The American system of democracy has crashed
The American system of democracy has crashed
www.theverge.com
Some patriotic reflections on Independence Day
Archive article: https://archive.is/rQuTE
24 comments
-
-
To echo another commenter, this article is a harrowing read—particularly the litany of reasons for declaring independence:
The Declaration pronounces these rights to be so important that it’s worth overthrowing a government over them. But one should not undertake revolution against a tyrannical government lightly, the Declaration says, going on to provide a massive litany of complaints as justification. In modern times, the full list was considered to be the boring part of this document, lacking the vim and vigor of “we hold these truths to be self-evident” and other such bars from the preamble. But this year, it’s become a… bracing read.
Listed among the reasons to boot the British monarch are:
- “transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences”
- “Obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither”
- “erect[ing] a multitude of New Offices, and sen[ding] hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people”
- keeping “among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures”
- attempting “to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.”
- “cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world”
- “depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury”
- “excit[ing] domestic insurrections amongst us”
This was visceral:
As Donald Trump’s imperial presidency rolls forward across the wreckage of Congress on tank treads greased by the Supreme Court...
And it ends with this:
The Declaration of Independence has some notes about “the Right of the People to alter or to abolish” its existing government “and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
But that was another time, right? Surely nobody wants to take the Founding Fathers’ original words literally. Their original meaning and original intent can’t just be superimposed on American life today, not when American values are very different from the values of 1776. In Trump’s America, the national ethos is simply a boot on your neck, forever.
-
overcoming denial isn't something anyone can do for someone else--each person has to make that decision on their own. and it's even harder when everyone around you is in the same state of denial.
until there's a critical mass of people who finally realize a) none of what's going on is remotely acceptable; and more importantly b) nothing that's been tried so far has worked, and WILL NOT work moving forward--
until then, it's boot on neck. maybe forever
edit: add c) "the law" is meaningless if no one's enforcing it. or if the only laws getting enforced are the ones that protect the fascists. i cringe at every post declaring "court rules that trump can't do that thing he literally did and will continue to do!!" good job, court.
-
I came with the same excerpt as your first.
I disagree with the bit about the king, though, because like the monarchy of the UK, he's largely there to force us to bow to the jackal and vulture gods of capitalism. Now we have a choice. Will we sacrifice ourselves and children to those false gods, or make the necessary choice of perhaps more difficult sacrifices to the more merciful egalitarian ideals? We may never realize them, in any lifetime. I suppose that largely depends on how much the collective values themselves over capitalists.
-
There is no more United States of America. It is now the MAGA People's Republic of Yee-Haw Mannitude. The system allowed it. Just handed everything over to a dictator and the evil men who control him.
There's no coming back. No revolution. No foreign invasion to topple the regime. This is our lives, for the next 50 years at least.
-
If you give up and roll over, you are complicit.
-
-
I find it remarkable that headlines like these are always phrased passively, as if it were a natural disaster sweeping across the country without anyone being responsible.
-
I think sometimes the author is hoping it may reach certain readers as opposed to preaching to the choir.
-
-
No thanks to the Vichy Democrats
It’s all greed. They’re all on the take.
-
I don't get why people blame Democrats so much. They are center-right wing. Their entire thing is to basically just maintain the status quo. And then everyone gets all mad when they do exactly that.
Stop voting for them and get a viable candidate campaign going before the final election. Other than removing FPtP voting and getting RCV or something similar, the only other way to actually see some change is getting so much support behind a leftist that by election season they are leading all the polls. And that starts years before election year. Like.... NOW. (Assuming we still have elections by then, but let's assume we will and push for something better.)
-
-
"Once upon a time in America, there was a tyrant. And Congress rejected him totally. The tyrant, of course, was King George III"
Constantly spewing bullshit like that is exactly why your democracy crashed. When everything is part of some mystical "greatest nation in the world" fairly tale it's hard to recognize and defend truly important values.
Congress didn't reject the King because he was a tyrant. American elites rejected the King to establish new system where they could reap all the benefits. Then they enslaved people and committed genocide to enrich themselves. It was greed, not bravery that motivated them.
-
you cannot choose whether you are oppressed. you can only choose by whom. and if you don't make that choice, then somebody else makes it for you
-
-
Unpaywalled version: https://archive.is/rQuTE
-
All I can say, is the neoliberal efforts towards gun control not only didn't work - it's backfired in a way that's about to make a slave nation out of all of us.
I have nothing to celebrate as an American. I seek..
The charismatic leader, with a plan, with command and control, and more importantly - clear guidelines for the cessation of hostilities. Sure would be nice if the rest of you caught up..
-
Sooner people accept it the sooner people will respond.
-
Respond how? Not going to happen. "Uh, government bad, both sides, what's on Netflix?"
-
-
Time to reboot it
-
No reboot. Only boot.
-
-
But America was never a democracy
24 comments
Democratic People's Republic of MAGALAND Gilead