Trump Is Rage Baiting the US Into a Second Civil War – In a healthy democracy, all sides generally recognize the legitimacy of the system itself, regardless of internal squabbles. In the United States, this is no longer the case.
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-2nd-civil-war
49 Comments
Culture war to prevent a class war.
Might be fair to say the rage baiting is an extension of old Cold War propaganda. It gradually seeped into societal cracks that were already there and widened them. Like water seeping into pavement and freezing. Next thing you know you got a pothole
Maybe the Confederate Flag is in bed with the legacy of Soviet propaganda
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.” – Lyndon B. Johnson
Anyone who believes the ramblings of an 80 year old, dementia riddled, insane billionaire needs to wake up.
What happened to the price of eggs, rent, mortgages? They don’t care about that anymore because Trump has seemingly turned them against their neighbor who they share more in common with than the billionaire class. Wake up people.
When trust in institutions drop, everything feels existential.
Calling it “rage baiting” feels accurate. Donald Trump has basically mastered the art of saying something inflammatory, watching the outrage cycle spin, and then fundraising off it.
Nah he bout to get himself removed or couped
The scary part isn’t tanks in the streets. It’s neighbors viewing each other as illegitimate citizens because of how they vote.
The US always had a flawed democracy. I wouldn’t call it a healthy democracy. Trump is just a symptom of a rotten system.
In a healthy democracy it shouldn’t be possible for all this stuff to happen in the first place
It’s just his personality and defense mechanisms working overtime. Trump feels he is inferior to so many others, he has to degrade everyone who he feels threatened by. He constantly needs to be given praise, rewards, to boost his ego and seek revenge against his detractors. He needs attention so badly, he will do or say anything to be the center of his imaginary universe.
This is what happens when a child grows up without love. It’s also hard to love a child who is violent, cunning and ruthless. When you look at the people he surrounds himself with , they all seem damaged. That is their common bond.
If you gauge the health of our nation, we are in trouble. Trump has influence over 30-35% of his followers. Hitler had a base of 30%. After WWI, when the economy of Germany failed, they blamed their “oppressors”. Our economy is about to go in the toilet (further). Trump will blame the liberals for his failures. I think it’s obvious we will end up in a war, Civil or otherwise.
After all, isn’t he the leader of the Bored of Peace?
The MAGA serves only trump.
In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. … Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.
-Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/23497-the-origins-of-totalitarianism
Please try to remember that we were all one big nation of shiny, happy people holding hands until Obama came along and turned us all against each other.
/s
Divide and conquer. Pit your subjects against each other and while they are infighting, take total control. That’s the problem with a strict bipartisan system in the US, especially when one side is using religious extremist concepts of good vs. evil to paint the other side as “demonic”, to use their own words.
The ultimate racist boomer. Consumed by vices
Trump? No. Trump isn’t nearly intelligent enough to come up with something this elaborate. He is dumb enough to go along with it though.
He’s not “rage baiting” shit. He’s destroying the country and one side is pissed about it and the fact that this country is run by rich child rapists. The media really does not want a civil war or the system to collapse.
IMO, people need to stop using the term Civil War. It’s third-world style strongman authoritarianism.
Until there’s an opposing military involved, it ain’t gonna be a civil war. It’s a rogue government looking for excuses to keep putting the boot on their civilian population’s throats.
He wants martial law, that’s what ICE has been all about.
He has to go. Congress can keep pretending like nothing unusual is happening but we are not moving on from this one. Better to remove him now.
I’ll never forgive the marks who voted for this clown
Sure, Jan. His supporters are becoming fewer and fewer, more dejected and disengaged, and, perhaps most important, broke.
But yes, let’s use Civil War rhetoric when most people have to show up to work on Monday or else they may lose their health insurance or house by Friday.
Very convenient way to define a “healthy” democracy.
You can only bait so long until a billionaire gets shot. I don’t think it’ll be like the civil war of the past. I think it’ll be a lot more like the troubles that Ireland experienced, but Americans have substantially more firepower on both sides.
The Supreme Court and the rest of the judiciary were rigged by McConnell. The legislature rigged by Citizens United and the Executive by the Supreme Court inventing immunity. What part of this is supposedly legitimate?
i do, indeed, question the legitimacy of any system that fails to hold insurrectionist responsible for their traitorous behavior.
“in a healthy democracy”….
A nation that is always 1 election away from fascism is not a healthy democracy. An election system where people are only allowed to vote for a corporate sponsored far-right republican or a corporate sponsored center-right democrat is not a healthy democracy.
Trump is the culmination of generations of “lesser” evil voting. vote for evil, lesser or otherwise, and don’t be surprised when the winner is evil.
One side has been losing ever since their great loss in 1865. Backed into a corner where they could no longer be racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic this is the result. They see the only way to win is to cheat or destroy the system.
Anything to distract from the fact he’s named more than Epstein in the Epstein files. Orange Child Rapist.
And the national media is complacent, they sane washed his worst qualities and now still can’t criticize for fear of retribution.
The people who helped Trump come into power in 2016, tried to overturn the election results in 2020, and helped him return to power in 2024 knew that the entire system of government in the United States hinged on people honoring their oaths with zero defense against one of the two major parties going full oath breaker.
What we are witnessing with Trump, project 2025, and the continued abuse of power and open corruption is flaunting the illegitimacy of a government that serves its own interests and not the interests of the governed.
It’s long over due for the people to update its government framework to address obvious flaws that have allowed this to happen.
We are like a computer with a rootkit ransomware installed due to unpatched OS vulnerabilities. We need the equivalent of a wipe and reload of the government. Restore it back to legitimate purpose with competent public servants.
Since a black man got elected president half the country has been intent on dragging us all back to the 1860s
Trump is going to drag America into a war to cover up his horrendous behavior.
Think about that for a moment.
Do you want your sons and daughters to die in a war without a clear objective other than to protect a president from his crimes against children.
Thousands are about to die. We may be in WWIII
Before next week is out.
All to protect a pedophile and his buddies.
He sure is trying along with his buddies with all those bajillions.
The goals of every non billionaire American should be:
1. Repeal Citizens United
2. Fund universal healthcare
3. Tax billionaires and companies at the federal level.
4. Stop attacking other countries.
Isn’t he on record of saying he could destroy this country. The shit bag is a maniac
This is slop, idealist “great man” theory slop. Trump is just a symptom of the broken system. People want revolution because “democracy” under bourgeois capitalism has NEVER been healthy, it’s bought and paid for.
Titles like this are exhausting. No one is going towards a civil war. It’s a such a ridiculous notion. Americans love their internet and cell phones too much to ever risk losing that level of accessibility to information and loved ones. I used to make fun of Republicans who said this stupid shit, and now the wheel has come full circle and I have to make fun of Dems for saying this shit.
People who talk this way are exactly that, all bark and no bite.
The system is broken.
This is a fundamental aspect of a malignant narcissist, he so wants Americans to fight a civil war over him.
Remind me, why is he in office?
It’s not “rage baiting”, you idiots.
It’s treason.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Russia paid Trump to foment a civil war in the US
As instructed by his Russian handlers
It’s gonna be us versus them though. When my MAGA/MAHA friends and I agree, they better hope their bunkers hold.
I just got my comment deleted saying ANYTHING against trump. Is this allowed Patel ? FUCK OFF
We have discovered that much of our systems are based on ‘good faith’ and ‘what’s best for the country.’ That simply is not good enough.
It will require drastic changes in our systems to keep another Trump from happening. That will require majority support.
The problem is, there is serious doubt that a majority would want to keep a Trump from happening again.
Anything to distract from the Epstein files. All the controversies have been about keeping Trump and others in the same boat, out of jail. His newer and oft repeated claim that he has been exonerated shows that he is getting nervous. His only option is to escalate.
I disagree with the primise that US has had a healthy democracy. In a healthy democracy, strategic voting can not superceed representative voting and yet, for the last 3 election cycles the very tangible issues of America have been kicked down the road because people are too focused on the actions of a singular man and his Administration.
If American Democracy was healthy, there would be avenues to call for a system that lifts up all Americans, not just a select few. People who largely abuse power would be sitting in jail cells in a just society, instead they cling to power while dissolving the stability of everyday life.
The failures of the system are exposed, and ignoring them will only lead to further societal collapse. The current status-quo is unsustainable. Some people want to take us backwards, some people want to stand still and pretend like things will fix themselves, others cross their fingers and hope for a do-over.
However, it’s very warranted to call for a change. At least we recognize that what we have isn’t working, but we need average Americans to realize their power and run their country. We need to end private campaigning, all campaigns in the US should be ran publically by our fellow citizens. We need to put long-term solutions over short-term fixes or the problem of “electability.” We need the ability to hold elected leaders responsible and not wait for the system that supports them to dispose of them.
We are the people, we have the power, and we have every right to demand better.
The man needs a carbon tax on his mouth and a kazoo for his ass.
Trump is a pedophile,Trump has raped children