US Politics Thread

I was listening and reading a couple of things on the Jonestown Massacre yesterday (just a bit of light evening entertainment).

I was struck by the similarities you can draw between how Jim Jones interacted with his cult followers and how Trump interacts with his “base”. A bit spooky in places. Subtle things like the inflection in the way he speaks and the way he positions himself in speeches (Jones: “I’m the best friend you’ll ever have.” Trump: “I’m being indicted for you.”). And even when Jones was asking the adults to kill their own kids he is still able to elicit cheers from his crowd through one-liners that sound good until you think about them for 0.5 seconds.

I will caveat I think Jim Jones was smarter and more calculating than Trump. But the similarity in the rhetorical techniques they deploy is pretty stark.
 
SkyBlueFlux said:
I was listening and reading a couple of things on the Jonestown Massacre yesterday (just a bit of light evening entertainment).

I was struck by the similarities you can draw between how Jim Jones interacted with his cult followers and how Trump interacts with his “base”. A bit spooky in places. Subtle things like the inflection in the way he speaks and the way he positions himself in speeches (Jones: “I’m the best friend you’ll ever have.” Trump: “I’m being indicted for you.”). And even when Jones was asking the adults to kill their own kids he is still able to elicit cheers from his crowd through one-liners that sound good until you think about them for 0.5 seconds.

I will caveat I think Jim Jones was smarter and more calculating than Trump. But the similarity in the rhetorical techniques they deploy is pretty stark.
Click to expand...
Much has been written about not only Trump’s similarity to Jones, but about the way he naturally speaks and interacts with others being exactly like a cult leader.

In fact, a bonafide Jonestown survivor, who was shot five times and left for dead (she was an aid to Rep. Leo Ryan, who was murdered there in that same shooting, before Jones ordered his entire congregation to commit suicide), and later became a congresswoman, has said in no uncertain terms that Trump and Jones should be rightly compared.

www.forbes.com

Congresswoman Shot At Jonestown Compares Donald Trump To Cult Leader Jim Jones

"The only difference between Jim Jones and Donald Trump is the fact that we now have social media. So all these people can find themselves in ways that they couldn’t find themselves before.”
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
 
BayernMan said:
Biden has been the most pro labor president since ever…it would be tough for Harris to pivot right of Biden here.
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But they will get all the same support from the President, if she makes it, so they don’t need the No 2 to be of the same ilk. He would give support due to his position but may have other traits that bring in that few extra votes that could get them across the line.

To win an election you need a broad church, a bit like Labour with Starmer to the centre and Rayner towards the left.
 
The Future’s Blue! said:
But they will get all the same support from the President, if she makes it, so they don’t need the No 2 to be of the same ilk. He would give support due to his position but may have other traits that bring in that few extra votes that could get them across the line.

To win an election you need a broad church, a bit like Labour with Starmer to the centre and Rayner towards the left.
Click to expand...

I get it but the Union leaders are just as much beholden to their members as the President is to their various constituents.

The Biden administration has made it a key imperative to strengthen labor and Unions. More so than any other president administration before it. For Harris to pivot would be extremely awkward to go against Biden’s policies and for the Union leaders beholden to their members would also be put in an uncomfortable situation.

Starmer thought he needed to tip toe his way to power to get there. Harris is on a completely different political reality. Tacking to the right of Biden will not be her winning plan.
 
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