Re: The US Politics Thread

[Pedram]

You should try living between Germany and russia

Everyone cares only about themself

You should look at Iran's history. US (and UK) propped up a undemocratic Shah in the 50s to balance out the Middle East against the Soviets and as soon as he was no longer useful to them, they left him to rot.

Americans will always look for their own interest first and Ukraine is currently fulfilling that purpose.

Thats my point. Everyone looks at their own interests first. You think the Chinese are building infrastructure in Africa from the goodness of their heart?

We as Poles are aware that the US are propping the Ukraine war for their own interest with no regard for Ukrainian casualties. The consensus is, however, that it's also in our interest (because it is)

The weaker Russia is the better. The Nordstream would benefit only Germany in the EU, others would have to fall in line. When futbol says "Europe" understand that he means Germany alone, there are no friends in geopolitics.

I don't think making a permanent enemy out of Russia is in anyone's interest tbh. they are far from their Soviet days but they are still quite powerful.

Poland should have stayed neutral in this conflict because when Russia eventually wins this conflict, it will not be the US (as usual) who is going to pay the price for this failure. it will be Germany, Poland, Baltic states who all collectively decided their interest is in antagonizing a neighboring superpower.

[Myesyats]

China will not surpass the USA anytime soon btw, they are an ageing society aswell

[Myesyats]

I don't think making a permanent enemy out of Russia is in anyone's interest tbh. they are far from their Soviet days but they are still quite powerful.

Poland should have stayed neutral in this conflict because when Russia eventually wins this conflict, it will not be the US (as usual) who is going to pay the price for this failure. it will be Germany, Poland, Baltic states who all collectively decided their interest is in antagonizing a neighboring superpower.

We've never stopped being enemies. For the past 3 years they've been shipping migrants to destabilize our border, so much so that we had to build 400km of wall and create a territorial defense unit

They are conducting hybrid warfare against us all the time. they are not allies

[BarrileteCosmico]

China needs to embrace freedom. The more autocratic they've become the worse they do.

[CBarca]

I thought Kamala did quite well in the time she had and the Democratic party did a really good job pivoting from Biden. Their problem was running with a zombie in Biden as long as they did, especially given how unpopular he was (why he was so unpopular is a different question, of which I think a disproportionate amount of blame could be placed on media coverage of his presidency). Was Kamala the right candidate? I'm not sure she's who the Dems would pick if they had a do-over, but the Dems went from "losing by an historic amount" to a "typical election loss". While keeping the executive office is the ultimate goal, margins do matter in politics.

As for blaming the Dems on moving right...OK. Let me see the evidence that a far left candidate would do better. We had a viable, loved option in Bernie, and he was never able to displace the centrist candidates. You could argue that's because of the DNC's rules, if you want, but the truth of the matter is that he's never been more popular than Obama/Biden/Clinton/other centrist Dems.

I think there is a significant amount of overanalyzing this election. Voters in the US voted based on the economy. There isn't much more to it. Anyone blaming it on wokeness or the Democratic party moving too far right or too far left is doing too much, for me. Inflation and constant fear mongering about the "impending recession" (which never ended up happening) killed Dems. Immigration was a massive issue as well.

Dems have a really interesting voter base right now. I don't think their poorly positioned for the future. They need to figure out how to stem some bleeding amongst hispanic/black voters, but otherwise they're fine. They have super engaged, high propensity voters as their base. They'll probably do disproportionately well in midterms like in 2022, and they might be well positioned for post-Trump elections 2028 and beyond.

Say what you want about Trump, who is in every way possible an absolutely despicable, horrible excuse for a human being, he is an extremely effective candidate at turning out low propensity voters and fear/grievance mongering amongst a large cohort of the US who have nothing better to do than to hate other people.

To put a ribbon on it, look at 2020. All the cards were on that election to be an easy Republican win, and Trump lost it. 2016 should have been a fairly favorable year for a Republican because of 8 years of Democratic control of the executive branch, and Trump eked it out while losing the popular vote -- against Hillary Clinton of all people. Non-Trump MAGA candidates have consistently underperformed since 2016. All credit to Trump for turning out the voters he needs to win two elections, certainly you can't take that away, but I don't really agree with those who believe in some large political realignment here.

The fact of the matter is that a lot of bog-standard Republicans probably would have done well vs Hillary in 2016, and it would have been a massive upset given the inflation/COVID disorder of 2021-2024 to see a Democratic win.

US politics has always been a swinging pendulum. At the national level, no party really keeps control for that long. Voters have a tendency to return to balance and to punish. I'll stick my neck out on this, I expect a Democratic win for the Presidency in 2028.

[BarrileteCosmico]

Biggest 3 issues were "inflation" (by which I assume they meant cost of living since inflation is kinda solved), immigration and woke culture.

I don't think Kamala could do much about any of these. She could have tried to separate herself from the Biden administration but it would always have seemed disingenuous. She also didn't run on woke issues but didn't denounced her 2019 stances where she did. Tacit approval for that.

Basically Dems should've had a primary where an outsider who is not tied to Biden's policies could've denounced those things. But Biden's ego prevented that and he ruined his legacy.

Btw CB I think this is a realignment along class rather than identity politics. It's a trend.

[elitedam]

Matt Gaetz as Attorney General and a Fox News host as Secretary of Defense. WTF?

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