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Do you know the name of the member of your state's House of Representatives that represents your district? When was the last time you spoke to your federal representative? Do he/she not answer your calls because they have to many constituents? Talk to people in your neighborhood about the need for more representatives in the house.
All sovereign power comes from the people. Read: you are that guy.
I can be polite and wont ham fist political conversations but yeah, don't give me an opening, I'll drive the knife in.
No we are not. Our “representatives” listen to their corporate masters, the ones who line their pockets and fund their campaigns. They don’t listen to us.
Re-read my comment above. They only have power which we vest in them.
LOL, my rep was Matt Gaetz, don't know the new guy.
This might come across as dickish, but is intended sincerely: through what channels could they have an impact? Republicans now control literally every branch of government. The only things that I'd imagine MIGHT be effective enough:
1.) Military coup led by someone who could appeal to sense of duty and pull over a significant chunk of the military. Very unlikely, but theoretically effective.
2.) Very criminal actions that most people of means aren't likely to entertain as failure means losing their lives one way or another.
3.) Disruptive, mass protests akin to the Arab Spring or similar for an extended period. Which Americans have never really done and which realistically probably just equates to civil war in the current environment.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think there's an easy solution, even for those of means actively in government in this moment. You could be a literal judge or Congressman and it would mean jack shit right now. I think #3 is the most likely to maybe eventually happen, if any, but it'll take a loooooot to finally get enough of us there.
I just think there are lots of people that can speak on all of this intelligently and they feel no need to chime in. They are perfectly fine with the media circus and make no attempt to counter the idiot narratives.
I guess they obviously don't exist, though. If they had the means and care they would have already appeared. 350 million people in the US and I'm all you got you poor souls.
When I worked in this stuff, I was personally aware of Republican members of Congress who saw what Trump was and were trying to stop it, back when he was first appearing on the scene. They all either crawled in bed with him once he won, got run out of DC, or sometimes both!
I worked for a law firm that handled relevant federal employee/whistleblower matters. And another organization that attempted to scream about what was happening at OMB, OPM, GSA, etc...etc...
Among the challenges faced by the law firm were the fact that Trump was intentionally gutting/paralyzing the various labor boards and other aspects of the civil service. It was very targeted and intentional. It was a purge, just not the killing part (yet). But as with those screamed warnings about OPM, OMB, etc... who on earth cares and was reading them? You start talking about the evil shit happening at the Office of Management and Budget and eyes instantly glaze over. Even in DC. Even with reporters. It's too much to make bite sized and sexy. It doesn't break through the fog/grey zone shit.
So it runs in some shitty trade publication read by a few hundred people and they all already agree, but have the same response. "So what do we do!?" But the systems that were supposed to be there either aren't there anymore, were already gutted while nobody was paying attention to the real, wonky, day to day business of running a government, or just don't work in an otherwise corroded system. Hell, I personally made efforts and lost friends, family, and a career over this shit starting in like 2014. This has been coming for awhile. We're officially in it until we're not.
Sorry for being so hopeless and negative, but I feel pretty hopeless and negative right now.
How about this, George Soros me up and I'll stir the shit for them.
Asmond gold, a wow streamer, has a direct line of contact to elon musk. Wtf we doing?
General strike
We literally dont have to do much. We have to stop doing things. They only make money because of us. Stop working and the power quickly becomes ours.
They only make money because of us.
Lemmy told me the other day that isn't true. Apparently they're so rich that their money keeps coming in without us because... Know what, the argument was so dumb I can't articulate it.
We'll never strike. Best these people can do is quiet quitting and mumbling about capitalism.
But yeah, a general strike is the most powerful tool I know of.
Apparently they're so rich that their money keeps coming in without us because...
I mean, this is true. They can do nothing and probably make millions on interest. That said, it doesn't mean a general strike wouldn't be effective. While the normal person would be perfectly happy with millions coming in every year for doing literally nothing, these people aren't satisfied unless they are making billions off the labor of others while they do nothing.
I cant tell you how much I support and love you. You have my complete admiration, I'm not joking. Anything you need and I'm there.
Generalstrikeus.com
There are people fighting. There are judges across the nation blocking the bullshit that they can. There are lawyers suing to stall and block what they can as well. That's feet on the ground legal action. There are also federal employees refusing to leave their jobs.
Politicians are in a tough spot. Republicans control every branch of the government. But we both know if the Dems had this much control they wouldn't be able to get anything passed, so i don't really know.
Dems should be screaming bloody murder and pitchforking DC nonstop. Other than a very few of them i haven't the foggiest what they're spending their days doing.
I’d lay most of the blame on Congress. So many of the destructive Impulses they are carrying out are usurping Congressional authority. They have standing, they may still have the power, they are the only ones that can really stop it. Yet they are majority Republican cult members chosen for loyalty over anything else.
I guess it’s a good example of lower level elections being critical. We lost our checks and balances because too many people also voted for evil or sycophant state “leadership”
Jesus fuck man, I'd lay most of the blame on the US voters! Where are the influential guys? Well you all were when you had the chance to vote. Fuck you
That’s certainly a huge root cause, but it’s still in Congress’s power. The thing is even if all three branches are single party with slavish loyalty, they are letting the president usurp their authority. Even when they generally agree, where is the self-interest to protect the power they fought so hard to get? They will wake up one day with nothing
Congress also is letting the face eating leopard roam free in their territory. They believe only peons will get their faces eaten, but when that leopard is tired of peasant meat, it will find Congress faces mighty tasty.
The younger generation has a problem with externalizing their issues to others without feeling responsible for these issues themselves.
There is always some other party with influence and power who is either antagonizing them or should take care of them like a parent and when they don't, everything is the fault of that "parent".
For example, it's the "DNCs fault" we're in the state we're in apparently even though a lot of people didn't vote and encouraged others not to vote. The democrat party is not some nebulous entity or corporation that exists to cater to your whims like you're some customer it must please to earn your vote. It's made up of people. People like you who got together with other people to try to enact their political ideals and vision for the country.
If you don't like that vision, you need to get with other people who share your vision, start from the ground up, win local elections and start changing the party bit by bit. But this is hard work and much more difficult than screaming that the octogenarian politicians are ruining your life when nobody your age is actually doing anything to replace them because you don't want to become career politicians.
Stop behaving and whining like perpetual petulant children and actually do the hard work to make the change you want to see instead of waiting for someone else to do it for you.
Except when Democrats look at things their people want like universal healthcare or people they support like Bernie and just refuse to do them.
Sounds like the point went completely over your head.
My friend, you deserve (I don't know) some money or maybe a cupcake with like really nice frosting for this comment.
The younger generation has a problem with making or receiving phone calls. I wouldn't look to them to organize a D&D game.
Technically speaking, you're looking at what most voters thought they wanted. Seems like the people with the most means and influence are in favor of what's happening too.
Are most voters easily conned? Sure. The NSDAP won its early seats freely until the other parties were outlawed.
You can at least take solace in that with the deconstruction of federal institutions, your state government and state institutions wield comparatively more power. Don't live in a poor and/or conservative state I guess?
Not what most people* wanted. Thats why the US isnt a democracy
In this case, it is. The Republican candidate actually won the overall popular vote. Was this because of voter apathy? Probably. But we're talking about "what the people who cared enough to vote" wanted.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election
You have more power than you realize, but not alone. Organize.
Be the person you want to help you.
They're busy failing to uphold their oaths as we lose our democracy because they live in comfort without fear.
We should change that.
The people with means think they will avoid being victims of the surveillance state
You haven't said which government so I'll assume you mean the American one.
There are plenty of people with both means and influence. The problem is that they just got voted out, and there aren't enough Republicans that are moderate enough to start voting against Trump.
Yet.
And that's the key thing. As Trump gets more and more trumpy, the more moderate Republicans will start getting hacked off with it all and will start voting against their party, or at the very least abstaining. IIRC the Rep majority is 3, so there need to be 4 Rep abstentions to get a united Dem opposition over the line.
The problem is that doing so is likely to end their political career. So there needs to be some really good mileage in them voting with the Democrats.
As the Republicans hold a majority and all of them are currently with Trump, whatever Trump says goes. Even if all Dems say no, that isn't a majority no until they start getting some objections from the Reps.
So ultimately the power lies with the voters. If the Reps won't vote in the country's interests then the country needs to start voting in the country's interests. Trump said what he was going to do, and the whole point of Trump is that he isn't the usual lying politician that says whatever it takes to get into power then does whatever they want anyway. So "I didn't think he meant it" isn't going to fly when Trump does what Trump said he would. (Although obviously he didn't end putin's war on day 1, so the list of Trump's broken promises is already not empty.)
There were plenty of non-voting voters who could have made the Reps a tiny minority. But for some reason they couldn't bring themselves to vote for Harris, so they opted out. Personally I'm surprised she couldn't win simply on "I'm not Trump".
They’re the ones silently benefiting?
Yeah, those guys.
Capitalism is rigged to promote a certain kind of individual. People who are willing to step on others. So while there are outliers most of the people to have climbed the ranks are quite happy with the status quo and will act within theyre class interest and push workers to act against theirs.
No one with any real power to make meaningful change cares, because they're benefiting personally.
You're coming to grips with history. People with means and influence make it happen while the rest of us just watch and hang on.
This is kinda the message I've been tip toeing around but it's hard. I see this woman, she doesn't look like the people I know who are struggling. She may just put up a good front but you put a struggling single mom working 3 jobs to make the bills in her place and she would break down crying having to say these things.
So we need to add to the message. Something that sinks in deep.. Most Americans are already MAGA. They turn their head and plug their nose but in their heart of hearts they will accept MAGA government, they will accept MAGA rule, and they know when the killing starts they will accept that too. Otherwise, we would have been in the streets weeks ago.
Most Americans are already MAGA.
Most Americans are not MAGA.
Don't forget, more people voted against Trump than for him.
Now is the time to build coalition. It starts with one person talking to one other.
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