If you could have pressed a magic button to prevent the fascists from winning the election, would you have pressed it?

[Doodley]

You would be overturning the democratic will of the people, but potentially saving many lives.

[RandySF]

1. In a heartbeat.

[Doodley]

3. You would be stopping those who want to divide us, take away our rights, redistribute wealth to the rich, destroy

our alliances in favor of other fascist states, and be reckless with the environment. But what about those who would say you'd be denying the democratic will of the people? What would you say to them?

[RandySF]

5. My magic button would also erase memories.

[Doodley]

7. So, the button would be creating an alternative reality?

[Midnight Writer]

25. The existence of such a button already creates an alternative reality.

[LSparkle]

29. Like that flashy thing in MIB! I like it!

[DFW]

2. If the magic button eliminated all prevention of legitimate voters from voting

I’m not sure there would be anything to overturn.

[Doodley]

4. Good answer. So, is that a yes, or a qualified yes?

[DFW]

11. I have been for majority rule for decades

If a majority of the people really wanted this, then they should get it. However, I do not consider people who get their information exclusively from dishonest sources (Fox or further right) to be expressing their own will, but rather that of their propagandists. So either way, my answer is qualified. Just watch the clip someone posted of people wanting Obamacare eliminated in favor of the ACA, which is the same thing. This is not the will of an informed person. If a majority of people vote for their execution because Fox has convinced them that "execution" now means "salvation," should they all be killed? Informed decisions are different from uninformed decisions. Simple yes or no answers are seldom ideal solutions, I find.

[Doodley]

16. Agreed. I'd also say no person is an island and America isn't. This xenophobic, isolationist, anti-science, anti-ally

hatred of other people, other nations, international laws, and environment protection is generated by misinformation propaganda and has global consequences that could destabilize world peace. It would be best if core MAGA just wallowed in their own cesspits of hate and prejudice, but their low-information-based emotions and their greivances that lead them to vote for fascism are literally impacting on billions of people around the world. Pressing a button to make all that hate and anger go away would make the world a better place!

[DFW]

21. Tell me about it

I have lived in Germany for many years now (married to one of the friendlier natives), and it’s always easier explaining goings-on back “home” when presidents like Carter, Clinton, Obama and Biden are in office.

[JT45242]

31. We have plurality rule at best. Minority rule mostly

Between gerrymandered districts at the state, local, and US House of representative and targeted voter suppression we have plurality rule at best. In Wisconsin the majority of statewide votes went to democratic candidates and they have republican majorities in both parts of the legislature.

Even fur president we have a plurality winner.

Throw in the non voters and we have minority rule.

Welcome to apartheid with south Africans and Australian billionaires pulling all the strings through their propaganda machines and purchasing of politicians in all 3 branches of government.

Yes, I would push that button.

[John Shaft]

6. The same way I would have killed Hitler as a baby.

I'd carry that weight so that many people could avoid suffering or dying. It is a worthwhile bargain for the person who could shoulder the burden of acting in violation of their moral principles JUST ONCE.

[Doodley]

8. I'm with you there. You may have saved 6 million Jews and 65 million others lost in WW2.

[John Shaft]

9. You are presented with a choice:

One bad act from one moral person to stop MANY bad acts from MANY bad people.

What do you choose? what does it say?

[Doodley]

10. Among other things, it says democracy needs tweaking to prevent wholesale takeovers by madmen and fascists.

[John Shaft]

12. Agreed

It is a price worth paying.

[DFW]

13. A bit more common sense at Versilles in 1919 would have helped prevent Hitler for gaining traction in Germany.

Many false decisions were made.

[Meowmee]

14. It's not the democratic will imo

When half the people are fascists etc. Also if the victor wins only by electoral college, that is not the democratic will of the people.

So when hrc lost the election, that was not the democratic will of the people. I don’t know what the full tally is on the popular vote yet, but it looks like the orange psycho may have won by a very small margin, but by some apparent miracle, he won all of the swing states which doesn’t seem possible to me.

There are a lot of things I would do if I had a magic button unfortunately that doesn’t exist. If the so-called democratic will of the people is going to end up causing great suffering, harm and more death then of course it should be overlooked/ overturned. If this system had any standards for who could run for office, and a quick way to remove an insane & compromised leader we wouldn’t be in this situation. People who are a threat to the democracy, the government/ state and the people should not be running for any office.

[Doodley]

19. You are right. Trump shouldn't have been a candidate in the first place, based on his own anti-democratic actions.

[Tadpole Raisin]

15. My magic button would incorporate that truth and facts guide people's decisions.

Of course if that were the case there would have been more prosecutions of high ranking officials, SCOTUS would not have ruled the way they did in many cases, the reprehensible Florida judge would have done the right thing and her case would have gone to trial with a guilty verdict and TSF would already have been sentenced to prison - TWICE.

There, fixed it for ya!

[Mike 03]

17. This reminds me of that existential/moral/philosophical

question: If you could go back in time to when Hitler was a baby, knowing what we all know now would you kill him?

These are important and stimulating questions.

[Shrek]

18. When presented with that scenario I'm always tempted by a lesser crime

Like maybe just kidnap him and raise him in on a farm in Idaho or somewhere.

I get that it's not really the point of the question, but that's where my mind goes.

[biophile]

24. Idaho today would produce another Hitler anyway

Who knows how he would have turned out given a different set of trading, education, family dynamics and environment?

[keithbvadu2]

20. I would want to know what the rest of the result would be.

Remember the movie 'Bedazzled' with Brendon Fraser. He got many wishes from the Devil and they all turned out badly.

He wanted to be the president and he became Lincoln... entering Ford's Theater.

[MiHale]

22. That's an easy button to push...let's put some meat on it...

The push of the button also terminates 3 million of the top and most fervent MAGA’ts.

Would you still push the button to protect the remaining U.S. citizens and others worldwide?

[jalan48]

23. We had a magic button. Merrick Garland.

If there had been someone like Garland in 1930’s Germany who could have stopped Hitler and didn’t, how would that person be viewed today?

[LSparkle]

26. Yes.

[ColinC]

27. Funny you say thay because that almost literally was (not) the case

The "button" is the democratic will of the people, and quite frankly, we didn't press it. If enough people pressed the button, this impending nightmare would not exist.

[magicarpet]

28. Yes,...

... but I would draw the line at launching nuclear weapons into red states and areas. Conventional ballistic missiles and white phosphorous would be okay.



Is that what the OP meant ?

[roscoeroscoe]

30. This is as silly as 'Would you kill baby Hitler?'

Yes, and baby Trump too.

[oldmanlynn]

32. Sure but the election helped expose a number of things.

- that dems dont have the answers to the vast misinformation network that allowed a convicted felon and a man who incited the jan6 insurrection coup attempt against our government to win.

- as the more educated party we didnt use that education to our advantage choosing instead to conform to political norms of 20 years ago while republicans used every tactic in the book to win. Still conforming today.

- that it seems most of our efforts on elections is just Get out the vote when we should have a long term plan and execute that plan