It is a measure of just how surreal life in America has become that we are ACTUALLY discussing

[Atticus]

the distinct possibility that Trump may be reelected.

Seriously?

Are so many who walk among us THAT immoral? THAT mindless? THAT masochistic?

[Stinky The Clown]

1. Yes. There are many.

[bluesbassman]

2. Never underestimate the power of confirmation bias.

He says out loud what they believe in their shriveled hearts and emboldens them to do the same. That’s a powerful drug.

[BlueTsunami2018]

3. In the other reality, he's a great President who was cheated out of his spot.

You know there are two separate realities in this country thanks to decades of hate radio and Fox.

The people who live on the other side do not see it the way we do.

[OLDMDDEM]

5. He is insignificant and would lose the election.

My opinion only. People are sick and tired of his charades and are moving on.

[Oneironaut]

13. I disagree. There is actually a huge, underlying Fascist movement building in the background.

It’s online at the moment, but, I see the same stuff going on that contributed to Trump’s initial success.

The fact that Republicans are openly passing (or trying to pass) openly Fascistic laws shows how much trouble we’re in. Online Conservatism now is funded by billionaires and is full of genocidal, nationalistic rhetoric.

It’s happening right under our noses again.

To put this in perspective, the Conservatives I talked about before (eg Tim Pool, Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, Matt Walsh, etc) have millions of viewers daily. They have far surpassed content made by Liberals in terms of viewer count and revenue. They’ve fully monopolized social media (Twitter spews right wing propaganda now to everyone because of algorithm changes).

[Lonestarblue]

20. I'm not worried about Trump as much as I am DeSantis.

Trump was too self involved and greedy to really accomplish anything that didn’t stroke his ego or make money for him. He didn’t really care about governing.

DeSantis is a different creature. For one thing, he is actually smart. He’s very good at manipulating events and lies to support his own power. Right now, I see him as the US version of Viktor Orban, but I also see him as someone who has the lack of scruples and honesty to become far worse than Orban. For example, his attack on trans kids is really sick. They are a very small part of our population, but he has made them seem like an enormous threat to the country and to other kids, as if they had some kind of contagious disease. These kids already have one of the highest suicide rates, and he is attacking them!

He isn’t a full-scale Hitler—yet—but he is an authoritarian who would be a major threat to democracy and the US as president. Yet Floridians gave him huge votes to keep him as governor. That’s what is frightening—that so many people see his white supremacy, his attacks on minorities, his attempts to rewrite history, and his plans to force state universities to become Republican propaganda institutions and applaud it.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. Yes. White privilege is a real thing and they know it.

Even blonde loud mouths have claimed that no one can touch them, and then it happens.

[Hotler]

8. Democracy will end with him or DeSantis. nt

[NewHendoLib]

9. The cult remains in place.

[Dave in VA]

10. "Are so many who walk among us THAT immoral? THAT mindless? THAT masochistic?"

You left out racist.

[DENVERPOPS]

18. How about that Brain-washed.

For years people have loosely described this 70+ million group of Trump Cult voters as BRAINWASHED.

Psychiatrists that I talked to, were totally stumped how/why this could have happened.

Then, the psychiatrists finally realized that if a person only watched Fox News, and/or listened to RW Radio 24/7/365/10 years as their only source of information, that, in fact, would brainwash them.........not much different from "re-indoctrination camps" used in Tyrant controlled countries....Russia, China, North Korea, etc

I remember listening to Rush Limbaugh a couple of times. He would start his program by discussing some issue that the Republicans thought would be interesting to their sheep that particular day.........He would introduce the topic, and then say: "Let me tell you how we need to think about this".........I would just sit there and say WOW, over and over again. Then turn off the radio...........

I was appalled that this shit was piped into the Armed Services Network?, around the world, each and every day, with nothing else presented to our Soldiers and Sailors......

[hibbing]

19. This for sure

I've said it before, the appeal to the base always has a foundation in racism. It goes back decades of course. DeSantis is certainly ramping up his racism to appeal to these deplorables.

Peace

[Hortensis]

11. Yes. More aren't, though, and this time MAGAs are our best asset against them.

But we still have to worry about the EC and narrow electoral margins, and WE should be looking to those who are so extreme on the left that ideological goals require defeating Democrats, throwing elections to the Republicans their most consistently successful tactic.

Maybe this time our disastrous learning experience will help us do a better job of keeping them from using DU for that purpose.

[Oneironaut]

12. He has also pledged to shoot drug users, shoot doctors for providing care, kill trans ppl.

The Republican platform in 2024 is mass murder, Fascism, and revenge. The fact that they are remotely considered tells you how screwed our country is.

Oh, also, how could I forget (edit): They want to make acknowledging that slavery existed, or, saying that black people are disadvantaged / racism exists a felony. They want to do a mass-banning of books that are against the ideology. They are Nazi scum and this country has gone insane.

[orangecrush]

14. They will meet the same resistance

That Russia is meeting in Ukraine.

And then some.

[judesedit]

15. The fact that mass media can blatantly lie and keep repeating the lies

convinces people that have no curiosity to take those lies at face value. It has a lot to do with the lack of education in this country. "Teaching to the test" discouraged any critical thinking skills. No more Civics classes to let kids know who controls this country and their lives. It's been in the works for decades and now we're seeing the results.

I hope Murdoch and cronies have their asses handed to them for the damage they've done to this country.

[republianmushroom]

16. Yep

they are.
25 months and counting

[hamsterjill]

17. Yes.

Come on down to Texas. I’ll introduce you to a few.

[Lonestarblue]

22. Yes, they're everywhere here. I once had hopes for Texas, but I think it's now a lost cause.

Republicans here love their guns and hate anyone who is even slightly liberal. Their God put white men in charge and they plan to keep it that way.

[sarcasmo]

21. My hope that natural causes would occur has evaporated. Evil Lives.

[ismnotwasm]

23. Every time I think "ah no that won't happen"

I remember he got elected in the first place. With millions of votes. And I despair.

[NowISeetheLight]

24. Reality

If the RepubQcan field is very large again it could be a repeat of 2016. Trump could win the primary without a clear majority. As for the final enlection then I think President Biden would win. I think enough RepubQcans and Independants realize what havoc another four years of Trump would bring.

My big concern would be with VP Harris. I wish they would give her a more prominent role in the administration. Honestly, I don’t see a lot about her in the news, and the right is exploiting that. They’re portraying her as unqualified. They need to give her some “win” public roles where she can have public success and demonstrate her competence to the masses. I have faith in her abilities personally, but a lot of people don’t know anything about her.

[Caliman73]

25. There are ENOUGH...

About 30% to 35% are likely actively supporters of the kind of politics and policy that Trump and his ilk propose. Many of the others that identify as Conservatives or Republicans, may not actively hold the same horrible ideas, but their identification with the "brands" of Conservative and Republican hold more sway than actual information about policies and their effects on others.

Then, there is a pretty large chunk, about 40% to 55% of people who are eligible to vote, but either can't or simply choose not to vote in any given election.

There are more people in the country who agree with liberal policies, but we also tend to be less enthusiastic and less able to be fully activated and mobilized.

It is a numbers game, as well as a system that has been tilted heavily to states with less population but more motivated voters, and a couple of "swing" states. We saw it pretty clearly in the last elections 2016, Conservatives were able to use lies and sexism to keep Hillary Clinton out of office, even though she got more votes. In 2020, because Trump was so awful, enough people were motivated to give the exact opposite result plus the popular vote by almost 7 million votes.

I would argue that while it may seem "surreal" it is not. We have examples in modern history where situations like what is going on here, have happened in other countries. Conservatives have spent the last 40+ years creating a misinformation ecosystem that has primed their supporters to accept a "reality" different from what the majority of us accept. They (and failures in government) have also created such confusion that MANY people simply do not care enough to participate in choosing their representatives. Plus, the education system has been so gutted, that many of us lack the critical thinking skills to even participate in democratic processes. A democratic system requires an informed and motivated electorate to be successful. Conservatives have engaged for decades, in minimizing those qualities in the populace.

I think what makes it "surreal" is that we all, to some degree, bought into the hype of American Exceptionalism. We think that we are truly special, and there is some minor evidence that our system of government in the 1780's was unique, in a world still dominated by absolute monarchs, but we allowed slavery to continue even after those absolute monarchies abolished it, and we were one of the last "modern" countries to allow women to vote. The pieces of the puzzle as to why we are here, were always present in our history, but it isn't a history that is readily available and it certainly is not taught in school.