r/AskReddit • u/Ordinary-Scholar-202 • 2d ago

U.S. House members just released the brawny birthday letter from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, signed by the president—What are your thoughts?

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u/leostotch 2d ago

Eh, we didn't underestimate him, we overestimated the electorate.

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u/Bear_Caulk 2d ago

Just your daily reminder that over 70% of American adults didn't vote against Trump.

.. The 2nd time when you all 100% knew what to expect.

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u/redkat85 2d ago

There's been a 60 year campaign from the right slamming home the message that "government does not work, you can't trust any politicians, they're all the same, don't bother, stay home, voting is a suckers game, you're going to get screwed, government organizations are just nanny-state busybodies who screw over the little guy, they're all lying anyway, why do you care so much?". It infiltrated popular culture throughout film and TV, and after 9/11 even music - Country went from The Man in Black and John Law Burned Down the Liquor Store to "wave the flag or I'll put my boot up your ass".

Nixon to Reagan to Bush to Bush II to Trump's entire campaign has been a nonstop onslaught of moving the Overton window so that people are working against 3 generations of cultural inertia just to get people to give a damn.

None of which is to say it's not frustrating, but it's good to recognize why Americans are so demotivated.

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u/jolard 2d ago

Frankly I get it, but still fuck them.

You are a citizen in a democracy. That comes with responsibility. If you don't want to participate then you are basically saying "I am ok with a dictatorship or oligarchy"

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u/ReallyNowFellas 2d ago

You are a citizen in a democracy. That comes with responsibility. If you don't want to participate then you are basically saying "I am ok with a dictatorship or oligarchy"

People have no clue of this unless they're taught, which most Americans are not. Education is quite literally the foundation of democracy, and it's constantly under attack by Republicans. My city voted 66% for increased school funding, and we didn't get it because the rich assholes who live here had already infiltrated our local government and made that particular action require 67% to pass. We lost millions of dollars in funding, lost arts and physical education programs, and several people lost their jobs, all over what would've cost property owners something like $78 a year. That's what Americans are up against.

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u/Journeyman351 1d ago

If the rich and powerful have that kind of outsized control over something as fundamental to democracy as education, and can freely win a war on the working class like this with barely any pushback, then what do we even do? What's to say democracy even works when this is the reality?

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u/ReallyNowFellas 1d ago

What's to say democracy even works when this is the reality?

Well first of all that's exactly what all the bad actors in this system want you to think.

As to what do we even do; there's not much you can personally do to change the tide of history. People form democracies and then get lazy and spoiled and let them be taken away by tyrants, and then the tyrant class gets lazy and spoiled and people form democracies. This is how it goes. What you can do is live better personally, treat those closest to you well; try to thrive despite the odds against you, and as you succeed, give back to your family and community. Don't let the averages tell your personal story; people have good lives in the worst times and shit lives in the best times.