Because there is still a reasonable veneer of democracy. The “both sides-ing” electorate that don’t see what is happening as a slow conversion to authoritarianism or fascism still know how to count and how elections are supposed to work. The system is getting slowly rigged from the inside, and it is extremely enabled by having questionable election results and need for recounts and exploitable legal actions.
You can see by watching coverage of Trump’s second impeachment that there are principled old guard Republicans with lines they won’t cross. There’s also huge portion of the non-maga “center and center right” electorate thinks that this is all just some overblown BS and dont love Trump, but think it’s all the same either way. A close election? Sure recount, sue, whatever, and those people will go along. Have a blowout confirmed by media and election polling and those people wake up and give a shit. All is not lost to democracy, but basically only half the electorate is even engaged in the discussion. In a close race a steal looks legit, in a landslide race that is overturned, all the “nothing burger” crowd gets proof that there is blood in the water.
The US isn’t Russia yet, but the insides are changing because fuckwits “protest” by sitting on their couches, not voting or engaging, and whining about how it doesnt matter. IT. MATTERS. This whole conversation is like the “first/then they came for the XXX and I said nothing” situation, but it starts at the ballot box.
Yeah, I dunno. This is why I had to leave. Veneer literally means false front, decorative layer with no substance. I’m not American but I grew up there. In my take the US is worse than Russia, has been since your sanctions collapsed them and you are all in denial. Trump isn’t the coming of fascism, he is the expression of the existing fascist government.
That’s sort of my point. When everything looks close and reasonable, democracy is the veneer, but when it’s fully exercised, democracy still works.
I have a hard time feeling bad for sanctioning a country whose government is actively expansionist and an extension of the mafia even if I feel bad for the citizens, but that’s a separate discussion altogether.
Those sanctions against Russia included actions like funding the Iran Iraq war at their borders that killed most of my extended family. America is a totally mafia run country and you guys really have some weird perceptions about yourselves and your place in the world.
Because there is still a reasonable veneer of democracy. The “both sides-ing” electorate that don’t see what is happening as a slow conversion to authoritarianism or fascism still know how to count and how elections are supposed to work. The system is getting slowly rigged from the inside, and it is extremely enabled by having questionable election results and need for recounts and exploitable legal actions.
You can see by watching coverage of Trump’s second impeachment that there are principled old guard Republicans with lines they won’t cross. There’s also huge portion of the non-maga “center and center right” electorate thinks that this is all just some overblown BS and dont love Trump, but think it’s all the same either way. A close election? Sure recount, sue, whatever, and those people will go along. Have a blowout confirmed by media and election polling and those people wake up and give a shit. All is not lost to democracy, but basically only half the electorate is even engaged in the discussion. In a close race a steal looks legit, in a landslide race that is overturned, all the “nothing burger” crowd gets proof that there is blood in the water.
The US isn’t Russia yet, but the insides are changing because fuckwits “protest” by sitting on their couches, not voting or engaging, and whining about how it doesnt matter. IT. MATTERS. This whole conversation is like the “first/then they came for the XXX and I said nothing” situation, but it starts at the ballot box.
Yeah, I dunno. This is why I had to leave. Veneer literally means false front, decorative layer with no substance. I’m not American but I grew up there. In my take the US is worse than Russia, has been since your sanctions collapsed them and you are all in denial. Trump isn’t the coming of fascism, he is the expression of the existing fascist government.
That’s sort of my point. When everything looks close and reasonable, democracy is the veneer, but when it’s fully exercised, democracy still works.
I have a hard time feeling bad for sanctioning a country whose government is actively expansionist and an extension of the mafia even if I feel bad for the citizens, but that’s a separate discussion altogether.
Those sanctions against Russia included actions like funding the Iran Iraq war at their borders that killed most of my extended family. America is a totally mafia run country and you guys really have some weird perceptions about yourselves and your place in the world.