What's happening to the world and why it doesn't matter who the Dem nominee will be.

[LAS14]

Last night I saw an interview with Eric Levitz about trust.* The big thing that's happening is that masses of people, for whatever reason, have lost their faith in institutions. As he or the interviewer observed, democracy can't work without some trust in institutions. Some sense that basically people try to do the right thing, try to make things work. Sure, sometimes institutions need correcting... but you get the idea.

For reasons that I don't understand, the whole world is undergoing this shift. No institutionalist, like Biden, can fight this, as far as I can see.

I find this very depressing, of course, but I'm glad to get some clarity about why the inexplicable is actually explicable.

This doesn't, of course, mean that the cynics will win the 2024 election. We still have a fighting chance. And fight we must.

* Sorry, I just couldn't find the interview. I fast forwarded through The Newshour and Chris Hayes twice, no luck. I THINK those were the only news shows I watched. Google him to get more of his thinking.

[global1]

1. Tr**p Has Done More To Undermine The Trust Of Our Institutions With An....

assist by the elected Repugs; SCOTUS and Fox News.

I don't know how you can undo the harm they brought down on our democracy.

I pray that sometime before the Nov Election that Tr**p is held accountable and a sizable number of Americans will come to their senses and vote for the guy with character - Joe Biden.

I see him as our only hope to crawl us out of this hole that Tr**p has put us in.

[onecaliberal]

2. With help from DOJ doing nothing.

[Marcus IM]

3. Social media owned and run by libertarian sociopaths.

They are inculcating sociopathy to the point that people just want burn it all down without regard for the outcome. Perfect tools for oligarchical control.

They are doing a good job destroying reason with their addictive wrecking balls.

[Ponietz]

4. Restating the obvious here -- Corporations are people and money is speech

They dominate and manipulate all public policy to their short term advantage and to the detriment of the earth and to common people. How can any sane person trust in that?

[Qutzupalotl]

5. Authoritarians like Xi and Putin have an interest in making democracy seem unworkable,

in pointing out its flaws and slowness to act. They have the means to influence millions of Americans through social media and fake news sites. The result being that people long for a dictator who can issue a decree to solve any problem quickly, Constitution be damned.

Putin in particular weights the scales in favor of people electing autocrats around the world. If there are more autocrats, democracy appears quaint, almost anachronistic. And NATO gets that much weaker. We now have to explicitly say fascists and Nazis are bad, whereas formerly it was a given.

[Moostache]

6. Some causes to your observed effects...

Institution #1 - NATO
Cause of loss of faith? Donald Trump and his idiotic bleating about "paying fair share" as if NATO was sending invoices to delinquent members, like its a country club. The fundamental disinformation and mudding was carried out by one man and his insane lust for power to avoid accountability for his criminal past.

Institution #2 - United States Supreme (Kangaroo) Court and Imperial Presidency Ambitions
Roe was just the tip of the iceberg...so was Cavanaugh, Barrett hearings and confirmations, the Gorsuch seat theft...the current insanity of allowing Trump to assert a new, unthinkable "right" of total immunity for the President as if the position were an actual monarchy or dictatorship already (instead of appearing to slide into one)

Institution #3 - United States Supreme (Kangaroo) Court and Justice's conflict of interest
Alito and the flags. Thomas and the donor's sweet, sweet cash. Barrett and the religious nut-baggery. Roberts and his flaccid, ineffectual leadership of the court through the worst epoch of its existence. You name it and the facts point to one thing on SCOTUS...it is a mockery of the founder's intent for a functional representative republic.

Banks? greedy thieves and pawns of the REAL criminals - Private Equity firms...
Progressive taxation concept? MY TAXES (from the middle class) rose SIGNIFICANTLY under Trump's BS...the top 0.01%? They pay far, far less and that means less for everyone else in terms of effective government services and responses.

Women's rights?
Minority rights?

Take just two more examples of the craven duplicity of the modern GOP - student loan crisis and the immigration system and border security issue. Proposals to address BOTH of them have been habitually torpedoed by the GOP, overtly and loudly...yet the public in the USA wants to blame...Biden? It is as if the population has been overrun by imbecilic infants who are wondering where the promised "Infrastructure Week" and "Best Health Care" are going to be delivered from Trump's constant unrequited claims for some reason, and because of it, they refuse to engage with reality.

These same issues are prevalent around the world because our modern age has turned the world into a very small, very instantaneous place - and propaganda, like lies, can travel the world before the truth gets its shoes on. Greed, hypocrisy and wealth worship as an end in and of itself are also to blame.

On the flipside, the Democrats are running campaigns for generations past and election cycles gone by...this is not a time for timidity or hesitancy or measured control...the world is screaming and bleating and running around with hair aflame and rationality cowering under a blanket in the corner. Its time to scream back "SHUT UP!!!!!" and call them out on the BS...pick 5 topics and ONLY 5 and hammer the ever loving fuck out of ANYONE and EVERYONE who dares to challenge you. This is the Trump/Trump-World approach, adapted from fascists and modern media and traditional projectionism and hopped up on steroids and as addictive as Fentanyl.

1) Trump LIES. Delineate them all if necessary, but its enough to develop a primer and attach it to everything he says - such as a disclaimer that as soon as he claims to have been addressed as "Sir..." by ANYONE, its a lie. Beat him over the head with his own false statements....over and over and over and over again. Drown out his bleating bullshit with his own lies, on every outlet, format and opportunity. FIGHT BACK HARDER and HIT MORE VICIOUSLY. You don't win a gun fight with a finger wag or a butter knife.
2) Trump actual statements and lack of legislative accomplishment 2017-2021
3) COVID-19 was NOT a giant hoax and MILLIONS DIED BECUASE OF TRUMP and BS in the media to garner attention
4) Inflation was NOT the result of a Biden plot to steal money from the poor
5) Infrastructure week happened under Biden and is in effect NOW.

[bamagal62]

7. Putting Trump in jail would

be a start down the right path....