American Politics Thread: The Art of the Comeback

[Fractalnavel]

Got surprised that the African Country of São Tomé and Príncipe have higher score of freedom than the US.

Inspite of how badly Americans insist on being 'land of the free', the U.S is not exactly a high bar for personal freedoms.

And I believe those numbers predate trump2.

[The Lazarene Republic]

US is way down the list here.

Got surprised that the African Country of São Tomé and Príncipe have higher score of freedom than the US.

I don’t think that’s a good index to compare different countries within +/- 10 points of each other. Japan has a 96/100 despite being quite socially conservative and lacking a multiparty or even two-party political system in part due to the minimally representative electoral system (FPTP, gerrymandering, and uneven district sizes—not any better than US elections) and media consolidation by the ruling party. It’s not a dictatorship or even much of a hybrid regime, but it is also far from being a perfect liberal democracy.

[Fractalnavel]

[...] Japan has a 96/100 despite being quite socially conservative and lacking a multiparty or even two-party political system [...]

Japan is a multiparty parliamentary democracy.

- ?

[Port Carverton]

Got surprised that the African Country of São Tomé and Príncipe have higher score of freedom than the US.

I don’t think that’s a good index to compare different countries within +/- 10 points of each other. Japan has a 96/100 despite being quite socially conservative and lacking a multiparty or even two-party political system in part due to the minimally representative electoral system (FPTP, gerrymandering, and uneven district sizes—not any better than US elections) and media consolidation by the ruling party. It’s not a dictatorship or even much of a hybrid regime, but it is also far from being a perfect liberal democracy.

I don't really think it's dependent on how conservative the populace is, but rather what rights people have in practice.

[The Jamesian Republic]

I don’t think that’s a good index to compare different countries within +/- 10 points of each other. Japan has a 96/100 despite being quite socially conservative and lacking a multiparty or even two-party political system in part due to the minimally representative electoral system (FPTP, gerrymandering, and uneven district sizes—not any better than US elections) and media consolidation by the ruling party. It’s not a dictatorship or even much of a hybrid regime, but it is also far from being a perfect liberal democracy.

I don't really think it's dependent on how conservative the populace is, but rather what rights people have in practice.

Alabama should take note.

[Imperializt Russia]

So Trump is just doing bad with the US. He nuked DEI programs, he forced people to say "Gulf of America" etc... and he is triggering me. "Land of freedom" now it's Finland which will have highest score of freedom. He should be impeached or else he voluntarily gets out of office. First mandate was cool, now America will be a dictatorship. Or maybe not. In response my micronation blocked the DOGE site and prohibited border access to Americans.

US is way down the list here.

The only "western" nation ranked lower than the US is Israel, ayoop.

[The Lazarene Republic]

[...] Japan has a 96/100 despite being quite socially conservative and lacking a multiparty or even two-party political system [...]

Japan is a multiparty parliamentary democracy.

- ?

LDP governance has been basically uncontested since WW2 (or since the mid-1950s if you don’t count the founding parties) with the exception of a brief stint where the Democratic Party swept the elections but proceeded to have a disastrous three years under as many PMs due to their lack of governing experience and control over the bureaucracy.

I don’t think that’s a good index to compare different countries within +/- 10 points of each other. Japan has a 96/100 despite being quite socially conservative and lacking a multiparty or even two-party political system in part due to the minimally representative electoral system (FPTP, gerrymandering, and uneven district sizes—not any better than US elections) and media consolidation by the ruling party. It’s not a dictatorship or even much of a hybrid regime, but it is also far from being a perfect liberal democracy.

I don't really think it's dependent on how conservative the populace is, but rather what rights people have in practice.

Japanese citizens have fewer civil liberties than citizens of most Western nations. The only area I can think of where Japan is freer than the United States is prison conditions and mass incarceration, but due process rights are a lot narrower, so the legal system is still a mixed bag.

[Lusitanic]

US is way down the list here.

Got surprised that the African Country of São Tomé and Príncipe have higher score of freedom than the US.

For some reason Portuguese speaking islands in África are really succesful some of our former colony’s like moçambique or Guinea-Bissau are terrible and super poor but Cabo Verde and São Tomé e príncipe are better than us(Portugal) in some aspects

[Mercov]

[...] Japan has a 96/100 despite being quite socially conservative and lacking a multiparty or even two-party political system [...]

Japan is a multiparty parliamentary democracy.

- ?

It's a Dominant Party Democracy. The LDP has massive political control over everything. I would say this is a formality.

[Xmara]

Welp, with RFK now being the head of the DHHS, I guess it’s time for me to call my doctor and talk to her about getting properly weaned off Zoloft before it’s too late. I mean, idk if RFK could actually ban SSRIs, but I’d rather do this than to go get my refill and find out that they’re no longer available and I’m forced to go cold turkey.

He really can’t ban them, right?

It would be a pretty monumental thing to try that would be subject to unprecedented backlash.

But even if your doctor agrees that RFK is a threat, they're not going to give you a lifetime supply of an antidepressant as a prophylactic measure. It may not be a scheduled drug that people get high on, but they're still wary about people with mental issues accumulating hundreds or thousands of pills.

No I don’t want extra pills. I want to get off the pills.

[Ifreann]

It would be a pretty monumental thing to try that would be subject to unprecedented backlash.

But even if your doctor agrees that RFK is a threat, they're not going to give you a lifetime supply of an antidepressant as a prophylactic measure. It may not be a scheduled drug that people get high on, but they're still wary about people with mental issues accumulating hundreds or thousands of pills.

No I don’t want extra pills. I want to get off the pills.

But think about the poor pharmaceutical companies! How will their executives pay for their second yacht?

[Dtn]

I don’t think that’s a good index to compare different countries within +/- 10 points of each other. Japan has a 96/100 despite being quite socially conservative and lacking a multiparty or even two-party political system in part due to the minimally representative electoral system (FPTP, gerrymandering, and uneven district sizes—not any better than US elections) and media consolidation by the ruling party. It’s not a dictatorship or even much of a hybrid regime, but it is also far from being a perfect liberal democracy.

I don't really think it's dependent on how conservative the populace is, but rather what rights people have in practice.

remember when nsg thought north korea was more democratic than north carolina based on the eip index

[No PRomISES]

Got surprised that the African Country of São Tomé and Príncipe have higher score of freedom than the US.

For some reason Portuguese speaking islands in África are really succesful some of our former colony’s like moçambique or Guinea-Bissau are terrible and super poor but Cabo Verde and São Tomé e príncipe are better than us(Portugal) in some aspects

*cough* Mauritius
Also, that has to be very embarrassing for the United States to have fewer political rights and civil liberties than three African countries. So much for muh freedom.

[Adamede]

I don't really think it's dependent on how conservative the populace is, but rather what rights people have in practice.

remember when nsg thought north korea was more democratic than north carolina based on the eip index

The opinion of communists can be safely disregarded as well as the opinions of MAGA/far right.

[No PRomISES]

remember when nsg thought north korea was more democratic than north carolina based on the eip index

The opinion of communists can be safely disregarded as well as the opinions of MAGA/far right.

They're both equally terrible, but one removes all of one's rights while the other prioritizes their rights over others.

[Adamede]

For some reason Portuguese speaking islands in África are really succesful some of our former colony’s like moçambique or Guinea-Bissau are terrible and super poor but Cabo Verde and São Tomé e príncipe are better than us(Portugal) in some aspects

*cough* Mauritius
Also, that has to be very embarrassing for the United States to have fewer political rights and civil liberties than three African countries. So much for muh freedom.

Trumpers don’t care. So long as they can shit on minorities and the poor.

[Imperializt Russia]

No I don’t want extra pills. I want to get off the pills.

But think about the poor pharmaceutical companies! How will their executives pay for their second yacht?

"This just in on BBC news, a second pharmaceutical price hike has hit NHS prescription pricing"

[Adamede]

The opinion of communists can be safely disregarded as well as the opinions of MAGA/far right.

They're both equally terrible, but one removes all of one's rights while the other prioritizes their rights over others.

That’s the same thing at the end of the day. The party elected always had a better standard of living than the workers even in so called socialist worker states.

[Finium]

They're both equally terrible, but one removes all of one's rights while the other prioritizes their rights over others.

That’s the same thing at the end of the day. The party elected always had a better standard of living than the workers even in so called socialist worker states.

Wait a second... that's a feature of every political system including liberal capitalism. Maybe the existence of a ruling class is not a feature of any particular system of government and we should focus more on what policies benefit the public and how the ruling class is created.

[Adamede]

That’s the same thing at the end of the day. The party elected always had a better standard of living than the workers even in so called socialist worker states.

Wait a second... that's a feature of every political system including liberal capitalism. Maybe the existence of a ruling class is not a feature of any particular system of government and we should focus more on what policies benefit the public and how the ruling class is created.

Or maybe there shouldn’t be a ruling class at all.

Regardless Marxist-Leninists are still not an example to follow.

[Finium]

Wait a second... that's a feature of every political system including liberal capitalism. Maybe the existence of a ruling class is not a feature of any particular system of government and we should focus more on what policies benefit the public and how the ruling class is created.

Or maybe there shouldn’t be a ruling class at all.

Regardless Marxist-Leninists are still not an example to follow.

That's very chill of you, I am also an anarchist.

[The Black Forrest]

Trump fires 400 DHS agents, halts agency’s drug and human trafficking investigations

It tells you a lot about MAGA that they think immigrants represent a greater threat to America than cartels and terrorists

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)? FFS she is a fucking stupid patsy. That’s trump though. Why optimize when you can just cut?

At least President Musk has a check list and his cuts are targeting the people who investigated his businesses.

[Bad Dog]

So just checking, are any of those campaign tax promises to working class Americans being kept?

You know, no taxes on tips. No taxes on overtime. Those things?

[Lusitanic]

So just checking, are any of those campaign tax promises to working class Americans being kept?

You know, no taxes on tips. No taxes on overtime. Those things?

Only no taxes for billionaires and mega corporations

[Russian Collation]

So just checking, are any of those campaign tax promises to working class Americans being kept?

You know, no taxes on tips. No taxes on overtime. Those things?

Only no taxes for billionaires and mega corporations

Lower taxes for all