Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General Trump 2.0

That's not how it works.

As a Democrat most of his life, he knew he would never win a primary as a Democrat, so what should he do? He is also somewhat media savvy. So if he were to run it would have to be as a Republican, but what issue/s would he run on? If there is one thing which animates the Republican base more than anything, it is bigotry. Trump is a bigot, so it is a match made in hell. The Republican Base is a very high percent bigoted. They hate everyone and everything, all the while shrouding themselves in the American flag, holding a Bible in one hand and gun in the other. These folks are 100% Trump supporters. They are the victims of political paranoia, which leads to politically delusional thinking. With the right message they would have followed anyone. Trump recognized their need and became their voice. He would never give them up nor would they give him up (a la cult behavior).

For total control, think back to Nazi Germany. Hitler did not have to convince ALL of the people, just enough to gain and maintain power, especially through some very effective tools. To keep his coterie of elected officials in line, he uses the Base. To exert pressure on the rest, Trump extorts people, organizations, and governmental entities to kiss the ring or suffer the consequences. How can he make his threats real? He has replaced everyone who could possibly raise a voice in opposition in government, and replaced with loyalists who would lie, cheat, and steal for him. AG Bondi has already filed suits against people IN NY she deems anti-Trump. The Gov of Maine will be next. I see this as just the start of the complete weaponization of government aimed at everyone not loyal or or at least willing to take orders from Trump.

In normal times the SC would have the integrity to stand up to Trump wanton debasement of the Constitution, however in this SC there are between 4 and 6 justices willing to side with the Unitary executive theory and allow Trump to continue to be King.

And that is how it's done.

Trump ticks off every trait used to identify a person suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which is so unusual Trump would be THE textbook example to study. He is the extreme.

Welp, right on queue, the firings of top military has commenced. I predicted that they would wait until after Patel was confirmed (Did anyone really doubt he wouldn't be confirmed despite his total lack of credentials and his stated bias against 4 in 10 American?).

Watched a report from a beach in Texas yesterday. They had to look hard to find anyone who would criticize the orange ogre. Mostly there were people crowing how slapping Gulf of America on that body of water was going to bring a boom of foreign tourists to Texas and Florida who previously didn't come because they thought they were going to the cesspool across the border.

Seems the old truism that people judge other people's level of knowledge and intelligence based on their own.

I am curious. When they show Trump, on the TV, he ALWAYS points out that he is winning more and more support. If there is anybody there on his side they too will put in their congratulations for his good luck. When he that all happens, so far, I have yet to note a single person running the show pointing out that he is losing support. I suspect that this is one indication that those that give us our shows do not want to be on the bad side of Trump. I can even understand why but, still, its a beginning and that tends to concern me.

Should probably mention that there remains shows that spend a LOT of their time pointing out that Trump is in the dumper and its just getting worse and worse. I have also been watching shows showing meetings, attended by Republican congress folk, who catch literal hell from those attending. What I don't understand is that they must understand that those attending, and many who don't but agree, are not going to vote for them again. All this being said, they just do not seem to be particularly concerned and maintain their continuing minding all that Trump says for fear he might put up somebody to run against which, apparently, scares them more. In any case, the congress folk who support Trump simply do not deserve to be serving. If we are able to last for 2 years it will be pretty interesting to see, exactly, the results of it all. I also suspect there are congressional places coming up regularly so we will learn just who wins what now and then.

Oh, one other thing. I watched a show the other night which was talking about just what the Democrats are doing about the lies of the Republicans they are working, hard, to get out the truth, backed by fact. If this is actually happening, I wonder about those who supported Trump find out that they were flat out lied to. A lot of this has to do with teenagers. Apparently he had a lot of their support and that might also be changing. I REALLY hope that the Dems turn it on!

All of this seems to be on a good side but I am not yet convinced and wonder........

Hmm, jgw, the truth is Trump hasn’t gained any new support nor has he lost any support after one month in office. You can see the numbers in my post in the election thread which breaks it down. Support for Trump, opposition to Trump is basically the same as it was on election day last November.

I haven’t seen the democrats come up with any coherent plan to oppose Trump. I think they’re still in denial over losing the presidency to Trump. They need to come up with a leader, a fresh, younger face to coalesce around. Someone with new and fresh ideas. Someone who can gain the working class back, someone who new or first-time voters can identify with. Harris lost both the working class and new, first time voters last year. Heck, Trump came within 5 points of winning the union household vote. I think Harris relied too much on the fact she wasn’t Trump to carry her to victory instead of addressing the most important issues of inflation, rising prices, illegal immigration which topped the list of issues in last years election. The Biden/Harris administration was rated as failures when it came to those issues by most Americans.

https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/joe-biden/issues

I don't think you nor political pundits, who have said the same thing, are looking at this correctly. This government has all the appearances of a monarchy/dictatorship in which the government is Trump. There is no policy dispute because everything is by fiat (EO). The only recourse is to hope the courts will address the issues. So it is not up to the Democrats to oppose fiats. Once House Trumpists propose legislation, the Democrats can rebut the most odious ideological proposals with rational/reasonable solutions. But even then, it does not of necessity mean they oppose Trump, because the House and Trump may be at odds, complicating the issues on who or what Democrats are opposing and providing solutions. Trump world is chaos without inherent order.











I think you as well as a large number of pundits are confusing denial of a loss with disbelief so many people would vote against Democracy. I am in disbelief and confounded that my assertions that the electorate is stupid/ignorant may have been understated. I have to conclude Americans as a whole no longer believe Democracy as an idea is valuable.


I agree. I used to listen to several right wing radio talk shows and all of them stated at various times conservatism could not be sold to the masses. They needed someone who could formulate a message and sell it. Instead for the last 40 years they found Gingrich and who sold his message of hate.

I knowingly believe liberalism will win in the end. The inertia of social evolution will eventually crush those who can not or simply refuse to adapt. It is a fact of nature. It may not be in my lifetime, but it will happen. Unfortunately at this time finding a voice to speak plain sense may not bend the trajectory of Trumpism. Foremost would be the simple fact the gangsters running our country will not go willingly. They will implement every roadblock to free and fair future elections, if they even allow them. Think of Ukraine. They should have had elections last year but in a time of war, with constant bombing, an election would be difficult at best. Should Trump declare martial law under whatever specious pretense crosses his feeble narcissistic brain, we may not see an election for many years. Congressional Trumpists and quisling Republicans would be complicit. And if anyone doesn't think that can happen .... well they haven't been paying attention to what's going on.


First rising prices and inflation are the same thing and second all MAGA conflates illegal and legal immigration as illegal/evil. But you are correct these two issues were the main issues.

They should have been addressed but weren't and I think there were a number of folks who commented on it. However, when I've explained the concept of capitalism and it's relationship to inflation to non-MAGA Trump supporters, they understood it, but when explaining to MAGA, they didn't get it. Hard to convince the masses. The immigration issue has been so conflated for a long time by propaganda media sites, I find it useless to try and explain. Too frakking stupid AND we may be facing a global trend toward extremist right wing hatred, which is and will be difficult to combat. How does one erase bigotry in one generation? In my youth I thought it would be gone in 3 generations ... ahhh to be so idealistically young again.


On these issues ... yes an abject failure, but on others better than average considering the results.


America can survive bad policies. It cannot survive destruction of the foundations of Democracy.

I don't think most Americans know what the word "Democracy" means. I've found that most Americans don't know what a lot of words mean, but they'll argue until they're red in the face about them.

For those people, I've coined a new portmanteau - ignorrogant. They are ignorant, and absolutely arrogant about it!

There is a very long list of words Americans in general do not know the meaning of and/or have come up with their own, nonsensical definitions. Here are just a few:

• Democracy (as already noted)
• Republic
• Communism
• Socialism
• Capitalism
• Freedom of the Press
• Freedom of Religion
• Tariffs
• Welfare
• Common Good
• Service
• Charity
• Family Values
• Right to Life
• Science
• Theory
• Hypothesis
• Fact
• Knowledge
• Research

In their defense, for generations they've been inundated with false definitions through a concerted effort on the part of the right wing while also being subjected to a dumbing-down of public education - also at the hands of the right wing.

It has gone so far and is so pervasive in the US (and increasingly so everywhere) that it might take centuries, not generations to rectify. It certainly won't happen in my lifetime. It may well have reached a point of no return and civilization will collapse into ignorrogance™ and hatred making the Dark Ages look like Pax Romano.

Wow! I would have thought, given all the TV stuff pointing out this and that, that there might be a change. You are, unfortunately, probably right about the Democrats. I think they are trying but failing and have to actually sit down and decide who and what they are and what they are going to do. This has been going waaay too much. I must get at least 5 requests for money every freaking day! (I am giving them nothing until they can prove that they have something going that makes sense and works). Seems to me not to be a difficult thing yet they just seem stuck. On the other side, they just keep on doing the same thing and it seems to be working.

I wonder if I am wrong about my thought that the Dems really didn't lose by that much and the end results were pretty close. This, in spite of the fact that I think 30% of the Dems didn't vote and Trump cleverly grabbed most of the teen agers. Am I even close on that one?

Thanks again!!

I would say jgw, you hit the nail on the head. Very close election, Harris lost by 1.5 points which makes last years election the third closest election since 1888. Only 1960 and 2000 were closer. The democrats gained two house seats while losing four senate seats. But three of those loses were in deep red states of West Virginia, Montana, Ohio which shouldn’t have had a democratic senator to begin with. Only Pennsylvania which is a swing state was a state that made a difference. Given Biden and company numbers, 41% job approval, between 55-65% disapproval of his handling of most issues, one should have expected a GOP landslide of Reagan proportions back in 1980. The fact that didn’t happen says much more about Trump than Harris or even the democrats.

There also is no denying in my opinion that the democrat has no leader, visible or otherwise to lead their rebound. That they don’t know where to begin to counter Trump and all his EO’s. The democrats don’t have a message stating they stand for this or that or aren’t getting it out. The only message one can deduce from the democrats is they’re anti-Trump. Not for anything, just against Trump. There are times when a party, candidate must give the voters something to vote for, not just against. I’ll repeat myself; the democrats need a fresh young leader with new fresh ideas. Someone with ideas that can win back the working class and attract new voters. The democrats lost both groups to Trump last year. You need to give those folks a reason to vote democratic, just being against Trump won’t cut it. Win back the working class along with new, first time voters you have a winning coalition. My two cents.

I'm not much into after action reports, so have ignored most of what pundits have said, however, I think you have made a reasonable analysis. I still believe THE main issue was and still remains Democracy. All the rest of it doesn't matter if there is no Democracy.


In the marketplace of ideas, apparently the only one which has any inertia is hatred. Trump is the leading salesman. Hatred is so visceral and inclusive. MAGA hates everyone and everything, so it's an easy sell. Everything else one hears from MAGA as reasons why they support Trump are rationalizations to obfuscate their hatred. Once one peels away the layers of this fraud, the only thing left is hatred. So that takes care of MAGA, but you say what about the rest? Well I suspect they, being as ignorant as they are, went for the rationalizations as if they were valid. How can anyone say they are for law and order if they voted for a convicted felon, who is also a sexual predator? Why would anyone vote for a person who made America into a laughingstock on the world stage? Why would anyone vote for someone who is compelled to lie about everything? Why would anyone vote for a businessman who continued to bankrupt companies while cheating banks and contractors? Why would anyone vote for someone who openly flirts with dictators? Independents went for the lies while MAGA went for immigration ... that's the issue predicated on bigotry (hatred).

What message could the Democrats or anyone have to counter an alternate reality? The Fox propaganda machine is going full blast, drowning out good sense. What Democrat stands out? Based on current trends, it would seem one needs to find a leader first then mold the issues to that presence. Democracy ... well there is no Washington or Jefferson around.

Spitballing and have no sense of what can be done. I am still convinced we are in the middle of a coup.