I am hearing disturbing comments from Congressional Democrats about finding “common ground“ with Trump. No! Democrats should fight him tooth and nail! Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post, says it best:
The freekin' Democ rats have some psy ological trauma frim Reagan years....mostly the elderly ones who have been victims of right wing abuse for decades.....they are terrified that Americans will view THEM as the unreasonable uncrompromising ones. And that view is bullshit. That makes them bend the knee first & they negotiate with themselves as they did when Obama was the punching bag. They just will never learn. I knew years ago that expecting Dems to be THE bulwark against fascism was a losing proposition. They are weak...and sadly right wing/MAGA neither fears nor respects them. THAT is why they've just decided to run the table and get ALL the power and avoid Dems altogether.
Shortly after Biden announced he was running for a second term, a friend and I, both 78, both long-time elective office holders, both Dems, began writing that Biden was unfit for the presidency at the time and had no goddamn business running again. We wrote to the White House, we commented at the Times, Post, Bulwark, anywhere we could. All we got was pushback. We were "bedwetters." Biden was the nominee and we should just "get over it." If Biden and his hubristic family and his sycophantic courtiers had put the country ahead of their selfishness, we might -- might -- have avoided this mess. They all ought to be swept out of town with a good stiff broom and told never to show their faces or open their mouths again.8
100 percent. I was called the same thing. I was also getting tired of getting gaslit by politicians who told me Dianne Feinstein was in perfect health when she was absolutely not.
I was beside myself when Biden ran again, when the DNC stole our right to nominate. Among other things, it is a sign of profound disrespect to gaslight someone. Sweep them out.
Oppose Trump, Steve? Are you kidding? He is only the symptom. No, Steve, We must oppose this whole capitalistic system, or we just will keep getting Trump clones.
We absolutely MUST create a new constitution that makes sense for an enlightened nation, which means, NOT OURS.. We are fascist, now and forever, and I say that because we are a beaten people here, unable to fight Fascism. We are manipulated sheep. We are OBSEQUIOUS, bowing our heads before we are even asked to kneel.
Capitalism has emasculated us. We are ignorant of a good constitution would look like.
Worse than that,, we don;t even care about our own brothers and sisters, our fellow citizens, here.
We are anti-art, anti-education, and anti-philosophy. No, we content ourselves with belonging to churches ( all at odds against each other and against enlightenment itslef! ) instead of curiosity about science and fresh ways of conceiving the world and all its peoples.. We have no idea here about the great choices we could have made to form a system of government. We were castrated by Capitalism.
You speak the truth. Capitalism has reached its ugly apogee, individuals with "net worths" of hundreds of billions of dollars corrupting the entire society. The problem is, we just can't seem to convince the general population that socialism is the economic equivalent of democracy and, in fact, without a government that functions to "promote the general welfare," as we understand it today, democracy is impossible. Corrupt creeps like Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and flagrant wastrels like Bezos with his 600 million dollar wedding are literally parasites who will destroy the planet if we don't WAKE THE FUCK UP and get people to understand the truth of what is happening.
I think people here are aware of everything you talk about, aware many things happening are horrible for America and I believe we all want to do whatever we can to stop the MAGA movement. What we need to accomplish is to unite the people here to fight them by whatever means possible. One thing that happened recently that amuses me is how 45 needs to remind people he is president, not Musk. People calling Musk resident got under his skin bigly. Let’s keep it up and find more ways to unravel him, daily. He may just be his own undoing with his craziness. We need to keep exposing it…each and every day.
Spectacular discussion with Ro Khanna. He is one of my favorite Democrats, deep-thinking, progressive-thinking, not radically, but stating honestly how the Party needs to present itself to move Dems forward with people who have misconceptions about our ways and goals... which ARE FOR THE PEOPLE. I honestly cannot understand that many people being taken in be an OBVIOUS con man. I knew it from the first corny minute he descended the escalator, all show and no substance. Khanna will be a calm force in the future -- this is what an immigrant country looks like. Thank god we are one.
Thanks so much for this conversation. As Paul Rieckhoff has said to you the other day, that “Democrats have closed out competition so I don’t even want them on the field, much less running the scoreboard and the referees.” Personally that was the reason I was turned off in 2016 when Hilary was running. I did not believe that she was the most appropriate candidate for me, but the Clinton legacy wiped out other candidates who could have easily defeated Trump on his first run. As we can see that is not the past that we can leave behind because it is now following us into the future. We have to make sure that leader Hakeem Jeffries is not an exception but becomes the norm and that Nancy Pelosi’s exit is not one off event for the elderly Democrats. It is time for the democrats to invite the new faces and talents into the frontline like the Republicans have done this time around. Well, you have tried to warn us but we did not hear you. Now we have to search our souls, and we better come up with bolder and fresher solutions. America deserves better ones of us.
So,I got through half this interview and wanted to make a comment. Ro Khanna is superb,
as is Steve. When he spoke about going back to Bucks County and his fav teacher from HS
said he is voting for Trump….there is where I disagree. No one, no one, can convince
anyone to believe facts. That is because this whole Trump cr*p is cultural. It is based one’s
history of education, traveling to other cultures and learning to accept others, having the cognitive ability to understand that
“News” that is laughably bias is damaging, not being fearful of “others” and having kindness.
The Ds can spend billions on “trying to connect”. Good luck. This is a nation where the
Sinclare/Fox empire has literally lobotomized people in rural states and the south. That is their news. It is streamed on military bases as well; 30 years of indoctrination based on
fear and anger. This will not change. And the FACT that our economy is now strong,the infrastructure bill providing rural jobs and pharmaceutical prices being negotiated down
is lost on the majority of Americans who are either more sparked by a entertaining conman
or those which plenty of $$$ but want more.
How do we overcome this? That is the question.
And by the way, I so admire the message that Kamala tried to convey: hope for all,not just
hope for Trump family and other disgusting plutocrats.
Let them loose SS and Medicare. They will still support Trump
AOC should be the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee right now. Period. Full. Stop! Gerry Connolly is 74yrs old and battling Esophageal cancer, one of the deadliest cancers, with low survival rates and few early signs.. As sad as that is, this was the perfect opportunity to move up a fresh young critical thinking leader with a voice young constituencies will follow. She is the Vice Ranking Member, 2023–present for fucks sake! This whole situation is an example of the old white men’s club that is a giant FUCK YOU to the generational change you Steve have spoken so often about. This notion that AOC must do the rounds hat in hand with “Please sir, may I have some more” is simply nonsense! It’s all the same bullshit as Schumer and Durbin in the Senate.
I like Steve’s questions but feel Ro’s answers fell short. It should be unlawful for one individual to spend $277 million on one candidate to get him elected. It should also be unethical, so why aren’t Dems screaming about this and conveying the message of why this is dangerous? I didn’t hear a good answer to that. We hear that Musk doubled his wealth in a month by BILLIONS of dollars. How did he do this? Was it lawful. I have never heard how he did this. Did 45 help him? I also wonder how and when the Dems are going to reach out to the electorate who have turned their backs on them and voted to have republicans in control of our country. I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the only area of the UP that still votes blue, Marquette County. I am 76 years old and for almost all of my voting age years, the UP was so solid Blue no Republican hardly ran for office because they had no chance of winning. Now, except for my county, the WHOLE Upper Peninsula of Michigan is solid RED. I’d like to see our state Democrats do something to change this but it seems like they have no interest in our part of the state. Since this is happening here, I feel it is probably happening in other parts of the country where Dems are not doing anything to win back what used to be their solid voting blocks. I didn’t hear much about this in this discussion. I’d like to see Democrat leaders coming to the people to tell their story as to why we should vote for them. I’d also like to see Dems calling out vice President 45 for all the insane things he’s saying already…like the stuff about Panama. This is too long.. hope I’ve made my point…speak to us, please, Democrats!! And please find a way to call 45 out on his lies. I want a strong America. With intelligent people in control, not criminals and sexual predators!!
I am hearing disturbing comments from Congressional Democrats about finding “common ground“ with Trump. No! Democrats should fight him tooth and nail! Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post, says it best:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/23/democrats-compromise-trump-premature/
The freekin' Democ rats have some psy ological trauma frim Reagan years....mostly the elderly ones who have been victims of right wing abuse for decades.....they are terrified that Americans will view THEM as the unreasonable uncrompromising ones. And that view is bullshit. That makes them bend the knee first & they negotiate with themselves as they did when Obama was the punching bag. They just will never learn. I knew years ago that expecting Dems to be THE bulwark against fascism was a losing proposition. They are weak...and sadly right wing/MAGA neither fears nor respects them. THAT is why they've just decided to run the table and get ALL the power and avoid Dems altogether.
Shortly after Biden announced he was running for a second term, a friend and I, both 78, both long-time elective office holders, both Dems, began writing that Biden was unfit for the presidency at the time and had no goddamn business running again. We wrote to the White House, we commented at the Times, Post, Bulwark, anywhere we could. All we got was pushback. We were "bedwetters." Biden was the nominee and we should just "get over it." If Biden and his hubristic family and his sycophantic courtiers had put the country ahead of their selfishness, we might -- might -- have avoided this mess. They all ought to be swept out of town with a good stiff broom and told never to show their faces or open their mouths again.8
100 percent. I was called the same thing. I was also getting tired of getting gaslit by politicians who told me Dianne Feinstein was in perfect health when she was absolutely not.
I was beside myself when Biden ran again, when the DNC stole our right to nominate. Among other things, it is a sign of profound disrespect to gaslight someone. Sweep them out.
I was getting called on it here, as Steve was on his own Substack, lol.
Oppose Trump, Steve? Are you kidding? He is only the symptom. No, Steve, We must oppose this whole capitalistic system, or we just will keep getting Trump clones.
We absolutely MUST create a new constitution that makes sense for an enlightened nation, which means, NOT OURS.. We are fascist, now and forever, and I say that because we are a beaten people here, unable to fight Fascism. We are manipulated sheep. We are OBSEQUIOUS, bowing our heads before we are even asked to kneel.
Capitalism has emasculated us. We are ignorant of a good constitution would look like.
Worse than that,, we don;t even care about our own brothers and sisters, our fellow citizens, here.
We are anti-art, anti-education, and anti-philosophy. No, we content ourselves with belonging to churches ( all at odds against each other and against enlightenment itslef! ) instead of curiosity about science and fresh ways of conceiving the world and all its peoples.. We have no idea here about the great choices we could have made to form a system of government. We were castrated by Capitalism.
You speak the truth. Capitalism has reached its ugly apogee, individuals with "net worths" of hundreds of billions of dollars corrupting the entire society. The problem is, we just can't seem to convince the general population that socialism is the economic equivalent of democracy and, in fact, without a government that functions to "promote the general welfare," as we understand it today, democracy is impossible. Corrupt creeps like Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and flagrant wastrels like Bezos with his 600 million dollar wedding are literally parasites who will destroy the planet if we don't WAKE THE FUCK UP and get people to understand the truth of what is happening.
I think people here are aware of everything you talk about, aware many things happening are horrible for America and I believe we all want to do whatever we can to stop the MAGA movement. What we need to accomplish is to unite the people here to fight them by whatever means possible. One thing that happened recently that amuses me is how 45 needs to remind people he is president, not Musk. People calling Musk resident got under his skin bigly. Let’s keep it up and find more ways to unravel him, daily. He may just be his own undoing with his craziness. We need to keep exposing it…each and every day.
Spectacular discussion with Ro Khanna. He is one of my favorite Democrats, deep-thinking, progressive-thinking, not radically, but stating honestly how the Party needs to present itself to move Dems forward with people who have misconceptions about our ways and goals... which ARE FOR THE PEOPLE. I honestly cannot understand that many people being taken in be an OBVIOUS con man. I knew it from the first corny minute he descended the escalator, all show and no substance. Khanna will be a calm force in the future -- this is what an immigrant country looks like. Thank god we are one.
Thanks so much for this conversation. As Paul Rieckhoff has said to you the other day, that “Democrats have closed out competition so I don’t even want them on the field, much less running the scoreboard and the referees.” Personally that was the reason I was turned off in 2016 when Hilary was running. I did not believe that she was the most appropriate candidate for me, but the Clinton legacy wiped out other candidates who could have easily defeated Trump on his first run. As we can see that is not the past that we can leave behind because it is now following us into the future. We have to make sure that leader Hakeem Jeffries is not an exception but becomes the norm and that Nancy Pelosi’s exit is not one off event for the elderly Democrats. It is time for the democrats to invite the new faces and talents into the frontline like the Republicans have done this time around. Well, you have tried to warn us but we did not hear you. Now we have to search our souls, and we better come up with bolder and fresher solutions. America deserves better ones of us.
Elon picked Trump to back because he knew Trump was easy to manipulate .
So,I got through half this interview and wanted to make a comment. Ro Khanna is superb,
as is Steve. When he spoke about going back to Bucks County and his fav teacher from HS
said he is voting for Trump….there is where I disagree. No one, no one, can convince
anyone to believe facts. That is because this whole Trump cr*p is cultural. It is based one’s
history of education, traveling to other cultures and learning to accept others, having the cognitive ability to understand that
“News” that is laughably bias is damaging, not being fearful of “others” and having kindness.
The Ds can spend billions on “trying to connect”. Good luck. This is a nation where the
Sinclare/Fox empire has literally lobotomized people in rural states and the south. That is their news. It is streamed on military bases as well; 30 years of indoctrination based on
fear and anger. This will not change. And the FACT that our economy is now strong,the infrastructure bill providing rural jobs and pharmaceutical prices being negotiated down
is lost on the majority of Americans who are either more sparked by a entertaining conman
or those which plenty of $$$ but want more.
How do we overcome this? That is the question.
And by the way, I so admire the message that Kamala tried to convey: hope for all,not just
hope for Trump family and other disgusting plutocrats.
Let them loose SS and Medicare. They will still support Trump
AOC should be the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee right now. Period. Full. Stop! Gerry Connolly is 74yrs old and battling Esophageal cancer, one of the deadliest cancers, with low survival rates and few early signs.. As sad as that is, this was the perfect opportunity to move up a fresh young critical thinking leader with a voice young constituencies will follow. She is the Vice Ranking Member, 2023–present for fucks sake! This whole situation is an example of the old white men’s club that is a giant FUCK YOU to the generational change you Steve have spoken so often about. This notion that AOC must do the rounds hat in hand with “Please sir, may I have some more” is simply nonsense! It’s all the same bullshit as Schumer and Durbin in the Senate.
These interviews are invaluable Steve. Thank you! I also appreciate the positive attitude of creating an even better country out of this mess.
I hope you consider interviewing Ruth Ben-Ghiat. I’m convinced she will help create winning strategies.
Merry Christmas.
Outstanding discussion!!! I appreciate the hope that was provided in this deeply informative video. Thank you!!
I like Steve’s questions but feel Ro’s answers fell short. It should be unlawful for one individual to spend $277 million on one candidate to get him elected. It should also be unethical, so why aren’t Dems screaming about this and conveying the message of why this is dangerous? I didn’t hear a good answer to that. We hear that Musk doubled his wealth in a month by BILLIONS of dollars. How did he do this? Was it lawful. I have never heard how he did this. Did 45 help him? I also wonder how and when the Dems are going to reach out to the electorate who have turned their backs on them and voted to have republicans in control of our country. I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the only area of the UP that still votes blue, Marquette County. I am 76 years old and for almost all of my voting age years, the UP was so solid Blue no Republican hardly ran for office because they had no chance of winning. Now, except for my county, the WHOLE Upper Peninsula of Michigan is solid RED. I’d like to see our state Democrats do something to change this but it seems like they have no interest in our part of the state. Since this is happening here, I feel it is probably happening in other parts of the country where Dems are not doing anything to win back what used to be their solid voting blocks. I didn’t hear much about this in this discussion. I’d like to see Democrat leaders coming to the people to tell their story as to why we should vote for them. I’d also like to see Dems calling out vice President 45 for all the insane things he’s saying already…like the stuff about Panama. This is too long.. hope I’ve made my point…speak to us, please, Democrats!! And please find a way to call 45 out on his lies. I want a strong America. With intelligent people in control, not criminals and sexual predators!!
Great conversation!!
Run! Your voice needs to be heard from sea to shining sea.
Great informative discussion!!! Thank you!!!
Leadership and exposing the Mumpettes’ graft come to mind. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/the-quid-pro-quo?r=3m1bs