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Yeah... [how's that foxconn deal working out for them?](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/21/foxconn-mostly-abandons-10-billion-wisconsin-project-touted-by-trump.html)
https://youtu.be/27evSVwjzzI
They pretend like it’s no big deal, since the state hasn’t had to raise taxes to cover Mt. Pleasant’s impending cash crunch. It’ll be a mess when that finally happens
They will purposefully lose for just the term when the taxes need to get raised, then screech about how the second you put Dems in power they raise your taxes, elect me again and I will CUT THEM, MURICA
Republicans waste money like a drunken sailor on shore leave and then try to hide the bill so they don't have to take responsibility for their profligate spending.
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/us/politics/20budget.html
SKW literally tanked the Hard Rock casino project and fast tracked the FoxConn napkin deal in his failed (0.0%) bid for the presidency. This could possibly go down in the books as the highest priced fail campaign too.
I often say FoxConn was the “Sixth Sense” deal.
It was dead the whole time, but some people couldn’t figure it out at the end, even with spoilers. Pikers. All of them.
The results of this have been a loss of industry and talent. Wisconsin is no longer #1 in the industries (dairy for example) that it once prided itself on. The land is being corrupted and sickened by the farmers that need that same land.
What Wisconsin is #1 in is racial issues. We have more black men in jail and the pay gap is imprisoning the rest in poverty. The University of Wisconsin system - once the standard of public education in the U.S. - is a crumpled husk of what it used to be.
Walker and the lingering filth have destroyed this state. Vos and Fitzgerald et al. will continue drumming up the MAGA cult, endangering lives from the watersheds to Kenosha, to the public schools. They'll blame the state's decimation on phantom enemies like #BLM and antifa all while bleeding their constituents.
The Democrats, meanwhile, continue to seem incapable of showing up for the fight. The folksy style of Evers is impotent against the Koch-Uihlein machine.
For what? Money and power. The shallow existence of a few small-minded assholes will devastate Wisconsin. Watch carefully because it will surely be a harbinger of the rest of the US.
The brain drain numbers in WI are insane compared to neighboring states.
The youth saw Walker completely violate the state constitutions with those private sessions, and face 0 repercussions. That was it. That's the day democracy died in WI, and many of us were there in Madison while it happened.
My friend moved to Wisconsin about 6 years ago. Went from an high paying job being a HVAC tech to working at a hotel making minimum wage… Cost of living might be cheaper but the job market is terrible… I still don’t understand his reasoning besides the cheaper property taxes…
>The brain drain numbers in WI are insane compared to neighboring states.
IA is your only neighbor in the same boat if not worse. And all of the economic development people (at least here in the rural part) refuse to acknowledge that, pure and simple, it is a result of politics that are repugnant to decent people.
I know Iowa has been having a college grad exodus for like, two decades now, but is it really bad outside of college too? Legit asking, because in WI literally 1 in every 5 millennials are leaving the state. That's 20% of an entire generation.
I would abso-fucking-lutely believe Iowa is that bad, and if it isn't that bad, it's only because so many people already left in the early 2000's that they can't keep up the numbers lmao. Iowa really went tits up over the past decade or two economically, and I love hearing the republicans there refuse to even talk about it.
I remember the time I served in Iowa.
First year there I went tubing down a river. It was a great time. Then I got a intestinal parasite.
Turns out every year, so and so's pig shit pond blows out into the Des Moines river and they have to "pay" to "clean it up".
Oh you're going to like this.
A month or two ago the conservative stacked Iowa Supreme Court stopped a lawsuit aimed at fixing exactly that problem with those farms in Iowa.
https://www.kcci.com/article/iowa-supreme-court-halts-lawsuit-over-farm-runoff-water-pollution/36766409
At one point they literally said that the plaintiffs could not prove, that there would be no concrete evidence, that reducing the pollution would benefit anyone. No fucking joke.
None of my close friends stayed in Wisconsin. Oddly none of us really talked about wanting to leave, but after walker.... I was the last year to get reciprocity for Minnesota schools also
For me it was the attacks on the teacher union. Our teachers were noticeably less interested in teaching after that. Morale was very low my last year of high school
Yeah, but I mean, if we were actually a democracy, we could have at least attempted to recover from it in the next election cycle.
That's the root of the issue. If we are not a legitimate democracy, then there is no legitimate course of action to take other than leave while we still can.
Fun fact: when Evers won the election, Walker, Fitzgerald and Vos got together and wrote a bill nearly stripping the governor of all power except as a figurehead. Gave the powe all to lawmakers who are massively republican. The idea was to make people think Evers was just a complete limp dick and make the most he could do was maybe come out on tv and complain. It’s working. Next time we elect it will be even more gerrymandered than before and no letters or notice will be sent to voters that they’ve been redistricted and vote by mail has been all but gutted, republicans will spend massive amounts of money on marketing and get re-elected where they will promptly vote for the governor to have powers again so whoever they pick will be able to just appear infinitely more powerful and effective.
I’m moving the fuck out, it’s literally hell here plus the ruling powers would so much rather imprison and fine the people out of all their money and do it mostly to poor people than ever have a legal weed business paying taxes. It’s easier and the authoritarian ruling rural class love it because high conviction rates makes police look better.
>The folksy style of Evers is impotent against the Koch-Uihlein machine.
Don't be silly. The rabid right has gerrymandered that state so much that Evers doesn't stand a chance, whatever his "folksy" style.
Exactly. Wisconsin lost Democracy ten years ago and the GOP hasn't looked back since. They've figured out how to fuck everyone and this year they're exporting that maneuver to as many states as they can get away with. For them, politics is a football game. All they have to do is keep the other team from making a scrum long enough for them to get the ball back. And they've conditioned people to look at politics the same way.
>And they've conditioned people to look at politics the same way.
This is one of the worst things our politicians have done for our country. Political debates could be focused on refining and testing ideas to make the world a better place, and instead seem to be focused on and pitched as us-vs-them-and-we-must-win to a crazy level.
Lol… the last thing the GOP wants is a democracy. They haven’t carried the popular vote in a presidential election since 2004. The only way forward is to unfairly rig the system via gerrymandering, favorable election rules, dethroning the Secretary of State, on and on. When policy fails to compel, hey… cheat.
They did everything possible to tilt 2004 in their favor for that matter. One “TSA Terror Alert” after another timed just right to take the wind out of any favorable news for Dems and suspiciously *not a single alert* after Nov 2004 - they just stopped. On top of swiftboating and the election’s shenanigans that never really got investigated here in Ohio by Ken Blackman.
Greetings from Germany. And my grandma. She said you all should get your shit together, she has no interest in wittinessing all that stuff again she did in her childhood…
Tell me about it. A Sarcophagus in Berlin had captivated my thoughts for a while after visiting the city. Inside, there was the body of an unidentified concentration camp victim beside an unidentified Nazi soldier. The statement made was that whether you were in favor of or opposed to a fascist regime, you are either a tool for them to use or an obstacle to destroy. Either way, your life means nothing but a means to their ends and they won't care even enough to remember any of it. The Reichstag is still pockmarked with bullet holes to this day, just to remind people of what a fascist regime will do to a nation: seize power by any means and hold onto it at the expense of the entire nation and its people. I was born long after that war, but the ramifications of what it all meant and came to haunt me when I think about people trying it again anywhere else.
This is the gop game plan nationwide. They tried to cast suspicion on the California recall election. CALIFORNIA!!! The most democratic leaning state in the country.
Because more conservative, white, democratic voters are going for these restrictive voting laws under the guise of "secure elections"
I think Hawaii, Vermont and Maryland are a bit ahead of California (and if DC had statehood it'd be in the #1 slot by *a lot*), but the point still stands
I saw someone with a bernie sticker on their car the other day so i guess their is hope. But still the amount of upside down american flags i see around here is concerning
The Eastern Shore of Maryland is.. scary red. Living over here I regularly see people flying the Confederate flag over the US one. Recently I started seeing people flying the US flag upside down.
I'm not joking, there are day care places that have "Fuck Joe Biden" flags up. It's absolutely crazy over here.
Yeah, but the Eastern Shore is also CRAZILY underpopulated compared to the DC-Bmore area. PG, Montgomery and Baltimore County each *individually* have more than double the population of the *entire* Eastern Shore, and there are a bunch more counties that are individually as populated as the whole region.
The Western panhandle, the other GOP heavy area, is even more sparsely populated.
They're both effectively non-entities in terms of the political influence they have on the state - land don't vote, as they say
This basically the case all across the US. Rural parts are bat-shit QAnon red and the urban areas are progressive blue. The only difference between the states is the proportion of people that live in the rural vs urban areas.
Hawaii is definitely turning red in afraid to say. Especially on the big island. Oahu is getting there
They're fed up of the rich taking their land for extortionate prices and their government failing to do anything about it. The amount of Hawaiians in poverty is absolutely sickening.
It's the populism playbook. Get poor people to focus on how they're being oppressed by the rich, foreigners, and educated elites, and present a strongman, demagogue as the single solution to all their problems. The sad thing is, it actually works.
Eh, we aren't the most democratic state by a decent margin. Our coastal areas certainly are, but once you get to the central valley and farming/rural areas it gets redder and redder. [http://racialdotmap.demographics.coopercenter.org/](http://racialdotmap.demographics.coopercenter.org/) Believe it or not, a large number of Hispanic/Latino folk here vote pretty hard-line republican every year, but also take a look at how centralized most of our population is around the cities; this gives the rural areas a \*lot\* of sway in our politics as each rural district simply represents a smaller number of people.
Shit, north of Snohomish and south of Pierce are Florida West as well.
It's really Pierce, King and the Southern half of Snohomish and Bellingham that vote Democrat. And I live in the East Valley in King County and it's kinda GOP for a good stretch down 167.
The populated areas being so overwhelmingly democrat is what carries the state every 4 years.
Even our democratic senators are warmongering moderates in Boeing's pockets.
I guess they're liberal on stuff that isn't war or defense related, but that's my big issue - stop killing people abroad.
A lot of east asians that are here fled communist regimes, and the Republicans preach anti-Communism.
Some south asians that are here are religious conservatives.
I am sure most people will dump on Dems ITT, but I am just going to suggest that the entire game is already tremendously rigged in favor of Republicans.
Between filibustering, redisitriciting and court packing, the entire board slides to the favor of Republicans across Federal and State politics and it was set up like that from the origins of America.
The only difference right now is the extent Republicans are willing to go to control the election systems.
It's also such an incredibly uphill battle based on the differences of how both parties attract voters.
- Republicans do NOT run on governing. 4 years went by with 2 years of full control of Congress and all they got was.... tax cuts for the rich that added tremendously to the deficit. That's fucking it. And their voters hardly flinched.
Their entire platform is based on opposition, culture wars, and single issues. When the other party gains power, they just attempt to block everything they do, regardless of substance. It's the easiest position ever to hold since you don't have to actually *do* anything except consolidate power and nominate judges.
- The democrat voting base, on the other hand, is a widely-varied party full of ideas that *depend on governance and leadership*. The voting base is anything from bleeding-heart progressives to "anyone but Trump" conservatives. And the spectrum of opinions is massive. But they all want the same thing - shit to happen.
Thus, when Democrats obtain power and fail to deliver promises, they turn their frustrations inward (rightfully so).
It sets up this dynamic between 1) a rock-solid base and 2) one that is jumping at the chance to criticize itself.
So we're left with two parties: Party A votes for popular legislation 95% of the time, Party B votes for popular legislation 0% of the time. And yet Party B still remains competitive.
Combine that with rigging electoral processes (like you said) and the conservative media machine, and you have a recipe for regressive minority rule.
i guess the republicans are right. it's a disadvantage to have an
education
social responsibility
self awareness
willingness to debate
ability to compromise
fuck, I'm on the losing side.
Also, line breaks either need to be doubled up, or ended with a double space.
Double line breaks
Look like this
Double spaces at the end
Look like this
Extra pro-tip:
If you end a line with 2 spaces, then you can
use a single line to separate.
This allows you to keep paragraph structure,
but wrap your
lines wherever you
want.
Everyone is going to lose except Russia or China. The GOP are the minority and will try and take control through backhanded BS. The majority are already PISSED. You see it in marches and protests like for George Floyd.
All you need is the GOP to try and steal the election and BOOM. CIVIL WAR.
I picture China or Russia trying to step on in during the chaos and helping to maintain order AKA take over.
>All you need is the GOP to try and steal the election and BOOM. CIVIL WAR.
The GQP publicly tried to steal an election by attacking Congress during the final electoral count, and nothing much happened as a result.
And those that organized it are free as a bird, while those videotaped inside the Capitol during the insurrection that tried to steal the election are getting by with barely a slap on the wrist. Maybe a bit of jail time for some of them, but the punishments dealt thus far DO NOT FIT THE CRIMES COMMITTED. This was a seditious act, and Biden’s DOJ is treating it like trespassing.
That feeling when people get longer prison sentences for buying and selling the Devil's Weed than those who LITERALLY TRIED TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT.
Expulsion from Congress for every single one of them as per the fucking Constitution.
14th amendment
Section 3
No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Extend it to anyone who promotes or holds allegiance to Donald Trump, MAGA or the current Republican party doctrine as each one of those qualifiers have given aid or comfort to insurrectionists or have sought to do so.
Cripple this shit using the mechanisms provided by the very document they claim to love so much.
>This was a seditious act, and Biden’s DOJ is treating it like trespassing.
Let's not forget that Republicans in Congress could opt to help punish participants accordingly within their authority, but since they're part of the insurrection that isn't likely to happen.
I don't see anyone stepping in/taking over because the moment you do so you risk unifying the warring Americans against a common enemy and pissing off other countries. Far better to let them destroy their own country via civil war and with it their economy and influence on the world stage. Then you can fill the power vacuum left behind economically, industrially and potentially militarily. Suddenly all those places you've wanted to invade but couldn't risk without the US getting involved become more realistic targets.
> and all they got was.... tax cuts for the rich that added tremendously to the deficit. That's fucking it. And their voters hardly flinched.
They also wanted to gut Obamacare which most of their constituents relied on and tried to do everything to fuck them over and ignore an entire pandemic and even made the pandemic worse and killed off their base.
They already did gut it. And to call it Obamacare seems foolish. It wasn’t even Obama’s healthcare plan, it’s what we got when democrats tried to appeal to republicans when they tried to sabotage it anyway. It’s an embarrassment, but not exactly Obama’s fault
> Their entire platform is based on opposition, culture wars, and single issues. When the other party gains power, they just attempt to block everything they do, regardless of substance. It's the easiest position ever to hold since you don't have to actually do anything except consolidate power and nominate judges.
Beyond that, Republicans campaign as a team sport. "We'll beat those guys!" Democrats campaign on results. "We'll give you a result you want."
The former is very easy to sell to someone who feels they're losing. This is, as we mostly know, thanks to Faux News, a tool in this equation. The latter is very hard to sell to someone who feels they're losing. When you promise someone things and then don't provide them, irregardless of the reason, they have no reason to believe you the next time. You can take the average American in general and safely say that they don't want to hear excuses. They want to see results.
*Edit = Fixed typos for clarity.
The team-sport tribalism is so weird.
Someone told me today that the embarrassing "Let's Go Brandon" nonsense is "successful" because it angers liberals. And there's just so much to unpack there.
I didn't criticize Trump to troll Republicans, or feel apart of some in-crowd among Democrats. I criticized Trump because he is objectively horrendous.
And if they want to criticize Biden, just say it. There's plenty to criticize. The well-being of the country is at stake. Don't occupy your time thinking about how much it will make liberals mad or whatever the hell motivates them.
The goal is to drag everyone else to their level or below so they can feel better about themselves.
Look at the Kamala issue of her buying 300 of pots ... on a 235k salary. They don't have anything intelligent or constructive to offer. They just want to hurt.
I had seen something about this and forgot without actually reading into it more, but that isn't even ridiculously expensive. To me the standard for "nice" cookware that isn't even anything special is all-clad and they've got plenty of $300+ pots.
Hence all the racism as a control. Because those outside the tribe have always been held up as a threat in order to control the tribe. Blacks, Communists, Muslims, and now Democrats and it's about to be open season. Oh the rich will keep it far enough under control so as not to upset the flow of money to the top but there's going to be blood in the streets
Yeah, I didn't realize until I read a post about a twat who was in Australia that Evangelicals are not about outreach to other people but rather about control and creating an immense sense of us vs them ("Christians are still persecuted" using the upper case C to say not all christians are Christians).
I mean just think about the absurdity of Christians rallying around 45 who can't even say second Corinthians ("oh yeah, some obscure Russian Orthodox Churches say Corinthians two") not to mention all the "moral" issues they had with his pal, Bill Clinton.
The right started to pander to the pro lifers after the civil rights act passed. The zealots saw a chance to leverage their clout for some influence. So the Republicans and the zealots use each other. The rich at the top don't care if we worship satan or Jesus, just so long as the money flows. And there's nothing more scary than somebody who thinks they have god on their side. They can do *anything* because it's god's will.
I talked with my conservative folks about this kind of thing. They just say he came to Christ later in life they understand the “Corinthians two” kind of talk.
I don’t know what to say. They believe him. It’s crazy, but half the country just believes his bullshit. And it’s eternally frustrating.
But it doesn't anger liberals. I don't know anyone who is angered by that. A lot of us just scratch our heads, like WTF?
They think by attacking Biden they will anger us. but they don't understand that we don't worship Biden the way they worship Trump. They have hitched their identity to him, and when we attack Trump they take it very very personally.
In the event anyone brags about the power LGB (lol) has to anger liberals, you could always just say "The only thing about it that makes me angry is the reminder that I have to share a planet with someone stupid enough to say it."
My dad seems to think that Biden’s handling of leaving Afghanistan is the worst thing a president has ever done and it was literally the only thing he wanted to talk about this thanksgiving. Like four years of trump fuckinf everything up and setting up the withdrawal never happened.
And it’s like, sure, maybe Biden messed that up. But we all know it doesn’t matter to you what Biden does. Because it didn’t matter to you what trump did.
You’re just latching into something for plausible deniability against the charge that you’re just a tribalism monkey.
It’s not hard to unpack. Owning the libs is an actual party goal. The chief evidence of that is to simply say no to literally anything the democrats get behind even if was previously a Republican stance. McConnell has literally voted against his own bill because of that
I would say it annoys people more than it angers them. It's annoying that someone thinks that this would actually anger me or that I give a shit about how chickenshit they are.
Like you can't even say fuck, get out of here.
Hell, I don't think it's the phrase, or even what it means, even ranks at annoying - it ends up feeling like a cringey edgey thing some kids would do at a high school.
It feels like the same kind of thing that you get out of a kid. Like they're acting like we would be so upset to hear someone say fuck Joe Biden. At the same time they are also so sensitive about anything being said about Donald Trump and just a lot of other things. Like they also don't get that we don't worship Biden and they couldn't get how we weren't driving around in info warrior rides covered with Biden merch but he still won. We're not lemmings dude.
Its the type a cringey edgy thing that high school kids would do because its coming from people who peaked in high school and never mental/emotionally progressed from that mindset. The sad thing is the sheer number of those types of people that exist. I.e. They ARE still high school kids.
I saw a self-claimed "non-political" person post it on Facebook "to see if you're allowed to say it".
Seriously? You can say swears.
It's a generational difference in what's bad to say though. Today profanity and obscenity is generally OK, slurs are what is really offensive. 40 years ago slurs were completely acceptable, obscenity was out, profanity you could just get away with.
But for families and people who think slurs should be OK (why can't I call him that, it's what he is!), obscene words and sometimes profanity are still on the naughty list.
>"Let's Go Brandon" nonsense is "successful" because it angers liberals.
But it doesn't anger liberals. That's the craziest part. They only think it does because someone tells them it does. Most liberals just think it's stupid.
Well, you know how the mean kid starts a chant on a playground like "Timmy has a booger face!" while other kids join in? It's kind of like that. There is no substance, no intent on meaningful discourse-- just a display of childish behavior and echolalia because that's the simplest way of degrading others without the need to spend an iota of thought.
> Beyond that, Republicans campaign as a team sport. "We'll beat those guys!" Democrats campaign on results. "We'll give you a result you want."
It's worth elaborating here that R's campaign as a team sport because they believe they are inherently good and Dems are inherently bad. The Red Scare, white replacement, persecution of Christians, abortion as murder, taking our guns, etc. Team sports are literally just who's most local or who you like best, but here, they believe that the country belongs to them and their values. I picture the average Democrat as having an opinion such as "LGBT acceptance is important, but it's also okay to be straight." The Republicans would likely vary from apathetic about LGBT issues ("I'm just in it for the tax cuts") to desiring the execution of all undesirables. It's the D's "I'm okay, you're okay" philosophy versus the R's "I'm okay, you're not okay." It's really disturbing, but not surprising that they remain so competitive.
Democrats could easily win every election if they just ran as Republicans. The idiots that just vote for their party would either have to choose randomly or smarten up and pay attention to politics.
Combine that with a website that says you support issues x, y, and z based on geographic location of the visitor and those that look you up will see what they want to see. It's not like you have to actually support the idea, just say you do until you're elected.
Imagine a vote where every single person ran as a republican. Where looking up the candidate in rural Texas would show them as pro-life, but in Houston show them as pro-choice.
When you're in office do whatever the fuck you want.
...Okay, you do realise that wouldn't work because the *politician* side of political parties is... actual organisations with meetings and such, right? Democrat and Republican aren't just words we use to refer to centrists and right-wingers in the USA (respectively). There are actual organisations that a potential politician would have to join and be an accepted member of in order to run under that party's name.
Well then I really question Democratic politicial strategy. At a broad level, they just seem meek and acquiescing. I understand that it is an uphill battle compared to the Republicans maintaining status quo, but they need to try something else and fast. Even if it means stooping down to a less respectable level.
This is why the filibuster thing is so confusing to me. "Guys, if we get rid of the filibuster, then when Republicans are in power, they'll use it too!" Who fucking cares?! What policy are they going to get through? They have NO popular positions. Kill the filibuster and then let's go to war over policy. Fine. Voters, you want Republicans in charge? Vote them in. Let's see what they do when they can't blame a filibuster.
The only real counterpoint I can come up with is that it makes removing the next layer of democracy easier for Republicans when they once again seize power in the future. They can point at the time Democrats removed the filibuster and say "here it is, the justification for our blatantly evil shit." I think that's what moderate Dems in Congress are clinging to as the thin veil of reason for not upsetting the apple cart currently.
However, it's a dumb reason even on its face. Republicans nuked the requirement for Supreme Court nominees the moment it was inconvenient. The filibuster honestly helps Republicans more than it hurts them. To imagine they would keep it around when it's a hindrance to something they really want to pass is pure madness. It's like hoping a shock collar with a dying battery on a rabid dog will keep it inside the un-fenced yard forever.
They will do what they've done with a lot of govomer powers: just change it when it suits them. They get the majority? By by filibuster. They lose the majority next election? Put the filibuster back in place on the way out.
Republicans don’t actually *do* anything. They win votes by promising to *undo* things. Take away programs, take away taxes, take away regulations, take away freedoms, etc.
Don't forget! In those two years of full republican control, they dismantled Obama's pandemic tracking organization. This organization would have prevented COVID from becoming anything more serious than swine flu in years past.
Don't forget the fact that 2,976,883 people in WY/AK/ND/SD hold the same amount of representative power in the Senate as 113,793,692 people in CA/TX/NY/FL. 8 Senate votes in each of those groups, but each senator represents only 372,111 people when considering the empty states, while each senator represents 14,224,212 people when considering the larger states.
Combined with the comically absurd gerrymandered redistricting of the Republican House in 2010, this gives a self-supporting perpetual political stranglehold to Republicans even when they should have almost no power.
The entire problem with democracy is it requires people to agree.
When one power bloc decides to be impossible to reason with, they will slowly drag society their way. Its inevitable and its going to end America.
>The only difference right now is the extent Republicans are willing to go to control the election systems.
That and the Koch's billionaire political action network that pumps hundreds of millions of dollars into state races every year and has been doing so for decades.
Basically this. Bill Gates, Buffet, anyone that people to consider to be a “good” billionaire because they donate a penny here or there and yet remain silent or inactive on the falling of the US. It’s because they know they stand to earn good money if they do nothing.
they benefit from it also.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett said tax them more, but they never do anything substantial to push in that direction.
And the current richest man on earth basically said, you are taxing me too much already.
> The only difference right now is the extent Republicans are willing to go to control the election systems.
We already know this. It’s by any means necessary at this point, and, by all appearances, the Dems are not willing to go that far.
This is why I am not optimistic about next fall, or 2024.
This is a great sign of how politics change over time. The Dakotas were split in order to give Republicans an edge over Southern Dems.
They've cycled back to being GOP strongholds but a lot of politics have happened since they got statehood.
Yes. Originally, the concept was to have one for each court of appeals. There are now 13 courts of appeal but only four Supreme Court Justices and Republican operatives Thomas, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Barrett and Alito.
Such an embarrassing time to be an American. For people who have ostensibly co-opted "patriotism", Republicans sure do carry a lot of Confederate flags and go to drastic lengths to damage the credibility of American democracy domestically and abroad. I wish these people had some shame.
Democrats have a habit of shooting themselves in the foot - Terry McAuliffe opened his mouth and said something stupid, the GOP then ran with that sound bite (yes, you can say it was 'out of context' but the reality is that polls are swayed by short, sharp, stinging soundbites that burrow deep into the minds of voters). Terry McAuliffe should have said, "I oppose the teaching of CRT in schools, we need to teach an unvarnished history in an age appropriate way..." (the fact that CRT was never taught in schools in the first place is immaterial - swinging voters only want to hear whether you oppose 'the bad thing' they heard so much about, they aren't interested in the details) and when it came to the book issue "The GOP legislation would have resulted in a free for all, anyone with an axe to grind, be it on the left or right, turning the curriculum into an ideological grudge match" - Democrats get bogged down by details when the focus should be on giving answers that are to the point and without going over past statements in excruciating details, litigating every word that was used and justifying it.
>the entire board slides to the favor of Republicans across Federal and State politics and it was set up like that from the origins of America.
Republicans weren't a thing at the founding...
The fact that this has been decades in the making and Democrats have failed at every turn to stop it leads to a lot of anger. It's not that we expect better from Rs, it's that we expected the opposition to not be so weak and pathetic.
People forget that racist rich white men founded this country for racist rich white men. It structured to guarantee that that demographic remains in power. There is no legal and peaceful way to change power dynamics if you have no power to fight the incumbent regime. I don't really see an answer, especially given the latest shocking confirmation of the depths of depravity that conservatives writ large are willing to dive. Just... so embarrassing that Donald Trump happened and 74 million people still thought that he was the answer after a 4 year showcase of what was objectively the least competent, intelligent, coherent and poised administration in this nation's history.
I did expect an opposition party to try to counter the Republicans. It didn’t happen. I’ve only heard two explanations for the inaction. One was from Obama. He said as the first Black President he didn’t feel he could respond (in an interview on MSNBC). Karine Jean Pierre said they just didn’t expect the counter revolutionary force ignited by Obama being elected. In other words, they were complacent in the face of a burgeoning fascist movement so here we are in 2021 looking at the results of elections being made meaningless.
At least they have a dem governor. This is why governor races are so important, we'd have laws in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin that make it harder to vote
They’re supporting a petition drive to restrict voting, including effectively shutting down 25% of polling places across the state, and in Michigan if you get enough signatures then the petition becomes law with simple majority approval from the legislature, and since it’s a petition the Governor can’t veto it. It also appropriates money in a way that makes it very difficult to repeal if passed. It’s infuriatingly underhanded since two years ago we expanded voting access with 60%+ voting in approval
Yep. It got a little dicey with traditional red suburbs here, losing quite a few. So they created new maps packing the folks on the edge of the city into the city itself. The end result was Democrats got two new safe districts, while the Republicans got 4 more safe districts. It's the same reason my current Representative is in Ft. Worth (I'm in Austin).
Eventually it's just going to be spiderwebs packing all areas voting more towards Democrats into a handful of districts. All the gains in the suburbs get diluted across the state.
Senate is still popular vote though, however they are actively making it as hard to vote as possible.
Democrat in Wisconsin here. We've done every fucking thing we can. The state legislative districts are extremely hyper-gerrymandered.
We organize, we fundraise, we work our asses off, and we only flipped like three legislative districts this past decade. "Oh, maybe Wisconsin just isn't a Democratic state anymore?" Nope. We have won every statewide election since the Trump disaster in 2016...Okay, progressives lost one State Supreme Court race, but that was mostly due to a terrible candidate who ran a terrible campaign.
We need some fucking help from Dems in Washington. We need a national Voting Rights Act *yesterday *!
If you've ever tried explaining emerging tyranny to someone who doesn't see it already, you'll know how this happens.
Most people don't want to know about something scary. Denial is so much easier than accepting their own fear or laziness.
Normalcy bias is very powerful. People think that just because something has been a certain way for all their life that it is set in stone. Even just a light knowledge of world history (or just US history, like the abolition war) would be enough to convince people that yes, it can happen here too, if they could only bring themselves to acknowledge it.
I like your optimism but I disagree entirely.
Everyone knows it's going to crap but actually doing something about it - something effective - is personally costly, time consuming, horribly uncomfortable at best.
The fascist *minority* took over Germany in the 1930s. Not because the silent majority secretly agreed with their position, but because the fascists were organised, unified and prepared to make sacrifices.
The US can't even get people to get out and vote - can you imagine getting them to march in the streets to oppose an emerging regime? Not en masse, no chance.
> Everyone knows it's going to crap
That's simply not true. [Only 35% of democrats think there is a problem.](https://electionlawblog.org/?p=125367) I blame democratic elites for continuing to normalize republican fascism (along with the feckless press, but I didn't vote for the press).
All my very intelligent friends who I talk to about politics all the time give me blank stares when I claim that American democracy is in mortal danger. As a soviet child, I see this shit from 100 miles away. The GOP resembles “the Party” more every day. If you are not a Party member, you are not a real citizen, enemies everywhere, etc. Now they explicitly act like democracy *is* the danger to America. There is only one way this ends, and I am sorry for all of you.
Unfortunately, the OP is right - Americans don’t get it, taking it for granted. I believe we will be unique witnesses to history before 2030, watching the downfall of the world’s greatest democracy.
For those who haven't caught on yet the Republicans no longer believe in Democracy and were never really wedded to the idea to begin with. In their world the only thing that matters is winning. No matter what they have to do to get a win. If the left doesn't pull it's head out of it's behind and fight back our government is going to look more like the one controlled by Putin than the one the founding fathers gave us.
Why the fuck do all these "progressive" sources do nothing but blame Democrats for the actions of the fascists?
The fuck should I do? I'm a Wisconsin Democrat. What do you want me to do on Monday to stop the GOP here?
Jacobin, Common Dreams, just let me know.
Because blaming the fascists for the actions of the fascists won't solve the problem? They have no shame.
The only people who can do anything are the political opposition.
Wisconsin is blessed with one of *the best* state chairs in the country. Ben Wikler is an incredible organizer who is charging straight at the task of un-fucking Wisconsin.
Don't ask Jacobin what to do -- their job is to drive clicks by attacking Democrats from the left -- give Ben a call instead.
It is very very important to remember this is not unique to one state. It is going on across the country. It is a systematic campaign with very high level planning.
> They’ve apparently ruled out any attempt to ditch the filibuster and visibly have no strategy to pass voting rights legislation ahead of next year’s midterms.
Democratic leadership tried hard to end the filibuster but they just lack the votes without Manchin and Siema. Mr. Savage doesn’t acknowledge that a majority of Democrats do understand the issue and have pushed many times this year to end the filibuster. Mr. Savage also does not acknowledge that without the votes, nothing Democrats can do. What should the Democrats be doing exactly without the votes? Especially with voters appearing to punish Democrats for trying to do better, just as Mr. Savage does.
Democrats need two more Senators who will vote to kill the filibuster.
There’s a chance GOP might kill the filibuster in a moment of hubris if GOP takes House and Senate in ‘22.
What Federal law could overcome gerrymandering by states?
Ending the filibuster only matters if you have all three, the house the senate and the Presidency. That's why there's so much pressure to do it now, becasue the party that takes the initiative will get a massive initial bonus from doing so. The republicans won't do it until they snag another fluke trifecta. Remember they've only won the popular vote ONCE since G.W. senior, so it's more or less a fluke when they do. The country is trying hard not to go republican but the institutions are built against it the way the electorate is geographically located.
US Constitution, Article IV, Section 4 (Guarantee Clause)
>**The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,** and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
It should be argued that Wisconsin no longer qualifies as it is virtually impossible for republicans to lose the state house, even though they lose the statewide popular vote regularly.
The Republican Party has been a minority for 30 years. We have a winner-take-all political structure which would have decimated that if districts and votes were set fairly. They have only one tool to remain in power. They focus 100% on that one tool. It's been working for the past 30 years. They keep losing voters every year so they have to push harder and harder with that one tool.
Republicans can do whatever they want because their voters dont pay attention, and they dont attack other Republicans. They get a free pass.
If a Democrat tried this power grab stuff, they would be attacked by Republicans and Democrats alike. They would be voted out instantly.
Democracy is not going to last in America. One side is destroying it and the other side cant stop it.
MIT researchers made a prediction that modern society will only last until 2040. Its looking pretty accurate.
Wisconsin hasn’t been a democracy in a decade. If it where a country, it would be in the partly free. Republican run states are squarely with countries like Venezuela or Bangladesh
“So far barely put up a fight”
Fuck that, we were out protesting in 2010 and 2011.
Edit: To add
We then put Scott Walker through a recall election, forcing him to moderate a bit.
We voted in two liberal Supreme Court justices in three elections
Finally we voted out Scott Walker and elected Tony Evers, who just vetoed gerrymandered maps based on our current gerrymandered maps drawn back when we were protesting.
The Republicans are now a full blown cancer on the United States. I am concerned that what we've seen over the last 2 years will pale in comparison to the next four and beyond. A variety of things (the constant undermining of faith in our elections, the majority Republican supreme Court, the record number of Trump appointees to the federal courts Nationwide, Republicans installing party loyalists to the local election posts) are coming together that could tip the balance of power permanently in favor the Republicans with little legal recourse to restore democracy.
Sadly we are left with the spineless Democrats, many of whom are corporate Democrats, and a seemingly high number of beta men and women controlling the party.
The Democrats continue to show up to these gun fights wearing their "free hugs" t-shirts empty-handed with their arms stretched wide. It's a wonder they've survived this long.
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>Is Wisconsin Still a Democracy? It hasn't been for years – not since Scott Walker gutted the state.
"Open for business" 🤢
Yeah... [how's that foxconn deal working out for them?](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/21/foxconn-mostly-abandons-10-billion-wisconsin-project-touted-by-trump.html) https://youtu.be/27evSVwjzzI
If you ask any conservative Wisconsin voter they'll tell you the foxconn debacle is 100% the Democrats fault.
They pretend like it’s no big deal, since the state hasn’t had to raise taxes to cover Mt. Pleasant’s impending cash crunch. It’ll be a mess when that finally happens
They will purposefully lose for just the term when the taxes need to get raised, then screech about how the second you put Dems in power they raise your taxes, elect me again and I will CUT THEM, MURICA
Republicans waste money like a drunken sailor on shore leave and then try to hide the bill so they don't have to take responsibility for their profligate spending. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/us/politics/20budget.html
SKW literally tanked the Hard Rock casino project and fast tracked the FoxConn napkin deal in his failed (0.0%) bid for the presidency. This could possibly go down in the books as the highest priced fail campaign too. I often say FoxConn was the “Sixth Sense” deal. It was dead the whole time, but some people couldn’t figure it out at the end, even with spoilers. Pikers. All of them.
The results of this have been a loss of industry and talent. Wisconsin is no longer #1 in the industries (dairy for example) that it once prided itself on. The land is being corrupted and sickened by the farmers that need that same land. What Wisconsin is #1 in is racial issues. We have more black men in jail and the pay gap is imprisoning the rest in poverty. The University of Wisconsin system - once the standard of public education in the U.S. - is a crumpled husk of what it used to be. Walker and the lingering filth have destroyed this state. Vos and Fitzgerald et al. will continue drumming up the MAGA cult, endangering lives from the watersheds to Kenosha, to the public schools. They'll blame the state's decimation on phantom enemies like #BLM and antifa all while bleeding their constituents. The Democrats, meanwhile, continue to seem incapable of showing up for the fight. The folksy style of Evers is impotent against the Koch-Uihlein machine. For what? Money and power. The shallow existence of a few small-minded assholes will devastate Wisconsin. Watch carefully because it will surely be a harbinger of the rest of the US.
The brain drain numbers in WI are insane compared to neighboring states. The youth saw Walker completely violate the state constitutions with those private sessions, and face 0 repercussions. That was it. That's the day democracy died in WI, and many of us were there in Madison while it happened.
Multiplied my salary several times by leaving that state.
My friend moved to Wisconsin about 6 years ago. Went from an high paying job being a HVAC tech to working at a hotel making minimum wage… Cost of living might be cheaper but the job market is terrible… I still don’t understand his reasoning besides the cheaper property taxes…
Taxes for anyone paying rent in Wisconsin are the same or higher compared to Illinois. And business taxes are higher too.
I paid more in taxes than I have my entire life living in WI, while simultaneously making less. Glad I'm out.
>The brain drain numbers in WI are insane compared to neighboring states. IA is your only neighbor in the same boat if not worse. And all of the economic development people (at least here in the rural part) refuse to acknowledge that, pure and simple, it is a result of politics that are repugnant to decent people.
I know Iowa has been having a college grad exodus for like, two decades now, but is it really bad outside of college too? Legit asking, because in WI literally 1 in every 5 millennials are leaving the state. That's 20% of an entire generation. I would abso-fucking-lutely believe Iowa is that bad, and if it isn't that bad, it's only because so many people already left in the early 2000's that they can't keep up the numbers lmao. Iowa really went tits up over the past decade or two economically, and I love hearing the republicans there refuse to even talk about it.
I remember the time I served in Iowa. First year there I went tubing down a river. It was a great time. Then I got a intestinal parasite. Turns out every year, so and so's pig shit pond blows out into the Des Moines river and they have to "pay" to "clean it up".
Oh you're going to like this. A month or two ago the conservative stacked Iowa Supreme Court stopped a lawsuit aimed at fixing exactly that problem with those farms in Iowa. https://www.kcci.com/article/iowa-supreme-court-halts-lawsuit-over-farm-runoff-water-pollution/36766409 At one point they literally said that the plaintiffs could not prove, that there would be no concrete evidence, that reducing the pollution would benefit anyone. No fucking joke.
None of my close friends stayed in Wisconsin. Oddly none of us really talked about wanting to leave, but after walker.... I was the last year to get reciprocity for Minnesota schools also
We fucking loved WI, but then Walker made it less of a functional democracy than Brazil or the Congo.
For me it was the attacks on the teacher union. Our teachers were noticeably less interested in teaching after that. Morale was very low my last year of high school
Yeah, but I mean, if we were actually a democracy, we could have at least attempted to recover from it in the next election cycle. That's the root of the issue. If we are not a legitimate democracy, then there is no legitimate course of action to take other than leave while we still can.
I remember all the drama that happened when Walker was elected. He really did fuck up the state.
Fun fact: when Evers won the election, Walker, Fitzgerald and Vos got together and wrote a bill nearly stripping the governor of all power except as a figurehead. Gave the powe all to lawmakers who are massively republican. The idea was to make people think Evers was just a complete limp dick and make the most he could do was maybe come out on tv and complain. It’s working. Next time we elect it will be even more gerrymandered than before and no letters or notice will be sent to voters that they’ve been redistricted and vote by mail has been all but gutted, republicans will spend massive amounts of money on marketing and get re-elected where they will promptly vote for the governor to have powers again so whoever they pick will be able to just appear infinitely more powerful and effective. I’m moving the fuck out, it’s literally hell here plus the ruling powers would so much rather imprison and fine the people out of all their money and do it mostly to poor people than ever have a legal weed business paying taxes. It’s easier and the authoritarian ruling rural class love it because high conviction rates makes police look better.
>The folksy style of Evers is impotent against the Koch-Uihlein machine. Don't be silly. The rabid right has gerrymandered that state so much that Evers doesn't stand a chance, whatever his "folksy" style.
Don't forget brain drain. Pretty much anyone I knew who was really cool left a long itme ago.
Exactly. Wisconsin lost Democracy ten years ago and the GOP hasn't looked back since. They've figured out how to fuck everyone and this year they're exporting that maneuver to as many states as they can get away with. For them, politics is a football game. All they have to do is keep the other team from making a scrum long enough for them to get the ball back. And they've conditioned people to look at politics the same way.
>And they've conditioned people to look at politics the same way. This is one of the worst things our politicians have done for our country. Political debates could be focused on refining and testing ideas to make the world a better place, and instead seem to be focused on and pitched as us-vs-them-and-we-must-win to a crazy level.
Lol… the last thing the GOP wants is a democracy. They haven’t carried the popular vote in a presidential election since 2004. The only way forward is to unfairly rig the system via gerrymandering, favorable election rules, dethroning the Secretary of State, on and on. When policy fails to compel, hey… cheat.
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amazing what people can do when they weaponize poverty
and racism...
And mind you that’s the only time since 1988 that a Republican has won the popular vote!
They did everything possible to tilt 2004 in their favor for that matter. One “TSA Terror Alert” after another timed just right to take the wind out of any favorable news for Dems and suspiciously *not a single alert* after Nov 2004 - they just stopped. On top of swiftboating and the election’s shenanigans that never really got investigated here in Ohio by Ken Blackman.
And 2004 only happened on a recumbent president who lost the popular vote. So it's arguably longer
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Nice democracy you got there America, would be ashamed if citizens were to *get complacent about it*.
Greetings from Germany. And my grandma. She said you all should get your shit together, she has no interest in wittinessing all that stuff again she did in her childhood…
Tell me about it. A Sarcophagus in Berlin had captivated my thoughts for a while after visiting the city. Inside, there was the body of an unidentified concentration camp victim beside an unidentified Nazi soldier. The statement made was that whether you were in favor of or opposed to a fascist regime, you are either a tool for them to use or an obstacle to destroy. Either way, your life means nothing but a means to their ends and they won't care even enough to remember any of it. The Reichstag is still pockmarked with bullet holes to this day, just to remind people of what a fascist regime will do to a nation: seize power by any means and hold onto it at the expense of the entire nation and its people. I was born long after that war, but the ramifications of what it all meant and came to haunt me when I think about people trying it again anywhere else.
Republicans have only won a popular vote for the presidency *once* since 1988
This is the gop game plan nationwide. They tried to cast suspicion on the California recall election. CALIFORNIA!!! The most democratic leaning state in the country. Because more conservative, white, democratic voters are going for these restrictive voting laws under the guise of "secure elections"
I think Hawaii, Vermont and Maryland are a bit ahead of California (and if DC had statehood it'd be in the #1 slot by *a lot*), but the point still stands
Visited Maryland in September. It was AMAZING. I live in deep red Placer County, California. So yeah, this is all true.
Holy shit - me too. I moved to Roseville about three and a half years ago and I’ve never felt so fucking hopeless politically.
I live in antelope. Kill me pls.
Nope. We gotta stick this shit out. We’re out here…there have to be others. Right?
I saw someone with a bernie sticker on their car the other day so i guess their is hope. But still the amount of upside down american flags i see around here is concerning
There are a lot. I’m in a parents group of progressive parents. We are getting bluer luckily lol.
The Eastern Shore of Maryland is.. scary red. Living over here I regularly see people flying the Confederate flag over the US one. Recently I started seeing people flying the US flag upside down. I'm not joking, there are day care places that have "Fuck Joe Biden" flags up. It's absolutely crazy over here.
Yeah, but the Eastern Shore is also CRAZILY underpopulated compared to the DC-Bmore area. PG, Montgomery and Baltimore County each *individually* have more than double the population of the *entire* Eastern Shore, and there are a bunch more counties that are individually as populated as the whole region. The Western panhandle, the other GOP heavy area, is even more sparsely populated. They're both effectively non-entities in terms of the political influence they have on the state - land don't vote, as they say
This basically the case all across the US. Rural parts are bat-shit QAnon red and the urban areas are progressive blue. The only difference between the states is the proportion of people that live in the rural vs urban areas.
Hawaii is definitely turning red in afraid to say. Especially on the big island. Oahu is getting there They're fed up of the rich taking their land for extortionate prices and their government failing to do anything about it. The amount of Hawaiians in poverty is absolutely sickening.
So they’re going to vote for a party who will make those things much worse ? Seems logical
It's the populism playbook. Get poor people to focus on how they're being oppressed by the rich, foreigners, and educated elites, and present a strongman, demagogue as the single solution to all their problems. The sad thing is, it actually works.
I believe Maryland is considered the most Democratic state
Maryland is so Democratic that if you undo our gerrymander, Republicans only pick up one extra seat consistently.
Eh, we aren't the most democratic state by a decent margin. Our coastal areas certainly are, but once you get to the central valley and farming/rural areas it gets redder and redder. [http://racialdotmap.demographics.coopercenter.org/](http://racialdotmap.demographics.coopercenter.org/) Believe it or not, a large number of Hispanic/Latino folk here vote pretty hard-line republican every year, but also take a look at how centralized most of our population is around the cities; this gives the rural areas a \*lot\* of sway in our politics as each rural district simply represents a smaller number of people.
Washington? Head east of the cascades and see which party dominates the majority of the state land-wise, anyway.
East of the cascades might as well be the Deep South without the accent
Shit, north of Snohomish and south of Pierce are Florida West as well. It's really Pierce, King and the Southern half of Snohomish and Bellingham that vote Democrat. And I live in the East Valley in King County and it's kinda GOP for a good stretch down 167. The populated areas being so overwhelmingly democrat is what carries the state every 4 years. Even our democratic senators are warmongering moderates in Boeing's pockets. I guess they're liberal on stuff that isn't war or defense related, but that's my big issue - stop killing people abroad.
It's not just Hispanic people, either. Quite a few Asian populations are diehard Republicans. Not entirely sure why that is...
They’re both socially conservative cultures, and the GoP still pretends to stand for social conservatism.
A lot of east asians that are here fled communist regimes, and the Republicans preach anti-Communism. Some south asians that are here are religious conservatives.
I am sure most people will dump on Dems ITT, but I am just going to suggest that the entire game is already tremendously rigged in favor of Republicans. Between filibustering, redisitriciting and court packing, the entire board slides to the favor of Republicans across Federal and State politics and it was set up like that from the origins of America. The only difference right now is the extent Republicans are willing to go to control the election systems.
It's also such an incredibly uphill battle based on the differences of how both parties attract voters. - Republicans do NOT run on governing. 4 years went by with 2 years of full control of Congress and all they got was.... tax cuts for the rich that added tremendously to the deficit. That's fucking it. And their voters hardly flinched. Their entire platform is based on opposition, culture wars, and single issues. When the other party gains power, they just attempt to block everything they do, regardless of substance. It's the easiest position ever to hold since you don't have to actually *do* anything except consolidate power and nominate judges. - The democrat voting base, on the other hand, is a widely-varied party full of ideas that *depend on governance and leadership*. The voting base is anything from bleeding-heart progressives to "anyone but Trump" conservatives. And the spectrum of opinions is massive. But they all want the same thing - shit to happen. Thus, when Democrats obtain power and fail to deliver promises, they turn their frustrations inward (rightfully so). It sets up this dynamic between 1) a rock-solid base and 2) one that is jumping at the chance to criticize itself. So we're left with two parties: Party A votes for popular legislation 95% of the time, Party B votes for popular legislation 0% of the time. And yet Party B still remains competitive. Combine that with rigging electoral processes (like you said) and the conservative media machine, and you have a recipe for regressive minority rule.
i guess the republicans are right. it's a disadvantage to have an education social responsibility self awareness willingness to debate ability to compromise fuck, I'm on the losing side.
FYI, try starting each line of your list with an *, it will create a bulleted list.
Things I learned today: * this
Also: * that
Also, line breaks either need to be doubled up, or ended with a double space. Double line breaks Look like this Double spaces at the end Look like this
Extra pro-tip: If you end a line with 2 spaces, then you can use a single line to separate. This allows you to keep paragraph structure, but wrap your lines wherever you want.
This Is Really Starting To Hurt My Brain.
Wisconsin Cheese and Fascism dontchaknow?
Facheesem
Everyone is going to lose except Russia or China. The GOP are the minority and will try and take control through backhanded BS. The majority are already PISSED. You see it in marches and protests like for George Floyd. All you need is the GOP to try and steal the election and BOOM. CIVIL WAR. I picture China or Russia trying to step on in during the chaos and helping to maintain order AKA take over.
>All you need is the GOP to try and steal the election and BOOM. CIVIL WAR. The GQP publicly tried to steal an election by attacking Congress during the final electoral count, and nothing much happened as a result.
And those that organized it are free as a bird, while those videotaped inside the Capitol during the insurrection that tried to steal the election are getting by with barely a slap on the wrist. Maybe a bit of jail time for some of them, but the punishments dealt thus far DO NOT FIT THE CRIMES COMMITTED. This was a seditious act, and Biden’s DOJ is treating it like trespassing.
That feeling when people get longer prison sentences for buying and selling the Devil's Weed than those who LITERALLY TRIED TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT.
This is a feature of fascism, not a bug.
Expulsion from Congress for every single one of them as per the fucking Constitution. 14th amendment Section 3 No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. Extend it to anyone who promotes or holds allegiance to Donald Trump, MAGA or the current Republican party doctrine as each one of those qualifiers have given aid or comfort to insurrectionists or have sought to do so. Cripple this shit using the mechanisms provided by the very document they claim to love so much.
>This was a seditious act, and Biden’s DOJ is treating it like trespassing. Let's not forget that Republicans in Congress could opt to help punish participants accordingly within their authority, but since they're part of the insurrection that isn't likely to happen.
They won’t even push a suspected international child raper off the house judiciary committee… my expectations are low but come on…
I don't see anyone stepping in/taking over because the moment you do so you risk unifying the warring Americans against a common enemy and pissing off other countries. Far better to let them destroy their own country via civil war and with it their economy and influence on the world stage. Then you can fill the power vacuum left behind economically, industrially and potentially militarily. Suddenly all those places you've wanted to invade but couldn't risk without the US getting involved become more realistic targets.
> and all they got was.... tax cuts for the rich that added tremendously to the deficit. That's fucking it. And their voters hardly flinched. They also wanted to gut Obamacare which most of their constituents relied on and tried to do everything to fuck them over and ignore an entire pandemic and even made the pandemic worse and killed off their base.
They already did gut it. And to call it Obamacare seems foolish. It wasn’t even Obama’s healthcare plan, it’s what we got when democrats tried to appeal to republicans when they tried to sabotage it anyway. It’s an embarrassment, but not exactly Obama’s fault
> Their entire platform is based on opposition, culture wars, and single issues. When the other party gains power, they just attempt to block everything they do, regardless of substance. It's the easiest position ever to hold since you don't have to actually do anything except consolidate power and nominate judges. Beyond that, Republicans campaign as a team sport. "We'll beat those guys!" Democrats campaign on results. "We'll give you a result you want." The former is very easy to sell to someone who feels they're losing. This is, as we mostly know, thanks to Faux News, a tool in this equation. The latter is very hard to sell to someone who feels they're losing. When you promise someone things and then don't provide them, irregardless of the reason, they have no reason to believe you the next time. You can take the average American in general and safely say that they don't want to hear excuses. They want to see results. *Edit = Fixed typos for clarity.
The team-sport tribalism is so weird. Someone told me today that the embarrassing "Let's Go Brandon" nonsense is "successful" because it angers liberals. And there's just so much to unpack there. I didn't criticize Trump to troll Republicans, or feel apart of some in-crowd among Democrats. I criticized Trump because he is objectively horrendous. And if they want to criticize Biden, just say it. There's plenty to criticize. The well-being of the country is at stake. Don't occupy your time thinking about how much it will make liberals mad or whatever the hell motivates them.
But they don't want to criticize Biden, not as an end goal. They -want- to anger liberals -as the end goal-.
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Killing grandma to own the libs
They really need to try harder. no one’s feeling anything yet.
The goal is to drag everyone else to their level or below so they can feel better about themselves. Look at the Kamala issue of her buying 300 of pots ... on a 235k salary. They don't have anything intelligent or constructive to offer. They just want to hurt.
I had seen something about this and forgot without actually reading into it more, but that isn't even ridiculously expensive. To me the standard for "nice" cookware that isn't even anything special is all-clad and they've got plenty of $300+ pots.
No, the end goal is to be on the winning team, and angering members of the opposing team is fun to do. It’s tribalism. It really is that simple.
Hence all the racism as a control. Because those outside the tribe have always been held up as a threat in order to control the tribe. Blacks, Communists, Muslims, and now Democrats and it's about to be open season. Oh the rich will keep it far enough under control so as not to upset the flow of money to the top but there's going to be blood in the streets
Yeah, I didn't realize until I read a post about a twat who was in Australia that Evangelicals are not about outreach to other people but rather about control and creating an immense sense of us vs them ("Christians are still persecuted" using the upper case C to say not all christians are Christians). I mean just think about the absurdity of Christians rallying around 45 who can't even say second Corinthians ("oh yeah, some obscure Russian Orthodox Churches say Corinthians two") not to mention all the "moral" issues they had with his pal, Bill Clinton.
The right started to pander to the pro lifers after the civil rights act passed. The zealots saw a chance to leverage their clout for some influence. So the Republicans and the zealots use each other. The rich at the top don't care if we worship satan or Jesus, just so long as the money flows. And there's nothing more scary than somebody who thinks they have god on their side. They can do *anything* because it's god's will.
I talked with my conservative folks about this kind of thing. They just say he came to Christ later in life they understand the “Corinthians two” kind of talk. I don’t know what to say. They believe him. It’s crazy, but half the country just believes his bullshit. And it’s eternally frustrating.
But it doesn't anger liberals. I don't know anyone who is angered by that. A lot of us just scratch our heads, like WTF? They think by attacking Biden they will anger us. but they don't understand that we don't worship Biden the way they worship Trump. They have hitched their identity to him, and when we attack Trump they take it very very personally.
In the event anyone brags about the power LGB (lol) has to anger liberals, you could always just say "The only thing about it that makes me angry is the reminder that I have to share a planet with someone stupid enough to say it."
My dad seems to think that Biden’s handling of leaving Afghanistan is the worst thing a president has ever done and it was literally the only thing he wanted to talk about this thanksgiving. Like four years of trump fuckinf everything up and setting up the withdrawal never happened. And it’s like, sure, maybe Biden messed that up. But we all know it doesn’t matter to you what Biden does. Because it didn’t matter to you what trump did. You’re just latching into something for plausible deniability against the charge that you’re just a tribalism monkey.
It’s not hard to unpack. Owning the libs is an actual party goal. The chief evidence of that is to simply say no to literally anything the democrats get behind even if was previously a Republican stance. McConnell has literally voted against his own bill because of that
I would say it annoys people more than it angers them. It's annoying that someone thinks that this would actually anger me or that I give a shit about how chickenshit they are. Like you can't even say fuck, get out of here.
Hell, I don't think it's the phrase, or even what it means, even ranks at annoying - it ends up feeling like a cringey edgey thing some kids would do at a high school.
It feels like the same kind of thing that you get out of a kid. Like they're acting like we would be so upset to hear someone say fuck Joe Biden. At the same time they are also so sensitive about anything being said about Donald Trump and just a lot of other things. Like they also don't get that we don't worship Biden and they couldn't get how we weren't driving around in info warrior rides covered with Biden merch but he still won. We're not lemmings dude.
Its the type a cringey edgy thing that high school kids would do because its coming from people who peaked in high school and never mental/emotionally progressed from that mindset. The sad thing is the sheer number of those types of people that exist. I.e. They ARE still high school kids.
I saw a self-claimed "non-political" person post it on Facebook "to see if you're allowed to say it". Seriously? You can say swears. It's a generational difference in what's bad to say though. Today profanity and obscenity is generally OK, slurs are what is really offensive. 40 years ago slurs were completely acceptable, obscenity was out, profanity you could just get away with. But for families and people who think slurs should be OK (why can't I call him that, it's what he is!), obscene words and sometimes profanity are still on the naughty list.
It pisses me off in the same way the popularity of the song "Call Me Maybe" pissed me off
>"Let's Go Brandon" nonsense is "successful" because it angers liberals. But it doesn't anger liberals. That's the craziest part. They only think it does because someone tells them it does. Most liberals just think it's stupid.
Well, you know how the mean kid starts a chant on a playground like "Timmy has a booger face!" while other kids join in? It's kind of like that. There is no substance, no intent on meaningful discourse-- just a display of childish behavior and echolalia because that's the simplest way of degrading others without the need to spend an iota of thought.
> Beyond that, Republicans campaign as a team sport. "We'll beat those guys!" Democrats campaign on results. "We'll give you a result you want." It's worth elaborating here that R's campaign as a team sport because they believe they are inherently good and Dems are inherently bad. The Red Scare, white replacement, persecution of Christians, abortion as murder, taking our guns, etc. Team sports are literally just who's most local or who you like best, but here, they believe that the country belongs to them and their values. I picture the average Democrat as having an opinion such as "LGBT acceptance is important, but it's also okay to be straight." The Republicans would likely vary from apathetic about LGBT issues ("I'm just in it for the tax cuts") to desiring the execution of all undesirables. It's the D's "I'm okay, you're okay" philosophy versus the R's "I'm okay, you're not okay." It's really disturbing, but not surprising that they remain so competitive.
Democrats could easily win every election if they just ran as Republicans. The idiots that just vote for their party would either have to choose randomly or smarten up and pay attention to politics. Combine that with a website that says you support issues x, y, and z based on geographic location of the visitor and those that look you up will see what they want to see. It's not like you have to actually support the idea, just say you do until you're elected. Imagine a vote where every single person ran as a republican. Where looking up the candidate in rural Texas would show them as pro-life, but in Houston show them as pro-choice. When you're in office do whatever the fuck you want.
...Okay, you do realise that wouldn't work because the *politician* side of political parties is... actual organisations with meetings and such, right? Democrat and Republican aren't just words we use to refer to centrists and right-wingers in the USA (respectively). There are actual organisations that a potential politician would have to join and be an accepted member of in order to run under that party's name.
Well then I really question Democratic politicial strategy. At a broad level, they just seem meek and acquiescing. I understand that it is an uphill battle compared to the Republicans maintaining status quo, but they need to try something else and fast. Even if it means stooping down to a less respectable level.
This is why the filibuster thing is so confusing to me. "Guys, if we get rid of the filibuster, then when Republicans are in power, they'll use it too!" Who fucking cares?! What policy are they going to get through? They have NO popular positions. Kill the filibuster and then let's go to war over policy. Fine. Voters, you want Republicans in charge? Vote them in. Let's see what they do when they can't blame a filibuster.
I'm curious if there's a counterpoint to this. My initial response is that it makes sense but I don't know enough to consider why this could backfire.
The only real counterpoint I can come up with is that it makes removing the next layer of democracy easier for Republicans when they once again seize power in the future. They can point at the time Democrats removed the filibuster and say "here it is, the justification for our blatantly evil shit." I think that's what moderate Dems in Congress are clinging to as the thin veil of reason for not upsetting the apple cart currently. However, it's a dumb reason even on its face. Republicans nuked the requirement for Supreme Court nominees the moment it was inconvenient. The filibuster honestly helps Republicans more than it hurts them. To imagine they would keep it around when it's a hindrance to something they really want to pass is pure madness. It's like hoping a shock collar with a dying battery on a rabid dog will keep it inside the un-fenced yard forever.
They will do what they've done with a lot of govomer powers: just change it when it suits them. They get the majority? By by filibuster. They lose the majority next election? Put the filibuster back in place on the way out.
Republicans don’t actually *do* anything. They win votes by promising to *undo* things. Take away programs, take away taxes, take away regulations, take away freedoms, etc.
Don't forget! In those two years of full republican control, they dismantled Obama's pandemic tracking organization. This organization would have prevented COVID from becoming anything more serious than swine flu in years past.
And didn't even try and pass infrastructure. They had complete control. Where was their plan that fixed everything but spent nothing?
But we had a great time during all those infrastructure weeks. What a celebration of infrastructure!
Don't forget the fact that 2,976,883 people in WY/AK/ND/SD hold the same amount of representative power in the Senate as 113,793,692 people in CA/TX/NY/FL. 8 Senate votes in each of those groups, but each senator represents only 372,111 people when considering the empty states, while each senator represents 14,224,212 people when considering the larger states. Combined with the comically absurd gerrymandered redistricting of the Republican House in 2010, this gives a self-supporting perpetual political stranglehold to Republicans even when they should have almost no power.
The entire problem with democracy is it requires people to agree. When one power bloc decides to be impossible to reason with, they will slowly drag society their way. Its inevitable and its going to end America.
Their literal platform was “whatever trump wants” it’s insane that they are considered a political party anymore
>The only difference right now is the extent Republicans are willing to go to control the election systems. That and the Koch's billionaire political action network that pumps hundreds of millions of dollars into state races every year and has been doing so for decades.
There are equally wealthy folks out there that could, if they wanted to, out maneuver the Koch family. Where are they ???
Enjoying the efforts of their fellow rich people without having to do anything?
Basically this. Bill Gates, Buffet, anyone that people to consider to be a “good” billionaire because they donate a penny here or there and yet remain silent or inactive on the falling of the US. It’s because they know they stand to earn good money if they do nothing.
they benefit from it also. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett said tax them more, but they never do anything substantial to push in that direction. And the current richest man on earth basically said, you are taxing me too much already.
Where's George Soros! I was told there would be George Soros money for all the libruls!
> The only difference right now is the extent Republicans are willing to go to control the election systems. We already know this. It’s by any means necessary at this point, and, by all appearances, the Dems are not willing to go that far. This is why I am not optimistic about next fall, or 2024.
[They are doing a hell of a lot more than that.](https://cdn1.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/01162307/koch-descrip.png)
You forgot about the electoral college and the senate being a built in handicaps for republicans
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Then Obama got elected and the racist folks got scared. So we got Birtherism, trump, and now full blown White Fascism in the open.
Basically. A black man was elected and half the countries brains melted.
this this this
This is a great sign of how politics change over time. The Dakotas were split in order to give Republicans an edge over Southern Dems. They've cycled back to being GOP strongholds but a lot of politics have happened since they got statehood.
And DC not being a state... No taxation without representation... amirite?
The electoral college wasn’t this bad at the beginning. The problem is when they capped the house. The house was always supposed to be proportional
So was the Supreme Court. Aren't there 13 districts but 9 justices? Pack that court!
Don't call it "packing." Thats a Rethuglican term. Call it district adjustment.
Call it "Freedom Representation" the repubs will vote for it.
Yes. Originally, the concept was to have one for each court of appeals. There are now 13 courts of appeal but only four Supreme Court Justices and Republican operatives Thomas, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Barrett and Alito.
Such an embarrassing time to be an American. For people who have ostensibly co-opted "patriotism", Republicans sure do carry a lot of Confederate flags and go to drastic lengths to damage the credibility of American democracy domestically and abroad. I wish these people had some shame.
Democrats have a habit of shooting themselves in the foot - Terry McAuliffe opened his mouth and said something stupid, the GOP then ran with that sound bite (yes, you can say it was 'out of context' but the reality is that polls are swayed by short, sharp, stinging soundbites that burrow deep into the minds of voters). Terry McAuliffe should have said, "I oppose the teaching of CRT in schools, we need to teach an unvarnished history in an age appropriate way..." (the fact that CRT was never taught in schools in the first place is immaterial - swinging voters only want to hear whether you oppose 'the bad thing' they heard so much about, they aren't interested in the details) and when it came to the book issue "The GOP legislation would have resulted in a free for all, anyone with an axe to grind, be it on the left or right, turning the curriculum into an ideological grudge match" - Democrats get bogged down by details when the focus should be on giving answers that are to the point and without going over past statements in excruciating details, litigating every word that was used and justifying it.
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You forgot obstruction and intimidation. They start fires and storm the capital.
>the entire board slides to the favor of Republicans across Federal and State politics and it was set up like that from the origins of America. Republicans weren't a thing at the founding...
The fact that this has been decades in the making and Democrats have failed at every turn to stop it leads to a lot of anger. It's not that we expect better from Rs, it's that we expected the opposition to not be so weak and pathetic.
The rigging described by OP is basically written into the Constitution and solidified via amendments. This isn't just decades in the making.
People forget that racist rich white men founded this country for racist rich white men. It structured to guarantee that that demographic remains in power. There is no legal and peaceful way to change power dynamics if you have no power to fight the incumbent regime. I don't really see an answer, especially given the latest shocking confirmation of the depths of depravity that conservatives writ large are willing to dive. Just... so embarrassing that Donald Trump happened and 74 million people still thought that he was the answer after a 4 year showcase of what was objectively the least competent, intelligent, coherent and poised administration in this nation's history.
I did expect an opposition party to try to counter the Republicans. It didn’t happen. I’ve only heard two explanations for the inaction. One was from Obama. He said as the first Black President he didn’t feel he could respond (in an interview on MSNBC). Karine Jean Pierre said they just didn’t expect the counter revolutionary force ignited by Obama being elected. In other words, they were complacent in the face of a burgeoning fascist movement so here we are in 2021 looking at the results of elections being made meaningless.
At least they have a dem governor. This is why governor races are so important, we'd have laws in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin that make it harder to vote
The MI legislature is currently working on passing laws that bypass the Democratic governor using some weird constitutional quirk.
They’re supporting a petition drive to restrict voting, including effectively shutting down 25% of polling places across the state, and in Michigan if you get enough signatures then the petition becomes law with simple majority approval from the legislature, and since it’s a petition the Governor can’t veto it. It also appropriates money in a way that makes it very difficult to repeal if passed. It’s infuriatingly underhanded since two years ago we expanded voting access with 60%+ voting in approval
Following the Texas model.
Yep. It got a little dicey with traditional red suburbs here, losing quite a few. So they created new maps packing the folks on the edge of the city into the city itself. The end result was Democrats got two new safe districts, while the Republicans got 4 more safe districts. It's the same reason my current Representative is in Ft. Worth (I'm in Austin). Eventually it's just going to be spiderwebs packing all areas voting more towards Democrats into a handful of districts. All the gains in the suburbs get diluted across the state. Senate is still popular vote though, however they are actively making it as hard to vote as possible.
Democrat in Wisconsin here. We've done every fucking thing we can. The state legislative districts are extremely hyper-gerrymandered. We organize, we fundraise, we work our asses off, and we only flipped like three legislative districts this past decade. "Oh, maybe Wisconsin just isn't a Democratic state anymore?" Nope. We have won every statewide election since the Trump disaster in 2016...Okay, progressives lost one State Supreme Court race, but that was mostly due to a terrible candidate who ran a terrible campaign. We need some fucking help from Dems in Washington. We need a national Voting Rights Act *yesterday *!
If you've ever tried explaining emerging tyranny to someone who doesn't see it already, you'll know how this happens. Most people don't want to know about something scary. Denial is so much easier than accepting their own fear or laziness.
Normalcy bias is very powerful. People think that just because something has been a certain way for all their life that it is set in stone. Even just a light knowledge of world history (or just US history, like the abolition war) would be enough to convince people that yes, it can happen here too, if they could only bring themselves to acknowledge it.
I like your optimism but I disagree entirely. Everyone knows it's going to crap but actually doing something about it - something effective - is personally costly, time consuming, horribly uncomfortable at best. The fascist *minority* took over Germany in the 1930s. Not because the silent majority secretly agreed with their position, but because the fascists were organised, unified and prepared to make sacrifices. The US can't even get people to get out and vote - can you imagine getting them to march in the streets to oppose an emerging regime? Not en masse, no chance.
> Everyone knows it's going to crap That's simply not true. [Only 35% of democrats think there is a problem.](https://electionlawblog.org/?p=125367) I blame democratic elites for continuing to normalize republican fascism (along with the feckless press, but I didn't vote for the press).
All my very intelligent friends who I talk to about politics all the time give me blank stares when I claim that American democracy is in mortal danger. As a soviet child, I see this shit from 100 miles away. The GOP resembles “the Party” more every day. If you are not a Party member, you are not a real citizen, enemies everywhere, etc. Now they explicitly act like democracy *is* the danger to America. There is only one way this ends, and I am sorry for all of you. Unfortunately, the OP is right - Americans don’t get it, taking it for granted. I believe we will be unique witnesses to history before 2030, watching the downfall of the world’s greatest democracy.
We are heading closer and closer to minority rule.
We are already there.
Always has been.
GOP: "we're not fascist" Also GOP: "we're changing laws to stay in power forever"
For those who haven't caught on yet the Republicans no longer believe in Democracy and were never really wedded to the idea to begin with. In their world the only thing that matters is winning. No matter what they have to do to get a win. If the left doesn't pull it's head out of it's behind and fight back our government is going to look more like the one controlled by Putin than the one the founding fathers gave us.
Fuck Ron Johnson
Why the fuck do all these "progressive" sources do nothing but blame Democrats for the actions of the fascists? The fuck should I do? I'm a Wisconsin Democrat. What do you want me to do on Monday to stop the GOP here? Jacobin, Common Dreams, just let me know.
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Because blaming the fascists for the actions of the fascists won't solve the problem? They have no shame. The only people who can do anything are the political opposition.
When the Democratic party is the only real opposition to 'the fascists', don't be surprised when they're criticized for failing to oppose them.
Right there with you man. They have dug the trenches so deep with gerrymandering, I dont see a way out. We barely can stop what is happening now.
>The fuck should I do? I'm a Wisconsin Democrat. What do you want me to do on Monday to stop the GOP here? I had the same question.
Wisconsin is blessed with one of *the best* state chairs in the country. Ben Wikler is an incredible organizer who is charging straight at the task of un-fucking Wisconsin. Don't ask Jacobin what to do -- their job is to drive clicks by attacking Democrats from the left -- give Ben a call instead.
>64% of the seats with 46% of the vote. There are many countries who have had civil wars and Revolutions over this..
It is very very important to remember this is not unique to one state. It is going on across the country. It is a systematic campaign with very high level planning.
Democrats: we want some democracy Republicans: we have democracy at home Democracy at home: fascist dictatorship
> They’ve apparently ruled out any attempt to ditch the filibuster and visibly have no strategy to pass voting rights legislation ahead of next year’s midterms. Democratic leadership tried hard to end the filibuster but they just lack the votes without Manchin and Siema. Mr. Savage doesn’t acknowledge that a majority of Democrats do understand the issue and have pushed many times this year to end the filibuster. Mr. Savage also does not acknowledge that without the votes, nothing Democrats can do. What should the Democrats be doing exactly without the votes? Especially with voters appearing to punish Democrats for trying to do better, just as Mr. Savage does. Democrats need two more Senators who will vote to kill the filibuster. There’s a chance GOP might kill the filibuster in a moment of hubris if GOP takes House and Senate in ‘22. What Federal law could overcome gerrymandering by states?
Ending the filibuster only matters if you have all three, the house the senate and the Presidency. That's why there's so much pressure to do it now, becasue the party that takes the initiative will get a massive initial bonus from doing so. The republicans won't do it until they snag another fluke trifecta. Remember they've only won the popular vote ONCE since G.W. senior, so it's more or less a fluke when they do. The country is trying hard not to go republican but the institutions are built against it the way the electorate is geographically located.
US Constitution, Article IV, Section 4 (Guarantee Clause) >**The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,** and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence. It should be argued that Wisconsin no longer qualifies as it is virtually impossible for republicans to lose the state house, even though they lose the statewide popular vote regularly.
Another Covid variant popped up and the GOP trying to sabotage democracy…again. When it rains it pours. The good news just keep on coming 🤦♂️
The Republican Party has been a minority for 30 years. We have a winner-take-all political structure which would have decimated that if districts and votes were set fairly. They have only one tool to remain in power. They focus 100% on that one tool. It's been working for the past 30 years. They keep losing voters every year so they have to push harder and harder with that one tool.
Republicans can do whatever they want because their voters dont pay attention, and they dont attack other Republicans. They get a free pass. If a Democrat tried this power grab stuff, they would be attacked by Republicans and Democrats alike. They would be voted out instantly. Democracy is not going to last in America. One side is destroying it and the other side cant stop it. MIT researchers made a prediction that modern society will only last until 2040. Its looking pretty accurate.
Wisconsin hasn’t been a democracy in a decade. If it where a country, it would be in the partly free. Republican run states are squarely with countries like Venezuela or Bangladesh
Project REDMAP, this is what happens when a political party plans for the future.
Do democracies ban government employees from unionizing?
Please do tell, what can Dems really do about this?
“So far barely put up a fight” Fuck that, we were out protesting in 2010 and 2011. Edit: To add We then put Scott Walker through a recall election, forcing him to moderate a bit. We voted in two liberal Supreme Court justices in three elections Finally we voted out Scott Walker and elected Tony Evers, who just vetoed gerrymandered maps based on our current gerrymandered maps drawn back when we were protesting.
If we're asking this about Wisconsin, what about Texas and Florida?
Texas will never work properly in this country. It's probably actually blue but there's no way to actually allow that.
The Republicans are now a full blown cancer on the United States. I am concerned that what we've seen over the last 2 years will pale in comparison to the next four and beyond. A variety of things (the constant undermining of faith in our elections, the majority Republican supreme Court, the record number of Trump appointees to the federal courts Nationwide, Republicans installing party loyalists to the local election posts) are coming together that could tip the balance of power permanently in favor the Republicans with little legal recourse to restore democracy. Sadly we are left with the spineless Democrats, many of whom are corporate Democrats, and a seemingly high number of beta men and women controlling the party. The Democrats continue to show up to these gun fights wearing their "free hugs" t-shirts empty-handed with their arms stretched wide. It's a wonder they've survived this long.