- cross-posted to:
- geopolitics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- geopolitics@lemmy.world
The US had to come to this point. We couldn’t go on as we were, even under Democratic presidents. For 40 years, a narrow economic elite has been siphoning off ever more wealth and power.
Over the last 40 years, starting with Ronald Reagan, the US went off the rails: deregulation, privatization, free trade, wild gambling by Wall Street, union-busting, monopolization, record levels of inequality, stagnant wages for most, staggering wealth for a few, big money taking over our politics.
America’s so-called “leadership class” is a sham. Most of them do not care a whit for the rest of the US. They are out for themselves.
The “fucking nightmare” is not over by any stretch. It’s likely to get worse in 2026 as Trump and his sycophants, and many of America’s “leaders”, realize 2026 may be their last unrestrained year to inflict damage and siphon off the spoils.
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There’s no solidarity amongst Americans. I think that’s the central issue.
The right wing fascist takeover has been in the making for decades, and a crucial part of that was capturing news outlets and turning them full bore propaganda. Control the narrative and condition 30+% of the population to believe anything the right wing regime says, and also condition them to distrust and hate anyone not on their side.
Because of this, we have little hope of unifying against the threat, even if things go bad. Troops in cities, people getting kidnapped off the streets and sent to foreign torture prisons, Epstein involvement and cover-ups, grifts, fraud, a self-enriching “president” who has made over 3 billion dollars in less than a year after re-election; all of these just by themselves would have sparked revolution in an older America, but today we are kept opposed at the class level because the brainwashing and conditioning of so many millions of Americans was successful and they will never turn on the people grifting them.
Waking up to what? He can talk all he wants about corporate profits but can’t say the words “capitalism” or “socialism.” This article alone is evidence Americans are not waking up. Even the people who are forced to recon with the fact that a society that puts profits before people is bad cannot even articulate the possibility of an alternative to it.
He’s right, but (and this is a huge but) it will get worse before it gets better.
Like others have said in here, there’s a hard 30% that will always side with Trump, the Republicans, fascism, etc. That won’t change. And in 2024, there was a swath of voters who just wanted change and voted for Trump (without realizing that the change would be bad and already attempted), and an even larger group was just apathetic.
The “change” people are the first to start to wake up. How many posts on Twitter, etc. can be summed up as “I didn’t vote for this”? Eventually, as things get worse, the apathetic will start to care. That’s when things will start turning but not a minute before. Trump and company are trying to consolidate power and can’t help but be incredibly cruel, brazen, and stupid in the process.
They will cause an economic crisis, hurt untold numbers in all communities, and more. That’s their undoing, though. If they left it to simple corruption, isolationism, pro-Russia, anti-trans etc. policies that only hurt small pockets of the country where it’s easy enough to stick your head in the sand, then the apathetic will stay that way. But this administration can’t help but generally immiserate everyone in pursuit of their fascist goals. When general immiseration arrives, that’s when we’ll see the reckoning. For now, it’s still too easy to ignore what’s happening if you want.
Like the apocryphal Churchill quote says, “Americans will always do the right thing, when they’ve exhausted all other options.” We still haven’t exhausted all other options, but we’re getting there.
Or (hear me out here) it could get worse before it gets worse…
it could also just not get
the top 10% are still doing fine, and the top 20% are more or less still seeing improvements and are relative stable lives.
nothing will change until the top 10% start being affected. because they account for over half of all consumer spending and are all the mangers, decision makers, business owners, etc. most of these people trend democratic actually, but they are Biden style democrats who want things to keep going as they are above all else.
it’s about economics really, not politics.
Economics and politics are intrinsically linked—you really can never talk about one without talking about the other or, at the very least, referencing its impact on how people conduct their lives.
There is no intrinsic link. People just project their political bullshit and biases into economics.
You are sorely uneducated if you honestly think that.
Wishful thinking. Polls still show 30 to 40 percent support Trump and his awful policies. Those people actuallyvote R no matter what. Another thirty percent can’t be bothered to get off their asses to go to the polls. Nothing will change until the “I can’t be bothered” crowd is swayed to actually vote for their interests.
Nothing will change until we start asking why people don’t bother to vote, instead of fruitlessly balling our fists, shitting our diapers, and whining that it’s not fair that so many people choose not to vote.
You can moan all you want about non voters, but brow beating people will only drive them away from your side faster. The truth is non voters don’t vote for real reasons, primarily because they don’t think either side represents them. You can whine and moan that people need to think more strategically, but no amount of crying will change the fact that a good chunk of the electorate simply doesn’t share your values and approach to voting. Some people vote strategically, some only when they feel they can truly support a candidate. Screaming at people, “you simply have to approach voting the way I do!!!” won’t convince anyone.
People have different values and priors, and they do not owe you their votes. In a democracy, saying “I can’t stand either of these monsters. I don’t care what happens, I’m not participating, a pox on both your houses!” is a perfectly valid choice. A core principle of democracy is that we’re allowed to believe different things, and brow beating people will not get them to support you.
Don’t blame non voters. It’s intellectually lazy and a cop out meant to prevent Democrats from making the hard changes necessary to actually appeal to this population of non voters. Trump managed to mobilize millions of non voters. He didn’t do so by whining at them and telling them to vote strategy. He did it by inspiring them and convincing them he was looking out for them. It was all lies, but it worked. If you want to mobilize non voters, you need to find ways and policies that actually appeal to them. Simply complaining about non voters will not work, just as it hasn’t worked for the last 40 years.
And while I’m sure you’re already typing a comment telling me it’s my fault Trump got elected because I didn’t vote, you’re wrong. I did hold my nose and fruitlessly vote for the Cheney lover, for all the good that did. I just have enough humility to realize that those who don’t vote have very good reasons for doing so.
I completely agree and just wanted to add a bit of my personal experience talking to coworkers that don’t vote. The system is broken, as we all know. If you live in a state that has voted one way for decades at every level of government, then you have an even bigger uphill battle. Is it possible to turn a red or blue state purple or even to the other side? Sure, but you’re gonna need to convince people who think their single vote won’t change anything to go out on top of getting them to be motivated to support a chosen candidate.
Pretty much everyone I know that doesn’t vote (and I mean actually doesn’t and not just “oh they support third parties so they don’t count”) has said some variation of “my vote doesn’t matter cause the state goes to X party every time anyways”. While someone in a blue state could make the argument that Dems need as many people as possible cause even some of their guaranteed states are starting to turn purple, what do you say to someone in a deep red state? One where the Dems are always tens of thousands of votes behind? How do you convince someone to still vote when winner takes all is still a thing?
Some people don’t vote because they’re working.
As an American, I’ve protested. I don’t believe the protests had any effect.
There are occasional ICE reactionaries, which, I think are great.
Unfortunately, vast majority of what I witness is just the “norm” everyday hustle. Yes, the house is burning down. I barely see anyone carrying a hose to the fire. I confess, I’m guilty of only a quick spray of a small kitchen extinguisher.
Protests only work because of the implication that if things don’t change, the people will force a change
Please don’t mistake the lack of immediate results with a lack of protest success.
It’s about growing the protest cause as much as the immediate effect.
Vietnam was much more personal to Americans with people directly seeing children and brothers turned to meat. Those protests took a decade to see effects.
This has literally never happened and its not happening now.
Sure.
Were it not for that painful national exposure to racist brutality, we wouldn’t have gotten the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act.
Yeah so how those holding up nowadays? Gains should not be able to be ripped back, as Donnie is doing now. We shouldn’t have to fight AGAIN for that which has been won.
But if those are the rules, Dems need to grind this Republican trash into the dirt to the point that even if take backs are allowed there are none of them left to do it.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. That which can be gained can always be lost if we grow complacent, which we did.
Ha, nope. A headline like this is not even worth clicking.
It’s Robert Reich, he’s worth paying some attention to.
Ha, nope. A headline like this is not even worth clicking.
They just said they don’t want to wake up. Too busy writing comments to pay attention.
He usually has sensible takes, but this one feels like he’s lost in wishful thinking.
I agree with him, I just think that the reckoning is going to be far bloodier than he does.
I still think the Sarah Palin floor - the 20-30-some percent of dead-enders that support Republicans no matter what they do - will likely never wake up.
It’s true that some people will always vote republican, but not enough for them to reliable win elections. Which means that if we can actually pass real progressive policies, like Medicare for all, then we can have the ratchet effect work in the other direction, dragging the republicans to the left. Because while some of their base will vote for them no matter what, the rest will cling on to their Medicare and will vote for a democrat if the republicans threaten to take it away
Expecting Democrats to pass Medicare for All is a bit of a pipe dream.
Oh I’m not expecting democrats to pass shit. But more progressives are being elected and I think they’ll rile up the voters enough to force the establishment dems to actually vote for progressive policies. I’m really hoping 2026 is a good year for progressives
We did in California. Sure it’s just one state, but it is the most populous state.
Wait what? Everyone in CA has Medicare?
MediCal. We’ve had that for years. It’s not an ideal solution, but no one lacks insurance.
Holy crap brb moving to CA
I imagine that number will decrease due to an increase in their fatality - like they’re not getting vaccinated, getting health advice from randos.
before i start i want to make sure that this should in no way be interpreted as a “both sides” argument: i think yall should choose the most likely to win, least bad candidate (ie defensive voting; as disgusting as it is) - which almost certainly means a democrat at this point
i think it’s important to remember that both republican and democrats are relatively symmetrical in a lot of regards (not all). there are likely a similar number of people who actively support the democrats (distinct from defensive voting) no matter what, and they’d likely be equally problematic fixing systemic issues
perhaps they’d be easier to persuade, but it’s really easy to think that people on “our side” are governed by logic alone, but study after study has said that both sides are susceptible to propaganda and other political tools to a similar degree
The only upside of this is that when the us turns around, it’ll be easier to make changes because a lot of things were dismantled, so fixes won’t have to be very complex, and also a lot of people suffered so people will be eager to implement the changes, ie: healthcare for all. The only downside is that many of us won’t make it.
oh, um, it’s going to be very not pretty.
As much as I would love to believe the good in humanity, at this point I’m skeptical that even if 50% of the population started to resist the government that it would do anything. After all, both viable parties are in the pockets of the billionaires that bought our current government. So unless we have a straight up armed uprising, this will mean nothing.
Even if Americans resisted, it wouldn’t matter, because “resisting” doesn’t do anything if it’s not well-organized by some organization or party that can channel the resistance into positive change. A lot of countries in the past have had “uprisings” that are largely disorganized, and the result is that the protestors don’t actually have any clear goals or anything to even potentially replace the sitting government, and so the sitting government just uses the protests as an excuse to oust another faction.
Well, it’s either that or be oppressed under a fascist government. So its a lose-lose either way in this scenario. Unless the democrats suddenly turn left I guess
Pretty much we need to change the entire system or nothing will change. You said it yourself, there are only two viable parties under our current system and they are both corrupt and serve the interests of our oppressors.
This is by design. The system of partisanship and electoralist statism, supported and maintained by the capitalist system of economics has never served our interests; it only ever served the interests of the ruling powers. They didn’t buy the government. They built it.
And unfortunately, any time the people attempt to resist the overruling authority, that authority will engage in violence to keep their power. So a fight is inevitable if we ever want things to get better.
Much of the voting population still thinks the Democrats are the “good guys” who will save us. Even here on Lemmy, speaking ill of the Democrats often gets me downvoted. The portion of Americans who are actually anti-capitalist is pretty small. Even most the supposed “far leftists” just want to tax billionaires. There anti-capitalist movement in the USA is far too small to be influential, the only real organization being the DSA, but even then the DSA is composed of a mixture of socialists and liberals and so it is not a purely socialist organization.
The problem I have with some people (a lot of people on Reddit, not sure about Lemmy I just started) is that people will take the Democrats fecklessness and say both sides are the same, so voting for either party makes no difference. It’s literally a life and death difference if you are a from a certain caste.
You can say that both parties are a fundamental problem with this country in regards to corporate ownership, etc., while still acknowledging that the Republican party is currently trying to destroy democratic institutions and implement a fascist christian ethnostate.
I don’t acknowledge that the US has “democratic institutions.”
I know. It’s disheartening.
I feel like any strong opinions involving the democrats regardless of your side will get downvoted at this point. Democratic party is getting torn apart in general just like the Republican party right now
Way I see it, people with nothing left to live for could attempt some crazy shit.
This would be nice if true, but I’m very hesitant to believe that this time is different since we’re on year 9 of centrist Democrats claiming that “the fever is about to break.”
I feel like people using this analogy are forgetting that fevers don’t always break. Sometimes they kill you.
Sometimes fevers break. Sometimes they break you.
fevers break if your immune system attacks and destroys the threat. if the infection wins, you die. if you’re immunocompromised and get a fever, it’s very very bad news
i’m not saying that the democrats are compromised and they’re the immune system in this analogy of course… no no no… im just commenting on the biology!
if you’re immunocompromised and get a fever, it’s very very bad news
i can speak to that. sometimes, the fever just goes away without killing the infection.
Yeah, but you can imagine what it would be like if they were.
If they put as much effort into waking up as they do into protesting then all the rest of the world will hear is snoring.
Remember: we’ve heard this before
