this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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I'm not in the US, but it seems to me that the Republicans keep breaking norms and procedures, including politicising impeachment and ignoring illegal, immoral and plain bad conduct.

They also seem to be fine with not applying the same standard across the isle.

On the other hand, either Democrats follow new precedent, with even more devolving, or they keep the old decorum and get their asses kicked by Republican foul play.

What ways out of this spiral are there?

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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I’ve been angry since I’ve been politically aware and I’m tired of it. It’s exhausting being angry and having no influence.

I’m too old to be angry all the time.

[–] immutable@lemm.ee 14 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I still remember being taught about how politics is America is a pendulum.

It swings too far to the right and people get pissed and send it leftward. Then it swings too far to the left and people get pissed and send it rightward.

I have waited my entire life for the swing leftward, and I think I identified what broke America.

Let’s say that this pendulum swinging is necessary, we are a pack of goldfish swinging from left to right looking for something good with short short memories. This system can be metastable, you don’t make a ton of progress on anything but you just sorta bounce between the two sides and the status quo sticks around and you don’t slide into madness.

When 9/11 happened and Ws war on terror emerged, I worried that it would break the system. But in 2008, Obama emerged with a progressive message of hope and change. The pendulum I was told about was about to swing left. I had lived through the right swing of Ws time in office, and now I got to see what the left had to offer (which as a leftist was very exciting).

I watched two phenomenons happen concurrently that broke the system.

  1. Obama captured the leftward energy that should have swung us back to the left and held it solidly in the center / center-right. He ran as a progressive firebrand and then governed from the center / center right. The big hop and change we got was nationwide Romneycare, a program devised by the Heritage Foundation which has done nothing but entrench the powers of the insurance industry into law.
  2. Racism broke a large part of the voting public away from reality.

Obama wasn’t the first to do this, Clinton’s triangulation strategy was also a democrat governing from the center.

So we have a captured Democratic Party, beholden to the donor class and they capture the periodic leftswing energy and hold it center / center-right. Things fail to get better and the population goes “well fuck the left doesn’t have any answers, let’s swing the pendulum back the other way”

Over time the result is that the Overton window shifts and shifts and shifts until an oligarch is doing nazi salutes and the corporate media is going “oh he probably isnt really doing a nazi thing, he’s just advancing policies that nazis would love and saying things nazis would say and is excited and you know how hard it is to not do a nazi salute when you are excited.”

Our only hope now is that trump doesn’t slowly boil us into fascism and overplays and the people revolt. But Americans have proven to be willing to just take it in the ass rougher and longer than I’d ever imagine.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

It's more of a ratchet than a pendulum.

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

But Americans have proven to be willing to just take it in the ass rougher and longer than I’d ever imagine.

For a nation known for being tough guys with guns who will fuck their government, or any government that messes with them, up if necessary, all I've actually seen all my life is a bunch of pussies that let the wealthy walk all over us. And I'm not exactly a spring chicken.

[–] Brainsploosh@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Don't get sad - get organised?

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That just sounds like angry with extra steps. And people.

[–] Brainsploosh@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Which is how you gain influence and do something about it, no?

[–] snail_stampede@midwest.social 4 points 3 days ago

In America, influence means money. If you can't donate to a politician, you don't have influence. That's just how America works. You can't build influence without wealth. As someome who has been involved with them, protests and marches don't really cause a stir here any more, people just don't care and it doesn't really influence anything. You can get influence through violence, but people aren't ready for that conversation and the right already has a head start on that anyway.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Considering how little influence those groups already have I doubt it