Thank you @HeatherCoxRichardson. I'm grateful for all of the research and effort going into the crafting and production of the LFAA.
“[Netanyahu] has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.” -Sen. Chuck Schumer.
Simple word substitution: "The GOP, by becoming the Trump/Putin/MAGA party has lost its way prioritizing the concentration of power and wealth to take precedence over the best interests of the United States."
In the 2024 election cycle in the United States, I can only hope that reasonable conservative pragmatists (granted, an endangered species) who have traditionally been members of the former GOP will vote alongside moderates, and liberal progressives to make it clear to all that we support democracy, justice, and continuing our evolutionary work toward a "more perfect Union."
There is no place in government for those who reject and continue to attack the very system they claim to represent.
The world is watching. Will we support experienced, leadership and promote the United States as a stable and responsible partner in global trade, defense, and diplomacy? Or will we destroy the system by elevating a group of incompetent, corrupt individuals who seek to enrich themselves and their friends regardless of the cost to America and the world?
I believe many decent Republicans who have exited the Halls of Congress are doing so with the intent of stepping back and letting the M.A.G.A. G.O.P. implode under the weight of its vindictive partisanship with its ideology breeding idiocy. Then they may re-enter to re-build the Party. Those decent Republicans that have stuck around may resent their erstwhile colleagues invoking a right of return.
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In the meantime, Reaganism is plainly exhausted and has been for a long time. As the New Deal supplanted classical economics and supply-side economics supplanted Keynesianism, some new progressive economic philosophy is set permanently to replace Reaganomics. That may spell a liberal ascendency for twenty years or more.
Thanks Ned -and would greatly enjoy seeing some generational ascendency. People expect immediate results, however -"People don't eat in the long run." My mantra continues to be any form of meaningful democracy requires an educated, informed, and engaged society. All 3 pillars have been assailed since the Reagan Administration -while wealth has concentrated through trickle-down fraud, privatization, and externalities.
The place where Reagan conservatives (sadly -not Eisenhower conservatives) figured this out architected in the Powell Memo to the US Chamber of Commerce. He provided the foundation for long-term strategy and tactics which have led to today's MAGA extremism and madness.
No one with decent education, who is well-informed, and sane has ever uttered the words: "These are challenging global times. We really need Marjorie Taylor Greene, James Comer, Ron Johnson, Lauren Boebert, and some religious zealots to lead us into the future."
"Now it is true that I believe this country is following a dangerous trend when it permits too great a degree of centralization of governmental functions. I oppose this — in some instances the fight is a rather desperate one. But to attain any success it is quite clear that the Federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken by it. The political processes of our country are such that if a rule of reason is not applied in this effort, we will lose everything — even to a possible and drastic change in the Constitution. This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon “moderation” in government. Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H.L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
I consider President Eisenhower to be the last great conservative President (of course the competition is thin considering the paranoia and crimes of Nixon, the elevation of Bonzo's co-star, "Dubya", and a fraud running a criminal enterprise).
The irony of the Lewis Powell memo was that it was a call for the very wealthy to form a Millionaire's Union (while attacking labor Unions and anyone else's ability to collectively bargain). With Powell laying out the architecture and the HL Hunt's, Koch's, Adelson's and others funding "The Powell Machine" -it has been highly successful at concentrating wealth and power (while eroding democracy).
James, I grew up in the Eisenhower years, too young to understand the politics. But it seems now to have been the calm before the storm. I also think that a lot of the problems we see now were unseen and under the table. I grew up in a R family where the prejudices were casual, not virulent. I was fortunately to know a teacher couple who were miles ahead of that time. I finally woke up during late high school, college, and Peace Corps. I saw my first racial conflict when I was about 7 in Chicago and I never forgot how awful and unfair that was. By the time Nixon arrived, I was much more aware of the political problems of Rs. I did vote for Rs like Mark Hatfield here in Oregon, but never for a R president. Now I won't vote for any R. I consider the Bushes a crime family and now we have mafia don and his crime family.
I didn't like it as a kid, but in retrospect the instability accompanying moving around and growing up in less than middle class neighborhoods was an unseen gift.
Been there, done that. I have made the comment that growing up poor was the best thing that happened to me. I will add, I never went hungry, I never suffered physically, I had a flawed but adequate family, and I felt cared for. On the other hand, I didn’t expect much to be given to me. Just recalling, makes me know that my childhood was an ‘unseen gift.’ Thanks for that…
It occurred to me that unions were a needed check and balance on power of product, share, and job controlling "trusts", but I had never quite framed it as a "Millionaires (now Billionaires) Union; both organize to maximize their power, although the advantage for the wealthy is that they can just will organization into being (and do) by paying for it, while democratic organizing is like herding cats. Power tends to corrupt, and I think there are many examples of the union movement gone wrong, but many of the now eroding rights workers (unionized or not) enjoyed in the last century were won or buttressed by the union movement. The key to liberty and justice for all, whether in a marriage or a society is to bargain in good faith, and install social rules that enable and reward that. And also discourage and foil predation by anyone. The boundary of organized billionaires can be indistinct from organized crime.
Thank you so much MaryPat! If you visit https://civ.works and either click on the purple “Support civ.works” button, or click the donate link in the menu, either will open up a secure donate page with our payment processor, Stripe.
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The best President of my life-time remains President Ford. Back in the days of Presidents Eisenhower and Ford, conservatism was a partner to liberalism. The liberals forged ahead with new initiatives. The conservatives were there to make those changes fiscally sustainable, except when said initiative was plainly repudiated or evidently undoable. It was more of a creative tension and foreign policy was a unified front against the evil of the U.S.S.R. and Red Chine.
Perfectly said, Ned: "a creative tension." I believe the Founders meant for politics in this country to be a creative tension of intelligent, moral, well-meaning philosophies, not the political equivalent of Mutually Assured Destruction.
That's not to say the Founders lived in a kumbaya world--politicians routinely flayed each other in person and in the popular press--but in the end, governed in the moderate middle where Americans live.
Ahh, the good ole days when those tiny splinters could be mocked, and the Koch Bros and other Ayn Rand acolytes hadn't built their empire of right wing institutes.
Just read yesterday a report that claims that about 50% of us are helping our grown children financially. We can blame this on Reaganism. Our children (even those in their 40's at this time) didn't and don't have the financial advantages that we had - fair wages, affordable housing, affordable higher education, etc. Examples: 1) Our first home, a brand new townhouse in Cupertino, CA cost $39,250; 2) my 12 years of college (including Whittier, USC, Harvard Grad and Harvard Law) TOTALED less than $17,000. That's barely a quarter of a year's tuition now.
We wonder why American society has become polarized, toxic, and violent -I think there is generational economic despair. As parents and grandparents we want to provide more opportunity for our children and future generations. Instead -higher education debt burden (looking at Reagan and bloodsucking Betsy DeVos here), an employer relationship that once included defined benefit pension plans to supplement social security is now a "gig" economy, people argue with each other over a minimum wage disconnected from the obscene wealth concentrated into the hands of the few like Elon Musk, Robert Mercer, Larry Ellison, and Peter Thiel. The concentration of wealth has led to multiple generations of people working paycheck to paycheck for a diminishing quality of life. And people are then intentionally misdirected to thinking the issue is related to government spending instead of understanding trickle down fraud and the GOP shills who have been paid to continue to perpetuate it upon American society -democracy, equity, and justice be damned.
George, the older I get, the more I come to see the system created by Reagan, Bill Buckley and the wealthy with their propaganda to be a monster system and the more I look back to the genius of Frances Perkins and FDR in establishing the American Middle Class: "The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to provide all the people under its jurisdiction the means for the best possible life." That's Perkins' theory of government. That includes an education, health care, job, housing and more. I started out life in Texas as a Libertarian. My political philosophy continued to mature along the way. I am now an outright Liberal. Government should be for ALL THE PEOPLE.
I have to pay $5,000 this year extra, in taxes because I am now single (widowed) while Musk and his ilk can’t pay a dime it seems. My move, which was supposed to free up money for donations, now frees up money for the IRS. I should have known but I have been overwhelmed with bureaucratic BS, not having the brigade of lawyers who keep the rich, rich. You are so right, obscene wealth v. Just getting by. Blood sucking meant to cause division and despair. Time to see them without their PR masks.
I feel your pain. Same here. No matter what I do the government gets any of my 'extra' money. I cannot cut anything else. At almost 70 I still can't take a day off.
It's keep 'em on the treadmill, working their a**es off to manage their debt repayments, with the great added advantage, that the educated never get a chance to exercise their critical faculties, never the time to think things through.
Lincoln said you can't fool all of the people all of the time. True, you can't. But WE have ways to sideline and silence those we cannot fool.
What a brutal, gratuitously cruel society these poor bastards have brought in, a society so fragmented, even atomized, that it barely merits the name “society”. A manheap bearing the mark of Cain and “Am I my brother's keeper?”
What a pandemic of narcissistic perverts, minds consumed by limitless greed, cruelty, deep, deep stupidity—often riveted to high IQ—and suicidal destruction of the very basis of our shared existence.
Expressed at this moment by total indifference to the programmed massacre and maiming of tens of thousands of civilians, whole families, so many children.
My life was marked by bombing at a tender age. Now I veer between towering rage and depression, and if I had no spiritual support, I do not know how I could survive the horror into which we have descended.
Thank you for sharing that Peter -I cannot begin to imagine the horror of your youth. All war is terrorism. Life itself is challenging enough without the cruelty, violence, and exploitation -all of which know no borders. My life now, with far more yesterdays than tomorrows (thinking of the Clarence Clemons quote) I wish Martin's dream could have been reality, the songs of John Lennon, and what the journey through this life might have been if people everywhere heeded the concept set forth by Carl Sagan and others -we are on a tiny blue dot life raft hurtling through space -that the physical and artificial borders between us are merely intended to keep us fighting someone else's war while our lives are drained through anxiety and worry. I imagine and work toward a collaborative world centered around peace and the alleviation of suffering -regardless of the odds and wealth expended to maintain the status quo -or worse.
Try turning some rage energy into helping where and as you can. That will assuage your depression. My profound sympathies. I only feared bombing, never experienced the terror of it. But I can wish you all help possible with your PTSD.
Richard, my wife and I are certainly in the 50% who help our 3 adult children. In fairness, our parents helped us out tremendously during their lives and through bequests.
That said, we recently moved into a new home that we completely renovated. In the process, I found a stack of newspapers from the '70s. On March 28, 1978, a year after I graduated college, the Dow was at 753 points. That same month I had been hired with a BS Plant Science earned the year before to work in a well-known nursery, for which I was paid $1.85/hour (minimum wage was then $1.65, and horticulture/agriculture is famously low-paying). We were less than a year into ownership of a home for which we paid $43,450 (with help from parents, and for which we've been eternally grateful.)
We've moved a few times since, but I'd guess that home is now worth close to $500K (I'll check after I post this) and the Dow is nearing 40,000.
But minimum wage has only increased to $7.25 across most of the country.
My tuition and room and board at Yale was $1,560 annually in the early 1950s. My first house—3 bedrooms-in Washington cost $36,000 in Washington. Of course, as a Foreign Service Officer in the 2nd lowest grade I received $6,065/year, until I went to Congo and received hardship pay (I personally had to purchase my 9mm Beretta.)
When first married, our two bedroom cost $88/month. We could not afford to dine out. Our modest vacation apartment was $125/week. Different strokes for different folks!
In my parents' lifetimes, my wife and I did support them financially, providing them with a home and some financial support. Those of us who grew up in the 50's and 60's had it the best. We've simply got to take back some of that $34 trillion (and counting) that the Republican oligarchs have stripped out of the economy, literally making indentured servants out of our children and grandchildren. My goal is to leave my two daughters enough to make up for what they aren't going to get in terms of Social Security and Medicare, though they will have paid into it for most, if not all, of their productive lives. Theft, by any other name, is still theft. The Republicans call them tax breaks.
This does not surprise me at all. We don't have children, but we help our nephews here on the west coast and sometimes my nieces in the midwest. We were over to our neighbors last night to do Christmas near St. Patrick's Day....lots of medical issues and then they got colds....so the delay. He is a retired banker who has a clear view on how the economics work these days and how much things cost including the cost of cement. We talked about mergers and how they affect the cost of food for example. Not a pretty picture.
Millions of "Howdy Doody" fans will likely be protesting this comment Ned. I hope you are able to redirect their anger toward Rupert Murdoch, or someone equally deserving. :)
The wealth divide has created a class of arrogant billionaires who pay little or no taxes. They put their money into far-right media, the Republican Party, and the Supreme Court. Some want to rule by cronyism and corruption, others by using A I. Still, it’s fascism and a way to destroy democracy. Too many Americans are impressed by money, and think these people are geniuses.
So very true. Whenever the microphone is in front of Elon Musk for whatever ignorant opinion he wants to share with all of us I think "haven't we learned there are already far too many incompetent narcissists in the world?""
Why not cover what Naomi Oreskes has to say? Or Joel Bakan? Noam Chomsky? George Lakoff? Naomi Klein? Heather Cox Richardson?
News should be about fact-based/evidenced based information. It shouldn't just be a microphone and a talking horse.
I may be naively optimistic about humanity. I suspect that a better educated and informed society, when given a choice (absent gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the Electoral College) will lean toward the non-criminal. Granted MaryLee -that's a generalization -and it is only a lean -it's not necessarily an absolute. I recognize that people might think they are informed by focusing on specific media and are motivated by confirmation bias as opposed to news and information predicated upon facts.
I've had great discussions with well-educated conservative friends -(they might be socially moderate, but fiscally conservative) -and they will not support Trump.
21st-century commentators have expressed the opinion that a number of the fears raised in his speech have come true.
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
The Regressives often name their programs to be the opposite of what they really are, like the "Patriot Act". "Trickle-down" is another good example. A more honest name for Reaganomics would have been "Gusher Up". That is what happened and trickle down never did.
True Steven. You might already be familiar with the work of George Lakoff -“Don’t Think of an Elephant”. He deconstructs the Orwellian political language used by the GOP.
On generational ascendancy, that has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. My generation does not want to retire. It is making our politics sclerotic, our rhetoric often crotchety. 🙂
Thanks Pat! As the media has treated politics like a sporting event -too many have lost sight of the fact that our elected officials shape the now and the future for this and future generations. It isn't about Blue vs. Red. It's about living wages, affordable housing, education, defense, diplomacy, trade -everything.
If they want to see incompetent clowns juggling chain saws -they can go to the circus -not the ballot box.
The shiny hucksterism of the Reagan medicine show, that preached prosperity for all if we only granted the wealthiest impunity, has now lost it's luster, and the current claim is that government by the rich for the rich is holy writ from the will of the founders, and Almighty God.
Jeri, I had a man say to me, (he didn't know about my disdain for Trump.. Now he knows,) "Can you believe they ( not sure who "they" are) don't want to pay Trump's legal bills?"
No more proof of cult thinking. Born rich, plans to stay that way, no matter who has to pay. And the fools line up. When I contribute to Joe, I am supporting democracy, not a greedy bastard. I was raised to think that you don’t blow your own horn, you don’t steal, you don’t expect much, you work for what you get (unless you can’t), religion is about loving and caring about others (Golden rule). My grands, and great grands were poor immigrants and wanted opportunities. They got them, but later generations seem to have forgotten from whence they came. My blood has been boiling for a spell now….
My mother, rest her sweet soul, stressed the Golden Rule to us.
She was a Pentecostal Holiness and my Dad was an atheist. (He said he married her for her fried chicken.)
Anyway, Dad stressed the Golden Rule too along with the importance of thinking on my own.
"Christianity" has lost the Golen Rule theme. It,'s now " I'm going to tell you how you should think and believe. I'll treat you like Trump tells me to,
And obviously, we can blame the major media for allowing the failed idea that tax cuts would pay for themselves to go on unquestioned for so long. Shameful.
I would be a complete cement-head if I either could not or would not understand the anxiety you raise. Of course, I feel the same way, too. My comment is more of a last hope than a documented fact. The problem I have with my erstwhile Party, or the fragment of it that is still registered as Republican, remains one of disappointment with the cowardice of so many of us.
😢
It started in 2016 when the Party Elders refused to risk violence, cowering to threats of violence made by Trump, by denying Trump the nomination as being unfit. It has grown since then. Several Republicans have tried to stand up and have been abandoned only to twist in the wind then retire or, eventually, to lose. When a decided conservative of the calibre or Representative Buck throws up his arms and bails out in a week, we all know that life may be getting dire.
Well, was Keynesian economics ever proven wrong? If so, certainly not by supply side. Take some great lessons from Keynes, skip over supply side altogether as utter garbage, and continue to take lessons from the real world.
The basic point is that the Keynesian bag-of-tricks no longer worked in the late 1970s. Just as supply-side economics -- a modern variant of classical economics -- no longer works today.
Just saying it doesn’t change anything. We the American People need to be out in the streets demanding a huge increase in taxes on the billionaires. Also, we need to demand a difficult and expansive test be giving to anyone running for a government job. This is not fraternity row! For gods sake people, this is your country. Do you care?????
Sounds like it would be nice, but I’m worried the GOP has just scared off the good guys forever.
Yes, we need new paradigms and the people to carry them through, not work to undermine them.
I hope we get out the vote in November to keep Biden in place, and our system remains strong enough to weather another round of charges that the election was stolen. At least the guy charging it will NOT be in office this time …
You mention “some new progressive economic philosophy”. I wondered about that. It seemed that some form of Keynesian economics has been employed a couple of times in recent years. First in 2008 when Obama and congress employed it to stave off a possible depression with bank bailouts and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010. And what happened more recently once congress and Biden started funneling money into the economy to offset all the economic effects that the pandemic was causing…wasn’t that evidence of a return to Keynesian economics?
That is a great question. I suspect that Senator Flake expected other Republicans would back him when he stood up to Trump. Senators Sasse, Lankford et al. let him twist in the wind. Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger knew the price each would pay by joining the 06jan21 committee. Yes, the 'decent' Republicans are not brave, for the most part. That fear precludes their greatness of being like a Senator Goldwater or a Senator Dirksen. The latter two had differing world-views but always believed that outspoken integrity and a common devotion to the country were, together, job-1.
What amazes me how the psycho-dynamics of bullying have changed so slightly since we were in fifth grade. One would think that craven quislings would learn.
George, Considering the jury is out on whether a sufficient number of eligible voters will vote to support democracy, justice, and the like, I would note that one of the challenges of centering democracy and justice as a campaign issue is that said concepts are abstractions for most people.
Not long ago, I posted a comment noting our leaders must make a greater effort to drive home what it would mean to lose our democracy and how our way of life would change. Trump already has stated he would enact the Insurrection Act on Day 1 of his presidency. He’s already spoken about rounding up his political enemies. Accordingly, we can’t relent on urging everyday people, whatever their reasons for being complacent or undecided, to imagine what America would look like were the President to start moving the National Guard around to put down our voices, our right to protest policy with which we disagree, perhaps indefinitely detaining us. This is not without precedent. Trump had wanted to criminalize protests around Black Lives Matter for the murder of George Floyd.
Given the hour and my need for sleep, I’ve barely touched upon rights and freedoms that would be ripped away nor have I yet mentioned women losing control of their bodies, nor what it would mean were we unable to depend on an independent judiciary (we’re already starting to see what that would look like), or depend on the rule of law, or an independent justice department, or an independent Federal Communications Commission—all things Trump has said he would do.
Ultimately, we have less than 8 months to urge uncommitted voters to listen to the things Trump says and the people he admires. No one should doubt that whatever the freedoms we have in this country, whatever one likes about this country, dramatically would change.
As a final point, I would note that the largest bloc of eligible voters in 2020 were non-voters and further would venture to guess they largely were not Trump voters. Hence our outreach to that huge bloc of “persuadables” could not be more consequential.
Thank you -and fully agree Barbara Jo -and hope you are able to get some decent sleep. In terms of messaging it will be important for people to understand the loss of rights isn't theoretical, it has happened, and continues to do so. I also think there must be aspirational and positive messaging. All too often liberals have been good at reacting to what we are not -often on the defensive and reacting. There must be compelling and emotionally engaging to understand what a progressive American society would look like (instead of allowing the GOP shills to frame it as a Marxist dystopia overrun by gangs and criminals).
George, Seeing I’m still awake, I will try and respond and ask that you view my reply as my thinking out loud.
Sensing our grassroots engagement has remained largely invisible to the public-at-large, lately, I’ve been struck by how Trump, contrary to any other current political figure, has built an actual movement, has singularly created an experience for his followers bigger than their individual selves that binds them, albeit it in an authoritarian bind, to a community. Accordingly, I have come to conclude that our side, too, requires a kind of public awakening that allows us to transcend admittedly legitimate grievances and connects us to a profound sense of democracy not top down, but from the inside, from bottom up, from citizens.
I’m thinking that once I’ve effectively stitched together a patchwork of thoughts I’ve developed (with help) over the past few months, I will reach out to a handful of courageous, moral, lightening-rod-type figures for help in bringing recognition to the pressing need for a nationwide call to action: uniting, inspiring, and energizing people broadly, who know we are under threat, to participate in protecting our rights and our freedoms, saving our democracy, if you will, and also, hopefully waking up those asleep to the necessity and the urgency.
I have some ideas about this and I'm happy to share with you (and anyone else that is interested). Some of it relates to comprehensive aspirational short-form media communication that attempts to be informative yet also emotionally engaging. I also have been working on a "virtualized" Kitchen Table Democracy concept. More soon -hopefully after you have had a good night's rest!
George, I’ve appreciated our exchange plus your generous offer to share ideas based on your own work. I’ve perused both your Substack and your Civ.Works project and, indeed, was struck by our shared interests and goals.
Presently, as intimated in my previous post, I’m itching to complete and deploy a co-authored work product to folks who, if interested, could help bring recognition to our project. Once that’s off my plate, I expect I’ll be back in touch. Meantime, I am grateful we have initiated a conversation. Barbara
I look forward to being in touch -and hope all goes well with your current project. In all that I continue I fully embrace the concept of -it truly will take a village. A great friend who teaches at Stanford set forth the concept of an ecosphere as applied to sustaining vital progressive changes in society -and, it seems, his words echo through all I attempt to accomplish. So I'm always thinking about collaboration, and how a competition of ideas leads to a much stronger design and implementation of a "societal transformation engine".
Barbara, I agree that it’s important for people to understand what freedoms we are at risk of losing. I’m currently writing letters to Michigan voters through Vote Forward. Rather than talk about saving our democracy I have chosen Vote to save our freedoms. The freedom to make your own healthcare choices. The freedom to peacefully protest. The freedom to practice the religion you choose. ETC. I feel the word democracy has been demonized by the Rs and people are becoming numb to what it means to Save our Democracy but Save our Freedoms they can hopefully relate to.
Joanne, While I agree that rights and freedoms are more relatable, I also am keenly aware that Republicans claim, with their calls for deregulation and tax cuts, that they are the party that represents individual freedom. One way I’ve tried to dispel the confusion is to steer clear of the term “regulations” and replace it with “protections.”
Barbara Jo, Thank you for this. I will make a note that if I use the term regulations I will replace it with protections. Appreciate your comments and advise.
It's easy to do (really!) and while it is on your own dime, if you can't afford it, they have a program to send stamps and supplies to those who request them. I encourage anyone reading to check it out. It is a fine way to combat the depression induced by the MAGA.
For Joanne and Miselle, I write to clarify, when posting my original reply to Joanne, I had focused solely on her treatment of the terms “freedom” and “democracy” because I had presumed nearly everyone on this forum was writing postcards and/or letters, was phone and/ or text banking, was canvassing, particularly if he or she resided in or near a battleground state, and so forth. I hope I’m right because the data show that our personal exchanges with voters can tip the scales by as much as 2 to 3 points, highly significant given 1) we can expect tight races and 2) with Trump having absorbed the Congress and largely the judiciary, we’re all we have to preserve our basic rights and freedoms.
"I can only hope that reasonable conservative pragmatists (granted, an endangered species) who have traditionally been members of the former GOP will vote alongside moderates, and liberal progressives *united for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot* to make it clear to all that we support democracy, justice, and continuing our evolutionary work toward a "more perfect Union."
To be fair, I suspect that’s what many of us will be doing next year if the worst should happen and Trump be elected. I don’t think I can maintain my equilibrium if I’m paying attention during another Trump administration, helplessly watching our democracy whirl down the drain.
Americans growing vulgarity at home, as foreigners do now so largely abroad, have lots to consider as we move towards November -- if we're moving to the extinction of democracy, and towards the embrace of the lower, dehumanized Heather's column cites today.
I see "corruption" as misuse of entrusted powers, either by neglected associated duties, or misapplying power to serve personal and/or partisan ends in contrast to the purposes the role was created to serve. It's like flying passenger airplanes into the sides of building, but in the less visible form of short circuiting due processes of law, from the inside of the system. As always, power held unaccountably tends to corrupt.
The U.S. depraved who live for the values of billionaires, or the values of religious zealots, all probably feel fine as to their missions.
That's guaranteed when we severe ourselves totally from humanities. We inhabit instead dehumanized packages, abstractions, zealotries, quantifications, consumer demographics, tribalisms.
Maybe like building and maintaining passenger airplanes to maximize immediate profit, disregarding the safety of passengers and employees and the long term value of the brand.
Cameron, I dread entering aircraft. Dread being confined to it for any flights.
The guaranteed horrific "food." The guaranteed torture of seating "pitch" always getting smaller and smaller.
"Maintaining passenger airplanes" might really have a different gerundive as, in the effort by our debased billionaire classes "to maximize immediate profit," the predators maintain nothing, just as the so-called conservatives conserve nothing.
Still no mention of climate change in this discussion. Repeating my joke: It’s 2045, a group of billionaires sits down to a salad of greenbacks. One asks “Where’s the Caesar salad dressing?”
Oh nuts! "We"... if you're referring to you an I? "We" don't seem to be doing a darned thing to stem the tide of what Is clearly 'religiosity gone wild'. You see it. I see it. We are not making any headway, in fact, just the opposite. Religion has gotten us right by the balls. The blanket woven by the interpreters of the 'Good Book' have empowered entire States to accept their version of what the "founders" intended. The Constitution? Not so much. All Sen. Britt did was pull the blanket (the speech she recited to us) further over our heads. Any President of this great country has to walk carefully on this matter, separation of church and state, lest she/he be skewered and and shown the door. And, that is why we can't get anything done. But, #45 could be their worst nightmare.
Interestingly it seems religious participation is declining, however, to your point (perhaps?) the money and power flowing into politics and candidates who either are or claim to be religious zealots (like Mike Pence, Mike Johnson, etc.) are not in support of spirituality -they are intended to be a place where voters are easily and readily divided.
1. Israel, with the unfolding horror in Gaza, is becoming a hated and shunned pariah state. Israel faces an existential crisis as soon as the U.S. "aid spigot" gets cut off for whatever reason (including possible American political or economic crisis).
2. Any durable peace must enable Israel to be secure without constant infusions of American aid.
3. This requires peace with Israel’s neighbors, including Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
4. This requires undoing the Nakba terrorist atrocity and withdrawing to the U.N.-mandated pre-1948 borders.
5. This can only be done in the context of peaceful economic integration throughout the region, for the benefit of all. A lasting peace must be guaranteed individually by each permanent member of the U.N. Security council, and endorsed by Israel’s neighbors.
6. The recent Hamas atrocities were "justified" (rationalized) by earlier police brutality at the Temple Mount. The dream of rebuilding the Temple of Herod must be given up and replaced by the will to rebuild the Temple of Solomon in its correct location.
For peace to take root, the Palestinian leadership must embrace a peace plan instead of bitterly accepting crumbs.
My proposal would require the Palestinians to accept a lasting "immigrant" Jewish presence in what was once the land of Jews who converted first to Christianity and then to Islam (that is, the Palestinians).
Only with such an embrace will the Saudis endorse a peace plan.
I envision a federated one-state solution, but others may have other ideas.
My solution, returning to the 1947 U.N. map, requires Israel to give up Tel Aviv. Perhaps now that can be regarded as fitting compensation for the destruction of Gaza.
A lasting peace along these lines can only happen if there is sufficient will toward peace in the American Jewish community to overcome extremist efforts to sabotage the peace plan.
“In the 2024 election cycle in the United States, I can only hope that reasonable conservative pragmatists (granted, an endangered species) who have traditionally been members of the former GOP will vote alongside moderates, and liberal progressives to make it clear to all that we support democracy, justice, and continuing our evolutionary work toward a "more perfect Union." “
And
Ned McDoodle:
“I believe many decent Republicans who have exited the Halls of Congress are doing so with the intent of stepping back and letting the M.A.G.A. G.O.P. implode under the weight of its vindictive partisanship with its ideology breading idiocy. Then they may re-enter to re-build the Party. Those decent Republicans that have stuck around may resent their erstwhile colleagues invoking a right of return.”
The problem I have with so called reasonable conservative pragmatists who have traditionally been members of the former GOP and the decent Republicans who have existed is that they KNOW – they truly know the very real threat trump and the MAGA’s pose to our democracy. They KNOW that now we have a binary choice, not wishful thinking.
At this point the next president will be either Biden or Trump – either a MAGA or someone who cares about democracy albeit with a differing view then they may have on many issues – save for their common belief in a democratic United States. Yet these people leave congress in a huff, talk about a third party or say they will not vote.
If they truly love America – they would encourage people in their cohort to hold their nose and vote for Biden. To make clear, that they will survive another Biden presidency but not another one of trump.
Seriously? She was supposed to be the ‘sane’ Republican – yet she made such a statement.
I understand she is hoping to someone get back into the race – but our very country is at stake and these conservatives are being called to serve their country by thwarting what will likely be an authoritarian ruler and still choosing party over country. They fail both. They fail their former party and they fail our country.
All excellent points Sonny. I do know there are not enough of them (endangered species). And while I would not want either of their legislative agendas driving the United States, there is a vast difference between Nikki Haley (a Trump appointee) and Liz Cheney. And the House reality is if a few more of the "old" GOP resign -that will be a major act of rebellion -as Mike Johnson will need to relinquish the gavel.
There are some conservatives who are vocal about the threat to democracy -such as Nicole Wallace, Bill Kristol, and Steve Schmidt. They are just not in the mainstream media as often as they should be because they aren't wearing MAGA clown suits, yelling about lasers from space, or providing extracurricular adult entertainment in a theater.
I like your idea of those who may be "conservative" leaning should "hold their nose" and vote for Biden. My main worry is that those who wouldn't vote for Trump might splinter and vote for third parties, or not vote at all, who think they couldn't possibly bring themselves to vote for Biden but who will inadvertently throw the presidency to Trump.
Thank you Fay -I'm sincerely grateful to Professor Richardson who, with The Guardian, and copious amounts of caffeine inspire me to transform thinking into occasionally cogent writing (accidental or otherwise).
Please protest "the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation’s plans to give its “Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award” to conservative billionaires Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch, among others, “an affront to the memory of our mother and grandmother.” Without specifically criticizing any of the honorees — who also include Martha Stewart, Sylvester Stallone and financier Michael Milken — the Ginsburg family said the foundation “has strayed far from the original mission of the award and from what Justice Ginsburg stood for.”
Most talk about both parties sharing similarities, for me, begins and ends at the Supreme Court, or in judicial appointments like Aileen Cannon And Matthew Kacsmaryk.
Thank you @HeatherCoxRichardson. I'm grateful for all of the research and effort going into the crafting and production of the LFAA.
“[Netanyahu] has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.” -Sen. Chuck Schumer.
Simple word substitution: "The GOP, by becoming the Trump/Putin/MAGA party has lost its way prioritizing the concentration of power and wealth to take precedence over the best interests of the United States."
In the 2024 election cycle in the United States, I can only hope that reasonable conservative pragmatists (granted, an endangered species) who have traditionally been members of the former GOP will vote alongside moderates, and liberal progressives to make it clear to all that we support democracy, justice, and continuing our evolutionary work toward a "more perfect Union."
There is no place in government for those who reject and continue to attack the very system they claim to represent.
The world is watching. Will we support experienced, leadership and promote the United States as a stable and responsible partner in global trade, defense, and diplomacy? Or will we destroy the system by elevating a group of incompetent, corrupt individuals who seek to enrich themselves and their friends regardless of the cost to America and the world?
I believe many decent Republicans who have exited the Halls of Congress are doing so with the intent of stepping back and letting the M.A.G.A. G.O.P. implode under the weight of its vindictive partisanship with its ideology breeding idiocy. Then they may re-enter to re-build the Party. Those decent Republicans that have stuck around may resent their erstwhile colleagues invoking a right of return.
⚖️
In the meantime, Reaganism is plainly exhausted and has been for a long time. As the New Deal supplanted classical economics and supply-side economics supplanted Keynesianism, some new progressive economic philosophy is set permanently to replace Reaganomics. That may spell a liberal ascendency for twenty years or more.
Thanks Ned -and would greatly enjoy seeing some generational ascendency. People expect immediate results, however -"People don't eat in the long run." My mantra continues to be any form of meaningful democracy requires an educated, informed, and engaged society. All 3 pillars have been assailed since the Reagan Administration -while wealth has concentrated through trickle-down fraud, privatization, and externalities.
The place where Reagan conservatives (sadly -not Eisenhower conservatives) figured this out architected in the Powell Memo to the US Chamber of Commerce. He provided the foundation for long-term strategy and tactics which have led to today's MAGA extremism and madness.
No one with decent education, who is well-informed, and sane has ever uttered the words: "These are challenging global times. We really need Marjorie Taylor Greene, James Comer, Ron Johnson, Lauren Boebert, and some religious zealots to lead us into the future."
"Now it is true that I believe this country is following a dangerous trend when it permits too great a degree of centralization of governmental functions. I oppose this — in some instances the fight is a rather desperate one. But to attain any success it is quite clear that the Federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken by it. The political processes of our country are such that if a rule of reason is not applied in this effort, we will lose everything — even to a possible and drastic change in the Constitution. This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon “moderation” in government. Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H.L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- Eisenhower
Thank you JL!
I consider President Eisenhower to be the last great conservative President (of course the competition is thin considering the paranoia and crimes of Nixon, the elevation of Bonzo's co-star, "Dubya", and a fraud running a criminal enterprise).
The irony of the Lewis Powell memo was that it was a call for the very wealthy to form a Millionaire's Union (while attacking labor Unions and anyone else's ability to collectively bargain). With Powell laying out the architecture and the HL Hunt's, Koch's, Adelson's and others funding "The Powell Machine" -it has been highly successful at concentrating wealth and power (while eroding democracy).
A few years back in support of my civ.works project -I covered this in a brief (4 minute) film: https://youtu.be/eg9QrgSWajY
One more time: Dwight David Eisenhower was the last Republican worthy of the Oval Office.
James, I grew up in the Eisenhower years, too young to understand the politics. But it seems now to have been the calm before the storm. I also think that a lot of the problems we see now were unseen and under the table. I grew up in a R family where the prejudices were casual, not virulent. I was fortunately to know a teacher couple who were miles ahead of that time. I finally woke up during late high school, college, and Peace Corps. I saw my first racial conflict when I was about 7 in Chicago and I never forgot how awful and unfair that was. By the time Nixon arrived, I was much more aware of the political problems of Rs. I did vote for Rs like Mark Hatfield here in Oregon, but never for a R president. Now I won't vote for any R. I consider the Bushes a crime family and now we have mafia don and his crime family.
I didn't like it as a kid, but in retrospect the instability accompanying moving around and growing up in less than middle class neighborhoods was an unseen gift.
Been there, done that. I have made the comment that growing up poor was the best thing that happened to me. I will add, I never went hungry, I never suffered physically, I had a flawed but adequate family, and I felt cared for. On the other hand, I didn’t expect much to be given to me. Just recalling, makes me know that my childhood was an ‘unseen gift.’ Thanks for that…
I would like to hang Powell by his nuts, would be a pleasure Ma’am.
It occurred to me that unions were a needed check and balance on power of product, share, and job controlling "trusts", but I had never quite framed it as a "Millionaires (now Billionaires) Union; both organize to maximize their power, although the advantage for the wealthy is that they can just will organization into being (and do) by paying for it, while democratic organizing is like herding cats. Power tends to corrupt, and I think there are many examples of the union movement gone wrong, but many of the now eroding rights workers (unionized or not) enjoyed in the last century were won or buttressed by the union movement. The key to liberty and justice for all, whether in a marriage or a society is to bargain in good faith, and install social rules that enable and reward that. And also discourage and foil predation by anyone. The boundary of organized billionaires can be indistinct from organized crime.
Beautifully articulated -and indeed organized crime.
What a different world it could have been if Ralph Nader had prevailed over Lewis Powell.
And if JFK, RFK, and MLK weren’t killed.
Mr. Polisner: Just watched your clear and concise film - thank you.!
Thank you Bruce! It needs an update however the background and context remain the same.
Excellent film and organiization, George. Sharing. How do we contribute to civ.works.com, The Democracy Machine For Us?!
Thank you so much MaryPat! If you visit https://civ.works and either click on the purple “Support civ.works” button, or click the donate link in the menu, either will open up a secure donate page with our payment processor, Stripe.
Very grateful. We use the funds strictly for critical new development, cloud operations, and testing.
The best President of my life-time remains President Ford. Back in the days of Presidents Eisenhower and Ford, conservatism was a partner to liberalism. The liberals forged ahead with new initiatives. The conservatives were there to make those changes fiscally sustainable, except when said initiative was plainly repudiated or evidently undoable. It was more of a creative tension and foreign policy was a unified front against the evil of the U.S.S.R. and Red Chine.
Perfectly said, Ned: "a creative tension." I believe the Founders meant for politics in this country to be a creative tension of intelligent, moral, well-meaning philosophies, not the political equivalent of Mutually Assured Destruction.
That's not to say the Founders lived in a kumbaya world--politicians routinely flayed each other in person and in the popular press--but in the end, governed in the moderate middle where Americans live.
Ahh, the good ole days when those tiny splinters could be mocked, and the Koch Bros and other Ayn Rand acolytes hadn't built their empire of right wing institutes.
Eisenhower was the last halfway decent republican.
Prescient.
Wow! Yes, yes, and a million times yes, Mr. President Eisenhower!
His departing remarks were some of my Uber-Liberal mother’s favorites, along with those of Washington.
Just read yesterday a report that claims that about 50% of us are helping our grown children financially. We can blame this on Reaganism. Our children (even those in their 40's at this time) didn't and don't have the financial advantages that we had - fair wages, affordable housing, affordable higher education, etc. Examples: 1) Our first home, a brand new townhouse in Cupertino, CA cost $39,250; 2) my 12 years of college (including Whittier, USC, Harvard Grad and Harvard Law) TOTALED less than $17,000. That's barely a quarter of a year's tuition now.
We wonder why American society has become polarized, toxic, and violent -I think there is generational economic despair. As parents and grandparents we want to provide more opportunity for our children and future generations. Instead -higher education debt burden (looking at Reagan and bloodsucking Betsy DeVos here), an employer relationship that once included defined benefit pension plans to supplement social security is now a "gig" economy, people argue with each other over a minimum wage disconnected from the obscene wealth concentrated into the hands of the few like Elon Musk, Robert Mercer, Larry Ellison, and Peter Thiel. The concentration of wealth has led to multiple generations of people working paycheck to paycheck for a diminishing quality of life. And people are then intentionally misdirected to thinking the issue is related to government spending instead of understanding trickle down fraud and the GOP shills who have been paid to continue to perpetuate it upon American society -democracy, equity, and justice be damned.
George, the older I get, the more I come to see the system created by Reagan, Bill Buckley and the wealthy with their propaganda to be a monster system and the more I look back to the genius of Frances Perkins and FDR in establishing the American Middle Class: "The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to provide all the people under its jurisdiction the means for the best possible life." That's Perkins' theory of government. That includes an education, health care, job, housing and more. I started out life in Texas as a Libertarian. My political philosophy continued to mature along the way. I am now an outright Liberal. Government should be for ALL THE PEOPLE.
The same progression here, would be more progressive if it were the least bit viable these days…
I have to pay $5,000 this year extra, in taxes because I am now single (widowed) while Musk and his ilk can’t pay a dime it seems. My move, which was supposed to free up money for donations, now frees up money for the IRS. I should have known but I have been overwhelmed with bureaucratic BS, not having the brigade of lawyers who keep the rich, rich. You are so right, obscene wealth v. Just getting by. Blood sucking meant to cause division and despair. Time to see them without their PR masks.
I cannot like this comment, Jeri.
I feel your pain. Same here. No matter what I do the government gets any of my 'extra' money. I cannot cut anything else. At almost 70 I still can't take a day off.
It's keep 'em on the treadmill, working their a**es off to manage their debt repayments, with the great added advantage, that the educated never get a chance to exercise their critical faculties, never the time to think things through.
Lincoln said you can't fool all of the people all of the time. True, you can't. But WE have ways to sideline and silence those we cannot fool.
What a brutal, gratuitously cruel society these poor bastards have brought in, a society so fragmented, even atomized, that it barely merits the name “society”. A manheap bearing the mark of Cain and “Am I my brother's keeper?”
What a pandemic of narcissistic perverts, minds consumed by limitless greed, cruelty, deep, deep stupidity—often riveted to high IQ—and suicidal destruction of the very basis of our shared existence.
Expressed at this moment by total indifference to the programmed massacre and maiming of tens of thousands of civilians, whole families, so many children.
My life was marked by bombing at a tender age. Now I veer between towering rage and depression, and if I had no spiritual support, I do not know how I could survive the horror into which we have descended.
Thank you for sharing that Peter -I cannot begin to imagine the horror of your youth. All war is terrorism. Life itself is challenging enough without the cruelty, violence, and exploitation -all of which know no borders. My life now, with far more yesterdays than tomorrows (thinking of the Clarence Clemons quote) I wish Martin's dream could have been reality, the songs of John Lennon, and what the journey through this life might have been if people everywhere heeded the concept set forth by Carl Sagan and others -we are on a tiny blue dot life raft hurtling through space -that the physical and artificial borders between us are merely intended to keep us fighting someone else's war while our lives are drained through anxiety and worry. I imagine and work toward a collaborative world centered around peace and the alleviation of suffering -regardless of the odds and wealth expended to maintain the status quo -or worse.
Try turning some rage energy into helping where and as you can. That will assuage your depression. My profound sympathies. I only feared bombing, never experienced the terror of it. But I can wish you all help possible with your PTSD.
And now Steven Mnuchin wants to buy tik tok. What the blank! All the media in the world owned by a few rich white guys. Stinks.
Not all ... https://civ.works (granted -the amoeba on the flea of the tail of the dog -but that's always how it begins).
George Polisner succinctly stated the American political dilemma now, political chaos and uncertainty stemming from a skewed economic system.
Richard, my wife and I are certainly in the 50% who help our 3 adult children. In fairness, our parents helped us out tremendously during their lives and through bequests.
That said, we recently moved into a new home that we completely renovated. In the process, I found a stack of newspapers from the '70s. On March 28, 1978, a year after I graduated college, the Dow was at 753 points. That same month I had been hired with a BS Plant Science earned the year before to work in a well-known nursery, for which I was paid $1.85/hour (minimum wage was then $1.65, and horticulture/agriculture is famously low-paying). We were less than a year into ownership of a home for which we paid $43,450 (with help from parents, and for which we've been eternally grateful.)
We've moved a few times since, but I'd guess that home is now worth close to $500K (I'll check after I post this) and the Dow is nearing 40,000.
But minimum wage has only increased to $7.25 across most of the country.
Stunning. 12 years of college less than 17k. They made a profit too.
I ordered a new British MG in 1976 and paid 3,600 which compared to your figures seems hefty.
Ex-husbands entire law school tuition in mid 70's was $4500--$1500/year. Today it is $70K a year
My tuition and room and board at Yale was $1,560 annually in the early 1950s. My first house—3 bedrooms-in Washington cost $36,000 in Washington. Of course, as a Foreign Service Officer in the 2nd lowest grade I received $6,065/year, until I went to Congo and received hardship pay (I personally had to purchase my 9mm Beretta.)
When first married, our two bedroom cost $88/month. We could not afford to dine out. Our modest vacation apartment was $125/week. Different strokes for different folks!
How many of us are also helping our parents financially?
In my parents' lifetimes, my wife and I did support them financially, providing them with a home and some financial support. Those of us who grew up in the 50's and 60's had it the best. We've simply got to take back some of that $34 trillion (and counting) that the Republican oligarchs have stripped out of the economy, literally making indentured servants out of our children and grandchildren. My goal is to leave my two daughters enough to make up for what they aren't going to get in terms of Social Security and Medicare, though they will have paid into it for most, if not all, of their productive lives. Theft, by any other name, is still theft. The Republicans call them tax breaks.
This does not surprise me at all. We don't have children, but we help our nephews here on the west coast and sometimes my nieces in the midwest. We were over to our neighbors last night to do Christmas near St. Patrick's Day....lots of medical issues and then they got colds....so the delay. He is a retired banker who has a clear view on how the economics work these days and how much things cost including the cost of cement. We talked about mergers and how they affect the cost of food for example. Not a pretty picture.
Great reasoning. Thank you. Funny, why is it that, every time Representative Comer speaks, he reminds me of Howdy Dooty on a bad acid trip?
Millions of "Howdy Doody" fans will likely be protesting this comment Ned. I hope you are able to redirect their anger toward Rupert Murdoch, or someone equally deserving. :)
Rupert is too ugly for planet earth.
😃
Can you believe someone is planning to marry that old fart?
I can't wait to read his forthcoming book:
"How to find true love after 90*"
*age and or millions of dollars.
I like the term Comer Fudd.
Who daily steps on rakes
Jeff makes my day a little brighter!
The wealth divide has created a class of arrogant billionaires who pay little or no taxes. They put their money into far-right media, the Republican Party, and the Supreme Court. Some want to rule by cronyism and corruption, others by using A I. Still, it’s fascism and a way to destroy democracy. Too many Americans are impressed by money, and think these people are geniuses.
So very true. Whenever the microphone is in front of Elon Musk for whatever ignorant opinion he wants to share with all of us I think "haven't we learned there are already far too many incompetent narcissists in the world?""
Why not cover what Naomi Oreskes has to say? Or Joel Bakan? Noam Chomsky? George Lakoff? Naomi Klein? Heather Cox Richardson?
News should be about fact-based/evidenced based information. It shouldn't just be a microphone and a talking horse.
Last paragraph a hoot. Thanks…
Agreed!!!
I beg to differ. The number of college educated people that support tfg is staggering to see and know.
I may be naively optimistic about humanity. I suspect that a better educated and informed society, when given a choice (absent gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the Electoral College) will lean toward the non-criminal. Granted MaryLee -that's a generalization -and it is only a lean -it's not necessarily an absolute. I recognize that people might think they are informed by focusing on specific media and are motivated by confirmation bias as opposed to news and information predicated upon facts.
I've had great discussions with well-educated conservative friends -(they might be socially moderate, but fiscally conservative) -and they will not support Trump.
Eisenhower's farewell address was prophetic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower%27s_farewell_address
21st-century commentators have expressed the opinion that a number of the fears raised in his speech have come true.
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
Imagine! -he'd be run out of town these days if trying to run as a Republican.
The Regressives often name their programs to be the opposite of what they really are, like the "Patriot Act". "Trickle-down" is another good example. A more honest name for Reaganomics would have been "Gusher Up". That is what happened and trickle down never did.
True Steven. You might already be familiar with the work of George Lakoff -“Don’t Think of an Elephant”. He deconstructs the Orwellian political language used by the GOP.
Thanks for that reference.
On generational ascendancy, that has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. My generation does not want to retire. It is making our politics sclerotic, our rhetoric often crotchety. 🙂
George! That final point does draw a clear picture, doesn’t it!
They are surely NO ONE’S choice of people to lead us forward … Bunch of shills …
Thanks Pat! As the media has treated politics like a sporting event -too many have lost sight of the fact that our elected officials shape the now and the future for this and future generations. It isn't about Blue vs. Red. It's about living wages, affordable housing, education, defense, diplomacy, trade -everything.
If they want to see incompetent clowns juggling chain saws -they can go to the circus -not the ballot box.
George, good thing I am just on coffee and not eating my breakfast because I found your last sentence to be vomit inducing.
Good to know Michele -Just one of the other benefits of my writing: calorie management. :)
LOL.
The shiny hucksterism of the Reagan medicine show, that preached prosperity for all if we only granted the wealthiest impunity, has now lost it's luster, and the current claim is that government by the rich for the rich is holy writ from the will of the founders, and Almighty God.
Smells of feudal authoritarianism to me.
I always said that greed got a green light under Reagan.
Government by the rich for the rich. Mantra for the cult (made up of poor slobs handing over their money)
Jeri, I had a man say to me, (he didn't know about my disdain for Trump.. Now he knows,) "Can you believe they ( not sure who "they" are) don't want to pay Trump's legal bills?"
My blood boils.
No more proof of cult thinking. Born rich, plans to stay that way, no matter who has to pay. And the fools line up. When I contribute to Joe, I am supporting democracy, not a greedy bastard. I was raised to think that you don’t blow your own horn, you don’t steal, you don’t expect much, you work for what you get (unless you can’t), religion is about loving and caring about others (Golden rule). My grands, and great grands were poor immigrants and wanted opportunities. They got them, but later generations seem to have forgotten from whence they came. My blood has been boiling for a spell now….
My mother, rest her sweet soul, stressed the Golden Rule to us.
She was a Pentecostal Holiness and my Dad was an atheist. (He said he married her for her fried chicken.)
Anyway, Dad stressed the Golden Rule too along with the importance of thinking on my own.
"Christianity" has lost the Golen Rule theme. It,'s now " I'm going to tell you how you should think and believe. I'll treat you like Trump tells me to,
but you can't treat me back."
Oh my.
And obviously, we can blame the major media for allowing the failed idea that tax cuts would pay for themselves to go on unquestioned for so long. Shameful.
Yes Ned that implosion possibility is there. A definitive electoral defeat of Trump and both hoses of congress would be needed.
it is all burning, needing citizens with a fire hose of democracy blasting autocrats until their flames of greed are extinguished
Hope you're right.
What a lovely vision of the republicans. Mine is somewhat less rosier.
More like George Carlin
“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”
But I hope you're right
Bob,
I would be a complete cement-head if I either could not or would not understand the anxiety you raise. Of course, I feel the same way, too. My comment is more of a last hope than a documented fact. The problem I have with my erstwhile Party, or the fragment of it that is still registered as Republican, remains one of disappointment with the cowardice of so many of us.
😢
It started in 2016 when the Party Elders refused to risk violence, cowering to threats of violence made by Trump, by denying Trump the nomination as being unfit. It has grown since then. Several Republicans have tried to stand up and have been abandoned only to twist in the wind then retire or, eventually, to lose. When a decided conservative of the calibre or Representative Buck throws up his arms and bails out in a week, we all know that life may be getting dire.
Well, was Keynesian economics ever proven wrong? If so, certainly not by supply side. Take some great lessons from Keynes, skip over supply side altogether as utter garbage, and continue to take lessons from the real world.
The basic point is that the Keynesian bag-of-tricks no longer worked in the late 1970s. Just as supply-side economics -- a modern variant of classical economics -- no longer works today.
Just saying it doesn’t change anything. We the American People need to be out in the streets demanding a huge increase in taxes on the billionaires. Also, we need to demand a difficult and expansive test be giving to anyone running for a government job. This is not fraternity row! For gods sake people, this is your country. Do you care?????
Maybe they are just cowards…
Sounds like it would be nice, but I’m worried the GOP has just scared off the good guys forever.
Yes, we need new paradigms and the people to carry them through, not work to undermine them.
I hope we get out the vote in November to keep Biden in place, and our system remains strong enough to weather another round of charges that the election was stolen. At least the guy charging it will NOT be in office this time …
You mention “some new progressive economic philosophy”. I wondered about that. It seemed that some form of Keynesian economics has been employed a couple of times in recent years. First in 2008 when Obama and congress employed it to stave off a possible depression with bank bailouts and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010. And what happened more recently once congress and Biden started funneling money into the economy to offset all the economic effects that the pandemic was causing…wasn’t that evidence of a return to Keynesian economics?
Modern monetary theory.
That is a great question. I suspect that Senator Flake expected other Republicans would back him when he stood up to Trump. Senators Sasse, Lankford et al. let him twist in the wind. Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger knew the price each would pay by joining the 06jan21 committee. Yes, the 'decent' Republicans are not brave, for the most part. That fear precludes their greatness of being like a Senator Goldwater or a Senator Dirksen. The latter two had differing world-views but always believed that outspoken integrity and a common devotion to the country were, together, job-1.
What amazes me how the psycho-dynamics of bullying have changed so slightly since we were in fifth grade. One would think that craven quislings would learn.
George, Considering the jury is out on whether a sufficient number of eligible voters will vote to support democracy, justice, and the like, I would note that one of the challenges of centering democracy and justice as a campaign issue is that said concepts are abstractions for most people.
Not long ago, I posted a comment noting our leaders must make a greater effort to drive home what it would mean to lose our democracy and how our way of life would change. Trump already has stated he would enact the Insurrection Act on Day 1 of his presidency. He’s already spoken about rounding up his political enemies. Accordingly, we can’t relent on urging everyday people, whatever their reasons for being complacent or undecided, to imagine what America would look like were the President to start moving the National Guard around to put down our voices, our right to protest policy with which we disagree, perhaps indefinitely detaining us. This is not without precedent. Trump had wanted to criminalize protests around Black Lives Matter for the murder of George Floyd.
Given the hour and my need for sleep, I’ve barely touched upon rights and freedoms that would be ripped away nor have I yet mentioned women losing control of their bodies, nor what it would mean were we unable to depend on an independent judiciary (we’re already starting to see what that would look like), or depend on the rule of law, or an independent justice department, or an independent Federal Communications Commission—all things Trump has said he would do.
Ultimately, we have less than 8 months to urge uncommitted voters to listen to the things Trump says and the people he admires. No one should doubt that whatever the freedoms we have in this country, whatever one likes about this country, dramatically would change.
As a final point, I would note that the largest bloc of eligible voters in 2020 were non-voters and further would venture to guess they largely were not Trump voters. Hence our outreach to that huge bloc of “persuadables” could not be more consequential.
Thank you -and fully agree Barbara Jo -and hope you are able to get some decent sleep. In terms of messaging it will be important for people to understand the loss of rights isn't theoretical, it has happened, and continues to do so. I also think there must be aspirational and positive messaging. All too often liberals have been good at reacting to what we are not -often on the defensive and reacting. There must be compelling and emotionally engaging to understand what a progressive American society would look like (instead of allowing the GOP shills to frame it as a Marxist dystopia overrun by gangs and criminals).
George, Seeing I’m still awake, I will try and respond and ask that you view my reply as my thinking out loud.
Sensing our grassroots engagement has remained largely invisible to the public-at-large, lately, I’ve been struck by how Trump, contrary to any other current political figure, has built an actual movement, has singularly created an experience for his followers bigger than their individual selves that binds them, albeit it in an authoritarian bind, to a community. Accordingly, I have come to conclude that our side, too, requires a kind of public awakening that allows us to transcend admittedly legitimate grievances and connects us to a profound sense of democracy not top down, but from the inside, from bottom up, from citizens.
I’m thinking that once I’ve effectively stitched together a patchwork of thoughts I’ve developed (with help) over the past few months, I will reach out to a handful of courageous, moral, lightening-rod-type figures for help in bringing recognition to the pressing need for a nationwide call to action: uniting, inspiring, and energizing people broadly, who know we are under threat, to participate in protecting our rights and our freedoms, saving our democracy, if you will, and also, hopefully waking up those asleep to the necessity and the urgency.
I have some ideas about this and I'm happy to share with you (and anyone else that is interested). Some of it relates to comprehensive aspirational short-form media communication that attempts to be informative yet also emotionally engaging. I also have been working on a "virtualized" Kitchen Table Democracy concept. More soon -hopefully after you have had a good night's rest!
George, I’ve appreciated our exchange plus your generous offer to share ideas based on your own work. I’ve perused both your Substack and your Civ.Works project and, indeed, was struck by our shared interests and goals.
Presently, as intimated in my previous post, I’m itching to complete and deploy a co-authored work product to folks who, if interested, could help bring recognition to our project. Once that’s off my plate, I expect I’ll be back in touch. Meantime, I am grateful we have initiated a conversation. Barbara
I look forward to being in touch -and hope all goes well with your current project. In all that I continue I fully embrace the concept of -it truly will take a village. A great friend who teaches at Stanford set forth the concept of an ecosphere as applied to sustaining vital progressive changes in society -and, it seems, his words echo through all I attempt to accomplish. So I'm always thinking about collaboration, and how a competition of ideas leads to a much stronger design and implementation of a "societal transformation engine".
Recommending Tony Judt (friend of Timothy Snyder) again. “Ill Fares the Land” will answer many of your questions.
Thank you Virginia.
Barbara, I agree that it’s important for people to understand what freedoms we are at risk of losing. I’m currently writing letters to Michigan voters through Vote Forward. Rather than talk about saving our democracy I have chosen Vote to save our freedoms. The freedom to make your own healthcare choices. The freedom to peacefully protest. The freedom to practice the religion you choose. ETC. I feel the word democracy has been demonized by the Rs and people are becoming numb to what it means to Save our Democracy but Save our Freedoms they can hopefully relate to.
Joanne, While I agree that rights and freedoms are more relatable, I also am keenly aware that Republicans claim, with their calls for deregulation and tax cuts, that they are the party that represents individual freedom. One way I’ve tried to dispel the confusion is to steer clear of the term “regulations” and replace it with “protections.”
Barbara Jo, Thank you for this. I will make a note that if I use the term regulations I will replace it with protections. Appreciate your comments and advise.
I've been writing for Vote Forward, too.
It's easy to do (really!) and while it is on your own dime, if you can't afford it, they have a program to send stamps and supplies to those who request them. I encourage anyone reading to check it out. It is a fine way to combat the depression induced by the MAGA.
I also write postcards to voters through Tony the Democrat. If any of this helps just one person I feel it’s worth my time. It’s the least I can do.
So do I, Joanne!!
You have made me smile! I have found yet another kindred spirit here on the forum!
:-D
Sounds like an excellent approach, Joanne!
Thank you
Hope it gets through to some
Me, too!
For Joanne and Miselle, I write to clarify, when posting my original reply to Joanne, I had focused solely on her treatment of the terms “freedom” and “democracy” because I had presumed nearly everyone on this forum was writing postcards and/or letters, was phone and/ or text banking, was canvassing, particularly if he or she resided in or near a battleground state, and so forth. I hope I’m right because the data show that our personal exchanges with voters can tip the scales by as much as 2 to 3 points, highly significant given 1) we can expect tight races and 2) with Trump having absorbed the Congress and largely the judiciary, we’re all we have to preserve our basic rights and freedoms.
"I can only hope that reasonable conservative pragmatists (granted, an endangered species) who have traditionally been members of the former GOP will vote alongside moderates, and liberal progressives *united for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot* to make it clear to all that we support democracy, justice, and continuing our evolutionary work toward a "more perfect Union."
Be careful holding your breath…
The old fashioned R's I know have tuned out. Well they rage a bit and then throw their hands in the air and then seemingly tune out.
To be fair, I suspect that’s what many of us will be doing next year if the worst should happen and Trump be elected. I don’t think I can maintain my equilibrium if I’m paying attention during another Trump administration, helplessly watching our democracy whirl down the drain.
They need a break. I hope it's only a few months.
Good Q, George.
Americans growing vulgarity at home, as foreigners do now so largely abroad, have lots to consider as we move towards November -- if we're moving to the extinction of democracy, and towards the embrace of the lower, dehumanized Heather's column cites today.
I see "corruption" as misuse of entrusted powers, either by neglected associated duties, or misapplying power to serve personal and/or partisan ends in contrast to the purposes the role was created to serve. It's like flying passenger airplanes into the sides of building, but in the less visible form of short circuiting due processes of law, from the inside of the system. As always, power held unaccountably tends to corrupt.
Interesting, J L, your use of the word "misuse."
The U.S. depraved who live for the values of billionaires, or the values of religious zealots, all probably feel fine as to their missions.
That's guaranteed when we severe ourselves totally from humanities. We inhabit instead dehumanized packages, abstractions, zealotries, quantifications, consumer demographics, tribalisms.
Maybe like building and maintaining passenger airplanes to maximize immediate profit, disregarding the safety of passengers and employees and the long term value of the brand.
Cameron, I dread entering aircraft. Dread being confined to it for any flights.
The guaranteed horrific "food." The guaranteed torture of seating "pitch" always getting smaller and smaller.
"Maintaining passenger airplanes" might really have a different gerundive as, in the effort by our debased billionaire classes "to maximize immediate profit," the predators maintain nothing, just as the so-called conservatives conserve nothing.
Still no mention of climate change in this discussion. Repeating my joke: It’s 2045, a group of billionaires sits down to a salad of greenbacks. One asks “Where’s the Caesar salad dressing?”
Thanks, Phil. I shall keep repeating it until there are recycling bins within walking distance of every American and our trash heats and cools US.
Oh nuts! "We"... if you're referring to you an I? "We" don't seem to be doing a darned thing to stem the tide of what Is clearly 'religiosity gone wild'. You see it. I see it. We are not making any headway, in fact, just the opposite. Religion has gotten us right by the balls. The blanket woven by the interpreters of the 'Good Book' have empowered entire States to accept their version of what the "founders" intended. The Constitution? Not so much. All Sen. Britt did was pull the blanket (the speech she recited to us) further over our heads. Any President of this great country has to walk carefully on this matter, separation of church and state, lest she/he be skewered and and shown the door. And, that is why we can't get anything done. But, #45 could be their worst nightmare.
Interestingly it seems religious participation is declining, however, to your point (perhaps?) the money and power flowing into politics and candidates who either are or claim to be religious zealots (like Mike Pence, Mike Johnson, etc.) are not in support of spirituality -they are intended to be a place where voters are easily and readily divided.
Divide and continue to conquer, right?
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/16/1176206568/less-important-religion-in-lives-of-americans-shrinking-report
Here is my peace plan for the Middle East:
1. Israel, with the unfolding horror in Gaza, is becoming a hated and shunned pariah state. Israel faces an existential crisis as soon as the U.S. "aid spigot" gets cut off for whatever reason (including possible American political or economic crisis).
2. Any durable peace must enable Israel to be secure without constant infusions of American aid.
3. This requires peace with Israel’s neighbors, including Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
4. This requires undoing the Nakba terrorist atrocity and withdrawing to the U.N.-mandated pre-1948 borders.
5. This can only be done in the context of peaceful economic integration throughout the region, for the benefit of all. A lasting peace must be guaranteed individually by each permanent member of the U.N. Security council, and endorsed by Israel’s neighbors.
6. The recent Hamas atrocities were "justified" (rationalized) by earlier police brutality at the Temple Mount. The dream of rebuilding the Temple of Herod must be given up and replaced by the will to rebuild the Temple of Solomon in its correct location.
For peace to take root, the Palestinian leadership must embrace a peace plan instead of bitterly accepting crumbs.
My proposal would require the Palestinians to accept a lasting "immigrant" Jewish presence in what was once the land of Jews who converted first to Christianity and then to Islam (that is, the Palestinians).
Only with such an embrace will the Saudis endorse a peace plan.
I envision a federated one-state solution, but others may have other ideas.
My solution, returning to the 1947 U.N. map, requires Israel to give up Tel Aviv. Perhaps now that can be regarded as fitting compensation for the destruction of Gaza.
A lasting peace along these lines can only happen if there is sufficient will toward peace in the American Jewish community to overcome extremist efforts to sabotage the peace plan.
George A. Polisner:
“In the 2024 election cycle in the United States, I can only hope that reasonable conservative pragmatists (granted, an endangered species) who have traditionally been members of the former GOP will vote alongside moderates, and liberal progressives to make it clear to all that we support democracy, justice, and continuing our evolutionary work toward a "more perfect Union." “
And
Ned McDoodle:
“I believe many decent Republicans who have exited the Halls of Congress are doing so with the intent of stepping back and letting the M.A.G.A. G.O.P. implode under the weight of its vindictive partisanship with its ideology breading idiocy. Then they may re-enter to re-build the Party. Those decent Republicans that have stuck around may resent their erstwhile colleagues invoking a right of return.”
The problem I have with so called reasonable conservative pragmatists who have traditionally been members of the former GOP and the decent Republicans who have existed is that they KNOW – they truly know the very real threat trump and the MAGA’s pose to our democracy. They KNOW that now we have a binary choice, not wishful thinking.
At this point the next president will be either Biden or Trump – either a MAGA or someone who cares about democracy albeit with a differing view then they may have on many issues – save for their common belief in a democratic United States. Yet these people leave congress in a huff, talk about a third party or say they will not vote.
If they truly love America – they would encourage people in their cohort to hold their nose and vote for Biden. To make clear, that they will survive another Biden presidency but not another one of trump.
A perfect example to me of what I consider the fecklessness of these ‘decent republicans’ is Haley’s statement that Biden is “MORE DANGEROUS THAN TRUMP” https://www.npr.org/2024/02/22/1232961899/nikki-haley-south-carolina-primary-super-tuesday-biden-trump
Seriously? She was supposed to be the ‘sane’ Republican – yet she made such a statement.
I understand she is hoping to someone get back into the race – but our very country is at stake and these conservatives are being called to serve their country by thwarting what will likely be an authoritarian ruler and still choosing party over country. They fail both. They fail their former party and they fail our country.
Please tell me I am wrong.
All excellent points Sonny. I do know there are not enough of them (endangered species). And while I would not want either of their legislative agendas driving the United States, there is a vast difference between Nikki Haley (a Trump appointee) and Liz Cheney. And the House reality is if a few more of the "old" GOP resign -that will be a major act of rebellion -as Mike Johnson will need to relinquish the gavel.
There are some conservatives who are vocal about the threat to democracy -such as Nicole Wallace, Bill Kristol, and Steve Schmidt. They are just not in the mainstream media as often as they should be because they aren't wearing MAGA clown suits, yelling about lasers from space, or providing extracurricular adult entertainment in a theater.
I like your idea of those who may be "conservative" leaning should "hold their nose" and vote for Biden. My main worry is that those who wouldn't vote for Trump might splinter and vote for third parties, or not vote at all, who think they couldn't possibly bring themselves to vote for Biden but who will inadvertently throw the presidency to Trump.
Hear! hear!, excellent post, George.
Thank you Fay -I'm sincerely grateful to Professor Richardson who, with The Guardian, and copious amounts of caffeine inspire me to transform thinking into occasionally cogent writing (accidental or otherwise).
I do enjoy your writing George, and am in agreement.
Off topic:
Please protest "the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation’s plans to give its “Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award” to conservative billionaires Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch, among others, “an affront to the memory of our mother and grandmother.” Without specifically criticizing any of the honorees — who also include Martha Stewart, Sylvester Stallone and financier Michael Milken — the Ginsburg family said the foundation “has strayed far from the original mission of the award and from what Justice Ginsburg stood for.”
Protest here:
press@rbgaward.org.
https://www.oppermanfoundation.org
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/2024/03/14/ruth-bader-ginsburg-award-elon-musk-martha-stewart/
Mike Pence apparently heard you.
I have several anonymous subscribers.
Well-done Mike!
Perfectly said.
Amen!
George, great post. I'm asking your permission to quote parts of this (today's) response/comment to HCR. Thanks in advance!
Thank you for asking Kent -and yes -my words are all free range (when deemed worthy enough) for sharing.
I agree with you George!!👍
That changes everything! (Thank you Lynette). :)
Yeah, George, remarkable the similarities, the intellectual dishonesty, the callousness, the demagoguery in both parties.
Most talk about both parties sharing similarities, for me, begins and ends at the Supreme Court, or in judicial appointments like Aileen Cannon And Matthew Kacsmaryk.