As Lord Varys once observed: "Power resides where men [and women] believe it resides. No more and no less.”
Government works (to the extent that it does work) because the governed—or at least a large enough proportion of the governed—believe in its legitimacy. That collective belief is why ours has endured for almost two and a half centuries, but we tend to fool ourselves into thinking that our institutions are more invulnerable than they really are. If we reach a point where a critical mass of Americans has more faith in Donald Trump than they have in the laws and processes of our democratic republic then the entire system collapses.
So first, I don’t know that they voted for him the second time. To maintain civility, the question has never been asked directly, but its highly likely the case. There is a 0% chance of their ever having voted for a democrat, and its very unlikely they didn’t vote at all.
Second, amongst trump voters I know the common threads are priveleged white people who aren’t at all politically engaged and live in all white, all republican communities. They don’t read the news, they don’t follow politics, they don’t know or care about the details of legislation. They are however people that are kind, honest, and respectful to everyone they meet regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status.
Its a combination of privelege, willful ignorance, self-delusion, and having never stepped outside of a community deeply steeped in white supremacy and its related propaganda. Whenever presented with details of anything that trump’s administration did, they admit that its bad and say they disagree with it, but basically respond that they don’t know about any of that stuff as though ignorance excuses voting for him. Not voting republican just isn’t ever considered an option even if they strongly dislike the candidate.
It’s such a shame and a sign of how far gone we are that this is the case. Yes, we have secret ballots, but the fact that one can’t ask friends and family members who they support and still expect a degree of civility is quite damning.
Veering slightly OT, when I was traveling around Mexico in the mid 90s, I was so impressed with the local level of political discourse. I heard more informed and nuanced conversations about policy sitting around kitchen tables where they didn’t have indoor plumbing than I do in most middle class US homes nowadays. And they weren’t all on the same side, they were arguing and bringing up valid points about how different policies would impact them and their communities. But they talked about it, and stayed civil.
We’re kind of fucked if we can’t figure out how to talk with our families and neighbors.
Holy moly, you’ve succeeded in summing up most of my last ~15 months here in CenTex.
Did you also have neighbors get lathered up that antifa was coming for them in particular? We had neighbors who beefed up all their exterior lighting and who replaced their rather large U.S. flag with a rather large Texas state flag on their flagpole.
i have been fortunate in that the neighborhood in which i live is one of only two or three truly multiethnic neighborhoods in my town of around 28,000. there are lot of biden voters in my neighborhood which kept the trumpist neighbors from getting out of hand. around my town though are still plenty of yard signs, some of them billboard sized, which some have updated to “trump 2024”. there are a lot of maga flags around town too.
because we are known democratic party supporters we have updated to yard cameras with motion detectors set to a range of 10’ that give text message alerts to my wife’s phone and younger son’s phone after dark. i haven’t got any direct threats but i’m too well known around here as an active democratic party to want to take chances.
“They’re basically the same except the Republicans are honest about their corruption and the Democrats aren’t” is an incredibly bad take. Get right out of here with that nonsense.
It’s pretty simple:
If they voted for a Fascist, then they are Fascists.
Their vote is their endorsement of that cadidate; they don’t get to say “Well, I only voted for that person because of ‘whatever’; I don’t like that ‘otherstuff’ they do.”
Sorry.
Yeah, the Coup of '00 was a masterful operation by the Democrats, all right, what with the Governor of Florida ordering his AG to purge the voter rolls & all… and the left-leaning SCOTUS halting the vote counting.
/s
Does the term ‘Party of NO’ ring a bell?
Remember the votes on Impeaching You Know Who?
And remind us again which side is full of those who refuse to acknowledge the election results.
Um, Communism (along with Capitalism, Socialism, etc) is an economic construct. What you are referring to would be Authoritarianism or Totalitarianism.
And You Know Who never admits he is wrong.
It’s a bit late for that. Ever hear:
“America. Love it or leave it” or “You are either with us, or you are against us”
plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
Unless, of course, the courts are packed full of Fellow Travelers.
Sure, some of them will do their jobs, regardless, but overall it would tend to tilt things a bit.
That’s an excellent idea.
The gates on their communities work both ways, after all, & steel doors can be welded shut.
Or were you speaking metaphorically, & referring to Shunning?
You know that’s a good point. There is a lack of honest discussions around actual policies, and how they will actually affect us (individually, and community-wise).
On one side, you have a small segment of the population that get their political information from people like Rachel Madow and Chris Hayes. They typically tend to talk more about high-level topics, like how various politicians are being hypocritical, or are sort-of-really taking bribes or just seeking power, rather than policies will actually affect people on a local level. On the other side, you have a very large group of people who get all their political discourse from Fucker Carlson, who talks a very great deal about how policies will directly affect individual people. Although, almost nothing he said has any similarity to the truth. He lies and invents false claims about what policies are actually being put forward, as well as lying and making up what the supposed effects of those [not real] policies will be. (no, Biden is not proposing a law to confiscate every white persons home and give it to an illegal immigrant, who is a gang member who came to the US to rape white women and murder white men) And in the middle, you have a great swath of people who don’t really pay attention and just vote however they think their neighbors will vote.
Actual discussion around the actual (not made up) policies that are being put forward in Congress, and the likely effects on the local community is lacking. It’s all been drowned out by bullshit made up by the Q-anon folks at this point.
I hear that, and I completely agree in most cases. I have cut off contact with a bunch of people over this. But…for some people, they truly are just uninformed and I find talking with them helps. I use my neighbor’s 25-yo son as an example. He is being indoctrinated and doesn’t realize how his vote effects others. I talk with him about that stuff and he slowly opens his mind. One conversation about abortion (he brought it up) after a game of badminton had him totally questioning his views. I don’t mean to say everyone should feel responsible for having these conversations, but I do think they’re helpful in certain circumstances, and where they won’t harm my mental well-being.
Agreed. I hate to pile on blaming the media for stuff, but I do. Even our local paper. Sometimes they get stuff right, but at least 60% of the time it’s just a bunch of “he said, she said,” reporting with no actual reporting on whether what either of them said is valid or accurate. Like the highschool mean girls version of reporting. I hate it.
