The US is more akin to Russia or Poland than it is to Western Europe in terms of democratic freedoms. I can't speak to Indiana specifically but Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, and more all have the GOP entrenched in power in some way or another. There's gerrymandering, restrictive voter ID laws, and a few places it's now illegal to hand water out to people in line to vote.
Would it be fair to say that PIC Abolition wouldn't mean no one is ever held against their will for the protection of other people? Just that it would be for the shortest possible term and free of cruelty?
While I'm not sure if you're accurately portraying their position (i havent seen this myself), you have a point with this question that I'd also like an answer to.
If it were reversed, Trump would be bullying the GOP senators in his way (and he might even pull a couple of Democrat votes because they lack party unity)
I feel like they DO create change in our country, and if they're not stopped they will one day be successful in making it illegal to be anything besides monogamous, Christian, and straight.
I've been seeing a lot of reactions to this news that range from "Haha, get what you fuckin' deserve you fucking wannabe tradwives" to "oh sure, NOW they can't stomach being in the Republican party now that they've been impacted" and I totally get it, but I primarily see an opportunity to use this to start to get them to critically evaluate their worldview and beliefs by pointing out how its the result of the things the left opposes.
What makes you think he'll use those tools when he won't use the ones he already has? This is like when the police say they need more resources in order to tackle police brutality.
My point wasn't to say that they're one and the same. I just think that any American politician who isn't actively trying to abolish the Department of Homeland Security and permanently repeal the PATRIOT Act has no business condemning authoritarianism. I think that defending Biden or a Democrat for this reinforces the idea that it is somehow different or indicative of something else when we do it vs when China does it.
It reflects a worldview that the US is neutral/good at its core, one that I don't share given what I know about US history. It's barely qualified as a liberal democracy for most of its history/
When book bans happen in the US, western media doesn't frame it as an inevitable outcome in a country with a long history of right-wing nationalism, unlike when book bans happen in China, where it's framed as a product of communism/socialism.
Likewise, the US prison population is framed as a mistake, an error, something that "shouldn't happen" in a "free country", when it's literally a legacy of Jim Crow laws (which themselves get framed in US history/media as a regrettable period, and not something that is inherently a product of the United States' ruling social and political class).
Lastly, the US state of Florida is already practically a single-party regime under Desantis. He's actively trying to purge the Universities down there, which is something straight out of 1930s Germany.
Yes, this is why we must unequivocally support the guy who couldn't get any laws passed to protect against said RW fascist insurgency. The guy who can't get his own party to pass voting rights expansion. The guy with no plan to counter the hijacked Supreme Court, and who has steadfastly refused to develop one. Yup, this is the guy that'll stop American Fascism.
Do what it does whenever a Republican is in office: bully the holdouts of their own party standing in the way of their agendas. When Trump's legislative agenda was imperilled, he used Twitter to the point where a whole generation of GOP legislators decided not to run for re-election.
Every time Manchin and Sinema held up his agenda in 2021, he should have been hitting the airwaves and social media every day to single them out BY NAME for holding up what he was elected to do.
"we're under a fascist insurgency and we must ensure that the GOP doesn't gain the White House, this is why we must vote for a politician who refuses to do anything to prevent this insurgency from gaining strength like expanding the court or making abortion available on federal land and who refused to use their constitutional authority to prevent giving the House GOP any concessions on the budget/debt ceiling"
Democrats also chase after middle class votes when they should be in every fast food joint, retail chain, and other shitty minimum wage job, advocating for inflation-tied minimum wage increases, strengthened protections for organized labor, etc.
(they don't do this because they are a centrist party that doesn't want the US to have the quality of life enjoyed by those in Western Europe)
This idea that "oh if there's any liberals left" is so smug and to me, is part of the reason why Florida and many other GOP-ruled states are where they are. The idea that the people who don't like these regimes will move to New York, Illinois, or California is out of touch and absurd.
With trans people alone, it's estimated that 1.2-1.8% of the population of the US is trans. Florida's population is 22.25 million. 400,000+ people should not have to become refugees in their own country. This cannot be the "response" to these laws.
Florida is a fascist State, and I wish people would adopt the attitude toward "regime change" that they have for Russia when talking about Desantis.
It seems like the best response to Republican gerrymandering to use the overly broad powers of the veto over there to gut their agenda as best you can as a Democratic governor. People should expect and want their political representatives to do everything with the power they have to enact the ideology they claim to represent.
The US is more akin to Russia or Poland than it is to Western Europe in terms of democratic freedoms. I can't speak to Indiana specifically but Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, and more all have the GOP entrenched in power in some way or another. There's gerrymandering, restrictive voter ID laws, and a few places it's now illegal to hand water out to people in line to vote.