So what’s the plan? Good luck on that vote you’ve got coming up, but let’s not be naive about what might happen. Hiding and hoping didn’t work out very well for Anne Frank, it won’t work for Americans either.
I thought you had a second amendment just for this?! If we believe the amount of Americans here telling everyone to arm themselves, and that they are ready to defend themselves if a police officer looks menacing, you’d all be ready for this.
I would say that people are doing stuff, but we’re constrained by several things:
Fixed election cycles: Once in office, only the fellow officers of the federal government, whether Congress or the top tiers of the Executive, are able to recall, expel, or remove officials in the government. Since all the branches of our government are held by one political faction, the chance of this is vanishingly small
Lifetime appointment of judges: As a consequence of the actions of some key figures (cough cough, RBG) we’re stuck with an extremely conservative and Trump allied Supreme Court that won’t block or overturn any of the administration’s actions
The leaders of Congress have decided not to exercise their power which for the 249 years prior to 2025 has been the main check against something like this happening. Per point number 1 there’s no recourse for citizens until this November essentially. I don’t know the statistics in countries like the US vs Canada, but at least here in the South, Senators or Representatives in leadership positions get essentially a free walk at least to the general election, most of them through to reelection
Due to how it was set up, the US Senate, whose main roll is essentially being the red or green light on much of the President’s agenda, changes extremely slowly because we don’t elect them all at once. Luckily this year, a majority of the Senate incumbents facing reelection (20 out of the 35) are Republicans, so the Democrats could (in theory) make significant gains or at least have more of a chance to
This administration has shown that it really doesn’t care about popular opinion at all about anything
As others have mentioned in this thread, the administration has made it a habit of locating and locking up under terrorism charges people that publicly speak out against it and has made it practice to murder people in the street trying to help those in need, so the stakes are significantly higher than political change has been in the past
The main thing Trump has done is exposed just how much of our government has been de facto. I think one of the main issues is that the founders of the country basically assumed good faith in much of the mechanics the built into the system because that was more of a component of high class culture back then.
I think it’s important to remember for us Americans too though that almost to a man, most of these guys hated each other and did everything in their power to undermine each other. People talk about polarisation in politics today like it’s a new thing and totally unprecedented. The Era of Good Feelings lasted like 5 years people, democracy needs disagreement to survive
And I’d like to add that ‘hopefully’ people have learned a lesson here. I too was incredibly frustrated by the fact that Congress just doesn’t get anything done… but I’m not electing a dictator to solve it, wtf
As a Canadian, I ask that Americans do more than stand there.
People are being imprisoned under terrorist charges for life for standing up to this government in peaceful protest
Maybe should learn how to protest from the French.
The French police aren’t trying to kill the protesters. They literally shoot you in the head with bullets here.
Oh well then, fuck it I guess, eh? Sit back and stand aside.
So what’s the plan? Good luck on that vote you’ve got coming up, but let’s not be naive about what might happen. Hiding and hoping didn’t work out very well for Anne Frank, it won’t work for Americans either.
I thought you had a second amendment just for this?! If we believe the amount of Americans here telling everyone to arm themselves, and that they are ready to defend themselves if a police officer looks menacing, you’d all be ready for this.
I would say that people are doing stuff, but we’re constrained by several things:
Fixed election cycles: Once in office, only the fellow officers of the federal government, whether Congress or the top tiers of the Executive, are able to recall, expel, or remove officials in the government. Since all the branches of our government are held by one political faction, the chance of this is vanishingly small
Lifetime appointment of judges: As a consequence of the actions of some key figures (cough cough, RBG) we’re stuck with an extremely conservative and Trump allied Supreme Court that won’t block or overturn any of the administration’s actions
The leaders of Congress have decided not to exercise their power which for the 249 years prior to 2025 has been the main check against something like this happening. Per point number 1 there’s no recourse for citizens until this November essentially. I don’t know the statistics in countries like the US vs Canada, but at least here in the South, Senators or Representatives in leadership positions get essentially a free walk at least to the general election, most of them through to reelection
Due to how it was set up, the US Senate, whose main roll is essentially being the red or green light on much of the President’s agenda, changes extremely slowly because we don’t elect them all at once. Luckily this year, a majority of the Senate incumbents facing reelection (20 out of the 35) are Republicans, so the Democrats could (in theory) make significant gains or at least have more of a chance to
This administration has shown that it really doesn’t care about popular opinion at all about anything
As others have mentioned in this thread, the administration has made it a habit of locating and locking up under terrorism charges people that publicly speak out against it and has made it practice to murder people in the street trying to help those in need, so the stakes are significantly higher than political change has been in the past
The main thing Trump has done is exposed just how much of our government has been de facto. I think one of the main issues is that the founders of the country basically assumed good faith in much of the mechanics the built into the system because that was more of a component of high class culture back then.
I think it’s important to remember for us Americans too though that almost to a man, most of these guys hated each other and did everything in their power to undermine each other. People talk about polarisation in politics today like it’s a new thing and totally unprecedented. The Era of Good Feelings lasted like 5 years people, democracy needs disagreement to survive
And I’d like to add that ‘hopefully’ people have learned a lesson here. I too was incredibly frustrated by the fact that Congress just doesn’t get anything done… but I’m not electing a dictator to solve it, wtf
Gotcha overthrow the government in bloody Civil War for your convenience.
Let me speak in my American voice: “lol, what are you doing? I’ll follow you.”
And I’m saying this in a voice that just sprinted a mile and is out of breath.
“Please solve our problems for us”
Sorry Americans, we don’t tend to interfere in other country’s affairs - that’s kinda your shtick. Go primary an incumbent or something.