The Politics Thread

Even if Trump’s second administration is not authoritarian in nature, it will still be a disaster for everyone who is not a healthy, affluent, cis white male. If Trump implements any of his authoritarian statements during his second term, then all gloves are off. I really hope that for the sake of the world order it is not the later, even though most Americans in some way will be screwed over by the former.

Beyond the electoral college, Tronald Sr also got 5 million more total votes, proving that a referendum to replace the electoral college league with a popular vote system wouldn't save us from autocrats like him. If I lived in a red state, my civil rights as a religious minority, i.e. not politically or theologically aligned with televangelists such as Jerry Falwell the 1st or Pat Robertson, would be at stake, but if he justified revoking civil rights from non-Falwellians just by having won the election, that would constitute a blatant abuse of governmental power which could risk a human rights crisis.

If people who were, or look like they were, born in the 00-Agents' Decade indeed sat this election out, it would prove that recent generations' faith in public institutions, and the whole system of government, was long-since exhausted. Efforts to use civic participation to improve struggling people's quality of life went nowhere, rich powerholders proved to be above justice, nobody could think of or implement any effective strategy against Exxon-Mobil's near-unchecked power, and people got sick of getting falsely blamed for Judaiphobia just because they tried to cut Benjamin Netanyahu's, Itamar Ben-Gvir's, and the overall Likud and Otzma-Yehudit parties' holocaust in Gaza short.

But perhaps what I'm most worried about is his foreign policy intentions. It wouldn't take much effort to abuse the military's power and make the US into an enemy to the rest of the 1st world. In order to stave off blame and avert military action by the Allied Powers or whatever today's closest equivalent is within states and localities that didn't support those war crimes, 20 or 30 state governments would have to disavow what Tronald Sr was turning DC into. If he directed the military, or any of the yes-men in his executive branch, to attack the Pacific Coast, the Eastern seaboard, the southeastern Rocky Mountains, or Chicago, the US would break up into roughly 5 smaller nations. This would leave Vlad Putin and Xi Jinping unchecked by the former US' military power, Putin and Jinping could do everything they wanted geopolitically, and a planetary state of emergency would have to be declared.

No. I was hopeful but Ohio has become a red state in the past 10 years.

Any insight as to what turned Ohio red since circa 014?

Meanwhile, I suddenly remembered my best friend saying we'd make history last night. But it turns out he was right for the worst reason. Tronald Sr is the first convicted felon to be given a presidential election, further proving how ineffectual the screening process for candidates is.

Ok thank you for the information

I needed to also address Trump’s usage of Hitler quotes during his campaign (ex. Getting rid of the “vermin”, poisoning the blood of America, the enemy within, etc). In any democracy, this should be disqualifying for any serious political candidate.

This has been lost on Americans for two reasons. Yougov polled Americans and found only 65% agreed that none of Hitler’s ideas were right. (11% said some of Hitler’s ideas were right and 24% had no opinion). The other issue is that about half of US millennials and members of Gen Z cannot came a single Nazi concentration camp. (By comparison I can name the following three off the top of my hand, Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald).

In unrelated political news, George Gascon and Pamela Price were both defeated in their elections to keep their county DA position. I do think that their views of being “progressive prosecutors” have significant issues, the same way as the “tough on crime prosecutors” have significant issues with their policies. Being convicted of a felony should have consequences, and there are times when juveniles do need to be charged as adult. At the same time, the viewpoint that justice is based on how many convictions you get and the harshest penalties you can apply at sentencing has been well documented as far as condemning defendants to LWOP or death if the case against them is circumstantial (meaning there is reasonable doubt to a defendant’s guilt). I do think there is a fair way of applying consequences to those convicted of felonies that is done without bias or discrimination, and does not need the death penalty in a civilized democracy.