"They claim to be superpatriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interests.…"
A perfectly accurate description of the modern Republican Party, written 80 years ago.
His agenda, if elected, will become the rule given Trump total power, destroying our democracy taken away normal freedoms!
We must do everything we can to combat fascism. Fascism rules with fear and violence. That's Trump. Please America don't let yourself be victims. Voting is not going to stop fascism, but anything that puts a barrier between Trump and the executive will at the very least make it so that an authoritarian fascist regime is not guaranteed.
On the other hand, Kamala Harris is showing us the politics of what's possible, and she'll lead with that same joy and optimism as our next president. 🙏
I think there's optimism in the air, I've gotten so many high-fives wearing this Kamala shirt everywhere I go 👇
Isn't it curious that such an amazing part of our history has been swept under the rug for so long. I was largely unaware of the American fascist movement in teh '30's and '40's until Rachel M came out with Ultra. I am willing to bet that upwards of 100% of MAGA Republicans are unaware of this history.
Agree. I'm also thinking the vast majority will be oblivious to the parallels to their own actions and hence reject it as fake. Holocaust and science deniers can't be reasoned with. After all, dear leader, the Mango Mussolini himself, told them to ignore what they see and hear with their own eyes & ears. The ChristoFascists are even worse. They roll their very unChristian prosperity gospel millionaire mega church pastors into the mix, having ordained the beast as the chosen one.
I called Izzy's October Surprise months ago because of Netty's bromance with Trump. Netty knows exactly what he's doing to Biden/Harris. MI starts voting tomorrow.
I hope I'm wrong about gas prices spiking next. Biden should open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, if needed to prevent gas prices going up. I was afraid of this scenario.
The markets are preparing for a major profit taking ahead of the election in case Trump wins or worse, steals the election through court shenanigans and violence. Sadly, any market drops will further fuel TraitorTrump's rhetoric, helping him, the very thing that will create the election economic instability businesses should & do fear. It will become a self fulfilling prophecy.
Please help flip some of them. Please repeatedly post "not suckers or losers" comments in social media. According to Facebook, there are 4 million veterans and active duty members on Facebook, as well as 12.5 million family members and 242 million friends with veterans or active duty members. Military sites, veterans' organizations, historical sites.
Vote vets has already flipped many 2016 and 2020 Trump voters.
It's up to people like you who are on social media.... when you comment you'll see what I mean. Many of the people involved are dependents, family members, friends and neighbors who are interested in the military and or national security and for whom this is news. Takes repetition and substantiation by people they trust.
I am a Vietnam combat veteran -- probably the lone survivor from my units. I have been a "veteran" since Jan 21, 1968. The grandchildren (or great-grandchildren) of my late colleagues want to hear from someone like you.
When you post on say a FB history site, you may start a conversation with potential who may flip on this basis.... Yesterday was a big day.... positive comments.
This report has been in the news recently, and this excerpt is from the Pew Research Center: "About six-in-ten registered voters who say they have served in the U.S. military or military reserves (61%) support former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, while 37% back Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in early September. "
I cannot understand it. Cannot make sense of it. Although John Kelly has finally let himself be recorded in the NYT and in print in The Atlantic that Trump is a fascist, that is not news; we have all known for several years that Trump has those views. Thus the 61% of those with military service who support Trump have also known this about him for longer than this week with Kelly's interviews. So how is it even possible that 61% align themselves with someone who is the complete opposite of anything that could be described as "American."
It is truly chilling to realize that military-affiliated people, that civilian law enforcement members, that sheriffs around the country align themselves with Trump. It would appear that there is the making of a Gestapo, of storm troopers, of brown shirts, of a Red Guard - and it is a terrifying thought that in America there is any percentage at all, let alone 61%, that would support a person who shows every day that he hates this country and its purported values.
Author Jonathan Alter was on Stephen Colbert Thursday night and made a very poignant statement, one that many of us can probably relate to, about the disconnect between the illusions he grew up with and has held, as have most of us probably, about this country and its values versus the realization that a large segment of this country support Trump, a known fascist.
As difficult as it is to say that I agree with John Bolton about anything, I tend to agree with his recent statement on CNN about Trump, that he does not think Trump is a fascist because he doesn't think Trump believes in ANYTHING, not any "philosophy" or ideas, outside of his own self-interest. I think there is plenty of evidence of the truth of that and that we are able to call Trump - correctly - a fascist now because he thinks that ideation is his route to power. What is most frightening is that there is a crowd of millions who hold those ideas and are willing to give him that power. However, because he is without any principles at all, if he thought that his route to power required him to pose as a socialist, he would do that. He IS a fascist because he is perfectly willing to act as a fascist if it gets him what he wants.
He has reportedly been a Republican sometimes, a Democrat sometimes, a Republican again, and a whatever he is now as a MAGAt; he has been for abortion rights and against abortion rights; he has mocked TV evangelists and embraced them and emulated their tactics; and so on and so on. He is a con-man chameleon. In his first campaign for the Presidency in one of his rallies, he was mocking everything and everybody, mocking traditional behaviors and customs; he began to belittle the traditions around "being Presidential," referring to pundits comments about him with, "they say he's not Presidential.... I can be "Presidential." (to the crowd), "You want to see me be "Presidential?" At that point he began kind of mincing around the stage, mocking some kind of idea he had of someone dignified and appropriate, making the idea of dignity and a mature presence seem ridiculous and laughable, making fun of "being Presidential." It was one of so very many disgusting and alarming things he has done. Like the disgusting performance on a rally stage with his embrace of an American flag on a pole, saying in that odd voice he uses, "I love you, baby," mocking and demeaning.
He has no core, no character, no morals. I think he identified the Presidency as a great way to power, but he quickly identified it as the greatest con-game ever, beyond his wildest imagination even as a life-long con-man, charlatan, criminal, and he will do or be whatever "the mob" feeds on in order to be in power, to be "all powerful." It seems absurd to say it, but he is far, far worse than fascist.
Broadway needs a revival of "The Madness of King George." It has been said that George III had porphyria as the cause of his madness. He also had it in for America, just as Don ("America is a garbage can" he said on October 23) has it in for America. Like King George III, Don only wants to rape the environment and rob our treasure, all for his own enrichment and power. We defeated George's greedy ambitions. Let's do it again with the current wannabe king. We aren't fighting the "red coats" this time; we're fighting the turncoats!
Annie: As a retired special ops officer and team leader I speak with some knowledge. The troops that I served with and led have a super macho self image.
The military is conservative and cloistered. The troops that I led worshiped Donald Rumsfeld, because he recognized them, and gave them all the toys that wanted , all the weapons they wanted and all the prestige they wanted. They think of themselves as supermen, macho, macho men, and that applies to all branches.
Most recruits are from the south and rural America, they don't join out of patriotism, they join to get away from home and to find a career, a job, training. And they bring with them the attitudes and values of their culture.
You can take the redneck out of Oklahoma, but not Oklahoma out of the redneck.
The military has been fighting racism and sexism for over 50 years, they have or had classes, mandatory, to no avail.
Thank you William for your unique insights. In psychology they say that there are two different mindsets when it comes to politics, one is the ENFORCE a civil society by threat of dire consequence and the other is apply EMPATHY to get people to behave well. Now social researchers have proven over, and over and over again that the probability to achieve LONG lasting, permanent change is FAR greater if you use the empathy model to change human behavior. But the "change through punishment" approach never goes away because those who are raised in it see it as the ONLY means to achieve change in human behavior. When you think about it war itself is an application of the change through punishment/ dire consequence methodology. Now a human and a nation needs to defend itself to survive. But when you work, your daily existence is steeped in the change via punishment - it's DARN hard to hold on to the value of empathy. AND - this is important, this difficulty is intensified by the fact that all too often, those work to defend a country or its citizens are confronted all to often with people who are incapable of empathy. Like Daniel Solomon here, I don't give up easily. So my hope that someday ALL people will value and use empathy in their interactions with others never dies. Again, my thanks for your insightful, authoritative comment here.
Have you noticed that empathy is almost always directed at animals, women and children, and not all animals, we have empathy for the animals that we slaughter to eat, does society in general.
Why would that be Goddess? Maybe because males are the source of violence, aggression, dominance and not worthy of empathy.
When HAMAS propaganda wing publishes photo's and video's of wounded and suffering people, it is always children and women. Men,when they are shown are on stretchers or ground covered with cloth. None of this is by accident.
When HAMAS Health Ministry says that there have been over 42,000 people killed, you are left with the impression that they are all women and children, but half at least are fighters, members of brigades and the terrorists that slaughtered the Jews on Oct 7th, now we are seeing the same thing in Lebanon, 30 Lebanonese killed, but no mention that they were Hezbollah.
It is images of suffering women and children, and mostly children that move us, our empathy is conditional, even the best of us.
I often question myself Goddess. I spent a year in Vietnam, in support of every unit imaginable, from Marines in the DMZ, to ROC's, Aussies and MACV in the Delta. I've seen shit that I can never unseen, including the damage a bee hive round fired point blank into charging NVA,helped a man out of a helicopter who was holding his intestines in with his hands. Puked, puked again, and eventually became desensitized. You have to be, to continue functioning.
Doctors and surgeons couldn't do their jobs,if they weren't desensitized.
But empathy is highly selective, a reality we don't want to face.
Jesus said, treat your neighbor as yourself, but a neighbor in Jerusalem in that time, was a member of the tribe, who shared your ethnicity, religion, went to the same temple and market as you, probably shared relatives.
Neighbor today is quite different, We have neighbors with which we share nothing and often are on the opposite side of the fence, even hate us and would do us harm.
Here are two governmental examples. Biden's FEMA is directed to do everything they can to help those states that actually hate him and his party.
Trump would not, at first, help California with it's wildfires, because California voted against him.
The government expresses its empathy with programs like FEMA, and overseas aid (USAID).
I express my empathy by supporting the local animal shelter and spay and neuter program. My heart gets tugged by all of those mounful ads about babies and children, thenI remember that Hitler, Stalin, Trump, bin Laden, Netanyahu, Sinwar, Chuck Norris and every asshole I've met and known was once a cute, adorable sweet baby. Also, an old asshole like moi.
To which one may add this: nature destined men to fight over scarce resources and females, and it destined women for procreation. When resources shrink as a result of population growth the empathy field also shrinks. You deserve praise, William, for spaying your pets.
Thank you, William. You have much more experience in this than I do and I agree with your assessment. My husband and I served as Department of Defense Civilians in Europe for 23 years up to 2004. One thing we noticed was that every TV in every public space or office on every base was tuned in to Fox “News” all the time. Our active duty are good people. They are not suckers or losers. They are conservative, cloistered, and in an echo chamber. We hope that this has changed since 2004.
Where ever you go in the military where you find a TV set it is tuned to Fox. I have traveled and stopped to eat at truck stops,and again Fox, in bars if it isn't sports it's Fox, and god help whoever changes the channel. Nothing has changed, I am sure. It is an uphill slog to break through the fog.
Faux is appealing to white career officers afraid they will by bypassed for promotion by "woke" rules, DEI. One of the reasons we lost the war in Afghanistan is that we promoted women's rights.
I used to follow Southern Poverty Law Center more closely back in the 1990s, and received its reports about the Klan and other White Supremacist organizations it fought. It mentioned that these groups encouraged their sympathizers to join the military to get trained for their desired Racial Holy War (RaHoWa).
Gen Mike Flynn has a brother named Charles On Jan 6th Lt Gen Charles Flynn was an aid to the acting Secretary of Defense.. The Secretary of Defense was not a a real SecDef, it was Christopher Miller, appointed by Trump on Nov 9th after he lost the election. The coup was planned well in advance.
When the mob of traitors attacked the Capitol, the Capitol Police were not enough to handle them, and the National Guard were needed.
Only the Secretary of Defense has the authority to releas the National Guard,. Nancy Pelosi and other congress members were calling the SecDef's office and Lt Gen Charles Flynn, who was answering the phones, let the phones ring off the hook. He was in the act.
President Biden punished him by appointing him 1st as Chief of Pacific Forces and 2nd promoting him to four star general.
I SO-O-O-O despise Biden! He hasn't got the know-how to wipe his own ass! The five people I hate the most: Merrick Garland, Joe Biden, Trump, Netanyahu, Putin. Merrick Garland had better body-guard up 100-fold. An NPR program I was listening to tonight, "Freakenomics," their guest said he believes Trump is going to win the election. Garland had better get prepared to run!
IIRC correctly the Republicans were depending on overseas military ballots until 2020, There is no way to know how the military voted, but they were majority Republican, overwhelmingly. Military members vote in the state of their home of record. The home of record is the state which they indicate on their enlistment or commissioning record. I changed my home of record every time I re enlisted and every time i was commissioned (twice first as a reserve officer, second as a regular officer)
The link Daniel says overseas absentee ballots, not military, and there are 3 million Americans living overseas and not all our military., and the ballots they are trying to block are in North Carolina and Georgia.
Republicans are trying to block all APO MBV in swing states. Many in the military are stationed staeside but not in their home states and also use absentee.
Also many US voters from overseas.In 2020, Democrats Abroad played a pivotal role in increasing the civilian vote abroad by 73.5% over 2016. As a result, overseas votes made up the margin of victory for White House and Senate races in Georgia and Arizona.
Arizona counted 18,435 abroad ballots in 2020. Biden won Arizona by 10,457.
Georgia counted 18,475 abroad ballots. Biden won Georgia by 11,779
The great news is that Americans abroad vote blue in overwhelming numbers. From 2020 to April of 2024, 77.65% voters using the voting tool votefromabroad.org registered as left leaning. 17.2% registered as having no party preference. Only 2.5% registered as Republican.
I hope Reuters is correct. As regards MAGAts stopping VBM, it is their belief that all VBM favors the Democrats. They were all for VBM, because the military vote has historically been Republican, they turned the tables after 2020.
Unfortunately there is no way of knowing how the military actually votes.
It isn't so easy to change your voting registration
Military members vote in the state which is their home of record. Every time I reenlisted I changed my home of record, and again when I was commissioned (twice) once as a reserve officer, second time as a regular officer.
That Reuters article is internally contradictory, first it says that there are .6 million Americans living overseas, including U.S. military members and their families, are eligible to cast ballots in the seven swing states, according to the Democratic National Committee.
Then it says:Some 2.9 million U.S. citizens living outside the country were eligible to vote overall in 2020, though fewer than 8% of them did, according to the Federal Voting Assistance Program, a government entity
Unless that means there has been a 1.3 million decrease in Americans or American voters overseas
William, I fear that the ending of the Draft, of compulsory military service may have doomed American democracy. An all-volunteer army is bound to consist of authoritarians, militarists, adventurers, and, given the country's history, Confederates. Such soldiers are likely to be loyal to the person who leads them than to to the Republic.One of the reasons the Draft was terminated was that towards the end of the Vietnam war officers were being killed by their own men. A rebellion of draftees was happening because the draftees felt they had been deceived and betrayed by their commanders. Once compulsory military service was ended our young people lost interest in foreign affairs and in political participation. They delegated duty and responsibility to others, and, like Trump, they probably regard these others as losers and suckers. Relying on others to protect our interests comes at a hidden cost. Would you mind commenting and expanding on this?
I have nothing to say except I share your concerns, and IMO you are correct.
The only reason that Nixon pulled support out of Vietnam is because the American Middle Class could not take anymore of their sons, brothers, uncles, fathers, cousins coming home in caskets.
George W Bush learned that lesson, and forbade coverage of the caskets being unloaded at Delaware AFB, or national coverage of funerals.
Instead of getting casualty reports from the Pentagon, the media had to pay people to scour the local papers of every community.
My unit was all volunteer, both as enlistees and as operators. We have and they have a self image of macho rambo types. One of my troops loved field problems, he slathered his face carefully in camo with tiger stripe design, he huffed and puffed like a he was Attila or something, he and his underling both quit and got a job with Wackenhut, then rehired with Blackwater. They both died years ago, from brain cancer, within months of each other, obviously exposed to (un)depleted uranium munitions or some toxin, both were obnoxious assholes.
I feel the biggest reason the military wanted an all-volunteer force was that they had more control. No more draftees like me writing letters to our congress members about what we saw or what we were ordered to do. No more "FTAs!"
They also prefer a dictatorial leadership. I have often been told by vets that the military is not a democratic institution. It may be seen in our obfuscated language to protect democracy, but in truth the military is there to protect the positions and ambitions of the reigning regime. It always has, up through history, and it always will. In corporate-ruled America of today, that is what it will sacrifice much human, financial and material resource to accomplish. What other country has military installations in so many other countries? To protect our citizens there? Not so. Can you see France or Spain or the UK setting up military bases here?
None of the above is true. The modern military supports Harris.
I worked with many who have flipped. I was president of one organization and chair of another filled with people who used VA points to get their jobs. Some appointed by Republican presidents. Many of the staff were also veterans. Trump tried to do all of us in....
During my second day in the Army (1971), I was told that my duty was to “protect the constitution.” That’s the official line. What the army doesn’t tell you is that it’s your duty to free Vietnam from communism so that Coca-Cola can establish a soft drink monopoly there.
My family has along history of serving in the Navy and Marine Corp. My Dad, Uncles and father-in-law served in WW2 fighting fascism. Lost a cousin and a high school friend in Nam. I served in the Navy '67 to '71 on the East coast and Europe. Every time I hear T open his mouth about our military or vets I just want to puke right down his throat. I can't understand how any military person, vet or their families could even consider voting for that monster. Cheers... GH
Travel in Michigan or other "battleground" states and you will see endless signs, banners, flags - sometimes huge banners all across the fronts of houses, flags on tall flagpoles, sometimes the Trump-Vance signs right underneath the American flag on a tall flagpole - flags on poles so they fly in the wind on both sides of pickup trucks; flags and banners on very luxurious looking properties and on the most needy looking trailers. It is shocking really. And, as you say, very rarely a Harris-Walz sign. I have speculated that there aren't as many Harris-Walz signs because of the high likelihood that violent bullies for Trump-Vance might be more likely to do damage than Harris-Walz supporters are, but I don't really know.
One can hope that Friday night's news reports about Trump's "dissing" a crowd of Michigan voters in Traverse City Friday night by his choosing to stay with some podcast where he was being interviewed instead of keeping his scheduled rally appearance, making the Michigan voters wait for hours and then telling them by phone or something that he would be even MORE hours later....and they began to leave in droves....makes one hope that he lost those voters, or surely at least some of them. If they didn't know about his disrespect, disdain, contempt for them before that, and his overriding concern only for himself, then maybe they know it now.
The rally was in Traverse City, Michigan, home of Pete Buttegeig and Michael Moore. An online podcast showed several video/news clips of Trump's history of leaving rally-goers at other rallies stranded, not to mention all of the rally-sites that have said he doesn't pay the bills for the costs they incur. Con-man shows himself over and over; suckers buy what he's selling over and over.
Method? Say the magic words and engage in conversation. On most web sites lots of other vets chime in.....
On phone banking, when I get people in my demographic, most people leave a lot of benefits on the table. Republicans want to sunset ALL benefits. SSA, Medicare, VA, Black Lung, etc.
With a new claim 97% chance that benefits will either increase or stay the same. disabilities must have a clear connection to presumed exposure during active-duty service.
Many. if not most are not aware of Vote Vets. Hundreds of testimonials on Youtube.
I contend that our current commander-in-chief should give a couple of addresses and sign them off with "And may G-D protect our troops and our military leaders from fascists like Trump."
One of those addresses should introduce a program to "fascist-proof" our military from Trump's certain issuance of unlawful orders. "Trump is acting like the cornered rat he is; and that makes him extremely dangerous. May G-D AND the American people protect our troops from the forces that would destroy our constitutional republic. And may they withstand the pressure to follow unlawful orders that would have them taking part in that destruction."
Christopher--Perhaps we should have listened to grim reaper back then. Even so, the essence of his understanding 80 years ago, is still significant today.
True, Christopher! Prof. Reich, this is a most illuminating article. Mind-boggling how robber-baron and dear-leader politics leapt to the fore before the ashes had even cooled from the destroyed cities of the world. What a great opening for McCarthy and Nixon to foment fascism!
News from the churn of Wisconsin politics: State Sen. Rob Cowles (R-Allouez) announced on Thursday that he will vote Democratic for the first time in his life, for Harris! He has been a stalwart Republican in the state legislature for over 40 years, but Trump's quicksand politics of fear and hate put him over the top. He cannot stand the thought of a 'totalitarian' destroying the Republic. He is bracing for the blowback that is sure to follow from his rightist constituency. Well done, sir!
Superpatriots is as misleading as anything that today's GOP brings to the table. Hard to believe they went from the party of Lincoln to a fascist-fueled movement led by a felonious, self-serving madman who has no desire to do what's best for the US or the rest of free world. Aside from his very naive and misled base, much of the blame should be placed on the corrupt GOP Congress as well as the DOJ, SCOTUS and others within the justice system who have enabled him with their support, very questionable favorable rulings and endless handslaps. Hard to believe that so many would continue to support and accept someone who is so unfit, damaged, and dangerous.
I think we may need to coin a new term for this election - "Anti-Patriotism."
It could be defined as: "Taking Russian anti-American propaganda (sometimes verbatim) and getting Americans to spread it while cloaking themselves in the flag. Perfected by Donald Trump in 2024."
"The Democrats’ abandon[ed] progressive populism and the redistributionist policies FDR championed [and] In the first midterm election of Truman’s presidency, the Democrats lost control of both the House and the Senate for the first time since Herbert Hoover occupied the Oval Office in 1932."
A lesson from History that the modern Democratic Party has failed to learn. It's not saying the Dems should become radical progressives and swing far, far left. But their reluctance to stand behind progressive policies for fear of being criticized for being too far left is shameful.
First, those progressive policies are very popular across the country and 2) they're going to be criticized and lied about no matter what they do so it shouldn't be a factor. It should instead be something they rise to fight against, not hide in the corner from.
The problem is that anything that is good for ordinary people is called socialism or communism and our society is still very heavily propagandized by the capitalist establishment to consider that intolerable.
Heather Cox Richardson has pointed out that conservatives (Democrats then, Republicans/MAGA now) have used this calumny since the end of the Civil War to hold back progress for the people and to preserve wealth for whatever already-privileged class they're shilling for.
Isn’t it funny how the right wingers have a total grasp of socialism and communism as to the possible consequences in our society ,but can’t fathom the meanings of fascist and Nazi ideology ⁉️🤔. Sarcasm!😀🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸. VOTE VOTE VOTE BLUE FOR THE KIDS AND THEIR KIDS!
It is not funny at all, Robert and they do have a grasp of fascism and NAZIism, because that is how they envision America. it is what they want. The ideolized version, not the regimented gestapo version.
Of all the documentaries I've seen about Hitler's Germany, Other than touching on the Hitler Youth and Lebensborn, there is little to nothing about how it affected he day to day life of the people, and only once have I seen any mention of the labor brigades and the Dear Fuhrer letters.
Men assigned to the labor brigades, were worked like slaves, and it was common for them to write letters "Dear Fuhrer, if only you knew what it was like....." and a week or two later the gestapo would visit the brigade, pick up the man and that is the last they heard of him.
Sorry misunderstanding! My point was to condem not congratulate,I should’ve been more specific about what my meaning was ! 😬I’m with Kamala and the dem 1000% I despise anything and everything to do with Fascists and Nazis!
Total grasp? Like when they call corporate stooge Democrats communists? Your implication that you agree with right wingers about socialism and communism exposes how much you have been brainwashed.
I might have worded that incorrectly? What I was attempting to say was that socialism and communism are what we as the opposition party are always accused of supporting when we propose policies to help the poor and the middle classes , and scaring the bejesus out of the population who grew up taught to despise those ideas from the Cold War era .Then when we accuse them “the right “of Nazi and fascist behavior they claim they are not in any way using the policies and methods of the Nazis and fascists ….
while those are exactly the methods that they are indeed using and intend to continue using to destroy our democracy! Sorry for the confusion! Busy busy morning I should have proof read my text a bit more thoroughly. Oops !🥴
Fear and hate are the strongest motivators. The GOP must expliot those emotions to get elected. The basis of progressive policies are protrated as taking from the haves and giving to the have nots. And those have nots are always cast as people of color and or immigrants.
The have nots in our society, live better than nobility of old. The homeless in our society live in tents and RV's and have access to food and meals, The homeless in Tudor England lived under bushes, waylaid travelers begging or mugging, these bushes had a name Beggars Bush.
Every society marginalizes and excludes a class or two of people, in the medieval society the excluded class was large, called serfs, people bound to the land.
In modern America, there is a different class of scapegoats, people of color, immigrants,gay and trans.
When the Romans invaded Britain, they subdued the Brythonic peoples, those that would not submit were eliminated. Ethnic cleansing, genocide if you wish.
Then the Romans left, and the Anglo Saxons came in and ethnically cleansed the Romano Celts, save for those that fled to the fens,, mountains, Wales. When the Scandinavians (which includes the Normans) invaded and settled, they ethnically cleansed, the desirable areas, and William massacred all of the north in what is called the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrying_of_the_North
Then the Anglo Saxons, followed by the Irish, the Scandinavians, Poles, Italians, ethnically cleansed America of it's original inhabitants.
Jenghis Khan did the same to the Stans, Khorosan, and Russia, The Turks did the same to Greece and the Balkans., and gave it their best shot with the Armenians.
Of course no attempt is total, people are always needed to carry loads, do chores,
Given this horrible history it is all the more remarkable what the US did in Germany and Japan after WW II.Rationality and constitutional government provide the only reliable road to progress.
Vengeance may be sweet, but Europe learned,after Versaille, the true cost of vengeance.
Morgenthau had a plan o turn Germany into pasture for sheep an cows. If he followed through, Russia would be sitting on the Atlantic under Stalin's successor.,and who know where America would be, you and I certainly would not be communicating via the internet, and there would be no color TV or internet, probably slaving in a a factory or field.
General George Marshall was a forward thinker, rather than punish enemies make friends and re order their society, and it worked ,for a little while, until the fascist tendencies latent in people awoke again.
It is a classic dilemma in all social democrat movements in the world. Don'hide but get as much support as possible for your ideas and thinking. That is not fot all of it.
That is a lesson the Democratic leadership isn’t understanding. They have to be ready to defend themselves and to put the Republicans, who are now the Trump Cult, on the defensive.
Yes Kathy, but they should make a difference between getting what they want for their party and the blocking of adversaries. It is not war, not win or loose, but gradual improvement of living conditions.
That means: treat adversaries with respect, don't be principled, but try to go forward.
Kamala did quite well, optimism, hope, inspiration. That was impossible for the morons; but when the electorate likes to subvert the economy and disturbe all foreign relations, the bills will come.
Fox N has been very successful in branding progressive policies as "woke," as benefiting minorities at the expense of "hard working Americans." Recall how they turned the ACA as Obama Care, meaning that it was gift to Blacks. Every progressive measure will similarly be branded. This is the John C. Calhoun version of critical race theory.
Only a dupe would come up with a reason about why Democrats govern for the ruling class other than they are plainly paid vassals of the ruling class. You are propagandized to the right by the paid vassals in the media, it's not just blatant right wing media confusing Americans, it's all of mainstream media. Since this thread starts with Henry Wallace let's remember Harry Truman was installed by right wing Democrats who pulled out every trick to keep Henry Wallace from becoming President.
Yep. They knew the truth about climate change and the dangers long ago. They still refuse to tell the truth. The same goes for most all conservative policies. Not a word about crops rotting in the field with mass deportations.
Biden/Harris and Democrats HAVE been getting things done for the American people. You won't hear about them much in the corporate press because their business model is based on having chaos (Trump) and not steady, competent, accomplished government (Biden/Harris).
My father called himself a "Henry Wallace Democrat" and I grew up with that influence. Wallace was sabotaged by Jimmy Byrnes, the South Carolina segregationist who made backroom deals for Truman before falling out with him. I like to think that my enthusiasm for George McGovern, an unrecognized American hero, came from my dad's fervent admiration for Wallace.
My parents were FDR Democrats and shifted their allegiance to Henry Wallace after Roosevelt died. My father was very active in the Western Pacific Railroad Union and my mother was organizing Democrats in the small town I grew up in. Dad fought in the South Pacific during the War. I can't begin to imagine 💔 their reaction to the dire state of our country.
Yes, Dorian, and part of the problem is that Bill Clinton embraced, in part, Reaganomcs (what is also called neoliberalism) and introduced it to the Democratic Party. The Party has never been quite the same again. Biden hired Yellen - which was a preliminary move away from Reaganomics, but too little too late, I fear, for Harris to win this presidential election.
Dammit Gunnar, stop it. I totally agree with every sentence. Yellen is, to my knowledge, the only Chair of the Federal Reserve Board who was an academic and did not come up from the banking sector.
William - I didn' know that, but I'm not surprised. The financial "services" industry now rules the Western economies and neoliberalism (Reaganomics and Thatcherism) is their ideology and their method to undermine liberal democracy. Unfortunately, it is not comme-il-faut to actually say this in polite company. I think Robert Reich is well aware of it. (This is one reason I like Robert, politically).
It is not without reason that Bill Clinton praised International Financial Institutions 21 times in his speeches while president, and that although he left office broke and indebt, he is not a multi millionaire, with his own non profit, The Clinton Global Initiative, his reward for being a loyal servant, just as Gorbachev was rewarded for good work by given a dacha on Lake Geneva, a nice pension and his own non profit, The Green Cross.
I know all of that and more, much more, but it comes down to this Trump or Kamala, with Kamala there is reason to breathe and hope and enjoy life, with Trump only misery, desolation, destitution and death.
Here in America we are facing the social equivalent of a mass extinction event, to be truthful I can't be concerned about anything else, at the moment.
William - Believe me, I agree and sympathise with much of what you say. But I fear that you are wrong in your assessment of the Democratic Party - and therefore about Kamala Harris. Harris knows on which side her bread is buttered; she depends for re-selection in 2028 on the dominant stream inside the Party. And the dominant stream, as far as I can tell from my European outpost, is the semi-neoliberal wing. Unfortunately. Yes you have progressives in the Party, but as you will know, they don't count in Harris' re-selection process.
For me, the issues are not black and white. But unless Harris eventually finds her own voice based on sound principles - unless, that is, she finds her own true self and her integrity - we will see the Democratic Party sail an uncertain course at the whim of the forces that finance her Party's election campaign. It is as corrupt as that. The origins of all this is not her fault. But only she can alert us and resist it.
Remember Dwight Eisenhower? On his last day in office he came clean about the military- industrial complex. In a way, that was too late - but he ended up an honest Republican. Harris would need to do something similar, if she wins, but earlier.
As a recovering Economist - Reaganomics (prior to Covid) was the greatest upwards redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top in US history. Dr Richard Wolff has many well organized lectures on this as well.
I love Dr Reich’s Substack community. He stood in front of my bank’s 200 largest clients in November, 2008 and exhorted them not to fire their people. Which…..all of them promptly did anyway, including the bank…. No one ever listens.
Clinton faced the on-slough of the Conservative Revolution headed by N. Gingrich, which gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress. Clinton caved in to the libertarians to keep the Confederates from capturing the presidency. Context matters.
Victor - This is new to me; would you mind elaborating? Are you saying that simply because the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, they could expel Bill Clinton as President? Is that in the Constitution?
My impression is that, like Tony Blair in Britain and Paul Keating in Australia, Bill Clinton saw himself as a young, 'modern', air-headed techno-savvy Alpha-male who could play the guitar but in fact had little to contribute politically and naively latched on to 'libertarianism' because it looked to him to be the wave of the future. I suggest you read Christopher Hitchens' book on him.
Republicans in Congress could not expel Clinton, but they could, and did make his job almost impossible. The Conservative Revolution headed by N. Gingrich in the 1990s was meant to be a revolution in the real sense., a fascist seizure of power. by non-violent means.
I appreciate what you're saying, Victor, but - referring to William Farrar's post on 25/10/2024 - Bill Clinton didn't have to embrace the enemy's ideology. That was his choice. Likewise in Australia, Paul Keating didn't have to adopt a semi-neoliberal (Thatcherite) position on issues like deregulation and privatisation - it was his choice; no on made him do it.
The mechanism of 'joining' one's enemy is psychopathological and it has a name: identification with the aggressor. It is related to the Stockholm syndrome; "The name of the syndrome is derived from a botched bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden. In August 1973 four employees of Sveriges Kreditbank were held hostage in the bank’s vault for six days. During the standoff, a seemingly incongruous bond developed between captive and captor. One hostage, during a telephone call with Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, stated that she fully trusted her captors but feared that she would die in a police assault on the building" - https://www.britannica.com/science/Stockholm-syndrome
This is a psychological defence mechanism, but elected politicians owe their constituency their loyalty, and allowing themselves to identify in this way is simply letting you side down. Where might it end? Well actually, in Norway in April 1940, it ended with Vidkun Quisling taking the side of the German invader and eventually getting himself appointer "Minister-President". After the war, we put him on trial for treason and shot him.
Martha - Jeg commer fra Oslo, Norge. Emigrerte til Australia i 1963. Emigrerte til England in 2005. Min favoritte skribent er Aksel Sandemose. - In Norway I was a conservative but turned Left against Australia's participation in the Vietnam War and read Herbert Marcuse. Nowadays I lean towards Immanuel Wallerstein's 'world-systems' theory.
My parents were teens in Denmark during WW2. Roosevelt, MRS ROOSEVELT, and Wallace received thanks at “Grace” everynight at dinner. Until the late 1970’s, when we switched to President and Mrs Carter - but the framed pics of FDR & Co never came down. Truman, however was not our cup of tea.
“If the Democrats fail to control the Eightieth Congress there is only one way in which we get control again and that is by becoming more progressive.”
How true. Alas, Bernie Sanders was sandbagged by the DNC in 2016 and in 2020. Theoretical matchups between Sanders and Trump, as revealed by 538 in 2016, show he would have smashed Trump 70/30.
Bernie has some good ideas and I'd like to see more of them adopted by the Democrats. But he was not the sure winner his fans like to paint him as. As a pragmatic matter he wasn't able to win sufficient support from the left to become the nominee of the more left party, so arguing he would have gotten enough support from the general populace doesn't hold up.
And blaming his not getting the nomination solely on DNC shenanigans is closing your eyes to actual shortcomings Bernie had in building a large enough coalition to get that nomination. I get that "Bernie Bros" felt very passionately in Sanders and very much wanted him as a nominee, but passion isn't the same as widespread support. If it were, sure, it would have been a Sanders v Trump contest. But it wasn't, and that wasn't the fault of everyone but Bernie.
But the reason Bernie Sanders didn't get sufficient support was because Bill Clinton introduced Reaganomics, "free trade" and low tariffs ideas into the Democratic Party, and since then, the party has struggled to get the voter support they used to have. We should not forget that it was our decision to ignore the suffering of America's blue-ollar workforce that has landed us in the mess we now face: the prospect of a second-term President Trump.
The Democratic Party turned right-wing and began competing with the Republicans as to who could be more right-wing than the other. So now we are in a genocidal alliance with Israel while spoling for a face to face war with Russia. Great!
By the way, the same happened in Australia under Paul Keating, and in Britain under Tony Blair: two supposedly liberal-democrats who acted like semi-Thatcherites/neoliberals in government. Both were useful idiots to the neliberals - Thatcher and Reagan are laughing in their graves!
How much of Clinton’s reaganimics was in reaction to Gingrich getting control of the House and using the “by any means necessary / no-compromise / blow-up democracy” playbook? He shoved the Right-wing into conspiratorial La-La-land. To govern as a centrist then, left Clinton’s policies much farther right than I voted for.
Bill Clinton was not a core believer in progressivism. Simple as that.
If you don't have a core belief in a philosophy, there's no way you can pretend that you do and try to sell it. Clinton's core belief was in a "third way," replacing the New Deal with smaller government, privatization, deregulation and free trade. Bernie, by contrast, is a true believer, as Henry Wallace was.
Listening to Bernie's speeches over this past year -- delivered on the Senate floor -- have provided much needed reassurance and comfort though awful anxiety.
No Gunnar, Americans are not as deep as you think they are. It was because the Democratic National Committee put it's thumb on the scale for Hillary. Hillary was an acceptable race horse, she had been padding around the paddock, earning her creds (like foreign service credentials), patiently and loyally waiting her time, to be called to the starting gate. Bernie, on the other hand, was an independent who switched to the Democratic party to run for president. He had not paid his dues, spent his time padding around the paddock.
Also the Donors on Wall Street were afraid of him.
Gunnar, something tells me you’re trying to convince Dems that free trade is bad & tariffs are good. But it’s not that simple:
“This week, a report from the Peterson Institute for International Economics concluded that Trump's main tariff proposals – assuming that the targeted countries retaliated with their own tariffs — would slash more than a percentage point off the U.S. economy by 2026 and make inflation 2 percentage points higher next year than it otherwise would have been.” (pbs. org, 9/27/24, P.Wiseman)
Your assertion that Bernie failed to get support because Pres.Clinton “introduced” Reaganomics, free trade & low tariffs doesn’t comport with reality.
The idea that Dems “turned right-wing” and began
competing with republicans as to “who could be more right-wing than the other” is bizarre on its
face. That never happened.
The assertion that Dems “made a decision to ignore the suffering of blue collar workers,” strikes me as
an attempt to revise historical facts in order to confuse people. Since the political body that employs revisionist history the most are fascists, I
have to question your motivations for making these statements.
I mainly agree with you, and, of course, Hillary was merely a continuation of her husband. How disgusting it was to see her greedily accepting $225,000 checks from Goldman Sachs, right up until the week in 2016 when she announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination.
I happen to disagree with you on a couple of important points. First, Bill Clinton raised taxes substantially - in line with Adam Smith (although Clinton was called to heel by the bankers in 2020, and agreed not to veto the Congressional Bill dissolving Glass-Steagall).
The 70% vote for Sanders, however, was stunning and was not widely advertised. But in retrospect, it simply reflects the fact that the majority of the population is actually quite liberal. Reich keeps asking why the present vote is so close, and the answer is that professional Democrats have become really quite like Republicans, as you suggest.
The other point is that the situation in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s (when I grew up) was really quite different. At that time, the unions had grown altogether too powerful, and were distorting society with disruptive strikes associated with stagflation. Life was really miserable. Thatcher turned this around and transformed the UK in just a decade to one of the world's most vigorous economies.
People conflate Thatcher and Reagan, because their policies were broadly similar. However, the situations each faced, and the results of their policies, were vastly different.
Thatcher's bromides were a necessary solution to an extremely difficult political and social milieu. Reagan's similar policies (taking on the unions and cutting taxes) was unnecessary and harmful to the US in 1980. At that time, there was nothing wrong with the American balance between Labor and shareholders, and the results of Reaganism led almost directly to this dark place in which we now dwell.
While I agree that Sanders is a bit stubborn, the hypothetical polls in a Sanders-Trump matchup were quite stunning, 70/30, whereas Hillary's numbers were 35/35 with 30% undecided. Pretty much how it turned out in November 2016. It was all there in 538, in the Spring of 2016. And, to rebut your point, this WAS the general populace. So enough already of the "Bernie Bros."
Why did Sanders not change his affiliation to Democrat? Perhaps because it would have affected his chances of getting re-elected in Vermont. But even if he had become a Democrat, I think the DNC would still have sandbagged him.
Sanders is now too old, but there is still room for a younger, charismatic, left-leaning candidate of the future....if there is a future.
Bernie should've accepted the Green Party's offer to head their ticket back in 2016 after being denied the Democratic nomination. I think he would've won in a 3-way race.
I was a Bernie Bro, who voted for Hillary, but I have second thoughts about Bernie, he is too much of a Russophile, and I suspect would abandon Ukraine to Putin.
If we don’t keep fighting Nazism, through the generations, it eventually takes over. Nixon, Raygun, Dubya, and Donny are all natural progressions of fascism. It has gotten worse and worse as time marches on. Even some Democrats become enamored with the power and material wealth they accumulate while in office. Since bribery has become legal, these large corporations can buy the politicians of their choice. Many purchase politicians from both parties. If money is not taken out of our political sphere, we lose democracy. When First Amendment rights can bought, like any other commodity, by those with the funds to reach the most people, we lose these rights.
Things have to take a drastic shift in order for us to regain our government, of, by, and for the People, not the corporations.
Doesn’t it really go back to our Planter-Class Founding Fathers? They did not want to be ruled by George III of England. They wanted to BE George III of their own little slices of heaven, such as Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina ….. The seeds of corrupt power-lust are built in to the DNA of our country. Tempering them is heroic work. Robert Reich has spent his entire life doing this work. I’m grateful he offers this newsletter to educate the willing to learn more about the need each generation to fight against fascism.
MLRGRMI. That is a good way of putting it. Our founding fathers harbored the desire to be a George III in their own balliwick. I know the planter class did, I've mentioned it and why many times, if not a George III, but at least a nobility. However the merchants of Boston, NY and Philadelphia had different motives. The ability to engage, unhindered in commerce. The East India Company was operating under a monopoly charter, and the Stamp act was the final straw. Boston merchants were reduced to smuggling, and smuggling was a capital offense,you were either hung by the neck or hung in chains.
John Hancock was number 1 on the Crowns hit list, that is why he wrote his name so large.
People can say what they will about Donald Trump, what they can't say is how others have acted previously who were just like him. Because this country has never had to absorb the stupidity this man exudes. He has never been here before and with any luck he likes will never be here again. Let's put the lid on our garbage can.
Well actually Donald, what we must learn from Trump's rise in 2016 is this: do not forget the power of social class, and do not ignore it! For 40 years, during and since Reagan's regime in the 1980s, the two main parties in the U.S. have introduced or maintained "free trade" and dismantled protective tariffs. Both parties chose to forget about job security for the country's blue collar workforce. Instead, Hillary Clinton appeared to refer to them as a basket of deplorables - simply because, as a result of "free trade", they were now prey to unemployment, under-employment, zero-hours employment, and bellow-survival wages for their families.
Don't then be surprised if blue-collar, and other dissatisfied political elements, turn to somebody who seems to share their anger and uses the language that they themselves use in every day life - while being looked down on by the snotty-nosed middle-classes.
You may call him stupid, and many people do, the most stupid thing was to embrace the twin myths of free trade and globalisation. That is what has, in many ways impoverished the U.S. and created (what is now seen as) an 'enemy within' which challenges the whole status quo, including Obama's and Biden's confrontational policies towards Russia and so-called Palestinian terrorists - who are, actually, national liberationists - see Yanis Varoufakis on Israel-Palestine: the truth behind October 7 - YouTube
Uh, no Gunnar, Hillary Clinton’s phrase, “a basket of deplorables” was a reference to Trump supporters who were "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamophobic.” (NPR. org, 9/10/16, D.Montanero)
The terms, “blue collar” or “unemployed” are over-broad and give the wrong impression, as does the
phrase, “protective tariffs.”
Tariffs are “protective” only if they are properly applied to imported products. A protective tariff is a tax or fee imposed on imported goods to make them more expensive than similar domestic goods. The goal of a protective tariff is to protect domestic industries. Trump intends to use tariffs as a weapon.
“Trump insists that tariffs are paid for by foreign countries. In fact, its is importers — American companies — that pay tariffs, and the money goes to U.S. Treasury. Those companies, in turn, typically pass their higher costs on to their customers in the form of higher prices. That's why economists say consumers usually end up footing the bill for tariffs.
from foreign competition.” (pbs. org, 9/27/24, P. Wiseman)
Tariffs can hinder cooperation between governments. Since Trump is an isolationist, he doesn’t consider that aspect. Personally, I think it would be a grave mistake for America to isolate
itself from other countries. For one thing, global cooperation is a necessity for tackling climate change.
Susan - You quote P. Wiseman as saying, "Trump insists that tariffs are paid for by foreign countries. In fact, its is importers — American companies — that pay tariffs, and the money goes to U.S. Treasury. Those companies, in turn, typically pass their higher costs on to their customers in the form of higher prices. That's why economists say consumers usually end up footing the bill for tariffs". - You seem to think that what he says contracicts what I am saying. It doesn't.
It is absolutely true that tariffs are, indirectly, paid for by foreign countries in the sense that U.S. tariffs will lead to fewer sales of the foreign product within the U.S. market. It is also true that in cases where U.S. owned factories that migrated to low-wage countries will also have to pay a tariff when their products reach U.S. shores. There is no conradition here. And it is of course true that U.S. consumers will pay more for the products - whether these products are produced domestically or in factories overseas. So, they DO protect domestically-produced goods. I suppose we both agree so far.
What you seem to object to is that U.S. consumers have to pay more. You think that's not fair. And you're entitled to think so. However, if you want to prevent the rise populist demagogues like Donald Trump, who claim to stand for the interests of the American blue-collar workforce, then you have to protect the industries they work in, in the U.S., from foreign-made cheap goods, so that the the U.S. domestic workforce will keep their full-time, safe jobs. That's how it works. Trump has decided that his constituency wants protectionism, and it's on that platform that he stands - and he has every right to do so. Whether his policy will lead to him winning in November is yet to be seen. I simply agree with him; we should protect our own, and this automatically means that U.S. consumers will pay more.
I think I'm right - I'm not an economist - in saying that protectionism is a form of wealth distribution: blue-collar get to keep their jobs (and therefore gain wage stability) while white-collar is made to pay more for the goods they choose to buy. Hans Morgenthau once said that when someone gains, another loses. It is how it is. In this case it can be mitigated by subsidies, but then the taxpayers pay more.
The reason I'm defending the American workforce is that, hopefully, a happy workforce won't look for a demagogue like Trump to support them; instead they will vote Democrat or old style-Republican. This is the advatage of looking after blue-collar. I'm not saying all American industries need protection, but clearly a lot of them do - if you want to avoid populist presidential candidates.
You are right in saying that protecionism can cause friction between governments, and of course that's a pity. But again I say to you: it may be THAT, OR we risk having to cope with an "undemocratic" demogogue.
Susan - I forgot to address your defence of Hillary Clinton. I will say this: you may be correct in saying that Ms Clinton wasn't referring to all Trump supporters but only to those seen as "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamophobic". However true it is - what you say - the fact is that she was ambiguous and therefore layed herself open to what you might call misinterpretations. This is a dangerous thing to do in politics, and she paid dearly for it.
What made it worse, and convinced many that she was actually referring to all Trump supporters, is that her audience were millionaires and billionaires. What she said sounded like a pitch to them - for their political support and for their financial electoral support. And here of course, we are in a dilemma: if the Democratic Party accepts their money, the Party will be beholden to them, and the Party cannot mantain its soul and its raison d'etre. It simply becomes the party of the neoliberals and their ideology of globalisation and free trade.
Not only that, the Democratic Party becomes captive to THEIR defence of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses which - before Trump entered the White House in January 2017 - were incorporated into all international trade agreements under pressure from the neoliberal financial services industry. The ISDS clauses made it possible to sue nation states whose government wanted to protect (parts of) their workforce from the deleterious effects of "free trade" - such as mass unemployment and the introduction of zero-hours employment contracts. The clauses gave these bastards the right to litigate against sovereign nation states! - so-called sovereign nation states, because they obviously were no longer sovereign. On his first day in the Oval Office, Trump tore up these international trade agreements and rewrote them, leaving out the ISDS clauses whenever they applied to the U.S.
This was cheeky, and the financial services industry and their many political supporters hate Trump for doing this. It is from THEM that much of the poison against Trump originate - the mainstream media speak for THEM.
If your're not sure what I'm talking about, I recommend this article. It is a random example of how the ISDS clauses work in practice - A clause in the UK-Australia trade deal could let companies sue governments. We have been here before | Patricia Ranald | The Guardian
But what should be in their guts? Gunnar says about the things I feel what I would say: it is gut feeling and anger. When you don't connect with "the deplorables"you probably loose: with an economy better than ever...
"When you're born, you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat." George Carlin.
George Carlin once said, 'Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.' This resonates with me deeply. The feeling of hope and belief in a better future often leads to disappointment when reality doesn't match our expectations.
As I wait to see which candidate will be chosen for us this time through media manipulation, I must be a disappointed idealist.
Carlin is my all time favorite. I have my DVR set to record him, whenever he reappears.
I too am a disappointed idealist, but at this point I must admit, I absolutely admire Kamala, but am also totally aware that despite any ideas and instincts, she is constrained by the money powers. The money powers believe they can constrain Trump, but they also believed they could constrain Adolph. Adolph did make them richer and more powerful.
Trump is a bozo, easily manipulated by flattery and transaction, and the money powers don't care about the social effects of Project 2025, and won't until after the shock wears off the Trump effect sets in and America degenerates into a toothless, third world country,, and the Russians, Chinese and Saudis run all over exploiting our resources material and human.
Not to worry, they won't be governing or forcing us to learn Arab, Russian, Chinese. There are other ways to exploit, people need to eat.
"The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism.… They claim to be superpatriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interests.…"
Wallace's description of fascism taking hold of a nation, eerily and perfectly states, the fascist agenda that is right now trying to take down our democracy. Amazingly prophetic. Thank you for this essential history lesson. We must vote out, and not in, any Republicans this election to keep our freedoms. And remain vigilant. Wallace's social and civic justice views are also timely. What a patriot.
Fascists take advantage of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms to advance their totalitarian agenda. We have been foolish in allowing Fox News to subvert American democracy.
Quoted from the new book "Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich" (2024) by Richard J. Evans:
Hitler's leading Nazi Joseph Goebbels' propaganda, "his unprecedentedly unscrupulous deployment of misinformation both before and after Hitler's creation of the Third Reich . . . have been, and are being, widely imitated in the twenty-first century by populist politicians from Donald Trump to Viktor Orban to discredit and ridicule their opponents and sweep aside opposition to their rule . . . " (p. 147).
Professor Reich: WOW!! i had no idea of the existence of Henry Wallace and his proud legacy of defending and expanding the democracy of "everyday people". thank you so much for introducing me to him (i probably DID hear his name, at least, whilst learning the white-washed version of american history as a child, but i am going to remedy this oversight in my weekend reading).
are there any biographies of Wallace that anyone here (or you, Professor) recommend?
I had always thought FDR was great. I need to know more before I can comment about that. One point I'd like to make is that Communism originally was not evil; it was against the impoverishment of millions of serfs who were forced to work for the big landowners. They wanted to do away with the profit motive, which encourages people to value the money they can make over the rights of other people.
Otherwise, the points that are made here are all about what Trump is doing.
Thank God there were men like Wallace. And thank God there are people as seemingly normal and decent, such as VP Harris/Walz, Prof Reich, Sen Sanders. Presently listening to The Donald speaking in Texas. How can ANY halfway inyelligent person listen to his fearful and hateful line of blazing BS ? EI YEI YEI ...If there was EVER a reason for The American people to wake up and start funnelling our resources towards our educational system and a healthful development of our youth, is this it. Trump is the personification of the historic low point in our socio/governmental system which we now suffer. He upsets my stomach .
My late husband voted for Henry Wallace. His mother went to her grave thinking she'd raised a communist. But Wallace was a prophet -- meaning a person who sees the present while most of us are still looking at the past, like the generals who fight the last war.
There is also a full-length book about Wallace by John Nichols, The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party (ISBN 1788737407) and a biography by John Culver, American Dreamer (ISBN 0393322289).
It is pathetic, but an example of how effective propaganda is, that people can be convinced to vote, support or champion an idea, a person or person who or which is opposed to their own self interests.
Then again, there would be no TV advertising if it was effective. People spending thousands to destroy their liver, by taking a drug designed for diabetics, because some diabetics have lost weight (while destroying their liver)
TV Ads tell you want a drug will do to your endocrine and circulatory system, but people still ask their doctors to prescribe them.
I am not against all drugs, after all Keytruda saved my life.literally. Terminal cancer with 6 months to live in Oct 2017, and still here thanks to Keytruda.
Can we please take long view of last 30 years and consider the pattern in what various POTUSes have been handed and have passed forward? Step back from the “me, here, now” gaslighting and disinformation from the right…
Americans, after decades of GOP tax breaks to wealthy - drip drip, wealth shifting from most to the very very few - drip drip, a R-wing-nut SCOTUS legislating from the bench - drip drip, fully corrupt pay-2-play legislator incentives - drip drip, money buying elections - drip drip, corporate greed delivering top shelf results for execs and shareholders- drip drip. Society has been left with deep daily struggles, systems supportive of workers gutted, hands UP to the poor diminished, regulations protecting the people hammered, crime increasing of course, healthcare and education decreasing naturally. America, inch by inch, she’s become the plutocratic misogynistic oligarchy of the uber-wealthy and powerful, enabling a continued money grab / more for them and less for a healthy functioning society. Dems have become the only party trying to lift from the middle and bottom. Face it.
Zoom out a bit, take a 30,000 foot point of view. In all big government decisions there is a natural “lag effect” — good and bad. If we don’t pull back we can’t see the gaslighting, cognitive dissonance enabled. Dems blamed for outcomes of GOP deficit spending, massive debt increases, regulation cutting, gerrymandering and more, while GOP falsely claims they care about debt and deficits. GOP cuts regulation, which (ahem) results in epic train crashes (E. Palestine OH) or bank failures (Silicon Valley Bank implosion).
Remember:
1. Clinton handed Bush 2 “surplus money in the coffers” - a good economy after he inherited Regan and Bush 1 debt.
2. Bush 2 and early 2000’s “spend our kids’ money congress” plus Allen Greenspan drove America and globe to brink, giving us ‘08 global financial crisis.Here you go, Barack - a welcome gift on the eve of 2008 election.
3. Obama does heavy lift, pulls us from the brink of financial cliff and hands Trumpler a healing economy, ready for gentle interest rate increases.
4. Trumpler, king of debt, lies and bankruptcies, jams his knee on Jerome Powell’s (apolitical Federal Reserve) neck and Powell demurs. Covid comes and we borrow $10 trillion more from the kids’ future.
5. Biden inherits from Trumpler - without even one day of “secure nation” transition between administrations - a nation 3 weeks shy of a Capitol insurrection by sitting POTUS, an economy shut down amidst a pandemic, unhealthy way too low interest rates, epic $30+ trillion in debt. Biden does not sit on Powell’s neck, rather he enacts additional debt / but this time to infuse money to the middle for long term investment in workers, national security and infrastructure.
When we miss the nuanced understanding of lag effect in government, we can be sold a bag of sh*t by the very fox who is raiding the henhouse. Misinformation, disinformation and lies are sown by the right and thrust at the people. Media is not helping here!!
Do we know that national debt is for emergencies, not every year budget deficits or to goose an economy to make the POTUS look good?
Can we please take a long view of last 30 years and consider the pattern in what various POTUSes have been handed and have passed forward?
The financial crash was caused by the enormous overbuilding of houses during the boom period. For the investment banks and secondary lenders, the name of the game was "book a loan, book a loan" to anybody that had a pulse, making for risky loans. The philosophy of the time was, "The market will take care of everything. Home prices will always go up." The Wall Street meltdown hit. Then the downturn spread to the credit markets. The only way people could get a loan was to pay very high rates of interest. All the suppliers of appliances, etc. to the oversupply of homes were hit hard, also, when building and cheap loans stopped.
The banks kept all of their risky loans off their books. If the Federal Reserve Board would have known of all of risky loans the banks had made and were still making, they would have made them increase their capital requirements. But the banks didn't want to do that, because it would have meant fewer loans. They wanted to make all the loans they could in order to generate all the fees they could.
Agree. You make my point on deregulation. Absent in run up to ‘08 were regulations and restrictions that would have prevented deeply unqualified loan recipients from being duped, from inappropriate loan approvals and from tragic loss.
I watched for years a slow motion train wreck. American housing market prices amplified exponentially across the nation — with exception of Nasdaq-connected markets - Denver/Boulder CO (the telcos) and Silicon Valley CA (tech). In fact, though not an economist, I saw the danger and exited stock market -June of 2008. Missed the summer run up, but felt a sigh of relief.
Lesson: of course Americans need regulation. They protect everyday consumers from being fleeced by corporate America and bogus operators. The ordinary people….! Financial crisis (and others…) demonstrate that deregulating costs the people. In the end, be it FEMA, the Fed, HHS.., we need protection and ironically when shit hits the fan, the panicked people demand federal government save them.
And now, worry amplifies with Chevron — for those who understand. Thanks corrupt right wing-nut SCOTUS.
There’s a cadence to the regulation pendulum as GOP deregulates and Dems regulate. We, the people caught in the middle and most are missing the lag effect. GOP liars lie, pointing fingers at “butter knife to a gun fight” Dems. It’s all so easy to see.
How do we fix this problem of an uneducated, reactive, gaslit electorate wasting their votes as the epic tide of wealth shift takes us further away from safe shores?
"They claim to be superpatriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interests.…"
A perfectly accurate description of the modern Republican Party, written 80 years ago.
It’s the old adage that “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it” we must not let that happen.
Love verses Tribalism verses Gullibility.
(Fear of Skydiving becomes Love of Skydiving.)
Do these 3 track with the "3 Great Untruths" of Dr Haidt's CODDLING OF THE AMERICAN MIND?
By turning Fear into Love(aka FDRs FREEDOM FROM FEAR*) I'm less susceptible to Tribalism and less susceptible to Gullibility.
*Ms.FDR:"Do one thing every day that scares you."
Is democracy a "debate club in which the gullible and fearful and the" blinded by tribalism" are not qualified" to join?
Haidt finds our two debaters are full of s**t:
Make America Great Again verses
Make America Safe Again
...and the remaining 85% of us are too scared to participate?
Trump is "fascist to the core"
His agenda, if elected, will become the rule given Trump total power, destroying our democracy taken away normal freedoms!
We must do everything we can to combat fascism. Fascism rules with fear and violence. That's Trump. Please America don't let yourself be victims. Voting is not going to stop fascism, but anything that puts a barrier between Trump and the executive will at the very least make it so that an authoritarian fascist regime is not guaranteed.
On the other hand, Kamala Harris is showing us the politics of what's possible, and she'll lead with that same joy and optimism as our next president. 🙏
I think there's optimism in the air, I've gotten so many high-fives wearing this Kamala shirt everywhere I go 👇
libtees-2.creator-spring.com/listing/kamcat
November can't come fast enough!
When the NAZI's took Manhattan. Rally at Madison Square Garden, giant banner of George Washington, flanked by two giant NAZI banners 1939 https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/02/20/695941323/when-nazis-took-manhattan
https://www.amazon.com/Prequel-American-Fight-Against-Fascism/dp/B0C6YMTR29/ref=sr_1_1?crid=20AOJQVWPSCM1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.w291mzGhah09wVmvX_jE66rWpleOl3yQtbd0CM_xjZYplma5WZpicLzfsOKN5pWx9Xhsk8NDtFHeFwdVeMmdrsx6UaZq2RmjLk-BmQD-cXR8W6_P8623n4yj4W-0Rsm1BpG1tVVC6Ew8rTTJ62-B-Q.-licYvWdvlzwKvOh-64HknZffIljhNImkVgvY5n1Q0k&dib_tag=se&keywords=prequel+maddow&qid=1729862509&sprefix=prequel+maddo%2Caps%2C385&sr=8-1
Rachel Maddow writes of it her latest book Prequel
Like
That might even be shortened to "those that fail to learn." MAGA brings new horizons to the word "dense".
Isn't it curious that such an amazing part of our history has been swept under the rug for so long. I was largely unaware of the American fascist movement in teh '30's and '40's until Rachel M came out with Ultra. I am willing to bet that upwards of 100% of MAGA Republicans are unaware of this history.
Agree. I'm also thinking the vast majority will be oblivious to the parallels to their own actions and hence reject it as fake. Holocaust and science deniers can't be reasoned with. After all, dear leader, the Mango Mussolini himself, told them to ignore what they see and hear with their own eyes & ears. The ChristoFascists are even worse. They roll their very unChristian prosperity gospel millionaire mega church pastors into the mix, having ordained the beast as the chosen one.
I called Izzy's October Surprise months ago because of Netty's bromance with Trump. Netty knows exactly what he's doing to Biden/Harris. MI starts voting tomorrow.
I hope I'm wrong about gas prices spiking next. Biden should open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, if needed to prevent gas prices going up. I was afraid of this scenario.
The only thing the failure Biden needs to do is STOP SENDING MONEY AND WEAPONS TO NETANYAHU! EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST BAND-AIDS!
The markets are preparing for a major profit taking ahead of the election in case Trump wins or worse, steals the election through court shenanigans and violence. Sadly, any market drops will further fuel TraitorTrump's rhetoric, helping him, the very thing that will create the election economic instability businesses should & do fear. It will become a self fulfilling prophecy.
Please help flip some of them. Please repeatedly post "not suckers or losers" comments in social media. According to Facebook, there are 4 million veterans and active duty members on Facebook, as well as 12.5 million family members and 242 million friends with veterans or active duty members. Military sites, veterans' organizations, historical sites.
Vote vets has already flipped many 2016 and 2020 Trump voters.
It's up to people like you who are on social media.... when you comment you'll see what I mean. Many of the people involved are dependents, family members, friends and neighbors who are interested in the military and or national security and for whom this is news. Takes repetition and substantiation by people they trust.
I am a Vietnam combat veteran -- probably the lone survivor from my units. I have been a "veteran" since Jan 21, 1968. The grandchildren (or great-grandchildren) of my late colleagues want to hear from someone like you.
When you post on say a FB history site, you may start a conversation with potential who may flip on this basis.... Yesterday was a big day.... positive comments.
This report has been in the news recently, and this excerpt is from the Pew Research Center: "About six-in-ten registered voters who say they have served in the U.S. military or military reserves (61%) support former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, while 37% back Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in early September. "
I cannot understand it. Cannot make sense of it. Although John Kelly has finally let himself be recorded in the NYT and in print in The Atlantic that Trump is a fascist, that is not news; we have all known for several years that Trump has those views. Thus the 61% of those with military service who support Trump have also known this about him for longer than this week with Kelly's interviews. So how is it even possible that 61% align themselves with someone who is the complete opposite of anything that could be described as "American."
It is truly chilling to realize that military-affiliated people, that civilian law enforcement members, that sheriffs around the country align themselves with Trump. It would appear that there is the making of a Gestapo, of storm troopers, of brown shirts, of a Red Guard - and it is a terrifying thought that in America there is any percentage at all, let alone 61%, that would support a person who shows every day that he hates this country and its purported values.
Author Jonathan Alter was on Stephen Colbert Thursday night and made a very poignant statement, one that many of us can probably relate to, about the disconnect between the illusions he grew up with and has held, as have most of us probably, about this country and its values versus the realization that a large segment of this country support Trump, a known fascist.
As difficult as it is to say that I agree with John Bolton about anything, I tend to agree with his recent statement on CNN about Trump, that he does not think Trump is a fascist because he doesn't think Trump believes in ANYTHING, not any "philosophy" or ideas, outside of his own self-interest. I think there is plenty of evidence of the truth of that and that we are able to call Trump - correctly - a fascist now because he thinks that ideation is his route to power. What is most frightening is that there is a crowd of millions who hold those ideas and are willing to give him that power. However, because he is without any principles at all, if he thought that his route to power required him to pose as a socialist, he would do that. He IS a fascist because he is perfectly willing to act as a fascist if it gets him what he wants.
He has reportedly been a Republican sometimes, a Democrat sometimes, a Republican again, and a whatever he is now as a MAGAt; he has been for abortion rights and against abortion rights; he has mocked TV evangelists and embraced them and emulated their tactics; and so on and so on. He is a con-man chameleon. In his first campaign for the Presidency in one of his rallies, he was mocking everything and everybody, mocking traditional behaviors and customs; he began to belittle the traditions around "being Presidential," referring to pundits comments about him with, "they say he's not Presidential.... I can be "Presidential." (to the crowd), "You want to see me be "Presidential?" At that point he began kind of mincing around the stage, mocking some kind of idea he had of someone dignified and appropriate, making the idea of dignity and a mature presence seem ridiculous and laughable, making fun of "being Presidential." It was one of so very many disgusting and alarming things he has done. Like the disgusting performance on a rally stage with his embrace of an American flag on a pole, saying in that odd voice he uses, "I love you, baby," mocking and demeaning.
He has no core, no character, no morals. I think he identified the Presidency as a great way to power, but he quickly identified it as the greatest con-game ever, beyond his wildest imagination even as a life-long con-man, charlatan, criminal, and he will do or be whatever "the mob" feeds on in order to be in power, to be "all powerful." It seems absurd to say it, but he is far, far worse than fascist.
Broadway needs a revival of "The Madness of King George." It has been said that George III had porphyria as the cause of his madness. He also had it in for America, just as Don ("America is a garbage can" he said on October 23) has it in for America. Like King George III, Don only wants to rape the environment and rob our treasure, all for his own enrichment and power. We defeated George's greedy ambitions. Let's do it again with the current wannabe king. We aren't fighting the "red coats" this time; we're fighting the turncoats!
Annie: As a retired special ops officer and team leader I speak with some knowledge. The troops that I served with and led have a super macho self image.
The military is conservative and cloistered. The troops that I led worshiped Donald Rumsfeld, because he recognized them, and gave them all the toys that wanted , all the weapons they wanted and all the prestige they wanted. They think of themselves as supermen, macho, macho men, and that applies to all branches.
Most recruits are from the south and rural America, they don't join out of patriotism, they join to get away from home and to find a career, a job, training. And they bring with them the attitudes and values of their culture.
You can take the redneck out of Oklahoma, but not Oklahoma out of the redneck.
The military has been fighting racism and sexism for over 50 years, they have or had classes, mandatory, to no avail.
Thank you William for your unique insights. In psychology they say that there are two different mindsets when it comes to politics, one is the ENFORCE a civil society by threat of dire consequence and the other is apply EMPATHY to get people to behave well. Now social researchers have proven over, and over and over again that the probability to achieve LONG lasting, permanent change is FAR greater if you use the empathy model to change human behavior. But the "change through punishment" approach never goes away because those who are raised in it see it as the ONLY means to achieve change in human behavior. When you think about it war itself is an application of the change through punishment/ dire consequence methodology. Now a human and a nation needs to defend itself to survive. But when you work, your daily existence is steeped in the change via punishment - it's DARN hard to hold on to the value of empathy. AND - this is important, this difficulty is intensified by the fact that all too often, those work to defend a country or its citizens are confronted all to often with people who are incapable of empathy. Like Daniel Solomon here, I don't give up easily. So my hope that someday ALL people will value and use empathy in their interactions with others never dies. Again, my thanks for your insightful, authoritative comment here.
Have you noticed that empathy is almost always directed at animals, women and children, and not all animals, we have empathy for the animals that we slaughter to eat, does society in general.
Why would that be Goddess? Maybe because males are the source of violence, aggression, dominance and not worthy of empathy.
When HAMAS propaganda wing publishes photo's and video's of wounded and suffering people, it is always children and women. Men,when they are shown are on stretchers or ground covered with cloth. None of this is by accident.
When HAMAS Health Ministry says that there have been over 42,000 people killed, you are left with the impression that they are all women and children, but half at least are fighters, members of brigades and the terrorists that slaughtered the Jews on Oct 7th, now we are seeing the same thing in Lebanon, 30 Lebanonese killed, but no mention that they were Hezbollah.
It is images of suffering women and children, and mostly children that move us, our empathy is conditional, even the best of us.
I often question myself Goddess. I spent a year in Vietnam, in support of every unit imaginable, from Marines in the DMZ, to ROC's, Aussies and MACV in the Delta. I've seen shit that I can never unseen, including the damage a bee hive round fired point blank into charging NVA,helped a man out of a helicopter who was holding his intestines in with his hands. Puked, puked again, and eventually became desensitized. You have to be, to continue functioning.
Doctors and surgeons couldn't do their jobs,if they weren't desensitized.
But empathy is highly selective, a reality we don't want to face.
Jesus said, treat your neighbor as yourself, but a neighbor in Jerusalem in that time, was a member of the tribe, who shared your ethnicity, religion, went to the same temple and market as you, probably shared relatives.
Neighbor today is quite different, We have neighbors with which we share nothing and often are on the opposite side of the fence, even hate us and would do us harm.
Here are two governmental examples. Biden's FEMA is directed to do everything they can to help those states that actually hate him and his party.
Trump would not, at first, help California with it's wildfires, because California voted against him.
The government expresses its empathy with programs like FEMA, and overseas aid (USAID).
I express my empathy by supporting the local animal shelter and spay and neuter program. My heart gets tugged by all of those mounful ads about babies and children, thenI remember that Hitler, Stalin, Trump, bin Laden, Netanyahu, Sinwar, Chuck Norris and every asshole I've met and known was once a cute, adorable sweet baby. Also, an old asshole like moi.
To which one may add this: nature destined men to fight over scarce resources and females, and it destined women for procreation. When resources shrink as a result of population growth the empathy field also shrinks. You deserve praise, William, for spaying your pets.
Thank you, William. You have much more experience in this than I do and I agree with your assessment. My husband and I served as Department of Defense Civilians in Europe for 23 years up to 2004. One thing we noticed was that every TV in every public space or office on every base was tuned in to Fox “News” all the time. Our active duty are good people. They are not suckers or losers. They are conservative, cloistered, and in an echo chamber. We hope that this has changed since 2004.
Where ever you go in the military where you find a TV set it is tuned to Fox. I have traveled and stopped to eat at truck stops,and again Fox, in bars if it isn't sports it's Fox, and god help whoever changes the channel. Nothing has changed, I am sure. It is an uphill slog to break through the fog.
Faux is appealing to white career officers afraid they will by bypassed for promotion by "woke" rules, DEI. One of the reasons we lost the war in Afghanistan is that we promoted women's rights.
I used to follow Southern Poverty Law Center more closely back in the 1990s, and received its reports about the Klan and other White Supremacist organizations it fought. It mentioned that these groups encouraged their sympathizers to join the military to get trained for their desired Racial Holy War (RaHoWa).
Also, a few days ago someone posted a link to the PBS documentary about General Flynn https://frontlinetv.com/michael-flynn-s-holy-war-full-documentary
Gen Mike Flynn has a brother named Charles On Jan 6th Lt Gen Charles Flynn was an aid to the acting Secretary of Defense.. The Secretary of Defense was not a a real SecDef, it was Christopher Miller, appointed by Trump on Nov 9th after he lost the election. The coup was planned well in advance.
When the mob of traitors attacked the Capitol, the Capitol Police were not enough to handle them, and the National Guard were needed.
Only the Secretary of Defense has the authority to releas the National Guard,. Nancy Pelosi and other congress members were calling the SecDef's office and Lt Gen Charles Flynn, who was answering the phones, let the phones ring off the hook. He was in the act.
President Biden punished him by appointing him 1st as Chief of Pacific Forces and 2nd promoting him to four star general.
I SO-O-O-O despise Biden! He hasn't got the know-how to wipe his own ass! The five people I hate the most: Merrick Garland, Joe Biden, Trump, Netanyahu, Putin. Merrick Garland had better body-guard up 100-fold. An NPR program I was listening to tonight, "Freakenomics," their guest said he believes Trump is going to win the election. Garland had better get prepared to run!
Current military trends Democratic. Republicans are trying to stop VBM. https://www.reuters.com/legal/republicans-press-ahead-bid-block-some-overseas-ballots-2024-10-22/
The main problem are veterans who are lost in time.
IIRC correctly the Republicans were depending on overseas military ballots until 2020, There is no way to know how the military voted, but they were majority Republican, overwhelmingly. Military members vote in the state of their home of record. The home of record is the state which they indicate on their enlistment or commissioning record. I changed my home of record every time I re enlisted and every time i was commissioned (twice first as a reserve officer, second as a regular officer)
The link Daniel says overseas absentee ballots, not military, and there are 3 million Americans living overseas and not all our military., and the ballots they are trying to block are in North Carolina and Georgia.
@ William
Republicans are trying to block all APO MBV in swing states. Many in the military are stationed staeside but not in their home states and also use absentee.
Also many US voters from overseas.In 2020, Democrats Abroad played a pivotal role in increasing the civilian vote abroad by 73.5% over 2016. As a result, overseas votes made up the margin of victory for White House and Senate races in Georgia and Arizona.
Arizona counted 18,435 abroad ballots in 2020. Biden won Arizona by 10,457.
Georgia counted 18,475 abroad ballots. Biden won Georgia by 11,779
The great news is that Americans abroad vote blue in overwhelming numbers. From 2020 to April of 2024, 77.65% voters using the voting tool votefromabroad.org registered as left leaning. 17.2% registered as having no party preference. Only 2.5% registered as Republican.
https://www.democratsabroad.org/
I hope Reuters is correct. As regards MAGAts stopping VBM, it is their belief that all VBM favors the Democrats. They were all for VBM, because the military vote has historically been Republican, they turned the tables after 2020.
Unfortunately there is no way of knowing how the military actually votes.
It isn't so easy to change your voting registration
Military members vote in the state which is their home of record. Every time I reenlisted I changed my home of record, and again when I was commissioned (twice) once as a reserve officer, second time as a regular officer.
That Reuters article is internally contradictory, first it says that there are .6 million Americans living overseas, including U.S. military members and their families, are eligible to cast ballots in the seven swing states, according to the Democratic National Committee.
Then it says:Some 2.9 million U.S. citizens living outside the country were eligible to vote overall in 2020, though fewer than 8% of them did, according to the Federal Voting Assistance Program, a government entity
Unless that means there has been a 1.3 million decrease in Americans or American voters overseas
William, I fear that the ending of the Draft, of compulsory military service may have doomed American democracy. An all-volunteer army is bound to consist of authoritarians, militarists, adventurers, and, given the country's history, Confederates. Such soldiers are likely to be loyal to the person who leads them than to to the Republic.One of the reasons the Draft was terminated was that towards the end of the Vietnam war officers were being killed by their own men. A rebellion of draftees was happening because the draftees felt they had been deceived and betrayed by their commanders. Once compulsory military service was ended our young people lost interest in foreign affairs and in political participation. They delegated duty and responsibility to others, and, like Trump, they probably regard these others as losers and suckers. Relying on others to protect our interests comes at a hidden cost. Would you mind commenting and expanding on this?
I have nothing to say except I share your concerns, and IMO you are correct.
The only reason that Nixon pulled support out of Vietnam is because the American Middle Class could not take anymore of their sons, brothers, uncles, fathers, cousins coming home in caskets.
George W Bush learned that lesson, and forbade coverage of the caskets being unloaded at Delaware AFB, or national coverage of funerals.
Instead of getting casualty reports from the Pentagon, the media had to pay people to scour the local papers of every community.
My unit was all volunteer, both as enlistees and as operators. We have and they have a self image of macho rambo types. One of my troops loved field problems, he slathered his face carefully in camo with tiger stripe design, he huffed and puffed like a he was Attila or something, he and his underling both quit and got a job with Wackenhut, then rehired with Blackwater. They both died years ago, from brain cancer, within months of each other, obviously exposed to (un)depleted uranium munitions or some toxin, both were obnoxious assholes.
I feel the biggest reason the military wanted an all-volunteer force was that they had more control. No more draftees like me writing letters to our congress members about what we saw or what we were ordered to do. No more "FTAs!"
More reason to post "not suckers or losers" on social media.
The military encourages simple mindedness. That’s why so many soldiers support Drumpf.
They also prefer a dictatorial leadership. I have often been told by vets that the military is not a democratic institution. It may be seen in our obfuscated language to protect democracy, but in truth the military is there to protect the positions and ambitions of the reigning regime. It always has, up through history, and it always will. In corporate-ruled America of today, that is what it will sacrifice much human, financial and material resource to accomplish. What other country has military installations in so many other countries? To protect our citizens there? Not so. Can you see France or Spain or the UK setting up military bases here?
None of the above is true. The modern military supports Harris.
I worked with many who have flipped. I was president of one organization and chair of another filled with people who used VA points to get their jobs. Some appointed by Republican presidents. Many of the staff were also veterans. Trump tried to do all of us in....
One of my colleagues is my friend Moe, who is working on this.... https://www.moedavis.com/
I'm in a discussion group with Fred Wellman, who once was a republican....has the "not suckers or losers" Vote Vets bus. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBTQ3zC1b1LEosLEocu9MXQ
During my second day in the Army (1971), I was told that my duty was to “protect the constitution.” That’s the official line. What the army doesn’t tell you is that it’s your duty to free Vietnam from communism so that Coca-Cola can establish a soft drink monopoly there.
So... tell your story on American Legion, VFW, AmVets sites.....
Actually all you need to say is not suckers or losers and see the result.....
My family has along history of serving in the Navy and Marine Corp. My Dad, Uncles and father-in-law served in WW2 fighting fascism. Lost a cousin and a high school friend in Nam. I served in the Navy '67 to '71 on the East coast and Europe. Every time I hear T open his mouth about our military or vets I just want to puke right down his throat. I can't understand how any military person, vet or their families could even consider voting for that monster. Cheers... GH
Honestly, the military is a type of cult. How else do you convince rational people to go and risk their lives and kill others?
Wonderful essay, Annie Cross! I hope you have it saved and will post if on Substacks that potential Trump voters are more likely to read.
I live in an area of Michigan that has 50 Trumpf signs to one Harris. More Trumpf signs sprouting up daily. Cannot fathom how this is possible?
Travel in Michigan or other "battleground" states and you will see endless signs, banners, flags - sometimes huge banners all across the fronts of houses, flags on tall flagpoles, sometimes the Trump-Vance signs right underneath the American flag on a tall flagpole - flags on poles so they fly in the wind on both sides of pickup trucks; flags and banners on very luxurious looking properties and on the most needy looking trailers. It is shocking really. And, as you say, very rarely a Harris-Walz sign. I have speculated that there aren't as many Harris-Walz signs because of the high likelihood that violent bullies for Trump-Vance might be more likely to do damage than Harris-Walz supporters are, but I don't really know.
One can hope that Friday night's news reports about Trump's "dissing" a crowd of Michigan voters in Traverse City Friday night by his choosing to stay with some podcast where he was being interviewed instead of keeping his scheduled rally appearance, making the Michigan voters wait for hours and then telling them by phone or something that he would be even MORE hours later....and they began to leave in droves....makes one hope that he lost those voters, or surely at least some of them. If they didn't know about his disrespect, disdain, contempt for them before that, and his overriding concern only for himself, then maybe they know it now.
The rally was in Traverse City, Michigan, home of Pete Buttegeig and Michael Moore. An online podcast showed several video/news clips of Trump's history of leaving rally-goers at other rallies stranded, not to mention all of the rally-sites that have said he doesn't pay the bills for the costs they incur. Con-man shows himself over and over; suckers buy what he's selling over and over.
and they think that you are the turncoat....
He is the Pied Piper!
Thank you for your service.
Thank me for flipping Trump voters.
I thank you for both your service and for flipping Trump voters. We’ve taken too much for granted and we can’t let one man destroy our nation.
Daniel, what is your method? I’m desperate to know.
Method? Say the magic words and engage in conversation. On most web sites lots of other vets chime in.....
On phone banking, when I get people in my demographic, most people leave a lot of benefits on the table. Republicans want to sunset ALL benefits. SSA, Medicare, VA, Black Lung, etc.
VA. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/05/21/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-1-million-pact-act-claims-approved-benefits-delivered-to-veterans-in-all-50-states-and-u-s-territories/E.G. VA benefits like the Pact Act, brought by the Biden Administration. In May 2021, VA started implementing provisions of the William M. Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, adding bladder cancer, hypothyroidism and Parkinsonism to the list of medical conditions presumptively associated with exposure to Agent Orange.
With a new claim 97% chance that benefits will either increase or stay the same. disabilities must have a clear connection to presumed exposure during active-duty service.
Many. if not most are not aware of Vote Vets. Hundreds of testimonials on Youtube.
Lots of proof that Trump calls us "suckers or losers." 40 of 44 Trump national security appointees oppose him. https://www.nsl4a.org/nsl4a-announcements/nsl4a-endorsement-harris
Thank you for ALL you did and continue to do. You’re a hero!!
Thank you for your service Daniel.
Trump has told us what he is.
I contend that our current commander-in-chief should give a couple of addresses and sign them off with "And may G-D protect our troops and our military leaders from fascists like Trump."
One of those addresses should introduce a program to "fascist-proof" our military from Trump's certain issuance of unlawful orders. "Trump is acting like the cornered rat he is; and that makes him extremely dangerous. May G-D AND the American people protect our troops from the forces that would destroy our constitutional republic. And may they withstand the pressure to follow unlawful orders that would have them taking part in that destruction."
Christopher--Perhaps we should have listened to grim reaper back then. Even so, the essence of his understanding 80 years ago, is still significant today.
True, Christopher! Prof. Reich, this is a most illuminating article. Mind-boggling how robber-baron and dear-leader politics leapt to the fore before the ashes had even cooled from the destroyed cities of the world. What a great opening for McCarthy and Nixon to foment fascism!
News from the churn of Wisconsin politics: State Sen. Rob Cowles (R-Allouez) announced on Thursday that he will vote Democratic for the first time in his life, for Harris! He has been a stalwart Republican in the state legislature for over 40 years, but Trump's quicksand politics of fear and hate put him over the top. He cannot stand the thought of a 'totalitarian' destroying the Republic. He is bracing for the blowback that is sure to follow from his rightist constituency. Well done, sir!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republican-state-sen-robert-cowles-of-allouez-endorses-kamala-harris-for-president-calls-trump-a-fascist/ar-AA1sSo03?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Superpatriots is as misleading as anything that today's GOP brings to the table. Hard to believe they went from the party of Lincoln to a fascist-fueled movement led by a felonious, self-serving madman who has no desire to do what's best for the US or the rest of free world. Aside from his very naive and misled base, much of the blame should be placed on the corrupt GOP Congress as well as the DOJ, SCOTUS and others within the justice system who have enabled him with their support, very questionable favorable rulings and endless handslaps. Hard to believe that so many would continue to support and accept someone who is so unfit, damaged, and dangerous.
I think we may need to coin a new term for this election - "Anti-Patriotism."
It could be defined as: "Taking Russian anti-American propaganda (sometimes verbatim) and getting Americans to spread it while cloaking themselves in the flag. Perfected by Donald Trump in 2024."
Super Patriots like Timothy McVeigh to the institutions that sustain democracy. Tim McViegh in suits.
"The Democrats’ abandon[ed] progressive populism and the redistributionist policies FDR championed [and] In the first midterm election of Truman’s presidency, the Democrats lost control of both the House and the Senate for the first time since Herbert Hoover occupied the Oval Office in 1932."
A lesson from History that the modern Democratic Party has failed to learn. It's not saying the Dems should become radical progressives and swing far, far left. But their reluctance to stand behind progressive policies for fear of being criticized for being too far left is shameful.
First, those progressive policies are very popular across the country and 2) they're going to be criticized and lied about no matter what they do so it shouldn't be a factor. It should instead be something they rise to fight against, not hide in the corner from.
The problem is that anything that is good for ordinary people is called socialism or communism and our society is still very heavily propagandized by the capitalist establishment to consider that intolerable.
Heather Cox Richardson has pointed out that conservatives (Democrats then, Republicans/MAGA now) have used this calumny since the end of the Civil War to hold back progress for the people and to preserve wealth for whatever already-privileged class they're shilling for.
Isn’t it funny how the right wingers have a total grasp of socialism and communism as to the possible consequences in our society ,but can’t fathom the meanings of fascist and Nazi ideology ⁉️🤔. Sarcasm!😀🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸. VOTE VOTE VOTE BLUE FOR THE KIDS AND THEIR KIDS!
Fascism to them means national strength, brutal, White power.
It is not funny at all, Robert and they do have a grasp of fascism and NAZIism, because that is how they envision America. it is what they want. The ideolized version, not the regimented gestapo version.
Of all the documentaries I've seen about Hitler's Germany, Other than touching on the Hitler Youth and Lebensborn, there is little to nothing about how it affected he day to day life of the people, and only once have I seen any mention of the labor brigades and the Dear Fuhrer letters.
Men assigned to the labor brigades, were worked like slaves, and it was common for them to write letters "Dear Fuhrer, if only you knew what it was like....." and a week or two later the gestapo would visit the brigade, pick up the man and that is the last they heard of him.
Sorry misunderstanding! My point was to condem not congratulate,I should’ve been more specific about what my meaning was ! 😬I’m with Kamala and the dem 1000% I despise anything and everything to do with Fascists and Nazis!
Total grasp? Like when they call corporate stooge Democrats communists? Your implication that you agree with right wingers about socialism and communism exposes how much you have been brainwashed.
I might have worded that incorrectly? What I was attempting to say was that socialism and communism are what we as the opposition party are always accused of supporting when we propose policies to help the poor and the middle classes , and scaring the bejesus out of the population who grew up taught to despise those ideas from the Cold War era .Then when we accuse them “the right “of Nazi and fascist behavior they claim they are not in any way using the policies and methods of the Nazis and fascists ….
while those are exactly the methods that they are indeed using and intend to continue using to destroy our democracy! Sorry for the confusion! Busy busy morning I should have proof read my text a bit more thoroughly. Oops !🥴
Pretty good :)
Yes, and calling it "woke" may be even more effective.
Well, I think woke particularly implies more, such as social justice and avoiding environmental disasters.
True. The term "woke," as used by Republicans, is a term of derision and contempt for Black Life Matters, women rights activists, environmentalists.
Fear and hate are the strongest motivators. The GOP must expliot those emotions to get elected. The basis of progressive policies are protrated as taking from the haves and giving to the have nots. And those have nots are always cast as people of color and or immigrants.
The have nots in our society, live better than nobility of old. The homeless in our society live in tents and RV's and have access to food and meals, The homeless in Tudor England lived under bushes, waylaid travelers begging or mugging, these bushes had a name Beggars Bush.
Every society marginalizes and excludes a class or two of people, in the medieval society the excluded class was large, called serfs, people bound to the land.
In modern America, there is a different class of scapegoats, people of color, immigrants,gay and trans.
When the Romans invaded Britain, they subdued the Brythonic peoples, those that would not submit were eliminated. Ethnic cleansing, genocide if you wish.
Then the Romans left, and the Anglo Saxons came in and ethnically cleansed the Romano Celts, save for those that fled to the fens,, mountains, Wales. When the Scandinavians (which includes the Normans) invaded and settled, they ethnically cleansed, the desirable areas, and William massacred all of the north in what is called the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrying_of_the_North
Then the Anglo Saxons, followed by the Irish, the Scandinavians, Poles, Italians, ethnically cleansed America of it's original inhabitants.
Jenghis Khan did the same to the Stans, Khorosan, and Russia, The Turks did the same to Greece and the Balkans., and gave it their best shot with the Armenians.
Of course no attempt is total, people are always needed to carry loads, do chores,
Given this horrible history it is all the more remarkable what the US did in Germany and Japan after WW II.Rationality and constitutional government provide the only reliable road to progress.
Vengeance may be sweet, but Europe learned,after Versaille, the true cost of vengeance.
Morgenthau had a plan o turn Germany into pasture for sheep an cows. If he followed through, Russia would be sitting on the Atlantic under Stalin's successor.,and who know where America would be, you and I certainly would not be communicating via the internet, and there would be no color TV or internet, probably slaving in a a factory or field.
General George Marshall was a forward thinker, rather than punish enemies make friends and re order their society, and it worked ,for a little while, until the fascist tendencies latent in people awoke again.
It is a classic dilemma in all social democrat movements in the world. Don'hide but get as much support as possible for your ideas and thinking. That is not fot all of it.
That is a lesson the Democratic leadership isn’t understanding. They have to be ready to defend themselves and to put the Republicans, who are now the Trump Cult, on the defensive.
Yes Kathy, but they should make a difference between getting what they want for their party and the blocking of adversaries. It is not war, not win or loose, but gradual improvement of living conditions.
That means: treat adversaries with respect, don't be principled, but try to go forward.
Kamala did quite well, optimism, hope, inspiration. That was impossible for the morons; but when the electorate likes to subvert the economy and disturbe all foreign relations, the bills will come.
Fox N has been very successful in branding progressive policies as "woke," as benefiting minorities at the expense of "hard working Americans." Recall how they turned the ACA as Obama Care, meaning that it was gift to Blacks. Every progressive measure will similarly be branded. This is the John C. Calhoun version of critical race theory.
It's not just Fox, sadly.
As of this very moment, President Biden, his protege Vice President Harris and CERTAINLY future Vice President Walz seem to FINALLY get it!
I'm VERY hopeful about the Harris presidency!
Only a dupe would come up with a reason about why Democrats govern for the ruling class other than they are plainly paid vassals of the ruling class. You are propagandized to the right by the paid vassals in the media, it's not just blatant right wing media confusing Americans, it's all of mainstream media. Since this thread starts with Henry Wallace let's remember Harry Truman was installed by right wing Democrats who pulled out every trick to keep Henry Wallace from becoming President.
It’s all of the mainstream media. No kidding.
Yep. They knew the truth about climate change and the dangers long ago. They still refuse to tell the truth. The same goes for most all conservative policies. Not a word about crops rotting in the field with mass deportations.
John, tell us what in your view Truman did wrong.
FDR got things The Democrats have to get things done that help people. If you are given power by the people and don't use it, you lose it.
Biden/Harris and Democrats HAVE been getting things done for the American people. You won't hear about them much in the corporate press because their business model is based on having chaos (Trump) and not steady, competent, accomplished government (Biden/Harris).
My father called himself a "Henry Wallace Democrat" and I grew up with that influence. Wallace was sabotaged by Jimmy Byrnes, the South Carolina segregationist who made backroom deals for Truman before falling out with him. I like to think that my enthusiasm for George McGovern, an unrecognized American hero, came from my dad's fervent admiration for Wallace.
My parents were FDR Democrats and shifted their allegiance to Henry Wallace after Roosevelt died. My father was very active in the Western Pacific Railroad Union and my mother was organizing Democrats in the small town I grew up in. Dad fought in the South Pacific during the War. I can't begin to imagine 💔 their reaction to the dire state of our country.
Yes, Dorian, and part of the problem is that Bill Clinton embraced, in part, Reaganomcs (what is also called neoliberalism) and introduced it to the Democratic Party. The Party has never been quite the same again. Biden hired Yellen - which was a preliminary move away from Reaganomics, but too little too late, I fear, for Harris to win this presidential election.
Dammit Gunnar, stop it. I totally agree with every sentence. Yellen is, to my knowledge, the only Chair of the Federal Reserve Board who was an academic and did not come up from the banking sector.
William - I didn' know that, but I'm not surprised. The financial "services" industry now rules the Western economies and neoliberalism (Reaganomics and Thatcherism) is their ideology and their method to undermine liberal democracy. Unfortunately, it is not comme-il-faut to actually say this in polite company. I think Robert Reich is well aware of it. (This is one reason I like Robert, politically).
I recommend this interview. Enjoy! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A4dMK7S6KE
It is not without reason that Bill Clinton praised International Financial Institutions 21 times in his speeches while president, and that although he left office broke and indebt, he is not a multi millionaire, with his own non profit, The Clinton Global Initiative, his reward for being a loyal servant, just as Gorbachev was rewarded for good work by given a dacha on Lake Geneva, a nice pension and his own non profit, The Green Cross.
I know all of that and more, much more, but it comes down to this Trump or Kamala, with Kamala there is reason to breathe and hope and enjoy life, with Trump only misery, desolation, destitution and death.
Here in America we are facing the social equivalent of a mass extinction event, to be truthful I can't be concerned about anything else, at the moment.
William - Believe me, I agree and sympathise with much of what you say. But I fear that you are wrong in your assessment of the Democratic Party - and therefore about Kamala Harris. Harris knows on which side her bread is buttered; she depends for re-selection in 2028 on the dominant stream inside the Party. And the dominant stream, as far as I can tell from my European outpost, is the semi-neoliberal wing. Unfortunately. Yes you have progressives in the Party, but as you will know, they don't count in Harris' re-selection process.
For me, the issues are not black and white. But unless Harris eventually finds her own voice based on sound principles - unless, that is, she finds her own true self and her integrity - we will see the Democratic Party sail an uncertain course at the whim of the forces that finance her Party's election campaign. It is as corrupt as that. The origins of all this is not her fault. But only she can alert us and resist it.
Remember Dwight Eisenhower? On his last day in office he came clean about the military- industrial complex. In a way, that was too late - but he ended up an honest Republican. Harris would need to do something similar, if she wins, but earlier.
As a recovering Economist - Reaganomics (prior to Covid) was the greatest upwards redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top in US history. Dr Richard Wolff has many well organized lectures on this as well.
I love Dr Reich’s Substack community. He stood in front of my bank’s 200 largest clients in November, 2008 and exhorted them not to fire their people. Which…..all of them promptly did anyway, including the bank…. No one ever listens.
Clinton faced the on-slough of the Conservative Revolution headed by N. Gingrich, which gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress. Clinton caved in to the libertarians to keep the Confederates from capturing the presidency. Context matters.
Victor - This is new to me; would you mind elaborating? Are you saying that simply because the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, they could expel Bill Clinton as President? Is that in the Constitution?
My impression is that, like Tony Blair in Britain and Paul Keating in Australia, Bill Clinton saw himself as a young, 'modern', air-headed techno-savvy Alpha-male who could play the guitar but in fact had little to contribute politically and naively latched on to 'libertarianism' because it looked to him to be the wave of the future. I suggest you read Christopher Hitchens' book on him.
Republicans in Congress could not expel Clinton, but they could, and did make his job almost impossible. The Conservative Revolution headed by N. Gingrich in the 1990s was meant to be a revolution in the real sense., a fascist seizure of power. by non-violent means.
I appreciate what you're saying, Victor, but - referring to William Farrar's post on 25/10/2024 - Bill Clinton didn't have to embrace the enemy's ideology. That was his choice. Likewise in Australia, Paul Keating didn't have to adopt a semi-neoliberal (Thatcherite) position on issues like deregulation and privatisation - it was his choice; no on made him do it.
The mechanism of 'joining' one's enemy is psychopathological and it has a name: identification with the aggressor. It is related to the Stockholm syndrome; "The name of the syndrome is derived from a botched bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden. In August 1973 four employees of Sveriges Kreditbank were held hostage in the bank’s vault for six days. During the standoff, a seemingly incongruous bond developed between captive and captor. One hostage, during a telephone call with Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, stated that she fully trusted her captors but feared that she would die in a police assault on the building" - https://www.britannica.com/science/Stockholm-syndrome
This is a psychological defence mechanism, but elected politicians owe their constituency their loyalty, and allowing themselves to identify in this way is simply letting you side down. Where might it end? Well actually, in Norway in April 1940, it ended with Vidkun Quisling taking the side of the German invader and eventually getting himself appointer "Minister-President". After the war, we put him on trial for treason and shot him.
Gunnar, hvor kommer du fra? ♥️🇩🇰❤️
Martha - Jeg commer fra Oslo, Norge. Emigrerte til Australia i 1963. Emigrerte til England in 2005. Min favoritte skribent er Aksel Sandemose. - In Norway I was a conservative but turned Left against Australia's participation in the Vietnam War and read Herbert Marcuse. Nowadays I lean towards Immanuel Wallerstein's 'world-systems' theory.
My parents too. We had framed pictures of FDR & Wallace in our kitchen literally until my parents passed.
My parents were teens in Denmark during WW2. Roosevelt, MRS ROOSEVELT, and Wallace received thanks at “Grace” everynight at dinner. Until the late 1970’s, when we switched to President and Mrs Carter - but the framed pics of FDR & Co never came down. Truman, however was not our cup of tea.
Truman began the desegregation of the armed forces, a major turning point in US history..
Byrnes resigned as Secretary of State in January of 1947. Truman desegregated the armed forces in 1948.
I thought your dad was a registered Republican,
My dad was an FDR Democrat all his life. You’ve confused me with someone else.
“If the Democrats fail to control the Eightieth Congress there is only one way in which we get control again and that is by becoming more progressive.”
How true. Alas, Bernie Sanders was sandbagged by the DNC in 2016 and in 2020. Theoretical matchups between Sanders and Trump, as revealed by 538 in 2016, show he would have smashed Trump 70/30.
and many of the DNC responsible are still calling the shots, there is real talent in the Dem party- let it loose!
Bernie has some good ideas and I'd like to see more of them adopted by the Democrats. But he was not the sure winner his fans like to paint him as. As a pragmatic matter he wasn't able to win sufficient support from the left to become the nominee of the more left party, so arguing he would have gotten enough support from the general populace doesn't hold up.
And blaming his not getting the nomination solely on DNC shenanigans is closing your eyes to actual shortcomings Bernie had in building a large enough coalition to get that nomination. I get that "Bernie Bros" felt very passionately in Sanders and very much wanted him as a nominee, but passion isn't the same as widespread support. If it were, sure, it would have been a Sanders v Trump contest. But it wasn't, and that wasn't the fault of everyone but Bernie.
But the reason Bernie Sanders didn't get sufficient support was because Bill Clinton introduced Reaganomics, "free trade" and low tariffs ideas into the Democratic Party, and since then, the party has struggled to get the voter support they used to have. We should not forget that it was our decision to ignore the suffering of America's blue-ollar workforce that has landed us in the mess we now face: the prospect of a second-term President Trump.
The Democratic Party turned right-wing and began competing with the Republicans as to who could be more right-wing than the other. So now we are in a genocidal alliance with Israel while spoling for a face to face war with Russia. Great!
By the way, the same happened in Australia under Paul Keating, and in Britain under Tony Blair: two supposedly liberal-democrats who acted like semi-Thatcherites/neoliberals in government. Both were useful idiots to the neliberals - Thatcher and Reagan are laughing in their graves!
How much of Clinton’s reaganimics was in reaction to Gingrich getting control of the House and using the “by any means necessary / no-compromise / blow-up democracy” playbook? He shoved the Right-wing into conspiratorial La-La-land. To govern as a centrist then, left Clinton’s policies much farther right than I voted for.
Bill Clinton was not a core believer in progressivism. Simple as that.
If you don't have a core belief in a philosophy, there's no way you can pretend that you do and try to sell it. Clinton's core belief was in a "third way," replacing the New Deal with smaller government, privatization, deregulation and free trade. Bernie, by contrast, is a true believer, as Henry Wallace was.
Listening to Bernie's speeches over this past year -- delivered on the Senate floor -- have provided much needed reassurance and comfort though awful anxiety.
No Gunnar, Americans are not as deep as you think they are. It was because the Democratic National Committee put it's thumb on the scale for Hillary. Hillary was an acceptable race horse, she had been padding around the paddock, earning her creds (like foreign service credentials), patiently and loyally waiting her time, to be called to the starting gate. Bernie, on the other hand, was an independent who switched to the Democratic party to run for president. He had not paid his dues, spent his time padding around the paddock.
Also the Donors on Wall Street were afraid of him.
Agreed.
Gunnar, something tells me you’re trying to convince Dems that free trade is bad & tariffs are good. But it’s not that simple:
“This week, a report from the Peterson Institute for International Economics concluded that Trump's main tariff proposals – assuming that the targeted countries retaliated with their own tariffs — would slash more than a percentage point off the U.S. economy by 2026 and make inflation 2 percentage points higher next year than it otherwise would have been.” (pbs. org, 9/27/24, P.Wiseman)
Your assertion that Bernie failed to get support because Pres.Clinton “introduced” Reaganomics, free trade & low tariffs doesn’t comport with reality.
The idea that Dems “turned right-wing” and began
competing with republicans as to “who could be more right-wing than the other” is bizarre on its
face. That never happened.
The assertion that Dems “made a decision to ignore the suffering of blue collar workers,” strikes me as
an attempt to revise historical facts in order to confuse people. Since the political body that employs revisionist history the most are fascists, I
have to question your motivations for making these statements.
I mainly agree with you, and, of course, Hillary was merely a continuation of her husband. How disgusting it was to see her greedily accepting $225,000 checks from Goldman Sachs, right up until the week in 2016 when she announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination.
I happen to disagree with you on a couple of important points. First, Bill Clinton raised taxes substantially - in line with Adam Smith (although Clinton was called to heel by the bankers in 2020, and agreed not to veto the Congressional Bill dissolving Glass-Steagall).
The 70% vote for Sanders, however, was stunning and was not widely advertised. But in retrospect, it simply reflects the fact that the majority of the population is actually quite liberal. Reich keeps asking why the present vote is so close, and the answer is that professional Democrats have become really quite like Republicans, as you suggest.
The other point is that the situation in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s (when I grew up) was really quite different. At that time, the unions had grown altogether too powerful, and were distorting society with disruptive strikes associated with stagflation. Life was really miserable. Thatcher turned this around and transformed the UK in just a decade to one of the world's most vigorous economies.
People conflate Thatcher and Reagan, because their policies were broadly similar. However, the situations each faced, and the results of their policies, were vastly different.
Thatcher's bromides were a necessary solution to an extremely difficult political and social milieu. Reagan's similar policies (taking on the unions and cutting taxes) was unnecessary and harmful to the US in 1980. At that time, there was nothing wrong with the American balance between Labor and shareholders, and the results of Reaganism led almost directly to this dark place in which we now dwell.
While I agree that Sanders is a bit stubborn, the hypothetical polls in a Sanders-Trump matchup were quite stunning, 70/30, whereas Hillary's numbers were 35/35 with 30% undecided. Pretty much how it turned out in November 2016. It was all there in 538, in the Spring of 2016. And, to rebut your point, this WAS the general populace. So enough already of the "Bernie Bros."
Why did Sanders not change his affiliation to Democrat? Perhaps because it would have affected his chances of getting re-elected in Vermont. But even if he had become a Democrat, I think the DNC would still have sandbagged him.
Sanders is now too old, but there is still room for a younger, charismatic, left-leaning candidate of the future....if there is a future.
Bernie should have stayed in the race longer, at least until Illinois.
Bernie should've accepted the Green Party's offer to head their ticket back in 2016 after being denied the Democratic nomination. I think he would've won in a 3-way race.
Interesting thought.
I recall Bernie had a heart attack as he was campaigning and that may have been why he
stopped.
That was around 6 months earlier.
I was a Bernie Bro, who voted for Hillary, but I have second thoughts about Bernie, he is too much of a Russophile, and I suspect would abandon Ukraine to Putin.
If we don’t keep fighting Nazism, through the generations, it eventually takes over. Nixon, Raygun, Dubya, and Donny are all natural progressions of fascism. It has gotten worse and worse as time marches on. Even some Democrats become enamored with the power and material wealth they accumulate while in office. Since bribery has become legal, these large corporations can buy the politicians of their choice. Many purchase politicians from both parties. If money is not taken out of our political sphere, we lose democracy. When First Amendment rights can bought, like any other commodity, by those with the funds to reach the most people, we lose these rights.
Things have to take a drastic shift in order for us to regain our government, of, by, and for the People, not the corporations.
Doesn’t it really go back to our Planter-Class Founding Fathers? They did not want to be ruled by George III of England. They wanted to BE George III of their own little slices of heaven, such as Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina ….. The seeds of corrupt power-lust are built in to the DNA of our country. Tempering them is heroic work. Robert Reich has spent his entire life doing this work. I’m grateful he offers this newsletter to educate the willing to learn more about the need each generation to fight against fascism.
MLRGRMI. That is a good way of putting it. Our founding fathers harbored the desire to be a George III in their own balliwick. I know the planter class did, I've mentioned it and why many times, if not a George III, but at least a nobility. However the merchants of Boston, NY and Philadelphia had different motives. The ability to engage, unhindered in commerce. The East India Company was operating under a monopoly charter, and the Stamp act was the final straw. Boston merchants were reduced to smuggling, and smuggling was a capital offense,you were either hung by the neck or hung in chains.
John Hancock was number 1 on the Crowns hit list, that is why he wrote his name so large.
You really grasped the buried truths. Every time I hear my favorite song, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," this message echos...
Check out the Deconstructed podcast. The most recent one, here: https://theintercept.com/2024/08/31/deconstructed-project-2025-corporate-corruption-master-plan/
tells you everything you need to know
I was a financial supporter of the Intercept until they exposed themselves as a Putin asset,
People can say what they will about Donald Trump, what they can't say is how others have acted previously who were just like him. Because this country has never had to absorb the stupidity this man exudes. He has never been here before and with any luck he likes will never be here again. Let's put the lid on our garbage can.
Well actually Donald, what we must learn from Trump's rise in 2016 is this: do not forget the power of social class, and do not ignore it! For 40 years, during and since Reagan's regime in the 1980s, the two main parties in the U.S. have introduced or maintained "free trade" and dismantled protective tariffs. Both parties chose to forget about job security for the country's blue collar workforce. Instead, Hillary Clinton appeared to refer to them as a basket of deplorables - simply because, as a result of "free trade", they were now prey to unemployment, under-employment, zero-hours employment, and bellow-survival wages for their families.
Don't then be surprised if blue-collar, and other dissatisfied political elements, turn to somebody who seems to share their anger and uses the language that they themselves use in every day life - while being looked down on by the snotty-nosed middle-classes.
You may call him stupid, and many people do, the most stupid thing was to embrace the twin myths of free trade and globalisation. That is what has, in many ways impoverished the U.S. and created (what is now seen as) an 'enemy within' which challenges the whole status quo, including Obama's and Biden's confrontational policies towards Russia and so-called Palestinian terrorists - who are, actually, national liberationists - see Yanis Varoufakis on Israel-Palestine: the truth behind October 7 - YouTube
Uh, no Gunnar, Hillary Clinton’s phrase, “a basket of deplorables” was a reference to Trump supporters who were "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamophobic.” (NPR. org, 9/10/16, D.Montanero)
The terms, “blue collar” or “unemployed” are over-broad and give the wrong impression, as does the
phrase, “protective tariffs.”
Tariffs are “protective” only if they are properly applied to imported products. A protective tariff is a tax or fee imposed on imported goods to make them more expensive than similar domestic goods. The goal of a protective tariff is to protect domestic industries. Trump intends to use tariffs as a weapon.
“Trump insists that tariffs are paid for by foreign countries. In fact, its is importers — American companies — that pay tariffs, and the money goes to U.S. Treasury. Those companies, in turn, typically pass their higher costs on to their customers in the form of higher prices. That's why economists say consumers usually end up footing the bill for tariffs.
from foreign competition.” (pbs. org, 9/27/24, P. Wiseman)
Tariffs can hinder cooperation between governments. Since Trump is an isolationist, he doesn’t consider that aspect. Personally, I think it would be a grave mistake for America to isolate
itself from other countries. For one thing, global cooperation is a necessity for tackling climate change.
Susan - You quote P. Wiseman as saying, "Trump insists that tariffs are paid for by foreign countries. In fact, its is importers — American companies — that pay tariffs, and the money goes to U.S. Treasury. Those companies, in turn, typically pass their higher costs on to their customers in the form of higher prices. That's why economists say consumers usually end up footing the bill for tariffs". - You seem to think that what he says contracicts what I am saying. It doesn't.
It is absolutely true that tariffs are, indirectly, paid for by foreign countries in the sense that U.S. tariffs will lead to fewer sales of the foreign product within the U.S. market. It is also true that in cases where U.S. owned factories that migrated to low-wage countries will also have to pay a tariff when their products reach U.S. shores. There is no conradition here. And it is of course true that U.S. consumers will pay more for the products - whether these products are produced domestically or in factories overseas. So, they DO protect domestically-produced goods. I suppose we both agree so far.
What you seem to object to is that U.S. consumers have to pay more. You think that's not fair. And you're entitled to think so. However, if you want to prevent the rise populist demagogues like Donald Trump, who claim to stand for the interests of the American blue-collar workforce, then you have to protect the industries they work in, in the U.S., from foreign-made cheap goods, so that the the U.S. domestic workforce will keep their full-time, safe jobs. That's how it works. Trump has decided that his constituency wants protectionism, and it's on that platform that he stands - and he has every right to do so. Whether his policy will lead to him winning in November is yet to be seen. I simply agree with him; we should protect our own, and this automatically means that U.S. consumers will pay more.
I think I'm right - I'm not an economist - in saying that protectionism is a form of wealth distribution: blue-collar get to keep their jobs (and therefore gain wage stability) while white-collar is made to pay more for the goods they choose to buy. Hans Morgenthau once said that when someone gains, another loses. It is how it is. In this case it can be mitigated by subsidies, but then the taxpayers pay more.
The reason I'm defending the American workforce is that, hopefully, a happy workforce won't look for a demagogue like Trump to support them; instead they will vote Democrat or old style-Republican. This is the advatage of looking after blue-collar. I'm not saying all American industries need protection, but clearly a lot of them do - if you want to avoid populist presidential candidates.
You are right in saying that protecionism can cause friction between governments, and of course that's a pity. But again I say to you: it may be THAT, OR we risk having to cope with an "undemocratic" demogogue.
Susan - I forgot to address your defence of Hillary Clinton. I will say this: you may be correct in saying that Ms Clinton wasn't referring to all Trump supporters but only to those seen as "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamophobic". However true it is - what you say - the fact is that she was ambiguous and therefore layed herself open to what you might call misinterpretations. This is a dangerous thing to do in politics, and she paid dearly for it.
What made it worse, and convinced many that she was actually referring to all Trump supporters, is that her audience were millionaires and billionaires. What she said sounded like a pitch to them - for their political support and for their financial electoral support. And here of course, we are in a dilemma: if the Democratic Party accepts their money, the Party will be beholden to them, and the Party cannot mantain its soul and its raison d'etre. It simply becomes the party of the neoliberals and their ideology of globalisation and free trade.
Not only that, the Democratic Party becomes captive to THEIR defence of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses which - before Trump entered the White House in January 2017 - were incorporated into all international trade agreements under pressure from the neoliberal financial services industry. The ISDS clauses made it possible to sue nation states whose government wanted to protect (parts of) their workforce from the deleterious effects of "free trade" - such as mass unemployment and the introduction of zero-hours employment contracts. The clauses gave these bastards the right to litigate against sovereign nation states! - so-called sovereign nation states, because they obviously were no longer sovereign. On his first day in the Oval Office, Trump tore up these international trade agreements and rewrote them, leaving out the ISDS clauses whenever they applied to the U.S.
This was cheeky, and the financial services industry and their many political supporters hate Trump for doing this. It is from THEM that much of the poison against Trump originate - the mainstream media speak for THEM.
If your're not sure what I'm talking about, I recommend this article. It is a random example of how the ISDS clauses work in practice - A clause in the UK-Australia trade deal could let companies sue governments. We have been here before | Patricia Ranald | The Guardian
Great idea: the voters should only cooperate...
Tom--If they would but open their eyes, voting should be done with the idea in mind to eliminate problems not to create them.
But what should be in their guts? Gunnar says about the things I feel what I would say: it is gut feeling and anger. When you don't connect with "the deplorables"you probably loose: with an economy better than ever...
"When you're born, you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat." George Carlin.
George Carlin once said, 'Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.' This resonates with me deeply. The feeling of hope and belief in a better future often leads to disappointment when reality doesn't match our expectations.
As I wait to see which candidate will be chosen for us this time through media manipulation, I must be a disappointed idealist.
Gloria J. Maloney, I think of myself as part idealist and part realist. And yes,as you say, the idealist part is often disappointed.
Carlin is my all time favorite. I have my DVR set to record him, whenever he reappears.
I too am a disappointed idealist, but at this point I must admit, I absolutely admire Kamala, but am also totally aware that despite any ideas and instincts, she is constrained by the money powers. The money powers believe they can constrain Trump, but they also believed they could constrain Adolph. Adolph did make them richer and more powerful.
Trump is a bozo, easily manipulated by flattery and transaction, and the money powers don't care about the social effects of Project 2025, and won't until after the shock wears off the Trump effect sets in and America degenerates into a toothless, third world country,, and the Russians, Chinese and Saudis run all over exploiting our resources material and human.
Not to worry, they won't be governing or forcing us to learn Arab, Russian, Chinese. There are other ways to exploit, people need to eat.
Gloria, the world needs "disappointed idealists" like you, because, you are also a realist and don't give up.
"The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism.… They claim to be superpatriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interests.…"
Wallace's description of fascism taking hold of a nation, eerily and perfectly states, the fascist agenda that is right now trying to take down our democracy. Amazingly prophetic. Thank you for this essential history lesson. We must vote out, and not in, any Republicans this election to keep our freedoms. And remain vigilant. Wallace's social and civic justice views are also timely. What a patriot.
Fascists take advantage of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms to advance their totalitarian agenda. We have been foolish in allowing Fox News to subvert American democracy.
Your comment is almost word-for-word what I was meaning to post!
Thanks! Great minds....
Quoted from the new book "Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich" (2024) by Richard J. Evans:
Hitler's leading Nazi Joseph Goebbels' propaganda, "his unprecedentedly unscrupulous deployment of misinformation both before and after Hitler's creation of the Third Reich . . . have been, and are being, widely imitated in the twenty-first century by populist politicians from Donald Trump to Viktor Orban to discredit and ridicule their opponents and sweep aside opposition to their rule . . . " (p. 147).
Thanks, Richard. I added it to my "to read" list.
Professor Reich: WOW!! i had no idea of the existence of Henry Wallace and his proud legacy of defending and expanding the democracy of "everyday people". thank you so much for introducing me to him (i probably DID hear his name, at least, whilst learning the white-washed version of american history as a child, but i am going to remedy this oversight in my weekend reading).
are there any biographies of Wallace that anyone here (or you, Professor) recommend?
I had always thought FDR was great. I need to know more before I can comment about that. One point I'd like to make is that Communism originally was not evil; it was against the impoverishment of millions of serfs who were forced to work for the big landowners. They wanted to do away with the profit motive, which encourages people to value the money they can make over the rights of other people.
Otherwise, the points that are made here are all about what Trump is doing.
Did Communism derive from the book of Acts? “… from each according to his means, to each according to his needs.”
Communism in the Bible, Jose Miranda, I have a copy. https://www.amazon.com/Communism-Bible-Jose-P-Miranda/dp/1592444687/ref=sr_1_1?crid=272RY38V7WNWU&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.4iriK3FQtwXureFmLL1QghzNdmx_WL9DUPuI6qRh_rDMq-i7B3aIR50guo5BAm-WcZ7bCSKQo8Lr0mY4yXy-XIh1w3RxWWZGwpzuzqrxL62XKt35F7hjldW-uVS9PSLKQiTAnPan2DNrJmOImAOJTgK9GtX6r6eMveEal2dJVwxmWVEgoDq8INY5ROYw35I7XStRIKiiTeIUIA6EtUC0_C7pVPp5lma01TZa3AaMYhg.xsJezf6N7jS42e0CNFUfLUjE5-doUBy5AYeO0LjCPrI&dib_tag=se&keywords=communism+in+the+bible&qid=1729866583&sprefix=communism+in+the+bible%2Caps%2C275&sr=8-1
Ah, but that's Communist ... Are you a Commie, Lorne - like Henry Wallace and Bernie Sanders?
Thank God there were men like Wallace. And thank God there are people as seemingly normal and decent, such as VP Harris/Walz, Prof Reich, Sen Sanders. Presently listening to The Donald speaking in Texas. How can ANY halfway inyelligent person listen to his fearful and hateful line of blazing BS ? EI YEI YEI ...If there was EVER a reason for The American people to wake up and start funnelling our resources towards our educational system and a healthful development of our youth, is this it. Trump is the personification of the historic low point in our socio/governmental system which we now suffer. He upsets my stomach .
HARRIS/WALZ 2024 ! !
My late husband voted for Henry Wallace. His mother went to her grave thinking she'd raised a communist. But Wallace was a prophet -- meaning a person who sees the present while most of us are still looking at the past, like the generals who fight the last war.
The full article is available as a pdf here:
https://alba-valb.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Wallace.pdf
There is also a full-length book about Wallace by John Nichols, The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party (ISBN 1788737407) and a biography by John Culver, American Dreamer (ISBN 0393322289).
Youtube has a PBS documentary about him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv2l8FMDzwU&t=2258s
Thank you Miland!
If your neighbor who called Wallace a communist were alive today, she’d be a Trump supporter.
It is pathetic, but an example of how effective propaganda is, that people can be convinced to vote, support or champion an idea, a person or person who or which is opposed to their own self interests.
Then again, there would be no TV advertising if it was effective. People spending thousands to destroy their liver, by taking a drug designed for diabetics, because some diabetics have lost weight (while destroying their liver)
TV Ads tell you want a drug will do to your endocrine and circulatory system, but people still ask their doctors to prescribe them.
I am not against all drugs, after all Keytruda saved my life.literally. Terminal cancer with 6 months to live in Oct 2017, and still here thanks to Keytruda.
Can we please take long view of last 30 years and consider the pattern in what various POTUSes have been handed and have passed forward? Step back from the “me, here, now” gaslighting and disinformation from the right…
Americans, after decades of GOP tax breaks to wealthy - drip drip, wealth shifting from most to the very very few - drip drip, a R-wing-nut SCOTUS legislating from the bench - drip drip, fully corrupt pay-2-play legislator incentives - drip drip, money buying elections - drip drip, corporate greed delivering top shelf results for execs and shareholders- drip drip. Society has been left with deep daily struggles, systems supportive of workers gutted, hands UP to the poor diminished, regulations protecting the people hammered, crime increasing of course, healthcare and education decreasing naturally. America, inch by inch, she’s become the plutocratic misogynistic oligarchy of the uber-wealthy and powerful, enabling a continued money grab / more for them and less for a healthy functioning society. Dems have become the only party trying to lift from the middle and bottom. Face it.
Zoom out a bit, take a 30,000 foot point of view. In all big government decisions there is a natural “lag effect” — good and bad. If we don’t pull back we can’t see the gaslighting, cognitive dissonance enabled. Dems blamed for outcomes of GOP deficit spending, massive debt increases, regulation cutting, gerrymandering and more, while GOP falsely claims they care about debt and deficits. GOP cuts regulation, which (ahem) results in epic train crashes (E. Palestine OH) or bank failures (Silicon Valley Bank implosion).
Remember:
1. Clinton handed Bush 2 “surplus money in the coffers” - a good economy after he inherited Regan and Bush 1 debt.
2. Bush 2 and early 2000’s “spend our kids’ money congress” plus Allen Greenspan drove America and globe to brink, giving us ‘08 global financial crisis.Here you go, Barack - a welcome gift on the eve of 2008 election.
3. Obama does heavy lift, pulls us from the brink of financial cliff and hands Trumpler a healing economy, ready for gentle interest rate increases.
4. Trumpler, king of debt, lies and bankruptcies, jams his knee on Jerome Powell’s (apolitical Federal Reserve) neck and Powell demurs. Covid comes and we borrow $10 trillion more from the kids’ future.
5. Biden inherits from Trumpler - without even one day of “secure nation” transition between administrations - a nation 3 weeks shy of a Capitol insurrection by sitting POTUS, an economy shut down amidst a pandemic, unhealthy way too low interest rates, epic $30+ trillion in debt. Biden does not sit on Powell’s neck, rather he enacts additional debt / but this time to infuse money to the middle for long term investment in workers, national security and infrastructure.
When we miss the nuanced understanding of lag effect in government, we can be sold a bag of sh*t by the very fox who is raiding the henhouse. Misinformation, disinformation and lies are sown by the right and thrust at the people. Media is not helping here!!
Do we know that national debt is for emergencies, not every year budget deficits or to goose an economy to make the POTUS look good?
Can we please take a long view of last 30 years and consider the pattern in what various POTUSes have been handed and have passed forward?
Bush 2 put 2 wars, tax cuts, and Medicare Part D all on the credit card. Obama inherited the debt.
And continued to recklessly advocate for “every American in a home of their own.”
The financial crash was caused by the enormous overbuilding of houses during the boom period. For the investment banks and secondary lenders, the name of the game was "book a loan, book a loan" to anybody that had a pulse, making for risky loans. The philosophy of the time was, "The market will take care of everything. Home prices will always go up." The Wall Street meltdown hit. Then the downturn spread to the credit markets. The only way people could get a loan was to pay very high rates of interest. All the suppliers of appliances, etc. to the oversupply of homes were hit hard, also, when building and cheap loans stopped.
The banks kept all of their risky loans off their books. If the Federal Reserve Board would have known of all of risky loans the banks had made and were still making, they would have made them increase their capital requirements. But the banks didn't want to do that, because it would have meant fewer loans. They wanted to make all the loans they could in order to generate all the fees they could.
Agree. You make my point on deregulation. Absent in run up to ‘08 were regulations and restrictions that would have prevented deeply unqualified loan recipients from being duped, from inappropriate loan approvals and from tragic loss.
I watched for years a slow motion train wreck. American housing market prices amplified exponentially across the nation — with exception of Nasdaq-connected markets - Denver/Boulder CO (the telcos) and Silicon Valley CA (tech). In fact, though not an economist, I saw the danger and exited stock market -June of 2008. Missed the summer run up, but felt a sigh of relief.
Lesson: of course Americans need regulation. They protect everyday consumers from being fleeced by corporate America and bogus operators. The ordinary people….! Financial crisis (and others…) demonstrate that deregulating costs the people. In the end, be it FEMA, the Fed, HHS.., we need protection and ironically when shit hits the fan, the panicked people demand federal government save them.
And now, worry amplifies with Chevron — for those who understand. Thanks corrupt right wing-nut SCOTUS.
There’s a cadence to the regulation pendulum as GOP deregulates and Dems regulate. We, the people caught in the middle and most are missing the lag effect. GOP liars lie, pointing fingers at “butter knife to a gun fight” Dems. It’s all so easy to see.
How do we fix this problem of an uneducated, reactive, gaslit electorate wasting their votes as the epic tide of wealth shift takes us further away from safe shores?