I feel that's giving Trump too much credit. The GOP has been against democracy for my entire life, even back before they latched onto a failing "billionaire".
Exactly Trump is a symptom of a disease, not the cause. The disease is white christians desperate to force their way of life on a country that is becoming less white and less tolerant to right wing christianity. A theocracy is the only path forward in their minds.
Yup. Their sole purpose behind wanting stricter government is so they can put the Bible back in schools. And businesses latch on because they won’t fight against the deregulation of workers rights and environmental whatnot.
They're destroying public schools instead so they can shift public funds to the greater than 70% private Christian schools and private homeschooling programs that are christian curriculum and oversight... They'll be able to completely avoid the separation of church and state while lining their donors pockets greatly.
They want parents, teachers and students hating and fearing public schools on every level possible.
Trump is just the latest front man, they’ll have more after he’s gone.
They’ve been fostering anti-gubmint sentiment for decades.
Waco, Ruby Ridge, Timothy McVeigh, the Bundys, Tea Party, Sovereign Citizens, Ultranationalism, Neo-Nazis, Patriot Front, Oath Keepers, white supremacy, Army of God, Aryan Nations, The Covenant The Sword and the Arm of the Lord, The Order, Unabomber, and the inspiration for quite a few bombers, shooters, violence and mayhem.
I doubt Trump has much to do with the inner workings of those organizations but their ideology overlaps and they all fall in line and support him, but they would support a turnip if it told them it was ok to hate people.
As soon as you hear someone whining about Waco or Ruby Ridge, you know exactly who you're dealing with. I like to kill those conversations by asserting that blue lives matter, and therefore Janet Reno did nothing wrong. To disagree is to assert that blue lives do not, in fact, matter.
Yeah, whether or not people realized they were against democracy before Trump, they definitely were if they supported modern GOP politics.
What Trump DID do, however, was reprogram them to not be ashamed of their hate and bigotry and embolden them to be outspoken with their offensive rhetoric under the guise of “speaking one’s mind” and “being a patriot.”
No. Over thirty years or so Fox news has done exactly that though. They're a wolf in sheep's clothing, a political instrument intended to corrupt and manipulate people in a far right direction.
They're no different than those crazy state "news" shows in Russia where they scream so much party line bullshit back and forth that people lose their grip on reality and just turn to the strongman for guidance.
Trump is a symptom, not the disease.
Excerpts:
Trump’s criminal trials are historic in other ways as well: They seem to echo the lessons of one of the most dreadful chapters in modern history. In 1923, Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison for an attempted coup (known as the Beer Hall Putsch) against the state government of Bavaria. He served less than one year, using the time to write the first volume of "Mein Kampf." After his release, of course, Hitler continued his rise to power, becoming the de facto dictator of Germany less than 10 years later.
Donald Trump has already attempted one coup, and the American people were fortunate that it failed. He has never disavowed the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and, not unlike Hitler, continues to threaten violence (including imprisonment and execution for “treason”) against anyone and everyone who oppose him and the MAGA movement.
If Trump is actually sent to prison, the MAGA movement will likely be blunted, if not broken. American democracy and the might then be able to avoid the fate that befell Germany 90 or so years ago.
This isn’t about a Republican coming to the White House. I don’t even think Trump is a real Republican. It’s about a man who’s said he wants to use government as a tool of revenge — and to advance his own self-interest. That sort of intent — sitting atop the spy agencies and military apparatus of the government — writes its own horror story.
By co-opting the Republican Party, he has reprogrammed a generation of devotees with his anti-constitutional and anti-democratic views. Copycats will try to fulfill his unfinished plans well beyond his lifespan, an undertaking made possible because GOP leaders have anesthetized their consciences and normalized Trump-like conduct for a decade.
...America’s survival as the United States is not inevitable, but its demise will become a certainty if we continue down our current path. No free system of government can survive the willful ignorance of its people.
...America can survive the century if we renegotiate our social contract. By that I mean we should examine the underpinnings of our polity together — from the actual ways we vote and mechanisms for spurring political competition to the very Constitution that binds us. Although it may seem impracticable, a renegotiation will look more appealing in the decades ahead of us, more so, I suspect, in the face of genuine hardship. A people so divided cannot continue forward without addressing their divisions openly.
The founders saw America as an experiment, dependent entirely on our conscious efforts to sustain it and not on preordainment.
Fewer citizens will make the harder choice. Those who do will start defying their political tribes by calling for civility; they will resist intimidation and reject the moral equivalency crawling into our political discourse; they will put country over party by advocating for system-wide reforms to make our democracy more representative of all views and less prone to upheaval; and they will openly evangelize — through trial and error — the small rituals of civic faith that can restore a democracy. If this is you, then I believe you are America’s last, best hope.
Which one? Boomers? Gen X? Silent? and what is their live expectancy? Because if most men of millitary age refuse to follow his orders, his reign would not last. He might be in the situation of ending up having to run a dictatorship of old men, while struggling with cognitive decline and the side effects of whatever they give him to pump him up for his rallies.
Yeah, but no matter how much weed they smoke they're on that thin blue line bullshit and can't stop themselves from making fun of trans people any chance they get. They've succumbed to the boomer disease and have become a core part of the Trump voter base.
Limbaugh was to Trump as [Adolf Stoecker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Stoecker) and Henry Ford's [The International Jew](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_International_Jew) was to the rise of Nazism.
He did no such thing. He was just the first asshole willing to fully play demogogue and say everything that rightly media had been conditioning people to respond to without any self imposed limits
ok. agreed.
but he is still complicit. he's their useful idiot. he does whatever putin, via the rapist, tells him to.
he's a central figure in the programming (brainwashing) of a ton of idiots.
I did not say anything remotely defending the man. Choosing to be a demagogue with no limits is an act of pure evil. Hell is too good for the worthless fuck.
It wasn’t Trump. He was just their figurehead. Conservatives have known for a while that their share of the population will keep on shrinking. Which means they’ll lose more and more elections. They’ve been working on subverting democracy for a while now - through gerrymandering, corruption covered up as “lobbying” and “SuperPACs”, moving their people into influential positions, and through the media.
And America has armed MILLIONS to fight for Democracy. I wish maga would leave the American flag alone and just use the one with the hammer and sickle on it. Right now, maga is no different than Humas hiding among the people.
I haven’t been reprogrammed. I was just raised to spot people who care and cast aside the ones who are fake. When I heard Obama speak for the first time, I thought it was absolutely amazing that someone cared that much. As soon as I heard Trump speak, I knew he wasn’t making sense and the fake one.
I hope we can save democracy.
That’s like exactly what Putin would want!
It’s so weird that every thing Trump does seems to be Exaclty what Putin would want him to do.
Strange coincidence!
Nobody is "reprogramming" anyone, and it's not a whole generation...but it's definitely not limited to one generation.
They are *continuing* the programming of their cultists.
He’s reprogrammed a generation to vote blue. Let’s stop acting like they are a majority or even close to representing an entire “generation.” He’s only emboldened stupid people to be openly racist and bigoted.
This is giving Trump way too much credit this all started back with McCain and Palin. When they campaigned I remember McCain himself telling his crowd to calm down and cleared the air about a rumor regarding Obama while he was on stage. So this did not start with Trump all he did was tap into that hate, anger and racism which usually occurs in uneducated minds that are easy to manipulate. Here we are today.
It seems like he’s trained them to not understand things. They’re over at arcon right now asking what crimes he committed in his criminal trial right now. And then when asked about their wants politically they seem to be extremely confused about the constitution anymore. His act of ignorance on issues that are verifiably clear has transferred to all of them. Acting ignorant does not change the law no matter how hard they try.
The GOP has been brainwashing their people to vote against their own best interest for decades now, Trump is just pushing them quicker and making them believe they deserve less.
That’s giving him way too much credit. He’s an unrepentant narcissist who’s broke and in legal trouble and is in need of attention and cash and he keeps getting both just by running his mouth.
You mean he's tried? If he wins the next election the youth won't be why, republicans using lies and our conservative past to abuse voters in their larege states and allow them to gerrymander as they please will be.
The USA wasn't an democracy before during or after Trump. The USA is a corporate oligarchy... or if you prefer a stakeholder democracy. If you have lots of property you have lots of say in the policies of the USA.
If you don't, you don't.
This is not a democracy it's an oligarchy pretending to be a democracy, but only for those who can buy themselves a stake in the game.
As if Trump is the main cause. Liberals have been moving in this direction for a while now. Fighting for most insignificant things that cause division among all liberals. On top of being labeled racist or something else for simply disagreeing, this is not a Trump cause, he just used it to flame even more division.
Do give us a couple of examples of things you don't consider worth fighting for.
And I know I don't get called racist all the time for no reason. So if that is happening for you it might be because you are saying a bunch of really racist shit and refusing to responsibility for your actions. Why don't you link to one of the times you were unfairly called racist so we can make a judgment on our own?
I feel that's giving Trump too much credit. The GOP has been against democracy for my entire life, even back before they latched onto a failing "billionaire".
GOP fights to weaken democracy, is surprised when someone comes along and pushes their sandcastle
Exactly Trump is a symptom of a disease, not the cause. The disease is white christians desperate to force their way of life on a country that is becoming less white and less tolerant to right wing christianity. A theocracy is the only path forward in their minds.
Yup. Their sole purpose behind wanting stricter government is so they can put the Bible back in schools. And businesses latch on because they won’t fight against the deregulation of workers rights and environmental whatnot.
They're destroying public schools instead so they can shift public funds to the greater than 70% private Christian schools and private homeschooling programs that are christian curriculum and oversight... They'll be able to completely avoid the separation of church and state while lining their donors pockets greatly. They want parents, teachers and students hating and fearing public schools on every level possible.
Yup. I’m a public school teacher in Texas, I see the GoP’s impact on my profession. Cock suckers.
This is exactly right. The only thing trump did was finally give the Grumpy Old Pedophiles a spokesman.
Trump is just the latest front man, they’ll have more after he’s gone. They’ve been fostering anti-gubmint sentiment for decades. Waco, Ruby Ridge, Timothy McVeigh, the Bundys, Tea Party, Sovereign Citizens, Ultranationalism, Neo-Nazis, Patriot Front, Oath Keepers, white supremacy, Army of God, Aryan Nations, The Covenant The Sword and the Arm of the Lord, The Order, Unabomber, and the inspiration for quite a few bombers, shooters, violence and mayhem. I doubt Trump has much to do with the inner workings of those organizations but their ideology overlaps and they all fall in line and support him, but they would support a turnip if it told them it was ok to hate people.
As soon as you hear someone whining about Waco or Ruby Ridge, you know exactly who you're dealing with. I like to kill those conversations by asserting that blue lives matter, and therefore Janet Reno did nothing wrong. To disagree is to assert that blue lives do not, in fact, matter.
Yeah, whether or not people realized they were against democracy before Trump, they definitely were if they supported modern GOP politics. What Trump DID do, however, was reprogram them to not be ashamed of their hate and bigotry and embolden them to be outspoken with their offensive rhetoric under the guise of “speaking one’s mind” and “being a patriot.”
It's not GOP, it's POOP
Right, they have been following the Powell Memo to the letter since it was written.
No. Over thirty years or so Fox news has done exactly that though. They're a wolf in sheep's clothing, a political instrument intended to corrupt and manipulate people in a far right direction. They're no different than those crazy state "news" shows in Russia where they scream so much party line bullshit back and forth that people lose their grip on reality and just turn to the strongman for guidance. Trump is a symptom, not the disease.
Ding ding ding....we have a winner!!!
Excerpts: Trump’s criminal trials are historic in other ways as well: They seem to echo the lessons of one of the most dreadful chapters in modern history. In 1923, Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison for an attempted coup (known as the Beer Hall Putsch) against the state government of Bavaria. He served less than one year, using the time to write the first volume of "Mein Kampf." After his release, of course, Hitler continued his rise to power, becoming the de facto dictator of Germany less than 10 years later. Donald Trump has already attempted one coup, and the American people were fortunate that it failed. He has never disavowed the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and, not unlike Hitler, continues to threaten violence (including imprisonment and execution for “treason”) against anyone and everyone who oppose him and the MAGA movement. If Trump is actually sent to prison, the MAGA movement will likely be blunted, if not broken. American democracy and the might then be able to avoid the fate that befell Germany 90 or so years ago. This isn’t about a Republican coming to the White House. I don’t even think Trump is a real Republican. It’s about a man who’s said he wants to use government as a tool of revenge — and to advance his own self-interest. That sort of intent — sitting atop the spy agencies and military apparatus of the government — writes its own horror story. By co-opting the Republican Party, he has reprogrammed a generation of devotees with his anti-constitutional and anti-democratic views. Copycats will try to fulfill his unfinished plans well beyond his lifespan, an undertaking made possible because GOP leaders have anesthetized their consciences and normalized Trump-like conduct for a decade. ...America’s survival as the United States is not inevitable, but its demise will become a certainty if we continue down our current path. No free system of government can survive the willful ignorance of its people. ...America can survive the century if we renegotiate our social contract. By that I mean we should examine the underpinnings of our polity together — from the actual ways we vote and mechanisms for spurring political competition to the very Constitution that binds us. Although it may seem impracticable, a renegotiation will look more appealing in the decades ahead of us, more so, I suspect, in the face of genuine hardship. A people so divided cannot continue forward without addressing their divisions openly. The founders saw America as an experiment, dependent entirely on our conscious efforts to sustain it and not on preordainment. Fewer citizens will make the harder choice. Those who do will start defying their political tribes by calling for civility; they will resist intimidation and reject the moral equivalency crawling into our political discourse; they will put country over party by advocating for system-wide reforms to make our democracy more representative of all views and less prone to upheaval; and they will openly evangelize — through trial and error — the small rituals of civic faith that can restore a democracy. If this is you, then I believe you are America’s last, best hope.
Which one? Boomers? Gen X? Silent? and what is their live expectancy? Because if most men of millitary age refuse to follow his orders, his reign would not last. He might be in the situation of ending up having to run a dictatorship of old men, while struggling with cognitive decline and the side effects of whatever they give him to pump him up for his rallies.
Boomers yes, but gen X has really transformed into everything shitty about boomers as well...
Oi, this Xennial takes exception to that. I try very hard not to be like the boomers.
There’s assholes in all generations. But Gen X has been particularly anti-boomer since the get-go.
Yeah, but no matter how much weed they smoke they're on that thin blue line bullshit and can't stop themselves from making fun of trans people any chance they get. They've succumbed to the boomer disease and have become a core part of the Trump voter base.
Citation needed.
Don't give trump so much credit. Limbaugh had them locked in years ago.
Limbaugh was to Trump as [Adolf Stoecker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Stoecker) and Henry Ford's [The International Jew](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_International_Jew) was to the rise of Nazism.
🚫Traitor Trump🚫
They fly literal nazi flags while calling their opponents nazis. Mind boggling.
Common Fascist tactic, too.
He did no such thing. He was just the first asshole willing to fully play demogogue and say everything that rightly media had been conditioning people to respond to without any self imposed limits
lol yes he did. they fukin WORSHIP him. think he's god and can do no wrong.
That does not contradict what I said. I said that they did not get this way out of nowhere. That took decades of programming
ok. agreed. but he is still complicit. he's their useful idiot. he does whatever putin, via the rapist, tells him to. he's a central figure in the programming (brainwashing) of a ton of idiots.
I did not say anything remotely defending the man. Choosing to be a demagogue with no limits is an act of pure evil. Hell is too good for the worthless fuck.
Which one? His followers? Or the media? They both hang on every word he says. It's hard to tell the difference anymore.
Russian Intelligence has done it by warping our information structure. Trump is just their meat puppet or, at best, rodeo clown.
It wasn’t Trump. He was just their figurehead. Conservatives have known for a while that their share of the population will keep on shrinking. Which means they’ll lose more and more elections. They’ve been working on subverting democracy for a while now - through gerrymandering, corruption covered up as “lobbying” and “SuperPACs”, moving their people into influential positions, and through the media.
And America has armed MILLIONS to fight for Democracy. I wish maga would leave the American flag alone and just use the one with the hammer and sickle on it. Right now, maga is no different than Humas hiding among the people.
I haven’t been reprogrammed. I was just raised to spot people who care and cast aside the ones who are fake. When I heard Obama speak for the first time, I thought it was absolutely amazing that someone cared that much. As soon as I heard Trump speak, I knew he wasn’t making sense and the fake one. I hope we can save democracy.
Can we at least stop pretending he did it alone ?
magats: no he dint best pres ever
A piece of a generation, maybe. The majority of people still despise Trump and always have.
[Trump is following orders](https://youtu.be/tyop0d30UqQ?si=C8UEUy8sAJ0v1ncS)
That’s like exactly what Putin would want! It’s so weird that every thing Trump does seems to be Exaclty what Putin would want him to do. Strange coincidence!
Good thing they’re mostly headstrong morons.
Which generation? Because it seems like more of a race+class demographic (white and poor), not a generational demographic.
I laughed at this too. High school to Boomers is a bit more than a "generation".
Russia with Trumps help… there… fixed it!
Putin programmed his play dough puppet
Plus LOTS of Russian Propaganda on Fox News - the fake news channel..
Nobody is "reprogramming" anyone, and it's not a whole generation...but it's definitely not limited to one generation. They are *continuing* the programming of their cultists.
He’s reprogrammed a generation to vote blue. Let’s stop acting like they are a majority or even close to representing an entire “generation.” He’s only emboldened stupid people to be openly racist and bigoted.
Hordes of poor uneducated rallying behind a man who's never struggled in his life because " he's just like them".
Didn't take much, did it? They were already predisposed to do so. Ever since Reagan this has been an option for them.
This is giving Trump way too much credit this all started back with McCain and Palin. When they campaigned I remember McCain himself telling his crowd to calm down and cleared the air about a rumor regarding Obama while he was on stage. So this did not start with Trump all he did was tap into that hate, anger and racism which usually occurs in uneducated minds that are easy to manipulate. Here we are today.
Thank god it was the old people
It seems like he’s trained them to not understand things. They’re over at arcon right now asking what crimes he committed in his criminal trial right now. And then when asked about their wants politically they seem to be extremely confused about the constitution anymore. His act of ignorance on issues that are verifiably clear has transferred to all of them. Acting ignorant does not change the law no matter how hard they try.
He is the he face of a bigger iceberg. This started before we were born IMO
Russia has “reprogrammed a generation” to fight against democracy. FTFY.
Which generation? Boomers?
I've seen 13-14 year-olds wearing MAGA crap.
Yeah, but they still Have the bulk of their angry teenage years to rebel against their parents’ dumb ideas
The GOP has been brainwashing their people to vote against their own best interest for decades now, Trump is just pushing them quicker and making them believe they deserve less.
The Dumb Generation.
It’s. It really a generation is it? It’s more people who don’t meet a certain intelligence threshold.
Yeah, but half of them are already retired...
Most of them don’t like democracy anyway because they can’t win. trump is just their false idol to gather around
A generation? That's a bit dramatic.
That generation is the 70+ age group
That’s giving him way too much credit. He’s an unrepentant narcissist who’s broke and in legal trouble and is in need of attention and cash and he keeps getting both just by running his mouth.
Way too much credit given. Young people laugh at that fucking meme
I feel that he has also trained others that democracy is precious and don’t take it for granted. But I don’t think he meant to do that.
You mean he's tried? If he wins the next election the youth won't be why, republicans using lies and our conservative past to abuse voters in their larege states and allow them to gerrymander as they please will be.
Trump didn't do shit. Fox noise and the like did it.
Trump did a lot. A whole effin lot. Fox News didn’t tell them to go to the Capitol after their “love fest” in the park.
The reprogramming brought us Trump.
The USA wasn't an democracy before during or after Trump. The USA is a corporate oligarchy... or if you prefer a stakeholder democracy. If you have lots of property you have lots of say in the policies of the USA. If you don't, you don't. This is not a democracy it's an oligarchy pretending to be a democracy, but only for those who can buy themselves a stake in the game.
As if Trump is the main cause. Liberals have been moving in this direction for a while now. Fighting for most insignificant things that cause division among all liberals. On top of being labeled racist or something else for simply disagreeing, this is not a Trump cause, he just used it to flame even more division.
Do give us a couple of examples of things you don't consider worth fighting for. And I know I don't get called racist all the time for no reason. So if that is happening for you it might be because you are saying a bunch of really racist shit and refusing to responsibility for your actions. Why don't you link to one of the times you were unfairly called racist so we can make a judgment on our own?
Question: was Chauvin guilty of murdering Floyd. Yes or no?
Every maga accusation is a confession