Follow Up: Was the Trump presidency as good/bad as you expected?

[mongers]

Much worse than expected.  I had believed that the Republican party leadership would rein him in, not urge him on.  His antidemocratic instincts were as expected, but those of Mitch McConnell were not.

Come on that's not fair, Mitch recanted at 5 minutes to midnight.

[Razgovory]

It's about as bad as I expected.  I thought he might trigger a war, which happily didn't happen.  On the other hand, I didn't think we would be hit by the fucking plague.  I didn't think that whole Republican party would become so sycophantic   I thought that if lost he would refuse to leave and would try to call his supporters into the streets to defend him.  Fortunately that gambit failed and everyone in Washington wants his blood.  I thought he would announce a criminal investigation into the Bidens before the election but the investigation was announced after it.  He also ordered Biden and Obama and Clinton arrested but that didn't happen either.

Nobody knows what the medium or long term results of this bullshit will be  Maybe everyone will step back from the brink, maybe we'll see bombings and militias shooting at each other.

[Valmy]

I clearly had a much higher opinion of him than he deserved. I just thought he was a self deluded narcissistic incomptent clown who would talk a great deal but was too lazy to be dangerous. He failed, in these last few weeks, to live up to those high standards. It is kind of hard to imagine things having gone worse.

But I guess it can always get worse.

[Zanza]

As bad as expected when it comes to foreign policy, although it could have been worse. At least he did not start a war.
Much worse than expected domestically. I did not expect a coup attempt or the GOP being so authoritarian. 

[Valmy]

He was big on isolationism and anti-interventionism in his rhetoric.

Of course even here he let me down, reversing attempts to dial down conflict with Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran but he probably was less bad than your run-of-the-mill Republican there.

[Valmy]

Donald Trump's two signature domestic policies were:

1. The Paul Ryan Tax Cut

2. Dramatically slashing environmental protections.

Let me know if there was a third. Pretty weak sauce.

[Oexmelin]

Donald Trump's two signature domestic policies were:

1. The Paul Ryan Tax Cut

2. Dramatically slashing environmental protections.

Let me know if there was a third. Pretty weak sauce.

3. Undermine American democracy.

[Valmy]

Well I was talking about actual laws but fair enough 

[Sheilbh]

Well I was talking about actual laws but fair enough 

The least important thing in a President's record

[Maladict]

Much worse than expected.  I had believed that the Republican party leadership would rein him in, not urge him on.  His antidemocratic instincts were as expected, but those of Mitch McConnell were not.

This, exactly this.

[Jacob]

The current situation matches my initial fears during the election and immediately afterwards.

Then there was a long stretch in the middle where each incident made me think "this is really bad for the specific people affected and consistent with what I expected from Trump, but his incompetence, the fight back, and institutional checks are keeping it from getting as bad as it could be."

Then there's this recent election and the aftermath which takes it back to "yeah, that's what I was afraid of."

[grumbler]

The current situation matches my initial fears during the election and immediately afterwards.

Then there was a long stretch in the middle where each incident made me think "this is really bad for the specific people affected and consistent with what I expected from Trump, but his incompetence, the fight back, and institutional checks are keeping it from getting as bad as it could be."

Then there's this recent election and the aftermath which takes it back to "yeah, that's what I was afraid of."

The turning point for me wasn't the election or the aftermath.  That was predictable once Mitch McConnell's Senate made it absolutely clear that they were unwilling to carry out their constitutional duties when they refused to try the impeachment referral.  They gave Trump a blank check to ignore the US Constitution, and the results from that were predictable.

Donald Trump isn't the least constitutionally-inclined person in the US.  He doesn't understand enough of the Constitution to ignore it (he just assumes that it says whatever he wants it to say).  The least constitutionally-inclined person in the US is Mitch McConnell, who not only understands the constitution but understands his role in making it work.  Tied for second are the other 50 Senators (all Republican) who voted to skip a trial.  Had there been a trial, even one that failed to convict, enough evidence would have come out that Republicans could no longer hide behind the "see no evil" excuse and some would have been forced by their own conscience to vote to convict, firing a shot across Trump's bow.  Luckily for them, McConnell allowed them to both refuse to see evidence and then vote to acquit based on a lack of evidence.

That was the day, January 31, 2020, that democracy in the US was fucked.  Party patriotism "trumped" national patriotism, and things will never be the same.

[Sophie Scholl]

My personal political views might have gotten a little more radical, but the biggest change for me was in believing that the US has a long-term future. Between the complete collapse of so many layers of checks and balances to the fact that the GOP just re-subscribed to Trumpism unanimously to seeing what that side believes almost every day via interacting with my mom, I really don't think this noble experiment is viable as it is any longer. Changes need to be made immediately and irrevocably. Which really cannot happen due to how things are set up. The guiderails have held (so far), but a lot of them were destroyed in the process and the runaway train is still moving for another week and a half. All of this is just the broader political aspect of things without even touching on the impacts COVID and even more rapidly increasing wealth disparity between the rich and everyone else are impacting things and what they have revealed about our country. Or about the global standing of the United States and what all of that means for peace and prosperity and organizations like the UN and other global efforts and initiatives. Every day things seem darker and the walls and ceiling are just a little bit closer. 

[PDH]

Donald Trump's two signature domestic policies were:

1. The Paul Ryan Tax Cut

2. Dramatically slashing environmental protections.

Let me know if there was a third. Pretty weak sauce.

3. Undermine American democracy.

That was actually foreign policy, not domestic.

[PJL]

Donald Trump's two signature domestic policies were:

1. The Paul Ryan Tax Cut

2. Dramatically slashing environmental protections.

Let me know if there was a third. Pretty weak sauce.

3. Undermine American democracy.

That was actually foreign policy, not domestic.

We're talking about the Trump presidency, not the Putin one...