I agree entirely. It’s impressive the act of deception that produced a nation so anti-socialist while looking at it’s own history it’s been the socialist who’ve done the most for the people.

Yeah, the sadistic ratchet-effect of American politics. D Party moves nanometers in the right direction, R Party moves kilometers in the wrong direction, D Party moves nanometers from the new center, repeat until… well this shite.

I appreciate that you’ve got some hope for our rotted out system. I don’t. The only hope for the future I see is a present in flames.

That being said, while I don’t think there’s any hope of reform the point I was making was that incrementalism has brought us tRump while bold action, not even revolution, almost a century ago staved off fascism for this long. If I’m mistaken and reform is possible I find it wholly inconceivable that it would be brought by the incrementalists, rather it would come by some stroke of luck that someone like Sanders… probably a bit harsher than him would attain high office and force positive change like FDR did.

I don’t think anyone wants the conditions of a revolution or the immediate aftermath thereof but it is a question of how bad would that be in the short-term verses how bad will it be in perpetuity, barring revolution at some later date. As is I couldn’t morally justify bringing kids into this apocalyptic hellscape.

The people of Vietnam rebelled against their French overlords with effectively nothing but their chains to begin with and then fought off a superpower to keep their independence. The people of Cuba deposed a fascist tyrant from similar destitution. It’s not easy but it’s entirely possible no matter how totalitarian the state is.

Honestly, we’ve had the “little steps in the right direction” off and on for eight decades now. Look where it’s gotten us.

• When was the last time a powerful politician gave a damn about the poor rather than going on about the “middle class”?
• Where have all our Unions gone?
• Has the federal government ever done anything even approaching the scale of change needed to address Climate Change?
• What’s happened to our infrastructure?
• Where has our freedom gone? Has it taken peace with it when it left?

We’ve already lost everything that could be said for the United States being good, setting aside any claims of greatness entirely, and have lost almost everything that would qualify it as decent. The politicians have realized they can get the votes of some of the people who want change by branding themselves incrementalists and then putting indefinitely many increments between what we have now and meaningful change.

Contrast with history. When has incrementalism ever worked for us? We got the New Deal from one President who knew how to lead. He didn’t give us a 1/2*Xth measure of making the American economy work for the workers. No, he got as much as possible then died wanting to do more.

This can/will likely be truthfully said about every tRump appointee. Mango Mussolini should’ve met the same fate as default Mussolini, not be rewarded with a second time trying to put the nation into a nosedive.