Much noise and concern has been expressed about recent losses in some off-year elections where Democrats have been defeated by Republicans. Virginia’s election for governor being one of the most visible. But there’s even more worries among Democratic party stalwarts about the upcoming mid-term elections in 2022. With an increasingly radicalized (and violence tolerant) Republican party challenging basic democratic principles, the stakes have only increased. Ronald Brownstein, senior editor at…
Americans without a safety net: what happens when you shift all risk to the individual
The last 30 to 40 years cover a time when Americans have seen their social safety net disappear as government policy decisions have shifted more and more risk to the individual. This burden of risk was not inevitable. It is the result of a deliberate and systematic effort by both political parties (though Republicans deserve far more credit) to reverse and defund programs that help individuals and their families weather…
The political narrative of our democracy has to change—are Democrats up to the task?
The COVID 19 pandemic has torn away the veneer of a political narrative that has dominated our country for the past 45 years. This narrative is best described by Ronald Reagan when he said in 1980, “Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.” The flip side of that expression is “Let the free market rule.” We see the results of living and dying by this narrative in the…
Billionaires Can’t Save Us from the COVID 19 Pandemic
Jack Dorsey, the CEO and major stockholder in Twitter announced on April 7 that he’s donating $1 billion of his personal fortune to help combat the healthcare and economic effects of the COVID 19 Pandemic in the U.S. While certainly a most appreciated gesture, the argument by Anand Giriharadas, Time magazine editor-at-large and author of “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World,” that billionaires can’t save us has never…
How the Democrats shifted from working class voters to the professional class
Author and historian Thomas Frank has written several books about the shifts in our political parties and the way our government functions. A talk (show in the video here) he gave a few years ago goes a long way to explaining why populist nationalists like Donald Trump appeal to a large group of voters, many of whom have voted for Democrats their whole lives. His argument, which I find irrefutable,…
What we really should fear in our world today
“We fear the cold and the things we do not understand. But most of all we fear the secret misdoings of the heedless ones among ourselves.” —Eskimo shaman as quoted in The Star Thrower by Loren Eisley I read this many years ago and for some reason it has stuck in my mind. Because never since has its warning been more appropriate for the United States as in these…