“It’s breaking me. And there’s nothing that can be done for it, unless the president does something,”

This is a huge part of our problems right now. A lot of people look to the president to fix everything. The president is powerful, but they’re not that powerful. And thank god for that. If the entire US relied on just one person to fix everything, that would be absolutely terrible, and that’s even if that person were super smart and ethical, which of course our current president is not.

The people we should be looking to, at the Federal level, are Congress. But of course we all know how ineffectual they are. Feels like they might as well not even exist, sometimes. Though, there are some real structural reasons for their ineffectiveness: the incredible influence is moneyed interests in our politics, for instance, and the fact that a representative in the House represents over 700,000 people! For comparison, each member of the Canadian parliament represents about 120,000. Even that’s high compared to a lot of European democracies. Each seat in Norway’s parliament represents about 33,000 people.

But, the people of West Virginia have another representative body they can look to: their state legislature. Each seat in West Virginia’s House of Delegates represents about 17,000 people. You don’t have much of a voice at the Federal level, but you have much, much more of a voice at the state level. The people who can best help West Virginia are West Virginians.

I hate this country so much. I just hate it. I hate my country.

Lol, yeah he’s quite the prognosticator. He also seems to be getting pretty popular, which I think is a little concerning.

I agree. I wonder what will follow. Neoconservativism and Fascism are both failed systems. It’s only a matter of time before they fail this time, too. I wonder if the failure of Neoconservativism/Fascism will lead to so many crises that there will be a collapse of the current global order, specifically US hegemony. Could that lead to the Chinese model becoming the new preferred paradigm?

And as far as here in the US, well, maybe when this is an over there won’t be a US anymore. But if there is, I wonder what the next dominant ideology will be.

You’re probably right. So if most Americans are either non-ideological or heterodox, what would the orthodox ideology be?

“Right-wing” isn’t an ideology. I agree that most Americans are right of socialism, and probably even social democracy, but that encompasses a lot of ideologies.

according to Gallup’s data from 2025, more than half of Americans – 54% – identify as either Democrats or Republicans, with another 35% characterized as “Republican-leaning independents” or “Democratic-leaning independents”. Pew data has the number of self-identified Republicans or Democrats at 59%.

Ok, but what does that mean? “Republican” and “Democrat” are not ideologies, they’re political parties. And very broad parties, at that. Because of our de facto two party system, both parties usually try to be “big tents.” So neither party ever has exclusively one ideology.

What is the guiding ideology of the Republican party (or rather, what was it before the party became the cult of Trump)? What is the guiding ideology of the Democratic party? I think it used to be Neoliberalism, or “Third Way” Liberalism. But what is it today? Is it still Third Way Liberalism, like during the Bill Clinton era? Or is it more traditional Social Democracy?

In a lot of ways, the Third Way was meant to be a compromise between Neoliberals and Social Democrats, but are either of those sides willing to compromise today? Should they compromise? It seems to me there are aspects of Neoliberalism and Social Democracy that are mutually exclusive. For instance, Neoliberalism usually wants lower taxes, but Social Democrats want a strong social safety funded by a progressive tax system, which usually means higher taxes, at least for income earners near the top. Well, taxes can’t be both lower and higher at the same time, so which is it? You can compromise and just lower taxes a little, and have a smaller safety net, but while compromise seems like a good idea, it usually just ends up with watered down policies that no one is fully happy with.

So where are the majority of Americans, ideologically? Is there a majority ideological consensus? If so, what is it?

The Republican party has gone completely bat-shit insane, and because of our de facto two party system that leaves the Democrats as our only real hope. A scary prospect, but that’s where we are. If the Democrats are going to save us, they have to humble themselves enough to learn the right lessons from their mistakes and make the right adjustments. That’s easier said than done, for sure, but that’s our best hope.

At least, that’s our best hope at the Federal level, but maybe we should stop looking to the Federal government as much and focus on our state governments more. I honestly think a lot more can be done at the state level and state representatives represent far fewer people than federal representatives, so there’s a better chance your state representative will listen to you.

you don’t redress readily-manipulated people by punishing or culling them

I certainly didn’t mean to imply that we should do that. I definitely don’t think we should.

you do so by snuffing their propaganda and educating the population…

Yeah, but education can’t be imposed on people. Not without violence and repression, anyway. They have to be willing to learn, and the Trump supporters I know are some of the most defiantly, proudly ignorant and misinformed people I’ve ever known.

But maybe the right leader could change that. I don’t know.

I agree with you, but that’s 77 million people. How are you gonna hold them responsible? And I ask sincerely, because something’s gotta be done with those assholes. I’d accept them just learning from their mistakes and changing their behavior, but, man, I do not see that happening. I hope it does. I hope to god it does, but I’d be lying if I said I was optimistic about it. And if they won’t listen to reason, like, what can we do?