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Like, on the spot? Nobody carries around proof of citizenship.
Also, this is such a “be careful what you wish for” sort of thing.
Conservatives are now pushing for random passport/citizenship spot checks as you’re walking down the street, that’s what “freedom” and america means to you?
Don’t have immediate proof of citizenship, get detained? Who cares if you have an American accent, we can never be too sure and that can be faked. Russian spies go through strict accent training and speak just like you and I.
“If you’ve got nothing to hide, you got nothing to fear” lmao
Do you believe that Conservatism is a live political force? Do you believe America is a live political entity? The Constitution? In what meaningful sense would any of these be true?
I think you perhaps should consider taking a few steps back and reassessing the realities of the present situation.
This is the law in Japan for any non-Japanese. You must carry proof of your status at all times--the 外国人登録証 or popularly-known "gaijin card," which indicates your visa status. Everyone here who stays longer than 3 months gets one (students, those employed, etc.) except maybe diplomats. This is in lieu of carrying your passport, which visitors (under 3 months) are required to do. In the US, if I'm not mistaken, visitors can carry a paper photocopy of their (foreign) passports. Those who are born here but are not Japanese (e.g. Zainichi Koreans) have a 特別永住者証明書 card or "special permanent residency" card that they also must carry.
That said, Japanese nationals are not required to do this. The fact that all Japanese do not look exactly alike aside, it is obviously different in the US to some degree--American citizens cannot be easily dentified simply on what they look like (though jeans and a t-shirt isn't a bad profiling protocol). I would personally be at least wary of a law that by default would require everyone to carry not just ID but proof-of-citizenship.
"Reassessing the realities of the present situation" is a vague pronouncement, of the kind that is not your habit. It's also not a phrase that engenders trust. We should at least acknowledge the fact that all manner of shackles can be added in the name of "realities of the situation."
Vagueness is not my aim. Broadness is.
I've argued for years now that the Constitution is dead. By this, I mean that I personally do not expect the Constitution, as a codified legal document, to protect me in any meaningful way, either now or most especially in the future. This is not a novel perspective, but it seems to me that it is an increasingly common one, often tacitly and increasingly explicitly, among millions of my fellow tribesmen. Since we have no reasonable expectation that the Constitution will in fact protect us when we need protecting, we have no particular reason to accept appeals to Constitutionality when they are raised against actions we consider needful.
I used to be a fairly doctrinaire conservative. I certainly am not one any more. I am not particularly interested in "fiscal responsibility" as it is traditionally formulated, or in limited government as an end unto itself for reasons that might be summarized as "nature abhors a vacuum". I am increasingly skeptical of free markets, free trade, and economics as a discipline. I have neither interest in nor patience for wars abroad and large-scale military alliances. To me, the question "What has Conservatism conserved" was fatal to any allegiance I still held to the ideological pillars of my youth. Again, I do not perceive my political metamorphosis to be particularly unusual; much of my tribe has gone through the same.
I do not consider myself an American in any deep, meaningful sense. Largely, this is because I no longer perceive America as a coherent concept, much less a live, meaningful political entity. People appeal to a "Nation of Ideas", but the collective mind which contains those ideas is best modelled as a schizophrenic with dementia. I think America's political history is best understood as a succession of philosophical errors and misapprehensions which, once corrected by practical experiment, have resulted in the nation's accelerating dissolution. I do not believe that I share some core set of fundamental values in common with a supermajority of my fellow countrymen; in fact, I perceive abundant evidence that the opposite is the case. Ozy's magnum opus is valuable and should be read and understood because their views pretty clearly generalize to a significant portion of the population, Red and Blue alike. I am quite convinced that Red and Blue tribal values are mutually incompatible and incoherent, and I do not believe that this mutual incoherence is in any sense temporary or amenable to reconciliation. Blue Tribe values are both deeply alien and deeply repugnant to me, and I am entirely aware that large and growing numbers of them feel likewise about my values. I do not trust Blues to rule me fairly, and I do not expect them to trust rule by people like me, or to acquiesce willingly to it. I do not believe that coexistence is likely to work out well for anyone involved; our differences are irreconcilable, and we need a national divorce before our growing mutual hatred gives birth to large-scale tragedy.
When Crooks' bullet missed Trump's brainstem by an inch or less in Butler, PA, a significant portion of the American population experienced acute angst and disappointment. Likewise when Rittenhouse was acquitted. When Mangione murdered a law-abiding husband and father in cold blood, a significant portion of the American population experienced joy and elation. Likewise when Antifa publicly celebrated the cold-blooded murder of Aaron Danielson in Portland, as evidenced by the glazing journalists provided to his murderer. We are more than a decade past the start of our most recent wave of widespread, organized political violence condoned and facilitated by significant portions of our institutions and local, state and federal governments. Calls for the murder of Elon Musk are frequent and widespread.
I appreciate that much of the above is bitter and immoderate. It seems evident to me that our present situation is likewise bitter and immoderate. People who have not internalized that reality are not, I think, paying sufficient attention to what has been happening in the world around them. Appeals to "freedom" and "America" are not going to cut it, and I would never under any circumstances be so foolish as to deploy them in an attempt to persuade my outgroup. They are, at this point, a punchline, like Freeze Peach.
I don’t know how much of this matters coming from a repugnant blue-triber, but this level of nihilistic fatalism deeply saddens me. I have spent much, much more time arguing against the excesses and abuses of “my team” than I have spent opposing yours. The antifa apologetics, calls for violence against Trump and Musk, the Covid-era abuses of institutional power—all of it deeply disgusts me.
But I don’t believe collapse is inevitable. I don’t believe that a national divorce—whatever that might entail—is the way forward. After all, we live in a society whose socio-political dynamics ultimately flow from individual choices. The Constitution will die only if we kill it. This country has survived much worse.
I’m encouraged by more and more blue tribers openly rejecting the poison of identity politics. While TDS definitely was (and is) a real thing, I believe Trump’s enduring electoral successes is resulting in a more moderate, reasonable blue tribe (although there is a long way to go yet). This has been mirrored by what has been, in my opinion, clear excesses on the right—either in MAGA’s jubilant vindictiveness or in the fatalism exhibited by your post. Even though this also concerns me, I believe that this too will eventually temper and mature, but only if we don’t give in to the destructive impulses of the worst on our side nor feed those of the other. The Constitution’s survival depends on citizens demanding its enforcement; tribal coexistence requires rejecting the premise that opponents are inhuman. To paraphrase Madison in Federalist 10: The cure for factionalism is not homogeneity but pluralism managed through structured conflict.
The path forward is neither blind optimism nor radical dissolution but clear-eyed engagement. If the Constitution is “dead,” it is because we’ve ceased resuscitating it—not because it lacks the capacity to endure.
This is, in as much as it is happening, a temporary tactical maneuver. It seems likely the Democrats will obtain control of the House in 2026 and probably the whole enchilada in 2028, and identity politics will come roaring back, perhaps to the dismay of the purple-suburb voters who thought it was gone.
Blue Tribe has, due to its control of the institutions, a significant structural advantage in this conflict. It can delay and outlast any temporary political victory on the part of Red, and get right back to the program. And most of the country (including many who voted for Trump) find this legitimate.
Yes I think people seriously under estimate the long run implications of how we indoctrinated millions of people, mostly women, from kindergarten through university, law school; medical school, on and on; to be completely devoted to the progressive racial, sexual and transgender radical political ideologies. Combine that with white demographic decline more broadly and you have recipes for Bolshevik revolutions multiple times over
Not exactly. Recipe for Bolshevik revolution is poverty, hunger and unpopular war that is not going well.
Maybe around 2030 in MegaBlackPill timeline, when US casualties in Iran and Yemen get to six figures, while economy crashes and both man made and climate change caused disasters hit major food exporting areas of the world simultaneously you might have a chance to see something.
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