I really, truly don't understand it

[Charging Triceratops]

I don't understand how so many people can support and vote for a traitorous, criminal, incoherent con man who is the furthest thing from what a president of the United States should be.

I don't understand how so many people have forgotten how this monster called the Covid pandemic a hoax, wanted to "slow the testing down" and sought refuge in the shadow of murderous foreign despots.

I don't understand how, in a nation that values education and thoughtful discourse, a stupid, trust-fund idiot who uses the same vapid phrases over and over again can gain the respect and support of so many people.

Where did my America go? Did Limbaugh and Fox "News" really destroy that much of it? Are we really that far gone that a decent, hard-working man like Joe Biden, who captains a great economy and a quest for freedom around the world can be so vilified in countless polls and commentaries?

I really, truly do not understand it.

[marble falls]

1. Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to turn out the serious might of a Democratic victory when there's a high ...

... turnout.

[Roy Rolling]

70. Not a mystery

Peer pressure. Humans have a default drive to gather together in tribes, even if that tribe is a bunch of deplorables in weird costumes and MAGA hats. Look at the weirdo-Woodstock traveling circus—the people who are hateful and bond with each other to out-jackass one another.

It’s more about the group dynamics than the message always.

[Bucky]

2. 'Tis a perplexity, indeed

If you really care to understand this mindset, I recommend spending a month watching only Fox News and reading only rightwing blogs and posts. Anything less than a full immersion will leave your mind susceptible to logic and a commitment to rule of law. These things must be suppressed or your mission will fail. When you return.... if you return... to the light of liberality, social responsibility, and a quest for objective truth, you will need therapy to adjust to your current ways. But part of you will be forever changed.

Godspeed, Triceratops

[ProudMNDemocrat]

3. Remember what TSF said in 2016 after winning the then Nevada Caucuses?

"I LOVE the poorly educated!"

That was the one of the moments the DUMBING DOWN of America began. Polls show that those without much education, let alone a College degree support TSF over common sense. They have been brainwashed to believe his LIES as if he were the second coming! What TSF has done is destroy a once vibrant party and turned it into himself. A CULT.

[rubbersole]

30. The ground was plowed by rw radio.

Limbaugh was the face of it. Normalized hate which was always right under the surface of our society. Getting it back in the bottle won't happen for generations, if ever.

[Tumbulu]

69. that is exactly how it happened

and until the hate media is neutered, this will keep going on and on.

Ignoring the right wing hate radio remains the societies most massive mistake.

[MiHale]

56. That was when the effect of Dumbing Down America was felt most...

Reagan started the decline of education in his terms of office. Part of the attack of the middle class. We were getting way too smart…republicans need to hide in the warm confines of the lower informed and lower educated, others can figure them out.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. It's all about money, political power, and control

I am very suspicious of anything that is "HYPED".

Evangelical money brought us Reagan. Money pushed Limbaugh, Fox. Money bought elections, and brought us GWB. GWB brought WMD war and prosperity. Money bought a SCOTUS majority, NRA, Citizens United.

If you can abuse peoples' minds you can exploit them for money and sell them things you don't need. If you can irritate them and shoot their kids, you can make them miserable. Then you offer thoughts and prayers, so they return to church and give the churches more money. You can deny a pandemic and drive death. More funerals and church services.

Religion is behind it all. So get religion! Just don't ever feel woke or enlightened! They want the world controlled by stupidity.

[Farmer-Rick]

15. Religion is the tool

That the filthy-rich class use to make all the rest of us obey them, unless you know there are no gods.

Sometimes people use religion to fight back against the filthy-rich. But that is usually crushed with well placed assassinations and buying up religious leaders.

It's a win-win for the few born to rich, powerful daddies and mommies. For the rest of us it's just another con.

[EarlG]

5. Biden's real crime in the eyes of the media

is not that he’s old, it’s that he’s not new.

He’s been a public servant, and in the public eye, for most of his life. He’s not flashy, he’s a reliable and responsible presence, his first term has been largely successful, and there’s really nothing about him that people don’t know already.

He’s really the complete opposite of the kind of shiny object that the media loves to chase. No scandals, no drama — the GOP can’t even effectively invent a scandal to bring him down.

So the media resorts to the most generic, lazy complaint they can think of (he’s old) and hit him for that. Trump, on the other hand, is obviously much more attractive to them, in the way that a story about an exploding fireworks factory is attractive. (Even though these days it’s less “exploding fireworks factory” and more “man ranting to himself in grocery store line making everyone else uncomfortable.”)

[FalloutShelter]

29. I think you have put your finger on this exactly...

From personal experience, as an artist and author with a long resume, I can tell you that I have bumped into this wall at age 70.
The one thing you cannot be, with all of the experience and success of the past... is NEW.

The boomers are dying, and the last of that generation is in the midst of a paradigm shift in which the desire for the new outstrips all of the talent, experience, and wisdom that age can bring.

Gen X, finally coming into their power, is anxious for us to move aside. They look at a long resume and say... enough... this is your ride. You have had it. Your ride ends here.

I hope we can surmount this and win this election with our Wise and levelheaded President, Joe Biden.

[MontanaMama]

51. Nailed it.

[Ocelot II]

55. I think you nailed it.

Biden is what he has always been, sensible and steady. No scandals, nothing especially newsworthy, at least not in the “if it bleeds it leads” sense that the media love. His speaking style isn’t compelling; he’s not the orator Obama was. He just carries on. There’s not much to criticize him about so they fall back on his age, and in an ageist society like ours that has impact. Trump, on the other hand, is still the shiny object the media prefer even though the “shine” is that of a dumpster fire.

[OldBaldy1701E]

61. You got it. He is not 'Hollywood' enough.

Because Hollywood is all about the person du jour. They could care less about anything that has been around longer than an ice cream cone. This is what happens when politics become more about spectacle than substance.

Hell, this is what happens when society becomes more about spectacle than substance...

[raccoon]

79. Yep, and it seems to me to have been getting worse and worse over the decades.

[Hugin]

6. What is being experienced...

Where a society that has been trained for over 75 years that competition consists of two teams facing off against each other with the only substantial difference between them being the color of their uniforms.

Is then confronted with an existential threat where the differences are plain and the consequences of their choices are personal, life altering, and final.

[mitch96]

7. Take a look at what all dictators do and that's your answer.. Look at the rise of Nazi Germany.

What did Hitler and Goebbels do to change the hearts and minds to do such things to other people.
On Tyranny by Tim Snyder is book that lays out the plan they use...
m

[John1956PA]

8. Low information voters. n/t

[surfered]

9. You are not alone....it's a mystery.

[surfered]

10. This helps explain it.

The far-right worldview is incomprehensible until you realize that devotees believe truth flows from authority rather than reality

MATTHEW SHEFFIELD
MAR 5, 2024

[ramapo]

11. We live in a country of sick people

We were all ok with six-year-old kids being blown apart in school by some maniac with an assault weapon. So why wouldn't millions of people think that Trump is wonderful

[Timeflyer]

12. I keep trying to figure it out, too. The manipulation with constant lies might explain some of it.

From "Democracy Awakening," by Heather Cox Richardson, 2023.

"Even for those unconvinced by Trump's assertion, this reiteration of lies in the face of evidence did something else. It 'flood[ed] the zone with sh*t,' as Trump's advisor Steve Bannon put it. Keeping listeners constantly trying to defend what is real from what is not destroys their ability to make sense of the world. Many people turn to a strongman who promises to create order. Others will get so exhausted they simply give up. As scholar of totalitarianism Hannah Arendt noted, authoritarians use this technique to destabilize a population."

[Jean Genie]

13. Plus ca change

All part if life's rich pageant I suppose. Little did we know the country was populated by so many ignorant asshats. "Your" country, "my" country, was always like this, History tells us. We were just living an illusion. Some things - most things - never change.

[dawg]

23. Feels more like fables of the reconstruction to me.

[Basic LA]

14. Limbaugh & Fox "news" sure did a number.

On the old John Wayne-Bible-&-Bullets crowd. It gave them pride in their corn pone backwardness, and legitimized their racist resentments.

[doc03]

16. I don't think anyone understands it. I guess it is the hate

that makes his supporters think of Trump and themselves as victims from the "other".

[William Seger]

17. "Did Limbaugh and Fox "News" really destroy that much of it?"

Yes, absolutely, they did! They did it by creating an alternate reality where reactionary, mean-spirited bigots who call themselves Christians and neo-fascists who call themselves patriots can feel better about their miserable selves by hating on the liberals.

[usonian]

18. He reflects their base anger, failure and resentment.

The cult "legitimizes" it like the mob legitimizes crime: "Everyone does it, or wants to".

[getagrip_already]

19. He supports their hate and empowers their petty grievances

He gives power to their fears.

They don't love democracy. It scares them. They can't control it. Someone they don't like or who scares them will tell them what to do, will wear a badge, will have a better job.

They would rather burn everything down than live in fear.

Cowards all.

[Act_of_Reparation]

20. It's actually really easy to understand.

Your social circles are not representative of the general public. People in general are way dumber, shittier, and meaner than those you hang out with.

[Joinfortmill]

21. I hear you.

My take is humans need a redo. But I'm old.

[ecstatic]

22. Right there with you. 91 felony charges

Hey, let's vote for the guy with the 91 felony charges, the one who we all watched try to overthrow the country a few years ago.

Yes, let's vote him back in. The same guy who caused over a million deaths from covid. More than that if you count the worldwide death toll. And yes, I hold him responsible for that as well.

Washington Post article published 2/27/3020:

The White House official charged with leading the U.S. response to deadly pandemics left nearly two years ago as his global health security team was disbanded. Federal funding for preventing and mitigating the spread of infectious disease has been repeatedly threatened since President Trump’s election.

Despite the mounting threat of a coronavirus outbreak in the United States, Trump said he has no regrets about those actions and that expertise and resources can be quickly ramped up to meet the current needs.

“You build a fire department ahead of time. You don’t wait for a fire,” said Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “There is an underappreciation for the amount of time and resources required to build a prepared system.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trump-says-he-can-bring-in-coronavirus-experts-quickly-the-experts-say-it-is-not-that-simple/2020/02/27/6ce214a6-5983-11ea-8753-73d96000faae_story.html

May 2018

The Trump Administration disbands the White House pandemic response team.

July 2019

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency left the post, and the Trump Administration eliminated the role.

Oct. 2019

“Currently, there are insufficient funding sources designated for the federal government to use in response to a severe influenza pandemic.”

Jan. 22, 2020

“We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”

Jan. 24, 2020

Trump praises China’s handling of the coronavirus: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”

Jan. 28, 2020

“This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency...This is going to be the roughest thing you face." Trump’s National Security Advisor says to Trump.

Jan. 30, 2020

"The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil,...This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.” (Memo from Trump Trade Advisor Peter Navarro)

Feb. 2, 2020

“We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”

Feb. 7, 2020

“It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu... This is deadly stuff.” [Trump in a private interview with Bob Woodward from The Washington Post made public on Sept. 9, 2020]

Feb. 10, 2020

“I think the virus is going to be—it’s going to be fine.”

Feb. 10, 2020

“Looks like by April, you know in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”

Feb. 24, 2020

“The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… the Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

Read more: https://doggett.house.gov/media/blog-post/timeline-trumps-coronavirus-responses

The US, although it represents just 4% of the world's population, accounted for over 20% of all confirmed COVID‐19 cases and deaths worldwide that took place on Trump's watch (Johns Hopkins University, 2022). This outcome was not inevitable. With a timelier, focused, scientifically informed, and sustained whole‐of‐government response, it has been estimated that hundreds of thousands of COVID‐19 deaths could have been avoided (Redlener et al., 2020; Woolhandler et al., 2021). Ultimately, in the US system, as the commander‐in‐chief, presidents are responsible for the decisions the federal government makes or fails to make, the mobilization and coordination of the federal response to national crises, and setting and enforcing the proper priorities. In the final analysis, when it comes to assessing responsibility for the avoidable failures of the federal government's COVID‐19 performance, the evidence examined here indicates that, while not responsible for everything that went wrong, President Trump was a decisive factor behind the tragically sub‐optimal US pandemic response.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9115435/

[Bernardo de La Paz]

24. How? Lack of civics education plus profit-motive Big Media plus bad actor adversarial meddling

Bad actors include far right, christo-fascist dominionists, and foreign states, particularly Russia.

Techniques include social media manipulation by bot farms, paid agents (Smirnov) and hacking.

[NoMoreRepugs]

25. The Shitstain made hating others that don't look or think like you not just okay but something to be proud of. Haters

gotta HATE.

[relayerbob]

26. That part of the nation does not value education

Nor thought, nor discourse. In fact, they’ve been taught for at least two generations that such things are evil.

[Bumbles]

27. This helps to explain, but not take away the worry about those of such a different mindset who live among us.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/many-differences-between-liberals-and-conservatives-may-boil-down-to-one-belief/

[Abolishinist]

52. Thanks, what a GREAT article and website!

When I have more time I am going to take the 'primals' survey, there is a link to it in the article.

"We have created a free, scientifically validated online survey if you wish to learn how your own primals compare with the average."

[Ocelot II]

57. Thanks for this! Bookmarking for later.

[ecstatic]

73. So based on that article...

how would one shift the conversation with a magat to blur hierarchal lines? The suggestion on how to talk about gender made sense, but my head is exploding trying to think of how to use this information more broadly.

[quakerboy]

28. This is america as it always was

The tint may have worn off of the glasses weve worn, but it is remarkably consistent with itself if you study history.

[FailureToCommunicate]

31. They lack empathy. That's it. And in that missing void they fill up on fear, hate, anger...

all wrapped up in racism, classism, and whatever other "isms" FOX and RW radio spews out to them.

Deplorable is too nice a term for them. If it was just a mass character flaw, one **might** have sympathy for them. But they insist on dragging down, burning down our democracy with them, threatening all of the rest of us.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

62. They are toxic people

People who choose to be Narcissists.

[ffr]

32. Pb

Lead
Saturnism

[onecaliberal]

33. It was actually a bad night for recons. Several states with 30% + recons who say they won't vote for dump.

[GuppyGal]

34. There are so many truly uncurious STUPID fucking mush brains in the world - not just here it's all over. Apathetic

Assholes Also Abound.

[ScratchCat]

35. What angers me the most

Is that none of the crimes he is accused of are even disputed.

He doesn't dispute he paid off Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. He just says he gets to do that.

He doesn't dispute lying on taxes, he just says he gets to do that.

He doesn't dispute taking classified information, he just says its ok for him to do that.

He doesn't dispute that he tried to get States to alter the election. He just says he gets to do that.

The Republicans don't even dispute what he is charged for. They just come up with ridiculous reasons as to why he shouldn't be held accountable.

It all comes down to this: They say they are the god guys and Democrats are the bad guys; end of story. Acknowledging that they nominated and elected a bad guy destroys their brand image and they will not allow it under any circumstance. Note the others under indictment and their extreme defense of those people(Santos, Paxton).

30 years of talk radio combined with the election and re-election of Barack Obama and the summer of 2020 drove them insane and they have circled the wagons in defense of "their country" or some other siliness.

[happy feet]

39. Agreed

I believe the root cause of their anxiety and hate is the browning of America-escalated by right wing media, media shiny object both siderism, Christian nationalist desire to become the law of the land, and making it okay to blame and hate others for their own lives.

[bdamomma]

66. The pandemic

contributed too. Some people went crazy.

[bmichaelh]

36. He made COVID crisis worse

At one point, at the height of the COVID crisis, 3,000 Americans were dying a day.

Also, the COVID crisis could have been much worse.

2 years before COVID, he and Republicans tried to repeal the ACA.

What would have happened to healthcare system in this country, with Americans who had lost their insurance showing up at hospitals with COVID symptoms.

I stayed in the hospital for about a week with COVID pneumonia.

Some have showed up in the hospital and have stayed several months, if not more.

When it comes to healthcare, he is grossly incompetent.

[lees1975]

37. Limbaugh and Fox News helped a lot, but

we have a public education system that has failed to teach generations of students any critical thinking skills, or any skills, for that matter.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

63. Betsy DeVoss

That billionaire piece of shit has made it her mission to destroy the education system. She needs to be made accountable for the crap she funded. If money is speech,then abusive use of money needs accountability than.

[calimary]

38. It's the lure of the snake oil.

[Ping Tung]

40. Trump and Right Wing Populism has givben them a sense of respectibility for raciism, misogyny, and hatred.

See Germany 1933 for precedent.

[IbogaProject]

41. The economy over the last 50 years has been horrible in most places

And there has been a bifurcation where some become high earners but many more are falling behind. He also validates their hate and he channels their ignorance. And their propaganda is well honed so even low info people get plausible talking points.

[live love laugh]

42. I do: Republican Owned Media is why

[Mr.Bill]

43. What you are watching in this country

is the death of Journalism. It turns out that an unbiased, professional and ethical press is far more important than people thought. It has turned into nothing but a clown show.

[SouthernDem4ever]

46. It's definitely bizarre

Don't know any other word for it.

[Oopsie Daisy]

47. Trump has given them permission to hate freely and openly *

* no longer do they need to hide their racism, bigotry, sexism, homophobia. There are a LOT of shitty people in this country. I never realized how many back with "social norms" and "acceptable behavior" kept them all quiet and pretending to be respectable.

[WarGamer]

48. I've said this many times.

The right doesn't CARE about Trump as a person.

Trump is a tool. Trump gives POWER to disparate groups.

They're not picking a new coach for their kids Little League team...

They're with Trump because he hates who and what they hate and he is willing to use that power to affect policy that benefits aforementioned disparate groups.

Or just to punish the groups THEY don't like.

In other words... their HATE Trumps all the corruption, criminal acts and so on.

[llmart]

49. Too many Americans take democracy for granted.

Americans are very short sighted. They believe that our democracy is always going to survive no matter what. Thus, they don't take voting seriously, so they vote as if they're picking the latest mirror ball winners on Dancing with the Stars or don't vote at all because "I don't have time because my life is soooo busy." Then when something bad happens they act like there were no warning signs (for example: see September 11, 2001).

I doubt much will change in my lifetime since I'm on the final third of my life. I hope the younger generations realize that they are going to be the ones who live with it, if our great experiment in democracy fails.

[forgotmylogin]

50. I think it's the die-hards who want to "Make America Racist Again".

So many people want to blame any problem in America and their own personal issues on a scapegoat rather than take responsibility to make a change. It's immigrants "takin our jerbs!" and minorities "sucking up government assistance" that makes things hard for blue-collars, not that they won't support union reform or fixing the problems so there's something for everyone.

Many Americans of past generations and new ones through learned behavior, sadly, have always been closet racists and/or xenophobes. Trump gave them permission to say the quiet part out loud again and they don't want to go back. These are the people who will overlook any wrongdoing by a candidate just because that message aligns with their sad fears. And these chosen scapegoats are groups that bigots already hold disdain for: minorities, immigrants, LGBTQIA2S+, etc. They would be more than happy to just eliminate these groups, though doing so would not improve life, and likely would degrade it. That 33% support for Trump that seems unshakable are those people and nothing is going to change their minds.

I've always held the position that conservativism is the politics of exclusion and liberalism is the politics of inclusion. Democrats want to create change and make sure everyone can subsist and have a decent life. Republicans want to blame someone or something else that is keeping them from making the changes and take resources and rights away from the people they feel unworthy to allegedly reserve them for (white/straight/cis) 'Muricans when the truth is everyone has to give something to get something else in return.

It's easier (both politically and personally) to blame all problems on something that's allegedly preventing beneficial change than to actually buckle down and take responsibility to make the changes that benefit everyone - which is what Joe Biden (who has evolved his philosophies over the years as things change) believes in - compromise for everyone. This was exactly proven when Trump managed to scuttle a border deal that was more than the Democrats wanted and much that the Republicans did want because it would eliminate a scapegoat the rightwing could campaign and complain about.

This is exactly spelled out in Wicked, both the musical, upcoming movie, and the source novel - which is actually a reactionary political parable of the Bush era but still holds true today: "Elphaba – when I first got here, there was discord and discontent. And where I come from, everyone knows: the best way to bring folks together, is to give them a really good enemy." That's the quickest and easiest way, but not the right way - by "othering" a group and saying "all your problems will go away if we eliminate these people. These groups were never a problem before Trump stirred up a hornet's nest of racism and bigotry.

This is the one thing Donald Trump believes in: Keep people mad, and keep telling people he's the only person who can fix it. He's got his devoted 33% and we need to ensure enough people vote that the 33% doesn't statistically become 51%+ at the voting booth via ignorance nor apathy. The electoral college can easily steal the popular vote from a Democrat unless rational people swarm the polls like honeybees to overwhelm an invading hornet, which happened in 2020 and we need to do it again harder this year so even if they twiddle the numbers and scream about election fraud, like 2020 it will never be enough to actually overturn a valid election in their favor.

[BaronChocula]

53. Glad I scrolled to the bottom of the discussion

We are of the same mind.

I've always held the position that conservativism is the politics of exclusion and liberalism is the politics of inclusion.

That! And everything else you said.

[forgotmylogin]

54. I actually reposted this in the clear in GD.

It's my entire thinking about the political situation. Thank you!

[I_UndergroundPanther]

64. Wish

Conservatism was seen as a sickness and rejected from society.

I would like to see a very liberal party replace the asshole republican party and the rich and corporation to be taxed heavily and kept powerless to affect policy.

[BaronChocula]

68. I think it HAS become a sickness

Thanks to limbaugh who preceded foxnews and all the subsequent white nationalist media. Limbaugh fed the ego of white conservatives by portraying the expansion of rights to all other law-abiding Americans as a threat to his listeners. In his disturbed narrative, any agreement with the Democratic party was ceding their God-given dominance so if Democrats advocated common sense policy like getting inspections on Iran's nuclear enrichment program, conservatives HAD to oppose it. Their MO evolved into making up their own facts in order to not agree with Democrats. That's sickness.

Failed Indiana senate candidate Richard Mourdock once said in a debate that he saw bipartisanship as (roughly recalling) "the other side coming to our way of thinking." He went on to lose due to his comments that rape was God's will. Anyway, his views on bipartisanship explain why the conservative party is so broken.

But their biggest con is when THEY screw up it's the fault of both sides. And enough Americans accept that because there are enough Americans who give the republican party the white man pass.

Thanks in advance for letting me ramble.

[Blue Owl]

58. K&R

[GenThePerservering]

59. It's not "your" America

It's just "America". People like this have always existed - I grew up in towns full of them and they were as loud and ignorant then as they are now. When I was a kid 10,000 crammed into my little town of about 1500 to hear George Wallace speak back in the day - they acted the same as they do now.

This country was born in blood and has always been racist and proudly ignorant. The thin veneer of civilization has worn thin - we have to restore it.

[Charging Triceratops]

60. Sorry for offending you with a hopeful possessive metaphor

And, no, it was not worse before. We were smarter. We cared. We were not blinded by hate radio, Murdoch's bile and Internet lies. Sure, there were assholes; hell, we once had legal slavery and women couldn't even vote until 1920, But we've changed as a people. And it fucking hurts.

[TheKentuckian]

67. You just described worse and just hit a couple of the reasons why.

Nostalgia is deadly.

[Elessar Zappa]

77. It was worse before.

Last edited Thu Mar 7, 2024, 08:15 AM - Edit history (1)

Civilization was a thin veneer. Racism was worse, misogyny was worse and homophobia was worse. Violent crime was much higher. I wouldn’t want to go back to the past for any amount of money. The only thing better about the old days was that we had a functional government.

[kiri]

65. gods are authoritarian creatures

Do not underestimate the power of religious authoritarian feelings/thinking.
Fears overwhelm. The Catholic Church supported Joe McCarthy to the hilt in the 50's. The evangelicals tie themselves into knots about some satan/antichrist/invisible evil being who is so powerful... but not powerful against prayer and sending money to a preacher. Easily defeated by belief in some god or another--authoritarian figure.

The whole idea of life after death is inimical to a good life on this earth.

Remember the evangelicals --worth many mansions, jets, luxuries, Cayman island bank accounts--in the Oval Office laying on their hands on Trump?

[Pegasus30]

71. How do we know what, exactly , the American people are thinking?

Polls, polls , polls ....open any newspaper, look at TeeVee, or Tweeter or any medium whatsoever - bad news for Biden, cubed.
However, what are the polls' methodologies? What were the sample sizes? How did they contact the participants? This information is almost never shared, and if so, it is minimal , at best.
Anyone who has done canvassing telephone calls for a candidate will realize that the response rate to cold calls to voters is miniscule. I've done this multiple times for several campaigns, as, I imagine, have many others here. As I made call after call and never got to speak to anyone , I thought about how if I get a call or a text from a number I don't recognize I ignore it and treat it as "spam". It's understandable. I therefore do not know how they are getting this authoritative data about how hundreds of millions of people are going to vote . I would very much like to know how the pollsters ( who are they ? where are they? Who funds them?) harvest the data that they then trot out as the gospel truth on what the population is thinking on any particular issue. Please , no lectures on statistics, and random samples, and margins of error and all that , I get all that. It is always an issue of garbage in, garbage out with polls, and I truly would like to know just ....how they can find a representative sample ?

[soldierant]

72. Well, for starters,

"a nation that values education and thoughtful discourse" is wrong. We aren't. There are many of us who do, but it's not the whole country. And many of those who do value education only value it as a credential. If we as a nation truly valued education, I don't think we would have allowed the quality of it to degenerate so thoroughly.

[Tribetime]

74. Fox news is telling them lies and they're eating it up

[SomedayKindaLove]

75. Republicans know how to own people's amygdala

Fill with Fear, FEAR, and MORE FEAR. Mix with repeat, REPEAT, and REPEAT AGAIN and before long you can make them salivate with a just a few catch words. Activate the amygdala and don’t ever let it ever turn off and you can unite people in hatred against whomever you like.

Ever wonder why you can’t reason with MAGA? Their amygdala has been so overworked that the prefrontal cortex, the logic part of the brain, shrinks.

I think what most of MAGA has in common is they are TERRIFIED.

[RocRizzo55]

76. I blame Ronnie Rat Raygun

His policies, started this monster. Had he not gotten rid of the Fairness Doctrine, closed the mental hospitals, taken the solar panels off of the White House, and other things, we would not be in the mess we are in today.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

78. I don't understand either

This article kinda of explains part of it, while exposing the problem of constant lying having no ramifications in politics.

"A criminologist explains why half of America does not care about Trump's crimes

Since 2023, when Donald Trump was criminally indicted in a combined four criminal cases on 91 felony counts, I have repeatedly been asked to explain how one-half of the American public seemingly does not care about the alleged crimes committed by their former president and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee...."

The answer has much more to do with the social reality that these transgressions are not ordinary or commonplace offenses as criminologists refer to them....

Rather, these offenses are ideological or political in nature — as evidenced by the unsigned majority opinion of SCOTUS’ ruling on the 14th Amendment earlier this week....

....they believe that the criminal indictment regarding Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election are about an “illegitimate” 2020 presidential election, one that Trump actually won. "

That kind of lie, like the ones about where Obama was born, and the thousands he told in office, have no legal recourse, so Republicans lie rather than come up with policies as in 2024 servicing the wealthy is all the do.

What a role model!!!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-versus-truth-most-outrageous-falsehoods-his-presidency-n1252580

https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/trumps-crimes/