Let's suppose Biden wins in November. We win over the House and keep the Senate too. Will we finally be safe?

[Silent3]

I know we can never be safe from tyranny forever. That's not what I'm asking. Of course constant vigilance is always necessary.

But will the current cycle finally be broken by solid Democratic wins this November? Or will we continue, for the foreseeable future, riding on a knife's edge from election to election to election, until we finally tip over the edge into something we can't recover from for a long time?

The Republican party is broken beyond repair. It badly needs to be reformed or replaced. But will that happen? Can that happen?

For well over 150 years the Democrat/Republican two-party system has endured, even if what each party stands for has changed greatly over time. It's very hard to imagine a totally new party of moderate, sane conservatives replacing the current Republican party. But it's also hard to imagine the current Republican party being reformed from within, with more Eisenhower-like Republicans somehow winning primaries and displacing the nutbags and grifters who are currently the only ones who can survive the Republican primary process.

In the short term, going by the results of special elections, Democrats may hold an edge over Republicans that many pollsters haven't figured out how to account for yet. I'm hoping that edge, and damage from Trump's legal tribulations, will save us this November. But no matter how well Democrats do in 2024, they simply won't keep winning year after year, decade after decade.

When the day finally comes that Democrats lose the Presidency, and worse, both Houses of Congress at the same time, what is it that Democrats will be losing to?

If it's anything like the current Republican party, it's likely game-over for Democracy in America, leading to a long dark age it might take decades from which to recover. Is our system already so badly broken that only a deep, thorough catastrophe can break Americans from viewing Republicans of the current ilk as a viable alternative to Democrats?

[littlemissmartypants]

1. Are you okay, Silent3? ❤️

[RandySF]

2. No

Not as long as Republicans offer us authoritarianism.

[Sky Jewels]

3. Good questions. I wonder this too.

I hope the generations born after 1980 or so will continue to choose a more progressive path. They’re where I put my hope.

[betsuni]

4. It's the American people: conspiracy theories, everything's rigged, votes don't matter, both sides, whatever.

[Kaleva]

5. Safe from catastrophic climate change? No

[Earth-shine]

6. Whether we win or lose elections, the fascists will always be at the door.

There will always be those who for their own attainment of wealth or power want to tell others what to do.

The struggle for democracy and justice means never being able to coast.

[Silent3]

7. I already stipulated that we can never coast. But we haven't always been so close to a precipice.

Living on that edge where we are just one unfavorable election away from disaster is not a condition we should expect to constantly endure.

My fear is that we may be at a point that the fascist forces can only be defeated by first winning, creating decades of misery, and then hopefully being overthrown when a very large majority finally understand why the fascists never should have been allowed power in the first place.

Dictatorships are incredibly difficult to overthrow, and even if overthrown, are often replaced by just a different or worse flavor of repression.

How do we get the sleep-walking, ill-informed, dis-informed American electorate to wake up before things have to get so bad? Too many Americans still see Republicans as a perfectly viable alternative to Democrats if they're unhappy with inflation, don't like our policies about Israel and the Palestinians, just don't feel Democrats are "doing enough", mindlessly ready to vote for Republicans because they want "change", without any thought about how Republicans might do better.

[Rebl2]

8. You are so right!

[SupportSanity]

9. Please forgive me for using a computer example, but

there was a time, when, if you had an Apple Macintosh computer, you were absolutely so not a part of being afraid of hackers, viruses. All the things that those stupid windows people were fending off on a daily basis and complaining about had no impact on you.

That was then.

Today:

The Best Mac Antivirus Software for 2024
https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-mac-antivirus-protection

USA never had a real reason for the big fear ever since World War II. There was always this spy, that secret document, but nothing as serious as a full on onslaught that had been in the planning for over 50 years. And that has obvious origins in a country that has been our main enemy for forever.

But every day, we have to fend off, in a major way, forces that have been growing while we've been "asleep". But here we are.

We have to create our own "Anti-Virus" that stays updated to the latest tactics of Democracy hackers. An almost impossible job considering how much catching up there is.

If we win this election, we win this round.

But the opsosing forces have LOTS of money and seem singularly focused.

If we win this round, we get a little bit of a reprieve.

But there is no resting. Because the opposition isn't resting.

If we don't win this round......

All those migrants coming into our country are mostly trying for the USA because their country's dictators made it impossible for them to live there.

If we lose this round, which country are we going to flee to?

[ecstatic]

10. I think it depends on how aggressively we use the mandate.

There are some things that need to be modified immediately if we ever get the numbers: the Supreme Court, the electoral college, the unfairly divided Senate (California and South Dakota shouldn't have the same number of Senators), reproductive rights, voting rights, political donations, etc. Norms need to be converted into laws. Make it clear that schemes to overturn valid elections are illegal. Force tax return disclosures and divestments for future presidents. Enshrine all of it into federal law, or even better, the Constitution, so that we don't have to keep going through the back and forth with those fascists.

Fix every loophole that propped trump up.

And finally, I know there's not much appetite for division, but the insurrectionists have to be expelled as well. It's the only way forward. Then from there, enforce a professional atmosphere at the Capitol. Zero tolerance for empty g types who act like children and/or bullies.

[Silent3]

12. Yes, I'd hope if we have the Presidency, the House, and the Senate after November...

...there's finally enough guts among Democrats to expand the SCOTUS and ditch the filibuster so we can aggressively protect voting rights, and, just as you say, "Norms need to be converted into laws".

Aggressively going after gerrymandering (some Democrats have to be willing to take a hit as well, and lose the safety many enjoy) would be the best way to start detoxifying the Republican party.

[tinrobot]

11. We'll be safer for a while

We can also get some guardrails in place to make it harder to subvert democracy.

But if enough people want to subvert it, it's going to be hard to stop.