This post is the first one I have seen that makes sense.
There is little the Democrats can do to reverse the destruction MAGA has done and will do.
It is unlikely there will be fair elections in 2026 or 2028. The dismantling of our government will continue and little will be done to reverse the destruction of the Musk/Trump regime.
I’ve been hearing this from one party or the other every two years for as long as I’ve been old enough to vote.
The boy who cried wolf wasn’t wrong about the wolf, he just had bad timing.
I have not. Even 20 years ago, I was not hearing this. Some people were uneasy about Darth Cheney, but no one was really seriously concerned about the end of voting. I have been paying attention to these things since probably before you were born and have never seen a shitshow as bad as this.
If they ever get into power again and want to actually accomplish anything they need to forget about the “norms”, civility and bipartisanship. They need to sideline and sabotage the Republicans as much as they can, have their own purge of Trump hires and push as many Democrats and non-cishet males into positions of authority as possible. They need to play dirty and push hard, and forget all the nonsense about “but if they do that, then so will the Republicans” because the Republicans have demonstrated that they’ll “do that” regardless of any restraint by the Democrats.
They need to stop trying to play chess in a street fight. They need to be partisan and hostile right back at the Republicans and stop trying to be reasonable with unreasonable people. They need to stop trying to pander to people who hate them, will always hate them, and who have zero interest in reciprocity.
Yes, that’s so; democracy in America is going away, and probably modern industrial civilization in the long run. Most likely the Democratic leadership will be imprisoned or executed and the general membership suppressed and persecuted, with at most sham elections. Women will be stripped of the vote and all civil rights, and non-whites deported, enslaved or killed.
That’s against the premise of the thread, however.
These are just the threads I found from Dubya’s first term.
So? The trajectory toward dictatorship was obvious even back then. More people were in denial, is all.
The OP rightly picks up issues of governance and domestic policy, but leaves out foreign policy. This is going to be a major problem.
America is no longer trustworthy.
I don’t mean: Trump isn’t trustworthy. Or a Republican government isn’t trustworthy. (Although they’re not). I mean: America can no longer be trusted not to fall into this shit again.
Let’s say, for example, that this putative Dem government announces it’s fully committed to NATO. So what? Does that tell us anything about America’s level of commitment in 10 years time? Nope, sorry, not taking that bet.
How about action on climate change? Is the US a reliable partner there? Of course not.
If we go back to using, as we currently are, American data centres for cloud computing, will they be reliable repositories of valuable and private data? Hahahaha no of course not.
Should we regard the dollar as a stable reserve currency? Can we be sure any major research programmes involving the US won’t be cancelled or abused in future? Is the US a stable place to make long-term investments? Should, e.g. highly educated people of colour seek to make a long-term home in the US?
Should our intelligence agencies ever again share secrets with the US? That would be an act of treason.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, this can’t happen overnight. America is enmeshed in the global system in ways that will take some time to unpick. And it will remain the global hyperpower for a while. But all engagement will skeptical and transactional, and a lot of investment will go in to building up capabilities with a view to isolating a one-time partner. Even if government reform takes place, it will be decades before anyone on the outside is prepared to stake anything at all on America not losing the plot again.
For what it’s worth, I have fewer doubts about that kind of worst-case scenario than I did in 2003. It wouldn’t even have to be federal troops, just some Proud Boy-type MAGA goons at polling stations in certain neighborhoods in certain swing states… and no intervention by law enforcement, especially federal law enforcement, to stop them. Trump’s willful inaction for several hours on January 6th 2021 clearly demonstrated his paper-thin commitment to law and order.
Donald Trump’s “commitment to law and order” has a measurement in real dimensions?
Stranger
We have to be extremely careful right now. The simple dynamic is obvious: create an outrage that drives protests (cf the BLM/ACAB protests of a few years back), salt the protests with RW troublemakers, call them riots, claim the left is out of control, declare martial law, start rounding up the “wrong kind”. The situation we are in is perilous. The current administration makes Bush/Cheney look like choirboys.
I am not saying elections will be cancelled. There will be elections in 2026. But I seriously doubt DJT and his minions will respect the results if it they lose control of either the House or Senate. Johnson can refuse to seat a member or call for their expulsion if they drum up accusations of irregularities with the vote. I fully expect that to happen if enough red seats flip blue and give the House to Ds. Having the Senate flip is less likely but who knows what can happen between now and then.
If the biggest threat to the Trump kleptocracy is the next election, then expect the next election to be targeted in multiple ways.
Crashing the economy and declaring a state of emergency is a tried and true method of autocrats past.
Well, it involves numbers that are both negative and imaginary, but it’s probably there.
To the contrary. Violent suppression of protesters is the only way to ignite enough anti-MAGA outrage to drive them from power. We should be goading Trump into violence, not shrinking from it.
“The tree of liberty must, from time to time, be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Yes, I believe it’s that bad.
Just one data point, but:
1970 - Kent State.
1972 - Nixon wins 61 percent of popular vote.
You could counter with, say the 1963 March on Washington. But Martin Luther King wasn’t goading the police, and the speakers were measured in their criticism of the administration (otherwise, Kennedy and Johnson would not have met with King).
Almost all of those are phrased as far-fetched hypotheticals.
That they were phrased at all proves the point I was making.
And I haven’t even gone looking for the “The CEO of Diebold said he was rigging the election for Bush” threads yet.
It absolutely does not.
Scortched earth anti-corruption, strip Musk of any clearance, nationalize Space-X, massively expand IRS enforcement, expand SCOTUS and the House.
The last two being even moderately palatable would probably mean the next 4 years get really bad.