priming his base for stop the steal 2.0. people who wrote off the big lie and jan 6th as a bunch of uncoordinated yahoos will soon realise that was only the trial run. they have been working to install cronies at the state level for the last 4 years to ensure any checks and balances can be steamrolles this time around. his VP is on record as saying he wouldnt have certified 2020 if he were in pences position. his base has been radicalised to the point that they will feel justified in intimidating people at polling places. they know their positions are unpopular to a majority of the US, but they won't abandon those positions. they'll abandon the democratic process instead.

    Gazza M perils of a two party system. It overly rewards fringe elements. 50 percent of America aren’t anti constitutionalist white nationalists.

      Conventional wisdom would suggest that Vance seems like a missed opportunity for the Republicans. They should have gone for a middle of the road conservative to strengthen their hand in swing states and amongst undecided voters but instead they've doubled down on another lunatic like Trump which is an ominous sign of what lies ahead incase they do win.

        Seems odd to me that Vance is Theil’s guy.

        Surely there’s someone smarter and more put together that Theil could have bought.

        Mirth the thing is, there really arent any "middle of the road conservatives" left.

        people like susan collins and lisa murkowski are basically republicans in name only. anyone to their right has been maga-pilled at this point and gone completely off the rails. vance is from ohio and people thought he could appeal to younger voters, but now that people are digging in on him, they are realizing hes a freak too.

        in 2024 you are either a never trumper or youve been full on maga-pilled, there is no in between

            No difference between Trump Netanyahu and Harris. That goes for the majority of US Politicians Republican or Democrat .They are all evil

              GooneriC buddy im as big a critic of the dems as anyone but there is a pretty big difference between harris and trump/bibi

                Meatwad I'm of Indo/Caribbean descent , I live in Barbados. The majority of people in this region see it the same way. You'll soon see Harris will be " guided " to the same point of view as Biden who is as evil as anyone can get.

                    Mirth Conventional wisdom would suggest that Vance seems like a missed opportunity for the Republicans.

                    It makes Biden's team look more strategic. It hadn't really occurred to me that Vance would be very unable to hype a crowd. I expect to see revised tactics from the Trump campaign—an increase in Vance's derangement, and more joint appearances.

                    mdgoonah41 That Times profile on Vance is truly damning, but I don't think it'll matter unless he validates it himself somehow.

                        GooneriC in terms of foreign policy, yeah the US machine keeps turning and will continue to do until another apex power emerges which will be a hell of a ride when that happens, I'm sure.

                        But till we get there, there's further ramifications with Trump being President that the rest of the world will have to deal with. There's plenty of strong man leaders - some running the largest economies in the world - and far right parties that are waiting to take their cue from Washington to what the new normal will be. If the Democrats represent managed decline, Republicans are a shot to the head.

                        • Dom replied to this.

                            as the planet becomes more uninhabitable every year due to climate change, "managed decline" is pretty much like a 90th percentile outcome. i shudder to think what the earth is going to look like in 50 years.

                            i'm glad i'll be near death in 50 years (if everything goes to plan).

                            Last time Trump got elected the state, defence, intelligence and foreign policy establishments were pretty ready to kick his executive into line. Cabinet picks such as Rex Tillerson didn't last too long. It seems the GOP is intent on arriving with a greater degree of preparation if there's a second success.

                            I admit I'm surprised by how poor a "retail politician" JD Vance has looked so far. I'm not surprised he can't pull off a "mini-Trump" act, but his poor performances in interviews and at rallies are a testament to how far a career in public life can go based on tweets and sound bites.

                            But doesn't it seem likely the GOP will go on offence in response to the material being dredged up from Vance's murky, liberal past? That would mean something like more joint campaign appearances with Trump, and more arch-conservative rhetoric.

                            GooneriC The world includes a hell of a lot people accustomed to thinking of the United States as a rogue nation, and questioning the gross, withering Frankenstein of Clinton-neocon foreign policy it's still practising today.

                            Every one of the world situations that's become a "foreign policy question" for the US has its concrete details, but the overall posture of the last decades has been a violent, unprincipled mess.

                                Burnwinter as a baseline, America is a crazy right wing country that has historically been prone to the influences of slavers, Nazi sympathisers, January 6 insurrectionists etc.
                                Kamala isn’t going to be a radical departure from this momentum. But here is a candidate who in the last few years has been talking about women’s right to choose and improved maternal healthcare, defunding of police, widely accessible healthcare, etc. she’s a much better option than what the US typicallly has.

                                    Claudius Yeah, it's not a tough choice between Trump or Harris for me from a domestic perspective—it's Harris all the way. Trump is a horrible piece of work with a platform that's half ideological fantasy, the other half regressive tax cuts and reckless deregulation in greater degree than usual. For the rest of the world the implications of the choice are less clear, and not good in either case.

                                    Side point but I wonder if the radical conservatives set on gutting the federal bureaucracies worry about state capacity at all, which is already relatively poor in the States.

                                      my priorities are domestic, domestic and i forgot my 3rd thing, year DOMESTIC.

                                        Yet you interact on a daily basis with an international world.

                                        My priority is the character of the one who takes office. Admittedly I don't know very much about Kamala's real character- but she sounds and puts forward positions I find mostly reasonable. I know enough about Trump's. He's a bad egg - this is not a person I want my kids to look up to as an example of a "leader".

                                          Meatwad Same difference really. When the US passes a massive military appropriations bill, the first bullet point on the announcement is usually that two thirds of the cash is going to MIC profiteers in swing states.

                                          And when Australia announces a vast military investment (by our standards), the first bullet point is usually that two thirds of the appropriations are going to MIC profiteers in the United States as well.