He was a good candidate, just wasn't quite aware how deep the corruption was. He made a ton of wrong choices, but I doubt anyone here including myself could have done better. His advisors misled him, his lawyers betrayed him and the judges he appointed finished the job.
For real. Biden's already too old to be in office and they want Trump to run when he's on death's door? Delusional.
Man, you're not wrong, but here's the thing: I've been through 4 presidents in my adult life now. Clinton, Bush 2, Obama, and Trump.
The first 3 all looked like they'd aged 20 years or more when they got out of office.
Trump? Somehow that motherfucker seems to be in better shape now than when he was voted in. He did what, 5 rallies with multi-hour improvised speeches at each one in 2 days? That's just nuts.
People like to rag on his supposed obesity and poor health, but I see no evidence of it negatively affecting him in any way. Dude is a machine.
I imagine the difference is he's used to the all hours, constant working, managing and delegating dozens of people and projects from his experience as an international businessman. Whereas the others where used to the relatively more laid back pace of a career politician.
He's a shrewd businessman, and you can see that fingerprint on a lot of the things he did get done. I think a lot of that shows the most when you look at some of the foreign policy things. Just the act of talking to Kim Jong Un deescalated a situation that was expected to blow up. Previous administrations wouldn't do that. Realizing war in the middle east is stupid and expensive and instead working with the involved parties to get them to realize it's in their best interests to calm the fuck down. It's not some crazy 4D chess, it's just conducting business and he's clearly been successful at conducting business for many years. The left could have got a lot more from him than a typical Republican if they had gone for business deals instead of social warfare.
Publicly, yeah he was a bit obnoxious. Part of that is his personality and it was amplified more in that it was his persona that got him the attention he needed to get in office. Irrespective of the delivery, the underlying message of America first, patriotism, improving our country through deregulation and capitalism, etc. are things that loads of people actually want. I liked Trump because I like those things and I don't want to be a socialist globalist subject. I really couldn't have cared less that he looks like a turd to the world or whatever, because their leaders suck too, each in their own ways. He did still work towards the underlying goals while running his mouth on Twitter, and that's the best I was going to get.
The whole 2024 thing, it's time to move on from Trump for that. Even if he was able to figure out some way to beat the new system and get elected, it's just more of 2016-2020 and we're right back to where we are now. I think I've seen here before we the populists are still waiting for our Caesar. It's not Trump.
He made a big mistake not going after Big Tech right after 2016. He should have declared war and done everything he could in order to break Google, Amazon, Facebook... Instead he just watched and has done nothing. Big mistake.
Here's what's going to happen over the next decade.
The Republican party is going to get overhauled. For the first time since Reagan (arguably since Hoover) the party base has a clear, coherent vision of what it wants. Senators and Reps are going to be judged in the primaries based on how they responded.
The same thing that the neocons did in 1994, the nat-pops are going to do in 2022. Republicans that showed their Trumpism to be only skin deep are going to get the boot and their replacements will look much more like the party we want.
There was always going to be a war with the tradcons and the neocons over control of the party. But I am convinced that they will lose the coming primary fight.
The problem is not the federal level. You're correct that level is broken, but it's always been broken.
The problem is the party, and at that level, you're wrong.
We have the ability to make a MAGA republican party, and it will happen. And once it does a lot of options will be available that were not achievable with a neocon GOP.
I want to emphasize: I don't want war. But I do want to see the dissolution of the Union, and the only way that is going to happen is with a GOP that is willing to stick to a principle.
I believe, I am convinced, that with the right GOP we can split this country without it resulting in bloodshed, because the Dems will not fight to keep it together.
I am okay with that course of action as well. A couple election cycles of scorched earth vote splitting is a decent long term strategy, certainly it will put fear in the tradcons to STFU about abortion and gay marriage (cuz they lost that war decades ago) and get on the national populism train.
I suspect that if we were to go your political views item by item, we'd find that you probably lean toward libertarianism, which would show your tradcon views to be hypocritical.
He was a good candidate, just wasn't quite aware how deep the corruption was. He made a ton of wrong choices, but I doubt anyone here including myself could have done better. His advisors misled him, his lawyers betrayed him and the judges he appointed finished the job.
For real. Biden's already too old to be in office and they want Trump to run when he's on death's door? Delusional.
That said, he was probably the only President in my lifetime who actually gave a shit about America and the American people. That counts for a lot.
Man, you're not wrong, but here's the thing: I've been through 4 presidents in my adult life now. Clinton, Bush 2, Obama, and Trump.
The first 3 all looked like they'd aged 20 years or more when they got out of office.
Trump? Somehow that motherfucker seems to be in better shape now than when he was voted in. He did what, 5 rallies with multi-hour improvised speeches at each one in 2 days? That's just nuts.
People like to rag on his supposed obesity and poor health, but I see no evidence of it negatively affecting him in any way. Dude is a machine.
I imagine the difference is he's used to the all hours, constant working, managing and delegating dozens of people and projects from his experience as an international businessman. Whereas the others where used to the relatively more laid back pace of a career politician.
He's a shrewd businessman, and you can see that fingerprint on a lot of the things he did get done. I think a lot of that shows the most when you look at some of the foreign policy things. Just the act of talking to Kim Jong Un deescalated a situation that was expected to blow up. Previous administrations wouldn't do that. Realizing war in the middle east is stupid and expensive and instead working with the involved parties to get them to realize it's in their best interests to calm the fuck down. It's not some crazy 4D chess, it's just conducting business and he's clearly been successful at conducting business for many years. The left could have got a lot more from him than a typical Republican if they had gone for business deals instead of social warfare.
Publicly, yeah he was a bit obnoxious. Part of that is his personality and it was amplified more in that it was his persona that got him the attention he needed to get in office. Irrespective of the delivery, the underlying message of America first, patriotism, improving our country through deregulation and capitalism, etc. are things that loads of people actually want. I liked Trump because I like those things and I don't want to be a socialist globalist subject. I really couldn't have cared less that he looks like a turd to the world or whatever, because their leaders suck too, each in their own ways. He did still work towards the underlying goals while running his mouth on Twitter, and that's the best I was going to get.
The whole 2024 thing, it's time to move on from Trump for that. Even if he was able to figure out some way to beat the new system and get elected, it's just more of 2016-2020 and we're right back to where we are now. I think I've seen here before we the populists are still waiting for our Caesar. It's not Trump.
He made a big mistake not going after Big Tech right after 2016. He should have declared war and done everything he could in order to break Google, Amazon, Facebook... Instead he just watched and has done nothing. Big mistake.
John McAfee 2020
Uh, no.
Here's what's going to happen over the next decade.
The Republican party is going to get overhauled. For the first time since Reagan (arguably since Hoover) the party base has a clear, coherent vision of what it wants. Senators and Reps are going to be judged in the primaries based on how they responded.
The same thing that the neocons did in 1994, the nat-pops are going to do in 2022. Republicans that showed their Trumpism to be only skin deep are going to get the boot and their replacements will look much more like the party we want.
There was always going to be a war with the tradcons and the neocons over control of the party. But I am convinced that they will lose the coming primary fight.
That's an overly narrow view.
The problem is not the federal level. You're correct that level is broken, but it's always been broken.
The problem is the party, and at that level, you're wrong.
We have the ability to make a MAGA republican party, and it will happen. And once it does a lot of options will be available that were not achievable with a neocon GOP.
I want to emphasize: I don't want war. But I do want to see the dissolution of the Union, and the only way that is going to happen is with a GOP that is willing to stick to a principle.
I believe, I am convinced, that with the right GOP we can split this country without it resulting in bloodshed, because the Dems will not fight to keep it together.
there are rumors about a new "patriot" party. That sounds better than sticking with the Republican one.
There are.
I am okay with that course of action as well. A couple election cycles of scorched earth vote splitting is a decent long term strategy, certainly it will put fear in the tradcons to STFU about abortion and gay marriage (cuz they lost that war decades ago) and get on the national populism train.
I'll never shut up about abortion and gay marriage, though.
Well, you're a tradcon.
I'm a libertarian.
I suspect that if we were to go your political views item by item, we'd find that you probably lean toward libertarianism, which would show your tradcon views to be hypocritical.
I'm Catholic, not libertarian. People should be free to do what they ought, not what they want.
I'm sure the RNC can turn itself into a more populist party if it wishes to.
I'm not sure I see how that matters when the DNC is looking to cement it's electoral fraud machine as the first order of business.
All that's needed is for the state level republican parties to become populist.
Once that's achieved, electoral politics ceases to matter because the Union will end.
Want to know how I can tell your opinion isn't worth much?
Nobody ever listens to quakers, it's just something we're used to.