America - The Official Thread

[GranTurNismo]

Spoken as though this election didn't just end all of that.

What difference does this make?

Only time will tell whether the Democrats have a legitimate, fair chance to win again in 2028, or 2024 was the last true election we had before an inevitable decay into fascism. Either way, why would it not be appropriate to criticize Democrats where it is necessary?

You seem to be under the belief that the electorate moved right and no longer want democracy or the federal government to make an effort to materially improve their lives, facilitating a Trump win. Let's suppose you're right. To chalk this up to merely the savviness of Trump/the GOP, and/or mythical forces that can't be readily articulated is just incomplete. Do the Democrats have no role, at all? Is it no longer worth even trying to learn from 2024, just because the path to fascism seems so imminent and irreversible? Of course not.

The Democrats still have- albeit a very and increasingly small window- time to change pace, start over, and do something revolutionary. It's been shown that neoliberal institutionalism, both in the US and abroad, is failing to prevent fascism and uphold democracy. It's irrational to do the same thing over and over and expect different results.

 

[dylansan]

This is why we pressure Democrats.

Sen. Schumer Urged Democrats to Oppose Trump Nominees in Protest of His Policies

The Senate minority leader had initially said he would not lean on his colleagues to reflexively oppose every nominee, but changed his stance after the president’s actions generated heavy pressure from the left.

www.nytimes.com

They're powerless. A performance to pretend to stop Rubio might make you happier, but I have no doubt that picking and choosing battles over nominees is more effective communication.

Oh my god.


When I vote for a third party candidate because I, living in one of the most solidly blue states in the country, am powerless to stop Trump, I'm complicit in the destruction of democracy as we know it. But when senators literally vote for a person who wants to run the country into the ground, for no other reason than that they want to, they're excused because they're powerless.

You've invented a world where directly voting for a bad person is somehow less complicit than voting third party.

Not to mention a world where messaging is important and democrats need support, but all hope is lost so their actions don't matter.

Spoken like a republican trying to block Obama or Biden.

And apparently a world where blocking a president's agenda is bad regardless of what that agenda is? I legitimately have no idea what your point was with this.


Just, stop.

Stop responding to me. Stop engaging with me. I am not interested in what you have to say at all. It's a public forum, so I can't stop you from replying if I post about some event and you have to weigh in. But stop analyzing me and my politics. Nothing has made me more confident in my convictions than the inconsistency of yours.

I'm begging you to block me.

 

[Liquid]

Something I read online struck me a bit; the fact that many are surprised at how easily Trump and Musk are just doing what they want with very little pushback and very little procedural obfuscation. Someone suggested that due to two centuries of American exceptionalism, it's like a shocking flinch. These things don't happen in th US of A, they happen elsewhere, and this naive inexperience, it could never happen here, is why there is so much infighting and confusion instead of pushback.

It doesn't explain the whole thing but I do think elements of it are true.

 

[UKMikey]

It's die große Lüge, the lie so big nobody believes it's not true.

 

[EngieDiesel]

Something I read online struck me a bit; the fact that many are surprised at how easily Trump and Musk are just doing what they want with very little pushback and very little procedural obfuscation. Someone suggested that due to two centuries of American exceptionalism, it's like a shocking flinch. These things don't happen in th US of A, they happen elsewhere, and this naive inexperience, it could never happen here, is why there is so much infighting and confusion instead of pushback.

It doesn't explain the whole thing but I do think elements of it are true.

Also the fact that neither Trump nor Musk understand the concept of subtlety. The people who came before would initiate these kinds of things much more quietly and gradually to avoid public scrutiny, and to make it more difficult to reverse them when they finally to noticed. That's the expected behavior from politicians, so these two screaming "LOOK AT WHAT I'M DOING, LOOK AT MEEEEEE" and just throwing these massive edicts around and then immediately reversing them in full view of everyone is completely alien to anyone who would move against it.

Right now it seems the only course of action anyone can think of is "wait till the toddlers are done throwing their toys around the room and then punish them for knocking holes in the walls".

 

[Biggles]

It's really starting to seem like there are no effective "checks & balances" in the US at all. Trump with just 49.7% of the popular vote cast in the 2024 election is embarking on the complete remaking of of the Federal government, reconstituting or shuttering government departments, firing hundreds of thousands of civil servants, filling government positions with unqualified Trump loyalists and sycophants and overturning longstanding US foreign policy positions and international alliances & trade agreements. Given his refusal to recognize the results of the 2020 election, it's hard to see how Trump and his MAGA followers would accept the results of any future elections that weren't in his favour, now that Trump has a firm hold on all the levers of power.