I’m watching what’s going on with growing alarm:
- Executive orders suggesting military involvement in domestic law enforcement
- Supreme Court decisions that erode legal accountability for the presidency
- General public apathy as civil liberties slowly erode
This doesn’t feel like normal politics or a temporary swing. It feels structural — like a democracy that’s using its own rules to undermine itself.
So I’m asking honestly:
What is the end goal here?
Why would anyone — left, right, or center — support expanding unchecked power at the expense of long-term stability?
Is this just about control during collapse?
Or is this the new norm we’re slowly learning to accept?
Genuinely curious how others interpret this — no agenda, just trying to understand.
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I seriously doubt many MAGAs are aware a collapse of a democracy is possible. That would imply they are educated which would go against their overall reasoning system.
This guy is a narcissist and IMHO is clueless yet thinks he’s some sort of genius. I don’t see the attraction at all, even some people I know liked him once are like this guy is a joke. I think it is a power trip and some people apparently like dictator types though I would argue they play certain cards to manipulate people to support these crazy things. I hope it’s not the new norm but I think what they claim to support on the surface seems good less tax, less rules, etc. then they play the abortion/ religious thing and that gets a bunch more people in their favor. I hope it is not the new normal, and I pray this joker is impeached before can do too much damage let alone try and run for a third term. I fear this going down like Hitler did.
Because they don’t see/believe ANYTHING you’re saying. I’ll prove it to you.
You can’t say “Trumps EO are nothing, they’re really press conferences, they aren’t law” then go absolutely ape shit over Executive orders suggesting military involvement in domestic law enforcement And not notice what this even says? SUGGESTING. As in, it’s really up to each police department. DOMESTIC LAW ENFORCEMENT. When you think crime in out of control, this is a GOOD thing.
This is why MAGA and Trump won in 2024. You don’t even understand what you’re bitching and moaning about. You’re complaining about things that the MAGA voters WANT. They WANT the military and local police be more involved in keeping citizens safe.
You are completely over exaggerating Trumps power. You’re completely under estimating how many people in Law Enforcement and the Arm Services wouldn’t let something that you’re pretending is going to happen, happen.
You want it both ways. You want to be able to tell your friends and family, “Trump is so lame, his executive orders mean nothing” while also using his EO as FEAR PORN.
Relax, go outside, notice the cargo ships missing. Notice the druggie on the corner bent over. notice how expensive food is. Touch grass and go outside. You’re too busy promoting FEAR PORN, because you want someone to convince you it’s going to be ok.
This happened in Rome. The liberal aspects of free speech and debate devolved into Senators commanding armies and plunging the Republic into Civil War.
Eventually, the people became more concerned with dying in a Civil War than a strong man commanding all the armies.
One man commands all the armies and the Civil War ends?
“Just be nice, ok?”
“Just call me Princeps. ;)”
“Ahhhhh, yes! Princeps! ;)”
Fast forward 200 years.
Democracy is hard and uncomfortable and often involves argument. Some people would rather leave all that thinking up to someone else while they rot away in front of the TV.
The goal of project 2025 is to overthrow the constitution and the enlightenment values that it’s based on so that they can impose a Baptist Theocracy that they will be in charge of.
>So I’m asking honestly:
>What is the end goal here?
Honestly, That depends on who’s leasing the presidency from Trump at the moment.
If it’s the project 2025 guys, they want a White Theocratic Christian Nationalist State, with the military and economic might of the US, but without all that pesky diversity, plurality, rule of law, or democracy getting in the way.
If it’s Stephen Miller, and his ilk, then they want to re-establish the white male hegemony atop all the levers of power in the US and de-brownify the USA through draconian immigration, heartless family separation, and de-naturalizing citizens
If it’s the Tech Bro-ligarchs on the surface it’s a mixture of the usual lower taxes, no regulation, and look the other way when we pump and dump our crypto meme-coins, crash rockets, or steal government data to train our AI models. Deeper down their rabbit hole and it’s like, “the right people” need to have more babies, we need to bring back monarchy with (of course) us at the top of it, and other reddit shit posts-turned-manifesto type of bullshit they believe.
>Is this just about control during collapse?
>Or is this the new norm we’re slowly learning to accept?
The majority of people right now are simply not paying attention. They may likely notice a thing to two about prices going up, Their Amazon having a Tariff expense added, or something like this, but they either havent made the connection, or don’t know who or what to trust about it, so they just tune out. Sadly we have a disctracted, disinformed, and highly divided culture.
The people that are paying attention are rightly hair on fire about this shit.
Probably the novel 1984 explains the different perspectives, best. It’s had staying power for so many decades for good reason.
It’s just not all the same people. There isn’t one end goal, and not everyone participating in the power structure is even getting closer to what they want, or don’t prioritize the same outcomes. Bad guys, smart guys, dumb guys and worse guys (in every combination) each fit into their part of the puzzle. Tragic human frailty.
Look back 4 years and you will see half the USA was not OK with it.
And now the people who were cheering are now upset.
This is what happens when the politicians swing far left and far right. Vote for the middle to end the swing.
Conservatives believe that the country has been perverted from its course and the intentions of the Founding Fathers. They ascribe a divine origin to the Constitution and sainthood to the Framers, they believe the United States as a nation is blessed by the Creator-on-High with a special purpose to be a City on a Hill in a torrid, sinful, and spiritually corrupt world. In accepting people from other places to become one of us, in allowing the practice of dangerous religions like Islam, in accommodating and compromising with social change and progressive ideas they believe the United States has been radically torn off of the proper course of its destiny and perhaps even the blessing of God, and that they must radically reshift the country, its laws and its culture, or they and we will all suffer the terrible consequences.
Viewed in that light it makes perfect sense to break the rules, to ignore the courts, and to just go ahead and do what needs to be done to fix the problems, to root out the evil, and to save the soul of the nation. They applaud Donald Trump because he’s doing what they want done and they don’t care that the rules aren’t necessarily being followed to do these things because the rules and laws, such as the are now, are tainted and part of the corruption that need to be fixed. He is the solution and they have no desire to stand in his way because he is fixing the problems. They aren’t playing by the old rules any more, they don’t see Liberal or Progressive voters as having a valid ideology– a set of beliefs that are even worth considering in a legitimate legislative setting.
If you want an idea of what Conservatives want, where they are sending us, all you have to do is look at Hungary. Hungary is what your Political Science prof would call an Illiberal Democracy. Most of you reading live in Western Liberal Democracies of one stripe or another, which in the broadest scope means that the Government has limitations upon its power and the citizens have inalienable protections from their Government. Hungary has an Illiberal form of government meaning the Government is not constitutionally limited in its powers and the the rights of the Citizens are only guaranteed by the promise of the Government. Hungary has regular elections, it has a separate and independent judiciary, and a legislative parliament that makes laws and sets policy. The difference between the Liberal systems you’re familiar with and the Illiberal System of Viktor Orban is the government gets to decide which parties and which political ideologies get to play in the marketplace of ideas– and ultimately which parties and candidates get to appear on the electoral ballots. Only the “Right Sorts” of people and ideas get to play ball.
This is what Conservatives want– a democracy where they, and other trusted citizens with the Right Sort of ideas, can participate in electing their officials and sending representatives to Congress. They want to make sure though that only the Right Sort of Parties and Candidates get to be considered though, and they are drawing hard lines around ideas and ideologies they consider to be entirely out of bounds. Transgenderism is one of their favorites, they reduce Gender and/or Sexual identity into an –ism or an ideology which they can then intellectually (or emotionally) defeat by calling it radical, unethical, harmful, perverted, etc. Anyone who says otherwise is delude at best and wants to groom your children in the women’s bathroom at worst– so why should they let that person have a say in polite society? Ever been called a Socialist because you voted for Kamala Harris? Right, everyone left of center is a literal Socialist and because we know Communism is literally the devil those people hate America. Quid.
That’s the key here: They want to keep cosplaying as democracy and constitution loving patriots, but they don’t want to have to accommodate ideas they consider abhorrent, dangerous, and subversive. What they consider to be abhorrent, dangerous, and subversive is anything that doesn’t encourage a traditional and conservative world view.
You’re asking what the end game is as if they had a carefully thought out plan. They do not. Read Project 2025. It is not a master plan devised by geniuses meant to step-by-step dismantled democracy. It’s a wish list put together by a bunch of assholes who threw in every stupid idea they had. And we can see that Trump is already failing spectacularly because the things he wants contradicts other things he wants. That isn’t to say that democracy isn’t under extreme threat, but it’s under extreme threat by people who are just making it up as they go along.
The end goal? To turn our beloved nation into a version of Russia. A thug controlled, completely corrupt, inescapable authoritarian hellscape. That is what they’re doing.
In Mississippi the “Republicans” (actually ghouls posing since Gingrich killed actual conservatism) have stolen 77 MILLION in taxpayer money, meant to feed starving children & families. Our money. Stolen and spent on “leaders”. No charges filed. Because they control everything. They are criminals. It’s disgusting and against any ethical framework every American used to believe in.
Propaganda works. It’s practically impossible to get through to them because all they believe now is the lies, conspiracy and outright BS they tell each other.
They look at the rest of us like we’re crazy to want women to have civil rights and access to healthcare and a safety net for citizens and address climate change.
They’re in love with snake oil and it’s salesmen.
I didn’t think trump was smart enough to imagine and implement this kind of takeover. I know his BFF Musk and his corporate buddies and the uber rich have all had their input, and he is wreaking havoc on our gov’t.
The people who are okay with it are tied to him by Fox news and their ilk. I can’t understand anyone with a mind of their o
Honestly, people have become enraptured with the opposite — a unitary leader with unfettered power — and have forgotten everything about how bad that is. A shocking number of people frankly don’t care that democracy be preserved or that the Constitution be protected.
1/3 of the country–the American South–was formally under one-party racist pseudodemocratic rule (managed & manipulated elections, corruption of police, violence against dissidents) for around 3/4 of a century and it looks like we’re headed back to an updated version of that.
For about the same amount of time Mexico was ruled by a one party state also via pseudodemocratic corrupt means. And the US was fine with it and did free trade deals and so forth.
Too many of Our Fellow Americans have been taught to prefer an objectively cruel system which goes after people they think they hate than any sort of actual betterment of their lives.
Let them poke holes in the ship. It shows where the weak points are. The beauty of trump, in my eyes, is not his public actions but rather the public reaction. People band together and get things done in spite of him, overcoming adversities, which in turn makes a sturdier country. Find loopholes, create new services, make new ways.
Are people ok with it?
I think it more overwhelmed with life in general or just apathy. To them voting is a chore.
I’ve had too many coworkers ask me who to vote for/help them decide only for their eyes to glaze over once we start talking policy.
Executive power should expand to the limits of Article II powers in the constitution. Currently, the judges have far too much power and have overstepped the constitution.
It’s strange to me how selective people are when it comes to fearing their government. When Congress and the Supreme Court are busy violating the Constitution by torturing the “the common Defence and general Welfare” clause of Article I, Section 8 to grant the Federal government massive powers that were never enumerated in the Constitution, they cheer it. “It’s a living document,” they say. When states ignore the Bill of Rights and limit their citizens’ exercise of their Second Amendment rights, they cheer the innovation necessary in the face of an “antiquated” right. But when the Executive and Judicial branch are exercising CLEARLY enumerated powers, they’re losing their shit about it being the end of democracy. Give me a fucking break.
Americans are used to systems generally working. Now we’re throwing tantrums because those systems have significant flaws without thinking of how difficult it is to build better systems
To answer why so many people are okay with it, just look at the state of politics over the last 30 years.
Congress hasn’t been able to actually pass a budget in decades.
Politics has become increasingly polarized since the 90s.
Impeachment of a president hasn’t meant anything since Bill Clinton.
Major legislation that actually gets passed ends up unrecognizable compared to when it was introduced (Obamacare without a public option).
Actual major changes aren’t coming from elected officials at all, but instead the unelected Supreme Court (gay marriage, overturning Roe v Wade, whether Obamacare was even allowed to stay law).
Citizens United (2010) has sent the cost of elections through the roof, and everybody knows that the better funded candidate “usually” wins. Your $10 donation to a candidate means nothing of Nestle can just give the other guy $10 million.
Constitutional Amendments are comically hard to pass, we haven’t seen one make it through since the 90s, and with the current level of polarization we won’t for 50 more years. Couple this with skilled judges able to make it say whatever they want it to say, and you have a system where popular proposals (gun reform, healthcare reform, campaign finance reform) get shot down by unelected judges who interpret an in changeable constitution in a way that says “fuck what the people actually want.”
It’s been bad since Gingrich in the 90s, but has gotten worse every year and is not getting any better any time soon. That means for people who came of age since then (so basically anyone under 55 years old), our “democracy” has been ineffective at best, and a cruel joke at the worst. With expanded media access, we can see that while we can’t seem to solve major problems or pass overwhelmingly popular reforms, other countries figured it out ages ago.
When you add in all the lingering Soviet-era propaganda that “we’re the freest country in the world because of our democracy and constitution”, it isn’t a huge stretch for people to start asking if our “democracy” and constitution are actually the problem. Trump and his people get this really well. It’s why he can say “I got the most votes of any president in history, got elected to do [X], and these unelected judges and bureaucrats are trying to stop me!” It hits a nerve for people who already feel the system is rigged. Honestly, I think it is a big contrast to Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. A lot of millennials and gen z voted for him because of that, and yet he kind of just shrugged and moved on when the court killed it.
I’m worried because I don’t see how anybody on either side is going to rebuild faith in the system.
I hate EOs as a concept, but it is not new, nor have prior administrations not used them for things that lead to massive court battles and shaky decisions.
Roe v Wade, much of environmental, safety, firearms policy and the forced integration of the southern schools both went down similar paths at times. Roe was such a stretch beyond established law than Ginsburg warned for decades that the legislative branch would have to act because it would eventually be challenged.
Our government is designed for this part to be a bit of a Mexican stand-off – any of the three branches can push boundaries, but the other two can push back. Two of the three can be directly influenced by the public and the third can only be influenced incrementally over time for stability.
How much each branch is able or willing to push comes in waves and in areas of focus, the push back does the same and it has historically been cyclical.
Trump has made a lot of EO noise, but for my life Obama and Biden’s EOs had much greater/deeper impacts even if they did not make national headlines outside of specific industries and the Supreme court decisions that upheld Obama’s were at least as much of a reach as anything I have seen recently.
I am not a fan of most of it, EOs could use a whole lot more restriction in my opinion, but I have watched these cycles through eight administrations now and I don’t see it as all that different now than before other than the targets are new.
The one possible difference is that there is a lot of district court decisions based on little case law in recent years, so if someone was to challenge EOs too broadly on the letter of the law they would be opening up a massive can of worms for their own side.
For the Conservatives right now, it is Trump’s last term & their constituency had a lot of issues with EOs in recent administrations so the obvious play is just to push the EOs as far as they can and let the legal challenges accumulate creating case law that they can then use the next time they don’t control the executive against that guy’s EOs.
Our process is confrontational, slow and messy by design, but it is still one of the least terrible designs that has ever been attempted at this scale.
I assume you refer to the USA, a “free market” republic with 5 main power centers: Executive, Judicial, Congress, State governors, and military/industrial branches. Democracy is an ideal, not a form of government. Were the USA practicing democratic ideals to install power, Judicial members would be elected officials, for instance.
What you may be describing is an economic dynamic. Most presidents have lower than 50% reported poll support over the last 30 years, and little economic change is attributed directly to the executive office overall. Most incoming presidents lose steam in the first 100 days, so please stipulate. Does “public trust collapses” refer to the growth of GDP, lawmaking bodies, government services, stock market fallout or something else?
Let me give you a hypothetical scenario:
It’s late at night, and a guy bangs on your front door. He says: “Let me in. I want to move in, become head of your household, tell you and your family what to do, and do whatever I want in here.”
You’d say “no way, I don’t know you, that’s crazy, this is my house, I have my rights here to do what I want.”
But what if he then sits down and says “there are evil monsters outside… They want to tear your house down. Steal your money. Violate your wife, even assault and possibly kill your children. Only I can stop these monsters, but I promise you I will stop them!”
If you somehow fall for his line of BS, you’d now be kind of eager to let this stranger in, right? To give him shelter. When he says he’s now in charge of finances, that he needs that to save your family, you might say “great, he’s handling things.” And each little step, because he’s gotten you SO scared of the ‘monsters’, you agree to let him take more control of your home, your life, your money, your family. And each step you cheer him on, because he’s taking that power to fight monsters, right?
That answers your question of “why so many people are ok with it”, right?
That’s what right wing media has done for years. They’ve made people scared of immigrants, of liberals, of cities, of gay people, of trans people, of women, of colleges, of europe, and on and on and on.
If you lived your life in constant fear of the 100 evil groups out there trying to ‘destroy america’, trying to hurt you and your loved ones, you’d cheer someone on who was supposedly fighting them, right? That’s what’s happening. People are EAGER to let Trump and the right take more and more power, because they believe that power will be wielded against those they have been trained to hate and fear.
Freedom is a terrible responsibility. Many people don’t want that burden. There is comfort in structure and expectation. Identity is more clearly defined. That is a really big part of the MAGA movement. There is confusion, chaos. But not ambiguity. In that mindset, all you have to do is support Donald Trump, and you’re a good person. Better at least than anyone who doesn’t.
For a person that wants a simple life, that’s pretty appealing.
So many people are ok with this because they don’t understand the bigger ramifications of what they’re voting for and blindly supporting. They only were concerned about the price of their eggs, not the state of 249+ years of US democracy.
Probably people like Elizabeth Warren spearheading the absolute authority of federal agencies…
https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-leads-senate-response-to-end-of-chevron-doctrine
Presidential systems are notorious for turning into authoritarian regimes. We’ve gotten lucky to this point, but in no universe would I pick a presidential system if I were designing a democracy for stability and longevity.
“what is the end goal here?”
This happened because there isn’t one. Both sides always applaud when their side expand power, then decries it when the other side is in charge and uses that power.
If either side really, truly put any thought into where it ends, they would raise the alarm while the person who is supposed to represent them is expanding executive power.
This is short sightedness
There are no democracies anywhere on the planet! Every nation is a pyramid of raw, corrupt, evil, families. Only the foolish Westerners believe they have a Democracy, but this will soon change.
Democracy is very fragile. The citizens of a democratic country have a duty to stay informed and educate themselves about the country and it’s place in the world. If, on average, they fail to do this, democracy ALWAYS falls victim to some sort of manipulative regime.
After generations of democracy functioning well, citizens tend to start taking it for granted, and they forget the work it takes to maintain a democracy.
The default political state is authoritarianism. When the citizens do nothing, those in power do whatever they please.. Democracy is inherently unstable, for when it succeeds, it causes it’s constituents to become complacent and default back to doing nothing politically, and then the government becomes authoritarian. It is nearly inevitable.
People like authoritarianism when they feel like they have little or no control over their lives. Unironically authoritarians are usually also deists. They believe that the Leader (God) will take control of their lives and keep them safe.
I think there is a spotlight on the executive only because it is Trump. The real problem is the expansion of the judicial branch with activist judges trying to ysuro the power of both congress and the executive.
>It feels structural — like a democracy that’s using its own rules to undermine itself.
That’s what MAGA leaders are doing. They’re wolves in sheeps clothing. The scary part is that the sheep clothing is tattered and falling off but many people still haven’t noticed.
>Why would anyone — left, right, or center — support expanding unchecked power at the expense of long-term stability?
They’re brainwashed by well funded professional rightwing propaganda. They believe there’s an “invasion” that requires extraordinary measures. They believe that there’s an economic crisis of inefficiency that requires extraordinary measures. They believe that there’s a crisis of morals and spirituality that requires extraordinary measures. They believe there’s a crisis of leftwing indoctrination and censorship that requires extraordinary measures. They believe there’s a crisis of leftwing institutional capture that requires extraordinary measures. Most of the people voting in these authoritarians don’t recognize the the threat. They still see the sheep. The authoritarians look like friends. I know. It’s hard to imagine, but that’s honestly what’s going on with a lot of people.
Because you’re used to the government being able to circumvent the law. Now that they’re being called out they’re again trying to use the legal system to attack someone trying to expose them, it’s not working anymore. People are opening their eyes to the government theft that’s been going on before even I was born.
Their goals are “The Dark Enlightenment”, their method is “Accelerationism”
Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans do not follow current events and few even follow the MSM. They are oblivious.
They are in for a RUDE awakening!
I believe that “The Time of the Great Awakening” is now!
Feeling Vulcan?
Surak – Wikipedia
Dark Enlightenment – Wikipedia
Accelerationism – Wikipedia
Bottom line: Disdain for Trump doesn’t translate into trust for Democrats. Independents aren’t defecting because they don’t trust Dem leadership would be any better.
Excellent article about this.
https://www.welcomestack.org/p/democrats-still-need-an-independents
People are apathetic about it because they don’t think all this yappin’ among political types will translate into any action on the ground. They view it like a Twitter shitposting slap fight where people talk a bunch but nothing happens.
Very simple answer is that it doesn’t or hasn’t affected the daily lives of most people (yet). People are lazy, even if they’re altruistic. It’s easy to say “don’t deport without due process!” But how many people would actually put something on the line to stand up for what they feel is right? Until the freedoms or conveniences of average people are being actively disrupted, the protests I go to on the weekends appear to be just echo chambers.
Because people don’t want to think or question most prefer the curtain where they hide beyond government trust and believing they are good and doing best people will often trade freedom for comfort
Most people are too busy with work and kids and stuff to really pay attention. also, the media most people consume are now subservient to the regime. They are either not covering it or are covering it in a slanted way.
Basically all of project 2025 will be rolled out and written into law before the masses know what happened. And with it in place, the systems to take it back will be illegal. In short; we’re cooked.
Of course you have an agenda, your question are based on assumptions. No one has supported “ unchecked power” nor want to loose “ long term stability”.
To respond to your other points. What civil liberties have you lost?
You’re essentially describing the effects of extreme political polarization in a degenerated Republic prior to collapse. This is going to be a bit of a long one.
Republics, being a compound form of government, are built on the idea of balance between the three traditional forms of noble governance: Kingship, Aristocracy, and Democracy. Individually, each of these will collapse in short order by itself, due to the inherent instability of putting your faith in egalitarian human nature.
In contrast, the Republic is designed to exploit human nature, and set 2 against 1 in cases where one seat of power tries to overstep. If the ‘King’ looks to consolidate power, then the ‘Aristocrats’ and the People have the necessary power to prevent them. If the ‘Aristocrats’ look to fatten their wallets, then the ‘King’ and the People have the necessary power to stop them. Finally, if the People look to strengthen their own influence, then the ‘Aristocrats’ and the ‘King’ have the power to turn them down. This is the very basis of the stability provided by a Republic.
Now, within this balance, the People have a variety of views regarding which direction the overall balance should favor or oppose. When polarization is low, the People are relatively ideologically aligned, and work together towards building a better nation and preventing corruption in the other two seats of power while keeping the government mostly static and stable. When polarization is extremely high, as it is now, you end up with a whole myriad of problems.
Polarization comes about as a direct effect of economic suffering felt by a middle class that is slowly degrading. As more people begin to struggle, they look for a solution to their woes, but still disagree upon the direction. As a result, they begin to view one another as obstacles to be overcome in achieving their own goals, and this is what begins the process of radicalization in a polarized Republic. In order to stand against the opposition, they dig-in little-by-little until their position is strengthened against the other side, and vice versa.
As the economic situation becomes more extreme, this leads to a feeling of existential despair that drives the People to take ever more-drastic measures to see their policies enacted. This is why people are ‘okay’ with it in the sense that they’re allowing it to happen. In an extremely polarized state, they genuinely feel as if they have no better choice that leads to their ideal of a better society.
As for ‘what happens’ when we see this level of polarization? It could go in a lot of different directions that depend upon what happens in the coming years.
If, say, Trump (or someone else) made a push for explicit Authoritarianism, then we are likely to see a repeat of the polarization outcomes seen during the American Civil War, but with the lines between opposing forces being much less clear, because it isn’t simply North vs South. Another key difference is that this period of polarization hinged upon elected Representatives having opposing views on a single topic (slavery), as opposed to the great masses of the People being polarized across most every topic, as it is now.
Or, say, Trump doesn’t go explicitly Authoritarian, but does suddenly start acting on his expansionist rhetoric and trying to annex Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Greenland, then I would expect World War 2.5. This is, unfortunately, one of the better options for our country. We are so incredibly polarized that a direct external threat (like an invading enemy force) is about the only thing that could bring Americans back together without a mass social rennaissance. This threat and the subsequent external control of the German government and population after WWII are what allowed the German people to come back together. Unfortunately, I’m pretty far from convinced that our military would actually lose that fight, so we could well end up going the way of the Roman Empire.
On the other end, polarization may continue getting worse until the left manages to rally around their own demagogue in the name of Socialist Democracy. If they can find their own charismatic leader that can convince many different people across the various ideologies on the left that their views are aligned in principle, then they may snap-back with their own push to swap to that and get rid of the Presidency altogether, so that we don’t have to worry about another Trump.
Alternatively, if they cannot find a charismatic leader to bring them together, then that self-same polarization could–in the coming years–drive even the left to forsake Democracy, as they see their political opponents gaining control of the stage due to the divided nature of politics on the left and the relatively composed nature of politics on the right leading to an imbalanced reach for power that favors the right. This exposes the average American to the exact problem with classical Democracy: that–in a polarized climate–the People become too divided from one another to form a defense against a large conglomeration seizing control. It may well come to pass that–upon realizing this–they will no longer be willing to support our Republic, as any Democratic reformation therein would not resolve the problem of the ideological right still existing and voting. In this case, I think it likely that they would select from amongst their own ranks a most wise and noble King to ensure that the land is overseen justly, because the Aristocrats–being the only other choice to wit–look too much like oligarchs for them to be trusted.
We have got–and I mean GOT–to start treating the disease that political polarization is, rather than trying to play whack-a-mole with the symptoms as they crop-up. The best idea that I’ve come up with to resolve this would be a massive grassroots campaign that pushes for UBI as a direct trade-off for allowing the growth of robotics and AI. This would bring the lower and middle classes together in common-cause, serve the greed of the upper class by allowing them to lower their labor costs in the short term (where their head is always at), and restabilize our Republic with a stout middle class, by framing the AI as the new ‘lower class’ worker bees and making the People relatively financially comfortable.
From The Unitary Executive Theory in Comparative Context
https://repository.uclawsf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3911&context=hastings_law_journal#page=30
Chapter II: THE UNITARY EXECUTIVE ABROAD: LESSONS FROM DEMOCRATIC EROSION IN TURKEY, HUNGARY, AND POLAND
Cuz beer, sports and social media.
“Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbours, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling, filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.”
1984
This is the intentional destruction of American democracy. We are witnessing the business plot 2.0, and this time the bad guys won. Smedley Butler warned us, and we ignored him.
I’ve been a politcally minded person since the Iran-Contra scandal. I have never known a republican party that wanted anything less than the destruction of anything that kept them in check from doing whatever they wanted.
Now they’re doing whatever they want. Just like we warned people, who then said we were being hyperbolic and that nobody was that bad.
They ARE that bad. Do you people fucking get it yet?
No? Don’t worry, it will get worse.
I’m just hoping my wife and I can get out of here before they start taking away rainbow people.
America is dead. The old quote was correct after all, fascism came to America wrapped in a flag and holding a cross. Hugging a flag and holding a bible upside down was close enough.
First, I hope everyone knows that the spooks at all of the three-letter agencies are all over Reddit. Having said that, perhaps it’s time we plebes stopped letting them keep us divided (political parties, identity politics, etc.) dumb (dumbing us down in the school systems), and distracted (social media). You are easily programmed by the media and manipulated by the establishment and deep state. There’s predictive programming everywhere – they put the truth in the movies, and lie to us in the media/news. They tell you what they’re going to do and then do it. You are unwittingly accepting this slow erosion of human rights and before long, we’ll be enslaved again if we don’t wake up and start establishing boundaries if you know what I mean. We need to start looking at up at the puppet masters and send clear messages that we do not consent.
I see a lot of people who simply do not know what to do about it. They click petitions, fill out auto form letter to their representatives, and give some money to agencies like the aclu- but then don’t know what else to do. If you live in a solidly blue state, if your community is against what is happening, what else can you do?
It’s simple. There has been huge corruption in our government and we have a heavy hand to expose and jail those guilty so the power returns to the people
Studies proved we never had a democracy. Public opinion is not reflected, only donor opinion. The best we have had for a long time is an oligarchy that could masquerade as democracy. The only paths forward are paths of equality. Candidates that accept any donor influence must be correctly viewed as only ever capable of being donor servants. If the influence is allowed at all we can’t have real public servants and thus no real democracy.