American Politics from 2019 on

[Tero]

2016 and 2024: voters want president who will shake things up. Not some bridge repair / chips factory Biden.

With the 2016 political primaries looming, I asked my “focus groups” which candidates they found most attractive. At that time, Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush were the likely Democratic and Republican candidates, respectively.

Yet almost no one I spoke with mentioned either Clinton or Bush. They talked about Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, oftentimes both, as candidates they’d support for president.

When I asked why, they said Sanders or Trump would “shake things up,” “make the system work again,” “stop the corruption,” or “end the rigging.”

In the 1990s, many of these people (or their parents) had expressed frustration that they weren’t doing better. By 2015, that frustration had morphed into raw anger.

The people I met were furious with their employers, the federal government, and Wall Street. They were irate that they hadn’t been able to save for their retirements, upset that they had no job security, indignant that their children weren’t doing any better than they had at their children’s age, and outraged that houses were unaffordable, schools second-rate, and everything far more expensive.

Several people I talked with had lost jobs, savings, or homes in the financial crisis of 2008 or the Great Recession that followed it. Now most were back in jobs, but the jobs paid no more than they had two decades before in terms of purchasing power.

I heard the term “rigged system” so often that I began asking people what they meant by it. They spoke about the bailout of Wall Street, political payoffs, insider deals, CEO pay, and “crony capitalism.”

These complaints came from people who identified themselves as Republicans, Democrats, and independents. A few had joined the Tea Party; some had briefly been involved in the Occupy movement. Yet most of them didn’t consider themselves political.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-root-of-trumpism

[Tero]

Leftist voter fraud theories are bubbling here and there. Journalists are not interested.

Velazquez said he tried to search out reliable info, but was met with more voting fraud conspiracies. He refreshed his feed throughout the next couple days, hoping to see content from journalists fact checking the misinformation, but only received more false claims

"There is no news on Threads to counteract what people are saying," he said. "I don't see news articles from reputable sources. There are no journalists in my feed to counteract the claims."

https://www.usermag.co/p/metas-threads- ... nspiracies

[Tero]

2025-2028 Trump deports 500 000. Not millions.
2028 election slogan: MAGA, finish the job

[Sean Hayden]

I think many are in for a rude awakening. Things are different.

[Tero]

Elsewhere: it was about feelings.

Vengeance has a purpose. Punishing people who do you wrong stops them from doing it again. But that's not all. As well as the practical benefits, it makes you feel better. Feelings are very important. What have Democrats done to make you feel better in the last 30 years? Lately they've just been making you feel more and more depressed, what with global warming, and Covid, and being nice to people who are different, and now inflation. Someone's to blame for all the ills of the World, and it cartainly isn't you. You've a pretty good idea who is to blame, but the jackbooted government won't let you smash some immigrant's face in, which is making you feel even more depressed.

[Tero]

https://www.threads.net/@esa55jarvi/pos ... le4u02VQjg

[Tero]

Voters want stuff, but you have to make it look like hard working people have earned it, like higher wages.

We’ve got to pick some big fights where people can’t be in denial or question whether or not we are standing up for them or whether we’re standing up to the big corporate interests,” the Washington congresswoman said, adding: “It’s a difficult message to send when you’re trying to court money from that community.”

During the press conference, Jayapal introduced several new progressive members of the freshman class – among them the first openly transgender person to serve in Congress, Sarah McBride of Delaware, and a protege of Kamala Harris, Lateefah Simon of California. Their elections, the congresswoman said, were “evidence that progressive power, despite everything that we are dealing with, is still growing”.
Jayapal argued that Tuesday’s results were not a repudiation of progressive policies and dared Republicans to try to roll back popular elements of the president’s economic agenda as they have promised. Meanwhile, Jayapal noted, voters in red states such as Alaska and Missouri acted to raise the minimum wage and provide paid sick leave, two policies progressives have long championed.

But across the country, Americans sent mixed signals. In blue states such as California and swing states such as Arizona, voters approved conservative measures to strengthen law enforcement’s response to crime and unlawful immigration respectively.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... c-policies

It's difficult to go along with their demands for immigrants, because it looks like a big Trump win.

[Brian Peacock]

Aye, when you dance with the Devil you don't change the Devil - the Devil changes you.

[Tero]

elsewhere
Fear_Itself
Charter Member
37m
I’m just going by what works. Kamala had a billion dollars and a forward looking message about sound policies and good governance. It failed.

[Sean Hayden]

Did you know we have twice as many billionaires as the runner up China? There’s probably a neat, tidy equation from that to explain Trump then./crumple

[aufbahrung]

Trump can't be explained. So far outside the norm gotta be a orange version of the Avatar aliens.

[macdoc]

He's the Mule from Asimov's novel.

Asimov | Fandom
https://asimov.fandom.com › wiki › The_Mule
the mule in asimov from asimov.fandom.com
The Mule (269-306 FE) was a powerful mentalic mutant, warlord, and conqueror who posed the greatest threat to the Seldon Plan. His acute ...

[Joe]

Maybe Joe McCarthy without the booze...but that's not as fun as The Mule.

[aufbahrung]

Head of Fox News in command of the military. Onion or real?

[aufbahrung]

https://www.axios.com/2024/11/13/trump- ... of-defense