Me too and I'm not even American, dissolution of NATO, serving Ukaine on a platter to Russia, possibility of more war in Europe with Putin getting bolder.
No pressure Americans but your elections are kind of important for the future of the world.
There was a rider attached to one of the latest appropriations bills (which is now law) that restricts how future Presidents can pull the US out of NATO. It can't happen now unless Congress passes an act authorizing the President to do so, or with a 2/3 vote of the Senate (the same mechanism as ratifying a treaty).
So at least on this issue, we've put in some safeguards in case we elect an idiot again.
Because rules and laws stopped him before
Yes, they did. He’s not in office right now because of those rules and laws
They stopped some of his bullshit, but they also failed to stop a lot of it. If he's allowed to run for president again, that will be a huge example of rules not stopping him.
Yeah but a bunch of white college kids who don't even know what Mer7aba means have decided that the way to serve the Palestinian cause is to let the guy who handed Jerusalem and the Golan Heights to Netenyahu back into office to teach the establishment a lesson so we're fucked.
I'm starting to think they're actually just right wingers who know that saying what they ACTUALLY want will get them dumped by all their cool allies club friends. Probably why they keep insisting on dumb fuck takes like "bErNiE wOuLd Be A cEnTrIsT iN pOlAnD!" and "AmErIcA hAs No LeFt!!!!!"
I'm not American but what's happening in the US and what will happen when/if Trump gets re-elected definitely worries me. It's difficult not to sound overly dramatic or hyperbolic about the situation but it really does feel like the US is uncomfortably close right now to a christofascist state. And if you just rolled your eyes at that word, take a look at who's currently second in line to the US presidency.
If Trump does win, I really fear for American democracy. Do you really think a man who encouraged an armed insurrection to support a subversion of an election will pause to think twice about removing the few rights large sections of America currently have? And if the process prevents him, do you think he'd think twice about dismantling the process? At gun point if necessary?
Hi, American here.
American domestic politics is absolutely fucked right now.
The Republican Party does not really even have any policy proposals for serious issues at the Federal level.
They spent years saying 'Obamacare bad', saying they could do healthcare better. Basically it is a decade later and they have no plan, not even a proposal.
Taxes? We still have morons like DeSantis basically saying 'I dunno, maybe a flat tax?' to applause during stump speeches and debates. The flat tax proposal is absolutely insane for a large number of reasons, but the Republican base eats it up.
Look, there are something like 50 million + Americans that believe in all or most of the QAnon conspiracy theories, that believe God himself appointed Trump as President.
Trump stacked the Supreme Court.
The Republicans have functionally made abortion illegal in about half the country.
Meanwhile the economy is /apparently/ recovering, though the prices of basically everything you need to routinely pay for have risen fairly dramatically while wages have remained basically stagnant. Wealth inequality has spiralled to obscene levels, rent has basically doubled in about half a decade.
As I write this, I believe that polls of Biden v Trump are still showing Trump ahead.
Even if Trump does not win, and even if the MAGA QAnon types do not do a bunch of terrorism (again), they still exist, and are hopelessly living in basically an alternate reality where anything that goes against their worldview is fake, a conspiracy, of the Devil.
It was about 3 years ago now that I told my friend group that the QAnon problem was so serious that we would need some kind of analogous concept to the de-Nazification program as was implemented after WW2 in West Germany to deal with it. They either laughed at or ignored me. None of those people are my friends any more.
We are fucked.
The only thing that motivates most Republican voters is hatred. Any politician who says Trans people bad, Critical Race Theory bad, Immigrants bad, Homeless People bad, anything like that receives applause from the audience.
And I write this /as a homeless person/ who will almost certainly not be able to vote in the upcoming election. I will be /lucky/ if I can even find and qualify for an actual apartment after basically a bunch of crimes that happened to me in the course of last year caused me serious physical injury and the loss of all of my possessions, ruined my credit score, placed my in incredible debt, lost me my job and my ability to do any other job until my physical injuries are healed, which I simply have to handle myself, while homeless, because the cost of engaging with American healthcare system to handle my problems now would be sufficient to outright purchase a modest home (outright) less than a decade ago.
Meanwhile, Trump has outright stated he would like to implement basically concentration camps for the homeless. He has stated he wants to eliminate the vermin leftists. He is very concerned with the purity of the blood of the nation, and has outright stated he will be a dictator.
And he is currently leading in the polls.
Again, this country is fucked. So, sorry Europeans, I would love to be able to assuage your fears, and become an activist or something.
Maybe send me some of your healthcare and I'll get right on it.
Or maybe I am extremely tired, have no hope for this broken country, and could use the services of someone who can smuggle me into Canada or something.
If you are homeless, reach out to a shelter to see if they would be okay with you declaring them as your residence for the purpose of mail/voter registration. You can obtain ID from the state and have it sent there, and then that enables you to register to vote. Or if you have a bit of cash, you can also register a PO box through USPS for your mail.
It may be too late for you to vote in the primary depending on where you live, but you've still got plenty of time for the general election in November.
I can only encourage you to keep trying, because disenfranchising the socially vulnerable means that the Republican strategy is working.
All of the day + night shelters are full. Beyond full. Waiting lists for a year+ full.
The vast majority of shelters in America for single adult men are overnight only, and where I am now, having had to travel halfway across the country to find somewhere I can afford to stay that is /safe/, it will be about 5 degrees Fahrenheit during the day.
Almost none of the overnight shelters allow you to use them as an address. In my experience, they are also full of many fentanyl addicts, murderers and thieves.
I will continue staying in motels, with heating, comfortable beds and showers that allow my serious ligament, muscle and bone injuries to heal, as opposed to staying in an overnight shelter where I would be forced to wander around in freezing weather during the day, seriously injuring me further, even if it means I cannot vote.
Honestly, fuck you. I would rather be /alive/ and not in horrific pain than possibly have the ability to vote.
I would rather have privacy and security, though it be costly, than be at risk of literally causing my injuries to exacerbate so seriously that I would be permanently disabled at best, murdered or collapsed from a torn ligament in the freezing cold and dying at worst.
I do not care to follow your laughably inadequate advice to prioritize voting in a broken system over my current survival.
Maybe you could actually do something functionally useful to address homelessness in your area or something, instead.
Honestly, fuck you. I would rather be /alive/ and not in horrific pain than possibly have the ability to vote.
I would rather have privacy and security, though it be costly, than be at risk of literally causing my injuries to exacerbate so seriously that I would be permanently disabled at best, murdered or collapsed from a torn ligament in the freezing cold and dying at worst.
I do not care to follow your laughably inadequate advice to prioritize voting in a broken system over my current survival.
Maybe you could actually do something functionally useful to address homelessness in your area or something, instead.
Well if this is how you treat people who try to offer a shred of advice or compassion, then I hate to say it but maybe you deserve your circumstances. I can't help you more than this.
You know nothing about me, but you immediately come back with open hostility. I am only trying to offer the same advice that I would for the refugee and immigrant populations that the organization I work for supports.
Your priorities may not be the same as everyone else's, but there are people literally dying for their vote and it is just as awful to belittle that or say that they aren't prioritizing things that make a difference. Because it truly does to many people, and I would say it does now more than ever.
Even if Trump dies tomorrow, the problem still exists. Trump is the worm in the apple, but half the apple is rotten.
That is true, no disagreement here. That's the truly scary thing about the man - he clearly does represent a lot of people.
But right now, he is the immediate danger.
I live in Japan and I'm sure Kim literally considered nuking my country during that dick measurement contest Trump held.
It’s difficult not to sound overly dramatic or hyperbolic about the situation but it really does feel like the US is uncomfortably close right now to a christofascist state.
To add to this: while it may sound hyperbolic to some folks, for plenty of us we've seen this brewing for decades. White evangelicals and right-wing politics unified in the 1980s in a way that was a clear danger to democracy, and they've only solidified their power since, given how mainstream their views are now.
IMHO Frank Zappa said it best in 1986: he got called out as being hyperbolic, but he clearly saw the writing on the wall. He's of course not the most scholarly source, but damn it Jim I'm a biologist, not a historian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlePLLlfH4Q
I’m fucking convinced you guys are going to vote that chud in again. Or let him be voted in again. There is nuance but it’s the same outcome.
The people who want to spite Biden's genocidal support by not voting for him don't realize that the alternative is a fascist dictator who actively relishes in the prospect of killing brown people. If you think Biden's treatment of the Gazan war is bad, wait til you see Trump.
Same with the Ukrainian war. If Biden is milquetoast, Trump will guarantee your toast is forever black and inedible.
I feel like this is so understated in this context it is almost physically painful:
Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit, it affects us in ways sometimes I think people take for granted
Stop talking about trump like he's just another bad candidate. Jesus Christ.
If they acknowledge the depth of his depravity then they go too far in tarnishing the office. They desperately want to maintain prestige so they'll never go as far as they ought to.
If you talk about it in the way that you should, you will sound alarmist.
As much as I share the same concern with Michelle, I would selfishly respond to her that if she just fucking ran for president she would win in a landslide and put an end to fucking Trump. Barack can spend the entire 4 years ridiculing the orange bezoar as first man.
Michelle would not win in a landslide.
Every election that is just an extension of the Clinton lineage is a bad play for democrats.
If the democrats ran just about anybody but Joe, they'd be a shoe-in.
Brace yourselves for Trump 2.0, everyone. The Clinton lineage must go on!
It’s never going to be that easy. I’m sure each of us can find a candidate we like better but a successful run is more than that:
While I think the President is doing a great job, I’d prefer someone more progressive. However that might alienate more voters than it would attract. I will not risk another trumptastrophe by insisting on more Progressiveness over electable, “progressive enough” and not insane
The age thing does bother me, but I can only dream of doing that well at that age.
We should focus on VP. We want someone in the wings and we want them to build name recognition, and that hasn’t worked for the current VP
Anyone who votes like that really doesn’t understand the difference between the two at all.
Im gonna be real with y'all. Fascism in the US is already here and it's only getting worse. Whether you vote Democrat or Republican you are voting to maintain a system that actively harms and kills millions. These days voting Democrat only means minorities in the US get a little more rights if they're nice while everything else stays the same or gets worse and honestly I can't tell if it was ever any better. It makes me genuinely sick that I have choose between two of the worst people I've ever had the displeasure of observing and any consideration of an alternative is met with active hostility or dismissal. I cannot fathom how people can accept being forced to choose between two genuine evils
My vote will accomplish nothing because there is no one to represent me
This sounds an awful lot like a the old ‘both sides’ boogaloo.
Fuck that.
America under the democrats is a vile bully that pokes its nose in where it doesn’t belong and causes a great deal of suffering across the planet.
I grant you that, but America under MAGA unleashes the true evil in the hearts of men. The malady caused by four years under Trump lingers on in so many aspects of life.
Comparing the two is a massive mistake.
I'll give you that republicans are genuinely worse yes. I do not doubt it. However, there is not a single Democrat president in my lifetime I would not also deem to be a war criminal
I cannot fathom how people can accept being forced to choose between two genuine evils
The word forced is right there in your sentence, what's hard to fathom? A third party vote is effectively a vote for Trump. I'm not going to argue with you if you still feel morally compelled to vote third party - but let's not pretend otherwise.
I understand that. Neither option is 'good'. But one of the options will (in my opinion) have a bloody good go at removing your ability to have the option at all in the future.
What makes this time in America’s history so terrifying is that the difference between Democrat and Republican has only been greater one other time and it resulted in a civil war. You can’t say “both sides are evil” because it’s not even close. Democrats haven’t really changed and that’s not the progress they claim to represent. However Republicans have abandoned the concept of the US as a whole and are actively attempting to corrupt our voting and end democracy state by state. Republicans are so close to crossing a line that cannot be uncrossed and it will result, at best, in states operating as independent nations. In other words, a fucking disaster.
There is only one “evil” side right now.
In this case, people accepting being force to choose between two genuine evils is because one of the two evils plans to make it so there is no chance at change and would likely turn to slaughtering people who don't fall in line with the regime
I'd be concerned whatever the outcome.
You reckon Jan 6th was a one off?
It seems like most Americans are gonna vote for trump and he might win. Democrat voters have to blame their side if trump wins. They've run such a dog shit pr campaign. Biden has done good on the policy front but you'd never know because the media doesn't cover it and the right-wing media only covers his mistakes.
Most Americans didn't vote for Trump in the previous two elections.
It seems like most Americans are gonna vote for trump and he might win.
The problem is the electoral college. We have dipshits, but not enough of them will vote for Trump for him to win the popular vote.
Democrat voters have to blame their side if trump wins. They’ve run such a dog shit pr campaign.
This is true every time. Not disagreeing with you. When Dems win nationally it's usually in spite of all the ways they tried to fuck it up.
I don’t understand why you think that. The last election wasn’t even close and Trump had the post office in shambles.
"government do everything for us, and we cannot take this democracy for granted." Government is not the same as democracy... Democracy is what D's and R's try to sufficate so the government can continue to be run by private companies. There is a word for this...
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