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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
I continue to maintain that it's important to consider both xenophobia/nationalism and economic factors in regards to Trump's rise, both in terms of why people voted for him and why large blocks of people simply didn't turn out to vote against him. Democrat turnout in key states was down substantially, and despite the popular vote victory, the odds of abolishing the electoral college in the near future is about as good as implementing single payer healthcare. That is to say very low barring a mass movement on the left that successfully unifies the center and left in a way that hasn't been seen since the new deal era.
That's almost certainly going to happen either way.
The low-income workers who voted for him have no idea how hard they screwed themselves. Though I think the Awful Truth is starting to dawn on at least some of them.
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."I wish it'd dawn on more sooner. I swear my family are so deep in the kool-aid that Trump himself could appear and drag them to a gas chamber and all along the way they'd insist he's doing it for their own good. I mean, close family on chemo that would have been dead today without ACA insisting that its death would be beneficial. Or others refusing to believe that "Obamacare" IS the goddamn ACA. "Oh, he's just getting rid of Obamacare, I'll still have my insurance afterwards but it'll cost less!"
At the very least a ton of Trump people are freaking out about the prospect of losing their healthcare. Why this shocks them is a mystery to me. The GOP has made it clear that this has been their mission for six years. I guess you could argue that they thought the GOP would do the whole Repeal and Replace thing but that's only marginally better.
Where did this idea that the ACA and Obamacare aren't the same thing come from? I know people called it Obamacare to discredit him but it's not like the ACA just mysteriously appeared overnight. Even if they were separate it must have been something that Obama passed.
edited 15th Jan '17 8:01:21 AM by Kostya
So in other worrying news, 3 senior officials claim that there's been talk of giving the media the boot from the White House itself and instead hold press conferences in another building
. According to Shaun Spicer, Trump's Press Secretary, it's because of how much interest there is in covering Trump - but seeing as they made room for Trump's own staffers in the audience during the last press conference (so they could applaud at the right moments)...
When the Orange One triumphantly tweeted the other day that "the Unaffordable Care Act will soon be a thing of the past!" I could only imagine his nineteen million ignorant followers seeing that and going "...wait, what?"
This kind of ignorance is pretty widespread, though. Check out this video.
It's frightening the number of people who seem to have no idea that Obamacare and the ACA are the same exact thing.
Oh, and people who buy the GOP's promise to "repeal and replace!" are suckers of historic proportions.
Yet another classic authoritarian move. I wouldn't be surprised if Bannon has a hand in this - this is exactly his MO.
edited 15th Jan '17 8:05:10 AM by RBluefish
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."@Kostya,The nutters have somehow cultivated the idea that "Obamacare" is simply the penalty for not having insurance and that the ACA is a separate entity. Any attempt of mine to explain otherwise is a liberal lie apparently.
To use a nameless relative for example, they believe that the ACA (and the preexisting condition clause) was the work of republicans in congress to make something good of Obama's imposed penalties.
edited 15th Jan '17 8:08:06 AM by carbon-mantis
No offense to those who have to put up with them - you have my sympathies - but I am so glad I don't have any Trumplings in my immediate family. Not even my midwestern white grandparents can stand the guy.
I mean, I'm sure my extended family is packed with them. But thankfully I'm not close with my extended family.
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."Regrettably, my dad has drunk a bit of the Flavor Aid. He now thinks that Trump might not be so bad. I suspect it's actually a defense mechanism, since prior to the election he agreed that Trump was an idiot.
Fortunately, he didn't actually vote for Trump. And we're registered in California anyway.
He also thought that one article about the person who revealed on Facebook that they didn't know the ACA and Obamacare were the same thing pretty funny.
edited 15th Jan '17 8:22:50 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
Like I said, it's probably a defense mechanism. That, and my dad doesn't follow the news in the USA that much (we live and work overseas).
I, on the other hand, do keep up with the USA's shenanigans, so I'm appropriately horrified and disgusted.
BTW, national single-payer healthcare is awesome.
edited 15th Jan '17 8:25:29 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedI really don't want to be overly optimistic but I think something big is coming. This Russia stuff isn't going away. Obama also gave the NSA more authority to share information with the other agencies. If they can provide concrete evidence that Trump is being blackmailed I think the Republicans would be forced to dump him and his administration to save face.
edit: I also saw that Russia is facing significantly more cyber attacks now. How much you wanna bet it's half the world trying to find those tapes?
edited 15th Jan '17 8:26:42 AM by Kostya
They actually did get pissed off at him after he tweeted Happy Hanukkah last year. A rare case where both his supporters and his critics were pissed over the same thing, although for polar opposite reasons. They were mad because they hate Jews. We were mad because of the blatant hypocrisy inherent to hiring a vicious anti-Semite like Bannon, then telling everyone to have a happy Hanukkah.
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
