Political Memes

No.

2016 = MAGA/Trump does incompetence and stupidity

2026 = MAGA/Trump doed unprecedented corruption, calculated evil, and inescapable damage.

It did, but its verifiably worse now

It's objectively worse now buddy. That's not in debate from anyone in the world.

I was a full grown adult in 16 and I can confirm that it was not at all the same. 16 was "oh wow, this is really stupid and is going to take a lot of fixing". 26 is "oh wow, this is absurdly evil and will take a lifetime to fix, if ever.

2016 was testing the waters to see what he could get away with, 2026 is an insane bigot that has been told that he has no rules.

Trump's first term was a meme because it was just him slamming into government red tape every 5 seconds he wanted to do something stupid.

He learned his lesson and made sure to nuke every administration his second term with his own cronies lol.

I remember when the world thought George Dubya Bush was the dumbest president the US would ever have. This is worse in basically every possible measure.

2026 is definitely worse. I was 36 in 2016, and there were some people in the government that weren't abject cowards, but not anymore.

2016 sucked too, but less than 2026 does. AND you were younger, potentially more oblivious to many of the world's issues (depending on age).

Both can be true at the same time. Nostalgia plays a big role here, but it's by no means the only role.

I had to talk down trans friends from suicide on 2016. We have been screaming about him from the rooftops (and in my case, stage) since then.

I was 30 in 2016. That term was awful, so was GWB's entire double term in the aughts. But today is, unfortunately, materially and symbolically worse by almost every measure.

'Wait, holdup just a goddamn minute, youre saying it wasnt a good idea to reelect a pussy-grabbin, insurrection-instigating, lying, raping, narcisistic, grifting, thrice impeached, draft dodgin, goddamn criminal back into the most powerful office in the land? But he said hed go after his political enemies for no other reason than he didnt like them, destroy key institutions, american soft power, and go after democracy itself...

Hmm... But his opponent was a woman. In a suit. Im sure she was equivalent. Oh well.'

• 60% of eligible voters and those idiotic sitouts.

ICE wasn't on rampage.

Are you trying to say that people don't think 2016 was bad, or are you trying to say that 2016 is worse than now? Because I don't see anyone making either of those arguments.

The first trump admin was bad, but the second one is objectively worse. Even his fanbois are starting to notice how much worse it is. It would be funny if I didn't have to live through them having to deal with the consequences of their actions, cuz I have to too.

It was better the first time around, fight me.

Atleast we had 8 years of relative sanity within the government. Like it was trash but atleast it was painted a nice colour. Now it's just them shitting on the trash.

Just the last two months of 2016 sucked and that was from anxiety for what was coming. 2017 was dogshit, but 2026 has been terrible in comparison because those assholes spent the last term planning out how to dismantle democracy and handed Trump a fucking playbook to do it. 2017 they didn’t know what they were doing and there were people appointed that at least stood up to his stupidity because they cared about the country over Trump. That’s not the case anymore.

I don't deny that it did, but you have to admit that was only a trial run, and there were some people who were just barely competent still in positions that stopped him or at least scaled back some of his more unhinged actions in his first term.

He's removed those (albeit flimsy) guardrails this time around. Everyone around him is a dangerously stupid yes man now.

If I remember correctly, it began to suck in 2001.

Yes, I was younger, but not young. Unless 50 is young.

I guess, but even 50+ year olds feel this way. Anyways, what time period WAS better than now? Surely not every decade in human history has coincidentally ended up on equal footing.

I used to wake up every morning with a feeling of existential dread over what middle of the night drug fueled rant he would've gone on that would dismantle some part of society.

I remember work the day after the election it was complete silence at lunch.

Everyone knew things were about to go to shit. There wasn’t even a point talking about it.

People always want to stay the bad times started in 2016, but the 2 key events that lead to Trump getting elected were 9/11-war on terror and the 2008 financial crash. People forget but Occupy Wall Street started in 2012 and that was the real wake up call for the entire American political establishment that the status quo was not working for most people. Instead the DNC rigged the 2016 democratic primary and Trump ended up winning the election.

Things have been shit for a while for most people, but 2016 was the first time we had the opportunity to acknowledge it.

Obama was president in 2016. I don't think it was bad

2026 is worse simply because none of the 1st term shtfuckery was ever addressed, let alone fixed.

That's when it started sucking really bad.

At least the first time around he had appointees with actual government experience. This time it's all low wattage knuckle dragging sycophants drawn from the storied ranks of podcasters, bloggers and pundits

I was 14 in 2016; I lived in a red town back then & all I knew was “funny old blonde realtor who says dumb memeable shit on TV & Twitter is gonna be president? PEAK COMEDY ROFLMFAOOL”

10 years later, I have since been thoroughly disabused of that immature, uneducated teenage mindset.

Worst time of my life, it definitely sucked. This is more systemic suckage though.