I believe that Democrats/Liberals/Progressives need to face the absolute fact

[Amishman]

53. You're viewing them from our perspective

Last edited Thu Mar 7, 2024, 09:19 AM - Edit history (1)

They really don't want us. The broad spectrum rejection of our party across the majority of our platform is something that is really hard to understand unless you've been exposed to it a lot.

Why Trump? Partially because he is a crass troll and is extremely good at pissing off the people they hate (us). Because they view him as someone who 'saved' the country by winning in 2016 and in particular for setting SCOTUS up as a long term limiter at anything we can do. Society and government has been drifting left for a long time - expansion of social welfare programs, expansion of environmental rules, expansion of LGBTQ acceptance, expansion of government spending. They don't want this, and see him as a viable option to keep us in check.

It's a clash of two conflicting visions of America: one a christian religion rooted capitalist monoculture. The other a diverse multicultural socialist / capitalist hybrid. Even those who don't particularly like Trump see him as the most viable option for tipping the balance in their favor. I talk to my brother in law a lot; extremely smart and successful man who is a right leaning independent (and an absolute gun nut). He hates Trump but has voted for him twice and will a third time. His personal reasoning is mostly around not wanting a Democratic president for tax and gun reasons. We've talked about this quite a bit, and he doesn't think the pubs could win without Trump's hardcore followers, so he wants orange julius on the ballot even though Trump was his least favorite option in the primaries.

As for throwing away Democracy, they think Trump is saving it. The belief that our election system is compromised is near universal on the right, they mainly differ on to what degree and how. Some less crazy ones (like my BiL), point to ballot harvesting and make a big deal out of the Philly Democratic primary ballot box stuffing incident from about a decade ago. Others still go off about the Dominion voting machine conspiracies. They are willing to vote for Trump even though they don't like him because they believe doing so is saving democracy.

Semi-related, I would love for the Ukraine war to cause the Russian government's collapse because I think the extent and complexity of Russian shaping and directing the political right in this country through social media is terrifying. I'd love to see the proof come out from Russia's side.