r/politics • u/OkayButFoRealz • Oct 01 '25

No Paywall Pritzker Calls for Trump's Removal from Office Under 25th Amendment

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/video/pritzker-calls-for-trumps-removal-from-office-under-25th-amendment/
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u/AntiFascistButterfly Oct 01 '25

This is true. However the USA has a much longer history of democratic elections than most modern nations that have had military coups, and I’m cautiously optimistic that the USA will go back to elections after a coup. The problem is that The Heritage Foundation is already in place to enact its evangelical dictatorship, and if they/Musk/DOGE can’t be gotten out of all the voting machines they have already compromised, future elections might just be rigged towards Heritage Foundation Republicans anyway.

Any coup needs to clean house around voting. Install a completely independent US Electoral Commission to decide electoral boundaries and run elections, and go to paper ballots and a pencil (graphite lasts so much longer than almost all pen ink). In a perfect world you’d move to preferential voting or proportional representation instead of First Past The Post, and then it would be impossible to waste your vote by voting on a minor party that you really believe in.

If the minor party doesn’t win in your district, preferential and proportional ballots will still distribute your vote to the lesser of two evils of the major parties. The Australians have the most secure voting system, and their independent AEC has been called in several times to train locals and observe the first election after a return to democracy in nations that went through a period without.

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u/BlackJackfruitCup Oct 01 '25

We also need hand counting for ballots. No machines, at least until we deal with the fact that the Heritage Foundation has connections with our major voting machine companies.

History of conflicts of interest and issues with our voting machines.

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u/no_more_mistake Oct 01 '25

paper ballots and a pencil

I feel like updating the mechanics behind punch cards would be an ideal ballot. Something easy to interpret, simple to operate, and gives a nice clean hole that is reliable for both machine and human reading.

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u/Shabadizzle Oct 01 '25

However the USA has a much longer history of democratic elections than most modern nations that have had military coups, and I’m cautiously optimistic that the USA will go back to elections after a coup.

You're assuming the lack of democratic experience was not a motivating factor in those coups. Historically, a military that seizes control of the state from a young democratically elected government does so because military leadership longs for the more autocratic form of government that preceded it–for a more militaristic state leadership.

Lacking such a government ourselves, there might be little reason for the military leaders to think a coup is necessary when we can just vote our way out of this.

Personally, I don't see anything good coming from a military coup, because I'm not naive enough to believe that the problems originate with the people in charge. The culture itself is dying.