The system has been steadily redesigned by authoritarians to remove accountability. I don't call my lawmakers since they all regard me as an enemy - calling any GOP lawmakers is pointless, they aren't accountable to their constituents, they do the party's business not the people's business. Protests are limited to "free speech zones" and almost entirely ignored by mass media, even mass protests are invisible to most. And elections are so heavily manipulated with intimidation at the polling places and large scale disenfranchisement that they don't reflect anything like any popular interest. It's bad, we're working on leaving the country.
I am extremely demanding but my representatives are totally ignored when this party holds the house and senate. We can’t keep quietly chanting “be reasonable” forever.
Representatives can put their physical bodies where the problem is and organize loudly to bring additional bodies along. If the police or military has to break them up, so be it; the media coverage will be iconic.
DOGE will find it hard to function effectively if they have to squirm through an angry picket line every day.
Vote in your State election, and make sure your State representative knows you're voting against gerrymandering and for some sort of citizens'-accountable districting policy. It'd be even better to run in any State-level election that is (otherwise) unopposed. A large number of State-level seats went unopposed in 2024.
And, yes, I do know that our current predicament is 30 years in the making, and will take years to fix. I've been working with these groups since 2015, banging the drums, trying to explain to Ds & Rs that our govt(s) (at all levels!) are weak, and easily targeted by foreign & domestic actors due to widespread gerrymandering, high incumbency rates, low primary engagement, and first-past-the-post voting. Our naysayers are — as always — far-right groups interested in autocracy and oligarchy.
> How Americans are allowing this circus to go on is completely beyond me. The country is a laughing stock.
Most European countries have had significant shifts to the right in recent elections. Many European leaders have acknowledged Trump was right regarding a lot of things in his first term, and that Europe would have been better off had they listened to him.
The laughing stock on the world's stage is far left politics. Their foothold on Western society has crumbled, and wide scale incompetance and corruption has been exposed. If this wasn't the case, elections wouldn't be abandoning leftist policies to move to the right.
The laughing stock on the world's stage is far left politics. Their foothold on Western society has crumbled, and wide scale incompetance and corruption has been exposed.
I hear this so, so much but I've seen next to know evidence presented. I've lived in Europe under "lefty" governments and it would be pretty hard to say it was a "corrupt" system?
All I remember is high taxes, good public infrastructure and healthcare and social benefits. To say it was corrupt is ridiculous.
> Many European leaders have acknowledged Trump was right regarding a lot of things in his first term, and that Europe would have been better off had they listened to him.
>Many European leaders have acknowledged Trump was right regarding a lot of things in his first term, and that Europe would have been better off had they listened to him.
Well, no, this didn't happen in many countries and not even being right on a lot of things
How Americans are allowing this circus to go on is completely beyond me. The country is a laughing stock.
We could talk about all the way stupid things like this can be gamed but the fact it's evening happening at all is purely breathtaking...