The US has a long history of wartime elections.

The US has a long time history of a lot of things that this administration is just ignoring or overstepping so I’m not sure that matters during this time. This is not a normal time in the U.S.

Zelensky was able to legitimately do what he did because a large portion of his country is occupied by foreign forces and he has a positive rating in the unoccupied area.

Absolutely not arguing that. What Zelensky did / is doing is legitimate, I’m not here to argue against that but what I believe Trump see’s as an opportunity based on his meetings with Zelensky.

I don’t think that matters for what I perceive Trump’s goal to be, just based on his past history. I’m thinking back to Covid when he saw that Chlorox info before a briefing and mentioned maybe injecting (or ingesting?) bleach. I believe that he sees Zelenski extend his power due to wartime and I believe he thinks he will be able to do the same. Now he’s just looking for an enemy to point the U.S. at.

Imagine another 9/11 happening mixed with a media blitz under the DJT administration. While I don’t believe they would be able to pull this off, the thought of the rallying against a specific enemy due to an attack on American soil has a history of rallying the people.

The first step is to remove international dependence on things that we would need for a wartime industry. This is why he’s cutting ties with NAFTA allies. We can’t have them limiting resources we would need for wartime because they certainly won’t agree with what we end up doing. I believe this is why he rallied so hard for Steel workers during his first term too (but failed) to progress this same industry. In the next year or 2 when the factories and industry catches up is when we’re going to start to see the visible sparks of war.

To add onto this one more time - I also think that his interactions with Putin plays a role as well. The people of Russia were not able to stop Putin in his war with Ukraine and I believe that DJT thinks he can pull something similar off. This may as well be possible - he has a cult fanbase and the American people aren’t rallying against a Billionaire buying politicians and running vote lotteries - I’m not sure anything will rally the American people like we’ve seen in the past.

It’s a slow slippery ride into complacency where things progressively get more illegal and illicit and the headlines come and go too quick for the American people to register. It really is going to be a slow, bloodless revolution from The Right. When the time comes and American is at war with a Foreign power (maybe the Mexican Cartel, which would track with Trumps war on drugs and immigration) the American people will mostly accept it, as they have everything else illicit DJT has done so far in his short term in office.

I agree, Ukraine didn’t start the war, but that doesn’t change what happened and what I believe Trump’s view of it regarding extending his power.

Struggling is a bit much… Sure, it’s going to get there, but current levels are not a struggle.

Hard disagree. It’s the 3rd biggest line item in the Budget after Social Security and Medicaid. Even if the Democrats were in office, the debt payments would have been a struggle to get under control - hard choices did need to be made in this regard.

I think people are giving Republicans too much credit. The 3rd term he’s talking about is if the U.S. is in the midst of a war - he’s literally thinking about what Zelenski did in Ukraine to extend his power / term. I don’t see that as a far-fetched idea either. Let’s be real, war is money(YouTube Link), and the U.S. is struggling with debt. They pull back trade agreements with allies to reignite national industries for the coming years. They’re looking to make somebody an enemy to reignite the economy and retain power. I’d like to think that there’s no way to make this work, I’d like to think DJT won’t make it past the first few years, but we won’t know til’ we know.

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I don’t think he cares if it backfires.

Right, him and his won’t be affected.

Tell that to pretty much every rights movement in the history of our species. Apes strong together.

I personally believe he’s doing so to try and get better USMCA trade agreements, but I believe it’s just going to backfire, which could also just as well be the goal.

Many of those same people simply weren’t equipped for the media blitz of the 21st century. Commerical Social Media has most of them on a string.

I think the nice thing about a protest is that it’s a show of power, strength, and unity. It sends a message to those on the outside that there is a number of people who believe in a common goal. And really, the message is one all Americans can pretty much agree on and that’s trickle down isn’t trickling and corporate profits are soaring.

The longer the protests, the worse taxes become from tariffs, the more cuts they make to social services, the more people could snowball this into a movement.

The power of protests are People.

I hear you - I see plenty of outrage about Republican action though. What can Democrats really do but try to rely on Judges to do their jobs and campaign until midterms. Maybe they can rally enough people to march on Washington, but that may just speed up authoritarian gains.