this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
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Sorry this is kinda political. Is there an asklemmypolitics group this would be better for? I'm hoping not to get into the libs vs progressives political debate we see everywhere on here... Just want to know what people are actually looking for.

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[–] Matomo@lemmy.ml 34 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Non-US guy here. I don't get why there's a choice whether to vote for him or not, when you know the alternative is Trump.

It's clear Biden isn't a great option, and there's probably plenty of reasons not to want him. But is any of those reasons gonna get better in the next 4 years when his opponent would win?

[–] Wes4Humanity@lemm.ee 8 points 4 months ago

Yes, obviously stopping Trump is the priority. But, that's not the point of the question. Imagining Biden actually did have to earn your vote, what would he need to do?

[–] NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

That attitude only leads to worse and worse candidates in a spiral to the bottom

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 17 points 4 months ago (2 children)

That’s assuming there will even be candidates in the future.

In previous elections, I would have agreed with you, but Trump has already tried to destroy democracy once. I honestly don’t think that democracy will survive a second Trump term.

[–] Wes4Humanity@lemm.ee 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

What if the "democracy" we think we have is actually just oligarchy putting on a show... And the only way to really get a democracy is if we fight for it, and Trump gets the fight going faster so we can get to democracy faster? Just a hypothetical, not advocating for this. Obviously a violent revolution would suck, especially considering the US was literally designed to make peaceful revolution relatively easy, but I think those designs have been crushed at this point... By the oligarchy

[–] JoeCoT@fedia.io 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

What if a revolution in the US caused a global economic collapse?

We tend to think of potential revolutions in the same way as the US Civil War, or the French or Russian revolutions. The problem is that a civil war would be much more like the British Civil War, and most people know very little about the French or Russian revolutions.

A Revolution or Civil war wouldn't have 2 times. It'd have a dozen. We can't agree on what the future of the country should be now, how would we in a Revolution? There would be Revolution, counter-revolution, a civil war where the sides shift every 6 months. And you know how other countries try to influence us now, with Russia interfering with elections and China manipulating companies? That's with the full strength of the Federal government attempting to stop it. Now they'd get to do it with an extremely vulnerable, fractured country.

Add on to that that those other revolutions involved world powers, but in a far less connected world wide economy. The fall of the US looks less like the French Revolution, and more like the Bronze Age collapse.

I think it's too soon to write off the US as irredeemable without revolution. The last time we had a brush with Fascism taking over the country, we got FDR and The New Deal. If we can avoid this brush with Fascism, we might get another chance at turning things around.

[–] Wes4Humanity@lemm.ee 5 points 4 months ago

I feel like Bernie was our shot at a new FDR... And the establishment was able to quash that. I hope we can still do it, but it feels like there's very little hope for a non violent way to get to actual democracy

[–] NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth 1 points 4 months ago

We’ll end up Balkanizing, then we can try again for something better

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 2 points 4 months ago

There’s a good chance you’re right.

[–] NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth 1 points 4 months ago

Heard it all before, you will hear it again

[–] Matomo@lemmy.ml 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That sounds like it has to get worse before it can get better. Having trump would create motivation to improve things for getting a better candidate next election, something like that?

Doesn't sound like a great option either. It's not like there's a 'good' option, just a 'slightly better' one.

[–] NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth 1 points 4 months ago

People have to realize that things can get worse before they decide that it’s time to fix them instead of just treading water