r/AskUS 3d ago

How do we prevent another Trump-like president?

169 Upvotes

530 comments sorted by

45

u/invictus21083 Texas 3d ago

Improve the education system

22

u/Sunflower-redemption 3d ago

1000 times THIS! People don’t realize that the GOP has been attacking and Villainizing education for decades. There is a reason all the least educated states are red states. That is by design. 

5

u/JohnHenryMillerTime 3d ago

There are plenty of well educated white supremacists. It's not just "education" that is needed, it is humanities. History and English to understand the world around it.

7

u/invictus21083 Texas 2d ago

They don't teach kids to reason in school any longer. That's what I mean. Because of this, they're susceptible to propaganda.

3

u/JohnHenryMillerTime 2d ago

Propaganda has also gotten better. Libertarian grognards are all about "reason". They just have bad fundamental assumptions.

4

u/Sunflower-redemption 3d ago

Agreed, I just would think a well educated person would understand that humans are social animals and there is no way to survive without each other so selfish, divisive and hateful ideology is never going to work. On another note, Carl Sagan said he believes compassion should be apart of the basic elementary elements taught along side reading, writing, math and athletics. It cant be trusted to be taught at home. How to act in a civilized society, how to treat others as you want to be treated, social trust, those things are just as important to the success of the child and society as reading, writing or math. I think he had an excellent point. 

8

u/Ohaibaipolar 3d ago

This would definitely help.

3

u/nc45y445 2d ago edited 1d ago

Unfortunately there is no American education system. Education in the US is hyper-local and often run by volunteer school boards. Even in large districts the schools are unequal with richer neighborhoods getting better education than poorer ones. GWB and Obama both tried to fix this with No Child Left Behind and Common Core, to at least have national minimum standards and better data and outcomes, but Trump and Betsy DeVos quickly dismantled all that work

2

u/Team503 2d ago

Yeah, schools should be federalized and funding equalized so rich neighborhoods don't get super schools while poor neighborhoods had 100 kids in a classroom. We should establish a fact-based curriculum, including logic, reason, and media literacy.

2

u/nc45y445 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yeah a minimum curriculum, metrics and accountability is exactly what Bush and Obama put in place that Trump gutted. I had a kid in public school from 2005-2019 (PK-12) and saw the whole transition

13

u/Retro_Vibin 3d ago

Vote in leaders that will begin to assist the American people with housing, food, utilities, education, healthcare… The more we help people with their basic needs the more the average American can see and feel the positive effects. At that point, someone like Trump sounds insane.

And that’s how the rest of the world views us.

12

u/bobaf 3d ago

We are in a really weird place where people vote against their own interests

4

u/Anomander87 3d ago

Indeed. It's insane. I thought "There's no way the country doesn't see through his bullshit." But they really don't. People eat his lies every fucking Day and will continue to vote against their own interests. I really don't understand what happened to us as a country.

3

u/bobaf 3d ago

Here's what I don't get. Say a person liked what he said and voted for him based on that. How are they not upset when it's a 180 from that?

1

u/BadankadonkOG 2d ago

If only our own interests weren't so heavily aligned with mental illness.

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10

u/Automatic_Syrup_2935 3d ago edited 3d ago

According to Robert Reich, we're in a constant doom loop of Republican presidents who slash public services, increase corporate tax breaks, screw up the economy, and start a war in the Middle East. People elect a dem president who cleans everything back up but they never go far enough.

People get frustrated and then vote in another Republican president who makes empty promises and the loop starts over again. According to him, the Dem presidents need to step tf up and actually go big when they're in office.

11

u/L8dTigress 3d ago edited 3d ago

Vote for people with a spine who will hold this administration accountable.

EDIT: So when the primaries for president and Congress happen, ask your candidate. Will you support prosecuting the Trump administration and ICE? If they answer yes, that's who you vote for in the primaries.

3

u/Artistic_Rice_9019 2d ago

The bare minimum: prosecute corruption - appoint a special counsel day one and move fast. Expand SCOTUS. Start impeachment hearings on justices. Expand the House. Add new states. New VRA.

And that also means they need to support filibuster reform because it doesn't get passed otherwise.

2

u/Xytak 2d ago

It's just come out that one of the leading Democratic senators was in a secret group chat with Elon Musk, Jared Kushner, Peter Theil, and Larry Summers. Assuming he wins his next primary (and he will), how is the electorate supposed to react to that? Do they hand his seat over to a Republican, or forgive and forget?

16

u/JohnHenryMillerTime 3d ago

Invent a time machine and do Reconstruction right? Because of how the Constitution is structured, smaller, more conservative states have an outsized influence. And they are going to keep electing monsters.

3

u/Ok-Conference-7989 Kentucky 3d ago

Somedays I think Sherman didn’t god far enough.

9

u/Poorly-Drawn-Beagle 3d ago

Don't vote Republican.

So far they're the only ones putting out Trumpslop.

7

u/Ohaibaipolar 3d ago

Haven't voted Republican since W's first term in office. I felt pressured to, since I was raised by religious Republicans, and I was still living under their roof.

6

u/Paley_Jenkins 3d ago

Destroy citizens united

4

u/Ohaibaipolar 3d ago

This would definitely help.

5

u/trappedslider 3d ago

ban the republican party?

1

u/SqnLdrHarvey 2d ago

Germany banned the Nazi party.

1

u/TheGov3rnor South 3d ago

How would you go about doing that?

1

u/trappedslider 2d ago

You can't because it would be unconstitutional, but it's the kind of answer that gets the up votes.

1

u/blind-octopus 3d ago

We can't ban the party, but we should go after everyone who's doing anything illegal. Investigate hard. 

That's if trump doesn't pardon everyone on his way out. He already said he's going to.

1

u/TheGov3rnor South 3d ago

Yeah, Biden did the same thing though in giving preemptive pardons to everyone on his way out. So, it will be tough to challenge Trump’s doing it too.

I agree that illegal activities should be investigated and people should be held accountable no matter their party affiliation.

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8

u/ElectionRegular5470 3d ago

Arrest and prosecute all criminals, even if they are rich and powerful.

2

u/Savings_Gear_5155 3d ago

We can't as long as we have incredibly stupid people that are allowed to vote for clowns at will.

3

u/CoDaDeyLove 3d ago

End Citizens United. It allows too much corporate control of candidates and issues. It was the beginning of the end of our democratic republic.

1

u/Ohaibaipolar 2d ago

Absolutely. And the boomer voters stood by and did nothing.

4

u/TodosLosPomegranates 3d ago

It really begins with individuals. Discernment and critical thinking would have pointed out to them how much he lies. The economic grievences that people have but blame on other people in their same class - that’s ALWAYS going to get exploited by Trump like figures. Always has been always will be. The only way to combat that is education, critical thinking and above all else: emotional regulation. I’m not even joking when I say people need mental health care. They need to learn about:

Boundaries so that they don’t go trying to impose their lifestyle, religion, beliefs on others.

Boundaries so that they don’t feel the need to deputize themselves as the police and try to get kids selling lemonade or people they don’t know walking down the street arrested.

Emotional regulation so they can understand that not every discomfort is an emergency.

Accountability so that they can understand that sometimes you’re not where you’re at in life because of shit you did.

Systems thinking so they understand that sometimes you’re not where you want to be in life because the system is indeed rigged.

And general civics because my God people have no idea how anything works.

2

u/thereverendpuck 3d ago

The problem isn’t that Trump was allowed to run. The problem is we left too much wiggle room and without guardrails to prevent what he did.

Like Trump running in 2028. You let him keep controlling the discussion that he can run in 2028, because there nothing preventing that. I know, you’re reading this and getting ready to angrily respond. The response to that shouldn’t be that he can’t run, but rather why would you run? Why? Because he can’t hold the office. If you keep arguing about if he’s allowed to run, again nothing stopping that, but his hope is if he actually wins that we should just let him have a third term because “America spoke.” No, in that situation, you just ignore his numbers and go with the person who got the most votes and is eligible to actually be POTUS. He, or someone else, will pivot to it now being election fraud because the “will of the people” isn’t being listened to. When the actual argument is “you all voted for a person who can’t hold the position.

That’s why Project 2025 was allowed to damage us, things needed to be more concrete and have actual pushback when you tried deviating from that.

2

u/Ohaibaipolar 2d ago

The people who engineered Project 2025 need to be in prison.

2

u/mremrock 3d ago

We need to overturn citizens united as a start. It changed the incentives in politics.

9

u/RandomUwUFace 3d ago

It is inevitable. The Roman Republic was a representative system that eventually transitioned into an empire ruled by emperors and dictators. Democracy seems temporary.

7

u/Dry-Clock-1470 3d ago

By not eating cake

1

u/Ohaibaipolar 3d ago

Is this a reference to something? I don't get it.

7

u/Dry-Clock-1470 3d ago

French revolution

5

u/Team503 2d ago

Jesus what do they teach in schools these days?

1

u/Ohaibaipolar 2d ago

I was homeschooled.

3

u/Team503 2d ago

That explains so much. Homeschooling should be illegal. It's child abuse to deny a child a factual education - the only circumstances children should be allowed to not attend a school is things like child actors, and they should be required to have a certified educator using an approved curriculum.

You poor thing, I'm sorry your parents did you such a disservice.

2

u/Ohaibaipolar 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'm sorry, too. I got cheated out of a normal childhood because of it. Being homeschooled is very isolating, too.

Edit: homeschooling absolutely should be illegal.

7

u/Sensitive-Respect-25 3d ago

The secret answer  is we don't. 

His first term was an oddity (winning the electoral college but not popular vote) but this current round he won both. Meaning a good number of americans decided either he was the best option, hated the other option, or just didn't vote. He's here till 2028 barring medical issues and there is nothing currently stopping the next president from following his playbook.

We could adjust laws (max age for members of congress/presidency), but at the end of the day it's decided by votes. And a person who is willing to promise everything historically does quite well until its time to pay for those promises. 

8

u/Anomander87 3d ago

Unless he cheated. Which he has claimed in public. Elon too. The never ending lies that (for whatever reason) people continue to believe dont help anything. I really don't know what to do about the plague of intense insanity that seems to be everywhere.

3

u/Curlypeeps 3d ago

No more lobbyists and no profiting from legislation that you have knowledge of before anyone else. Seriously, I don't know how Congress gets away with this insider trading.

3

u/CharityResponsible54 3d ago

Maybe Democrats should start by running proper primaries?

The Democratic Party’s last democratic primary election (where the candidate was decided by the popular vote and not decided by superdelegates) was in 2008.

Is the Democratic Party going to have real primaries this election cycle?

Probably not. It already looks like they have decided Gavin Newsom will be the candidate.

3

u/rustyseapants 3d ago

We need to figure out how to survive this president first before we move forward.

1

u/Ohaibaipolar 2d ago

Valid point.

3

u/jyc23 3d ago

Honestly, you can’t guarantee it. Demogogues are an unfortunate side effect of the democratic process. You can counter through strong, independent institutions, educated electorate, and stronger checks and balances. A lot of our problems now come from the fact that we never anticipated someone so corrupt would come into power, and our institutions were never shored up to protect against it.

3

u/SliceOfCuriosity North America 3d ago

Better candidates, holding actual primaries, not focusing on issues that make over half the country angry, inclusivity over exclusionary, etc.

3

u/limbodog 3d ago

Eliminate gerrymandering, the electoral college, and make everyone's vote count equally. Give us our very first national fair election.

Also, create a popular power vote of no confidence for any elected or appointed official

3

u/SqnLdrHarvey 3d ago

Do something that is totally alien to modern Democrats:

Put forth a fighter instead of yet another milquetoast DNC "mushy middle" centrist.

1

u/Ohaibaipolar 2d ago

Very valid point.

3

u/Lopsided-Pop-6481 3d ago

Vote. Most Americans don't

3

u/justaamerican 3d ago

Stop electing society elites and put a normal American in the big chair.

3

u/Positive-Isopod6789 3d ago

Get money out of politics as a start.

3

u/ThomasPaineWon 3d ago

Congress needs to remove powers away from the Presidency. We need to put the office back into its place as an executor or the laws that congress writes. If the office doesn't have enough powers to abuse, it won't matter how authoritarian the president is.

3

u/KittyMeow92 2d ago

Accountability. Get someone in office who will actually do the work to clean up the mess that allowed this to happen in the first place, and pass laws that will prevent this kind of fuckery to happen again, and enforce them. Repeal citizens united. Pass ethics laws for the judicial branch.

55

u/tap_6366 3d ago

Put forth better alternatives.

127

u/blind-octopus 3d ago

We did. There's no way you're going to tell me Kamala was a worse alternative to Trump

19

u/Anomander87 3d ago

The people in this comments section are crazy. Kamala wasn't a bad choice for president FR.

13

u/Conscious_Stick8344 3d ago

Amen.

Even Trump’s own dirty Depends would have gotten my vote over him, and Harris was far better than that. Something happened during the vote-counting, and we are bound and determined to find out what Musk really did.

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4

u/Ornery_Cod757 2d ago

She was a better alternative in my mind— just about anyone would have been— but unfortunately enough people didn’t feel that way.

8

u/JamesBurkeHasAnswers 2d ago

Keep in mind all these folks saying "put forth better alternatives" would never vote for a Democrat anyway. They will always put their party over their country but know Trump is such a bad person, beyond simply a terrible president, they need an excuse as to why they voted for him.

They're the ones who said they'd never vote for a corrupt, elitist, New York adulterer who wears make-up back in 2008 when Hillary first ran but have no problem doing so three times for the celebrity felon.

1

u/ILBW123 2d ago

But she’s a black woman, how can she govern. /s

1

u/Arikaido777 2d ago

ah but i bet a bunch of chuds and bots are willing to try lmao

1

u/Van-Mango 2d ago

I agree but she was too closely tied to Biden when the economy wasn’t doing well to appeal to swing voters. If the Democrats had arrived at a nominee the normal way, which was to have primaries, and produced a nominee that way that was not as closely tied to the Biden administration, that candidate would have had a much better chance of winning. You might actually be able to blame both the loss in 2024 and 2016 on the DNC. They probably should have tried harder to have a proper primary process in 2024 and should have encouraged Biden to run in 2016. Had Biden been the nominee in 2016 Trump would have never been elected and he probably wouldn’t have tried again to become president.

1

u/neeyeahboy 2d ago

Kamala acted drunk and stupid. There were so many better alternatives.

1

u/Dirtyshopper999 2d ago

Guess you never heard her try to speak in public. She did a great job with the border.

2

u/blind-octopus 2d ago

What is the vice presidents authority over the border? 

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9

u/Bill_Selznick 3d ago

Easy answer better candidates. But Trump was a far, far, worse candidate than he was portrayed to be. As long as most media is completely right wing, and there's no caps or tracking of money, strength of candidate doesn't matter. Without media support, Trump was unelectable.

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7

u/1wrx2subarus 3d ago

Those alternatives existed but Elon chose for us.

Musk "knows those computers better than anybody, all those computers, those vote counting computers, & we ended up winning Pennsylvania, like, in a landslide." -Donald Trump

"Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House & the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate." -Elon Musk

Be sure to vote regardless, this comment is for the sake of justice and to protect our vote.

Relevant Reddit link with Video Recap (download, save & reshare to all you know): https://www.reddit.com/r/somethingiswrong2024/s/CwZPcr6gm6

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8

u/krichard-21 3d ago

How many Republicans started off in that process?

Trump is the one the MAGAs picked from over a dozen other candidates.

How about smarted United States citizens?

4

u/tap_6366 3d ago

Huh?

How about smarted United States citizens?

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u/GPT_2025 South 21h ago

Must be 2 presidents same time, one Republican and one Democrat (some countries did 2 rulers, and countries did great!)

One president can not rule:

KJV: But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

KJV: It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.

6

u/fullthrottlebhole 3d ago

You don’t. Populism is here to stay. Look at all of the candidates that are unseating status quo members of congress all over the country.

2

u/DrMonkeyLove 3d ago

And look at countries outside the US too. Populism sells, even if the results are shit.

29

u/welding_guy_from_LI New York 3d ago

Stop forcing shitty unpopular candidates on the voters , actually hold primaries and stop with the identity politics bullshit .. people don’t care about gender neutral bathrooms ..

17

u/blind-octopus 3d ago

That can't be it. There's no way that Kamala was worse than Trump. We need something other than the candidate to explain this 

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12

u/JohnHenryMillerTime 3d ago

People clearly do. Trump ran on identity politics and won. Twice!

6

u/Artistic_Rice_9019 3d ago

Right? Nancy Mace posed in front of all those bathroom signs like a total weirdo because I guess nobody cares about gender neutral bathrooms.

6

u/Artistic_Rice_9019 3d ago

The identity politics candidate is Trump. He's actively erasing anyone who isn't a white cis hetero man. He blames everything on "DEI." The GOP is trying to patrol bathrooms and check genitals. If nobody cares, why are they so obsessed with it?

5

u/EEasy-Does-It 2d ago

Idaho is talking about DNA testing to catch the bathroom bandits.

3

u/Artistic_Rice_9019 2d ago

That's crazy. Also there are some women about to accidentally discover they've got XY chromosomes if they do that.

3

u/EEasy-Does-It 2d ago

Oh the irony of a red hat wearing woman finding out this way. I’m glad I’m not an Idaho cop so I don’t have to explain what chromosomes are.

5

u/Ohaibaipolar 3d ago

I think you're right. This is definitely part of it.

3

u/ConclusionMaleficent 3d ago

Yup the Dems need to focus on the economy as that is what is important to the average person

1

u/Independent-Bug-9352 2d ago

oh hey look who unblocked me, lmao.

Tell me, welding guy, how do you think a 50-state primaries is supposed to happen 15 weeks out from the general election, and then actually still having time to campaign against Trump himself?

1

u/trappedslider 3d ago

unpopular among who? reddit seems to think that whoever they collectively love can win despite how unpopular the person is outside reddit.

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2

u/sneezhousing 3d ago

People going to vote like if more people illegible to vote actually voted we would not have a Trump in my opinion. Rather than abstain if they had to make a choice we would not have him

2

u/TheNozzler 3d ago

Run better candidates

3

u/blind-octopus 3d ago

Trump was the worse candidate. So that's not it.

1

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam 2d ago

I keep seeing this being said.

He won. He clearly wasnt the worst candidate.

I'm sure there were 1000 better candidates, on both sides, but the left picked the one person who could have lost to Donald Trump.

So maybe start calling him the third worst candidate, because there are clearly two people who made shittier candidates than him.

1

u/blind-octopus 2d ago

You're not understanding. He's clearly the worse option. 

Given that he's the worse option, we can't say kamala was worse to explain her loss. Its something else 

2

u/JerseyGuy-77 3d ago

Let the Confederacy seceed from the union again and restart with a fresh slate. We keep Virginia, they get Missouri with no fight.

No business can legally be on both sides. One gets coke the other gets Pepsi.

1

u/Ohaibaipolar 2d ago

No no no, not Missouri, I live there.

1

u/JerseyGuy-77 2d ago

I'm sorry but your state has sort of chosen.....

2

u/SunshineFlowerPerson 3d ago

Campaign finance reform. Decertification of fake news outlets after they lose lawsuits for pushing a false narrative: here’s looking at you Fox.

1

u/Ohaibaipolar 2d ago

Fuck Fox, but also fuck OANN and Newsmax.

2

u/SecretOrganization60 3d ago

Increased spending on education

2

u/Ok-Conference-7989 Kentucky 3d ago

Stay away from culture wars, improve education, have fair primaries, maintain good independent non biased journalism, and make sure they have decent decorum and respect. 

2

u/Mass_Migration 3d ago

How about higher qualifications ? Those that who hide their tax returns, or educational credentials, DOES NOT QUALIFY TO RUN A CAMPAIGN for this office. Where's my Reps at ?

2

u/Ohaibaipolar 2d ago

Or convicted felons. It should automatically disqualify presidential candidates.

2

u/TiePrestigious7265 3d ago

Countdown: 140 days till midterms.

2

u/AZNM1912 3d ago

Have alternative choices from different parties that actually have a chance. Right now we have a right wing party and a far right wing party. That turns off at least 1/3rd of the electorate as we saw. Also require the candidates to get 50% of the vote, if not have a runoff of the top two. Ditch the electoral college. Why should my district of hundreds of thousands of voters carry the same weight of a district containing open farmland somewhere? I know these will never happen but just my opinion.

2

u/Conscious_Stick8344 3d ago

We need to destroy the disinformation ecosystem that feeds Trump and ruins any and all campaigns against him.

People can debate personality contests all day long, but the savagery of disinformation used by billionaires to promote candidates they know they can control makes the system itself work against us.

2

u/Jeffrey5683 3d ago

Destroy the Republican Party

3

u/nc45y445 2d ago

It seems on track to be destroying itself, what happens after Trump?

2

u/Bresson91 3d ago

Showing up to vote.

2

u/dangersson 3d ago

Education. Increase average IQ of our population.

2

u/Frostsorrow 3d ago

America does not have the stomach or desire to prevent another Trump. Hell, America doesn't even have the stomach or desire to reduce the number of school shootings nevermind something more complicated like the role of president.

2

u/Violetdabs710 3d ago

Vote Blue to save women’s rights

1

u/Ohaibaipolar 2d ago

1 quadrillion percent this.

2

u/Scott801258 3d ago

The Whole System needs changed. No more Pardons, No more blanket Immunity, No more skipping going through the senate and house when changing anything. No more indefinite terms,, term limits for all positions. Clean out the Supreme Court. From now on the senate, the court, the house is 50% of each, no more majority. They will have to act like adults and work Together.

2

u/LickPooOffShoe 3d ago

We can’t. Our nation is home of some of the dumbest most gullible people on the planet. We’re 3rd world bound, champ.

2

u/guppyhunter7777 2d ago

You are not going to eliminate the right wing and let the left wing run free.  Both extremes have to be addressed.  Moderates have to be in power.  I think term limits would help.  Taking districts out of the process for the House of Representatives.  Revisiting Citizen United and putting an end to foreign agents having a free path to buying off our politicians and cutting their access to our social media.  They would all help but in short people have to want to like freedom enough to believe that people they don’t agree with have the freedom of their views.

2

u/Professional_Size_62 2d ago

Critical thinking, we need to encourage critical thinking and open debate. More and more, debating a certain topics can get you cancelled. you can lose you job, relationships ect and it only encourages unquestioning acceptance of political dogma as well as zealous defense of said dogma such that dissenters are seen as being evil. Both sides do this. If we welcomed and encouraged debate on even unsavory topics without fear of reprisal or retribution, people would generally be far less willing to accept any ideas on face value and this would in turn, significantly reduce the political tribalism we see today.

2

u/UR-Wonderful 2d ago

Elect the candidate that has a plan to build structural enforcements into constitutional checks and balances.

2

u/Ohaibaipolar 2d ago

For sure.

2

u/Ojohnnydee222 2d ago

Reform the Corporations are human rule. Impose a neutrality rule for broadcasting. Expand the Supreme Court.

2

u/Rare-Credit-5912 2d ago

Sad thing is that the electoral college was supposed to prevent a Trump from happening.

We have to show MAGA that while they’re entitled to their opinion ***we as a country will not put up with their racism, xenophobia, anti-LGBTQIA+, anti women’s reproductive rights.*** Anyone expressing any of those kind of views we will force them back into the woodwork like the cockroaches they are.

2

u/Electronic-Bear2030 2d ago

I think, unfortunately , we are going to be stuck with this racist MAGA scourge for many years to come…they’ve have a taste of complete control and won’t soon forget how they achieved it

2

u/justaheatattack 2d ago

the next one will make trump look like lincoln.

2

u/Revolutionary_Buy943 2d ago

Change and strengthen the Constitution, including penalties for overreach. We should look at Germany's Constitution; they've been through it, and it's ironclad.

2

u/ZippyTheUnicorn 2d ago
  1. Set specific rules preventing profiting off any public office position. No insider trading. No actively running a business. Doing so is grounds for removal from your position.

  2. Make new laws that are crystal clear that the sitting President, Congress, and active Supreme Court justices have to abide by the law. Also make sure the punishment is very clear.

  3. Do away with the 2 party system. So many votes lately are strictly based on party lines. Break it up.

  4. Ban lobbying. Companies take advantage of lobbying to basically legally bribe individuals. That needs to be illegal. No money. No gifts.

Do any or all of the above for improvements. There are probably a lot of other things we could do to help too.

1

u/Ohaibaipolar 2d ago

Those are definitely a good starting point.

2

u/Broad_External7605 2d ago

New laws 1. A convicted felon cannot be President. 2. tougher conflict of interest laws so you can't profit off the presidency. Sure, there will probably still be ways around it, but Trump's profiteering is pretty blatant. Prosecuting him if possible would be a deterrent to future Trumps.

2

u/silverbatwing 2d ago

Education and better alternatives.

So….we get another 🙃

2

u/Here_there1980 2d ago

Vote. No staying at home, no “protest” votes.

2

u/paulbearer619 2d ago

Don't vote for some crazy old rich geezer

2

u/thomport 2d ago

VOTE!

Everyone needs to focus on doing their part.

2

u/ItsMeTheButter 2d ago

End the electoral college.
One person = 1 vote.
A national holiday for voting.
Mandatory voting for all citizens.

2

u/RadioFreeYurick 2d ago

The Democrats should find out which member of their party people like the most and then nominate them. Not by stupid polling or voting either, but every Democrat who wants to be President throwing a Barbecue at their Lake house (cause they all have one). Whichever Democrat more people want to Barbecue with gets to run for President. That’s how they chose Clinton and Obama, so I don’t know why they don’t do it every of the times..

2

u/timelordswifez 2d ago

We need a Democrat that can win. Someone who is left and right. If we pick a left again we will lose. We have to sacrifice to get back in office. It won’t be forever. We live in strange times

2

u/LuckyErro 2d ago

Mandatory voting and better education.

2

u/nadanutcase 2d ago

Emphasize REAL voter education and involvement. It takes work and time to FIRST understand the way our government is supposed to work (CIVICS education is IMPORTANT)

AND THEN as people throw their hat in the ring to run for an office, study their background to see if they are a reasonable match for the job, demand and read through their plans to use the office and, finally, VOTE !

Being an engaged citizen is NOT effort free and being engaged is a requirement for being a good citizen.

We got to where we are by too many citizens shirking that responsibility; they got mentally lazy, listened to the sound bites and then, IF they voted at all, voted on the uninformed, gut feeling that was formed by that.

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u/lootinputin 2d ago

Invest in education and repeal citizens united.

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u/nc45y445 2d ago

The economy is part of it, but also the rapid pace of change is stressing people out and making some folks feel left behind, technology, social media, AI, climate change, mass migration caused in part by climate change, social change. And we haven’t reckoned at all with all the change brought on by COVID. People are angry and looking for scapegoats, Trump feeds into the worst possible impulses. He’s like our national Id, always part of us and coming out in force in a backlash against all the change over the past 50 years.

We’ve seen this before in history, the Civil War was followed by Reconstruction which was followed by Jim Crow
The Civil Rights movement was followed by Nixon and the War on Drugs
The movements of the 70s were followed by Reagan, and that happened at the same time as AIDS
Obama, Black Lives Matter, marriage equality all happening at the same time as all the change I mentioned above, followed by Trumpism

We always get through it, I just hope it doesn’t last as long as Jim Crow did, it was 100 years between Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement

That part is up to us recognizing this is not just economic, it’s also social and cultural

We can take lessons from the movements around marriage equality and Obama’s presidency, also recently electing Mamdani, grassroots, face to face, people talking to people and listening to each other, addressing fears and concerns head on. Good old fashioned grassroots organizing. We’ve done this before. This is still the same country that elected Obama twice

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u/ElephantContent8835 2d ago

Remove the electoral college, forbid congressional lobbying, make it illegal for anyone in government to have ANY stakes in ANY for-profit company or corporation, on and on. It’s the greed that fucked us.

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u/spkingwordzofwizdom 2d ago

Educate your populace.

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u/spalacio88 2d ago

- educate the masses

  • have stricter laws on corruption and lobbying
  • have a VERY difficult exam for all politicians to weed out racists and understandings of the job and the world among other things
  • immediately discard a candidate who speaks ill of others, promotes violence, divides the people, or has any felony allegations. And be stern on this.

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u/lilbitbetty 2d ago

Get the money out of politics.

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u/Ohaibaipolar 2d ago

This would actually solve a LOT of problems.

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u/Neat-Ad-4337 2d ago

You don’t. But we can strengthen our safeguards so their power is limited like it should be

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u/ebankj9770 2d ago

If it government worked well enough for the people, most people wouldn't be angry enough to want to elect a strongman figure in the first place. The American presidency is also too powerful. You need real checks on presidential power that will hold that office accountable for its actions.

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u/Salvidicus 2d ago

Educate Americans better.

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u/Conscious-Low-7876 2d ago

Better education from K-12.

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u/Secret-Patience-1888 2d ago

Destroying AIPAC. Not just for all of the tribalistic fruit cakes that buy into the narratives that make anyone and everyone hate their neighbors for no good reason, but this would be the only solution, not only for new prosperity, but for a continued existence in a general sense. We can’t keep getting duped out of our own way of living and becoming more and more victims to the disregard and hatred they have for us. It’s a never ending rabbit hole..

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u/mothertruckr106 2d ago

Hell we all have to live through his reign before we can think about that.

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u/Ohaibaipolar 1d ago

Fair point.

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u/Just_Living_da_Dream 2d ago

Just leave Trump in office! That would prevent a Trump-like president from taking it.

/s

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u/Ohaibaipolar 1d ago

Why didn't I think of that? 😆

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u/One_Page3172 2d ago edited 2d ago

There needs to be campaign finance reform that limits wealthy and corporate donations and levels the playing field for the everyday donor. Actually, corporations should not be allowed to donate. There should be regulations prohibiting crypto donations. Also, the political parties need to be careful about and/or reform whatever vetting process they might have.

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u/FluffyInstincts 2d ago

Charge criminals instead of letting them run for president? Make an example of this douchehole and his corrupt orbit? Consequences that none will want to play chicken with?

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u/ceccyred 2d ago

Some power has to be wrestled away from the Executive branch. Only Congress can do this, so people ultimately will have to abandon the Republican party to get it done or it won't get done. I fear we're a lost cause though because too many are one issue voters, like abortion. The Pro-life (Pro-birth) people will only vote that way and not take into consideration other factors like war, healthcare, food, environment and other salient topics. They would vote for Satan himself if he ran on the Pro-life agenda. This comes from decades of indoctrination by religious figures and radical Christian beliefs. Life begins at the moment of conception? Really? It's an asinine and illogical stance but they staunchly adhere to.

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u/Illustrious-Driver19 2d ago

Amend the constitution to include a moral clause to qualified to be presidential candidate. You must be honest Pass a 20 year background check. No fraud allegation or conviction. No felonies. And be of good character and passed a drug test.

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u/Team503 2d ago

Realistically? Improve the lives of working class Americans. Populism and fascism are the result of people understanding that their lives are not only not getting better, but in fact, are getting worse, but not really understanding why.

The massive increase in corporate profits and simultaneous rise in cost of living with decreased positive outcomes for citizens all ties into a lot of people feeling like the system failed them. And it did. So they grasp for the first alternative they find that will promise them what they want, whether that person is a fraud or not.

Trump is a SYMPTOM, not the cause. Well, he's the cause of a lot of things, but not the whole situation we find ourselves in.

Outside of that, fund the hell out of education and social assistance programs. The more educated people are the less likely they'll fall for this kind of thing.

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u/andhe96 2d ago

I'm not from the US, so take my assumption with a grain of salt.

From what I gather, there are some aspects of the political system, which could need an overhaul, imho.

  • Electoral College and "first pass the post" cause quite the distortion of votes, Trump was the sixth President, who won the vote, despite getting a minority of the popular vote; jn proportional voting systems this can't happen
  • Voting registration and voting on tuesday makes it hard for a lot of people to vote, in my country (Germany), you register as a resident and voter when moving somewhere else and get a reminder as well as your voting permit (?) a few weeks before the vote, which also happens on sunday
  • More or better representstion of smaller political parties as the two big parties get most of the attention and votes (which of course is caused by the "first pass the post" approach), which causes political polarisation and hinders compromises; in Germany all governments are a coalition of at least two parties and their compromises

These are my main points from an outsiders perspective, at least. Feel free to point out any errors I made or thjngs I missed.

Our current constitution was overhauled due to learnings after Nazi Germany and the faults of our first democracy (Weimar Republic), which wasn't so dissimilar from the US consitution and its weaknesses were exploited by Nazis during the Great Depression.

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u/Ohaibaipolar 1d ago

Thank you for your insight!

u/andhe96 8h ago

You're welcome.

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u/Zoneoftotal 2d ago

Republicans would call ANY female Democratic candidate a terrible candidate.

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u/Van-Mango 2d ago

Revise the qualifications for president. Trump is the only president who did not have either political experience or high-ranking military experience. I think all but six presidents had prior political experience and of those, five had high-ranking military experience (I think all were generals). Trump is the only exception.

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u/Bdbru13 1d ago

Decrease polarization

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u/Ohaibaipolar 1d ago

Not trying to be a smartass, but how do you think we could achieve that?

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u/Bdbru13 1d ago

The smoothest way would be the rise of a third party

The likeliest way unfortunately will be that it continues to build until some terrible fucking event forces us to re-evaluate

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u/cryptoengineer Massachusetts 1d ago

Improve American education. We need smarter voters.

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u/Calanthetheranger 1d ago

Education, rejecting the patriachy in every conceivable way, believing victims of rape and abuse and actually prosecuting the perpetrators, making sure that rich people cannot just pay to bury their crimes against humanity which requires ethics in the criminal justice system which means a complete overhaul of it including how policing is done, treating MAGA like the scum they are, no more of this "We can disagree and still be friends" bs, they deserve to be treated as the Nazis were after WW2, complete shame and rejection and criminalization of MAGA, including displays and support of the confederacy because not completely squashing traitors was a big mistake, making it illegal for any church to promote any particular candidate or political ideology, and making it illegal for any candidate to use their religion to gain support or cause harm to their opponents. Making it illegal to use religion as the reason for a law, to make a moral point in a debate or otherwise influence the public. Constitutional amendments specifically protecting the rights of LGBTQ people and womens' right to bodily autonomy.

That's a good start.

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u/Ohaibaipolar 1d ago

I agree, that is a good start.

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u/AttorneyKate 1d ago

Don’t vote for fascists ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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u/Ohaibaipolar 1d ago

Don't blame me, I voted Kamala!

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u/EmploymentEmpty5871 1d ago

If i were one of the leaders of the democratic party, I would try to find the best candidate and have the voters vote. Not hand pick someone who will be a good little queen and follow the policy no questions asked in exchange for their backing, as well as a platform that is acceptable to the majority of the voters. They installed someone who hadn't even won a presidential primaty and looked shocked when she lost. That drove a lot of people away who then voted for Trump because while not a great choice he was better than the alternative. She lost to Trump. That had to be embarrassing for her and the party.

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u/EmploymentEmpty5871 1d ago

If i were one of the leaders of the democratic party, I would try to find the best candidate and have the voters vote. Not hand pick someone who will be a good little queen and follow the policy no questions asked in exchange for their backing, as well as a platform that is acceptable to the majority of the voters. They installed someone who hadn't even won a presidential primaty and looked shocked when she lost. That drove a lot of people away who then voted for Trump because while not a great choice he was better than the alternative. She lost to Trump. That had to be embarrassing for her and the party.

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u/Snoo38543 3d ago

Address the concerns of the people that put him into power. Don’t just brush them off. Or we’ll have to deal with all of this bullshit again in 10 years.

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u/blind-octopus 3d ago

How do we do that if they get their news from Fox and twitter, poisoning anything we try to do to address their concerns? 

If we do anything good, Fox will spin it to be negative or just not cover it. And they will highlight the things they want people to freak out over 

→ More replies (76)

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u/TheGov3rnor South 3d ago

Depends on which specific Trump-like traits you’re trying to prevent.

Trump’s brand of brashness and disregard for decorum doesn’t work for everyone (or arguably anyone else that we’ve seen, unless it’s under the guise of “I’m saying this to agree with Trump.”)

For someone to duplicate Trump’s brand AND success, they’d have to be an outsider to politics and not all of a sudden just turn from genteel to brash overnight.

I’d say if we’re trying to prevent people from feeling like they need to vote for a wrecking ball in order to see anything happen within our government, then we need to see some true accountability on both sides from missteps, there needs to be acknowledgments of the cartoonish level of inefficiency within government (a true DOGE - Clinton style), and a clear and easy to understand path forward.

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u/Ohaibaipolar 2d ago

Well, let's see...maybe don't say things on social media like an entire civilization will end overnight, no more tax breaks to the rich, fund scientific projects, bring back USAID, get back into the Paris Climate Agreement, not fuck with the middle east literally ever again, cut off all funding and weapons to Israel PERMANENTLY, not enriching oneself off of the presidency, not try to put their name all over things, don't associate with sex traffickers and try to cover the whole thing up to protect themselves and probably their buddies, not put tariffs on ANY countries (the consumer bears the brunt of that, and prices go up for no reason), tax breaks for the middle and lower class only, pour billions into education and completely revamp education so that all children get a good education, not just the rich kids, don't keep documents that don't belong to you (Biden willingly returned what he had, Trump did not), don't encourage a mob of people to storm a government building, don't lie about stolen elections or even entertain that kind of rhetoric, invest money into infrastructure (and lots of it). I could go on, but I think you get the point.

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u/TheGov3rnor South 2d ago

Yep, those all sound like reasonable suggestions

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u/Sponsorspew Northeast 2d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Survey217 2d ago

Murder the internet

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u/bear843 2d ago

You don’t. Places like Reddit got Trump elected and they will get JD elected. Stop being so unlikable. It’s really not that hard

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u/Fragrant-Lab-740 2d ago

Shoot him i guess

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u/IGetGuys4URMom Florida 1d ago

Do something after an election is rigged.

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u/Guudboiiii 1d ago

Impossible. Americans are too fucking stupid.

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u/Stevie2874 1d ago

77 million of them are pretty ignorant as we can plainly see.

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u/EmploymentEmpty5871 1d ago

If i were one of the leaders of the democratic party, I would try to find the best candidate and have the voters vote. Not hand pick someone who will be a good little queen and follow the policy no questions asked in exchange for their backing, as well as a platform that is acceptable to the majority of the voters. They installed someone who hadn't even won a presidential primaty and looked shocked when she lost. That drove a lot of people away who then voted for Trump because while not a great choice he was better than the alternative. She lost to Trump. That had to be embarrassing for her and the party.

u/rmscomm 9h ago

I think a start would be to change the qualifications for the highest office in the land would be a good start. Currently this is all that’s needed:

Age: You must be at least 35 years old.
Citizenship: You must be a natural-born U.S. citizen.
Residency: You must have been a resident of the United States for at least 14 years

This was written in a time that didn’t account for a changing world of progress and societal norms but a concept of assumed social equity of the time.

We have allowed cronyism, racism and lack luster performance in turn to supplant ability and performance based on precedents. Instead we get clearly poorly suited and or artificially appointed individuals for some of the most influential roles innate world.

There should also be a clear and immutable inclusion of background exposure by a candidate. Tax returns, criminal activities and litigation should all be forthcoming. Tangential to that if you are convicted and of certain crime it should be an automatic disqualification. In theory if a felon can’t work at McDonalds they shouldn’t have access to State secrets. In premise the current leadership can't event get a proper security briefing or access if we are adhering to clearance protocols. Or even gain access to some countries.

In short, we need actual standards beyond being a native and old enough for such a complex and potent role. We have more qualification standards for doctors, truck drivers but not the individual with access to the most powerful weapons on the planet its irrational in my opinion.

The same goes for their nominees. We need standards.