To reject the abhorrent Trump rally with all my heart and soul

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I rarely post here and actually I am not being unreasonable. Last night's rally in the States was truly utterly terrifying. We are no longer sleepwalking into repeating history, we are marching into it with the drums beating.

Where ever you lie on the political spectrum, we need to fight racism and reject it with all our might. We must stop the normalisation of it in the UK and we must ensure we do not see scenes like we saw in the States last night.

I'd post a BBC link, but I cannot find one on their mobile site.
www.cnn.com/2019/07/17/politics/donald-trump-greenville-rally/index.html

Fascinating Times article. The Dems have their work cut out.

Is Ocasio Cortez really that divisive? I have watched her at the Despatch box (not idea what Americans call it) and I have been blown away with her intelligence, knowledge and eloquence.

I would say that Ocasia-Cortez is very divisive- while stressing how utterly appalled I am by the disgraceful send her home shit. If what she says plays well to a UK audience, chances are it's not going to be as well received in the non-coastal bits of the US, that is, a lot of the US.

Oops, I didn't even have the courtesy to spell her name properly. My mistake.

I just can't wrap my head around a country where being a racist is better than being a socialist?

By scaring the daylight out of most voters AOC and the others Trump is attacking and by calling other democrats racist they stand an excellent chance of handing him the election.

This is commonly referred to here as the "Democratic circular firing squad". It's been seen before.

There seem to be parallels between the woes of the Democrats and the Labour Party here, although with different emphases. Perhaps in both cases it's the fatal problem of essentially two-party politics, when one or both leaves the centre ground. And also in systems in which demagoguery and popularity may win over cool substance.

Exactly my feelings OP. Felt sick to the stomach when I saw this headline.

If we only had another year or so of him until he lost his presidency then there would be hope, but it looks like he’s gonna start a war now to increase his chances of a second term.

My god, this is truly chilling.

Exactly, HulksPurplePanties. The racism is the most shocking element of course. But I'm also stunned that so many people accept the idea that people with socialist sympathies are un-Americans and un-citizens who should be drummed out of the country.

I mean, we could argue all day about the relative merits of different political belief systems, but once people start to believe that anyone with the "wrong" politics doesn't belong in the country and isn't a real citizen, then we are rapidly hurtling downhill towards something terrifying.

That man seems to be trying to turn America into something resembling a cross between Nazi Germany and Gilead (from The Handmaid's Tale). It is incredibly frightening - that man is fucking dangerous.

I'm seriously worried that this will end in one or more of the Democratic congresswomen being harmed or killed. Trump won't stop in his attacks and he really has no limit to what vile things he will say.

I feel really powerless, there's not a lot we can do directly other than go to protests and perhaps boycott American goods and holidays. But as well as those actions I'm going to keep fighting to reject similar rhetoric here.

Yanbu. I came on here to post about the same thing. I'm scared about the future with this man in power.

But I'm also stunned that so many people accept the idea that people with socialist sympathies are un-Americans and un-citizens who should be drummed out of the country.

It's very dangerous territory. And it wouldn't surprise me if one of "the Squad" is harmed, lots of their politicians, especially the liberal ones, have been.

It's horrifying but, we have been watching this unfold for the last few years. Trump believes he can get away with anything and he's emboldened by the crowd.

Its makes me ashamed to be human.

I don't think this goes away when Trump goes either, whether he loses in 2020 or leaves in 2024. He is making people worse, I think that people who wouldn't say or believe awful racists things a few years ago have been corrupted by him and are embracing ever more extreme bigotry. I believe he is indoctrinating people to embrace more and more fear, racism and misogyny.

I don't want to think about what happens when the Democrats take the White House again. There will be an angry minority of Americans who now fully and aggressively hate any Democrat or liberal person. Eventually white Americans will cease to be be the largest population group, I believe by 2050 or so but a lot of bad things can happen in between.

I know I sound melodramatic but until last year I lived in the USA and I have watched race relations and political division get worse and worse in recent years. I still remember being horrified when I saw an older white man turn red in the face and literally scream and spit at a woman in a parking lot because it was the 2008 election and she had an Obama bumper sticker on her car. I'd never seen anything like it before but it was truly a sign of things to come

There will be an angry minority of Americans who now fully and aggressively hate any Democrat or liberal person.

An angry minority who are armed to the teeth and many of them are still upset they lost the last civil war.

And it wouldn't surprise me if one of "the Squad" is harmed, lots of their politicians, especially the liberal ones, have been.

The recent historical evidence shows it's equally likely for conservatives and liberals to be harmed for their political views:

List of United States Congress members killed or wounded in office

Gabbie Gifford, a democrat, was shot and injured by a right wing nut in 2011. Steve Scalise, a republican, was shot and wounded by a left wing nut in 2017. In the latter incident the shooter was trying to kill as many republicans as possible while they played baseball but was apparently a very poor shot.

Another republican, Rand Paul was attacked and injured by a neighbor but that seems to have partly political and partly due to a property line dispute.

Is Ocasio Cortez really that divisive? I have watched her at the Despatch box (not idea what Americans call it) and I have been blown away with her intelligence, knowledge and eloquence.

I find her really impressive: articulate, well-informed and passionate.

Not only do I find the racist chanting utterly repugnant, I can't believe how right-wing US politics has become. These four women would be regarded as mainstream left, social democrat types in most of western Europe. And in the UK, Trump would (hopefully) be on a charge of inciting racial hatred. It's starting to feel like the GOP has been infiltrated by the American Nationalist Union or some other bunch of neo-fascist nutjobs.

We live in very scarey times imo.

I was reminiscing about the time when Trump was running his campaign and Obama was still in office and he was roasting the hell out of Trump to a large audience including Trump. Obama was hilarious and the audience were laughing whilst all Trump could do was just sit there smiling
He was still widely thought of as a joke.
I bet Obama looks back at that now and is thinking WTAF was I thinking, he is so fucking dangerous and who knew.

Is Ocasio Cortez really that divisive?

Calling for the elimination of the department of homeland security, who among other things, is responsible for airline passenger screening, was a bit over the top.

I’m a centrist and I really, really can’t stand the prominence of the four young house dems. They are pulling the Dems too far left imo and their general policies are not popular with the mainstream. I was getting my popcorn out as the four were sniping Nancy Pelosi (she knows how to keep a party disciplined), but then Trump had to say some really ugly crap that unified them.

Never stop your enemy when they are making a mistake. Trump is just too stupid for words.

Also, no one is talking about the Dem primary anymore, which is a really frightening thing. This should all be a sideshow, not the main event....

I was reminiscing about the time when Trump was running his campaign and Obama was still in office and he was roasting the hell out of Trump to a large audience including Trump. Obama was hilarious and the audience were laughing whilst all Trump could do was just sit there smiling

That was the whitehouse correspondants dinner. Trump wasn't running for president yet and Obama was roasting him about the birther controversy (Trump believed Obama wasn't american - so his belief that brown people aren't actually american isn't news. Michelle Obama felt this whole thing pretty much put a target on her children's back - so fear of reprisal violence isn't new either). Many people trace Trump's decision to run to that dinner.

The two things which bother me most is 1. Trump is beginning to define being anti-american as someone who disagrees with him - first step of a dictator. and 2. The republicans are racist and prepared to own it - not even a pretence that they aren't.

I can't tell you how many people I know here who say things about friends and relatives like "they voted for Trump but they aren't racist and are lovely people" etc etc. Actually no, they are not lovely people - they are probably nice enough in many ways but also racist and mysoginistic and a bit shit.

I was getting my popcorn out as the four were sniping Nancy Pelosi (she knows how to keep a party disciplined)

Well she certainly knows how to lose elections. She has played well recently but her party discipline didn't translate into winning except for the house in the last election - finally. Aryana Presley is not radical. She is representing the people who elected her. I don't see Lyndsey Graham trying to represent the liberal leaning republicans of Massachusetts so why should she represent the democrats of middle america?

One of Trump's purpose with all of this is to distract from his loss about the citizenship/census question. He is not stupid.