I think the same about Paul Ryan, Bush junior and even Rumsfeld and Cheney - though you could argue that the later two opened the door to the current lot…
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Yes, he’s old school, not moderate. He’s got a pre-Palin decorum, but he wants the same things as the modern party do. So happy with the ends the Trump admin pursued, just was not personally willing to adopt the same means to get them. Just like Kemp and Raffensburger in Georgia are not pro-democracy because they opposed Trump’s clownish attempt to steal their state’s election. They’re fine with anti-democratic behavior and minority rule, there is just a certain dignified way you’re supposed to subvert democracy.
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Regardless, this is pretty controversial. UF won the right to conduct this search (a public institution paid for by the public’s money and one of the most important jobs in the state) in private. It’s now come out the short list included him and only him, which is not what a short list for a position as prestigious and well paid as this should be. The combination of the secrecy and the political climate De Santis has created around public education in the state has made this news go down very poorly. Not least of all because the job is simply too big for him with his experience. What this then suggests is he’s been hired to use the the leading the flagship academic institution in the state for political purposes rather than overseeing it as the highly regarded R1 academic institution that it is.
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Is this just classic politics with no long term out look or direction - the “normal” slight of hand stuff that goes on or something much more complex.
On the one hand you have political persuasion, which has always gone on and is done by selling a vision to catch the lay public in a particular spatio-temporal “moment” and on the other, you could have a co-ordinated movement to undermine a way or life and effect broader (more permanent) change. I cannot decide whether most of the players currently are riding a wave of political apathy or that a deeper (not as visible) movement is at play. My take is that the wind in the sails here is not a deep state collection of deplorables but rather the lazy action of multiple generations of politicians that have allowed a widening gap in access to relevant, meaningful and equal education in the West.
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The deplorable pond scum needs to be eviscerated somehow. Perhaps start by taking down Fox and Breitbart etc
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When you listen to stupid , ignorant people like this who are willing to believe just about any old shit , simply because it’s coming from ‘their side’ , then no-one should still be surprised as to how someone like Trump was able to ascend to power , and be in any doubt that he could well do so again.
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Do you think if British people (or others) had been subjected to the same kind of right wing bombast that Fox has inflicted on its viewership for the past 25 yrs , then we would have a similar proportion of our population for whom objective reality and the acceptance of facts simply no longer matters ?
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We already do.
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Not in the same numbers though.
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Perhaps not, but we have had sufficient numbers of idiots brainwashed by the neoliberal agenda over the last forty years to have kept the Conservatives in power for much of that time and forced Labour into becoming Tory Lite in order to become electable.
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The thing is mate , that’s where elections are won … as Liz Truss is about to find out.
The conservatives could have picked someone else… there were at least 3 candidates that came across better, appearing more centre, were more experienced and were historically (broadly) more stable. For example Sunak seemed to have the backing of his colleagues and yet the membership (general voters) decided otherwise. I’m a little curious as to why she was chosen still but ultimately care only that there won’t be (long) lasting damage done.
Trump’s rallies are not well attended anymore, the media push the cameras up to the back of the crowd instead of the back of the location which makes it looks better attended but he’s struggling to draw in more than 100 people wherever he goes. In DC he reportedly got just 27 attendees.
His politics are still relevant but he as an individual is not.
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That thing in DC was just a MAGA event. His crowds for his rallies are down but are still counted in the thousands.
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Your hidding, right?
They were left with Sunak or Truss, what’s the difference?
Ones dishonest and mad and knows where his money is (not in the UK) the other is honest, mad and hasn’t a clue if she has her finger in her mouth or her arse!
One comes across as (possibly) capable and the other not so much. Obviously it is that old south park choice of a turd sandwich and a giant douche but that was the choice.
Sorry to be pedantic, but can we discuss UK politics in the UK thread?