I want the Democratic party to take it's head out of its ass as much as anyone, but your whole argument seems to assume reality only bites in one direction.
The Brokenists have no uniting philosophy beyond anger and no real plan beyond a half-fearful, half-ecstatic subservience to the manifold whims of an unleashed Donald Trump.
If Trump drives the economy off a cliff, as seems at the very least plausible, then voters may well decide that the problems created by the expert class are greatly outweighed by the consequences of rejecting the expert class, and Democrats may end up concluding that they were right to retreat to the fortress and wait for the inevitable collapse of their opponents.
Personally, I hope Trump course corrects if/when the market downturn really starts gaining momentum, ditches Musk, and governs semi-responsibly for the remainder of his term so that Democrats actually have to persuade a significant number of voters in order to beat him. But I won't be betting on in that outcome.
I agree that if the Trump Admin drives the economy off a cliff and throws out the experts we need to make things work at all, they will lose electorally to the Dems. But without more rethinking, what, precisely do the Dems have to offer the country at that point? Undoing everything that Trump did . . . and then what? The emptiness of the Kamala campaign is indicative of a serious lack of ideas (not to mention, a refusal to take responsibility for the many unpopular polices pushed, most notably open borders).
And I disagree that there's no plan with the Trump Admin - although it's not at all clear that the plan will work, there is clearly a plan. As I see it, the goal is to revitalize the American economy in a way that works better for the working and middle classes by: 1) imposing tariffs to protect US industries and incentivize reshoring; 2) lowering taxes and slashing regulations to create a more business-friendly environment; 3) reducing federal spending via DOGE to help lower the deficit; 4) lowering defense spending by ending the Ukraine War and drawing back from more foreign commitments; 5) reducing the federal debt so less money goes to servicing it and the US is less vulnerable to other countries divesting the dollar; and 6) in general, moving the focus of economic planning away from Wall Street and towards Main Street.
The vision is that we'll have more better-paying jobs, national supply chains and manufacturing, fiscal solidity, etc. While it strikes me as a very risky strategy, I can see the logic there. I get why critics say it's destined to crash and burn. But those same critics don't seem to have a better strategy to offer when it comes to improving our job base, reducing the deficit, getting rid of over-regulation, getting us out of endless wars, etc. These are the sorts of issues that I'd love to see the Democrats develop an alternative vision around.
Democrats lost to a president that four years ago had the lowest approval rating recorded. And in the process shed large chunks of their core supporters. If that doesn’t cause a deep reflection then denialism and TDS is clearly a problem.
Nicely done. A perfectly constructed scenario based on what I've seen and experienced. I have been in exchanges with those on the left ( I am not) and gotten dismissed with either, "I haven't heard that." (denial) or "It’s only a few isolated cases." (you're overreacting) and my favorite, "You're only reading your media." (not possible to only read conservative stuff - search engines feed the opposite every day). I also am tired of being accused of being Maga just because I don't agree with them. My question, what will break the spell? Thoughts? We need a healthy two party system. This willful isolation and righteous anger is bad for us all.
On an interpersonal level, it seems like the more that it's possible to open things up to less purely black-and-white thinking, the better. That's not always possible. But sometimes it is. When we see such opportunities, take them and see where it goes.
Collectively, I think that supporting new media - like good independent journalists on Substack and beyond - is proving to be very important. New ideas and conversations are developing. Out of this, hopefully, something more positive will emerge politically and culturally - and eventually, gather steam.
Otherwise, I feel like we just have to accept that the times are what they are and do our best to stay positive and support others without being judgmental or demanding that they accept our views of the world (but without taking any flak from them, either). Definitely not easy but something to aspire to, perhaps.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that there is a certain faction on the left that has essentially become a cult. They are impervious to logic, reason and common sense. And we all know what happens to cults eventually. Not gonna be pretty
You make a good Fortress analogy Carol, but it’s deeply disturbing how easy you go on Trump, Musk, Bannon and all the moderate Republicans who are damaging citizens throughout this country and beyond.
The point of this essay is to encourage Democrats to get unstuck and move forward in a positive direction. There is no reason to assume that implies a blanket endorsement of all things Trump. (It doesn't.)
But in my opinion, Democrats need to wake up and recognize that for many voters, if their only realistic choice is between: 1) a party that denies, defends, and/or exacerbates problems they see everyday and 2) a party that promises to take action on them but often behaves in risky, bullying, and/or problematic ways, they will take #2.
This is particularly true if they are constantly being put down for their innate characteristics (e.g., straight men) and/or denounced as "fascists" for not following the Democratic party line (everybody else). It's just not a good way to win friends and influence people.
This should be obvious. But it's not because Democrats are too addicted to Trump-hating outrage. The intense emotionality of that crowds out the mental space to process anything else more rationally.
There is nothing that I'd like to see more politically than a revitalized Democratic Party that I can support enthusiastically. Getting there will take some serious change, however. I'm hopeful, but not at all confident that will happen.
Carol makes a very cogent argument in this post. It's an assessment of where Democrats are and why. It is not any kind of endorsement of Trump or his policies. I remain surprised and disappointed at how many people still won't acknowledge legitimate reasons for the Democrats' losses in last fall's elections and the unpopularity of their policies.
Although it's perhaps dated now, I recommend the Hidden Tribes report (https://hiddentribes.us/) as a source of modest optimism. The findings suggest that, outside of small minorities on both the right and the left, there is a lot of agreement among Americans of various political, racial, and socioeconomic stripes on issues of culture, economics, and politics. It gives me hope that (sufficient) unity is still possible.
I think that one cause of the divisions we see today is the lack of a plan from either side to address the question of what comes after the industrial ecomony of 1945-1985. The technology-and-finance-focused economy has worked extremely well for an intelligent, educated minority. Nonetheless, the high school graduates (and dropouts) of 40 or 50 years ago who went to work in a factory for a lifetime are still with us. For all the right reasons, those jobs aren't coming back (despite Biden's union push and industry favoritism or Trump's silly tariff gambit).
I'd love to hear from someone who feels differently or has a plan, but I think that we'll remain divided until someone can answer the question of what do Americans of average intelligence, education, and ability do build satisfyingly stable lives.
Thank you! Appreciate it. And I agree, except that I'd add that it's not only the "average" Americans who are having serious problems with the way that society is organized - it's also the children of extremely dysfunctional families (of which there are more and more), the prone to addiction, the born into a highly marginalized community, etc. In other words - a lot of people.
I vaguely remember the "Hidden Tribes" report and took the quiz this time, just for fun. I came out a "traditional liberal" which, given their categories, seems accurate. (If they had a category for radically disillusioned traditional liberal, that would be even more accurate, lol.)
I also took the quiz and came out "Traditional Liberal." 😂
Your mention of dysfunctional families is right on topic. It is, however, a much more intractable issue, I fear. I am reminded of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's comment:
The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.
FDR and JFK would be aghast at what passes for policy in their beloved Democratic Party. Although both were upper class they understood that victory for their party depended on working class voters. Current party leaders distain the “deplorable” and “racist” members of the working class.
A laundry list of things for Democrats to keep and to dump if they ever want to win again nationwide.
Keep a woman’s right to choose for the first trimester. Dump abortion until birth unless the mother’s health is at risk or the fetus is not viable.
Keep a concern for climate change and grow nuclear power. Dump intermittent, unreliable renewable energy.
Keep and develop new effective vaccines. Dump vaccine mandates.
Keep equality of opportunity for all. Dump equity of results based on discriminating against men, whites and Asians in a futile attempt to compensate for past discrimination against women and blacks. Recognize that D.E.I. Is unconstitutional.
Keep the protection of gay and lesbian rights. Dump men in women’s sports, private spaces and prisons. Oh, and mutilating children who might grow up to be gay.
Keep an opportunity for selective high value immigration. Dump sanctuary cities and open borders.
Keep helping the homeless find jobs and a place to live. Dump camping in cities, shitting in the streets and allowing open drug use.
Keep a concern for due process in criminal justice. Dump letting shoplifters and other petty thieves off the hook and releasing predators back on the streets without bail to kill and maim again.
Do all of the above and they might find their way back to power.
I agree with all that! It's like the baseline from which it would then be possible to build new ideas about dealing with social media and AI, family and community breakdown, etc.
I like the metaphor of the fortress. Its main function is to keep things *out.*
Democrats in the fortress are trying to keep out uncomfortable truths.
Exactly.
But eventually, reality bites back.
I want the Democratic party to take it's head out of its ass as much as anyone, but your whole argument seems to assume reality only bites in one direction.
The Brokenists have no uniting philosophy beyond anger and no real plan beyond a half-fearful, half-ecstatic subservience to the manifold whims of an unleashed Donald Trump.
If Trump drives the economy off a cliff, as seems at the very least plausible, then voters may well decide that the problems created by the expert class are greatly outweighed by the consequences of rejecting the expert class, and Democrats may end up concluding that they were right to retreat to the fortress and wait for the inevitable collapse of their opponents.
Personally, I hope Trump course corrects if/when the market downturn really starts gaining momentum, ditches Musk, and governs semi-responsibly for the remainder of his term so that Democrats actually have to persuade a significant number of voters in order to beat him. But I won't be betting on in that outcome.
I agree that if the Trump Admin drives the economy off a cliff and throws out the experts we need to make things work at all, they will lose electorally to the Dems. But without more rethinking, what, precisely do the Dems have to offer the country at that point? Undoing everything that Trump did . . . and then what? The emptiness of the Kamala campaign is indicative of a serious lack of ideas (not to mention, a refusal to take responsibility for the many unpopular polices pushed, most notably open borders).
And I disagree that there's no plan with the Trump Admin - although it's not at all clear that the plan will work, there is clearly a plan. As I see it, the goal is to revitalize the American economy in a way that works better for the working and middle classes by: 1) imposing tariffs to protect US industries and incentivize reshoring; 2) lowering taxes and slashing regulations to create a more business-friendly environment; 3) reducing federal spending via DOGE to help lower the deficit; 4) lowering defense spending by ending the Ukraine War and drawing back from more foreign commitments; 5) reducing the federal debt so less money goes to servicing it and the US is less vulnerable to other countries divesting the dollar; and 6) in general, moving the focus of economic planning away from Wall Street and towards Main Street.
The vision is that we'll have more better-paying jobs, national supply chains and manufacturing, fiscal solidity, etc. While it strikes me as a very risky strategy, I can see the logic there. I get why critics say it's destined to crash and burn. But those same critics don't seem to have a better strategy to offer when it comes to improving our job base, reducing the deficit, getting rid of over-regulation, getting us out of endless wars, etc. These are the sorts of issues that I'd love to see the Democrats develop an alternative vision around.
Democrats lost to a president that four years ago had the lowest approval rating recorded. And in the process shed large chunks of their core supporters. If that doesn’t cause a deep reflection then denialism and TDS is clearly a problem.
Bravo and well said, Carol!
Thank you!
Nicely done. A perfectly constructed scenario based on what I've seen and experienced. I have been in exchanges with those on the left ( I am not) and gotten dismissed with either, "I haven't heard that." (denial) or "It’s only a few isolated cases." (you're overreacting) and my favorite, "You're only reading your media." (not possible to only read conservative stuff - search engines feed the opposite every day). I also am tired of being accused of being Maga just because I don't agree with them. My question, what will break the spell? Thoughts? We need a healthy two party system. This willful isolation and righteous anger is bad for us all.
A few thoughts fwiw:
On an interpersonal level, it seems like the more that it's possible to open things up to less purely black-and-white thinking, the better. That's not always possible. But sometimes it is. When we see such opportunities, take them and see where it goes.
Collectively, I think that supporting new media - like good independent journalists on Substack and beyond - is proving to be very important. New ideas and conversations are developing. Out of this, hopefully, something more positive will emerge politically and culturally - and eventually, gather steam.
Otherwise, I feel like we just have to accept that the times are what they are and do our best to stay positive and support others without being judgmental or demanding that they accept our views of the world (but without taking any flak from them, either). Definitely not easy but something to aspire to, perhaps.
What a wise response. Thank you.
Not sure whether Dems are in denial or just shell-shocked, but the result is the same. The world is changing and they are not.
Yes, realistically, in denial and shell-shocked both.
Logically, the former led directly to the latter.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that there is a certain faction on the left that has essentially become a cult. They are impervious to logic, reason and common sense. And we all know what happens to cults eventually. Not gonna be pretty
Yes, there is a cult dimension. No doubt, there's one on the right, as well. But I have no direct exposure to that on a personal level.
It is worrisome, to say the least.
You make a good Fortress analogy Carol, but it’s deeply disturbing how easy you go on Trump, Musk, Bannon and all the moderate Republicans who are damaging citizens throughout this country and beyond.
The point of this essay is to encourage Democrats to get unstuck and move forward in a positive direction. There is no reason to assume that implies a blanket endorsement of all things Trump. (It doesn't.)
But in my opinion, Democrats need to wake up and recognize that for many voters, if their only realistic choice is between: 1) a party that denies, defends, and/or exacerbates problems they see everyday and 2) a party that promises to take action on them but often behaves in risky, bullying, and/or problematic ways, they will take #2.
This is particularly true if they are constantly being put down for their innate characteristics (e.g., straight men) and/or denounced as "fascists" for not following the Democratic party line (everybody else). It's just not a good way to win friends and influence people.
This should be obvious. But it's not because Democrats are too addicted to Trump-hating outrage. The intense emotionality of that crowds out the mental space to process anything else more rationally.
There is nothing that I'd like to see more politically than a revitalized Democratic Party that I can support enthusiastically. Getting there will take some serious change, however. I'm hopeful, but not at all confident that will happen.
Carol makes a very cogent argument in this post. It's an assessment of where Democrats are and why. It is not any kind of endorsement of Trump or his policies. I remain surprised and disappointed at how many people still won't acknowledge legitimate reasons for the Democrats' losses in last fall's elections and the unpopularity of their policies.
Although it's perhaps dated now, I recommend the Hidden Tribes report (https://hiddentribes.us/) as a source of modest optimism. The findings suggest that, outside of small minorities on both the right and the left, there is a lot of agreement among Americans of various political, racial, and socioeconomic stripes on issues of culture, economics, and politics. It gives me hope that (sufficient) unity is still possible.
I think that one cause of the divisions we see today is the lack of a plan from either side to address the question of what comes after the industrial ecomony of 1945-1985. The technology-and-finance-focused economy has worked extremely well for an intelligent, educated minority. Nonetheless, the high school graduates (and dropouts) of 40 or 50 years ago who went to work in a factory for a lifetime are still with us. For all the right reasons, those jobs aren't coming back (despite Biden's union push and industry favoritism or Trump's silly tariff gambit).
I'd love to hear from someone who feels differently or has a plan, but I think that we'll remain divided until someone can answer the question of what do Americans of average intelligence, education, and ability do build satisfyingly stable lives.
Thank you! Appreciate it. And I agree, except that I'd add that it's not only the "average" Americans who are having serious problems with the way that society is organized - it's also the children of extremely dysfunctional families (of which there are more and more), the prone to addiction, the born into a highly marginalized community, etc. In other words - a lot of people.
I vaguely remember the "Hidden Tribes" report and took the quiz this time, just for fun. I came out a "traditional liberal" which, given their categories, seems accurate. (If they had a category for radically disillusioned traditional liberal, that would be even more accurate, lol.)
I also took the quiz and came out "Traditional Liberal." 😂
Your mention of dysfunctional families is right on topic. It is, however, a much more intractable issue, I fear. I am reminded of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's comment:
The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.
FDR and JFK would be aghast at what passes for policy in their beloved Democratic Party. Although both were upper class they understood that victory for their party depended on working class voters. Current party leaders distain the “deplorable” and “racist” members of the working class.
A laundry list of things for Democrats to keep and to dump if they ever want to win again nationwide.
Keep a woman’s right to choose for the first trimester. Dump abortion until birth unless the mother’s health is at risk or the fetus is not viable.
Keep a concern for climate change and grow nuclear power. Dump intermittent, unreliable renewable energy.
Keep and develop new effective vaccines. Dump vaccine mandates.
Keep equality of opportunity for all. Dump equity of results based on discriminating against men, whites and Asians in a futile attempt to compensate for past discrimination against women and blacks. Recognize that D.E.I. Is unconstitutional.
Keep the protection of gay and lesbian rights. Dump men in women’s sports, private spaces and prisons. Oh, and mutilating children who might grow up to be gay.
Keep an opportunity for selective high value immigration. Dump sanctuary cities and open borders.
Keep helping the homeless find jobs and a place to live. Dump camping in cities, shitting in the streets and allowing open drug use.
Keep a concern for due process in criminal justice. Dump letting shoplifters and other petty thieves off the hook and releasing predators back on the streets without bail to kill and maim again.
Do all of the above and they might find their way back to power.
I agree with all that! It's like the baseline from which it would then be possible to build new ideas about dealing with social media and AI, family and community breakdown, etc.
There's no battering down the doors of resolutely closed minds, though . . . that's necessarily an inside job.
💯