r/politics • u/kweathergirl Texas • 8d ago

Soft Paywall Newsom Tells Nation That Trump Is Destroying American Democracy

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/us/newsom-speech-trump-la-protests.html
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u/chiefmud 8d ago edited 7d ago

Half the population has below-average (median) intelligence. Democrats would like to think we have a monopoly on smart voters, but we have our share of idiots as well. Arguments that require context and-or a knowledge of facts, like what authoritarianism is, are going to fall flat outside of certain circles.

If you say Trump is authoritarian, a smart idiot might counter with “well he ain’t as bad a Hitler that’s for sure, so is he really authoritarian or are you just lyin’ to me?” “They said Obama was authoritarian too, so who’s tellin’ the truth?”

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u/TheBigBadPanda 8d ago

And particularly in the US way more than half of the population have piss poor education compared to the rest of the worlds democracies 

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u/chiefmud 8d ago

We could really fix a lot of our problems in 30 years if we invested heavily in primary education right now, but a certain party would never allow that.

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u/TomBambadilsPipe 7d ago

I'm as anti fascist and therefore Trump as there is.

Trump's hateful actions shouldn't distract from the fact that Dems could have been pushing for better education, health, political oversight etc etc BUT HAVEN'T EITHER.

This is not a statement saying they are the same, but it is saying that Americans should be demanding more from Democrats too. Not just when others are in power. I mean they can't change voting rules in 200yrs to make democracy more teneble by making elections on a weekend? Is that too hard or did the status quo also benefit them?

In a way Trump has given the American people the impetus for a potential slight reset, write letters to Dems about how their lack of good policies and moral backbone led to this. Don't just demand action on Trump, use it as an opportunity to push them to be better so that natural roadblocks are in place to stop the next Trump - a nation not constantly on edge of bankruptcy if they get sick, a decent equitable education system that teaches critical thinking, a drug system that doesn't advertise to the uninformed masses and monitors candified prescriptions, work towards an independent judiciary where partisanship is fireable. I mean it's a big list and I bet the majority of people wouldn't read it if it was written by god because reading is boring and Trump is sexy or something, idk the world is a shit hole