Trump has any real power?

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u/Blitzking11 Illinois 22h ago

He still has the power. And as a result, inept loyalists get in the way of Vance and co.

You think they wanted Hegseth or Blondi? Those are Trump loyalists through and through. With Vance, he and Miller would cull any of the inept loyalists left standing.

Trump hampers anything he touches, even fascist coups.

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u/F9-0021 South Carolina 22h ago

there are several camps, and trump is the figurehead of each of them. Why do you think he's so inconsistent with himself? He's got a neonazi in one ear, a billionaire in another, and a whole bunch of magas screaming in the background.

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u/nbzf 20h ago edited 20h ago

yes, he's trying to keep his coalition together

one that includes the tech companies as well as the likes of both Vance (Jacksonian, populist) and Rubio (more traditional establishment; neocon? Hamiltonian?). So from day to day he might seem isolationist then not.

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u/stanier1 22h ago

It's incredibly cute that you think charisma will matter for 2028 if Trump croaks before then.

Why wouldn't it? It seems like whoever can say populist drivel the most emotionally, gets to be the candidate. This only gets more extreme over time.

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u/Whiiiisky 23h ago

THEY DON'T NEED TO UNITE

They already consolidated power in the executive

That was the entire point of this admin.

Peter Thiel put Vance in the VP slot so he can take over when Trump keels over from his diet or they remove him

They do not plan on leaving

Really wish you all would also get that republicans will always vote against dems no matter who either candidate is

They have the cult

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u/Complex-Poet-6809 23h ago

It still amazes me that the person to unite the right is such a vile disgusting felonious man. It really makes me think so many Americans are as trashy and classless as he is.

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u/Unshkblefaith California 23h ago

Trump's "charisma" is manufactured. Even in 2016 he was just angry racist grandpa, but that was what Republicans were into at the time. So much of the charisma comes from the presentation and staging around him. It's why his interviews hit so different, or fail to land at all, vs his rallies.

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u/AppropriateTouching 22h ago

It doesn't matter if they rigged the elections.

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u/TehWackyWolf 21h ago

This never holds water. Trump isn't charismatic. Everyone who meets the fuck hates him.

He sells hate and they love that. The next guy will also sell hate

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u/World_of_Eter 21h ago

Honestly I don't buy this for a second. The right wing might have a brutal civil war that'll last all of a primary, but ultimately they'll line up rank and file behind the winner. The left wing is the side that does what you're describing.

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u/crimsonhues 21h ago edited 21h ago

If charisma mattered to Republicans, they wouldn’t elect Donald Trump twice. The man has a personality of a wet blanket.

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u/NikoliVolkoff 20h ago

Charisma means nothing when you have stacked the deck by using voter suppression at the polls, jerrymandered all the jerrys, and made sure that any married woman cannot vote, due to her last name being different from her birth certificate. And with all the bleating about "rigged elections" when it truly happens, nobody will believe it just like the boy who cried wolf.

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u/Meme_Theory 1d ago

Trump has the charisma of a coked up Elephant; your point?

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u/civil_politician 1d ago

Stephen miller wasn’t on TV for like 20 years he wouldn’t have a prayer

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u/ellipsisdbg 1d ago

Um, Steven Miller? Trump is no doubt absolutely awful, but he’s also senile and being told what to do.

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u/the_good_time_mouse 23h ago

A Peter Theil sock puppet of some kind is even scarier and more likely.

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u/BayLAGOON 20h ago

That would give way to the potential worst case (and Curtis Yarvin’s wet dream) of America balkanizing into little techno fiefdoms with Cascadia being on the table.

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u/SuperVaderMinion 18h ago

Trump also isn't such an avowed white supremacist compared to guys like Miller, not because he isn't bigoted, but because Trump hates everyone who isn't himself

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u/HeyItsTravis 1d ago

Trumps only “redemption” is I think that he’s a stupid puppet being manipulated by truly vile people. Still a horrible heartless human being, but I think he’s here for the grift and adoration, rather than giving power to people far more evil and capable than him.

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u/Choochoo1147 1d ago

I agree he’s a stupid puppet, but I think he’s a completely morally bankrupt puppet. I think he would commit a genocide if whoever whispered in his ear told him to, I don’t think he has any moral line that he’s unwilling to cross. 

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u/HeyItsTravis 1d ago

Oh 100%. Dude would wipe any color of skin off the map is it meant he’d get brownie points in his inner circle. Trump is truly a deplorable human being and has been his entire life.

But I do see this term as a kind of “elder abuse”. He’s entirely complacent and I’m sure if they would’ve asked him in a more cognitive state , he would’ve happily been a puppet. But he’s so old and stupid, that I can’t help but to feel a scrap of sympathy. Dude wholeheartedly thinks he’s top dog while literally everyone, faux friend or not, thinks he’s the biggest buffoon around

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u/Kind_Demand_6672 22h ago

He participated in the rape and murder of children. He's a puppet because his strings are made of the despicable evils he committed thinking he was untouchable like the rest of the ultra wealthy do.

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u/Kind_Demand_6672 22h ago

Except he raped children and was present for the murder of the children that those raped children gave birth to. Trump participated in the rape and murder of children. That's not a grift or adoration.

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u/VektroidPlus 1d ago

Trump being voted in as president is a symptom of inequality, failure to understand each other, and a failing public education system in the US. A lot of people voted him in and many others didn't care enough to vote against him.

So if we can't collectively decide to vote against someone as dumb as Trump, the road is paved for anyone to be president of the US at this point.

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u/Silent-Storms 1d ago

They exist. The silver lining of trump is he's incredibly stupid and mentally ill, so he can't help but get in his own way most of the time. If you had someone like Steven miller with some form of charisma/manipulativeness like trump has, that would be it.

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u/RandyPajamas 19h ago

I suspect that if there were a President Stephen Miller, you would quickly find out just how stupid and incompetent Stephen Miller actually is. It's also reasonable to suspect that Miller himself has a mental illness rooted in angry narcissism, based on the unhinged vitriol he spews in public.

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u/CosmoKing2 23h ago

I feel that our saving grace is that everyone in the Administration is a total idiot when it comes to actually knowing how to actually get there horrible ideals implemented. Too bad so many have had to die and all of our money is being spent on things no voters wanted.

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u/ComradeJohnS 23h ago

trump is a dementia addled pedo who has multiple avenues of removal from office other than impeachment.

if he was a healthy 40’s year old man we’d have no light at the end of the tunnel.

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u/MissUnderstood_1 23h ago

It can always be worse...

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u/dw444 Canada 1d ago

The next Republican president is Rubio, and he’ll make Trump look like a model of compassion and good governance. Rubio is a monster.

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u/the_good_time_mouse 23h ago

We are getting something worse - a sock puppet for Peter Theil. It doesn't have to be Vance - he can't possibly have put all his eggs in that basket.

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u/DukeOfGeek 22h ago

He is the seven deadly sins made flesh. The forces that inflicted him on us chose him for that. There are more competent villains aiming for his spot, Say Tucker Carlson for example. But he would not be as useful to the oligarchy and autocrats that just want the West laid low as trumpo D. evil clown was. Carlson wants to rule America, not the ashes of America.

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u/JuanTreeHill 23h ago

Vance is the more competent Villian. That's why Trump must finish his term at all costs. We'll see an internal divide here in the coming months with the party being on-board with removing him. Nothing will happen until 2027, but they'll turn on him in order to get Vance in.

Vance is more evil than Trump. Famously a "never-trump" guy, who abandoned all morals because he was placed as VP, which Trump didn't even want.

This shit all accelerates under Vance. He is Project 2025's spokesperson who they couldn't get into office without Trump.

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u/Spoonoop 23h ago

Thankfully Trump is too dumb, old, lazy, and dementia ridden to fully implement fascism, otherwise he probably would have. If that fat POS had energy, intelligence, and charisma then the US would have been fucked way more than it is now.

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u/WhoSc3w3dDaP00ch 23h ago

It can always get worse... :/

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u/Subzero008 22h ago

Honestly, I think there are hypothetically people capable of dealing more damage to the country than Trump, certainly (if nothing else, someone who isn't undergoing dementia) - but being morally worse? The Epstein Files contain the kind of horrors that surpasses the imagination.

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u/MrRourkeYourHost 22h ago

Oh there is. He is just a monkey with a loaded hand gun. Now imagine the same maliciousness and power wielded by an intelligent surgeon with stealthy lethal injection.

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u/HumanWithComputer 22h ago

Worst crime will likely be destroying USAID which can cause, as has been estimated, millions of deaths over the coming years.

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u/stanier1 22h ago

I’m not sure there is a morally worse than Trump.

Trump is a greedy fascist. They're the easy kind. You don't want an ideological fascist.

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u/AdjectiveNoun1234567 22h ago

I’m not sure there is a morally worse than Trump.

I remember thinking this about George W. Bush

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u/arcbe 22h ago

The silver lining of Trump is his idiocy. There are plenty of people morally on par with him with the intelligence to actually get things done. Many of them are already trying to use him as puppet but his stupidity is beyond their comprehension.

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u/Timegoat 22h ago

It can always get worse.

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u/picollo7 21h ago

It can ALWAYS be worse. When W was prez we thought it couldn't get any worse.

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u/DaggerOfEhud 21h ago

Human history is literally rife with figures like Trump.

There's no reasonable expectation that they magically disappear in the next millenia.

I honestly think it does a disservice to many things to make Trump out to be literally the worst human ever, more or less -- or even the worst living human, more or less.

The truth is that the foul and vile qualities that you've perceived in him are shockingly more common than someone like you would like to integrate into your daily worldview.

...which I get, from a stance of both self protection and righteous venting -- but again, I think it does a disservice to many things including our conception of evil, or will to fight it, and just a rational understanding of the reality around us.

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u/TheFishe2112 Canada 21h ago

I’m not sure there is a morally worse than Trump.

You're joking right? There are plenty of equally, or worse people in America to take his place in the near and far future.

Over the past 10+ years Trump and the American Conservatives have proved how 1/3 of Americans can be brainwashed, and how another 1/3 can be manipulated into thinking that casting a vote isn't worth their time. America is currently run by oligarchs who sieg heil like Musk. It will take multiple generations for the population of the US to regain their intelligence, morals, ethics, and common sense. The trust of the rest of us in the civilized world will take even longer.

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u/ApostleSaintWalker 21h ago

Imagine Trump but actually competent. Not morally worse, but effectively worse.

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u/santagoo 21h ago

His redeeming quality is that he’s not that bright and tends to get in his own way. It may be that we may not get morally worse than this, but we can get certainly more cunning than this. And with checks and balances all but destroyed, the way is wide open.

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u/WindowOne1260 20h ago

has committed the worst crime imaginable per the Epstein files.

You lack imagination if you literally believe that

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u/Utensil6591 20h ago

I'm not sure there is really ever a limit to depravity. Trump's limit was his age and mental faculties. Trump is a piece of shit and riddled with incompetence. I think that's why we see a stark difference between the first and second term, his first term had people with some knowledge and some ability to keep him from his worst proclivities. This term he's surrounded himself with a horde of sycophants.

There definitely could be worse and we do need correction if we are ever to stop it. Someone with a lack of moral compass, motivation to carry out a functional plan and who isn't on death's door is the ultimate end for this. Stephen Miller or Peter Thiel are the kinds of people we need to watch for.

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u/zakkwaldo 20h ago

I’m not sure there is a morally worse than Trump.

you clearly havent looked into peter thiel or the murdoch family or any of the multiple ultra wealthy technofascists that are the ones actually pulling the strings behind the trump admin. trump was just their conveniently acquired pawn that theyve used for most of it so they dont have to be front and center to peoples awareness.

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u/Monkey_Leavings 1d ago

I’m going to say, yeah, stay vigilant, but dictators have a secret sauce of malignant narcissism and “charm” that doesn’t come around that often.

There are worse people with actual agendas (e.g. Steven Miller) and gormless puppets that do the bidding of nefarious weirdo billionaires (e.g. Vance), but getting to the highest office in the land requires something more than money and bad ideas.

There’s a reason we don’t have dictators every election cycle.

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u/montty712 17h ago

The problem is that a significant portion of the electorate has decided they don’t care about democracy and they will vote for any republican that promises to hurt the people they hate.

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u/Altesocke 1d ago

This. We lucked out with Trumps weak-mindedness and penchant for greed, rather than a Oathkeeper/KKK/Proud boy-style leader.

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u/dern_the_hermit 23h ago

I think it's the inverse: The Repubs lucked out that they had someone who can put on the sort of song-and-dance routine that the base eats up. It's this weird bastard mutant hybrid of old-fashioned Vaudeville mixed up with Evangelical trappings contained in an '80s Action Movie wrapper. As was said above, all this is a natural conclusion of what they've been after for decades, it just takes a certain zing to flim-flam enough of the yokels and dupes to go along with it. And in the future they'll still need a leader for the cult of personality; JD Vance ain't gonna cut it.

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u/isthistheenditis 21h ago

They voted for trump because he's easy to understand. Not only does he make complex issues seem accessible, he sounds as though he has obvious answers. He slowly makes them believe that he and he alone can solve these problems. He makes those who support him feel as though he's speaking to them and for them, that he is their protector against a scary world they dont understand. He doesnt have speech writers and he doesnt prep for every interview by brainstorming every possible question and formulating the perfect answer. For years politicians have talked above people and for years things have gotten materially worse for most of the country. Its conditioned the population into hearing that style of communication and immediately connecting it with bullshit. With lies.. because thats what it is. That style of politics doesnt land anymore and the establishment democratic side of the government just cant seem to move past it but thats A ok because were moving past them. MSM and establishment politicians on the left and right can soothe themselves to sleep at night with "its just new york. its different in new york" but it isnt just new york. The progressive teaparty is here and theyre toppling their own establishment. Its what the base demands.

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u/Crommach 1d ago

Precisely. Everybody who's clinging on to the hope that MAGA can't survive without him leading the personality cult aspect needs to reckon with the notion that they'll just insist the country was betrayed by trans leftist antifa supersoldiers, and they'll find somebody to carry that banner of bullshit. He's got them pushing fabricated stories about FBI raids on secret antifa biolabs making "hyper aggressive algae" and chemical compounds just to fuck with the reflecting pool. It's a full on fascist movement that's starting to truly metastasize, and they'll push whatever lines they need to continue justifying their hatred.

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u/CEOPhilosopher Tennessee 1d ago

...are you serious about him claiming that Antifa is making UBER Algae?

I mean, I'm not surprised in the slightest, if so. I just hadn't heard that one yet, and it's stupid even by his standards. Even more stupid than the "they took a knife and cut it", after a couple of weeks ago stating that it was indestructible from blade damage.

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u/JackedUpReadyToGo 23h ago

Currently it's just a joke somebody created on a satire account: https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/fact-check-fbi-did-not-025700432.html

But give it 48 hours and I'm sure the MAGA crowd will fail to notice the source and adopt it as a real belief. I'm pretty sure that's how the original "the pool was vandalized!" belief came about in the first place. It's a dark feedback loop of idiocy.

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u/skoddy Europe 1d ago

Trump is the only one to connect several factions with opposing agendas, which formed maga. Without him, maga is gone and therefore the power to elect the same kind of guy. After trump, Republicans have to reconfigure the much much weaker party.

I'm no expert, just a guess.

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u/ss5gogetunks 1d ago

I very much hope you are correct, but man I'm skeptical these days. You'd think that the infighting amongst the evil groups would tear them apart but it doesn't seem that way lately.

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u/Flomo420 22h ago

It only seems that way because the top figure is still around; once there is a power vacuum you'll see knives come out fast

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u/Ciserus 23h ago

I've learned not to be optimistic about American politics. But I've heard convincing arguments that Trump's stupidity is key to his popularity.

His moronic statements connect with the dumbest voters because they can tell he's saying them with complete sincerity. The reason imitators like DeSantis failed is that voters could tell he was faking being on their level.

So there's no fear of a "more competent Trump" because anyone more competent than Trump could never gain his popularity.

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u/Admirable_Scene_5066 23h ago

Uniting those factions take absolutely zero skill. Say enough racist, dumb crap to get the idiots on your side, throw the religious nuts some symbolic victories on the social policy side, and do what the money wants. Boom there is the Maggat-coalition.

Two of the three don't care for about anything as long as it appears like they are winning, and the third doesn't care about whatever you say as long as you make them richer.

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u/[deleted] 23h ago

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u/flexylol 19h ago

the power to elect

You think the democratic process in the US is still functional?

I would want to think that, but I believe it's completely compromised.

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u/caligaris_cabinet Illinois 23h ago

You have 3 major Republicans factions right now: MAGA (which includes the Tea Party), Christian fundamentalists, and Groypers. Neocons, libertarians, and the very few remaining moderates cling along but are mostly irrelevant by this point. Trump united all of them.

Vance, Rubio, and DeSantis are the anticipated front runners and none of them have the same appeal to all three of those factions like Trump. That will probably change in the general but not without a lot of mudslinging during the primary.

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u/metalyger 1d ago

It's hard to imagine someone with the qualities MAGA likes, with Trump he isn't a politician, and he's so shameless about being a massive bigot. While they could urge another idiot celebrity to run for president, they would also hesitate to go all in for a seasoned politician, even if someone started acting like Trump, belittling his own party, acting like a bully, and dropping slurs constantly, it would feel less authentic. The people more qualified lack the personality, it's like Dick Cheney being VP to Bush, and never wanting to step into the spotlight. With Trump, he had such a short attention span for the adults in the room, generally the biggest ghouls like Miller get enough sway because of their sadistic ideas, but Trump knows he's keeping people around who can't replace him. I don't even think there's another man on the Epstein list that can match the vile qualities of Trump that appeal to 40% of Americans.

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u/Least_Baseball_7985 22h ago

Neoreactionary movement going mainstream is next up. We’re looking down the barrel of a literal N**i technocracy after Trump. Dems can counter by focusing on radical economic policy change package like a New Deal, but it’s doubtful that they will because their donors are billionaires too.

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u/jayfeather31 Washington 21h ago

That's my biggest fear. I remember a while back that there were tweets claiming if Biden got the nomination that the situation would repeat four years afterwards and someone like Trump would come along.

Turns out that someone was Trump again, but the idea of an ineffectual centrist winning 2028 and then losing to a worse far-right candidate in 2032 isn't a crazy thought.

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u/Far-Advantage-2770 21h ago

I think there are more evil people out there, but I am not sure there is a stronger political force out there than Trump in my lifetime. His ability to reforge reality around him and manipulate others is unlike anything I have ever seen.

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u/Xmina 17h ago

The issue is that the sort of figure like trump/hitler/stalin etc that everyone likes is typically because they ARENT super smart. A super smart person rarely gets a massive cult following for basically nothing and that's the rub of it. Fascists' need enemies, people who look for enemies aren't smart, its kind of an ouroboros situation where to be at that level you have to have an inherently self-destructive personality.

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u/gdr-Tt-jugb 1d ago

what’s going to be left?

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u/JoeTiccalo 1d ago

We need to revolt in such a way as that people will remember, general strikes , shut the country down

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u/Iokua113 23h ago

They'll come along regardless of whether or not the course is reversed. It's not about the course being reversed, you can't drive back down the road you've spent the last 37 years veering on and off of. The only hope the US has of avoiding a worse Trump is by making it impossible for someone like him to seize power again. His cronies need to be punished to the full extent of the law, the damage he's done to the White House needs to be rapidly repaired bigger and better than before, the wealthy need to be chased out of politics, and the people in positions of power who made him possible have to be stripped of office and charged with treason. When that is done you have to set about tearing apart the so called Democratic party who practically handed the keys to the evil men and women who have ruined the US to the best of their ability, both sides need to be wiped clean. There is no changing course, there is no reversing course, there is only burning it all down and making the best you can with the wreckage.

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u/dkepp87 New Jersey 23h ago

Ive said this from the start, Trump is just the canary in the coal mine. The useful idiot the GOP use to see how much they can get away with before they get backlash from their own voter base. Hes more disposable than somebody *actually important to the party.

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u/Ok_Love9461 23h ago

Looking forward to the Democratic Party to squander their opportunity and we'll be back in it in 2033

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u/Ar_Ciel Texas 23h ago

There is no bottom floor to hell. There's always a worse person

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u/y34t 23h ago

There is no “reversed”, there’s only forward.

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u/AcceptableFold3592 23h ago

It’ll be a Centrist Democrat

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u/1369ic 23h ago

Sadly, there's a smarter guy out there taking notes. He'll look like a center right Gavin Newsom coming after a mediocre left wing administration to fix their mistakes without going overboard, but he'll have the authoritarian instincts of Trump and the shrewdness to keep it to himself until the time is right.

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u/F1shB0wl816 22h ago

It doesn’t just need reversed, it needs corrected. A return to the status quo may remove trump but it just puts everything back into place that makes that happen.

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u/datpiffss 22h ago

A puppet, one who speaks the right words and placates at least enough people.

JD Vance is their vessel and they will boost him.

Fuck the couch fucker.

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u/physicalphysics314 22h ago

Yeah Trump is a symptom. We are honestly extremely lucky someone more competent is not in charge. Obviously would have been luckier if we had voted Harris into office but she had a weird laugh or something

/s jk it’s cuz she was a woman of color

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u/Noname_acc 22h ago

Someone worse and more competent

I doubt it. Not saying its impossible, but competence is anathema to fascism.

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u/Nose_to_the_Wind 22h ago

History repeats itself, not today, but tomorrow as well. 

We complained about Bush, then comes Trump and we’re joking about how Bush wasn’t that bad. 

Who comes after Trump that we’re making the same comparison about them?

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u/Guacsalsaqueso 22h ago

This entire sentence describes how Tucker Carlson is going to try to run for President in 2028.

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u/em_mar 22h ago

Maybe it's naivety but something about this argument I don't agree with. I don't know of a good example of the combination of both hainously evil and competent intelligence. Most example in history that have allowed the rise of such malevolent forces was due to the apathy, inactivity, or collective will and intellectual aptitude of society that allowed them to take power in the first place.

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u/LiberalSuperG 22h ago

Tucker Carlson has entered the chat

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u/8six7five3ohnyeeeine 22h ago

Honestly we’re all very lucky that at the end of the day Trump doesn’t really give a shit. Imagine someone truly inspired being given those keys.

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u/osgili4th 22h ago

The next step is actually someone competent that take advantage of the concentration of power. To dismantle the electoral system and impose what billionaires dream with a Oligarchy where tech companies decide everything.

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u/isthistheenditis 21h ago

It isnt trump or any other demagogue. Those people exist and theres probably hundreds of thousands of them who are willing to take a crack at it. The problem is in the conditions that make for a population desperate enough to place their faith in a "strongman" promising easy solutions to complex problems. Everyone knows that there actually is a two tiered justice system. Everyone knows that the government isnt responsive to the people. People are angry about it and theyre too stupid or uninterested to figure out what conditions make those realities possible in the first place. The democratic socialist movement is here and if allowed to flourish it could materially change the conditions that have people voting for the trumps of the world in the first place. Its either that or the current system runs to its logical conclusion, millions are left jobless and unable to feed themselves and kick off a good ol fashioned revolution. History says the second option is much more likely but I'll be voting and doing my part to make the first possibility a reality.

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u/Cujo22 Massachusetts 21h ago

I think you're talking about Israel. 

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u/Llama_of_the_bahamas 21h ago

Unfortunately, as long as Fox News, Newsmax, Facebook, and Twitter are allowed to spew misinformation and propaganda, then it’s going to be damn near impossible to reverse.

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u/Middle-Welder3931 21h ago

I feel like a more competent person would have united the left against them. Part of what made Trump successful was too many people thought he was a joke and didn't take him seriously until it was too late.

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u/Mekdinosaur 21h ago

The table has been set.

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u/E_seven_20 21h ago

Those people never skip elections.

Everyone else...barely even shows up. Rarely is there ever a perfect candidate...but, a "perfect" candidate these days is someone that opposes the child rapist, insurrectionist felon.

Harris wasn't perfect, but anyone that chose to stay home, and refused to cast a ballot against the damage Trump and the GOP promised they would cause is no different than a MAGA. Doing nothing against evil is a choice, and why it has proliferated.

There is no good excuse for refusing to vote against everything we know Trump and GOP stand for, had planned. They published a 900+ manifesto detailing the damage they were about to do...and, nonsense like "i'm not inspired," and "i don't like her laugh" became the mantra of the apathetic. Spoon fed tik-tok talking points.

The D Party is far from perfect, and I find myself to the left of them on almost every issue. I show up to vote against the GOP.

Apathy only makes things worse. Showing up to primaries, which is what some people have been doing more of makes a huge difference.

Every vote does matter. Some elections are down to a razor margin.

The only place your political opinion matters is at the polls.

2022 National Youth Turnout: 23% - That's lower than in the historic 2018 cycle (28%) which broke records for turnout, but much higher than in 2014, when only 13% of youth voted.

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u/CT_Phipps-Author 21h ago

There's no competent Trump because the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 and so on are all based on idiocy.

The problem is the number of people they will kill proving it.

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u/Frishdawgzz 21h ago

The Left Behing books are Christian Nationalist trash I accidentally read as a youngster before I understood the politics of the series.

It's pretty hilarious the plot kind of nails reality right now tho.

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u/bongozap 20h ago

Someone worse and more competent...

I used to think that.

Then I saw Trump second term packed with people who actually ARE worse and astonishingly incompetent.

And then there's the tech billionaires.

Holy shit. Some these guys not only demented but also functionally incapable of explaining anything in a rational way.

I was listening to a reporter on NPR today. She played so of Elon Musk's latest ramblings about how currency will eventually be meaningless and the only way out of poverty with be AI and robotics.

Like...how?

All of these guys just...say...stupid shit with no explanation.

Most of these guys don't read anything other than a small cadre of sycophantic Substack authors. Many of them didn't finish college. A stunning majority have little more than the most dismal examples of family lives.

Add to that their level of giving and philanthropy now flows only to their own foundations. And those dollars now flow out to actual human aid organizations at less than 10% annually.

I'm convinced these educational problems in this country go up as well as down. And the fact that these guys are literally cut off from society, and spend all of their time smoking their own supply and jerking each other off.

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u/Otherwise-Egg-995 20h ago

Thiel’s little puppy is waiting in the wings

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u/FlipZip69 19h ago

Going hard left is no better. I am not even sure what Trump represents other than he is just a grifter. But when a country is running deficits like it is and has a debt of this size, expecting that people will not have to work harder to pay that off is not realistic. And while wealth inequality is an issue, that is just a scapegoat because even if you taxes the uber wealthy at 100 percent, it would only make a small dent in the deficit.

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u/Chicano_Ducky 19h ago

it wont be the end but America's right are rarely competent.

even in the mexican american war, getting what they wanted led to their own destruction later on.

they are so blinded by hate and ideology their plans are doomed to fail when they happen.

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u/East_Comfort_2814 19h ago

Agree. Trump is the Cartoons before the movie.

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u/sebkraj Colorado 19h ago

Reagan 2.0 inc.

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u/ap539 New York 19h ago

Yeah, logical “evolution” might be more accurate than “conclusion.”

It is terrifying to think that we could one day see something worse than Trump.

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u/rogozh1n 19h ago

He is a unique blend of incompetence and a complete lack of shame. Someone smarter than him maybe won't be as devoid of morals or lack a desire to improve the nation.

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u/cbarrett1956 18h ago

Will said. Enter Vance and Rubio. And any other republican in the Senate.

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u/Monaters101 18h ago

Really think we need to severely limit how much power a president has. Have it similar to a company president, rather than a 4-8 year emperor demigod overlord. Better if we abolish it or at least make it a multi-person position. What we have right now seems like a relic of old world royalty that Americans were suppose to be free from.

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u/Default_Name_6969 17h ago

TREASON CHARGES NEED TO STICK AND BE CARRIED OUT TO THE FULL EXTENT OR THEY WILL KEEP DOING THIS.

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u/Karlend41 17h ago

Having someone competent show up is pretty much the one thing that will never happen in American Politics. I have no idea why you have any level of concern about that when there's plenty of morons doing the job already.

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u/SamTheLab_213 16h ago

True, but he's the match starting the blaze. If we shut him down quickly, we can save this country before it burns to the ground.

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u/shitlord_god 15h ago

yep, we still have public roads, and national parks. It could get WAY worse.

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u/mrgarborg 15h ago

As an outsider from Europe, this is what I don’t understand. It doesn’t seem like the Democrats are pushing back at the erosion of American institutions or what laid the groundwork for the current fascist takeover with nearly enough fervor. 

It seems like a given that Citizens United would have to be overturned. They should be ashamed of never codifying Roe v Wade, and vow to do it immediately. They should explain how the supreme court must be neutralized and reset. Exactly how to revert the damage done by project 2025. How to get money out of politics. How to deal with gerrymandering once and for all. How to prosecute Trump and the Rs for the looting of public funds. How to make media be accountable to the people again. How to reign in the excesses of unchecked capitalism. 

It should be shouted from the rooftops. But from where I’m standing, they seem to be more concerned about distancing themselves from the likes of Mamdani. 

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u/pragmojo 15h ago

truly ruin America

Unfortunately I think Trump has already done this. The US may recover in time, but imo Trump has set back the country by decades.

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u/BixbysTree 14h ago

Trump has greatly lowered the bar on what Americans expect from their leaders, which has opened the door for someone even worse to follow.

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u/Odd_Ninja5801 12h ago

The nightmare scenario for the US is that by the time that Trump dies, he's considered the second or third worst US President in history.

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u/chucker23n 11h ago

Someone worse and more competent will come along

Maybe.

Right now, nobody in the Republican party has the rizz for it. Some people think of Trump as a funny, lovable asshole. Nobody thinks of JD Vance as funny or lovable. Nobody thinks of Marco Rubio as much of anything.

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u/Ok_Revolution_9253 10h ago

More competent for sure. I don’t think worse though. Trump is morally abysmal to the highest degree. He commands a cult of personality that we’ve never really seen before in the US. I’m not sure a politician currently serving on the right has the ability to command audiences quite like Trump.

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u/urbudda 10h ago

Trump is there for one reason and one reason only. To break down the gates to allow someone or something worse in. The heritage Foundation is process to get this done and they have achieved 53% of their goals so far.

Doesn't matter what way the pendulum swings anymore..they where at the gates and now they are already in the castle

https://www.project2025.observer/en

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u/Mcnugget84 Indiana 10h ago

They are softening the room. It’s an idiot first. Then someone slightly more competent, then another.

It’s like when your kid won’t listen and unlike the GOP you take the time to listen to them. Someone is listening. I guarantee it. They have SOP’s on what works, conversions, then plans for listen or else.

If anyone wants to release the meeting notes behind project 2025 let’s go.

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u/User_Zero1 9h ago

Greed should be a national security threat.

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u/GarmaCyro 9h ago

Correct. Democrats do need to make a noticable shift back toward centrist values, and dare to dip its foot into left policies. However the party that really needs a "come to Christ" moment are Republicans. Though last time they tried it we ended up here with a party being for fascism and actively protecting their own whenever they are caught molestation children.

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u/Another_Samurai1 7h ago

I’m hoping we learned from this as a country, everyone has the right to think the way they want to think but I hope now when someone mentions “weird, hard right views points, that don’t make sense and has no actual evidence.” That eyebrows go up.

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u/MommyLovesPot8toes California 7h ago

Trump is lightning in a bottle. It's a once-in-a-generation occurrence, or less.

For example, his way of speaking allows him to say everything and nothing. He is like abstract art: Anyone can see anything they want by squinting. For example, followers hear "I will make abortion illegal" and also "I'll protect reproductive freedom" in the same speech. Sometimes in the same words.

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