#republicanism

if you are already against it or staunchly and unwaveringly in favor of it, you might not get anything from this post. however, i encourage anyone who’s on the fence to continue. worst case scenario, you’ll have more knowledge about what you’re arguing for :)

i am also writing this as someone who’s lived in the medium-southern US for all 18 years of his life, but i think most/all of what i say is applicable regardless of location. this is a kind of heavy subject and deals with: safe sex + consent, lgbtq issues, mental health, bad/semi-absent parenting, and possibly more. it’s p long but there is a tl;dr at the end if you want the bare-bones summary

ok so listen. as someone who’s had basically unrestricted internet access since the age of 10, have i seen things i was probably too young to be seeing? yes. but as someone who grew up in a suburban small town in the southern US, if i didn’t have that internet access, i would not know what a condom is. i CERTAINLY wouldn’t have a comprehensive idea of consent, assuming i had one at all. i am 18 and have never gotten a sex talk, not at home or at school.

(granted, covid happened when i was like 12-13, but the point definitely still stands. i had 3.5 mostly present parental figures (iykyk) and was back to in-person schooling before 14.)

(cw for mental health + talk of suicide for the next two paragraphs and brief talk of SA in the paragraph after that. skip to the green text to avoid, but i’d recommend reading if possible.)

Allegory of the Revolution of 1789 (Allégorie de la Révolution de 1789)

Artist: Jacques Wilbaut (French, 1729–1816)

Date: 1796

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Musée Carnavalet, Paris, France

Description

And im sure theres a historical reason for them being named that way but nowadays it just causes confusion and i do believe its harmful.

I know its just the name of the parties and it might not seem that serious but it is serious because i can guarantee most of the US population cannot define their ideology and to make things worse theyre proudly announcing and attributing to themselves this label when they cant even tell you what it actually stands for. "Im a democrat" well good to know you arent planning a coup d'etat i dont know what to tell you

The terms democrat and republican actually dont mean anything because the united states IS a democratic republic and neither party is trying to change that (im talking about the parties as a whole not individual people so dont even bring up trump). youre not telling me what your ideology actually is. If i asked you about economic systems youd pee your pants because you like to parade these labels like you know what youre talking about but you cant actually form a vague political thought

When people say "im a democrat" they usually mean they would like for women to be able to abort and for trans people to use their preferred bathroom but that actually has nothing to do with democracy. And republicans usually want harsh inmigration policies and less social activism but what does that have to do with living in a republic. And dont even try to say thats not what US politics mainly revolve around because it is

Its not about ideology anymore, its about feeling like you belong to one of two groups. You get reeled in with whatever issue is most important to you and start to feel loyalty towards your status of democrat or republican like theyre the fucking jets and sharks from west side story. And i know this is universal but US citizens specifically are living under a system that actively makes it difficult for them to understand their ideology and actively distracts them from real political issues.

And like

Why does no king immediately mean we need a president

How about we don’t need Some Guy to be the personification of the nation

A charismatic leader is not a basic necessity right???

Like I know that I’m a few degrees more anarchist than the average person but even a governing system much like the one we use today would function PERFECTLY WELL without a president OR a monarch. I’ve never had it explained to me in any more coherent way than “well SOMEBODY needs to be in charge”

And like

No

You might think that it would be better to simply destroy Cromwell's head entirely. You may be right, but when the monarchy was re-established Charles II made the corpse an integral part of his coronation ceremony. Every monarch since has also resurrected Cromwell and re-slain him, in his weak post-resurrection state, to legitimise their rule. A unproven monarch taking the throne (or, indeed, no monarch at all) would require all the nation's protective seals to be reconfigured, and that could risk untold chaos. Big Ben might even escape! Better to leave it for now, then come back to the idea when the wards have been reconfigured for a Republican government not based on the old Royal Family.

(Please note that when I say 'Republicans' here I am talking about British Republicans; i.e. those who wish to abolish the monarchy. I am not talking about the American Republicans who, ironically, are devout followers of their cult's god-king, the entity described in the prophecies of Virginia Dare as Caesar aurantiacus. The two are very different.)