Thank you, Robert. What a rich and compelling argument. I think the damage Trump and the authoritarian Republicans have caused is acute and becoming clearer every day, but it has been growing over decades as a culture of greed. You describe a good test for evaluating leaders and positions and even our own actions - always trying to consider the common good. I know there are many good people who must work together now to defend our country.
Thank you kindly Dr. Reich. I needed this tonight, as I grieve my best friend's dog, a regal English Springer Spaniel who passed last evening. I never had any children, but Sir Fleetwood Charlee shall remain forever in my heart. I know this probably seems like a weird response to your essay, but somehow your words always give me hope and reassurance in many ways. As a life long Democrat, I truly admired John McCain and the torture he suffered. I wish we could realize once again how much we miss what holds us together, not that tears us apart. Thank you again for your wisdom. It would have been an honor to take one of your courses. Thanks as well for allowing my somewhat digression in lamenting the passing of a dog responding to your wonderful love of this country. Blessings to you Dr. Reich.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. - John Kenneth Galbraith
“Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men.”
- John Adams, Founding Father, Signer of the Declaration, second US President, first US Vice President.
Sep 15, 2023·edited Sep 15, 2023Liked by Robert Reich
I couldn't agree more. Well said! Thank you! I was at the Capital the night McCain put people before party. It was an amazing night. I met people whose lives were on the line with that vote. It was very moving. The Common Good won on that night. Thank you again, Senator McCain.
"Repeal and replace" was a sham. They had no idea how to replace the ACA. They just wanted to strip people of health care, strip consumers or protections, and let insurance companies have a legalized racket that doesn't provide health care for the Americans who actually need health care. Medicare For All!
Senator McCain was a decent man,a war veteran and POW,and you didn't have to agree with everything he believed or said to understand that.He was well known to reach across the aisle,and if not for nutcase Sarah Palin he could have very well became POTUS.I believe he would have made a good president.
Tfg hated him,sadly.He made the remark that he "didn't like people who were captured"(!)and talked so much crap about someone who had the courage to go into a battleground whereas tfg,had "Bonespurs"and his old man paid to keep him out of Vietnam.(I have heard him called Cadet Bonespurs before,lol.)He is a coward and a bully,runs his mouth 90 miles a minute and don't say a damned thing worthwhile,and of late his only platform is all about revenge.Not a goddamn word said about actually serving the people like John McCain would have and did as a Congressman for many years.
I will happily vote for Joe Biden again,and be assured that he will do his duty,as he too has always done,and would try to undermine our country and our Constitution.Trump will rip it to pieces and declare war on all of us.He would do it with that annoying smirk on his ugly face and not care what he has done,just that he got his way like a deranged toddler.
We have to make sure this cannot ever happen.Ever.Our whole way of life is at stake.That can't be stressed firmly enough.
Such an articulate explanation of why we cannot let Donald Trump regain the presidency. Trump didn't invent the kind of ruthless, might-makes-right politics that values being "smart" over being good, that has corrupted our national psyche -- it's been developing insidiously for years. But he is its apotheosis. Joe Biden correctly cast his campaign in 2020 as a fight for the soul of our nation. We are still in that fight. Thank you, Robert Reich, for zeroing in on the essential issue we must all address. What values do we want to animate our nation.
Sep 15, 2023·edited Sep 15, 2023Liked by Robert Reich
You once again have penned ( ok, typed out) a poignant and powerful defence of the importance and value of the common good in our daily lives and in its support of democratic functioning. That said, I think you may have succumbed a bit to the passions that this subject justifiably incites in you, as it should in others. When you start your essay telling us “ how America lost its sense of the common good.”, you deny its very real presence amongst a great many, even a significant majority, of Americans. It is not lost - it is under attack. Our collective mission is to rescue it and return it to the central role in the American promise, where it belongs. With so much hyperbolic rhetoric around, let’s work hard to avoid it ourselves as we put our arguements forward.
Upon reading today's posting it really brought tears to my eyes..reading what McCain said at the start of a speech, his thoughts on Obama while campaigning all show what type of person McCain was..a person for the people..may he rest in peace...as I read on and comprehended all the things that TRUMP said and did during his time in office made me tear up and get angry....he is 100 percent out to completely destroy America...and the Republicans in Washington still stand behind him, the poor everyday person who never gets ahead in life, still stand behind him... I don't understand that, why would anyone in their right mind want the creep that TRUMP is to be in the presidency again? Given that opportunity TRUMP will have us living under China, Russia, or North Korea laws since he thinks the THUGS that rule with an iron fist in those countries are the most wonderful people in the world...Glad I'm older..but pray for my kids and grandkids because they are going to need all the help they can get get....
So many wealthy business people who run for elective office tout their business experience as a superior qualification for government. But government is supposed to be about service and promoting the general welfare, while the goal of present-day business, in the words of its leaders, is accumulating as much wealth as possible for oneself. We should view wealthy business people who run for office, such as Trump, with a healthy dose of skepticism. The people whom Robert Reich praises in his essay had long experience in government.
Thanks Robert for reminding us how important civility is in promoting The Common Good. The difference in behavior between appropriate responses by John McCain and George W. Bush and the totally inappropriate and thuggish ones by TFG are astonishing and outrageous!
Yes as a psychologist, Ive been writing about cultural leadership and narcissism - how we select leaders who are highly focussed on self-idealisation, performance and lack empathy, emotional intelligence and relational competence. There are consequences!
I ordered and read “The Common Good.” It is brilliant. I appreciated the refutation of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of personal greed, which I was raised to admire, but which, as an adult, I reject. This is an important book!
Thank you, Robert. What a rich and compelling argument. I think the damage Trump and the authoritarian Republicans have caused is acute and becoming clearer every day, but it has been growing over decades as a culture of greed. You describe a good test for evaluating leaders and positions and even our own actions - always trying to consider the common good. I know there are many good people who must work together now to defend our country.
Thank you kindly Dr. Reich. I needed this tonight, as I grieve my best friend's dog, a regal English Springer Spaniel who passed last evening. I never had any children, but Sir Fleetwood Charlee shall remain forever in my heart. I know this probably seems like a weird response to your essay, but somehow your words always give me hope and reassurance in many ways. As a life long Democrat, I truly admired John McCain and the torture he suffered. I wish we could realize once again how much we miss what holds us together, not that tears us apart. Thank you again for your wisdom. It would have been an honor to take one of your courses. Thanks as well for allowing my somewhat digression in lamenting the passing of a dog responding to your wonderful love of this country. Blessings to you Dr. Reich.
GREED is truly the most terrible challenge of our times, and capitalism is its tool, its means to power and more greed.
Greed is a (contagious) mental illness, an unfillable hole, a hunger that denies justice, a brutal expression of broken egos.
Greed is having a million times as much as the poor and still feeling you don't have enough.
Greed consumes the earth without respite, and is a cancer on humanity.
Greed destroys us and our children and their future.
Greed is death.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. - John Kenneth Galbraith
This is quite a challenge ; change the focus from ME First the rest be Damned !
To the idea demonstrated by John McCain that :”we are all in this together “
Let’s bury the hatchet 🪓 and do what’s right for the Nations Common Good.
I hope we can find our way back to path of what’s right For the Nation.
I would sail with John McCain anytime with him at the helm but sadly he is in the past. He left us an example to aspire towards...
Time to get back to the Foundation of America:
“Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men.”
- John Adams, Founding Father, Signer of the Declaration, second US President, first US Vice President.
I couldn't agree more. Well said! Thank you! I was at the Capital the night McCain put people before party. It was an amazing night. I met people whose lives were on the line with that vote. It was very moving. The Common Good won on that night. Thank you again, Senator McCain.
"Repeal and replace" was a sham. They had no idea how to replace the ACA. They just wanted to strip people of health care, strip consumers or protections, and let insurance companies have a legalized racket that doesn't provide health care for the Americans who actually need health care. Medicare For All!
Senator McCain was a decent man,a war veteran and POW,and you didn't have to agree with everything he believed or said to understand that.He was well known to reach across the aisle,and if not for nutcase Sarah Palin he could have very well became POTUS.I believe he would have made a good president.
Tfg hated him,sadly.He made the remark that he "didn't like people who were captured"(!)and talked so much crap about someone who had the courage to go into a battleground whereas tfg,had "Bonespurs"and his old man paid to keep him out of Vietnam.(I have heard him called Cadet Bonespurs before,lol.)He is a coward and a bully,runs his mouth 90 miles a minute and don't say a damned thing worthwhile,and of late his only platform is all about revenge.Not a goddamn word said about actually serving the people like John McCain would have and did as a Congressman for many years.
I will happily vote for Joe Biden again,and be assured that he will do his duty,as he too has always done,and would try to undermine our country and our Constitution.Trump will rip it to pieces and declare war on all of us.He would do it with that annoying smirk on his ugly face and not care what he has done,just that he got his way like a deranged toddler.
We have to make sure this cannot ever happen.Ever.Our whole way of life is at stake.That can't be stressed firmly enough.
Such an articulate explanation of why we cannot let Donald Trump regain the presidency. Trump didn't invent the kind of ruthless, might-makes-right politics that values being "smart" over being good, that has corrupted our national psyche -- it's been developing insidiously for years. But he is its apotheosis. Joe Biden correctly cast his campaign in 2020 as a fight for the soul of our nation. We are still in that fight. Thank you, Robert Reich, for zeroing in on the essential issue we must all address. What values do we want to animate our nation.
You once again have penned ( ok, typed out) a poignant and powerful defence of the importance and value of the common good in our daily lives and in its support of democratic functioning. That said, I think you may have succumbed a bit to the passions that this subject justifiably incites in you, as it should in others. When you start your essay telling us “ how America lost its sense of the common good.”, you deny its very real presence amongst a great many, even a significant majority, of Americans. It is not lost - it is under attack. Our collective mission is to rescue it and return it to the central role in the American promise, where it belongs. With so much hyperbolic rhetoric around, let’s work hard to avoid it ourselves as we put our arguements forward.
Upon reading today's posting it really brought tears to my eyes..reading what McCain said at the start of a speech, his thoughts on Obama while campaigning all show what type of person McCain was..a person for the people..may he rest in peace...as I read on and comprehended all the things that TRUMP said and did during his time in office made me tear up and get angry....he is 100 percent out to completely destroy America...and the Republicans in Washington still stand behind him, the poor everyday person who never gets ahead in life, still stand behind him... I don't understand that, why would anyone in their right mind want the creep that TRUMP is to be in the presidency again? Given that opportunity TRUMP will have us living under China, Russia, or North Korea laws since he thinks the THUGS that rule with an iron fist in those countries are the most wonderful people in the world...Glad I'm older..but pray for my kids and grandkids because they are going to need all the help they can get get....
So many wealthy business people who run for elective office tout their business experience as a superior qualification for government. But government is supposed to be about service and promoting the general welfare, while the goal of present-day business, in the words of its leaders, is accumulating as much wealth as possible for oneself. We should view wealthy business people who run for office, such as Trump, with a healthy dose of skepticism. The people whom Robert Reich praises in his essay had long experience in government.
What a call for decency and moral behavior.
Thanks Robert for reminding us how important civility is in promoting The Common Good. The difference in behavior between appropriate responses by John McCain and George W. Bush and the totally inappropriate and thuggish ones by TFG are astonishing and outrageous!
Yes as a psychologist, Ive been writing about cultural leadership and narcissism - how we select leaders who are highly focussed on self-idealisation, performance and lack empathy, emotional intelligence and relational competence. There are consequences!
I ordered and read “The Common Good.” It is brilliant. I appreciated the refutation of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of personal greed, which I was raised to admire, but which, as an adult, I reject. This is an important book!