There are obvious questions around Republicans stealing more elections and how hard Democrats are willing to tamp down once they're back in power (if Trump and his cronies aren't in prison in 2029, we can forget it), but I think we're going to get another shot at this. It's important that Democrats pick another FDR. Easier said than done, I know. On top of rebuilding international trust and our bureaucracy, the candidate is going to have to carry out a second Reconstruction. My first choices are AOC and JB Pritzker. If you aren't willing to send Donald Trump and the Supreme Court justices who allowed this to prison on day one, I don't want to hear from you.
I've become more vocal about sending Trump and the rest to prison because normies need to get acclimated to the idea. Our elites are not beyond reproach. If you commit human rights violations or ignore the Constitution, you will be prosecuted. The alternative is that we lose our democracy.
Trump is old, frail, and unpopular. The recession he caused hasn't even started yet. The supply chain is going to be decimated. His approval ratings are underwater for everything from immigration to the economy. It's going to become fashionable to hate Donald Trump. (I wish we had gotten there in 2015, but better late than never.) There's a future where he becomes so toxic that Republicans must impeach him. I think there's only a remote chance of that, maybe 5%, but it's possible.
Keep the faith. We can get our country back.
Democrats would have to work -very- hard to, and I hate saying it like this, get someone to the level of celebrity necessary to get voted in. And really, Pritzker? The venture capitalist billionaire? Definitely need more of those in office.
AOC has the star power, as it were. But she's been cock-blocked by the establishment Democrats are every single step in her career so far. Democrats are the entire problem here. It's a two-party system so you can't win if you don't run as a Democrat, and the people in charge of the party just aren't interested in fielding anyone that can actually fucking win. They've proven that time and again now. Everyone fucking hated Hillary. But we got her anyway, didn't we? Look how that went.
Establishment Democrats want THEIR people - the ultra-centrist, borderline Republican-lite candidates. As long as people like Martin, Pelosi, and Schumer are calling the shots - Democrats are doomed to keep losing.
Republicans, in turn, had a chance to bury Trump after he lost. They saw what he was. They could have put all of their resources into making him look like a complete fool so that he wouldn't even dare get on a podium again. Instead, they cowered and sucked his dick every chance they got and helped create what we have now. I don't believe they'll turn on him. Especially not when he has them all afraid of what his base will do to them.
Damien, Trump is 78 years old. He's only two years younger than Biden. In ten years he'll be pushing 90. He's too damn old to do the job now, never mind 10 years from now. Not only is he not getting a third term, I would not be surprised if he doesn't finish this one.
And you do realize in order for that to happen, the Constitution has to get thrown out the window. And without the Constitution, we don't have a country anymore. It's as simple as that.
No, there are still too many good people in this nation. They won't allow it.
I've lived through political upheavals before. I remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard on the radio (Remember radios?) that President Nixon resigned.
We got through it. We're going to get through this, too. As the wise man posted up above: "Keep the faith. We can get our country back."
Trump is 78 years old. So yeah, he'll be pushing 90 in ten years. So what? How old is "King" George right now? How old was 'Queen' Lizzy when all of my dreams came true and she finally died - may she live eternally buried under the ground screaming for a death that will not come? Trump's age is not a limiting factor to him declaring himself Dictator-for-life if the people around him let him do it. That's what I'm saying here. Not that he's CAPABLE of doing the job (he wasn't capable of this job at 40, let alone 80). Whether he's too old to do the job is irrelevant. He's not doing the job. He's acting like a king. He's not going to give that up willingly. Ever.
As for the Constitution, I mean... yeah, it would have to be thrown out the window. And that's pretending it hasn't been already. Trump has spent the last 100-ish days doing things that directly violate the Constitution. He has deprived Americans and would-be Americans of their due process rights. I wouldn't even have time here to recount all the Constitutional violations he's committed. Seems like there's a new one every other day.
Every major lefty news outlet seems to already agree we are in a Constitutional crisis like never seen before in the country. I'm well aware that what I'm saying he wants to do is a violation of the Constitution. But it feels a whole lot like screaming at my brother for sitting in the front seat because 'I called shotgun first.' The Constitution is a piece of paper - not the Sword of Damocles ready to strike down anyone that violates it. It's worthless if the people sworn to defend it don't. And so far they haven't and don't seem all that interested.
I do get riled up when I see this attitude of 'we've seen stuff like this before.' We really haven't. The fact that Nixon was a criminal piece of shit does not make this situation even remotely similar. Nixon resigned because he couldn't just assume everyone would let him do whatever he wanted. Nixon wasn't powerful enough and didn't have enough absolute loyalty. Trump is -already- doing what he wants without consequences and has been doing so since his first term (and before). He attempted a fucking coup and we let him get away with it. We're so far beyond Nixon that Watergate looks absolutely adorably quaint by comparison. And Trump isn't resigning. He's shoring up power and taking control of every level of government, and defying even his own judges and daring anyone to do something about it. Which no one is actually doing.
Forgive me, but I genuinely feel like people making those types of comparisons aren't taking the threat Trump poses seriously enough. Even if we do get through it, it will not be because it was just like Nixon, or just like Bush Jr. And let's keep that in mind because if we DO get through this, the Republican party needs to be utterly destroyed. Because they keep trying to put up these people and if not Trump, then someday some Republican will succeed at destroying democracy in the United States. I mean that sincerely.
I'm actually convinced that the United States doesn't work. Republicans spent decades and decades destroying the minds of their base to the point where they are basically immune to facts and reason, and are absolutely primed to be ruled by Christo-fascist racists. They're begging for it. They want a dictator. Some even say it out loud. Unless the US is willing to restructure its voting systems to stop giving these people massively disproportionate amounts of power in how the government functions, what Trump is trying to do is inevitable. Whether he ends up being the one to do it or not.
Because it's not just about Trump. It's about the filth and corruption that the Republican party represents. It's about letting Confederates into all the halls of power after the Civil War. It's about letting so many Nazis re-settle outside of Germany after WWII. It's about watching KKK members spew hate and then put their badges on to go to work. It's about how The Left (and 'Middle') have never in US history really acted in a way that tells me they truly understand the Paradox of Tolerance, and what needs to be done.
Edit: To be very clear; I hope I'm wrong and everything turns out well and the US manages to fix itself and right all these wrongs as much as they can be righted. I'm just not optimistic.
