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Comment on Is there any way our of the US political spiral?

Brainsploosh@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

I see basically three ways out:

Democrats/someones sane win overwhelming majority for long enough to harden procedures, cement effective enforcement, and subversion proof the whole system, while not succumbing to their own corruption. Seems incredibly unlikely.
Autocracy and/or persecution of political rivals, where dissenters “fall out windows” a lot or the legislative body is replaced, until stability reforms and new norms can be reintroduced. Seems most likely currently, and has several contemporary examples.
Revolt, public and/or military, throwing out all the politicians and imposing exile or lynching of the offending politicians. Seems improbable, and especially to unite enough to throw out all the bad behaviour. Also will lead to a junta, civil strife and/or provisional government which come with their own slew of issues and corruption.
The Republicans grow a sense of decorum to protect the less privileged party. I can’t imagine this happening without basically a GOP-internal pogrom under a strongman, but Republican conservatism pulls a strongman in the opposite direction. Unless perhaps they’re some kind of upstanding teocrat perhaps?

This is all wild and slightly saddening speculation, please feel free to suggest other paths!

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BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
I still think the US states splitting up like the USSR did is entirely on the table.

California is not going to continue being the republican punching bag and funding red states forever.

A split like this would likely allow some people to move, and ease the tensions measurably.

The states would still trade/function with each other, I don’t expect them to go to war or anything.

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- ryathal@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  States leaving isn’t realistic. They are way more integrated than the EU has ever dreamed of being. Brexit was messy with a mostly independent UK, something like California leaving would take decades of negotiations to replace existing interstate compacts with treaties.
  
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  - bobs_monkey@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    California is interesting because they control much of what the rest of the country wants. They are the gateway for US imports (Ports of LA/LB), provide a significant amount of agriculture, and have one of the highest operating economies in the world.
    
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    Xaphanos@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    I’d add NY to that shortlist.
    
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    ryathal@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    That’s only true because they are part of the US, which guarantees a lot of free trade/resources from other states. There’s also other things like California being dependent on electricity from other states, the price isn’t going to stay the same.
    
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  - BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    The USSR was integrated too, and still broke up.
    
    This situation would be more similar to that than Brexit.
    
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    ryathal@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    The USSR wasn’t integrated, it was centralized. Shortages weren’t shared to reduce impact, resources where distributed by political connection first and need second. Movement was highly controlled.
    
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cm0002@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Founding fathers roll in their graves so hard they become zombies and take back control to fix their mistakes
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- spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  The things the founding fathers see as mistakes, right?
  
  Looks like slavery would be back on the menu.
  
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  - cm0002@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    I think so, they were very much for “the will of the people” and if they saw the will of the people of today is that slavery is bad then they wouldn’t see it as a mistake.
    
    They would absolutely see what Trump and MAGA-GOP are doing as a subversion to that will of the people as a problem though and (after catching them up on 200+ years of technological and sociological development) would see the issues in their original implementation
    
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    spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    They were for the will of the rich, land owning men.
    
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- Brainsploosh@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Great suggestion, I’ll put it near the top of the improbable pile.
  
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ExtraMedicated@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
I think that fox news and other right-wing propaganda media must be dealt with first. Otherwise they’ll continue to demonize any movement that attempts to fix things and ensure that nothing changes.

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