Friends, remember the Trump era will eventually end. What we are building now is a coalition for #RebuildingHonorableDemocracy. Our founding fathers had it right 250 years ago when they set this whole thing up.
But there were two major flaws. They did not include everyone, only White land owners could call the shots initially. The second flaw was the assumption that the office of president would demand an honorable approach to its execution.
All the powers of the president were expected to be wielded by someone who valued America, its freedoms, and its standing in the world order.
But Trump has pissed all over that. So we'll need a #NoKingsAct to prevent breaches like these in the future. We'll need a #ForThePeopleAct2 to curb corporate and billionaire influence on policy, oversight, and legislation.
And we will need a mountain of justice to land on the heads of the #TrumpMuskMillerVoughtProject2025BillionaireCabal.
That's the image we must hold in this moment, and the goal that keeps the wind in our sails despite it all.
The wits of Reich are in perfect shape and his doubts are justified. And yes, the Trump era will end. But will things be better and the damage repaired? Has the US a political system that can free itself from the power of big money and tech-brothers?
I doubt it: what is needed to find the way to this new freedom?
Lots to think about as well: how did the nation get so anxious and fearfull about the future? Is it the result of Trump and his corrupt lack of respect for the law?
Or was it the result of a process that began earlier, a result of the spoiling influence of big money in politics and media?
Or deeper: of the organisation of political life? How do we solve or political problems on a local level? How do we connect the solutions we find with general problems on a higher scale? It is the central question of social history.
If we find ways to bake the maximum of justice and inclusion into the system that emerges from all this, we will have at least established the foundation capable of long-term course correction
Paul, I understand your feelings and it makes me want to vomit, but was has and is happening is what it is, but lamenting over spilt milk will only weaken our resolve to get those traitors out of office soon, if possible. But lets be ready to better things for all our citizens when we get the chance--and we will get that chance!!! IN TO WIN IT TOGETHER
Yes! "Justice and inclusion" are less stressful! Ironically, it is how close America was getting to "woke" that raised up such a backlash, enhanced by media from enemies abroad and at home.
We were making headway for sure but I'm beginning to think the backlash wasn't really a backlash, but a predatory jump that has been positioning itself for decades. That we got as far as we did wasn't at all too far and it absolutely shouldn't lead us to hold back in the future.But it may have been a blind spot of sorts. I'm very guilty of not thinking we'd actually be dragged backwards, ever. And here we are!
If we can start by returning to the basics of our republic, we will have taken a major step toward a return to sanity. Restore 0Constitutional law, rule of law, restoration of the basic human rights embedded in Constitution and Amendments. We have to correct obvious errors in the original Constitution. Return to the Constitution and rule of law. Not rule of law as interpreted by Trump and his clowns. Then, make sensible, well thought out changes. Bring the Constitution into the 21st century, but in a sensible manner.
This is an important question. I think a lot of our current situation has to do with the pervasive nature of advertising and mass media, now exacerbated 24/7 in the 21st century. Media's stress on dramatic events make us more fearful, more cautious, less trusting, regardless of how rare such events might be. And so we long for someone who we think can protect us from all these named and nameless fears. We are no longer the land of the free, because we have ceased being the home of the brave.
James, agree with almost everything you say. Only one slight difference: I think that we should not look for a saviour who protects us from fears, but that this protection should come from ourselves, our ways of solving problems, our ties with the communities we live in...
" To stir the masses, to appeal to their higher, better selves, to set them thinking for themselves, and to hold ever before them the ideal of mutual kindness and good will, based upon mutual interests, is to render real service to the cause of humanity." Eugene V. Debs
Also, " I would not be a Moses to lead you into the Promised Land, because if I could lead you into it, someone else could lead you out of it." Eugene V. Debs
I agree completely! Capitalism is the single worst economic system humans have invented and all for the LOVE of money. Only the talented ones at making money or stealing money get rewarded. People have got to stop having this love affair with capitalism or we will never reach the potential that we are capable of...spiritually, mentally or physically.
We have to create the promised land for ourselves because what is God afterall? I would say 'The energy that is our better natures.' We are the creators of our lives and thus our futures.
Well said, Kathleen. We, as a country, must have a sense of movement toward something better. Each one of us has a need to feel that he or she is contributing something to that movement. Trump gets it, this is why he created MAGA, a white nationalist movement. He is failing at it now, and this is the time the rest of us must come out with an alternative movement. How about: True MAGA--An America of the the people, for the people?
In some regions, $25 doesn't cut it. My accomplished 31 year-old daughter in Los Angeles County is looking for work and no one wants to even pay her enough to barely cover her most basic expenses. It's ridiculous. Most people my age and older who I know are helping their kids out financially because they just can't make a living wage even with full-time employment.
Yes Dianne, it is not fashionable, but you talk about class struggle. That is a concept of Karl Marx, but the dimensions of antagonisms in the US justify the use of this. Hope you won't be threatened....
Tom, that phrase was intended as a description, not a prescription. You are correct; we need to save ourselves, not look for some superhero to do it for us.
Oh, advertising and the mass media play a far more important role than the one you describe, which is undoubtedly part of the problem. Americans are conditioned by advertising - to believe BS for one thing. To want only happy talk all the time. To think that a wild happiness comes from eating some crap at a fast food joint or drinking the right beverage or driving the right car. And what I find fascinating is how the influence on advertising on the American mentality is never observed or analyzed. It goes completely unnoticed. I get print advertising from Amazon in my mailbox - slick flyers that tell me how well Amazon treats its employees and all the bennies they get from the company.
Most national advertising is also political propaganda in disguised form. It depicts American life as much better than it actually is for most people, and thereby supports the (disfunctional, undemocratic) status quo.
I'll buy that. I think you are right. Hollywood does the same - sells a propagandized version of the American way of life and projects that all over the world.
It’s especially pernicious when we’re young. We never, for example, questioned the content of women’s magazines and their ads. I dropped Psychology Today when the medical flavor of the decade switched suddenly to its polar opposite. We expect wisdom and get fluff.
Yes. I’ve come to think of advertising and aggressive marketing as the cardinal sins: and of course speculative fiction has made this clear in countless books and movies. I can’t believe that we bought the hype about the worldwide net—endless access to everything. But look how much time and money we spend to keep it. Today a woman bemoaned the loss of her kindle due to its obsolescence—a painful loss I had to accept years ago. And I recently deleted the AI component of my expensive but essential Windows update. Things you don’t want and never asked for …
It is the universe accessible in a mobile phone. So the kids don't look in faces anymore, don't talk and argue anymore, don't read more than a minute before getting bored.
Why are we surprised by the low quality of our politics?
I see a lot of anger and bad manners when I watch pro golf tournaments on TV with my husband..seems to come from miles under 40 years old..civility seems to have died there too.
re: advertising and aggressive marketing. I strongly recommend "Space Merchants by Pohl and Kornbluth. Sci-Fi masking serious social commentary.
"The Space Merchants is a 1952 satirical science fiction novel by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth, set in a future where advertising agencies run the world and corporations have replaced governments."
Also, the nature of work and the division of labour has changed. Modern society 1920 to 2026 is fundamentally less socially engaging in a meaningful way. Whereas prior, most people were preoccupied with working in the home, the field, and local small scale industries. There was less time to fritter away. At the end of the day they turned to books, a game of bridge, a small social gathering, piano/fiddle playing. Then came radio, followed by TV, followed by computers, followed by iphones and social media, rampant capitalism, greed, scary AI and a diminishing reliance on social connections. We no longer cooperate; we compete. No wonder we want to "escape", the social fabric is torn.
I'm going to give away my age but I remember using a manual typewriter to type papers in college. We had TV in a lounge room, not in our dorm rooms. Not even a radio. My god - whatever did we do with ourselves. But I do remember watching a lot of TV as a child - Dennis the Menace, Leave It to Beaver, Bonanza, etc., etc.
'Diet Pepsi' I'm thinking I'm a bit older than you because (even after having experienced a - cascade of mini-strokes 5+ years ago) I remember all those TV shows that my family watched together. + many more, Red Skelton, Donna Reed Show, Hopalong Casidy (big white 10 gallon hat while riding his horse)... I also remember family get-to-gethers and reunions ~ ~ with fondness (that I'm lacking now ~)
Red Skelton was already a little passe by the time I was engaged in heavy TV watching, but I did watch the Donna Reed Show. Hopalong also I knew about but I think he was a bit past his prime. But I'm sure we watched many of the same TV shows and films. They often broadcast The Wizard of Oz on one of the network channels - still one of the best movies ever.
It's not just the media and advertising. It's social media, where anyone can comment and post their opinions and thoughts about events, government, politicians, government officials, laws, policies, etc. 24/7, including extreme views, tropes and conspiracies, without any basis in fact or thoughtful analysis. It's a minefield. That's why I avoid 99.9% of social media for my own sanity. No Facebook, No X, No Truth Social, etc., etc., etc. I don't need additional stress and anxiety.
Don't people have anything else to do with their time? And that includes Trump who just posts stupid and outrageous stuff repeatedly in the overnight hours. He acts as a clown rather than acting presidential. I have Trump Derangement Syndrome because he is deranged.
I agree that media has been and is a huge part of the problem by bowing to money and power leading it to neglect it's most important role in society as the objective reporter the day's news and issues. Had it continued to do that, perhaps more people would see that the emperor was naked all along while his aides continuously tell him how beautiful he is.
As I point out in The 'Plenty' Book: the Answer to the Question "What Can I do to Make This a Better World?" (Steve Watkins, Amazon/Kindle, ISBN-978-1-7333984-0-4), there are many different ways we can work to make this a better world. But the foundational support for such activities is a democratic system in which we can agree without being disagreeable, in which we have a system of checks and balances which actually have enforcement mechanisms (so that orange-colored tumors will not metastasize and kill off our political system), and which provide for the least of our people.
Yes, we live in a materialistic country with B.S. values, where we don't teach people to critically think, to value who we are and not what we own, to find ways to work and communicate and enjoy being with each other rather than choosing partisanship and division.
Our fixation on selling/marketing has provided for planned obsolescence, environmental devastation, and extremely poor choices when it comes to politics, the economic, and our social/cultural infrastructure. We live in a society where the natural divisions of men and women are not honored and respected but are disparaged; when we are taught to treat people as means, not ends; where we are taught to compare ourselves to others so that "The Other" dictates our self-image and our psychology; and where we lack a coherent sense of self-worth and personal dignity.
Is there any reason to wonder why we have so much to do and so little time in which to do it? Is there any reason to wonder why so many of us are high-strung, neurotic twits? Is there any reason why we suffer, as a nation, from PTSD?
Developing a coherent system of media--NOT social media--would go a long way to restoring us to a sense of sanity and sangfroid. When we had a national "voice," a la Edgar R. Murrow; Walter Cronkite; Huntley and Brinkley; Jim Lehrer; et al., we had people who could articulate a sense of what was going on and the issues of import. Nowadays, we are bombarded by gossip printed on the backs of advertisements. Get rid of THAT and watch the national and local conversations radically improve.....
Steve, total agreement. See my reaction, minutes ago:
It is the universe accessible in a mobile phone. So the kids don't look in faces anymore, don't talk and argue anymore, don't read more than a minute before getting bored.
Why are we surprised by the low quality of our politics?
Just like to say in regards of anxiety of and fear of the future... I have experience with multiple degrees (mostly due to age) including one in education and also the MBA track. Understanding business and the practices required to manage all things associated is a powerful tool. However I always felt it was like having your head cut open, stuff shoved in (no debate only competition), and then zipped shut. Very different from other degree tracks. Yes I am a fan of a broad based education and the whole "zip the brain shut" mantra gets a lot of credit for my opinion. Maximum efficiency related only to $$$ produced is not the means to every end.
You have deepened Roberts's question. And it is a profound one. In his biography, "Report to Greco," Nikos Kazantzakis relates his experience of the Turkish genocide against the Greeks on Crete in the late 19th century. His Father gets his family off Crete to the Island of Naxos. Of Naxos, later in life, Kazantzakis reflects, "Here liberty had extinguished the yearning for liberty." In the 1990s, I returned home to "an economy in crisis" in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It had lost 10,000 of its 50,000 jobs in 8 years. No one knew what to do. A few of us started talking. We concluded that we did not know what to do either, but we had a sense of what needed to be done, and we would place ourselves at the service of whatever made sense. In time, this confession and conversation led to the creation of the "no-name forum." It was a citizen's forum where the only restrictions on participation were that you leave your politics and professions at the door. It developed in a list of 150 people that included the Chancellor of the local University of Massachusetts to neighborhood community activists. Over a 5-year period, the new bridging social capital relationships that emerged from the forum transformed themselves into voluntary associations that were beyond the wildest imaginations of anything we could have considered when we began. I carry a quote from a French thinker, Gaston Bachelard. that goes something like this. "What is the source of our first suffering? It lies in the fact that we hesitated to speak....It was born in the moment when we accumulated silent things within us." I have come to believe in what I call the "American Democratic Ideal" It is in the diversity of our people, the plurality of their experiences, the literacy of their lived experiences and the range of their creative imaginations that we transform our futures beyond any expectations we had when we began. If we want to change the nature of the world, we have to change the nature of dialogue
Craig, great and intersting reaction... it inspires me a lot. I'studied politics all my life, but dialogues like this combined with the reality of today order me to stay around. They need to be processed in my mind. Thank you for now...
A Glass-1/8th-Full Perspective, I love what you wrote! I agree with you about the two major flaws. When we get our country back, we absolutely must address inclusion of everyone, not just white landowners! We also must have some type of rules of ethics for our presidents in the future. I would also add that anyone wanting to become the president of the United States must take and pass a civics test, cannot be a criminal and must not buy, sell or trade stocks during the four or eight years of his/her presidency and that includes his family as well. I can honestly get behind a #NoKingsAct and a #ForThePeopleAct2! Thank you for that image and goal to keep in mind as we fight and resist this corrupt regime!
We need economic as well as political reform. How about FDR's Freedom from want? Freedom from want: Economic understandings that secure a healthy, peaceful life for all nations' inhabitants. Earn enough to provide adequate food, clothing, and recreation.
As a white male landowner, I have to tell you that making a target of people like me - while it might make you feel better - isn’t going to help move this country in the direction you’d like to see it go. At least not anytime soon. You do realize that Robert Reich, to whom you send $5/mo, is counted among this despicable group, right?
I'm not so sure about that. I mean, yes, that is true about the time when the Constitution was drawn up, but it's been amended numerous times since then to address previous exclusions. I subscribe to this Substack because I've always appreciated Robert's politics, and his authenticity, but I'm probably an atypical subscriber - quite conservative, under the old definition. I've known for a long time about the vitriol and intolerance coming from the right, but subscribing here has served as a reminder that the right hasn't exactly cornered the market in that regard. There is plenty of anger and intolerance coming from the left. I suppose many of the subscribers here would counter with "Yes, but ours is justified!" Well, that's also what the other guys are saying. Both sides need to elevate the discourse.
Yes, absolutely, the Constitution has been amended to become more inclusive. (And more work is needed, as we can see from current events.) I also agree that more civil discourse is needed. Thank you for being part of the conversation.
The two sides are unequal, David. The Right sings in unison with the conductor, and he follows the promptor (Fox news), and they have a score: Project 2025. There is no equivalent on the Left. Progressives need to come out with a philosophy, an ideology, to give meaning and coherence to their demands. Bernie has led the way, but it is not enough.
David, you have hit the nail on the head. I would never characterize myself as a conservative, but I am a moderate Democrat finding myself increasingly alienated by the vitriol not only from MAGA, but from the party for which I have voted my entire life.
I am absolutely fine with attacking Trump/MAGA in any way we can. But heaven forbid I question transgendered girls playing on girls sports teams, or defend Israel for crushing Hamas, my Democratic friends and family swarm on me as if I am as bad as the people locking up children in concentration camps and attacking other countries for sport.
Just yesterday, because I am on every Democtratic candidate's contributor list, I received an email from Abdul for Senate wanting me to donate to his campaign against "Israeli genocide" and attacking AIPAC as the way to persuade me to do so. I literally froze in my chair with my eyes fixed on the screen.
Now, before I start receiving anti-Semitic hate mail (always qualified by the mantra than being anti-Zionist is not being anti-Semitic), let me be clear. I do not approve of the manner in which Israel has conducted the Gaza War. But for heaven's sake. Are we really going to start tearing ourselves apart even before we control a single House of Congress? This is madness. Not Trumpian madness, but almost so, because it will allow the madmen to retain power.
I believe in my heart --- or at least want to believe --- that even in an age of ubiquitous fake media, and even in the wake of our national PTSD, we can rebuild a country in which the majority of Americans (never all, but we only need 50.1%) can engage in mutual caring and rational discourse. Or even if it is not possible, we can give it a try. Spreading hate within our own party, however, is not the way.
"The second flaw was the assumption that the office of president would demand an honorable approach to its execution."
I would put this a little differently: the second flaw was POTUS. By 1776 the English, and later the British, had spent almost 6 centuries sidelining the king, By 1688 William and Mary had no power. The American Revolution was all about land and a revolt against Parliament by landowners like George Washington who wanted to expand west of the Allegheny mountains. The "shot in the foot" was Madison bringing back the king when there was no need for one.
Exactly, he gave kingly powers to POTUS: The power to raise armies for 60 days without the consent of Congress (which Kennedy used to get troops into Vietnam and which Trump has just used), the power of pardon, the power to veto legislation from Congress etc.
Interestingly, George Mason, who had bravely signed the Declaration of Independence, went to Madison to complain about the office of POTUS because it was too kingly. He later refused to ratify the Constitution.
The kings (and their religious ties) were not sidelined in the Tudor or Stewart eras—far from it. WIlliam of Orange was the attempted cure for that malaise.
Agree, but it was a struggle for almost 5 centuries (I incorrectly said 6) from the Magna Carta to get to that point, which was a century before the Constitution.
As soon as T Rump was elected, I foresaw the end of the Age of Enlightenment which did, at least bring us to Obama. The white “Anglo-Fascist” contingent is doing its best to drive nails in hope’s coffin and the planet’s livability. Peace, friend.
Elderly Mac can't Like, so Like: For all my recognition of the female issue, I often ponder how much the Founders never imagined a President utterly without honor or rationality.
The first thing we need is an Amendment to make the amending process easier. Then we can begin to change some of the things about our system that suppress government of the people.
Sorry, but no. We can amend the Constitution until we are blue in the face, but for so long as we have men like Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, doing so will avail us nothing.
The answer has to come from making people believe that we can have a better country under liberals than under conservatives. Obama, for as much as I adored him, blew it when he had the chance. Biden, by contrast, tried hard to do so, but had to extract us from the pandemic, which ultimately depleted his reserves (and then, of course, tried to overstay his welcome). We have a few leaders in the Party who can do so now, but the problem is that they are White/Male, and thus not fit for office according to an oversized contingent of the only party that can save us.
I agree wholeheartedly! But, also, we need to eliminate the "dark money" influencing campaigns by instituting PUBLIC FINANCING OF ELECTIONS. We should limit the amount of money for each candidate so we can have a level playing field. In the long run we'd be much better off; with big corporations and billionaires donating the money to candidates, we pay very dearly for the special favors they get. Just look at the oil companies now who collectively donated over a billion dollars to Trump. Trump and friends have tanked efforts for clean, renewable energy and withdrawn from climate change initiatives.
Agreed. But riddle me this: Who is going to vote for term limits when doing so puts them out of a job? We've had an occasional politician run on a platform of term limits --- during their first successful run for office. Then, when seeking reelection, it's "term limits, what pray tell are those?" and "No, no, no, I meant FIRM limits on interfering with elections; my mistake."
The Constituion was elastic enough to make change as change arrived... yes with deaths but still we changed to embrace what was once not allowed. And then came Reagan.. Federalists, Heritage & finally Project 2025... the slow but purposeful erosion of our Constitution has put us here...double speak for the justices and a felon in charge...once they lock it all in they will dump the idiot and put in jd the puppet...we need to stop this ....mid-terms are a fantasy if we do not keep and grow our strength against these monsters
We need more than laws, we need an Amendment. I'm going to be pulling a Hail Mary and trying to get one proposed AND ratified by the end of the year, which can actually happen if I'm able to get the majority of American citizens on my side. It all depends on whether I'm able to go viral when I launch in a month, so wish me luck.
I wish you much luck. But prepare yourself for the long game. It will take more than a year. Even the ERA to give equal rights to women never passed. We all thought that was such an obvious addition to the Constitution.
You're almost certainly right! The chances I succeed in the entirety of my goals are so low they're not even worth speculating on. I'm still going to put my whole heart and soul into this effort, so that when all is said and done, I will know that I did literally everything I could to stop this insanity. ❤️
What the Trump era has made clear is that about a third of the population doesn't have the basic common sense and decency required to live in a civilized democratic society. Those are the third that persistently support the oligarchical and evangelical religious extremist fascism of Trump and the bulk of the Republican party. Our task is to ensure that these people are politically contained so they cannot continue to undermine democracy and the rule of law.
Gabriel, a lot of people are so busy trying to get enough to live on they don’t have time to think much about voting. We may be a rich country but we don’t see that every one is making it.
My fear is that we are not going to see the end of the Trump era. Whether he dies or is replaced by someone else, we may be relieved of seeing DJT at some point, but he represents a lot of Americans who chose all of this. Would choose it again, given the chance. And, it’s their future choices that we must fear as well.
Less than 30%. 70% of Americans wants something different and, I hope, better. They are noisier and, of course, have the White House bully pulpit right now. I believe that the rest of us can bring peace and security if we fight and vote for it. Let them slither back under their rocks again.
30% is still far too many, and that group is concentrated in the south, so it’s much higher there. They also have an outsized influence on the rest of us due to the Electoral College and the Senate.
One can't overlook the miserable reality, who are these voters? Take some Kentuckians voting against Massey, for instance. They voted in contradiction to Trump's own much-touted "transparency" promises, simultaneously voting in favor of cover-up of the most massive sex-trafficking operation ever known. Who are these people?
What gives me hope about Trump being gone? I liken him to the Night King of Game of Thrones- once he’s gone and at the hands of a woman no less- his minions will fall and his wicked kingdom with it. Trump is the master hypnotist. The spell will break and is breaking as we speak. Reason, Truth and Justice are mighty and will assert themselves, once again as soon as this insanity ends. Then will we seek and find opportunities to shore up the holes Trump has blown through our democracy.
Me too, Dorothy. Trump is the one they follow, bow down to and fear. I don't see Vance or anyone else being able to take up that gauntlet and have the same sway or get away with what he has gotten away with. That is the hope, anyway.
I hope you're right, but I see tWumpus as a puppet of those who prop him up. He isn't smart enough to have done any of his institution-level destruction on his own. The Heritage Society and their ilk have been working on this for decades.
Just when we might wonder if the menace, acting as POTUS, really is a mob boss, HCR reports this quote from his "spokesperson" in our desicrated White House regarding Republican primary losses.
White House spokesperson Steven Cheung posted: “Do not ever doubt President Trump and his political power. F*ck around, find out.”
30% will dwindle to less than 10% when Trump dies. All fanatics/cultists need an active leader. Anyone left over will be using write in votes for Trump after he dies!
It’s been like living through several existential threats daily on auto-repeat. The continued stress and fear is very unhealthy so there is need for self-care. We’re not bulletproof.
Perhaps one day we can file a class action lawsuit as Trump gave us all TDS.
We can live more loving simpler lives. Lives that are healthy and giving, creative and inquiring. Without hurting each other. Better educated, especially in biology, so we could accept each other for what we really are. We can do that, we just have to learn that the “I” it’s not the most important thing, it’s the “we”. We will all be better off because of it.
Beautifully said, Janet! I know people who do continue to live very simple lives. They are healthy and care about others in their community. While they do keep up with what is happening in our government, they don't seem to be anxious about it. For them, maintaining their lifestyle is what they work for and when the time comes, they will go to the polls and vote for their choice. I have to admit, I am a little jealous of their happiness and simplicity. I would love to have that in my life!
Will require better education and consistent information to all citizens. Too much reliance on social media, Fox news, interference by oligarchs, and a timid and weakened legacy news.
Sometime in the 1980s, I became friends with an elderly German couple who were young adults during WWII. They would often wonder when seeing old films of Hitler’s speeches just what had possessed them to support such an obviously deranged man. Their conclusion often was that Hitler made everybody crazy. Now I understand them. We have our Hitler who is making everyone crazy. When Trump dies or is in jail, we will come back to normal. Hold on until then.
Yes, it will run its course. They all do. But at what cost?
Hitler and the Third Reich running their course cost millions of innocent lives, the loss of German culture, society and a sense of history. The establishment of the Soviet Union, pinning millions of people into a repressive political society they did not want…. And much more.
I think that we will recover as a nation before going off the deep end as happened in Germany in the 1940s. We are not a completely fascist state and I expect a partial changing of the guard after the elections this year.
One key factor in the Germans' embrace of Hitler was economic catastrophe from WW One. Did your friends bring up how a wheelbarrow of paper money might buy a loaf of bread? Without looking it up, The Treaty of Vienna (?) no, Versailles: both shamed and impoverished a country perhaps righteously, perhaps unwisely. I am concerned that Trump is simultaneously setting up an economic debacle and a horrific shaming of America. Whereupon whoever is the monster in his shadow will beat the jingoism drum to perdition.
I hold in my mind the image of you standing before that huge crowd at Berkeley, your hair ruffled by the wind, and proclaiming that it's the best university in the world. That is not crabby, and there are other (but a diminishing number) of institutions who do not bend the knee to this administration and its cronies. Civic virtue still exists although it faces heavy counter winds. The crowd cheered for you, professor, and don't forget it.
You are the king of brilliance and that requires a careful Eye on the nation. We’re cranky so I expect you to feel somewhat crabby,but it helps us all to ready ourselves for what’s to come so it’s okay. Thank you. 🙏🏽
Just when we might wonder if the menace, acting as POTUS, really is a mob boss, HCR reports this quote from his "spokesperson" in our desicrated White House regarding Republican primary losses.
White House spokesperson Steven Cheung posted: “Do not ever doubt President Trump and his political power. F*ck around, find out.”
Prof. Reich, you are my lifeline to reason, integrity, compassion—in other words, all that is best of humanity. Please keep it all coming without sacrificing your well-being! I was born in 1950, have 5 children, and 12 grandchildren. I worry a lot about the future for all these children. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you have given me and countless others. As I have said before, you are my numero uno hero!
As a nation, we forgo the causal interventions of making decent living, easily accessed education, recreation, and opportunity for viable and fulfilling work in favor of gutting funding for those and health supports and other infrastructure in favor of increasingly lethal policing and more and more imprisonment.
As a nation, we are pathologizing the anxiety that comes from denial of opportunities and demands that humans be judged as adequate compared with machines and chop-and-change national regime cruelties.*
We're consistent, anyway.
Maybe people will be arrested and killed more directly for anxiety, soon.
* I don't deny that anxiety is a medical disorder that typically responds best with medication. My best friend needs those meds. But anxiety can also be a natural emotional response.
Anxiety exists bc it provides a survival benefit. Danger exists. Bad people exist. Anxiety cues you that you are at risk from your environment and heightens senses and cranks up physicality
BUT we cannot live a healthy life in a state of constant anxiety, fear, worry. It will wear down your nervous system changing brain chemicals and pushing the brain into a deeper depression. We must have boundaries around the anxiety and fear and the worry. It cannot be our prison. In order make the changes we need to make we do have to be aware of the dangers, but we must focus on what needs to be done to remove the problem. To eradicate that disease.
Robert, back then we were a unified nation recovering from the effects of a world war. Today we are a splintered country lost in the failed efforts of a man who though he was worthy of being a king. It sounds like a sick adaptation of the movie-"The Day the Earth stood still.".
Professor Reich, if you are turning into a cranky old man, then I am turning into a cranky old woman! I wholeheartedly agree with every single thing you wrote! All around me people are adopting an acceptance of the status quo and normalizing the completely ABNORMAL things that are happening in our country right now! The orange man and his minions would have all of us conform to what they are selling! I cannot, and I won't accept any of this! It is so easy to become numb to all of the corruption and illegal activities when they are happening basically 24/7! I have anxiety every morning when I grab my coffee and turn on my laptop! I wasn't raised to quit when the going gets tough and I will not quit now! Yes, I definitely yearn for a quieter, more peaceful and stable country! I don't blame young people for making the decision not to bring children into this world we are currently living in! If I were that young age right now, I know I would choose not to have children! The harm we are doing to our young ones right now will be felt when they grow into adults! All of us that are against what this government is doing need what Mr. Logan described on his Crisis and Transition as a "sadvipra", a spiritually evolved personality who possesses moral integrity and can promote human welfare, imbued with love and respect for all life. This sadvipra would serve living beings out of compassion and not to accumulate wealth, power or position. Simply dedicated to the welfare of humanity as a whole. Every time I go on MSM and read comments from people who are suddenly waking up to the s&*t storm happening around them, the other commenters are simply saying 'you voted for it, now live with it'. It is sad that person who finally had an epiphany will probably just not vote anymore at all after such a frosty reply to their awakening! We are all so very tired and if it helps, step away from all of it for a short while. Spend time doing what you love to do and put it in the back of your mind for a little bit. Once you do that, you find it is easier to come back and join the fight! C'mon, America! We've got this! Keep fighting and resisting! Stay strong and stay safe!
The Democrats need to start choosing people who can win elections. Harris was a car crash waiting to happen. Hilary was deeply unpopular with too many Americans. Choose unelectable politicians, and this is what you get, MAGA.
I make a relatively minor reply. Too often the Democratic Party is criticized as if it is one voice--as if one powerful person chooses the candidates and the policy positions. Whereas now, the Republican Party is one person, and the characters are ignorance (particularly of history), greed, and specified hatreds, the Democratic Party is a conglomeration of persons and ideas without a unity. In many ways that absence of unity is a healthy marketplace of ideas and persons, but if society as a whole is lacking interest, patient analysis, and thoughtfulness, then the lazy quick choice happens too often.
Friends, remember the Trump era will eventually end. What we are building now is a coalition for #RebuildingHonorableDemocracy. Our founding fathers had it right 250 years ago when they set this whole thing up.
But there were two major flaws. They did not include everyone, only White land owners could call the shots initially. The second flaw was the assumption that the office of president would demand an honorable approach to its execution.
All the powers of the president were expected to be wielded by someone who valued America, its freedoms, and its standing in the world order.
But Trump has pissed all over that. So we'll need a #NoKingsAct to prevent breaches like these in the future. We'll need a #ForThePeopleAct2 to curb corporate and billionaire influence on policy, oversight, and legislation.
And we will need a mountain of justice to land on the heads of the #TrumpMuskMillerVoughtProject2025BillionaireCabal.
That's the image we must hold in this moment, and the goal that keeps the wind in our sails despite it all.
The wits of Reich are in perfect shape and his doubts are justified. And yes, the Trump era will end. But will things be better and the damage repaired? Has the US a political system that can free itself from the power of big money and tech-brothers?
I doubt it: what is needed to find the way to this new freedom?
Lots to think about as well: how did the nation get so anxious and fearfull about the future? Is it the result of Trump and his corrupt lack of respect for the law?
Or was it the result of a process that began earlier, a result of the spoiling influence of big money in politics and media?
Or deeper: of the organisation of political life? How do we solve or political problems on a local level? How do we connect the solutions we find with general problems on a higher scale? It is the central question of social history.
If we find ways to bake the maximum of justice and inclusion into the system that emerges from all this, we will have at least established the foundation capable of long-term course correction
How about a Big Beautiful Ballroom Bunker with no door knobs on the inside?
Idea is great, but stop the ballroom is better still...
Paul, I understand your feelings and it makes me want to vomit, but was has and is happening is what it is, but lamenting over spilt milk will only weaken our resolve to get those traitors out of office soon, if possible. But lets be ready to better things for all our citizens when we get the chance--and we will get that chance!!! IN TO WIN IT TOGETHER
a roach motel for the roach kng.
Yes! "Justice and inclusion" are less stressful! Ironically, it is how close America was getting to "woke" that raised up such a backlash, enhanced by media from enemies abroad and at home.
We were making headway for sure but I'm beginning to think the backlash wasn't really a backlash, but a predatory jump that has been positioning itself for decades. That we got as far as we did wasn't at all too far and it absolutely shouldn't lead us to hold back in the future.But it may have been a blind spot of sorts. I'm very guilty of not thinking we'd actually be dragged backwards, ever. And here we are!
No, it wasn't a backlash. You are absolutely right. It has been in the works for decades -- probably ever since the New Deal.
A good foundation to start ..
That is a good advise and goal for the immense repairing toil that is waiting...
If we can start by returning to the basics of our republic, we will have taken a major step toward a return to sanity. Restore 0Constitutional law, rule of law, restoration of the basic human rights embedded in Constitution and Amendments. We have to correct obvious errors in the original Constitution. Return to the Constitution and rule of law. Not rule of law as interpreted by Trump and his clowns. Then, make sensible, well thought out changes. Bring the Constitution into the 21st century, but in a sensible manner.
This is an important question. I think a lot of our current situation has to do with the pervasive nature of advertising and mass media, now exacerbated 24/7 in the 21st century. Media's stress on dramatic events make us more fearful, more cautious, less trusting, regardless of how rare such events might be. And so we long for someone who we think can protect us from all these named and nameless fears. We are no longer the land of the free, because we have ceased being the home of the brave.
James, agree with almost everything you say. Only one slight difference: I think that we should not look for a saviour who protects us from fears, but that this protection should come from ourselves, our ways of solving problems, our ties with the communities we live in...
" To stir the masses, to appeal to their higher, better selves, to set them thinking for themselves, and to hold ever before them the ideal of mutual kindness and good will, based upon mutual interests, is to render real service to the cause of humanity." Eugene V. Debs
Also, " I would not be a Moses to lead you into the Promised Land, because if I could lead you into it, someone else could lead you out of it." Eugene V. Debs
We need the type of system that Eugene Debs recommended: democratic socialism ala Bernie Sanders, AOC and Zohran Mamdani.
I agree completely! Capitalism is the single worst economic system humans have invented and all for the LOVE of money. Only the talented ones at making money or stealing money get rewarded. People have got to stop having this love affair with capitalism or we will never reach the potential that we are capable of...spiritually, mentally or physically.
Thanks for posting these quotations, Gregg. I had never heard them before.
Especially the one about Moses...
We have to create the promised land for ourselves because what is God afterall? I would say 'The energy that is our better natures.' We are the creators of our lives and thus our futures.
Well said, Kathleen. We, as a country, must have a sense of movement toward something better. Each one of us has a need to feel that he or she is contributing something to that movement. Trump gets it, this is why he created MAGA, a white nationalist movement. He is failing at it now, and this is the time the rest of us must come out with an alternative movement. How about: True MAGA--An America of the the people, for the people?
Amen...
Pay the workers a proper wage like most of the other countries! $25 an hour. They haven't been given an increase for 11 years!
Universal healthcare for all paid by additional tax. It costs much less than what Americans are paying now.
As well as subsidized child care, and proper amounts of time off, without guilt attached to it.
In some regions, $25 doesn't cut it. My accomplished 31 year-old daughter in Los Angeles County is looking for work and no one wants to even pay her enough to barely cover her most basic expenses. It's ridiculous. Most people my age and older who I know are helping their kids out financially because they just can't make a living wage even with full-time employment.
People…. Organise, fight the oligarchs and CHEATING business owners. Your daughter should be paid much more than the minimum wage!
Yes Dianne, it is not fashionable, but you talk about class struggle. That is a concept of Karl Marx, but the dimensions of antagonisms in the US justify the use of this. Hope you won't be threatened....
Krishnamurti said: “ Be a light unto yourself “.
Tom, that phrase was intended as a description, not a prescription. You are correct; we need to save ourselves, not look for some superhero to do it for us.
Your comment has generated a really interesting and informative series of responses.
Oh, advertising and the mass media play a far more important role than the one you describe, which is undoubtedly part of the problem. Americans are conditioned by advertising - to believe BS for one thing. To want only happy talk all the time. To think that a wild happiness comes from eating some crap at a fast food joint or drinking the right beverage or driving the right car. And what I find fascinating is how the influence on advertising on the American mentality is never observed or analyzed. It goes completely unnoticed. I get print advertising from Amazon in my mailbox - slick flyers that tell me how well Amazon treats its employees and all the bennies they get from the company.
Getting rid of advertising and getting the money out of politics, most of which is spent on advertising - two very important things.
Most national advertising is also political propaganda in disguised form. It depicts American life as much better than it actually is for most people, and thereby supports the (disfunctional, undemocratic) status quo.
I'll buy that. I think you are right. Hollywood does the same - sells a propagandized version of the American way of life and projects that all over the world.
It’s especially pernicious when we’re young. We never, for example, questioned the content of women’s magazines and their ads. I dropped Psychology Today when the medical flavor of the decade switched suddenly to its polar opposite. We expect wisdom and get fluff.
Yes. I’ve come to think of advertising and aggressive marketing as the cardinal sins: and of course speculative fiction has made this clear in countless books and movies. I can’t believe that we bought the hype about the worldwide net—endless access to everything. But look how much time and money we spend to keep it. Today a woman bemoaned the loss of her kindle due to its obsolescence—a painful loss I had to accept years ago. And I recently deleted the AI component of my expensive but essential Windows update. Things you don’t want and never asked for …
It is the universe accessible in a mobile phone. So the kids don't look in faces anymore, don't talk and argue anymore, don't read more than a minute before getting bored.
Why are we surprised by the low quality of our politics?
I see a lot of anger and bad manners when I watch pro golf tournaments on TV with my husband..seems to come from miles under 40 years old..civility seems to have died there too.
That should be men under 40
re: advertising and aggressive marketing. I strongly recommend "Space Merchants by Pohl and Kornbluth. Sci-Fi masking serious social commentary.
"The Space Merchants is a 1952 satirical science fiction novel by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth, set in a future where advertising agencies run the world and corporations have replaced governments."
I’ll look it up. Thanks.
Updates in general which make products worse. Well, some employees have to justify their jobs.
Also, the nature of work and the division of labour has changed. Modern society 1920 to 2026 is fundamentally less socially engaging in a meaningful way. Whereas prior, most people were preoccupied with working in the home, the field, and local small scale industries. There was less time to fritter away. At the end of the day they turned to books, a game of bridge, a small social gathering, piano/fiddle playing. Then came radio, followed by TV, followed by computers, followed by iphones and social media, rampant capitalism, greed, scary AI and a diminishing reliance on social connections. We no longer cooperate; we compete. No wonder we want to "escape", the social fabric is torn.
I'm going to give away my age but I remember using a manual typewriter to type papers in college. We had TV in a lounge room, not in our dorm rooms. Not even a radio. My god - whatever did we do with ourselves. But I do remember watching a lot of TV as a child - Dennis the Menace, Leave It to Beaver, Bonanza, etc., etc.
'Diet Pepsi' I'm thinking I'm a bit older than you because (even after having experienced a - cascade of mini-strokes 5+ years ago) I remember all those TV shows that my family watched together. + many more, Red Skelton, Donna Reed Show, Hopalong Casidy (big white 10 gallon hat while riding his horse)... I also remember family get-to-gethers and reunions ~ ~ with fondness (that I'm lacking now ~)
Red Skelton was already a little passe by the time I was engaged in heavy TV watching, but I did watch the Donna Reed Show. Hopalong also I knew about but I think he was a bit past his prime. But I'm sure we watched many of the same TV shows and films. They often broadcast The Wizard of Oz on one of the network channels - still one of the best movies ever.
Nothing like a walk down Memory Lane, right???
It's not just the media and advertising. It's social media, where anyone can comment and post their opinions and thoughts about events, government, politicians, government officials, laws, policies, etc. 24/7, including extreme views, tropes and conspiracies, without any basis in fact or thoughtful analysis. It's a minefield. That's why I avoid 99.9% of social media for my own sanity. No Facebook, No X, No Truth Social, etc., etc., etc. I don't need additional stress and anxiety.
Don't people have anything else to do with their time? And that includes Trump who just posts stupid and outrageous stuff repeatedly in the overnight hours. He acts as a clown rather than acting presidential. I have Trump Derangement Syndrome because he is deranged.
I agree that media has been and is a huge part of the problem by bowing to money and power leading it to neglect it's most important role in society as the objective reporter the day's news and issues. Had it continued to do that, perhaps more people would see that the emperor was naked all along while his aides continuously tell him how beautiful he is.
It's going to take all of us to move that mountain.
As I point out in The 'Plenty' Book: the Answer to the Question "What Can I do to Make This a Better World?" (Steve Watkins, Amazon/Kindle, ISBN-978-1-7333984-0-4), there are many different ways we can work to make this a better world. But the foundational support for such activities is a democratic system in which we can agree without being disagreeable, in which we have a system of checks and balances which actually have enforcement mechanisms (so that orange-colored tumors will not metastasize and kill off our political system), and which provide for the least of our people.
Yes, we live in a materialistic country with B.S. values, where we don't teach people to critically think, to value who we are and not what we own, to find ways to work and communicate and enjoy being with each other rather than choosing partisanship and division.
Our fixation on selling/marketing has provided for planned obsolescence, environmental devastation, and extremely poor choices when it comes to politics, the economic, and our social/cultural infrastructure. We live in a society where the natural divisions of men and women are not honored and respected but are disparaged; when we are taught to treat people as means, not ends; where we are taught to compare ourselves to others so that "The Other" dictates our self-image and our psychology; and where we lack a coherent sense of self-worth and personal dignity.
Is there any reason to wonder why we have so much to do and so little time in which to do it? Is there any reason to wonder why so many of us are high-strung, neurotic twits? Is there any reason why we suffer, as a nation, from PTSD?
Developing a coherent system of media--NOT social media--would go a long way to restoring us to a sense of sanity and sangfroid. When we had a national "voice," a la Edgar R. Murrow; Walter Cronkite; Huntley and Brinkley; Jim Lehrer; et al., we had people who could articulate a sense of what was going on and the issues of import. Nowadays, we are bombarded by gossip printed on the backs of advertisements. Get rid of THAT and watch the national and local conversations radically improve.....
Steve, total agreement. See my reaction, minutes ago:
It is the universe accessible in a mobile phone. So the kids don't look in faces anymore, don't talk and argue anymore, don't read more than a minute before getting bored.
Why are we surprised by the low quality of our politics?
Just like to say in regards of anxiety of and fear of the future... I have experience with multiple degrees (mostly due to age) including one in education and also the MBA track. Understanding business and the practices required to manage all things associated is a powerful tool. However I always felt it was like having your head cut open, stuff shoved in (no debate only competition), and then zipped shut. Very different from other degree tracks. Yes I am a fan of a broad based education and the whole "zip the brain shut" mantra gets a lot of credit for my opinion. Maximum efficiency related only to $$$ produced is not the means to every end.
You have deepened Roberts's question. And it is a profound one. In his biography, "Report to Greco," Nikos Kazantzakis relates his experience of the Turkish genocide against the Greeks on Crete in the late 19th century. His Father gets his family off Crete to the Island of Naxos. Of Naxos, later in life, Kazantzakis reflects, "Here liberty had extinguished the yearning for liberty." In the 1990s, I returned home to "an economy in crisis" in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It had lost 10,000 of its 50,000 jobs in 8 years. No one knew what to do. A few of us started talking. We concluded that we did not know what to do either, but we had a sense of what needed to be done, and we would place ourselves at the service of whatever made sense. In time, this confession and conversation led to the creation of the "no-name forum." It was a citizen's forum where the only restrictions on participation were that you leave your politics and professions at the door. It developed in a list of 150 people that included the Chancellor of the local University of Massachusetts to neighborhood community activists. Over a 5-year period, the new bridging social capital relationships that emerged from the forum transformed themselves into voluntary associations that were beyond the wildest imaginations of anything we could have considered when we began. I carry a quote from a French thinker, Gaston Bachelard. that goes something like this. "What is the source of our first suffering? It lies in the fact that we hesitated to speak....It was born in the moment when we accumulated silent things within us." I have come to believe in what I call the "American Democratic Ideal" It is in the diversity of our people, the plurality of their experiences, the literacy of their lived experiences and the range of their creative imaginations that we transform our futures beyond any expectations we had when we began. If we want to change the nature of the world, we have to change the nature of dialogue
Craig, great and intersting reaction... it inspires me a lot. I'studied politics all my life, but dialogues like this combined with the reality of today order me to stay around. They need to be processed in my mind. Thank you for now...
Reich has already spelled it out and
be is correct: big money in politics and in the life of the nation. Corporatists and obscenely wealthy run amok.
For a mountain of justice, start with an ounce of cure.
How did MLK get to the mountain top? With a character full of content.
How do you measure the content of MLK's character? Divide the number of people he cared about by the number of people = 100% full.
Honest Abe? 100% full.
Dissembling Don? One divided by over eight billion and counting.
For an ounce of cure, live as if the beloved community is already real by making only necessary (no unnecessary) trouble.
Thank you for your encouraging words.
🙏 Perfectly stated. Thank you.
A Glass-1/8th-Full Perspective, I love what you wrote! I agree with you about the two major flaws. When we get our country back, we absolutely must address inclusion of everyone, not just white landowners! We also must have some type of rules of ethics for our presidents in the future. I would also add that anyone wanting to become the president of the United States must take and pass a civics test, cannot be a criminal and must not buy, sell or trade stocks during the four or eight years of his/her presidency and that includes his family as well. I can honestly get behind a #NoKingsAct and a #ForThePeopleAct2! Thank you for that image and goal to keep in mind as we fight and resist this corrupt regime!
Why not the same rules for any elected representative?
Sounds great to me, Dorothy!
YES 👏
We need economic as well as political reform. How about FDR's Freedom from want? Freedom from want: Economic understandings that secure a healthy, peaceful life for all nations' inhabitants. Earn enough to provide adequate food, clothing, and recreation.
John, that sounds a lot like Economic Democracy and I am all for it!
White male landowners, to be exact.
Exactly!
Meghan and Peggy -
As a white male landowner, I have to tell you that making a target of people like me - while it might make you feel better - isn’t going to help move this country in the direction you’d like to see it go. At least not anytime soon. You do realize that Robert Reich, to whom you send $5/mo, is counted among this despicable group, right?
I believe that Peggy is referring to the fact that the Constitution was written at a time when only white male landowners could vote.
I'm not so sure about that. I mean, yes, that is true about the time when the Constitution was drawn up, but it's been amended numerous times since then to address previous exclusions. I subscribe to this Substack because I've always appreciated Robert's politics, and his authenticity, but I'm probably an atypical subscriber - quite conservative, under the old definition. I've known for a long time about the vitriol and intolerance coming from the right, but subscribing here has served as a reminder that the right hasn't exactly cornered the market in that regard. There is plenty of anger and intolerance coming from the left. I suppose many of the subscribers here would counter with "Yes, but ours is justified!" Well, that's also what the other guys are saying. Both sides need to elevate the discourse.
Yes, absolutely, the Constitution has been amended to become more inclusive. (And more work is needed, as we can see from current events.) I also agree that more civil discourse is needed. Thank you for being part of the conversation.
The two sides are unequal, David. The Right sings in unison with the conductor, and he follows the promptor (Fox news), and they have a score: Project 2025. There is no equivalent on the Left. Progressives need to come out with a philosophy, an ideology, to give meaning and coherence to their demands. Bernie has led the way, but it is not enough.
David, you have hit the nail on the head. I would never characterize myself as a conservative, but I am a moderate Democrat finding myself increasingly alienated by the vitriol not only from MAGA, but from the party for which I have voted my entire life.
I am absolutely fine with attacking Trump/MAGA in any way we can. But heaven forbid I question transgendered girls playing on girls sports teams, or defend Israel for crushing Hamas, my Democratic friends and family swarm on me as if I am as bad as the people locking up children in concentration camps and attacking other countries for sport.
Just yesterday, because I am on every Democtratic candidate's contributor list, I received an email from Abdul for Senate wanting me to donate to his campaign against "Israeli genocide" and attacking AIPAC as the way to persuade me to do so. I literally froze in my chair with my eyes fixed on the screen.
Now, before I start receiving anti-Semitic hate mail (always qualified by the mantra than being anti-Zionist is not being anti-Semitic), let me be clear. I do not approve of the manner in which Israel has conducted the Gaza War. But for heaven's sake. Are we really going to start tearing ourselves apart even before we control a single House of Congress? This is madness. Not Trumpian madness, but almost so, because it will allow the madmen to retain power.
I believe in my heart --- or at least want to believe --- that even in an age of ubiquitous fake media, and even in the wake of our national PTSD, we can rebuild a country in which the majority of Americans (never all, but we only need 50.1%) can engage in mutual caring and rational discourse. Or even if it is not possible, we can give it a try. Spreading hate within our own party, however, is not the way.
"The second flaw was the assumption that the office of president would demand an honorable approach to its execution."
I would put this a little differently: the second flaw was POTUS. By 1776 the English, and later the British, had spent almost 6 centuries sidelining the king, By 1688 William and Mary had no power. The American Revolution was all about land and a revolt against Parliament by landowners like George Washington who wanted to expand west of the Allegheny mountains. The "shot in the foot" was Madison bringing back the king when there was no need for one.
Sorry, clue me in: how did Madison bring back the king? Too much power to the presidency?
Exactly, he gave kingly powers to POTUS: The power to raise armies for 60 days without the consent of Congress (which Kennedy used to get troops into Vietnam and which Trump has just used), the power of pardon, the power to veto legislation from Congress etc.
Interestingly, George Mason, who had bravely signed the Declaration of Independence, went to Madison to complain about the office of POTUS because it was too kingly. He later refused to ratify the Constitution.
Wasn't he for state rights and slavery?
I think they all were.
Madison, Washington, and even Jefferson wanted a strong federal government.
The kings (and their religious ties) were not sidelined in the Tudor or Stewart eras—far from it. WIlliam of Orange was the attempted cure for that malaise.
Agree, but it was a struggle for almost 5 centuries (I incorrectly said 6) from the Magna Carta to get to that point, which was a century before the Constitution.
As soon as T Rump was elected, I foresaw the end of the Age of Enlightenment which did, at least bring us to Obama. The white “Anglo-Fascist” contingent is doing its best to drive nails in hope’s coffin and the planet’s livability. Peace, friend.
That's a very long-shot argument - not verified by more extended analysis of those guys who really listened to each othe in the spirit of compromise.
Yes Gordon, compromise is a gift and should be beneficial to all concerned.
Elderly Mac can't Like, so Like: For all my recognition of the female issue, I often ponder how much the Founders never imagined a President utterly without honor or rationality.
Or Intelligence.
The first thing we need is an Amendment to make the amending process easier. Then we can begin to change some of the things about our system that suppress government of the people.
Sorry, but no. We can amend the Constitution until we are blue in the face, but for so long as we have men like Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, doing so will avail us nothing.
The answer has to come from making people believe that we can have a better country under liberals than under conservatives. Obama, for as much as I adored him, blew it when he had the chance. Biden, by contrast, tried hard to do so, but had to extract us from the pandemic, which ultimately depleted his reserves (and then, of course, tried to overstay his welcome). We have a few leaders in the Party who can do so now, but the problem is that they are White/Male, and thus not fit for office according to an oversized contingent of the only party that can save us.
The U.S. Supreme Court cannot overrule or strike down a constitutional amendment that has been properly passed and ratified.
I agree with you about Obama and Biden.
You are so right, Gloria.
I agree wholeheartedly! But, also, we need to eliminate the "dark money" influencing campaigns by instituting PUBLIC FINANCING OF ELECTIONS. We should limit the amount of money for each candidate so we can have a level playing field. In the long run we'd be much better off; with big corporations and billionaires donating the money to candidates, we pay very dearly for the special favors they get. Just look at the oil companies now who collectively donated over a billion dollars to Trump. Trump and friends have tanked efforts for clean, renewable energy and withdrawn from climate change initiatives.
Term limits - no more "career politicians" who become greedy and corrupt. End Citizens United and punish insider trading and betting.
Agreed. But riddle me this: Who is going to vote for term limits when doing so puts them out of a job? We've had an occasional politician run on a platform of term limits --- during their first successful run for office. Then, when seeking reelection, it's "term limits, what pray tell are those?" and "No, no, no, I meant FIRM limits on interfering with elections; my mistake."
The Constituion was elastic enough to make change as change arrived... yes with deaths but still we changed to embrace what was once not allowed. And then came Reagan.. Federalists, Heritage & finally Project 2025... the slow but purposeful erosion of our Constitution has put us here...double speak for the justices and a felon in charge...once they lock it all in they will dump the idiot and put in jd the puppet...we need to stop this ....mid-terms are a fantasy if we do not keep and grow our strength against these monsters
You forgot that the White Land owners had to be MALE!
We need more than laws, we need an Amendment. I'm going to be pulling a Hail Mary and trying to get one proposed AND ratified by the end of the year, which can actually happen if I'm able to get the majority of American citizens on my side. It all depends on whether I'm able to go viral when I launch in a month, so wish me luck.
I wish you much luck. But prepare yourself for the long game. It will take more than a year. Even the ERA to give equal rights to women never passed. We all thought that was such an obvious addition to the Constitution.
You're almost certainly right! The chances I succeed in the entirety of my goals are so low they're not even worth speculating on. I'm still going to put my whole heart and soul into this effort, so that when all is said and done, I will know that I did literally everything I could to stop this insanity. ❤️
Well said.
What the Trump era has made clear is that about a third of the population doesn't have the basic common sense and decency required to live in a civilized democratic society. Those are the third that persistently support the oligarchical and evangelical religious extremist fascism of Trump and the bulk of the Republican party. Our task is to ensure that these people are politically contained so they cannot continue to undermine democracy and the rule of law.
Gabriel, a lot of people are so busy trying to get enough to live on they don’t have time to think much about voting. We may be a rich country but we don’t see that every one is making it.
Great!
Why isn’t my like to the heart staying on? I tap on it and it reverts to original state as if I didn’t tap on it!
Happens to me if I have a slow connection, clicking it again just "undoes" before it can show show clicked in the first place.
Agree and i’m all in
My fear is that we are not going to see the end of the Trump era. Whether he dies or is replaced by someone else, we may be relieved of seeing DJT at some point, but he represents a lot of Americans who chose all of this. Would choose it again, given the chance. And, it’s their future choices that we must fear as well.
Less than 30%. 70% of Americans wants something different and, I hope, better. They are noisier and, of course, have the White House bully pulpit right now. I believe that the rest of us can bring peace and security if we fight and vote for it. Let them slither back under their rocks again.
30% is still far too many, and that group is concentrated in the south, so it’s much higher there. They also have an outsized influence on the rest of us due to the Electoral College and the Senate.
Amen!
One can't overlook the miserable reality, who are these voters? Take some Kentuckians voting against Massey, for instance. They voted in contradiction to Trump's own much-touted "transparency" promises, simultaneously voting in favor of cover-up of the most massive sex-trafficking operation ever known. Who are these people?
A physical therapist neighbor who voted for him bc she "didn't want another 9/11", whatever that meant.
The devout religious who are so lost they cannot see he's lying to them.
People who listen to right wing talk jocks who are perpetually aggrieved.
There are so many of them.
And then the simply greedy selfish ones who know nothing and care less. Lots of them too. And they vote
Don't forget the sexists and racists!
I call them cult members.
What gives me hope about Trump being gone? I liken him to the Night King of Game of Thrones- once he’s gone and at the hands of a woman no less- his minions will fall and his wicked kingdom with it. Trump is the master hypnotist. The spell will break and is breaking as we speak. Reason, Truth and Justice are mighty and will assert themselves, once again as soon as this insanity ends. Then will we seek and find opportunities to shore up the holes Trump has blown through our democracy.
Oh, Malissa, I hope you are right.
Me too, Dorothy. Trump is the one they follow, bow down to and fear. I don't see Vance or anyone else being able to take up that gauntlet and have the same sway or get away with what he has gotten away with. That is the hope, anyway.
I hope you're right, but I see tWumpus as a puppet of those who prop him up. He isn't smart enough to have done any of his institution-level destruction on his own. The Heritage Society and their ilk have been working on this for decades.
Just when we might wonder if the menace, acting as POTUS, really is a mob boss, HCR reports this quote from his "spokesperson" in our desicrated White House regarding Republican primary losses.
White House spokesperson Steven Cheung posted: “Do not ever doubt President Trump and his political power. F*ck around, find out.”
Disgusting
Professor Reich, as a retired psychologist, I deeply appreciate your description and analysis of what we are going through.
Thank you for this, and for all your work toward bringing about a more just, sane and tranquil society!
30% will dwindle to less than 10% when Trump dies. All fanatics/cultists need an active leader. Anyone left over will be using write in votes for Trump after he dies!
I tap heart and it immediately reverts to as if I didn’t tap on it!!! What’s going on???? I’m a fully subscribed meaning paying customer!
No Kidding! After all the Malignant Narcissist has done to us…my husband is STILL A SUPPORTER! Try living with that every day!
The tyranny of the minority!!! Beware of politicians using social issues to grab power-- whether they are on the right or left!
😅 You are turning into the wise old man on the mountain! 😅
And believe me, the stress is felt too very strongly in Europe.
Keep up the oracling, is that even a verb?, America needs your voice.
And Stephen Colbert.
Amen!
It’s been like living through several existential threats daily on auto-repeat. The continued stress and fear is very unhealthy so there is need for self-care. We’re not bulletproof.
Perhaps one day we can file a class action lawsuit as Trump gave us all TDS.
A classic action suit against Trump is a great idea. Why wait?
The Actual People, The Citizens Of The United States, Not MillionaireBillionaires
In a Class Action
vs
The R*pist In Chief And His R*pist Ghouls, The R*pist Parasite Class,
For Damages of 10 Trillion Dollars, 150 million homes lost or hoarded by the Parasite Class.
* * *
Add any other damages you deem appropriate that these don't cover.
lock him up!
How? SCOTUS gave him immunity for all official acts, which he usually claims and must be argued in court to prove otherwise.
We can live more loving simpler lives. Lives that are healthy and giving, creative and inquiring. Without hurting each other. Better educated, especially in biology, so we could accept each other for what we really are. We can do that, we just have to learn that the “I” it’s not the most important thing, it’s the “we”. We will all be better off because of it.
Beautifully said, Janet! I know people who do continue to live very simple lives. They are healthy and care about others in their community. While they do keep up with what is happening in our government, they don't seem to be anxious about it. For them, maintaining their lifestyle is what they work for and when the time comes, they will go to the polls and vote for their choice. I have to admit, I am a little jealous of their happiness and simplicity. I would love to have that in my life!
Will require better education and consistent information to all citizens. Too much reliance on social media, Fox news, interference by oligarchs, and a timid and weakened legacy news.
Sometime in the 1980s, I became friends with an elderly German couple who were young adults during WWII. They would often wonder when seeing old films of Hitler’s speeches just what had possessed them to support such an obviously deranged man. Their conclusion often was that Hitler made everybody crazy. Now I understand them. We have our Hitler who is making everyone crazy. When Trump dies or is in jail, we will come back to normal. Hold on until then.
Yes, it will run its course. They all do. But at what cost?
Hitler and the Third Reich running their course cost millions of innocent lives, the loss of German culture, society and a sense of history. The establishment of the Soviet Union, pinning millions of people into a repressive political society they did not want…. And much more.
And many decades to recover.
I think that we will recover as a nation before going off the deep end as happened in Germany in the 1940s. We are not a completely fascist state and I expect a partial changing of the guard after the elections this year.
One key factor in the Germans' embrace of Hitler was economic catastrophe from WW One. Did your friends bring up how a wheelbarrow of paper money might buy a loaf of bread? Without looking it up, The Treaty of Vienna (?) no, Versailles: both shamed and impoverished a country perhaps righteously, perhaps unwisely. I am concerned that Trump is simultaneously setting up an economic debacle and a horrific shaming of America. Whereupon whoever is the monster in his shadow will beat the jingoism drum to perdition.
I hold in my mind the image of you standing before that huge crowd at Berkeley, your hair ruffled by the wind, and proclaiming that it's the best university in the world. That is not crabby, and there are other (but a diminishing number) of institutions who do not bend the knee to this administration and its cronies. Civic virtue still exists although it faces heavy counter winds. The crowd cheered for you, professor, and don't forget it.
You are the king of brilliance and that requires a careful Eye on the nation. We’re cranky so I expect you to feel somewhat crabby,but it helps us all to ready ourselves for what’s to come so it’s okay. Thank you. 🙏🏽
That’s not cranky. Decency is not an impossible quality to expect and value in elected officials. … or anyone else. Thank you for the 4 am reminder.
Virginia, you said it. Why should "decency" seem so out of reach of expectation?
Just when we might wonder if the menace, acting as POTUS, really is a mob boss, HCR reports this quote from his "spokesperson" in our desicrated White House regarding Republican primary losses.
White House spokesperson Steven Cheung posted: “Do not ever doubt President Trump and his political power. F*ck around, find out.”
We won the first Civil Ear. We'll win this one.
Spokesperson Cheung sounds a bit rattled.
Prof. Reich, you are my lifeline to reason, integrity, compassion—in other words, all that is best of humanity. Please keep it all coming without sacrificing your well-being! I was born in 1950, have 5 children, and 12 grandchildren. I worry a lot about the future for all these children. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you have given me and countless others. As I have said before, you are my numero uno hero!
"We are becoming a PTSD nation?"
Yes we are.
Naomi Klein called it the Shock Doctrine.
It's deliberately used by the ruling class to cause despair and ignorance so that the plebs will be silenced and mired in confusion.
That way it's easier to control them.
Good point. I haven't heard the Shock Doctrine mentioned in a while, but it fits here perfectly.
Absolutely.
Make the economy scream. Make people fearful and confused.
Then it's easier to control what they think.
Standard brainwashing technique.
YEP YEP YEP
As a nation, we forgo the causal interventions of making decent living, easily accessed education, recreation, and opportunity for viable and fulfilling work in favor of gutting funding for those and health supports and other infrastructure in favor of increasingly lethal policing and more and more imprisonment.
As a nation, we are pathologizing the anxiety that comes from denial of opportunities and demands that humans be judged as adequate compared with machines and chop-and-change national regime cruelties.*
We're consistent, anyway.
Maybe people will be arrested and killed more directly for anxiety, soon.
* I don't deny that anxiety is a medical disorder that typically responds best with medication. My best friend needs those meds. But anxiety can also be a natural emotional response.
Anxiety exists bc it provides a survival benefit. Danger exists. Bad people exist. Anxiety cues you that you are at risk from your environment and heightens senses and cranks up physicality
BUT we cannot live a healthy life in a state of constant anxiety, fear, worry. It will wear down your nervous system changing brain chemicals and pushing the brain into a deeper depression. We must have boundaries around the anxiety and fear and the worry. It cannot be our prison. In order make the changes we need to make we do have to be aware of the dangers, but we must focus on what needs to be done to remove the problem. To eradicate that disease.
Hey! There’s nothing wrong with being a cranky old man, says the cranky old man.
There are more than a few of us here. :-)
Lol.
Robert, back then we were a unified nation recovering from the effects of a world war. Today we are a splintered country lost in the failed efforts of a man who though he was worthy of being a king. It sounds like a sick adaptation of the movie-"The Day the Earth stood still.".
Professor Reich, if you are turning into a cranky old man, then I am turning into a cranky old woman! I wholeheartedly agree with every single thing you wrote! All around me people are adopting an acceptance of the status quo and normalizing the completely ABNORMAL things that are happening in our country right now! The orange man and his minions would have all of us conform to what they are selling! I cannot, and I won't accept any of this! It is so easy to become numb to all of the corruption and illegal activities when they are happening basically 24/7! I have anxiety every morning when I grab my coffee and turn on my laptop! I wasn't raised to quit when the going gets tough and I will not quit now! Yes, I definitely yearn for a quieter, more peaceful and stable country! I don't blame young people for making the decision not to bring children into this world we are currently living in! If I were that young age right now, I know I would choose not to have children! The harm we are doing to our young ones right now will be felt when they grow into adults! All of us that are against what this government is doing need what Mr. Logan described on his Crisis and Transition as a "sadvipra", a spiritually evolved personality who possesses moral integrity and can promote human welfare, imbued with love and respect for all life. This sadvipra would serve living beings out of compassion and not to accumulate wealth, power or position. Simply dedicated to the welfare of humanity as a whole. Every time I go on MSM and read comments from people who are suddenly waking up to the s&*t storm happening around them, the other commenters are simply saying 'you voted for it, now live with it'. It is sad that person who finally had an epiphany will probably just not vote anymore at all after such a frosty reply to their awakening! We are all so very tired and if it helps, step away from all of it for a short while. Spend time doing what you love to do and put it in the back of your mind for a little bit. Once you do that, you find it is easier to come back and join the fight! C'mon, America! We've got this! Keep fighting and resisting! Stay strong and stay safe!
The Democrats need to start choosing people who can win elections. Harris was a car crash waiting to happen. Hilary was deeply unpopular with too many Americans. Choose unelectable politicians, and this is what you get, MAGA.
I make a relatively minor reply. Too often the Democratic Party is criticized as if it is one voice--as if one powerful person chooses the candidates and the policy positions. Whereas now, the Republican Party is one person, and the characters are ignorance (particularly of history), greed, and specified hatreds, the Democratic Party is a conglomeration of persons and ideas without a unity. In many ways that absence of unity is a healthy marketplace of ideas and persons, but if society as a whole is lacking interest, patient analysis, and thoughtfulness, then the lazy quick choice happens too often.
Scott, what you say needs to be heard.
🎯👍🏻👍🏻🙏