As President Trump's approval ratings reach new record highs, Democrats are MIA. Have they finally realized how wrong they have been all these years?

[RingOfFire]

[RavVid]

I think ridiculing the Left is something that is widely enjoyed across the west and most likely across the whole world. Arguing men can be women if they say they feel like a woman is the biggest own setup.

I was watching an Australian channel which analyzed the Left in the 5 stages of grief framework. i. e.
* Denial
* Anger
* Bargaining
* Depression
* Acceptance

The channel mostly found the Left was still in either the Denial or Anger phases of their grief. Some had moved onto Bargaining. At a party last night most people attending were Leftist. I found most were still in the Denial or Anger phases.

The odd Leftist had got to the Bargaining phase of grief and thought it might have gone differently if so much money hadn't been wasted on celebrity endorsements.

Absolutely none had got to the Acceptance phase of grief either at the party or on the channel program.

I think this is a good thing as it means the Left is not going to learn. You have to get to Acceptance before you can learn and adapt.

[RingOfFire]

Good analysis... yes those have been known as the classic five stages of grief.

[RingOfFire]

So you are saying that your fellow Aussies took the American election and politics so seriously that it affects them this much? Or was there something that happened there in your political environment that this grief is about?

[RavVid]

The American elections get a lot of coverage on local media certainly. Given the US importance in global affairs it has to be significant.

I think I've said the Left is global and that is a factor. Our local Left will take heart from left victories elsewhere; such as in France and in the UK. Equally they will be dismayed by Left defeats. Just how seriously they do take it will depend on how seriously they take Left wing politics.

Someone who thinks there are a 101 genders will be very serious and likely quite distressed!

Mostly it is not so serious to most people but it is clear the Left had a favorite. The friend whose bday party I attended was positively chortling to me when Swift endorsed.

Locally our Left gov't is up for elections Q1 2025. They are very likely to go into minority gov't but some recent polls show they could go to opposition benches and be a oncer gov't which would be humiliating. It rarely happens.

Elections in other countries do have a morale effect on the Left and the US election will have dented it.

[RingOfFire]

Thanks for that information. I'm disheartened to say that I have very little knowledge of politics in Australia. I know something about most of the European countries and even countries in your area like New Zealand but for some reason I've never really become familiar with the politics there (I have no idea why I never became familiar).

I think I will study it a little bit because I should know about at least the basics of Australian politics today.

One of my college degrees is in political science and although I've never participated in public political life myself it remains a hobby and interest of mine to this day.

[RingOfFire]

I have an online friend in Australia who is the developer of a program a regularly use for my work who I communicate with often. We have never talked politics though as I'm not sure if he has any interest in that.

[RavVid]

Best to keep politics and business/friendship distinct. There is no reason for you to know anything of Aus politics.

But it is fairly standard. There is a Labor/union party which is left wing and socialist and other more extreme left wing parties scavenging votes from that grouping e. g. Greens.

On the right there is a conservative party and a Country party tailored to farming communities. Where it will confuse is the conservative party's name is Liberals.
it is classic liberal not social liberalism and they believe gov't should get out of peoples faces and promote classic social virtues.

The labor party is concerned about protecting democracy and wants to institute a Ministry of Truth to protect said democracy. You will probably see some parallels at this point..

So fairly bog standard.

Where we differ a lot is that we have compulsory voting. All in favor of compulsory registration because that leads to clean electoral rolls and difficulty in stuffing ballot boxes. But not forced voting We also use preferential (ranked) voting. That has the consequence of if you are a Greens voter your vote ends up going to Labor.

What is significant is who you put last and second last on the ballot. Full preferential is a devil because it means you must vote foe one of the two major parties which is of course exactly what the majors want.

[RingOfFire]

Very interesting THANKS for that summary! I follow you.

I agree with the notion that there are really only two basic political ideologies. We refer to them as left and right for simplicity. The standard ideology of what we call left is one of the "collective" i. e. the community is more important than the individual and its rights come first. The right holds that individualism and individual rights are supreme. I think most if not all political systems have some version of this ideology at their core. It stems from human nature.

Yes, "liberal" has taken on a new meaning in America too in these last decades. At one time it was understood to represent the right, not, the newer generations have lost track of all of that and it has been redefined as a term referring to the left.

The term "Libertarian" is still around though to represent a subset of conservatives (I'm one of them. I consider myself to be a "Conservatarian" which is a term not many people know but it means that I have views that represent both camps. There are also parts of both I do not agree with.

Interesting that you mention Rank voting. I am assuming it is the same system as what we have in some state and local governments here. We call it "Rank Choice" voting. It's AWFUL! Highly susceptible to corrupt intent. My condolences.

Interesting comment though and very useful. Thank you!

[RavVid]

No problem. I am very interested in the topic. I don't have that much understanding of libertarian & conservatarian in practice and politics is an applied art. Similarly I would mix and match my views to circumstances.

I agree with the left and right characterizations you give but I think an important distinction is that the Left has dogma that is global. Only some of it may be visible at a time but there is a journey intended. e. g. gay marriage succeeded and then immediately the objective is recognizing a 101 genders no matter how inane it is. Borders shouldn't exist and that implies nations shouldn't nor culture. The left doesn't necessarily have an end point and you don't know where the road leads.

The left argues emotionally - preferably no more than a meme - while the right is more cognitively reasoned and pragmatic. I think these are important distinctions as well as the base distinction.

Preferential voting is an approximation to exhaustive ballot in which everybody votes and the weakest candidate is eliminated then everybody votes again repeatedly till one candidate is left as the winner.

It is quite reasonable if it is optional preferential, that is you don't have to rank all candidates. It encourages multiple minor parties/views. Full preferential is truly bad because it entrenches two major parties - you have to put one of them second last. It allows majors to act against their base because they end up with their vote regardless. Combined with compulsory voting you can be compelled to vote against your interests. Bipartisan policy of the majors can't be voted against which is something I bitterly resent.

I rant inordinately on this topic so I will stop there.

[RingOfFire]

No it's okay, I enjoy the insight you cast. It's interesting stuff and you have a clear depth of understanding which is admirable.

[RavVid]

Well I get insight from yourself, US system and politics so I am glad if I contribute back some. :)

[lightbulb27]

55% approval on CNN is HUGE!

Yes they are mia... spending money. Probably in intense hearings about the various UFO sightings. Can you imagine how hard Kamala is working?

Trump has his work cut out for him, with economy that's been in recession and it's going to show up soon enough. Lots of change, expect some rocky times then he will patch it up for the final 2 years.

[northerngal]

I think the Dems are smart... just take a step back and watch the chaos that the new Administrations policies will unleash. Then have a press conference and say "I told you so"

[RingOfFire]

No question the Democrats are not going to drop their effort to bring down the country and sabotage president Trump. But there are signs that the tide is changing and people are catching on. Now that they've seen four years of what life is like with the Democrats in charge President Trump's approval ratings have reached the highest levels ever.

Let's hope that they will no longer tolerate the Democrats thuggish violent authoritarian agenda and that this is the beginning of a new era of prosperity and freedom in America. In other words, let's hope that President Trump can make America great again.

We each have to do everything in our power to help him in that effort so that the country does not slip back into the abyss of the last 4 years.

[sage2021]

They are probably hiding out somewhere because Elon Musk is getting ready to drain the swamp.

[sage2021]

Thank you for the MHO 🙂🧁🌷

[exitseven]

democrats are still blaming voters for their failures. They still think that they know best and Americans are a bunch of rednecks because they want safe streets, low prices and the right to bear arms.

[Anonymous]

Some have definitely realized it, but I would say most have not. Consider all the posts from dr pepper, the self proclaimed odd "guy" and the legal boxer. They are clearly in denial and as full of hate as ever.

[RingOfFire]

Have not had to look at anything from any of those jerks in a long time because I have them all blocked.

[Dongie]

So true.

[Dongie]

They will never accept such a thing. Those people hate. The reason the MSM has pushed the hate is because the corrupt group in politics tell them to. Others are just programmed to follow suit.

[RingOfFire]

Some go along because they are not very bright, some go along because they are not stupid but ignorant, and some go along because they are cowards and the left intimidates them with threats of violence or thuggish tactics. I would say the last group is probably the most common. They are cowards and afraid to stand up for what they know is right for fear of being canceled, persecuted, or having violence committed against them.

If I'm right that most fall into the last category, it's good news. Because it means that they understand that the left is wrong but just too fearful to not go along with it. That means that once that fear can be eliminated they can be converted.

I think what may have happened in this election is that President Trump showed such courage that he inspired them to take a chance. They didn't want to vote for Democrats, they knew that their platform is insane, but they were too afraid to do it until president Trump showed them the value of courage.

That's a possible theory to explain what happened and why Trump suddenly got such a boost in his approval so quickly.

[RingOfFire]

I think another piece of evidence that supports this theory is that women were less likely to change their votes for Trump than men. That makes sense because women are much more concerned about being the victims of violence.. and the Democrats play that like a fiddle. Every time there's riots, they are sending a message to the public not to challenge their agenda.

[Dongie]

I think you're on to a few things there. The last group is the fuel that powers the cancel culture.

[Filthy_Immigrant]

democrats admitting they were wrong? nah I think pigs are gonna fly before we see that ever happening

[Surely]

Someone must be giving Brandon a list of paying customers for pardons or commutations. Hopefully his pen will soon run out of ink.🖋️

[Pterodon]

Doubtful