@Tupp_ed@mastodon.ieNew Mini-Gist: Power’s Walled Cities
A Democracy where politicians are in constant office, but do not respond to citizens’ wishes (or even just their own voters’ interests) but just advance the policies that suit monied lobbies is a disaffection machine.
https://www.thegist.ie/mini-gist-powers-wa
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scotI feel a wee essay coming on on why #democracy and #liberalism are incompatible with one another.
I suspect it will irritate a lot of people, because, like the emperor's lack of clothes, this is not something we are supposed to notice.
@hex@kolektiva.socialThe fracturing of the Dutch far-right, after Wilder's reminded everyone that bigots are bad at compromise, is definitely a relief. Dutch folks I've talked to definitely see D66 as progressive, <strike>so there's no question this is a hard turn to the left (even if it's not a total flip to the far-left)</strike> a lot of folks don't agree. I'm going to let the comments speak rather than editorialize myself..
While this is a useful example of how a democracy can be far more resilient to fascism than the US, that is, perhaps, not the most interesting thing about Dutch politics. The most interesting thing is something Dutch folks take for granted and never think of as such: there are two "governments."
The election was for the Tweede Kamer. This is a house of representatives. The Dutch use proportional representation, so people can (more or less) vote for the parties they actually want. Parties <strike>rarely</strike> never actually get a ruling majority, so they have to form coalition governments. This forces compromise, which is something Wilders was extremely bad at. He was actually responsible for collapsing the coalition his party put together, which triggered this election... and a massive loss of seats for his party.
Dutch folks do still vote strategically, since a larger party has an easier time building the governing coalition and the PM tends to come from the largest party. This will likely be D66, which is really good for the EU. D66 has a pretty radical plan to solve the housing crisis, and it will be really interesting to see if they can pull it off. But that's not the government I want to talk about right now.
In the Netherlands, failure to control water can destroy entire towns. A good chunk of the country is below sea level. Both floods and land reclamation have been critical parts of Dutch history. So in the 1200's or so, the Dutch realized that some things are too important to mix with normal politics.
You see, if there's an incompetent government that isn't able to actually *do* anything (see Dick Schoof and the PVV/VVD/NSC/BBB coalition) you don't want your dikes to collapse and poulders to flood. So the Dutch created a parallel "government" that exists only to manage water: waterschap or heemraadschap (roughly "Water Board" in English). These are regional bureaucracies that exist only to manage water. They exist completely outside the thing we usually talk about as a "government" but they have some of the same properties as a government. They can, for example, levy taxes. The central government contributes funds to them, but lacks authority over them. Water boards are democratically elected and can operate more-or-less independent of the central government.
Controlling water is a common problem, so water boards were created to fulfill the role of commons management. Meanwhile, so many other things in politics run into the very same "Tragedy of the Commons" problems. The right wing solution to commons management is to let corporations ruin everything. The left-state solution is to move everything into the government so it can be undermined and destroyed by the right. The Dutch solution to this specific problem has been to move commons management out of the domain of the central government into something else.
And when I say "government" here, I'm speaking more to the liberal definition of the term than to an anarchist definition. A democratically controlled authority that facilitates resource management lacks the capacity for coercive violence that anarchists define as "government." (Though I assume they might leverage police or something if folks refuse to pay their taxes, but I can't imagine anyone choosing not to.)
As the US federal government destroys the social fabric of the US, as Trump guts programs critical to people's survival, it might be worth thinking about this model. These authorities weren't created by any central authority, they evolved from the people. Nothing stops Americans from building similar institutions that are both democratic and outside of the authority of a government that could choose to defund and abolish them... nothing but the realization that yes, you actually can.
#USPol #NLPol
@cdarwin@c.imAt Zohran Mamdani’s victory party at the Brooklyn Paramount on Tuesday night, Democracy Now! spoke with Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“We’re not going to be intimidated,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“We’re going to fight for working families. We’re going to stand with immigrants. We’re going to stand with the diversity of this city.”
Brad Lander, former mayoral candidate who cross-endorsed with Mandani in the Democratic primary, commented on the power of having a “Muslim…
@aral@mastodon.ar.alThe EU was not called the European Coal And Steel Community for nothing, folks.
We talk a mean human rights and democracy. But we’re still the European Coal and Steel Community.
Go Single Market, amirite?! https://mastodon.mediafaro.org/@mf_newsdigest/11550764176416580…
@inthehands@hachyderm.ioWhatever happens to our democracy, history will remember our 3 good SCOTUS justices as a voice of clarity when civil society was unraveling around them.
Future generations will point to their writing and say, “Look at this. It’s not like people didn’t understand what was happening at the time. They knew perfectly well.”
EDIT: I said Sotomayor at first; this is Jackson!! “What would you do with a brain if you had one, Paul?” I’m sure I have no idea.
https://journa.host/@chrisgeidner/115504618482036124
@boris@cosocial.ca“[open social] must be funded like infrastructure, not consumer apps. In fact, given the scale of hybrid threats, it should be funded from defense budgets, not innovation leftovers.
The strategic layer of democracy is the information layer. And right now, it is outsourced.” @seabass.bsky.social
<…
@cdarwin@c.imRright now it is unlikely that Trump gets a "rally around the flag" boost for his seizing of Maduro as
1) it didn’t happen with his invasion of cities or his attack on Iran
2) the country just isn’t on board some kind of extended military campaign in Venezuela
3) it increasingly feels like Trump has no real plan for what comes next in Venezuela, and like Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, thought the government would just fall and he could waltz into the Capital.
@hex@kolektiva.socialAfter #Trump finally crashes and burns (I'm still saying I don't think he makes it to the mid terms, and I think it's more than possible he won't make it to the end of the year) we'll hear a lot of people say, "the system worked!" Today people are already talking about "saving democracy" by fighting back. This will become a big rally cry to vote (for Democrats, specifically), and the complete failure of the system will be held up as the best evidence for even greater investment in it.
I just want to point out that American democracy gave nuclear weapons to a pedophile, who, before being elected was already a well known sexual predator, and who made the campaign promise to commit genocide. He then preceded to commit genocide. And like, I don't care that he's "only" kidnaped and disappeared a few thousand brown people. That's still genocide. Even if you don't kill every member of a targeted group, any attempt to do so is still "committing genocide." Trump said he would commit genocide, then he hired all the "let's go do a race war" guys he could find and *paid* them to go do a race war. And, even now as this deranged monster is crashing out, he is still authorized to use the world's largest nuclear arsenal.
He committed genocide during his first term when his administration separated migrant parents and children, then adopted those children out to other parents. That's technically genocide. The point was to destroy the very people been sending right wing terror squads after.
There was a peaceful hand over of power to a known Russian asset *twice*, and the second time he'd already committed *at least one* act of genocide *and* destroyed cultural heritage sites (oh yeah, he also destroyed indigenous grave sites, in case you forgot, during his first term).
All of this was allowed because the system is set up to protect exactly these types of people, because *exactly* these types of people are *the entire power structure*.
Going back to that system means going back to exactly the system that gave nuclear weapons to a pedophile *TWICE*.
I'm already seeing the attempts to pull people back, the congratulations as we enter the final phase, the belief that getting Trump out will let us all get back to normal. Normal. The normal that lead here in the first place. I can already see the brunch reservations being made. When Trump is over, we will be told we won. We will be told that it's time to go back to sleep.
When they tell you everything worked, everything is better, that we can stop because we won, tell them "fuck you! Never again means never again." Destroy every system that ever gave these people power, that ever protected them from consequences, that ever let them hide what they were doing.
These democrats funded a genocide abroad and laid the groundwork for genocide at home. They protected these predators, for years. The whole power structure is guilty. As these files implicate so many powerful people, they're trying to shove everything back in the box. After all the suffering, after we've finally made it clear that we are the once with the power, only now they're willing to sacrifice Trump to calm us all down.
No, that's a good start but it can't be the end.
Winning can't be enough to quench that rage. Keep it burning. When this is over, let victory fan that anger until every institution that made this possible lies in ashes. Burn it all down and salt the earth. Taking down Trump is a great start, but it's not time to give up until this isn't possible again.
#USPol
@mariyadelano@hachyderm.io2/2 Reflection on #citizenship:
I do not treat the concept of “#democracy" lightly. I was born into the aftermath of centuries of totalitarian oppression that ended suddenly, leaving the nascent Ukrainian state of the late 90s and early 2000s floundering in the turbulent whirlpool of hopes and fears felt by millions of people who were finally allowed to ponder: how to build a free democratic state in the place of Soviet and imperial ruins?
I was taught the words "democracy", "citizen", "freedom", "voting", “liberty" (and more) by people who, less than two decades prior, weren't allowed to leave the borders of their country. I was told about self-determination by people whose political choices were ridiculed, punished, and eviscerated form most of their lives. The duty of governing ourselves felt to us ephemeral - a nice fantasy, akin to a fairytale or a utopia from fictional works.
And then I saw those same people fight with their bodies and souls once the previously unfathomable democracy was threatened. Protests in 2004, then again in 2014, then the unthinkable war against foreign invasion in 2022. Democracy no longer felt abstract or silly. It became as tangible as saying "I love you".
I write of Ukraine as I reflect on becoming a citizen of another country because the history and values of my adopted United States feel as real as the skin on my legs, the significance of its legacy lays as heavy as the weight of my waist-long hair, and the desire to uphold the freedoms of its Constitution burns my throat as harshly as dehydration after a long day in the sun.
People have asked me why I even want to join this country, when the present moment is shrouded in impenetrable darkness. And I answer: because I've felt the warmth of a newly lit fire of freedom breaking through shadows that for centuries looked like solid walls. I have seen kindness, and solidarity heal the fear and hate of oppression. I've seen liberty emerge from nothing but the human soul.
I am not a religious person, but I have faith. Faith in the ideals at the foundation of the American project. Faint but powerful recognition that "we the people" now includes me.
I love #America. And I hope to keep loving my home for the rest of my life.
@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.netSeries C, Episode 07 - Children of Auron
CALLY: This is not a trap.
AVON: Not knowingly, perhaps.
TARRANT: Zen, reroute to planet Auron.
AVON: Just like that?
TARRANT: A democracy. You're outvoted, Avon. Three to two.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/307/165 B7B6
@cdarwin@c.imWe are not in an era where democracy is “challenged.”
We are in an era where democracy is under siege.
Authoritarianism isn’t knocking…it’s battering the door.
Propaganda isn’t creeping…it’s flooding.
The public isn’t outraged…they’re exhausted.
This isn’t a moment for:
“Be Inspired.”
“Stay Hopeful.”
“Vote Blue.”
“We’ll Be Fine.”
This is a moment for:
“DO. NOT. LET. GO. OF DEMOCRACY.”
@hippyjo@c.imIt takes two to Tango, the saying goes.
Trump and Putin provide another demonstration of how stupid they believe the world to be.
US media has been bought and paid for, so not a lot of news covering this subject with sincerity or true effort.
Georgio is a reporter from Italy who is in Ukraaine, reporting from the trenches of democracy.
He hasn't been muzzled by a sycophant to some billionaire, so he can share the friend link to help the world see what is happenin…
@cdarwin@c.imICE purposefully rammed their vehicle into a protestor’s truck in California.
In Chicago, federal agents tear gassed local police during a protest.
This is what happens when a wannabe dictator is running the country.
This is why millions of Americans peacefully stood up to defend our rights in the No Kings protests.
Peaceful protest is not a crime. It’s the foundation of our democracy.
I’m Fred Wellman
—Army combat veteran, entrepreneur, dad, MeidasTouch …
