Forty-four men have succeeded Washington so far. Some became titans; others finished their terms without distinction; a few ended their service to the nation in ignominy. But each of them knew that the day would come when it would be their duty and honor to return the presidency to the people.
All but one, that is.
The founding fathers got a lot of things right in a broad sense. However, the lack of details really screwed us.
The problem is that you can’t write out the details of how people might abuse a system centuries hence; people are really innovative about that. What they tried to do was build a system of competing centers of power, so that so long as the bulk of elected officials were interested in doing the right thing for the country, they’d be able to serve as a check on those who aren’t.
Our problem today is that we’ve got a major party which is interested in ending democracy, and which has a real chance of holding enough positions of power that it’s not possible for the majority of the people who stop them.
That he’s allowed to run pretty much did it for me. I’ve little faith in America to recover from this embarrassment. But I’m here for it.
the fact that trump happened in the first place, that the GOP stole the supreme court, that NO ONE is doing anything about the blatant broad daylight corruption of the supreme court, that election boards are allowed to be overtaken by blatantly partisan GOP operatives–it all shows how fragile this country always was, held together by some nebulous nowhere-defined “honor system”
which trump threw out the window forever
even if trump loses this november, some other bloviating GOP gasbag will take his place, and it’s going to be the same story every election, until there are no more elections. this has been in the works for many years
All of civilization ultimately relies on the honors system, and nobody’s ever been able to change it.
Gods I hate that I agree with you. I had no idea how thin the threads were that held this republic together, or how readily my fellow citizens would throw the entire American experiment away just for the sake of spite. Trump is the first despot, but he certainly won’t be the last.
how readily my fellow citizens would throw
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deliberately enshittify the lives of the have-nots, through wage inequality, castrating education, and yes, nonstop propaganda convincing the masses to vote against their own best interests because jeeeeeeeezuzzz
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proceed to blame everyone’s ensuing shitty life on mexicans, gays, women, black people, and anyone who didn’t vote R for any reason
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repeat until plutocracy
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repeat until dictator
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The US has been on track for Trump since WWII ended and the crazy christian sects got an ear in the government. It’s even surprising it didn’t happen earlier.
how fragile this country always was
i don’t think that the system and country was that fragile, it did required decades of propaganda from the far right to get to the point it is now
decades of propaganda from the far right to get to the point it is now
thanks, once again, to the boomers
The problem with the Supreme Court is that you need the Senate to be on board with any kind of action. Two approaches:
- Add additional justices to make the Republicans there a minority. None of the Republicans is willing to vote for this, and nor are Manchin and Sinema, which would leave no more than 49/100 votes in favor of adding new ones. So you can’t do it
- Remove the crooks. This requires 67/100 votes. None of the Republicans is willing to vote for this, so you can’t do it.
Making something meaningful happen here requires actually electing enough Democrats to the Senate to act.
I’ve always wondered why, if democrats could and did “pack the court,” Republicans wouldn’t do the same? The supreme court would end up bigger than the senate, and its composition would then always reflect the party in power. Seems like a pretty short-sighted solution. If you’ve got the senate numbers to pack the court, you’ve got the senate numbers to appoint a partisan nomination.
The Republicans might, but would have a much harder time being in a position to do so, since the Democrats would:
- add PR and DC as states
- Enable every American to vote every time
- End state-level gerrymandering nationally
🤣 ok
I always saw him like an anomaly, an unexpected improbable blip in history that may have an effect over decades but the disruptions it brought will go away… eventually.
When he came into power I immediately thought of something in the Foundation series (I try to avoid spoiling it because even if the books have been around for some time people are discovering it through the Apple TV series).
So yeah it’ll get better but perhaps not in our lifetime…
That’s exactly the problem: he’s an anomaly, he’s a one off, he’s a foreign ploy, he’s unique and we just have to get rid of him, and everything will be fine again, he’s certainly not an outgrown of a movement thats been gaining steam for decades and points to deep systematic problems with the American politics and polity, no sir, everything else is fine, it’s just him and him alone.
I get your sarcasm. My comment wasn’t meant to be that deep and yes I can see that his success is a symptom of a deeper problem. I just thought that him being almost comically corrupt, detestable and yet successful is a one off.
…I typed out an answer in agreement, but then I remembered the folks around him, and I’m not even sure that’s a safe bet anymore.
This is why people need to get out and vote. Nearly every election where Dems had over 60% turnout they have won. Reps never have changes in turnout and I think they have around 65-70% usually? All people need to do is get out and vote and these people lose their edge
Even if it is impossible with the current math, it’d be nice to hear some politicians loudly calling for expanding the court or impeachment. Seems to me if we want to get a strong majority, we need some leadership that actually promises some things people really want. Aside from AOC, nobody seems to want to talk about real ways to fix the court. They seem to be content to just ride it out and hope at some vague point it gets better.
and this is why the GOP has been working nonstop for over 10 years to undermine public confidence in the vote
if harris wins: it was rigged
if harris wins by a landslide: it was definitely rigged
if trump wins: it was still rigged but that just shows how godemperor trump is jesus 2.0
The dumb part is that the country is even dealing with this … all the education, all the knowledge, all the power, all the history, all the money, all the financing, all the control, all the people … just to lead up to a moment when they all had to decide on whether or not they wanted the dumbest politician they knew to lead them … and they had to even debate it with themselves first.
You’d think Republicans trying to take away porn would have woken more people up.
“Well, they won’t take away my porn, just all that freaky stuff.”
If Trump is elected will America be destroyed or is it just fear mongering to turn out the vote? Rational people know the answer.
“You’re either with us, or you’re with the terrorists” - the guy who should have taught you to spot false dichotomies.
Can’t have two extreme absolutes as your options
Oh good, let’s shame people who aren’t enthusiastic about either candidate rather than putting forward candidates who can at least say they support what the majority of Americans do.
“I didn’t read the article!”
FTFY
An extremely well-written article at that. These accounts of Washington were beautiful and brought tears of admiration to my eyes, hundreds of years later.
The first American citizens must have absolutely worshipped him, but still he conducted himself as an equal citizen and began the tradition of peaceful transfer of power to the newly-elected.
Seeing that ruined by Trump awakens new levels of contempt for him that I didn’t think possible.
This attitude mystifies me. When you’re swimming in shark infested waters, do you worry that the only viable boat around isn’t aimed exactly at the vacation destination you dream of?
Or are you unable to tell a rowboat from a man-eating shark?
It would be super sweet if we weren’t always drowning in shark infested waters
Name one fucking thing that the Harris campaign is offering that isn’t conservative policy from a decade or less ago or fearmongering about “orange man bad.”
Ending support of Israel’s genocidal campaign? Nope.
Universal healthcare? Nope.
A green new deal, or at least serious action on climate change? Think again.
National legalization of abortion and other reproductive rights and care? Keep dreaming.
Any meaningful action against a flagrantly corrupt Supreme Court? Absolutely not.
We have a retread of trump’s border policy and assurances that she cares. Same watered down shit we’ve gotten from the democrats since Reagan made them scared of their own shadows, and terrified of being called “liberal.”
I see. So you can’t tell the difference between a shark and a boat.
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