this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2024
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So pissed rn

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[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It does! So naturally we must condemn all violence, because if there was a good faith "second amendment person" who would pop off at an aspiring tyrant, that would be too much.

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago (3 children)

You needn't any moral virtue to condemn assassinations. Assassinations are stupidly ineffective political tools. Especially if you're trying to change the social order instead of enforce it.

Right wing people have been accusing me of hypocrisy for condemning the attempt on Trump's life while considering him a threat to the country. But that argument assumes that political violence works. (which says more about how they think than I)

[–] MrVilliam@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Right wing people ... assume that political violence works. (which says more about how they think than I)

I guess that's why the shooter himself was one of those right wing people, huh? It's almost like people who aren't right wing tend to disagree with people who are right wing, like there are fundamental ideological differences or something 🤔

Killing people is bad. That's nearly universally agreed upon. I'm not sure why it surprises people when we say "we don't support killing people, even when it's people we don't agree with."

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

My goal wasn't to promote violence, in case that needs a disclaimer. We have no dispute here

[–] EABOD25@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If he would have died, he would have been raised up as a martyr. Martyrdom can be way more dangerous in the greater scheme imo

[–] tacosanonymous@lemm.ee 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Disagree. I don’t think his cult of personality survives him.

[–] EABOD25@lemm.ee 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You give people more credit than I do, but history proven that is potentially not the case

Cults of personality usually don't survive the death of their leader. It's a rare case when somebody else is charismatic enough to step in and replace them. Even in the case where the leader nominates a successor, the cult often loses followers quickly after the leader dies. Usually, the cult withers and either breaks apart into splinter factions as others compete for power, or it dies completely.

The big question is whether his cult is loyal to the party or loyal to him specifically. If it's the former, then they would rally behind the new candidate and Trump would become a martyr for sure. If it's the latter, then it could possibly spell the end of the Republican party as he would leave a power vacuum that would see the voters splinter amongst new contenders and the most extremist core of the cult becomes disenfranchised with the party for not being extreme enough.

Personally, I think we'd see a combination of the two. The Republican party right now has become the party of Trump, with him as the linchpin that the party's policies are based around. The average Republican is loyal to the party to a fault, but Trump's core seems to have drunk the Flavor-Aid like it's Jonestown and they're prepping for the massacre, and I don't think they'd rally around a new leader like the rest would. We've already seen several people try to court Trump's base to little effect, like DeSantis.

I think if Trump died, we'd see the Republican party weaken due to infighting as multiple people try to become the next candidate and restructure the party, with the average Republican rallying around whoever eventually comes out on top and Trump becoming seen as a martyr to the cause. But, I think Trump's core base would splinter and potentially see a number of them leave for more extremist groups outside the party, and the infighting would leave the Republicans weakened for a time, potentially unable to field a strong enough candidate to unite the party for the upcoming election.