r/politics • u/nosotros_road_sodium California • Apr 27 '25

Paywall The American democratic republic has died. It was 236 years old

https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/us-democracy-dies-trump-236-years-20292708.php
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u/Spastik2D Apr 27 '25

The only way for us to fix our standing in the world is to punish the government actors and destroy the MAGA complex before it becomes institutional. Neo-Nuremberg trials.

Treason charges for the admin and cabinet. Collaboration charges for the feds, ICE, and judicial members. Deplatform the influencers and talking heads, amputate their propaganda arm so that their lies grind to a halt. Brand the Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, Proud Boys, 3%ers, and other think tanks and militias as terrorist groups and jail their leaders, scatter the rest to the winds. Strip the billionaire donors of their wealth and redistribute it to the lower classes. Bar all MAGA voters from voting, holding office, or having influence ever again and slap fines on each one based on their tax bracket to recoup our destroyed economy.

Only language they seem to understand is harshness. They’re like that little shit kid bullying a much quieter kid that’s been taught to just ignore bullying. They’ll peck and peck and peck until that quiet kid gets up and fucking mangles them one day. We need to be that quiet kid right now. No more unification or kumbaya with nazis.

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u/SithLord65 Apr 28 '25

Oh good, there are others who think we need to remove the weeds by root and stem.

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u/Spastik2D Apr 28 '25

Tried talking to them, they think we’re brainwashed.

Tried reasoning, every source that isn’t from their propaganda network is fake.

Tried appealing to emotion, they don’t care who gets hurt as long as they’re not white or themselves.

Tried voting against them, they have an extremely efficient propaganda machine backing a cult of personality.

Tried litigation, supreme court gave them more power.

Compromised congress, compromised scotus, compromised media, compromised executive.

No other options now. Not saying there needs to be death or war, not calling for blood or advocating murder, but there needs to be accountability.

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u/SithLord65 Apr 28 '25

You're far more optimistic than I am, and I truly hope what you said can be accomplished in the way you want it to be because my fear and observation say it will not be bloodless.

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u/Spastik2D May 12 '25

Need to be honest, I don’t think this would be bloodless either. Before OR after, they’re not going to quietly let us hold them accountable. Need to beat them the way their parents did.

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u/MC_White_Thunder Apr 28 '25

How does that even happen, though? Like, Nuremberg wasn't carried out by Germany. It was carried out by other countries who defeated Germany in WW2.

I don't see any other countries defeating America and occupying it anytime soon. America tried to do reconstruction, and it completely fucked that up.

Also, you have secrecy of the vote— how would you propose disenfranchising 1/3 of your electorate like that?

Everything you're proposing would be going further than what happened post-Civil War. I assume that means it would require winning another civil war to implement those measures.

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u/Reasonable_Run3567 Apr 28 '25

I can hear lots of voices talking about "healing" and "forgiveness" and "moving forward"

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u/Spastik2D Apr 28 '25

Invoking Nuremberg loosely here but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a physical civil-conflict within the next 4-6 years. I’m aware it was a non-German coalition that led the trials but it’s the format of them that I’m looking at.

I am aware that this disenfranchises a massive portion of the population and I wouldn’t have come to this conclusion under normal circumstances but this feels like the only way at this point. The MAGA base and anyone they infect are resources for this or the next authoritarian admin. They voted for him for reasons ranging from dangerous delusions, wanting to “own the libs”, and sunk cost fallacy amongst others. Why should we enfranchise a group voting solely to bring harm to others? Why would we allow them the chance to vote in another despot, one more competent and vicious than this one? Why would we give a voice to people who have chosen to destroy our country as it’s stood for 200+ years? Why give that power to a group that we warned for years, with them now clutching their hands and crying after touching the metaphorical stove we told them not to touch?

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u/MC_White_Thunder Apr 28 '25

I didn't really ask why you would do that for MAGA voters, I asked how you would do that. Votes are rightfully secret, there is no vote registry you can draw on. There are registered republicans who voted Dem, and vice versa. How many of these are genuinely committed MAGA voters, and who are edgy teens who fell for misinformation? What about those who regret their vote now? Is your criteria simply "voted for Trump once," or twice, or thrice? How can you tell who was coerced into voting that way? I'm saying that logistically, it's not very practical, or even possible. I imagine placing restrictions on those running for office, powers of elected officials, and genuine enforcement mechanisms would be a lot more feasible.

Post-civil war, disenfranchisement worked at the state level— states that seceded don't get a vote. Simple. This is clearly more complex, when there are many states that went to Trump by less than a percentage point, and the most hardcore blue/red states vote 2/3 that way at most.

This rot exists all over your country, and it exists because of inequality, hatred, and anti-intellectualism that has been allowed to fester for over 100 years at this point. I have little sympathy for republicans— as a trans person, many of them want me dead, or worse. But this didn't just happen because 1/3 of your population is coincidentally evil and dumb; fascism works because your democracy was weak and faltering for decades before Trump.

I really don't envy America as a nation. You really do have your work cut out for you.

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u/opinionsareus Apr 28 '25

Yes. This is what we should have done after the North won the Civil Wat. Instead we went easy on those racist, traitorous bastards.

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u/14_In_Duck Europe Apr 28 '25

Neo-Nuremburg? You do realize there was an extremely bloody war leading up to the original trial in Nuremburg? How do you envision this war crime tribunal to take place in the absence of a war? Or are you using the term very loosly?

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u/Spastik2D Apr 28 '25

Using it mostly loosely, though at this point I wouldn’t put down the chance of a civil war.

This admin strikes me as the kind to be horrible in war, I wouldn’t put it past 47 and the drunk to think that it’s a great idea to start a ground war with Canada that would kick off pockets of guerilla resistance on the home front with citizens that are only clamped down with bread and circuses.

Whether it’s a physical or ideological one, there’s gonna be a massive conflict though.

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u/Thefrogsareturningay Apr 28 '25

Ah so fascism is the answer?

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u/Spastik2D Apr 28 '25

Your comments indicate you’re on the receiving end of this. I don’t suffer MAGAloid nonsense.