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US Politics 26w
I’m a current dual degree student in political science and another unrelated major, and I’m currently writing a paper about the first trump administration. Now I was in 8th grade during that election and looking into it now, how were people “blindsided”?
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Anonymous 26w

It’s called democratic backsliding. It’s when a leader centralizes power more and more thru various means gradually. It’s happening all ofer the world, with Erdogan in Turkey Putin in Russia Netanyahu in Israel Orban in Hungary etc

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Anonymous 26w

It’s for an administrative law class so I’m specifically focusing on ICE and deportation policy’s he put in place and he’s just picking up where he left off except the courts aren’t fighting him as much as they used to and it’s a lot worse now that he had the foundations set up in 2017

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Anonymous 26w

I was 17 at the time. At the start of the GOP primary, people thought Trump was an absolute joke. we were shocked when he won the nom, and later the presidency. And I think the “blindsiding” was just how quickly the GOP totally reinvented themselves to ride the Trump train

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Anonymous replying to -> #1 26w

They do this thru things like getting rid of the judiciary’s power (Netanyahu, and now Trump) arresting and suppressing the media and opposition (Putin) engaging in wars to keep themselves in power (Netanyahu)

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Anonymous replying to -> #1 26w

It’s just crazy to me and I’m really struggling writing this paper because reading all of these executive orders and policy’s is making me sick. Like how did people who voted for him then see these and vote him back in? How did new “educated” voters see these and vote for him. The lack of humanity is sickening and just plain heart breaking

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Anonymous replying to -> #5 26w

the GOP in 2025 is completely unrecognizable from the GOP of 2012.

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Anonymous replying to -> #5 26w

and as for why people voted him back in. There wasn’t really much coverage of Trump’s actual policies during his first term. We still cared about norms somewhat at that point so the news was all about whatever scandal he had going on.

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Anonymous replying to -> #5 26w

All I did was look up a list of his policies and maybe my major influences what my search results are, but I have an entire pdf file that breaks everything down and I just can’t believe it, I remember getting told by my classmates I was going to get deported despite being born here and I remember seeing the ice detention centers on insta but I don’t remember it being as bad as it is right now

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Anonymous replying to -> OP 26w

Yeah term 1 was absolutely nothing compared to what’s going on right now. Yet now there’s somehow *less* pushback. It’s the sort of shit that keeps me up at night

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Anonymous replying to -> #5 26w

I keep telling myself after this he’ll be done, but look at the lasting impact Reagan left. And with everything he’s doing to give himself power, I wouldn’t be surprised if he just stayed in office until he died

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