On the bright side Trump aced the dementia test
- Thread starter 82hoosier
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No, we're not.
Trump is profoundly corrupt, incompetent, racist, wildly ignorant, fervently authoritarian, demented, and lazy. Those features have led the US to a place few would have imagined possible a few short years ago. Yet the 2020 election is still something like a toss-up.
The bottom is when a guy with all those horrific traits, but a bit more energy and competence takes the reins. That guy will also have the advantage of having a clear understanding of how pliable and vile a large portion of the American electorate is. It's now known how much America will put up with before it's too late. That's why it's not just Trump or the Presidential election that matters.
Exactly. Trump is laying the groundwork for a transition to an authoritarian system. That's why it is so important that he and his followers be trounced in November, and suffer scorn, derision, and humiliation for the rest of their days.
Interesting read on this very topic from Marsha Gessen in her new book Surviving Autocracy...
"Gessen's viewpoint may be head-spinning for many, especially those who believe today's maelstrom of disease, unemployment and racial violence represent failures by the incumbent president. Yet Gessen argues that Trump may see it all as an opportunity, not just in his pursuit of re-election, but in what Gessen believes is his longer-term concept of his own career trajectory.
"He may inadvertently have created perfect conditions for autocratic consolidation," Gessen writes, a climate of "more anxiety and fear of change." Gessen quotes the 20th-century scholar Hannah Arendt, author of The Origins of Totalitarianism, who observed how future dictators used instability "while at the same time dangling the promise of stability."
In uncertain times, the aspiring autocrat promises a restoration, a return to greatness — all the while reaching for more power and permanence. Gessen suggests Trump will seek to use all that has happened in his tumultuous term to achieve a breakthrough to unlimited power on the model of Russian President Vladimir Putin."
"Gessen says Putin and Trump were elected president without really wanting the job. They ran "not for president but for autocrat," and they did not expect to settle for anything less. Putin has been in office 16 years, is on track for four more and is maneuvering to secure another eight thereafter. Trump has retweeted pictures of prospective campaign signs that say TRUMP 2024 and TRUMP 2028 and so on into the future.
Born in Moscow in 1967, Gessen has won acclaim largely for writing on this native land, including winning a National Book Award for a 2017 examination of Putin's rise and suppression of democracy. And while the Putin-Trump link has been made elsewhere, it is forged here in Gessen's own personal history."
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/02/8663...-gessen-sees-putin-in-trump-trouble-in-future
Ok, so you hate Hillary Clinton. Do you know what Jesus said about people who hate others?
If you don’t know, you should start reading the Bible. You know what the Bible is, right?
Tell him it's that book T.rump held up after he had a bunch of peaceful protestors teargassed and pepper balled.
Spot on. That is why Barr, Cotton, Pompeo and Hawley are so much more dangerous. They have all the authoritarian leanings but the smarts, drive and attention to actually get there. 2024 will see 2-3 of those names running for POTUS. The Democrats best be ready for the new battle and not get complacent.
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