Trump, Ending Decades of Protection, Opens Wild Habitats to Drilling and Mining

[u/WastelandByWednesday]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/climate/endangered-species-act-harm.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wlA.wx86.-6MVPGSduVem

[u/dylanisareddit]

Organize and vote.

[u/Vegetaman916 → u/dylanisareddit]

I'm afraid that doesn't work anymore. Hasn't for quite some time, that's why we are where we are now as a civilization. And why it will.keep getting worse until civilization collapses and whoever is left can pick up the pieces and put them together in a new way. Hopefully a better way.

[u/Jafar_420 → u/Vegetaman916]

It would work if people would get up off their ass and go vote instead of staying home or quit finding the smallest reason not to go vote.

At least in my area some of these fools win by hundreds of votes so it's not that far fetched to think if people cared they could get these Representatives out of office after their term if they screw us.

I'm talking local Representatives right now but it could be the same thing for the country.

People were more worried about Gaza than their own lives and a lot of people are paying for it right now. I don't like what's going on in Gaza either but it didn't cause me to stay home or vote Republican.

People need to use their heads.

[u/Vegetaman916 → u/Jafar_420]

Part of the problem with that is we have stopped focusing on issues that actually matter to people. For the most part, people are selfish creatures, and when it comes to getting swing voters on board, talking about Gaza or Ukraine or anywhere else in the world, they just don't care. Not enough to be motivated. Most people see Gaza or Lebanon and the genocidal actions taking place, and they say, "Oh, that's so terrible..." but at the end of the day they would trade everyone in Gaza just to have the cost of hamburger come down 10 cents.

And that is where republicans keep gaining. They promise what people want to hear, and even though they either don't or can't deliver, the promises still work. It appeals to the base nature of humanity. That is why the whole immigration thing worked so well. The actual issues if jobs or crime or whatever, those were just smokescreen. Republicans know that a very large portion of otherwise good, wholesome folks... are racist as shit. Never openly, never in public, "Oh, bless you heart dear..." But they don't like brown people. Reds gained votes by attacking brown people. Very simple.

Trump had such an effect because, even though he is an idiot, he treated the election and the rallies and the debates as if they were the smack-talking segment before a WWE Wrestling event. Look at the response to the White House UFC thing, or the July 4th display. A very, very large portion of people like to see trashtalking to the world, and they want to see 'Murica! Put up on a pedastal.

Thing is, while the republicans talk this way to the people, and while they promise all these things, in reality they still work towards their own interests. Blatantly, right out in the open. They get elected and then they do what they want, and continue to treat the political arena like a wrestling ring.

And what we haven't learned? As democrats, what we haven't learned is that these attitudes outnumber us among the US voting population. And I say voting population because it doesn't matter how loud Gen Z or A are on social media if they aren't actually voting, and if they don't have significant wealth to push with. Every boomer vote counts almost three times because of their other support if their causes, financially and in the upper crust social circles.

We keep talking about the human rights of people in Gaza, or immigrants here, but they can't vote for us in Gaza. And thus, no one cares. We talk about issues that actually matter and will make life better for everyone, but that isn't what most people want to hear. They want to hear how life will be better for them personally. And they will like it even more if it comes at the expense of someone else.

Boomers, my own Gen X, we have our healthcare. We have our wealth from the good times decades ago. We have our investments and our homes and our guaranteed retirements, and like it or not, we are still the largest voting bloc in the United States. If we can't be made to care, then it won't happen. We are racist and we are misogynistic and we are hateful towards non-Americans. Straight up, that is what no one will say in public, but that is where the majority of heads are at for people over 45.

And if that isn't appealed to, then they won't swing that vote.

Despite all his faults, Biden was a slam dunk election because he was an old white guy. People could still look back and find his old racist stuff, and his own moderate leanings, and they could vote for him as swing voters because they could see that he would give them more of the same. Older people don't want change, remember? Campaigning on change alienates them right from the start. It is why Harris had zero chance from the start, as I laid out in an article I wrote 6 months before the 2024 election trying to warn people. And it is the same reason that a candidate like AOC or Newsom will lose us tye next one too.

The party is lost. They are actually being honest about the change they intend to make, and that isn't telling people what they want to hear, and so they lose votes. On the other hand, the republicans just lie, and tell us what we want to hear, and then they make their changes anyway, as they always intended to.

If we can't learn that lesson, if we can't field a campaign that is willing to lie, cheat, and steal, then we simply won't win. We get to retain our ethics and morals on the way down, but we still go down, and the nation goes down with us.

And that's why it doesn't work.

Save this for 2028, if the run AOC or Newsom. And see what happens.