The Brits know how to do an election night.
We can't do it the same way, because we have a zillion different federal, state, & local offices up for grabs on the same day, plus ballot initiatives & referenda.
But one night with elections to a single legislative house is so pure, it's fun.
UK politics can be grim, but election night there with constituencies being largely ungerrymandered, losers standing next to winners of podiums, and the "election season is 6 weeks, not 2 years" default is incredibly wholesome
also "if/when you lose, there's no lame duck season, the next guy arrives tomorrow at 10am" is a big UK W vs the US system, we should totes get rid of that
Tbf we also have our "ask electors to pick" and "ask congress to count" cosplay, which tbqh we should really move past, because while it's all fun and games as weird cosplay, we've found out to our detriment what happens when folks refuse to dress up and act it out
tomorrow we get my favorite constitutional oddity which is that there's a ~ 1 hour period in which all UK executive authority formally vests in the King
I'm still bullish on the US vs the UK long term, but as an aside, I'll gladly take "we pretend to give this guy total authority but if he tries to use it we'll chop HM Royal Head off again" over "the president is immune from all the crimes, as long as he's abusing his official power during them."
I'm incredibly bullish on America's future. I get it's a bit hard to see these days--the death throes of unpopular authoritarianism is pretty scary and there are real problems in the immediate term--but I definitely think America's best days are still very much ahead.
Because a lot of the problems we are facing is /because/ this is authoritarianism's last chance. They wouldn't need to rig the vote if what they offered was popular
Maybe as some others have said, as Trump comes into focus and normies start watching the campaign Trump’ll lose that honestly now it’s almost 20% of support that would make him vulnerable (or the 3rd party move to Biden). But this is a hope.
Totally. But they are the minority, and everyone needs to not lose sight of that. Folks regularly talk of them as the "real Americans", but folks need to remember it is ours too, we outnumber them, and the future is ours for the taking.
My worry there is unlike 1776, everything is so hyper-militarised that unless the military joins the resistance, all those billions of dollars thrown into the military-industrial complex will be used to crush the people. How can they effectively resist?
Let's remember that the military has already literally *mutinied* against Trump once (on Jan 6, 2021, illegally taking orders from VP Mike Pence instead of the actual CnC).
My worry there (I'm sorry, I know I keep coming up with negatives but this is what nags my brain) is that if Trump takes over again he'll purge people from the Military that would stand against him. It might not be legal, but he's the sort who'd try. I honestly DO hope they would stand up to him.
The 25th was de facto re-interpreted for a day to have the "principal officers" be "Nancy Pelosi and Gen. Milley." It was what the country needed, but it wasn't by following the typical chain of command.
In 2020, the biggest recipient of donations from active duty service members, by quite a bit, was socialist Bernie Sanders. The enlisted ranks are overwhelmingly drawn from very poor working class people, who then receive full government benefits, gov provided healthcare and housing, etc.
I joined because I was homeless and needed a way out, and like half my platoon was there from similar dire straights. The rest were in it for college money or just something to do (this was pre-9/11 so the stakes were lower). There was exactly one dude there for ultranationalism and he sucked lol
The states. Michigan is maybe the best example recently. They did a ton of very hard grassroots work to unfuck the state, which was obviously blue leaning but was so gerrymandered that the state house and senate went GOP every time by lots of seats. And they did it. And it reshaped the state.
Strongly disagree. IMO the Right sees a window of opportunity to put fascism over the top, and they're going for it -- and believes the downside risk is minimal, as they can lose and fall back to business as usual, where they are structurally comfortable and successful.
In a proper democracy, Trump and many of those aligned with his would be facing unequivocal landslide defeats.
They're not getting punished (electorally) now, and won't be punished later even if we squeak thru another cycle.
Advantage of being the organized Right in a politics with no Left.
Exactly this. It should be repeated on a daily basis all over social media so that people never forget it will in fact happen if they keep his crimes on the front burner at all times. bsky.app/profile/pwna...
Well, fine. He spends his natural life sending attorneys to courts of appeals, dies a natural death without running out of money or liberty, and a whole major party lives after him to refine or remodel the grift, which never becomes electoral anathema.
We do nrrd a strong Republican (or other major] party.
It took a weak Republican party, not just a weak Democrstic party, to let Trump hit the big time.
But I don't think we will get strong parties, so must look elsewhere.
Me too. The way lawmakers vote is public record, forever. In North Carolina one of my representatives voted for an abortion ban - fascism 100%. I will never forget and will fight for his opponent to win, forever. It’s personal for me now. If I meet him in person…I’ll tell him so. Loudly.
Btw that fucker is never around. Coward. His opponent? I’ve donated $$, volunteered at events, organized. She has a PhD in leadership studies and has worked in advocacy and policy her whole career. She’s also fun and brilliant. But the fuckers gerrymandered our state. A lot.
But if you're right, the thing they don't understand there is that fascism... has a fairly shitty record. AFAIK the only countries where it lasted longer than a decade were Spain and Portugal, and neither really prospered under fascist regimes.
They lose even if they win.
I'd just rather we tried to avoid the damage they'll incur if they win and then drag the country down for a generation. Their long term prospects may be nil but they can really mess the place up in the near term.
Given American fascism's love of climate change, even a relatively short run in power might actually be long run disastrous regardless of whether they are stomped out after. We can't afford four years of policies intentionally designed to make climate change worse and faster.
I know far less about Francoist Spain than I need to, but in fact checking my skeets here I see that post-Franco Spain has literally made a point of trying to pretend the half century of Francoist rule never even happened. Apparently they call it "the Pact of Forgetting."
