When you figure out that the United States was established by wealthy white males who owned slaves, had a revolution due to “no taxation without representation” but then purposefully ignored to repent the 99% until major reforms over the years, it makes sense.
The first set presidential elections were only voted by a handful of Americans. Not the women. Not the slaves. Not the natives who were here first. The landowning white men.
When we claimed England is a tyranny but abolished slavery and gave universal aufferage before we did, I think we lost that argument. America was built by out of touch white men, and it has always been ran by out of touch white men.
Rebecca Latimer Felton, the first woman elected to the US House, “spoke vigorously in favor of lynching African Americans, under the pretense of protecting the sexual purity of European-American women.”
I’m not above being petty, so lemme just say she looks exactly as I expected.
Bang on. She really does.
Like a fucking old troll filled with nothing except for hate?
His last name is Trump! Actually I don’t know what they used to call him before but this is his last one hopefully.
This implies that Trump is a Lich. That is a terrifying thought.
It’s amazing the stories that Americans tell themselves about the American Revolution. They pretend that the “founding fathers” were heroic idealists standing up for honorable values against an evil despotic regime. The truth is much more complicated.
A major goal of the 7 Years War was about controlling the colonies in the Americas. Had the French won those wars, the modern people of North America would probably speak French. Look at how many US places still have French names, and especially are named after the French king: Louisiana, Louisville, St. Louis, Mobile, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Detroit, Lafayette, Arkansas, Illinois, Calumet, Decatur, Boise, Montpelier, etc. But, the French lost the war, so the English took over all that territory. Fighting that war was incredibly expensive, but it was worth it for the English because they now controlled a whole new continent with all its resources. To pay for that war, they levied taxes. The English colonists in the US, who were largely the beneficiaries of that part of the war, decided they didn’t want to pay those taxes, so they rebelled. They got the benefit of a continent won for them by English armies, but without having to pay the bill for that fight. Now, again, it’s complicated. The English armies were integrated with the colonial armies. George Washington was initially an officer in the British army (and was part of starting the French and Indian wars, which became the 7-years-war). The US colonists were part of the force that fought against the French and their native allies.
Anyhow, it was complicated. But, the end result was that after a war that took place both in Europe and in the Americas, the British crown had a huge debt. I have no idea what proportion of that debt was due to the part of the war fought in Europe vs. the part of the war fought in the Americas, but overall there was a big debt and the English crown tried to tax whoever they could to pay for it.
Was the English king a tyrant? Sure. Did the Americans have fair representation in the English parliament? Probably not. But, their main reason for rebelling was the same one that is nearly always the cause of rebellions: the rebels are in an area that’s wealthy for some reason, and they don’t want to have to share that wealth with the rest of the country / empire. In fact, it was suspected that the colonists chose not to send representatives to the colonial assembly partially because they knew that if they did that it would undermine their “without representation” argument, and the real issue was that they simply didn’t want to pay taxes.
As for the English system being tyrannical, the reality is that it has been a very slow, gradual change from an absolute monarchy to a ceremonial one. The English crown is significantly less wealthy than Elon Musk, and arguably has a lot less influence on British politics than Musk does on American politics.
By the letter of the laws, the British system is still more classist and controlled by money than the American system. But, is that true if you look at the actual real way that power is used? It doesn’t seem like it to me.
I particularly enjoy the bit about how after the French helped us win our revolution and took some revolution home in a doggy bag. We reneged on our debt claiming “Our deal was with the king.”
Not to mention that the civil war was lost through the presidential election of 1876 even though it was won in battle before that. That election was so corrupt that the Union conceded a lot to get their president, including removing Federal forces from the South on the promise that the South would protect Federal rights of minorities, blacks, etc. (among other things) The North pulled out and the south reneged without consequence (the KKK was the strong arm then) until the Civil Rights act in the 60s. That’s only roughly 60 years ago. Most of the institutional segregation from before then is still firmly in place.
Kind of feels like our “crossing the Rubicon” moment. Except instead of an intellgent and accomplished general leading an army, we got a clown leading a circus.
Democrats were voting to avoid a repeat. Republicans were voting to avoid jail time. The latter was a bigger motivator to get off the couch.
the folly of democracy:
Yeah but it was our democracy, damn it.
Are you guys going to tell him?..
Why bother?
Anyone would say that about their own party not meeting every single wish within a 4 yr run.
It’s like hiring an accountant to undo what another accountant did within one season.
It’s weird how Americans don’t really understand their own system.
It’s a democracy controlled by people who don’t care about regular working people. It was designed by rich white dudes and slaveowners 250 years ago to protect and increase their wealth.
Your institutions have failed you. Americans need to demand better and throw off the chains that the wealthy have put on them.
They willingly put the chains on every morning before heading to work.
Mortgage to pay, health care insurance costs, kids tuition, …
Slaves to the systems of life.
You mean an oligarchy then
That’s an accurate term too
Oiligarchy more precisely.
US is system is so bad. The constant pandering to “founding fathers” as if it’s even possible to have strong enough vision that it would last 200+ years and refusal to innovate past the ridiculous two party system is just sad tbh.
Yet nothing will change because you can’t change these things without a revolution apparently.
Some states have already replaced First Past the Post voting actually
Not to mention that the founding fathers would hate what has become of American politics…
YOU FREED THE WHAT?!
You guys should have listened to Thomas Paine, the only founding father with a clue and a set of principles.
Topical.
Why, what did he say?
- political institutions should promotoe individual rights and social equality
- critqued organized religion
- the government should serve the people
- wrote the famous line “These are the times that try men’s souls” during civil war
- people have the inherit right to reform and/or dismantle oppresive goverments
- all individuals possess inalienable rights (human rights basically)
That’s what I gather from his wiki and some chatgpt queries. Never heard of him before (not an american) but honestly — I’m a big fan now.
Sounds nice enough, but not really like an outsider position among the Founding Fathers. OP seemed to be saying that Paine differed substantially from the others in some way, which I would be interested to learn about (not American either, I only have cursory knowledge of the Founding Fathers).
Paine was far more radical than the rest of them, and wrote scathing critiques of them that caused him to become extremely unpopular before he died.
Didn’t all the founding fathers and every president since then say all of the above?
We need to praise people more by what they do, than what they say I reckon
(in spirit since I am not American)
Part of that joke though is that they’re both exactly the same which is of course a false premise.
Well I was posting it more to the point of the I am sure wave of people saying “Well I voted for the Dems” is fast approaching.
Yet y’all have an audacity to blame people from authoritarian states
Russia and China have nothing in power compared to the genuine pure stupidity of Americans. Decades of brainwashing a populous will get you further than invading it from the outside.
Henceforth it shall be admiration.
Unironically yes
Funny and true. I like it.
I hope our future dictators are handsome or beautiful and that they come with nice body parts, so when we have to suck their dicks, we can at least enjoy it.
My ass for Super EARTH!
Get ruled.
Here’s my pound of gold 🥇 Mr Trump. Are you fucking me? How come I can’t feal anything yet? Oh well fine, it’s not a problem. …Anywhere you’d like Mr president, I’ll clean it off. Oh yes, the migrants are all bad. All of them. Oh yes, the enemy within! Terrible things. More licking? Ofcourse Mr president!
I can’t tell you how much faith I’ve lost in the average person in America, especially compared to how… ok, I guess, the last election went and how tight, or possibly over this one is.
I can’t fathom how fucking stupid anyone would have to be to elect this orange piece of shit that has been upping the dangerous rhetoric constantly. America is broken and it isn’t worth fixing, especially not for the morons that somehow get him elected again. I just hope that I can get to a point in my career that I can move elsewhere, maybe Ireland or New Zealand or something, fuck.
For real. The rest of the world needs to get their shit together and cripple the US. Cease all trades immediately, end all alliances with the US. The US has the largest military in the world, and now the facists have the reins entirely. They have the oval office, the have the house, they have the Senate and they have the supreme court. The entire world is going to suffer because of this election.
God you blue conservatives are ridiculous.
You’d rather support the death of America over doing away with the two party system.
Cool story, bro. How do you propose to do that? You got a magic wand? How many of those ballot initiatives failed this time around?
Go ahead and wait for the U.S. to implement a viable system. I’d bet it’ll be longer than our lifetimes before that even happens. And that’s ignoring what is probably the desire of keeping the status duo of a broken two party system like this.
Bud id fucking love to get rid of the two party system. Personally I’ve been talking about it for fucking years. but that’s not gonna fucking happen.
Go fuck yourself with this blue conservative bullshit.
US politics have gone to dangerous direction for decades. Orange freak is only a symptom. US is gonna become Russia level cleptocracy and when climate crysis hits fully, world will be more separated and chaotic than ever.
Yeah, this recent election shows how far gone my country really is. But unfortunately it’s also the golden opportunity facists have been working towards for a long time.
There may not be any need for that.
The United States, China, etc. all have trade policies that are fundamentally unsustainable and result in persistent trade imbalances.
This causes all sorts of poor economic outcomes for large sectors of those countries. For example, an anaemic household sector in China and over investments in housing, huge private and public sector deficits in the United States, etc.
In the free market world of Adam Smith and comparative advantage, persistent trade imbalances should not exist.
Over the medium to long term, imports are meant to pay for exports.
If there are persistent trade imbalances, it means there is persistent under consumption (China) or over consumption (United States).
Note: This is not just limited to these countries.
At some point, there is going to be an economic crisis because it can’t continue forever.
Also say goodbye to internet freedom of speech, if even a small portion of Project 2025 comes into play. Anti-pornography activism sounds nice on paper, until you realize everyone has a different definition of pornography, and the people that want to ban porn the most have a rather interesting take on what constitutes as porn and what doesn’t…
Anti-pornography activism sounds nice on paper
I am absolutely ashamed I’m forced to vote along side you by First Past the Post voting. Disgusting.
“Anti-pornography” specifically means “anti-LGBT” to them.
They will extend it to mean anything outside of what their version of Christianity allows, which will include a lot of straight people
It absolutely does not sound nice on paper.
How does anti-pornography sound good to you? If you are about to give some religious nonsense, please don’t bother.
Some people define porn as the stuff corporations do, except they will side with anyone that promises a blanket ban on stuff.
