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barbtries

(30,720 posts)
Sun Aug 31, 2025, 08:43 AM Aug 31

My List of Demands

My latest Substack post. It's incomplete but comments and suggestions welcome. For instance, I forgot energy and climate change and the Electoral College

https://barbtries.substack.com/p/my-list-of-demands

Enact laws around the First Amendment (ie, disallow destructive propaganda)

End ICE and close all for profit prisons

Release all prisoners who are incarcerated unjustly, unconstitutionally, or based on immigration status alone (eg, without criminal offenses, or whose criminal offenses are minor or have been previously fully adjudicated)

Outlaw the republican party


and more.
It’s an exercise in freedom: putting the good I want to see into the universe with a dream of seeing it realized in practice (with thanks to Timothy Snyder and his magnificent book On Freedom).

6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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My List of Demands (Original Post) barbtries Aug 31 OP
Well, outlawing a political party is unconstitutional Fiendish Thingy Aug 31 #1
Thank you for your comments. barbtries Aug 31 #2
The only way to Fascist-proof America is to change the constitution Fiendish Thingy Aug 31 #3
And you don't consider it authoritarian... SickOfTheOnePct Aug 31 #4
there must be limits. barbtries Aug 31 #5
Well agree to disagree n/t SickOfTheOnePct Aug 31 #6

Fiendish Thingy

(20,636 posts)
1. Well, outlawing a political party is unconstitutional
Sun Aug 31, 2025, 09:58 AM
Aug 31

And the others would require 1) killing the filibuster and 2) expanding the court to dilute the MAGA majority.

So, those should really be your first two demands.

barbtries

(30,720 posts)
2. Thank you for your comments.
Sun Aug 31, 2025, 01:25 PM
Aug 31

I've been in favor of packing the Court for a long time.

it's still a work in progress. If republicans can't be outlawed, perhaps they can be prohibited from running for office. Authoritarianism, fascism and the like should be kept to the fringes. I mean right, free speech allows people to believe what they do, and to talk and write about it, but democracy demands that its virtues be honored, or here we are.

Fiendish Thingy

(20,636 posts)
3. The only way to Fascist-proof America is to change the constitution
Sun Aug 31, 2025, 02:25 PM
Aug 31

Specifically to modify Article II and restrain the power of the executive branch.

I don’t see that happening, where killing the filibuster and expanding the court are completely doable, only requiring a simple majority and political courage…

SickOfTheOnePct

(8,407 posts)
4. And you don't consider it authoritarian...
Sun Aug 31, 2025, 03:06 PM
Aug 31

...to outlaw a political party, or to limit what people can say?

OK.

barbtries

(30,720 posts)
5. there must be limits.
Sun Aug 31, 2025, 03:10 PM
Aug 31

such as in Germany, which is a functioning democracy. right wing propaganda has put us here.

remember "your rights end at my nose"? the First Amendment has been horribly abused.

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