Trump is not as important as some seem to think

[glamorilla]

You think it's funny that security clearances are being handed out to people who likely couldn't earn them, do you?

Anxious really.

Rumors are circulating there will be much more firings going on before Elon Musk uses your social security number to destroy humanity as we know it.

 

[Politruk]

Trump will not even leave a border wall behind him as a legacy.

 

[Bray123]

Trump has no agenda beyond his own wealth & glory.

Reagan had a philosophy, 'trickle down economics' which was deeply flawed but at least he had it. Most politicians enter that world with at least some ambition of making the world a better place, whatever their banner color. But Trump only ever said 'It'll be fun seeing how far I can get'. He worked out that it would cost about the same as a yacht, but he had no interest in yachts so that didn't matter.

If you've ever been to Disney Florida, there's an exhibit called Hall of Presidents, where animatronic figures depicting former presidents are illuminated in turn. It gets a bit tedious to be honest, however Nixon appears and is immediately extinguished with only a subdued reading of his name. Trump will get less than that when he's gone. His legacy will be a warning for future generations on how to choose their politicians.

 

[Bray123]

Anxious really.

Rumors are circulating there will be much more firings going on before Elon Musk uses your social security number to destroy humanity as we know it.

So that's why you're sucking up to the person who is trying to destroy anyone of different sexuality/gender identity.

Desperate self-protection.

 

[JohnEngelman]

Trump will almost certainly exceed what little mandate he has and provoke a backlash.

Trump's largely lower income and lower middle income white constituency wants him to restore the economic situation of the 1950's. Back then a white man with only a high school degree could buy a house in the suburbs and support a wife who did not need to work, and who could spend her time raising the children. Trump cannot restore that. Even if he could he has other concerns: benefitting himself, his family, his rich friends, and the rich in general.

 

[JohnEngelman]

Totally not important, which is why we somehow keep talking about him.

We talk about Trump because he is horrible, and it is not yet illegal to criticize him.

 

[YDB95]

Trump's largely lower income and lower middle income white constituency wants him to restore the economic situation of the 1950's. Back then a white man with only a high school degree could buy a house in the suburbs and support a wife who did not need to work, and who could spend her time raising the children. Trump cannot restore that.

Well, I think theoretically he could restore it, if union memberships and tax rates were restored to 1950s levels. But you tell me what the Republicans in Congress (and everywhere else for that matter) would have to say about that. Besides, many if not most of his supporters miss something else about the '50s: segregation. I wouldn't put it past Trump to try on that one.

 

[JohnEngelman]

Well, I think theoretically he could restore it, if union memberships and tax rates were restored to 1950s levels. But you tell me what the Republicans in Congress (and everywhere else for that matter) would have to say about that. Besides, many if not most of his supporters miss something else about the '50s: segregation. I wouldn't put it past Trump to try on that one.

Beginning with Ronald Reagan Republican politicians have exploited nostalgia for the 1950's. You are correct that they do not want to restore strong labor unions, a high minimum wage, and high taxes for the rich.

 

[Bray123]

Well, I think theoretically he could restore it, if union memberships and tax rates were restored to 1950s levels. But you tell me what the Republicans in Congress (and everywhere else for that matter) would have to say about that. Besides, many if not most of his supporters miss something else about the '50s: segregation. I wouldn't put it past Trump to try on that one.

That's the real 'MAGA' era. White faces smiling over white picket faces at their land-yacht cars, with all those other folks where they belong on the other side of town (unless sweeping their yard).

 

[glamorilla]

So that's why you're sucking up to the person who is trying to destroy anyone of different sexuality/gender identity.

Desperate self-protection.

you'll make up anything to avoid the truth.

 

[HumpDayHoratio]

That's the real 'MAGA' era. White faces smiling over white picket faces at their land-yacht cars, with all those other folks where they belong on the other side of town (unless sweeping their yard).

The self-loathing is strong in this one!

 

[Saint_Ann]

I wouldn't be so sure. FDR was elected in the first place to clean up an economic disaster brought about by unbridled right-wing economic policy.

Did you forget who was in the WH the last 4 years?

 

[Beachguy23]

I hope all of America realizes soon that they are becoming the laughing stock of the world

 

[Philthy_Phil]

But we're not talking about Ford. We're talking about a guy that has threads made about him. Every. Damn. Day. Seems pretty important.

Biden had threads made about him every day...

 

[Philthy_Phil]

I hope all of America realizes soon that they are becoming the laughing stock of the world

Becoming? They already are.

 

[Politruk]

Well, I think theoretically he could restore it, if union memberships and tax rates were restored to 1950s levels.

Even then he probably couldn't. That brief shining moment from 1945 to the mid-1970s, when for the first time in American history the working class and the middle class were practically the same thing, depended on a large number of high-wage low-skill manufacturing jobs. But those jobs have been either offshored to countries where labor is cheaper, or eliminated entirely by automation. What can a president do about that?!

 

[Politruk]

Did you forget who was in the WH the last 4 years?

Did you forget how much the economy grew on his watch?

That's over now.

 

[Politruk]

I notice that nobody in this thread has yet made a case contrary to the OP. Nobody has even tried to show that American politics will be fundamentally different after and because of Trump, the way American politics were fundamentally different after and because of FDR.

 

[Saint_Ann]

I notice that nobody in this thread has yet made a case contrary to the OP. Nobody has even tried to show that American politics will be fundamentally different after and because of Trump, the way American politics were fundamentally different after and because of FDR.

It's February.

 

[Politruk]

It's February.

So? It was obvious from the moment FDR took office that the game had changed.

 

[Beachguy23]

I just hope the next guy is a better shot than the last

 

[Saint_Ann]

So? It was obvious from the moment FDR took office that the game had changed.

Bullshit. Make up some more unfacts.

 

[YDB95]

Bullshit. Make up some more unfacts.

No, Politruk is right. The 1932 election was the last realignment election, where there was a fundamental shift in who voted for which party, and FDR's first 100 days were recognized then as now as a permanent change. Trump is just tearing everything down (or really, Musk is doing it for him) on a whim. It's going to leave a gigantic mess to clean up - as Democratic presidents always have to do, ever since FDR - but it's not the fundamental change that the New Deal was.

If there's anything bigger than himself that Trump marks, it's the culmination of six decades of the Southern strategy. Bigotry has been simmering just below the surface ever since LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act (and correctly predicted it would cost the Democrats the South for at least a generation). Trump, by way of being too dumb to stick to code words and saying the quiet part out loud, has brought it to a boil. Maybe in the long run we'll be better off for his having ripped the mask off the monster, but I've got my doubts.

 

[Politruk]

Bigotry has been simmering just below the surface ever since LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act (and correctly predicted it would cost the Democrats the South for at least a generation).

Actually, I think that was the Voting Rights Act.

 

[YDB95]

Actually, I think that was the Voting Rights Act.

It was the Civil Rights Act about which LBJ said he'd ceded the South to the Republicans. But you may be right that the Voting Rights Act was what really sealed the deal. Whatever the cause, no Democratic nominee has carried the white vote since then. Clinton and Obama came respectively close, but no one has done it.