• archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
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    3 months ago

    This isn’t incompetence, its a deliberate strategy. One candidate plays the Nice Polite Republican and the other whips the base.

    Maybe I could see that? I mean, if Vance rationalizes Trump enough to actually win then I guess it’s effective. Trump is just such a sweaty big boy, a lot of libs who would otherwise go along with it just can’t get themselves to associate, whereas if Vance was at the top of the ticket I think a lot of libs would be like “fuck me, that doesn’t sound so bad”.

    Idk. If i’m thinking of any other historical example of fascist leaders, they’re basically all deeply serious people. Bibi is a good example actually - Harvard educated, military background, exceptional political maneuvering. When he makes his threats you know he has the political capital to actually back it up. Contrast with Trump: he is just so plainly self-obsessed that his fascist message misses the mark for most people. Trump just flubs around in front of a camera and makes demands and only about half of his target audience takes it seriously, maybe less.

    Taking a step back even, maybe what you’re saying could apply to the duopoly, too. It would certainly explain Harris’ shift to the right on immigration and law enforcement: Trump riles up the electorate into pogroms, and the liberal candidate offers a reactionary policy as a concession to placate the bloodlust.

    I just don’t see anyone on the Dem side of the aisle who is going to do better than Hilary did in 2016, once Trump is off the stage.

    Yea, that’s my thing. Trump has created an appetite for reactionary governance, and the democrats just don’t have a real response to it except “yea ok, I guess you’re right”. They’ll either lose to the next republican or they’ll slide into fascism themselves.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      You’re missing one major historical fascist leader: a broke artist immigrant who substituted volume for grasp on reality and was less of a cause of fascism than an embodiment of the reactionary attitude in his country. Trump isn’t like Mussolini or Franco, but he’s very much like Hitler.