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Brian Leeland, a 79-year-old Democratic voter in Detroit, had enough. Frustrated by the way the US media covers this febrile political era, from Donald Trump’s Washington to political campaigns across the country, he contacted the Guardian.

“Your decision to frame the race here as a simple progressive versus establishment choice is overly simplistic verging on lazy,” he wrote to this reporter, after our coverage of progressive Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign in the Democratic US Senate primary in Michigan. “As an electorate, we are not binary for the convenience of the media.”

His was a complaint I heard often as I traveled across the midwest to cover a host of contested Democratic primaries. So I called him up.

Leeland’s list of frustrations is long: grifters, liars, the two-party system, money influencing elections, the US’s standing in the world, the growing national debt and a fixation on cultural issues, not just the larger problems that plague the country.

...

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[-] kingkong@lemmy.world 10 points 9 hours ago

Billionaires and big tech rig the game with government money and tax loopholes. Sites use AI filters to actively block posts calling out the elite. Scrap income tax; tax wealth and land instead.

[-] JackFrostNCola@aussie.zone 2 points 3 hours ago
[-] kingkong@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

georgists unite

[-] ZMoney@lemmy.world 13 points 12 hours ago

I'd love to find a news article about an election that says "All is well, people head to polls to show their support for two excellent candidates. Either would be a fantastic choice for the nation."

[-] kingkong@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

unfortunately we never get great or even good candidates they are criminals or another terrorist criminal take your pick

[-] wry@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 hours ago

For real. I'm sick of having to choose between the less shitty of two shitty candidates.

[-] Gaslov@lemmy.world 0 points 9 hours ago

That's what happens when everything you hear about someone is from the slant of people who profit off making you angry. No one will ever be good enough, and everyone is always maximum evil.

[-] kingkong@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

because both sides are evil. both sides deserve to be arrested and all assets seized

[-] wry@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago

I live in the grey and don't take everything to heart like that. You can believe someone is the best candidate and vote for them but still wish they could be better.

[-] Gaslov@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago

I only read the headline, but I think that's fueled all of the elections.

[-] pamparana@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago

I have no idea how things can or will improve. As an outsider, America is a strange place. Unfortunately, the world seems hell bent on copying everything it does.

[-] Quexotic@infosec.pub 7 points 11 hours ago

It becomes less strange when you constantly ask "who benefits financially" because that is the prime mover here. Beyond that, there is little to consider given current evidence increasingly points to lack of meaningful representation regardless of vote.

[-] abigscaryhobo@lemmy.world 13 points 15 hours ago

Nah they're definitely less insistent on copying us after this year. A huge chunk of the world has looked at Trump and went "that's not an ally. We need to diversify our allegiances in case the US goes nuts again"

It's part of the reason China is becoming so popular on the international stage. They want to trade, and they're stable. Trump's foot stamping and attempted "dick waving" power trips have absolutely buried our reputation and bargaining power in the global community.

Turns out, electing a corrupt man-child who ruins everyone's economy and messes with the global oil supply tends to make a lot of people not like you.

[-] Quexotic@infosec.pub 2 points 10 hours ago

I agree with all this except "in case..".

Our allies know that authoritarians that get voted in, most of the time don't get voted out. I'm confident they're worried about when, not if.

I'm convinced that those in power put trump in the whitehouse so that they could basically pull a private equity buy-and-bankrupt on the entire country

[-] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

I think the long-term damage is worse this time around, because the fact that he could lose and then win again signaled that it wasn't a fluke.

[-] hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip 9 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

As soon as the world cuts off the US currency as a reserve, we’re done. Stop trading with us. That’s what needs to happen. Pop the balloon.

[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 2 points 15 hours ago

Revolution to establish socialism.

[-] adjectivenoun@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

Four legs good! Two legs bad!

[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 hours ago
[-] Maeve@kbin.earth 2 points 8 hours ago

It's an unintelligent reference to Trotsky's unintelligent book.

[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 hours ago

Ah gotcha. Checks out.

[-] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 1 points 8 hours ago

LMAO. Slow clap.

[-] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 75 points 1 day ago

Yes, most Americans are very upset with the establishment. They just can't agree on who the establishment is.

Obviously Trump is currently the establishment since he's the one in power right now, but the irony is a lot of the people who voted for him did so because they were angry with the establishment that preceded him. So, many Americans are angry at an establishment that was meant to take on a past establishment that many other Americans had been angry with.

[-] Yuccagnocchiyaki@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago

Trump has always been a part of the establishment.

MAGA was made up of three establishments. Evangelical Christians, Generational Wealth, and Corporate Oligarchy. These are the only three groups that are INHERENTLY fascist. There could have never been a single thing that a SANE person would see or hear from this group that would make anyone think that the working class would get anything but more work and more taxes.

The main problem is actually that about half the country are either illiterate morons, and/or sadistic psychopaths. They all WANTED this

[-] adarza@lemmy.ca 2 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

my fear is that this trend will splinter only the 'left half' of the vote as a significant number vote third-party from 'lack of options' or as 'punishment'; and that the 'right' will remain mostly united (as they usually do) in their hate and stupidity and greed, allowing republicants to actually gain as a result.

[-] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 2 points 15 hours ago

A large chunk of the population would rather throw out the baby with the bathwater and any attempt to tell them they're insane for thinking so is an exercise in futility.

In fairness to them, even the best of our leaders are still operating in the framework that got us here.

[-] BooBees@fedinsfw.app 28 points 1 day ago

It’s establishments all the way down. And what do they all have in common? Being servile to capital.

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[-] Fishnoodle@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago

There will be executions after the midterms. The only question is whether they will be orderly and for the people, or chaotic and by the people.

[-] NewSocialWhoDis@lemmy.zip 6 points 14 hours ago

I mean, I'll be optimistic with you, but there's still a nonzero chance that it will be executions of the people.

[-] daychilde@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

We are so far removed from that prospect that it almost depresses me, because that's what we need to do to the oligarchs.

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this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
420 points (99.8% liked)

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