In a polysynthetic language that might be a six-syllable word.
Meanwhile, if mailed ballots are fraudulent, then Tramp has confessed to voting fraud and must resign from office.
- Go on vacation
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You’ve got some great stuff in here, especially “we’re already a failed state”, acknowledging the severity of the crisis.
I don’t agree, however, there is nothing Democrats can do.
Democrats can go to war. If they went to war, they would have a chance of prevailing before actual civil war breaks out on the streets. They need to set aside years of following the Overton window rightward and adopt the same war footing the Republicans have been on since either the Gingrich Revolution or Reagan. And this is not your old school “champions battle on the field” style of war, Biden vs. Trump. It’s post-Napoleonic total war, fought on every front simultaneously, with the goal to destroy the enemy utterly.
To be clear, this kind of war is terrible for democracy in and of itself, but it is the only way forward, and the Democratic Party could definitely go there if they had the institutional discipline and courage of the Republicans.
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“I don’t practice what I preach because I’m not the kind of person I’m preaching to.”
― J.R. Dobbs
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Interested in your definition of ‘war’ here. What would it look like? How could the Dems go to war? What should they do and how?
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What I mean by “war” is simply a zero-sum game where the destruction of the opposing force is the goal, as opposed to conventional politics, where a productive balance of power is the goal.
Republicans have been at war for a long time, Democrats are still playing the balance-of-power game. This asymmetry explains the steady inroads Rs have made since the Reagan era, despite 16 years of Democratic presidents in that time.
As you pointed out, the USA system assumes there is a “loyal opposition”. Rs have not been a “loyal opposition” for some time.
As far as concrete actions: Overall, Ds need to set aside any notion of winning Trump supporters (they have too much party discipline), saving money for future elections, or maintaining status quo power structures. They need to investigate everything, sue in every court, not concede elections until every possible recount or court case is complete. They need to set aside their fear of hypocrisy and play the R’s game, even if they think that’s bad for democracy, because that is what is necessary when you are at war. If we can drop an atom bomb on Hiroshima when the war is already won, we can use memetic warfare nukes to prevent a fascist state.
Every topic, every associate of R politicians, every tactic is on the table short of illegal activity. Ds should attack the press directly and clearly when they underplay the threat of Rs. They need to use bold, black and white language that will frighten people and be controversial. They need to fight the war on every front, from the smallest local elections to the national stage, in every state, no matter how red. Just as the USA outlasted USSR during the cold war, Ds need to spend and campaign Rs into oblivion. They need to call out and shame corporate donors for undermining the foundations of law and order. They need to call Trump what he is: a member of an international criminal mafia that includes the Russian state oligarchy. They need to set aside completely thoughts of winning the next election and realize no amount of turnout will win this election… all bets are off, the voter suppression, disenfranchisement and other R tactics are just the beginning. Voting machines will be hacked. Ballots will be undelivered and uncounted. All sorts of criminal activity will go down and must be actively opposed. Memetic weapons will be deployed liberally and effectively (we are already fighting a hot infowar with Russia, and arguably China as well).
I’m not saying this can or will happen. Outside the progressive new blood, I doubt there is an appetite for it in the establishment. Very few large organizations can see their doom clearly or react to it effectively.
Anyway, that’s what I mean by “going to war”.
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The best (by which I mean, the only reasonable) answer I ever got was:
He’s on our team. We are the GOP, and we vote for whoever they put up, and that’s it. You don’t vote to send the other team’s QB to the Pro Bowl, do you?
Just because it’s bad logic doesn’t mean they don’t believe it.
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Say what you want about the GOP, their base understands party loyalty to a fault.
Any one left of center who doesn’t vote for Biden for one of a variety of reasons needs to remember this. Politics won’t pass anyone’s purity test.
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Good answer, this is what I meant above by going outside the rules and institutions. Staying within the law is entirely fungible in this scenario, as Rs have not been doing that for some time now, they’ve been able to get away with it because, well, nobody has done hard time for it. So, so much ratfucking the Ds could be doing. It would be corrosive to democracy, but perhaps less so on balance. Perhaps.
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That pretty much defines the problems of the two party system- Democrats’ standards are too high, so no matter who the candidate is there are some people who are going to refuse to vote for them, even when the alternative is letting the Republican win. Meanwhile, Republicans have no standards whatsoever and all unite to vote behind whatever is put in front of them, no matter how monstrous or inhuman it might be. Looking at things only in terms of winning or losing, they’re right to do so- the fact that it will utterly destroy them, their country and possibly the planet in the long term is either too “big picture” for them to consider or a desired consequence as long as the women and brown people go first.
Seems like eliminating the two party system would be a good way to fix this problem, but let’s be real- America would sooner crumble completely into a Mad Max-style lawless wasteland than ever see the slightest bit of meaningful progress on anything ever again. Fixing problems isn’t what we do any more.
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Plus, you have to remember: Jesus will be back soon to wipe the playing board clean, perhaps even tomorrow, and all this silly talk about “saving the planet” and “future generations” will be shown for the foolishness it is!
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I don’t have enough anuses to adequately express my contempt and loathing for donald trump.
Maybe if I grafted a turbojet powered pressure washer to my colon that’d be sufficient.
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Maybe if we grafted a turbojet-powered pressure washer to HIS colon (pointing inwards) it might finally clean him out. Terminally.
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Now the Republican party in North Carolina has sent out Absentee Voting Ballot Request forms to voters in that state. It seems to get an absentee ballot your form has to have Trumps picture on it, then It’s legit.
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My first instinct upon finding a piece of paper in my mailbox bearing Trump’s image would be to throw it in the shredder without bothering to read it. But of course that’s probably the point.
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I don’t know about North Carolina, but around here this sort of thing would be so illegal. We’re not even allowing election posters anywhere near polling stations, the idea of having partisan advertising on the very absentee-ballot application form itself is so preposterous as to be unthinkable. (But then again over here it’s not the parties that send out absentee-ballot application forms in the first place.)
Will Trump’s picture be on the actual ballot, too? Which will probably come conveniently pre-checked in the correct places.
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I believe it’s illegal in most if not all states (it is in CA). You’re not even allowed wear a political button to go vote. It’s called electioneering.
Sigh. This is 2020 and it appears that Trump has his own rules.
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The word you seek is “backpfeifengesicht” - a face in need of a smack
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No, he EMPHATICALLY DOESN’T. He is very clearly breaking rules. It’s just that there’s nobody either brave enough, or ethical enough, or clean enough to enforce them. Everyone who has the power to check trump is either too much of a coward or too corrupt to do it.
tRump does NOT have his own rules. If we had better leadership they’d enforce the rules.
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It’s good, but not nearly strong enough in its intent. Is there a word for ‘a person in need of a severe beating’ with overtones of ‘even if he just had one’?
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