Comment by nis0s
5 months ago
It seems there are a lot of heightened emotions everywhere. But one thing to note is that Trump laid out this vision while he was campaigning, and he got the popular vote based on it. A lot of non-white, non-male, and non-European people voted for Trump.
There’s clearly an ideological tipping point for some people that’s essentially a point-of-no-return, whereafter they view anyone who differs from them, however slightly, as an existential threat and an enemy to be dominated. It doesn’t matter if your ideology is left or right, if you think that way, it’s very aggressive.
In general, I think people should try to borrow their ideology from all parts of the political spectrum as what fits one situation, doesn’t work for another. The overall goal, I think, should be to optimize for both social stability and individual liberties, as both of those facets of society have historically shown to result in the most productive and effective societies and economies.
Trump’s margin was very slim, a bit more (2.3M) than the 55+ voters who age out in a year (~2M).
Do younger folks continue to tilt conservative? Maybe, but older Republican voters keep aging out. I see this like Brexit; squeaked by and then the old folks who tipped it died out over the next few years. How much damage there will be to repair is to be determined.
Trump has already walked back several of his campaign promises, such as reducing inflation on food. Does it count if you won if you lied to your base to do it? I think it's important people get what they vote for, otherwise, they may not make better decisions if they don't feel the consequences of their actions.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/20/trump-ele... | https://archive.is/2025.01.23-145837/https://www.washingtonp...
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/12/10-facts-...
https://apnews.com/article/trump-inflation-grocery-prices-en...
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-walking-back-biggest-campai...
https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-TRUMP/BUDGET/xmvjbqgmkv...
It’s historically the smallest popular vote win, but the fact stands that he’s the first republican to win a popular vote since Bush. Note also that he’s polling favorably on his anti-immigration work, but other antics, like renaming the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America, is probably distracting for Americans who are waiting for lower goods prices.
I am not sure if people will find these policies favorable in the future, but based on the recent election results the republicans vote house, senate and the presidency. While their margins are slim, which is fine, the fact remains that people voted a certain way because that’s what they wanted.
You’re absolutely right that the margins are too slim, and so the federal government should do its best not to alienate states that don’t think like it. State rights are still important, and should be maintained.
> Trump has already walked back several of his campaign promises, such as reducing inflation on food. Does it count if you won if you lied to your base to do it? I think it's important people get what they vote for, otherwise, they may not make better decisions if they don't feel the consequences of their actions.
Yes, it still counts. Show me a president who kept his campaign promises. We don't get to re-do the election when the president is proven to have lied.
Stronger: I like to be allowed the privilege to be smarter today than I was yesterday. We should extend politicians the same privilege, rather than requiring them to be stupid today because they were stupid yesterday.
(Do I think that Trump was lying? Either that, or speaking with reckless disregard for the truth. Of course he was. My money's on "reckless disregard", but I don't think it makes much difference.)