Born in Argentina. Legal immigrant. US citizen for over 30 years. Voter.
Given the proclivities here on HN I fully expect this message will not be well received. I urge left-leaning visitors to read it, stop and think before the natural emotional reaction.
What you lack is real exposure and knowledge of Latin American history and politics. Everything we see the Democratic party push for and do in the US has already happened in Latin America dozens of times over the last century. Pick a policy and you will find a country in LATAM that has done it, if not many.
The result? Utter destruction. LATAM is a time machine for the US. You can rewind history and see how every single policy being pushed by the left will end. And the results are not pretty. My own native country, Argentina, was absolutely destroyed by this ideology. It went from one of the top economies in the world to something like 150 spots down the list.
Poverty, destruction, massive unemployment, crime, intense lawfare, political prosecution, etc. You will find this in Argentina's history and that of most nations in LATAM. And the link to leftist/socialist rule is indisputable.
As things hit rock bottom LATAM has been waking up. El Salvador is one example of this. And Argentina is now on it's way with Milei. Sadly the uninformed masses have to hit rock bottom before they understand that the people they have been supporting them only care about political power and not about their lives.
Eventually reality vs. fantasy hits you hard enough that you cannot react like robot and keep supporting the same criminals that got you to the point of pain, misery and despair you find yourself pondering about. It's like being 30 meters down scuba-diving and your air tank suddenly going empty. There are realities you cannot ignore. And that's how Milei finally got elected.
The problem with the American Left is that you are all utterly ignorant of the history of so many nations where everything your party and politicians do and proposed has been tried and failed. The fact that a Bernie Sanders or AOC are not summarily laughed off the stage says volumes about the ignorance of the people who vote for them.
I am happy that Trump won. Not because he is the most ideal candidate. We can talk about how flawed the US process is that we usually end-up with two choices everyone hates. That's a different discussion. Whether you know it or not, what the Trump win represents is the US dodging the destructive forces of putrid leftist ideology that has destroyed so many nations.
No, he is not Hitler or a fascist. Stop it. You have never lived under such regimes. You don't know what the hell you are talking about. As a teenager in Argentina I was held at gunpoint (as in multiple machine guns, with one pushing against my back) by military police in Argentina. What crime did my friends and I commit? We went to the movies, then to have some pizza at a restaurant and were walking home late at night. That's it. They slapped us around and took our money. Again, don't use terms like "fascist" like you know what the fuck you are talking about, you have no idea. Any immigrant who has actually lived under these ideologies thinks you are ignorant and stupid.
My first-level filter when thinking about supporting a politician is:
Would I hire this person to run a cookie baking operation?
Simplistic, yes, however, it quickly gets to the core of the issue: Most politicians are just that, politicians, and know nothing whatsoever about making even a microscopic economy run. They know nothing about the consequences of their actions and have no exposure to them at all.
A simple example of this was Obama and Obamacare. He passed a horrible law that caused incredible damage. He promised --dozens of times-- that your existing plans and doctors would not change. My family's health insurance evaporated. We were forced into the ACA. Our cost when from $7,800 per year to $28,800 per year. Yes, you read that correctly. Our deductible also went from $3,000 per year to over $9,000 per year. And yet, none of the politicians who supported this abomination have to live with the realities of effectively destroying a family's economy as well as generational wealth.
For our family that represents being robbed to the tune of $210K every ten years. When one considers investing this on an ETF, we are talking about millions of millions of dollars over, say, 30 years. Destruction at this scale should be criminal.
The other problem with the ACA is that it pushed tens of millions of people into programs that, by law, require that their medical expenditures after 55 years of age be recovered. That recovery can include a lien on whatever assets they might have. Once again, destroying generational wealth.
And yet, Obama, a person who nobody in their right mind would hire to run a cookie baking operation, is living large, has suffered no consequences for his incompetence and deceit and is a multimillionaire many time over.
Another example of this is the utter destruction that the artificial raising of the minimum wage has caused. Financially-challenged and ideologically-brainwashed voters supported this. The result was that people lost their jobs, had their hours cut and everything they buy and consume is so unaffordable that their higher minimum wage has less buying power than their status quo ante. What's worse, it is causing irreparable damage to businesses and further losses to outsourcing in multiple industries, including manufacturing. Bravo. Ignorance is sad to behold.
On to Harris.
Incompetent as can be. The worst candidate Democrats have seen for decades. Once again, as a first filer, nobody in their right mind would hire this person to run a cookie baking operation. Race and gender have nothing to do with this. She is utterly incompetent and does not know what she is doing.
Her ideology is putrid and would have damaged the US beyond recognition. The US would not survive another four years of this, much less four years going farther into the putrid left.
You think you are suffering now? Inflation is too high? Once again, you have no clue what the fuck you are talking about. The population of the US is up in arms about 20% inflation. Meh! Try 250% inflation! The US would descend into civil war. Yet, that's precisely what happened in Argentina (along with many years well above 20%. Here:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/316750/inflation-rate-in...
Again, the policies and politicians you support are DESTROYING this nation. You don't know it because you are like the proverbial frog slowly being boiled and you are utterly ignorant about the world outside the US and their various histories.
If we remained on our current path, the US would probably find itself in an unrecoverable position in another four years, certainly in eight. If you actually took the time to study, learn and think about this, you should come out with two conclusions: Trump voters saved your ass and gave the US the best probably for a turn-around (even as late as this is). Second, you should realign your flawed thinking, support the change and perhaps even thank your Trump-voting friends for saving this nation from an almost certain disastrous path.
Well, like I said, I firmly suspect the HN crowd will not receive this message very well, hence the throw-away account. If I am able to make just a few people truly rethink their fake reality, mission accomplished. I do not want to see the US turn into Argentina, Venezuela, El Salvador and the dozens of other nations destroyed by leftist ideologies in many forms. That requires a voting population who is educated about how this has affected the world. We don't want the far right either. That is now where we are today. At all. If you care about your life and that of your family, kids, etc., you need to educate yourself, leave ideological indoctrination behind and understand reality. We were 30 meters down and air was about to stop flowing. We now have a chance to surface and live.
If you got this far, thanks. I hope you are the type who is willing to reflect and understand.