Trump stands with Putin in all things. But WE do not. Americans do not condone Putins invasions of Ukraine and overt threats toward other European nations, the ruthless bombing of playgrounds, schools, hospitals, nor do we support capitulation and appeasement.
There is only one way out of this dystopia and that is a landslide victory for Democrats in 2026 and 2028. This in turn will require a progressive agenda, not the mealy-mouthed platform of Harris: 1) Truly universal healthcare (making Medicare available to all rather than Medicare for all), 2) free tuition at two year colleges, trade schools and state universities, and 3) TAX THE RICH.
I did not view the Harris-Walz platform as mealy-mouthed. If the country had elected that platform, let us count the ways our country would have moved forward not backwards.
The General Public doesn't care about platforms. They don't care about policy. The General Public is generally very ignorant. They have impressions that things are all right or getting worse. The General Public is easily swayed and susceptible to propaganda on cultural issues.
Democrats in conservative areas need the flexibility to represent their constituents.
I don't have contempt for general voters, but the world has gotten very complex. Most people go on about their daily lives and it doesn't involve spending hours diving into economics, history, science etc.
Yes. I totally agree that being susceptible to propaganda also means they are susceptible to sincere leadership.
Grassroots politics can succeed. We've recalled a corrupt commissioner and gotten the signatures for 2 more. It's a bipartisan effort at the local level.
I'm reacting to the comments that we need to have good policy suggestions and a good platform. In general elections, policy and platforms are for the die-hards. Simple and compelling messaging that rings true is what's needed.
The other thing is choosing candidates who appeals to the broad electorate, not the educated elite.
According to This Will Hold here in ‘Stack, Harris won the actual (un-monkeyed) vote by a significant margin. Their rigorous analysis has… Held. At least as far as I can find out. However, I haven’t experimented (yet) with AI…
Mainstream media gave very little time or space to the Democratic platform (that was very popular when tested in focus groups, especially if the party label was left off, so knee-jerk Republicans could actually think about it) but Trump's lunacy was way more 'newsworthy' and interesting.
And the Dems had nothing to match the vitriol and lies of Fox and its right-wing shadows. That's where the culture wars were fought and lost.
Dems do and did have a platform in 2024. The DNC's job is not to act; it's only to recruit and fund candidates. I would say the DNC is doing quite well in finding candidates.
Of course, hindsight is 20-20 but it's almost like Democrats seek permission to speak and then apologize if their rhetoric is too direct. Democrats now have the receipts. If they don't use the corruption and destruction this administration has heaped us to their advantage, they deserve to lose. He has hollowed out our industry instead of improving it; he has brought a new era of success to the Chinese; he has driven away our friends and left us on an island-untrusted and despised. There is a lot of ammunition for the Democrats but will they use it? I have my doubts, their nests are warm and soft and they will not risk eviction.
‘They spent too much time…about the looming disaster’? What else did we expect them to do? The MAGA Trmp machine was in overdrive. If the Dems didn’t spend time on that, we’d be complaining that they should have warned us. Not that Kamala Harris was some sort of perfect candidate. But until the Dems find their voice and their strength, they’ll continue to be no match for the onslaught of egregious, un-Constitutional and Nazi like actions and messaging from the Project 25 MAGA side. IMO, it’s not an issue of whether the Dem platform is progressive enough ( although I appreciate /understand the argument. ) It’s a matter of the veracity and the abundance of constant, loud, strong messaging. It’s a matter of controlling the narrative- because at this point, mainstream media sure isn’t going to modulate that for us
We need to keep a sharp eye on the elections, and call on our state and local governments to watch it closely. The GOP cheats in any and every way they can. https://thiswillhold.substack.com
Absolutely! This is the goal to work towards. We cannot change policy towards Ukraine now, but we can work towards throwing the trump administration under the bus.
Yes, they must be stopped. What's happening now is un-American. We did not lose so many of our ancestors in the world wars just to see these tin-pot dictators now ruin everything they fought and died for.
We need to limit the accumulation of vast wealth and the power it engenders. The Oligarchs will spend any amount of money - and they effectively have ANY amount of money - to maintain their power and prerogatives. 50 years of them gradually chipping away at the limits placed on them as part of the New Deal has given them wide hegemony over the Economy and Government. Shoving this genie back in its lamp is going to be an arduous process.
None of this will happen. The United States is not a constitutional republic anymore. It is a kleptocratic, plutocratic, oligarchic, kakistocracy. The toothpaste is no longer in the tube and can't be shoved back. Things have gone too far for a single election (if that occurs at all) to solve.
"It will take several election cycles of the Democrats..."
----
Nobody, but nobody, should trust the US again. After W. won in 2004 after all of the blood and treasure and international coercion I lost any faith in the electorate. (Hell, I lost faith when HRC voted for the Iraq invasion, knocking her off the pedestal I had put her on.)
The world celebrated when Obama was elected. At the time, facing the 2008-2009 Great Recession, he described the W. administration as having driven the bus into the ditch, and the first thing he had to do was get the bus out of the ditch. Then he was re-elected: Woo-hoo! An entire EIGHT YEARS of stable government policy.
The primary goal of Trump's first maladministration was explicitly undoing anything Obama had done (including dismantling the pandemic response program). Now he is undoing Biden's best programs and instituting Project 2025 and monetizing the entire federal government while ignoring treaties and laws and the Constitution.
The US electorate votes based on its chosen media sources. They voted for a CONVICTED FELON (who lies like he breathes) for stupid reasons.
The USSR is gone, Russia under Putin and his kleptocratic oligarchs has been reduced to a petrostate with an economy about the size of Italy's. It's using social media to propagandize the voters of the West, driving the US and Western Europe further to the right, politically.
At least China's self-interest is aligned with dominating/stabilizing world trade and saving the planet.
Sorry for the presumptuous name-change, Elizabeth. As a matter of fact, despite my cynicism, I do participate in political action -- not because I think anything will change, but because I like the people I work with. I also write Substacks on political and cultural topics. https://diogenescandle.substack.com
I totally agree the US have a truly progressive agenda, one that serves people rather than big money interests. But now it's a race. Trump and the billionaires are working at warp speed to weaken the US and institutions able to resist their authoritarianism. It seems progressive landslides in 2026 and 2028 will be necessary. Beyond that, a people's revolution will need to remove the culprits and bring them to justice.
The Trump regime is working at warp speed because authoritarians know they must get their dirty work done before the populace wakes up and stops them. This worked for Orban. Democratic victories in 2026 & 2028 are essential for our survival. Even those might be too late.
Orban actually presided over an improvement in the Hungarian economy, which helped his staying power. Stupid Donnie is fulfilling the Heritage Foundation's goal of uprooting every public good the US government has ever embraced, and taking world relations down with it.
That’s the beginning of the process, not the end. The Republicans have pulling us into fascism for some time now, and the effort won’t come close to ending with Trump’s political demise. We’ll still be facing a hostile Supreme Court that won’t be fixable for decades by traditional means. We’ll still have a Senate with a de facto 60 vote requirement to pass meaningful legislation—and the filibuster in place. The federal bureaucracy will still be wrecked and fixing it could take decades. As Dr. Krugman points out, the same is true for our carefully built system of global alliances.
I’m hoping no one here is assuming that a putative Democratic President assuming office in 2029 can wave his/her hands and make all this go away. Playing by traditional rules, it may not be fixable at all. We will need to think long and hard about what will be required to actually get us back to being a functional democracy. It’s likely to take some very unconventional solutions.
I am certainly not suggesting that any President could "wave his/her hands," and get a result. What I am suggesting is that any President with sufficient gonadal tissue could make a huge difference (think, in different contexts, Margaret Thatcher, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR).
What they would need is a 2/3 majority in the Senate and a solid majority in the House. This can only come about with a strong, progressive agenda, and not the mealy-mouthed-tack-to-the-center modus operandi of the DNC.
I literally know of no one with any serious political experience who believes that is possible. At best we might have 20 or so House seats and maybe 51 Senate seats—and that’s if everything goes roughly perfectly. Furthermore, given the time span needed to repair the damage Trump has done, we’d need to hold a solid trifecta for literally decades. The last time that happened was during FDR’s Administration almost a century ago. I’ll defer to true experts on the topic (if anyone with inside knowledge cares to join this exchange), but I know a lot about organizational strategic planning and I don’t see an obvious solution that relies on traditional politics.
Where I heartily agree with you is on your point about “gonadal tissue.” We tend to forget that SCOTUS issued its Presidential blanket immunity decision during Biden’s term. He was too much of an institutionalist to head off the (now) obvious train wreck we’ve all lived through this year by seizing the levers that court decision handed him. He also had a few earlier opportunities to permanently rid us of Trump but never took them. Sincerely hoping that our next Democratic President won’t repeat those errors.
whats needed is a govt without elected officials who plan to stay for life, then changing rules, laws & their behavior toward big money in order to facilitate that. We dont need a progressive wishlist, we need uncorrupted govt.
Michael, I could not agree with you more, BUT Biden did pretty well in 2020 and what did that get us?: Trump2. Since our politics have devolved into a personality contest fit for a 1950's High School Class President (and with all due respect, I just makde that up), I am not sure how we get out of this.
When was there a robust national debate on a major policy issue? We cannot sort out Climate Change, Health Care, Environmental Stewardship, basic issues of Housing,
Electrification, or even Public Health.
So your landslide victory for Dems: How do they maintain it except to establish a benevolent dictatorship? Does that sound familiar?
If you want to tax the Rich (which I agree with), we need to educate the non-rich. That is a very big task, since "if I am rich, I clearly know better."
Get money out of politics and get education and clear thinking into politics at every level -- School boards on up to the top.
I am afraid that what we need, just like in the Civil War, is to win on the battlefield. We don’t have a legitimate government and in effect are occupied by a hostile foreign power. Actually, looking at some of people serving Trump, they might be real aliens - they certainly aren’t human.
Great comments but we need to develop the book, play by play now. If we wait until we elect a majority then start to write the book, it will never be done in time to convince people we can do it and we will lose the majority again.
Stop the back and forth or Republicans win!
Write and publish the 2028 book of American Action now. We are already starting late.
James, I think it needs to be 2028. If it is available in 2028 then candidates can use it as their platform to run on.
I have recently stated pushing back on donation requests that don’t highlight a candidate’s platform.
I am so tired of the weak BS of “I have to meet this month’s goal of this quarter’s goal as an ask for money.
We really have become lazy. Platforms are not highlighted on a candidate website. Some totally do not publish the party or parties the candidate affiliates with.
Communication must improve. I think the Chief Convict has proven that even poor English and a crappy platform will put a candidate in office.
Of course it doesn’t hurt that he is an actor and staged a shot in the ear to refocus the election on him.
Stephen, with constructive intent, was reading your comment and thinking "OK re playbook...push back...yep money goal..yep, communication...WHOA!" Staged a shot? Please reconsider. I think one of the strengths of this substack in Paul's community is to stay fact-driven, thanks
I agreed with your comment until I read "staged a shot in the ear..." Of course, I had thought of that too, because he popped back up after the shot, but it was just a suspicion for which there is no evidence. It's doubtful that the cowardly Trump would risk his life for anything - even staying in power.
From outside the US, it appears that the orange blobs supporters want the country taken back to the 18th century (but with their 21st century weapons) in both societal and political terms. They apparently want women to be quiet and just reproduce, without standing as voters. They want people of colour to allowed in only as labour, without any rights at all.
The electoral college was an anachronism 2 centuries ago.
That any elected politician could be in a position to appoint SC justices, change electoral boundaries, pardon anyone who has been duly convicted through the justice system or allowed to break the laws of the land in any way, at any time is absurd.
That any elected politician can be allowed to take retribution against anyone they do not agree with is impossible to sustain, if the next party takes reciprocal actions you're in a rapid spiral into anarchy or revolution.
But also, it seems the way in which the constitution is written, it limits any possibility that significant reforms will ever be acceptable to the required number of states.
I cannot see this ending well, but wish you all the very best!
I agree with most of your comments except the point about “retribution against anyone they do not agree with is impossible to sustain, if the next party takes reciprocal actions you're in a rapid spiral into anarchy or revolution.” This is certainly needed during the next non republican administration. We need a high level commission, akin to the one that formed post world war 2. It was the Nuremberg Trials to bring to hold accountable to those who actively and passively participated under Hitler. Current Trump administration’s colossal assault on democratic institutions, academia, law firms, free press and systematic assault on American way of life, blatant institutionalization of kleptocracy is as egregious and dehumanizing to this nation to warrant bringing accountability to Trump, his family Jared, Bianca and Trump juniors along with his billionaire class of cabinet members.
Sanjeev, I wouldn’t call that retribution, rather it is facing justice. Maybe it’s just semantics but the Nuremberg trials were just that, trials. Not personal retribution by the people who were in power, but trials with evidence presented and considered.
Supreme Court - pass a mandatory retirement age (70) effective within 6 months - that will clear out some dead wood. Since current corrupt, blind ideologues, with their fabricated originalist, textualist and libertarian fantasies selectively applied, have no concern for precedent, nix their Citiezns United, Immunity, and Dobbs decisions, for starters. Amy Comey Barrett can go back to her Christian cult and teach bible class. .
Enough of supply-side tax cuts for the rich - these people need to put some money back in the till - or go live somewhere else. I say pass a giant tax cut for the LOWEST end of the income distribution - zero at the poverty level - then drift it up to the MEDIAN. Calculate the lost revenue, and slap it on those at the top. Don't like it? Pay up - and LEAVE.
Worse, the trillionaires in Silicon Valley are using their immense wealth to destroy Western cilivlization. Trump is just a tool they are using to help them do this. The goal is to completely rid the West of democracy and supplant it with right-wing Neo-Nazi regimes controlled by them and their trust funds forever. Putin is an ally in their new world order. Absolute power corrupts. "Absolute power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely".
I wish Krugman had put Russia on the graph above to show how puny its economy is relative to us, our allies, and China.
If so, Russia's economy would be smaller than the narrow green stripe representing Canada above.
Russia's economy is about 1/2 the size of the economy of the state of California.
The only reason Russia has a lot of power is largely due to bluster and Trump and old exaggerated cold war rhetoric (and their willingness to be brutal).
Russia would not remotely have the capacity to win in Ukraine if not for people like Trump, and China is probably only helping them to create a buffer and to make the West look weak. Once again, because they know they can do this, because of Trump.
When Trump became the presumptive nominee, it was when Ukraine was winning and pushing back Russia, but as soon as he was the presumptive in the primaries, the GOP elected a new leader in the House, Trump's puppet Johnson, as the head, and quit funding Ukraine for 6 months and this is when China saw an opportunity and stepped in to help Russia and the tide turned and Russia began to hold its ground and now sees Trump as an opportunity and is throwing everything at Ukraine.
One might certainly assume the House did this because Trump wanted them to even though he was not yet in office.
Trump also knows that MAGA, as well as many others, will confuse Russia's land mass size for economic size which was bolstered by cold war rhetoric into the imaginations of Americans.
Yes, they have nukes, but so do we and some of our allies, as well. If we cower in fear we simply give away all of our power.
In my view, we should have simply made Ukraine a NATO member early on, or created a special in progress category, and Russia would have come up with an excuse to go home.
Yes, and Canada was around 2.2-2.4, so like I said, Russia at 2.1-2.2 was smaller than Canada's and very roughly 1/2 the size of the state of CA's at abt 4.1 trillion. Info I am finding on Australia puts it at about 1.8 trillion. So Russia is perhaps a bit closer to Canada in size.
Even when viewed as PPP, where the World Bank has them at 6.9, for 2024, you have to consider that the USA is over 29 trillion, so Russia is only about 1/4 and Russia is also only 1/4 in size of the EU, as well, at over 28 trillion. So, Russia is only 1/8 in size of the USA and EU allies combined, plus you need to consider all our other allies added on top of that.
Still, relatively very small and one needs a lot of $$ to be a superpower. Sadly the GOPs waffeling drove Russia into the arms of China, who is likely just using them to bolster themselves and make us look bad, but do not really want a conflict with us, and could swallow up Russia in an instant if they wanted to. Yes, I erred in only expressing this as GDP, when compared to Krugman's graph, but what I said about GDP was accurate.
Thanks for pointing this out BTW- I appreciate it when people do that.
It’s not too late to turn Putin back and reclaim Ukraine for Ukraine and Western Civilization.
Since when do small-minded Trumpian authoritarians have enough power to strong arm American egalitarians and Western democracy?
U.S. Republicans who are so busy crawling away from Putin no longer understand what we have. Congressional Democrats and American allies — including Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China and the United Nations know that no one wants what Russia has to offer. Trump is playing a losing hand. None of his small type documents can take the place of the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.
Trump is little more than an illiterate thug and he knows it. Swagger and a gun are not good enough to stand down our great American history and the muscular education of our scientists and intellectuals. The Republicans and their petty dictator, even when backed by the mysteriously ignorant old guard of the U.S.Supreme Court, cannot stand up to our educated and orderly military. Hegseth is in a word ridiculous.
It’s only a matter of time before the heart, courage and fists of our military, Congress and courts unite, step forward and reconstitute the government of the United States of America.
Prepare to watch Trump howl and run. With our cell phones we’ll be able to broadcast their cowardice live and take back our country. Our leaders are ready, theirs are not.
Yes re WE / Kim / 75M anti POTUS 2024 voters / Me agree… and yet Here WE are. I think the problem my gen ( boomers most of all) are part of is that in aggregate we Wanted “ stuff / wealth” more than peace freedom, and allowed isolation resentment to grow. The lesson for our Generation should have been Stay Active in World Affairs and Stay Generous as the only fully Free, Wealthy nation post 1945. We didn’t and instead bought into a We are Exceptional narrative that has evolved into the bitterness and recklessness of this Administration
All good, but it is now too late to restore the status quo ante. US Allies can no longer trust the US to be a reliable ally, as no matter who is in power, any reversal and attempt to rebuild trust can be unwound. Germany and Japan were not suddenly Allies after WWII, it took time to build trust. For example, many never forgave Japan for the atrocities it meted out in WWII to Allied soldiers in the Pacicific. Jews didn't trust Germany, or even Europeans after WWII, and happily emigrated to Palestine and the emerging state of Israel.
>Is This The End of the Free World?<
Usually, the answer to an article with a question in the title is "NO". Sadly, I think teh real answer is going to be "YES", at least insofar as the US was the linchpin of the post WWII "free world". We shouldn't forget that there was competition for supremacy after 1945. The Cold War was in play, and the US wanted to show the world that the US model was superior to that of Russia and its fellow travellers. The race to land on the Moon was one symbol that succeeded. The Vietnam War was one that failed. It seemed that with the collapse of the USSR, the new global hegemon, the USA, had "won". 30-odd years later, it seems that "victory" was premature.
In Hemingway's, The Sun Also Rises, there are these 2 line:
“How did you go bankrupt?"
Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
Empires can fall that way, too. The USSR was the most recent example. The British Empire did the same half a century earlier. Britons took a long while to accept their loss of status, and indeed, many still do not accept it. Brexit was partly sold as a way for Britain to regain some of its "buccaneering" past, possibly to distract its anti-immigrant turn. Big mistake.
I fear that for all its bluster, the USA is facing the same end as far as its influence goes. What was possibly going to become teh Chinese century in a few decades has been accelerated, and worse, Russia has been invigorated to expand its borders yet again.
For the US Christian Nationalists, do you not recognize this as "selling the future for a mess of pottage"?
We shouldn't forget that there was competition for supremacy after 1945. The Cold War was in play, and the US wanted to show the world that the US model was superior to that of Russia and its fellow travellers. The race to land on the Moon was one symbol that succeeded.
Posted before done - the caveat to that quote was that in addition to our catching up with our moon shot and new focus on STEM, the cold war also provoked our willingness to end Jim Crow (which was internationally correctly viewed as undermining our professed support for freedom) and to develop soft power tools like VoA and support for development of the European Economic Community and Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe to make a “West” that held together. Not likely to be able to play that Leader of the Free World role ever again, even if we don’t succeed in pulling down Europe’s democracies with us in our fall.
And yet Nixon started to undermine that within the decade with the "Southern Strategy". It has continued on and off with the GOP (and arguably with the Democrats' lack of action) ever since. Russia did us a favor with the "Sputnik moment" that triggered greater STEM education, and in California, with more land-grant university campuses. Yet look where we are with expertise denigrated, with opinions and "feelings" trumping facts. IDK when that started, but the Reagan economic policies certainly moved in that direction, and RW media trumpeted that approach, as well as punching down on non-white citizens and immigrants.
Dear Paul. I’m not American (I’m from the Republic of Ireland), I’m not an apologist for US foreign policy mistakes, and I think of the effects of the Trump Administration’s cancellation of USAID’s on the world’s very vulnerable more than I think about US American’s feelings of discomfort in current times. My summary of Trump’s administration is ‘Greed, Corruption, Lawlessness’.
I did not agree with Terence’s characterisation ‘it gets tiresome how Americans justify their passivity’, and I don’t agree with your assertions ‘Currently the United States is a fascist state’ and ‘quit worrying about being exceptional and concentrate on doing what is right because doing what is right is never wrong’. Your sentiments, both of you, might seem correct to you from your perspective as you write, but both are not factually correct, and fail to build bridges against passivity, fascism, and against self-deluding feelings of exceptionalism. I cannot (even when I foolishly try to) instruct Americans how to think, much less act. Please, restrain your criticisms that can cause offence, they wont win any arguments with American readers. Yes, to poke fun to stimulate debate, but no to your own sense of exceptionalism in treating all Americans as being ‘wrong’ or more culpable than you, or I, outside of the US. Yours, Anthony.
Dear Fellow readers. This is very strange. The post to which my reply x 6 hours ago was for seems to have disappeared/ been deleted. I’d like to clarify that the Dear Paul to whom I was replying is NOT Paul Krugman. As it stands, my reply is ridiculous isn’t it! A reply to a vacuum…. Sorry to anyone who is confused. Anthony.
The BBC headline — “We stand with Ukraine” — is classic diplomatic mush. Nobody is actually standing with Ukraine. Starmer is in London, other leaders are in their own capitals, and none of them are dug into trenches outside Kyiv.
“Stand with” doesn’t describe a physical location; it’s political shorthand for “we support them, mainly with statements and selective aid.” But if you take the words literally, yes — it’s nonsense. If you’re standing with Ukraine, you’re in Ukraine, shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukrainians, doing something tangible for their defense.
Instead we get leaders who stand behind podiums and declare solidarity from a safe distance. The phrase survives because it sounds noble, costs nothing, and everyone in politics uses it.
Hi Terence. I’m not going to let you away with that ‘you’re wrong’ generalisation. The US population is about 350 million, that’s around 350 million individual opinions and beliefs, including a lot of contradictory views. I criticise your rhetoric: the US Administration is behaving abominably, but all those millions of Americans who disagree with their government’s actions are doing what they can to make their opposition clear. By the argument in your rhetoric, all Germans and Japanese should have been punished for their governments’ actions during WWII, for example. Wouldn’t your argument be better served by trying to identify points on which you can agree with American readers of this forum, and by trying in that mechanism to build bridges for a transnational push back against the policies of the present US Administration? Not polite chit chat, but action? Yours, Anthony.
Here in Portugal there is a general strike tomorrow because the government is threatening to change the labor laws to the detriment of workers.
When will there be a general strike in the US to counter the much bigger issues with government actions including abandoning democratic allies, ignoring the rule of law, the list goes on. When will America wake up? I’m not talking about the people writing civilly and intelligently on this thread but the American people as a whole?
Thanks Jenny for your insightful remarks. I don’t know what, how, or even if, US society will leave this current ‘crisis’ (understatement understood). It feels as if we’re on the brink of something very bad, and much bigger than the US alone. Your insightful remark about ‘the American people as a whole’ resonates. If it’s not apparent already, I’m trying to shore up (American) readers’ belief in their ability to turn the awful situation in the US around, while trying to stick to the issues raised in the relevant posts’ texts. Maybe too much ‘blether’! Good luck with the general strike tomorrow.
Thanks Terence. I’m grateful for your reply. I don’t agree with your argument. However, let’s not fall out over this. We need discussion and argument to ever move forwards, and I take your arguments in this vein. Yours, Anthony.
This is a patriotic cris de coeur. As Dr. K states, there are many, many more of us (domestically and internationally) who support democratic values — how can we harness that commitment to drive back trump’s wrecking ball?
Exactly! I’m older and not a zillionaire, but I am a registered voter and vote in EVERY election. Sadly, here in Texas, we are so gerrymandered that many have given up on voting but I have not. Trump, et al, need to know they don’t speak for all of us, only 49.8% — and I bet today, many of those would like to change their vote.
A few months ago, one polling outfit ran two polls in Trump country. One poll asked if people would vote differently, but the other simply asked who they would vote for if the election were re-run. The results of the first poll showed that nothing would change (ie. Trump would win). The results of the second one showed a clear landslide for Harris. The difference, of course, is that the first poll required that people admit they were wrong.
No. Have you seen all of the people here who claim to have cancelled their subscriptions to the Washington Post and/or the NYT because the editorials slant right-wing now? All of the MAGA crowd did that back in 2016. The vast majority of them aren't here.
It seems like more voters would be better, but would those people be informed voters? The 2020 election had a turnout of 67% that was the highest turnout since the beginning of the 20th century. Then in 2024 the voters flipped back to Trump and the turnout was 64% the third highest since the beginning of the 20th century. Franklin Pierce won in 1852 the turnout was 69%. James Buchanan won in 1856 the turnout was 79%. These were two of the worst presidents in the history of the united states. So how would that 1/3 of uninterested voters vote?
People who don't vote don't vote for a reason, and that reason is generally that they appreciate that they are clueless about politics. Each in their own random way. Anyone looking to that cohort for coherent support is barking up the wrong tree.
In 1928 Hover received 58% of the vote and the turnout was 57%. In 1932 Hover received 40% of the vote and the turnout was again 57%. 18% of the voters flipped to Roosevelt because they had a plan "the new deal". The Democrats and never trump Republicans need a plan to counter project 2025. It is not enough to oppose project 2025 they must have an alternative plan.
Not only vote, but also write to your congress people, set up action groups, organise meet ups, demonstrate... I am aware that people have busy lives, lots to deal with, scrambling for money to pay bills, but it is your country and your future. And also your commitment could galvanise others and great things would happen. Sorry for this weak analogy, but somehow it always stayed in my mind,( Luna Lovegood to Harry while feeding the thestals, ) alone people are weak and not a threat, but when surrounded by friends and people of the same mind, they can accomplish great things. ;-) on this positive note!...
People are busy and distressed by the affordability crisis - who's got time to call their congress person and organize when they need to be worried about their next paycheck?
Not fixing the affordability crisis is an opportunity for MAGA to continue their agenda unopposed because the populous is busy worrying about the price of eggs. People still hope that if only they make it through for a few more months they will be stable enough to shift their focus to addressing the larger issues but maybe this hope and procrastination is exactly what keeps one in one's place?
I hear you. But what is the alternative? Do nothing and get on with your life?... if you wish, but ask anyone who live under authoritarian regimes, it's not fun... To say the least. But yes, indeed, your choice.
I think a lot of groundwork in the US is the basic solution. The urban "elites" need to start interacting with the rural "leftbehinds" much more on a basic helping level. Now that the crisis of health is setting in, I would love to see more volunteerwork in the red states get financed by democrat-aligned forces. Hell, Europe would propably chip in. Action -> Words, etc.
Yep. Urban economic powerhouses within states already subsidize their rural neighbors with transfers of tax dollars and rural tax credits. But if you’re from an urban area and talk with your rural neighbors or relatives, you can’t even talk about the day’s weather without hearing an anti-urban slur.
This is where the challenge is. I am an old industrial worker and most of my family are rural here in Norway. There is a way of doing that outreach without being snobs, I have done it over here. But it needs work and thought.
Its worth a try. Better than bitter lethargy and isolation. To paraphrase Clausewitz from memory, "Any defensive position will inevitably be surrounded and starved out by the enemy unless supported by an offensive countermeasure."
We need to get a reachout going. "Bill Kristols Foodtrucks" are here to save the day, yay! Free burgers! " (And emergencypackets for parents with kids without healthcare, as of January.)
Letting our Representatives and Senators in our state and federally that we are watching, we care about preserving Democracy and we VOTE! Urging every lazy person you know who has let that privilege go is so important!
Love the optimism. But not “domestically” check 3NOV2024 election numbers. In the 3rd Trump election - WE knew more about Him than any POTUS candidate in a near century - 77M of US voted for HIM It is not “many many more” it’s closer to an Even Split and once we accept that, we can Do Better trying to change our GOVT constructively in near term elections
Stop investing in, buying and using Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet/Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta/Facebook, stop shopping at Walmart, Home Depot, Wholefoods, etc... Not going to happen is it. You can't turn back the tide. Corporate America is entrenched in our daily lives and every comfort we own and use, from our food and shelter to our entertainment and livelihood. Nobody can survive off the grid. So when the owners of the grid want a Neo-Nazi authoritairian regime running the world, that's that's what will happen.
We’re downsizing to move right now and although neither of us has been a big consumer (Quaker) it’s still amazing how much “stuff” we’ve collected. I am beginning to understand the appeal of living as a monk. So much freer.
Well it would sure as heck help if everyone voted vs sitting home. Everyone takes democracy for granted. Like anything it has to be tended to. It is not a given as we are all witnessing. Sadly the damage the Unscrupulous States of America are a clear and present threat to us all. They do not value life. They do not care who they harm. In fact they enjoy it. A civil war ends faster than a world war. Either way the US will see war on their soil at this rate. No sitting back watching it occurring far from home.
You have to defeat MAGA electorally. Then you have to find new leadership (I see none). Then you have to have to win back trust, find allies (good luck). Then you have to rebuild all the institutions that were smashed. Then you have to remake your greed driven economy (the tech brocracy) so that the richest country in the world doesn’t treat most of its people like serfs. I don’t think you can do it.
To start with, opening with You and not We reminds me of the old Amurrican sentiment "Let's you and him fight". Then there is the 'new leadership'; thanks for the assessment, but why not be realistic (in your own terms) and just say "You're fucked, sorry about that, really sorry because that means WE'RE fucked", and leave it at that? Or are you simply a fascist (including Russian, of course, in the real world) tool? But thanks for the advice, and welcome to Hell, where we may be headed right now, especially if people listen to you.
For Trump and his followers, "freedom" means simply that they are free to dictate to everyone else on any matter large or small. Free to dictate your sex life. Free to dictate your political choices. Free to dictate your health choices. Free to dictate your religion.
"Freedom" to them means slavery for you. And they want to allow that ideology to spread worldwide.
Three years ago I moved from the USA to a small European country. While elements of Tr*mpist poison are seeping in around the edges, my new place of residence has by and large maintained its integrity as a rational, progressive, adult society and will, I believe, continue to do so. This country in particular has a long history of brave and tireless resistance to hostile foreign occupiers. I do not envision it, or Europe in general, bending over easily for these arrogant, ignorant vermin.
Then you know Trump is not the disease, he’s a symptom. Many European countries are fighting anti democratic propaganda and narratives pushed by Putin and the local demagogues he planted there.
We should have an anti billionaire revolution. Our oligarch's are too insulated with too much power. My one vote can't compete with someone that is able to spend millions on campaign propaganda for their favorite stooge.
Yes, one hopes that post-Trump America will return to its traditional values of freedom and the Rule of Law. But there is one great caveat. Before Trump no European entertained the idea that America could turn on a dime and become an unreliable partner. It was simply unthinkable in the most literal meaning of that word. But now a new idea has crept in that cannot be unthought, namely that our allies are always one election away from being thrown under the bus. Trust, once lost, can never be fully regained. If it happened once it can happen again.
One possible route to restoring the pre-Trump arrangement is to adopt some new constitutional amendments that will constrain a future rogue President from being able to blow up our alliances.
or adopting a new constitution altogether. 1776 was a very long time ago. The US Constitution has failed. It isn’t Scripture, it’s a fallible document by men who could never anticipate today’s situation.
I greatly fear what opening up the entire Constitution for revision would do. A country that elected Trump is not a country that can be trusted to adopt a freedom-promoting charter. What we have has worked pretty well ever since its adoption. Better to make incremental changes to respond to changing concerns.
In all that time we have had to make only 15 changes. I count the Bill of Rights as part of the original Constitution, and the Prohibition amendments as canceling out.
And of those 15, only the three Civil War Amendments fundamentally altered our way of life. The remaining twelve have been minor tweaks.
I wouldn’t call the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 19th, or 24th amendments ”minor tweaks.”
Moreover, the 2nd amendment is spectacularly outdated. And the fact that the Bill of Rights had to be added at a later stage shows that the constitution was wanting from the start.
What it is is a flawed and outdated patchwork of incomplete thought that could never have anticipated what would happen if a psychopath were to control all three branches of government, thus nullifying all checks and balances. It naïvely assumes that everybody will play by the rules and makes no provisions for when they don’t.
Women’s right to vote is not a minor tweak. Moreover, the amendment process is fundamental to preserving a constitutional order, and it has broken down (as the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment demonstrated). Rather as if the 15th Amendment had failed. We do need to go back to clarifying (for the first time) what we really do mean about equality under law and freedom in a capitalist economy. FDR’s four freedoms would be a good place to start in thinking about formally setting out amendments.
I disagree. Extending the vote to women, popular election of senators, and the income tax were extensions of what was already in the Constitution. The Civil War amendments fundamentally changed the constitutional order. Slavery, allowed in 1789, was abolished, the right to vote was opened up to former slaves, and the Federal government became a guarantor of that right, overturning Dred Scott.
I think you may be confusing importance with fundamental change. The Constitution of 1787 enshrined the principle of choosing our leaders by popular vote. We simply enlarged that principle.
I define tweaks as adjusting and refining what was already there, but deficient with evolving mores.
Look around and tell me how many modern day equals of Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin and James Madison you see that could craft a new constitution. Their framework will hold up just fine if, like BF said, we can live up to it and keep it.
The Constitution has not failed, Congress has by not doing its job, by being in the pockets of special interests.
The Supreme Court allowed moneyed interests in the door to but their votes via Citizens United. This needs to be overturned, and can be. Some states are already taking action on this front.
The bathwater may be cold but the baby still lives.
I commend that you often feel you need to end your posts on a positive note. I’m unsure if you yourself actually believe this. I can’t believe that it’s not extremely obvious to all that America is over. It’s an untrusted partner for the world. Incapable of solving any of its problems never mind really identifying what these are. I hope I’m wrong but I really really doubt it. The world needs to move on. And fast. Rebuild without the US at the helm.
Well a turnaround CAN happen in the midterms and then 2028 IF EVERYONE GOT UP OFF THEIR ASSES. We should be doing at least 3 constructive things a week to move the pendulum. Giving till it hurts among them. The time is NOW.
What is happening in the US won’t be solved by simple party alternation. I think you’re being extremely naive. What Trump did is show a deeply flawed and frankly sick society.
Flawed societies are everywhere. MAGA comprises as many people as non voting Americans. That’s about 32%. There have always been ignorant bigots and greedy bastards that were always hiding under the rocks here in the states, now emboldened and pardoned. DJT’s numbers are already close to tanking despite the administration’s corrupt ways.
When you say everywhere? What do you mean? Right now the US is in a very unique position within developed democracies. There are right wing parties or factions but none are in power. And none are doing what Trump plus his collaborators are doing. In other words you shouldn’t find comfort there. I mean even Brazil was better than the US in dealing with Bolsonaro.
A society that excuses the shootings of schoolchildren is sick. As is a society that feasts on the poor and blames them for not being tasty is also sick.
MAGA is no more than 35% tops. And they’re governing so poorly at home that they won’t win again. No one except hardcore MAGA like billionaires having so much power.
35% is huge. It takes a lot less than this for societies to crumble. There is no equivalent anywhere in the developed world. And certainly no other example where there wouldn’t be massive protests. Trump is doing this largely without any resistance. Shame.
It could be, if Trump had his way. But that seemed more likely about a month ago than it does now. There is a blue wave building while Trump is clearly unraveling.
Even if there is a successful blue wave, I think it will only give us a temporary break and this is a trend that has been going for a long time. For example brexit is also part of this neo fascist movement, and even thought it was a failure, it didn't reverse the trend.
I’m sad to say that I agree with your assessment. I think both parties are broken, and I don’t know how we get ourselves out of this long-run decline of our entire political system. We need to start by dumping Citizens United and doing whatever else we can to get corporations out of our elections. It costs so much to get elected to public office these days that most who do are then beholden to someone else’s agenda.
Democrats can restore our democracy by regaining control of both houses of Congress and the executive. You may say I'm a dreamer. The first order of business would be using whatever parliamentary procedures are available or to create them to pack the supreme Court to overturn the cases that created unlimited power of corporations to fund elections, gave back the states power to control women's bodies, created from out of nothing presidential immunity, and reverse the decision that's about to be made which will give the executive branch unlimited control of every non legislative branch of government, and I use the word unlimited deliberately. Next, would be breaking up control of the internet to turn it into a public utility.
If this doesn't happen soon we will be at the end of the Republic. Because what's left after giving away legislative and judicial power to the executive along with exonerating the military from responsibility to defy illegal orders, is a republic in name only.
Yeah I also don't know a way out, I don't even start to understand why we have so much momentum but I think it helps to realise that this is bigger than just a few election cycles. It will be a decades long trend.
It is so strange that those of us who live in Europe now have to start viewing the US as an enemy – an enemy that has just given Russia the green light to begin what it sees as its new triumphal march, not across the world, but across us. We thank you, America, for letting us see the very depths of your spirit – that is, by the way, a sarcasm – in case you didn't understand.
Younger MAGA Republicans like JD Vance and especially Pete "Deus Vult" Hegseth, are likely creatures of the War on Terror who see Islam as an existential threat to Western civilization.
They hate Europe and view it with contempt for being unwilling to ethnically cleanse its Muslim immigrant population.
Maybe what they hate more is that so many European countries are proof that democratic socialism is an effective form of government, and one where they would be required to pay their share to support the system they feed on. Fascism always starts as an idea which progresses to systematic theft from the personal to the geopolitical level. Hitler goes from the Sudetenland to pilfering personal effects of holocaust victims. Put another way: when the shooting starts, the looting starts and it’s currently underway off the coast of Venezuela.
Democratic socialism is a more accurate description for European countries who prioritize people's needs over business profit and where billionaires pay taxes that help support people's basic needs for a good life. Americans are too isolated and undereducated to understand this concept.
There aren't enough billionaires to pay for a generous welfare state: you also need to tax the masses more heavily -- for example the Scandinavian countries have a 25% Value Added Tax.
Well, I admit that I don't have numbers in front of me but I don't believe that there isn't enough money to pay for people's basic needs in this country if the wealthy, the extreme wealthy and corporations paid taxes at a higher rate than they are now. Subsidies for corporations, corporate welfare has to stop. Profits have never been higher and the wealthy have ways to hide their money from taxation. I also believe that if people had their basic needs met, paying a little more in taxes would more than offset their costs related to other things like medical care. But the working class are bearing the burden of taxes right now and that doesn't work. I also don't believe that enough Americans think that having their basic needs met through taxes is possible or desirable.
Authoritarianism is the method. Racism and greed, under the cover of free market ideology, are the intertwined motivations. The powerful people who don’t want to pay proportionate taxes will use every bugbear they can think of towards that end. They will use the intertwining bigotry of race and religion; then paint every country with progressive taxation and a safety net as socialist or communist enemies of the free market. Doesn’t matter if any of it is true, or even if they actually believe it, it’s useful for their agenda and their bottom lines.
Please US citizens, do everything possible to change regime! We allready struggle here in the Netherlands with growing neo-fascist parties, due to the influence of the so called libertarian Silicon Valley firms. Now we loose the US support of the Democratic voters. Where are you??
The line between libertarianism and hardline authoritarianism melts upon closer inspection. "Libertarianism" is a polite term for "social Darwinism"--freedom is for the fit. That the "fit" are aligned with the "white" by this regime adds an additional level of revulsion.
What really puzzles Europeans is how the people of the USA apparently put up with the betrayal of the ideals of freedom and democracy, which they previously championed and fought for?
Even from pure self interest, do Americans not understand your point that without its European allies the USA cannot match China + Russia?
As an American who still remembers the day she learned about the Marshall Plan - I am horrified at our narcissistic stupidity and greed. People have no idea what we just squandered for human excrement.
This National Security Strategy document is yet another reason to reject the encroachment of the "Tech Titans" into every corner of society. We have often heard "America must win the race for AI". Why must it? To implement this monstrous agenda of subjugating the entire human race? At this point, I have a different take. No, it must NOT win the race for AI. Nobody else is running in this paricular race, as far as I can tell. I've come to the conclusion that this invasive technology must be redirected to serve the public good, and if that isn't feasible then it must be stopped.
Trump stands with Putin in all things. But WE do not. Americans do not condone Putins invasions of Ukraine and overt threats toward other European nations, the ruthless bombing of playgrounds, schools, hospitals, nor do we support capitulation and appeasement.
There is only one way out of this dystopia and that is a landslide victory for Democrats in 2026 and 2028. This in turn will require a progressive agenda, not the mealy-mouthed platform of Harris: 1) Truly universal healthcare (making Medicare available to all rather than Medicare for all), 2) free tuition at two year colleges, trade schools and state universities, and 3) TAX THE RICH.
I did not view the Harris-Walz platform as mealy-mouthed. If the country had elected that platform, let us count the ways our country would have moved forward not backwards.
The General Public doesn't care about platforms. They don't care about policy. The General Public is generally very ignorant. They have impressions that things are all right or getting worse. The General Public is easily swayed and susceptible to propaganda on cultural issues.
Democrats in conservative areas need the flexibility to represent their constituents.
I don't have contempt for general voters, but the world has gotten very complex. Most people go on about their daily lives and it doesn't involve spending hours diving into economics, history, science etc.
Yes. I totally agree that being susceptible to propaganda also means they are susceptible to sincere leadership.
Grassroots politics can succeed. We've recalled a corrupt commissioner and gotten the signatures for 2 more. It's a bipartisan effort at the local level.
I'm reacting to the comments that we need to have good policy suggestions and a good platform. In general elections, policy and platforms are for the die-hards. Simple and compelling messaging that rings true is what's needed.
The other thing is choosing candidates who appeals to the broad electorate, not the educated elite.
According to This Will Hold here in ‘Stack, Harris won the actual (un-monkeyed) vote by a significant margin. Their rigorous analysis has… Held. At least as far as I can find out. However, I haven’t experimented (yet) with AI…
Mainstream media gave very little time or space to the Democratic platform (that was very popular when tested in focus groups, especially if the party label was left off, so knee-jerk Republicans could actually think about it) but Trump's lunacy was way more 'newsworthy' and interesting.
And the Dems had nothing to match the vitriol and lies of Fox and its right-wing shadows. That's where the culture wars were fought and lost.
That might be because they only had 100 days!
Dems do and did have a platform in 2024. The DNC's job is not to act; it's only to recruit and fund candidates. I would say the DNC is doing quite well in finding candidates.
Of course, hindsight is 20-20 but it's almost like Democrats seek permission to speak and then apologize if their rhetoric is too direct. Democrats now have the receipts. If they don't use the corruption and destruction this administration has heaped us to their advantage, they deserve to lose. He has hollowed out our industry instead of improving it; he has brought a new era of success to the Chinese; he has driven away our friends and left us on an island-untrusted and despised. There is a lot of ammunition for the Democrats but will they use it? I have my doubts, their nests are warm and soft and they will not risk eviction.
‘They spent too much time…about the looming disaster’? What else did we expect them to do? The MAGA Trmp machine was in overdrive. If the Dems didn’t spend time on that, we’d be complaining that they should have warned us. Not that Kamala Harris was some sort of perfect candidate. But until the Dems find their voice and their strength, they’ll continue to be no match for the onslaught of egregious, un-Constitutional and Nazi like actions and messaging from the Project 25 MAGA side. IMO, it’s not an issue of whether the Dem platform is progressive enough ( although I appreciate /understand the argument. ) It’s a matter of the veracity and the abundance of constant, loud, strong messaging. It’s a matter of controlling the narrative- because at this point, mainstream media sure isn’t going to modulate that for us
We need to keep a sharp eye on the elections, and call on our state and local governments to watch it closely. The GOP cheats in any and every way they can. https://thiswillhold.substack.com
And SCOTUS will back them!
Unfortunately and shamefully.
Absolutely! This is the goal to work towards. We cannot change policy towards Ukraine now, but we can work towards throwing the trump administration under the bus.
Yes, they must be stopped. What's happening now is un-American. We did not lose so many of our ancestors in the world wars just to see these tin-pot dictators now ruin everything they fought and died for.
We need to limit the accumulation of vast wealth and the power it engenders. The Oligarchs will spend any amount of money - and they effectively have ANY amount of money - to maintain their power and prerogatives. 50 years of them gradually chipping away at the limits placed on them as part of the New Deal has given them wide hegemony over the Economy and Government. Shoving this genie back in its lamp is going to be an arduous process.
I would put fixing the Supreme Court, overturning citizens United and dobbs as very very high priority.
None of this will happen. The United States is not a constitutional republic anymore. It is a kleptocratic, plutocratic, oligarchic, kakistocracy. The toothpaste is no longer in the tube and can't be shoved back. Things have gone too far for a single election (if that occurs at all) to solve.
"It will take several election cycles of the Democrats..."
----
Nobody, but nobody, should trust the US again. After W. won in 2004 after all of the blood and treasure and international coercion I lost any faith in the electorate. (Hell, I lost faith when HRC voted for the Iraq invasion, knocking her off the pedestal I had put her on.)
The world celebrated when Obama was elected. At the time, facing the 2008-2009 Great Recession, he described the W. administration as having driven the bus into the ditch, and the first thing he had to do was get the bus out of the ditch. Then he was re-elected: Woo-hoo! An entire EIGHT YEARS of stable government policy.
The primary goal of Trump's first maladministration was explicitly undoing anything Obama had done (including dismantling the pandemic response program). Now he is undoing Biden's best programs and instituting Project 2025 and monetizing the entire federal government while ignoring treaties and laws and the Constitution.
The US electorate votes based on its chosen media sources. They voted for a CONVICTED FELON (who lies like he breathes) for stupid reasons.
I'm too cynical, too angry, and too old, Liz.
The USSR is gone, Russia under Putin and his kleptocratic oligarchs has been reduced to a petrostate with an economy about the size of Italy's. It's using social media to propagandize the voters of the West, driving the US and Western Europe further to the right, politically.
At least China's self-interest is aligned with dominating/stabilizing world trade and saving the planet.
Sorry for the presumptuous name-change, Elizabeth. As a matter of fact, despite my cynicism, I do participate in political action -- not because I think anything will change, but because I like the people I work with. I also write Substacks on political and cultural topics. https://diogenescandle.substack.com
I totally agree the US have a truly progressive agenda, one that serves people rather than big money interests. But now it's a race. Trump and the billionaires are working at warp speed to weaken the US and institutions able to resist their authoritarianism. It seems progressive landslides in 2026 and 2028 will be necessary. Beyond that, a people's revolution will need to remove the culprits and bring them to justice.
The Trump regime is working at warp speed because authoritarians know they must get their dirty work done before the populace wakes up and stops them. This worked for Orban. Democratic victories in 2026 & 2028 are essential for our survival. Even those might be too late.
There are signs that the grip of Orban is weakening. The opposition is growing stronger.
Good to know.
Orban actually presided over an improvement in the Hungarian economy, which helped his staying power. Stupid Donnie is fulfilling the Heritage Foundation's goal of uprooting every public good the US government has ever embraced, and taking world relations down with it.
That’s the beginning of the process, not the end. The Republicans have pulling us into fascism for some time now, and the effort won’t come close to ending with Trump’s political demise. We’ll still be facing a hostile Supreme Court that won’t be fixable for decades by traditional means. We’ll still have a Senate with a de facto 60 vote requirement to pass meaningful legislation—and the filibuster in place. The federal bureaucracy will still be wrecked and fixing it could take decades. As Dr. Krugman points out, the same is true for our carefully built system of global alliances.
I’m hoping no one here is assuming that a putative Democratic President assuming office in 2029 can wave his/her hands and make all this go away. Playing by traditional rules, it may not be fixable at all. We will need to think long and hard about what will be required to actually get us back to being a functional democracy. It’s likely to take some very unconventional solutions.
I am certainly not suggesting that any President could "wave his/her hands," and get a result. What I am suggesting is that any President with sufficient gonadal tissue could make a huge difference (think, in different contexts, Margaret Thatcher, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR).
What they would need is a 2/3 majority in the Senate and a solid majority in the House. This can only come about with a strong, progressive agenda, and not the mealy-mouthed-tack-to-the-center modus operandi of the DNC.
BTW, I think Sanders could still do it. He's a youthful and vigorous 83. Don't count him out.
I literally know of no one with any serious political experience who believes that is possible. At best we might have 20 or so House seats and maybe 51 Senate seats—and that’s if everything goes roughly perfectly. Furthermore, given the time span needed to repair the damage Trump has done, we’d need to hold a solid trifecta for literally decades. The last time that happened was during FDR’s Administration almost a century ago. I’ll defer to true experts on the topic (if anyone with inside knowledge cares to join this exchange), but I know a lot about organizational strategic planning and I don’t see an obvious solution that relies on traditional politics.
Where I heartily agree with you is on your point about “gonadal tissue.” We tend to forget that SCOTUS issued its Presidential blanket immunity decision during Biden’s term. He was too much of an institutionalist to head off the (now) obvious train wreck we’ve all lived through this year by seizing the levers that court decision handed him. He also had a few earlier opportunities to permanently rid us of Trump but never took them. Sincerely hoping that our next Democratic President won’t repeat those errors.
Remove Tony West and his sister from democratic politics forever !
I completely agree with you. However, how are we to encourage the 36% of the voting eligible public to actually get out and vote?
This was the problem in 2024. Unless there is a plan it will be a problem going forward.
Can’t wait that long. Must insert Newsom or Pritzger NOW
In the past, one could be "pure" or one could "win." Pick your options.
whats needed is a govt without elected officials who plan to stay for life, then changing rules, laws & their behavior toward big money in order to facilitate that. We dont need a progressive wishlist, we need uncorrupted govt.
Michael, I could not agree with you more, BUT Biden did pretty well in 2020 and what did that get us?: Trump2. Since our politics have devolved into a personality contest fit for a 1950's High School Class President (and with all due respect, I just makde that up), I am not sure how we get out of this.
When was there a robust national debate on a major policy issue? We cannot sort out Climate Change, Health Care, Environmental Stewardship, basic issues of Housing,
Electrification, or even Public Health.
So your landslide victory for Dems: How do they maintain it except to establish a benevolent dictatorship? Does that sound familiar?
If you want to tax the Rich (which I agree with), we need to educate the non-rich. That is a very big task, since "if I am rich, I clearly know better."
Get money out of politics and get education and clear thinking into politics at every level -- School boards on up to the top.
Michael Hutchinson, you have my vote!
Agree. But we have to get to the point where America can be reshaped. This will require a monumental victory for the Democrats, or a new party.
This is not new. Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc helped build the nitwit’s base by denigrating the “Old World” (their term for Western Europe).
As we now know, trump has reshaped the Republican Party. By being elected trump and republicans are reshaping our government, morals and values…
it is clear, in the minority, we have little power (only marginal in lower courts).
Answer: we need to WIN ELECTIONS
I am afraid that what we need, just like in the Civil War, is to win on the battlefield. We don’t have a legitimate government and in effect are occupied by a hostile foreign power. Actually, looking at some of people serving Trump, they might be real aliens - they certainly aren’t human.
Curioser and curiouser .
Great comments but we need to develop the book, play by play now. If we wait until we elect a majority then start to write the book, it will never be done in time to convince people we can do it and we will lose the majority again.
Stop the back and forth or Republicans win!
Write and publish the 2028 book of American Action now. We are already starting late.
Yeah way too late, need project 2029 now .
James, I think it needs to be 2028. If it is available in 2028 then candidates can use it as their platform to run on.
I have recently stated pushing back on donation requests that don’t highlight a candidate’s platform.
I am so tired of the weak BS of “I have to meet this month’s goal of this quarter’s goal as an ask for money.
We really have become lazy. Platforms are not highlighted on a candidate website. Some totally do not publish the party or parties the candidate affiliates with.
Communication must improve. I think the Chief Convict has proven that even poor English and a crappy platform will put a candidate in office.
Of course it doesn’t hurt that he is an actor and staged a shot in the ear to refocus the election on him.
Stephen, with constructive intent, was reading your comment and thinking "OK re playbook...push back...yep money goal..yep, communication...WHOA!" Staged a shot? Please reconsider. I think one of the strengths of this substack in Paul's community is to stay fact-driven, thanks
I agreed with your comment until I read "staged a shot in the ear..." Of course, I had thought of that too, because he popped back up after the shot, but it was just a suspicion for which there is no evidence. It's doubtful that the cowardly Trump would risk his life for anything - even staying in power.
Project 2029?
Stephen: please give me a call later today as we need to talk about the play book (858-864-2258). Thanks
From outside the US, it appears that the orange blobs supporters want the country taken back to the 18th century (but with their 21st century weapons) in both societal and political terms. They apparently want women to be quiet and just reproduce, without standing as voters. They want people of colour to allowed in only as labour, without any rights at all.
The electoral college was an anachronism 2 centuries ago.
That any elected politician could be in a position to appoint SC justices, change electoral boundaries, pardon anyone who has been duly convicted through the justice system or allowed to break the laws of the land in any way, at any time is absurd.
That any elected politician can be allowed to take retribution against anyone they do not agree with is impossible to sustain, if the next party takes reciprocal actions you're in a rapid spiral into anarchy or revolution.
But also, it seems the way in which the constitution is written, it limits any possibility that significant reforms will ever be acceptable to the required number of states.
I cannot see this ending well, but wish you all the very best!
David,
I agree with most of your comments except the point about “retribution against anyone they do not agree with is impossible to sustain, if the next party takes reciprocal actions you're in a rapid spiral into anarchy or revolution.” This is certainly needed during the next non republican administration. We need a high level commission, akin to the one that formed post world war 2. It was the Nuremberg Trials to bring to hold accountable to those who actively and passively participated under Hitler. Current Trump administration’s colossal assault on democratic institutions, academia, law firms, free press and systematic assault on American way of life, blatant institutionalization of kleptocracy is as egregious and dehumanizing to this nation to warrant bringing accountability to Trump, his family Jared, Bianca and Trump juniors along with his billionaire class of cabinet members.
SG
Sanjeev, I wouldn’t call that retribution, rather it is facing justice. Maybe it’s just semantics but the Nuremberg trials were just that, trials. Not personal retribution by the people who were in power, but trials with evidence presented and considered.
Supreme Court - pass a mandatory retirement age (70) effective within 6 months - that will clear out some dead wood. Since current corrupt, blind ideologues, with their fabricated originalist, textualist and libertarian fantasies selectively applied, have no concern for precedent, nix their Citiezns United, Immunity, and Dobbs decisions, for starters. Amy Comey Barrett can go back to her Christian cult and teach bible class. .
Enough of supply-side tax cuts for the rich - these people need to put some money back in the till - or go live somewhere else. I say pass a giant tax cut for the LOWEST end of the income distribution - zero at the poverty level - then drift it up to the MEDIAN. Calculate the lost revenue, and slap it on those at the top. Don't like it? Pay up - and LEAVE.
Oh yeah, a long road.
Worse, the trillionaires in Silicon Valley are using their immense wealth to destroy Western cilivlization. Trump is just a tool they are using to help them do this. The goal is to completely rid the West of democracy and supplant it with right-wing Neo-Nazi regimes controlled by them and their trust funds forever. Putin is an ally in their new world order. Absolute power corrupts. "Absolute power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely".
Trump stands with Putin, true.
I wish Krugman had put Russia on the graph above to show how puny its economy is relative to us, our allies, and China.
If so, Russia's economy would be smaller than the narrow green stripe representing Canada above.
Russia's economy is about 1/2 the size of the economy of the state of California.
The only reason Russia has a lot of power is largely due to bluster and Trump and old exaggerated cold war rhetoric (and their willingness to be brutal).
Russia would not remotely have the capacity to win in Ukraine if not for people like Trump, and China is probably only helping them to create a buffer and to make the West look weak. Once again, because they know they can do this, because of Trump.
When Trump became the presumptive nominee, it was when Ukraine was winning and pushing back Russia, but as soon as he was the presumptive in the primaries, the GOP elected a new leader in the House, Trump's puppet Johnson, as the head, and quit funding Ukraine for 6 months and this is when China saw an opportunity and stepped in to help Russia and the tide turned and Russia began to hold its ground and now sees Trump as an opportunity and is throwing everything at Ukraine.
One might certainly assume the House did this because Trump wanted them to even though he was not yet in office.
Trump also knows that MAGA, as well as many others, will confuse Russia's land mass size for economic size which was bolstered by cold war rhetoric into the imaginations of Americans.
Yes, they have nukes, but so do we and some of our allies, as well. If we cower in fear we simply give away all of our power.
In my view, we should have simply made Ukraine a NATO member early on, or created a special in progress category, and Russia would have come up with an excuse to go home.
GDP of the Russian Federation in 2024 was 2.17 trillion dollars. Source - the World Bank.
On Paul's graph, that would make it about the same as Australia.
Yes, and Canada was around 2.2-2.4, so like I said, Russia at 2.1-2.2 was smaller than Canada's and very roughly 1/2 the size of the state of CA's at abt 4.1 trillion. Info I am finding on Australia puts it at about 1.8 trillion. So Russia is perhaps a bit closer to Canada in size.
No , the graph as Paul states is PPP so Russias gdp on this basis is 7.5 trillion, so 4th in the world behind China US and India
Even when viewed as PPP, where the World Bank has them at 6.9, for 2024, you have to consider that the USA is over 29 trillion, so Russia is only about 1/4 and Russia is also only 1/4 in size of the EU, as well, at over 28 trillion. So, Russia is only 1/8 in size of the USA and EU allies combined, plus you need to consider all our other allies added on top of that.
Still, relatively very small and one needs a lot of $$ to be a superpower. Sadly the GOPs waffeling drove Russia into the arms of China, who is likely just using them to bolster themselves and make us look bad, but do not really want a conflict with us, and could swallow up Russia in an instant if they wanted to. Yes, I erred in only expressing this as GDP, when compared to Krugman's graph, but what I said about GDP was accurate.
Thanks for pointing this out BTW- I appreciate it when people do that.
It’s not too late to turn Putin back and reclaim Ukraine for Ukraine and Western Civilization.
Since when do small-minded Trumpian authoritarians have enough power to strong arm American egalitarians and Western democracy?
U.S. Republicans who are so busy crawling away from Putin no longer understand what we have. Congressional Democrats and American allies — including Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China and the United Nations know that no one wants what Russia has to offer. Trump is playing a losing hand. None of his small type documents can take the place of the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.
Trump is little more than an illiterate thug and he knows it. Swagger and a gun are not good enough to stand down our great American history and the muscular education of our scientists and intellectuals. The Republicans and their petty dictator, even when backed by the mysteriously ignorant old guard of the U.S.Supreme Court, cannot stand up to our educated and orderly military. Hegseth is in a word ridiculous.
It’s only a matter of time before the heart, courage and fists of our military, Congress and courts unite, step forward and reconstitute the government of the United States of America.
Prepare to watch Trump howl and run. With our cell phones we’ll be able to broadcast their cowardice live and take back our country. Our leaders are ready, theirs are not.
Yes re WE / Kim / 75M anti POTUS 2024 voters / Me agree… and yet Here WE are. I think the problem my gen ( boomers most of all) are part of is that in aggregate we Wanted “ stuff / wealth” more than peace freedom, and allowed isolation resentment to grow. The lesson for our Generation should have been Stay Active in World Affairs and Stay Generous as the only fully Free, Wealthy nation post 1945. We didn’t and instead bought into a We are Exceptional narrative that has evolved into the bitterness and recklessness of this Administration
All good, but it is now too late to restore the status quo ante. US Allies can no longer trust the US to be a reliable ally, as no matter who is in power, any reversal and attempt to rebuild trust can be unwound. Germany and Japan were not suddenly Allies after WWII, it took time to build trust. For example, many never forgave Japan for the atrocities it meted out in WWII to Allied soldiers in the Pacicific. Jews didn't trust Germany, or even Europeans after WWII, and happily emigrated to Palestine and the emerging state of Israel.
>Is This The End of the Free World?<
Usually, the answer to an article with a question in the title is "NO". Sadly, I think teh real answer is going to be "YES", at least insofar as the US was the linchpin of the post WWII "free world". We shouldn't forget that there was competition for supremacy after 1945. The Cold War was in play, and the US wanted to show the world that the US model was superior to that of Russia and its fellow travellers. The race to land on the Moon was one symbol that succeeded. The Vietnam War was one that failed. It seemed that with the collapse of the USSR, the new global hegemon, the USA, had "won". 30-odd years later, it seems that "victory" was premature.
In Hemingway's, The Sun Also Rises, there are these 2 line:
“How did you go bankrupt?"
Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
Empires can fall that way, too. The USSR was the most recent example. The British Empire did the same half a century earlier. Britons took a long while to accept their loss of status, and indeed, many still do not accept it. Brexit was partly sold as a way for Britain to regain some of its "buccaneering" past, possibly to distract its anti-immigrant turn. Big mistake.
I fear that for all its bluster, the USA is facing the same end as far as its influence goes. What was possibly going to become teh Chinese century in a few decades has been accelerated, and worse, Russia has been invigorated to expand its borders yet again.
For the US Christian Nationalists, do you not recognize this as "selling the future for a mess of pottage"?
Yes, but!
We shouldn't forget that there was competition for supremacy after 1945. The Cold War was in play, and the US wanted to show the world that the US model was superior to that of Russia and its fellow travellers. The race to land on the Moon was one symbol that succeeded.
Posted before done - the caveat to that quote was that in addition to our catching up with our moon shot and new focus on STEM, the cold war also provoked our willingness to end Jim Crow (which was internationally correctly viewed as undermining our professed support for freedom) and to develop soft power tools like VoA and support for development of the European Economic Community and Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe to make a “West” that held together. Not likely to be able to play that Leader of the Free World role ever again, even if we don’t succeed in pulling down Europe’s democracies with us in our fall.
>...willingness to end Jim Crow...<
And yet Nixon started to undermine that within the decade with the "Southern Strategy". It has continued on and off with the GOP (and arguably with the Democrats' lack of action) ever since. Russia did us a favor with the "Sputnik moment" that triggered greater STEM education, and in California, with more land-grant university campuses. Yet look where we are with expertise denigrated, with opinions and "feelings" trumping facts. IDK when that started, but the Reagan economic policies certainly moved in that direction, and RW media trumpeted that approach, as well as punching down on non-white citizens and immigrants.
Dear Paul. I’m not American (I’m from the Republic of Ireland), I’m not an apologist for US foreign policy mistakes, and I think of the effects of the Trump Administration’s cancellation of USAID’s on the world’s very vulnerable more than I think about US American’s feelings of discomfort in current times. My summary of Trump’s administration is ‘Greed, Corruption, Lawlessness’.
I did not agree with Terence’s characterisation ‘it gets tiresome how Americans justify their passivity’, and I don’t agree with your assertions ‘Currently the United States is a fascist state’ and ‘quit worrying about being exceptional and concentrate on doing what is right because doing what is right is never wrong’. Your sentiments, both of you, might seem correct to you from your perspective as you write, but both are not factually correct, and fail to build bridges against passivity, fascism, and against self-deluding feelings of exceptionalism. I cannot (even when I foolishly try to) instruct Americans how to think, much less act. Please, restrain your criticisms that can cause offence, they wont win any arguments with American readers. Yes, to poke fun to stimulate debate, but no to your own sense of exceptionalism in treating all Americans as being ‘wrong’ or more culpable than you, or I, outside of the US. Yours, Anthony.
Dear Fellow readers. This is very strange. The post to which my reply x 6 hours ago was for seems to have disappeared/ been deleted. I’d like to clarify that the Dear Paul to whom I was replying is NOT Paul Krugman. As it stands, my reply is ridiculous isn’t it! A reply to a vacuum…. Sorry to anyone who is confused. Anthony.
The BBC headline — “We stand with Ukraine” — is classic diplomatic mush. Nobody is actually standing with Ukraine. Starmer is in London, other leaders are in their own capitals, and none of them are dug into trenches outside Kyiv.
“Stand with” doesn’t describe a physical location; it’s political shorthand for “we support them, mainly with statements and selective aid.” But if you take the words literally, yes — it’s nonsense. If you’re standing with Ukraine, you’re in Ukraine, shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukrainians, doing something tangible for their defense.
Instead we get leaders who stand behind podiums and declare solidarity from a safe distance. The phrase survives because it sounds noble, costs nothing, and everyone in politics uses it.
虽然俄罗斯发动这场战争可耻，但这就是所谓自由主义的欧洲和美国挑起的，每天数千的生命死亡，他们视而不见，同样以色列在巴勒斯坦的种族灭绝他们也视而不见。我以前以为西方是自由和平等的楷模，这几年终于看清你们的虚伪和无耻。
Ours is knee-pad foreign policy
Every idiot that did not vote to stop this monster is dead to me. What a disaster.
I wrote an essay supporting your thought. You can read it here
www.burnt-ground.com/this-explains-everything/
Hi Terence. I’m not going to let you away with that ‘you’re wrong’ generalisation. The US population is about 350 million, that’s around 350 million individual opinions and beliefs, including a lot of contradictory views. I criticise your rhetoric: the US Administration is behaving abominably, but all those millions of Americans who disagree with their government’s actions are doing what they can to make their opposition clear. By the argument in your rhetoric, all Germans and Japanese should have been punished for their governments’ actions during WWII, for example. Wouldn’t your argument be better served by trying to identify points on which you can agree with American readers of this forum, and by trying in that mechanism to build bridges for a transnational push back against the policies of the present US Administration? Not polite chit chat, but action? Yours, Anthony.
Here in Portugal there is a general strike tomorrow because the government is threatening to change the labor laws to the detriment of workers.
When will there be a general strike in the US to counter the much bigger issues with government actions including abandoning democratic allies, ignoring the rule of law, the list goes on. When will America wake up? I’m not talking about the people writing civilly and intelligently on this thread but the American people as a whole?
Thanks Jenny for your insightful remarks. I don’t know what, how, or even if, US society will leave this current ‘crisis’ (understatement understood). It feels as if we’re on the brink of something very bad, and much bigger than the US alone. Your insightful remark about ‘the American people as a whole’ resonates. If it’s not apparent already, I’m trying to shore up (American) readers’ belief in their ability to turn the awful situation in the US around, while trying to stick to the issues raised in the relevant posts’ texts. Maybe too much ‘blether’! Good luck with the general strike tomorrow.
Thanks Terence. I’m grateful for your reply. I don’t agree with your argument. However, let’s not fall out over this. We need discussion and argument to ever move forwards, and I take your arguments in this vein. Yours, Anthony.
This is a patriotic cris de coeur. As Dr. K states, there are many, many more of us (domestically and internationally) who support democratic values — how can we harness that commitment to drive back trump’s wrecking ball?
You may start by actually voting. 1/3 of you didn’t last time. One. Third!!!
Exactly! I’m older and not a zillionaire, but I am a registered voter and vote in EVERY election. Sadly, here in Texas, we are so gerrymandered that many have given up on voting but I have not. Trump, et al, need to know they don’t speak for all of us, only 49.8% — and I bet today, many of those would like to change their vote.
A few months ago, one polling outfit ran two polls in Trump country. One poll asked if people would vote differently, but the other simply asked who they would vote for if the election were re-run. The results of the first poll showed that nothing would change (ie. Trump would win). The results of the second one showed a clear landslide for Harris. The difference, of course, is that the first poll required that people admit they were wrong.
Excellent point. "Human behavior in action.
We agree. We have chosen France as our home but we are registered voters in NY and use this privilege in all possible elections!
Are these discussions even reaching them?
No. Have you seen all of the people here who claim to have cancelled their subscriptions to the Washington Post and/or the NYT because the editorials slant right-wing now? All of the MAGA crowd did that back in 2016. The vast majority of them aren't here.
It seems like more voters would be better, but would those people be informed voters? The 2020 election had a turnout of 67% that was the highest turnout since the beginning of the 20th century. Then in 2024 the voters flipped back to Trump and the turnout was 64% the third highest since the beginning of the 20th century. Franklin Pierce won in 1852 the turnout was 69%. James Buchanan won in 1856 the turnout was 79%. These were two of the worst presidents in the history of the united states. So how would that 1/3 of uninterested voters vote?
People who don't vote don't vote for a reason, and that reason is generally that they appreciate that they are clueless about politics. Each in their own random way. Anyone looking to that cohort for coherent support is barking up the wrong tree.
In 1928 Hover received 58% of the vote and the turnout was 57%. In 1932 Hover received 40% of the vote and the turnout was again 57%. 18% of the voters flipped to Roosevelt because they had a plan "the new deal". The Democrats and never trump Republicans need a plan to counter project 2025. It is not enough to oppose project 2025 they must have an alternative plan.
I would suggest that there is some relationship between education and voting likelihood. Be careful of what you ask for.
Not only vote, but also write to your congress people, set up action groups, organise meet ups, demonstrate... I am aware that people have busy lives, lots to deal with, scrambling for money to pay bills, but it is your country and your future. And also your commitment could galvanise others and great things would happen. Sorry for this weak analogy, but somehow it always stayed in my mind,( Luna Lovegood to Harry while feeding the thestals, ) alone people are weak and not a threat, but when surrounded by friends and people of the same mind, they can accomplish great things. ;-) on this positive note!...
People are busy and distressed by the affordability crisis - who's got time to call their congress person and organize when they need to be worried about their next paycheck?
Not fixing the affordability crisis is an opportunity for MAGA to continue their agenda unopposed because the populous is busy worrying about the price of eggs. People still hope that if only they make it through for a few more months they will be stable enough to shift their focus to addressing the larger issues but maybe this hope and procrastination is exactly what keeps one in one's place?
"Affordability" as an issue actually is "oligarchy" as an issue. The first is effect, the second cause.
I hear you. But what is the alternative? Do nothing and get on with your life?... if you wish, but ask anyone who live under authoritarian regimes, it's not fun... To say the least. But yes, indeed, your choice.
So true!
I think a lot of groundwork in the US is the basic solution. The urban "elites" need to start interacting with the rural "leftbehinds" much more on a basic helping level. Now that the crisis of health is setting in, I would love to see more volunteerwork in the red states get financed by democrat-aligned forces. Hell, Europe would propably chip in. Action -> Words, etc.
The MAGA's will take it - but it will not change their minds!
Yep. Urban economic powerhouses within states already subsidize their rural neighbors with transfers of tax dollars and rural tax credits. But if you’re from an urban area and talk with your rural neighbors or relatives, you can’t even talk about the day’s weather without hearing an anti-urban slur.
This is where the challenge is. I am an old industrial worker and most of my family are rural here in Norway. There is a way of doing that outreach without being snobs, I have done it over here. But it needs work and thought.
Its worth a try. Better than bitter lethargy and isolation. To paraphrase Clausewitz from memory, "Any defensive position will inevitably be surrounded and starved out by the enemy unless supported by an offensive countermeasure."
We need to get a reachout going. "Bill Kristols Foodtrucks" are here to save the day, yay! Free burgers! " (And emergencypackets for parents with kids without healthcare, as of January.)
Letting our Representatives and Senators in our state and federally that we are watching, we care about preserving Democracy and we VOTE! Urging every lazy person you know who has let that privilege go is so important!
I think lazy is not the best word. What about uninformed or ill informed or complacent or or or??
Love the optimism. But not “domestically” check 3NOV2024 election numbers. In the 3rd Trump election - WE knew more about Him than any POTUS candidate in a near century - 77M of US voted for HIM It is not “many many more” it’s closer to an Even Split and once we accept that, we can Do Better trying to change our GOVT constructively in near term elections
A lot of people actually believed Trump’s lies about how he would lower prices.
Sadly Trump has paid no price for lying like crazy.
Stop investing in, buying and using Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet/Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta/Facebook, stop shopping at Walmart, Home Depot, Wholefoods, etc... Not going to happen is it. You can't turn back the tide. Corporate America is entrenched in our daily lives and every comfort we own and use, from our food and shelter to our entertainment and livelihood. Nobody can survive off the grid. So when the owners of the grid want a Neo-Nazi authoritairian regime running the world, that's that's what will happen.
Pretty hard to dissociate from ALL of those. We should disassociate as much as possible though.
So do you have a workable solution??
We’re downsizing to move right now and although neither of us has been a big consumer (Quaker) it’s still amazing how much “stuff” we’ve collected. I am beginning to understand the appeal of living as a monk. So much freer.
Probably 😥
See my comments above.
Well it would sure as heck help if everyone voted vs sitting home. Everyone takes democracy for granted. Like anything it has to be tended to. It is not a given as we are all witnessing. Sadly the damage the Unscrupulous States of America are a clear and present threat to us all. They do not value life. They do not care who they harm. In fact they enjoy it. A civil war ends faster than a world war. Either way the US will see war on their soil at this rate. No sitting back watching it occurring far from home.
You have to defeat MAGA electorally. Then you have to find new leadership (I see none). Then you have to have to win back trust, find allies (good luck). Then you have to rebuild all the institutions that were smashed. Then you have to remake your greed driven economy (the tech brocracy) so that the richest country in the world doesn’t treat most of its people like serfs. I don’t think you can do it.
To start with, opening with You and not We reminds me of the old Amurrican sentiment "Let's you and him fight". Then there is the 'new leadership'; thanks for the assessment, but why not be realistic (in your own terms) and just say "You're fucked, sorry about that, really sorry because that means WE'RE fucked", and leave it at that? Or are you simply a fascist (including Russian, of course, in the real world) tool? But thanks for the advice, and welcome to Hell, where we may be headed right now, especially if people listen to you.
Rzseeê
Way off base.
For Trump and his followers, "freedom" means simply that they are free to dictate to everyone else on any matter large or small. Free to dictate your sex life. Free to dictate your political choices. Free to dictate your health choices. Free to dictate your religion.
"Freedom" to them means slavery for you. And they want to allow that ideology to spread worldwide.
Three years ago I moved from the USA to a small European country. While elements of Tr*mpist poison are seeping in around the edges, my new place of residence has by and large maintained its integrity as a rational, progressive, adult society and will, I believe, continue to do so. This country in particular has a long history of brave and tireless resistance to hostile foreign occupiers. I do not envision it, or Europe in general, bending over easily for these arrogant, ignorant vermin.
But we didn’t imagine T would come back after J6 either.
Then you know Trump is not the disease, he’s a symptom. Many European countries are fighting anti democratic propaganda and narratives pushed by Putin and the local demagogues he planted there.
We should have an anti billionaire revolution. Our oligarch's are too insulated with too much power. My one vote can't compete with someone that is able to spend millions on campaign propaganda for their favorite stooge.
If everybody thought their vote didn’t matter, it wouldn’t. If everybody thought their vote would matter, it would.
Right. Do not give in to hopelessness!
Yes, one hopes that post-Trump America will return to its traditional values of freedom and the Rule of Law. But there is one great caveat. Before Trump no European entertained the idea that America could turn on a dime and become an unreliable partner. It was simply unthinkable in the most literal meaning of that word. But now a new idea has crept in that cannot be unthought, namely that our allies are always one election away from being thrown under the bus. Trust, once lost, can never be fully regained. If it happened once it can happen again.
One possible route to restoring the pre-Trump arrangement is to adopt some new constitutional amendments that will constrain a future rogue President from being able to blow up our alliances.
or adopting a new constitution altogether. 1776 was a very long time ago. The US Constitution has failed. It isn’t Scripture, it’s a fallible document by men who could never anticipate today’s situation.
I greatly fear what opening up the entire Constitution for revision would do. A country that elected Trump is not a country that can be trusted to adopt a freedom-promoting charter. What we have has worked pretty well ever since its adoption. Better to make incremental changes to respond to changing concerns.
In all that time we have had to make only 15 changes. I count the Bill of Rights as part of the original Constitution, and the Prohibition amendments as canceling out.
And of those 15, only the three Civil War Amendments fundamentally altered our way of life. The remaining twelve have been minor tweaks.
I wouldn’t call the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 19th, or 24th amendments ”minor tweaks.”
Moreover, the 2nd amendment is spectacularly outdated. And the fact that the Bill of Rights had to be added at a later stage shows that the constitution was wanting from the start.
What it is is a flawed and outdated patchwork of incomplete thought that could never have anticipated what would happen if a psychopath were to control all three branches of government, thus nullifying all checks and balances. It naïvely assumes that everybody will play by the rules and makes no provisions for when they don’t.
I didn't call the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments minor tweaks. Those were the Civil War amendments which i referred to as being transformational.
Agee !!
Women’s right to vote is not a minor tweak. Moreover, the amendment process is fundamental to preserving a constitutional order, and it has broken down (as the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment demonstrated). Rather as if the 15th Amendment had failed. We do need to go back to clarifying (for the first time) what we really do mean about equality under law and freedom in a capitalist economy. FDR’s four freedoms would be a good place to start in thinking about formally setting out amendments.
I disagree. Extending the vote to women, popular election of senators, and the income tax were extensions of what was already in the Constitution. The Civil War amendments fundamentally changed the constitutional order. Slavery, allowed in 1789, was abolished, the right to vote was opened up to former slaves, and the Federal government became a guarantor of that right, overturning Dred Scott.
I think you may be confusing importance with fundamental change. The Constitution of 1787 enshrined the principle of choosing our leaders by popular vote. We simply enlarged that principle.
I define tweaks as adjusting and refining what was already there, but deficient with evolving mores.
Look around and tell me how many modern day equals of Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin and James Madison you see that could craft a new constitution. Their framework will hold up just fine if, like BF said, we can live up to it and keep it.
Failed or in need of updates?
What do you do with a pair of trousers that have patches all over but still keeps falling off?
The Constitution has not failed, Congress has by not doing its job, by being in the pockets of special interests.
The Supreme Court allowed moneyed interests in the door to but their votes via Citizens United. This needs to be overturned, and can be. Some states are already taking action on this front.
The bathwater may be cold but the baby still lives.
I'm not sure your analogy holds. The constitution is a valid document although it needs some updating. The problem seems to be its interpretation.
A reassessment of the Supreme Court's function and make up should be number one on the todo list.
Correct. Thats what the Project 25 folks are counting on.
I commend that you often feel you need to end your posts on a positive note. I’m unsure if you yourself actually believe this. I can’t believe that it’s not extremely obvious to all that America is over. It’s an untrusted partner for the world. Incapable of solving any of its problems never mind really identifying what these are. I hope I’m wrong but I really really doubt it. The world needs to move on. And fast. Rebuild without the US at the helm.
Well a turnaround CAN happen in the midterms and then 2028 IF EVERYONE GOT UP OFF THEIR ASSES. We should be doing at least 3 constructive things a week to move the pendulum. Giving till it hurts among them. The time is NOW.
What is happening in the US won’t be solved by simple party alternation. I think you’re being extremely naive. What Trump did is show a deeply flawed and frankly sick society.
Flawed societies are everywhere. MAGA comprises as many people as non voting Americans. That’s about 32%. There have always been ignorant bigots and greedy bastards that were always hiding under the rocks here in the states, now emboldened and pardoned. DJT’s numbers are already close to tanking despite the administration’s corrupt ways.
When you say everywhere? What do you mean? Right now the US is in a very unique position within developed democracies. There are right wing parties or factions but none are in power. And none are doing what Trump plus his collaborators are doing. In other words you shouldn’t find comfort there. I mean even Brazil was better than the US in dealing with Bolsonaro.
A society that excuses the shootings of schoolchildren is sick. As is a society that feasts on the poor and blames them for not being tasty is also sick.
MAGA is no more than 35% tops. And they’re governing so poorly at home that they won’t win again. No one except hardcore MAGA like billionaires having so much power.
35% is huge. It takes a lot less than this for societies to crumble. There is no equivalent anywhere in the developed world. And certainly no other example where there wouldn’t be massive protests. Trump is doing this largely without any resistance. Shame.
But they’ve been there all along. It caused their Civil War. Only now are they ascendant.
It could be, if Trump had his way. But that seemed more likely about a month ago than it does now. There is a blue wave building while Trump is clearly unraveling.
Even if there is a successful blue wave, I think it will only give us a temporary break and this is a trend that has been going for a long time. For example brexit is also part of this neo fascist movement, and even thought it was a failure, it didn't reverse the trend.
I’m sad to say that I agree with your assessment. I think both parties are broken, and I don’t know how we get ourselves out of this long-run decline of our entire political system. We need to start by dumping Citizens United and doing whatever else we can to get corporations out of our elections. It costs so much to get elected to public office these days that most who do are then beholden to someone else’s agenda.
Democrats can restore our democracy by regaining control of both houses of Congress and the executive. You may say I'm a dreamer. The first order of business would be using whatever parliamentary procedures are available or to create them to pack the supreme Court to overturn the cases that created unlimited power of corporations to fund elections, gave back the states power to control women's bodies, created from out of nothing presidential immunity, and reverse the decision that's about to be made which will give the executive branch unlimited control of every non legislative branch of government, and I use the word unlimited deliberately. Next, would be breaking up control of the internet to turn it into a public utility.
If this doesn't happen soon we will be at the end of the Republic. Because what's left after giving away legislative and judicial power to the executive along with exonerating the military from responsibility to defy illegal orders, is a republic in name only.
I’d love to inhabit the world you describe but, sadly, I don’t see it happening any time soon.
Yeah I also don't know a way out, I don't even start to understand why we have so much momentum but I think it helps to realise that this is bigger than just a few election cycles. It will be a decades long trend.
Well said.
It is so strange that those of us who live in Europe now have to start viewing the US as an enemy – an enemy that has just given Russia the green light to begin what it sees as its new triumphal march, not across the world, but across us. We thank you, America, for letting us see the very depths of your spirit – that is, by the way, a sarcasm – in case you didn't understand.
Younger MAGA Republicans like JD Vance and especially Pete "Deus Vult" Hegseth, are likely creatures of the War on Terror who see Islam as an existential threat to Western civilization.
They hate Europe and view it with contempt for being unwilling to ethnically cleanse its Muslim immigrant population.
Maybe what they hate more is that so many European countries are proof that democratic socialism is an effective form of government, and one where they would be required to pay their share to support the system they feed on. Fascism always starts as an idea which progresses to systematic theft from the personal to the geopolitical level. Hitler goes from the Sudetenland to pilfering personal effects of holocaust victims. Put another way: when the shooting starts, the looting starts and it’s currently underway off the coast of Venezuela.
Teri C: THAT’S A BINGO!
It’s ALL ABOUT $$$$$$$ and “systematic theft” as you call it. I call it a hostile takeover of the United States of America.
I disagree as MAGA is defined by _authoritarianism_ far more than it is defined by free-market economic ideology.
And I wouldn't call European countries "socialist" either.
Democratic socialism is a more accurate description for European countries who prioritize people's needs over business profit and where billionaires pay taxes that help support people's basic needs for a good life. Americans are too isolated and undereducated to understand this concept.
There aren't enough billionaires to pay for a generous welfare state: you also need to tax the masses more heavily -- for example the Scandinavian countries have a 25% Value Added Tax.
Well, I admit that I don't have numbers in front of me but I don't believe that there isn't enough money to pay for people's basic needs in this country if the wealthy, the extreme wealthy and corporations paid taxes at a higher rate than they are now. Subsidies for corporations, corporate welfare has to stop. Profits have never been higher and the wealthy have ways to hide their money from taxation. I also believe that if people had their basic needs met, paying a little more in taxes would more than offset their costs related to other things like medical care. But the working class are bearing the burden of taxes right now and that doesn't work. I also don't believe that enough Americans think that having their basic needs met through taxes is possible or desirable.
Authoritarianism is the method. Racism and greed, under the cover of free market ideology, are the intertwined motivations. The powerful people who don’t want to pay proportionate taxes will use every bugbear they can think of towards that end. They will use the intertwining bigotry of race and religion; then paint every country with progressive taxation and a safety net as socialist or communist enemies of the free market. Doesn’t matter if any of it is true, or even if they actually believe it, it’s useful for their agenda and their bottom lines.
Please US citizens, do everything possible to change regime! We allready struggle here in the Netherlands with growing neo-fascist parties, due to the influence of the so called libertarian Silicon Valley firms. Now we loose the US support of the Democratic voters. Where are you??
The line between libertarianism and hardline authoritarianism melts upon closer inspection. "Libertarianism" is a polite term for "social Darwinism"--freedom is for the fit. That the "fit" are aligned with the "white" by this regime adds an additional level of revulsion.
Thanks for stating the issues so clearly.
What really puzzles Europeans is how the people of the USA apparently put up with the betrayal of the ideals of freedom and democracy, which they previously championed and fought for?
Even from pure self interest, do Americans not understand your point that without its European allies the USA cannot match China + Russia?
Exactly so!
As an American who still remembers the day she learned about the Marshall Plan - I am horrified at our narcissistic stupidity and greed. People have no idea what we just squandered for human excrement.
Harry Truman is one of the most underrated Presidents.
The comparison between men of principle like him and the current incumbent is pain.
This National Security Strategy document is yet another reason to reject the encroachment of the "Tech Titans" into every corner of society. We have often heard "America must win the race for AI". Why must it? To implement this monstrous agenda of subjugating the entire human race? At this point, I have a different take. No, it must NOT win the race for AI. Nobody else is running in this paricular race, as far as I can tell. I've come to the conclusion that this invasive technology must be redirected to serve the public good, and if that isn't feasible then it must be stopped.
And Vance publicly supported the AfD…
Deceased WW2 heroes must be rolling in their graves!
After we throw the GOP out in 26 and 28, we need to go after the tech bros.
They go hand in hand