Is America in the final stage of the 40-year transition from a forward-looking & still-evolving democratic republic into a white supremacist ethnostate ruled by a small group of fascist oligarchs?
This is the most important piece Thom has ever written. If you're familiar with Thom Hartmann's work, then you'll understand just how urgent this message is. I've been listening, reading, and following Thom for 20 years - so please believe me when I say that it is imperative for ALL people to read and grasp this writing. I don't care about your particular politics, religious beliefs or any other self-imposed identities - this piece is about the continuity of Life itself, or the end of it as we know it.
And hopefully that's something EVERYONE can agree is important.
I agree. I also recommend Robert Kagan‘s new book “Rebellion”. It explains how the Trump movement is nothing new. Anti-liberalism has many forms and has been alive and well since the founding.
I too am impressed with Mr. Hartmann's clear writing and his obvious good intentions. I plan to read all of his Histories. So far I have done only one of them.
Times do indeed look dark for us and it apparently appears to some that we are heading toward a civil war. I find this proposition to be highly unlikely for many reasons which are too lengthy and technical to go into here. But here are two important historical events which we should consider when contemplating another U.S. civil war:
1) economic depressions
2) comparisons between Gaza and Viet Nam
1) Without exception every time a US administration reduces the national deficit through reduced spending, we subsequently suffer an economic depression. President Jackson reduced deficit spending by 100%, the greatest in our history. We subsequently suffered in 1837, what was, at that time, the greatest depression in US history. The next big spending reduction was shortly after and it was 59%. These are the two greatest reductions in our history. These two huge reductions, one following another, right in a row, constituted the tipping point which plunged us into the bloody Civil War. A war which we had been cooking up over slavery since the founding of the Republic.
Herbert Hoover's 36% reduction led to the Great Depression, our greatest in our history. Which, in turn led to our entering into what became WWll. This war allowed FDR to pump an immense tranche of dollars into the economy which lifted us out of The Great Depression and ushered in the greatest expansion of the American middle class in our history. An expansion the Reagan and Clinton administrations put an end to.
Currently the Biden administration has dumped more money in absolute dollars, into our economy in the nation's history. John Maynard Keynes and John Kenneth Galbraith are both smiling in their graves. By economic standards, the reductionist seeds for civil war are not present.
2) As for the Gaza genocide and the objection of many well-meaning, good-hearted Americans, (excluding the well-meaning Mr. Hartmann), who are comparing this situation with Viet Nam and the anti-war demonstrations against President Johnson; let us remember that we sent hundreds of thousands of America's best youths to fight in Viet Nam. 52,000 of these Americans were killed, two million Asians were likewise killed. The current Gaza situation is a far cry from this. There are no US boots on the ground. American youths are not being killed. Biden pulled Americans out of our longest war, 20 futile years in Afghanistan.
Add to this, the fact that there are approximately 160,000+ voters in the US. Where as, the people demonstrating against US collusion in the Gaza genocide amount to less than .01% of the voters. They are getting a great deal of attention in the mass media.
I repeat; I can make more of these Sociological kinds of objections to the claim that we are heading into civil war. But not all explanations are short enough to fit into a simple blog post. A more comprehensive explication would require me to write a PhD dissertation.
As for Mr. Beard's interpretation of the constitution; It has held the attention of our best scholars for a century and I have never felt competent to challenge it. We must not too blithely dismiss it.
I think Thom is correct that the Founding Fathers were motivated by more than economic interest. But what was it? I recently watched the PBS documentary about Dante's life and his epic poem, part of which is "The Inferno." From the program, I learned that the political climate in 1300 Florence, Italy was polarized, as in the U.S. today, but also violent. Dante was a politician and was exiled under threat of execution.
He wrote the poem in exile and determined that the political turmoil was the result of men's sins of envy, pride, and greed. One of the quotes from the U.S. revolution was, "taxation without representation is tyranny." It seems that they rebelled because they felt they weren't treated fairly. They weren't invited to the table as equals to decide their affairs. They were treated as inferiors.
A sense of fairness seems to be in the nature of primates, the animal family of which we are members. Just as the chimpanzee in a research study threw a piece of celery back at the researcher when she witness the chimp in the adjacent cage given a fat, sweet, juicy grape by the same researcher, we resent it and rebell when we feel we are treated unfairly. It is instinctive.
The pride of the Founding Fathers was wounded by the treatment of the British, and they may have been a bit envious of the wealth of the aristocrats. After all, hadn't they tamed the wilderness and brought their idea of civilization to the New World? So, just as the chimp rebelled and threw the celery back at the scientist, the Colonists rebelled against what they perceived as unfair treatment. They would have their own country that would be equal to other counties.
I believe the spirit of rebellion is welling within us because we feel the unjustice of the great inequality we now experience in the U.S. Our instinct to resist and level the playing field has been aroused. It is the nature of the people, just as it is the nature of a few, greedy, mentally ill alphas to take the grapes and give us celery. Eventually, we resist and throw it back at them. It is our nature. I hope the resistance is passive in the form of employee strikes, and even general strikes. Resistance is instinctive and inevitable.
This is a TERRIFIC recap of the most important aspects of our history, vis a vis the coming election.
And, without coming out and saying we should vote for Biden {a president with whose poistions Mr. Hartmann has taken frequent exception down through the years, especially over foreign policy}, Thom points to the only option on the domestic front for us to choose this November, if we want to maintain our domestic democracy. Joe Biden. The guy who has demonstrated his willingness to buck the money.
While I would expect Mr. Hartmann to continue to criticize and oppose policies he deems damaging to American life and life on our planet, he is pointing us to the one vote that can resist the move toward Full On Oligarchy and loss of democracy.
Hear, hear, Mr. Hartmann.
Vote Blue, Through and Through.
AND remain at the ready to do the work needed to move our government closer to a civic ideal Of the people, By the people, and For the people.
Seems one small step for mankind would be to scrap the adjective "transactional" when speaking of the person(s) in question and utilize the more specific noun "bribery." For an analysis see Judge John T. Noonan, "Bribery," an article from judge Amy's old school's Law Review, from back in the day when ND had a football team and a backbone. One should note that Noonan when asleep had more intellectual and moral firepower than that of the current Lenard Leo appointees summed and raised to the 10th power.
I respectfully submit to you that the United States is always in a state of civil war. Whether it be the never-ending litigation of abortion, so-called civil and voting rights or the death penalty. The United States was born of civil war, as it rebelled against its own government (you can put lipstick on a pig, it remains a pig). Therefore, it knows of no other existence; it is simply a matter of scale and definition.
Like a pot of milk on a stove, it can simmer or boil over.
Recasting the word “war” to mean disagreement, even vitriolic disagreement, doesn’t make it anything like hot war that destroys all around and ushers in dictatorship.
Our last civil war was NOT one in which all the American people fought against our own government. It was NOT like our revolution.
We survived the Civil War because we had, all through it, a functioning government on the side of the Constitution.
If we have civil war now in the streets, with an administration AGAINST the Constitution in the White House, we won’t be so lucky…. That is much more like a “revolution,” and revolutions rarely turn out as good as ours did back in the days of Washington and Hamilton. We were an exception. We could have gotten Napoleon. But we got George Washington. Lucky us.
I have seen tanks in the streets of Los Angeles. Ask Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Treyvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Rodney King, George Floyd and Airman Roger Fortson (a 23-year-old that will be buried today) if it is a "hot war."
And a point well made that violence IS afoot in our country, against our own people, sometimes perpetrated or enabled by the very authority that is supposed to protect all of us.
The country is not one voice.
WE who want to change the culture that killed them need to make our voices heard — sometimes angrily!!! And get the changes MADE.
If we let the Orange guy in, you think you will have a CHANCE to change it?
He is not the disease, he is a symptom of it and is "manifest destiny," so to speak.
As for you, once again (albeit politely, this time) attempting to put me on defense, you should be advised I am always on offense which is the best defense. My "chances" to "change it" are no more diminished than they are enhanced by some Jim Crow era European male in the "White" House (built by Alkebulanian slaves).
You see, for me and those like me, running in a circle is locomotion. It is movement, but it is not progress.
Agent Orange IS a symptom. A tool. Clearly not the guy running his own scheme.
I’m NOT trying to put YOU on the defensive. Actually, would like to be helping get you off the need for defense, though it’s not within my power to make it happen alone.
Biden is not the champion. He’s the guy with a chance of winning. {He’s not my preference, but he’s the one with a chance of winning, and the Dems are the “side” with a chance of responding to the real needs of our fractured culture that brings so much harm to so many}
Mmmmm, your comment about locomotion and circles is very apt … and true.
I appreciate your perspective, Ma'am, inasmuch as I can. I also appreciate your intelligence. To directly, and somewhat flippantly, answer your query I can tell you that one cannot expect grapes from a turd tree.
Or, perhaps, you may find the words of your "founding father" more palatable. 225 years ago, Thomas Jefferson said: "what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
Of course we want to avoid a civil war Pat, but burying one's head in the sand is not the way to avoid it. The fascists have said it is coming, if Trump doesn't get elected, and if he does then he will use the police power of the state to have us submit, and to deport those which the fascists don't want in this country.
And yes revolutions wind up eating their own. And 1776 was not a revolution, as it didn't overthrow the government,it was a secession, a successful struggle for liberation,
Mr. Farrar, your point that "1776 was not a revolution, as it didn't overthrow the government" is a damn good one." But it probably seemed like a revolution to the White, male American settlers.
I know that people put their own spin on evens. Chauvinism does that Whatever one's identity, there is a myth and spin behind it.
That is what humans do.
I am a beneficiary of the system, but I also can disassociate.
I look at life and the myths that constitute the world in which constitute the personal reality in which we navigate,. as if I was looking at an ant colony in a glass aquarium.
But I have principles, do not harm, be true to self and others. and stay true to your word, that is honor oaths. And oh, believe nothing and question all. Arrive at opinions, don't acquire them.
Mr. OBrien, I could not agree with you more, We should be careful how far we stretch the use and meaning of our metaphors. "Civil unrest" is not "war." Also, your distinction between civil war and revolution is on point.
I hope to be proven wrong in November, but I doubt it. I have lived too long, something likely to be remedied in the near future, given my health issues. But not before I see the end of a country that was trying to be better, however awkwardly and imperfectly, for most of my life. As Mr. Hartmann so insightfully and factually reports, that effort really annoyed the parasitical capitalists, our oligarchs. They have now pretty successfully not just stopped, but reversed, that process.
That reality has made my impending departure from this life something I happily contemplate. It has also made me glad that our sole grandchild will be the only heir of five, maybe six, reasonably successful people. He won't be an oligarch, but may have the means to survive their depredations, here or in some better country. He will at least have had an idyllic early childhood. But that, I know, is a terribly short-sighted view. What alternative have I?
Material possessions, money, acclaim, none of that has ever meant much to me. Helping other people, having good friends and loved ones, has been the source of whatever happiness I have enjoyed. I have come to realize, as a focused student of history, that our species is, overall, not very admirable. We are greedy, spiteful, careless of our planet and other species, tribal, violent, and mostly pretty ignorant. Looking back on a life successful by the measures most people use, I am unimpressed. By myself and what passes for success.
While he is the center of my world, and I utterly adore him, as he does me it seems, I am sorry my grandson was born, because he will not have a great life; it may be short, and will probably be rather grim and unpleasant. Indeed, had I been offered the option of being born or not, knowing what I know today, I would have opted out. Suffering, burdens, disappointments, and the sheer effort of living have so outweighed all the positives--and positives I have had in some abundance--that it just hasn't been worth it. If the God in which I came to believe very late in life takes mercy on me and there is an afterlife, I may be pleasantly surprised. If not, simply leaving all the burdens, pain, suffering and irritation behind for the quiet of the grave will be reward enough.
Too bad I will probably have to see the faux orange flatulent god slither back into office before that welcome day arrives. But that will certainly make my passing that much more appealing. As always, Thomas, thanks for your uplifting lead in to the weekend...
Though I'm quite sure there are important differences in our life experiences, your poignant and deeply thoughtful words resonate so much with me. I wish they didn't.
Don't write off the women! 1920 may end up being the most important year in the history of the hopes of the "American Dream." Females became real citizens. Alito and Dobbs may turn out to be the most epic shoot-in-foot since, I don't know, maybe forever....
There is something to be said for traveling. I saw the castles and manor houses of England and also visited Mount Vernon. Washington had quite a long ride to get to work and did it on horseback---he was tough. They all were, including the women; it was Mrs. Franklin that ran the business. There's a story about Sam Adams getting a proper suit from the "Sons of Liberty" for the convention. It was said he wasn't poor, but had used his money for the cause. Jefferson lived beyond his means and Paine died homeless. I just wish the truth would be taught about them, instead of the glossy version we were fed.
It is unfortunate (pun intended), but what can be bought by the oligarchs of today is beyond belief. Supreme Court Justices and Congressional Members are a bargain for a billionaire.
Kenyatta said it best: "..... the United States is always in a state of civil war." AND there's always some damn foreign war, the war on drugs, or the war on terrorism.
Getting back to our history, Doris Kearns Goodwin has been reviewing all the vast research of a lifetime done by her and her husband. An OPB interviewer asked her to sum it up. She said that major changes always come from the grassroots, and we are stronger than we think.
After Lincoln was elected, the rich slaveholders in the South felt that their lives and livelihoods were threatened. They needed slave labor to be able to afford to live rich and comfortable lives. They justified that by declaring that Black people were an inferior race, and it was their place in the world to be slaves. The phrase “All men are created equal” applied only to rich, white men. They were open about it. That’s why they went to war, dragging in the poor white boys of the South to fight for them. Those boys did not want to lose their white privilege, so many of them died to keep a small group of plantation owners rich. It seems that the men on the current Supreme Court agree with them, just like the men on the court did in 1850.
The MAGA people are not open or honest about what they are doing, but their message is the same. They are selling the same greed and racism as the future of America. To do that, they need that talents of the dancing-bear circus act that is Trump. I think many of them realize that Trump’s act is getting old and tired, but he is all they have so they try to prop him up by buying many media outlets to spread the lies that he has plans to save us. Trump’s plans, inconsistent as they are, will destroy democracy, freedom, the environment, and the economy of America. But these very wealthy people expect that they will be able to buy property on high ground, afford to pay for an army of security guards, and they will be fine. The don’t care much about what happens to the rest of us. It seems like the men on the current Supreme Court agree with them. Just like the men on the court did in 1850.
Great article Thom. This is a work that everyone in America needs to read. McDonald's book "We the People" shows that the rich did not make the Constitution and business interests were not the foremost interests in the founding of the great experiment in democracy. Democracy has always won in the end so the few rich economic royalists will lose once more. The only question is at what cost. I believe that there is so much wrong with the law of the land that a new constitutional convention will occur to make fairness again the heart of the people of good will which will prevail and the business interests will be made a slave to the good of society and not the few. A great article about excellent historians to open the eyes of the people against the lies of the oppressors. Thank you. Everybody else share it.
Do you capitalize all gods, or just the ones that you like. I guess Neptune and Thor get capitalized but those are their names. I don't capitalize when I write about "ancient gods" or when saying that my god is better than your god. Anyway, who does the voting on the MVP of gods?
All gods, or just a few that you like? I guess Thor and Neptune are capitalized, but those are their names. I don't capitalize "ancient gods", or when our god is better than your god.
I see Citizen's United in the news constantly. Many long-winded articles about the damage that has been done since its inception. What I am NOT seeing is any concerted effort to undo this damage by anyone, anywhere. I have asked around and gotten no answers. Why is Citizen's United so VERY off-limits that I can't find anyone mounting an offense against it!? I would be the first to sign up.
Oh, I’ve written a solution, but it involves fighting fire with fire. This country faces an existential threat and a national emergency needs to be declared. The Libertarian Fascist Billionaires and Russian Oligarchs who install Puppets through the RNC need to be arrested on charges of treason and insurrections. The RNC now operates as an organized crime syndicate managed by those Puppet Masters—not a single Repug in office is clean. They should all be arrested for treason and insurrection and violating their oaths to office/abuse of power—Put the whole lot of them on a prison ship to await trial. Then see if they game the system with “deny and delay” tactics.
Since they are criminals working in a criminal enterprise, REVOKE the laws passed, starting with “Citizens United”.
All of Charles Koch & Leo institutes are meant to brain wash and subvert this democracy—shut them all down: George Mason U, Cato, Heritage, ALL OF THEM.
And execute Donald Trump and the Kushner’s. They are guilty of espionage, treason and attempts to overthrow this government.
All church-related political activities are to be ended—and those churches are to pay back taxes for violating the exemption laws.
Pastors like Hagee who preach sedition are to be indicted, their churches dissolved.. .and boy, do they ever owe back taxes. Same for the Falwells and the Grahams. Hagee , etc. should be investigated for his/their role in pushing to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
The RNC is causing unrest and sending guns throughout the Caribbean and Central America—the RNC also runs shadow governments aligned with Putin in Eastern Europe—-the RNC is a criminal enterprise and those activities need to be ended.
The NRA is an arm of political unrest and money laundering for the RNC—they need to be disbanded, their leaders arrested and put on that prison ship to await trial.
Of course, the Democratic leaders have shown that they plan to play by the rules, even as the RNC Fascists are at the gates. We have no sense of self-preservation. Fighting fire with fire is our last hope. The RNC already has a Fix in: They have alternate financial systems based upon cyber & crypto currencies; they already intend to declare the November election invalid. They even have militias set up across the country, set up by none-other-than Flynn.
Either we fight fire with fire or lose it all.
Libertarian Fascists are after all your money—they intend to wipe out the middle class. They did a “dry run” in Pinochet’s Chile. We will lose everything right down to the safety nets that keep an aging population afloat. All of our savings will be drained off. If that isn’t enough to demand action NOW, I don’t know what is.
"They actively suppress the vote among people inclined to oppose them (typically minorities and the young), or outright rig the vote to insure their own victory." This is the part that preoccupies me, in that the booby-traps are already in place to such an extent. My only wing-and-prayer is that women are everywhere, it's hard to gerrymander females out, and we have martyrs.
They’ve got the #Trumpster “dead to rights” if all Twelve (12) jurors in Manhattan vote to convict the #Orange-McMuffin for withholding key info prior to his original year 2016 election “steal”.
Hoping thread is right. Just a sideshow, of course, but I don't capitalize god. Intended reduction to generic, but sort of the opposite of disrespectful. What's sad right now is that the "Abrahamic" god is on all sides of the horror show. Sinner Man, where you gonna run to?
The Democracy of the Founding Fathers,of which McDonald writes, did not include women, and condoned slavery.The original Constitution doesn’t have much to say about the right to vote. Indeed, nowhere in the text does it explicitly say that citizens have the right to vote in elections. Instead, it merely states that anyone eligible to vote for the largest house of a state’s legislature is also eligible to vote for members of the House of Representatives from that state. As a result, states were left with the power to decide who qualified to vote, leading to considerable variation in the nation’s early years. While most states initially restricted voting to property-owning or tax-paying white men, some states, like New Jersey, allowed free Black men and women of both races to vote provided they met the property or tax requirements. While states soon began expanding voting rights to more citizens, this process unfolded unevenly because it was left up to each state. New Jersey actually revoked the vote from Black men and women in 1807 and North Carolina didn’t remove a property qualification until 1856. https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/what-does-the-constitution-say-about-the-right-to-vote/
The very structure of the government it set up, favored men of means (that is property owners), and in that era,if one has done any genealogical research, especially in the south, property owners were planters and farmers, or frontier homesteaders, and the minimum size plantation on good land, to support a family was 200 acres.
I will have to study Beard v McDonald now, but it appears that McDonald was constructing an apologia of the neo oligarchs of the time.
As if I would write a book saying there is no such thing as an oligarch, because most Americans have a cell phone, a computer, and ISP, a vehicle, and live a better life, and longer than Henry VIII.
What you have here is a lecture that should be taken on the campaign trail as a surrogate for Biden and Democracy. It should also be presented on YouTube as a documentary.
This should be presented through the LWV and college lecture series. I can think of so many outlets for presenting this—but Substack is the least effective.
This is the most important piece Thom has ever written. If you're familiar with Thom Hartmann's work, then you'll understand just how urgent this message is. I've been listening, reading, and following Thom for 20 years - so please believe me when I say that it is imperative for ALL people to read and grasp this writing. I don't care about your particular politics, religious beliefs or any other self-imposed identities - this piece is about the continuity of Life itself, or the end of it as we know it.
And hopefully that's something EVERYONE can agree is important.
Hear, Hear, Jon.
He is telling us the writing is on the wall.
And he points to the only viable way through at this point in our history.
Yes, this is what people these days are calling “an inflection point” —- Which way we fall is up to us. Vote … Blue.
I agree. I also recommend Robert Kagan‘s new book “Rebellion”. It explains how the Trump movement is nothing new. Anti-liberalism has many forms and has been alive and well since the founding.
@ Jon. " I say that it is imperative for ALL people to read and grasp this writing."
Go to social media, attach as a link on influencer sites. Make it go viral.
Mr. Notabot,
I too am impressed with Mr. Hartmann's clear writing and his obvious good intentions. I plan to read all of his Histories. So far I have done only one of them.
Times do indeed look dark for us and it apparently appears to some that we are heading toward a civil war. I find this proposition to be highly unlikely for many reasons which are too lengthy and technical to go into here. But here are two important historical events which we should consider when contemplating another U.S. civil war:
1) economic depressions
2) comparisons between Gaza and Viet Nam
1) Without exception every time a US administration reduces the national deficit through reduced spending, we subsequently suffer an economic depression. President Jackson reduced deficit spending by 100%, the greatest in our history. We subsequently suffered in 1837, what was, at that time, the greatest depression in US history. The next big spending reduction was shortly after and it was 59%. These are the two greatest reductions in our history. These two huge reductions, one following another, right in a row, constituted the tipping point which plunged us into the bloody Civil War. A war which we had been cooking up over slavery since the founding of the Republic.
Herbert Hoover's 36% reduction led to the Great Depression, our greatest in our history. Which, in turn led to our entering into what became WWll. This war allowed FDR to pump an immense tranche of dollars into the economy which lifted us out of The Great Depression and ushered in the greatest expansion of the American middle class in our history. An expansion the Reagan and Clinton administrations put an end to.
Currently the Biden administration has dumped more money in absolute dollars, into our economy in the nation's history. John Maynard Keynes and John Kenneth Galbraith are both smiling in their graves. By economic standards, the reductionist seeds for civil war are not present.
2) As for the Gaza genocide and the objection of many well-meaning, good-hearted Americans, (excluding the well-meaning Mr. Hartmann), who are comparing this situation with Viet Nam and the anti-war demonstrations against President Johnson; let us remember that we sent hundreds of thousands of America's best youths to fight in Viet Nam. 52,000 of these Americans were killed, two million Asians were likewise killed. The current Gaza situation is a far cry from this. There are no US boots on the ground. American youths are not being killed. Biden pulled Americans out of our longest war, 20 futile years in Afghanistan.
Add to this, the fact that there are approximately 160,000+ voters in the US. Where as, the people demonstrating against US collusion in the Gaza genocide amount to less than .01% of the voters. They are getting a great deal of attention in the mass media.
I repeat; I can make more of these Sociological kinds of objections to the claim that we are heading into civil war. But not all explanations are short enough to fit into a simple blog post. A more comprehensive explication would require me to write a PhD dissertation.
As for Mr. Beard's interpretation of the constitution; It has held the attention of our best scholars for a century and I have never felt competent to challenge it. We must not too blithely dismiss it.
I think Thom is correct that the Founding Fathers were motivated by more than economic interest. But what was it? I recently watched the PBS documentary about Dante's life and his epic poem, part of which is "The Inferno." From the program, I learned that the political climate in 1300 Florence, Italy was polarized, as in the U.S. today, but also violent. Dante was a politician and was exiled under threat of execution.
He wrote the poem in exile and determined that the political turmoil was the result of men's sins of envy, pride, and greed. One of the quotes from the U.S. revolution was, "taxation without representation is tyranny." It seems that they rebelled because they felt they weren't treated fairly. They weren't invited to the table as equals to decide their affairs. They were treated as inferiors.
A sense of fairness seems to be in the nature of primates, the animal family of which we are members. Just as the chimpanzee in a research study threw a piece of celery back at the researcher when she witness the chimp in the adjacent cage given a fat, sweet, juicy grape by the same researcher, we resent it and rebell when we feel we are treated unfairly. It is instinctive.
The pride of the Founding Fathers was wounded by the treatment of the British, and they may have been a bit envious of the wealth of the aristocrats. After all, hadn't they tamed the wilderness and brought their idea of civilization to the New World? So, just as the chimp rebelled and threw the celery back at the scientist, the Colonists rebelled against what they perceived as unfair treatment. They would have their own country that would be equal to other counties.
I believe the spirit of rebellion is welling within us because we feel the unjustice of the great inequality we now experience in the U.S. Our instinct to resist and level the playing field has been aroused. It is the nature of the people, just as it is the nature of a few, greedy, mentally ill alphas to take the grapes and give us celery. Eventually, we resist and throw it back at them. It is our nature. I hope the resistance is passive in the form of employee strikes, and even general strikes. Resistance is instinctive and inevitable.
This is a TERRIFIC recap of the most important aspects of our history, vis a vis the coming election.
And, without coming out and saying we should vote for Biden {a president with whose poistions Mr. Hartmann has taken frequent exception down through the years, especially over foreign policy}, Thom points to the only option on the domestic front for us to choose this November, if we want to maintain our domestic democracy. Joe Biden. The guy who has demonstrated his willingness to buck the money.
While I would expect Mr. Hartmann to continue to criticize and oppose policies he deems damaging to American life and life on our planet, he is pointing us to the one vote that can resist the move toward Full On Oligarchy and loss of democracy.
Hear, hear, Mr. Hartmann.
Vote Blue, Through and Through.
AND remain at the ready to do the work needed to move our government closer to a civic ideal Of the people, By the people, and For the people.
Seems one small step for mankind would be to scrap the adjective "transactional" when speaking of the person(s) in question and utilize the more specific noun "bribery." For an analysis see Judge John T. Noonan, "Bribery," an article from judge Amy's old school's Law Review, from back in the day when ND had a football team and a backbone. One should note that Noonan when asleep had more intellectual and moral firepower than that of the current Lenard Leo appointees summed and raised to the 10th power.
I respectfully submit to you that the United States is always in a state of civil war. Whether it be the never-ending litigation of abortion, so-called civil and voting rights or the death penalty. The United States was born of civil war, as it rebelled against its own government (you can put lipstick on a pig, it remains a pig). Therefore, it knows of no other existence; it is simply a matter of scale and definition.
Like a pot of milk on a stove, it can simmer or boil over.
It is hot, nonetheless.
So, what is your point?
Some of us want to avoid a hot war.
Recasting the word “war” to mean disagreement, even vitriolic disagreement, doesn’t make it anything like hot war that destroys all around and ushers in dictatorship.
Our last civil war was NOT one in which all the American people fought against our own government. It was NOT like our revolution.
We survived the Civil War because we had, all through it, a functioning government on the side of the Constitution.
If we have civil war now in the streets, with an administration AGAINST the Constitution in the White House, we won’t be so lucky…. That is much more like a “revolution,” and revolutions rarely turn out as good as ours did back in the days of Washington and Hamilton. We were an exception. We could have gotten Napoleon. But we got George Washington. Lucky us.
"WE" ain't U.S.
I ain't you and yours ain't ours.
I have seen tanks in the streets of Los Angeles. Ask Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Treyvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Rodney King, George Floyd and Airman Roger Fortson (a 23-year-old that will be buried today) if it is a "hot war."
Ooops, my bad...can't ask them.
They're dead.
Ergo, my goddamned point.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=tanks+in+the+streets+of+los+angeles+1992&qpvt=tanks+in+the+streets+of+los+angeles+1992&form=IGRE&first=1
Again I agree. Rohn
And a point well made that violence IS afoot in our country, against our own people, sometimes perpetrated or enabled by the very authority that is supposed to protect all of us.
The country is not one voice.
WE who want to change the culture that killed them need to make our voices heard — sometimes angrily!!! And get the changes MADE.
If we let the Orange guy in, you think you will have a CHANCE to change it?
Agent Orange is not a person; IT is a thing.
He is not the disease, he is a symptom of it and is "manifest destiny," so to speak.
As for you, once again (albeit politely, this time) attempting to put me on defense, you should be advised I am always on offense which is the best defense. My "chances" to "change it" are no more diminished than they are enhanced by some Jim Crow era European male in the "White" House (built by Alkebulanian slaves).
You see, for me and those like me, running in a circle is locomotion. It is movement, but it is not progress.
Agent Orange IS a symptom. A tool. Clearly not the guy running his own scheme.
I’m NOT trying to put YOU on the defensive. Actually, would like to be helping get you off the need for defense, though it’s not within my power to make it happen alone.
Biden is not the champion. He’s the guy with a chance of winning. {He’s not my preference, but he’s the one with a chance of winning, and the Dems are the “side” with a chance of responding to the real needs of our fractured culture that brings so much harm to so many}
Mmmmm, your comment about locomotion and circles is very apt … and true.
What would you have us do?
I appreciate your perspective, Ma'am, inasmuch as I can. I also appreciate your intelligence. To directly, and somewhat flippantly, answer your query I can tell you that one cannot expect grapes from a turd tree.
Or, perhaps, you may find the words of your "founding father" more palatable. 225 years ago, Thomas Jefferson said: "what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
Real SHIT.
Of course we want to avoid a civil war Pat, but burying one's head in the sand is not the way to avoid it. The fascists have said it is coming, if Trump doesn't get elected, and if he does then he will use the police power of the state to have us submit, and to deport those which the fascists don't want in this country.
And yes revolutions wind up eating their own. And 1776 was not a revolution, as it didn't overthrow the government,it was a secession, a successful struggle for liberation,
Was India and South Africa, revolutions?No.
Mr. Farrar, your point that "1776 was not a revolution, as it didn't overthrow the government" is a damn good one." But it probably seemed like a revolution to the White, male American settlers.
I know that people put their own spin on evens. Chauvinism does that Whatever one's identity, there is a myth and spin behind it.
That is what humans do.
I am a beneficiary of the system, but I also can disassociate.
I look at life and the myths that constitute the world in which constitute the personal reality in which we navigate,. as if I was looking at an ant colony in a glass aquarium.
But I have principles, do not harm, be true to self and others. and stay true to your word, that is honor oaths. And oh, believe nothing and question all. Arrive at opinions, don't acquire them.
Mr. OBrien, I could not agree with you more, We should be careful how far we stretch the use and meaning of our metaphors. "Civil unrest" is not "war." Also, your distinction between civil war and revolution is on point.
Again Rohn, I agree.
I hope to be proven wrong in November, but I doubt it. I have lived too long, something likely to be remedied in the near future, given my health issues. But not before I see the end of a country that was trying to be better, however awkwardly and imperfectly, for most of my life. As Mr. Hartmann so insightfully and factually reports, that effort really annoyed the parasitical capitalists, our oligarchs. They have now pretty successfully not just stopped, but reversed, that process.
That reality has made my impending departure from this life something I happily contemplate. It has also made me glad that our sole grandchild will be the only heir of five, maybe six, reasonably successful people. He won't be an oligarch, but may have the means to survive their depredations, here or in some better country. He will at least have had an idyllic early childhood. But that, I know, is a terribly short-sighted view. What alternative have I?
Material possessions, money, acclaim, none of that has ever meant much to me. Helping other people, having good friends and loved ones, has been the source of whatever happiness I have enjoyed. I have come to realize, as a focused student of history, that our species is, overall, not very admirable. We are greedy, spiteful, careless of our planet and other species, tribal, violent, and mostly pretty ignorant. Looking back on a life successful by the measures most people use, I am unimpressed. By myself and what passes for success.
While he is the center of my world, and I utterly adore him, as he does me it seems, I am sorry my grandson was born, because he will not have a great life; it may be short, and will probably be rather grim and unpleasant. Indeed, had I been offered the option of being born or not, knowing what I know today, I would have opted out. Suffering, burdens, disappointments, and the sheer effort of living have so outweighed all the positives--and positives I have had in some abundance--that it just hasn't been worth it. If the God in which I came to believe very late in life takes mercy on me and there is an afterlife, I may be pleasantly surprised. If not, simply leaving all the burdens, pain, suffering and irritation behind for the quiet of the grave will be reward enough.
Too bad I will probably have to see the faux orange flatulent god slither back into office before that welcome day arrives. But that will certainly make my passing that much more appealing. As always, Thomas, thanks for your uplifting lead in to the weekend...
Though I'm quite sure there are important differences in our life experiences, your poignant and deeply thoughtful words resonate so much with me. I wish they didn't.
Don't write off the women! 1920 may end up being the most important year in the history of the hopes of the "American Dream." Females became real citizens. Alito and Dobbs may turn out to be the most epic shoot-in-foot since, I don't know, maybe forever....
There is something to be said for traveling. I saw the castles and manor houses of England and also visited Mount Vernon. Washington had quite a long ride to get to work and did it on horseback---he was tough. They all were, including the women; it was Mrs. Franklin that ran the business. There's a story about Sam Adams getting a proper suit from the "Sons of Liberty" for the convention. It was said he wasn't poor, but had used his money for the cause. Jefferson lived beyond his means and Paine died homeless. I just wish the truth would be taught about them, instead of the glossy version we were fed.
It is unfortunate (pun intended), but what can be bought by the oligarchs of today is beyond belief. Supreme Court Justices and Congressional Members are a bargain for a billionaire.
Kenyatta said it best: "..... the United States is always in a state of civil war." AND there's always some damn foreign war, the war on drugs, or the war on terrorism.
Getting back to our history, Doris Kearns Goodwin has been reviewing all the vast research of a lifetime done by her and her husband. An OPB interviewer asked her to sum it up. She said that major changes always come from the grassroots, and we are stronger than we think.
Let's do our best to make her right. Thanks Thom.
After Lincoln was elected, the rich slaveholders in the South felt that their lives and livelihoods were threatened. They needed slave labor to be able to afford to live rich and comfortable lives. They justified that by declaring that Black people were an inferior race, and it was their place in the world to be slaves. The phrase “All men are created equal” applied only to rich, white men. They were open about it. That’s why they went to war, dragging in the poor white boys of the South to fight for them. Those boys did not want to lose their white privilege, so many of them died to keep a small group of plantation owners rich. It seems that the men on the current Supreme Court agree with them, just like the men on the court did in 1850.
The MAGA people are not open or honest about what they are doing, but their message is the same. They are selling the same greed and racism as the future of America. To do that, they need that talents of the dancing-bear circus act that is Trump. I think many of them realize that Trump’s act is getting old and tired, but he is all they have so they try to prop him up by buying many media outlets to spread the lies that he has plans to save us. Trump’s plans, inconsistent as they are, will destroy democracy, freedom, the environment, and the economy of America. But these very wealthy people expect that they will be able to buy property on high ground, afford to pay for an army of security guards, and they will be fine. The don’t care much about what happens to the rest of us. It seems like the men on the current Supreme Court agree with them. Just like the men on the court did in 1850.
Great article Thom. This is a work that everyone in America needs to read. McDonald's book "We the People" shows that the rich did not make the Constitution and business interests were not the foremost interests in the founding of the great experiment in democracy. Democracy has always won in the end so the few rich economic royalists will lose once more. The only question is at what cost. I believe that there is so much wrong with the law of the land that a new constitutional convention will occur to make fairness again the heart of the people of good will which will prevail and the business interests will be made a slave to the good of society and not the few. A great article about excellent historians to open the eyes of the people against the lies of the oppressors. Thank you. Everybody else share it.
A new progressive Nation founded on human sacrifice (Christianity) and unlimited greed, what could go wrong?
I don't capitalize religions, I will capitalize God though.
Do you capitalize all gods, or just the ones that you like. I guess Neptune and Thor get capitalized but those are their names. I don't capitalize when I write about "ancient gods" or when saying that my god is better than your god. Anyway, who does the voting on the MVP of gods?
All gods, or just a few that you like? I guess Thor and Neptune are capitalized, but those are their names. I don't capitalize "ancient gods", or when our god is better than your god.
God means good. Everything we do is right or wrong moral or immoral good or evil. Naming Gods, is immoral. Let God name herself.
Please watch "Gentleman in Moscow", now streaming, to be reminded of what it is like to live in a police state.
I see Citizen's United in the news constantly. Many long-winded articles about the damage that has been done since its inception. What I am NOT seeing is any concerted effort to undo this damage by anyone, anywhere. I have asked around and gotten no answers. Why is Citizen's United so VERY off-limits that I can't find anyone mounting an offense against it!? I would be the first to sign up.
Oh, I’ve written a solution, but it involves fighting fire with fire. This country faces an existential threat and a national emergency needs to be declared. The Libertarian Fascist Billionaires and Russian Oligarchs who install Puppets through the RNC need to be arrested on charges of treason and insurrections. The RNC now operates as an organized crime syndicate managed by those Puppet Masters—not a single Repug in office is clean. They should all be arrested for treason and insurrection and violating their oaths to office/abuse of power—Put the whole lot of them on a prison ship to await trial. Then see if they game the system with “deny and delay” tactics.
Since they are criminals working in a criminal enterprise, REVOKE the laws passed, starting with “Citizens United”.
All of Charles Koch & Leo institutes are meant to brain wash and subvert this democracy—shut them all down: George Mason U, Cato, Heritage, ALL OF THEM.
And execute Donald Trump and the Kushner’s. They are guilty of espionage, treason and attempts to overthrow this government.
All church-related political activities are to be ended—and those churches are to pay back taxes for violating the exemption laws.
Pastors like Hagee who preach sedition are to be indicted, their churches dissolved.. .and boy, do they ever owe back taxes. Same for the Falwells and the Grahams. Hagee , etc. should be investigated for his/their role in pushing to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
The RNC is causing unrest and sending guns throughout the Caribbean and Central America—the RNC also runs shadow governments aligned with Putin in Eastern Europe—-the RNC is a criminal enterprise and those activities need to be ended.
The NRA is an arm of political unrest and money laundering for the RNC—they need to be disbanded, their leaders arrested and put on that prison ship to await trial.
Of course, the Democratic leaders have shown that they plan to play by the rules, even as the RNC Fascists are at the gates. We have no sense of self-preservation. Fighting fire with fire is our last hope. The RNC already has a Fix in: They have alternate financial systems based upon cyber & crypto currencies; they already intend to declare the November election invalid. They even have militias set up across the country, set up by none-other-than Flynn.
Either we fight fire with fire or lose it all.
Libertarian Fascists are after all your money—they intend to wipe out the middle class. They did a “dry run” in Pinochet’s Chile. We will lose everything right down to the safety nets that keep an aging population afloat. All of our savings will be drained off. If that isn’t enough to demand action NOW, I don’t know what is.
"They actively suppress the vote among people inclined to oppose them (typically minorities and the young), or outright rig the vote to insure their own victory." This is the part that preoccupies me, in that the booby-traps are already in place to such an extent. My only wing-and-prayer is that women are everywhere, it's hard to gerrymander females out, and we have martyrs.
Brilliant !!!
They’ve got the #Trumpster “dead to rights” if all Twelve (12) jurors in Manhattan vote to convict the #Orange-McMuffin for withholding key info prior to his original year 2016 election “steal”.
Hoping thread is right. Just a sideshow, of course, but I don't capitalize god. Intended reduction to generic, but sort of the opposite of disrespectful. What's sad right now is that the "Abrahamic" god is on all sides of the horror show. Sinner Man, where you gonna run to?
The Democracy of the Founding Fathers,of which McDonald writes, did not include women, and condoned slavery.The original Constitution doesn’t have much to say about the right to vote. Indeed, nowhere in the text does it explicitly say that citizens have the right to vote in elections. Instead, it merely states that anyone eligible to vote for the largest house of a state’s legislature is also eligible to vote for members of the House of Representatives from that state. As a result, states were left with the power to decide who qualified to vote, leading to considerable variation in the nation’s early years. While most states initially restricted voting to property-owning or tax-paying white men, some states, like New Jersey, allowed free Black men and women of both races to vote provided they met the property or tax requirements. While states soon began expanding voting rights to more citizens, this process unfolded unevenly because it was left up to each state. New Jersey actually revoked the vote from Black men and women in 1807 and North Carolina didn’t remove a property qualification until 1856. https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/what-does-the-constitution-say-about-the-right-to-vote/
The very structure of the government it set up, favored men of means (that is property owners), and in that era,if one has done any genealogical research, especially in the south, property owners were planters and farmers, or frontier homesteaders, and the minimum size plantation on good land, to support a family was 200 acres.
I will have to study Beard v McDonald now, but it appears that McDonald was constructing an apologia of the neo oligarchs of the time.
As if I would write a book saying there is no such thing as an oligarch, because most Americans have a cell phone, a computer, and ISP, a vehicle, and live a better life, and longer than Henry VIII.
What you have here is a lecture that should be taken on the campaign trail as a surrogate for Biden and Democracy. It should also be presented on YouTube as a documentary.
This should be presented through the LWV and college lecture series. I can think of so many outlets for presenting this—but Substack is the least effective.
Thom has Simon Rosenberg at 1 pm est.