Title pretty much says it.
Can I at least fantasize about Democrats frantically creating procedural bulwarks and safeguards between now and inauguration day that will have some effect and not be immediately swept away by the incoming administration?
To what degree can they have any impact on the next four years, and do we think they are pulling all the levers they can?
Having been alive and watching our government become a dysfunctional fucking mess over the course of over forty fucking years…
No.
Get involved with Mutual Aid Networks. We will not be able to rely on the systems we’ve traditionally been able to rely on. We must build our own systems outside of the capitalist landscape and outside government authority. We can neither trust the capitalists nor the government they have twisted to their own ends (easily done because the constitution is some old ass bullshit, and nobody ever does anything about the loopholes. it’s like a computer program that’s never been updated but is still online with all sorts of security issues).
Our Constitution has always been badly written and easily used to push authoritarianism, and Trump is ready to wipe his ass with what’s left of the US Constitution and the Republicans are ready to let him.
I want to respond to this by saying that it is 100% correct.
Get to know your neighbors. Figure out who can do what. Is anyone undocumented? Is anyone good at fixing things? Who has kids and who is good at watching kids?
The plus side is that if we do this right, we should be able to toss out the Christian Nationalists in a few years. But we’ll have a much better shot at that if we learn how to take care of one another the way we should’ve a long time ago.
if we learn how to take care of one another the way we should’ve a long time ago.
Every time we say it’s “not our job” to learn how to do something, what we’re effectively saying is “it’s not our job to make the world a better place.” Actually, that’s everyone’s job, all the time.
rofl
We can’t. IMO unless some of the military brass grow the spines needed to actually fulfill their oaths to protect the United States from threats both foreign AND DOMESTIC, we’re all pretty well fucked.
The trouble with that theory is that there are just as many dipshit conservatives who want the fascism. They hate America and Americans and want to rule them in the name of their god.
No. The only thing effective is you. We are many. They are few.
None.
You voted yourself that banana ape, so now you got that banana ape, and nothing can be done anymore.
There are some things they can do like agreements/contracts going several years into the future, but the problem is anything they can do that on its face locks in the next admin, can be undone by the courts…which they now control at the highest level by a 6-3 majority, which at best remains only a 6-3 majority for the next 4 years and probably much much longer than that. Thomas will retire in this admin and they’ll get a new young ultra conservative in his place.
They’re gonna fuck everything up. They promised to.
They have a razor thin margin in Congress though, so anything requiring purse strings (money) our best hope is that they’re just really dysfunctional (which we know they are) and fight too much about how much to hurt other people to get much done.
But yeah, it’s looking dark.
Trump made considerable progress gutting the federal government his first term. Biden did not undo much of that. Courts. USPS. Environmental and scientific agencies. Also state and local level stuff. There are a lot of examples. If literal criminal convictions, treason, the federal court system (which he helped rig), etc…have not been successful until now, why would they suddenly become effective?
There’s been some effort in relation to defending against another Schedule F.
On the state level, there are protections (for now) since a ton of stuff has to be done to the constitution to remove such powers and they don’t have the majority needed for that. Sure there are loopholes, but for every fed willing to turn a blind eye, there’s a state rep willing to disregard their made up policy. CA already has a lawsuit fund, lol.
The federal level gets dicier. Despite the kiss asses on the GOP side, I don’t think they’ll have the courage to do deeply unpopular things for their region. For instance, removing the Dept of Education isn’t popular in places that get a lot of that Title I money. That ain’t a safe guard the Dems put in place, per se, but they made it in 79 under Carter and even Reagan couldn’t get the support to undo it in 80.
Any current safe guards? Biden is unfortunately very bad at these things as far as I can tell and what good he did will likely be credited to Trump despite the truth. Best we’ve got I think is just trying to sure up as much Ukraine support as possible. The house Dems might have the best shot, though, given the narrow lead. With Senate, it’s probably a good thing Manchin wouldn’t let Dems abolish the filibuster… although the GOP might go ahead and do that themselves this time. Senators don’t really have to answer to their constituents because of incumbent advantage, so there isn’t at much deal making like in the house.
The Democrats aren’t really doing a lot unfortunately
Doesn’t seem like even existing executives in agencies have any fucking backbone. The AFGE union that represents EPA employees is urging members to personally email the EPA Administrator, Michael Regan, to extend the union contract of career service employees to 2030. This would protect some worker rights under a collective bargaining agreement instead of allowing it to open back up for the Trump admin to gut. Career service employees are the ones doing inspections, developing cases, providing assistance to the public, doing research… The stuff that most people expect the EPA to do, even if they aren’t democrats. Despite what the hyperbolic mainstream and social media spaces report, even Republicans want clean air, water, and soil.
Regan has thus far refused even though he has absolutely nothing to lose since he is out by January anyway to be replaced with Lee Zeldin…I guess he thinks not doing anything to help agency employees at EPA will help his career and that’s his priority. Not actually helping the EPA succeed.
you expect a party to play by rules that are only followed by said party’s mortal enemy because good men doing something is “bAd pOliTiCs”
Ironically, people have got to hope on there being any Republicans left who’re not loyal to Trump to stop him or slow him down. Yes, I said it, we’re relying on REPUBLICANS to slow him down. That’s really the embarrassing part about all of this.
Don’t look to the Democrats to do it, because all that they’re going to do for 4 years is pussy foot and make empty promises, not learning from their mistakes.
Surely any roadblocks you put in place quickly by one party in power can be removed quickly by the other party in power. Again, I think what’s going to matter is those few people in the administration with standards and allegiance to the country over party, and loud outcries from the people when they touch something important.
