In the latest edition of "The Schmidt Storm", I answer your questions on the TikTok ban, which members of the media you should trust, and whether or not a third-party candidate could topple MAGA in 2028:The Warning with Steve Schmidt is a reader-supported publication.
Thanks, Steve, for answering my question about a third party candidacy. I appreciate your thoughts and wisdom. Many moons ago in New Jersey I started out as a registered Republican. Republicans in New Jersey, for the most part, were reasonable and competent public servants. I am so done with anything Republican now and the Democratic Party, truth be told because many untruths have happened, has not given me much hope.
He shot down the third party option because it could potentially throw the next election, but then everything else he said made the case for why we need a new party.
It is a conundrum. I’m still looking for leadership in the Democratic Party and I have yet to see anyone say anything. Trump wants to sign 100 Executive Orders on Day 1. We need a voice and fast!
There is an option that lies between The creation of a third party and the status quo. The Progressives in the Democratic party should organize as the New Democratic Party, accepting no donation over $5,000, explaining in clear terms how money has corrupted politics in the U.S. and explaining the need to institute economic policies that would put the welfare of ordinary Americans ahead of the ultra wealthy. Democrats averse to signing on to this basic platform could join Republicans or form their own losing 3rd party.
Isn't it obvious thast we need to create an economy that puts American workers ahead of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos? that acknowledges women are equal to men and are not to be treated as chattel property? that our current methods of generating energy are unsustainable? that it is those who say a united world economy with no military is a naive goal while their support for the current system will inevitably result in mass suicide? Why not try to right the wrongs that currently plague us rather than call idealists naive?
It is so difficult to figure out what would work. The theocrats are gaining in power and numbers and they have zero interest in economic issues. It is only social issues and power that matters to them. If The Atlantic article is accurate, they number 40 million voters.
The theocrats at the top of the food chain do care about money! Joel Osteen and his ilk are duping the poor saps; they don't give a shit about anyone's "immortal soul." They are grifters, liars, and cheats just like their "Chosen One," the archdemon and anti-Christ himself, Donald John Trump!
Progressive leaders like Bernie Sanders need to honestly state they are free-thinking agnostics/atheists and explain why our political, economic, and social decisions must be driven by logic and science not mythology and demagoguery.
I have to be more upfront and state forthrightly, organized religion with dogmas and hierarchies are poison; a true search for meaning and purpose in life, based on intuition and reason and not indoctrination in childhood, is beautiful but having your mind corrupted by nonsense before you can think clearly is one of the major sources of the world's ills.
Anthony, I always enjoy your comments. Robert Reich just posted in Notes the footage of FDR saying that Americans needed a second Bill of Rights, which would assure them a good paying job, owning a home, a pension, Healthcare, comfort in old age, and time for recreation. He believed in these things si strongly that he saw them as the foundation of a stable and peaceful America for all future generations.
It's a shame he didn't live long enough to enact this legislation, and no one took up the charge when he died.
But damn, do those words reverberate so profoundly NOW. If a Democrat were to carry the baton of FDR 's message, it's hard to fathom how he our she could lose. Yes, the oligarchs would cry communism, but if a new leader could deliver that mandate as strongly as FDR, I want to have faith that the common sense of it would prevail.
FDR wasn't talking about handouts or socialism, but rather a set of new priorities that should be established as RIGHTS. I encourage all to go to Reich's Substack notes and find this film. I think it went up yesterday.
Yes, more and more of these first-person accounts are appearing on Reddit. These people are enraged at what's been happening, but no one was listening before. I would encourage all those affected by these H1B visas to post their experiences on Reddit and Quora. Start new thread discussions, and use their real name, or at least a name that sounds real if they're afraid to out themselves. (No judgment on that!)
Nothing is so convincing as a first-person account. Then they should forward the link for these threads to media writers, big and small, who they believe will share their stories. Everyone needs to hear their pain.
1. Introduce a third party? I have been looking for a third party, because I think both Dems and Repubs are failing. I would strongly consider a meld of Dem/Pub.
2. What media can you trust, certainly none that are corporate owned. I get my news solely from substack. My favs are Robert Reich, Heather Cox Richardson and Harry Litman. Dont want to leave out Steve, he entertains me a lot, his personality and mine are a lot the same.
3. Tik Tok? Most Americans may not know just how vulnerable a position they put themselves with their digital toys. Hell no we shouldn't let the Chinese govern tik tok. Why not just hand our enemy the nuclear codes.
Is Tik Tok more dangerous than X and now Facebook? As far as I'm concerned these are also run by enemies of America. And with Trump at the helm, does the enemy already have the nuclear codes?
Here's the tiktok conundrum: Recently, I suggested in a discussion there that creators need to post on also IG and YouTube so as to not be so reliant on one platform.
While many agreed with me, others passionately explained that Tiktok did not censor nearly as much as the other two i mentioned.
I have to admit that there is a different vibe at Tiktok, used by HALF of all Americans now, and one reason could be is that there is no time allotment for its short form content (except for music), and that's huge, as iG gives you one minute in Reels and YouTube now gives you three in Shorts. That might be the freedom people are feeling.
Personally, I've not noticed censoring on American platforms (except for bad language), but i find it ironic that so many find this Chinese company, born in an authoritarian country, as more tolerant of free speech than our own US platforms. Is it true? Honestly don't know. But if it is, that's pretty rich.
1. Third Parties: In Maine's 2010 gubernatorial election Paul LePage (R) captured 37.6% of the vote, the Dem had 18.8%, and Independent Elliot Cutler, a former Dem, earned an astonishing 35.9%. Two other independents had a total of 6% and "Various" accounted for 0.5%. In the next election of 2014 LePage earned 48.2% and Cutler sank to 8.4%. The Dem had 43.4%. After sitting out the 2018 election due to term limits and moving to FL LePage reappeared in 2022 and garnered 42.4% as Cutler faded from the political scene (but not the news) and the incumbent Dem governor walloped him with 55.7%. An independent took an insignificant 1.9%. The morale is: it doesn't have to be a 3rd party that disrupts the system. A strong candidate not affiliated with a specific party can throw a monkey wrench into the election. Note: Maine has had an Independent Senator, Angus King, since 2013 who caucuses with the Dems which goes to prove that a 3rd party or Independent can either be dangerous (as in enabling LePage to win) or beneficial (the Dems did not mount viable candidates in King's re-election campaigns).
2. Publications to read: In addition to The Guardian and The Warning, Robert Reich and Heather Cox Richardson's Substacks are very instructive and educational. Jordan Zakarin's Substack "Progress Report" also lends a younger person's perspective to current events. The Meidas Touch enjoys skewering certain people and I confess to infrequently catching that.
3. TikTok: When tfg was in office he came out vehemently against TikTok, saying that it was a national security risk. TBH, I had not previously considered that, but once he was out he established an account there. So was it or not? In the meantime "I did my own research" and reached the conclusion that we probably should shut it down.
1. There was a feeling on the part of many voters in 2024 that they didn't like either choice - Rep. or Dem.
2. Americans are looking for a fundamental change - MAGA and MAGA annex = at least 76 million voters. (They were, of course, wrong in their solution, but they desperately wanted change.) And, as Trump and his menagerie drag America around, screwing up even the things America is getting right, the light will come on for them. Where do they go? Dems? I don't think so.
3. The 75 people in charge of the Dem. party are flummoxed. They have abdicated. They have no ideas. They have no choice but to play on the culture wars. How sick is everyone of that?
4. If a "third party" (for a while just a semi-organized opposition) can begin offering ideas into this particular leadership vacuum, and we strike a chord with Americans, we'll just have to figure out where to get a billion dollars!?!
5. Can we agree on what ails America? My take is our system's maladaptation to globalization, income disparity, and corruption, all of which are interrelated. Then, of course, there's the Kafkaesque problem with the vastness of bureaucracy. Others?
6. The wild card is that Trump himself might put the kabash on any democracy at all.
A theme I'm seeing here is that the Democrats are a lost cause, so to shake things up we guarantee that the Trump GOP has no viable opposition. A parliamentary system gives more choices and generally helps prevent extremists from gaining unchecked control, but our challenge is to break the entrenched 2-party system. Short a cataclysm I don't know how we get there, but accepting the radicalized GOP while discarding the Democrats seems a concession to keep moving to the right. Remind me again of who focused on "culture wars"?
I don't think it's a matter of abandoning the Democratic Party, I think they have abandoned us. I have voted Democratic in every election since 1972. For me personally, it was the "debate", and the appearance of Joe Biden's incapacity, then the Biden devotees' gaslighting and hurling invectives at the growing chorus of people who wanted a different candidate. They snarled and snapped like vicious dogs hanging onto a bone - at their own people! They kept that up for at least 2 weeks before Dem poobahs agreed to Kamala. The poobahs had known of Joe Biden's compromised condition for at least a year. So they set us up with a new candidate with less than 6 months of campaigning left.. It was political malpractice, as far as I'm concerned - to say nothing of their Machiavellian dishonesty!
Now that we lost the election, where are they? All I'm hearing is they really have no idea of what happened. Maybe for starters they could consider their hiding the incapacity of the President of the United States, and continuing business as usual without him. Who's running the show? Outrageous! Support the Dems with their current constitution? How could I? How can you? MAYBE after a total house cleaning - but I don't see any resignations coming in. It seems to be business as usual for the poobahs.
The US is never going to have a parliamentary government. More difficult than house cleaning, and more difficult than having a third party or independent candidate would be trying to change to a parliamentary system.
You can't have a war, cultural or otherwise, without at least 2 sides. My point was that no ideas, no strategies for the future are being presented by the Dems. No counter of any kind to Trump. No brave words of opposition or guidance. Not even any words interpreting what is going on. Since they appear incapable of any of those things, all I can see they have to fight with is cultural elements. Do you think they have anything else? I suppose we could hope.
Do you want to spend your time fighting with the entrenched Dem poobahs to relinquish their entrenched status quo?
I respectfully disagree that Democrats don't have ideas. They aren't very good at communicating and implementing, though the latter isn't something they own, and they definitely need to push a lot of people out to pasture. Right now with the binary choice being R or D, I have no problem picking the D every time. With the existing political structure as it is, a third party can have an impact, but can't win, and the impact usually favors the GOP. In many states it's difficult to even get on the ballot. The change required is much bigger. I don't see the path, especially when one party is willing to blatantly lie and cheat to hold power and has a vast media echosystem to support them.
It wasn't until I read "has a vast media echosystem to support them" that I understood which party you were referring to. Apparently you're willing to overlook the Dem's perfidy in covering up, lying about our President's incapacity, while the Constitution makes provision for this exact circumstance: when the President is not capable of dealing with "that 3am call" (paraphrased, of course) replace the President with the Vice-President. Had the poobahs (Steve says there are 75 of them.) adhered to the Constitution as soon as the President's condition was verifyable, I believe we would have been in a much, much better position to execute a campaign with a decent chance of winning. (I think Biden's appearance on the tv screen sent a shock wave through the country. My jaw dropped. How do you think Independents reacted to it? We needed Independents. (Our loss was only about 1.3% of the total vote - small loss, big consequences). Not only were the Dem poobahs seen as obviously lying to the American people, but it appeared to confirm the right's claims of "deep state" manipulation. Those 75 people at the cocktail party were stupid.
I understand your "preference" for stability. It is my sincere and fundamental "preference", too. But is there really any stability to be had in our present situation besides abdicating to the Right? (Now, should the Democratic poobahs announce they are making plans for most of them (nah! almost ALL of them) to resign, I would probably agree with you.)
After all, we have already lost, so it's time to quit trying to avoid losing.
YES! This is some of the stuff I know you know- that I need to know!
The magnifying of trusted voices is something we need. The system has changed since someone's going on the weekend news shows would be a sure way to raise their profile. Somehow these voices will have to rise out of the babble. (You're the campaign professional, Steve.)
I trust your list and I hope you'll keep adding to it. I will read.
Steve seems to have a real hard on for David Muir. Aren't all newspeople on television attractive for the most part, including Peter Jennings? And aren't they all just reading the news?
Elaine, Steve recently posted a picture of Muir at the LA fires and there was a profile pic where you can see a clothes pin pinching up inches of the fire jacket he was wearing so that the jacket fit like tailored suit jacket instead of a proper loose-fitting piece of fire protection equipment (PPE). lol
You shot down the new party option because it could potentially throw the next election, but then you go and make the case for needing a new party! Ultimately, I see our relying on the Democratic Party as the reason Trump won a second term. We must stop relying on them. We're going to have to take a risk. The voters who either stayed home or voted for Trump should have another choice. We need to create an acceptable destination to receive these citizens when they finally are ready to ditch MAGA. The Republican party cannot be cleansed of MAGA. The Democratic brand is toast. They hate the Democrats. I'm mad at them, too. And I'm not seeing any signs of a leadership correction.
You all need to rethink your priors about third parties. We need a movement (like Principles First). And we need a party that encapsulates those principles. This must replace the Republican party so we may have a functioning two-party system again. I cannot join the Democrats.
Great, Steve. Publish that list. I still get the new york times and the washington post because there are some people working for each paper that I respect a lot , but you have know how to weed through the garbage, of which there is much. I've been trying the boston globe and i'm thinking about going ahead and dropping the money for the wall street journal, although their editorial page is a sewer. The atlantic is probably my favorite publication right now. I spend a lot of time in substack as well.
Only need to rip a page from Toddy Roosevelt’s progressive Party of 1912 that later became known as the Bull Moose Party to see how that turned out. But at least he tried to defeat the entrenched political elite. And then there was Ross Perot in 92 and 96.
I listen to all the comments about the political parties and depending on who is speaking, the other party is the culprit. Many of our problems when in 2009 the Supreme Court made it legal for companies and millions to give as much money as they wanted to a candidate. President Obama addressed this in his State of the Union speech. He said I sincerely hope the Supreme Court realizes that by passing this bill you have opened up a passage of corruption and making it now possible to buy your candidate. That is exactly what has happened. We no longer have campaigns where the everyday person could donate for his/her candidate and believe they really care about us. We need to abolish that law and many have been trying to do it. Let's go back to when there were limits as to how much a person could donate and all donations had to be reported. Let's go back to having candidates who aren't trying to beat the candidate who gets the most money but works for the people they are representing. Many of our candidates are being bought and Donald J. Trump is at the head of the line. Yes, let's try to do some of the programs the FDR really wanted and fought for. Let's get the honest candidate who is a true American and cares about America. People have voted in as our president a person who is a felon and a known rapist and he's constantly trying to prove the jury and the judges are all wrong when we know he is the one who is wrong. Please, let us fight to end that bill and fight to get candidates who will stand up in fight for us in all the political parties.
Would be interesting to know who the 75 Democrats are who control the party. Assume chuck schumer is one. While I believe the in idea of “the power of the people”, I also firmly believe both parties are controlled by big money and we get their leftover crap as they deem fit.
I don’t understand the difference between TikTok and Facebook, Instagram and X. All 3 collect information on us that its owners use to lie to us, manipulate us and use to sabotage our best interests.
Thanks, Steve, for answering my question about a third party candidacy. I appreciate your thoughts and wisdom. Many moons ago in New Jersey I started out as a registered Republican. Republicans in New Jersey, for the most part, were reasonable and competent public servants. I am so done with anything Republican now and the Democratic Party, truth be told because many untruths have happened, has not given me much hope.
He shot down the third party option because it could potentially throw the next election, but then everything else he said made the case for why we need a new party.
It is a conundrum. I’m still looking for leadership in the Democratic Party and I have yet to see anyone say anything. Trump wants to sign 100 Executive Orders on Day 1. We need a voice and fast!
There is an option that lies between The creation of a third party and the status quo. The Progressives in the Democratic party should organize as the New Democratic Party, accepting no donation over $5,000, explaining in clear terms how money has corrupted politics in the U.S. and explaining the need to institute economic policies that would put the welfare of ordinary Americans ahead of the ultra wealthy. Democrats averse to signing on to this basic platform could join Republicans or form their own losing 3rd party.
Isn't it obvious thast we need to create an economy that puts American workers ahead of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos? that acknowledges women are equal to men and are not to be treated as chattel property? that our current methods of generating energy are unsustainable? that it is those who say a united world economy with no military is a naive goal while their support for the current system will inevitably result in mass suicide? Why not try to right the wrongs that currently plague us rather than call idealists naive?
It is so difficult to figure out what would work. The theocrats are gaining in power and numbers and they have zero interest in economic issues. It is only social issues and power that matters to them. If The Atlantic article is accurate, they number 40 million voters.
The theocrats at the top of the food chain do care about money! Joel Osteen and his ilk are duping the poor saps; they don't give a shit about anyone's "immortal soul." They are grifters, liars, and cheats just like their "Chosen One," the archdemon and anti-Christ himself, Donald John Trump!
Progressive leaders like Bernie Sanders need to honestly state they are free-thinking agnostics/atheists and explain why our political, economic, and social decisions must be driven by logic and science not mythology and demagoguery.
I have to be more upfront and state forthrightly, organized religion with dogmas and hierarchies are poison; a true search for meaning and purpose in life, based on intuition and reason and not indoctrination in childhood, is beautiful but having your mind corrupted by nonsense before you can think clearly is one of the major sources of the world's ills.
Anthony, I always enjoy your comments. Robert Reich just posted in Notes the footage of FDR saying that Americans needed a second Bill of Rights, which would assure them a good paying job, owning a home, a pension, Healthcare, comfort in old age, and time for recreation. He believed in these things si strongly that he saw them as the foundation of a stable and peaceful America for all future generations.
It's a shame he didn't live long enough to enact this legislation, and no one took up the charge when he died.
But damn, do those words reverberate so profoundly NOW. If a Democrat were to carry the baton of FDR 's message, it's hard to fathom how he our she could lose. Yes, the oligarchs would cry communism, but if a new leader could deliver that mandate as strongly as FDR, I want to have faith that the common sense of it would prevail.
FDR wasn't talking about handouts or socialism, but rather a set of new priorities that should be established as RIGHTS. I encourage all to go to Reich's Substack notes and find this film. I think it went up yesterday.
Two of my son-in-laws are engineers and their companies are bringing in cheap engineers from India.
Yes, more and more of these first-person accounts are appearing on Reddit. These people are enraged at what's been happening, but no one was listening before. I would encourage all those affected by these H1B visas to post their experiences on Reddit and Quora. Start new thread discussions, and use their real name, or at least a name that sounds real if they're afraid to out themselves. (No judgment on that!)
Nothing is so convincing as a first-person account. Then they should forward the link for these threads to media writers, big and small, who they believe will share their stories. Everyone needs to hear their pain.
I think a summation of Steve's position is:
The common wisdom is a third party run will fail, but maybe we should try anyway. This could be an exception to the rule.
I am wrong. Steve's point is that an independent candidacy could maybe work, not a third party. Sorry.
What we need and what will work are 2 different things.
Right now, we have neither. Reorganization into a new party is needed precisely because our current Republican-Democratic diarchy is not working.
Great list looking forward to it written. Thank you Steve
Yes, please with the written list, most not on my radar. Thank you for being Steve, we are so better off with you.
You have questions? Here's my answers:
1. Introduce a third party? I have been looking for a third party, because I think both Dems and Repubs are failing. I would strongly consider a meld of Dem/Pub.
2. What media can you trust, certainly none that are corporate owned. I get my news solely from substack. My favs are Robert Reich, Heather Cox Richardson and Harry Litman. Dont want to leave out Steve, he entertains me a lot, his personality and mine are a lot the same.
3. Tik Tok? Most Americans may not know just how vulnerable a position they put themselves with their digital toys. Hell no we shouldn't let the Chinese govern tik tok. Why not just hand our enemy the nuclear codes.
- Thats all.
Is Tik Tok more dangerous than X and now Facebook? As far as I'm concerned these are also run by enemies of America. And with Trump at the helm, does the enemy already have the nuclear codes?
Here's the tiktok conundrum: Recently, I suggested in a discussion there that creators need to post on also IG and YouTube so as to not be so reliant on one platform.
While many agreed with me, others passionately explained that Tiktok did not censor nearly as much as the other two i mentioned.
I have to admit that there is a different vibe at Tiktok, used by HALF of all Americans now, and one reason could be is that there is no time allotment for its short form content (except for music), and that's huge, as iG gives you one minute in Reels and YouTube now gives you three in Shorts. That might be the freedom people are feeling.
Personally, I've not noticed censoring on American platforms (except for bad language), but i find it ironic that so many find this Chinese company, born in an authoritarian country, as more tolerant of free speech than our own US platforms. Is it true? Honestly don't know. But if it is, that's pretty rich.
1. Third Parties: In Maine's 2010 gubernatorial election Paul LePage (R) captured 37.6% of the vote, the Dem had 18.8%, and Independent Elliot Cutler, a former Dem, earned an astonishing 35.9%. Two other independents had a total of 6% and "Various" accounted for 0.5%. In the next election of 2014 LePage earned 48.2% and Cutler sank to 8.4%. The Dem had 43.4%. After sitting out the 2018 election due to term limits and moving to FL LePage reappeared in 2022 and garnered 42.4% as Cutler faded from the political scene (but not the news) and the incumbent Dem governor walloped him with 55.7%. An independent took an insignificant 1.9%. The morale is: it doesn't have to be a 3rd party that disrupts the system. A strong candidate not affiliated with a specific party can throw a monkey wrench into the election. Note: Maine has had an Independent Senator, Angus King, since 2013 who caucuses with the Dems which goes to prove that a 3rd party or Independent can either be dangerous (as in enabling LePage to win) or beneficial (the Dems did not mount viable candidates in King's re-election campaigns).
2. Publications to read: In addition to The Guardian and The Warning, Robert Reich and Heather Cox Richardson's Substacks are very instructive and educational. Jordan Zakarin's Substack "Progress Report" also lends a younger person's perspective to current events. The Meidas Touch enjoys skewering certain people and I confess to infrequently catching that.
3. TikTok: When tfg was in office he came out vehemently against TikTok, saying that it was a national security risk. TBH, I had not previously considered that, but once he was out he established an account there. So was it or not? In the meantime "I did my own research" and reached the conclusion that we probably should shut it down.
One of Trump's wealthy supporters is a major shareholder in Tik Tok, so the national security risk magically disappeared.
Why a "third party" run might be successful:
1. There was a feeling on the part of many voters in 2024 that they didn't like either choice - Rep. or Dem.
2. Americans are looking for a fundamental change - MAGA and MAGA annex = at least 76 million voters. (They were, of course, wrong in their solution, but they desperately wanted change.) And, as Trump and his menagerie drag America around, screwing up even the things America is getting right, the light will come on for them. Where do they go? Dems? I don't think so.
3. The 75 people in charge of the Dem. party are flummoxed. They have abdicated. They have no ideas. They have no choice but to play on the culture wars. How sick is everyone of that?
4. If a "third party" (for a while just a semi-organized opposition) can begin offering ideas into this particular leadership vacuum, and we strike a chord with Americans, we'll just have to figure out where to get a billion dollars!?!
5. Can we agree on what ails America? My take is our system's maladaptation to globalization, income disparity, and corruption, all of which are interrelated. Then, of course, there's the Kafkaesque problem with the vastness of bureaucracy. Others?
6. The wild card is that Trump himself might put the kabash on any democracy at all.
A theme I'm seeing here is that the Democrats are a lost cause, so to shake things up we guarantee that the Trump GOP has no viable opposition. A parliamentary system gives more choices and generally helps prevent extremists from gaining unchecked control, but our challenge is to break the entrenched 2-party system. Short a cataclysm I don't know how we get there, but accepting the radicalized GOP while discarding the Democrats seems a concession to keep moving to the right. Remind me again of who focused on "culture wars"?
I don't think it's a matter of abandoning the Democratic Party, I think they have abandoned us. I have voted Democratic in every election since 1972. For me personally, it was the "debate", and the appearance of Joe Biden's incapacity, then the Biden devotees' gaslighting and hurling invectives at the growing chorus of people who wanted a different candidate. They snarled and snapped like vicious dogs hanging onto a bone - at their own people! They kept that up for at least 2 weeks before Dem poobahs agreed to Kamala. The poobahs had known of Joe Biden's compromised condition for at least a year. So they set us up with a new candidate with less than 6 months of campaigning left.. It was political malpractice, as far as I'm concerned - to say nothing of their Machiavellian dishonesty!
Now that we lost the election, where are they? All I'm hearing is they really have no idea of what happened. Maybe for starters they could consider their hiding the incapacity of the President of the United States, and continuing business as usual without him. Who's running the show? Outrageous! Support the Dems with their current constitution? How could I? How can you? MAYBE after a total house cleaning - but I don't see any resignations coming in. It seems to be business as usual for the poobahs.
The US is never going to have a parliamentary government. More difficult than house cleaning, and more difficult than having a third party or independent candidate would be trying to change to a parliamentary system.
You can't have a war, cultural or otherwise, without at least 2 sides. My point was that no ideas, no strategies for the future are being presented by the Dems. No counter of any kind to Trump. No brave words of opposition or guidance. Not even any words interpreting what is going on. Since they appear incapable of any of those things, all I can see they have to fight with is cultural elements. Do you think they have anything else? I suppose we could hope.
Do you want to spend your time fighting with the entrenched Dem poobahs to relinquish their entrenched status quo?
I respectfully disagree that Democrats don't have ideas. They aren't very good at communicating and implementing, though the latter isn't something they own, and they definitely need to push a lot of people out to pasture. Right now with the binary choice being R or D, I have no problem picking the D every time. With the existing political structure as it is, a third party can have an impact, but can't win, and the impact usually favors the GOP. In many states it's difficult to even get on the ballot. The change required is much bigger. I don't see the path, especially when one party is willing to blatantly lie and cheat to hold power and has a vast media echosystem to support them.
It wasn't until I read "has a vast media echosystem to support them" that I understood which party you were referring to. Apparently you're willing to overlook the Dem's perfidy in covering up, lying about our President's incapacity, while the Constitution makes provision for this exact circumstance: when the President is not capable of dealing with "that 3am call" (paraphrased, of course) replace the President with the Vice-President. Had the poobahs (Steve says there are 75 of them.) adhered to the Constitution as soon as the President's condition was verifyable, I believe we would have been in a much, much better position to execute a campaign with a decent chance of winning. (I think Biden's appearance on the tv screen sent a shock wave through the country. My jaw dropped. How do you think Independents reacted to it? We needed Independents. (Our loss was only about 1.3% of the total vote - small loss, big consequences). Not only were the Dem poobahs seen as obviously lying to the American people, but it appeared to confirm the right's claims of "deep state" manipulation. Those 75 people at the cocktail party were stupid.
I understand your "preference" for stability. It is my sincere and fundamental "preference", too. But is there really any stability to be had in our present situation besides abdicating to the Right? (Now, should the Democratic poobahs announce they are making plans for most of them (nah! almost ALL of them) to resign, I would probably agree with you.)
After all, we have already lost, so it's time to quit trying to avoid losing.
YES! This is some of the stuff I know you know- that I need to know!
The magnifying of trusted voices is something we need. The system has changed since someone's going on the weekend news shows would be a sure way to raise their profile. Somehow these voices will have to rise out of the babble. (You're the campaign professional, Steve.)
I trust your list and I hope you'll keep adding to it. I will read.
Steve seems to have a real hard on for David Muir. Aren't all newspeople on television attractive for the most part, including Peter Jennings? And aren't they all just reading the news?
I don't get it.🤷🏼♂️
Elaine, Steve recently posted a picture of Muir at the LA fires and there was a profile pic where you can see a clothes pin pinching up inches of the fire jacket he was wearing so that the jacket fit like tailored suit jacket instead of a proper loose-fitting piece of fire protection equipment (PPE). lol
Seems pretty petty on both their parts, Muir for doing it, and Steve for pointing it out🤷♀️
You shot down the new party option because it could potentially throw the next election, but then you go and make the case for needing a new party! Ultimately, I see our relying on the Democratic Party as the reason Trump won a second term. We must stop relying on them. We're going to have to take a risk. The voters who either stayed home or voted for Trump should have another choice. We need to create an acceptable destination to receive these citizens when they finally are ready to ditch MAGA. The Republican party cannot be cleansed of MAGA. The Democratic brand is toast. They hate the Democrats. I'm mad at them, too. And I'm not seeing any signs of a leadership correction.
You all need to rethink your priors about third parties. We need a movement (like Principles First). And we need a party that encapsulates those principles. This must replace the Republican party so we may have a functioning two-party system again. I cannot join the Democrats.
Good comments.
Great, Steve. Publish that list. I still get the new york times and the washington post because there are some people working for each paper that I respect a lot , but you have know how to weed through the garbage, of which there is much. I've been trying the boston globe and i'm thinking about going ahead and dropping the money for the wall street journal, although their editorial page is a sewer. The atlantic is probably my favorite publication right now. I spend a lot of time in substack as well.
Only need to rip a page from Toddy Roosevelt’s progressive Party of 1912 that later became known as the Bull Moose Party to see how that turned out. But at least he tried to defeat the entrenched political elite. And then there was Ross Perot in 92 and 96.
https://dp.la/exhibitions/outsiders-president-elections/third-party-reform/roosevelt-progressive-party
Thanks for thoroughly explaining about the dangers of third party candidates -- I think I realized these points, but you are clearer.
Please publish the list of folks you get your news from....need to follow them!
I listen to all the comments about the political parties and depending on who is speaking, the other party is the culprit. Many of our problems when in 2009 the Supreme Court made it legal for companies and millions to give as much money as they wanted to a candidate. President Obama addressed this in his State of the Union speech. He said I sincerely hope the Supreme Court realizes that by passing this bill you have opened up a passage of corruption and making it now possible to buy your candidate. That is exactly what has happened. We no longer have campaigns where the everyday person could donate for his/her candidate and believe they really care about us. We need to abolish that law and many have been trying to do it. Let's go back to when there were limits as to how much a person could donate and all donations had to be reported. Let's go back to having candidates who aren't trying to beat the candidate who gets the most money but works for the people they are representing. Many of our candidates are being bought and Donald J. Trump is at the head of the line. Yes, let's try to do some of the programs the FDR really wanted and fought for. Let's get the honest candidate who is a true American and cares about America. People have voted in as our president a person who is a felon and a known rapist and he's constantly trying to prove the jury and the judges are all wrong when we know he is the one who is wrong. Please, let us fight to end that bill and fight to get candidates who will stand up in fight for us in all the political parties.
Would be interesting to know who the 75 Democrats are who control the party. Assume chuck schumer is one. While I believe the in idea of “the power of the people”, I also firmly believe both parties are controlled by big money and we get their leftover crap as they deem fit.
I don’t understand the difference between TikTok and Facebook, Instagram and X. All 3 collect information on us that its owners use to lie to us, manipulate us and use to sabotage our best interests.