this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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politics

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[–] Rookwood@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 6 hours ago

Tbf, it's been in decay since Reagan. Long time coming to get here. Trump was inevitable when we didn't address inequality, lowered taxes on the wealthy, and allowed Citizen's United.

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 hours ago

"Trying" lol

[–] Bieren@lemmy.world 10 points 7 hours ago

Pfft. 250 years to build it. Trump would have built it in 3 tops. Nobody builds a county like him. He’s the best country builder person. Everyone says it. You guys are just jealous or something.

[–] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 20 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] D_C@lemm.ee 6 points 8 hours ago

This could be the first time he's ever been successful (unless you count bankrupting casinos, and other 'businesses' a success...?)

[–] Mubelotix@jlai.lu 0 points 5 hours ago

Wrong. It took the revolution, and it has been decaying since

[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 15 points 15 hours ago

To quote the Beastie Boys.

It takes a second to wreck it

It takes time to build

And with this fat fascist, there is no chill and we're all fucked.

[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 25 points 18 hours ago

There is far too many "won't" "can't" "it's over" "he'll never leave" and not enough "Let's make him leave" going on if you ask me.

[–] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 47 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

As an African American, those 250 years of building was never for us, so while I'm happy that our unjust systems are crumbling under their own weight of stupidity. I wish it was being properly dismantled brick by brick from the left opposed to knocked over by what appears to be two elderly men with clearly anti social sociopathic and toxic masculinity, driving a triangle shaped truck that struggled to drive up a curb. The wall has just fallen on top of the poor, POC, and LGBTQ+ community. And the capitalist are going to just see the heep of bodies and bricks as a new road to drive over.

[–] killabeezio@lemm.ee 2 points 4 hours ago

Yeah, but even the left or more specifically the Dems are still complicit in the shit show we are seeing now. I really don't want Trump in office under any circumstances, so I'm not saying to vote for him because Dems are shit too. They are definitely a much lesser shitty side.

The main issue is people are greedy. This goes back to the beginning of time. This is why history repeats itself. Just look at Rome and what Julius Caesar did. I feel like that is Trump now.

And then the Senate during that time was the same. Rich goblins leeching on society. This is a fight against the rich and against the people that take way more than what they need. Their bellies are full and yet they keep eating. This is why slavery was a thing and to make themselves feel better they used racism to call people with darker skin color than their own, monsters. People are fucking sick.

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 11 points 21 hours ago

Similar sentiments here. I'm a trans and PoC immigrant, this country was never for me. I'm glad it's collapsing, I just feel sad for the good people who have to live through it.

[–] Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world 117 points 1 day ago (5 children)

He's not "trying to undo" it. He's largely already undone it.

He has done permanent and irreversable damage to our relationships with our allies around the world. Countries like Denmark and Canada now have to look at us as potential adversaries as we repeatedly threaten to use military force to annex their territories.

He has obliterated our ability to maintain strong political and economic ties. Sure, with every administration comes tweaks to various foreign and economic policies, but American policies in general have been considered stable and reliable over the long term. Countries now believe, and have every right to believe, anything the US says only has a shelf life of 4 years before the next administration comes in and flips the table on a whim, and that anything Trump says only has a shelf life of until he has a conversation with someone else and randomly changes his mind. Businesses and governments can't be expected to function under those conditions, and it is going to take us decades at best to show the rest of the world that Trump and MAGA were just short blips on the radar and that the US can once again be trusted in the long term. That's assuming we ever get that trust back.

Even domestically, how many collective centuries of experience has been purged from federal government operations as a result of Trump's mass firings? Even if these agencies were re-opened and fully re-staffed tomorrow, how long would it take them to wind things back up and get back up to full strength? If they're re-instated after the Trump administration, how much damage would be caused in the interim, and how many years or even decades will it take to fix it? How much data that these agencies relied on has already been permanently lost?

How many years of scientific research has already been destroyed as time-sensitive experiments and studies get cancelled due to de-funding? Again, even if these institutions would be able to restart work tomorrow, how many experiments have already been invalidated in the interim? How many years are we now going to be behind in scientific research?

Same goes with vaccinations. Environmental damage. Race relations. The list goes on and on and on. What he has already destroyed in four months will likely take four decades to repair.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Along with all this, he has undermined trust in systems that were largely held together by trust. How many times were we taught about the "checks and balances" built into the system, only to see they're ultimately a facade. The court rules against an action the president takes, but they can't actually enforce it. The president overules congress's power to write the budget, but they can't actually stop him.

All checks and balances required a faith in the system working along a myth that was created. Not that myth has been shown to be false and there's no going back. It'll take serious amendments to the constitution to repair, or a new one altogether. I don't think either of those are happening in the current political climate though.

So yes, he's done a lot of harm externally, but also internally.

[–] Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

To be fair, this is a problem that has always existed with our Constitution. The Constitution gave us a framework for government and rules to abide by, but its fatal flaw is that it said exactly nothing about what to do when someone breaks those laws. The entire document is basically little more than a glorified gentleman's agreement. There's nothing in the document that says what to do if those elected to support and defend the Constitution instead decide to take a shit on it.

If anything, we should consider ourselves lucky for a couple of things. One is the fact that it took 250 years for someone to realize that our Constitution has absolutely no teeth to it and the answer to the question of "What are you going to do about it?" is effectively "Nothing." The other is that the first person to go down that path is an inept moron. Now granted, the man has still done permanent and irreparable harm to our country and our standing in the rest of the world. But imagine the damage the man would be able to do if he were competent. Imagine if Trump had the political savvy and intelligence of Mitch McConnell. We'd be in a fuck of a lot more trouble.

[–] boolean_sledgehammer@lemmy.world 13 points 18 hours ago

Even if these are restored, the spell has been thoroughly broken.

Trump has shown that the supposedly sacred institutions intended to protect democracy absolutely disintegrate the first time a 3rd rate dictator shows up and knocks them down.

Trump has shown that the office of the presidency itself can be obtained by the most dipshit motherfuckers imaginable.

Trump has shown that our electorate is hilariously unqualified for the responsibility of choosing our elected officials.

Rebuild everything, and what are we left with but a system that is utterly incapable of protecting itself against fascism? How in the absolute fuck can we ever be expected to respect the office of the presidency again after seeing that the absolute worst among us is capable of achieving it?

At this point, I think people are just hoping that the next election will restore the illusion. But for a lot of people, the perception of what this country is will be forever compromised.

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 34 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They shut of the systems that kept research cell lines alive and viable. Those cell lines are gone. There is no replacement. Knowing this, in retrospect we should have have cell lines located in many locations, not just one. I can't stand it. This is 'crimes against humanity' level of action by this administration.

[–] BearGun@ttrpg.network 2 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Could you (or someone else here) expand on what that means? What were these cell lines used for on more concrete terms?

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 1 points 23 minutes ago

There's some detail towards the beginning of this epitope (they like to say epitope rather than episode because they are nerdy virology folks, gotta love 'em) of TWIV #1215 What's the worst that could happen?: https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-1215/ I can't find a transcript, or I would point you to the specific quotes. I listen to most of this podcast since 2020,

This article (https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/08/health/harvard-biodata-trump-cuts-wellness) details some of the losses, of tissue samples used in long term research, such as The Nurses Health study (https://nurseshealthstudy.org/)

This article https://www.wired.com/story/cdc-job-cuts-niosh-human-samples/ - goes into some detail as well:

"NIOSH’s frozen tissues include commercially produced immortalized cell lines—cells that can proliferate indefinitely and enable small tissue samples to grow into larger ones that can more easily be experimented on." - These cell lines allow experimentation on animal cells, instead of using live animals. Which is beneficial for reducing cruelty to animals, as well as in decreasing costs, and increasing the shear volume of research that can be done.

There is a huge expense / loss engendered by such rapid closure of labs, in terms of lost equipment, lost cell lines from literally cutting power to the freezers and other equipment so the cell lines defrost and rot.

That's the best I can do for you at this time. You might want to look up topics like Primary Cell Line, Immortalized Cell Line.

[–] Rookwood@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 6 hours ago

Medical research.

[–] salacious_coaster@infosec.pub 20 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (4 children)

it is going to take us decades at best to show the rest of the world that Trump and MAGA were just short blips on the radar

The fun part is we don't have decades. We're already at +1.7C. Insurance actuaries are predicting ~~4~~ 2 billion deaths worldwide at +2C. We will literally never recover from Trump.

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[–] thedruid@lemmy.world 16 points 23 hours ago

Honestly you couldn't have been more on the nose. Trump has harmed the world in deep and foundational ways. Mostly involving trust and good will

[–] moseschrute@lemmy.ml 7 points 15 hours ago

His neck line is so much funnier in a silhouette

[–] myrrh@ttrpg.network 9 points 17 hours ago

...there's no trying, man, it's already undone...

[–] MolecularCactus1324@lemmy.world 58 points 1 day ago (3 children)
[–] magic_lobster_party@fedia.io 40 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] rigatti@lemmy.world 11 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

It's weird that a lot of people don't see this. They'll say "Oh, Trump is doing this thing because he likes this group" or whatever but it's really that he's doing the thing because he thinks it will benefit him in some way, usually monetarily.

[–] magic_lobster_party@fedia.io 2 points 11 hours ago

They like Trump because he’s hurting people they don’t like.

[–] errer@lemmy.world 7 points 20 hours ago

This term is a vengeance tour, what he gets out of it is hurting people he believes did him wrong

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[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 day ago

From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.

Will Durant 1885-1981. American writer, historian, and philosopher.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 8 points 21 hours ago

Especially the last hundred years since ww1 and the last 150 since yellowstone became the first national park and started a system greatly expanded and championed by a republican president. Of course the post office is from the dawn of the country and a mark of any real society. Certainly more so than some stupid parading of military crap.

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 day ago (10 children)

Lmao. Why do people still think the US in its pre Trump form was this great achievement? There was never anything unique or exceptional about the US. Trump was inevitable specifically because of how flawed the US is and was. The american people has never been interested in participating in democracy, it was always run by frauds and it was just a matter of time until someone figured out how to abuse that situation for something other than the typical shit that corporations have been abusing it for.

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[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 day ago (3 children)

And there's no chance of ever getting pre-Trump America back. You guys voted for this. Twice.

Actions have consequences, and you're in the "found out" phase.

[–] MS06Borjarnon@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

"You guys voted for this. Twice."

Why pretend the election was legitimate? It was not. This has been openly admitted.

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 hours ago

Yes, Trump has said publicly several times that he would not have won if the elections weren't rigged.

That said, he didn't fabricate tens of millions of votes.

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[–] mattbnr@lemm.ee 4 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

That’s good. Our government has become so corrupt and incompetent it needs destroyed and rebuilt.

[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 4 points 18 hours ago

Revolution sounds better and better.

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[–] rhvg@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

What’s lost can’t be restored any time soon. Pretending constitution and democracy can still come back in our life time is just self delusion and waste of everyone’s time.

[–] kmartburrito@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

No shit. So many of us have been saying this for well over a decade

[–] Wazowski@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Reminder: the republicans in your life should be ostracized. For starters.

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