4 ms·

Honestly, our legal remedies are quite limited: 1. All three branches of government are controlled by the MAGA Party. I call it the MAGA Party, not the Repub

Honestly, our legal remedies are quite limited: 1. All three branches of government are controlled by the MAGA Party. I call it the MAGA Party, not the Republican Party, since the Republican Party has long been purged of serious Never Trumper opposition. 2. There are not enough Democrats in Congress to impeach and convict Trump of any unconstitutional acts. 3. There is no mechanism available to recall congresspeople or to trigger a special election, and the next election of congresspeople isn’t until November 2026, a year and a half away. 4. I live in a blue state (California) with blue representatives (San Francisco Bay Area) at the federal level. What good would it do me to write senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla or congressman Mark DeSaulnier? 5. The people who have the most power to change things are people who have red representatives, since they have the 2026 midterm elections to worry about. However, many of the people living in such districts voted for Trump and are largely on board with the MAGA agenda. Why would they write their representatives? 6. We could protest through demonstrations and boycotts, but the protests need to be effective in order for them to not simply be demonstrative. Moreover, protests run the risk of getting hijacked by extremists and saboteurs, and authoritarians love exploiting crises to crack down on dissent. Protesting could be a potential trap. It’s a very bleak situation right now due to MAGA’s control over all three branches of government. The best we could hope for is: 1. Start planning for the 2026 elections NOW! Elections cost a lot of money and require a lot of planning. If MAGA loses control of Congress in January 2027, this could add a much-needed check to MAGA and could help with the 2028 election season. 2. With the way Trump, Elon, and others in power are carrying on, eventually segments of the MAGA voter base will be harmed by MAGA policies. I particularly see Trump’s tariffs to be quite painful. If enough Republican voters start openly expressing their discontent for MAGA policies, then this is a chance for MAGA to lose absolute control of power in January 2027.

sitkack 2y ago
Chuck "Vichy Democrat" Schumer really removed the only lever that the opposition party had, at all. https://www.reddit.com/r/50501/comments/1jatnk4/chuck_schumers_betrayal_a_slap_in_the_face_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/50501/comments/1jatnk4/chuck_schume... https://www.npr.org/2025/03/13/nx-s1-5327600/house-democrats-outrage-spending https://www.npr.org/2025/03/13/nx-s1-5327600/house-democrats... This is the worse thing to happen to the US since Trump got back into office.
- telotortium 2y ago
  Schumer had no leverage. If the budget had not passed, Musk and DOGE would have used that as a excuse to purge even more government employees.
  - sitkack 2y ago
    They needed democrats to vote to pass the CR. A government shutdown would be better than give them a rubber stamp. You are parroting lies.
  - voidhorse 2y ago
    This was the excuse, but it doesn't hold water. The admin were actively trying to get people to endorse the CR. Arguably, the shut down would have been enough of a limit point and potential catastrophe that they would not have been able to actually use it to effect a "takeover"—instead it might've been the necessary fuel to effect a turning point toward restricting some of these efforts—they know they cannot gut everything, the goal is to keep a skeleton in place so that they can keep up the appearance of "improvement" while they dismantle, a full shut down would have made that parlor trick ineffective. I don't know if Schumer had other motivations or if he just made the biggest blunder of his political career, either way it has not turned out well for him—not only are people actively calling for him to be replaced, it's clear that history will not remember this supposedly necessary shut down prevention as something "heroic".

sitkack 2y ago

Chuck "Vichy Democrat" Schumer really removed the only lever that the opposition party had, at all. https://www.reddit.com/r/50501/comments/1jatnk4/chuck_schumers_betrayal_a_slap_in_the_face_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/50501/comments/1jatnk4/chuck_schume... https://www.npr.org/2025/03/13/nx-s1-5327600/house-democrats-outrage-spending https://www.npr.org/2025/03/13/nx-s1-5327600/house-democrats... This is the worse thing to happen to the US since Trump got back into office.

telotortium 2y ago
Schumer had no leverage. If the budget had not passed, Musk and DOGE would have used that as a excuse to purge even more government employees.
- sitkack 2y ago
  They needed democrats to vote to pass the CR. A government shutdown would be better than give them a rubber stamp. You are parroting lies.
- voidhorse 2y ago
  This was the excuse, but it doesn't hold water. The admin were actively trying to get people to endorse the CR. Arguably, the shut down would have been enough of a limit point and potential catastrophe that they would not have been able to actually use it to effect a "takeover"—instead it might've been the necessary fuel to effect a turning point toward restricting some of these efforts—they know they cannot gut everything, the goal is to keep a skeleton in place so that they can keep up the appearance of "improvement" while they dismantle, a full shut down would have made that parlor trick ineffective. I don't know if Schumer had other motivations or if he just made the biggest blunder of his political career, either way it has not turned out well for him—not only are people actively calling for him to be replaced, it's clear that history will not remember this supposedly necessary shut down prevention as something "heroic".