- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
During the campaign, it was kind of hard to picture the specifics of how Trump might pull such a thing off. Alas, it’s getting less hypothetical by the week.
During the campaign, it was kind of hard to picture the specifics of how Trump might pull such a thing off. Alas, it’s getting less hypothetical by the week.
It’s not a matter of realization but action. “The guy with the enormous constellation of public and private allies plans to do The Big Illegal Thing” doesn’t tell us how we’re supposed to respond.
There’s a certain “well, people should just do something!!!” attitude that is divorced from reality. Everyone wants everyone else to “do something!!!” for them. Vanishingly few people know what is to be done.
you have to be aware of a thing before you’re going to act on the thing
the vast majority of people are just carrying on as if it’s all business as usual, either because they’re just not paying attention, or deliberately ignoring things that are “uncomfortable to think about”
the entire last year should have been spent networking, organizing, planning–countless fucking things, in order to fix the fascism problem. but no one’s interested in realizing, much less taking action
They’re surviving because that’s all they believe they have the power to do.
All of this has been happening. We’ve had multiple protest marches, fund raisers, and relief efforts for vulnerable people in hostile states and counties.
If you’re not seeing it, you’re not looking for it. But then this is part of the problem.
There is no single national organization to rally around. At best you have some short lived movements - No Kings, BLM, Code Pink, Occupy Wall Street - that dissolve (or are dismantled) as soon as they emerge.
Otherwise, you’re organizing with a regional group - your local union chapter, an LGBTQ org, a political outfit like Palestine Action or the DSA or PSL - that’s at best a few dozen, largely disconnected from one another.
The closest thing to a general strike we’ve seen was the Minneapolis January 23 action, which lasted a day or two and never stretched beyond the city limits.
I guess most people still operate on the default democratic process, hoping and expecting checks and balances to finally take effect. The real problem is NOT the people. The real problem is that the republican party and therefore the whole legislative branch (as well as SCOTUS) has been hijacked and corrupted, to the point where they just let him do whatever he wants. The system only works when the people in their respective position to represent the will of the people actually do so. It is not the people’s responsibility to come up with solutions. It’s the representatives responsibility and DUTY to which they have all SWORN to protect, enforce and abide by the constitutionally laid out ground rules. But now, they just follow Trump and make sure nobody steps out of line.
The next constitutional update should include some personal responsibility and liability for those who refuse to honour their oath. The way I see it, this is something like treason.