I blame Obama and the Democrats for where we are just as much as Trump and Republicans. “Leaders” who refuse to accept responsibility for where they’ve led us are worthless.
Clinton and the DLC. They acquiesced to the neoliberal Reagan ‘Revolution’, and instead of fighting for working people, bent over for corporate donors. Game over.
Bingo... been saying that forever! Congrats on knowing the DLC. When I used to reference it in my criticism of Democrats turning into Corporate/OnePercent butt-plugs during Clinton I'd add about the DLC... if you have to look it up, you are part of the problem!
Agreed. We cannot move to the center. Nothing is there. Obamacare is the center, it doesn't work. We need universal health care because the inelastic demand for health care allows corporations to extract every dollar people have. Pay or die is not choice. Universal health care works in every country where it is used. This is just one issue. There are many more that exhibit the same problem, compromise on a issue with no intermediary position is dangerous. You can't compromise on a mine. Either you have a copper mine on sacred native lands or you don't. There is no middle. You can have a natural gas pumping station in a town dominated by the descendants of former slaves in North Carolina, or you don't. There are no good compromises in these situations. When maintaining power in the Governor's office is the goal, as it seems to be for Kathy Hochul in New York, then you have little interest in changing the status quo. Change involves risk, and in this dire situation, caused by overuse of natural resources and corporate control of nearly everything, working through a presidency with no moral core, refusal to risk change is folly.
We can’t move to the center because the ratchet effect has moved the Overton Window center so far to the right that even George Carlin, bless his soul, would have had trouble mocking our lack of choice.
"Power is not winning. Winning is the beginning of the fight for power" good one! And correct. Otherwise you get the dynamic status quo... sadly, disgustingly, Trump somehow understands that. Obama is a neocon. But Mamdani is not and needs to be pushed.
Power begets ethical weakness. What is a society for? Is it to conduct experiments on how to push it around? Is it to just use society to stroke your ego and play the ages old parlor game of 'my dog can eat your dog?' Corbin you are one smart guy, but your essay says do the right things for the wrong reasons, and you lose. Nah, not any more. It never worked, which is why we are in the air, headed down with a 500 lb. safe tied to our legs. The bottom is only livable for coyotes in cartoons. The rest of us just die ugly. I read this essay and my chest constricts. Just more of the same pissing contests between people who have more Id than Superego, thereby thwarting the harmonic balance of Ego itself, which should be, in this model, the humility it takes from ALL OF US to know we have been walking in quicksand for 2000 years or more. It is said that a leopard cannot change its spots. Problem with that analogy is that leopards and other real animals know how to survive together for millions of years if they simply eschew the memes humans are addicted to - gotta have that power and gotta use it. Look at the current shitshow, the penultimate POWER GRAB -- nothing but massive screw ups, carnage everywhere, Sir Fopling Flutters on every corner barking like chihuahuas. This paradigm sucks Corbin. It cannot work. Your what-to-do strategy is just another road to Hell, and we are already Here In Hell. Pissing contests to see who gets to do the waterboarding on the next prisoner. Now THAT is POWER, huh?
While I agree with what you write, there have been enough examples of quicksand avoidance to make me, not hopeful, but aware, of the possibility that we can come our collective senses before we have to rub sticks together to make fire, or go the way of the dinosaur.
Hey, the quantum field is so massive n filled with energy that anything is possible. The rub is that of assumptions. I just read an article about being 'confident.' Studies show that most folk believe if they have confidence good things will happen, but evaluate themselves as either having it or not. Research shows the opposite -- you do, you act, you put in the effort, you take chances, and boom, something ok happens. Then there is the recognition that confidence comes from work, from effort, even maybe from enough belief in something that you 'go for it' without knowing the outcome. Any outcome is at least as tenable as no outcome via no effort. I am with you, I just keep on keepin' on, and know that if I do, something better than nothing usually occurs. I am confident I can do something just about any time, as long as I do not lose my perspective about what is doable and what is not. Baby steps, one at a time, get you somewhere.
It's a tough call, and I think we put too much of a spotlight on Mamdani. He's in a tough position. Most of what he needs to fulfill his promises to New Yorkers are resources received from the state. Mamdani can make the stands we would love to see from him in the interests of the bigger picture, but he's the Mayor of New York. His obligation, at this point, is not to the movement, it's to New York. And if he gets locked out by Hochul, he doesn't succeed in New York. If he doesn't succeed, he will be the poster child of a crash and burn progressive. Every progressive and Democratic Socialist running after him will find themselves trying to run against Mamdani's failures. And we certainly can't rely on the press to elaborate the nuances of New York politics. I do agree with the gist of the argument, however. How many times have we seen Democrats begin their negotiations with their compromise position rather than a position of strength? Could Mamdani go to Hochul and play hardball? I don't know. I'm not in Mamdani's seat. I think the Fight Worth Having strategy is the stronger route. As the likely apocryphal stories about FDR demonstrate, even elected officials who are sympathetic to our cause need us to organize and make them do the things we want them to do.
Zohran Mamdani did what every corrupt establish politician on the Left and Right has done. SOLD OUT/BAILED OUT on his campaign promises, his most loyal supporters and joined the corrupt top 1% controlled ESTABLISHMENT UNIPARTY. We saw it with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Warren is the real dirty evil establishment fraud. She had a choice and she chose to sell out the progressives destroy Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic Primary joining the corrupt hated Establishment UNIPARTY DIRTBAG Hillary Clinton. I believe Sanders had no choice. He put up the fight for decades. They got to him. Sanders did bring some voters to Establishment Demented UNIPARTY IDIOT Joe Biden even after they Deep Sixed/STOLE his 2020 Primary bid when he was destroying IDIOT BIDEN. Joe Biden was visibly OBVIOUSLY loosing his mind during the 2020 Democratic Primary debates, YET the UNIPARTY banded together and OPENLY STOLE that PRIMARY from Bernie Sanders. Again ignoring the voters and anointing/NOT ELECTING a TOP 1% CONTROLLABLE MORON in Biden.
Mamdani will talk a lot of bullshit to please certain supporters (THE ONES WITH NO POWER AND MONEY) and give his detractors plenty of ammo to hammer him in the press. But Mamdani will get nothing done for his voters, followers, and supporters. Self preservation and greed have kicked in, as usual. Of course the TOP 1% establishment will hammer him with negative lies, innuendos, and propaganda in the media on a daily basis just to keep him in his place, irrelevant , and controllable. I am not a Mamdani follower, supporter or voter, but he is fraud/Sock puppet now. His supporters were sold a bill of goods. As soon as he got elected he joined the UNIPARTY, and started "pulling the rug out from under" anyone that the CORRUPT TOP 1% ESTABLISHMENT UNIPARTY in his core group of supporters that dared to challenge the UNIPARTY REGIME.
I blame Obama and the Democrats for where we are just as much as Trump and Republicans. “Leaders” who refuse to accept responsibility for where they’ve led us are worthless.
Clinton and the DLC. They acquiesced to the neoliberal Reagan ‘Revolution’, and instead of fighting for working people, bent over for corporate donors. Game over.
Bingo... been saying that forever! Congrats on knowing the DLC. When I used to reference it in my criticism of Democrats turning into Corporate/OnePercent butt-plugs during Clinton I'd add about the DLC... if you have to look it up, you are part of the problem!
We're out of time to blame. Let's learn from their mistakes and build.
“Somewhere along the way the Democrat party forgot you can’t keep reaping from a field you stopped planting .”
Agreed. We cannot move to the center. Nothing is there. Obamacare is the center, it doesn't work. We need universal health care because the inelastic demand for health care allows corporations to extract every dollar people have. Pay or die is not choice. Universal health care works in every country where it is used. This is just one issue. There are many more that exhibit the same problem, compromise on a issue with no intermediary position is dangerous. You can't compromise on a mine. Either you have a copper mine on sacred native lands or you don't. There is no middle. You can have a natural gas pumping station in a town dominated by the descendants of former slaves in North Carolina, or you don't. There are no good compromises in these situations. When maintaining power in the Governor's office is the goal, as it seems to be for Kathy Hochul in New York, then you have little interest in changing the status quo. Change involves risk, and in this dire situation, caused by overuse of natural resources and corporate control of nearly everything, working through a presidency with no moral core, refusal to risk change is folly.
We can’t move to the center because the ratchet effect has moved the Overton Window center so far to the right that even George Carlin, bless his soul, would have had trouble mocking our lack of choice.
"Power is not winning. Winning is the beginning of the fight for power" good one! And correct. Otherwise you get the dynamic status quo... sadly, disgustingly, Trump somehow understands that. Obama is a neocon. But Mamdani is not and needs to be pushed.
Power begets ethical weakness. What is a society for? Is it to conduct experiments on how to push it around? Is it to just use society to stroke your ego and play the ages old parlor game of 'my dog can eat your dog?' Corbin you are one smart guy, but your essay says do the right things for the wrong reasons, and you lose. Nah, not any more. It never worked, which is why we are in the air, headed down with a 500 lb. safe tied to our legs. The bottom is only livable for coyotes in cartoons. The rest of us just die ugly. I read this essay and my chest constricts. Just more of the same pissing contests between people who have more Id than Superego, thereby thwarting the harmonic balance of Ego itself, which should be, in this model, the humility it takes from ALL OF US to know we have been walking in quicksand for 2000 years or more. It is said that a leopard cannot change its spots. Problem with that analogy is that leopards and other real animals know how to survive together for millions of years if they simply eschew the memes humans are addicted to - gotta have that power and gotta use it. Look at the current shitshow, the penultimate POWER GRAB -- nothing but massive screw ups, carnage everywhere, Sir Fopling Flutters on every corner barking like chihuahuas. This paradigm sucks Corbin. It cannot work. Your what-to-do strategy is just another road to Hell, and we are already Here In Hell. Pissing contests to see who gets to do the waterboarding on the next prisoner. Now THAT is POWER, huh?
While I agree with what you write, there have been enough examples of quicksand avoidance to make me, not hopeful, but aware, of the possibility that we can come our collective senses before we have to rub sticks together to make fire, or go the way of the dinosaur.
Hey, the quantum field is so massive n filled with energy that anything is possible. The rub is that of assumptions. I just read an article about being 'confident.' Studies show that most folk believe if they have confidence good things will happen, but evaluate themselves as either having it or not. Research shows the opposite -- you do, you act, you put in the effort, you take chances, and boom, something ok happens. Then there is the recognition that confidence comes from work, from effort, even maybe from enough belief in something that you 'go for it' without knowing the outcome. Any outcome is at least as tenable as no outcome via no effort. I am with you, I just keep on keepin' on, and know that if I do, something better than nothing usually occurs. I am confident I can do something just about any time, as long as I do not lose my perspective about what is doable and what is not. Baby steps, one at a time, get you somewhere.
It's a tough call, and I think we put too much of a spotlight on Mamdani. He's in a tough position. Most of what he needs to fulfill his promises to New Yorkers are resources received from the state. Mamdani can make the stands we would love to see from him in the interests of the bigger picture, but he's the Mayor of New York. His obligation, at this point, is not to the movement, it's to New York. And if he gets locked out by Hochul, he doesn't succeed in New York. If he doesn't succeed, he will be the poster child of a crash and burn progressive. Every progressive and Democratic Socialist running after him will find themselves trying to run against Mamdani's failures. And we certainly can't rely on the press to elaborate the nuances of New York politics. I do agree with the gist of the argument, however. How many times have we seen Democrats begin their negotiations with their compromise position rather than a position of strength? Could Mamdani go to Hochul and play hardball? I don't know. I'm not in Mamdani's seat. I think the Fight Worth Having strategy is the stronger route. As the likely apocryphal stories about FDR demonstrate, even elected officials who are sympathetic to our cause need us to organize and make them do the things we want them to do.
"Go along to get along." A formula for disaster. The Democratic Party will go the way of the Whigs once people get desperate enough.
Deception leads to destruction!
Zohran Mamdani did what every corrupt establish politician on the Left and Right has done. SOLD OUT/BAILED OUT on his campaign promises, his most loyal supporters and joined the corrupt top 1% controlled ESTABLISHMENT UNIPARTY. We saw it with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Warren is the real dirty evil establishment fraud. She had a choice and she chose to sell out the progressives destroy Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic Primary joining the corrupt hated Establishment UNIPARTY DIRTBAG Hillary Clinton. I believe Sanders had no choice. He put up the fight for decades. They got to him. Sanders did bring some voters to Establishment Demented UNIPARTY IDIOT Joe Biden even after they Deep Sixed/STOLE his 2020 Primary bid when he was destroying IDIOT BIDEN. Joe Biden was visibly OBVIOUSLY loosing his mind during the 2020 Democratic Primary debates, YET the UNIPARTY banded together and OPENLY STOLE that PRIMARY from Bernie Sanders. Again ignoring the voters and anointing/NOT ELECTING a TOP 1% CONTROLLABLE MORON in Biden.
Mamdani will talk a lot of bullshit to please certain supporters (THE ONES WITH NO POWER AND MONEY) and give his detractors plenty of ammo to hammer him in the press. But Mamdani will get nothing done for his voters, followers, and supporters. Self preservation and greed have kicked in, as usual. Of course the TOP 1% establishment will hammer him with negative lies, innuendos, and propaganda in the media on a daily basis just to keep him in his place, irrelevant , and controllable. I am not a Mamdani follower, supporter or voter, but he is fraud/Sock puppet now. His supporters were sold a bill of goods. As soon as he got elected he joined the UNIPARTY, and started "pulling the rug out from under" anyone that the CORRUPT TOP 1% ESTABLISHMENT UNIPARTY in his core group of supporters that dared to challenge the UNIPARTY REGIME.