Your generation today holds only 4.6% of the nation’s wealth and you’re most likely struggling to own a home & are deeply in debt. What happened? In a word, Republicans…
Thom, I weep thinking about my good fortune and the squalid future almost guaranteed for my kids, grandkids, and great grandkids. We are well on the way to the Hunger Games society of the morbidly wealthy (love that term of yours) and the rest in squalor. My folks raised our family of three boys on a single income, and that one was damned modest. If my dad provided the income, my mom provided all day comfort and nurture for my brothers and me, and she didn't begin a career of her own until we went off to college. My wife and I could do all this too, and on a far better income. That's how our society was progressing, each generation better off than the preceding one. Our kids worked and we helped some, but they all finished college debt-free and then on their own completed master's degrees, still without having to borrow. But they need two incomes to raise their families, so their kids were shipped off to daycare. (I'm violating some contemporary taboo here, probably sexism, but I still think kids raised by their mothers are blessed, indeed.) Our grandkids are struggling to pay rent, working bullshit jobs, not able to save a nickle, families of their own probably out of reach, home ownership impossible. I agree with you Reagan's presidency was the inflection point, and I can't express my admiration for what you're doing: specifying the diseases and writing therapeutic presriptions, encouraging a return to sanity--and better times for all Americans. Your show and particularly the written words you're leaving behind are a huge comfort to us old duffers hoping for better future. Thanks.
This is bigger than the "Republicans", because I live in Canada, and we have no "Republicans", but have experienced the same change in lifestyle you're describing. It's the rise of a certain type of individual, an individual that just happens to thrive in your "Republican" atmosphere (or if you're a Manchin or Sinema they might even present as a Democrat) - these individuals are cogs in a world-wide secret society - call them bankers, because they're banking on taking more and more of our earnings, as long as they can get away with it. You describe them perfectly when you say they want to extract every last penny from us so that their CEO, or oligarch, can purchase a mega-yacht, or an island paradise they can escape to, like the president of Sri Lanka just did, when the people can't take it anymore. Sri Lanka may actually be a good indicator of where we're heading; poverty for the majority, and wealth for a few.
Jul 13, 2022·edited Jul 13, 2022Liked by Thom Hartmann
I am 68, a boomer, so I watched in horror the last 45 years or so as all these things happened.
Now I feel like a player of chess, watching my opponent just two moves away from saying CHECKMATE!
The first remaining move to avoid checkmate is November 8th.
If the Republicans retake the House and we lose the Senate or make no gains there, November 8th will have failed to avert checkmate.
Then, about the same time, deliberations will have already begun at the Supreme Court, in the Moore v Harper case, and reporters will be attending, and giving a sense of the mood of the right-wing court. If these reports hint that the court is leaning toward deciding the "independent state legislature doctrine" is valid, then the last move before checkmate will be visible, although the final move of the chess game won't happen until June, 2023, when the decision will be formally announced.
-This 245-year chess game will then be over, and democracy will have lost to dictatorship.
But the approximately 250 million Americans who despise dictatorship will not let the end of the game be the end of the world as they have known it.
So planning for disunion of the United States will begin, because huge majorities of Americans will support it, after these last two catastrophes happen, if they do both happen.
The left-right blue-red split between Americans has aligned well with geography, as we all know. This has been our curse, because the Senate and the Electoral College amplify geographical division, and thus left-right blue-red division.
But when dictatorship looms, it will be time to capitalize on the geographic division, rather than fight it, as we have done for many decades. The reason disunion will be widely popular and very practical is that all the geographic numbers show how sensible it is. The US Senate compositions are the first such numbers:
If the 19 reddest states, all contiguous, plus Alaska, are allowed to form their own nation of about 85 million people, which they already want to do, their new 40-seat Senate will be 38 Republicans and 2 Democrats! The remaining 60-seat Senate of the remaining 30 US states of about 245 million people will be 12 Republicans and 48 Democrats!
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Also, the partisan composition of our governorships, state legislatures, the House of Representatives, and the Electoral College trends from all our recent Presidential elections, all clearly show how sensible disunion will be if the only alternative is a 50-state right-wing minority-ruled dictatorship.
I have been looking at these numbers since June 28th, when I started a new blog dedicated to discussing disunion of the US. I have been summarizing the numbers in posts almost every day. If you don't want to think about this yet, because there are still two moves left before the chess game is over, just bookmark my blog so you can start reading it if the game is over in 2023. If you want to think about disunion now, even though we can still avoid it, I recommend you do so, because preparation for a horrible 2023 and beyond makes sense, even though we are still fighting in 2022 to avoid it: New Harmony -Planning a peaceful split of America, now that our worst nightmares have come true ( newharmony.ohioprogressivelife.com ) .
Thom, as Maverick notes, the challenge is a systemic, global phenom - not just an American challenge. Accordingly, a systemic, global response is demanded. I believe - for the reasons you note - that a new global civic movement is required to provide new guardrails for humanity, and that the logical generation to facilitate that movement are BoomXer's. We have the connections, experience, money - and time. As I say, 'we broke it, we need to fix it'. It's simply absurd to leave it to our children to address alone.
I love this article and I agree with all of it except blaming boomers. The oligarchs are clearly to blame for all of it. Generational blaming is part of their strategy to keep us divided. Unity of the 98% (all generations) is the only thing that will get us out of their mess! There are 2 classes imho, the oligarchs and us.
$50 Trillion (with a T) was redirected to the richest 10%, not 1%. That is still outrageous, and income inequality also exists for the rich, so an outsized portion of that 50 trillion did go to the top 1%.
The real problem isn't the NaziRepublican Party, though they are the grifters, and it's not the Democratic Party, though they aided the grift, for millions of dollars in bribes. Nope, the problem isn't political parties, it's AMERICANS.
Look at voters. Roughly 20% want democracy, and can name all three branches of government.
Roughly 20% want autocracy, some say because they don't know much, but I think the reality is they know they screwed up and are hiding under the bed while dad and mom beat the dog.
However, the largest voting block is the 60% who don't vote. Yes, I know the Democratic Party spends most of their advertising budget hiring friends and relatives, and I know they really don't WANT the truth getting out, because a landslide destroys the bribery machines, but I've never needed them to know what's going on, in fact I don't trust them at all, except the Progressive Caucus.
We need Americans to VOTE. I disagree somewhat with Thom, or really my point of view is different, it's longer. I have marched in protest marches since 1968. At first, I was marching with a bunch of old people and my generation, the generation that turned 18 around 1970. We literally changed the world for the better.
Then we had two generations who didn't vote. Among my own relatives, the only ones who vote are under 25 or over 65.
Thank you so much for you thoughtful response. I appreciate it! I do believe Thom’s generalizations about the right (their fascism, their blood guilt for the mass shootings, their policies being not just wrong but evil, and their abject deceit regarding winning elections) goes way beyond critique of an ideology. Certainly he’s free to make such aspersions but such generalizations can be sophomoric and therefore terribly unpersuasive.
I believe there’s something also terribly wrong with non-stop condemnation of one’s opposition. It works to amass a following but fails to reconcile anything. In fact it is the reason so many on each side really do hate each other. I am convinced that if both sides refrained from all the condemnation (whether it’s Trump, Biden, Hannity or Thom) the country would maybe right the ship. I know it’s idealistic but living deep into those ideals of reconciliation is really our only hope. I’d love to see Thom be a catalyst with this but I’m afraid he might be too invested in eviscerating his opposition.
Hey Thom. For years, I’ve listened to your radio show and read your articles. No doubt, you’ve provided us a thorough yet extremely narrow education. Your ideological possession is pronounced and your never-ending criticism of the right seems limitless.
You’ve successfully created an echo chamber of fault-finding, denunciation and condemnation of your opposition. Whether it’s your ubiquitous criticism of Reagan to your latest obsession with Ron DeSantis, you never fail to find a new way to disparage Americans that disagree with you . And just as remarkable, you always seem to communicate just how morally justified you are with all your condemnation. I hope, however, you don’t misunderstand me. The right deserves a ton of criticism but your Manichean approach simply will never be heard by your opponents.
You’re as persuasive as anyone that’s bent on condemning their opposition. And it’s amazing how you sustain such critical efforts and don’t see the destructive consequences of your rhetorical moral binaries. Of course, no matter how I write this, it’ll be discounted. I maybe the only way to prove my point is to ask you to consider a simple challenge. For one entire year, could you curtail your condemnation of the right and spend as much as 85% more time educating your audience with the many constructive possibilities of a country that exclusively abides by your social, political and moral ideals? How about a month? How about a week?
Given your habitual inclinations over the decades, I’m afraid this kind of shift could never happen. Then again, why would you consider such a challenge? I’m guessing you’ve found existential meaning in being a constant and condemning critic. And of course your rhetoric certainly fortifies your followers with all kinds of destructive weapons.
I’m sure you’ve been reminded many times that it’s so much easier to tear apart then it is to build and create. Obviously you have the freedom to continue to try and condemn and destroy your opposition. But in the wake of the destruction, what will be created? A one-party system that demands ideological uniformity? Sounds like hell to me.
Wise assessment, but from what I experienced, Boomers were a very divided generation. We hippies got all the press, but the vast majority only dressed the part. Even those of us in various movements were just like the rest of America---working our ass off. No generation is a monolith.
Who hasn't created their filter, and who has kicked theirs to the curb? Who is itchin' for a fight, and who knows how to fight? The young and the old. Allies.....that definitely tracks.
Every. Single. Word. Right on point. Thanks.
Thom, I weep thinking about my good fortune and the squalid future almost guaranteed for my kids, grandkids, and great grandkids. We are well on the way to the Hunger Games society of the morbidly wealthy (love that term of yours) and the rest in squalor. My folks raised our family of three boys on a single income, and that one was damned modest. If my dad provided the income, my mom provided all day comfort and nurture for my brothers and me, and she didn't begin a career of her own until we went off to college. My wife and I could do all this too, and on a far better income. That's how our society was progressing, each generation better off than the preceding one. Our kids worked and we helped some, but they all finished college debt-free and then on their own completed master's degrees, still without having to borrow. But they need two incomes to raise their families, so their kids were shipped off to daycare. (I'm violating some contemporary taboo here, probably sexism, but I still think kids raised by their mothers are blessed, indeed.) Our grandkids are struggling to pay rent, working bullshit jobs, not able to save a nickle, families of their own probably out of reach, home ownership impossible. I agree with you Reagan's presidency was the inflection point, and I can't express my admiration for what you're doing: specifying the diseases and writing therapeutic presriptions, encouraging a return to sanity--and better times for all Americans. Your show and particularly the written words you're leaving behind are a huge comfort to us old duffers hoping for better future. Thanks.
This is bigger than the "Republicans", because I live in Canada, and we have no "Republicans", but have experienced the same change in lifestyle you're describing. It's the rise of a certain type of individual, an individual that just happens to thrive in your "Republican" atmosphere (or if you're a Manchin or Sinema they might even present as a Democrat) - these individuals are cogs in a world-wide secret society - call them bankers, because they're banking on taking more and more of our earnings, as long as they can get away with it. You describe them perfectly when you say they want to extract every last penny from us so that their CEO, or oligarch, can purchase a mega-yacht, or an island paradise they can escape to, like the president of Sri Lanka just did, when the people can't take it anymore. Sri Lanka may actually be a good indicator of where we're heading; poverty for the majority, and wealth for a few.
I am 68, a boomer, so I watched in horror the last 45 years or so as all these things happened.
Now I feel like a player of chess, watching my opponent just two moves away from saying CHECKMATE!
The first remaining move to avoid checkmate is November 8th.
If the Republicans retake the House and we lose the Senate or make no gains there, November 8th will have failed to avert checkmate.
Then, about the same time, deliberations will have already begun at the Supreme Court, in the Moore v Harper case, and reporters will be attending, and giving a sense of the mood of the right-wing court. If these reports hint that the court is leaning toward deciding the "independent state legislature doctrine" is valid, then the last move before checkmate will be visible, although the final move of the chess game won't happen until June, 2023, when the decision will be formally announced.
-This 245-year chess game will then be over, and democracy will have lost to dictatorship.
But the approximately 250 million Americans who despise dictatorship will not let the end of the game be the end of the world as they have known it.
So planning for disunion of the United States will begin, because huge majorities of Americans will support it, after these last two catastrophes happen, if they do both happen.
The left-right blue-red split between Americans has aligned well with geography, as we all know. This has been our curse, because the Senate and the Electoral College amplify geographical division, and thus left-right blue-red division.
But when dictatorship looms, it will be time to capitalize on the geographic division, rather than fight it, as we have done for many decades. The reason disunion will be widely popular and very practical is that all the geographic numbers show how sensible it is. The US Senate compositions are the first such numbers:
If the 19 reddest states, all contiguous, plus Alaska, are allowed to form their own nation of about 85 million people, which they already want to do, their new 40-seat Senate will be 38 Republicans and 2 Democrats! The remaining 60-seat Senate of the remaining 30 US states of about 245 million people will be 12 Republicans and 48 Democrats!
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Also, the partisan composition of our governorships, state legislatures, the House of Representatives, and the Electoral College trends from all our recent Presidential elections, all clearly show how sensible disunion will be if the only alternative is a 50-state right-wing minority-ruled dictatorship.
I have been looking at these numbers since June 28th, when I started a new blog dedicated to discussing disunion of the US. I have been summarizing the numbers in posts almost every day. If you don't want to think about this yet, because there are still two moves left before the chess game is over, just bookmark my blog so you can start reading it if the game is over in 2023. If you want to think about disunion now, even though we can still avoid it, I recommend you do so, because preparation for a horrible 2023 and beyond makes sense, even though we are still fighting in 2022 to avoid it: New Harmony -Planning a peaceful split of America, now that our worst nightmares have come true ( newharmony.ohioprogressivelife.com ) .
My generation (X) is to blame as well. While I’ve never voted for a Republican (after one episode of Limbaugh, I knew they were horrible)
But, I put my head in the sand thinking all would be fine.
Now it’s so out of whack it’s gonna take A LOT of hard work to fix this. We can, if we’re determined.
Also, we have the Z’s and they’re fired up too-at least my kids and their friends are.
Thom, as Maverick notes, the challenge is a systemic, global phenom - not just an American challenge. Accordingly, a systemic, global response is demanded. I believe - for the reasons you note - that a new global civic movement is required to provide new guardrails for humanity, and that the logical generation to facilitate that movement are BoomXer's. We have the connections, experience, money - and time. As I say, 'we broke it, we need to fix it'. It's simply absurd to leave it to our children to address alone.
https://www.boombigideas.com/p/do-you-think-the-world-needs-a-plan
I love this article and I agree with all of it except blaming boomers. The oligarchs are clearly to blame for all of it. Generational blaming is part of their strategy to keep us divided. Unity of the 98% (all generations) is the only thing that will get us out of their mess! There are 2 classes imho, the oligarchs and us.
$50 Trillion (with a T) was redirected to the richest 10%, not 1%. That is still outrageous, and income inequality also exists for the rich, so an outsized portion of that 50 trillion did go to the top 1%.
The real problem isn't the NaziRepublican Party, though they are the grifters, and it's not the Democratic Party, though they aided the grift, for millions of dollars in bribes. Nope, the problem isn't political parties, it's AMERICANS.
Look at voters. Roughly 20% want democracy, and can name all three branches of government.
Roughly 20% want autocracy, some say because they don't know much, but I think the reality is they know they screwed up and are hiding under the bed while dad and mom beat the dog.
However, the largest voting block is the 60% who don't vote. Yes, I know the Democratic Party spends most of their advertising budget hiring friends and relatives, and I know they really don't WANT the truth getting out, because a landslide destroys the bribery machines, but I've never needed them to know what's going on, in fact I don't trust them at all, except the Progressive Caucus.
We need Americans to VOTE. I disagree somewhat with Thom, or really my point of view is different, it's longer. I have marched in protest marches since 1968. At first, I was marching with a bunch of old people and my generation, the generation that turned 18 around 1970. We literally changed the world for the better.
Then we had two generations who didn't vote. Among my own relatives, the only ones who vote are under 25 or over 65.
WAKE UP AND VOTE, and we will save the world.
Thank you so much for you thoughtful response. I appreciate it! I do believe Thom’s generalizations about the right (their fascism, their blood guilt for the mass shootings, their policies being not just wrong but evil, and their abject deceit regarding winning elections) goes way beyond critique of an ideology. Certainly he’s free to make such aspersions but such generalizations can be sophomoric and therefore terribly unpersuasive.
I believe there’s something also terribly wrong with non-stop condemnation of one’s opposition. It works to amass a following but fails to reconcile anything. In fact it is the reason so many on each side really do hate each other. I am convinced that if both sides refrained from all the condemnation (whether it’s Trump, Biden, Hannity or Thom) the country would maybe right the ship. I know it’s idealistic but living deep into those ideals of reconciliation is really our only hope. I’d love to see Thom be a catalyst with this but I’m afraid he might be too invested in eviscerating his opposition.
Thanks again for your thought!
Hey Thom. For years, I’ve listened to your radio show and read your articles. No doubt, you’ve provided us a thorough yet extremely narrow education. Your ideological possession is pronounced and your never-ending criticism of the right seems limitless.
You’ve successfully created an echo chamber of fault-finding, denunciation and condemnation of your opposition. Whether it’s your ubiquitous criticism of Reagan to your latest obsession with Ron DeSantis, you never fail to find a new way to disparage Americans that disagree with you . And just as remarkable, you always seem to communicate just how morally justified you are with all your condemnation. I hope, however, you don’t misunderstand me. The right deserves a ton of criticism but your Manichean approach simply will never be heard by your opponents.
You’re as persuasive as anyone that’s bent on condemning their opposition. And it’s amazing how you sustain such critical efforts and don’t see the destructive consequences of your rhetorical moral binaries. Of course, no matter how I write this, it’ll be discounted. I maybe the only way to prove my point is to ask you to consider a simple challenge. For one entire year, could you curtail your condemnation of the right and spend as much as 85% more time educating your audience with the many constructive possibilities of a country that exclusively abides by your social, political and moral ideals? How about a month? How about a week?
Given your habitual inclinations over the decades, I’m afraid this kind of shift could never happen. Then again, why would you consider such a challenge? I’m guessing you’ve found existential meaning in being a constant and condemning critic. And of course your rhetoric certainly fortifies your followers with all kinds of destructive weapons.
I’m sure you’ve been reminded many times that it’s so much easier to tear apart then it is to build and create. Obviously you have the freedom to continue to try and condemn and destroy your opposition. But in the wake of the destruction, what will be created? A one-party system that demands ideological uniformity? Sounds like hell to me.
that is good article, what about to just send your boomers money to the other generations?
Wise assessment, but from what I experienced, Boomers were a very divided generation. We hippies got all the press, but the vast majority only dressed the part. Even those of us in various movements were just like the rest of America---working our ass off. No generation is a monolith.
Who hasn't created their filter, and who has kicked theirs to the curb? Who is itchin' for a fight, and who knows how to fight? The young and the old. Allies.....that definitely tracks.