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submitted 11 months ago by Powderhorn@beehaw.org to c/politics@beehaw.org
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[-] DeForrest_McCoy@beehaw.org 86 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

No ....no it's not it just isn't. What this is a sensationalist headline trying to sow discord, despair, and defeat.

I understand the implication of a future where Trump or his like were in charge, but as dark as it looks I still think the majority of our country has better sense than to elect him president again. So what if he makes the Republican nomination it just confirms their lawless criminality.

In other words STOP with the crap attitudes that trump is "Inevitable" Shit... he's not.

[-] marco@beehaw.org 35 points 11 months ago

I'm not sure enough people with enough sense are actually voting...

[-] ALostInquirer@lemm.ee 22 points 11 months ago

Would reminding them that Trump is a major reason abortion rights are on the backslide in the US help? Or that Republicans are running around banning (or trying to ban) books from libraries? Or that Republicans are largely refusing to allocate taxpayers' money to help taxpayers?

[-] DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 11 months ago

Aparently not?

There's plenty of logical reasons to deny him another term, but none of it seems to matter.

[-] MJBrune@beehaw.org 9 points 11 months ago

No. Lots of voters actually want that. 80 million people or such.

[-] marco@beehaw.org 7 points 11 months ago

I think that would work... Look at the recent democratic wins: it was mostly elections where abortion rights were on the ballot.

[-] firstofus@beehaw.org 1 points 11 months ago

How are Republicans refusing to help taxpayers?

[-] ALostInquirer@lemm.ee 15 points 11 months ago

Here's a recent article from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities detailing how they're refusing to help in the form of the most recent House appropriations bill.

It boils down to the fact that the Republican party's position as being fiscally conservative typically entails reducing government spending by cutting funding to and thereby underfunding domestic programs that help taxpayers/citizens.

[-] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 11 points 11 months ago

Only everything they do.

[-] Igotz80HDnImWinning@kbin.social 11 points 11 months ago

It doesn’t fucking matter who we elect if we don’t hold them accountable with general strikes.

[-] kick_out_the_jams@kbin.social 30 points 11 months ago

the majority of our country has better sense than to elect him president again.

The majority of country didn't elect him the first time and definitely isn't necessary to elect a president.
The presidency is decided by electoral college votes, not by the people's vote.

[-] Lowbird@beehaw.org 8 points 11 months ago

This is true. But calling the worst case scenario "inevitable" is doom and gloom surrender before the fight - stuff like this will just make people think "well, it's hopeless, there's nothing I can do" and so they do nothing when maybe they could have done something.

[-] Nougat@kbin.social 29 points 11 months ago

... the majority of our country has better sense than to elect him president again.

The majority of the country elected Clinton in 2016. American politics has always been structured in a way to appease the assholes by putting a heavy thumb on the scales to make them more powerful than they should be.

[-] DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 11 months ago

This opinion contradicts the polls though right?

I mean it's a shitty headline and I dislike the use of the term "inevitable", but polls suggest that voters are eager for a Trump dictatorship.

[-] angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com 4 points 11 months ago

Polls show them as neck and neck, not to mention that 2023 elections show up pretty bad for MAGA.

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 4 points 11 months ago

He won in 2016 with a minority of votes. Neck and neck is not reassuring.

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 10 points 11 months ago

the majority of our country has better sense than to elect him president again.

More people didn't vote than voted for either of the candidates.

Fix that problem and assholes like Trump won't be a concern

the only truth to the headline is the increasingly part - and it's because of articles like this.

[-] fwygon@beehaw.org 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

How can you call it sensationalist when you know that the consequences of Trump being elected that are listed in the article are highly likely to be true?

I don't consider it sensationalist. I consider it to be a strong warning. If you read the article through to the end; you'll note the tone changes and explains why this has happened. Is it potentially sounding the alarm too soon? Personally, I do not think so. It might be the intention of the author to scare someone of enough power into action extraordinary enough to Stop Trump.

Or maybe it will scare an everyday reader into leaving the country to escape the growing fascism, or into actually turning up at the polls and voting for anything but the Orange Tyrant.

Emphasis added - I will try to avoid highlighting who is responsible for the failures but they are listed in the article. I am not sympathizing with Trump Supporters; I am pointing at how this article outlines how we got here today.

What is certain, however, is that the odds of the United States falling into dictatorship have grown considerably because so many of the obstacles to it have been cleared and only a few are left. If eight years ago it seemed literally inconceivable that a man like Trump could be elected, that obstacle was cleared in 2016. If it then seemed unimaginable that an American president would try to remain in office after losing an election, that obstacle was cleared in 2020. And if no one could believe that Trump, having tried and failed to invalidate the election and stop the counting of electoral college votes, would nevertheless reemerge as the unchallenged leader of the Republican Party and its nominee again in 2024, well, we are about to see that obstacle cleared as well. In just a few years, we have gone from being relatively secure in our democracy to being a few short steps, and a matter of months, away from the possibility of dictatorship.

TL;DR: The odds are higher because the listed barriers have been cleared.

Yes, I know that most people don’t think an asteroid is heading toward us and that’s part of the problem. But just as big a problem has been those who do see the risk but for a variety of reasons have not thought it necessary to make any sacrifices to prevent it. At each point along the way, our political leaders, and we as voters, have let opportunities to stop Trump pass on the assumption that he would eventually meet some obstacle he could not overcome. Republicans could have stopped Trump from winning the nomination in 2016, but they didn’t. The voters could have elected Hillary Clinton, but they didn’t. Republican senators could have voted to convict Trump in either of his impeachment trials, which might have made his run for president much more difficult, but they didn’t.

TL;DR: There were many people in power who could have stopped him, but did not, as they felt certain that "Surely the next obstacle will stop him. The next obstacle did not stop him

Throughout these years, an understandable if fatal psychology has been at work. At each stage, stopping Trump would have required extraordinary action by certain people, whether politicians or voters or donors, actions that did not align with their immediate interests or even merely their preferences. It would have been extraordinary for all the Republicans running against Trump in 2016 to decide to give up their hopes for the presidency and unite around one of them. Instead, they behaved normally, spending their time and money attacking each other, assuming that Trump was not their most serious challenge, or that someone else would bring him down, and thereby opened a clear path for Trump’s nomination. And they have, with just a few exceptions, done the same this election cycle. It would have been extraordinary had Mitch McConnell and many other Republican senators voted to convict a president of their own party. Instead, they assumed that after Jan. 6, 2021, Trump was finished and it was therefore safe not to convict him and thus avoid becoming pariahs among the vast throng of Trump supporters. In each instance, people believed they could go on pursuing their personal interests and ambitions as usual in the confidence that somewhere down the line, someone or something else, or simply fate, would stop him. Why should they be the ones to sacrifice their careers? Given the choice between a high-risk gamble and hoping for the best, people generally hope for the best. Given the choice between doing the dirty work yourself and letting others do it, people generally prefer the latter.

TL;DR: The Psychology is briefly explained; and it highlights how extraordinary that taking action would have been for the person(s) in question.

A paralyzing psychology of appeasement has also been at work. At each stage, the price of stopping Trump has risen higher and higher. In 2016, the price was forgoing a shot at the White House. Once Trump was elected, the price of opposition, or even the absence of obsequious loyalty, became the end of one’s political career, as Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, Paul D. Ryan and many others discovered. By 2020, the price had risen again. As Mitt Romney recounts in McKay Coppins’s recent biography, Republican members of Congress contemplating voting for Trump’s impeachment and conviction feared for their physical safety and that of their families. There is no reason that fear should be any less today. But wait until Trump returns to power and the price of opposing him becomes persecution, the loss of property and possibly the loss of freedom. Will those who balked at resisting Trump when the risk was merely political oblivion suddenly discover their courage when the cost might be the ruin of oneself and one’s family?

TL;DR: More Psychology is explained briefly and it highlights that the price to stop Trump has been rising exponentially with each step.

[-] realitista@lemm.ee 8 points 11 months ago

I still think the majority of our country has better sense than to elect him president again.

Why? You think the polls are completely lying? It's very dangerous to be this complacent when the data directly contradicts you.

[-] Zworf@beehaw.org 2 points 11 months ago

Yeah there are still many who don't vote. If some of those get swayed by this and actually vote, there could still be a chance.

[-] realitista@lemm.ee 5 points 11 months ago

Who's to say they will vote the way you want them to?

[-] SparkyTemper@sopuli.xyz 7 points 11 months ago

Trump pardoned murderers.

[-] Zworf@beehaw.org 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I hope you're right.

However I also never imagined my country (Holland) the PVV extreme-right would become the biggest party by far. People really have gone mad. Even some of my friends are now so hostile against immigrants and transsexuality in particular, I just don't know where it comes from. I guess they doomscroll too much in the wrong places and edge each other on or something.

[-] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 31 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Trump may not be inevitable, but a Republican/ fascist victory is (maybe not in 2024, but eventually).

The system is set up so that control flips between the GOP and DNC, and basically all the GOP candidates are pushing to expand executive power and quash democracy.

If you think that either:

  1. we can perpetually prevent Republicans from ever getting elected to President again

  2. all Republicans are not going to continue their push to eliminate democracy as the country becomes generationally less in-line with their right-wing policies

you are naive.

And if you think (most) Democrats are going to do anything but ride their stock portfolios all the way to the wall, rather than take the actions needed to quash fascism, you're straight delusional.

[-] lars@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 11 months ago

It would almost be a relief to stop worrying about it: there’s essentially nothing left I can do to prevent it. And hope and worry and disappointment make me sick.

[-] CylustheVirus@beehaw.org 1 points 11 months ago

Then we're doomed because a 3rd party without voting reform would only accelerate Republican wins. And voting reform to break first past the post is unlikely at a national level.

Seems like the winning strategy here would be to find or make wedge issues to fracture the Right.

[-] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

We are doomed.

Humans always seem to have this belief that every crisis must have some successful path to a solution that is actually feasible, and with minimal effort, but just like climate change, centrists will resist any actual changes until it's too late.

[-] CylustheVirus@beehaw.org 1 points 11 months ago

An empty, pointless sentiment. Useless even if true and I have no time for useless sentiments. I'm too busy fixing stuff and doing things.

[-] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 1 points 11 months ago

Hey, power to you. Go fix it. I won't hold my breath, but I genuinely wish you luck.

[-] crusa187@lemmy.ml 20 points 11 months ago

Manufacture consent much? Gross.

[-] RoosterBoy@lemm.ee 18 points 11 months ago

Left news: A Trump dictatorship is inevitable

Right news: A Biden dictatorship is inevitable

Actual news: The media wants you to start a civil war with your fellow man to distract you from eating the rich.

[-] vivadanang@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago

~~you from eating the rich.~~

from rioting in the streets to stop the destruction of the environment

slight disagreement but overall excellent thesis.

[-] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 1 points 11 months ago

Biden and Trump are both rich. No rich person wants a civil war, that would get most rich people killed.

[-] RoosterBoy@lemm.ee 10 points 11 months ago

No rich person actually has to fight in any war, that's the job of those dirty poors. And every gun/round sold is extra money to the (rich) people who made investments into the MIC and media propaganda machine.

[-] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The US is not nicely divided between North and South like it was in the 1860s. A civil war now would look more like The Troubles + mass shootings, than it would Gettysburg-esque battlefields. Political assassinations would be happening constantly. Mobs torching neighborhoods of their political opponents.

It would be very difficult to be insulated from that, short of fleeing the US (which I'm sure many rich people would).

[-] sodalite@slrpnk.net 16 points 11 months ago

wapo said mask off, we're voting for fascism. wow.

[-] MayonnaiseArch@beehaw.org 4 points 11 months ago

They've been like this for a long time, there should be no surprises about this

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 8 points 11 months ago
[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 5 points 11 months ago

🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:

Click here to see the summaryThe fact that many Americans might prefer other candidates, much ballyhooed by such political sages as Karl Rove, will soon become irrelevant when millions of Republican voters turn out to choose the person whom no one allegedly wants.

Until now, Republicans and conservatives have enjoyed relative freedom to express anti-Trump sentiments, to speak openly and positively about alternative candidates, to vent criticisms of Trump’s behavior past and present.

Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, the Wilson administration shut down newspapers and magazines critical of the war; Franklin D. Roosevelt rounded up Japanese Americans and placed them in camps.

There is every reason to believe that active-duty troops and reservists are likely to be disproportionately more sympathetic to a newly reelected President Trump than to the “Radical Left Thugs” supposedly causing mayhem in the streets of their towns and cities.

The power shift at the federal level, and the tone of menace and revenge emanating from the White House, will likely embolden all kinds of counter-resistance even in deep-blue states, including violent protests.

As Mitt Romney recounts in McKay Coppins’s recent biography, Republican members of Congress contemplating voting for Trump’s impeachment and conviction feared for their physical safety and that of their families.


Saved 97% of original text.

[-] Xero@infosec.pub 5 points 11 months ago

I keep seeing this nonsense in my socials. No a self sustaining dictatorship is not going to suddenly appear in America. It would probably work in almost every other country on Earth, but in the USA it's impossible because of the individualist delusions all Americans are raised on.

this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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