Your central point is, of course, right and a critical one for us to understand. Democrats could dominate politics with a “Democratic focus on bread-and-butter issues like raising wages or defraying the cost of childcare”—again becoming the party of the working class.
And right again that this is precisely the problem:
Democrats “need to make a clean break with the narrow cultural milieu that has completely come to dominate the party.”
David Shor, the child prodigy, Obama’s data guru for his second win, has been screaming your winning strategy at the Democratic elite for years. But you well know that he got his ass canceled by “the narrow cultural milieu” aka CRT thugs, even though he’s a Marxist. He calls your idea “popularism.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/08/opinion/democrats-david-shor-education-polarization.html
So the real problem is actually the same old problem we focus on so often — How to shut down the radical authoritarian left who cloak themselves in niceness and concern for the oppressed. As you said June 30, 2020, we “need to rise to the fight of a lifetime. … to build a new community of thinkers, activists, and citizens.”
All of your essays are actually useful for this and encourage this (like this one does), but you need to help us make the links from theory to practice. This substack would be the perfect safe base for organizing thoughtful activism, if the door for that could be opened, as it almost was in 2020. Help us “rise to the fight of a lifetime.’
I think that Democrats are being punished, especially in the Senate, by failing to advance a bold and progressive program to help out rural communities. Republicans only offer them guns and appeals to patriotism and racism. FDR came up with the Tennessee Valley Authority. LBJ championed electrification and anti-poverty programs. The divide in America is more rural vs urban than anything else, and Dems are identified as the “city” party. Secondly, Dems need to reach out to small entrepreneurs. There is no good reason why Joe Blow who owns a John Deere dealership in Cornville is a diehard Republican, who in fact is an activist and possibly a Convention delegate. Universal health care would free small employers from the nightmare of employer sponsored health care. My two cents.
Alas, big ag has stolen the worlds of farming for a living. Scale is what matters, with maximum acreage and commodity savvy. Lacking those means and you're out of the game. Tough in the mountains of the upper South, tough in California where climate change is pounding the Valley along with the fires of forested regions of the West. Have to agree totally on Universal Healthcare. The child tax credit is a great start, and a strong emphasis on maximizing affordable housing--where it makes sense. Public lands... probably not so much. Location still matters.
Lotsa, LOTSA words in this post and the responses.
Leftist progressives have come to define the Democrat Party in popular perception.
It’s inexcusable that The Party has allowed extremists sewage into the Democrat drinking water.
Stupidity? Cowardice? Cinicism?
Doesn’t matter.
The DNC must be SPANKED very hard in this 2024 election cycle.
Trump is not an existential threat.
He’s just one man. His term spans only four years.
Duly chastened, Trump buys four years for the DNC to come to its senses—if there’s any American constitutional sense remaining in their collective consciousness.
Hi Steve: Thank you for your response to what I wrote -- because it actually gets to the 'point of what this election is all about.
As a "Political Scientist" -- Yascha should know that the subject of this election goes much deeper - i.e., to the core of what does a country do in a crisis as the United States is facing.
And for im to start his piece with the use of the work "Idiot" -- just exemplifies that lack of knowledge.
I applaud you for backing the Black Panthers -- because I and my family was living there in the San Francisco Bay area - me in Marin County : when that came down.
I believed what they thought - and Angela Davis was fighting for: - which, as a young white guy - was not popular "at all".
So I think I can say to you -- I know (up-close and personal) "...where you are coming from...".
But what Yascha is writing - is not getting to the root of what this election is about. because it is not between two groups of people that - when the election is over - will agree to disagree politically - but will continue to work together to reach a common agreement ground that both can live in.
That is not the case here - in any way, shape, or form.
This is about one group conscientiously turning itself into being the "conqueror -- flat out.
It is about the "real choice" of "..are We , as a nation - which was forged in War bloodshed for the freedom of casting our vote as to who will be the elected leader -- if Trump wins:
--- just going to just "blindly adhere" to the US Constitution "as written":
--- which is blatantly unfair to the individual voter -- because there is no equality in the "...one person-one vote...' value for the Presidency:
--- because of the Electoral College provision in it: -- knowing what Trump and the MAGA Republicans have stated they will do?
Or are we as a Nation:
--- going to make sure that Trump never take's office -- knowing that he be the Dictator he has said he will be - tearing up the Constitution -so that it will never be amended by civil people?
This is not between "differences of opinion" between people that have simple decency as human beings - to "agree to disagree" civilly -- and continue working for the common good of each citizen.
This is about the survival of that civil humanity here in the US - which is the basis for this Country.
Are we going to just "stand-by and let that be taken away - because of a flawed Constitution -- because Trump and his MAGA - want him - or J. D. Vance soon after - to be King?
We have to make sure that the Country continues under the Constitution - so that we can "make it right" for all citizens: one person - one vote - of equal weight.
I used Germany as the example as to what happens when one "lets freedom go" -- because now -- there is no "other United States of America that either can, or will, come to it's aid if Trump takes over.
No -- this is not some exercise for a young / inexperienced Political Scientist to even think that he has the chops to right about:
--- because he has demonstrated, by what he has already written, that he has neither the grasp or the experience - to "take the 'real subject' on".
I hold no ill will against Yascha.
I just see him as person who hasn't grasped what is at stake - and is just "blowing his own smoke".
This is about the "survival of the United States of America - as this old guy sees it.
You still are not reading Yascha. This essay has nothing to do with this election. Once you understand that perhaps we can sort things out. I and Yascha agree with you about how dangerous Trump is.
Hi Yascha -- well written and thought out as usual. There is just one problem, and it's "a beaut".
Your positions on this topic -- are all voiced from an highly educated / academic / and "on-high observer" point of view., and I truly hope that you "get my drift".
There is no animosity here.
But Yascha -- to "tell" someone - not "suggest to someone" - how to do something especially something political as this -- is just plain hubris.
You have "the right" to present what you are doing with your "series" -- as does every US citizen: -- but what "skin in the game", i.e., real personal involvement, i.e., from your personal life - can you present - by only being a US citizen since 2017?
Your a "political scientist".
Do you even "have a clue" - as to what is at stake in this pivotal moment in the history of the United States?
I ask --because you ae not exhibiting one iota of understanding concerning the depths of the situation.
This election is not a "political study".
This election is about what the "elected by the people" future of the 250+ year old "idea" of freedom over 'subjugation' is going to be.
Is it going to continue -- or is it going to be "under the thumb" of a totally morally corrupt, convicted felon, convicted sexual predator, consummate liar, and now -visually totally unhinged individual -- who has stated that his intent is to tear up the Constitution of the United States -which he swore to protect as a former President of the United States.
The depths of your indifference is just astonishing.
This is not an exercise Yascha -- but it seems that you either don't know that - or just don't give a damn.
How dare you come to this Country -- and try to tell the citizens of this country how to go about "their politics": especially coming from Germany -- which US Military forces, along with others of this world - had to "free" from it's own home grown dictator / Hitler.
I'm old enough to have personally witnessed, as a young boy - the horror of the aftermath that had to be dealt to Germany - because academics like you - didn't stop Hitler when they could have.
You need to go back into your own birthplace's history and learn it's truths- before you gain even think about starting over here -- because you have not earned the right.
Who even knew or even gives a damn whether Trump idolizes Andrew Jackson -- because it doesn't matter.
What matters is that a large number of the citizenry of this country -- have conscientiously decided for themselves - that they are going to allign themselves - with a demonstrated liar / sexual molester / convicted felon / and by definition - "demonstrated traitor" to this country -- in order to gain one thing: -- the power to subjugate the other citizens of this country: -- to their own will and beliefs.
This election is not a topic for "Political Science".
This election is about a non-political "traitorous act" -- by Trump and the MAGA Republican Party --for pure / corrupt / power / and domination -- just like what took place in Germany before you wee even a "thought".
From this "old-guy" - who sees through you like the piece of glass your are: -- a little "advice" -- learn the difference between the two political definitions above-- before you start "waxing eloquent" again.
I may not be quite as old as you, but I got arrested for supporting the Black Panthers in 1968, and was following our politics quite a while earlier. In my view, Yascha understands US politics better than you. But that's just my view, just like your view is just your view. And I'm not going to say "How dare you speak for America" or anything like that, because that's not persuasion.
I think the problem is actually just that you have not understood Yascha. He certainly understands how bad Trump is personally and he signaled that here. But everybody knows Trump's psycho problems and Yascha was making an important point that was not so well known. To make that point he needed to point out how Trump (in spite of his awfulness) was able to win support.
When you think you see a smart person, who's really thinking, say something obviously stupid, it is usually good to pause and try to figure out what you're missing. I'm not saying you'll find they are right. I'm just saying it may not be as simple as it looks on first blush.
The"It's the economy stupid..." of the Clinton years still holds, if one looks clearly at the record of the Biden Administration and its accomplishments on jobs, infrastructure, inshoring chips mfg. inflation trends--it's been a clear win for the Democrats--hands down. Especially comparing the neglect of the pandemic and the tax cutting mania of the Trump years. Crime is a Republican red herring, like many of their so called issues. It's down--homocides especially. And especially since the recent height of that particular crime under Trump.
Trump is Mr. Grievance. Pure baloney from Queens, never worked a genuine day's work in his life. Nuff said. The man's a fraud, who only knows how to lie and cheat on his taxes. Certainly never again to be trusted near the Oval Office.
Your central point is, of course, right and a critical one for us to understand. Democrats could dominate politics with a “Democratic focus on bread-and-butter issues like raising wages or defraying the cost of childcare”—again becoming the party of the working class.
And right again that this is precisely the problem:
Democrats “need to make a clean break with the narrow cultural milieu that has completely come to dominate the party.”
David Shor, the child prodigy, Obama’s data guru for his second win, has been screaming your winning strategy at the Democratic elite for years. But you well know that he got his ass canceled by “the narrow cultural milieu” aka CRT thugs, even though he’s a Marxist. He calls your idea “popularism.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/08/opinion/democrats-david-shor-education-polarization.html
So the real problem is actually the same old problem we focus on so often — How to shut down the radical authoritarian left who cloak themselves in niceness and concern for the oppressed. As you said June 30, 2020, we “need to rise to the fight of a lifetime. … to build a new community of thinkers, activists, and citizens.”
All of your essays are actually useful for this and encourage this (like this one does), but you need to help us make the links from theory to practice. This substack would be the perfect safe base for organizing thoughtful activism, if the door for that could be opened, as it almost was in 2020. Help us “rise to the fight of a lifetime.’
I think that Democrats are being punished, especially in the Senate, by failing to advance a bold and progressive program to help out rural communities. Republicans only offer them guns and appeals to patriotism and racism. FDR came up with the Tennessee Valley Authority. LBJ championed electrification and anti-poverty programs. The divide in America is more rural vs urban than anything else, and Dems are identified as the “city” party. Secondly, Dems need to reach out to small entrepreneurs. There is no good reason why Joe Blow who owns a John Deere dealership in Cornville is a diehard Republican, who in fact is an activist and possibly a Convention delegate. Universal health care would free small employers from the nightmare of employer sponsored health care. My two cents.
Alas, big ag has stolen the worlds of farming for a living. Scale is what matters, with maximum acreage and commodity savvy. Lacking those means and you're out of the game. Tough in the mountains of the upper South, tough in California where climate change is pounding the Valley along with the fires of forested regions of the West. Have to agree totally on Universal Healthcare. The child tax credit is a great start, and a strong emphasis on maximizing affordable housing--where it makes sense. Public lands... probably not so much. Location still matters.
Lotsa, LOTSA words in this post and the responses.
Leftist progressives have come to define the Democrat Party in popular perception.
It’s inexcusable that The Party has allowed extremists sewage into the Democrat drinking water.
Stupidity? Cowardice? Cinicism?
Doesn’t matter.
The DNC must be SPANKED very hard in this 2024 election cycle.
Trump is not an existential threat.
He’s just one man. His term spans only four years.
Duly chastened, Trump buys four years for the DNC to come to its senses—if there’s any American constitutional sense remaining in their collective consciousness.
If not, stick a fork in them—they’re done.
Hi Steve: Thank you for your response to what I wrote -- because it actually gets to the 'point of what this election is all about.
As a "Political Scientist" -- Yascha should know that the subject of this election goes much deeper - i.e., to the core of what does a country do in a crisis as the United States is facing.
And for im to start his piece with the use of the work "Idiot" -- just exemplifies that lack of knowledge.
I applaud you for backing the Black Panthers -- because I and my family was living there in the San Francisco Bay area - me in Marin County : when that came down.
I believed what they thought - and Angela Davis was fighting for: - which, as a young white guy - was not popular "at all".
So I think I can say to you -- I know (up-close and personal) "...where you are coming from...".
But what Yascha is writing - is not getting to the root of what this election is about. because it is not between two groups of people that - when the election is over - will agree to disagree politically - but will continue to work together to reach a common agreement ground that both can live in.
That is not the case here - in any way, shape, or form.
This is about one group conscientiously turning itself into being the "conqueror -- flat out.
It is about the "real choice" of "..are We , as a nation - which was forged in War bloodshed for the freedom of casting our vote as to who will be the elected leader -- if Trump wins:
--- just going to just "blindly adhere" to the US Constitution "as written":
--- which is blatantly unfair to the individual voter -- because there is no equality in the "...one person-one vote...' value for the Presidency:
--- because of the Electoral College provision in it: -- knowing what Trump and the MAGA Republicans have stated they will do?
Or are we as a Nation:
--- going to make sure that Trump never take's office -- knowing that he be the Dictator he has said he will be - tearing up the Constitution -so that it will never be amended by civil people?
This is not between "differences of opinion" between people that have simple decency as human beings - to "agree to disagree" civilly -- and continue working for the common good of each citizen.
This is about the survival of that civil humanity here in the US - which is the basis for this Country.
Are we going to just "stand-by and let that be taken away - because of a flawed Constitution -- because Trump and his MAGA - want him - or J. D. Vance soon after - to be King?
We have to make sure that the Country continues under the Constitution - so that we can "make it right" for all citizens: one person - one vote - of equal weight.
I used Germany as the example as to what happens when one "lets freedom go" -- because now -- there is no "other United States of America that either can, or will, come to it's aid if Trump takes over.
No -- this is not some exercise for a young / inexperienced Political Scientist to even think that he has the chops to right about:
--- because he has demonstrated, by what he has already written, that he has neither the grasp or the experience - to "take the 'real subject' on".
I hold no ill will against Yascha.
I just see him as person who hasn't grasped what is at stake - and is just "blowing his own smoke".
This is about the "survival of the United States of America - as this old guy sees it.
You still are not reading Yascha. This essay has nothing to do with this election. Once you understand that perhaps we can sort things out. I and Yascha agree with you about how dangerous Trump is.
Hi Yascha -- well written and thought out as usual. There is just one problem, and it's "a beaut".
Your positions on this topic -- are all voiced from an highly educated / academic / and "on-high observer" point of view., and I truly hope that you "get my drift".
There is no animosity here.
But Yascha -- to "tell" someone - not "suggest to someone" - how to do something especially something political as this -- is just plain hubris.
You have "the right" to present what you are doing with your "series" -- as does every US citizen: -- but what "skin in the game", i.e., real personal involvement, i.e., from your personal life - can you present - by only being a US citizen since 2017?
Your a "political scientist".
Do you even "have a clue" - as to what is at stake in this pivotal moment in the history of the United States?
I ask --because you ae not exhibiting one iota of understanding concerning the depths of the situation.
This election is not a "political study".
This election is about what the "elected by the people" future of the 250+ year old "idea" of freedom over 'subjugation' is going to be.
Is it going to continue -- or is it going to be "under the thumb" of a totally morally corrupt, convicted felon, convicted sexual predator, consummate liar, and now -visually totally unhinged individual -- who has stated that his intent is to tear up the Constitution of the United States -which he swore to protect as a former President of the United States.
The depths of your indifference is just astonishing.
This is not an exercise Yascha -- but it seems that you either don't know that - or just don't give a damn.
How dare you come to this Country -- and try to tell the citizens of this country how to go about "their politics": especially coming from Germany -- which US Military forces, along with others of this world - had to "free" from it's own home grown dictator / Hitler.
I'm old enough to have personally witnessed, as a young boy - the horror of the aftermath that had to be dealt to Germany - because academics like you - didn't stop Hitler when they could have.
You need to go back into your own birthplace's history and learn it's truths- before you gain even think about starting over here -- because you have not earned the right.
Who even knew or even gives a damn whether Trump idolizes Andrew Jackson -- because it doesn't matter.
What matters is that a large number of the citizenry of this country -- have conscientiously decided for themselves - that they are going to allign themselves - with a demonstrated liar / sexual molester / convicted felon / and by definition - "demonstrated traitor" to this country -- in order to gain one thing: -- the power to subjugate the other citizens of this country: -- to their own will and beliefs.
This election is not a topic for "Political Science".
This election is about a non-political "traitorous act" -- by Trump and the MAGA Republican Party --for pure / corrupt / power / and domination -- just like what took place in Germany before you wee even a "thought".
From this "old-guy" - who sees through you like the piece of glass your are: -- a little "advice" -- learn the difference between the two political definitions above-- before you start "waxing eloquent" again.
I may not be quite as old as you, but I got arrested for supporting the Black Panthers in 1968, and was following our politics quite a while earlier. In my view, Yascha understands US politics better than you. But that's just my view, just like your view is just your view. And I'm not going to say "How dare you speak for America" or anything like that, because that's not persuasion.
I think the problem is actually just that you have not understood Yascha. He certainly understands how bad Trump is personally and he signaled that here. But everybody knows Trump's psycho problems and Yascha was making an important point that was not so well known. To make that point he needed to point out how Trump (in spite of his awfulness) was able to win support.
When you think you see a smart person, who's really thinking, say something obviously stupid, it is usually good to pause and try to figure out what you're missing. I'm not saying you'll find they are right. I'm just saying it may not be as simple as it looks on first blush.
The"It's the economy stupid..." of the Clinton years still holds, if one looks clearly at the record of the Biden Administration and its accomplishments on jobs, infrastructure, inshoring chips mfg. inflation trends--it's been a clear win for the Democrats--hands down. Especially comparing the neglect of the pandemic and the tax cutting mania of the Trump years. Crime is a Republican red herring, like many of their so called issues. It's down--homocides especially. And especially since the recent height of that particular crime under Trump.
Trump is Mr. Grievance. Pure baloney from Queens, never worked a genuine day's work in his life. Nuff said. The man's a fraud, who only knows how to lie and cheat on his taxes. Certainly never again to be trusted near the Oval Office.