11-04-2020, 10:01 PM
(11-04-2020, 03:48 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: I have come to a sickening conclusion: the best way to exploit people, to get them to accept the absolute worst is to appeal to the viscera. Forget reason, learning, empathy, reflection, and self-interest: those are weak in contrast to the primitive drives and fears. Donald Trump is the greatest master of such in American history. I may be wise enough to distrust my gut instincts (or as Ronald Reagan cited an alleged Russian proverb, "Trust, but verify".
People become increasingly helpless -- and morally depraved. At this point I am no longer convinced that the American people as a whole are any better than the people of Nazi Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union, Idi Amin's Uganda, or Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Should Trump pull this off, then I have lost all faith in electoral politics, at least in America. If in a land of criminals one becomes an accomplice, a victim, or an emigrant. Donald Trump's campaign told people that if they didn't vote for them they would lose their jobs and be subjected to extremist violence. Trump will exploit economic insecurity of his creation to scare people into further hardship -- and multitudes are stupid enough to fail to recognize that Donald Trump stirred up the social unrest that has recently bedeviled us.
If we fall for someone like Trump, then we will be the stupidest people on Earth -- the ones who voted for their own chains.
Firearms will not help me. Valium and vodka might.
That's right. And facebook will not allow this opinion on facebook. The Americans are responsible for this. If they have allowed a disgraceful person to be their president, then they are just as disgraceful.
Trump has not yet been elected, since he lost Michigan and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania is still on track to flip to Biden. It depend on how close, it is and whether Biden will need the ballots that arrived after election day. If not, we are on the verge as a nation of one religious fanatic to potentially decide the election rather than 150 million Americans.
The blue wave did not crash. Republicans have picked up 6 seats in the House, but this is not final since some states are still counting including California. So we have two competing nations within one, and there is no guarantee that the demographics will favor the democratic blue one over the fascist red one going forward. As latinx people become established citizens, they are just as liable to be persuaded by trickle-down economics as well as naturally more socially conservative. Today's Millennial-Gen young people and the next Gen-Z may or may not stay as liberal as they are now, and may or may not participate as much as they need to. Trump is a cult leader, and unless he is in jail he will be out in red-land arousing the next Tea Party wave for 2022.