Democracies by default assumed that all players in the system are supportive of the system itself, kind of like all early Internet protocols assumed that there are no malicious users.

And therefore both parties represent corporations and the wealthy, not the voters.

Yes, they've refused to do certain things until lower courts rule, but I dont see that as a huge incongruence.

Not really. A party needs 2/3 majority to impeach a judge. There’s a possibility Democrats can have that majority after next midterms. But the problem with Democrats is that they almost always follow laws and aren’t radical lunatics like republicans. Even after last election, HN felt pretty Red leaning, so that stupidity fever caught a lot of otherwise sane people.

That's true but what you're leaving out is that those laws were passed by Congress to give their authority away to these agencies and give the management of them away to the executive branch.

Congress is wholly at fault for all of the power they've ceded to the executive.

Trump has the authority, granted by Congress, to appoint the people in charge of those agencies and has the authority to dictate their agenda (by appointing someone who will carry it out).

> One study estimates that the Supreme Court will be "conservative"

First of all, "one study..." isn't a great way to make a point but, regardless, "conservative" justices doesn't mean politically conservative, it means judicially conservative and that is a completely separate concept.

Trump has been ruled against several times already on judicially conservative grounds.

Uh. What are they supposed to do with a Republican trifecta? Do you mean "win votes in future elections so they can govern?"

it's ok if you don't have energy to understand otherwise rn, but please know that there's more to it than this. to understand is the only way out that's not total war.

and yes, i'm angry too.

I think the US is probably the country which has had the greatest positive impact on the world in the last 150 years (purely a personal opinion). But even so, we’ve only been around like 300 years total. It’s crazy to say that we have _objectively_ had the biggest and longest impact, when there are civilizations that existed for so much longer, and which made massive contributions to the world.

And I know people like to play both sides so let me add. The big government hoopla exists only on one side.

Update: a little evidence. This doesn't cover change over time, but it strikes me as fairly extreme, unless you are willing to go very far down the "reality has a liberal bias" road: https://github.com/hughjonesd/academic-bias

https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/...

"Do you believe that shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate our societies, or not?"

11% said yes or were unsure.

That's from 2013, so I can't even begin to imagine what a poll from today would look like.

There's been research on that [1]. They become even more likely to vote Republican. Here's the abstract:

> Who do citizens hold responsible for outcomes and experiences? Hundreds of rural hospitals have closed or significantly reduced their capacity since just 2010, leaving much of the rural U.S. without access to emergency health care. I use data on rural hospital closures from 2008 to 2020 to explore where and why hospital closures occurred as well as who–if anyone–rural voters held responsible for local closures. Despite closures being over twice as likely to occur in the Republican-controlled states that did not expand Medicaid, closures were associated with reduced support for federal Democrats and the Affordable Care Act following local closures. I show that rural voters who lost hospitals were roughly 5–10 percentage points more likely to vote Republican in subsequent presidential elections. If anything state Republicans seemed to benefit in rural areas from rejecting Medicaid and resulting rural health woes following the passage of the ACA. These results have important implications for population health and political accountability in the U.S.

[1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-024-10000-8

But it is wrong to think all American generations before ours didn't have to fight. The lie is that democracy was ever easy. There are millions of Americans mobilizing, sharing their stories, marching, talking to their representatives, protesting, and following their conscience. It is easier than ever to find and join the peaceful opposition.

That's the process.

Talking shit and tearing stuff down is easy. Building something is hard.

  > Elections have consequences and now people are gonna have to live with it.

  > People stayed home or decided to vote against their own interest.

the democrats need to clear out their decrepit leadership or its just gonna continue to slide worse and worse

[0] https://www.newsweek.com/congressional-democrats-favorabilit...

[1] https://thehill.com/homenews/3846305-democrats-have-a-messag...

It's not the people's fault, it's the party's... the party thought everyone would just jump when told to do so.

Democrats deserve better.

In an era where Republicans are dismantling the government do you know what Dems will run on? That's right, dismantling the government, but in a kinder gentler way (see Ezra Kline's abundance agenda).

Dems are anemic to running on popular positions. Raise the minimum wage, expand Medicare, restore the institutions Republicans are dismantling.

(2) If the left truly wanted to help the American people like they say they do they need the programs they enact to actually work. Say what you want about Trump but he is effective. But then again, all authoritarians are.