I think the wheel of history turns on a greater axle than a presidential election. Look at Europe, and the rest of the global north. The machine of neoliberal imperialism has created global instability and climate crisis, and the rich are locking down their spoils with right wing nationalism.
Trump was a fluke, he’d have had more bites at the apple in 2020/2024 and eventually get a win. If not him, then some evangelical fascist.
Absolutely. We’re seeing a return of authoritarian candidates in many first world nations. The people that witnessed Hitler’s rise are mostly gone, leaving many to overlook or minimize similar patterns of behavior.
As far as the US is concerned, Trump made the hat. Someone else will put it on.
The dominance of the far-right in France’s elections and in European elections in general this cycle is really frightening. That being said, I think a lot of their success comes from tactics inspired by Trump’s… Trump became an internet icon, he was turned into a piece of popular culture. The European far-right are doing the same, they’re REALLY good at social media propoganda and utilising social media to get young people to vote for them. Looking at 2019 vs 2024, the difference in young voters’ attitudes would be unbelievable then.
Russian psyops. They’re beaten The West without firing a shot, except for Ukraine and Syria.
The machine of neoliberal imperialism has created global instability and climate crisis, and the rich are locking down their spoils with right wing nationalism.
I want this on my tombstone so the alien archeologists that eventually visit our ruined husk of a world can know what happened.
More like people were betrayed by the DNC and rejected an unpopular candidate that was thrusted onto them.
The dnc really ought to let voters nominate their own candidates, instead of force feeding us their choice.
That is far too democratic to ever be a thing in your country. The political system is financed and thus owned by the capital, so they will never permit a not capitalist to have any political success. Bernie, a by all objective measures very moderate leftist, is the furthest the spectrum goes, and he is more tolerated as a sort of token minority than realistically able to affect any real change.
If people were able to select and push their own candidates the whole big money oligarchy collapses.
I saw a Michael Moore documentary that claims Bernie actually had the votes for the nomination and the DNC lied and said he lost in a state where he actually won.
Not sure if that’s true 100%
The dnc really ought to let voters nominate their own candidates, instead of force feeding us their choice.
The biggest hurdle for potential candidates is name recognition and funding for getting those signatures. Even after getting the signatures, it’s very hard to challenge an incumbent, like was proven by Dean Phillips and Marriane Williamson.
Before Super Tuesday in 2019, Bernie was the forerunner despite the DNC’s best efforts.
So every conservative democrat dropped out and endorsed Biden while the candidate who shared many of Bernie’s policies split the progressive vote (ensuring none of the policies the former Reagan campaigner was running on would actually be implemented).
And Truman would have something to say about all of the Russian-bought members of Congress. History is cyclical, and we’re approaching another authoritarian period for global powers.
I’m glad I’m not the only one seeing this happen all over the world. All over the world we have feckless neoliberal parties failing to represent their people and getting replaced with populist right-wingers.
I’m not defending America’s actions. I’m stating that many members of US Congress are funded by Russian oligarchs.
The influence was apparent when Republicans withheld aid from Ukraine until they were forced to choose between funding Ukraine along with Israel, or leaving Israel without weapons.
Does that sound like a government body that is representing its constituents?
If you haven’t yet, I recommend watching Traumazone. All 7 hours of it offers a beautiful insight in USSR 1980’s to 1999.
Yes, USA supported shitty stuff. But the system rotted itself out first with corruption and production mismatching demand while fighting pointless war in Afghanistan, which created the power vacuum and collapse.
a grand tradition of what to do with tyrants.
America as a nation was created by a subset of landed gentry who didn’t like paying taxes. They wanted to make Washington king. The founding fathers were basically the Megamind meme where Tighten (yes, it’s spelled Tighten, not “Titan”) says to the Mayor of the city: “More like under new management.”
The founders were not a monolith and had mega-disagreements about how to proceed from day 1.
Sure, and they still managed to pass the alien and sedition acts. Saying they weren’t a monolith is a way of dismissing the mountain of evidence that suggests that, for most of them, participation in the democratic process of an inchoate American republic was intended only for a small segment of the population - literate (i.e. wealthy) white men. I’d suggest A People’s History of the United States if you want a better perspective on that.
So… People tell me an election year is no time to talk about electoral reform. Every US election year. But! After the election, they scurry away under the refrigerator and stay there for 4 years. I know you have to hold your nose while you vote this time, but catch these weird centrists before they disappear and hold their feet to the fire to influence change. You deserve better than this “I’m not voting for _, I’m voting against _” nonsense. Your government is hurting all of us. Stop it, please.
Who has told you not to talk about electoral reform in an election year? I’ve never heard that.
On top of that, there are plenty of people who are working to change our election system the whole time. The problem is the “I hate the two party system!” People by and large just vote every few years. I work with some locally that are trying to change things from the ground up.
I wanted to reply in a way you would see. Your question is valid and I don’t believe you deserve the downvotes.
Stop it. Just stop it. The fascist weirdo vs. the just sort of regular weirdo is how you do elections? We are all beholden to US policy and you think this is a joke?
Fucking fuck the fuck out of the fuck. Change it. Stop it. Please!
Bad take.
You get genocide either way; one is a guy trying to stop the genocide that’s been negotiating behind the scenes for months (and yes, also giving the Israelis arms), and the other guy wants to accelerate the genocide while also ending democracy.
Mostly because Netanyahu has been souring on Biden real fast. Biden held up a delivery of bombs to Israel back in May, citing Israel’s plans to bomb Rafah. Netanyahu announced he was pushing forward anyway, and there was a big public spat about it. That sort of thing has been happening since Oct 7.
I mean one could say it’s all an act or something, but that strains credulity to me.
I’m not saying Biden is doing great here, I’d much prefer he take Bernie Sanders’ advice on this and stop weapon deliveries altogether. But it’s certainly fair to assess that Biden wants the genocide to stop, but is not doing enough to stop it.
Which is a de facto admission he knows Israel is committing war crimes with the weapons and that he has the power to stop military aid at any time.
This is Student Loans all over again where his cult says he can’t do it, because he doesn’t have that power. And then he does it.
Edit to add, he also released those bombs to Israel something like last week?
It’s not a bad take. The post didn’t imply that there was a no-Genocide option
You read the word OR in there?
Did it say AND ? NO. It said OR.
The post absofuckinglutely strongly implied there was a no-genocide option.
It’s difficult to defend the idea that Biden has been trying to end the genocide. He’s had that power from day 1. If you give Israel a bullet, you have solid awareness that there is a good chance it will be used against a non-combatant. That’s hard reality. If Biden was not supportive of genocide he would place an embargo on the weapons being poured into the massacre. He also wouldn’t sanction the ICC when they attempted to call out the primary actors in the genocide. He has given enabling support to the campaign in multiple ways.
Biden is not a good man as he is portrayed, he is complex obviously, but the reality is that Hitler still petted his dog and was nice to his friends and family. Biden should be joining Netanyahu at the Hague, not sabotaging democracy by being virtually un-electable while at the same time working to make it even more obvious that the international order is only there to punish certain war criminals.
Anyway, I think the take is pretty on point.
He’s had that power from day 1
Not as such, no. When congress appropriates funds, the president is legally obligated to disburse those funds for the purpose that they were appropriated for. This is a law, and it’s not something that’s up for debate. That was part of the underlying crime that Trump was first impeached for; he attempted to withhold funds corruptly. Could he have vetoed that? Sure. It also would have vetoed funding for Ukraine though. (And, just pointing out here that Trump would have vetoed assistance for Ukraine, while helping Israel kill more Palestinians faster.)
You can–and should–condemn his rhetoric, because he has been supportive of Israel waging war in Gaza. But he’s also been working behind the scenes, trying to negotiate a peace that Hamas will accept, and that Israel will accept. Even when he’s supporting Israel in public, it’s been clear that he’s been working to negotiate a truce.
The Leahy Law and Foreign Assistance Act make sending that aid illegal, no matter how much Congress appropriates.
Didn’t we have a whole impeachment about a president preventing arms that were allocated by Congress from going to their destination? Oh yeah that was Trump trying to get some election fuckery from Ukraine. Granted, the election aspect was another level on it but that is functionally the same thing you’re demanding Biden do which was already determined to not be ok. President doesn’t have that power so maybe instead of wondering why Biden isn’t fixing the thing all on his own, we can start (or continue if you were ever paying attention between presidential elections) pressuring and replacing the Congress critters that are actually approving the sale of arms to continue the genocide. Why does everyone keep getting big man deluded when we know for a fact that the president isn’t a king with total control?
Or. Just maybe. We could actually care enough to pressure Biden.
No? Just going to shove your head in the ground and pretend politics is an immutable object?
I can’t imagine why Biden was already in so much polling trouble. It can’t possibly be the cult like atmosphere around him preventing him from contacting reality.
…And exactly, EXACTLY, how do you pressure him in a way that doesn’t actively risk making things far, far worse, not just in Israel, but here in the US as well? Because if your answer is, “don’t vote for him”, well, congrats, you’re going to make things worse.
You let them know. You don’t just sit on it. The one thing that will move a politician is knowing they can’t get elected again if they keep doing something. By throwing “But Trump!” at us, no matter how obliquely, you’re just protecting a genocide.
Israel controls one of the largest political lobbies in America. No president who goes against the interests of the Israeli government will ever be elected until this changes.
Ah yes. The insular Biden cult. I don’t know how deluded you need to be to buy this. No one, Not one person is in a cult of personality for Unkie Joe. No one. Why do you think this?
Says one of two people that have showed up to frame this as an either/or problem we can’t possibly even try to tackle. It’s either commit genocide or lose our democracy. No possible other option, especially after a disastrous debate that confirmed fears of age related mental decline.
