Nearly every generation since this nation’s founding has seen forward progress toward the ideals that our Founders, and Lincoln, FDR, JFK, and other American leaders have declared. Until Now...
If Garland and Biden would have prosecuted the insurrectionist ringleaders immediately instead of waiting several years, they could have been stopped. But since most Americans are pretty much ignorant to world events, they can be easily manipulated by the rich owned media. We the majority, need our government to defend democracy, which they are not doing enough of. Heck they didn't even defend the White House on January 6th. Only a media blitz designed to educate the Cult to reality could possibly work, and the commercials should end with, if you can't vote for a Democrat just don't vote Republican!
If we don't work towards a heaven on Earth, we will inherit a hell on Earth!
...uhhmm...to whom or what was it that biden shd have "give a six month trial or probation 0h, u said fire OK . I recall being regularly reminded that it's going to take a while quite a while.
you do know who was giving and most of the orders on 1//6...? not my government.
"On the Supreme Court, six Republicans have their hands out to the morbidly rich and then reward that largesse by legalizing voter purges, political bribery, and gutting worker protections."
I would argue that the ideology of the founding fathers as laid out in the Constitution is one of white supremacy, patriarchy and human bondage. That extended to genocide when it came to Native Americans. Ideals shared by Republicans and Democrats alike. So the founding fathers' intellectualization of all that is fodder for scholars and historians but the practical application is still being exercised by the Republican and Democratic parties alike. Keep the wealthy white males in power while pretending you are working for the common man (or woman etc).
So Barry, tell us, your ideal form of government, and your current example of such a governments, leader
The Democratic party of 2023 is not the Democratic party of Joe Biden's freshman career,
and that the Democratic party puts slopping at the trough of the Chamber of Commerce, the oil cabal, PhRMA, the military industrial complex, and more importantly the one thing that Bill Clinton praised at least 21 times. International Finance, which helped him set up The Clinton Global Initiative as a means of post retirement employment.
But still I cannot compare the two in 2023 in terms of identical twins. The Republicans are definitely evil. I see no other alternative in the world, to the gutless Democratic party
... oh my ... you're very constant... and that you are hard to please or quick to point
You weren't pleased with his banning dredging in Alaska? despite greater than decade of fighting for WILLOW// dj-t send the Army Corps of Engineers up to destroy our largest living forest. there is a lot he has done and a lot more he can do regarding big Pharma--he's the first who started it ... and he's only begun.
since Biden has given a son
to the military, & general Milley held ,firm ... give that one to the coach
My comment has nothing to do with his son. Whom he didn't give to anything. Bo like myself and millions of others was a volunteer. General Milley has nothing to do with anything, of which we are talking, in other words irrelevant information.
And whatever good that Biden did in Alaska, was canceled when he OK'd drilling leases in Alaska and Off shore. I will almost agree with you about PhRMA, but the IRA stalled on vesting Medicare with the authority to negotiate prices, and even then there are only 10 drugs on the list. And AFIK insulin has not yet been negotiated, except for Medicare. Medicare recipients will only have to pay $35 per vial from Eli Lily, but woe to the poor who aren't own medicare, or can't afford to pay the current premium of $164.90. I am fully covered but my wife has to pay her own premium as she doesn't receive Social security, She was invested in a Social Security Replacement program..no choice, she worked for a municipality that opted out.
I will say gutless Americans supporting a gutless party get what they deserve. At some point if the system doesn't change he relativism of Republican vs Democrat becomes meaningless, as does the labeling of Republicans as evil and the Democrats as not. They both are leading us off the cliff, albeit one a bit more gingerly than the other (unless Putin is pushed into using nukes than scratch that).
OK. gutless Americans. How about a Gutless Barry, who is terrified of Nukes, that on Putins side,. Putin is banking on gutless Americans (like you) who crap their pants over the threat of nukes.
You still haven't defined your ideological/political preference. Leaving us with no choice but to consider you a Putinik.
Mr. Farrar, many years ago, as an undergrad. I read a book by Henry Kissinger. Possibly his first. I think the title was: NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND FOREIGN POLICY. He has written many books since then and a great amount of literature on this subject has been developed since then. I have not re-read the book in subsequent years. In it his message was indeed terrifying.
Now (1957?) that the U.S. has a weapon which can wipe out an entire nation in one blow, the world is faced with a new reality. The atom bomb is not simply a larger explosion on a battle field. It is an innovation in foreign policy. The bomb is a strategic phenomenon. Not simply a military device.
1] From now on (1957 on) any nation which possesses the bomb must be either an ally of the U.S. or one against whom we must never make war.
2] Any nation without the bomb is a potential target for annihilation by the U.S.
These are my recollections; not the authors' words (there were two co-authors). But I think my memory is more or less correct. These are truly terrifying words. They are worthy of our fear and loathing, as is Mr. Kissinger.
It is worth noting that when a U.S. president threatens an adversary by saying "all options are on the table." That is a threat to use the atom bomb. So it seems nuclear annihilation of the Human Species is an option some of our leaders have entertained and the military has the ability to achieve.
I should also point out that at least one president, I think, pointedly refused to use that phrase as a threat: Jimmy Carter. A true Christian, in the best sense of the term. Possibly unique in this regard. I am an atheist. But I can sincerely admire the good and honorable actions of people of faith. Mr. Kaufman I share your fear.
The real left is not the caricature crafted by the U.S. right. Alongside parallel right-wing political formations abroad, that caricature tries hard to revive and recycle Cold War demonizations no matter how far-fetched. Nor is the real left what Democratic Party leaders and their foreign counterparts try hard to dismiss as tiny and politically irrelevant (except when electoral campaigns flirt with “progressive” proposals to get votes). The real left in the United States and beyond are the millions who at least vaguely understand that the whole system (including its mainstream right and left) is the core problem. As those millions steadily raise their awareness to an explicit consciousness, they recognize that basic system change is the needed solution.
On the one hand, the real left divides into particular social movements (focused on areas like ecological survival, feminism, anti-racism, labor militancy, and sexual rights). On the other hand, those social movements increasingly understand themselves to comprise components of a new unity they must organize. One key unifying force is anti-capitalism. Correspondingly, the different system they seek will likely be some new sort of socialism—with or without that name—particularly suited to 21st-century conditions.
Mr. Farrar, Thanks for that article by Fraad and Wolff. Everyone should at least read it and try to make sense out of the broad area they cover. I never heard of Fraad. But I have followed Wolff since I first saw his presentation at a Socialist Scholar's conference in Manhattan many years ago.
I hear you but at the same time, and I often would have discussions regarding all that occurred but could have been different if not for the "race conundrum" that control their everyday living. I recommend reading "School House is Burning, by Derek W. Black, you will find a slant about the founding fathers, but you decide. Take into account that humans are imperfect and will always be.
Imperfect I know and understand. I would say their orientation towards slavery, rape and torture is more than imperfect. There is no excuse for inhumanity although today we are certainly desensitized to it. When war is peace and you have to share in the guilt and shame of making it seem noble to support your fearless leaders it is easy to find ways to excuse away man's inhumanity to man. But I will look at the reading you cite and see if it offers a convincing argument thanks for the suggestion.
Ten years ago this Report would have annoyed me. Comparisons to WWII felt inappropriate then because of a need to respect what they endured and sacrificed for our nation. In 2023, I see the truth and value in the comparison. So thanks, Thom, for the glimpse into the past and explanation of what is currently happening.
The "Sucker" reel is so good! It perfectly explains that those promoting prejudice are after some things. And, YOU did a stellar job explaining what "things" they want these days.
This is from a recent Facebook post by Beto O'Rouke, and it shows they are getting what they want:
(Quote)
It’s a tough week in Texas... On September 1, new laws passed by Republican extremists in the last legislative session will officially go into effect. Here’s what that means:
→ Texas Republicans will be able to overturn democratically-decided elections if they don’t like the outcome.
→ Labor protections like local minimum wages and rest and water breaks for workers will be eliminated.
→ The most extreme anti-LGBTQ laws that Texas has passed in decades will put a fresh target on the backs of transgender children and their families.
→ Republicans will have more power to ban books in schools across Texas.
→ Licensed school counselors will be replaced with untrained, unsupervised, and unregulated religious chaplains in Texas schools.
I doubt that anyone has read Camp of the Saints. I did, back in the 1980''s. It's fiction, that is becoming fact. The plot is that Africans , west Asians and people from the Levant and Mid east, are migrating en masse to Europe, arriving in the likes of cargo ships.Europe is over whelmed, and loses it's identity to become Muslim. For those that are concerned about radical Christianity, take a long look at Saudi Arabia, Irfan, UAE, Oman, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan and even Malyasia. You do not want to be a citizen of those countries, much less visit.
As I see it, the book was prophetic, and accounts for the rise of the right, the fascists are taking control of Europe. Orban of Hungary was the first, the neo NAZI party in Germany just won second place in the Reichstag. France is under seige.. There is the rise of the right in England, Belgium, Scandinavia, and all because of the apparently unstoppable surge of immigrants arriving by boat.
I consider myself a progressive, but I also am not stupid or so ideological, that I want to live under and oppressive religious regime, be it Dominionist, Christian Nationalist or Muslim.
Reading all the comments below, all I can say, is that if we fail to re-elect Biden/Harris, all Democratic incumbents. and replace republicans with incoming democrats to enhance the House and Senate with a super majority, all the hard work under the January 6th Committee, the work of AG is different states, the DOJ and Jack Smith, and all other law enforcements involved will be all for naught. Any republican that sits in the OVAL, will pardon them all and the criminals will be back on the streets of main town USA. That is my fear. What is yours?
The US was founded on an idea. There have always been contrary ideas and people who felt strongly about those opposing ideas and who worked to promote and propagate them. How does one idea prevail over opposite or competing ideas within a society and a nation? There is one stock answer to that question and we all know what it is. It all boils down to education. So, why is it seen as changing the subject or splitting hairs to ask why education has not resulted in this country in maintaining that original core idea and proving to the vast majority that the opposing ideas promoting xenophobia, greed, paranoia, superstition, ignorance, and bad religion are unworthy of us and unworkable in a democracy? If the failure is there, why do we shirk from dealing with that issue and allow ourselves to be forever distracted by other less fundamental issues? Just asking for a friend.
“For most of American history, the story we told ourselves about America was that we were a good and decent people who were striving to achieve a government that drew its legitimacy from “the consent of the governed” and championed the values of the Enlightenment.”
Every bit of that from slavery and genocide to the disenfranchisement of even white men who didn’t own property couldn’t vote. Is sourced to one thing, the plutocrats, from colonial Boston and Virginia to today.
How did the revolution benefit the common man, who fought, died and paid in taxes for the war? What they did was exchange one set of overlords (Briiish Nobility) for another set (planters and wealthy merchants. Same with the civil war, fought and paid for with blood and treasure by farm hands, sharecropper and plow boys. To today with the fascist Republican party being financed and essentially controlled by billionaires like Peter Thiel, Harlan Crow, Paul Singer, the carbon cabal, the military industrial complex, and Wall Street.
As fafr as Tuberville blocking promotions, the 14th Amendment gives Biden authority to override Tuberville, as it creates a national emergency, but that power is one that Biden refuses to use. Why? I can only assume bad faith, Biden would rather the United States be destroyed than use his powers. He had the power, expressly given him by the constitution, to just ignore congress and sign an EO to raise the debt limit and he did not.
Is this leadership. Schumer can defrock Tuberville, but won’t, perhaps he fears that if he does, the Repub licans will do the same when they rfecapture the senated, he ignores the fact, that this Republican party is not the old Republican party.
Dejoy is post master general, Biden had a chance in 2021 to place two Democrats on the Boad of Governors of the USPS, but chose to make on of them a Republican, he has a second chance, as two seats became vacant in Dec 2022, and he has made no effort to replace them with Democrats, and the complicit corporate media has kept their mouths shut, and Biden does nothing.
While at it, why has Gaetz not be arrested for violating the man act and statutory rape? Biden won’t tell Garland to do anything, whereas Trump did and would. Also Garland is obviously compromised as he still hasn’t indicted Jordan, Boebert,, Comer, Biggs, MTG, and Hawley for their role in j6, while low life civilians either get a slap on the wrist or the worst of the worst get over a decade in prison.
While some of us might be itching for a political war, power plays can excite the crackpots and incite the bomb throwers. Maybe patience is the better course. Maybe some of those people only think they are winning or that they got away with something. If Biden is seen as too aggressive, he will find it harder to sneak in Trojan horses when they aren't so focused on him. It is true that the plutocrats have been in charge and Biden has not always been on the side of the little guy. But this is a war and strategy is everything. Much more is accomplished by the troops in the trenches and the faithful workers on the ground than by a leader with a whip and a bullhorn. And, if the people are not educated, to beat a dead horse, none of it will matter. The people are not being educated. What do you propose to do about that?
I think you are going to extremes. That is called a red herring. Wars and even battles are not won on the defense.
If you are analogizing, Republicans and Democrats, Then false analogy. War with weapons is quite different than war with words.
Troops in the trenches don't win wars, but logistics do. Trench warfare did not bring the Kaiser to the Armistice, but starvation did. The allies had blockaded Germany from receiving any war materials, or even the ability to import materials needed to produce ammo, and more importantly food.
Do you have any idea as to what apologetics will get you? Look at recent polls, Trump is either neck and neck with Biden, or leading him.
Instead of being on the attack, and the Republicans have given them a smorgasbord of reasons, they have settled on what the mega donors want, "the economy, and guess what those that sitting high and dray and have a cozy income and comfortable life style, could care less about the economy, their issue is either profits and/or the culture war.
Those that are unemployed, homeless, and live in poverty don't care about the economy either. They care about living through the day and tomorrow. Such a feeling of hopelessness, that they have even given up, and if they have a permanent residence (universally required for voting) they don't even register or keep up with registration, because they see no relief, only harassment from sheriffs, cops and NIMBY.
Was Biden on the side of the little guy, when he gave permission to drill oil in Alaska, and re approved permits for off shore drilling.
Biden has not used his power to retake the Board of Governors of the USPS and thus fire DeJoy, he has then, he had and still has the opportunity and has done nothing.
He has the tools and authority to go after the seditionists in congress but he hasn't, so if the Republicans win and America becomes a Christian, white nationalist state, then blame Biden and his chosen right wing Attorney General.
Mr. Elliott, you ask and answer a question "How does one idea prevail over opposite or competing ideas within a society and a nation? there is one stock answer to that question and we all know what it is. It all boils down to education."
I think it boils down to something more basic than education. Something important which underlies education. Economics.
The cultural artifacts and social constructs of society are a superstructure built upon the underlying institution of economic organization. The Family, Politics, Education, all other institutionalized solutions responding to the task of human survival are affected by prior currents in the Economic system. As the economic system changes all other systems change as a form of adjustment to the economic system. The very ideas in our minds including the folklore of popular culture and formal education are a vast superstructure constructed on economics.
The economic system is composed of relatively stable forms of social organization which solve the never ending problems of how to acquire raw materials, convert them into useable commodities by applying the skills of a trained labor force and then distributing those commodities as finished products and services to the population in a manner which contributes to the society's continued existence into the uncertain future. We need: food, shelter, political-organization, child-rearing, education, communication, transportation, medicine, entertainment, etc., etc. The way in which we get these things is Economics.
What you are speaking about should perhaps be referred to as "formal education." Formal education is not exactly essential to human survival and is a recent development brought about initially in Europe largely by the industrial revolution and Capitalism.
You are entirely correct about the degree to which economics affects everything else in a meta sense, I’m quite sure. I believe David Gabbard, professor of education at Boise State has written extensively about how economics and economic conditions over centuries have created the circumstances which exist today, including or especially in schooling. However, it is necessary to remember that all such systems are interactive, interrelated, and synergistic. Likewise, changing one may change others in various ways and to varying degrees.
Certainly, economics had a major influence on the founders and on the hard-fought choices they ultimately adopted after extensive debate, disagreement, and compromise. It was all quite shaky from the beginning. The voters have some small capability to influence economics, despite the phenomenal power that big money wields, and much attention must be paid to how to put that influence to work on behalf of real people. However, one way to modify the orientation, mindset, and attitude that people have toward issues such as the relationship between capital and labor, wealth and poverty, democracy and alternatives to democracy, etc., is by investing in and supporting education for all the people or the broadest possible swath of the people.
I do not agree that the operative expression is “formal education”, however. Confusion about that is precisely the source of the problem, as I have said repeatedly. You cannot buy happiness and you cannot buy or mass produce education. When it was valued for its own sake and not as the vehicle for economic advancement, it was pursued by individuals, highly regarded, and organic. It has been debased and devalued and diluted to such an extent that it is no longer recognizable or authentic for millions of people. I happen to believe that informal education is more fundamental and more essential than economics for both individuals and the survival of society in today’s world.
If you can change the economy to benefit the “little guy” or working people (and therefore, everyone), bravo. By all means do so. I am all for changing the media landscape, the political landscape, the financial industry, and all those other things. But PEOPLE have to do those things, and at least some large fraction of the people must be receptive to the changes proposed in a democratic framework.
The ideals (or the ideas) talked about were equality, justice, brotherhood, liberty for all, etc. In a thriving and affluent environment, it is much easier to sell those things to well-fed and happy people. But you can’t get there from here. We made a wrong turn over a century-and-a-half ago and until we make that course correction, forget about the people having an adequate understanding of and appreciation for those ideals.
I am all for good schools with government funding and oversight. But it is simplistic to think that schooling can prepare citizens for democracy when those schools are undemocratic. One would think that the people here would get that even if others don’t. Schooling is not education. It’s that damn simple. And, forced schooling is training for subjugation and self-contempt. Of course, those who sail through without a care in the world because of certain proclivities and advantages are unable to identify with those for whom school is demoralizing and even destructive. People who see schools through rose colored glasses and deny reality are equally responsible as the Republicans for the fiasco that has materialized in this country.
Mr. Elliott, thank you for your well thought-out, reasonable, and informative response. I intend to look for David Gabbard's name in my future reading. I have wondered what has happened to the value of education for its own sake. Even though I highly value formal education. I must admit, the most informed and interesting people I have known have been virtually autodidacts.
While I was still working I always battled to support Liberal Arts and General Education on various university committees, eg. curriculum committees and so on. There is no way to tell in advance what subject might ignite the fervor of a young student regardless of their "major" or "minor." I argued in favor of exposing students to Philosophy courses, Art courses, music Courses, Literature courses precisely because they had no practical or occupational applications. You can well imagine what my colleagues in the Engineering School had to say to me, about me.
I was tickled years ago when my daughter told me she had joined the Columbia fencing team. She was a curious, delightful girl; and still is as an adult who in turn does her best to not interfere with the paths her daughter and son spontaneously choose.
In the small college where I taught we faculty were unfortunately forced into an artificial kind of learning process by administrators and the whole structure of the school. They loved classroom activities, or should I say attendance.They thought attendance, lectures and syllabi were the end-all and be-all.
Professor Gabbard has a number of articles or contributions from books which should be easy to find with a Google search. I believe you would find his analysis extremely informative, incisive, and brilliant. I believe you might find my chapter from my unpublished book on embodied knowledge quite interesting, also. It is on my Substack page and I believe anyone can read it without charge. I am not a purist. But schools cannot educate and education cannot be forced. Schools could be providing valuable services without doing harm. Citizens would seek and create knowledge if they were not driven to distraction in authoritarian bureaucracies where intellectual is a dirty word.
If Garland and Biden would have prosecuted the insurrectionist ringleaders immediately instead of waiting several years, they could have been stopped. But since most Americans are pretty much ignorant to world events, they can be easily manipulated by the rich owned media. We the majority, need our government to defend democracy, which they are not doing enough of. Heck they didn't even defend the White House on January 6th. Only a media blitz designed to educate the Cult to reality could possibly work, and the commercials should end with, if you can't vote for a Democrat just don't vote Republican!
If we don't work towards a heaven on Earth, we will inherit a hell on Earth!
I place the current mess squarely on Garland's shoulders, but I blame Biden for not firing him after six months of no action.
...uhhmm...to whom or what was it that biden shd have "give a six month trial or probation 0h, u said fire OK . I recall being regularly reminded that it's going to take a while quite a while.
you do know who was giving and most of the orders on 1//6...? not my government.
"On the Supreme Court, six Republicans have their hands out to the morbidly rich and then reward that largesse by legalizing voter purges, political bribery, and gutting worker protections."
And they are so absolutely blatant about it.
I would argue that the ideology of the founding fathers as laid out in the Constitution is one of white supremacy, patriarchy and human bondage. That extended to genocide when it came to Native Americans. Ideals shared by Republicans and Democrats alike. So the founding fathers' intellectualization of all that is fodder for scholars and historians but the practical application is still being exercised by the Republican and Democratic parties alike. Keep the wealthy white males in power while pretending you are working for the common man (or woman etc).
So Barry, tell us, your ideal form of government, and your current example of such a governments, leader
The Democratic party of 2023 is not the Democratic party of Joe Biden's freshman career,
and that the Democratic party puts slopping at the trough of the Chamber of Commerce, the oil cabal, PhRMA, the military industrial complex, and more importantly the one thing that Bill Clinton praised at least 21 times. International Finance, which helped him set up The Clinton Global Initiative as a means of post retirement employment.
But still I cannot compare the two in 2023 in terms of identical twins. The Republicans are definitely evil. I see no other alternative in the world, to the gutless Democratic party
... oh my ... you're very constant... and that you are hard to please or quick to point
You weren't pleased with his banning dredging in Alaska? despite greater than decade of fighting for WILLOW// dj-t send the Army Corps of Engineers up to destroy our largest living forest. there is a lot he has done and a lot more he can do regarding big Pharma--he's the first who started it ... and he's only begun.
since Biden has given a son
to the military, & general Milley held ,firm ... give that one to the coach
My comment has nothing to do with his son. Whom he didn't give to anything. Bo like myself and millions of others was a volunteer. General Milley has nothing to do with anything, of which we are talking, in other words irrelevant information.
And whatever good that Biden did in Alaska, was canceled when he OK'd drilling leases in Alaska and Off shore. I will almost agree with you about PhRMA, but the IRA stalled on vesting Medicare with the authority to negotiate prices, and even then there are only 10 drugs on the list. And AFIK insulin has not yet been negotiated, except for Medicare. Medicare recipients will only have to pay $35 per vial from Eli Lily, but woe to the poor who aren't own medicare, or can't afford to pay the current premium of $164.90. I am fully covered but my wife has to pay her own premium as she doesn't receive Social security, She was invested in a Social Security Replacement program..no choice, she worked for a municipality that opted out.
I will say gutless Americans supporting a gutless party get what they deserve. At some point if the system doesn't change he relativism of Republican vs Democrat becomes meaningless, as does the labeling of Republicans as evil and the Democrats as not. They both are leading us off the cliff, albeit one a bit more gingerly than the other (unless Putin is pushed into using nukes than scratch that).
OK. gutless Americans. How about a Gutless Barry, who is terrified of Nukes, that on Putins side,. Putin is banking on gutless Americans (like you) who crap their pants over the threat of nukes.
You still haven't defined your ideological/political preference. Leaving us with no choice but to consider you a Putinik.
Mr. Farrar, many years ago, as an undergrad. I read a book by Henry Kissinger. Possibly his first. I think the title was: NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND FOREIGN POLICY. He has written many books since then and a great amount of literature on this subject has been developed since then. I have not re-read the book in subsequent years. In it his message was indeed terrifying.
Now (1957?) that the U.S. has a weapon which can wipe out an entire nation in one blow, the world is faced with a new reality. The atom bomb is not simply a larger explosion on a battle field. It is an innovation in foreign policy. The bomb is a strategic phenomenon. Not simply a military device.
1] From now on (1957 on) any nation which possesses the bomb must be either an ally of the U.S. or one against whom we must never make war.
2] Any nation without the bomb is a potential target for annihilation by the U.S.
These are my recollections; not the authors' words (there were two co-authors). But I think my memory is more or less correct. These are truly terrifying words. They are worthy of our fear and loathing, as is Mr. Kissinger.
It is worth noting that when a U.S. president threatens an adversary by saying "all options are on the table." That is a threat to use the atom bomb. So it seems nuclear annihilation of the Human Species is an option some of our leaders have entertained and the military has the ability to achieve.
I should also point out that at least one president, I think, pointedly refused to use that phrase as a threat: Jimmy Carter. A true Christian, in the best sense of the term. Possibly unique in this regard. I am an atheist. But I can sincerely admire the good and honorable actions of people of faith. Mr. Kaufman I share your fear.
Worth a read:https://go.ind.media/webmail/546932/1353359926/d2819d7f2b1d5117675e58fe896a56502827c4bbc83cc934e316d611346c885d
The real left is not the caricature crafted by the U.S. right. Alongside parallel right-wing political formations abroad, that caricature tries hard to revive and recycle Cold War demonizations no matter how far-fetched. Nor is the real left what Democratic Party leaders and their foreign counterparts try hard to dismiss as tiny and politically irrelevant (except when electoral campaigns flirt with “progressive” proposals to get votes). The real left in the United States and beyond are the millions who at least vaguely understand that the whole system (including its mainstream right and left) is the core problem. As those millions steadily raise their awareness to an explicit consciousness, they recognize that basic system change is the needed solution.
On the one hand, the real left divides into particular social movements (focused on areas like ecological survival, feminism, anti-racism, labor militancy, and sexual rights). On the other hand, those social movements increasingly understand themselves to comprise components of a new unity they must organize. One key unifying force is anti-capitalism. Correspondingly, the different system they seek will likely be some new sort of socialism—with or without that name—particularly suited to 21st-century conditions.
Mr. Farrar, Thanks for that article by Fraad and Wolff. Everyone should at least read it and try to make sense out of the broad area they cover. I never heard of Fraad. But I have followed Wolff since I first saw his presentation at a Socialist Scholar's conference in Manhattan many years ago.
I hear you but at the same time, and I often would have discussions regarding all that occurred but could have been different if not for the "race conundrum" that control their everyday living. I recommend reading "School House is Burning, by Derek W. Black, you will find a slant about the founding fathers, but you decide. Take into account that humans are imperfect and will always be.
Imperfect I know and understand. I would say their orientation towards slavery, rape and torture is more than imperfect. There is no excuse for inhumanity although today we are certainly desensitized to it. When war is peace and you have to share in the guilt and shame of making it seem noble to support your fearless leaders it is easy to find ways to excuse away man's inhumanity to man. But I will look at the reading you cite and see if it offers a convincing argument thanks for the suggestion.
Ten years ago this Report would have annoyed me. Comparisons to WWII felt inappropriate then because of a need to respect what they endured and sacrificed for our nation. In 2023, I see the truth and value in the comparison. So thanks, Thom, for the glimpse into the past and explanation of what is currently happening.
The "Sucker" reel is so good! It perfectly explains that those promoting prejudice are after some things. And, YOU did a stellar job explaining what "things" they want these days.
This is from a recent Facebook post by Beto O'Rouke, and it shows they are getting what they want:
(Quote)
It’s a tough week in Texas... On September 1, new laws passed by Republican extremists in the last legislative session will officially go into effect. Here’s what that means:
→ Texas Republicans will be able to overturn democratically-decided elections if they don’t like the outcome.
→ Labor protections like local minimum wages and rest and water breaks for workers will be eliminated.
→ The most extreme anti-LGBTQ laws that Texas has passed in decades will put a fresh target on the backs of transgender children and their families.
→ Republicans will have more power to ban books in schools across Texas.
→ Licensed school counselors will be replaced with untrained, unsupervised, and unregulated religious chaplains in Texas schools.
(End Quote)
I doubt that anyone has read Camp of the Saints. I did, back in the 1980''s. It's fiction, that is becoming fact. The plot is that Africans , west Asians and people from the Levant and Mid east, are migrating en masse to Europe, arriving in the likes of cargo ships.Europe is over whelmed, and loses it's identity to become Muslim. For those that are concerned about radical Christianity, take a long look at Saudi Arabia, Irfan, UAE, Oman, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan and even Malyasia. You do not want to be a citizen of those countries, much less visit.
As I see it, the book was prophetic, and accounts for the rise of the right, the fascists are taking control of Europe. Orban of Hungary was the first, the neo NAZI party in Germany just won second place in the Reichstag. France is under seige.. There is the rise of the right in England, Belgium, Scandinavia, and all because of the apparently unstoppable surge of immigrants arriving by boat.
I consider myself a progressive, but I also am not stupid or so ideological, that I want to live under and oppressive religious regime, be it Dominionist, Christian Nationalist or Muslim.
... perfect description of the coming convergence
Reading all the comments below, all I can say, is that if we fail to re-elect Biden/Harris, all Democratic incumbents. and replace republicans with incoming democrats to enhance the House and Senate with a super majority, all the hard work under the January 6th Committee, the work of AG is different states, the DOJ and Jack Smith, and all other law enforcements involved will be all for naught. Any republican that sits in the OVAL, will pardon them all and the criminals will be back on the streets of main town USA. That is my fear. What is yours?
Thanks for a fascinating dive into the history of American Fascism. I like that there was stuff there I have not run across before.
Why don't you lead an uprising?
We’ve seen it locally and heard it nationally. On board a ship going down, trying to bail water with my Starbucks cup.
The US was founded on an idea. There have always been contrary ideas and people who felt strongly about those opposing ideas and who worked to promote and propagate them. How does one idea prevail over opposite or competing ideas within a society and a nation? There is one stock answer to that question and we all know what it is. It all boils down to education. So, why is it seen as changing the subject or splitting hairs to ask why education has not resulted in this country in maintaining that original core idea and proving to the vast majority that the opposing ideas promoting xenophobia, greed, paranoia, superstition, ignorance, and bad religion are unworthy of us and unworkable in a democracy? If the failure is there, why do we shirk from dealing with that issue and allow ourselves to be forever distracted by other less fundamental issues? Just asking for a friend.
“For most of American history, the story we told ourselves about America was that we were a good and decent people who were striving to achieve a government that drew its legitimacy from “the consent of the governed” and championed the values of the Enlightenment.”
Every bit of that from slavery and genocide to the disenfranchisement of even white men who didn’t own property couldn’t vote. Is sourced to one thing, the plutocrats, from colonial Boston and Virginia to today.
How did the revolution benefit the common man, who fought, died and paid in taxes for the war? What they did was exchange one set of overlords (Briiish Nobility) for another set (planters and wealthy merchants. Same with the civil war, fought and paid for with blood and treasure by farm hands, sharecropper and plow boys. To today with the fascist Republican party being financed and essentially controlled by billionaires like Peter Thiel, Harlan Crow, Paul Singer, the carbon cabal, the military industrial complex, and Wall Street.
As fafr as Tuberville blocking promotions, the 14th Amendment gives Biden authority to override Tuberville, as it creates a national emergency, but that power is one that Biden refuses to use. Why? I can only assume bad faith, Biden would rather the United States be destroyed than use his powers. He had the power, expressly given him by the constitution, to just ignore congress and sign an EO to raise the debt limit and he did not.
Is this leadership. Schumer can defrock Tuberville, but won’t, perhaps he fears that if he does, the Repub licans will do the same when they rfecapture the senated, he ignores the fact, that this Republican party is not the old Republican party.
Dejoy is post master general, Biden had a chance in 2021 to place two Democrats on the Boad of Governors of the USPS, but chose to make on of them a Republican, he has a second chance, as two seats became vacant in Dec 2022, and he has made no effort to replace them with Democrats, and the complicit corporate media has kept their mouths shut, and Biden does nothing.
While at it, why has Gaetz not be arrested for violating the man act and statutory rape? Biden won’t tell Garland to do anything, whereas Trump did and would. Also Garland is obviously compromised as he still hasn’t indicted Jordan, Boebert,, Comer, Biggs, MTG, and Hawley for their role in j6, while low life civilians either get a slap on the wrist or the worst of the worst get over a decade in prison.
While some of us might be itching for a political war, power plays can excite the crackpots and incite the bomb throwers. Maybe patience is the better course. Maybe some of those people only think they are winning or that they got away with something. If Biden is seen as too aggressive, he will find it harder to sneak in Trojan horses when they aren't so focused on him. It is true that the plutocrats have been in charge and Biden has not always been on the side of the little guy. But this is a war and strategy is everything. Much more is accomplished by the troops in the trenches and the faithful workers on the ground than by a leader with a whip and a bullhorn. And, if the people are not educated, to beat a dead horse, none of it will matter. The people are not being educated. What do you propose to do about that?
I think you are going to extremes. That is called a red herring. Wars and even battles are not won on the defense.
If you are analogizing, Republicans and Democrats, Then false analogy. War with weapons is quite different than war with words.
Troops in the trenches don't win wars, but logistics do. Trench warfare did not bring the Kaiser to the Armistice, but starvation did. The allies had blockaded Germany from receiving any war materials, or even the ability to import materials needed to produce ammo, and more importantly food.
Do you have any idea as to what apologetics will get you? Look at recent polls, Trump is either neck and neck with Biden, or leading him.
Instead of being on the attack, and the Republicans have given them a smorgasbord of reasons, they have settled on what the mega donors want, "the economy, and guess what those that sitting high and dray and have a cozy income and comfortable life style, could care less about the economy, their issue is either profits and/or the culture war.
Those that are unemployed, homeless, and live in poverty don't care about the economy either. They care about living through the day and tomorrow. Such a feeling of hopelessness, that they have even given up, and if they have a permanent residence (universally required for voting) they don't even register or keep up with registration, because they see no relief, only harassment from sheriffs, cops and NIMBY.
Was Biden on the side of the little guy, when he gave permission to drill oil in Alaska, and re approved permits for off shore drilling.
Biden has not used his power to retake the Board of Governors of the USPS and thus fire DeJoy, he has then, he had and still has the opportunity and has done nothing.
He has the tools and authority to go after the seditionists in congress but he hasn't, so if the Republicans win and America becomes a Christian, white nationalist state, then blame Biden and his chosen right wing Attorney General.
Well then, okay. I cannot argue with that logic.
Mr. Elliott, you ask and answer a question "How does one idea prevail over opposite or competing ideas within a society and a nation? there is one stock answer to that question and we all know what it is. It all boils down to education."
I think it boils down to something more basic than education. Something important which underlies education. Economics.
The cultural artifacts and social constructs of society are a superstructure built upon the underlying institution of economic organization. The Family, Politics, Education, all other institutionalized solutions responding to the task of human survival are affected by prior currents in the Economic system. As the economic system changes all other systems change as a form of adjustment to the economic system. The very ideas in our minds including the folklore of popular culture and formal education are a vast superstructure constructed on economics.
The economic system is composed of relatively stable forms of social organization which solve the never ending problems of how to acquire raw materials, convert them into useable commodities by applying the skills of a trained labor force and then distributing those commodities as finished products and services to the population in a manner which contributes to the society's continued existence into the uncertain future. We need: food, shelter, political-organization, child-rearing, education, communication, transportation, medicine, entertainment, etc., etc. The way in which we get these things is Economics.
What you are speaking about should perhaps be referred to as "formal education." Formal education is not exactly essential to human survival and is a recent development brought about initially in Europe largely by the industrial revolution and Capitalism.
The economic system is fundamental to all else.
Gerald,
You are entirely correct about the degree to which economics affects everything else in a meta sense, I’m quite sure. I believe David Gabbard, professor of education at Boise State has written extensively about how economics and economic conditions over centuries have created the circumstances which exist today, including or especially in schooling. However, it is necessary to remember that all such systems are interactive, interrelated, and synergistic. Likewise, changing one may change others in various ways and to varying degrees.
Certainly, economics had a major influence on the founders and on the hard-fought choices they ultimately adopted after extensive debate, disagreement, and compromise. It was all quite shaky from the beginning. The voters have some small capability to influence economics, despite the phenomenal power that big money wields, and much attention must be paid to how to put that influence to work on behalf of real people. However, one way to modify the orientation, mindset, and attitude that people have toward issues such as the relationship between capital and labor, wealth and poverty, democracy and alternatives to democracy, etc., is by investing in and supporting education for all the people or the broadest possible swath of the people.
I do not agree that the operative expression is “formal education”, however. Confusion about that is precisely the source of the problem, as I have said repeatedly. You cannot buy happiness and you cannot buy or mass produce education. When it was valued for its own sake and not as the vehicle for economic advancement, it was pursued by individuals, highly regarded, and organic. It has been debased and devalued and diluted to such an extent that it is no longer recognizable or authentic for millions of people. I happen to believe that informal education is more fundamental and more essential than economics for both individuals and the survival of society in today’s world.
If you can change the economy to benefit the “little guy” or working people (and therefore, everyone), bravo. By all means do so. I am all for changing the media landscape, the political landscape, the financial industry, and all those other things. But PEOPLE have to do those things, and at least some large fraction of the people must be receptive to the changes proposed in a democratic framework.
The ideals (or the ideas) talked about were equality, justice, brotherhood, liberty for all, etc. In a thriving and affluent environment, it is much easier to sell those things to well-fed and happy people. But you can’t get there from here. We made a wrong turn over a century-and-a-half ago and until we make that course correction, forget about the people having an adequate understanding of and appreciation for those ideals.
I am all for good schools with government funding and oversight. But it is simplistic to think that schooling can prepare citizens for democracy when those schools are undemocratic. One would think that the people here would get that even if others don’t. Schooling is not education. It’s that damn simple. And, forced schooling is training for subjugation and self-contempt. Of course, those who sail through without a care in the world because of certain proclivities and advantages are unable to identify with those for whom school is demoralizing and even destructive. People who see schools through rose colored glasses and deny reality are equally responsible as the Republicans for the fiasco that has materialized in this country.
Mr. Elliott, thank you for your well thought-out, reasonable, and informative response. I intend to look for David Gabbard's name in my future reading. I have wondered what has happened to the value of education for its own sake. Even though I highly value formal education. I must admit, the most informed and interesting people I have known have been virtually autodidacts.
While I was still working I always battled to support Liberal Arts and General Education on various university committees, eg. curriculum committees and so on. There is no way to tell in advance what subject might ignite the fervor of a young student regardless of their "major" or "minor." I argued in favor of exposing students to Philosophy courses, Art courses, music Courses, Literature courses precisely because they had no practical or occupational applications. You can well imagine what my colleagues in the Engineering School had to say to me, about me.
I was tickled years ago when my daughter told me she had joined the Columbia fencing team. She was a curious, delightful girl; and still is as an adult who in turn does her best to not interfere with the paths her daughter and son spontaneously choose.
In the small college where I taught we faculty were unfortunately forced into an artificial kind of learning process by administrators and the whole structure of the school. They loved classroom activities, or should I say attendance.They thought attendance, lectures and syllabi were the end-all and be-all.
I think I understand what you are saying.
Professor Gabbard has a number of articles or contributions from books which should be easy to find with a Google search. I believe you would find his analysis extremely informative, incisive, and brilliant. I believe you might find my chapter from my unpublished book on embodied knowledge quite interesting, also. It is on my Substack page and I believe anyone can read it without charge. I am not a purist. But schools cannot educate and education cannot be forced. Schools could be providing valuable services without doing harm. Citizens would seek and create knowledge if they were not driven to distraction in authoritarian bureaucracies where intellectual is a dirty word.