we had a good run

Don’t blame it on just one person. He has many ~~friends~~ accomplices.
- About 53 in the senate, right now.
  
  Or a whole generation telling their kids "Don't worry about politics, focus on yourself" as they vote for more oligarchy. Thanks, boomers.
- Republicans/big business have been trying to install a fascist regime since 1933 when Smedley Butler shut the coup down down.
  
  *since at latest 1933

Points at SCOTUS. Electoral College. Winner-Takes-All underrepresentation. 100 years legal slavery, 100 years racial segregation. 150 years gendered voting rights.
- Citizens united.
  For-profit prison labour.
- Reapportionment Act of 1929

- Harris actually got more votes than Biden in most of the key swing states. Can we stop this narrative of blaming anyone other than the tens of millions that actually picked Trump?
  
  Nope. Because I do blame the third party / uncommitted crowd for sowing division, doubt, and getting in the way. We were in a burning building, and those groups were blocking the fire exits.
- The stick was actually running a soft right democrat to combat a far right candidate, the gag is blaming voters.
  
  The stick was not seeing (or even acknowledging the existence of) the bigger picture.
  
  Got one
- Oh my God shut the fuck up unless fewer people voted Dem in swing states... which they didn't. Stop refusing to address your addiction to moderation.

How cute, OP thinks the US has been a democracy for the last 250 years.

we had a good run
Did you, though?
- The rich guys did, it's even getting better for them.

"unelected"
he got up to stage and said he bought the fascist candidate. lots of people saw that and said "that's OK, I'll still vote red" and even more people saw that and said "that's OK, I'll still not vote". around 160 million people saw this and were OK with it. yeah he wasn't elected, but the "dictator on day one" was.
- This right here.
  They had a website for two years with a detailed plan. Project 2025 was widely known an people either voted for it or stayed at home. The dildo of consequences, as they say...

democracy
Looks inside
oligarchy
- And completely broken and idiotic and easily manipulated voting system.
  
  It's almost as though the oligarchs could afford the best lawyers and judges to write up "democratic" laws that favor them, would certainly explain everything dems/repubs have been working together to do for 50+ years while boomers are all like "Nothing to see here, too busy focusing on myself."

"Democracy"

Capitalism's natural and unavoidable end stage.
- I like to blame capitalism for everything, too, but this has nothing to do with capitalism. Just the US Democracy not being a Democracy
  
  Ah yes the world richest man and a billionaire president have no financial motives for overthrowing the US gov. Definitely not the fault of the greedy capitalist system
  
  The richest people being the oligarchs has nothing to do with capitalism?
  
  Capitalism worsens the principal agent problem of representative democracy because it's trivial to bribe representatives, especially now.

Democracy
Looks inside
Constitution written exclusively to protect monopoly business interests and prevent a monarchy
seems legit lol
- Yeah I'm sure that giving rights to everyone (amendments are part of the Constitution!) was purely for business interests ...

People who believe in 250 years of democracy enable systemic racism, patriarchy, etc.
Libs, please grow up.
- Democracy is when you prohibit everybody but voting except rich white slave owners!
  Reminder that our founding fathers broke off because of "taxation without representation" but then denied representation for most Americans.
  Women? "No say." Black people? "Wait those are people?" Native Americans? "Sure they were here first but I have money." Immigrants? "Why would I support new comers to this land my family has been here for 30 years!"
  We didn't even used to vote for our senators, they were voted in by the state legislator, which you could vote for if your state allowed your kind to vote, but most places only allowed for certain people to vote.
  America pretends it was a democracy, when Musk and Trump just show it was all a show and it could be toppled over at any point. Most of the laws in place for offices of power were just codes of ethics with no punishment for violation. If you did break a law, the president has never really been checked, so just break more as they figure out what to do.
- It was deeply flawed but it was a democracy nevertheless. It's now a full authoritarian regime and you'll get to realize what you've lost soon enough.
  
  Nothing I wasn't already losing through the systemic oppression that is the capitalist system and a hierarchical State that exists to maintains it.
  What? I'm gonna be poor and marginalized under a different system? Okay. Changes nothing for me. I'm still poor and struggling to maintain housing and eat a proper meal every day.
  The only people losing anything are the middle class who still think that the system isn't already exploiting them and fail to understand that what is happening is the inevitable conclusion to the society we built.

Lol the democracy part didn't even start until 1965.
Even then, its more like Democracy Lite™.

The average age of an empire is 250 years, now were going to find out what's going to replace it.
- Well, not some of us I’m sure.
- The Forever Purge™

Democracy must be fragile af if this is all it takes to topple it
- Most good things are fragile. And with most things it just takes a few assholes to ruin it.
- Democracy resisted for quite some time despite glaring problems.
  See the Business Plot of 1933 that was undermined by a Medal of Honor-recipient and Major General, Smedley Butler whom they tried to recruit for the coup.
- Using first-past-the-post and giving a president too much power is fragile, yes.
  Proportional election and a president with much less power is far safer. Some stuff takes a while to become a law, but at least it'll be an actual agreement instead of an order.
- They have been eroding education and disenfranchising voters for decades. He loves the poorly educated, you know?

I'll be polite. That's not an accurate repository of those 250 years; the second part us alright.

USA is a kakistocracy of the oligarchs
Change my mind
- Thats a new word for me! What's it mean?
- Kekistocracy

A good run? 2 years of actually peace since the us existenz is your benchmark for a good run?

Amerikkka never had real democracy

There is an interesting analysis of the ideology of the techbro's (youtube) backing Trump, who actually do want to destroy the US. I'm kinda shocked how well this explains things, and haven't found a good written article yet (but haven't been looking).

How is he unelected?
There was a billionaire elected in the last USA election
- Elon Musk, not Trump.
  
  Wasnt the relation between Elon Musk and Trump public before the USA election?
  It wouldnt be unreasonable to expect Elon Musk to gain some power when voting for Donald Trump

Did we all forget the elected one put the unelected one in power?

Let's be honest, it is efficient! /s

God bless Elon.
May God continue to use him for the betterment of the United States.

Democracy is inherently tied to progress.
I'm considering that progress on Earth will slow down or come to a halt in the long-term, thus taking away Democracy with it.
I believe that Space Flight is the only viable option for long-term progress, and that it will bring Democracy with it. That is actually the major reason why i'm looking forward to Mars Settlement projects.
- No, we shouldn't infect the galaxy with Capitalism.
- Can you connect the dots between democracy and progress? Do nondemocratic places just steal ideas from democratic ones in your worldview?
  
  I think it comes down to the definition of democracy. I read somewhere, that while universally understood, democracy is actually surprisingly difficult to define. It's not just about the votes.
  It's also about having good and solid news, education, and being reasonable (instead of being egoistic).
  Now, these are all qualities that are favored in a system that is targeted towards growth. When you need to build a city, you need to be reasonable, make good assessments, be educated, and communicate clearly, to be able to pull it off. In the absence of these demands, these skills would crumble and vanish. That is why a democracy is surprisingly difficult to sustain when there's no economic drivers behind it. That is, in short, my argument.
- Why do we need to expand, when we don't even have stuff sorted here? By expanding now, aren't we just spreading shit?
- Ignore the naysayers. But we should focus on the moon first. It's more practical

Dude losses an election and it's instantly "everybody I don't like is Hitler" combined with the end of democracy as we know it lmao 🤣
And then you wonder why people don't take you guys seriously outside of your echo chamber.
- So you're just ignoring everything that is happening and just laughing at stuff you don't understand?
  Unfortunately, uninformed people like you are the loudest and most active, so you will bring us all down. Enjoy your superiority complex while you still can.
  
  Surely doubling down is the correct rhetorical move here.
- They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done. Mental institutions. Prisons all over the world. Not just from South America. Not just the three or four countries that we think about. But all over the world they’re coming into our country — from Africa, from Asia, all over the world
  I want to be a dictator for one day
  I didn’t want to have people ripping down and burning our shopping centers and killing people. But we’re not taking ’em from infested countries
  I don’t know if you call them ‘people.’ In some cases they’re not people, in my opinion,”
  But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say …. These are bad — these are animals.
  The Democrats say please don’t call them animals, they’re humans. I said no, they’re not humans, they’re animals. … I’ll use the word animal, because that’s what they are
  If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be … a bloodbath for the country
  We will root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country. … The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave, than the threat from within
  I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution
  A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.
  There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orbán. He’s a non-controversial figure because he says, ‘This is the way it’s going to be,’ and that’s the end of it. Right? He’s the boss.
  You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians
  
  Im guessing Shardik doesn't know that dehumanizing a target group is a hallmark of Nazism.
- This is from a VA employee:
  This is destroying the Agency. People come to work terrified every day. I don’t know a single competent and qualified person who isn’t actively looking for work elsewhere and the only people who will be left to serve our Veterans are those with no other choices. The amount of sheer experience, knowledge, and brainpower being lost is irreplaceable, and the trust is already broken. We’ll never get it back. I am heartbroken that so many Republicans deeply, deeply hate us for doing our best every single day to serve Veterans. I will never forgive them for this.
  You will never be forgiven for what's happening right now. https://open.substack.com/pub/progressreport/p/revenge-of-the-whiny-pampered-baby?r=2lkdbh
- You wouldn't even notice when democracy is de facto abolished, because you'd parade it.