How do we break the current downward spiral in US politics.
For me... Yes. The Republicans are so partisan that one cannot expect them to act in good faith. Their current actions at CPAC, Mitch McConnell endorsing Trump potential running again and the post impeachment actions are disastrous for the Republic.
This is how fascism and the end of democracy begins.
https://acoup.blog/2020/10/30/fireside- ... r-30-2020/
Of course, such negotiations of power are the basis of politics and were nothing new. What changes as a community lurched towards stasis was the steady erosion of the norms, traditions and simple restraint that made self-government possible. This process was obvious enough – with so many examples – that it is explained and discussed in a number of the ancient sources (most notably Thuc. 3.82-86, but note also Hdt. 1.59; Plb. 6.3.9-13; Arist. Ath. Pol. 2, 5, 13; Plut. Sol. 13, 29). Simply put, the two political factions would be locked in a cycle of escalation, neither willing to compromise but rather using the previous outrages of the other faction to justify the future outrages of their own faction. Thucydides notes how this had a sorting effect, “until even blood became a weaker tie than party” (Thuc. 3.82.6
The full article is worth reading because history does teach us a lot about how fall of democracies begin. It begins like it does now, when one side increasingly become partisan, then the prisoner dilemma becomes a part of politics. So no one defects. Compromised working together becomes impossible.
Now. I think most of us will disagree with his use of Athens as a model past this crisis. But we do have such an example.
Franklin Roosevelt.
The man who arguably saved American democracy and capitalism. This board is left-wing enough that well, we may not agree with what his goals were. Certainly, FDR racism is not something to be admired.
But at a time when democracy was crumbling and fasicism looked to be the best way to get out of the Great Depression, when totilatarians , anti semitic ism, isolationists in the form of America First was threatening to tear the USA away.
This while the main body of US politic was increasingly attracted by Communism as the Socialist party splintered and became more extremist as a result of Democrat persecution. Arguably, FDR takeover of socialist rheoteric , the war against the bankers, the moral need for a pension was what swerved the Democratic Party into it's current incarnation.
FDR bent the rules. The 100 days became a norm now, because FDR used executive powers in greater fashion than previous presidents. We all know his threat to pack the Courts and arguably, the Business Plot.
Yet. FDR welcomed back into the fold Republicans in his second term. America First joined the US war effort.
Somehow. Somewhere. We have to find a way to replicate what he did . Because leaving Republicans in the grasp of the party of fascism, conservatives in the hands of Q is not an option. Yes, as Jefferson said, the hotheads would have to be prosecuted under the rule of law but the great majority, indoctrinated or misled must be welcomed back into the fold,
And can history produce an instance of a rebellion so honourably conducted? I say nothing of it’s motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness. God forbid we should ever be 20. years without such a rebellion.1 The people can not be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty..........
And what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.
https://youtu.be/9DChl7GR-ow
As this video by Markiplier shows, this game is revealing of the problems with our media.
Somehow. We must make it the norm, reaffirm that an American isn't a fascist. That Jan 6th was an aberration. But without turning into the devil , that which we stare into the abyss