Let us reflect on the Trump years

SilentPony

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That is part of Trump's appeal yes even if its just smoke and mirrors since he has never been an outsider. But that doesn't answer my question because even with delusion that an openly corrupt businessman could somehow be an outsider his approval ratings were still consistently low, and he still never won the popular vote. Ergo, he did not have the support of the people behind him. Now at worst the media could theoretically scew the polling on Trump's approval ratings somewhat to the negative, but they cannot lie about Trump's bad record at acquiring the popular vote.
Pfft, these are Trump supporters you're talking to. They still think 5 million Mexicans voted in 2016 and Trump actually won the popular vote. These are people who lie about the weather in actual footage we can watch. They're shameless and fact free.
 
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09philj

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I actually agree with tstorm here, tho probably not in the same way. Trump is not a Hitler 2.0. Bargain bin Mussolini is more his league.

Now, perhaps someone will come tell me how wrong that is, but just to preface, I'll take that as seriously as I do Trump.
To be fair, everyone dismissed Hitler as an incompetent no-hoper both before and after his failed coup attempt in 1923. What Trump really doesn't have is a pathological drive to dominate the nation motivated by extreme bigotry. Fascism is, of course, fairly amorphous and manifests itself in a way suitable to time and place; the key elements are authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and mythologised traditionalism. The US has longstanding tendencies towards all three, but has fortunately never quite fallen into the hands of leaders willing to strongly push for all three to the extent that the US became a fully fascist state. Still, the GOP has firmly established itself as a welcoming home for those who support police brutality, white nationalism, and enforced conformity to "traditional" values. As long as it remains politically profitable and they can daub a vaguely respectable face on it, the Republican party will not police itself. Vigilance for the emergence of fascist ideas in political discourse and pushing back against them is the duty of every citizen in a society that would like to call itself democratic.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.

Cheetodust

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Haha he pardoned Steve bannon. A man literally in jail for defrauding trump's own supporters.
 

Chimpzy

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To be fair, everyone dismissed Hitler as an incompetent no-hoper both before and after his failed coup attempt in 1923. What Trump really doesn't have is a pathological drive to dominate the nation motivated by extreme bigotry. Fascism is, of course, fairly amorphous and manifests itself in a way suitable to time and place; the key elements are authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and mythologised traditionalism. The US has longstanding tendencies towards all three, but has fortunately never quite fallen into the hands of leaders willing to strongly push for all three to the extent that the US became a fully fascist state. Still, the GOP has firmly established itself as a welcoming home for those who support police brutality, white nationalism, and enforced conformity to "traditional" values. As long as it remains politically profitable and they can daub a vaguely respectable face on it, the Republican party will not police itself. Vigilance for the emergence of fascist ideas in political discourse and pushing back against them is the duty of every citizen in a society that would like to call itself democratic.
Sure, perhaps. I stand by Il Dollar Store Duce on account of not wanting to give Trump the credit of a comparison to Hitler. Also ...

I mean, the Simpsons made a joke about it. You know you're on the money when that happens.
 

Seanchaidh

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There problem with your analogy is that you don't understand Hitler's rise to power. He didn't demonize a group of a people to gain power. He picked a fight with the group that people already resented. And it wasn't Jewish people he targeted, it was communists. Hitler gained power because people hated the communists with or without Hitler, and he took up that mantle and rode it to the top, from where he started picking any demographic he felt undesirable to remove.
That's why he falsely named his party 'socialist'.
 

Thaluikhain

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People need to stop comparing Doanld with Hitler since that is incredibly insulting against Hitler. That guy made good speeches and kept most of his promises. Donald is just a horrible 5 year old.
Yeah, Trump is an embarrassment on tp of everything else. Nearly 80 million people looked at a failure with no redeeming qualities who doesn't even particularly try, but because he told them he's the messiah they went along with it. Fortunately, he didn't bother to secure power for himself.

In no way would I be surprised if the next Trump turned out to be vaguely competent and makes himself President for life.
 

Elijin

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I don't understand the notion that negative perception and press about Trump is a result of him being a republican president.

Trump was a vile, cheating weasel for decades before his presidency, and copped appropriate flak for it.

From his history, I personally find Trump U to be absolutely unforgivable. Stealing peoples hopes and futures with a fraudulent school is disgusting.
 

Cheetodust

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I don't understand the notion that negative perception and press about Trump is a result of him being a republican president.

Trump was a vile, cheating weasel for decades before his presidency, and copped appropriate flak for it.

From his history, I personally find Trump U to be absolutely unforgivable. Stealing peoples hopes and futures with a fraudulent school is disgusting.
I'm Irish I remember thinking Trump knowing exactly what trump is like in my teens, I referenced an article about him in an essay I wrote in school, so like 2006/2007 maybe. Trump had roughly the same reputation internationally in the mid 2000's as he has now.

Hell before he was the nominee the republicans agreed that he was a grifting scumbag who had no place in government.
 

Thaluikhain

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I'm Irish I remember thinking Trump knowing exactly what trump is like in my teens, I referenced an article about him in an essay I wrote in school, so like 2006/2007 maybe. Trump had roughly the same reputation internationally in the mid 2000's as he has now.

Hell before he was the nominee the republicans agreed that he was a grifting scumbag who had no place in government.
Before the election the New South Wales government declared he was a revolting slug. Nobody voted against this.

 

tstorm823

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Are these lies documented or just your opinion?
Both. Not that I have sources for what I heard them say on the radio, or remember most of the things that irritated me. Most recently I heard them repeat the story about the Republican Governor of Nebraska supposedly banning undocumented immigrants from getting vaccinated. The actual thing he said was in a press conference, he was talking about meat packing workers getting high vaccination priority, and was asked if that included undocumented workers, and he said something like "well, it's illegal for undocumented immigrants to work in those plants, so we wouldn't expect to see that" which is him pretending all the workers in the plants are citizens, which is effectively saying "we're not carding people for this vaccine." Which is the opposite of banning them, and then we landed in the common situation where the news in Nebraska is reporting correctly that citizenship is not a requirement for vaccination while the national news orgs like WaPo are reporting that he banned people from getting vaccinated.

And the thing that gets me mad about NPR is that I trust them enough to know better. They are very often a source I turn to when a story somewhere else smells off and I want the actual facts. Still on the subject of meatpacking, a couple years ago there was a story making the rounds claiming Trump told the pork industry to regulate itself. NPR was kind enough to inform me that it was a minor regulatory change signed into permanency after a successful 20 year pilot program started under the Clinton administration and already enacted in the poultry industry, and Trump just happened to be president at the end of the pilot program. I trust them to know the facts of almost any situation better than I do, so when they say things I know are wrong, it's extra annoying.
 

Exley97

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One group of people having a delusions about Trump being a pedophile-fighting superhero does not validate other people's delusions that he's Hitler 2.0. And those two groups of people continue to feed one another.
You don't have to be a Nazi to be a threat to the country. You can be a two-bit crook who talks like a mob boss and accomplish that just fine, as he adequately proved.

And please, let's not engage in revisionist history about Qanon and what is "feeding" it.
 

Bedinsis

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Both. Not that I have sources for what I heard them say on the radio, or remember most of the things that irritated me. Most recently I heard them repeat the story about the Republican Governor of Nebraska supposedly banning undocumented immigrants from getting vaccinated. The actual thing he said was in a press conference, he was talking about meat packing workers getting high vaccination priority, and was asked if that included undocumented workers, and he said something like "well, it's illegal for undocumented immigrants to work in those plants, so we wouldn't expect to see that" which is him pretending all the workers in the plants are citizens, which is effectively saying "we're not carding people for this vaccine." Which is the opposite of banning them, and then we landed in the common situation where the news in Nebraska is reporting correctly that citizenship is not a requirement for vaccination while the national news orgs like WaPo are reporting that he banned people from getting vaccinated.
I tried searching for Pete Ricketts and various related terms on npr.org, but came up short. The WaPo article you refer to was published a week ago so if npr claimed something similar it ought to be recent. Since you did not have a source I assume it's pointless to ask for one, but I can at least ask about the format: was it a news overview with several bullet point new items or what was it?
 
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tstorm823

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I tried searching for Pete Ricketts and various related terms on npr.org, but came up short. The WaPo article you refer to was published a week ago so if npr claimed something similar it ought to be recent. Since you did not have a source I assume it's pointless to ask for one, but I can at least about the format: was it a news overview with several bullet point new items or what was it?
I heard it on the actual radio. It was just a bullet point list of headlines. I guess to be fair, there's a possibility that the local affiliate WITF actually did that list of headlines, but they don't typically comment on news from other states.
 

Kwak

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Seemed like a fair interpretation of what was said.

Facing follow-up questions from reporters, he repeated: “If you’re working in the plants, you’re supposed to be here legally. So to get the vaccination, you gotta be working here legally to be able to be part of the food processing program.”
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Following Ricketts’ remarks, which went viral on Twitter, Taylor Gage, the governor’s communications director, clarified that “the federal government is expected to eventually make enough vaccine available for everyone in the country,” but Nebraska is prioritizing citizens and legal residents ahead of undocumented immigrants.
 
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