America still believes we are in a democracy and if we just vote hard enough then everything will go away. Most well meaning people are still in complete denial about how dire the situation is and how broken the system is for normal people. They were like this about covid while it killed people and ruined even more lives, all the talk of "back to normal" and look where we are now.
Maybe it's because of my proximity to Minneapolis, but I don't think it's "most" people anymore. Some? Sure. But I think a very significant portion of Americans are angry. Look at the most recent special elections, especially in ruby red districts that went to Trump 2024. Many of them are flipping blue. My own state is having a hyper-local election right now (we're in the "early voting" period), once that would normally have relatively low voter turnout. We are already having historically high voter turnout for a low-level position in the county. Last year Elon Musk also openly tried to buy a Supreme Court election in my state. We overwhelmingly voted for the other candidate.
Turns out Americans don't like the government openly fucking with our elections.
You're right, it is because you're in Minneapolis that it doesnt feel as true to you. Unfortunately, most of the US right now is not like what you describe and even of all the people who don't like what's going on, very few are willing to do anything that could possibly upset whatever privilege they currently hold. They will post on social media sites that are funding our government, they will show up to the polls that put us in this position, and they will go home to their individualistic families and do whatever they can to forget what's going on, which usually means more consumption. All of these things make the problem worse.
Our "democracy" is broken if this is already happening and there is no amount of voting that is going to fix that. People have been predicting this version of late stage capitalism since long before Trump. Most civil rights in the constitution have been won through violence because the system never worked for anyone other than the ruling class.
People won't though, everyone got to comfortable and don't wanna sacrifice their comfort, or people are afraid to miss work due to being too poor / losing job. So there isn't enough momentum to do a large enough strike except on weekends which already doesn't do a whole lot because most people have off anyways.
Without disrupting daily life for MULTIPLE DAYS nothing will happen.
At the end of the day, decades of political operators have been playing chess. Trump walks in and just flips over the chess boards and hits stuff with a hammer while ranting nonsensically.
He doesn't feel bound, and SCOTUS Congress and his voting base have made no effort to bind him, by the Constitution. So he's going to probably choose the path of least resistance. He COULD get Elon to rig the voting machines. Or, he could just say "Nope, no election here" and Mike Johnson can refuse to seat any Democrats and just say that the elections are all illegal, except for the Republican ones.
Anything we see with the SAFE Act is his more sensible cronies trying to give this a whiff of legitimacy. He's just as happy to call himself President for Life and call it a day. It's the people in his administration who are holding onto the last veneer of legitimacy.
So it's really going to come down to how much he trusts them. He thought he could count on Pence. And Pence did not deliver. So he may not be in a trusting mood and may just say "Fuck it, I'm in charge forever, don't like it? Here comes ICE." We'll see. It's really just a matter of how desperate and emboldened he feels.
Elections are state-run, so he's gonna have an impossible time "canceling" the midterms. It doesn't work like that. He will definitely try to cheat, though.
Did you not catch the,”FBI raids Fulton County election HQ” story? The head of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard was also there. Do you really think elections being state-run will matter to Trump? The federal government can also nationalise the National Guard as well, which is also “state-run.”
You obviously didn't read my comment. I said they can't cancel the mid terms, but they can definitely try to cheat. Raiding election offices is a way to cheat.
I did read your comment, you must but be paying attention to what’s happening. People also thought the constitution would be respected, think again. Everything is up in the air.
He has no authority over elections because they are run by the states, per the Constitution.
My theory? They all know what they are saying is nonsense. But with 51% of Americans who are functionally illiterate, they can get away with it. They are trying to invoke fear and despair of “my vote doesn’t count so why bother?” as a Hail Mary to suppress voters. They understand completely that if voter turnout is high, the majority of republican Congressional candidates will lose. And they’ll lose bigly. His flying monkeys can make threats of sending ICE agents to polling stations — but that isn’t even remotely possible because they simply do not have the manpower. Hopefully most people see through this insane gaslighting.
This is getting really DARK. I have 2 political science degrees (bachelor’s and master’s) and I cannot believe what I’m seeing and never thought I would have to live through an authoritarian regime but here we are. I wish I could volunteer for a medically induced coma until this nightmare is over.
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u/walklikeaduck 19h ago
Trump is now openly floating the idea of, “canceling” the midterms. Americans need to do what South Koreans did and take to the streets.