Nothing says you are living in a third world dictatorship more than having a criminal as your President.

[justhanginon]

Not just a criminal but also an adjudicated rapist, a person convicted of fraud, uncounted indictments still pending as is a sentence in a guilty verdict, not to mention his misogyny and bigotry and the list goes on and on. It would be beyond embarrassing if he should win to say without cringing you are a U.S, citizen. What in the hell is the matter with so many people that they would even consider voting for this man? It is beyond me.
I will be 88 in a few days and I have seen many presidential contests with good candidates and some not so good but never anything even approaching This foul monster running on the Republican ticket. I guess shame is out of style for Republicans in 2024.

[peppertree]

1. "Napkin" judges and all

(often referred to as such in Latin America, because they're always in some big-wig's pocket - and can always be counted on to clean up messes)

[Irish_Dem]

2. YES. The shame now belongs to the American populace.

Trump is not the issue.

The issue is that half the US population adores an obvious ruthless, dangerous psychopath who
will destroy our freedom and democracy. And terrorize American citizens.

Biggest moral collapse in US history.
Greatest civic duty failure in US history.

[orthoclad]

6. Half? One third.

About a third of the US is rage and hate addicted, wanting a symbol for their perceived grievances. A 24/7/365 propaganda machine of the wealthy and powerful has spent decades building this id reservoir. Trump knew this when he made his 5th Avenue remark. It's become a positive feedback loop within the Right bubble, spiraling like a whirlpool.

I'm trying to restrain my own rage and disgust enough to understand this.

One resource, one pool of potential voters, stands out. In 2020, about a third of the population did not vote, for a variety of reasons, first of which was not being registered. There was a good thread about that back in July: https://democraticunderground.com/100219166382
This is why Right states are attacking voter registration drives, threatening jail time.
Many of the reasons for not voting are fixable. This pool equals or exceeds the MAGA pool. It will take generational time to repair the MAGA damage. Meanwhile, I think we can appeal to the non-voting pool. If we can turn even a decent fraction out to vote against T, we can overwhelm MAGA.

[Irish_Dem]

7. We keep being told the race is neck and neck. That is not one third.

People who do not care about our democracy enough to vote are in Trump's corner.

So that covers about half the US population.

[Wednesdays]

3. "What in the hell is the matter with so many people that they would even consider voting for this man?"

Just turn on Fox News for 5 minutes and you'll see. They're saturated with that propaganda 24/7/365.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. FWIW: "Third World" is a term from the "Cold War."

Essentially, the US and its allies were the "1st World." The Soviets and their allies were the "2nd World,” and everyone else (India, Mexico, much of Africa…) was the “3rd World.”

It’s really rather racist. Right up there with “S---hole countries."

[J_William_Ryan]

5. "The shame now belongs to the American populace."

Correct.

The people are alone responsible for the bad government they get.