Donald J Trump Assumes Full Control of the Progressive Movement

[Hound of Heaven]

After watching Trump's speech, I believe it's clear that the figurehead of the progressive movement is Donald J. Trump! Allow me to clarify my controversial statement.

Trump stated in his speech that there was nothing he could say that night that would prompt the Democrats to rise and applaud. He was right, the Democrats did not stand even once, not even when it would have been appropriate to show some semblance of unity with those who voted for Trump, as well as the Republican-controlled House and Senate.

In the past, when common sense guided the Democratic Party and we faced electoral losses, we recognized that demonstrating unity with the American people was a wise approach. This was crucial because, in four years, we would need to persuade them that we are a capable and appealing alternative to the current administration they had chosen. We recognized that the American electorate experiences cycles of more liberal tendencies in one year, followed by a shift towards more conservative inclinations in subsequent years.

We collaborated with the opposition party, always mindful that one day we would return to power and depend on the Republicans to demonstrate a sense of decency during their time out of power. However, that is no longer the case! The current Democratic Party, influenced by the brain disease of progressivism, seems to have allowed Trump to dictate their behavior, he appears to control their emotions, the words they speak, and their actions.

One need only examine Trump's speech to grasp the validity of my argument. Here’s the reason! When Trump and his speechwriters crafted the address to the American electorate, they deliberately included heartwarming moments designed to resonate positively with viewers. This was done to highlight the contrast between the Democrats, who remained seated and did not join in the applause, and the Republicans, who stood in unity during these uplifting moments of the speech. For instance, when Trump presented a young boy battling brain cancer and named him an honorary member of the Secret Service, it was a touching moment for all viewers. However, the Democrats, seemingly affected by a progressive mindset, remained seated with blank expressions. When Trump expressed his desire to reduce taxes for the middle class, the Democrats remained seated while the Republicans applauded! When Trump announced his intention to protect women's sports, the Democrats remained seated. When Trump announced his plan to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime, the Democrats remained seated while the Republicans rose to cheer! When Trump announced his intention to remove killers and rapists from American neighborhoods, the Democrats remained seated while the Republicans erupted in cheers! When Trump stated his intention to promote health and wellness among Americans, the Democrats remained seated while the Republicans applauded!

What Trump demonstrated during his speech is an exemplary lesson in how to influence the thoughts and actions of your opponents while they remain unaware of the snare you’re laying for them to step into. Trump commanded the room during his speech, skillfully outmaneuvering the Democrats and portraying them as foolish in front of a global audience. They appeared not only defeated but also lacking a strategy to counter the Trump administration.

If the Democrats fail to recognize that their credibility has been severely compromised by adhering to the Woke agenda promoted by the progressive faction of the party, Trump will not only solidify his position as the leader of the Republican Party but also emerge as a dominant figure within the progressive movement. He will manipulate their actions to achieve his desired outcomes, portraying them as the most extreme and hateful faction in the history of political parties.

Common sense democrats must rise and confront the progressives to ensure we have a viable opportunity to overcome the Republicans in 2026. A recent poll conducted by Harvard CAPS-Harris reveals that 81% of Americans are in favor of deporting criminal illegal immigrants. A significant 76% of Americans are in favor of a comprehensive initiative aimed at identifying and eradicating fraud and waste within the government. 76% are in favor of closing the border. There is a 69% backing for excluding men from participating in women's sports. 68% are in favor of the government stating that there are only two genders. 65% in favor of ending race-based hiring in government. 63% are in favor of pausing and reassessing foreign aid. There is a 61% approval for reciprocal tarrifs.

The backing for specific measures proposed by Trump is notable, as he effectively influenced the Democratic Party to remain passive while Republicans rallied in support of what resonates with the American electorate. The behavior of the Democrat party during Trump's speech clearly demonstrates that Trump has a firm grip on how the progressives react to his objectives.

[Kishkumen]

Trump is the leading Progressive, but the Democrats have to stop Progressivism. Do I have that right? Oh, and Democrats should have behaved normally, when much of what Trump has done has made everything worse, and he has flagrantly and repeatedly broken the law in the process.

Check. Great ideas.

[Hound of Heaven]

Trump is the leading Progressive, but the Democrats have to stop Progressivism. Do I have that right?

Absolutely, you are completely right! It's unfortunate that you don't grasp what I'm saying about how Trump is influencing the progressives to achieve his goals for the Republican Party. I expected you to be more insightful, but it seems I was mistaken.

Allow me to assist you in understanding how Trump is leveraging the progressive movement to achieve his goals. Who is currently leading the Democrat party? Could you provide an answer to that?

What are your thoughts on the leader of the progressive movement? Who is it? Could you provide an answer to that?

I believe that nearly all Americans are unaware of who is currently leading the Democratic Party. Would it be accurate to say that most Americans do not know which Democrat is at the helm of the party?

Trump has effectively occupied the void at the forefront of the progressive movement by directly influencing the progressives and their responses to his agenda. Trump recognizes that the progressive movement is primarily driven by emotion. He expertly wields that emotion to achieve the results he seeks from the progressives.

During the speech, he referred to Elizabeth Warren as Pocahontas. The reasons for his actions are twofold. First, it’s amusing, but more importantly, it emotionally manipulates progressives, stirring them into a frenzy that makes them appear highly emotional and incapable of clear thinking. His aim is to portray the progressives as so unreasonable that the American electorate will never consider voting for them again.

When I say he's the leader of the progressive movement, I mean it! He is managing their reactions to him at this moment, making them appear irrational while simultaneously persuading the American electorate that the Republican Party is the sole viable choice.

Could you please inform me about who leads the Democrats or the progressives? I'll wait!

[Kishkumen]

Absolutely, you are completely right! It's unfortunate that you don't grasp what I'm saying about how Trump is influencing the progressives to achieve his goals for the Republican Party. I expected you to be more insightful, but it seems I was mistaken.

Well, obviously the Republicans have for over five decades sought to associate liberals, first, and then Progressives, second, with minority groups bigots fear and hate. In the process, they have turned the words liberal and progressive into slurs. So, all it takes to "leverage" this situation is to remind people in various ways that it is about who you hate, not what you hate. Trump excels at leveraging the bigotry of his followers. Those who refuse to give up their principles to go along with whatever populist mirage he is communicating look stingy, but the reality is that people are expecting Democrats to cheer for their executioner.

It is bonkers. You are bonkers.

Allow me to assist you in understanding how Trump is leveraging the progressive movement to achieve his goals. Who is currently leading the Democrat party? Could you provide an answer to that?

Look, we all know that the Democrats are a mess. You're boring us. We all know that Social Justice Warriors annoy the crap out of people, and that their illiberal excesses after the Floyd incident made them unpopular.

But, here's the thing: that does not make the lies, crimes, thievery, bigotry, and bullying of the scofflaw Donald Trump a good answer for anything.

The guy is not playing 4D chess, but he is playing you and people like you like fiddles.

So, let's be clear. Go be on the "winning side" already--the side that is winning this country out of prosperity, out of democracy, out of decency, out of leadership, out of principle, and out of its soul.

What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?

What are you willing to give up and what do you stand to gain?

How do you weigh those two categories against each other?

From my point of view, you are allowing your understandable unhappiness with the extremes of a small minority to push you into the fascist camp. And I do not use the word fascist as some kind of epithet or metaphor. Trumpism is a kind of fascism.

[Kishkumen]

I will tell you who the real leaders on the Left are:

Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Until people stop holding onto the bigotry and fear that keep them going back to the Republicans or the Corporate Democrats, they will stay stuck in Trumpland.

The land of hateful morons, voraciously greedy plutocrats, and self-delusion.

I calculate that you are in the self-delusion part of that mix.

[Hound of Heaven]

Absolutely, you are completely right! It's unfortunate that you don't grasp what I'm saying about how Trump is influencing the progressives to achieve his goals for the Republican Party. I expected you to be more insightful, but it seems I was mistaken.

Well, obviously the Republicans have for over five decades sought to associate liberals, first, and then Progressives, second, with minority groups bigots fear and hate. In the process, they have turned the words liberal and progressive into slurs. So, all it takes to "leverage" this situation is to remind people in various ways that it is about who you hate, not what you hate. Trump excels at leveraging the bigotry of his followers. Those who refuse to give up their principles to go along with whatever populist mirage he is communicating look stingy, but the reality is that people are expecting Democrats to cheer for their executioner.

It is bonkers. You are bonkers.

Allow me to assist you in understanding how Trump is leveraging the progressive movement to achieve his goals. Who is currently leading the Democrat party? Could you provide an answer to that?

Look, we all know that the Democrats are a mess. You're boring us. We all know that Social Justice Warriors annoy the crap out of people, and that their illiberal excesses after the Floyd incident made them unpopular.

But, here's the thing: that does not make the lies, crimes, thievery, bigotry, and bullying of the scofflaw Donald Trump a good answer for anything.

The guy is not playing 4D chess, but he is playing you and people like you like fiddles.

So, let's be clear. Go be on the "winning side" already--the side that is winning this country out of prosperity, out of democracy, out of decency, out of leadership, out of principle, and out of its soul.

What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?

What are you willing to give up and what do you stand to gain?

How do you weigh those two categories against each other?

From my point of view, you are allowing your understandable unhappiness with the extremes of a small minority to push you into the fascist camp. And I do not use the word fascist as some kind of epithet or metaphor. Trumpism is a kind of fascism.

Therefore, there is no Democrat at the helm of the Democrat party! Understood! I initiated this thread for that very reason. No one seems to be able to provide an answer regarding who our leader is. This implies that Trump is essentially our leader, as he influences our responses to his actions.

He has everything meticulously arranged, and there’s no one who can prevent him from influencing the actions of the progressives. Trump desires for you and others like you to label the Republicans as fascist, just as you did in your previous post! In fact, he is relying on it! It forms a crucial element of his strategy to maintain Republican dominance. Congratulations on aligning perfectly with Trump's intentions! Your emotional reactions and labeling your neighbors as fascists are aiding the Republicans in maintaining their majority in the House in 2026, while most Americans are wise enough to see the truth! Merely labeling a group of individuals as fascist does not inherently validate that claim. You are being emotionally manipulated, and you may not even realize it.

[Kishkumen]

Therefore, there is no Democrat at the helm of the Democrat party! Understood! I initiated this thread for that very reason. No one seems to be able to provide an answer regarding who our leader is. This implies that Trump is essentially our leader, as he influences our responses to his actions.

No, that is not correct at all. There are leaders of the Democratic Party. They are weak leaders, yes, because they are not demonstrating the kind of leadership opponents to Trumpian fascism feel is needed, but it is not as though there are no people filling leadership positions. Trump is definitely the leader in the sense that he is the person who has clearly seized control of the levers of power by bowling over the law and all opposition.

He has everything meticulously arranged . . . .

The man can barely read a paragraph of English text. He meticulously arranges nothing.

Trump desires for you and others like you to label the Republicans as fascist, just as you did in your previous post! In fact, he is relying on it! It forms a crucial element of his strategy to maintain Republican dominance. Congratulations on aligning perfectly with Trump's intentions! Your emotional reactions and labeling your neighbors as fascists are aiding the Republicans in maintaining their majority in the House in 2026, while most Americans are wise enough to see the truth! Merely labeling a group of individuals as fascist does not inherently validate that claim. You are being emotionally manipulated, and you may not even realize it.

Good Lord. Is this your idea of thinking through problems rationally?

Whether the argument that the Trump movement is fascist or not is rhetorically effective--and I agree that it is not rhetorically effective--has nothing at all to do with the fact that it is a fascist movement. It is a fascist movement by definition. If you are illiterate regarding the definition of fascism to the point that you think it is nothing but an empty insult, then you are incapable of judging whether the movement is fascist or not. Those of us who do know what a fascist movement is are not going to say Trump's movement is not fascist just because people don't seem to care that it is.

[Kishkumen]

For this, I consulted Anatomy of Fascism by Robert O. Paxton, a leading historian of fascist leaders and movements. Paxton’s 2004 book offers something of a handy checklist for what makes for a fascist movement and its leader—one that is still relevant two decades later. Several of these attributes seem to apply to Trump and Trumpism well. I outline them below.

Cultivates “a sense of overwhelming crisis beyond the reach of traditional solutions”:
Trump has consistently (and falsely) pushed the line that the U.S. is a “hellhole” where crime is “only going up.” Just last month, Trump claimed, “I don’t think there’s ever been a darkness around our nation like there is now,” despite low levels of unemployment and unprecedented stock market highs. In a second term, this sense of crisis might embolden Trump to use his powers as commander-in-chief to invoke emergency powers such as the Insurrection Act to use the U.S. military against his domestic political enemies.

Exhibits “the superiority of the leader’s instincts over abstract and universal reason”:
Put another way, it’s prioritizing intuition—or gut feeling—over logic. Trump routinely asserts the brilliance of his instincts, calling himself a “very stable genius” while dismissing the well-established science around climate change, which he has described as a “hoax.” The nonpartisan Covid Crisis Group found that in April 2020, Trump decided that COVID-19 wasn’t much worse than the flu, and he wanted to “reopen” the economy as he was also gearing up for his election campaign. As a result, the Covid Crisis Group concluded that “Trump was a co-morbidity” with COVID-19, meaning the nation was suffering from two chronic “diseases” simultaneously.

Underscores “the need for authority by natural leaders (always male) culminating in a national chief who alone is capable of incarnating the group’s destiny”:
This concept encapsulates Trump’s appeal to his followers quite well. Trump presents himself as the only man who can save this nation, and he recently told a group of his Christian followers that he was anointed by God, a claim they seem to believe. (It’s noteworthy that Trumpism doesn’t work without Trump himself, a lesson Florida Governor Ron DeSantis learned during his unsuccessful presidential run.)

Ascribes to “the belief that one’s group is a victim, a sentiment that justifies any action, without legal or moral limits, against its enemies”:
Trump has made a political career out of his purported victimhood, promising “retribution” for his followers who feel similarly victimized. He has also made it clear that if re-elected, he plans to go after his perceived enemies, even suggesting he could use the U.S. military against the “enemy within”—or those who are not loyal to him.

Demonstrates “the need for closer integration of a purer community; by consent if possible, or by exclusionary violence if necessary”:
Trump’s base is firmly against most immigrants. When Trump was in office, his administration separated thousands of migrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border, a policy some of his followers accepted. If re-elected, Trump and his advisers have promised mass deportations of millions of migrants by the U.S. military. Mass deportations are supported by 88 percent of Trump supporters, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll. (That policy is also supported by three in 10 Harris supporters.)

Promotes “the beauty of violence and the efficacy of will when they are devoted to the group’s success”:
Earlier this month, Trump described the January 6 Capitol riot by his followers, during which 140 police officers were assaulted, as a day of “beauty and love.”

In short, working from Paxton’s fascism checklist, John Kelly’s assessment that Trump embodies fascist traits doesn’t seem too far off the mark. The debate around this characterization is all the more critical as we approach the U.S. presidential election. The Trump team has repeatedly said they will staff a second Trump term with loyalists and purge those who are perceived to be disloyal. Trump has also made it clear that the U.S. military should be loyal to him rather than the Constitution, which they have sworn an oath to protect. It is for these reasons that Kelly seems to have spoken out now as Election Day approaches, before it’s too late.

I emphasize with italics the date of the book that was used for the definition of fascism to show that the book was not written to fit Trump's movement.

See https://www.newamerica.org/the-thread/i ... er-bergen/

[Gadianton]

and there’s no one who can prevent him from influencing the actions of the progressives. Trump desires for you and others like you to label the Republicans as fascist, just as you did in your previous post! In fact, he is relying on it! It forms a crucial element of his strategy to maintain Republican dominance.

Which is perfect for you since you believe all the same things Trump does. Why not embrace it? You can't change the place you were born to change your home baseball team but you can change your political party.

The problem is there is nothing Democrats can fundamentally run on to make things better. A "tax the rich" solution is about the only play there is but it isn't a very good one. Bailing out systemic financial problems also massively shifts wealth the wrong way for many reasons and that will never stop either. If there is a solution nobody that I'm aware of has thought of it. So we can move more slowly to the inexorable end of mass poverty with a few rich at the top but greater numbers of the sorta-rich falling into the poor class also under Obama-Biden-Harris, or we can get there quicker under Trump, but find peace in nationalism and consumption by proxy -- identifying with Trump and Elon and therefore feeling like their consumption is our consumption -- and it's hard to say what the better solution is. To beat MAGA at this point, Trump must break things so badly that people just want out no matter what the option is. In that case, it doesn't matter if the Democrats have "leadership" or not. To be proactive would require somebody to come up with a bold plan that is going to be nearly impossible to implement, and so the leaders will need to be either beyond ambitious and doe-eyed, or lie about it; try to out-message Republicans, which will be hard; but if successful would bring more interim normalcy as we slowly crumble.

There is a reason why HoH is a one-trick pony. I believe him that he's a lifelong Democrat who wants his party of a bygone time. But things are different now. The inequality problem is likely beyond fixing, and so what is the big-tent Democrat leader going to run on? Unions? We're here for the worker? What can you conceivably do for the worker at this point? There isn't much.

[Kishkumen]

. . . or we can get there quicker under Trump, but find peace in nationalism and consumption by proxy -- identifying with Trump and Elon and therefore feeling like their consumption is our consumption -- and it's hard to say what the better solution is.

If only HoH believed this. We are falling fast with Trump. People who don't want to believe this point back to his first term, when he was constrained by colleagues who were hemming him in to get him to follow the norms more or less. This is the Trump, however, who staged a coup and got away with it. He now has no need for norms, so what comes of that?

Elon basically serving as our unelected shadow president, whom Trump has commanded his cabinet to obey implicitly. Elon, who doesn't know anything about the government, and just flails around blindly cutting jobs and expenditures without knowing why they are important.