So it looks like Trump has read the fascist playbook or something. I’m not surprised. I am concerned.

Edit: After thinking about it, I guess I am surprised that he can read.

  • Truck_kun@beehaw.orgEnglish
    9·
    1 year ago

    Indeed. Need to vote all democrat down the ticket (hopefully with good choices in primaries) for the moment to preserve American democracy and freedom. Once the current fascist/authoritarian push is in the rear view mirror, then we can work on better choices.

    This is Biden’s last chance at a second term, he will not try again if he loses to Trump. Trump on the other hand will probably keep trying until he is dead, in prison, or his health in old age drags him down; Here’s hoping Biden wins this one, and by 2028 Trump’s health will be in decline/prevent him from running.

    • Arkham@beehaw.org
      8·
      1 year ago

      The problem is “for the moment to preserve American democracy and freedom” winds up being every election, unless a genuine leftward push is made at some point down the line.

      If that leftward push never happens, every election is a choice between temporarily halting fascism, and allowing fascism to metastasize.

      • pbjamm@beehaw.orgEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        The “left” does not control enough of the government to make a serious leftward push. All they can currently manage is halting the advance.

          • niucllos@lemm.ee
            3·
            1 year ago

            What’s your alternative? Unless there’s a successful January 6th equivalent the options are humoring the system and making progress as best you can or reject the system and maybe engage in resultless protests while letting fascists take over the system. At that point your options become be a fascist or die.

            • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
              1·
              1 year ago

              You can’t prevent fascism through Democracy, because fascism does not rely on Democracy to come into power.

              Fascism happens through violent seizure of power, and it can only be prevented or defeated through violence.

              The fact that rhetoric has turned to, “if Republicans ever win again, they’ll actualize a fascist takeover” just shows that we recognize that however many laws or constitutional protections we put in place do not matter; if they did, it wouldn’t matter if Republicans got back in power, because the guardrails would constrain them.

              But we all know that they’ll disregard those guardrails in order to seize power. Sadly, no one wants to accept the answer about what path that leaves us, and people will keep desperately voting as SCOTUS and the GOP Congress lay the groundwork for a full-scale right-wing takeover. Because in a 2-party system, it’s simply a matter of time before control flips.

            • Melkath@kbin.social
              2·
              1 year ago

              Why do you people keep perpetuating that lie?

              Show me how my unused vote magically adds to someone I didn’t use it on.

              No. My unused vote represents the disenfranchised.

              Your cast vote will represent a genocidal maniac.

              Stop playing make believe. Be a grown up. Live in reality.

                • Melkath@kbin.social
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  You are making shit up. 1 plus 0 DOES NOT EQUAL 2.

                  Here is how the actual math works. Red Fascist gets 20 votes, Blue Fascist gets 19 votes if blue party has abandoned their liberal ideals in favor for “lesser evil” progressive fascism and I’m the only one who refuses to vote for genocide. That means the voting record is:

                  Model 1
                  Red Fascist: 20 votes
                  Blue Fascist: 19 votes
                  Disenfranchised voters: 1

                  If the people stop believing your made up bullshit, then they too could decide to stop voting for the death of America, stop voting for fascism, stop voting for genocide, etc.

                  Then the voting record is:

                  Model 2
                  Red Fascist: 10 votes
                  Blue Fascist: 10 votes
                  Disenfranchised voters: 20

                  Voter turnout is a massive factor in establishing the political ethos of the person in office. A person sitting on 98% turnout can say “I represent America” and has much better odds of pushing whatever genocide or tax break for billionaires they want.

                  A person sitting on a 50% turnout is going to have “you don’t represent the people” hurled at them at every turn, and they will have a much harder time sending another funding package to the genocide.

                  Under Model 1, neither fascist has anything to worry about. They have the world by the balls, their overlords are happy, and regardless of which cover the overlords put on their actions (red or blue), they will get their payout. Nothing changes. The whole system continues to decay.

                  Under Model 2, the fascists have a big problem. The world can see that the people don’t approve, the people see that the people don’t approve. Now there is fire on the heels of the fascists, and they might need to consider actually not being evil sometimes to encourage more people to vote again.

                  Even under a third model:

                  Model 3
                  Red Fascist: 20 votes
                  Blue Fascist: 10 votes
                  Disenfranchised voters: 10

                  After a really shitty 4 years, the Blue Fascists now have a reason to stop being fucking fascists to get the 10 disenfranchised voters back. They have incentive to actually combat the Red Fascists by trying to be GOOD instead of lesser evil.