As a campaign strategy, emphasizing the re-empowerment of voters sounds appropriate. However, whoever wins has two immediate priorities that, at best, are tangential to that promise. First is the repeal of Citizens United, and second is the restoration of an entirely demolished federal government structure dismantled by a gang of computer wizkids and then led by incompetent sycophant yesmen and women. Rehiring experienced GS 15s and senior execs might be wise also.
That is a dream that will only come true once the modern, social media corrupted, propaganda filled, conspiracy laden minds of the American voter are cleared of their cobwebs, fantacies, fear, and cluelessness. All republicans have to do, and have done constantly over the past 60 years, is mention trans alterations at schools during kid's lunch breaks, furries in schools, Haitians eating pets, and caravan invasions from the south and all dem's good intentions are cast aside.
Also, LBJ, with his amazing ability to pass the civil and voting rights acts, also made the grounds favorable for GOP, racist, Southern Strategy, that led to the likes of Reagan, and the rise of the maga, white, racist, republican class.
Maybe the younger voter sees past the flagrant corporatism, racist fueled x, and fearmongering of the republican party, but if they don't, FDR's New Deal, and LBJ's Great Society will be ripped from history books, and replaced with photos of trump celebrating 'democracy' as he hosts China's Xi with the crew of fox news. Until American's mind's clear, and they put down the maga, maha kool aid mugs, little will change for the better. If recent history is any indication, people are more concerned, or afraid, of a single trans athlete in one of their state's high school program than they are of not having affordable health ins, safe food on their table, and affordable, clean renewable energy, and a better standard of living. GOP might just change villains since they know that most voters react more to fear than promises of a better life.
Republicans simply spins the fear wheel and the American people spin in circles at the feet of the musk wealthy. Speaking of the maga wealthy, how many people has elon musk been responsible for killing with his destruction of USAID? At last count, musk has had a hand in the starvation deaths of hundreds of thousands of infants and children from starvation. musk doesn't care how many children die, as long as he can receive no bid contracts from US taxpayerscan wield his chainsaw at CPAC...
Needless to say, musk and trump wouldn't care how many children go hungry by them slashing SNAP. In fact, I think they take some satisfaction from the harm they cause to those most in need. Oh, and then there is Epstein, but I'll stop now.
"Right-wing opponents of “big government” found that when they starved the government of resources and ballooned the deficit by cutting taxes, particularly for the wealthy, voters began to accept their claim that government was presumptively destructive, if not evil. " This ignores the role of the War in Vietnam in turning people against the government. I was politically active at the time, and that mattered. Racism was another factor -- remember Reagan talking about the welfare queen in a Cadillac picking up her check?
In order to fulfill David's vision of a New New Deal, the Dems will have to offer the American people a nominee for president with the charisma, vision and oratorial skills of FDR to inspire the nation. He/she will also need the strong support of a legislative branch to accomplish the worthy goals that will emerge with a NND.
Although they rightfully deserve it, we can't simply trash the MAGAts who have brought us to the brink of destruction and ruin. We have to offer concrete solutions to the problems created by these resurrected Gilded Age sycophantic robber barons, tech bros and oligarchs.
In the meantime, we must begin this crusade by flipping the House and Senate in the upcoming midterms. As we all know, the sociopathic lunatic and his minions are doing everything their power (aided and abetted by a corrupt SCOTUS) to sow the seeds of doubt if the haters of free and fair elections and participatory democracy are soundly defeated and sent packing. Although the polls are favorable, I don't trust them to be a harbinger of the hoped-for blue wave. The heinous result of the 2016 presidential election is a grim reminder of how utterly and thoroughly wrong polls can be. Here's hoping they're not wrong this time.
While seniors may own an outsized portion of the housing, aren't they also an outsized percentage of the population at the moment? What happens to all these houses as the old folks die? Do we end up like Japan, with thousands of homes sitting empty? How do we solve the current housing cost crises without causing a later housing surplus issue? The number of people over 65 has more than doubled since 1960.
An excellent analysis and call to action. The succinctness of this observation alone sets the context: “decades of radically regressive GOP policies have utterly failed.” Truer words…
A new new deal (newer deal?) is imperative if we are to survive and thrive as a democracy. Doing so requires expanding access to the privileges of that democracy (not just voting) to all. That will be a hard pill for the retrograde conservatives and their reactionary moderate allies, but even they will benefit from the new new deal as they had from Roosevelt’s.
While Nixon *DID* create the EPA, he also created the "Southern Strategy" that Republicans used to divide America by painting Black Americans as do-nothing welfare abusers and Whites as the true heirs of America's fortunes. This institutional racist ideology festered in the Republican Party, giving credence and cover for Reagan's "Welfare Queen" straw man arguments against compassion for the least of us in America ("party of Christians," you say?) and paving the way for the current fully-diseased Republican pro-bigotry platform of disenfranchising Southern Blacks, using "Kavanaugh stops" to racially profile and harass (if not assault, extrajudicially kidnap, r*pe and/or kill) any Brown person by an unaccountable Gestapo on American soil), and promoting islamophobia (despite the First Amendment guaranteeing ALL Americans freedom of --OR EVEN FROM-- religion).
#NEAR
Never Elect Another Republican: the ONLY way we start to undo SIX DECADES of Republican division of Americans, hatred of our Constitution and preamble values, and cult-promoted bigotry is to ensure that the SAME cult that is ruling America SO CATASTROPHICALLY today against our values and Constitution can NEVER rule like this again...EVER!
The warning about factionalism seems disingenuous to me. The democratic voters themselves are hardly divided on their support for Medicare for all, for example. An 80-20 divide hardly points to factionalism. The factionalism comes from corporate democrats in power and their consultants. To say “it’s complicated” and that Medicare is threatened without pointing out that the complication and the threat is created by people who want to hang onto the profits in the private insurance industry, and by politicians who are afraid to tax wealth is, as I said, disingenuous.
This is a fairly comprehensive overview of what works and what destroys. I'd like to add Eisenhower's domestic agenda which aligns well with the majority of Americans' concerns and which has its foot firmly planted in the 20th century so is suitable for adaptation. Note that it's to the left of "moderate" Dems/leadership and aligns most closely with Dem Socialists.
Modern conservatism is rooted in backlash to the New Deal. It was a huge propaganda effort on the part of capitalists/racists, and what’s stunning is that the language is still in use almost a century later. Books for those interested: Invisible Hands by Phillips-Fein and The Big Myth by Oreskes and Conway.
Another reform should be how education is funded. Property taxes just reinforce an unequal and unjust system. Poor communities are left behind. Democracy depends on all citizens being well informed not just the entitled few.
"There has been a certain cynical genius to what some of these folks have done in Washington. What they’ve realized is, if we don’t get anything done, then people are going to get cynical about government and its possibilities of doing good for everybody." President Barack Obama, 2014
My grand prediction is that AI businesses will crash, and companiesusing AI to remove people will regret it. it will be just one more business management fad that fades away.
First off, the massive investment in AI does not work out in the math. No way they all make money. Second, AI is NOT "Super Intelligence", it is not even actual intelligence. AI would be better named 'Virtual Intelligence' and is nothing more than an overgrown piece of kludged software intended to pass the Turing Test. It has NO comprehension, NO understanding, NO perspective, NO compassion... It is pretty much designed to hallucinate when it is presented with a new situation.
Hence I am not concerned about it. I am also not concerned with multibillionaires who bet massie portions of their wealth on it. losing all that money. They will not starve in the street, but they should NOT be 'rescued' from their stupidity and greed.
There are ways to build systems and even robots to do simple tasks with narrow limitations. We aleady have them. Just don't expect them to be people.
Fair Deal might hit better, since most people do not see the system as fair.
Do not think small. Thinking small is how Republicans will take back power. They have stolen power for many decades and it is time to take it back and use it for the people.
Coalition: How about rather than limit to narrow groups in an effort to create divisions, we focus on EVERYBODY.
This means making sure everybody gets a fair deal. No oppression or discrimination against any group, no favoritism, which means we have to make an EFFORT to not discriminate, because too many people have been pushed down by bullies, and we do not tolerate bullies. Yes, we will lose the vote of the bullies, the racists full of anger, and the ultrawealthy that think the country is one huge game of Monopoly, a zero-sum game.
As has been described before, 'Medicare for all' is cheaper than our current system, partly because we are not paying insurance companies to handle our money.
Education, Housing, medical care and many other problems can be creatively solved if we stop thinking in terms of Government simply writing checks as opposed to solving problems.
Start with the assumption the system is wrong, broken, unfair and designed to be that way. If we want different results we need to do things differently. Do NOT describe problems in terms of past solutions.
Of course the corporations and the wealthy will fight tooth and corrupt nail to hold onto their power and system of corruption we take for granted, so first we have to remove the corruption, by removing money from politics. No big money, no moderate money, no self-funding, no lobbyists, no stock trading by politicians... Strong ethics with strong enforcement. Remove the wealthy from ownership or control of all major media, radio, TV, Social media, Streaming, newspapers, magazines...
Basic mantra: The wealth of the rich should not be able to drown out the voice of the poor and working class. It should not require an amendment, just a non-corrupt SCOTUS, but we can't be afraid to push for amendments.
Remove the politics from our courts, including SCOTUS. There are many ways to do this, but it should start with following the constitution and removing those who are not in "Good behaviour" which does NOT require impeachment. Ask me if you need me to spell it out for you. The intent is CLEAR in the Constitution. Btw, 'not good behaviour' includes lying to the Senate, and overt bias.
It has become a given that companies are all about serving the owners, the stockholders, and all they ever provided was money. No talent, no skills, no sweat, no effort at all. Everything in any company worth the name is created by it's employees, the people who WORK for a living and yet they are treated as simply a business expense to be reduced and removed whenever possible. Without the workers there are no customers to power the economy. The economy is an ecosystem that has been damaged by the wealthy siphoning off all the wealth into their own pockets. The Fed is focused on protecting the banks and it deliberately hurts the workers to do it. HAS to be a better way, and no, the banks are not what is most important, nor is the rest of the 'financial industry' which adds no real value and just siphons off more of our wealth.
Companies should have priorities: Stay profitable, because otherwise it dies and has no value to anyone. Take care of employees FAIRLY. Regular Employees should be fairly represented on the board, with real veto power. Essentially every company will have a labor union with representation directly on the board, so no need for strikes, the negotiation is ongoing. Then come the customers and the suppliers. No more destructive 'harvesting' of companies and all the games the rich like to play with treating companies like toys to buy and break. In other words, stop treating companies like slaves, owned and sold, beaten and starved, abused for any advantage or out of sheer laziness and incompetence. Consider all the employees treated as less than the slave they buy and sell and destroy.
Every problem is solvable, once we are focused on solving problems.
How to tax the rich is easy, once we get money out of politics, and realize creative problem solving is doable. Examine the problem: The rich hire tax lawyers to make their returns so complicated the IRS can't afford to audit them. So make the corporations pay for the audits and the court cases. The rich hire lobbyists to 'persuade' congress members to pass laws making their taxes lower... Reward tax lawyers crafting laws to close loopholes and unfairly low taxes.
Remove gerrymandering. Bring in DC and Puerto Rico as states so that ALL our citizens have representation.
Yes, this is just the simplistic listing of much of the first things we need to do.
As a campaign strategy, emphasizing the re-empowerment of voters sounds appropriate. However, whoever wins has two immediate priorities that, at best, are tangential to that promise. First is the repeal of Citizens United, and second is the restoration of an entirely demolished federal government structure dismantled by a gang of computer wizkids and then led by incompetent sycophant yesmen and women. Rehiring experienced GS 15s and senior execs might be wise also.
Complete agreement.
they’d better
That is a dream that will only come true once the modern, social media corrupted, propaganda filled, conspiracy laden minds of the American voter are cleared of their cobwebs, fantacies, fear, and cluelessness. All republicans have to do, and have done constantly over the past 60 years, is mention trans alterations at schools during kid's lunch breaks, furries in schools, Haitians eating pets, and caravan invasions from the south and all dem's good intentions are cast aside.
Also, LBJ, with his amazing ability to pass the civil and voting rights acts, also made the grounds favorable for GOP, racist, Southern Strategy, that led to the likes of Reagan, and the rise of the maga, white, racist, republican class.
Maybe the younger voter sees past the flagrant corporatism, racist fueled x, and fearmongering of the republican party, but if they don't, FDR's New Deal, and LBJ's Great Society will be ripped from history books, and replaced with photos of trump celebrating 'democracy' as he hosts China's Xi with the crew of fox news. Until American's mind's clear, and they put down the maga, maha kool aid mugs, little will change for the better. If recent history is any indication, people are more concerned, or afraid, of a single trans athlete in one of their state's high school program than they are of not having affordable health ins, safe food on their table, and affordable, clean renewable energy, and a better standard of living. GOP might just change villains since they know that most voters react more to fear than promises of a better life.
Republicans simply spins the fear wheel and the American people spin in circles at the feet of the musk wealthy. Speaking of the maga wealthy, how many people has elon musk been responsible for killing with his destruction of USAID? At last count, musk has had a hand in the starvation deaths of hundreds of thousands of infants and children from starvation. musk doesn't care how many children die, as long as he can receive no bid contracts from US taxpayerscan wield his chainsaw at CPAC...
Needless to say, musk and trump wouldn't care how many children go hungry by them slashing SNAP. In fact, I think they take some satisfaction from the harm they cause to those most in need. Oh, and then there is Epstein, but I'll stop now.
"Right-wing opponents of “big government” found that when they starved the government of resources and ballooned the deficit by cutting taxes, particularly for the wealthy, voters began to accept their claim that government was presumptively destructive, if not evil. " This ignores the role of the War in Vietnam in turning people against the government. I was politically active at the time, and that mattered. Racism was another factor -- remember Reagan talking about the welfare queen in a Cadillac picking up her check?
In order to fulfill David's vision of a New New Deal, the Dems will have to offer the American people a nominee for president with the charisma, vision and oratorial skills of FDR to inspire the nation. He/she will also need the strong support of a legislative branch to accomplish the worthy goals that will emerge with a NND.
Although they rightfully deserve it, we can't simply trash the MAGAts who have brought us to the brink of destruction and ruin. We have to offer concrete solutions to the problems created by these resurrected Gilded Age sycophantic robber barons, tech bros and oligarchs.
In the meantime, we must begin this crusade by flipping the House and Senate in the upcoming midterms. As we all know, the sociopathic lunatic and his minions are doing everything their power (aided and abetted by a corrupt SCOTUS) to sow the seeds of doubt if the haters of free and fair elections and participatory democracy are soundly defeated and sent packing. Although the polls are favorable, I don't trust them to be a harbinger of the hoped-for blue wave. The heinous result of the 2016 presidential election is a grim reminder of how utterly and thoroughly wrong polls can be. Here's hoping they're not wrong this time.
While seniors may own an outsized portion of the housing, aren't they also an outsized percentage of the population at the moment? What happens to all these houses as the old folks die? Do we end up like Japan, with thousands of homes sitting empty? How do we solve the current housing cost crises without causing a later housing surplus issue? The number of people over 65 has more than doubled since 1960.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SPPOP65UPTOZSUSA
An excellent analysis and call to action. The succinctness of this observation alone sets the context: “decades of radically regressive GOP policies have utterly failed.” Truer words…
A new new deal (newer deal?) is imperative if we are to survive and thrive as a democracy. Doing so requires expanding access to the privileges of that democracy (not just voting) to all. That will be a hard pill for the retrograde conservatives and their reactionary moderate allies, but even they will benefit from the new new deal as they had from Roosevelt’s.
While Nixon *DID* create the EPA, he also created the "Southern Strategy" that Republicans used to divide America by painting Black Americans as do-nothing welfare abusers and Whites as the true heirs of America's fortunes. This institutional racist ideology festered in the Republican Party, giving credence and cover for Reagan's "Welfare Queen" straw man arguments against compassion for the least of us in America ("party of Christians," you say?) and paving the way for the current fully-diseased Republican pro-bigotry platform of disenfranchising Southern Blacks, using "Kavanaugh stops" to racially profile and harass (if not assault, extrajudicially kidnap, r*pe and/or kill) any Brown person by an unaccountable Gestapo on American soil), and promoting islamophobia (despite the First Amendment guaranteeing ALL Americans freedom of --OR EVEN FROM-- religion).
#NEAR
Never Elect Another Republican: the ONLY way we start to undo SIX DECADES of Republican division of Americans, hatred of our Constitution and preamble values, and cult-promoted bigotry is to ensure that the SAME cult that is ruling America SO CATASTROPHICALLY today against our values and Constitution can NEVER rule like this again...EVER!
The warning about factionalism seems disingenuous to me. The democratic voters themselves are hardly divided on their support for Medicare for all, for example. An 80-20 divide hardly points to factionalism. The factionalism comes from corporate democrats in power and their consultants. To say “it’s complicated” and that Medicare is threatened without pointing out that the complication and the threat is created by people who want to hang onto the profits in the private insurance industry, and by politicians who are afraid to tax wealth is, as I said, disingenuous.
A hundred Democrats will give you a hundred definitions of what M4A is.
This is a fairly comprehensive overview of what works and what destroys. I'd like to add Eisenhower's domestic agenda which aligns well with the majority of Americans' concerns and which has its foot firmly planted in the 20th century so is suitable for adaptation. Note that it's to the left of "moderate" Dems/leadership and aligns most closely with Dem Socialists.
Modern conservatism is rooted in backlash to the New Deal. It was a huge propaganda effort on the part of capitalists/racists, and what’s stunning is that the language is still in use almost a century later. Books for those interested: Invisible Hands by Phillips-Fein and The Big Myth by Oreskes and Conway.
Another reform should be how education is funded. Property taxes just reinforce an unequal and unjust system. Poor communities are left behind. Democracy depends on all citizens being well informed not just the entitled few.
"There has been a certain cynical genius to what some of these folks have done in Washington. What they’ve realized is, if we don’t get anything done, then people are going to get cynical about government and its possibilities of doing good for everybody." President Barack Obama, 2014
My grand prediction is that AI businesses will crash, and companiesusing AI to remove people will regret it. it will be just one more business management fad that fades away.
First off, the massive investment in AI does not work out in the math. No way they all make money. Second, AI is NOT "Super Intelligence", it is not even actual intelligence. AI would be better named 'Virtual Intelligence' and is nothing more than an overgrown piece of kludged software intended to pass the Turing Test. It has NO comprehension, NO understanding, NO perspective, NO compassion... It is pretty much designed to hallucinate when it is presented with a new situation.
Hence I am not concerned about it. I am also not concerned with multibillionaires who bet massie portions of their wealth on it. losing all that money. They will not starve in the street, but they should NOT be 'rescued' from their stupidity and greed.
There are ways to build systems and even robots to do simple tasks with narrow limitations. We aleady have them. Just don't expect them to be people.
New New Deal is a terrible name
Fair Deal might hit better, since most people do not see the system as fair.
Do not think small. Thinking small is how Republicans will take back power. They have stolen power for many decades and it is time to take it back and use it for the people.
Coalition: How about rather than limit to narrow groups in an effort to create divisions, we focus on EVERYBODY.
This means making sure everybody gets a fair deal. No oppression or discrimination against any group, no favoritism, which means we have to make an EFFORT to not discriminate, because too many people have been pushed down by bullies, and we do not tolerate bullies. Yes, we will lose the vote of the bullies, the racists full of anger, and the ultrawealthy that think the country is one huge game of Monopoly, a zero-sum game.
As has been described before, 'Medicare for all' is cheaper than our current system, partly because we are not paying insurance companies to handle our money.
Education, Housing, medical care and many other problems can be creatively solved if we stop thinking in terms of Government simply writing checks as opposed to solving problems.
Start with the assumption the system is wrong, broken, unfair and designed to be that way. If we want different results we need to do things differently. Do NOT describe problems in terms of past solutions.
Of course the corporations and the wealthy will fight tooth and corrupt nail to hold onto their power and system of corruption we take for granted, so first we have to remove the corruption, by removing money from politics. No big money, no moderate money, no self-funding, no lobbyists, no stock trading by politicians... Strong ethics with strong enforcement. Remove the wealthy from ownership or control of all major media, radio, TV, Social media, Streaming, newspapers, magazines...
Basic mantra: The wealth of the rich should not be able to drown out the voice of the poor and working class. It should not require an amendment, just a non-corrupt SCOTUS, but we can't be afraid to push for amendments.
Remove the politics from our courts, including SCOTUS. There are many ways to do this, but it should start with following the constitution and removing those who are not in "Good behaviour" which does NOT require impeachment. Ask me if you need me to spell it out for you. The intent is CLEAR in the Constitution. Btw, 'not good behaviour' includes lying to the Senate, and overt bias.
It has become a given that companies are all about serving the owners, the stockholders, and all they ever provided was money. No talent, no skills, no sweat, no effort at all. Everything in any company worth the name is created by it's employees, the people who WORK for a living and yet they are treated as simply a business expense to be reduced and removed whenever possible. Without the workers there are no customers to power the economy. The economy is an ecosystem that has been damaged by the wealthy siphoning off all the wealth into their own pockets. The Fed is focused on protecting the banks and it deliberately hurts the workers to do it. HAS to be a better way, and no, the banks are not what is most important, nor is the rest of the 'financial industry' which adds no real value and just siphons off more of our wealth.
Companies should have priorities: Stay profitable, because otherwise it dies and has no value to anyone. Take care of employees FAIRLY. Regular Employees should be fairly represented on the board, with real veto power. Essentially every company will have a labor union with representation directly on the board, so no need for strikes, the negotiation is ongoing. Then come the customers and the suppliers. No more destructive 'harvesting' of companies and all the games the rich like to play with treating companies like toys to buy and break. In other words, stop treating companies like slaves, owned and sold, beaten and starved, abused for any advantage or out of sheer laziness and incompetence. Consider all the employees treated as less than the slave they buy and sell and destroy.
Every problem is solvable, once we are focused on solving problems.
How to tax the rich is easy, once we get money out of politics, and realize creative problem solving is doable. Examine the problem: The rich hire tax lawyers to make their returns so complicated the IRS can't afford to audit them. So make the corporations pay for the audits and the court cases. The rich hire lobbyists to 'persuade' congress members to pass laws making their taxes lower... Reward tax lawyers crafting laws to close loopholes and unfairly low taxes.
Remove gerrymandering. Bring in DC and Puerto Rico as states so that ALL our citizens have representation.
Yes, this is just the simplistic listing of much of the first things we need to do.
I think a few of them, at least, want to give us a new deal.
Unfortunately, they're the minority and party leadership is thoroughly bought and paid for by corporate interests.