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Breaking down the illusion of a 2 party system (thelemmy.club)
submitted 3 months ago by [M] to c/latestagecapitalism@lemmy.world
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[–] -1 points 3 months ago (1 child)

Keep in mind that the primary thing we elect people to do is to show up and vote. You don't think that the right is itching for any excuse to throw Dems into jail so they can't show up to the legislative session and vote?

Lamonica McIver, a NJ state rep, was arrested during inspection of an ICE detention facility. Texas Dem reps had arrest warrants issued after they filed the state to block a vote by denying quorum through their absence. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested protesting ICE. Angie Nixon, a Fla rep, was arrested protesting gerrymandered maps just the other day. Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested for "concealing a migrant". Calif Sen Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a press conference for asking questions. NYC Comptroller Bead Lander was arrested for asking ICE for a warrant. There are more.

Lots of reps are using their power. As lawless as the right seems, that is mostly at the top. They can be tripped up at the lower levels using the laws and that is what is being done. They could always do more, but every escalation comes with a cost.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    Keep in mind that the primary thing we elect people to do is to show up and vote. 

    Governors, attorneys general, sheriffs, judges, and coroners don’t primarily vote. Different elected officials have different responsibilities.

    I do think you’re correct that a lot of legislators do phone in the bare minimum of their duties and primarily vote, but the legislative branch writes the legislation they’re going to vote on, controls the budget, and very importantly, is the check to the executive branch. They control investigations, they have the power of impeachment.

    You don't think that the right is itching for any excuse to throw Dems into jail so they can't show up to the legislative session and vote? 

    Democrats had power in previous years to address the practice of gerrymandering. They didn’t because they played the game when it was in their favor. Soon there will be so few Dems their votes won’t matter anyway. And presently, they’re often arrested, refused to be allowed sworn in, and denied access to secret sessions. The executive branch is legislating by executive order and the judicial branch is legislating from the bench, neither of which are how the system is supposed to work but the system has been corrupted.

    I’m sure you’re familiar with “First They Came" by Martin Niemöller. Yes, MAGA would love to come for its political enemies. But they don’t need an excuse, victimizers never do. Stand up when it might make a difference or wait for them to consolidate even more power and eventually have the ability to drag elected officials out of their homes in the middle of the night with no consequences.

    Lamonica McIver, a NJ state rep, was arrested during inspection of an ICE detention facility. Texas Dem reps had arrest warrants issued after they filed the state to block a vote by denying quorum through their absence. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested protesting ICE. Angie Nixon, a Fla rep, was arrested protesting gerrymandered maps just the other day. Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested for "concealing a migrant". Calif Sen Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a press conference for asking questions.  NYC Comptroller Bead Lander was arrested for asking ICE for a warrant. There are more.

    Yup. That’s an example of how corrupt our law enforcement, courts, and executive branch is. But if you think being blocked from a vote or removed from a press conference is bad, I assure you that after listening to the dehumanization of migrants during his campaign, witnessing the brutality of ICE on the streets, the flaunting of Aligator Alcatraz and El Salvadoran hellpits, what the people picked up by ICE are experiencing is far, far worse than being politely arrested in front of a detention center then booked and released to go back to your home. We know what’s going on in those places, and going in to “inspect” achieves nothing if all one does is go back to discuss what they saw in a committee, a committee that even if it attempts to take action is going to be ignored by the executive branch, dismissed by judges, and the local cops aren’t going to do diddly fuck even if instructed to because they’re on ICE’s side.

    As lawless as the right seems, that is mostly at the top. 

    ICE murdered Alex Periti and Renee Good in cold blood, on the streets, while being video taped, and walked away. Economics don’t trickle down by when the power at the top tells their bottom level goons “do what you want, we’ve got your back”, the lawlessness bleeds out into the community.

    They can be tripped up at the lower levels using the laws and that is what is being done. 

    You just provided a laundry list of the efforts of elected officials trying to trip up the system at lower levels resulting in their arrests, removal, and being ignored. Their current efforts to trip it are pushed aside at every step. That’s the point I’ve been trying to drive home. Their methods are not working, continuing to go down that same path over and over and getting the same result isn’t “doing” something, it’s either optimistic foolishness that “this time I won’t be stopped” when history and evidence points to the contrary, or it’s performative; “look at me, I got arrested in front of an ICE center that I knew beforehand they’d never let me into and we’re all well aware of what horrors occur inside”. If someone being arrested for “concealing a migrant” doesn’t scream these are fucking Nazis and are going to have to be dealt with like Nazis, I don’t know what will. How many times do they have to break the law, violate the Constitution, defy courts, and how many lives have to be destroyed in the process before people start looking around and accepting “our system is not protecting us”. Every day this is debated and discussed in the comfort of a congressional office, human beings are being kidnapped, beaten, raped, imprisoned, and murdered by a regime that doesn’t care if the committee finds them at fault, the committee has no power to force the regime to stop.

    They could always do more, but every escalation comes with a cost.

    I know. I’m prepared, are you? When they are satisfied with what they’ve done to the immigrants and change gears to come for the trans, the antifascists, and the anarchists, the “undesirables” who couldn’t be as easily rounded up under anti-immigration rhetoric, what’s the plan? Keep hoping leadership will legislate their way out of it? Sit in a detention center and send up a little cheer when your rep bravely got themselves arrested out front? They keep escalating but we’re the ones paying the cost.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    That’s the point I’ve been trying to drive home. Their methods are not working, continuing to go down that same path over and over and getting the same result isn’t “doing” something

    I'm not ready to say that the methods aren't working. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in the US a free man. Alligator Alcatraz is being closed. ICE hasn't come close to their deportation goals and they were largely blocked from their operations in major cities. Virginia redistricting by the GOP was blocked, but California redistricting by Dems passed. All probably indicates that Republicans will lose control of the House in the midterms.

    Yeah, it's a new horror every day. But there is so much that has been stopped or mitigated. Between Iran and the economy, the right is losing power fast.

    I know. I’m prepared, are you?

    I don't think anyone is prepared. Are you prepared for nukes landing on US cities? Are you prepared to kill your neighbor? Are you prepared to eat your pet? Do you know how to amputate a limb without anesthesia? Do you have a stockpile of seeds and antibiotics for when the supply lines collapse? What is your defense plan for drone bombs?

    A second civil war would be worse than we can imagine. I want to do everything possible to avoid it.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in the US a free man. Alligator Alcatraz is being closed. ICE hasn't come close to their deportation goals and they were largely blocked from their operations in major cities. 

    Kilmar should never have been in the position he was in in the first place. Even the people who are here illegally and caught should not be in those places, they still have the right to due process. Getting him out is great, why did the leaders that came before fail to stop it from getting to this point in the first place?

    Virginia redistricting by the GOP was blocked, but California redistricting by Dems passed. 

    This is the kind of bullshit that has allowed us to get where we are. Both sides do nothing to end gerrymandering then play with our population for their party’s gain. That’s not representation, that’s stacking the deck. Sometimes it pans out in your team’s favor, other times it doesn’t. Meanwhile it’s your constituents who bear the burden of the fallout.

    All probably indicates that Republicans will lose control of the House in the midterms. 

    Primary results today are painting a different picture. Massie is a libertarian that votes with Republicans 90% of the time (his own words), but he’s been for releasing the Epstein files; lost to a Trump pick. Same for Bill Cassidy, another Republican critic. Brad Raffensberger, the Georgia Secretary of State who defied Trumps calls to overturn the election got primaried in favor of a Trump pick. McConnell’s replacement nominee is a Trump pick. 

    In my state the presumptive Republicans won, but what’s concerning is that the unabashed white nationalist who challenged our governor pulled 30% of the vote. And honestly, it’s probably more because a lot of us here register Republican so we can vote in their primary. Today I voted for a man who’s stripped women of their rights to healthcare and signed into a law that makes using a restroom designated for one gender a felony if your birth certificate lists the opposite, because that’s currently the lesser of the two evils. That gerrymandering you think is a win in California is going to destroy the blue districts in red states because they’ll keep challenging it until they get it in front of one of their judges and it’s allowed. Or they’ll just ignore it’s been ruled illegal and on voting day do what they want; who’s going to stop them? 

    Yeah, it's a new horror every day. 

    Not if you’re not the one living it. ICE might not be meeting its quotas but for the people they have caught, that’s a horror. The abuse, the destruction of their lives, the loss of their homes, their possessions, their pets, separation from their families. These aren’t numbers, they’re human beings. Whoever they were before this, there’s no going back, that’s gone, they’ve been horrifically victimized. Alex and Renee are dead.

    But there is so much that has been stopped or mitigated. Between Iran and the economy, the right is losing power fast. 

    Trump is losing popularity with some of his constituents, but for the wrong reason. He promised them they could be racist and prosper. Currently he’s just delivering on permission to be racist. They’re grumbling because prices are up, but they’re not going to abandon him. 

    Are you prepared for nukes landing on US cities? 

    I grew up during the Cold War, they started drilling us for that potential when I was in kindergarten. That was a feel good exercise. If they’re going to start nuking their own cities, well, that’s that. No amount of preparation will be sufficient to weather the nuclear holocaust. But of all the scenarios, the US nuking the US is pretty low on my list of concerns. That they’d turn our militarized police forces and the redneck militias loose on us? That’s more likely. They gain nothing if their win condition is nuking their homeland. They’re cruel, but they’re not stupid.

    Are you prepared to kill your neighbor? 

    Prepared how? Like, do I have the equipment, or am I mentally and emotionally prepared for the escalation of conflict and comfortable with extreme interpersonal violence? Or both? Whatever it is, I’m not going to give a definitive, because that’s a hard question to answer without incriminating yourself or sounding like you’re full of tough guy bravado. I’ve never killed anyone. I’ve been a victim of violence as well as have given as good as I’ve gotten. I’d love it if people could live in a violence free world, but that’s not the world we live in. I have an idea of what I would do and am capable of when put into a life or death situation, whether that’s my own or in defense of another. Guess we’ll see if it comes to that.

    Are you prepared to eat your pet? 

    What to do with my pets is something I have planned for. One of my dogs would not do well in survival mode, if the world really went to shit. If I went off the fight I have people who are not fighters but are planning on laying low and just trying to get by under the radar who’d take her. But if I thought there was no way she could be safe, I would spare her the misery. My dude? We’ve already been through some shit and hard times. Live together, die together. I’ve been homeless before and survived off scavenging. Humans and dogs can eat just about anything to survive. It’s not pleasant for either of us, but eating your dog is convenient. There’s other protein to be found on the battlefield.

    Do you know how to amputate a limb without anesthesia? 

    Yeah. It’s not pretty but I’m a trained vet tech who has enough of an understanding of anatomy, triage, and field medicine to make do in a pinch. Plenty of Civil War soldiers survived the muscle powered bone saws. Lucky us, we have solar charging and battery powered reciprocating saws 😬

    Do you have a stockpile of seeds and antibiotics for when the supply lines collapse? 

    Yes. For the last decade I’ve been honing my gardening skills and stockpiling both for bug in and bug out. I live in an urban area, Boise, but I grew up in Idaho, where there’s millions of acres of wilderness a few miles out of city limits. My grandpa was a dirt poor kid from Appalachia who moved west and taught me bushcraft. My parents were an-cap libertarians who bridged the gap of live modern/know your exit strategy; don’t trust the government. I might have shifted to the left of their values, but I feel reasonably confident in my approach. Also been accused of being a fatalist. Maybe 🤷‍♂️. If you do you do, if you don’t, you don’t.

    What is your defense plan for drone bombs?

    If we’re discussing kamikaze quadcopters; Benelli 12-gauge semi-auto shotgun. MQ-9 Reapers? I got nothing.

    A second civil war would be worse than we can imagine. I want to do everything possible to avoid it.

    Yeah. Me too.

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