Arresting local people bravely trying to reconcile with the west, like Naomi Wu also didn't help.
But I agree the US is tearing itself apart in the two party war.
But I agree the US is tearing itself apart in the two party war.
What's keeping the US from having a Speaker of the House? Infighting within the Republican party.
Or, what have the fiercest political fights been around the Bay Area? Who "cancels" whom? It's all infighting among Democrats.
So while there's polarization, there's also infighting. This concept of "realignment" captures some of it, but not completely. (Also, Democrats have been fighting recently, with success, to hang onto labor, and Republicans have been noticeably absent from recent strikes, which calls the whole "realignment" into question.) I do see a "hidden" political axis that is split between the two parties and neutered, though.
While I'm personally more aligned with the democracts in the US (I'm a socialist in Europe), I do see the same kind of zero-sum thinking from both parties. "The loss of the other side is a win for our side". This is not sustainable as it leads to ever more polarisation.
I wrote about this in a little more detail recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37860952
I'd also agree with your characterization, in your other post, of how the proportional, Parliamentary systems in Europe make the issue a little less bad there. When that comes up I always cite Duverger's Law.
It’s remarkable that people continue to frame the US’s problems in this way.
There is only 1 party that has taken the U.S. to the brink every time the debt ceiling has been a factor.
The same party is currently unable to select a speaker within its own caucus.
The same party took the U.S. to decade long wars in the Middle East.
The same party is the only major political party in the world that denies the reality of climate change.
The same party has overseen massive increases in deficits and debts while somehow pretending they will lower both.
There is nothing redeemable about the Republican Party while the worst thing you can probably say about the Democratic Party is that they might spend a little too much, and yet their spending has caused lower increases in deficits than the tax cuts implemented by the Republican Party.
The U.S. has a 1 party problem. The other party is a big standard average Western centrist party at worst.
The other party has a problem too, just a very different kind that is ultimately synergizing well with the badness of the Republican party - utter incompetence at a lot of points.
The 2016 election was a great example of that. Dem-affiliated media giving Trump all the screen time in the world and free promotion they could, because the profits are too nice to ignore and “haha who would vote for him anyway, amirite”? Check. Running a heavily disliked candidate that previously failed (in 2008), with a heavy twinge of “it is her turn”? Check. That candidate almost entirely ignoring important battleground states during the campaign, all while Trump was campaigning very aggressively in those states (and then subsequently winning them)? Check. I absolutely hate the fact that I called it out (as soon as the primaries started) that Trump was very likely to win. Which got me clowned at the time.
This is just the most surface level easiest points to make, and only about the 2016 election. If one wanted to, they could dive into this much deeper.
I will say this though, Dems seem to have gotten their shit together a bit more recently, so that’s a nice development. However, let’s not pretend that just because the Republican party is tearing things up using their methods, Dems aren’t doing the same as well (just in very different ways that help the Reps do their job more efficiently).
Yes, both sides are truly the same. Why bother even voting?
But my 2 cent on this topic as common dude is that nowadays it pretty useless to vote since both parties have scandals or some grade of corruption.
On the other hand if you don't vote you are just idle and you can't complain if things don't change if you don't act
I'm talking about almost every first world country rn not just the US
And I’ve never said anything even close to resembling “both sides are the same.” They are not. But they are both contributing to the whole tearing things apart issue, just in very different ways.
> Why bother even voting?
Because I believe that voter participation is vital to preserving any semblance of a democracy.
> The U.S. has a 1 party problem. The other party is a big standard average Western centrist party at worst.
Their entire point was about the false balance BS that enables this almost incredible level of dysfunction.
And your reply is about how the Democrats really do have problems and your list is, in a word, weak. All of it, not just the "news media covering news" item I singled out.
So you're doing exactly what the person you replied to was complaining about, and contributing to the problem.
That would be the military junta that really runs the country, masquerading as a republic through the smoke and mirrors of the revolving door between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the CFR.
However my point of view is, when there is a war there are two parties fighting. One side started it more than the other, yes. One side did worse things than the other, yes. The other side did have to respond, well maybe.
But as long as this continues it's on both parties in my point of view. The democrats are not perfect. In particular, they are just as beholden to campaign contributor interests as the republicans are.
But both are fighting now and considering a loss of the other a win for their camp (zero-sum thinking). Until this is prevalent, this will not end and the country will continue to suffer. Someone will have to be the responsible one and stop it.
PS: I'm not in favour of the republicans personally, I'm socialist. I'm a lot more left-wing than even the democrats in the US. Where I don't live. And glad not to, to be honest, I have been offered a job in Silicon Valley in the past and have declined. Now, I have to say this was during the Trump reign and with the whole Corona thing going on. Not the best of times.
But I blame both for this continuing battle that puts the position of the US as a geopolitical force at risk, because the enemies don't have this particular infighting issue (easy, being mostly dictatorships) and they take full advantage of this weakness. With the world with China and Russia as major powers we are all a lot worse off.