Donald Trump the Megathread part II - Mod Warning updated in OP 12/2/26

It's over 20 years since I lived there, and this is just the impressions of one probably biased observer, but compared to Europeans I think the middle class folks I met had a higher standard of living in terms of stuff, but they had a poorer quality of life. A lot of their material comfort was based on cheap credit, and due to high education costs many were mortgaged up to the hilt to get their kids through college. Given the nature of employment laws, the whole house of cards could topple at any time. I also found a higher level of personal identification with their jobs - US folks liked to spend long hours at the office and not take all their holidays, in contrast to folks I saw in Germany who would turn up at 8am, work hard until 4.30pm, and then leave the job behind until the following morning. I think the whole US economic system depends on people being in a constant state of striving - social media and the self help industry worsens this. And I haven't even mentioned healthcare…

I don't think you can blame the healthcare sh1tshow on military spending. The US spends more per capita on healthcare than any other developed country, but the system is set up to prioritise profits for insurance companies and providers ahead of positive outcomes for patients.

Military power is a great thing only if it's wielded according to some moral standards.

I'd like a capitalist system where sustainable rather than exponentially increasing profit was the goal, but those days seem to be long gone and I've no idea how to get the toothpaste back into the tube.

The Irish Left (and EU leadership in general) is correct in prioritizing diplomacy and economic measures as tools by which to interact with neighbouring countries irrespective of how powerful they are.

And without alliances, what you are left with is increasing acrimony and division and as countries spend money on defence forces then there will be a point where someone feels becoming more aggressive in that manner.

The US people don't want their country to be as militarily active as even they have been over the last 20 years and it is important to encourage them in the direction that they are leaning so they select appropriate politicians going forward.

I'm not saying countries should have no defences or spending in that respect but they are very much a precaution rather than a preferred strategy.

All the things people care about, healthcare/education spending, immigration, the economy, generally suffer as a consequence of military actions and so all steps should be taken to avoid them.

The world should move towards bringing about a meaningful United Nations, not allowing it to be used as a cover by the US, Russia, China and Israel for them to feel they can enforce their world order on everyone else.

They're also one of the top OECD countries per capita on education.

So why do so many of them vote for Trump?

I think it all goes back to rugged individualism. The folks I met would give a friend $100 if they were stuck, but the idea of the government taking $100 to give $1 each to 100 people in need would be abhorrent to them