Trump Bashing

[Szdfan]

I often end up feeling uncomfortable when I'm around a lot of people who think the way I do.

That doesn't make you reconsider how you think?

No. Part of my identity because of my childhood is that I feel most comfortable being different from the people around me. I'm a perennial outsider. As Groucho Marx put it, "I don't care to belong to any club that would have me as a member."

[ken_sylvania]

And yet I do feel apprehensive about the election. When Trump calls Democrats "the enemy within," that scares me.

I would say the people who spur unbalanced people to attempt to assassinate Trump, ARE the enemy within.

What about the people who put guns in their hands?

You thinking of people like Tim Walz who voted in favor of this resolution?

[ken_sylvania]

No. Part of my identity because of my childhood is that I feel most comfortable being different from the people around me. I'm a perennial outsider. As Groucho Marx put it, "I don't care to belong to any club that would have me as a member."

It just keeps getting worse! Now you're an admitted Marxist?

[Szdfan]

No. Part of my identity because of my childhood is that I feel most comfortable being different from the people around me. I'm a perennial outsider. As Groucho Marx put it, "I don't care to belong to any club that would have me as a member."

It just keeps getting worse! Now you're an admitted Marxist?

Just a Groucho Marxist.

[Ken]

I would say the people who spur unbalanced people to attempt to assassinate Trump, ARE the enemy within.

What about the people who put guns in their hands?

You thinking of people like Tim Walz who voted in favor of this resolution?

Him too. He was one of 6 Dems who joined Trump and all the Republicans in making sure efforts to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill were repealed.

[ohio jones]

I grew up in West Berlin

A little off subject and on the other side of the wall, but I just saw this:
Documentary tells about East German pastor spy

“Church Under Observation” (Gemeinde unter Beobachtung) tells the story of how Knuth Hansen, a KGB spy, came to be pastor of Berlin Mennonite Church in Germany from 1980 to 1990.

Do you know anything about this?

[ken_sylvania]

What about the people who put guns in their hands?

You thinking of people like Tim Walz who voted in favor of this resolution?

Him too. He was one of 6 Dems who joined Trump and all the Republicans in making sure efforts to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill were repealed.

If I can get away with quoting a banned source here:

Mental impairment is a complex issue, and claiming that Trump made it easier for those with a mental illness to access firearms is an overstatement that ignores what the regulation did and who it affected.

[Szdfan]

I grew up in West Berlin

A little off subject and on the other side of the wall, but I just saw this:
Documentary tells about East German pastor spy

“Church Under Observation” (Gemeinde unter Beobachtung) tells the story of how Knuth Hansen, a KGB spy, came to be pastor of Berlin Mennonite Church in Germany from 1980 to 1990.

Do you know anything about this?

Not this particular case, but it was extremely common that the East German churches were infiltrated by the Stasi.

[Grace]

And yet I do feel apprehensive about the election. When Trump calls Democrats "the enemy within," that scares me.

I would say the people who spur unbalanced people to attempt to assassinate Trump, ARE the enemy within.

I grew up in West Berlin, literally in the shadow of authoritarianism in a society that was still trying to make sense of the Nazis. When Trump refers to his political opponents as "vermin" and "the enemy within," I hear the language of fascism. I'm not calling Trump a fascist, but he uses fascist type language and that scares me.

And calling someone Hitler, or an "existential treat to Democracy" is equally the language of fascism.

[mike]

I would say the people who spur unbalanced people to attempt to assassinate Trump, ARE the enemy within.

I grew up in West Berlin, literally in the shadow of authoritarianism in a society that was still trying to make sense of the Nazis. When Trump refers to his political opponents as "vermin" and "the enemy within," I hear the language of fascism. I'm not calling Trump a fascist, but he uses fascist type language and that scares me.

And calling someone Hitler, or an "existential treat to Democracy" is equally the language of fascism.

Trump was at least as pro-Israel during his first term as any other president. The Hitler attacks don't make sense and aren't going to stick. We already know what his presidency will look like; it will be fraught with his bellicose manners and language but his actual governing will most likely be characterized by typical conservative Republican principles. And his ridiculous and extreme language is only mirrored by his opponents. Biden said this week Trump should be locked up, then walked it back by saying he meant politically, not literally.

And that's the thing, politicians can NEVER be taken literally, especially during election season. I believe very little of what any of them say; I don't understand why we find it all that frightening when Biden says Trump should be locked up or Trump talks about the enemy within. Their words just barely even matter at this point, they are down to the wire and saying ANYTHING to get elected. What matters is what they will actually do, and the benefit of Trump and Harris being the nominees is that people have gotten to see what each of them actually do when in high office. And they will choose accordingly- and by the looks of things, its a pretty even split as to which of the two Americans prefer.