Thank you, Professor, from 1964 until 2022 I did all those things and more, I was a voter registrar, I knocked on doors, phone banked, lobbyed in the Captiol Building in Sacramento and worked on more campaigns than I can remember. Now, at 91, and a non-supportive body, that 's gone. I will of course vote, and assure that my grandchildren and relatives, and friends vote. But my active days, alas, are done.
Mr. Reich says, "Trump is leading in the polls by a slim margin. Even more remarkably, more Americans disapprove than approve of Biden’s efforts to improve the nation’s infrastructure, and more believe that Trump “has a vision for the future” than believe Biden does."
I agree with Mr. Reich! But why is this phenomenon occurring? That is the question of all questions.
The answer is, of course, that over half the Nation gets their daily news fix from FOX. They don't talk about the many accomplishments of Joe Biden. They do dis him almost every day; multiple times. And this is not real news reporting. It is, propaganda at its worst. Shut those faucets of propaganda off and America just might actually know how good Joe Biden really is!
Living in California I usually feel comfortable voting 3rd party, but in the last presidential and the upcoming one I feel it's important to have Trump beaten by the largest number possible regardless of the electoral college to make the message as clear as possible.
11. Whenever anyone says "That's socialism!" in response to your support of a social welfare program like, say, paid parental leave that is routinely available in other democracies, do not -- repeat, DO NOT -- do what most Democrats do today: cringe and walk away in silence.
Do what Harry Truman did in 1948. RESPOND! "When they say something is socialism, they mean that's something that is good for the American people."
Many people, including myself, can't stomach Biden's full throated support of Israel's genocide in Gaza. The Dem Party has been operating on the "Lesser of Two Evils" mantra for a couple decades now and this is where it's brought us.
I’m surprised and frankly a little disappointed in your comments in that to me you have left out that we should all be doing what you are doing. I now specifically respond to multiple calls for democratic fund raising that I will now give money ONLY to candidates that publicly and directly support and endorse the Robert Reich analysis and proposals . You have made clear that as long as 29 years ago you saw changes were happening that if not corrected we’re highly likely to lead to widespread disappointment and disillusionment that were to be fertile ground for the type of pro fascism that we’re facing today with Trump and the Republican party. What Biden has done is offered many progressive and positive initiatives but I have not seen Biden or ONE Democratic candidate (and my email is filled with requests for money) who has addressed the heart of the problem as you have. Trump is not an aberration he has clearly recognized the widespread but not articulated view of maybe a majority of Americans that our world has become widely out of balance. And Trump through his fascist rhetoric has claimed and taken the mantra that he and the Republican Party are the party of change. Biden and some other democrats have proposed and even passed some positive steps. BUT NO ONE can say or feel that the democrats are anywhere near addressing the dramatic pains and imbalances in the country that as you so clearly articulate flowed directly from globalization and deregulation of the financial markets that largely had their genesis in Clinton and following administrations. Trump cannot be stopped without convincing voters the democrats admit past mistakes and take on the mantra of the Robert Reich program.
Thank You!!!☮️😎💕We are on it. Rallying all of us old McGovern workers…This election is pivotal for our precious Democracy. And…We thought Nixon was bad, Oy!!
Here's a suggestion - talk some sense into the DNC to get Biden to retire - soon.
First, his support for Palestinian genocide is a war crime that tarnishes America globally while the world has watched Bibi turn Gaza into a modern-day Dresden using US bombs. It is clear that even Secretary of State Blinken is chagrined by it all. Second, I am 76, and yet it is clear to me that Biden is not in touch with Millennials thru GenZ any more than he is with the couple dozen of my Boomer prep-school classmates from the 60s that I am in email touch with almost daily.
Third, and most troubling as a psychologist, is that given Biden's age and the stress of the job at 1600 Penn, there is no way that a male in his 80s already showing overt signs of waning physical and mental stamina can handle another term in these stressful times. He walks and talks like a doddering old man - and that is what voters see on TV. The polls have been trying to tell DNC that it needs to run a younger candidate, but somehow they think Trump is so terrible Biden will win. That was probably true the last time - but not this November.
If somebody with integrity, like Liz Cheney is on the ballot - even as a third-party candidate, Biden will be a one-term president anyway - and I will have helped. My worry is that so many voters have no clue what life under a fascist dictator would be like. Americans rarely know anybody in Europe or Japan very well who might wise them up. Disgusted, they might not vote at all. My BFF is a German, and his late parents described the rise of Hitler exactly as I am watching Trump's rise - right down to claims of victimization and the thuggery he incites all the time. The daily news summary I post nearly always has a 5-1 count of Republican to Democrat headlines, and I monitor over 60 RSS feeds and another 20 news summaries. Trump accounts for half of the GOP's headlines. Biden too is half the Democrats headlines (like 10-2).
We have already experienced Trump's Jan 6 dry-run Putsch. I wonder how Biden will react when the Proud Boys set our Rathaus on fire this year. My guess is capitulate if he does not suffer a stroke or something first.
Thanks very much for the list -- AND I urge everyone wondering how fascism can hold appeal to read the opening couple pages (at least) of historian Heather Cox Richardson's "Democracy Awakening." She lays out clearly how people who don't feel government is working for them come to support and deeply identify with a dictator.
If the Democrats want to win in 2024 they better find a candidate who is not a puppet of the evil war mongers. On a different note .. happy new year ... and maybe say a prayer for our brothers and sisters in Gaza who are being murdered with the full support of the United States government
Robert Reich has laid down ten ground rules as to how you/we behave in the next ten months until the presidential election. Well and good; I don't have any objections to any of these guidelines. But they will not lead the Democrats to victory - because they will fail to persuade both Tump followers and the swinging voters. The only thing that will persuade the swingers will be a radical change in domestic economic policy that will foreground the plight of blue-collar and the struggling white population who have been ravaged by unemployment, under-employment, under-payment, involuntary part time and zero-hours employment contracts, degraded neighbourhoods and underfunded schooling for their children. Without hope for themselves and for the future of their children, they will vote massively for Donald Trump, both as their 'saving angel' and as a protest vote against a capitalist system that foist upon them two dominant parties that do the bidding of Big Business both as their funders and as their very effective lobby groups.
I repeat: nothing you/we do or say will give the Democrats an assured or decisive election victory. They won't listen to you. They will not believe that the Democratic Party will come to their rescue and lift them out of their poverty and semi-poverty and give them any hope that their children's education in underfunded schools will lift them out of their poverty. Incremental economic improvement will not do the trick.
Only a radical New Deal-style injection of job creation and retraining of the U.S. blue-collar and the white lumpen proletariat will turn the tide and defeat Trump's psychological hold over, and his political appeal to these very large sections of the U.S. electorate. The real stumbling block is the Democrats themselves: they blame it all on Trump. But Trump is just a symptom. What the Democrats don't seem to realise is that "faith in this Great Country" has been eroded ever since Reaganomics began to erode the living standards of so many Americans. Now, "the System" and the "New World Order" are questioned by the masses. This is why MAGA has become such a popular slogan: it signals the hope of a return to the days when full employment and job security was maintained and promoted by both parties - in fact, taken for granted.
The key word is HOPE. Only a radical turn in domestic economic policy will give the voters a sense of hope.
Thank you, Professor, from 1964 until 2022 I did all those things and more, I was a voter registrar, I knocked on doors, phone banked, lobbyed in the Captiol Building in Sacramento and worked on more campaigns than I can remember. Now, at 91, and a non-supportive body, that 's gone. I will of course vote, and assure that my grandchildren and relatives, and friends vote. But my active days, alas, are done.
Mr. Reich says, "Trump is leading in the polls by a slim margin. Even more remarkably, more Americans disapprove than approve of Biden’s efforts to improve the nation’s infrastructure, and more believe that Trump “has a vision for the future” than believe Biden does."
I agree with Mr. Reich! But why is this phenomenon occurring? That is the question of all questions.
The answer is, of course, that over half the Nation gets their daily news fix from FOX. They don't talk about the many accomplishments of Joe Biden. They do dis him almost every day; multiple times. And this is not real news reporting. It is, propaganda at its worst. Shut those faucets of propaganda off and America just might actually know how good Joe Biden really is!
Living in California I usually feel comfortable voting 3rd party, but in the last presidential and the upcoming one I feel it's important to have Trump beaten by the largest number possible regardless of the electoral college to make the message as clear as possible.
Thank you for your principled stands, clear and positive voice, and tireless efforts, Bob!
11. Whenever anyone says "That's socialism!" in response to your support of a social welfare program like, say, paid parental leave that is routinely available in other democracies, do not -- repeat, DO NOT -- do what most Democrats do today: cringe and walk away in silence.
Do what Harry Truman did in 1948. RESPOND! "When they say something is socialism, they mean that's something that is good for the American people."
Many people, including myself, can't stomach Biden's full throated support of Israel's genocide in Gaza. The Dem Party has been operating on the "Lesser of Two Evils" mantra for a couple decades now and this is where it's brought us.
Looking on from Australia I’m somewhat aghast at the direction politics is taking in the US. The polls defy logic.
Granted we have also had our fair share of incompetents but never on the scale of the malicious and malevolent Trump, and his supporters.
It’s no wonder the worlds dictators, the deplorables, are champing at the bit.
Show up. Stand up. Speak up. Speak out. Channel John Lewis. Make good trouble. Vote.
I’m surprised and frankly a little disappointed in your comments in that to me you have left out that we should all be doing what you are doing. I now specifically respond to multiple calls for democratic fund raising that I will now give money ONLY to candidates that publicly and directly support and endorse the Robert Reich analysis and proposals . You have made clear that as long as 29 years ago you saw changes were happening that if not corrected we’re highly likely to lead to widespread disappointment and disillusionment that were to be fertile ground for the type of pro fascism that we’re facing today with Trump and the Republican party. What Biden has done is offered many progressive and positive initiatives but I have not seen Biden or ONE Democratic candidate (and my email is filled with requests for money) who has addressed the heart of the problem as you have. Trump is not an aberration he has clearly recognized the widespread but not articulated view of maybe a majority of Americans that our world has become widely out of balance. And Trump through his fascist rhetoric has claimed and taken the mantra that he and the Republican Party are the party of change. Biden and some other democrats have proposed and even passed some positive steps. BUT NO ONE can say or feel that the democrats are anywhere near addressing the dramatic pains and imbalances in the country that as you so clearly articulate flowed directly from globalization and deregulation of the financial markets that largely had their genesis in Clinton and following administrations. Trump cannot be stopped without convincing voters the democrats admit past mistakes and take on the mantra of the Robert Reich program.
Thank You!!!☮️😎💕We are on it. Rallying all of us old McGovern workers…This election is pivotal for our precious Democracy. And…We thought Nixon was bad, Oy!!
Here's a suggestion - talk some sense into the DNC to get Biden to retire - soon.
First, his support for Palestinian genocide is a war crime that tarnishes America globally while the world has watched Bibi turn Gaza into a modern-day Dresden using US bombs. It is clear that even Secretary of State Blinken is chagrined by it all. Second, I am 76, and yet it is clear to me that Biden is not in touch with Millennials thru GenZ any more than he is with the couple dozen of my Boomer prep-school classmates from the 60s that I am in email touch with almost daily.
Third, and most troubling as a psychologist, is that given Biden's age and the stress of the job at 1600 Penn, there is no way that a male in his 80s already showing overt signs of waning physical and mental stamina can handle another term in these stressful times. He walks and talks like a doddering old man - and that is what voters see on TV. The polls have been trying to tell DNC that it needs to run a younger candidate, but somehow they think Trump is so terrible Biden will win. That was probably true the last time - but not this November.
If somebody with integrity, like Liz Cheney is on the ballot - even as a third-party candidate, Biden will be a one-term president anyway - and I will have helped. My worry is that so many voters have no clue what life under a fascist dictator would be like. Americans rarely know anybody in Europe or Japan very well who might wise them up. Disgusted, they might not vote at all. My BFF is a German, and his late parents described the rise of Hitler exactly as I am watching Trump's rise - right down to claims of victimization and the thuggery he incites all the time. The daily news summary I post nearly always has a 5-1 count of Republican to Democrat headlines, and I monitor over 60 RSS feeds and another 20 news summaries. Trump accounts for half of the GOP's headlines. Biden too is half the Democrats headlines (like 10-2).
We have already experienced Trump's Jan 6 dry-run Putsch. I wonder how Biden will react when the Proud Boys set our Rathaus on fire this year. My guess is capitulate if he does not suffer a stroke or something first.
Thanks very much for the list -- AND I urge everyone wondering how fascism can hold appeal to read the opening couple pages (at least) of historian Heather Cox Richardson's "Democracy Awakening." She lays out clearly how people who don't feel government is working for them come to support and deeply identify with a dictator.
If the Democrats want to win in 2024 they better find a candidate who is not a puppet of the evil war mongers. On a different note .. happy new year ... and maybe say a prayer for our brothers and sisters in Gaza who are being murdered with the full support of the United States government
2024 will make all of us feel better for knowing you and all that you share with us!
You have stated it just right, as usual, Robert!
Robert Reich has laid down ten ground rules as to how you/we behave in the next ten months until the presidential election. Well and good; I don't have any objections to any of these guidelines. But they will not lead the Democrats to victory - because they will fail to persuade both Tump followers and the swinging voters. The only thing that will persuade the swingers will be a radical change in domestic economic policy that will foreground the plight of blue-collar and the struggling white population who have been ravaged by unemployment, under-employment, under-payment, involuntary part time and zero-hours employment contracts, degraded neighbourhoods and underfunded schooling for their children. Without hope for themselves and for the future of their children, they will vote massively for Donald Trump, both as their 'saving angel' and as a protest vote against a capitalist system that foist upon them two dominant parties that do the bidding of Big Business both as their funders and as their very effective lobby groups.
I repeat: nothing you/we do or say will give the Democrats an assured or decisive election victory. They won't listen to you. They will not believe that the Democratic Party will come to their rescue and lift them out of their poverty and semi-poverty and give them any hope that their children's education in underfunded schools will lift them out of their poverty. Incremental economic improvement will not do the trick.
Only a radical New Deal-style injection of job creation and retraining of the U.S. blue-collar and the white lumpen proletariat will turn the tide and defeat Trump's psychological hold over, and his political appeal to these very large sections of the U.S. electorate. The real stumbling block is the Democrats themselves: they blame it all on Trump. But Trump is just a symptom. What the Democrats don't seem to realise is that "faith in this Great Country" has been eroded ever since Reaganomics began to erode the living standards of so many Americans. Now, "the System" and the "New World Order" are questioned by the masses. This is why MAGA has become such a popular slogan: it signals the hope of a return to the days when full employment and job security was maintained and promoted by both parties - in fact, taken for granted.
The key word is HOPE. Only a radical turn in domestic economic policy will give the voters a sense of hope.