The answer is no, the American political system cannot survive a high percentage of willful contrarianism. This is true because the mechanisms to change the system require support from those bad actors as well, and the popular vote can do very little to fix if.
Mitch McConnell won his seat with the help of the negative ads saying thr Incumbent wasn’t doing his job and was absent from voting way too many times. Kentucky was solidly Democratic at that point.
Maybe some of these superpacs need to hammer that point home.
That was in 1985, when conservativism was on the rise, and even then, it was extremely close.
But frankly I doubt it would even work today, and definitely not in Kentucky. What ads could Democrats run that is more effective than the Fox News Kentuckians injects into their veins now? The country is pretty significantly different now when it comes to politics and campaigning, and the demographics of Kentucky have shifted too. Kentucky is solidly Trump country now
Just like Ohio has become. Sherrod Brown has an outstanding Congressional record, he’s been well liked for many terms, and he’s been able to straddle the gulf between being a (mostly) progressive Democrat in an increasingly red state. It’s remarkable he won his seat back in 2018. He’s been a terrific Senator, but to spite all that, his seat is in real jeopardy, and it’s entirely because of the letter next to his name.
I do agree. Overall humanity lost big time as many who resisted died and/or were enslaved, but in the long run society healed and we had another peaceful era. If the 4th Turning theory is correct this is just how it goes.
Kind of a definitional issue, isn’t it? We have to tolerate it under our political system, because that’s how our political system works. Deciding not to tolerate it requires discarding or ignoring the rules of our political system. So whether it’s them or us knifing it, the answer to the question is no, our political system won’t survive, by definition.
(There’s nothing particularly sacrosanct about it, so the important question is whether we can fundamentally change our political system without too much violence.)
How to tell everyone you live a sheltered, privileged life protected from starvation and strife. If you imagine a "global reset" as some nice, equality-bringing thing you're incredibly naive.
Humanity is not the problem, this system is. Capitalism is a plague, we’ve been infected. The cure is not to kill all of the infected. I get where you’re coming from tho.
Humans have been beneficial actors in ecology for millenia. This abberstion we’re living through must end. A powerful and benefitial humanity woild be better for the ecological health of the earth.
We may all have the potential to become Wendigo but that’s not all we are. It’s not all that we have been either. Braiding Sweetgrass is an interesting book on this subject. You can probably find a copy at a library if you’d like an in depth perspective from an indigenous person.
We have caused a 6th mass extinction event. We are comparable to a meteor capable of almost sterilizing the planet, or a super volcano altering time on a geological scale. I pray we burn ourselves out before we can spread to other planets.
Read history again. Half the Nazi ideology came from the states. (not literally half, just speaking lazily) Nazis DEFINITELY weren’t the only ones screeching about how the white man was superior…
It was just Reconstruction 2.0… The US failed to purge evil yet again. There’s only one place a bigoted racist whos willing to violently enact their racism belongs, and it’s not breathing. The US has failed time and again to deliver actual justice to a single soul.
I meant to say “kids” and said, “you people” instead. I suppose you now want to line up your comrades and shoot me full of holes for my mistake?
And I assure you I’m not upset about anything. I’m certainly not whining online about every and anything I see. If anything, I’m just baffled how someone can be so angry about everything, and think their road is high enough to hypocritically cast aspersions on someone else.
You realize you’re the one complaining about hearing an opinion instead of debating the merits of the opinion… right? You’re the only one responding like that. Pathetic troll.
I don’t know if I’m one of those people, but I’m a huge fucking fan of antifa. My grandfather fought fascism in WW2 and, call me old fashioned, that just kinda stuck with me.
Us kids? You don’t know my grandfather. And you don’t know me. And apparently you don’t know math all that well, either. Mate, I have a grandchild of my own.
Yeah the GOP aren’t fascists at all, they’re just a group of religious, authoritarian ethno-nationalists that oppress minorities, advocate violence, recruit the disenfranchised by blaming minorities who are simultaneously weak and a dire threat, and promising a return to an idealized, fictional past. That’s totally not the textbook definition of fascism at all. /s
I didn’t say the GOP wasn’t fascist. You’re clearly reading what you WANT to see instead of reading for context.
My point is an argument against the kids that call EVERYTHING they disagree with fascist. Including democrats/Biden.
Stop sensationalizing everything everyone says and lean what nuance means. It’ll save you and everyone that will ever have to deal with tog a LOT of time.
It’s not capitulation, it’s an acknowledgment that this is cancer, not a virus.
America is not under attack, it’s suffering from actions of its own people. We can’t keep pretending like Trump or his supporters are an aberration, they are a significant portion of this country, and if we cannot change them, or change how the system works without their agreement, then we’re stuck like this for quite some time until some sort of generational or cultural shift happens.
It’s not nihilism, it’s seeing the state of the field and acknowledging what the actual problem is. The question then is what we do about it, and chiefly, how much time we have left to do something about it before the damage becomes irreparable.
But did we really? I read my history, and if not for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the US would have either not joined WW2, or would have joined on the side of Germany.
The first CIA director (Before the CIA was formed) was doing spy shit in Europe before the US joined the war, and was very friendly with Hitler's government. He reportedly cried actual tears when the US joined the was against Germany.
There were Nazi marches in the US in the 30s, but they weren't popular for one reason only. The US population didn't like that the Nazi ideology was German. The Homegrown Fascists were more popular. Especially the America First movement.
Whoa whoa whoa. Next thing I bet you’ll tell me that there was a fascist coup plot in the 1930s. At the exact same time as Hitler’s beerhall putch or something. Hell I bet it would be something even more ridiculous than that. Like when it was found out instead of prosecuting and hanging all those involved. FDR the target of the plot would instead negotiate with fascist, I mean Republicans. To pass his new deal legislation in return for not going after them. And that at least of the implicated businessmen would go on to become a senator shortly after being caught. Ironically being the father and grandfather of two future presidents or something.
The left in the U.S. is made up of dilettantes and academics unwilling to put in the work required for real change. They only know handwringing and criticism.
There'll be protests that are swiftly crushed and the vast majority of Americans will tune out and go back to voting for The Next Top Whatever and waiting for the next big movie.
If the only thing the opposition does is the legally allowed “safe” protests, then no it will not be enough. Chanting “not my president” in confined, mandated areas will have the exact same effect this time as it had last time- nothing. We need to stop pretending the law is on our side. See: upcoming supreme court decision.
If we decided to stop giving them the benefit of the doubt and start reacting appropriately probably. If we continue to try and argue in good faith and search for diplomatic solutions to things like states deploying troops in opposition to the federal government, then probably not.
Conservatives are convinced their policies can’t fail, only be failed. They think God himself has ordained them as higher beings, entitled to shepherd the rest of the world towards prosperity that looks an awful lot like techno feudalism. Every now and then a catastrophe of their own doing will pop this bubble, but their goldfish memory quickly reverts back to the original setting of racial and religious exceptionalism
I like your optimism, but Authoritarianism is, unfortunately, an alternative that can “work” for decades. It sucks for basically everyone who doesn’t have power, but it is nonetheless viable and a path we are one election away from going down.
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