There's just so much going on. Israel / Iran, Russia / Ukraine, plane crashes, and idiot politicians. Some might be surprised to find out that I'm no fan of Trump ... but then again I didn't like him in the 80's and 90's either and I don't think he's mellowed with age, I think he's gotten worse. Back then I thought him the stereotypical used car sleezeba... er ... I mean salesman. Now I still think that's what he is, but now with a healthy dose of spoiled brat added in. He wasn't the popular choice before his first term he squeaked in because the Republicans had like 14 different runners in the primaries and none of them were strong front runners. The thing was that since the field was so wide he won some of the early primaries by narrow margins with under 20% of the votes, and there is a good chance that his name recognition got him more votes than his platform.
Okay, let's be real here, in the early states he didn't HAVE a coherent platform in that first run, he was an outsider with a famous name. The first did appeal to the voters that were sick of career politicians, and the later appealed to people that had no real reason to vote beyond 'It's my duty' and zeroed in on a familiar name. Regardless of that he won a few early states and one thing has been shown again and again in studies ... people will tend to back the person that they believe will be the winner. Keeping in mind that going into that race Trump had jumped parties (he'd been a registered Democrat his whole life in NY), was known to be friends of the Clintons, had several very public fraud suits against him, as well several very public bankruptcies ... If the Republicans had anyone that was remotely qualified he should have been an easy one to get rid of, but instead he squeaked by in a couple early states and took a small lead, that momentum allowed him to pick up more backing, more donations, he could point to those early victories and, again, some people who might have otherwise backed a different candidate were like 'my guy isn't looking too likely, let's back this guy he looks like he could take it' ... not because they agreed with or even liked him, just because they felt better backing someone that they thought might win.
I should mention that I despise two of the three types of voters I just described. The 'I'm only here because it's my duty but I don't really have an opinion beyond that' and the 'I'm going to vote for 'x' because he looks like he'll win, not because I agree with him or think he'll be a GOOD choice, but just because he looks like a winner' ... if we could find a way to get those votes (from both parties) out of the system ... well I'd like to think the world might be a better place.
I look at people that voted for Trump (by their own admission, I'm not guessing here) appalled at the effects the tariffs had and I looked at them and I'm like, this was expected, it wasn't a surprise ... I mean I'm no economist but I saw this coming. Or the ones that are like 'I wanted the tariffs to bring back jobs, but this immigration stuff, I didn't want this' ... well you voted for it ... you get the whole package, not just the parts you want. Again, it was part of his campaign, anyone that listened to him, that followed him in the least knew this was part of what voting for him was.
I look at people that I know complained and hated Obama for trying to 'Rule through executive order' that praised Trump with every one he signed, even the ones that were technically meaningless. An executive order only applies to agencies under the direct control of the Executive branch ... it doesn't create law, it can't suspend or repeal laws, those are powers of the legislative and/or judicial branches of our government ... and the number of people that don't understand that separation of power is depressingly high, particularly when one of them seems to actually BE the President.
The world is on fire and the President isn't helping any of it and is, instead, throwing gasoline on the fires in his own country. I am all for the rule of law, but for it to work the President has to operate within it, and from the beginning he as acted as though he is above the law, he says that he can't stand by while law enforcement officers are attacked while doing their job ... but he just pardoned Jan 6th rioters that ... oddly enough ... attacked law enforcement officers that were doing their job. He is a power motivated hypocrite at best, and a dangerously delusional narcissist at worst. Most Presidents that I look back on I can say they made some pretty bad mistakes looking back at it (I'm looking at you Reagan) even Carter, Bush, Clinton, "W" Bush, Obama ... but I can say with all of them that I believe they believed they were making the best choice ... doing the right thing ... But I'm not sure with Trump ... I can't say that I honestly feel like even HE thinks this is the best for the country ... He really does strike me like someone playing The Sims and removing all the doorways so that his little Sim family is trapped in the burning kitchen just to see them suffer.
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