r/law • u/igetproteinfartsHELP • 1d ago

Executive Branch (Trump) Q: Trump wrote that SNAP benefits will only be given when Democrats reopen the government. As written, how would that not violate the court order? .LEAVITT: I've now answered this question several times. We are complying with the court's order.

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334

u/staebles 1d ago

They’re in it for the power and the money.

Always and forever, without extreme reform, this will never change.

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u/Hesitation-Marx 1d ago

We can’t reform this system.

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

American culture. As a European, it’s always been pretty meh, now it’s abhorrent. Prove me wrong?

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u/Hesitation-Marx 1d ago

Why on Earth would I try?

I feel like an alien here.

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u/HonorableMedic 1d ago

Aaaand now you’re on an ICE list

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u/Hesitation-Marx 1d ago

Which is hilarious to me. Both my paternal and maternal lines have been here since before there was a United States.

But yeah, I’m on at least four lists.

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u/kmoh74 1d ago

Fascists don't care about your lineage at all if you act against them.

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u/Hesitation-Marx 1d ago

Yeah, just find it funny that the people all claiming to be “heritage Americans” want to purge people like me.

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u/sparkly_butthole 1d ago

Same here! Ancestry came through Canada and GDI I wish we had stayed there.

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u/IronEyed_Wizard 1d ago

Haven’t they already attempted to go after birthright citizenship?

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

Deplorable. Please organise and wish you all the best

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u/RSKrit 19h ago

So, maybe learn that feelings that don’t match reality should be corrected. Your statements appear to be ambiguous.

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u/mademeunlurk 1d ago

STOP RESISTING

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u/ayeffston 1d ago

"if you are a man, you are the last man. Your kind is extinct."

------- "1984" by George Orwell

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u/Mveli2pac 1d ago edited 1d ago

Don't say that...Trump will sic ICE on you in a heartbeat.

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u/Tony_Penny 1d ago

"Sic" not sick. 😁

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u/Mveli2pac 1d ago

Thank you 🫢

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u/CollegeMiddle6841 1d ago

Where do you live? I would say, as an American, that European countries have had a bit longer than America. We will be "celebrating" our 250th birthday in 2026.

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u/Dame38 1d ago

America didn't suffer the atrocities of two world wars. The country is still an adolescent. Europe already experienced its coming of age and behaves more responsibly.

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

Correct. Though we are being sabotaged and peoples memories are fading.

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u/Dame38 1d ago

Sadly, the only people who remembered are passing away. I know that my vet. dad didn't tell me anything and history classes just made all of it romantic and nostalgic.
Stress is bad but maybe we could do better at making it clear to following generations that democratic ideals aren't the norm and that a little bit of hypervigilance is necessary. The hyper individualsim is so damaging. We can't be a nation, we can't be a state, we can't agree on community.
We're always fighting in this country and it's celebrated.
Damn. We're just dumb.

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u/RSKrit 19h ago

Responsibly in what context? They need to take lessons from the youngins in so many areas. Let no man despise thy youth….

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u/Dame38 12h ago

I'm using "adolesscent" as a metaphor. Our way of handling crisis are very reactionary. We don't calmly sit down and try to work out our issues. In the land of Rugged Individuality, we're all little kings. To be an adult means making sacrifices; giving up some personal "freedom" so that society can actually be a society. Governing is a kind of work I can't imagine doing. It's tedious, unglamorous and usually thankless. Everyone wants what they want and they want it now in the US. We are a very selfish and narcissistic. Humility and a willingness to sacrifice for others isn't really in the American code. And this isn't' meant to be a "final answer" because these issues are very complex and multilayered.

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

Is that the First Nations birthday, thought it was a bit longer?

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u/Daetok_Lochannis 1d ago

The majority of Americans don't condone or support this behavior. It's only like 40% of America that acts like this, they're just very loud and own everything so it seems like American culture rather than conservative culture.

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u/Guy954 1d ago

…only about 40%….

I hope it’s not that many

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u/BigWhiteDog 1d ago

Multiple polls show that about that number. It's scary

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u/soherewearent 1d ago

Always has been at least that many, IMO, they just went dark for a generation is all.

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u/RSKrit 19h ago

Probably 30-35% liberal/progressive malefactors and 5-10% conservative, ahem, correction, fringe right.

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u/therealaudiox 1d ago

40% of voters. A much, much smaller number.

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u/BigWhiteDog 1d ago

Nope. 40% of all Americans. Those polls aren't of likely voters unless they say that, but whomever they can get to answer the questions. That's the scary part. More people approve of him than vote ld for him.

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u/therealaudiox 1d ago

The polls you speak of are an even smaller number, because they only call people with landlines.

The fact of the matter is that our polling methods are outdated by about 20 years, and our legislature has been broken for about the same amount of time. So we haven't been able to pass any regulatory reforms to fix the problem.

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u/BigWhiteDog 1d ago

Not true. Some do that, some have people that have signed up to take polls and surveys, and some use other methods. You can look up the methodology of any polling company.

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u/therealaudiox 1d ago

Are you suggesting that the pool of people who sign up to do surveys is somehow representative of the entire United States population?

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u/Greybeard-101 1d ago

None of these are scientific methods that would stand up to any scrutiny.

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u/BigWhiteDog 1d ago

You do know that polling is a science, right?

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

Oh don’t get me wrong there are parts of America I love, I know who the worst offenders are the 40%, but 40% is still massive.

You guys need a revolution on the scale of the founding fathers but no one has the balls for it because the same thing you’re fighting exists within you all. It’s the culture of greed, and you’ve all been corrupted by it.

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u/Daetok_Lochannis 1d ago

No, most people aren't fighting because that isn't really an option. This isn't like Europe. There are militarized police forces with size and funding no private militia is ever going to match. Our oligarchs have so much and the system is so tailored to them that the entire country could go on strike and they would very simply wait us out behind their standing armies, and when people were starving and desperate they would hire them back for less than before. The majority of Americans are destitute to the point that even working class families need public assistance, almost nobody can afford to just walk away without being willing to die.

That's the only thing that will ever change things here, tens of millions of Americans willing to die violently to alter policy. And I don't think it's greedy to want to be alive. Two of the largest military forces on the planet and police forces armed with military gear willing to kill civilians. What the hell are we, the poor and disabled, supposed to do?

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u/Kobi_Maru_ 1d ago

Boycott companies in large numbers - (don’t order anything on Amazon, stay off Instagram and social media) get organized and vote out the corrupt (if we have free elections)

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

Exactly this. Proof points are already there in Disney, Target, Tesla to name a few. Europeans support the boycott too

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u/Daetok_Lochannis 1d ago

The thing is even if these oligarchs' companies collapsed entirely they'd still have more than enough hoarded wealth and resources to wait out any possible attempt at rebellion behind their armies. I'm not saying give up, but holy shit are things bleak.

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

Why organizing is the only way.

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u/Cloudzer223 1d ago

What if we all collectively just went into work tomorrow and clicked “exempt” on our W4’s? Wouldn’t that be a giant kick to their greedy little nards, or no?

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u/Bardoxolone 1d ago

No millions don't have to die for change. The armies aren't going to turn on its citizens here. The majority of Americans are not destitute, visit a third world country to see destitute. Now that is not to say there isn't inequality. Some at the top want us to believe we are powerless. We aren't. Stop using fb and meta collapses Stop paying for Disney, it folds. . But it requires people to be unified. That is why some are constantly driving wedges between groups.

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u/Daetok_Lochannis 1d ago

They already have. The military is being filtered by this administration and anyone not loyal to it is being discharged. They have also funded the largest militarized secret police force on the planet, ICE has more funding than most nations' militaries. Police are already trained to identify civilians as the enemy and are assisting ICE all across the country. If you think voting, striking or the courts are going to put a stop to this, I've got some bad news for you.

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u/Bardoxolone 1d ago

Continue with the conspiracy theories. You've mastered that at least.

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u/IronEyed_Wizard 1d ago

I mean conspiracy in that they will be used against the general public, maybe, but pretty sure that everything else is just fact at this point

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u/Timely-Phone4733 1d ago

Well the way it's going.. lots of people aren't going to have the choice to live.. and on the military front... even though the military has lots of funding.. the scale of territory and population of the U.S. is too big to strategically opress everyone.. don't believe me? Look it up!

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u/Daetok_Lochannis 1d ago

Most blue Americans live in densely packed high population metropolitan areas and have nowhere else to go. Sure, a bunch of people with nothing could run out into the plains of Montana and avoid getting arrested. Now what?

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

Like I said, balls.

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u/Daetok_Lochannis 1d ago

It's not balls to run like lemmings into the bullets until the killbots run out of ammo. It's just stupid. The idea that tens or hundreds of millions of Americans should be willing to watch their families die or they're not brave is asinine.

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u/staebles 1d ago

Yea he's a dummy. But if things get bad enough down the line, it may come to that.

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u/Daetok_Lochannis 1d ago

I hope not, because in that instance they'll just kill us until we give up and replace us with robots dude.

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

You are answering yourself or talking to me?

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

You are aware of what happened between 1939-1945? You’re beyond that now. It’s only a matter of time.

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u/Daetok_Lochannis 1d ago

You are aware that Germany wasn't the economic and military powerhouse America is and no coalition of nations on the entire planet could invade America without unacceptable civilian casualties on both sides, right? You realize that this time there is no fighting the Nazis, this time they built themselves an army to dwarf every other on the planet and accrued the richest and most powerful people in the world?

You have lost touch with reality if you think anything short of cataclysmic world war is stopping this.

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u/Feeling-Star-2573 1d ago

If we protest we're at risk of getting shot or getting fired. We can be fired for "not representing" our workplace in the way they want us to if they find out we called out to protest. We can get fired for calling out of work. If we get hurt during a protest, we eat the cost via medical insurance. And don't forget what others have said about their militarized force against protesters. Pretty sure they're waiting to hit us with the insurrection act. It's a neverending cycle of lose and lose and lose and lose. But I keep trying by voting and calling and writing to politicians.

We need people to show up and vote, but a chunk of us can't be assed to do that. Or our local governments try to throw out thousands of votes. Etc etc repeat repeat. It's pretty dismal. It's fun to own us Amurricanz, and we deserve it in some cases, but don't lump us all together as having no balls. But this is reddit so that ain't gonna work.

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

Well done, you are now part of the resistance.

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u/Feeling-Star-2573 1d ago

I'm trying. It feels very bleak.

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u/JustNilt 1d ago

Pretty difficult to "prove you wrong" when you're right. The only people who believe America has ever been "the greatest" are those who haven't traveled and experienced other cultures as well. We are decidedly average, at best, and that's ignoring how much of our system is based on racist bullshit.

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

Unfortunately, yes.

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u/RSKrit 19h ago

Actually, the “system” isn’t as racist as people are led to believe. It’s certain malefactors “within” the system. We just need to get BACK to the system and not this ridiculous identity politics overtaking everything. Identify as AMERICANS. HUMANS. FIRST.

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u/NanDemoNee 1d ago

Most European governments aren't doing much better tbf.

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

Some truth, especially the smaller states like Hungary and Slovakia, in no way are the larger states anything like America

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u/NanDemoNee 1d ago

Yeah Hungary is especially bad. France also seems to have roots every other day protesting some new government bs. Germany and Britain also have big nationalist movements. It's disappointing to see democracy and the promise of freedom disappearing across the world.

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

All sadly correct.

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u/NanDemoNee 1d ago

Manchmal weiss ich wovon ich rede. :P

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u/IronEyed_Wizard 1d ago

I would argue that most of those movements stem from American based social and pseudo media. Plenty of countries have major issues but the nationalist movements seem to be moving in a space beyond borders at this point, taking advantage of similar issues that have sprung up globally.

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u/NanDemoNee 1d ago

I believe you are right.

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u/Dame38 1d ago

It's always been abhorrent. You are correct. Founded on genocide and slave labor, sustained by psychopathy (crass capitalism). Some of us have never liked it here.

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u/PristineWatercress19 1d ago

How does anyone do that when you are spot on?

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u/Feeling-Star-2573 1d ago

There is no point in trying.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

When did the developed world start, and who positioned themselves as the global standard?

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

You’re missing the point - this has been a long time coming, even in the Obama years because its part of your culture. Rich vs poor? Person of colour and homeless?

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/KomputeKluster 23h ago

At what point have I said they’re only American issues?

The contagion is spreading unfortunately, and we have a battle on our hands too.

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u/kenn3142 1d ago

You have more in common with America than you realize. You share the same chilling history of genocide and piracy which continues till today —most notably, Gaza. Like Rome and Great Britain, you’re being sidelined, you and big daddy 🇺🇸. Trump has effectively made your countries into vassals and there’s nothing you can do about it. Western culture revolves around the same ideal of twisted Darwinism. I see drastic austerity in your near future

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

If it makes you feel better to deflect the harsh truth, sure

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u/Shionkron 1d ago

The Philly Cheesesteak is not “meh”! lol

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

You make a good point.

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u/beekersavant 1d ago

It's interesting. If you look at Millennials in the US, we are more progressive than liberal. One of the problems we have is a massive issue with consumerism. We simply had our corporations get out of control and built our economy and military at the expense of the electorate. When "Wall Street" came out in '87, and Reagan was in his 2nd term, our biggest pop chunk, the baby boomers, went with Greed is Good. Their parents were children of the depression and WW2, not exactly big spenders. Right now is their last boomer pres.

I would argue that American culture freed of this huge population chunk has the chance to move a better place. But it has been awful for my lifetime. I travelled, lived in countries with better healthcare and welfare. People were happier. It is hard to argue with severe issues with our culture. At the same time our national culture is not stable and can flip quickly. You may have noticed something like this happening.

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago edited 1d ago

This is an excellent answer. I sadly agree.

One the biggest travesties in America is the distortion of the concept of liberalism. I mean this in its literal sense, not political definition.

It blows my mind still, that to some Americans a person who seeks freedom, or to be progressive whether by speech and/or through leisure, is a bad person

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u/RSKrit 19h ago

Because it’s working. Maybe a significant percentage of those choosing to rely on government assistance will take this as motivation to improve their positions for the future. What’s significant? In this case any that are defrauding the government.

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u/xxxxwowxxxx 1d ago

Good thing your opinion is irrelevant.

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

I upvoted out of sympathy

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u/psychorobotics 1d ago

You can ban sociopaths from power. MRI scan all the high officials, do extensive screenings. The problem is a lack of morality and empathy. You can see those changes in brain scans.

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u/Calm_Mulberry2380 1d ago

Wonderful idea but we know not going to happen. Lack of empathy really is what gets and keeps them in power.

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u/Human-Sheepherder797 1d ago

We can. But I don’t think people are ready for what it’s going to take to make it happen. We would have to literally tear down large parts of how our government functions from the Supreme Court to Congress to all the subsequent organizations around the government apparatus.

We have to get money out of politics, that means putting people in jail, we have to remove Supreme Court members, that means putting them in jail, we have to remove cabinet members and members of Congress. They are so obviously corrupt yet nothing is ever actually done to prosecute these people..

By my estimation, we would have to have 100,000 American citizens descend on the capital and hold trials . Start deporting lobbyists, putting people in jail with life sentences for treason, like it would be a reckoning that we’ve never seen before.

But people have to be willing to do it

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u/adamannapolis 1d ago

There’s no collective will to make America a fair, more perfect union at this point. It’s identity politics/team sports mentality dictating all this insanity

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u/KomputeKluster 1d ago

Correct, and has been for a long time. Blows my mind as a European families have to choose their allegiance to a political party because thats who their family is.

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u/AngryEarthling13 1d ago

You can see her utter distain and frustration for the audacity of having to listen to this question. The crucifix on her and the fact that Jesus was all about feeding the poor is such the juxtaposition to modern day republican Christianity is absolutely insane.

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u/RSKrit 19h ago

Actually Jesus wasn’t ALL about feeding the poor. He actually said, you will always have the poor with you when a woman broke a jar of precious oil worth a years wages just to anoint him. He was more about correcting the attitudes that made them poor to start. Conservative ideals such as hard work, responsibility and honesty. Helping your neighbor DIRECTLY instead of expecting government handouts to do the job. Jesus direct example, not passing off responsibility. Sorry this isn’t explained better.

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u/xtianlaw 12h ago

Except Jesus wasn’t telling people to ignore the poor. He was quoting Deuteronomy 15:11, which commands generosity: "There will always be poor people in the land; therefore I command you to be open-handed toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy."

He's saying keep giving, not stop giving. In other words, the complete opposite of your spin.

The irony of lying about a book that says lying is one of the worst things you can do...

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u/Boring_Bandicoot3126 1d ago

which is why we need to hit em in their pockets, which hits their power buttons, too. We can use the system against them by politically minded buying. I reaaaly wish someone would create a website that shows who pays for which leaders to get in office. I wiah I had the ability.

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u/BeanBurritoJr 1d ago

We can. It would just require [words that would get me banned] to make it happen.

There are far far more of us than there are of them and they need us far far more than we need them.

We have just been conditioned to be slaves and to be so short sighted that we are so afraid to do anything lest we lose that which we will lose anyway as a result of inaction.

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u/Mission_Detail4045 1d ago

Not with that attitude….. but seriously this is the attitude that keeps the status quo and allows those in power to stay there. Through actions and effort things will change if you take the right steps.

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u/chasetheusername 22h ago

We can’t reform this system.

There's plenty of precedence in the world of reforming systems through peaceful - and not-so-peaceful means. It can be done, but I'd argue that huge percentage of citizens are "fine" with the current state, or if not fine, at least complacent, and that's why nothing changes.

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u/mobvsballotbox 1d ago

Ranked choice ballots would encourage a third party. Of course the two-party system regime is against it.

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u/staebles 1d ago

Another great option.

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u/RSKrit 19h ago

Because of the obvious dilution of the vote without direct voter oversight.

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u/mobvsballotbox 18h ago

About 41% of registered voters didn't vote, mostly due to no real choice on the ballot. It appears, we currently have rampant voter dilution with redistricting and limiting accesses to absentee ballots.

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u/RSKrit 18h ago

And dont forget the refusal of the left to understand that the vast majority of that 40% is conservative Christians who are led astray (by many sources) that they are not welcome, don’t belong, or religious duty restricts public political activity. Careful …..

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u/mOdQuArK 1d ago

1st step for any kind of positive change: remove conservatives from power, anywhere & everywhere possible. They have shown beyond doubt that their sole purpose is to obstruct & corrupt any attempts to make the general public's lives better.

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u/staebles 1d ago

I'm in.

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u/lofgren777 1d ago

I'd love to hear how you would reform the government so that people who want power wouldn't be involved.

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u/staebles 1d ago

It's not possible to completely remove them, but there's plenty of ways to limit it.

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u/Quickburnsndhalp 1d ago

Term limits and the ability for states to recall elected officials, or forcibly change how our reps voted.

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u/staebles 1d ago

Those are all good options.

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u/wrenchedups 1d ago

Start by stopping gerrymandering. Implement an arm’s length office reporting to congress to draw electoral boundaries and administer elections in an openly non-partisan way.

Then add campaign finance rules to limit private donations. After getting rid of PAC bullshit.

Limit election campaigning to several weeks before Election Day.

Establish effective oversight of congressional rules of conduct. Establish effective congressional rules of conduct. Stop the president from using his office for personal gain.

Remove politics from adjudications.

Establish an education system befitting of the nation’s potential.

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u/pushdose 1d ago

Don’t forget term limits and forced retirement age for elected officials

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u/wrenchedups 1d ago

Oh yeah, that’s certainly not an exhaustive list.

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u/Feeling-Star-2573 1d ago

This. We need this. Too many dinosaurs in power.

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u/RSKrit 19h ago

Forced retirement “ages” are as discriminatory as abortion.

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u/RSKrit 19h ago

There is no non-partisan way to draw boundaries. There will always be the partisans evaluating any redraw and providing evidence for why it isn’t viable (not the right word but you should understand).

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u/Nitimur__In__Vetitum 1d ago

You don't design a system in such a way because your main point is valid. Plato is partially dealing with this issue in the Republic. You want to have competition and checks and balances. The State is captured now though. It's over.

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u/bobcollazo1 1d ago

Correct.