I had no idea it would be this bad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing that stands out to me is the hysteria and the news coverage.

I do wonder what will happen if everything ends up better for Americans following the tariffs, and if we don’t enter a supply crisis. We likely will, but nothing is guaranteed. The media shares the story that we are 100% guaranteed to be screwed by tariffs, but nothing is guaranteed in life and whenever people tell me something is certain (DC real estate will never go down!) I’m suspicious.

You're going to be wondering for a long time. At what point will reality sink in for you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't vote for Trump. I voted for Harris, I even took a few weekends to bike around exurban Pennsylvania to knock on doors for Harris. I had a brief surge of enthusiasm for Harris mainly because she wasn't Biden.

That said, this time around when Trump won, my reaction was... "meh, whatever, we'll get through it." Not the outrage like I had in 2016. A part of me felt like the Democrats kind of deserved to lose, the DNC has been so cringe and awful in recent years, and though I personally lean left, I felt like the Dems had overreached on a bunch of woke stuff that most Americans don't care about. That, and a bunch of people I know who are immigrants and people of color had soured on the Democrats and had become Trump-curious for a variety of reasons, and I didn't want to be one of those whiny white liberals who thought she knew better than anyone else. On top of it all, Trump 1 wasn't as horrific as I thought he would be, he was mostly embarrassing and clownish, but the economy hummed along. His foreign policy was dumb but didn't cause outright disasters just yet. All in all, 2017-2019 weren't terrible years for the average American. So I didn't join any marches or protests or sew any pink hats or rant on social media. I figured, well, he's pushing 80, he's kind of nuts and also just lazy, maybe he'll spend his whole term just golfing and tweeting and nothing will happen.

I had no idea how wrong I would be. How horrible things would get and so quickly. It's so much worse than anyone ever expected. I am truly afraid. Everyone is worried for their lives and livelihoods. Everything is bad, everything is a mess, it's so obviously an authoritarian oligarchy and it is no longer crying wolf. It's absolutely unbelievable. I thought American democratic institutions were strong enough to withstand a madman and his cult, but apparently not.

Really? You thought we'd just get through it? You thought Dems deserved to lose?

What?
WTF.

The reason this so bad is EXACTLY because of the ridiculous ignorance of people like you. Ok, you didn't vote for him, but you never thought it would get this bad. Astonishing.

[Anonymous]

To anyone who has blamed/insulted the OP:
Yes, we knew it would be bad. Yes, we read Project 25 (which he lied about).
However, we also made it through his first term with a lot less insane chaos and harm than he's done in the first 100 days of this term. There was chaos. There was harm. But MAGA has stretched the outer limits of our democracy farther and faster than last time and our checks and balances are having a harder time than we expected. We secretly hoped that there would still be adults in the room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

instead of learning from the 2024 election loss, Democrats have doubled down on all theor least popular positions. They’ve also made it clear that they want a one-party system and are enraged by the existence of Republican and Independent voters. And they’ve come out strongly against audits and against reductions in wasteful and fraudulent spending.

Will Trump reverse the 50 year trend of the upper classes gaining at the expense of the working and middle classes? Maybe, maybe not.

This is crazy MAGA-troll-sounding.
Trump cares ONLY about preserving the wealth of very upper-class, very wealthy supporters. He is hoping to arrest and imprison anyone not MAGA, so there goes your silly assertion that Dems want a one-party system.
As for being against audits, it's actually the 'auditors' that Dems are against. DOGE is unvetted young people without the experience or ability to audit anything. They are just stealing data and billing us millions for the privilege.

Of course. Dems are right on many of the nuanced facts. But they’ve become so shrill and unlikable about it that the party’s popularity has imploded. To swing voters and flyover state voters, it sure looks like Democrats oppose audits. Sure, we have our reasons. Our former hero Elon is bad now because of insufficient Twitter censorship. We theoretically don’t object to audits but the auditors need to be older and more vetted by us. But it’s all too convoluted. We’re opposing the audits. And those of us opposing the audits most loudly are those of is personally losing money from the cuts. The whole thing is a bad look, even if we’re technically right that the process is bad. There are a lot of examples of government waste that are egregious. And we seem to swing voters like we are furious about any attempt to reduce that waste. This won’t play well in Peoria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

instead of learning from the 2024 election loss, Democrats have doubled down on all theor least popular positions. They’ve also made it clear that they want a one-party system and are enraged by the existence of Republican and Independent voters. And they’ve come out strongly against audits and against reductions in wasteful and fraudulent spending.

Will Trump reverse the 50 year trend of the upper classes gaining at the expense of the working and middle classes? Maybe, maybe not.

This is crazy MAGA-troll-sounding.
Trump cares ONLY about preserving the wealth of very upper-class, very wealthy supporters. He is hoping to arrest and imprison anyone not MAGA, so there goes your silly assertion that Dems want a one-party system.
As for being against audits, it's actually the 'auditors' that Dems are against. DOGE is unvetted young people without the experience or ability to audit anything. They are just stealing data and billing us millions for the privilege.

Of course. Dems are right on many of the nuanced facts. But they’ve become so shrill and unlikable about it that the party’s popularity has imploded. To swing voters and flyover state voters, it sure looks like Democrats oppose audits. Sure, we have our reasons. Our former hero Elon is bad now because of insufficient Twitter censorship. We theoretically don’t object to audits but the auditors need to be older and more vetted by us. But it’s all too convoluted. We’re opposing the audits. And those of us opposing the audits most loudly are those of is personally losing money from the cuts. The whole thing is a bad look, even if we’re technically right that the process is bad. There are a lot of examples of government waste that are egregious. And we seem to swing voters like we are furious about any attempt to reduce that waste. This won’t play well in Peoria.

What is the unshrill and likeable way to be outraged about the demolition of our republic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

instead of learning from the 2024 election loss, Democrats have doubled down on all theor least popular positions. They’ve also made it clear that they want a one-party system and are enraged by the existence of Republican and Independent voters. And they’ve come out strongly against audits and against reductions in wasteful and fraudulent spending.

Will Trump reverse the 50 year trend of the upper classes gaining at the expense of the working and middle classes? Maybe, maybe not.

This is crazy MAGA-troll-sounding.
Trump cares ONLY about preserving the wealth of very upper-class, very wealthy supporters. He is hoping to arrest and imprison anyone not MAGA, so there goes your silly assertion that Dems want a one-party system.
As for being against audits, it's actually the 'auditors' that Dems are against. DOGE is unvetted young people without the experience or ability to audit anything. They are just stealing data and billing us millions for the privilege.

Of course. Dems are right on many of the nuanced facts. But they’ve become so shrill and unlikable about it that the party’s popularity has imploded. To swing voters and flyover state voters, it sure looks like Democrats oppose audits. Sure, we have our reasons. Our former hero Elon is bad now because of insufficient Twitter censorship. We theoretically don’t object to audits but the auditors need to be older and more vetted by us. But it’s all too convoluted. We’re opposing the audits. And those of us opposing the audits most loudly are those of is personally losing money from the cuts. The whole thing is a bad look, even if we’re technically right that the process is bad. There are a lot of examples of government waste that are egregious. And we seem to swing voters like we are furious about any attempt to reduce that waste. This won’t play well in Peoria.

DOGE is not conducting audits, and the fact that this is what you think is happening is the tell. Audits require auditors, accountants and people who understand the technical systems they are auditing. DOGE and particularly the merry band of hackers brought on by Elon have non of these skills. But what has happened is data has been scrapped and aggregated with data from other agencies to create super profiles of every American from social security numbers, DOB, banking and investment institutions, health records, IRS, you name it. Also, they have created back door worm holes for anyone and everyone to exploit.

Audits, LOL, get real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing that stands out to me is the hysteria and the news coverage.

I do wonder what will happen if everything ends up better for Americans following the tariffs, and if we don’t enter a supply crisis. We likely will, but nothing is guaranteed. The media shares the story that we are 100% guaranteed to be screwed by tariffs, but nothing is guaranteed in life and whenever people tell me something is certain (DC real estate will never go down!) I’m suspicious.

Somebody failed history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To anyone who has blamed/insulted the OP:
Yes, we knew it would be bad. Yes, we read Project 25 (which he lied about).
However, we also made it through his first term with a lot less insane chaos and harm than he's done in the first 100 days of this term. There was chaos. There was harm. But MAGA has stretched the outer limits of our democracy farther and faster than last time and our checks and balances are having a harder time than we expected. We secretly hoped that there would still be adults in the room.

He was unfit to be president even in 2016. That was clear to anyone with a brain.

Usually we like to put intelligent people in positions of power over us.

I know someone who used the "adults in the room" excuse to vote for Trump the very first time, but then they totally took their eye off the ball. No notice taken of an ever more erratic Trump who was willing to flout the Constitution and willing to punish Americans who didn't support him.

Totally falling for all the schlock FOX put out about anyone opposing Trump.

Totally willing to ignore the evidence of their own eyes and ears about Jan 6 (YES it was a coup attempt.)

Pretty much ignoring what Trump was actually saying during the 2024 campaign because you didn't like Kamalalala.

At this point you could have pivoted anywhere in the last 8 years because you have sense, but you chose not to.

Now, you really aren't fit for a democracy.

Why should you have it?

[Anonymous]

Anyone who was paying attention knew this administration would be extremely bad. Project 2025 was out there in writing.

This is just the first 100 days. 3 more years and we will be a "sh*thole" country no one wants to visit or immigrate to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trump just posted a picture of himself as the Pope on one of his social media accounts. Red check - is that Truth Social?

INSANE that the party that lost it over Obama’s tan suit is ok with THIS.

Not the last four words in the Catholic Lord's Prayer:
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but

"deliver us from evil."

I pray "deliver our country from its present evil" endlessly every day! Please feel to do the same!

[Anonymous]

There is no longer a milquetoast Republican Party that Democrats can tolerate. Instead, there’s a populist Republican Party that WINS. Everyone knew who Trump was, and they STILL preferred him to Democrats in 2024. Assuming that HE is going to now SAVE Democrats from themselves is wishful thinking indeed.

Instead, Democrats will have to come up with a new policy platform that flyover state voters actually like. So far, that looks like a task the Democrats can’t handle. They HATE flyover state voters and do NOT want to govern for their benefit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The supporters that did not know are idiots.

He told everyone what he was going to do. He told everyone he was going to pardon all those who were convicted of January 6 crimes.

He told everyone he was going after all those at DoJ who when after him.

He told everyone about Project 2025 and no one believed him.

He has always been a vindictive, arrogant, liar.

Americans are stupid!

This plus he hates everyone but himself....he will think nothing of pushing the nukes and his yes men will bow down to him.

[Anonymous]

Trump's priorities: We're cutting your health care and cancer cures to pay to deport your nurse assistant and cancer researcher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no longer a milquetoast Republican Party that Democrats can tolerate. Instead, there’s a populist Republican Party that WINS. Everyone knew who Trump was, and they STILL preferred him to Democrats in 2024. Assuming that HE is going to now SAVE Democrats from themselves is wishful thinking indeed.

Instead, Democrats will have to come up with a new policy platform that flyover state voters actually like. So far, that looks like a task the Democrats can’t handle. They HATE flyover state voters and do NOT want to govern for their benefit.

Trump and the Republicans are taking away high speed internet, consimer products safety, clean air and water, labor rights, affordable consumer goods and groceries, retirement savings, and Medicaid from flyover states.

[Anonymous]

And Trump as done NOTHING to stop Haitians eating cats, and schools giving kids sex change operations and litter boxes to pee i.