Could This Shutdown Also be an Intentional Test of Americans' Mettle?

[dlk]

If Americans have become so anesthetize and docile, they won’t take to the streets when robbed of their paychecks, what else could the powers that be get away with? Stay tuned. There is surely much more to come.

[anarch]

1. I don't know if it's a test so much as a calculated risk

they all seem pretty confident that the American people won't come together in any organized way to fight back. There may be chaos, but that's part of their goal--they know that there isn't going to be an organized, large scale effort where the people stand up together and say "that's enough." That's about as likely as a bunch of cattle coordinating their efforts to break loose from the slaughterhouse pen--even if one or two feisty cows try to resist as they are dragged into the killing room, they are quickly and brutally dealt with and don't really even slow down the process; the rest of the cows see this and just put their heads down and get back in line.

Eventually these fuckers are going to reap the whirlwind one way or another, but the only way "the people" will take to the streets is if their TV/internet gets cut off and they can't watch the latest cat videos or porn or true-crime scandals or whatever other nonsense entertainment/distractions.

[bdamomma]

2. this should not be

"normalized" which this filthy regime wants to happen.


Just pure brainwashing.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

3. I think Putin's installing Trump as president was the first test of our mettle.

Everything else is the frog in a pot of water where the temperature is slowly ratcheted up. If tossed into boiling water, the frog jumps out. Slowly increase the heat and the frog dies. Every non-normal thing that Trump does that we don't challenge and stop is just another degree of heat.

The problem is that it takes a lot of energy to maintain the amount of rage necessary to block Trump on every front.

I don't think Donnie Two Scoop is testing our mettle so much as trying to wear us down. Canceling the SOTU is a small victory, but it's the first one since the inauguration. Hopefully there will be more, and that they will occur so quickly that like the frog thrown into the boiling pot Trump will jump out of the presidency.

[WhiteTara]

4. Perhaps Unintentional. The goal is to destroy

our economy and democracy.