Americans are exceptionally anxious about their political system, according to new international polling from Gallup, a situation that sets the country apart from other rich and powerful nations.
About one-third of Americans rated politics and government as the top issue facing their nation, behind only Taiwan — which faces the prospect of an invasion from China — and on par with Slovenia, Spain and South Korea.
The United States also stands out for the anxiety its younger residents have over economic issues, with younger Americans more likely than young adults in many of the other 107 surveyed countries to say affordability and other pocketbook issues are worrying them
I’m not sure “exceptionally anxious” is a sufficient enough term for an actual fascist takeover of our federal government.
I’d go with abject dread.
We will likely not have access to fair elections anymore. Our country is broken.
Yup.
We’re becoming Russia 2.0 and there’s a pretty slim chance of that not happening.
America was warned. America chose not to listen.
Actual fascists are in control of our federal government and under no circumstances do fascists allow fair elections. We’re most likely cooked unless something extreme happens.
Sit out the midterm elections. Let the fascists entrench themselves at the highest levels of govt. Sit out the presidential elections, fully knowing there is a fascist on the ticket not bound by convention, decorum, or restraint with previously proven tendencies to act out fascist agenda that he said he would enact. Let said fascist in office by inaction at the polls. Watch incredulously as he and previously elected fascists proceeds to do just that.
Oh, blame stupid dems.
The time to be concerned about the direction of the political system was November of 2024.
It’s quite literally too late to do anything about it now. If Trump wants to cancel elections, there will be much hand-wringing and finger-waggling while congress debates about the legality of such a thing in a committee to no avail and the courts slow-walk any kind of injunction that would preemptively prevent them from doing it before it actually mattered.
Why should any of us be surprised that the guy who tried to subvert democracy once before is brazenly and openly stating his desire to do so again? This result was so utterly predictable that I feel secondhand embarrassment for anybody just now getting anxious about the political system.
It’s not too late to do anything, but it’s too late to do it through political channels.
💯
Too late with these opposition politicians through political channels. Real leaders with organized citizenry and other actions could still take it.
It’s not just “the guy,” it’s the party. This has been thinly veiled since at least they stole the 2000 election. Right after they took that despite voter suppression, removing valid voters from rolls, understaffing democratic districts with defective machinery they may have sabotagaed on purpose,( ie not emptying the “hanging chads” from the container, the machine punched holes, didn’t work when bin full.) They also physically threw away ballots from Broward and Miami-Dade. Then they shipped a violent mob in to Miami to shut down the vote count.
Other stuff too, but all while the democrats did nothing outside of court. In court they hired the most high powered respected lawyers they could, that’s what they did in it’s entirity. No speeches about Voters Decide Elections Not Courts! Thundering from a pulpit. No denunciations of the underhanded tactics, dangers to our way of life, the arrogance of the steal. The didn’t ship in their own partisans to protect election workers, didn’t organize any protests to speak of.
They just let their valid concerns be fillibustered by the republicans, that ran out the clock, and threatened violence, and the latter is what won over Ruth Bader Ginsburg that crossed over and sided with the conservatives allowing them to run out the clock with bush up 500 votes or whatever it was, despite valid votes many times greater than that not counted because of the hanging chads, the hole punches not removed completely because the trays were not emptied and whatever else. They didn’t find the thrown out votes even as it was rumoured dumpsters were full of votes in some districts. There were a lot of votes that no reasonable person could argue shouldn’t be counted, that were lawfully cast with no fault of voters, that weren’t counted.
Ginsburg apparently crossed over after having been afraid of political violence, in general. So anwering the brooks brothers riots, even after the fact, could have changed everything. Organizing your own partisans to camp out with election officials, to protest, to call out anyone involved in the brooks brothers riots, could have prevented everything.
But they stole it, and right after started their Voter Integrity, Voter Fraud campaigns, accusing regular people of fake voting, and made laws demanding ID, demanding proofs of ID and citizenship and tools to remove voters from rolls before elections.
The president just commandeered the system, and made it so obvious in your face the democrats couldn’t well ignore it during election season at least. But none of this ends with him. They will be stealing elections unless they are stopped. We had stopped them in 2021 but decided not to, so everyone gave up fighting because we were doomed.
They own the voting machines now… https://abcnews.go.com/US/dominion-voting-systems-sold-company-run-former-republican/story?id=126378259
They have since 2001, at least. Diebold, who made the original computerized voting machines was owned by Dick Cheney.
😳
It’s almost like we’ve been watching the checks and balances we were taught would protect us from tyranny fall apart in front of our eyes to a frail, old, nincompoop.
Congress has basically conceded its power to a pedophile. Could that be why we’re so anxious? Or perhaps because the DOJ is allowing laws to be flagrantly violated in public with zero consequences as long as you are aligned with the pedophile and his goals?
Congress has basically conceded its power to a pedophile.
And to a bunch international mobsters relying on the motherfucker not only to have the US collapse on itself but also dismantle the embargoes and subpoenas aimed against them.
Country goes down, they’ll have a field day. Interpol would also become toothless as transnational crimes are no longer pressurized.
YA THINK?
Thats good. It means at least people are reading the moment well.
Yeah…. Finally. I mean, I felt like Jan 6 should have been a really big wakup, but wasn’t somehow
The right wing propaganda machine did such a good job at getting the “apolitical normies” and the otherwise politically nihilistic public to misconstrue the noise as just some left-right partisan debate, with all the buzz about just the rioters; while in the meantime Trump was working in the background at the same time, along with the likes of Rudy Giuliani, to deligitimize the 2020 election in a failed coup, and barely got any coverage. This was Trump’s Beer Hall Putsch
Are you suggesting the rightwing propaganda machine is what prevented Biden from arresting Trump on day one in office?
The only reason J6 was allowed to be effective was Biden.
No. That was a symptom of a controlled opposition party veiled in neo-liberalism running parallel with the right wing propaganda machine. Equally as complicit and treasonous.
Earnestly, the new Epstein dump makes me feel the whole thing was an Israeli psyop. My head is still spinning.
It is the american system. No american president will ever go to jail for crimes
The ratchet effect at work.
I feel like everyone paying attention was very awake that day.
The problem is the real winner in every election is “didn’t vote”. Fuck every single person that isn’t voting.
I continue to be floored that so many people didn’t seem to care about that - or even admit that it happened. I watched it live and it was genuinely insane. Like, “oh fuck, this is looking a whole fucking lot like a coup, I wonder if we’ll be a democracy tomorrow” insane.
You mean the one currently spiraling into “murdering citizens in the street”-level fascism?
If ONLY there was SOME way to Have Known TRUMP would do Things like this during his SECOND TERM AS PRESIDENT!
The actual problem is far bigger than Trump; It’s the corporate duopoly masquerading as a democracy that created the conditions necessary for the rise of Trump and the MAGA movement in the first place.
It’s bigger, still - the underlying problem is capitalism. Even if we reform the entire electoral system but remain capitalist the problem will reoccur.
Trump is only the puppet of some ultra-right-wing forces behind him in cooperation with tech-oligarchs seeking to take over power.
Like direct, documented quotes or something pants-crappingly (relevant pun intended) obvious like that? What a world it would be if we had such things and a general population WHO COULD READ THEM
Us non-American are also very anxious about America’s political system. Y’all have too many bombs and not enough i.q. points.
I can see how it’s scary for people. No one wants to believe that their state or country is a battleground. It’s easy to say hey you all got guns get civil warring from the outside. As a person where do you step in? Where’s the line?
- When it affects your moral outrage?
- When the politicians corruption and/or perverse behaviours are brazenly being displayed?
- When it affects your disposable income?
- When your fav barista disappears?
- When you see your fellow citizen being executed on the street?
For most of the modern Western world I’m gonna say we are post third point. USA has demonstrated it ramps up quick and a vast majority are tolerating it.
For me you got #2 and #3 mixed. I got financially affected before the outrageous and brazen display of fuckery some have adopted in Europe. That or my perception has been recently altered.
Our countries are not safe from falling into facism eirher
The rise of One Nation in Australia is concerning.
This could be the most significant constitutional crisis in American history (outside the civil war lol) but the constitution is in fact very strong and that’s why America has 250 years of legal continuity
Imagine 200 more years of successful EU integration and that’s essentially what America is so there’s a 99% chance it’s not going to collapse or something
But it will be a difficult and desperate and deadly fight but do not fall for the doomerist propaganda everyone needs to get out and help in some way and especially vote because Republicans always lose when people simply go out and vote
Dude they’re literally saying the last Democrat wins were rigged, Trump is talking about nationalizing elections, Bannon wants ICE surrounding the polls…
What are you smoking? If you don’t want to do anything right now, fine. But don’t insult people’s intelligence by pretending anything resembling a normal election is going to happen. Not as long as they are in power.
Yet the democrats just won those elections anyway
You are literally smoking the doomerist propaganda
It’s not going to be normal but neither were the bomb threats in the last election so stop the hysteria it doesn’t help your own cause and it’s the exact reaction they’re hoping you have
Democrats are part of the problem. They did nothing to prevent fascism, they only furthered it. They serve the same elite pedophile ruling class. Come on, we need everyone together to realize this so we can stop them.
Just look at this thread. Looks like most people are still in complete denial.
They called climate activists doomers as well. Just wait until the next strong el nino for all the shocked pikachu faces coming out of the woodwork.
I fucking hate humanity, as a whole. But I suppose it’s the way we’re built, people are just reacting emotionally without using their brains.
We should be fearful that this might happen, but it shouldn’t be taken as a foregone conclusion. Something like that might happen, which only means we should be prepared for it
Going to happen. The president is calling for his party to take over and “nationalize” the voting system and bannon is planning to have ice surrounding polls.
This. Exactly this. Honestly might drop Lemmy until December with all the doomerism here. My OCD can’t take it
What exactly do you find doomerist. Honestly trying to understand what is clouding the judgements of so many people.
Are you willing to tell me what you think is going to happen then? Or you haven’t gone that far and “nuh uh” is all there is?
I think whatever they’ll try won’t work. They’ll be too incompetent and meet too much resistance to pull it off
You’re hopelessly naive, and this attitude is exactly why if fascism and capitalism don’t kill most of us first, climate change will eventually
Eh, I give the US a solid 40% chance that it won’t collapse within the next 50 years.
Well, then so many of them shouldn’t have voted for it.
We have every reason to be. Anyone who can volunteer, should.
Volunteer to do what? Outside of killing ICE, I’m not sure what to do.
Local rapid response networks exist to help intimidate ICE whenever they appear. Local soup kitchens and other similar charitable organizations can use your help, as the people who are most often targeted by this administration are those who are already poor.
Go to local meetings any time someone proposes legislation that harms marginalized people, expands surveillance measures (e.g. ALPRs), or alters the favor of elections towards the far right, and make your voice heard. You can also comment on regulations.gov whenever certain legislation is put out, and your state legislature should have a way to contact your reps there, too. Our representatives aren’t fully beholden to us, but they’re known to cave under public pressure, and every little bit of pressure helps.
Donate to organizations that slow down the effort of the administration, like the ACLU, or more specific ones for any given issue (e.g. the FFRF for religion-related fascist policy prevention, the EFF and Fight For the Future for digital rights and surveillance, Climate Defiance for both climate and general political activism that disrupts bad politicians and billionaires where they live and work, the Internet Archive for archiving information the administration tries to take down, etc)
You can also just go to nearby protests. Check out 50501 and Mobilize for a lot of more common ones you can expect to find a lot of people at, but also just figure out other local groups in your area that might be holding events, marches, protests, boycotts, etc.
Speaking of that, boycott businesses that support the regime when you can. Boycott Here, BDS Movement, Boycott Citizens are all good resources, and there are always more targeted campaigns like QuitGPT.
Do mutual aid for your neighbors who need it, get a whistle you can use if ICE shows up near you (remember, 3 long blows is ICE nearby, long blows is ICE detaining. If you hear whistling from someone else, get out there, record, and use your own whistle to make sure others do the same!), canvass/phonebank for local candidates, or even candidates in other cities/states, to get local policies implemented to make your communities more safe. Progressive Victory is great for that. (though it does require you using Discord)
Outside of that, you can always show up to your local ICE facility and just generally be a nuisance. They hate that shit ;)
Volunteer during the election (to your capacity), esp your local polling places. Volunteer in any way you feel the call to action.
What should you do to masked, armed invaders kidnapping people off the streets who are sent to concentration centers in countries they are not from?
The average American commuter is too self-centered to bother voting, and NOW they’re “anxious?”
Too late, Dipshits. You chose fascism.
America ended when citizens united passed, if not farther back. Blaming the voters is facile. If you need facile things, by all means.
Always shift blaming. The system is so trash that a ton of people no longer care. Irresponsible voters are the worst people
Election participation in US is on similar level to European countries. The turnout is even similar to countries with mandatory voting. Americans do vote, that’s no the problem. The problem is that the system is archaic, was shitty to begin with and over time was abused and rigged beyond repair. The problem is that propaganda replaced education long time ago.
I’m my opinion the last time to fix it and save the country was after the civil war. If people recognized back then that system incapable of protecting basic human rights is useless and reformed it properly USA would be a totally different country right now. They didn’t and since then it’s collapse was just a matter of time.
The problem is that one side has a higher turnout than the other.
Take Texas for example. There are ~1.5 million more registered Democrats than Republicans. And no, gerrymandering isn’t the reason.
