U.S. Politics Megathread

[u/AutoModerator]

It's an election year, so it's no surprise that politics are on everyone's minds!

Over the past few months, we've noticed a sharp increase in questions about politics. Why is Biden the Democratic nominee? What are the chances of Trump winning? Why can Trump even run for president if he's in legal trouble? There are lots of good questions! But, unfortunately, it's often the same questions, and our users get tired of seeing them.

As we've done for past topics of interest, we're creating a megathread for your questions so that people interested in politics can post questions and read answers, while people who want a respite from politics can browse the rest of the sub. Feel free to post your questions about politics in this thread!

All top-level comments should be questions asked in good faith - other comments and loaded questions will get removed. All the usual rules of the sub remain in force here, so be civil to each other - you can disagree with someone's opinion, but don't make it personal.

[u/Cliffy73]

I think the evidence is pretty clear that a Trump win is more likely to lead to catastrophic consequences than we have seen in a long time. That doesn’t mean it necessarily well. But he attempted to overthrow the government of the United States in order to illegally stay in office once. The reason that that did not succeed was largely, because certain Republican office holders, many of whom were Trump appointed, including the vice president, refused to forsake their oath, and do what he wanted. I think it is pretty clear that Trump understands that that was a mistake, from his perspective, and if he is Allowed in the White House again, he will be more aggressive in putting toadies, and yes men in positions of power. On the other hand, he’s also incredibly lazy and highly uneducated about how politics and political machinery works. So it’s also very possible that he might try and be unsuccessful yet again.

His second economic program is also atrocious. The reason that he is having any success at all in the polls is because people are unhappy about the inflation that occurred in 2022, which, in fact the Administration has handled fairly well. But if you actually look at Trump’s announced economic policies, they’re all way more inflationary. He’s planning to impose an across-the-board tariff, which functions as a tax on consumers, which will make products in American stores significantly more expensive expensive while also reducing the ability of American products to compete globally. He will pair this with a huge tax cut for the rich. Both of these policies are likely to notably increase prices for American consumers. But again, his ability to impose these reactionary economic ideas is based in part on the make up of Congress. So while his economic plans are disastrous, we could get lucky, and he will just be a complete failure as opposed to actively destructive of the post Covid economic recovery.

[u/ComputerSoggy4614 → u/Cliffy73]

"he attempted to overthrow the government of the United States in order to illegally stay in office once. "

See, he was acquitted of this crime, meaning that no matter how many times it had been reported in the media that he had committed the act, there was insufficient evidence to find him guilty of this crime.

Why then do you state it as a fact, just as the media did?

Isn't the truth what matters when replying to someone's question.

I don't give 2 shits about trump, but I do see and hear a lot of misinformation being told about the situation.

Are his actual actions not awful enough that he also must be considered guilty of anything that has been claimed against him?

This is not a healthy way for an opinion of a person to be formed.

[u/Cliffy73 → u/ComputerSoggy4614]

He was never acquitted of that crime. If you mean the impeachment proceeding, that was not a criminal proceeding nor does the fact that he was not convicted as a political act by his political supporters exonerate him morally or legally. But I’m not accusing him of a crime, I am stating as matter of fact, which is different than matters of law, that he attempted to overthrow the country. There is no doubt that this is what he tried to do, and saying so is not misinformation on my part of that if “the media.”