[pstuart]

I think he's an idiot savant in this regard (and others).

When he claimed he could shoot somebody on 5th Ave and not lose a vote I remember the collective shock (including my own), but he proved to be prescient in this regard.

Hate speech towards democrats has been going on for decades and has primed that segment of the population to consider the left as to effectively be sub-human.

Couple this with the fact that the Right excels at messaging (e.g., "pro-life", "entitlements", "woke" as an amorphous "bad librul stuff!", etc.)

I spend a lot of time thinking about this problem and am quite terrified for the future because the weaponization of hate and "low information voters" is a powerful force and effectively beyond reasoning with.

It's relevant to HN because the matter is effectively "hacking humanity". It's hard to discuss here because people are primed to get very emotional about the matter and that doesn't lead to healthy engagement.

edit: I am not a Democrat and am strongly against partisanship. George Washington warned the nation about this in his farewell address.

[macintux]

I've run for office (as a placeholder) as a Libertarian. I've voted Republican at times, although I definitely lean liberal.

I'll never vote Republican again, at least not until the party faces down its demons and returns to some semblance of sanity.

Trump could have easily subverted the Democratic party instead of Republican, and if the Dems had gone down the same path, I'd be saying the same thing about them.

[pstuart]

I left the Democratic party in disgust at the turn of the century. I vote blue because a 2-party system forces me to, but I have no respect for Dem leadership.

I don't think Trump could have done the same thing in the Democratic party: he leveraged decades of hate speech and Fox news that created an electorate driven by hate and anger and he saw the opportunity and took it (noting he could shoot somebody on 5th Ave and not lose a vote)