In the US context? Unfortunately I would say yes.
Federal legislation requires assent of both houses and POTUS. The greens as far as I am aware have no representation in either house and certainly would offer nothing in the way of a Presidential nominee other than a spoiler.
I am not saying the climate doesn't matter, it does and US needs to take a lead on addressing it. Rather that in a 2 party system? Voting for a 3rd option when bi-cameral assent as well as POTUS is required to pass legislation is a waste of a vote and likely one that assists the worst option.
The makeup of US politics means that more often than not? People are voting for the least bad option. It's the outcome of a 2 party state compounded by FPTP.
Sounds like something an incumbent can do. And an advantage.
Not something they can legally do
Cringe
This also means TFG could wind up on SNL again (the first time was as surreal as it was humorless)
Can Trump ,if he wins a second term find or manufacture an excuse to declare martial law ,or something equivalent and control who appears on the ballot?
Also is there a chance GOP he may control both houses this time?
Trump told a crowd of angry demonstrators (demonstrating on the basis of a lie, I should add) to go to the Capitol building and 'encourage' those inside not to certify the 2020 election results. This alone should tell us that Trump is not a man who has any interest in lawful procedures when they do not benefit him and like any wannabe dictator, the only use he has for democratic norms is up to the point that his power is consolidated and no longer allowed to be challenged. Whatever remains of democracy at that point is then discarded 'in the national interest'.
The main reason that Trump was unable to retain power in 2020 wasn't for lack of trying. It was due to a number of Republicans with integrity refusing to do what Trump and co. were asking of them.
Laws have no power on paper. They require a large infrastructure of people to abide by them, and those backing Trump have been busy. Between Project 2025 with its aim of replacing the Washington DC civil service with Republican loyalists and the purge of the Republican party that ousts all the old-school representatives, the idea of sitting back and thinking that democracy will hold because the checks are strong is quite naive. Those checks need active enforcement across the political spectrum.
The main thing stopping Trump from removing term limits if he should become POTUS again is not respect for the law, but more just his age and the fact that there is no-one with the unique mixture of odious qualities he possesses.
Let's say maybe he hasn't all of the incumbent advantage but he has most of it.
Remember that Biden has the incumbent advantage as well here, him being the - actual incumbent - so your comparison with Trump polls of 2020 isn't comparing like with like.
Just think - why does the incumbent advantage exist in the first place and does it all apply to Trump?
It exists because people want someone experienced with the job already (Trump has that). They want a familiar face rather than some strange person new and scary (Trump has that). They prefer to get on with things rather than the inevitable upheavel and loss of time change of administration brings (Trump doesn't have this completely, but it would be back to normal a lot sooner than an entirely new candidate).
That's what he tried to do last time, so it stands to reason he'd try to do so again. The only difference being he's spent the last 4 years planning out who will go along with this and have 4 more years to put it into action (Project 2025). He thought he did enough last time (like having DeJoy **** around with mail sorting, the "perfect" phonecall with Zelensky, etc) but then he didn't, then he had a few weeks to scramble something together. It was one desperate ploy after another. "Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the republican congressmen," "I just need to find 11,780 votes," Jeffrey Clark attempt to take over DOJ, etc. - when that all failed, 'Jan 6, be here, will be wild,' Roger Stone meeting with terrorists in DC, take away the magnetometers, pipe bombs at the DNC (still unsolved), threaten pence, strangle your driver to get in front of your mob at the capitol (failed), target Mike Pence, 187 minutes of flatly doing nothing until law enforcement turned the tide on his crowd and he had no choice but to try and cover his ass, and he said "I know your pain. I know you're hurt. ... but you have to go home now... we love you"
Sounds like a Curb episode..
That's you have your main account.... and your naughty alt account.
And never the twain shall meet.
Just watched. Thought she was great. She needs to stay in the race and bleed more $$ from TFG
I thought you meant the Instagram girl
Sometimes elements of American pop cultures simply don't translate back this way - and SNL has always been one of them. I find the whole show cringe so didn't seem especially egregious; all that stilted delivery and mugging. Though courting Haley is pretty limp stuff from idiotic writers who obviously didn't spend more than 30 seconds googling her.
If they cast that vote without consideration for all the damage their candidates other policies could/will do, then yes.
We do not live in vacuum of single issues, we live in a complex interconnected world. And people who make major decisions based on a single fact or view are indeed, Stupid.
For political options, we are mostly left with choosing the least worst option rather than the "best" one.
They'll let anyone host an episode if it'll get viewers, even if they just want people to hate watch it.
Oh I thought it was just me that didn't 'get' SNL. Though I have great difficulty watching any US 'humour' - joke with smirk, pause, wait for applause, rinse repeat.
You say that but Sky syndicates a lot of US sitcoms.
Father Ted did largely the same formula go on now.
The majority of SNL is always crap, but in fairness they have about a week to come up with various pop culture or other sketches, which suit guests, and they barely have time to learn/rehearse them enough and end up just reading them off cue cards.
They do occasionally pull off some decent sketches. This was pretty good
Yeah good move from her. Brings a little humour to it but also keeps her in people's thinking. And will rile Trump right up, which is perfect all round really.
A lot of great talent has passed through SNL, and they have hit the mark some times. The fast production schedule doesn't make me admire their ability to put together a show so much as it makes me wonder what all that talent could have achieved given enough time to drop sketches that didn't work and refine the good stuff. There's so much to watch these days that getting an hour or so of hit-and-miss, undercooked sketches out is not something that would get my attention. It belongs to a different age of television.
Live programming is so much more accessible these days, it used to be something novel that only major broadcasters could achieve to transmit a live event to a national audience. Now you can go to Twitch and there's tens of thousands of streams, etc
SNLs evergreen claim to fame is how quickly they can turnaround and live perform a lampooning of the current affairs of the day, with high production value, eg.
This was produced and performed live just days after the explosive real interview:
But nowadays 4 days turnaround is forever, youtubers could have a video out within hours and rack millions of views.
Loyalty is a one way street apparently...
And she was just in the news for kissing the ring
Trump has reportedly been 'increasingly sour' with her lately:
I wonder why:
Trump bleeds support by flip-flopping about the urgency of the border issue
SNL's an institution; I'm (*sigh*) old enough to have seen the very first episode, which featured George Carlin as the guest host, a skit of muppets from Jim Henson - and I think the Police were the musical guests.
Such amazing talent got started there, Akyroyd, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Jon Belushi, moving forward a bit Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Chris Farley, Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, ... Lorne Michaels might have the best eye for comedic talent in history
Super Tuesday a month away today.
Election fever will grip the nation once again.
Enjoy the coming month's folks.
Should promise to be a veritable roller-coaster all the way.
Although I must wonder, dear newly reg'd poster who made a bee-line to the Trump thread. By way of perhaps introducting yourself: how do you you feel about this election and the man who is the core subject of this discussion?
We await your contributions with baited breath
The Democrats' obsession with gender self-ID has driven many voters into Trump's arms. So why don't the Democrats drop that stuff to win voters back?
Really? Any links to back that up?
