Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente
In theory, the United States of America is a pretty cool place. In practice we are a country that elects a donald trump as the most important leader in the world.
Go into one of the 80 (out of 88) counties in Ohio that trump carried in 2016 and speak to a random white person of voting age about trump. Most of them won't know Puerto Ricans are American citizens. Most of them will tell you trump is actually accomplishing great things. The few that says he isn't are blaming the democrats in congress and many of those people actually think democrats are in control of congress.
Living in Ohio for the last few years has been a shocking, alarming and eye-opening experience. The lack of sophistication, ability to think or analyze and the downright scary level of racism actually frightens me.
Many on this forum have written that political change in 2018 and 2020 will be around a basic theme of voter turnout. I wonder if 2016 didn't awaken a great, previously hidden undercurrent of Americans who believe in the rhetoric of trump and the racist message he has been peddling since announcing his candidacy. I wonder if there really are enough people of good will to turn this around. If so, I'm not yet seeing evidence of it, regardless of what today's poll of the approval rating of the president is. I realize the polls are somewhat scientific and my sense and understandings are anecdotal, but my observations have been overwhelmingly negative.
If trump happened 30 years ago or even 20 years ago, I would have said it would lead to a wave of electoral change in the first elections that followed, at the federal and state levels. My guess is 2018 will bring us nearly the status quo in our politics. And if I am not wrong, what a sad commentary that would be.