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   John Carlos Baez (johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Saturday, 09-Nov-2024 05:45:18 JST John Carlos Baez

   21% of the total US population voted for Trump - not really more than when he lost in 2020. But fewer people voted against him this time, so our crappy system put him in charge.

   We can't expect he surrounds himself with people who will restrain him. The Senate and probably the House will be controlled by people under his thumb. The Supreme Court, three of whose members he appointed, has already announced he'll have wide powers to act without being legally liable. He's lining up a cabinet full of billionaires.

   My worries are not for my family. We planned ahead and are ready to move to Scotland. My worries are for the US, Ukraine, democracy worldwide, and the biosphere.

   We need to organize to resist Trump's bad ideas and criminality. Unfortunately I am not good at politics. So, just a couple of thoughts:

   The Democratic Party needs to figure out what it's doing wrong. Many Americans are desperate. 50% live paycheck to paycheck all the time. 25% have negative net worth: they owe more than they own. If Democrats don't take this seriously, people will keep voting for demagogues.

   I wish there were a serious constituency for constitutional change: abolishing the electoral college, introducing ranked choice voting, limiting or banning campaign contributions and other forms of pay-to-play politics, increasing taxes on the super-rich, etc. I don't see how these changes have a chance in the current environment. How can we improve the overall framework when politics devolves to a culture war, a battle between two dominant parties, a plutocracy - or actually all of the above? How could a new party devoted to true reform gain power? Time for me to study more history.