Oh I wouldn’t bet a dollar on being able to convince Americans they have other options, despite them having a system where basically anyone can run for office. They’re completely enraptured with the consensus reality you express here and the political system is designed to keep them engaged in it. Only when you lose faith in this reality will anything change, the material conditions of your life will convince you.
I think a rather large portion of the population has lost faith in the system, the fact that we all feel like the only thing we’re voting for is “not the handmaid’s tale” as opposed to voting for something speaks volumes. A vote for Democrats today is simply a vote for “Not the Republicans.” We have nothing to vote for and not an insignificant number of us realize that.
We don’t have real options because even though there are other parties we have an entire society built to prevent that, everything from the political parties themselves to the media that keeps the population mislead/underinformed. Our entire society is built to protect the status quo for the wealthy.
I wish all it took was being jaded, we’re well ahead on that one. I think it’s why Trump even exists as a political entity at all, the Republican voters have also given up on the system. I think the problem shows the difference in how we choose to “solve” the issue. “Conservatives,” completely going against their name, want to burn it all to the ground via Trump and start “new.” Democrats seem to believe in some aspects of the system and want to rebuild from within the current structure. The political structures of RNC & DNC obviously want nothing but the status quo.
This all makes a lot of sense. I view the Republicans and Democrats as different aesthetics of the consenting neoliberal economic arrangement, and agree with a notion of post-politics to describe this situation, where politics becomes increasingly engaged in cultural issues since your arrangement in the political economy is no longer up for debate. The neoliberal system is what’s in crisis and is basically running on fumes at this point, no longer sincerely believed in by determining actors within it. As the systemic stresses of degrading neoliberal capitalism turn inward it manifests in different ways politically. Trump doesn’t happen from nothing, there are real systemic anxieties underlying that, the problem for Democrats is any serious acceptance and solution of those anxieties is in conflict with the forces that keep them legitimate. The Republicans accept the brutality of the system as necessary and the Democrats try and put a good brand on it.
To suggest options exist without laying them out suggests your ignorance of reality might be greater than the Americans. How would a people trapped in an externally imposed set of political constraints be able to recognize their alternatives without some more perspective being shared.
The alternatives have been explored from the American perspective. If there is a path we have missed, please enlighten us.
I told you the option, losing faith in this consensus reality, nobody is doing that for you because your faith in it is contingent on the conditions of your life.
Alternatives have been denied by this consensus reality. The Populists of the 19th century had another vision and were promptly dealt with through imposed segregation, a racial and economic order imposed to divide them. Eugene Debs’ vision was dealt with by capital and military interests and internal divisions. Taft-Hartley act denied the power of labor. The red scare eroded class consciousness so you don’t even organize or identify around your economic reality anymore. The neoliberal consensus of the last 50 years between the major parties, the military industrial complex driving your country’s geopolitics, have brought you to the current moment of the social contract eroding.
Oh I wouldn’t bet a dollar on being able to convince Americans they have other options, despite them having a system where basically anyone can run for office. They’re completely enraptured with the consensus reality you express here and the political system is designed to keep them engaged in it. Only when you lose faith in this reality will anything change, the material conditions of your life will convince you.
I think a rather large portion of the population has lost faith in the system, the fact that we all feel like the only thing we’re voting for is “not the handmaid’s tale” as opposed to voting for something speaks volumes. A vote for Democrats today is simply a vote for “Not the Republicans.” We have nothing to vote for and not an insignificant number of us realize that.
We don’t have real options because even though there are other parties we have an entire society built to prevent that, everything from the political parties themselves to the media that keeps the population mislead/underinformed. Our entire society is built to protect the status quo for the wealthy.
I wish all it took was being jaded, we’re well ahead on that one. I think it’s why Trump even exists as a political entity at all, the Republican voters have also given up on the system. I think the problem shows the difference in how we choose to “solve” the issue. “Conservatives,” completely going against their name, want to burn it all to the ground via Trump and start “new.” Democrats seem to believe in some aspects of the system and want to rebuild from within the current structure. The political structures of RNC & DNC obviously want nothing but the status quo.
This all makes a lot of sense. I view the Republicans and Democrats as different aesthetics of the consenting neoliberal economic arrangement, and agree with a notion of post-politics to describe this situation, where politics becomes increasingly engaged in cultural issues since your arrangement in the political economy is no longer up for debate. The neoliberal system is what’s in crisis and is basically running on fumes at this point, no longer sincerely believed in by determining actors within it. As the systemic stresses of degrading neoliberal capitalism turn inward it manifests in different ways politically. Trump doesn’t happen from nothing, there are real systemic anxieties underlying that, the problem for Democrats is any serious acceptance and solution of those anxieties is in conflict with the forces that keep them legitimate. The Republicans accept the brutality of the system as necessary and the Democrats try and put a good brand on it.
To suggest options exist without laying them out suggests your ignorance of reality might be greater than the Americans. How would a people trapped in an externally imposed set of political constraints be able to recognize their alternatives without some more perspective being shared.
The alternatives have been explored from the American perspective. If there is a path we have missed, please enlighten us.
I told you the option, losing faith in this consensus reality, nobody is doing that for you because your faith in it is contingent on the conditions of your life.
Alternatives have been denied by this consensus reality. The Populists of the 19th century had another vision and were promptly dealt with through imposed segregation, a racial and economic order imposed to divide them. Eugene Debs’ vision was dealt with by capital and military interests and internal divisions. Taft-Hartley act denied the power of labor. The red scare eroded class consciousness so you don’t even organize or identify around your economic reality anymore. The neoliberal consensus of the last 50 years between the major parties, the military industrial complex driving your country’s geopolitics, have brought you to the current moment of the social contract eroding.
The main candidates will sue your for running for president. People register for it every year and get sued out of a campaign.