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Feb 22
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Harry Barker's avatar

Blank person hmm. Not exactly neighboring keys in the qwerty...

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Feb 21
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Winston Smith London Oceania's avatar

Considering that MuskRat is literally a direct product of Apartheid, this is no surprise. He's simply using the playbook he grew up with in South Afrika (sic) from whence he originates.

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Feb 22
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Winston Smith London Oceania's avatar

Yeah, I believe Thiel too morphed out the same cesspool.

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Pandora’s Box's avatar

Read Timothy Snyder. We are up against some powerful forces.

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Feb 19
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Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's avatar

How exciting! Best of luck in Austin. Let me know how it goes, hermana.

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Alisa Caswell's avatar

You hit the nail on the head about modern politicians, outrage farming, coddling donors, and no real action to help citizens. I'm 🇨🇦, and we have the same thing simmering here, just at a slightly lower temperature.

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Winston Smith London Oceania's avatar

That last sentence really spooked me. We here in the US are counting on our upstairs neighbors maintaining sanity while we work through our misleadership issues.

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Aocm🇨🇦's avatar

Send your good democratic vibes up our way, please! 🇨🇦

Ontario is poised to re-elect the same Conservative govt that has priced homes and rents out of reach, tried to sell public lands out from under us, stretched ER wait times literally into days, and family Dr wait times to 5 years (our own personal experience)

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Winston Smith London Oceania's avatar

Yikes! It looks like we're all in trouble, both all of North America and the whole rest of the world. Who knew insanity was communicable?

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Pandora’s Box's avatar

Things are crumbling all around us but I do believe - and not in a Pollyanna way - that blinders are being taken off as well and people are seeing how truly predatory and dehumanizing our way of life has become.

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Winston Smith London Oceania's avatar

I think you're right. Great handle BTW. Perfectly fits the times we're living in.

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Alisa Caswell's avatar

That hockey win helped, not gonna lie! In any case, all of us logical neighbours need to work together.

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Mark Franks's avatar

Wow! What a great article, Alisa! I live in Arkansas (originally from NM) and recently spent time in AZ with my dad before he died. I have been so turned off by Abbott and his cronies that I just cringed when I had to drive through the Texas panhandle to get to Tucson and back (I had the same 'yuck' feeling driving through Oklahoma). But your excellent piece about Texas is very encouraging, and gave me some hope for TX, OK, NM, AZ, and even my deep red AR home. I've been to San Antonio once for a friend's wedding and loved it; I wish the very best for you, and I know you will flourish there. Thank you again for the wonderful article, and I so look forward to what your new home will bring out in your writing.

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Steve Schwab's avatar

Do the people of Texas have a super secret special way to break the strong hold of the billionaire ruling class? Or is the hope based on tribal pride?

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Susannah Eanes's avatar

This. My money is on North Carolina, frankly

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MatriAnarchy's avatar

Texas will start the revolution just as soon as the billionaires do.

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Randy ballard's avatar

Their super secret is to complain and comply.

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Kris's avatar

You have to have a populist LEADER - who is it ?

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Winston Smith London Oceania's avatar

History shows said leader won't be from the proletariat.

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Kris's avatar

My point is this is just a lotta chatter about TX- when you can’t unseat Cruz , etc.

They’re hemorrhaging liberals - I know, I live in CO.

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Jamie Ward's avatar

It's not going to come down to "liberals", which is the point the writer is making. It's going to come down to people seeing through the fog of liberal vs conservative, left vs right, and acknowledge that it's bottom vs top.

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Ly Lough's avatar

Everyone

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Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's avatar

We will soon find out.

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Ruth's avatar

I was about to really love this article until I reached your anti-Semitic dog whistle “Democrats sold out to… AIPAC”.

I’m letting you know just in case you didn’t intend to repeat a couple of the oldest and most stubborn anti-Semitic tropes around.

I’m not going to check back for a reply, because it’s possible you actually did intend the anti-Semitic dog whistle.

If you’d like to learn about anti-semitism (often called the world’s oldest conspiracy theory), there’s a great Substack devoted to the subject. It’s written by a progressive, non-Jewish Canadian. @pat Johnson

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Feb 22
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Ruth's avatar

Thank you.

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Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's avatar

I’m Jewish. My critique concerns AIPAC’s policies and not Judaism or Jewish people. If you want to discuss the specifics of those policies, I’m open to it. Otherwise, please don’t equate legitimate policy critique with antisemitism. Also, Palestinians are Semitic. By your logic, AIPAC itself is therefore antisemitic.

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Michele Pfannenstiel DVM's avatar

Came to the comments to say the same thing.

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Ruth's avatar

Thank you for saying so. It makes me feel a little better to know that you and others also see this bigotry in the so-called progressive movement and are willing to call it out.

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Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's avatar

I’m Jewish. My critique concerns AIPAC’s policies and not Judaism or Jewish people. If you want to discuss the specifics of those policies, I’m open to it. Otherwise, please don’t equate legitimate policy critique with antisemitism. Also, Palestinians are Semitic. By your logic, AIPAC itself is therefore antisemitic.

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Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's avatar

I’m Jewish. My critique concerns AIPAC’s policies and not Judaism or Jewish people. If you want to discuss the specifics of those policies, I’m open to it. Otherwise, please don’t equate legitimate policy critique with antisemitism. Also, Palestinians are Semitic. By your logic, AIPAC itself is therefore antisemitic.

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Winston Smith London Oceania's avatar

Oh wow, I didn't even catch that. Thank you for pointing that out.

So much for "A real populist uprising—one that unites the working class across racial, gender, and political lines—can only come from a place where people still have to live, work, and coexist with different kinds of people every day."

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Ruth's avatar

Thank you.

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Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's avatar

I’m Jewish. My critique concerns AIPAC’s policies and not Judaism or Jewish people. If you want to discuss the specifics of those policies, I’m open to it. Otherwise, please don’t equate legitimate policy critique with antisemitism. Also, Palestinians are Semitic. By your logic, AIPAC itself is therefore antisemitic.

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Winston Smith London Oceania's avatar

"The Democratic Party, once the party of labor, abandoned the working class decades ago. It sold its soul to Wall Street, Silicon Valley, AIPAC, and billionaires who donate just enough to maintain a facade of progressivism while ensuring that nothing fundamentally changes. "

I don't have an issue with critiquing specific policies, but that's not what you wrote here.

You're right that Palestinians are Semitic - as are all Arabs - however, the term is usually understood to mean specifically Anti-Jewish. A debate on the semantics is little more than a distraction. Incidentally, I didn't even use the word in my comment, but I can see you copied and pasted your reply verbatim multiple times.

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Leigh's avatar

Yes - it is strange to choose AIPAC from one of a zillion PACs to make a point about buying politicians.

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Susan's avatar

Perhaps the criticism comes from the same place your criticism comes from. Inevitably, taking a stand leads to judgement.

I eagerly read your article, I'm from Texas, and I was hoping to hear you delineate how Texas was turning. How you saw the tide change. But instead you focused on how it COULD change and your own anger with certain policies and politics. I'm not saying you being angry is not okay...GOD KNOWS I AM and unfortunately for GOD he has a front row seat to my VERY DARK thoughts about this current administration, Republicans, and Democrats...I'm just saying ...it's a waste of your time and my time to rant. I truly believe in the adage....Come to me with your solutions, not your complaints. And if your note had been, how Texas was turning...it may have given me additional ideas of how to enter the growing resistance.

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GoMaria's avatar

Then you didn't didn't get very far. AIPAC is part of all PACs that should no longer be allowed to buy politicians. Like Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and billionaires.

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Feb 22Edited
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GoMaria's avatar

They are one of the biggest players. Look it up. Facts are facts

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Feb 22
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GoMaria's avatar

If you look at who they donated to individually, it's democrats

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Ruth's avatar

And your point is what? That American Jews do not have the right to join forces to lobby Congress and to support candidates challenging incumbents who’d happily see us wiped off the planet?

Free speech for all Americans except Jews?

I’m a lifelong Dem as are about 80% of the Jews who comprise about 2% of America. I will never be a Republican, but I’ll happily push the anti-semites out of my party. Other Jews may get fed up and leave the party. Good luck with that electoral math.

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Ruth's avatar

You chose to single out an interest group who represents Jewish interests and American-Israeli relations. Not the oil and gas lobby, not the insurance lobby, not the pharma lobby. Just American Jews.

It’s telling. I’d hoped against hope that you did it out of ignorance rather than bigotry.

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GoMaria's avatar

This past election, AIPAC had a larger influence than in the past. Take the up with the politicians, not me

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Ruth's avatar

And? American Jews are not allowed to succeed in trying to democratically remove Jew haters from Congress?

Good luck with your so-called progressive movement in Texas. While I desperately hope you’ll rid yourselves of some of the most corrosive, bigoted elected officials in the country, I also hope you don’t replace them with a different kind of bigot.

Many people consider Jews the canary in the coal mine for the health of a democracy, meaning that when anti-semitism is on the rise, your democracy is off-kilter. That’s true in Texas, too.

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Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's avatar

I’m Jewish. My critique concerns AIPAC’s policies and not Judaism or Jewish people. If you want to discuss the specifics of those policies, I’m open to it. Otherwise, please don’t equate legitimate policy critique with antisemitism. Also, Palestinians are Semitic. By your logic, AIPAC itself is therefore antisemitic.

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Ruth's avatar

I’d love an end to PACs, too. All of them. Let’s return our democracy to the people, who will hopefully never F around with it again.

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Laurie Flamino's avatar

Your last paragraph describes exactly what I believe America needs to recover from the whiplash of the past 4 decades.

This article makes the case for all of us to work together to get to a better place. As you pointed out we should not single each other out. We need to embrace our differences to stand strong enough to overcome the threat of being owned. That is what the current plan for us regular working folks is.

I think this article was fairly spot on in describing where successful resistance will come from until the finger pointing.

I think at this stage we should let that go and recognize that the real enemy is not each other, it weakens us and opens the door for us to be pushed around.

The saying “United we stand, divided we fall rings very true these days. We can easily be played if we are divided.

In so far as pacs go- I’m against them and we should do what we can to get citizens united overturned. It fosters corruption.

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Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's avatar

I’m Jewish. My critique concerns AIPAC’s policies and not Judaism or Jewish people. If you want to discuss the specifics of those policies, I’m open to it. Otherwise, please don’t equate legitimate policy critique with antisemitism. Also, Palestinians are Semitic. By your logic, AIPAC itself is therefore antisemitic.

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Ruth's avatar

Actually, the term anti-semitism was created specifically to describe Jew hate. Call it a term of art, if you’d like, but that’s what it means.

AIPAC doesn’t make policy. They lobby for it and support candidates who support their mission.

I’ll call out anti-semitism where I see it, especially when I see it in my own political party. Always.

The inclusion of AIPAC in the author’s essay was a clear dog whistle.

Have a nice day.

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Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's avatar

Ruth is an idiot. That is what I conclude from this.

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Ruth's avatar

Coming from you, I’ll wear it as a badge of pride. Personal insults are what people resort to when they lack the logic or facts to support their vibes-based positions.

Best of luck, dear. Glad you’re not a lawyer!

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Alexandria Martinez's avatar

Facts

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Richard L.'s avatar

I prefer the term “anti Zionist” as it describes the overwhelming majority of critics of Israeli policies. AIPAC is a special interest organization answerable only to the colonial regime in Israel.

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EuphmanKB's avatar

Great article, but I think you may be missing a key element.

The everyday Americans who are, in fact, “The People” contemplated in the Constitution, have not yet felt the impacts of the Trump, Musk and DOGE actions, and the Project 2025 policy impositions by Executive Orders, not laws, that are occurring right now.

Everyday Texans (of course included in The People) have been living with and chafing under Abbott and GOP generated service, healthcare and education cuts, and religious impositions, and corporate greed, for nearly 30 years. Texans have not yet experienced the Federal cuts and impositions, but will.

The People will soon feel and experience the results of the systematic destruction of America’s governance capability through firing hundreds of thousands of “probationary status” employees and illegally eliminating much of the governmental units and fundings that actively protect Americans from neglectful and intentional economic and financial harm, disease and global political influence.

It will work like a tsunami where the impacts appear to be slow at first but continue to build in destructive force until it rolls over everyone and everything.

The People will initially feel and experience small delays and annoyances like slow tax return and passport/visa processing, limited help on medical issues under ACA, Medicare and Medicaid, limited reliable weather reports for hurricanes, tornadoes, rain deluge, floods or droughts, significant cuts in school, hospital and disaster aid fundings, and much more.

Those will be followed by dramatic decreases in governmental services, and dramatic increases in living costs, disease and deaths as the direct longer term consequences of the current Federal cuts.

Federal funding cuts to the states will cause further havoc as discussions to adjust state and local budgets and increases in taxes begin to occur.

Things will become much worse as: airplane flights or train travel is interrupted or unavailable and more planes and trains crash because the FAA and NTSB were gutted; health advisories are no longer provided because CDC, FDA, NIH, Dept of Agriculture were gutted, including elimination of the disease detectives tracking and developing strategies to combat deadly virus or bacterial infection and pandemics, and medical research to fight cancer, diabetes, emphysema and a myriad of other life threatening diseases were eliminated; unscrupulous banks and predatory corporations begin charging exorbitant fees because CFPB was shuttered, illegally; government expenditures skyrocket because virtually all oversight functions (auditors, Inspectors General, systems managers and gatekeepers) were fired or forced out; America’s nuclear secrets and weapons systems are compromised and sold to its enemies; and the list goes on.

The chickens will come home to roost and The People will notice.

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Alexandria Martinez's avatar

First of criticizing AIPAC doesnt make you a Jew Hater, it makes you Anti-Zionist. Secondly antisemitism describes hatred of all semitic ppls which include Arabs, Palestinians and a whole host of other Middle Eastern people. Good thing you aren’t a lawyer dear, just uninformed and insufferable.

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serghiy's avatar

…there’s too many aspects and conditions at play, i absolutely hundred percent agree with you on characteristics of both parties, two party system is only one step to autocracy - fact and assessment of the role of our government that has nothing to do with “governing” in our oligarchy before we became a dictatorship this year, “trump” didn’t happen overnight, for decades the trick was to convince liberals they still live in democracy, while led them to the point of no return by pulling the rug under their feet, but most importantly they still don’t get it, so many still can’t not believe that everything they heard and saw, if they paid attention, should left no doubt who trump is and he made perfectly clear his intention about being a dictator, consumerism, political ignorance and lack of proper education, by design, made this country a politically impaired nation and people absolutely clueless what happened and HOW, democrats running around in their underpants trying to find a scapegoat on the other side, or certain point in history “from where it went wrong”, in order to start to fight, you need to know what are you fighting, regime is a brand new concept for americans and they have no clue what’s coming not to mention what to do about it, so at the moment we are FUCKED, how much and for how long i have no clue, but it will get really horrible and americans literally have to shit their pants in order to be serious about fighting the regime, it’s not a walk in a park “protesting” with no objective or demand, we need to learn art of political protest and be ready literally to die for it, i never been to Texas, i will take your word for it, but will see how it’ll play out

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S.M's avatar

Raised in Texas and would love for this to be true but my hometown is more and more and more in love with Trump as time goes by

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Steve's avatar

It would greatly help your cause if a lot of veterans were to help you. But that assumes that they have forgotten how little their government and society in general cares about them. Which I have not. I’m not referring to my situation. I’m talking about the other guys, from every war beginning with Korea to the present.

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Michele Pfannenstiel DVM's avatar

I get it, you are angry.

But the billionaire oligarchs and the Dem consultant class are fundamentally different people.

You argument that the two party system is the same two parties is boring, trite and pointless

Your argument that the Dems left the working class behind is classist. You know who also works for a living? Me. In MetroWest Boston. I have a job and run a business. Yeah...I am one of those coastal elites y'all progressives love to spit on as the cause of all your problems with the Dems. I have kids on IEPs and a husband looking for a job.

I find that when people say that the Dems left the working class behind it is coded for the Dems accepting being Jewish, that kids want to play sports and don't care what is in another 8 year olds pants, pee in peace at school and be who the universe is calling them to be. It means that we are not coddling conservative working class men.

No the Dems are not perfect. But we aren't oligarchs destroying Democracy.

And Jasmin Crockett is gonna lead the TX revolution. A Democrat.

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Susannah Eanes's avatar

Thank you. Your comment is spot on.

The Dems are flawed, God knows. But they aren't fascists.

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Ly Lough's avatar

Take your allies where you find them. Don’t throw “them” away because of where “they” live.

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Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's avatar

As long as everything is all about you I guess we will all be fine.

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Slide Guitar's avatar

White working-class voters began moving rightward in the '70s, well before the Democrats went all in rich cultural liberals, partly out of resentment over deindustrialization. This is not even a controversial assertion. See the book The Hard Hat Riots for one example. In my hometown of Detroit, the response to the influx of Japanese cars was deflected almost entirely in the direction of anti-Asian racism.

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Jim Burgess's avatar

I can't say I think this post is correct. I hope so, and I agree with premise, but I thought there was not much about how it will happen in Texas.

In any case I like it better than your comment. I doubt she is attacking you personally as a Democrat. You are unlikely to be a powerful figure in Democratic politics. And I too am a MA liberal.

But no fair and honest reading of American history could say the Democrats are still the party of working people.

Yes when FDR was president they were. But since the 70s neoliberal economics has dominated Democratic leadership. The party has become the party of college educated technocrats who try to mitigate workers suffering to some extent (more than Rs) but don't support policies that would change the plight of working class Americans.

The deindustrialization of America was a choice and it was largely led by Democratic presidents.

This isn't even some controversial position. It's mostly basic history.

Are the parties identical? No. Have they broadly supported similar economic programs over the past 40 plus years? For sure. And here we are.

This isn't some

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Michele Pfannenstiel DVM's avatar

100% they have broadly supported the same thing

But that is because there is a lot that works

Our poor are less poor

Our elderly are less poor

Our kids are less hungry

And I am not here to argue that we live in a society where success is for the successful. Where the highest and best use of capital is to return value to shareholders. Those thoughts have resulted in a net transfer of wealth upwards

We need to figure it out. But it ain't gonna happen by pitting different classes of people against each other.

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Jim Burgess's avatar

Yeah we just disagree. But the idea that both parties have been doing things that work for people is laughable to me. If it's working so well why are people voting for a figure like Trump?

Also class consciousness is the ONLY way we'll get change. The lack of it is why people are fighting over trans sports, etc: there is nothing to discuss if there are no class distinctions except social differences.

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Nancy Sinclair's avatar

I am also in Massachusetts and one thing that frustrates me to no end is the Republican vs Democrat fight. I understand our main goal for now has to be to vote Democrats into power. Our long-term goal should be to move away from a two party system.

60% of registered voters in Massachusetts are not members of any party. The majority of our registered voters have been unenrolled for a long time.

We vote for Democrats because they represent more of what we want, not because we are Democrats ourselves.

Our fundamental values are different from other parts of the country. We are much more inclined to give our money to make sure people have healthcare and other basic rights.

Until the residents of places like Texas change their mindset to respect and affirm the dignity of all people and stop being so individualistic, I don’t believe they’re going to change for one second.

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Randy ballard's avatar

Great reply, thanks saved me time. The both sides argument is really weak. One side seeks to build the other to destroy.

When Democrats are President they never have a Democratic congress, so their agenda never gets fully implemented.

Now republicans have complete control of all branches of government and all they are happily joining in the destruction of the USA.

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Rain Robinson's avatar

Great reply. There is no need to demonize "coastal elites" and "blue cities" and Democrats because they are not "pure" enough. The author's point about change happening in Texas rather than the East and West coasts may be a valid one, but objecting to CA and NY, for instance, as being too "elitist" to effect change is nonsense. There are millions of people in those states who are not "elite", and are fighting for change at local levels and in coalitions like the one the author describes. For someone who talks truly about how the right-wing and Republicans divide us, and then use divisive geographic language to divide us, is disingenuous.

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Sharon owens's avatar

Was

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Sharon owens's avatar

E

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Winston Smith London Oceania's avatar

This is something I'd love to see.

"Most importantly, Texans must begin the hard work of deprogramming themselves from the 24/7 outrage cycle designed to keep them angry at each other, rather than at the ruling class."

This is true, but it's asking a lot for someone who is a "believer" to first recognize they've been hoodwinked, and then turn about face towards reality as it really is. How is such an individual to be reached? Answer this question and the seed will be planted.

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Cynthia Phillips's avatar

Native Texan and committed life-long Texas Democrat. I'll give you my perspective. Who knows what the key is to arousing the populace? I believe that you should approach voters in a very pragmatic way. Most everyday people do not build thought castles to solve problems.

They rely on two things. First, they find someone they trust and rely unquestioningly on their opinion.This is how they cope with the fact they don't have the bandwidth nor mental habits necessary to delve into or comprehend the details. Second, they rely on their five senses within the very strict confines of their lived experiences. For example, if their household budget suffers when their paycheck won't meet expenses, they presume that the federal deficit works the same way.

This is neither uncommon nor irrational. Nor is it cult-like. These are the standard short-cuts voters have always taken so they can focus on their everyday lives.These shortcuts work when all participants in the electoral process act in good faith to not exploit voters' lack of understanding of the issues/stakes, when there is minimal procedural gamesmanship so that electoral outcomes reflect the will of the majority and when there is a viable choice between policies. As the article points out, none of these things exist in Texas right now. To demand that everyday people sort through propaganda, work hard to seek out and find non-biased information from the 'news', and then somehow vote for someone who is not on the ballot is not exactly fair.

So, to get voters in Texas to go Democrat, we need to be able to have a fair fight. It is a precondition that Democrats rebuild their practically non-existent political infrastructure, field good candidates with the credibility of being authentically part of the local community and work at it. There will be huge, huge sums of dark money from Republicans opposing this because they know if they lose Texas, they are toast.

Which brings up the next point. Republicans are no longer good faith participants in elections. They lie, they cheat and they steal. So, the goal is to get on the ground, draw them out of the shadows of the internet and make them own what they have done and are doing to people. You make your way into the everyday voter by first speaking their kitchen table issues. That piques their interest in a way abstractions like 'democracy' do not. You demonstrate through compare and contrast what their life is like under R's and what it could be like under D's.

But, you have to do another thing next. You have to destroy the credibility of those people and things they have relied upon as a proxy to do the thinking for them. This has to been done face to face because all that kooky conspiracy stuff just blows up in their face when they have to say it out loud. Only the most deluded, Marjorie Greene types won't see absurdities. You destroy the credibility of Fox News. You destroy the credibility of Republicans. And, it really isn't that hard. Teachers and trial lawyers making jury arguments do it every day. There's a reason Republicans go after public education and the judicial system.

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Winston Smith London Oceania's avatar

I think you're right, but destroying the credibility of Faux News to people who've been brainwashed to buy into it isn't so easy. After all, they're not watching anything else, except maybe Newsmax or Breitbart.

In order to capture their brains - what's left of them - we first need to capture their eyeballs. We've got our work cut out for us.

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Cynthia Phillips's avatar

You are absolutely right. All politicians will exploit to either a greater or lesser degree voters lack of information or clarity. Good, unbiased news can help a voter assess the credibility of two pandering politicians. The amount of misinformation being pumped into Americans' brains right now is really scary. We do have our work cut out for us. But, one way to tackle it is to not think of this as deprogramming or converting heathens, but as a numbers game. All we have to do is get voters to withhold their votes from Republicans on election day so that we get more votes than they do. And then, keep doing that.

The only thing I can think of to deal with this structural disadvantage right now is for Democrats to exploit the contradictions between what Fox tells voters and what their five senses tell them. Trump is making it easier with his crashing of the economy and threatening SS and Medicare/Medicaid. The goal is not to deprogram them so much as it is to get them to abandon Republicans right now so we can win.

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Winston Smith London Oceania's avatar

That's an intriguing idea. Republican voter suppression vs. voter attrition.

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Mike Stark's avatar

Nice sentiments. I can't say I disagree with the tone. But my conclusion is this will not happen in my lifetime. I'm 60 now and until my generation is gone the situation will only get worse. I;ve spent my life being a cup half full guy but damn its getting really hard to maintain. The demagoguery and manipulation have been industrialized and institutionalized. Not sure where we go from here. Just continue to fight back in whatever or however we can......

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