this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
693 points (96.8% liked)

politics

19120 readers
3013 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Ashyr@sh.itjust.works 177 points 11 months ago (25 children)

The amount of people here commenting authoritatively about this is disheartening.

Trump's economic policies were insane. I remember looking at his campaign platform and seeing tax cuts everywhere and with no way to pay for anything.

I remember him shuttering valuable tools like the pandemic response teams because he wanted to tear down the success of previous administrations.

I still remember him mocking our military, displaying state secrets on national tv, trade wars that destroyed American jobs, diplomatic decisions that ruined international relationships.

I remember immigrant children locked in cages.

I remember the rule of law being absolutely trampled in order to achieve nothing. Just norms and institutions being torn down.

Trump accomplished nothing and made literally every facet of our government, politics and economic life worse.

He performed a political pump and dump and the entire world is still picking up the pieces.

He is a fascist and categorically the worst president we've ever had and every person here saying, "well actually..." should be ashamed.

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 15 points 11 months ago (3 children)

While I agree I'd be careful with "I remember immigrant children locked in cages." If you don't want all the "ObAmA StArTeD iT aNd BiDeN CoNtInUeD!" comments lol

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (24 replies)
[–] YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world 126 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Trump was the worst President in U.S. History.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 62 points 11 months ago (9 children)

I would say second-worst after Andrew Jackson. Hard to beat genocide in order to make a massive land grab.

[–] forrgott@lemm.ee 56 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Personally, I'm very bitter about the completely awful effects of Reagan's tenure. Literally turned the office into a Hollywood act; you know damn well he wasn't calling the shots. He was there to draw people's attention.

[–] highenergyphysics@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago (2 children)

He also defunded 99% of American science to pour billions into a hole in Texas that never had a chance of working.

Ever notice how all major breakthroughs these days come from non-US scientists? The scene never recovered.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Mellibird@lemm.ee 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Let's not forget the "war on drugs" as well. A lot of awful things came from the Reagan era.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] SapphironZA@lemmings.world 11 points 11 months ago

Not to mention that he changed economic policy to ensure the boomer generation will dominate all following generations.

[–] n2burns@lemmy.ca 29 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If Drumpf gets a second term, I think he'll be going for the high score.

[–] SmarfDurden@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

Dismantling democracy would definitely put him over the top

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 21 points 11 months ago

Tbh Andrew Johnson (became president after Lincoln was assassinated) is pretty high up there, too. I might actually put him ahead of Trump in terribleness, because a lot of the regressive societal shit we are dealing with now - and have been dealing with for around 150 years - can be directly attributed to Johnson’s softball treatment of the Confeds during reintegration.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Trump/Kushner did try to weaponize the COVID response against blue regions that voted Democrat. That's pretty bad

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] AnonTwo@kbin.social 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I mean, among the most evil maybe, but he was successful in what he did at least.

Can't forget that Trump if anything killed millions not even because he was trying to, but outright negligence.

[–] YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Trump activity attempting to overthrow the Federal Government pushes him beyond Jackson. Moving the Southeast Tribes to Oklahoma was a fall out of the War of 1812 against the Tribes who joined the British. It doesn't remove how horrible that was. Moving so many people during a pandemic of Yellow Fever was inexcusable. Obviously Jackson didn't care.

I still think Trump attempts to overthrow the government is worse as well as losing 20 million jobs, making the Covid pandemic worse by inaction, and all his criminal activity.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 53 points 11 months ago (17 children)

Let's be clear though, it wasn't because of his economic policy, it was his thorough mishandling of covid that got one million Americans killed which was the problem.

[–] CobblerScholar@lemmy.world 35 points 11 months ago (1 children)

More significantly yes but let's not forget the massive tax cuts and regulation destruction he did

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] forrgott@lemm.ee 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't that his brainless decisions regarding economic policy did anything but make it worse.

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 23 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Remember his trade wars with...everyone? And then he renegotiated the same agreements but worse?

[–] forrgott@lemm.ee 8 points 11 months ago

I would love to not remember the entire four years; but I have to accept that the only chance to learn from it is to acknowledge that the shit did happen. Ugh.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Hux@lemmy.ml 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but the man didn’t do anything without the combination of someone telling him to do it and somehow that thing being made worth his while.

So, why the hell would he decide/be-told to disband the US Pandemic Response team in May 2018?

https://x.com/atomicanalyst/status/994696175575068672?s=46&t=g3yM8UdEINqcLyXIxWs-lg

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Apparently, Trump had a beef with his National Security advisor, and that advisor was good friends with the admiral in charge of the pandemic office. So, to punish the Advisor, Trump closed down his buddy's office.

[–] aStonedSanta@lemm.ee 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It’s all so petty. And people still want this person to have power. Society is so confusing.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 9 points 11 months ago

These thoughts are not original to me.

The Boomers were mostly raised by people who'd survived the Depression and WW2. The parents were deeply scarred by those experiences and told the Boomers they had to be 'tough.' The Boomers grew up in a world of plenty, and never had any idea of what 'tough' really was. Men like Reagan and Trump, who built their image as 'tough guys' never got within a mile of actual combat. This is perfect for Boomers who spent their lives avoiding real conflict while thinking of themselves as bad ass pioneers.

The other thing is 'Future Shock.' A sociologist named Alvin Toffler and his wife wrote a book back in the 1970s. The idea of 'future shock' was that as the Industrial Age died and the Digital Era bloomed, a lot of people would be unwilling/unable to adopt to the changing world. They woudl try harder and harder to keep the past alive, even if it meant killing the future.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] TimLovesTech@badatbeing.social 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I think they handled it all according to the plan. It allowed them to sow distrust in everyone from doctors just trying to save people's lives, to the very government he was in charge of. It basically set the hook for his cult of "you can only trust me". And his cult believes that millions are going to die from the vaccine, and at the same time that people dying from COVID is "fake news".

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (13 replies)
[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 42 points 11 months ago (1 children)

To be fair, even if Trump did manage the pandemic like a sane person, the economy likely would’ve still taken a massive pandemic hit.

Other nations, with better public health policies and lower losses of life, also saw a bonkers hit to economic indicators.

[–] RunningInRVA@lemmy.world 32 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You can’t say that about the rampant spending that took place during his administration. Conservative fiscal policy be damned!

[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 35 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They are only concerned with spending when they are not in power.

It's been that way for years.

[–] tmyakal@lemm.ee 16 points 11 months ago

It's classic Two Santas from the Republicans again.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] badaboomxx@lemmy.world 38 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Well, he got half of his term playing golf. If he had been all day in office I am sure that he'd tanked it even more.

[–] Facebones@reddthat.com 23 points 11 months ago (7 children)

What if I told you that people who vote for Trump aren't doing so for his fiscal policy? 🤔

[–] wildcardology@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I've watched interviews of MAGAts being asked what specific Trump policy made their lives better and their answers are always "the economy".

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] hark@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

His policies were standard republican fare. The difference maker was covid.

load more comments
view more: next ›