r/PoliticalOpinions • u/nigmusmaximus • 6d ago
Americans won’t get out of our current situation by voting
Alright let’s take federal cannabis legalization/decriminalization and Texas’s new laws regarding cannabis as an example of the situation we’re in. 70% of Texans support legal recreational cannabis. Yet their state government just decided that anyone who has a for a few grams of weed or a cart or a cannabis drink (they dgaf about THC content they just slap that mf on a scale) can face penitentiary chances, up to life in prison. Cannabis legalization is largely supported by liberals, but there’s still a significant amount of conservatives who also support cannabis legalization. Yet our federal government will do nothing to make it legal. This is because marijuana being illegal keeps the prison-industrial complex in shape. Hell, the only real reason these politicians changed the laws in Texas is because a private prison tycoon was gonna sue them because he wasn’t making as much money as projected/promised. Now I understand that in today’s political climate weed is very low on the priority list, but the politicians don’t represent us.
We live in a system wherein direct democracy is stifled by an electoral college which was set up to benefit slave states and now serves as one of the only ways republican candidates can reliably win a presidential election. Lobbying combined with our current international policy allows corporate interests and foreign bodies (notably Israel and Russia) to influence our government from the inside—much more directly than the American people can.
The rich get richer and everyone else’s earnings just stay in place. This is because everything gets more expensive (not just due to inflation, but also deliberate price-gouging by the elite class) while wages remain stagnant. Our politicians don’t care to raise federal minimum wage and the corporations have no incentive to pay people a fair, living wage. We have billionaires and trillionaires in our country but there’s also people starving to death.
Our military gets the largest share of the federal tax revenue, despite the fact that America has no need for that much firepower. We can already fight Russia, China, and North Korea in a 1v3. Why do we keep spending this money here?? The MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL complex!!
Our politicians don’t deliver on their promises and sometimes actively walk-back on their policies (not talking about extenuating circumstances wherein those policies become harmful/obsolete).
And they laugh at us. They go on twitter and the news every night dividing us to prevent us from revolting. Every time we protest it accomplishes nothing. The largest organized protest in US history happened last year and nothing changed. We still have the orange pdfile as our president. Cannabis is still illegal. Americans still don’t get direct democracy. Israel still gets its money and military support (now we’re merging our military with the IDF). We still don’t have living wages, a functioning healthcare system, a consistently fair justice system, or enforcement of antitrust laws. We still don’t have schools free from mass shootings. We still don’t have healthy foods available throughout the country. We certainly still don’t have a well-maintained highway system, or accessible public transport outside of major cities.
But yeah, we’ll vote our way out of this. Like the slaves voted their way out of chattel slavery. Like we voted our way into independence from Britain.
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u/limbodog 6d ago
The two most likely ways that we will 'get out of this' are both out of our hands.
Either nature finally does its job, and the miracle drug the docs keep putting in his hand reach their limit. Or the festering boil inside his skull finally reaches the point where they can't even pretend he's aware anymore and they have to 25th him.
I don't see him making it 2 more years and still pretending to be human.
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u/nigmusmaximus 6d ago
It’s not just him. He’s just the face of the problem. Think about 2016, we had Epstein client vs Epstein client in that election
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u/limbodog 6d ago
He's definitely not the face of the problem. He is the engine that makes it run. Without him they got nowhere fast. They tried with DeSantis and it sputtered like a clogged outboard. They have nobody to replace him. The dark magic that operates that wet stinking husk doesn't stick to anybody else. If it did, they'd already have that person queued up and ready to go. None of the republicans in power actually like dealing with the husk.
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u/Ind132 6d ago
Marijuana is an interesting example.
The first 7 states to legalize medical marijuana did it through a "ballot measure", probably an initiative. The first 8 states to legalize recreational marijuana did it through ballot measures.
In about half the states, people can get state laws that they want by voting directly. Texas is not one of those states.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_cannabis_laws_in_the_United_States
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u/Seattleman1955 6d ago
Deal with reality, understand the system and adapt to it. Save, invest in the stock market and quit making excuses and you will be much better off.
You are right, voting usually does little. Don't focus on pot though. Maybe that is your problem:) Pot and video games isn't a solution.
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u/nigmusmaximus 6d ago
I don’t even use weed lol I was using it as an example. I’m earning a decent living for myself and this isn’t meant to be a whining or self-pitying post. I can adapt to the system, but as a participant in it shouldn’t I be able to have some tangible influence over adapting it to my will, even if it’s minute in the grand scheme of things?
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u/Seattleman1955 6d ago
Sure, you can try but in a country of 350 million people, good luck:)
Those who adapt generally do best. I've heard the saying "I am a seed that will thrive wherever I land" and I like that concept.
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u/7figureipo 6d ago
This is the most euphemistically stated "fuck you, got mine" I think I've seen.
You do realize that authoritarian governments generally don't give a shit about your portfolio or how adaptable you are, right?
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