...and yet they've had power before - several times, including once with it being literally this dipshit - and haven't burned it all down to gain power yet.

But then this election is different, it's the most important election of our lifetimes, just like the Democrats have said about every other election since at least 2004. Down to the literal phrase "the most important election of our lifetimes."

The reality is both major parties benefit from the system, and both market based on fear because they don't have anything positive to offer voters that isn't an outright lie that the voters know is an outright lie. The big difference is the the GOP markets on fear of the other and the Dems market on fear of the GOP.

[–] piccolo@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I dont recall any recent president or serious canidates claiming to be "dictator for a day" or "use the miltary to go after radical left lunatics" or you know, actually attempted to insurrect and overthrow democracy once and plans on doing it again.

But oh yeah tottally a normal everyday election.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Oo! Or had the supreme court declare it's okay to commit any crime you want as long as you're president. That's new!

I'm also sick of the hyperbole from campaigners too but you're right. A LOT has changed that can undermine a lot of fundamental freedoms we take for granted.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

You're not wrong about how they operate.

But there's absolutely far reaching consequences to major decisions by leaders in power. Don't fool yourself thinking "It hasn't burned down yet" just because it's not a Hollywood societal-collapse movie before your eyes.

Work sucks more than ever for us now. Know why? Long-dead Reagan absolutely destroyed workers' rights and established precedents that put bosses much higher on society's totem pole. Recessions happened. People get desperate and forget that they even HAD rights as workers. Clawing this back is the battle of our time at home.

Before that? FDR's New Deal actually secured quite a bit of prosperity for people amidst a complete disaster. People still benefit from Social Security to this day, even if only a little.

Teddy Roosevelt established the National Park system. Now we're happy we don't have luxury apartments in the middle of Yosemite or Yellowstone, or fast food chains all along the Grand Canyon. (Or it hasn't been used as a landfill or something because the hole was already dug so it saves costs!)

Citizen's United is why we have trillions of dollars in shadow-money funding "both sides" of a broken system. (Although that wasn't put up to vote, the people in charge were sworn in by people that were elected.)

TL;DR: I get it. It's all stupid, we're all constantly lied to. That's super lame. We know and we hate it.

BUT:

Votes. Have. Consequences.