The United States is Falling Apart and the World is Taking Notice
The United States is Falling Apart and the World is Taking Notice
In three weeks, Donald Trump has imploded whatever positive image the United States might have had internationally.
“The empire that defined the last century is falling apart at the seams. People notice.”
falling apart ➡️actively being destroyed since RBG passed away
If only she had retired when there was a chance to replace her with a progressive instead of hanging in until she died.
"Progressive"!? I wouldn't even be that optimistic. All she had to do was retire when her health was failing and Democrats could get someone fair and nonpartisan appointed.
Obviously a very intelligent woman yet so fucking stupid at the end. I wonder if she wasn't already in the clutches of dementia when she decided Hilary was certain to win.
Sadly that's what power does to people. It's more addictive than crack, they can't let go.
One, she should of retired under Obama, and two, the US has failed as a country since bush stole the 2000 election and nobody did shit about it.
actively being destroyed since
RBG passed away
The Nixon administration.
RBG
who?
In theory, if Ruth Bader Ginsberg chose to retire when she was sick, instead of continuing to act on her principles until she died in office, we wouldn’t have a Conservative dominated Supreme Court. It would have changed who got to appoint her successor.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg - supreme court justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg - progressive Supreme Court justice.
say what you want about the brits, but they wouldn’t have voted for brexit twice.
You underestimate Putin's psyops and overestimate people's intelligence.
Eh, they just haven't had a second chance yet. That kind of bigotry enhanced stupidity doesn't go away easily.
Don't be so sure about that. That piece of excrement Farange is back.
You say that, but don't forget they rejected alternative vote (abolishing FPTP) then voted for Brexit
The Roman Empire fell because of a series of invasions by “barbarian tribes.”
I cannot take this author seriously after they wrote this. It was, you know, just a little more complicated than that.
I don't think the author meant that seriously. You see the quote around "barbarian tribes"? I think he considered this notion sarcastically, as this is "barbarian tribes" is often used by people less knowledgeble abou the topic.
And for the US to implode within a few weeks, there must have been considerable rot inside. I am really not sure where precisely it started, but I consider Bretton Woods (both the system and it's breakdown), Nixon with the final breakdown of honor in politics, Reagan and his "trickle-down economy" lie Reageanomics, and Bush Junior with his Gulf War key milestones in that process. Notice a trend? They were all Republicans. That Trump puts the final nail into the US' coffin is only consequential.
Isn’t it crazy for Nixon to be a point of honor? Recent presidents have gotten away with a lot worse, but there is no resignation in dishonor, there are no consequences, nobody cares any more
This is actually a big part of what keeps pushing me farther left. The party of righteousness, fairness, strict legal enforcement, strictly adhering to the constitution, was always dishonest but they’ve completely dropped any pretenses in favor of outright criminality, corruption, throwing out the constitution, enriching their corporate benefactors. They no longer even pretend that oppression is about family values anymore or that we will be trickled upon
What made Rome fall?
There are whole books on that topic, but this article gives a very basic explanation of some of the major factors that were involved.
It all started with the reform known as the Pax Romana. Rome stopped waging wars that kept the influx of slaves, which were fundamental for their economic model. They didn’t realize the implications of such a decision and didn’t design a viable alternative in time.
Rome eventually fell, All Empires do eventually
A more apt comparison is Sparta. The bulk of the work was done by (wage-) slaves, the citizens lived in constant paranoia of an upheaval, constantly fighting real and imaginary enemies both domestic and foreign. Persia (Russia) worked in the shadows to undermine the state, and their frenemies the Athenians (Europeans) are viewed with distrust and contempt. Other city states (China, Israel, the Arab countries) would flip-flop their allegiance depending on circumstance.
Not fast enough. Look at what it did to Gaza and realize that it can still do that to anywhere else it wants.
What happened in Gaza is a taste of what the undesirables in America are going to face. Especially Israel’s AI targeting tech.
That’s what democrat supporters don’t understand. We can’t accept genocide anywhere, not just for moral and ethical reasons but because genocide will come for us too.
Not for long. Their economy is gonna tank soon because they are starting trade wars.
If there was anything the US was good at, it would be marketing. Creating the image that it's the greatest nation on earth, influencing mainstream media to tell their version of the story, keeping up appearances of a strong nation.
The moment these smoke clears and the mirrors break, that is when we see the real US. I think we have Trump to thank to show it to us.
Unfortunately they believe their own bullshit
The education system has one goal: teach people critical thinking. In the US they deliberately did the opposite, that's why there's so many idiots. That and the fact that mass media is amazing at spewing propaganda
Well, you have to drink the kool-aid because there's lead in the tap water.
Once, the US was actualy very food at funding innovation. The shit that Bell Labs alone discovered are things that shape the world today. But in the nature of US capatialism, if discovery can't turn I to profit, why bother? It's easier to market 2nd or 3rd place as 1st, then to actually be the 1st, especially if the Chinese are constantly breathing down you neck.
One of the stories about the US that I find inspirational is how, during the space race, NASA relied on various experts from somewhat unconventional places. It's what I always think about at times like this, because it's a snippet of what I consider to be genuine greatness, amongst all the propaganda and geopolitical awfulness.
The first example is how the Apollo spacesuits were sewn by seamstresses from an underwear company. This was because they needed craftspeople skilled enough to be able to reliably cut fabric and sew seams within a margin of error of a fraction of a millimetre. Whereas in regular garment manufacturing, you can typically tear out incorrect stitches and try again, this wasn't possible for the spacesuit, so they needed to be perfect first time; many of the fabrics they were working on were so cutting edge that they needed to be locked away in a safe when not working on them. Synthetic fabrics were still fairly new, and this partly explains why an underwear manufacturer had seamstresses who were up to this challenge — the group of sewists who worked on the spacesuit were probably among the most experienced people in the world at sewing synthetic fabrics, and this experience allowed them to be an active part of the design and manufacture process for the spacesuits.
Another example from the same era is when NASA engineers were having difficulty getting the honeycomb insulating material they were using to adhere to the shuttle. This part of the program was happening near Seal Beach, in California, and when it was discovered that the local surfers were already experienced in using a material like this for their surfboards, NASA hired a bunch of the surfers to work with their engineers to figure out the problem. There's a quote I absolutely adore from Donald Binns, a Project Engineer with North American Aviation^[1]:
"[The surfers] did a great job with it. The only downside of those guys was that when the surf was up, there was a big absentee problem — they were out there doing their trick."
I just find this incredibly sweet, because it captures both the strength and the difficulty of working with diverse skill sets. If ever there was greatness to be found in the US, we can see it in stories like this. I think this spirit of innovation has been lost over the years, due to the pressures of capitalism on individuals in particular.
[1]: Quote is from episode 1 of the 2008 documentary "Moon Machines", accessible via the internet archive. Insulation section starts at around 16:45 https://archive.org/details/moon-machines/Moon+Machines+Part+1+The+Saturn+V+Rocket.mp4
Like, as much as i have to complain about the US meddled in other countries, i have to disagree that they only were good at marketing.
Lots of technology have been developed in the US, primarily computer chips and everything that has to do with it, including the internet. That can be a good invention, depending on what you use it for.
You should be fair and give credit where due, and part of the US' power was because of technological proficiency. Of course, other countries also achieved good technological developments, like the Chinese with their solar panels, and the Europeans with lots and lots of scientific groundwork and cultural developments.
It's like watching an old friend sink into senility. The person you know is slowly being replaced by something else and you are powerless to stop it.
Living in it is like that individual, but that individual is head of the household, has all the money and keys, has locked the door and is wildly armed.
I feel bad for the innocent Americans who are gonna suffer... people who honestly didn't ask for or want any of this.
We may not have wanted any of this, but none of us are innocent. We all play our parts whether that's the sociopathic capitalist or the empathetic commoner, with the consequences of our actions/inaction causing harm and suffering to the world. The very devices we're having this discussion on were created with suffering.
We've collectively destroyed this entire planet - that was intended to sustain us all - so none of us are innocent, except the children who've no idea yet what right and wrong even mean. As for the rest of us, there are very real degrees of guilt and also sincere ignorance, and also repentance... if not, we would all deserve to just lay down and let evil roll over us.
I mean, everyone who voted for Hillary/Biden in primaries wanted this.
They would rather have Trump than Bernie, so that's what they got.
I feel like saying it's normal for empires to fall due to external causes is not accurate? It's usually the exception. Maybe the external factor is the final kick, knocking over a rotting house of cards, but the cause is almost always division, internal conflict, or unsustainable growth. An empire is much more likely to collapse under its own weight than it is to have Alexander the Great kick its teeth in. The Ottoman Empire was called "The Sick Man of Europe" for a reason.
It's absolutely not. It's their very internal policies that force them into destroying themselves. They start believing their own propaganda. For both Rome and Constantinople it was wasting huge amounts of it's power on fighting Persia and trying to extend its borders in ways that outran it's logistics capacity. For the Ottomans it was the rise of nationalism and their ham fisted attempts to combat it. For the modern Western imperialists it was the base fact that direct colonial rule was always a monetary drain for the state and only made businesses money. Making these stupid decisions was because each empire had created a web of political commitments and internal propaganda that was unsustainable.
Anacyclosis, Polybius was motivated by the fall of the Hellenistic society. When Rome conquered Greece it was unfathomable to them that they could ever even be conquered, let alone so quickly. They were swept aside in such a rapid fashion that it was a cultural shock.
The US has this image of being unassailable, but the reality is that apathy is the greatest enemy we have ever faced. We have no faith in our leadership, and we're short on supply of actual warriors despite what the keyboard warriors would have everyone thing.
All the gun toting rednecks driving large pickup trucks shrink when they're actually confronted with anything, and we've devolved into a system of cowards.
The day America stands up and puts the ruling class heads on spikes, that's the day the rest of the world should fear, but the rest of the world can just live comfortably knowing we're all weak and worthless.
Seriously, just look up "peopleofwalmart", that's the insanely low bar we go by these days.
but the cause is almost always division, internal conflict, or unsustainable growth.
I refer to it as atrophy. Once it becomes easier and more profitable for the empire to exploit its own populace instead of others, this is what we get.
As it should. The rise of fascism shouldn't go unnoticed. The United States is capable of better but, the rot of capital needs to be expelled first.
It's a cultural problem which is why Americans would rather have Trump over Bernie.
Even liberals prefer this because Trump isn't going to make any effort to reduce the disparity in wealth.
Trump is creating a lot of enemies. Even turning allies into enemies. The reputation usually mostly recovers when there's a Democrat in the WH, but since American voters walked right back into the same chaos again, eyes wide open, it's going to be a lot harder to recover this time around. There's just very little trust and credibility left.
fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me
By repetition, trust has been eroded beyond elections. For security or even trade partners, it's bad to be erratic, violent and self-harming.
The American peoples have been played and fooled, much like it happened in GB. Hyped by fairytales of economic and nationalistic wonders, by stories of sovereignty appealing to the imperialistic dim-witted, in the misunderstood attempt to make their country "great again", they flushed it down the toilet, cheeringly.
Apparently, both forgot how much of their power came from being central parts of powerful networks. Isolating yourself, alienating everyone else surely makes you lose these privileges quickly, makes you lose influence on so many scales. Wether these losses can be compensated by any means remains to be seen, I'm doubtful.
And as much as I enjoy seeing imperialist nations falling apart, the power vacuum they create seems to invite even more imperialism. Like they say, even more dangerous than an evil person is a stupid person, because the latter is unhinged. You never know how much they will fuck up next time, and you cannot even trust them being restricted by self-preservation or "common sense".
I guess if it can happen to two nations from the West (and not just any two), it can potentially happen to any and all. They sure try.
Its Been falling apart for decades already, it's just being torn apart faster now
As someone watching from the outside, there's definitely a qualitative difference these past few weeks. It's very obvious there's no adults left in the room anymore.
It’s very obvious there’s no adults left in the room anymore.
Yes, this generation has refused to grow up. We value avoiding conflict above all else.
It's sad. Anyone who tries to legitimately fight back is considered the bad guy.
Burning up at the entry of the other side.
Not falling so much as being torn apart. We are in no way doing this voluntarily
They voted for the madman twice. This time around he even got a plurality. Not everyone volunteered, but enough to make it happen.
In just over three weeks, Donald Trump has been able to redefine the United States’ position in the world from a global power to an international outcast.
This is exactly what people uttering "Make America Great Again" were asking for when they chose Trump to be the figurehead. None should be surprised.
As a European I'm all for it. Fuck up your own country for once and leave the rest alone. Nobody needs the corrupt self-declared policeman of the world
At the low low price of a few million brown people
In just over three weeks, Donald Trump has been able to redefine the United States’ position in the world from a global power to an international outcast.
As a European I’m all for it. Fuck up your own country for once and leave the rest alone. Nobody needs the corrupt self-declared policeman of the world
The Schadenfreude resonates with me, but that power vacuum scares me more. All kinds of potentially violent forces, who have been constrained by US hegemony, will test what the new limits are in the coming years.
At least, a corrupt policeman still has to play and pretend, which somewhat aligns her with the designated role. The Mafia, on the other hand ...
What I mean to say is, you cannot step down from that position "and leave the rest alone". It causes ripples across the world.
That requires Europe to step up to the plate and actually spin up their own security industry. The United States has been subsidizing it since WWII. In spite of Russia starting a war at your door step Europe still hasn't managed to get their act together.
America's wealth is tied up in perceptions. When the rest of the world views America the way I currently view Tesla, we're going to have some very big economic problems. And of course we already have huge security and safety issues as blow back for turning on our allies. It's impossible for me to imagine this isn't all a deliberate attempt to destroy America. And we all know which world leader Trump worships who is very very interested in causing that.
Not to mention the way America is fucking with it's own people. There's bound to be some domestic "terrorism".
Not much to add, other than I too am another person who sees the current affairs as the destruction, dismantling and sabotage of America as a country. I am not confident the country will make it to the end of this presidential term without splintering.
Part of me thinks life is gonna get really hard but some other part is more optimistic, thinking the fracturing of the states will lead to better lives for people, far far down the line. You gotta burn the old growth so the new can flourish. I wish we could just improve what we have now but it seems impossible to make progress with the current, very corrupted system.
The United States is imploding. The reign of Donald Trump is not only challenging and threatening the very foundations of its constitutional democracy, it is calling into question the U.S.’s post-World War II hegemonic role. Empires or hegemonic powers rise and fall. Often they are defeated by emerging powers. Sometimes their decline takes place over time. But rarely do they self-destruct as spectacularly as the U.S. is doing. The U.S. implosion is dramatic in its intensity and rapidity. In just over three weeks, Donald Trump has been able to redefine the United States’ position in the world from a global power to an international outcast. Despite whatever military and economic power the U.S. still has, its image and global leadership have been undermined by President Trump’s foreign policy decisions.
I just want to take a short, though probably unpopular, note that while you present it as something negative, to some people on the world, that's actually something positive. There are communities all over the world who have suffered tremendously through the US' global hegemony; and these people (me included) are sometimes actually in a very good mood about the news that have been coming the last few weeks.
While I absolutely agree that America has and continues to do abhorrent things overseas (and domestically), I fear that there currently exists no significant world power in position to replace them as #1 that isn't considerably more exploitative, sadistic, and cruel. We're currently in hell and have nowhere to go but down...
This is always my thought when I hear that kind of response too. "Replace US hegemony" great. With what? China? Russia? India? Iran? Maybe the EU would be better, but I don't see an EU hegemony replacing US hegemony successfully any time soon. I feel like in a lot of ways the US dominated world order is/was a lesser of 2+ evils... We might be about to find out what the greater ones are :/
I think you have to be engaging in some serious American exceptionalism to believe that. In real terms, America has been much more exploitative, sadistic, and cruel than China - the main contender for next hegemon - and the argument otherwise is mostly just based on vibes.
Yup, I've mentioned in another comment that if I hadn't moved here, and I was watching this from an anti US lense as I saw things when I was younger, I would be ecstatic.
In three weeks, Donald Trump has imploded whatever positive image the United States might have had internationally.
If you were born in the last three weeks it may seem that way, but Joe Biden did the US' reputation abroad no favors, nor did Trump 1. Obama is less bad than those on either side of him, but his admin at best still represents stagnation, as he failed to address Bush's crimes and added to them in places like Libya. And before him was the guy who really got the ball rolling downhill after the high point that was the Clinton administration, Bush Jr.
Just to give you the perspective from Germany: Reagan is viewed as an idiot, everybody forgot about Bush Senior, people kind of loved Clinton, viewed GWB as an idiot and warmonger, Obama is seen as a great guy and Binden was also not viewed negatively by most people. Trump, however, is seen as the dangerous clown that he is.
Same here, in the more”European” parts of the US
Obama is less bad than those on either side of him, but his admin at best still represents stagnation, as he failed to address Bush's crimes
Just a reminder that it's a lot faster, easier and cheaper to break things than it is to build or repair them. A "bull in a China shop" like Trump can do a lot of damage in a few seconds, but it takes years to repair.
Bush had 8 years to cause the damage he caused, it's not reasonable to expect the next administration to fix all that in the same amount of time, no matter how well intentioned and capable that president is.
Same with Trump1-> Biden.
And then you add in obstructionists in congress and senate slowing the process of repair.
He could have prosecuted him.
Instead he pulled a Ford and let him paint and give his wife candy.
Whatever his effect was, Obama was perceived exceptionally well. They basically have him a Nobel for just getting elected.
Article about how the states is falling apart.
Uses picture of a house no middle class family could reasonably afford.
"Uh it's not about the house, obviously anyone who buys that will be bulldozing that house to build a new house, it's about the property location." The location: a swamp
The US falling apart would implicate that it was once whole, which it never was. It is just reaping the harsh fruits of half a century of aggressive 2 party campaigning.
All due to Ordinal voting. First Past the Post is the simplest Ordinal system, and completely broken if you have more than two candidates.
The only solution is a Cardinal voting system. Cardinal systems can handle two or twenty candidates without issues. Approval or STAR are the best options.
The sad part is, in 1780, First Past the Post was the only system available. It had to be adopted before mathematicians could look at it and say, hey shits broken.
The first was Condorcet. A French Mathematician who noticed the first problem with Plurality in the 1780s. But if you know your history, you'll know that being a French Nobleman in the 1780s was not the healthiest thing to be, regardless of how fucking based you were.
As an aside here, Condorcet was fucking based. He was antislavery, and argued for full suffrage for both women and the slaves that he wanted to free. He argued for universal education for all, and thought it would solve so many problems.
Anyway the next guy who saw the problem with Plurality was another French Mathematician and political scientist named Durverger. He proved that First Past the Post voting will always result in two party dominance. And he proved this in the 1950s. So not much to be done about it.
The next guy to put his name to voting science was Kenneth Arrow, an American who in the 1970s, showed that all Ordinal voting systems were flawed.
But again, the data came in far too late to easily fix things.
So here we are. The saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was 20 year ago, the next best time is now. So call your local representative and ask them to sponsor a switch of voting system to Approval or STAR.
I'd say Direct Voting is the best solution if you care about democracy.
This "representative" bullshit needs to go.
The alternative reality won’t make those republicans succeed.
We are the dog.
Look the U.S. was kind of past our prime already, and we were settling into a slow decline. President Elon and his lapdog Donald just decided to shake the table so all the dominos fall at once, instead of slowly over time.
Yes, but I was looking for another generation of decline during which we could wake up and correct some things
"Welp," that pretty much sums it up. One massive FUBAR.
hahahah it's NOT April FOOLS YET!
Sorry for being cheeky, but the title is silly and obvious. Of course the world is taking notice at the richest and biggest market because it will affect their livelihood.
Oh yes. That's the only reason they're noticing...not the threats the Greenland (and our ally Denmark), not the threats to Canada (our largest bordering ally), not the threats to Mexico, or the threats the Panama, or the threats to pretty much anyone of our allies (whilst cozying up to Putin), or any of the absolutely moronic tarrifs. No, couldn't be any of that.
What do they have you guys huffing over at Fox? Your okay with a billionaire soft through the government, through all of our most secret information, to cherry pick whatever says he wants? A billionaire getting his hands in our governments Treasury? You think the billionaire is going to look out for the interests of you or me?
I forgot about the geopolitical aspect to it.
If you go to Asia and ask many Asians, a lot of them are more worried about investments in the US and how it might affect them, especially with tariffs (even though some Asians kinda like Trump for his macho politics). For countries who send their diasporas and rely on remittances, they are worried about their countrymen and women being deported and/or harassed. But aside from that, as long as Trump is anti-China, many Asian countries are comfortable enough with the current administration. Otherwise, they would be as nervous as the Europeans about the withdrawal and threat of US military.
Worst comment I see is yours.
It could be so much worse
good, let it rot in hell where it belongs
It's hard not to be happy about this when your country has been subjected to American imperialism, I feel for you and I don't have anything against the American people (except the removed who supported this)
And while it's unlikely at this point, America relinquishing it's power might open a pathway for meaningful change rather than keep us stuck in this perpetual cycle of sucking billionaires off.
Hang in there and if you can, smack a Nazi for old times sake.
You don't understand? For a large part of the world it really makes no difference if it's D or R ordering invasions, regime change, cripling sanctions, drone strikes etc...
Imperialist wars to steal resources, unconditional support for israeli genocide, tax cuts and bail outs for the rich, less regulations for banks, oligarchs and multinationals. Those things are understood to be a bipartisan concensus since forever. Seen that the vast majority of Americans also vote for this since forever I really don't care.
It did not start with that fascist government. USA is stirring shit since decades, and democrats were absolutely not better for the outside world. Sorry for you, but this is a bit your responsability too. Trump just have to whine for a minute and all his braindead supporters invade a gov building. What is the opposition doing ? Absolutely nothing that matters apparently. Now the link with europe is being destroyed in a way we would never have expected. Time to wake up if its not already too late, or else good luck to make the fascists go away when your only allies left will be russia and north korea.
whatever positive image the United States might have had internationally.
What positive image lol.
call me when people start starving, power utilities stop producing power, and people no longer have water in their taps.
Until then, we're probably fine, rattled, but fine.
call me when people start starving, power utilities stop producing power, and people no longer have water in their taps.
OK, but I don't think I'll be able to get a signal at that point.
fair enough, but then you would actually be experiencing what people claim is currently happening, even though practically nothing has changed in day to day life, federally it might be a fucking mess, but you can suffer a lot of harm before things actually start getting bad, especially as a bureaucratic body.
Another "I'm personally doing fine, so everything's okay." joker
fr tho - in one of the richest countries in the World, why should it need to get that bad before people start wanting something better? Not just for themselves, but for every American: coworker, neighbor, friend, family. Why should we (or a majority of Americans) just get the bare minimum on the standard of living and just accept that as normal?
When are we going to start recognizing Action, Causation, and Consequences over lip service? America has ~400 Billionaires.
because when you're talking about mass heuristics like "the united states is falling apart" it definitionally, should be falling apart when you say that.
When people are saying that "the US is fascist" there better be some fascist government shit ACTIVELY going on when that statement was made, right now, we're definitely closer to fascism, than we are to not fascism, but it's hard to say until some shit actually happens unfortunately.
the most correct way to define this is that "The US is in deep political turmoil"
why should it need to get that bad before people start wanting something better?
TL;DR because otherwise you're lying, and i expect factual accuracy from people who hate disinformation and misinformation. There are problems to talk about, but we are hardly "falling apart at the seams" currently, more so, there are several loose threads, and if something isn't done about it, it will probably fall apart at the seams eventually, given enough thrashing.
People you can relate to better than the ones who’ve been starving? Did you miss that Flint still doesn’t have safe tap water and that the state no longer considers it an emergency so they’ve lost their bottled water funding?
classic misdirection gaming, Flint has been a mess for like, a decade or more, this is old news, considering it no longer an emergency is definitely a big problem, the biden admin allocated a shit ton of funding to fix that exact problem during his term, perhaps that's why the state delisted it's status? Who knows, i'm not politically informed on the local state politics of flint michigan unfortunately, because i do not live there. On the previous account of it being a fucking shithole.
the first one talks about a trend starting in 2022, the second one is referring to a long awaited grid capacity issue that's now starting to become a problem. The third one has literally been around since the discovery of climate change.
The second one isn't even a huge problem, we can easily fix it within the next 10-20 years. The third one is harder, but it's a global problem, and realistically, spurred on heavily by agricultural water use rights, which are really stupid.
Literal prisoners have food, electricity, and clean water... So maybe your standards are too low. Our children being reduced to wage slaves for the oligarchs is something we should fight to prevent
literal prisoners are not "literal people" they have no literal freedom or autonomy, they have literally no rights.
Giving them food, electricity, and clean water (which isn't even a guarantee, the prison industrial complex is a disaster, do some research on that one) is quite literally the minimum you can do to not violate human rights.
How am I going to call you if we have no power?
probably from your mobile phone, running on battery power, assuming the grid works. Realistically, if you can't call anybody, i probably can't either, so we'll both know at the same time, ish, approximately what is happening anyway.
good old lefty progressivism reduced to: "look at what trump is doing!"
if you're truly progressive or left, you have as much ire for the democratic party-- if not more.
You're getting downvoted by the same people who got upset by calling out that Kamala and Biden were not good candidates.
If they were, they would have beat this idiot.
The DNC has no idea, nor does it care, what people really need or want. They don't represent our reality. The only Dems who do are... You guessed it: Progressive.
AOC, Bernie, Ro Khana, Cori Bush, Nina Turner... None of them are supported by the establishment wing of the Democratic Party. All of them have people in mind over reelection.
It's time for a sea change.
I think Kamala was an embarrassment that deserved to be called out, Biden is evil, and the establishment often cares more about suppressing progressives than beating Republicans, but I absolutely downvoted that dumb as shit comment.
The Democrats can be responsible for failing to defeat fascism, complicit in genocide and the backsliding of civil rights, and a problem in need of active and forceful change without saying stupid things like they're just as bad as the guy empowering Nazis, destroying the civil service, and persecuting trans people with deadly results.
That's fucking stupid online edgelord politics.
I have a very real fear that even if a truly progressive democratic candidate runs for president, they still won't win.
Don't get me wrong, they still should actually give it a shot. There's literally no other winning alternative for the Dems.
Instead, I think you're very right about the DNC not knowing what people want. There is a huge, mildly surprising amount of support in this country for bigotry. There is a surprising amount of people locked into the Nazi vote, and you know I'm not exaggerating. This is what people actually want. As it turns out, they chose fascism over treating specific people as people, same as last time, and times before.
This is America. And it has allies with other bigots and land grabbing warmongers.
May we both survive, and here's to hoping we can get a progressive candidate next time, if we get a next time. It's always worth it to fight for someone's right to just exist.
is the democratic party currently destroying every american institution at record pace?
I think the comment above hits on some important truths:
Yeah, confirming trumps picks. Pay fucking attention.
did the democratic party lose twice to trump?
I only agree with half your statement. I can be appalled by the majority government and still think the Dems are dumb as stumps. What do you suggest “lefty progressivism” talk about?
it is the framing of the article that set me off because it is so typically one-sided. "The United States is imploding. The reign of Donald Trump is...."
as though the democrats weren't funding genocide in gaza and spending hundreds of billions on nato expansion and the predictable (essentially promised) war that ensued.
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 (c) 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.
I 100% blame everyone who voted for Hillary over Bernie in the primary for why we have 2 Trump presidencies.
were you saying this throughout the election or only after it?
I’ve been saying this since they let bush steal an election in 2000 and go on to commit war crimes without any repercussions. Or how Obama also expanded the executive branches power and authorized drone strikes on Americans abroad without due process (trump will use this in America, just wait). Or how Obama filled his cabinet with Goldman Sachs thieves and refused to hold a single banker accountable for 2008, and worse, bailed out Wall Street and let Main Street rot. Gee, I wonder where the support for trump initially came from. Can’t imagine. Couldn’t be democrats complete and utter failure to be an effective political party for the masses.
Meanwhile, the rich got richer, the government got more powerful, and our lifespans have dropped from deaths of despair and most of us are one emergency away from homelessness.
But yay! Let’s paint rainbows in the street, put pronouns in our bio and fly blm flags and kneel in congress wearing Kente cloth! (I’m queer so miss me with the hOmOpHobIc TrAnsPhObIc bullshit) That’s all the democrats have to offer anymore. Performative bullshit. They -just like the republicans - work to serve the capitalists that own them.