US Politics Thread

Genuine question, I wonder if the opinion on Gun control in the US will change following these events.

I just can't get my head around their views on guns.
They'll just go with "thoughts and prayers" for the victims, and claim that this would never have happened if only every Trump attendee were armed with automatic weapons.
 
No one’s taken me up yet and offered to explain exactly what Trump has done that makes him a Nazi…. Shock. I’ll wait then.

'Trump was the first presidential candidate to say that he would reject the vote tally if he did not win the election, the first in more than a hundred years to urge his followers to physically beat his opponent, the first to suggest (twice) that his opponent should be murdered, the first to suggest as a major campaign theme that his opponent should be imprisoned, and the first to communicate internet memes from fascists. As a president, he expressed his admiration for dictators around the world.'

- Yale historian Tim Snyder on page 276 of this publication:

1720952057941.png

In the above paragraph, Snyder is probably referring to the time Trump warned at a rally that if Hillary Clinton were elected and got to appoint a tiebreaking Supreme Court justice that there was "nothing you can do, folks,” adding obliquely, "Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.”

See here for more on that:


Been a while since I read Snyder's book but - as with any academic publication - the other points he makes are meticulously footnoted and referenced to his source material.

Just to be clear, I am not exulting in the fact that Trump was shot at nor lamenting the fact that that the attempt was unsuccessful. Rather, I would condemn this incident in the same way that I would the murders of Jo Cox, the Polish mayor of Gdańsk Pawel Adamowicz, and the mayor of the German city of Kassel, Walter Lübcke, who were all killed by far-right terrorists.

I also don't think Trump is a Nazi, though as you can see, he does sail close to the wind at times.

Instead I would categorise Trump as belonging to the populist radical right rather than the extreme right (as represented by parties like, for example, Greece's Golden Dawn (XA) and L'SNS aka People's Party Our Slovakia).

In doing so, I am following the distinction made by Cas Mudde in this book:

1720953106146.png

See here for a brief explanation of that distinction:

 
'Trump was the first presidential candidate to say that he would reject the vote tally if he did not win the election, the first in more than a hundred years to urge his followers to physically beat his opponent, the first to suggest (twice) that his opponent should be murdered, the first to suggest as a major campaign theme that his opponent should be imprisoned, and the first to communicate internet memes from fascists. As a president, he expressed his admiration for dictators around the world.'

- Yale historian Tim Snyder on page 276 of this publication:

View attachment 125282

In the above paragraph, Snyder is probably referring to the time Trump warned at a rally that if Hillary Clinton were elected and got to appoint a tiebreaking Supreme Court justice that there was "nothing you can do, folks,” adding obliquely, "Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.”

See here for more on that:


Been a while since I read Snyder's book but - as with any academic publication - the other points he makes are meticulously footnoted and referenced to his source material.

Just to be clear, I am not exulting in the fact that Trump was shot at nor lamenting the fact that that the attempt was unsuccessful. Rather, I would condemn this incident in the same way that I would the murders of Jo Cox, the Polish mayor of Gdańsk Pawel Adamowicz, and the mayor of the German city of Kassel, Walter Lübcke, who were all killed by far-right terrorists.

I also don't think Trump is a Nazi, though as you can see, he does sail close to the wind at times.

Instead I would categorise Trump as belonging to the populist radical right rather than the extreme right (as represented by parties like, for example, Greece's Golden Dawn (XA) and L'SNS aka People's Party Our Slovakia).

In doing so, I am following the distinction made by Cas Mudde in this book:

View attachment 125286

See here for a brief explanation of that distinction:

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. As you say, it shows he is a lot of things but a Nazi ain’t one.
 
He is the sick one. The extremists exist on both sides. He mocked attempts on democrats lives. The left mock attempts on his. There is no difference.

Indeed there isn't, and there's the problem

No one should be inciting, calling for, carrying out, or mocking political violence, all right-minded people agree there.

But do you agree that Trump and his MAGA movement are currently a greater threat to democracy, civil liberties, and the world than Biden and the Democratic Party?
 

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