politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
I do, because you have to remember: Trump wasn't a one-off anomaly; he was the manifestation of deep structural issues and multiple converging crises within American society. It was a balloon that was going to inflate and inflate until it eventually popped, and if it didn't pop in 2016 it would have even harder in 2020. Hell, I could think of an even worse scenario: Trump is sidelined in the American fascist movement and a fascist that actually knows what he's doing takes his place.
Phew. Glad it popped and everyone got it out of their system.
"This isn't the worst it could've been" and "this is good" are not the same thing. Had Hillary (or any other do-nothing Dem) won in 2016 things would've been marginally worse in the sense that MAGA would've been stronger, not weaker, but that doesn't change the fact that things are in fact terrible and about to get much more terrible. The assumption that Hillary in 2016 = no fascism in 2025, however, is plain fantasy.
I don't know about things being worse had Hillary won. I do know that was the worst election I've seen in my life in terms of candidate quality. Hillary was the ultimate insider running for self-aggrandizement and Trump was a political outsider running for his brand out of cynical greed and sheer ego. Hillary had already lost to an outsider when she lost the 2008 primary to Obama—that was a sign of things to come.
Hillary would've been a far better stateswoman, no doubt. And obviously Trump's policies were and are detestable. But I understand why Trump won. It shocked me at the time, but it makes sense seeing the past ten years.
Populist candidates are what everyone is looking for. Not the party elite. Look at the backlash against Schumer for treating politics as normal. And the backlash against Israel when we've traditionally been a staunch ally regardless of party. And against older politicians in general. We want the old guard out. Republicans listened to the people. Dems didn't. Still aren't, based on the reaction to Mamdani winning the primary.
Want to see a woman win the presidency? Run AOC. I don't know if this is the election for it. Are we "ready" for her? I don't know. But she's the kind of woman candidate who could win.
Not disagreeing with you, but the last few years in America and worldwide have convinced me that, at least in the West, backlash to women leaders is mostly a fantasy. I mean how many fascist leaders or prominent personalities are actually women? You can't convince me the American left and center-left are more sexist than the literal fascists who elected literal fascist Georgina Meloni, or the literal neo-Nazis supporting literal neo-Nazi Alice Wiedel. People will vote for an Apache helicopter if it promotes their (real or perceived) interests; shockingly little of modern Western elections boils down to gender.