Solid essay. Very validating for me because I agree with all points as far as I can tell on first reading.
I was someone who observed an (understandable) backlash to hyper-wokeness occurring organically as you say, and figured the pendulum would swing to a more reasonable centre on its own over time, as generational fads do. What a shock to witness DOGE! And that’s one of the reasons I just can’t wrap my head around these supposedly “smart” people supporting the current Whitehouse clown show. I wonder if it matters how one defines the word “smart” when applied to individuals? Elon, Thiel and the techbros are all geniuses, but only within a very narrow sphere. They have nothing to offer humanity in terms of art, literature, or even wisdom. I would say my MAGA family are on the higher-than-average IQ scale, but I don’t consider them smart at all anymore. I’ve uncovered a certain resistance, or stubbornness that I typically associate with stupidity. Truly intelligent people in my humble opinion show resiliency and appropriate deference for expertise.
The tech bros have nothing to offer in terms of the humanities, because they consider them a waste of time and resources. Musk openly said that empathy, that crown jewel of humanity, is the weakness of Western Civilization. Most of the bros are openly racist and misogynistic, and care about nothing except money and creating a neo-feudal society.
Why do the intellectual conservatives fall prey to anti-intellectual conspiracies? In a word, racism, with a heaping side of misogyny. My belief is that much of the homo/trans-phobia is just a form of misogyny. (The vitriol is mostly reserved for transWOMEN and gay men. TransMEN and lesbians are a small blip on the radar.) And since kindness, empathy and compassion are considered "feminine' traits, they are weak. Weak=woke.
I think your point is well taken. Often, prejudice can be an underlying factor in the political philosophies to which people are drawn. After all the attacks on the “Deep State”, what is Elon Musk’s go-to platform? Anti-semitism. The entire attack on “ Woke” is plainly rooted in the notion that Black people are not as good as Whites. So yes, racism, bigotry, all play essential roles in the underlying defense of “ The Market.” MAGA has made it permissible to have it all hang out now- from “ Jewish Lasers” to Soros is behind everything. The intellectual arguments sadly, are so often a cover for the bigotry.
Important to begin the story much earlier. All of these themes were developed in the 1990s, with Fox News, rightwing talk radio and climate science denial. The result was to create an entire social structure, encompassing much of the US population, in which misinformation was positively welcomed. The term "political correctness" was used in exactly the same way as "woke" is now (both having originated on the left, though PC was almost entirely an in-joke)
This is a collective as well as individal pathology.
Yes, thought of the same elements that got us here! Faux News is just one outlet. My understanding was that the Midwest of our nation was pummeled with radio shows.
FN was widely ignored for a decade or so, but since it was funded by rich boys from the get-go, the 'marketplace of ideas' was irrelevant. They just kept buying more outlets and hiring a few actual journalists to cover for the wingnut fodder. Now they can afford to pay Dominion off for less than a year's revenue.
I witnessed the unfolding as well as Intel from Russia giddy over Trump’s enticement and immersion in dark money, suing contractors, not paying. US government complicit in his full getaway from the 80’s to TODAY!
Sometimes I think I’m going crazy. It looks to me as if the people who are running the show are all just using each other. Big business wants low taxes and no regulations but it doesn’t have the charisma to pull that off so it’s using needy, splashy psychologically deficient trump. Trump uses the vulnerability many people have to feeling sorry for themselves because they feel relatively disrespected— intellectually, socially and financially. Most of us tend to be seduced into being impressed by wealth and power so we sustain a society that causes ‘thems’ thats got the drive and the wiles to claw their way to the top, from which position they seek whomever is useful, etc. And I used to be a cockeyed optimist! But I do still have enough of that optimism left to recognize that there are countless good people out there, who may pull us out of what sometimes seems like an insatiably materialistic mess.
I think it’s also just fundamentally a coping mechanism rooted in white supremacy. Those poor, white rural people who got left behind would still like to believe in a fight between “us and them”… that the us includes poor rural whites and the white tech billionaires & Trump, and them is everybody else.
It’s easier to pretend you’re a temporarily embarrassed future millionaire and punch down at people with still relatively less power & privilege than yourself, than it is to find the courage to punch up at the people with more power and privilege than yourself.
We also need to bear in mind that the right wing is not only in a nutty bubble, but increasingly enslaved to outright lies and conspiracies. Trying to parse their arguments or dissect their intelligence is useless. We need to be embracing, supporting, and assertive of a progressive agenda, whip up enthusiasm for doing the right thing. The negative kick digs us deeper.
Well done! I agree with much of what you said. However, I have two distinct points of disagreement. First, I think Marx's critique of Capitalism (as distinctly separate from his promotion of Communism) as a source of alienation of people from their labor, relationships, communities, nature and even life itself (aka nihilism) is being proven out by the conservative insanity you so effectively describe. I think this occurs because the social institution of capitalism encourages and rewards a developmentally immature selfishness expressed as lifelong insatiable greed. And it is that greed that fuels over consumption which drives over production which drives an unsustainable exploitation of natural resources which leads to climate change and food supply disruption leading to massive human migrations and wars. Possibly to human extinction. Secondly, and directly related, is that the "Bulwark" conservatives represent the Nixon, Reagan, Gingrich, Bush, McConnell, et.al. southern strategists who's conservative disinformation structures were built to attract voters to give the rich an electoral majority without disrupting their Republican Party power structure. They outsmarted themselves and created a Frankenstein that took the Party away from them and is threatening to devour us all but refuse to see their part in it.
As a radical leftie who subscribes to the Bulwark podcasts, I may have a slightly different view. The various voices on the Bulwark differ pretty widely on policies and priorities. I see Tim Miller as a pretty progressive guy, only differing a lot on the speed with which change should take place. JVL is another story. I can't take much of him. Bill Kristol is old school, Sara is Sara. But I do like to hear their viewpoints as counterpoint to mine. I feel a lot more at home with Luke Beasley, Kyle Kulinsky, BTC, Mike Figueredo, etc. Meidas is very balanced, IMHO.
I also subscribed to the Bulwark and donated to Longwell's PAC. Until they brought on Michael Steele. As an 80s Conservative and increasingly radicalized liberal, I felt that move exemplifies the overall Conservative mindset of ignoring morality if it might advance your political agenda. I strongly agree with you on the value listening to differing viewpoints that are well thought out and not disinformed dog whistle reactions - no matter what perspective they come from.
I've never seen Steele on a Bulwark podcast that I can recall. But he's all over MSNBC. I suppose he is supposed to be a window into Republican thought, but the party is so far from the party he was part of in the day, I'm not sure how much insight he actually has. I suppose MSNBC is trying to stay out of Trump's anger zone, like most of the MSM. They already ditched Joy and Katie, I'm wondering how long Lawrence and Rachel have. The good thing is that Joy and Katie have Substack, and can say more than they were allowed on MSNBC.
Amongst the rather suspect members of the Bulwark coterie is Bill Kristol, one of the early architects of "neoconservatism", and a promotor of ramped-up Cold-War American "peace through strength" ideology, i.e., militarization of foreign policy, and a concomitant expansion of the "Security State". Sure, now he's anti-tRump, but he's recently let his old neocon impulses come to the surface, and was challenged by Sykes and a couple of other Bulwark notables for his mild heresies.
Time and lack of constituencies have combined to render self-styled apostates like Kristol largely irrelevant, but there are some righty free-thinkers amongst the Bulwark set who certainly would qualify as "responsible" conservatives, within a more classical philosophic framework.
We shall see, post-tRump, if the infectious and noxious MAGA movement die with his demise, or if indeed the Project 2025 crowd, tech edgelords, and reactionary money people succeed tRumpism, and democracy withers away, perhaps permanently — or replaced by competitive authoritarianism.
Would really like to see this piece in the NYT Opinion section, Mike.
It is comprehensive and so valuable. It explains so much that has spun out of control!
(Just when my mind went to healthcare and China you included it.)
Choice is freedom which is open to humans being very mistaken in beliefs/behavior.
My own sanity is wrapped in your ability to analyze what is happening. I thank you and appreciate your enormous energy and dedication!
I do believe in improving instead of throwing away. The goodness of democracy can be preserved while new ideas and updates to our Constitution are made.
“Oligarchs think they can ride this tiger, use nationalist fervor to distract from economic extraction, maintain wealth while the country burns. They are catastrophically mistaken. Populist movements don’t stay bought. Revolutionary sentiment doesn’t respect class boundaries.” Though I don’t agree with everything about this piece, this quote really captures it. These folks seem to think they can burn it all down without realizing they are inside the burning building.
It's this kind of romantic statement that shows why the oligarchs are winning. I would point out that the Supreme Court is 6-3 conservative dominated. If would note that recapturing the Senate for Democrats would be very difficult today, and if we regress the trend in peak House seats over the last fifty years the trend line falls below a majority in 2035, implying that Democrats could be shut out of power altogether in a decade's time.
It is Democratic elites who are at risk of being eclipsed, not oligarchs.
Commenting from afar…I appreciate the clarity and intelligence of this, but feel that offering the democrats as the solution ignores the fact that the democrats are also captured by the system and it is under democrat governance that many peoples lives deteriorated. It seems that mainstream democrats are not the solution to this problem but the more left leaning democrats off a real alternative. The mainstream democrats offer a choice between 2 evils… clearly better than what is currently happening but not capable of truly challenging the decades that have led to this
Yes! “The American majority wants healthcare that doesn’t bankrupt them when they get sick, progressive taxation, climate action, and constraints on oligarchic power. These preferences aren’t radical—they’re mainstream positions in every other developed democracy. The radical position is insisting majority preferences should be permanently overruled by constitutional minority rule designed to protect concentrated wealth.” Thank you for your insistence on clearly stating what is true.
I think we'll reap more positives, faster, if we move a positive agenda to the table, to galvanize the discontented majority. Bemoaning the problems only echoes right-wing propaganda and deepens the fear-mongering. Navel-gazing won't get us where we need to go, and were running out of time to act effectively. Let's get the police to protect and serve citizens by reining in lawless ICE goons and publicizing it. Let's find ways to break through the tariff narrative and start up our own provisioning (people have so many talents and hobbies to turn into small business, starting with community health and child care.
1. I want millions to sign on to a class action suit against the Republican Party and the Trump regime for perpetuating fraud and consistently violating our Constitution. The Constitution is more than an agreement, it gives and maintains life itself.
2. I want a work strike to coincide with the filing of the above.
3. I want international cancellations of all sporting events scheduled for the USA. Americans feel unsafe so should all participants/visitors/vendors. The world should stand up and say, “ The Trump regime is dangerous and we will not participate for safety reasons!”
When it comes to the word "woke", I'm always reminded of the author who wrote a book about "anti-wokeness", then failed to define the term when asked about it on "Rising". In her telling of what happened (in the linked article), she had a panic attack building throughout the interview because she was expecting to be denigrated for having six children, and it came to fruition when asked to define "woke". Note, however, that nowhere in that article does she provide a definition of that word.
This was written by an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Saint Thomas, arguing that Donald Trump is a typical petty tyrant, while Kamala Harris et al are Marxist totalitarians. However, as is made especially clear by the final line of the piece, nowhere are those individuals and groups supporting Trump analysed to see if they might fit the mould of fascism, resulting in an incomplete analysis that, I think, downplays the threat of Trump while playing up the threat of Harris.
(Full disclosure: I have co-authored a piece with the main author of that blog and have been acquainted with him for years, despite our significant disagreements on many policy issues. However, the piece we wrote together was a dry policy article on taxation, arguing for a more redistributive welfare system through the elimination of income- and asset-based means testing with the resultant spending increase matched by moderately higher taxation on high incomes. This is a position also advanced by, among others, Matt Bruenig, who writes for, among other outlets, Jacobin, and to some extent the Fraser Institute here in Canada. We endeavoured to keep the piece as non-ideological as possible. You can read it here if you wish: https://decivitate.jamesjheaney.com/p/give-the-rich-more-money. However, do note that it is heavily mathematical in places.)
Thank you for this essay. My friends like to say I’m a conspiracy theorist when I try to tell them about the neoreactionary movement. They’re coming around but it’s so hard when there’s threats abound to prioritize.
"The pathologies persist partly because they’re rarely challenged directly. But they’re also fragile because they depend on avoiding concrete specifics. Democratic discourse becomes possible again when we insist on precision, evidence, and proportional responses to proportional threats."
Exactly.
And now for the difficult part - how to reintroduce and facilitate democratic discourse in a way that convinces both ordinary Americans and the intellectual class?
But there’s also social science that says the more you present these people evidence that conflicts with their views, most of them actually clutch even harder to their false narrative and alternative facts.
Sadly, you can’t reason people out of a cult of personality that they entered on vibes, rather than logic in the first place.
Just know that when you stand for truth and facts, it’s largely for the benefit of people who aren’t engaged with news or politics yet. It’s not going to break the shell of people who have decided political power for their perceived in group matters to them more than objective reality.
This very lengthy and worthy essay is really good. It's possible to break this down more simply: the constant fear-mongering of the right wing has promoted a contagion of fragility among those who are secure but isolated. People who are connected to community have a more robust psyche and can deal with the real world. Let's chide and help the snowflakes to see themselves in community.
Yes. And the extension to this is: expect people to grow up. Adult-aged people should behave like adults. That means showing basic respect and concern for others in their daily life, and contributing to local communities.
America’s crisis would not have been possible if its population had shown a basic sense of responsibility over the past decade. Childish irresponsibility from Americans created this mess, and it will take a major culture change to clean it up.
I think I know where you are coming from with this but it assigns blame simplistically.
This coup was in the making for a longtime. It is propped up by a transitional criminal network that has now infiltrated governments.
Just like 70% of Israel’s voters don’t want criminal Netanyahu in power, at least 50% here never wanted Trump. Our voting systems and laws are literally being tampered with.
Morality in behavior is one thing but we are dependent on democracy being carried out by “men of good will”. Public service is seen as weak now, as too much government.
By the way, the math: Americans = 340.1 million so 70 is 20% not quite the indictment blaming education. Also, unfortunately the disengaged (for whatever may be many reasons) 90 million didn’t vote. Add in the propaganda machines, dark money, Republicans thwarting gun control, progress and protection(s)….We have a host of problems.
As for those propaganda machines - they prove my point because they’re not very sophisticated. Sensible adults with rudimentary critical thinking skills will find all of it plain silly. Newsmax, Fox News, Elon Musk rants etc..
The fact that this machine seems to work in the USA is evidence of a bored, child-like population that seeks simple entertainment. The deepest problem is the USA culture of unseriousness.
Hitler enticed 34% of the population. The exhilaration, the frenzy. “I’m better than another” even if, mentally , emotionally, skillfully not met. The worst is yet to be felt. Especially with little help being given to Mother Nature’s hard hit areas. People need to appreciate government as a collective experience and responsibility to SURVIVE.
GOVERNMENT IS NOT THE ENEMY.
Humanistic governing with progress and protection is how we survive. Understanding differences allows God to enter human space.❤️
I agree to a point. It’s the Christian Nationalists that complicate the bit about isolation. Church is one of the few third spaces left in rural/suburban areas. Plenty of ways to commune with your fellow congregant about the news of the day.
Insightful nuanced critique of a complicated question that dogs our era of institutional decline and possible democratic collapse. I find the deployment of words like “communism” to dismiss the positions of political rivals to be laughably empty. It’s impossible to take those who use such words seriously. They themselves know it’s BS; why should we pretend it isn’t?
On the other hand, you make a good case that we should in fact take it seriously even so, because the people deploying BS are doing so strategically, to shut down debate. Without substantive debate, democracy is impossible. I swing between believing this is being done with conscious cynicism (they know it’s BS but only want to snow us with it) or with true belief and ideological conviction. (For what it’s worth, they believe their beliefs align more closely with reality than, say, your and my delusions do).
It used to be Americans were ruthlessly pragmatic (ah, yesterday), and that ideas were only valuable and relevant to the degree they created positive consequences in the real world. Pragmatism was our great contribution to world philosophy. Not too shabby. It seems we’re deciding to give up that great advantage too, in favor of an unhinged, disconnected ideology that is rigidly if not religiously adhered to.
A brief note about Venezuela and Hugo Chavez, your reference to which caught my eye as a former foreign service officer who spent most of my final two decades as a diplomat focused on South America. Ideology has precisely zero to do with it. Socialism blocialism. It was full on state capture that motivated President Chavez, not to mention his stupefyingly incompetent successor. In that sense, the implosion of what used to be the wealthiest country in South America is the perfect object lesson for what could happen here, if the forces of democracy and accountability and course-correction are unable to check it.
Solid essay. Very validating for me because I agree with all points as far as I can tell on first reading.
I was someone who observed an (understandable) backlash to hyper-wokeness occurring organically as you say, and figured the pendulum would swing to a more reasonable centre on its own over time, as generational fads do. What a shock to witness DOGE! And that’s one of the reasons I just can’t wrap my head around these supposedly “smart” people supporting the current Whitehouse clown show. I wonder if it matters how one defines the word “smart” when applied to individuals? Elon, Thiel and the techbros are all geniuses, but only within a very narrow sphere. They have nothing to offer humanity in terms of art, literature, or even wisdom. I would say my MAGA family are on the higher-than-average IQ scale, but I don’t consider them smart at all anymore. I’ve uncovered a certain resistance, or stubbornness that I typically associate with stupidity. Truly intelligent people in my humble opinion show resiliency and appropriate deference for expertise.
The tech bros have nothing to offer in terms of the humanities, because they consider them a waste of time and resources. Musk openly said that empathy, that crown jewel of humanity, is the weakness of Western Civilization. Most of the bros are openly racist and misogynistic, and care about nothing except money and creating a neo-feudal society.
Yes you’re absolutely right. I’m keeping a very sharp eye on them, and I reserve a very special fear & loathing for JD Vance right along with them.
Why do the intellectual conservatives fall prey to anti-intellectual conspiracies? In a word, racism, with a heaping side of misogyny. My belief is that much of the homo/trans-phobia is just a form of misogyny. (The vitriol is mostly reserved for transWOMEN and gay men. TransMEN and lesbians are a small blip on the radar.) And since kindness, empathy and compassion are considered "feminine' traits, they are weak. Weak=woke.
I think your point is well taken. Often, prejudice can be an underlying factor in the political philosophies to which people are drawn. After all the attacks on the “Deep State”, what is Elon Musk’s go-to platform? Anti-semitism. The entire attack on “ Woke” is plainly rooted in the notion that Black people are not as good as Whites. So yes, racism, bigotry, all play essential roles in the underlying defense of “ The Market.” MAGA has made it permissible to have it all hang out now- from “ Jewish Lasers” to Soros is behind everything. The intellectual arguments sadly, are so often a cover for the bigotry.
Important to begin the story much earlier. All of these themes were developed in the 1990s, with Fox News, rightwing talk radio and climate science denial. The result was to create an entire social structure, encompassing much of the US population, in which misinformation was positively welcomed. The term "political correctness" was used in exactly the same way as "woke" is now (both having originated on the left, though PC was almost entirely an in-joke)
This is a collective as well as individal pathology.
Yes, thought of the same elements that got us here! Faux News is just one outlet. My understanding was that the Midwest of our nation was pummeled with radio shows.
FN was widely ignored for a decade or so, but since it was funded by rich boys from the get-go, the 'marketplace of ideas' was irrelevant. They just kept buying more outlets and hiring a few actual journalists to cover for the wingnut fodder. Now they can afford to pay Dominion off for less than a year's revenue.
I witnessed the unfolding as well as Intel from Russia giddy over Trump’s enticement and immersion in dark money, suing contractors, not paying. US government complicit in his full getaway from the 80’s to TODAY!
And I thought “Death of the Liberal Class” was a demoralizing read …
Sometimes I think I’m going crazy. It looks to me as if the people who are running the show are all just using each other. Big business wants low taxes and no regulations but it doesn’t have the charisma to pull that off so it’s using needy, splashy psychologically deficient trump. Trump uses the vulnerability many people have to feeling sorry for themselves because they feel relatively disrespected— intellectually, socially and financially. Most of us tend to be seduced into being impressed by wealth and power so we sustain a society that causes ‘thems’ thats got the drive and the wiles to claw their way to the top, from which position they seek whomever is useful, etc. And I used to be a cockeyed optimist! But I do still have enough of that optimism left to recognize that there are countless good people out there, who may pull us out of what sometimes seems like an insatiably materialistic mess.
I think it’s also just fundamentally a coping mechanism rooted in white supremacy. Those poor, white rural people who got left behind would still like to believe in a fight between “us and them”… that the us includes poor rural whites and the white tech billionaires & Trump, and them is everybody else.
It’s easier to pretend you’re a temporarily embarrassed future millionaire and punch down at people with still relatively less power & privilege than yourself, than it is to find the courage to punch up at the people with more power and privilege than yourself.
We also need to bear in mind that the right wing is not only in a nutty bubble, but increasingly enslaved to outright lies and conspiracies. Trying to parse their arguments or dissect their intelligence is useless. We need to be embracing, supporting, and assertive of a progressive agenda, whip up enthusiasm for doing the right thing. The negative kick digs us deeper.
Well done! I agree with much of what you said. However, I have two distinct points of disagreement. First, I think Marx's critique of Capitalism (as distinctly separate from his promotion of Communism) as a source of alienation of people from their labor, relationships, communities, nature and even life itself (aka nihilism) is being proven out by the conservative insanity you so effectively describe. I think this occurs because the social institution of capitalism encourages and rewards a developmentally immature selfishness expressed as lifelong insatiable greed. And it is that greed that fuels over consumption which drives over production which drives an unsustainable exploitation of natural resources which leads to climate change and food supply disruption leading to massive human migrations and wars. Possibly to human extinction. Secondly, and directly related, is that the "Bulwark" conservatives represent the Nixon, Reagan, Gingrich, Bush, McConnell, et.al. southern strategists who's conservative disinformation structures were built to attract voters to give the rich an electoral majority without disrupting their Republican Party power structure. They outsmarted themselves and created a Frankenstein that took the Party away from them and is threatening to devour us all but refuse to see their part in it.
As a radical leftie who subscribes to the Bulwark podcasts, I may have a slightly different view. The various voices on the Bulwark differ pretty widely on policies and priorities. I see Tim Miller as a pretty progressive guy, only differing a lot on the speed with which change should take place. JVL is another story. I can't take much of him. Bill Kristol is old school, Sara is Sara. But I do like to hear their viewpoints as counterpoint to mine. I feel a lot more at home with Luke Beasley, Kyle Kulinsky, BTC, Mike Figueredo, etc. Meidas is very balanced, IMHO.
Meidas is balanced because Ron Filipkowski understands the assignment.
I also subscribed to the Bulwark and donated to Longwell's PAC. Until they brought on Michael Steele. As an 80s Conservative and increasingly radicalized liberal, I felt that move exemplifies the overall Conservative mindset of ignoring morality if it might advance your political agenda. I strongly agree with you on the value listening to differing viewpoints that are well thought out and not disinformed dog whistle reactions - no matter what perspective they come from.
I've never seen Steele on a Bulwark podcast that I can recall. But he's all over MSNBC. I suppose he is supposed to be a window into Republican thought, but the party is so far from the party he was part of in the day, I'm not sure how much insight he actually has. I suppose MSNBC is trying to stay out of Trump's anger zone, like most of the MSM. They already ditched Joy and Katie, I'm wondering how long Lawrence and Rachel have. The good thing is that Joy and Katie have Substack, and can say more than they were allowed on MSNBC.
He has his own dedicated Bulwark show now. “The Michael Steele Podcast”
Amongst the rather suspect members of the Bulwark coterie is Bill Kristol, one of the early architects of "neoconservatism", and a promotor of ramped-up Cold-War American "peace through strength" ideology, i.e., militarization of foreign policy, and a concomitant expansion of the "Security State". Sure, now he's anti-tRump, but he's recently let his old neocon impulses come to the surface, and was challenged by Sykes and a couple of other Bulwark notables for his mild heresies.
Time and lack of constituencies have combined to render self-styled apostates like Kristol largely irrelevant, but there are some righty free-thinkers amongst the Bulwark set who certainly would qualify as "responsible" conservatives, within a more classical philosophic framework.
We shall see, post-tRump, if the infectious and noxious MAGA movement die with his demise, or if indeed the Project 2025 crowd, tech edgelords, and reactionary money people succeed tRumpism, and democracy withers away, perhaps permanently — or replaced by competitive authoritarianism.
Would really like to see this piece in the NYT Opinion section, Mike.
It is comprehensive and so valuable. It explains so much that has spun out of control!
(Just when my mind went to healthcare and China you included it.)
Choice is freedom which is open to humans being very mistaken in beliefs/behavior.
My own sanity is wrapped in your ability to analyze what is happening. I thank you and appreciate your enormous energy and dedication!
I do believe in improving instead of throwing away. The goodness of democracy can be preserved while new ideas and updates to our Constitution are made.
“Oligarchs think they can ride this tiger, use nationalist fervor to distract from economic extraction, maintain wealth while the country burns. They are catastrophically mistaken. Populist movements don’t stay bought. Revolutionary sentiment doesn’t respect class boundaries.” Though I don’t agree with everything about this piece, this quote really captures it. These folks seem to think they can burn it all down without realizing they are inside the burning building.
It's this kind of romantic statement that shows why the oligarchs are winning. I would point out that the Supreme Court is 6-3 conservative dominated. If would note that recapturing the Senate for Democrats would be very difficult today, and if we regress the trend in peak House seats over the last fifty years the trend line falls below a majority in 2035, implying that Democrats could be shut out of power altogether in a decade's time.
It is Democratic elites who are at risk of being eclipsed, not oligarchs.
The point is if conditions turn apocalyptic they will not survive either. I agree with you about everything else.
Commenting from afar…I appreciate the clarity and intelligence of this, but feel that offering the democrats as the solution ignores the fact that the democrats are also captured by the system and it is under democrat governance that many peoples lives deteriorated. It seems that mainstream democrats are not the solution to this problem but the more left leaning democrats off a real alternative. The mainstream democrats offer a choice between 2 evils… clearly better than what is currently happening but not capable of truly challenging the decades that have led to this
Yes! “The American majority wants healthcare that doesn’t bankrupt them when they get sick, progressive taxation, climate action, and constraints on oligarchic power. These preferences aren’t radical—they’re mainstream positions in every other developed democracy. The radical position is insisting majority preferences should be permanently overruled by constitutional minority rule designed to protect concentrated wealth.” Thank you for your insistence on clearly stating what is true.
Mainstream for a longtime! I remember Edward Kennedy fighting in the 70’s for Universal Healthcare and reactions being alarmist!
I think we'll reap more positives, faster, if we move a positive agenda to the table, to galvanize the discontented majority. Bemoaning the problems only echoes right-wing propaganda and deepens the fear-mongering. Navel-gazing won't get us where we need to go, and were running out of time to act effectively. Let's get the police to protect and serve citizens by reining in lawless ICE goons and publicizing it. Let's find ways to break through the tariff narrative and start up our own provisioning (people have so many talents and hobbies to turn into small business, starting with community health and child care.
1. I want millions to sign on to a class action suit against the Republican Party and the Trump regime for perpetuating fraud and consistently violating our Constitution. The Constitution is more than an agreement, it gives and maintains life itself.
2. I want a work strike to coincide with the filing of the above.
3. I want international cancellations of all sporting events scheduled for the USA. Americans feel unsafe so should all participants/visitors/vendors. The world should stand up and say, “ The Trump regime is dangerous and we will not participate for safety reasons!”
Just a few thoughts❤️☮️
This piece brought to mind a few articles I've read:
https://www.newsweek.com/define-woke-bethany-mandel-conservative-book-1788538
When it comes to the word "woke", I'm always reminded of the author who wrote a book about "anti-wokeness", then failed to define the term when asked about it on "Rising". In her telling of what happened (in the linked article), she had a panic attack building throughout the interview because she was expecting to be denigrated for having six children, and it came to fruition when asked to define "woke". Note, however, that nowhere in that article does she provide a definition of that word.
https://decivitate.jamesjheaney.com/p/whew-no-fascists-here
This was written by an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Saint Thomas, arguing that Donald Trump is a typical petty tyrant, while Kamala Harris et al are Marxist totalitarians. However, as is made especially clear by the final line of the piece, nowhere are those individuals and groups supporting Trump analysed to see if they might fit the mould of fascism, resulting in an incomplete analysis that, I think, downplays the threat of Trump while playing up the threat of Harris.
(Full disclosure: I have co-authored a piece with the main author of that blog and have been acquainted with him for years, despite our significant disagreements on many policy issues. However, the piece we wrote together was a dry policy article on taxation, arguing for a more redistributive welfare system through the elimination of income- and asset-based means testing with the resultant spending increase matched by moderately higher taxation on high incomes. This is a position also advanced by, among others, Matt Bruenig, who writes for, among other outlets, Jacobin, and to some extent the Fraser Institute here in Canada. We endeavoured to keep the piece as non-ideological as possible. You can read it here if you wish: https://decivitate.jamesjheaney.com/p/give-the-rich-more-money. However, do note that it is heavily mathematical in places.)
Thank you for this essay. My friends like to say I’m a conspiracy theorist when I try to tell them about the neoreactionary movement. They’re coming around but it’s so hard when there’s threats abound to prioritize.
"The pathologies persist partly because they’re rarely challenged directly. But they’re also fragile because they depend on avoiding concrete specifics. Democratic discourse becomes possible again when we insist on precision, evidence, and proportional responses to proportional threats."
Exactly.
And now for the difficult part - how to reintroduce and facilitate democratic discourse in a way that convinces both ordinary Americans and the intellectual class?
But there’s also social science that says the more you present these people evidence that conflicts with their views, most of them actually clutch even harder to their false narrative and alternative facts.
Sadly, you can’t reason people out of a cult of personality that they entered on vibes, rather than logic in the first place.
Just know that when you stand for truth and facts, it’s largely for the benefit of people who aren’t engaged with news or politics yet. It’s not going to break the shell of people who have decided political power for their perceived in group matters to them more than objective reality.
This very lengthy and worthy essay is really good. It's possible to break this down more simply: the constant fear-mongering of the right wing has promoted a contagion of fragility among those who are secure but isolated. People who are connected to community have a more robust psyche and can deal with the real world. Let's chide and help the snowflakes to see themselves in community.
Yes. And the extension to this is: expect people to grow up. Adult-aged people should behave like adults. That means showing basic respect and concern for others in their daily life, and contributing to local communities.
America’s crisis would not have been possible if its population had shown a basic sense of responsibility over the past decade. Childish irresponsibility from Americans created this mess, and it will take a major culture change to clean it up.
I think I know where you are coming from with this but it assigns blame simplistically.
This coup was in the making for a longtime. It is propped up by a transitional criminal network that has now infiltrated governments.
Just like 70% of Israel’s voters don’t want criminal Netanyahu in power, at least 50% here never wanted Trump. Our voting systems and laws are literally being tampered with.
Morality in behavior is one thing but we are dependent on democracy being carried out by “men of good will”. Public service is seen as weak now, as too much government.
Trump’s popularity in opinion polls remains preposterously high.
The rest of the world watches in horror as tens of millions of irresponsible Americans continue to declare that he’s still their choice.
Don’t let these people off the hook. They are adults. They should behave like adults.
By the way, the math: Americans = 340.1 million so 70 is 20% not quite the indictment blaming education. Also, unfortunately the disengaged (for whatever may be many reasons) 90 million didn’t vote. Add in the propaganda machines, dark money, Republicans thwarting gun control, progress and protection(s)….We have a host of problems.
GIFTED ARTICLE FROM NYT TODAY:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/polls/donald-trump-approval-rating-polls.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WE8.W-x7.q1Vvzyoz-cCz&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
44% is unbelievably high!
As for those propaganda machines - they prove my point because they’re not very sophisticated. Sensible adults with rudimentary critical thinking skills will find all of it plain silly. Newsmax, Fox News, Elon Musk rants etc..
The fact that this machine seems to work in the USA is evidence of a bored, child-like population that seeks simple entertainment. The deepest problem is the USA culture of unseriousness.
Hitler enticed 34% of the population. The exhilaration, the frenzy. “I’m better than another” even if, mentally , emotionally, skillfully not met. The worst is yet to be felt. Especially with little help being given to Mother Nature’s hard hit areas. People need to appreciate government as a collective experience and responsibility to SURVIVE.
GOVERNMENT IS NOT THE ENEMY.
Humanistic governing with progress and protection is how we survive. Understanding differences allows God to enter human space.❤️
I’ve been saying for years that MAGA is the narcissism of white supremacy as a political party. Your description here is a large part of the why.
I agree to a point. It’s the Christian Nationalists that complicate the bit about isolation. Church is one of the few third spaces left in rural/suburban areas. Plenty of ways to commune with your fellow congregant about the news of the day.
Insightful nuanced critique of a complicated question that dogs our era of institutional decline and possible democratic collapse. I find the deployment of words like “communism” to dismiss the positions of political rivals to be laughably empty. It’s impossible to take those who use such words seriously. They themselves know it’s BS; why should we pretend it isn’t?
On the other hand, you make a good case that we should in fact take it seriously even so, because the people deploying BS are doing so strategically, to shut down debate. Without substantive debate, democracy is impossible. I swing between believing this is being done with conscious cynicism (they know it’s BS but only want to snow us with it) or with true belief and ideological conviction. (For what it’s worth, they believe their beliefs align more closely with reality than, say, your and my delusions do).
It used to be Americans were ruthlessly pragmatic (ah, yesterday), and that ideas were only valuable and relevant to the degree they created positive consequences in the real world. Pragmatism was our great contribution to world philosophy. Not too shabby. It seems we’re deciding to give up that great advantage too, in favor of an unhinged, disconnected ideology that is rigidly if not religiously adhered to.
A brief note about Venezuela and Hugo Chavez, your reference to which caught my eye as a former foreign service officer who spent most of my final two decades as a diplomat focused on South America. Ideology has precisely zero to do with it. Socialism blocialism. It was full on state capture that motivated President Chavez, not to mention his stupefyingly incompetent successor. In that sense, the implosion of what used to be the wealthiest country in South America is the perfect object lesson for what could happen here, if the forces of democracy and accountability and course-correction are unable to check it.
Nicely done.