It benefits Israel so America does whatever they want, lives and treasure. Israel has free education and healthcare. We don’t. Anyone ask why our working class citizens pay for Israel’s needs? The rich don’t pay taxes, it’s on the backs of us working losers. No wonder Israelis look down on Americans. We are the lower class.
Thank you Corbin. What really stands out to me here is the connection you’re drawing between the economic system and foreign policy. It doesn’t feel partisan. It feels structural. When both parties defend the same economic framework, it makes sense that foreign policy would follow the same logic. The war machine and the market logic start to look like two sides of the same coin.
I also think you’re right about why “save democracy” doesn’t land. If people don’t feel represented in their daily lives, if their town lost its jobs, hospital, or stability, then democracy feels abstract. You can’t ask people to defend something they don’t experience.
Where I keep coming back to is this. If the real issue is concentrated power, economic and political, then the deeper work might be figuring out how to shift that power back to communities. Not just resisting this war or that policy, but changing the foundation that keeps producing them.
The critique here feels serious. The question is what kind of system would make this cycle harder to repeat.
Sadly, you are correct. So was Eisenhower. The military industrial complex runs the country and basically has since WWII. Are we willing to do anything about it? Probably not, though I, for one, will push for change. To actually have change, this system has to collapse. That will not be pretty. It will take a massive push, greater than MLK or Ghandi did, to get this country on a new path.
The US military industrial complex is on the way out, as Europe, Japan, Canada, and increasingly India are joining forces to replace US weapons and the data under it.
They may be on their way out, but they sure as hell aren't going to give up the leverage they have. The MICC has held the nation by the throat for 75 years, and will never let go until 'things fall apart.' Well, things are falling apart. So they will just roll up their rugs and infiltrate the world market place with their stench n slime. Sell until the buyers are all dead. Then, who cares?
It is about political eras and how the opposition caved to a new reality. In 1952, Republicans caved to the reality of the New Deal. After the chaos of the 70's, Clinton caved to the neo-liberal order by 1994.
Aside from issues I deeply care about, like abortion rights, even I had a hard time telling the difference between them by 2000.
These have been my thoughts for many years but couldn’t put them into words till you did it today Corbin. Thank you! Most people I talk with though still think I am overreacting. I often feel as if I’m screaming into a black hole! I despise my own country! I despair of it ever righting itself again and more and more believe it needs to blow up completely. I’m old and will not be here long but I feel such sadness for those who will need to survive this explosion. Money and power and the addiction to it are, it seems to me, are basic to our present situation although they will not provide the comfort and safety they promise. I’m deeply hopeless about our future.
I am also old (81) and loathe this country. If I had moved somewhere else decent, I would have been on the receiving end of our cruelty. Our economy is collapsing, and my fear is starving to death, not so much for me but for my sweet, innocent pets.
It seems to me there are many many of us - older & female - who are clear-eyed about our current orange doodah etc. Yes, I realize not only female, but a lot of the commenters on this substack and others (LFAA & Civil Discourse, TCLA) after decades of being female & possibly being treated as second class over those decades might just be a little quicker on recognizing the current stupidity(there are better names for it, but that will do).
When you look at the faces of our elected officials - majority men & white - it becomes a bit easier to question their "decisions" over the past years. After all, how many women wake up & think oh boy, who do we go to war with today? Who do we denigrate - which ethnic group or race?
I apologize for wandering off the subject of this post - somewhat. But looking at the idiotic goings-on all over this country (and now others) I agree completely with Corbin - this current Democratic Party has no intention of CHANGE - they just want to keep on with their power and greed!
The lack of concern for anyone who isnt in their tax bracket? THATS a concern!
Been saying all of this since the Clintons first rolled into DC. Nobody ever wants to listen. New party. We need a new party. Can I say it again? It’s time for a new party. The two we have are completely broken. We’ve been told since the 1980s that this is the system we have and it is what we have to work with. But as long as we keep working with this system, it’s going to keep letting us down. Primary out the bad guys by all means, but don’t expect that to change anything because the system is designed to convert every new member to either a willing participant in its dysfunction or else a completely de-fanged outsider (which is actually highly functional for those in power). We need a new party, and stop saying it can’t work. Remember Ross Perot? That guy was a fucking fruitcake, but he got pretty far challenging the status quo. It IS possible. But it needs a lightning fast organization that pulls all the disaffected, cynical and disgusted voters from both sides of the R/D aisle behind it. It’s time for a new party, Hoss. C’mon, give it a name. Let’s do it.
I agree that it’s time for a third party challenge. The Independence Party. Publish a new Declaration of Independence. Capitalize on the idea we’re all taught in school- of our righteous rebellion against a brutal, tyrannical central government run by the aristocracy. Agreed we must act with lightening speed to pull together a massive coalition of progressive/worker political organizations and assemble a nation-wide slate of candidates to compete for every open seat. Across the nation, there are currently hundreds of good people running grassroots campaigns against entrenched establishment-backed Democrats. Many of their campaigns will be crushed under mountains of billionaire dollars, leaving voters once again to choose the lesser of two evils, or to just not vote at all. Like the estimated 80 million who didn’t vote in 2024. Give their campaigns new life as members of the new slate.
Assemble the collation. Announce the slate. Get onto ballots. Do write-in campaigns if necessary. And work as one, as a single entity to sell this vision to the American people. A vision of a government that is comprised of regular working people who will function cooperatively to enact legislation and policy that promotes the well-being of the 99%. Create a national campaign tour, holding events in every congressional district, to energize the public. Engage artists and performers to help create the buzz needed to get voter attention. Energize, inspire, give people hope and agency to create change that will improve all of our lives. We will not win if we play by their rules. We must think outside the box. The American people, young Americans are ready for a major change. Now is the time.
Assemble the greatest coalition of people-centered political organizations ever seen in the United States, including:
Our Revolution, Working Families Party, Poor People's Campaign, the AFL-CIO, Inequality.org, Justice Democrats, Grassroots Democrats, Progressive Democrats, Common Cause, NAACP, National Urban League, Rainbow Push Coalition, National Youth Rights, Sunrise Movement, the Green Party, the Socialist Party, the Women's March, National Organization of Women, Reproductive Freedom For All (formerly NARAL), religious organizations promoting social justice, Human Rights Campaign Fund, GLAAD, LGBTQ Task Force, Advance Native Political Leadership, National Congress of American Indians, Native American Rights Fund, UNIDOS US, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Affiliation, Win Without War, Code Pink, Climate Justice Alliance, Environment America, Environmental Defense Fund, Greenpeace, Sierra Club, NRDC, Earthjustice, Jewish Voices for Peace, and more.
I also think that the most important first step is to clearly articulate a set of core principles that anybody can subscribe to and which are resistant to the usual baiting of left/right politicking that we are all so worn down by. I’m okay with capitalism as long as it’s a socially responsible kind that doesn’t put a hobnail boot on the scales in favor of the billionaire class. And Corbin here is one of the only people writing and speaking intelligently about reconstituting our manufacturing base here at home. There’s so much great stuff we can and ought to be making here – so many strong livelihoods that could be created by doing it. Protecting and repairing the environment is also an economic growth sector if you choose to look at it that way, but sustainability has got to be part of the plan or it can’t work. We need to break away from from the culture of the open-ended extraction of resources and the hoarding of wealth and look at how a saner society and world could be built from investing in protecting and regenerating all the great resources we still have, including and especially (ALL OF) our people.
spot on. thank you. at some point for me it became clear that the Dems were only kind of on our side. and only when it was convenient. be nice if we had a real party to protect the people.
Thank you for this. I married a really good man over 25 years ago. He is thirteen years my senior and those years have only shown up as a problem when we have discussed the United States. So many of his generation were indoctrinated into the "America is the greatest country that has ever existed" cult. My son and I aggravated him for years expressing ideas such as what you write. It took the election of Donald Trump in 2016 to finally shake him, and shake him badly, for him to see his country through clear eyes. Not the worst place but not the best either; simply a place founded and run by humans. A place increasingly run by greedy, uncaring and spineless humans though. This country's focus on energy and commerce rather than people and the planet has led us here. It will take a lot of work for people to come around to seeing what you are telling them. Systemic change is needed. Systemic change has been needed for quite a long time. My hope is that things have become so warped and difficult for people that now might just be the time of change. I feel it and my son feels it too. Again, thank you for speaking truth to power. I share your writing as much as possible.
I would call them the corporate/AIPAC owned Democrats instead of lumping everyone together. We need to push the ones who get it, like those you mentioned and others like Saikat Chakrabarti
I believe the democrats will remain THE neoliberal, establishment-loving, and Israel-supporting arm of the Republican Party. I will not be voting for any incumbents.
GREAT essay thank you for saying it out loud. These are the things Chomsky and Hedges and Klein have been writing about for decades but the public has dismissed.
Both parties have the same owners. That’s the core issue. And with the power to buy power those who want to be part of the power structure need to kneel before those with money. Not a difficult calculus. Thanks for this, best thing I’ve read today.
Christian Zionism is an Oxymoron. Zionists consider Jesus a fraud, a liar. Zionists would ban Christians from the land of Jesus ... and that will happen if we keep allowing this abomination called Israel to act with total impunity. West bank Zionists are worse than the KKK.
Zionists believe “God” gave them most of the mid-East. I'd like to see who signed the deed. There will never be peace as long as there is the Greater Israel project.
The intersection in the Venn diagram of Corbin Trent and "not paying attention"... is is a null set. Thanks for the incredible effort you are making, Corbin!
It benefits Israel so America does whatever they want, lives and treasure. Israel has free education and healthcare. We don’t. Anyone ask why our working class citizens pay for Israel’s needs? The rich don’t pay taxes, it’s on the backs of us working losers. No wonder Israelis look down on Americans. We are the lower class.
Thank you Corbin. What really stands out to me here is the connection you’re drawing between the economic system and foreign policy. It doesn’t feel partisan. It feels structural. When both parties defend the same economic framework, it makes sense that foreign policy would follow the same logic. The war machine and the market logic start to look like two sides of the same coin.
I also think you’re right about why “save democracy” doesn’t land. If people don’t feel represented in their daily lives, if their town lost its jobs, hospital, or stability, then democracy feels abstract. You can’t ask people to defend something they don’t experience.
Where I keep coming back to is this. If the real issue is concentrated power, economic and political, then the deeper work might be figuring out how to shift that power back to communities. Not just resisting this war or that policy, but changing the foundation that keeps producing them.
The critique here feels serious. The question is what kind of system would make this cycle harder to repeat.
Somehow your country has managed to elect a group of people who thought that Smedley Butler’s “War is a Racket” was an instruction manual …
The Dem Old Guard is not in the Resistance. They are bought by the same billionaires.
This is the truth ☝️
Sadly, you are correct. So was Eisenhower. The military industrial complex runs the country and basically has since WWII. Are we willing to do anything about it? Probably not, though I, for one, will push for change. To actually have change, this system has to collapse. That will not be pretty. It will take a massive push, greater than MLK or Ghandi did, to get this country on a new path.
The US military industrial complex is on the way out, as Europe, Japan, Canada, and increasingly India are joining forces to replace US weapons and the data under it.
Check out the Concis newsletter here on Substack.
They may be on their way out, but they sure as hell aren't going to give up the leverage they have. The MICC has held the nation by the throat for 75 years, and will never let go until 'things fall apart.' Well, things are falling apart. So they will just roll up their rugs and infiltrate the world market place with their stench n slime. Sell until the buyers are all dead. Then, who cares?
I found this podcast illuminating. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/01/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-gary-gerstle.html.
It is about political eras and how the opposition caved to a new reality. In 1952, Republicans caved to the reality of the New Deal. After the chaos of the 70's, Clinton caved to the neo-liberal order by 1994.
Aside from issues I deeply care about, like abortion rights, even I had a hard time telling the difference between them by 2000.
Trump promises to "drain the swamp" and at least recognizes the deep anger at the neo-liberal order. While he is a grifter and hasn't done a damn thing to help people, he identified the problem that is so well expressed with this article that was quickly buried from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/29/us/politics/donors-harris-tax-ultrawealthy.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur
Title: Donors Quietly Push Harris to Drop Tax on Ultrawealthy.
Money and politics = erosion of democracy.
These have been my thoughts for many years but couldn’t put them into words till you did it today Corbin. Thank you! Most people I talk with though still think I am overreacting. I often feel as if I’m screaming into a black hole! I despise my own country! I despair of it ever righting itself again and more and more believe it needs to blow up completely. I’m old and will not be here long but I feel such sadness for those who will need to survive this explosion. Money and power and the addiction to it are, it seems to me, are basic to our present situation although they will not provide the comfort and safety they promise. I’m deeply hopeless about our future.
I am also old (81) and loathe this country. If I had moved somewhere else decent, I would have been on the receiving end of our cruelty. Our economy is collapsing, and my fear is starving to death, not so much for me but for my sweet, innocent pets.
It seems to me there are many many of us - older & female - who are clear-eyed about our current orange doodah etc. Yes, I realize not only female, but a lot of the commenters on this substack and others (LFAA & Civil Discourse, TCLA) after decades of being female & possibly being treated as second class over those decades might just be a little quicker on recognizing the current stupidity(there are better names for it, but that will do).
When you look at the faces of our elected officials - majority men & white - it becomes a bit easier to question their "decisions" over the past years. After all, how many women wake up & think oh boy, who do we go to war with today? Who do we denigrate - which ethnic group or race?
I apologize for wandering off the subject of this post - somewhat. But looking at the idiotic goings-on all over this country (and now others) I agree completely with Corbin - this current Democratic Party has no intention of CHANGE - they just want to keep on with their power and greed!
The lack of concern for anyone who isnt in their tax bracket? THATS a concern!
Been saying all of this since the Clintons first rolled into DC. Nobody ever wants to listen. New party. We need a new party. Can I say it again? It’s time for a new party. The two we have are completely broken. We’ve been told since the 1980s that this is the system we have and it is what we have to work with. But as long as we keep working with this system, it’s going to keep letting us down. Primary out the bad guys by all means, but don’t expect that to change anything because the system is designed to convert every new member to either a willing participant in its dysfunction or else a completely de-fanged outsider (which is actually highly functional for those in power). We need a new party, and stop saying it can’t work. Remember Ross Perot? That guy was a fucking fruitcake, but he got pretty far challenging the status quo. It IS possible. But it needs a lightning fast organization that pulls all the disaffected, cynical and disgusted voters from both sides of the R/D aisle behind it. It’s time for a new party, Hoss. C’mon, give it a name. Let’s do it.
I agree that it’s time for a third party challenge. The Independence Party. Publish a new Declaration of Independence. Capitalize on the idea we’re all taught in school- of our righteous rebellion against a brutal, tyrannical central government run by the aristocracy. Agreed we must act with lightening speed to pull together a massive coalition of progressive/worker political organizations and assemble a nation-wide slate of candidates to compete for every open seat. Across the nation, there are currently hundreds of good people running grassroots campaigns against entrenched establishment-backed Democrats. Many of their campaigns will be crushed under mountains of billionaire dollars, leaving voters once again to choose the lesser of two evils, or to just not vote at all. Like the estimated 80 million who didn’t vote in 2024. Give their campaigns new life as members of the new slate.
Assemble the collation. Announce the slate. Get onto ballots. Do write-in campaigns if necessary. And work as one, as a single entity to sell this vision to the American people. A vision of a government that is comprised of regular working people who will function cooperatively to enact legislation and policy that promotes the well-being of the 99%. Create a national campaign tour, holding events in every congressional district, to energize the public. Engage artists and performers to help create the buzz needed to get voter attention. Energize, inspire, give people hope and agency to create change that will improve all of our lives. We will not win if we play by their rules. We must think outside the box. The American people, young Americans are ready for a major change. Now is the time.
Assemble the greatest coalition of people-centered political organizations ever seen in the United States, including:
Our Revolution, Working Families Party, Poor People's Campaign, the AFL-CIO, Inequality.org, Justice Democrats, Grassroots Democrats, Progressive Democrats, Common Cause, NAACP, National Urban League, Rainbow Push Coalition, National Youth Rights, Sunrise Movement, the Green Party, the Socialist Party, the Women's March, National Organization of Women, Reproductive Freedom For All (formerly NARAL), religious organizations promoting social justice, Human Rights Campaign Fund, GLAAD, LGBTQ Task Force, Advance Native Political Leadership, National Congress of American Indians, Native American Rights Fund, UNIDOS US, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Affiliation, Win Without War, Code Pink, Climate Justice Alliance, Environment America, Environmental Defense Fund, Greenpeace, Sierra Club, NRDC, Earthjustice, Jewish Voices for Peace, and more.
https://runforsomething.net/
There you go!! That’s the ticket!
I also think that the most important first step is to clearly articulate a set of core principles that anybody can subscribe to and which are resistant to the usual baiting of left/right politicking that we are all so worn down by. I’m okay with capitalism as long as it’s a socially responsible kind that doesn’t put a hobnail boot on the scales in favor of the billionaire class. And Corbin here is one of the only people writing and speaking intelligently about reconstituting our manufacturing base here at home. There’s so much great stuff we can and ought to be making here – so many strong livelihoods that could be created by doing it. Protecting and repairing the environment is also an economic growth sector if you choose to look at it that way, but sustainability has got to be part of the plan or it can’t work. We need to break away from from the culture of the open-ended extraction of resources and the hoarding of wealth and look at how a saner society and world could be built from investing in protecting and regenerating all the great resources we still have, including and especially (ALL OF) our people.
spot on. thank you. at some point for me it became clear that the Dems were only kind of on our side. and only when it was convenient. be nice if we had a real party to protect the people.
There is no leadership anymore. Only bombs. And blood. And we are all complicit.
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/if-westerners-could-wrap-their-minds
Thank you for this. I married a really good man over 25 years ago. He is thirteen years my senior and those years have only shown up as a problem when we have discussed the United States. So many of his generation were indoctrinated into the "America is the greatest country that has ever existed" cult. My son and I aggravated him for years expressing ideas such as what you write. It took the election of Donald Trump in 2016 to finally shake him, and shake him badly, for him to see his country through clear eyes. Not the worst place but not the best either; simply a place founded and run by humans. A place increasingly run by greedy, uncaring and spineless humans though. This country's focus on energy and commerce rather than people and the planet has led us here. It will take a lot of work for people to come around to seeing what you are telling them. Systemic change is needed. Systemic change has been needed for quite a long time. My hope is that things have become so warped and difficult for people that now might just be the time of change. I feel it and my son feels it too. Again, thank you for speaking truth to power. I share your writing as much as possible.
I would call them the corporate/AIPAC owned Democrats instead of lumping everyone together. We need to push the ones who get it, like those you mentioned and others like Saikat Chakrabarti
I believe the democrats will remain THE neoliberal, establishment-loving, and Israel-supporting arm of the Republican Party. I will not be voting for any incumbents.
It holds until it is smashed.
GREAT essay thank you for saying it out loud. These are the things Chomsky and Hedges and Klein have been writing about for decades but the public has dismissed.
Both parties have the same owners. That’s the core issue. And with the power to buy power those who want to be part of the power structure need to kneel before those with money. Not a difficult calculus. Thanks for this, best thing I’ve read today.
Christian Zionism is an Oxymoron. Zionists consider Jesus a fraud, a liar. Zionists would ban Christians from the land of Jesus ... and that will happen if we keep allowing this abomination called Israel to act with total impunity. West bank Zionists are worse than the KKK.
Zionists believe “God” gave them most of the mid-East. I'd like to see who signed the deed. There will never be peace as long as there is the Greater Israel project.
You are not paying attention, your title is makes no sense is.
The extra is was an artifact of writing at 3 AM. I can’t write until I’m inspired.
The intersection in the Venn diagram of Corbin Trent and "not paying attention"... is is a null set. Thanks for the incredible effort you are making, Corbin!
I understand, and inspired you were! Good stuff.
…maybe because of this:
…”Majority of lawmakers in 116th Congress are millionaires”
By https://www.opensecrets.org/news/author/kevers/
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/04/
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/04/majority-of-lawmakers-millionaires/