This decay has already started, and Trump has done substantial damage. He has deepened an already substantial polarisation within society, and turned the US from a high-trust to a low-trust society; he has demonised the government and weakened belief that it represents the collective interests of Americans; he has coarsened political rhetoric and given permission for overt expressions of bigotry and misogyny; and he has convinced a majority of Republicans that his predecessor was an illegitimate president who stole the 2020 election.
The breadth of the Republican victory, extending from the presidency to the Senate and probably to the House of Representatives as well, will be interpreted as a strong political mandate confirming these ideas and allowing Trump to act as he pleases. We can only hope that some of the remaining institutional guardrails will remain in place as he takes office. But it may be that things will have to get a lot worse before they get better.
https://www.ft.com/content/f4dbc0df-ab0d-431e-9886-44acd4236922
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Trump turned the US from a high-trust to a low-trust society???
I sorta think that the Democrats treating antisocial violent people and thieves like pets to be coddled might have had a bit more to do with that...
That plus years of the government and media lying to people. The Iraq War. The revelation of NSA domestic surveillance. Etc.
It is hard for me to fathom how any serious political observer could genuinely believe that the low trust has mainly been caused by Trump.
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You don't think that Trump constantly claiming that every election is rigged (even the ones he wins) might reduce the trust that we should have for certain institutions?
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NGMI
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He has contributed to it, but I think that he neither started it nor is the main contributor to it.
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Did you forget all the bullshit from the libs after Trump won the election 2016? Democrats spent 6 years telling everyone the result was illegitimate. They spent hundreds of millions trying (and eventually failing) to make a case for that conspiracy theory.
Trump said the 2020 election was rigged because it probably was, and people agreed with him because they already had no trust in the institutions.
Trump winning is a symptom of that lost trust. Not its cause.
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Yeah, and I'm old enough to remember 2000. Bush arguably stole it with the Supreme Court on his side. I'd like to think with hindsight that I realized chimping out over a difference of a few hundred votes wouldn't help. But I was young and had that feeling that everything is very very important. Jesus Fricking Christ the things I did over girls back then who I can't even remember now.
Anyway, lots of us Dems were livid at the election being actually stolen. But nobody was suggesting marching on the capital and shooting people over it. In the years after the election it was something we were butthurt about, but there weren't a bunch of schizo conspiracy theories made up. (Well Naomi Klein probably was but she was a joke even back then.) Everyone just said that one Supreme Court ruling (which I can't remember now) was wrong. There were no fantasies about rigged voting machines, ballot stuffing, dead people voting, etc. It was nowhere near the same as league as MAGA tards after 2020.
In 2016 even that didn't happen. People were mad. Some may have suggested that the vote was rigged, but they were on the fringe. You get all your knowledge of this from the Daily Wire, Breitbart, and *Fascist Catboy Weekly". I get mine from being immersed in leftoid culture back then. (in fact 2016 is when I finally completely renounced any affiliation with Democrats, cut these people out of my life, and became a dramanaut.) Election rigging was not something that was really talked about. I mean to the extent that I don't remember anyone talking about it ever. I was in with the most vile GenX upper middle/upper class crowd so I could see say what they were saying to each other internally. these are the same people who:
Well I got some stories but I want to develop this as a major drama project at some point, so I'll just say these are the people who were convinced that the New York Times (especially Maggie Haberman) was actively trying to get Trump elected. Maybe some said voter ID laws or something is why they lost, but I don't recall them ever challenging the actual votes that came in. I recall literally nothing about the election being stolen and I was cataloguing r-slurred behavior to use on rDrama.
Anyway, this didn't happen in 2016. The chuds who told you this are liars. I mean unironically, I have an 8 year history, actually going back to the 2016 election of trashing leftoid wingcucks and the Democratic party. I'm offering you insight into how they operated, like Whittaker Chambers with the commies. Who do you trust more? Me or the catboy/gay libertarian/Qanon tard/male feminist and pimp of adults/Laura Loomer scene?
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I've known more coherent downies.
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No they didn't you r-slur. Certainly not to the extent Trump did. Hilary conceded the night of.
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