It’s a tragedy that Biden has been vain and stubborn enough to seek reelection. He has achieved a great deal in one term, and he now needs to orchestrate changeover to the new generation: Whitmer? Newsome? Somebody mainstream
This started when they put Biden in the race in 2020. Bernie Sanders won the first three primaries, then party leaders figured they couldn’t let Bernie win, and Biden is at the top of the list, so we will run Biden. The entire primary process was fixed with super-delegates to let Biden win. The party leaders screwed up in 2016, when they put up a candidate that could not capture independent voters. Again, with the super-delegates that made sure she won.
The party leadership is again screwing up, and will force everyone to suffer the consequences of fascism because of it.
FROM TODAY'S FINANCIAL TIMES, ED LUCE WRITES ABOUT THE CHICAGO CONVENTION PUTTING FORWARD AN ALTERNATIVE TO BIDEN:
There is no shortage of Democratic talent. Nor would a noisy contest necessarily be bad for the party. Democrats would be showcasing the lively democratic process that they believe is in peril. The question that Biden, and the first lady, must now ask themselves is who Trump would fear more: Biden, or a younger opponent who could fire off the rebuttals that he failed to deliver on Thursday? To a growing number of Democrats, that question answers itself.
Your choice is between a pathological liar, fraud, cheater, bigoted racist, with aspirations of being a dictator. The other guy is pro-democracy and has a cold.
I'm voting for the guy with the cold.
I'm still wearing this "VOTE removes stubborn orange stains" t-shirt, now more than ever 👇
Mine too HB. He was fighting a cold, who amongst us has driven ourselves to do something we know we aren't up to par to do. His voice was soft last night BUT he answered most questions directly, intelligently and most of all HONESTLY. The trumpster was his usual smug lying self, he failed to answer a single question asked of him AND GOT AWAY WITH IT no thanks to Jake Tapper. Dana at least tried. If there is another debate in September, I hope whichever network holds it provides a REAL moderator who shuts off he mike after the second spewing of lying drivel and demands Trump answers the question asked.
Yes, Fay - I wish that the debate rules included a simple rider: If the question is not being answered directly, your mic gets turned off. This would cure what we all suffered through last night
If that's who they run then, yeah, I'll hold my nose and vote for him. Biden wasn't terrible but I don't think he has another 4 years in him. OTOH, I don't think trump has 4 months in him and those 4 months would be hell on Earth.
If it is Biden vs Trump I'm voting Biden, and will crawl over broken glass to vote Blue, there is no alternative if one loves their freedoms, democracy, standard of living and food in their belly.
However I am voting blue regardless of who is nominated in Chicago, and the only question that should be asked is who has the best chance of beating Trump, and for reasons stated above, I say Kamala.
The only thing that is of importance is beating Trump. Nothing else matters and the Democrats need to set aside emotions and all of that baggage and focus on that task, and who can best do that, and what disabilities does Biden have, and I don't mean physical disabilities but disabilities among the voting public.
Are you, Rocco, saying that Steven Stine is a troll, because he says that AOC could not capture Swing Voters. I adore AOC, but that statement is true, from what I know.
She is the only one of the Squad that has common sense and not blind loyalty to the Ummah.
Anyone who defends is on the side of misogynists and homophobes is not a progressive, to my knowledge AOC hasn't yet crossed that line, the other members of the Squad have, they really aren't progressives either, just Ummah loyalists.
I like Katy Porter. She and her whiteboard would hold the republican feet to the fire and watch them blister as they squirm to answer questions that have the proof against them glaring on that field of white.
Nobody could “fire off the rebuttals” to that fire hose of misinformation. The most effective reply would have been to turn to the camera and say something like “What reality does this guy live in?” Instead, Biden felt the weight of our expectations and disappointment and let it wash over and drown him. It was a tactical disaster, and it leaves us the job of promoting the highly constructive and consequential administration of Mr. Biden on our own - without the help of an informed and informative corps of journalists.
Biden is a man of integrity and doesn’t resort to that mudslinging trash that Trump piled out - too bad he had a cold - but at 81 and with his recent schedule that can happen.
We aren’t looking for a pretty orange man with a fake toupee and dragging a tale of lies that stretches to hell - we are looking for someone that keep the country together and moving forward. Imagine what the country would look like without the hate of Trump spewing everywhere - We would be in great shape - just need to put the clamps on the rich bastards hurting America and retire at least 4 members of SC.
Whoever gets the blue nomination gets my vote. I, indeed we all, are voting on a platform, not an individual. The platform I favor is the blue: continuation and improvement of the Democratic republic, and government of/by/for the people. The red platform is project 25. The choice is obvious for 99% of the eligible voting population.
Who do you think "they" are in these scenarios? Biden ran in 2020 because he himself decided to. Nobody "put" him in the race. He was running before the primaries started, and there was no clear leader until Biden won South Carolina. Biden in 2020 and Clinton in 2016 won a clear majority of the delegates chosen through primaries; the super-delagtes were not the deciding factor in either race. Likewise, Biden is running this time because he himself decided to, and as incumbent president, the nomination was his for the asking. Was it a mistake for him to run? Maybe, though he's done a good job as president and despite some shaky moments he's still capable. But regardless, it's too late to change now. No alternative candidate could possibly gain consensus support among all Democratic voters in the short time available. It's not even likely anyone could get unanimous support among party leadership, which is the only practical way a change could be made. And if people like you are complaining about the party leadership imposing candidates on them when they didn't do so, what would you say if they actually did it?
I’m sorry, but if you check, Bernie Sanders led until the South Carolina primary.
The party leaders put Biden in the race, and had there not been super-delegates to fix the 2016 race for Hillary, Bernie would have stood a better chance of taking the nomination. The only problem is that these super-delegates were DNC insiders, whose sole purpose was to see that only a party hack could win. There would be no room for more social change while the likes of corporate lobbyists and groups like AIPAC hold the purse strings of the party. Just as it stands today.
Again, Biden put _himself_ in the race, and he announced his candidacy in 2019, well before any primaries or caucuses had taken place. Sanders was the front-runner before South Carolina, but he hardly had a lock on the nomination. Multiple candidates still had a reasonable shot at winning at that point. What is true is that after Biden overwhelmingly won South Carolina, a lot of the more moderate (or "establishment") party leaders endorsed him, and several candidates dropped out and did the same, giving Biden momentum that neither Sanders nor any other of the remaining candidates could overcome. But he still won by getting more votes from ordinary people in the primaries than any other candidate did, and the same was true of Hillary (in fact in 2016 Bernie got many of his wins in caucuses, which are arguably less democratic, whereas Hillary won the vast majority of primaries).
Yes, being party insiders and "establishment" candidates did give both Biden and Clinton substantial advantages, and corporate lobbyists and groups like AIPAC have a substantial, malignant influence on the party. My own top choice in 2020 was Elizabeth Warren, who is even more hated and feared by most of Wall Street than Sanders is, which certainly didn't help her chances. But it is still inaccurate to claim that either Clinton or Biden was simply anointed by a shadowy group of party insiders. They won their nominations, indeed with substantial help from a non-monolithic bloc of establishment figures, but ultimately through winning votes from ordinary people in the primaries. And none of this changes the fact that all people who want to ever see progressive change in the US have to work as hard as they can to re-elect Biden and get as many Democrats, progressive or moderate, into Congress as possible, because no matter what you think of Democratic party insiders, the Republicans are a thousand times worse.
Biden only “put himself” in the race, because party leaders told him to do so. The party leaders did not want Bernie, because they would lose corporate funding.
That’s all I will say on this matter. Some people just believe whatever the corporate media tell them.
Yes, many leading figures in the party did not want Bernie, but there is no evidence Biden only entered the race because "party leaders" (which ones? the Democratic party has lots of leaders, and they aren't a monolith) told him to. He explained multiple times why he chose to run, and unless you can show proof that Biden's own explanation of why he entered the race was not true, I don't see why anyone should prefer your version of what happened to that of the "corporate media" (also not a monolith) or Biden himself.
On that we agree. The Democrats had no one else, that the corporations felt comfortable with, so they chose the Ex Senator from Wall street. The DNC hates progressives, progressives are the enemy of their donors. Pelsoi hates them, Rahm Emanuel called us fucking retards. We were told to embrace the ACA and not let the good be the enemy of the perfect, when Rahm and Pelosi bowed to AHIP and killed the idea of single payor, which required only modifying the Medicare enabling legislation, as was done when Bush was President, to "eligibility starts at birth", instead AHIP lobbyinsts wrote a 600 page gift to the industry, a portion of which SCOTUS,sensibly knocked down.; The part that imposed a tax fine on people who couldn't afford to buy into the ACA.
After last nights debate, it appears to me that Biden has a very difficult time on-camera.
I'm a dummy in politics, but I think someone like Jamie Raskin, or Adam Schiff are far more presentable. Biden appeared so feeble that even Trump haters have to think that it would soon be a case of Kamela in office if Biden managed to win. Maybe a different VP would give voters a higher confidence level.
Ted, not Adam Schiff, the man is a camera whore, and he and the former Chair of the DCCC, Sean Patrick Mahoney went off junkateering in Paris, when they should have been financing and supporting candidates, and because of that Sean lost his seat in NY, along with three other in what were safe Democratic districts and Republicans gained control of Congress.
Now Schiff will be running for Senator from California, when we could have a real progressive, like Katie Porter and not a camera whore.
Schiff is going to have to earn trust, so far all he does is step in front of a camera and pontificate.
Completely agree with your analysis. It's really the DNC which got us into this mess with the orange douchebag from Queens, and has basically kept us here for 8 years, to our great embarrassment in the eyes of the world. It's unforgiveable.
Why does the DNC hate Sanders so much? Is it because they are corporate, or because he doesn't kiss ass? In any case, the country is crying out for reform and would still vote in a landslide for Sanders.
Either way, Biden must go, and Harris is not the answer.
It's probably ultimately a good thing that Bernie was supplanted by Biden. He is too important as a gadfly to be wasted on what would be bound to be an ineffectual Presidency. Find someone middle ground folks say. Alas, there is no middle ground as Republicans are constantly shifting further to the right to please the wealthy Oligarchy. Do we have a Democracy or only the illusion of it as Political Parties impose top-down decisions?
Bernie said he would run if Biden didn't. Biden seemed to be older than his years last night and may even have Parkinson's disease. Most 81-year-olds are more flexible physically and mentally. Bernie could do it, even at his age. President Biden is my hero and I want to see him enjoy the rest of his life after his lifetime of service to our country. He is a good man who will push himself to death for our country and for what he believes in. Trump is an evil conman who doesn't care for anyone but himself. I was awestruck but how Trump was able to stand there and continuously lie. CNN should be ashamed to allow those lies to go unchallenged.
It is indeed a tragedy that Democrat powers who wanted to preserve their ability to control the 81 year-old Biden, and dish out their favours, did not allow a free choice for the Party. With the stubborn attitude of Biden and his cohorts, Newsom and others did not fly the flag afraid to be considered disloyal. This happened before in 2016 -- in all sorts of tricks to not allow Bernie to stand agains Clinton.
I'd love to see Newsome in the White House...great material for four years of Josh Meyers skits on Kimmel 😂 Seriously though, Biden is a shadow of himself compared to four years ago.
Not a woman. We have not elected a woman before. Not the time to take unneeded risks. Not Newsome. Too liberal for much of the country. Maybe a Sherrod Brown or Prizker or, there are others.
Why not a woman. Europe elects them, Extremely conservative, Catholic Mexico just elected a Jewish woman. Misogynistic, Islamic Pakistan even elected a woman. but not democratic sectarian America.
The Democratic primary is Aug 9th, some argue for an open primary. I don't. I think that Biden should be nominated and then step down in favor of Kamala. Kamala is intelligent and has proved herself where she can or has been allowed.
There is a serious problem with the electoral college which the fat heads in the party are not addressing and that is this.
It takes 270 electoral votes to win. Blue and blue leaning states have 226, needed are 45 more votes to bring that to 271.
MI has 15 votes, PA 19, WI 11 that's 45.
Biden carried each of the states in 2020 by 10,000 plus votes. A narrow margin considering that Muslims have a hard on for Biden because they are loyal first to the Ummah (world wide community of Muslims) and Biden has been supporting Israel, blacks for the same reason and especially young black males, because they don't have as big a piece of the pie as they think they deserve., and also because of the Israel issue.
Kamala, being a mixed race woman, does not have the same issues as Biden as regards Israel, she was not the decision maker.
Kamala has a good chance of capturing the Muslim and black vote in those three swing states, Biden has no chance, given that he only won by 10,000 votes in each state in 2020 , and there are 100,000 or more Muslims and blacks in those states The math and politics say, that while they wonn't vote for Trump, they will either sit out the election or vote third party, for instance for Cornell West, which hands Trump the election.
You want "mainstream"? After all the insanity by the RIGHT? It's gonna take a LOAD of progressive attitude to counter all the craziness and get us BACK to some form of mainstream, but you sure can't accomplish ANYTHING, thinking we need mainstream attitudes NOW! America is far and away MORE LIBERAL than we are conservative, and what has occurred is NOT conservative behavior, it is fascist. It is deep, dark FASCISM. At least three, if not FOUR of the "conservative" members of the Court are fascists. And they are so blind to their true beliefs, they really don't know they are!
Coruporations are destroying America. I try to buy as much of my food as possible from businesses like Bob's Red Mill and King Arthur Flour because they are employee-owned. That is what is known as Democratic Socialism and I am a Democratic Socialist. Both the German Nazis and the Russian Communists had "Socialist" in their names. Neither was Socialist. They were authoritarian/totalitarian countries, just like many of the countries around the world today. America is on the road to Authoritarianism because of religion and corporations, both of which will destroy the country. Power to the workers and worker-owned businesses.
Did any great Democrats attend the Palestine Real Estate Auction in Southern California ? Of course the Real Estate is in Palestine !
Los Angeles police was seen very busy quelling the protesters and busy protecting the Real Estate Investors in Palestine !
I guess California Democratic Governor’s Former Wife’s new Boyfriend’s Brother in Law must be Eager to do some Real Estate Developments in the Land where Palestinian Homes were Destroyed the IDF Einsteins !
But, everyone eventually loves the big PACs and their Money, even Foreign Money and Foreign Influence are all Very Welcome in The Occupied Territory known as Washington DC …. One thing that is embraced by Bipartisanship in Washington and Supreme Court is now very happy and on Slippery Ground reflecting the Level of Corruption in Washington DC !
By the way, the Foreign Money is really recycled US Taxpayers Money while our Deficit is reaching new highs !
Sit: yes, and the biggest winner is the big money, who can avoid taxes, and even enjoy subsidies. Then they blame the workers and middle class and even the poor, who pay the taxes, for the deficit.
All of this New Guilded Age started under Reagan who was the second worst president ever!!! As governor of California he refunded higher education by getting rid of free state universities and as president shredded the social safety net, got rid of usury laws, started the rabbit hole drug war which crated the Carcel State, and allowed corporations to outsource jobs en masses and it has gone downhill from there!
And as usual, the victims of right wing policies get blamed!!!
One of the worst aspects of Snyder v. United States is that the politician, after awarding the contract, ASKED the briber for the "gratuity" and told him how much he wanted.
So now politicians and judges can submit bills to those who have benefited from their judgments--will the Supreme Court next allow politicians and judges to sue for their "gratuities" if they aren't immediately paid?
I wonder, Robert, do you ever consider that America is so far down the wrong path that it's version of Capitalism is unfixable by any current Party or policy?
I am reminded of Marx and his proposition that Capitalism would eventually fail because the rich would continue to accumulate all the wealth and power, until the Masses in their increasing poverty and destitution would rise up and overthrow the elites. Maybe not quite ready for that yet, but perhaps a term or two of Trump will be enough?
I have often wondered if the first genuinely-Marxist country would be America.
Of course, it is unlikely to be the Democratic voters that will rise up. It would most likely be the Trump-MAGA supporters when they realise how Trump and the Republican Party has shafted them! And they are, after all, the ones with all the guns!
Hi Robert, great analysis! Have you thought of putting yourself forward as a Dem candidate for the 2024 Presidential Election? I think the DNC will be 'auditioning' candidates soon. 😁
As a lower level member of the ‘ wealthy elite class’, I completely agree Professor Reich. Both major political parties attend to the greed needs of the wealthy, who do not need any economic assistance. Establishment of an appropriate just progressive federal income tax is the first step. Corporate Stockholders, individuals & mutual funds, need to realize that CEO salaries & bonus payments are currently not reality based. These excessive CEO payments reduce dividends paid to shareholders, or appropriate reinvestments into innovation and/or improved efficiency of the business
entity. As a country, we have lost our moral compass. Individuals need to redevelop the understanding that we are better off feeding the less fortunate, maintaining public education, providing housing, establishing a fair minimum wage, etc.
The Supremes (not the Motown group) have done it again, and why would we think they would have acted differently in this matter? What with several of them taking bribes, sorry “gratuities” it’s no wonder they made this ruling.
IMNSHO, they are bribes, whether taken before or after the fact. No difference.
I think people should ask Mr Trump where the products that he is selling (gold sneakers, coins, two dollar bills with his picture, trading cards, etc.) are made.. prior to his presidency, he used Asian countries to make the clothes he and his daughter were selling. Now he is making $ from his supporters for just about anything with his name or picture on it.
There is good Bipartisanship at least in Welcoming Billionaires’ Money, specially Foreign Money to Support the High Lives of Washington Political Class ! Foreign Money managed to Oust a Sitting Democratic Congressman in NY in a Primary by spending millions of Dollars to Replace a Sitting Congressman by another candidate more Pliable to the Foreign Nation !
Most of the comments were ok -- but as a free trader (I studied under Bhagwati and Samuelson at MIT) I do not agree with comments on Trade Agreements. On a global basis the Washington Consensus has lifted many countries out of dire poverty. Limited "infant industry" protection is understandable, but to blame Free Trade is wrong. In fact, it distorts the economic payoff of the world, and contributes to inflation. A better response is education and training to retrain the workers from noncompetitive industries to where they are more competitive. Otherwise, it is a fallacy to believe that US untrained workers have a "right" to higher standard of living for ever over better trained workers elsewhere.
Free trade is a right wing idea that only helps the global capitalists and hurts workers and causes ecoside. It’s curious what used to be free trade was a right wing idea adopted by Clinton and anti-free trade is now more a right wing cause. No wonder the working poor have swung to Trump…
Tell the poor of Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand who all benefited from Free Trade that they are right wing! It is the US selfish attitude to demand that their untrained workers have a right to higher standard of living compared to other untrained poor workers of the world (the latter are NOT right wing!) that united Republicans AND Democrats in their bashing of Free Trade.
Correct,with a slight difference of opinion from me which does not matter.
The world is being lifted out of poverty with free trade Goods and services are cheaper,.The changeover to renewable energy may be a little bit more painful than expected .Short term pain for long term gain .
The wealth is shared around through pension funds .The US has $40 trillion in them,across 71? million households..This should have a good increase this year as contributions go in,dividends are reinvested and prices rise .
You can't help people that refuse to help themselves.
Retraining should have been a priority over the last 30 to 40 years, in all first world nations.Some of them did an adequate job of that Some didn't.
YES indeed and doesn’t this ALSO include how money has interfered with - caused wars and lies - led to so many dangerous pressures and connections to many of our most corrupt elections?? And those elections both Republicans yet no less Democrats have forced upon the well/meaning voters and chair ppl around our nation? And even allowed our best and worst leaders to keep colonial attachments around the world to/this/day??
Agreed we saw that in 08’ when Obama picked who would fail and who would get bailed out. And it was the big corporations that got bailed out while the little guy was left behind.
Then in 2021 we saw Biden once again pick and choose who would fail and who would succeed and we saw once again it was big corporations that were allowed to succeed while the little guy was forced to close.
I want to blame the Democrats too. Prof. Reich has the receipts for all their capitulations. They were many. But with billions of dollars spent hacking our weak system, some of this might have been inevitable. Some of the weaknesses were structural. The rich applied as many methods at as many locations like water, constantly seeking cracks to widen. My mind goes to various stories I would read over the years, with increasing alarm, in the New Yorker, about how they were taking over everything from state legislatures to SCOTUS to local school boards.
Nevertheless, the Democrats STILL do not oppose these efforts to destroy democracy in any effective way nor do most even express clearly the *specifics* of what we are up against. They say ‘Donald Trump, Donald Trump’ and ignore the flotilla of right wing think tanks and the collaborating churches and various grifters and opportunists which have shot so many holes in our social and political system. They do not have the fire in the belly to fight these efforts. They are not *directly* opposing it with force, and never opposed it with much other than rhetoric but were simply maintaining the structure (which is, of course, essential).
After awhile, the termites have eaten away enough of the structure that it’s easy to push it down. But we saw it happening and tried to push back and we are very rarely successful in the long run.
It’s hard to understand why anyone in politics would not be as alarmed as we are or put their full effort into preventing the disasters that we’ve been seeing coming for a very long time. At least since the Bush presidency anyone could see that balance of power shift dramatically in favor of the wealthy, and the threat of authoritarianism. So why was so little done?
Maybe there is a different culture in electoral politics now in which the job of the politician is to maintain their place in their social milieu where they exist while we are always looking to them to represent our interests. They do not appear to see this as essential in the same way we do. Rarely do pending catastrophes like the climate crisis or the increasing numbers of people who are homeless or cannot afford the means of life do not alarm them in the same way they alarm the rest of us. They appear more focused on the technical aspects of their position maintaining their office, and less on the long term trajectory.
It is also possible to read the problem for them as being similar to the one that afflicts our society as a whole where members of the political class cannot coordinate collectively for any focused purpose but are more nose-to-the-grindstone pursuing their own interests, and desperately avoiding criticism. This is likely one of the main effects of the money that is available to push them out of office if they step too much out of line.
In spite of the fact there is a large number of sensible people of goodwill among the citizens who want something better, we lack the capacity to effectively coordinate our political will to promote our interests. Everyone is playing defense and we are focused on our sense of vulnerability in this social culture, one that creates a continually looming sense of threat but always tears apart any attempt to connect.
It’s a tragedy that Biden has been vain and stubborn enough to seek reelection. He has achieved a great deal in one term, and he now needs to orchestrate changeover to the new generation: Whitmer? Newsome? Somebody mainstream
This started when they put Biden in the race in 2020. Bernie Sanders won the first three primaries, then party leaders figured they couldn’t let Bernie win, and Biden is at the top of the list, so we will run Biden. The entire primary process was fixed with super-delegates to let Biden win. The party leaders screwed up in 2016, when they put up a candidate that could not capture independent voters. Again, with the super-delegates that made sure she won.
The party leadership is again screwing up, and will force everyone to suffer the consequences of fascism because of it.
FROM TODAY'S FINANCIAL TIMES, ED LUCE WRITES ABOUT THE CHICAGO CONVENTION PUTTING FORWARD AN ALTERNATIVE TO BIDEN:
There is no shortage of Democratic talent. Nor would a noisy contest necessarily be bad for the party. Democrats would be showcasing the lively democratic process that they believe is in peril. The question that Biden, and the first lady, must now ask themselves is who Trump would fear more: Biden, or a younger opponent who could fire off the rebuttals that he failed to deliver on Thursday? To a growing number of Democrats, that question answers itself.
Biden has my vote.
Your choice is between a pathological liar, fraud, cheater, bigoted racist, with aspirations of being a dictator. The other guy is pro-democracy and has a cold.
I'm voting for the guy with the cold.
I'm still wearing this "VOTE removes stubborn orange stains" t-shirt, now more than ever 👇
libtees-2.creator-spring.com/listing/vote24
Tomorrow we rise and we pull together and we help Biden win this f*cking election. Cut the panic. We have work to do!
Mine too HB. He was fighting a cold, who amongst us has driven ourselves to do something we know we aren't up to par to do. His voice was soft last night BUT he answered most questions directly, intelligently and most of all HONESTLY. The trumpster was his usual smug lying self, he failed to answer a single question asked of him AND GOT AWAY WITH IT no thanks to Jake Tapper. Dana at least tried. If there is another debate in September, I hope whichever network holds it provides a REAL moderator who shuts off he mike after the second spewing of lying drivel and demands Trump answers the question asked.
Yes, Fay - I wish that the debate rules included a simple rider: If the question is not being answered directly, your mic gets turned off. This would cure what we all suffered through last night
Biden has my vote if he stays well until the election.
If that's who they run then, yeah, I'll hold my nose and vote for him. Biden wasn't terrible but I don't think he has another 4 years in him. OTOH, I don't think trump has 4 months in him and those 4 months would be hell on Earth.
If it is Biden vs Trump I'm voting Biden, and will crawl over broken glass to vote Blue, there is no alternative if one loves their freedoms, democracy, standard of living and food in their belly.
However I am voting blue regardless of who is nominated in Chicago, and the only question that should be asked is who has the best chance of beating Trump, and for reasons stated above, I say Kamala.
Thank you!!
The only thing that is of importance is beating Trump. Nothing else matters and the Democrats need to set aside emotions and all of that baggage and focus on that task, and who can best do that, and what disabilities does Biden have, and I don't mean physical disabilities but disabilities among the voting public.
I only wish that AOC was 35, so she could run for President. She would BURY Don the Con.
AOC? You’re delusional.
Karl Marx : you are an irrelevant troll
How are you holding up after last night’s disaster?
For once I agree with you. AOC could not capture the swing voters. However she serves a vital role in Congress keeping the Dems true to their ideals.
You are a troll
Are you, Rocco, saying that Steven Stine is a troll, because he says that AOC could not capture Swing Voters. I adore AOC, but that statement is true, from what I know.
She is the only one of the Squad that has common sense and not blind loyalty to the Ummah.
Anyone who defends is on the side of misogynists and homophobes is not a progressive, to my knowledge AOC hasn't yet crossed that line, the other members of the Squad have, they really aren't progressives either, just Ummah loyalists.
If you don't know what Ummah means, then google .
I like Katy Porter. She and her whiteboard would hold the republican feet to the fire and watch them blister as they squirm to answer questions that have the proof against them glaring on that field of white.
Nobody could “fire off the rebuttals” to that fire hose of misinformation. The most effective reply would have been to turn to the camera and say something like “What reality does this guy live in?” Instead, Biden felt the weight of our expectations and disappointment and let it wash over and drown him. It was a tactical disaster, and it leaves us the job of promoting the highly constructive and consequential administration of Mr. Biden on our own - without the help of an informed and informative corps of journalists.
Biden is a man of integrity and doesn’t resort to that mudslinging trash that Trump piled out - too bad he had a cold - but at 81 and with his recent schedule that can happen.
We aren’t looking for a pretty orange man with a fake toupee and dragging a tale of lies that stretches to hell - we are looking for someone that keep the country together and moving forward. Imagine what the country would look like without the hate of Trump spewing everywhere - We would be in great shape - just need to put the clamps on the rich bastards hurting America and retire at least 4 members of SC.
Whoever gets the blue nomination gets my vote. I, indeed we all, are voting on a platform, not an individual. The platform I favor is the blue: continuation and improvement of the Democratic republic, and government of/by/for the people. The red platform is project 25. The choice is obvious for 99% of the eligible voting population.
Who do you think "they" are in these scenarios? Biden ran in 2020 because he himself decided to. Nobody "put" him in the race. He was running before the primaries started, and there was no clear leader until Biden won South Carolina. Biden in 2020 and Clinton in 2016 won a clear majority of the delegates chosen through primaries; the super-delagtes were not the deciding factor in either race. Likewise, Biden is running this time because he himself decided to, and as incumbent president, the nomination was his for the asking. Was it a mistake for him to run? Maybe, though he's done a good job as president and despite some shaky moments he's still capable. But regardless, it's too late to change now. No alternative candidate could possibly gain consensus support among all Democratic voters in the short time available. It's not even likely anyone could get unanimous support among party leadership, which is the only practical way a change could be made. And if people like you are complaining about the party leadership imposing candidates on them when they didn't do so, what would you say if they actually did it?
I’m sorry, but if you check, Bernie Sanders led until the South Carolina primary.
The party leaders put Biden in the race, and had there not been super-delegates to fix the 2016 race for Hillary, Bernie would have stood a better chance of taking the nomination. The only problem is that these super-delegates were DNC insiders, whose sole purpose was to see that only a party hack could win. There would be no room for more social change while the likes of corporate lobbyists and groups like AIPAC hold the purse strings of the party. Just as it stands today.
Again, Biden put _himself_ in the race, and he announced his candidacy in 2019, well before any primaries or caucuses had taken place. Sanders was the front-runner before South Carolina, but he hardly had a lock on the nomination. Multiple candidates still had a reasonable shot at winning at that point. What is true is that after Biden overwhelmingly won South Carolina, a lot of the more moderate (or "establishment") party leaders endorsed him, and several candidates dropped out and did the same, giving Biden momentum that neither Sanders nor any other of the remaining candidates could overcome. But he still won by getting more votes from ordinary people in the primaries than any other candidate did, and the same was true of Hillary (in fact in 2016 Bernie got many of his wins in caucuses, which are arguably less democratic, whereas Hillary won the vast majority of primaries).
Yes, being party insiders and "establishment" candidates did give both Biden and Clinton substantial advantages, and corporate lobbyists and groups like AIPAC have a substantial, malignant influence on the party. My own top choice in 2020 was Elizabeth Warren, who is even more hated and feared by most of Wall Street than Sanders is, which certainly didn't help her chances. But it is still inaccurate to claim that either Clinton or Biden was simply anointed by a shadowy group of party insiders. They won their nominations, indeed with substantial help from a non-monolithic bloc of establishment figures, but ultimately through winning votes from ordinary people in the primaries. And none of this changes the fact that all people who want to ever see progressive change in the US have to work as hard as they can to re-elect Biden and get as many Democrats, progressive or moderate, into Congress as possible, because no matter what you think of Democratic party insiders, the Republicans are a thousand times worse.
Biden only “put himself” in the race, because party leaders told him to do so. The party leaders did not want Bernie, because they would lose corporate funding.
That’s all I will say on this matter. Some people just believe whatever the corporate media tell them.
Yes, many leading figures in the party did not want Bernie, but there is no evidence Biden only entered the race because "party leaders" (which ones? the Democratic party has lots of leaders, and they aren't a monolith) told him to. He explained multiple times why he chose to run, and unless you can show proof that Biden's own explanation of why he entered the race was not true, I don't see why anyone should prefer your version of what happened to that of the "corporate media" (also not a monolith) or Biden himself.
On that we agree. The Democrats had no one else, that the corporations felt comfortable with, so they chose the Ex Senator from Wall street. The DNC hates progressives, progressives are the enemy of their donors. Pelsoi hates them, Rahm Emanuel called us fucking retards. We were told to embrace the ACA and not let the good be the enemy of the perfect, when Rahm and Pelosi bowed to AHIP and killed the idea of single payor, which required only modifying the Medicare enabling legislation, as was done when Bush was President, to "eligibility starts at birth", instead AHIP lobbyinsts wrote a 600 page gift to the industry, a portion of which SCOTUS,sensibly knocked down.; The part that imposed a tax fine on people who couldn't afford to buy into the ACA.
After last nights debate, it appears to me that Biden has a very difficult time on-camera.
I'm a dummy in politics, but I think someone like Jamie Raskin, or Adam Schiff are far more presentable. Biden appeared so feeble that even Trump haters have to think that it would soon be a case of Kamela in office if Biden managed to win. Maybe a different VP would give voters a higher confidence level.
Ted, not Adam Schiff, the man is a camera whore, and he and the former Chair of the DCCC, Sean Patrick Mahoney went off junkateering in Paris, when they should have been financing and supporting candidates, and because of that Sean lost his seat in NY, along with three other in what were safe Democratic districts and Republicans gained control of Congress.
Now Schiff will be running for Senator from California, when we could have a real progressive, like Katie Porter and not a camera whore.
Schiff is going to have to earn trust, so far all he does is step in front of a camera and pontificate.
You could be right. But I was impressed when he led the impeachment.
Bernie is a year older than Biden, but I feel certain he would have done far better in the debate.
Completely agree with your analysis. It's really the DNC which got us into this mess with the orange douchebag from Queens, and has basically kept us here for 8 years, to our great embarrassment in the eyes of the world. It's unforgiveable.
Why does the DNC hate Sanders so much? Is it because they are corporate, or because he doesn't kiss ass? In any case, the country is crying out for reform and would still vote in a landslide for Sanders.
Either way, Biden must go, and Harris is not the answer.
It's probably ultimately a good thing that Bernie was supplanted by Biden. He is too important as a gadfly to be wasted on what would be bound to be an ineffectual Presidency. Find someone middle ground folks say. Alas, there is no middle ground as Republicans are constantly shifting further to the right to please the wealthy Oligarchy. Do we have a Democracy or only the illusion of it as Political Parties impose top-down decisions?
Bernie said he would run if Biden didn't. Biden seemed to be older than his years last night and may even have Parkinson's disease. Most 81-year-olds are more flexible physically and mentally. Bernie could do it, even at his age. President Biden is my hero and I want to see him enjoy the rest of his life after his lifetime of service to our country. He is a good man who will push himself to death for our country and for what he believes in. Trump is an evil conman who doesn't care for anyone but himself. I was awestruck but how Trump was able to stand there and continuously lie. CNN should be ashamed to allow those lies to go unchallenged.
It was nauseating. Disgraceful. And made me so mad I couldn't go to sleep afterwards!
It is indeed a tragedy that Democrat powers who wanted to preserve their ability to control the 81 year-old Biden, and dish out their favours, did not allow a free choice for the Party. With the stubborn attitude of Biden and his cohorts, Newsom and others did not fly the flag afraid to be considered disloyal. This happened before in 2016 -- in all sorts of tricks to not allow Bernie to stand agains Clinton.
Another irrelevant bot?
Why do you always think people who have other views than yours are bots. You are a rude person.
Did you see the question mark?
Rude is in the eye of the beholder. Everyone who comments on the internet is rude to someone.
I'd love to see Newsome in the White House...great material for four years of Josh Meyers skits on Kimmel 😂 Seriously though, Biden is a shadow of himself compared to four years ago.
@Andrew Kitching. Are you a bot? A Russian? Irrelevant and immaterial to debunking the myth.
Why must you lefties keep on pulling out the tired bot or Russian narrative?
Trump comes off as delusional. Manic. Tool of Putin. Plenty of evidence that the Russians are running a disinformation campaign.
https://www.voanews.com/a/how-russia-s-disinformation-campaign-seeps-into-us-views-/7566503.html
Good lord, give it rest. You sound like a raving lunatic.
Says the bot.
Come on man. You can do better
And you sound like a disruptive troll.
Why why, why, ? Why is the sky blue, why is shit brown? Why are you a Russian troll?
Robert Reich?
Not a woman. We have not elected a woman before. Not the time to take unneeded risks. Not Newsome. Too liberal for much of the country. Maybe a Sherrod Brown or Prizker or, there are others.
Why not a woman. Europe elects them, Extremely conservative, Catholic Mexico just elected a Jewish woman. Misogynistic, Islamic Pakistan even elected a woman. but not democratic sectarian America.
The Democratic primary is Aug 9th, some argue for an open primary. I don't. I think that Biden should be nominated and then step down in favor of Kamala. Kamala is intelligent and has proved herself where she can or has been allowed.
There is a serious problem with the electoral college which the fat heads in the party are not addressing and that is this.
It takes 270 electoral votes to win. Blue and blue leaning states have 226, needed are 45 more votes to bring that to 271.
MI has 15 votes, PA 19, WI 11 that's 45.
Biden carried each of the states in 2020 by 10,000 plus votes. A narrow margin considering that Muslims have a hard on for Biden because they are loyal first to the Ummah (world wide community of Muslims) and Biden has been supporting Israel, blacks for the same reason and especially young black males, because they don't have as big a piece of the pie as they think they deserve., and also because of the Israel issue.
Kamala, being a mixed race woman, does not have the same issues as Biden as regards Israel, she was not the decision maker.
Kamala has a good chance of capturing the Muslim and black vote in those three swing states, Biden has no chance, given that he only won by 10,000 votes in each state in 2020 , and there are 100,000 or more Muslims and blacks in those states The math and politics say, that while they wonn't vote for Trump, they will either sit out the election or vote third party, for instance for Cornell West, which hands Trump the election.
You want "mainstream"? After all the insanity by the RIGHT? It's gonna take a LOAD of progressive attitude to counter all the craziness and get us BACK to some form of mainstream, but you sure can't accomplish ANYTHING, thinking we need mainstream attitudes NOW! America is far and away MORE LIBERAL than we are conservative, and what has occurred is NOT conservative behavior, it is fascist. It is deep, dark FASCISM. At least three, if not FOUR of the "conservative" members of the Court are fascists. And they are so blind to their true beliefs, they really don't know they are!
Steve Beshear
No one hates democracy like the super-rich. It's taken only 100 years to completely undo the work of Teddy Roosevelt, sadly
Coruporations are destroying America. I try to buy as much of my food as possible from businesses like Bob's Red Mill and King Arthur Flour because they are employee-owned. That is what is known as Democratic Socialism and I am a Democratic Socialist. Both the German Nazis and the Russian Communists had "Socialist" in their names. Neither was Socialist. They were authoritarian/totalitarian countries, just like many of the countries around the world today. America is on the road to Authoritarianism because of religion and corporations, both of which will destroy the country. Power to the workers and worker-owned businesses.
Did any great Democrats attend the Palestine Real Estate Auction in Southern California ? Of course the Real Estate is in Palestine !
Los Angeles police was seen very busy quelling the protesters and busy protecting the Real Estate Investors in Palestine !
I guess California Democratic Governor’s Former Wife’s new Boyfriend’s Brother in Law must be Eager to do some Real Estate Developments in the Land where Palestinian Homes were Destroyed the IDF Einsteins !
Palestinian Homes were Destroyed by the IDF Einsteins !
Politicians’ Corruption is like the Subterranean Termite ! Now, it is well entrenched all over America but concentrated in Washington DC !
First loyalty is to the Ummah right? Nothing else matters but the Ummah and Islam, right?
What are you doing in the land of kufr's Muhammad, if your Islamic homeland is so wonderful.?
?
Nothing is worse than the Zionists Occupier Colony !
"We must get big money out of politics" But how? Where do we even begin?
But, everyone eventually loves the big PACs and their Money, even Foreign Money and Foreign Influence are all Very Welcome in The Occupied Territory known as Washington DC …. One thing that is embraced by Bipartisanship in Washington and Supreme Court is now very happy and on Slippery Ground reflecting the Level of Corruption in Washington DC !
By the way, the Foreign Money is really recycled US Taxpayers Money while our Deficit is reaching new highs !
Sit: yes, and the biggest winner is the big money, who can avoid taxes, and even enjoy subsidies. Then they blame the workers and middle class and even the poor, who pay the taxes, for the deficit.
All of this New Guilded Age started under Reagan who was the second worst president ever!!! As governor of California he refunded higher education by getting rid of free state universities and as president shredded the social safety net, got rid of usury laws, started the rabbit hole drug war which crated the Carcel State, and allowed corporations to outsource jobs en masses and it has gone downhill from there!
And as usual, the victims of right wing policies get blamed!!!
That’s Ronnie Rat Raygun
One of the worst aspects of Snyder v. United States is that the politician, after awarding the contract, ASKED the briber for the "gratuity" and told him how much he wanted.
So now politicians and judges can submit bills to those who have benefited from their judgments--will the Supreme Court next allow politicians and judges to sue for their "gratuities" if they aren't immediately paid?
The guy driving that big motor home doesn't understand what you are saying Maureen.
I wonder, Robert, do you ever consider that America is so far down the wrong path that it's version of Capitalism is unfixable by any current Party or policy?
I am reminded of Marx and his proposition that Capitalism would eventually fail because the rich would continue to accumulate all the wealth and power, until the Masses in their increasing poverty and destitution would rise up and overthrow the elites. Maybe not quite ready for that yet, but perhaps a term or two of Trump will be enough?
I have often wondered if the first genuinely-Marxist country would be America.
Of course, it is unlikely to be the Democratic voters that will rise up. It would most likely be the Trump-MAGA supporters when they realise how Trump and the Republican Party has shafted them! And they are, after all, the ones with all the guns!
Hi Robert, great analysis! Have you thought of putting yourself forward as a Dem candidate for the 2024 Presidential Election? I think the DNC will be 'auditioning' candidates soon. 😁
I'd much prefer Reich over Biden anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKwJrLY4nXk
As a lower level member of the ‘ wealthy elite class’, I completely agree Professor Reich. Both major political parties attend to the greed needs of the wealthy, who do not need any economic assistance. Establishment of an appropriate just progressive federal income tax is the first step. Corporate Stockholders, individuals & mutual funds, need to realize that CEO salaries & bonus payments are currently not reality based. These excessive CEO payments reduce dividends paid to shareholders, or appropriate reinvestments into innovation and/or improved efficiency of the business
entity. As a country, we have lost our moral compass. Individuals need to redevelop the understanding that we are better off feeding the less fortunate, maintaining public education, providing housing, establishing a fair minimum wage, etc.
I am old enough to remember JFK saying that a rising tide lifts all boats
So am I!
The Supremes (not the Motown group) have done it again, and why would we think they would have acted differently in this matter? What with several of them taking bribes, sorry “gratuities” it’s no wonder they made this ruling.
IMNSHO, they are bribes, whether taken before or after the fact. No difference.
Where I work a bribe is a bribe!!!
I think people should ask Mr Trump where the products that he is selling (gold sneakers, coins, two dollar bills with his picture, trading cards, etc.) are made.. prior to his presidency, he used Asian countries to make the clothes he and his daughter were selling. Now he is making $ from his supporters for just about anything with his name or picture on it.
A depressing explanation of how the rich have swindled their way into political control. Where is Teddy Roosevelt when we need him?
Long dead. In both senses.
There is good Bipartisanship at least in Welcoming Billionaires’ Money, specially Foreign Money to Support the High Lives of Washington Political Class ! Foreign Money managed to Oust a Sitting Democratic Congressman in NY in a Primary by spending millions of Dollars to Replace a Sitting Congressman by another candidate more Pliable to the Foreign Nation !
Most of the comments were ok -- but as a free trader (I studied under Bhagwati and Samuelson at MIT) I do not agree with comments on Trade Agreements. On a global basis the Washington Consensus has lifted many countries out of dire poverty. Limited "infant industry" protection is understandable, but to blame Free Trade is wrong. In fact, it distorts the economic payoff of the world, and contributes to inflation. A better response is education and training to retrain the workers from noncompetitive industries to where they are more competitive. Otherwise, it is a fallacy to believe that US untrained workers have a "right" to higher standard of living for ever over better trained workers elsewhere.
Free trade is a right wing idea that only helps the global capitalists and hurts workers and causes ecoside. It’s curious what used to be free trade was a right wing idea adopted by Clinton and anti-free trade is now more a right wing cause. No wonder the working poor have swung to Trump…
Tell the poor of Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand who all benefited from Free Trade that they are right wing! It is the US selfish attitude to demand that their untrained workers have a right to higher standard of living compared to other untrained poor workers of the world (the latter are NOT right wing!) that united Republicans AND Democrats in their bashing of Free Trade.
True! Trump is a symptom of the diseases of hopelessness and greed! Where are the real Democrats
"Free trade is a right wing idea" --- where did you learn Economics? From Ricardo to Samuelson, they would have supported free trade.
Correct,with a slight difference of opinion from me which does not matter.
The world is being lifted out of poverty with free trade Goods and services are cheaper,.The changeover to renewable energy may be a little bit more painful than expected .Short term pain for long term gain .
The wealth is shared around through pension funds .The US has $40 trillion in them,across 71? million households..This should have a good increase this year as contributions go in,dividends are reinvested and prices rise .
You can't help people that refuse to help themselves.
Retraining should have been a priority over the last 30 to 40 years, in all first world nations.Some of them did an adequate job of that Some didn't.
Money should be kept out of politics .
YES indeed and doesn’t this ALSO include how money has interfered with - caused wars and lies - led to so many dangerous pressures and connections to many of our most corrupt elections?? And those elections both Republicans yet no less Democrats have forced upon the well/meaning voters and chair ppl around our nation? And even allowed our best and worst leaders to keep colonial attachments around the world to/this/day??
Agreed we saw that in 08’ when Obama picked who would fail and who would get bailed out. And it was the big corporations that got bailed out while the little guy was left behind.
Then in 2021 we saw Biden once again pick and choose who would fail and who would succeed and we saw once again it was big corporations that were allowed to succeed while the little guy was forced to close.
I want to blame the Democrats too. Prof. Reich has the receipts for all their capitulations. They were many. But with billions of dollars spent hacking our weak system, some of this might have been inevitable. Some of the weaknesses were structural. The rich applied as many methods at as many locations like water, constantly seeking cracks to widen. My mind goes to various stories I would read over the years, with increasing alarm, in the New Yorker, about how they were taking over everything from state legislatures to SCOTUS to local school boards.
Nevertheless, the Democrats STILL do not oppose these efforts to destroy democracy in any effective way nor do most even express clearly the *specifics* of what we are up against. They say ‘Donald Trump, Donald Trump’ and ignore the flotilla of right wing think tanks and the collaborating churches and various grifters and opportunists which have shot so many holes in our social and political system. They do not have the fire in the belly to fight these efforts. They are not *directly* opposing it with force, and never opposed it with much other than rhetoric but were simply maintaining the structure (which is, of course, essential).
After awhile, the termites have eaten away enough of the structure that it’s easy to push it down. But we saw it happening and tried to push back and we are very rarely successful in the long run.
It’s hard to understand why anyone in politics would not be as alarmed as we are or put their full effort into preventing the disasters that we’ve been seeing coming for a very long time. At least since the Bush presidency anyone could see that balance of power shift dramatically in favor of the wealthy, and the threat of authoritarianism. So why was so little done?
Maybe there is a different culture in electoral politics now in which the job of the politician is to maintain their place in their social milieu where they exist while we are always looking to them to represent our interests. They do not appear to see this as essential in the same way we do. Rarely do pending catastrophes like the climate crisis or the increasing numbers of people who are homeless or cannot afford the means of life do not alarm them in the same way they alarm the rest of us. They appear more focused on the technical aspects of their position maintaining their office, and less on the long term trajectory.
It is also possible to read the problem for them as being similar to the one that afflicts our society as a whole where members of the political class cannot coordinate collectively for any focused purpose but are more nose-to-the-grindstone pursuing their own interests, and desperately avoiding criticism. This is likely one of the main effects of the money that is available to push them out of office if they step too much out of line.
In spite of the fact there is a large number of sensible people of goodwill among the citizens who want something better, we lack the capacity to effectively coordinate our political will to promote our interests. Everyone is playing defense and we are focused on our sense of vulnerability in this social culture, one that creates a continually looming sense of threat but always tears apart any attempt to connect.
Food for thought:
Isn’t this called a quid pro quo????