Trump vs Clinton really felt like it at the time but really in a different timeline, Trump is crushing her in the polls right now (at least in electoral votes), dems would be lucky to have 40 senate seats, they certainly do not have the house, there’s an open SCOTUS seat still (kennedy doesn’t retire), the 1000000 federal judges are still open and RBG’s seat is toast to R’s even if she did retire.
Definitely a case to be made we’re better off it happened in 16 and not now.
This of course hinges on him losing, cause if that doesn’t happen oh lord. He’s going to just do whatever the fuck instead of backing off here and there.
Dunno about 00, I figure R’s win in 04 and not Gore in revisionist history. Then Hillary/Obama (remember how close that was?) has to face an incumbent. Though maybe not popular or racist enough to beat him/her.
Grunching, but I voted 2000 because Gore was the climate change guy. I think you can make an obvious case for 2020 but it’s too close to home to have real perspective imo.
Time will tell I guess, but Nixon was more or less like that as well and the nation recovered. It could go either way. It might turn out that Trump is the last gasp of the GOP as currently constituted.
I was careful to say “on that list” because of the similarities to Nixon. Still, there are big differences, the main ones being polarization and the media environment. The trend of the GOP has been to more extreme, not less. At the end of the day, to be a Republican nominee, you have to win a Republican primary. And in this era, that means open bigotry and contempt for the aforementioned liberal values.
You may think that makes them unviable on the national level, but I don’t buy it. The disastrous and reviled Bush Presidency was followed by the relatively successful Obama Presidency (compare Obama when leaving office at +15 net approval to Bush at -40). That didn’t stop America from electing an obviously incompetent, racist, rapist, fascist Republican in 2016.
Independent voters will continue to decide elections for the foreseeable future, and large numbers of them will vote for the next Republican after a term or two of a Dem President because they want to “shake things up” or because he’s more charismatic or some other random reason. Trump’s defeat won’t usher in 20 years of Democratic rule, and the GOP won’t be chastened by the experience, at least not for long.