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Comment by SpicyLemonZest | Hacker News Reader

I just don't understand the perspective that Trump is a historical threat and therefore we can't accept business as usual. I have a number of disagreements with the status quo myself, but I'm not going to pursue them until Trump is out of power, because I want to absolutely minimize the number of people who feel they have to choose between supporting Trump and abandoning some principle of theirs. To me, any other strategy seems tantamount to saying that Trump isn't so bad.

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But your lukewarm candidates lost twice, Hillary lost, Kamala lost. The point we are making is that they lost, because they are lukewarm. There is a reason Trump won in the first place you are ignoring, you are ignoring the times of unprecedented grievances that people have, people want real change. Trump represents that change to people, a fascist lie and scapegoating of course, but you are representing the comfortable elite under whom nothing will ever change for the better for anyone. All you have is complain about leftists, we didn't loose, you lost twice. Dems are more unpopular than ever, even now under fucking Trump, your politics are dogshit and you don't have anybody else to blame for it.

I don't represent or subscribe to what you think! I agree that both of them were weak candidates who lost where a better candidate could have won, and I myself have been growing away from the Democratic party ever since the 2016 primary.

What I cannot agree with, what I find completely unacceptable, is the idea that any dispute over candidate quality can justify splintering the anti-Trump coalition. If Bernie were the 2024 candidate, I assure you I would have even harsher words for any business types who ran around complaining about him.

How long till you abandon the pathetic Democratic party? It's been 10 years since 2016. Or are you simply reduced to an anti-Trumper?

Two party system is such a mess. I blame two party system more than anything. When you reduce everything to two party, its so reductive and this is the mess you are gonna have to face because of it.

A key point is that it's an electoral system from hundreds of years past that was never intended to be a two party system, one set up by founders who in the large wre not even fans of party politics (one, two, or more).

It is a system that by it's design is more or less doomed to iterate into a Hotelling's law quagmire of two nose to nose opposing sides neither of which represents any kind of majority or popular view.

The US electoral system is well past due for a revamp, as recommended by it's founders who judged it "good enough" for a while ... until a despot appeared.

I agree but trust me when I say this, its not gonna happen.

I see people so entrenched in American politics who cant believe that there can be independents atleast in how the current voting works

They probably need better voting mechanisms... but for which they are gonna have to vote and no republican or democrat is gonna propose this ( i really don't think so) and the people can probably only vote for republican or democrat (independents very few) in the current system...

So its doomed and this is the reason why. A lot of American politics in the end feels like this or that, not knowing the nuances and polarization (in some sense) from both parties while still bieng the same (corruption stemming from lobbyists)

It's just really sad to see because to me its like not just Trump being a hostile takeover (which he is) but rather that both parties and the system failed the people so that someone like trump could spin up in the first place and now this is even happening.

If I were to tell you even 2 years ago all the things happening in America, you would believe we are in a black mirror episode or Its a bad dream but its reality now & we (non Americans) just gotta deal with America impeaching on other countries sovereignity trying to buy things outright and all escalations and the final one remaining is war and they haven't put it off the table as well

Like, I just want to take a moment here man

Like what the fuck is happening.

As a non American you have a semi reasonable chance of being to sit back, take a beat, and watch (maybe) Trump implode and self destruct within the US system and maybe some following rebuilding of the system "as intended" with better safeguards.

  Trump’s triumphant narrative is not working at home, either. A new CNN poll released Friday shows that fifty-eight percent of Americans believe that Trump’s first year in office has been a failure. Americans worry most about the economy, but concerns about democracy come in second. The numbers beyond that continue to be bad for Trump. Sixty-six percent of Americans think Trump doesn’t care about people like them. Fifty-three percent think he doesn’t have the stamina and sharpness to serve effectively as president.

  Sixty-five percent of Americans say Trump is not someone they are proud to have as president.

~ Jan 17th, 2026 - https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-17-2026

One of the issues I have with this is that a Weaker America does mean a better China and the reasons I have been vocal is that this doesn't have to do much with America itself but rather the fact that we need a multi polarized world in first place with (I think) policies of non alighnment because Europe aligned itself to US for the most part, its coming so much as a shock-wave in the first place.

A stronger China does mean more micro-agressions towards Asean countries in general (japan,south korea,India) and QUAD members (minus the united states) so it would be beneficial if the EU block could align itself with the members of Asean who still align with democratic ideals and similar.

This is probably why most countries officials (or people interested in geopolitics) are on the edge of their seats

A better China, or stronger China, would likely look like China as a trading powerhouse dominating Atlas of Economic Complexity rankings globally, exerting greater control over the bottleneck of China Sea through which almost all its inbound and outbound goods traverse.

It's unlikely (but possible) to see it flex as a global military powerhouse in the same manner as other great empires have done in the past - but it is probable that china will continue to extract "water resources" as food from Africa and elsewhere as it, the Saudi's, and others already do .. in China's case with the backing of its own mercanaries and with US mercanaries (they were hiring Erik Prince and Blackwater not so long ago).

This is a pattern the world has seen before - great powers come and go, meridans and global financial centres have moved before and will move again.

Yes, there has been an uneasy peace of sorts for 75 years or so, do be aware of and prepared for transitions.

Not sure if its the number of parties that is the primary issue. Corporate lobbying, campaign finance, bribery, and cultural distractions (intended to posit groups against each other) are some areas that concern me more.

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