Perhaps we are operating on different definitions.

I would not disagree that America is a de facto oligarchy. It remains a de jure democracy.

Because the writers of the first law did not care about whether it made any difference.

Do you think the votes are rigged?

Do you think laws can’t be passed? Did the deep state create Obamacare and pretend it was Obama and the Democrats?

What about the chips act? The inflation reduction act? Are they pretending to pass laws?

Your optimism far exceeds mine.

The law says there needs to be an election so an election was held.

It’s not that all laws have to be constitutional amendments, but our constitution is so long and detailed and a lot of things were written into it to make them hard to change later, so way more laws have to be constitutional amendments than would be in other states.

Texas likes small government so much our state legislature is a part time job.

He was outspent 10 to 1 so if aipac is funding him they are doing a shit job of it.

Do you think we live in a democracy or a dictatorship?

Can the tories stop labor in great Britain?

Can the conservatives in Canada stop the liberals right now?

What do you expect from the party we DIDN’T VOTE FOR?

Hard disagree. Their base will believe anything.

If we set up gas chambers in Florida some people would be insisting they were harmless showers while they were being forced into them.

Yep, there is no organization capable of staging armed opposition to the government. A series of mass shootings and maybe some explosives is all we are going to get.

Given the number of incidents, I wouldn’t be shocked if historians decide later we are already living through it. Political assasinations in Minnesota, the attempted murder of pelosi’s husband, attempted trump shooter, charkie Kirk, the car bomb in Memphis that didn’t go off a few years ago. The United Healthcare CEO hit. Attempted kidnapping of Gretchen Whitmer.

There is plenty of violence to go around, but nothing that would rise to civil war.

I have imagined a scenario where a debt crisis degrades the capacity of the federal government and polarization leaves citizens and national guard more loyal to their state than the federal government, but we are a long way away from that.

That makes it more dangerous for the us cops but doesn’t excuse shooting people without guns.

Northern Europe is much more likely to experience a surge of poverty because of global financial meltdown than a hot war with Russia.

If you are living and working in a liberal area you might be better off looking for work in northern Europe than claiming refugee status. Refugees from the US are extremely likely to be returned here. I read Ireland is going to start accepting trans Americans but even that doesn’t guarantee good treatment.

Do get your passport. There are low cost options for stringing tourist visas together in South America and South East Asia. 25 grand could keep you comfortable for years. That’s a long time to find steady remote work.

Then we don’t really disagree here.

I said “primary all the DINOS and corporate shills.” I gave 3 examples, but by the end of the line that could end up being everyone. AOC, Bernie, and Now Mamdani don’t have their hands clean, just cleaner than their colleagues.

The US system has two rounds of voting. The primary and the general. When you say “vote them out” it sounds like you are calling on voters to put Republicans into power to punish the Democrats.

That never works and it results in harms like we are seeing now.

Maybe you mean “vote green or some other third party” but even then, the American Green party is funded and supported by Moscow as a means to destabilize politics over here. Trying to grow a third party is even more magical thinking than my plan,which is already puenin the sky but it’s the only thing that has worked since 1860.

Voters in my country are dumb. Even politically engaged voters who read Lemmy threads. You need to be specific because there is always a right and a wrong choice even when they both suck.

Vote them out is a call to support their opponents in the general election. Vote third party is a call to support the policies opposite to what you want.

“Primary them” is a call to move the party to what you want.

If you want a general strike until they meet our demands, well, the third party idea is more likely to work than that.

I gave a path to success. What is your suggestion?

Did I say anything good about Chuck schumer or Jeffries?

I think I said Schumer was a corporate shill that needs to be primaried. They are both genocide enablers and should be run out of Congress.

And then impeach him. And if trump pisses them off badly enough, they can impeach him too.

Andrew Johnson was a lame duck after impeachment, because even though he kept his office, he was on notice from Congress.

Yeah this is not an explosion, it’s a simmer.

This is in fact true. If people voted for Democrats overwhelmingly and then primaried the DINOS like fetterman and the corporate shills like Newsom and Shumer we would see the change we want eventually. FDR did it. He did it with supermajorities in both houses of Congress and he also needed 4 terms to remake the supreme court.

It’s a generational project, and supremely unlikely to happen because a significant part of the electorate does not want it. But it could happen. If voters shifted 30 points to the left and stayed there for a generation it would happen.