It took 250 years to build what Trump is trying to undo
It took 250 years to build what Trump is trying to undo
cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/27972878
25 comments
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Counterpoint: It took 250 years for Trump to finish what was started.
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It took 250 years of compacting garbage into a pit for the methane to reach self-ignition pressure
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I'm always impressed with people who can make a good analogy.
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The next Democratic president needs to be stubborn, machiavellian, and downright psychotic beyond even FDR. We need to purge Trump and Trumpism with an iron fist or we will never be rid of it. We never stamped out southern rebellion or completed reconstruction and we are still paying for that mistake today.
If we elect another tepid cross-the-isle institutionalist like Obama or Biden this country is toast - assuming we get the chance to elect any Democrat at all.
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Unfortunately you won't be handed an option better than a tepid cross-the-isle institutionalist and in order to get anything better you will have to convince die-hard democrats who refuse to break from the party line. That fight has been fought for decades. Electoralism will get you nowhere
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Electoralism is insufficient, but it is also necessary. I totally agree that we can't fix the problem with just electoralism, but every strategy that might work requires a parallel electoral effort. Abandoning electoralism is why we have Trump. Unless you are an accelerationist, in which case you should abandon any pretext that you give a shit about anyone or that you have any intention of making things better.
If you are an accelerationst, then you should understand that what happens when a large modern government collapses is about the worst humanitarian catastrophe imaginable. It would be like Gaza times 1000. Then, when things do get better, it will be under the control of warlords/oligarchs like Russia.
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The Democratic party is full of genocidal Zionists whose opposition to Trump is either performative or they don't like his mannerisms. They're ghouls in suits who operate at the behest of the capitalist class. They're shambling semi-humams who got into politics because they lack imagination and spines.
There are people like you mention. There are good people with conviction who want to help and change things. None of them are in the Democratic party. In fact, almost none of them are involved in electoral politics at all. You'll find them at food banks and shelters. Or you'll find them so distraught by daily American alienation that they've grown cynical and gave up decades ago.
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None of them are in the Democratic party.
Tankie nonsense. There are plenty of good Democrats, they just aren't the ones running the party. There is a huge tendency for activists to think that anyone who doesn't act like an activist is insufficiently devout. We need activists, and we need politicians. Successful politicians can't act like activists. What you demand will just lead to a permanently edgy and permanently irrelevant movement.
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The Democratic party will never, ever let someone like this win the nomination.
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The next Democratic president
It could happen, but I'm not counting on it.
"We can't lose because we're not as awful" didn't work for them the many times they tried it, and they're openly - as a party platform - not on the side on the common person, or of people trying to save lives in hospitals while getting targeted with bombs.
My controversial stance: any individual unwilling to sat "bombing hospitals is some bullshit" publicly, isn't on my side of any conflict. There's too many of those in the Democratic party, for it to have real strength, today.
Whether the Democratic party has any purpose left to serve in the road to a solution is still an open question, I think.
The Democratic party needs to start jumping when the rest of us say "stop fucking supporting foreign wars" and "tax the rich", if they want any part of whatever comes next.
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The President I just described would not be running on a "not as awful" platform.
Whether the Democrats can be forced to step up is an open question. But if it's not the Democrats then it's nobody. Despite rising frustration with the party, they still have a massive loyal following. There is no avoiding a split with an outside strategy.
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I actually disagree. I don't think maga needs to be stamped out. It needs to be out-narratived. The Trump voters you think of that are fully racist and believe absolutely insane shit will never vote Democrat. But he has attracted a lot of voters who are just voting for someone that's addressing their concerns. The everyday American is dealing with rising prices, financial insecurity, and a general feeling that the government doesn't represent them well. I think a left wing candidate could easily come up with narratives that directly counter Trump's talking points.
- "We need high tariffs to bring back manufacturing jobs from overseas." -> "We need a global minimum wage so foreign sweatshops can't out-compete American manufacturing."
- "The flood of illegal immigrants is taking jobs and not paying taxes" -> "The illegal immigrants need to pay their taxes and earn their path to citizenship"
- "The deep state is pushing unamerican ideologies from within the administration." -> "corporations have poisoned government through regulatory capture."
- "The elites are running this country behind the scenes." This one actually doesn't need to change. Just point to different people when you say elites.
- "We need to drill more oil to secure energy independence." -> "We need more wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear power so we aren't so dependent on fluctuating global oil prices."
People are already primed to care about these issues. By just retooling Trump's talking points, you can use them against him. I think this would work better than "stamping out" maga ideology. They already see themselves as the underdog and the government is out to get them. That would only embolden them and lend legitimacy to their claims. The more important thing is to make them seem like the weird assholes they are.
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That article is a great summary of how Make America Great Again is making it objectively worse. More flim-flamming from this sensitive man.
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The south will rise again!
I always thought that was racist bullshit wishful thinking. Looks more realistic now shockingly.
25 comments