People have tremendous power, but they generally refuse to exercise it. Don't want unfettered propaganda to endanger our lives, close your FB account...FB would lose 2/3rds of their revenues. People won't do it. Don't like Bezos' treatment of workers, shift more of your buying to Walmart (usually cheaper prices and far less counterfeits or Etsy to support small businesses). People won't do it. Dislike Southwest's caving to the anti vaxxers in its workforce, fly United which stands behind its mandates. People won't do it. Angry at multibillionaires and corporations who spend millions to evade taxes, keep drug prices high, and lobby Congress to keep you from enjoying a safer, more secure life, radically cut your consumer spending. People won't do it. One side will crawl over broken glass to win a culture war. The other side will (in a good year) turn out 60% of eligible voters. One side will use every opportunity, means and method to push their agenda. The other will post on Twitter. There may be more of us, but it's irrelevant without concerted action. Our elected Democratic representatives are wholly inadequate to meet this moment. We either do it ourselves or we suffer the increasingly inevitable consequences of our collective failure to act.
I always value your thoughts and opinions. You provide us with well thought out arguments about what issues are important for us to pay attention to. You are a source of information that I trust. Thanks for all you do!!
Is the US still a democracy? I teach a course on economic growth and inequality and one of the issues that I discuss is the importance of institutions and political stability for long term economic growth and effective policy making against inequality. According to the Polity scale that is widely used as a reliable time series indicator of the degree of democracy in countries throughout the world economy, as of 2020 the US is no longer to be considered a democracy. Instead, the US is now categorized as an anocracy; a system with both democratic and autocratic characteristics (see https://www.systemicpeace.org/)
It is all about power. To argue that “free” community college education is too costly, while pouring more money into the mishandled accounts of the Pentagon is just one of many ploys that stand in the way of rebuilding, healing and uniting OUR country.
We at a Very fragile time in our historical trajectory, that the fragility is coming from those
as you point out, the two directions are=
1st the Oligarchy, through all their avenues and entities, with a PR machine that is autopilot/overdrive; distorting public opinions and stances; And,
2nd source of threat is the Neo-Fascism that has taken over most of the Republican party via don-the con trump – that is being fueled by frustrations and anger by a rigged system.
That’s why we MUST get Mass Traction Economic progress; Biden Must stay on track as a REAL Economic Populist; Or we will just end up with another trump clone, personality cult-phony populist: making empty promises while scapegoating immigrants, ETC
Please Keep up All your great articles and AV content, and yes, I do enjoy your pictures.
This is a timely experiment, and we Thank You for starting and continuing this format.
The continuous increase of the Dow and other market index shows the prosperity of the "investing class," a static minority, as you have emphasized, carefully, responsibly, and compassionately.
Contrastingly, I measure national, economic well-being in the U.S.A., by the average annual income of our working-class, and middle-class fellows. By such measure, our economic well-being is terribly "ill!" It needs a drmatic "infusion" of benefits that promote savings and sustained employment.
Since Democrats haven't served their majority according to the value of the Build Back Better bill, I and my fellow must "sell" the bill to each other. Having sold such, we should demand that our senators and representatives enact the bill, regardless of the propapanda and misinformation that have obsure the bill.
I find it interesting that the rich and powerful are willing to spend millions on making sure they do not have to pay their fair share. I get that it's more of a powerplay, but it seems counterintuitive.
And, how is it that I, a mere lowly minimum wage guy, can get audited for having a comma out of place, yet "people" like trump either don't get audited or buy their way out of it. Most countries have laws and rules in place to ensure corporations and individuals pay their fair share. If you look at those countries, their infrastructure is superior to ours. Mass transit is available everywhere and is typically affordable. The UK made public transportation private and ruined a working model. Now they are reversing that mistake. It's okay to make a mistake as long as you recognize that mistake and work to fix it. The US seems reluctant to admit mistakes and just keeps plodding along hoping that eventually, the mistake will correct itself. That doesn't work.
The media calls out the top 1% and yet nothing happens.
This country needs Biden's BBB infrastructure bill. Our plumbing is broken, bridges collapsing, roads disintegrating, communications dodgy at best. But, with the Republicans "running" the show, we can expect the status quo to be maintained.
And how did the minority take control? Is it because they shout louder than the rest of us? Do they have bigger guns? (I don't own a gun.) Are they just bullies and the rest of us are afraid to confront them?
I can count on one hand the members of congress who have the backbone to call out the criminals still in power. This needs to be fixed.
We need term limits for everyone in congress. Make them work for a living for once. Use the laws available to us to remove the lawbreakers and get this government on track.
If you want to see how the government is being taken over, watch Senator Whitehouse on YouTube, The Man has it all mapped out for us, and is reading it into the records.
Your drawing, despite your great art skills, is not accurate. Sorry. It depicts $ corruption being a Trump thing. It is incomplete. In that crowd should also be Republicans in general, and Democrats. If we pretend that $ corruption is a Trump/Republican thing, we are hypocrites and doomed to failure. Republicans are right to say we need to clean up our own side of the street first. We need to start looking at money-souces before voting. You called out Sinema for this just this week. Now that we "know", will we vote for her again? I worked to get her elected. I'll now work hard to "primary' her.
A worthy cause, and a daunting challenge for the thinking people in this country. Hopefully, efforts like this will be able to reach out beyond the "choir members" who share your concerns and aspirations. Somehow, the level of political and economic awareness of the large mass of the American public has to be raised. If you, and like-minded leaders in and out of politics, can effect a change in how people understand the system, you can help change it into the more just and fair system you hope to bring about. Clearly, campaign finance reform is one of the primary prerequisites for this change. A less politically vulnerable education system is also needed, or small groups of fanatics can distort what is taught in our school systems. It may be difficult to make this change in the private school systems, but public education is the place to start. Finally, realigning the focus and spending priorities of all levels of government is needed. That includes reducing defense spending to what is really needed, and eliminating subsidies that do not produce a true public good. If we can accomplish this, we'll truly be a "kinder, gentler America" and "the home of the free".
Robert, I was very touched by something someone either quoted or authored. Paraphrasing, It is much easier to fray and tear apart democracy than it is to weave it together. I like the word weave because we have tried and tried to get our country working for the people who build, work and run our economy every day. We keep cycling through this same historical scenario of workers getting crushed.
It is primarily the weight of the health care system that is sinking middle class but I know it’s much more. We are the ONLY industrialized nation without guaranteed health care. In addition, we now have the insurance industry trying to sign older Americans up for something called Medicare Advantage. Older Americans, don’t sign up for this. It is not part of medicare at all. And insurance will get into the program and destroy it.
It is time for us to weave something new. We can’t continue with capitalism unless it is surrounded tightly by regulation. Better yet, a better Social Democracy that gives citizens the right to all the basics. It’s simple humanity.
Reading through some of the comments, I do feel that people are trying to help and offer their honest opinions. I would still put the need for education at the very top of the list. And parents play a key role here. The values and ideals that your children will have are not necessarily what they learn in school as education for democracy and a decent life with others starts much much before the school years. Nowadays, there is not much attention to religious teachings and values and I think there needs to be. I do not know this for certain but it seems to me that all religions stress respect for, kindness, and service to others, concern for the environment and our communities, the ability to accept difference and to honor those who show decency and kindness. It sometimes seems to me that those who claim deep religious values sometimes do not live those values but, if that is so, the burden and the failure are on them and we do well to reciprocate and respond with our own values. Our failures are to some extend selfishness and self-centered-ness and we can overcome them by trying to walk in the path of someone else and by responding to their own selfishness with kindness and understanding.
If people put into political involvement half the fervor and energy that they devote to following sports, we'd have a much different country. It's hard to get excited about esoteric issues like tariffs or district boundaries, but they affect our lives more than we realize. We need to see both the forest and the trees to be influential against the roaring tide of big money and organized lobbying. Government isn't the solution to all of our problems, but it's a big factor in deciding what solutions are applied, and whether they work or not. You may be holding your nose when you enter the voting booth, but at least you're trying to do something about the stink.
People have tremendous power, but they generally refuse to exercise it. Don't want unfettered propaganda to endanger our lives, close your FB account...FB would lose 2/3rds of their revenues. People won't do it. Don't like Bezos' treatment of workers, shift more of your buying to Walmart (usually cheaper prices and far less counterfeits or Etsy to support small businesses). People won't do it. Dislike Southwest's caving to the anti vaxxers in its workforce, fly United which stands behind its mandates. People won't do it. Angry at multibillionaires and corporations who spend millions to evade taxes, keep drug prices high, and lobby Congress to keep you from enjoying a safer, more secure life, radically cut your consumer spending. People won't do it. One side will crawl over broken glass to win a culture war. The other side will (in a good year) turn out 60% of eligible voters. One side will use every opportunity, means and method to push their agenda. The other will post on Twitter. There may be more of us, but it's irrelevant without concerted action. Our elected Democratic representatives are wholly inadequate to meet this moment. We either do it ourselves or we suffer the increasingly inevitable consequences of our collective failure to act.
I always value your thoughts and opinions. You provide us with well thought out arguments about what issues are important for us to pay attention to. You are a source of information that I trust. Thanks for all you do!!
Is the US still a democracy? I teach a course on economic growth and inequality and one of the issues that I discuss is the importance of institutions and political stability for long term economic growth and effective policy making against inequality. According to the Polity scale that is widely used as a reliable time series indicator of the degree of democracy in countries throughout the world economy, as of 2020 the US is no longer to be considered a democracy. Instead, the US is now categorized as an anocracy; a system with both democratic and autocratic characteristics (see https://www.systemicpeace.org/)
It is all about power. To argue that “free” community college education is too costly, while pouring more money into the mishandled accounts of the Pentagon is just one of many ploys that stand in the way of rebuilding, healing and uniting OUR country.
Spot-on Again Robert, with All your points;
We at a Very fragile time in our historical trajectory, that the fragility is coming from those
as you point out, the two directions are=
1st the Oligarchy, through all their avenues and entities, with a PR machine that is autopilot/overdrive; distorting public opinions and stances; And,
2nd source of threat is the Neo-Fascism that has taken over most of the Republican party via don-the con trump – that is being fueled by frustrations and anger by a rigged system.
That’s why we MUST get Mass Traction Economic progress; Biden Must stay on track as a REAL Economic Populist; Or we will just end up with another trump clone, personality cult-phony populist: making empty promises while scapegoating immigrants, ETC
Please Keep up All your great articles and AV content, and yes, I do enjoy your pictures.
This is a timely experiment, and we Thank You for starting and continuing this format.
Thanks!
The continuous increase of the Dow and other market index shows the prosperity of the "investing class," a static minority, as you have emphasized, carefully, responsibly, and compassionately.
Contrastingly, I measure national, economic well-being in the U.S.A., by the average annual income of our working-class, and middle-class fellows. By such measure, our economic well-being is terribly "ill!" It needs a drmatic "infusion" of benefits that promote savings and sustained employment.
Since Democrats haven't served their majority according to the value of the Build Back Better bill, I and my fellow must "sell" the bill to each other. Having sold such, we should demand that our senators and representatives enact the bill, regardless of the propapanda and misinformation that have obsure the bill.
Thanks, always!
I find it interesting that the rich and powerful are willing to spend millions on making sure they do not have to pay their fair share. I get that it's more of a powerplay, but it seems counterintuitive.
And, how is it that I, a mere lowly minimum wage guy, can get audited for having a comma out of place, yet "people" like trump either don't get audited or buy their way out of it. Most countries have laws and rules in place to ensure corporations and individuals pay their fair share. If you look at those countries, their infrastructure is superior to ours. Mass transit is available everywhere and is typically affordable. The UK made public transportation private and ruined a working model. Now they are reversing that mistake. It's okay to make a mistake as long as you recognize that mistake and work to fix it. The US seems reluctant to admit mistakes and just keeps plodding along hoping that eventually, the mistake will correct itself. That doesn't work.
The media calls out the top 1% and yet nothing happens.
This country needs Biden's BBB infrastructure bill. Our plumbing is broken, bridges collapsing, roads disintegrating, communications dodgy at best. But, with the Republicans "running" the show, we can expect the status quo to be maintained.
And how did the minority take control? Is it because they shout louder than the rest of us? Do they have bigger guns? (I don't own a gun.) Are they just bullies and the rest of us are afraid to confront them?
I can count on one hand the members of congress who have the backbone to call out the criminals still in power. This needs to be fixed.
We need term limits for everyone in congress. Make them work for a living for once. Use the laws available to us to remove the lawbreakers and get this government on track.
You can probably tell I am just a bit frustrated.
Appreciate your doing this.
If you want to see how the government is being taken over, watch Senator Whitehouse on YouTube, The Man has it all mapped out for us, and is reading it into the records.
Your drawing, despite your great art skills, is not accurate. Sorry. It depicts $ corruption being a Trump thing. It is incomplete. In that crowd should also be Republicans in general, and Democrats. If we pretend that $ corruption is a Trump/Republican thing, we are hypocrites and doomed to failure. Republicans are right to say we need to clean up our own side of the street first. We need to start looking at money-souces before voting. You called out Sinema for this just this week. Now that we "know", will we vote for her again? I worked to get her elected. I'll now work hard to "primary' her.
A worthy cause, and a daunting challenge for the thinking people in this country. Hopefully, efforts like this will be able to reach out beyond the "choir members" who share your concerns and aspirations. Somehow, the level of political and economic awareness of the large mass of the American public has to be raised. If you, and like-minded leaders in and out of politics, can effect a change in how people understand the system, you can help change it into the more just and fair system you hope to bring about. Clearly, campaign finance reform is one of the primary prerequisites for this change. A less politically vulnerable education system is also needed, or small groups of fanatics can distort what is taught in our school systems. It may be difficult to make this change in the private school systems, but public education is the place to start. Finally, realigning the focus and spending priorities of all levels of government is needed. That includes reducing defense spending to what is really needed, and eliminating subsidies that do not produce a true public good. If we can accomplish this, we'll truly be a "kinder, gentler America" and "the home of the free".
Voting rights
Robert, I was very touched by something someone either quoted or authored. Paraphrasing, It is much easier to fray and tear apart democracy than it is to weave it together. I like the word weave because we have tried and tried to get our country working for the people who build, work and run our economy every day. We keep cycling through this same historical scenario of workers getting crushed.
It is primarily the weight of the health care system that is sinking middle class but I know it’s much more. We are the ONLY industrialized nation without guaranteed health care. In addition, we now have the insurance industry trying to sign older Americans up for something called Medicare Advantage. Older Americans, don’t sign up for this. It is not part of medicare at all. And insurance will get into the program and destroy it.
It is time for us to weave something new. We can’t continue with capitalism unless it is surrounded tightly by regulation. Better yet, a better Social Democracy that gives citizens the right to all the basics. It’s simple humanity.
I think there are 3 biggest challenges to our democracy. Your cartoon needs a group of people lying down watching TV and labeled "Apathy".
Reading through some of the comments, I do feel that people are trying to help and offer their honest opinions. I would still put the need for education at the very top of the list. And parents play a key role here. The values and ideals that your children will have are not necessarily what they learn in school as education for democracy and a decent life with others starts much much before the school years. Nowadays, there is not much attention to religious teachings and values and I think there needs to be. I do not know this for certain but it seems to me that all religions stress respect for, kindness, and service to others, concern for the environment and our communities, the ability to accept difference and to honor those who show decency and kindness. It sometimes seems to me that those who claim deep religious values sometimes do not live those values but, if that is so, the burden and the failure are on them and we do well to reciprocate and respond with our own values. Our failures are to some extend selfishness and self-centered-ness and we can overcome them by trying to walk in the path of someone else and by responding to their own selfishness with kindness and understanding.
If people put into political involvement half the fervor and energy that they devote to following sports, we'd have a much different country. It's hard to get excited about esoteric issues like tariffs or district boundaries, but they affect our lives more than we realize. We need to see both the forest and the trees to be influential against the roaring tide of big money and organized lobbying. Government isn't the solution to all of our problems, but it's a big factor in deciding what solutions are applied, and whether they work or not. You may be holding your nose when you enter the voting booth, but at least you're trying to do something about the stink.