Am I the only one who thinks that IF the US survives this election that things have to change radically?
You can’t have a democracy like this when a convicted criminal mobster wannabe can just get enough votes to install himself as a dictator and if he doesn’t that he just organizes a deadly insurrection to try and get himself there anyway
The USA needs to get rid of this winner takes all system, it needs to rid itself of this system that requires a president. What it needs is 20-30 political parties that each get a share of the pie and have to work together.
This situation has gotten worse EVERY election since Reagan, last time we had a failed coup, this time we may get a dictatorship, what. The. Fuck.
I’ll continue. The supreme court needs to be removed entirely and be replaced with whatever is better. The police forces need to be completely overhauled. Pacs and super PACs need to be illegal immediately, every cent in politics needs to be accounted for. An absolute split between church and state, and while at it, tax churches heavily. Undo all gerrymandering, return taxation to how it was in 1940, updates for current times tomokug loop holes but going up to 100% on income after an x amount per year. Nobody should be able to be a billionaire, hell, nobody should be able to be a 100 millionaire. After a certain amount of wealth, that’s it, you can make more but it all goes to taxes.
Edit: to add to this: news organizations should be government funded through a neutral third party. Nobody wants to pay for Jews anymore but we desperately need it. So let’s make sure it’s funded and out laws (back) in place requiring journalists to be neutral and honest. Fox News style “news” bullshit should never be allowed. Opinions is fine, as long as that’s what it is clearly called and labeled as. If a news organization obviously focusses on one type of politics, out you go. Also, break the 24 hour news cycle. We don’t need news 24 hours a day, as it inevitably leads to a numbers game which leads to news organizations to just publish clicks for money, which leads to news about how there is crime like there is no tomorrow while reality it’s the other way around. News should be informing people, stop the misinformation.
Another add: schools should be required to teach about voting, how to vote and why it’s important. Just, obviously, not what to vote. Right now so many people vote for person X because “he seems such a sweet man, I’d love to have him over for dinner!” With that, don’t allow political parties to use slogans, as it dumbs everything down to stoopid.
My concern since late 2018 or so has been that America is effectively terminal, it’s just that we don’t know it yet. That we’ve passed some internal tipping point before waking up where even if we try to course correct, it’s too late to stop the decline. I’m not sure we can get the momentum anymore to fix it. Biden and even Kamala feel more like a temporary reprieve where we’ll only have enough power to stave off total collapse, but not enough to actually make any headway. Which is basically all Biden has been able to do.
That’s a legit worry, but since we don’t know where that tipping point is we don’t know if we’ve passed it or not. I think it’s just as legitimate to maintain hope, and here’s why. The repeating pattern we’ve seen is that when progressives start to institute policies to improve people’s lives, there’s always a lag before any tangible results. During the wait the pendulum shifts back to regressivism, Republicans get in control, and then proceed to take credit as things improve. They use this momentum for more elitist policies that reverse the gains, but the harm to the general public also has a lag and doesn’t become apparent until the pendulum has shifted back to progressives, who inherit a pile of shit to contend with.
But MAGA has fragmented the Republican party so hard, after he loses the election it will take the party years to recover, as the rats claw each other to pieces trying to get on top. Instead of the usual 4-8 years it could take 12-16 for conservatives to regroup. This will provide enough time for progressive policies to take root and bear fruit, and for progressives to actually get credit and build on them. It will be impossible for Republicans to convince even their own that things are bad enough to go back to retro policies. They’ll have to think of a new playbook.
I just think this whole period of time is going to move the goalposts to the left, America will still have a chance to resemble something like the ideal we were taught to expect.
Yeah we have to outgrow the POV that says putting limits on wealth equals communism, or means no freedom. Democracy loses its meaning if kings can live inside it - which is what we get if wealth gives individuals more power than the rest of society. We’re on course back to the age of aristocrat landowners and tenant farmers. That’s not human progress, that’s degeneration. To me the slogan, “We won’t go back!” means a lot more than avoiding another Trump administration. It means recharting the course of our society away from a nobles vs peasants world and toward a world of true equality. It will take changes that are much more fundamental than imposing taxes on wealth. We have to de-legitimize extreme wealth and disable the huge leverage it gives a few people over the rest of us.
I fully agree with you but I’d do it through taxes. It’s not forbidden to be ultra wealthy, it’s just impossible to become that. Just after a certain about of either current wealth or income, income taxes go to 100% and at certain wealth levels, be it through owning buildings, yachts, or whatever, taxes will make sure you’ll have to sell off some of those assets until you’re within normal range. Nothing wrong with that in my book
Okay but you could also lock people in a room full of water and say you’re not forbidding breathing. Technically the truth, but not if we’re being honest. Using the law to make something impossible is forbidding it. Taxation doesn’t address the belief that the big bad gubmint is stealing something you earned. I think the underlying problem is way more complex to solve by just doing that. We have to get rid of the scarcity mentality, a survival trait that will take a long-term effort to eliminate. We’re probably talking multiple lifetimes.
Taxation isn’t theft, you get loads of things back. Roads, police, (in functional countries) healthcare, fire departments, military to protect against invaders… If you’re rich it’s easier to pay more, and you should
Am I the only one who thinks that IF the US survives this election that things have to change radically?
You can’t have a democracy like this when a convicted criminal mobster wannabe can just get enough votes to install himself as a dictator and if he doesn’t that he just organizes a deadly insurrection to try and get himself there anyway
The USA needs to get rid of this winner takes all system, it needs to rid itself of this system that requires a president. What it needs is 20-30 political parties that each get a share of the pie and have to work together.
This situation has gotten worse EVERY election since Reagan, last time we had a failed coup, this time we may get a dictatorship, what. The. Fuck.
I’ll continue. The supreme court needs to be removed entirely and be replaced with whatever is better. The police forces need to be completely overhauled. Pacs and super PACs need to be illegal immediately, every cent in politics needs to be accounted for. An absolute split between church and state, and while at it, tax churches heavily. Undo all gerrymandering, return taxation to how it was in 1940, updates for current times tomokug loop holes but going up to 100% on income after an x amount per year. Nobody should be able to be a billionaire, hell, nobody should be able to be a 100 millionaire. After a certain amount of wealth, that’s it, you can make more but it all goes to taxes.
Edit: to add to this: news organizations should be government funded through a neutral third party. Nobody wants to pay for Jews anymore but we desperately need it. So let’s make sure it’s funded and out laws (back) in place requiring journalists to be neutral and honest. Fox News style
“news”bullshit should never be allowed. Opinions is fine, as long as that’s what it is clearly called and labeled as. If a news organization obviously focusses on one type of politics, out you go. Also, break the 24 hour news cycle. We don’t need news 24 hours a day, as it inevitably leads to a numbers game which leads to news organizations to just publish clicks for money, which leads to news about how there is crime like there is no tomorrow while reality it’s the other way around. News should be informing people, stop the misinformation.Another add: schools should be required to teach about voting, how to vote and why it’s important. Just, obviously, not what to vote. Right now so many people vote for person X because “he seems such a sweet man, I’d love to have him over for dinner!” With that, don’t allow political parties to use slogans, as it dumbs everything down to stoopid.
Just a few things to start with…
My concern since late 2018 or so has been that America is effectively terminal, it’s just that we don’t know it yet. That we’ve passed some internal tipping point before waking up where even if we try to course correct, it’s too late to stop the decline. I’m not sure we can get the momentum anymore to fix it. Biden and even Kamala feel more like a temporary reprieve where we’ll only have enough power to stave off total collapse, but not enough to actually make any headway. Which is basically all Biden has been able to do.
That’s a legit worry, but since we don’t know where that tipping point is we don’t know if we’ve passed it or not. I think it’s just as legitimate to maintain hope, and here’s why. The repeating pattern we’ve seen is that when progressives start to institute policies to improve people’s lives, there’s always a lag before any tangible results. During the wait the pendulum shifts back to regressivism, Republicans get in control, and then proceed to take credit as things improve. They use this momentum for more elitist policies that reverse the gains, but the harm to the general public also has a lag and doesn’t become apparent until the pendulum has shifted back to progressives, who inherit a pile of shit to contend with.
But MAGA has fragmented the Republican party so hard, after he loses the election it will take the party years to recover, as the rats claw each other to pieces trying to get on top. Instead of the usual 4-8 years it could take 12-16 for conservatives to regroup. This will provide enough time for progressive policies to take root and bear fruit, and for progressives to actually get credit and build on them. It will be impossible for Republicans to convince even their own that things are bad enough to go back to retro policies. They’ll have to think of a new playbook.
I just think this whole period of time is going to move the goalposts to the left, America will still have a chance to resemble something like the ideal we were taught to expect.
Yeah we have to outgrow the POV that says putting limits on wealth equals communism, or means no freedom. Democracy loses its meaning if kings can live inside it - which is what we get if wealth gives individuals more power than the rest of society. We’re on course back to the age of aristocrat landowners and tenant farmers. That’s not human progress, that’s degeneration. To me the slogan, “We won’t go back!” means a lot more than avoiding another Trump administration. It means recharting the course of our society away from a nobles vs peasants world and toward a world of true equality. It will take changes that are much more fundamental than imposing taxes on wealth. We have to de-legitimize extreme wealth and disable the huge leverage it gives a few people over the rest of us.
I fully agree with you but I’d do it through taxes. It’s not forbidden to be ultra wealthy, it’s just impossible to become that. Just after a certain about of either current wealth or income, income taxes go to 100% and at certain wealth levels, be it through owning buildings, yachts, or whatever, taxes will make sure you’ll have to sell off some of those assets until you’re within normal range. Nothing wrong with that in my book
Okay but you could also lock people in a room full of water and say you’re not forbidding breathing. Technically the truth, but not if we’re being honest. Using the law to make something impossible is forbidding it. Taxation doesn’t address the belief that the big bad gubmint is stealing something you earned. I think the underlying problem is way more complex to solve by just doing that. We have to get rid of the scarcity mentality, a survival trait that will take a long-term effort to eliminate. We’re probably talking multiple lifetimes.
Taxation isn’t theft, you get loads of things back. Roads, police, (in functional countries) healthcare, fire departments, military to protect against invaders… If you’re rich it’s easier to pay more, and you should
Yes, I’m not arguing that taxation is bad. Looks like we’re having two different conversations so I’m gonna just bow out.
No arguments
I have a rewritten constitution in my profile, so nah, you ain’t ð only one bro
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