FTA:

Trump's skills and talents go unrecognized when we see him as a conventional candidate"a person who seeks to explain policies that might improve lives, or who works to create the appearance of empathy. Yet this is our shortcoming more than his. Trump has always been a presence, not an absence: the presence of fascism. What does this mean?

When the Soviets called their enemies "fascists," they turned the word into a meaningless insult. Putinist Russia has preserved the habit: a "fascist" is anyone who opposes the wishes of a Russian dictator. So Ukrainians defending their country from Russian invaders are "fascists." This is a trick that Trump has copied. He, like Vladimir Putin, refers to his enemies as "fascists," with no ideological significance at all. It is simply a term of opprobrium.

Putin and Trump are both, in fact, fascists. And their use of the word, though meant to confuse, reminds us of one of fascism's essential characteristics. A fascist is unconcerned with the connection between words and meanings. He does not serve the language; the language serves him. When a fascist calls a liberal a "fascist," the term begins to work in a different way, as the servant of a particular person, rather than as a bearer of meaning.

I found this passage to be spot on:

Fascism is now in the algorithms, the neural pathways, the social interactions. How did we fail to see all this?

"Biden and democrats spent the past four years putting hearts on the White House lawn and ignoring the world around them."

They actually spent the time stabilzing the economy and helping working and middle class Americans. Unfortunately, that was not enough because a lot of people failed to see how well the American economy did rebound, especially in comparison to other countries around the world that were all also impacted by the covid pandemic and its aftermath. I heard someone say something the other day like: "Don't bring a policy wonk pen to a knife fight with a demagogue." Democrats thought that they could depend on the fact that they did deliever on the economy beyond most economists' expectations, but in a post-truth, post-fact world, none of that mattered. Trump appealed to people's emotions, the baser the better, and that is what proved to be the winning formula.

I think it has to do with the Rush Limbaugh-ization of the news. Republicans spent the past decades concentrating on prioritizing the "news" they wanted Americans to see:

Why Does No One Understand the Real Reason Trump Won?

It wasn't the economy. It wasn't inflation, or anything else. It was how people perceive those things, which points to one overpowering answer.

The answer is the right-wing media. Today, the right-wing media"Fox News (and the entire News Corp.), Newsmax, One America News Network, the Sinclair network of radio and TV stations and newspapers, iHeart Media (formerly Clear Channel), the Bott Radio Network (Christian radio), Elon Musk's X, the huge podcasts like Joe Rogan's, and much more"sets the news agenda in this country. And they fed their audiences a diet of slanted and distorted information that made it possible for Trump to win.

Let me say that again, in case it got lost: Today, the right-wing media sets the news agenda in this country. Not The New York Times. Not The Washington Post (which bent over backwards to exert no influence when Jeff Bezos pulled the paper's Harris endorsement). Not CBS, NBC, and ABC. The agenda is set by all the outlets I listed in the above paragraph. Even the mighty New York Times follows in its wake, aping the tone they set disturbingly often.

"I think engaging with him and his voters will yield better results than name calling, "the resistance", etc. at this point because he truly represents the majority"

Are they the majority consistently though? Usually in this country power flows back and forth between the parties because neither party has all the answers or gets everything right. These shifts in voter preferences have never been static, permanent.

I don't know about his voters, but the only way to engage with Trump is to agree with him and do what he wants/tells you to do. I've seen no evidence that he wants to have a dialogue with Democrats, Independents or Republicans who aren't Trumpers.

Trump may be a fascist, but Putin is showing him who's boss, video of coverage of Melania on Russian TV at link:

Decoding Fox News
@DecodingFoxNews
Trump thinks he's besties with Putin and this is how Russian state media treats his wife. Putin is letting him know who is boss.

Julia Davis
@JuliaDavisNews
Meanwhile in Russia: this is how the most watched state TV channel in the country welcomed Melania Trump's upcoming return to the White House. Olga Skabeeva is trying not to laugh. This was probably her idea.

Don't confuse stupid with ignorant.

Stupid:
having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.

Ignorant: lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated.

Et Danni and Gal,
Problem is, you really think the economy was better, when over half the country's votes is telling you it was not.
That's the problem. You are telling people to ignore what they see everyday and just go on blind faith.
Maybe you need to stop talking to so many liberals/Democrats every day and start talking to some actual middle class voters and see what was really affecting them.
#14 | Posted by boaz

It's about context. The whole world suffered financial setbacks because of the covid pandemic. A little research reveals that America has recovered better than other countries, and that recovery has been ongoing and takes time. People are too impatient. They think economies around the world should recover quickly, which is magical thinking. We were on the right track. Now we'll see what happens when Trump and the Republicans take over.

America's economy is the envy of the world. Will it stay that way?

Donald Trump's victory in this year's election had a lot to do with how many Americans feel about the US economy (surprise: not good). But Simon Rabinovitch, US Economics Editor for The Economist, argues that, despite the turmoil of the past few years, America's economy remains the envy of the world. Today on the show, Simon explains why that is, but also why he believes a Trump presidency puts America's 'economic exceptionalism' at risk.

Corky, didn't use the word stupid. You did. Corky used the word anti-intellectual, which is something altogether different. Anti-intellectualism is related to the new fade of eschewing expertise.

To me rejecting expertise isn't usually a wise move. I want my doctor to be an expert in the field I am consulting him /her about. I want my plumber to be an expert at plumbing. Ditto my electrician, my kids' teachers, my auto mechanic, etc.

I don't mind people being anti-intellectual if by that you mean rejecting people who confine themselves to the ivory towers of academia. I've been in some of those ivory towers, and they can indeed devolve into irrelavance and even stupidity, and, yes, I'm using that word deliberately. But I do mind people being anti-intellect in the sense that they discard the use of knowledge and critical thinking. The article I posted above says:

"Donald Trump's victory in this year's election had a lot to do with how many Americans feel about the US economy (surprise: not good)."

I get it. I don't "feel" very good about the cost of eggs either, but I do "know" that the economy is improving in concrete ways, which are factual and undeniable. I also don't "believe" Trump's policies are going to make things better. My opinion, but we are going to get a reality test. In 4 years let's see how the economy is doing.

Joe Walsh
@WalshFreedom
This is on them. The American people knowingly chose a cruel, dishonest, lawless authoritarian to be their president. Some who voted for him said "I don't care" that he's a cruel, dishonest, lawless, authoritarian. And others who voted for him said "I want to be ruled by" a cruel, dishonest, lawless authoritarian. But either way, this is now on them. They ALL will deserve everything a cruel, dishonest, lawless authoritarian does to them. And does to America.

To the extent that voters in the coming months and years say things like:

I didn't think he would deport my family members.

I didn't think it would cost me my job.

I didn't think I'd lose my health care.

I didn't think my special needs child would be affected.

I didn't think my wife would die in child birth.

I thought my taxes would go down more.

I thought my wages would go up and that I'd get paid for overtime.

I didn't think I would be fired for wanting to join a union.

And so on, is the extent to which those voters were uninformed.

-Corky used the word anti-intellectual, which is something altogether different.
Not to the person you're directing that insult to.
And it IS an insult. Corky means it that way and it means "you're ------ stupid".
It's not something altogether different to the typical Trump supporter. It's the same thing....maybe that's a good example of what makes them an "anti-intellectual". LOL
And that's fine....I'm not complaining.
#26 | Posted by eberly

Maybe I did put Corky's comment into my own frame of reference.

Corky?

"I hope you find peace. Understand, the majority of the U.S. population doesnt like your ideology. That's not me. That's the country."

It's barely half the country. Let's wait till we get all the numbers in on not only the the presidential election popular vote count but also on the number of people represented by the Democratic vesus Republican Senators and what the actually margin of victory was in each of the swing states. I know MAGA voters are trying to depict this as a massive mandate/blowout. It wasn't. It's still pretty much an evenly divided country.

"I know MAGA voters are trying to depict this as a massive mandate/blowout. It wasn't. It's still pretty much an evenly divided country."

Which is why Trump and the GOP shouldn't engage in their normal overreaching tendencies but they will.

All the numbers are in yet but this is how they are trending:

Wajahat Ali
@WajahatAli
As the collective freak out continues, Harris will lose by about 2 points. Trump will get about 50.3% of the vote. Across the Rust Belt swing states Harris would have lost by less than 150K votes it seems.

*are not in yet

To the extent that voters in the coming months and years say things like:
I didn't think he would deport my family members.
I didn't think it would cost me my job.
I didn't think I'd lose my health care.
I didn't think my special needs child would be affected.
I didn't think my wife would die in child birth.
I thought my taxes would go down more.
I thought my wages would go up and that I'd get paid for overtime.
I didn't think I would be fired for wanting to join a union.
And so on, is the extent to which those voters were uninformed.
#27 | Posted by Gal_Tuesday

I posted this list earlier and 2 of the items are on track to come true for some lucky Trump voters:

David Shuster
@DavidShuster
Trump has now reaffirmed his plan to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. For the record that department funds, among other things, all the special education and special needs program in public schools and public colleges in all 50 states.

Homan on Hannity:

Homan: if you're in the country illegally, you shouldn't feel comfortable.. If I'm in some other country illegally, I'm not going to be comfortable. When you enter this country illegally, you have committed a crime, you're a criminal and you're not off the table.