Mastodawn

This is one of the best pieces @pluralistic has written. He rightly reminds us: "The question isn't merely 'How do we elect better leaders?' It's 'How do we make our leaders follow us?'"

Such are the days that shall be!
But what are the deeds of to-day,
In the days of the years we dwell in,
that wear our lives away?
Why, then, and for what are we waiting?
There are three words to speak;
WE WILL IT

--William Morris, "The Day is Coming", 1891

Things change.

https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/05/contingency/#this-too-shall-pass

Pluralistic: All laws are local (05 Feb 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

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Gerrit 🇪🇺🌍🍉🔻Feb 5

@grheavyroller @pluralistic

But who is going to make us going to make our leaders follow us?

Incidentally I am not convinced that Democrats were so scared of their voters when they started the New Deal. My pet theory is that Roosevelt made some good decisions because he could already see things going wrong in Europe, so that was a advantage, which now belongs to Europe, AND crucially he had a real experience of being literally dependent on others to get anywhere.

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Gerrit 🇪🇺🌍🍉🔻

@grheavyroller @pluralistic

Also the USA capitalist system was at death's door at that time. Banking was minutes away from complete failure. Even the Republicans were begging the Democrats to do something, because it would also swallow the privileged class whole. I doubt that fascism would even have been an option until later in the thirties.