Talking with my spouse about how Democrats and "left leaning" (whatever that means) media don't seem to understand that the Trump administration's credibility crisis is actually a geopolitical credibility crisis for the United States as a whole.
-
@artemis Agree with this on levels.
So quickly everyone forgets that Dubya left a whole lot of damage for Obama to repair on an international level.
Trump has destroyed all of that work and left no fertile ground to grow seeds.
@YakyuNightOwl
Democrats Remember Things That Happened more than 20 Years Ago Challenge. (Difficulty level: impossible) -
Talking with my spouse about how Democrats and "left leaning" (whatever that means) media don't seem to understand that the Trump administration's credibility crisis is actually a geopolitical credibility crisis for the United States as a whole.
Getting a "sane" "normal" Democrat into office doesn't change the fact that you can never, ever trust that the US will longterm honor its agreements or that the "checks & balances" within the system will rein in a rogue president. There is no reset.
@artemis I was thinking about this today, and the issue really, honestly isn't a rogue president. Checks and balances would work just fine on a rogue president.
The problem isn't Trump, it's the consolidation of power into a single political party, which then got co-opted by a cult of personality. If the Republican party hadn't been ratcheting power toward itself for the last what, 40-50 years? then Trump wouldn't have had the power he has.
-
@artemis I was thinking about this today, and the issue really, honestly isn't a rogue president. Checks and balances would work just fine on a rogue president.
The problem isn't Trump, it's the consolidation of power into a single political party, which then got co-opted by a cult of personality. If the Republican party hadn't been ratcheting power toward itself for the last what, 40-50 years? then Trump wouldn't have had the power he has.
@artemis Trump could have been shut down by the Republican party, except they had trained a generation of voters that a Republican in power is better than literally anything else. That backfired spectacularly when the Tea Party showed up and suddenly establishment Republicans were getting primaried from further right. Around the time of the Tea Party, the worst possible thing you could be called was a RINO.
-
@artemis Trump could have been shut down by the Republican party, except they had trained a generation of voters that a Republican in power is better than literally anything else. That backfired spectacularly when the Tea Party showed up and suddenly establishment Republicans were getting primaried from further right. Around the time of the Tea Party, the worst possible thing you could be called was a RINO.
@artemis that's what Trump stepped into--a party that was based on fanatical loyalty with a stacked SCOTUS (thanks Mitch). All Trump had to do was bring the MAGA element--the previous non-voters his populist rhetoric appealed to. That was enough to make Republicans up and down the ticket either turn MAGA or get primaried. Bam, no more checks, no more balances. One party, three branches of government, and a voting base listening to exactly one guy.
-
@artemis Newsom being an oblivious asshole at the WEF in January, ha-haing at the European leaders while they were under threat of an actual US invasion to Danish territory, was in some ways an even more damaging snapshot of the US political climate and mindset than Trump's insane behaviour could ever be.
Gavin Newsom attacks Europe’s ‘complicity’ over Trump Greenland demands
California governor says world leaders are ‘played’ by the US president and urges them to stop rolling over
the Guardian (www.theguardian.com)
-
@artemis that's what Trump stepped into--a party that was based on fanatical loyalty with a stacked SCOTUS (thanks Mitch). All Trump had to do was bring the MAGA element--the previous non-voters his populist rhetoric appealed to. That was enough to make Republicans up and down the ticket either turn MAGA or get primaried. Bam, no more checks, no more balances. One party, three branches of government, and a voting base listening to exactly one guy.
@artemis I don't blame Trump for destroying our system of government. I blame the filibuster. I blame refusing to hold confirmation hearings on open SCOTUS seats. I blame US Presidents going to war under entirely false pretenses to capitalize on tragedies.
Trump has done exactly nothing original. He just saw (or was taught) how the system was rigged and went full-throttle exploiting everything weakness of our government for his personal benefit.
-
@artemis I don't blame Trump for destroying our system of government. I blame the filibuster. I blame refusing to hold confirmation hearings on open SCOTUS seats. I blame US Presidents going to war under entirely false pretenses to capitalize on tragedies.
Trump has done exactly nothing original. He just saw (or was taught) how the system was rigged and went full-throttle exploiting everything weakness of our government for his personal benefit.
-
@artemis I don't blame Trump for destroying our system of government. I blame the filibuster. I blame refusing to hold confirmation hearings on open SCOTUS seats. I blame US Presidents going to war under entirely false pretenses to capitalize on tragedies.
Trump has done exactly nothing original. He just saw (or was taught) how the system was rigged and went full-throttle exploiting everything weakness of our government for his personal benefit.
-
Talking with my spouse about how Democrats and "left leaning" (whatever that means) media don't seem to understand that the Trump administration's credibility crisis is actually a geopolitical credibility crisis for the United States as a whole.
Getting a "sane" "normal" Democrat into office doesn't change the fact that you can never, ever trust that the US will longterm honor its agreements or that the "checks & balances" within the system will rein in a rogue president. There is no reset.
@artemis As a Canadian, I can confirm that for a great many of us, this is absolutely true.
Assuming that Dems win the House and Senate in the mid-terms, it is *still* entirely unclear to me that the senior Democrat leadership has the understanding of or the stomach for the changes that need to be done. And even assuming that I'm very happily proven wrong in that pessimism, it will take at a decade or more of steady progress before the US can even begin to earn back the trust it has lost.
-
Talking with my spouse about how Democrats and "left leaning" (whatever that means) media don't seem to understand that the Trump administration's credibility crisis is actually a geopolitical credibility crisis for the United States as a whole.
Getting a "sane" "normal" Democrat into office doesn't change the fact that you can never, ever trust that the US will longterm honor its agreements or that the "checks & balances" within the system will rein in a rogue president. There is no reset.
@artemis I don't consider myself an accelerationist, but after watching Trump burst the bubble of the American Empire in some plausibly permanent ways... I gotta admit, maybe they had a point. There are certainly long-term silver linings to the ongoing cortisol bath of being a queer person under this administration. It's probably the most I've felt that, if we can survive this part, things will get better someday, and not in the old "at the rest of Earth's expense" way.
-
@YakyuNightOwl
Democrats Remember Things That Happened more than 20 Years Ago Challenge. (Difficulty level: impossible)@artemis @YakyuNightOwl
Eh, they remember the 1970s oil crisis. That's about it, though... -
-
Talking with my spouse about how Democrats and "left leaning" (whatever that means) media don't seem to understand that the Trump administration's credibility crisis is actually a geopolitical credibility crisis for the United States as a whole.
Getting a "sane" "normal" Democrat into office doesn't change the fact that you can never, ever trust that the US will longterm honor its agreements or that the "checks & balances" within the system will rein in a rogue president. There is no reset.
@artemis "trust fill in drop and empty in buckets" and the US president just did the bucket challenge with the one filled with trust
