Please accept my apologies for the delayed reply. I include myself in the group of stupid Americans but let me call attention to a social phenomenon called by some «collective stupidity» which may be at play in the recent support provided by Latino immigrants and the not best educated masses. Please, do not feel offended because of the type of simple information that I am mentioning as follows. Nothing is farther from my intention than offending you or your readers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZjRYivTkI0 might be useful in understanding the recent general elections results specially understanding why so many minimally educated were so willing to take Trump's side (after all he does not seem inclined to scientific o intellectual endeavors). It might help to take a look at Dietrich Bonhoeffer's reflections on the power of fascism while imprisoned and waiting for his sentence: Finally, the interview of Edward Bernais (S Freud's nephew and author of the first book on public relations) about how to manipulate people's consent or redirect their behavior. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg1jOLBzvvY&ab_channel=BallStateUniversityLibraries. Take into account that Bernais was hire as consultant (Coolidge to Eisenhower) on composing effective speeches during their campaigns. My best regards.
Biden SHOULD have arrested right wing media owners, stripped them of their rights, aarrested tRump, his family, and members of Congress. He could still do it! He can say "executive action." Will he? NO! I call him Hindenburgh. His dereliction in his duty to protect us is just as awful as any dictator.
Trump’s mass deportation plan: Who will do the rounding up? How will they move thousands of people? Where will they put them before they deport them? How will they feed them? Who will guard them? Do you think Mexico will take them? What if they refuse? Logistics can be a killer? Not to mention the cost and we know Mexico won’t pay for it.
I really think you and most of the media are missing the point that we were up against an incredibly ruthless and impenetrable right wing propaganda machine. No matter what the pro-democracy movement message was, it was wrapped in lies, distorted and broadcast out at 10,000 decibels.
The left simply doesn't have the same mechanism to get our message out - if we did, we wouldn't be sitting in this place right now. We're too diverse, too diffused. Their message is on point and centralized.
It's not going to get better because Trump and his goons will bring the media to heel and neuter much of it - it will become part of the state propaganda machine and the rest of us will be left in the dark.
I now understand what Rachel Maddow meant when she said the only tool to use in the fight for democracy IS democracy. We very likely will not have free & fair elections for some time to come so we can't vote them out of office now. We've lost the courts & rule of law to a captured SCOTUS, who preemptively gave full immunity to the POTUS. Congress will rewrite some laws to solidify Republican's power and then they will be stripped of theirs and it will consolidate in the Executive Branch.
Every avenue I go down to try to thwart their efforts is met with one of these obstacles. I'm sure there are people smarter than me that might come up with better options but it starts with recognizing they own the sound system and control the message and we have well crafted speeches that no one listens to.
And that doesn't take into consideration at all the fact that some people simply prefer fascism to democracy - they DON'T believe in majority rule. We can put the outright racism, sexism and misogyny aside for now but it's not lost on me that in 2 out of 3 elections, he's only been able to beat women - not because they weren't qualified but because too many men and women in our country prefer the felon to the female.
We gots lots of problems but policy ain't the issue this time around.
The reason Democrats lose is that they refuse to ever look in the mirror and question themselves. It's always some nasty scheme manipulating people against them, or it is just the people themselves who are defective and evil. It could never, ever be their ideology, policies, and record in power that are to blame. Calling yourself "pro-democracy" after promoting the totalitarian COVID regime and government-imposed censorship of online platforms is either an exercise of delusion severe enough to require professional help, or pure Orwellian doublethink. I mean, North Korea calls itself "democratic" too, so I guess it's a common yarn, but still, the lack of self-awareness is astounding. Your post reminds me of "Baghdad Bob" from the Iraq War.
It is not clear to me what the "No Honeymoon for Trumpism" article is saying Democrats should do besides, I dunno, have some kind of generalized spirit of opposition.
Sorry Andrew - incorrect. While I’ll accept that some(a very small %) of voters were so ignorant of the political world around them for 2 years that they voted at the last minute for their lesser of two evils; the larger and more crucial part of the electorate knew exactly who Trump was and what he he would do. Inflation as an argument is a specious one no matter what Sarah thinks from her focus groups. What happened was a collective national willful brain fart where people who weren’t suffering the lingering effects of historically low inflation decided that they just didn’t like Biden therefor Harris and like the excitement and unpredictable Trump - they long for the chaos of 2017-2020, they were entertained by it. They also embraced his criminality and corruption, willfully.
Hey, that’s ok - voters are free to choose their flavor. But don’t tell me that they did so innocently and solely because the price of eggs, gas and meat is up 15% from 2020. The prices of cars, especially large pick up trucks and SUVs suggests that they somehow have room to afford those with no impact on their budgets.
This election was decided in 2021 when Biden didn’t do a Clintonian “feel your pain” effort and the Dems decided that Black Lives Matter was more important than public security.
At 41% approval it’s amazing that Harris got the 49% she ended with. That’s the miracle
I joined, despite the shame of giving money to this group, just because I felt the need to remind everyone reading it that all of the things Trump is promising to do are things Bill Kristol spent decades claiming to support.
They really do plan to persecute people for following the law. Chauvin to be freed? Prosecutors to be persecuted? J6 rioters to be compensated? Insanity.
I believe the campaign's handling of the economy was ineffective. It's a good economy. It took time to get the economy to this. It's like turning around an ocean liner. Harris, herself, could have used graphs and the like (no PowerPoints!)
If the striking NYT tech workers would find a digital way to clap the pollsters into public stocks, I'd pay their union real $$ to throw virtual tomatoes.
The Democrats need to run someone in every local race in every city in the US, even the reddest of red areas. Why? So the people who live there can see that the Democrats do care and listen and want to help and can push back on the firehose of lies the country is about to get over the next 4 years. We've given up on way too many red areas and need to start the work to get them back.
Unfortunately (as a Dem living in a deep red district in Kansas), the money is not there. We get a Democratic House seat challenger here in the Big First about every 4-6 years, and they never do better than 30-35%, so the state party doesn't think it's worth it to spend the money. Which I can understand, but it is frustrating.
"....abstract support for migrants no longer being here is one thing; continued public support for a messy, brutal, expensive, lengthy program of such deportations—one that will disrupt the economy and rip apart communities—will be something else entirely."
Well said Andrew. People are about to get a lot more interested in policy than they ever imagined. Your point about them choosing cost-of-living over their perception of an over-egged accusation of incoming fascism is astute. Many Trump-voting Latinos with friends and family members who are illegal will find themselves gobsmacked as they discover that when Trump said he'd deport 'criminals', he also defines being undocumented as a crime. Trump openly acknowledged that mistakes would be made and lovely mothers and children may get caught in the crush. That such collateral damage can't be helped. On 60 Minutes Tom Homan made it clear that where parents are undocumented the kindest thing to do would be deport their citizen kids along with them. I'll also be fascinated to see the response of the new cohort of Trump voters to a 2 trillion dollar cut to the budget and JFK Jnr in charge of public health.
OMG. Jeering jibes of character assassination are one thing to handle, violence is another. Jail time for people who were just honestly doing their jobs and obeying the law is going to be horrible. I hope all those folks have escape plans. There's going to be tons of jobs for lawyers and accountants in the next 4 years---the courts are going to have to throw out every precedent in the book to obey the Beast.
Please accept my apologies for the delayed reply. I include myself in the group of stupid Americans but let me call attention to a social phenomenon called by some «collective stupidity» which may be at play in the recent support provided by Latino immigrants and the not best educated masses. Please, do not feel offended because of the type of simple information that I am mentioning as follows. Nothing is farther from my intention than offending you or your readers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZjRYivTkI0 might be useful in understanding the recent general elections results specially understanding why so many minimally educated were so willing to take Trump's side (after all he does not seem inclined to scientific o intellectual endeavors). It might help to take a look at Dietrich Bonhoeffer's reflections on the power of fascism while imprisoned and waiting for his sentence: Finally, the interview of Edward Bernais (S Freud's nephew and author of the first book on public relations) about how to manipulate people's consent or redirect their behavior. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg1jOLBzvvY&ab_channel=BallStateUniversityLibraries. Take into account that Bernais was hire as consultant (Coolidge to Eisenhower) on composing effective speeches during their campaigns. My best regards.
Biden SHOULD have arrested right wing media owners, stripped them of their rights, aarrested tRump, his family, and members of Congress. He could still do it! He can say "executive action." Will he? NO! I call him Hindenburgh. His dereliction in his duty to protect us is just as awful as any dictator.
Trump’s mass deportation plan: Who will do the rounding up? How will they move thousands of people? Where will they put them before they deport them? How will they feed them? Who will guard them? Do you think Mexico will take them? What if they refuse? Logistics can be a killer? Not to mention the cost and we know Mexico won’t pay for it.
I really think you and most of the media are missing the point that we were up against an incredibly ruthless and impenetrable right wing propaganda machine. No matter what the pro-democracy movement message was, it was wrapped in lies, distorted and broadcast out at 10,000 decibels.
The left simply doesn't have the same mechanism to get our message out - if we did, we wouldn't be sitting in this place right now. We're too diverse, too diffused. Their message is on point and centralized.
It's not going to get better because Trump and his goons will bring the media to heel and neuter much of it - it will become part of the state propaganda machine and the rest of us will be left in the dark.
I now understand what Rachel Maddow meant when she said the only tool to use in the fight for democracy IS democracy. We very likely will not have free & fair elections for some time to come so we can't vote them out of office now. We've lost the courts & rule of law to a captured SCOTUS, who preemptively gave full immunity to the POTUS. Congress will rewrite some laws to solidify Republican's power and then they will be stripped of theirs and it will consolidate in the Executive Branch.
Every avenue I go down to try to thwart their efforts is met with one of these obstacles. I'm sure there are people smarter than me that might come up with better options but it starts with recognizing they own the sound system and control the message and we have well crafted speeches that no one listens to.
And that doesn't take into consideration at all the fact that some people simply prefer fascism to democracy - they DON'T believe in majority rule. We can put the outright racism, sexism and misogyny aside for now but it's not lost on me that in 2 out of 3 elections, he's only been able to beat women - not because they weren't qualified but because too many men and women in our country prefer the felon to the female.
We gots lots of problems but policy ain't the issue this time around.
The reason Democrats lose is that they refuse to ever look in the mirror and question themselves. It's always some nasty scheme manipulating people against them, or it is just the people themselves who are defective and evil. It could never, ever be their ideology, policies, and record in power that are to blame. Calling yourself "pro-democracy" after promoting the totalitarian COVID regime and government-imposed censorship of online platforms is either an exercise of delusion severe enough to require professional help, or pure Orwellian doublethink. I mean, North Korea calls itself "democratic" too, so I guess it's a common yarn, but still, the lack of self-awareness is astounding. Your post reminds me of "Baghdad Bob" from the Iraq War.
I love the visual of "picking apart" their coalition!!!!
It is not clear to me what the "No Honeymoon for Trumpism" article is saying Democrats should do besides, I dunno, have some kind of generalized spirit of opposition.
Sorry Andrew - incorrect. While I’ll accept that some(a very small %) of voters were so ignorant of the political world around them for 2 years that they voted at the last minute for their lesser of two evils; the larger and more crucial part of the electorate knew exactly who Trump was and what he he would do. Inflation as an argument is a specious one no matter what Sarah thinks from her focus groups. What happened was a collective national willful brain fart where people who weren’t suffering the lingering effects of historically low inflation decided that they just didn’t like Biden therefor Harris and like the excitement and unpredictable Trump - they long for the chaos of 2017-2020, they were entertained by it. They also embraced his criminality and corruption, willfully.
Hey, that’s ok - voters are free to choose their flavor. But don’t tell me that they did so innocently and solely because the price of eggs, gas and meat is up 15% from 2020. The prices of cars, especially large pick up trucks and SUVs suggests that they somehow have room to afford those with no impact on their budgets.
This election was decided in 2021 when Biden didn’t do a Clintonian “feel your pain” effort and the Dems decided that Black Lives Matter was more important than public security.
At 41% approval it’s amazing that Harris got the 49% she ended with. That’s the miracle
I joined, despite the shame of giving money to this group, just because I felt the need to remind everyone reading it that all of the things Trump is promising to do are things Bill Kristol spent decades claiming to support.
Not true at all, and if you don't liek what they are saying you are free to not read it
They really do plan to persecute people for following the law. Chauvin to be freed? Prosecutors to be persecuted? J6 rioters to be compensated? Insanity.
I believe the campaign's handling of the economy was ineffective. It's a good economy. It took time to get the economy to this. It's like turning around an ocean liner. Harris, herself, could have used graphs and the like (no PowerPoints!)
Andrew - I agree with every word of your column!
Excellent piece, thank you. I'm on the "the time is now" camp as well.
If the striking NYT tech workers would find a digital way to clap the pollsters into public stocks, I'd pay their union real $$ to throw virtual tomatoes.
The Democrats need to run someone in every local race in every city in the US, even the reddest of red areas. Why? So the people who live there can see that the Democrats do care and listen and want to help and can push back on the firehose of lies the country is about to get over the next 4 years. We've given up on way too many red areas and need to start the work to get them back.
Unfortunately (as a Dem living in a deep red district in Kansas), the money is not there. We get a Democratic House seat challenger here in the Big First about every 4-6 years, and they never do better than 30-35%, so the state party doesn't think it's worth it to spend the money. Which I can understand, but it is frustrating.
"....abstract support for migrants no longer being here is one thing; continued public support for a messy, brutal, expensive, lengthy program of such deportations—one that will disrupt the economy and rip apart communities—will be something else entirely."
Well said Andrew. People are about to get a lot more interested in policy than they ever imagined. Your point about them choosing cost-of-living over their perception of an over-egged accusation of incoming fascism is astute. Many Trump-voting Latinos with friends and family members who are illegal will find themselves gobsmacked as they discover that when Trump said he'd deport 'criminals', he also defines being undocumented as a crime. Trump openly acknowledged that mistakes would be made and lovely mothers and children may get caught in the crush. That such collateral damage can't be helped. On 60 Minutes Tom Homan made it clear that where parents are undocumented the kindest thing to do would be deport their citizen kids along with them. I'll also be fascinated to see the response of the new cohort of Trump voters to a 2 trillion dollar cut to the budget and JFK Jnr in charge of public health.
As well as the extra $4,000. annually that the average family will pay if the tariffs are implemented.
OMG. Jeering jibes of character assassination are one thing to handle, violence is another. Jail time for people who were just honestly doing their jobs and obeying the law is going to be horrible. I hope all those folks have escape plans. There's going to be tons of jobs for lawyers and accountants in the next 4 years---the courts are going to have to throw out every precedent in the book to obey the Beast.
The good news is that, other than some judges in Texas and Florida, they won't. Judges understand their oaths to the rule of law, by and large.