I wish the Democrats would talk more about the fact that Trump inherited a very healthy economy from Obama, and then through Covid mismanagement, left the new Biden administration a mess to clean up. Instead, we just see interview after interview where ordinary people say that they economy was better under Trump.
One reason I hear repeatedly for why people believe things were better under trump is that under trump people received the assistance checks during the pandemic and those with children had the tax credit to help. Schools provided free meals without families having to take on debt to feed their children at school. Under Biden that all stopped. Including the government program that paid for the Covid vaccinations & booster shots. (I just got the new one for fall 2024 and it cost me $156.52 at Walgreens.)
Why those things stopped under Biden isn’t examined - just that they stopped. People remember the things that affected their daily lives but they don’t go on to look at the bigger picture. They don’t look at the corruption that trump and his entire administration engaged in. Or how Kushner was in charge of Covid related supplies and hoarded them to sell at exorbitant prices to other countries while enriching himself and his friends. They don’t look into the fact that the Republican Fascist Party recently killed a bill to offer free school lunches and won’t reintroduce the child tax credit. That’s part of the big picture that isn’t looked at.
This is one reason they tend to think their life was better under trump.
Actually, those Covid payments didn't stop until 2021 when the Covid crisis was finally under control. And if Walgreens charged you for that vaccination it was pure profit, the vaccine cost them nothing and administering he actual shot shouldn't have been that expensive. Also with unemployment falling, it should be easier top find a job now.
Please do not misconstrue the following as an endorsement for MAGA. Despite the improving economic numbers many people are left behind as a result of long-term wage stagnation. We have a tendency as a nation to forget events of even a few months ago and therefore blame the current government for the cumulative effects of decades of errors. This is by no means a uniquely American trait - look for instance at the former DDR.
Democrats have only recently as a party returned to their roots as champions of workers and the middle class. We should not be surprised if many people are skeptical.
Those interviews are insipid nonsense! The on air content producers are too lazy to develop meaningful questions to pose to the public! As the saying goes ‘It’s the economy stupid!’ Unfortunately, all too many of those interviewed are ‘stupid’ when commenting about the economy!
Hello, Dannys. Yes, there is a long history of anti-intellectualism in the US that antedates the Republic, and it would take generations of hard work to remedy the problem. Movies like "The Absent-Minded Professor" and The "Nutty Professor," both of which are full of stereotypes about intellectuals, reflect this anti-intellectualism. Many Americans, especially on the far right, really do think that intellectuals are absent-minded and that brain work is easy.
As I was writing this comment I started thinking about a collection of essays written in the 1950s and 1960s by Richard Hofstadter that I read years ago, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics." While his "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life" is interesting, I think the former is far more relevant to our current situation. In the US, ignorance, anti-intellectualism, conspiratorial thinking, racism, fear of losing status, (white)* victimhood, religious zealotry, looking for communists under every rock even where none exist, moral panics, sexual anxiety,** and conformism, all come together to form a "pseudo-conservative revolt" which, because almost all of its concerns are imaginary, cannot be solved, which means that real problems cannot be addressed and for that reason, the people who espouse these conspiratorial ideas pose a threat to the governance of the entire nation, even though they're a minority of the population.
*I place "white" in parentheses because these essays were written in the '50s and '60s.
**If you haven't read the updated 2020 p'bound ed. of Jason Stanley's "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them" (the Kindle ed. is also updated), I recommend it.
I hear you. I must however say I have a problem with the concept of “intellectual”. Maybe I am simple minded but all one needs to think is a brain, which is available 24 hours a day to anyone that has one. I have observed that it functions only to the level it is capable of functioning correctly. It belongs only to the person that has one and dares to use it.
OK, yes, I see what you're saying, and actually agree with you. When I said “anti-intellectual” I was thinking purely in terms of Hofstadter's meaning: the contempt for knowledge, especially of experts. No, you are not simple-minded because if you were, you wouldn't have been capable of such an observation. The very fact that you wrote, “The level of ignorance in the USA is staggering” means that you understand the problem. BUT intellectuals are always among the first to be arrested/shot in dictatorships, precisely because they are perceived as a threat to such regimes.
So you can’t pass the test, but you can vote. I must say that I do agree with the “exceptionalism”, because you must
agree that this is exceptional.
What is the literary definition of exceptionalism?
noun. the condition of being exceptional; uniqueness. the study of the unique and exceptional. a theory that a nation, region, or political system is exceptional and does not conform to the norm.
They are incurious people. Bored with life. No real interest in any, and all things they might delegate to others for dealing with, for doing. Up steps the "I alone can fix it" autocrat con man trump.
Jim, I think many are walking around with a heavy burden of stress overload. The accumulation of stresses is obvious - the pandemic; failure of supply chains; lost jobs; illness and deaths; unemployment due to business closures; and the anger obsessively promoted by the GOP. While some people are stress-resilient, many more lack the resources and supports. Stress overload causes a cascade of neurohormones that exacerbate anger and fear, making the amygdala override the prefrontal cortex. This has predictable results: inability to set goals and change strategies when new information arises. Inability to manage emotions to achieve goals. In other words a massive national brain damage! A massive inability to search out information and, when appropriate, change our position. We are, at least now, a nation of impulsive, emotional, unthinking toddlers.
My friends and acquaintances who support trump because they have money and want his wealthy tax breaks. They don’t care about the rest. One issue voters.
Venezuela was the wealthiest country in S. America with huge oil reserves. Maduro was elected and changed the country to authoritarianism and utterly destroyed the economy and pushed much of the population into abject poverty and starvation. It can happen to a rich country, the USA is at risk from trump and the far right Christian ultras.
All to say there are several good reasons why Elon Musk is cavorting on-stage with Donald Trump. And what can he possibly mean when he says Trump will save our democracy? It's as if Jeffrey Daumer were cast as the savior of vegetarianism.
This article is a helpful explanation of the harsh(er) reality we will face if trump-vance win or are allowed to steal the election.
However, America is not a democracy nor has it been one since Citizens United. America already is an oligarchy - where the rich rule. Corruption already rules here as well. Our laws absolutely do not apply to all equally.
For one example all you have to do is look at trump’s entire life. He has never been held legally accountable for the laws he has broken - and continues to - with gleeful openness. Ask yourself why the person who openly attempted to overthrow our government isn’t sitting behind bars in solitary in a federal prison (without any access to the internet) and has been instead allowed to not only run for the Presidency again but to constantly call for and foment violence Every. Single. Day.
Why hasn’t his entire corrupt administration been investigated and held accountable for the crimes and grift they did while he was in office the first time? Why is Kushner still walking free? Why was Bannon allowed to stay out of prison after defying subpoenas? And the others who did the same?
Why are our Supreme Court justices allowed to stay on the bench after very clear evidence of corruption has been brought to light? Or after they very clearly protect a felon running for the Presidency?
Why is Musk allowed to call for and foment violence against our government while pulling in billions of dollars in government contracts? Why hasn’t he been charged for a crime that is clearly in our Constitution, been relieved of those contracts and either imprisoned for that crime or deported back to his country of origin?
Why hasn’t the Army recalled Flynn (and other former and retired military personnel) who willing call to overthrow our government? Every last one should have been recalled and tried for treason, sedition or fomenting violence against the government. If I had done even 1/100th of the shit they have I would be making big rocks into little ones at Leavenworth.
I’m not just picking on the Republican Fascist Party. Look at all the Corporate Democrats who won’t pass a common sense law that says they can’t trade on stocks, etc that pertain to any issues or laws that come before them. Look at how they protect businesses over citizens.
Look at how Biden did not hold one single military officer responsible for the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal but instead called those who had the moral courage to speak out about what really happened “liars” and to say “I don’t believe any of that, no” repeatedly when referring to the DOD’s first report on what happened and how badly it was handled.
Our country is already deeply, deeply economically uneven. Servicemembers and disabled veterans have to rely on food stamps. Disabled veterans have to fight for - repeatedly - the medical care they earned. It took me several decades - and no, that is not a typo - to have a joint replacement. (The War Horse recently did excellent reporting on this problem.) Do you think any member of Congress would be told “you can live with it” and “you are just a complainer” over and over when they go for medical care? Would any of them be told “oh, that ruptured disc is only gently pressing on your sciatic nerve - so you don’t need it fixed. Sure, it’s touching it all the time but it’s just gently doing so - so suck it up and deal with the pain - I mean, what little there is”? I was told that last weekend by a neurosurgeon at an Indianapolis ER where I went after the military connected injury of a pinched sciatic nerve root caused my entire leg to go numb. I was told that and discharged. Would any member of Congress or any 1%r be treated like that?
Where are the social programs to help citizens live good lives? Sure, the jobs market might be adding jobs but look at the actual jobs. Do they offer excellent medical coverage? A retirement program? Sick days with pay? Can people live without financial fear or dread with only one job? Why is our medical system a disgusting for profit grift run by private equity firms instead of a government provided right we all deserve and receive from birth? Why is education so expensive?
America is not a democracy. It is a deeply entrenched oligarchy and has been since Roberts and his court sold the country to the highest bidder with Citizens United. (It has never been a full democracy but it was closer to the idea before Citizens United.)
We could be a democracy. But that will take everyone who can vote and who cares about our country doing so to keep trump and vance out of the White House. We also need to start paying attention to who holds government positions - all the way down the line from the WH to our school boards. Start weeding out the actual and wannabe fascists and crooks. We need to build our country into one that actually looks out for all of its citizens and not just the rich and the corrupt. One where the law truly applies to everyone equally.
I’m from the U.K. and have just spent a month in the US. Your response and my time here is another reminder that despite the problems we have back home, I’m grateful for many things: not least our National Health Service - FREE at the point of delivery for EVERYONE! It’s not perfect and many on the right seek to undermine it (often quoting the US model). However, the U.K. National Health Service is probably its greatest national asset and a mark of its respect for all citizens regardless of class, background our wealth (yes we have private health care too - but many private clients are pitched into the NHS in an emergency because they don’t have the specialist skills and enormous resources the NHS retains). It’s also closely linked with world breaking medical research and drug trials....
Excellent recap. All true. Every other civilized democracy on the planet has enhanced, amended their original Constitution to help their citizens - the US lags behind. The most archaic and racist remnant we still have is the Electoral College. That should have been killed long ago.
There are many SCOTUS rulings that need to be overturned (abortion was NOT one of them). But we need SCOTUS overhaul to make that happen. The US has had 9 Supreme Court Justices since 1869 when the population was only 30 million and 37 states.......it is *outrageous* that 155 years later with a US population now 339 million and 50 states that we are still operating on such an outdated platform, that is a massive failure by our country.
Citizens United absolutely IS one that needs repealing. Carson v. Makin, Bump stock, presidential immunity, Chevron, Snyder v. US, gutting of voter Rights act, Husted v. Randolph, Kennedy v. Bremerton.......and others. The corporate oligarch's and the christo-fascists are strangling this country to death!!
Excellent points. It is disgraceful and disgusting how backwards our country is due to politicians deliberately thwarting positive change that would benefit the country and all its citizens.
Before taking on anything like that though I have to get the VA to authorize the surgery I need to fix my spine before I end up in a wheelchair or worse (like dead from a head injury after falling when my leg randomly goes numb). I’ve been forced to live in severe pain and worsening neurological symptoms for a year now due to outright misogyny at Roudebush VAMC in Indianapolis. One male nurse practitioner has been allowed to deny over 13 requests by my primary care providers for authorization to go to a non-VA spine surgeon. He is fully enabled in this misogynistic discrimination by the VAMC Medical Director who has sent me multiple letters stating ‘since _____ says you can live with it then you don’t need surgery’. I contacted the office of the Secretary of the VA (Neil McDonough) three times for help and all his staff did was send my letters back to the NP and Medical Director at Roudebush. I even had a VA employee speak up about how the NP routinely authorizes the surgery for male veterans but not female veterans. No one, from the Roudebush VAMC to the Secretary of the VA cares. Misogyny rules at the VA.
When I recently wrote a letter to the editor of a local paper to warn other female veterans about all of this two days after it was published a large, violently killed rat was put in a garbage bag and left on my doorstep. I notified the Secretary’s office of that - no response.
So, until I can get the surgery I need I have to put all my energy into fighting for that and coping with the constant, severe nerve pain and related symptoms. While doing so, when I can, I do write letters, make calls and am working on postcards to connect with people about voting. Hopefully one day I can run for office.
After we got into this catch 22 situation with reygun, it's been a downward spiral. Things are so bad that Biden's titanic efforts are completely unrecognized. The effective culprit is the current corporate media as a phenomenon, not that it's a new one, but the solutions are in their hands.
If we, the people squeak by this time only**our behavior in media consumption** will determine the future. After 2024 there's an abyss gaping every 2 years.
Excellent treatise Kasumii....Europeans have national health care & Germany has excellent tradesman programs that make a strong society. Why don't Democrats SAY we are in an oligarchy phase of rule? Biden is from a different era and is often blind to anything contrary to his belief system. The Israeli genocide shows that.
I watched as Bill Clinton shredded the safety net for poor families by turning an entitlement into a block grant. For the next quarter century AFDC/TANF cash benefits did not increase by one dollar, while rent doubled and tripled. Family homelessness skyrocketed.
Always something to think about when Thinking About .. lands in my inbox. Anyone curious about the role SCOTUS is playing in bringing about autocracy should follow Elie Mystal in The Nation.
I agree. Mystal is great - educational, informative, trying to inform people. I recommend his book - Allow Me to Retort - as well as following his work in The Nation.
We have to ask ourselves why these eloquent arguments, to which there is no rational counterargument, are not resonating with enormous parts of the American population. I'm staggered every day that millions of my fellow Americans are willing to forfeit all the incalculable benefits of American democracy -- moral, spiritual, economic, security-related, fairness-related, etc. -- in favor of the pleasure they derive from the shared anger, bigotry and desire for retribution that he is channeling. How do you reason with that?
Anger, bigotry and retribution are the products of a brain that has a fat belly below and doesn't need to worry about the necessities of life. Increasingly disconnected from other humans it craves the power to control others including it's own peers. This motivates the desire for conquest either by economics or outright taking of productive land and its populations. Too many religions have promoted this trait in spite of an origin based on love and cooperation.
Many are too neurologically stressed to be rational. Their amygdala is overriding their prefrontal cortex. And that’s the was the GOP wants to keep it!
The only thing missing from this outstanding analysis is the observation that America’s wealth is dependent on the rest of the world’s (so far, accurate) perception that we are a stable democracy, where elections reflect the will of the governed, and power changes hands peacefully on a regular, predictable schedule. Authoritarianism, autocracy, dictatorship would end all that.
I am absolutely mystified at Republicans’ Orban worship. Hungary’s people are impoverished. The country is only about the size of Missouri, with a GDP about the size of the GDP of Arkansas. And the Repubs want to shoehorn our great country into an “illiberal democracy” jackboot. Sad. And disgusting.
Thank you so much for your clear analyses. This USA born, London resident since 1974, can scarcely believe the state of my native land. Wish I were there knocking on doors, in lieu of which, following podcast 'Gaslit Nation' suggestion, made donation to Penna citizens fundraising group trying to flip the Penna state senate. I can't speak for the rest of the Free World, but my British, Spanish, Swedish, French, Korean, Indian, Polish, Ukrainian, etc friends and acquaintances are near despair that the US could be contemplating Trump again! I am on page 81 of your excellent 'On Freedom'. Look forward to next 'Thinking about...'
Trump's tariff plan, combined with his harsh immigration policies and obsession with retribution against those who disagree with him, paints a grim picture of what life could look like for ordinary Americans—especially for those on fixed incomes making under $20,000 a year. His tariffs would not only raise prices on essential goods, punishing the poorest families, but also serve as a tool of control, squeezing the life out of those already struggling to make ends meet. Inflation could spike as high as 20%, while wages remain stagnant, making survival a daily battle for millions.
Overlaying this economic devastation is Trump's dangerous authoritarian streak. His track record of using power to punish political opponents, immigrant communities, and dissenters points to a regime where control and cruelty define governance. Immigrants—targeted with draconian policies, family separations, and deportations—would continue to face relentless hostility. Meanwhile, anyone who dares to challenge Trump’s rule could be subjected to retaliatory actions, from legal harassment to public demonization.
Under Trump’s vision, we see a return to the Gilded Age’s economic inequality—where the rich live in luxury, protected by tariffs and political favoritism, while the working class, immigrants, and dissenters suffer under crushing costs and a government that prioritizes loyalty to the leader above all else. For low-income Americans, especially those who disagree with him or belong to marginalized groups, this future looks not only economically perilous but also politically oppressive. It’s a reality where survival is a struggle, freedom of expression is under attack, and the American dream becomes an impossibility for all but the wealthiest and most obedient.
I wish the Democrats would talk more about the fact that Trump inherited a very healthy economy from Obama, and then through Covid mismanagement, left the new Biden administration a mess to clean up. Instead, we just see interview after interview where ordinary people say that they economy was better under Trump.
One reason I hear repeatedly for why people believe things were better under trump is that under trump people received the assistance checks during the pandemic and those with children had the tax credit to help. Schools provided free meals without families having to take on debt to feed their children at school. Under Biden that all stopped. Including the government program that paid for the Covid vaccinations & booster shots. (I just got the new one for fall 2024 and it cost me $156.52 at Walgreens.)
Why those things stopped under Biden isn’t examined - just that they stopped. People remember the things that affected their daily lives but they don’t go on to look at the bigger picture. They don’t look at the corruption that trump and his entire administration engaged in. Or how Kushner was in charge of Covid related supplies and hoarded them to sell at exorbitant prices to other countries while enriching himself and his friends. They don’t look into the fact that the Republican Fascist Party recently killed a bill to offer free school lunches and won’t reintroduce the child tax credit. That’s part of the big picture that isn’t looked at.
This is one reason they tend to think their life was better under trump.
Actually, those Covid payments didn't stop until 2021 when the Covid crisis was finally under control. And if Walgreens charged you for that vaccination it was pure profit, the vaccine cost them nothing and administering he actual shot shouldn't have been that expensive. Also with unemployment falling, it should be easier top find a job now.
Please do not misconstrue the following as an endorsement for MAGA. Despite the improving economic numbers many people are left behind as a result of long-term wage stagnation. We have a tendency as a nation to forget events of even a few months ago and therefore blame the current government for the cumulative effects of decades of errors. This is by no means a uniquely American trait - look for instance at the former DDR.
Democrats have only recently as a party returned to their roots as champions of workers and the middle class. We should not be surprised if many people are skeptical.
When did they do that? After breaking the railroad strike and leaving the people of East Palestine and North Carolina to hang in the wind?
Those interviews are insipid nonsense! The on air content producers are too lazy to develop meaningful questions to pose to the public! As the saying goes ‘It’s the economy stupid!’ Unfortunately, all too many of those interviewed are ‘stupid’ when commenting about the economy!
Democrats just don't know how to express the facts. It must be genetic. The enemy is highly skilled at creating falsities and propagating them
The level of ignorance in the USA is staggering. Professor Snyder is trying to make it less so.
Hello, Dannys. Yes, there is a long history of anti-intellectualism in the US that antedates the Republic, and it would take generations of hard work to remedy the problem. Movies like "The Absent-Minded Professor" and The "Nutty Professor," both of which are full of stereotypes about intellectuals, reflect this anti-intellectualism. Many Americans, especially on the far right, really do think that intellectuals are absent-minded and that brain work is easy.
As I was writing this comment I started thinking about a collection of essays written in the 1950s and 1960s by Richard Hofstadter that I read years ago, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics." While his "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life" is interesting, I think the former is far more relevant to our current situation. In the US, ignorance, anti-intellectualism, conspiratorial thinking, racism, fear of losing status, (white)* victimhood, religious zealotry, looking for communists under every rock even where none exist, moral panics, sexual anxiety,** and conformism, all come together to form a "pseudo-conservative revolt" which, because almost all of its concerns are imaginary, cannot be solved, which means that real problems cannot be addressed and for that reason, the people who espouse these conspiratorial ideas pose a threat to the governance of the entire nation, even though they're a minority of the population.
*I place "white" in parentheses because these essays were written in the '50s and '60s.
**If you haven't read the updated 2020 p'bound ed. of Jason Stanley's "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them" (the Kindle ed. is also updated), I recommend it.
I hear you. I must however say I have a problem with the concept of “intellectual”. Maybe I am simple minded but all one needs to think is a brain, which is available 24 hours a day to anyone that has one. I have observed that it functions only to the level it is capable of functioning correctly. It belongs only to the person that has one and dares to use it.
OK, yes, I see what you're saying, and actually agree with you. When I said “anti-intellectual” I was thinking purely in terms of Hofstadter's meaning: the contempt for knowledge, especially of experts. No, you are not simple-minded because if you were, you wouldn't have been capable of such an observation. The very fact that you wrote, “The level of ignorance in the USA is staggering” means that you understand the problem. BUT intellectuals are always among the first to be arrested/shot in dictatorships, precisely because they are perceived as a threat to such regimes.
Don’t blame me if you —— it up.
I know what I am doing, but I’m one of those…….creatures who was not born here.
Voters of America ( I mean the USA), you have 30 days to understand what you are doing.
So you can’t pass the test, but you can vote. I must say that I do agree with the “exceptionalism”, because you must
agree that this is exceptional.
What is the literary definition of exceptionalism?
noun. the condition of being exceptional; uniqueness. the study of the unique and exceptional. a theory that a nation, region, or political system is exceptional and does not conform to the norm.
A you pass the citizenship test that is required. Here is the link
https://search.app/77NFbXBihwuXxnbRA
Can you pass the test? Be honest. Take it. Report back
This is self-evident, yet I find myself endlessly trying to explain it to Trump backers. It is indeed a cult of personality.
Na! They are just stupid, by definition.
Trump’s toothless army 😉
They are incurious people. Bored with life. No real interest in any, and all things they might delegate to others for dealing with, for doing. Up steps the "I alone can fix it" autocrat con man trump.
Jim, I think many are walking around with a heavy burden of stress overload. The accumulation of stresses is obvious - the pandemic; failure of supply chains; lost jobs; illness and deaths; unemployment due to business closures; and the anger obsessively promoted by the GOP. While some people are stress-resilient, many more lack the resources and supports. Stress overload causes a cascade of neurohormones that exacerbate anger and fear, making the amygdala override the prefrontal cortex. This has predictable results: inability to set goals and change strategies when new information arises. Inability to manage emotions to achieve goals. In other words a massive national brain damage! A massive inability to search out information and, when appropriate, change our position. We are, at least now, a nation of impulsive, emotional, unthinking toddlers.
My friends and acquaintances who support trump because they have money and want his wealthy tax breaks. They don’t care about the rest. One issue voters.
Venezuela was the wealthiest country in S. America with huge oil reserves. Maduro was elected and changed the country to authoritarianism and utterly destroyed the economy and pushed much of the population into abject poverty and starvation. It can happen to a rich country, the USA is at risk from trump and the far right Christian ultras.
All to say there are several good reasons why Elon Musk is cavorting on-stage with Donald Trump. And what can he possibly mean when he says Trump will save our democracy? It's as if Jeffrey Daumer were cast as the savior of vegetarianism.
Projection
The Republican Party has turned into a domestic terrorist organization.
One issue is that we depend on two functioning parties. The republicans no longer function
That’s why I have referred to them as the Republican Fascist Party since 2016.
This article is a helpful explanation of the harsh(er) reality we will face if trump-vance win or are allowed to steal the election.
However, America is not a democracy nor has it been one since Citizens United. America already is an oligarchy - where the rich rule. Corruption already rules here as well. Our laws absolutely do not apply to all equally.
For one example all you have to do is look at trump’s entire life. He has never been held legally accountable for the laws he has broken - and continues to - with gleeful openness. Ask yourself why the person who openly attempted to overthrow our government isn’t sitting behind bars in solitary in a federal prison (without any access to the internet) and has been instead allowed to not only run for the Presidency again but to constantly call for and foment violence Every. Single. Day.
Why hasn’t his entire corrupt administration been investigated and held accountable for the crimes and grift they did while he was in office the first time? Why is Kushner still walking free? Why was Bannon allowed to stay out of prison after defying subpoenas? And the others who did the same?
Why are our Supreme Court justices allowed to stay on the bench after very clear evidence of corruption has been brought to light? Or after they very clearly protect a felon running for the Presidency?
Why is Musk allowed to call for and foment violence against our government while pulling in billions of dollars in government contracts? Why hasn’t he been charged for a crime that is clearly in our Constitution, been relieved of those contracts and either imprisoned for that crime or deported back to his country of origin?
Why hasn’t the Army recalled Flynn (and other former and retired military personnel) who willing call to overthrow our government? Every last one should have been recalled and tried for treason, sedition or fomenting violence against the government. If I had done even 1/100th of the shit they have I would be making big rocks into little ones at Leavenworth.
I’m not just picking on the Republican Fascist Party. Look at all the Corporate Democrats who won’t pass a common sense law that says they can’t trade on stocks, etc that pertain to any issues or laws that come before them. Look at how they protect businesses over citizens.
Look at how Biden did not hold one single military officer responsible for the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal but instead called those who had the moral courage to speak out about what really happened “liars” and to say “I don’t believe any of that, no” repeatedly when referring to the DOD’s first report on what happened and how badly it was handled.
Our country is already deeply, deeply economically uneven. Servicemembers and disabled veterans have to rely on food stamps. Disabled veterans have to fight for - repeatedly - the medical care they earned. It took me several decades - and no, that is not a typo - to have a joint replacement. (The War Horse recently did excellent reporting on this problem.) Do you think any member of Congress would be told “you can live with it” and “you are just a complainer” over and over when they go for medical care? Would any of them be told “oh, that ruptured disc is only gently pressing on your sciatic nerve - so you don’t need it fixed. Sure, it’s touching it all the time but it’s just gently doing so - so suck it up and deal with the pain - I mean, what little there is”? I was told that last weekend by a neurosurgeon at an Indianapolis ER where I went after the military connected injury of a pinched sciatic nerve root caused my entire leg to go numb. I was told that and discharged. Would any member of Congress or any 1%r be treated like that?
Where are the social programs to help citizens live good lives? Sure, the jobs market might be adding jobs but look at the actual jobs. Do they offer excellent medical coverage? A retirement program? Sick days with pay? Can people live without financial fear or dread with only one job? Why is our medical system a disgusting for profit grift run by private equity firms instead of a government provided right we all deserve and receive from birth? Why is education so expensive?
America is not a democracy. It is a deeply entrenched oligarchy and has been since Roberts and his court sold the country to the highest bidder with Citizens United. (It has never been a full democracy but it was closer to the idea before Citizens United.)
We could be a democracy. But that will take everyone who can vote and who cares about our country doing so to keep trump and vance out of the White House. We also need to start paying attention to who holds government positions - all the way down the line from the WH to our school boards. Start weeding out the actual and wannabe fascists and crooks. We need to build our country into one that actually looks out for all of its citizens and not just the rich and the corrupt. One where the law truly applies to everyone equally.
Can we do this? Better yet, will we?
I’m from the U.K. and have just spent a month in the US. Your response and my time here is another reminder that despite the problems we have back home, I’m grateful for many things: not least our National Health Service - FREE at the point of delivery for EVERYONE! It’s not perfect and many on the right seek to undermine it (often quoting the US model). However, the U.K. National Health Service is probably its greatest national asset and a mark of its respect for all citizens regardless of class, background our wealth (yes we have private health care too - but many private clients are pitched into the NHS in an emergency because they don’t have the specialist skills and enormous resources the NHS retains). It’s also closely linked with world breaking medical research and drug trials....
PS: it’s also a great political unifier. No politician of whatever persuasion will risk the public wrath of moving aware from the public owned NHS..
Yes even I know British National Health service is gold standard worldwide!
Excellent recap. All true. Every other civilized democracy on the planet has enhanced, amended their original Constitution to help their citizens - the US lags behind. The most archaic and racist remnant we still have is the Electoral College. That should have been killed long ago.
There are many SCOTUS rulings that need to be overturned (abortion was NOT one of them). But we need SCOTUS overhaul to make that happen. The US has had 9 Supreme Court Justices since 1869 when the population was only 30 million and 37 states.......it is *outrageous* that 155 years later with a US population now 339 million and 50 states that we are still operating on such an outdated platform, that is a massive failure by our country.
Citizens United absolutely IS one that needs repealing. Carson v. Makin, Bump stock, presidential immunity, Chevron, Snyder v. US, gutting of voter Rights act, Husted v. Randolph, Kennedy v. Bremerton.......and others. The corporate oligarch's and the christo-fascists are strangling this country to death!!
Excellent points. It is disgraceful and disgusting how backwards our country is due to politicians deliberately thwarting positive change that would benefit the country and all its citizens.
Excellent truth Kashmiri
Thank you.
You should run for office.
I second that suggestion.
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve thought about it.
Before taking on anything like that though I have to get the VA to authorize the surgery I need to fix my spine before I end up in a wheelchair or worse (like dead from a head injury after falling when my leg randomly goes numb). I’ve been forced to live in severe pain and worsening neurological symptoms for a year now due to outright misogyny at Roudebush VAMC in Indianapolis. One male nurse practitioner has been allowed to deny over 13 requests by my primary care providers for authorization to go to a non-VA spine surgeon. He is fully enabled in this misogynistic discrimination by the VAMC Medical Director who has sent me multiple letters stating ‘since _____ says you can live with it then you don’t need surgery’. I contacted the office of the Secretary of the VA (Neil McDonough) three times for help and all his staff did was send my letters back to the NP and Medical Director at Roudebush. I even had a VA employee speak up about how the NP routinely authorizes the surgery for male veterans but not female veterans. No one, from the Roudebush VAMC to the Secretary of the VA cares. Misogyny rules at the VA.
When I recently wrote a letter to the editor of a local paper to warn other female veterans about all of this two days after it was published a large, violently killed rat was put in a garbage bag and left on my doorstep. I notified the Secretary’s office of that - no response.
So, until I can get the surgery I need I have to put all my energy into fighting for that and coping with the constant, severe nerve pain and related symptoms. While doing so, when I can, I do write letters, make calls and am working on postcards to connect with people about voting. Hopefully one day I can run for office.
After we got into this catch 22 situation with reygun, it's been a downward spiral. Things are so bad that Biden's titanic efforts are completely unrecognized. The effective culprit is the current corporate media as a phenomenon, not that it's a new one, but the solutions are in their hands.
If we, the people squeak by this time only**our behavior in media consumption** will determine the future. After 2024 there's an abyss gaping every 2 years.
Excellent treatise Kasumii....Europeans have national health care & Germany has excellent tradesman programs that make a strong society. Why don't Democrats SAY we are in an oligarchy phase of rule? Biden is from a different era and is often blind to anything contrary to his belief system. The Israeli genocide shows that.
Kasumii - WELL SAID
I watched as Bill Clinton shredded the safety net for poor families by turning an entitlement into a block grant. For the next quarter century AFDC/TANF cash benefits did not increase by one dollar, while rent doubled and tripled. Family homelessness skyrocketed.
We need to throw Trump and all his MAGAt supporters in prison to protect our sacred Democracy!
Always something to think about when Thinking About .. lands in my inbox. Anyone curious about the role SCOTUS is playing in bringing about autocracy should follow Elie Mystal in The Nation.
I agree. Mystal is great - educational, informative, trying to inform people. I recommend his book - Allow Me to Retort - as well as following his work in The Nation.
Tumpism and MAGA are cults. Truth and logic do not penetrate the bubble.
We have to ask ourselves why these eloquent arguments, to which there is no rational counterargument, are not resonating with enormous parts of the American population. I'm staggered every day that millions of my fellow Americans are willing to forfeit all the incalculable benefits of American democracy -- moral, spiritual, economic, security-related, fairness-related, etc. -- in favor of the pleasure they derive from the shared anger, bigotry and desire for retribution that he is channeling. How do you reason with that?
Anger, bigotry and retribution are the products of a brain that has a fat belly below and doesn't need to worry about the necessities of life. Increasingly disconnected from other humans it craves the power to control others including it's own peers. This motivates the desire for conquest either by economics or outright taking of productive land and its populations. Too many religions have promoted this trait in spite of an origin based on love and cooperation.
It seems that many of them believe in an angry God so rationality isn’t part of their being.
Easy - ask 1000 people from this moment on if they have ever heard of T. Snyder?
Many are too neurologically stressed to be rational. Their amygdala is overriding their prefrontal cortex. And that’s the was the GOP wants to keep it!
The only thing missing from this outstanding analysis is the observation that America’s wealth is dependent on the rest of the world’s (so far, accurate) perception that we are a stable democracy, where elections reflect the will of the governed, and power changes hands peacefully on a regular, predictable schedule. Authoritarianism, autocracy, dictatorship would end all that.
Agree 100% to your comments! A Trump dictatorship will lead to economic collapse!!!
All dictatorships lead to economic collapse. All of them
Agree 100%!!!
I am absolutely mystified at Republicans’ Orban worship. Hungary’s people are impoverished. The country is only about the size of Missouri, with a GDP about the size of the GDP of Arkansas. And the Repubs want to shoehorn our great country into an “illiberal democracy” jackboot. Sad. And disgusting.
Do you suppose it’s because autocracies don’t give a F- what happens to the not-rich population??
Bingo!
Thank you so much for your clear analyses. This USA born, London resident since 1974, can scarcely believe the state of my native land. Wish I were there knocking on doors, in lieu of which, following podcast 'Gaslit Nation' suggestion, made donation to Penna citizens fundraising group trying to flip the Penna state senate. I can't speak for the rest of the Free World, but my British, Spanish, Swedish, French, Korean, Indian, Polish, Ukrainian, etc friends and acquaintances are near despair that the US could be contemplating Trump again! I am on page 81 of your excellent 'On Freedom'. Look forward to next 'Thinking about...'
Trump's tariff plan, combined with his harsh immigration policies and obsession with retribution against those who disagree with him, paints a grim picture of what life could look like for ordinary Americans—especially for those on fixed incomes making under $20,000 a year. His tariffs would not only raise prices on essential goods, punishing the poorest families, but also serve as a tool of control, squeezing the life out of those already struggling to make ends meet. Inflation could spike as high as 20%, while wages remain stagnant, making survival a daily battle for millions.
Overlaying this economic devastation is Trump's dangerous authoritarian streak. His track record of using power to punish political opponents, immigrant communities, and dissenters points to a regime where control and cruelty define governance. Immigrants—targeted with draconian policies, family separations, and deportations—would continue to face relentless hostility. Meanwhile, anyone who dares to challenge Trump’s rule could be subjected to retaliatory actions, from legal harassment to public demonization.
Under Trump’s vision, we see a return to the Gilded Age’s economic inequality—where the rich live in luxury, protected by tariffs and political favoritism, while the working class, immigrants, and dissenters suffer under crushing costs and a government that prioritizes loyalty to the leader above all else. For low-income Americans, especially those who disagree with him or belong to marginalized groups, this future looks not only economically perilous but also politically oppressive. It’s a reality where survival is a struggle, freedom of expression is under attack, and the American dream becomes an impossibility for all but the wealthiest and most obedient.
Elaine: and don’t forget Trump’s “vision” including Handmaidens for every oligarch.
Perfectly said!!
Thank for your work. You are a credit to humanity. Thank you.