Is this really what America has become?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
... For many Democrats, Trump’s continued viability as a presidential candidate speaks to something more fundamental and concerning: How can someone as odious and malignant as Trump maintain so much popular support?
It’s not just that Trump’s four years in office were defined by unimaginable incompetence, venality, chaos and cruelty. It’s not just that he is a convicted felon who spurred an insurrection and still refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election. It’s not just that many Democrats can’t comprehend why anyone would want to return to those days.
The larger and more disquieting issue is the campaign Trump is running right now: one that is as vile and as openly racist as any campaign in perhaps all of American history — and that includes his previous runs for the White House.
Virtually Trump’s entire message to voters this year is about the alleged threat represented by immigrants — both legal and illegal. A recent review of his speeches by Politico summarized them this way: “Trump has demonized minority groups and used increasingly dark, graphic imagery to talk about migrants in every one of his speeches since the Sept. 10 presidential debate.”
More than ever, Trump’s rhetoric is steeped in racism, xenophobia and dehumanization. He routinely calls immigrants “vermin” and says they are “poisoning the blood” of the country. He claims they are “stone-cold killers,” “animals” and “the worst people” who will “cut your throat.” (This is, unsurprisingly, not true. Crime rates among immigrants are lower than those among native-born Americans.) Last week in Colorado, he called migrants from Latin America, Congo and the Middle East “the most violent people on Earth.” He also accused Harris of importing “an army of illegal alien gang members and migrant criminals from the dungeons of the Third World … to prey upon innocent American citizens.” He’s even suggested that nonwhite immigrants have “bad genes” that make them genetically inferior.
This is fascist rhetoric. More specifically, it’s Nazi rhetoric. But the crowds at Trump’s rallies aren’t horrified by such language. They lap it up.
Is this really what America has become?
Trump is openly trafficking in racial fear and paying little political price for doing so. The centerpiece of Trump’s immigration policy is a call for massive detention camps and the mass deportation of illegal migrants. At this summer’s Republican National Convention, the GOP printed up and distributed thousands of signs to the assembled delegates that read “Mass Deportation Now.” Trump has even suggested that migrants who are in the country legally must be deported — like the Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, whom he has repeatedly and falsely accused of eating dogs and cats.
There are surely voters who take Trump seriously but not literally — and refuse to believe he will follow through on his rhetoric. But when Trump was president, his administration initiated a policy of forcibly separating young children from their parents as a tool for deterring illegal immigration. And even if Trump doesn’t mean it now, why would these voters want to associate themselves with language not dissimilar from actual Nazis?
It’s not just Trump’s language about immigrants that is so troubling. I’m old enough to remember when George H.W. Bush calling his opponents “bozos” in 1992 was considered untoward. Hillary Clinton was vilified for referring to half of Trump’s supporters as “deplorable.” Now, Trump regularly refers to his political opponents as “an enemy within.” He has talked about taking “retribution” against Democrats, whom he calls “evil.” In recent days, he’s even suggested he would unleash the U.S. military on his political rivals.
Trump’s ability to carry out such threats might be constrained by the courts and even the military’s own unwillingness to conduct illegal domestic operations. But that hardly seems like a risk worth taking.
Yet the bigger danger of a Trump campaign is that so many Americans will go to the polls and validate Trump’s bigotry, violent rhetoric and divisiveness. For more than a few Democrats, the lack of political backlash from comments that would spell the end of any other presidential campaign is, as much as the tight polling margin, what has made this presidential campaign so uniquely unsettling. Is this really what America has become?
Many Democrats would have viewed the election of John McCain in 2008 or Mitt Romney in 2012 as disastrous events, but hardly ones that made them question the sustainability of the American experiment in representative democracy. A Trump victory would represent something very different — the endorsement of a national ethos that runs utterly contrary to the arc of modern American history, which has imperfectly bent toward justice.
Even if Trump loses, he will still likely get 45%-47% of the popular vote. How does America move forward when so many of our fellow citizens embrace a candidate and a message so fundamentally un-American? Defeating Trump is obviously essential, but as this presidential election, like the two before it, has made clear, America is a very different place than many of us imagined.
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With only 17 days left before the election, and millions already voting, we have to face the unthinkable - Trump could win.
I might be able to deal with him or ignore him after Jan 21 if he gets in, but it will be impossible, impossible to forgive the MAGA movement for what it has done to our country.
Trump is clearly, completely, unfit to lead anything, let alone the "city on the hill" nation.
As this article makes plain, we are facing a tragedy of ethical failure never before seen in our history.
Because the Dems turned their back on the working class?
Sounds somewhat like a Hitlerian justification to me. He did "bring back " prosperity. But at what cost?
A historic realignment of working-class voters helped Trump defy the odds and win in 2016, and brought him to within a hair of reelection in 2020
Really? How did the Democratic Party turn their backs on the working class? It is nonsense, BUT, right wing media has been able to lie about it to such an extent that I'm sure a lot of the working class has fallen for it.
Donald Trump doesnt give a shit about the working class, never has, never will. Nor does the Republican Party. If they did the tax breaks wouldnt be going to billionaires , they wouldnt be denying medicaid expansion, they wouldnt be fighting unionization, they wouldnt fall in line with the air and water pollution that plagues certain working class areas.
Is Brookings too far right?
The exit of the working class from the Democratic Party is a long saga that began in the late 1960s and culminated in Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party with themes that resonated among working class voters. During this period, Democrats—along with center-left parties through Western democracies who have encountered similar difficulties—have struggled to understand the sources of working-class disaffection and to craft remedies for it. Two recent studies from the Progressive Policy Institute (PPT) have shed new light on these issues.
I didn't argue that he does. I think that the working class doesn't trust either Party and see Trump as a rock chucker.
How many of the blacks feel that way because they watch fox news? Do you forget Hilary lost Michigan and Wisconsin because she basically ignored them thinking she had them in the bag? Maybe the dems should look in the mirror for failings instead of looking outward.
Whatever, I dont want to derail this seed any further.
You have watched Trump over the past few months, and beyond. Isnt he more suited for psychiatric treatment than running the country?
If we put someone with these endless personal mental and ethical maladies into power the country wont recover for decades, and then likely everyone reading this will be dead.
This is not directed to John:
The rest of this thread was removed for no value and off topic
There's no great secret why Democrats are a coinflip away from losing to the most unpopular candidate in history.
They've become captured by the most extreme, elitist voices in their party and focus their messaging and policies on what makes them happy.
(1) Starting a social war to make normal people participate in their craziness about 70 genders, letting men compete and shower with girls and even mutilating kids against all scientific knowledge that the results are bad for the kid long term. People who see the world as it is don't want to pretend to live in the imaginary world progressives want to create
(2) Open borders, which keeps wages down and making housing more costly hurts the working class. They know it. The rich who benefit from it only feel the benefit from cheap labor.
(3) The shameless dishonesty and manipulation. Biden is sharp as a tack!, Pee tapes, a farcical and obviously political prosecution of Trump, Covid origin lies, vaccine, Biden corruption, the Biden laptop, Democrats breaking covid rules while punishing others, FISA, Covington, Jim Crow 2, prosecuting some rioters, , ignoring others, 20 years of pushing stolen election narratives ....All of these things make normal people question how the Democrats are any different than Trump when Democrats do the same thing he does and persist in doubling down on their lies. Despite the media's best attempts to coverup these stories they percolate through and add up and create a loss of credibility. Couple that with the experience of people who've been hurt most by inflation having their pains mocked or minimized by Democrats.."Stupid voter who doesn't own stocks, haven't you seen the S&P the last 24 months??" and it's no surprise people think that Trump is no more dishonest than the Democrats but remember his Presidency as a time when they were better off.
That silly little meme is a great example. Thanks. They pander to the 33% in the progressive cult while it makes normal people roll their eyes and want to stay far away from such hysterical thinking.
Thanks for one of the few comments that added value and stayed on topic.
I should add, the proof is the Democratic Candidates for Senate in the "blue wall" are all running ads promoting their support for Trump policies. The Democrats have hurt their brand to the point they want to show their alignment with the normality of Trump's policies.
On the face of it Trump is a lunatic.
You are willing to put a lunatic in office as president because you think the Democrats "deserve" it.
On the facts Trump is a traitor who tried to steal the last election.
You are willing to put a traitor back in office because "the Democrats"
I hope someone is praying for the future of this country because we need it.
I'm pointing out why Trump could very will win.
Oh please, you WANT Trump to win.
Trump used to brag about the stock market when he was president, almost every day.
Trump had no great record on either of those when he was president.
You should apply for a contributors job at Fox News or Newsmax. Maybe Brietbart.
Again, an example of why Democrats struggle outside their bubble. They demand 100% conformity and a willingness to lie on behalf of the party, and anyone who doesn't is "MAGA." Everyone on this site saw it play out when video after video was released of Biden struggling to remain oriented to time and place and anyone who simply pointed out the obvious truth of it was "MAGA" for failing to parrot the conspiracies about edited videos and how healthy and engaged actually was.
You making a totally illogical argument that we should vote for someone who is obviously psychologically disturbed, and old, and a traitor, because the Democrats said this or that.
And spare us your crap about not being a Trump supporter.
do you ever wonder why trump is a coin flip from winning again and say “ why aren’t the democrats heading to a Reagan or Nixon style blowout?
i told you why. Keep ignoring everyone outside the progressive bubble and it’ll keep happening no matter how crazy the republican nominee is.
You are not credible. Trump is a lunatic 24/7 and you never comment on that. His campaign might as well be paying you.
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do you ever wonder why trump is a coin flip from winning again and say “ why aren’t the democrats heading to a Reagan or Nixon style blowout?
No, it’s a popularity contest where Kamala may be even more unlikable than Hillary.