Can we harvest bamboo to extinction next?! Starting with my neighbor’s yard…

Sure, but whether you’re talking about military might or economic might, more people is more leverage. That was my point.

I think the argument to make space for them is more practical than compassionate. WTF are we going to do if we just refuse to speak to or have any dealings with 1/3 of the working age population. Are we relocating all Trump voters South of Virginia and splitting the Union here?

Setting aside our own authoritarian problems for a second, if you want to have a wealthy country that can oppose authoritarian regimes (like China and Russia), you need all 350 million of us. (And you need Europe, India, and democratic Asia on board, perhaps even some middle eastern countries, all people you may have philosophical differences with that you have to learn to work with).

The US has needed rank choice voting since Nixon at least.

The people that oppose this administration don’t want anarchy and guillotines though. They want integrity, law, order, justice, etc. The teeth of the anti-MAGA movement will have to come through at least semi-legitimate means, i.e., I think it will have to come through the authority of state governments.

And we see state governments become increasingly aggressive against this administration. These marches embolden the mayors and governors that oppose MAGA; they say that the people are with them.

The protests are to keep reminding ourselves that we aren’t alone and other people are willing to stand with us and back us. If we can engage our neighbors a bit, all the better.

Damn, I was excited about a real life Hermione.

The state of Israel, that Greta is running afoul of, didn’t exist in Hitler’s lifetime. Try again.

It’s a boon in that people still want law and order and have a means to pursue it.

But the collective action, unimpeded by conflict, of 150-300 million people is a huge factor in what has made the US so prosperous for 80 years. We are giving that up.

My personal guess is the tipping point comes when the 2026 elections are either brazenly fraudulent or disregarded by the sitting majority leaders. If that doesn’t happen, then my next bet would be on the 2028 elections tearing us apart like those of 1860.

I will admit, my guesses have some big caveats around international relations. The Trump administration has shown disinclination to stand up to China or Russian, and have all but said they won’t defend Taiwan against China. Their calculus may change if they believe participating in a world war will help them cling to power I guess? Trump is kind of a Russian pawn though, and Russia would much prefer the US be torn apart in Civil War than jump in to defend Europe or democratic Asia.

Sigh. I really don’t love the walking-on-my-pants-cuffs trend, especially for dress pants (pictures in the link are worse than this thumbnail).

As someone about to hit 40, I’m tryyyyyyying to let go of skinny pants, but the above is just so impractical!

I have listened to part of the It Could Happen Here vision for what could go down, but I’m on the fence. In the 2020 election and Jan 6th, I could see that version of things more: militias creating general lawlessness with a weak federal government that can’t maintain peace.

But since Trump arrived on the scene, people have been increasingly geographically sorting themselves by political affiliation. Additionally, we are seeing blue state coalitions form around vaccines and climate change. And now we are seeing folks band together at the state-level and pressure their state governments to take stands against the federal government. Additionally, we are seeing more punitive behavior between states (busing of migrants from Texas, financial punishment of blue states, trying to criminally charge ObGyns providing abortion services across state lines, red states offering Trump their national guard to punish blue states, redistricting based on the actions of another state).

Regardless of how people feel about the federal government, they seem to still see legitimacy in their local governments, and are increasingly using those local governments as vehicles for negotiation.

Just because red states have blue cities and blue states have rural red areas doesn’t mean we won’t divide down red state / blue state lines. States and their respective sides weren’t homogenous during the first civil war either. Texas took a vote on whether or not to secede, and something like 1/3 of the state voted to stay in the union. Maryland considered seceding, so the federal government immediately occupied it so that DC wasn’t cut off from the union.

We are already seeing balkanization with states forming coalitions on climate change action and vaccination guidance. What I’m still unclear of is whether blue states will secede or whether they will attempt to root out an illegitimate regime.

The Maryland DC suburbs are some of the nicest parts of the country.