My family's first niece is turning 2 in March. I love her to absolute pieces, and in just a couple years when she starts to comprehend the general idea of a single person being the head of one of the 3 branches of government, and when she starts to learn about all the past presidents, she'll inevitably make her way to Trump. And I swear to god I have absolutely no idea how I'm supposed to handle it. Say what you want about Bush Jr., say what you want about previous administrations, you could at least look at them and debate the pros and cons of what they were able to accomplish, but with Trump I genuinely don't know how we're going to explain it to up and coming generations.
Trump is something so completely off-balance, something so vehemently disrespectful, so sadistic and depressing and unfathomable to government as we know it, but we'll eventually be the ones to answer for our mistakes years down the road as a country. And frankly, I have absolutely no idea how I'll handle it.
You tell her the truth. That good-intentioned people who thought they were smart were manipulated by the bad-faith, hostile acts of a foreign government perpetrated by online disinformation campaigns scientifically developed to trigger certain emotional responses in certain segments of our population. And that it worked. And that this is why she needs to be careful when she uses the Internet, and is why she needs to think for herself and educate herself so she doesn't fall victim to the lies and crimes of others. Teach her that the Internet is a tool just like any other, and if she doesn't use it properly, she could seriously hurt herself. Tell her you wouldn't let her use a chainsaw without proper supervision or training, so you won't let her use the Internet without proper supervision or training.
Tell her that Trump was aberration - a representation of the worst of our country, which was brought to the forefront because another country wanted to tear us down to their level. And tell her that it doesn't represent the majority, not even close. Tell her to look at Trump as an example of why this country was founded, why the protections against the government in our Constitution are so important, and why it's important to participate in our democracy. And tell her that what makes our country great is that, while we may trip up or go the wrong direction at times, we nonetheless have the potential and capacity for great change, and that it's up to her and her generation to make sure this amazing experiment of a country moves closer and closer to fulfilling the aspirations set forth by our founders and ancestors.
Edit: The fact that this comment has brought the propagandists and the brainwashed out of the woodwork is just further proof of the veracity of my statements. Keep em coming, comrades. The more you post, the more you prove me right. This wouldn’t strike such a chord with you if there weren’t truth behind it.
Edit 2: To anyone who thinks blaming Russia is the wrong choice, you severely underestimate how effective their tactics were. These tactics were engineered using the scientific method and a complex understanding of psychology. They effectively figured how to use the Internet for inception purposes, and it worked. To think otherwise is, quite frankly, naive and dangerous. Trump simply would not have won without that effort being so effective. That’s the indisputable fact of the matter. And that’s why blame falls primarily on Russia. Refusing to blame them as the major force behind this is exactly what Putin would want, as well...
Also note how I never said to blame Russia and no one else. Of course racism and classism are huge problems in our society and there are other things to blame. But those existed before 2016 just as much as they did during the election. Fox News was always this way, the GOP was always this way, corporate influence was always this way. Trump would not have won simply because we are a racist, classist society. But what would have stopped him from winning was if Russia didn’t manipulate and brainwash a massive portion of our population. If we’re ever going to come together as Americans, we need to forgive those good people who were brainwashed. And that’s going to take some careful thought on our part to mete out the good-intentioned brainwashed from the bad-intentioned racists and fascists. But that’s not a story to tell your sons and daughters, because that’s not their fight (yet) - that’s still our fight. This was a suggestion on how to heal our country, and it has to start with teaching our children that our country isn’t full of horrible people because it’s not.
I think we need to be prepared for many more Trumps to come.
1) Look at the string of Republican presidential ticket candidates, wholly unqualified, ignorant to the core, and willfully deceitful. 2008 Sarah Palin, 2012: Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain; 2016 Ben Carson, Donald Trump. Each of these candidates spent time at the top of Republican polls (or were on the ticket), despite a litany of bigoted, bizarre, and deceitful statements and positions... Slavery was good for black people! Dropping income tax to 9% for rich people isn't an economic death spiral, it will increase tax revenue!
Re watch a primary debate with Trump and the other Republican candidates from 2016. Watch them all try and one up each other on how big a war crime they want to commit until Trump blows them all out of the water calling for murdering family members of accused terrorists and assassinating world leaders--while Republican voters cheer. He's a step further, not an outlier. Rinse and repeat for immigration, taxes, and climate change.
The problem isn't Trump. There is a reason he's got 80-90% approval among Republican voters. He's one of many, and more are coming down the pipe.
The problem wasn't Trump. The problem was never trump.
The problem was that the asshat who decided to undervalue and undersell trump as a manageable asset has not been caught and publically crucified.
Because, from a german perspective here, trump does something no democrat has a counter to. He treats politics like business.... and it seems to work.
Want an example? When therte were the first hints of trump pulling troops back, I knew it was for the wall. Even a small number. All a test balloon for the wall.
The way it is going? Let mer present a gameplan.
Trump says there are some bad hombres amongst the crowd. A truthism since bush made american politics run fear based, and obama did jack shit to remove the fear standard. Americans are so dulled to alert levbel red or orange, because they have seen it so often. It has been used too often, too quickly, and nobody said no, because it was convenient.
The democrats can't asrgue with that, so instead of dropping the equally true response "You would get the same number of rapists drugdealers and murderers, if you compared 100 randomly chosen americans", they went with, heh, look at this idiot, there are NONE of these in there. At this point, the democrats have lost, because the only thing he now has to do is find some.If you happen to klnow the guy who came up with that standpoint, call hiom out, he is most likely the person who has gift wrapped Trump 4 more yxears by getting the democrats to swallow that. Introduce a brick to his fingers, and stomp on them a couple of times, so he can never write. NOW, we enter the future.
Trump gets his wall. this is immutable, because he held the generalist viewpoint. And america has run for too long on the fear of the other to suddenly change that. Democrats should be beaten korean style for assuming trump would not get that. Trump, in his business mind, sees a slogan, not an immutable political law. a law is immutable, a slogan can be repurposed. He knows, that the fear of the other, that 8 years of obamas reign of terror have wrought, can be repurposed, if you give them a lesser target. How about immigration?
Note how at this point, Every single one of you screams out, with their pussy hats waving in the air, how the wall does not work, and it does not solve immigration. The trick is, IT DOES NOT HAVE TO; because pablo running with his family in a brisk jog over the border was never the problem. How? Read on.
The wall gets built, and trump does something strange. He reallocates guard from the checkpoints away, and clusters them in certain areas of the wall. The democrats will go, holy shit, he is retarded, he has lost his damn sense, Drumpf..... Wait for the punchline, and see if yopu are still laughing. Because trump is getting numbers. And the same scientific institutes that worked for you questioning 100 "randomly chosen" americans can take the numbers that trump gets, and make them work for him. And this is where the first democrats see the wind changing. because the numbers you simply get when you give those wall and border people the ressources they need.... amazing. Remember, don't scream now, it never was about paco, after all, even trump loves his illegal immigrants.... the issue was about the other. Ther dangerous other, the other thjat we can't trust, whom we can't even negotiate with..... That other that was the explanation for so much obama strategy, you can't go kill him off, can't even touch him, without dismanteling ther fearbased obama legacy. THAT was the goal. And your reluctance to talk sense and make a measured point, and your insistancve to copy clickbait points from your whore friends in the clickbased oligarchjy media just giftwrapped and paied wholesale for this.
Because now trump sits there, smirking, on a pile of 400 illegals with cartell connections, some of whom had a shootout, and he will show america what the democrats had been hiding. There will be border patroll going throughj, and just talking how democrats reduced their funding, and how now, they don't even know where to start,..... I mean, they have now a fuinctioning wall, and all, but too little people to man it..... And the democrats can't say shit about it. Grabbed by the collective cunt, they will be speechless, because that is precisely not what their friends in the media had taught them. Suddenly, he has border patroll on his side.
But he is not finished. he will go off, and go, my fellow americans, as the last legacy of the obama years, we wage the senseless wars in the middle east. When a simple increase in funding, that the democrasts could not kill immediatelly, we caught this many more criminals. Dangerous hombres. I have therefore decided to retreat the troops from their deployments overseas in the various wars of terror, that my predescessor started, and since this is an emergency, work against the terror that is flowing over our border with mexico. Wellcome home, guys, I know this isn't afghanistan or syria, but starbucks should be tons better. The military budget, thanks to this, will be reduced by rougly half, and the country will be in the best shape possible. The troops will now, instead opf halfway across the world, be guarding american soil against the same nebulous enemy. But this enemy is at least grippable, and its name is cartells.
And you think I had forgot paco? Paco who only wants to have his family over in america? Paco gets rediscovered, the same way germans get rediscovered after ww2. The first country the nazis invaded was germany. We will have the war against the cartells trying to murder american citizens as much closer to reality then you want. Because the mexicans will be all for that, and will openly welcome any action against the cartells. Trump at this point has done a complete victory, so he can be gentle on paco. paco is the real victim here. So, he accepts paco, and his family too, speeding up the process for them to become legal immigrants from 10 to 2 years, or something. Plus, the federal aid and such that was supposed to go to the middle east is way better spent helping mexico, because the best defense is a stronmg ally. Isn't that what the democrats allways wanted?
The big rig will be, that if the democrats protest against making the cartells an enemy in the war on terror, and putting al quaida on the backburner, the only thing needed to puiblically crucify and / or lynch democrats is a simple tweet wondering out loud, who leaned out of the window and made sanctuary cities possible, knowing fullö well they would be used by terrorist cartell members. Who knew full well that defunding the border security would lead to miore terrorists coming in the soft underbelly of america? Who was against his election, because "it would not sit well with the mexicans", and did everything you could to force him to not clamp down on the border? Because you masy be screaming, you may be shouting, but the law of large numbers dictates, one of your guys, some time, took money from cartell associated things. Maybe They have the Cartells on tape, bragging about how they have this and that democrat in theior pocket, and that's that. IF you get caught cooperating with or having cooperated with cartells, even if it was to get more refugees out, guess what? AUMF, NSA, immunity is gone, and you go off to guantanamo bay, to explain to bubba under severely enhanced interrogation who exactly paid you how much to commit high treason and sell out the security of your own country. Oh, don't worry, but 2-3 arrests inmto, the investigation will mysteriously stall, and honestly, who wants to ipen up that investigation, I mean, we will release mopnthly reports that top forces of the democrats were caught red handed taking money from the cartells, as insiders say, but sadly, the investigations results will not be published yet, unless the democrats risk a fat lip.
End result? Stronger ties with mexico, but still a leash on them because of the pure number of mexican accademics, doctors and such, that fled to america. You want them to move back? Well, we will bill you for the taxces, for public utilities, ect, that they have used up while they lodged with us. War against terror now only defending the home zone, and strengthening the feeling of disillusioned soldiers who were told they were defending americas freedom in countries halfway around the world they could barely pronounce. Now, they defend america in americas backyard against the evil terrorists of the cartells. The democrats? Castrated, and very quiet, else people remember that one embarrassing incident where they found out that one highranking democrat up in the chain took money from terrorists, and the investigation results could be handed in. Paco and his family? Oh, they are still trying, but now they are on a two year waiting list. wuith extradited process. The members of the caravasn however? Lets just say that it is impossible that they have not paid of cartells, so.... Yea.... we gonna need special rendition against all members of the caravan because of suspected terrorist connections, and for state security. Who's laughing now, bitches?
If you debate him on numbers, he will pull up numbers. If you argue his numbers are wrong, he will show you his numbers, and you won't be able to debate them.
All it takers to beat him, from the perspective of this thoroughly disillusioned german, is to admit that maybe, he had a point, and maybe, this point needs to be talked over.
step 1: Anyone who paints trump as incompetent, deranged, or full of personal problems, and who is unwilling to back his claims up, or who is willing to cooperate with the media who do not back their claims up, fire their asses, and disassociate yourselves from them as fast as possible. No matter how well you like them, they can survive a while on their own. Conquering Trump is the bigger problem. If people are unwilling to back the most qualified candidate to conquer trump, refuse to back them. If people resist, let them have accidents weightlifting, or swimming, for all I care. Just make sure nothing those people do or say will come back at you. Those people are directly responsible for trumps rise top power, and should not be let anywhere near a mike while they have anything on them that associates yourself with them.
Step 2: Any time someone suggests a strategy, that essentially forces trump to do something, it goes straight into the playbook of accepted. This is a huge part of his bag of tricks. If you use trick A against him, you no longer can complain if he uses trick A right back at you. Or, you look like a hypocrite, whioch is entirely more dangerous, because it gives trump the role of "defender against deranged hypocrites who want rules for me that they don't have to abide by. " And he is masterfull at using that. THus, dump your "designated candidates", for one season. Give them sidelined jobs, unimportant positions, funnel a bit of that money you were using on special projects to them. Just make it sure that if they even show up close to that election campaign , a cadre of young bernie fans will work them over with baseball bats, no matter if they are a noname, noodlehair mac saudi, or hillary clinton herself. They are barred from even appearing on the playing field till the first states are a week away from actually voting. Instead, what I want to see on the democrat side is 128 new presidential runs. Two from every state, and if you can't find two, the us overseas protectorates get the leftovers. Tournament style. back off the smokey backroom method of having designated candidates. Let them stand by themselves. Have every weekend some debate. One against one, with new topics. Let america vote whom it wants to back. Also, if there is even a hint of count manipulation, redo the debate, in internet livestream. If there is a shadow of a doubt that your nominee is a plant by the elites, you have already lost. IF he or she is litterally the will of the people, who the fuck can say anything against that?
Step 3: Remove every single conspiracy theorist from your platform, and fill the vacant spots with people with ideas. IF you know, that mueller can bring the whole card house down, when he releases, because your friends in the media have told you..... take their word for it, and focus on your ideas. Have actual breadth of vision. Try out new shit. Have a candidate who argues for mandatory social justice courses for state legislators. The most damaging thing the democrats could possibly do is go out into the electoral season with Trump Derangement Syndrome, and only that, on all their talking cards. You will get ripped to shreds. Instead, use it for passions. Use it for the new generation of lawmakers. Orcasio Cortez is good, but where is the fucking rest? Only David "So there I was, minding my own business.." Hogg shows up? Get together, and if neccessary do the same thing as when looking for a designated driver. You take everyone who can drive aside, send the guys with busted cars back, the guys with a police record back, the guys who plan to get too wasted, ect.... Only with you, you take every democrat with aspirations, you test him on having actual ideas, actual new stuff, actual standing with his constituents, and then with the ones a few districts over..... gameify it, make it wild and new, let traditional enemy states face off against each other, but try something new. If neccessary, bribe them to stand for pres. You need as many wildly varying candidates as possible.
The worst thing, the absolute worst, is that you continue as usual. Same sad faces, same sad scandals, same helpless flailing of "I am persecuted, i AM the good guy, Go get him, waaaa. ". What you want is not adult manbabies, what you want is fighters. No more protectorism, no more ancient political dynasty, everybody starts at the bottom. In order to rule it out that someone, even the democrat council of backroom smokers, interferes, make it random, and as wide as possible. Believe firmly in the idea, that democracy is like evolution, the survival of the best idea. Use your considerable might to squash the people who play dirty to gloss over their lack of new ideas. Jump on them, and have mobs beat them through the streets, tarred and feathered. What you get if you keep to that regimen is a fighter , someone that has survived a vicious circle, and who has found broad acceptance. In order to make it fair, the top 4 spots get invited to the DNC debates for the main round of americas next nominee. And I guarantee you, this nominee will beat Trump standing up, sitting down, and for good measure, having a nap in the next room.
What you want is a fighter, not some sort of decrepit long pork substitute, that thinks he deserves the nomination because of his name, and his connection. Instead, base it on new and improved ideas. Actually ask, and don't take the word of the political experts sponsored by the media oligarchy as gold. You want to trust experts? Simple, grab their rating in 2016. How late were they able to prognose a Trump win? If they only managed after the election, fire them, and don't pay them. Listen to the experts, even if they are weird ones, that managed to predict 2016. Learn from your mistakes. Actually see this as an election you have to fight all the way, inch for inch, every single bit.
If you start into this with 4 older legacy democrats, and occasio cortez, you have lost before you opened your mouth.
If you actually set democracy, not legacy first, if you set broad sweeping participation first, and most importantly if you only deal blows that you yourself would be comfortable taking, and for the rest of it, focus on ideas, you have it made. Because this is when the democrats won. Whern america wanted to be better then it was. Not because it was easy, but because it was hard. Because it was a challenge. The republicans won when america needed a win. When it hung by a silken strand, and all options were open, but fear was in the air, it was a clear win for the republicans.
What you need is to take fear out. Focus on being better then you were. actually have a few heads rolling.
IF you accept any democratic candidate that tries to put fear back on the table, and at the same time gets the brilliant idea to publically underestimate and/or undervalue trump, just walk over to the republicans, and ask if they want their four more years giftwrapped. You don't even need to run, they allready won the election.
It's kind of telling, really, that this is, when you get down to it, a big ol' fantasy where the democrats finally stop laughing at Trump, where they are the ones who don't take the statistics seriously, where they are the ones under ongoing investigations of corruption, where the democrats looks stupid and foolish and Trump and the Republicans look smart and save the day.
Hey, I am a german with no horse in the race. I just watch american politics with the intensity of a sports better. I am what one of your greatest writers called a political addict.
You want my personal opinion?
Look at the fact that all their investigation, all their scandals, all their "now we have him" moments have missfired, and have not gotten him out yet. I mean, we are talking about the same people who got President Clinton down, because he got a blowjob in the oval office. If they had anything that would stick, and they had any kind of certainty, they would bring it as soon as possible, and force the republicans with their back to the cliff to take two steps back. We are talking about the worlds largest propaganda machine, aimed at the throat of ONE man.
One man who is, if we believe the media, a retard of the biggest category. Who has self admitted character faults on top of character faults. Who is, according to the press , in the pocket of russia, so far that only stunning and brave democrats can expose him.
And you can't topple that?
THAT is shamefull. THAT is what I look at, and I am, ready to believe this like I am ready to believe that wrestling is not entirely scripted.
In my personal fantasy? Have Trump for the Republicans, Clinton for the Democrats, and Sanders for an independant ticket with socialistic overtones. THAT would be a good race to bet on, because that would be an actual fight.
Most likely? The democrats are going to laugh at trump, because of the twitter pressure, they will laugh past him actually getting the sucesses under his belt that they hounded him with in 2016 for "not having political experience", they will act like it is 2016, and they will catapult Trump in his four more years, because they refuse to believe anything has changed. And instead of believing in "May the best idea win, lets just get Trump away from the window", we will get the democrats eliminating all competition, and then complain that people still donm't vote for them.
Have fucking ideas, even if they are ideas like occasio cortez going "tax the super rich 70 %".
Have David Hogg run for the democratic ticket.
Have the weed democrats argue for general legalisation of recreational weed.
Make way for a new generation.
The strong point of the democrats has allwas been that they had the long lasting solutions, the betterment of society, because they were better. The democrats were good candidates to bet on when america was well fed, content, and wanted to see itself better.
The republican strongpoint was fear, because as soon as fear was introduced, they were unbeatable.
If you act like a retard, because "The republicans are doing it too", don't be surprised when they beat you with experience.
All that will do to me, is that I will lose an euro or three because I hoped that the democrats would get their asses in line, see what has worked against Trump, and what hasn't, and react accordingly.
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u/whatsaphoto Jan 09 '19
My family's first niece is turning 2 in March. I love her to absolute pieces, and in just a couple years when she starts to comprehend the general idea of a single person being the head of one of the 3 branches of government, and when she starts to learn about all the past presidents, she'll inevitably make her way to Trump. And I swear to god I have absolutely no idea how I'm supposed to handle it. Say what you want about Bush Jr., say what you want about previous administrations, you could at least look at them and debate the pros and cons of what they were able to accomplish, but with Trump I genuinely don't know how we're going to explain it to up and coming generations.
Trump is something so completely off-balance, something so vehemently disrespectful, so sadistic and depressing and unfathomable to government as we know it, but we'll eventually be the ones to answer for our mistakes years down the road as a country. And frankly, I have absolutely no idea how I'll handle it.