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The scale of the protests means the protests are already working. They’re as much about spreading awareness and mobilizing the voting public as they are about

The scale of the protests means the protests are already working. They’re as much about spreading awareness and mobilizing the voting public as they are about current events. I don’t see a connection between their efficacy and what happened in Minnesota, which was an event that is arguably all the more reason to protest.

nemomarx 1y ago
Good strategy if voting is still allowed in 2028, not super useful if political violence bubbles over into a coup or such. The scale of the protests is encouraging, but I remember the mass protests under Bush were about as large, and the war continued and he stayed in power. Organization needs to do something with the mass of people who are out in the streets to direct them.
- bobthepanda 1y ago
  The real bellwether will be what happens in House elections in 2026. Trump was already divisive enough that the Republican majority in the House shrank in 2024.
  - Tadpole9181 1y ago
    And yet they hold every single branch of government.
    - ethbr1 1y ago
      The chance to fix that is in 2026 at the ballot, and preparation every day until then. The whole "there won't be elections" hysteria is exactly because the current MAGA movement is scared shitless of being rejected again. Furthermore, if Trump-y candidates do poorly in 2026, he'll be a lame duck president with little political clout for his final 2 years. Politicians are many things, but charitable to unpopular people without power is not one of them.
      - NemoNobody 1y ago
        Well said - this is exactly what we have to do. The Blue Wave is coming - every state.
        Tadpole9181 1y ago
        Like the Blue Wave I was promised in 2024? When we took the house or senate or presidency? Invigorated, of course, by the Presidential candidate threatening war on allies, the revocation of addition rights (following the death of RvW), etc?
        computerthings 1y ago
        [dead]
      - Tadpole9181 1y ago
        I mean, I'm voting and I'll tell everyone to vote. Support my preferences publicly, of course. But given the combined discrepancy between Harris vs the Attorney General in every single county of NC, the Elon contact for those voting machines, and Trump saying it out loud, I'm kind of at the point I'm not sure if the last election was legitimate. I don't have a lot of hope for 2026 or 228 since we're already past "the US military is deployed against its own citizens and make an extra-constitutonal arrest" stage with no consequences. Also the "disobey the Supreme Court" stage. But I guess we'll see and it'll be a great day to be proven wrong. Though, I hardly even called America a democracy before that given the intense Gerrymandering, a lack of an established right/obligation to vote, and completely disproportionate representation in legislation. The whole system is a joke in it's design.
        ethbr1 1y ago
        Some wisdom: There are and have always been problems with American democracy. Yet at the end of the day vote counts and protest counts are the things that change the country's trajectory. Part of the toxicness of current news media is the "And this can never be changed" doomerism. Bullshit. Everything can be changed. It just takes action and convincing others to take action.
    - matthewdgreen 1y ago
      And this was their chance to demonstrate that they could govern, maybe even grow their gains with some demographics. They're not doing that at all.
      - Tadpole9181 1y ago
        Like every other time? I'm not holding my breath. They're not even bothering to condemn a political assassination anymore.
    - NemoNobody 1y ago
      Ah, and secured the Blue Team Generational power - tbh, with how liberal this country is going to become overnight, all this might be worth it. The last gasp of conservativism.
- miki123211 1y ago
  Voting is always allowed. No matter how corrupt the country, no matter if it's ruled by a dictator, even in a "Free Democratic Union of Independent People's Republics", there's always going to be an election sooner or later. Whether the elections are fair and the opposition is even allowed to field a candidate... now that's a different story.
- NemoNobody 1y ago
  Why did you pick Marx? Rhetoric doesn't match. Marx literally said that the only for the working class to overthrow their oppressors (business owners) was to make them not a live. He was very radical.
  - nemomarx 1y ago
    I find Capital to be a fairly moderate look at the situation - a lot of it is essentially an economics textbook. Marx was almost an optimist compared to the power capital has today, if you look at his predictions.
abeppu 1y ago
Working to accomplish what goal for whom? I think largely they have not yet been effective at protecting immigrants. > They’re as much about spreading awareness and mobilizing the voting public as they are about current events. Right, so to some degree they "work" as tools for existing political groups in attracting attention, resources and possibly votes. But does it better enable those groups to actually help immigrants? Or does it just give political organizations a powerful talking point in the midterms?
- pjc50 1y ago
  The latter is probably the strongest route to actually doing something, because there's no accountability within the system until both Senate and House have flipped D.

nemomarx 1y ago

Good strategy if voting is still allowed in 2028, not super useful if political violence bubbles over into a coup or such. The scale of the protests is encouraging, but I remember the mass protests under Bush were about as large, and the war continued and he stayed in power. Organization needs to do something with the mass of people who are out in the streets to direct them.

bobthepanda 1y ago
The real bellwether will be what happens in House elections in 2026. Trump was already divisive enough that the Republican majority in the House shrank in 2024.
- Tadpole9181 1y ago
  And yet they hold every single branch of government.
  - ethbr1 1y ago
    The chance to fix that is in 2026 at the ballot, and preparation every day until then. The whole "there won't be elections" hysteria is exactly because the current MAGA movement is scared shitless of being rejected again. Furthermore, if Trump-y candidates do poorly in 2026, he'll be a lame duck president with little political clout for his final 2 years. Politicians are many things, but charitable to unpopular people without power is not one of them.
    - NemoNobody 1y ago
      Well said - this is exactly what we have to do. The Blue Wave is coming - every state.
      - Tadpole9181 1y ago
        Like the Blue Wave I was promised in 2024? When we took the house or senate or presidency? Invigorated, of course, by the Presidential candidate threatening war on allies, the revocation of addition rights (following the death of RvW), etc?
      - computerthings 1y ago
        [dead]
    - Tadpole9181 1y ago
      I mean, I'm voting and I'll tell everyone to vote. Support my preferences publicly, of course. But given the combined discrepancy between Harris vs the Attorney General in every single county of NC, the Elon contact for those voting machines, and Trump saying it out loud, I'm kind of at the point I'm not sure if the last election was legitimate. I don't have a lot of hope for 2026 or 228 since we're already past "the US military is deployed against its own citizens and make an extra-constitutonal arrest" stage with no consequences. Also the "disobey the Supreme Court" stage. But I guess we'll see and it'll be a great day to be proven wrong. Though, I hardly even called America a democracy before that given the intense Gerrymandering, a lack of an established right/obligation to vote, and completely disproportionate representation in legislation. The whole system is a joke in it's design.
      - ethbr1 1y ago
        Some wisdom: There are and have always been problems with American democracy. Yet at the end of the day vote counts and protest counts are the things that change the country's trajectory. Part of the toxicness of current news media is the "And this can never be changed" doomerism. Bullshit. Everything can be changed. It just takes action and convincing others to take action.
  - matthewdgreen 1y ago
    And this was their chance to demonstrate that they could govern, maybe even grow their gains with some demographics. They're not doing that at all.
    - Tadpole9181 1y ago
      Like every other time? I'm not holding my breath. They're not even bothering to condemn a political assassination anymore.
  - NemoNobody 1y ago
    Ah, and secured the Blue Team Generational power - tbh, with how liberal this country is going to become overnight, all this might be worth it. The last gasp of conservativism.
miki123211 1y ago
Voting is always allowed. No matter how corrupt the country, no matter if it's ruled by a dictator, even in a "Free Democratic Union of Independent People's Republics", there's always going to be an election sooner or later. Whether the elections are fair and the opposition is even allowed to field a candidate... now that's a different story.
NemoNobody 1y ago
Why did you pick Marx? Rhetoric doesn't match. Marx literally said that the only for the working class to overthrow their oppressors (business owners) was to make them not a live. He was very radical.
- nemomarx 1y ago
  I find Capital to be a fairly moderate look at the situation - a lot of it is essentially an economics textbook. Marx was almost an optimist compared to the power capital has today, if you look at his predictions.

abeppu 1y ago

Working to accomplish what goal for whom? I think largely they have not yet been effective at protecting immigrants. > They’re as much about spreading awareness and mobilizing the voting public as they are about current events. Right, so to some degree they "work" as tools for existing political groups in attracting attention, resources and possibly votes. But does it better enable those groups to actually help immigrants? Or does it just give political organizations a powerful talking point in the midterms?

pjc50 1y ago
The latter is probably the strongest route to actually doing something, because there's no accountability within the system until both Senate and House have flipped D.