For my entire life, I’ve been hearing people warn that the Federal government was too large, too powerful. I never gave it much credence. I often dismissed these people as just paranoid weirdos. I’m starting to think they were on to something. It was relatively easy to ignore these folks when the Federal government was generally competent and stable enough, but now, perhaps the MAGA movement has exposed something.
Maybe the Federal government is too large and powerful. Maybe we do need a weaker Federal government. Maybe states should have more power, more autonomy, greater independence.
I know I’m going to get some reflexive negative responses to this, because it might appear that I’m aligning myself with some problematic right wing libertarians, but given all that’s happening I think the idea that the Federal government might be too powerful is a possibility we have to at least consider.
I get what you’re saying but my dismissal of the idea that the Federal government was too powerful spanned decades and multiple presidential administrations, both Democrat and Republican. It hasn’t been until Trump, or more specifically Trump’s second term that I’ve even started to question it. So, for me at least, it isn’t merely a matter of partisan grievance.
I think it’s more a matter of seeing the incredible power of the Federal government fall into the hands of people whom I consider to be severely misguided, unhinged and wildly incompetent that is making me reconsider my position.
Nobody likes a strong federal government when it does stuff like this
Everyone likes a strong federal government when it competently handles a pandemic, economic crisis, or intelligently arranges for the well being of its citizens
You can’t magically solve the problem of almost half your country being bigoted supremacists by just reallocating some power
Everyone likes a strong federal government when it competently handles a pandemic, …
Everybody likes the handling of the pandemic but not the strength of the government. The strength is not evaluated. The strength itself could only be liked if the federal government would have to force the local governments to do the right thing.
It’s a false dichotomy of having either a strong or a minimal government. You can have both at the same time, strong in some areas, small to no influence in others.
So we just have to take the bad with the good? This woman’s life, and all the lives taken by the Federal government over the many years are just the price we have to pay for the privilege of having our “well being” managed by benevolent technocrats in the Federal government?
The problem is it doesn’t have anything to do with how strong or weak the federal government is right now. Trump literally does not care what he’s “allowed” to do as part of the federal government, he just does what he wants and then dares anybody to stop him and so far everyone else has blinked. Half the things he’s done he’s not actually legally allowed to, so removing even more powers from the federal government won’t stop him and it will just further empower the bad actors at the state level.
The primary argument for state vs. federal isn’t about someone having “too much power”, it’s about having the option to experiment with different ideas. If there’s no clear consensus about something and a bunch of different ways you can go about handling it that all seem equally valid that’s a pretty good argument for leaving it up to the states to hammer out. If it’s something basic that everyone should be on board with like basic human rights, that’s a good argument for federal control.
You’re not alone friend, I’ve never particularly trusted the gov but seeing it fully weaponized under this admin has me reconsidering if I should have listened more to the nutters.
I’m not a nutter bruh, I fought the drug war for 20 years. This kind of shit was a constant reality. Now you get to enjoy it too. People only care when it’s happening to them or their group. This is how they treated black communities for 200 years. Welcome to the thuderdome law abiding white folks!
Lol hilarious. You’re right, of course. This kind of shit has been standard in low income black communities since long before I was born, one white lady gets shot by a cop and NOW libs suddenly care.
Ya looks like this hurt some people’s feelings, but I guess that’s how it goes. Gotta stop the oppressive system before it gets to you. Probably feels bad to realize that fact when it’s too late to change it.
I agree, sort of. The concentration of power in the US federal government is a huge issue, especially that of the president. However the concentration of power that I’m more worried about lies within the wealth of a few individuals. That power needs to be decentralized swiftly and brutally. The power balance in state vs federal is moot if one man can spend a fraction of a fraction of a percentage of their wealth to buy every politician in the US. And theres a ton of people like that. With that wealth.
They will not give it back willingly. They will not allow you to vote them out. They have enough money to buy every politician, do you seriously think they will allow those politicians to pass laws that will tax them out of existence? If by some miracle enough politicians turned down the money and began passing laws to tax billionaires out of existence, they would do anything in their power to prevent that. This is billions on the line. They would ASSASSINATE people before allowing that to happen. They certainly have before.
Sorry I went on a little tangent there, but I got myself all worked up and frustrated again about this shit. There isn’t an easy, bloodless, show up every once in a while and vote your way out of this solution.
For my entire life, I’ve been hearing people warn that the Federal government was too large, too powerful. I never gave it much credence. I often dismissed these people as just paranoid weirdos. I’m starting to think they were on to something. It was relatively easy to ignore these folks when the Federal government was generally competent and stable enough, but now, perhaps the MAGA movement has exposed something.
Maybe the Federal government is too large and powerful. Maybe we do need a weaker Federal government. Maybe states should have more power, more autonomy, greater independence.
I know I’m going to get some reflexive negative responses to this, because it might appear that I’m aligning myself with some problematic right wing libertarians, but given all that’s happening I think the idea that the Federal government might be too powerful is a possibility we have to at least consider.
People when their party isn’t in charge: “the government is too big and powerful.”
People when their party IS in charge: “the government isn’t powerful enough to be effective.”
Every single time. This is rarely a principled stance.
I get what you’re saying but my dismissal of the idea that the Federal government was too powerful spanned decades and multiple presidential administrations, both Democrat and Republican. It hasn’t been until Trump, or more specifically Trump’s second term that I’ve even started to question it. So, for me at least, it isn’t merely a matter of partisan grievance.
I think it’s more a matter of seeing the incredible power of the Federal government fall into the hands of people whom I consider to be severely misguided, unhinged and wildly incompetent that is making me reconsider my position.
Nobody likes a strong federal government when it does stuff like this
Everyone likes a strong federal government when it competently handles a pandemic, economic crisis, or intelligently arranges for the well being of its citizens
You can’t magically solve the problem of almost half your country being bigoted supremacists by just reallocating some power
Everybody likes the handling of the pandemic but not the strength of the government. The strength is not evaluated. The strength itself could only be liked if the federal government would have to force the local governments to do the right thing.
It’s a false dichotomy of having either a strong or a minimal government. You can have both at the same time, strong in some areas, small to no influence in others.
People in the US don’t know what it looks like to competently handle a pandemic.
Literally you
So we just have to take the bad with the good? This woman’s life, and all the lives taken by the Federal government over the many years are just the price we have to pay for the privilege of having our “well being” managed by benevolent technocrats in the Federal government?
Does this qualify as intelligently arranging for the well being of citizens?
https://lemmy.world/post/41336318
The problem is it doesn’t have anything to do with how strong or weak the federal government is right now. Trump literally does not care what he’s “allowed” to do as part of the federal government, he just does what he wants and then dares anybody to stop him and so far everyone else has blinked. Half the things he’s done he’s not actually legally allowed to, so removing even more powers from the federal government won’t stop him and it will just further empower the bad actors at the state level.
The primary argument for state vs. federal isn’t about someone having “too much power”, it’s about having the option to experiment with different ideas. If there’s no clear consensus about something and a bunch of different ways you can go about handling it that all seem equally valid that’s a pretty good argument for leaving it up to the states to hammer out. If it’s something basic that everyone should be on board with like basic human rights, that’s a good argument for federal control.
You’re not alone friend, I’ve never particularly trusted the gov but seeing it fully weaponized under this admin has me reconsidering if I should have listened more to the nutters.
Yes and no. Were the nutters right? Yes. But it’s the nutters that are supporting this shit.
So maybe projection? 🙃
I suppose the only difference between a conspiracy theory and an outright conspiracy is evidence and intentions. We’re now drowning in both.
You sir win the internet.
I’m not a nutter bruh, I fought the drug war for 20 years. This kind of shit was a constant reality. Now you get to enjoy it too. People only care when it’s happening to them or their group. This is how they treated black communities for 200 years. Welcome to the thuderdome law abiding white folks!
Lol hilarious. You’re right, of course. This kind of shit has been standard in low income black communities since long before I was born, one white lady gets shot by a cop and NOW libs suddenly care.
Ya looks like this hurt some people’s feelings, but I guess that’s how it goes. Gotta stop the oppressive system before it gets to you. Probably feels bad to realize that fact when it’s too late to change it.
The funny thing is they probably STILL wont do anything about it.
There will be no justice until we start from the top down.
Honestly at this point I’d be fine with Americans starting ANYWHERE as ling as they do SOMETHING useful. ANYTHING.
Ya we can’t even assign blame to the correct parties. We’re fucked chief just let us implode in peace
I was told the reason guns were needed was in case a tyrannical government took over
They were. You didn’t listen. Now here you are.
I’m not American
Nor I. Fair enough. 😆
I agree, sort of. The concentration of power in the US federal government is a huge issue, especially that of the president. However the concentration of power that I’m more worried about lies within the wealth of a few individuals. That power needs to be decentralized swiftly and brutally. The power balance in state vs federal is moot if one man can spend a fraction of a fraction of a percentage of their wealth to buy every politician in the US. And theres a ton of people like that. With that wealth.
They will not give it back willingly. They will not allow you to vote them out. They have enough money to buy every politician, do you seriously think they will allow those politicians to pass laws that will tax them out of existence? If by some miracle enough politicians turned down the money and began passing laws to tax billionaires out of existence, they would do anything in their power to prevent that. This is billions on the line. They would ASSASSINATE people before allowing that to happen. They certainly have before.
Sorry I went on a little tangent there, but I got myself all worked up and frustrated again about this shit. There isn’t an easy, bloodless, show up every once in a while and vote your way out of this solution.
Worse than billionaires are foreign countries buying out the govt, e.g. AIPAC
I think local oligarchs are a far more compromising and dangerous issue.
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