-
3 votes
-
Huey Long, the dictator of Louisiana
3 votes -
A series of articles on the state of American democracy from early 2015 by Vox
American democracy is doomed ('constitutional hardball' is a great way to describe the 'modus operandi' of the Trump-McConnell GOP.) This is how the American system of government will die I found...
American democracy is doomed ('constitutional hardball' is a great way to describe the 'modus operandi' of the Trump-McConnell GOP.)
This is how the American system of government will die
I found their predictions to be kinda interesting (and clearly minimal)
The best-case scenario is that we wind up with an elective dictator but retain peaceful transitions of power. This is where I'd place my bet. Pure parliamentary systems, especially unicameral ones, give high levels of power to the prime minister and his cabinet, and manage to have peaceful transitions nonetheless. The same is true in Brazil, where the presidency is considerably more powerful than it is in the US.
But parliamentary systems also feature parties that are stronger than their leaders, which serve to prevent single individuals from garnering too much power. America's parties are getting more polarized, but they still aren't as strong as those of most other developed nations.
The worst-case scenario is if the presidency attains these powers and someone elected to the office decides to use them to punish political enemies, interfere with elections, suppress dissent, and so forth. Retaining an independent enough judiciary is a guard against this, but only if norms around obeying its rulings are strong. And, unusually, America allows for true independents, undisciplined by their parties, to become heads of government.
The US political system is not gonna collapse. It's gonna muddle though (A pretty interesting take. There are problems but people won't try to fix them but instead become disengaged and kinda forget about it.)
I think one of the things the authors missed while writing these this is how news became partidarized in the same manner, thus allowing outlets like Fox News to just consume the Republican electorate. They also missed how voting has been targeted too, and underestimated how willing the public was to act and how would the public react to this, which was by electing someone who didn't care about said broken Congress (or any sort of constitutionality), which is what became of Trump.
3 votes -
How fast are people returning to pre-COVID lifestyles?
3 votes -
‘Hard stop’: US states could lose National Guard virus workers
7 votes -
Straight talk from ex-CDC for the long slog ahead
5 votes -
What will it take to prevent a new Great Depression in the USA? Around $10,000,000,000,000 (ten trillion dollars)
9 votes -
Why anger against Trump might not be enough for Biden to win
6 votes -
State and federal data on COVID-19 testing don’t match up
8 votes -
US FDA halts coronavirus testing program backed by Bill Gates
8 votes -
It’s time to get on the bidet train, America
19 votes -
Two churches reclose after faith leaders and congregants get coronavirus
10 votes -
US President Donald Trump says he is taking hydroxychloroquine to protect against coronavirus, dismissing safety concerns
21 votes -
Nearly a third of small, independent farmers are facing bankruptcy by the end of 2020, new survey says
6 votes -
Pulling seven G's in an F-16 and going supersonic with US Air Force Thunderbirds
4 votes -
We’ve updated our pollster ratings ahead of the 2020 General Election
8 votes -
Marisa Anderson -- Tiny Desk Concert (2014)
3 votes -
Amid the coronavirus crisis, a regimen for reëntry
6 votes -
Explosive whistleblower complaint by ousted HHS official says he was pressured to give contract to Trump-friendly pharma firm
11 votes -
The coming disruption - Scott Galloway predicts a handful of elite universities and tech companies will soon monopolize higher education
6 votes -
Imperialism is using up the resources that could fight Covid-19
4 votes -
Are older voters turning away from Trump?
10 votes -
America’s largest media labor union launches historic advocacy campaign to save industry: "having robust news operations at the local and state level is fundamentally good for democratic stability."
12 votes -
Remdesivir distribution causes confusion, leaves some hospitals empty-handed
4 votes -
Grading the electoral college: C for chaos
4 votes -
Here’s what an antitrust case against Google might look like: Two DOJ veterans lay out a roadmap for cracking down on the company’s digital advertising juggernaut
4 votes -
Venezuela alleges proof of Juan Guaidó's involvement in foiled coup plot, a legal invoice regarding past due payment to Silvercorp USA
3 votes -
A military contractors’ report circulating on Capitol Hill claims to have evidence that COVID-19 escaped from a Chinese lab. It’s filled with information that’s just plain wrong
5 votes -
The president’s job is to manage risk. But Donald Trump is the risk: Donald Trump was a gamble. It’s not paying off.
4 votes -
Does “The Case Against Socialism” hold up? It does not. A brief look at Rand Paul’s new book
9 votes -
Redditor finds unsecured surveillance cameras seemingly placed by the US government
29 votes -
Non-glamorous gains: The Pennsylvania land tax experiment
7 votes -
A handful of sheriffs in Washington State have said they won’t enforce the governor’s shutdown orders. But who are the state’s rural residents actually listening to?
6 votes -
US Navy releases new UFO incident reports: This is about newly-released written incident reports, not the grainy videos that made headlines several weeks ago
15 votes -
Coal industry will never recover after coronavirus pandemic, say experts
24 votes -
How New York suffered nearly ten times the number of deaths as California
6 votes -
The prophecies of Q: American conspiracy theories are entering a dangerous new phase
6 votes -
The paranoid style in American politics: It had been around a long time before the Radical Right discovered it (1964)
5 votes -
United Launch Alliance launches robotic X-37B space plane on sixth classified mission
7 votes -
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sues Betsy DeVos over “reprehensible” new sexual assault rules
5 votes -
Rep. Justin Amash ends his third-party White House bid: Amash said the timing wasn’t right, in large part because of the coronavirus pandemic
6 votes -
Why this woman chooses to live in a ghost town
6 votes -
TSA working on plan to check temperatures at some American airports
8 votes -
Never Trumpers will host their own ‘Republican convention’ during the RNC
12 votes -
Rep. Justin Amash “looking closely” at third-party run in US presidential election
14 votes -
Ameelio, a startup backed by the Mozilla's 'Fix the Internet', aims to provide free video calls and messaging to prisoners in the US where video calls can cost as much as $25 for 15min
11 votes -
US State Department Inspector General fired after investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Democrats decry ‘dangerous pattern of retaliation’
9 votes -
Ignoring Trump and right-wing think tanks, red states expand vote by mail
12 votes -
Peter Dutton opens door to new Australian surveillance of journalists via foreign orders
6 votes -
A spectacularly bad Washington Post story on Apple and Google’s exposure notification project
3 votes