2026 Elections: To the Midterms and Beyond!

[Russell Jaslow]

I've had Hovey on Ignore since before the last time Cornell went to the Frozen Four, so I can't speak to that.

But the message was "WE have to ACTIVELY protect our institutions, which are our tools of law and process." That meant and means we need strong people standing up to the Nazis to protect those institutions, so we can use those tools to thwart them now and bring them to justice once we have regained political power.

Institutions are not and never were walls. Men and women of character are the walls. Institutions are repositories of tradition and authority to be used to maintain democratic values. They are spears but we will always need spearmen.

I don't give a crap how the hell you define institutions. The fact of the matter is, a LOT of people said the institutions will save us. They were wrong. Full stop.

 

[ticapnews]

I don't give a crap how the hell you define institutions. The fact of the matter is, a LOT of people said the institutions will save us. They were wrong. Full stop.

 

[Kepler]

I don't give a crap how the hell you define institutions. The fact of the matter is, a LOT of people said the institutions will save us. They were wrong. Full stop.

OK, then I'll say this: and?

The problem is now; what to do now. Whose fault and all that we can sort out once we've chucked the fascists out.

 

[ticapnews]

I've had Hovey on Ignore since before the last time Cornell went to the Frozen Four, so I can't speak to that.

But the message was "WE have to ACTIVELY protect our institutions, which are our tools of law and process." That meant and means we need strong people standing up to the Nazis to protect those institutions, so we can use those tools to thwart them now and bring them to justice once we have regained political power.

Institutions are not and never were walls. Men and women of character are the walls. Institutions are repositories of tradition and authority to be used to maintain democratic values. They are spears but we will always need spearmen.

If you want some examples...

Steve Levitsky, co-author of How Democracies Die

We do still have very strong democratic institutions. We’re not Turkey, we’re not Hungary, we’re not Venezuela. We can behave quite recklessly and irresponsibly and probably still muddle through that.

It even became a meme

 

[Kepler]

You just say "bingo."

 

[Kepler]

OK, let's say everyone was lazy and asleep and relying on institutions.

What now? Where from here?

 

[ticapnews]

OK, let's say everyone was lazy and asleep and relying on institutions.

What now? Where from here?

I already explained.

There will be no revolution. We're broken. It's already over. Yeah, I still volunteer for campaigns and do shit because it fills my days. What are my alternatives? Sticking a shotgun in my mouth? No thanks. My MAGA neighbor will take care of that for me when the time comes.

We can't even organize a national strike because everyone is worried about how it will effect them financially. 45 years of trickle down has trained multiple generations to be greedy, me-first motherfuckers who deep down don't give a shit about other people. Our society has no understanding of collective sacrifice.

There's a 10% chance AI kills us all within 5 years anyway. If not, there's always the climate. So don't worry about it.

 

[Kepler]

AI isn't going to destroy us. Disco didn't destroy us, and disco was real.

 

[Kepler]

So here is what I think will happen.

Midterms:

Dumpy will make a half-assed attempt at stealing them. In red states, there will be instances of Republicans destroying or "losing" ballots. A few elections will be flipped by their fraud. I can even see them stealing the TX Senate seat. In blue states, nothing will happen that changes any outcomes, although Dump will posture about sending jackboot thugs to "monitor" polling. Every move the Nazis make to intimidate voters will provoke a backlash.

The Dems will take the House by a decent margin. There will be some shenanigans from the GOP about not seating new Dems for REASONS, but the lower federal courts will dismiss all that as nonsense. There's no real operative shovel handle to even get the SCOTUS involved if they wanted. The Senate will stay GOP.

2028:

Assume Dump is still not dead because the worst people seem to hang on the longest. The GOP candidates will line up to kiss the ring. The Iran war and the Strait closure will be over 2.5 years long now. New Reality prices will be baked in at every point in the supply chain, and all global economies will be in near recession while the hopium .01% are still dancing at Gatsby's mansion. Other countries will already be showing a wide far left vs far right cleavage. An actual true left, or as close to one as the US has ever had, will be in full swing as a co-tenancy of the Dem national party. Assuming the Dems do not make the mistake of nominating a Newsom or Harris, they will sweep both branches and the White House.

And then we'll see what they do.

In the middle term, of course, we still have brown shirts in the streets pulling immigrants out of their homes, splitting families, abusing and I assume given Republicans' track record raping vulnerable people, and reminding everyone why we fought WW2 and why pundits from Lindbergh to Tucker are enabling evil when they attack tolerance and diversity.

Scorecard: No canceled election. No Civil War. No nuclear annihilation. But another horrific two years of interment camps, state violence against citizens and non-citizens, widespread corruption and theft of public resources by Republicans at every level down to judges, and just generally the type of regime you expect from a banana republic.

Whether we do anything to punish them and claw back all the theft since 1981 once we take back power is The Question. I'm not hopeful, given we have never had the cojones to do it before, but the rotten gasbag diaper show will be that much older, slower, and more demented and unhygenic for everyone with eyes to see.

The worst swing into authoritarianism in US history, absolutely. But the fight back goes on every day, and the more the Nazis succeed the smaller and smaller the circle of beneficiaries of their crimes gets and the larger and larger the massive majority against them gets.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

AI isn't going to destroy us. Disco didn't destroy us, and disco was real.

This. A thousand times over. None of this so called AI is even AI. A freshman computer science major knows this. It's just a marketing name gimmick that everyone, for some bullshit reason, is screaming the world is coming to an end. It's just more sophisticated tools of tools that existed for decades. Just because all of a sudden we label these tools AI doesn't make it so.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

OK, then I'll say this: and?

The problem is now; what to do now. Whose fault and all that we can sort out once we've chucked the fascists out.

The cynic in me says do nothing. When "we" are in power, double down on the failure of institutions and destroy the right.

 

[Kepler]

The cynic in me says do nothing. When "we" are in power, double down on the failure of institutions and destroy the right.

All those powers SCOTUS gave the President?

They are only for when a Republican is in power.

The day we take power all we will hear about is the deficit and then all of the service failures caused by the GOP hollowing out the government. That's why every time a knuck cites a problem with a federal program I want us to say, "You're right! We need more funding!" and strip it from the Department of War and all the TLAs.

 

[ticapnews]

The objective is not to cancel the 2026 elections. Americans aren't ready for that yet. The objective is to steal the 2026 elections. Which they are doing using the USPS (despite a court order) and the DOJ (election observers) and ICE (armed thugs at certain polling places). Most of us here may never notice - our privilege is well-established. But if you live in a major city or are a person of color you will certainly notice. If you vote by mail your vote will probably be stolen but you'll never know. The Democrats did nothing to strengthen our democracy (or protect Roe v Wade or provide health care or improve material conditions or...) while they held majorities in both chambers and the White House.

As much as I would like to leave, my mom will never be healthy enough so I am stuck here. I had a chance to leave 10 years ago and didn't and now I'll likely die here.

You may stick your heads in the sand when it comes to AI. We'll see if that turns out any better than protecting our precious norms.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

All those powers SCOTUS gave the President?

They are only for when a Republican is in power.

Do what FDR did.

When he got wind the SCOTUS was going to knock down many of his New Deal proposals, he started talking about expanding the Court. SCOTUS folded like a cheap lounge chair. For the longest time, SCOTUS size kept up with the number of federal judicial districts. Then, it stopped at nine, when the districts continued to expand to 13. So, going to 13 is logical...

 

[Russell Jaslow]

You may stick your heads in the sand when it comes to AI. We'll see if that turns out any better than protecting our precious norms.

You obviously don't understand AI. None of it is AI. It's all marketing bullshit.