Hi,
I don't really want to intrude here, you guys seem to know each other though the forum for a long time but this seems to be the place for political discussions and the opinionated bunch.
I consider myself a Bernie supporter, but in no way submit myself to everything he says with a 100% blind faith as you imply we the "Bernie Bro's" do. In fact I think he has said some really unfortunate stuff that hasn't helped him, not even with a part of his own supporters. I certainly didn't agreed with his wish to outlaw health insurance companies, though I do agree with a socialized health care service that would drive private insurance costs down, as it certainly works in quite a few countries that are not "communists".
His somewhat ambiguous opinions on "left" or communists dictators is not great either. But I get where he's coming from after being a leftists in the U.S politics for so many years. After all, you get Trump saying that Kim Jong-Un is a "great guy" and nobody bats an eye.
Anyway, I felt that he overplayed the radical left card too much but I still supported him, simply because I felt he would need to deal with the government institutions in place and that would balance things out, assuming that a Congress and Senate would actually be willing to reach compromises (isn't that the real fantasy here!).
Regarding what you said about Trump supporters being critic of Trump, I'm afraid that I have the same opinion on that as you have for me, and I wouldn't judge anything trough the eyes of the Twitter micro universe. I can't even find a critic opinion on Trump on this forum from the ones I assume are his supporters, except perhaps you?
For instance I don't really thing that this pandemic is something that was 100% avoidable, but some choices made seem baffling to me, like refusing the virus test from WHO and waisting critical time, and still not being able to keep up with the tests demands, but I can bet i'm going to receive some king of explanation from a Trump supporter here as to why that was the correct thing to do.
But lets's try to find a less global issue that it would be hard to justify (in my mind) and submit it here to the test, just to see if Trump supporters can exhibit some criticism. Case in point, Trump pardoning the war crimes of Navy Seal Operator Eddie Gallagher, even when his own colleagues and army leaders wanted him punished, given that they had plenty of evidence against him.
I think the problem is a deep-seated one perhaps limited, in its extreme, to the States. Why this may be so is difficult to know, but I get the impression that it exists by the very geography of the country: just too big to be able to carry or maintain any real consensus of opinion or judgement across its width. (Hell, much of Europe suffers the same in the north/south directions and, to a lesser degree, east to west too, with tiny Britain having exactly the same problem in microcosm: the language, custom and heritage rift is huge. That's why the Scot Nats exist: they feel ignored by the souther power bulge of London which, ironically, has much the same relationship with the rest of England, Wales and Northern Ireland as well: it lives a distinct life of power and pretty much total control over the rest. Consequently, the rest resents that from the cradle, and that resentment grows as it continues to feel that it is being lied to at every turn.)
So, people have to latch onto some kind of identity that they can recognise from one end of the country to the other. You get a tv entertainer-cum-property speculator with pots of gold, bags of exposure in the celebrity magazines, and that instantly provides a convenient brand name; that's why brands pay a fortune for public exposure wherever the crowds are greatest. Everybody who read
Hello magazine or
Hola knew about Trump decades before he went political. If Elvis had stood, he'd be on Rushmore today.
So, when you have so many different splinters of interest, folks cluster around any widely identifiable leader or prophet who tells them what they want to hear.
On top of that, there is the amazing reality of absolutely total self-deception, where people without two pennies to rub together stiil believe that, somehow, what's good for the fat cats is also good for them, so they think that paying some private health insurance company (whose sole raison d'être is to maximise profit) is good for them, far better than a genuine, nationally provide, totally inclusive one with an obligation to deliver free at point of requirement. In the blind belief in private medicine, they drive up the cost to what the rich alone can bear, leaving to the poor the scrapings from the bottom of the pot. Yet, they find no paradox in complaining about the high pricing of doctors and dentists. Trickle-down was discredited or at minimum, largely downgraded some time ago: the reality is that the rich get richer and the poor poorer. How can it be otherwise when power resides in the wallets of the rich, another example of the extreme of that being so perfectly at home in America?
So Trump is defended with messianic zeal because he is a nationally (and now internationally) recognised brand, and unlike Coca Cola, has no alternative on the same shelf.
The competition is even worse off: it has pretty much nobody with charisma. All it has are old relics like Sanders, reminiscent of Britain's Michael Foot or - to be honest, I can't come up with a UK equivalent of Biden.
Seldom has such a large and muscular land been so starved of credible giants that would lead it.
Rob
