Yes, disillusioned in the sense that I am no longer under the whiggish illusion that progress is inevitable, or that American Democracy can weather any storm.
As far as my assessment of Americans themselves, I think they’re neither more horrible or less horrible than ever. It’s been my default assumption that things would get really ugly when the ruling white patriarchy faced a realistic possibility of having to share or even cede political power.
I’m also of the mind that I see whiteness for what it is now, not an ethnicity or nationality, but simply the belief that the law should protect white people and bind everyone else. It’s a hard attitude to dislodge if the white person doesn’t see it as a problem (and why would they).
For me it’s more concern than disillusionment. I fear that the GOP could regain power and, IMHO, if they started basing policy decisions on sorcery and astrology, I would not be surprised. If this was occurring in some minor principality somewhere in eastern Europe it wouldn’t matter. But it’s the US and it matters a lot and could be extremely damaging to the world.
In my time going door to door drumming up votes for various candidates, I most often found that the people who told me that they were not voting gave as their reason their conviction that their vote didn’t matter, not that they didn’t object to the status quo. They often hated the way things were, but felt helpless to change anything.
I actually hope that red states get so antagonized by the Biden administration and/or future Democratic administrations that they make clamors to secede. And when they do, we should just let 'em secede! Because if the tables were reserved, a Republican administration sure as shit won’t let the blue states secede – can’t lose that sweet, sweet federal tax revenue that blue states are subsidizing the red states with.
And when the red states break away, the blue states can finally craft a more modern and flexible Constitution. Yes, I’m aware that there are many issues to work out in the aftermath, but if this opportunity ever arises all I can do is shout in vain at the Democratic leadership, “TAKE IT!!!”. They’ll seriously regret it when the chance has passed, and one day the Republican dictators are kneeling on their throats.
I read somewhere that Black people in the US were much less surprised when Trump was elected. They already knew how a significant portion of the population and institutions were racist and corrupt.
On a related topic, there is some research to indicate that 30% of any given population actively prefers authoritarian rule, even if they don’t admit it or even recognize it.
There’s an interesting and very accessible book on the subject. https://theauthoritarians.org/options-for-getting-the-book/
and this article seems to summarize it, although I did not read it thoroughly
I read a lot of history and the more I learn the more disillusioned I get with America and frankly humanity. Trump just showed that as bad as things are, they will get worse before they get better.
I’m not asking for a cite here, but have always wondered about that, and basically – based on nothing – come to the same conclusion: that there’s no obvious reason, in general, to think that non-voters break in a way that’s substantively different from voters.
But have you seen that looked into somewhere ? Just curious.
I think it’s a bit more complicated than just keeping up with the Jones out of a sense of vanity. Sure, my wife and I make decent salaries and enjoy the benefits that come with it. But we aren’t the sort of people who run out and buy a new car every year (or ever really).
IMHO, I think the source of pressure for people who are “relatively well off” is that you have to work in a field that is often largely “bullshit” (bordering on an actual racket) and then spend decades eating all sorts of crap to maintain that lifestyle as a corporate serf. You have to live in or near expensive cities like New York, San Francisco or Boston, which often negates the financial benefits. The jobs are often highly competitive and stressful. And usually not in a “best and brightest” sort of way. Usually it’s more in a “mob of backstabby fake morons” kind of way.
Or, the alternative is you get stuck in some low-level dead end job which is 1000x worse.
Though their disgust with the statu quo does not necessarily mean they want to change it in my preferred direction. They may be willing listeners for someone who comes promising they get to tear it all down and watch it burn.
(Though in service to justice I should need to refine what I said earlier (just from my experience in past campaigns):
Non-voters because of being normally apathetic or low-effort tend to break along with the voters.
Non-voters because of being actively prevented from voting (suppression, disenfranchisement) are a different story.)
A lot of Trumpists in my acquaintance fall exactly into this group.
In that view, politics is just a corrupt, expensive, and pointless game with no real consequences for us proles = “real Americans”. Trump pranked the lot of them and good on him for doing so!
That flavor of Trumpist (or the next populist) are all friggin’ morons. But they’re out there in their millions and each of their votes counts about 50% more than yours or mine.
Our poorly representative election systems are one reason why people don’t feel their vote matters. In fact, the whole constitution, unlike that used by more advanced nations, is designed to limit decisive governance.
There aren’t many on this board that didn’t do, at least the minimum there, and quite a number of us have done significantly more.
What are you doing right now?
It’s not an either or, we can be politically active, and we can connect with eachother over social media. We can commiserate with eachother, encourage eachother, collaborate together. We can hone our arguments to be used in RL encounters, and we can even try to persuade some to our side in virtual space as well.
I’ve never knocked on a door for a national candidate. I’ve always represented local offices. City council, mayor, school board, the biggest office I ever worked for was for a State Representative.
Those are the circumstances where your vote does matter, these races are often won by hundreds of votes at most.
I managed to convince a number of them to come out to support my candidate in a vote they didn’t even know was happening.
Politics is local, that’s the message that I always give.
Of course, as long as they are there, voting for the person that will make sure that their potholes are filled and their streets are plowed, they may as well make their voice heard on the national scene as well.
