"Our democracy hangs by a thread": Expert panel says a Trump victory in 2024 will end it
Donald Trump and the movement he represents are not “just” a matter of politics: They are effectively a public health crisis that touches all areas of American society and life.
These assaults on democracy and a humane society are emotional, physical, spiritual, psychological, economic, intellectual and material. Trumpism and fascism attack reality and truth, seeking to replace them with what social psychologists have described as a state of “malignant normality."
The result of these assaults is a collective state of trauma, anxiety, lack of direction and growing despair about our futures as individuals and citizens of a supposed democracy. These negative emotions are amplified by existential fears about global climate disaster, disruptive technologies such as AI, wars in multiple areas of the world, past and future pandemics and other unpredictable crises.
Fascism and authoritarianism are like opportunistic predators. They seek out societies in crisis whose dysfunction and brokenness allow them to flourish.
If Trump and his MAGA forces take back the White House, whether by fair means or foul — a once-unthinkable prospect that now seems increasingly likely — that might finally mean the end of innocence for those Americans who have deluded themselves into believing that “we are better than that."
You need to get your shit together.
Brasils ex president Bolsonaro was banned for 8 years for reelection for influencing the last election.
He had been accused of undermining Brazilian democracy by falsely claiming that the electronic ballots used were vulnerable to hacking and fraud.
Meanwhile Trump...
Downvote me to Hell, I don't care, this advice may save your life. Arm yourself now, learn to use your weapons with proficiency, and plan a bug out route with a couple backups. Stockpile ammunition legally and safely. Be ready, because these assholes aren't going down easy, and they want to take as many of us with them as possible.
Agreed. Firearms for self defense? I'm way ahead of ya. And I hope folks listen.
Random violence against marginalized people is probably going to get worse before it gets better. I don't want mass shootings either but if we aren't going to ban and confiscate all guns, then being totally defenseless in this ominous political and social climate seems ...ill-advised.
I suppose I personally am not in as much danger since I am a white male and my atheism isn't visible but I have family and friends who are in targeted groups.
Also, see if your area has a local chapter of the SRA. If it does, think about joining. If not, consider starting one.
Good call. Or Pink Pistols.
Reported for advocating violence, but advocating self defense isn't quite the same thing.
I go by the Men in Black rule:
"Don't start nothin, won't be nothin'."
When you look at the groups the right wing is vilifying, Democrats, minorities, LGBTQ+, and Trump's calls for mass incarceration, the ability to defend yourself, your family, your loved ones, and your neighbors is paramount.
Right with ya boo. I've posted much on lemmy.
POC, women and LGBT folks are the top new gun purchasers, and have been for a couple of years. Ask yourself why.
Bug out you say? I've got 2.5 acres of swamp. Don't come there uninvited if SHTF.
Stockpile you say? I laugh out loud when there's a news story, "This crazy fuck had 4,000 rounds!" So, amateur? People thinking "one bullet, one kill" haven't ever gone shooting. I can easily blow 200-rounds of various rounds and shells, by myself, on a Saturday afternoon at camp. Got loads of .22 for small game and loads of .223 for 2-legged game. Various shotshell covers the rest.
But you know what's got me seriously fucking bent? I spent the other night learning about gas masks, their specs and effectiveness, all that. I'm 52. Only fucking nutcases did that back in the day!!! Next I gotta look up body armor and study, but that's far in the back next to food, ammo, gasmasks, etc. Got the "living outside" thing well covered. You could strip me naked, chunk me out there, and I'd be comfortable within 30-minutes. And armed.
I'm mad as hell to be spending my middle years watching my country devolve into a 3rd world fascist hellscape.
"You gonna shoot at cops and soldiers Mr. Tough Guy?"
Yes. If it comes to that, yes. First police/civilian/military patrol coming to my home looking for liberal "vermin" is getting greeted with a hell storm of lead. And no, I do not expect to survive such an encounter. Hopefully I can see it coming and bug out.
Y'all need to read up on the French Revolution and WWII Europe. Shit goes wild, fast. Starts in small degrees (<- YOU ARE HERE), explodes overnight. And if a middle-class, middle-aged white guy is this worried, shouldn't YOU be?
NOTE: If Trump loses, we probably good for a bit. If Trump wins and the top brass tell him to get fucked, we good for a bit. Both items are most likely.
I'm Canadian and as an individual not particularly reactive to world events, but even I'm watching the US's next election with anxious apprehension
Seems to me that In Europe, you'd be considered a violent extremist.
But in USA, this seems like common sense. 😥
Democracy has been hanging by thread since citizen united. Trump is a symptom of a bigger problem.
People seem to be missing that this not the result of trumps presidency. This is the result of a disgusting and systematic destruction of public resources and a rollback of the provision of public services. This was done at the same time that oversight and consequences were systematically removed from political operatives. (Thanks, Citizens United!) All of this has been accomplished by the rich in the name of further enrichment at the expense of every single person in the nation. And while they did this, they blasted us with increasingly limp propaganda.
I have a serious wake up call for people reading this article and taking it at face value: EVEN IF BIDEN WINS, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA WILL STILL WHEEZING ITS LAST SAD BREATHS. And that won’t change until the deeper economic issues and the political operators fostering and worsening those issues are dealt with.
Yeah, obviously it’s worse if trump wins. But the fact Biden is being painted as a savior of Democracy is blatant propaganda by people supporting a party that has been complacent at best for creating the material conditions enabling trump to rise to any sort of political relevance. That should be a wake up call. Biden is a dogshit senile crank that authored one of the worst crime bills in our nation’s history.
Yeah: clearly, fuck trump. But dear god fuck Biden and the democrats too. They’re not the answer. We as a society need to fucking torch both parties and that, not voting for one of the two, is going to save democracy in America.
Trump won't win, he will be in jail in 2024.
I hope he's in jail, but I doubt it. Dingus has committed crimes at the highest level his whole life and seen zero repercussions. He now has sway with an openly corrupt supreme Court, the support of millions of zealous idiots, and continues to get trial delays that may push results beyond the election.
Just look at the open threats he's spewing and has yet to spend a night in jail. All they've done is fine him a paltry amount, which his dipshit base will gladly pay for.
We are on a very scary precipice. Trump's four years in office were far worse than I could have imagined, and have exposed so many faults in our government. I dread what another four years would bring.
True. Our founders thought norms would be followed by good faith presidents. Trump tested those.
Trump has done so many awful things in the four years he was president. He has learned from it. He knows he needs more loyalist in position to kill our democracy. Hope he doesn't get a chance to do it.
I am old and lived most of my life in a democracy, but I am sure the young people don't want to live in an authority Christian Nation. I hope they vote.
I have a 1,000 things to say, and I won't call the election for Biden, but Trump cannot win supporters, only lose.
Our republic depends on us voting. It ain't much to ask vs. the bloodshed that would follow a Trump win.
And if anyone thinks that hyperbolic, shortly after Biden took office we had 1,000,000 dead Americans from COVID. And he just called me "vermin".
Trump’s four years in office are almost exactly what I imagined would happen, which is why I was telling everyone I knew what would happen and to not vote for him.
Now i am imagining another
four-yearindefinite term, and it’s the end of everything good. That’s not hyperbole.I, like you, am doubtful he’ll go to prison, which should be very telling about the state of the US right now. The right wants to start a civil war over Trump and social issues; the left /needs/ a violent revolution they don’t seem to have the stomach for.
Look my friend, I feel the fear. See my other post on this same thread.
But Trump has never been under such a microscope, never faced the forces of justice like he is now. I laughed when the video of him winning 2016 came out. Trump tower, everyone partying, Trump drops his head in his hands. "LOL. He's scared shitless the government will finally start paying attention to him, bust him for decades of crimes." I rarely call it, but I nailed that one 8-years ago.
I get the Supreme Court hate, I do. But they've made a few sane calls lately, and yes, even regarding elections. And don't forget, they're on the bench for life. They owe Trump nothing. They're conservative, but they're not his minions.
And yes my friend, we stand on a razor's edge. I never thought it would come to this in my middle-age. Thank god I can still fight back.
I have some hopes for him being jailed to some extent mostly because of his mugshot. As others have pointed out, you’d have to do a lot of law bending to find a reason to not put him in an actual jail. The only thing potentially saving him is the secret service citing security risks at a normal jail or prison. But we have VIP prison cells in most states for this reason. He can be jailed, he just won’t see other prisoners.
That’s especially true because Georgia has its hands on him and that case will almost certainly end up with him guilty. So we either get riots because he gets to rest easy under house arrests or he gets treated like an actual prisoner. But there’s zero way to keep him out of serious punishment in a hostile state without turning laws into taffy.
That’s it basically. Georgia is doing something huge here. They may be the first court to try and jail him and that can break things down far before the election. Violence will immediately ensue no matter what happens. Because if he goes to jail, protests break out. If he doesn’t, a lot of people should justifiably riot.
2016 has entered the chat
It's not 2016, Trump has lost every time since then.
Hey dems let's all stay home we don't have to vote we got this in the bag...
Sound familiar??
No, our ass is on the line here. Volunteer, get others to vote, vote yourself.
And ignore the idiots and operatives pushing the "hurr durr voTe 3rD PaRtY iN ProTeSt" horseshit.
Sure hope so.
USA has been warned for at least 3 decades, that the 2 party system resulting from first past the post, is just about the weakest form of democracy there is. The term that regarding democracy the difference between USA and China is just 1 party, is not a joke.
Alcoholics usually don’t get help until they’re able to look up to the sky while lying in the gutter.
Right now, America seems to be just fine while face down in it. And with the overwhelmingly massive amount of complete dumbasses we currently have to try and vote around, I wouldn’t expect to see anything get better for decades. Conservatives want to destroy America.
I say we let them. Then clean up the mess and never have to see their shit-for-brains asses again.
Sayeth the white dudebrocialists: "But Biden Same!"
All the talk of being an ally with none of the action to support it, y'all quote Letters from Birmingham as if you ain't the exact worthless ass white allies on paper only Dr. King had had the right amount of in that cell.
Fuck Trump!
Is there not a Brutus among the republicans? Who has been more unfairly maligned than the man who killed his friend to save his republic?
The only Republicans willing to speak up are Republicans who have retired. Any Republicans who speak up against Trump while in office get primaried and kicked out of office. The Republicans who are left would follow Trump into a dictatorship as long as they were promised a small sliver of power. By the time they realize they're getting nothing, it would be too late.
That's his intention...
They said this dumb shit in 2016 and the both sides theatre is still running. Who buys this dumb shit anymore?
Stop voting for Genocide Joe. Vote third party or stay home.
As if we really have a choice. Most sane people want someone else besides Biden or Trump
Umm, I'd rather wear an itchy shirt than cut off my arm. The level of discomfort is orders of magnitude different. Also, I can take off the shirt at the end of the day, but I don't get my arm back.
Or you're a troll.
More like stage 4 leukemia versus a non-fatal case of malaria. The latter might not kill you outright, but it WILL take years off your life and cause you tons of misery in the process.
Too many people out there pretending that it's a good thing or only a slightly bad thing is the main reason why it's always a matter of choosing the lesser evil rather than one choice ever being good.
Biden has done more good than any other president in my lifetime. I still don't like him or want him, but to act like he's a net negative, especially compared to Trump, is a fucking joke
I didn't know there were 7 year olds on Lemmy. Perhaps I should swear less.
Nah, fuck that! You kids might as well get an early start 😛
If you know this, get involved. If you think you're not cut out for politics, gaze upon the current bench and get involved.