Oh, how the tides have turned!

[Anonymous]

Just a month ago we assumed that Elon would be throwing his money at all MAGA candidates at the midterms. Now it looks like he will be throwing all of his money against any member who votes for the BBB. I am loving this.

Maybe it will inspire the GOP to want to overturn Citizens United.

[Anonymous]

Agreed. And maybe some of the terror that Republicans have been feeling about disagreeing with the president will fade. Maybe a lot of it will.

[Anonymous]

idk, i think most Trump voters are forever enamored of his assholiness and will get over whatever gripes Elon, Tucker, Rogan, MTG have at the moment.

[Anonymous]

How did we get to this point, folks??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How did we get to this point, folks??

Too much money, not enough political parties. I have found myself jealous of parliamentary systems lately. They seem to be able to ebb and flow closer to the needs of the country faster and it’s a lot more difficult for extremism to slip in. The corporate and lobbying interests are also crushing us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:idk, i think most Trump voters are forever enamored of his assholiness and will get over whatever gripes Elon, Tucker, Rogan, MTG have at the moment.

True, but once it’s stripped down to the base cult members hopefully the numbers will be small enough to be manageable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did we get to this point, folks??

Too much money, not enough political parties. I have found myself jealous of parliamentary systems lately. They seem to be able to ebb and flow closer to the needs of the country faster and it’s a lot more difficult for extremism to slip in. The corporate and lobbying interests are also crushing us.

Truth.

[Anonymous]

I'm French. You guys desperately need more political parties! The root cause of the deep divisions in the US is that each party vilifies the other, and it gets even more amplified and distorted according to which media you watch.

In countries with multiple parties, the hatred and stupidity are diluted, so to speak, and the voters can move slightly left or slightly red to the next party, with more fluidity. They're not trapped in the GOP because they could never bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, or vice versa. It's really helpful when a leader emerges that's completely nuts. You just slide over to the next party and make do if it's a little too liberal or a little too conservative. And then several parties need to coalesce to govern, which often leads to hilarity, but has never (yet!) led to fascism post-WWII.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm French. You guys desperately need more political parties! The root cause of the deep divisions in the US is that each party vilifies the other, and it gets even more amplified and distorted according to which media you watch.

In countries with multiple parties, the hatred and stupidity are diluted, so to speak, and the voters can move slightly left or slightly red to the next party, with more fluidity. They're not trapped in the GOP because they could never bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, or vice versa. It's really helpful when a leader emerges that's completely nuts. You just slide over to the next party and make do if it's a little too liberal or a little too conservative. And then several parties need to coalesce to govern, which often leads to hilarity, but has never (yet!) led to fascism post-WWII.

Me again. PP has a great point about political funding. In France they're so strict many politicians get dinged because the rules don't leave a lot of room for maneuvering. But they don't get dinged for enormous sums. It keeps politics relatively clean of big business influence - I say relatively, because it's not possible to avoid it entirely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just a month ago we assumed that Elon would be throwing his money at all MAGA candidates at the midterms. Now it looks like he will be throwing all of his money against any member who votes for the BBB. I am loving this.

Maybe it will inspire the GOP to want to overturn Citizens United.

Wait, Elon is a good guy again? I was just about to key a Tesla. Good thing you told me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just a month ago we assumed that Elon would be throwing his money at all MAGA candidates at the midterms. Now it looks like he will be throwing all of his money against any member who votes for the BBB. I am loving this.

Maybe it will inspire the GOP to want to overturn Citizens United.

I am not loving this. Elon destroyed so much of how our government functions and the good things we can do by coming together. Much of this benefited him directly, allowing him and his billionaire friends to have the chance to charge taxpayers more to perform what should be government functions...and to do so in a way that aligns with their depraved ideologies.

Now his drug-addled brain is squirrel-like turning to opposing MAGA (though still benefiting himself). He should not be allowed to have so much power over us.

[Anonymous]

Only three and a half more years!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only three and a half more years!!

And then what? The destruction in just 5.5 mos is difficult to comprehend. There were things I wanted to change and fix, but I did not think our country was a wasteland before Trump came back to office. It's not only that I don't like what he is doing, it's that he is actually doing nothing productive. He is destroying lots of things and building very little. What will be left by 2029?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only three and a half more years!!

You wish.

Don't you think the elections will be rigged (as the POTUS used to claim, remember that back in 2015?) to favor the GOP?

I doubt we'll have another free and fair election for decades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only three and a half more years!!

A LOT can happen in three and a half years — especially when impulsive people who don’t really care about the impacts of their behavior and decisions on others — are running the show.


I agree — we do need more political parties and ranked choice voting. I also remember bipartisan cooperation, when the good of the country was typically prioritized over supporting the political party at all costs. There were battles, of course, but much less divisiveness, and much more cooperation and collegiality among politicians.