[bigolkevin]

There was outrage for all of those things. Not by most Trumpers, no, and certainly not enough outrage, but there was and is opposition to all of the things you listed.

So many Liberals seem to have been emboldened by losing to Trump a second time into embracing bullying and letting go of what empathy and compassion that they had instead of using the moment to question why their party is so disconnected from so much of the country and why so many who are suffering would fall for Trump's lies instead of Democrats and the status quo.

It's not just that it's wrong to use your anger over a bully being elected as an excuse to become a bully yourself, importantly it's also a garbage strategy for trying to defeat MAGA down the road.

This recent strain of Liberalism and it's compromise is so exhausting. They sell out everything they're supposed to stand for and embrace things like fracking, the lie of migrant crime, they choose to proudly wear the endorsement of people like the Cheneys and expect to win elections by being "diet Republicans"?

It seems like they'll do just about anything instead of actually challenging the systems that cause common folks to suffer.

[krapp]

>There was outrage for all of those things. Not by most Trumpers, no, and certainly not enough outrage, but there was and is opposition to all of the things you listed.

Where was it?

All I saw were people lecturing "the left" and calling Trump critics hypocrites and blaming them for Trumpism just as you are. Faux outrage over Hillary Clinton's "deplorables" comment - which she was 100% correct about. Not so much as an ounce of self-reflection or awareness, only ever deflection and projection, only ever blaming the other side and acting like victims.

I agree with you 100% about the failures of Liberalism and the Democrats though, but people are well aware of that. Unfortunately the system only affords us two options, and we're forced to choose the lesser evil. As far as bullying goes, I mean... my side isn't the one sending out ICE agents to kidnap brown people or stripping gay and trans people of their rights or waging war against "equality" and "woke."

Maybe you should be asking the people who keep voting for the systems causing common folks to suffer to challenge them. You won't though, that isn't why you're here.

[bigolkevin]

The news articles, the protests and marches, the op eds, the videos, the comments? Yes, there has been lots of outrage across every medium.

And are you really surprised by that shift? Many in this country are suffering, and bought in to Obama's "HOPE" and "CHANGE" and got next to nothing for it. In this election Harris tried to sell herself as simply "Biden but younger" instead of presenting transformative ideas to help people - and in a choice between continued suffering or the promise of something better of course many will choose the potential for something better - even if the person presenting it is a deplorable con man.

And yes, I will absolutely call out the so-called Left in this country for doing too little, for being hypocrites, for fighting for the status quo rather than for their constituents. Sure, Republicans are worse, but Democrats keep handing them free elections by being utterly tepid.

And, for the record, "the people who keep voting for the systems causing common folks to suffer" includes anyone voting for Democrats too.

[krapp]

>The news articles, the protests and marches, the op eds, the videos, the comments? Yes, there has been lots of outrage across every medium.

From the left, yes. Nary a peep from the right. A trickle compared to a torrent. Let's not pretend there was any sort of significant backlash against Trump on that side. If they really wanted Trump gone they could have gotten rid of him.

>and in a choice between continued suffering or the promise of something better of course many will choose the potential for something better - even if the person presenting it is a deplorable con man.

Except the people who voted for the deplorable con man were never going to vote for Harris, or Biden, or any Democrat regardless of what they offered, ever.

I think your criticisms of the Democrats are spot on, but I am curious what you think a Democratic Party platform that Trumpists would have accepted in 2024 would actually look like.

Also you can say "Republicans are worse" but you're in here implying the anger of the right and the choices they've made are perfectly justified as a response to the left, but you aren't willing to extend the same sympathy to the left. You're calling the left racist for taking some schadenfreude (which is weird given that Trump voters are almost exclusively white) when the right has literally run on schadenfreude and racism for a decade.

Trump voters are not automatons. They are (presumably) adults, with agency and free will (whatever that is) and are morally and ethically responsible for the decisions they make and the consequences of their actions. Were they lied to? Yes. Populism is, at its core, a deceitful and manipulative ideology. That doesn't mean they get let off the hook, they can get just as much as they give.

[hitekker]

> So many Liberals seem to have been emboldened by losing to Trump a second time into embracing bullying and letting go of what empathy and compassion that they had instead of using the moment to question why their party is so disconnected from so much of the country and why so many who are suffering would fall for Trump's lies instead of Democrats and the status quo.

This gets at the truth.

To generalize: if people can't get a win, they'll settle for blame. Pointing the finger at others feels pretty good. Whereas the soul-searching you speak of is suffering, especially for those invested in ideology.

IMHO, this coping is inevitable. We have no leaders who can admit our fault, nor do we longer share a set of teachings to make sense of where we went astray. What we do seem to have in abundance is rage, which fuels the comforting political fantasies we're witnessing today.