Depends. He seems pretty out of it right now and I don’t know how much he would really accomplish. He’s also pretty old and unhealthy.
But if he comes back angry and the people around him are effective, then yeah we would start looking for other places to live. I’m not trying to live in a Russian-style handmaid’s tale.
I don’t think it’s dramatic to suggest Trump may actually put an end to our democracy though. Another Lemmy commenter summed it up best. They pointed out that we on the left may have disagreed with McCain or Bush, but we never once feared that they would seize power or leave NATO. We trusted them to at least keep the ship afloat and respect the basic tenants of our free and democratic nation.
With Trump, we don’t have that. All bets are off because he’s an unhinged narcissist. He would leave NATO and risk the Pax Americana that has stabilized the world for almost 100 years now. And he would do it for money, for negative attention, or just because someone told him he couldn’t. America has some pretty major faults but China and Russia are not ready to take the reigns. Say what you will about the West but we at least endeavor to protect human rights. I think anyone who isn’t trying to build on the current Western peace is incredibly dangerous in a very scary way.
He would leave NATO and risk the Pax Americana that has stabilized the world for almost 100 years now.
Stabilizing the world is just flat out wrong. At best, the US has stabilized itself and a select few allies. Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan most recently, along with a whole bunch of countries in Central and South America over the last 100 years would probably feel quite strongly that the US has been a disruptive force for them.
As a devout lefty who thinks America and capitalism need a lot more checks and balances, I have to somewhat disagree with you.
When we talk peace, we are talking relative terms. And I suppose I should also add prosperity into the mix.
I think the West has enabled a period of relative peace and prosperity never before seen. And I think it’s getting, overall, better every day. Technology and capitalism, for all their evils, have lifted billions out of poverty and saved billions of lives.
I’m rather curious how you relativise a lot of the US’ recent history. Sure, Iraq and Afghanistan weren’t pillars of stability, but I think the balance comes down pretty hard against the US with Vietnam and other Southeast Asian nations as well. Our continued support of Israel and Saudi Arabia isn’t looking so hot either.
Then we’ve got military intervention in the Dominican Republic and support of Trujillo until he stopped being useful, installing the Pinochet regime after helping topple the government of Salvador Allende, support for the military dictatorship in Brazil, as well as backing dictatorships in Argentina.
Our colonization of the Philippines was pretty awful, as is our continued treatment of Puerto Rico as essentially a vacation spot and Caribbean ghetto.
You get the idea. Seriously, I’m hard pressed to think of an instance in the last century where the US has intervened on the international stage and actually has a credible claim to having done good with the exception of World War II.
The government has created and fought for stability for a small subset of monied interests and has largely left the rest of us to jump for whatever table scraps they deign to let fall to us plebs. As @Nokinori mentions, even domestically, things are increasingly coming undone at the seams and looking ready to get worse.
Unfortunately, that’s all come at a cost of destroying and destabilizing billions of lives. I’m not disagreeing that a lot of people have benefitted from that. Competition - which is what capitalism is when you distill it and ignore all the inside ball that corporations and governments play - generates new ideas and promotes the ones that generate the most capital. But it also leaves a lot of people behind. And for now let’s just ignore the idea that there could be anything else as noble as the generation of more capital.
In the US, wealth inequality is only getting worse, with homeless populations and food scarcity continuing to grow and things like access to healthcare and quality education on the decline. And there are areas of the world that have been radically destabilized by the US to retain that position of dominance and prosperity.
If you look for a nation with the current / recent, per capita record for ‘lifting people out of poverty’ you’d have to give the medal to China. Do I think the way they’ve done things over the last few decades is producing a healthy society? Nope. I’d much rather live in the US than in China. But I don’t think the US is producing a healthy society either. We’re all just screwed up in our own ways, fighting for resources and acting like our way of doing things is ok because it’s what we are indoctrinated into from a young age.
The US focuses on generating capital as a metric of success because it enables geopolitical dominance and prosperity for just enough people to keep the wheels rolling.
But that’s just my perspective.
I’m sure the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires would agree with you, haha.
Everyone should read their Project 2025 plan, they plan on consolidating power by firing or arresting any non Right winger in power or employed by the government, among many other fascistic power consolidation wet dreams:
https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/commentary/project-2025
https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2023/11/17/project-2025-democratic-doomsday/
https://www.advocate.com/news/project-2025-republicans-maga
https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/16h9fqe/what_is_the_deal_with_project_2025/
I humbly request you post this in https://lemmy.cafe/c/benjamingetthemusket
Make the thread and I’ll pin it
They pointed out that we on the left may have disagreed with McCain or Bush, but we never once feared that they would seize power or leave NATO.
They were saying all of the same things about W. Bush in 2004.
We trusted them to at least keep the ship afloat and respect the basic tenants of our free and democratic nation.
Not at all. The left viewed W. Bush as a wannabe dictator, not much different from how Trump is viewed now.
I did not view Bush at all like Trump. Really disliked his political takes on most things and thought he was embarrassingly dumb some times but it never ever even crossed my mind that he was a threat to the republic. And actually admired his composure and leadership after 9/11. They’re not even remotely comparable.
I viewed Bush as an incompetent moron with business cronies crawling in to every spot in his administration. I don’t recall people saying he was a wannabe dictator, he had at least some respect for the Constitution and the electoral process. Trump on the other hand, put extreme pressure on the DoJ to direct investigations away from him, minimize their impact or bury them as best as possible. His administration freaking extradited a convicted Russian agent back to her home country because she was funneling money and propaganda to the GOP through the NRA. Trump is a wannabe dictator, he didn’t get to be one because he didn’t have to spine to follow through with his coup because he knew he needed the thinnest amount of plausible deniability to give his GOP sycophants cover to justify letting him off the hook if it failed.
I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Absolutely
i’ll worry about it if and when it happens. i have wasted too much time, energy and resources worrying and catastrophizing about things i cannot control.
Not a bad idea to consider a plan though. If you’d want to move away, that’s a major decision that is best made through research and deliberation, not in a fearful rush to escape.
So in other words, you plan to let yourself and your family be killed so you can feel better.
The “stick head in sand” method has become extremely popular and it is a serious problem.
Be killed??? Look, I know Trump is nutso, but why in the world would him being president again equate to someone’s family being killed??
Dunno know. Maybe they are immigrants and will end up in some camp, maybe they are trans and someone will murder them, maybe they are Jewish or muslim and someone will shot up their temple, maybe they are Asian and someone will push them right into the subway tracks, maybe they will work in the service industry and be forbidden from wearing a mask, maybe they are diabetic and lose their Obamacare coverage for insulin…
What the fuck can I do? Just be even more depressed about the state of the country
Not everyone has the luxury of uprooting their lives when a fascist comes.
Yeah so many in the thread are like “duh I just moved, easy”
Yeah ok easy for you
Wait till you hear about Latin America!
Wait till you hear about my beloved Argentina.
LET’S BURN THIS MOTHER DOWN!
I’ll get the kerosene
If we make plans, and post them on the internet, people start throwing around words like “premeditated” and it just makes things harder.
I love this. “We have a plan but we can’t tell you.”. Peak uselessness.
Sounds like the impeachment proceedings going on right now. That’s Reeepubs for ya.
I’ll sigh, shake my head, and think, “That figures”. And then I’ll go to work, like every other day.
This but perhaps crippling depression as well.
This is the default answer
what else can we do in a country like this with the candidates and party system we have? it would be nice to have real elections and options.
Voting is important, I also like to think about other tangible ways to build power - like what is power? It’s being able to eat, having a place to live, having healthcare, saying what I want, associating with who I want, deciding how I spend my time.
I think about how the Mondragon complex, probably the largest worker cooperative in the world, started in Franco’s Spain, and turned one of the poorest regions into one of the wealthiest.
I’d like to think I would stay and work to gain more power for myself and my peers - I want to stay and join/start a worker cooperative. I want to see a massive ecosystem of worker owned enterprises, which will translate to tangible power. Getting organized means being better able to fight off the kind of oppression Trump promises.
Watch Democrats blame people they were actively hostile towards for not enthusiastically waiting for hours in the cold to vote for them.
Then watch the world’s longest-running uninterrupted democracy with the world’s largest military and the world’s largest nuclear arsenal become a fascist dictatorship. Maybe I’ll die quickly and have a chance to be envied.
Fix your messaging, Dems. Pretend he’s a progressive and oppose him.
Honestly, just point to his examples of government overreach! Heck if Dems really wanted to hurt him, do some overreach that they want to do anyway and make sure that they thank the man, heck say without him this would be impossible and that if we don’t take advantage of it someone else will!
Just go hard on red flag laws, just use those bad boys up on all of their opponents, and say “Trump was awful for a lot of things, but thank god he got some of the strongest anti gun laws on the books in decades, without him, we couldn’t have gone after this dangerous far right militia, he really made this inevitable.”
Just go hard on red flag laws,
Democrats don’t “go hard” on anything.
ackchtually russia has the most nukes
Lose my last shred of faith in this country, mostly
Looool look at this guy, he still has some faith left
Kicking him out did restore a nonzero amount yes.
Take a shot for every comment saying “Move to Canada” :)
Move to Canada
Move to Canada
Move to Canada
Move to Canada
RIP, Lemminary.
Move to Canada
Move to Canada
Move to Canada
Go easy dude, you’re gonna kill him.
I thought that was the point?
Just giving him a head start
Move to Canada
As much of a joke as it is, that’s a real option for me. Won’t pull the trigger on day one, but you bet your ass I’ll be ready to go at a moments notice.
Oh yeah because it’s that easy to just pack up and move to a country that doesn’t want you.
I will have no issue imegrating, I have “an in” as well as a place to live already.
The border is only a 20 minute drive anyway.
The “doesn’t want me” statement seems like your personal opinion, not objective reality.
Yah, if you have any skills and are financially stable, Canada is super down. They love people who contribute to society.
Or, ya know, you married one of em.
Statistically, most people who pop off about moving to Canada won’t have an easy time of it, but the two countries do share one of the world’s longest land borders and have countless economic and cultural ties. There are undoubtedly thousands of people in the US who have citizenship or eligibility for work permits, along with some financial means.
Exactly. I would’ve left this country years ago if it was that simple. I can’t afford to vacation in Canada, let alone move there, and I live in a northern state.
There are currently only 8 or 9 “move to Canada” comments; you’ll need more before the number of shots is sure to kill you.
deleted by creator
It’s completely understandable! I wouldn’t want to be in the US either if I were American and Canada seem pretty chill in comparison.
Sashay to french canaday
You think you’re… you’re BETTER than me?! Huh?!
The same plan I have every election, TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD.
To prove our mousey worth
and overthrow the Earth.
Before the night is done,
our plan will be unfurled.
By the dawning of the sun,
we’ll take over the world.
Well, I’ve got some rope, a candlestick, a revolver, a lead pipe and a nice knife; I wanted to keep my options open.
We playing Clue?! I’ll be Prof. Plum!
I’m Colonel Mustard!
I want to be Tim Curry!
We all do, bud. Get to the back of the line.
A typical Fallout loot inventory
How does one off themself with a candlestick
I already moved. It’s not just Trump that’s the problem, and even if he loses in 2024, or does in office, the issues still will persist. America needs to figure out how to make the judicial system work properly and norms need to be codified. Vast swaths of the population need to change their culture of “us vs them”.
I won’t be going back, the way things work with Republicans, you can’t just move to a blue state, you have to move out of the country.
Great solution
to continue to live my life
Voting.
Local. State. Federal. Like I always have. I also moved out of a “shithole” state in the words of our treasonous former president.
With China having a severe gender imbalance and a massive generation (age) imbalance, it’s going to cause all sorts of problems for them soon. Big, big fucking problems. And Russia just had all their young men flee, die stupidly, or decide Russia might not be the best place after they’ve released shittons of violent offenders, lol. Russia’s future looks dim at best. Iran isn’t looking too healthy either.
So the bottom line is this: no matter where you go, you aren’t outrunning a shift to a multipolar world, especially one where resources like fresh water and food will be getting more scarce as climate change fucks the world and countries get more desperate, particularly authoritarian ones that are losing a tenuous grip on their people. That shit always causes wars, because humans are too fucking stupid to prioritize science in any other context.
Countries with democracy and immigration and the means to defend themselves and their friends are your best bet. Our fate and your own fate are intrinsically linked because of that.
Usually I’d grab my bucket of popcorn and watch another 4 years of the shitshow that is US politics.
Unfortunately, this time the same kind of shitshow is happening across the pond in quite a few countries (not just the usual eastern ex-soviet states), including my country. Populist morons fueled by the Trump, Bolsonaro, Le pen, Orbán cookbook.
People are eating this up on social networks and voting for them. I feel it’s going to get real nasty.
Yeah! What’s so delightful about things is how the U.S. tends to kind of set the climate for the politics in the west. The nazi party here in Sweden wasn’t doing bad per se, but after Trump’s victory they skyrocketed! They became the second biggest party last election, beating out the milquetoast bourgeoisie for the first time ever.
Believe Italy has the same issue currently. Lovely stuff.
Mind you I’m not blaming the U.S., it’s just that big headlines over there tends to colour ours too.
It’s just a little bit of History repeating
Not just western countries, either. You even see countries like China and Russia devolving too, collecting power, raising to the poverty index to make it look like russians aren’t starving, making term limits virtually indefinite, jailing opponents.
Only thing is that they’ve got a head start on making bad decisions, China since 2012, Russia since the 00s.
