The Republican MAGA faction is full mask-off fascist. They meet every single defining aspect of fascism, they're generally idiots, and hatemongering relies on emotion and is unfortunately often successful.
The Republican "sane" faction is still mostly fascist but is primarily self-serving powermongers who are perfectly comfortable using elements of fascism to acquire and achieve power, and their primary goal is the enrichment of the alread-wealthy.
The Democrat "progressives" are just-left-of-center and a minority that holds barely any power. They aren't socialist, not "true" leftists in any sense, but they're the closest we have in mainstream American politics. They'd like to reign in capitalism a bit, reduce the effects of the oligarchy, let workers unionize, possibly maybe socialize healthcare.
The "mainstream" Democrats, the ones in control of the party organization, are status-quo powermongers and are basically "fascist-lite." They know what's worked in the past and they're used to using culture-war tactics the same as the "sane" Republicans, just on the side that happens to benefit regular people more. I honestly can;t say whether any of them actually *believe* in what they talk about, because they so rarely make an actual effort to progress. They don't meet all of the characteristics of fascism, but they often meet several.
The reality of American politics is that it's all ruled by money, and few politicians keep their hands clean and their ideals intact, if they had them in the first place. Oligarchs and oligarch-funded interest groups make the real decisions, and American democracy is primarily based around the *illusion* of choice - we're only allowed to vote from among a pre-selected group of candidates, ones who are already primed and selected to support the status quo with very little change. There's no grand conspiracy here either - its a function of a two-party system and allowing money in politics to the degree that we do. You need money to run, oligarchs and corporate and special interests have money, they get an immediate overwhelming advantage in promoting candidates *they* would prefer in the primary stage and earlier. There's a reason that studies show that Americans don't get what we want from our legislators, even when an overwhelming majority of us agree, unless it just so happens to coincide with what the moneyed interests also want. If we want something and money says no, then we dont get it even if 70%+ of voters support it.
Change *is* possible - the Republicans in the space of around a decade were moved hard right but what started as the Tea Party and mutated into MAGA.
But there are precious few lawmakers who actually appear to care in any significant sense about the wellbeing of "regular" people. Words, rarely action.
On the domestic front I'll admit to having been pleasantly surprised by some of Biden's accomplishments, specifically relating to labor unions.
But of course American foreign policy between the two parties seems to range from "we're monsters but once a century or so can almost accidentally do something good" to "let's see if we can burn the world down, either for increased quarterly profits or to bring Jesus back."
I've always voted with Democrats as a "lesser of two evils," but lately given current events I find it impossible to voice a defense that they're actually "lesser." I'm aware of the differences but given the Democrats repeated lack of *actual action* to accomplish the things they run on, they ring hollow. I know Republicans would be worse, especially MAGA maniacs, but it's hard not to go full "doomer" right now. My cynicism has been escalating exponentially since Trump won the Presidency, and so far reality continues to still surprise and disappoint me.
“The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it.” - Francis Bacon"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." - John Rogers
“A world that can be explained even with bad reasons is a familiar world. But, on the other hand, in a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land. This divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity.” – Albert Camus
"...the pious hope that by combining numerous little turds of variously tainted data, one can obtain a valuable result; but in fact, the outcome is merely a larger than average pile of shit." - Barash, David 1995...
"Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends." - Gandalf, J. R. R. Tolkien: The Lord Of the Rings
"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
1 Corinthians 15:26King James Version (KJV)
Nihil supernum
™ Version 4.2
