Create the crisis, make working Americans suffer, reward the billionaires, blame Democrats for the wreckage, then campaign as the only people who can fix it.
This is not news or new. This has been the Republican playbook as long as i have paid attention. I fault the Democrats, were not getting ahead of he curve, for not going on the offensive and always p;laying defense, and even that ineffectively and half heatedly.
Dems should have been playing he same game only harder and better..
So what the eff is with the mentality of the Democratic party leadership? The defense never wins, even in sports, a good defense can stop the opponent from scoring, but you are not going to score unless you have a good offense
I totally agree. I have been frustrated for years that the Ds never find their voice. We need to find FDR democrats who will shout and fight for the middle class.
republicans are the schoolyard bully, and Democrats have b een acting like the skinny, kid with glasses.
Actually it is all money.
Russia, when it wants to get an inside agent, doesn't , and didn't during the cold war, try to recruit lefties. They bought conservatives. Check out the spy's that were caught and proesecuted, they were right wingers, conservatives.
As a general rule the left acts on principal, and though the principals may align with, say, the Soviet Union. people acting on principle are unreliable, but when you can buy someone, they are yours forever.
One of the most damaging turncoats, sold out for $36,000. to pay off either medical debt or a credit card.
Fear is the only product Republicans trade in, and hate is the only service they provide. They manufacture monsters under the bed about inflation, debt, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ, and godless commies. But they continually downplay and dismiss what we should rightfully be concerned about, like global warming, AI, corporate power, and pandemics. WTF?
All of us woke, aware, Dems KNOW this; the problem is how do we effectively convey these facts o the unwoke, cult tied, so called republicans to see how they've been conned? Key word: EFFECTIVELY. I watch fox spews occasionally and even tho I am appalled at the lies, innuendo, name calling, blaming and derogatory remarks from every host about the Dems, it's been drilled into their brains for so long, trying to get them to break from fox and tune in to a left true news channel is like trying to separate conjoined at the body twins after birth.
Quite frankly, the republicans have changed the face of Christianity in the US. They did this on purpose and with great intention. Some how the words of Christ no longer fit what I call the right wing culture of the US. In Matthew 5:17-20 Jesus tells his audience He has not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. He added that heaven and earth will pass away, but the law and the prophets will never pass away. While Jesus was telling us ALL that no one can live up to the law and the prophets and he came to to do for us what we are unable to do ourselves. That did not say we are free to do whatever we feel like doing. But somehow Regan convinced the republicans that the unforgivable sin wasn't rejecting the Holy Spirit but having an abortion or being gay was in fact the unforgivable sin. The Old Testament legalists grabbed on to this and ran.with it hard as they could. Well since then the right wing Christian culture is unrecognizable when compared to the actual words and teachings of Christ. Bigotry. racism, misogyny, greed and false witness are the literal teachings of the right wing Christian culture. The overall affect of this long intentional process is that it's nearly impossible for the right wing culture to see outside the box of this delusion that republicans have created. After all, don't republicans claim to be the proclaimed Christian party? Project 25, "Christian" nationalism, twisted and false reporting by billionaire media owners all are direct results of bastardizing and blaspheming one religion. It doesn't take all morning to understand why people are walking away from Christianity.
These comments are not to leave out the influence of those people that do not share my faith. These comments are only an observation of the result of changing the precepts of an entire religion to gain political power. By the way, I don't believe this was ever a "Christian" nation, nor was it ever meant to be.
Nobody has changed the face of Christianity Mark. Christianity has always worn different faces. Christianity is a Rohrschacht test.
How one interprets the Bible or the so called Christ, tell us about the person, not the Bible or so called Christ.
There are the Mathew 25 Christians, which in todays parlance are "lefties" or liberals. and there are the Mosaic Christians, the Christians of Leviticus and Deuteronomy (also the jews that have taken over and are currently running Israel.;the Netanyahu Likkud crowd.
There is the Christianity of Charlemagne who has 4,500 Saxon men, children and women beheadeded on the banks of the Meuse in the Bloody Verdict of Verdun, because they continued worsshiping Hermansul (Arminius, Herman, in the form of an oak tree).
The crusade against the Albigensians, the Wendts, the Muslims, the persecution of Huegenots, of Muslims and Jews. even the Tudors got into the act, Mary, dtr of Henry VIII persecuted and burned alive protestants like a distant relative, Bishop Robert Farrar, and Elizabeth returned the favor persecuting Catholics and the persecutions culminated in Guy Fawkes and his plot to blow up parliament.
So many faces of Christianity, including the KGB/GSB agents that do double service as Russian orthodox priests and the Metropolitan of the church.
Tell me your concept of Christianity and I will tell you who you are: It is a Rorschach test
Here is my opinion Jan. Ideologues are the problem. Ideologues are devoid of critical thinking skills, because by embracing an ideology they have abandoned rationality.
What is an ideologue? Well there are sectarian ideologies,like Capitalism,Communism, Libertarianism, and secular ideologies like Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism.
If you embrace and ideology, then the pressure is to become a purist. In Christianity, the Dominionist form declares that all who are not strict believers and practitioners, that follow Mosaic law, are not real Christians, and if able to suffer extreme corporal punishment.
Islam has the same. There are salafists, what SCOTUS would call originalists,and if you aren't a follower of that particular version you are kufr or an apostate (murtadd) or infidel and either you die or become one of the faithful believers Examples are The Muslim Brotherhood, Taliban, ISIS, ISK, ISIL, Iran, and Wahabbiyah. Wahhabism[ is a Salafi revivalist movement within Sunni Islam named after the 18th-century Hanbali scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab
If you didn' follow his brand of Islam, you were kufr, and infidel, and paid the price with your life.
An Arab chief of a tribe, Saud, made an alliance with him, Wahhab would control the religious life of the Arabs and Saud the sectarian side. The same deal that Charlemagne struck with the bishop of Rome, the same deal that all leaders strike with secular leadership if they wish to rule.
One rules the sectarian life, the other the secular.
The problem is with the ideologues, the true believers be they religious, Marxists,libertarians or capitalists. anything with an ist is someone that has given up their right to rational and critical thought.
Same here, but an "ist" is part of one's self definition. Is being an atheist part of your identity, or is your self identity more complex.
I do not believe in a god or gods, some would call me an atheist, but my lack of belief does not define me,. humans have a need to slap a label on things. humans need labels names, it makes it easier for them to navigate the hard edges of reality.
Notice of how an unidentifiable person, captures the eye and mind and even causes discomfort. Is it a man, is it a woman the mind just has to know.
Are you part of my clan, my tribe? We just have to know.
I've take a number of ideological purity tests. I come out neither left, right or libertarian, I come out radical, because I can't be defined within the parameters that someone else has established as this or that.
Sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don't. I am comfortable with ambiguity,with not knowing most folk aren't. Regardless of where they sit on the political scale.
Yes, all true. And, yes, it has been working since, at least, 1980: That's almost 50 years!!!
So, why cannot the Democratic Party, or some coalition of progressive organizations learn how to fight back???? When you are in a knife fight, you need to learn how to use a knife...
Why the decision to follow a kind of "Republican Lite" strategy? To appease the Wall St and Silicon Valley bros' money that used to line up behind the Corporate Dems? Hello! In case you have not noticed, the IT bros' and big money boys have baled on you, already.
The limo liberals are still trying to maintain control of the Democratic Party AND fight the GOP/MAGA infection. Can't be done. It requires strong medicine and commitment to purge the infection WITHIN the Democrats, first.
Try to envision what today would be like if the Corporate Dem leaders had not knee-capped Bernie and greased the path for Hillary to run in 2016.
DL said:: Try to envision what today would be like if the Corporate Dem leaders had not knee-capped Bernie and greased the path for Hillary to run in 2016."
Amen to that, Bernie is a real populist, Trump is a fake populist . It would have given the voter a choice between left and right populism., but the Wall Street Funded DNC is scared shitless of real populists, because we the people dont have the money that corporations and their PAC;s have.
And there are those professional consultants, analysts an lobbyists that suckled at the teat of Wall Street
My favorite example is James Carville, a consultant who play acts a liberal rabble rouser and his wife Mary Matalin, who was a right wing rabble rouser, and of course George Conway who plays a liberal married to a right wing Harridan, Kellyanne Conway. Both doubled their income by playing both sides as husband and wife.
I agree. The two Santas strategy has killed the middle class. The Ds need to find their voice and fight back. A good starting point is to push back on the democratic socialist label or whatever label the Rs come up with and instead push for and support the FDR democrats.
The major cities have continued to vote blue, overwhelmingly, not falling for this. But the system we've built has made major urban centers so politically impotent they can be invaded by masked thugs beating and kidnapping people off the streets, on camera, against Judges orders, and existing laws, without any actual political answer.
We've made the donor cities into the new colonies, and the Republicans scam is proving to urban residents that we can't trust the government. It's turned into an extortion racket where the masked thugs don't want to trick you. They want to show you how weak you are.
They’ve become Praetorian. I think I heard 25% of Minneapolis budget is now solely for the law enforcement. We protected our schools from ICE, but now we’re losing them to what looks a lot like planned shrinkage aided by masked goon squads with terrorism and complete impunity.
Dems need to get a plan! List a few things we mutually have: Medicare for All --- means back to the original not privatized. Can they do that? How about free child care for those who must work to pay the bills. End for war and Trump to the ICC for war crimes.
Just wait until the millions of Americans need to buy fuel oil to heat their homes this winter. The cost per gallon will likely match or exceed the cost of diesel fuel. Then the pinch caused by Trump's war will really hit home (pun intended). Drivel about lower cost of eggs, etc., is just smoke to deceive gullible voters.
If we really wanted to reduce fossil fuel use, we would subsidize heat pumps that rely on electricity for AC and heating, and build more wind turbines and nuclear power plants.
I have a sneaky feeling that the Democrat’s 45 year failure to aggressively counter Repugnican BS may have something to do with sources of campaign money.
Thom clearly described how Republicans use what the late Hunter Thompson labeled "fear and loathing" to gain political power. America is a racist country, as are nearly all white-skinned nations. Brexit and most EU politics are rooted in fear of African and Arabian hordes invading their nations.
Having Haitian and other ethnic (usually Hispanic) immigrant "criminals s" moving into your neighborhood stoked "fear". Then preposterous claims of immigrants stealing and eating voter's pet dogs and cats triggered "loathing." Red states are far more racist than Blue ones, and that helped garner votes. Although, one additional factor ignored by pollsters after Trump's second election was asking Independents and Democrats who voted Red if they did so to punish their party for hiding Biden's dementia while running a Black woman with no significant political achievements.
I agree with you Tom, to an extent. America is indeed racist, it is in our blood. Manifest Destiny, eradication of the Indian is even older than the revolution, it goes back to King Philip's War in Massachusets in the 17th Century, and the Bacon Rebellion in the James River community. And it wasn't limited to whites. AmerIndians also had a thing about the "white eyes", the Indians supposedly under Washington's command, fell upon a company of French soldiers on patrol outside Ft Duquesne (Pittsburg) and brually tortured and slaughtered them, and George just stood by, and thus the start of the French and Indian war, which led to , in part, the tax act, which was enacted, supposedly, to pay for the costs of the French and Indian war, which the British called the seven years war, which led to the likes of the battle of the Fallen Timbers and colonization of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, whch led to....
Fact is you have a culture with advanced weapons and organization, pushing against cultures,not a culture, which is not so advanced in weapons and organization and the inevitable happens, and the winner credits their specie as superior,to the one they displaced.
You can see that all over the world, Africa, the Mideast, Europe, Asia anyplace cultures collide, it is predictable and non one should be suprised.
It is happening in Europe and accounts for the rise of the right, like the AfD, Fidesz, PiS, National Rally, Reform Parties, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden.
Only there it isn't race, the American idea of race and racism is uniquely American.
It didn't exist in Europe. Except in Germany,
The xenophobia behind Brexit was directed at Poles and Eastern Europeans, which were swarming into England and taking "British Jobs"
In Europe, Germany suffered a manpower shortage because of the war,and recruited Turks, most of whom were also sectarian, thanks to Kemal Attaturk, who "deMuslimed" Turkey, Erdogan has brought it back with a passion.
However Americans, and thus Europe's advantures into Syria and Afghanistan, and the negative effects of Colonialism by France and Belgium, created a wave of Muslim immigrants, into Europe, and immigrants that cling to their culture and religion, and worse had among them males that were radicalized by salafists (originalists) like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Wahhabi's financed by Saudi Arabia.. Thus the rise of Islamic terrorism, and the reaction of Europeans which perceived a threat to their culture from a hostile and unassimilable culture.
The hijab, which is simple a head scarf is a symbol. There is no objection to it when worn by babuskas's, Russian and Eastern European women
The hijab is not religious either, The Qur'an requires modesty of women and men, it descries it in women as covering the breasts.
The hijab is a broad word which includes everything from the headscarf to the bee keeper suit that Saudi and Palestinian Women have to wear.
But the headscarf requirement is political and originated with the Iranian Revolution of 1979, somehow it became "Islamic"
There may be an element of racism, but there is racism and there is racism, and American racism is it's own animal. Even in America blacks are treated differently, especially in business. American Descendants of Slaves are at the bottom of the ladder, Haitians next, but Africans have an easier go of it
The xenophobia of America is racially based, because the Hispanic or Latino immigrants are cultural conservatives, natural allies of the Christian right and in fact went for Trump in 2024,.
One of the most virulent right wing, anti immigrants is Mayra Flores of Tex 24th, herself a border hopper, who became a citizen and is now, second only to Natalie Harp (hyperbolic on purpose)
Growing up in very multi-ethnic Chicago, every ethnicity had a slang label like Polack, Kraut, Mick, Dego, Wop, Limey, Kike, etc. Today, one almost never hears such labels used anymore. However, slang for people of color, such as Spic and Nigger, are still often heard in America.
Definitely a pattern! Covid 19 hit us at the end of 2019 (hence the name). Trump called it a hoax. The last two years of his first presidency was mired in an economic downturn caused by unemployment and the disruption to worldwide supply lines, among other complications. He lost reelection in part because his “Covid Presidency” looked so incompetent (although his administration initiated the warp speed vaccine). It took most of Biden’s four years for us to recover. But, of course Trump and his minions blamed Biden for a weak economy - and the price of eggs! Then, true to form, Trump promised to fix the economy. He has for his family and fellow billionaires; they have never had it so good. The rest of us? Not so much!
Those of us who have observed and understood this playbook are overjoyed to see it fraying at the ages and beginning to smell bad from all the bullsh*t besmirching the false promises. I for one am almost unbearably gutted that the most vulnerable and least informed among us are still drinking the proverbial Kool-Aid. Jim Jordan lives, and he's sporting a MAGA hat.
The pattern is obvious. The problem is that too many MAGA deplorables are happy to have it all burn down if they can't have it all for themselves. They don't care who gets hurt, even their own families, even themselves. The morbidly rich have won a comprehensive victory. The reason the Democrats have been so ineffectual in fighting back is that too many of their leaders, some overtly, vastly more covertly, are in the pockets of the MAGAtocracy.
That is why November means so much. We need new, uncoopted Congresspeople, governors, state legislators, mayors, school board members--all of them. I'm not naive. A lot of people, maybe most, can be bought at the right price. But in history, there come moments when the plebs have enough, and there is a reckoning, usually bloody. Often leading to a worse regime, but not always. It would be great if we could avoid that. It might even be "exceptional".
It's interesting, though, how so many of these once "new, uncoopted" candidates become caught up in the political agendas surrounding them once they're in office, and morph into the same "coopted" person we voted against in the first place.
And Carville, Emanuel, Biggs, Begala, Ed Martin. I understand the belief, that money is needed to run for politics, but what one needs is not money but publicity, and the regnant idea is that money buys publicity, and Bernie proved differently .
But Bernie didn't run an effective campaign, he let HIllary dominate the civil rights issue, while in fact here activities during that era were for show, whereas he actually marched and campaigned, but but not bragging he allowed Hillary's campaign to put her forward as some kind of civil rights champion, and that resulted in the all powerful (as far as the southern Democrat voting bloc) black women run South Carolina Democratic party, basically make her the Democratic party nominee.
I know that I will run afoul of some Hillary Bots, simply because she is a woman, but she is a phoney, not even a class act. She hitched her star to Billm stayed with him as the satyr cheated on her and used the Arkansas state police to bring women to his hotel room., She stayed with im through Monica and the b.j. scandal, because she had her eye on the prize, the Presidency, and when she lost to Obama, the DNC stepped in and told Barack to make her Sec of State, because at that time, the Council on Foreign Relations, Round Table and Chamber of Commerce were the big power centers in DC.
And it was believed that having foreign service experience and credentials was the ticket to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Then along came Trump and proved them wrong, it was actually the long simmering, but heat rising culture war that middle America was gnashing their teeth on, affirmative action, DEI, political correct speech, the so called cancel culture, which really hurt the Israeli lobby, with it's BDS..
All were and are justifiable humanitarian issues, but the left handled and still handles them wrong, by spitting out wrong headed phrases and propaganda which is used as ammo to terrify voting middle America, white, black, brown, Asian.
The left, liberals, progressives, what ever are terrible propagandists,constantly shooting themselves in the foot, so eager to prove that they are politically pure and rightist, and the result Trump and a slavish Congress.
I am not arguing for centrism (there is no such thing IMO) but for intelligent use of propaganda, of not supporting idiots who say stupid things, like defund the police, or defiud the FBI or calling people who defend themselves from terrorist, the aggressor or guilty of genocide.
Want a full on right wing dictatorship, well keep it up fools. and as at the gates of Arbeit macht Frei shut behind you, you can smugly proclaim, "but I was correct"
Every airborne unit has people in it who will die from friendly fire, or an enemy sniper.
Well, Thom, you have way with words and ideas; if only those who needed to hear those words and ideas would listen. I hope you don't mind if I steal (or borrow) some of them to use in my other blogs and/or letters.
This is not news or new. This has been the Republican playbook as long as i have paid attention. I fault the Democrats, were not getting ahead of he curve, for not going on the offensive and always p;laying defense, and even that ineffectively and half heatedly.
Dems should have been playing he same game only harder and better..
So what the eff is with the mentality of the Democratic party leadership? The defense never wins, even in sports, a good defense can stop the opponent from scoring, but you are not going to score unless you have a good offense
I totally agree. I have been frustrated for years that the Ds never find their voice. We need to find FDR democrats who will shout and fight for the middle class.
republicans are the schoolyard bully, and Democrats have b een acting like the skinny, kid with glasses.
Actually it is all money.
Russia, when it wants to get an inside agent, doesn't , and didn't during the cold war, try to recruit lefties. They bought conservatives. Check out the spy's that were caught and proesecuted, they were right wingers, conservatives.
As a general rule the left acts on principal, and though the principals may align with, say, the Soviet Union. people acting on principle are unreliable, but when you can buy someone, they are yours forever.
One of the most damaging turncoats, sold out for $36,000. to pay off either medical debt or a credit card.
Their bank accounts are scoring and they don't want to rock the boat.
But the deficit!!! /smh
Fear is the only product Republicans trade in, and hate is the only service they provide. They manufacture monsters under the bed about inflation, debt, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ, and godless commies. But they continually downplay and dismiss what we should rightfully be concerned about, like global warming, AI, corporate power, and pandemics. WTF?
All of us woke, aware, Dems KNOW this; the problem is how do we effectively convey these facts o the unwoke, cult tied, so called republicans to see how they've been conned? Key word: EFFECTIVELY. I watch fox spews occasionally and even tho I am appalled at the lies, innuendo, name calling, blaming and derogatory remarks from every host about the Dems, it's been drilled into their brains for so long, trying to get them to break from fox and tune in to a left true news channel is like trying to separate conjoined at the body twins after birth.
Quite frankly, the republicans have changed the face of Christianity in the US. They did this on purpose and with great intention. Some how the words of Christ no longer fit what I call the right wing culture of the US. In Matthew 5:17-20 Jesus tells his audience He has not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. He added that heaven and earth will pass away, but the law and the prophets will never pass away. While Jesus was telling us ALL that no one can live up to the law and the prophets and he came to to do for us what we are unable to do ourselves. That did not say we are free to do whatever we feel like doing. But somehow Regan convinced the republicans that the unforgivable sin wasn't rejecting the Holy Spirit but having an abortion or being gay was in fact the unforgivable sin. The Old Testament legalists grabbed on to this and ran.with it hard as they could. Well since then the right wing Christian culture is unrecognizable when compared to the actual words and teachings of Christ. Bigotry. racism, misogyny, greed and false witness are the literal teachings of the right wing Christian culture. The overall affect of this long intentional process is that it's nearly impossible for the right wing culture to see outside the box of this delusion that republicans have created. After all, don't republicans claim to be the proclaimed Christian party? Project 25, "Christian" nationalism, twisted and false reporting by billionaire media owners all are direct results of bastardizing and blaspheming one religion. It doesn't take all morning to understand why people are walking away from Christianity.
These comments are not to leave out the influence of those people that do not share my faith. These comments are only an observation of the result of changing the precepts of an entire religion to gain political power. By the way, I don't believe this was ever a "Christian" nation, nor was it ever meant to be.
Nobody has changed the face of Christianity Mark. Christianity has always worn different faces. Christianity is a Rohrschacht test.
How one interprets the Bible or the so called Christ, tell us about the person, not the Bible or so called Christ.
There are the Mathew 25 Christians, which in todays parlance are "lefties" or liberals. and there are the Mosaic Christians, the Christians of Leviticus and Deuteronomy (also the jews that have taken over and are currently running Israel.;the Netanyahu Likkud crowd.
There is the Christianity of Charlemagne who has 4,500 Saxon men, children and women beheadeded on the banks of the Meuse in the Bloody Verdict of Verdun, because they continued worsshiping Hermansul (Arminius, Herman, in the form of an oak tree).
The crusade against the Albigensians, the Wendts, the Muslims, the persecution of Huegenots, of Muslims and Jews. even the Tudors got into the act, Mary, dtr of Henry VIII persecuted and burned alive protestants like a distant relative, Bishop Robert Farrar, and Elizabeth returned the favor persecuting Catholics and the persecutions culminated in Guy Fawkes and his plot to blow up parliament.
So many faces of Christianity, including the KGB/GSB agents that do double service as Russian orthodox priests and the Metropolitan of the church.
Tell me your concept of Christianity and I will tell you who you are: It is a Rorschach test
Here is my opinion Jan. Ideologues are the problem. Ideologues are devoid of critical thinking skills, because by embracing an ideology they have abandoned rationality.
What is an ideologue? Well there are sectarian ideologies,like Capitalism,Communism, Libertarianism, and secular ideologies like Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism.
If you embrace and ideology, then the pressure is to become a purist. In Christianity, the Dominionist form declares that all who are not strict believers and practitioners, that follow Mosaic law, are not real Christians, and if able to suffer extreme corporal punishment.
Islam has the same. There are salafists, what SCOTUS would call originalists,and if you aren't a follower of that particular version you are kufr or an apostate (murtadd) or infidel and either you die or become one of the faithful believers Examples are The Muslim Brotherhood, Taliban, ISIS, ISK, ISIL, Iran, and Wahabbiyah. Wahhabism[ is a Salafi revivalist movement within Sunni Islam named after the 18th-century Hanbali scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab
If you didn' follow his brand of Islam, you were kufr, and infidel, and paid the price with your life.
An Arab chief of a tribe, Saud, made an alliance with him, Wahhab would control the religious life of the Arabs and Saud the sectarian side. The same deal that Charlemagne struck with the bishop of Rome, the same deal that all leaders strike with secular leadership if they wish to rule.
One rules the sectarian life, the other the secular.
The problem is with the ideologues, the true believers be they religious, Marxists,libertarians or capitalists. anything with an ist is someone that has given up their right to rational and critical thought.
Well, I am an athe--ist because I have given belief in a god lots of critical thought.
Same here, but an "ist" is part of one's self definition. Is being an atheist part of your identity, or is your self identity more complex.
I do not believe in a god or gods, some would call me an atheist, but my lack of belief does not define me,. humans have a need to slap a label on things. humans need labels names, it makes it easier for them to navigate the hard edges of reality.
Notice of how an unidentifiable person, captures the eye and mind and even causes discomfort. Is it a man, is it a woman the mind just has to know.
Are you part of my clan, my tribe? We just have to know.
I've take a number of ideological purity tests. I come out neither left, right or libertarian, I come out radical, because I can't be defined within the parameters that someone else has established as this or that.
Sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don't. I am comfortable with ambiguity,with not knowing most folk aren't. Regardless of where they sit on the political scale.
Yes, all true. And, yes, it has been working since, at least, 1980: That's almost 50 years!!!
So, why cannot the Democratic Party, or some coalition of progressive organizations learn how to fight back???? When you are in a knife fight, you need to learn how to use a knife...
Why the decision to follow a kind of "Republican Lite" strategy? To appease the Wall St and Silicon Valley bros' money that used to line up behind the Corporate Dems? Hello! In case you have not noticed, the IT bros' and big money boys have baled on you, already.
The limo liberals are still trying to maintain control of the Democratic Party AND fight the GOP/MAGA infection. Can't be done. It requires strong medicine and commitment to purge the infection WITHIN the Democrats, first.
Try to envision what today would be like if the Corporate Dem leaders had not knee-capped Bernie and greased the path for Hillary to run in 2016.
DL
DL said:: Try to envision what today would be like if the Corporate Dem leaders had not knee-capped Bernie and greased the path for Hillary to run in 2016."
Amen to that, Bernie is a real populist, Trump is a fake populist . It would have given the voter a choice between left and right populism., but the Wall Street Funded DNC is scared shitless of real populists, because we the people dont have the money that corporations and their PAC;s have.
And there are those professional consultants, analysts an lobbyists that suckled at the teat of Wall Street
My favorite example is James Carville, a consultant who play acts a liberal rabble rouser and his wife Mary Matalin, who was a right wing rabble rouser, and of course George Conway who plays a liberal married to a right wing Harridan, Kellyanne Conway. Both doubled their income by playing both sides as husband and wife.
I agree. The two Santas strategy has killed the middle class. The Ds need to find their voice and fight back. A good starting point is to push back on the democratic socialist label or whatever label the Rs come up with and instead push for and support the FDR democrats.
The major cities have continued to vote blue, overwhelmingly, not falling for this. But the system we've built has made major urban centers so politically impotent they can be invaded by masked thugs beating and kidnapping people off the streets, on camera, against Judges orders, and existing laws, without any actual political answer.
We've made the donor cities into the new colonies, and the Republicans scam is proving to urban residents that we can't trust the government. It's turned into an extortion racket where the masked thugs don't want to trick you. They want to show you how weak you are.
What happened to enforcement?
They’ve become Praetorian. I think I heard 25% of Minneapolis budget is now solely for the law enforcement. We protected our schools from ICE, but now we’re losing them to what looks a lot like planned shrinkage aided by masked goon squads with terrorism and complete impunity.
Dems need to get a plan! List a few things we mutually have: Medicare for All --- means back to the original not privatized. Can they do that? How about free child care for those who must work to pay the bills. End for war and Trump to the ICC for war crimes.
Just wait until the millions of Americans need to buy fuel oil to heat their homes this winter. The cost per gallon will likely match or exceed the cost of diesel fuel. Then the pinch caused by Trump's war will really hit home (pun intended). Drivel about lower cost of eggs, etc., is just smoke to deceive gullible voters.
Yet another bonus of choosing to live in Florida.
If we really wanted to reduce fossil fuel use, we would subsidize heat pumps that rely on electricity for AC and heating, and build more wind turbines and nuclear power plants.
I have a sneaky feeling that the Democrat’s 45 year failure to aggressively counter Repugnican BS may have something to do with sources of campaign money.
You think? Money talks, people walk.
Surely the Third Way will work it all out, with the help of James Carville, Rahm Emmanuel, etc, etc.
I get the sarcasm. Bastards all
Thom clearly described how Republicans use what the late Hunter Thompson labeled "fear and loathing" to gain political power. America is a racist country, as are nearly all white-skinned nations. Brexit and most EU politics are rooted in fear of African and Arabian hordes invading their nations.
Having Haitian and other ethnic (usually Hispanic) immigrant "criminals s" moving into your neighborhood stoked "fear". Then preposterous claims of immigrants stealing and eating voter's pet dogs and cats triggered "loathing." Red states are far more racist than Blue ones, and that helped garner votes. Although, one additional factor ignored by pollsters after Trump's second election was asking Independents and Democrats who voted Red if they did so to punish their party for hiding Biden's dementia while running a Black woman with no significant political achievements.
I agree with you Tom, to an extent. America is indeed racist, it is in our blood. Manifest Destiny, eradication of the Indian is even older than the revolution, it goes back to King Philip's War in Massachusets in the 17th Century, and the Bacon Rebellion in the James River community. And it wasn't limited to whites. AmerIndians also had a thing about the "white eyes", the Indians supposedly under Washington's command, fell upon a company of French soldiers on patrol outside Ft Duquesne (Pittsburg) and brually tortured and slaughtered them, and George just stood by, and thus the start of the French and Indian war, which led to , in part, the tax act, which was enacted, supposedly, to pay for the costs of the French and Indian war, which the British called the seven years war, which led to the likes of the battle of the Fallen Timbers and colonization of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, whch led to....
Fact is you have a culture with advanced weapons and organization, pushing against cultures,not a culture, which is not so advanced in weapons and organization and the inevitable happens, and the winner credits their specie as superior,to the one they displaced.
You can see that all over the world, Africa, the Mideast, Europe, Asia anyplace cultures collide, it is predictable and non one should be suprised.
It is happening in Europe and accounts for the rise of the right, like the AfD, Fidesz, PiS, National Rally, Reform Parties, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden.
Only there it isn't race, the American idea of race and racism is uniquely American.
It didn't exist in Europe. Except in Germany,
The xenophobia behind Brexit was directed at Poles and Eastern Europeans, which were swarming into England and taking "British Jobs"
In Europe, Germany suffered a manpower shortage because of the war,and recruited Turks, most of whom were also sectarian, thanks to Kemal Attaturk, who "deMuslimed" Turkey, Erdogan has brought it back with a passion.
However Americans, and thus Europe's advantures into Syria and Afghanistan, and the negative effects of Colonialism by France and Belgium, created a wave of Muslim immigrants, into Europe, and immigrants that cling to their culture and religion, and worse had among them males that were radicalized by salafists (originalists) like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Wahhabi's financed by Saudi Arabia.. Thus the rise of Islamic terrorism, and the reaction of Europeans which perceived a threat to their culture from a hostile and unassimilable culture.
The hijab, which is simple a head scarf is a symbol. There is no objection to it when worn by babuskas's, Russian and Eastern European women
The hijab is not religious either, The Qur'an requires modesty of women and men, it descries it in women as covering the breasts.
The hijab is a broad word which includes everything from the headscarf to the bee keeper suit that Saudi and Palestinian Women have to wear.
But the headscarf requirement is political and originated with the Iranian Revolution of 1979, somehow it became "Islamic"
There may be an element of racism, but there is racism and there is racism, and American racism is it's own animal. Even in America blacks are treated differently, especially in business. American Descendants of Slaves are at the bottom of the ladder, Haitians next, but Africans have an easier go of it
The xenophobia of America is racially based, because the Hispanic or Latino immigrants are cultural conservatives, natural allies of the Christian right and in fact went for Trump in 2024,.
One of the most virulent right wing, anti immigrants is Mayra Flores of Tex 24th, herself a border hopper, who became a citizen and is now, second only to Natalie Harp (hyperbolic on purpose)
Growing up in very multi-ethnic Chicago, every ethnicity had a slang label like Polack, Kraut, Mick, Dego, Wop, Limey, Kike, etc. Today, one almost never hears such labels used anymore. However, slang for people of color, such as Spic and Nigger, are still often heard in America.
I always learn something from your comments.
Definitely a pattern! Covid 19 hit us at the end of 2019 (hence the name). Trump called it a hoax. The last two years of his first presidency was mired in an economic downturn caused by unemployment and the disruption to worldwide supply lines, among other complications. He lost reelection in part because his “Covid Presidency” looked so incompetent (although his administration initiated the warp speed vaccine). It took most of Biden’s four years for us to recover. But, of course Trump and his minions blamed Biden for a weak economy - and the price of eggs! Then, true to form, Trump promised to fix the economy. He has for his family and fellow billionaires; they have never had it so good. The rest of us? Not so much!
Great article, Thom. Never let them forget.
Those of us who have observed and understood this playbook are overjoyed to see it fraying at the ages and beginning to smell bad from all the bullsh*t besmirching the false promises. I for one am almost unbearably gutted that the most vulnerable and least informed among us are still drinking the proverbial Kool-Aid. Jim Jordan lives, and he's sporting a MAGA hat.
The pattern is obvious. The problem is that too many MAGA deplorables are happy to have it all burn down if they can't have it all for themselves. They don't care who gets hurt, even their own families, even themselves. The morbidly rich have won a comprehensive victory. The reason the Democrats have been so ineffectual in fighting back is that too many of their leaders, some overtly, vastly more covertly, are in the pockets of the MAGAtocracy.
That is why November means so much. We need new, uncoopted Congresspeople, governors, state legislators, mayors, school board members--all of them. I'm not naive. A lot of people, maybe most, can be bought at the right price. But in history, there come moments when the plebs have enough, and there is a reckoning, usually bloody. Often leading to a worse regime, but not always. It would be great if we could avoid that. It might even be "exceptional".
It's interesting, though, how so many of these once "new, uncoopted" candidates become caught up in the political agendas surrounding them once they're in office, and morph into the same "coopted" person we voted against in the first place.
I agree .with a couple notable exceptions Kyrsten Sinema & John Fetterman.
And Carville, Emanuel, Biggs, Begala, Ed Martin. I understand the belief, that money is needed to run for politics, but what one needs is not money but publicity, and the regnant idea is that money buys publicity, and Bernie proved differently .
But Bernie didn't run an effective campaign, he let HIllary dominate the civil rights issue, while in fact here activities during that era were for show, whereas he actually marched and campaigned, but but not bragging he allowed Hillary's campaign to put her forward as some kind of civil rights champion, and that resulted in the all powerful (as far as the southern Democrat voting bloc) black women run South Carolina Democratic party, basically make her the Democratic party nominee.
I know that I will run afoul of some Hillary Bots, simply because she is a woman, but she is a phoney, not even a class act. She hitched her star to Billm stayed with him as the satyr cheated on her and used the Arkansas state police to bring women to his hotel room., She stayed with im through Monica and the b.j. scandal, because she had her eye on the prize, the Presidency, and when she lost to Obama, the DNC stepped in and told Barack to make her Sec of State, because at that time, the Council on Foreign Relations, Round Table and Chamber of Commerce were the big power centers in DC.
And it was believed that having foreign service experience and credentials was the ticket to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Then along came Trump and proved them wrong, it was actually the long simmering, but heat rising culture war that middle America was gnashing their teeth on, affirmative action, DEI, political correct speech, the so called cancel culture, which really hurt the Israeli lobby, with it's BDS..
All were and are justifiable humanitarian issues, but the left handled and still handles them wrong, by spitting out wrong headed phrases and propaganda which is used as ammo to terrify voting middle America, white, black, brown, Asian.
The left, liberals, progressives, what ever are terrible propagandists,constantly shooting themselves in the foot, so eager to prove that they are politically pure and rightist, and the result Trump and a slavish Congress.
I am not arguing for centrism (there is no such thing IMO) but for intelligent use of propaganda, of not supporting idiots who say stupid things, like defund the police, or defiud the FBI or calling people who defend themselves from terrorist, the aggressor or guilty of genocide.
Want a full on right wing dictatorship, well keep it up fools. and as at the gates of Arbeit macht Frei shut behind you, you can smugly proclaim, "but I was correct"
Every airborne unit has people in it who will die from friendly fire, or an enemy sniper.
Well, Thom, you have way with words and ideas; if only those who needed to hear those words and ideas would listen. I hope you don't mind if I steal (or borrow) some of them to use in my other blogs and/or letters.