Excellent summary. Bad faith is bad faith to the core -- everything is deliberate, not accidental. If this were just happening under Trump, you might try to argue otherwise, but we've seen this get started back in the 1950s, with the reaction to Brown v. Bd of Education. Repugnicans have a very long history of lying, cheating, gas-lighting, and message testing, buying up radio stations, university chairs, think tanks, etc. to deliberately push for minority rule, as they can read the handwriting on the wall better than we can. You know why? It's their temperament and their twisted emotional childhood -- they are paranoid connivers. What shall we bring to the gunfight? We believe in government of, by, and for the people, we nation of immigrants, ugly history, and good faith efforts to fix our mistakes, work hard, deserving of giving ourselves enough of what we need -- not everything everyone else has.
In 1954, politicians would just use racial slurs to fearmonger about minorities (specifically black people).
By 1968, that made you unelectable. So instead the racists started talking about social issues, like busing and school integration.
By 1980, voters had seen through that, so the racists moved to economics and dog-whistling with terms like "welfare queens" and promoting policies that, if enacted, would hurt white people, but would disproportionately hurt black people.
Eventually enough people saw through that (though not after many of the destructive economic policies were enacted anyway) which is why the attacks shifted to gay people, and once that failed to trans people--anything to get a victory, a foot in the door to bring back all the bigotry of decades past. (Samantha Bee noted that what brought evangelicals into politics was not abortion--many evangelical churches were pro-choice and celebrated Roe v. Wade initially--but the question of losing federal tax exemptions over interracial dating bans at universities. Since the courts had ruled that the US federal government could in fact revoke tax exemptions for universities with such policies, the evangelicals needed another issue to make themselves politically relevant and sneak the racism in with it, and anti-abortion activism was something that the government couldn't act against.)
And all of this serves to divide the working class against itself. Remember, Dr. King was assassinated not when he was telling politicians "do my civil rights reforms or Malcolm X and the Black Panthers will start a race war", but when he moved into arenas of activism that actually threatened power, such as his anti-Vietnam stance (“The bombs in Vietnam explode at home—they destroy the dream and possibility for a decent America”; Lyndon Johnson was apparently livid about this and thought he should stay in his established lane as a civil rights activist) and especially the Poor People's Campaign, aiming to unite the working class across the various ideological cleavages that might divide it in order to bring about economic justice.
We can see another example of this with the "war on drugs". Why were marijuana and heroin demonised and banned? Because it allowed the conservatives of the day to demonise the antiwar left (whom they associated with marijuana) and black people (whom they associated with heroin).
(And, of course, before that it was Asians and opium dens.)
Meanwhile, tobacco and alcohol were left untouched (even though they also have substantial negative health effects, so if we went strictly by the health-policy logic they would also be banned) because those are the vices of conservative whites (that is, Nixon voters), so the most that was done with them was Pigovian taxes, rather than outright bans.
Thank you Mike so much for your commitment to the ideals that make life better for all people, not just some. I always appreciate the caring spirit in your writing.
Concordo totalmente,vorrei sottolineare le minacce del "prrsidente" ai giudici internamente ed anche di altre nazioni ( ha minacciato il giudice del casi Bolsonaro e il giudice che dovrà occuparsi del premier israeliano). In Russia i giornalisti ed i funzionari contro il regime si fanno sparire ,non siamo a.quel punto ,ma, il metodo è lo stesso.
stesso.Tutto quello che è stato adottato dai Padri Fondatore per evitare che l'esecutivo prenda il sopravvento sugli altri poteri,si sta "erodendo consapevolmente".
È ora che il partito democratico promuova manifestazioni ( pacifiche) ma ASSORDANTI.
You expressed my sentiments exactly. About the endless gaslighting, the nonsensical equivalencies between entirely different and distinct phenomena - the scourge of fascism on one hand vs the existential defense of democratic institutions on the other. The darkness of our dystopian Amerika has been purposefully created. It has been planned and meticulously implemented. It is no accident…
Mike, I’m relatively new here—I deeply appreciated your recent essay on liberalism, and am sticking around to hear more from you.
I agree with everything you’ve written here—and I also know there are voters who are turned off by what they perceive to be an assault on reality, by *our* tribe.
This, from LGB Alliance USA, appeared in my feed today.
Do you know about DIAG (Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender)? The good folks there want to help our party change course. DIAG’s motto: Liberals guiding our party back to reason and reality. I hope readers will check them out: https://www.di-ag.org/
Thanks, Mike, for reminding us that we collectively face a moral dilemma: Stand with truth, justice, and fairness or follow a would-be autocrat whose clown car show's very existence is an affront to those important and cherished ideals. Sure, the U.S. is flawed. But the alternative is unthinkable.
Excellent summary. Bad faith is bad faith to the core -- everything is deliberate, not accidental. If this were just happening under Trump, you might try to argue otherwise, but we've seen this get started back in the 1950s, with the reaction to Brown v. Bd of Education. Repugnicans have a very long history of lying, cheating, gas-lighting, and message testing, buying up radio stations, university chairs, think tanks, etc. to deliberately push for minority rule, as they can read the handwriting on the wall better than we can. You know why? It's their temperament and their twisted emotional childhood -- they are paranoid connivers. What shall we bring to the gunfight? We believe in government of, by, and for the people, we nation of immigrants, ugly history, and good faith efforts to fix our mistakes, work hard, deserving of giving ourselves enough of what we need -- not everything everyone else has.
Lee Atwater described this some decades ago.
In 1954, politicians would just use racial slurs to fearmonger about minorities (specifically black people).
By 1968, that made you unelectable. So instead the racists started talking about social issues, like busing and school integration.
By 1980, voters had seen through that, so the racists moved to economics and dog-whistling with terms like "welfare queens" and promoting policies that, if enacted, would hurt white people, but would disproportionately hurt black people.
Eventually enough people saw through that (though not after many of the destructive economic policies were enacted anyway) which is why the attacks shifted to gay people, and once that failed to trans people--anything to get a victory, a foot in the door to bring back all the bigotry of decades past. (Samantha Bee noted that what brought evangelicals into politics was not abortion--many evangelical churches were pro-choice and celebrated Roe v. Wade initially--but the question of losing federal tax exemptions over interracial dating bans at universities. Since the courts had ruled that the US federal government could in fact revoke tax exemptions for universities with such policies, the evangelicals needed another issue to make themselves politically relevant and sneak the racism in with it, and anti-abortion activism was something that the government couldn't act against.)
And all of this serves to divide the working class against itself. Remember, Dr. King was assassinated not when he was telling politicians "do my civil rights reforms or Malcolm X and the Black Panthers will start a race war", but when he moved into arenas of activism that actually threatened power, such as his anti-Vietnam stance (“The bombs in Vietnam explode at home—they destroy the dream and possibility for a decent America”; Lyndon Johnson was apparently livid about this and thought he should stay in his established lane as a civil rights activist) and especially the Poor People's Campaign, aiming to unite the working class across the various ideological cleavages that might divide it in order to bring about economic justice.
EDIT: https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie
We can see another example of this with the "war on drugs". Why were marijuana and heroin demonised and banned? Because it allowed the conservatives of the day to demonise the antiwar left (whom they associated with marijuana) and black people (whom they associated with heroin).
(And, of course, before that it was Asians and opium dens.)
Meanwhile, tobacco and alcohol were left untouched (even though they also have substantial negative health effects, so if we went strictly by the health-policy logic they would also be banned) because those are the vices of conservative whites (that is, Nixon voters), so the most that was done with them was Pigovian taxes, rather than outright bans.
The pandemic of false equivalence is destroying the American experiment.
Mike is SO right here! And this has been true for nearly half a century, but STILL it persists.
MAGA! Malicious Assholes Gaslighting America
Thank you Mike so much for your commitment to the ideals that make life better for all people, not just some. I always appreciate the caring spirit in your writing.
Concordo totalmente,vorrei sottolineare le minacce del "prrsidente" ai giudici internamente ed anche di altre nazioni ( ha minacciato il giudice del casi Bolsonaro e il giudice che dovrà occuparsi del premier israeliano). In Russia i giornalisti ed i funzionari contro il regime si fanno sparire ,non siamo a.quel punto ,ma, il metodo è lo stesso.
stesso.Tutto quello che è stato adottato dai Padri Fondatore per evitare che l'esecutivo prenda il sopravvento sugli altri poteri,si sta "erodendo consapevolmente".
È ora che il partito democratico promuova manifestazioni ( pacifiche) ma ASSORDANTI.
Saluti
(un amico dall'Italia ).
Well said.
You expressed my sentiments exactly. About the endless gaslighting, the nonsensical equivalencies between entirely different and distinct phenomena - the scourge of fascism on one hand vs the existential defense of democratic institutions on the other. The darkness of our dystopian Amerika has been purposefully created. It has been planned and meticulously implemented. It is no accident…
Mike, I’m relatively new here—I deeply appreciated your recent essay on liberalism, and am sticking around to hear more from you.
I agree with everything you’ve written here—and I also know there are voters who are turned off by what they perceive to be an assault on reality, by *our* tribe.
This, from LGB Alliance USA, appeared in my feed today.
What do you think? https://open.substack.com/pub/lgbausa/p/the-trans-movement-myth-vs-fact?
Do you know about DIAG (Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender)? The good folks there want to help our party change course. DIAG’s motto: Liberals guiding our party back to reason and reality. I hope readers will check them out: https://www.di-ag.org/
Thanks, Mike, for reminding us that we collectively face a moral dilemma: Stand with truth, justice, and fairness or follow a would-be autocrat whose clown car show's very existence is an affront to those important and cherished ideals. Sure, the U.S. is flawed. But the alternative is unthinkable.
Death Death to the IDF