tarlhawk wrote:Very fair response....I was asking a question....almost rhetorical as it ended up. My opinion of the man as an individual is more reserved than most...majority of my response was how we find delight in vilifying a man without regard to the office he had attained...even though some will claim its directly related to his presidency. 1) He didn't blunder into the office...he was elected by our peers...not by some hicks or delusional idiots...real people who voted for whatever reasons we enjoy under our current democracy. 2) Do we hate a man so much we make it our personal wish that he come to harm? Trump has already been "taken down" he failed in his bid to be re-elected. There will be some sympathy votes but there is a reason a former president has not been re-elected in non consecutive terms. If the greatest "fear" is the man being re-elected...that window has passed...the damage dealt...at this point there is just an effort to make it personal and pile it on. (to be continued)
To answer your questions point by point:
Speaking for myself, I always felt that Trump was legitimately elected in 2016. IMO the Dems put up the best candidate the Republicans could have hoped to have run against as with the exception of DJT, Hillary Clinton had a higher negative rating than any other major party nominee since they started asking voters the question back in the 50's. And she ran a horrible campaign, as it seemed that her main strategy was to attack Trump and his supporters, ie
"a basket of deplorables." It threw fuel on the fire, and helped Trump get his voters to the polls. She spent way too much time in states like CA rather than battleground states, never even setting foot in the state of Wisconsin, of which she narrowly lost. I didn't vote for her, either. I voted for the Libertarian candidate that year, former NM governor Gary Johnson.
I have never wished any physical harm on Donald Trump or any other human being. Oh, there's exceptions, like child killers and mass murderers, but not politicians that I happen to disagree with.
You're wrong about a former POTUS never having been re-elected to a non consecutive term. Grover Cleveland, who served as the President from March 4th, 1885-March 4th, 1889, and March 4th, 1893-March 4th, 1897 was elected to two non consecutive terms. He actually won the popular vote in three straight general elections. Trump would be the 2nd.
I strongly disagree that Trump has already been
"taken down". Although DeSantis has closed the gap a bunch since the midterms and Trump's popularity has waned significantly, Trump still leads the field of potential Republican candidates by about 15%, and what's more, he's already lost those that were on the fence about him to begin with. Cutting further into his 46% popularity amongst Republicans will require penetrating the more hard-core Trump supporters, so we can't expect to see the same degree of erosion that we've witnessed following the midterms. He has not been taken down and won't be until someone wins enough delegates to assure nomination on the first ballot.
As far as the
'piling on' goes, that's what we do. Some of us come in here to blow off steam. For me personally, I don't often talk politics even amongst my closest friends. I don't put political signs on my lawn or bumper stickers on my car. For 40 years, I had a job where I felt it important that I remain as apolitical as possible so as to make myself more accessible, and some day, I'll tell you a story of how I came to that philosophy. Suffice it to say that this place is a refuge for me, so sometimes I'm guilty of piling on.
