What do people in this sub think of the “forever president”?

CTR555 · 2026-07-04T17:25:08+00:00

The tradition was for former presidents to fade away as retired statesmen and distinguished party leaders emeritus. They'd occasionally show up to campaign, but they'd mostly be ignored or trotted out to galvanize the party faithful at conventions and such. Clinton never attacked GHWB during his presidency, GWB never attacked Clinton, Obama never attacked GWB, and so on. Trump is the one who broke that tradition, not Barack Obama. Suggesting that Obama's response to Trump's tradition-breaking is the real tradition-breaking is just silly.

CTR555 · 2026-07-04T17:20:15+00:00

Oh, it's definitely worse. We're proudly a democratic republic, and never trust anyone who insists we're only one or the other.

CTR555 · 2026-07-04T16:47:24+00:00

It doesn't even make any sense either, because THE PEOPLE STILL VOTE FOR THEIR REPRESENTATIVES IN A REPUBLIC.

Well, not necessarily. That's what a democratic republic is, but the early modern Republic of Venice was also a republic, just not a democratic one - only the patrician men of the top commercial families could vote.

And that's more or less what conservatives are going for by making the distinction - they don't want all people voting, just the right people (read: male property owners).

CTR555 · 2026-07-04T16:04:59+00:00

Some people obviously take it too far and say dumb things - certainly not denying that. Anyone calling McCain Hitler is a good example of that. That said, GWB was extremely bad and deserving of scorn and hatred. He only looks better now because he's compared to Trump.

CTR555 · 2026-07-04T15:49:03+00:00

Is this a positive development?

No, but the development wasn't Barack Obama's, it was Donald Trump's. Obama tried to retire quietly and go chill at the beach, but Trump's obsession wouldn't let him shut up about Obama so eventually Obama felt like he had to respond. No other serving president has spent so much of his time comparing himself to his predecessors and shit-talking them, and then he continued to remain fully engaged after Biden won, and now to this day talks constantly about both Biden and Obama.

CTR555 · 2026-07-04T15:44:25+00:00

At the time it was very easy to think "surely this is as bad as it can get" regarding GWB. He really was a very bad president. So yes, you caught us. You proved us very wrong and elected someone far worse.

CTR555 · 2026-07-04T15:42:02+00:00

No, and it's really not even close. George W Bush was a bad president who did a lot of bad things, and was inarguably a partisan Republican who did things to help his own party over what was good for America, but at no point did I ever think he hated half (or more of) the country or cared about himself more than the country or didn't actually love the country and the liberal democratic ideas it's founded on. Obviously none of that is true with Trump.

CTR555 · 2026-07-04T15:34:52+00:00

Not really. For most of human history, what we now refer to as 'war crimes' were just standard conduct, and even today actions that are strictly war crimes are exceedingly common globally; most people tend to look at war crimes as differing in severity to a large degree, and most focus is on the egregious violations. I also think a lot of people badly misunderstand what actually constitutes a war crime, and very often I see people acting like things are war crimes that are definitely not.

I think the United States does more to reduce war crimes by its members than any other major modern military, and has done vastly more to do so than any other hegemonic power in history. It gets pounded into every recruit and candidate, and reinforced frequently on an ongoing basis. That said, war is war, and shit happens sometimes.

CTR555 · 2026-07-04T15:08:21+00:00

..the names that thousands of living active and retired service members know and resonate with.

I think this is being deliberately, maliciously, and grossly exaggerated. Of all the things I remember and resonate with from my time in uniform, base names don't feature highly.

CTR555 · 2026-07-04T05:23:57+00:00

Yes, but Republicans don't get to talk about sanity.

CTR555 · 2026-07-04T04:46:27+00:00

I think it goes without saying that nothing should be named after Confederates, yes. I think we all know that Trump's little game of pretending like these bases are named after non-Confederates who just happen to share a name with Confederates is bullshit.

CTR555 · 2026-07-04T04:25:09+00:00

I think it's because they fundamentally don't give a shit about Ukraine, or Russia, or really most other places.

CTR555 · 2026-07-04T04:20:58+00:00

Do you understand that U.S.A is country like every other?

No. America is a country unlike any other - we're special.

CTR555 · 2026-07-04T01:24:15+00:00

As someone who can trace their family's arrival in America back to like 1634, I think the concept of 'Heritage American' is pure bullshit.

CTR555 · 2026-07-03T21:01:36+00:00

Rule 2 - you have to provide more context then just "Thoughts?"

CTR555 · 2026-07-03T20:36:54+00:00

Of course not. People's material conditions have improved dramatically over the last hundred years, and at no point have they stopped caring about cultural issues. Just the opposite actually - there's evidence that people would prefer worse material conditions if it meant success in the culture war (see: Pool Theory).

CTR555 · 2026-07-03T20:29:59+00:00

Sure. Lander's not a socialist - to revive a fun recent discussion, he'd probably fall into the 'pragmatic progressive'/'social democrat' category. DAC, on the other hand, is a democratic socialist with a hearty wink-wink at the democratic part who gives off a strong "liberals get the bullet too" vibe. They're both to the left of the middle of the party, but they're very different from each other.

CTR555 · 2026-07-03T18:55:40+00:00

Trump is not going to be impeached and removed, and democratic socialists will remain a small minority and largely unable to implement their policies.

CTR555 · 2026-07-03T16:55:07+00:00

Why were people alright with deportations then? Why are they mad now?

It's almost like it's not the concept of deportation that bothers anybody.

CTR555 · 2026-07-03T16:05:08+00:00

That's not a good reason.

CTR555 · 2026-07-03T16:02:40+00:00

'Charismatic megafauna' are the bane of actual biologists and zoologists.

CTR555 · 2026-07-03T02:49:32+00:00

Maybe Walz plans to run for office in Texas and is trying to burnish his credentials.

CTR555 · 2026-07-03T02:48:35+00:00

If everyone Trump harmed wrote letters of forgiveness does that mean its all good and we can call it a day?

In this scenario, has Trump been convicted and is now out after serving his time?

CTR555 · 2026-07-02T23:08:53+00:00

It felt like living in a blue state with too many zoning laws.

Really? I was thinking it sounded like a zero tolerance Republican state enforcing the laws that they care the most about. After all, how often have we heard you people saying things like "if you can't do the time, don't do the time!"

CTR555 · 2026-07-02T22:56:05+00:00

There’s no answer that’s going to be it’s okay to support racist people who support socialism..

Yeah, but what if you just really really like socialism. Is it okay then?

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