Donald Trump ends the third week of the Iran war confronting a crisis that seems to be slipping out of his hands: Global energy prices are surging, the United States stands isolated from allies and more troops are preparing to deploy despite his promise the war would be only a “short excursion.”
A defensive Trump called other NATO countries “cowards” for refusing to help secure the Strait of Hormuz and insisted the campaign was unfolding according to plan. But his declaration on Friday that the battle “was Militarily WON” clashed with the reality of a defiant Iran that is choking off Gulf oil and gas supplies while launching missile strikes across the region.
Trump, who took office promising to keep the U.S. out of “stupid” military interventions, now appears to control neither the outcome nor the messaging of a conflict he helped to initiate. The lack of a clear exit strategy carries risks both for his presidential legacy and his party’s political prospects as Republicans scramble to defend narrow majorities in Congress in the November midterm elections.
Yup between the two she was definitely not the one to go for. I mean who could live 4 years with such an unpopular person. Much better this way! And that laugh omg! Shrugs
And nerds with plans lose student council elections to popular kids with charisma. Politics is a popularity contest. Always has been. Always will be. The objective superiority of your policy proposals matters jack shit. People aren’t emotionless robots. They don’t vote based on comprehensive utilitarian assessments. They vote with their hearts. Trump reached people’s hearts. Kamala didn’t. That’s why she lost. Learn to choose candidates with a soul or you will lose next time as well.
Kamala would have objectively the better choice. But voters aren’t rational. They’re emotional. Because human beings aren’t rational. We’re emotional. You can bitch and whine about that, but you won’t change human nature.
There are enough people today in the US that are so badly off that they’ll vote for a person whose only real appeal is that they promise to seriously shake things up. That’s why Trump won. Sure, some conservatives wanted him to advance conservative policy. But what really put Trump over the top was voters who just wanted some serious change. Think people stuck in wage slavery with no clear path to better their lives. Better to roll the dice on a complete toppling of the system than Kamala’s offering of more of the same.
People are yearning for change. That is what they feel in their hearts. You can have objectively better policies, but people will vote for the candidate offering dramatic change.
Kamala was a shit candidate because she couldn’t reach people’s hearts. As a presidential candidate, your policy proposals are largely irrelevant, as you’re extremely unlikely to be able to implement them anyway. Voting for Trump was an act of rebellion, a middle finger to the status quo that has left so many millions behind. Yes, Trump won’t actually help anything, but that doesn’t matter here. Politics is emotion, not reason. You can moan about it, but that won’t change the rules of the game.
A sane person would look at this situation and be pissed that, for a second time, the DNC leadership forced someone so unpopular on us that it lead, also for a second time, to Donald Trump being elected president and that’s after another unpopular interim candidate just barely defeated him with margins so narrow that it took months of recounts before it was decided.
A sane person might notice the common denominator here and choose to go after the root of the issue, while others inexplicably choose to attack powerless voters for the entirely predictable situation we find ourselves in and are doomed to repeat their mistakes until the end of time having learned absolutely nothing from their countless failures.
Yes, cover for the democratic establishment to run another doomed to fail candidate. Hell of a job you are doing here. I won’t further cover your argument as it doesn’t dignify a response to those of us in reality.
So what you’re saying is that the country collectively decided Trump was more promising than Harris?
And you’ve found it’s someone else’s fault, so now you don’t have to do anything but sit in the mess?
Good for you.
Now, pardon us as we try to do something about it.
Yes. That is exactly what happened. For millions of Americans, Trump’s election was objectively the more promising option. You need to understand this, truly get it in your heart, if you want any chance of actually combating it.
There are tens of millions of Americans are trapped for life in subsistence wage slavery. Did Trump care about them? No. But what he did offer was a reshuffling of the deck. He offered to turn over the apple cart, to flip the board game over. That’s at least what he promised.
The thing about completely blowing up the old order is that everything reshuffles. Some old winners become losers, and some old losers become winners. If you blow up the existing federal government, expel millions of immigrants, and reshuffle the whole economy, everyone’s fortunes have the potential to change.
What did Kamala really offer those tens of millions trapped in wage slavery? Absolutely nothing. A vote for Kamala was a vote for more wage slavery. Did Trump actually offer anything material to directly help people in these dire straits? No. But he did offer a reshuffling of the deck. And for millions, a slim chance through chaos is better than no chance through order. Their vote was simply a spin on the roulette wheel.
And don’t forget, that for millions of white working class Americans, Trump’s immigration policies are a form of class solidarity. They’re an evil form of class solidarity, but they are a form of solidarity. Expelling millions of immigrants from the country will drastically lower the supply of working class labor. For the native-born working class, this inevitably raises wages and standards of living. If you’re a native born white working class person working in an industry with a high share of immigrant labor, expelling all the immigrants means your skills are now in extremely high demand. And ICE isn’t hassling people like you unless you show up to a protest.
Some people voted for Trump because they’re so desperate that any chance of change is appealing. Some did so out of a cynical desire to advance the economic prospects of the native-born population. But don’t for a second pretend that all the people voting for Trump did so because they’re just irrational, crazy, or stupid. For millions of people, voting for Trump was or seemed like a quite rational thing to do. If you can’t understand why people voted for Trump, you have no hope of actually combating Trumpism.
Well put.
I guess this is also why sympathies from wronged friends and allies are running dry.
Unfortunately, I’m of the sort who doesn’t believe that flipping the table will be to the gain to anyone but those with the preparation and resources to grab what they may (which is what they’re doing)
The divide is too deep, and those people too greedy to do anything but provide for their own. The downtrodden won’t come out better from this, either we stop them, or we wait for the next revolution where people will be even more desperate.
The latter leads to more suffering, more death and more blood, if history is any guide.
What they’re saying is that the DNC keeps picking such terrible candidates that somehow come off as even less appealing than a child molester with dozens of felony convictions.
No. People are just retarded.
We knew harris could not win, and we fielded her anyway. I knew that, and I’m the asshole here? Seriously, fuck all the way off, you are the problem, and you deserve everything.
Your username does check out though!