Serious request: I don’t have any background in political science. Can someone help me work through this hypothetical situation?
Blue politicians call for a general strike to protest the activities of the Trump administration. Let’s assume everyone in the country knows about it.
In which states does it actually happen? What industries are most impacted? What percentage of the adult population in those states takes part? How long does it last? What does Trump do in retaliation to those states? Is it effective?
By design, more court cases to confuse
All states except Alabama, New Hampshire, and Mississippi offer some kind of no-excuse early voting you can do, from days to weeks. New Hampshire and Mississippi require an excuse, while Alabama offers NO early voting whatsoever.
I bet they think voting is only done day-of or by mail, cuz thats what the numbers probably show, so thats what they focus on.
Everyone in this thread is crying for violence or strike or terrorism.
Just fucking vote.
Do not listen to the hexbears, the .ml bots, the morons.
If Not Voting was an option it would dominate every single election cycle. Every single time.
The problem with our system is nobody is engaging with it to have it work at 100% power.
#If voting didn’t work they would not try so goddamn hard to discourage and discount your vote!
And that doesn’t mean just you, get others to the poll. Convince Grandma republicans aren’t it this cycle.
How do you expect a system to function properly if nobody is maintaining it? Look at New York. Look at how quickly they can fuck things up. It’s actually a lot easier to fix it. Fucking vote.
Right? Same problem in Canada, we bitch and moan and will spend so much energy on so many things but our turnout is dogshit. The last Montréal municipal election had 36%, the last couple Ontario provincial elections had less than half, and the last federal election was only 69.5%. Last time the federal election saw more than 70% was in 1988.
The honest fact of it all is that votes are currently not weighted differently. No matter how fucked things get, if populations said “NO” to these openly corrupt assholes then that would be the end of them. Instead, it feels like nothing will stop idiots from voting for pure evil and nothing will get 30+% of the population to actually pay any attention at all.
No one is telling anybody not to vote. I think most of us here, if not all, are going to vote. And most will probably be voting blue, despite objections of a lot of us having establishment dem candidates.
We just don’t have a lot of confidence in how this is going to turn out. It doesn’t look good at all.
Yes they are all the time. I see the sentiment everywhere on lemmy. People are convinced voting is a sham and doesn’t work because people have not done their duty to defend voting.
Yeah, no. You are just conflating doing more then one thing at a time with only doing one thing and being smug about it.
Too right. Lets worry about the rest after we try to save the country from itself.
Vote no matter what. Vote early, by mail, avoid voting on Election Day. Make a plan we will have to treat voting like it’s a disaster evacuation. Go in a group, stay safe and informed everyone.
Well that good because it’s been blocked by a Federal judge.
As if that means shit.
The Postal Service wants to require that both the “outbound” envelope carrying the ballot to the voter and the “inbound” envelope bringing the ballot back to the election office have a barcode for automated tracking that’s unique to each voter.
No more secret ballots?
Yeah this is kind scary. Let’s open up this ballot and see who he voted for so we can put him on our ICE harassment list.
What fucking rules?
None of this has been vetted by Congress or the courts, or, more importantly, by the states; tiny-d donnie and his administration and his bootlicks in the USPS are just making shit up as they go, because they don’t want the normal democratic processes to work in this country.
Yes, but have you considered “trans, immigrants, communism socialism, think of the children, support the troops, and ice is one phone call away, what’s your background anyway”?
You’re right, time to buy a red hat and a Cybertruck that’s been modified to roll coal.
Honestly i think they already do that, ya know, catching on fire
It’s not a “defective battery”, it’s energized coal!
WHEN ARE YOU FUCKERS GONNA START SETTING YOUR FOOT DOWN?
CALL A FUCKING GENERAL STRIKE.
Americans make movies depicting themselves as badasses ready to fight for freedom, while in reality they can’t even do the most basic thing to defend their democracy.
Not to mention how their shit spills out all over the world.WHEN ARE YOU FUCKERS
I’m just gonna mention it’s historically been a lot easier for people to send others into the fray than go themselves. I think we called those people chickenhawks, in the day, but I don’t think it applies here.
Still, it’s an important historical point.
And look at them roll out the excuses about not striking.
It doesn’t matter, the only thing weaker than an American politician is an American citizen. They have excuses for the lot, ones they don’t offer others, and when they are told they react with American foreign policy…attack.
You don’t understand, they’ve got children! Which matter, unlike the children their governments likes to massacre all over the world.
Give closing the door on asylum seeking from a vote result a shot by telling them they need to stay home and fix the problem
Watch them go full US foreign policy on that
They don’t like it when it’s put back on them. There’s an excuse for everything.
You mean like the one my entire city did this year? Unless everyone is on board it doesnt work. And not everyone is. Theres still a strong perxentage of the country rooting for this and a large portion that just doesnt care or thinks it will blow over.
Even though the 1% are fucking over the 99%, its not 99% against the 1% its more like 50% of the most evil and vile people with the vast majority of guns against the other 50%
Was it one day long?
Listen pal, nearly every American is a slave to their day job(s) - especially given the massive uptick in living expenses over the last year/months.
If I “strike” and refuse to show up for my second shift at Winn-Dixie, all that will happen is I lose my sub-30 hour a week job, and someone else gets their prayers answered for more shifts (offsetting their cost of living a sliver) while I get to have Mr Ulcer come back over concerns about how I’ll feed my family.
I’m not saying a nation wide stoppage wouldn’t have an impact - but this nation is geographically massive compared to your average European country. There is no social safety net outside of if someone is lucky enough to be in a defanged union.
Calling for general strikes in this way feels like an oil exec saying I should use paper straws/recycle to save the environment while they are boiling the ocean.
That is exactly what you’re supposed to be fighting, dumbass. You all keep saying this as if we didn’t know, but how else is it going to happen? You can’t keep waiting for your white knight in shining armor.
People have left their families behind, lived in forests eating scraps for years while being actively hunted, with victory never certain. Just never in the US. When Europeans say that you can’t even see how much privilege you’re not willing to give up, we say it because many of us heard stories from our elders of giving up everything to follow an ideal and join the resistance.
I say this with no hate, but seriously - go watch a documentary and grow some balls.
Oh just fuck all the way off. Jfc
There’s not a lot more infuriating than DUMBASSES that don’t live here sitting from their comfortable chair and stable lives dictating what we should or should not do all the while the people that live here know what it’s like and moreover know there is no popular “resistance” to attach to like you’re talking.
In case you are that fucking unaware, a third want this shit, a third didn’t and does not, and a third didn’t fucking care and still don’t.
Whatever BS youre spewing clearly doesn’t jive with reality in the US. All the while you ignore everything the op explained quite succinctly to you.
Signed, someone actually fucking here.
There’s not a lot more infuriating than DUMBASSES that don’t live here sitting from their comfortable chair and stable lives dictating what we should or should not do all the while the people that live here know what it’s like and moreover know there is no popular “resistance” to attach to like you’re talking.
You are just displeased when the shoe is on the other foot. The world is watching you all fail, and just like you all did for years, have opinions about it.
We’ve all heard these excuses before. Why do you want to force me to repeat the usual answers?
What few rights you have were paid in blood, and you refuse even slight discomfort, you simply don’t care enough, stop making excuses.
I don’t see how the size of the country matters, when labor movements have always been GLOBAL. What does Europe have to do with this?
Mate, some of us got kids to feed. Them going hungry isn’t just a slight discomfort.
Are you ok with the future that your kids will live in if nothing changes? Or do you believe that someone else will come and save you? Genuinely asking
Look, man, I get it, I really do, but I don’t think you quite grasp the responsibilities some other people have. Maybe, just maybe, if we could actually coordinate something big enough to have an impact, but there’s nothing like that to join. We had some of the biggest protests in national history multiple times, and nothing really happened. When we lay it all down and sacrifice everything not only for ourselves but on behalf of our whole families, under the current circumstances, what exactly do you expect to happen? A handful of us try a general strike, get fired, and immediately get replaced because the job market is absolute trash? Because that’s what’s going to happen if we just act on our own.
You want people to do something, and that’s really understandable, but you’re ultimately asking people to give a lot when the current circumstances mean we’re unlikely to get much in return. If you want people to act, we need to figure out how to change circumstances or at least reframe things so people can see the value in their own personal sacrifice.
The only way you’ll change circumstances is if everything is shut down long enough for your Congress to act.
Yeah sure, vote in these midterms, hopefully they’re good
This position however that we don’t understand or don’t know…yeah it’s a cop out. One that’s not offered to others.
Yeah, it’ll take some hardship, cost some jobs, some people will go hungry for a while. We know and yes it’s easy for us to say…doesn’t change anything though. That’s the importance of taking the collective responsibility seriously.
I mentioned Europe because places like France have their protest game on point. (grills mounted on tram tracks for making burgers while protesting? Genius.)
And yes, our labor rights (not much anymore as they are) were paid in blood. I remember learning about the Triangle Waistcoat Factory as a kiddo.
But I take issue with saying “slight discomfort” when referring to keeping my family housed and fed. Most Americans are living not just paycheck to paycheck but have zero significant savings to weather a medical emergency (or an open ended strike).
And the only alternative party to the current administration isn’t offering options like, “if you all just wait it out for a few months, we can take back the House/Senate/Presidency, pass UBI, help you get your money and financial stability back… Oh and pad SCOTUS so some fucker in a red state doesn’t sue to undo all this relief”.
You have to understand. This shit is bleak. We are clawing on to the only thing we have because there is nobody coming to save us, and we cannot save ourselves.
It’s not meant to be comfortable.
You’re not Netflix and chilling, you’re fighting for your country.
Why do we have to take special understanding for your country and your people? Why are you different to the rest of us?
Did I say comfortable?
I said keep my family house and fed. I’m already dodging parasite lettuce and massive food recalls, paying a sizable amount of my paychecks to rent and gas.
None of this shit is currently comfortable.
And you (or the original person I replied to) are saying, yeah, fuck your kids and your spouse and dog. Go throw yourself on the fire of REVOLUTION.
(Also, we had to cancel Netflix and most eveything else to actually afford to live, so that’s fun.)
We’re not different, but I don’t see myself or other Americans telling the nebulous “you” to go throw yourself off the precipice for god and country.
Yeah the only action that could possibly have an impact at this point would be to resurrect the militias of old and start a good old county war. Not particularly viable in the current political and economic climate, also I’m not entirely sure where you attack to cause significant damage outside of maybe bridges on the interstate and highway systems, the rails, and maybe the electrical grid around industrial centers and AI data centers.
Saying that and doing that is also a massively different thing, back when the old militias were about they didn’t really have in investigationn methods and also they could literally go to work with basically no reprisal after shooting up some deputy or whatnot.
outside of maybe bridges on the interstate and highway systems, the rails, and maybe the electrical grid around industrial centers and AI data centers
Not a bad starter pack you got there.
Im an American-Scot Redneck, the theory behind how to cripple a government through unorthodox means may as well be genetic to me.
I wish we were, badasses that is. Most of those badasses with weapons are more like gravy seals that probably like all this racist bullshit. Most of us are too scared to get noticed like this. I’m not sure what it would take to rile us up to do something about it. Right now I feel like we are the frogs in the pot that is slowly being heated up and everyone is just waiting for it to be over.
Don’t get me wrong I’m pissed but I have too many people relying on me to cause too much trouble. And I imagine I’m not the only one like that.
Since when. Do I have to subscribe to CNN read their articles
paywall
Reader mode will bypass many-a-paywall
I don’t understand the how or why it works, but it was life changing when I started tapping that little magic button.
Wait, what the actual fuck?? How long has this existed?! Thank you Hotsauce and Moose for teaching me about this.
Same with adding unwall.app/ before many urls. Or looking for it on archive.is.
At this point, I just assume most things are behind a subscriber wall, at least, and act accordingly.
