The fact that the Republicans have done things this badly before the Democrats have a chance to defeat them tells you how screwed up the Democratic party has become. Then how will the Democrats react. I'll tell you. They are going to do the least they could to beat Trump and then go back to their money and power hungry friends. Then the Republicans win, same reasons, Then the Democrats win and on and on. Bottom line is the Working and Middle classes with be earning less and producing more with less health care, less Social Security, more years to work before retirement, shorter life expectancy, Unhealthy additives in our food, the environment and water and less civil rights. I challenge someone to prove this is not what been going on for the last fifty years.
After everything you just wrote, you still think we have any hope at all with the Democrats? It takes YEARS to reform a party even during normal circumstances. Right now, they are fully capitulating to fascists.
At BEST, we would go back to slow death via neoliberal exploitation. The only chance we have, for our whole planet, is to create a people’s party and take back power.
I think that Trump took over the Republican Party and transformed it. I think FDR did something similar for a time. I suppose I reckon it’ll be a tough fight either way and that rebuilding the Democratic Party is the easier lift between that and new party. But It’s just, like, my opinion man.
Trump was a demagogue uplifted by a cult of very ignorant people already fed in decades of propaganda. The Democratic situation is very different.
Case in point, we ALREADY elected a Democratic president AND gave him a trifecta. Did they use that power to stop the fascists that we all knew were planning this? Nope.
By the time the Democrats are reformed, political parties will be meaningless.
NEITHER party serves the citizens of the United States. They are 100% supportive of the oligarchs. We hoi polloi are riff raff, useless eaters, insects.... creatures to be crushed, disposed of. Our entire system of governance (such that it is) is, simply put, A PAY TO PLAY GAME. CASINO CAPITALISM ... Just as the stock market has nothing to do with "where people live" - in every sense of the word. I agree with you. 100%
Certainly a lot to think about. I agree with you. We are so far behind other “wealthy countries we should be ashamed. I am 83 and there is not a lot I can do in person anymore although I do try. I do constantly write letters, email and call my representatives. We need to take money out of politics. The honor of being elected to office should be enough. I am afraid of Trump, especially his treatment of the courts. You certainly have an exciting alternative for the nation.
Totally agree, just one thing: how do we defeat big money? According to statistics, the more money one has in their "war chest" the more likely they are to win. I would like to see this government torn down and a new one put up with people that walk the walk rather than just talk it, but if one thing clearly shows, bribery is the way this country is going..and I am frustrated and depressed. (and get rid of both parties)
You hit the nail on the head. I spent three hours yesterday in a room full of people who are angry, smart and determined to save this country. I’m a Democratic Party official and if we don’t grab this energy and do something with it, we’re just as guilty as MAGA.
Clintonian Dems are invested in keeping the process of power the same because they are so panicked that any change will come out of their dinner. We need new progressive politicians that will break how things are done with as much abandon as the Republicans. We will have to be as ruthless as they have been to get anything even a little different and the Pelosi/Schumer clan hate progressives more than they hate Trump et al. Its time to attack them!
Everybody just keeps throwing stones instead of working together. I can't believe I would say this to this crowd. I primal scream many times a day driving around in my EV. I know it rallies the troops, but it is tired. I have been fighting this fight since I got woke to the environmental state in 2000, and people are just not willing to do the hard work to survive the mess we have made out of the world, and even do little things that inconvenience them a little bit. Like, take your own damn bags to the grocery store. Get a cheap electric Chevy Bolt instead of gas guzzler or work with public transit, walk or ride a bike. I haven't burned gas since 2011. I spend every dime I have on progressives like you, and anything I can dream up to make my business, which is rental property, equitable and empowering to my tenants, affordable and clean. What have you done for me lately? Stop talking smack about others and live by your values everyday. Fun bits of facts: 58 percent of ocean plastic is paint. 24 percent is car tire dust, and dust from civilization. 90 percent of the gas you burn goes to planetary destruction. Watch plastic earth, use Ecosia for your search engine, grow food on every inch of land you have and give away what you can't eat. Turn off the power everywhere you can, and use the resources on Green America website and drawdown.org. Peace. My youtube channel is "crazy green landlord". It is a work in progress, but have fun with it.
Let me clarify one thing by simplifying the whole thing: Capitalism has failed and you are writing without clarifying that. Citizens United sealed the fate and right now you see the effects--buy the government, sell it to a russian mole and there you are. Simple? Maybe. Too simple? Maybe. What's the alternative?
Yes... and selling citizenship to wealthy oligarchs ... at the same time sending US, TAX PAYING CITIZENS to private concentration camps in foreign countries.
We are nowhere close to doing anything like this . We need a lot more grassroots organizing in every state before any of these policy issues can be handled. First we must convince folks that working within the existing party structure is the way forward. It is not. The party will always disappoint us as it has in the past . In addition the party is losing strength with all segments if the population. Once the party dissolves we can build a real grassroots coalition. This coalition should run candidates as write ins if necessary. This will take time a 4 year timeframe is not long enough.
The most underappreciated phrase in The Declaration of Independence is not the hopeful observation about equality and pursuit of happiness but instead occurs a few lines later and is much more pragmatic, “…all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
This is a harsh assessment of human abilities, stunning in its juxtaposition to the idealism which opens the document, and it applies to us right now. Whatever political persuasion you feel aligned with, most of the people on the opposite side are good people, but we are all suffering the evils of a system which pits us against each other.
Call it a plutocracy, oligarchy or gerontocracy; blame it on entrenched political parties, a pay-to-play democracy or social media and cable news. The problem is not us, it’s a system evolved to perpetuate itself rather than operate for the good of the country.
In the fall of 2024, like many Americans of every political stripe, I will almost certainly cast my vote for president without much enthusiasm.
But what choice do we have? To run for president you either need a billion dollars, like Trump, or you need to spend a thousand years on the hamster wheel working your way up the system, like Biden. And almost by definition, the people who check either of these two boxes do not make inspiring leaders. But, with rare exceptions, this is the system we have.
So here’s an idea to shake things up.
We need an American Idol for politics. We need to use technology to vault little known politicians into the national spotlight.
Yes, this would be the utter merging of reality TV and politics. Oh wait, that’s already happened. And it’s not going to be undone. Currently we’re just passive victims of the worst aspects of technology–the relentless desire to exploit social differences and anger for money. Instead, we should be actively using that technology for our betterment.
Lyrical poetry set to music, in other words, singing, is perhaps the most compelling form of human communication. But political oratory, while not as fun or inspiring as singing, is still a strong runner up in the popularity category–at least this has been true in human history until fairly recently.
These days boring, focus-group-tested, over-edited, teleprompter-dependent speeches have become the norm for presidential candidates. It’s no wonder that people have lost interest.
Among the many things we learned from the Obama and Trump presidencies, here are two relative to this idea. From Obama we learned that a single, inspiring speech on a national stage can launch an otherwise unknown politician to the presidency. From Trump we learned that a person who is willing to play without a script provides compelling video.
Politics has always been part theater and part substance. Pretending otherwise is just denying human nature. Technology has given us the tools to democratize the process of choosing leaders but it depends on exploiting the human desire for a good show. American idol and other reality TV shows have done this to great effect with the art of singing. Why couldn’t the same formula be used to inject a few dynamic, heretofore unknown politicians into the ossified cast of characters playing on the stage of national politics?
Of course there are some huge problems with this idea. It’s not a solution to our problems–those will require actual policy choices– but it might be a way to stir new blood into the very tired, old system to which we’ve become accustomed.
Mr Trent your salience and perspective with relevant data is refreshing and have participated with Justice
Democrats numerous times . Substack offers variance particularly with relevant unjaundiced China realities . Thank you for being you and doing what you do. Steve. Old line activist ☮️
I think we still run into the fundamental problem that people hate change in their personal lives. Most people would rather die than make any meaningful change in their own lives. Big ideas are great, but when the rubber meets the road, people will balk at the changes required to implement them. Ask someone in the suburbs to park across the street instead of in front of their home so you can reduce the chance of a child dying as they go to school and see how fast you get told "f*ck off". Until we have a plan to deal with the inertia of the status quo bias, we will have a hard time convincing people to go big.
Good Points. I'm searching for a way to simplify an explanation of a vision for our future. I think there are three keys that we all need to accept: 1) We establish governments to serve the Common Good. 2) Public Services need to be publicly provided with a non-profit SERVICE motive. 3) We need all citizens to pay taxes fairly according to their ability in order to fund it. This does not preclude private enterprise with it's profit goals. That's often where innovation and advances come from, not to mention wealth-building. But we need to elect and hire experts for government service who are there for the Public Good. They will be competing with the private sector, so they need to be compensated accordingly. The Earth is getting too small and fragile for us to struggle with pettiness any longer. It's OK for people to have wealth and power, but with that comes RESPONSIBILITY to contribute accordingly. And until the Common Good reflects societies where everyone can thrive and survive, we will have failed.
The fact that the Republicans have done things this badly before the Democrats have a chance to defeat them tells you how screwed up the Democratic party has become. Then how will the Democrats react. I'll tell you. They are going to do the least they could to beat Trump and then go back to their money and power hungry friends. Then the Republicans win, same reasons, Then the Democrats win and on and on. Bottom line is the Working and Middle classes with be earning less and producing more with less health care, less Social Security, more years to work before retirement, shorter life expectancy, Unhealthy additives in our food, the environment and water and less civil rights. I challenge someone to prove this is not what been going on for the last fifty years.
I hope you're wrong.
After everything you just wrote, you still think we have any hope at all with the Democrats? It takes YEARS to reform a party even during normal circumstances. Right now, they are fully capitulating to fascists.
At BEST, we would go back to slow death via neoliberal exploitation. The only chance we have, for our whole planet, is to create a people’s party and take back power.
I think that Trump took over the Republican Party and transformed it. I think FDR did something similar for a time. I suppose I reckon it’ll be a tough fight either way and that rebuilding the Democratic Party is the easier lift between that and new party. But It’s just, like, my opinion man.
Trump was a demagogue uplifted by a cult of very ignorant people already fed in decades of propaganda. The Democratic situation is very different.
Case in point, we ALREADY elected a Democratic president AND gave him a trifecta. Did they use that power to stop the fascists that we all knew were planning this? Nope.
By the time the Democrats are reformed, political parties will be meaningless.
NEITHER party serves the citizens of the United States. They are 100% supportive of the oligarchs. We hoi polloi are riff raff, useless eaters, insects.... creatures to be crushed, disposed of. Our entire system of governance (such that it is) is, simply put, A PAY TO PLAY GAME. CASINO CAPITALISM ... Just as the stock market has nothing to do with "where people live" - in every sense of the word. I agree with you. 100%
BRAVO... well said because we have to be honest about everything and not just take one side or the other when the entire house is rotten!
Certainly a lot to think about. I agree with you. We are so far behind other “wealthy countries we should be ashamed. I am 83 and there is not a lot I can do in person anymore although I do try. I do constantly write letters, email and call my representatives. We need to take money out of politics. The honor of being elected to office should be enough. I am afraid of Trump, especially his treatment of the courts. You certainly have an exciting alternative for the nation.
Totally agree, just one thing: how do we defeat big money? According to statistics, the more money one has in their "war chest" the more likely they are to win. I would like to see this government torn down and a new one put up with people that walk the walk rather than just talk it, but if one thing clearly shows, bribery is the way this country is going..and I am frustrated and depressed. (and get rid of both parties)
You hit the nail on the head. I spent three hours yesterday in a room full of people who are angry, smart and determined to save this country. I’m a Democratic Party official and if we don’t grab this energy and do something with it, we’re just as guilty as MAGA.
We're already guilty. The DEMS ... the cash crazy, corporate and major war party (genocide?) ... paved the road for the nazi marauders.
Clintonian Dems are invested in keeping the process of power the same because they are so panicked that any change will come out of their dinner. We need new progressive politicians that will break how things are done with as much abandon as the Republicans. We will have to be as ruthless as they have been to get anything even a little different and the Pelosi/Schumer clan hate progressives more than they hate Trump et al. Its time to attack them!
I think it's more about building power then being ruthless, personally.
Everybody just keeps throwing stones instead of working together. I can't believe I would say this to this crowd. I primal scream many times a day driving around in my EV. I know it rallies the troops, but it is tired. I have been fighting this fight since I got woke to the environmental state in 2000, and people are just not willing to do the hard work to survive the mess we have made out of the world, and even do little things that inconvenience them a little bit. Like, take your own damn bags to the grocery store. Get a cheap electric Chevy Bolt instead of gas guzzler or work with public transit, walk or ride a bike. I haven't burned gas since 2011. I spend every dime I have on progressives like you, and anything I can dream up to make my business, which is rental property, equitable and empowering to my tenants, affordable and clean. What have you done for me lately? Stop talking smack about others and live by your values everyday. Fun bits of facts: 58 percent of ocean plastic is paint. 24 percent is car tire dust, and dust from civilization. 90 percent of the gas you burn goes to planetary destruction. Watch plastic earth, use Ecosia for your search engine, grow food on every inch of land you have and give away what you can't eat. Turn off the power everywhere you can, and use the resources on Green America website and drawdown.org. Peace. My youtube channel is "crazy green landlord". It is a work in progress, but have fun with it.
Let me clarify one thing by simplifying the whole thing: Capitalism has failed and you are writing without clarifying that. Citizens United sealed the fate and right now you see the effects--buy the government, sell it to a russian mole and there you are. Simple? Maybe. Too simple? Maybe. What's the alternative?
Yes... and selling citizenship to wealthy oligarchs ... at the same time sending US, TAX PAYING CITIZENS to private concentration camps in foreign countries.
We are nowhere close to doing anything like this . We need a lot more grassroots organizing in every state before any of these policy issues can be handled. First we must convince folks that working within the existing party structure is the way forward. It is not. The party will always disappoint us as it has in the past . In addition the party is losing strength with all segments if the population. Once the party dissolves we can build a real grassroots coalition. This coalition should run candidates as write ins if necessary. This will take time a 4 year timeframe is not long enough.
The only place we're close to doing this is the energy and enthusiasm in the country for change.
I think you'll like this idea.
https://vermontrobbyporter.substack.com/p/american-idol-for-politics
The most underappreciated phrase in The Declaration of Independence is not the hopeful observation about equality and pursuit of happiness but instead occurs a few lines later and is much more pragmatic, “…all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
This is a harsh assessment of human abilities, stunning in its juxtaposition to the idealism which opens the document, and it applies to us right now. Whatever political persuasion you feel aligned with, most of the people on the opposite side are good people, but we are all suffering the evils of a system which pits us against each other.
Call it a plutocracy, oligarchy or gerontocracy; blame it on entrenched political parties, a pay-to-play democracy or social media and cable news. The problem is not us, it’s a system evolved to perpetuate itself rather than operate for the good of the country.
In the fall of 2024, like many Americans of every political stripe, I will almost certainly cast my vote for president without much enthusiasm.
But what choice do we have? To run for president you either need a billion dollars, like Trump, or you need to spend a thousand years on the hamster wheel working your way up the system, like Biden. And almost by definition, the people who check either of these two boxes do not make inspiring leaders. But, with rare exceptions, this is the system we have.
So here’s an idea to shake things up.
We need an American Idol for politics. We need to use technology to vault little known politicians into the national spotlight.
Yes, this would be the utter merging of reality TV and politics. Oh wait, that’s already happened. And it’s not going to be undone. Currently we’re just passive victims of the worst aspects of technology–the relentless desire to exploit social differences and anger for money. Instead, we should be actively using that technology for our betterment.
Lyrical poetry set to music, in other words, singing, is perhaps the most compelling form of human communication. But political oratory, while not as fun or inspiring as singing, is still a strong runner up in the popularity category–at least this has been true in human history until fairly recently.
These days boring, focus-group-tested, over-edited, teleprompter-dependent speeches have become the norm for presidential candidates. It’s no wonder that people have lost interest.
Among the many things we learned from the Obama and Trump presidencies, here are two relative to this idea. From Obama we learned that a single, inspiring speech on a national stage can launch an otherwise unknown politician to the presidency. From Trump we learned that a person who is willing to play without a script provides compelling video.
Politics has always been part theater and part substance. Pretending otherwise is just denying human nature. Technology has given us the tools to democratize the process of choosing leaders but it depends on exploiting the human desire for a good show. American idol and other reality TV shows have done this to great effect with the art of singing. Why couldn’t the same formula be used to inject a few dynamic, heretofore unknown politicians into the ossified cast of characters playing on the stage of national politics?
Of course there are some huge problems with this idea. It’s not a solution to our problems–those will require actual policy choices– but it might be a way to stir new blood into the very tired, old system to which we’ve become accustomed.
Mr Trent your salience and perspective with relevant data is refreshing and have participated with Justice
Democrats numerous times . Substack offers variance particularly with relevant unjaundiced China realities . Thank you for being you and doing what you do. Steve. Old line activist ☮️
Thank you for the encouragement. I'm glad to have you in the comments and along for the journey.
I think we still run into the fundamental problem that people hate change in their personal lives. Most people would rather die than make any meaningful change in their own lives. Big ideas are great, but when the rubber meets the road, people will balk at the changes required to implement them. Ask someone in the suburbs to park across the street instead of in front of their home so you can reduce the chance of a child dying as they go to school and see how fast you get told "f*ck off". Until we have a plan to deal with the inertia of the status quo bias, we will have a hard time convincing people to go big.
Until/unless Citizens United is gone, none of this will happen. So what's the plan for getting rid of it?
Good Points. I'm searching for a way to simplify an explanation of a vision for our future. I think there are three keys that we all need to accept: 1) We establish governments to serve the Common Good. 2) Public Services need to be publicly provided with a non-profit SERVICE motive. 3) We need all citizens to pay taxes fairly according to their ability in order to fund it. This does not preclude private enterprise with it's profit goals. That's often where innovation and advances come from, not to mention wealth-building. But we need to elect and hire experts for government service who are there for the Public Good. They will be competing with the private sector, so they need to be compensated accordingly. The Earth is getting too small and fragile for us to struggle with pettiness any longer. It's OK for people to have wealth and power, but with that comes RESPONSIBILITY to contribute accordingly. And until the Common Good reflects societies where everyone can thrive and survive, we will have failed.
Is any candidate up for 2026 aligned with this vision? If so I want names.
So do you mean something like what David Hogg is doing? Should we throw him money? He’s really pissed off the re—klicans.
AOC? Bernie? Who?