This is a very important, impressive, analysis of how we got in this mess, and failed to act to stop the neoconfederate avalanche. One of the best pieces I have read in a very long time.
Agree. I came here to write something similar. It's helpful to maintain my sanity to see that other critical thinkers still exist and to see this linear exposition in the midst of what contrived chaos.
This is a damning list of the actions we, as believers in the importance of preserving this country as we saw it, failed to take. I’m not sure, but I think that if constituents had cared more or bn more concerned about Trump’s & the Republicans actions in his 1st term, some, if not all, the guardrails mentioned wd have bn enacted, as they were after Nixon. But after Nixon most of the populace was truly shocked & appalled by his actions. It is a credit (not sure that’s the right word), to the right-wing media that 1/2 the population has gradually come to accept the revanchist & extreme behavior of republicans as acceptable & even justified b/c the “elite” intelligentsia did not respect the “uneducated.” Oh, yeah & the threat of transgenders.
I think our suspicions were lulled by the very fact that their chosen figurehead is a joke in himself. With the natural tendency to believe that “it couldn’t happen here” & the fact that trump himself is an uneducated, illiterate jerk, the liberals persuaded themselves that no real or unfixable damage could really happen. Those who did see & tried to warn us suffered the usual fate of Cassandra’s.
Thank you! I shared this article with my (liberal) congregation's social justice/democracy advocates group, which has already studied Project 2025 and christo-fascism and participates in voter registration and other forms of activism. Our tech-savvy member used ChatGPT to generate a list of tactics we can use to [1] combat autocracy and [2] persuade leaders (political & religious) to produce a gripping vision of the healthy democracy they intend to bring about by regaining majorities in state and federal legislations.
Note that your ChatGPT (or other AI) request will generate a higher quality response if you designate any constraints, like your state, your type of organization, and specific goals. You can always expand your request.
A thorough-but-succinct statement of our current situation. Also, a damning enumeration of Dem failures which must be faced if our democracy is to return and then succeed in the long run.
Great dive into what is going on and the Democratic failure of not doing enough to stop this MAGA Runaway Train. I never thought Trump would win again. I still believe he was cheated-in by Elon’s money…somehow, some way. That said, 47’s supporters are solidly brainwashed and the GOP is laser-focused on pushing through their corrupt agenda. Our country was founded on greed, genocide and slavery, even if the founding father’s had good intentions. It’s still the same.
“And in treating him as unserious, Democrats and the “pillars” of civil society revealed they themselves were not serious” - This pretty much lays it out as clearly as anything could. The only thing I would add is that the voters themselves are mostly also unserious. There lies the root of the problem.
I agree and I see the huge mass of unserious voters just enjoy the right’s ‘in your face’ antics as entertainment instead of making an effort to understand their threat to democracy.
Thank you for the insights. This writing of yours helped make some sense out of our current situation . It seems the civil war never ended it just changed levels. That same philosophical war still rages!
Brother Podhorzer. Thank you so much for your insight and masterful prose. I am so gratified by the rise of organized labor over the last decade and more. The advantage to organized labor's instrumental contribution to civil rights has become apparent to many of our public servants who eschewed their membership when Janus was passed. Thank you for all that you do. In Solidarity.
Thank you. I can see how ignorant I am about what happened over the time from Regan (I disliked him on a gut level— repulsed actually).
Living my entire life in a blue state, and always a voter but never a political scholar or even interested in politics, I am now feeling doomed.
So many of my generation felt the pain of corporate greed, white supremacy and of the recent wars, after WWII, wars that were forced on us all for greed and corrupt gains to certain white elites.
Then the nightmare of the Trump monster, the Supreme Court corruption and now concentration camps or prisons, whatever you want to call them and more bad news every day.
But what can a person do against a title wave of hate, bigotry and absolute corruption? Corporations don’t pay taxes. I have been angry about this for decades. Really pissed off. And when it doesn’t have to be a dystopian nightmare.
Why is it always the worst and most vile of humanity who manage to gain control?
I think I know why: Human beings do not learn and evolve toward egalitarian systems. There are way more creeps than good humans. We are outnumbered.
Trump will only leave the White House on a gurney. But Trump's destruction of the constitutional order, with SCOTUS as his primary co-conspirator, has transformed the presidency into a dictatorship ruling by the power of the federal government. Vance, with Russ Voss and Stephen Miller, will take over, but they lack Trump’s control of the mob. So they will only rule until another strongman takes over, who might or might or not impose a constitutional order, but it will not be the one we’ve know. Historically, the period between Trump and the next strongman is a interregnum, literally, the period between kings.
This is absolutely 100% true. The leaders that got us here are NOT the ones that will lead us out of here. Precisely because they brought us here.
"To return to Gramsci: the old order is dead. It is a testament to the power of cognitive dissonance that those who most righteously swear allegiance to that order are never asked—nor do they seem to ask themselves—whether the world in which they have thrived is precisely the world that produced this crisis. If we are to bring a better order into being, we must begin by recognizing that the sensemakers and leaders who steered us here cannot be the ones to chart the way forward. For as long as we cling to their comforts, we will remain trapped in the interregnum where monsters thrive.
On the first anniversary of January 6th, I wrote:
'Civil war or other dystopias will become inevitable unless we look beyond the conventional understanding of our predicament and the options available to us. In the American system, the paved roads inevitably lead to dead ends. To begin, we need new maps.'
Seeking out these new maps is going to animate my work at Weekend Reading going forward."
“Nixon himself resigned rather than face impeachment, and only Gerald Ford’s pardon spared him prosecution”: the biter taste of this is still fresh in my mouth. The Democrats long ago abandoned working people to curry favor with the plutocrats
I agree with ll of this, but I think that you don't go far enough. Marx was right; capitalism lurches from crisis to crisis. Keynesianism taught technocrats how to manage and even avoid crises like the Great Depression. When Reagan was president, I initially thought that the right's goal was primarily to undo the sixties. I eventually realized that they wanted to undo the entire New Deal. Trump wants to go even further back, to McKinley!!
We need an analysis of what went so badly wrong that a large number of American lost faith in the existing political order in the late 20th century and the ways that Democrats failed to address the underlying problems. Carter and Clinton decided that the politically expedient thing to do was join in the neo-liberal reaction (although in Carter's case, I don't think it took much arm-twisting). That is part of the historical reconstruction needed as part of the theoretical project we face. The political project must, as you indicate, involve building once again a party of ordinary Americans from every region and all walks of life. When Howard Dean was chair of the Democratic Party, he pushed something he called the 50-state project, focused on rebuilding the part apparatus in every state and region, regardless of the short-term payoffs. It was a long-term vision. And it was adamantly opposed by people like Rahm Emmanuel, who was then the number two person in the House. He and his ilk wanted to accept a status quo in which Democrats held on to a congressional majority just large enough to pass a moderately progressive, business-friendly agenda. Those folks got there way, and now we are paying the price.
This is a very important, impressive, analysis of how we got in this mess, and failed to act to stop the neoconfederate avalanche. One of the best pieces I have read in a very long time.
Agree. I came here to write something similar. It's helpful to maintain my sanity to see that other critical thinkers still exist and to see this linear exposition in the midst of what contrived chaos.
This is a damning list of the actions we, as believers in the importance of preserving this country as we saw it, failed to take. I’m not sure, but I think that if constituents had cared more or bn more concerned about Trump’s & the Republicans actions in his 1st term, some, if not all, the guardrails mentioned wd have bn enacted, as they were after Nixon. But after Nixon most of the populace was truly shocked & appalled by his actions. It is a credit (not sure that’s the right word), to the right-wing media that 1/2 the population has gradually come to accept the revanchist & extreme behavior of republicans as acceptable & even justified b/c the “elite” intelligentsia did not respect the “uneducated.” Oh, yeah & the threat of transgenders.
I think our suspicions were lulled by the very fact that their chosen figurehead is a joke in himself. With the natural tendency to believe that “it couldn’t happen here” & the fact that trump himself is an uneducated, illiterate jerk, the liberals persuaded themselves that no real or unfixable damage could really happen. Those who did see & tried to warn us suffered the usual fate of Cassandra’s.
Thank you! I shared this article with my (liberal) congregation's social justice/democracy advocates group, which has already studied Project 2025 and christo-fascism and participates in voter registration and other forms of activism. Our tech-savvy member used ChatGPT to generate a list of tactics we can use to [1] combat autocracy and [2] persuade leaders (political & religious) to produce a gripping vision of the healthy democracy they intend to bring about by regaining majorities in state and federal legislations.
Note that your ChatGPT (or other AI) request will generate a higher quality response if you designate any constraints, like your state, your type of organization, and specific goals. You can always expand your request.
Excellent and succinct analysis. Now, what is to be done?
A thorough-but-succinct statement of our current situation. Also, a damning enumeration of Dem failures which must be faced if our democracy is to return and then succeed in the long run.
Great dive into what is going on and the Democratic failure of not doing enough to stop this MAGA Runaway Train. I never thought Trump would win again. I still believe he was cheated-in by Elon’s money…somehow, some way. That said, 47’s supporters are solidly brainwashed and the GOP is laser-focused on pushing through their corrupt agenda. Our country was founded on greed, genocide and slavery, even if the founding father’s had good intentions. It’s still the same.
“And in treating him as unserious, Democrats and the “pillars” of civil society revealed they themselves were not serious” - This pretty much lays it out as clearly as anything could. The only thing I would add is that the voters themselves are mostly also unserious. There lies the root of the problem.
I agree and I see the huge mass of unserious voters just enjoy the right’s ‘in your face’ antics as entertainment instead of making an effort to understand their threat to democracy.
Thank you for the insights. This writing of yours helped make some sense out of our current situation . It seems the civil war never ended it just changed levels. That same philosophical war still rages!
Brother Podhorzer. Thank you so much for your insight and masterful prose. I am so gratified by the rise of organized labor over the last decade and more. The advantage to organized labor's instrumental contribution to civil rights has become apparent to many of our public servants who eschewed their membership when Janus was passed. Thank you for all that you do. In Solidarity.
Thank you!
Thank you. I can see how ignorant I am about what happened over the time from Regan (I disliked him on a gut level— repulsed actually).
Living my entire life in a blue state, and always a voter but never a political scholar or even interested in politics, I am now feeling doomed.
So many of my generation felt the pain of corporate greed, white supremacy and of the recent wars, after WWII, wars that were forced on us all for greed and corrupt gains to certain white elites.
Then the nightmare of the Trump monster, the Supreme Court corruption and now concentration camps or prisons, whatever you want to call them and more bad news every day.
But what can a person do against a title wave of hate, bigotry and absolute corruption? Corporations don’t pay taxes. I have been angry about this for decades. Really pissed off. And when it doesn’t have to be a dystopian nightmare.
Why is it always the worst and most vile of humanity who manage to gain control?
I think I know why: Human beings do not learn and evolve toward egalitarian systems. There are way more creeps than good humans. We are outnumbered.
Trump will only leave the White House on a gurney. But Trump's destruction of the constitutional order, with SCOTUS as his primary co-conspirator, has transformed the presidency into a dictatorship ruling by the power of the federal government. Vance, with Russ Voss and Stephen Miller, will take over, but they lack Trump’s control of the mob. So they will only rule until another strongman takes over, who might or might or not impose a constitutional order, but it will not be the one we’ve know. Historically, the period between Trump and the next strongman is a interregnum, literally, the period between kings.
Thank you for this comprehensive report explaining how we got here.
This is absolutely 100% true. The leaders that got us here are NOT the ones that will lead us out of here. Precisely because they brought us here.
"To return to Gramsci: the old order is dead. It is a testament to the power of cognitive dissonance that those who most righteously swear allegiance to that order are never asked—nor do they seem to ask themselves—whether the world in which they have thrived is precisely the world that produced this crisis. If we are to bring a better order into being, we must begin by recognizing that the sensemakers and leaders who steered us here cannot be the ones to chart the way forward. For as long as we cling to their comforts, we will remain trapped in the interregnum where monsters thrive.
On the first anniversary of January 6th, I wrote:
'Civil war or other dystopias will become inevitable unless we look beyond the conventional understanding of our predicament and the options available to us. In the American system, the paved roads inevitably lead to dead ends. To begin, we need new maps.'
Seeking out these new maps is going to animate my work at Weekend Reading going forward."
“Nixon himself resigned rather than face impeachment, and only Gerald Ford’s pardon spared him prosecution”: the biter taste of this is still fresh in my mouth. The Democrats long ago abandoned working people to curry favor with the plutocrats
Yes, absolutely monsters.
I agree with ll of this, but I think that you don't go far enough. Marx was right; capitalism lurches from crisis to crisis. Keynesianism taught technocrats how to manage and even avoid crises like the Great Depression. When Reagan was president, I initially thought that the right's goal was primarily to undo the sixties. I eventually realized that they wanted to undo the entire New Deal. Trump wants to go even further back, to McKinley!!
We need an analysis of what went so badly wrong that a large number of American lost faith in the existing political order in the late 20th century and the ways that Democrats failed to address the underlying problems. Carter and Clinton decided that the politically expedient thing to do was join in the neo-liberal reaction (although in Carter's case, I don't think it took much arm-twisting). That is part of the historical reconstruction needed as part of the theoretical project we face. The political project must, as you indicate, involve building once again a party of ordinary Americans from every region and all walks of life. When Howard Dean was chair of the Democratic Party, he pushed something he called the 50-state project, focused on rebuilding the part apparatus in every state and region, regardless of the short-term payoffs. It was a long-term vision. And it was adamantly opposed by people like Rahm Emmanuel, who was then the number two person in the House. He and his ilk wanted to accept a status quo in which Democrats held on to a congressional majority just large enough to pass a moderately progressive, business-friendly agenda. Those folks got there way, and now we are paying the price.
I gained a good bit of insight from David Corn’s American Psychosis
.
I'll take a look. Judith Stein wrote couple of good books on the subject as well.