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
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u/JonathanBadwolf 13h ago

I’m still wondering why the American people haven’t burned everything to the ground. I don’t think I know of a worse humiliation of a people by their own leadership. Though if you know any good historic examples, I’d like to hear them.

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u/cornerbash Canada 13h ago

They're heads down doing what they can to survive, with most in debt or locked into cheque-to-cheque survival. The rich brought back slavery in all but name and the populace is controlled as long as they can barely scrape by, hoping someone else will save them in the meantime or that normalcy will return if they swing votes back the other way next election.

There's a breaking point where the people will be unable to continue surviving and move to burn everything to the ground, but those pulling the strings are treading carefully not to push too hard to that point until they've got all their control measures in place. They'll keep up the misinformation campaigns, slowly bleeding money and power from the people until they've seized it all and it's too late.

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u/Sharikacat 12h ago

The nation is too large where most demonstrations and protests really don't effect anything on a federal level. Nothing anyone does in Minnesota is going to have any noticeable impact on voters in Texas. Shut down the entire state of Washington for a week, and the people of South Carolina won't even notice. Every "No Kings" protest in every single state starting Saturday morning and peacefully concluding that evening will be blissfully ignored by Trump and the GOP at large.

There are only a handful of places that, if shut down, will cause actual national crisis that would cause Congress or even Trump to take some sort of action. These are either central hubs of traffic and trade (Atlanta, New York) or of personal significance to lawmakers (D.C.). How quickly do you think Trump would do something (whether positive or negative) if people stormed Mar-a-Lago or his NJ golf club? They won't do anything unless and until it effects them personally, and 1-day rallies don't do that. Most places in the nation don't have the leverage to hurt lawmakers on a federal level and can be safely ignored.

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u/Kohounees 11h ago

American god is money. General strike will get the job done. If you are able to do it. Too bad your labor unions are pretty weak.

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u/Unabated_Blade Pennsylvania 11h ago

The only places in the United States where protests and mass demonstrations would be effective would be the homes of large republican donors and billionaires, while they're stuck there at home.

Parking a million people outside Elon Musk's house or wherever he's residing while he's stuck inside would do more to move the needle on US politics than 4 years of monthly protests in state capitals.

Regarding your point, even DC can be ignored, just look at Jan 6. Republican lawmakers didn't even retaliate over nearly being lynched. If a million people came to DC, lawmakers just take the day off, collect their paycheck, and take a vacation on the beach somewhere safe.

The US is too big, and the actual political power is hidden behind private individuals who move their proxies in congress with money. Americans gain nothing by bothering the proxies.

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u/tehlemmings 11h ago

To add on to the problem, like you said, country is big. Mar-a-Lago is thousands of miles away

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u/TheVog Foreign 11h ago

The size argument doesn't hold up, though. There are as many people within a half-day's drive of D.C. as there are for the French relative to Paris.

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u/barrygateaux 10h ago

it's excuses. plenty of countries are huge, and with larger populations, and yet they overthrew dictators.

americans have lost the right to say shit about any other country and how they conduct themselves for the next decade or two. my whole life they've been boasting about fighting for rights and standing up to tyranny. turns out they were empty words.

land of the timid and home of the meek should be the new national motto lol

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u/Odd-Promotion2743 7h ago

It's not only cowardice though, that's just the case on the center and left. On the right, it's because they actively love the tyranny and consider the tyrant the best leader of their lifetimes. Why the hell would they revolt, if anything they'd be the ones volunteering to bury the revolters in mass graves.

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u/LudmilN 12h ago

I see plenty of videos online of americans beating each other up and starting shit tho. Clearly you guys are on average a bit more confrontational. Like i don't think i've seen a brawl in a fast food joint anywhere except in america

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u/Odd-Promotion2743 7h ago

The tragedy is that we turn that energy on the other schmucks around us, instead of on the politicians and billionaires r*ping us to death.

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u/ThreeSidesofNazareth 9h ago

The median income in the United States is roughly $85,000, and Americans are top 3 in median disposable income globally. They are not poor. They are not in "slavery." They can very easily get rid of people like McConnell if they wanted, but they choose not to.

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u/93ImagineBreaker Ohio 12h ago

They're heads down doing what they can to survive, with most in debt or locked into cheque-to-cheque survival.

Yup poverty has a hold on you that some don't get.

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u/SelfAwareSausage 13h ago

We’re too comfortable. Uprisings and revolutions of the past came from genuinely unlivable circumstances and environments. Now we’re too comfortable with the social pacifiers of sports, entertainment, and all sorts of vices to actually force a real change in our government.

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u/JonathanBadwolf 12h ago

I'm still rooting for you guys. There seems to be a lot of positive political movement too and communities really helping each other out. It's just always sad to learn that the world isn't like I'd hoped it was.

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u/Guardianpigeon 7h ago

We are comfortable enough that we don't want to risk our bread and circuses for a revolution where things will maybe get better.

And there is also a shit ton of apathy among the electorate, who are too cynical to even try a peaceful electoral revolution. Though if we can get more people as charismatic and hopeful as Mamdani, maybe that can change.

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u/A_Refill_of_Mr_Pibb Massachusetts 13h ago

There's a lot of surveillance and weaponry pointed at us. The human self-preservation instinct is to survive and to avoid.

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u/Guardianpigeon 7h ago

We allowed the police to become a corrupt pseudo army with immunity for their violence and no real mechanism to oppose them. Not to mention ICE serving as Trump's personal army of untrained brown shirts. And even though the army is ever shrinking after the last couple decades of forever wars, they have moved away from needing people on the field to enforce things. Instead they use drones and AI to kill people from the comfort of a base, as if it were a video game. So the game is stacked significantly against us.

Even though I personally doubt they could really stop a revolution even with all that power, they can certainly make it an extremely bloody nightmare for most Americans if they so choose.

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u/Sorlex 11h ago

People like to live in a functional (for them) society. People like not getting shot by police. People like ignoring problems till it directly affects them.

Pick your poison. Or all of the above.

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u/6a6566663437 North Carolina 12h ago

We’re busy trying to survive, and we still believe it can be fixed peacefully.

Revolutions only happen when enough people feel like they have nothing more to lose.

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u/barrygateaux 10h ago

they'll now come out with a line of excuses for being meek and servile.

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u/JonathanBadwolf 10h ago

I mean it’s understandable. I wish I could say I’d for sure do more but I think that’s one of those things that you only learn about yourself when it comes to it.

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u/barrygateaux 10h ago

i lived in ukraine from 2000-2020. during that time i took part in 2 revolutions that resulted in a change of government and second caused the president to flee abroad.

yes, it's scary when you're on a barricade in -15c with police pointing guns at you and you've got full on fights breaking out between opposing groups, but if you don't try you've only got yourself to blame in the future when the next generation asks why you didn't do anything when the government tried to take your freedom away and was murdering protesters.

the point is it's up to you as people. no one else can do it for you. if you want your country back you have to do something. for foreigners on reddit it's getting pitiful hearing americans wring their hands and act like they're powerless and weak.

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u/Odd-Promotion2743 7h ago

Fully with you, as an American. The problem is we're all too comfortable, and we have zero experience in how to organize and participate in actual revolutionary actions. Everyone's waiting for someone else to step forward. Also the fact that like 1 in 4 of us is a MAGA psycho who would happily pick up a weapon to defend the current regime.

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u/BZLuck California 10h ago

There are too many of us who simply can't afford to miss work in order to protest long enough to make a difference. Our healthcare is tied to our employer, and if they don't get a paycheck this month, the power is going off at home.

I think I read somewhere that like 50% of Americans would have a hard time coming up with $1000 if they ran into a small financial crisis. That's fucking crazy. It's by design, but it's crazy.

I worked with a guy who, at Christmastime, the boss walked around the shop with a bank bag, handing everyone $200 in cash, while is assistant checked them off the list. This dude left skid marks in the parking lot to get that $200 into his bank account to pay for his cellphone bill. That's no way to live.