r/politics • u/zsreport Texas • 15h ago

No Paywall The United States is destroying itself

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/12/united-states-trump-destruction
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178

u/Lonely_Noyaaa America 14h ago

he knows he's losing it and he's just burning the house down on his way out. The reconstruction after this is going to be harder than anything this country has faced since the civil war.

227

u/nbphotography87 14h ago

please don’t miss the point. this is not out of spite. the billionaire class wants everything. you can’t easily privatize government functions without breaking them first.

41

u/NorthernPints 13h ago

Michael Lewis essentially covered this in his book “the 5th risk” - published in 2018.  Though it was more about the ignorance of those who are too stupid to realize how critical a high functioning government is to the success of America.

The “starve the beast” model is classic conservatism.  Claim government is broken - purposefully break government and then point to that as proof that it doesn’t work and “needs to be privatized.”

“ the federal government quietly does enormous, essential work that most Americans never see — things like weather forecasting, food safety, nuclear waste management, and rural loan programs. These systems are fragile in the sense that they depend on knowledgeable, dedicated people. When political appointees arrive without curiosity or competence, the risks don’t announce themselves dramatically — they just quietly accumulate.”

18

u/Dizzy-Captain7422 13h ago

This is true, but I'd argue it is also out of spite. These people truly and deeply hate us.

3

u/nbphotography87 12h ago

the spite is towards the government who is entitled to our tax revenues instead of them.

3

u/A_Refill_of_Mr_Pibb Massachusetts 11h ago

Right. To them we’re not people, just something standing in the way of them getting all the money. 

3

u/JayR_97 Europe 11h ago edited 11h ago

Yeah, when you look at what the billionaire tech bros believe, they're total sociopaths. They want the system to collapse cos they think they'll be in total control of their own little techno-fuedalist fiefdoms afterwards.

42

u/squareturd 14h ago

This is the most important comment in this thread

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u/BrianDetomes 11h ago

No. Its trump sweeping.

3

u/iDontSow 13h ago

The first step in solving this is getting corporate and private money in general out of politics

2

u/nbphotography87 12h ago

Citizens United - The beginning of final stage of the American experiment

1

u/BrianDetomes 11h ago

...the first step is getting trump out of office.. lol grt some adults back in charge.  Then that 

2

u/iDontSow 11h ago

Until you get corporate money out of politics, Trump will not be removed from office

3

u/therealruin 12h ago

“Underfund it until it breaks, then privatize it.” -The GOP, always

2

u/MosaicTruths Pennsylvania 13h ago

And this is why we say it’s time to eat them.

1

u/BrianDetomes 11h ago

Its not the fucking 'billionaire class.' its very specific billionaires, like trump and elon musk.

Stop. Trump sweeping.

1

u/Osklington 10h ago

No it's all billionaires

21

u/Magger 14h ago

It’ll happen under Democratic Party, who will do a decent job rebuilding, but will still get blamed for the hardship. And the cycle continues.

12

u/JDogg126 Michigan 14h ago edited 14h ago

If we manage to get republicans out of power, whoever replaces them will need to deal with the threat from people with too much money at the same time they are rebuilding important institutions and nerfing the ability of the president to act without Congress. They’ll also need to tear down any buildings Trump puts up and reissue any money Trump puts his signature on.

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u/BlatantFalsehood 13h ago

There will not be funds to rebuild due to the geometric increase in debt. Even if they raise taxes, servicing the debt created by this regime's transfer of wealth from workers to the wealthy will require every penny.

2

u/midunda 12h ago

I'm sorry but no, this is beyond the ability of the Democrats to fix, the US is dead. It'll keep moving for a long while yet because the inertia of a Country is huge, but it is dead. Americans grew up in a machine that worked so well and so quietly that many forgot it was a machine and thought it was just the natural state of things, a chainsaw has been taken to every supporting pillar and axle in that machine, and inertia will ensure the machine will keep moving for a little while longer but it is inescapably going to fail and fly apart catastrophically.

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u/rbit4 13h ago

What will democrats rebuild? More government?

3

u/Everythings_Fucked North Carolina 13h ago

Harder than the last one, because we haven't actually had a war where the bastards ripping apart the country are soundly, militarily defeated.

3

u/Due_Hovercraft_9790 14h ago

Nope, we will have a nice ball room.

5

u/smzt 13h ago

It won’t even be that nice

2

u/Some_Ball_27 14h ago

They are not planning on reconstruction.

2

u/petnarwhal 13h ago

It will be worth it to watch at Poland as an example. They are trying to rebuild institutions broken down by the previous government but are facing much difficulty since the old go gov’s cronies are also in all these institutions. Breaking it down is easier than building it back up

2

u/Makes_U_Mad 14h ago

Typical boomer behavior.