• Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    There would be 2 fewer extreme MAGA judges in supreme court.
    The same level of MAGA corruption and disinformation would not have been possible.
    January 6 would never have happened.
    Trump would not have the same legitimacy and platform to constantly scream his MAGA hate message.
    Trump would likely have been judged much sooner for the crimes that were revealed during his first campaign. So he might actually have been in prison by now.
    The widespread MAGA treasonous behavior to favor Putin and Russia and undermine USA would probably not be a thing.

    So since Trump has been THEE major driver of extremism and treason in USA for the past 8 years, I’d say no. USA would not be nearly as divided as it is now.

    • Delusional@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      There would also be about a million less deaths in America since we would’ve had a competent president who wouldn’t fumble such an easy fucking task.

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Not so much that he was incompetent, as it was pure unfiltered corruption.

        He was recorded behind closed doors agreeing that people should mask, and get vacinated, and make sure space between people is adhered to.

        Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut, if covid kills in NYC so easily because it’s condensed amount of people in a small space, and if all the major cities vote blue…then that means covid will kill the democrat voters and mostly leave the republican voters unharmed because they all live on farms and such!

        That was his thought process, verbally expressed. Not mine.

        Problem is, democrat voters didn’t fall for his bullshit. I remember one press conference where he would say things like “Covid will go away in the spring, it’s all a hoax” and then a scientist studying the virus since conception IMMEDIATELY followed it up with “Covid is NOT a hoax. Treat it seriously, or you may die”. Then Trump would say something like “We don’t need businesses shut down, we need to get back to work.” And immediately followed up by that same scientist saying “It’s not wise to encourage people to engage in public activities at this time. We must continue the quarantine”.

        Basically Trump would spew some bullshit, and IMMEDIATELY be followed up with this scientist saying the exact opposite of what Trump said. All this while Trump is giving him a look of “WILL YOU SHUT UP??? YOU’RE FACT CHECKING MY BULLSHIT!!!”

        I LOVE a good absurdist moment…but I prefer for the absurdity to be based in fiction. 3rd Rock From the Sun is amazing absurdist humor. John Lithgow is amazing in that role. However when the show ends, my country isn’t on fire with 1 million people dead.

        So, I see this as corruption rather than incompetence.

  • InternetUser2012@midwest.social
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    2 days ago

    Nope. The racist bastards would still be hiding under their rocks and you wouldn’t have an army wearing red dunce caps drooling while driving their ram pickups with flags in the back.

    Edit: I have upset 3 Ram driving, flag flying, dunce cap wearing mouthbreathers.

  • NeptuneOrbit@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Doubtful. Clinton wouldn’t have focused on division. Sure, it would have simmered like during Obama’s years. But you can name 99 polarizing things Trump did and I can think of few Clinton would have done. Besides, you know, being a woman and continuing Obama’s legacy.

  • SleezyDizasta@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Hillary is pretty divisive herself, and there was bound to be another Trump like candidate in the next election who would makes waves. Trump is a symptom, not the source

  • PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    I’d say it’d depend on the specifics of the result.

    Taking the wind out of MAGA’s sails would take a blowout victory and Hillary wasn’t gonna get that without doing some serious full court pressing for the entire general campaign, like well beyond even the “she should have campaigned more in the rust belt!” ideas people have about where she fell short.

  • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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    3 days ago

    Yes and no.

    You can bet that there would have been 8 years of propaganda against her. And we would have lost even more house/senate seats because people on the left historically decide to not bother to vote in midterms unless there is an active threat on CNN.

    And… I am pretty sure we would have lost in 2020 because of COVID. Which would basically put us back to where we were in 2020 in terms of having a deranged fascist who nobody realized was too dumb to accomplish anything (not a problem this time. See Project 2025).

    The main difference would be the Supreme Court. Yes, republicans did everythiing they could to protevent Obama from appointing anyone and I would not put it past them to have stretched that out for a full four years. But Scalia (Rest in Piss) would still be dead and so would Ginsburg (fuck her for putting us in this mess). Which would have made the math a lot tighter. 7 justices but the math would have been tight enough that Hilary likely would have gotten to appoint at least one moderate.

    I think Hilary would have bought us the better part of a decade because, like her or not, she is an incredibly effective politician… when nobody thinks she is running for POTUS. She is/was even more generally liked by both sides of the aisle than Biden and would never have had to make concessions to sanders and The Squad for the 2020 ticket (Biden is an asshole but his platform is shockingly Left leaning by US standards…)…

    And I think trump would have faded into nothing. But there are plenty of other people who were just looking for an excuse to become a magat on the republican side. And people like cruz and romney and even liz cheney would not be complete laughing stocks without trump. So, at best, we were looking at a ticking clock to the next “reagan republican” as it were.


    Like, there are a lot of people who consider the day Ginsburg died to be the day the US collapsed. And we are seeing exactly the repercussions of that with shit like today.

  • 14th_cylon@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    trump is just a symptom of underlying problem in society that manifests itself all over the world.

    populist politicians trying to appeal to nostalgy for “good old times”, ability to weaponize social media and craft customized lies to every minor group, russian bot networks spewing out propaganda… it is something that creates problems everywhere and it will not get better.

    recent eu parliament elections are shining example.

  • StaySquared@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Yes. The level of corruption would be insane and her fans would use any excuse under the sun to allow said corruption.

    • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      No way in hell would Clinton have been even remotely as corrupt as Trump. You’re just projecting the fact that you are using any excuse to excuse his corruption.

    • Holyginz@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Never thought I would see a right winger so out in the open here. You must be lost, your delusional echo chamber isn’t here.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Ah yes, I’m center right as well. Join me brother to move Biden left to where we are

            • Holyginz@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              No, the sheer lack of understanding and critical thinking to grasp why your comment is wrong is what makes you delusional. Criticizing both sides is what people are supposed to do.

              • StaySquared@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                Wat. My sheer lack of understanding and critical thinking… Hillary is fkin corrupt. Just about every person that opposed Hillary and put her on blast ended up unalived, but your excuse will be, “it’s a coincidence”. Not to mention, Hillary’s a racist ass bitch. She put ethnic minorities under the umbrella term, “Super predators”. The Dems did some massive damage to ethnic minorities, destroyed innocent lives and families. At the aftermath of the crime bill, that should have been the moment they should have turned their backs on the Dems.

                But I concede… I lack understanding and critical thinking haha.

      • StaySquared@lemmy.world
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        Damn you’re pretty good… long ago I would self proclaim to be libertarian… but the libertarian party is full on fkin derpy, stopped caring about the Libertarian party a couple years after Ron Paul was on the debate stage owning the status quo. And not so much a Russian stooge… I just don’t have beef with Russia or Russians. Cold war is over.

  • systemglitch@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Probably. Division is what we are being fed, every day, on every topic with everything.

    We would just be in a different shit show, attacking different groups.

  • Delusional@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Yes. Just because trump lost doesn’t mean conservative propaganda hasn’t been spewing hate and lies for decades. Even before obama, I knew people that hated Democrats but could never tell me why. Their propaganda has labeled Democrats enemies for quite a long time now. They started this shit back in the 50s-70s. Republicans have been brainwashed and somehow they’re proud of that fact.

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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    I read a lot more about US politics in 2016 than I do now (sorry, now that Trump has been president once, I know what it’s like when that happens and don’t worry that much about it anymore). I can tell you that back then it already seemed very divided from my (non-US) point of view.

    • theparadox@lemmy.world
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      now that Trump has been president once, I know what it’s like when that happens and don’t worry that much about it anymore).

      That sounds disturbingly like you aren’t all that concerned about what a second Trump presidency would be like. It sounds like you think the first one wasn’t as bad as people thought it would be and the second one will similarly be better than people think. Am I misreading your words?

      • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 days ago

        This isn’t too far off. In 2016 many people I read thought a Trump presidency would literally be the end of US democracy, possibly the end of the world because he would start a nuclear war. Those are not things that ended up happening, so I do not predict that they will happen if Trump wins this year either.

        • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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          In 2016 many people I read thought a Trump presidency would literally be the end of US democracy

          And it almost was. Remember, he lost an election and tried to send fake electors in to declare him president. When that didn’t work, he worked up his cultists into attacking the capitol in order to threaten pence into not certifying the election. It was so dangerously close to a constitutional crisis that Republicans and Democrats banded together to say that the VP does not have this power.

          Also trump nominated three members of scotus, and it was that majority that just opened the door for the president to commit all kinds of crime with immunity.

          The pain of his last presence is still playing out, and it doesn’t look good.

          I’m more concerned that if he wins again, he’ll complete gut the government and even if he does step aside when his term is up, the damage will be done and we will have no ability to tackle some of the biggest issues facing us: namely climate change.

        • theparadox@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          I see. So what has happened over the last 8 years as a direct result of his election isn’t concerning to you?

          • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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            2 days ago

            There could have been better worlds, probably would have been if Clinton had won in 2016, but it isn’t anywhere near as catastrophic as some people predicted.

            • theparadox@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              There could have been better worlds

              So… because Trump didn’t get unhinged to the point where he started a nuclear war, you aren’t worried.

              • How did you feel about refusing to concede in the 2020 election and creating uncertainty and doubt about the electoral process among a not insignificant minority of voters?

              • How about inciting an angry mob to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power on January 6th?

              • How did you feel about hoarding and hiding classified documents so that he could show them off to impress his friends and guests? Maybe even sell them if times are tough?

              • How about strong-arming the Republican party and installing his family to run it?

              • How do you feel about how his SCOTUS has changed the fundamentals of the US government?

              • The Chevron deference?

              • Bribery?

              • Presidential “immunity” for official acts?

              • How do you feel about the loss of the right to have an abortion?

              Do you think Trump, with the powers newly granted to the office he’s again running for, will act in his second term? Where is your line?

              • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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                2 days ago

                About half of those (esp. those that involve the Supreme Court) would have happened under any generic Republican president too. They are not specific to Trump.

                The first two, I agree with you, really are horrible; but they are also proofs that the American democratic system works because Trump didn’t end up succeeding with them.

                • theparadox@lemmy.world
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                  2 days ago

                  [How] do you think Trump, with the powers newly granted to the office he’s again running for, will act in his second term?

        • TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee
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          There’s a reason why Trump 2016, though it caused a lot of damage, wasn’t nearly as bad as it was thought to be.

          Trump was probably the laziest president in US history. He had no clue what to do at the start of the presidency, and many of his requests were met with resistance by employees in the executive branch because they were stupid or illegal. This is because the executive branch has a small chunk of president-appointed positions relative to the merit-based chunk.

          Many of his successes came about later in his term, as he got plenty of help from well-funded right-wing organizations to find people to appoint to various positions, including the 3 Supreme Court justices who helped remove federal abortion protections.

          If you look forward to now, the same right-wing organizations have prepared a document (Project 2025) serving as instructions for Trump’s first 180 days. It calls for reclassifying every merit-based position in the executive branch into political ones, replacing the people who serve in those positions with Trump loyalists, then dismantling organizations like the FBI, EPA (environmental regulation), NOAA (meteorological organization; helps detect hurricanes), DOJ (sues entities for reasons like antitrust), and more. The only entities that could intervene in this case are the Supreme Court, which is very comfortably on Trump’s side, and Congress, which is very unlikely to be controlled by Democrats in a way that will matter.

          Tl;dr, Trump didn’t know what to do during the first term. For his second term, he was handed a step-by-step tutorial on how to dismantle the FBI and everything else in the executive branch.