People Aren’t Facing Up to the Horrors a New Trump Term Would Bring | G’bye, NATO. G’bye, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal. G’bye, democracy. He’s telling us plain as day. Why aren’t people listening?

Came here to say this. How many times are we gonna watch one of them "accidentally" quote Hitler in a speech, or talk about the benefits of slavery, or talk about how they want to make women second-class citizens, then pretend that they didn't? They gathered under a banner at CPAC that said 'We are all domestic terrorists'. When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

I honestly don't know if I buy the "Republicans are all stoopid" argument entirely; there are plenty of relatively intelligent people that have supported him.

More than a lack of intelligence, I think it's more a radical lack of any empathy or concern for anyone they don't see as being on their same side. I mean, the Republican platform is essentially nothing more than "Own the Libs" at this point. It's not so much that they don't necessarily know the consequences of their actions; they don't care, and would rather prioritize hurting their enemies.

Last time I checked, the Democrats didn't put forth a candidate for office who they were busy planning to hold a vote for in Congress to erase their prior impeachments, and none who received two federal indictments with a third pending criminal charges... SMH

Truly, it boggles the mind that there are people in this world who think this is someone who is going to do good for the country when aside from the above, there are literally decades of legal and personal disasters that continue to follow him around. He is the Midas touch in reverse.

It really is a scorched earth mentality. They don't care if everything they love burns, as long as what they hate burns along with it.

It's been said numerous times that Republicans would let Trump shit in their mouths if it meant a Democrat had to smell it. And it never fails to be true.

I think they’re listening but not hearing. The majority of Americans, and even the majority of republicans, tend to support marriage equality and cannabis legalization, and even support things like a government health care program in significant numbers.

When polled on individual positions, Americans tend to fall well to the left of the republican politicians on most social issues. But that changes when you specifically identify a position as a democratic position. There has been a never-ending barrage of branding attacks on words like “democrat” and “liberal” to the extent that even democratic politicians felt like they had to avoid labels like that for a long time.

I think they have the ability to get people whipped up, because news canalization prevents people from hearing opposing viewpoints. They get away with saying they want to ban drag shows because they don’t want four year olds to watch open sex acts which a) is already illegal and b) has nothing to do with drag. But they don’t hear that - they hear the overblown and patently false rhetoric and that’s what will drive them in the near term.

I’m afraid we’re going to lose ground in both the legal sphere and in public opinion as homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and racism become to be seen as more acceptable, but as of right now we still have made a significant amount of progress. But if the news media and politicians treat them as areas where multiple legitimate opinions exist, we’re absolutely going to backslide, and it’s going to take decades to just get back to where we are now.

What are some examples of manipulation from the Democratic party that you are equating here?

"The right people" to suffer. They never wanted themselves, their neighbors, or even the poor people down the road to suffer. They want all tge bad people Fox News tells them about to suffer and the fucking democrats just refuse to make the Fox News anchors happy!

Stupid? No. We are all much more susceptible to propaganda than we think.

Sadly this. I yelled at MIL when Roe was overturned and a 10 year old made headline news. Her response was "BUT THE MEXICANS!". They literally don't give a flying fuck about anyone but themselves and blaming absolutely EVERYONE else.

Trump can be both stupid and a monster, we just have to focus on the monster part more than the stupid.

Labeling them stupid is part of the psyop. Ive found myself correcting so many people IRL when they say that trump is stupid. Like, yeah, he's a piece of shit but if he's so stupid then how did he convince so many people to believe everything he says.

Hurt feelings isn't what we need to be watching out for. Literally by definition, to be a supporter of the Republican Party after the events of Jan. 6 is to be a supporter of and defender of domestic terrorism against American citizens.

The US is far too large and powerful a nation to hide from. The consequences of four more years of Trump climate policy alone will find you anywhere on this planet. You cannot run away from the fallout of a second Trump term just by moving to a different continent. Only choice is to stay and help the fight against it.

There's a lot to worry about from a second Trump presidency, but Russia running amok in Europe isn't one of them. They're having enough trouble running amok on the eastern fringes of Ukraine.

It surprises me that, at this point, people still think others must be confused instead of knowing exactly what and who they're voting for.

"Look man, I lost my house with that really smart, the market is only going up, interest only loan with the balloon payment. Then, the Libs elected a black President. I suffered. The WRONG people are suffering. And Trump will make sure the RIGHT people will suffer. I'm on that side. The leopards won't eat MY face again."

Unfortunately the polling makes it clear that this is a close race

All those assumptions are how he won the first time.

He was president for four years and he didnt do this at all. What are you talking about?

Sucking up to Putin and Kim Jong Il isn't anti-war. It is just picking the other side of the war machine.

Military spending still increased under trump. The only war machines he shut down were our allies' we were helping in local conflicts. That and showing the US is unreliable if someone like him gets office again

All I see is someone making weak excuses to put a fascist back in the White House.

If Trump is the only one who has the balls to put an end to the American World Police, then so be it.

You have got to be shitting me. He had his chance; he was in office for four years. Get the fuck outta here, man.

There are a lot of good responses to you here. @FatCrab raised mercenary use of U.S. forces - I am not familiar with that story but I believe Trump advisor Erik Prince did in fact offer mercenary support to the Wagner group.

Trump at one point mooted invading Venezuela. Members of the GOP (and reportedly Trump himself) are currently floating the idea of bombing Mexico. And let's not forget, Trump has famously threatened to use the military against American citizens.

So unless you want to leave the impression that you are just a right wing troll on a drive by, which would not be healthy for your long-term prospects here, perhaps you'd care to expound on the nuance of your argument?

The same guy who attacked protestors live on TV for a photoshoot, that's the guy who's ending war? Nah bud he's bringing the war here and going to crush us citizens again.

There are some comments on some threads that really call into question the lack of a downvote button.

When a comment is so wrongheaded, so topsy-turvy logically and morally, it is actively harmful to discourse; not being able to deemphasize it leads to a generally worsened conversation.

There it is, the dumbest thing I'll read all day.

Of all the hot takes I've seen today, this is definitely one of them.