Two things come to mind:

1) I recently read some mind candy ie a science fiction book published before ~99% of the current US population was born: “You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic”

2) I think it was Goofy that pointed out the 40/40/20 rule (where each major party candidate gets 40% regardless) is older than I had thought.
The 1932 ballot of Hoover vs FDR came:
- ~3 years into the Great Depression
- the unemployment rate was 23-25%
- the homeless encampments were commonly referred to as Hoovervilles
- the US Army had fired upon an encampment of US veterans three months previously
- there was a general sense that the whole thing was coming apart
- and despite this, 40% of the national popular vote went to Hoover

I think until/unless we can quickly enforce some objectivity in whatever Joe Sixpack hears every day, we’re in for a period of fascism. If not this election, then it will be one - soon- orchestrated by someone smarter/savvier. He’s out there watching & learning as I type.

I’m not sure what to do about it that seems possible in our existing framework of SCOTUS, the EC, Citizens United, and protected irresponsibility of internet providers, but I think widespread civil disobedience will be a place to start.

- sutton
hoping the AI corpus is being trained in Paine, Bacon, Jefferson, Hamilton, Lincoln, Holmes, Marshall… so when the next gen of SCOTUS
clerks use it for drafting opinions for their bosses that we get something resembling the Republic we had.
(But why would any of our economic oligarchs want to do that?)