This is the perfect summation of where we are. The "trickle down" has never worked, quite the opposite. I do fault Reagan, and have vowed never to vote for an actor again.
Simply put, Republicans unleashed the greed and they are still trying to feed that "wolf".
My friends just had this conversation at the Labor Day picnic. I learned from 11 years of Occupy and other demonstrations that when the right-wingers stop by to argue, DON'T engage. Stick to "how's your day going".
We are indeed over it and moving into the future WITHOUT them and their bullshit. We won some of the culture wars so far, but we need to get folks in office that pass the laws to protect people.
The economic protections are going to be much harder. So many views and so little time, especially with the climate crisis. This is where we should be flexible, and remember some not so perfect progress is better than none.
People that don't get the difference between the Republicans and Democrats in 2024, don't WANT TO. Whether they mean to or not, they are enabling the greedy bastards and those destroying our planet.
Screwing up our economy was bad enough, but is just an aspect.....
Behind the scenes, it was the culture. Reagan started his campaign kissing the asses of white supremacist neo Confederates, in Philadelphia Mississippi, where civil rights workers had been murdered... Among his key advisors were Pat Buchannan and James Watt, who openly wanted to remove people like me from government service...based on my genealogy.
The Trump Arlington controversy reminds me of Reagan's 1985 visit to the German war cemetery in Bitburg, Deutschland, that housed the graves of 49 Nazi storm troopers, members of the Waffen-SS. The Nuremberg judicial tribunal, set up to try Nazi war criminals, found the military wing of the SS, all of whom were volunteers until 1943, to be active participants in the Holocaust.
During a ceremony in the White House East Room marking Jewish Heritage Week, Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, had pleaded with Reagan to drop Bitburg from his schedule. “I ... implore you,” Wiesel said, “to do something else, to find another way, another site. That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Your place is with the victims of the SS.”
In separate letters to Reagan, most senators and congressmen called on Reagan to forgo the visit. Political leaders in Britain, Belgium, Holland and even West Germany criticized the Bitburg decision.
Reagan subsequently wrote: “I have never regretted not canceling the trip to Bitburg. In the end, I believe my visit to the cemetery … helped strengthen our European alliance and heal once and for all many of the lingering wounds of war.”
The Holocaust was much more than a wound of war, although the war wounds were horrific. Reagan and Trump share a lack of genuine empathy, but Reagan was a better actor.
Reagan the actor and a Class B one at that. I read that he would sit behind the Resolute Desk, lifeless, palid, jowls dropped, slumped , but when handed a script he straightened up, blood rushed to his sallow face, his skin tightened and he came alive.
We talk of his administration as if it was him that was in charge, nay it was James Baker, Lee Atwater, Edwin Meese and his circle of puppet masters (advisors)
Reagan definitely was the "acting" President. He looked Presidential and that was all. Unfortunately I remember him as California Governor who told the University of CA to sell off the books in the libraries if they needed money as he cut their budget; told people that Trees caused smog so they wouldn't be upset he was clear cutting our Redwood Forests; and told students they would get one million dollars more for every degree they achieved. Well I have 2 bachelor's and a Master's degree so where's my 3 million dollars?
Why do you think the GOP runs TV celebrity Trump.? He is a convincing bullshitter like Reagan and, the middle class still largely thinks that if you're rich you must be really smart and will have no conflicts of interest - yuk-yuk.
There is that Tom, but the big draw why middle America ignores Trump the felon, Trump the rapist, Trump the grifter, Trump the traitor is because he is their avatar. When they look at him, they see themselves, the white Christian patriarch s"oppressed" by all of them white liberals, coloreds. queers who demandequal rights and protections, and especially those "wimmin" who demand equal space and consideration and won't submit.
Damn them for not voting as the authors of the 19th Amendment intended, to vote with their husbands, as their husbands tell them.
actually Normalcy, I don't think Nancy had anything to do with him and his decisions, he didn't make any decisions. He was a G grade actor who was a willing puppet. His last and greatest role was as POTUS.
Read Masha Gessen's book and other things about him. Stone. Cold. Killer. Add war criminal.
Psychopath that wanted to be a spymaster since he was twelve. Now he has ALL the spies.
Trump is a psychopath too, but not nearly as smart or world-savvy. But Putin makes me wonder if we have scratched the surface of what Trump has had done over the years.
Reagan was not the MFWIC, he was the puppet, he was controlled. Had no thoughts of his own, simply read the script, like the B grade actor he was.His finest role was POTUS, and should have gotten at lest an Emmy,maybe an Oscar.
This should be required reading in every high school. Of course, it would get any teacher using it in any red state fired, some probably killed. It makes me weep to have close family members who buy into the scam of the “Republican” (now truly neo-fascist) party and hate all Democrats. While I avoid talking politics with them, as I am told I am uninformed and stupid (summa cum laude grad in history at UCLA, Harvard Law School J.D., enormously successful professional career), I am making no bones about the fact that I support Harris-Walz and the Democratic agenda. If that alienates some of them, so be it. I will be dead soon enough, being 76, in poor health, and detached from normal life. I mourn that I had to live through the destruction of our country Thom so trenchantly and concisely and eloquently catalogues. At this stage all I can do is provide for our only grandchild as best I can, knowing he will grow up in a plutocratic dystopia if he isn’t gunned down first. And do all I can to help bring about a blue November, so that others in his generation may have some hope for the future. Make that A future.
Thanks again, Thom, for reinforcing my conclusion at the end of my life that overall, our species is a plague. Our greed, selfishness, bigotry, short-sightedness, lack of compassion have all combined to bring us to the brink of destroying ourselves and our planet. In my irrationality, I will fight to the end for the people I love and the planet I cherish. But will find the grave an enormous relief, freeing me from the burdens and disappointments of a life lived as well as I have been able to live it, but where my only real rewards and moments of happiness have come from helping other people with no expectation of any return but my pleasure in seeing the small differences I have made. I plead with all of you more able than I am to fight until the end. The forces of darkness should not win, and if they do they should pay as great a price as possible.
I feel the same way Roy, and I think we are in the same age bracket, but I want to keep fighting until I no longer can., then and only then will I pull the plug.
When the middle class prospers the upper class has always prospered. When the 'average' American can buy things the producers benefit. Now, when the producers are corporations that close factories in the US so that they can rely on production in a country where workers are paid less & have no benefits these corporations, stock holders & corporate bosses make money hand over fist. Do they let some of that trickle down to those of us at the bottom? Well you tell me.
Although orders of magnitude less awful than Reagan, Bill Clinton deserves plenty of blame. His neoliberal policies bear much responsibility for the unacceptable economic inequality we're still living with. 1993 ushered in the era of "the lesser evil," which came to an abrupt close in 2001.
I agree totally with your assessment. The only major part left out is the past and current fascist movements in this country that have vilified immigrants, caused innumerable deaths (refusing Jewish refugees during WW II) and separations of babies from their mothers at our border AND total ignorance of our role, good and bad, internationally, thus half the country wanting to turn our back on Ukraine and NATO. So much ignorance, especially of history and civics, so damn frustrating. Ugh.
What we are witnessing and what this article exposes is a shift away from a concern for the general welfare and a pronounced emphasis on "it's all about me". Trump is just a manifestation of this collective mindset and a warning of what is consuming us. The biggest fault of this focus on the individual versus the collective is the lack of understanding of how we are all inter-connected and inner-dependent upon each other. This is a natural law and not some progressive BS. Until we turn around and accept this basic premise and shift our attitudes, we are going to continue to suffer from the Grifters who have figured this out about out country and seek to exploit it. We all must align our mindset towards the Common Welfare and stop letting the Grifters label it as some communist or socialist takeover. It's about the attitude and approach, not the physical, social, cultural, religious, or political formations. Each day offers the opportunity to touch your neighbor with love and righteous concern for their welfare without destroying the fabric of the country.
What boggles the mind is that 35-45% of our population still believes that they need to vote Republican. They still believe the lies these crooks tell them.
Years ago I started to realize that our electorate was getting dumbed down. The gutting of education programs started the down turn. The introduction of completely inane TV shows culminating in "reality TV" that pits people against each other. It puts them in embarrassing situations so that they can demean each other. Does no one ask, "How is this reality? There are camera people, producers, directors all over the place, unseen by the viewer of course but selecting the "best" shot to create the best content to increase viewers." It's all about the money & how to berate, belittle & demean people. I realize that I am insulting many people by pointing this out but isn't it time to "get real" about what this type of material does to the American psyche?
Once the people have been inundated with this so much so that their minds just shut off, it seems it's easier to pump lies into the collective that is easily manipulated.
The necessity of working multiple jobs to make ends meet leaves little time for critical thinking & that leads to being all the more willing to believe lies about just about everything. The made up history about Jan 6 is a great example. The mob that attacked the Capital & gravely injured police are now heroes that are being persecuted & deserve our praise for fighting that day. The lies that Democrats support abortion after birth! Really, people believe that!? The lies that the Democrats are interfering with the election because they prosecuted trump for all those felonies in New York.
Republicans have now become the party of trump & people need to wake up before all of a sudden they find themselves being ruled by an authoritarian who wants to deport immigrants, or hold them in camps, who wants to control all media, who wants to imprison their political opponents. I watched a Netflix series this weekend called "Hitler's Circle of Evil". It's 10 episodes & well worth the time to see how Hitler & his sycophants destroyed their country.
Be careful what you wish for Magats! At the end if you should change your mind about what is being done, you too, can wind up in one of those camps you're so excited about!
Normalcy it is not that 35% of the population believes the lies, itis that 35-48% of the population knows they are lies and don't care.
Trump is only an avatar of whom they are. They have been festering for half a century, pissed at liberals because they can''t use the N word, can't call out and discriminate against queers, believe that they lost the power of male domination and the they (Christianity) is under seige by all the above, and godless liberals..
The see Trump as their lord and savior, and could care less that he is convicted felon, that he steals from them the government and the movement, that he betrays the nation to our , enemies, that he is a rapist, sexual pervert and a pedophile.
He has liberated them from the chains of political correctness and gave them license to be NAZI's,KKK,traitors.
We now have Reagan Republicans flocking in droves into the Democratic party.
We need them to defeat Trump, but this is akin to letting the camel get his nose under the tent.
I found out that not everyone understands that aphormism. The Arabs know that if you let a camel get his nose under the tent, he is soon inside and takes over the entire tent.
I receive daily email from the Bulwark and Lincoln Project, while I appreciate them as allies, I am also
painfully aware that they are Reagan Republicans,and since the no longer have a home in the GOP, they will stay and transform the Democratic party, into a Reaganite Democratic party, and in some ways it won't take much effort, for the need for donor cash, has already taken the Democratic Party, quite a ways down that path.
A minor example: Biden appointed a lobbyist for big AG as Secretary of Agriculture (Tom Vilsack)
And like his predecessors, our Secretary of the Treasury was a member of the Federal Reserve Board, or an executive for Goldman Sachs, or both.
Just like Obama appointed the VP of Monsanto as head of the FDA. That really frosted me. We truly need to get Dark Money out of Politics. Perhaps with a Woman in Charge, we can clean House. I also am concerned about the Reagan Republicans uniting with the Corporate Dems and creating a new Conservative Party. Hopefully that could mean a real Progressive Party will emerge.
Before Obama could get seated behind the Resolution desk, Larry Summers was pulling his strings, arranging for appointment of his chief of staff, and important cabinet positions.
I like Obama, so I assume good faith, he was a naif in the beltway jungle, prey to the predators.
He had no real experience, just a short term in which he really wasn't active, as a senator.
The beltway is a clique, where Democrats and Republicans WERE, friendly rivals, that would attend each others parties, join mixed foursomes on the golf course,broker deals that were always amenable to the Republicans sponsors, who incidentally also sponsored Democrats (opensecrets.org).
If you and I suddenly found ourselves in the Oval Office, we wouldn't know where to start, much less choose Cabinet officials and advisors.
Obama was in that situation ,so was Trump, he isn't anymore and Harris certainly isn't.
If Trump steals the election, he won't be making any decisions, except what to eat, drink and steal. He will just sign executive orders, laid in front of him., as he did in the first go round, this time he will have the staff he needs to deconstruct democracy.
This outlines the epidemic of selfishness that has plagued America and given fresh rejuvenation to the forces that mired America in the Gilded Age. A generation that saw the middle class dream crystallize after generations of labor activists pressing for a fairer America pulled the ladder up as they no longer felt the stakes of an industrial aristocracy polluting their environment and exploiting workers. Excellent piece, as always.
This article is a masterpiece .. a list of items that our democracy should be working on changing .. one by one .. or all at a time .. thank you
⬆️ What he said!
This is the perfect summation of where we are. The "trickle down" has never worked, quite the opposite. I do fault Reagan, and have vowed never to vote for an actor again.
Simply put, Republicans unleashed the greed and they are still trying to feed that "wolf".
My friends just had this conversation at the Labor Day picnic. I learned from 11 years of Occupy and other demonstrations that when the right-wingers stop by to argue, DON'T engage. Stick to "how's your day going".
We are indeed over it and moving into the future WITHOUT them and their bullshit. We won some of the culture wars so far, but we need to get folks in office that pass the laws to protect people.
The economic protections are going to be much harder. So many views and so little time, especially with the climate crisis. This is where we should be flexible, and remember some not so perfect progress is better than none.
People that don't get the difference between the Republicans and Democrats in 2024, don't WANT TO. Whether they mean to or not, they are enabling the greedy bastards and those destroying our planet.
We are not going back.
I have my doubts that Nancy Reagan influence the decisions that came out of the Oval Office,
I don't think Reagan made any decisions, as he wasn't capable. He just signed papers and read from script.
Screwing up our economy was bad enough, but is just an aspect.....
Behind the scenes, it was the culture. Reagan started his campaign kissing the asses of white supremacist neo Confederates, in Philadelphia Mississippi, where civil rights workers had been murdered... Among his key advisors were Pat Buchannan and James Watt, who openly wanted to remove people like me from government service...based on my genealogy.
The Trump Arlington controversy reminds me of Reagan's 1985 visit to the German war cemetery in Bitburg, Deutschland, that housed the graves of 49 Nazi storm troopers, members of the Waffen-SS. The Nuremberg judicial tribunal, set up to try Nazi war criminals, found the military wing of the SS, all of whom were volunteers until 1943, to be active participants in the Holocaust.
During a ceremony in the White House East Room marking Jewish Heritage Week, Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, had pleaded with Reagan to drop Bitburg from his schedule. “I ... implore you,” Wiesel said, “to do something else, to find another way, another site. That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Your place is with the victims of the SS.”
In separate letters to Reagan, most senators and congressmen called on Reagan to forgo the visit. Political leaders in Britain, Belgium, Holland and even West Germany criticized the Bitburg decision.
Reagan subsequently wrote: “I have never regretted not canceling the trip to Bitburg. In the end, I believe my visit to the cemetery … helped strengthen our European alliance and heal once and for all many of the lingering wounds of war.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/05/this-day-in-politics-may-5-1985-565776
The Holocaust was much more than a wound of war, although the war wounds were horrific. Reagan and Trump share a lack of genuine empathy, but Reagan was a better actor.
Reagan the actor and a Class B one at that. I read that he would sit behind the Resolute Desk, lifeless, palid, jowls dropped, slumped , but when handed a script he straightened up, blood rushed to his sallow face, his skin tightened and he came alive.
We talk of his administration as if it was him that was in charge, nay it was James Baker, Lee Atwater, Edwin Meese and his circle of puppet masters (advisors)
Reagan definitely was the "acting" President. He looked Presidential and that was all. Unfortunately I remember him as California Governor who told the University of CA to sell off the books in the libraries if they needed money as he cut their budget; told people that Trees caused smog so they wouldn't be upset he was clear cutting our Redwood Forests; and told students they would get one million dollars more for every degree they achieved. Well I have 2 bachelor's and a Master's degree so where's my 3 million dollars?
And it is the peoples fault, because they chose to believe the bullshit.
I do not pity people who have been scammed, because they were willing participants.
People who fall for the Nigerian prince scam, deserve to lose their life's earnings. The scammers play on greed.
Why do you think the GOP runs TV celebrity Trump.? He is a convincing bullshitter like Reagan and, the middle class still largely thinks that if you're rich you must be really smart and will have no conflicts of interest - yuk-yuk.
There is that Tom, but the big draw why middle America ignores Trump the felon, Trump the rapist, Trump the grifter, Trump the traitor is because he is their avatar. When they look at him, they see themselves, the white Christian patriarch s"oppressed" by all of them white liberals, coloreds. queers who demandequal rights and protections, and especially those "wimmin" who demand equal space and consideration and won't submit.
Damn them for not voting as the authors of the 19th Amendment intended, to vote with their husbands, as their husbands tell them.
Too bad they don’t see Trump as the AntiChrist that he actually is, come to destroy their religion.
So it was with the Bush and Trump administrations.
& dj-t is...
the better clown...
Thanks Daniel for the additional history. Knew the story, but didn't know what Elie said.
Reagan! How damn delusional and indecent can one person be? And then there's Trump, so sorry I even asked.
Well, don't forget that Nancy consulted with her astrologist quite often & she had influence over her husband.
So delusion seemed to run in the family!
actually Normalcy, I don't think Nancy had anything to do with him and his decisions, he didn't make any decisions. He was a G grade actor who was a willing puppet. His last and greatest role was as POTUS.
And then there’s Putin.
Read Masha Gessen's book and other things about him. Stone. Cold. Killer. Add war criminal.
Psychopath that wanted to be a spymaster since he was twelve. Now he has ALL the spies.
Trump is a psychopath too, but not nearly as smart or world-savvy. But Putin makes me wonder if we have scratched the surface of what Trump has had done over the years.
Reagan was not the MFWIC, he was the puppet, he was controlled. Had no thoughts of his own, simply read the script, like the B grade actor he was.His finest role was POTUS, and should have gotten at lest an Emmy,maybe an Oscar.
This should be required reading in every high school. Of course, it would get any teacher using it in any red state fired, some probably killed. It makes me weep to have close family members who buy into the scam of the “Republican” (now truly neo-fascist) party and hate all Democrats. While I avoid talking politics with them, as I am told I am uninformed and stupid (summa cum laude grad in history at UCLA, Harvard Law School J.D., enormously successful professional career), I am making no bones about the fact that I support Harris-Walz and the Democratic agenda. If that alienates some of them, so be it. I will be dead soon enough, being 76, in poor health, and detached from normal life. I mourn that I had to live through the destruction of our country Thom so trenchantly and concisely and eloquently catalogues. At this stage all I can do is provide for our only grandchild as best I can, knowing he will grow up in a plutocratic dystopia if he isn’t gunned down first. And do all I can to help bring about a blue November, so that others in his generation may have some hope for the future. Make that A future.
Thanks again, Thom, for reinforcing my conclusion at the end of my life that overall, our species is a plague. Our greed, selfishness, bigotry, short-sightedness, lack of compassion have all combined to bring us to the brink of destroying ourselves and our planet. In my irrationality, I will fight to the end for the people I love and the planet I cherish. But will find the grave an enormous relief, freeing me from the burdens and disappointments of a life lived as well as I have been able to live it, but where my only real rewards and moments of happiness have come from helping other people with no expectation of any return but my pleasure in seeing the small differences I have made. I plead with all of you more able than I am to fight until the end. The forces of darkness should not win, and if they do they should pay as great a price as possible.
I feel the same way Roy, and I think we are in the same age bracket, but I want to keep fighting until I no longer can., then and only then will I pull the plug.
Great recap of GOP madness. Thank you, Mr. Hartmann.
But . . . there's always, but ALWAYS a "but," the GOP does not, that's N-O-T, intend to win the election.
They intend to S-T-E-A-L ALL of the elections, right down to dog-catcher.
There's the rub.
We need trickle up economics where the support goes to the bottom and some eventually works its way to the top.
When the middle class prospers the upper class has always prospered. When the 'average' American can buy things the producers benefit. Now, when the producers are corporations that close factories in the US so that they can rely on production in a country where workers are paid less & have no benefits these corporations, stock holders & corporate bosses make money hand over fist. Do they let some of that trickle down to those of us at the bottom? Well you tell me.
Although orders of magnitude less awful than Reagan, Bill Clinton deserves plenty of blame. His neoliberal policies bear much responsibility for the unacceptable economic inequality we're still living with. 1993 ushered in the era of "the lesser evil," which came to an abrupt close in 2001.
I agree totally with your assessment. The only major part left out is the past and current fascist movements in this country that have vilified immigrants, caused innumerable deaths (refusing Jewish refugees during WW II) and separations of babies from their mothers at our border AND total ignorance of our role, good and bad, internationally, thus half the country wanting to turn our back on Ukraine and NATO. So much ignorance, especially of history and civics, so damn frustrating. Ugh.
I'm sharing this, even if they bar me from Facebook. I restacked it. I would love to hear a great orator present this as a speech.
What we are witnessing and what this article exposes is a shift away from a concern for the general welfare and a pronounced emphasis on "it's all about me". Trump is just a manifestation of this collective mindset and a warning of what is consuming us. The biggest fault of this focus on the individual versus the collective is the lack of understanding of how we are all inter-connected and inner-dependent upon each other. This is a natural law and not some progressive BS. Until we turn around and accept this basic premise and shift our attitudes, we are going to continue to suffer from the Grifters who have figured this out about out country and seek to exploit it. We all must align our mindset towards the Common Welfare and stop letting the Grifters label it as some communist or socialist takeover. It's about the attitude and approach, not the physical, social, cultural, religious, or political formations. Each day offers the opportunity to touch your neighbor with love and righteous concern for their welfare without destroying the fabric of the country.
This is the mother of all Hartmann rants, and a kind of Declaration of Independence from Republican Neoliberalism, racism, and faith-based fascism.
What boggles the mind is that 35-45% of our population still believes that they need to vote Republican. They still believe the lies these crooks tell them.
Years ago I started to realize that our electorate was getting dumbed down. The gutting of education programs started the down turn. The introduction of completely inane TV shows culminating in "reality TV" that pits people against each other. It puts them in embarrassing situations so that they can demean each other. Does no one ask, "How is this reality? There are camera people, producers, directors all over the place, unseen by the viewer of course but selecting the "best" shot to create the best content to increase viewers." It's all about the money & how to berate, belittle & demean people. I realize that I am insulting many people by pointing this out but isn't it time to "get real" about what this type of material does to the American psyche?
Once the people have been inundated with this so much so that their minds just shut off, it seems it's easier to pump lies into the collective that is easily manipulated.
The necessity of working multiple jobs to make ends meet leaves little time for critical thinking & that leads to being all the more willing to believe lies about just about everything. The made up history about Jan 6 is a great example. The mob that attacked the Capital & gravely injured police are now heroes that are being persecuted & deserve our praise for fighting that day. The lies that Democrats support abortion after birth! Really, people believe that!? The lies that the Democrats are interfering with the election because they prosecuted trump for all those felonies in New York.
Republicans have now become the party of trump & people need to wake up before all of a sudden they find themselves being ruled by an authoritarian who wants to deport immigrants, or hold them in camps, who wants to control all media, who wants to imprison their political opponents. I watched a Netflix series this weekend called "Hitler's Circle of Evil". It's 10 episodes & well worth the time to see how Hitler & his sycophants destroyed their country.
Be careful what you wish for Magats! At the end if you should change your mind about what is being done, you too, can wind up in one of those camps you're so excited about!
Normalcy it is not that 35% of the population believes the lies, itis that 35-48% of the population knows they are lies and don't care.
Trump is only an avatar of whom they are. They have been festering for half a century, pissed at liberals because they can''t use the N word, can't call out and discriminate against queers, believe that they lost the power of male domination and the they (Christianity) is under seige by all the above, and godless liberals..
The see Trump as their lord and savior, and could care less that he is convicted felon, that he steals from them the government and the movement, that he betrays the nation to our , enemies, that he is a rapist, sexual pervert and a pedophile.
He has liberated them from the chains of political correctness and gave them license to be NAZI's,KKK,traitors.
A lack of caring or having a conscience is the root of all evil, imho!
Fuckin' A. You are, sir, spot on as usual!
We now have Reagan Republicans flocking in droves into the Democratic party.
We need them to defeat Trump, but this is akin to letting the camel get his nose under the tent.
I found out that not everyone understands that aphormism. The Arabs know that if you let a camel get his nose under the tent, he is soon inside and takes over the entire tent.
I receive daily email from the Bulwark and Lincoln Project, while I appreciate them as allies, I am also
painfully aware that they are Reagan Republicans,and since the no longer have a home in the GOP, they will stay and transform the Democratic party, into a Reaganite Democratic party, and in some ways it won't take much effort, for the need for donor cash, has already taken the Democratic Party, quite a ways down that path.
A minor example: Biden appointed a lobbyist for big AG as Secretary of Agriculture (Tom Vilsack)
And like his predecessors, our Secretary of the Treasury was a member of the Federal Reserve Board, or an executive for Goldman Sachs, or both.
Just like Obama appointed the VP of Monsanto as head of the FDA. That really frosted me. We truly need to get Dark Money out of Politics. Perhaps with a Woman in Charge, we can clean House. I also am concerned about the Reagan Republicans uniting with the Corporate Dems and creating a new Conservative Party. Hopefully that could mean a real Progressive Party will emerge.
Before Obama could get seated behind the Resolution desk, Larry Summers was pulling his strings, arranging for appointment of his chief of staff, and important cabinet positions.
I like Obama, so I assume good faith, he was a naif in the beltway jungle, prey to the predators.
He had no real experience, just a short term in which he really wasn't active, as a senator.
The beltway is a clique, where Democrats and Republicans WERE, friendly rivals, that would attend each others parties, join mixed foursomes on the golf course,broker deals that were always amenable to the Republicans sponsors, who incidentally also sponsored Democrats (opensecrets.org).
If you and I suddenly found ourselves in the Oval Office, we wouldn't know where to start, much less choose Cabinet officials and advisors.
Obama was in that situation ,so was Trump, he isn't anymore and Harris certainly isn't.
If Trump steals the election, he won't be making any decisions, except what to eat, drink and steal. He will just sign executive orders, laid in front of him., as he did in the first go round, this time he will have the staff he needs to deconstruct democracy.
I feel like they already have, with Biden, Pelosi, Garland, Schumer.....
This outlines the epidemic of selfishness that has plagued America and given fresh rejuvenation to the forces that mired America in the Gilded Age. A generation that saw the middle class dream crystallize after generations of labor activists pressing for a fairer America pulled the ladder up as they no longer felt the stakes of an industrial aristocracy polluting their environment and exploiting workers. Excellent piece, as always.