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... the most heated arguments on here centered around what birth year marked the start of what generation (1958 vs. 1961 for the Xers, 1981 vs. 1982 for the Millennials - and more recently, 1997 vs. 1999 for what I have labeled the "Activist Generation")?
The rise of Donald Trump and his "base" has relegated such discussions to parlor-game status.
"These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation" - Justice David Brewer, Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892
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Donald Trump has thrown a full barrel of monkey wrenches into American politics. Has anyone ever initiated a Presidential campaign against the incumbent seeking a second term only to win in the next term? Has any Presidential nominee had so many reprobate characteristics (sleazy business practices, connections to syndicates of organized crime, being a sexual predator. and having sympathy with dictatorial powers overseas?) Has anyone won the Presidency in the last century or so with lesser participation in public service? (Eisenhower had as solid a military career as is possible before becoming President, so he is no exception). Has anyone ever had fewer coherent policies? Has any Presidential nominee won the Presidency despite such overt expressions of religious bigotry and contempt for the unfortunate?
America ended up with a rogue before the Presidency, and someone who had no idea of the powers of and constraints upon the Presidency (contrary to myth, the President has few powers except those that Congress authorizes through assent) and bulldozed his way through? We have seen dress rehearsals for three particularly dangerous tendencies in a President. One is the formation of a police apparatus responsible to himself for command and for moral agenda. Second is an inability to recognize an electoral result that he disliked. The third is a scary coup that in recent revelations shows that it was not so spontaneous as it appeared at first.
Trump has achieved little as President except to select three dreadful Justices to the US Supreme Court, but he has shown where the seams lie in our political system. He might not be the one to exploit those, but someone with little character but inordinate ambition might.
I used to think that because of the literary heritage of America that includes William Shakespeare that we are immune to a Macbeth-like leader. I am no longer so smug about that.
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.
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(12-12-2021, 03:25 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Donald Trump has thrown a full barrel of monkey wrenches into American politics. Has anyone ever initiated a Presidential campaign against the incumbent seeking a second term only to win in the next term? Has any Presidential nominee had so many reprobate characteristics (sleazy business practices, connections to syndicates of organized crime, being a sexual predator. and having sympathy with dictatorial powers overseas?) Has anyone won the Presidency in the last century or so with lesser participation in public service? (Eisenhower had as solid a military career as is possible before becoming President, so he is no exception). Has anyone ever had fewer coherent policies? Has any Presidential nominee won the Presidency despite such overt expressions of religious bigotry and contempt for the unfortunate?
America ended up with a rogue before the Presidency, and someone who had no idea of the powers of and constraints upon the Presidency (contrary to myth, the President has few powers except those that Congress authorizes through assent) and bulldozed his way through? We have seen dress rehearsals for three particularly dangerous tendencies in a President. One is the formation of a police apparatus responsible to himself for command and for moral agenda. Second is an inability to recognize an electoral result that he disliked. The third is a scary coup that in recent revelations shows that it was not so spontaneous as it appeared at first.
Trump has achieved little as President except to select three dreadful Justices to the US Supreme Court, but he has shown where the seams lie in our political system. He might not be the one to exploit those, but someone with little character but inordinate ambition might.
I used to think that because of the literary heritage of America that includes William Shakespeare that we are immune to a Macbeth-like leader. I am no longer so smug about that.
Grover Cleveland - google him!
"These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation" - Justice David Brewer, Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892
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Cleveland had a child out of wedlock.
I wonder how many abortions Donald Trump has paid for.
Cleveland was the only Democratic President between Andrew Johnson (a "Union Democrat" who basically seceded from the Confederacy) and Woodrow Wilson. Trump became President eight years after a Republican President.
If Trump is to have anything in common with Cleveland it will be in having two separated terms of office. I dunno. How toxic is he? Cleveland was not toxic. Cleveland wasn't corrupt.
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.
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(12-12-2021, 01:56 PM)Anthony Wrote: ... the most heated arguments on here centered around what birth year marked the start of what generation (1958 vs. 1961 for the Xers, 1981 vs. 1982 for the Millennials - and more recently, 1997 vs. 1999 for what I have labeled the "Activist Generation")?
The rise of Donald Trump and his "base" has relegated such discussions to parlor-game status.
tbh, late wave millennials are insufferable. The emotionality of Idealists, the conformist policing of Civics and the anxiety of Adaptives all rolled into one.
ammosexual
reluctant millennial
