The "Green Bay Sweep"--One Year Later

[hollodero]

(01-16-2022, 03:27 PM)Dill Wrote: I agree with this pretty much. I'd just tweak it a bit by saying "all" our people aren't shrugging. But it might be that "most" or certainly enough are to grant the anti-democratic forces control of government, which, when they have it, will enable them to keep passing laws to keep their superminority in power.  Preserving the filibuster takes precedence over preserving democracy.

Yeah I don't think it has much to do with the filibuster. I get why it matters on voting rights, yet still In a sense, I feel often liberals tend to get sidetracked with topics like these. On the overall point, sure there are people that aren't just shrugging. It mainly happen to be the people that had sided with the democratic party in the first place. That's, hm, 25% of American people if being generous.
So yeah, as a nation, you are shrugging, for roughly 3/4 of all people do just that - at best. Many also actively root for the autocratic one-party system. But it's not just about them. In the end, it's not the extremism of some people, but the lethargy of most people that will with a concerning likelihood bring US democracy down.

Our own democracies have issues. But if in some western european country a former higher official would go on TV after a lost election and describe in detail how they had planned to ignore the outcome and just rather put their guy in place, this would be a scandal beyond proportions. In the US, Peter Navarro does just that and it's rather for the laughs than anything else. This is all rotten to its core, and of course just a tiny example. But it's just so weird that even under these circumstances, the party that supports all that cannot possibly lose by more than 5 percentage points and then inevitably win big in one of the upcoming elections. It is clear where this ends. Even if some of the more lethargic folks believe in the system being unbeatable or that Nikki Haley will lead the republicans back to reason and righteousness or whatever dream.

(01-16-2022, 03:27 PM)Dill Wrote: There may be an analogy here to resistance to civil rights legislation back in the '60s

I'll keep this short, I don't think there's a real fitting one. Imho this is just too different in many core elements.

(01-16-2022, 03:27 PM)Dill Wrote: Another variation would be comparisons which never go beyond the symmetry of each side's rhetoric to the basic asymmetry of evidence supporting the rhetoric. That's why many people hear Dems accusing Repubs of being anti-science and Repubs accusing Dems of being anti-science and stop there to conclude that "both sides" are just engaging in political performance. Meantime, COVID streaks through our millions of anti-Vaxxers, keeping the pandemic with us, the virus evolving, etc. Same when Dems raise the alarm about voting rights in danger. More "theater." There is no capacity among such folks to understand what is at stake when 50 million people WANT to re-elect a president who tried to throw the election--personally involved himself in doing.  So yes, Democracy is at stake.

Yeah, that I can get behind. And that's one of the frustrating things, how specifically this "both sides do it" type of argument (I count "it's all theater" as a variation) is misused with gross false equivalencies and whatnot... often, it seems, as a way to go blind on the heineuos actions of the republican party. In a sense, liberals have managed to be so appalling that many people rather go willfully blind than to side with them in any measurable way. And at times, I can even understand why. But that apparent fact sure makes things worse.

(01-16-2022, 03:27 PM)Dill Wrote: The events of Jan.6--I wouldn't say they "pale in comparison,"

Nah, just to clarify, I rather meant they maybe would pale in comparison if the public perception would be one of universal denouncement. In that case, I could have at least found some sympathy for the argument that idiots are everywhere.

(01-16-2022, 03:27 PM)Dill Wrote: This list/message board?

Tried to clarify that above.

This message board is just a microcosm.