# What will be the "last straw" in the administration's assault on our country / democracy? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [August 4, 2025, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676 "2025-08-04T03:23:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/121 "2025-08-05T00:51:07Z")
> [@Leo\_Krupe](#): > > I hear you, and can’t disagree. Then I read **Little Nemo** ’s post and that gave me pause. S/he may be right – I’d been thinking that the whole maga deal wouldn’t hold, and it may not, but that doesn’t really matter because s/he’s right – the republicans have a long term plan that goes back _at least_ to Reagan, and they won’t stop until every last breath is wrung from this country. Not that it’s an issue here, but it’s he. As I said, I feel Trump is the patsy in all of this. But I feel he made one other contribution; in his first term, he demonstrated that you can get away with a lot more blatant law breaking than the Republicans had realized was possible. (I’m sure Dick Cheney is retroactively kicking himself over all of the crimes he didn’t commit.) So the Republicans wrote a new plan which didn’t require as much stealth. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/122 "2025-08-05T01:07:27Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Yikes! Um, you _have_ seen their posting history? ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/123 "2025-08-05T01:24:08Z")
I think that the “last straw” would be the killing of a high Dem officeholder by state forces. I’m talking Senator, Congressperson, Governor. I would say that the largest demonstration I’ve seen came after the assassination of that MI state legislator, and that was by some random trumpie. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/124 "2025-08-05T01:37:47Z")
I don’t know how to explain all this to my kid, or when. He was born in 2020, at pretty much the exact moment everything went to shit. I mean it wasn’t great before that, but Jesus. How do you explain democracy to someone who may well never know it? It’s as hopeless as trying to explain to him what Winter used to be like. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/125 "2025-08-05T02:07:25Z")
My two kids were born in 1997 and 2000. They don’t like loud noises like the 4th of July fireworks, let alone guns. How am I supposed to tell them that the next war might not be fought with laptops? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/126 "2025-08-05T02:27:13Z")
I think they’ll figure it out after the bullets start flying. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/127 "2025-08-05T02:48:03Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Whose head? Mine. It’s the only target that would make an actual difference for me. > [@Kropotkin](#): > > Since we’re quoting science fiction authors in this thread, here is Ursula Le Guin: “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.” Resistance isn’t futile, it’s inevitable, and it ranges from individual refusal and support of others to more active work. “Capitalism” is not the problem, fascism and genocide is. Capitalism will be destroyed along with most everything else, for being insufficiently evil. Capitalism is about profit at any cost; not malice and death at any cost. A good capitalist puts profits above bigotry, which makes them a bad fascist. Capitalism is an amoral, all-devouring force that would consume the entire universe to make number go up. _But,_ that is still not _nearly_ evil enough to make the Right happy. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/128 "2025-08-05T02:48:23Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > > > Death is the _best_ future anyone who isn’t a monster can look forward to. > > Yikes! > > 1. You can do more than nothing. It requires the power of an ocean to change, and you’re not an ocean, but you’re a drop in it, and you can join other drops. EVERYONE is either doing something overall negative, overall neutral, or overall positive. As long as you’re in the positive column, you’re moving the needle infinitessimally in the right direction. It may not be ENOUGH, but it’s still worth doing. > > 2. There is still joy, and thus a future worth having, in the simple pleasures and in helping others. Death will come soon enough: I see a pretty bleak future, but it’s too early to give up.. I am leaning towards the bleakest of futures but keep looking back at the sunnier times and trying to wish them back into existence at least for awhile. I am not giving up and still experience some joy in daily life but hope is now stashed somewhere in a rented garage. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/129 "2025-08-05T10:26:03Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > Well, the Democratic Party in Texas is doing something, at least. They’ve left the state. Of course Ken Paxton wants them found and arrested and some other stuff. > > It feels like the noise on the left is getting louder this week. To an Italian, this resembles the [Aventine Secession](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aventine_Secession_(20th_century)). > The **Aventine Secession** was the withdrawal of the parliament opposition, mainly comprising the [Italian Socialist Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Socialist_Party "Italian Socialist Party"), [Italian Liberal Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Liberal_Party "Italian Liberal Party"), [Italian People’s Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_People%27s_Party_(1919) "Italian People's Party (1919)") and [Communist Party of Italy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Italy "Communist Party of Italy"), from the [Chamber of Deputies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamber_of_Deputies_(Kingdom_of_Italy) "Chamber of Deputies (Kingdom of Italy)") in 1924–25, following the murder of the deputy [Giacomo Matteotti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Matteotti "Giacomo Matteotti") by fascists on 10 June 1924. > > The secession was named after the [Aventine Secession](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_secessio_plebis "First secessio plebis") in ancient Rome. This act of protest heralded the assumption of total power by [Benito Mussolini](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini "Benito Mussolini") and his [National Fascist Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Fascist_Party "National Fascist Party") and the establishment of a [one-party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-party_state "One-party state") [dictatorship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship "Dictatorship") in Italy. It was unsuccessful in opposing the National Fascist Party, and after two years the Chamber of Deputies ruled that the 123 Aventine deputies had forfeited their positions. In the following years, many of the “Aventinian” deputies were forced into exile or imprisoned. I don’t believe in ghosts, but I feel the ghost of Giacomo Matteotti is watching us to see what we’ll do. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/130 "2025-08-05T11:01:57Z")
I sure hope we get it right, but damn that sent chills. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/131 "2025-08-05T11:09:09Z")
I think all this doom and gloom will lift after a hard recession this fall gets the attention of the investor class. It might take a couple years, but they will realize it’s better to be rich with high taxes than bankrupt with low taxes. That will last for awhile, until some youngster gets the bright idea that they deserve to have it all. Again. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/132 "2025-08-05T11:42:41Z")
I’ve said before that I think the best thing for the world (not me personally) would be for America to collapse quickly. We’re the leader of the global anti-democratic movement AND the anti-science movement. Our collapse would undermine both those movements. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/133 "2025-08-05T11:58:33Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > We’re the leader of the global anti-democratic movement AND the anti-science movement. You are not. Sixth or seventh place if you at all that good. Don’t overestimate yourself. But you are right that your collapse would be good for democracy and science in as much as you would no longer be the sponsors of anti-science and anti-democracy with the deepest pockets. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/134 "2025-08-05T12:12:34Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > …sponsors of anti-science and anti-democracy with the deepest pockets. That makes us the leader of these movements. If you remove the US from the equation, humanity has a fighting chance. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/135 "2025-08-05T12:38:45Z")
The **Global State of Democracy Initiative** currently has the US ranked 46th based on its performance in representation, rights, rule of law and participation. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/136 "2025-08-05T13:16:48Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > 2020 Fun fact: Turn _2020_ 90 degrees clockwise, then read it from top to bottom and you get _NO NO_. > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > A good capitalist puts profits above bigotry Which is why I’ve never understood those morons who refuse to serve minorities. Yeah, their skin is a different color, but their money isn’t. > [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > what Roger Casement [said to the court just before sentence was passed](https://speakola.com/political/roger-casement-speech-from-dock-2011) That is one mighty fine speech! ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/137 "2025-08-05T13:17:03Z")
What is the right if not pro-capitalist? There are shades and degrees, of course, but the left-right scale is precisely a measure of where one lands on the question of private and social control of capital. Thus Max Horkeimer could suggest in 1939 that “whoever is not willing to talk about capitalism should also keep quiet about fascism” in his essay The Jews and Europe. [The Jews and Europe | The Charnel-House](https://thecharnelhouse.org/2015/03/20/the-jews-and-europe/) Put another way, in the words of Tommy Douglas, a Canadian politician, “Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege.” And in a capitalist economy, the ruling class is largely formed of capitalists. The recent book by Alberto Toscano, Late Fascism: Race, Capitalism and the Politics of Crisis is helpful in thinking about this stuff. It is much better than the work of Stanley and Snyder. TLDR? Some very good experts, some with practical experience, argue that fascism comes from capitalism. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/138 "2025-08-05T14:33:51Z")
America not only named its concentration camp Alligator Alcatraz, and not only do Americans take selfies in front of the concentration camp sign, but our concentration camp has merch you can buy online and you people think there’s a straw? ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/139 "2025-08-05T14:53:07Z")
The straw, if it ever happens, will be on the back of the currently indifferent-to or enthusiastic supporter-off, the current abominations. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676/140 "2025-08-05T15:06:48Z")
I agree. “What insurrection? Oh that was just a protest that got a tiny bit out of control. Some bad actors. Probably Liberals.” The “Straw” Needs to be a ton of bricks that fall on Trump supporters. They are beyond being educated, or understanding facts. They will not change their tune, no matter that they can’t sing or understand the words. Unfortunately that “ton of bricks” will hit us all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-last-straw-in-the-administrations-assault-on-our-country-democracy/1021676.md?page=8)