Comment by haswell 2 days ago
The scale of the protests means the protests are already working. They’re as much about spreading awareness and mobilizing the voting public as they are about current events.
I don’t see a connection between their efficacy and what happened in Minnesota, which was an event that is arguably all the more reason to protest.
Voting is always allowed. No matter how corrupt the country, no matter if it's ruled by a dictator, even in a "Free Democratic Union of Independent People's Republics", there's always going to be an election sooner or later.
Whether the elections are fair and the opposition is even allowed to field a candidate... now that's a different story.
The real bellwether will be what happens in House elections in 2026.
Trump was already divisive enough that the Republican majority in the House shrank in 2024.
And this was their chance to demonstrate that they could govern, maybe even grow their gains with some demographics. They're not doing that at all.
Like every other time? I'm not holding my breath. They're not even bothering to condemn a political assassination anymore.
The chance to fix that is in 2026 at the ballot, and preparation every day until then.
The whole "there won't be elections" hysteria is exactly because the current MAGA movement is scared shitless of being rejected again.
Furthermore, if Trump-y candidates do poorly in 2026, he'll be a lame duck president with little political clout for his final 2 years.
Politicians are many things, but charitable to unpopular people without power is not one of them.
Ah, and secured the Blue Team Generational power - tbh, with how liberal this country is going to become overnight, all this might be worth it.
The last gasp of conservativism.
Why did you pick Marx?
Rhetoric doesn't match. Marx literally said that the only for the working class to overthrow their oppressors (business owners) was to make them not a live.
He was very radical.
Working to accomplish what goal for whom?
I think largely they have not yet been effective at protecting immigrants.
> They’re as much about spreading awareness and mobilizing the voting public as they are about current events.
Right, so to some degree they "work" as tools for existing political groups in attracting attention, resources and possibly votes. But does it better enable those groups to actually help immigrants? Or does it just give political organizations a powerful talking point in the midterms?
Good strategy if voting is still allowed in 2028, not super useful if political violence bubbles over into a coup or such.
The scale of the protests is encouraging, but I remember the mass protests under Bush were about as large, and the war continued and he stayed in power. Organization needs to do something with the mass of people who are out in the streets to direct them.