I guess worry depends too on how good an empire is at coming into being. You can argue that the Russian special operation is pretty damn ineffective (relative to expectation) And less dangerous than if Putin was marching toward the Atlantic
My point is that I think authoritarianism is worse than liberal democracy, even when flawed. The trade of individual autonomy and democracy in exchange for promises of stability, progress, and equitable distribution of wealth is compelling for some that believe all the promises - but I don't believe in the intrinsic good of the State.
Liberal Democracy's hands aren't clean by any stretch, but there are mechanisms for recourse by citizens. Governments always think they know best, but authoritarian states have too much concentrated power.
That the trains run on time, or the DOW is over 50000, or quality of life for Hong Kong is better than Guangdong does not excuse state brutality and once power is concentrated, brutality by force and mental/social control efforts are inevitable.
Somehow these completely stupid acts grate more than the rational authoritarian corrupt BS that's going on in parallel. Like what moneyed interest even really wanted this change? Oil industry for the few extra cents per gallon in lost efficiency?Manufacturers might've save some money on design but the designs are done already.
I get the argument, but a lot of it relies on the law being applied universally. The SAVE act's most stringent requirements are for registration, which won't affect existing voters, unless .... the administration finds some way to purge voter rolls of legitimate voters who then have to re-register. This is partially why they're suing states for voter rolls - even trying to extort MN's with ICE.
In a blue wave year, Dems could make serious inroads into or even flip red states. The SAVE act would let red state politicians tip the scales with near impunity. Don't rely on the chance that it'll hurt their own too (or more) - assholes will use the Act to hurt you or your neighbor and it needs to be stopped
It's worth noting that everyday Dems often want very different things than the "leadership Dems" that are in power under corporate and foreign influence. I don't want vassals - a tiny silver lining of Trump is American hegemony in decline. Thats only a good if Authoritarians don't step into that gap. I hope EU can be the standard bearer and defender of liberal (as opposed to illiberal) democracy in the world until we get our shit together
I get it, we don't deserve trust. What would you look for to decide we can be trusted again though? I'm worried we'd need to rewrite the constitution to put in serious guardrails of some sort. Congress and Judiciary were supposed to be the guardrail, and they're failing pretty hard. What system can truly protect against bad actors with power?
I wonder if DOJ tried to Honeypot the Congress folks that went to see the files with false documents. We know their searches were monitored. I hate that I sound like a conspiracy theorist but I don't know what I'd put past these assholes
I think there's this assumption that the more centrist a dem is, the more electable they are and that may have been true decades ago. Now though? With how polarized the electorate is, people either vote for their party's candidate or the couch. Trump got roughly the same number of votes in 2024 (77M) as 2020( 74M) maybe he changed some minds; but Harris got 7M fewer votes than biden (81->74). People stayed home. "Not trump" wasn't enough to get excited about for enough folks, and that's about all Newsom has to offer
I genuinely believe Bernie is more electable than Newsom. We should give voters some credit
You're not wrong, but that generation has some wild variance in politics and leopards eat everyone's faces if you let them