Our system is done and I think we need to stop pretending that there is something left to salvage.
No matter what we vote in November it's clear we no longer operate under rules and laws and are no longer a democracy in any sense of the word.
Time for us to accept America's 1st democracy failed.
colonial era != continental congress era != founding era != reconstruction era != preera != interwar era != cold war era != post-cold war era != current era; tho folks can draw the lines in different places
(the value of seeing it this way is also a recognition that each generation gets to pick their own future; the United States is not tied to its past; it is shackled to it only to the extent it chooses to continue to be, not out of any inevitability)
the other, tho admittedly darker, value is also in recognizing that shock changes can happen quickly, change the nature of the government and its relationship to the citzenry in ways that are negative, as well as positive, and that it doesn't *ever* "bounce back". It always evolves forwards.
I can't shake the feeling that the only thing that held our crap system "together" if it can even be called that was the unifying element of white supremacy, and a general majority agreement to do racist policies.
I don't know if American democracy ever amounted to anything more than that.
I think it did, tho these are admittedly very dark times, and it's hard to see right now. But far more importantly: I think it can be a better nation, if we will it; one built on equality, dignity, and justice for everyone. And where elites and institutions failed us, we can and must build anew
I hope so. We have to put everything on the table though and admit that nothing the founders gave us held strong, and while we can use those same concepts the whole thing has to be redesigned and rewritten.
Too many poisonous compromises with evil are written into our system.
A lot of it has faded, to be sure. But this, by Jefferson--standing tall, inscribed in his memorial--speaks down through the ages, and inviting a nation that needs to hear it, to choose a better future for itself, unshackled by any laws or institutions that fail to move us forward to a better future
Sheldon Whitehouse had a good thread on nitter today about dark $$$$ (and I would add oligarchy) being behind a lot of today's US problems, and making that a campaign focus. It will take many of us joining together to take US back from that secretive 1%.
I don't think that's true at all. Several times we have quite violently rejected that very issue and attempted to Re-Found without it.
First with the Civil War and again with the Warren court attempting to make good on the promises of Reconstruction.
White supremacy is our original sin and nasty recurring fungus that refuses to die. But if anything it tends to divide and destroy our system more than bind it.
I think if anything, our founding myths, the idea "all men are created equal", despite being a lie in their time, have proven more durable
Our entire Senate and congressional system along with federalism was designed to placate slave owners and get them to join the union and when they tried to destroy us all anyway we reunited with them afterwards by letting them keep their unfair representation advantages.
There are multiple parliamentary systems that are currently supporting apartheid and/or highly classist and/or nationalistic states. And a number of progressive systems that are currently shifting far right. The system matters much less than the culture.
Parliamentary systems do have advantages, like more often giving the voters what they want, and making clear which party and platform is responsible for the results.
If a majority of the voters want evil shit, they will usually get it.
We have to think like the French. This marks the end of the American First Republic. There will be a hopefully brief Bourbon interlude, and then eventually an American Second Republic, by which time we may have learned some of the lessons of the first.
I imagine something more like Rome, where the Senate allows a charismatic leader to assume dictatorial powers which quickly leads to the death of the Republic.
What we will likely get is an absurd patchwork of Iran-style theocracy, American capitalist corruption, an erratic leader who takes after Idi Amin, and the political and economic practices of mid 1970s Chile. Franco's Spain will look positively benign.
Also death camps, because there is no way you can suddenly store 11 million or so immigrants without killing a large percentage of them through disease and starvation.
Hmm. 1848 & brutal supressions of all the hopeful revolutions in European capitals come to mind. (Good soundtrack with Les Misérables). Was France free after 1918? Mais non. The 1941 fall of the 3rd Republic was worse. Then Algeria & end of the Fourth.
Look to France only for food & wine perhap.
USA ON CUSP OF TYRANNY
The Supreme Court's ruling that shields the President frm prosecution in office kindles abuse of power&erosion of democracy. Trump's return to the White House is worry for coups and death of constitutional democracy, rule of law&America's global leadership!
Pretty sure we're on at least #3 if you include the civil war as constitutional negotiation by other means.
Honestly probably 4 if you look at the Roosevelt years.
