Rats Fleeing the Sinking Ship

[hollodero]

(01-08-2021, 10:54 AM)GMDino Wrote: I'm unfamiliar with the politics there but more aware of the "cult of personality" politics (and cults in general) here in the states.  One person can be very influential here.  Reagan, Trump...they pulled to the party based on themselves more than their policies.  Obama too to a certain extent.

Guess in part that's what your way of electing a president creates, it is pretty much designed to become a personality cult of some sorts. I don't quite think that one person is so utterly important for "Trumpism" as people believe though. Could be Hawleyism soon, if the (also quite unprecedented) money and media machinery throws itself behind it. Trump did not create Trump, the media did.

But the underlying reasons are pretty much the same. Create enemies that block you in life and are responsible for everything bad, and then put every information into that prefixed world view. Then even someone so apparently flawed as Trump can be the saviour, if people only want him to be. And with the bubble-creating social media, truth does not even play a big role in that process.

(01-08-2021, 10:54 AM)GMDino Wrote: As others have noted though we (Americans) do have a tendency to swing back and forth by taking one part of the legislature from D to R fairly regularly.

Sure, but that's engrained in the system. Opposition is always easier, and with two parties that means a permanent swinging. Imho an underappreciated reason for Trump is the 8-year presidential tenure of the democrats. It was bound to switch sides again.

(01-08-2021, 10:54 AM)GMDino Wrote: I just feel Trump and his "brand" is in very deep in the psyche of his followers.  More so than any other person or party.

Understood, but imho they can make a switch to someone else fairly easily.