Same as brexit, some lunatics actually wanted it and some disaster capitalists also thought it would allow them to push their extremist plans to asset strip the country
But in general the issue was a recurring theme within the conservatives during the election, blaming all the problems on the “evil EU”
And now they have to shift the narrative to “this is not the brexit we voted for” or “the problem was the subpar negotiation/evil EU punishing the UK for leaving”
9 Likes
The Pilgrims were scaping an intolerant society in order to build another type of intolerant society were THEY called the shots
6 Likes
It’s pretty clear the RCV better reflects the desires of the electorate. Those Begich voters weren’t voting GOP - they were voting for sanity.
2 Likes
To think about it - the best way to break the ideological lockstep of the GOP is with an electoral system like this, jungle primary plus RCV. It gives people the opportunity to vote moderate on both sides of the partisan divide, and so dilute party identification and tribalism. It might result in gradualism taking a firm hold and so losing the occasional opportunity for large progressive advances; I guess the question is do you want to give up the gigantic pendulum swings to spare yourself the inherent risk that when the pendulum finally gets stuck it’s on the wrong side of its swing?
4 Likes
Yeah it’s bizarre. In 2019, I don’t think very many people gave the Democrats much of a chance to take one of the Senate seats in Georgia in 2020, much less both of them, but it happened. A year ago, I think most experts thought it was highly likely that Republicans would pick up a Senate seat in Arizona and hold onto on in Pennsylvania, and now that’s looking more unlikely every day. If Biden stays on the offensive like he has been lately, and the economic numbers continue to slowly improve, a Republican sweep of the midterms will be unlikely. We cannot get complacent, but this let’s just throw in the towel because it’s hopeless mentality is completely unwarranted by the numbers.
13 Likes
We in Florida were gobsmacked by this absolute miracle. It really felt like some sort of sign from a deity.
We need some of that Stacy Abrams action down here too. 
15 Likes
Holy shit, include me in the shocked group! I was out of the country for an extended period when all that went down and had no idea!
The picture in the Wikipedia article looks eerily like when the house Repubs stormed the intelligence committee hearing in 2019. Knowing this is a typical move in their playbook, I wish we could figure out a safe and effective response.
13 Likes
I disagree. They always wanted to ban abortion, but they wanted to boil the frog, not toss it in the boiling water straight out.
They’ve been pushing the Overton window on abortion access for decades. Banning late term abortion. Banning after fetal viability. Introducing fetal pain legislation, then fetal “heartbeat” legislation. Until they were only left with metaphysical “personhood” legislation.
Once abortion was banned all but in fact, overturning RoevWade would happen, and they expected the country would collectively shrug its shoulders because “life begins at ovulation”.
The plan was generational, but people are impatient and want to see results before they die. If the SC had waited another 20 years, it may have been fait accompli.
Banning abortion, returning BIPOC and women to second or third class status, eliminating LGTBQ+ people, instituting capital feudalism has always been the goal of the conservative movement.
10 Likes
It may have felt that way, but honestly, it was just hard work and pushing back against GOP shenanigans in court. Expanding the vote and getting out the message is possible in every state (even if it doesn’t necessarily equate to a Democratic victory).
14 Likes
I’m not a history expert by any means, but I’ve been saying the same. I was surprised when everyone just kinda let that slide that GWB was appointed president on bullshit grounds. I think everyone was caught off guard because the system basically still worked up until then.
However, I practically had a panic attack over Citizens United. I knew in my bones that if the US fails, history will look back on that decision as the beginning of the end. Democracy loses all meaning when you hand unlimited power to buy politicians to the richest bidders. People mostly shrugged and went “that’s dumb” at the time, but corruption has gone through the roof and the US government stopped doing anything that a corporation didn’t want them to. People should have rioted in the streets over that decision and campaign finance reform should have been a climate-change-level emergency issue to save the country, but it never even got talked about much. 
Citizens United was also the end of SCOTUS as a respectable institution in my naïve mind. Until then I really believed in the US system, largely because of the integrity of SCOTUS. Turns out that impression came entirely from Justice Kennedy single-handedly holding back the crazy. When he made a mistake once, Citizens United happened. Then when he was gone, well, every major decision since has been absolutely wrong. Citizens United was when I realized the system is all a lie. The documents (constitutions) matter a lot less than the people who interpret them, thus you have to find a place where the culture creates the kind of people you want interpreting them. Shortly thereafter, I started packing. 
25 Likes
I’m skeptical. No matter how slowly you try, people will notice and push back when their rights are taken away. But in any case this party has for a long time believed in shock doctrine – you break everything at once in hopes people can’t fight back on all of it.
That’s what they’re trying to do with now that they have seized the supreme court. Hitting everything from abortion to environmental regulation as fast as they can manage. Their hope is plainly that it’s already enough of a fait accompli, that they can hold up the political system enough to prevent action on any of it while they secure themselves by destroying voting rights.
But as people have said, there’s still room to overwhelm that, and things like Georgia and Alaska are encouraging on that.
13 Likes
i mean, people already vote moderate on the democratic side. if anything it’d be nice to see some “extremists” on the left. universal healthcare, reparations for slavery, defunding the police. biden’s doing an okay job, but he’s definitely a moderate
rcv is good because it allows people to vote more extreme. currently, people on the left feel they have to vote for “the candidate who will most likely win” - because all the candidates on the other side are so problematic
15 Likes
I used “Pilgrim” to separate them from the others of their sect who stayed behind in the Netherlands and England, my apologies if that was not clear.
3 Likes
I agree with most of what you’re saying, but like all Democrats who actually manage to get elected, Biden is a conservative.
This, 100%, this. AOC is presented as some “ultra liberal” figure and I know I’m not the only one that considers her a right-leaning moderate at best. I do vote Democrat because the alternative is so much worse, but I’d love to vote for candidates that come closer to my views, if I can find one in my election options, without feeling like I’m handing the country over to the fascists in the process.
16 Likes
Also encourage people to check and make sure they’re still registered to vote. Things happen that we never know about, like purging voters or changing affiliations. I check about every couple of months.
9 Likes
Is she tho?
Couldn’t it be that what she believes is further to the left than what she has to say and do to stay in the game, where the Overton Window has shifted so far to the right?
I too wish we had viable further-left pols in Washington. But how far left can they be before they left-wing themselves into non-viability?
11 Likes
Same with my husband. He was overseas and had NO IDEA what shit was going down.
9 Likes
I was in Georgia for work during the special election, and not just ATL, but in other cities like Macon. The outcome was not at all surprising given the atmosphere there at the time.
7 Likes
In the middle of February 1917, Russian revolutionaries thought that they would have to wait years before the revolution happened, after a lot of their (male) leaders were arrested. A month later the Tsar had abdicated after the revolution started on what is now International Womens Day.
The moral of the story is Never underestimate a large group of angry women.
18 Likes
See also Funmilayo Ransome Kuti:
13 Likes
