Has the age of Trump ruined political discourse forever?

[OtterMan68]

Insults, candidates refusing to shake hands before and after debates, negative advertising out the wazoo. Partisan political talking heads all over the internet

Yes, it's nasty and will stay that way

No, one day we'll get back to where we were prior to Trump, and we can agree to disagree and be friendly with those we disagree with politically

[Lliam]

I think it started during the 90s with Gingrich's "Republican Revolution of the 1990s when frothing at the mouth, right wing personalities dominated the radio. Then Democrats began responding the same tactics.

It really started in earnest when Hillary referred to those who didn't support her as "deplorables". Then, when she lost the election, Democrats went on full attack mode.
Many Democrat officials refused to attend the 2017 inauguration. Leftists began using riots, destruction and violence as a means of protest.

They started referring to non-Democrats with epithets like "far-right wing", "white nationalist", "racist", "sexist", "homophobe", "ammosexual", etc. You were demonized if you disagreed with anything.

They attacked Trump incessantly from the moment he got in office. Many or most of the charges were manufactured. They engaged in mostly character assassination.

I have 1960s-'70s liberal values. I was a life-long Democrat. But what liberalism has become is antithetical to my values. And I have come to despise the Democratic party. Not that I became conservative or like the Republican party.

I have found, though, that I can get along with conservatives even if we disagree on some issues. Whereas, Democrats and modern liberals are so ideological that they immediately make assumptions about anyone who disagrees with them about anything.

I don't know if things will return to the days when people could politely disagree and still remain friends. The current state is the result of a deliberate policy to divide people for political gain. And it is flamed by media.

[OtterMan68]

yeah, it was all downhill from when Rush Limbaugh learned he could build an audience by insulting people who disagreed with him

[Lliam]

Thanks for the MHO, OtterMan.

[Makeushiver]

I'm truly concerned about the Gaye of this country snould. Trump be elected. He was/ is a laughingstock to world leaders and yo Manu people. In this country. I think that many of people. that vote for him are subconsciously or. not voting from hatred, anger or fear as Trump represents all of these. I'm probably m people re liberal than conservative but I used to respect many conservative politicians and people who feel that way politically. Trump spews poison every time he opens his mouth. Fires anyone with a conscience that he accidentally hired. It might be amusing if he didn't habe the key to launch missles. His political policies are all
areas in the water. A wall doesn't make any sense. His tax cut only benefited the wealth corporate tax payers. He hoped it would spur job creation buy the main thing by far that companies used it for was to buy back shares of stock in the company they work, this buying forced the price of the stock to soar and they then were able to sell the huge number of shares they habe as grants or options for a lot of $. There was no law past that helped any individuals though there were breaks for the wealthiest. No one wants to pay for anyone else's medical costs but no state supported changing it. The sad and ironic truth is that the majority of his supporters - outside of the wealthiest- benefit at all from his policies. He can't stand the truth even from hos own MD. He was a Democrat for ! most of his life nut I wouldn't feel any different if he still were.

[Anonymous]

My thoughts.
Modern republicans are filled to the brim with hate, disrespect, brainwashed with farfetched delusions. They takes steps to spread that hate too. You can't have a conversation with them without them knee-jerk reacting with some ridiculous childish remark. Spread false information with zero sources. Countering only with more locker room remarks or their obsessions with crude memes.
Old school republicans knew how to fight it out and then go home as friends. You don't even want to know half of these modern people. I have no time for disrespect or hate.
Yes. It's changed forever.

[Anonymous]

Forever? No, but not until Republicans take the party back from the MAGA extremists. I can't go back to being one until they do. The god-king of the party is basically a middle school bully who has sever entitlement issues if he isn't given what he wants when he wants it and then he throws a temper tantrum and resorts to childish namecalling to anyone who stands in his way, so it's no surprise his followers mimic his same immature tactics. I expect the party will remain about nothing other than loyalty to Dear Leader until he dies and then things will improve.

[OlderAndWiser]

This all started with the 2000 election and blaming it on Trump simply demonstrates that you have bought into the adversarial/weaponize everything/take no prisoners mentality.

[MisterWack]

Trump tainted it absolutely.
You cannot talk to anyone unless you use dog whistles like DEI, Crooked Clinton, Woke, etc. even then if you don’t say policy that is 100% their ideology you can’t reason or educate.

I’ve said I was a Trump supporter back in 2016, hated Hillary Clinton, am happy to see Hunter Biden & Donald Trump found guilty by their fellow American peers though while saying these basic truths then explaining myself further I’m attacked with “Bot”, “Liar Liar Liar!”, “Commie Go Back To China”, and “How much do you get paid to write these?”(all real responses)

We can compromise and we can find middle ground. Politicians did it under Biden’s Administration instead of Trump’s Administration CLEARLY there is a pathway to getting sh*t done for millions of Americans regardless of how we think, feel, talk, take in information, etc. CLEARLY. I want bipartisanship and working together so I’m voting Kamala Harris. Once the poisoner of politics is gone, I believe we will shift slowly but surely back into open honest discourse.

[exitseven]

It is not Trump that caused discourse it has been the democrats reaction to somebody that will beat them like a rented mule if they don't use every trick they can think of to cling to power. If we had an election like we did years ago with paper ballots on Election Day, no calling the Justice Dept to make up crimes against their opponent and if the media was not really just a bunch of democrat operatives with press passes twisting or withholding the truth we might be able to have a civilized election. This will never happen so I guess it has to be the hard way.

[BetaBucks]

There's no "forever" though, just cycles that go so slowly that it feels like forever. Political discourse nosedived before Trump was even in the picture through. It was around 2012 that I really noticed that people had fallen apart. This primed the shitstorm that came with Trump, for sure. Right now, we're at the point of full blown delusion. I can't even talk to most people about politics, on either side, because they can't see straight anymore.

[WindAtMyBack]

Trump is merely a symptom and result of what was already in play. He was basically a desperation candidate. People were grasping at straws hoping things would turn around. But they didn't turn around, they got worse. Not because of Trump, but because of radicals who love nothing more than stirring things up.

There is a string of events going back to the mid 90s or so. It's gone downhill ever since. By the time Trump ran, things had already deteriorated to the point of desperation.

[Тгцмр2024]

There’s a point when you realize all the more articulate candidates just want to help themselves and the people at the top and screw the rest and that’s when all this you talk about trump become rather irrelevant if he means well for the people and for the country.

TRUMP2024

[Anonymous]

It wasn't Trump who did this, it was Clinton, and Algore especially, telling us we were not allowed to debate or even discuss issues if we disagreed with leftists. Not allowed to discuss global warming. Not allowed to discuss healthcare. Not allowed to discuss illegal immigration. not allowed to discuss the budget or the debt ceiling, not allowed to discuss public labor unions, and on and on and on. Yet the "ladies" on The View are allowed to spew their hatred on television every single day.

Taking away our freedom of speech and freedom of thought on political issues was what ruined political discourse.

[DrPepper12]

When trump succumbs to that last big mac and his life of sloth and gluttony, the MAGA cult will consume itself and fracture and within a generation those factions will come back together again likely wiser, stable and civil.

[SweetDripp]

It's interesting you associate those behaviors with Trump. Negative political ads have been the norm for decades before Trump ever entered the political scene.

[OtterMan68]

Obama got along with Romney and McCain.
Bush got along with Gore and Kerry.
Working across the aisle was not seen as a betrayal back then

[SweetDripp]

Again, interesting you associate that with Trump. Remember Maxine Waters calling on supporters to confront political opponents in public venues?

[OtterMan68]

before or after 2016?

[Dongie]

Neither one. It wasn't Trump who made the left hate him. They hate him because they were told to hate him. The only difference I see since he was elected was the way the left acts. TDS is what we call it.

[OtterMan68]

why does Trump have so much hate?

[Dongie]

If he has hate, it's been kindled by the left, getting to get away with everything, including an attempt on his life.

[OtterMan68]

really? So he only started insulting people, going birther on Obama, etc AFTER the left started hating on him?

[Dongie]

So for calling out the prez, the entire left drove him from being a Democrat to running for the office as a republican? Okay, that sounds about right.

[OtterMan68]

you can do that without the insults

[Dongie]

I don't see it happening we're it not for the totally nasty way they have treated him. You think it's OK. If a president of Democrat status was treated the way he has been treated, then you would see what I'm talking about. They even loved when that idiot bush got hit with a shoe when, as their president, they should have been furious at that guy.

[OtterMan68]

so he was Mr. Nice guy prior to his announcement?

[Anonymous]

Trump has created a horrible environment of hate, racism, sexism, fraud, lies, and cheating. After he is gone, we will slowly get back to cordial conversations and doing what is good for America instead of oneself like Trump.

[VanillaSalt]

The problem isn’t Trump. The problem is half the country hates woke policies and the other half is women.

[normalice]

It was the age of right wing misinformation. Trump just swooped in and put his name on it, as he has done all his life..

[Boulemakh]

Not just trump. Consider the clowns like Boris Johnson. It is a global pandemic of anti-democration.

[Anonymous]

This split was manufactured by shady elites with a depopulation agenda, causing global civil wars will massively help the objective

[Tomisworthless]

Age of Trumpism only exposed the vile of the Democrats, we got to see the true nature of their hearts, hatred.

[noohair]

Trump did not cause this. It was here before him. And it is not going back.

[BCRanger10]

No. It took a nose-dive under Obama.

[OtterMan68]

I don't recall him insulting Romney or McCain or refusing to shake their hands. I don't recall them refusing to show up to his inauguration.

[BCRanger10]

On Barack Obama's part personally? No. But liberals definitely got a lot more smug and condescending during his presidency. They'd acted that way for a while, but they became much more open about it.

[NathanDavis]

we have what we deserve...

[ImAlondra]

I hope so

[Anonymous]

Trump 2024!!!