The Colorado Department of State warned that it would be “a matter for the Courts” if the state’s Republican party withdrew from or ignored the results of the primary.
The Colorado Department of State warned that it would be “a matter for the Courts” if the state’s Republican party withdrew from or ignored the results of the primary.
Fuck 'em. The only thing they don’t get mad about is fascism winning. A majority of Republicans already believe elections in this country are illegitimate simply because their orange messiah didn’t win. We’re past the point of sitting down and having a reasonable conversation.
There’s a book called How Democracies Die that goes into quite a lot of detail as to how this situation has played out historically.
Basically, it’s a nasty situation. The reality of life is, everyone can just get up and do whatever they want to do. A judge can decide he’s a Trump supporter and stop prosecuting Trump supporters if they attack people in the streets. A general can decide he will or won’t deploy the military against the citizens when the leader orders him to. The military rank and file can obey or not. A lot of “the rules” that constrain people’s behavior and keep democracy running are totally made up, and there’s a bad, bad problem that happens when people start to abandon the rules.
So, what do you do when the fascists are abandoning the rules? There’s an obvious answer: fight back in kind. Add some seats to the supreme court. Kick Trump supporters out of congress. Have the secretary of state decide that a state where polling locations in Democratic areas didn’t get enough ballots, should have gone to the Democrats. If the Republican secretaries of state have been doing the same on Trump’s side, and the alternative is losing the election, then that’s a pretty sensible option.
Except, it’s not. As a general rule, if the non-fascist side starts abandoning the rules in kind in order to fight back against the fascist side that is abandoning the rules, then the slippery slope down towards open war accelerates by quite a lot. Generally, the two things that can save a democracy that finds itself in this situation are:
It’s a little counterintuitive. But that’s what the book says. Now, is kicking Trump off the ballot “breaking the rules”? I honestly don’t know. Technically it’s 100% legal. But a lot of things are technically legal, including Republican state legislatures turning in vote totals that don’t match the will of the voters. Like I say, I’m of two minds about it, but the bottom line is it’s not quite as simple as “fuck 'em I don’t care.” Because “fuck 'em I don’t care” energy is what starts civil wars.
I’d argue commentary like yours is a greater hindrance to a reasonable conversation than the republicans are. You’re capable of being rational but are willingly refusing to.
And queue the Dems throwing down votes at a someone paying them a compliment and ironically proving my point…
You’re not getting downvotes because people are irrational or salty, you goon. You’re getting downvotes because you’re saying dumb shit.
“you’re not being polite enough to the mob of wannabe fascists” isn’t a reasonable position anymore.
It never was. It’s just Liberals LOVE their civility politics. If they couldn’t clutch pearls, they might realize the world has enough problems without the imagined ones like naughty words…
Every time I see/hear someone say this, I am reminded of the phrase, “You cannot reason someone out of a position they were not reasoned into”. It also doesn’t help that the republicans in power have shown us, over and over, that they are not acting/arguing in good faith.
Having a reasonable conversation and trying to remain rational when faced with those two factors is very difficult, at best, and puts you at a significant disadvantage, at worst.
That being said, I don’t really have any better ideas other than to stick to my ideals and try to be rational/reasonable.
My comment had almost exactly nothing to do with republicans… I implied they aren’t capable of being reasonable/rational, but the point was really about Dems, and their lack of being reasonable/rational not because they can’t, but because they just decide not to.
…and I got the downvotes… Didn’t sound like a Democrat, so I must be a repub, because that’s just how Dems work now.
You seem uncharacteristically reasonable though, so I replied to you just to say that :)
I think a lot of dems have decided it’s time to play the same game the republicans are playing. A sort of “if they won’t play by the rules, why should we?” mentality.
I don’t know if I like or agree with that, but I can certainly understand why someone would make that choice. That’s what I was trying to get at with my previous comment.
Thing is, Dems are playing by the rules. It just feels different because it is different. There’s an actual realization we have to fight for this thing and not just fret and tut-tut.
I’m so tired of wrung hands being a badge of honor among Democrats. Show me something more than a different flavor of thoughts and prayers. Tell me what you did (congress person).
No, the other guy was right. I down voted you for saying dumb shit.
I am being rational. I’m just not playing their dumbass civility politics games anymore.
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Okay, Neville Chamberlain.
Yes, calling fascists fascists is a much greater hindrance than Republicans saying things like trans people are corrupting the youth or that rich people deserve the most breaks.