I absolutely agree with everything written here. Not necessarily because of my political ideology, but because of history. We’ve seen this happen before in Germany after Hitler came to power in a country reeling from economic depression after WWI. The promises he made, the lies, discrimination and false blame that he placed on others was intentional to divide the country, much like Trump did and continues to do.
Hitler attempted to overthrow the government but failed and was jailed, Trump attempted the same on January 6th and failed too, however unlike Adolph, he’s still free and allowed to continue the coup’ through media and rallies. 2022 must be a year of “accountability,” starting right at the top and working down. It also must be a year of facing and addressing “inequality” in this country that has destroyed the middle class and divided the masses. Trump plays on misery and if we don’t address the economic causes now, like Hitler, Trump will come to power again. God help us all if that happens.
Susan, No question that he and others must be held accountable. But like Nazi Germany before Hitler came to power, as you point out Germany was reeling from the weight of reparations imposed on it by the allied powers after World War I. By the 1930s, that weight had turned to hopelessness and despair. Hitler filled that void with hate, nationalism, and war. Trump is dealing with an analogous void, although its origins are different. And he has filled it with racism, paranoia, and nationalism. So the question I keep coming back to is how can it be filled with a democracy and economy that works for everyone?
I agree, the crux of the problem is the void and how we fill it to promote patriotism and financial and cultural equality. It was easy during WWII when the nation came together for a common cause to protect our country and fight against fascism. The conundrum today is we no longer have a “common cause” to embrace.
We could begin with strong voting rights to ensure every voice is heard. We must also enforce our laws that protect against misinformation, get money out of politics, criminal justice reform including the Supreme Court. We must pass “Build Back Better,” it will provide financial gains for those who need it most. A full pocket is unlikely to blame others, discriminate and be vulnerable to fascist dealings.
How to get this done is the challenge, we need to keep the House/Senate and increase the representative numbers. I fear if we don’t do this the consequences will be grim.
The US did not "come together" until well into the war and after attack on Pearl Harbor. Not in response to German aggression in Europe. Isolationism remained strong well after 1940-41. And the "coming together" soon collapsed. The valience and bravery of segregated black troops and Tuskegee airmen AND Rosie the Riveter and her peers resulted in increased racism and sexism.
Can we not embrace the literal fulfillment of the constantly revised "American Dream" and the struggle for a "better world" in order "come together" now. Think about it.
There is a very interesting book 1931 that carefully analyzed the economic situation and party alignments that brought Hitler to power. Chief amongst the problems was the commitment to continuing to pay reparations of all the parties except the Nazis and the Communists. Hitler used this dividing point. The second lever was the requirement for a coalition government. Here the lack of a strong Democratic tradition in Germany with the majority right wing parties against elective government made it easier for Hitler to become a partner in a right wing conservative government. The analogy between now and then is mostly based upon the austerity reaction of the parliament to the 1929 Depression which left people without jobs and destitute. The petti bourgeois shop keepers and farmers were also being squeezed and declassed. So what you see happening today to blue collar formerly middle income workers now losing their middle income existence is analogous in the sense that it provides fertileground for reactionaries.
I probably misstated the "come together" point: Should have said "...the threat to the country posed by the onset of WW2, and confirmed by Pearl Harbor." I do maintain there are parallels between the forces acting at that time and this, although they're not 100% analogous. So, we can agree to disagree on some of these points. The dialogue is the value here.
Hitler and his inner circle were clever enough to tap into the existing cesspools of 1) shame at losing WW1 and enduring a prolonged depression and 2) the longstanding practice of finding scapegoats among the "outsiders" within the larger community. The parallels to the current situation of exploiting the loss of economic dominance to China, and of manufacturing jobs, and the influx of (mostly Latin American) refugees competing for the low skilled jobs are pretty clear. This country flirted with fascism during the Great Depression, until the combination of the New Deal and the threat of WW2 pushed it aside. It's easy to see how desperate times lead people to seek out scapegoats and easy answers to turn things around. The response has to include giving people better answers to the current situation, and the sense that their government is doing everything it can to help them through. Years of attacking government as the problem, not the solution, have distorted many peoples' view of that institution as an enemy, rather than a benefactor. This too has to be addressed.
Steven Ugoretz; I agree that we need 'a sense that our government is doing everything it can to help us through', but it hurts to know that many of our 'helpers' are on the take. (See Manchin and Sinema, also many other Democrats).
Yes, it undermines faith in our system and the people who are supposed to represent us. Power corrupts in both the obvious ways, and more subtle ones (like disassociation from the "ordinary folks"). There's also a difference between seeing the benefits of a robust economic system, and giving carte blanche to the people on the top. But as long as we keep electing people like the two you mentioned, we're going to be disappointed.
The way forward, I think, is to elect representatives who understand the creative possibilities of economics: it’s all about bread and butter and the traditional American belief that each generation can do better than the previous one. The likelihood that people will vote intelligently depends on their education in economics, which, as we know, is deficient for the vast majority. So, let’s fix the curriculum of public schools so that young students come to understand the arbitrary nature of our current economics and how this can be changed for the better.
The economics discipline and profession is a large part of the problem. More than contemporary largely conservative pro-capital economics (Larry Summers for one major examples [vs., say, Paul Krugman]) instruction, we need much more teaching of inclusive accurate history including economic history AND critical thinking. They are missing throughout the US, including elected reps. and most professional and corporate economists--and, I say politely--throughout this discussion [sic]
Please stop! Comparisons with Germany post 1918, 1920s, and 1930s are totally misguided. The historical record supports not even a vague analogy, let alone a sustained comparison.
Such inaccurate reasoning only serves to exaggerate both the power of Trumpism/Trump (not are not synonymous) and the size and power of the Trumpists, just at the moment when realism, accuracy, and contextualiztion are most needed.
Hitler and the Nazis gained power only a full decade after the German defeat in 1981--quite apart from the course of the 1920s and the mechanisms of Hilter's "rise."
The American ignorance of history facilitated the rise of the post WWII right long before Trump; it helped Trump. It allowed the nondebate over critical race theory (which is NOT taught in schools). We must get the history right....
@ Harvey. Just to show understanding, I know you meant the German defeat in 1918. But I fear you miss a point - it is not the specific circumstances that Reich is talking about. He is pointing out that we have a significant number of disaffected people in this country with real problems. It only takes one criminal mind to galvanize all the other exploiters into a movement and then lure the disaffected into believing they can get relief from the very-same people who are exploiting them in the first place.
On our main point of difference, here's a quote from Wikipedia on the ascent of Nazism: "On 20 July 1932, the Prussian government was ousted by a coup, the Preussenschlag; a few days later at the July 1932 Reichstag election the Nazis made another leap forward, polling 37% and becoming the largest party in parliament by a wide margin." The numbers alone don't tell the story because in a parliamentary system, power goes to the party with enough votes to form a governing coalition. 37% was enough to put Hitler into power. The vicious internal competition at that time helped divert the attention of the other political parties who could have united against the Nazis, and opened the door for the 3rd Reich. Yes, there were differences, but enough analogies to draw some reasonable lessons.
Come on. You're not actually quoting Wikipedia, which has no reliability or fact-checking or acknowledged authorship, are you? At least you mention a date, unlike others who argue in favor of the fallacious comparison of Germany from 1918 to some unspecified time in the 1930s.
But you do not specify "enough analogies to draw some reasonable lessons," or even draw any specific comparisons based in facts. You continue to expression fallacious and alarmist "analogies"--which are not the same as factual comparisons--that do much more harm than good. Always, but now more than ever, at least in my lifetime, WE need to get it right. Or the right wing perpetuators of Big Lies will dominate the airwaves if not more.
This is called unbased rhetoric. Read Joan Wallach Scott's On the Judgment of History, and not Wikipedia.
Professor Graff: I wish there was a copy available from my local library system. Maybe I can find one somewhere else. Perhaps you can help me understand your objections with a brief point by point rebuttal highlighting the major difference between Germany between the world wars, and the current situation in the US? Is there a reason to distrust Wikipedia on the basic facts in the article, vs the academic rigor of its analysis? Do we not have a segment of the population that believes they're being passed over in favor of "outsiders", and need to take power into their own hands? Is there not a declining standard of living for working people (albeit not as catastrophic as pre-Nazi Germany)? As a layperson regarding History, I'm trying to make sense of the arguments being made on this thread. As a professor of the subject, you're in a position to throw some light on the subject, rather than throwing shade on those of us trying to get involved in this important discussion.
First, call me Harvey. Second, without writing a 20 page paper, I cannot write a brief point by point rebuttal. That really is an unfair request.
But 1) do not trust Wikipedia on anything without independent confirmation. Sometimes, it is useful for checking dates and bibliography. But not always. There is no fact-checking, reviewing, or editing. No signed authorship. It is a part of social media.
2) The US in NO WAY resembles the dire economic straits and political collapse of 1918 -1937 Germany. No near total destruction of economy esp. world leading industry, finance, R&D. No collapse of the monarchy. We remain a world leader not a defeated, downtrodden nation, despite our totally unacceptable levels of inequality and prejudice. Propagating this erroneous notion only scares, misleads, and distracts people from REAL issues.
3) There is no scape-goating on the level of the defeated nation. The Jews in Germany had only gained political rights in the 19th C. They were never recognized as equal, and economic and educational success of SOME led to stereotyping. That is why so many left Germany for US, Canada, South America, W Eur. Scape-goating of racial minorities, women, and "socialists" by radical right does not compare. Despite MTG's "Jewish space lasers." That of course does not excuse our own crimes against our own humanity.
4) the German political crises that continued in shifting forms from late in WWII through the National Socialists victories first in the streets and then in elections in no way compare to American electoral politics. Despite all our problems, which I do not minimize for one moment, our systems have not collapse. We struggle....
5) Trump--or Cruz, DeSantis, Hawley, etc., etc.0--are laughable clowns compared to Hitler. they share his psychopathy but little else. Despite their Ivy League education (and Hawley's PhD from Yale in Amer Hist), they are profoundly ignorant. Hitler was not educated but was a skilled propandist and author of Mein Kampf.
6) my fear is a) the tiny number of crazed and/or radically misled people with access to arms who may take to the streets, statehouses, and Congress, perhaps even this week; b) many but not all Rep-led states who are removing voting rights, fair districting, gun safety, abortion rights, transgender rights, and the like.
Finally: that's where I think we must focus. And someone must either awaken/educate the flailing and much too silent Democratic Party. That's why, for example, the totally baseline nondebate on critical race theory (google to find my series of essays); "socialism;" "defunding the police'" etc, took hold.
For the record, I am not a specialist in German history per se, but a comparative social historian of North America and Western Europe who wishes he knew more about the non-Western world and science.
OK, poor choice of words. it should have been "Germany, before Hitler came to power". But the point remains the same - there is an unmistakable resemblance between America today (primarily the white, rural, evangelical, conservatives) and Germany between 1918 and 1933. Germany's citizens were highly fragmented after WWI, burdened with the humiliation of loss exemplified harsh reparations which led to hyper-inflation and anger on top of the global depression. Today, it is lopsided inequality and progressive policies that raise fears in the white, rural, evangelical population that they are losing their "culture".
The only difference is that it took longer to reach sufficiently large numbers of German's, in the decade between WWI and the Weimar Republic, to propel the movement into action and the "election" of Hitler. With ubiquitous targeted television, radio, internet websites, and social media, today that job is faster and easier to accomplish. We saw that during the 2016 election cycle. Trump began to beat the dissatisfaction, voting fraud, Democratic stealing the elections during the primaries, ramping it up once he became the GOP nominee. The GOP seismic turn to Trump not long after he took office when an unbelievable number of, until then, respected members of the Republican Party shifted from criticizing Trump to backing him. Why? Because highly targeted social media, FOX News, conservative radio talk shows pushed the lies 24/7 and there was a waiting and desperate audience willing to accept the lies without question, hoping for a savior. My 2 cents.
Please! We must be accurate. There were virtually no nonwhites in post WWI German., What "reparations exemplified" are you referring to--the decimation of the German economy?
What "lopsided inequality and progressive policies that raise fears" in US (I presume)? Do you mean "defunding the police" (not a big issue in rural populations) and "socialism"? These are not policies but right-wing dog whistles that Dems, including progressives, fail to respond to.
German Catholic sympathizers of "National SOCIALISM" were not rural evangelicals.
1918-1932 Germany is NOT comparable to 2016-202? US.
The target that your long list of radical right-wing propagandists is reaching--by all measures--is less than 15% of the US adult population and probably even smaller.
We cannot afford to imagine threats. We need to identify the real ones, from the composition of SCOTUS and some of the Federal Appeals Courts to the most gerrymandered Rep-dominated state legislatures, and the examples of TX and FL that my state of Ohio imitates blindly. AND lack of gun "safety" and control, and registrations and tracking of acknowledged terrorists.
Yet Rep-dominated legis in MI and VA have approved redistricting plans that all parties consider fair. We must generalize VERY carefully and act accordingly.
Scare tactics hinder and muddle all clear thinking and planning.
You must not do a lot of reading that you are unaware of the harsh penalties applied to post-WWI Germany that did decimate it's economy. Reparations does not only apply to non-whites. Dr Reich has provided sufficient arguments on inequality that has occurred since Reagan.
Most of us have had to deal with declining wages for more that forty years that occurred over the last forty years and increasing costs of housing, food, education, and other goods and services. I see families who are unable to afford RENT, let alone purchase a home. Steak, pork, and fish are not on the tables; childcare eats up one of two incomes (if they are lucky enough to have two incomes). This isn’t fear mongering. It is reality for far too many people, I’m surprised that you can’t see this.
Well, I think your statistics on the number of far-right voters is a bit low, it is more like about 20-25% of the total eligible voters, but they are the loudest, most reliable, united, and staunchly conservative Republican voters, whereas the Democrats have historically been largely fragmented and apathetic voters. Add to that the gerrymandering in multiple GOP-led states and voter suppression which has allowed that minority to take larger shares of legislative seats in state and national legislatures. I have vivid memories of Tom DeLay and the Texas redistricting around 2000 and the long-term building of a strategy for cementing GOP dominance. Clear thinking depends on recognizing reality.
A final note: I have to admit that I have trouble understanding you. For example, what is "Most of us have had to deal with declining wages for more that forty years that occurred over the last forty years"? for more than forty years than occurred over the last forty years...? and what about the variations in the "costs of food and other goods and services" over those forty years?
The period witnessed many ups and downs. Economists refer to inflation and deflation among other factors. The "cost of living," itself an abstraction, is not on a single curve or spiral. The tendency right to now to compare two data points fundamentally misses everything of importance.
We don't live our lives in 40 year segments. Even politicians understand that. Unfortunately, the fewer and fewer reporters and the swelling number of unchecked "opinion writers" do not. We must!
I have spent my life as a professional historian reading and writing. You reject accept my conclusions but do not make any concrete statements or cite a single source--that I have, in your imagination-- to support your oppositional generalizations. The destruction of the German economy esp. its international leading industrial, finance, and R&D sector did much more severe damage than often unenforced/unenforceable penalties (over which other Eur. nations were divided). Where is Germany's struggle over the position of its previously dominant monarchy? What about "appeasement" in your effort to equate Hitler and Trump? Who was/is appeasing T and T-ist?
You do not mention my many refutations. You shift your wording constantly as you did when you began this last thread. You slip in my points without acknowledgement. Just what is your game? You are not advancing any kind of discussion.
What "most of us"? Reich offered a sweeping generalization that he would, I am confident, swiftly qualify. We cannot compare closely the many contrasting and sometimes contradictory indicators of "inequity," unemployment, inflation, etc. because the data over time are simply not comparable. The media fail to notice this while a few economists (Paul Krugman, for one example) do.
Why is my 15% "a bit low, it is more like about 20-25% . . . . but . . . " This is contradictory. What is your basis. Mine is the close comparison of support and opposition to different issues on a variety opinion surveys. I look at trends in voter registration. I pay attention to the lack of large support for extremist positions. What I do not do is pay much attention to the loudest voices.
May I suggest, politely, that you try that too.
For what it's worth, I lived in TX "around 2000." Tom DeLay was a Rep member of Congress. He did not serve on redistricting boards which are state matters.
TX had been Dem for some time. It had women Dem leaders, even a nationally first woman governor. Sexism and racism fueled the rise of the TX right wing with the "polite" gloss of the Bush family. The currents as I state repeatedly run from post WWII through Reagan and emphatically from Gingrich's gang to the Tea Party to Trumpism, even more than Trump himself.
Invoking fascism, National Socialism (which no one on this notice), Nazis, and Hitler is scare-mongering and a huge, unnecessary distraction just at the moment Dems, progressives, and American socialists need to focus.
Perhaps it would have been good to note causes beyond "reeling from economic depression". There was an even deeper wound in their "profound loss of identity, dignity and purpose" such as Trump channeled.
Come on! It's the 2020s not the 1920s. The US is not post-WWI Germany with its failing govt and society-wide depression. Hitler, sadly, could read, write, and speak clearly. Trump can't even write an email, let alone Mein Kampf, perhaps for better....
Why be didactic when someone is trying to illustrate that distress can affect people? The pandemic added a particularly hard hit to the economy, along with 40 years of stagnation of workers' wages. It still threatens.
I may add that the economy will be taking more hits in the near future by having many jobs eliminated through automation. Trucks will no longer be driven by humans but rather by computers. I can see many jobs currently performed by Pharmacist being replace through automation within three to five years.
Elias Bigio ; That may reduce the tedium of some jobs, but there will be fewer people to buy if too many jobs are eliminated. There will still be a need for humans to fix machines, program and maintain them no matter how sophisticated. Remember that human error can cause them to malfunction too. Mu husband loves the scanning feature added by our local supermarket. He scans items as he fills his cart then, on the way out he simply puts his scanner near another auto check out and he is done. He does have to bag his purchases, but doesn't not have to interact with anyone, or do a 'self check out' near anyone. With the Omicron surge he likes it. I tell him he is taking a job away and he laughs at me.
After seeing the MAGA crowd boo Trump's recent comments on vaccines and their subsequent comments harshly criticizing him, I've started to think that Trump is not the MAGA leader; but merely a guy that sorta figured them out and gets in front of them to look like a leader. (Also, he was very good at "branding" them with their MAGA slogan, red hats, giant flags, "strong" authoritarian leader images, etc.) But this time with these vax comments, he got it totally wrong. I find this MAGA monster more concerning than Trump himself -- they will outlast him and I am afraid that in my lifetime they will get worse and worse. They are irrational, fear-based, and will get behind whoever supports their vision of a white, gun-toting, "masculine," America. After Trump we have plenty of Josh Hawleys, Ted Cruzes, Marjorie Taylor Greenes, Matt Gaetzes, and Jim Jordans ready to "lead" the monster. Unfortunately, there seems to be plenty of "belligerent and narcissistic authoritarian(s)" ready and waiting to lead the MAGAs.
As to January 6th, I think it is the tip of the iceberg. The GOP is currently deep into the execution of their on-going coup -- emplacing local officials, changing voting laws, raising cash, keeping the Big Lie front and center, to keep the gullible base riled up which unfortunately, the media loves. That crazed base and their activities make so much better television than voter registration drives.
Yes, they're irrational, fear-based, and so on. The question I keep coming back to is why? Why are so many Americans falling for this? I think it's because so many have been falling behind, suffering downward mobility, believing (with some justification) that the system is rigged against them. And I don't think it possible to stop the Josh Hawleys, Cruzes, and other Trump wannabe's until we deal with this underlying cause.
Unfortunately Biden hasn’t grasped the necessity of major reforms. You don’t stop these people with halfway measures and $80K SALT exemptions. Not to mention not going after carried interest and allowing Congress to add 30 bil to the Defense budget without a peep. Biden hasn’t shown the people he is their President. He has been passive and resentful of being pushed to do things such as act on student debt. You can only make so many excuses for the Democrats in the coming election. They are digging the hole themselves.
A president may have an agenda, but it is Congress (Senate and House of Representative) that approves that agenda. Elections do have consequences! Citizens must have some idea of what they want the USA to look like, and then elect a Congress that shares your vision. Why is it that we keep electing the same people over and over? People that make promises each election cycle that they do not deliver.
Elias Bigio ; The candidates will always make promises, but they are often (mostly) receiving donations to their campaign that will eventually persuade them to do otherwise than their promises.
P.P. ; They have passed the infrastructure bill in spite of the lack of support from across the aisle. Even under the threat of an insurrection or coup. They are still trying to pass the Build Back Better bill to help people across the country who deserve and need it.
Actually they got more support from Republicans for Infrastructure than they are getting for BBB but it is a Democrat that is killing that bill.
Now there are Democratic centrists who believe infrastructure is enough to win in 2022. I’m wondering what if anything in that bill you feel is enough for Democrats to get out the vote amongst minority and young voters?
As I see it people are being left behind because of ridiculous tax laws favoring the rich, the explosion of digital technologies, and exporting jobs to other countries. A lot of that emanates from the greed that Reagan made acceptable. Until that greed becomes unacceptable again I don’t know how we fix this. As for digitization, that’s a very knotty problem since it’s impossible to go backwards. Digitization both requires higher skill levels and at the same time puts people out of work. One possible positive step would be to break up the tech giants though, especially Amazon, which is swallowing everything in sight (now Rite-Aid is closing stores along with CVS, who BTW put a lot of drugstores out of business all by itself). But beyond that I’m not sure how you put the toothpaste back in the tube (or whatever metaphor you like).
All of the analysis people are making here is accurate, however these problems will remain in suspension until we recognize the core underlying problem that prevents them from resolving...and solve IT. As David Graeber, Michael Hudson and Steve Keen have correctly shown PRIVATE debt has built up and financially destabilized countries/empires for the entire course of human civilization. Debt jubilees were periodically utilized to reset economies which prolonged them but even then the PRIVATE debt always came back which indicates that even debt jubilees are palliative reforms and the more underlying problem remains. That problem is the monetary paradigm of Debt Only as the sole form and vehicle for the creation and distribution of money. Integrate the new monetary paradigm of Direct and Reciprocal Monetary Gifting strategically and continuously into the economic process at retail sale (with a 50% discount/rebate policy) and at the point of loan signing (with a general 25% debt jubilee policy and a 50% debt jubilee policy for all "big ticket" and "green" products) and we'll not only end the civilization long problem of the monetary paradigm we'll also be able to create a bottom up consumer greening that can dove tail and synergize with other carbon capture and ecologically sane efforts to confront climate change.
It's terrifying and frustrating simultaneously. I'm an Old Progressive Activist. I'm injured and refuse to get surgery until this wave of OMICRON slows. I've always felt that the GOP base was a reflection of Racist sentiment. It drives me nuts not to be able to do something other than observe the horror.
Boy, do I agree with you. And BTW, cancer survivor here who hasn’t gotten her screenings for way too long because of COVID, thank you so much, unvaccinated people.
In my state and town--the same as Prof. Reich's--it's not GOP operatives taking over, but 'liberal/progressives' who are intent on social replacement by driving out the 'affordable class' through gentrification and over-supplying expensive housing, in the name of overturning racist land zoning. As leaders of social movements go, they don't go very far, and are as narrow and heartless as any GOP crapster you could name ..
Are you a supporter of the ADU and the lot split initiative in California? It seems the Ca legislature is trying to give the supply of houses a push so the costs go down. Is that a better policy that just taking over empty buildings and putting the homeless in there? One is an capitalist economic model (that plays somewhat into the hands of the developers and gentrifiers and rich) and the other is closer to socialism.
I've supported ADU's (well before I knew the term) since reading Christopher Alexander's 'A Pattern Language'. His (actually, theirs) #153 ('Room to Rent'), #154 ('Teenager's Cottage') and #155 (Old Age Cottage) anticipated this fairly unobtrusive need. Lot-splitting, if local projects so indicate, will destroy the feeling [italicized] of 'home'; Robert Frost would fume, spin, and toss.
Particular 2021 state bills, now laws, do not address housing affordability--what allowed my mother and I and many others to survive--but legalize adding housing only the desperate would want to live in. Highlighting 'affordability' in any of the bills (SB's 8,9,10 and 478, etc.) will bear this out. Further, their proponents have bought into supply-side wishfulness that worked soo well for Honey Reagan. Developers, a mightier force here than Joe Neighbor, have demonstrated that they will not build for need, so struggling mothers and sons, you may go to hell or the sidewalk.
However, the most odious undercurrent of these laws is that they are by-right and ministerial, meaning the public, whether next door or across town, will have No Right to a say. If this doesn't burst the myth of democratic participation, I don't know what does, and in the Golden State of Happy Endings yet ..
I think the real meaning of Jan 6th is that powerful moneyed interests in America and abroad want their way. They supported his campaign, and there is plenty of evidence that dark money flowed into it. He has authoritarian friends all over the world. He gave trillions in tax breaks to very wealthy entities. At the same time, our intelligence and homeland security seemed to be AWOL when Jan 6th happened. As an ordinary citizen, I felt that something bad was going to happen regarding the election. How could our intelligence officers not have seen it? I have seen stolen elections that were never challenged. Operators like Roger Stone organized thugs to keep protesters in Broward County from demanding that the recount not be stopped. They terrorized the people on the streets. I know that I'm not the only one who knew of these things. There are those who just want to 'win' at all costs. For me, the question now is, where is our defense against this obvious coup? We have real patriots in the very few Republicans who bravely go against Donald Trump and his mob. What can the Jan 6th committee find that will trigger some action? Can President Biden find some patriots in homeland security? Our Military? Who will follow the rule of law and protect us from the mob? Where is our leadership?
The Jan 6th committee may find enough information to recommend that the Dept. of Justice indict Trump. A trial and conviction with Trump actually serving time in prison would, in my opinion, help end the Trump cult in the Republican party.
There is sufficient information right now to lock him up, especially if you include active attempts to change vote counts, and not just in Georgia, but I fear that our Attorney General is something of a snowflake.
It would seem that way, but I have read opinions that say there is a need to have a really solid case in the court. I hope there is a good chance that justice can be done. I would not call the A.G. a snowflake. Not yet, anyway! We could be surprised.
There is no defense, they are all on the same team. Team corporations and screw the rest. Unfortunately it seems that the so called Left that has some limited power is just puppets to corporations as well. Thats the sad part. There really is no left in this country and we keep thinking there is. The people in politics in the house and senate are bought and paid for. All big corporations have the power. We live in an oligarchy and the media is only going to say what their corporate heads want. The average citizen is brainwashed to believe that there are two sides, it makes for great theater while the oligarchs laugh.
Why was there no uproar regarding the CDC bending for the CEO of Delta when he changed the recommended isolation period for those that test positive for covid? Why was a so called Alzheimers drug pushed by the FDA onto the costs for medicare when it hasn't even been shown to be affective? Now seniors have to pay even more for their part B. Nothing is what it seems except that the average American is not paying attention. They listen to the garbage news cycle and believe it. This whole scam about inflation and the feds with interest rates. Blah blah blah. No its all corporations jacking the prices for profits. Profits never seen before. But why aren't the talking heads on the news saying one bit about that? They are puppets of their bosses, the billionaires that push whatever they want to get out there.
This country is already part fascist. It's only going to get worse because the average American is a dolt. There is no defense because its all one team!!! Oligarchs or bust. UGH!!!
can you explain "There is no defense, they are all on the same team. Team corporations and screw the rest. Unfortunately it seems that the so called Left that has some limited power is just puppets to corporations as well. " What do you mean by "the so called left" and who are you referring to? We must be specific or we resemble the "other" side
I will disagree with you, Robin, because as dark as it seems, there are many people who know more than you might give them credit for. To use a simple example : when driving your car, you stay in your lane, because you want to avoid an accident. I don't buy that our average American is 'a dolt'. Also, even those in the courts and the military have loved ones and family that they care about. I just refuse to believe that all Americans would knowingly be on the 'wrong team', and would support evil like that. The fact that Trump was booed for pushing the vaccine shows that even his duped supporters have the ability to push back. Gives me hope.
There is about 10% of the population in this country aware of what is going on. My occupation has me going into homes with citizens on a weekly basis. It is rare to hear a person say something remotely correct about what is going on in this country. I have to bite my tongue and just let them continue to be blinded. My own mother sits almost most of her waking hours watching so called left sided news yet she doesn't know one thing about what is really going on. Same as when I hear from the Trumpers. Once in a while I will have a conversation with someone that actually understands the last 50 years of our economic system. Rarely.
Our politics is economic based. Not the other way around. Its the 1% pulling the strings and thanks to Reagan every politician has played this way. You think we have had a left leaning president in the last 5 decades? Think again. Even Biden has screwed the average American with policies he helped get pushed through. He is no saint and he is no left wing savior. He is all talk. Just like that last clown.
@ Laurie. I fear that the moneyed interests you reference actually believe that America would be just fine if they took control with their fascist policies, "good ole boy" politics, oligarchical financial manipulation and the other things you know. But in the long arc of history people have not suffered oppression without having a revolution. There is enough in the short term to fear and resist. But in the long term even the most patient and long-suffering citizen will take up arms against oppression. I hope it won't come to that, and the best way to avoid that is to protect what has already been accomplished by democrats in this country and to expand on human decency, equitable access to a middle class life style, education and voting rights.
Benjamin R Stockton; I am not a fan of armed resistance, because if there is anything our armed to the teeth country can do it is kill, kill, and kill again. If the military is filled with traitors of Democracy, resistance would have to be of the nonviolent kind. However that might look. At 70 and never handled a weapon, I would have nothing to do with it, except try to escape.
Benjamin R Stockton; Hopefully, what we have accomplished by democrats in this country, along with expanding human decency, will be protected, along with equitable access to a middle class life style, education and voting rights, as you said!
Yes, we need to deliver a "democracy and economy that work for everyone." And we also need a criminal justice system that holds the rich and powerful to account. Jan 6 is compelling evidence that it does not - at least, it hasn't so far.
We need a democratic republic & economy that works for everyone. We need to make the rich & powerful to pay their fair share, & use the revenue to Build Back Better. Then we need to pass laws which makes it easier for every American to vote. Finally, we need legislation which reduces disinformation, & rewards truth-telling.
Above my pay grade, but I would assemble a team of experts within relevant circles of competence, e.g. Constitutional lawyers, media executives, & moral philosophers.
Professor, What’s makes me fearful is that none of these people have been arrested for the most heinous crime ever committed at our capital! If the government is so afraid to do so with mountains and mountains of damning evidence in emails and on video, I believe our country cannot be protected at all from these domestic terrorists. This was a deadly coup attempt!
Rather than repeat most of what Laurie B wrote below, I’ll just say…add it all to this.
I disagree with you on this point; it is racism, xenophobia and nationalism and ignorance that cause people to think a buffoon like Trump makes sense. If feeling left out were the case, we would have seen multitudes of blacks and Native Nations people at the capitol building on Jan 6th!
Please stop with the message of poor downtrodden white people. There is a point of no return and they crossed it. The fault lies with our wimpyness of addressing the fact that Faux News is a dangerous propaganda station, not news! Dems are excellent at kicking ourselves in the asses by not removing Fox News like a couple of other countries have…I heard Canada banned it. Let’s stop this non-sense of our decades of understanding the white racist nationalists and help our own base for once. We need to see prison for Trump, family and all the big characters that are out to destroy our country. This is an attack, it’s a form of warfare. Where is OUR protection?
Thirty years ago, America's working class began to experience downward mobility. Much of this was as a result of corporate America's embrace of a new and vicious form of capitalism that pushed wages downward while abandoning entire communities. Racism, xenophobia, and nationalism have been with us since before the founding of America. Downward mobility of the working class is relatively new -- starting in the 1980s. I saw it when I was secretary of labor. I saw the rising anger and resentment. I saw Newt Gingrich and others in the Republican Party exploit this for political gain, starting in the 1990s. Fox News added to the exploitation. Trump was the logical and inevitable next step.
We cycle through this, as happened in the 1930s..bloody union busting, corporate barons etc. People put in FDR not a criminal. Fox News and FB specifically allow lies and incitements.
May I ask people to be clear on just who you are referring in comments about "middle" and./or "working class." The discussion is very muddled. And these descriptors are murky and ideologically tinged.
What is happening behind the scenes is scary. Trump is continuing to influence states and selecting people to run in the Secretary of State positions that will declare him the winner regardless of what the voters indicate - this is a potentially dangerous proposition - ignoring the voters? Many of the states, like Texas, are also enacting laws that will also allow the vote to be easily overturned. How can this be allowed to happen? Trump should be arrested for his actions relative to the events of January 6th. There is plenty of evidence...you outlined it above...why has this not occurred? I also recently read an article from Newsweek that talks about all the people that have purchased guns in the past couple of years and there is a call for a Civil War to occur if Trump is not declared the winner in 2024. They are going to take to the streets to "take back the country." Have you read this article? It is truly unbelievable and this is all going on behind the scenes as we speak!
That is necessary, to hold him accountable and his buddies, too. Will it ever happen? Without the rule of law it does not work well. There are mountains of evidence some of it shown on TV. I am not a lawyer, but if justice does not happen, it can only mean there is so much fear and corruption that our country is in danger.
I read some of Mr. Freedman's Newsweek article. I was not impressed. I live in the rural south, surrounded by a sea of Trump supporters and Republicans. Some are family members and friends. All of them are focused on the normal routines of life -- raising a family, going to work, watching football on TV, etc. No one is preparing for a civil war or planning to shoot up the country if Trump doesn't win in 2024. You can always find nutcases who say crazy stuff for a news article. I wonder how many Trump supporters or Republicans does Mr. Freedman personally know.
The mainstream media seems to be hawking this story widely. They are corporate owned. They want to scare us, but most progressives know that one of the ways the US has defeated other countries is to pit people against each other. Then they have a fire sale. A civil war would allow justification of martial law. Perfect for those who would take away our rights.
The direct roots of Jan. 6 began after WWII with gradual desegregation first of military, then schools, civil rights, housing, voting, etc., etc. Active resistance began in late 1950s. Accelerated in 1960s, with Reaganism (which can not be allowed to be whitewashed today), new segregationists, Newt Gingrich, Tea Party, and then Trump. The basic books cry out to be written (and the larger context goes back to the European invasion of the Americas), but through lines are clear. Trumpism and Jan. 6 are not an aberration or a singular force but in many ways a major escalation of continuities and strong currents.
As to Jan. 6 itself, to RR's list, I add the extensive but still waiting to be unraveled planning and coordination of the "event" and the (coordinated??) failure of basic Capitol police, Metro DC Police, and National Guard before and during Jan. 6.
While I recognize the obstacles to the Committee and the DOJ, they are moving too slow in advance of the next outbreak, 2022, and 2024.
Had the DOJ been able to immediately respond forcefully to the events of Jan 6, it would have readily been sold as political retribution. But still not responding forcefully looks like implicit acceptance that this is how American politics works. The latter is because this *is* how American politics worse. To repeat a cliche but true observation, if the exact same events unfolded but the skins were all brown, we'd have hundreds of people serving decades-long prison sentences or worse. If the exact same events unfolded and the nationalities were all Middle Eastern, we'd have bombed a country or two off the map. The slow and weak response we are seeing today puts the corrupting power of ordinary bias on display.
Trump remains the symptom, not the problem. He was able to win in 2016 because too many people know that the economic system of this country is rigged against them. We have a system that favors the very rich and the largest corporations. Through rigged tax codes, monopoly in many key industries such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, food, etc., workers and small businesses find it very difficult to compete. Add to that a legal system that serves lawyers more than the people, a rigged Supreme Court, and corrupt politicians in both major parties, and you have a recipe for the upheaval that we saw on January 6th.
Joe Tonini ; Not to mention the Electoral college and voter purges, along with limited voting times, limited number of polls and voter intimidation, and the fact that rules are gamed by actors in each state along with gerrymandering. We need Federal voting laws with guarantees of the right to vote. A hard copy receipt of our votes for Federal elections. Trump pours salt in a wound by proclaiming that he is a victim of voter fraud. He was not the winner of the popular (actual) vote in 2016, or the recent election. He turns the truth upside down, accusing the other side of cheating him when that is exactly what he has done and now wants to do again.
I agree that Federal laws protecting the right to vote are crucial to saving democracy in this country. We also need a nonpartisan Supreme Court. Probably the only way to get that would be expanding it with at least three more justices. We also need a crusade to minimize monopoly capitalism. Probably the only chance of doing that is public financing of elections. The mostly corrupt class of politicians currently infesting our local, state and federal executive and legislative branches have no interest in free and fair competition.
Trump won because of his manipulation of the anti-Hilary and anti-woman president sentiment. BUT he did not win the majority of votes cast in either 2016 or 2020 EVEN with rampant voter suppression, and the collusion of Louis DeJoy's obstructionism of the USPS.
Can we not differentiate rather than lump together these currents, and follow their specific interactions?
no, we cannot. it varies from state to state as the current battles over redistricting shows. are you following the reports, for example, in NYT and WP? SCOTUS decisions are another matter regarding federal intervention and campaign finance law. we must generalize with great care or we fall into the Reps' tricks/traps
Graff, Harvey ; Well, I think the Electoral College is not democratic and creates grotesque imbalances in the weights of votes, depending on which states the voters are. The new rules being passed in Republican ruled states make Democracy a farce. They can win whatever happens.
What you write now is not what you wrote earlier. That's what I responded to, Laurie. The Electoral College resulted from the compromises in the 1787 Constitutional Convention, long before the Rep Party of the 1860s which bears no resemblance to today's party. Redistricting in VA, which just turned Rep., is considered fair unlike my home state of Ohio for example. So we can't "just say that our voting system is rigged . . . and has been for years." We need to distinguish state, Congressional, and judicial matters. I'm done for today.
The "real meaning" of Jan 6th is being hijacked by Fox News and other right wing media outlets. Their "alternative narrative" is that Jan 6th was a false flag operation by antifa and anti-trump forces within the federal government to discredit Trump and his supporters. This conspiracy theory is the premise of a heavily promoted Fox News "documentary" by Tucker Carlson. If this explanation for Jan 6th takes hold among Trump supporters and others, this will result in further erosion of democracy in our country. The Jan 6th committee in Congress needs to address this narrative and crush it completely!
I take their false flag allegations as de facto admissions of complicity in how otherwise peaceful marches protesting abridged human rights so often become violent. They say they "know" Jan 6 was hijacked by false flag operators because that's the kind of tactic they commonly use.
The Times or Post prepared an analysis of the backgrounds of the 600+ people arrested for Jan 6th. It found over 70% of them had financial problems. For instance, Ashli Babbitt (who was shot) had started a pool business that went bankrupt.
While there was "upward mobility" for a certain section of the population, there remains a large percentage that were left out.
Unfortunately, capitalism has its flaws. It doesn’t provide for the entire population as say “socialism” does. We need a hybrid, capitalism with a “social safety net”. Just as Europe and the rest of the industrialized world has. Over 60% of bankruptcies filed in the US are caused by the inability to pay medical bills. Good health care plans for a family of 4 should not be costing over $3,000 per month or $36,000 per year. People should not be dying because they can’t afford health care. It’s ridiculous in a modern world.
Medical care, education and a certain standard of living WITHOUT the stress of how its paid for should be promoted as the future of America. That’s the massage that should be sent in place of the fallacy that it’s all “socialism”.
We need a better message that (BBB which contains social safety net features, for instance) will help people live with less financial stress. We are so behind in investing on our health and well-being in America, that we must invest now even if it adds to the national debt. In the end, if we have less stress, less expenses and a healthier nation, (both mentally and physically) we will be able to achieve upward mobility.
That’s the message that must be sold to the 70+% that stormed the capital on January 6th and the rest of the nation.
We had such a hybrid from the end of WWII until the mid 70s. The postwar financial system (gold/dollar) designed at Bretton Woods was pretty good and enabled the rise of a large middle class with stable jobs. Financial capital was fenced in by the Bretton Woods arrangements so shareholders had a lot less power than they do now. The fly in the ointment, I believe, was the absence of a global currency to anchor the system, which Keynes had wanted. The dollar became the anchor instead, so the system became vulnerable to US political/economic interests and was thereby destroyed. Finance was liberated and deregulated, and corporate management became tightly harnessed to Wall Street; thus ferociously anti-union and big fans of outsourcing--and energetic lobbyists for the free trade/investment agreements that facilitated the exodus of jobs.
Does any of what you say here strike you as a curious parallel with that same group's resistance to even acknowledging the medical protocols & treatments that would likely save them in this pandemic?
Not at all. Its very hard to admit that you were wrong or even worse duped.
Instead of panicking about the stock market, had moron T***p acknowledged the pandemic and pushed for everyone to follow medical protocols instead of drinking bleach and taking hydroxychloroquine they would more likely have been on board.
Then refer to my short comment - way back at the beginning of this discussion - about the religious/messianic aspect of the whole thing. The question becomes of how to break a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"The despair Trump has channeled is more closely connected to a profound loss of identity, dignity and purpose, especially among Americans who have been left behind – without college degrees, without good jobs, in places that have been economically abandoned and disdained by much of the rest of the country."
Bullshit. "Dignity and purpose"? Most of the insurrectionists were middle class or higher. I'm not going to feel sorry for anyone who supports Trump. There's no truth to this excuse-making nonsense. Over many decades, these idiots had plenty of chances to accept social programs and vote in favor of incentives for education, home ownership, tax reduction for the working class, but oh no, they supported lunatics like Kansas' Sam Brownback and whined that white people were being discriminated against.
@Marycat2021. In politics, I've heard tell, perceptions are reality. I believe Prof. Reich is talking about an increment of reality (most earnings go to the top few percent of Americans) exacerbated by perceptions that are ballooned out of proportion by lies and deceit from the Trump coalition of oligarchs, flimflam men and "ambitious" entertainers.
I have always said we should give any Republican who won the presidency a chance. That we should fear the worst and hope for the best. But now I know better. It is hard to believe how corrupt most of them are. But once given the opportunity their hatred bubbled up and overflowed. We must be ready for the midterms- Offer rides to the elderly and infirmed. Whatever it takes we can’t allow more and deeper toeholds by Trumps followers.
Having ridden the American economic rollercoaster; I have to agree wih you since I've lived through it so far -1967 to the present. Minimum wage then was $1.40/hour that is worth $11.65 today. Whooppee my buying power increased about $0.18 a year!
America gotta love it.
"They" tell us we are the the richest people in the world and we lemmings believe it, Ha!
They tell us some people don't 'need' to vote and people believe it.
This is the paper that tells you who the very real enemies of our republic are.
They are setting the up country to take us back to an "Democratic Aristocracy".
Like the south was before the Civil War. The aristocratic (rich) ones will make the laws - they've already bought the Congress and Senate - No? Do you disagree?
The voter suppression laws they are passing are the modern version of the southern 3/5 voting scheme from precivil war time.
Well, most of our politicians are lawyers. When you give a lawyer money 'agency' is created. Lawyers always work for who is paying them the most ; that would be all the dark money groups that are mostly funded by "Americans for Prosperity"
Mr Reich, I've followed your path for along time and I really appreciate your work!
The Harvard paper opened my eyes as to just how long and how many big money people have been working to return the country to a democratic aristocracy.
I am worried about it.
I feel they the Republic is in jepordy and Donnie is just a tool being used to that end.
You have brilliantly laid out the facts - now every citizen and every legitimate news organization should insist that Merritt Garland open an investigation on Trump and his corrupt cronies and keep insisting on this course of action until there is evidence that the Department of Justice is investigating Trump and allies for CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR!!
Actually the parallels between the state of our country now and pre-Nazi Germany are compelling. The is an ever widening gap between the elite industrialist society and the middle class, the crumbling infrastructure, the inability of government to function, a politicized military and police force, the perception of corruption and mistrust of government. Add in today's voter repression, corporate money and national right wing propaganda media outlets, and believe me, "IT CAN HAPPEN HERE". Particularly in a cultural environment that idolizes celebrity and reduces the debate to good people vs. bad people.
I absolutely agree with everything written here. Not necessarily because of my political ideology, but because of history. We’ve seen this happen before in Germany after Hitler came to power in a country reeling from economic depression after WWI. The promises he made, the lies, discrimination and false blame that he placed on others was intentional to divide the country, much like Trump did and continues to do.
Hitler attempted to overthrow the government but failed and was jailed, Trump attempted the same on January 6th and failed too, however unlike Adolph, he’s still free and allowed to continue the coup’ through media and rallies. 2022 must be a year of “accountability,” starting right at the top and working down. It also must be a year of facing and addressing “inequality” in this country that has destroyed the middle class and divided the masses. Trump plays on misery and if we don’t address the economic causes now, like Hitler, Trump will come to power again. God help us all if that happens.
Susan, No question that he and others must be held accountable. But like Nazi Germany before Hitler came to power, as you point out Germany was reeling from the weight of reparations imposed on it by the allied powers after World War I. By the 1930s, that weight had turned to hopelessness and despair. Hitler filled that void with hate, nationalism, and war. Trump is dealing with an analogous void, although its origins are different. And he has filled it with racism, paranoia, and nationalism. So the question I keep coming back to is how can it be filled with a democracy and economy that works for everyone?
I agree, the crux of the problem is the void and how we fill it to promote patriotism and financial and cultural equality. It was easy during WWII when the nation came together for a common cause to protect our country and fight against fascism. The conundrum today is we no longer have a “common cause” to embrace.
We could begin with strong voting rights to ensure every voice is heard. We must also enforce our laws that protect against misinformation, get money out of politics, criminal justice reform including the Supreme Court. We must pass “Build Back Better,” it will provide financial gains for those who need it most. A full pocket is unlikely to blame others, discriminate and be vulnerable to fascist dealings.
How to get this done is the challenge, we need to keep the House/Senate and increase the representative numbers. I fear if we don’t do this the consequences will be grim.
The US did not "come together" until well into the war and after attack on Pearl Harbor. Not in response to German aggression in Europe. Isolationism remained strong well after 1940-41. And the "coming together" soon collapsed. The valience and bravery of segregated black troops and Tuskegee airmen AND Rosie the Riveter and her peers resulted in increased racism and sexism.
Can we not embrace the literal fulfillment of the constantly revised "American Dream" and the struggle for a "better world" in order "come together" now. Think about it.
There is a very interesting book 1931 that carefully analyzed the economic situation and party alignments that brought Hitler to power. Chief amongst the problems was the commitment to continuing to pay reparations of all the parties except the Nazis and the Communists. Hitler used this dividing point. The second lever was the requirement for a coalition government. Here the lack of a strong Democratic tradition in Germany with the majority right wing parties against elective government made it easier for Hitler to become a partner in a right wing conservative government. The analogy between now and then is mostly based upon the austerity reaction of the parliament to the 1929 Depression which left people without jobs and destitute. The petti bourgeois shop keepers and farmers were also being squeezed and declassed. So what you see happening today to blue collar formerly middle income workers now losing their middle income existence is analogous in the sense that it provides fertileground for reactionaries.
I probably misstated the "come together" point: Should have said "...the threat to the country posed by the onset of WW2, and confirmed by Pearl Harbor." I do maintain there are parallels between the forces acting at that time and this, although they're not 100% analogous. So, we can agree to disagree on some of these points. The dialogue is the value here.
Hitler and his inner circle were clever enough to tap into the existing cesspools of 1) shame at losing WW1 and enduring a prolonged depression and 2) the longstanding practice of finding scapegoats among the "outsiders" within the larger community. The parallels to the current situation of exploiting the loss of economic dominance to China, and of manufacturing jobs, and the influx of (mostly Latin American) refugees competing for the low skilled jobs are pretty clear. This country flirted with fascism during the Great Depression, until the combination of the New Deal and the threat of WW2 pushed it aside. It's easy to see how desperate times lead people to seek out scapegoats and easy answers to turn things around. The response has to include giving people better answers to the current situation, and the sense that their government is doing everything it can to help them through. Years of attacking government as the problem, not the solution, have distorted many peoples' view of that institution as an enemy, rather than a benefactor. This too has to be addressed.
Steven Ugoretz; I agree that we need 'a sense that our government is doing everything it can to help us through', but it hurts to know that many of our 'helpers' are on the take. (See Manchin and Sinema, also many other Democrats).
Yes, it undermines faith in our system and the people who are supposed to represent us. Power corrupts in both the obvious ways, and more subtle ones (like disassociation from the "ordinary folks"). There's also a difference between seeing the benefits of a robust economic system, and giving carte blanche to the people on the top. But as long as we keep electing people like the two you mentioned, we're going to be disappointed.
Steven; It would be helpful to ban the practice of allowing our 'representatives' from being bought by lobbyists.
The way forward, I think, is to elect representatives who understand the creative possibilities of economics: it’s all about bread and butter and the traditional American belief that each generation can do better than the previous one. The likelihood that people will vote intelligently depends on their education in economics, which, as we know, is deficient for the vast majority. So, let’s fix the curriculum of public schools so that young students come to understand the arbitrary nature of our current economics and how this can be changed for the better.
The economics discipline and profession is a large part of the problem. More than contemporary largely conservative pro-capital economics (Larry Summers for one major examples [vs., say, Paul Krugman]) instruction, we need much more teaching of inclusive accurate history including economic history AND critical thinking. They are missing throughout the US, including elected reps. and most professional and corporate economists--and, I say politely--throughout this discussion [sic]
Please stop! Comparisons with Germany post 1918, 1920s, and 1930s are totally misguided. The historical record supports not even a vague analogy, let alone a sustained comparison.
Such inaccurate reasoning only serves to exaggerate both the power of Trumpism/Trump (not are not synonymous) and the size and power of the Trumpists, just at the moment when realism, accuracy, and contextualiztion are most needed.
Hitler and the Nazis gained power only a full decade after the German defeat in 1981--quite apart from the course of the 1920s and the mechanisms of Hilter's "rise."
The American ignorance of history facilitated the rise of the post WWII right long before Trump; it helped Trump. It allowed the nondebate over critical race theory (which is NOT taught in schools). We must get the history right....
@ Harvey. Just to show understanding, I know you meant the German defeat in 1918. But I fear you miss a point - it is not the specific circumstances that Reich is talking about. He is pointing out that we have a significant number of disaffected people in this country with real problems. It only takes one criminal mind to galvanize all the other exploiters into a movement and then lure the disaffected into believing they can get relief from the very-same people who are exploiting them in the first place.
On our main point of difference, here's a quote from Wikipedia on the ascent of Nazism: "On 20 July 1932, the Prussian government was ousted by a coup, the Preussenschlag; a few days later at the July 1932 Reichstag election the Nazis made another leap forward, polling 37% and becoming the largest party in parliament by a wide margin." The numbers alone don't tell the story because in a parliamentary system, power goes to the party with enough votes to form a governing coalition. 37% was enough to put Hitler into power. The vicious internal competition at that time helped divert the attention of the other political parties who could have united against the Nazis, and opened the door for the 3rd Reich. Yes, there were differences, but enough analogies to draw some reasonable lessons.
Come on. You're not actually quoting Wikipedia, which has no reliability or fact-checking or acknowledged authorship, are you? At least you mention a date, unlike others who argue in favor of the fallacious comparison of Germany from 1918 to some unspecified time in the 1930s.
But you do not specify "enough analogies to draw some reasonable lessons," or even draw any specific comparisons based in facts. You continue to expression fallacious and alarmist "analogies"--which are not the same as factual comparisons--that do much more harm than good. Always, but now more than ever, at least in my lifetime, WE need to get it right. Or the right wing perpetuators of Big Lies will dominate the airwaves if not more.
This is called unbased rhetoric. Read Joan Wallach Scott's On the Judgment of History, and not Wikipedia.
Professor Graff: I wish there was a copy available from my local library system. Maybe I can find one somewhere else. Perhaps you can help me understand your objections with a brief point by point rebuttal highlighting the major difference between Germany between the world wars, and the current situation in the US? Is there a reason to distrust Wikipedia on the basic facts in the article, vs the academic rigor of its analysis? Do we not have a segment of the population that believes they're being passed over in favor of "outsiders", and need to take power into their own hands? Is there not a declining standard of living for working people (albeit not as catastrophic as pre-Nazi Germany)? As a layperson regarding History, I'm trying to make sense of the arguments being made on this thread. As a professor of the subject, you're in a position to throw some light on the subject, rather than throwing shade on those of us trying to get involved in this important discussion.
First, call me Harvey. Second, without writing a 20 page paper, I cannot write a brief point by point rebuttal. That really is an unfair request.
But 1) do not trust Wikipedia on anything without independent confirmation. Sometimes, it is useful for checking dates and bibliography. But not always. There is no fact-checking, reviewing, or editing. No signed authorship. It is a part of social media.
2) The US in NO WAY resembles the dire economic straits and political collapse of 1918 -1937 Germany. No near total destruction of economy esp. world leading industry, finance, R&D. No collapse of the monarchy. We remain a world leader not a defeated, downtrodden nation, despite our totally unacceptable levels of inequality and prejudice. Propagating this erroneous notion only scares, misleads, and distracts people from REAL issues.
3) There is no scape-goating on the level of the defeated nation. The Jews in Germany had only gained political rights in the 19th C. They were never recognized as equal, and economic and educational success of SOME led to stereotyping. That is why so many left Germany for US, Canada, South America, W Eur. Scape-goating of racial minorities, women, and "socialists" by radical right does not compare. Despite MTG's "Jewish space lasers." That of course does not excuse our own crimes against our own humanity.
4) the German political crises that continued in shifting forms from late in WWII through the National Socialists victories first in the streets and then in elections in no way compare to American electoral politics. Despite all our problems, which I do not minimize for one moment, our systems have not collapse. We struggle....
5) Trump--or Cruz, DeSantis, Hawley, etc., etc.0--are laughable clowns compared to Hitler. they share his psychopathy but little else. Despite their Ivy League education (and Hawley's PhD from Yale in Amer Hist), they are profoundly ignorant. Hitler was not educated but was a skilled propandist and author of Mein Kampf.
6) my fear is a) the tiny number of crazed and/or radically misled people with access to arms who may take to the streets, statehouses, and Congress, perhaps even this week; b) many but not all Rep-led states who are removing voting rights, fair districting, gun safety, abortion rights, transgender rights, and the like.
Finally: that's where I think we must focus. And someone must either awaken/educate the flailing and much too silent Democratic Party. That's why, for example, the totally baseline nondebate on critical race theory (google to find my series of essays); "socialism;" "defunding the police'" etc, took hold.
For the record, I am not a specialist in German history per se, but a comparative social historian of North America and Western Europe who wishes he knew more about the non-Western world and science.
That's the best I can do, Steven
"Nazi Germany before Hitler came to power"? When/what is that? The circumstances bear no resemblance.
Probably because this is a different time and place.
OK, poor choice of words. it should have been "Germany, before Hitler came to power". But the point remains the same - there is an unmistakable resemblance between America today (primarily the white, rural, evangelical, conservatives) and Germany between 1918 and 1933. Germany's citizens were highly fragmented after WWI, burdened with the humiliation of loss exemplified harsh reparations which led to hyper-inflation and anger on top of the global depression. Today, it is lopsided inequality and progressive policies that raise fears in the white, rural, evangelical population that they are losing their "culture".
The only difference is that it took longer to reach sufficiently large numbers of German's, in the decade between WWI and the Weimar Republic, to propel the movement into action and the "election" of Hitler. With ubiquitous targeted television, radio, internet websites, and social media, today that job is faster and easier to accomplish. We saw that during the 2016 election cycle. Trump began to beat the dissatisfaction, voting fraud, Democratic stealing the elections during the primaries, ramping it up once he became the GOP nominee. The GOP seismic turn to Trump not long after he took office when an unbelievable number of, until then, respected members of the Republican Party shifted from criticizing Trump to backing him. Why? Because highly targeted social media, FOX News, conservative radio talk shows pushed the lies 24/7 and there was a waiting and desperate audience willing to accept the lies without question, hoping for a savior. My 2 cents.
"The only difference"?
Please! We must be accurate. There were virtually no nonwhites in post WWI German., What "reparations exemplified" are you referring to--the decimation of the German economy?
What "lopsided inequality and progressive policies that raise fears" in US (I presume)? Do you mean "defunding the police" (not a big issue in rural populations) and "socialism"? These are not policies but right-wing dog whistles that Dems, including progressives, fail to respond to.
German Catholic sympathizers of "National SOCIALISM" were not rural evangelicals.
1918-1932 Germany is NOT comparable to 2016-202? US.
The target that your long list of radical right-wing propagandists is reaching--by all measures--is less than 15% of the US adult population and probably even smaller.
We cannot afford to imagine threats. We need to identify the real ones, from the composition of SCOTUS and some of the Federal Appeals Courts to the most gerrymandered Rep-dominated state legislatures, and the examples of TX and FL that my state of Ohio imitates blindly. AND lack of gun "safety" and control, and registrations and tracking of acknowledged terrorists.
Yet Rep-dominated legis in MI and VA have approved redistricting plans that all parties consider fair. We must generalize VERY carefully and act accordingly.
Scare tactics hinder and muddle all clear thinking and planning.
You must not do a lot of reading that you are unaware of the harsh penalties applied to post-WWI Germany that did decimate it's economy. Reparations does not only apply to non-whites. Dr Reich has provided sufficient arguments on inequality that has occurred since Reagan.
Most of us have had to deal with declining wages for more that forty years that occurred over the last forty years and increasing costs of housing, food, education, and other goods and services. I see families who are unable to afford RENT, let alone purchase a home. Steak, pork, and fish are not on the tables; childcare eats up one of two incomes (if they are lucky enough to have two incomes). This isn’t fear mongering. It is reality for far too many people, I’m surprised that you can’t see this.
Well, I think your statistics on the number of far-right voters is a bit low, it is more like about 20-25% of the total eligible voters, but they are the loudest, most reliable, united, and staunchly conservative Republican voters, whereas the Democrats have historically been largely fragmented and apathetic voters. Add to that the gerrymandering in multiple GOP-led states and voter suppression which has allowed that minority to take larger shares of legislative seats in state and national legislatures. I have vivid memories of Tom DeLay and the Texas redistricting around 2000 and the long-term building of a strategy for cementing GOP dominance. Clear thinking depends on recognizing reality.
A final note: I have to admit that I have trouble understanding you. For example, what is "Most of us have had to deal with declining wages for more that forty years that occurred over the last forty years"? for more than forty years than occurred over the last forty years...? and what about the variations in the "costs of food and other goods and services" over those forty years?
The period witnessed many ups and downs. Economists refer to inflation and deflation among other factors. The "cost of living," itself an abstraction, is not on a single curve or spiral. The tendency right to now to compare two data points fundamentally misses everything of importance.
We don't live our lives in 40 year segments. Even politicians understand that. Unfortunately, the fewer and fewer reporters and the swelling number of unchecked "opinion writers" do not. We must!
I have spent my life as a professional historian reading and writing. You reject accept my conclusions but do not make any concrete statements or cite a single source--that I have, in your imagination-- to support your oppositional generalizations. The destruction of the German economy esp. its international leading industrial, finance, and R&D sector did much more severe damage than often unenforced/unenforceable penalties (over which other Eur. nations were divided). Where is Germany's struggle over the position of its previously dominant monarchy? What about "appeasement" in your effort to equate Hitler and Trump? Who was/is appeasing T and T-ist?
You do not mention my many refutations. You shift your wording constantly as you did when you began this last thread. You slip in my points without acknowledgement. Just what is your game? You are not advancing any kind of discussion.
What "most of us"? Reich offered a sweeping generalization that he would, I am confident, swiftly qualify. We cannot compare closely the many contrasting and sometimes contradictory indicators of "inequity," unemployment, inflation, etc. because the data over time are simply not comparable. The media fail to notice this while a few economists (Paul Krugman, for one example) do.
Why is my 15% "a bit low, it is more like about 20-25% . . . . but . . . " This is contradictory. What is your basis. Mine is the close comparison of support and opposition to different issues on a variety opinion surveys. I look at trends in voter registration. I pay attention to the lack of large support for extremist positions. What I do not do is pay much attention to the loudest voices.
May I suggest, politely, that you try that too.
For what it's worth, I lived in TX "around 2000." Tom DeLay was a Rep member of Congress. He did not serve on redistricting boards which are state matters.
TX had been Dem for some time. It had women Dem leaders, even a nationally first woman governor. Sexism and racism fueled the rise of the TX right wing with the "polite" gloss of the Bush family. The currents as I state repeatedly run from post WWII through Reagan and emphatically from Gingrich's gang to the Tea Party to Trumpism, even more than Trump himself.
Invoking fascism, National Socialism (which no one on this notice), Nazis, and Hitler is scare-mongering and a huge, unnecessary distraction just at the moment Dems, progressives, and American socialists need to focus.
Can we at least try to do that?
Perhaps it would have been good to note causes beyond "reeling from economic depression". There was an even deeper wound in their "profound loss of identity, dignity and purpose" such as Trump channeled.
This is not at like Germany following 1918 and the 1920s. Let's look at serious history. Please. "Adolph"? "Reeling from economic depression"?
this is serious harvey and yeah twump is adolph reincarnate
Come on! It's the 2020s not the 1920s. The US is not post-WWI Germany with its failing govt and society-wide depression. Hitler, sadly, could read, write, and speak clearly. Trump can't even write an email, let alone Mein Kampf, perhaps for better....
Graff Harvey; But he has lots of lawyers and is good at using laws against us that were clearly written for a different time.
Why be didactic when someone is trying to illustrate that distress can affect people? The pandemic added a particularly hard hit to the economy, along with 40 years of stagnation of workers' wages. It still threatens.
I may add that the economy will be taking more hits in the near future by having many jobs eliminated through automation. Trucks will no longer be driven by humans but rather by computers. I can see many jobs currently performed by Pharmacist being replace through automation within three to five years.
Elias Bigio ; That may reduce the tedium of some jobs, but there will be fewer people to buy if too many jobs are eliminated. There will still be a need for humans to fix machines, program and maintain them no matter how sophisticated. Remember that human error can cause them to malfunction too. Mu husband loves the scanning feature added by our local supermarket. He scans items as he fills his cart then, on the way out he simply puts his scanner near another auto check out and he is done. He does have to bag his purchases, but doesn't not have to interact with anyone, or do a 'self check out' near anyone. With the Omicron surge he likes it. I tell him he is taking a job away and he laughs at me.
Didactic? Is that what you mean to write?
After seeing the MAGA crowd boo Trump's recent comments on vaccines and their subsequent comments harshly criticizing him, I've started to think that Trump is not the MAGA leader; but merely a guy that sorta figured them out and gets in front of them to look like a leader. (Also, he was very good at "branding" them with their MAGA slogan, red hats, giant flags, "strong" authoritarian leader images, etc.) But this time with these vax comments, he got it totally wrong. I find this MAGA monster more concerning than Trump himself -- they will outlast him and I am afraid that in my lifetime they will get worse and worse. They are irrational, fear-based, and will get behind whoever supports their vision of a white, gun-toting, "masculine," America. After Trump we have plenty of Josh Hawleys, Ted Cruzes, Marjorie Taylor Greenes, Matt Gaetzes, and Jim Jordans ready to "lead" the monster. Unfortunately, there seems to be plenty of "belligerent and narcissistic authoritarian(s)" ready and waiting to lead the MAGAs.
As to January 6th, I think it is the tip of the iceberg. The GOP is currently deep into the execution of their on-going coup -- emplacing local officials, changing voting laws, raising cash, keeping the Big Lie front and center, to keep the gullible base riled up which unfortunately, the media loves. That crazed base and their activities make so much better television than voter registration drives.
Yes, they're irrational, fear-based, and so on. The question I keep coming back to is why? Why are so many Americans falling for this? I think it's because so many have been falling behind, suffering downward mobility, believing (with some justification) that the system is rigged against them. And I don't think it possible to stop the Josh Hawleys, Cruzes, and other Trump wannabe's until we deal with this underlying cause.
Unfortunately Biden hasn’t grasped the necessity of major reforms. You don’t stop these people with halfway measures and $80K SALT exemptions. Not to mention not going after carried interest and allowing Congress to add 30 bil to the Defense budget without a peep. Biden hasn’t shown the people he is their President. He has been passive and resentful of being pushed to do things such as act on student debt. You can only make so many excuses for the Democrats in the coming election. They are digging the hole themselves.
A president may have an agenda, but it is Congress (Senate and House of Representative) that approves that agenda. Elections do have consequences! Citizens must have some idea of what they want the USA to look like, and then elect a Congress that shares your vision. Why is it that we keep electing the same people over and over? People that make promises each election cycle that they do not deliver.
Elias Bigio ; The candidates will always make promises, but they are often (mostly) receiving donations to their campaign that will eventually persuade them to do otherwise than their promises.
PP; They are doing a hell of a lot more for the people than the Republicans are, presently, and for a long, long time.
What would you say is the biggest thing they are doing for the people right now?
P.P. ; They have passed the infrastructure bill in spite of the lack of support from across the aisle. Even under the threat of an insurrection or coup. They are still trying to pass the Build Back Better bill to help people across the country who deserve and need it.
Actually they got more support from Republicans for Infrastructure than they are getting for BBB but it is a Democrat that is killing that bill.
Now there are Democratic centrists who believe infrastructure is enough to win in 2022. I’m wondering what if anything in that bill you feel is enough for Democrats to get out the vote amongst minority and young voters?
As I see it people are being left behind because of ridiculous tax laws favoring the rich, the explosion of digital technologies, and exporting jobs to other countries. A lot of that emanates from the greed that Reagan made acceptable. Until that greed becomes unacceptable again I don’t know how we fix this. As for digitization, that’s a very knotty problem since it’s impossible to go backwards. Digitization both requires higher skill levels and at the same time puts people out of work. One possible positive step would be to break up the tech giants though, especially Amazon, which is swallowing everything in sight (now Rite-Aid is closing stores along with CVS, who BTW put a lot of drugstores out of business all by itself). But beyond that I’m not sure how you put the toothpaste back in the tube (or whatever metaphor you like).
All of the analysis people are making here is accurate, however these problems will remain in suspension until we recognize the core underlying problem that prevents them from resolving...and solve IT. As David Graeber, Michael Hudson and Steve Keen have correctly shown PRIVATE debt has built up and financially destabilized countries/empires for the entire course of human civilization. Debt jubilees were periodically utilized to reset economies which prolonged them but even then the PRIVATE debt always came back which indicates that even debt jubilees are palliative reforms and the more underlying problem remains. That problem is the monetary paradigm of Debt Only as the sole form and vehicle for the creation and distribution of money. Integrate the new monetary paradigm of Direct and Reciprocal Monetary Gifting strategically and continuously into the economic process at retail sale (with a 50% discount/rebate policy) and at the point of loan signing (with a general 25% debt jubilee policy and a 50% debt jubilee policy for all "big ticket" and "green" products) and we'll not only end the civilization long problem of the monetary paradigm we'll also be able to create a bottom up consumer greening that can dove tail and synergize with other carbon capture and ecologically sane efforts to confront climate change.
It's terrifying and frustrating simultaneously. I'm an Old Progressive Activist. I'm injured and refuse to get surgery until this wave of OMICRON slows. I've always felt that the GOP base was a reflection of Racist sentiment. It drives me nuts not to be able to do something other than observe the horror.
Boy, do I agree with you. And BTW, cancer survivor here who hasn’t gotten her screenings for way too long because of COVID, thank you so much, unvaccinated people.
Sheryl, I agree!
In my state and town--the same as Prof. Reich's--it's not GOP operatives taking over, but 'liberal/progressives' who are intent on social replacement by driving out the 'affordable class' through gentrification and over-supplying expensive housing, in the name of overturning racist land zoning. As leaders of social movements go, they don't go very far, and are as narrow and heartless as any GOP crapster you could name ..
Please elaborate! This is very interesting.
Are you a supporter of the ADU and the lot split initiative in California? It seems the Ca legislature is trying to give the supply of houses a push so the costs go down. Is that a better policy that just taking over empty buildings and putting the homeless in there? One is an capitalist economic model (that plays somewhat into the hands of the developers and gentrifiers and rich) and the other is closer to socialism.
I've supported ADU's (well before I knew the term) since reading Christopher Alexander's 'A Pattern Language'. His (actually, theirs) #153 ('Room to Rent'), #154 ('Teenager's Cottage') and #155 (Old Age Cottage) anticipated this fairly unobtrusive need. Lot-splitting, if local projects so indicate, will destroy the feeling [italicized] of 'home'; Robert Frost would fume, spin, and toss.
Particular 2021 state bills, now laws, do not address housing affordability--what allowed my mother and I and many others to survive--but legalize adding housing only the desperate would want to live in. Highlighting 'affordability' in any of the bills (SB's 8,9,10 and 478, etc.) will bear this out. Further, their proponents have bought into supply-side wishfulness that worked soo well for Honey Reagan. Developers, a mightier force here than Joe Neighbor, have demonstrated that they will not build for need, so struggling mothers and sons, you may go to hell or the sidewalk.
However, the most odious undercurrent of these laws is that they are by-right and ministerial, meaning the public, whether next door or across town, will have No Right to a say. If this doesn't burst the myth of democratic participation, I don't know what does, and in the Golden State of Happy Endings yet ..
I think the real meaning of Jan 6th is that powerful moneyed interests in America and abroad want their way. They supported his campaign, and there is plenty of evidence that dark money flowed into it. He has authoritarian friends all over the world. He gave trillions in tax breaks to very wealthy entities. At the same time, our intelligence and homeland security seemed to be AWOL when Jan 6th happened. As an ordinary citizen, I felt that something bad was going to happen regarding the election. How could our intelligence officers not have seen it? I have seen stolen elections that were never challenged. Operators like Roger Stone organized thugs to keep protesters in Broward County from demanding that the recount not be stopped. They terrorized the people on the streets. I know that I'm not the only one who knew of these things. There are those who just want to 'win' at all costs. For me, the question now is, where is our defense against this obvious coup? We have real patriots in the very few Republicans who bravely go against Donald Trump and his mob. What can the Jan 6th committee find that will trigger some action? Can President Biden find some patriots in homeland security? Our Military? Who will follow the rule of law and protect us from the mob? Where is our leadership?
The Jan 6th committee may find enough information to recommend that the Dept. of Justice indict Trump. A trial and conviction with Trump actually serving time in prison would, in my opinion, help end the Trump cult in the Republican party.
There is sufficient information right now to lock him up, especially if you include active attempts to change vote counts, and not just in Georgia, but I fear that our Attorney General is something of a snowflake.
It would seem that way, but I have read opinions that say there is a need to have a really solid case in the court. I hope there is a good chance that justice can be done. I would not call the A.G. a snowflake. Not yet, anyway! We could be surprised.
There is no defense, they are all on the same team. Team corporations and screw the rest. Unfortunately it seems that the so called Left that has some limited power is just puppets to corporations as well. Thats the sad part. There really is no left in this country and we keep thinking there is. The people in politics in the house and senate are bought and paid for. All big corporations have the power. We live in an oligarchy and the media is only going to say what their corporate heads want. The average citizen is brainwashed to believe that there are two sides, it makes for great theater while the oligarchs laugh.
Why was there no uproar regarding the CDC bending for the CEO of Delta when he changed the recommended isolation period for those that test positive for covid? Why was a so called Alzheimers drug pushed by the FDA onto the costs for medicare when it hasn't even been shown to be affective? Now seniors have to pay even more for their part B. Nothing is what it seems except that the average American is not paying attention. They listen to the garbage news cycle and believe it. This whole scam about inflation and the feds with interest rates. Blah blah blah. No its all corporations jacking the prices for profits. Profits never seen before. But why aren't the talking heads on the news saying one bit about that? They are puppets of their bosses, the billionaires that push whatever they want to get out there.
This country is already part fascist. It's only going to get worse because the average American is a dolt. There is no defense because its all one team!!! Oligarchs or bust. UGH!!!
can you explain "There is no defense, they are all on the same team. Team corporations and screw the rest. Unfortunately it seems that the so called Left that has some limited power is just puppets to corporations as well. " What do you mean by "the so called left" and who are you referring to? We must be specific or we resemble the "other" side
Sorta havta agree...
I will disagree with you, Robin, because as dark as it seems, there are many people who know more than you might give them credit for. To use a simple example : when driving your car, you stay in your lane, because you want to avoid an accident. I don't buy that our average American is 'a dolt'. Also, even those in the courts and the military have loved ones and family that they care about. I just refuse to believe that all Americans would knowingly be on the 'wrong team', and would support evil like that. The fact that Trump was booed for pushing the vaccine shows that even his duped supporters have the ability to push back. Gives me hope.
There is about 10% of the population in this country aware of what is going on. My occupation has me going into homes with citizens on a weekly basis. It is rare to hear a person say something remotely correct about what is going on in this country. I have to bite my tongue and just let them continue to be blinded. My own mother sits almost most of her waking hours watching so called left sided news yet she doesn't know one thing about what is really going on. Same as when I hear from the Trumpers. Once in a while I will have a conversation with someone that actually understands the last 50 years of our economic system. Rarely.
Our politics is economic based. Not the other way around. Its the 1% pulling the strings and thanks to Reagan every politician has played this way. You think we have had a left leaning president in the last 5 decades? Think again. Even Biden has screwed the average American with policies he helped get pushed through. He is no saint and he is no left wing savior. He is all talk. Just like that last clown.
@ Laurie. I fear that the moneyed interests you reference actually believe that America would be just fine if they took control with their fascist policies, "good ole boy" politics, oligarchical financial manipulation and the other things you know. But in the long arc of history people have not suffered oppression without having a revolution. There is enough in the short term to fear and resist. But in the long term even the most patient and long-suffering citizen will take up arms against oppression. I hope it won't come to that, and the best way to avoid that is to protect what has already been accomplished by democrats in this country and to expand on human decency, equitable access to a middle class life style, education and voting rights.
Benjamin R Stockton; I am not a fan of armed resistance, because if there is anything our armed to the teeth country can do it is kill, kill, and kill again. If the military is filled with traitors of Democracy, resistance would have to be of the nonviolent kind. However that might look. At 70 and never handled a weapon, I would have nothing to do with it, except try to escape.
not a thing I want, rather a desperate fear.
You are not alone, I'm sure.
Benjamin R Stockton; Hopefully, what we have accomplished by democrats in this country, along with expanding human decency, will be protected, along with equitable access to a middle class life style, education and voting rights, as you said!
Brilliant Laurie!
Yes, we need to deliver a "democracy and economy that work for everyone." And we also need a criminal justice system that holds the rich and powerful to account. Jan 6 is compelling evidence that it does not - at least, it hasn't so far.
We need a democratic republic & economy that works for everyone. We need to make the rich & powerful to pay their fair share, & use the revenue to Build Back Better. Then we need to pass laws which makes it easier for every American to vote. Finally, we need legislation which reduces disinformation, & rewards truth-telling.
Oooh, this is interesting. Considering the state of the First Amendment these days, how do we reward truthfulness and discourage lying?
Paula B. ; Maybe support the sponsors of the truthful ones and boycott the liars?
Above my pay grade, but I would assemble a team of experts within relevant circles of competence, e.g. Constitutional lawyers, media executives, & moral philosophers.
Professor, What’s makes me fearful is that none of these people have been arrested for the most heinous crime ever committed at our capital! If the government is so afraid to do so with mountains and mountains of damning evidence in emails and on video, I believe our country cannot be protected at all from these domestic terrorists. This was a deadly coup attempt!
Rather than repeat most of what Laurie B wrote below, I’ll just say…add it all to this.
I disagree with you on this point; it is racism, xenophobia and nationalism and ignorance that cause people to think a buffoon like Trump makes sense. If feeling left out were the case, we would have seen multitudes of blacks and Native Nations people at the capitol building on Jan 6th!
Please stop with the message of poor downtrodden white people. There is a point of no return and they crossed it. The fault lies with our wimpyness of addressing the fact that Faux News is a dangerous propaganda station, not news! Dems are excellent at kicking ourselves in the asses by not removing Fox News like a couple of other countries have…I heard Canada banned it. Let’s stop this non-sense of our decades of understanding the white racist nationalists and help our own base for once. We need to see prison for Trump, family and all the big characters that are out to destroy our country. This is an attack, it’s a form of warfare. Where is OUR protection?
Thirty years ago, America's working class began to experience downward mobility. Much of this was as a result of corporate America's embrace of a new and vicious form of capitalism that pushed wages downward while abandoning entire communities. Racism, xenophobia, and nationalism have been with us since before the founding of America. Downward mobility of the working class is relatively new -- starting in the 1980s. I saw it when I was secretary of labor. I saw the rising anger and resentment. I saw Newt Gingrich and others in the Republican Party exploit this for political gain, starting in the 1990s. Fox News added to the exploitation. Trump was the logical and inevitable next step.
We cycle through this, as happened in the 1930s..bloody union busting, corporate barons etc. People put in FDR not a criminal. Fox News and FB specifically allow lies and incitements.
May I ask people to be clear on just who you are referring in comments about "middle" and./or "working class." The discussion is very muddled. And these descriptors are murky and ideologically tinged.
Biden unfortunately doesn’t seem to see what we do. A good politician would see what the Republicans are up to and act. Biden? Zzzzzzzz
What is happening behind the scenes is scary. Trump is continuing to influence states and selecting people to run in the Secretary of State positions that will declare him the winner regardless of what the voters indicate - this is a potentially dangerous proposition - ignoring the voters? Many of the states, like Texas, are also enacting laws that will also allow the vote to be easily overturned. How can this be allowed to happen? Trump should be arrested for his actions relative to the events of January 6th. There is plenty of evidence...you outlined it above...why has this not occurred? I also recently read an article from Newsweek that talks about all the people that have purchased guns in the past couple of years and there is a call for a Civil War to occur if Trump is not declared the winner in 2024. They are going to take to the streets to "take back the country." Have you read this article? It is truly unbelievable and this is all going on behind the scenes as we speak!
Liz Picone
Please take the time to read this article...it is chilling! It appeared Dec. 20th.
Newsweek
Newsweek
Millions of Angry, Armed Americans Stand Ready to Seize Power If Trump Loses in 2024
Or if he is indicted? Scary. But if he commited crimes, he must be indicted. Otherwise, all is lost.
That is necessary, to hold him accountable and his buddies, too. Will it ever happen? Without the rule of law it does not work well. There are mountains of evidence some of it shown on TV. I am not a lawyer, but if justice does not happen, it can only mean there is so much fear and corruption that our country is in danger.
I read some of Mr. Freedman's Newsweek article. I was not impressed. I live in the rural south, surrounded by a sea of Trump supporters and Republicans. Some are family members and friends. All of them are focused on the normal routines of life -- raising a family, going to work, watching football on TV, etc. No one is preparing for a civil war or planning to shoot up the country if Trump doesn't win in 2024. You can always find nutcases who say crazy stuff for a news article. I wonder how many Trump supporters or Republicans does Mr. Freedman personally know.
After watching what happened January 6th I wish I had your confidence!
newsweek? hardly a reliable source! these are precisely the kinds of undocumented/undocumentable commentaries that do far more harm than good
The mainstream media seems to be hawking this story widely. They are corporate owned. They want to scare us, but most progressives know that one of the ways the US has defeated other countries is to pit people against each other. Then they have a fire sale. A civil war would allow justification of martial law. Perfect for those who would take away our rights.
The direct roots of Jan. 6 began after WWII with gradual desegregation first of military, then schools, civil rights, housing, voting, etc., etc. Active resistance began in late 1950s. Accelerated in 1960s, with Reaganism (which can not be allowed to be whitewashed today), new segregationists, Newt Gingrich, Tea Party, and then Trump. The basic books cry out to be written (and the larger context goes back to the European invasion of the Americas), but through lines are clear. Trumpism and Jan. 6 are not an aberration or a singular force but in many ways a major escalation of continuities and strong currents.
As to Jan. 6 itself, to RR's list, I add the extensive but still waiting to be unraveled planning and coordination of the "event" and the (coordinated??) failure of basic Capitol police, Metro DC Police, and National Guard before and during Jan. 6.
While I recognize the obstacles to the Committee and the DOJ, they are moving too slow in advance of the next outbreak, 2022, and 2024.
Had the DOJ been able to immediately respond forcefully to the events of Jan 6, it would have readily been sold as political retribution. But still not responding forcefully looks like implicit acceptance that this is how American politics works. The latter is because this *is* how American politics worse. To repeat a cliche but true observation, if the exact same events unfolded but the skins were all brown, we'd have hundreds of people serving decades-long prison sentences or worse. If the exact same events unfolded and the nationalities were all Middle Eastern, we'd have bombed a country or two off the map. The slow and weak response we are seeing today puts the corrupting power of ordinary bias on display.
Trump remains the symptom, not the problem. He was able to win in 2016 because too many people know that the economic system of this country is rigged against them. We have a system that favors the very rich and the largest corporations. Through rigged tax codes, monopoly in many key industries such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, food, etc., workers and small businesses find it very difficult to compete. Add to that a legal system that serves lawyers more than the people, a rigged Supreme Court, and corrupt politicians in both major parties, and you have a recipe for the upheaval that we saw on January 6th.
Joe Tonini ; Not to mention the Electoral college and voter purges, along with limited voting times, limited number of polls and voter intimidation, and the fact that rules are gamed by actors in each state along with gerrymandering. We need Federal voting laws with guarantees of the right to vote. A hard copy receipt of our votes for Federal elections. Trump pours salt in a wound by proclaiming that he is a victim of voter fraud. He was not the winner of the popular (actual) vote in 2016, or the recent election. He turns the truth upside down, accusing the other side of cheating him when that is exactly what he has done and now wants to do again.
I agree that Federal laws protecting the right to vote are crucial to saving democracy in this country. We also need a nonpartisan Supreme Court. Probably the only way to get that would be expanding it with at least three more justices. We also need a crusade to minimize monopoly capitalism. Probably the only chance of doing that is public financing of elections. The mostly corrupt class of politicians currently infesting our local, state and federal executive and legislative branches have no interest in free and fair competition.
Trump won because of his manipulation of the anti-Hilary and anti-woman president sentiment. BUT he did not win the majority of votes cast in either 2016 or 2020 EVEN with rampant voter suppression, and the collusion of Louis DeJoy's obstructionism of the USPS.
Can we not differentiate rather than lump together these currents, and follow their specific interactions?
Graff Harvey ; Can we just say that our voting system is rigged in Republican's favor and has been for years?
no, we cannot. it varies from state to state as the current battles over redistricting shows. are you following the reports, for example, in NYT and WP? SCOTUS decisions are another matter regarding federal intervention and campaign finance law. we must generalize with great care or we fall into the Reps' tricks/traps
Graff, Harvey ; Well, I think the Electoral College is not democratic and creates grotesque imbalances in the weights of votes, depending on which states the voters are. The new rules being passed in Republican ruled states make Democracy a farce. They can win whatever happens.
What you write now is not what you wrote earlier. That's what I responded to, Laurie. The Electoral College resulted from the compromises in the 1787 Constitutional Convention, long before the Rep Party of the 1860s which bears no resemblance to today's party. Redistricting in VA, which just turned Rep., is considered fair unlike my home state of Ohio for example. So we can't "just say that our voting system is rigged . . . and has been for years." We need to distinguish state, Congressional, and judicial matters. I'm done for today.
Thank God!
Yes, Hilary was absolutely the wrong candidate. A stronger choice would have made mincemeat of him.
Paula B.; Bernie was the potential winner but the DNC and the media helped to defeat him.
Totally agree!
The "real meaning" of Jan 6th is being hijacked by Fox News and other right wing media outlets. Their "alternative narrative" is that Jan 6th was a false flag operation by antifa and anti-trump forces within the federal government to discredit Trump and his supporters. This conspiracy theory is the premise of a heavily promoted Fox News "documentary" by Tucker Carlson. If this explanation for Jan 6th takes hold among Trump supporters and others, this will result in further erosion of democracy in our country. The Jan 6th committee in Congress needs to address this narrative and crush it completely!
It's an old union busting gimmick.
I take their false flag allegations as de facto admissions of complicity in how otherwise peaceful marches protesting abridged human rights so often become violent. They say they "know" Jan 6 was hijacked by false flag operators because that's the kind of tactic they commonly use.
The Times or Post prepared an analysis of the backgrounds of the 600+ people arrested for Jan 6th. It found over 70% of them had financial problems. For instance, Ashli Babbitt (who was shot) had started a pool business that went bankrupt.
While there was "upward mobility" for a certain section of the population, there remains a large percentage that were left out.
Unfortunately, capitalism has its flaws. It doesn’t provide for the entire population as say “socialism” does. We need a hybrid, capitalism with a “social safety net”. Just as Europe and the rest of the industrialized world has. Over 60% of bankruptcies filed in the US are caused by the inability to pay medical bills. Good health care plans for a family of 4 should not be costing over $3,000 per month or $36,000 per year. People should not be dying because they can’t afford health care. It’s ridiculous in a modern world.
Medical care, education and a certain standard of living WITHOUT the stress of how its paid for should be promoted as the future of America. That’s the massage that should be sent in place of the fallacy that it’s all “socialism”.
We need a better message that (BBB which contains social safety net features, for instance) will help people live with less financial stress. We are so behind in investing on our health and well-being in America, that we must invest now even if it adds to the national debt. In the end, if we have less stress, less expenses and a healthier nation, (both mentally and physically) we will be able to achieve upward mobility.
That’s the message that must be sold to the 70+% that stormed the capital on January 6th and the rest of the nation.
We had such a hybrid from the end of WWII until the mid 70s. The postwar financial system (gold/dollar) designed at Bretton Woods was pretty good and enabled the rise of a large middle class with stable jobs. Financial capital was fenced in by the Bretton Woods arrangements so shareholders had a lot less power than they do now. The fly in the ointment, I believe, was the absence of a global currency to anchor the system, which Keynes had wanted. The dollar became the anchor instead, so the system became vulnerable to US political/economic interests and was thereby destroyed. Finance was liberated and deregulated, and corporate management became tightly harnessed to Wall Street; thus ferociously anti-union and big fans of outsourcing--and energetic lobbyists for the free trade/investment agreements that facilitated the exodus of jobs.
Time for a Keynes revival!
Does any of what you say here strike you as a curious parallel with that same group's resistance to even acknowledging the medical protocols & treatments that would likely save them in this pandemic?
Not at all. Its very hard to admit that you were wrong or even worse duped.
Instead of panicking about the stock market, had moron T***p acknowledged the pandemic and pushed for everyone to follow medical protocols instead of drinking bleach and taking hydroxychloroquine they would more likely have been on board.
Then refer to my short comment - way back at the beginning of this discussion - about the religious/messianic aspect of the whole thing. The question becomes of how to break a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You got to where I was going, here. Well done! Now multiply it by the number of people that follow the wanker.
"The despair Trump has channeled is more closely connected to a profound loss of identity, dignity and purpose, especially among Americans who have been left behind – without college degrees, without good jobs, in places that have been economically abandoned and disdained by much of the rest of the country."
Bullshit. "Dignity and purpose"? Most of the insurrectionists were middle class or higher. I'm not going to feel sorry for anyone who supports Trump. There's no truth to this excuse-making nonsense. Over many decades, these idiots had plenty of chances to accept social programs and vote in favor of incentives for education, home ownership, tax reduction for the working class, but oh no, they supported lunatics like Kansas' Sam Brownback and whined that white people were being discriminated against.
@Marycat2021. In politics, I've heard tell, perceptions are reality. I believe Prof. Reich is talking about an increment of reality (most earnings go to the top few percent of Americans) exacerbated by perceptions that are ballooned out of proportion by lies and deceit from the Trump coalition of oligarchs, flimflam men and "ambitious" entertainers.
And the hollowing out of public education over the past 40 years.
I have always said we should give any Republican who won the presidency a chance. That we should fear the worst and hope for the best. But now I know better. It is hard to believe how corrupt most of them are. But once given the opportunity their hatred bubbled up and overflowed. We must be ready for the midterms- Offer rides to the elderly and infirmed. Whatever it takes we can’t allow more and deeper toeholds by Trumps followers.
Having ridden the American economic rollercoaster; I have to agree wih you since I've lived through it so far -1967 to the present. Minimum wage then was $1.40/hour that is worth $11.65 today. Whooppee my buying power increased about $0.18 a year!
America gotta love it.
"They" tell us we are the the richest people in the world and we lemmings believe it, Ha!
They tell us some people don't 'need' to vote and people believe it.
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/ahertel/files/koch_network_paper_ts-ahf.pdf
This is the paper that tells you who the very real enemies of our republic are.
They are setting the up country to take us back to an "Democratic Aristocracy".
Like the south was before the Civil War. The aristocratic (rich) ones will make the laws - they've already bought the Congress and Senate - No? Do you disagree?
The voter suppression laws they are passing are the modern version of the southern 3/5 voting scheme from precivil war time.
Well, most of our politicians are lawyers. When you give a lawyer money 'agency' is created. Lawyers always work for who is paying them the most ; that would be all the dark money groups that are mostly funded by "Americans for Prosperity"
Mr Reich, I've followed your path for along time and I really appreciate your work!
The Harvard paper opened my eyes as to just how long and how many big money people have been working to return the country to a democratic aristocracy.
I am worried about it.
I feel they the Republic is in jepordy and Donnie is just a tool being used to that end.
Thanks for providing the link- fascinating to see how “dark money” actually operates within our political systems. Has this paper ever been updated?
I don't know if it is updated. I found the link to it in the Guardian Newspaper -6? mos. ago.
You have brilliantly laid out the facts - now every citizen and every legitimate news organization should insist that Merritt Garland open an investigation on Trump and his corrupt cronies and keep insisting on this course of action until there is evidence that the Department of Justice is investigating Trump and allies for CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR!!
Actually the parallels between the state of our country now and pre-Nazi Germany are compelling. The is an ever widening gap between the elite industrialist society and the middle class, the crumbling infrastructure, the inability of government to function, a politicized military and police force, the perception of corruption and mistrust of government. Add in today's voter repression, corporate money and national right wing propaganda media outlets, and believe me, "IT CAN HAPPEN HERE". Particularly in a cultural environment that idolizes celebrity and reduces the debate to good people vs. bad people.
This is inaccurate. Not even the terms apply to Germany in 1920s and 1930s and certainly not the context.