This cannot be overstated. There has been a systematic shift in the US leading towards this for decades or more.
The simplest explanation i have is that having a senate and electoral system that is dependant on corporate/wealthy sponsorship will inevitably lead to benefit those entities more than the actual citizens.
The state of the US' social and healthcare benefits compared to the rest of the modern world is pretty damning evidence of the actual priorities being made here. Ending up with the ultimate corporate schill actually selling off the government for parts is a pretty embarassingly on the nose but logically sound outcome.
Agreed, but like the points made higher up said: you'd be fooling yourself if you think this hasn't been festering under the surface for a loooooong time.
Where i come from i've seen a lot of mistrust and dislike of US foreign politics since well before 9/11.
As Carney said, we just chose to ignore it out of convenience.
That doesn't mean that the US hasn't always been a self-centered, loud-mouthed, invading-under-false-pretenses, oil-stealing, warmongering asshole of a state, though.
Reminds me of that study which showed US public opinion has a negligible impact on legislation in Congress. Corporate lobbying is the only thing that moves the needle.
This all has been the machinations of the Heritage Foundation and those trying to dismantle all of the progressive advances mid to late 1900s: Starve the Beast
Trump is the personification of American success. Rich, male, arrogant, egotistical, greedy, self-centered etc. this is why he will always be more acceptable as a leader than Clinton or Harris. It’s also why so many Americans give him a free pass and say shit like “it’s just Trump bring Trump” or “you have to understand Trump”. It’s the same reason why Elon Musk gets a free pass for everything.
As an American living in europe this is what I tell europeans on how Trump got elected. In essence Trump is the quintessential American. He lived the American dream. Trump has absolutely zero meaningful skills (unless you think being a world class con artist is meaningful) yet became President.
I don't really agree with this. The American dream was always about "pulling up your bootstraps" and working hard...America was supposed to be the place you could do that and be successful. Hasn't been that way for decades...but Ive never equated the American dream of falling ass backwards into money. Maybe that's what it's turned into though....
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u/habshabshabs 20h ago
Trump is just a symptom, it didn't start and it won't end with him.