To ask if Donald Trump could actually be president again?

[tinkertee]

I've just seen a headline about him now being the front runner for the Republican nomination. Which I assume means it's entirely a possibility that he could then win.

I'm British (English) so I know our current government is a complete embarrassment. But I will never get my head around DT having been president once never mind possibly twice.

How could this happen??

I dunno, I reckon Truss could run Trump a close race for blind self belief in contravention of all evidence and total incompetence.

Yes he’s expected to win

The whole thing is a mess. Both parties have deeply unsuitable candidates. Biden looks like a pensioner with dementia shuffling round a nursing home and Trump is like that racist, sexist, nasty old uncle at a wedding who everyone tolerates acting like a selfish boorish asshole. Why didn’t the democrats stand up to Biden and chose a different, younger candidate?

Perfectly put @SanctuaryCity

Surely you would have to be deranged not to be against Trump?

It defies belief that any independent voter would look at the four years of chaos and open corruption of the Trump presidency and think "yup, I'll have another four years please". And I'm basing that on the things Trump said and did that I saw with my own eyes on the tv when I watched press briefings etc and not because of the "liberal left" media.

Biden has been over his career a very effective politician who has been used to working with people in both parties. He still has those skills and instincts but America likes to thing of itself as a young, vigorous country and needs a leader to reflect that. I agree with PP that it's ridiculous that there has been no effective succession planning in the Democrat Party to identify someone else who would be acceptable nationally. I think Pete Buttigieg is the best bet as a moderate, effective, personable politician, but unfortunately there are still plenty of conservative and religious voters who won't accept a gay man as president.

I think Biden's VP choice is key, because most independents and moderates would hold their nose and vote for that ticket instead of Trump. I think if the Democrat campaign reminded people of the worst of Trump and in particular the overturning of Roe v Wade then they could scrape through.

Populism is here to stay though and it's appeal is across the entire right-left spectrum, so politics are evolving. It will take a different path in the US to Europe/UK though as the US system is set up for two political parties rather than the multiple parties on this side of the Atlantic.

Even a younger, different candidate wouldn't change the Democrats' anti-women policies. In fact it might well accelerate them.

It sometimes seems to me that the east and west coasts are like different countries from the rest of the US in terms of politics.

But then I find lots of things about the US incomprehensible, like being able to pick up a gun along with your weekly shop.

Biden stepped in because there was no one else. In also seriousness It's starting to look like elder abuse to still have him in position.

In all seriousness I think there best shot is Bernie Sanders who whilst not a spring chicken seems to have all his faculties.

I agree that a disappointing number of us are motivated by self-interest. But many of us are more complex than that, with empathetic traits and a (genetic?) impulse towards mutuality and an (actually quite rational) belief that we all do better as individuals when the group does better as a whole and everyone 'buys in' to the community.

It's the job of decent politicians and especially those from the centre leftwards to appeal to those qualities in the demographics that are doing well, and to offer specific targeted solutions to those that aren't.

The Dems have failed on both counts. It's a fucking shitshow and I can't look.

God I wish this were true. And even though I don't think it is - what do the Dems have to lose by fielding Bernie?

I don't think it will happen though. Maybe if Biden actually dies.

They were at war in Donbas while he was president.

But I do think the Republicans might get in - you have entire schools in NYC shut to house migrants and children having to learn remotely...and we all know how well that goes! Migration will be the hot topic for the US this election.

I watch on you tube someone who use to show properties off in New York and he's started covering this - it's massive issue.

Also see Cargo where democrats championed defund the police - crime went up and food desserts got much worse as shops couldn't keep worker safe or swallow the huge losses of stock so pull out of poor neighbourhoods - the solution is state run grocery stores which no-one seem to think is a good idea.

California seems to be troubled - seen even ex democratic officials say it's lurch to left and insurance companies are pulling out as man in elected position gets to set policy costs so keeps rate low. Homelessness is on rise and many seem to be leaving the state - to point they are now trying to tax them for doing so.

So news here make Republicans look disunited - hung up on denying abortion rights - extremist leaving you think who the hell could vote for them.

All in all I think maybe I just don't have a clue what perception and reality is over there round politics and policies.

I'm still bit taken aback though Trump is there at all with as many legal issues as he has and fact he has shown he has no respect for peaceful transfer of power.

In all seriousness I think there best shot is Bernie Sanders who whilst not a spring chicken seems to have all his faculties.

I agree - but his party don't seem to think he'd play well with rest of the country though he always seem to talk sense when I've heard him.

Sadly yes . Not sure how it works in the USA but you would think the Democrats had a better candidate than Biden.

Bernie Sanders is fully trans rights, and always has been. He may be a decent man, but like almost all the 'decent people' on the liberal Left in the US, he's bought into this garbage.

It’s absolutely terrifying, but he has a good chance.

If he gets in it’s likely WW3.

He has said he won’t intervene on behalf of Europe - of any European country- if invaded. Which includes NATO members. So in effect, he has promised to break NATO treaties. This makes an invasion by russia of a European NATO country not just more likely, but very likely.

Can you explain the whole MAGA thing? Again? When is it that you see as the time America was great and when did it become not great? What things made it great? Why did they end? How would they be reintroduced?
It seems to me just a slogan with no substance.

I think it seemed so farfetched the first time that he could be elected and yet actually happened, so now people realize it could happen again, no matter how absurd the idea after everything he has done since he got elected the first time.

Meantime Joe Biden's very close friend was none other than Robert Byrd,as in Ku Klux Klan. Biden is as racist as they come always has been and always will be.

Is there a single significant figure on the US Left who has stood up for women?

Pete Buttigieg, maybe? I dunno. Any suggestions?

If Trump had been President they would not only have invade Ukraine but they would likely have succeeded. Maybe not instantly as they expected but before now.

Saying they wouldn’t have full scale invaded with Trump is the most ignorant thing I’ve seen on this thread.

Not heard him talk on that matter - though sadly not surprised at all as the left there seem to embraced it - though UK political parties on left aren't much better there either.

By anti-women, do you mean the kind of topics that are usually discussed in FWR @duc748 ? I don't disagree, but given the heterogenous state of US politics, I would have thought codifying the right to abortion would be a priority of the Democrats. As there appears to be majority support for the right to access to safe and legal abortion I would have thought that is a vote winner that they would declare as "pro-women".

From my perspective, American women are still fighting for the national right to bodily autonomy and the rights of gay people to marry are still perilous across the country. In parts of the USA these are still viewed with disdain and the "progressive" description is pejorative. There's no hope of having a civil and nuanced discussion on whether the East/West coast version of "progressive" is pro or anti-women. It's impossible in the UK where we already have majority acceptance of the legality of abortion and marriage equality!

Oh, let me help! https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/donald-trump-racist-examples_n_56d47177e4b03260bf777e83 gives a few examples.