EPA says it will eliminate its scientific reseach arm

> If Dems don't try to do something about to represent 50% of the country that is panicking then they're complicit.

Uh. What are they supposed to do with a Republican trifecta? Do you mean "win votes in future elections so they can govern?"

> the unintellectual border-line savage illiterates fulfill their chaotic fantasies that you truly do get a backward bumble fuck country

it's ok if you don't have energy to understand otherwise rn, but please know that there's more to it than this. to understand is the only way out that's not total war.

and yes, i'm angry too.

> it’s objectively done better than all other known systems (in longevity and impact)

I think the US is probably the country which has had the greatest positive impact on the world in the last 150 years (purely a personal opinion). But even so, we’ve only been around like 300 years total. It’s crazy to say that we have _objectively_ had the biggest and longest impact, when there are civilizations that existed for so much longer, and which made massive contributions to the world.

People who keep parroting this take are the most hypocritical bunch I have ever seen. Because if the premise is true then when these institutions existed then those were also voted by taxpayers to exist, right? But that time these “taxpayers” made noise about how government can’t be trusted and majority is muzzling their right of speech and first amendment etc etc. Now they when they are in the majority they turn around and say stuff like majority rules, government can be trusted etc.

And I know people like to play both sides so let me add. The big government hoopla exists only on one side.

The taxpayer was lied to repeatedly and under the belief of many many many lies, unwittingly voted to get rid of it.

Do we have real proof that a sizeable portion of Americans believe in the secret lizard people thing? Best I could find:

https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/...

"Do you believe that shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate our societies, or not?"

11% said yes or were unsure.

That's from 2013, so I can't even begin to imagine what a poll from today would look like.

I think the original sin of this political era is the Citizen United ruling that money is free speech and corporations are persons.

Well, that leads to another narrative trick called “see these are examples of how big government doesn’t work and the other side asking for increased government and hospitals are socialist and going to waste your tax dollars or give to freeloaders like immigrants etc”. Destroy government based support, blame it as failure of government, rinse and repeat.

> Let’s see how the rural poor feel when their hospital closes, they can’t get medicaid [...]

There's been research on that [1]. They become even more likely to vote Republican. Here's the abstract:

> Who do citizens hold responsible for outcomes and experiences? Hundreds of rural hospitals have closed or significantly reduced their capacity since just 2010, leaving much of the rural U.S. without access to emergency health care. I use data on rural hospital closures from 2008 to 2020 to explore where and why hospital closures occurred as well as who–if anyone–rural voters held responsible for local closures. Despite closures being over twice as likely to occur in the Republican-controlled states that did not expand Medicaid, closures were associated with reduced support for federal Democrats and the Affordable Care Act following local closures. I show that rural voters who lost hospitals were roughly 5–10 percentage points more likely to vote Republican in subsequent presidential elections. If anything state Republicans seemed to benefit in rural areas from rejecting Medicaid and resulting rural health woes following the passage of the ACA. These results have important implications for population health and political accountability in the U.S.

[1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-024-10000-8

The trend you described has been going on since Reagan, and the "rural poor" haven't budged. I have no expectation that attitudes will change in Rural America, not matter how bad things get.

See step one. The hospitals closed and Medicaid had to be gutted because of illegal immigrants. Nothing to be done about it now.

These are the reasons many voted for Trump. His ability to tear down American institutions is a direct result of the apathy born out of decades of successful corporate corruption, or lobbying, if you prefer, that we failed to stop democratically.

But it is wrong to think all American generations before ours didn't have to fight. The lie is that democracy was ever easy. There are millions of Americans mobilizing, sharing their stories, marching, talking to their representatives, protesting, and following their conscience. It is easier than ever to find and join the peaceful opposition.

That's the process.

Most annoying part will be the time delay so people will forget exactly who caused all this damage in the first place too.

Reminds me of reading about Karl Marx in college. As I recall he basically made a name for himself talking shit about capitalism. Then, people said, "Bro, if capitalism sucks so much, why don't you come up with something better?" And that's how The Communist Manifesto was born, which was a total disaster, and set humanity back generations.

Talking shit and tearing stuff down is easy. Building something is hard.

The irony of you saying that about a real estate mogul.

He's destroying for various reasons yes. But he knows how to build. Perhaps not personally, but he can wrangle a system to do things for him, mostly for him perhaps. OK completely for himself, but that's not to say he can't.

  > Elections have consequences and now people are gonna have to live with it.

  > People stayed home or decided to vote against their own interest.

the democrats need to clear out their decrepit leadership or its just gonna continue to slide worse and worse

[0] https://www.newsweek.com/congressional-democrats-favorabilit...

[1] https://thehill.com/homenews/3846305-democrats-have-a-messag...

Frankly, the Democratic party epically and massively failed their constituency by first running a mummy and then attempting to run perhaps the most unlikable, unrelatable, disconnected candidate of my lifetime - that literally zero people voted for.

It's not the people's fault, it's the party's... the party thought everyone would just jump when told to do so.

Democrats deserve better.

Have any sort of policy position and not run on the "at least I'm not him" platform.

In an era where Republicans are dismantling the government do you know what Dems will run on? That's right, dismantling the government, but in a kinder gentler way (see Ezra Kline's abundance agenda).

Dems are anemic to running on popular positions. Raise the minimum wage, expand Medicare, restore the institutions Republicans are dismantling.

For starters, anything.

(1) Actually have a coordinated plan would be the starting point.

(2) If the left truly wanted to help the American people like they say they do they need the programs they enact to actually work. Say what you want about Trump but he is effective. But then again, all authoritarians are.

Currently there isn't much they can do, but they handed the election to a corrupt buffoon. Inaction the border & immigration, letting the woke crowd run rampant with their nonsense(not talking about it doesn't make it go away), and selecting a VP that if ever tasked with running for President--wasn't likely to win.

Be better (like doing it at all) of saying what they have accomplished. People don't know what they zone know. Make a list of things accomplished and say it out loud. Humility could be another way that democracy dies.

Select a candidate that would not lose to Trump.

All they needed to do was have a primary, but they didn't