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I had a look at the democrats who support the recent "Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act". I had a look at 10 of them. 7 of them had substantial donations from AIPAC. The others were soon up for re-election.

I am not American, but why oh why are you not rooting in the streets? That is just soooo effed up. This is just one of so many issues, and AIPAC is a just a part of the problem. It is just so obvious that U.S. politicians are up for purchase.

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kelnos 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

> I am not American, but why oh why are you not rooting in the streets?

Fatigue and feelings of impotence, mostly. I don't think public protests are going to kick off campaign finance reform. And most people in the US feel that they have worse problems, and ignore the possibility that fixing campaign finance rules might cause us to end up with politicians who represent our interests better.

	▲	PaulHoule 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		There are also unintended consequences. For instance if it is easy to mooch off public funds you will have people run for office just to get money to pay their friends who will owe them favors. If it is not easy to mooch off public funds than it won't be inclusive. We saw a similar scenario scenario play out in 2016 when most of the Republican candidates were attending meetings with donors who were willing to shower them with money to promote conservative ideas so long as they kissed the ring and signed up to the same list of positions on an array of issues. Some of these positions were popular (with the base and the general electorate) and others were less so, it was a hodge-podge and not a package of issues designed to win a campaign. Notably the issue of immigration was left off the table because many elite Republicans are farmowners who have a choice between hiring local young people who think it's a dead end job and would rather earn a few $ an hour less working at Burger King because its an easier job or hiring a Mexican who wants to save money to buy a farm of his own and thinks the same way the owner does. Trump didn't go that route and he picked a package of issues which were largely popular, adding the immigration issue which was highly salient in 2016 for the Republican base and that has become salient for the general electorate in 2024 since the lid blew off in Latinoamerica and Africa. Had the Republicans had fewer candidates one of them might have been able to stand out against Trump but too much funding can mean too many candidates and no differentiation and you lose. The candidates are fine though because they got the cash and they got some visibility. (Would be worth doing just for the cash) Democrats have the opposite problem that because billionaires don't fund left-wing candidates they don't have enough candidates entering in the primaries. --- I'm skeptical of other kinds of reform such as tricky voting systems because the electoral college is bad enough and if people can't understand how the vote was counted it damages legitimacy. Also systems like that have all kinds of tricky situations where the outcome of your choices often isn't what you think. (If I had to thing about Arrow's Theorem all the time I would be depressed all the time)

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A4ET8a8uTh0 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

<< I am not American, but why oh why are you not rooting in the streets? That is just soooo effed up

US has a lot of issues. Some of those issues are obvious. Some of those issues are not obvious. Some have solutions. Some really do not have solutions that do not include changes that would make US fall apart as a result of those changes. Some of those issues have business interests ensuring those issues stay exactly as they are..

All this is also happening against conscious propaganda apparatus ensuring an individual stays separated from otherwise normal bonds. Entire communities are atomized to ensure they do not pose a threat of banding together. And this does not even begin to touch the social fabric.

Some of the stuff is fucked up, but one has to pick battles. Things are bad, but not bad enough in many people's view. Naturally, that can change. And since are we raised to believe in 'the economy', it only takes another 2008 to have Americans reconsider their current social agreement.

edit: bunch of syntax

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globalnode 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

my guess is there are no obvious consequences yet? most people seem disinterested in politics and would like to ignore it as 'petty' or 'dirty'.