Let us reflect on the Trump years

Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)

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Since the Bizarro America of the past four years is coming to an end with Trump leaving office on the 20th, how do you people reflect upon this curious time of when America lost its mind.
 

Gergar12

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They sucked with some positives like North Korea, and the stimulus, but mostly sucked.
 

Trunkage

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They sucked with some positives like North Korea, and the stimulus, but mostly sucked.
He tried to force companies to pass tax cuts onto employees... I mean, of course it didn't work, and just got a bunch of people fired. But an attempt was made to help people and sometimes they backfire

The lesson hopefully learnt is that CEOs will scam as much money out of their employees. Always.

Just joking. No one has learnt that

Edit: I would also say that the stimulus was average but also had to be rushed. The amount of money that went to the rich compared to the poor is absolutely staggering
 

Neuromancer

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If the conditions that brought about the Trump presidency are not addressed, another right wing populist will rise to fill the role. People storming Capitol Hill isn't merely an act of spontaneous rebellion. It is something that has been boiling for decades.

If you act like the liberals and think just cuz Trump's gone it's all going "back to normal" (and even if it is, what an abysmal normal that is), get ready for round 2.
 

Trunkage

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If the conditions that brought about the Trump presidency are not addressed, another right wing populist will rise to fill the role. People storming Capitol Hill isn't merely an act of spontaneous rebellion. It is something that has been boiling for decades.

If you act like the liberals and think just cuz Trump's gone it's all going "back to normal" (and even if it is, what an abysmal normal that is), get ready for round 2.
Man, this is wishful thinking. The Dems in general didnt learn much from 2016
 

Agema

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If the conditions that brought about the Trump presidency are not addressed, another right wing populist will rise to fill the role.
Hawley, Cruz and Pompeo have already put down markers for their 2024 campaigns on a Trumpist platform.
 

bluegate

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They sucked with some positives like North Korea, and the stimulus, but mostly sucked.
Wasn't North Korea just smoke and mirrors?

Last I heard they still claim America to be their biggest enemy and they are still pursuing nuclear weapons.

So all it did was give North Korea the PR footage of an American president coming to their country, giving them validation and stroking Trump's dictator ego.
 

Generals

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If the conditions that brought about the Trump presidency are not addressed, another right wing populist will rise to fill the role. People storming Capitol Hill isn't merely an act of spontaneous rebellion. It is something that has been boiling for decades.

If you act like the liberals and think just cuz Trump's gone it's all going "back to normal" (and even if it is, what an abysmal normal that is), get ready for round 2.
As long as "progressive corporate friendly democrats" think they can sell out the working class by having a cabinet with X% of women and Y% of Ethnic Minorities the Trump movement will live on.
 

Agema

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They sucked with some positives like North Korea, and the stimulus, but mostly sucked.
It's not remotely clear to me what Trump achieved with North Korea except to give Kim Jong Un some overseas holidays, global attention, and reputation as a statesman. None of which I'd describe as positives for anyone except Kin Jong Un.
 

happyninja42

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Since the Bizarro America of the past four years is coming to an end with Trump leaving office on the 20th, how do you people reflect upon this curious time of when America lost its mind.
I reflect that these past 4 years, have seriously damaged my core of optimism, that has driven me my whole life. I've always felt that overall, on average, humanity is pretty cool, and trend towards improvement and community. But the bigoted, mouth breathing, hate spewing, chucklefucks of the republican party, now having an asshat they can rally behind, have proceeded to shit all over everything good, and claim they are the ones in the right about things. And it's frankly really soured me mentally. I mean, I'm still optimistic, because it seems that this little ragegasm of theirs might be at least mitigated, but, I mean millions of fuckwads continue to vote for that asshole, so it's not like they are going away any time soon. I believe true change doesn't really take place, until the generation in question is simply dead, and thus no longer able to sustain their viewpoints. So, at this point in time, my greatest wish, is just for them to fucking die, as it's probably the only thing that will save us from them. I don't want violence upon them, but if I woke up tomorrow, and the news said that some Asshole Racist disease had consumed the entire party, I would probably laugh and dance in place.
 
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tippy2k2

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I reflect that these past 4 years, have seriously damaged my core of optimism, that has driven me my whole life. I've always felt that overall, on average, humanity is pretty cool, and trend towards improvement and community. But the bigoted, mouth breathing, hate spewing, chucklefucks of the republican party, now having an asshat they can rally behind, have proceeded to shit all over everything good, and claim they are the ones in the right about things. And it's frankly really soured me mentally. I mean, I'm still optimistic, because it seems that this little ragegasm of theirs might be at least mitigated, but, I mean millions of fuckwads continue to vote for that asshole, so it's not like they are going away any time soon. I believe true change doesn't really take place, until the generation in question is simply dead, and thus no longer able to sustain their viewpoints. So, at this point in time, my greatest wish, is just for them to fucking die, as it's probably the only thing that will save us from them. I don't want violence upon them, but if I woke up tomorrow, and the news said that some Asshole Racist disease had consumed the entire party, I would probably laugh and dance in place.
See, I completely agree with this and then add on that it all now feels completely hopeless for this country now. If the Pandemic wasn't enough to wake people up and realize that both sides are playing us like a fucking fiddle, kicking us crumbs while they gorge themselves on five course meals, nothing is ever going to. A lot of people have become "radicalized" (as if having Health Care like every other first world country in the world is somehow a radical concept) after this but it's become clear that too many people are perfectly comfortable keeping things as they are and will do nothing to change it (or actively get in the way because they're petrified "The Other Guys!!!!" will win).

At least in my lifetime, I fully expect that not only will "nothing fundamentally change" but it's only going to get worse as Democrats just keep it on cruise control as they usually do, people decide they're sick of it, and vote in Trump 2.0 since they figure it can't get any worse and except next time maybe Trump 2.0 won't be a fucking moron. If people thought Trump was bad, wait until we get a Trump that actually knows how to actually do more than just golf and eat McDonalds while crying on Twitter every so often...
 

tstorm823

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A whole lotta people saw an excuse to go completely insane and took it. No good came of it. The end.
 

ObsidianJones

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Let's not just say that Trump's affect isn't ending. Let's talk about when it actually began.

Trump is a step on the way. He's much like Steve Jobs in this respect. He didn't invent the Computer for Personal Use. He made a lot of noise and a lot of people got tired of him and kicked him out. But he came back and had one success, and from that point on a cult emerged.

But what you need to look back to see is... what made the avenue for their individual markets to be so profitable? What desire and public need was not being tapped to create the eventual wave they would ride.

It's easy to just point at the Tea Party and go "Yup, Donald Trump was the culmination of that movement". But to have that level of wanton anger and shouting into the wind, hoping it would affect change, you have to have intense displeasure in the first place.

So, my question to everyone else... when did the world start wanting a Donald Trump to begin with?
 

happyninja42

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So, my question to everyone else... when did the world start wanting a Donald Trump to begin with?
I'd say at least 50ish years ago, as the religious right began to take control of the party as a whole, and started propping themselves up as the "moral voice" of the country. They started to coop what it meant to being an american and everything good and decent, as something THEY owned, and thus had the copywright on. They started to cultivate their base into simultaneously thinking they had both the legal, and spiritual authority to pass judgement on everyone Not Them, and had this reinforced in every church in the country for generations. They harnessed the percentage of people who want to be not only told what and who to believe in, but to have that faith in that person, serve the dual role of fulfilling their need to be a "good amurican" and a "good christian". And they milked that shit, for YEARS. Just look at how Pence would, back on the campaign trail in 2015-16, always introduce himself as a christian first, and then a republican, etc. They were clearly stamping their brand with Divine Right, and had chucklefucks in the media, reinforce it with shit like "the founding fathers based the country on the bible" , and had the various religious mouth pieces further reinforce this religion/politics fusion, by literally declaring people like trump as the chosen of god, and that his opponents are the servants of satan. And, every time I say that line, I feel the need to clarify, I'm not talking in hyperbole there. They literally would go on TV, and make statements to their audience, that WE, the rest of the country, were servants of the devil, and thus trying to "kill their god" and whatnot.

So they had a base, primed from both political jingo-esq rhetoric, and religious zealotry, to demonize everyone not like them. And it just so happened that this easily fell onto racial lines as well, so that underpinning of racism that exists in their base, had a justification that they could say "it's not because we're racists, it's because you're evil....and just happen to be brown."

So....the world (though mainly just the US really), has wanted a trump for a while. He's like the whitehead on a big, swollen, festering zit on your forehead. That's too sensitive to poke at for a long time, is glaring red and painful, but when it does finally come to a head, you know the tiniest push is going to make it burst with bile and puss, and just make a mess of everything.
 

Revnak

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Let’s not do that actually. Let’s instead realize the current moment still includes the movement and political realities that developed around him and none of that’s just going away. He got more votes this time. Like 30-something percent of Americans support him. It isn’t over.
 

Exley97

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A whole lotta people saw an excuse to go completely insane and took it. No good came of it. The end.
I definitely won't miss the folks on the right who insisted the fears of Trump were just "derangement syndrome" rather than obviously legitimate concerns that were fully validated on a number of occasions, most notably Jan. 6.