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American Republic's Democracy, the least Educated

The crux of the matter here lies in the comments that the fact is the USA is in a transition period where minorities of many kinds, but particularly Blacks and Latinos were mostly excluded or marginalized from the traditional American Dream. There are forces in the USA today who are trying to change that. The election of Barack Obama in 2008 was so momentous -- I think it caught huge swaths of the country off guard and helped lead to the movement to "turn the clock back to the 1950's" as it were-- this is the movement that Trump tapped into and it's the fuel which drives the country away from democracy. But it also energized minority groups to fight harder for the same opportunities traditionally reserved for Whites. So, here we are in a very scary battle. Finally, some of the quoted material, regarding declines in "trust in government" or increasing resentment of "elites" -- I'm not sure I buy that completely. Years ago, were researchers even bothering to ask excluded or marginalized people about these things in the first place?

There is one error concerning the Catholics that American right-wing politicians receive support from. Americans credit ultramontanism, the belief that the Pope is supreme in all spheres including the political. The opposite is a more significant trend. Right-wing Catholics, some on the Supreme Court, are often members of splinter churches attended by at most 1% of American Catholics that specifically put their own politics ahead of the politics and theology of the Pope. Some Americans continue the theme established by Henry VIII that the Pope is heretical. During the Elian Gonzales episode, there were a number of articles pointing out that far right-wing Cuban Americans, rather than looking to the Pope, embraced a perversion of Catholicism based on voodoo. This is clero-fascism is it the opposite sort of ultramontanism? Yet another facile analysis of social science literature. How about addressing the elephant in the room - that big money dominates American policy in ways that we haven't seen since the Gilded Age? Did none of the political scientists cited in this article address the role of Citizens United in undermining American Democracy? Instead, we come back to Edsall's "bone to pick" -- his regular attack on the Democratic Party's left wing, as if Bernie Sanders and AOC are responsible for all the bad things happening in the country today, even as he ends his piece by pointing out that the scholars he's citing suggest that only the Democratic Party can save the country. Has anybody considered the decline of civics education in this country as a factor? For example, nobody who passed the high school American history class in the late 1960s would ever imagine it was possible Trump could have been reinstated in 2021. If Biden really had stolen the election it would certainly be an impeachable offense. If a majority of the house and 2/3 of the senate agreed, he could be removed from office, and the next in the line of succession--currently V.P. Harris--would be sworn in. That is the *sole* remedy the constitution allows. The GOP got rid of civics, education in general, clear thinking, policy initiatives, and the common good in 1980. Never looked back, except to drag the rest of the Americans. I know two individuals who went to private high schools in the 1990s. One never heard of JFK and wondered what the big deal was about the movie of the same name that just came out. The other watched President Obama at the Inauguration Ceremony and did not know that we do this for every President. He thought it was some concocted over-the-top treatment of Obama. Let's get more nuanced.

Americans saw "Government misinformation decline as Toxic levels of polarization continue to increase.” What do you not understand about asymmetric war? That has not stopped. It was not Trump.He was/is just a useful idiot, surrounded by other similarly bought and paid-for amoral useful idiots. Democracy does not exist in a peaceful idyllic lake. It exists in a raging torrent and must constantly fight against the current while zero-sum misanthropes continually poke holes in our vessel hoping to profit from their life-vest monopoly. America is at a turning point, perhaps a denouement, in the cultural revolution which started 50+ years ago. Like all cultural revolutions, it is constantly churning. Like all revolutions, it is a civil war. It is an assault on the status quo, norms, traditions, hierarchies, religion, definitions, taboos, assumptions, roles, and responsibilities. The left has won in a rout, and in so, SO many ways, Americans are better off for it. But it has also settled into a war that pits identities against identities. It has become an assault on whiteness, Christianity, the nuclear family, patriotism, sobriety, chastity, "Cisheteronormativity" and middle Americanness. Of course, a very large swathe of America would feel hated, squeezed out, and alienated by a left that utterly controls the culture and uses that power to broadcast its contempt for them 24/7. They are ultimately out-group. Where are they going to go? They are not going to dry up and blow away, be scorned, mocked, and maligned into evaporating. It's a miracle that it took this long for them to succumb to an ideologue like Trump.

We have now come to the point where the two camps are so sorted by economics, education, and geography that we've hardened into tribes that are mutually incomprehensible, terrifying, and loathsome to each other. It's no longer about policy anymore. I always thought Psyops was illegal, and if not, it should be. Psyops are not a First Amendment right. What's that word for aiding and abetting the enemy?

It is not "Parties" who are eroding American Democracy. It is one Party, the Republicans, who promote the big lie that the Election was stolen, that are passing legislation to limit voter participation, that is withholding Medicaid aid to those who desperately need it in their States, who did not give a damn about people dying of Covid, who keep gerrymandering their Voting Districts, much more than Democrats ever did. And most importantly all have gone along with the failed coup, with the exception of Kissinger and Cheney. Furthermore, hate is taught at home at the knees of the parents, as well as racism, merism, and myriad superstitions. And a lot of this goes on in the wealthy, middle-class, and poor homes. It is not exclusive to just a certain economic or educated class. Interesting. What I would like to hear the GOP folks talk about is specifically what time in history they want to "go back to?" My guess is that blame is being placed in the wrong places. Analysis and a factual discussion of what has happened and why. We also need to talk about what is better, because some things are better. Progress has always won in this country. We need to define what true progress looks like from here and how that will be good for everyone.Trump is not "strikingly successful" at anything. He is just the outgrowth of a Republican party that has been diseased at least since the Reagan era.Trump is the perfect example of this, being supposedly wealthy and educated. Don't blame it on just the younger generation. America needs the younger generation.

When I talk to irrational people, I note that they feel I'm irrational. Talking to Republicans can be infuriating because of this. My facts, according to them, are false. My evidence is made up. Their facts on the other hand are not backed by any evidence, yet they, at least some of them, are ready to fight a civil war because Democrats want to take away their guns and raise taxes. Is this what's going on with the citizenry of Russia, too? Russians are convinced that Ukrainians are Nazis. What has Trump convinced his followers of?
Trump revealed and exploited weaknesses in American democracy. This has been a stress test like no other. But America will learn from it, his supporters have outed themselves and now they can be prosecuted where appropriate. Eventually, America's system will heal and be stronger. What is the role of big, bigger, and biggest money in American politics or the disinformation swamp that has overwhelmed its political system? Is such reference to big money donors like the recent $1.6 billion donated to the organization behind the Federalist Society and other right-wing organizations? Or is the word being used to describe the professionals (lawyers, accountants, scholars, the managerial class, government bureaucrats, etc.) who manage and make our day-to-day world work? Finally -- can we stop pretending that autocracy is somehow a movement of the downtrodden when the core of Trump support comes from solidly middle-class people aided and abetted by the likes of Tucker Carlson et al.

The fact that someone like Trump could be electable after uttering: "I love the uneducated," among other utterances, is a damning indictment of the American voter. Such an individual would have been laughed off the stage and shown the door in any other advanced democracy--period. This is what happens when $$$ is the only determining factor in a political "system," such as America. And nothing will change as "politicians" have been bought for and owned by Wall Street decades ago. The American form of "governance" will implode. The question is not when but how we manage this meltdown. But make no mistake: we are headed that way. Trump hates America. His brand is evil, his forte is as a grifter. People can make all of the excuses in the world why they are sticking by him - America raised a nation of people who don't believe in science, who are paranoid, are Christian nationalists, and are in on the con. The trajectory of America has been one of equality, decency, vision, and hope. Trump, like a little schoolboy with a pack of matches he stole from home, has done his best to light one of these stolen matches and turn American dreams into ashes. The least educated among Americans are rabid fans of a demon who actually detests their very existence. Welcome to the new toxic America.

In reply to sgtdjones

Allow me again to restate what I have stated in this Forum
on several occasions. The Republican Party in its complete
lack of Common Sense decided to elect as their Candidate for
the Presidency of the United States of America a man who was:

NEVER AN ASSEMBLY MAN; NEVER A REPRESENTATIVE IN USA HOUSE

OF REPRESENTATIVES; ALSO NEVER A SENATOR IN THE SENATE.

I have absolutely no Doubt that future Historians will
ponder and wonder what possessed the Republican Party to
be so utterly Stupid.

Time will tell us all whether the Republican Party will have the Testicular Fortitude to leave him in the Political Wilderness.

I have absolutely no doubt that when Historians write about
this Era.They will be aghast that the Republican Party and many people in the United States of America decided to foist on the American People a man not known to be fond of
reading to be their Candidate, to be their Candidate for The Presidency of The United States of America.

I firmly believe that future Historians are not going to be
kind to Trump and the Republican Party regarding this particular Era. My take is that the Republican Party will
be lambasted by Future Historians .