Act as if we will. No seriously like half of politics is the manifest will of the people. If you decide right now that Trump isn’t going to do it then it’s going to be normalized by 2026 and outrage will not occur. You need to expect the next election with all the force of reality you can muster.
I say we start a revolution. We get a bunch of pie crusts. And fill them with whipped cream. And then we collectively go around the country just pieing people in the face, and sticking a clown nose on them. Then we lift them above our heads, and run away.
Their whole culture is based on fear, and conformity. You do the normal thing. People who don’t do the normal thing aren’t with them.
Now imagine walking along the street wearing your trump hat, thinking you’re all cool. Suddenly, BAM!!! PIE!!! CLOWN NOSE!!! And now you’re 8 feet in the air after having taken a surprise cream pie.
It would go against everything that makes their culture what it is.
OHHH!!! OHHH!!! SOMEBODY CREAM PIE TRUMP!!! You KNOW you want to see trump rubbing out a cream pie from his eye.
It would be considered assault. Yet forcing poverty upon the working class is peace? Fuck this planet.
In a witness statement read out to the court on his behalf, Mr Farage said: “The cup hit me directly in my face … liquid went all over me.”
Giving details from her police interview, prosecutor Nishma Shah told the court: “She acknowledges that this was an assault and that the liquid would have gone over the jackets of him and others and caused them to get cleaning, but she states that Nigel would be able to afford this.
Previously, during a campaign walkabout in Newcastle in 2019, Mr Farage had a banana and salted caramel milkshake thrown at him. “Milkshaking” – the act of dousing public figures in a milkshake – was officially recognised by Collins Dictionary the same year.
Wow he’s caused a trend.
Dismissive of Kyle Rittenhouse taking his firearm across borders to go and murder someone for their skin colour, but splash him with a bit of milkshake and suddenly he’s super serious and it’s not funny and it’s assault and the full force of the law must be applied and politicians shouldn’t be subjected to violence etc etc. But violence in the street against immigrants because some right wing nutjob pretended that literally one criminal was an immigrant? No, that’s all fine and very understandable and people are just concerned. Jo Cox MP murdered for saying wouldn’t it be good to be nice to people for a change? “Regrettable.” Uber rich Nigel “fake man of the people” Farage with milkshake thrown at him? “OutRAGEous!”
I’m in. My recipe for pie crusts and whipped cream calls for a lot of cheap liquor and something called “flammable rags”? It’s an odd recipe but comes highly rated.
Flammable rags…hmmmm, is that an Albany expression? Sort of like Steamed Hams?
Oh, not Albany, no. It’s a Utica expression.
this pie crust is oddly hard and crystalline, weird tall shape too
Only Putin is allowed to cream pie him
You’re gonna end up shot before the term is supposed to be over, aren’t you?
You’re gonna end up shot before the term is supposed to be over, aren’t you?
haha, We all are, hahaha.
All completely to plan for big whipped cream, big pie crust and big pie tin. In the end we’re just pawns in their little game
Oh my God that would be awesome
There will certainly be an election. Potentially, the main opposition candidates will be in jail (or in a deportation camp in Alaska), but an election will happen.
A few years ago, Elizabeth Warren’s claim to indigenous-American heritage was the butt of many, many jokes by the right.
Wouldn’t it be funny if she’s declared an illegal immigrant?
Have you seen Boiler Room?
I have actually.
Act as if. I still teach this to sales proteges.
Obviously they’ll run the election Russian-style, as Americans still like to think of themselves as free.
What’s wrong with a one party system? It’s only one less then two! You wouldn’t want to confuse the voters would you? /$
That’s our secret, Cap… they’re always confused.
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they’ll run the election Russian-style
Why didn’t they just do this in 2018?
Do you think the GOP - and trump’s camp specifically - have gotten more or less extreme/vengeful in the last four years? After the 2020 loss, have they gotten more or less friendly toward the norms of a democratic system of government?
Do you think the GOP - and trump’s camp specifically - have gotten more or less extreme/vengeful in the last four years?
I think I heard this line back in 2004 when Bush beat Kerry. Today is always The Worst and history is always not so bad in hindsight really. But so much of the modern shit show can be traced back to the right-wing gerrymanders from 2005, pushed through under DeLay’s “Permanent Republican Majority” plan alongside his K-Street project.
After the 2020 loss, have they gotten more or less friendly toward the norms of a democratic system of government?
Given how brutally they bludgeoned the Dems this year, I’d say they’ve gotten significantly better at winning democratic competitions. I don’t think they’re going to be shy about running the exact same Musk-powered scheme in 2026, fully convinced they have the numbers to win the old fashioned way.
Thank you for the reply: because we can go back even further to Hunter S Thompson with Fear and Loathing on the campaign trail 72, where he makes the same observation about every election cycle being “the big one”.
It’s just that I do think the GOP has gotten more extreme in many ways, and the right wing media sphere is a major part of that. At least in my experience over the last few decades. Looking back at what the John Birch folks said back then, it’s a lot more mainstream. Just some of the demographic groups targeted are different
As for the elections: it’s going to be interesting, since you’re absolutely correct…the right showed up to vote, and enough of the Democrats stayed at home that the GOP might take that as a sign they don’t need to ratfuck so much. I’m just not as confident that the anti democratic sentiment isn’t just rhetoric meant for political theatre. Hopefully I’m wrong, but the mainstream right seems to be trending toward authoritarian more than libertarian these days.
the GOP has gotten more extreme in many ways
They ate the Dixiecrats, who were already openly white nationalist. But it’s the same extremism, just migrated from one party to the other by way of the oil and automotive industry barons.
Looking back at what the John Birch folks said back then, it’s a lot more mainstream.
The Birchers were mainstream. They got Goldwater in '68 and Reagan in '80. The Tea Party and the MAGA movement can trace straight lines back to Bircher organizers and funders.
I’m just not as confident that the anti democratic sentiment isn’t just rhetoric meant for political theatre.
The problem is that most of the damage is already done. The VRA has been shredded. House seats are heavily gerrymandered. Systematic disenfranchisement is institutionalized. Media is captured by corporate interests loyal (or at least amenable) to the party. There’s not a whole lot left to dismantle. Republicans have heavily entrenched, functionally unassailable state level majorities across the country.
The real threats the GOP face are from within - business and paleocon wings feuding over orthodoxy like 12th century Popes.
And democracy at least keeps this kind of fighting civil. Which is its purpose. Give people a non-violent outlet for civic participation, but limit the terms of debate to what the elites desire.
Nobody currently winning wants that system to change.
It already was before then. But before the only definite winner was Israel since both parties seem to prioritize it over anything else.
You cant even talk about this stuff on a lemmy forum anymore without being habara-ed.
A key part of getting democracy back on track needs to be around eliminating corrupting bribes by lobbying groups like AIPAC. until we do that, we wont end up with any sort of democracy.
Wild that anyone would disagree with eliminating lobbyists but there it is.
Its probably bots that downvote any post with the strings ‘hasbara’ or ‘AIPAC’ in it. Forbidden topics in a lot of the west anymore.
There will be. A Turkey style election. Or maybe russia style depending on if democratic-led states find the spine to stand against a tyrannical federal government. We’re about to see if this “federalism” really mean anything.
“Trump can’t actually do any of those horrible things,” -friend who doesn’t understand politics and hasn’t been following anything
Trump’s going to put a bunch of social media grifters and narcissists into his cabinet and really get things done. The GOP is simply too competent to fail.
We definitely won’t have municipal elections in 2025 or state elections in 2026. And nothing will go so wrong that people abandon the Republican Party like they did in 2018.
Elections will be cancelled, just like they were after 2002 and 2016, when Republicans had a three branch monopoly. And no liberal will ever be so popular as to threaten establishment conservative politics.
Man. I want to believe that, I really do.
But the man literally led a coup attempt. A shitty, ineffective one, but he tried nonetheless.
Last time Trump was held back by guardrails, people in the administrative government and in his cabinet kept his worst behavior in check.
This time, we’re already seeing plans to dismantle all that. Only install loyalists, remove anyone else. As in, literally demoting military higher ups who won’t kiss the ring.
I just hope they’re still too incompetent to do any irreversible damage. But fuck me, man. It’s hard to be hopeful.
From what I hear, one of the most important guardrails last time was the 5S system: smile, say sure, subsequently shred. Trump lacks focus and follow through for anything except his core interests, so some of the people close to him apparently got away with simply not carrying out some of his more boneheaded demands.
Yeah, but that was when he wanted the appearance of respectability and brought in some establishment Republicans who hadn’t drank the koolaid. The people he’s nominating now are loyalists through and through who won’t have any reservations to give in to his worse demands.
I’m not sure it was ever about respectability. I think he just didn’t have his shit together to actually be president. Campaigns usually start making transition plans long ahead of the election.
The other thing was that he didn’t have as much of a stranglehold on the Republican Party in 2016. It was still very possible to be a politician in open opposition to Donald Trump. So when it came time to pick someone, he couldn’t pick and choose proven loyalists. He just had to choose from among ranks of people who may or may not be hostile.
narcissists into his cabinet
The great thing about narcissists is they’re narcissists: they only care about themselves, they’re thin skinned, and they’re vindictive.
There is no chance in hell this admin is going to be efficient. One of the things that stands to save the USA is the inevitable infighting of Trump’s cabinet and party.
No, you don’t want to put narcissists in your cabinet if you’re a fascist dictator. Narcissists will covet your position and seek power for themselves. If you’re a fascist movement, you can afford to have one narcissist at the top, but everybody on the bottom has to be yes-men. You want the bulk of your movement to be white men who crave a powerful masculine figure to dominate them. You want submissives. That’s not where you’ll find 99% of narcissists. You’ll find 99% of narcissists on the left, saying that they’re entitled to more pay and fewer hours. You’ll find 99% of narcissists refusing to be dominated by other people and fighting for equality. You’ll find 99% of narcissists trying to make the world a better place.
Not even onion anymore…
Well, no, it’s the Beaverton.
At this point I don’t blame Republicans, they are exactly the christo-fascist criminal hypocrites that they always have been.
At this point I don’t blame Democrats, utterly underwhelming and politically ineffective as they are.
Nope. At THIS POINT I blame the lazy fat dumb-as-shit American fuckwad populace. “We The People” just gave knuckle-dragging fascist dipshits the keys to every branch of government as well as a mandate to do basically whatever the fuck they want for no reason other than the price of Doritos being higher. It turns out that the real enemy of the people is the American people themselves, who make the worst possible decisions and act against their own interest at every opportunity, only later to point fingers at the same politicians that they helped elect in the first place.
In other words, if you voted for anybody but Harris I can only say “fuck you, you deserve exactly whatever is coming”.
Power has been out of the hands of the people for a while now. SuperPACs influence the choice of candidates and lobbyists write the laws they pass.
I mean, the GOP has done everything in its power for several decades to undermine education and clinch a near-monopoly on TV and radio media. So I think we can blame them quite a bit for how idiotic and cultish the American people have become.
It turns out that the real enemy of the people is the American people themselves
So Trump was right about the enemy within!
A lot of people here want their hands held all the way to the ballot box.
Being unenthusiastic and unimpressed with the Democratic party is apparently a completely valid reason to not vote, allow a trump win, and then blame the Democrats.
Democrats dont fetishize about violence against minorities for “not voting right” challenge(impossible)
Muslims putting their home caliphate’s pointless 80-year jihad above Western democracy challenge (haram)
So the Republicans are “knuckle-dragging fascist dipshits” but they aren’t to blame? Wtf?
They’re evil, but they also would be completely powerless without American voters (and non-voters). Much like how the GOP enables Trump.
The people in power doing the bad things are always to blame for the bad things they do.
Partially to blame, yes. But they made no pretense of who they were and what they wanted to do. This is largely on the voters.
The people who helped put them in power in the first place are also to blame, that’s the whole damn point. Those who voted for the fascists, as well as those who failed to vote against them, are the main people to blame for the fascists rising to power.
This isn’t hard to understand. It shouldn’t be hard to understand.
YES, we absolutely need to have a reckoning about the shitty politicians that are in power, obviously.
What seems to be less obvious to people, for some reason, is that that something is fundamentally broken in American culture because it is, as a matter of fact, the American PEOPLE who have used every opportunity to put the worst people in power. So yeah, point your finger at the politicians if you all want to, but in the end all we’re doing is keeping the average American dumbfuck from looking in the mirror and reflecting on their part in this entire charade.
Do you blame the fox for killing the hens, or do you blame the farmer for letting them into the hen house in the first place?
The American people saw an unhinged, deranged and delusion party of fascists running on a campaign of corruption, vengeance and grievance, and some of the American populace decided that they wanted to vote for it, while others decided that they didn’t care to vote against it.
All of those people are to fucking blame, and it’s about time that they know it. This wasn’t a hard decision for anyone with >3 neurons firing, but the world is full of idiots have no concept of doing what is best for their world, their country, their city, their family or themselves. I’m done blaming the politicians, I choose to blame the dumb shit people who hand them power at every opportunity.
Hell, there’s not going to be a 2026 election.
There will be, in the same way that they have elections in Russia and Turkey.
This has “Obama is going to send all conservatives to FEMA camps” vibes. Like you guys are just as crazy as the QNuts at this point.
And since I have to say this, yes I voted for Harris.
I get why you are saying this, and it is definitely possible that all will be fine. However, what distinguishes the all will be fine crowd from the alarmists, is that the alarmists take what Trump said in his rallies literally, whereas the calmer crowd doesn’t. That’s COMPLETELY different from QAnon, which has never relied on direct quotes from elected Democratic to make their point.
Yes I want to emphasize the right’s concerns were based on vibes with no evidence. Our concerns are based on literal evidence that happened in the past.
I’m sure that the guy who convinced a fuck ton of people - including elected and appointed officials - that an election was “stolen” from him, and fomented an actual violent coup attempt, and who has openly mused about using the Insurrection Act to put US military boots on US soil to enact his policies, and who is now president elect, with full control of all three branches of government, would never think of mashing those two together and “postponing” the midterm elections because “even the US military is unable to keep these elections from being stolen.”
Wow, I sure was being crazy, I feel so much better now.
Did Obama stand in front of supporters and TV cameras and say all the conservatives will end up in camps?
Because I’ve definitely seen Trump stand in front of supporters and TV cameras and say this is the last time we’ll need to vote.
I’m sure members of the Weimar Republic thought this too.
When a fascist tells you something, BELIEVE THEM.
He’s put a fucking fox news anchor as defense secretary i think it’s safe to say we are not in sane and reasonable land.
I started to prepare for 2026, but the thought that “Blue Wave!” fails is so preemptively humiliating that the only logical conclusion was to roll over and let the fascists ride on through 2028. I truly wish I could help or do anything at all but I’m safer here on the couch! Besides, The Capitalists rigged it all anyway. I think if I feel bad enough for anybody who isn’t as safe and I starve, deprive, and isolate myself then I can make up for my own sense of helplessness.
Take heart, as long as there are people who are willing to stand against tyranny and fascism, there will always be hope. Every one of us, even the strongest of us, sometimes need to take some time off to recover - take all the time you need. Be with your loved ones, hold on to them tightly, and share your love as widely as you can. Spread love among your friends and co-workers as best you can. I know it sounds extremely corny, but love, and fighting for who we love, is how we will win.
We can’t vote our way out of this, but we can build a better future outside of the system and do everything we can to resist the state. That means that we might be left with no choice but to take risks and make sacrifices in the hope that the world we leave behind might start moving in the right direction.
Stay strong and hang in there. I love you, no matter who you are, or where you come from, or what you’ve done.
I don’t. I don’t know that guy, he might suck real hard.
Expecting the Dems to control the House, I was telling people not to worry, they can spend 2 years stonewalling anything the Senate wants to do, then regain control of the Senate in 2026, making Trump’s second term mostly a bust. But now that MAGA has the whole Congress I think all bets and gloves are off. Might as well lose the pants too.
Same thing happened in 2016. He got a few things done the first 2 years (the big tax cut was the main thing), then the Democrats got the House back in 2018 and he accomplished very little. Both impeachments happened after 2018.
To be fair, them getting their shit together would be good regardless if there’s another legitimate election in the future
We can only hope the dictator passes of old age before anything crazy happens.
You think vd dunce is going to be any better for the USA than discount orange hitler?
Maybe he’ll be too busy fucking the couches in the Oval Office to do any presidenting?
I would hate to be the person in charge of squeegeeing the presidential couch after vance gets his hands on it.
I mean, they are studded…
And PURPLE!
Thats why you have to hope for both to die
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Going to put all my chips on President JD Vance to restore democracy
“Says here President Vance just let Elon peg him in the State of the Union… And he won re-election by 108% on the new voting machines he bought for all states?”
Dems asking everyone to respect the process and continue with an orderly transition to a full fascist government. Please remember to respect our institutions, honor our brave Stasi interrogators, and Back the Blue so that our collective liquidation can occur in an efficient and budget-conscious fashion.
As sad as it is, and I know you’re probably being sarcastic, but that may be our only chance as salvation at this point.
America is right on the brink of being FUBAR.
Crossing my fingers he dies before inauguration
Then we end up with couch fucker JD Vance as president.
We might simply get saddled with one of his failsons or his sex do-uhh, daughter.
I think this should be a good way to win back money from failed Harris bets. I’d dare to put some money on a bet that there is going to be elections in 2028 and Trump is not going to be a candidate.
One of those win/everythingsfucked kind of bets.
Well. He’s super old and eats like shit. There is a good chance he won’t be the nominee because he dies in office.
Don’t bet JD Vance won’r be on the ticket though
I was watching a video the other day of Rachel Maddow talking about how now that Trump is elected, we will never have a vote again. We will be a Russian puppet state and that all immigrants regardless of status will be deported. I was thinking that’s a possibility and a scary potential future. Then I realized the video was from 2016… and Trump went on to be so ineffective that more immigrants came in than Obama. The only lasting legacy he will have is the Supreme Court, which sucks, but he is too ineffective to do anything other than rant on truth social. He is good at saying things, not doing things.
In his first term, he had a center-right Court that was willing to rule against him. Congress was also not solely controlled by Republicans, and there was a notable never-Trump coalition within their ranks.
Now, the Court is balanced more heavily to the right, and they’ve already been willing to accept ridiculous proposals that help Trump. And he’ll be going into this next term with a Republican-controlled Senate and House. And most of the never-Trumpers have either left or been voted out.
So I do understand that it’s possible that our fears are overblown, but there are good reasons to believe that he’ll do more lasting damage in his second term.
To be clear, the Republicans being organized means the Republicans will be able to do more lasting damage. Trump is just the face, and while he is a terrible person who causes damage through chaos, the malicious Republicans as a whole are responsible for whatever damage happens during his turn.
That is important to keep in mind, because even if they cart him off to jail on day 2 of his term they will continue to do all the damage they can.
It’s also worth remembering the republicans having a different face next time doesn’t mean they’ll be different next time.
People act like things are only bad because of Trump and that if it was someone else it would be less bad. There’s no actual reason to assume that.
Things are very different this time around. They have a lot more power and are a lot more prepared. Trump isn’t capable, the gang around him definitely is.
The first time he was trying, poorly, to have talking points.
This time he would just straight up stand there and sway for 30 minutes and say the most stupid shit he could think of and still got elected.
The more Ive thought about it, it was just warming the liberals up to accepting that it’s over.
So now the next steps are to consolidate power, declare himself president for life, and then invade Mexico or some shit.
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And you think you’re the only one so wise as to have noticed all that? Trump’s people have been working their ass off for this day. They’ve seen the weaknesses in Trump and the system and they’re already deploying their plans. If you think this administration will be Trump 2.0, you got another thing coming.
I imagine Germans were laughing at Hitler after the Beer Hall Putsch.
They weren’t laughing, they were naively relieved and thought they dodged a bullet and threw him in jail.
The world was caught by surprise in 2016. A lot of evildoers didn’t even realize what was possible.
They have since realized, planned, and prepared.
That adorable friend should start voting in off years. There’s going to be local elections next year at the very least.
Listen, I hate to break it to you… but we can’t even get these clowns to vote on Presidential election years and now we have to try to convince them to vote during off years and special elections? Fat chance.
In 2028, the Democrats won’t even be on the ticket, and most of America still won’t vote third party.
I’d like to see Bernie try to spin up a third party; not for himself to run for office, but just to divorce from the DNC and give leftist politicians a fighting chance using his name/approval.
State level electoral reform first?
