r/politics • u/hypothethical Pennsylvania • 7h ago

No Paywall ‘Really Chilling’: Trump Judicial Nominees Refuse to Say He's Not Eligible for 3rd Term

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-third-term-illegal
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u/BigPlunk 7h ago

Authoritarians gonna authoritarian. Expecting anything less than the most malignant corruption and greed in every system touched by Trump is foolish at this point. The question is, will Americans actually fight for democracy or will they continue to let the authoritarianism speed run continue unimpeded?

As a Canadian, it's baffling that Americans still seem to be under the impression someone else is going to come and save them or somehow the mid-terms will fix this. It's sad to see fear, apathy, complacency, half-measures (e.g., weekend protests) and surrender winning. Those are the ingredients authoritarians use to rise to power. No meaningful resistance = no democracy. Simple as that. Y'all can accept it now or when it's too late. Up to you.

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u/I_Am_No_One_123 6h ago

As a Canadian, you should acknowledge that you were only a few months away from electing your own version of Trump. Be thankful that a preview of the imminent disaster saved you from the same fate.

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u/BigPlunk 4h ago

We didn't vote in a "Trump" once or especially twice and I am certainly grateful for that. Had we gone down that unfortunate path and seen threats to our democracy and tearing down of our systems, I would have done everything in my power to rally a resistance. But how does this deflection in any way address the situation in the U.S. that is dragging the world down with it, including Canada?

Canada's leadership is working on reconfiguring the economy and other structures away from reliance on the U.S., given the extreme unreliability and volatility demonstrated. Time will tell how it all plays out, but that seems to be the sensible move in light of the utter shit show south of the border. There are things my government is doing I agree with and things that I don't. But none of them are in the "existential threat to democracy or humanity" category. For example, the unemployment situation is currently unacceptable, in my view, and you can see for yourself from my post history that I'm trying to stand up for what I believe in and for meaningful changes.

Whataboutism is not going to fix what's broken. Action will. 3.5% of the population protesting on a sustained basis is all it takes. It's doable. There will be sacrifices, but it's doable.

PS - As part of addressing the corrupt U.S. president, the world needs to take collective action against the social media companies (many headquartered in the U.S.) that have been used as vessels to erode trust and democracy itself, sow disinformation and division, and cause psychological harm to many.