Which scenario is most likely to unite the country?

[GuiltyCowboy]

Well, it's interesting that so few of us are ready to grapple with what's coming down the track.

As I see it, there are only three possibilities, in order of decreasing likelihood:

- One of the options I outlined in the original post.
- A regular election in which one sides wins legitimately and the other accepts it completely.
- All your political adversaries ('fascist MAGAts'/'radical left libtards' - delete as necessary) magically disappear.

A violent end to this Presidency is not going to bring the country together. Neither is any kind of judicial wrangling. So, if we're excluding violence and prison, then we're left with exile (ie Assad, the Syrian option) or incapacitated senility (Salazar, the Portuguese option).

They're both not-bad outcomes for the unity of the country, actually. The Syrian option has the advantage of destroying any cult that has grown up around the leader though. It undermines any myth-making. And that's what starts healing the country.

 

[Rightguide]

Freedom of expression and of political choice so long as they agree with you?

 

[Rightguide]

Freedom of expression and of political choice so long as they agree with you?

I'm not advocating for the death of our opposition like your side does.

My post was tongue in cheek.

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

Presidents ride the wave of good economic times and sink with the bad.

This is certainly true in general. No leader can control macro-economic shifts, especially when they often originate outside national borders.

Policy does obviously have an effect though.

JFK didn’t create the Cold War, for example, but he did decide to put a man on the moon before the soviets. And to put $25.8 billion in govt funding into the Apollo program (being 1.1% of total federal outlay between ’59-’72).

That decision to put a man on the moon and to use government funding to underwrite private enterprise and innovation - from Motorola's telecoms equipment to CorningWare's glass ceramics - massively boosted and accelerated the computer industry. It also created key advances in athletic shoes. And those two industries absolutely boomed in the 1980s, creating a lot of wealth.

Similarly, the decision in the Reagan years to break unions and restrict workers’ rights is a key reason why today the minimum wage remains below that of the 1970s, in real terms. And that depression of wealth among working people has had all sorts of consequences in terms of opioid use and obesity and deaths of despair and anger at immigrants - all the stuff that largely defines politics today.

One example of a President using the power of the govt to create wealth. Another using that same power to depress it. And neither being around to fully reap what they sowed.

 

[DeluxAuto]

like your side does.

Which Dem has called for death of MAGAts?

 

[TastySuckToy]

One excellent option would be to round up all people bitching about the country, claim to hate it and insist it is not a good country, and kick them out of it.

That's probably 95% of the solution right there.

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

One excellent option would be to round up all people bitching about the country, claim to hate it and insist it is not a good country, and kick them out of it.

That's probably 95% of the solution right there.

Doesn't Make America Great Again mean that you're bitching that America isn't already great?

 

[ll74]

I'm not advocating for the death of our opposition like your side does.

My post was tongue in cheek.

Dude, you call for the demise of the Democratic party multiple times a week.

 

[Bn2f]

One excellent option would be to round up all people bitching about the country, claim to hate it and insist it is not a good country, and kick them out of it.

That's probably 95% of the solution right there.

Hey? FYP.
You forgot to put the word ‘Final’ before solution. POS fuck.

 

[DeluxAuto]

One excellent option would be to round up all people bitching about the country, claim to hate it and insist it is not a good country, and kick them out of it.

That's probably 95% of the solution right there.

Bitching? Like sending military to invade US cities? Or bitching about MS13? Or bitching about an escalator

 

[stxjimmy]

One excellent option would be to round up all people bitching about the country, claim to hate it and insist it is not a good country, and kick them out of it.

That's probably 95% of the solution right there.

Is that included under the rule of law or is it just some bollocks you dreamt up?

 

[Mature4P]

When exactly was it again, when America was great?
I can't seem to remember

 

[Rightguide]

1. Withholding foreign aid passed by Congress on the condition of getting Zelenskyy to dig up dirt on Biden.
2. Asking the Georgia state SoS to "find" just enough votes to swing the state to him.
3. Using the Alien Enemies Act to deport people with no due process. (Besides the Fifth Amendment rights to due process, the AEA itself requires a declared war.)
4. Stripping people's security clearances simply because they work for law firms that represent people he doesn't like (he has issued several executive orders to that effect).
5. Ordering criminal investigations of former advisors (Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor), simply because they criticized him.
6. Declaring DEI programs illegal and punishing private universities and companies for not abolishing their DEI policies (it's unconstitutional for the president to unilaterally declare anything illegal).
7. And just this week, declaring tariffs on movies produced overseas. Only Congress has the power to put tariffs on anything.

There's a lot more where these came from, but I haven't got all day.

Show me where he violated the Constitution.

 

[YDB95]

Show me where he violated the Constitution.

I just did, seven times.

 

[dmallord]

One excellent option would be to round up all people bitching about the country, claim to hate it and insist it is not a good country, and kick them out of it.

That's probably 95% of the solution right there.

Patriotism at its finest. Constitution be damned.

Why not just fill the Mississippi with alligators and toss the lefts on the 'left side of it' and save the right side of it for MAGAs?

That would be a 100% solution right there. [Gotta take down the bridges, of course.]

 

[Bray123]

The person who has spent the last ten years bitching about the country is Trump.

 

[dmallord]

If dreamers had their wishes fulfilled, I'd opt for the following ironic scenario.

Hackers release the DOJ files on Epstein and Maxwell. It results in finding Trump's name and his actions with underage girls. MAGA and the other Americans clammer for impeachment. Congress realizes that the felon is now an albatross around the MAGA government, and kicking and screaming he is impeached, tried, and ousted from the Presidency. Democrats sweep the next election cycles and move to balance the insanity, finding funds for healthcare, right the economy, and reestablish peaceful relationships with Canada, Mexico, Finland [Greenland], and Panama. It all begins with renaming the Gulf of America to the Gulf of the Americas as a gesture of goodwill.

Trump, meanwhile, slips away during the trial, abetted by some loyalists, and taking his Qatar jet, flees to St. James Island, intending to live on Bitcoins. However, exiting the plane, he trips and tumbles down the gantry. Paralyzed, his life settles into a few weeks of pain and suffering before an aneurysm finishes him off. His children flee the country to, say, Venezuela, and are met with imprisonment for some made-up reasons. Melania returns to Slovakia aboard the jet, rich, and lives with Barron in seclusion. Barron becomes a European basketball player.

MAGA is quietly stricken from historical archives. Food prices become stable, wages rise, employment is satisfying, and crime wanes as poverty diminishes due to free education for all, from elementary school through college, if one desires it. And, for good measure, all veterans are treated with respect and housed with dignity if needed. God Bless Veterans, teachers, doctors/nurses, and some politicians!

 

[Bn2f]

If dreamers had their wishes fulfilled, I'd opt for the following ironic scenario.

Hackers release the DOJ files on Epstein and Maxwell. It results in finding Trump's name and his actions with underage girls. MAGA and the other Americans clammer for impeachment. Congress realizes that the felon is now an albatross around the MAGA government, and kicking and screaming he is impeached, tried, and ousted from the Presidency. Democrats sweep the next election cycles and move to balance the insanity, finding funds for healthcare, right the economy, and reestablish peaceful relationships with Canada, Mexico, Finland [Greenland], and Panama. It all begins with renaming the Gulf of America to the Gulf of the Americas as a gesture of goodwill.

Trump, meanwhile, slips away during the trial, abetted by some loyalists, and taking his Qatar jet, flees to St. James Island, intending to live on Bitcoins. However, exiting the plane, he trips and tumbles down the gantry. Paralyzed, his life settles into a few weeks of pain and suffering before an aneurysm finishes him off. His children flee the country to, say, Venezuela, and are met with imprisonment for some made-up reasons. Melania returns to Slovakia aboard the jet, rich, and lives with Barron in seclusion. Barron becomes a European basketball player.

MAGA is quietly stricken from historical archives. Food prices become stable, wages rise, employment is satisfying, and crime wanes as poverty diminishes due to free education for all, from elementary school through college, if one desires it. And, for good measure, all veterans are treated with respect and housed with dignity if needed. God Bless Veterans, teachers, doctors/nurses, and some politicians!

Nice.
But could you maybe fill in a bit more detail from the part where he slips to the part where he dies?
I kid.
Don’t see melania landing in her former home. Too many poor people there unable to give her the love she craves. Did I say love? Sorry, meant $$$.

 

[Lazaran]

Doesn't Make America Great Again mean that you're bitching that America isn't already great?

Exactly.



MAGAts are sooooooo obtuse:

NO ONE has bitched more about America than the common MAGAts’ dear orange leader - except maybe the common MAGAts themselves.

It’s like the common MAGAts have memory holed everything negative they have ever said or done - including / especially DonOld’s American carnage speech…



SAD!!!



We. Told. Them. So.

 

[Bray123]

There may not be a happy-ever-after lifestyle for the Drumpf family in Venezuela since he ordered the machine-gunning of fishing boats.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

. . . the common man will continue to get screwed.

This. Always this. Always has been this. However, for those who "think" that voting solves anything, there should be an election at least every month, be it for dog catcher or when trash should be picked up. It is a more effective opiate for the masses than religion ever was.

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

If dreamers had their wishes fulfilled, I'd opt for the following ironic scenario.

Hackers release the DOJ files on Epstein and Maxwell. It results in finding Trump's name and his actions with underage girls. MAGA and the other Americans clammer for impeachment. Congress realizes that the felon is now an albatross around the MAGA government, and kicking and screaming he is impeached, tried, and ousted from the Presidency. Democrats sweep the next election cycles and move to balance the insanity, finding funds for healthcare, right the economy, and reestablish peaceful relationships with Canada, Mexico, Finland [Greenland], and Panama. It all begins with renaming the Gulf of America to the Gulf of the Americas as a gesture of goodwill.

Trump, meanwhile, slips away during the trial, abetted by some loyalists, and taking his Qatar jet, flees to St. James Island, intending to live on Bitcoins. However, exiting the plane, he trips and tumbles down the gantry. Paralyzed, his life settles into a few weeks of pain and suffering before an aneurysm finishes him off. His children flee the country to, say, Venezuela, and are met with imprisonment for some made-up reasons. Melania returns to Slovakia aboard the jet, rich, and lives with Barron in seclusion. Barron becomes a European basketball player.

MAGA is quietly stricken from historical archives. Food prices become stable, wages rise, employment is satisfying, and crime wanes as poverty diminishes due to free education for all, from elementary school through college, if one desires it. And, for good measure, all veterans are treated with respect and housed with dignity if needed. God Bless Veterans, teachers, doctors/nurses, and some politicians!

There’s no way Venezuela is taking them in. One of the Gulf states is far more likely. Like Ben Ali fleeing to Saudi Arabia after the revolution in Tunisia.

What’s interesting about your scenario is that it goes a long way to undoing the kind of cult status that autocratic leaders try to create for themselves.

If a loved one joins a cult, it can be very tricky getting them out - every attempt to reason with them drives them further into the cult. The only thing they trust is the cult. So, it’s a long process: you have to send one or two people into the cult, allow them time to gain respect and status within the cult and then use that status to challenge the contradictions and harms on which the cult operates. This gives your loved one permission to think about the cult more objectively. If the cult leader, under pressure from this challenge within, then betrays or flees the cult then - and only then - does your loved one have a chance of escaping it.

When a cult-like autocratic leader flees his own country, that’s normally enough to undo the cult and allow his followers to return to the fold.

I’m not so sure evidence that Trump used Epstein to sleep with underage girls is going to be enough to dislodge his cult-like status among his supporters. In a post-truth world, it’s too easy to paint it as fake news.

 

[dmallord]

There may not be a happy-ever-after lifestyle for the Drumpf family in Venezuela since he ordered the machine-gunning of fishing boats.

Therein lies some of the irony!

 

[LLCox]

Alien invasion. And I don't mean the kind with the big hats.

 

[DanOkeffie]

America will be just fine. Obama will probably get a pardon for committing treason.

obama needs to spend the rest of his racist life in prison