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I get the sense that going too far into this direction may actually turn out to be counterproductive for that goal, though - unlike in the case of the drunk friend, there is no doubt in the case of the Trump administration who ultimately was at the wheel during the "cruel texts", and so for some future Newsom or Buttigieg admin, any loss of credibility would have to factor through the perception that they could be followed by a Vance or Trump Jr. administration that would renege on its predecessors' promises all over again. But the more exceptional Trump's actions wind up being perceived as, the more credible a Newsom/Buttigieg assertion that this was a one-off and appropriate precautions have been taken to not allow a repeat will be, especially if Trump keeps pushing the envelope and winds up being repudiated/defanged/experience a mysterious heart attack/successfully impeached.
Eh, trump gained ground with everyone except whites, he’s more popular with voters under 25 than any other group, there’s every reason for a foreign observer to believe that Trump-like candidates will get elected again.
Also every President since Bush II regardless of party affiliation has been growing more and more frustrated with Europe while also trying to pivot more resources to the Pacific theater. Even Biden probably would have been, had the Ukraine War not gone hot during his term. So I’m not sure President Newsom would be jumping up and down to climb back into that quagmire either.
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Nah, its his second term and he came back with a bigger win than he had in 2016. Can't point to Trump as being some erroneous figure that mind controlled millions of Americans into voting for him. Even in 2016 this was copium from the establishment, the polling data showed that he was more in tune with the voting base than the old guard neocons. Isolationist populism is here to stay.
If anything Trump is popular enough with his base that the more he pushes the more the Overton window will shift and the more things like torching NATO or militarily taking Greenland become acceptable. I mean we have conservative talk show hosts that are fairly main stream now noticing how odd it is that no other country is expected to be multicultural and to not have a dominant ethnicity or culture. That would've been unthinkable on a major platform 10 years ago. Its the kind of thing citizens had to whisper about anonymously in dark corners of the internet.
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Perhaps. But it certainly indicates that you shouldn't build your country or bet your life on US promises.
Which is what we're asking people to do when we support their opposition movement abroad.
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