after untold years following US politics, after many years of wondering and astonishment and a feeling of creeping sadness but still having hope, I sense reaching a point of no return, a deep depression and fear that the US cannot get back anymore on a path to sanity. These last few weeks, days, got me sonehow. I feel defeated in my hope that the forces of good, whatever color they come in, are not able anymore to avert the worst. It doesnt matter if all this is born from fanaticsm, cynicism or plain material greed…it seems it is on course to inevitable triumph. And its not the powerful few…its the masses that fall for it. Or consciously embrace it. They apparently dont need to be a majority. Just critically large and fervent enough.
On Wisconsin. What in the world has happened to you? Gerrymandering has put kooks in office. In any case, the list has "Free radical therapy" which seems wholly out of place since it is a cancer therapy involving radical electrons and so on. Indeed, I am surprised that such a therapy has not been invoked for treatment of Covid, but I suppose then the term would have to be twisted into something like "constrained reaction cure" though the concept of reaction, reaction formation and reactionary are soon to be banned as well, being that such psychological profiling may cause hurt feelings.
Imagine the outcome (and the cost in blood and treasure) if the Allied forces in WWII had acted as separate entities in separate places to defeat Germany, Italy and Japan....
Today, with different groups scattered around the country doing what they think they can do in their sphere of influence and geography, we lack a cohesive and united strategy to mount the biggest defense of Democracy in our lifetimes.
The founders and contributors of The Bulwark (among other well-known journalists and political operatives) have the contacts and resources to try to pull together the best minds in all fields to develop a unified strategy that gives us the best chance to save Democracy as we know it.
They can provide national leadership so millions upon millions of Americans across the country can engage and contribute their time, energy and money to the effort.
Who will step up beyond words and the wringing of hands, before it is too late?
In the 2018 midterms, only 1 out of 41 seats that flipped from red to blue was won by a Progressive. The moderates in Congress tried to tell them that their rhetoric about "defund the police" and others, was going to cost them seats in the 2020 election, and they were correct about that. But the Progressives insulate themselves from responsibility and political realities by claiming we lost because we didn't go far enough. With them it is all or nothing, our way or we sit it out type of threats. They are too extreme. As far as I'm concerned, they are the other side of the MAGA coin, and the vast majority of Americans are tired of being ruled by the extreme minorities on either side of the political spectrum. Moderates gave Biden the nomination, moderates from all parties gave him the White House. We're going to lose their support in the upcoming midterms and the 2024 election if things don't change.
I love the Bulwark, but once again, it completely misunderstands progressives’ motivations as if the very left wing is trying to destroy America when they’ve done nothing but compromise and compromise some more. Why is the package 1/2 the size? Progressives compromised, and they had to, they don’t have the numbers. But they did, and now we don’t have paid leave.
I had to go back to work full time when my daughter was 11 weeks old because she was born early, and I missed the cutoff that would have given me state paid leave. 11 weeks was the age she had to be to go to daycare otherwise I would have gone back to work earlier. It was also a two- year waiting list to get daycare assistance. I got my BA degree, my administration job paid me $14 an hour. I was a single mom. Without family financial support, I don’t know what I would have done. I couldn’t afford my child. Her dad left me after 5 weeks. I am not the only woman who has lived this. I am pissed that Guatemala offers better paid leave than this country, and you should be too if you are pro family.
To progressives, the Infrastructure deal has been branded as a give-away to big business, while the “human” infrastructure package (omg call it human “capital” 🤦🏻♀️ ) is going to help the poor. Once again, they aren’t great at marketing their ideas to the swing voter in Virginia. But those house members aren’t worried about Virginia, they are worried about their constituents. Last time I checked, that’s how the House should work. We just have a huge geographical divide that the Right is exploiting. But you got to stop shitting on “wokeism,” as it does nothing other than increase the divide and feeds harmful GOP talking points.
To dismiss “wokeism” without understanding where it came from or acknowledging what it actually means to the left, is to also doom ourselves because we need all parts of our coalition. I used to take the same train where Oscar Grant was murdered. Breonna Taylor. Ahamed Arbury. Sandra Bland. I can name so many more names and you can too. Gabby Petito goes missing, and the media goes apoplectic. The hispanic/ Native American girl who has been missing for a five days in my neighborhood here in Vegas, well… not so much. I have extremely progressive friends and so many are not college educated; it’s too expensive. They have been left out of the workforce and economy just as much as the rabid Trump voter, but unlike the Trump voter, they are young. Maybe The Bulwark try to should understand them, like the many hours you’ve spent trying to understand the 75 million that voted for Trump. Maybe then we can end the divisive culture war and actually get policies that help people.
Someone has probably already gone here, but how about we update "fellow traveler" from the McCarthy Era to apply to all the otherwise sane legislators, State and Federal, who are seeking to grow their bank accounts and feed their egos by latching on to the lies of the Trumpists and self-styled neo-Nazis? Seems even more applicable, and destructive, today than it was for the first go-round.
For God's sake, save us from all the well-intentioned people who are Sounding the Alarm! Do any of them understand that they are preaching to the choir? Trump's first term sounded the alarm. The Jan 6 Insurrection sounded the alarm. The GOP's embrace of trump post-Jan 6 sounded the alram. The steady and dangerous march of today's GOP at the federal and state level towards authoritarism and giving themselves the ability to steal elections is sounding the alarm.
Again I ask, who among these people with resources is going to roll up their sleeves and bring together experts from a wide swath of professions - journalism, government, national security, former politicians from either party, advertising, marketing, media, social media, legal, academia - and get down to the urgent business of coming up with a national, workable strategy to keep us from losing our democracy before it is too late?
Once today's GOP regains the reins of power in the next 3 years, they will go far beyond trump's first term. They will pervert every agency of government to keep and extend their power and to punish their perceived enemies. Elections will be nothing more than window dressing, with their dear leader demanding 96% of the vote. The military and armed militias will be used against peaceful protesters. I shudder to think of the crimes that will be tolerated against communities of color.
We need a cohesive strategy and the right messaging from all quarters. Invite people from large swaths of professions to come armed with information AND ideas. Make it a week-long symposium of sorts. Come up with a plan that can be successful. We need to convince Americans who are busy with their own lives and don't follow politics, who don't pay to subscribe to the Atlantic, Wapo or NYT, or even The Bulwark +, that we must defeat today's GOP in every upcoming election, at every level, that only their defeat at the ballot box will cause them to reform.
There are millions of Americans willing to pitch in with time, energy, and money, but we need a cohesive strategy and national leadership.
We're long past the time for eloquent and moving words, and we're certainly not going to accomplish anything by preaching to the choir. The fascists in Germany were successful because once they took power, a portion of their nation embraced it, a portion believed they could profit from it, and the multitude felt the threat of prison or death was too much to bear to speak up or act out.
If it's as dire as everyone keeps saying it is, and I believe it is, then it's time to ACT. The midterm season is about to begin.
Where are those with the resources who can step up and pull us together to mount our best defense of democracy?
When the Orange Napoleon inevitably return's from Mar-a-Elba, will he find a coalition ready to meet him or are the British and the Prussians too busy debating about whose cannons look the most elegant? Right now it seems to be the latter.
In Texas, a state representative is demanding that school officials identify any “material that might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.”
The political right is dominated by Christians. Christian theology has a doctrine of original sin: We are all born in sin and deserve nothing but eternal damnation. So we are all to feel discomfort, guilt, anguish and all form of psychological distress because of our very existence! And if we get what we deserve, we will suffer literal distress for eternity! Compared to this extraordinary doctrine, we immediately get a sense of the cultural shallowness the right is peddling.
The right is pushing a sort of Whiggish history: We had slavery. We had a civil war that ended slavery and banished racism from our nation for all time. After all, didn't Trump declare himself the least racist person in the country? Meanwhile, back in the land of reality, Trump and his minions created the permission structure for the Capital insurrectionists to chant "Fucking Nigger" at a police officer.
Just think it's worth pointing out, with the whole January 6 was a false flag thing, January 6, which happened on January 6, and the helicopters are leaving Afghanistan and coming home, the timeline is slightly problematic. What is even being implied here? And leaving Afghanistan, brining the helicopters home, was fulfilling a promise made by the insurrection inciter during his administration. But, if you pay for a FoxNews streaming service, you have already demonstrated you're a mark.
after untold years following US politics, after many years of wondering and astonishment and a feeling of creeping sadness but still having hope, I sense reaching a point of no return, a deep depression and fear that the US cannot get back anymore on a path to sanity. These last few weeks, days, got me sonehow. I feel defeated in my hope that the forces of good, whatever color they come in, are not able anymore to avert the worst. It doesnt matter if all this is born from fanaticsm, cynicism or plain material greed…it seems it is on course to inevitable triumph. And its not the powerful few…its the masses that fall for it. Or consciously embrace it. They apparently dont need to be a majority. Just critically large and fervent enough.
On Wisconsin. What in the world has happened to you? Gerrymandering has put kooks in office. In any case, the list has "Free radical therapy" which seems wholly out of place since it is a cancer therapy involving radical electrons and so on. Indeed, I am surprised that such a therapy has not been invoked for treatment of Covid, but I suppose then the term would have to be twisted into something like "constrained reaction cure" though the concept of reaction, reaction formation and reactionary are soon to be banned as well, being that such psychological profiling may cause hurt feelings.
Imagine the outcome (and the cost in blood and treasure) if the Allied forces in WWII had acted as separate entities in separate places to defeat Germany, Italy and Japan....
Today, with different groups scattered around the country doing what they think they can do in their sphere of influence and geography, we lack a cohesive and united strategy to mount the biggest defense of Democracy in our lifetimes.
The founders and contributors of The Bulwark (among other well-known journalists and political operatives) have the contacts and resources to try to pull together the best minds in all fields to develop a unified strategy that gives us the best chance to save Democracy as we know it.
They can provide national leadership so millions upon millions of Americans across the country can engage and contribute their time, energy and money to the effort.
Who will step up beyond words and the wringing of hands, before it is too late?
In the 2018 midterms, only 1 out of 41 seats that flipped from red to blue was won by a Progressive. The moderates in Congress tried to tell them that their rhetoric about "defund the police" and others, was going to cost them seats in the 2020 election, and they were correct about that. But the Progressives insulate themselves from responsibility and political realities by claiming we lost because we didn't go far enough. With them it is all or nothing, our way or we sit it out type of threats. They are too extreme. As far as I'm concerned, they are the other side of the MAGA coin, and the vast majority of Americans are tired of being ruled by the extreme minorities on either side of the political spectrum. Moderates gave Biden the nomination, moderates from all parties gave him the White House. We're going to lose their support in the upcoming midterms and the 2024 election if things don't change.
I love the Bulwark, but once again, it completely misunderstands progressives’ motivations as if the very left wing is trying to destroy America when they’ve done nothing but compromise and compromise some more. Why is the package 1/2 the size? Progressives compromised, and they had to, they don’t have the numbers. But they did, and now we don’t have paid leave.
I had to go back to work full time when my daughter was 11 weeks old because she was born early, and I missed the cutoff that would have given me state paid leave. 11 weeks was the age she had to be to go to daycare otherwise I would have gone back to work earlier. It was also a two- year waiting list to get daycare assistance. I got my BA degree, my administration job paid me $14 an hour. I was a single mom. Without family financial support, I don’t know what I would have done. I couldn’t afford my child. Her dad left me after 5 weeks. I am not the only woman who has lived this. I am pissed that Guatemala offers better paid leave than this country, and you should be too if you are pro family.
To progressives, the Infrastructure deal has been branded as a give-away to big business, while the “human” infrastructure package (omg call it human “capital” 🤦🏻♀️ ) is going to help the poor. Once again, they aren’t great at marketing their ideas to the swing voter in Virginia. But those house members aren’t worried about Virginia, they are worried about their constituents. Last time I checked, that’s how the House should work. We just have a huge geographical divide that the Right is exploiting. But you got to stop shitting on “wokeism,” as it does nothing other than increase the divide and feeds harmful GOP talking points.
To dismiss “wokeism” without understanding where it came from or acknowledging what it actually means to the left, is to also doom ourselves because we need all parts of our coalition. I used to take the same train where Oscar Grant was murdered. Breonna Taylor. Ahamed Arbury. Sandra Bland. I can name so many more names and you can too. Gabby Petito goes missing, and the media goes apoplectic. The hispanic/ Native American girl who has been missing for a five days in my neighborhood here in Vegas, well… not so much. I have extremely progressive friends and so many are not college educated; it’s too expensive. They have been left out of the workforce and economy just as much as the rabid Trump voter, but unlike the Trump voter, they are young. Maybe The Bulwark try to should understand them, like the many hours you’ve spent trying to understand the 75 million that voted for Trump. Maybe then we can end the divisive culture war and actually get policies that help people.
Someone has probably already gone here, but how about we update "fellow traveler" from the McCarthy Era to apply to all the otherwise sane legislators, State and Federal, who are seeking to grow their bank accounts and feed their egos by latching on to the lies of the Trumpists and self-styled neo-Nazis? Seems even more applicable, and destructive, today than it was for the first go-round.
For God's sake, save us from all the well-intentioned people who are Sounding the Alarm! Do any of them understand that they are preaching to the choir? Trump's first term sounded the alarm. The Jan 6 Insurrection sounded the alarm. The GOP's embrace of trump post-Jan 6 sounded the alram. The steady and dangerous march of today's GOP at the federal and state level towards authoritarism and giving themselves the ability to steal elections is sounding the alarm.
Again I ask, who among these people with resources is going to roll up their sleeves and bring together experts from a wide swath of professions - journalism, government, national security, former politicians from either party, advertising, marketing, media, social media, legal, academia - and get down to the urgent business of coming up with a national, workable strategy to keep us from losing our democracy before it is too late?
Once today's GOP regains the reins of power in the next 3 years, they will go far beyond trump's first term. They will pervert every agency of government to keep and extend their power and to punish their perceived enemies. Elections will be nothing more than window dressing, with their dear leader demanding 96% of the vote. The military and armed militias will be used against peaceful protesters. I shudder to think of the crimes that will be tolerated against communities of color.
We need a cohesive strategy and the right messaging from all quarters. Invite people from large swaths of professions to come armed with information AND ideas. Make it a week-long symposium of sorts. Come up with a plan that can be successful. We need to convince Americans who are busy with their own lives and don't follow politics, who don't pay to subscribe to the Atlantic, Wapo or NYT, or even The Bulwark +, that we must defeat today's GOP in every upcoming election, at every level, that only their defeat at the ballot box will cause them to reform.
There are millions of Americans willing to pitch in with time, energy, and money, but we need a cohesive strategy and national leadership.
We're long past the time for eloquent and moving words, and we're certainly not going to accomplish anything by preaching to the choir. The fascists in Germany were successful because once they took power, a portion of their nation embraced it, a portion believed they could profit from it, and the multitude felt the threat of prison or death was too much to bear to speak up or act out.
If it's as dire as everyone keeps saying it is, and I believe it is, then it's time to ACT. The midterm season is about to begin.
Where are those with the resources who can step up and pull us together to mount our best defense of democracy?
Is supposed to surprise me conservatives want to ban books? That's been true my whole life.
When the Orange Napoleon inevitably return's from Mar-a-Elba, will he find a coalition ready to meet him or are the British and the Prussians too busy debating about whose cannons look the most elegant? Right now it seems to be the latter.
In Texas, a state representative is demanding that school officials identify any “material that might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.”
The political right is dominated by Christians. Christian theology has a doctrine of original sin: We are all born in sin and deserve nothing but eternal damnation. So we are all to feel discomfort, guilt, anguish and all form of psychological distress because of our very existence! And if we get what we deserve, we will suffer literal distress for eternity! Compared to this extraordinary doctrine, we immediately get a sense of the cultural shallowness the right is peddling.
The right is pushing a sort of Whiggish history: We had slavery. We had a civil war that ended slavery and banished racism from our nation for all time. After all, didn't Trump declare himself the least racist person in the country? Meanwhile, back in the land of reality, Trump and his minions created the permission structure for the Capital insurrectionists to chant "Fucking Nigger" at a police officer.
what a mess.
Just think it's worth pointing out, with the whole January 6 was a false flag thing, January 6, which happened on January 6, and the helicopters are leaving Afghanistan and coming home, the timeline is slightly problematic. What is even being implied here? And leaving Afghanistan, brining the helicopters home, was fulfilling a promise made by the insurrection inciter during his administration. But, if you pay for a FoxNews streaming service, you have already demonstrated you're a mark.