Lack of education is an enormous enemy of Democracy. People in the US are woefully uninformed about other forms of government around the world that provide for the people while creating thriving economies. US exceptionalism is a tool used by the right to prevent constructive change.
The thing is, big money was a problem before Trump, it has been exacerbated by his big lie yes but I wonder, is it possible to fix both problems at once?
The only thing we can do now is vote, and hope those we elect (eventually) forgo the big money luster. I don’t believe it can happen until we have a change in leadership on both sides.
As for Trumpism, the only thing that can slow it down at all is to indict and prosecute Trump himself. It won’t immediately end what he started but it’s a necessary step in the process of restoring the principles that the framers put in place.
There would be no Trump if we had been doing our job as citizens, to aggressively and relentlessly reject representatives who deviate from the aggregated will of their constituents, the voters in their legislative district. Corruption has destroyed trust in government for perfectly good reasons.
True representation will never lead us to party unity, because every congressional and legislative district is different from every other one. but who cares about party unity? The goal of our Democracy is not to deliver the power of government into the hands of a faction on one side or the other of the political spectrum. The genius of our American Democracy is in the aggregation of the diverse and independent wills of all of the American people. and what Congress was designed to do wisely, is just that.
Political parties are the first manifestation of special interests rising to divide us and prevent us from governing in the common interest of all Americans. They provide a hospitable venue for the influence of corruption on our elections and their contests have delivered an enormous nearly ten billion dollar payday to the concentrated owners of the media at our expense. They spent $300 for every man woman and child in America, just for the propaganda to keep us from thinking independently in our congressional district about who we prefer to represent us, and what is really best for us. I'd recommend adopting ranked choice elections, like Maine and Alaska now have, and forgetting about Republican vs Democrats. We're Americans. and reaching agreements about what to do is what Congress is supposed to be for.
So, how do we "vanquish the corrupting influence of big money on our system?" Line the pockets of our favorite politicians? All this fundraising looks like a wealth transfer from the ordinary voter to the candidates. It's a crap shoot. If my candidate loses, he or she is richer and I'm poorer and my voice got overpowered. If my candidate wins, he or she is still richer and I'm still poorer and mildly and briefly happy.
Feeling powerless and voiceless here in our money-driven "democracy."
Many of us have been trying for years to lessen the influence of big money in our country. To date, we have failed. Many of us have, among other things, supported the presidential candidacies of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. As you have noted, the system (for lack of a better term) is dominated and controlled by the wealthy, and the income gap has grown to astronomical levels. What in heavens name do to think "we" can do? Can you do anything? Do you have anything specific in mind when you say "we" must do this?
It does not matter whether it is politics, sports or big business, once big money is involved, corruption has been and still inevitable because there is too much at stake and money buys power....... What is more recent is that more individual supper rich have discovered they can influence politics without accountability by owning and thus influencing the media.
Sadly, there was plenty of skepticism about the integrity of the vote, and our political system, long before tRump. The 'Right' and corporate wealth influenced the vote and bought congressional seats, senate seats and the media. So it was easier for tRump and co, with the backing of the obscenely wealthy, to just pick up on those feelings and exploit them. Citizens United adds more challenge to undo the mess. The stacked court will prove to be a problem too, for who knows how long. Oh, and don't forget the Electoral College, and a legal system that favors 'White Collar' (wealthy) 'people'.
I agree that democracy has two enemies, but I think I disagree as to what they are. Election denying is a platform of the current Republican party. Without Big Money going to GOP, that platform wouldn't be spread so far. So I think election denying is not a separate threat but "just" another one of many anti-common-good elements that Big Money is trying to buy and foist on the U.S.
But even Ii we were to outlaw official, U.S. Big Money political influence, it appears we still would have a threat -- a force trying to financially support election denying and other anti-common-good GOP platforms. That force is the illegal Foreign Money that buys, for example, misleading social-media propaganda.
"Big money from corporations and the ultra-wealthy, undermining Americans' faith that our system is fair."
No American that I know of thinks that our system is fair. It is not fair and never was, and in the foreseeable future, the influence of corporations and undeserved wealth, in America and elsewhere, will continue to chart the course of this country and the world. It doesn't take a certified prophet to see it.
Thank you Professor Reich for your post today. To me, it seems clear. Let’s keep our democracy, expand the courts and kiss Citizens United bye bye placing common sense election boundaries so PACS and wealthy donors cannot buy elections. A law limiting contributions would go a long way.
Another great analysis of our deep political problems and failures. Your followers fully agree and have actually known all that for years. None of that is new. You are doing a great job as a tteacher, but it is not enough. What I would like to hear from you are the solutions to all this, if any. How do we get rid of money in politics, how do we get rid of our corrupt political elite, and how do we counter trumpian demagogery and voter ignorance?
"And big money from corporations and the ultra-wealthy, undermining Americans' faith that our system is fair."
We have to include corporate media as part of Mr. Reich's second point. The lurch to the right of nearly every newsroom in corporate media is glaring. CBS hired criminal Mick Mulvaney, CNN has purged liberal voices from the station, issuing edicts to not describe the Big Lie as The Big Lie, but to take the focus off of the entirely complicit Republican party and relabel The Big Lie as "Trump's Election lies".
The president's vital, powerful speech in Philadelphia advocating for Democracy and good government while warning of the dangers of rising authoritarianism WAS BLACKED OUT, not broadcast by any of the alphabet corporate newsrooms with corporate parents currently marching in goose step with the Republicans to end Democracy. The people that most needed to hear it likely don't know it ever happened. The January 6 Select Committee hearings got the same treatment. All of us here understand that Donald Trump and his confederates, backed by malignant billionaires and corporations, planned and executed an attempted overthrow of the United States government. Full stop. Here again the story was intentionally buried.
The most glaring recent examples lie with nearly every corporate newsroom completely ignoring Republican plans to kill Social Security and Medicare. Dwight Eisenhower's warned that to attempt to meddle with Social Security was political suicide (that's the gist, not the quote). The fact that every major newspaper, including the New York Times, WaPo, the LA Times, as well as CNN and every single alphabet network have chosen to completely ignore open Republican discussions of their actual plans to not only meddle with but to entirely destroy social security and Medicare indicates to me a willing self-censorship to benefit Republicans. I can't see any other explanation. What Ike observed then is still true today. These are universally popular programs. But the Republican base skews older. Can't have them finding out that the party they support is actively planning to end their retirement and healthcare benefits at the same time.
Finally, I want to address a forgotten elephant in the room. Voting machines are compromised. Full stop. Republicans in battleground states, including GA, PA, GA and AZ have provided illegal access to voting machines to other Republicans. The elephants let the elephants in the room. In Georgia, frantic attempts to address the obvious fact that their voting machines are no longer secure are met with indifference. One official overseeing the election (A Republican, of course) downplayed the whole issue by saying that they were just a'gonna swap out the machines! With identical machines with the exact same source code. Problem not solved. Problem not even addressed. Problem disappeared by a complicit media.
Ok, the final finally. Given the alliance between the former 4th Estate (the Plutocratic Press) and the Republicans, I do not believe the polls for one second. If newsrooms cannot be trusted to inform us about the dangers of one political party embracing authoritarianism they cannot be trusted to provide trustworthy election information. There are dedicated, professional career journalists in every one of these newsrooms, but at the top is an editor, and above them are corporate parents who no longer see the impropriety of issuing orders about what and what not to cover, and how to cover it. I refer you to Mr Reich's excellent commentary on CNN's rightward sprint, the new rightwing editor of that newsroom and the rabid, billionaire, Time Warner board member demanding these changes, a guy who once owned like 30% of Newscorp (that would be Fox News' corporate parent) and is a close personal friend of Rupert Murdoch.)
So here's my suspicion: these polls are cooked, calculated to make an election that if run fairly would be a Blue Wave without precedent look much, much closer than it is. WHEN, not if but when that stolen source code is put to use and Republicans eke out improbable victory after victory in all of the most important contests, these polls provide cover for that kind of steal. Fewer eyebrows raised when races are made to appear much closer than they are. This is just another weapon held to the head of Democracy by Republicans and corporate America, and corporate newsrooms are a part of that, another weapon to use against Democracy.
Right on about the money thing. Citizens United is one of the most damaging decisions the Supreme Court has ever handed down, in terms of democratic elections. Extremely demoralizing.
But-- power back to the people by a dictator? Even a kid could figure out that won't happen.
Timely, professor. I just sent an email to actblue.com and the DNC official website. I searched and searched for a way to be removed from campaign donation solicitation communications. My futile effort leads me to believe political parties made themselves exempt from CAN-SPAM law. I know this might be self-defeating, but I really don't want to be solicited to support candidates in other states and I'm tired of the incessant bombardment of soliciting when the truth as you describe, Dr. Reich, is small individual contributions accomplish nothing. Asking me to donate ever more and more is not the way to dilute corporate influence. That happens in the chambers of government and at the ballot box. And that is the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse metaphor. It will take a SCOTUS willing to do the right thing and overturn Citizens United. I'm not hopeful.
Lack of education is an enormous enemy of Democracy. People in the US are woefully uninformed about other forms of government around the world that provide for the people while creating thriving economies. US exceptionalism is a tool used by the right to prevent constructive change.
The thing is, big money was a problem before Trump, it has been exacerbated by his big lie yes but I wonder, is it possible to fix both problems at once?
The only thing we can do now is vote, and hope those we elect (eventually) forgo the big money luster. I don’t believe it can happen until we have a change in leadership on both sides.
As for Trumpism, the only thing that can slow it down at all is to indict and prosecute Trump himself. It won’t immediately end what he started but it’s a necessary step in the process of restoring the principles that the framers put in place.
DEMOCRATS
Unite the country.
Continue to show proof that President Biden won fair and square!
Right to choose
Promote Renewable Energy
Common sense gun laws, fund the police
Upholding the right to vote for all citizens
Regulate - stop despicable hate speech
Pass bills that help working class citizens
Reverse Climate Change/ reduce student debt/ codify Roe v Wade / etc….
Protect entitlements and reduce drug prices
Listen to scientists and medical professionals
Equal Justice For All
Uphold our democracy
Continue to support
Continue to reduce income inequality and reduce the deficit
Are on their own !!
Make decisions based on facts not alternative facts!
REPUBLICANS
Divide the country
2020 Presidential Election - continue To Promote The BIG LIE with no evidence
No Abortions - no exceptions
Climate change - hoax ignore the facts
Crime - SELL MORE GUNS = MORE CRIME , yeah for the NRA
Right-to-vote (voter suppression & stop mail-in voting)
Social Media - no holds barred
Congress - elect disgraceful people
Agenda - vote against Democrats @ all costs. “Burn Down The House “
Seniors - sunset Medicare and Social Security
Covid-19 - promote misinformation
Racism - Ignoring
Party over Country
Ukraine - stop aiding
Economy - make the rich RICHER. Undermine The Biden administration
Inflation - do nothing to help reduce inflation
Defamation of the nation’s leading experts (doctor Anthony Fauci)
Robert,
That was a bullseye.
There would be no Trump if we had been doing our job as citizens, to aggressively and relentlessly reject representatives who deviate from the aggregated will of their constituents, the voters in their legislative district. Corruption has destroyed trust in government for perfectly good reasons.
True representation will never lead us to party unity, because every congressional and legislative district is different from every other one. but who cares about party unity? The goal of our Democracy is not to deliver the power of government into the hands of a faction on one side or the other of the political spectrum. The genius of our American Democracy is in the aggregation of the diverse and independent wills of all of the American people. and what Congress was designed to do wisely, is just that.
Political parties are the first manifestation of special interests rising to divide us and prevent us from governing in the common interest of all Americans. They provide a hospitable venue for the influence of corruption on our elections and their contests have delivered an enormous nearly ten billion dollar payday to the concentrated owners of the media at our expense. They spent $300 for every man woman and child in America, just for the propaganda to keep us from thinking independently in our congressional district about who we prefer to represent us, and what is really best for us. I'd recommend adopting ranked choice elections, like Maine and Alaska now have, and forgetting about Republican vs Democrats. We're Americans. and reaching agreements about what to do is what Congress is supposed to be for.
So, how do we "vanquish the corrupting influence of big money on our system?" Line the pockets of our favorite politicians? All this fundraising looks like a wealth transfer from the ordinary voter to the candidates. It's a crap shoot. If my candidate loses, he or she is richer and I'm poorer and my voice got overpowered. If my candidate wins, he or she is still richer and I'm still poorer and mildly and briefly happy.
Feeling powerless and voiceless here in our money-driven "democracy."
Many of us have been trying for years to lessen the influence of big money in our country. To date, we have failed. Many of us have, among other things, supported the presidential candidacies of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. As you have noted, the system (for lack of a better term) is dominated and controlled by the wealthy, and the income gap has grown to astronomical levels. What in heavens name do to think "we" can do? Can you do anything? Do you have anything specific in mind when you say "we" must do this?
It does not matter whether it is politics, sports or big business, once big money is involved, corruption has been and still inevitable because there is too much at stake and money buys power....... What is more recent is that more individual supper rich have discovered they can influence politics without accountability by owning and thus influencing the media.
Sadly, there was plenty of skepticism about the integrity of the vote, and our political system, long before tRump. The 'Right' and corporate wealth influenced the vote and bought congressional seats, senate seats and the media. So it was easier for tRump and co, with the backing of the obscenely wealthy, to just pick up on those feelings and exploit them. Citizens United adds more challenge to undo the mess. The stacked court will prove to be a problem too, for who knows how long. Oh, and don't forget the Electoral College, and a legal system that favors 'White Collar' (wealthy) 'people'.
I agree that democracy has two enemies, but I think I disagree as to what they are. Election denying is a platform of the current Republican party. Without Big Money going to GOP, that platform wouldn't be spread so far. So I think election denying is not a separate threat but "just" another one of many anti-common-good elements that Big Money is trying to buy and foist on the U.S.
But even Ii we were to outlaw official, U.S. Big Money political influence, it appears we still would have a threat -- a force trying to financially support election denying and other anti-common-good GOP platforms. That force is the illegal Foreign Money that buys, for example, misleading social-media propaganda.
Enemy of Democracy:
"Big money from corporations and the ultra-wealthy, undermining Americans' faith that our system is fair."
No American that I know of thinks that our system is fair. It is not fair and never was, and in the foreseeable future, the influence of corporations and undeserved wealth, in America and elsewhere, will continue to chart the course of this country and the world. It doesn't take a certified prophet to see it.
Thank you Professor Reich for your post today. To me, it seems clear. Let’s keep our democracy, expand the courts and kiss Citizens United bye bye placing common sense election boundaries so PACS and wealthy donors cannot buy elections. A law limiting contributions would go a long way.
Yes!!! Get the money out of our politics!!
Another great analysis of our deep political problems and failures. Your followers fully agree and have actually known all that for years. None of that is new. You are doing a great job as a tteacher, but it is not enough. What I would like to hear from you are the solutions to all this, if any. How do we get rid of money in politics, how do we get rid of our corrupt political elite, and how do we counter trumpian demagogery and voter ignorance?
"And big money from corporations and the ultra-wealthy, undermining Americans' faith that our system is fair."
We have to include corporate media as part of Mr. Reich's second point. The lurch to the right of nearly every newsroom in corporate media is glaring. CBS hired criminal Mick Mulvaney, CNN has purged liberal voices from the station, issuing edicts to not describe the Big Lie as The Big Lie, but to take the focus off of the entirely complicit Republican party and relabel The Big Lie as "Trump's Election lies".
The president's vital, powerful speech in Philadelphia advocating for Democracy and good government while warning of the dangers of rising authoritarianism WAS BLACKED OUT, not broadcast by any of the alphabet corporate newsrooms with corporate parents currently marching in goose step with the Republicans to end Democracy. The people that most needed to hear it likely don't know it ever happened. The January 6 Select Committee hearings got the same treatment. All of us here understand that Donald Trump and his confederates, backed by malignant billionaires and corporations, planned and executed an attempted overthrow of the United States government. Full stop. Here again the story was intentionally buried.
The most glaring recent examples lie with nearly every corporate newsroom completely ignoring Republican plans to kill Social Security and Medicare. Dwight Eisenhower's warned that to attempt to meddle with Social Security was political suicide (that's the gist, not the quote). The fact that every major newspaper, including the New York Times, WaPo, the LA Times, as well as CNN and every single alphabet network have chosen to completely ignore open Republican discussions of their actual plans to not only meddle with but to entirely destroy social security and Medicare indicates to me a willing self-censorship to benefit Republicans. I can't see any other explanation. What Ike observed then is still true today. These are universally popular programs. But the Republican base skews older. Can't have them finding out that the party they support is actively planning to end their retirement and healthcare benefits at the same time.
Finally, I want to address a forgotten elephant in the room. Voting machines are compromised. Full stop. Republicans in battleground states, including GA, PA, GA and AZ have provided illegal access to voting machines to other Republicans. The elephants let the elephants in the room. In Georgia, frantic attempts to address the obvious fact that their voting machines are no longer secure are met with indifference. One official overseeing the election (A Republican, of course) downplayed the whole issue by saying that they were just a'gonna swap out the machines! With identical machines with the exact same source code. Problem not solved. Problem not even addressed. Problem disappeared by a complicit media.
Ok, the final finally. Given the alliance between the former 4th Estate (the Plutocratic Press) and the Republicans, I do not believe the polls for one second. If newsrooms cannot be trusted to inform us about the dangers of one political party embracing authoritarianism they cannot be trusted to provide trustworthy election information. There are dedicated, professional career journalists in every one of these newsrooms, but at the top is an editor, and above them are corporate parents who no longer see the impropriety of issuing orders about what and what not to cover, and how to cover it. I refer you to Mr Reich's excellent commentary on CNN's rightward sprint, the new rightwing editor of that newsroom and the rabid, billionaire, Time Warner board member demanding these changes, a guy who once owned like 30% of Newscorp (that would be Fox News' corporate parent) and is a close personal friend of Rupert Murdoch.)
So here's my suspicion: these polls are cooked, calculated to make an election that if run fairly would be a Blue Wave without precedent look much, much closer than it is. WHEN, not if but when that stolen source code is put to use and Republicans eke out improbable victory after victory in all of the most important contests, these polls provide cover for that kind of steal. Fewer eyebrows raised when races are made to appear much closer than they are. This is just another weapon held to the head of Democracy by Republicans and corporate America, and corporate newsrooms are a part of that, another weapon to use against Democracy.
Right on about the money thing. Citizens United is one of the most damaging decisions the Supreme Court has ever handed down, in terms of democratic elections. Extremely demoralizing.
But-- power back to the people by a dictator? Even a kid could figure out that won't happen.
Timely, professor. I just sent an email to actblue.com and the DNC official website. I searched and searched for a way to be removed from campaign donation solicitation communications. My futile effort leads me to believe political parties made themselves exempt from CAN-SPAM law. I know this might be self-defeating, but I really don't want to be solicited to support candidates in other states and I'm tired of the incessant bombardment of soliciting when the truth as you describe, Dr. Reich, is small individual contributions accomplish nothing. Asking me to donate ever more and more is not the way to dilute corporate influence. That happens in the chambers of government and at the ballot box. And that is the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse metaphor. It will take a SCOTUS willing to do the right thing and overturn Citizens United. I'm not hopeful.