It's not really a democracy. Public opinion has absolutely no impact on whether something is made law or changed. The overwhelming majority of Americans support legalizing weed and medicare for all but neither goes anywhere.
The US is an oligarchy that pretends to be a democracy to get people fighting culture wars instead of class wars.
if its not from the bribery region of france then its just sparkling corruption
The overwhelming majority of Americans support legalizing weed and medicare for all but neither goes anywhere.
Legalizing weed has made massive strides in the past decade, after some 50 years of drug war.
The only reason the first one is true because it's something the states can actually do. Not sure if any states have been trying to make a healthcare plan but I imagine that's a lot harder to do then just saying weed is legal now. Basically right now stuff only gets done at a state level in America anymore with how divided and unproductive Congress is.
Vermont tried and failed to get one going.
"A majority of Americans continue to say the federal government has a responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage."
Your own source says so
But let's add more:
Recent polls indicate that six in ten Americans support Medicare-for-All. In addition, more than 60 percent believe that government is responsible for ensuring health coverage for all Americans. And nearly 70 percent of all voters, including battleground voters, identify health care as an important issue in upcoming elections.
I think they were responding to the “neither goes anywhere” part, not the support part
Hawaii has actually succeeded on both fronts. Also, almost no guns.
Good on Hawaii! Not sarcastic or bitter, legit, good for them. The rest of the states would do well to follow Hawaii's example.
Unfortunately, I suspect that's not going to be overnight.
Right, it's a Republic with piss poor representation by rich white guys who answer to the billionaire class.
It absolutely is a democracy, just an extremely flawed democracy. If democracy were a scale from direct democracy to North Korea, then the USA would sit somewhere in the top third of countries.
USA! USA! USA! 🦅🍔🇺🇸
Oh here we go...
FUUHCKKK YEAH!!!
[shoots up at the sky repeatedly with tactical bear arms]
Ranked. Choice. Voting.
We needs it.
There's tons of things we could do to improve it. But it will take a huge amount of political will that Americans just don't have.
Yeah. My option is a baindaid but helps clear the murkiness out a bit. Gotta start somewhere as it’ll take a decade or so to get us back to being anything resembling a great nation. Right now we are a fear mongering hegemony war profiteering oligarchy.
And democrats keep killing grass roots implementation of state wide implementation
Literally does nothing in the US system and is the fastest way for the fascist party to complete their takeover.
Anyone advocating for this I'm assuming is either a troll or a paid shill.
Agree to disagree. Even a two party system could see improvement when there is a possibility of failure behind falling in line with 'least bad choice.'
It's not a silver bullet - to be sure. but we're talking about a patient on life support with multiple systems failing. There is no simple fix. We need to deal with each rot and disease locally as aggressively as possible... and be willing to excise anything that is a lost cause. This is triage.
Edit: It would appear I was too soft in my discourse. I find it interesting that your position is essentially saying:
"I'm correct and anyone who disagrees with my views on (irony here) democracy is a fascist or a troll"
The ability of the populous to reject what is offered is necessary to maintain a balanced system. I'm not exactly certain what you are expressing there but I stand by this belief.
Yes OK but the part we don’t understand is how getting shot at is raising sympathy levels. The natural reaction would be even less get the person involved in politics because he attracts or directly causes extremism, chaos, and violence.
You want a steady hand, not a drama queen as your leader, no?
These are people who are making a decision about something very important with less than 72 hours to go. Do not assume they are acting rationally.
You really can't understand how people are "being killed for being right"? Like if someone said the monarchy in Europe is bad and kings shouldn't exist, and then the king does have them killed, that wouldn't raise sympathy for the cause of the guy being killed, that kings shouldn't exist?
This is exactly how resistance spreads. People got killed for their beliefs. Other people saw that and thought "if they're getting killed they are a threat to those in power, and thus likely right". You don't think "oh well this guy got killed for his beliefs, that must mean that his opinions are wrong"
Obviously this is not what's really happening with Trump, but it's going to be spun like that by his propaganda team, and people are going to believe it.
These people never really think about politics and vote because it's good.
Yeah. I'm really jealous of them. I can't imagine how nice it must be not to care about this shit.
Such an unnecessary scene. The scaring and decrepitness of Palpatine didn't need explanation. Just say that using the dark side of the force is corrosive, and slowly kills the body.
The same with Vader. It shouldn't have been due to burns and lightsaber injuries, it should have been due to that same corrosiveness.
It doesn't matter. He was a Sith and a force user, and after the Jedi were purged, he didn't have to hide it anymore. He would, at least from the general public, but he was served by Vader, who was openly a Sith. Well, not openly Sith, Vader likely never used the word Sith, but he would use the force to choke a bitch.
But prequels are often hamfisted in their treatment of character growth over a time skip. As in, they can't have any growth or change at all from the end of the prequel to the start of the first movie, even if there's 20+ years in between the two.
That's the problem with prequels. They have to set things up, but cannot have any change or character growth, because then they'd fail at being a prequel.
So you have pointless, this is how the thing happened scenes, when no one asked for them.
Okay. rarely you'll get a prequel that's good, but those are story driven and often have no effect either way on the later stories except to add a layer of depth.
The Star Wars Prequels, every single one of them, were not that. There was no coherent story in any of them. Just a bunch of "look at the thing" scenes.
No, I disagree. The sith are inherently toxic and self destructive. If they were to only depict the dark side as being a corrosive energy force then it would marginalize the self destructive behavior. Remember the sith were in charge but ultimately destroyed themselves through toxic behavior.
Like trump being convicted of felonies and all his buddies serving time in federal prison
Choking your girl
We don't know yet why the shooter tried to kill Trump.
We do know how the Republicans will spin this.
Trump can't be intimidated.
Trump is a soldier and a warrior and a survivor.
They tried to silence him.
Trump's opponents are desperate and violent.
Guns aren't that dangerous.
And more bullshit like that.
This assassination attempt will energize GOP voters and blunt Democratic attacks. It makes it easier for Trump to promote himself and criticize Biden, while Biden has to defend himself without endorsing a madman, and cannot attack Trump without starting with, "I do not condone violence, but..."
You forgot what they're already saying; God sent his angels to move the bullet.
Don't want to make any Americans feel bad, but that's where your country is at right now. No one's going to think less of you if you'd like to come join us elsewhere.
Yeah, for all the shit people give US immigration laws. They're some of the lowest requirements of any modern country.
Most everywhere you need a college degree in a sought after field.
Not to mention, the vast majority of Americans can't even dream of having enough money to afford the move to begin with. The American dream is reasonable rent and affordable debt repayments now.
That right there is the part that burns my britches every time a European gives us shit - we take in pretty much anyone, but god forbid any of us want to emigrate to your country!
No one’s going to think less of you if you’d like to come join us elsewhere.
Appreciate the offer, but I'd think less of me. Call it silly or sentimental, but I've called this damaged country my home all my life. Not just where I live, my home, my nation, my country and countrymen. I love it still, as broken and dysfunctional as it is, and I have to love it with my heart, not just my mouth. I have to fight for it, in the few ways that I can.
For people who live here, who are citizens but don't think of this as their nation, who don't believe in nations, or who have come to despise this nation? I think no less of them for leaving. I don't blame them in the least. But it's not me.
God protected him?
Know who else claimed that? Hitler. And most who asserted the divine right of kings.
But we all know God didn't step in to prevent the deaths of Jews, mentally disabled (and otherwise institutionalized), political opponents, former political party members who threatened power, LGBTQ+, Rowandans, Armenians, Palestinians, Uyghurs, etc.
That's why I say if there is super natural intervention, it ain't God. It's the devil himself.
Personally, I'm just using this as another point to bring up whenever I start talking to my religious family about how he's the antichrist.
I don't believe in such things, but it's a little funny to me just how many parallels can be drawn from "the biclical things we know about the antichrist" to trump, his businesses, and history.
This is just another log on the bonfire. "survived assassination attempt"
It really takes a lot of wind off their sails, because now they have to try and justify their religious views while also justifying why their religious views are wrong.
Or they just go full cognitive dissonance and hold many simultaneously conflicting beliefs.
Or they just go full cognitive dissonance and hold many simultaneously conflicting beliefs.
It's this one. Always. They cannot be reasoned with in my first hand experience.
So far, it's been this.
But it's fun seeing them get flustered and try to reason with it for a few seconds before they just get angry.
I don't think you're really making any Americans feel bad, we're pretty good at doing that all by ourselves. Also I'm sure plenty of people would like to leave, they just can't for a variety of reasons. Money and very strict immigration rules (of other countries) being the top two but they've already been mentioned. It's also very difficult to leave your family and move somewhere where you know virtually no one for a lot of people, even if they meet the previous requirements.
My favorite so far was my friend calling the shooter a storm trooper. Might as well laugh when you have no control anyways eh? 😆
We do know how the Republicans will spin this.
Indeed we do. In fact, there's already merch.
Please tell me this is fake. Pretty please
I really wish it was 😮💨
If they had to be honest, they'd never win another election.
Let me put things in German terms for you, this is like Alice Weidel and Olaf Scholz running against each other in a close election for Chancellor, where Weidal is the batshit crazy candidate that spews conspiracy theories and Scholz is the sane guy that nobody likes but is better than the alternative. While Weidal is doing a rally for her campaign, some neo nazi, perhaps even further right than she is, attempts to assassinate her for whatever reason. Despite Scholz having nothing to do with the incident, Weidal and the entire Afd crowd start blaming him for it because of the conspiracy theories that she, her party, and her supporters spew and believe. That's how you get our current situation.
Scholz is the sane guy that nobody likes but is better than the alternative
The question you have to ask yourself is how a guy nobody likes keeps becoming the uncontested nominee for majority leader.
Keir Starmer, Olaf Schultz, and Emanuel Macron all have this uncanny ability to be the "pick me or your country has a little fascist accident" candidate.
Meanwhile, actual popular candidates are rendered "unelectable" by hostile media, enormous private ad campaigns, and dirty partisan tricks.
Because the a bunch of billionaires of VW, Uniper and Siemens donated $1 billion to Scholzs campaign and told him he better run.
I'm not too tuned in into European politics outside of specific areas, but my understanding is that people generally gravitate towards the boring moderate types because they tend to be the most safe and pragmatic option. The choice becomes a no brainer when the alternative is indeed fascistic. It's kind of like how we ended up with Biden. During the Democratic primaries, guys like Bernie or Yang had a more populist appeal. However, Biden was seen as the moderate with the wide appeal because he was safe, boring, pragmatic, experienced, etc even though nobody really had him as their initial first choice. When he won the nomination and the general election came down to him and Trump, everybody flocked to Biden because Trump is batshit crazy.
People don't gravitate to boring and "safe", they're pushed there. How come fascists can go as wild as they want but no one can go wild for free healthcare, free education, and free shelter? There is clearly more at play here and it's obvious from the low approval ratings all these shitty politicians receive.
A lot of Democrats are wealthy suburban types. They want to support social freedoms, but they don't want their taxes to go up.
You are quite literally a genocide supporter. You support Russia's invasion of Ukraine. I remember you from that other post about Ukraine where you were all of over the thread simping for Putin, blaming the US for the invasion, and calling the 2014 revolution in Ukraine a US orchestrated coup. You're in no position to call out fascists when you're one yourself.
For anybody who's curious, I highly recommend you read his comments on that read. This guy is nuts. Here is the link:
It's really not. Let's go through some basic stats:
If we include the Republican leaning independents, that number comes out to around 40 million to 50 million people depending on the election cycle. That's 12-15% of all Americans, 15-19% of all adults, 24-31% of registered voters, and around 50% of active voters. Keep in mind, this includes independents, if we only includes partisan identified Republicans, all these percentages would be lower. Keep in mind, this includes the very small minority of reasonable Republicans like Adam Kinzinger or Mitt Romney.
The reality is that the Trump and his brand of fascism is pretty unpopular. People mistakenly think that the country is split 50/50, but that's not true. While most people dislike both Trump and Biden, the amount of people who actively like either is very small. But that's how far right and far left movements gain power, not through popularity but through technicalities, violence, and the zealously of a propaganda fueled base of supporters. This is why it is so important to try and get people who are usually disconnected with politics to tune in and vote against these extremists.
Even though I knew the context, I'm kinda scared that might happen here too (we don't have that much guns here, but people have ways...). Just remember what happened to Shinzo Abe in Japan, where gun laws are very strict and the shooter just went and built a blunderbuss.
Whatever the reasons of that certain shooter, it's plausible that some ultra-right nutjob would want to kill Weidel because of her being "not extreme enough" or her homosexuality (that's a fact, btw.) and accidentially make her a martyr.
Shinzo Abe, however, was retired from politics and is arguably a nationalistic slightly fascist who was widely unpopular former leader.
Germany and France in particular are worrying cases when it comes to Europe because the have a sizable far left and far right that can be unhinged at times. What's worse is that there a good amount of whackos that are even further left than the fringe far left Marxist parties and the fringe neo Nazi parties.
In the case of Germany, it's pretty plausible that some infinitely far right neo Nazi would try assassinate her because she's a lesbian or some infinitely far left Marxist would try the same because she's the leader of the Afd or perhaps some crazy jihadist would try to assassinate her because she's both a woman and a lesbian.
I hope Europe in general tries to keep the lunatics out of power and continue to have pragmatic people rule. I don't want Europe to go through what we're going through with the Republicans right now. The end result would be something like Hungary with Orban, and nobody wants that.
some infinitely far left Marxist
Which German Marxist is enjoying the kind of support matched by the AfD?
At the moment? None, but East Germany used to be a part of the eastern bloc, and there's still an uncomfortable amount of far left whackos that want that era back. They're not as popular as Afd right now because the big issue in the country at the moment is immigration, and Afd's platform is more much more hardline on that which is more appealing to the whackos than what the far left is offering.
You don't understand how surviving assassination attempts energizes your voter base? I feel like there's a lot of history here you could pull from.
If it's a "voter base", wouldn't they already have voted for him?
Not all the voter base show up to every election, and in US politics traditionally the more people who vote the better Democrats do. Now they have to also overcome a more energized Trump base which means less people on the right suffering from election fatigue from our years long election cycles. A nice big boos of martyrdom with a few months left can go a long way.
Homie really forgot about Hitler . . .
Forget about Mussolini too or . . . ?
And of course miss Maggy Thatcher, longest serving in her position too.
Pim Fortuyn ( not an elected leader at that point, but his party won the election in a landslide afterward) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pim_Fortuyn
Olof Palme, tried and succeeded... This has JFK-level conspiracy theories flourishing in Sweden
The attacker was a kid, I wouldn't read too much into political affiliation. It's pretty sad but sounds like your typical loner shooter scenario, but instead of targeting his school he shot the president.
However,many propagandists will try to connect some dots to rile up their base and Garner support, which is what the media is for.
All in all, totally insane and not ok. Even if I detest trump.
Edit - ex prez
Not talking about that, just that i see him being referenced as "president" trump alot more than i was expecting both in comments and in the media. And he is not the current president.
He's basically the president. Dems are broadly conceding and only campaigning to the people who are already going to vote for them ("but... Vote harder!"), and no matter what the actual electoral results the SC etc will give the office to the Orange bastard.
It was staged.
Nice summary. Yes, turnout. It will probably increase for Republicans. But since everybody can guess that, it will just as likely increase Democrats turnout. We should expect many effects to affect both sides, like Democrats voters now also have a higher attention that there is an election coming up. I think the effect on swing voters, if there are any left, is marginal.
Several Americans will see this picture and vote based on it. A defiant candidate, bloodied but not bowed, in front of the American flag, standing high among his personal shields as if taunting the next shot. This picture alone is political fucking gold. All a Republican has to do is show Biden tripping up the stairs to Air Force One, and your image-is-worth-a-thousand-words voter will see one candidate standing after being shot, and one tripping on stairs with no outside influence. Project 2025, "Day One dictator"," I will use my office for revenge". None of these things matter in the face of the picture for a voter who votes based on image.
Britain once got years more Tories because a man looked awkward while eating a bacon sandwich
Propaganda is a powerful thing, and that picture will absolutely add a few percent of voters to his tally. In America, that's all you need.
We (the US) got four more years of George W. Bush because his opponent John Kerry ordered his Philly cheesesteak with provolone instead of Cheez Whiz. I can't say if that's better or worse than the bacon sandwich thing, but they're certainly comparable.
Counterpoint: Obama was reelected despite using Dijon mustard on his burger instead of ketchup.
Personally, I only go for ketchup if I don't have tomatoes, but I never put Dijon on much of anything unless I don't have any other choice. I can see spicy brown, whole grain, or hot mustard, but Dijon and Grey Poupon are just un-American. How he got reelected for his condiment choice I'll never understand.
That said, I'm with John Kerry, provolone is way better than cheese whiz or American cheese, both of which I can't stand.
What really bothers me is how Trump got elected despite people finding out he likes well-done steak. That's just a crime against nature, and no failed assassination should hold a candle to that atrocity.
Wha? Could you explain what you're referring to? That sounds so wild, I have to know more about it
Had to read the article to get what's wrong on the picture. What the fuck
I like how the flag is upside-down. Very poignant.
It's not. When hanged vertically, the union stars must always be on top.
It is not. It is hanged vertically. The US flag code states the stars must always be on top.
When displayed either horizontally or vertically against a wall, the union should be uppermost and to the flag's own right, that is, to the observer's left. When displayed in a window, the flag should be displayed in the same way, with the union or blue field to the left of the observer in the street.
It is displayed vertically, with the union stars on top, to the left of the observers (the crowd).
People really be struggling to understand how it looks in the picture.
I hate feeling conspiratorial but feds had eyes on a roof dude with a rifle, multiple people in the crowd told cops there's a guy with a rifle climbing a building and they did nothing, this fucking asshole GETS SHOT then strikes a pose like he's fucking Madonna. Pretty hard to not feel like it was staged.
Seems like anytime anything violent happens now there's always 10+ cops/feds/officials standing by slackjawed with their dicks in their hands, so which is it, ALL these LEOs are in on it, or are they proving time and time again they're fucking useless?
I get why you feel this way. Mistakes were made. Huge mistakes. I’d say some people are gonna be in big trouble.
That many people can’t keep quiet. Local cops can’t possibly be in on some conspiracy. Just imagine the conversation. “Ok guys. We’re gonna need you to ignore the dude on the roof with a gun.”
It’s just not happening. Someone would talk.
Now if you show me a document that says three local cops in Pa. died under mysterious circumstances a week before, 10 new people were hired immediately and the regulars didn’t meet them, all of them were at the rally, shit like that… I’d go batshit crazy about it being a conspiracy.
The simplest answer is usually the one though.
Some dude either thought he was saving the country or wanted to go down in history like Oswald and Booth. It’s that simple.
It has to be. Really. Think about all the conspiracy theories around those two you’ve laughed at over the years. Don’t fall into that hole.
I do get that, but A- plenty of funky shit actually DOES go down, its just boring and nobody cares when its real (gestures broadly at half the declassified FBI files) and B- We're not dealing with normal run of the mill political dinguses.
Also, in instances involving cops/military/whatever, you don't need EVERYONE clued in. Just one asshole in charge who is compromised in one way or another to say "yeah, we know, stand down" when someone brings up the issue.
I'm not saying I'm all in on it being planned, I'm just saying these things always sound crazy until it turns out to be true lol.
This. People think conspiracies are impossible because they assume "EVERYONE WOULD HAVE TO BE IN ON IT!111"
You have to remember, not everyone is told everything. Some people play their role because they're told all they need to know to get the job done and nothing more. Some people really are "just following orders"
I’ll give you that haha. I try to stay level headed and assume the best before the worst, but yeah. It is a mad world and crazier things have happened.
I look forward to seeing the results of the investigation. I do find it a bit odd that in 2024 the internet isn’t lit up with information on the shooter. Barely anything about him is being said. That strikes me as very odd.
Does no one else think the idea of a false flag where you get your conspirator to shoot you in the ear, the slightest of shakes or a gust of wind away from fucking blowing your brains out, makes absolutely no sense?
The fact that bystanders were killed/injured kind of makes me doubt it was staged, as much as Trump would stage something like that, I am doubtful they did in this case.
Supposedly they literally caught the bullet that struck him on camera:
Which is wild, but not outside the realm of possibility. This photo was being reported on by NPR this morning, they had an interview with the photographer.
Shoot somebody in the crowd and add a separate convenient ear injury becomes a miraculous near miss
It's not staged, trump almost died. It was a total failure of security.
If this was a false flag, the shooter wouldn't have aimed this close to the target. You can't plan to hit someone's ear from that distance.
With the things you named it sounds more like the secret service hoped to have Trump eliminated...
I would say missing someone by an inch or two is not "badly.". Trump's brains almost ended up splattered across the stage for the world to see. Kind of glad it didn't, I cannot imagine the back last from that.
It doesn't seem like an inch or two miss. See the video in the above comment. Someone on the other side of the crowd would very likely have been hit if one flew right by his ear
Did you see how far the person in the crowd was from Trump?
Where can we see this?
100% this is fishy not to mention the people behind him weren't injured.
One spectator was killed, and two others were critically wounded.
That's not what I seen in the video. This is the twin towers all over again.
Yeah, congrats to the americans for their very own Reichtagsbrand. :-/
If I’m an EU leader, I’m looking at my defense spending very seriously and looking at whether I can continue to support my country with any needed global imports because the USA is done. Russia can steamroll Ukraine. China can become global hegemon. The US will continue to project its waning power for a bit longer, but the global order will succumb to authoritarian strongmen.
Without the US playing world police, global trade gets much more difficult. With Europe’s anti-immigrant sentiment ramping up, I’d expect Europe to become more isolationist. You’re going to be losing your trans-atlantic trading partner to an authoritarian regime that will now support other regimes that actively work against the liberal world order upon which the existence of the EU/Schengen zone depend.
I know you probably didn’t mean it that way, but this is not just a problem for Americans.
Counterpoint: Trump likes well-done steak, yet somehow won. I'm not sure how Republicans let that fly.
The only people who are disqualified based on that are people with little to no originality or* personality. People don't care about them, so they don't care to not throw them away over random minor things.
what convenient framing. Complete with an upside down flag, even.
The media is owned by Trump supporters.
No it's literally all of them in the US at least.
There are always people saying that anything that happens means Trump will win the election. This happened in 2020, too. The fact is, they don't know whether or not it will help. They're either trying to demoralize potential Biden voters or they're just doomsayers.
In this case however there's historical precedent. Reagan was almost assassinated and as a result gained a tremendous amount of support and goodwill. Granted a bit of ketchup on the ear is a far cry from an actual injury, but the Toupee was out of the news for almost a whole week, so something drastic had to be done to get the spotlight back on the Republicans.
He was out of the news for a week when the Epstein files were released with his name all over them. The US News is owned by the same oligarchs funding his campaign and hedging their bets on him deregulating their industries.
It's not a great way to do it, in that case. Reminding everyone that there's always a very clear and present danger that he may be elected is fine, but saying, "Oh, Trump's DEFINITELY gonna win now because of [thing that just happened]" is unhelpful.
Consensually, I hope.
Those good drugs deserved it for acting like little sluts
Yeah, I can be as visually impressive as I want but still be hanging around like Tantalus in a world where it seems like every girl just wants money for sex. I don't cross any lines. I just want.
Dancing is gay.
Drug use makes you a far-left psycho Communist who hates America
Touching pretty girls means you have cooties.
How do you feel about robots and space?
I'm willing to undergo all three of those sacrifices.
As a European, my feeling from the outside is that the United States is sliding more and more towards a repressive dictatorship. All the justification of violence, the indifference towards the physical damage of the rival, the accusations crossed, not on one side, generalized. It is possible that in these elections you will avoid catastrophe, but the social climate, the opinions, are not going to disappear. Democracy in the USA is dying without anyone caring
My friend, there are SO many of us who care and share your feelings. Right now it feels like the rug is getting pulled out from under us at every turn.
I know this may sound like victim blaming, but the only issue, the number one issue, that y'all should be demanding is voter reform. There's no hope for you (and by extension, us in the imperial sphere) otherwise. Especially because the powers that be (the rich and corpos) will fight you tooth and nail to keep gerrymandering and first past the post in place.
The voting system in America, I'd say, is the single largest cause for the political system's dysfunction.
(My opinion)
At least one of us (citizens) was rich enough to buy an AR-15.
There isn't much that your average American citizen can actually do. In fact, there is a greater than zero chance that was the driving force behind the shooter's actions. We're mostly just a long for the ride.
How about thousands of people stop voting literal idiots into office like MTG or Boebert? Kentucky are you there? McConnell never helped your avg Kentucky person out - just his buddies at the corporate conglomerates.
I dunno, seems like there’s a very simple and effective solution here, but there’s too many stupid hate filled racists here for this to work.
We get what we deserve…
The problem is that the Republican party and their billionaire backers that benefit from an illusory democratic system have spent at least decades rigging it to be really fucking difficult for liberals to actually win an election in some areas. Propaganda is not the least of their tools.
Trump's the literal Messiah now (In conservative eyes). A lot of moderates are going pull hard towards trump.
You could look at it that way, or...
Revelation 13:3
One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.
No, it means "Sea to lake"
The sentences of the bible are written in a certain context. If you remove it from this context and try really hard to make connections, you can loosen it's definition enough and distort it's meaning enough to fit anything you want
So trump is the beast the whole world is following. Got it. I'm sure to his followers he's the literal Messiah
IMO this Interpretation is straight up incorrect
This is a symptom of "If you want it hard enough, you can find anything where there is nothing"
but the fatal wound had been healed.
Hello!? There was no fatal wound. And it was not healed. The text doesn't fit.
Supposedly god put those words in the mind of a Christian man 2000 years ago. He wrote it down. Several other people copied the text by hand. The original works were lost. When the bible was translated to english it was based on the copied content from other translations in German, latin, and Hebrew. No translation was made from the original language since there's no source available.
Why is god so fuckeng sloppy with the text that literally represents his existence and the only path of salvation of all human souls?? (people who he supposedly love)
Moderates everywhere. But most importantly swing states
Moderates? I'm sure everyone has already made up their minds years ago.
Yeah I'm not sure how any moderate could be swayed to such an extremist candidate. Then you consider that he's a felon? I'm not sure what getting clipped in the ear would do to sway a moderate vote.
Maybe if we hadn't seen what an absolute dead fish he was as a president, only serving to pack the Scotus and put his kids into positions of power. But we've seen it, I just don't get who would be swayed who wasn't already swayed.
There's no such thing as a moderate.
You're mistaken. Just because your group of friends doesn't contain any doesn't mean they don't exist.
Whichever person you're thinking of is not a moderate. They are a fascist who does not want to admit they are a fascist.
If they were not a fascist, they would be doing their damnedest to prevent fascism, like every sane adult.
Only true from the viewpoint that Trump = Fascim. Many people are not seeing that argument.
Yep, this comment cements it.
What do you call a Dem politicians who's against the party platform because it's too progressive?
He got the best PR of his life, and the Democrats have come out supporting him and denouncing the violence. Meanwhile, the Democrats have also been saying that Trump will be a day-1 dictator and implement Project 2025.
The fact that the DNC can (correctly) show that Trump is dangerous, and yet insists that he must be defeated in an election, makes it look like the DNC doesn't actually care either way. This is in combination with Biden's crumbling support due to continued genocide and deteriorating mental capacities, or percieved deterioration.
Meanwhile, in the eyes of Trump supporters, someone just tried to take out their messiah and he came out scarred but undeterred.
The DNC voterbase is only ever becoming increasingly disengaged while the GOP voterbase is only becoming increasingly engaged. This will likely end up, if trends continue, like 2016. Biden will win the popular vote and lose the electoral college.
The DNC absolutely cannot condone assassination attempts, and it's absurd to think otherwise. The second they actually claim that it's a shame the gunman missed, it would be open season on every politician in office. The GOP would see a DNC acceptance of violence as a declaration of war, every last one of them would jump on the conspiracy that the Biden administration must have hired a truly inept gunman to make the hit, and before you can say "The GOP already condones violence" you'd have a dozen more assassination attempts on as many targets.
Republicans WANT a reason to pull the trigger. They WANT excuses to start taking shots at people they don't like. The last godamn thing you want to do is give them a reason to justify it. So no, the DNC denouncing political violence doesn't make them look like they don't care, it makes them look like they're the only ones fit to actually govern a nation.
You're not wrong, but I have a hard time believing that someone capable of this sort of nuanced perspective wouldn't already have seen enough evidence long ago for why a TicTac is better suited for POTUS than Trump.
Try to remember that the DNC is just a different brand of capitalism. So, sure, the posturing is expected and a requirement to keep DNC Party Voters in line. But I don't think the disenfranchised Bernie Bros and independent never trumpers really give a shit which skin suit of propriety the DNC is tucking for at any particular time. They can fuck themselves less than Trump, but not by much.
The DNC absolutely cannot condone assassination attempts, and it's absurd to think otherwise. The second they actually claim that it's a shame the gunman missed, it would be open season on every politician in office.
Yes, the DNC will always push for civility over all else because it legitimizes their control as well. It does call into question the danger they percieve Trump to present, however. If Hitler had been assassinated and the SPD said it was a shame, then they would equally be ridiculed.
The GOP would see a DNC acceptance of violence as a declaration of war, every last one of them would jump on the conspiracy that the Biden administration must have hired a truly inept gunman to make the hit, and before you can say "The GOP already condones violence" you'd have a dozen more assassination attempts on as many targets.
Sure, yes.
Republicans WANT a reason to pull the trigger. They WANT excuses to start taking shots at people they don't like. The last godamn thing you want to do is give them a reason to justify it. So no, the DNC denouncing political violence doesn't make them look like they don't care, it makes them look like they're the only ones fit to actually govern a nation.
They already do. Putting kid gloves on against an adversary that is already using political violence means they don't take politics seriously.
If Hitler had been assassinated and the SPD said it was a shame, then they would equally be ridiculed.
Why should they be ridiculed? It's absolutely consistent to say assassination isn't acceptable in a free society while at the same time saying fascism isn't acceptable in a free society. There's no logical conflict there.
I am personally completely against Trump and have been since he declared interest in running. I have also never once thought he should be killed, and I feel extremely sad that someone thought trying to assassinate him was in some way a good thing to do. In a Democracy, we must rely on educating the populace to eliminate evil, not on lone-gunmen doing what they think is best, because that's how extremist factions operate.
I used to consider myself a Republican and left once I realized they're completely lying about their "small government" nonsense. I have never registered as Democrat, though I did vote for Biden last election because of the outside chance that maybe Trump would lose our small state (very red state, but Trump did extremely poorly in 2016). I really dislike Biden as well, but he ticked two boxes for me:
I strongy dislike the options in 2016, 2020, and now 2024, but I would never agree that either major candidate should be assaulted, much less assassinated... Political violence is not welcome in a free society.
Why should they be ridiculed? It's absolutely consistent to say assassination isn't acceptable in a free society while at the same time saying fascism isn't acceptable in a free society. There's no logical conflict there
Fascism doesn't care about electoralism. Beating fascists electorally does not mean they won't take power, nor does it mean they will go away.
I am personally completely against Trump and have been since he declared interest in running. I have also never once thought he should be killed, and I feel extremely sad that someone thought trying to assassinate him was in some way a good thing to do. In a Democracy, we must rely on educating the populace to eliminate evil, not on lone-gunmen doing what they think is best, because that's how extremist factions operate.
This is vibes-based. Fascism does not appear because of a lack of education. Fascism is a response. Fascism appears in dying Capitalism, it's a violent form of class collaborationism. You cannot beat fascism in a "fair fight." This is an ahistorical, and complacent world view.
I used to consider myself a Republican and left once I realized they're completely lying about their "small government" nonsense. I have never registered as Democrat, though I did vote for Biden last election because of the outside chance that maybe Trump would lose our small state (very red state, but Trump did extremely poorly in 2016). I really dislike Biden as well, but he ticked two boxes for me:
- promised to leave Afghanistan
- not Trump
Good for you. Moving on from the Republican party is one layer of propaganda leaving you. You have many, many layers of propaganda on you, as do I! You and I constently shed them by talking to others, reading political and economic theory, simple conclusions on our own, and so forth. It's a long journey.
I strongy dislike the options in 2016, 2020, and now 2024, but I would never agree that either major candidate should be assaulted, much less assassinated... Political violence is not welcome in a free society.
It doesn't matter what we consider to have a place in a free society. We don't live in a free society, nor do fascists care what constitutes a free society.
I think reading leftist theory would help you shape your world view a lot.
Using political violence to defeat the politically violent is an absolute last resort. It forever changes the norms of the country and significantly weakens the democracy. It proves the violent correct in a sense, that the peaceful system is inadequate and violent retribution is how you should achieve your goals.
The only way to try and save face is if the people who violently overthrow the fascists say in turn "arrest me for what I've done". Because this isn't just about defeating the fascists -- we also need to preserve our peaceful democracy.
Using political violence to defeat the politically violent is an absolute last resort. It forever changes the norms of the country and significantly weakens the democracy. It proves the violent correct in a sense, that the peaceful system is inadequate and violent retribution is how you should achieve your goals.
Political violence is a tool, and a fact of reality. Every day, the state commits violence. 90 Palestinians were murdered in a failed attempt to kill a Hamas leader the same day Trump's attempted assassination happened. Only one event was front page news. We also don't have a strong democracy to begin with, both major parties represent their donors, not the people.
The only way to try and save face is if the people who violently overthrow the fascists say in turn "arrest me for what I've done". Because this isn't just about defeating the fascists -- we also need to preserve our peaceful democracy.
I laughed. The people who violently overthrew fascists should be celebrated, civility politics is brainrot. If you're saying that the French Resistance during WWII should have been arrested after the war, or that you would arrest people if they succeeded in assassinating Hitler, you make yourself an unintentional ally to fascists and easy prey for them.
There is a huge difference between condoning an assassination attempt, and forcefully conveying the message that Trump is just one more a victim of his own violent rhetoric.
In America, getting shot gives one "street cred", which is invaluable when winning over the confidence of young voters.
Lol j/k they didn't survive
It's your basic herd mentality. A lot of Republicans were actually starting to turn away from Trump, but now that someone's attempted to assassinate him in their minds it means he was somehow "right" all along. Keep watching, regardless of who the shooter was or what his motivations may turn out to have been, the hard right will continue to frame it as a "liberal conspiracy" and use this as some kind of warped twisted justification to make Trump into a new dictator for life.
There's no logical reason for it. Trying to find one will just make your head hurt. The only real reason is that someone tried to hurt "their team" and now they will unite to own the libs even if it destroys the whole country
It will also give trump license to have private security decked out in combat gear at his side 24x7. It obviously gives off wannabe dictator vibes, but now it's "justified".
That is assuming he will ever make another public appearance after this... I'd say there's a good chance the rest of his appearances are via heavily scripted professionally edited videos
Aye, rigged by republican-gerrymandered district maps.
I fuckin hate to say it because it goes against my "I don't wanna be that guy on the Internet".. but holy shit the Dems are doing everything they can to lose as well.
I have never in my life seen a group of theoretically smart people snatching loss after loss from the jaws of victory.
It is super hard to not think they're all playing a game with us.
If by some miracle they win it will only be, because people chose idiots over despots.
I still think if they got 80% of the vote they'd find a way to lose.
Note: you all STILL. All of you. Need to get out and vote. It NEEDS to be the biggest turnout on history.
Think of it this way. Don't you wanna get in on what might be the last election in America ?
Moderates made a bet for their team to win. But not cover the spread.
If they do too well. It translates to down ballot wins and they'd have the political power to do what voters want. Which is often the opposite of what their donors want.
And they'd rather let Republicans win than piss off their shared donors.
The only way the people running the DNC lose power. Is if a progressive wins and appoints new people to the DNC.
It all makes perfect sense when you think like a power hungry capitalist who would do fine under a Republican president. The only true threat to them is "the left" because that's what Dem voters want
And the stupid electoral college, and the freeze on House seats. Well, those two kind of go hand-in-hand.
Let's say the game is completely rigged. Is it then meaningless to point it out?
They were scared. Now they're scared shitless. They're going to have to triple their propaganda bullshit and the trolls are going to have to put in more hours.
Something worth noting for the Europeans. Party registration really only exists in the US so people can vote in closed primaries. So if you wanted to pick the democratic candidate that would appear on the general election ballot, you needed to register democratic, and vice versa.
Someone who registers for a party is usually someone who aligns with that party, but not always. Sometimes people register strategically and vote in the opposing party’s primary if the candidate in their own party’s primary is a shoe in.
Only Republicans have closed primaries. You can register independent and vote in the Dem primaries.
Edit: I just learned this varies from state to state.
Outsiders also need to understand that tactical party registrations are relatively common in certain election districts in order to access a particular party primary ballot.
You really can't read a whole lot into party registration information. It frequently doesn't reflect voters' real politics at all.
Which holds a LOT more water, in my opinion. Registering for the opposite party, for primary spoiling, is free. Schwag from online personalities like YouTube "stars" and Twitch streamers tend to be overpriced.
The shirt may have been to blend in at the rally.
https://www.tandfonline.com/...
ABSTRACT
Between 4 November 1925 and 31 October 1926, Tito Zaniboni, Violet Gibson, Gino Lucetti, and Anteo Zamboni all tried and failed to kill Benito Mussolini. The significance of these attempts on Mussolini’s life and their relationship to the establishment of Fascism has gone overlooked as much scholarship focuses almost exclusively on the consequences of socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti’s murder in June 1924. In this article, I analyse the impact that these assassination attempts had on Mussolini’s construction of the Fascist state. The article asks two main questions: What role did these assassins, and the state of emergency that their acts generated, play in the establishment of Fascist control? And how did they contribute to Mussolini’s cult status and his consecration as a ‘man of providence’? I argue that the failed assassination attempts were instrumental in allowing the Fascist regime to create a state of emergency and to capitalize on a fabricated demand for crisis management. These attempts fundamentally structured the conditions for the regime’s consolidation of power, including a vast expansion of laws that dismantled the liberal state and established the Fascist dictatorship.
I've personally withheld judgement until I can see some polls, probably won't change much from the Trump advantage it's been at for months.
Initially we didn't know that the shooter was Republican.
More over though I see a lot of people discussing stats for voters based off of 2020 but I really don't think that's a good year to base it on given that the covid lockdowns were taking place. A lot of people had nothing better to do and actually paid attention to politics. A lot of people were miserable, partly because of Trump's awful handling of covid but also just the fact that we were going to be miserable anyways.
All we really know at the end of the day is that Trump feeds off a lot of occurrences like this and it's worrisome. Many people are more anxious for their futures than ever before right now.
If this is actually true, the only possible explanation has to be that the average potential voter in the United States seems to find that an entire apparatus of government nerds running the government is BO-rinnnggg! Yawn.
It can only be because they demand their reality television drama everywhere, with its' gaudy characters and situations. They want to be mesmerized or they won't lift their lazy asses from the screen, with their car chases, and explosions.
Trump's opposition pretty much is capitulating and suspending their campaign in the name of supporting 'Unity' ...which means not fighting Trump. Or Biden, for that matter.
First Past The Post voting artificially limits the number of viable political parties. This reduces competition in the electoral process. Legacy political parties get to run incredibly weak candidates, and mainstream media can run their bread and circuses about stuff that doesn't impact the 1%s bank accounts.
Lolol just like the bullshit you run with trying to disown the kid from your party.
Ya'll are literally backing a crazy fascist traitor, you need to accept that his followers are also crazy and dumb.
Where can you see his donations?
It was a different person with the same name. The kids own classmates said he was heavily fascist conservative.
That's information that wasn't out there 17 hours ago. Which is why we don't rush to things like this. How many times do we have to do this before people stop trying to play teams in the aftermath of shooters?
thanks for using Leebra!
go to feed...
Europeans need to understand that winning elections in the US really just means convincing 10,000-20,000 people in about 5 states who decide who to vote for a couple days before the election.
If this news plants a small seed of sympathy for Trump in the minds of those undecided voters it will swing the election.
Our democracy is really pretty terribly implemented.
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