Tom Rinaldo
Tom Rinaldo's JournalMamdani could redefine American politics
Not by getting elected Mayor of NYC, though that will be an eye opener if he does. It's how well he does AFTER he is in office that offers a chance to alter the American political landscape.We have had had a relative handful of high profile highly progressive legislators in office before. Bernie Sanders and AOC jump immediately to mind. Legislators do not get credit for actually running anything beyond the committees they may chair. AOC got her start in politics by emerging herself in Bernie's 2016 Presidential run, but Bernie's political career first gained traction when he became Mayor of Vermont's largest city in 1981. It ultimately became his springboard into national politics,, but only because he did a really GOOD JOB as Mayor. a position he was elected to four times.
A Mayor by definition is a Chief Executive who runs his or her own administration. Sanders pointed to his record as Mayor of Burlington when he ran State wide in Vermont for Congress (Vermont only has one Congressional district.) His achievements as Mayor spoke louder than political labels. Sanders didn't win his congressional seat because he called himself a democratic socialist. He did so because he defined through his accomplishments what being a democratic socialist meant.
While Burlington may be the largest city in Vermont it is not thought of as a major American city and what happens there is little noticed by most voters nationwide. The opposite could not be more true for New York City. A national spot light is likely to soon settle on Zohran Mamdani. Should he succeed as Mayor, he may well redefine democratic socialism for tens of millions of Americans And he'll have the receipts to prove it.
The Sh*t has been on a direct trajectory toward the Fan since at least November
Some of it is hitting in Los Angeles now. Much more is on the way. My own flashbacks are to 1968. Prior generations of Americans, were they somehow here now to experience this, might draw comparisons to 1929, or to1859. It's like being in a plane flying at 30,000 feet that's rapidly approaching a massive front of Thunder Storms, too wide to fly around, to high to rise above. Severe turbulence directly ahead is a given. There is no avoiding it.
We have a good chance of making it through this storm, though there's no guarantee. History periodically comes to a crescendo. This is one of those times. We're unlikely to emerge unscathed, but we will rebuild if we make it.
The thing is, no one comes out smelling like a rose when the sh*t hits the fan, and that includes those who threw it in the first place. I think most of the American people will not forgive the forces that cause the complete destabilization of our economy and society. Those who bring down that pain upon us all will ultimately suffer repudiation because of it. It will get uglier before it gets better, but that's why I think they will lose. Americans still have too much to lose to watch it all going down the drain.
The Fear Factor
Note: This is a edited and rewritten version of an OP I posted here yesterday. For one thing, it's shorter (though I still can't call it short, lol)Dictators are rarely popular for very long. They’re not bothered when the public turns against them, not until the people stand up to them. Dictators succeed at unpopular endeavors all of the time. Most Americans disapprove of Trump, but it hardly matters. For the most part he’s turned his attention away from swaying the electorate now. That phase is over, he got what he needed, which was never about winning majority support. It was always about building a fanatical, hyper loyal base.
Prior to Trump, America's political leaders more or less believed their power ultimately derived from the people, and that without wide public support, their rule would eventually collapse. But the National Rifle Association long ago established that fanatical single issue voters can steer our political system, and Trump spun the concept of single issue voting completely around. No one issue need hold sway, rather loyalty to a leader would prevail. MAGA voters became Trump’s political shock troops, and within the insular combat circles of Republican Party primaries, their single focus devotion to his wishes almost always carried the day.
Trump wasn't content with political shock troops however. He recruited physical ones as well, and his January 6th insurrectionist mob was just the most visible tip of the iceberg. How many fake swatting calls regarding public officials have been made to police stations across the nation? How many anonymous death threats have elected officials, and judicial officers, and election workers, and their families, received? Members of the Republican Party who cross Trump now understand that doing so puts the safety of their families at risk. The vigilantes of MAGA world have little patience with traitors.
Lisa Murkowski literally acknowledged her fear. Mitt Romney stated that he knew of Republican Senators who voted not to impeach Trump, following the insurrection, because of the danger their families would face had they voted to convict. Since Trump's violent thugs were released from jail, thanks to his recent presidential pardons, those fears have faces. One of America's two great political parties is now operating under full cult lock down.
With the Republican Party obediently subdued, Congress offers no checks on Trump's ambitions. The Courts for now are a work in progress, but Trump is in a position now to appoint dozens of new Federal Judges screened primarily for their loyalty to him. Meanwhile his administration initiates five new unconstitutional actions for each one the courts find time to weigh in on. And the option to ignore any Court ruling is never far from mind. The law offers little in the way of long term resistance to an aspiring dictator. It can be bent beyond all recognition to a dictator's will, once those who interpret it, enforce it, and mold it, become subservient to a strongman.
With the executive branch at his disposal, Trump has his hands on every lever of the administrative state, while usurping additional legislative authority daily. That enables Trump to shift his attention now toward power centers less reliably under his direct control, from Major Law Firms, to Leading Universities, to not as of yet MAGA dominated aspects of the media. The government is fully weaponized on Trump's behalf Trump has the capacity to potentially intimidate virtually any public or private institution or individual, without having to literally resort to threats of force. Threats to withhold funding can suffice. Or moves to revoke licenses, or block mergers, or to investigate a tax-exempt status. And vigilantes aren't always needed when the FBI is under your thumb.
With the mere wave, or waiver, of a tariff Trump can punish or reward corporate leaders who, acutely aware of Trump's vindictive nature, now scramble to be viewed favorably by him. Meanwhile the ultimate specter of state sanctioned physical force remains an arrow lying ready in Trump’s quiver. He continually shuffles the leadership of federal security and defense forces, seeking those who will reliably follow his orders. No doubt Trump keeps a copy of The Insurrection Act on his bed stand, where Mein Kampf reportedly once lay.
The classic Sci Fi series Star Trek Next Generation popularized a phrase, voiced via The Borg: "Resistance is futile." It is the call of all dictatorships, attempting to create a self-fulfilling prophesy. We are less than a tenth of the way into Trump's second administration. His assertion of unprecedented power is still tentative. Americans have not yet forgotten what a relatively free society feels like. Resistance is far from futile.
Choices being made daily will determine the outcome: Businesses deciding whether to still embrace diversity, equality and inclusion. Publishers and producers of newspapers and news shows deciding whether coverage likely to incite the wrath of the President ever sees the light of day. Each capitulation makes further ones more likely. Every act of defiance inspires others to do the same. We can lock our doors, curl up, and watch Netflix. Or we can go out into the streets instead.
If there were a HPE purge of most libraries, 80% of the books would vanish
HPE* policies are embedded into virtually all American institutions. Immediate pervasive actions are needed to root this out.
*Homogeneous Privileged and Exclusive.
I hate it, but I'm rooting for a continuing Wall Street meltdown
Real people, working people and retirees, are getting hurt. I know that. And sure. all people are real, I know that too. I don't begrudge anyone wanting to take a long anticipated vacation cruise, or having the means to buy a weekend cottage on a lake. I'm of limited means and retired, so I get how important an adequately funded IRA can be. But the money anyone has invested in the stock market aren't the funds needed to put food on their table this week. Money held in stocks aren't earmarked to pay the rent this coming May 1st. I regretfully conclude that meaningful pain is needed to compel the people of our nation to take dramatic actions now. We can not wait for midterm elections. So let that pain manifest on Wall Street.
The truth is that our nation, and our world, was in crisis before Trump imposed his massive tarries. Climate change is pushing us toward an environmental catastrophe, and the United States government has retreated from our commitment to fighting it.. Democracies have been in retreat world wide, autocracies are marching full speed ahead, and the United States is rapidly becoming the major case in point.
Freedom and justice can be deemed God given rights, but God isn't defending them for us, we have to do that work ourselves. Wake up calls can't be polite in a time of crisis. It's too tempting to too many to simply hit the snooze alarm and roll over. People have to jump out of bed and mobilize before we're engulfed in a four alarm fire. At that point it's too late.
So let alarm bells ring on every floor. Let the sirens wail and automatic sprinkler systems drench us. There can't be business as usual if our businesses burn down.
Reality Endorsed Trump's Megalomania. Why Would He Listen To Anyone?
Trump companies declared bankruptcy six times, and continually had to be bailed out by mega banks, yet he managed to run for President posing as a highly successful businessman. Trump boasted he couldn't be corrupted because he was filthy rich and would bankroll his own campaign, and then bled dry the savings of thousands of supporters with dozens of email appeals for funds. He defeated high profile Republican Senators Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination after all of them called him scum, but they all licked his boots once he became President.
Trump started his first term as President by flouting his disregard for the U.S. Constitution's Emoluments Clause, rendering it arcane and unenforceable, establishing a precedent for how he would relate to other Constitutional impediments to his personal agenda going forward. Semi-independent voices inside the Republican Party during Trump's first time, like Senators Bob Corker and Jeff Flake, folded up shop and chose not to run for reelection. The same for Mitt Romney after a single term. Others, like Liz Cheney, were primaried out of office. Donald Trump has placed one of the oldest, largest and successful political parties in history completely under his thumb, something deemed unthinkable ten years ago.
Trump flipped 80 years of American foreign policy on its head, turning our allies into adversaries and our enemies into his personal friends, exchanging love letters with Kim Jong Un and showing admiration for ex KGB officer Vladimir Putin. Trump essentially was impeached for trying to overthrow the government, and then four years later got elected to lead it again. Once back in office he decapitated and decimated the ranks of the FBI, and our entire national security apparatus, which once raised red flags about the dealings Trump and his inner circle had with Russia. He's now purged the Justice Department of the strong voices it retained that once vigorously upheld the rule of law in America.
Time after time legal attempts to hold Trump accountable for his myriad serious misdeeds have been stymied in the courts, and ultimately rendered moot, if not formally dismissed, by "his" Department of Justice. Trump proclaimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him without offering a shred of proof. Numerous investigations and dozens of court rulings debunked his claim, but most Republicans now swear by his lies. The January 6th insurrection was viewed live by tens of millions of horrified Americans, yet Trump proclaims those who took part in it as American patriots, while pardoning all of them of even the most viscous violent crimes they participated in. Among those who now control Congress a few mild words of disapproval were voiced, but none that undermine steadfast loyalty shown to the man who would be dictator.
And the United States Supreme Court has ruled that Trump, unique among Americans, is immune to criminal prosecution for crimes that he commits while doing his job.
So why, one might ask, would Donald Trump care what others might think of the views he holds or acts on? Some say "it's only paranoia if it isn't true." The same might be said for megalomaniac delusions.
I believe this is what sets Bernie and AOC apart from most who now hold national positions with Democratic support
In a nut shell it's their explicit condemnation of rampant greed in America, and how that greed coupled with concentrated power is rapidly destroying the chance for most Americans to live decent lives. Note, I didn't say that they stand out from all elected Democrats in that regard, just from most. Further, I fully acknowledge that virtually all elected Democrats share a strong concern for the economic well being of both working and middle class Americans, and that their votes typically reflect those concerns.
What stands out for me about Bernie and AOC in particular, though, is their focus on the long term big picture, and their utter lack of moral ambiguity in regards to economic inequality. They are unafraid to call it blatant wholesale thievery by the top 1% of Americans at the expense of the bottom 90%, who increasingly must struggle to get by.
I'm going to use a photography metaphor here, and reference needing to choose which details constitute the foreground, and which the background, in the composition of a picture. Our side of the aisle, broadly speaking, pretty much agree on what the picture of America today encompasses, It's in the focus that differences emerge. Exposing and opposing greed is in the foreground of Bernie and AOC's messaging, it's not relegated to some corner in the background. In the finest tradition of the American Labor movement. they don't hesitate to loudly call out, "Whose side are you on?" They aren't cowered by the fear that they'll be called out for being "anti-business", because they stress the abject immorality inherent in allowing three hyper rich Americans to control more wealth than the bottom half of all our citizens combined. They do not shy away from emphasizing the obscene aspect of "obscene wealth."
Far too often I've heard leading Democrats go out of their way to assure the public at large that Democrats have no quarrel with anyone accumulating unlimited wealth, so long as they pay "their fair share" of taxes - defined for the most part as a fixed percentage of earned income, a percentage that has shrunken considerably since Reagan's "Revolution." Wanting to avoid being seen as "embracing class warfare" too easily results in unilateral rhetorical disarmament.
Most Americans are getting a very raw deal under this oligarchy, and virtually all of them know it. They aren't always as clear though on who is to blame. But Bernie and AOC leave little doubt on that. They paint our common enemies in bold colors and painstaking detail. They keep it front and center. And it isn't just Donald Trump and Elon Musk and whatever Republicans happen to be in office at the moment. The Gilded Age of a century past never ended in the dreams and aspirations of the amoral heirs of that prior oligarchy. Their continued greed increasingly bleeds vitality from the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans today.
Frankly, I'm mot surprised that Bernie and AOC's "Fight Oligarchy' campaign is resonating so strongly in parts of our nation no one would confuse with being solidly blue, that instead were purple or even red in the 2024 election. They are not mincing words. They are naming names and assigning blame. Bernie and AOC's straight forward indictment of greed at the expense of human needs, is breaking through.
If a Government shutdown actually would help Trump's ultimate agenda, Trump would have arranged it.
When the dust of conflicting arguments finally settles, that's the truth that stands. It would have been so easy for Republicans to make sure that their so called Continuing Resolution failed to clear the House. Johnson whipped the Republican caucus HARD to get it to pass. He could easily have let a few Freedom Caucus fanatics go astray, which would have killed it cold. If Trump's authoritarian power grab is made easier by a government shutdown, he simply could have guaranteed that it happen. If that was what he wanted he could have made it so, and not have risked having Democrats help keep the government open b allowing the "continuing Resolution" pass the Senate..
If for NO OTHER REASON, Dems must defeat the Repubs Continuing Resolution...
...because the House has language in it that blocks the ability of Congress to scale back or eliminate Trump's trade war tariffs. Americans already disapprove of those tariffs, and soon they will absolutely loathe them as their cost of living surges.
No longer will complaints mostly focus on the cost of eggs alone. Energy costs will rise. The cost of virtually any product made using metals will surge, food from Mexico and overseas will spike. Meanwhile the economy of every state that exports agricultural products will go into a tailspin.
Democrats can and should force votes on ending the trade wars. But they give up that right if the Continuing Resolution passes. Talk about unilateral disarmament!
Republicans don't grasp what's about to hit them
...if Trump doesn't pull the plug on his world wide trade war really soon. Increasingly, it's looking like he won't, probably because he knows he won't get away with spinning it as a win if he does. Earlier, he might have pulled that off, at least in the eyes of his base. Behind the scenes he could have worked out some face saving gestures that Mexico, Canada, and Europe might have allowed him, some minuscule concessions on their parts, that Trump could have inflated beyond all rational bounds to claim "victory." Now however he's poured so much gasoline on the fire that other nations increasingly are defiant. None trust Trump at his word, it is worth nothing. Why make concessions for good will when no good will will be given in return? More likely, sensing weakness, Trump would just stab them in the back,
Trump has boxed himself in with these trade wars, the only thing he is wired to do is escalate. He is psychologically incapable of a full scale retreat. Increasingly I believe America's recent strong allies will comprehend that the best way to neuter Trump is to turn the American public strongly against him. To make that happen, Americans need to suffer real economic pain, that can be pinned directly on Trump. The trade wars that Trump launched will do just that. Of course the people of our until recent allies will suffer also, but Trump has stoked Anti-American feelings inside all of those nations. They won't blink first, it has become almost a real war and they know that Trump must first be humbled, and then destroyed. They will blame Trump as well, not their own governments.
The plummeting stock market has broken through and captured the American public's attention, but that is just the opening act. Trade war sticker shock has yet to take hold. Prices are about to rise sharply for goods and services across the board. When they do, those who brought it on, Trump, Musk, and their sycophants in Congress, will face widespread public rage, and all their ravings against transgenders in women's sports will fail to deflect it.
Profile Information
Member since: Mon Oct 20, 2003, 06:39 PMNumber of posts: 23,125