I read your new book and found it compelling, informative and a very rich read. The border and the economy were two big sources of dispute and and an easy to understand, cogent explanation of both would serve this country well. What exactly happens there ( in depth)? What is the dark triangle that people want to escape. Why were children separated from parents and how many have been returned? What is the ratio of true asylum seeker with drug smugglers? What is the ratio of seasonal workers with others. Seasonal workers are essential workers. How long does it take for a country to reasonably come back economically from a world wide pandemic? Why weren’t factual lists of Trump’s immoral government acts listed and posted? How many promises did he make and not keep? Enough with his swaying, clown car behavior. Who and what actually is causing food and housing to rise? Who should we boycott? There’s no excuse to be so uneducated in these times. Keep explaining you old goat.
Trump won because he is a crook, and friends with the Mafia and Russian spies and enablers including Putin, and because our senate and justice system did not hold him accountable! We are doomed!
Yes this was a terrible rout. But it is nothing compared to some episodes during political eras - murders, lynchings, beatings. We endured those and eventually won. We can beat these crooks.
You make an extremely important point, Bob....We've never seen it this bad at the very top (though Nixon was worse than we remember) but there was no democracy in the South from the end of Reconstruction to the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the level of violence directed at black people was astonishing.
Jonathan, As usual, you nailed it. We have to get back up on the horse. I, for one, was really amazed at all the transgender talk -- what other tiny group of people gets so much noise? If we talked about transitioning as in moving from conventional to organic farming, we would be helping everyone. . .
This does not sound especially hopeful. At best, it supplies material to journalists writing books about how terrible things got to be. But it doesn't say much to the rest of us. Here's to posterity, because the present looks screwed for many years.
It was a great read Johnathan but I've never been so frighten for our country than I am now .I've lived through so much over my 67 years and this is the worst I've ever encountered I hope by God we can come out of this lunacy unscathed.
At the heart of it all is the Democrats’ unwavering devotion to their corporate overlords. While they give lip service to progressive ideals, they’re busy assuring Wall Street that nothing meaningful will change. It’s no wonder they hemorrhage working-class support—they’ve traded the trust of ordinary people for the champagne toasts of their donor class. For a brief, shining moment, the Democrats flirted with populism. They floated ideas like affordable housing and cracking down on price gouging—things that ordinary people actually care about. And guess what? People responded! But then, faster than you can say "corporate lobbyist," they dropped populism like a bad Tinder date and went back to rubbing shoulders with CEOs. After all, who needs working-class voters when you’ve got Mark Cuban assuring the billionaires that Democrats are “business-friendly”? Spoiler: voters noticed the betrayal.
You’re making a lot of assumptions, but you go right ahead and get it off your chest. In my opinion, Harris
ran an almost flawless campaign. And honestly, I
don’t think she lost because of anything she did or didn’t do. We are where we are because of systematic brainwashing by Fox, the corrupt use of words & phrases to distort reality, boatloads of disinformation, a corrupt republican partnership with corporations over time to rig the economy against the middle class and media abandonment of their traditional role in America.
I also thought Harris ran an excellent campaign, though not flawless. And I agree with the brainwashing explanation, but my larger point is there was nothing monocausal about this result...
I agree there wasn’t anything monocausal about why Dems lost, but I do think literally everyone is ignoring
the elephant in the room. You can call it lies or disinformation, although the latter appellation seems
too clinical, but there’s no question that it literally drowned out all messaging from democrats who-lets face it-have been abysmal at it for years.
Fox news has been allowed to pervert reality for 3 decades. Since mainstream media has abandoned
their role as truth-tellers and educators about how our government works, and failed to reinforce
cultural norms, it was a free for all for the likes of Alex Jones, the late Rush Limbaugh and Fox news
among others, to indoctrinate millions of voters.
Mainstream media pretty much ignored President
Biden for 4 years. He got no credit for essentially
ending the pandemic—for keeping households afloat
by giving cash to every household in America, creating a moratorium on rent & mortgage payments,
by giving families with children tax credits in the form of cash every month, he got no credit for bringing
inflation under control or for creating the best
post-pandemic economy in the world. He got no credit for bringing gas prices down by flooding the market with oil in our strategic reserve, then replenishing the reserve with oil at the much lower price he created.
All people heard about was the cost of eggs and how inflation was ruining their lives AFTER Biden got it under control. Inflation shouldn’t have been an issue in the run up to the election, but it was because disinfo drowned out reality and mainstream media was MIA. Yes, supply chain issues caused shortages, grocery stores kept price gouging customers, the price of eggs was way too high because of bird flu
and things weren’t perfect. But since when has life
in America had to be perfect? Answer—since disinfo has been allowed to flourish.
What we’re engaged in is a culture war. It’s been
going on for so long without any meaningful pushback that most who listen to these shameless
liars don’t know what truth is and don’t really care.
Republicans have created an alternate universe
that feeds people what they want to hear. Namely,
that their failures in life are not their fault, but the
fault of democrats. As simplistic as that is, it has
appeal. It’s grievance politics. It’s also dangerous politics.
I don’t know how any democrat can expect to win
votes when Fox news is allowed to carry on as if
they’re like any other news/entertainment network
with scruples. They have zero scruples. Right now
republicans are winning the culture war by tapping into what people want to hear rather than reality.
The two biggest blunders of the Biden admin. are
failing to prosecute Trump successfully and helping
Netanyahu for far longer than he should have. But
he’s not solely responsible for AG Garland’s dereliction. Garland certainly could have done things differently but he didn’t and we’ll probably never know why, but there were plenty of other people
who could’ve and should’ve made a bigger issue
of it to both Garland and Biden because it was the most important thing on both of their plates after the pandemic was under control.
I’m afraid of what lies ahead for America. I suspect things will have to get really bad before the maga indoctrinated souls will choose to opt in to reality
and feel shame for what they’ve allowed us to
become. But I will not hold my breath while waiting for them to achieve enlightenment.
It drives me crazy when journalists say things about politicians and political campaigns like “not flawless/pefect”. That implies there is such a thing as a flawless, perfect campaign or politician. It’s as ridiculous as saying they didn’t leap tall buildings in a single bound.
No doubt the Murdoch propaganda machine has done a lot of damage. But, let’s start embracing a populist message that actually works. Perhaps for once, the Democratic Party can speak strongly, passionately—even angrily—to the grievances of the general public, who are the vast majority of voters.
We need to address how we truly need to fix the economy, make home ownership possible again, lower rents, and stop investors from buying up all the properties. These investors artificially inflate property prices across the country, making it impossible for regular people to afford a home.
We have to stop acting as if our campaign can always just be “We’re not that guy.” It turns out “We won’t go back” is not a very inspiring slogan. It’s about what we won’t do instead of what we will do.
Think about it: “We won’t go back” versus “Make America Great Again.” One is an action plan to do something—even if it’s vague—the other is simply about something we won’t do.
Let’s focus on what we will do. Let’s offer real solutions that people can believe in.
Why is nobody mentioning the relentless fundraising by Harris Walz? A big turnoff to on the fence Democrats, and impossible to opt out of them. They should have put that pull on vote seeking instead of dollar seeking.
Not really a big problem for me. I made my donations and then unsubscribed. When I made another donation, I'd get more emails and unsubscribe again. A bigger problem, as others have said, was how the money was used. Trumpy just pulled a virtual Willie Horton with his "Free Transgender Surgery for Inmates" ad. It's a difficult thing when you have adversaries who are completely unscrupulous.
Good point. I used to think the annoyance factor wasn't important. But depressed turnout on the D side that may have resulted from that annoyance should be examined further
There has never been such a pushy campaign and it was a turn off to many. Couldn’t they have made more impact with $1B instead of needing $1.4B? And then saying they needed more because they overspent?!
Was that $1.4 well spent? The MAGAs spent less, and used their own InfoSphere... I suspect that a lot of the $1.4B went into the Old-School MSM which is declining... The Fractional Voters that turned the Tide are Denizens of the Right-Wing InfoSphere such as 'X', and the 'bro-Media....
Did anyone not vote for Harris that got fundraising emails, though? Everyone found them annoying, a lot of people declined to donate I’m sure, but I have a hard time believing anyone on those lists voted Trump, or even skipped voting.
Yeah, I think you're right, Susan....It was more the young voters who stayed home. But the 13 or 14 million Democrats who voted for the couch determined the election...
• An Open Letter to Trump Voters •
The True Cost of Your Ignorance and Idolatry
https://open.substack.com/pub/patricemersault/p/an-open-letter-to-trump-voters?r=4d7sow&utm_medium=ios
Beautifully crafted. A tonic for for the moment.
I read your new book and found it compelling, informative and a very rich read. The border and the economy were two big sources of dispute and and an easy to understand, cogent explanation of both would serve this country well. What exactly happens there ( in depth)? What is the dark triangle that people want to escape. Why were children separated from parents and how many have been returned? What is the ratio of true asylum seeker with drug smugglers? What is the ratio of seasonal workers with others. Seasonal workers are essential workers. How long does it take for a country to reasonably come back economically from a world wide pandemic? Why weren’t factual lists of Trump’s immoral government acts listed and posted? How many promises did he make and not keep? Enough with his swaying, clown car behavior. Who and what actually is causing food and housing to rise? Who should we boycott? There’s no excuse to be so uneducated in these times. Keep explaining you old goat.
Thanks, Val! I'm especially glad you took the time to buy and read my book....
Trump won because he is a crook, and friends with the Mafia and Russian spies and enablers including Putin, and because our senate and justice system did not hold him accountable! We are doomed!
Yes this was a terrible rout. But it is nothing compared to some episodes during political eras - murders, lynchings, beatings. We endured those and eventually won. We can beat these crooks.
You make an extremely important point, Bob....We've never seen it this bad at the very top (though Nixon was worse than we remember) but there was no democracy in the South from the end of Reconstruction to the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the level of violence directed at black people was astonishing.
Jonathan, As usual, you nailed it. We have to get back up on the horse. I, for one, was really amazed at all the transgender talk -- what other tiny group of people gets so much noise? If we talked about transitioning as in moving from conventional to organic farming, we would be helping everyone. . .
Stop comparing college educated votes v non college educated. That separates us more.
It's important to be honest about the new falt lines in politics so we can address them....
This does not sound especially hopeful. At best, it supplies material to journalists writing books about how terrible things got to be. But it doesn't say much to the rest of us. Here's to posterity, because the present looks screwed for many years.
Oh boy, Jonathan! You’ve captured the essence of how Trump won! I just hope Americans rebound adequately! This can’t happen to us! We can’t let it!
It was a great read Johnathan but I've never been so frighten for our country than I am now .I've lived through so much over my 67 years and this is the worst I've ever encountered I hope by God we can come out of this lunacy unscathed.
I'm 67, too....We just have to hang on tight and hope things are better when we're in our seventies....
At the heart of it all is the Democrats’ unwavering devotion to their corporate overlords. While they give lip service to progressive ideals, they’re busy assuring Wall Street that nothing meaningful will change. It’s no wonder they hemorrhage working-class support—they’ve traded the trust of ordinary people for the champagne toasts of their donor class. For a brief, shining moment, the Democrats flirted with populism. They floated ideas like affordable housing and cracking down on price gouging—things that ordinary people actually care about. And guess what? People responded! But then, faster than you can say "corporate lobbyist," they dropped populism like a bad Tinder date and went back to rubbing shoulders with CEOs. After all, who needs working-class voters when you’ve got Mark Cuban assuring the billionaires that Democrats are “business-friendly”? Spoiler: voters noticed the betrayal.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-151623277
THIS!!!!☝️☝️☝️☝️
You’re making a lot of assumptions, but you go right ahead and get it off your chest. In my opinion, Harris
ran an almost flawless campaign. And honestly, I
don’t think she lost because of anything she did or didn’t do. We are where we are because of systematic brainwashing by Fox, the corrupt use of words & phrases to distort reality, boatloads of disinformation, a corrupt republican partnership with corporations over time to rig the economy against the middle class and media abandonment of their traditional role in America.
I also thought Harris ran an excellent campaign, though not flawless. And I agree with the brainwashing explanation, but my larger point is there was nothing monocausal about this result...
I agree there wasn’t anything monocausal about why Dems lost, but I do think literally everyone is ignoring
the elephant in the room. You can call it lies or disinformation, although the latter appellation seems
too clinical, but there’s no question that it literally drowned out all messaging from democrats who-lets face it-have been abysmal at it for years.
Fox news has been allowed to pervert reality for 3 decades. Since mainstream media has abandoned
their role as truth-tellers and educators about how our government works, and failed to reinforce
cultural norms, it was a free for all for the likes of Alex Jones, the late Rush Limbaugh and Fox news
among others, to indoctrinate millions of voters.
Mainstream media pretty much ignored President
Biden for 4 years. He got no credit for essentially
ending the pandemic—for keeping households afloat
by giving cash to every household in America, creating a moratorium on rent & mortgage payments,
by giving families with children tax credits in the form of cash every month, he got no credit for bringing
inflation under control or for creating the best
post-pandemic economy in the world. He got no credit for bringing gas prices down by flooding the market with oil in our strategic reserve, then replenishing the reserve with oil at the much lower price he created.
All people heard about was the cost of eggs and how inflation was ruining their lives AFTER Biden got it under control. Inflation shouldn’t have been an issue in the run up to the election, but it was because disinfo drowned out reality and mainstream media was MIA. Yes, supply chain issues caused shortages, grocery stores kept price gouging customers, the price of eggs was way too high because of bird flu
and things weren’t perfect. But since when has life
in America had to be perfect? Answer—since disinfo has been allowed to flourish.
What we’re engaged in is a culture war. It’s been
going on for so long without any meaningful pushback that most who listen to these shameless
liars don’t know what truth is and don’t really care.
Republicans have created an alternate universe
that feeds people what they want to hear. Namely,
that their failures in life are not their fault, but the
fault of democrats. As simplistic as that is, it has
appeal. It’s grievance politics. It’s also dangerous politics.
I don’t know how any democrat can expect to win
votes when Fox news is allowed to carry on as if
they’re like any other news/entertainment network
with scruples. They have zero scruples. Right now
republicans are winning the culture war by tapping into what people want to hear rather than reality.
The two biggest blunders of the Biden admin. are
failing to prosecute Trump successfully and helping
Netanyahu for far longer than he should have. But
he’s not solely responsible for AG Garland’s dereliction. Garland certainly could have done things differently but he didn’t and we’ll probably never know why, but there were plenty of other people
who could’ve and should’ve made a bigger issue
of it to both Garland and Biden because it was the most important thing on both of their plates after the pandemic was under control.
I’m afraid of what lies ahead for America. I suspect things will have to get really bad before the maga indoctrinated souls will choose to opt in to reality
and feel shame for what they’ve allowed us to
become. But I will not hold my breath while waiting for them to achieve enlightenment.
It drives me crazy when journalists say things about politicians and political campaigns like “not flawless/pefect”. That implies there is such a thing as a flawless, perfect campaign or politician. It’s as ridiculous as saying they didn’t leap tall buildings in a single bound.
No doubt the Murdoch propaganda machine has done a lot of damage. But, let’s start embracing a populist message that actually works. Perhaps for once, the Democratic Party can speak strongly, passionately—even angrily—to the grievances of the general public, who are the vast majority of voters.
We need to address how we truly need to fix the economy, make home ownership possible again, lower rents, and stop investors from buying up all the properties. These investors artificially inflate property prices across the country, making it impossible for regular people to afford a home.
We have to stop acting as if our campaign can always just be “We’re not that guy.” It turns out “We won’t go back” is not a very inspiring slogan. It’s about what we won’t do instead of what we will do.
Think about it: “We won’t go back” versus “Make America Great Again.” One is an action plan to do something—even if it’s vague—the other is simply about something we won’t do.
Let’s focus on what we will do. Let’s offer real solutions that people can believe in.
To be fair, Harris also did a lot of looking to the future....
Why is nobody mentioning the relentless fundraising by Harris Walz? A big turnoff to on the fence Democrats, and impossible to opt out of them. They should have put that pull on vote seeking instead of dollar seeking.
Not really a big problem for me. I made my donations and then unsubscribed. When I made another donation, I'd get more emails and unsubscribe again. A bigger problem, as others have said, was how the money was used. Trumpy just pulled a virtual Willie Horton with his "Free Transgender Surgery for Inmates" ad. It's a difficult thing when you have adversaries who are completely unscrupulous.
Good point. I used to think the annoyance factor wasn't important. But depressed turnout on the D side that may have resulted from that annoyance should be examined further
They couldn't do anything without grassroots funding. Yes, it's annoying, but it was necessary.
There has never been such a pushy campaign and it was a turn off to many. Couldn’t they have made more impact with $1B instead of needing $1.4B? And then saying they needed more because they overspent?!
Was that $1.4 well spent? The MAGAs spent less, and used their own InfoSphere... I suspect that a lot of the $1.4B went into the Old-School MSM which is declining... The Fractional Voters that turned the Tide are Denizens of the Right-Wing InfoSphere such as 'X', and the 'bro-Media....
Next chance we have. . .if we have one, is to MAKE
PRIVATE CAMPAIGN DONATIONS ILLEGAL. Tax trades on the stock market at 0.05% to pay for campaigning. Campaign donations are the vehicle
used to corrupt our senators & reps.
Did anyone not vote for Harris that got fundraising emails, though? Everyone found them annoying, a lot of people declined to donate I’m sure, but I have a hard time believing anyone on those lists voted Trump, or even skipped voting.
Yeah, I think you're right, Susan....It was more the young voters who stayed home. But the 13 or 14 million Democrats who voted for the couch determined the election...