If Trump is defeated in November, will the amount of anger, hostility, and division decrease?

[Obama24]

Back in 2015, when the idea of a Trump presidency was a punchline, life, I would say was pretty good. The Obama recovery was finally kicking into high gear. There were still lingering issues of division between the races, but people generally speaking got along. There was no gender war that I can remember going on. I also don't really remember your average Republican or Democrat hating each other as much as they do today. There have always been hyper-partisan individuals, but I'm talking about the average person.

Trump pretty much destroyed the fabric of American society. How many thousands upon thousands of families, friendships, relationships ripped apart over this one man? I would say he's even broken down the concept of family, and friendships. We are a much more insular society now than we were in 2015 - people are choosing to stick to their own, to be more among those that agree with them, and are shutting themselves away from disagreement; each falling into their own echo chambers; increasingly disconnected from one another.

Across every line one can possibly consider, people are divided. Men against women. Black against White. Jew against Muslim. The religious against new scapegoats.

I mourn the world that I remember in 2015. Obama's presidency represented, if nothing else, a ray of hope that we might go forward toward the future, together as one people; that, the election of a Black man with a foreign sounding name showed America had begun to move beyond its old hatreds and its old animosities. And then came Trump and with the help of social media, he reopened all old wounds, created new ones, and to use his words, "poisoned the blood" of this country so that so many stand against one another.

Where does it end? Can it end?

If this vile man is defeated in November, can we ever hope in the coming decades to come together again? To trust one another more again? To look upon each other without so much suspicion, to remove the walls that Trump (and social media) have helped us put up against one another?

[SnowLabrador]

No, because he's just going to run again in 2028. Even if he's in prison. And then when he dies, they'll trot him out and pretend he's still alive like that movie "Weekend At Bernie's".

[Red Velvet]

Yeah Trump will just keep running as the Republican nominee and eventually he will be elected as democrats won’t win forever or even until Trump dies. So no doubt he will be president again, if not in 2024, then in 2028 or 2032.

In a strange way, it’s better for him to win now so that it doesn’t prolong his lingering over US politics as Presidents can only be elected for two terms, forcing the American Right to adapt to a no-Trump scenario in 2028 onwards.

[7,052,770]

I hope so, but his fans are going to take a 2024 loss even harder than they took his 2020 loss.

[OSR stands with Israel]

No , what you are seeing here is happening all across the west right now . If you want the anger to reduce you need a government that actually is able to :

- actually make housing affordable again

- is able to adjust our economy to deal worth the side effects of what AI will do . If it doesn’t the anger you see now will pale in comparison to that

- actually creating an immigration system that allows people to come in but ensures the assimilate and that immigration laws are enforced . Why do you think there is much more wider anger about immigration than there was in 2019, 2012 or even 2016

- Politicans and experts stop acting so moralistic about how people and their kids should act (on both sides).

[Sir Mohamed]

I don't think so. We need to understand that Trump is just a symptom of something much bigger, especially resentment over government and institutions in general, as well as reservations about globalization and cultural changes. On top of that, social media is massively exacerbating these feelings.

Unfortunately we have entered an era of black and white thinking on many issues, even without Trump actively driving the debate. We see this over Israel and Gaza lately and already saw it at other fronts such as sharp disagreements on Covid pandemic response. It takes a lot more to change this than Trump ceasing to be a public figure.

[ingemann]

It really hard to answer what will happen to GOP and Trump, if they loses. We simply lack knowledge of actors in all this. Trump could very well be too unhealthy or dead to try for a 2028 run and the continued court cases would have an effect on him. In GOP the question is also whether they want to take a gamble on a candidate which has lost twice and is increasingly off his rails. It also depends on how Congress look, who will be left after a 2024 loss. Also how will the Republican voters reacts to all this, will the pressure GOP to become even more insane, I don’t really see another J6, but there’s the risk that people will go the step further.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

From what I've heard, the key to defeating things like the tea party/trump movement is to keep them out of power until they fizzle out. The underlying issues allowing these types of things to rise will hopefully be easier to address then.

[Ferguson97]

No , what you are seeing here is happening all across the west right now . If you want the anger to reduce you need a government that actually is able to :

- actually make housing affordable again

The problem is that the policies that are necessary to make housing affordable are incredibly unpopular.

[Vice President Christian Man]

Obviously not, if anything it'll escalate even more, although a combination of paranoia and an increased security/police presence should decrease the risk of another 1/6.

[Antonio the Sixth]

It will increase in the short term, and eventually decrease as long as the rule of law is upheld and these people realize they can't win. That's the big if, of course.