Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General Trump 2.0

Thank you.........

My suspicion is that the Democrats are in a position of ignorance. I am not trying to call them names they simply, I think, have no idea what to do. I think that their problem is that their activity in congress isn't and, without congress, they don't think they have a place to fight Trump. They seem to be attending every political gathering that involve members of congress and raise hell. The problem is, as you said, they don't really have a message they can state every time they get a chance. Again, my suspicion seems to be that their lack of congressional will due to not owning either House or Senate and its turned off any kind of decisions as to who, what and when they are. Every now and then somebody make a claim to being in charge and then they kinda go away.

Its like a really bad disease they just doesn't seem to be fixable. My fond hope is that they stop that. I consider it kinda like somebody whining all the time about stuff that might be possible to fix if you can find the right doctor. They haven't found him/her yet. I have always assumed that if there is any group trying to do something that somebody is takes, voted in, etc. Right now they just kinda float. They all do not like the Republicans but just can't seem to get together to solve the problem. I find it VERY strange. Why, for instance, isn't the woman who ran and lost stand up and start whipping them into shape. She could do the "I lost and am sick of it and its time to go to work" thing. I suspect she could actually do it if she had the will (bit of hope there but I suspect I am probably wrong).

They do an excellent job of contacting me to ask for money, which I do not send. I don't know who is doing what. Every request I get is from some claimed Democratic group. I have no idea who or what they really are. If they want money one would think it would come from the party, it doesn't. I have no idea what they do, who they are, etc.
no matter who they claim to be. Again, its a bit strange. There are a number of known Dems asking for money, that's fine but ..........

There are some Republicans that are leaving for whatever and their spot will need filling. Democrats are going to try and win those seats. I know this because of the large amount of folks asking for money to support that quest. I do not know who is really asking so, again, I don't offer. I suspect if they can get some that can win places it might do something to group the Democrats. I hope it happens. I also assume that the Democrats have enough to cover a couple of these.

We will see. I wish us all luck............

As an aside. I just thought I would take a look at what others are saying about anything. That too was interesting. There was not much to see. I just wonder if its more of Democratic silence as the waiting for leadership and give-a-damn raises its head. Not much to say I guess.

Mainstream political pundits I believe are in complete denial. They keep talking about how the courts will stop the assault on Democracy. Delusional .... they are all delusional.

What does a future dictator do when legally elected? He gets frustrated with the courts and legislature, and simply short circuits the process by granting himself all the power he needs to function as a dictator. The examples of what he is doing are many. Already the courts are becoming clogged with suits halting his EO's. He has now limited the WH press pool to selected outlets - I suspect all will be propaganda networks ... does it sound familiar ... Germany ... Russia .... N Korea etc. He has now sided with the axis of evil and in doing so has made America a pariah internationally. He and Putin are trying to partition Ukraine ... does it sound familiar? Trump led Congress has become a rubberstamp ... does that sounds familiar? When court cases finally get to the SC, they will either side with him or deny him. If they deny him and it is important he will snap and simply ignore them ... after all they have no enforcement mechanism AND they have already given their imprimatur to "official acts" as legal and non criminal.

For MAGA all of this is added value, but for rational Democracy loving folks (the few who remain) we will in our lifetime have seen the demise of Democracy. I'm apoplectic and can not continue typing.

I’m all into numbers rporter, exit polls to be precise along with all that is happening today when it comes to numbers. Saving democracy, I posted her prior to the election on how Americans viewed that issue. They were split as to whether it was the democrats or Trump that would save democracy. That all the talk about saving democracy wasn’t working. The exit polls showed that to be exactly the case, those who thought our democracy was threated went to Trump 50-48 and those who thought our democracy was secure also went to Trump 49-48. Bottomline is the voters saw the democrats, Harris as much a threat to democracy as they saw Trump being the threat.

https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/exit-polls/national-results/general/president/0

I’d say last years election boiled down to job performance of Biden and his administration, 40% of all voters approved, they went to Harris 96-3 over Trump, 59% disapproved, they went to Trump 82-16 over Harris. Past presidential elections have always been about the sitting presidents job performance which gets totally lost when folks try to figure out why Trump, the challenger won. They tell you it was the economy, inflation, rising prices, immigration, crime, a thousand other issues, but all those issues will eventually fall into job performance category. 59% of all Americans thought Biden did a lousy job as president. No sitting president has won reelection nor has that sitting president’s replacement won the election when a sitting president overall job approval was below 50% going back to FDR. The results of 2024 continued that streak. The list:

1952 Truman 33%, his replacement Stevenson lost to Eisenhower
1968 LBJ 43%, his replacement Humphrey lost to Nixon
1976 Ford 45%, Ford lost reelection to Carter
1980 Carter 37%, Carter lost reelection to Reagan
1992 G.H.W. Bush 34%, Bush lost reelection to Bill Clinton
2008 G.W. Bush 28%, his replacement McCain lost to Obama
2020 Trump 43%, Trump lost reelection to Biden
2024 Biden 40%, his replacement Harris lost to Trump.

You can see how polarized and divided we have become as a nation. 90% of democrats approved of the job Biden did, 8% disapproved. 5% of republicans approved, 92% disapproved. That’s partisanship, approval or disapproval carried to the extreme based only on party affiliation. From FDR through Bill Clinton it wasn’t unusual to have 30, 35% of the other party approving of the job the president was doing. 30% of republicans approved of the job Bill Clinton did during his presidency, 35% of democrats approved of the job Reagan did. Then beginning with G.W. Bush’s second term, through Obama, Trump, Biden you have 90% of the president’s party approving of the job the sitting president was doing, done. Disapproval in the single digits from the opposing party of the president. Approval, disapproval based only on party affiliation.

A point that never seems to be part of political analysis discussions is the fact that lying - and I mean egregious, slimy salesman-style lying - is what persuaded a frighteningly large percentage of what I now call The Gullibles" into voting for such an awful person.

Facts don't matter to The Gullibles, reality is what they are gaslighted into believing.

How do reasonable and ethical people (by comparison - not implying that Dems are without warts) prevail in a world where outrageous lying rules, and lots of people believe those lies?

For a sitting president having but a 40% overall job approval, the democrats historically wise did a great job. They lost the popular vote by 1.5 points, gained 2 senate seats while losing 4 senate seats. The democrats came darn close to winning last year. But close doesn’t count except in horseshoes, hand grenades and nuclear warfare. I get it.

With Biden’s numbers, one should have expected a GOP landslide. Only their nominating Trump prevented that. I think this can be shown in two sets of numbers, 59% of all Americans didn’t want a continuation of Biden/Harris governing or running this nation. On the other hand, 52% didn’t want a return of Trump even if that return meant being rid of Biden/Harris. The result was neither Trump nor Harris received a majority of the vote. It boiled down to who was disliked or unwanted the least which turnout to be Trump. Since Obama, we’ve had a huge increase in the number of folks who vote against a candidate/party and not for any candidate or party. As long as the candidate/party they’re voting against loses, they don’t care who wins. Slightly more people voted against a continuation of Biden/Harris and the democrats than voted against Trump. But neither was wanted, just like 2016.

Perhaps more important is that the democrats figure out why their voters didn’t turnout in 2024. 37% of all who voted in 2020 were democrats, only 31% who voted in 2024 were democrats. The republicans maintained 35% of those who voted both elections. The democrats need to look within their party, not without.

https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/exit-polls/national-results/general/president/0

https://www.cnn.com/election/2022/exit-polls/national-results/general/us-house/0

Yikes .... you have confused what people think or believe with reality. I am typing about reality. What did Trump say he was going to do and does that translate into saving Democracy or does it mean he was going to destroy it. The answer was not blowing in the wind, it was blatantly obvious. Now we can see just some of what he was talking about. Does it even resemble what a Democracy is all about??? He threatens everyone to do what he says i.e. he has weaponized the whole executive branch. If you resist, they will come after you. Free speech? really only for him and you better be singing his praises. He has subsumed congressional prerogatives. Does anyone think that is Democratic? He has packed the executive branch not with qualified people but with loyalists who will break the law for him. Does that sound like Democracy in action?

Of course MAGA which would account for about 50% would say he is saving Democracy, ,in fact they would say he is the savior of America .... maybe even the son of God and for sure he was sent by God. How would anyone think anything these folks think would be credible? When Hannity asked him if he would be a dictator, Hannity was hoping Trump would say no. Hannity was scared to death if Trump said yes, it would scare people from voting for him. Both Hannity and Trump are too stupid to understand their own base. Trump said it best when he said he could shoot someone etc etc and not lose a single vote .... abso-frakking-lutely .... but then he doesn't realize the obvious .... they don't care if he is a sexual predator (added value) and yet he wants to claim he isn't .... they don't care if he is a felon (added value) and yet he wants to claim he isn't ... he wants to claim he is not a dictator (real added value) and they don't care .... etc etc. He shouldn't care about anything he does because his base, MAGA, doesn't care what he does

So when you cite polls on this question, you are misrepresenting reality. And that reality is Trump is in the middle of a quiet coup to end Democracy and replace with a dictatorship. Once DOGE has eliminated all federal agencies Trump doesn't like, and Trump's team of TV personalities and oligarchs have purged the executive branch of people unwilling to bend the knee, he will have free rein to do as he pleases under the mantle of official acts of the presidency. He will proceed under the guise of what was once known as Democracy, but in reality it is but a facade, hiding a dictatorship. Already multi-media is acquiescing in fear of retribution from a weaponized executive.

So is this what saving Democracy looks like? If it is I need a different dictionary.

So I will once again type these words .... it was all about saving Democracy and nothing else matters

I often wonder if the masses actually give a damned about their government, democracy, whatever. Perhaps is, basically, a home for people who just don't give a damn and have given up even trying. That being said, we have a show that defines the doings of Mr Trump every day, without fail. She set it up for 100 days. The man who either owns or runs her network (msnbc I think) has apparently gone to Trump which, I suspect, means that the show referred will be gone. Its interesting in that she has a really large group that is watching the show and the Democrats are actually trying to tell her she is wonderful with a letter with 1 million watchers signing in. That being the case, I am obviously wrong about people not caring. All that being said I wonder if there is actually a wakening when it comes to Americans in general. I do know that Trump is working, hard, to find any possible money he can grind out of our government to give to his friends the millionaire class.

Even that is really strange. Trump and the richest man in the world tell us of their doings. They make billion dollar successes on a number of things that, later, turn out to be lies. This is ongoing, it doesn't happen occasionally, it happens almost every day! It also seems that to get the money they are now deciding to lower what citizens are getting from their government. This includes little things, like health and welfare as well as education, etc. You know, things that we all like and expect. This, in turn, seems to be getting the citizens a bit worked up. All that being said, when we are told results of all of this, however, it seems that is not the case and most remain set in their ways. Perotista, for instance, studies the math on all of this and the results don't seem to be changing much.

Our nation is supposed to be run by two Political parties, the Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats are liberals in favor of, in theory, helping all citizens as much as they can. The Republicans, on the other hand, tend to have more strict thoughts about who gets what. I know, my definitions are a bit quick and not really defined but I suspect a reader will understand. Then its what each side does. The Democrats try to be everybody's friend and help. The Republicans, currently, own both houses of congress, fear their leader, Mr Trump, to the extent of actaully doing what every Mr. Trump tells them to do whether they like it or not and to keep their damned mouths shut (the Democrats, on the other hand are constantly running their mouths and doing little else. They are not a bonded group with a message, a plan, and a goal - they just hate the other side (well, actually, each side hates the other - its part of the current deal).

If the above is even close to the truth I am interested if anybody has an idea of how to bail out the entire situation. Its like belonging to a religion where all those belonging to the religion disagree on everything in the religion but haven't the common sense to try something else. I suspect that its time for the Democrats to, at least, try to do something else. Right now what they do is run their mouths and beg for more money. They just do not shut up and its not only boring but a pain in the butt. What we seem to have is a government which is a pain in the butt and I have no idea what can be done to fix it. NOBODY is happy! NOBODY is satisfied! NOBODY, as far as I can tell gives a damn! This is a problem! With all that going on what its all about is, basically, EVERYBODY's well being. What I do know if this keep going our pain in the butt government is going to be gone and there is nothing to replace it but I betcha the greedy will win it all. American is famous for greed. Hell, there are even shows on TV about our greed and greedy.

Right now we have given the greedy all the power - I wish us all good luck..........

Fact, rporter, what people think or believe is what wins or loses election. That is reality in their minds. The problem all along with this is the democrats have spent 8 years going after Trump that when they, the democrats said that Trump was a threat to democracy, it came across as nothing more than another negative attack ad, another vote for my guy rhetoric. Few took it seriously.

Yes, I study the math jgw. What the math shows me is few Americans pay attention to the workings of government until an election nears. To the question, How much attention have you been paying to the 2024 election campaign for president? On 29 Oct 2024, just days prior to the election 51% answered a lot, 28% some, 15% only a little, 6% none at all. On 18 Feb 2025, that question was asked differently, how much attention do you pay to local, national or world news. 32% answered a lot, 25% some 32% a little, 10% none. The difference in the question is because there aren’t any elections scheduled until next year. The percentages that answered a lot are probably over inflated because few want to admit they don’t pay any attention to what the news or what is happening around them be it political or other news.

To back that up, you have this: After a year dominated by a relentless and intense United States presidential election campaign, Americans are looking for a break from political news, a new poll suggests.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released on Thursday found that 65 percent of US adults said they felt the need to limit media consumption about politics and government “due to information overload [and] fatigue”.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024...lts-tuning-out-political-news-poll-finds

You missed my point!!!!

It doesn't matter what people think or believe. What mattered was it was actually that Democracy was on the line. What people thought or believed determined how they voted. The result despite what was thought or believed is that Democracy is dead.

Now ... if you believe Democracy is not dead and Trump saved Democracy ... well begin reporting how Trump is corrupt in national outlets and see how long it takes for AG Bondi to file suit against you.

Now ... if you believe anything else ... I mean absolutely anything else mattered then show me the light.

Only slightly off topic:

I was reading about the history of political rhetoric yesterday and stopped up on this paragraph, written shortly after Hitler's ascent to power.


What we do here, and what liberals have been doing since the death of JFK (the last great liberal communicator), is explaining to death. People do not have the mental capacity, time, and/or patience to be receptible to rational argumentation. Whenever a Democratic politician starts in on why and how their policy is better than the alternative, all people hear is the "waa-waa" of an adult in a Peanuts cartoon. Many on this forum have been pointing out the obvious for years: the Democratic Party is doomed to failure until such a time as they produce a real communicator, a person who is able to speak to the masses using a rhetoric they are receptible to.

Unfortunately, I am afraid the time when that could have been effective has passed for the US. The takeover of the federal government by the forces of oligarchy / kleptocracy / kakistocracy is pretty much complete. There is only the sliver of a chance left that anything resembling a fair federal election will ever take place again.