I propose a secular view one step closer to reality, Thom....and that it is, instead of "good vs. evil," what's at issue here is "love vs. hate" as manifested by the human ego....with the very real implications of their roots in the development of the human ego in childhood. Your have in the past discussed Trump's origins in his very dy…
I propose a secular view one step closer to reality, Thom....and that it is, instead of "good vs. evil," what's at issue here is "love vs. hate" as manifested by the human ego....with the very real implications of their roots in the development of the human ego in childhood. Your have in the past discussed Trump's origins in his very dysfunctional German family....and I'm sure you know about Adolf Hitler's early life as well....yes? Point made?
Whether you believe Trump is the Antichrist, or a psychopath, or a malignant narcissist, or just the biggest asshole that’s ever lived (my personal choice), his behavior is yet another distraction that helps us ignore why our democracy is backsliding into autocracy. At the risk of really oversimplifying the situation, I believe that our public sector decision-makers fall into three categories. First, we have Constitutional-oath-satisfying progressives who work to promote our general welfare using best practice-based solutions and protect us from those who would do us harm (e.g., Senator Sanders). Second, we have the Constitutional-oath-flouting Republicans who will do anything to serve their oligarchic masters in order to get reelected or at least score a great Billy Tauzin kind of job in the private sector. These folks will never support anything the progressives want because they are afraid of getting Tuckered (there are too many examples to list here, but you can guess who they are). Third, we have a hybrid population of elected officials (like the “Problem Solvers Caucus”) who also choose not to meet their Constitutional oaths because they are also in thrall to the oligarchs that get them reelected. However, they will vote with Progressives when the oligarchs allow them to do it (like Manchin and Sinema). We need to replace the category 2 and 3 officials with category 1 folks to stop the slide, or at least elect enough progressives that we would have an amendment passing majority to end corporate personhood. A huge plurality of Progressives (aka, those who would do their best to meet the six objectives in the Preamble) is necessary to reform the systems and processes that the oligarchs have created for their own lethally selfish reasons. As long as our laws and elections remain the same (voter suppression, gerrymandering, money equaling speech, corporations enjoying the rights of citizens, etc.) and the oligarchs have use of the greatest ever propaganda organizations, people of the caliber of Trump (and the rest of his cultic kakistocrats) will continue to infest our government, and we will continue our devolution to autocracy. The obstacles to turning America into the quality of democracy that we require might seem insurmountable, but there is a proven strategy and plan to make it happen. Otherwise, the oligarchs who wield the powers of corporate personhood will continue to suck our country dry and then move on to the next host. And Trump will move on to his next grift.
I agree with all you say here. I am wondering what your "proven strategy and plan" is to "turning America into the quality of democracy that we require..." ?? I find that "obstacle" the key issue facing us today--aka: "The 4th Turning --Crisis" that the authors of "The Fourth Turning" foresaw in a general way in their 1997 book.
Glen, thank you for your comment and question. It’s nice to share a common understanding of our status quo especially concerning the "proven strategy and plan" for “turning America into the quality of democracy that we require..." I think the best way to answer your question about how to make this happen is by first answering the most basic questions, 1) What’s our government’s purpose?, 2) Is it on purpose?, and 3) If not, how do we compel our elected officials to meet their purpose (i.e., satisfy their Constitutional oaths)? As a thought experiment, let’s assume that the Preamble is the mission statement for our democracy and can be summarized (and contemporized) as follows, “to promote our general welfare using best practice-based solutions and protect us from those who would do us harm.” Or we can use Alexander Hamilton’s even pithier description, “to abolish factions and unite for the general welfare.” (If anyone has a better way to define our government’s purpose, please share it if only because it is the foundation of almost every disagreement). In addition, let’s assume that such a democracy would be considered a role model democracy and the kind of government we require because I also assume that it’s the kind of government we are entitled to, for it seems silly to argue that we are entitled to less than role model quality government. Because our oligarch-controlled public sector decision-makers are continually doing things adverse to our citizens’ rights and our communities’ interests, I also assume that we have to stop them before we can get on with building a role model democracy. And that’s where the strategy and plan come into play. Several years ago Professor Erica Chenoweth revealed some remarkable results in her studies of governments that did things adverse to their citizens’ rights and communities’ interests. Chenoweth put out a book about a year ago (Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know) that explains the strategy for how to make our elected officials collaborate with our citizens to promote our general and not that of the oligarchs. She discovered that we would need 3.5% of our population to engage in persistent nonviolent resistance, in order to elect enough progressives that will pledge to meet their Constitutional purpose. Obviously, the hard part of the plan is to inspire 12 million people to engage in the strategic application of persistent nonviolent resistance. However, with contemporary knowledge and technology, how hard can it be? The oligarchs use a version of persistent “nonviolent” resistance to get their elected officials to do their bidding, and have been doing it for years. They just use different modes of coercion to get their public sector toadies elected. Rather than peaceful assemblies, petitions, and expressing ideas in a free press, they just use extortion, bribery, and propaganda.
Well, Old Dave, I agree with your analysis once more....and note that you arrive at the remedy of "persistent nonviolent resistance" via a slightly different route than the one I have taken. Recently I contemplated what the democratic, progressive response should be if the MAGA crowd attempt to steal the 2024 Presidential election. Storm the Capitol like on Jan. 6th?
No. Encircle both Congress and the White House with a very persistent, non-stop, nonviolent march around both "Houses of Government" until the will of the voters is accurately conveyed to the Electoral College count. If we work hard enough between now...and then...we may (with the boost of the new Millennials voting en mass) have a large enough progressive majority to pass laws to change the course that our country has been on for at least 4 decades--the "extortion, bribery, & propaganda".....yeh?
Glen, I was thinking of a more inclusive and strategic application of 4/5 of our 1st Amendment freedoms and rights (plus leveraging our unenumerated right to vote) to collaborate with our elected leaders and advise them how to meet their constitutional purpose. As far as the other 1/5 of our 1st Amendment freedoms and rights, the oligarchs have been leveraging the powers of religion for a long time to make our poorly educated toe the line, and I don’t expect that will change any time soon.
Thanks for reminder about that book- got a copy around somewhere. Only thing that worries me, it was my Mom's copy, she adored that book, and what it meant to her was that Obama was the Crisis and she would have welcomed Trump as her messiah. (predeceased T. election, but believe me, I know!)
Quibble with what view may be "closer to reality." So much mystery and strangeness in this universe... I tend strongly in favor of nature over nurture. Your phrase "very dysfunctional German family" fit me like a glove, yet I'm a "lover" to the point of, well, dysfunctional wimp.
Some quirk of sweetness recessive on my father's side defied all the Bircher-to-Birther conditioning on the other. Don't give me power: I'd beg half the shirt off your back to share with somebody.... On the other hand, I can take advice, and I know there's a happy medium in principle. I have no idea why. My authoritarian bullies background did not presage my bleeding heart evolution. Huh.
Sounds to me, Daphne, that you very luckily dodged a very lethal bullet....as did I... thanks to my mother. My older brother & sister weren't so lucky....as they have duplicated father....
I propose a secular view one step closer to reality, Thom....and that it is, instead of "good vs. evil," what's at issue here is "love vs. hate" as manifested by the human ego....with the very real implications of their roots in the development of the human ego in childhood. Your have in the past discussed Trump's origins in his very dysfunctional German family....and I'm sure you know about Adolf Hitler's early life as well....yes? Point made?
Whether you believe Trump is the Antichrist, or a psychopath, or a malignant narcissist, or just the biggest asshole that’s ever lived (my personal choice), his behavior is yet another distraction that helps us ignore why our democracy is backsliding into autocracy. At the risk of really oversimplifying the situation, I believe that our public sector decision-makers fall into three categories. First, we have Constitutional-oath-satisfying progressives who work to promote our general welfare using best practice-based solutions and protect us from those who would do us harm (e.g., Senator Sanders). Second, we have the Constitutional-oath-flouting Republicans who will do anything to serve their oligarchic masters in order to get reelected or at least score a great Billy Tauzin kind of job in the private sector. These folks will never support anything the progressives want because they are afraid of getting Tuckered (there are too many examples to list here, but you can guess who they are). Third, we have a hybrid population of elected officials (like the “Problem Solvers Caucus”) who also choose not to meet their Constitutional oaths because they are also in thrall to the oligarchs that get them reelected. However, they will vote with Progressives when the oligarchs allow them to do it (like Manchin and Sinema). We need to replace the category 2 and 3 officials with category 1 folks to stop the slide, or at least elect enough progressives that we would have an amendment passing majority to end corporate personhood. A huge plurality of Progressives (aka, those who would do their best to meet the six objectives in the Preamble) is necessary to reform the systems and processes that the oligarchs have created for their own lethally selfish reasons. As long as our laws and elections remain the same (voter suppression, gerrymandering, money equaling speech, corporations enjoying the rights of citizens, etc.) and the oligarchs have use of the greatest ever propaganda organizations, people of the caliber of Trump (and the rest of his cultic kakistocrats) will continue to infest our government, and we will continue our devolution to autocracy. The obstacles to turning America into the quality of democracy that we require might seem insurmountable, but there is a proven strategy and plan to make it happen. Otherwise, the oligarchs who wield the powers of corporate personhood will continue to suck our country dry and then move on to the next host. And Trump will move on to his next grift.
I agree with all you say here. I am wondering what your "proven strategy and plan" is to "turning America into the quality of democracy that we require..." ?? I find that "obstacle" the key issue facing us today--aka: "The 4th Turning --Crisis" that the authors of "The Fourth Turning" foresaw in a general way in their 1997 book.
Glen, thank you for your comment and question. It’s nice to share a common understanding of our status quo especially concerning the "proven strategy and plan" for “turning America into the quality of democracy that we require..." I think the best way to answer your question about how to make this happen is by first answering the most basic questions, 1) What’s our government’s purpose?, 2) Is it on purpose?, and 3) If not, how do we compel our elected officials to meet their purpose (i.e., satisfy their Constitutional oaths)? As a thought experiment, let’s assume that the Preamble is the mission statement for our democracy and can be summarized (and contemporized) as follows, “to promote our general welfare using best practice-based solutions and protect us from those who would do us harm.” Or we can use Alexander Hamilton’s even pithier description, “to abolish factions and unite for the general welfare.” (If anyone has a better way to define our government’s purpose, please share it if only because it is the foundation of almost every disagreement). In addition, let’s assume that such a democracy would be considered a role model democracy and the kind of government we require because I also assume that it’s the kind of government we are entitled to, for it seems silly to argue that we are entitled to less than role model quality government. Because our oligarch-controlled public sector decision-makers are continually doing things adverse to our citizens’ rights and our communities’ interests, I also assume that we have to stop them before we can get on with building a role model democracy. And that’s where the strategy and plan come into play. Several years ago Professor Erica Chenoweth revealed some remarkable results in her studies of governments that did things adverse to their citizens’ rights and communities’ interests. Chenoweth put out a book about a year ago (Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know) that explains the strategy for how to make our elected officials collaborate with our citizens to promote our general and not that of the oligarchs. She discovered that we would need 3.5% of our population to engage in persistent nonviolent resistance, in order to elect enough progressives that will pledge to meet their Constitutional purpose. Obviously, the hard part of the plan is to inspire 12 million people to engage in the strategic application of persistent nonviolent resistance. However, with contemporary knowledge and technology, how hard can it be? The oligarchs use a version of persistent “nonviolent” resistance to get their elected officials to do their bidding, and have been doing it for years. They just use different modes of coercion to get their public sector toadies elected. Rather than peaceful assemblies, petitions, and expressing ideas in a free press, they just use extortion, bribery, and propaganda.
Well, Old Dave, I agree with your analysis once more....and note that you arrive at the remedy of "persistent nonviolent resistance" via a slightly different route than the one I have taken. Recently I contemplated what the democratic, progressive response should be if the MAGA crowd attempt to steal the 2024 Presidential election. Storm the Capitol like on Jan. 6th?
No. Encircle both Congress and the White House with a very persistent, non-stop, nonviolent march around both "Houses of Government" until the will of the voters is accurately conveyed to the Electoral College count. If we work hard enough between now...and then...we may (with the boost of the new Millennials voting en mass) have a large enough progressive majority to pass laws to change the course that our country has been on for at least 4 decades--the "extortion, bribery, & propaganda".....yeh?
Glen, I was thinking of a more inclusive and strategic application of 4/5 of our 1st Amendment freedoms and rights (plus leveraging our unenumerated right to vote) to collaborate with our elected leaders and advise them how to meet their constitutional purpose. As far as the other 1/5 of our 1st Amendment freedoms and rights, the oligarchs have been leveraging the powers of religion for a long time to make our poorly educated toe the line, and I don’t expect that will change any time soon.
Thanks for reminder about that book- got a copy around somewhere. Only thing that worries me, it was my Mom's copy, she adored that book, and what it meant to her was that Obama was the Crisis and she would have welcomed Trump as her messiah. (predeceased T. election, but believe me, I know!)
Quibble with what view may be "closer to reality." So much mystery and strangeness in this universe... I tend strongly in favor of nature over nurture. Your phrase "very dysfunctional German family" fit me like a glove, yet I'm a "lover" to the point of, well, dysfunctional wimp.
Some quirk of sweetness recessive on my father's side defied all the Bircher-to-Birther conditioning on the other. Don't give me power: I'd beg half the shirt off your back to share with somebody.... On the other hand, I can take advice, and I know there's a happy medium in principle. I have no idea why. My authoritarian bullies background did not presage my bleeding heart evolution. Huh.
Sounds to me, Daphne, that you very luckily dodged a very lethal bullet....as did I... thanks to my mother. My older brother & sister weren't so lucky....as they have duplicated father....