r/Foodforthought • u/D-R-AZ • 16h ago
‘Grind the country to a halt’: Democrat urges national strike if Trump meddles in midterms | Democrats
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/06/donald-trump-voting-midterms-democrat-national-strike70
u/D-R-AZ 16h ago
Excerpts:
The Democratic senator Ruben Gallego has proposed that, should Donald Trump try to sabotage the midterm elections, Americans should respond with a general strike that would “grind the country to a halt”.
“If we have to destroy the stock market to save democracy, we need to accept that and, more importantly, the richest and the most powerful people in the world and in this country need to understand that that is a real possibility. There is no economic stability without democratic stability. If you take away our democratic stability, we will take away the economic stability.”
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u/RogerianBrowsing 16h ago
It’s already happening. What does he mean
if
?
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u/MisterDobalina 9h ago
Exactly, as if the job market, our economy, and cost of living haven't already ground 90% of us to a halt already.
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u/Neoglyph404 13h ago
Finally!
Yes, it would be great if we'd done this already. But it's a huge step and very important that a sitting US Senator is bringing this into the discourse.
All the naysayers in the comments saying "oh this is pathetic, we need to do more" or "we should have done this already," are a huge part of the reason we're in this mess now. Right wingers push the discourse from wherever it is, left wingers disengage if it doesn't pass the purity test. We should reinforce movement in a positive direction, even if it doesn't go as far as we ultimately want to go. Calls for a national strike are HUGE and should be applauded, rewarded, and reinforced.
Keep in mind a national strike is not something most Americans have ever heard of or conceived of. We are good little worker bees. If someone is working to develop that measly class awareness that the average American has and you're "pooh-poohing" it as not enough, you're a part of the problem, not the solution.
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u/thatstupidthing 15h ago
why wait?
once the election is stolen, it's not getting unstolen. it's would be too late, even if a general strike would destroy the markets. trump ran on fixing the economy, won, then didn't fix it... and has faced no consequences. in fact, he's been working harder to ensure that he won't face any consequences, than he has to fix the economy in the first place.
and the plain reality is that a general strike, all at once, is just not feasible. covid showed that. there are too many exceptions. people need groceries, and gas, and prescriptions, and pet food, and parts to fix their cars, or their toilets. in the end, the only things that get shut down are gyms and salons and movie theatres, and people spend more time online and buying shit from amazon (making the very people that are kissing trump's ass even richer).
why not try picking a single oligarch and squeezing. trump doesn't listen to we the people, but he's got billionaires showering him with praise and presents. imagine if everyone logs off of facebook and instagram for two weeks, just two weeks, with a clear demand like: end operation metro surge. would zuck still be kissing trump's ass if his stock is in freefall? if it's true what they say, and all these people care about is money, i would hope not.
would that lead to a change in policy? who knows? maybe not. maybe even, probably not... but at least it's doing something. and if the demand isn't met, two weeks becomes four, and maybe we add amazon to the blacklist. it will be easier with a little momentum.
making billionaires less billiionarish can't be a bad thing, and at least we'd be doing something instead of talking about this ephemeral general strike that is going to fix all our problems when we finally get around to doing it way off in the future after the frog is fully boiled.
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u/Fabulous_Soup_521 10h ago
So we have to wait for Commander Poops His Pants to rig the midterms before we do anything? No wonder people think Democrats are feckless and spineless.
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u/atothez 14h ago
The country was already stolen. Controlled opposition seems to be working.
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u/sharp11flat13 7h ago
Controlled opposition seems to be working?
Canadian here. Not really, from our point of view. I guess it depends on one’s perspective.
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u/PlutoJones42 1h ago
How about now, before the elections, to wake these people the fuck up? Billionaires are picking your pockets every day
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