Small distinction, but I like to insist on “around 50% of voting Americans;” I think we don’t really know what elections would look like with full participation. Maybe they’d be better or worse idk
I just don't understand why so many Americans jump straight to not voting when they don't like the democrats candidate. Vote 3rd party! It's a much better protest vote and might eventually improve the rot of the 2 party system.
Theres over 20 candidates on presidential ballots around the country. Plus you can write in. Plus you can vote for the house and senate. Not liking Kamala Harris is not a good reason to abstain.
The thing is just that the answer to the problem can not be for Democrats to have to win every election ever, something fundamental has to change, and the last Dem admin has not acted like that at all. See e.g. Garland sitting on his hands. So, vote, but also, what's next?
it also fails to reckon with the fact that democracy has to be actively fought for to maintain, it's not something that can be achieved and passively kept
I think the issue is, if 49.8% of the country really want the fash and every election from now until forever is "Democrats win or small d democracy is over" then like. It's pretty much over right. At that point it's no longer a matter of if but of when
I think that’s kind of the point Hippo is making. It’s a recognized ongoing issue, so what else can we also be doing to set ourselves up for a future that isn’t just This Again every 4yrs
Yeah, Proportional Rep can only do so much (though it would still be better than FPTP for keeping it out). So long as there's a way for the executive section of government to bypass the legislature and the judicial bits, it'll be a risk.
And to be clear that’s not me saying “you should only vote, nothing else matters” or that there aren’t structural problems with our country. I guess I’m just more cynical of the idea of some Big Solution that will assure good government forever
I don't think that's what they were implying tho? I read it as them saying voting is clearly insufficient (even if still necessary) and so they want discourse to move toward discussing what specifically ought be done for addressing the current fascist movement that isn't voting.
It's not really about democracy itself it's really more about the democrats saying that every single election is the most important one of our lifetime and this truly exhausting rhetoric of demanding the progressives fall in line while not giving anyone a reason to vote for them besides Trump exists
Time keeps marching on. Democracy might not fix the problem this country has with fascism, but so long as it continues to be an issue, people have to put up a fight.
I’d personally go so far to say that authoritarianism doesn’t “go away” without the efforts of everyday people waking up and trying to snuff it out every day, be that at the ballot box, at the picket line, or in our courtrooms and local government offices, perhaps now more than ever.
I'd settle for Signifigantly less bad government as a result of no longer being plagued by lobbies and loopholes and 7 different kinds of racism, personally.
I don't quite remember but the original was about criminals vs cops if i remember right, that said it definitely works here too, you only need authoritarians to get lucky once for democracy to die
u make a good point but what a lot of us want from a dem adminstration sooner rather than later is to kneecap that factions political power (namely in the form of ratfuckery) akin to civil rights act (or in our dreams reconstruction) ntm trump should be in jail
The one third that doesn't care is too overworked and underpaid to stop and tink about politics any signifigant amount. Hell, a large portion of the other two thirds are in a simalar spot. When people have had the time to relax and think, a lot more of them would prefer progressive legislation.
I think they want to hear the answer is street protest, general strike, or revolution since these are the romanticized leftist solutions. I don't think these are effective or viable today. I think you need to change mass culture to stop people being fascist. Look at media and media delivery systems
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It's the type of desire for an ultimate solution to all your problems that fascism preys on.