Trump as a Bad Leader

[Keith&Co.]

He lacks charisma. He lacks the ability to inspire.

Are you fucking kidding, that's all he has. His base is the most inspired and rabidly devoted base the Republicans have had in decades.

Yes, they're devoted, but what are they actually devoted TO?
I think Trump just tapped into the base by using the key words and dog-whistles others have so diligently set up for him.
Many, for example, would be exactly as devoted to ANYONE who wasn't Hillary.

It's not charisma if you just stand in the place they're already saluting.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

He lacks charisma. He lacks the ability to inspire.

Are you fucking kidding, that's all he has. His base is the most inspired and rabidly devoted base the Republicans have had in decades.

Yes, they're devoted, but what are they actually devoted TO?
I think Trump just tapped into the base by using the key words and dog-whistles others have so diligently set up for him.
Many, for example, would be exactly as devoted to ANYONE who wasn't Hillary.

It's not charisma if you just stand in the place they're already saluting.

He is the draft-dodging Fearless Leader protecting us from moose and squirrel.

 

[PyramidHead]

He lacks charisma. He lacks the ability to inspire.

Are you fucking kidding, that's all he has. His base is the most inspired and rabidly devoted base the Republicans have had in decades.

Yes, they're devoted, but what are they actually devoted TO?
I think Trump just tapped into the base by using the key words and dog-whistles others have so diligently set up for him.
Many, for example, would be exactly as devoted to ANYONE who wasn't Hillary.

It's not charisma if you just stand in the place they're already saluting.

But they vote, and they attend rallies, and they say out loud what they used to only say under their breath or in private.

He is the draft-dodging Fearless Leader protecting us from moose and squirrel.

Dodging the draft is one of only two good things Trump has ever done.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

He lacks charisma. He lacks the ability to inspire.

Are you fucking kidding, that's all he has. His base is the most inspired and rabidly devoted base the Republicans have had in decades.

Yes, they're devoted, but what are they actually devoted TO?

Authoritarianism.

I think Trump just tapped into the base by using the key words and dog-whistles others have so diligently set up for him.
Many, for example, would be exactly as devoted to ANYONE who wasn't Hillary.

It's not charisma if you just stand in the place they're already saluting.

Trump isn't some guy that is talking crap... this guy got elected* as President talking this crap. Sen. George Allen was seen as a rising star, Presidential candidate before the 'macaca' remark. Trump managed to getting enough people to embrace him, from evangelical racists to evangelicals to racists to white people who lost their jobs in factories that the US shipped off to Asia.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Dodging the draft is one of only two good things Trump has ever done.

Indeed, the second being his ability to overcome his debilitating bone spurs to become an avid cheating golfer.

 

[PyramidHead]

Dodging the draft is one of only two good things Trump has ever done.

Indeed, the second being his ability to overcome his debilitating bone spurs to become an avid cheating golfer.

No, the second is his constantly trashing John McCain

 

[Keith&Co.]

Dodging the draft is one of only two good things Trump has ever done.

Indeed, the second being his ability to overcome his debilitating bone spurs to become an avid cheating golfer.

No, the second is his constantly trashing John McCain

Yeah, continuing a feud with a dead guy. And losing it. That's a thumbs-up, there, Donny.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Yes, they're devoted, but what are they actually devoted TO?
I think Trump just tapped into the base by using the key words and dog-whistles others have so diligently set up for him.
Many, for example, would be exactly as devoted to ANYONE who wasn't Hillary.

It's not charisma if you just stand in the place they're already saluting.

But they vote, and they attend rallies, and they say out loud what they used to only say under their breath or in private.

Yes. He's provided a focal point and a national stage for what the GOP has been selecting for for decades.
His charisma and his leadership are of the same order as a lightning rod's.

 

[PyramidHead]

Yes, they're devoted, but what are they actually devoted TO?
I think Trump just tapped into the base by using the key words and dog-whistles others have so diligently set up for him.
Many, for example, would be exactly as devoted to ANYONE who wasn't Hillary.

It's not charisma if you just stand in the place they're already saluting.

But they vote, and they attend rallies, and they say out loud what they used to only say under their breath or in private.

Yes. He's provided a focal point and a national stage for what the GOP has been selecting for for decades.
His charisma and his leadership are of the same order as a lightning rod's.

Sure, and there's a reason why that's an idiom used to describe very charismatic leaders. I'm just saying that of his many flaws, being dull and uninspiring to his supporters is clearly not one of them, regardless of whether he can take credit for it.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Sure, and there's a reason why that's an idiom used to describe very charismatic leaders.

And it's also used to describe lightning rods, which outside of very specific applications, are not very attractive at all.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Sure, and there's a reason why that's an idiom used to describe very charismatic leaders.

And it's also used to describe lightning rods, which outside of very specific applications, are not very attractive at all.

And right now, lightning rods are doing well in elections in the Western Hemisphere.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Honestly, I tend to agree with JollyPenguin here. Trump is a bad president, but all of the Presidents we've had for a long time have been bad, and Trump is nowhere near as bad as GW Bush or Reagan in terms of sheer genocidal cruelty.

Trump is terrible, not just because of all the stupid things he's done, but because of all the stupid things he's tried to do. It's a good thing people have stopped him, including the world adjusting economically to his tariffs, his staff refusing to do _some_ illegal things at his order, and the courts barring some of his executive overreach. So far most of us wealthy white people in the suburbs are safe from the impact, but others such as farmers, below middle class persons, Muslims, Puerto Ricans, those seeking economic aid, Cuba, and asylum seekers' kids in cages have been very unlucky. If people let him, he'd do the same kinds of things to everyone else. President Twitler McCrazyPants is a loud-mouthed simpleton with a penchant for dictatorial rule and preferential treatment to white people and even if practically speaking he's been fairly isolationist, one day he could go full Trump and you could get the genocide you think might not be there--the full fire and fury of actualized threats, too.

 

[Politesse]

One thing the Trump presidency shows is just how little effect a president actually has on the country. The economy is doing just as well. Civil rights are not fat far worse. Etc. Not a whole lot had actually changed, or at least not as much as people expected would.

I do not agree. Hate crimes are spiraling out of control. Mass shootings are spiraling out of control. White nationalists march openly in the streets. Unemployment is increasing. Irreversible damage has been done to the public lands he has sold off. Corporations are scrambling to respond to tarriff after tariff. The Judicial Branch is controlled by a single political party. The number of uninsured Americans is climbing again for the first time since 2010, and the average premium cost has gone up. Children are being murdered by the government on our southern border, or kept in cages and kidnapped by abusive "adoptive families" if they survive. All of this after just TWO YEARS of mostly inept and ineffective leadership, under which even his most loyal cronies seem to ignore or botch half the orders he gives. Just how bad do things have to get before you become aware that there is a problem?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

One thing the Trump presidency shows is just how little effect a president actually has on the country. The economy is doing just as well. Civil rights are not fat far worse. Etc. Not a whole lot had actually changed, or at least not as much as people expected would.

This is quite a simplistic view. Trump is leading the US to a constitutional crisis as he and his Admin are just bucking every single oversight that exists. Yes, the inertia that is the US Government has helped repel major influence by Trump. However, Trump is definitely straining US relations with our allies and our adversaries. He has successfully managed to pressure the Fed which could fuck the American economy come the next recession. He is poisoning the well regarding elections. He is ignoring courts. He is incapable of Emergency management. And the asylum seekers (mainly children) are in sad states because while even the Obama Admin had troubles with youth migration to the US, the Trump Admin is wholely without any capability to deal with it. Add in the illegal tariffs that the GOP is not dealing with, and his unprescedented bullying online, and we have a President that has tarnished the US's image abroad. About the only thing he hasn't done is create an Iraq like quagmire, though that has been somewhat prevented by inertia and Pentagon push back.

Trump is doing a lot of damage at the surface and the corrosion is seeping downward. We don't know yet whether Trump is a Point of No Return.

 

[ideologyhunter]

There will never be an end to the demonstrations of how grotesque and unfit he is. Earlier today, AT THE NORMANDY CEMETERY, Pres. Shithole (sorry -- forgive my lapse -- the honorable Pres. Shithole) granted an interview to Faux News in which he called Robert Mueller a fool and Speaker Pelosi 'Nervous Nancy.' Please tell me that Lindsay Graham and McTurtle and Hannity and Limbaugh will have foam-spewing spasms of outrage over this. This is our "President" at the 75th commemoration of D-Day.

 

[Worldtraveller]

One thing the Trump presidency shows is just how little effect a president actually has on the country. The economy is doing just as well. Civil rights are not fat far worse. Etc. Not a whole lot had actually changed, or at least not as much as people expected would.

I do not agree. Hate crimes are spiraling out of control. Mass shootings are spiraling out of control. White nationalists march openly in the streets. Unemployment is increasing. Irreversible damage has been done to the public lands he has sold off. Corporations are scrambling to respond to tarriff after tariff. The Judicial Branch is controlled by a single political party. The number of uninsured Americans is climbing again for the first time since 2010, and the average premium cost has gone up. Children are being murdered by the government on our southern border, or kept in cages and kidnapped by abusive "adoptive families" if they survive. All of this after just TWO YEARS of mostly inept and ineffective leadership, under which even his most loyal cronies seem to ignore or botch half the orders he gives. Just how bad do things have to get before you become aware that there is a problem?

Careful, JP might complain that you're oppressing him with facts.....