There will have to be a huge awakening and a renewed sense of urgency by the Democratic voters in the United States before the November elections or we may wake up in January 2023 and find out our government has been taken over by a neo-fascist party we can’t get rid of. The cure; vote!
It's just possible Putin may help prompt that awakening and renewed sense of urgency, not only among Democratic voters but among independents and those Republicans who still believe in democracy and the rule of law.
Robert thanks for this. I have thought the exact same thing! This tragedy in Ukraine could awaken Americans to the GOP's threat to their own democracy here at home. It brings to the fore the huge obstacle to our own free society and underscores a political party that is openly, clearly fascist. You can't be a little pregnant and you can't straddle fascism. The GOP is fascist, it must be faced.
Off-topic: I will not comment anymore on your articles because I am creeped out by one of your subscribers that “hearts” my comments over and over again. This individual never posts comments of their own and goes by multiple accounts called “Someone”
On July 4, 2018 Republicans John Kennedy (R-LA), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Steve Daines (R-MT), John Hoeven (R-ND), John Thune (R-SD), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Ron Johnson (R-WI) and House member, Kay Granger (R-TX) all celebrated the American holiday meeting with a variety of Russian officials in Moscow supporting the Putin regime (https://americanindependent.com/republicans-congress.../). This group (and others) should now been known as the Putin Caucus in the U.S. Congress.
What frightens me is the Republican party has corrupted the voting process in countless states across the country, NOT even mentioning what they have done with gerrymandering. What if we now have such an unscrupulous voting system we CAN'T vote our way out of this?!
I have been asking this question for awhile. Where is our rule of law? How can one party, in a partisan way, just take away the franchise/civil rights of voters they disagree with? How bad does this have to get before it is stopped?
I also in responding to JAB's and PaulaOH comments, "There will have to be a huge awakening and renewed sense of urgency by the Democratic voters" Respectfully I have a different opinion and prospective of the collective will necessary to accomplish our collective need at this time in history. Rooted in the past is a man speaking before the Virginia Convention in 1775. He was confronting a major problem of Authoritarianism of British Tyranny needing solution from the governing body. Without specifically going into it, my urging would be to pull up the speech Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death Speech. In my opinion the vote is one faze of opposing tyranny but must begin in the heart, with a life living sense of fair-play.
I've lived a long life of eighty-one (81) years. In my youth of early elementary school teaching was the golden rule "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", and that early teaching set me on a path of behavior for life, Military service (Air Force), professional entertainer (Singing Group), College (ASU-Arizona State University) Profession (Environmentalist) to Retirement (Part-time Consultant.)
In my opinion politics today is much more a system of greed rather than people oriented. And I feel the Democratic Party doesn't know to talk to the voter, has a difficult time conveying a singular message, and lastly cannot seem to be able to party over factional in-fighting. I agree with PaulaOH, Stand With UAUS
With the unanimity in the world, including the Russian people, opposing Putin, what is so dire could turn out to be a blessing (of sorts) from seeing how a united stand for the good in the world can best get us where the people of the world most want to go.
I don't see the horrors ahead so much as economically-based control over lives--in the global jetstream-$flow sense, not the 'at the register' sense--as in the removal of rights/legalized-autocracy realm. We see it here nationwide, and a fresh California housing law disallows public complaint period! ..
Finally, finally, someone has connected the dots from one fascist, Putin, to others, Trump and the Republicans. Thank you, Robert! In the VoteForward.org midterm letter writing campaign to Democrats, they rejected a draft letter because the word 'autocracy' was used at the end, i.e., "vote for our cherished Democracy and not autocracy." They didn't like the word "autocracy," saying it was incendiary and NOT bi-partisan. What? This is exactly what's wrong with the Democrats' messaging! Pablum is being served rather than truth to power. This essay should be a call to action for all activists. Robert provides the context, words, and hard truth. Let us go forward and stop the soft, gentile mutterings to inspire people to vote. Let us speak these truths rather than being so bi-partisan that it weakens our messaging at a time when, sadly, the very meaning of bi-partisanship is devalued. It exists no longer...for now. VOTE!
I agree that Democrats are too timid in their messaging. However, I would not use the word autocracy, but for the opposite reason to the one given: It does not pack enough of an emotional punch. Sadly, I suspect that many Americans do not know what the word autocracy means. IMO, Democrats should take a page from Republicans' rhetoric and keep repeating, "Republicans are taking away your freedom." To reach the most voters, simplicity is best.
Autocracy is fascism. In my opinion we should all use the word fascism because most of us are familiar with it and because republicans have worked hard to distort the meaning of words. Distorting the meaning of words is one of the things fascists do to lull people into accepting total control over their lives by a govt.that cares about nothing but perpetuating itself at the expense of everyone else. In other words, it’s wholesale corruption at every level. If, God forbid, fascists like Trump take over our government, they will tear up our Constitution and loot our Treasury until there’s nothing left.
You have a valid point, Carolyn. Words are important. Incendiary language, too, should not be a goal. However, I would try strike a balance between dumbing down language, which can soften the message, and using words too many people do not, sadly, understand. THAT is a whole other topic for discussion. Thank you for your thoughtful comment.
You bet'cha! But the rank & file Tweety-rallyer only learn slogans they don't understand, but believe will help them >win<, having no idea what's involved with the prize, and who actually gets it.
To the clowns who don't like your use of the word "autocracy" someone should send a copy of Webster's! If that's the kind of thinking that's currently hamstringing Democrats, it may be time for the Democrats to start considering a purge of its own lousy leadership. Just sayin'. The Dems need "Zelenskian" leadership - now.
'Just sayin', thank you! VoteForward was highly successful in getting out the vote in the 2020 election. However, they have lost their way rooted in ungrounded fear. They are writing to Democrats AND Democrats who do not vote. So, we need to inform, teach and inspire those who are reluctant or confused about exercising our cherished freedom to vote.
I must say that Zelensky’s courage is inspiring and might just 1) shame Republicans (ha!) and 2) finally embolden Democrats. Or I might be indulging in wishful thinking. But stranger things have happened.
Paula, it is NOT wishful thinking. I believe we are so wrung out after years of Trump, the Republicans devolving as a party, and the Covid, that we are losing the energy and faith to win. Zelensky's courage is inspiring and, remember, we too fought this way when our country was founded. Stay in the fight and turn that wishful thinking into reality!
Autocracy is just a less “loaded” term for fascism. Republicans are manipulating Americans to accept FASCISM. Fascism means the govt controls everything. Citizens have no vote and no rights. Fascism is the opposite of freedom & democracy. Every elected democrat should be shrieking about it and they’re not! I don’t understand that. Dems should book themselves onto every talk show in existence to tell all Americans what we’re fighting is fascism.
Agreed, but we also have to stop settling for comfort by avoiding tough truthful conversations about the things they are using to divides us like race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, and the influence of the uber-wealthy over all our institutions (politics, media, religion, capitalism...) and how our division enables them to continue to use that influence to put profit over people, which negatively impacts us all (like our current system of minority rule in many states and potential loss of democracy)
Even if Putin conquers Ukraine, he has lost much more than he gained. NATO is being reinvigorated, the world seems united against him, and he appears to be losing support with the Russian people. Everyone now sees Putin for who he really is, not the image he has cultivated. If only the same thing would happen to Donald Trump!
The earth’s power structure will consist of Russia-China versus the USA-EU — with India and the Middle East and Africa and South America as non-aligned. This is a welcome simplification: for decades, starting with Willy Brandt, the EU was pursuing an accommodative policy toward Russia. That’s ended.
I think one consequence of Putin's recent actions in Ukraine is that the GOP's Trumpist/anarchist faction is losing its influence and becoming less relevant. The "Putin is a genius" meme probably doesn't resonate well with Trump's base, let alone the GOP political establishment.
I do not understand what the American people are thinking, the choice we are about to make is between democracy or communism, it’s that simple. Don’t we study the world more closely then to realize the vast difference between the two? How would you like your children to grow up in a country with no rights, no religion, little choices, what you can read, and what you can say, if you rebel you are put in jail. How can this even be a choice? America is envied by many nations for its openness and freedom, why do we want to change it? Vote to save what we know is the best in the world, your children deserve it
GOP supporters don't see it that way. I think Democrats must do much more to understand the power of brainwashing and recruit experts to work against it. I see daily, first hand, that logic and fact don't work. They get shut out, constructive communication doesn't happen. I'm not sure if even trained experts could get through the walls and undo the brainwashing, but it's the only possibility that comes to mind. Leaders are aware that Putin et al work to brainwash U.S. voters, yet they don't do enough to follow through on that awareness, to combat the brainwashing. Instead, we all just keep trading logic among ourselves. It's not heard by the brainwashed. It's very largely pointless. We need strategy from experts effective in combating cult and Russian brainwashing.
The only way GOP supporters see is what they are fed to consume and lack the critical reasoning skills overall. Unfortunately Democrats on the other hand with all the educational studies and influences of Rhodes Scholar recipience don't seem to be able to put it together as to what's going on and how to counter it. So we get silence. Democrats lack street wisdom.
Richard Nixon type politics are at the heart of what's ailing the Democrats and they've never found a way to counter over the last forty six years. Barrack Obama and Bill Clinton are the only two Democratic Presidents we've had in the last 46 years. Because of Barrack Obama's ground-breaking Presidency he wasn't expose to the Lee Atwater type politics that he popularize for Republicans. But Bill Clinton, if not for three way running of George Bush Senior and Ross Perot in 1992, and Clinton's Sister Soldier moment in 1996, they are the only Democratic representation since LBJ.
When Right Wing donors and developers were forming, meaning the different phases of the echo chamber mostly in AM Radio throughout the country, especially in rural USA. Rush Limbaugh was made, build, and echoed all over the country. Democrats particularly in the donor class decline to invest. Voice lost.
In my experience I've learned that Democratic voters are generally critical thinkers. They will support you and vote for you but not blindly. One could look into they documentary and/or book called "The Brainwashing Of My Dad, by Jen Senko" and also "The Loudest Voice In The Room:, book by Gabriel Sherman. A six part TV series was made of this starring Russell Crowe as Roger Ailles. Very good depiction of how and why Fox news was started and how they fixated use used the mantra "Fair And Balance" I can only say in my opinion the Democratic Party as a critical matter needs to learn how to come across as fighting for the votes they seek.
Because the uber-wealthy pay Republican leaders to pedal lies and disinformation and to create and fan the flames of culture wars in an effort to keep the majority (voters) divided. After Obama, they realized that voter suppression, gerrymandering and their tactics to divide may not be enough to overcome a growing multicultural majority (all races) that are for truth and fairness and want our democracy to be what it can be. A majority who is waking up (woke) to their tactics of division and suppression and that exposes & rejects it. They didn't decide to be more inclusive, they decided to go ALL IN on their (lie, cheat, still and/or kill) tactics and to sacrifice democracy, if that's what it takes to retain power (by any means necessary).
Some republicans are starting to backpedal re their earlier comments supporting Putin.
Mitt Romney has finally criticized Trump and republicans, saying they are borderline treasonous. Western European countries are coming together in many ways to denounce Putin’s aggression. I see what I hope is the beginning of the end of America’s flirtation with fascism.
Thousands of Russians are being arrested for demonstrating against Putin’s aggression and I even saw a video excerpt in which one of Putin’s govt. officials told Putin point blank, to his face, that he is against the aggression in Ukraine, and there are other signs as well that Putin is losing power.
As concerned as I am about all of that, there’s something that concerns me even more. Does anyone have any idea why Trump hasn’t been arrested and indicted for multiple criminal acts? Does anyone know why AG Garland hasn’t moved against state laws allowing state government officials to subvert the Constitution by throwing votes out if they don’t like them and otherwise suppress votes and voting in violation of the Constitution? Does anyone have any idea why Foxnews is permitted to spew obvious sedition, undermining our government and the rule of law, day after day, after day,etc.?
I’m absolutely serious. There may be good reasons why the DOJ appears to be doing almost nothing to get our country back on track, but I can’t figure out what they are, and for the record, I’m an attorney.
According to the 14th amendment, Sec.3,
neither Trump or any other elected officials, (meaning senators and representatives) who incited and/or participated in the 1/6 insurrection can ever hold a government office again. Why haven’t we heard about plans to proceed based on that? What can possibly be gained by allowing continued subversion of the rule of law and the Constitution?
I may be wrong or uninformed, but I’ve never heard of a country that didn’t immediately arrest people responsible for an attempted government overthrow, especially a govt. overthrow that directly caused the deaths of those trying to defend the govt. Yes, I’ve heard AG Garland explain his plans to build a case against the people responsible by arresting & interrogating the “foot soldiers” first, using them to build his case. But how long does it take to do that? Can we get even a hint?
To be clear, while the DOJ takes its time, the insurrectionists continue to spread disinformation, continue grooming us as a population to accept more and more government control over our lives, continue to be disruptive & divisive (book bans, Critical Race theory nonsense, screaming matches at school board meetings, etc.) and continue to undermine the President’s authority.
I’m guessing the majority of republicans in Congress have accepted large sums of money from Russia. Why is that being allowed to continue, especially now that Russia has aggressively invaded another country. Republicans in Congress have a big, fat conflict of interest now if there’s a vote on whether & how sanctions should be levied against Russia by the U.S. Which side will they support? Will they vote “no” on sanctioning Russia because they don’t want to stop Russian money flowing into their bank accounts? The fec should have been researching which senators and reps have received Russian money, but I have a feeling that hasn’t happened.
I’ve heard quite a few people say it took something like two years for Congress to gather evidence re Watergate, as if that’s a legitimate excuse. But it isn’t a legitimate excuse because the facts of what happened then and what’s happening now are quite different. Watergate wasn’t a full-blown insurrection. It was a criminal act that lead to more criminal acts. It wasn’t a wholesale attempt to subvert the government, the Constitution and destroy the rule of law. Fascists weren’t deliberately disrupting the peace and pitting Americans against each other in the early 1970s. So using Watergate as an excuse simply doesn’t work.
My observation is that the longer this drags out, the less likely we are to have a satisfactory reckoning. Donald Trump wasn’t legally elected in 2016. The fbi said that without Putin’s help Trump wouldn’t have been elected. But nobody acted on that info…at least, that I’m aware of. It was buried.
Think about what we WOULDN’T have had to go through if govt. officials had taken responsibility for corroborating that. I understand it’s possible that no one could have made that case, possibly because rogue fbi agents wouldn’t have cooperated,
but my point is that by allowing Trump’s fake presidency to continue it created an enormous amount of chaos & disruption that continues to this day. We now have a full blown pre-civil war lurking around every metaphorical corner. I’m not even going to speculate about how it may have affected the pandemic if Trump had faced consequences for fraudulently assuming the presidency in 2016-17.
I hope when all is said and done we as Americans will be able to recover and actually strengthen our resolve to continue our democracy and find out everything that went wrong so we can fix it so it can never happen again.
Susan Benton: Hear! Hear! Thank you for taking the time to write out what I've been wondering for months and months now. Why is it that obvious breakages of the law have been ignored? Why isn't Trump *already* in multiple courts, being convicted as the felon he is? What is taking the NY DA and the Georgia DA and and the DOJ so @#@$#&^%^#^% long?
Susan, Rather than trying to respond to every point of your mighty impressive commentary, I will focus on two issues that, in my view, are especially consequential, both of which relate to A.G. Garland. The first is a defense of his limited actions relative to voter protection breaches. The second is an indictment of his seeming inaction relative to holding Trump and his coterie accountable for the January 6th insurrection.
As for the former, regrettably, the Shelby v Holder 2013 gutting of Section 5 (pre clearance) and the Brnovich v DNC 2021 weakening of Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act have severely limited DOJ’s ability to intervene in current voter suppression/ nullification abuses. Here I would note, late last December, that Garland concluded a press conference about suing Texas for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act with a plea to Congress to pursue federal voting rights legislation, making clear that DOJ would do whatever it could (translation: go to court to protect voting rights), but that Congress must do what it alone can do (pass legislation that protects election integrity and thus democracy itself). I don’t imagine any of us ever will forget how Manchin and Sinema, this past January, sabotaged the near passage of the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.
As for the January 6th insurrection, considering, that months ago, a number of scholars and former prosecutors had concluded there existed sufficient factual predication to open up a criminal investigation of Trump and of others at the top, a failure to hold them accountable, at least to the point of being subject to full-blown criminal investigation, in my view, was laying the groundwork for a fatal weakening of American civic institutions.
I, further, would note that the potential downsides of indictments invariably would have been considerations for a later date. The key point was that further delay of investigations for criminal activity could be read as subordinating the rule of law to a handful of individuals. On a final note, Trump’s closest collaborators would have found stonewalling a grand jury far more formidable than stonewalling a congressional committee.
I understand that the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and other voting protections makes protecting the right to vote more difficult, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Ideally we should have explicit legislation, but people voted long before the referenced Voting Rights legislation was passed, so it seems to me there must be a way to use that fundamental right to vote to address the legislation limiting and/or suppressing voting in some states. Especially because voting is the single most important right in any democracy. In fact it’s the reason this country exists-taxation without representation and all that. Votes that are suppressed or otherwise not counted violate the inherent, fundamental tenets of democracy. If I learned anything from practicing law its that there are multiple ways of getting the desired outcome. We don’t throw our hands in the air and say it can’t be done. I haven’t read the state laws in question, but I know they can’t prevent registered voters from voting because of the fact that people voted long before the Voting Rights Act was passed. There has to be a way to build on that fundamental right to vote granted by our democracy to strike down those state laws that interfere with it and it’s the DOJ’s job to do that. Granted,
it would make it easier if we didn’t have a rogue Supreme Court lurking in the background, but the DOJ can and should go to court over this, because nothing is more important than voting. In fact, it may already be too late to resolve this in court before November. But if no effort is made to do that millions of people could theoretically be prevented from voting and/or having their votes counted. That’s just wrong. At the very least DOJ may be able to keep those new state laws in a legal limbo long enough for Dems to gain seats in Congress and pass the John R. Lewis Act.
Susan, Because I won’t have time until later this evening to invest the thought your reply merits, I will write back some time after the State of the Union.
Susan, As I imagine you know, prior to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a host of methods—literacy tests, poll taxes, all-white primaries, fraud, intimidation, and the like—were enacted mostly by southern state legislatures to keep African Americans from voting. Not surprisingly, prior to 1965, only an estimated 23% of eligible blacks were registered nationally, a figure that rose to 61% by 1969, largely due to the Section 5 pre clearance provision that, combined with Section 2 (pre-Brnovich), outlawed discriminatory practices.
Currently, no impactful federal legislation exists that would supersede state law. In fact, since Brnovich, DOJ no longer can sue for violating Section 2 unless they can show “intent” to discriminate.
I hope I have succeeded in providing some clarity.
Thank you Barbara. You have clarified some things. I understand there were reasons why the Voting Rights Act was and is needed, but I wasn’t expressing myself clearly.
(For some reason I’m unable to cut and paste here. Please scroll to the very top to see my reply.)
My lengthy reply is lost somewhere on here, but the essence of it is that case law prior to the Voting Rights Act requires that the state must have a compelling interest in order to justify restrictions on voting. As I’ve said, I haven’t read the new state laws, but my guess is many of them are predicated on a lie. The lie is that these new laws were passed to eliminate voter fraud. But there’s no evidence of widespread voter fraud in any state. At the very least the DOJ should have the court suspend the new voting laws until the DOJ has had an opportunity to carefully review them for a compelling interest that justifies their existence.
What can we do? Educate our kids on timely issues, issues that matter. They want substance, to understand real matters of import. We need to get Orwell back into the curricula of our public schools. Writers like yourself, David Frum ("How to Build an Autocracy"), and Anne Applebaum (Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism) need to be household names.
We need to train and encourage teachers to foster open discussion of national and world events.
Plato, in the Republic, believed that the seeds of tyranny are planted in democracy, and that the longer a democracy thrived, the more democratic it became. Today, democracy’s pursuit of freedom and equality has resulted in “mutually uncomprehending” views and values among our populace. Rights trump responsibility; and the media only exacerbates this condition. I believe we are witnessing demagoguery and tyranny in America and on the world stage; appealing to what our Founding Fathers feared: the mob’s taste for “feeling, emotion, and narcissism” over “ reason, empiricism and public- spiritedness.”
What to do? Yogi Berra once quipped that predictions about the future are the most difficult. I know that we can’t go back home, but I do have faith in humankind’s compassion and I have faith in a better tomorrow. We must all engage in the good fight.
Putin and the long table: In the first years of the post Soviet Union Russia, a few city level politicians emerged who seemed like they might take the liberal Western path to power. One of them, a very prominent city level politician was murdered on a bridge near the Kremlin. No one thinks it was a random event.
That long table with Macron at a distance from Putin tells you something about Putin. He feels personally threatened. When he feels personally threatened he makes dangerous decisions for peace. NATO is one of those threats. He sees American nuclear missiles ten minutes from the Kremlin. Putin knows NATO cannot protect the Ukraine. He is using up political capital within the power centers in Russia that count, particularly the military that must have been assuring him that it could make short work of Ukraine. And if the military cannot come through there may be a power struggle.
In these circumstances liberals here is the US like some of those that think being anti-Putin is being anti-Trump and can be used to win support amongst voters this Fall and turn them against Trump are making the classic vote for Iraq intervention mistake. There is no future for liberals in a war making environment. There may be a future for Cheney but liberals will be pushed aside by the neocons. And they will be challenged to go farther and farther in support of war making. Drafting young Americans to fight in foreign wars! To defend freedom and democracy? Wars that end up like Afghanistan and Iraq?
Remember this about NATO. It has no troops, no supply chains, no infrastructure to take on a conventional army in Europe. And where would that conventional army come from? It has nuclear weapons. If Russia were to invade Latvia what would NATO respond with? Nuclear weapons?
So the only position for liberals to take here is a ceasefire in the Ukraine, a demand that Russia recognize Ukraine's independence, a commitment by Russia to withdraw, a commitment by all parties to negotiate borders, and a commitment by the US not to extend NATO to the Ukraine.
NATO is a paper tiger with nuclear teeth. It has no place in Europe. It must be replaced by a non-military entity.
Khrushchev was removed from power after the Cuban adventure. Putin is clearly stressing the Russian system. He hasn't been able to paint Russia into the corner with the Russian people that he has painted himself into.
It would be extremely shortsighted for liberals to join the warmongers and not advocate de-escalation and the path toward peace. Anyone who thinks they can equate Trump and Putin for short term partisan political gain is making a major long term mistake with the security of the US.
The better position for liberals to take is to be in favor of peace.
Who said liberals aren’t in favor of peace? I’m liberal and I want peace. So does every liberal I know.
There’s no question that Putin is the aggressor. European nations have been stable and peaceful for many decades. Ukraine isn’t part of NATO and wasn’t going to be accepted as a member of NATO any time soon. All nations must meet certain requirements before NATO will accept them as a member nation and Ukraine wasn’t even close to meeting those requirements. I know that because I googled NATO & Ukraine. I find it hard to believe Putin didn’t know that too.
NATO is an alliance of nations, a treaty or agreement to come together to help defend each other if circumstances warrant it, so of course there aren’t NATO troops. Treaties don’t have troops.
However, the United Nations has troops, supply chains & infrastructure, all of which exist for the purpose of keeping the peace and providing humanitarian support.
I don’t know what Putin’s motivation is or was to invade Ukraine, but from what I can tell Russia was not in any imminent danger from Ukraine. I agree that peace is preferable to war. But that doesn’t mean it’s okay to invade a sovereign nation on the off chance that it might prove to be a danger at some unspecified time in the future.
There are many replies to my first post (above) this morning. Thank you. Perhaps we should try to avoid cynicism, nor think "wishful thinking" is only a dream. Dream's can make change happen.
It's hard for many of us who do remember how we fought for freedom, justice, civil liberties. Most Americans under the age of 60, maybe 50, may not realize how we and our allies will be affected by the war in the Ukraine, this atrocity, this OTHER BIG LIE, nor how dangerous it is worldwide because of Russia's affiliation with China. Some have no grasp of the nefarious nuances and underpinnings of this invasion into a sovereign nation and its fallout for years to come. For those who have no experience of war, this is a new dynamic, fighting for your country's freedom. As Robert Reich said in "Eight Sobering Realities About Putin's Invasion," Afghanistan and Iraq were abstractions for many people, and the memories and horrors of Vietnam are barely a memory. We've weathered a pandemic I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. Now WORLD peace is possibly threatened. We need to inform those that follow us about our 20th Century history and why they need to vote in these midterms and every time a call to vote arises.
Those of us in our sixth, seventh, possibly eighth decade were the peace activists and fighters for equality and Civil Liberties. We marched across the bridge with John Lewis, traveled to Washington, D.C. to hear King's "I Have a Dream speech," and we witnessed firsthand the assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. We were the ones who marched against the Vietnam War and were clubbed by police while we sat in peaceful protests at the infamous Democratic Chicago Convention.
Our generation stood up, was counted, and heard. We Americans, like the Ukranians,must stand up again and pass on the best we have to offer to the next generations so they can live in a free democracy and peaceful world. We are the wisdom keepers and benefit from our history and direct experiences. Start wherever you are with a positive action that informs, teaches, and inspires those who follow us. Write letters. And, VOTE!
Professor, You write, “Putin’s Neo-fascism has rooted itself in America. What can we do”? Though I might be speaking solely for myself, as eager as I am to tackle the monumental issues you raise in today’s newsletter, I couldn’t be more certain that my comment would be far more worthy of this community’s attention, let alone more realistic, were it drafted following the President’s State of the Union. Hence, presuming Wednesday’s Office Hours will focus on the President’s address, I will look forward to developing a thought piece centered largely around the fateful matters enumerated in today’s missive.
JAB says we need a “huge awakening “. I spent years in the Democratic Party trenches, working for electeds, then as an elected. The only way to get an “awakening” is to shake the fruit from strategic trees by strategic education and mobilization. And that takes money from private donors. As my folks in Ohio say, we are in “ a pickle”. We need to get the jobs done from BPIA, and educate people (elites and wealthy need reminded and prodded) how a free market requires free people and a free democracy, and, yes, more dad blame COMMON GOOD…paying a fair share for your taxes. Of course, we need to defeat Putin, right now, lest there not be a world worth living in. ✊Stand With 🇺🇦🇺🇸
I think the awakening is going on now- the Christian Right, which is behind all of this fervor to support Trump and company is unlikely to fall in behind an openly pro-Putin United States. Cruelty, racism, bigotry, all ok with them, but actively supporting a Russian dictator? We will see.
It's helpful to remember that Trump's team of convicted criminals (now pardoned), in particular Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, were hired by Putin and company to sabotage the new Ukranian
government after 1991, and that Stone was the principal organizer of the 2000 Florida recount fraud that put George W. Bush in office. That has been the model for Trump in his attempt to steal the 2020 election- I believe he actually thought he could simply use that template to throw the election to the supreme court, which he erroneously thought he had bought for himself.
Nice bunch of folks, and now actively fawning over Putin again.
Wow!! What a stretch of facts, non facts and logical non sequiturs.
If all you have just written was true, shouldn't this invasion have occurred during the Trump Presidency?
The Geo-Political map is shifting. We have always been a "friend" of Russia until the Soviets came around. They're gone now. China is now our greatest and there can be no doubt that they are the greatest threat to Western Civilization (as I see it).
Let's not get too distracted with angst about the Party and the coming elections. What would work best is artful and sagacious closure of this crisis without expansion of the aggression. Proof that American hegemony can be a good thing. That's what will get the vote.
I really wish you would give us your read and insider info on the economics of our country and how the American people can regain the fruits of our labor.
There will have to be a huge awakening and a renewed sense of urgency by the Democratic voters in the United States before the November elections or we may wake up in January 2023 and find out our government has been taken over by a neo-fascist party we can’t get rid of. The cure; vote!
It's just possible Putin may help prompt that awakening and renewed sense of urgency, not only among Democratic voters but among independents and those Republicans who still believe in democracy and the rule of law.
.. even as it seems in Russia herself.
Robert thanks for this. I have thought the exact same thing! This tragedy in Ukraine could awaken Americans to the GOP's threat to their own democracy here at home. It brings to the fore the huge obstacle to our own free society and underscores a political party that is openly, clearly fascist. You can't be a little pregnant and you can't straddle fascism. The GOP is fascist, it must be faced.
Off-topic: I will not comment anymore on your articles because I am creeped out by one of your subscribers that “hearts” my comments over and over again. This individual never posts comments of their own and goes by multiple accounts called “Someone”
Ojala que sera.
Ojala que si. Lots of questions.
On July 4, 2018 Republicans John Kennedy (R-LA), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Steve Daines (R-MT), John Hoeven (R-ND), John Thune (R-SD), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Ron Johnson (R-WI) and House member, Kay Granger (R-TX) all celebrated the American holiday meeting with a variety of Russian officials in Moscow supporting the Putin regime (https://americanindependent.com/republicans-congress.../). This group (and others) should now been known as the Putin Caucus in the U.S. Congress.
House hearings?
What frightens me is the Republican party has corrupted the voting process in countless states across the country, NOT even mentioning what they have done with gerrymandering. What if we now have such an unscrupulous voting system we CAN'T vote our way out of this?!
I have been asking this question for awhile. Where is our rule of law? How can one party, in a partisan way, just take away the franchise/civil rights of voters they disagree with? How bad does this have to get before it is stopped?
Please help register Democrats. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
I'll be looking at this when I get some time. Thanks for sharing this.
I also in responding to JAB's and PaulaOH comments, "There will have to be a huge awakening and renewed sense of urgency by the Democratic voters" Respectfully I have a different opinion and prospective of the collective will necessary to accomplish our collective need at this time in history. Rooted in the past is a man speaking before the Virginia Convention in 1775. He was confronting a major problem of Authoritarianism of British Tyranny needing solution from the governing body. Without specifically going into it, my urging would be to pull up the speech Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death Speech. In my opinion the vote is one faze of opposing tyranny but must begin in the heart, with a life living sense of fair-play.
I've lived a long life of eighty-one (81) years. In my youth of early elementary school teaching was the golden rule "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", and that early teaching set me on a path of behavior for life, Military service (Air Force), professional entertainer (Singing Group), College (ASU-Arizona State University) Profession (Environmentalist) to Retirement (Part-time Consultant.)
In my opinion politics today is much more a system of greed rather than people oriented. And I feel the Democratic Party doesn't know to talk to the voter, has a difficult time conveying a singular message, and lastly cannot seem to be able to party over factional in-fighting. I agree with PaulaOH, Stand With UAUS
yes...Patrick Henry's speech as part of State of the Union
With the unanimity in the world, including the Russian people, opposing Putin, what is so dire could turn out to be a blessing (of sorts) from seeing how a united stand for the good in the world can best get us where the people of the world most want to go.
Calling the GOP by its right name might work ..
You mean GCP (Global Corporation Party)?
Nah, .. too cozy. N-FP ..
I guess I don't quite understand what you mean....
I don't see the horrors ahead so much as economically-based control over lives--in the global jetstream-$flow sense, not the 'at the register' sense--as in the removal of rights/legalized-autocracy realm. We see it here nationwide, and a fresh California housing law disallows public complaint period! ..
What about “Reptilians”?
Please don’t insult reptilians. They’re too good for rethuglicans.
Finally, finally, someone has connected the dots from one fascist, Putin, to others, Trump and the Republicans. Thank you, Robert! In the VoteForward.org midterm letter writing campaign to Democrats, they rejected a draft letter because the word 'autocracy' was used at the end, i.e., "vote for our cherished Democracy and not autocracy." They didn't like the word "autocracy," saying it was incendiary and NOT bi-partisan. What? This is exactly what's wrong with the Democrats' messaging! Pablum is being served rather than truth to power. This essay should be a call to action for all activists. Robert provides the context, words, and hard truth. Let us go forward and stop the soft, gentile mutterings to inspire people to vote. Let us speak these truths rather than being so bi-partisan that it weakens our messaging at a time when, sadly, the very meaning of bi-partisanship is devalued. It exists no longer...for now. VOTE!
Agree. It's time to speak clearly about what's happening around the world and in the U.S.
I agree that Democrats are too timid in their messaging. However, I would not use the word autocracy, but for the opposite reason to the one given: It does not pack enough of an emotional punch. Sadly, I suspect that many Americans do not know what the word autocracy means. IMO, Democrats should take a page from Republicans' rhetoric and keep repeating, "Republicans are taking away your freedom." To reach the most voters, simplicity is best.
Autocracy is fascism. In my opinion we should all use the word fascism because most of us are familiar with it and because republicans have worked hard to distort the meaning of words. Distorting the meaning of words is one of the things fascists do to lull people into accepting total control over their lives by a govt.that cares about nothing but perpetuating itself at the expense of everyone else. In other words, it’s wholesale corruption at every level. If, God forbid, fascists like Trump take over our government, they will tear up our Constitution and loot our Treasury until there’s nothing left.
Orwell 101!
You have a valid point, Carolyn. Words are important. Incendiary language, too, should not be a goal. However, I would try strike a balance between dumbing down language, which can soften the message, and using words too many people do not, sadly, understand. THAT is a whole other topic for discussion. Thank you for your thoughtful comment.
How 'bout "Republican freedom picks your pockets!" It has the benefit of being observably true.
Good point. The "ConfedeRepublicans" seem to salivate over words like "tyranny" and "tyrant," from "Sic Semper Tyrannis." https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1395/3677/products/July-Sticker_1024x1024.jpg?v=1503364257
They have no idea what tyranny really is.
While at the same time trying to impose it on the rest of us!
Kind of like Putin. Imagine if he were treated like that!
You bet'cha! But the rank & file Tweety-rallyer only learn slogans they don't understand, but believe will help them >win<, having no idea what's involved with the prize, and who actually gets it.
To the clowns who don't like your use of the word "autocracy" someone should send a copy of Webster's! If that's the kind of thinking that's currently hamstringing Democrats, it may be time for the Democrats to start considering a purge of its own lousy leadership. Just sayin'. The Dems need "Zelenskian" leadership - now.
'Just sayin', thank you! VoteForward was highly successful in getting out the vote in the 2020 election. However, they have lost their way rooted in ungrounded fear. They are writing to Democrats AND Democrats who do not vote. So, we need to inform, teach and inspire those who are reluctant or confused about exercising our cherished freedom to vote.
I must say that Zelensky’s courage is inspiring and might just 1) shame Republicans (ha!) and 2) finally embolden Democrats. Or I might be indulging in wishful thinking. But stranger things have happened.
Paula, it is NOT wishful thinking. I believe we are so wrung out after years of Trump, the Republicans devolving as a party, and the Covid, that we are losing the energy and faith to win. Zelensky's courage is inspiring and, remember, we too fought this way when our country was founded. Stay in the fight and turn that wishful thinking into reality!
Oh, I am, believe me. I hope you’re right.
I'm hopin' that it will inspire the latter!
Paula B. ; A journalist was talking about gun toting 'fighting old ladies' giving the invaders some trouble!
Autocracy is just a less “loaded” term for fascism. Republicans are manipulating Americans to accept FASCISM. Fascism means the govt controls everything. Citizens have no vote and no rights. Fascism is the opposite of freedom & democracy. Every elected democrat should be shrieking about it and they’re not! I don’t understand that. Dems should book themselves onto every talk show in existence to tell all Americans what we’re fighting is fascism.
Agreed, but we also have to stop settling for comfort by avoiding tough truthful conversations about the things they are using to divides us like race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, and the influence of the uber-wealthy over all our institutions (politics, media, religion, capitalism...) and how our division enables them to continue to use that influence to put profit over people, which negatively impacts us all (like our current system of minority rule in many states and potential loss of democracy)
A little "editorial" you may appreciate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X18SvOOTmrw
That was a perfect illustration of right wing terrorist perversion of the English language, Thanks!
She's the best! Check out her other videos that handle what they do to religious doctrine!
Even if Putin conquers Ukraine, he has lost much more than he gained. NATO is being reinvigorated, the world seems united against him, and he appears to be losing support with the Russian people. Everyone now sees Putin for who he really is, not the image he has cultivated. If only the same thing would happen to Donald Trump!
He is starting to lose. Candidates he has supported have lost.
The earth’s power structure will consist of Russia-China versus the USA-EU — with India and the Middle East and Africa and South America as non-aligned. This is a welcome simplification: for decades, starting with Willy Brandt, the EU was pursuing an accommodative policy toward Russia. That’s ended.
Robert, you are accurate at every word. Wake up America! Do not by any circumstance support fascism.
I think one consequence of Putin's recent actions in Ukraine is that the GOP's Trumpist/anarchist faction is losing its influence and becoming less relevant. The "Putin is a genius" meme probably doesn't resonate well with Trump's base, let alone the GOP political establishment.
Let’s hope so!
More proof that tRump is an idiot!
I do not understand what the American people are thinking, the choice we are about to make is between democracy or communism, it’s that simple. Don’t we study the world more closely then to realize the vast difference between the two? How would you like your children to grow up in a country with no rights, no religion, little choices, what you can read, and what you can say, if you rebel you are put in jail. How can this even be a choice? America is envied by many nations for its openness and freedom, why do we want to change it? Vote to save what we know is the best in the world, your children deserve it
GOP supporters don't see it that way. I think Democrats must do much more to understand the power of brainwashing and recruit experts to work against it. I see daily, first hand, that logic and fact don't work. They get shut out, constructive communication doesn't happen. I'm not sure if even trained experts could get through the walls and undo the brainwashing, but it's the only possibility that comes to mind. Leaders are aware that Putin et al work to brainwash U.S. voters, yet they don't do enough to follow through on that awareness, to combat the brainwashing. Instead, we all just keep trading logic among ourselves. It's not heard by the brainwashed. It's very largely pointless. We need strategy from experts effective in combating cult and Russian brainwashing.
The only way GOP supporters see is what they are fed to consume and lack the critical reasoning skills overall. Unfortunately Democrats on the other hand with all the educational studies and influences of Rhodes Scholar recipience don't seem to be able to put it together as to what's going on and how to counter it. So we get silence. Democrats lack street wisdom.
Richard Nixon type politics are at the heart of what's ailing the Democrats and they've never found a way to counter over the last forty six years. Barrack Obama and Bill Clinton are the only two Democratic Presidents we've had in the last 46 years. Because of Barrack Obama's ground-breaking Presidency he wasn't expose to the Lee Atwater type politics that he popularize for Republicans. But Bill Clinton, if not for three way running of George Bush Senior and Ross Perot in 1992, and Clinton's Sister Soldier moment in 1996, they are the only Democratic representation since LBJ.
When Right Wing donors and developers were forming, meaning the different phases of the echo chamber mostly in AM Radio throughout the country, especially in rural USA. Rush Limbaugh was made, build, and echoed all over the country. Democrats particularly in the donor class decline to invest. Voice lost.
In my experience I've learned that Democratic voters are generally critical thinkers. They will support you and vote for you but not blindly. One could look into they documentary and/or book called "The Brainwashing Of My Dad, by Jen Senko" and also "The Loudest Voice In The Room:, book by Gabriel Sherman. A six part TV series was made of this starring Russell Crowe as Roger Ailles. Very good depiction of how and why Fox news was started and how they fixated use used the mantra "Fair And Balance" I can only say in my opinion the Democratic Party as a critical matter needs to learn how to come across as fighting for the votes they seek.
Because the uber-wealthy pay Republican leaders to pedal lies and disinformation and to create and fan the flames of culture wars in an effort to keep the majority (voters) divided. After Obama, they realized that voter suppression, gerrymandering and their tactics to divide may not be enough to overcome a growing multicultural majority (all races) that are for truth and fairness and want our democracy to be what it can be. A majority who is waking up (woke) to their tactics of division and suppression and that exposes & rejects it. They didn't decide to be more inclusive, they decided to go ALL IN on their (lie, cheat, still and/or kill) tactics and to sacrifice democracy, if that's what it takes to retain power (by any means necessary).
Absolutely. Choice is obvious and yet I dread November.
Some republicans are starting to backpedal re their earlier comments supporting Putin.
Mitt Romney has finally criticized Trump and republicans, saying they are borderline treasonous. Western European countries are coming together in many ways to denounce Putin’s aggression. I see what I hope is the beginning of the end of America’s flirtation with fascism.
Thousands of Russians are being arrested for demonstrating against Putin’s aggression and I even saw a video excerpt in which one of Putin’s govt. officials told Putin point blank, to his face, that he is against the aggression in Ukraine, and there are other signs as well that Putin is losing power.
As concerned as I am about all of that, there’s something that concerns me even more. Does anyone have any idea why Trump hasn’t been arrested and indicted for multiple criminal acts? Does anyone know why AG Garland hasn’t moved against state laws allowing state government officials to subvert the Constitution by throwing votes out if they don’t like them and otherwise suppress votes and voting in violation of the Constitution? Does anyone have any idea why Foxnews is permitted to spew obvious sedition, undermining our government and the rule of law, day after day, after day,etc.?
I’m absolutely serious. There may be good reasons why the DOJ appears to be doing almost nothing to get our country back on track, but I can’t figure out what they are, and for the record, I’m an attorney.
According to the 14th amendment, Sec.3,
neither Trump or any other elected officials, (meaning senators and representatives) who incited and/or participated in the 1/6 insurrection can ever hold a government office again. Why haven’t we heard about plans to proceed based on that? What can possibly be gained by allowing continued subversion of the rule of law and the Constitution?
I may be wrong or uninformed, but I’ve never heard of a country that didn’t immediately arrest people responsible for an attempted government overthrow, especially a govt. overthrow that directly caused the deaths of those trying to defend the govt. Yes, I’ve heard AG Garland explain his plans to build a case against the people responsible by arresting & interrogating the “foot soldiers” first, using them to build his case. But how long does it take to do that? Can we get even a hint?
To be clear, while the DOJ takes its time, the insurrectionists continue to spread disinformation, continue grooming us as a population to accept more and more government control over our lives, continue to be disruptive & divisive (book bans, Critical Race theory nonsense, screaming matches at school board meetings, etc.) and continue to undermine the President’s authority.
I’m guessing the majority of republicans in Congress have accepted large sums of money from Russia. Why is that being allowed to continue, especially now that Russia has aggressively invaded another country. Republicans in Congress have a big, fat conflict of interest now if there’s a vote on whether & how sanctions should be levied against Russia by the U.S. Which side will they support? Will they vote “no” on sanctioning Russia because they don’t want to stop Russian money flowing into their bank accounts? The fec should have been researching which senators and reps have received Russian money, but I have a feeling that hasn’t happened.
I’ve heard quite a few people say it took something like two years for Congress to gather evidence re Watergate, as if that’s a legitimate excuse. But it isn’t a legitimate excuse because the facts of what happened then and what’s happening now are quite different. Watergate wasn’t a full-blown insurrection. It was a criminal act that lead to more criminal acts. It wasn’t a wholesale attempt to subvert the government, the Constitution and destroy the rule of law. Fascists weren’t deliberately disrupting the peace and pitting Americans against each other in the early 1970s. So using Watergate as an excuse simply doesn’t work.
My observation is that the longer this drags out, the less likely we are to have a satisfactory reckoning. Donald Trump wasn’t legally elected in 2016. The fbi said that without Putin’s help Trump wouldn’t have been elected. But nobody acted on that info…at least, that I’m aware of. It was buried.
Think about what we WOULDN’T have had to go through if govt. officials had taken responsibility for corroborating that. I understand it’s possible that no one could have made that case, possibly because rogue fbi agents wouldn’t have cooperated,
but my point is that by allowing Trump’s fake presidency to continue it created an enormous amount of chaos & disruption that continues to this day. We now have a full blown pre-civil war lurking around every metaphorical corner. I’m not even going to speculate about how it may have affected the pandemic if Trump had faced consequences for fraudulently assuming the presidency in 2016-17.
I hope when all is said and done we as Americans will be able to recover and actually strengthen our resolve to continue our democracy and find out everything that went wrong so we can fix it so it can never happen again.
Susan Benton: Hear! Hear! Thank you for taking the time to write out what I've been wondering for months and months now. Why is it that obvious breakages of the law have been ignored? Why isn't Trump *already* in multiple courts, being convicted as the felon he is? What is taking the NY DA and the Georgia DA and and the DOJ so @#@$#&^%^#^% long?
Thanks Meredith!
Susan, Rather than trying to respond to every point of your mighty impressive commentary, I will focus on two issues that, in my view, are especially consequential, both of which relate to A.G. Garland. The first is a defense of his limited actions relative to voter protection breaches. The second is an indictment of his seeming inaction relative to holding Trump and his coterie accountable for the January 6th insurrection.
As for the former, regrettably, the Shelby v Holder 2013 gutting of Section 5 (pre clearance) and the Brnovich v DNC 2021 weakening of Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act have severely limited DOJ’s ability to intervene in current voter suppression/ nullification abuses. Here I would note, late last December, that Garland concluded a press conference about suing Texas for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act with a plea to Congress to pursue federal voting rights legislation, making clear that DOJ would do whatever it could (translation: go to court to protect voting rights), but that Congress must do what it alone can do (pass legislation that protects election integrity and thus democracy itself). I don’t imagine any of us ever will forget how Manchin and Sinema, this past January, sabotaged the near passage of the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.
As for the January 6th insurrection, considering, that months ago, a number of scholars and former prosecutors had concluded there existed sufficient factual predication to open up a criminal investigation of Trump and of others at the top, a failure to hold them accountable, at least to the point of being subject to full-blown criminal investigation, in my view, was laying the groundwork for a fatal weakening of American civic institutions.
I, further, would note that the potential downsides of indictments invariably would have been considerations for a later date. The key point was that further delay of investigations for criminal activity could be read as subordinating the rule of law to a handful of individuals. On a final note, Trump’s closest collaborators would have found stonewalling a grand jury far more formidable than stonewalling a congressional committee.
I understand that the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and other voting protections makes protecting the right to vote more difficult, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Ideally we should have explicit legislation, but people voted long before the referenced Voting Rights legislation was passed, so it seems to me there must be a way to use that fundamental right to vote to address the legislation limiting and/or suppressing voting in some states. Especially because voting is the single most important right in any democracy. In fact it’s the reason this country exists-taxation without representation and all that. Votes that are suppressed or otherwise not counted violate the inherent, fundamental tenets of democracy. If I learned anything from practicing law its that there are multiple ways of getting the desired outcome. We don’t throw our hands in the air and say it can’t be done. I haven’t read the state laws in question, but I know they can’t prevent registered voters from voting because of the fact that people voted long before the Voting Rights Act was passed. There has to be a way to build on that fundamental right to vote granted by our democracy to strike down those state laws that interfere with it and it’s the DOJ’s job to do that. Granted,
it would make it easier if we didn’t have a rogue Supreme Court lurking in the background, but the DOJ can and should go to court over this, because nothing is more important than voting. In fact, it may already be too late to resolve this in court before November. But if no effort is made to do that millions of people could theoretically be prevented from voting and/or having their votes counted. That’s just wrong. At the very least DOJ may be able to keep those new state laws in a legal limbo long enough for Dems to gain seats in Congress and pass the John R. Lewis Act.
Susan, Because I won’t have time until later this evening to invest the thought your reply merits, I will write back some time after the State of the Union.
Susan, As I imagine you know, prior to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a host of methods—literacy tests, poll taxes, all-white primaries, fraud, intimidation, and the like—were enacted mostly by southern state legislatures to keep African Americans from voting. Not surprisingly, prior to 1965, only an estimated 23% of eligible blacks were registered nationally, a figure that rose to 61% by 1969, largely due to the Section 5 pre clearance provision that, combined with Section 2 (pre-Brnovich), outlawed discriminatory practices.
Currently, no impactful federal legislation exists that would supersede state law. In fact, since Brnovich, DOJ no longer can sue for violating Section 2 unless they can show “intent” to discriminate.
I hope I have succeeded in providing some clarity.
Thank you Barbara. You have clarified some things. I understand there were reasons why the Voting Rights Act was and is needed, but I wasn’t expressing myself clearly.
(For some reason I’m unable to cut and paste here. Please scroll to the very top to see my reply.)
My lengthy reply is lost somewhere on here, but the essence of it is that case law prior to the Voting Rights Act requires that the state must have a compelling interest in order to justify restrictions on voting. As I’ve said, I haven’t read the new state laws, but my guess is many of them are predicated on a lie. The lie is that these new laws were passed to eliminate voter fraud. But there’s no evidence of widespread voter fraud in any state. At the very least the DOJ should have the court suspend the new voting laws until the DOJ has had an opportunity to carefully review them for a compelling interest that justifies their existence.
What can we do? Educate our kids on timely issues, issues that matter. They want substance, to understand real matters of import. We need to get Orwell back into the curricula of our public schools. Writers like yourself, David Frum ("How to Build an Autocracy"), and Anne Applebaum (Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism) need to be household names.
We need to train and encourage teachers to foster open discussion of national and world events.
Plato, in the Republic, believed that the seeds of tyranny are planted in democracy, and that the longer a democracy thrived, the more democratic it became. Today, democracy’s pursuit of freedom and equality has resulted in “mutually uncomprehending” views and values among our populace. Rights trump responsibility; and the media only exacerbates this condition. I believe we are witnessing demagoguery and tyranny in America and on the world stage; appealing to what our Founding Fathers feared: the mob’s taste for “feeling, emotion, and narcissism” over “ reason, empiricism and public- spiritedness.”
What to do? Yogi Berra once quipped that predictions about the future are the most difficult. I know that we can’t go back home, but I do have faith in humankind’s compassion and I have faith in a better tomorrow. We must all engage in the good fight.
The future ain’t what it used to be.
Putin and the long table: In the first years of the post Soviet Union Russia, a few city level politicians emerged who seemed like they might take the liberal Western path to power. One of them, a very prominent city level politician was murdered on a bridge near the Kremlin. No one thinks it was a random event.
That long table with Macron at a distance from Putin tells you something about Putin. He feels personally threatened. When he feels personally threatened he makes dangerous decisions for peace. NATO is one of those threats. He sees American nuclear missiles ten minutes from the Kremlin. Putin knows NATO cannot protect the Ukraine. He is using up political capital within the power centers in Russia that count, particularly the military that must have been assuring him that it could make short work of Ukraine. And if the military cannot come through there may be a power struggle.
In these circumstances liberals here is the US like some of those that think being anti-Putin is being anti-Trump and can be used to win support amongst voters this Fall and turn them against Trump are making the classic vote for Iraq intervention mistake. There is no future for liberals in a war making environment. There may be a future for Cheney but liberals will be pushed aside by the neocons. And they will be challenged to go farther and farther in support of war making. Drafting young Americans to fight in foreign wars! To defend freedom and democracy? Wars that end up like Afghanistan and Iraq?
Remember this about NATO. It has no troops, no supply chains, no infrastructure to take on a conventional army in Europe. And where would that conventional army come from? It has nuclear weapons. If Russia were to invade Latvia what would NATO respond with? Nuclear weapons?
So the only position for liberals to take here is a ceasefire in the Ukraine, a demand that Russia recognize Ukraine's independence, a commitment by Russia to withdraw, a commitment by all parties to negotiate borders, and a commitment by the US not to extend NATO to the Ukraine.
NATO is a paper tiger with nuclear teeth. It has no place in Europe. It must be replaced by a non-military entity.
Khrushchev was removed from power after the Cuban adventure. Putin is clearly stressing the Russian system. He hasn't been able to paint Russia into the corner with the Russian people that he has painted himself into.
It would be extremely shortsighted for liberals to join the warmongers and not advocate de-escalation and the path toward peace. Anyone who thinks they can equate Trump and Putin for short term partisan political gain is making a major long term mistake with the security of the US.
The better position for liberals to take is to be in favor of peace.
Who said liberals aren’t in favor of peace? I’m liberal and I want peace. So does every liberal I know.
There’s no question that Putin is the aggressor. European nations have been stable and peaceful for many decades. Ukraine isn’t part of NATO and wasn’t going to be accepted as a member of NATO any time soon. All nations must meet certain requirements before NATO will accept them as a member nation and Ukraine wasn’t even close to meeting those requirements. I know that because I googled NATO & Ukraine. I find it hard to believe Putin didn’t know that too.
NATO is an alliance of nations, a treaty or agreement to come together to help defend each other if circumstances warrant it, so of course there aren’t NATO troops. Treaties don’t have troops.
However, the United Nations has troops, supply chains & infrastructure, all of which exist for the purpose of keeping the peace and providing humanitarian support.
I don’t know what Putin’s motivation is or was to invade Ukraine, but from what I can tell Russia was not in any imminent danger from Ukraine. I agree that peace is preferable to war. But that doesn’t mean it’s okay to invade a sovereign nation on the off chance that it might prove to be a danger at some unspecified time in the future.
What country do you think NATO was developed to defend against? I think that answers all of your arguments
There are many replies to my first post (above) this morning. Thank you. Perhaps we should try to avoid cynicism, nor think "wishful thinking" is only a dream. Dream's can make change happen.
It's hard for many of us who do remember how we fought for freedom, justice, civil liberties. Most Americans under the age of 60, maybe 50, may not realize how we and our allies will be affected by the war in the Ukraine, this atrocity, this OTHER BIG LIE, nor how dangerous it is worldwide because of Russia's affiliation with China. Some have no grasp of the nefarious nuances and underpinnings of this invasion into a sovereign nation and its fallout for years to come. For those who have no experience of war, this is a new dynamic, fighting for your country's freedom. As Robert Reich said in "Eight Sobering Realities About Putin's Invasion," Afghanistan and Iraq were abstractions for many people, and the memories and horrors of Vietnam are barely a memory. We've weathered a pandemic I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. Now WORLD peace is possibly threatened. We need to inform those that follow us about our 20th Century history and why they need to vote in these midterms and every time a call to vote arises.
Those of us in our sixth, seventh, possibly eighth decade were the peace activists and fighters for equality and Civil Liberties. We marched across the bridge with John Lewis, traveled to Washington, D.C. to hear King's "I Have a Dream speech," and we witnessed firsthand the assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. We were the ones who marched against the Vietnam War and were clubbed by police while we sat in peaceful protests at the infamous Democratic Chicago Convention.
Our generation stood up, was counted, and heard. We Americans, like the Ukranians,must stand up again and pass on the best we have to offer to the next generations so they can live in a free democracy and peaceful world. We are the wisdom keepers and benefit from our history and direct experiences. Start wherever you are with a positive action that informs, teaches, and inspires those who follow us. Write letters. And, VOTE!
We can, and must, do this.
Putin funds the only bank that lends money to Trump.
Professor, You write, “Putin’s Neo-fascism has rooted itself in America. What can we do”? Though I might be speaking solely for myself, as eager as I am to tackle the monumental issues you raise in today’s newsletter, I couldn’t be more certain that my comment would be far more worthy of this community’s attention, let alone more realistic, were it drafted following the President’s State of the Union. Hence, presuming Wednesday’s Office Hours will focus on the President’s address, I will look forward to developing a thought piece centered largely around the fateful matters enumerated in today’s missive.
JAB says we need a “huge awakening “. I spent years in the Democratic Party trenches, working for electeds, then as an elected. The only way to get an “awakening” is to shake the fruit from strategic trees by strategic education and mobilization. And that takes money from private donors. As my folks in Ohio say, we are in “ a pickle”. We need to get the jobs done from BPIA, and educate people (elites and wealthy need reminded and prodded) how a free market requires free people and a free democracy, and, yes, more dad blame COMMON GOOD…paying a fair share for your taxes. Of course, we need to defeat Putin, right now, lest there not be a world worth living in. ✊Stand With 🇺🇦🇺🇸
I think the awakening is going on now- the Christian Right, which is behind all of this fervor to support Trump and company is unlikely to fall in behind an openly pro-Putin United States. Cruelty, racism, bigotry, all ok with them, but actively supporting a Russian dictator? We will see.
It's helpful to remember that Trump's team of convicted criminals (now pardoned), in particular Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, were hired by Putin and company to sabotage the new Ukranian
government after 1991, and that Stone was the principal organizer of the 2000 Florida recount fraud that put George W. Bush in office. That has been the model for Trump in his attempt to steal the 2020 election- I believe he actually thought he could simply use that template to throw the election to the supreme court, which he erroneously thought he had bought for himself.
Nice bunch of folks, and now actively fawning over Putin again.
Wow!! What a stretch of facts, non facts and logical non sequiturs.
If all you have just written was true, shouldn't this invasion have occurred during the Trump Presidency?
The Geo-Political map is shifting. We have always been a "friend" of Russia until the Soviets came around. They're gone now. China is now our greatest and there can be no doubt that they are the greatest threat to Western Civilization (as I see it).
Let's not get too distracted with angst about the Party and the coming elections. What would work best is artful and sagacious closure of this crisis without expansion of the aggression. Proof that American hegemony can be a good thing. That's what will get the vote.
I really wish you would give us your read and insider info on the economics of our country and how the American people can regain the fruits of our labor.
Tony Lionetti ; Better yet, how about your complete explanation of everything touched upon here!??