I really have lost my former tolerance for "we're doomed/fucked/it's all over/they've won" takes at this point, in that they're the most dangerous attitudes one could possibly have when confronted with a truly existential political threat (which we still DO have levers to address).
Yes! My posts this morning have a doomer-y vibe because I am very distressed by all this, but the implication should always be that we should take drastic action now. The abyss is right there but we have time to avoid it.
All in on this. But how? Voting for Biden isnt enough. Same SCTOUS is there. Voting down ballot is great. Winning seats is great. SCOTUS is still there.
It does. Because money controls both parties.
There is a chance that the levers will work but i myself am not counting on them being USED rather than them just not being there.
You really can't come up with a reason why Biden wouldn't grossly violate the Constitution other than "money controls both parties"? What in the actual fuck?
What exactly IS the process to get a member of SCOTUS removed from office?
They aren’t elected. And they serve for life. And they get to decide what parts of the Constitution they want to enforce. Kinda seems like they hold more power than they should.
And Dick Durbin, whose responsibility it would be to start that process, doesn't have the spine to even write a sternly worded letter. He called Thomas to Congress to maybe explain his shit, and Thomas was like "lol no" and Durbin just let it go
technically u can impeach which has happened a few times but not a single judge in us history has been removed by conviction basically the way we hold judges accountable hasnt been updated since the magna carta "good behavior" model
None of this is actually in any sane reading of the constitution, but SCOTUS appears to have just said that presidents can't be prosecuted for corruptly misusing their official powers.
People have recommended reading books on how people resisted previous fascist regimes and most importantly to build community networks. But I definitely need guidance at this point
Resist in any possible way you can. If that means finding happiness in a sea of cynicism. Do it. If it’s making art or music. Do it. If it’s being an activist DO IT. At the end of the day we have only ourselves to take a stand against these ghouls.
The short ones are Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny & the last few pages of the OSS Simple Sabotage Manual. The first 20 pages are fine, but they’re focused on a technological world that doesn’t exist now, so only partly applicable, but the last part is social hacking still in use. About 150 pages total
You’re welcome!
If, after those, you want a longer piece, try Bob Altemeyer’s The Authoritarians. It’s now more than a decade old, but it’s also well written and it’s based in strong social psych methods, and it’s accessible without being jargony.
Contribute $ and/or ⏰ to voter registration and Get Out the Vote efforts, especially among minority voters in swing states. Contact your local Democratic party to see how you can help with phone calls, driving people to polls, etc. Encourage people you know to make a voting plan and tell 3 people.
Contribute $ and/or ⏰ to voter registration and Get Out the Vote efforts, especially among minority voters in swing states. Contact your local Democratic party to see how you can help with phone calls, driving people to polls, etc. Choose one centrist relative to talk to about the stakes.
Support the effort of community groups (minority churches, community organizers) to GOTV and get people registered and to the polls. Encourage people to sign up for mail-in ballots if your state allows for it. Do text organizing one afternoon a week. Donate $5 a week to a candidate if you can.
Schedule "make a call/send a letter to my state and federal reps" on any topic once a week and then commit to lobbying them to protect voting rights, reform SCOTUS, ceasefire now, whatever issue. Yes even in red states. Call your League of Women Voters and ask how you can help.
When people at your work complain "they're both equally bad" or "my vote doesn't matter" or "Biden is old," practice one or two succinct talking points that focus on "look at the alternative" and how important it is to preserve democracy. Write some scripts for others if you're good at that.
Congress and the President, working together, can dilute the power of the current Supreme Court membership by expanding it. Congress by itself can remove people from the Court.
Gotta vote for that to happen, though.
Re-electing Biden puts an expiration date on this Scotus. It means the oldest, most conservative members aren't replaced by younger conservatives, locking it into a 6-3 majority for the next 3 or 4 decades. It also means the lower courts that funnel things to Scotus aren't full of Trump judges.
you might not be ready to hear this, but build dual power outside of government. encourage or demand that your business become a full worker cooperative. create organizations in your local community that would be able to help run local services if the government started to fail to do its job.
