I hope the importance of voting is now clear to everyone. I don't care how hard one side makes it for people to vote, people need to get out there every single election. Not just presidential, not just midterms, but all elections. Who knows what the next term of the Supreme Court will bring. This could go on for decades. We need a new system, this one isn't working. But that won't change either. (or expand the Supreme Court, term limits, something) There are too many nuts in Congress to ever do anything legislatively, probably for a few decades, whether it's to fix this or the other things the Supreme Court decided it was time to undo. (well, didn't just decide, they knew what they wanted to do and lied to Congress to get on the court like they were hand picked to do) Just 1 or 2 people was all it took to undo long established precedent. They've warped the Constitution in a way it wasn't written, but there is no recourse but to wait and elect sane people that can eventually put people on the court who don't have an agenda other than to do what is right, not what some far right group picked them to do. Soon, there won't be Republican presidents much any longer. The country is just not going to be that stupid too often. (The last time a first term Republican won the popular vote was 1988, so it's only a matter of time before the Democrats win the Electoral College too usually) But the GOP will remain a problem in the Senate, and at times the House. Getting 60 votes in the Senate is just not something that is going to happen often for anything that we really need to change, or rather put back how it was. Look what it finally took, over many, many years, just to get a little bit extra restrictions on gun control. People can early vote in many places and if not, stand in line for as long as you need to. I know for some people it could be difficult if there is no early voting, as people don't get that day off nationally. (GOP knows they have to fight to keep that the case or they will lose their power even faster) But people need to not throw away one of their most important rights in order to try and protect the other rights they have, and now other rights they need to get back. People in other countries would die for the right to vote, and are dying in many places around the world for that right and others. Then again, you have a country like the Philippines. A rich billionaire, who got his money because his father was dictator there decades ago and stole it all, just got elected there in a democratic election. Spending a lot of money on social media, he made people believe lies about his opponent and had positive things, that weren't true, spread about himself on social media. It worked. He's convinced a lot of people there that the dictatorship wasn't that bad after all, including a lot of young people. As I look around the world, things are scary everywhere. That kind of Trumpism has spread, with outright lies being spread on social media that can convince enough people to change the course of elections. Putin decided he could convince people the real Nazis weren't him. Or he just didn't care, he just knew no one would stop him. As I look to the U.S., I see how the GOP treats January 6th. Strategy one, the far right media doesn't even want their viewers to know what happened. And if they do figure it out, make them think it's not that bad after all. There will be a segment of the U.S. population that isn't going to change. But there is enough intelligent people, if enough show up to vote, to outvote them every time at the federal level and in most states. There are some states and districts that are too lost for now, but we just need a majority. (or 60 in the Senate) Then prevent the states that do have crazy people in charge from doing anything too radical.
Coal just doesn't make sense, due the environment and even cost, but the impact of the ruling might be applied to not just to the EPA, but everything the government does. You know the GOP is coming up with a list for next term. (or rather, they already have their list, time to just get it all to the courts and kick it up to the Supreme Court as fast as possible if it's not already in the court system) Imagine if everything had to go through Congress, not the agencies that are there to handle all these things. This country would grind to a halt and that is the GOP strategy. Notice how they never have their own plan, like for gas prices and inflation for example. There are certain things that can't easily be controlled, to some or to a great extent, but they're going to try to convince people otherwise. It's what they do. In the meantime, the Supreme Court is going to fight to make sure the government institutions that exist can't do much. Doesn't matter who they hurt in the meantime, from individual people to the entire planet. Whatever the GOP used to be decades ago, that's not what it is now and I don't think that will change anytime soon. It's time to simply never vote for them for anything ever again. We'll be dealing with the fallout from not learning that lesson soon enough for potentially decades to come. |