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It is really disturbing to see that most Republican legislators are still not speaking up openly against the Trump administration. That makes them complicit in

It is really disturbing to see that most Republican legislators are still not speaking up openly against the Trump administration. That makes them complicit in everything that’s going on - the arrest of US citizens in unconstitutional raids, the illegal tariffs that are taxing all of us, the threats of invasions against other countries, the grift that is adding billions to the Trump family’s wealth, the push to denaturalize legal immigrants, the lack of action on climate change, the dangerous changes to vaccine schedules for children - all of that and more. Almost all of these, would on their own, have been grounds for impeachment in the past. It shows how far this extremism has come. If Trump is not impeached, which will require a simple majority in the house and 2/3rds in the Senate, I fear he will continue his mental spiral and potentially do something far more deadly like using a nuke. And I am not being hyperbolic; I genuinely fear the next few escalations in his behavior could be far far worse.

pepperball 10mo ago
> It is really disturbing to see that most Republican legislators are still not speaking up openly against the Trump administration. Take a look at the voter base: There’s a hubris of invincibility and jingoism in the air. Even among typical moderates. Rome can never fall!
lateforwork 10mo ago
Even with all this Trump as 39% approval rating. This is why Republican legislators are staying quiet.
- Herring 10mo ago
  Yep, he's still slightly more popular than he was at this point during his first term. https://www.natesilver.net/p/trump-approval-ratings-nate-silver-bulletin https://www.natesilver.net/p/trump-approval-ratings-nate-sil...
  - SilverElfin 10mo ago
    That’s shocking. I looked up a few different polls and it looks like the approval ratings have not really changed in months. How is that possible? The events of the last month or two should affect these in one direction or the other, right? I wonder if there is some polling error like maybe in how these questions are phrased or how the people responding are interpreting it?
    - deleted 10mo ago
      [deleted]
    - Herring 10mo ago
      Yeah.. that's how tribalism works. Dems don't really understand the kind of blank-check popular backing that Trump has. Studies have shown for a long time the human brain is frequently wired to prioritize group loyalty over factual accuracy. Probably something left over from when we were living in caves in small groups. Trump understands it extremely well. He just has to bring up immigrants and their brain reasoning centers turn off and they start frothing over Haitians eating dogs. Prior to Trump, most white Americans only encountered this if they brought a black girlfriend home. After Obama, Trump literally rewrote the republican party. Congressmen who weren't falling in line got fired or forced to retire. Many many times, eg see Liz Cheney. The last time a purge like this happened was at the time of the Civil War. Even super-popular FDR tried taking out conservative democrats but wasn't successful (which btw is one of the main reasons we didn't get stuff like universal healthcare in the 1930s; southern democrats decided it was a threat to segregation). That probably shows us how to stop it: wait for a massive failure like WW2 or the Great Depression, then implement strong safety nets, media, education, etc pretty much everything Western Europe is doing & more (eg housing).
      - lateforwork 10mo ago
        Another solution is for Democrats can move a bit towards the center. Maybe relent on immigration, for example. Obama was more centrist than Biden on this issue. He deported millions of illegal immigrants, while Biden housed them in New York hotels.

pepperball 10mo ago

> It is really disturbing to see that most Republican legislators are still not speaking up openly against the Trump administration. Take a look at the voter base: There’s a hubris of invincibility and jingoism in the air. Even among typical moderates. Rome can never fall!

lateforwork 10mo ago

Even with all this Trump as 39% approval rating. This is why Republican legislators are staying quiet.

Herring 10mo ago
Yep, he's still slightly more popular than he was at this point during his first term. https://www.natesilver.net/p/trump-approval-ratings-nate-silver-bulletin https://www.natesilver.net/p/trump-approval-ratings-nate-sil...
- SilverElfin 10mo ago
  That’s shocking. I looked up a few different polls and it looks like the approval ratings have not really changed in months. How is that possible? The events of the last month or two should affect these in one direction or the other, right? I wonder if there is some polling error like maybe in how these questions are phrased or how the people responding are interpreting it?
  - deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]
  - Herring 10mo ago
    Yeah.. that's how tribalism works. Dems don't really understand the kind of blank-check popular backing that Trump has. Studies have shown for a long time the human brain is frequently wired to prioritize group loyalty over factual accuracy. Probably something left over from when we were living in caves in small groups. Trump understands it extremely well. He just has to bring up immigrants and their brain reasoning centers turn off and they start frothing over Haitians eating dogs. Prior to Trump, most white Americans only encountered this if they brought a black girlfriend home. After Obama, Trump literally rewrote the republican party. Congressmen who weren't falling in line got fired or forced to retire. Many many times, eg see Liz Cheney. The last time a purge like this happened was at the time of the Civil War. Even super-popular FDR tried taking out conservative democrats but wasn't successful (which btw is one of the main reasons we didn't get stuff like universal healthcare in the 1930s; southern democrats decided it was a threat to segregation). That probably shows us how to stop it: wait for a massive failure like WW2 or the Great Depression, then implement strong safety nets, media, education, etc pretty much everything Western Europe is doing & more (eg housing).
    - lateforwork 10mo ago
      Another solution is for Democrats can move a bit towards the center. Maybe relent on immigration, for example. Obama was more centrist than Biden on this issue. He deported millions of illegal immigrants, while Biden housed them in New York hotels.