This Saturday, Trump parades tanks through Washington for his birthday while 4,700 troops occupy Los Angeles. And where are the Democrats who want to lead in 2028? Writing books and growing beards.
I follow and read Americas Undoing because I appreciate your lucid reasoning and straight talk...
There are some fundamental structural impediments in America's 2 party electoral system system designed to block public participation at every turn Inc...
The DNC (and RNC both registered as private corporation's) who construct performative political theater to defend their corporate patrons...
Our 2 party electoral system has been playing good cop / bad cop for 50 Yrs...
The Electoral College, the challenges in place to block the inclusion of 3rd party participation in governance, the uphill battle progressive political challengers face to to unseat the incumbents against the big donor's who control and benefit from our two party system, the corporate capture of mainstream Media, and internet algorithms that are essentially corporate censorship by technocrats.
To grok how America was really built and operates to this day...
Read or stream the Book Ghost Forest by Greg King, example after examples of the Robber Barrons that have fleeced Americans since the 1800's, footnoted, with citations...
This is not a new story, it's "the" American story, that's been deliberately excised with a longstanding pattern of gaslighting the public with bread and circus.
I think we are in a constitutional crisis hiding behind a flag...
While Americas Got Talent's 13 Yr old baton twirler tap dancing to yankee doodle dandy in a star spangled leotard...
I have no optimism that either party will do anything about it, and nothing short of constitutional amendments are going to allow us to shift course.
I don't know where it's going, or how it ends, but I'm not going down on my knees!
I think its gonna take a working class backlash to big to stop, shift this 50 Yr slide...
literally millions of working class American's angry at the Investor class instead of picking on each other...
decentralized across America in groups of thousands, requiring such a dispersion of police assets that there's not enough of them to go around.
The unemployed, the Under employed, people loosing, civil servants, teachers, nurses, Vets in the streets...
Enough strikes, enough people boycotting corporate businesses and shopping locally instead, to bring corporate profit's to a standstill, and wall street to their knees, and re-unionizing!
Thats what it's gonna take, cause nobody's coming to save us!
Call it what you will, I'll call it Civil Disobedience...
and as history would suggest the investor class will call any threat to their established power a violent insurrection!
Since they will label and peaceful protest as violent, perhaps we just skip the non-violent part? Frankly, peaceful protest, without the realistic threat of violence, we simply be ignored. Is it 1794 yet?
Hey Edward! Agree with you decisive action is urgent. However the best example of how fruitless violence without a plan is Jan 6 2020. Immature Magas can only think ahead to violence. Any plan after that eludes them. What is your plan after a violent overthrow of X? To formulate a Plan you have to be moe than reactive, more than just angry and anxious. To make a Plan you need creativity and imagination.
The Democratic base wants the Party to be a left-wing populist party but its leadership and the majority of its members don’t. They want politics-as-usual…the status quo…even though their opposition party has turned far-right. They think (foolishly) that there still exists a center in this country and that’s how you win elections. They’re dead wrong, and that’s why they’ll lose the mid-terms and the next national election…that, and because they forced David Hogg out of the DNC because gawd forbid he wanted to run challengers against dead-wood Democrats. Say goodbye to the youth and progressive votes, and with it, our democracy.
Exactly! I was very distressed to hear that they're forcing David out. That's so counterproductive. I really want to support him. I'm convinced he knows how to win.
So true! And the DNC and Democratic Convention has become a total joke. They picked Clinton for us! They repeatedly squashed Bernie. We no longer get to pick our candidate. After 53 years of loyaly voting Democratic I just quit them.
I volunteered at the Democratic National Convention in Philly when they through Bernie under the bus and gave us Hillary. Bernie’s delegates want to revolt but, well you know Bernie…always the peacemaker. Now that the DNC through Hogg out, I’m out too!
The DNC made a big mistake when they ousted David Hogg because they disagreed with his decision to primary moderate legislators. When we are too afraid to take risks, when we adhere to a tired status quo, we end up where we are.
2026 is right around the corner. Democrats and independents across the country need to step up, wrestle control away from this incompetent, failed leadership, and rebuild a party with real vision, actual courage, and a little sanity for a change.” So who are the “New Leaders” you see? As an unaffiliated voter (desperately disappointed by the DNC since 2016) I feel that there is no single “Opposition” figure or organisation to get behind - I think if we have to wait till just 2026 we will have decades of damage to the USA by then🥲Corbin - posed same question to you on May 6th so … who do you think is the effective & capable opposition?
Jasmine Crockett and Gretchen Whitmer come to mind first. Beto O'Rourke, Bernie, Jamie Raskin and AOC have been effective leaders. If you're looking for a rock star charisma type, we can only hope that one will emerge as a bright shiny object. Personally, I prefer someone who has been in the trenches and knows how to deal with getting bloody.
Writing books and growing beards lol. Yes. Run now. The party is useless and they aren't going to magically find their testicles. It's going to have to be a candidate with an actual vision who speaks from the heart and doesn't sound teleprompted all the goddamn time.
People in Chattanooga, Tennessee, pay a municipal entity called EPB $58/month for 300 Mbps internet access. I pay Spectrum 69% more, $98/month, for slightly faster - 400 Mbps - internet access.
The difference is EPB, a corporation owned by the city of Chattanooga who's sole purpose is to serve the people of Chattanooga, versus Spectrum, a profit hungry monopoly that will take what ever it can get.
Another magnificent post, Corbin. I think the biggest reason young men don't know who they are is that (like women decided to do in the 60's) they haven't decided--themselves--who they want to be. It's that simple (and since men are already in charge, it will be cake): they have to individually look in the mirror, get past the fear, and say, "This is who I am." Then get out there and be that person. Democrats need to stop stratagizing about the various demgraphics and attempting to appeal to them with some canned bullshit and tell the truth. If they are the party of the working class (the 80%), they have to prove it. People aren't stupid (maybe mislead, but not stupid), and they know the read deal when they hear it.
This is the sermon they fear. Not the tired chants of “save democracy” while serving Wall Street’s wine, but a call to rebuild what was sold off piece by piece.
No more letters to the manager while tanks roll. No more defending a system that left half the country drowning in debt and despair.
If we want to overcome Christian Nationalism and its king-cosplaying grifter, we need a party that fights for the people again, not the donors. And while we fight, keep sharing the Virgin Monk Boy Overcoming Christian Nationalism meme. Let the old lies burn. Let the new voices rise.
Hello Betsy... That may have had something to do with that... Obama, when elected in '08, had large majorities in the House, and Senate... The Republicans were demoralized... By his inaction, timidity, by 2010 his political Capital was gone...
Thanks Betsy... I come from a Culture of Deeds-Not-Words... Walk Your Talk... I believed Obama's promises, so many had become Desperate by then... Obama was good for the 1st 60days, and then he Disappeared for 2-Years... During that period, the Repubs captured the majority of State Governorships, and the Dems were pushed into the background...
Obama’s downfall was the way he handled the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. If he had crusaded to bail out regular people, taking over their mortgages and prohibiting foreclosure and evictions, rather than bailing out financial titans involved in creating the crisis, millions of Americans would have rallied to support him. Alas, republicans and corporate democrats chose banks over people.
Hello Robert... Obama also rose as an Outsider without deep Convictions, or Accomplishments... As Hillary said, all Obama had was a single Speech at the 2004 DNC... Look at those who he picked for his 1st Cabinet...
An economy that relies on consumption and consumer demand is doomed to be a dream-killer. We need to get back to an economy that relies on creation, innovation, an fulfillment! Hard sell in a world that has come to believe 'he with the most toys wins!'
Larry this is why a spiritual and/or values approach is so effective. An article on "quorum sensing" and truly human values: "Quorum sensing" as "I have friends everywhere!"in progressive human groups
Quorum sensing among bacteria is equated with the human phenomena of realizing and acting on the understanding, "I have friends everywhere!"
Get rid of capitalism and replace it with what? Every political theory is just that, a theory. The reality is they all share one fatal flaw. Human nature. A continuous swing between greed and apathy. Aggression and laziness. Hubris and fear. All theories will require the same constant vigilance and flexibility to remain on the path towards a peaceful and just future for all.
Tanks? Honestly?? I thought that they would all have been melted down and made into something that would actually have some use by now....can't think of a better illustration for the word "obsolete".
Honesty, will the Trumpublicans even allow the midterms to take place. Trump continually gets away with all sorts of outrageous and unlawful acts. He was given criminal immunity.
How will the democrats fix the fact that 77.2 millions of Americans convinced themselves that Trump, a man who demonstrated in every way that he was woefully disqualified to serve the office of POTUS?
Democrats have issues; but such issues aren't even as bad as this of the Republican party that actually no longer exists as a proponent of democracy. But none of these issues can fix a moral decline and profound ignorance of the American voters themselves.
Assuming that democrats have a leadership problem that would communicate reason with charisma to the voters that swung Trump, is assuming that such voters are honest, morally wired and reasonable.
The problem is inherent in a democracy where the majority of the voters will eventually elect a fascist, not because the democrats have a big problem, but because the country’s own people will sabotage the system as a byproduct of their own ignorance, and moral depravity.
I follow and read Americas Undoing because I appreciate your lucid reasoning and straight talk...
There are some fundamental structural impediments in America's 2 party electoral system system designed to block public participation at every turn Inc...
The DNC (and RNC both registered as private corporation's) who construct performative political theater to defend their corporate patrons...
Our 2 party electoral system has been playing good cop / bad cop for 50 Yrs...
The Electoral College, the challenges in place to block the inclusion of 3rd party participation in governance, the uphill battle progressive political challengers face to to unseat the incumbents against the big donor's who control and benefit from our two party system, the corporate capture of mainstream Media, and internet algorithms that are essentially corporate censorship by technocrats.
To grok how America was really built and operates to this day...
Read or stream the Book Ghost Forest by Greg King, example after examples of the Robber Barrons that have fleeced Americans since the 1800's, footnoted, with citations...
This is not a new story, it's "the" American story, that's been deliberately excised with a longstanding pattern of gaslighting the public with bread and circus.
I think we are in a constitutional crisis hiding behind a flag...
While Americas Got Talent's 13 Yr old baton twirler tap dancing to yankee doodle dandy in a star spangled leotard...
I have no optimism that either party will do anything about it, and nothing short of constitutional amendments are going to allow us to shift course.
I don't know where it's going, or how it ends, but I'm not going down on my knees!
I think its gonna take a working class backlash to big to stop, shift this 50 Yr slide...
literally millions of working class American's angry at the Investor class instead of picking on each other...
decentralized across America in groups of thousands, requiring such a dispersion of police assets that there's not enough of them to go around.
The unemployed, the Under employed, people loosing, civil servants, teachers, nurses, Vets in the streets...
Enough strikes, enough people boycotting corporate businesses and shopping locally instead, to bring corporate profit's to a standstill, and wall street to their knees, and re-unionizing!
Thats what it's gonna take, cause nobody's coming to save us!
Call it what you will, I'll call it Civil Disobedience...
and as history would suggest the investor class will call any threat to their established power a violent insurrection!
Since they will label and peaceful protest as violent, perhaps we just skip the non-violent part? Frankly, peaceful protest, without the realistic threat of violence, we simply be ignored. Is it 1794 yet?
Hey Edward! Agree with you decisive action is urgent. However the best example of how fruitless violence without a plan is Jan 6 2020. Immature Magas can only think ahead to violence. Any plan after that eludes them. What is your plan after a violent overthrow of X? To formulate a Plan you have to be moe than reactive, more than just angry and anxious. To make a Plan you need creativity and imagination.
The Democratic base wants the Party to be a left-wing populist party but its leadership and the majority of its members don’t. They want politics-as-usual…the status quo…even though their opposition party has turned far-right. They think (foolishly) that there still exists a center in this country and that’s how you win elections. They’re dead wrong, and that’s why they’ll lose the mid-terms and the next national election…that, and because they forced David Hogg out of the DNC because gawd forbid he wanted to run challengers against dead-wood Democrats. Say goodbye to the youth and progressive votes, and with it, our democracy.
Exactly! I was very distressed to hear that they're forcing David out. That's so counterproductive. I really want to support him. I'm convinced he knows how to win.
So true! And the DNC and Democratic Convention has become a total joke. They picked Clinton for us! They repeatedly squashed Bernie. We no longer get to pick our candidate. After 53 years of loyaly voting Democratic I just quit them.
I volunteered at the Democratic National Convention in Philly when they through Bernie under the bus and gave us Hillary. Bernie’s delegates want to revolt but, well you know Bernie…always the peacemaker. Now that the DNC through Hogg out, I’m out too!
The DNC made a big mistake when they ousted David Hogg because they disagreed with his decision to primary moderate legislators. When we are too afraid to take risks, when we adhere to a tired status quo, we end up where we are.
amen, brother :)
2026 is right around the corner. Democrats and independents across the country need to step up, wrestle control away from this incompetent, failed leadership, and rebuild a party with real vision, actual courage, and a little sanity for a change.” So who are the “New Leaders” you see? As an unaffiliated voter (desperately disappointed by the DNC since 2016) I feel that there is no single “Opposition” figure or organisation to get behind - I think if we have to wait till just 2026 we will have decades of damage to the USA by then🥲Corbin - posed same question to you on May 6th so … who do you think is the effective & capable opposition?
Jasmine Crockett and Gretchen Whitmer come to mind first. Beto O'Rourke, Bernie, Jamie Raskin and AOC have been effective leaders. If you're looking for a rock star charisma type, we can only hope that one will emerge as a bright shiny object. Personally, I prefer someone who has been in the trenches and knows how to deal with getting bloody.
Thank you - Amy G is awesome too: we desperately need one “Leader of the Opposition”?
Writing books and growing beards lol. Yes. Run now. The party is useless and they aren't going to magically find their testicles. It's going to have to be a candidate with an actual vision who speaks from the heart and doesn't sound teleprompted all the goddamn time.
Amen, sister :)
Chuck Schumer’s raging incompetence, alone, proves your point.
[From a post last month on my FB page...]
People in Chattanooga, Tennessee, pay a municipal entity called EPB $58/month for 300 Mbps internet access. I pay Spectrum 69% more, $98/month, for slightly faster - 400 Mbps - internet access.
The difference is EPB, a corporation owned by the city of Chattanooga who's sole purpose is to serve the people of Chattanooga, versus Spectrum, a profit hungry monopoly that will take what ever it can get.
https://epb.com/
Another magnificent post, Corbin. I think the biggest reason young men don't know who they are is that (like women decided to do in the 60's) they haven't decided--themselves--who they want to be. It's that simple (and since men are already in charge, it will be cake): they have to individually look in the mirror, get past the fear, and say, "This is who I am." Then get out there and be that person. Democrats need to stop stratagizing about the various demgraphics and attempting to appeal to them with some canned bullshit and tell the truth. If they are the party of the working class (the 80%), they have to prove it. People aren't stupid (maybe mislead, but not stupid), and they know the read deal when they hear it.
This is the sermon they fear. Not the tired chants of “save democracy” while serving Wall Street’s wine, but a call to rebuild what was sold off piece by piece.
No more letters to the manager while tanks roll. No more defending a system that left half the country drowning in debt and despair.
If we want to overcome Christian Nationalism and its king-cosplaying grifter, we need a party that fights for the people again, not the donors. And while we fight, keep sharing the Virgin Monk Boy Overcoming Christian Nationalism meme. Let the old lies burn. Let the new voices rise.
Virgin Monk Boy
Corbin's Substack is attracting very accomplished and "real" writers. Love this :)
Hello Corbin... This is Excellent... Obama was supposed to be 'Change-You-Can-Believe-In' but Obama was just a 'Pretty Face' on the same old Pig...
Hello Betsy... That may have had something to do with that... Obama, when elected in '08, had large majorities in the House, and Senate... The Republicans were demoralized... By his inaction, timidity, by 2010 his political Capital was gone...
Thanks Betsy... I come from a Culture of Deeds-Not-Words... Walk Your Talk... I believed Obama's promises, so many had become Desperate by then... Obama was good for the 1st 60days, and then he Disappeared for 2-Years... During that period, the Repubs captured the majority of State Governorships, and the Dems were pushed into the background...
Obama’s downfall was the way he handled the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. If he had crusaded to bail out regular people, taking over their mortgages and prohibiting foreclosure and evictions, rather than bailing out financial titans involved in creating the crisis, millions of Americans would have rallied to support him. Alas, republicans and corporate democrats chose banks over people.
Hello Robert... Obama also rose as an Outsider without deep Convictions, or Accomplishments... As Hillary said, all Obama had was a single Speech at the 2004 DNC... Look at those who he picked for his 1st Cabinet...
An economy that relies on consumption and consumer demand is doomed to be a dream-killer. We need to get back to an economy that relies on creation, innovation, an fulfillment! Hard sell in a world that has come to believe 'he with the most toys wins!'
Larry this is why a spiritual and/or values approach is so effective. An article on "quorum sensing" and truly human values: "Quorum sensing" as "I have friends everywhere!"in progressive human groups
Quorum sensing among bacteria is equated with the human phenomena of realizing and acting on the understanding, "I have friends everywhere!"
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/quorum-sensing-i-have-friends-everywherein-human-groups-bruce-dickson-c4v8c
Actually, we do need to get rid of capitalism. Any "fix" is just window dressing.
Get rid of capitalism and replace it with what? Every political theory is just that, a theory. The reality is they all share one fatal flaw. Human nature. A continuous swing between greed and apathy. Aggression and laziness. Hubris and fear. All theories will require the same constant vigilance and flexibility to remain on the path towards a peaceful and just future for all.
Tanks? Honestly?? I thought that they would all have been melted down and made into something that would actually have some use by now....can't think of a better illustration for the word "obsolete".
Only found you recently Corbin but you speak truth. Thank you! Why are you not running??
Honesty, will the Trumpublicans even allow the midterms to take place. Trump continually gets away with all sorts of outrageous and unlawful acts. He was given criminal immunity.
How will the democrats fix the fact that 77.2 millions of Americans convinced themselves that Trump, a man who demonstrated in every way that he was woefully disqualified to serve the office of POTUS?
Democrats have issues; but such issues aren't even as bad as this of the Republican party that actually no longer exists as a proponent of democracy. But none of these issues can fix a moral decline and profound ignorance of the American voters themselves.
Assuming that democrats have a leadership problem that would communicate reason with charisma to the voters that swung Trump, is assuming that such voters are honest, morally wired and reasonable.
The problem is inherent in a democracy where the majority of the voters will eventually elect a fascist, not because the democrats have a big problem, but because the country’s own people will sabotage the system as a byproduct of their own ignorance, and moral depravity.
An estimated 80 million eligible voters chose bot to vote in 2024. These are the people that need to be recruited and energized.