This is an op/ed from Robert Reich in the Guardian which I think is pretty spot on. Trump lost the 2020 reelection but he did get more votes for President than any other incumbent or challenger except for Joe Biden. Trump still has a devoted and vociferous block of support and most of the GOP is still in thrall of Trump. While it looks like we will be sparred a second Trump term that very likely could've done terminal damage to the institutions of this country he's already done a lot of damage and nearly half of this country was still willing to give him another term. While Trump was defeated Trumpism appears to be hear to stay and he's made it possible for the next con man with pretentions to authoritarianism to step in riding a wave a xenophobic populism. https://www.theguardian.com/comment...-of-trumps-behavior-will-be-his-vilest-legacy Americans’ acceptance of Trump’s behavior will be his vilest legacy Robert Reich Trump has brought impunity to the highest office in the land, wielding a wrecking ball to American democracy Most of the 74,222,957 Americans who voted to re-elect Donald Trump – 46.8%of the votes cast in the 2020 presidential election – don’t hold Trump accountable for what he’s done to America. Nearly forty years ago, political scientist James Q Wilson and criminologist George Kelling observed that a broken window left unattended in a community signals that no one cares if windows are broken there. The broken window is thereby an invitation to throw more stones and break more windows. The message: do whatever you want here because others have done it and got away with it. The broken window theory has led to picayune and arbitrary law enforcement in poor communities. But America’s most privileged and powerful have been breaking big windows with impunity. In 2008, Wall Street nearly destroyed the economy. The Street got bailed out while millions of Americans lost their jobs, savings, and homes. Yet no major Wall Street executive ever went to jail. In more recent years, top executives of Purdue Pharmaceuticals, along with the members of the Sackler family that own it, knew the dangers of OxyContin but did nothing. Executives at Wells Fargo Bank pushed bank employees to defraud customers. Executives at Boeing hid the results of tests showing its 737 Max Jetliner was unsafe. Police chiefs across America looked the other way as police under their command repeatedly killed innocent Black Americans. Here, too, they’ve got away with it. These windows remain broken. Trump has brought impunity to the highest office in the land, wielding a wrecking ball to the most precious windowpane of all – American democracy. The message? A president can obstruct special counsels’ investigations of his wrongdoing, push foreign officials to dig up dirt on political rivals, fire inspectors general who find corruption, order the entire executive branch to refuse congressional subpoenas, flood the Internet with fake information about his opponents, refuse to release his tax returns, accuse the press of being “fake media” and “enemies of the people”, and make money off his presidency. And he can get away with it. Almost half of the electorate will even vote for his reelection. A president can also lie about the results of an election without a shred of evidence – and yet, according to polls, be believed by the vast majority of those who voted for him. Trump’s recent pardons have broken double-pane windows. Not only has he shattered the norm for presidential pardons – usually granted because of a petitioner’s good conduct after conviction and service of sentence – but he’s pardoned people who themselves shattered windows. By pardoning them, he has rendered them unaccountable for their acts. They include aides convicted of lying to the FBI and threatening potential witnesses in order to protect him; his son-in-law’s father, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion, witness tampering, illegal campaign contributions, and lying to the Federal Election Commission; Blackwater security guards convicted of murdering Iraqi civilians, including women and children; Border Patrol agents convicted of assaulting or shooting unarmed suspects; and Republican lawmakers and their aides found guilty of fraud, obstruction of justice and campaign finance violations. It’s not simply the size of the broken window that undermines standards, according to Wilson and Kelling. It’s the willingness of society to look the other way. If no one is held accountable, norms collapse. Trump may face a barrage of lawsuits when he leaves office, possibly including criminal charges. But it’s unlikely he’ll go to jail. Presidential immunity or a self-pardon will protect him. Prosecutorial discretion would almost certainly argue against indictment, in any event. No former president has ever been convicted of a crime. The mere possibility of a criminal trial for Trump would ignite a partisan brawl across the nation. Congress may try to limit the power of future presidents – strengthening congressional oversight, fortifying the independence of inspectors general, demanding more financial disclosure, increasing penalties on presidential aides who break laws, restricting the pardon process, and so on. But Congress – a co-equal branch of government under the Constitution – cannot rein in rogue presidents. And the courts don’t want to weigh in on political questions. The appalling reality is that Trump may get away with it. And in getting away with it he will have changed and degraded the norms governing American presidents. The giant windows he’s broken are invitations to a future president to break even more. Nothing will correct this unless or until an overwhelming majority of Americans recognize and condemn what has occurred.
...and then, from Steve Schmidt, is the following: Trumpism is an American autocratic movement with Fascistic markers. There are seven specific parts that comprise its core: 1. THE LEADER. Donald Trump is the unquestioned leader of this movement. It is a cult of personality and there are no serious challengers against his leadership. 2. Thugs. The Proud Boys are but one example in a toxic stew of heavily armed Militias, White Nationalists and other right wing extremists. As is always the case, their ranks are filled with people on the fringes of society; the lonely, dispossessed, aggrieved and resentful. Not so long ago, there would have been a near societal consensus around describing these people as losers. These people bring the menace of violence to politics and are kin to the same thuggish rabble that were wearing brown and black shirts 100 years ago. 3. ELITES. All Autocratic movements fuse an unholy alliance between society’s elites and losers. It is a coalition of convenience between two groups who despise each other yet need each other. The boundless cynicism of the elites and the endless grievances of the losers become an unbreakable cement. @HawleyMO and @SenTedCruz are perfect examples. Hawley graduated from Stanford and Yale Law School. He taught at Oxford and clerked for the Chief Justice of the United States. @SenTedCruz graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law School. They have become Completely faithless to their oaths and American democracy in the name of their ambition. They have no convictions, only self interest. 4. PROPAGANDISTS. Autocratic movements are built on and sustained by lies. Political lying and Conspiracy theories have become billion dollar businesses. Fox News, Newsmax, Oann, Social Media, Talk Radio dividers, Infowars ect. ect have poisoned the American polity and created the conditions for Trump to create an alternate reality that is now a lethal threat to American liberty. 5. FINANCIERS. This autocratic movement is financed by donations from some of America’s largest and best known companies and brands in the form of millions of dollars of donations to the entities that fund the political careers of the men and women who will soon be rising on the floor of the United States Congress to betray American democracy. @ATT and @CharlesSchwab are two such companies. The list includes some of America’s wealthiest and most powerful individuals. Mostly they are disconnected from any interest or idea of the public good other than the selfishness of self interest. 6. RELIGIOUS EXTREMISTS. Trump has surrounded himself with a group of loony, corrupt, hateful, sacrilegious charlatans that make a mockery of decency and goodness with every public utterance. 7. SHEEP. None of what is happening could happen without the silent complicity of a legion of men and women who lack the conviction, guts and integrity to stand up against Trump's mean tweets and thousands of indecent, corrupt, cruel and incompetent acts. These men and women are no different than all of their predecessors who found collaboration with what they knew to be immoral or evil as more convenient than resisting it. They are the weaklings and appeasers. They are the fools and the naive. They are the blind for whom what is obvious and true is far less preferable to delusion and pretend. In order to win the fight we must understand 1. Why are we fighting ? 2. Who are we fighting? We must be clear eyed about this. The stakes are too high
Yes. The enablers like the Ted Cruzs, Hawleys and Ron Johnsons are making it possible for Trump to undermine this country. They are failing as Senators to lead and instead catering to the worst of this presidency.
We're a schizo nation addicted to expensive meds or dubious knockoffs. Hope yall don't enjoying traveling abroad and mingling with the locals. The world might've given us a pass for Dub**** because "derr...we dint know". But you know there's a sayin in Texas....fool me once, shame on you. Fool me...you can't get fooled again.
Actually, they are showing everyone how low they will go to support one of the most disgusting, psychotic, pathological liars to ever rule a country. Vote them all out next time they run for office.
Robert Reich is totally correct. However, chances Joe Biden will put the country through the necessary discomfort of indicting Trump is practically zero imho. Biden campaigned essentially on good old moderate Joe who will not shake much up, but go back to the wonderful days of the Obama Presidency. If Trump is indicted and or actually and exhaustingly investigated to detail his crimes, whether pardoned or not it will be traumatic. If Trump had been even just moderately normal in containing the Covid Virus he would have won again. At least we can expect a decent, not psychotic, response to the Covid Virus.
I wouldn't go that far. He had proven he couldn't be trusted far before Covid. His weekend trips to Trump properties, his jobs to Jared and Ivanka, his 30,000 or so lies, his ignorance on climate change, his racist remarks, his bullying and nasty childish taunting, his narcissistic bragging, and everything else he was doing had already shown he was just a Grifting pompous Putin loving jerk playing the role of a world leader.
Interesting mishmash of thoughts for a question I wanted answered. Despite drift toward authoritarianism, Trump voters stay loyal. Why? Bit scary to think most think and do what their leaders tell them to do. Then again politics generally doesn't put food on the table on a daily basis. Replace the party leader with half the aggression and toxicity and that's half the divisiveness. Bit disturbing as the population grows at a larger scale and complexity.
because going back to livng equally with minorities, immigrants, and liberals is not an option for them
It's a long 16-20 min article (different chunks though), but they lay out 3-4 main theories. One even throws out the idea that after a few years, people in those small towns will accept immigrants and try to move on. Leaving out the obvious (economy), that theory seems to imply that whoever leads the GOP in the coming years have a big role to play in this. It could be Trump was a cathartic FU but after seeing the fallout, they just want someone who can keep the lights on and stroke their petty little egos from time to time. Very very optimistic take. imo, these voters are more like powder kegs waiting to get "activated" again...
If it weren't for Covid Trump's presidency isnt bad in terms of affect on people's lives. Before Covid the country was running smoothly and the economy was stable. That being said i can't believe he got so many votes with his handling of the virus
trump's economy didnt change the lives of his base. but they did see lives of minorities, immigrants, and liberals getting uncomfrtable and difficult so its a big win for them his base is just as vile as trump IMO
How were minorities's lives changed by hiz economy? His economy was a continuation of Obama's. Nothing changed This is not a defense of Trump. The economy has been on cruise control since 2014, we probably saw the last major economic disruption ww will see in many years in 2008. A president just has to not screw it up
The more I watch those clips, the more obvious it becomes. Nothing that comes out of their mouths is worth more than a grain of salt. They have all made it crystal clear that no matter how vile, dangerous, or disgusting their leader is, they will bend over backwards to kiss his butt. All in the name of money and power. All we can do is vote these people out the next chance we get. Their words mean nothing now. Their character has been put to the test and they failed miserably. Maybe they can all go work for Fox In News.
The link doesn't appear to be working but I've heard several theories including from Trump supporters themselves. What I've gotten before from Trump supporters is a recognition that he is flawed but that he is a "fighter" who is taking it to those who they consider enemies. In this case they mean cultural elites, Socialists, and globalization. Most of this is based off of a what they see as attacks on their culture and economic dislocation that has hit rural areas particularly hard. In some ways the more they see Trump attacked the more they see that as justification for their support and proof that he is a fighter.
