01-25-2020, 02:04 PM
(01-24-2020, 06:00 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Make no mistake about this. We now live in a society where 45% of the voting public want to overthrow our republic and empower a dictator, and disempower the congress that represents them. They want to impose upon us a fanatical, lying, scumbag dictator, because they are HOOKED on ideologies of hate and privilege. They feel entitled to a Ronald Reagan clone in office; in fact, they want to keep a lying con-man shitface in office because he caters and panders to the conspiracy theories that they hold. 45% of the American people ARE truly deplorable. They "approve" of Trump's job performance. AND, they hold a much-lower and much MORE insulting opinion of we the 52% who don't approve, and threaten violence against us.
When that 45% (really 45.92% based on the 2016 Presidential election) erodes to about 45%, then Trump loses, if just barely in the Electoral College, and Republicans hold a bare 51-49 majority in the Senate. (I am guessing that Collins, Gardner, and McSally lose their Senate seats but Jones loses the anomalous D seat in Alabama. Should Republicans try a re-match of Ray Moore against Doug Jones, then we have a 50-50 tie and the Democratic Vice-President decides such with his vote as President of the Senate.
When that number slips to 44%, then Democrats pick up more electoral votes, going from perhaps 278 to 295 to 339 -- and probably Senate seats in Iowa, North Carolina, and Georgia. The demographic trends and simple aging are pushing Milennial adults into political influence -- and power.
Quote:This Trump job performance consists in willful, categorical defiance of all congressional subpoenas, without which the people and the congress have no way to hold him accountable for the abuses of power which he demonstrably made. It consists in the use of his power to promote his own fortunes in elections without regard for the needs of national defense, American democracy, or legally-approved foreign policy. It consists of deliberate ignorance of science that proves that our country and world is in danger if it continues to rely on fossil fuels. It consists of deliberate stoking of racial hatreds to the point that hate crimes increase wherever he has spoken. It consists of deliberate policies to take away our rights, to swell our national debt, and to weaken protections against the rampant greedy behavior that threatens the lives of all Americans.
The more that people see of this, the more they will dislike it. Liberals are showing themselves less tolerant of lawlessness just at the very time that the Hard Right excuses a President who acts in contempt of law. This will make things much easier for liberals, even in unlikely places.
Quote:There is no precedent at all for this president's conduct. All previous presidents have recognized the right and proper role of the congress to oversee his conduct. He has placed himself above the law to a far greater extent than even Nixon, who turned over all requested information except the white house tapes (because he knew they contained the "smoking gun"). But the supreme court ruled unanimously that he must turn them over. Today's supreme court might not do this, because at least 4 and maybe 5 of its justices are beholden to the mad 45% of the people who are determined to overthrow our democracy and replace it with an empowered oligarchy whose leaders operate without any restraint except "the market." Our Senate will not remove Trump from office because it is beholden to the mad 45% and the money powers that support them.
Even worse -- he has demanded that Congress excuse his despotic behavior. Worse, his Party has developed a short-sighted sycophancy toward him. Nixon at least knew that there was a stake in something more than his personality. Smoking gun? Donald Trump has an arsenal of those lying around.
It could be that the moneyed elite that sees Donald Trump as its last best chance for establishing a pure plutocracy recognizes that time is running out. The Tea Party is shrinking as it ages. The Millennial Generation does not believe the broken promise of trickle-down economics. Maybe these people see themselves in much the same position as did most Commies in most of central and Balkan Europe in 1989... they might as well leave in a free election than in a revolution. The economic elite has enough wealth with which to live very well without political power.
Quote:Classic Xer and John Xenakis are representatives of this mad 45% here, and I don't mind at all that they post and discuss here. Without them we have no awareness of what the 45% say and believe, and we get no practice here in how to refute or oppose what they write. We always have adversaries in life that make us stronger.
It's better to know what that elite believes, however distressing such might be.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.