Historians will, I predict, regard the current situation as the American Civil War II.
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We also - especially the Democratic party - need to understand the 10th Amendment.
In 2024, the impact of Dobbs was overestimated. The promised Roevember did not happen - at least on a federal level. Voters did come out at a state level. Almost every reproductive rights referendum on state ballots.
We need to look to 10th Amendment and states as safeguards against federal overreach.
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@msbellows @heidilifeldman @mastoreaderio
Ranked choice to end the 2-party, same equity extortion coin to choose from every election.
Roll back Citizens United and limit contributions to an honest day's pay.
@cmthiede @msbellows @heidilifeldman @mastoreaderio Politicians must have no say in any aspect of elections. They must all be run by a completely autonomous body with power to punish offenders and adapt to innovative manipulations.
Jerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement, voter ID, age restrictions, incarceration restrictions, ballot locations and ballot stuffing are examples of how politicians will manipulate any and every chink in the electoral armor to their advantage.
I would also introduce compulsory voting as a means of tempering extremism and minimising the attack surface for disenfranchising strategies.
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@msbellows @heidilifeldman @mastoreaderio
Ranked choice to end the 2-party, same equity extortion coin to choose from every election.
Roll back Citizens United and limit contributions to an honest day's pay.
@msbellows @heidilifeldman @mastoreaderio
Oh, and a real ban on insider trading by Congress members, not the watered down version they're currently offering, thinking people will only read the title. Lock down the trades when taking the role, open them back upon leaving. Otherwise, it gets turned into a Rubik's Cube and handed to a financial firm on a government approved list, audited by an independent committee.
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I have named necessary features of an American Democracy reconstruction. There may or may not be others, e.g. reform or elimination of the electoral college. 9/
@heidilifeldman Josh Marshall’s list is somewhat more inclusive: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-status-interview-or-how-to-write-up-a-senate-purge-list
Here are some other actions a post-Trump reconstruction government might consider:
- force breakup of media monopolies
- denazify public bodies at all levels of government
- double or triple the size of the House of Representatives
- eliminate or reform the Senate -
Historians will, I predict, regard the current situation as the American Civil War II. Certainly we are in a civil war, instigated by the federal government, when it began sending unnecessary and militarized forces into American cities. (See pinned post.) 1/
Democracy was never meant to be done by election. Athenians knew it would captured by oligarchs. It was meant to be by sortition.
I modified this idea & how it could be structured & why. What I envision is completely different to what we have now. It’s a different democratic model, using a version of sortition. What I envision is practical & develops interdependence, understanding, experience, skills, while solving real problems.
https://mastodon.social/@JoBlakely/110531598480099232 -
Historians will, I predict, regard the current situation as the American Civil War II. Certainly we are in a civil war, instigated by the federal government, when it began sending unnecessary and militarized forces into American cities. (See pinned post.) 1/
@heidilifeldman I wonder if there is a more precise term than civil war, where one or more groups of citizens are at war with each other.
This situation, when the government is waging war with one group of citizens (supposedly) on behalf of another, may not have a commonly used term to accurately describe it.
I think it's an important distinction, because Americans are not fighting Americans, even if some in government would love to change that. We shouldn't help them normalize the idea.
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Historians will, I predict, regard the current situation as the American Civil War II. Certainly we are in a civil war, instigated by the federal government, when it began sending unnecessary and militarized forces into American cities. (See pinned post.) 1/
@heidilifeldman Very nice and informative thread!
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Historians will, I predict, regard the current situation as the American Civil War II. Certainly we are in a civil war, instigated by the federal government, when it began sending unnecessary and militarized forces into American cities. (See pinned post.) 1/
@heidilifeldman Hard agree.
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Historians will, I predict, regard the current situation as the American Civil War II. Certainly we are in a civil war, instigated by the federal government, when it began sending unnecessary and militarized forces into American cities. (See pinned post.) 1/
@heidilifeldman The 1861-1864 conflict wasn't technically a "civil war" because the CSA wasn't trying to take over the whole country - just secede from it. This right now is the first US civil war proper.
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@heidilifeldman Very nice and informative thread!
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Historians will, I predict, regard the current situation as the American Civil War II. Certainly we are in a civil war, instigated by the federal government, when it began sending unnecessary and militarized forces into American cities. (See pinned post.) 1/
@heidilifeldman Okay, it has begun, what is the next step? Is the next step a gunfight between ICE and local police?
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Historians will, I predict, regard the current situation as the American Civil War II. Certainly we are in a civil war, instigated by the federal government, when it began sending unnecessary and militarized forces into American cities. (See pinned post.) 1/
@heidilifeldman Civil war now? I don't think so, not by a long shot. Whether there will be a civil war will depend on whether the midterm elections in November are banned or delayed (very likely).
Everything will depend on whether Trump is allowed to continue with absolute power without the Senate (including Republicans) doing anything.
If you are referring to it as one of the events that led to a civil war, then yes, it is possible to understand it that way.
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Historians will, I predict, regard the current situation as the American Civil War II. Certainly we are in a civil war, instigated by the federal government, when it began sending unnecessary and militarized forces into American cities. (See pinned post.) 1/
@heidilifeldman The South against the north
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Historians will, I predict, regard the current situation as the American Civil War II. Certainly we are in a civil war, instigated by the federal government, when it began sending unnecessary and militarized forces into American cities. (See pinned post.) 1/
@heidilifeldman don’t delete this thread. This is good.
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@msbellows @heidilifeldman @mastoreaderio
Ranked choice to end the 2-party, same equity extortion coin to choose from every election.
Roll back Citizens United and limit contributions to an honest day's pay.
@cmthiede @msbellows @heidilifeldman @mastoreaderio
To equalize the power of donations, limit them to a day’s pay at minimum wage, once per candidate from each donor. -
@heidilifeldman I feel like if we are to be taken seriously by Allies in the future, we will need to also join the International Criminal Court and be willing to hand over any members of the Administration and military who may be brought up on charges there. We need a concrete lesson for U.S. politicians that international law matters. Our issues are not just domestic.
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Historians will, I predict, regard the current situation as the American Civil War II. Certainly we are in a civil war, instigated by the federal government, when it began sending unnecessary and militarized forces into American cities. (See pinned post.) 1/
@heidilifeldman I’ve been saying we’ve been in a LIC ( low intensity conflict ) for a while now. Thank you. This is a well done thread. Appreciate your insight.
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The Department of Homeland Security will have to be eliminated and replaced by smaller, more clearly defined and constrained Cabinet department and subordinate agencies. A host of post-9/11 laws will have to be repealed.8/
@heidilifeldman Agreed and also we're probably getting ahead of ourselves here. First we have to win power.
When that does happen, what do we do about the de facto militia Trump has created?
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@cmthiede @msbellows @heidilifeldman @mastoreaderio Politicians must have no say in any aspect of elections. They must all be run by a completely autonomous body with power to punish offenders and adapt to innovative manipulations.
Jerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement, voter ID, age restrictions, incarceration restrictions, ballot locations and ballot stuffing are examples of how politicians will manipulate any and every chink in the electoral armor to their advantage.
I would also introduce compulsory voting as a means of tempering extremism and minimising the attack surface for disenfranchising strategies.
@markd @msbellows @heidilifeldman @mastoreaderio Absolutely. It's disgusting. We're in the tit for tat stages now, but when this shit first happened in Wisconsin 15 years ago (that's how long it takes to START righting the ship from a certain breed of Righty at the wheel) people passed off any complaints for such a clear lack of integrity as liberal crybaby nonsense. It was merely, "Use all the tools at your disposal to rig the game and own the system, who wouldn't?" Um, someone that wants the best for everyone? FFW to a recent election, where Wisconsinites have just started to crawl out of a rigged voting map cage, and door knockers are dead scared of what will happen if a "certain someone" takes the helm. I laughed out loud. Then it turned into "the squad" running the show. Clueless. The power that one party would have vs the other was not in the same ballpark. They were so scared of an improbable fiction that might happen down the road, that they ran into the arms of one in the making. Hello, from Wisconsin, where it feels like Groundhog's Day.
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@heidilifeldman Civil war now? I don't think so, not by a long shot. Whether there will be a civil war will depend on whether the midterm elections in November are banned or delayed (very likely).
Everything will depend on whether Trump is allowed to continue with absolute power without the Senate (including Republicans) doing anything.
If you are referring to it as one of the events that led to a civil war, then yes, it is possible to understand it that way.
@Ulmo @heidilifeldman I highly doubt elections will be canceled. Most authoritarian regimes still hold them, to make themselves look more legitimate, but engage in major suppression of voters and/or candidates to force the result they want. We've certainly seen that in our own country's history (like before the 1965 Voting Rights Act, now in the process of being dismantled).
I worry that a lot of folks are thinking "well, elections haven't been canceled, so it can't be too bad". Yes it can be.
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