diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

diddly-squat said:

In my mind there are two parts to this. Firstly, I think what the last few elections show us is that the electorate is probably not quite as partisan as was believed and that if pushed far enough, people will vote with their feet. Secondly, parties need to grow and adapt and actively build coalitions that are specific to geographies and that you can’t simply assume that because I won last time, I’m going to win this time.

The political pendulum in the US still feels like it’s swinging pretty wildly and that’s never a great thing because it tends to result in drastic wholesale changes in policy and strategic direction. What we probably need now is a calming and more moderate set of leaders and policies.

I suggest that my ‘shits and giggles’ hypothesis about American voting also comes in here, in some small way.

2016, and there’s enough people who fall for Trump’s showy, blustering style, and for his overblown rhetoric and scapegoating, and they think, hey, yeah, let’s put this guy in the Presidency and see if he can do better than professional politicians. Especially as the Republicans controlled both houses at the time.

Turns out, he’s a bozo, and the Republicans as shit useless.

So, 2020/2021, and both Trump and the Republicans get the heave-ho.

Joe Biden and the Democrats are nice, but so ho-hum. And, the media is saying Joe is old and icky, and giving lots of space to Republican shit about immigrants, and DEI, and Transgender yadda-yadda. And Trump is howling his head off, non-stop.

Also, Americans are not yet grown-up enough to contemplate a woman President, let alone a black woman President.

So, 2024, and people think, wow, Trump is totally pissed off now, if he gets back in, he’s really going to kick arse, we’ll see some .big-time action from Washington. Let’s vote him in, get a few laffs there, right?

The Republicans are still squawking about DEI, immigration, transgender all being the fault of the Dems. Plus they hung around with Icky Old Joe. Let’s have those sensible Republican folks back.

And, they vote for Trump and the GOP, just to see what’ll happen.

What happens is that they’re all still self-serving bozos.

At last, in 2026, the penny dropped.

Your summary is spot on but I’m not sure the “penny has dropped” is quite the right way to think about it.. it still feels a lot like a wildly swinging pendulum.

I am concerned that if the Corporate Democrats fail to act now, then 2028 will potentially see the pendulum swing towards the first Republican Nazi President in America.