Trump-Biden Debates set

[*Nately120*]

(05-19-2024, 09:55 AM)FormerlyBengalRugby Wrote: Again, I have yet to meet any number of serious people who believe DJT would not leave office, if elected to a second term. I work in a big city, and in a building of around 150 people, maybe half a dozen have those kinds of thoughts. Maybe more have them and do not share them, or maybe less and some are trolling our co-workers.

I live in a rural area of Ohio. I cannot believe we are simply more sensible. I believe what you are saying about some believing DJT won and being batscat crazy in other regards. We see the same crazy on the left, in similar percentages. It has always been that way, and always will be that way.

I get a lot of people will not agree, but I can only control my three foot world To those who insist DJT will end the world, merge with Russia, or whatever other hand wringing nonsense they got

We didn't get to this point overnight. Trump wasn't saying this stuff prior to the 2016 election, and I say that as someone who voted for Gary Johnson and when Trump won didn't particularly care that he did.  Maybe I've just turned into a petrified liberal idiot since then, or maybe I've gradually seen Trump inch his way closer to and closer to enough people being OK with him breaking some bigger and bigger rules for the good of the country.  2020 showed that the GOP isn't moving on from Trump when normal candidates get dropped, and Trump isn't going to scale back his rhetoric.

But as you've pointed out a lot of voters on both sides are batshit crazy, but the underlying thing is that they are both crazy for different reasons about Trump being around for more than his 1 normally precedented term.

Again, maybe you are right and everyone is more sensible than I think they are but I'm not sold on it.  I'd have less concern over this if Trump didn't just so happen to overtake the political party that can win elections and get stuff passed that doesn't need to reflect the will of the populace.  I think Trump can easily convince enough people that letting him walk after 4 years and risking letting another country-killing democrat cheat his way into office would be suicide and rules are great, but they need to be broken for the common good.

Hell, "breaks the rules for the right reasons and our benefit" is pretty much the Trump defense over the past 9 years in a nutshell.  Again, Putin got elected to another "regular term" after being out of office and he stuck around "for the good of the country" so I'm just not convinced we are immune to such things here.  It's American exceptionalism that makes us think only crappy countries full of idiots fall for this stuff, and pride goeth before the fall and all that jazz.

Trump's convinced a lot of people that our elections are rigged to install America-hating democrats, and when you can convince people of that it's pretty easy to convince them that you need to stick around until things are at least fair again.  He's got those people and enough people who "know" he won't become a dictator and are sick of paying more for groceries to get back in, and once you let someone like him BACK in your life...you're likely to be stuck.

I think the USA should take the red flags into account, and I say this as someone who spent at least 2016-2019 or so dismissing as many looney liberal complaints and fears about Trump as you did.  It's not so much the way he has acted post 2020, it's how his supporters and the rank and file of the GOP have fallen in line behind him and accepted or excused his actions and statements.