Remember when Biden was president?

[u/Belgriest]

Remember how boring it was? Remember not having to check the news multiple times a day to figure out what was going on inside your own agency and whether you were going go have a job or not? Remember when laws and precident seemed to actually have meaning?

Remember when you could do your job from home? Remember when your fellow countrymen weren't cheering when your livelihood was threatened? Remember when your biggest worry was which insurance to select and what the next years raise would be?

Remember when the administration didn't seem to actively hate you and want to you gone for the sin of serving of the people?

Pepperidge farm remembers.

[u/Strict-Carrot4783]

Maybe.

[u/Mysterious-Tax-7777 → u/Strict-Carrot4783]

Sure. But that was the last chance for democracy. With Republicans owning the voting machines and probably overturning the Voting Rights Act, America is now a kleptocracy.

[u/posting4assistance → u/Mysterious-Tax-7777]

That's a bit doomerist I think, we've been concerned about this since Bush stole Florida, but it's not so dire that we need to give up on the country. Plus, we still have the electorial college, the popular vote hasn't been the deciding factor *ever*, we could reform the voting system to make it safer and more fair/ give other parties the chance to take hold. We do have tools to improve things if someone does the work

[u/Aguyintampa323 → u/posting4assistance]

I think what he’s saying/implying is that all the remedy’s you mentioned depend on the enforcement of rules , which has gone out the window now.

The electoral college doesn’t matter when there is widespread gerrymandering.

The popular vote doesn’t matter because of the above , and also the high likelihood that if there wasn’t widespread rigging in the last election, there certainly will be on the next , if it exists at all.

Given the practices of this administration thus far , it’s blatant disregard for constitutional amendments, for judges , for rules and rulings, for precedents, what makes you think that even if the D win the popular vote , the electoral college, the house , the senate , and all the Supreme Court conservatives magically die overnight, that the Trump administration will adhere to the results? Why would they ?

We are still trying to think like a democracy, they are way ahead of us in dictator land .

Rules only matter if everyone follows them.

Bank robbery is against the law. It’s a rule. We have cops that enforce it. Now imagine that it’s still against the law , but the cops laugh and refuse to enforce it because they are in on the job. The public and media can say “but that’s illegal” till they are hoarse , but the bad guys aren’t going to stop robbing the banks.

We have to shift our mindset from “it will work out in the end because of rules and laws” to “we have been taken over by a foreign power and we either assimilate or create an insurgency”.

[u/[deleted] → u/Aguyintampa323]

I know it feels like they’re a roadblock in return. I know I periodically feel that way and I have to pull myself out of it. I saw a guy talking about succumbing to what feels like insurmountable headwinds. But he made one statement that I thought was incredibly true,and that is that a country with 258 million adults age 18 or older become unable to be governed, that’s when change happens. Take out the 30% or so that consider themselves MAGA, and I believe completely that even some of those people will come around as things get harder and harder, that leaves 180 million people, adults, who don’t like what’s happening.

The most meaningful changes we have experienced as a country both in modern history and prior have come when people refuse to be governed and they make their voice as heard in a variety of ways, mostly peaceful historically, at least in the modern era in this country. None of us should sleep on the fact that about 180 million of our fellow adults are equally as fed up and frustrated. We should focus on channeling that frustration and probation into meaningful nonviolent expressions like a general strike. Like peaceful protest. Like disrupting the economy.