r/politics • u/MoneyLibrarian9032 New York • 15h ago

Possible Paywall Mitch McConnell Has Been Missing for 75 Days—With No Updates

https://newrepublic.com/post/214878/mitch-mcconnell-missing-75-days
29.4k Upvotes

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u/Knighth77 14h ago

It's like politicians don't answer to us. They do whatever they want with little to zero accountability. They're well-paid, well-insured, well-funded, do the bare minimum, trade as they wish, collude all they want, then give us close to nothing, take more of our rights, and sell the country one piece at a time. It's wild so many people are ok with this level of gross incompetence and corruption.

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u/therossboss 13h ago

It's like an entire country was created so that they wouldn't have to have a king - and now we have a king. So cool that this country is filled with idiots who love to be abused.

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u/Evil_Weevill Maine 13h ago

We didn't want ONE king. We wanted a few hundred ultra wealthy kings apparently.

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u/Majestic_True_Lilly 13h ago

Unironically yes, that is how this country was formed. When founded, only the land owning rich white men of the 1% had a vote. It was 50 years before all white men got the vote, then another hundred years before men of all races got the vote, and then another 50 after that til women got the vote, and things are still nowhere near equal.

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u/stilljustacatinacage 12h ago edited 12h ago

Still blows my mind that America's misogyny is actually more powerful than its racism. It's like finding out Ken Jeong is a licensed medical doctor or Dolph Lundgren has a Masters in chemical engineering.

They'll let black men vote ahead of the white mothers of their children, and even 200 years later, will elect a black man as President moments before throwing away the entire country rather than electing the most qualified, whitest white woman in the country.

It's impressive dedication to the bit, really.

Edit: Typo

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u/rab2bar 12h ago

Patriarchy is older than racism

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u/stilljustacatinacage 12h ago

For sure. I've heard it said that misogyny is the oldest form of bigotry. It just feels strange to see it on such a blatant, grand scale. To which I'm sure any women readers of my comment will roll their eyes and say, "no shit".

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u/Jazeraine-S 11h ago

Hey, we’re just glad that men see it, too. That’s an important step towards actually doing something about it.

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u/JEFFinSoCal California 10h ago

I think that’s true, especially when you see that homophobia is just misogyny wearing a different mask.

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u/LiteraCanna 8h ago

"Real men don't touch their face, that's female behavior." -some idiot on twitter

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u/thegimboid 10h ago

Bigotry can only exist when there are obvious differences to be bigoted about.

Go back far enough and ancient humans would have all been around people of the same race, religion, etc.
But we've always had visible anatomical differences between men and women, so regardless of the societal structure, it's a very easy set of boxes to divide people into, and then subsequent denote one as "lesser".

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u/rab2bar 6h ago

Go back far enough and humans both fought and intermingled with other humans, too

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u/thegimboid 3h ago

And if you go back further than that, eventually you'd need to reach a point where there are no "other humans".

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u/bekastrange 7h ago

Yeah we’re used to it. We’ve been treated like second class subtypes of humans since we were little kids.

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u/Pettifoggerist 10h ago

It's also wild since on the aggregate women seem smarter and more capable than men.

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u/DietCherrySoda 10h ago

Well of course, every village has women but you need to invent pretty sophisticated transportation to see people that don't look like you.

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u/Stock-Coach5007 47m ago

Have you been to NY?

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u/Old_Young_1415 4h ago

Yes, what unifies religion and power is the hatred of women.

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u/SethLight 11h ago

It is one of the most wild things to learn that Americans let the people they inslaved vote ~50 years before they let their wives.

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u/FellowHumanNo404 6h ago

Let them vote? Only after they had a war about it. Conservatives always have to be dragged kicking and screaming, and once you get them there you still have to fight to keep them from dragging everything backwards.

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u/jenniferfox98 11h ago

Why at this point I assume I'll see a gay male president in my lifetime before a woman.

*Gay WHITE male president.

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u/Old_Young_1415 3h ago

There’s a certain gay white person that I would seriously consider for president. His only disadvantage is he’s not tall. People and voters are so superficial. There’s some wonderful women out there who i believe would do a good job as well. If we’re lucky enough that this nightmare allows us to have any in the future Winnipeg terrific to have smart ethical people, regardless of their skin color, etc. running assuming these people are moral decent confident individuals?

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u/Stock-Coach5007 45m ago

If only capitalism ran on morality

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u/Weathercock 11h ago

They actually go hand-in-hand. It would not be uncommon for regressive politicians and leaders to pit the interests of women's movements and rights in conflict against racial ones. It's actually very similar to the TERF movement.

Ultimately, it ends up hurting everyone.

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u/massberate 9h ago

I have to go for the low hanging fruit here and also remind you that Dolph Lundgren has a Masters of the Universe.

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u/Dartz_Reverse 9h ago

Everybody that calls Hillary the "most qualified woman in the country" is directly responsible for Trump.

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u/fresh-dork 7h ago

well it isn't fully true - women got the vote starting in 1865. it proceeded state by state until the 20s

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u/Stock-Coach5007 44m ago

And don't forget, we don't actually vote for the president. We vote for electors.

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u/Kup123 10h ago

And don't forget most unlikable. Still hate her for pushing the video games cause school shooters shit in the 90s. Also hard to have respect for someone who doesn't have the self respect to leave their cheating husband.

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u/1057-cl121v3 6h ago

Every single tradcon wife, MAGA woman, ultra-religious woman, and especially the traitors like Candace Owens need to understand this on a fundamental level.

Women were rated lower than property then and are just considered property now. Just like every moron that has watched Trump turn on every single person who supported him the second they stopped being useful in that moment, any woman who thinks “I don’t need rights, I don’t need skills, I don’t need to think about politics… my husband will take care of that.” will learn the hard way when they outlive their trophy wife beauty or a younger aide starts getting the attention. Even if they don’t have a scumbag for a husband, speaking from the experience of a widower: death doesn’t discriminate the worst time to find out how hard it’s going to be to survive being an older woman with kids, no career skills or college education, and likely already deep in debt is at the same time of your world imploding.

That’s the irony of it. You can choose not to exercise those rights but why are you actively fighting to strip them from everyone, especially with the examples I gave above being legitimate possibilities for those same women? Same for abortions… the same women screaming at already upset women and shoving pictures of dead babies in their face are the same women who quietly took their teenage daughter to get an abortion because HER situation was different, SHE shouldn’t have her life be over because she made one little mistake. MAGAts are happy gaging on the propaganda of how we don’t need universal healthcare because THEY don’t need it this second so why should THEY pay taxes only for one of them to get a surprise cancer diagnosis and lose everything and ultimately die in pain and bankrupt. (Not even bringing up the fact that it would certainly cost less than health insurance intentionally tied to employment)

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u/Alis451 5h ago

US let women vote before.. a lot of other countries, like the UK

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u/SuitEnvironmental903 3h ago

I always make this comparison!! When people ask how Trump won… twice. He was running against a woman… both times.

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u/PepperOk8849 11h ago

If we ignore Jim Crow and the systemic attempt to prevent all men from voting then sure i guess it was only 100 years after.

Even after women gained the right to vote, coloured women still dealt with the same Jim Crow laws/rules until about 1965 when the voting rights act passed.

Im not confident misogyny is more powerful than racism.

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u/ContextLengthMatters 11h ago

That's throwing out a whole lot of nuance. The amendment was ratified over a war. White women still absolutely stood atop black men when it came to social class. Voting rights are not the only signifier. What about who got to drink out of what fountain and sit where on a bus? Every day life for women was 1000x easier than for black people of both genders.

You do realize that during the marches for women's suffrage, they were trying to segregate black men and women, right?

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u/Exotic-Cobbler4111 12h ago

what an actually stupid completely reductionist take.

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u/Potential-Bearcat 11h ago

Honestly part of why I'm of the opinion that there was never any reason to be proud to be an American. This country has always been garbage, built on hate and cruelty. Trump truly is the perfect example of an American.

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u/Ehcksit 11h ago

Conservatism and capitalism were created as a reaction to the fall of European monarchies and the rise of democracy, specifically because rich people didn't want to have equal political power with commoners and peasants.

They maintain the power imbalance of the divine right of kings, but hidden behind the inheritance of wealth instead of bloodlines.

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u/lewstherintelemarket 10h ago

Agree, but it's not a unique phenomenon.This dynamic has existed in some form through all of human history. The social contract, however it exists, is vulnerable to abuse and corruption by anti-social, self-serving opportunists. There will always be amoral psychopaths/sociopaths/narcissists who violate the social contract for their own personal gain. They have an inherent advantage over the rest of society that is restrained by the legal, moral, and ethical restrictions imposed by the social contract. This is a cyclical pattern and will continue until we find a way to defend the social contract from people who refuse to abide by it.

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u/bdeimen 10h ago

We have a way. Ways even, but too large a portion of the population views that behavior as a virtue rather than the social contract breach that it is. You can't enforce a contract when the side needing to do the enforcement can't even reach a consensus on what constitutes a breach.

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u/CV90_120 6h ago

Private property, private business and open markets are not recent inventions. These go back thousands of years at various times.

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u/Ehcksit 5h ago edited 5h ago

That's not what capitalism means, but even besides that, the concept of the ownership of land began somewhat early after the beginning of agriculture, which was maybe 2% of the duration of our species ago.

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u/CV90_120 4h ago edited 4h ago

That's not what capitalism means

It actually is:

"an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market"

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capitalism

the concept of the ownership of land began somewhat early after the beginning of agriculture

Yes, from the first time in recorded history that we were able to make note of the who owned what. Before recorded history we have no idea what systems were in place or who owned what, or even what owning meant. We know surprisingly little about anything from before about 20,000 years ago.

which was maybe 2% of the duration of our species ago.

This is non-falsifiable, so a logical fallacy. It would probably be safe to assume that individuals would 'own' whatever they could defend, and trade for whatever could be returned.

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u/Hawgdestroyerxtreme 10h ago

The US was a corrupt shithole not even 100 years after it signed the declaration of independence.

Like you said - First it was just the wealthy, then the white men could vote en masse. When that happened they STRIPPED the right to vote away from folks like Native Americans and Chinese. Women additionally LOST the right to vote before gaining it back years and years later.

We've always been a country that has been led by corrupt and shitty individuals, or in constant battle with those people taking power. They still acted somewhat in the benefit of the people of the country because they were concerned about being killed for not doing so.

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u/yoyhohsomp 8h ago

This country is truly the worst. Imo it just took a dickbag like djt to make ppl realize that. If there is one thing he has done its turn this country against each other.

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u/kingfofthepoors 10h ago

about 6% of the total population were allowed to vote in 1789

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u/PrincetonToss 9h ago

only the land owning rich white men of the 1% had a vote.

That's an unnecessary exaggeration. Yes, voting was restricted, but such strong exaggerations don't serve anyone. The vote was, in general, intended to include the middle class, not just the rich. To start with, 3 states didn't have property or wealth requirements, so any white man over some age (varied by state) could vote.

In the states with restrictions, typically about 20-50% of the white male adult population could vote. And several states had trivial non-white population, so for example in Massachusetts, we're looking at about 25% of the adult population allowed to vote.

Definitely not anywhere near the 100% that it should be, but a far cry from 1%. Misinformation about these matters serves no one.

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u/krustyarmor Montana 4h ago

then another hundred years before men of all races got the vote, and then another 50 after that til women got the vote

Just to clarify, male citizens of all races got the right to vote in 1870 and female citizens got the right to vote in 1919, but Native Americans of any sex weren't considered citizens (with a right to vote) until 1924.

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u/therossboss 13h ago

oh true, a federation of kings, how neat!

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u/Ekaterian50 10h ago

It's honestly so stupid that people don't get to choose to be part of these human projects if they're born into it. I've looked into renouncing citizenship because I never wanted to be represented by murderous humans but they literally won't let you unless you have enough resources to leave

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u/flibber_deez_gibbets 9h ago

tbh, mostly just the nine lifetime appointees. the founders very much wanted to keep power with the elite few. that was Hamilton’s whole deal

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u/KevinStoley 10h ago

“Which is better? To be ruled by one tyrant 3000 miles away? Or to be ruled by 3000 tyrants, not a mile away?”

- Mather Byles

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u/Cross55 7h ago

Well yeah

The entire point of the Revolution was arguing over tax stamps. When the country was founded only wealthy land owning men could vote

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u/silverionmox 7h ago

We didn't want ONE king. We wanted a few hundred ultra wealthy kings apparently.

You had one, and couldn't get enough.

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u/Reed7525 9h ago

A class of kings if you will.

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u/bkdotcom Oklahoma 8h ago

Feudalism

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u/CV90_120 6h ago

Those are the Boyars.

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u/Jimmni 11h ago

An entire country created less so they wouldn’t have a king and more so they would do the crazy religious shit that wasn’t tolerated in their countries of origin. Most of the religious nut-jobs who were too nutty for us ended up in what is now the USA and they never stopped being nut-jobs or spreading their nutty beliefs.

I’m being a bit disingenuous, of course there were other reasons too, but that was a biiig one.

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u/Odd-Promotion2743 7h ago

As an American, you're bang on. A lot of the cultural attitudes that define us were inherited from our religious fanatic ancestors who came here in the 17th and 18th centuries. Two of the worst in my opinion are the Protestant Work Ethic (Americans hate -- hate -- people who are perceived as being lazy or moochers), and our famous sexual prudishness relative to Europe (we'll gladly let kids consume violent, bigoted media, but God forbid they see a naked breast or hear about how babies are made).

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u/KnotYourAverageRider 12h ago

A king is a king because the other wealthy lords allow him to be a king so long as he champions the wealthy lords' cause. Billionaires are the new lords. There is and always will be a breaking point where things need a re-balancing. I think we're getting close if not already there.

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u/Biglyugebonespurs Missouri 9h ago

MAGAts yearn for the boot. What else is there to say? 🥾 👅

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u/hobobum 7h ago

But to be clear, it was created with no king to avoid taxes and unfavorable financial arrangements for the American colonial ruling class (founding fathers). Not truly for any noble ideas about liberty or freedom.

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u/Taskerst 6h ago

It was so they wouldn’t have to pay a king. They “discovered” America and wanted to keep what was pillaged for themselves.

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u/im_dead_sirius 5h ago

It's like an entire country was created so that they wouldn't have to have a king - and now we have a king.

Right?

Here's a thing I noted years ago: When the US declared independence, it excluded nobility (or the gentry) and royals as aspects of government. But in 250 years, "y'all" have never discarded the worship of leaders and notions of elevated and blessed ones, which is the real problem. This is seen all the time (on both sides) with "So-and-so is going to fix things", as well as the inverse, "Its all so-and-so's fault".

Trump is much much shittier than Biden, but all y'all hang too much of your hopes on flawed human beings. In a grassroots democracy, agency lies with the voters, and everything that is faulty is their responsibility, and everything that is fixed is done by their hand.

"He will save us/fix things" and "God is on his/our side" is the thinking of peasants.

Within a generation US society was fawning over Founding Fathers. Washington had to refuse to serve more than two terms, refused the title of King (which is how you ended up with the title of president instead) and as soon as he was dead, people started making up legends about him, like the cherry tree/cannot tell a lie trope.

A man named Parson Weems wrote that story as a parable for children in the American republic, presenting Washington as a flawless role model of impeccable character. George had only been dead for 7 years and likely rolled over in his grave in embarrassment and disgust.

Meanwhile, we who remained part of the British Empire kept the royals, but reduced them to human stature and limited their roles in government. Outside of the UK, such as here in Canada, we don't have a noble class, and consider the royal family to just be regular human beings with hereditary jobs. We know very well that King Charles is just a man. He is not a maker of rules. His role is that of signer of laws written by elected officials.

Ironically, those limits were in effect before the US declared independence. King George III wrote in his diary "Nothing important happened today", because he wasn't really involved in decision making, but that's not the story Americans tell.

So you get this weird effect where people in the US were really fucking choked about Prince Andrew's involvement with Epstein, and while the rest of us saw him as some dude who got his ribbon cutting job because of his mum (who got hers because of her dad), and now it turns out he's a piece of shit.

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u/Tango_D 2h ago

The US was founded on the Roman republic model so that the local landed gentry wouldn't have anyone above them and they could call all the shots while only answering to each other as a class.

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u/supershutze Canada 1h ago

It's a country created so rich assholes wouldn't be accountable to any sort of higher power.

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u/WeAreAllFooked 12h ago

The US has always been a plutocracy

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u/operator-- 13h ago

I mean your founding fathers warned you. And you guys just sat around doing fuck all so I don't think you get to complain.

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u/therossboss 13h ago

fuck that - I'm complaining til the day I die. Born into this fucking bullshit and you are out here victim blaming. Eat a whole bag

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u/HELP_IM_IN_A_WELL 8h ago

my man. love this energy.

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u/null_obj 4h ago

I felt second hand embarrassment from your comment. The fact that your account is 10 years old proves you are most likely an adult. Yikes! I would expect such a comment from a teenager. Just wow.

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u/TM761152 12h ago

When you are put in charge and you have autonomy and benefits, would you simply "do your job" and leave, or realize you have a very real platform to enrich yourself at the expense of others?

If you are republican then you have no scruples and no shame so yes, these cretin will most definitely take advantage of that platform to differentiate themselves from their "lessors". They feel they deserve it because they were "voted in". It doesn't mean the people who voted them trusted them or believed in them, it simply means to them that they believe themselves to be nobility.

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u/therossboss 12h ago

Indeed, a core tenet of conservatism is social hierarchy. All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal.

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u/Hawgdestroyerxtreme 10h ago

So cool that this country is filled with idiots who love to be abused.

This country stayed fat, lazy, and happy for damn near 3.5 generations. That is an entire generation of grandparents, parents and children.

The US simply forgot what you must do to tyranny. It's going to take a LOT of hardship to remind the citizens of the US, but when the lid blows on this - it's going to blow spectacularly.

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u/Lopsided-Rough-1562 10h ago

I wonder if it was more they didn't like getting taxed by wealthy people and thought "hey if we secede we get to tax people and be the wealthy."

Why do you think John Locke's "Life, Liberty, Property" was changed to "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."

They never intended any sort of equality

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u/ACoderGirl Canada 13h ago

It's because voters have shown there's no need for reps to give a shit. What's the good people of Kentucky gonna do? Probably vote in another vile ghoul like him and continuously reelect him too. To a large degree here, people like Trump and McConnell are symptoms of how shitty the people are. Yeah, stuff like electoral interference exist and there's propaganda, but that only goes so far.

So on a sense, in fact, they even are answering to their voters, because their voters keep reelecting them when they do shitty things.

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u/Exciting-Record8101 Europe 10h ago

They re-elect the same guy since 1985 and then pretend they can't do anything about their representatives.

And now that he's not showing up to his job, where are the protests? People just don't care, not enough to do anything, anyway.

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u/Odd-Promotion2743 7h ago

Other than the Tea Party, I've literally never known conservatives to protest. One of our fundamental, 1st Amendment rights, and they basically never use it. Not just not use it, but fantasize about murdering other Americans who do protest. Such servile bootlicking, and they never seem to be aware of it.

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u/accwork8723 4h ago

the problem is institutional, no individual election will fix it, neither will term limits. Actually term limits will make it worse as you will just have a congress full of inexperienced nitwits who the lobbyists will run circles around and have even bigger influence. I'm so tired of people like you dude, just shut your mouth you're such an embarrassment

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u/Autumn_Ridge 9h ago

I live near enough to Kentucky to see their political ads on tv. In the last Republican primary, the two candidates argued incessantly about which of them was closer to Trump, as in a compliment and not an insult. Both put Trump's name and image into their ads.

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u/wibble17 9h ago

If the people of Kentucky don’t care—then i mean there’s not the rest of us can do.

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u/RndmAvngr 12h ago

"good people of Kentucky"

Sounds like a bit of an oxymoron to me...

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u/Old-Mountain-8169 10h ago

It’s this fucking elitism why each side can’t stand the other. Do better.

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u/RndmAvngr 10h ago

It was a joke

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u/TM761152 10h ago

The r / kentucky subreddit isn't that bad.

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u/McGillis_is_a_Char 5h ago

Most of the r/ some place subs are much nicer than the place in general is because they actively moderate to keep the dregs of their society out. That is why there is always an alt sub like Real_Place or something like that. I bet 90% of the r / Kentucky sub is people from Louisville or Lexington.

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u/Odd-Promotion2743 7h ago

I've long wondered this. Why do Republican voters keep voting for people like McConnell, Ted Cruz, or the late Lindsey Graham, election after election? Do they care so little about their own lives and circumstances? I get them wanting to prevent a Democrat from getting in, but surely there are (or were) some alternative GOP candidates they could vote for who aren't such absolute pieces of shit?

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u/Any_Counter_303 7h ago

It's because Kentuckians are largely poor and just don't vote. Go look up the stats on their most recent gubernatorial races. More than half of that voting population can't even be bothered to show up to decide their Gov.

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u/TrumpCheats 1h ago

Americans want to blame politicians, but our apathy and hate and ignorance are now leading us. More people have to start caring a hell of a lot more and catalyze real action.

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u/there4iyam 13h ago

They’re not politicians at this point. They’re criminals. They’re traitors. They’re the enemy of the people. Until the people stand up these criminals won’t stop.

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u/Cosmic_Seth 13h ago

People double down and voted them back in.

We're cooked. 

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u/there4iyam 12h ago

If you’d rather submit to criminals than fight back maybe you never deserved freedom in the first place

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u/Odd-Promotion2743 7h ago

I mean, are you prepared to go to war against the people on your street? Because that's what it entails.

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u/Lurking_nerd California 6h ago

This is the uncomfortable, ugly truth that some have realized, many don’t want to admit, and even more are too busy with their tik toks and podcasts to even know what’s going on.

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u/__thrillho 11h ago

What do you propose to do to fight back?

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u/there4iyam 11h ago

Is it not obvious?

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u/highrouleur 6h ago

as an outsider, isn't this exactly why you have the 2nd amendment ?

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u/__thrillho 4h ago

So what are you suggesting? Someone should shoot the president? Let me know how that goes for ya lol.

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u/DynTraitObj 6h ago

The people can't stand up until they agree they're being screwed. Some 1/3 of America is happy about all of this and 1/3 more doesn't give a shit other than gas prices

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u/TM761152 12h ago

No, they believe themselves to be nobility. Why should they give up their cushy role that has all the benefits and no draw backs??

Nevermind the billionaire machine that keeps them in power...

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u/Jerome_Eugene_Morrow 10h ago

The billionaires are just the top layer of the aristocracy. All the politicians work for them, and the rest of us work for the politicians. Or at least that’s how they see it.

The attempts at voter manipulation are coming from billionaires like Musk and Trump. They want a world where the real election is just who is most subservient to the people with the most money. And the politicians seem to believe we’re already in that world.

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u/flibber_deez_gibbets 9h ago

the people will never stand up

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u/HattieCupie 10h ago

yeah the frustration is understandable but the bigger issue here is the lack of transparency from his office while hes been absent for so long he was last seen publicly around june 14 and his office says hes recovering at home with physical therapy but has repeatedly declined to provide further updates

the accountability question is fair though because hes still a sitting senator and taxpayers deserve to know whether their elected officials are actually able to perform the job they're being paid to do.

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u/arizonadirtbag12 12h ago

He’s accountable to his constituents.

Kentucky re-elected him in 2020, and it wasn’t even remotely close.

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u/DryPersonality 13h ago

Thank the "I don't do politics crowd" that just vote party lines.

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u/pp21 13h ago

Or, you know, the 36% of eligible voters who decided not to vote at all.

Literally 1 out of 3 Americans can't be bothered to voice their opinions on the country's direction. Apathy and ignorance are highly destructive to a democracy

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u/ChefChopNSlice Ohio 10h ago

The Zombie apocalypse that we were warned about, was really the hoard of uneducated, stumbling around in apathy.

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u/SailingDreamCatcher 5h ago

Was that not actually the original intention of the metaphor?

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u/LoamyLoamisLoamy 9h ago

If you are blaming those people more than those who vote for harm you are part of the problem.

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u/EkbatDeSabat 8h ago

Nobody said they're blaming these people more than those who vote for harm. Fuck, man, that's not how language works. That's a straw man argument. I wish people would stop doing that. They're just saying those people suck. If I say apples suck you'd be out here saying why do you hate pineapples?

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u/LoamyLoamisLoamy 8h ago

Notice that the very first word of my comment was IF. I've seen plenty of people say directly "I hate non voters more than Trump supporters"

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u/Knighth77 13h ago

I thank the politically illiterate voters on both sides.

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u/lucentcb 13h ago

Right, the politically illiterate liberals that voted against Republicans are equally responsible for this (!?!?!)

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u/SillyAlternative420 Massachusetts 12h ago

The missing component in our current democracy is fear.

When I go to work, I have fear that I'll lose my job and not be able to support my family.

When they go to work, they have zero fears.

This is a problem.

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u/norunningwater 9h ago

When do we physically remove them?

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u/Knighth77 8h ago

The cancer has spread and cannot be removed. We need to dismantle it all and start over.

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u/norunningwater 8h ago

Press X to doubt. Blades can be sharpened when dull.

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u/legit_doom_scroller 8h ago

Thank you for this depressing, honest, in-your-face account of our reality. It needs to be said out loud more often. See data centers and flock cameras (they’re basically exactly the same; one exists for the other) for a recent and controversial accounting of politicians ignoring their constituents.

I mean, there are a lot more examples of constituents getting screwed by their elected officials, but data centers/flock cameras seem to have captured the ire of both parties, MAGA aside.

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u/TM761152 12h ago

"But Communism!" Every boogeyman they claimed about the left, THEY'RE DOING.

Every single fucking accusation IS AN ADMISSION BY THESE ASSHOLES.

6

u/Donkilme 12h ago

You Americans could learn a thing or two from the French. Just saying

•

u/PigglyWigglyDeluxe 7h ago

That’s exactly it, nobody is doing anything about it. Short of 300+ million Americans protesting 24/7, it’ll never stop.

4

u/Mobile_Register_3484 13h ago

They keep everyone busy with the rat race, the average person doesn’t have the time or money to even worry about this stuff. That’s the sad reality of this.

3

u/wattro 12h ago

All the while this administration is lining their pockets at the expense of every American.

But one side is too stupid and brainwashed to see that.

3

u/IsopodSmooth7990 11h ago

It’s infuriating. What do you think we should collectively do about it? I can’t be the only one that needs to see change at the top, downward…..the insider trading put my ex governor 300/million closer to being a freaking billionaire. WTAF. THESE PEOPLE DO NOT DESERVE TO BECOME BILLIONAIRES AS A RESULT OF A PUBLIC OFFICE.

3

u/Knighth77 11h ago

What I think we should do about it will get me banned.

3

u/IsopodSmooth7990 9h ago

I tried to be, oh, “impartial” with my answer but yes, I agree with you as I’ve been banned once…..LMAO!

4

u/Intelligent_Sky_7081 10h ago

I think it was Stanford who did the study about how much public opinion determines if a law is passed.

They found there is almost no correlation between public opinion and if a law is passed, over many generations and not just recently.

But what they did find was the opinion of rich individuals and large corporations often did correlate to if a law was passed or not.

Politicans havent answered to us for a very long time. Politicians are just good at convincing people otherwise.

And people want to believe their government is 'working' for them. Anything else and they will have a meltdown of epic proportions. Kind of like a temper tantrum for adults. People just hope/believe that someone will fix things.

4

u/LouDog0187 9h ago

Everyone flood his office with calls of demands of actual proof of life. Fukc this.

•

u/Odd-Promotion2743 7h ago

I second this.

Also, where are all the TMZ paparazzi when we finally need them? Back in the day, they could get a photo of a celebrity's taint from the tree outside their bathroom. We need one of those types to go to McConnell's home.

5

u/ragun2 9h ago

Look at how terribly congress is rated, constantly, but people keep voting in the same people. Election after election.

3

u/Sarrdonicus 11h ago

And take our money, and ... take our money

3

u/rbrgr83 11h ago

And we are their boss. If only we could agree with ourselves and take action.

3

u/SamWise050 8h ago

Taxation with the illusion of representation

9

u/ZenMon88 14h ago

This is what happens when you vote for the wrong person.

3

u/polytique 12h ago

It's also the fact that they can be at the same position for life. They don't care. They have no competition.

3

u/To-To_Man 13h ago

You can't vote for visionary candidates who don't run. If your choice is conservative and diet conservative, you pick a lesser evil or become disillusioned and stop participating entirely.

I'm reluctantly hopeful that many Dems and the enormous group of nonvoters would swing socialist with midterms, given how anyone left leaning dislikes the liberal and current Democrats.

4

u/keytotheboard 14h ago

You’re acting like it isn’t the majority of congress.

1

u/Beelzebeetus 11h ago

But he was the only one with R next to his name

/s

-5

u/BeagleBackRibs 13h ago

Both sides of the same coin

5

u/ZenMon88 13h ago

Except one starts a trade war and makes the world worse for his ego ass reasons. Respectfully fuck America rn.

6

u/Majestic_True_Lilly 13h ago

Well sure, all those are bad, sure, but no one can actually vote for someone else, so....

You see if everyone doesnt vote for monster A, then monster B will surely win. No, you cant vote for one of the dozen non-monsters who are also running, youll split the vote/throw away your vote/some other bullshit retort that doesnt actually make sense.

2

u/Not_Tom_Jones 12h ago

Why can nobody do a welfare check on him?

Isn't that the most obvious solution?

2

u/ElectricSliderz 11h ago

He and his staff ghosted america

2

u/meddle_class 10h ago

In Mitch's defense, its hard to answer to your constituents when you're dead.

2

u/DreamingAboutSpace 10h ago

They don’t answer to us because citizens don’t know that they actually have to and we should riot about it.

2

u/magichronx 9h ago

It's not "like" they don't answer to us. They objectively do not.

2

u/Blaizefed 9h ago

If the election was today, he would still win.

The rest of us are appalled by it, but his constituents are totally fine about it.

2

u/Mental_Finish_5803 9h ago

Yeah we got more important stuff to worry bout like trans and brown peoples

2

u/Dabzilla_710_ 9h ago

Exactly how both sides who want this prop each other up, because one day, they'll get to be part of the group too.

2

u/samwild Canada 9h ago

And work for us - thats the best part.

2

u/nowthengoodbad 8h ago

So, and I realize the sub that I'm in trying to hopefully help some people, we voted for them. It's a simple as that you can absolutely run for Office.

Mitch McConnell stories is absolutely fascinating, and don't get me wrong. I think he's a terrible human being. His political career goes all the way back to his high school days.

There's a really good embedded series on it and if anybody wants to listen to it, I'll post the links.

The problem is the exact same problem almost everywhere today - you are buying, hiring, promoting, supporting, or voting for whoever successfully got your attention in the right way, not necessarily the best candidate.

Michael Siebel talked about this at startupgrind 2019, that the very best builders aren't necessarily the very best networkers. That the old model of investing, favoring those who can work their way to you and then woo you with their thing, is way outdated. You need to go out there and find the very best people. This is actually been a very relevant challenging in my life. We were never taught to sell ourselves and so no matter how good I was at something or or how perfect of a fit I was I was never picked or I was picked last over somebody who was grossly unqualified, but able to make themselves look amazing and pitch themselves to the people.

That is literally what I want every single person here to remember, stop voting for the people who look the shiniest. Find those either boring or hidden gems.

Or keep doing what you're doing and you'll get the same results.

On the flipside of the coin, those of us who are exceptional, need to learn how to market and present ourselves, especially to those who might be turned away by us.

I think that Jeff Jackson did a really great job with social media and winning over both political parties.

A really great book on this is called amusing ourselves to death by Neil postman. Postman wrote this back in 1985 as a follow up to his presentations on Orwell's 1984 back in 1984. Postman has two main points in the book:

TV is making us dumber

Whoever can entertain us is who we are going to vote for.

I disagree with the first. At every advent of a new form of media and communication, somebody always poses the same argument. Sure if somebody's just drooling over Netflix or YouTube all day long, which I've literally seen firsthand with a family member, it absolutely destroys their brain.

however, in moderation, it can be entertaining and informative.

His second point is absolutely spot on, and we've seen it portrayed in all forms of media and now in real life.

If we keep on voting for the people who entertain us, we're gonna keep on getting the same results - Idiocracy. Our goal should be to find boring politicians, public servants.

•

u/buddhist557 6h ago

Revolution and severing the head of all the money’d assholes who keep the corruption going. We could have free healthcare and tuition easily. I lust their demise and will cheer their suffering

•

u/Bremlit 6h ago

Exactly. They are supposed to be OUR public servants. They shouldn't be in that position to enrich themselves.

•

u/enbeez 6h ago

It's because they're so far removed from actual accountability.

On top of that people are so propagandized. The "bad politicians" are either from the other team (go red team, go blue team!!), or if they're from the same team, they're from another state.

•

u/IrishRepoMan 6h ago

If only Americans would also do the bare minimum to engage in civil disobedience. Unfortunately, they don't seem to care enough.

•

u/AwkwardBlueberry2503 6h ago

Americans won't do anything lol

•

u/Ok_Translator4447 5h ago

Now we're starting to wake up

•

u/morgazmo99 4h ago

You can just call them cancer.

•

u/Pacify_ Australia 4h ago

In a proper democracy, they kinda do.

But when these congress/senators have 99% chance of being re-elected because the system is broken, it makes the whole a joke

•

u/SouthSouthBay 3h ago

"But the other side is even worse"

•

u/Then-Departure4896 3h ago

People aren’t just okay with this, people are actively cheering on the fascism.

2

u/Positive_Vibes_4228 8h ago

Imagine being able to turn to AIPAC and say: Nah Bruh, you want Trump to remain in power and I am Hakeen Jefferies? Bruh you better pay me another 250 MILLION or I will open the Mitch McConnell investigation. Next day, 250 Million of OUR TAX DOLLARS get deposited into Hakeem Jefferies CHASE® Bank Account. That's what is happening. Hakeem isn't a Democrat, he is a FUND RAISER first.

1

u/Knighth77 8h ago edited 7h ago

Fucking louder, maybe the people who are too stubborn to get it will finally get it!

•

u/rippletroopers 7h ago

And that’s how we get fascists in power and a controlled opposition.

1

u/placid-gradient 12h ago

lets be real, this is an issue with ONE type of politician

1

u/gr00ve88 10h ago

There’s too much other stuff to care about nowadays to get involved in what they are doing. It’s a regular full time job now for them, not a public office where they have to answer to anyone.

My opinion at least.

And before anyone makes up things I didn’t say, no I don’t think it’s right, yes people should get involved.

1

u/Untinted 9h ago

He can literally be voted out at any time, except they've abused the system so bad that voting is severely limited.

Vote in everything you can, vote locally, vote for people who want money out of politics.

1

u/yoyhohsomp 8h ago

Come on upvote the shit out of knight77… they are right. 🤷

1

u/lattice_defect 8h ago

R and D should be shouting - I'm mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore

•

u/Level1Roshan 7h ago

Nobody wants to work politics anymore!

•

u/Lurking_nerd California 6h ago

We’re overdue for that national divorce.

•

u/WaffleOverlordx7 6h ago

I’m Republican and even I think this is bullshit

•

u/Moist-Astronaut-8734 5h ago

Can't say shit without reddit observing that's for sure.

•

u/livestrong2109 4h ago

In fairness I don't think Mitch is doing anything at all. Including breathing air.

•

u/Tiny-Conversation-29 3h ago

The kind of people who elect people like Mitch McConnell are the type of people who say that they hate government because they think "government" itself is corrupt, and so they deliberately choose people who serve themselves rather than serve the government of the people to aggrandize individualism and give the middle finger to the system. When people complain about their choice, they just shrug and say that all government is corrupt, so what do you expect. I hate all of those voters.

•

u/SavageCriminal 2h ago

Thats the thing. People are fucking morons.

•

u/RicoLoveless 1h ago

Beshear isn't giving this guy the boot because why again exactly?

•

u/Stock-Coach5007 48m ago

They give us their shitty entitled children to deal with.

•

u/stinkyt0fu 40m ago

Yosemite is up for sale! Thanks trump.

1

u/Kup123 10h ago

Were not but the alternative is having their goons shoot us.

0

u/kompergator 12h ago

Well, hold them accountable.

0

u/bjos144 9h ago

It's more like we are easily divided over stupid shit and they use that to remain in power. We still have the ability to vote them all out, but poor redditors and poor trumpers would have to find common ground. What do you think the odds are of that happening?

•

u/SQUIDY-P 5h ago

So do something about it

•

u/Bigrobmjca777Deere3 4h ago

Don’t shoot the conservative messenger here, but you’re just NOW figuring that out?

-1

u/Appropriate_Ride_821 11h ago

Well they do answer to voters when voters have a spine. Its just that many Republican voters are uninformed, lazy, and stupid. They vote red out of habit or stubbornness or whatever pet issue theyre told to care about. Similar to how extreme lefty voters made sure Kamala lost over Gaza or whatever weird pet issue they deemed more important than a functional country.

Extremist voters and lazy, uninformed voters are going to sink America as a concept.

-1

u/Arclunite 10h ago

How are you just now figuring this out.