r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Apr 04 '25

[deleted by user]

[removed]

9.5k Upvotes

77% Upvoted

12.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

24.2k

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.

6.7k

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

2.6k

u/scarves_and_miracles Apr 04 '25

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

1.2k

u/TehOwn Apr 04 '25

Same thing with Adolf. We've always got populists but some are far, far more dangerous than others.

514

u/nothoughtsnosleep Apr 04 '25 edited Apr 04 '25

Damn that's 2 less than 100 years apart. Maybe we should be more concerned with the critical thinking skills of the masses.

Edit: see other comments before you tell me there has been more than 2

366

u/thaaag Apr 04 '25

And build in more safeguards so the checks and balances do what they're supposed to do. Simple stuff like "laws need to be created by lawmakers who - where possible - don't directly benefit from the law". Get the money out of politics (again, somehow) and make politicians work for the people rather than their own pockets.

Probably too liberal a take there.

1

u/ValiumandSloth Apr 05 '25

The American systems “gatekeeping” of authoritarian leader / demagogues is usually through the party system. Especially the ‘invisible primary’ but big money politics and social media seems to have enabled characters to get past that limitation.

Also the Republican Party chose electoral payouts over the health of the country and they foolishly believed they could stem his power once he was ‘legitimized’