The United States is imploding. The reign of Donald Trump is not only challenging and threatening the very foundations of its constitutional democracy, it
In three weeks, Donald Trump has imploded whatever positive image the United States might have had internationally.
Say I’m given a choice to have a finger cut off, or my hand. I can choose the finger without being happy with it; nor does my choice imply I’m “defending” the act: I’m merely choosing the least bad of the options I’m given. Protest voters are like people choosing a toe; sure, they can certainly voice that opinion, but the fact is the person doing the cutting is going to ignore them and they’ll lose a finger or a hand and they’ll just be fucking lucky if it’s only a finger. Abstainers are just pretending that they’re not going to lose something, and then act all indignant and shocked when their hand is cut off.
Primaries ensure party leaders choose who gets to be nominated.
The electoral college gives more weight to votes by voters in the middle of the country - the less populated states.
FPTP is recognized by voting experts as among the worst systems of voting, with the worst outcomes.
The only thing protest votes achieve is as a tool for one of the two major parties to draw votes from their opposition. It has absolutely no value for “sending a message” to any party. Protest voters are tools.
Abstaining from voting is similar, but worse as it both allows one party to capitalize on unpopular positions while also abdicating the individual’s moral responsibility to participate in government in almost the only way they can. Abstainers are contemptible.
The founders made several mistakes; they got close enough that democracy had a pretty good run in the country, but it’s not surprising given the deficiencies that it would fall apart after only 250 years.
We need to abolish the electoral college
We need to establish proportional representation in Congress
We need to replaced FPTP with… well, almost anything. STV. IRV/RCV. STV would be a good choice because it could be used for both proportional and single-winner elections, and voters would have to understand only one system. IRV has the benefit of already being used by many countries and in several local elections within states, and it’s simple enough both to explain & understand, as well as being not too complex to perform by hand if necessary. But we need to be quit of FPTP.
Until we have electoral reform, the only rational voter choice is strategic voting for the lesser of two evils. For a great many progressives, that’s the Democratic party.
This is where liberals lose the plot. The fascists don’t give a fuck about laws or procedure or democracy. Pay attention. The United States has already fallen.
Your reforms - well intentioned and probably workable under an opposition that believed in democracy - aren’t going to work. The fascists couped the government and the only fight left is economic by mass strikes (not going to happen or it would of already) or by violence.
Oh, I agree; I’m not sure there’s any non-violent path to reform anymore. Maybe before Trump was re-elected there was a small window where the Pubes come back center a little and we’d have more time. I believe reform at the national level would only have been possible after widespread reforms at the state level, when the general population was already comfortable with RCV; there’s been a lot of progress in many states to implementing some form of IRV, always with positive outcomes.
But I think we missed that window. Trump’s busy wrecking what he can so that in four years there’s no organized resistance to him forcing himself a third term. Unless people get off their asses and there’s a wave of Mangiones; unless the middle and lower class realize the only war is class war, and combine to fight the oligarchs, we’re on a path to dictatorship. With the media controlled by the oligarchy and efficient messaging pitting the middle and lower classes against each other, that’s not going to happen.
I don’t see a French Revolution in the US. Too much bread and circuses. I don’t think we’ll see an uprising because people are too busy having arguments on Lemmy.
We missed most of the off ramps. There’s a very real chance that trump will ignore the courts and do whatever the fuck he wants. He’s said as much.
We’re out of time because of technology. The israel genocide? They used AI to come up with targets based on social media and other stuff. Look at the sheer death toll this time vs the last time israel attacked Palestine. The numbers are crazy and it’s because of the new targeting method.
What gives me hope is I think musk is actually fucking dumb enough or incompetent enough to fuck up social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and snap, that people will revolt. Three days without food is a revolution. So many people on social security are barely scraping by, and many of them voted for him and are gun owners. They just didn’t think the fascism would hurt them.
I think if trump defies the courts or starts threatening the profits of major corporate industries (like RFK going after big pharma) there’s a chance the capitalists will turn on him if he makes things too ugly.
But the technofascists want to destroy the US so they can create a bunch of “network states” and genocide the poor
Also, it’s not because people are too busy arguing on lemmy, it’s because people are too busy trying to survive. They’re stuck on a hamster wheel and don’t even realize they can get off.
social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and snap, that people will revolt.
My wife points out that a bunch of geriatrics revolting sounds anticlimactic. OTOH, the visuals of cops beating senior citizens would be an interesting media event.
I think if trump defies the courts or starts threatening the profits of major corporate industries (like RFK going after big pharma) there’s a chance the capitalists will turn on him if he makes things too ugly.
This is a really good point that I hadn’t considered. I think he’s a smart enough grifter to avoid pissing off people with actual money-based power. But who knows. Corporations are sniveling Quislings at the best of times. You’d think Apple, one of the richest companies in the world, would be able to resist, but no: they went belly-crawling back to X to lick Elon’s boots as soon as he won the Presidency. I mean, as soon as his puppet won the Presidency.
Also, it’s not because people are too busy arguing on lemmy, it’s because people are too busy trying to survive. They’re stuck on a hamster wheel and don’t even realize they can get off.
Agree to disagree. Bread and circuses, man. Bread and circuses. TikTok, X, Meta, Lemmy, Mastodon… people think being indignant on social media is going to cause change.
My wife points out that a bunch of geriatrics revolting sounds anticlimactic. OTOH, the visuals of cops beating senior citizens would be an interesting media event.
A whole lot of them have guns and also family members that will be resentful that they have to take them in like abandoned animals when their funding dries up. Also a bunch of armed people with nothing to lose is dangerous even if they’re old and disabled.
Agree to disagree. Bread and circuses, man. Bread and circuses. TikTok, X, Meta, Lemmy, Mastodon… people think being indignant on social media is going to cause change.
Well yeah. All of social media, sure. Although x and meta both block leftists. I’ve been banned from both and Reddit too for “inciting violence” by being anti fascist. But liberals are far too happy to make snarky clap backs and change their profile picture than take over the federal judiciary.
Say I’m given a choice to have a finger cut off, or my hand. I can choose the finger without being happy with it; nor does my choice imply I’m “defending” the act: I’m merely choosing the least bad of the options I’m given. Protest voters are like people choosing a toe; sure, they can certainly voice that opinion, but the fact is the person doing the cutting is going to ignore them and they’ll lose a finger or a hand and they’ll just be fucking lucky if it’s only a finger. Abstainers are just pretending that they’re not going to lose something, and then act all indignant and shocked when their hand is cut off.
I think a lot of Democrat voters would like to have more progressive options. The issues are that the US has (a) primaries, (b) the electoral college, and © a first-past-the-post voting system for the presidency. In this system, your only choice is to vote for the lesser of two evils.
Primaries ensure party leaders choose who gets to be nominated.
The electoral college gives more weight to votes by voters in the middle of the country - the less populated states.
FPTP is recognized by voting experts as among the worst systems of voting, with the worst outcomes.
The only thing protest votes achieve is as a tool for one of the two major parties to draw votes from their opposition. It has absolutely no value for “sending a message” to any party. Protest voters are tools.
Abstaining from voting is similar, but worse as it both allows one party to capitalize on unpopular positions while also abdicating the individual’s moral responsibility to participate in government in almost the only way they can. Abstainers are contemptible.
The founders made several mistakes; they got close enough that democracy had a pretty good run in the country, but it’s not surprising given the deficiencies that it would fall apart after only 250 years.
Until we have electoral reform, the only rational voter choice is strategic voting for the lesser of two evils. For a great many progressives, that’s the Democratic party.
This is where liberals lose the plot. The fascists don’t give a fuck about laws or procedure or democracy. Pay attention. The United States has already fallen.
Your reforms - well intentioned and probably workable under an opposition that believed in democracy - aren’t going to work. The fascists couped the government and the only fight left is economic by mass strikes (not going to happen or it would of already) or by violence.
Oh, I agree; I’m not sure there’s any non-violent path to reform anymore. Maybe before Trump was re-elected there was a small window where the Pubes come back center a little and we’d have more time. I believe reform at the national level would only have been possible after widespread reforms at the state level, when the general population was already comfortable with RCV; there’s been a lot of progress in many states to implementing some form of IRV, always with positive outcomes.
But I think we missed that window. Trump’s busy wrecking what he can so that in four years there’s no organized resistance to him forcing himself a third term. Unless people get off their asses and there’s a wave of Mangiones; unless the middle and lower class realize the only war is class war, and combine to fight the oligarchs, we’re on a path to dictatorship. With the media controlled by the oligarchy and efficient messaging pitting the middle and lower classes against each other, that’s not going to happen.
I don’t see a French Revolution in the US. Too much bread and circuses. I don’t think we’ll see an uprising because people are too busy having arguments on Lemmy.
We missed most of the off ramps. There’s a very real chance that trump will ignore the courts and do whatever the fuck he wants. He’s said as much.
We’re out of time because of technology. The israel genocide? They used AI to come up with targets based on social media and other stuff. Look at the sheer death toll this time vs the last time israel attacked Palestine. The numbers are crazy and it’s because of the new targeting method.
What gives me hope is I think musk is actually fucking dumb enough or incompetent enough to fuck up social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and snap, that people will revolt. Three days without food is a revolution. So many people on social security are barely scraping by, and many of them voted for him and are gun owners. They just didn’t think the fascism would hurt them.
I think if trump defies the courts or starts threatening the profits of major corporate industries (like RFK going after big pharma) there’s a chance the capitalists will turn on him if he makes things too ugly.
But the technofascists want to destroy the US so they can create a bunch of “network states” and genocide the poor
Also, it’s not because people are too busy arguing on lemmy, it’s because people are too busy trying to survive. They’re stuck on a hamster wheel and don’t even realize they can get off.
My wife points out that a bunch of geriatrics revolting sounds anticlimactic. OTOH, the visuals of cops beating senior citizens would be an interesting media event.
This is a really good point that I hadn’t considered. I think he’s a smart enough grifter to avoid pissing off people with actual money-based power. But who knows. Corporations are sniveling Quislings at the best of times. You’d think Apple, one of the richest companies in the world, would be able to resist, but no: they went belly-crawling back to X to lick Elon’s boots as soon as he won the Presidency. I mean, as soon as his puppet won the Presidency.
Agree to disagree. Bread and circuses, man. Bread and circuses. TikTok, X, Meta, Lemmy, Mastodon… people think being indignant on social media is going to cause change.
A whole lot of them have guns and also family members that will be resentful that they have to take them in like abandoned animals when their funding dries up. Also a bunch of armed people with nothing to lose is dangerous even if they’re old and disabled.
Well yeah. All of social media, sure. Although x and meta both block leftists. I’ve been banned from both and Reddit too for “inciting violence” by being anti fascist. But liberals are far too happy to make snarky clap backs and change their profile picture than take over the federal judiciary.