Democracy in danger

[lpetrich]

AOC and Bernie Understand This Election is About Saving Democracy - Bloomberg

Sanders delivered a formal speech at George Washington University. Ocasio-Cortez engaged in a livestream chat on Instagram that has been viewed, as of this writing, almost five million times. Their complementary messages went something like this: There can be no democratic socialism without democracy. And there will be no democracy in America if Joe Biden doesn’t win.

“Whether we like it or not, November is about survival,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “The actual balance of our democracy rests in the actions that we choose to make.”

The American left rarely approaches any given election with great enthusiasm. While some leftists regularly vote Democratic, others don’t see the point. The notion that a choice between two flawed (capitalist) candidates is no choice at all is a mainstay of cynicism and apathy. In a famous case of befuddlement, left-wing actress Susan Sarandon in 2016 even suggested that a Trump presidency might prove more beneficial to the left than a Hillary Clinton presidency.

AOC:

I’m not here to dismiss you. I’m not here to poo-poo you. I’m not here to say you’re wrong or that you’re a bad person. What I’m here to say is that this year, this election, voting for someone — voting for Joe Biden — is not about whether you agree with him. It’s a vote to let our democracy live another day.

BS:

With less than six weeks left to go in this campaign it is my fervent hope that all Americans — Democrats, Republicans, independents, progressives, moderates, conservatives — come together to defend American democracy, our constitution and the rule of law. We must ensure, in this unprecedented moment in American history, that this is an election that is free and fair, an election in which voters are not intimidated, an election in which all votes are counted and an election in which the loser accepts the results.

 

[lpetrich]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Instagram: “Some thoughts on the evening of RBG’s passing and her final wish.” - that much-viewed AOC video

Bernie Sanders Is Warning That American Democracy Is in Danger – Mother Jones

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) set aside the ambitious progressive policies that animated his two presidential candidacies on Thursday to warn the country about something more basic: that America faces an existential threat. President Donald Trump’s increasingly bold rhetoric about not counting ballots and refusing to promise a peaceful transition of power have convinced Sanders that future of American democracy is on the line this November.

“This is not just an election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden,” he said in an address given at George Washington University in DC. “This is an election between Donald Trump and democracy—and democracy must win.”

... This week in the Atlantic, Barton Gellman reported that that Trump’s campaign and prominent state-level Republicans are planning ways to ignore the will of the people and have state legislatures select pro-Trump electors.

... Last month, at the Democratic National Convention, Sanders similarly warned that our system of government itself is at stake. “At its most basic, this election is about preserving our democracy,” he said then. “Under this administration, authoritarianism has taken root in country.”

...
Sanders laid out Trump’s own strategy for subverting the election—a strategy that is not really secret, but in fact a public campaign regularly messaged by the president: make it harder for people to vote, use false claims of fraud to dismiss unfavorable results, and create an aura of illegitimacy over the process that can be exploited to remain in power. Sanders offered a dark summation of Trump’s view of the 2020 contest: “Heads I win, tails you lose.”

Like do something much like what George Bush II's campaigners did in 2000: declare the Election Day count the only legitimate one and block the counting of mail-in ballots as allegedly fraudulent.

 

[ZiprHead]

[YOUTUBE]https://youtu.be/cWMmRmEpUmE[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The real problem is if there's a meaningful election. It looks like the plan is if the ballots say Biden to fuck things up enough it's resolved by other means.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Well hell's bells guys. Thanks for bring to light in this final week of September, 2020 your concern that we may actually be slipping into an autocracy. After four years of Trump making a mockery of his oath of office. Watching him prostrate himself before his murderous loan officer. As the GOP went along and Mitch McConnell trashed what checks on executive power he had. Thank you. But, are you sure your not jumping the gun here? We might want to wait for a couple more years of evidence and be absolutely certain.
*Where were you four years ago when we crazy conspiracy theorists were scared shitless? When we knew given the GOP's declining popularity it had result in either their slow demise or this? Where was the clarion call for those who pay little attention to politics? Now the sense of urgency. Thank you.
Hopefully the people will save the country. Hopefully the 2018 midterms was a sign of what's to come in 2020. Hopefully the turnout will be such that early indications have Biden ahead before mail in ballots are even counted. Hopefully that will dash any deceitful plans Trump and his Personal Attorney General may have on this election.



*Before someone enlightens me AOC has only been in office for two.