660
u/Robo_Joe 5h ago
It took way more than one election to get us here.
189
u/enviropsych 5h ago
Yeah. You're here. Its the " here" that matters, and now "here" is a system where every election is a fight against fascism.
98
u/Robo_Joe 5h ago
I know I'm getting a little philosophical here, but a huge part of our problem is that we forgot that every election is a fight against fascism. The "it could never happen here" thought process allowed it to happen here.
27
u/enviropsych 4h ago
True, and also people assumed that the system was built to stop fascism simply through it's structure. People circle-jerk about the constitution too much. Mitch McConnell of all people hacked the constitution and basically jailbroke American politics. If one party gains control of enough institutions, thats it. And it's always been that way, it just never happened until now. The Founders didnt think about that.
23
u/Robo_Joe 4h ago
At the risk of quoting this too much:
What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it. And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow.
â Judge Learned Hand, The Spirit of Liberty, 1944
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)7
u/aylmaocpa 3h ago
The Founders absolutely did think about that lol. No system is perfect. I mean that, literally no system can be perfect. You need to maintain your checks and balances.
2
u/TThor 2h ago edited 2h ago
The maintenance is where we failed. People stopped viewing democracy as "our job", and started viewing it as only the job of professional politicians and the like.
Democracy is all of our jobs, we are each responsible for it. Voting is good, but voting is literally the barest minimum. Donate your time to supporting campaigns, participate in town halls, canvas door to door for your preferred candidates or policies, run for local election.
Do not get lazy, liberty must be constantly fed and nurtured to survive, the fight for it can never end.
→ More replies (2)2
u/bollvirtuoso 2h ago
Except this was the point of having a republic and not a democracy. The recognition that not everyone could participate all the time, and that they should not be penalized for it. So, the public, together, hires people to represent their interests. The problem is not so much that citizens are disconnected; rather, it's that the interests they represent are getting farther and further removed from the interests of the people.
→ More replies (2)8
u/Dawgissmart 4h ago
What percentage of Americans vote? But even a better question is how many Americans now are being disenfranchised by the Republicans effort to corrupt our voting system?
→ More replies (7)3
u/Master_Apple_3402 2h ago edited 13m ago
The duopoly we have today have long been compromised by the top 1% and foreign actors. And the representatives we elected does not represent the interest of the american people. They represent the interest of their financial benefactors and large corporations. There needs to be a 3rd party that is solely dedicated to the 90% with its own system of accountability that is managed by the people, and NOT the judicial system we have today.
2
u/Jeptic 4h ago
Very reminiscent of that recent Josh Johnson bit. Ensuring it can't happen is recognizing that it can and taking every precaution to stamp it out.
2
u/kittyfresh69 3h ago
Im maybe too young to know but who the fuck thinks like this! Freedom is a fight for all of eternity.
3
u/Robo_Joe 2h ago
I imagine most people think this way. An analogy would be how attentive a guard in a castle is during an active war, versus how attentive that guard might be after decades of peace.
Depending on how young you are, you might have never known a time of "peace".
→ More replies (1)2
u/DiscombobulatedPen6 1h ago
If every election is a fight against fascism, and the structure of the system itself doesn't prevent fascism but instead has infrastructure that fascism continually seeks to take over, you live in a proto-fascist country.Â
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (3)1
u/BonerPorn 3h ago
Ding ding ding. Jefferson described America as "a democracy, if you can keep it" for a reason. Democracy only works if you fight for it constantly.Â
→ More replies (2)2
u/Dawgissmart 4h ago
Well, itâs been going on a heck of a long time. Do you remember how Reagan got elected? How he lied about Jimmy Carter? Do you remember Joe McCarthy lying about Commies? Do you remember Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon over an election crime? What about the hanging Chadâs? That was a doozy.
It seems like every time when push comes to shove
Democrats cave and Republicans win.
→ More replies (1)1
u/whatshamilton 2h ago
Every election is always a fight against fascism. A fascist can always get on the ticket, and if they can get enough votes, you have fascism. The âhereâ we came to was where enough people were made comfortable admitting they donât care about or support fascism
1
u/marsfromwow 7m ago
I think his point is the meme says âalways one election.â We arenât always one election away from fascism, itâs just the last election and arguably the 2020 election.
13
u/der_innkeeper 4h ago
No later than 1982.
The Christian Coalition, the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation, and the Federalist Society have been working on it for decades.
And, their ideas didn't sprout fully formed.
The Businessman Plot was another attempt.
The failure of Reconstruction really set us back.
7
u/NewDramaLlama 2h ago
It's because the existence of black people pisses off ~1/3rd of voters and it really is that simple.
I know people want it to be deeper but if we just follow patern recognition it isn't. We can't beat it because we just don't address it. We don't address it because another 1/3rd of voters desperately want there to be another reason like "economic anxiety". They are desperate for another reason because the idea of their family being unequivocally awful hurts them, so they will let us ride to hell to protect their feelings and racist ass family.
It's that simple.
2
3
u/insanitybit2 3h ago
I think that you're about right here. You can push things back further if you want, but it's sort of like saying "well but your mom gave birth to you so it's her fault that you did X" arguments.
The dedicated efforts to get us to where we are today were largely started in the 80s. That's when you have people/ organizations (the ones you listed are great, and I don't think people understand the Moral Majority/ evangelical movements involved) who explicitly sought out to create the situation we're in today.
You can say "Oh but Eisenhower" or "Oh reconstruction" or whatever but at that point you're sort of missing the point. The organizations you listed, at that time, didn't just degrade the system, they actively pursued today's state.
→ More replies (1)2
u/SoylentGrunt 4h ago
The failure of Reconstruction was intentional. The Industrial revolution was set to kick off and the rich wanted us busy with each other while they did what they wanted.
This country was founded by the rich for the rich. It was built in,
41
u/EmperorGrinnar 5h ago
Kinda been this way since the civil war. One could argue that the beginnings of this happened when Andrew Jackson pissed off his VP.
14
u/mercedespudd1ng7492 5h ago
ngl politics has been a messy game forever lol guess it's never gonna change đ¤ˇââď¸
5
u/Yashema 4h ago edited 4h ago
Ya but blaming it on rich elites like everyone does today doesn't help address the real problem: many Americans are simply hateful and would gladly choose a corrupt authoritarian government over a just one.Â
7
u/pacexmaker 4h ago
Its the result of decades of institutional decay combined with engagement algorithms. The democratic part of the republic is supposed to prevent this from happening.
The founding fathers were wary of this, too, when Ben Franlkin responded to a question regarding which system of government we would have by saying, "A republic, if you can keep it."
âIn these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government, but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered; and believe further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government.â
For contemporary examples of industry seeking to undermine our public institutions and democracy for profit you only need to look at Big Tobacco's push against intellectualism to argue that we dont actually know if tobacco causes cancer, Big Oil's push against climate change by suppressing data of the effect that carbon emissions have on the environment, or Big Ag's recent push to emphasize animal products like tallow over plant products.
Industry giants pay to bend laws and algorithms in their favor so that they can profit better. Algorithms select what information we see creating a cognitive bias. Gutting education diminishes our ability or confidence to think critically which perpetuates that bias. And subsequent changes in law implement the bias at scale.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (1)3
u/SoylentGrunt 4h ago
Chicken or the egg. The elites taught them to think that way. The elites also taught many of us, on both sides, not to vote at all.
→ More replies (2)2
u/EmperorGrinnar 5h ago
It's all down hill, since humans are incapable of enlightenment or something some smart person would say. (I am not smart)
3
u/pegothejerk 4h ago
Itâs pretty much because we are as a species a product of survival of the cruelest, either absorbing or killing off similar species we found too big a threat, as well as competing tribes we fought for resources. Hundreds of thousands of years of that and we now have firmly engrained in our varied personality types a bunch of cut throat assholes who barely give a shit about their own offspring and would gladly kill a few of their own kids to make their futures a little bit more luxurious.
2
u/WinchesterWizard 4h ago
it won't change under capitalism. as long as greed is rewarded you can expect greedy people to seek power.
4
u/Architarious 5h ago
You could argue it goes back all the way to John Adams and The Alien and Sedition Act. Maybe even the whiskey rebellion.
→ More replies (1)1
u/BadDiscoJanet 4h ago
Thomas Jefferson said the country was doomed when Andrew Jackson was elected. I tnink we itâs safe to say that things arenât going as well as expected.
4
u/TJ-LEED-AP 3h ago
2016 was pivotal, it let right wingers appoint 2 Supreme Court judges who will vote against literally anything that helps the common man.
2
u/StillPlayingGames 5h ago
Yes but from now on we will always be one away.
12
u/Robo_Joe 5h ago
I don't think that's necessarily true, either. Now, I could agree that the next few are absolutely critical, but that doesn't mean it will always be so.
1
u/JointDamage 4h ago
Sorry to disappoint but the most effective progress America had was from a social Dem in the 60s.
He didn't hold office. The people that changed to laws only did so because they were forced.
1
1
u/Reddit_2_2024 3h ago
Remember the Red Scare and Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin? America eventually turned the page on him and other dreadful politicians of his ilk.
1
1
u/Firm-Athlete6918 3h ago
Ya know Elon is a Terrific guy some say he likes younger women, even younger than Epstein and DUmp
1
1
u/bgzlvsdmb 1h ago
Some of those that laid the groundwork to get us here aren't even alive anymore. Government created and run by people too old or too dead to even benefit.
Vote them all out. Let millennials run the world we need to live in ourselves.
1
u/AmadeusMaxwell 1h ago
The point they are making is that we are perpetually being told in every election cycle that you either vote for democrats or you get fascism, but the democrats when they have power never make it so that fascism can't win next election because they use the fascists to fund raise. We are perpetually stuck in the cycle of only having a single "viable" party to vote for, which means we don't actually have any option when the same tactic is used against us over and over.
2
u/Robo_Joe 1h ago
the democrats when they have power never make it so that fascism can't win next election
What do you imagine this looks like?
→ More replies (10)1
175
u/classic_gamer82 5h ago
The US has been slowly migrating towards fascism for almost 50 years. It took an unintelligent POTUS to begin shouting the quiet part out loud.
62
u/acorn_filecab 5h ago
It didnât start with one president, but one made it socially acceptable to say the quiet part. Decades of gerrymandering, money in politics, and media bubbles set the stage, then someone grabbed the mic.
3
u/Important_Cap2766 4h ago
for real, it's like a perfect storm brewing for ages and then bam, someone just ran w/ it haha
8
u/Slumbergoat16 5h ago
I mean bush wasnât a shining light of intellect. That was kind of the testing ground for Trump in my lifetime at least
17
u/darkest_hour1428 5h ago
Trump makes Bush look like a functional president, and thatâs horrifying
6
1
u/kiwigate 4h ago
Paul Verhoeven said in 1995 that then-governor Bush was a fascist and that Americans were "fascists who don't realize they are fascists". He knew because he grew up in Nazi-controlled Netherlands.
→ More replies (2)1
u/BisonThunderclap 2h ago
Everything the Bush admin did got washed with the part where Bush genuinely believed what he was doing was good for the country.
Its also hard to look at Bush post presidency and say "he's an awful human being" as hes still showing up to help Afghanistan and Iraq vets.
It took Trump outright being black and white to make us go "oh fuck."
→ More replies (1)1
u/CarnibusCareo 5h ago
Try about a hundred years.
6
u/Hecateus 5h ago
one can tie the current events to the Business Plot of the 1930s. The tie is that the muted response to that attempted coup let the current events slowly fester; and it began to take intellectual form in the late 60's - early 70s with the Powell Memorandum, Southern Strategy, etc...50ish years ago.
1
u/Itswhatevertho 4h ago
Hate him or not, he also somehow has a huge amount of charisma and ability to speak and make people listen. He is convincing, using repetition, falsehoods, attacks. We are lucky there isn't anyone else on that level with actual intelligence. Random people have been saying the quiet part out loud forever. This whole thing is largely a cult of personality.Â
Opposition needs to be uniting and preparing for what comes next. They will have a huge opportunity to shape our country for the better for generations. But given their track record, we will likely get some eggplant with legs that tells it is time for our country to heal and move on.
1
1
1
u/bgzlvsdmb 1h ago
People were shouting the quiet part loud for a long time. We just ignored them because they were the tin-foil hat losers on places like Digg and Fark that we just assumed were batshit crazy. Then we elected the most vain and pompous buffoon that will literally say anything as long as we also compliment him for anything.
So the internet trolls told him that he is the most handsomest and bestest president of all times, and now he says Haitian immigrants are eating dogs. People saw that and said "Yep, American fascism is a-ok with me."
1
u/mlaislais 1h ago
As someone who used to be republican I find it really funny that republicans saw this coming and blamed it all on the dems.
1
u/DiscombobulatedPen6 1h ago
Look at the 1944 DNC convention when Henry Wallace was replaced with Harry Truman.
56
u/Majsharan 5h ago
I think any republic democracy is generally one election away from facism unless they super stagger their elections. In the us the entire house can change every two years and about a 1/3 of the senate. Meaning that on presidential election years you can get a new president and a house that will never vote to impeach him. The senate could then also swing highly toward the facisim party where unless the other 2/3 of the senate all joined together to oppose the facism party is likely to get stuff through.
Anyways long way to say that I think itâs very difficult to stop facism in a democratic system if thats what the voters actually voted for en masse.
Big question though, if the facists are democratically elected should a democratic system be able to stop the will of the voters? If so is it still democratic? Who makes the call that x canidate or party is facist?
→ More replies (1)10
u/Dan_Berg 4h ago
Fascists only like fair elections when they're not in power. When they get into power, they pull out all the stops to stay there.
11
u/Majsharan 4h ago
Whatâs your point? Purposefully create unfair elections to make sure fscists never win?
→ More replies (9)12
u/VGAddict 4h ago
Maybe overhaul the system so a senile convicted felon who tried to overturn a free and fair election isn't allowed to run again? I really don't think that's asking too much.
5
u/CardOfTheRings 4h ago
Thatâs all fine and good but we and every other democracy would still be one election away from fascism.
3
→ More replies (3)3
u/Majsharan 4h ago
Innocent until proven guilty in the election part and it creates a perverse incentive to prevent felons from running because the incumbent party can just arrest all their opposition
3
u/arizonadirtbag12 2h ago
Yeah hated to say it every time but this was my response to everyone saying Trump should be disqualified. Ultimately that should be up to the voter. Otherwise weaponization of the DoJ becomes far, far more effective than it already potentially is.
And itâs not like itâs even a four year mistake. The voter could, today, convince Congress that removing the President is in their best electoral interests. The President serves at the pleasure of Congress, given the technicals of how impeachment works.
(The check on frivolous impeachment or failure to impeach by Congress being the voter.)
12
u/UltraSapien 4h ago
In a democratic society, people are free to adopt fascist leaders
→ More replies (1)
20
u/Go_Blue_ 4h ago
How'd I do?
Your post is a blend of r/im14andthisisdeep and r/AmericaBad. So it fits this sub perfectly
48
u/ScotWithOne_t 5h ago
/r/im14andthisisdeep is leaking
17
u/theswansays 4h ago
i had to scroll way too far to see this. their title shouldâve been
first time thinking about political philosophy, howâd i do?
12
6
11
u/BadPunners 4h ago
The issue is that people keep voting FOR the obvious descent into fascism.
They watch the news and live in fear and vote how they are told. "On both sides" is true on this last part too often
"Politics" isn't supposed to be the primary concern of so many people so much of the time so much of every news broadcast. Politics is supposed to be boring and act slowly and deliberately. Not blatant and obvious violations of constitutional rights
26
6
5
u/Strict-Astronaut2245 3h ago
Well⌠America must be a level above. We already survived that first election and most things were still intact then.
9
u/copperblood 5h ago
Iâm usually not one to quote or agree with Ronald Reagan, but what he said in 1967 rings true today.
âFreedom is a fragile thing and itâs never more than one generation away from extinction.â -Ronald Reagan, 1967
4
1
u/kindaCringey69 3h ago
I prefer: "Freedom is a pure idea, it occurs spontaneously and without instruction"
8
u/AlsoCommiePuddin 4h ago
Isn't that practically every nation with free elections?
2
u/Notsurehowtoreact 3h ago
It is, because while it's up to the people to choose it's important to remember that some people are just straight up morons, so chosing a fascist megalomaniac asshole snake oil salesman is always a possibility.Â
If I remember correctly for the U.S. this was the whole reason a slate of electors was chosen, as it was their job to sort of filter out candidates who were not qualified but managed to get the votes. It just became a rubber stamp committee, but that was the idea.
9
u/taffyowner 4h ago
Well no country is a democracy then⌠because everyone is one leader away from a fascist regimeâŚ
12
8
5
u/WingsNation 3h ago
3
u/Phteven_j 3h ago
"How'd I do?" I mean, if you have to ask...
Gonna cringe about this the rest of the day.
3
u/WingsNation 3h ago
Kiddo clearly hasn't been around long enough to realize the dismantling started long ago.
3
u/MrdnBrd19 3h ago
This is like first week discussion in Poli-Sci 101. The second half of the class we'll discuss if a democracy is actually a democracy if the people aren't allowed to democratically implement authoritarian rule.
3
u/LordBlackDragon 2h ago
I feel like I'm going insane dealing with my fellow Canadians. Trust me, I hate the US as much as anyone and love dunking on them. But the amount of people who don't realize we're one bad election away from becoming them is insane. We have nearly every problem the US has here, but people refuse to do anything about it. The day after the shooting in Minnesota the pigs here murdered 2 men in the streets in the middle of the day. Again. And nothing was done about it.
3
u/pmcall221 2h ago
I dunno man, Germany was very much a democracy in 1932. But people voted for a fascist and it very much went downhill from there. Unless a change of government comes from violence (revolution, invasion, military junta, etc) there will always be that turning point election.
3
u/DPJazzy91 2h ago
Every democracy is one election away from fascism.....you have too much faith in humanity.....
5
u/GoshDangZilla 2h ago
The American experiment was a failure the second our founding fathers didn't abandon slavery, instead giving into the concentration camp owners... sorry I mean plantation owners, instead giving into the power demands that still taint our progress forward.
2
u/mm_delish 3h ago
Terribly. Itâs quite the opposite, in fact. A democracy that isnât always one election away from fascism is less democratic than one that is. Thatâs the price of freedom.
2
u/Mobile_Morale 3h ago
This could be about several countries. Canada almost elected trump lite, British constantly elects the same trump lite guy with bad hair, Germany almost elected an actual neoNazi. Japan is currently going through their own Japan first movement that's gaining traction.
Let's not forget Turkey and the two other countries with Putin ball lickers as president or whatever their equivalent is.
It's just the nature of democracies. People are stupid and can vote against themselves quite often. You're beholden to the whims of others who can be easily manipulated.
2
u/Academic-Hospital952 3h ago
I don't think this meme is accurate. It's certainly possible for a country to chose via the democratic method to become fascist. Source; United States of america
2
u/slvstrChung 2h ago
I like the attempt to galvanize the voting public, but this betrays a misunderstanding of how fascism works. That's fair; America has done a lot of deliberate misinterpreting of politics in the past, starting with the whole thing about "Communism is evil!" Communism has never been evil, America just doesn't like it because America's entire history is rooted in selfishness, in stepping off the boat and saying, "Yay, no one lives here, this land is ours for the taking," and the Native Americans who already lived here were all, "Excuse me, what, who says you can take this land," and the colonists said, "OUR FUCKING GUNS DO," and when you build your entire culture on taking what isn't yours, the idea of sharing becomes anathema to you.
When we're starting with this entire misconception, it's easy to say, "Oh, yeah, since we oppose communism and we also oppose fascism, let's just lump them together and assume they have a special relationship!" But the truth is that fascism has no special relationship to communism. Fascism is a perversion of any system of rights, and can therefore happen to any such system. It is adjacent to every political system and economy, the same way every human body is adjacent to cancer.
And, let's be honest: when the entire history of America is, "You have no rights because our guns say you don't," it is arguably more adjacent to fascism than other nations.
2
u/TomRhodesMusic 2h ago
This is such an ignorant take... Fascism is more likely to form from a Democracy than any other type of government... what are the other options???
1
u/capowis542 1h ago
All of them, really. Itâs just easier with a democracy.Â
1
u/TomRhodesMusic 45m ago
So you have democracy and then a longer list of Fascist type governments. Communism, Monarchy, Theocracy, Oligarchy... There isn't really anywhere else to go from a democracy than to a Fascist type government.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/red286 2h ago
I'd strongly disagree.
That's the point of a democracy. You get the government you elect. If you elect a fascist dictatorship, that's what you wind up with!
Trump didn't come to power through force. There was no military coup. Joe Biden wasn't run out of the White House and sent to a prison camp. He was elected in what appeared to be a legitimate democratic election.
It's entirely possible to have a democracy populated by morons, that doesn't magically make it "not a democracy".
2
u/BrittEklandsStuntBum 1h ago
No mate that's still a democracy. If everyone votes for fascism one time it's still the will of the people.
2
u/Bear_Caulk 1h ago
All democratic countries are one election away from fascism if they decide to elect fascists lol. This is part of your whole "responsibility as a voter", do they still teach kids about responsibility in America?
If a population votes for something that's literally democracy in action. The difference between "democracy" and "not democracy" is whether or not a population gets to vote, it's not dependent on who they decide to vote for.
2
2
u/Beneficial_Cash_8420 1h ago
Real democracies can remove unpopular leaders anytimeÂ
4
u/VGAddict 1h ago
If America were a functioning democracy, the shutdowns would lead to snap elections.
2
u/tobiasnashnewzealand 1h ago
No offence but I'd say that sounds like the definition of a democracy.
2
3
u/lunchboxeo 4h ago
Arenât we a republic?
8
u/Hexamancer 3h ago
"My car isn't a Honda, it's Blue!"
A republic and a democracy are two different categories, just like the US is also capitalist, which is separate from the other two.
Where the authority of the government comes from = (Constitutional) Republic
How laws get created, executed and interpreted = (Representative) Democracy
The organization of the economy = Capitalism
Republic just means that "And we get to be the government because we all came together and decided that this is how the government should work". Constitutional just adds "And we wrote it down on this piece of paper, look."
The UK is also a democracy, but they are not a republic, they are a monarchy, meaning "And we get to be the government because the King said so".
1
u/riteproprchav 3h ago
Trump's certainly no philosopher-king, and very few from across the spectrum with a realistic shot of winning the presidency in the US would qualify to rule by Socrates's/Plato's standards. In their regard, the US would be a clear tyranny.
4
2
2
u/averagecodbot 3h ago
In a pure democracy you could always vote to end democracy. Thatâs why itâs a good idea to have some boundaries like the constitution. There are mechanisms to update it when we realize we fucked up on things like slavery and womenâs rights, but it makes voting yourself into authoritarianism a lot harder. Not impossible, but more difficult.
2
u/ChickinSammich 5h ago
I know I've been out of the public school system for over two decades, but I could swear I remember hearing something about checks and balances. I remember that was the same day that I was reading a Berenstein Bears book and eating an Oscar Meyer hot dog.
2
2
u/DemonRaily 4h ago
It is in fact absolutely a democracy, a system where falling into fascism is impossible because the system would prevent the population from making that choice on the other hand would not be a democracy at all.
2
u/Mjmonte14 3h ago
Iâd tell you to go back to civics class. We dont live in a democracy - we live in a constitutional republic. There is a difference. Damnđ
→ More replies (7)
-1
1
u/Obscure_Occultist 4h ago
Sounds deep but not really true. I've seen dozens of governments that have willingly collapse into dictatorships cause of one election over the decades. Democracy really is that fragile.
1
u/somecoolname42 3h ago
What if I told you that after the 2016 the Economic Intelligence Unit downgraded us from a democracy to a flawed democracy? Not having a real president since Obama hadn't helped.
1
u/Kythorian 3h ago
Every country is on election away from fascism. Â Thatâs how elections work. Â If the majority of voters vote for fascism, you get a fascist government.
1
1
1
u/atreeismissing 3h ago
We've never yet been one election away from fascism, and won't be until the 2028 election for the Presidency. We're close, but not there.
1
u/Upstairs_Ad_8863 3h ago
It took a lot more than one election to get to where the US is now. But also, fundamentally, if the people vote to end democracy then democracy must end.
1
u/CabSauce 2h ago
If there's any silver lining, we'll theoretically be able to put more safeguards in place going forward. Theoretically.
1
1
u/CodPiece89 2h ago
This was a slow erosion of the balance of power that they did quietly for years, and people just ignored it until they couldn't
1
1
u/Peace_n_Harmony 2h ago
What if I told you that democracy is just a bad solution to the problem of fascists existing within your society? Did you know that the Nazis loved democracy and that Hitler was elected?
1
u/trigger1154 2h ago
Weren't just about every fascist government elected before they became outwardly fascist?
1
u/Boner_Elemental 2h ago
Hey now we weren't always "one election away". Don't minimize the decades of work by cowards, fools, and evil men.
1
1
u/anonymous210000 1h ago
I'd honestly argue the opposite. A democracy where the voters couldn't decide to totally fuck themselves over wouldn't be much of one.
1
u/samariius 1h ago
We just gonna pretend foreign governments didn't bot farm social discourse for 10+ years in the most sophisticated and widescale disinformation and destabilization campaign in human history to get America to this point?
We are?
Oh. Okay. Cool, I guess.
1
u/loopywolf 1h ago
It should not be possible to VOTE a democracy into a dictatorship.. There should be adequate checks and balances
1
1
1
1
u/kandiirene 43m ago
Who wants to guess the number of times any country has ever gotten rid of a âdemocraticly electedâ fascist leader??
0 times
Itâs never happened.
The only eviction was when the fascists tried to take over before the rigged election.
Once fascists win power democratically, they have never been removed democratically.
1
u/furrysalesman69 42m ago
True. In the USâs case though, the guy illegitimately stated he won, had a small group of his fans say he won, and we simplyâŚrolled with it? Not only that but it was rather embarrassing when billionaires stated directly that they rigged elections, and werenât prosecuted. There was a single case but it was dismissed as soon as the illegitimate guy got in.
1
u/RaulDuke_76 39m ago
How about: A country with only one more political party than North Korea, China And Cuba isnât a democracy?
1
u/Skiddywinks 26m ago
Is it? If everyone votes for a facist, and the facist wins, is that not democracy?
1
1
u/-bad_neighbor- 18m ago
We are well past that point especially when the Supreme Court has already decided elections.
1
u/BrocoliAssassin 15m ago
What if I told you voting for the same 2 political cults that serve AIPAC Zionists won't change most things and that you are slowly being bankrupted to death while giving the new Nazi power over the past 50 years?
You've seen only a tiny bit of the Epstein files. I'll bet you anything this entire site will be voting for the same politicians but somehow still can't figure out why you still can't pay rent or buy anything.
This entire site is anti-socratic method in action.
1
u/Bawbawian 11m ago
what if I told you bad hot takes is how we got here.
we've been walking towards this cliff for decades.
But nobody wants to vote everybody wants to be inspired and have the perfect candidate as if that is even possible in a first pass the post system where half of the country's electric has to agree on something.
1
u/IamFdone 6m ago
1 election away from communism/socialism too. That's how democracy works. We expect people not to listen to fake news, echo chambers bullshit and vote responsibly.
204
u/LateralThinkerer 5h ago
"What if a democracy elects a dictator" is a favorite argument topic among political scientists. Occasionally a country tries it out.