OK..now how in the world can average voters fight this? How can Congressional Democrats thwart this? We knew it could happen. Does anyone have ANY solutions or guardrails? Democracy & the rule of law are crumbling.
One of many steps to remove any possible guard rails around Trump that may prevent him from implementing persecutions against people he targeted as his enemies. Eventually, given enough time and enough minions who are “loyal” to him and not loyal to the Constitution, he will work his way down and through a growing list of discontented people. He has made it clear that public protesters will be labeled as criminals and arrested and I don’t think he will care if they are peaceful protestors or outright rioters. I think, in the end, it will come down to a numbers game and how many people are fed up enough to no longer care if they are arrested or prosecuted. The country will shut down and become a miserable place to live and I’m deeply saddened by this.
Every day we are learning that the steel guardrails we believed would protect us are made of aluminum foil. It seems that far too many of the presumed protections were simply norms, not laws, and norms and traditions rely on integrity to have any value. We are also learning that the masterminds of project 2025 have invested a great deal of time meticulously scoping out those vulnerabilities, much like a gang of burglars scoping out their target for security breeches. Meanwhile, it feels like the "security guards" we hired, the opposition party and to a great extent, the media (exception being some brilliant substack writers and podcasters who are rising to the occasion) are standing around with their hands in their pockets, completely ill prepared to deal with this historic heist.
I trust that each and every one of the fired employees start the process of claiming wrongful termination under their civil service protections. AND claiming unemployment. Someone needs to know how much the unemployment claims will cost the government--and the settlements of the claims. I don't think that existing employees can be transferred to Schedule F and the issue will certainly come up as a DOJ "defense" so that is yet another place the issue can be litigated.
We are all angry. I get it. But we should be angriest at the institutions and media who refuse to challenge this MAGA slow coup. There will always be human pathologies who choose to push the envelope on ethics, morals, and damn common sense.
But these creatures should not be allowed to push the envelope. The fact that we have tolerated, nay, indulged this freaking nonsense for quite a few years now is symptomatic of our national disease. Performance is everything to most Americans, who are addicted to it in so many ways. And this type of insane performance is like looking at a car crash: we cannot look away. Thus, profitable clicks encourage media to deliver even more performance. To up the ante. To top the extremism. We say we are disgusted, but we come back for more.
"Project 2026" for the Democrats: we have to demand much, much more from the Party and its leaders. They need to promise their voters that they will actually reform some terrible problems with America. I would suggest that they take the bull by the horns and tackle getting radical right wing hate media banned from the country. Some countries have, and I seem to recall one where news could be penalized if not banned for not reporting factually. Of course, some "facts" can be subjective, but most facts are verifiable by established standards. Extremist media is a parasite on the body politic and it is eating us alive.
The kind of "opinion" media that seduces, addicts, and cults is enormously destructive to a democracy. That includes social media, which foments polarization constantly. We have allowed technology to get ahead of common sense. We cannot afford to do that any more. Our very survival as a moral country depends on it.
OK..now how in the world can average voters fight this? How can Congressional Democrats thwart this? We knew it could happen. Does anyone have ANY solutions or guardrails? Democracy & the rule of law are crumbling.
One of many steps to remove any possible guard rails around Trump that may prevent him from implementing persecutions against people he targeted as his enemies. Eventually, given enough time and enough minions who are “loyal” to him and not loyal to the Constitution, he will work his way down and through a growing list of discontented people. He has made it clear that public protesters will be labeled as criminals and arrested and I don’t think he will care if they are peaceful protestors or outright rioters. I think, in the end, it will come down to a numbers game and how many people are fed up enough to no longer care if they are arrested or prosecuted. The country will shut down and become a miserable place to live and I’m deeply saddened by this.
Ben Wilder should be the next DNC chairman. Please give us tips on how ordinary people can provide a backstop to this madness.
Ben Wikler
Every day we are learning that the steel guardrails we believed would protect us are made of aluminum foil. It seems that far too many of the presumed protections were simply norms, not laws, and norms and traditions rely on integrity to have any value. We are also learning that the masterminds of project 2025 have invested a great deal of time meticulously scoping out those vulnerabilities, much like a gang of burglars scoping out their target for security breeches. Meanwhile, it feels like the "security guards" we hired, the opposition party and to a great extent, the media (exception being some brilliant substack writers and podcasters who are rising to the occasion) are standing around with their hands in their pockets, completely ill prepared to deal with this historic heist.
I trust that each and every one of the fired employees start the process of claiming wrongful termination under their civil service protections. AND claiming unemployment. Someone needs to know how much the unemployment claims will cost the government--and the settlements of the claims. I don't think that existing employees can be transferred to Schedule F and the issue will certainly come up as a DOJ "defense" so that is yet another place the issue can be litigated.
We are all angry. I get it. But we should be angriest at the institutions and media who refuse to challenge this MAGA slow coup. There will always be human pathologies who choose to push the envelope on ethics, morals, and damn common sense.
But these creatures should not be allowed to push the envelope. The fact that we have tolerated, nay, indulged this freaking nonsense for quite a few years now is symptomatic of our national disease. Performance is everything to most Americans, who are addicted to it in so many ways. And this type of insane performance is like looking at a car crash: we cannot look away. Thus, profitable clicks encourage media to deliver even more performance. To up the ante. To top the extremism. We say we are disgusted, but we come back for more.
"Project 2026" for the Democrats: we have to demand much, much more from the Party and its leaders. They need to promise their voters that they will actually reform some terrible problems with America. I would suggest that they take the bull by the horns and tackle getting radical right wing hate media banned from the country. Some countries have, and I seem to recall one where news could be penalized if not banned for not reporting factually. Of course, some "facts" can be subjective, but most facts are verifiable by established standards. Extremist media is a parasite on the body politic and it is eating us alive.
The kind of "opinion" media that seduces, addicts, and cults is enormously destructive to a democracy. That includes social media, which foments polarization constantly. We have allowed technology to get ahead of common sense. We cannot afford to do that any more. Our very survival as a moral country depends on it.
Mad, damn mad, at potus.
You are so right, Wilder. Thanks!