cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/11490010
Update, yes there are snipers:
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If those snipers were to shoot someone, the protests would be twice the size the next day.
Look what happened when Nixon, Reagan and Trump escalated violence in response to protests.
Nixon's in songs for killiing Ohioans.
From Wiki, sadly: "President Richard Nixon, who is criticized in the song, won a landslide reelection in 1972, which included winning the 1972 United States presidential election in Ohio by a margin of over 21%."
Nation-level gerrymandering
You can't gerrymander the presidential election. There are no districts in that election.
You can however influence it with bribes, coercion, and intimidation.
*in countries where voting for president means voting for president, not voting for someone who maybe will vote for president
States.
True.
Yes. That was the election Nixon was actively cheating in, given that the Watergate commission was able to trace it right up to the president.
Yes but it would be nice if the government would listen to us before someone dies.
It would totally be nice. That's why it's enshrined in the first amendment that you have the right to petition your representatives for the redress of grievances. Sadly, they do not act on those petitions (Professor Lessig has studies, and crabby calls and letters to your Senator have a net zero effect) which how protests escalate to civil disobedience (to sabotage and eventually civil war).
But it's interesting how quickly police are turning to anti-riot responses, and our government officials are supporting them. It's noted in COIN (counter insurgency) that brutality against protests only increases public sympathy and support for the movement (which has been consistent with incidents in the past decade, the US unrest and protests after the killing of George Floyd in 2020 being a run of examples.) I suspect it's less 4D chess and more like Trump being angry and wishing to assert his authority.
But our officials, the plutocrats they serve and law enforcement all regard the US Public as the enemy, and have been consistent about it since the 9/11 attacks. It's one of the factors that's been driving us towards civil war, or the end of our democratic features and one-party autocracy.