Trump is degenerating rapidly before our eyes — why MAGA voters don't notice

Rapidcreek@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 428 points –
Trump is degenerating rapidly before our eyes — why MAGA voters don't notice
salon.com
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An average middle aged American would make both candidates look too old and not suited for the presidency....

But when it's Biden and trump, criticizing ones mental ability just makes people claim it's not a big deal because the other is bad too.

Neoliberals claim Biden is better, republicans claim trump is better.

Everyone else says both aren't good enough and why the fuck are these the only two options...

This is going to be a low turnout election, and those are the ones Republicans tend to win.

Ignoring it while there's still time to fix it only helps trump. Because Republicans are better at ignoring reality than anyone else.

Mate, I am a conservative independent who doesn’t like Biden. But please vote for Biden. There is a different between a bad but competent president (Biden) and someone who frequently undermines American institutions (Trump).

Accountability should be a conservative view, but things are so skewed right now that it’s seen as liberal or far left.

If there was ANYONE else viable, we could talk about getting someone viable. But right now it’s clear that there isn’t.

It’s very important to vote for the better candidate while simultaneously making moves to better the system overall.

Accountability should be a conservative view

Since when?

It should be a view of everyone, especially the so-called fiscal conservatives

The DNC has had the chance to primary Biden with someone more viable, they decided to stick with the guy that swore he would be a 1 term president that no one wants in office. Voters have had 3 years to demand change in the party, instead they punched at anyone trying to hold the party and Biden accountable. This combined with the gaslighting coming from the party that the economy is good and that we are not struggling while we know we are tells us they are not listening to our needs.

More bullshit DNC conspiracies. The "far left" is just a one-trick pony, isn't it?

At no point has this been difficult to understand: folks don't turn out for primaries. They didn't when Bernie ran, and they aren't now. Good news though, we can just slap tin foil on and pretend that America is just as left-wing as a username that lays out its own naïveté.

The thing is, you’re looking for big sudden change and you think most voters think like you. Big change happens over time with lots of effort, and clearly some people want Biden in office - even if that’s neither me nor you.

From a metrics standpoint, the economy is doing great. However, old metrics may no longer be applicable and would need to be adjusted. It doesn’t mean you and I are doing well.

Everyone else says both aren’t good

False equivalence. Old <> Narcissistic Dementia.

Everybody hates politicians. Super easy to criticize any particular politician, and not likely to generate much angry feedback.

Trump is a fucking goldmine of material. The sheer diversity of his bullshit means that no one topic stays relevant for very long.

Biden, though? You've got age and Israel, and Israel has way too much other stuff associated to bring up in mixed company. The reason people harp so much on Biden's age is because there's nothing else they can talk about.

You’re replying from a liberal point of view. I also disagree with how he’s doing student loan forgiveness, marijuana, and how he’s still pushing roads instead of public transportation.

He’s also preventing Warren from being president while she’s still “young”.

The reason people harp so much on Biden’s age is because there’s nothing else they can talk about.

Climate change, we have record breaking fossil fuels production and still subsidizing it.

Economy, only good for the 1%, Biden keeps bragging about it.

Healthcare, just ignoring it

Cannabis, Biden ain't even going to deregulate which was his campaign promises

Education, K-12 still terrible, student loans that have been forgiven isn't even a rounding error in total debt

Policing/legal system, still absolutely fucked, not being addressed

SC, won't admit it needs fixed

Abortion, Biden won't take action. Just says trump would make it worse again.

Do I need to continue?

Biden disagrees with his voters on lots of things, just because people are focused on a few, doesn't mean the rest disappeared.

Funny how everything you mention that Biden isn't good at, Trump is way way worse and actively sabotage many of them, and most of the things aren't help because Repubtards are blocking it.

Do I need to continue?

No you aren't going anywhere anyway.

Why would a starving man object to a shit sandwich?

It's better than starving...

I'll eat the shit sandwich if it's my only choice, but others might not.

So how about we offer a pb&j to everyone and they'll all make the smart choice?

That's not the political reality, and you probably know it.
You are preaching wishful thinking.

If wanting more than a shit sandwich is wishful thinking, You've already given up

That's fine, you do you.

But if you won't help fix shit, please stop telling the ones still putting in the effort that it's just "wishful thinking".

You are not helping, but sabotaging. Whether you are unaware IDK, but considering the communication you've been through, I'm guessing you are aware.
So no I'm not going to help you sabotage the election for Biden.

Criticizing a President/candidate for things he hasn't done is pretty ineffective, because the easy answer is, "the other party is blocking him." Most of your criticisms require a five minute conversation to articulate your position, because they're actually hard policy questions, and don't fit into a TV soundbite: they're a whole other category than "He's too old," or "He's sexually assaulted 18 women."

...

Exactly, his flaws that fit into TV sound bites and headlines are the ones that get brought up the most...

That doesn't mean the rest magically don't exist and people don't care about them.

That's just the reason they dont get brought up the most.

And the other party would try to block them, but at least Biden could be trying so instead of a hypothetical he could point at when and where they blocked it.

Progressives dont want everything fixed immediately, I mean, it'd be nice.

But we're not used to getting stuff, a president who tries is more than enough to get us excited.

Which is why it's so frustrating Biden doesn't even try

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

That word still doesn’t mean what you think it means.

Nope, gotta scroll down to "current usage"

Historian Elizabeth Shermer argued that the term gained popularity largely among left-leaning academics in the 1970s to "describe and decry a late twentieth-century effort by policymakers, think-tank experts, and industrialists to condemn social-democratic reforms and unapologetically implement free-market policies";[51] economic historian Phillip W. Magness notes its reemergence in academic literature in the mid-1980s, after French philosopher Michel Foucault brought attention to it.[52]

At a base level we can say that when we make reference to 'neoliberalism', we are generally referring to the new political, economic and social arrangements within society that emphasize market relations, re-tasking the role of the state, and individual responsibility. Most scholars tend to agree that neoliberalism is broadly defined as the extension of competitive markets into all areas of life, including the economy, politics and society.

The Handbook of Neoliberalism[22]

Neoliberalism is contemporarily used to refer to market-oriented reform policies such as "eliminating price controls, deregulating capital markets, lowering trade barriers" and reducing, especially through privatization and austerity, state influence in the economy.[8] It is also commonly associated with the economic policies introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in the United States.[28] Some scholars note it has a number of distinct usages in different spheres:[53]

They love changing the name for it, but their principles remain steadfast.

Hell, Biden even tried to co-opt "Reaganomics" into "Bidenomics" and trumps been using the "MAGA" campaign slogan that Regan used...

You cannot be more wrong.

It is also commonly associated with the economic policies introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in the United States.

As a public policy, it involves the privatization of public economic sectors or services, the deregulation of private corporations, sharp decrease of government budget deficits and reduction of spending on public works.

There is debate over the meaning of the term. Sociologists Fred L. Block and Margaret Somers claim there is a dispute over what to call the influence of free-market ideas which have been used to justify the retrenchment of New Deal programs and policies since the 1980s: neoliberalism, laissez-faire or "free market ideology".[54] Other academics such as Susan Braedley and Med Luxton assert that neoliberalism is a political philosophy which seeks to "liberate" the processes of capital accumulation.[55] In contrast, Frances Fox Piven sees neoliberalism as essentially hyper-capitalism.[56] Robert W. McChesney, while defining neoliberalism similarly as "capitalism with the gloves off", goes on to assert that the term is largely unknown by the general public, particularly in the United States.[57] Lester Spence uses the term to critique trends in Black politics, defining neoliberalism as "the general idea that society works best when the people and the institutions within it work or are shaped to work according to market principles".[58] According to Philip Mirowski, neoliberalism views the market as the greatest information processor, superior to any human being. It is hence considered as the arbiter of truth. Adam Kotsko describes neoliberalism as political theology, as it goes beyond simply being a formula for an economic policy agenda and instead infuses it with a moral ethos that "aspires to be a complete way of life and a holistic worldview, in a way that previous models of capitalism did not."

Neoliberalism is distinct from liberalism insofar as it does not advocate laissez-faire economic policy, but instead is highly constructivist and advocates a strong state to bring about market-like reforms in every aspect of society.[60] Anthropologist Jason Hickel also rejects the notion that neoliberalism necessitates the retreat of the state in favor of totally free markets, arguing that the spread of neoliberalism required substantial state intervention to establish a global 'free market'.[61] Naomi Klein states that the three policy pillars of neoliberalism are "privatization of the public sphere, deregulation of the corporate sector, and the lowering of income and corporate taxes, paid for with cuts to public spending".

Bruh...

Neoliberal means different things in different countries... Just like liberal does

Why are you bolding the part a Canadian said?

Why not stop using such a general link? We're talking about modern American neoliberalism, you want the father of that?

It's James Carville.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Carville

You want an explanation on modern American neoliberalism:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/neoliberalism/

It's not as easy of a read as Wikipedia, and it'll.probably go over your head.

Huh, that article on Carville doesn't contain the string "neol". One might think that if he were considered the "father of American neoliberalism," a Wikipedia article would mention that.

The Stanford article is a bit of a hodge-podge of "lots of people say lots of things, but nobody really wholly agrees." I appreciate your bringing it to my attention. My take is that neoliberalism is "Libertarian Lite," which is a whole lot closer to Republican conservatism in America than it is to Democratic center-right.

Go on and say you're going to block me now.

With these two it seems like they're really trying to add a new president to the list of those that died in office. Last one that wasn't assassinated was FDR in 1945. Going to be really important who these crypt keepers run as their VP because there is a very good chance they'll be the president before the end of their term.

How are Kamala Harris polling numbers these days? If they're better than Biden's (and that's a really low bar so I'd kind of be surprised if they aren't) it would be smart of the Democrats to encourage people to vote to support her in the incredibly likely chance that Biden dies in office making her the president.

Time? What time do you think we have? The hour is later than you think. Trump’s forces are already moving. The Nine have left Mar-a-Lago. They crossed the River Delaware on Midsummer’s Eve, disguised as lobbyists in black.

Primary ain't over, we haven't even met Tom Bombadil yet...

Gandalf didn't grab the first person under 5foot he saw, he picked a young fool of a Took who had the heart, courage, and willingness to keep marching against impossible odds.

Even he recognized Bilbo was too old and corrupted by power to make the journey.

Frodo and Sam made it to Mount Doom because they moved in secret and carried the one thing that could kill Trump, I mean Sauron, without direct confrontation. Like it or not, in this analogy, Biden is our Aragorn. Come to think of it, they are about the same age! If there is a Frodo secretly making his way to Mount Doom with Putin's kompromat, I mean the One Ring, we don't know about it yet.

If Biden is anyone, he's Bilbo.

The difference is we didn't have a Gandalf to wrest the ring away. So Bilbo keeps putting off the journey and spends all his time telling people no one else can carry the burden and about all his past adventures.

Dude's never left the Prancing Pony

I get it man, you didn't expect the analogy to fit so well, but it does.

You're only comparing Biden to Bilbo because they both look old. That's shallow. If Trump is Sauron in the analogy, which is how I set it up, then Biden is at least as strong and important as Aragorn. More so, really.

Even Aragon knew he couldn't carry the ring...

The ring isn't the election.

It's King of America.

It's authoritarian rule.