• SCB@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            They’re not large enough to have any mandates at the federal level, currently. That math changes dramatically if they win, and pull off their proposals.

            The 2024 election will either elevate them to true power or break the back of this movement, as we saw with the Tea Party. If they don’t secure some actual, not-easily-undone wins in the near future, the party will devour itself from within.

            Maybe the most defining characteristics of this bloc is that they need to win or they hold the losers as responsible - this has been true for every appointment, every lower-tier repz their view of the opposition, and basically everyone on Earth except Trump himself.

            2016 was the start of what ended up being a defining war for the heart of America and 2024 will be modern America’s Waterloo, one way or the other.

            • PRUSSIA_x86@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              They have enough control in enough states to effectively “take their ball and go home” if they don’t like the way things turn out next year. It doesn’t take an overall majority, just a few local pluralities.

    • Zorque@kbin.social
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      2 years ago

      Indeed, Trump is just the rodeo clown to distract the public from the cowboys trying to hogtie them.

      • Zombiepirate@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Douglas Adams called it in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:

        The President in particular is very much a figurehead — he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had — he has already spent two of his ten presidential years in prison for fraud.

        • qprimed@lemmy.ml
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          2 years ago

          Douglas Adams was the much needed satirical wrecking ball of “organized society”. I miss him so much.