"I'm so angry at Biden over Isreal/Gaza that I'm going to help Trump destroy democracy, weaponize the Justice system, send millions to deportation camps, lower the taxes on the wealthy and shift the burden to the middle class, cut Social Security, track and prosecute women having abortions, pardon the people who violently attacked Capitol police, dismantle NATO, help Russia, AND ON TOP OF ALL THAT do even more harm to Palestinians" is a take--it's just a really awful take, IMO.
@augieray
"I support this war so much that I'm going to ignore the position of the vast majority of my constituents and party members even though it endangers our chances of re-election in the Fall" is also a take.
@evan @augieray please provide the tiniest bit of evidence that Biden is ignoring the position of his constituents.
This is a straw man, you know it's a straw man, but you're putting it out there nevertheless.
@evan @Amoshias And there will be more war if Trump is elected.
@augieray @Amoshias I hate Donald Trump, but I don't know if what you say is strictly true. His form of nationalist populism largely withdrew the US from overseas interventions. He did, however, support provocative activities in Israel like moving the embassy to Jerusalem.
@evan @augieray @Amoshias Generic anti-interventionism doesn't stop war. It just lets monsters like Putin do whatever they feel like doing.
@evan @augieray @Amoshias Also, "I don't care if Trump outright murders millions of Americans if he also pulls us out of NATO" is one hell of a take.
@textualdeviance @augieray @Amoshias who said that? I'm just saying, having lived through some hawkish administrations, I don't think that a Trump administration is as likely to find reasons to go to war as, say, the first Bush administration. You make a good point that a less engaged US may result in more wars between other parties, though.
@evan @textualdeviance @augieray so in the past, has Trump lived up to your expectations?
@Amoshias @textualdeviance @augieray whew. Not sure. He was really bad, but we survived as a country, which I wasn't always confident of. I'd say, he was not quite as bad as my worst fears, but he got close.
@evan @Amoshias @augieray "We" survived? And the million-plus COVID deaths due to completely fucked up handling of the pandemic are meaningless, I guess?
Also, I'll remind you that had Democrats not taken the House in 2018, things would have been much, much worse. He won't make that mistake again. Believe him when he tells you he wants to go full dictator.
@textualdeviance @Amoshias @augieray I meant, there is still a United States.
@evan @Amoshias @augieray There is still a Russia under Putin. Doesn't mean it's not a fucked-up mess with sham elections and violent oppression.
@textualdeviance @augieray So, @Amoshias asked if Trump has lived up to my expectations. I thought about it sincerely, and tried to think back to 2016, and about how bad I expected things to get under Trump, and that they didn't quite get as bad as I was worried they would.
I am not trying to say that Trump was not very, very terrible and that he did, and continues to do, extreme damage to the USA and the rest of the world.
Augie Ray
Evan Prodromou
Amoshias
Texty the Bard