Nikki Haley just retained the confederate flag on the South Carolina Statehouse. I hear people questioning Kamala Harris on the presidential ticket. She has accomplished exponentially more good for this country than Nikki Haley and much more qualified for the executive office. Again Nikki Haley as well as Trump and many others are giving…
Nikki Haley just retained the confederate flag on the South Carolina Statehouse. I hear people questioning Kamala Harris on the presidential ticket. She has accomplished exponentially more good for this country than Nikki Haley and much more qualified for the executive office. Again Nikki Haley as well as Trump and many others are giving the Democrats great talking points for 2024.
Just a sad thought. Is Fox condemning the contemptible Haley? Or supporting her revisionist history? And applIauding another nail in Critical Race Theory. Saying, finally, white racists should not be criticized for its history. ... And even NY Times headlines say 'Democrats find DJT unqualified" vs Democrats cite extensive evidence demonstrating DJT legally precluded from..." Bad faith and sloppy language abounds.
Sadly The Times has lost its shine and is not the paper of record anymore. It’s not all the news fit to print. Despite TFG attacking the media, they are contributing to his death grip on us. Their stories are just about always watered down with what I call “yeah but” comments. The economy is doing great, yeah but.... Inflation is way down, yeah but...
How about a clear, and undeniable story about republicans who voted against the infrastructure bill yet are claiming credit for projects in their districts as a result of the Act. Maybe they should take what Dr. Richardson has written here and turn it into a full blown indictment of the maga party.
In the harried lives of most Americans, no one takes the time to read a full article. Just like soundbites, headlines are scanned, read, and imprinted on the brains of readers. A long list of headlines from the past eight years would pretty much sum up the thoughts and opinions of the reader who doesn't take the time to inform him/herself. Whataboutisms abound. Truth be told, newspapers have failed us. Failed us badly.
If I may, I would like to expand your thesis even further - virtually all of today’s media in the US was hijacked by the attention economy when social media platforms added “news” plus the “like” function to their platforms. With the ubiquitous use of smartphones coupled with the presentation of the news (headlines) DESIGNED to attract the attention of the viewer, traditional print media decided they had to redesign their articles to attract viewership. Hence, the model we had been used to of in-depth articles and investigative reporting had to change to attract the attention of all who are glued to the phones.
A marketing model based on attention-frequency was insidiously coupled with this attention model, providing a revenue stream for the social media platforms and eventually the print media as they had to depend on this revenue stream to support their businesses. So now the role of the “free press” no longer provides a check on governments but has been captured by the attention-marketing-economy which is designed to hook us with emotion-laden headlines and/or pithy OPINION based versus FACT-based short statements and governments world-wide have struggled because of this shift. Some governments have recently begun to try to come to terms with this major shift in how we all get our “news”. For example, the European Union is actively engaged in developing guidelines designed to standardize some broad based guidelines to return its legacy news outlets to fact based reporting. We, in the US, will need to closely monitor what they are doing to see if our government has the political will to adopt such practices.
I learned somewhere that the average news article online is meant to be skimmed and/or read in 5 minutes. This makes it so easy to create misinformed voters who fail to become interested in politics. It's all dumbed down because of the silly mantra saying everyone is so busy, busy, busy when in fact, they're not.
Like the house of reps that didn’t get much done this year and take an extended break when so much needed to be done. No other employer would put up with employees pulling that crap. Why do we have to put up with senators who are NOT doing their jobs?
We can only vote them out. That is not always what voters do though. And the youth it seems, are so turned off with what is going on and all of the deceit and grifting that many refuse to vote thinking that is cancelling it out. They are so horribly wrong. When the choices are not so much to your liking, or when you think it won't matter, or when you are fooled by those who are the exact opposite of what is best for you and the country, you lose your ability to see clearly when you are being scammed.
I agree. The unfortunate thing is that if they are not receptive to even talking about it ( sadly, 49 yr old daughter will not discuss with me and is convinced that Kennedy is the best choice) there is little one can do to even engage in a discussion.
It's become a cliche. Parents frantically driving their kids around to play dates, working insane hours, no time for dinner so pick up some fast food every night, listening to TV news sound bites. It sells. I know many people who use it as an excuse not to live like mature adults managing their time and money.
We're busy doin' nothin', nothin' the whole day through, tryin' to find lots'a things not to do. (From the musical A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.)
I must offer some rebuttal here. I think that if people could separate themselves from their fears, they would see that the NYT offers balanced reporting, an extraordinary difficult task as the paper of record in the United States and to some extent a leading paper in the world.
The problem is that we all want the Times to say ONLY what we want to hear, and I include myself in that. I find it disconcerting and sometimes a little upsetting when a viewpoint is expressed which, say, expresses reservations about something the Democratic Party has done that has gone awry.
A good example occurred at the time of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. I was delighted with Biden’s action. It was decisive, bold, and long overdue.
Then it went sideways in a hurry and the Times was not slow to point it out. The chaos at the airport, the lack of good intelligence to recognize how ready the Taliban was to leap back into power, and the failure to liberate Afghans who had acted as translators and eyes and ears for the American military were all reported quite without fear or favor.
At first I was angry. Withdrawal was necessarily going to be difficult and problematic. Good intelligence was hard to come by. The mistakes were secondary to the bigger fact that America was finally out of its never-ending war. . . Could the media not stop nattering about these so-called “failures” in the operation. I never considered cancelling my subscription as it’s not the kind of impulse act I’m inclined to. But I burned at the time.
By the end of the summer I had cooled somewhat and recognized that if the withdrawal had been improperly devised in many ways and these errors hurt a number of people seriously, then it was the role of the NYT and frankly all media of conscience to report it in a clear-eyed way. I learned a lesson and it has stuck.
The NYT does not indulge in the sort of grossly unequal ‘what-aboutism’ that has become a terrible hallmark of these days. It has not failed to report economic progress under Biden. Nor has it failed to spend time, effort, and money to demonstrate that the message of better economic times is either not getting through to people, or I suspect being ignored by millions whose mind is made up and want no contradictory evidence that might slow down Trump’s re-ascendancy to the Presidency. Its polls showing Trump’s terrible momentum have been shocks to the system in recent weeks. But I fully trust they were carried out fairly. I also feel that while they have delivered a terrible shock to the system it is good for us to know as much about the battleground as possible, and even polling, which is fast becoming a pseudo-science, tells us clearly the nature of the struggle ahead.
Then there is the division which must be made between news and opinion. News tells us both pleasant and hard truths and the Times spends a fortune in producing it in as eye-catching a way as possible.
The opinion section is, for the most part, informed, far-seeing and offers good for thought. I know of no regular columnist who supports Trump. I find the views of Ross Douthat and Bret Stephens difficult to take at times, but they are a necessary corrective to my deep bent to the left. Thomas Friedman is sometimes pedantic and puts himself far out enough in his generalizations that one must think hard before accepting it at face value. Yet he is enormously well-informed, deeply patriotic and often singularly wise. Is there any doubt where Maureen Dowd stands? Paul Krugman’s mastery of the economy is breathtaking. I could go on but have an undisputed knack for being tedious so will leave the op-ed alone, hoping I haven’t left out a voice who without question should have been included. Ah I did. . . Jamalle Boue is brilliant.
We all recognize that the Times is a corporation and it exists to make money. Therefore it needs the broadest subscription model possible in order to give value to its advertisers. This means inevitably that it must report freely and fairly on the entire spectrum and risk losing the “fly off the handle” types.
I, for one, do not envy them the dilemmas they face. Nor am I surprised when they write articles that would give succour to today’s voters on the American right. I read (some of) these and do not find them wildly unbalanced.
I strongly disagree that the NYT is not the “paper of record” anymore as has been asserted today and other days. The fact that the Right hates it pretty much generally en masse (but long for its approbation) should tell us that leaders of conscience at the Times are appalled by the malice, impropriety, criminality and general lack of seriousness of today’s Republican Party.
We need the Times. We must point out its errors in judgment when they occur, but we need it as a starting point for our understanding of truth. We cannot read it as we do Letters from an American. As I’ve mentioned Professor Cox Richardson leans heavily on failures of the right and successes of the left, using her vast knowledge of history to buttress the few conclusions she allows herself. She is fighting for democracy to survive and thus inevitably writes what we want to hear. At some times this could be called cheerleading. In these most dangerous it is a most necessary arousal of Americans to fight the waves crashing on the shore.
I am terrified of 2024. I don’t think any of us can imagine the utter chaos this year will bring. Already the battle over Trump’s right to be on the ballot is stating to rage and we still have a couple of days to rest up before the most consequential year of our political live kicks off. Things will become real immediately the calendar turns and that which is irrational, spiteful, conniving, fraudulent, and possibly violent will take over. The daily news may be unable to keep up.
I hope and believe that the Times is ready for a quantum leap into the unknown. We ain’t seen nothing, bad as the last eight years have been, and more than ever we need the paper of record.
Who knows? Perhaps Wordle will help to save democracy.
I tend to agree with Eric’s analysis, with a caveot or two. Robert Hubbel has made a point of encouraging folks to stay subscribed, but to comment back to the editors/writers when they are way off base, and suggests that this “movement” has seen a bit of success with a slight shift in editorial policy away from “what-about-ism”, raising the alarm against authoritarianism, and giving Biden’s successes appropriate due. We shall see whether this holds up as this most dangerous and precarious year moves forward.
Thank you. I do not know Robert Hubbell, but his idea is sensible.
Can anybody give a precise example where the Times has been dangerously off the truth in the last year? Perhaps I am overly gullible and need my eyes opened.
I'm not fully convinced. What I expect from a news venue is accurate reporting.
I see very little wherever I look. Back during the 2016 election our "paper of record" failed us. They chose to misrepresent a lot of the news, and bias was very evident. They intentionally mis-used "the power of the Recording Secretary" to decide which news should be featured more or less prominently and in some cases, opinion was presented as news.
Villains abound, and what drove this shift away from objectivity remains uncertain, however my confidence in the NYT will never be fully restored. I still read their stuff but from now on I'll use my critical eye to look for the moment a story pivots. Same as with most other news sources I catch that moment all too easily and all too frequently.
That’s an interesting idea Gary. You. have a talent for aggregation from different sources that I must lack. I read articles assiduously and give them the benefit of the doubt. Unless I read/hear something contradictory within a short while, the story holds firm in my mind. That is of course for sources that enjoy a reputation for probity, like the Times, Guardian, Globe and Mail, New Yorker, Atlantic et al.
Of course I realize that no story is ever fully accurate. Reporters inevitably carry their own perspectives with them and of course there is a limit to their sources. I assume you and I could be tasked with covering the same event and our stories might vary with some degree of significance.
I must say though, given the above, that I don’t expect malfeasance from the papers I read - a la Fox News for instance. I expect a general level of accuracy, innovative reporting styles and coherence.
Op-Ed’s are different. My assumption with them is that they will be intelligently written, supported with a thesis and indicate some recognition that there are two sides.
Maybe I am simply naive, but the sources I mention have been reliable. I don’t read in a “gotcha” vein. Perhaps I should be more rigorous.
I’m completely in the dark with your phrase “the power of the Recording Secretary”.
And finally I wish I could be pointed to a substantive pattern of behavior that would reflect dishonest journalism. I still hold to my idea that many people become piqued with the Times for not giving them the news that they *want* to hear so as to bolster their worldview.
I expect to be told the facts and then make my own determinations. If I demanded only one-sided "news" I'd be deluding myself. Since 'news' is mostly information someone else doesn't wish for you to know, corruption is never far away. Don't let yourself be misled simply because something is presented neatly.
Marvin Gaye said it best: "believe half of what you see and none of what you hear."
The term "the power of the Recording Secretary" is one I devised from experience. Whoever takes the meeting minutes controls the institutional memory. If the secretary decides not to record what you say in a meeting, often that's too bad for you and whatever point you wanted to make: It's been unilaterally dismissed. That's a lesson to be learned from the Mad Men days - wise bureaucrats know to NEVER piss off the secretarial staff.
“ Since 'news' is mostly information someone else doesn't wish for you to know, corruption is never far away.”
Respectfully, that is a beguilingly written phrase that takes an enormous leap of logic. There are all sorts of instances of news that people think you *should* hear and thus pass it on. Natural disasters, acts of bravery and unselfish service, technological leaps, archaeological discoveries are all examples of news that people want to get you to, not keep from you.
That is not the larger point however. Corruption is often far from news. News so often ferrets out villainy, corruption and brutality. The newsmaker and the reporter are all too often at odds with one another, rather than in bed.
I get your point. Newsmakers can often “persuade” news purveyors to ignore or sanitize something corrupt or criminal that they are involved in.
But the extrapolation you made is far too sweepingly intended for me to gloss over without comment. I hope I am as alert and well-informed as the majority of citizens, but I am disinclined to be cynical. In the larger atlas of my life, a propensity to go down rabbit holes is a luxury I cannot afford. And please don’t feel I’m accusing you of so doing. The phrase I used has become an ugly one.
In my too many years I have learned that corruption is eventually outed so often that it is near a truism to claim that people with evil on their minds either get caught or suffer karmic justice.
I’m uneasily aware that we’ve wandered well away from my defence of the NYT. I accept your disagreement without rancor or feeling that one of us is right and the other wrong. Wonderfully, the world is more complicated than that.
Thank you for your points and also for educating me on your “Recording Secretary” statement. As a teacher who has found joy in the profession for 50+ years, I could not more wholeheartedly agree with you on this point.
I also agree with some of this but I am seeing things in the NYT that are very wishy-washy and do not seem very well documented. I always do my best to figure out where the info comes from as I am reading. Sometimes it is blatantly false but sometimes not clear at all.
To your point I’m wondering if a vast letter writing campaign to the editorial board of the NYT might push them a bit more into the sunlight? Mike, what you said would be a great letter to the editor. Anyway just my opinion. Thanks for your thought and I see your point.
In my area if you write a letter to the editor and the editor doesn't like it....it isn't printed! Our daily newspaper is now delivered twice a week and is mainly high school sports and advertising! It is hard for a Democrat to get elected. Believe me....I know!
I canceled my subscription a few months ago. They are like Nikki: which way is the wind blowing? What shall we say that won't offend our advertisers? "Both-erism" to an art. I'm DONE!
I am not renewing mine for some of the same reasons. I found that I was opening fewer and fewer of their articles also. I have the games subscription still for a bit but will not renew that as well .
And they have NO idea of the meaning of the word! I was called a douche bag by a christian self proclaimed preacher for saying Jesus preached socialism
It was on fb. He said he knew it was wrong so he would pray for forgiveness. Is that kind of hypocrisy even worth replying to? It says more about him & his faux faith than me
School (60 years ago)taught me that socialism was a collective FOR THE PEOPLE, and that communism used it ( power/money) for the hierarchy . Somewhere along that line it appears people want to confuse masses about the principle. If the whole is not used for the betterment of the whole then the whole is used for the benefit of only a few. Is that not the principle of the matter?
Is there any ‘union’ whose people benefit in totality from the latter objective? Nations gone from Democracy to Imperialism that did well...’top heavy’...
Very few ‘ rich’ have an egalitarian outlook am I correct that our government is supposed to! Were it so -more representation of the underdog, the oversight people, the rules would focus on this...what seems to be the case is that far too many gaining that power do it to get rich and wield ( or yield?) to the hierarchy ...the little guy and women in general bear the lack thereof. Capitalization vs Socialism ...not compatible? A fine line?
I think WE CAN DO BETTER.
And it’s going through these harsh stark difficult times that reveal the tweaking necessary.
NOT throwing out the principle ( baby) with the bath water.
To my mind this current ...what ? ...5-6 year tumult is perfect example border line screaming 🗣️’get your papers in order’ as Schultz would say. Getting our principles in order...if you want to say slavery vs freedom let’s look at whom that directly speaks to ie ‘free white and 21’? ...as another saying goes...second class citizens? Indebtedness?
I won’t even pretend to comprehend the complexity of situations but the principe of matters...ethical ...compassionate...protective...nurturing...I get that.
Thank you for this comment. I learned some things from it.
How ironic it is that those who damn socialism are steering the ship to communism/fascism, and many have no clue as to where this could end up: they’ll be holding the bag without social (socialism) security, Medicare, the freedoms we hold dear.
They’ll see how swell it is to live in a country that doesn’t go LGBTQ, BIPOC, people with disabilities and people who are older. Their gay nephews and mixed race great grandchildren will suffer and be unable to help them. But their cold dead hands will be clinging to their guns and their Bibles; their MAGA hats and other meglonaniabelia.
Unless we all just keep sharing HCR with them. And keep extending grace to them. And keep praying for justice. And keep working to get out the vote. And keep telling folks who slam Biden to hold up and realize how much he has done Re: saving our butts in the Damndemic, ARPA, Manufacturing, Infrastructure, JOBS, wins in congress and locally in 2024, support for Ukraine. YES. He’s faltered on conservation. But damn, he’s quick, knowledgeable, on task, on point, and knows the players and the back stories better than anyone who’s ever held that job. Do I love his take on Israel? No. Nyetenyahoo is a war criminal who needs to stop and needs to be investigated for the incredible slip of October 6&7. How could the Israelis have missed so so so much? Wow.
Pardon the rant and ramble.
Happy New Year, all.
2024 we must move toward the light.
Thank you, HRC, for keeping the way lighted by truth.
"What is he saying? Moore spoke to All Things Considered's Scott Detrow about what he thinks the path forward is for evangelicalism in America.
On why he thinks Christianity is in crisis:
It was the result of having multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — "turn the other cheek" — [and] to have someone come up after to say, "Where did you get those liberal talking points?" And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, "I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ," the response would not be, "I apologize." The response would be, "Yes, but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak." And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we're in a crisis."
"Who is he? Russell Moore was one of the top officials in the Southern Baptist Convention. "
Yes! A total corruption of the misguided notion of “fair and balanced' coverage. They've taken morality out of the equation and treat 'good' and 'evil' as two teams competing for the same trophy, and may the one with the higher score (whatever that is based on) win. I'm at a loss to guess how to get to publishers about this.
Can the courts take the company away from Murdoch, nationalize it, cannibalize it, dissolve it, put the funds from the sale of it's assets into NPR? It sounds rather autocratic. Who can tell us?
The advertisers can take force Fox News to change or rather the lack of advertisers. Since Fox went on the air, many boycotts have been leveled against their advertisers. When this happens either the advertisers pull their ads to win back their customers/viewers or Fox backtracks on the issue. Why did Fox fire Bill O'Reiley and Tucker Carlson? Because their advertisers couldn't weather the backlash from allowing sexual predators to be on the air.
The Dominion defamation settlement against Fox has only focused their hateful rhetoric on specific Democrat politicians. And their next defamation case, if the settlement is for $2.1 billion will be a big blow to Fox. But as long as companies are willing to advertise on Fox they will continue to be a propaganda arm for the Republicans Party.
I believe that Fox gets most of its revenues from cable subscriptions, not ads. So the best way to choke it is to make it a for-fee optional part of the cable package, like Disney.
Whenever people mention this, though, the MAGAts cry "free speech!" By which they mean "subsidized propaganda." Which is exactly what they claim NPR is. Which, if you look at the issue holistically, makes not a twit of sense. But then, consistent thought isn't a MAGAt attribute.
We have a $24 "broadcast surcharge" on our cable bill now. That's a monthly change for funneling the over-the-air programming into their product. So we are all paying the premium for Fox anyway, even though it's not a premium channel.
Authoritarian governments do that kind of thing all the time. Democracy is not an easy responsibility. We are between a rock and a hard place at the moment but we have more power than we realize.
I'm afraid that most people have no real idea of what an authoritarian government is capable of doing. Had I not spent years researching the history of the Occupation of France and the work of the French Resistance, for a novel on Jean Moulin, I could be as blasé as so many (on both sides of the political fence) about the fact that history repeats itself and when a country is in the hands of someone like Trump and his cronies, the outcome cannot be good. That said, I believe that Haley is the lesser of all the Republican evils. She may loose some of the mysoginist male votes and hopefully this will be good for Biden.
And what MAGAnuts don’t realize is their businesses can be taken by tfg, the dictator, for pennies on the dollar (or just taken). I guess they think their support of him will protect them. Till it doesn’t anymore.
No. Because of the First Amendment. Really, do you want a government that dissolves media companies because of their content? Frankly, that sounds like one of Trump's campaign promises.
I'm hoping Smartmatic will begin their multi-billion dollar suit against fox this summer; just in time to dominate the news in the fall. That ought to get the attention of the headline writers and editors. They know exactly how in-depth their average reader has patience for and how much their headlines and ledes influence them. Let's see how they behave this fall too.
“Lincoln and his fellow Republicans argued, the government should clear the way for those at the bottom of the economy, making sure they had access to resources, education, and the internal improvements that would enable them to reach markets.”
Even as he was managing the Civil War, Lincoln made sure the transcontinental railroad was finished and established the land grant colleges. He walked the walk.
The current Greedy Old Plutocrat Party remains armed and dangerous, but Haley, among others, pointedly underlines it's complete reversal from the values it was formed to defend.
Sad that nobody defends what it was formed to defend. vote Dem. The Democrats should say they are grateful to the early repubs for showing them the way. Now the Dem way is the right way. Lincoln would agree, no doubt.
I think it's safe to say he would not want any connection to today's "Republican" Party. He would certainly have a thing or two to say about the Civil War, and to those who now seem to suggest that those who fought the obscenity of slavery had died in vain.
Absolutely. Now, we'll see what the 'old guard' will do as they find themselves without an organized national 'party' to promote their policies. A new party? A remake of the old?
It's going to be a blood bath.
The good news is that, as in nature, the old must be destroyed before the new can grow out of the ashes.
"thoughts and prayers"..hahahahahhaa..hahahaaahaha.. GAG ME WITH A SPOON! Whewww.., ugh...
The maga-tts are really in a dumpster. Too bad we can't just call Waste Management (the 'trash' hauler) and have that load of shit hauled over to Vic Orban's driveway and dumped.
So many republicans I know really care only about money and deregulation. They’ll vote for anyone who will promise to put a few more dollars in their pockets in the form of a tax cut, regardless of the rights they take away or the damage they do to the environment.
I'm not sure if you identify as a Democrat, but I assume from your words you are. Can you help spread the facts? Can you please talk -- and listen -- to your family, friends and neighbors to make sure we do not elect this cruel group of autocrats
It is not "Democrats" responsibility to take the MAGA Republican talking points and "use" them. It is incumbent upon all Americans who care about our democracy to get to work now to expose the motivations behind the MAGA Republicans authoritarian plan: to protect a system that benefits their wealthy, white, male cronies.
People sometimes think that they’re powerless to really do very much to change anything since the force required to put new initiatives into motion is often so great.
This is because there are so many moving parts involved in the present system. Nonetheless, big changes happen.
We are on the brink of technological developments that will make the internet look small time. That is startling isn’t it? AI, Fusion Power, grid scale distributed energy storage, CRISPR based medical advances... are several big ones that will make life longer, better, faster and easier. These changes are already underway and racing forward. Democratic government systems are best equipped to integrate these amazing advances because they function at the behest of the majority of the people not the minority who think they know better.
Our position, as American citizens, is at the top of the inverted pyramid. Voting for smart, experienced individuals whose primary purpose for wanting to get elected is to serve the People... not themselves...is what can make our already good democratic government that much better; it’s been that way since he beginning. The economic performance of democracies is always far superior to that of autocracies over the longer run. People in democracies have a great chance to live better, longer and happier lives.
We must stay strong and vote for qualified and experienced governmental representatives who will do a good job in their positions be it in our school districts, municipal and state governments and nationally. The Republican Party and its philosophy is broken...they need to stop going in the wrong direction... but the majority of them lack the courage, flexibility and ability to do that. Eventually, they’ll come to their senses but not at the present time.
Our truly great opportunity is to make sure we all do our duty now and vote for the candidates best prepared and capable to represent what “We the Majority of the People” want and need. We can do this... make no mistake.
Please identify the smart Americans outside this group. I know there are some, but it’s shocking to talk to random people waiting for an oil change, or in line at the store. You hear insanity.
They’re mostly frightened…a trump conviction or two will help a solid Democratic victory will help much more. These people who are afraid are our neighbors and friends who’d help in an instant. Your kindness is what matters the most as you won’t convince them with arguments.
The conversations with friends, family, neighbors that I'm talking about should not involve any arguing whatsoever. These conversations are about connecting--not arguing. Using active listening techniques helps you find out where they're at, e.g. once you've started a conversation, try asking your friend, family member or neighbor about how they feel about what's happening in our country. When they answer, try asking, "Please tell me more" a few times as they talk. Listen. You'll likely hear about what's important to them. It's also possible to pivot the conversation to ask them to think about solutions to the problem, e.g. "What would you do if you were President?" "Please tell me more about that..." Then if it's going well, you could ask them if you could share some info on the topic you were discussing. It could just be, "I think you'd be interested in reading this newsletter I follow by an amazing history professor, Heather Cox Richardson, who helps me put what's happening now into context with American history."
So not sure how many members of this community have visited Columbia, SC but I have and I did an interesting tour of the statehouse during one of those visits. It's not just that ALL the most prominent statuary in the building and on the grounds is dedicated to glorifying the Confederacy--there is a sculpture group way off to the side near a little-used entrance that represents the enslaved people who (ahem) BUILT the statehouse--it is that the Articles of Secession ARE CARVED INTO THE WALLS OF THE BUILDING'S INTERIOR and the SC governor and legislators look at it EVERY DAY. If you want to know the true meaning of Christofascism, spend an hour at the statehouse in Columbia. And I actually like Columbia: it's an interesting city with good food and a diverse population. But those guys are never going to give up their dedication to the Confederacy and what it stood for no matter how many people bleat about it. And it's a true irony of both the Patriarchal and Post-colonialist Bargains (See Kandyoti and Sa'ar among others for an unpacking of those terms) that the mouthpiece for everything awful in SC is a woman of color of South Asian heritage whose home country was exploited almost to obliteration by the tiny white Christian nationalist imperialist country of Great Britain.
Confirmed: MAGA is KKK. The proof is right in front of us. Any doubt, consult "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election and Why?" https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0896920517740615 along with Timothy Egan's book, "A Fever in the Heartland" about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's. MAGA and KKK are virtually identical - white Protestant supremacy.
Sadly our nation was founded on the invention of white supremacy to justify enslaving human beings with darker skin, committing genocide against them, spreading propaganda about them and then passing laws to oppress them.
We missed an opportunity during Reconstruction to “build back better. We allowed those who need racism to accumulate wealth and power to reign. Racism defines us. It’s woven throughout our systems and lives.
Without racism based on skin color we’d be a very different nation. This is our last gasp for liberty and justice.
Nikki Haley knows better but won’t do better. Having her in the White House will be disastrous. She’s already committed to pardoning Trump. The puppeteers will have a field day with her.
I guess we’ll soon see where America stands in 2024…
Curiously, the last big Protestant Evangelical effort, mainly from rural America, was Prohibition. Alcohol remains both a pleasure and a social scourge to this very day.
You're right. Following the horrific Mother Emmanuel massacre in June, 2015 -- the slaughter of nine members of the congregation following their Bible study, but a young white male supremacist -- demands were made by Black citizens (and white, as well, of which I was one) to remove the damn Confederate flag to the SC Statehouse. Nikki wasn't sure what to do. Which way was the wind blowing? How would her decision affect her politically??! Finally, after a young Black woman had had enough and climbed the flagpole to cut it down, Nikki said that the flag would come down -- HOWEVER: it would be put in a "place of honor" on the grounds of the Capitol.
Your last sentence was right on point!! The Democrats have to start NOW doing heavy promotion of all the good that the Biden Administration has done. And to show the hypocrisy of the republican party and its candidates. Consistently promote Biden and bash republicans--from now until November--in all media outlets, not just MSNBC and the like. But on ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, TNT, movie channels, etc., in Super Bowl ads, And in swing states!! Advertising on MSNBC and maybe CNN and in states like MA, is preaching to the choir. Just like the republican thinking is repeat lies often and people will believe them. Well, maybe if the Democrats tell the truth about Biden's accomplishments often, maybe people will realize how good his presidency has been and not accept the lies.
Well, for starters, she is more than willing to sacrifice the public policy aspirations of working people for that of political expediency as a means of enhancing her political career. See her advocacy for Medicare for All during the early stages of her 2020 campaign: strong endorsement, then tepid support, finally opposition based on the gutless rationalization of pragmatic incrementalism and ‘realism’. Think Hillary Clinton 2.0.
One more time. The political parties of our duopoly are not the same, except when they are. And when they are, for instance, in terms of corporate fealty, pandering to their respective bases, ignoring democratic principles (have you been keeping up with Democratic Party efforts to keep third party candidates off the ballot?), and acquiescing to the political constraints of an utterly corrupted political system, they are both, yes, despicable.
Tom, as a favor to me, and perhaps others, could you list the reasons you will be voting for Trump. Thank you. Your answer will help me to better understand your thinking.
For what it's worth, I will tell you why I will vote for the Democratic candidate. I subscribe to the theory of government enunciated by Frances Perkins, FDR's Sec. of Labor responsible for the New Deal programs:
"The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to provide the means by which all the people under its jurisdiction can access the best possible life."
Good grief. Why is it that liberals are so quick to respond to Democratic Party critique by assuming that the critic will be voting for Trump? It’s as absurd as responding to critique of the U.S. role in the proxy war in Ukraine by assuming the critic is a supporter of Putin.
One more time. I despise Trump, and did long before he ever entered the political arena. I would never vote for him, just like I’ve never voted for any other GOP candidate. As to why people would vote for him, I can completely understand that. He has tapped in to two populist threads, and despite not caring about either, he has used them to augment the racist, Christian (fascist) Nationalist majority of his base. The first issue is the continuing war on the middle class and working people by the political establishments of both parties. The second is the power wielded by intelligence agencies and America’s continuing proclivity of involvement in endless war.
Admire Frances Perkins. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has abandoned the tenets of her theory, since Reagan, in favor of fealty to monied interest donors, the people be damned. It sat on the laurels of association with the New Deal, and instead of aggressively pursuing FDR’s Second Bill of Rights, adopted a strategic defensive posture to increasing GOP advances by courting Wall Street and Silicon Valley to win elections, and again, the people be damned.
I will be voting for a third party candidate for POTUS, as neither party in our current duopoly is worthy of my vote, imo. Both place donor interests ahead of working people, neither support a single-payer health care system, both support endless war, and both, currently, are complicit in the most horrific genocide of my lifetime.
Your last paragraph is totally true, Tom, but voting for a third party candidate gives you a sense of honor and defiance. You are also wasting a vote and a vote in the next election is a precious thing. Please reconsider and choose the lesser of your 2 evils.
No, voting for a candidate that most aligns with the policy agenda that
I think would be best for the country is an expression of democracy. I don’t give a damn about honor or defiance; your Dr. Phil armchair analysis is laughable.
Get off of your sanctimonious high horse about wasting a vote. It’s a repulsive, anti-democracy mindset, especially coming from one purporting to having a desire to ‘save’ democracy.
No, sorry. Sanctimonious high horse people don’t accuse others of wasting their vote, so that can’t be me. Happy New Year to you as well. It’s going to be an interesting year, that’s a given.
Tom, respectfully, you are bright enough to know that it is possible to waste a vote and in fact, to do more damage than good. Frankly, it's a simple process involving the lesser of two evils. Throwing away a vote could get you the worst, such as in 2000 when Ralph Nader's candidacy cost Al Gore the win in Florida, giving the presidency to Bush. Look at the disaster that followed: Iraq and the near depression that resulted.
No. No. A thousand times no. What cost the Dems were…. wait for it, registered Democratic voters who voted for Bush, in a vote total that dwarfed Nader’s numbers.
If Gore wins Tennessee, his home state, he wins the election. If he doesn’t put Clinton in the closet because of Monica, he probably wins. If he doesn’t pick a Republican as a running mate, he probably wins. If his assembled team in Florida contesting the election result cared about winning the messaging war as much as the GOP suits/thugs did, he probably wins. And if he spoke truths about the illegitimacy of the SCOTUS decision post-Bush inauguration, he probably kills Dubya’s second term, though Kerry’s clueless response to being Swift Boated might still have carried the day to another Dem loss they had no business losing.
One more time; lesser evil voting by Democrats is what brought us Trump. Dems need to start thinking long term, instead of focusing narrowly on the next election cycle. The ratchet effect is real, and has shifted the political landscape/Overton Window to the right since Reagan, election by election, regardless of whether Democrats happen to win, or hold Congress.
Respectfully, every vote cast for a Democratic candidate for President since Mondale has been a wasted vote, because every Democratic candidate who has won has betrayed FDR’s vision of a Party aligned with a working class base, and made it more likely to alienate voters who used to identify as Democrats, by caring more about donors than working people. And as long as we’re talking wasted votes, anyone who didn’t vote for Sanders in the Dem primaries in ‘16-20 wasted their vote, because they voted for incremental pragmatism in the face of economic and climate catastrophe, either out of fear or cowardice.
Tom, without a doubt, one must choose one's fights carefully, just as one must cast one's votes wisely. The obvious normally only comes into focus until after the fact.
A third party candidate in 2016 gave the election to the despicable. That was Jill Stein, and she's on her ego-trip again to try to ruin this country. (I don't disagree with many f her positions. But she should not be a third party candidate.) Also, and I know there were other elections as well in the past, the 2000 election went to Bush because of Nader's third party candidacy. So, if you must, hold your nose, but vote for democracy and the Democratic candidate. Do you really want to see this country fall under a narcissistic autocrat who doesn't care about the Constitution and will ruin everything our founding fathers (and most of the readers here) wanted? Look at the reality of the situation. For better or worse, as of now, we're a two-party country. One of the two candidates will win. A third party has no chance of winning--only subverting the process. So, keep voicing your opinions on issues that are important to you, but vote sensibly. Help save our country!
Sorry, Herb. We’re in the position we’re in today because Democrats can’t renounce their corporate donor fealty, and do right by the working class and the poor, and it turns millions of voters off.
I already debunked the Nader fallacy to Richard above. As to Stein, do you know why Clinton lost Michigan? It wasn’t because of Stein; her vote totals were exceeded by the number of ballots, many of them around Flint, in which voters had marked a preference for Democrats in every race on the ballot but the one for POTUS. They left that one blank. Why? Because instead of aggressively going after the corporations shilling for the GOP governor who allowed the water crisis to unfold, Obama actually showed up and told the people in the area the water was safe to drink. It still wasn’t. When you betray people, they usually remember.
I will not vote for a hold your nose party, nor candidate. That’s a ridiculous strategy to save a democracy, which we don’t currently have, btw. In case you haven’t noticed, we live in an inverted, totalitarian corporate state, which both parties, and their voters, have been complicit in creating. I will vote for the candidate who most aligns with the policy Rx I believe will best address the pressing issues we face as a nation. Would it be that most Americans voted that way, instead of holding their noses.
How do you figure it, Jenny? Biden wanted to forgive $1.6 trillion of student debt owed by 40,000,000 Americans. Trump and the Republicans, by contrast, gave a $2,000,000,000,000 (two trillion) tax break to a vastly smaller number of wealthy individuals and corporations. Biden's plan would have given a huge boost to the economy, which is now growing better than all the other nations in the world.
"The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to provide the means by which all the people under its jurisdiction can access the best possible life."
Parties have flaws but the Republicans emphasis on making the country great by saving white supremacy, ignoring climate change, controlling women and in general oppressing people who they deem different means there are not “fine people on both sides”.
No argument the GOP is worse. But that’s a mighty low bar.
Race - The Democratic Party refuses to support a commission to even study reparations much less support the concept itself. It reneged on a promise to retire student debt for HBCU grads.
Climate - The Dems refuse to support the ‘leave it in the ground’ strategy, coupled with the renewables moon shot agenda necessary to seriously address the issue.
Women - Which party was it in ‘08-10 that controlled Congress and the White House and refused to legislatively codify Roe when it had the chance?
If the advocates of the Democratic Party would put half the energy they use demonizing the GOP and its supporters into pressuring their own elected officials to do the right thing for working people and the poor instead of bending over to corporate donors, we might put an end to the election ratchet effect that ensures governmental dysfunction.
Sorry but the racism and violence that Republicans proudly promote trump (pun intended) the Democrats' reticence to deal with racism. Racism goes way beyond student debt and reparations. It's an everyday existential threat to people of color-especially Black folks who've had to endure the impact of America's choice to practice racism for centuries.
Once again, imho there are not fine people on both sides.
So some people are fine, and others are deplorable. Gotcha. And so we get lesser evil voting. Gotcha. Which does occur on both sides, because while your side is fine, the other side thinks they are fine, and you are deplorable. So they lesser evil vote, too. And both parties are owned by donors, so between the ownership and the lesser evil voting, nothing gets fixed.
Yes, racism goes beyond reparations and student debt. But racism can’t be decoupled from economic class warfare in the U.S., because that is what created our American racism. If it is the existential threat you suggest, then why won’t Democrats address the economic class issue (thank you, capitalism) in a meaningful way?
I’ll answer the question - they won’t because their donors pay them not to.
Trump garnered more votes from people of color in ‘20 than he did in ‘16. Early polling suggests he will top that in ‘24 if it is a Biden-Trump contest. The existential threat messaging needs work it seems.
I do agree with a lot of what you say and have been holding my nose for over decades and vote blue but ...................... I still will. I voted for Nader in 2000 and even held an event to promote him. I don't regret my vote for him out here in Oregon as the repugs were bound and determined to get GWB in there with the help of Florida politicians and brotherly corruption.
They are both American women who are of Indian descent. Also, both are intelligent and accomplished and ambitious and politically shrewd and have very good smiles. It's been decades since I was referred to as an Irishman.
I don't want to speculate. Kamala's mother is of Indian descent and her father is Jamaican. Both of her parents are highly educated her father being a professor of economics at Stanford.
Both of Nikki's parents are Indian.
With that in mind, I was just wondering what you were implying with your comment? I have worked for and with over 300 Indians since 1995. One of my best friends when I lived in CA was from India and he was an electrical engineer who worked for Intel. The Indians I worked with in the 1990's had good technical skills, but most of them were hard to understand and weren't very familiar with American customs, culture and even holidays. That has certainly changed over the years. It's rare that I have trouble understanding any of the Indians I work with, even if they have never been to the US. The Indian consulting firms make a point of having their consultants only speak English which is a really good thing since my attempts at Hindi, well, they suck.
One of the young Indian consultants attempted to teach me some Hindi phrases. I was so bad at it that he and the other Indians laughed uncontrollably.
Nikki Haley just retained the confederate flag on the South Carolina Statehouse. I hear people questioning Kamala Harris on the presidential ticket. She has accomplished exponentially more good for this country than Nikki Haley and much more qualified for the executive office. Again Nikki Haley as well as Trump and many others are giving the Democrats great talking points for 2024.
Now Dammit Democrats, use them!!!!’
Just a sad thought. Is Fox condemning the contemptible Haley? Or supporting her revisionist history? And applIauding another nail in Critical Race Theory. Saying, finally, white racists should not be criticized for its history. ... And even NY Times headlines say 'Democrats find DJT unqualified" vs Democrats cite extensive evidence demonstrating DJT legally precluded from..." Bad faith and sloppy language abounds.
Sadly The Times has lost its shine and is not the paper of record anymore. It’s not all the news fit to print. Despite TFG attacking the media, they are contributing to his death grip on us. Their stories are just about always watered down with what I call “yeah but” comments. The economy is doing great, yeah but.... Inflation is way down, yeah but...
How about a clear, and undeniable story about republicans who voted against the infrastructure bill yet are claiming credit for projects in their districts as a result of the Act. Maybe they should take what Dr. Richardson has written here and turn it into a full blown indictment of the maga party.
In the harried lives of most Americans, no one takes the time to read a full article. Just like soundbites, headlines are scanned, read, and imprinted on the brains of readers. A long list of headlines from the past eight years would pretty much sum up the thoughts and opinions of the reader who doesn't take the time to inform him/herself. Whataboutisms abound. Truth be told, newspapers have failed us. Failed us badly.
If I may, I would like to expand your thesis even further - virtually all of today’s media in the US was hijacked by the attention economy when social media platforms added “news” plus the “like” function to their platforms. With the ubiquitous use of smartphones coupled with the presentation of the news (headlines) DESIGNED to attract the attention of the viewer, traditional print media decided they had to redesign their articles to attract viewership. Hence, the model we had been used to of in-depth articles and investigative reporting had to change to attract the attention of all who are glued to the phones.
A marketing model based on attention-frequency was insidiously coupled with this attention model, providing a revenue stream for the social media platforms and eventually the print media as they had to depend on this revenue stream to support their businesses. So now the role of the “free press” no longer provides a check on governments but has been captured by the attention-marketing-economy which is designed to hook us with emotion-laden headlines and/or pithy OPINION based versus FACT-based short statements and governments world-wide have struggled because of this shift. Some governments have recently begun to try to come to terms with this major shift in how we all get our “news”. For example, the European Union is actively engaged in developing guidelines designed to standardize some broad based guidelines to return its legacy news outlets to fact based reporting. We, in the US, will need to closely monitor what they are doing to see if our government has the political will to adopt such practices.
Thank you for this thoughtful and edifying response.
I very much doubt the govt will act to change anything.
I learned somewhere that the average news article online is meant to be skimmed and/or read in 5 minutes. This makes it so easy to create misinformed voters who fail to become interested in politics. It's all dumbed down because of the silly mantra saying everyone is so busy, busy, busy when in fact, they're not.
My mother used to use the busy word a lot. But she would say , 'busy doing nothing'. I think that about sums it up with people these days.
Like the house of reps that didn’t get much done this year and take an extended break when so much needed to be done. No other employer would put up with employees pulling that crap. Why do we have to put up with senators who are NOT doing their jobs?
We can only vote them out. That is not always what voters do though. And the youth it seems, are so turned off with what is going on and all of the deceit and grifting that many refuse to vote thinking that is cancelling it out. They are so horribly wrong. When the choices are not so much to your liking, or when you think it won't matter, or when you are fooled by those who are the exact opposite of what is best for you and the country, you lose your ability to see clearly when you are being scammed.
Education is the only way to help our youth or everyone who is misunderstanding how not works.
I agree. The unfortunate thing is that if they are not receptive to even talking about it ( sadly, 49 yr old daughter will not discuss with me and is convinced that Kennedy is the best choice) there is little one can do to even engage in a discussion.
Yikes
It's become a cliche. Parents frantically driving their kids around to play dates, working insane hours, no time for dinner so pick up some fast food every night, listening to TV news sound bites. It sells. I know many people who use it as an excuse not to live like mature adults managing their time and money.
We're busy doin' nothin', nothin' the whole day through, tryin' to find lots'a things not to do. (From the musical A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.)
I must offer some rebuttal here. I think that if people could separate themselves from their fears, they would see that the NYT offers balanced reporting, an extraordinary difficult task as the paper of record in the United States and to some extent a leading paper in the world.
The problem is that we all want the Times to say ONLY what we want to hear, and I include myself in that. I find it disconcerting and sometimes a little upsetting when a viewpoint is expressed which, say, expresses reservations about something the Democratic Party has done that has gone awry.
A good example occurred at the time of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. I was delighted with Biden’s action. It was decisive, bold, and long overdue.
Then it went sideways in a hurry and the Times was not slow to point it out. The chaos at the airport, the lack of good intelligence to recognize how ready the Taliban was to leap back into power, and the failure to liberate Afghans who had acted as translators and eyes and ears for the American military were all reported quite without fear or favor.
At first I was angry. Withdrawal was necessarily going to be difficult and problematic. Good intelligence was hard to come by. The mistakes were secondary to the bigger fact that America was finally out of its never-ending war. . . Could the media not stop nattering about these so-called “failures” in the operation. I never considered cancelling my subscription as it’s not the kind of impulse act I’m inclined to. But I burned at the time.
By the end of the summer I had cooled somewhat and recognized that if the withdrawal had been improperly devised in many ways and these errors hurt a number of people seriously, then it was the role of the NYT and frankly all media of conscience to report it in a clear-eyed way. I learned a lesson and it has stuck.
The NYT does not indulge in the sort of grossly unequal ‘what-aboutism’ that has become a terrible hallmark of these days. It has not failed to report economic progress under Biden. Nor has it failed to spend time, effort, and money to demonstrate that the message of better economic times is either not getting through to people, or I suspect being ignored by millions whose mind is made up and want no contradictory evidence that might slow down Trump’s re-ascendancy to the Presidency. Its polls showing Trump’s terrible momentum have been shocks to the system in recent weeks. But I fully trust they were carried out fairly. I also feel that while they have delivered a terrible shock to the system it is good for us to know as much about the battleground as possible, and even polling, which is fast becoming a pseudo-science, tells us clearly the nature of the struggle ahead.
Then there is the division which must be made between news and opinion. News tells us both pleasant and hard truths and the Times spends a fortune in producing it in as eye-catching a way as possible.
The opinion section is, for the most part, informed, far-seeing and offers good for thought. I know of no regular columnist who supports Trump. I find the views of Ross Douthat and Bret Stephens difficult to take at times, but they are a necessary corrective to my deep bent to the left. Thomas Friedman is sometimes pedantic and puts himself far out enough in his generalizations that one must think hard before accepting it at face value. Yet he is enormously well-informed, deeply patriotic and often singularly wise. Is there any doubt where Maureen Dowd stands? Paul Krugman’s mastery of the economy is breathtaking. I could go on but have an undisputed knack for being tedious so will leave the op-ed alone, hoping I haven’t left out a voice who without question should have been included. Ah I did. . . Jamalle Boue is brilliant.
We all recognize that the Times is a corporation and it exists to make money. Therefore it needs the broadest subscription model possible in order to give value to its advertisers. This means inevitably that it must report freely and fairly on the entire spectrum and risk losing the “fly off the handle” types.
I, for one, do not envy them the dilemmas they face. Nor am I surprised when they write articles that would give succour to today’s voters on the American right. I read (some of) these and do not find them wildly unbalanced.
I strongly disagree that the NYT is not the “paper of record” anymore as has been asserted today and other days. The fact that the Right hates it pretty much generally en masse (but long for its approbation) should tell us that leaders of conscience at the Times are appalled by the malice, impropriety, criminality and general lack of seriousness of today’s Republican Party.
We need the Times. We must point out its errors in judgment when they occur, but we need it as a starting point for our understanding of truth. We cannot read it as we do Letters from an American. As I’ve mentioned Professor Cox Richardson leans heavily on failures of the right and successes of the left, using her vast knowledge of history to buttress the few conclusions she allows herself. She is fighting for democracy to survive and thus inevitably writes what we want to hear. At some times this could be called cheerleading. In these most dangerous it is a most necessary arousal of Americans to fight the waves crashing on the shore.
I am terrified of 2024. I don’t think any of us can imagine the utter chaos this year will bring. Already the battle over Trump’s right to be on the ballot is stating to rage and we still have a couple of days to rest up before the most consequential year of our political live kicks off. Things will become real immediately the calendar turns and that which is irrational, spiteful, conniving, fraudulent, and possibly violent will take over. The daily news may be unable to keep up.
I hope and believe that the Times is ready for a quantum leap into the unknown. We ain’t seen nothing, bad as the last eight years have been, and more than ever we need the paper of record.
Who knows? Perhaps Wordle will help to save democracy.
I tend to agree with Eric’s analysis, with a caveot or two. Robert Hubbel has made a point of encouraging folks to stay subscribed, but to comment back to the editors/writers when they are way off base, and suggests that this “movement” has seen a bit of success with a slight shift in editorial policy away from “what-about-ism”, raising the alarm against authoritarianism, and giving Biden’s successes appropriate due. We shall see whether this holds up as this most dangerous and precarious year moves forward.
Thank you. I do not know Robert Hubbell, but his idea is sensible.
Can anybody give a precise example where the Times has been dangerously off the truth in the last year? Perhaps I am overly gullible and need my eyes opened.
I know the story of which you speak. It simply has not come to my attention that it has been refuted because the sourcing was weak. My miss, I assume.
Here's Robert Hubbell on the NY Times, the media, and what we can do:
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/help-shape-the-narrative?r=6pp8t&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/continuing-the-conversation-about?r=6pp8t&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I'm not fully convinced. What I expect from a news venue is accurate reporting.
I see very little wherever I look. Back during the 2016 election our "paper of record" failed us. They chose to misrepresent a lot of the news, and bias was very evident. They intentionally mis-used "the power of the Recording Secretary" to decide which news should be featured more or less prominently and in some cases, opinion was presented as news.
Villains abound, and what drove this shift away from objectivity remains uncertain, however my confidence in the NYT will never be fully restored. I still read their stuff but from now on I'll use my critical eye to look for the moment a story pivots. Same as with most other news sources I catch that moment all too easily and all too frequently.
That’s an interesting idea Gary. You. have a talent for aggregation from different sources that I must lack. I read articles assiduously and give them the benefit of the doubt. Unless I read/hear something contradictory within a short while, the story holds firm in my mind. That is of course for sources that enjoy a reputation for probity, like the Times, Guardian, Globe and Mail, New Yorker, Atlantic et al.
Of course I realize that no story is ever fully accurate. Reporters inevitably carry their own perspectives with them and of course there is a limit to their sources. I assume you and I could be tasked with covering the same event and our stories might vary with some degree of significance.
I must say though, given the above, that I don’t expect malfeasance from the papers I read - a la Fox News for instance. I expect a general level of accuracy, innovative reporting styles and coherence.
Op-Ed’s are different. My assumption with them is that they will be intelligently written, supported with a thesis and indicate some recognition that there are two sides.
Maybe I am simply naive, but the sources I mention have been reliable. I don’t read in a “gotcha” vein. Perhaps I should be more rigorous.
I’m completely in the dark with your phrase “the power of the Recording Secretary”.
And finally I wish I could be pointed to a substantive pattern of behavior that would reflect dishonest journalism. I still hold to my idea that many people become piqued with the Times for not giving them the news that they *want* to hear so as to bolster their worldview.
I expect to be told the facts and then make my own determinations. If I demanded only one-sided "news" I'd be deluding myself. Since 'news' is mostly information someone else doesn't wish for you to know, corruption is never far away. Don't let yourself be misled simply because something is presented neatly.
Marvin Gaye said it best: "believe half of what you see and none of what you hear."
The term "the power of the Recording Secretary" is one I devised from experience. Whoever takes the meeting minutes controls the institutional memory. If the secretary decides not to record what you say in a meeting, often that's too bad for you and whatever point you wanted to make: It's been unilaterally dismissed. That's a lesson to be learned from the Mad Men days - wise bureaucrats know to NEVER piss off the secretarial staff.
“ Since 'news' is mostly information someone else doesn't wish for you to know, corruption is never far away.”
Respectfully, that is a beguilingly written phrase that takes an enormous leap of logic. There are all sorts of instances of news that people think you *should* hear and thus pass it on. Natural disasters, acts of bravery and unselfish service, technological leaps, archaeological discoveries are all examples of news that people want to get you to, not keep from you.
That is not the larger point however. Corruption is often far from news. News so often ferrets out villainy, corruption and brutality. The newsmaker and the reporter are all too often at odds with one another, rather than in bed.
I get your point. Newsmakers can often “persuade” news purveyors to ignore or sanitize something corrupt or criminal that they are involved in.
But the extrapolation you made is far too sweepingly intended for me to gloss over without comment. I hope I am as alert and well-informed as the majority of citizens, but I am disinclined to be cynical. In the larger atlas of my life, a propensity to go down rabbit holes is a luxury I cannot afford. And please don’t feel I’m accusing you of so doing. The phrase I used has become an ugly one.
In my too many years I have learned that corruption is eventually outed so often that it is near a truism to claim that people with evil on their minds either get caught or suffer karmic justice.
I’m uneasily aware that we’ve wandered well away from my defence of the NYT. I accept your disagreement without rancor or feeling that one of us is right and the other wrong. Wonderfully, the world is more complicated than that.
Thank you for your points and also for educating me on your “Recording Secretary” statement. As a teacher who has found joy in the profession for 50+ years, I could not more wholeheartedly agree with you on this point.
Well said.
I also agree with some of this but I am seeing things in the NYT that are very wishy-washy and do not seem very well documented. I always do my best to figure out where the info comes from as I am reading. Sometimes it is blatantly false but sometimes not clear at all.
To your point I’m wondering if a vast letter writing campaign to the editorial board of the NYT might push them a bit more into the sunlight? Mike, what you said would be a great letter to the editor. Anyway just my opinion. Thanks for your thought and I see your point.
In my area if you write a letter to the editor and the editor doesn't like it....it isn't printed! Our daily newspaper is now delivered twice a week and is mainly high school sports and advertising! It is hard for a Democrat to get elected. Believe me....I know!
I canceled my subscription a few months ago. They are like Nikki: which way is the wind blowing? What shall we say that won't offend our advertisers? "Both-erism" to an art. I'm DONE!
I'd like to see this HCR edition as a full page op-ed in major newspapers.
I agree. Few people in the US know all of that party history. It is important to read this to understand what is happening today.
I cancelled my subscription about 6 months ago. Still with WAPO for now.
I am not renewing mine for some of the same reasons. I found that I was opening fewer and fewer of their articles also. I have the games subscription still for a bit but will not renew that as well .
The word pathetic comes to mind...shocking!
The papers are too often inclined make everything a contest; report the score rather than explain what's at stake.
And many only read the banner & Maga use the banner as facts
Carole, so right. They wave, they wear but basically do not comprehend exactly what’s really going to happen if it comes to pass.
Good bye social security, by by Medicare. Small business? Oh oh.
😬
That is 'not connecting the dots'. It requires very, very little cognition.
Sound byte society! During the 2020 election campaign is a a massive banner hanging from a barn in the outskirts of Raleigh, NC “SOCIALISM”!
That was one of the red meat words of the magas!
But don’t mess with their Social Security!! (Irony was lost.)
Tea Party demonstrator's hand made sign: "Keep your government hands off my Medicare"
Have to laugh at that one. No connecting the dots. DUH.
And they have NO idea of the meaning of the word! I was called a douche bag by a christian self proclaimed preacher for saying Jesus preached socialism
A “preacher” called you a “douche bag”? And he thinks he’s a man of God? How petty and crass. I hope you told him off.
It was on fb. He said he knew it was wrong so he would pray for forgiveness. Is that kind of hypocrisy even worth replying to? It says more about him & his faux faith than me
When in doubt ‘bless your heart!’ Sweetened with a dose of sarcasm!
Good advice. Most people familiar with that phrase know it has situational meaning!
School (60 years ago)taught me that socialism was a collective FOR THE PEOPLE, and that communism used it ( power/money) for the hierarchy . Somewhere along that line it appears people want to confuse masses about the principle. If the whole is not used for the betterment of the whole then the whole is used for the benefit of only a few. Is that not the principle of the matter?
Is there any ‘union’ whose people benefit in totality from the latter objective? Nations gone from Democracy to Imperialism that did well...’top heavy’...
Very few ‘ rich’ have an egalitarian outlook am I correct that our government is supposed to! Were it so -more representation of the underdog, the oversight people, the rules would focus on this...what seems to be the case is that far too many gaining that power do it to get rich and wield ( or yield?) to the hierarchy ...the little guy and women in general bear the lack thereof. Capitalization vs Socialism ...not compatible? A fine line?
I think WE CAN DO BETTER.
And it’s going through these harsh stark difficult times that reveal the tweaking necessary.
NOT throwing out the principle ( baby) with the bath water.
To my mind this current ...what ? ...5-6 year tumult is perfect example border line screaming 🗣️’get your papers in order’ as Schultz would say. Getting our principles in order...if you want to say slavery vs freedom let’s look at whom that directly speaks to ie ‘free white and 21’? ...as another saying goes...second class citizens? Indebtedness?
I won’t even pretend to comprehend the complexity of situations but the principe of matters...ethical ...compassionate...protective...nurturing...I get that.
Yup...I’ll be voting 💙
💙💙VOTE ALL THE COMPLICIT OUT💙💙
Thank you for this comment. I learned some things from it.
How ironic it is that those who damn socialism are steering the ship to communism/fascism, and many have no clue as to where this could end up: they’ll be holding the bag without social (socialism) security, Medicare, the freedoms we hold dear.
They’ll see how swell it is to live in a country that doesn’t go LGBTQ, BIPOC, people with disabilities and people who are older. Their gay nephews and mixed race great grandchildren will suffer and be unable to help them. But their cold dead hands will be clinging to their guns and their Bibles; their MAGA hats and other meglonaniabelia.
Unless we all just keep sharing HCR with them. And keep extending grace to them. And keep praying for justice. And keep working to get out the vote. And keep telling folks who slam Biden to hold up and realize how much he has done Re: saving our butts in the Damndemic, ARPA, Manufacturing, Infrastructure, JOBS, wins in congress and locally in 2024, support for Ukraine. YES. He’s faltered on conservation. But damn, he’s quick, knowledgeable, on task, on point, and knows the players and the back stories better than anyone who’s ever held that job. Do I love his take on Israel? No. Nyetenyahoo is a war criminal who needs to stop and needs to be investigated for the incredible slip of October 6&7. How could the Israelis have missed so so so much? Wow.
Pardon the rant and ramble.
Happy New Year, all.
2024 we must move toward the light.
Thank you, HRC, for keeping the way lighted by truth.
❤️🦋❤️
Excellent , Carey 👏 WOW even! 🫶
And don't even suggest that Jesus was not a white man. Duh! He was from the Middle East.
No, I think he was born in Arkansas. He definitely always says that America is his favorite country. Well, the parts that aren't liberal anyway.
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192663920/southern-baptist-convention-donald-trump-christianity
"What is he saying? Moore spoke to All Things Considered's Scott Detrow about what he thinks the path forward is for evangelicalism in America.
On why he thinks Christianity is in crisis:
It was the result of having multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — "turn the other cheek" — [and] to have someone come up after to say, "Where did you get those liberal talking points?" And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, "I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ," the response would not be, "I apologize." The response would be, "Yes, but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak." And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we're in a crisis."
"Who is he? Russell Moore was one of the top officials in the Southern Baptist Convention. "
This certainly explains how maga Christian's are coming across! Thankyou
Yes! A total corruption of the misguided notion of “fair and balanced' coverage. They've taken morality out of the equation and treat 'good' and 'evil' as two teams competing for the same trophy, and may the one with the higher score (whatever that is based on) win. I'm at a loss to guess how to get to publishers about this.
So true!!
Can the courts take the company away from Murdoch, nationalize it, cannibalize it, dissolve it, put the funds from the sale of it's assets into NPR? It sounds rather autocratic. Who can tell us?
The advertisers can take force Fox News to change or rather the lack of advertisers. Since Fox went on the air, many boycotts have been leveled against their advertisers. When this happens either the advertisers pull their ads to win back their customers/viewers or Fox backtracks on the issue. Why did Fox fire Bill O'Reiley and Tucker Carlson? Because their advertisers couldn't weather the backlash from allowing sexual predators to be on the air.
The Dominion defamation settlement against Fox has only focused their hateful rhetoric on specific Democrat politicians. And their next defamation case, if the settlement is for $2.1 billion will be a big blow to Fox. But as long as companies are willing to advertise on Fox they will continue to be a propaganda arm for the Republicans Party.
Rupert knows how to ditch his liabilities and replace them with unknowns until he makes them clones. Has worked for decades
I believe that Fox gets most of its revenues from cable subscriptions, not ads. So the best way to choke it is to make it a for-fee optional part of the cable package, like Disney.
Whenever people mention this, though, the MAGAts cry "free speech!" By which they mean "subsidized propaganda." Which is exactly what they claim NPR is. Which, if you look at the issue holistically, makes not a twit of sense. But then, consistent thought isn't a MAGAt attribute.
We have a $24 "broadcast surcharge" on our cable bill now. That's a monthly change for funneling the over-the-air programming into their product. So we are all paying the premium for Fox anyway, even though it's not a premium channel.
That is another good reason to cancel cable, Dish, Direct Tv. I now stream and it is by far less expensive and you download only what you want. NO FOX
I recently read Hoax! Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth by Brian Stelter. Highly readable and eye-opening.
Authoritarian governments do that kind of thing all the time. Democracy is not an easy responsibility. We are between a rock and a hard place at the moment but we have more power than we realize.
I'm afraid that most people have no real idea of what an authoritarian government is capable of doing. Had I not spent years researching the history of the Occupation of France and the work of the French Resistance, for a novel on Jean Moulin, I could be as blasé as so many (on both sides of the political fence) about the fact that history repeats itself and when a country is in the hands of someone like Trump and his cronies, the outcome cannot be good. That said, I believe that Haley is the lesser of all the Republican evils. She may loose some of the mysoginist male votes and hopefully this will be good for Biden.
And what MAGAnuts don’t realize is their businesses can be taken by tfg, the dictator, for pennies on the dollar (or just taken). I guess they think their support of him will protect them. Till it doesn’t anymore.
Rupert has the power, a little perk of big money. Reagan knew that.
No. Because of the First Amendment. Really, do you want a government that dissolves media companies because of their content? Frankly, that sounds like one of Trump's campaign promises.
No
I'm hoping Smartmatic will begin their multi-billion dollar suit against fox this summer; just in time to dominate the news in the fall. That ought to get the attention of the headline writers and editors. They know exactly how in-depth their average reader has patience for and how much their headlines and ledes influence them. Let's see how they behave this fall too.
Rupert runs rings around our MSM.
It's now Lachlan.
Rupert hasn’t gone anywhere, and he taught his children well, sadly.
Yes, appealing to low information citizens.
And some who buy into the pecking order. Just hate some who are less powerful
When Dr. Cox Richardson says, “It was the death knell of the Republican Party,” that’s “Houston, we have a problem,” for the GOP.
In the video, the moment Nicki Haley was asked the question ‘why-the-Civil-War,’ you can actually *see* her run away in panic.
Such a pity. The GOP wasn’t all bad(?).So lets all wish the GOP, “Thoughts and Prayers!!”🥲
“Lincoln and his fellow Republicans argued, the government should clear the way for those at the bottom of the economy, making sure they had access to resources, education, and the internal improvements that would enable them to reach markets.”
WAIT A MINUTE! That’s EXACTLY what
Joe Biden😎 is doing!
Well, La-dee-Dah!!☺️
Even as he was managing the Civil War, Lincoln made sure the transcontinental railroad was finished and established the land grant colleges. He walked the walk.
Do you mean to say, Lincoln didn’t have to announce every week that next week would be infrastructure week?
The current Greedy Old Plutocrat Party remains armed and dangerous, but Haley, among others, pointedly underlines it's complete reversal from the values it was formed to defend.
Sad that nobody defends what it was formed to defend. vote Dem. The Democrats should say they are grateful to the early repubs for showing them the way. Now the Dem way is the right way. Lincoln would agree, no doubt.
I think it's safe to say he would not want any connection to today's "Republican" Party. He would certainly have a thing or two to say about the Civil War, and to those who now seem to suggest that those who fought the obscenity of slavery had died in vain.
Absolutely. Now, we'll see what the 'old guard' will do as they find themselves without an organized national 'party' to promote their policies. A new party? A remake of the old?
It's going to be a blood bath.
The good news is that, as in nature, the old must be destroyed before the new can grow out of the ashes.
A blood bath you say? As Republicans undergo autophagy? Self-immolation? I’m good! I’ve got goggles… and popcorn aplenty. Thoughts & prayers!!😎
Yep, T and P are the solution to…nothing.
"thoughts and prayers"..hahahahahhaa..hahahaaahaha.. GAG ME WITH A SPOON! Whewww.., ugh...
The maga-tts are really in a dumpster. Too bad we can't just call Waste Management (the 'trash' hauler) and have that load of shit hauled over to Vic Orban's driveway and dumped.
Yeah... I saw her with my own eyes physically walk backwards as she did her best to spin an answer. ugh.
It is now.
They're all the Confederate White People's Treason and Sedition Party, masquerading as what used to be the Republican Party.
So many republicans I know really care only about money and deregulation. They’ll vote for anyone who will promise to put a few more dollars in their pockets in the form of a tax cut, regardless of the rights they take away or the damage they do to the environment.
Too many republicans still think that it’s still the GOP. After Ike, it’s been nothing but the CWPTSP (see above).
Added to that is a knee-jerk response to the word Democrat, without knowing what the party actually represents.
Thanks to Rush and his libtard bull Schitt. My b-I-l really loved that.
I think his type is legion, esp here in the south.
So sad. But true!
I'm not sure if you identify as a Democrat, but I assume from your words you are. Can you help spread the facts? Can you please talk -- and listen -- to your family, friends and neighbors to make sure we do not elect this cruel group of autocrats
It is not "Democrats" responsibility to take the MAGA Republican talking points and "use" them. It is incumbent upon all Americans who care about our democracy to get to work now to expose the motivations behind the MAGA Republicans authoritarian plan: to protect a system that benefits their wealthy, white, male cronies.
People sometimes think that they’re powerless to really do very much to change anything since the force required to put new initiatives into motion is often so great.
This is because there are so many moving parts involved in the present system. Nonetheless, big changes happen.
We are on the brink of technological developments that will make the internet look small time. That is startling isn’t it? AI, Fusion Power, grid scale distributed energy storage, CRISPR based medical advances... are several big ones that will make life longer, better, faster and easier. These changes are already underway and racing forward. Democratic government systems are best equipped to integrate these amazing advances because they function at the behest of the majority of the people not the minority who think they know better.
Our position, as American citizens, is at the top of the inverted pyramid. Voting for smart, experienced individuals whose primary purpose for wanting to get elected is to serve the People... not themselves...is what can make our already good democratic government that much better; it’s been that way since he beginning. The economic performance of democracies is always far superior to that of autocracies over the longer run. People in democracies have a great chance to live better, longer and happier lives.
We must stay strong and vote for qualified and experienced governmental representatives who will do a good job in their positions be it in our school districts, municipal and state governments and nationally. The Republican Party and its philosophy is broken...they need to stop going in the wrong direction... but the majority of them lack the courage, flexibility and ability to do that. Eventually, they’ll come to their senses but not at the present time.
Our truly great opportunity is to make sure we all do our duty now and vote for the candidates best prepared and capable to represent what “We the Majority of the People” want and need. We can do this... make no mistake.
Good essay here
Please identify the smart Americans outside this group. I know there are some, but it’s shocking to talk to random people waiting for an oil change, or in line at the store. You hear insanity.
They’re mostly frightened…a trump conviction or two will help a solid Democratic victory will help much more. These people who are afraid are our neighbors and friends who’d help in an instant. Your kindness is what matters the most as you won’t convince them with arguments.
The conversations with friends, family, neighbors that I'm talking about should not involve any arguing whatsoever. These conversations are about connecting--not arguing. Using active listening techniques helps you find out where they're at, e.g. once you've started a conversation, try asking your friend, family member or neighbor about how they feel about what's happening in our country. When they answer, try asking, "Please tell me more" a few times as they talk. Listen. You'll likely hear about what's important to them. It's also possible to pivot the conversation to ask them to think about solutions to the problem, e.g. "What would you do if you were President?" "Please tell me more about that..." Then if it's going well, you could ask them if you could share some info on the topic you were discussing. It could just be, "I think you'd be interested in reading this newsletter I follow by an amazing history professor, Heather Cox Richardson, who helps me put what's happening now into context with American history."
A very sound approach
So not sure how many members of this community have visited Columbia, SC but I have and I did an interesting tour of the statehouse during one of those visits. It's not just that ALL the most prominent statuary in the building and on the grounds is dedicated to glorifying the Confederacy--there is a sculpture group way off to the side near a little-used entrance that represents the enslaved people who (ahem) BUILT the statehouse--it is that the Articles of Secession ARE CARVED INTO THE WALLS OF THE BUILDING'S INTERIOR and the SC governor and legislators look at it EVERY DAY. If you want to know the true meaning of Christofascism, spend an hour at the statehouse in Columbia. And I actually like Columbia: it's an interesting city with good food and a diverse population. But those guys are never going to give up their dedication to the Confederacy and what it stood for no matter how many people bleat about it. And it's a true irony of both the Patriarchal and Post-colonialist Bargains (See Kandyoti and Sa'ar among others for an unpacking of those terms) that the mouthpiece for everything awful in SC is a woman of color of South Asian heritage whose home country was exploited almost to obliteration by the tiny white Christian nationalist imperialist country of Great Britain.
Thanks for this report, Linda.
Confirmed: MAGA is KKK. The proof is right in front of us. Any doubt, consult "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election and Why?" https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0896920517740615 along with Timothy Egan's book, "A Fever in the Heartland" about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's. MAGA and KKK are virtually identical - white Protestant supremacy.
Sadly our nation was founded on the invention of white supremacy to justify enslaving human beings with darker skin, committing genocide against them, spreading propaganda about them and then passing laws to oppress them.
We missed an opportunity during Reconstruction to “build back better. We allowed those who need racism to accumulate wealth and power to reign. Racism defines us. It’s woven throughout our systems and lives.
Without racism based on skin color we’d be a very different nation. This is our last gasp for liberty and justice.
Nikki Haley knows better but won’t do better. Having her in the White House will be disastrous. She’s already committed to pardoning Trump. The puppeteers will have a field day with her.
I guess we’ll soon see where America stands in 2024…
Curiously, the last big Protestant Evangelical effort, mainly from rural America, was Prohibition. Alcohol remains both a pleasure and a social scourge to this very day.
Abraham Lincoln would turn in his grave if he knew what they’ve done to his party.
Now I’m imagining Abe’s spirit returning inside a contemporary orator, to talk directly to the MAGA voters.
You're right. Following the horrific Mother Emmanuel massacre in June, 2015 -- the slaughter of nine members of the congregation following their Bible study, but a young white male supremacist -- demands were made by Black citizens (and white, as well, of which I was one) to remove the damn Confederate flag to the SC Statehouse. Nikki wasn't sure what to do. Which way was the wind blowing? How would her decision affect her politically??! Finally, after a young Black woman had had enough and climbed the flagpole to cut it down, Nikki said that the flag would come down -- HOWEVER: it would be put in a "place of honor" on the grounds of the Capitol.
Your last sentence was right on point!! The Democrats have to start NOW doing heavy promotion of all the good that the Biden Administration has done. And to show the hypocrisy of the republican party and its candidates. Consistently promote Biden and bash republicans--from now until November--in all media outlets, not just MSNBC and the like. But on ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, TNT, movie channels, etc., in Super Bowl ads, And in swing states!! Advertising on MSNBC and maybe CNN and in states like MA, is preaching to the choir. Just like the republican thinking is repeat lies often and people will believe them. Well, maybe if the Democrats tell the truth about Biden's accomplishments often, maybe people will realize how good his presidency has been and not accept the lies.
Unfortunately, Kamala is as despicable as Haley and just as ambitious.
O rly?
Do tell the rest of the class what makes VP Harris so despicable. Be prepared to show your work.
Well, for starters, she is more than willing to sacrifice the public policy aspirations of working people for that of political expediency as a means of enhancing her political career. See her advocacy for Medicare for All during the early stages of her 2020 campaign: strong endorsement, then tepid support, finally opposition based on the gutless rationalization of pragmatic incrementalism and ‘realism’. Think Hillary Clinton 2.0.
One more time. The political parties of our duopoly are not the same, except when they are. And when they are, for instance, in terms of corporate fealty, pandering to their respective bases, ignoring democratic principles (have you been keeping up with Democratic Party efforts to keep third party candidates off the ballot?), and acquiescing to the political constraints of an utterly corrupted political system, they are both, yes, despicable.
Tom, as a favor to me, and perhaps others, could you list the reasons you will be voting for Trump. Thank you. Your answer will help me to better understand your thinking.
For what it's worth, I will tell you why I will vote for the Democratic candidate. I subscribe to the theory of government enunciated by Frances Perkins, FDR's Sec. of Labor responsible for the New Deal programs:
"The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to provide the means by which all the people under its jurisdiction can access the best possible life."
Good grief. Why is it that liberals are so quick to respond to Democratic Party critique by assuming that the critic will be voting for Trump? It’s as absurd as responding to critique of the U.S. role in the proxy war in Ukraine by assuming the critic is a supporter of Putin.
One more time. I despise Trump, and did long before he ever entered the political arena. I would never vote for him, just like I’ve never voted for any other GOP candidate. As to why people would vote for him, I can completely understand that. He has tapped in to two populist threads, and despite not caring about either, he has used them to augment the racist, Christian (fascist) Nationalist majority of his base. The first issue is the continuing war on the middle class and working people by the political establishments of both parties. The second is the power wielded by intelligence agencies and America’s continuing proclivity of involvement in endless war.
Admire Frances Perkins. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has abandoned the tenets of her theory, since Reagan, in favor of fealty to monied interest donors, the people be damned. It sat on the laurels of association with the New Deal, and instead of aggressively pursuing FDR’s Second Bill of Rights, adopted a strategic defensive posture to increasing GOP advances by courting Wall Street and Silicon Valley to win elections, and again, the people be damned.
I will be voting for a third party candidate for POTUS, as neither party in our current duopoly is worthy of my vote, imo. Both place donor interests ahead of working people, neither support a single-payer health care system, both support endless war, and both, currently, are complicit in the most horrific genocide of my lifetime.
Your last paragraph is totally true, Tom, but voting for a third party candidate gives you a sense of honor and defiance. You are also wasting a vote and a vote in the next election is a precious thing. Please reconsider and choose the lesser of your 2 evils.
No, voting for a candidate that most aligns with the policy agenda that
I think would be best for the country is an expression of democracy. I don’t give a damn about honor or defiance; your Dr. Phil armchair analysis is laughable.
Get off of your sanctimonious high horse about wasting a vote. It’s a repulsive, anti-democracy mindset, especially coming from one purporting to having a desire to ‘save’ democracy.
If anyone is on a” sanctimonious high horse” it’s you. Happy New Year.
No, sorry. Sanctimonious high horse people don’t accuse others of wasting their vote, so that can’t be me. Happy New Year to you as well. It’s going to be an interesting year, that’s a given.
Tom, respectfully, you are bright enough to know that it is possible to waste a vote and in fact, to do more damage than good. Frankly, it's a simple process involving the lesser of two evils. Throwing away a vote could get you the worst, such as in 2000 when Ralph Nader's candidacy cost Al Gore the win in Florida, giving the presidency to Bush. Look at the disaster that followed: Iraq and the near depression that resulted.
No. No. A thousand times no. What cost the Dems were…. wait for it, registered Democratic voters who voted for Bush, in a vote total that dwarfed Nader’s numbers.
If Gore wins Tennessee, his home state, he wins the election. If he doesn’t put Clinton in the closet because of Monica, he probably wins. If he doesn’t pick a Republican as a running mate, he probably wins. If his assembled team in Florida contesting the election result cared about winning the messaging war as much as the GOP suits/thugs did, he probably wins. And if he spoke truths about the illegitimacy of the SCOTUS decision post-Bush inauguration, he probably kills Dubya’s second term, though Kerry’s clueless response to being Swift Boated might still have carried the day to another Dem loss they had no business losing.
One more time; lesser evil voting by Democrats is what brought us Trump. Dems need to start thinking long term, instead of focusing narrowly on the next election cycle. The ratchet effect is real, and has shifted the political landscape/Overton Window to the right since Reagan, election by election, regardless of whether Democrats happen to win, or hold Congress.
Respectfully, every vote cast for a Democratic candidate for President since Mondale has been a wasted vote, because every Democratic candidate who has won has betrayed FDR’s vision of a Party aligned with a working class base, and made it more likely to alienate voters who used to identify as Democrats, by caring more about donors than working people. And as long as we’re talking wasted votes, anyone who didn’t vote for Sanders in the Dem primaries in ‘16-20 wasted their vote, because they voted for incremental pragmatism in the face of economic and climate catastrophe, either out of fear or cowardice.
How do like them wasted vote apples?
Tom, without a doubt, one must choose one's fights carefully, just as one must cast one's votes wisely. The obvious normally only comes into focus until after the fact.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
…perfection is the enemy of the good…
Cliche much?
A third party candidate in 2016 gave the election to the despicable. That was Jill Stein, and she's on her ego-trip again to try to ruin this country. (I don't disagree with many f her positions. But she should not be a third party candidate.) Also, and I know there were other elections as well in the past, the 2000 election went to Bush because of Nader's third party candidacy. So, if you must, hold your nose, but vote for democracy and the Democratic candidate. Do you really want to see this country fall under a narcissistic autocrat who doesn't care about the Constitution and will ruin everything our founding fathers (and most of the readers here) wanted? Look at the reality of the situation. For better or worse, as of now, we're a two-party country. One of the two candidates will win. A third party has no chance of winning--only subverting the process. So, keep voicing your opinions on issues that are important to you, but vote sensibly. Help save our country!
Sorry, Herb. We’re in the position we’re in today because Democrats can’t renounce their corporate donor fealty, and do right by the working class and the poor, and it turns millions of voters off.
I already debunked the Nader fallacy to Richard above. As to Stein, do you know why Clinton lost Michigan? It wasn’t because of Stein; her vote totals were exceeded by the number of ballots, many of them around Flint, in which voters had marked a preference for Democrats in every race on the ballot but the one for POTUS. They left that one blank. Why? Because instead of aggressively going after the corporations shilling for the GOP governor who allowed the water crisis to unfold, Obama actually showed up and told the people in the area the water was safe to drink. It still wasn’t. When you betray people, they usually remember.
I will not vote for a hold your nose party, nor candidate. That’s a ridiculous strategy to save a democracy, which we don’t currently have, btw. In case you haven’t noticed, we live in an inverted, totalitarian corporate state, which both parties, and their voters, have been complicit in creating. I will vote for the candidate who most aligns with the policy Rx I believe will best address the pressing issues we face as a nation. Would it be that most Americans voted that way, instead of holding their noses.
Well said.
Neither party deserves to win in my opinion. Two parties owned by money! This is Democracy?
How do you figure it, Jenny? Biden wanted to forgive $1.6 trillion of student debt owed by 40,000,000 Americans. Trump and the Republicans, by contrast, gave a $2,000,000,000,000 (two trillion) tax break to a vastly smaller number of wealthy individuals and corporations. Biden's plan would have given a huge boost to the economy, which is now growing better than all the other nations in the world.
Bears repeating! Amen for mentioning Richard.
"The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to provide the means by which all the people under its jurisdiction can access the best possible life."
I agree our political
Parties have flaws but the Republicans emphasis on making the country great by saving white supremacy, ignoring climate change, controlling women and in general oppressing people who they deem different means there are not “fine people on both sides”.
No argument the GOP is worse. But that’s a mighty low bar.
Race - The Democratic Party refuses to support a commission to even study reparations much less support the concept itself. It reneged on a promise to retire student debt for HBCU grads.
Climate - The Dems refuse to support the ‘leave it in the ground’ strategy, coupled with the renewables moon shot agenda necessary to seriously address the issue.
Women - Which party was it in ‘08-10 that controlled Congress and the White House and refused to legislatively codify Roe when it had the chance?
If the advocates of the Democratic Party would put half the energy they use demonizing the GOP and its supporters into pressuring their own elected officials to do the right thing for working people and the poor instead of bending over to corporate donors, we might put an end to the election ratchet effect that ensures governmental dysfunction.
Sorry but the racism and violence that Republicans proudly promote trump (pun intended) the Democrats' reticence to deal with racism. Racism goes way beyond student debt and reparations. It's an everyday existential threat to people of color-especially Black folks who've had to endure the impact of America's choice to practice racism for centuries.
Once again, imho there are not fine people on both sides.
So some people are fine, and others are deplorable. Gotcha. And so we get lesser evil voting. Gotcha. Which does occur on both sides, because while your side is fine, the other side thinks they are fine, and you are deplorable. So they lesser evil vote, too. And both parties are owned by donors, so between the ownership and the lesser evil voting, nothing gets fixed.
Yes, racism goes beyond reparations and student debt. But racism can’t be decoupled from economic class warfare in the U.S., because that is what created our American racism. If it is the existential threat you suggest, then why won’t Democrats address the economic class issue (thank you, capitalism) in a meaningful way?
I’ll answer the question - they won’t because their donors pay them not to.
Trump garnered more votes from people of color in ‘20 than he did in ‘16. Early polling suggests he will top that in ‘24 if it is a Biden-Trump contest. The existential threat messaging needs work it seems.
I do agree with a lot of what you say and have been holding my nose for over decades and vote blue but ...................... I still will. I voted for Nader in 2000 and even held an event to promote him. I don't regret my vote for him out here in Oregon as the repugs were bound and determined to get GWB in there with the help of Florida politicians and brotherly corruption.
Totally understand, and recognize your right to make your own choice in the voting booth. That’s one facet of democracy.
That said, your over decades remark made me smile, and gave me another moniker for Democratic Party other than Team Blue; the Hold Your Nose Party.
Illustrative of the current landscape within the duopoly.
Brava!
I take it “ambitious” is a slur when applied to women. Your misogyny is glaring.
Lordy, is there another Kamala around. I haven’t met her? But misogynists abound
You evidently don't like Indian women.
Huh? You do realize they Kamala and Nikki are both "Indian" women.
Were you not aware?
They are both American women who are of Indian descent. Also, both are intelligent and accomplished and ambitious and politically shrewd and have very good smiles. It's been decades since I was referred to as an Irishman.
Why do you think I made that remark? N.B. Please don't answer, unless you want to have a sensible non-aggressive discussion.
I don't want to speculate. Kamala's mother is of Indian descent and her father is Jamaican. Both of her parents are highly educated her father being a professor of economics at Stanford.
Both of Nikki's parents are Indian.
With that in mind, I was just wondering what you were implying with your comment? I have worked for and with over 300 Indians since 1995. One of my best friends when I lived in CA was from India and he was an electrical engineer who worked for Intel. The Indians I worked with in the 1990's had good technical skills, but most of them were hard to understand and weren't very familiar with American customs, culture and even holidays. That has certainly changed over the years. It's rare that I have trouble understanding any of the Indians I work with, even if they have never been to the US. The Indian consulting firms make a point of having their consultants only speak English which is a really good thing since my attempts at Hindi, well, they suck.
One of the young Indian consultants attempted to teach me some Hindi phrases. I was so bad at it that he and the other Indians laughed uncontrollably.
Anyway, so why did you make your remark?
Agree 100%. Democrats have been soft on rebuttal and counter offensives since '16. Pisses me off intensively, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
F**kin’ A to “Now Dammit Democrats, use them!!!!”