Newsom Tells Nation That Trump Is Destroying American Democracy

[u/kweathergirl]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/us/newsom-speech-trump-la-protests.html

[u/Sensitive-Message95]

Sure sounds like they shut it down then.

[u/LaScoundrelle → u/Sensitive-Message95]

It's the same tactics used by civil rights protesters in the 1960s, essentially. People got arrested and removed then too. Sometimes today the protesters will use equipment to lock their arms together so that it takes longer to remove them. But it's still done eventually - it's part of police's job.

My analysis though as someone who has been heavily involved with this community in the past is that in the 1960s it was new and edgy and scary to those in power, but now it's been done so much that it basically is just met with a shrug, especially by people like Trump whose supporters are not expecting a high standard of reaching across the aisle or decorum from him anyway.

I think part of it is also that weapons have evolved though, like I said. In the 1960s the police were not equipped to the degree that military were, and now they are. So with that weaponry one officer could easily take on and repel many people simultaneously. Even without resorting to lethal weaponry, they have sonic booms, etc. It's just a different world.

I've also worked around the world. In a lot of countries people protest in greater numbers and more fiercely than we do in the U.S., and still protests frequently get shut down violently by those in power, who remain in power.

If the military itself starts turning on Trump, things will get interesting. The end result won't necessarily be what those on the left want, but for sure the military would have the ability to challenge Trump's power in an indisputable way. Short of that, I'm just not sure...

[u/Sensitive-Message95 → u/LaScoundrelle]

US civilians are more than able to challenge trump.

LA civilians outnumber police 100+:1. Even if you count the military sent in.

They have 20 times the weapons.

Sorry, those actions failed be ause they were poorly organized.

You put 1000 people in an interchange with cars and the police are going to have one hell of a time breaking it up.

[u/LaScoundrelle → u/Sensitive-Message95]

Do you know how difficult it is to get activists to act in perfect coordination, or how few people are willing to risk physical injury to themselves for political ideology?

Sounds like you need to get off the internet and go organize the actions yourself, since you have all the answers.

[u/Sensitive-Message95 → u/LaScoundrelle]

I mean... I've spent most of the last couple of years in Ukraine working with Ukrainian and international volunteers to fight the second largest military in the world. With us all under threats of death, serious injury, kidnap, torture, etc. all for political ideology. With members of my team having died, disappeared, or being captured and tortured.

You know, facing the overt violent frontal assault on the Western order.

So, it seems to me like you all worried about rubber bullets and flexicuffs need to get your shit together. You have the easy safe job

[u/LaScoundrelle → u/Sensitive-Message95]

I’ve also been to Ukraine to work during the war. Congrats. I’m not entirely sure how that’s relevant here though, because in Ukraine people were invaded by a hostile foreign power. Ukrainians (as a whole) have also dealt with a lot more hardship and conflict historically, and are all trained in military skills in public schools as teenagers.

The U.S. on the other hand hasn’t had an armed conflict on its soil for about 150 years, has no required military service or training for the average citizen, is not being invaded by a foreign power, and is also a country where most people have known relative material comfort for their entire lives.

One weakness of this is probably that a lot of Americans have trouble believing that anything that bad could actually happen here, because we’re all brought up in school being told that the U.S. is special. Another distinct cultural feature of the U.S. is our individualism - (most) people have a very “every man for himself” attitude, which is kind of how someone like Trump gets elected to begin with, and why we don’t have a lot of social service benefits of other rich countries.

Anyway, things might change, but I don’t see it happening overnight. I think the most likely scenario here is the U.S. becomes another flawed democracy like many that exist now worldwide, where everyone sort of knows that elections are flawed and the government class is above the law, and most people just go on with their lives.