As psychologically fucked up as George W. Bush was, and was much as I despised him while he was in office,

[generalbetrayus]

families of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan claimed the he had genuine tears in his eyes when meeting with them in the White House, and I see no reason to disbelieve them. No more, Seymour. We are now ruled by hardened sociopaths like Orange Julius Caesar and Juvenile Delinquent Vance.

How did we get to this point? People like Donald and JD are hopeless (and hapless) sub-humans, and I have no hope for them ever being other than what they are now. Can you imagine either of them taking up painting after they are out of office? In general, I am opposed to the death penalty, especially since so many on death row are unfortunate victims of a cruel society (also minorities, duh), but I have no sympathy for sociopaths because they have no sympathy for the rest of us making our way through life. I would be happy to see OJC lying on a gurney awaiting a needle. I suppose that makes me a hypocrite about my anti-death penalty stance, but so be it. People like George W. Bush could have been helped by good mental health treatment, but sociopaths will be sociopaths until the day they die, under our current state of medical knowledge.

Until we have the sociopaths OUT of the White House, I have little to no hope for our dear United States of America. Darwin bless America.

[Buckeyeblue]

1. W cried because he knew his lies cost those soldiers their lives

Maybe his self guilt is a redemption. But he's never apologized. Never said they were wrong.

W is not a good person. And the case that stopped the counting of votes in Florida has brought us directly to this moment.

[generalbetrayus]

2. I agree with you in general, but I still believe Dubya could have been redeemable at some point in his life

and could be manipulated to do good things while he was President, like HIV assistance in the Third World. Trump and Vance, in no way redeemable.

[JI7]

3. But that's what the OP is saying. He feels bad and feels guilt.

Things like his paintings of soldiers that died in his war show it haunts him. Even he was criticizing Putin on Ukraine and said Iraq instead of Ukraine you could tell he knew he fucked uo Iraq.

Trump feels none of that. He will never think of the people that died from covid that could have been avoided. He just goes on hurting others while taking what he can for himself.

[Buckeyeblue]

5. Is the mass murderer who feels bad afterwards redeemed?

You could make an argument that maybe he/she is redeemed, at least existentially. But they are still a mass murderer whose actions have will have consequences across multiple generations.

I would put W in this group. Unless he comes forward and says he was wrong I don't see how he can be redeemed.

[JI7]

6. It's not about redemption. The point was about Trump

and his lack of empathy .

[Buckeyeblue]

8. I'm thinking that same context

Does it matter if W feels regret and Trump feels nothing? I'll have to think about that. If my kid was killed in Iraq or came home with debilitating PTSD, I would probably say no.

[JI7]

10. It seemed to matter to the family of those that lost loved ones

But none of that takes away from what a failure W was as President. But it's largely because of incompetence. He did things like support programs to fight aids in africa. That's something Trump would have ended for no reason other than him being a shitty person.

Trump isn't just failing becsuse he is incompetent but a lot of the things he is doing is with the intention of inflicting harm.

[H2O Man]

4. Thank you.

As bad as Charlie Manson was, he liked spiders. The felon does not appear to like spiders. But that doesn't translate into my thinking, "Charlie wasn't so bad."

[StevieM]

9. James Comey brought us directly to this moment. (eom)

[Bettie]

7. I miss thinking W was the worst president

but, oh, how wrong I was.

He seems almost quaint now.

At least he didn't want to destroy everything, just some of it. I never felt like he wanted us all dead.