Why aren’t our leaders speaking out more forcefully against these outrages? McConnell did give a speech pushing back, but it barely registered and wasn’t reported nearly enough. Yes, we made a grave mistake in electing the wrong person as president—but that doesn’t mean the country is obligated to sit silently for the next three years while he lurches from one dangerous blunder to the next.
If impeachment and conviction aren’t on the table, then the least our leaders—Republicans and Democrats alike—must do is stand together and speak with one clear, unmistakable voice in opposition. Failing to do so isn’t just political cowardice; it carries real consequences. Our credibility with Europe, already strained, will continue to erode if the world sees that American leadership is unwilling or unable to check reckless behavior.
Correction: the only viable opponent party ran the wrong person and chose the wrong strategy to oppose him. Their candidate(s) weren't the "right person" to be president. And despite a year of Trump, that opponent party is still unpopular.
It's a testament to how broken the system is. They'll all acting stupidly, and no one is the good guys.
> If impeachment and conviction aren’t on the table, then the least our leaders—Republicans and Democrats alike—must do is stand together and speak with one clear, unmistakable voice in opposition.
Wake up, you're dreaming.
What needs to happen is the Democrats need to listen to their own rhetoric and actually take the threat seriously, instead of seeing an opportunity to win a narrow partisan victory for their extremists. They need to reconfigure into a truly majoritarian party, which will make the progressives unhappy, so it won't happen.
> Our credibility with Europe, already strained, will continue to erode if the world sees that American leadership is unwilling or unable to check reckless behavior.
Honestly, few care about our "credibility with Europe." And they've got too many of their own problems to be considered in such a superior position.
I'm wondering what you call "their extremists". Seen from Europe all Republican candidates are extremists, and Democrats are centrists at best.
The deep blue ones who demand everyone check all their boxes.
> Seen from Europe all Republican candidates are extremists, and Democrats are centrists at best.
That seems like a warmed-over 90s perspective that's long past its sell-by. Aren't there "far right" parties in power or nearly in power in much of Europe, and at least one European country that's totally dominated by one?
Trump won, because people like you will call his opposition extreme no matter what it does. And people like you will just try to push Trumps opposition into adopting his ideology, step by step.
It really is up to the voters to start fixing this. If they want to.
Only the House is fully elected every two years, only 1/3 of the Senate is, and the swing states in Class II (the set up in 2026) are already held by Dems.
Further, switching control of one or both Houses of Congress doesn't give the power to pass laws without also controlling the White House; it does give the power to block laws, but that may not do much to constrain an executive that is already flagrantly violating the law even with a partisan trifecta. And, while impeachment requires a simple a majority in the House, conviction and removal on impeachment charges takes 2/3 of the Senate, so even winning a majority wouldn't put that in reach.
Are we thinking third time's the charm?
Maybe we should stop pretending that impeachment matters. It clearly doesn't.
So? They've literally done that twice before, and what did it accomplish? They fired that bullet and missed, trying to jam it back in the gun to take another shot isn't going to work.
This is the leadership. Congress abdicated their jobs and de facto doesn’t exist, the Supreme Court now solely exists to make sure that Trump is not constrained by law, and the executive branch is doing exactly what they said they were going to do during election season.
We’re not getting out of this unscathed. It’s too late. November 6, 2024 we were too late.
It does exist and did not abdicated. Republicans in congress actively support Trump and war
America voted for this, we failed miserably to prevent this from happening for the past 30 years, and we will pay the price for this for generations.
They simply think we are entertaining an expansion and a sort of foreign policy shift.
European outlets are absolutely terrified and pondering whether this is what will force the end of NATO.
This pov isn’t represented in the right.
What's possible isn't an end of NATO, it's an EU-US war, with citizens of one in the other being interned, ships being prevented from leaving ports, complete embargoes à la WWII etc.
If Denmark is invaded, we're at war, and I don't see how it can take any other form than this in the initial phases.
The US isn’t just going to straight up invade anyway. There’s lots of political this and that but it does want to keep the current world order to some degree.
My understanding is that most of the larger armies in the world, and nuclear weapons are there.
And significant portion of our trade and US bonds.
If we're going to have a war it will probably last at least half a decade, probably a little bit more. What you say of the EU could also be said of the US at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941.
If we weren't open to the possibility, we wouldn't be sending tripwire forces to Greenland, as we currently are.
It's hilarious because the same types are yelling about Making Romania Great Again, "truly sovereign" (whatever that means) and not subordinate to other states.
Many people have secrets. I have employed a tactic where I am very public about my private life - in this way if someone leaks an embarrassing secret about me, most people in my social circle either already know it or don't care. If you're worried about your private life going public, do a preemptive strike and make it public yourself.
Most politicians are worried about their reputation. Trump isn't. He created a situation where his reputation is already garbage yet he remains the most influential person on Earth. Do you hate him? Draw a number and take a seat in the waiting line. This allows him to employ much riskier negotiation tactics than ever heard before, because he doesn't care about negative publicity.
Many Europeans are terrified that Trump might actually do something horrible, that he's a madman with a gun. And that's the point. This is literally the only way to force EU countries to up their military spendings, because until recently we were aware that no matter what happens, big daddy comes and rescues everyone, while Europeans can sit and complain about legality of actions that are morally dubious but strategically necessary.
As a European, I hate Trump as a person, but god damn I love him as a politician, because the end result is that other people finally believe "guys, it's for real, it's happening, we need to militarize". When Russia took Crimea in 2014 that should've been a warning sign for Europe that time of peace is over and we need to get our shit together. We didn't. Thank god that Ukraine managed to hold, because on the day of 2022 invasion the cards were stacked against it, and had Russia done a three-day operation as planned, which seemed likely, then the next move would've been to catch a NATO country with pants down, which was likely, and that would've spiraled into WW3.
Completely disjoint from what you think of Trump as a person and his domestic politics - we have to admit that EU armies are a joke and if we want peace in Europe we need to take the situation seriously and Trump being an asshole is a blessing in disguise because otherwise we'd let the situation stagnate further. EU does need some tough love and a reality check.
Consumer prices are the only category that hasn't gone up in price in the last couple of decades. It's basically the only little "treat" you can look forward to while toiling away for peanuts
There's been a significant shift of an "ow-I-touched-the-stove" variety towards sanity among independents, but it's a Problem that some significant double-digit percentage of the nation just plain likes this violent self-destructive flailing, and will reward anything as long as it makes them feel like somebody is getting hurt.
Even if the US backs down, the transatlantic coziness that's felt like a permanent fixture all my life is just gone. And if we don't back down, God help everybody.
I'm going to buy a NAAGGA hat.