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He was elected for being who he is, not despite.
We've heard this line before but if you actually read exit polls you get a simultaneously smarter and more depressing view of politics in this country.
Trump was really good at appealing directly to the nation's strongest political capital force, which is the segment of our population who are armed, scared, dumber than toenails, insanely patriotic and can be made to vote for anything without hesitation or research. These are the kinds of forces that have built and destroyed nations over and over, of COURSE the entire establishment Republican and Democrat parties are going to salivate at the idea of one man able to hold so much power and do everything to keep him in the news cycle.
As for voters, most Americans aren't on Lemmy or Reddit or listening to political podcasts. They're listening to music and distraction and anything to get through their mind-numbing days and insecurity about the future. They get 30 minutes of political memes and clips of Joe Rogan on facebook once a week. They had no idea what they were doing at the voting booths, they said as much. The most common responses paint the clear picture that people didn't remember anything from his first term or were also checked out, and everyone was pissed at the price of groceries and Biden was the president so they drew that association between cost of eggs and Biden's face, and Harris seemed like more of Biden. These aren't even unique patterns in politics, there are names for them.
Trump, despite being dour and nasty and never smiled or laughed, that makes him seem more human than the alternatives who make it onto the national stage. He might not be honest, but he's genuine, and that difference is what made a lot of hopeless, uninformed Americans literally shrug and say "lets see what happens."
The horror-movie punchline here is that it will happen again. And again. And again.
I have lived a half century watching these cycles. We've been here before.
That's not patriotism. They're nationalists. That they don't know the difference makes it even worse.
Edit: here's some more info: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nationalism-vs-Patriotism-Whats-the-Difference
The line is very blurry, but in this context I'm talking about how they're used, they can be used to back any idea if they think it's good for the country and "patriotic." Although all that said, giving up the flag really burned the left and sacrificed a lot of power. Nationalism is a political tool and has been used as a tool for a long time.
My comment is entirely addressing political capital and how power is used to get outcomes.
If you refer to what they understand, you can't use any word. If they don't like something, it's socialism. If they hate it, it's communism. It's woke, it's liberal, it's whatever the hell word they can remember from being indoctrinated You can't lower yourself to their level and still be understandable by normal human beings.
Patriotism is nationalism.
Did you check? Because it isn't.
With respect, but I really don't think we've been HERE before. New laws will be needed, if we survive this.
The social emotional sphere is always different, the stakes are always different, but the level of disconnect, the sheer obliviousness of the American voter and the consequences that come after. That's not new at all. We've had some bad shit go down in this country in the past because of failures of both government and voting populations. That part isn't new at all, and in fact the more I learn about history even before the shit I've witnessed, the more I'm convinced that the USA is far from being dismantled.
It will happen eventually, but even with the worst outcomes from all of this, the system will be maintained because too many people are tied to the predictable comfort of the whole thing, as absurd as it sounds, as uncomfortable as you are, MOST people like it this way and have no concept of it possibly being better and you can't get them to want change.
That force is going to be so solid for so long, that it would take a massive disaster to change course as rapidly as people on both sides seem to think is imminent.