Yes, that’s fair. The Republicans are objectively worse than the Democrats, but the general dynamic is towards worsening conditions and increasing decline regardless. The Democrats at the bare minimum don’t have the guts to meaningfully oppose the Republicans or do any real reforms that would make people’s lives better and therefore put them in a position where they’ll win consistently against the Republicans, to say nothing of doing something like tying Trump for his crimes.
In fact, I’m more partial to the position that the Democrats aren’t an actual opposition party at all. They don’t really object to anything the Republicans do. Rather, they focus their respective bases on culture war issues to ensure that people are distracted from the things that the Dems and GOP have a common interest in: more money and power for oligarchs, continuing and extending imperial domination, etc.
Because 3rd parties are simply not a solution. They just aren’t. We aren’t even remotely in a position where that’s an option.
So that leaves reforming the Democrat party by primarying bad actors or doing a big bad revolution, which no one is doing and is almost assuredly not going to happen. And if it did, you’d better hope a replacement government structure is ready to go immediately or America would end up like all the other countries that did a revolution and then things got worse because no one was prepared for what happens after the revolution.
Well obviously the best but also least likely answer is a revolution. That doesn’t look promising, so I’ll focus on smaller and more achievable things.
First thing is not to worry about the national democrats or waste any time or energy supporting them. Go ahead and vote for them if you think it’s a harm reduction measure, but don’t put in any money, hope, or real effort for them - they’ve already abandoned you. You still have some say in state politics, so that would be a better place for your efforts. Likewise with municipal politics. In general, you should be more worried about what’s going on around you rather than distant national politics that you have no effect on.
Try to build relationships with your neighbours, and your community. Strengthen relationships with your family and extended family. If you could unionize your workplace, that’s tangible power that you can wield that’s a lot more significant than your vote, and it’s another community that you can lean on when the going gets tough.
Develop the kinds of skills that will be useful in a failing country: repairing things, growing food, etc. During the 90s, Russians supplemented their diets by growing vegetables at dachas. They already knew how to repair things since Soviet consumer products usually came half-broken from the factory, but would last forever if you could repair them. Most Americans have yards, so the food situation shouldn’t be terrible, but the consumer goods aren’t designed for repair. This doesn’t discount repairing as a skill, though, it just means you’re at a disadvantage compared to 90s Russians when it comes to repairing consumer products.
Finally, remember that you’re just one person in a country of 350 million. You didn’t cause this, and you can’t stop it. Focus on the things you can affect.
Yes, that’s fair. The Republicans are objectively worse than the Democrats, but the general dynamic is towards worsening conditions and increasing decline regardless. The Democrats at the bare minimum don’t have the guts to meaningfully oppose the Republicans or do any real reforms that would make people’s lives better and therefore put them in a position where they’ll win consistently against the Republicans, to say nothing of doing something like tying Trump for his crimes.
In fact, I’m more partial to the position that the Democrats aren’t an actual opposition party at all. They don’t really object to anything the Republicans do. Rather, they focus their respective bases on culture war issues to ensure that people are distracted from the things that the Dems and GOP have a common interest in: more money and power for oligarchs, continuing and extending imperial domination, etc.
Oh but we love the placatium. Please let the band intermittently play some sweet soothing music as the ship sinks.
Voting is extremely unlikely to get us the results we want. But it is still important, and low effort.
I don’t know about “important”, at least in the american case, but it is indeed low effort enough that you may as well.
Ok.
But what’s your solution?
Because 3rd parties are simply not a solution. They just aren’t. We aren’t even remotely in a position where that’s an option.
So that leaves reforming the Democrat party by primarying bad actors or doing a big bad revolution, which no one is doing and is almost assuredly not going to happen. And if it did, you’d better hope a replacement government structure is ready to go immediately or America would end up like all the other countries that did a revolution and then things got worse because no one was prepared for what happens after the revolution.
Well obviously the best but also least likely answer is a revolution. That doesn’t look promising, so I’ll focus on smaller and more achievable things.
First thing is not to worry about the national democrats or waste any time or energy supporting them. Go ahead and vote for them if you think it’s a harm reduction measure, but don’t put in any money, hope, or real effort for them - they’ve already abandoned you. You still have some say in state politics, so that would be a better place for your efforts. Likewise with municipal politics. In general, you should be more worried about what’s going on around you rather than distant national politics that you have no effect on.
Try to build relationships with your neighbours, and your community. Strengthen relationships with your family and extended family. If you could unionize your workplace, that’s tangible power that you can wield that’s a lot more significant than your vote, and it’s another community that you can lean on when the going gets tough.
Develop the kinds of skills that will be useful in a failing country: repairing things, growing food, etc. During the 90s, Russians supplemented their diets by growing vegetables at dachas. They already knew how to repair things since Soviet consumer products usually came half-broken from the factory, but would last forever if you could repair them. Most Americans have yards, so the food situation shouldn’t be terrible, but the consumer goods aren’t designed for repair. This doesn’t discount repairing as a skill, though, it just means you’re at a disadvantage compared to 90s Russians when it comes to repairing consumer products.
Finally, remember that you’re just one person in a country of 350 million. You didn’t cause this, and you can’t stop it. Focus on the things you can affect.