Trump’s approval rating is somewhere in the mid 30s. A fair number of people inside the US would agree with you. Do they win anything?
And if your sticking point with the American people is that Trump started a completely stupid war, and you want to hold them accountable…for supporting him…do recall that Trump actually campaigned to do exactly “not that”. If its 2024, and your top choice is the candidate that promised to not start unnecessary wars, Trump was the right vote.
So here we are, two years later, and we have a politician that did not do what he promised, and the Trump voters are to blame?
I think many people correctly assessed that Trump was not trustworthy. I am not sure how many of them decided to vote against their preferred policies and select Harris. That is not generally how voting happens in the US. It’s the same 10% in the middle that decide the winner each cycle.
In any case, blaming all voters for Trump starting a war with Iran fails a lot logical tests and is not very helpful.
If the US electorate does not repudiate Trump during the mid-terms…
Would you then change your view?
FTR, I don’t disagree with your logic (it sucks being in the electoral minority when a truly shit politician is elected) but real people (and countries) are being materially damaged by the orange lunatic.
And I don’t think there will be much forgiveness for Americans (of all stripes) even once Trump is gone*
*I often wonder if the people behind Trump wanted it this way. To make the US so despised abroad that it would concentrate their authoritarian grip on domestic american issues for their own benefit.
Keep in mind that the architecture of how American elections work (especially as regards the federal House and Senate), it’s difficult-to-impossible to effect meaningful change.
I would not damn those Americans who acknowledge that the value of voting in the current system is extremely limited. It is, however, fair to damn Americans for letting things deteriorate to this extent.
That’s why I say it’s fair to criticize Americans for allowing the flawed architecture to exist.
There aren’t very many politicians who have campaigned in favor of gerrymandering – gerrymandering is just something that comes from the unfortunate reality of power corrupting – and the American system of government doesn’t really have a good way for citizens to consistently push for changes that push back against politicians who seek to preserve their power.
There is no realistic way to change that within a generation’s time short of extreme measures (breaking apart the US, actual rebellion, etc.)…or convincing a critical mass of corporations and billionaires to alter their political spending to support changes that might erode their power.
This is almost certainly true for Trump himself. He looks at dictators like Putin and Xi and Kim Jong Un with jealousy. He aspires to their status, and knows that he has to tear the US apart to attain it.
I think the Christofascists like Russel Vought and Steven Miller and Pete Hegseth are true believers. They are twisted enough to think that forcing their version of Christian sharia law on all of us will bring about some sort of utopia.
Not sure about the big tech companies. I get the feeling they know they have overstepped and will be looking to distance themselves from the worst of it, while still working toward their techno-feudalism behind the scenes.
I don’t agree with that interpretation of apathy, and you’re also overlooking the phenomenon of (for lack of a better term) “voter’s remorse” that has emerged among some of the folks who explicitly or implicitly supported the Glorious Leader’s election.
Despite that, even if a majority of Americans are not “OK with it” (now or back during the 2024 general elections), Americans do bear collective responsibility for setting the stage for the current farce.
Reminds me of another situation some time back where a small, mobile army fought in a fashion that was not what the larger, more experienced army was expecting.
Numbers from 2024 doesn’t say a whole lot about sentiments felt in 2026 (and beyond).
The best that could be said is that Congress might be indifferent as they have lots of levers to pull . . . and unlike Parliamentary systems, we can’t get a “no confidence” vote enacted to re-elect MP’s and effect an executive branch change.
Maybe the 48.3% should be more vocal? Where are the mass protests of my youth?
Of course, a large percentage of that 48.3% are enjoying strong returns on their equity assets so the increase in wealth is an incentive to go with the flow?
Outcomes on the battlefield can make wars more popular with Americans, but not always. The Tet Offensive during the Vietnam war demonstrated how the US could beat back the Vietcong and yet lose American support. The Korean war, on the other hand, created very little public outrage even as thousands of US service members died — an example of how Americans can become inured to loss, implacable or apathetic, even, in the face of failure.
Polling suggests most Americans disapprove of the Iran war (even a growing percentage of Donald Trump loyalists). And yet, it has so far generated very little public disruption. There have been no mass protests, no mass resignations from within the military. Even the death of a Navy helicopter pilot in the Arabian Sea drew very little public attention. The stock market, despite some dips, is booming and oil prices have come down. The US military budget is still dominated by expensive precision munitions delivered by destroyers and stealth planes, which are difficult to scale or quickly adapt; its unmanned systems are focused on decreasing personnel loss instead of decreasing costs or innovating new missions; its industrial base is still incentivised for large and rigid weapons programmes.
Perhaps the real test will be in November, when midterm elections reveal whether the public will penalise Republicans for initiating the conflict. Absent that punishment, it is highly unlikely that Congress or the White House will change how they expect to use the American military.
As has been pointed out, the election is not decided by the popular vote, and as a result the popular vote is a poor judge of popular sentiment. Voting Democrat in a solid Republican state (or vice versa) can take significant time and achieves absolutely nothing; in those circumstances I would not begrudge someone for not voting.