Whould everyone doing nothing be a viable option?
Whould everyone doing nothing be a viable option?
This is a Canadian asking about the US. Though given that crappy state of things here we could consider it as well.
If the next president isn't picked as a result of the popular vote but as a result of the system being terrible then a majority of the people of the country will have been wronged.
Instead of doing civil war about it, what if there was a mass movement to just do nothing. Everyone just grabs a chair and sits on their lawn or in a park all day and just chills out instead of working, attending events, or really participating in the economy in any significant way. Take a sick day or somthing if it helps. But anybody can do nothing.
In only a few days, maybe less, the economy whould take a massive hit. Just everyone sits around untill a fair election is called without any electoral college or first past the post nonsense.
Obviously there's huge challenges to this. Like finding an end condition everyone can agree on. Also getting a representative to ensure the demands had been met. the huge wave of firing, threats, and violence from the other side whould probably have some effect. But the other side is a minority, and could be overwhelmed.
So if big enough, could it work?
Yes, that's called a general strike. Fairly common tactic for independence movements and workers rights movements, you still see them in South America sometimes. They're not easy to organize, you need a lot of pissed off people.
You have a lot of pissed off people and your country has a history of saying fuck you to political figures you don't like 😉
Love, Your English Allies
Just 5% of the population striking is enough to bring a country to its heels. That aside, if Americans were capable of this kind of collective action they wouldn't be in this situation to begin with.
Edit: Oh, and also: It seems Trump is winning the popular vote this time around.
That whould typically involve unions. No need for them here though.
Unions are great for a lot of things but they'd be less inclined to help on this as they, don't all support the same parties, and probably dont want their workers to violate any contracts as it would damage future negotiations.
I think isn't a matter of labour and would be stonger without unions. It needs to be from the people.
It seems fairly likely Trump will win the popular vote
They've already said that they're perfectly fine with the economy taking a massive hit. Nobody about to come into power gives a damn about the economy, They can simply siphon money out of whatever systems they want. Drive up the deficit and pay themselves and their corporations out of the government coffers.
Even if they gave a damn about the economy, what are you going to push for collectively? The department of Justice is about to be fully corrupted. The separation of church and state is being removed. There's nothing that they're going to be able to give to satisfy the needs of the public short of a complete replacement of government which they are not going to just roll over on.
I don't think you can general strike out of a dictatorship.
That's a very interesting idea. However, the idiots in the USA have decided to elect the guy who will enact huge tariffs which will make prices rise beyond the inflation we have endured. And he will crash the US economy, which will have a domino effect on the globe. Americans are literally brainwashed to buy, buy, buy. Claiming that our economy is the most important thing (such a lie). He will devastate this country financially and those who voted for him will suffer for that choice. Trump kills everything he touches. Watch him destroy America. Putin will be so happy.
if the next president isn't picked as a result of the popular vote but as a result of the system being terrible then a majority of the people of the country will have been wronged.
In the case of Belgium, our prime minister came from a party that had 8% of the votes.
In France, our PM's party received 5,41% of the votes. All the parties supporting him received, if we add up all their scores, 28.5% of the votes.
I think if there is hope, it's from exactly this.
If the system is truly that awful, we just won't play.
I don't know that it would be effective, but my money's on something sufficiently buddhist and radical. Not as a most likely thing to happen, but as a most likely thing to work, since a trump coronation is the end of the systems Americans have based their whole lives on.