Something's been bothering me for a while, probably a lot of you, too...

[TreasonousBastard]

It's trump's lack of understanding of how things work. Now that trump's going away, we probably don't really care, but the problem is bigger than him.

When he said the Mexicans would pay for the wall, we laughed, Mexico laughed, and contractors laughed all the way the bank.

Then he told us the Chinese were paying all those tariffs. Nobody made a big deal out of how tariffs are like sales taxes-- WE pay the tariffs, not the Chinese. The Chinese were expected to lose sales because of the increased cost of goods, but much of what they sell us has no other source, so the only winner is the US govt finding another tax source. The loser is not China, but US consumers. And this is without dealing with the history of tariffs and when the work, or don't

Then he tells us the problem with rising covid cases is testing. This is pure idiocy-- reducing testing will reduce the number of tested cases, but not the uncounted, untested cases. Reducing testing is basically lying to the pubic and increasing the danger of the epidemic. Those cases we can't see can't hurt us? And, of curse, reducing testing gives us other problems.

My aggravation with this is that while we expect the asshole-in-chief to come up with this nonsense, there was no outrage. Educated people did not stand with one voice and say "You are full of shit."

[moonscape]

1. Yes we did. Legitimate news outlets did, democratic

voices did, print media did. Republican politicians and his supporters didn’t of course.

The lies were coming at such a rapid clip that one would be assailed and it was exhaustedly on to the next one. Exhaustion began to take over even as we continued saying over and over that this is not normal, we can’t get used to this. We were pummeled.

We’re not unique. Before he was elected we were pointed to books as to what to expect and what we had to do with this authoritarian creature, what we were in for and how their rule embeds itself.

I’m just relieved we saved our democracy. If he had been smarter we might not have managed to.

[True Blue American]

2. We voted

74 million of us! And the celebrating crowds were full of young people!

Great news for us!

[ancianita]

17. Agree. All that.

[jaxexpat]

24. We will lose again and again to mass misinformation if is continues to run unfettered, unlabeled.

We narrowly missed a bullet this time, you know. (They accidentally counted just enough votes to remove Trump.) It's time we dusted off the first amendment, pull it into the light and boldly, open mindedly peruse it.

Is there really a constitutional right to broadcast blatant lies for the purpose of intentionally misinforming the public? Hasn't this abusive tendency always revealed the worst in our body politic, the underlying malefactor of all our most shameful episodes? Isn't that the primary source of the grief we wallow in these days?

If the right to misinform is held sacrosanct then wherein lies the means to disarm it? Does it rest solely in the power of people in their efforts to improve their common lot? Even to the point of violent action? Surely in balancing the weight of importance, the threshold of insurrection is not reached by this. But historically it has. Publicly broadcast lies caused the civil war. Public acceptance of lies broadcast with the intention of emotionally charging people have caused most of the "wars" the US has become embroiled in since its founding. Should this not, then and after all, be remedied in the realm of representative government? Is redefining and reinstating the fairness doctrine a worthy goal?

It could be, I think. If posted along the narrow track, "broadcast blatant lies for the purpose of intentionally misinforming the public".

[Trueblue Texan]

25. This is so spot on.

[Native]

3. You can add "stop the count" to the list. Basic math and basic processes also elude him.

[exoskeleton]

4. Just wait

There is only a sense of outrage when there is a Democrat in the White House.

[Trueblue Texan]

26. Exactly.

And a Democrat had better not have a scuff on his/her shoe or the media will scream about it, the right will march about it, and Mitch McConnell and cronies will suggest impeachment.

[tetedur]

5. When he suggested injecting disinfectant, how Birx and the other guy DIDN'T stand up

to his face and say, "NO! NO! NO!" to slap down that suggestion made my jaw drop.

[Shermann]

6. It all started with the Birther movement

He had a supposed team in Hawaii doing a supposed investigation into BO. That was the foundation that his entire political career was built on. It should have been a warning sign (well for many it was).

[Historic NY]

12. The media humored him, and embolden him

imagine if they just called it bullshit. They let him take them all by the nose, his phony 5 million dollar proclamations. Sheriff Joe's crack investigators...

[gab13by13]

7. Trump is mentally ill, no question,

what bothers me is that Republicans in the House and Senate repeated trump's lies. Are all Republican's in the House and Senate mentally ill or just kissing their mob boss' ring?

[Rice4VP]

8. He's an ignorant pathological liar..

[Vinca]

9. It's going to be even worse than that. Suddenly the GOP is going to fret about the debt and deficit.

Their new meme will be that Biden is bankrupting us and they'll refuse to fund the social programs so desperately needed.

[Ziggysmom]

11. Moscow Mitch needs to go! Damn Kentucky for voting him in again 🙁

[sandensea]

10. GOPee presidents enjoy that subtle advantage of being perceived as representing money and power

You'd think that would be a disadvantage - but not among our weak-minded Republican friends.

Many of our fellow voters feel this entitles them to respect no matter what, and of course the benefit of the doubt in all cases - even laughable ones like Cheeto.

It's just a sad fact: many of us still have a medieval village mindset.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. Outrage? There was lots of outrage. But there was also outrage fatigue, by Miller-Bannon design. nt

[Martin Eden]

14. "Trump's lack of understanding"

Whether or not he understands these things is almost beside the point. He probably doesn't give a fuck about how government policies actually work in the real world.

What must be remembered is that Donald Trump is completely untethered from anything resembling the truth. It's all about the message and his ability to spin the narrative in his favor while pushing the buttons of his voters.

It's a mistake to think this POtuS is like previous presidents whose efforts were to effectively govern. For Trump, his presidency is another reality TV show; what matters are the ratings and filling the bottomless pit of his ego and appetites.

He doesn't read intelligence reports or listen to briefings from experts relating to important issues that cross his desk. He watches TV constantly, especially Fox News. The most important thing for his job is to find the pulse of the moment so he can perform his role as the star of his reality TV show.

The work product of this president is rhetoric and how it's delivered. And no matter how appalled we may be at what comes through his mouth and Twitter feed, Donald Trump is very good at his job -- the greatest con man on earth.

He conned his way through his entire career, and he conned his way into the most powerful elected office on the planet.

If not for the pandemic with its distrous effects on the economy, he may very well have conned his way into a second term. As it is, 70 million still voted for him -- about 7 million more than four years ago.

Donald Trump does actually know how things work -- between the ears of those who listen to him and nod their heads.

[samnsara]

15. i was outraged but my 1/65,800,000th investment in HRC wasnt enough to stop it..

..lord knows i tried.

[PatrickforO]

16. Yeah we did. There was massive backlash. Problem is, Trump doesn't give a shit.

He just lies, because that is what he does.

[ancianita]

18. Can't agree. You can't hang this on the educated liberals.

When it comes to the educated, there are the educated who choose liberal values and educated who choose illiberal values. Education itself is no guarantee of empowerment/power choices. Education only rationalizes those choices.

The exhaustion of what the Democrats did through constant hearings, investigations, obstruction of both the 1st branch and 3rd branches, throughout impeachment, pressing the media to dig better day after day is proof that because Republicans, en masse, don't listen and don't care, in no way impugns the educated. Democratic party educated liberals have always outworked and outthought Republicans. The educated Republicans knew. They left Trump because he didn't listen or care, either.
They came to our side because of all that.

No one can hang this on 'the educated' and drag down the educated liberals, thereby.
If it weren't for them, 74 million Americans wouldn't have stepped up.

[snowybirdie]

22. You are correct

Throughout this administration, I continually squabbled with relatives over rtump. They posted all the lies and stupid mutterings of their Dear Leader. Several years ago they became passionate evangelicals. He has a PhD and she a Masters. Still scratching my head. We used to be close til then.

[ancianita]

30. My example

I have an old childhood formative years "best" friend like your relatives -- a master's degree and teacher of calculus at Cal State. She is the stupidest "smart" person I know. She never thought of the calculus of human progress, probably because of the patriarchal values ingrained through Catholic teaching (at the same time I did). She said she'd abandoned all that; but no, she simply equates practicing with believing. She still believes in patriarchal orthodoxy but denies it because she knows it's not modern.

I don't know who said it, but we've seen it for four years: denial is the last refuge of scoundrels.

The choices of the educated are not governed by their education but by their world view.

[whopis01]

19. A slightly different but related thing that drove me crazy was

Whenever Trump would get rid of one of his cabinet members, or people in charge of various committees, he would rail against them. Talk about how they were completely incapable of performing the job. Say they were the worst person ever in that position.

He was the one who selected that person for the position. If that person was the wrong person for the job, then it was his failure. I would hardly ever see anyone point this out and call him out on it.

The most important task for an executive is putting the right people in the right positions. He was a complete failure at that and admitted it (albeit not directly) all the time.

[bucolic_frolic]

20. Trump knew exactly what he was doing

He was knee-capping all government expenses because he didn't want rich people to pay a dime. It's been pure Robber Baron Capitalism beneath every move, like it was 1900 all over again. Republicans were silent because they agreed with all of it. They've tried to dismantle the social safety net since 1980 and actually way before. This has been a war about dividing the pie - 99 cents for them, and one penny for 90% of the population.

[Demovictory9]

21. there was outrage and incredulity that our prez was so ignorant...then the ignorant statements came

so fast and furious, eventually it seemed it was just accepted of trump. the bar was set low for him.

[Trueblue Texan]

23. There was little outrage about these things because...

...there were daily other outrages that were even bigger. The Trump administration DAILY tapped our outrage machine to the point of overheated automatic shutdown. Turns out humans have a maximum capacity for outrage and Trump went to that capacity multiple times a day. For the entire four years, I felt like I could only sputter because there were so many things to rage about.

For example, take right now when Trump is spewing about liberals cheating in the election. He has the audacity to accuse this when for the entire four years he's been in office, he fought election security measures. Of course, there was no cheating, but how outrageous (and typical) that he should complain about it when he himself saw to it that nothing was done to ensure more secure elections.

[Brother Mythos]

27. The basic problem is that you can't fix stupid. And, Republican leadership ...

knows very well how to appeal to the stupid, as well as the willfully ignorant. They know how to push the emotional buttons of the marks they are conning, and are able to completely obliterate any desire in their marks to think critically about any issue.

Lastly, Republican leadership is the very best at appealing to the greed of the stupid, willfully ignorant, and non-critical thinkers whose votes they seek to be elected to office.

[DeeDeeNY]

32. + 1

You have exactly nailed it with this post.

[mtnsnake]

28. I agree. There was outrage but not enough. He should never have gotten away with

his shit for 4 full years. Yes we voted him out, but the talking heads supposedly on the side of democracy were still calling him Mr President or The President right up until yesterday, right up until now even. I don't think the activists of the 60's would have let him get away so easy.

[Demonaut]

29. we spoke..he lost

[Algernon Moncrieff]

31. That's why he plays so well with a certain subset of voters

They don't understand either - and/or they do not care.

Trump also does understand how many things work but engages in falsehoods and hyperbole to make points. So "Mexico paying for the wall" really meant that excise charges levied on persons entering from Mexico would pay for the wall - but which sounds better? Which one can people relate to more easily? Dumbing things down is what he does well.

Educated people did not stand with one voice and say "You are full of shit." Here is the thing: educated people don't speak with one voice, and many voted for Trump. Avid Ayn Rand adherents are "educated." Lots of educated people want two things from the government - police protection and lower taxes. Other than that, they want to be left alone.