There are a lot of European keyboard warriors that don’t seem to know much about America (other than social media) that keep trying to call out Americans for not “protesting right.”
It shows that they have no clue about the size of the country or the fact that the shock and awe that started this administration knocked everyone on their heels and only now are we starting to mobilize.
I honestly think that both parties like to not be in power for this very reason. All the money and none of the responsibilities. Pretty sweet setup
I understand not wanting to go 100% weird with most people, but damnit weird is interesting. So be a bit weird.
You know if you just use a sharpie to draw the line going up instead of down there isn’t a problem anymore.
It’s true that politicians don’t usually lead, they look to the voting base to see what they can do. I think the issue right now is that there isn’t (yet) a unifying leader that can mobilize a big enough population of people to make it impossible for the media to ignore. while I think smaller protests have their place they are useless if they don’t move to something bigger. And something bigger - that being millions of people filling the streets of multiple cities - won’t happen without a big charismatic leader like Martin Luther King, jr.
Yet the middle of the road, center right democrats that hold power see this as a challenge to their control. They only have to look to how the GOP was hollowed out by a big charismatic leader in trump. The more “moderate” republicans lost control to the more extreme right - the moderate democrats don’t want that and will do what they can to hold down that yet unknown person from gaining a voice for the left.
JFC I’d actually appreciate the maga version of the Democrats.
These fictional Democrats are organized, well funded, cohesive and seem to have a great long term strategy for ruining republicans. With an organization like that you’d think that they would be in control of the government?
I think nothing would elevate the hatred of billionaires more than if they buy up the national parks for their own private estates.
Great Smokey national park is now the walton’s family compound
Rocky Mountain National park is now the gates compound
Yosemite becomes musk’s outdoor playground
The grand canyon is bezo’s now
Just writing that elevated my blood pressure
Great list, thank you for putting it together!
Yes they did but they didn’t lose control of their narrative which is weak and feckless.
“give me more money and keep me in power and I promise to not do much.” and “don’t look left, they are crazy!”
Not saying it can’t be done, obviously it can but to many people saying “run for office” is like saying “build a car”.
Are there primers on how to start with a campaign for people that have the desire but not the knowledge?
What is all involved in starting and running a successful campaign?
How much time do you need to dedicate to the campaign?
What would be the personal cost for running for office?
Who do you need to hire to help you (manager, donation specialist, volunteer coordinator, etc)?
My guess to this is that the higher the office the more people and money you will need.
I’m not writing this to be contrary but to really get answers - I think more people would be more open to the idea if they could see what a campaign needs to be successful.
There is a reason the main Democratic leadership is not pushing a more left leaning agenda, they would lose. If the left got a foothold on the national conversation like maga did then the middle of the road Democrats fear they will go the way of the middle of the road Republicans and that is out of power.
Really you are ahead of the curve which is great!
I think one of the reasons that OWS struggled was a lack of a clear message and a lack of leadership.
But I think it finally ended with “necessary” outdoor camping laws that most cities put into place to breakup the camps. That and the moderates laughing at them instead of supporting them.
republicans remain cautious about directly confronting Musk, who spent $288 million supporting GOP candidates in 2024 and threatened to fund primary challengers against opponents.
There are systems to fund political campaigns that don’t involve kissing the boots of one billionaire. Systems that would allow these politicians to actually feel free to more closely represent their constituents. But I don’t see the current crop of politicians wanting to really work too much, they would rather sell their soul to one man and then impotently complain about it.
if one man can build a baseball field in a corn field that brings back the dead, then trump can do the same with manufacturing.
That’s how it works right?.. right?
So what are you doing?
Are you organizing people to go out and protest or are you just being a keyboard warrior? You know that phrase put up or shut up? Why are you not out pulling people in to a long protest? If you are why are you not taking this time to get more people in your protest? If you are not then you are no better than all these people that you’re bitching about.
You’re right this is a conversation that is going no where you’re just here to bitch and really not do anything. Later.
Yes, Americans have been pacified - though I think most western countries’ populations are to some extent. And because of that pacification they are not going to jump up and do the really difficult stuff of resistance until it starts effecting them more - this I agree with. But your argument or your complaint sounds like if Americans don’t jump from pacification to doing the hard stuff nothing else matters. It’s all or nothing in your mind.
But that isn’t how it works, small protests and boycotts on large scales do have some impact. They also demonstrate to Americans that resistance does work and possible get them to do more. If there is small successes then larger, more difficult resistance has the chance to grow and be sustained.
should these protest happen sooner and more often, sure but they didn’t and that is arguments for history - So maybe this administration will actually prompt more people to start doing more uncomfortable actions to change the country for the better?
Americans have not had to protest like this in many many decades. That is it’s been “good enough” for a large part of the population to not really do anything, so there is no system that people can tap into like in France. So thinking that you are going to get a million+ people to go into the streets and shut everything down for a few weeks isn’t realistic.
American protest opposition also has a great response to these gatherings by getting them to turn into riots so there is justification for military style responses. Which makes people on the fence hesitant. Getting people to dip their toe in the lake of resistance is the best way forward. It’s slow, it looks silly and limiting but if it works it emboldens more people to do more.
The irony is that it might then be a car with the potential to piss off two groups
I get why people don’t want to piss off some of the maga people. they do seem a bit snowflake-y and overly armed but at the same time not expressing yourself due to this fear is giving them more power than they deserve.
Not sure. I don’t think anyone really is.
Part of the reason that there are not big protest yet is that many many people that do disagree with the administration have/had been looking towards the Democratic party to fight back. But that isn’t happening which is adding to the shock and awe of things. Truly Americans don’t really know what to do and without a large organizing presence to help drive a big push back there really isn’t anything being done.
I do hope that someone steps up soon and starts to organize a push back. Haven’t seen it yet.