• ninthant ( ninthant@lemmy.ca ) 
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    2 years ago

    You’re goddamn right I’m furious.

    And no less furious at the weak-kneed Democrats who do nothing as their own country is ripped from them by a clown. “Oh sorry; we’ll try again in 4 years” they say. Fuck your thoughts and prayers, how about do something. You won’t get a free election in 4 years, dummies.

    Oh yeah, I realize you’re super busy and with your sportsball games and your reality TV marathons. Your inaction today will haunt your future.

    And no this isn’t a call to action or a cry for help. We’re going to be just fine. You’re the ones who have to live there, and live with yourselves knowing you did nothing.

    • And no less furious at the weak-kneed Democrats who do nothing as their own country is ripped from them by a clown.

      Republican voters enabled another trump dictatorship, not “democrats”.

      Their vote made it so that “democrats” have no power in the house, the senate, the office of the presidency, the supreme court, or the dozens of federal agencies that are now being gutted.

      Blame them. Blame only them for voting the way they did, because the outcome is exactly what they voted for.

      • ryper ( ryper@lemmy.ca ) 
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        2 years ago

        Their vote made it so that “democrats” have no power in the house, the senate, the office of the presidency, the supreme court, or the dozens of federal agencies that are now being gutted.

        Actually, today Senate Republicans needed help from the Democrats to pass a bill to keep the government funded. And 10 Democrats helped them, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

      • ninthant ( ninthant@lemmy.ca ) 
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        2 years ago

        Republican voters got them elected, Democrats are standing by doing nothing as their country is ruined.

        There are no attempts to secede, there are no wide-scale protests or strikes. Their democracy falls while they sit back and fret, laughing along with Jon Stewart and smug in their knowledge they are better that Republicans. For all their much-touted “second amendment” they are idle as a tyrant solidifies power.

        I do blame Republican for their actions. But I blame Democrats for their inaction. I’m furious because what I see in them I recognize in myself – it’s a challenge for me to not be complacent and fight for my own country. Because if we coast like they do, we will suffer the same fate.

        • But I blame Democrats for their inaction.

          I don’t deny that much more could have been/could be done. But look at the optics on how this would make trump even stronger:

          If you had a democratically elected president who’s being shut down by the minority party, which could be seen as “going against what the people voted for”, and once again trying to “steal the election”. It would justify a horrific ramping up of his rhetoric, and seeing how he released 1500 criminals who were on his side, there would be no stopping domestic (right-wing) terrorists from targeting “democrats”.

          In fairness, this timeline is so FUBAR, especially when coming off such a strong economy, highly respected presidencies from Obama and Biden, and relative peace with nearly all allies. In just a few months, Trump and Musk have been undoing hundreds of years of progress, which is unprecedented so say the least.

          The States, and the world, are in such uncharted territories right now.

          • ninthant ( ninthant@lemmy.ca ) 
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            2 years ago

            You do realize what you’re saying, right?

            You’re saying it would be a tragedy of optics to try to stop a dictator from seizing power. That if democrats do nothing they can avoid being targeted in the short term, while Trump chases after others.

            Yes. This specific attitude is what I’m furious about. And I’m going to work my damnedest to stop it happening here in my country.

            • You’re saying it would be a tragedy of optics to try to stop a dictator from seizing power.

              No absolutely not! And I’m sorry if it came off that way. Trump and his Nazi regime need to be stopped 100%. What I’m saying is that he only needs “proof” in the form of a handful of elected democrat representatives fighting back in order to really escalate things. He hasn’t even started!

              It’s up to the 300 million Americans to do something. Take action. If you’re in the military, don’t follow orders, or take those orders and do nothing with them.

              We aren’t at this point in Canada, and the swing in our polls show that common sense matters. Republican voters doubled down when the world was telling them that Trump would destroy everything they cared about. They never once unified for anything. Canada is unifying, because we know what’s at stake. Plus, we’ve got way more allies in our corner than the Americans.

              • ninthant ( ninthant@lemmy.ca ) 
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                2 years ago

                Exactly.

                And what pisses me off is the calculation that you implicitly state, that by not reacting now the Democrats know they are “safe” because the ire is pointed somewhere else. It pisses me off because I recognize the same impulses in myself. I didn’t think Canada was in danger when the ire was on Mexicans and Haitians and Muslims. Just like they don’t see the danger now.

                But when the barrel is pointed at you, you see more clearly. We are today, and the cowering Democrats are next. The longer they wait, the harder it will get – but that’s how divide and conquer works. The groups all accept the evils being done to the current group to buy their own safety, and they get picked off one by one.

                And as you say – in Canada we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break this cycle here. We see what’s coming now, and we won’t break.

                • that by not reacting now the Democrats know they are “safe” because the ire is pointed somewhere else.

                  It’s not necessary about self-preservation, but an avoidance of escalation.

                  If Trump was a reasonable person with right-wing views, he would still be able to cooperate with democrats to better the country for the people.

                  But he’s an unhinged, narcissistic, unreliable, compromised madman, so much of the world is in damage control at this point.

                  I’m not even sure how elected democrats would be able to stop him. But I can tell you how 300,000,000 Luigis could.

                  He’s not playing by the rules, so the strategy to fight back is to also not play by the rules. Sure, this can be self-destructive to a point, but sometimes the sacrifice of a few is what’s needed to stop a nazi uprising.

                  And as you say – in Canada we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break this cycle here. We see what’s coming now, and we won’t break.

                  We’ve had enough of a warning, seeing what the hell a deranged lunatic in charge can do for another country. I don’t think we’d allow that to happen here, but I guess we’ll see ‘what the people want’ in our Federal elections.

          • OutlierBlue ( OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca ) 
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            2 years ago

            The States, and the world, are in such uncharted territories right now.

            Not really. History is full of dictators seizing power and abusing it. And in every case there was only one course of action to stop it. Stop making excuses to do nothing and take to the streets.

      • There was lots of things they could have tried, especially when they had the whitehouse. They didn’t because they were trying to believe civilised democratic norms back into existence, or something like that.

        • I think it’s fair to say that they were trying to be democratic in their approach, and really couldn’t have anticipated that the public would vote again for a twice-impeached felon with dozens of charges, and the person solely responsible for inciting a violent insurrection against the capital. But here we are! 🫠

          Is there a rewind button we could use? ☹️

          • I dunno, it’s not like the polls ever showed the unstoppable lead “felon” implies. Nor did the problem start with Trump; the angry far-right rhetoric has been slowly escalating pretty much my whole (young-ish) life.

            Top democrats have shown very poor judgement, probably because they couldn’t or wouldn’t imagine the stuff that’s happened a million times before in other places could happen to them. Normalcy bias is a bitch.

            • The reality is, things have been going pretty good for the world in general (minus Putin being a total cunt), especially Canada and the US. And when you consider we all came out of a pandemic in pretty good shape, in spite of trump’s extremely poor handling of it, that should have given most sensible people reason to be humble.

              Instead, problems were invented and spread through right-wing social media and regular media. Then false promises given by trump to “fix” those lies.

              People were duped, and they voted based on the lies they were fed.

              And if elected Republican officials had any concept of duty to the nation, Trump would have been stopped cold after his first impeachment. They should have stopped him cold when we all heard him boasting about sexually assaulting women, tbh.

              We can blame both sides all day. The fact of the matter is that enough people voted for Trump, and gave him permission to do what he’s been doing. Whatever course-correction needs to happen will be very difficult and extremely taxing on individuals who now have to literally fight for their lives or livelihoods.

      • It doesn’t matter who’s to blame. The question is where is your nation going, and what are you going to do about it? Are you going to let all the terrible things happen because “it’s the other guys’ fault”?

        • Showroom7561 ( Showroom7561@lemmy.ca ) 
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          2 years ago

          What solutions do you propose for the majority of the population who are struggling to get by and who can’t even take time off work to protest or contact their local representatives? That’s the reality Americans are facing. Those with the most to lose are in the worst position to fight back.

          Any protections that people once had are being stripped away each day. I mean, calling it illegal to boycott Tesla? Calling actual protesters domestic terrorists while hailing those who stormed the capital ad heroes?

          The situation looks grim for Americans.

      • If they took action and failed I don’t hold anything against them. It’s better to try and fail than not try at all.

        Unfortunately the scale of what’s happening right now is existential, so they find themselves in the crossfire.

        • Sirus ( Sirus@lemm.ee ) 
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          2 years ago

          Not a single american voted for THIS. Trump didn’t give any indication he was going to do this. This is ALL his doing. As far as you guys pushing americans to strap up, 1. Our quality if life has yet to be affected, when that happens, more people will act. 2. As for people like myself, I have a bi daughter, if and when the time comes for me to open up the armory, I will but right now, just.acting will ruin all of our lives. 3. I have worked extremely hard for my entire life, I just.got a house, reached my career goal and my lifes goal of making 6 figures.I’m not upper.class, but I’ve come from poverty and I’m not throwing that away. 4. WHEN things get bad or if trump actually acted on trying to take over.canada, more than half of.us would fight with you, but trump is.full of shit. Just.don’t buy.american shit.and.move on with your lives. We got you. Shit will change, but don’t expect me to pull the strap over mediocrity and toothless threats.

          • corsicanguppy ( corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ) 
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            2 years ago

            Not a single american voted for THIS. Trump didn’t give any indication he was going to do this.

            When you say ‘any indication’, since project 2025 and his last term were both real, you mean to say ‘every indication’, correct?

            The guy was a felon stalling the investigation of his own mishandling of secrets, during rape trials, and people voted that clown show in.

            There’s no trump voter unaware of any of that.

            • Sirus ( Sirus@lemm.ee ) 
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              2 years ago

              I’m exclusively talking about annexing Canada bro. And I’m not.not defending the moron or his followers. I’m just saying when it comes to annexing canada, no one knew about that shit. But like I said, it’s idle threats. Don’t lose sleep over it. Trump doesn’t control our soldiers, even tho he has the title. Americans wouldn’t follow thru with that shit even if he ordered it.

      • ninthant ( ninthant@lemmy.ca ) 
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        2 years ago

        I have the utmost sympathy and care for democrats and independents who tried and failed. I can’t tell them how to feel, but I’d feel scared and helpless.

    • Resonosity ( Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 
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      2 years ago

      Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez are heading out to states to lead town halls after this most recent budget passing.

      This is what Democrats should be doing: preparing for 2028 by reaching out to people now, or at the very least educating them on what’s happening and what might happen in the other 46 months (or more…) of Trump’s second presidency.

      • ninthant ( ninthant@lemmy.ca ) 
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        2 years ago

        I expect the authoritarian posturing and nationalism will be successful inside America as the world unites against them. And that any further hopes they have of opposition will be strangled by increasing anti-democratic measures as time goes on. That’s the playbook that has been successful elsewhere and I see no basis for believing in American exceptionalism here.

        Will be extremely happy to be wrong on this, but I can’t see a world where waiting until 2028 works out for Democrats.

    • The Democrats have no power in the US now. They still hold a few governorships, but the GOP has complete control of the US federal government and that’s all that matters on the international scene.

      It’s a distinctly American thing to blame the Democrats for anything the government does even when they don’t control the government. Then they wonder why the Democrats struggle to win elections even against insane GOP candidates like Trump.

      In what other country is the opposition party blamed for what the governing party is doing? Only in America.

      Things are the way they are in the US because people voted for it. The Democrats aren’t doing anything because anything they do now would be purely performative and have no effect. They’re a political party, not a revolutionary movement. They aren’t doing anything until the next election (if there is one!) because that’s how it works with political parties in a democracy.

      It would be the same in Canada. If Pollievre got a majority and brought in Elon Musk to kill the government there would be nothing the Liberals, NDP, or any other party could do. That’s why it’s important to vote and vote wisely.