How experiencing dem erosion elsewhere can illuminate life in US today. A thread. /1

Lately I find myself thinking a lot about my ~1.5 years doing fieldwork on party system collapse in Venezuela. Here are some reflections on how i have experienced some parallels

a) All-consuming, mind-numbing absorption with the crisis-of-the-day -- it was so challenging to get politicians to meet & talk, esp re anything more than 7 days old /2

b) low-level existential angst at all times

c) deep apprehension about reading or watching the news combined with a compulsion to do so incessantly /3

d) believing things cannot get worse and being proven wrong REPEATEDLY

e) wanting to DO SOMETHING and feeling powerless /4

f) watching politicians make choices based only on their own immediate survival, with little consideration for the long-term consequences for their party, their country, and ultimately their own political careers /5

g) realizing that people's grievances--real or imagined--can be manipulated by those who just want power /6

h) wanting those with power to choose to give their power up on behalf of those who are excluded while knowing that such selfless acts of surrender are truly rare and beautiful /7