Glad he did an episode on this. People need an accessible and digestible way of understanding the threat of Project 2025.
Yeah, neoliberals are destroying the left, but I'll take them over an authoritarian theocracy.
It doesnt really matter if we dont do anything to stop it. I fear if Biden does win (hopefully) that dems will have learned nothing, wasted the next four years instead of fortifying democracy, leaving us with another most important election ever.
We should have used our governmental trifecta in the first two years to plug up every hole in the system.
The trifecta that included the slimmest of majorities in the House, the literal minority in the Senate and the non-existent mandate that Biden came in with?
Don’t forget that the effective tie in the Senate was comprised of both Manchin and Sinema who are the very definition of DINOs.
In short: no such trifecta existed.
And a Supreme Court eager to throw its political weight around.
I'm not so sure. While I don't necessarily have a positive outlook on the future of American politics, I think the Democratic party is in a really good spot at the moment. The Republican party is completely beholden to one person right now. They are in a very, very bad spot re: extremism in their party. It's essentially their party platform. We're seeing the ramifications in the House, now. Their party is in disarray and is proving they can't manage to even govern themselves. Meanwhile, Democrats are capitalizing on that disarray by consolidating around abortion access, protecting democratic institutions, and willingness to actually get things done. We can see this in the immigration reform bill that Trump nuked -- that was set to be a huge policy win for conservatives and Democrats were willing to push it through.
If Trump loses this election, where does the Republican party have to go? They can't just conjure up another personality like Trump -- I think DeSantis proved that. They've alienated their moderate voters in favor of bigotry and disruption of the institutions they grew up with and helped maintain. Either they're going to have to revert to establishment, pre-Trump conservatism or double down on his insanity, further alienating the moderate Republicans. And where would those moderates go besides the Democratic party, which, while sure, is supportive of gender-affirming care (a knock for them), at least they are still willing to uphold capitalistic, business-centric values (or in other words, socialism for me, not for thee).
If Trump wins, then the Democratic party is still gonna be around and having a field day with all the issues he causes (see: Dobbs ruling). I dunno this may be a hot take but I could see the Republican party crumbling, and Democrats splitting into left and right camps. Maybe someone can check me, because the more I think about it the more I see Republicans as a fringe extremist group and Democrats as capitalists, and then me over here thinking to myself, "How could we seize collective ownership of Amazon and Google's computers?" lol
If Trump loses this election, where does the Republican party have to go?
Denial, subversion and violence?
True, but that just isn't a maintainable party platform. There may be denial and violence in the short term, but at that point I think the Trumpian wing of the Republican party is in its death throes and is doomed.
That wing recently gained control of the GOP finances and has embedded itself pretty securely.
The one thing that they have going against them is that right-wing people hate losers and the weak.
Who knows how they'll react to another loss. I can see them shifting harder towards populism like the right-wing people in the UK and Canada have.
Problem with Trumpism is that it relies too heavily on Trump. Once he's out there isn't a solid or feasible successor. The factions supporting Trump won't go away but Trump is their best shot for immediate wins.
You're right, the ideology requires a personality that captivates their base like Trump and Boris Johnson do.
“I fear that nothing matters and even being concerned is a wasted effort.”
Your “fear” is the issue. You offer nothing but issues / excuses.
No I fear nobody is taking this threat to democracy seriously. Thats the issue.
This is the most depressing, saddening topic Oliver has covered... so far. Even if Democrats win, conservatives won't sleep, it will be Project 2029, 2033, 2037, etc. They will keep chipping away and enshitifying everything little by little while Democrats in power and have free reign when they're back in power. One of the most upsetting things is how Democrats won't do anything to prevent or undo it.
The liberal establishment doesn't want fascism either, but they basically invite it by squashing the left, and continually trying to turn out the same slow moving technocratic and means tested solutions even as it slowly grinds us towards fascism still. Fascism is capitalism in decay. When the problems of capitalism rear it's ugly head, it always resorts to fascism to get back control, assigning blame to some local minorities, giving power to rich people, doing some imperialism or foreign wars to get resources or distract the populace, and killing all the people on the left who suggest alternative solutions (I.e. socialists and communists).
It's annoying to see it coming from so far away and feeling so utterly powerless =( The same cycle over and over in history yet we never learn. Hopefully we can steer off before it's too late but there's no organization in this country for a better solution.
Democracy, rule of law...none of these are the norm in human history, they are not even intuitive concepts. It takes effort to keep alive against human and historical forces that keep pulling us back into becoming authoritarian shitholes. The great delusion is that since Fukuyama many thought liberal democracy was the inevitable final state whatever stupid shit we do with it...it's not.
How shall the democrats put a stop to this without breaking the rules as well? I don't know if you noticed but these Do-Nothings DO NOTHING, as in DO NOT ALLOW PROGRESS AT ALL COSTS.
but yeah, damnit dems jUsT FiX iT!!!! PrEvEnT iT!!!!!
it's that easy eh? But dangit they just won't :(
Holy shit. This is extremely concerning. Project 2025 and Trump is Nazi level fascism. Like this is happening for real.
From a Canadian perspective, it's very scary because our conservative party is basically Republicans light. And right now they are very strong in the polls. The Canadian conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, is a suck up to other conservative leaders and willing to emulate whatever they do because he's got no real personality and no real plan.
So having a Nazi like situation down with with him as leader of Canada poses a real fucking threat.
Hopefully Lil' PP shows up for the debates during the campaign so he actually has to say what the Conservatives plan to do instead of just saying what their end goal is. It's easy as heck to say "We'll increase the number of house being built!" without saying how you plan to do it.
In 2008 the Tories just put up signs every saying 'CANADIAN ACTION PLAN IN EFFECT' without actually doing any actions.
They will simply say, over and over again, that they have built more homes than ever before - without evidence - and people will believe it because they've heard it so many times.
Remember O'Toole's Plan™? The lack of real answers made them lose seats back then, hopefully it does the same thing this time...
How’d you watch it? I’m in Canada too, but YouTube says it’s not available in my country. I fucking hate that shit…
Vpn 👈👈😎
Edit:
I use Proton VPN. The free one let's you connect to a US server, but I have a paid subscription. I have the client on my PC and on my android phone.
Mullvad is another great and reliable VPN, paid but requires no account or sign up, focuses on privacy. You can connect anywhere in the world you like
Ahh but of course. Thanks mate!
If you have a VPN you can set it to Czech Republic or another country where the show doesn't air and you can watch the full episode on youtube, on monday.
Ya I've been setting mine to Brazil for that exact reason. The episodes show up on my freetube when I'm normally in the us/canada but I can't watch them otherwise without that "unavailable in your region" crap.
Geo-locking content sucks.
If you liked this episode and want to know a bit more without reading a giant book check out "It Was All A Lie" by Stuart Stevens.
Also scary but more detail.
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