this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2026
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They did in 2020, and then they did nothing to prevent fascism. The fascist did not face serious detrimental consequences of any kind. In fact they actively coveted and aided Israeli fascist which harmed their ability to get reelected.
Did Biden win the senate? Did he appoint the judges for the supreme court? I agree that he mishandled the conflict in Israel, but I not sure what Biden could have done to stop the abolishment of Roe v Wade as an example. If anything, he did a good job bringing us back to some sense of stability after Trump's 1st term ended in disaster. We should critize the Democrats for their mismanagement in that goal, but this consensus that Republicans and Democrats are exactly the same I've been seeing everywhere is ridiculous. It's a false equivalence fallacy
You're just not thinking as creatively as a Republican. That's the main problem with shit libs like Biden. They're not willing to be creative and use the actual authority they do have. They demand more power while not responsibly using the power they do have. They just do nothing and bitch that they don't have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. People floated all sorts of options for Biden to protect abortion rights after Roe fell, using just the power of the presidency, no action required by Congress. Because he's a shit lib, he decided to do nothing instead.
Among those things proposed were:
Offering abortion services on US military bases in states were abortion is illegal. Either by military doctors or by private groups hosted on military bases.
Put protection in place on federal data sharing with local and state police to restrict its use for enforcing anti-abortion laws.
Put in vending machines in post offices selling abortion pills OTC.
Restricting funding to states that restrict abortion.
Come up with many tactics like these. If SCOTUS rules against it, adjust the tactic slightly and try it again with something different. SCOTUS can only move so quickly, and it would take years for them to strike down any particular scheme.
These are the kinds of things Republicans do when they control the White House. Democrats don't show this level of creativity. Instead they just bitch about not having a 60 vote majority in the Senate.
Yeah, I agree that the Biden Administration could have tried to do more to stop it. I use Roe v Wade as an example though since it's commonly used for the argument that Democrats and Republicans are the same...even though Biden wasn't the one who overturned it and was done by the supreme court that was appointed by Trump during his first term
It seems that now that Trump is president, what congress says doesn't matter at all and the President can do whatever.
He could've expanded it, like FDR threatened to do and forced the court to let him do some of the New Deal reforms they were previously opposed to. Biden never lifted a finger with regards to that. This also could've maintained Roe v Wade.
Trump has been doing everything via executive orders which is why he has been able to bypass everything. I do agree that executive orders need to be nerfed if we ever get out of this mess. The problem with Democrats is that they play by the rules and Republicans don't, thus why Biden never spammed executive orders. Though it might all come back to haunt Trump eventually since there's thousands of lawsuits filed against him for all the times he misused executive orders. That's just wishful thinking on my part though.
"Mishandled" was perhaps oversimplifying a little too hard, but it's not like the genocide was strictly committed by the Biden Administration. Biden's sin was only making a public statement for Israel to "improve the humanitarian conditions in Gaza" and then continuing to send military aid anyway.
He'll die before any of those consequences matter. His fascist successor will probably rinse the next Democratic nominee because the Democrats don't intend to change anything or make any of the changes you're talking about happen. It's a million times more realistic to hope that the United States splits into multiple incoherent territories that are no longer able to terrorize the rest of the world than hope the Democratic Party suddenly turns around and become the opposite of what it has been during essentially its whole existence (maybe except for the minute that Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights act).
The problem is if Biden had done this everything he did would have been struck down why it works for Trump is because Republican Congress doesn't stand up or have a spine when it's a Republican leader
You're literally dragging Democrats through the mud for the fact that Republicans won't hold each other accountable
Now don't get me wrong there's a lot Democrats need to be held accountable for but I just want it to be things that they earned
That's why you keep trying. That's what Republican presidents do. When they want to do something by executive order, they have their lawyers come up with a dozen different ways to accomplish the same goal using various provisions in different laws. They implement one. If SCOTUS strikes it down, they just move on to another method from the list. It takes years for the court to strike it down, and in the meantime they keep doing what they wanted to do.
They earn our vote when they aren't shitheels for fascists.
I'm curious by your last statement if you have a problem with Democrat candidates should have to earn a vote from us.
So the Democratic Party is structurally incapable of pushing through the reforms and new programs that are necessary to stop fascism? Why should people keep being married to that party instead of supporting any other effort, and pay no rhetorical support nor lip service to a party that also facilitates fascism?
The democrats didn't have to play by trump's rules, but they had to dismantle the foundations he had put in place during his term. I mean, they didn't even strengthen rules to avoid another Jan 6th. Didn't protect the freedom of the press. Didn't strengthen campaign finance laws. Didn't approach voting reform. Didn't ban gerrymandering. Nothing.
Democratic politicians (as opposed to Democrat Party politicians) seem to think you defeat the other side by winning elections, but it's impossible to win all the elections. At some point you lose, and all you've got left is your systematic safeguards to keep your democracy. You must bolster the safeguards while you can, even if it might work against you in the short term.
My problem is not with the individual my issue is with the deomcratic party. You are correct that there wasn't anything Biden could actually do on his own. It would take a collective effort and likely military cooperation. It would cause political mayhem and be detrimental to the country as a whole and possibly destroyed the democratic party. It could prevent fascism though. I'm not saying any of this is easy or legal but it could have prevented fascism. Instead they did nothing of consequence.
I am personally of the opinion that fascism is incapable of being prevented through official means under capitalist liberal democracy so everything I say here is effectively meaningless. I'm sort of arguing that people in a system incapable of stopping fascism should have just done it anyway. Point is, you either have to accept that the democrats did nothing to stop fascism or that capitalist liberal democracy is incapable of stopping it and should be abandoned. Assuming you agree that the Trump administration is fascist.
You would probably refer to me as an authoritarian yeah but I think the term is meaningless. As far as I'm concerned all states are authoritarian and my endgoal is the dissolution of all states.
Edit: Roe v Wade should have been codified far before they had the chance to dismantle it but the democrats used it like a carrot on a stick.
Contrary to popular belief, Biden (as president,) was in fact Garlands boss.
Yes? The president is supposed to be fairly hands off, but when you have an FBI director who thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to wait a year until there’s a special prosecutor to get some of our most sensitive documents back, it’s probably well past time to ask him to resign and get someone who’ll do the damn job.
I guess Democratic presidents only ever nominating Republicans to be head of the FBI was a bad idea.
Damn, the good cop just keep stumbling into all these bad ideas! I feel bad for them 😕
Yes, they had both chambers of the house for the first part of his presidency.
Also, yes he appointed a scotus judge and a few others, but he didn’t pack the courts like he could have, and dems in both houses did fuck all to stop Trump or even solidify the voting rights act (which is now in the shadow docket chopping block.)
Jan 6 was basically our version of the beer hall putsch.
And fuck everyone who said I was wrong about that.
That is the trumpiest and scariest line of thinking possible. Elections are not meant to punish the losing side.
The very fact the Dems won in an election is a demonstration that they weren't battling fascists yet.
This is crazy dumb.
They committed treason and tried to overturn a free and fair election. They should have been given a kangaroo court show trial and publicly hanged on the national mall for their crimes.
The very facy the Dems won in an election is a demonstration that they weren't battling fascists yet.
Trump and crew literally attempted to overturn the election and the Dems did next to nothing. If we can't recognize fascist actors before they've fully seized control of government then we will never have effective resistance to these types of movements.
Are you forgetting how almost everyone who stormed the Capitol was arrested?
Politically, they Impeached trump and only craven Republicans saved him.
The rest is supposed to be on the voters, more than half of whom decided they were okay with what had happened. As is their unfortunate democratic right, that's literally how it works.
Useless pawns. The man who organized it is now POTUS
Like I said:
You know what could have given trump problems? More Dems in the Senate either time he was Impeached!
To be clear: they didn't convict because he was leaving office in a few days anyway. because there was no need for a political solution when the doj can just do what it exists to do.
there was no need to impeach him at that point.
Hey, you know, it might be political if you don't suck trump off.
Maybe you should get on that. wouldn't want to be political.
(Fun fact, not doing something because it might be political is a political act, coward.)
The department of justice is supposed to enforce the laws of this country.
And yes, you fucking coward, that includes arresting, trying and convicting an insurrectionist leader who tried to take over our country.
Now go ahead, explain how that’s “political” and why we can’t have justice.
They weren't the losing side, they were the side that committed crimes. Punishing criminals for their crimes isn't a step too far. The mere fact that wealthy powerful people are not punished for their crimes is the fucking problem. That's not a feature of democracy. That's a failure of democracy.
Fascist should not be treated the same as a normal political opponent. You NEED to purge them from your government as soon as possible. You can spot proto-fascists, it is possible. Why in gods green earth would you wait until they have established power to challenge them, that's stupid as hell. I'm sorry if it disturbs your liberal sensibilities but fascists deserve to be oppressed. They won't hesitate to oppress you when they get power
Unfortunately, everyone can call anyone a fascist. That's the entire problem.
Any system wherein one group can just dismantle another because of their politics will be abused. If whatever magical law/mechanism your nonsense required existed and had been used after the 2020 election, trump's successor would simply have done the same thing to the Democrats next time but we'd be even worse off as there would be no constraints on their power and no viable opposition, unlike the Dems who now stand a Puncher's chance in the goddamn Senate.
Being the good guy is difficult but the road you propose inexorably leads to authoritarianism.
I get that politics is slow and boring but this isn't a video game.
Pacifism is not a virtue in and of itself. These people are going to murder me and the people who are supposed to prevent that have done nothing of value. I'm sorry your precious liberal values stop you from defending yourself. If liberal democracy can do nothing to prevent fascism then liberal democracy should be replaced.
my other comment
My problem is not with the individual my issue is with the deomcratic party. You are correct that there wasn't anything Biden could actually do on his own. It would take a collective effort and likely military cooperation. It would cause political mayhem and be detrimental to the country as a whole and possibly destroyed the democratic party. It could prevent fascism though. I'm not saying any of this is easy or legal but it could have prevented fascism. Instead they did nothing of consequence.I am personally of the opinion that fascism is incapable of being prevented through official means under capitalist liberal democracy so everything I say here is effectively meaningless. I'm sort of arguing that people in a system incapable of stopping fascism should have just done it anyway. Point is, you either have to accept that the democrats did nothing to stop fascism or that capitalist liberal democracy is incapable of stopping it and should be abandoned. Assuming you agree that the Trump administration is fascist.
You would probably refer to me as an authoritarian yeah but I think the term is meaningless. As far as I'm concerned all states are authoritarian and my endgoal is the dissolution of all states.
Edit: Roe v Wade should have been codified far before they had the chance to dismantle it but the democrats used it like a carrot on a stick. for added detail
I understand not wanting to do violence, trust me I do. I hope I never have to hurt anyone in my life, so far I haven't done so physically or on purpose. It does need to be done though. We are having violence done to us and it is okay to respond violently.
You are correct
And the answer to rising fascism is not trying to replace a popular authoritarian with an unpopular one.
I agree, the goal would be the authority of workers to be popular first.
No idea what you're trying to say.
Communism
Then you expose your utter lack of understanding of what the term "authoritarian" means.
Violence is not inherently authoritarian. Violence is a valid means of self defense against those who are violent.
Or do you wish to try and say that anarchists are authoritarian?
You should probably read what OP wrote and what I responded to.
Military control to prevent an opponent from taking power is almost literally the definition of authoritarian.
You should probably go re-read what else they wrote and follow past that to their actual beliefs rather than stopping at their explanation of Democrat's inaction and lack of utilization of their own powers to oppose fascism through the system they are a part of.
Just because you like why they'd do it doesn't make it less authoritarian.
Are you so naive to think the US government isn't already authoritarian in its current structure? They explained how an AUTHORITARIAN GOVERNMENT possessed the means to prevent fascism yet neglected to use those means because they care more about holding power than stopping fascism.
You clearly neglected to read their full comment, as they explicitly said it WAS authoritarian methods by which the Democrats could have stopped the rise of fascism.
They also explicitly stated that they were against the system entirely and explained their own personal perspective but you clearly have ignored all of that to continue to be a pedantic twat who can't tell the difference between an explanation and personal support of something
Its not. There are actual academic definitions for what a fascist is. Calling someone a fascist doesn't mean they meet any of the criteria.
Just because a fascist hasn't been completely successful left that doesn't mean they're not a fascist. Trump literally staged an insurrection. The fuck bullshit is this.
Liberal's inability to recognise fascism until after the fact is part of the reason why liberals are so ineffective in the face of it.
Just like in Hungary this week?
That remains to be seen. First, a conservative defeated Orban, not someone liberal let alone progressive. But until Orban is in a jail cell, it remains to be seen whether the new guys actually intend to battle fascism. Or will they declare "it's time to move on" and let the fascists off the hook, thus ensuring they have another chance at it?
This week is definitely after the fact of Orban's 16 years in office.
This you?
You don't believe Hungary was battling fascism by virtue of them being defeated in an election.
Could you expand a little on why you believe Hungary, having an election, shows Liberals efficacy against fascism? While also believing that Dems, winning an election, shows they weren't battling fascism yet.
The won after 16 years of corrupt rule. Hardly a shining example.