[jacquesm]

I don't know man... this isn't my site but if it would be the banhammer would be applied fairly liberally to those that are still hopelessly addicted to the kool-aid and that use HN exclusively for political debate and pushing their talking points, which is not what it is for. If by now you are still on the Trump bandwagon I'm really not sure what drives you but you can at least try to make an effort to understand why some people might be a tad frustrated with your glorious leader and his hangers on. Even a blind person (with apologies to the blind) could see that this is not going well.

In a way the hangers on and enablers are worse: I suspect Trump is not 100% in control of his faculties anymore (which is a pity, because that sets the stage for an insanity plea). But I am assuming that you are so you don't get that excuse.

And 'cackles and autopen' does not set the stage for having a discussion that is had at a higher level than schoolyard insults so I think you lost the high ground right there. You seem to think this is some kind of game where there is winning and losing and you think that 'your team' is winning, what you fail to notice is that everybody including you is losing, and that only a handful - of which you are not one - are making out like bandits.

[jaldhar]

Ok Harris and Walz then. I'm not offended by "orange man" etc. which you frequently see here but keeping things at a grown up level is good too. I was specifically responding to you wondering aloud why he hasn't been replaced and why people who (in your opinion) should know better go along with him. I gave some reasons why. To recap:

1. Internationally there is currently no alternative to the US as a superpower and Trump is the leader of the US.

2. Domestically he continues to have a substantial constituency. Some of his polices actually poll better than he does.

3. The potential replacement cannot merely "resist"; they have to actually get elected and that requires having a vision that the electorate endorses.

And I would add:

4. Most (or let's say enough) Americans don't feel they are losing as you put it.

I believe you when you say you would like to apply the banhammer liberally (haha!) but so you know I come to HN for tech news. Looking at my comment history I do have a lot of political ones but it is in the hopes that I have contributed something to the conversation. Of course whether I succeeded is for the readers to decide.

[jacquesm]

> Internationally there is currently no alternative to the US as a superpower and Trump is the leader of the US.

You may not have noticed, but that is changing very rapidly.

> Domestically he continues to have a substantial constituency. Some of his polices actually poll better than he does.

Indeed. Mind boggling, but then again, in many ways not surprising, after all, if Trump 1 wasn't enough to making you think twice about voting for him again probably nothing will.

> The potential replacement cannot merely "resist"; they have to actually get elected and that requires having a vision that the electorate endorses.

Yes, here's my proposed vision for the electorate: normal. All this megalomaniacal nonsense is just causing more and more problems, both inside the USA and outside of it and unfortunately we don't get to vote in US elections but we do end up living with the consequences.

> Most (or let's say enough) Americans don't feel they are losing as you put it.

Give it more time. Clearly, there is some degree of insulation from the consequences, but I'd love to have an actual seance with one of the Founding Fathers that the USA so reveres to get their $0.02 on whether or not this is what they were aiming for. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think the answer might surprise the MAGA's.

Nice you caught the pun and thank you for making a move in the right direction with respect to the level of conversation, it's appreciated.