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The Ruin That a Trump Presidency Would Mean (www.theatlantic.com)

submitted 10 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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As GOP leaders get in line, the outlook for democracy looks grim—in Ukraine, and even in America.

In 2016, Republicans could profess some uncertainty about the kind of president Donald Trump would be. Maybe the office would change the man? Maybe the party elite could bend Trump to its will?

But in 2024, there’s no uncertainty. Trump’s party is signing up for the ride, knowing exactly what the ride is. Pro-Ukraine senators are working to elect a president who will cut off Ukraine, knowing that he will cut off Ukraine. Pro-NATO senators are working to elect a president who will wreck NATO, knowing that he will wreck NATO.

Many top Republicans have been hoping for a way out of their Trump dilemma. That’s why Nikki Haley has raised tens of millions of dollars and Ron DeSantis has raised hundreds of millions. It’s why, even now, more than half of the Republican senators have not endorsed a primary candidate. And that’s why so many conservatives get twitchy when told that the 2024 presidential race is already a binary choice between Trump and Joe Biden. It’s also why the lopsided nomination contest will continue its fictional progress for some while longer.

But the exits are blocked. The many criminal and civil legal processes against Trump were too slow to rescue his party from him. The thesis that Trump might be disqualified under the Fourteenth Amendment awaits a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Republican contest will be over within weeks.

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[-] SpezCanLigmaBalls@lemmy.world 61 points 10 months ago

Have y'all heard about Trump being the antichrist? I'm not religious but it's eery how closely it matches up. So many specifics that can't just be made up.

Here's a link if you're curious - https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/

[-] nickhammes@lemmy.world 51 points 10 months ago

Revelations was written down a few decades after Nero's famously-poor rule of the Roman Empire, and there had been plenty of poor leaders in living memory. There have been plenty of boastful liars who gained power in history, and so many of them have had similar comparisons drawn.

And the antichrist characteristics they describe are a selection of the ones he fits, without including those he doesn't. He hasn't (pretended to) come back from the dead, and isn't connected obviously to the number 666, for example.

That he fits into some of the classic descriptions of dangerously bad leaders doesn't seem eerie to me, but unsurprising. He's a classic con man.

[-] Kellamity@sh.itjust.works 8 points 10 months ago

And the antichrist characteristics they describe are a selection of the ones he fits, without including those he doesn't. He hasn't (pretended to) come back from the dead, and isn't connected obviously to the number 666, for example.

The article actually specifically mentions both coming back from the dead (Covid) and 666 (Kushner).

Dont get me wrong, I'm not saying they aren't tenuous and I'm 100% not saying he is the literal antichrist. But its not accurate to say they dont include that stuff

[-] nickhammes@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Oh you're totally right, but yeah it is still cherry picked, and some of the connections are tenuous at best

[-] thefactremains@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

The 666 connection isn't far off

[-] prole@sh.itjust.works 6 points 10 months ago

He's an archetype.

[-] Anbalsilfer@lemm.ee 6 points 10 months ago

No president has ever won an election to become president again after losing once. This is about as close to political resurrection as one can imagine.

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 13 points 10 months ago

Grover Cleveland did.

[-] Anbalsilfer@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

I stand corrected. Thanks.

[-] TwentySeven@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

What about Grover Cleveland?

[-] Anbalsilfer@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

I did not know about him. I stand corrected.

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago

Actually, there is a Trump/666 connection

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/12/jared-kushner-666-fifth-avenue-qatar-investigation

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

It's probably 616 anyway.

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

I always heard that '666' was code for the Romans, because DCLXVI uses all the Roman numerals

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Not according to these scholars.

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

The Revd Professor David Parker, Professor of New Testament Textual Criticism and Palaeography at the University of Birmingham, said on Tuesday that the possibility that the sign of the Beast was 616, not 666, was considered by Irenaeus in the second century, but he rejected it.

Referring to the newly examined text he said: “This adds weight to those who believe that it is a reference to Caligula’s attempt to desecrate the Temple in Jerusalem, by having his statue erected there as part of the cult of emperor worship.

“There may be a reference to it in Mark [13.14], where he refers to the ‘the abomination of desolation’. But this was overlaid by the Neronian persecutions. People believed that you could get from ‘666’ to Nero because in Greek he is the emperor Neron Caesar. And 666 is one number less than the perfect 777.

“The text is quite legible to the naked eye. It was published in 1999, but it has taken people time to catch up,” he said. www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk

The article says it's a possibility, not a proven fact.

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

I’m sure if I divide the numbers of bottles of tanner he uses on his face by the number 45, and multiple it by 13… it would end up 666! CHECKMATE… somebody.

[-] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago

isn’t connected obviously to the number 666, for example.

Yes he is, specifically 666 Fifth Avenue

[-] IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

“Papyrus 115 (which is the oldest preserved manuscript of the Revelation as of 2017), as well as other ancient sources like Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, give the number of the beast as χιϛ or χιϲ, transliterable in Arabic numerals as 616 (χιϛ), not 666”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_beast

[-] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 5 points 10 months ago

Who do you expect me to believe? Some old piece of paper or Iron Maiden?

[-] agitatedpotato@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Bruce Dickinson knows how to fly planes, can the bible fly planes? I think not.

[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago

Just watch Trump have a heart attack and be brought back after being dead for 2 minutes at 6pm on June 6th.

[-] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

He did survive COVID.

[-] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 8 points 10 months ago

Wtf. Did I just become Christian??

Seriously though, that's almost too on the nose. If I believed in that stuff I'd be scared to death of this guy. I mean I am scared of him, but not because of this but it's fucking eerie how close all of that fits.

[-] meowMix2525@lemm.ee 9 points 10 months ago

If I believed in that stuff I'd be scared to death of this guy.

Counterpoint: evangelicals do believe he's the antichrist and actually want him to bring on the end times in order to trigger the rapture so they can check out early and reunite with all the dead believers "in the clouds, to meet the lord in the air"

They're an accelerationist death cult, and their scheme only works if we all go down with them. They know how bad trump is, they know he fits the bill as their antichrist, and they're gambling our entire planet and life as we know it on their little fairytale stories. Not to mention all the non-believers that even within the evangelical belief system would just be fucking smited I guess or go on living in the apocalypse if their rApTuRe were to ever happen.

[-] Alto@kbin.social 2 points 10 months ago

It's very similar with the climate. There's that certain subset of religious accelerationist zealots who are well aware as to what's happening with the climate and want it to happen, because that'll bring back Jesus or something. Just ignore that those same people would end up lynching Jesus for being brown.

[-] meowMix2525@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yep, that's what I was trying to touch on with the "gambling our entire planet" bit.

Anyways, I'm calling it now. The rapture is going to be nuclear holocaust and their "uniting with dead believers and the lord" is just going to be everyone on the planet fucking dying and receiving whatever final judgement they believe in.

At least that's what I imagine some dude in a desert 2000 years ago, who thought he was receiving divine images and words from god, that were actually just regular old premonitions of a Donald Trump-like figure bringing in the end-times via some sudden catastrophic event, could only comprehend as a divine culling. I also imagine that if quantum physics and wormhole theory have any merit in this discussion, the energy spent by a nuclear holocaust and subsequent death of humanity could conceivably send those visions/experiences back in time to that dude 2000 years ago. I'm not a physicist or anything though, so I suppose my guess is as good as the fundies' lol

[-] sneezycat@sopuli.xyz 7 points 10 months ago

I mean, it's an interpretation, so part of it is what the author thinks. For example, "he was bent on conquering", but the author says he's competitive and likes to win.

Personally I'd say a conqueror would have more to do with invading other countries, but maybe that doesn't fit Trump as well. Or does it..?

[-] Crikeste@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Don’t for one second give credibility to Christianity. Every word in those god forsaken books can be twisted and turned to fit whatever narrative you want them to.

[-] style99@kbin.social 6 points 10 months ago

Trump is too stupid to be anything but a failure and a pathetic bully. He's obviously poison, and cynical morons who vote for him want that.

[-] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 2 points 10 months ago

I guess I believe in the real god now? Wtf!

this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024

295 points (95.7% liked)

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