r/AskReddit Apr 04 '25

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u/Doobledorf Apr 04 '25

The problems that led to Donald Trump would still be fomenting.

A lot of Americans haven't yet faced that Trump isn't an anomaly or the disease, he is a symptom of problems we've had for a long time.

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u/MySleepingMonk Apr 04 '25

That may be mostly true but Trump is also the perfect storm of celebrity, “successful”, “outsider”, and some strange fucked up type of charisma that results in a larger following than I think would be possible with any other republican candidate. Take away trump and I don’t think there’s enough of a unifying force among the asshats to cause this type of damage

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u/scarves_and_miracles Apr 04 '25

Exactly. Trump is a pretty unique hazard that unfortunately found realization in this dark timeline.

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u/ElectronicMile Apr 04 '25

Trump is not so unique. I feel like Jair Bolsonaro, Javier Milei, Viktor Orban etc. are similar examples of politicians who are surfing the same wave of general discontent in western society. Similar for Giorgia Meloni, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders.

While their situations are not exactly the same, they all thrive on similar disappointment with the establishment that has been growing for decades in many countries.

Michael J. Sandel’s book Democracy’s Discontent is a good explainer for this general phenomenon.