How do you stop kleptocracy from destroying democracy?
The USA is an authoritarian country de facto now, though there should be a lot of rail-guards, which should prevent this from happening ... Nobody cares?
Protests need to be disruptive in some way to be effective, not just performative. Marching with banners doesn't do anything because, well, why should they care?
People want it as long as it's used against their enemies. The "anti-woke" propaganda, and the anti-immigrant propaganda, have been incredibly effective. People are demanding a police state so it can be used against "MS-13".
While we should not elect influential people, we want persuasive, charismatic people in office. Catch 22. But I much prefer presidential candidates I'd never heard of before the campaign cycle began to any celebrity.
But putting someone massively influential in the executive branch, so influential that they've negated the entire legislative branch, has crippled our guard-rails / checks and balances.
Just about every Republican member of congress cares more about what Trump will do if they do not fall in line. To be sure, the overall issue of partisanship does cross the aisle, and has been an issue for decades. But being quite so beholden to the President over constitutional rules and law is largely a new and devastating phenomena.
We can't stop it. All we can do is try to stay alive until they are satisfied they have extracted everything of value, and then rebuild from whatever is left.
If 3.5% of protested then historically, that could motivate change, per
> based on the research of political scientist Erica Chenoweth