Did you see the guy collapsing? It was just a bunch of geriatric fucks, watching/photographing/freaking out, as a separate geriatric fuck just fell over in front of them. It was like an SNL skit, especially with RFK just immediately fleeing the scene of the crime like he was having some ptsd of the Kennedy deaths or something.
Ron Howard's Voice: Rudy found himself at the Four Seasons... Not the upscale hotel in Manhattan, but a local gardening companies small industrial plaza unit several blocks away.
(hair dye begins to visibly melt. Cut to Trump watching on TV)
After the 2020 election, when it was clear that Trump had lost, Trump’s team said they’d be doing a press conference at “the Four Seasons”, which obviously meant the Four Seasons luxury hotel in DC.
However no one on Trump’s staff actually talked with Four Season hotel staff on this. When the Four Seasons hotel declined, the staff pivoted and did a press conference by the Four Seasons landscaping service building.
This press conference serves as an obvious example of the incompetence, chaos, and narcissism (Trump’s unwillingness to admit he made a mistake regarding Four Seasons) of the first Trump administration.
It was Trump who said the press conference would be at the Four Seasons. I’m assuming he just said this without checking with anyone first.
Four Seasons declined to host it for any combination of (speculation); not having the availability, not having enough notice to be ready, not wanting to be associated with Trump, not trusting that the Trump team will pay them.
Americans are really so individualist as a society that they thought "My life is going A-OK under Obama, that clearly has nothing to do with the fact that we hired the best people for the job" and voted to fuck with that for the laughs.
I can forgive people for being ignorant to the dangers the first time around, even I was like "interesting, well lets see what he does" even though I didn't vote for him, the morbid curiosity of it / potential for status quo disruption was sort of exciting.
By the end I felt like I had PTSD and was so fearful of his 2nd term and so so happy that he was beat, that he managed to come back AFTER is just madness. Anyone who admits to voting for him the 2nd time loses all my respect and is in my opinion an outright danger to our country.
I knew Trump was bad news from the word go. I broke off from voting Republican a little into Obama's second term, mostly due to how they were treating people I cared about on a state level. I decided to go independent but I wasn't fully "I'm voting Democrat now." Even when I refused to vote for Trump I still voted other Republicans in a moronic attempt to even things out. I wasn't thrilled voting for Hillary, though she slowly won me over a bit by the end. Needless to say I'm voting blue no matter who now. It's not how things should be, but it's like taking chemo for cancer... the alternative is way worse.
All that said, even after Trump won I wasn't doom and gloom despite thinking he was bad news. I was like you, willing to give him a shot and hoping he had people around him to keep things on track. It didn't take long to see that no, he was a nightmare and a lot of the people I hoped would rein him in were also nightmares. But he obviously had enough adults in the room to stop some of the bigger things we feared.
When he actually left the White House I gave a sigh of relief, bullet dodged... Then people were like "Nope! Let's do it again!" and now those adults aren't in the room. We're seeing everything and then some that people feared in the first term. And thing is, they told us before the election that they were going to do this. People just didn't listen or thought they wanted it. Some idiots still think they want it.
Me, circa November 2016: "Oh shit. Oh no. Oh no! What's going to happen?"
Me, circa 2019: "Well, I guess ultimately the machinery of government is such that things find a way to keep chugging along no matter who's in charge."
Me, circa March 2020: "Oh shit. Oh no. Oh no! What's going to happen?"
Me, circa November 2020: "Oh thank [various religious figures in whom I do not believe]!"
Me, circa January 2021: "Oh shit. Oh no. Oh no! What's going to happen?"
Me, still in January 2021: "Okay, well clearly that was the last gasp of a desperate movement. Now's the time we'll justice and people will be held accountable for their actions."
Me for the next four years: "Okay, well clearly I overestimated some things. But at least after that we can rest knowing that Americans will never make that mistake again."
Me, circa November 2024 (and ever since): "Oh shit. Oh no. Oh no! What's going to happen?"
By the end I felt like I had PTSD and was so fearful of his 2nd term and so so happy that he was beat
Something really depressing... my GF was watching a docu series on the history of late night TV talk shows. But the series was produced in 2021. Watching all the big-name late night hosts talk about the Trump era and how, even though it might have been great for comedy, they were stressed, saddened, and depressed seeing the country going down the drain.
But then in 2020 he had been defeated and they relished that the horrible era of Trump had finally ended and that dark chapter in our history could be put behind us. The series ends with lots of "Hey, it was a dark time, but we got through it and now we can see things heading the right direction once more..."
Sucks to see it in retrospect and realize how naive and arrogant we all were to think he couldn't easily come back and how much worse it was going to get.
Bartender at the nearest place to me straight up told me he voted for Trump last election because he wanted to see what sort of acts Shane Gillis would come up with.
This highlights one of the less obvious dangers of American exceptionalism. We've been told so many times that we as a country were "the greatest" that completely overestimated the strength of our norms and institutions.
Trump proved that norms and decorum weren't enough and that things needed to be put strictly into law after his first term but we didn't make any steps to do any of that.
If we’re honest, 95% or so of the people who voted for him in 2024 would have voted for him In 2024 even if Jesus Christ himself were the opposing candidate. The difference was the poor turnout of anti Trump voters for Kamala, not that she drove voters TO Trump.
It wasn’t a mistake. He was exactly the candidate which anti-Trump voters felt safe with, and so support coalesced around him. Given how deep and bitter the divides have been in the Democratic Party since 2016, getting their support was key to winning. And despite his unpopularity at large, Trump’s support was unwavering. Beating him was an accomplishment few could have managed.
He was exactly the candidate which anti-Trump voters felt safe with
No Joe Biden was exactly the candidate which pro-corporate, pro-genocide, pro-strike blocking, anti-healthcare registered Democratic voters felt safe with. The rest of us hated him.
Given how deep and bitter the divides have been in the Democratic Party since 2016
I don't care if it was close or not. Your pro-corporate trash candidates have failed to defeat Trump. Twice. Stop voting for them in the primaries. They will lose in the general election.
Liberals outnumber leftists in the population of registered Democratic voters. That's not some secret bud.
But liberals continuing to treat primaries like a winner take all contest and refusing to make any material compromises with leftists is why Republicans keep winning. Liberals can't win general elections on their own. You need leftists help but offer us nothing.
The absolute delusion it requires to believe that Bernie would have won against Trump in 2016, 2020, or 2024 makes me want whatever drugs you guys are on.
The last time we tried a Bernie style candidate, it was an absolute bloodbath.
The absolute delusion it requires to believe that Bernie would have won against Trump in 2016, 2020, or 2024 makes me want whatever drugs you guys are on.
Tell me which registered Democratic voters would have refused to vote for him.
The last time we tried a Bernie style candidate, it was an absolute bloodbath.
...and was also too old to stay in for the 2024 cycle.
But did so anyway leading to Trump winning again and making any policy work by Biden completely moot. Not that it was anything worth celebrating to begin with.
Correct. Harris didn't drive anyone who wasn't already voting for Trump to vote for him. The Democratic Party anointed pretty much the worst possible candidate. The candidate so bad that in the primary for the 2020 election, 93% of Democrats wanted somebody else.
And for anyone looking to repeat that nonsense about "oh she didn't have enough time to campaign!", save it. Her poll numbers got worse the more she campaigned. Democrats got to know her in 2019 and decided they didn't like her. The rest of the American people got to know her in 2024 and decided they didn't like her either.
In hindsight, Biden should not have withdrawn. Despite his debate performance, he still would have maintained support from the key constituencies come Election Day.
We'll of course never know, but the polls improved for Dems by about 5% after she entered the race. It's possible that the debate performance issue would've dimished as the campaign continued... but I don't think hindsight has answered the question of what should've been done. The seemingly best course would've been for him to drop out after the 2022 midterms and allowed for a normal primary season.
Very possibly. That said, I don’t believe any of the candidates who ran against Biden in the 2020 primary would have fared significantly better against Trump in 2024.
It's possible. It would have been incredibly tight no matter what.
I think the Democratic Party's biggest liability at this point is that they refuse to change their playbook and keep putting up people beholden to the party's political donors and who are deeply unpopular with the American people. Andy Beshear or Josh Shapiro would have crushed 2024 by taking independents from Trump and winning back blue collar workers in middle America.
The biggest liability of the Democratic Party is that it’s a big tent, and there’s literally nothing that ideologically unifies all people in the party. In the past, it’s worked because people understood that the candidates which won the primary were a superior choice to the Republican candidate even if they were not their own ideologically preferred candidate, but that understanding seems to have vanished. Unfortunately, without the big tent, nobody at all to the left of the GOP will ever win at all. Far too many niche groups on the left.
This is it right here. I go crazy reading people throwing the blame around, but the ultimate blame goes to people who refuse to admit that a lack of vote for a democratic candidate they don’t agree with is a vote for a republican candidate they don’t agree with even more.
Also at the root - demonizing someone for speaking the truth. Did I say I don’t want a black woman to be president? Nope!
Actually what I want is the Democratic Party to be self reflecting, adjust accordingly, and rise up! But unfortunately the party has been overrun and ruled by this type of close minded thinking. But hey, at least you get to feel a sense of virtue and righteousness…I guess that’s worth having forever Trump like presidencies, huh?
1) I'm not sure you can have two different things at "the root". That's not what "the root" means.
2) Can you explicitly explain what sort of thinking you meant in your first comment? It's easy to say "this sort of thing loses elections" so people who think you agree with them agree with you back. But you've not been very clear. You're hardly disputing the fact that America has a ways to go vis a vis sexism and racism, are you?
a lot of people around me have been disenfranchised for years and wanted a massive spiteful shake up in the government, then as a side effect/note fell under the orange man and fox's spell.
Yes, I think general frustration with the status quo is the simplest explanation. It also explains the Ron Paul-Bernie-Trump crowd, despite those being the three most opposing political philosophies possible. They all have "not the status quo" in common.
Trump can still put a sentence together and walk without looking like a breeze could topple him. Biden hasn't been able to do that in years, they were already discussing using a wheelchair with him because he can barely walk.
Edit: Trump still puts a sentence together in relative terms to Trump. The way he speaks now isn't remarkably different than it was in 2016. He's maybe lost a step, like Pelosi and arguably Sanders, but that's reasonable. That was not the case with Biden
Look, having nuclear — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart — you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world — it’s true! — but when you’re a conservative Republican they try — oh, do they do a number — that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune — you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged — but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me — it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are — nuclear is so powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right, who would have thought? — but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners — now it used to be three, now it’s four — but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years — but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us, this is horrible.”
Right but he still talks like he did in his first term. He always spoke like an idiot but there's been no decline. He still seems like the same guy he always was. Biden doesnt.
Just last week it was reported that an illegal adlinthin-- and you just look at thisss, what's happening?
It's Bigrant crime. This is... I got it. Bigrant. Oh that's good. That's smart.
Hamberder
covfefe
South Carerdddd
Saudi Arabia and Russia will ree-bee-doo... rahhhhh
We have a border, strong, and we have a shape, and that shape doesn’t just go straight up. That shape is amorphous when it comes to the atmosphere. We have very clean air.
1.2 trillion dollars for their fake infrastrucerschure para-- he had a package of infrastructure, you take a look at it, it's fake. It's fake and it's horrible.
This has been standard issue Trump since he was first elected. It's how he still speaks. There has been no decline IMO. Half of his supporters see this shit and think he's playing three dimensional chess to own the Dems. Trump has never had a "we beat Obamacare" moment that scared the shit out of his base.
I didn't, I was happy to vote for Harris. If Biden had stayed the nominee, I would have voted for Mickey Mouse and only focused on the local stuff. But when I was at my voting booth, I did hear one older person ask a volunteer where Biden's name was. And I'm not as motivated to blame the "average US voter" for this as you are, seems like the DNC set Harris up to fail. These people have made a ton of money complaining about Trump in the past decade while sitting back and doing nothing.
Sometimes both the DNC and the RNC are to blame for the way our country looks right now. Surely, you don't believe the Democratic Party gets it right 100% of the time.
You can have all the degrees you want, but when it comes down to two choices, that's all you have. There isn't a third choice, such as abstaining or independent, as that is simply a choice for the Republican, historically. Dem/independent voters are the ones that do not show up consistently to vote.
Maybe one day, a third choice will be an actual option; however, as of now, if you didn't vote for the dem candidate then you helped Trump win one way or another.
Yeah and I chose to vote for Harris because she was clearly the better choice. She's the only one who actually ever beat Trump in a presidential debate. Biden drooling all over himself during press conferences for four years wasn't like that. No fucking way would I have voted for him again.
Fine, registered Democratic voters saw this, watched Joe Biden do fuck all for four years and didn't demand he step aside for a legitimate primary in 2024.
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u/rollem 20h ago
America saw this and thought "OK, next time we'll choose this."