This is a disappointing Friday for millions of Americans who remain shocked by the rejection of character, decency and honesty by the majority of our fellow citizens.
I’m trying not to cry. I humbly agree with all you have said and I daily now try to reckon the carnage to follow. I worked the polls that fateful day. The joy in the lunatics voting for Trump and their comments I just had to smile through and thank them for voting. Young women voting for the first time and voting for Trump. It felt to me as if none of them had any understanding that voting for Trump would take away their freedom. I call them lunatics because even with the shame of Bidens move and his enablers, how could the evil be ignored? There isn’t one single honorable republican in DC. Are they all going to jump for joy when they realize what Trump will do? Even to the point of murder, I believe.
My daughter’s family will be leaving this country to protect their children. At 71 what do I do? My son is in another state but; we too are getting our lives in order. Steve I don’t want to be stuck alone half a world away from my family, but; my grandchildren cannot live under a criminal regime. What if he drafts young men into his army?
And does anyone believe he will leave in 4 years? He didn’t even pack the first time except for stolen documents which he immediately shared with our enemies. I will never except him nor call him president. He is a criminal surrounded by criminals and doesn’t have one single guardrail.
Dear Pam, your words touch my heart because they mirror my own thoughts. Lost, confused, defeated, all of it! I agree, we will no longer have free elections, not in two years not in four. God bless you, your family, this great nation we had.
Wow, how kind of you to respond with encouragement. I love Canada and haven’t been there for about 15 years. I’m cutting back on things already here. I’m also still in shock. My major issue is cost of living. I’m retired, widowed and much to sell. I was an art teacher, and studied abroad. Now I’m gathering strength. Blessings!! Pam
That word you use...JOY. This is what I have seen now for many years with the most dogmatic and narrow on the right, even before MAGA got its name. Total bliss in 100% certainty of their disinformative beliefs and the JOY of being in a club where these beliefs are the only requirement for unconditional love and membership in a community. So COMMUNITY, or the loss of it, this is at the core here, maybe. Community is frequently lost in urban areas, as families and the people you grew up with disperse and end up in small family units or even just individuals in their own habitat. So the left, progressive dogmatic people are never joyful. They are pissed, intolerant, judgemental, and a host of other feelings....but not joyful, because their "community" is not cohesive and carries many conditions to retain membership.
"...a lot of people in the immediate vicinity of Joe Biden didn’t put the country first. They put Joe Biden first..." I think you meant they put themselves first. If they had put Joe Biden first, they would not have allowed him to humilate himself and doom his legacy.
I will continue to support and follow you and will thirst for ideas and ways to change things in our next election. America is a racist country. America has given a clear message to women…stay silently in the kitchen. On Wednesday, I thought I would just give up. Today, I want to fight those bastards and again, look forward to being given guidance as needed. I want to live in another America, a better America, before I die.
If the fucking men who hold the fucking power in this country would have done a better job at designing and utilizing the flawed concept of capitalism, women would not have been forced to enter the workforce and earn a paycheck to support their families. If the men of this country treated women as a partner instead of a brainless piece of property, we would have been able to mostly eradicate misogyny. None of us ask to be born and we certainly don’t get to choose our gender or anything else for that matter. We need to remind the selfish, entitled politicians of this fact daily.
I realize I sound like a man-hater… my partner has accused me as much. I am not. I realize that this would not be all men. I have all the respect for men who treat all people with kindness, dignity and respect.
I didn’t know what this was. My daughter just asked me “Have you heard about Project 4b S Korea?” and the explained it to me. what are the odds?😀 Thanks! I can get behind this idea for sure!
I admire your forward looking optimism, Steve, but sadly i do not share it. The Republican Party is no more. The Democrats are vanquished and will be gerrymandered and suppressed into a permanent minority. The Trump Party will see that there is no turning back from the Authoritarianism they will impose on a once-free nation. 💔🤬
Anyone who said Bob Menendez is a dedicated public servant is not fit for a coffee pourer position at a Dunkin Donuts.
Who we elect these days says a lot about us and it is a terrible look.
The men and women, for instance, of Tennessee returned Marsha Blackburn to office by a 2 to 1 margin. This is a woman opposed to equal pay for women and opposed to laws protecting women from domestic violence.
The mirror of this country projects ignorance and stupidity and places women in a secondary and subjugated status.
In the immortal words of Fred Willard, 'Hey, wha' happened?" A lot.
Thirty years doesn't seem like eons ago, but the internet was still a novelty, and full deregulation of broadcast property ownership was a couple of years away. Fox News had not debuted yet. Most Americans still drank the same information water. Now the well has been poisoned. In 1994, the only thing Donald Trump could have been elected to is Grand Wizard at a Klan rally.
I don't know if we can ever get the genie back in the bottle, but the great hypnotizing of America could not have happened without a juggernaut of disinformation from self-serving broadcast and online "influencers."
The brainwashed majority of American voters that re-elected Trump are going to get what's coming to them. Sadly, we're going to get what's coming to them too.
I believe you are right. And the reckoning is going to be painful. We can't put this genie back in the bottle and we can't unring this bell. I can't see how we are going to unfuck this situation right now. For my own part, I believed that it was the Republican party that needed to be overhauled. It turns out that the Democratic party is what was the real problem and I never saw this 10 ton $hithammer coming down.
Biden certainly bears a portion of the blame for the situation in which we find ourselves. He should have stuck to one term, the Democratic Party should have held a rousing primary, we should have focused on the pressing concerns of many Americans, and we should have dissected Donald J Trump with a blunt scalpel.. BUT….that did not happen. And now we have President Donald J Trump, who believes that all but MAGA are vermin, and who has “policies” that will directly undermine the promises that he has made to the American voters. He will likely crash our economy, probably sooner rather than later. He does not have the infrastructure in place, or the money allocated, to carry out his deportation plans. He has no control over high prices, and his tariffs will worsen that situation. The job market is already softening. Just wait until the demise of small businesses who rely on parts and materials from offshore that will suddenly become unaffordable. And the prices for things like eggs, meat, and poultry will skyrocket for lack of cheap labor to process them.We can predict what will happen. SO….we have to take the criticisms and lessons from folks like Steve and many others, and we have to start TODAY planning for 2026 and 2028.
I can't 100% agree on the Joe Biden timing issue because I can't know an unknown (i.e., that a regular Democratic primary nominee would have fared any better). I can 100,000% agree that Chuck Schumer is a stone-cold duplicitous weak idiot, because this is a known-known for at least 15 years. Harry Reid, who was at least a real pugilist if nothing else, must be spinning in his grave.
So glad I’m not the only person who thinks Schumer has been a disaster. He was never a strong leader or a man of particular courage. But the worst is the Dem establishment with their ridiculous non-strategies. We deserve who we have elected and we are reaping the whirlwind of it all.
I’m with you 100% and cannot thank you enough for being a much needed light on the porch.
Added to your observations, I believe that we are in this disastrous situation because the Dems stopped caring about people who didn’t agreed with them/had very different life experiences, and if one doesn’t care, one doesn’t listen, and if we don’t listen, we drive people to someone, ANYONE!, who will.
We have a lot to learn.
As a hands-on landscape architect working directly with laborers and heavy equiptment operators, it has been my great good fortune to get to know Trump supporters.
I say good fortune because since 2010, they have shared with me why they feel/vote the way they do. They share with me because they know I respect them as fellow human beings.
On Election Day, I spent twelve hours at the Polk Township Volunteer Fire Department as an outdoor Election Protection “Greeter”. Along with making sure people had proper ID’s, I handed out countless tangerines, mini muffins and bottles of water to hundreds of mostly Trump supporters.
My conversations with people that day confirmed what I already knew; 1) that if people feel forgotten, they get hurt, then they get mad and look to others to lead them to a better place, and 2) that this country has the potential to become the democracy we dare to dream of, and must continue to fight for.
I don’t understand how workers feel that the Democratic Party has forgotten them. There has been no better President for Labor since FDR than President Biden. If workers that don’t belong to a Union and don’t receive all of the benefits that a Union membership provides them it’s certainly not the Democrats fault, it’s their fault for not joining a Union or forming one at their workplace. If any of these “forgotten” workers think that the republicans are going to be better for workers they are sadly mistaken. This is the party that won’t raise the minimum wage, wants to get rid of Social Security, despises Unions, hates overtime pay, tries to get rid of prevailing wage laws p, wants to cut OSHA funding, and the list goes on and on. These have all been protected by Democrats!
I don’t disagree with you Henry but I’m talking about the disconnect, the communication black hole that the Dems have created.
Of course, we havent created it out of thin air. There are other factors at play that helped produce this dangerous moment. Trump has had his finger on the pulse. He is the consummate con man, and he has outplayed us.
That too many of the working class don’t know or believe what you have listed, is a failure, to some extent, on our part. My guess is that it’s a failure to communicate because of our inability to connect empathically with those who aren’t comfortable with boys transitioning into girls, aren’t comfortable with their childhood or present day neighborhoods turning from white to a mix of races, feel that their heritage is slipping away.
Some of us welcome change but many are afraid of it. We are dealing with fear, as well as racism and misogyny. We have our work cut out for us.
Henry, the democratic party went away from the poor and working class when they were part and parcel to becoming the voice for business back a little before Clinton but came to full fruition under Clinton. There was the open-door policy for taking our manufacturing overseas before Clinton, and then there was NAFTA under Clinton. Not to mention at the local level how local governments coddle and court medium and large businesses in their communities. Now people think because the Democrats are for free school lunches and the like they are for the working poor. How about doing something more specific and long range for the working and working poor that will help them not to have to rely on free school lunches for their kids, child tax credits, or other "freebees" that is government dependent. Maybe something more substantive than an increase in the minimum wage, because there are millions of working people who make more than minimum wage and still have problems putting food on the table or paying their rent. Our economic system is broken, substantially, when the top 1% own 80% of everything, and millions upon millions of Americans only have $400 in their savings account for an emergency. Because none of that is trickling down to the poor and working poor. There is something deeply flawed in an economic system when the opportunity to own a home is out of reach. The Democratic Party and its minions in the Congress do not in any way want to piss off business. There was a time when the Democratic party was unquestionably on the side of the worker in worker management disputes during the Union wars. This is no longer the case. There was some photo op of Biden standing on some picket line somewhere during his campaigning, but there hasn't been ANY politician who has been integral to the disputes between "labor and management" for 40 years. Democrats think that their responsibility to the economy is soling in "jobs creation". And interestingly enough, jobs creation come with giving tax breaks to medium and large business so they can hire new workers, but those workers and the local economies of the medium and large businesses end up being burdened with paying more taxes to make up the taxes that those businesses should have paid in the first place. And then you have the CEO salaries being paid at a 1,000% + rate of the average worker of the same large company. Yes, our stock market economy has been going gang busters since the end of COVID, but why then are people still struggling with food costs and housing costs? The vast majority of American workers do not participate in the stock and futures markets. Harris and Biden were not talking about these specific two things. I know because these two things have deeply affected my pocketbook, and I was listening very intently to anything they might say to specifically address this. But neither had a direct plan to combat these. I rent, I don't need to buy a house at this time in my life close to retirement, so what were they going to do about my ridiculous housing cost. I only heard crickets. And about my food costs. Yes, inflation has come down substantially since COVID, but why hasn't my grocery bill gone down. I heard a little talk about price gouging going on, well then where was the plan to combat that? Harris wanted to give tax breaks to first time homeowners but what about our food bills and rental costs? They didn't speak much to this because Harris and Biden didn't want to piss off the mega corporate slum lords that own rental properties around this country, and they didn't want to piss off the corporate food conglomerates and supermarket chains who are in the process right now of further consolidating and buying each other out. Again, big business over the worker. It's really simple, but obviously it's too complex for the democratic party to get a firm grasp of.
Ruth Marcus: “most worried that this country is not what I thought it was, but someplace much more cruel and nasty and selfish, both in its attitude toward our fellow Americans and in its conception of America’s place in the world.”
This is a brutal criticism of Biden. What politician would have surveyed 1/2 thru his term after very good mid term elections with an economic landscape of full employment, good gross national product, increased wages and roaring stock market together with an opponent who is a felon, sex offender, insurrectionist and twice impeached and an opposing political party that repeatedly embarrassed itself in Speaker elections and say to himself, “ no, I’m not going to run for re election against this guy, I’ll probably lose?” It’s absurd. Now, is it true his mental heath was poor. Yes. But who’s going to tell a sitting President you’re demented and can’t do the job? That the Repubs are going to rise up under Trump and massacre you in November? No one, ever, that’s who. It’s so completely unbelievable that this has happened. It makes no sense. All these Monday morning quarterbacks are indulging themselves.
These aren't Monday morning QBs. Did you read the article from 2022 that Steve included the link to? If not, I suggest you take a few minutes to do so. Biden himself said he would be a one term president to transition away from Trump. 1/2 way thru his term has nothing to do with this. He refused to do what he said. He knew going in during his 2020 campaign that age was a concern. Then everyone around him lost their nerve, including his wife, to tell him "Enough! You did what you said to transition away from Trump, let someone else take it from here". Then those around him lied to the American people about his competency and ability to endure 4 more years. We watched in abject horror his performance during the debate and there was a collective, "we're absolutely fucked". His deciding to run against his own promise meant no actual primary. Would Kamala have won the primary? Unknown. But being forced 107 days before election day - when candidates usually have 1 1/2 or more years - to be the chosen candidate with a president whose approval rating was sub 40%, using his campaign staff who got us in this position, and then not being able to message and differentiate herself from Biden was collectively, too much to overcome.
So, at a certain level I respect and appreciate everything Joe Biden accomplished. However, I will not forget that his refusal to honor his word got us into this position and brought us Trump 2.0. I can hold both thoughts in my head at the same time, because to me, both are true. It's not all his fault, but he owns a huge portion of it.
It’s an understandable take. But wrong. Biden’s fatal unpopularity predated and transcended his decision to run for re election by at least a year. The unpopularity wasn’t specific to him as an individual politician. It was built in to the Trump -Republican voter hatred dynamic. Your explaination ignores the route Dems sustained down ballot in Congress. You’re assuming that a traditional, primaried Dem candidate would have defeated Trump and also altered the congressional results? That is unrealistic and makes no real sense. Lake nearly winning in AZ? Cruz cruising in TX? Brown and Casey losing in Ohio and Pa? It’s wishful thinking that another Dem candidate would have re written the results. Trump has a pipeline to a segment of the population no one else does. The formerly apathetic, uninterested and super under-informed. They love his nightclub act and his venom. They think that’s leadership.
Bracingly and fearlessly stated, Steve. There are multiple reasons why America voted to spurn its democratic republic for a fascist dictatorship, an act of potential national suicide that might well concatenate into WWIII, with a mandate that even the German people never gave Hitler, who was appointed Chancellor despite his electoral failure shortly prior to his world-changing empowerment. But the overarching reason, in my fallible judgment, is that Trump’s opposition -- among politicians, journalists and the political commentariat in particular -- remained blinded to the forest of Trump mass psychotic cult delusion for the trees of conventional political and election campaign framing. There is no justifiable moral excuse for this failure, given the nearly decade-long red light-flashing by America’s most esteemed psychiatric experts and fascist historians that Trump had built and was further consolidating a cult animated by a shared, symbiotic psychosis reminiscent of both Hitler’s Germany and Jim Jones’s eponymous Guyanese epicenter of mass cult annihilation.
Trump transformed and reduced American politics into a mass, irrationalist movement of mental pathology recalcitrant to successful confrontation by the Founders’ Enlightenment-based guidance of reason, evidence and fact.
It is one thing to search for what went wrong and try to remedy it. It’s another thing to finger point using speculation. You have no idea if Joe Biden didn’t run whether the results would have been different because you are just engaging in the following non-helpful thought speculative process. 1) I opposed candidate X running, 2) candidate X’s party’s final candidate (Kamala Harris) lost the election. Therefore candidate X’s running caused the loss. Whereas in reality, unless you know something that has not been revealed in your past posting, you know no such thing. That is why I’ve always said that you lack judgement in applying your principles. The only reason I’m still here is because you do have some out of the box thinking. But not always. Frankly, I find Adam Kinzinger’s essay today much more helpful. Too many folks are trying to explain what they don’t know. And IMO, it’s damaging in the long run.
Hi John, Yes, we don't know exactly what has gone on with this recent election. My partner is undergoing heart bi-pass surgery at this time, so I don't have much opportunity to catch up on what is going on. I read Elizebeth Graham yesterday about 'Putin won the election". I have terrible feeling about Russian interference. Here is the link: https://egraham.substack.com/p/this-election-was-not-the-fault-of
I am hoping to get more information about this and I hope Steve Schmidt will too. Thanks!!
I think you've brought up the Russia-connection here in the past. Thank you. There are numerous powerful forces at play that have converged into the mess we're in.
Hi Lisa, I wish your partner to have a speedy recovery. Yes, that’s the conundrum we’re in. Any attempt to blame outside interference will be taken and seen as the Democratic version of election deniers. There is also something completely surreal about a president elect who will swear to uphold the Constitution when he publicly says he won’t (dictator on day one). Do we have an obligation to turn a blind eye? We like to think that there are guardrails but the only real guard rails in place are those with the current administration who will go out of their way to show they accept the results of the election. I think all of these points should at least be seriously considered. But the bottom line remains - too many voters chose to embrace fascism and that still breaks my heart. In light of this reality, we must at least always remain true to our principles so we can live with ourselves. And I hope I always do this because not doing so can be a living hell.
Yes, I totally agree. It does seem like up until the fairly recent past, there was something like a code of ethics that was integrally important to our functioning Democracy. Now so many political 'leaders' lie under oath and care nothing about the Constitution. Did the bottom have to fall out of our Democracy for half the country to see what they once had?
Thanks for your kindness about my partner's recovery. We're hangin' in there!
I’m trying not to cry. I humbly agree with all you have said and I daily now try to reckon the carnage to follow. I worked the polls that fateful day. The joy in the lunatics voting for Trump and their comments I just had to smile through and thank them for voting. Young women voting for the first time and voting for Trump. It felt to me as if none of them had any understanding that voting for Trump would take away their freedom. I call them lunatics because even with the shame of Bidens move and his enablers, how could the evil be ignored? There isn’t one single honorable republican in DC. Are they all going to jump for joy when they realize what Trump will do? Even to the point of murder, I believe.
My daughter’s family will be leaving this country to protect their children. At 71 what do I do? My son is in another state but; we too are getting our lives in order. Steve I don’t want to be stuck alone half a world away from my family, but; my grandchildren cannot live under a criminal regime. What if he drafts young men into his army?
And does anyone believe he will leave in 4 years? He didn’t even pack the first time except for stolen documents which he immediately shared with our enemies. I will never except him nor call him president. He is a criminal surrounded by criminals and doesn’t have one single guardrail.
😢
Dear Pam, your words touch my heart because they mirror my own thoughts. Lost, confused, defeated, all of it! I agree, we will no longer have free elections, not in two years not in four. God bless you, your family, this great nation we had.
You and yours as well Linda.😊🤗
Pam, you are very welcome to come to Canada 🇨🇦
We Canadians are certainly not perfect, but we will never ever support anyone like the corrupt, dangerous, and hate-mongering criminal Donald Trump.
It is cold here in the winter, but we Canadians are warm and friendly people. We would welcome you and your family too. 💕
Don’t be too cocky, your day may come.
Wow, how kind of you to respond with encouragement. I love Canada and haven’t been there for about 15 years. I’m cutting back on things already here. I’m also still in shock. My major issue is cost of living. I’m retired, widowed and much to sell. I was an art teacher, and studied abroad. Now I’m gathering strength. Blessings!! Pam
Unfortunately true. Go with your daughter. Don’t stay here alone.
That word you use...JOY. This is what I have seen now for many years with the most dogmatic and narrow on the right, even before MAGA got its name. Total bliss in 100% certainty of their disinformative beliefs and the JOY of being in a club where these beliefs are the only requirement for unconditional love and membership in a community. So COMMUNITY, or the loss of it, this is at the core here, maybe. Community is frequently lost in urban areas, as families and the people you grew up with disperse and end up in small family units or even just individuals in their own habitat. So the left, progressive dogmatic people are never joyful. They are pissed, intolerant, judgemental, and a host of other feelings....but not joyful, because their "community" is not cohesive and carries many conditions to retain membership.
"...a lot of people in the immediate vicinity of Joe Biden didn’t put the country first. They put Joe Biden first..." I think you meant they put themselves first. If they had put Joe Biden first, they would not have allowed him to humilate himself and doom his legacy.
Yes, absolutely right.
I will continue to support and follow you and will thirst for ideas and ways to change things in our next election. America is a racist country. America has given a clear message to women…stay silently in the kitchen. On Wednesday, I thought I would just give up. Today, I want to fight those bastards and again, look forward to being given guidance as needed. I want to live in another America, a better America, before I die.
If the fucking men who hold the fucking power in this country would have done a better job at designing and utilizing the flawed concept of capitalism, women would not have been forced to enter the workforce and earn a paycheck to support their families. If the men of this country treated women as a partner instead of a brainless piece of property, we would have been able to mostly eradicate misogyny. None of us ask to be born and we certainly don’t get to choose our gender or anything else for that matter. We need to remind the selfish, entitled politicians of this fact daily.
I realize I sound like a man-hater… my partner has accused me as much. I am not. I realize that this would not be all men. I have all the respect for men who treat all people with kindness, dignity and respect.
Project 4b S. Korea.
I didn’t know what this was. My daughter just asked me “Have you heard about Project 4b S Korea?” and the explained it to me. what are the odds?😀 Thanks! I can get behind this idea for sure!
It was a woman that really won the election, Susie Wiles. Trump would have crashed and burned.
I admire your forward looking optimism, Steve, but sadly i do not share it. The Republican Party is no more. The Democrats are vanquished and will be gerrymandered and suppressed into a permanent minority. The Trump Party will see that there is no turning back from the Authoritarianism they will impose on a once-free nation. 💔🤬
Democrats ARE feckless. Garland is a perfect example. If he had acted sooner, Trump would probably be in jail. We needed a pit bull AG, but we got milquetoast. Now we may have to deal with a Trump AG who wants to put Letitia James' "fat ass" in jail and more: https://newrepublic.com/post/188127/trump-attorney-general-hopeful-mike-davis-drag-bodies-street
Yes, the biggest mistakes Democrats have made is in Garland’s foot-dragging.
100%!
Peter, well said. I echo your thoughts!
Anyone who said Bob Menendez is a dedicated public servant is not fit for a coffee pourer position at a Dunkin Donuts.
Who we elect these days says a lot about us and it is a terrible look.
The men and women, for instance, of Tennessee returned Marsha Blackburn to office by a 2 to 1 margin. This is a woman opposed to equal pay for women and opposed to laws protecting women from domestic violence.
The mirror of this country projects ignorance and stupidity and places women in a secondary and subjugated status.
John, don't forget how Schumer screwed Tim Ryan, the former congressman from Ohio. It still makes my blood boil!
In the immortal words of Fred Willard, 'Hey, wha' happened?" A lot.
Thirty years doesn't seem like eons ago, but the internet was still a novelty, and full deregulation of broadcast property ownership was a couple of years away. Fox News had not debuted yet. Most Americans still drank the same information water. Now the well has been poisoned. In 1994, the only thing Donald Trump could have been elected to is Grand Wizard at a Klan rally.
I don't know if we can ever get the genie back in the bottle, but the great hypnotizing of America could not have happened without a juggernaut of disinformation from self-serving broadcast and online "influencers."
The brainwashed majority of American voters that re-elected Trump are going to get what's coming to them. Sadly, we're going to get what's coming to them too.
I believe you are right. And the reckoning is going to be painful. We can't put this genie back in the bottle and we can't unring this bell. I can't see how we are going to unfuck this situation right now. For my own part, I believed that it was the Republican party that needed to be overhauled. It turns out that the Democratic party is what was the real problem and I never saw this 10 ton $hithammer coming down.
Biden certainly bears a portion of the blame for the situation in which we find ourselves. He should have stuck to one term, the Democratic Party should have held a rousing primary, we should have focused on the pressing concerns of many Americans, and we should have dissected Donald J Trump with a blunt scalpel.. BUT….that did not happen. And now we have President Donald J Trump, who believes that all but MAGA are vermin, and who has “policies” that will directly undermine the promises that he has made to the American voters. He will likely crash our economy, probably sooner rather than later. He does not have the infrastructure in place, or the money allocated, to carry out his deportation plans. He has no control over high prices, and his tariffs will worsen that situation. The job market is already softening. Just wait until the demise of small businesses who rely on parts and materials from offshore that will suddenly become unaffordable. And the prices for things like eggs, meat, and poultry will skyrocket for lack of cheap labor to process them.We can predict what will happen. SO….we have to take the criticisms and lessons from folks like Steve and many others, and we have to start TODAY planning for 2026 and 2028.
I can't 100% agree on the Joe Biden timing issue because I can't know an unknown (i.e., that a regular Democratic primary nominee would have fared any better). I can 100,000% agree that Chuck Schumer is a stone-cold duplicitous weak idiot, because this is a known-known for at least 15 years. Harry Reid, who was at least a real pugilist if nothing else, must be spinning in his grave.
No person admiring the ideals of America *of any party* could’ve won.
I agree with every word, and am upgrading my subscription to founding. I'll take my politics without the sugar coating.
So glad I’m not the only person who thinks Schumer has been a disaster. He was never a strong leader or a man of particular courage. But the worst is the Dem establishment with their ridiculous non-strategies. We deserve who we have elected and we are reaping the whirlwind of it all.
I’m with you 100% and cannot thank you enough for being a much needed light on the porch.
Added to your observations, I believe that we are in this disastrous situation because the Dems stopped caring about people who didn’t agreed with them/had very different life experiences, and if one doesn’t care, one doesn’t listen, and if we don’t listen, we drive people to someone, ANYONE!, who will.
We have a lot to learn.
As a hands-on landscape architect working directly with laborers and heavy equiptment operators, it has been my great good fortune to get to know Trump supporters.
I say good fortune because since 2010, they have shared with me why they feel/vote the way they do. They share with me because they know I respect them as fellow human beings.
On Election Day, I spent twelve hours at the Polk Township Volunteer Fire Department as an outdoor Election Protection “Greeter”. Along with making sure people had proper ID’s, I handed out countless tangerines, mini muffins and bottles of water to hundreds of mostly Trump supporters.
My conversations with people that day confirmed what I already knew; 1) that if people feel forgotten, they get hurt, then they get mad and look to others to lead them to a better place, and 2) that this country has the potential to become the democracy we dare to dream of, and must continue to fight for.
Onward.
I don’t understand how workers feel that the Democratic Party has forgotten them. There has been no better President for Labor since FDR than President Biden. If workers that don’t belong to a Union and don’t receive all of the benefits that a Union membership provides them it’s certainly not the Democrats fault, it’s their fault for not joining a Union or forming one at their workplace. If any of these “forgotten” workers think that the republicans are going to be better for workers they are sadly mistaken. This is the party that won’t raise the minimum wage, wants to get rid of Social Security, despises Unions, hates overtime pay, tries to get rid of prevailing wage laws p, wants to cut OSHA funding, and the list goes on and on. These have all been protected by Democrats!
I don’t disagree with you Henry but I’m talking about the disconnect, the communication black hole that the Dems have created.
Of course, we havent created it out of thin air. There are other factors at play that helped produce this dangerous moment. Trump has had his finger on the pulse. He is the consummate con man, and he has outplayed us.
That too many of the working class don’t know or believe what you have listed, is a failure, to some extent, on our part. My guess is that it’s a failure to communicate because of our inability to connect empathically with those who aren’t comfortable with boys transitioning into girls, aren’t comfortable with their childhood or present day neighborhoods turning from white to a mix of races, feel that their heritage is slipping away.
Some of us welcome change but many are afraid of it. We are dealing with fear, as well as racism and misogyny. We have our work cut out for us.
FM
In short: messaging
Henry, the democratic party went away from the poor and working class when they were part and parcel to becoming the voice for business back a little before Clinton but came to full fruition under Clinton. There was the open-door policy for taking our manufacturing overseas before Clinton, and then there was NAFTA under Clinton. Not to mention at the local level how local governments coddle and court medium and large businesses in their communities. Now people think because the Democrats are for free school lunches and the like they are for the working poor. How about doing something more specific and long range for the working and working poor that will help them not to have to rely on free school lunches for their kids, child tax credits, or other "freebees" that is government dependent. Maybe something more substantive than an increase in the minimum wage, because there are millions of working people who make more than minimum wage and still have problems putting food on the table or paying their rent. Our economic system is broken, substantially, when the top 1% own 80% of everything, and millions upon millions of Americans only have $400 in their savings account for an emergency. Because none of that is trickling down to the poor and working poor. There is something deeply flawed in an economic system when the opportunity to own a home is out of reach. The Democratic Party and its minions in the Congress do not in any way want to piss off business. There was a time when the Democratic party was unquestionably on the side of the worker in worker management disputes during the Union wars. This is no longer the case. There was some photo op of Biden standing on some picket line somewhere during his campaigning, but there hasn't been ANY politician who has been integral to the disputes between "labor and management" for 40 years. Democrats think that their responsibility to the economy is soling in "jobs creation". And interestingly enough, jobs creation come with giving tax breaks to medium and large business so they can hire new workers, but those workers and the local economies of the medium and large businesses end up being burdened with paying more taxes to make up the taxes that those businesses should have paid in the first place. And then you have the CEO salaries being paid at a 1,000% + rate of the average worker of the same large company. Yes, our stock market economy has been going gang busters since the end of COVID, but why then are people still struggling with food costs and housing costs? The vast majority of American workers do not participate in the stock and futures markets. Harris and Biden were not talking about these specific two things. I know because these two things have deeply affected my pocketbook, and I was listening very intently to anything they might say to specifically address this. But neither had a direct plan to combat these. I rent, I don't need to buy a house at this time in my life close to retirement, so what were they going to do about my ridiculous housing cost. I only heard crickets. And about my food costs. Yes, inflation has come down substantially since COVID, but why hasn't my grocery bill gone down. I heard a little talk about price gouging going on, well then where was the plan to combat that? Harris wanted to give tax breaks to first time homeowners but what about our food bills and rental costs? They didn't speak much to this because Harris and Biden didn't want to piss off the mega corporate slum lords that own rental properties around this country, and they didn't want to piss off the corporate food conglomerates and supermarket chains who are in the process right now of further consolidating and buying each other out. Again, big business over the worker. It's really simple, but obviously it's too complex for the democratic party to get a firm grasp of.
Ruth Marcus: “most worried that this country is not what I thought it was, but someplace much more cruel and nasty and selfish, both in its attitude toward our fellow Americans and in its conception of America’s place in the world.”
This is a brutal criticism of Biden. What politician would have surveyed 1/2 thru his term after very good mid term elections with an economic landscape of full employment, good gross national product, increased wages and roaring stock market together with an opponent who is a felon, sex offender, insurrectionist and twice impeached and an opposing political party that repeatedly embarrassed itself in Speaker elections and say to himself, “ no, I’m not going to run for re election against this guy, I’ll probably lose?” It’s absurd. Now, is it true his mental heath was poor. Yes. But who’s going to tell a sitting President you’re demented and can’t do the job? That the Repubs are going to rise up under Trump and massacre you in November? No one, ever, that’s who. It’s so completely unbelievable that this has happened. It makes no sense. All these Monday morning quarterbacks are indulging themselves.
The people surrounding him knew Biden was not up to running or governing. They are craven MFs.
These aren't Monday morning QBs. Did you read the article from 2022 that Steve included the link to? If not, I suggest you take a few minutes to do so. Biden himself said he would be a one term president to transition away from Trump. 1/2 way thru his term has nothing to do with this. He refused to do what he said. He knew going in during his 2020 campaign that age was a concern. Then everyone around him lost their nerve, including his wife, to tell him "Enough! You did what you said to transition away from Trump, let someone else take it from here". Then those around him lied to the American people about his competency and ability to endure 4 more years. We watched in abject horror his performance during the debate and there was a collective, "we're absolutely fucked". His deciding to run against his own promise meant no actual primary. Would Kamala have won the primary? Unknown. But being forced 107 days before election day - when candidates usually have 1 1/2 or more years - to be the chosen candidate with a president whose approval rating was sub 40%, using his campaign staff who got us in this position, and then not being able to message and differentiate herself from Biden was collectively, too much to overcome.
So, at a certain level I respect and appreciate everything Joe Biden accomplished. However, I will not forget that his refusal to honor his word got us into this position and brought us Trump 2.0. I can hold both thoughts in my head at the same time, because to me, both are true. It's not all his fault, but he owns a huge portion of it.
It’s an understandable take. But wrong. Biden’s fatal unpopularity predated and transcended his decision to run for re election by at least a year. The unpopularity wasn’t specific to him as an individual politician. It was built in to the Trump -Republican voter hatred dynamic. Your explaination ignores the route Dems sustained down ballot in Congress. You’re assuming that a traditional, primaried Dem candidate would have defeated Trump and also altered the congressional results? That is unrealistic and makes no real sense. Lake nearly winning in AZ? Cruz cruising in TX? Brown and Casey losing in Ohio and Pa? It’s wishful thinking that another Dem candidate would have re written the results. Trump has a pipeline to a segment of the population no one else does. The formerly apathetic, uninterested and super under-informed. They love his nightclub act and his venom. They think that’s leadership.
Bracingly and fearlessly stated, Steve. There are multiple reasons why America voted to spurn its democratic republic for a fascist dictatorship, an act of potential national suicide that might well concatenate into WWIII, with a mandate that even the German people never gave Hitler, who was appointed Chancellor despite his electoral failure shortly prior to his world-changing empowerment. But the overarching reason, in my fallible judgment, is that Trump’s opposition -- among politicians, journalists and the political commentariat in particular -- remained blinded to the forest of Trump mass psychotic cult delusion for the trees of conventional political and election campaign framing. There is no justifiable moral excuse for this failure, given the nearly decade-long red light-flashing by America’s most esteemed psychiatric experts and fascist historians that Trump had built and was further consolidating a cult animated by a shared, symbiotic psychosis reminiscent of both Hitler’s Germany and Jim Jones’s eponymous Guyanese epicenter of mass cult annihilation.
Trump transformed and reduced American politics into a mass, irrationalist movement of mental pathology recalcitrant to successful confrontation by the Founders’ Enlightenment-based guidance of reason, evidence and fact.
Bull's Eye Analysis, Ken. Thanks.
It is one thing to search for what went wrong and try to remedy it. It’s another thing to finger point using speculation. You have no idea if Joe Biden didn’t run whether the results would have been different because you are just engaging in the following non-helpful thought speculative process. 1) I opposed candidate X running, 2) candidate X’s party’s final candidate (Kamala Harris) lost the election. Therefore candidate X’s running caused the loss. Whereas in reality, unless you know something that has not been revealed in your past posting, you know no such thing. That is why I’ve always said that you lack judgement in applying your principles. The only reason I’m still here is because you do have some out of the box thinking. But not always. Frankly, I find Adam Kinzinger’s essay today much more helpful. Too many folks are trying to explain what they don’t know. And IMO, it’s damaging in the long run.
Hi John, Yes, we don't know exactly what has gone on with this recent election. My partner is undergoing heart bi-pass surgery at this time, so I don't have much opportunity to catch up on what is going on. I read Elizebeth Graham yesterday about 'Putin won the election". I have terrible feeling about Russian interference. Here is the link: https://egraham.substack.com/p/this-election-was-not-the-fault-of
I am hoping to get more information about this and I hope Steve Schmidt will too. Thanks!!
Lisa, I'm hoping your partner comes through this ok. I have heart problems too and this stuff doesn't help.
Thank you Michael. This stress does take a toll. I always appreciate your kindness, and you take best of care, too :-)
I think you've brought up the Russia-connection here in the past. Thank you. There are numerous powerful forces at play that have converged into the mess we're in.
Thank you so much. It sure has given us some needed perspective on Life.
Hi Lisa, I wish your partner to have a speedy recovery. Yes, that’s the conundrum we’re in. Any attempt to blame outside interference will be taken and seen as the Democratic version of election deniers. There is also something completely surreal about a president elect who will swear to uphold the Constitution when he publicly says he won’t (dictator on day one). Do we have an obligation to turn a blind eye? We like to think that there are guardrails but the only real guard rails in place are those with the current administration who will go out of their way to show they accept the results of the election. I think all of these points should at least be seriously considered. But the bottom line remains - too many voters chose to embrace fascism and that still breaks my heart. In light of this reality, we must at least always remain true to our principles so we can live with ourselves. And I hope I always do this because not doing so can be a living hell.
Yes, I totally agree. It does seem like up until the fairly recent past, there was something like a code of ethics that was integrally important to our functioning Democracy. Now so many political 'leaders' lie under oath and care nothing about the Constitution. Did the bottom have to fall out of our Democracy for half the country to see what they once had?
Thanks for your kindness about my partner's recovery. We're hangin' in there!