(10-27-2024, 05:43 AM)Labster Wrote: I basically feel the same way about this election's undecided voters. If you haven't decided yet, you aren't competent to vote. The choice is incredibly clear. One candidate is a fascist, and the other candidate knows some people who will get upset if you say racist things. One candidate has promised that this will be the last time Christians need to vote, the other has promised voting as usual. One is a felon, the other a prosecutor. One is an orange, the other is probably an apple.
I guess that's why I haven't been volunteering or campaigning this cycle, because I just feel so fatalistic about it. Either a majority of us want a fascist America, or don't. Or at the very least, some are perhaps willing to tolerate fascist leadership as long as they make money. (This is also collaboration.) The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post have decided not to endorse in this election, which is to say their respective billionaire owners decided not the let their editors endorse Harris. It makes sense, in a way -- their staff would never endorse Trump, but Trump would take revenge if things didn't go his way. So they preserve the paper, at least for a little while, as democracy is dying in darkness. Cool cool.
Trump finally admitted he made a mistake -- hiring disloyal people in his last administration, like John Kelly and John Bolton. It's really a sign of how far we've come that now I see John Bolton as a good guy. I mean, not really good, but like, he knows democracy is worth fighting for. If he were in charge we'd be sending tons of weapons to Ukraine.
I've found myself drifting towards being a single-issue voter on Ukraine, which is something I didn't expect at all for a country I didn't care all that much about "3 days" ago when the invasion started. But it's a proxy for every other issue. It screens out the bleeding-heart liberals who can't bear to see us get in another war, even one literally to defend democracy against a genocidal fascist state. It screens out the advocates for taking a side in Gaza instead, which I believe is pictured in the dictionary under "quagmire." It screens out the fascists, and the nationalists who want to return to the days of national conquest. Those days are over. It screens out the isolationist libertarians who are too dumb to realize how much they themselves have profited under the American-hegemonic rules-based international order. And most of all, it screens out people taking Russian money, and those dumb enough to believe Russian propaganda. I suppose it's not really surprising that Elon Musk has been talking directly to Vladimir Putin over the past 2 years now, is it?
(10-16-2024, 05:56 PM)Labster Wrote: So we've now got a combination of showmanship over policy, blatant lies, blood libel, purifying society against the enemy within, violent restoration of order, and the leader's book in every classroom. Except, like, it's all so dumb. All of it. Are they like a dumb version of Nazis, or were the original Nazis also this moronic?
And lately we've been discussing Arnold Palmer's junk, because Trump brought it up at a town hall for some reason. Apparently it was quite an impressive package. So let's add to that list "a cult of masculinity", yet another sign of fascism. But that question at the end, that's the one that's haunting me. I think the answer is likely "yes" to both sides.
The other question that I've asked myself for a long time, and I imagine most of you have asked yourself as well: why didn't the Jews leave Germany before the Holocaust? Well, some of them did. Some of them saw the writing on the wall, and got out early enough if they had the means to do so. At a certain point, it just became too late to escape. I don't think I'd be a high priority target, but really, I just don't want to live through it again, but worse. Mark my words, it will be the Joker: Folie a Deux of presidencies.
So yeah, ten days out from the election, the family has already discussed selling the house if Trump wins.
Personally, I doubt it will get that dire even if Trump wins.
We had four years of Trump before and I didn't see liberals and anyone to the left of Hitler given the Nacht un Nebel treatment.
We had Biden for four years, and despite Trump fans screaming he'd screw things up, somehow the United States is still here.
As I've gotten older, while I still consider voting important, the good news is the hard limit on two terms imposed post-FDR, so no permanent dictator can happen, and that goes for the people who are terrified of either side.
Ultimately, I do hope the most competent and honest parties are elected, but honestly, if I had to pick who I'd want as my eternal president, I'd want Chester Arthur perpetually. He didn't cause drama, left the country pretty much the way he found it, and was so nice even his enemies couldn't really find anything horrible to say about him aside from the fact he wasn't on their team.
If Trump does win, my advice for those who fear him is to make sure both houses of Congress and your states are filled with a ton of people in opposition, that would be the bulwark against any tyranny he could possibly do if he did get elected. If Kamala wins, well, make sure you elect as many people you want in lesser political positions of the same party to marginalize the other side's potential for damages. As for me, I will simply pray for peace and safety for whomever has their preferred candidate lose, and I will pray the winners have the wisdom to be gracious to the losers.