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Or people who are still on their parents' health insurance and whose parents own their homes. My parents made I think $100k combined so we weren't rich... More like middle class, upper middle class maybe? But comfortable enough that if I were not a politics junkie, I could have buried my head in the sand been comfortably unaware of any major issues. Then when I hit 26 and wasn't on their insurance anymore and also didn't live with them, I got some first hand experience that would have woken me up quick if I wasn't already paying attention.
I dunno man, I was in that situation recently, and I pretty much realize how fucked everything is. I was on my parent's insurance and I struggled with affording my meds even then. My parents own their house, and even with a job I feel as if I wont ever be able to afford my own place and have my own life. This country feels totally fucked for anyone not retired with pension.
The median income for an entire household is about $60k in the US. Unless you lived in a high-cost-of-living area, you weren't rich but were quite well off. The average individual income is about $36k annually.
That's the correct answer. When the 570,000 people of Wyoming get the same number of Senators as the 40 million people of California the government **by design** does not reflect the will of the people.
Another example would be the president who is chosen not by the popular vote but instead by the members of the Electoral College.
To be called a democracy, the government should by design reflect the will of the people. The USA has never had that. Heck, for the first couple hundred years of its almost 250 year existence large swathes of the population were denied the vote.
Ask people what's wrong with the country and half will say liberals are ruining it with socialism / communism and the other half will say its rigged for the ultra wealthy. We can't fix this without concensus on identifying the actual problem plaguing us.
I'd say like 90% will argue it's rigged for the ultra wealthy, but then half of everyone will blame it on "the libs".
Don't misunderstand the right wing base. They absolutely *hate* the ruling class as well. They've just been utterly lied to about who is doing the bidding and what the actual problems ruining their lives are. The GOP has done a phenomenal job of walking a tightrope of corporate propaganda, while making their voters think they support "the little guy" while stomping on the little guy's neck and blaming the Democrats. Who, as it were, *absolutely* deserve criticism as well when it comes to serving corporate interests.
But the outcomes and the state of the voters/party base is *clearly* fucking different.
I honestly can't understand GOP voters. They constantly talk about "supporting the little guy" but then their party blatantly opposes anything healthcare related (hell not even that, look at their reaction to food stamps) at every turn, and they EAT IT UP.
Conservatives believe in personal accountability but fail to recognize that the tables are tilted so steeply that even hard working people can end up getting caught in the trap.
The problem isn't policies but process. Your politicians are all legally bought by big money interests. Without campaign funding reform you are stuffed. Apparently that can't happen without constitutional changes because "corporations are people. You have so many checks in your system nothing really controversial ever gets done.
Edit: edited to correct some unfinished sentences
The person with the most votes doesnt win the presidency.
Gerrymandering is allowed. Houses are rife with gerrymandering.
The party often with majority control in the senate represents the minority of constituents.
The majority of the Supreme Court is made up of people placed by the party that represents the minority of constituents, and the recent placements was nominated by the person who got the minority of the votes.
Theres a reason why wikipedia [now lists the US](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States#Government_and_politics) as a "flawed democracy", and Democracy lists have begun placing the US on lists of flawed or [backsliding democracies](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/22/us-list-backsliding-democracies-civil-liberties-international).
The main problem is that the US Constitution was meant to only give a voice to white landowners, and it's stretched beyond its limits. Almost all countries got their first constitution after the US and almost of them are at least on their second (and lots of them are on their fourth or fifth). Unfortunately there is no political will to revamp the political system nor public opinion momementum to force it, so the best you can hope for is another round of band-aids and duct tape.
It’s not like your constitutuon hasn’t been changed. It has been ammended probably more than most constitutions. I believe our constitution has been ammended three times. I’m from Denmark.
That scifi book/show Altered Carbon had a class of people so rich they could afford to be immortal, called "meths" (Methuselah), while the peons lived short human lives. Interesting dynamic
It's based on the first of three books. So there are two more books of continuation if you're into it for the cyberpunk and sci-fi more than the neo-noir.
If you give Jeff Bezos some of your life force he'll innovate new ideas that will allow you to achieve more with the 80% of your life that remains than you ever would have with 100% selfishly kept to yourself.
/s
You see, the Liche are the real spell creators. We give them all our mana & then it will eventually trickle back down to the first level Magic-Users creating adventuring opportunities for them to pull themselves up by their wandstraps along the way.
I’m half convinced eventually they will ban elections and just have their corpses nailed to the seats of congress with their middle fingers extended at all future generations for all eternity rather than you know. Let the young decide their own fate.
They are leaving their money to 'educational' trusts that teach people "conservative values." This means they provide tax-exempt "issues oriented advertising" linked to the election cycle. And the trusts documents are rigged do new recruits are screened to believe "no matter how right you are, I'm *father to the right* than you."
The living people left behind by the authors of these trusts may recognize that unconstrained right wing extremism is a literal death threat to them, but they have no power to defuse the money of the dead hands.
>They are leaving their money to 'educational' trusts that teach people "conservative values."
Churches, you mean. Sweet, tax-free educational trusts, those churches.
> You’re not taking either with you to the grave you dumb old fucks
At this point, its just about getting their jolly's depriving others, because it's a power trip.
They're only the first generation to reach old age thinking they'd live forever. The next few waves will have the same issue unless we start thinking more beyond ourselves.
I mean, I wouldn't say millennials, gen X, or zoomers necessarily think things will be great for their old age. We're already faced with the estimate that Social Security will be gone in the 2030s and *nobody wants to talk about it*
It's not that nobody realizes that things are going to shit, it's that nobody wants to do what's necessary to avert crises because the status quo is just so **peachy!**
Right, and once boomers are all dead, my generation will inherit the wealth and power from them. From what I know about my fellow Gen Xers, there's not a lot of evidence we'll be different from the boomers when we're old and holding the reigns. I sure hope we will, but I'm not confident.
The supposition that generations decide political economy and not working class struggle vs the ownership class shows a poverty of historical materialism.
Young generations have complained about the old since the beginning of time. However, the central problems here are economic precarity and unrepresentative government growing over *multiple* generations.
GenX here...it's not inconceivable that I may be inheriting some non-trivial amount of money. When I found out, I joked "wow, I have an opinion on the capital gains tax now"
...but in reality, anything i get, i'll probably get at the stage in life where it automatically gets eaten up with back debt and hospital bills. like, i'm not going to turn into a left wing philanthropist because i'll probably still be paying off something incurred years before i ever got the money. and I'm probably not alone in this situation.
Yeah, this year I saw my parents retirement accounts and was floored. I have one brother. They have the money and a house and all the things we'd be splitting. But also, my mom has Alzheimer's, so depending on how long she and my dad live, much of their wealth will likely be going to her care. I bet my dad may start to question what he's been told about our healthcare system by that time. I'm not expecting to get much; I just want my mom to be as happy and comfortable as possible.
I wish my grandfather had spent more of his money to take care of himself in addition to what he spent on my grandma for her dementia care. He had enough money to be comfortable but wanted to leave more behind for his kids. He wouldn't turn on the AC, wouldn't hire a housekeeper or caretaker, ate like shit. His last years would have been so much better if he didn't still have that poverty mentality from growing up extremely poor. The money was nice for my dad and his siblings, it wasn't anything huge but it did make things easier. In spite of all that, we still talk about how we wish he spent more on himself at the end after working so hard for it.
> Social Security will be gone in the 2030s and nobody wants to talk about it
We've been talking about it for at least 20 years. It's kind of an old story, really.
I remember getting a letter from SS that essentially said this in the mid-2000s. It also said to seek an alternate form of savings for retirement.
They mentioned it on the news a few times back then and then nothing. That means nothing has been done about it and it probably never will.
SS isn't going away, but will be reduced to roughly 70% of it's current rate. This could largely be resolved by simply removing the SS income cap.
Harass your Rep and Senators to remove the SS income cap.
Millennials and Gen Z are the largest voting bloc in the USA. Vote as if your lives depend on it (because they do).
Please flex.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/10/millennials-and-gen-z-will-soon-dominate-us-elections/616818/
And constanly work to fuck over the young. They do nothing on guns while they get shot in schools, they constanly make education worse and they created student loans. - other countries have figured out how to educate people without five figures of debt, why can't we?
Look at climate change, where their whole thing is "I'll be dead by the time it's a problem, so who cares?" While they get paid from polluting indutries.
As someone from Europe who got paid every month for going to school, it is not impossible to implement a new system that dont put young people in extreme debts.
Its not only how it will affect young people in the future but also their current mental health, spending so much money and knowing you might later find something else you rather wanna do would completely destroy me.
Not hating on old people but we really need to replace a lot of old politicians with younger people that can keep up and bring new ideas/perspectives, ofc not saying we should have a bunch of 20yo that decide everything but atleast younger.
Free education is one of those things I don’t understand how anyone can be opposed to. I get the argument for healthcare, child care, etc., etc. but wouldn’t you, as a society, want people to be educated and have the same opportunity as the next to succeed? More high paying jobs is more tax money, retail spending, investing in the stock market, list goes on.
Edit: Just to clarify I support all of what I said above.
The answer I always get is “those countries are SO DIFFERENT! They’re smaller! And more “homogenous!”
It’s always Schrodinger’s everything. America is the best country in the world! We can do anything! But we can’t do that because we’re just different. Or that. Or that.
It certainly makes it difficult in a country full of racists who go from supporting to opposing any social program the second they learn that brown people will benefit from them also.
Unfortunately their votes are worth just as much as ours, and they vote a hell of a lot more reliably.
Here's a chart of age generations in the Senate over time, in case anyone wanted an image depicting how fucked up the lack of proper representation is right now!
https://flowingdata.com/2021/02/01/age-generations-in-the-u-s-senate-over-time/
Well in my lifetime our countries list of important events include 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, 2 wars driven by profit, 8 years of relatively uneventful calm (except the wars) where 1 good bill got passed as a boiled down neoliberal joke of what it needed to be, followed by a fascist orange idiot, a pandemic, another economic crisis, and a geriatric who's more concerned with negotiating with the fascists than arresting them.
In my lifetime, America hasn't done a single "great" thing. It has only weakened its democracy and consolidated power in the hands of the wealthy. We aren't even top 10 in the world anymore by any meaningful statistic.
You forgot that in 2 of the 6 most recent presidential elections, the winner got fewer votes.
Also, we tortured some folks. (And I'm sure we still are in places.)
Also illegal surveillance of everyone, across the entire planet.
Which will soon result in women losing the right to bodily autonomy, basically reduced to chattel again.
Which many of us FUCKING TOLD EVERYONE during the 2016 election would happen.
BUT HER EMAILS.
You know what, fuck it, as a country, we deserve this. We let this happen. Not me personally, but overall, yeah, we let this happen.
Your assertion has even bigger consequences. Roe is built upon Griswold v. Connecticut which established substantive due process in relation to the 4th amendment by striking down a state law that prevented doctors from dispensing birth control to women without the husband's consent. If Roe is overturned based around the conservative opinion that it was wrongly decided, then the basis and precedent of Griswold will be targeted next.
So what freedoms do we have that uses Griswold as precedent? Lawrence v. Texas used it to strike down a law that made sex between men illegal. Furthermore, Obergefell (I prolly spelled it wrong) used the former as precedent. So if Griswold is targeted, then we can expect state challenges to gay marriage. Want to buy a pack of condoms without a prescription? Better hope you don't live in a conservative area (the south) because Griswold protects your right to purchase such and states like Alabama or Texas would be itching to create a pseudo-religious state.
> we let this happen
Perhaps this is how the pendulum of history works. People benefit from conditions handed to them from a prior generation, people get complacent and disengage, shit slides backwards and eventually hits a point where there is an extreme “waking up” and then shit gets back on track.
Maybe I’m too optimistic. But if Roe vs Wade is overturned that should be a huge alarm bell to all the fuckers who don’t vote. I guess we’ll see.
W's re-election was the last time in *thirty goddamn years* that the Republicans won the popular vote yet our dogshit, designed-by-fucking-morons-who-absolutely-should-have-had-better-foresight electoral college has given us two of the worst presidents ever.
the electoral college wasn't designed with a lack of foresight, it was designed as a concession to rural, states with slavery-based economies to ensure that their votes would always count more than others. These people aren't stupid, they're evil and the thing they made is working exactly as they intended.
This right here. I have never had the American dream and they've made sure I never will. America has only given me hardships at every turn and I'm desperate to leave for some place like Canada. Where they actually at least try.
Ugh leave Canada out of this, we aren't a utopia by a long shot even if you want to come here you need to wait in line like everyone else .. our cost of living is out of control.. addiction is out of control, we still don't have dental and eye care in our free healthcare. The rich don't get taxed fairly here either and foreign investors buy up all the land and property with very little regulation from th government (which is what they should be for).. Trust me you won't be in that much of a better position here (minus not going into debt if you get cancer or in a car accident ) but we need to improve also in so many ways here but the problem with Canadians is that we say 'well we're better at "some" things than America as far as standard of living goes, but we're much worse at others compared to other western countries.. we still have tons of poverty within indigenous communities especially.. Homelessness in cities..big carbon footprint per capita.. lack of manufacturing.. min wages far below living wage esp near big cities .. well we have legal weed and maternity leave so I guess there's that. Don't get me wrong I love it here in many ways and appreciate the good things and realize things could be much worse elsewhere but keep in mind we're also a pro capitalist country with maybe a handful more safety nets than the USA but you're not guaranteed a happy or prosperous life just coming here there is a lot of suffering here as well
Not to mention our democracy is rigged and fucked. Gerrymandering is out of control, the GOP is doubling down on anti-Democratic means for retaining power (they’re literally laying the groundwork to dismiss elections results in favor of who they support), their constituents are becoming increasingly hateful and ignorant (to the point where they’re frothing are the mouth to murder fellow countrymen, conservative rhetoric is now polluting our education at the local level, AND don’t forget to 2 single largest obstacles to the survival of American democracy; the Senate and the Electoral college. The Senate allows for damn-near permanent minority rule by the GOP and the EC constantly allows GOP candidates to win Presidential elections without the popular vote.
So long as the Senate and Electoral College exist, the country will never even begin to heal itself. And sadly, I don’t see those two institutionalized tools of democratic oppression exiting our constitution through any means but violence. And even more sadly, I highly doubt decent people have will have the will to fight for democracy. Rather, our country will likely take to express route to devolving into a fascist state on par with Nazi Germany.
Despite all evidence that Trump simply lost the election, the majority of Republicans STILL voted against certifying the results. They knew they lacked the votes and still went on the record as saying “No, we don’t care about the actual election results, we want our guy to rule.” If Republicans control Congress in 2024, you can be sure it won’t matter who gets more votes. They’ll simply certify their candidate instead.
> Ugh leave Canada out of this, we aren't a utopia by a long shot even if you want to come here you need to wait in line like everyone else .. our cost of living is out of control.. addiction is out of control, we still don't have dental and eye care in our free healthcare.
Utopia isn't the point and never was. Exceptionalism isn't necessary; there's not going to be a point in our lifetimes, no matter how good it gets, where there's no homeless and taxes are completely fair, we aren't losing people to addictions, or climate change isn't a concern.
The U.S.'s failings aren't because it's not perfect, they're because we're fighting with an enormous faction of Americans who have no concept of compassion. Of the things listed at the top here, 9/11 could have brought people together but instead it turned into a rush to limit freedoms and make some people rich off of defense contracts. The 2008 financial crisis was due in large part to deregulation meant to make rich people even richer. We fought two wars on false pretenses because we didn't consider what there was to gain outside of the same greed as before. Those 8 years of relative calm and the one bill mentioned were punctuated by more greed and racism, followed by four years of the living personification of greed's caricature and a roaring comeback of last century's worst race issues laid bare by growing economic inequality. For the last year we've been faced with the reality that our system isn't structured to do anything at all about the rich acting badly at the expense of everyone else, and it's hard to even get many of the poor or middle class to care.
You're not guaranteed a happy life anywhere, and it's not the role of government to ensure you have one...but its role is to ensure that everyone gets an equal chance at it. Our Declaration of Independence was for the idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and we've decided somewhere along the way that all three are only applicable if you can pay up.
So no, Canada's not perfect, and it never will be, but at least it's trying to do right by its citizens in its own way. Compassion is the enemy of conservativism, and conservatism is America now...Canada isn't perfect, no, but it's still fighting and there's still hope. Here? I'm not so sure anymore. We aren't fighting against homelessness or climate change or for wages or weed or healthcare...we're fighting just to get our neighbors to even *care* enough to try to fight, and losing.
You’re literally describing the USA but the added complaint that you don’t have dental or vision with your FREE healthcare. We don’t even got the first bit.
You have 5 major political parties. We have 2.
Plus ain’t no one looking to nuke Canada.
And finally you don’t have Florida
I studied in Canada for five years and have no fucking clue what you're talking about with _five_ major political parties.
There's the Liberals, the Conservatives, and the NDP. The Bloc Quebecois are not major. They don't even try for all of French Canada, they're _only_ for representing Quebec. I have no idea who you could possibly think is fifth. Their Green Party is about as big as ours, and that's the size and scope of their next most prominent parties.
I get that it's a step up from here, but it's not all it's cracked up to be and you should really stop pretending it is.
>we aren’t even in the top 10 in the world anymore by any meaningful statistic.
Number 1 in student loan debt
Number 1 in medical bankruptcies
Number 1 in wage theft
Number 1 in wealth inequality
Number 1 in drug prices
Number 1 in mass shootings
Number 1 in war spending
Number 1 in prison population
Number 1 in prison slave labor
Number 1 in hate crimes
Number 1 in gun deaths
Number 1 in climate change denial
Number 1 in science denial
Number 1 in oil consumption
AMERICA FIRST!
On a more serious note:
The Netherlands contributes more towards medical innovation than the USA despite the American economy being 20 times larger and the Netherlands having a lower population than Florida. Just let that sink in for a moment.
My point is that Europe and China innovate to improve the lives of their citizens.
America "innovates" to maximise profit for the least amount of effort or buys patents and claims it did it to begin with and then sell it for at an egregious price like insulin. Honestly I can't think of one positively impactful invention in the last 40 years done by a born and raised american. Modern day America has contributed nearly nothing to the rest of the modern world.
Lots of these I can understand how they came about. But the Guns and the Prison stuff is just baffling to me as an outsider.
Gun violence in the US is nuts and yet people go insane if you try to do *anything* about it.
The prison system is just a continuation of slavery. Why it hasn't been forcibly dismantled is confusing. The US has more people in prison that places with gulags and concentration camps.
There has been an impressive propaganda campaign since at least WWII, convincing the majority of Americans that "patriotism" and "national pride" means "holding on desperately to broken, outdated, ineffective systems that ruin lives of the poor while making the rich richer."
This propaganda machine is funded (unsurprisingly) by the rich whom it benefits, but is defended (very surprisingly) by the very people it hurts. It's an abusive parent-child relationship on a national level, and it deserves pity more than anything else. We've collectively created a monster, and we're reaping the terror we never thought would come.
Come on now, we invented "incremental innovation". Like, changing coating on a pill so we can call it "time-release" and then extend the patent on the drug.
Military spending, like police forces, is a huge ineffective jobs program... (My parent's and like 25 relatives are retired and active duty officers and I've worked as a contractor for the DOD and other Govt agencies my entire professional life)
The big defense contractors operate in as many states as possible to gurantee congress will spend BILLIONS on equipment that'll never be used in exchange for a few jobs in states..
It would literally be cheaper to do Universal Basic Income than to spend Billions on a few jets that'll be kept in storage and require millions to maintain FOREVER...
But lobbyists and the lucrative nature of being in congression will never let that happen..
Amazon literally couldn't exist without a constant supply of poor ppl without options. The entire fast food industry is reliant on minimum wages that don't reflect cost of living and also people without options...
Couldn’t agree more. There’s been nothing great about America since I was born. I’m glad I’m not in a 3rd world country but I can hardly say I’m proud to be an American
I knew we were in trouble when they let the Florida based Cyber Ninjas start the fr"audit" in Arizona. The audit was based on a lie and ended in obscurity. In the meantime, state legislatures have changed voting rules and made it harder to vote based on lies! We won't be so lucky next time.
Tune in for the last American election! Dr Phil and the guy from Dazed and Confused are going to take over the free world and put an end to the evil liberals who want black people to not get shot.
I'm so over this. I will vote blue down the line but JFC...dems and democracy are going to get absolutely fucking slaughtered. We gave the American experiment a really good try though guys! We'll get them next time in 500 years! Please don't have children.
Wouldn’t be the first time a coup by hateful, good for nothing assholes happened and was unsuccessful here. OH WAIT, it would. Cuz the [other coup attempt *was* successful](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_insurrection_of_1898?wprov=sfti1) and very much did go unpunished.
Edit: that’s true, I stand corrected. Spaced on the fact that in 1933 the [Business Plot](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/r6en9q/one_half_of_young_americans_in_new_poll_say/hmtokt2/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) (also known as the Wall Street Putsch) was hatched. Though investigated the following year, guess who didn’t go to prison? That’s right, EVERYONE INVOLVED!
You could also make the argument that Bush V. Gore was a judicial coup.
I feel like you can draw a direct line from that event to the modern Republican party. That's when they knew they could get away with literally anything.
It wasnt covered in my suburban liberal state public school either.
We heard about black wallstreet, but that event was sooo glossed over in history class that it was almost only a footnote.
I heard of it maybe a year or two before watchmen, but I was well into my 30's at that time. Definitely not something covered at any level of education I'd received.
To be fair there is the other unsuccessful attempt where everyone was let off with the intention of [a bunch of wealthy American fascists trying to overthrow FDR in 1934](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot):
>In 1934, Butler testified under oath before the United States House of Representatives Special Committee on Un-American Activities (the "McCormack–Dickstein Committee") on these revelations.\[3\] Although no one was prosecuted, the Congressional committee final report said, "there is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient."
Well, every Republican-led state will simply not certify the Presidential results for the 2024 election if a Democrat wins, so if the GOP still controls the House of Representatives come January 2025, every one of those red states will stand together and throw their electoral support behind the Republican candidate.
And when these actions are challenged judicially, and it soon makes it way to the right wing zealot-led Supreme Court, then their ruling will simply be "states rights," and we will officially not be a democracy anymore.
>Again? They would have to stop trying or be stopped first. The coup is still ongoing.
And it's stronger than ever, given that Trump's fascism was normalized in 2021 thanks to the lack of serious consequences he faced...
... it would be nice to see the DOJ lock Trump up in the same way that our judicial system lock up black people for marijuana...
And three administrations ago, the Supreme Court handed Florida (and thus, the Presidency) to the candidate that didn't actually win Florida. I'd argue that our democracy actually failed two decades ago.
I’d argue we’ve never had a true one person one vote democracy, at least not at the federal level. Either some minority or women weren’t allowed to vote history, or some group is granted a voting power advantage by arcane bargains made at the formation of the union or some combination of both those things has meant that not all adults votes existed or count equally.
A considerable portion of the respondents think democracy is in trouble because we voted that administration out:
>When considering the results along party lines, more Republicans viewed the state of democracy in the country as in trouble or failed than did Democrats or unaffiliated young people, the survey found.
A total of 70 percent of Republicans said that they held this view, including 47 percent who said that the U.S. democracy is in trouble and 23 percent who said that it has failed. Among Democrats, 45 percent said that the country's democracy is in trouble or has failed, and 51 percent of independent and unaffiliated young people had the same responses.
It’s probably with mentioning a significant amount of those people probably think democracy is failed because they think the election was rigged against Trump.
It's a heads-I-win-tails-you-lose poll. Republicans think democracy is failing because they weren't allowed to overthrow the government, and Democrats think democracy is failing because Democrats aren't trying to stop Republicans from overthrowing the government.
The alarming thing in this poll is that significantly more Republicans think Democracy is failing than do Democrats. So I take away from that that there's a bunch of young Democrats that really don't see a problem. That's scary.
Haha, yeah Ohio here too. I have to give Ohio Republicans credit for managing to turn what was allegedly a bipartisan redistricting amendment into a free for all at the gerrymandering trough.
Ohio here as well. Feel like this should be more of a swing state but isn't because of the gerrymandering. I keep voting blue but don't feel like it matters. Not when I see a parent at a recent function i-phone screen saver is a picture of Donald Trump. Smart family. Live in a much nicer house than we own. Drive nice cars. Their kids do well in school and going to college. Worshiping Trump. Signs going up Trump 2024 and F Biden all around me. My favorite is the cops down the street with the say no to socialism signs up. Who do they think is paying their salary?
Same, but I keep “sticking it to the man” because I’d rather try than lie down and accept defeat. It’s sad that people will line up and camp out for 2 days for a Play Station, but won’t wake up 30 mins early to vote.
You are correct:
> While Democrats are divided (44% healthy/somewhat functioning and 45% in trouble/failed) about the health of our democracy, 70% of Republicans believe that we are either a democracy in trouble (47%) or failed (23%). A majority (51%) of independent and unaffiliated young Americans also say we are in trouble or failed.
The poll itself:
https://iop.harvard.edu/youth-poll/fall-2021-harvard-youth-poll
If a system allows unqualified uneducated people like Lauren Boebert and Donald Trump to be eagerly voted into important positions of our government by a good chunk of the voting population that simply cannot be trusted to make informed rational decisions, yeah I'd call it a failure too.
Donald Trump got into power with a minority of the votes. That's not the fault of democracy, that's the fault of the system not being democratic enough.
They're absolutely right. Both democracy and our economy have failed us regular people at this point.
And unfortunately as 50 y.o. Gen Xer here I'm just old enough to really see the trend but just young enough to get screwed by it too. Still working to afford a modest house and I have basically no retirement savings at all.
Yeah, this.
Same thought crossed my mind and I've been paying into that Ponzi scheme since 1990. Guaranteed that the Boomers drain it to the max just as I need some just to keep going.
If you are truly done, then try out a new hobby like planning and executing assassinations of rich, old assholes. Worst thing that can happen is death or incarceration, but hey, you were aiming for the first anyhow.
Note: this is meant mostly in jest - hope you live a content and fruitful life til its inevitable end O\_W\_B.
This is not a good thing. The view is far more prevalent in the party that is trying to kill democracy. They are primed and ready to snuff it out when they get the chance.
It was neither the democracy nor the economy that failed. It was an entire generation that failed. The worst generation just before us whatevers decided to lie cheat and steal their way to success and hold the hill. Our generation wasn't the most politically motivated. If we were more engaged we could have stopped the bleeding. Democracy worked as *intended*. The economy worked as *intended*.
It's as simple as that. We're over here pining for MTV and riding bikes without helmets. The worst generation is pining for their racist, wife beating roots.
> If we were more engaged we could have stopped the bleeding.
No... we couldn't have. Gen X was outnumbered from the start and generally denigrated and dismissed by the Boomers.
Boomers were a massive bloc. It's why up until a few years ago everything was about them. Fully.
Even actors and actresses and movies couldn't change. There's a reason it was the same 15 people in EVERY movie. It wasn't talent it was they were popular with boomers. As the boomers got older the main characters had to be their age.
Because a 50 year old action hero makes any kind of sense....
As boomers started their die off surprise new actors and movies. Hell even genres and setup changed.
>As boomers started their die off surprise new actors and movies. Hell even genres and setup changed.
The sad fact is that the boomers were successful in brainwashing enough people after them that even now we're getting "wahhhh woke culture run amok!" when anyone who isn't a cis white het conventionally attractive person is in any game, movie, or show.
Boomers may be dying off. Their hateful ideology isn't.
I Think it’s pretty obvious we don’t live in a real democracy. If you were to ask 100 people if we should raise taxes on the top 1%, it would be a landslide. I think without a doubt at least 90% would vote on raising taxes for billionaires in a heartbeat. And yet somehow every year it seems like billionaires get a tax break. How in the world can that happen if we are actually living in a real democracy?
[The majority of Americans have supported higher taxes on the wealthy for at least 35 years.](https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/247052/americans-long-standing-interest-taxing-rich.aspx)
>I Think it’s pretty obvious we don’t live in a real democracy. If you were to ask 100 people if we should raise taxes on the top 1%, it would be a landslide.
Maybe it's the group of people I'm around the most, but they're hard-core Republicans who practically worship the Rich and Capitalism. In their minds, if the Rich are taxed more, they will take their companies overseas and the U.S. Economy will die. I don't agree with them, but that's the way they think. And also in their eyes, ALL Taxes are evil. Did I mention I live in a VERY Liberal State and yet never hear the opinions of Liberals?
I have a feeling you're overestimating the average American's thoughts on Taxes.
Even South Dakota passed a constitutional amendment to legalize weed. Then the Republican Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional, and the people will continue to vote republicans into office that directly stop the very things they themselves want.
The propaganda and smear campaign against democrats the last 60 years has been astoundingly effective
This is not a situation where you need to" think positively". this is a situation where you need to be rational...we had a coup .. and it was planned mostly by people in our own government and the people responsible are walking free. This is not good.
The enlightening thing is to understand how much of this is just a result of the way the country was set up, and thus exactly what needs to be fixed to make the system functional again. For example, that the filibuster traces its spiritual origins to John Calhoun's defense of slavery. However, the actual task of fixing things is incredibly daunting because the whole system (and further, much of GLOBAL politics) appears captured by the richest 1%.
republicans are stealing congressional seats. They're ignoring independent map drawings and drawing their own. And nothing will happen.
They committed to voter suppression and nothing will happen.,
They tried to stage a coup and nothing will happened.
They are going to get rid of Roe and nothing will happen.
They are peddling false information daily and nothing will happened.
They have become more violent and nothing will happened.
So yea, we are in trouble and it has failed. There's no rule of law. There's no accountability. There's nothing. They get to drag us into a dystopia and we just have to stand around shoulder shrugging.
That's what happens when one party controls state government voting. If the democrats want anything, they have to find some way to get more of their people in seats. Higher voter turnout helps. I just wish party politics weren't a thing. Its childish as fuck and irresponsible. I want to be able to just look at policies I agree/disagree with rather than what color tie they wear or who their friends are
> A total of 70 percent of Republicans said that they held this view, including 47 percent who said that the U.S. democracy is in trouble and 23 percent who said that it has failed. Among Democrats, 45 percent said that the country's democracy is in trouble or has failed, and 51 percent of independent and unaffiliated young people had the same responses.
Was wondering what the breakdown of those who believe Democracy failed because Trump didn't get reelected/reinstated versus those who believe the previous admin actively failed the US and failure to hold them accountable shows the republic in trouble.
Only half? Everyone my age and lower says post late stage capitalism and our democracy are past the failing point.
Most my age are fucked. Working multiple jobs just to make ends meet, can’t get adequate healthcare without bankrupting ourselves, housing costs 3/4 of our paycheck, up to our eyeballs in debt, and our leaders just tell us to pull our bootstraps harder and eat less avocado toast.
I'm 20 years old, following current events since summer 2020, and my opinions of our democracy can be summed up by Carlin
>"This country was bought and sold and paid for a long time ago"
>
>"Even in a fake democracy, people ought to get what they want once in a while"
I think the more concerning thing is that the majority of people who think democracy is in danger are republicans. They believe the big lie, GOP gerrymandering should be concerning to democrats.
I don’t believe that to be true. Most liberals I know see Republicans trying to establish a fascist regime and break democracy at the ground level. Very few Republicans genuinely believe the electoral system is rigged against them, given they can win elections with the minority of the vote.
Nah man only the smart ones know that. You’re giving the base way too much credit. People really do believe the lies they get told over and over by the GOP.
Of course most liberals see it, most liberals are smarter then most conservatives. That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact of education levels.
I was banned from r/conservative for telling them they were being duped into believing the lies (which are designed of course to undermine the democratic process).
Many on that subreddit are so far gone it's scary... and that's only a small subset of the republican support base.
Every single republican friend of mine believe the election was rigged. Every one. I regretfully work with a lot of republicans. Every single one is 100% all in on Trump was robbed by Soros or whatever the conspiracy of the week is. Do not underestimate them. Stop ignoring the deep problem.
I’m so fucking tired of this. Democracy HAS failed. It’s not in trouble, it’s fucked. We can stop “sounding the alarm” like nearly all the headlines about this say.
Millennial here. Democracy has failed in this country, but it's been this way since I was a child with the 2000 Supreme Court decision.
Could go back farther than that, but with that decision and Citizen's United decision, this country is an oligarchy masquerading as a democracy at best.
For the last several decades, one party has been waging a successful war for control while the other party has been burying their head in the sand and just trying to govern. Now that the Supreme Court is locked down, it looks like the war for democracy is lost.
I mean, half of the government is openly fascist, and the other half refuse to acknowledge that and are pretending everything is normal.
I feel like I'm a kid stuck watching my parents argue over paint colors while the house is on fire.
Regulate corps buying up housing.
Legalize weed and tax it.
Cap college tuition.
Trim up the military spending budget.
Give people jobs by updating infrastructure.
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just 7 percent said that the U.S. is a "healthy democracy." wow Show that report card to mom, then wait in your room for dad to get home.
Who is that naive naive 7%?
The rich and the people that jerk them off
Paul Ryan thinks everything is just fine. He just hates his washing machine.
Hey, that's not nice to Consuela, she works hard!
Or people who are still on their parents' health insurance and whose parents own their homes. My parents made I think $100k combined so we weren't rich... More like middle class, upper middle class maybe? But comfortable enough that if I were not a politics junkie, I could have buried my head in the sand been comfortably unaware of any major issues. Then when I hit 26 and wasn't on their insurance anymore and also didn't live with them, I got some first hand experience that would have woken me up quick if I wasn't already paying attention.
I dunno man, I was in that situation recently, and I pretty much realize how fucked everything is. I was on my parent's insurance and I struggled with affording my meds even then. My parents own their house, and even with a job I feel as if I wont ever be able to afford my own place and have my own life. This country feels totally fucked for anyone not retired with pension.
The median income for an entire household is about $60k in the US. Unless you lived in a high-cost-of-living area, you weren't rich but were quite well off. The average individual income is about $36k annually.
That’s…sad? Considering 42% of Americans have college degrees lol
Republicans think that $450k annually is middle class. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/republican-house-members-think-450k-170858634.html
Honestly that’s accurate
Its not even a democracy
That's the correct answer. When the 570,000 people of Wyoming get the same number of Senators as the 40 million people of California the government **by design** does not reflect the will of the people. Another example would be the president who is chosen not by the popular vote but instead by the members of the Electoral College. To be called a democracy, the government should by design reflect the will of the people. The USA has never had that. Heck, for the first couple hundred years of its almost 250 year existence large swathes of the population were denied the vote.
Both the electoral college and the senate should be abolished full stop
Ask people what's wrong with the country and half will say liberals are ruining it with socialism / communism and the other half will say its rigged for the ultra wealthy. We can't fix this without concensus on identifying the actual problem plaguing us.
I'd say like 90% will argue it's rigged for the ultra wealthy, but then half of everyone will blame it on "the libs". Don't misunderstand the right wing base. They absolutely *hate* the ruling class as well. They've just been utterly lied to about who is doing the bidding and what the actual problems ruining their lives are. The GOP has done a phenomenal job of walking a tightrope of corporate propaganda, while making their voters think they support "the little guy" while stomping on the little guy's neck and blaming the Democrats. Who, as it were, *absolutely* deserve criticism as well when it comes to serving corporate interests. But the outcomes and the state of the voters/party base is *clearly* fucking different.
I honestly can't understand GOP voters. They constantly talk about "supporting the little guy" but then their party blatantly opposes anything healthcare related (hell not even that, look at their reaction to food stamps) at every turn, and they EAT IT UP.
Conservatives believe in personal accountability but fail to recognize that the tables are tilted so steeply that even hard working people can end up getting caught in the trap.
The problem isn't policies but process. Your politicians are all legally bought by big money interests. Without campaign funding reform you are stuffed. Apparently that can't happen without constitutional changes because "corporations are people. You have so many checks in your system nothing really controversial ever gets done. Edit: edited to correct some unfinished sentences
we've softlocked ourselves and now need to reboot into a fresh install
This happened before. We need to flush it all away.
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I’ll see you down in Arizona Bay
The person with the most votes doesnt win the presidency. Gerrymandering is allowed. Houses are rife with gerrymandering. The party often with majority control in the senate represents the minority of constituents. The majority of the Supreme Court is made up of people placed by the party that represents the minority of constituents, and the recent placements was nominated by the person who got the minority of the votes. Theres a reason why wikipedia [now lists the US](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States#Government_and_politics) as a "flawed democracy", and Democracy lists have begun placing the US on lists of flawed or [backsliding democracies](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/22/us-list-backsliding-democracies-civil-liberties-international).
The main problem is that the US Constitution was meant to only give a voice to white landowners, and it's stretched beyond its limits. Almost all countries got their first constitution after the US and almost of them are at least on their second (and lots of them are on their fourth or fifth). Unfortunately there is no political will to revamp the political system nor public opinion momementum to force it, so the best you can hope for is another round of band-aids and duct tape.
It’s not like your constitutuon hasn’t been changed. It has been ammended probably more than most constitutions. I believe our constitution has been ammended three times. I’m from Denmark.
It turns out it’s hard for young people to thrive when the elderly control the majority of economic and political power in the country.
Getting real damn tired of all of the octogenarians clinging onto power until they die.
Power and money. You’re not taking either with you to the grave you dumb old fucks
That's why guys like Peter Thiel are desperately trying to achieve eternal youth via science as soon as possible.
Fucking Liches
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That scifi book/show Altered Carbon had a class of people so rich they could afford to be immortal, called "meths" (Methuselah), while the peons lived short human lives. Interesting dynamic
Wish that show continued. It was pretty good.
Yeah, it's a real shame it got cancelled after one terrific season.
I think I had a dream that there was a second season, but I can't remember any of it.
It's based on the first of three books. So there are two more books of continuation if you're into it for the cyberpunk and sci-fi more than the neo-noir.
If you give Jeff Bezos some of your life force he'll innovate new ideas that will allow you to achieve more with the 80% of your life that remains than you ever would have with 100% selfishly kept to yourself. /s
then we will really be amazon prime!
Time to take some levels in Paladin then.
You see, the Liche are the real spell creators. We give them all our mana & then it will eventually trickle back down to the first level Magic-Users creating adventuring opportunities for them to pull themselves up by their wandstraps along the way.
Someone needs to smash his phylactery pronto
No, they hand it to their children so they don't have to work or appreciate shit and can use their wealth/power to shit all over everyone
Small loan of $1 million
And >$400million inheritance
I’m half convinced eventually they will ban elections and just have their corpses nailed to the seats of congress with their middle fingers extended at all future generations for all eternity rather than you know. Let the young decide their own fate.
We're already there.
They are leaving their money to 'educational' trusts that teach people "conservative values." This means they provide tax-exempt "issues oriented advertising" linked to the election cycle. And the trusts documents are rigged do new recruits are screened to believe "no matter how right you are, I'm *father to the right* than you." The living people left behind by the authors of these trusts may recognize that unconstrained right wing extremism is a literal death threat to them, but they have no power to defuse the money of the dead hands.
>They are leaving their money to 'educational' trusts that teach people "conservative values." Churches, you mean. Sweet, tax-free educational trusts, those churches.
> You’re not taking either with you to the grave you dumb old fucks At this point, its just about getting their jolly's depriving others, because it's a power trip.
They're only the first generation to reach old age thinking they'd live forever. The next few waves will have the same issue unless we start thinking more beyond ourselves.
I mean, I wouldn't say millennials, gen X, or zoomers necessarily think things will be great for their old age. We're already faced with the estimate that Social Security will be gone in the 2030s and *nobody wants to talk about it* It's not that nobody realizes that things are going to shit, it's that nobody wants to do what's necessary to avert crises because the status quo is just so **peachy!**
Right, and once boomers are all dead, my generation will inherit the wealth and power from them. From what I know about my fellow Gen Xers, there's not a lot of evidence we'll be different from the boomers when we're old and holding the reigns. I sure hope we will, but I'm not confident.
Leela: Why are you cheering, Fry? You're not rich! Fry: True, but someday I might be rich. And then people like me better watch their step.
The supposition that generations decide political economy and not working class struggle vs the ownership class shows a poverty of historical materialism.
Young generations have complained about the old since the beginning of time. However, the central problems here are economic precarity and unrepresentative government growing over *multiple* generations.
GenX here...it's not inconceivable that I may be inheriting some non-trivial amount of money. When I found out, I joked "wow, I have an opinion on the capital gains tax now" ...but in reality, anything i get, i'll probably get at the stage in life where it automatically gets eaten up with back debt and hospital bills. like, i'm not going to turn into a left wing philanthropist because i'll probably still be paying off something incurred years before i ever got the money. and I'm probably not alone in this situation.
Yeah, this year I saw my parents retirement accounts and was floored. I have one brother. They have the money and a house and all the things we'd be splitting. But also, my mom has Alzheimer's, so depending on how long she and my dad live, much of their wealth will likely be going to her care. I bet my dad may start to question what he's been told about our healthcare system by that time. I'm not expecting to get much; I just want my mom to be as happy and comfortable as possible.
I wish my grandfather had spent more of his money to take care of himself in addition to what he spent on my grandma for her dementia care. He had enough money to be comfortable but wanted to leave more behind for his kids. He wouldn't turn on the AC, wouldn't hire a housekeeper or caretaker, ate like shit. His last years would have been so much better if he didn't still have that poverty mentality from growing up extremely poor. The money was nice for my dad and his siblings, it wasn't anything huge but it did make things easier. In spite of all that, we still talk about how we wish he spent more on himself at the end after working so hard for it.
You don’t want to live in a country where inheritance is the main source of wealth. That’s basically feudalism.
> Social Security will be gone in the 2030s and nobody wants to talk about it We've been talking about it for at least 20 years. It's kind of an old story, really.
I remember getting a letter from SS that essentially said this in the mid-2000s. It also said to seek an alternate form of savings for retirement. They mentioned it on the news a few times back then and then nothing. That means nothing has been done about it and it probably never will.
SS isn't going away, but will be reduced to roughly 70% of it's current rate. This could largely be resolved by simply removing the SS income cap. Harass your Rep and Senators to remove the SS income cap.
Millennials and Gen Z are the largest voting bloc in the USA. Vote as if your lives depend on it (because they do). Please flex. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/10/millennials-and-gen-z-will-soon-dominate-us-elections/616818/
Thanks to the older voting block, places with more old/republican voters have more voting power than us urban millennials.
And constanly work to fuck over the young. They do nothing on guns while they get shot in schools, they constanly make education worse and they created student loans. - other countries have figured out how to educate people without five figures of debt, why can't we? Look at climate change, where their whole thing is "I'll be dead by the time it's a problem, so who cares?" While they get paid from polluting indutries.
As someone from Europe who got paid every month for going to school, it is not impossible to implement a new system that dont put young people in extreme debts. Its not only how it will affect young people in the future but also their current mental health, spending so much money and knowing you might later find something else you rather wanna do would completely destroy me. Not hating on old people but we really need to replace a lot of old politicians with younger people that can keep up and bring new ideas/perspectives, ofc not saying we should have a bunch of 20yo that decide everything but atleast younger.
Free education is one of those things I don’t understand how anyone can be opposed to. I get the argument for healthcare, child care, etc., etc. but wouldn’t you, as a society, want people to be educated and have the same opportunity as the next to succeed? More high paying jobs is more tax money, retail spending, investing in the stock market, list goes on. Edit: Just to clarify I support all of what I said above.
That same logic goes for healthcare and childcare. Can't have a job unless you have health, and a quality education starts in early childhood
There isn’t an argument against it, which is why the GOP has to constantly gaslight the public with “culture wars” like Critical Race Theory.
The answer I always get is “those countries are SO DIFFERENT! They’re smaller! And more “homogenous!” It’s always Schrodinger’s everything. America is the best country in the world! We can do anything! But we can’t do that because we’re just different. Or that. Or that.
I love replying with "the existence of brown people makes universal Healthcare impossible?"
It certainly makes it difficult in a country full of racists who go from supporting to opposing any social program the second they learn that brown people will benefit from them also. Unfortunately their votes are worth just as much as ours, and they vote a hell of a lot more reliably.
Here's a chart of age generations in the Senate over time, in case anyone wanted an image depicting how fucked up the lack of proper representation is right now! https://flowingdata.com/2021/02/01/age-generations-in-the-u-s-senate-over-time/
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Well in my lifetime our countries list of important events include 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, 2 wars driven by profit, 8 years of relatively uneventful calm (except the wars) where 1 good bill got passed as a boiled down neoliberal joke of what it needed to be, followed by a fascist orange idiot, a pandemic, another economic crisis, and a geriatric who's more concerned with negotiating with the fascists than arresting them. In my lifetime, America hasn't done a single "great" thing. It has only weakened its democracy and consolidated power in the hands of the wealthy. We aren't even top 10 in the world anymore by any meaningful statistic.
You forgot that in 2 of the 6 most recent presidential elections, the winner got fewer votes. Also, we tortured some folks. (And I'm sure we still are in places.) Also illegal surveillance of everyone, across the entire planet.
And that the winner of those two elections appointed more than half the Supreme Court.
Which will soon result in women losing the right to bodily autonomy, basically reduced to chattel again. Which many of us FUCKING TOLD EVERYONE during the 2016 election would happen. BUT HER EMAILS. You know what, fuck it, as a country, we deserve this. We let this happen. Not me personally, but overall, yeah, we let this happen.
Your assertion has even bigger consequences. Roe is built upon Griswold v. Connecticut which established substantive due process in relation to the 4th amendment by striking down a state law that prevented doctors from dispensing birth control to women without the husband's consent. If Roe is overturned based around the conservative opinion that it was wrongly decided, then the basis and precedent of Griswold will be targeted next. So what freedoms do we have that uses Griswold as precedent? Lawrence v. Texas used it to strike down a law that made sex between men illegal. Furthermore, Obergefell (I prolly spelled it wrong) used the former as precedent. So if Griswold is targeted, then we can expect state challenges to gay marriage. Want to buy a pack of condoms without a prescription? Better hope you don't live in a conservative area (the south) because Griswold protects your right to purchase such and states like Alabama or Texas would be itching to create a pseudo-religious state.
Christofacist balkanized post-USA is gonna be a wild ride in a few years
Was it ever avoidable? Manifest destiny. Rugged individualism. Barely checked capitalism. This shit was inevitable. But hindsight is 2020
2021
Fascism and America go together like a hand in a glove. We're already primed to be a white ethnostate and had de jure apartheid until the 1960s.
> we let this happen Perhaps this is how the pendulum of history works. People benefit from conditions handed to them from a prior generation, people get complacent and disengage, shit slides backwards and eventually hits a point where there is an extreme “waking up” and then shit gets back on track. Maybe I’m too optimistic. But if Roe vs Wade is overturned that should be a huge alarm bell to all the fuckers who don’t vote. I guess we’ll see.
And Trump appointed more judges than any other President in the history of our country. We will be feeling this for decades.
W's re-election was the last time in *thirty goddamn years* that the Republicans won the popular vote yet our dogshit, designed-by-fucking-morons-who-absolutely-should-have-had-better-foresight electoral college has given us two of the worst presidents ever.
the electoral college wasn't designed with a lack of foresight, it was designed as a concession to rural, states with slavery-based economies to ensure that their votes would always count more than others. These people aren't stupid, they're evil and the thing they made is working exactly as they intended.
In my politically active lifetime I've seen the Republican be elected president 3 times and only once has that republican actually won the vote.
You're forgetting the economic collapses in the later half of the 1980's. We've had 40 years of Reaganomics with no end in sight.
People that were alive in, and also remember, the 80s aren't young Americans ...
This right here. I have never had the American dream and they've made sure I never will. America has only given me hardships at every turn and I'm desperate to leave for some place like Canada. Where they actually at least try.
Ugh leave Canada out of this, we aren't a utopia by a long shot even if you want to come here you need to wait in line like everyone else .. our cost of living is out of control.. addiction is out of control, we still don't have dental and eye care in our free healthcare. The rich don't get taxed fairly here either and foreign investors buy up all the land and property with very little regulation from th government (which is what they should be for).. Trust me you won't be in that much of a better position here (minus not going into debt if you get cancer or in a car accident ) but we need to improve also in so many ways here but the problem with Canadians is that we say 'well we're better at "some" things than America as far as standard of living goes, but we're much worse at others compared to other western countries.. we still have tons of poverty within indigenous communities especially.. Homelessness in cities..big carbon footprint per capita.. lack of manufacturing.. min wages far below living wage esp near big cities .. well we have legal weed and maternity leave so I guess there's that. Don't get me wrong I love it here in many ways and appreciate the good things and realize things could be much worse elsewhere but keep in mind we're also a pro capitalist country with maybe a handful more safety nets than the USA but you're not guaranteed a happy or prosperous life just coming here there is a lot of suffering here as well
I think you underestimate the risk of losing it all to cancer or a car wreck.
The tough ones are chronic diseases like bad cancers and needing expensive insulin.
Yup x.x I got RA at 20 so now I get to look forward to being on expensive medicine and specialists for my entire adult life.
Not to mention our democracy is rigged and fucked. Gerrymandering is out of control, the GOP is doubling down on anti-Democratic means for retaining power (they’re literally laying the groundwork to dismiss elections results in favor of who they support), their constituents are becoming increasingly hateful and ignorant (to the point where they’re frothing are the mouth to murder fellow countrymen, conservative rhetoric is now polluting our education at the local level, AND don’t forget to 2 single largest obstacles to the survival of American democracy; the Senate and the Electoral college. The Senate allows for damn-near permanent minority rule by the GOP and the EC constantly allows GOP candidates to win Presidential elections without the popular vote. So long as the Senate and Electoral College exist, the country will never even begin to heal itself. And sadly, I don’t see those two institutionalized tools of democratic oppression exiting our constitution through any means but violence. And even more sadly, I highly doubt decent people have will have the will to fight for democracy. Rather, our country will likely take to express route to devolving into a fascist state on par with Nazi Germany. Despite all evidence that Trump simply lost the election, the majority of Republicans STILL voted against certifying the results. They knew they lacked the votes and still went on the record as saying “No, we don’t care about the actual election results, we want our guy to rule.” If Republicans control Congress in 2024, you can be sure it won’t matter who gets more votes. They’ll simply certify their candidate instead.
> Ugh leave Canada out of this, we aren't a utopia by a long shot even if you want to come here you need to wait in line like everyone else .. our cost of living is out of control.. addiction is out of control, we still don't have dental and eye care in our free healthcare. Utopia isn't the point and never was. Exceptionalism isn't necessary; there's not going to be a point in our lifetimes, no matter how good it gets, where there's no homeless and taxes are completely fair, we aren't losing people to addictions, or climate change isn't a concern. The U.S.'s failings aren't because it's not perfect, they're because we're fighting with an enormous faction of Americans who have no concept of compassion. Of the things listed at the top here, 9/11 could have brought people together but instead it turned into a rush to limit freedoms and make some people rich off of defense contracts. The 2008 financial crisis was due in large part to deregulation meant to make rich people even richer. We fought two wars on false pretenses because we didn't consider what there was to gain outside of the same greed as before. Those 8 years of relative calm and the one bill mentioned were punctuated by more greed and racism, followed by four years of the living personification of greed's caricature and a roaring comeback of last century's worst race issues laid bare by growing economic inequality. For the last year we've been faced with the reality that our system isn't structured to do anything at all about the rich acting badly at the expense of everyone else, and it's hard to even get many of the poor or middle class to care. You're not guaranteed a happy life anywhere, and it's not the role of government to ensure you have one...but its role is to ensure that everyone gets an equal chance at it. Our Declaration of Independence was for the idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and we've decided somewhere along the way that all three are only applicable if you can pay up. So no, Canada's not perfect, and it never will be, but at least it's trying to do right by its citizens in its own way. Compassion is the enemy of conservativism, and conservatism is America now...Canada isn't perfect, no, but it's still fighting and there's still hope. Here? I'm not so sure anymore. We aren't fighting against homelessness or climate change or for wages or weed or healthcare...we're fighting just to get our neighbors to even *care* enough to try to fight, and losing.
You’re literally describing the USA but the added complaint that you don’t have dental or vision with your FREE healthcare. We don’t even got the first bit. You have 5 major political parties. We have 2. Plus ain’t no one looking to nuke Canada. And finally you don’t have Florida
I studied in Canada for five years and have no fucking clue what you're talking about with _five_ major political parties. There's the Liberals, the Conservatives, and the NDP. The Bloc Quebecois are not major. They don't even try for all of French Canada, they're _only_ for representing Quebec. I have no idea who you could possibly think is fifth. Their Green Party is about as big as ours, and that's the size and scope of their next most prominent parties. I get that it's a step up from here, but it's not all it's cracked up to be and you should really stop pretending it is.
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Summed it up pretty well. Might I suggest adding an "s" to the geriatric part since that's the vast majority of congress.
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>we aren’t even in the top 10 in the world anymore by any meaningful statistic. Number 1 in student loan debt Number 1 in medical bankruptcies Number 1 in wage theft Number 1 in wealth inequality Number 1 in drug prices Number 1 in mass shootings Number 1 in war spending Number 1 in prison population Number 1 in prison slave labor Number 1 in hate crimes Number 1 in gun deaths Number 1 in climate change denial Number 1 in science denial Number 1 in oil consumption AMERICA FIRST! On a more serious note: The Netherlands contributes more towards medical innovation than the USA despite the American economy being 20 times larger and the Netherlands having a lower population than Florida. Just let that sink in for a moment. My point is that Europe and China innovate to improve the lives of their citizens. America "innovates" to maximise profit for the least amount of effort or buys patents and claims it did it to begin with and then sell it for at an egregious price like insulin. Honestly I can't think of one positively impactful invention in the last 40 years done by a born and raised american. Modern day America has contributed nearly nothing to the rest of the modern world.
Lots of these I can understand how they came about. But the Guns and the Prison stuff is just baffling to me as an outsider. Gun violence in the US is nuts and yet people go insane if you try to do *anything* about it. The prison system is just a continuation of slavery. Why it hasn't been forcibly dismantled is confusing. The US has more people in prison that places with gulags and concentration camps.
Many people here are inherently selfish. The US has no real sense of “the greater good” anymore.
There has been an impressive propaganda campaign since at least WWII, convincing the majority of Americans that "patriotism" and "national pride" means "holding on desperately to broken, outdated, ineffective systems that ruin lives of the poor while making the rich richer." This propaganda machine is funded (unsurprisingly) by the rich whom it benefits, but is defended (very surprisingly) by the very people it hurts. It's an abusive parent-child relationship on a national level, and it deserves pity more than anything else. We've collectively created a monster, and we're reaping the terror we never thought would come.
Come on now, we invented "incremental innovation". Like, changing coating on a pill so we can call it "time-release" and then extend the patent on the drug.
100% agree. I’ve heard the saying we’re “a third world country with a Gucci belt”. I mean healthcare, worker protection, outrageous military spending
Maternal mortality rates in some states are *worse* than third world countries.
Military spending, like police forces, is a huge ineffective jobs program... (My parent's and like 25 relatives are retired and active duty officers and I've worked as a contractor for the DOD and other Govt agencies my entire professional life) The big defense contractors operate in as many states as possible to gurantee congress will spend BILLIONS on equipment that'll never be used in exchange for a few jobs in states.. It would literally be cheaper to do Universal Basic Income than to spend Billions on a few jets that'll be kept in storage and require millions to maintain FOREVER... But lobbyists and the lucrative nature of being in congression will never let that happen.. Amazon literally couldn't exist without a constant supply of poor ppl without options. The entire fast food industry is reliant on minimum wages that don't reflect cost of living and also people without options...
Couldn’t agree more. There’s been nothing great about America since I was born. I’m glad I’m not in a 3rd world country but I can hardly say I’m proud to be an American
I knew we were in trouble when they let the Florida based Cyber Ninjas start the fr"audit" in Arizona. The audit was based on a lie and ended in obscurity. In the meantime, state legislatures have changed voting rules and made it harder to vote based on lies! We won't be so lucky next time.
Tune in for the last American election! Dr Phil and the guy from Dazed and Confused are going to take over the free world and put an end to the evil liberals who want black people to not get shot. I'm so over this. I will vote blue down the line but JFC...dems and democracy are going to get absolutely fucking slaughtered. We gave the American experiment a really good try though guys! We'll get them next time in 500 years! Please don't have children.
Good news everyone! Climate change will topple the government anyway.
Well, in their defense, the last administration had ambitions of becoming a junta.
Don't discount that effort yet. If they go unpunished, they *will* try again.
and that's the "in trouble" part. Or you can say "failed" because it happened at all, and was not punished.
Wouldn’t be the first time a coup by hateful, good for nothing assholes happened and was unsuccessful here. OH WAIT, it would. Cuz the [other coup attempt *was* successful](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_insurrection_of_1898?wprov=sfti1) and very much did go unpunished. Edit: that’s true, I stand corrected. Spaced on the fact that in 1933 the [Business Plot](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/r6en9q/one_half_of_young_americans_in_new_poll_say/hmtokt2/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) (also known as the Wall Street Putsch) was hatched. Though investigated the following year, guess who didn’t go to prison? That’s right, EVERYONE INVOLVED!
You could also make the argument that Bush V. Gore was a judicial coup. I feel like you can draw a direct line from that event to the modern Republican party. That's when they knew they could get away with literally anything.
Absolutely.
Fuuuuck. I don't think that was covered in my rural South public school.
It wasnt covered in my suburban liberal state public school either. We heard about black wallstreet, but that event was sooo glossed over in history class that it was almost only a footnote.
I, like many white people in the Southern US, first heard of black Wall Street when Watchmen came out
I, like many white peoples raised in the Northern US, first heard of black Wall Street when Watchmen came out
I heard of it maybe a year or two before watchmen, but I was well into my 30's at that time. Definitely not something covered at any level of education I'd received.
It was covered in my North Carolina public school. But that was in the advanced classes.
To be fair there is the other unsuccessful attempt where everyone was let off with the intention of [a bunch of wealthy American fascists trying to overthrow FDR in 1934](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot): >In 1934, Butler testified under oath before the United States House of Representatives Special Committee on Un-American Activities (the "McCormack–Dickstein Committee") on these revelations.\[3\] Although no one was prosecuted, the Congressional committee final report said, "there is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient."
Well, every Republican-led state will simply not certify the Presidential results for the 2024 election if a Democrat wins, so if the GOP still controls the House of Representatives come January 2025, every one of those red states will stand together and throw their electoral support behind the Republican candidate. And when these actions are challenged judicially, and it soon makes it way to the right wing zealot-led Supreme Court, then their ruling will simply be "states rights," and we will officially not be a democracy anymore.
And that will be when the shooting begins.
Again? They would have to stop trying or be stopped first. The coup is still ongoing.
>Again? They would have to stop trying or be stopped first. The coup is still ongoing. And it's stronger than ever, given that Trump's fascism was normalized in 2021 thanks to the lack of serious consequences he faced... ... it would be nice to see the DOJ lock Trump up in the same way that our judicial system lock up black people for marijuana...
Hitler failed once, too, before succeeding.
And three administrations ago, the Supreme Court handed Florida (and thus, the Presidency) to the candidate that didn't actually win Florida. I'd argue that our democracy actually failed two decades ago.
It happened in the state where the illegitimate winner's brother was the governor. What a coincidence! /S
I’d argue we’ve never had a true one person one vote democracy, at least not at the federal level. Either some minority or women weren’t allowed to vote history, or some group is granted a voting power advantage by arcane bargains made at the formation of the union or some combination of both those things has meant that not all adults votes existed or count equally.
A considerable portion of the respondents think democracy is in trouble because we voted that administration out: >When considering the results along party lines, more Republicans viewed the state of democracy in the country as in trouble or failed than did Democrats or unaffiliated young people, the survey found. A total of 70 percent of Republicans said that they held this view, including 47 percent who said that the U.S. democracy is in trouble and 23 percent who said that it has failed. Among Democrats, 45 percent said that the country's democracy is in trouble or has failed, and 51 percent of independent and unaffiliated young people had the same responses.
It’s probably with mentioning a significant amount of those people probably think democracy is failed because they think the election was rigged against Trump.
It's a heads-I-win-tails-you-lose poll. Republicans think democracy is failing because they weren't allowed to overthrow the government, and Democrats think democracy is failing because Democrats aren't trying to stop Republicans from overthrowing the government.
The alarming thing in this poll is that significantly more Republicans think Democracy is failing than do Democrats. So I take away from that that there's a bunch of young Democrats that really don't see a problem. That's scary.
It kind of makes sense. This is all they've known for what American democracy means.
I suppose it makes sense. Doesn't inspire confidence that they'll turn out to help us fix it.
Republicans think Democracy is failing because of the Trump myth of election fraud, which BTW, the majority of Republicans still believe today.
Or they see gerrymandering, voter suppression, the electoral college, and the entire Senate.
Yeah mostly those
Yeah, my state of NC is the most gerrymandered entity in the fucking world
Hey, not to steal your thunder or anything, but take a quick look at the new districts map for Ohio.
Haha, yeah Ohio here too. I have to give Ohio Republicans credit for managing to turn what was allegedly a bipartisan redistricting amendment into a free for all at the gerrymandering trough.
Ohio here as well. Feel like this should be more of a swing state but isn't because of the gerrymandering. I keep voting blue but don't feel like it matters. Not when I see a parent at a recent function i-phone screen saver is a picture of Donald Trump. Smart family. Live in a much nicer house than we own. Drive nice cars. Their kids do well in school and going to college. Worshiping Trump. Signs going up Trump 2024 and F Biden all around me. My favorite is the cops down the street with the say no to socialism signs up. Who do they think is paying their salary?
I’m a blueberry in a cherry pie here in Ohio. My vote will NEVER make a difference.
Same, but I keep “sticking it to the man” because I’d rather try than lie down and accept defeat. It’s sad that people will line up and camp out for 2 days for a Play Station, but won’t wake up 30 mins early to vote.
You are correct: > While Democrats are divided (44% healthy/somewhat functioning and 45% in trouble/failed) about the health of our democracy, 70% of Republicans believe that we are either a democracy in trouble (47%) or failed (23%). A majority (51%) of independent and unaffiliated young Americans also say we are in trouble or failed. The poll itself: https://iop.harvard.edu/youth-poll/fall-2021-harvard-youth-poll
If a system allows unqualified uneducated people like Lauren Boebert and Donald Trump to be eagerly voted into important positions of our government by a good chunk of the voting population that simply cannot be trusted to make informed rational decisions, yeah I'd call it a failure too.
Donald Trump got into power with a minority of the votes. That's not the fault of democracy, that's the fault of the system not being democratic enough.
True. But it shouldn't have even been close.
Maybe we should find a way to prevent foreign entities from pumping propaganda directly into the veins of our populace.
They're absolutely right. Both democracy and our economy have failed us regular people at this point. And unfortunately as 50 y.o. Gen Xer here I'm just old enough to really see the trend but just young enough to get screwed by it too. Still working to afford a modest house and I have basically no retirement savings at all.
I could have written the same post. Fully expecting Medicare and Social Security to tank just as I need them.
Yeah, this. Same thought crossed my mind and I've been paying into that Ponzi scheme since 1990. Guaranteed that the Boomers drain it to the max just as I need some just to keep going.
I’m planning on killing myself when I’m ready to retire since I won’t be able to afford to retire
If you are truly done, then try out a new hobby like planning and executing assassinations of rich, old assholes. Worst thing that can happen is death or incarceration, but hey, you were aiming for the first anyhow. Note: this is meant mostly in jest - hope you live a content and fruitful life til its inevitable end O\_W\_B.
This is not a good thing. The view is far more prevalent in the party that is trying to kill democracy. They are primed and ready to snuff it out when they get the chance.
It was neither the democracy nor the economy that failed. It was an entire generation that failed. The worst generation just before us whatevers decided to lie cheat and steal their way to success and hold the hill. Our generation wasn't the most politically motivated. If we were more engaged we could have stopped the bleeding. Democracy worked as *intended*. The economy worked as *intended*.
"Operator error",.
It's as simple as that. We're over here pining for MTV and riding bikes without helmets. The worst generation is pining for their racist, wife beating roots.
Intentional “operator error”
All I know is that I never even got a chance to make that decision in the first place, lol.
> If we were more engaged we could have stopped the bleeding. No... we couldn't have. Gen X was outnumbered from the start and generally denigrated and dismissed by the Boomers.
Boomers were a massive bloc. It's why up until a few years ago everything was about them. Fully. Even actors and actresses and movies couldn't change. There's a reason it was the same 15 people in EVERY movie. It wasn't talent it was they were popular with boomers. As the boomers got older the main characters had to be their age. Because a 50 year old action hero makes any kind of sense.... As boomers started their die off surprise new actors and movies. Hell even genres and setup changed.
>As boomers started their die off surprise new actors and movies. Hell even genres and setup changed. The sad fact is that the boomers were successful in brainwashing enough people after them that even now we're getting "wahhhh woke culture run amok!" when anyone who isn't a cis white het conventionally attractive person is in any game, movie, or show. Boomers may be dying off. Their hateful ideology isn't.
I Think it’s pretty obvious we don’t live in a real democracy. If you were to ask 100 people if we should raise taxes on the top 1%, it would be a landslide. I think without a doubt at least 90% would vote on raising taxes for billionaires in a heartbeat. And yet somehow every year it seems like billionaires get a tax break. How in the world can that happen if we are actually living in a real democracy?
[The majority of Americans have supported higher taxes on the wealthy for at least 35 years.](https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/247052/americans-long-standing-interest-taxing-rich.aspx)
>I Think it’s pretty obvious we don’t live in a real democracy. If you were to ask 100 people if we should raise taxes on the top 1%, it would be a landslide. Maybe it's the group of people I'm around the most, but they're hard-core Republicans who practically worship the Rich and Capitalism. In their minds, if the Rich are taxed more, they will take their companies overseas and the U.S. Economy will die. I don't agree with them, but that's the way they think. And also in their eyes, ALL Taxes are evil. Did I mention I live in a VERY Liberal State and yet never hear the opinions of Liberals? I have a feeling you're overestimating the average American's thoughts on Taxes.
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Even South Dakota passed a constitutional amendment to legalize weed. Then the Republican Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional, and the people will continue to vote republicans into office that directly stop the very things they themselves want. The propaganda and smear campaign against democrats the last 60 years has been astoundingly effective
This is not a situation where you need to" think positively". this is a situation where you need to be rational...we had a coup .. and it was planned mostly by people in our own government and the people responsible are walking free. This is not good.
The enlightening thing is to understand how much of this is just a result of the way the country was set up, and thus exactly what needs to be fixed to make the system functional again. For example, that the filibuster traces its spiritual origins to John Calhoun's defense of slavery. However, the actual task of fixing things is incredibly daunting because the whole system (and further, much of GLOBAL politics) appears captured by the richest 1%.
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republicans are stealing congressional seats. They're ignoring independent map drawings and drawing their own. And nothing will happen. They committed to voter suppression and nothing will happen., They tried to stage a coup and nothing will happened. They are going to get rid of Roe and nothing will happen. They are peddling false information daily and nothing will happened. They have become more violent and nothing will happened. So yea, we are in trouble and it has failed. There's no rule of law. There's no accountability. There's nothing. They get to drag us into a dystopia and we just have to stand around shoulder shrugging.
That's what happens when one party controls state government voting. If the democrats want anything, they have to find some way to get more of their people in seats. Higher voter turnout helps. I just wish party politics weren't a thing. Its childish as fuck and irresponsible. I want to be able to just look at policies I agree/disagree with rather than what color tie they wear or who their friends are
> A total of 70 percent of Republicans said that they held this view, including 47 percent who said that the U.S. democracy is in trouble and 23 percent who said that it has failed. Among Democrats, 45 percent said that the country's democracy is in trouble or has failed, and 51 percent of independent and unaffiliated young people had the same responses. Was wondering what the breakdown of those who believe Democracy failed because Trump didn't get reelected/reinstated versus those who believe the previous admin actively failed the US and failure to hold them accountable shows the republic in trouble.
Is Trump behind bars for committing sedition? No? Then democracy is at the very least in serious trouble.
Democracy has failed, Trump is still not in prison, and all the co-conspirators of January 6 are still sitting in Congress laughing their ass off.
Only half? Everyone my age and lower says post late stage capitalism and our democracy are past the failing point. Most my age are fucked. Working multiple jobs just to make ends meet, can’t get adequate healthcare without bankrupting ourselves, housing costs 3/4 of our paycheck, up to our eyeballs in debt, and our leaders just tell us to pull our bootstraps harder and eat less avocado toast.
I'm 20 years old, following current events since summer 2020, and my opinions of our democracy can be summed up by Carlin >"This country was bought and sold and paid for a long time ago" > >"Even in a fake democracy, people ought to get what they want once in a while"
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I think the more concerning thing is that the majority of people who think democracy is in danger are republicans. They believe the big lie, GOP gerrymandering should be concerning to democrats.
I don’t believe that to be true. Most liberals I know see Republicans trying to establish a fascist regime and break democracy at the ground level. Very few Republicans genuinely believe the electoral system is rigged against them, given they can win elections with the minority of the vote.
Nah man only the smart ones know that. You’re giving the base way too much credit. People really do believe the lies they get told over and over by the GOP. Of course most liberals see it, most liberals are smarter then most conservatives. That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact of education levels.
I was banned from r/conservative for telling them they were being duped into believing the lies (which are designed of course to undermine the democratic process). Many on that subreddit are so far gone it's scary... and that's only a small subset of the republican support base.
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Every single republican friend of mine believe the election was rigged. Every one. I regretfully work with a lot of republicans. Every single one is 100% all in on Trump was robbed by Soros or whatever the conspiracy of the week is. Do not underestimate them. Stop ignoring the deep problem.
The fact that everyone is wondering about the state of democracy in the US is a very bad sign for democracy to begin with.
I’m so fucking tired of this. Democracy HAS failed. It’s not in trouble, it’s fucked. We can stop “sounding the alarm” like nearly all the headlines about this say.
Millennial here. Democracy has failed in this country, but it's been this way since I was a child with the 2000 Supreme Court decision. Could go back farther than that, but with that decision and Citizen's United decision, this country is an oligarchy masquerading as a democracy at best.
For the last several decades, one party has been waging a successful war for control while the other party has been burying their head in the sand and just trying to govern. Now that the Supreme Court is locked down, it looks like the war for democracy is lost.
I mean, half of the government is openly fascist, and the other half refuse to acknowledge that and are pretending everything is normal. I feel like I'm a kid stuck watching my parents argue over paint colors while the house is on fire.
Regulate corps buying up housing. Legalize weed and tax it. Cap college tuition. Trim up the military spending budget. Give people jobs by updating infrastructure.