Has "Trumpism" moved beyond Trump to actually trying to destroy the US Democracy?

[ecco]

The lack of cooperation and compromise began to end with Gingrich in the early 90's.

I think it primarily started once corporations were declared as legal people and allowed to contribute and lobby politically to their favorite party canadates.

Newt Gingrich - a Republican Hack
Citizens United - a Republican Idea

Hmm.

 

[ecco]

Then congress as a whole should work to limit lobbyists and excessive fund raising. The dilemma is that congress won't vote to limit their own ability to raise money, or term limits, or anything else the people want.

Are you completely unaware of Citizens United?

 

[metis]

Has "Trumpism" moved beyond Trump to actually trying to destroy the US Democracy?

The answer is clearly yes as now most of the congressional Republicans have been echoing the BIG LIE and/or are taking actions to suppress minorities and the young. Basically, we have returned to the Jim Crow days.

 

[metis]

No. I'm never going to agree with you on that, so you may as well give up trying. American jobs for American workers.

Who settled into what was to eventually become "America" first, and why have Pubs tried to make it more difficult for even them to vote? Also, do you have any clue about the ethnicity of many if not most of those who are at the U.S. southern border?

 

[Twilight Hue]

The answer is clearly yes as now most of the congressional Republicans have been echoing the BIG LIE and/or are taking actions to suppress minorities and the young. Basically, we have returned to the Jim Crow days.

Sure .. sure it has.

I see the colored and white signs now being hammered into place in public venues.

 

[Kooky]

I see the colored and white signs now being hammered into place in public venues.

Yet at the same time, you think it reasonable to assume that Democrats will destroy freedom of speech and persecute Republican supporters throughout the US.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Trump got elected by people afraid of losing their racial, cultural and religious hold on America, who are willing to try fascism to keep their hold.

You're spot on, Anna, and demographic studies have demonstrated that it's true.

Trump voters were motivated by fear of losing their status

People Voted for Trump Because They Were Anxious, Not Poor

Why white evangelicals voted for Trump: Fear, power and nostalgia

White fear of demographic change is a powerful psychological force

Trump Voters Driven by Fear of Losing Status, Not Economic Anxiety, Study Finds

Study: over-hyped media narratives about America’s fading white majority fuel anxiety

The past year of research has made it very clear: Trump won because of racial resentment

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Do you honestly believe that all black and Latino people vote Democrat? They don't. I'm not white, either, obviously. There's many LGBT people who voted for Trump, too. We don't have a hive mind.

I don't know of any "well-off" people who voted for Trump. Where I live, the Trump voters are mostly working class people. The rich urban/surburban white snobs vote Democrat, and are very loud and uppity about it. I'm working class poor. Where I live, the Democrats are the party of the rich. They're gentrifying everything and driving housing costs and costs of living through the roof, like they are doing in all Dem-run cities.

Maybe you should go meet more people.

It's not my intent to be rude and disrespectful towards you, Saint Frankenstein, but I don't understand why you would vote for Donald Trump when he was clearly anti-LGBT and federal LGBT rights were constantly under attack during his presidency.

A timeline of Trump’s anti-LGBTQ actions

First 100 Days: How President Trump Has Impacted LGBTQ Rights

Trump administration rolls back protections for transgender students

Trump promised to be LGBTQ-friendly. His first year in office proved it was a giant con

The Discrimination Administration: Trump’s record of action against transgender people

Trump’s record on LGBTQ rights has been vile from the moment he took office. We kept a list.

I decided to also include the following articles, as well.

How Trump Made 2017 a Horrific Year for LGBT Rights

Trump Attacked LGBT Rights in 2018, and He’s Far From Done

Here Are the Worst Anti-LGBT Bills to Watch for in 2019

Trump finalizes rollback of LGBTQ patient protections (2020)

 

[Sand Dancer]

When I saw MAGA boo Trump at a rally because he told them to get vaccinated, I knew they were capable of moving on with or without him.

Kinda weird to see Trump as more level headed than his worshipers.

 

[Sand Dancer]

I definitely think it has become it's own thing within the Republican party, and they have already tried to subvert democracy.
I don't have a crystal ball but I tend to lean towards them not having a good chance. Such as, they made it apparently clear they have little understanding of how elections work and all they could have done is delay the inevitable given how everything after the vote is a ritualized formality.
The Framers did have rather profound foresight and they did design a system we watch balk at Trump.
And Trump probably doesn't have much time left among the living given his age and personal habits. His death alone will remove a lot of the fuel that got the fire raging.

Trump is going to rise from the dead after three days.

 

[anna.]

You're spot on, Anna, and demographic studies have demonstrated that it's true.

Trump voters were motivated by fear of losing their status

People Voted for Trump Because They Were Anxious, Not Poor

Why white evangelicals voted for Trump: Fear, power and nostalgia

White fear of demographic change is a powerful psychological force

Trump Voters Driven by Fear of Losing Status, Not Economic Anxiety, Study Finds

Study: over-hyped media narratives about America’s fading white majority fuel anxiety

The past year of research has made it very clear: Trump won because of racial resentment

That's quite a list, and I'm not surprised at how many, I'm sure there's a lot more out there. Thanks for posting these, when I have a minute tonight I'll save them for my bedtime reading.

They want a way of life that hearkens back to the "good ol' days" when white Christian men (aka 'patriots') ran the country, and people of color, 'sexual deviants,' infidels, and wimmin knew their place. And they're afraid they can't get back to that place unless they overthrow our present government and replace it with something far more authoritarian.

 

[Sand Dancer]

If they want to participate as full members of the community, then they should become citizens. Case closed. I'm not running to another country and demanding that my voice is equal to the citizens of that country. That's extremely obnoxious at best. If you love a country and want to be part of its people, you'll immigrate legally and become a naturalized citizen.

Our citizenship procedures are messed up and totally backlogged. We need to fix this.

 

[Sand Dancer]

No. I'm never going to agree with you on that, so you may as well give up trying. American jobs for American workers.

Sadly, many of our workers think they are too good for certain jobs.

 

[anna.]

Trump is going to rise from the dead after three days.

Have you seen some of that awful art that paints him as messiah?

 

[Sand Dancer]

Where did I say "all?" Don't believe I did. I have LGBT friends who vote conservative, too -- and I have also done that -- so I make no such assumption.

BUT. You should know -- as the Republicans know -- those demographics have routinely voted Democrat over Republican by considerable margins.

So don't try to change the facts that I put forth by trying to change "majority" to "all." It's disingenuous.

The only demographic that votes majority GOP is white males, and moreso older males.

 

[Sand Dancer]

Thanks for the link.


Whodathunkit?

Really remarkable!

I guess the "Some boos rang out from the crowd, who were largely maskless." ensured that he never again recommended getting vaccinated.

At least he tried to be reasonable. If he had any balls, he would keep it up and his followers would have to decide whether they want to join or continue with ridiculousness. Not sure his ego would let him be a normal person.

 

[Sand Dancer]

The dilemma is that we keep re-electing them. We could end all this idiocy in just a couple elections cycles if we would collectively vote out every incumbent in every election regardless of party unless and until they ACT to end the wholesale corruption of the legislature via legalized bribery.

Seriously. Once they realize they cannot keep their positions of power unless they clean up their act, they will clean up their act. Because most of them will do ANYTHING to keep their power. Even do their jobs if it comes to it.

Term limits would keep them from sliding into complacency. The sad thing is that he we have made our politicians into celebrities and they love that.

 

[Sand Dancer]

Have you seen some of that awful art that paints him as messiah?

Yep, and I feel like puking. I am sure Jesus would join me in doing so.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

The only demographic that votes majority GOP is white males, and moreso older males.

I'm an older white male.

But I feel young, and I'm gay, so maybe that subtracts from the "male" part (not!)

I couldn't vote for an American Republican today if my life depended on it. The party itself has been hijacked, and those members who currently hold office are so terrified that they might be ousted that they'll lick anybody's nether bits. There is nothing so abject that they will not go there.

Except Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. Where're their medals for courage -- they do what they do knowing they're going to be ousted, shunned and otherwise discounted?

 

[F1fan]

Yes, the Republicans are trying to undo democracy, because they can't compete if elections are fair and all eligible voters have unimpeded access to voting. And I expect them to succeed with the help of unwitting, disaffected Judas goats unaware that they're slated for slaughter as well. Much of the country is easily influenced by indoctrination media, and can be convinced to vote for Republicans by some false narrative identifying and demonizing an assortment of imagined enemies such as libs, immigrants, elites, antifa, etc., never noticing that their actual enemies are the people they trust.

America will continue to resemble a democracy superficially, but the voters won't be making decisions except at local levels. Their voting won't determine who is announced as the winner, but it will appear that they have a say to keep them believing that they do. The intention is to capture the government and the middle class, and put them both to work for profiteers, keeping the workers relatively poor and dependent on jobs that pay them too little.

This is the intent behind keeping minimum wage low, fighting unions, and erosion of the social safety net, while using the treasury as their private ATM and despoiling the earth, all in the name of increased profits as they always have. They will oppose climate change mitigation as they always have. They will oppose any public spending that helps ordinary people. Any doubt? What do we think Trump's response to the recent tornadoes would have been? The same as Rand Paul's whenever it isn't his state and his reelection isn't on the line (look how quickly he became a "socialist"). Worse if Kentucky were a blue state.

Look at the effect the media had on Biden's ratings. In a year when he inherited multiple disasters (pandemic, economic problems, border problems, withdrawal from Afghanistan problems) and still managed to give them economic relief, a successful vaccine rollout, a return to the Paris Accords, reversal of multiple dangerous environmental deregulations, ended a war, has delivered an infrastructure package that Trump and the Republicans gave lip service to for years, and is poised to improve on that. You really can't do more or better than that, yet Biden's approval rating still fell even among people who voted for him.

How did that happen? It's not all Fox News. The so-called liberal media are also pessimistic about the Democrats. CNN has done more damage to the Democratic party than Fox, because the left doesn't listen to Fox or trust it. They do, however listen to CNN, where the narrative is extremely poor for Democrats - they're in chaos, they don't know what the people want or need, etc.. Isn't this a description of the Republicans? The Democrats know exactly what the people need and are giving it to them, but until recently, we have been hearing this same narrative of failure even from CNN and MSNBC about are supply chain problems, inflation, the price of gas, and the like, all blamed on Biden and the Democrats.

Where was the reporting on the Republicans, how many are being investigated, how they have no ideas, how they devour one another when one of them is out of step like Cheney, how they have nothing to say about all of the criminality in the house, how they deny the insurrection. These things may get a single mention on CNN, but not the continual negative narrative as with the Democrats.

Now that the January 6th Committee has been gaining a little momentum, the talk is turning to Republican scandals. And not unsurprisingly, as the narrative has switched, Biden's approval numbers are rising.

If one looks at this graphic (link below), he sees Biden's approval rating steadily declining all year until just recently, when there is an uptick. Admittedly, it's a small a piece of the curve turning up, but I'm pretty sure that his numbers will improve for as long as the media depict the Republicans in a bad light simply by reporting the news even without editorializing, and that when this is no longer a ratings-friendly narrative, will return to the one of the feckless Democrats, Biden's numbers will fall, and the American people will become convinced again that the Democrats are more or less what we're reading about them from Republican voters on this thread.

How Popular Is Joe Biden?

So I think that the trajectory for America is fairly predictable. They'll give the government back to the Republicans, and unless the Democrats can shore up voting rights at the federal level before that happens, they'll likely be prevented from regaining power indefinitely, as the country continues morphing into a machine built to serve the actual elites. And most people will continue not noticing that their democracy is evaporating away or who their actual enemy is, will go on blaming whoever the news tells them to hate instead, and go on waving flags while continuing to think that they live in the greatest country in the world as they slip further into third-world status and see economic opportunity and the middle class disappearing. Biden is trying to prevent and even reverse this, but he'll have trouble doing it with half of the country and one party opposing him, and then giving the government back to that party.

I think the best thing for America is to allow Republicans to do their unethical takeover of most states and the federal government, and then attempt to run the nation on their austerity approach. At some point there will be a breaking point where moderate conservatives will decide to elect more ethical moderate Republicans.

Democrats should be doing exceptionally well, but the state of the US citizen is one of privilege that is being forced to deal with a series of catastrophes that requires unity. Conservatives recognize their disinformation works, and takes advantage of Democrats still trying to play politics from an honorable and ethical approach.