It’s not really even about being a democracy. Kommunist East Germany with one of the most formidable surveillance systems to date could only look on when a sufficient percentage of the population rose peacefully.
I believe the plumbing for democratic change is still present in the US. What is preventing change is people doom scrolling on the couch.
Fun Fact: what killed communism wasn’t so much the ownership details of the means of production, but the fact they chose a command economy instead of a market economy. Planned or command economies are bad, no matter what political ideology is behind it.
Also: the way politicians world wide allowed conentration of mega corporations, I feel we are moving much more towards a command economy than a market economy.
You fail to see that both approaches are valid in the correct context. Establishment Dems need to go. But the right place for that are the primaries.
If an actual progressive doesn’t get endorsed or runs as an independent in the actual elections, you might need to hold your nose and vote blue. That way you get another chance for change the next time around. If you don’t vote whoever isn’t MAGA, I honestly don’t think there will be a meaningful next time to vote. MAGA is already trying their best to rig the elections. If the house (and hopefully senate) don’t change this time, I think the experiment is over.
So by all means press for change in the primaries. What the US desperately needs is to overturn citizens united, but also a reform to the election system. First past the post is toxic.
The only thing that makes them “left” is that they are not Republicans and that Republicans keep calling them left.
Establishment Democrats would fit right in with traditional conservative parties throughout Europe. I could easily see Merkel of the CDU being to the left of quite a number of Establishment Democrats.
Not entirely. Generally of course people who don’t have to labour for their livelyhood have more time and certainly more resources to influence politics. But the common man can make their voices heard. -you can vote in your interest. Be careful of what people try to tell you is your interest -you can protest (peacefully); look at France to see a populace that doesn’t just take what is rammed down their throats -you can talk to your neighbours; discuss things with them to form an opinion; don’t just parrot talking points from media; -you can write to representatives; sure, your letter won’t be directly shown to then, unlike one from Koch or someone. But it won’t go unnoticed. -participate at town halls -participate in polls A fortune 500 CEO or Forbes billionaire list name will have more impact than a single voice from the population. But organised, the voices of the population make a difference. Organisation, participation and critical engagement can make a difference.
Conquerors are worthless. They come and go. What makes a realm/an empire stick around and last, is if the leader is a good administrator. What set the Romans aside was not so much military ability, though they had that. What set them aside was their ability to organise, plan and administer.
I think a significant number of states will now want to develop their own nuclear weapons. The US has been teaching people for the last 20 years that there is a significant difference in how they will treat countries that have the bomb like North Korea and those that haven’t, like Irak, Iran, Afganistan, Denmark and other NATO countries.
NATO countries I believe will mostly ralley around the UK and France. But even among them, in the medium run, I believe there might be some wanting their own. Turkey has just recently announced a missile that basically only makes sense as a nuklear weapon.
The rules based international relations was something making countries believe they don’t need nuclear weapons of their own. This premise doesn’t hold in the same way anymore. We’ll probably end up with 30-40 countries with nuclear weapons.
It’s the other way round. Trump repeated again and again and again that the borders were a problem until people believed it and believed it was something important.
That gave him something no substantive to run on without coming up with real policies.
They’ll probably try to argue the war powers act “clock” resets with the name change: look, totally different operation, we have another 90 days… And if they get away with it, expect a new stupid name regularly.
Surely, that means if the politicians fighting for this break one of the commandments they will immediately resign, right?
They have for decades been at the forefront of cheating. Which party broke into their competitors offices to so on them? Who used the supreme court to stop the count in Florida, where after the fact it was found out they would have (narrowly) lost?
They know they cheat at every opportunity, so they need to accuse their opponents of the same.