I am sympathetic to the idea that we should meet all the lost men and boys where they are, but I also wonder about the effectiveness of that. On some level, I believe the issues that many men are experiencing can be traced to a society that holds them to lower standards of behavior throughout their lives. Is the solution to our issues as a country really that women and men who are not authoritarian-curious have to drag these dudes back from the abyss without them doing any work themselves?
" Is the solution to our issues as a country really that women and men who are not authoritarian-curious have to drag these dudes back from the abyss without them doing any work themselves?"
Unfortunately, the answer is yes. I don't know about dragging. That seldom creates much change. But as long as they don't feel a need to change, they will never initiate the work. We will need to create strategies that act like interventions which can help them wake up to new possibilities. And very likely it will be most effective if those currently seduced by authoritarianism are invited in to help create the strategies. After all, the strategies will need to work for all of us.
Anand, I love how you wrote this and challenged us to be curious. Regarding the attraction of so many people to Trump and authoritarianism, I have been endlessly fascinated and read so much to try to "understand its appeal". But when it comes to the people who are committed to that, as you write, "We have to be as curious about what’s going on with them" - it's much harder to be curious. After all the articles, interviews and videos in which they make their grievances and racism and cruelty very clear, you are still calling for us to be curious. Rather than curiosity, I feel a strong impulse to criticize, castigate and turn away, and dedicate to defeating them so soundly they never come back. But I hear you. Yes we need to win the election, and this is critical -it's a both/and - we also have to do the harder, deeper work to address the problems in the soup that we're all swimming in, the deep currents of inequity, injustice, patriarchy, etc etc, that have driven almost half of our population to look for the authoritarian solution and so we all have better opportunities and choices. Thanks for your Ink platform. I read you everyday.
Anand, you wrote: "The work of this season is defeating Donald Trump. The work of a generation is facing, and changing, the fact that tens of millions of our fellow citizens, friends, relatives, and neighbors want authoritarianism."
I would suggest that these tens of millions of our fellow citizens who support Trump have no concept whatsoever of what it would mean to live under authoritarian rule. I suspect that few, if any, of them have read Ruth Ben-Ghiat's excellent book 'Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.' Had they done so, they would be far less inclined to support anyone exhibiting strongman tendencies. I suspect that they support Trump not because they "want authoritarianism," but rather because they believe he hates the same people they hate, not knowing that he despises them, too, and that he is simply using them to gain power.
Far too many Americans feel let down and betrayed by their government; too many see themselves as being among the "basket of deplorables" so famously scorned by Hillary Clinton to her detriment.
“When a man as uncouth and reckless as Trump becomes president by running against the nation’s elites, it’s a strong signal that the elites are the problem.” -- Robert W. Merry (as quoted by David Brooks in the New York Times, 23 May 2017)
If today's "elites" (and you know who you are) want to gain any ascendancy in our politics, they have a great deal of work to do to mend fences with those proudly card-carrying members of Hillary's basket of deplorables. And they had better do so rapidly! Kamala's talk about rebuilding America's middle class appears to be on the right track.
I do love the vision Anand but I do also beg your pardon for one observation here. Obama as it were descended from on high with his books and his vision. And we watched him like TV for 8 years and relaxed and Trump took over. Waiting for Harris--expecting her, in a few weeks--to do something even more than she's doing now and articulate a huge vision (more than what she already has) might not only be demanding the impossible (something Black women have alas experience with), it might be alienating us: what is remarkable about Harris is that it's clear it's on US to be the vision. As Obama said, but did not enact (Organizing for America disappeared after his first election), we are the ones we have been looking for. Only this time it's' for real. WE have to be her vision. WE, doing our very best to communicate with our upset and gaslit neighbors and family as you say very brilliantly. Tx
We didn’t take seriously those who met the very night of Obama’s election to plan how to undermine his every move and render him and all progressives powerless.
It's implicit in the DJ-style, call and response like Tennis Court Oath-ness of the rallies. It is as if WE conjured her into existence, not the other way around.
I agree that we have to deal with the people who will vote for Trump but I don't think that they all believe in and want authoritarianism. I think many of these people haven't thought it through, they don't understand what authoritarianism would mean for them, and are simply responding based on their emotions which are supported and amplified by the groups they belong to. A certain percentage of these people just want specific policies that only benefit themselves. They aren't haters or violent, but may simply be greedy. But too many trade in misogyny, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, white supremacy, white Christian nationalism, and other specific types of hatred and combinations of these hatreds. These are hatreds that have existed forever. Many of these people don't want to talk about their hatreds and resist any type of discussion. I don't think it's my responsibility to "understand" their hatred because it isn't rational, and the goals they want should not be put into place. It is frequently mentioned that we have to help Trump voters, but there is no sense of why don't Trump voters have to examine their hatreds. In any 12-step program the first step, a major step, is admitting that you have a problem. I don't hate Trump voters, or even Trump or Vance. I hate what they say and especially how they act. I hate the fact that too many Trump voters turn immediately to threats of violence or to actual violence. Dylann Roof sat with and listened to the people in that Charleston church talk about God, and then killed them anyway. I believe that the only way to work on this problem is at the local level, maybe through community institutions talking about these problems in open forums, having town halls and being respectful of what everyone says even when you disagree with them. Of course to do this, you'd have to ban guns and other weapons, you'd have to have competent facilitators and you'd have to make everyone feel safe, which is difficult in this day and age, and everyone would have to honest. You'd have to do this over and over and over again because most people are resistant to change. Too many of these people do not want to live in a society that is democratic (small-d), multiracial and multi-pluralistic. You can't implement policies that satisfy everyone. Your point of view is sometimes in the minority, and you have to accept that. You can work on changing other people's minds but there's no guarantee that will happen. The only person you can control is yourself, and that is a very difficult lesson for many people to accept.
I appreciated today's column, as I do most of yours. I'm Canadian, so some of the political context is different for me, but I find your writing and observations quite relevant. I have to point something out, however, concerning the alarmingly widespread support for extreme right-wing politics that your column does not mention. I submit that an awful lot of the reactionary movement both in your country and ours is the direct result of "free trade" policies that put our workers in an impossible competition with workers in sweatshops in low-wage countries with no environmental or workplace standards. The result was the hollowing out of our industries, the deterioration of our downtowns, and the shedding of millions of well-paying, often unionized jobs. Factories shut down everywhere, city and country, and those who lost their jobs in them were left to fend for themselves. Many are today's working poor, many are homeless. Meanwhile, free trade's beneficiaries got richer, and the gap between rich and poor grew enormously. It's the one damn thing Trump was/is right about which is exactly why he connected with disenfranchised workers. Free trade killed North American jobs and robbed workers, especially blue collar male workers, of their livelihoods and their pride. It's no wonder so many find their ways down rabbit holes and come out with loathsome ideas.
To reverse the political trend, you have to follow the money and reverse the economic factors that have led to widespread despair and anger. You do need to put the blame where it belongs, but somehow, probably in a variety of ways, you also need to level the playing field so our workers can compete again.
Thanks for your important work.Ish TheilheimerGolden Lake, ON Canada
Yes, I agree with you. Until the government truly champions the interests of working class America (with solid bold policies, rather than incrementalism)--instead of legislation that courts mega donors and corporate America, many conservatives in the Republican Party will continue to stoke fear of immigrants, racism, bigotry, etc., due to past success using that strategy. Until voters thrive economically, low information voters will continue to cling to fear/blame of others as the reason. We can thank a combination of Fox News, Citizens United and opportunists like Donald Trump for this.
Years ago Mother Jones published a color chart showing the enormous disparity in wealth in the USA. Even households with $250,000 in holdings were on the losing end. The wealth is concentrated in the top 1%, and even the top ,01% . I am guessing it's only worse in 2024, after the Trump tax cuts. It makes us feel poor while the billionaires flaunt their wealth and, more importantly , impact the political arrangements. The Citizen's United decision funded it all. Reversing this is so daunting, I think it paralyzes many of us. It's an almost unseen blow , a big factor I think toward the deepening distrust in whether our government works for us. We see all around us that it doesn't.
Yes! Our extreme wealth inequality and money in politics leaves people feeling like the system is rigged against them. This creates fertile ground for Trump to sow fear, anger, racism, and division.
We need to undo Citizens United, reform our tax structure, support unions, and increase access to housing, child care, and good jobs.
"The world's so overwhelming, so many serious issues. I feel so helpless, most of it I don't even understand. I just wish we had a benevolent dictator to tell us what to do. Like go to the doctor and he knows and I just do what he says. Or like the priest, or grandfather. Now I have to think about everything, I don't have time. Dont want to. Chinas doing great with their dictator. Our goverment argues all the time and goes into debt. I'm scared for my family, for the future. I swear to God, I just wish we had a benevolent dictator or reappearance of Christ to tell us what to do. "
I have heard one form or another of this for decades, from overwhelmed sincere people. The seeds of Trump phenomena, or other dictators. And the more global climate disasters manifest, the more FEAR and helpless good people are feeling, prey to the charlatans who claim they have all the answers.
Somehow we have to address this fundamental fear...i cant do this.... and shift to a fundamental courage...we can do this. How???
Some excellent large system ideas are out there. One among, Former Navy Seal commander/author Mark Divine (Unbeatable Mind, Staring Down the Wolf) is worth considering. We need new ways to think, ways accessible to everyone, not just to elite thinkers. Who/what are others out there???
Maybe by caring and educating we can create enough "elite" thinkers, creative thinkers, compassionate thinkers that we can no longer call them/ourselves the "elite". We trust juries of our peers to make judicial decisions. This model can work, with variations, for all kinds of decision making. When asked to listen and reflect deeply perhaps we will find that ideologies loose strength and good ideas rise to the surface.
I agree there are lots of excellent large, and medium sized and small, system ideas out there, not just theoretical ones but ones being put into practice and refined through use.
Ron's wife FERN is writing this: I recently spoke to several trump supporters and listened to what and why they liked TRUMP> I Just listened. What no one speaks about is that it is not just an authoritarian bent with atleast these two people Both were listening to news outlets that sounded like Lies ( to me ) Ie: "I want justice of the democratic party.....where is the justice that BIDEN is a proven pedaphile and no body does anything about that " , one person went on about that which she believed. The other lie was even crazier . Their opinions were conditioned by a news media outlet that made up stuff! One of the long term plans must be getting rid of falsities in the so called "news" FOR private news outlets whose mission is to spread crazy lies, I just do not know how this can be done ; but trust me it is a problem to unification or getting along
The Heiritage Foundation and others have been strategizing (Leadership Mandate) for decades to undermine the constitution and subsequently our democratic way of life. A lack of historical education leaves next gens without understanding of communism, fascism, etc. Shedding light on the benefits to the expanding story of how a democracy works with consequences of how it's not working seems to be exposed is a process we are living. Even when T loses, the struggle will continue. To your point.
Thank you for your reply. This is what concerns me: polling numbers are (to my understanding) derived from those who answer unknown phone numbers on their landlines. That excludes a huge portion of the potential electorate (including me), though I admit I can't give you *those* numbers. So, to include such figures without a disclaimer (or a reference) within a post of otherwise valid viewpoints, jumps out at me. Because it implies that a potential majority of Americans are part of the anti-democracy movement in America. If that's true, our country is doomed.
We actually talked with Daniel Ziblatt about this very question earlier in the year; the general consensus among political scientists seems to be support for authoritarians (tacit or active) is really more around 30 percent, that has majority impact because of antidemocratic structural issues.
We seem to be in an endless cycle of critical elections each more important than the previous one. How we break out of that cycle and build the organizations and coalitions that will provide a path to transformative change is the question of the day. I’m not advocating a third party, but an independent movement with a clear message that also engages in the political process. Elections are crucial but there has to be more.
We must also look in the mirror with curiosity and reflect on how we (Democrats, progressives) have failed to deliver for the American people - how we have failed to reform systems that continue to drive historical wealth inequality.
Economists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson rang the alarm bells in 2010 that our political system was skewed to benefit corporations, the financial sector, and those already doing well. They warned that extreme wealth inequality leads to social and political instability - populist revolt or authoritarianism. (French economist Thomas Piketty’s 2013 book, Capital in the 21st Century comes to mind). It creates an environment in which racial division can be stoked.
Anand’s phenomenal book “Winners Take All”, and his Aspen Institute 2015 speech were also calls to progressives to engage in critical self-reflection and course correct.
Biden and his team, along with other Democratic leaders (like Gov Walz) have made positive strides in the right direction.
Please, dear God!, may Harris and Walz win and continue to course correct. Democrats need to prove to the American people that democracy can work for them, and is worth preserving.
(A certain % of people will always vote based on their racism or far-right ideology-but the majority of Americans mainly want a better life, a good job, a home, a healthy family, agency, community, and connection. Democrats need to win them back.).
Anand, I'll never forget your appearance on Morning Joe the morning after the 2016 election - a discussion with you, the hosts, and Michael Moore, that Joe allowed to go on for nearly an hour without a commercial break - when you so eloquently helped us to process what had just happened. I hope that they will invite you back for many post-election discussions this year.
Hey Anand!! Don’t tell me I have to change my distancing from the issue! AND thank you for telling me that. It helps me see the short sightedness of my approach. Brilliantly Neighborly 🥰
I am sympathetic to the idea that we should meet all the lost men and boys where they are, but I also wonder about the effectiveness of that. On some level, I believe the issues that many men are experiencing can be traced to a society that holds them to lower standards of behavior throughout their lives. Is the solution to our issues as a country really that women and men who are not authoritarian-curious have to drag these dudes back from the abyss without them doing any work themselves?
" Is the solution to our issues as a country really that women and men who are not authoritarian-curious have to drag these dudes back from the abyss without them doing any work themselves?"
Unfortunately, the answer is yes. I don't know about dragging. That seldom creates much change. But as long as they don't feel a need to change, they will never initiate the work. We will need to create strategies that act like interventions which can help them wake up to new possibilities. And very likely it will be most effective if those currently seduced by authoritarianism are invited in to help create the strategies. After all, the strategies will need to work for all of us.
Anand, I love how you wrote this and challenged us to be curious. Regarding the attraction of so many people to Trump and authoritarianism, I have been endlessly fascinated and read so much to try to "understand its appeal". But when it comes to the people who are committed to that, as you write, "We have to be as curious about what’s going on with them" - it's much harder to be curious. After all the articles, interviews and videos in which they make their grievances and racism and cruelty very clear, you are still calling for us to be curious. Rather than curiosity, I feel a strong impulse to criticize, castigate and turn away, and dedicate to defeating them so soundly they never come back. But I hear you. Yes we need to win the election, and this is critical -it's a both/and - we also have to do the harder, deeper work to address the problems in the soup that we're all swimming in, the deep currents of inequity, injustice, patriarchy, etc etc, that have driven almost half of our population to look for the authoritarian solution and so we all have better opportunities and choices. Thanks for your Ink platform. I read you everyday.
Anand, you wrote: "The work of this season is defeating Donald Trump. The work of a generation is facing, and changing, the fact that tens of millions of our fellow citizens, friends, relatives, and neighbors want authoritarianism."
I would suggest that these tens of millions of our fellow citizens who support Trump have no concept whatsoever of what it would mean to live under authoritarian rule. I suspect that few, if any, of them have read Ruth Ben-Ghiat's excellent book 'Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.' Had they done so, they would be far less inclined to support anyone exhibiting strongman tendencies. I suspect that they support Trump not because they "want authoritarianism," but rather because they believe he hates the same people they hate, not knowing that he despises them, too, and that he is simply using them to gain power.
Far too many Americans feel let down and betrayed by their government; too many see themselves as being among the "basket of deplorables" so famously scorned by Hillary Clinton to her detriment.
“When a man as uncouth and reckless as Trump becomes president by running against the nation’s elites, it’s a strong signal that the elites are the problem.” -- Robert W. Merry (as quoted by David Brooks in the New York Times, 23 May 2017)
If today's "elites" (and you know who you are) want to gain any ascendancy in our politics, they have a great deal of work to do to mend fences with those proudly card-carrying members of Hillary's basket of deplorables. And they had better do so rapidly! Kamala's talk about rebuilding America's middle class appears to be on the right track.
I do love the vision Anand but I do also beg your pardon for one observation here. Obama as it were descended from on high with his books and his vision. And we watched him like TV for 8 years and relaxed and Trump took over. Waiting for Harris--expecting her, in a few weeks--to do something even more than she's doing now and articulate a huge vision (more than what she already has) might not only be demanding the impossible (something Black women have alas experience with), it might be alienating us: what is remarkable about Harris is that it's clear it's on US to be the vision. As Obama said, but did not enact (Organizing for America disappeared after his first election), we are the ones we have been looking for. Only this time it's' for real. WE have to be her vision. WE, doing our very best to communicate with our upset and gaslit neighbors and family as you say very brilliantly. Tx
We didn’t take seriously those who met the very night of Obama’s election to plan how to undermine his every move and render him and all progressives powerless.
They even used the word "insurgency" and referenced the taliban.
It's implicit in the DJ-style, call and response like Tennis Court Oath-ness of the rallies. It is as if WE conjured her into existence, not the other way around.
I agree that we have to deal with the people who will vote for Trump but I don't think that they all believe in and want authoritarianism. I think many of these people haven't thought it through, they don't understand what authoritarianism would mean for them, and are simply responding based on their emotions which are supported and amplified by the groups they belong to. A certain percentage of these people just want specific policies that only benefit themselves. They aren't haters or violent, but may simply be greedy. But too many trade in misogyny, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, white supremacy, white Christian nationalism, and other specific types of hatred and combinations of these hatreds. These are hatreds that have existed forever. Many of these people don't want to talk about their hatreds and resist any type of discussion. I don't think it's my responsibility to "understand" their hatred because it isn't rational, and the goals they want should not be put into place. It is frequently mentioned that we have to help Trump voters, but there is no sense of why don't Trump voters have to examine their hatreds. In any 12-step program the first step, a major step, is admitting that you have a problem. I don't hate Trump voters, or even Trump or Vance. I hate what they say and especially how they act. I hate the fact that too many Trump voters turn immediately to threats of violence or to actual violence. Dylann Roof sat with and listened to the people in that Charleston church talk about God, and then killed them anyway. I believe that the only way to work on this problem is at the local level, maybe through community institutions talking about these problems in open forums, having town halls and being respectful of what everyone says even when you disagree with them. Of course to do this, you'd have to ban guns and other weapons, you'd have to have competent facilitators and you'd have to make everyone feel safe, which is difficult in this day and age, and everyone would have to honest. You'd have to do this over and over and over again because most people are resistant to change. Too many of these people do not want to live in a society that is democratic (small-d), multiracial and multi-pluralistic. You can't implement policies that satisfy everyone. Your point of view is sometimes in the minority, and you have to accept that. You can work on changing other people's minds but there's no guarantee that will happen. The only person you can control is yourself, and that is a very difficult lesson for many people to accept.
Dear Anand and colleagues,
I appreciated today's column, as I do most of yours. I'm Canadian, so some of the political context is different for me, but I find your writing and observations quite relevant. I have to point something out, however, concerning the alarmingly widespread support for extreme right-wing politics that your column does not mention. I submit that an awful lot of the reactionary movement both in your country and ours is the direct result of "free trade" policies that put our workers in an impossible competition with workers in sweatshops in low-wage countries with no environmental or workplace standards. The result was the hollowing out of our industries, the deterioration of our downtowns, and the shedding of millions of well-paying, often unionized jobs. Factories shut down everywhere, city and country, and those who lost their jobs in them were left to fend for themselves. Many are today's working poor, many are homeless. Meanwhile, free trade's beneficiaries got richer, and the gap between rich and poor grew enormously. It's the one damn thing Trump was/is right about which is exactly why he connected with disenfranchised workers. Free trade killed North American jobs and robbed workers, especially blue collar male workers, of their livelihoods and their pride. It's no wonder so many find their ways down rabbit holes and come out with loathsome ideas.
To reverse the political trend, you have to follow the money and reverse the economic factors that have led to widespread despair and anger. You do need to put the blame where it belongs, but somehow, probably in a variety of ways, you also need to level the playing field so our workers can compete again.
Thanks for your important work.Ish TheilheimerGolden Lake, ON Canada
Yes, I agree with you. Until the government truly champions the interests of working class America (with solid bold policies, rather than incrementalism)--instead of legislation that courts mega donors and corporate America, many conservatives in the Republican Party will continue to stoke fear of immigrants, racism, bigotry, etc., due to past success using that strategy. Until voters thrive economically, low information voters will continue to cling to fear/blame of others as the reason. We can thank a combination of Fox News, Citizens United and opportunists like Donald Trump for this.
Years ago Mother Jones published a color chart showing the enormous disparity in wealth in the USA. Even households with $250,000 in holdings were on the losing end. The wealth is concentrated in the top 1%, and even the top ,01% . I am guessing it's only worse in 2024, after the Trump tax cuts. It makes us feel poor while the billionaires flaunt their wealth and, more importantly , impact the political arrangements. The Citizen's United decision funded it all. Reversing this is so daunting, I think it paralyzes many of us. It's an almost unseen blow , a big factor I think toward the deepening distrust in whether our government works for us. We see all around us that it doesn't.
Yes! Our extreme wealth inequality and money in politics leaves people feeling like the system is rigged against them. This creates fertile ground for Trump to sow fear, anger, racism, and division.
We need to undo Citizens United, reform our tax structure, support unions, and increase access to housing, child care, and good jobs.
"The world's so overwhelming, so many serious issues. I feel so helpless, most of it I don't even understand. I just wish we had a benevolent dictator to tell us what to do. Like go to the doctor and he knows and I just do what he says. Or like the priest, or grandfather. Now I have to think about everything, I don't have time. Dont want to. Chinas doing great with their dictator. Our goverment argues all the time and goes into debt. I'm scared for my family, for the future. I swear to God, I just wish we had a benevolent dictator or reappearance of Christ to tell us what to do. "
I have heard one form or another of this for decades, from overwhelmed sincere people. The seeds of Trump phenomena, or other dictators. And the more global climate disasters manifest, the more FEAR and helpless good people are feeling, prey to the charlatans who claim they have all the answers.
Somehow we have to address this fundamental fear...i cant do this.... and shift to a fundamental courage...we can do this. How???
Some excellent large system ideas are out there. One among, Former Navy Seal commander/author Mark Divine (Unbeatable Mind, Staring Down the Wolf) is worth considering. We need new ways to think, ways accessible to everyone, not just to elite thinkers. Who/what are others out there???
Maybe by caring and educating we can create enough "elite" thinkers, creative thinkers, compassionate thinkers that we can no longer call them/ourselves the "elite". We trust juries of our peers to make judicial decisions. This model can work, with variations, for all kinds of decision making. When asked to listen and reflect deeply perhaps we will find that ideologies loose strength and good ideas rise to the surface.
I agree there are lots of excellent large, and medium sized and small, system ideas out there, not just theoretical ones but ones being put into practice and refined through use.
Ron's wife FERN is writing this: I recently spoke to several trump supporters and listened to what and why they liked TRUMP> I Just listened. What no one speaks about is that it is not just an authoritarian bent with atleast these two people Both were listening to news outlets that sounded like Lies ( to me ) Ie: "I want justice of the democratic party.....where is the justice that BIDEN is a proven pedaphile and no body does anything about that " , one person went on about that which she believed. The other lie was even crazier . Their opinions were conditioned by a news media outlet that made up stuff! One of the long term plans must be getting rid of falsities in the so called "news" FOR private news outlets whose mission is to spread crazy lies, I just do not know how this can be done ; but trust me it is a problem to unification or getting along
The Heiritage Foundation and others have been strategizing (Leadership Mandate) for decades to undermine the constitution and subsequently our democratic way of life. A lack of historical education leaves next gens without understanding of communism, fascism, etc. Shedding light on the benefits to the expanding story of how a democracy works with consequences of how it's not working seems to be exposed is a process we are living. Even when T loses, the struggle will continue. To your point.
Although I get the overall point(s), I find myself wondering where the 48%/52% figures come from?
I think a reference to the rough polling numbers so far; so among the potential electorate.
Thank you for your reply. This is what concerns me: polling numbers are (to my understanding) derived from those who answer unknown phone numbers on their landlines. That excludes a huge portion of the potential electorate (including me), though I admit I can't give you *those* numbers. So, to include such figures without a disclaimer (or a reference) within a post of otherwise valid viewpoints, jumps out at me. Because it implies that a potential majority of Americans are part of the anti-democracy movement in America. If that's true, our country is doomed.
We actually talked with Daniel Ziblatt about this very question earlier in the year; the general consensus among political scientists seems to be support for authoritarians (tacit or active) is really more around 30 percent, that has majority impact because of antidemocratic structural issues.
As in the electoral college reserves its plushest, most outsized baskets for the deplorables?
We seem to be in an endless cycle of critical elections each more important than the previous one. How we break out of that cycle and build the organizations and coalitions that will provide a path to transformative change is the question of the day. I’m not advocating a third party, but an independent movement with a clear message that also engages in the political process. Elections are crucial but there has to be more.
We must also look in the mirror with curiosity and reflect on how we (Democrats, progressives) have failed to deliver for the American people - how we have failed to reform systems that continue to drive historical wealth inequality.
Economists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson rang the alarm bells in 2010 that our political system was skewed to benefit corporations, the financial sector, and those already doing well. They warned that extreme wealth inequality leads to social and political instability - populist revolt or authoritarianism. (French economist Thomas Piketty’s 2013 book, Capital in the 21st Century comes to mind). It creates an environment in which racial division can be stoked.
Anand’s phenomenal book “Winners Take All”, and his Aspen Institute 2015 speech were also calls to progressives to engage in critical self-reflection and course correct.
Biden and his team, along with other Democratic leaders (like Gov Walz) have made positive strides in the right direction.
Please, dear God!, may Harris and Walz win and continue to course correct. Democrats need to prove to the American people that democracy can work for them, and is worth preserving.
(A certain % of people will always vote based on their racism or far-right ideology-but the majority of Americans mainly want a better life, a good job, a home, a healthy family, agency, community, and connection. Democrats need to win them back.).
Anand, I'll never forget your appearance on Morning Joe the morning after the 2016 election - a discussion with you, the hosts, and Michael Moore, that Joe allowed to go on for nearly an hour without a commercial break - when you so eloquently helped us to process what had just happened. I hope that they will invite you back for many post-election discussions this year.
I love this, Anand, couldn't agree more. I just posted a link to this page on my recently launched Whole New World blog:
https://wholenewworld.com/2024/09/12/november-is-just-the-beginning/
Hey Anand!! Don’t tell me I have to change my distancing from the issue! AND thank you for telling me that. It helps me see the short sightedness of my approach. Brilliantly Neighborly 🥰