I don't agree all democratic voters thought the party knew what it was doing.. the DNC forced a forced choice.. then used fear, derision and contempt in their relentless fundraising, all while insisting they were running on "joy"..
I was deeply opposed to RFK's stance on Israel/Gaza though I came around to seeing the futility of a request for a cease fire, at least any time soon. Horrifying and heartbreaking but that's where we are at this point in history. I appreciated MW's call for a two-state solution and saw that she was ignored/shut out/etc. I realized that any attempt at a near-term solution wasn't in the cards because of the current administration's involvement there, with only a weak call for ending support by Kamala well after thousands (tens of thousands?) had already been killed. (Then Kamala said she wouldn't have done anything differently from what Biden and team (including herself) had done/ were doing?!) The reason to keep supporting Democrats was so the people on the front lines on all the other terrible burning issues could possibly have some room to fight another day. God help us all. 🙏
The person I blame the most for Biden staying in the race is Jill. I saw her prompting Joe before the Easter egg hunt on the lawn of the White House because he seemed oblivious. She knew he was losing his cognitive abilities, even if Biden didn't. What a tragedy. I have questions about why Biden kept Garland and about his embracing Bibi. What about his judgement in other areas?
I just can't put the blame on any one person, not even Joe. It was a wall of collusion and anyone who stepped out of the party line was threatened with losing any and all standing or credibility. MW wasn't even allowed to attend the convention because she had insisted on holding a primary.
It could be wishful thinking on my part but I think what GI Joe wanted to do was get re-elected fall sick and resign after two year let Kamala be President for two years and then do the LBJ thing and whoever runs the machine said no
The party leadership had been living in a bubble. In a country with rampant age discrimination for the general population, the Democrat leadership all embraced the notion that Joe was flat out entitled to a second term no matter his health or the grave risk this posed to the rest of us.
M - I deleted my inital comment bc I think I needed to be more thoughtful before addressing you personally in your own writing home. I can be imperfect, but to be imperfect and thoughtful is useful, and even wise on occasion. Much love.
I think the problem is much deeper than not holding a primary. During the 2020 primary, I remember the moderators not asking enough questions of you or Andrew Yang, and sadly the older democrats watching with me dismissed me when I remarked on some of the ideas you, Yang and Elizabeth Warren had. In 2024, I supported you but knew deep in my heart that our country is still not sophisticated enough to have a white woman president. If that sounds racist oh well, I am just speaking from my experience. When Hillary Clinton ran against Obama I was told that we (America) need a black president. Well, I said we never had a woman president and Hillary is smart and experienced, let's keep Obama in the Senate until the next go around. Now in this cycle, you ran again and had your platform almost immediately up on your website with lots of good ideas, and I would tell everyone to check you out, they didn't because they don't want to read or watch debates. Trump didn't win because the Democrats didn't have a primary, the guy won the nomination without going on the Republican debates, I believe that a large portion of our country needs to hit rock bottom (which this is hopefully) before we admit we have a problem and try to climb out of the hole. I just pray that the violence and additional suffering will be minimal. May the Goddesses, Gods and all the Higher Spirits protect all the innocents.
I agree with you 100% in regards to the intellectual disability of the US voting population particularly in regard to women. I voted for Jill Stein. I would never vote for Hillary Clinton because of her war mongering and Goldwater affiliations.
I have heard that reason about war mongering so they couldn't vote for a woman. In that case, I suppose all wars have ended because we didn't have a female president. Jill Stein is friends with Putin.
Why did you vote for her and ignore that being friends with a particular man, Vladimir Putin, rendered her untrustworthy to the safety of our country. Just as Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk and Donald Trump, no American that calls Putin a friend should be in charge of our nation's security. Hope this clarifies it for Robbie:)
You heard about war mongering O then you must have heard about Madeleine Albright : common Billy let's bomb the non-aligned country of Yugoslavia !! Come on Billy, Hillary likes the idea !! she told me (aside) she'll forgive you for Monica. Common Billy use those bombs, you know you want to. O look it's Victoria Nuland !!
All the wars ended ? Seriously ? So like, what class are you thumb typing from ... Home Ec ?
The USA D-r is all about assimilation. And it works !! look at all of the crazy shit you're typing.
I know this will not be received well, but my belief is that the best way to save democracy and our country is to resign wholesale from the Democratic Party. What we need to make that a viable practical action is to have the Squad, what's left of it, declare independent status and start to form a progressive Democrat party that will enable us to do what the Republican Lite Party will continue to suppress and sabotage. I voted like Marianne did and for the same reasons. That was my LAST vote for "a lesser evil." I agree with most of the letter Bernie Sanders recently published that explained why we Americans should be mad as hell at the Democratic Party. They gave us Trump by giving no plan beyond "Trump is terrible. Now, hit the donor button and support us." Marianne, not going to do that any more, and, in four years, if there is a country left with semblance to the one we grew up in, the current Democratic Party operatives will make sure we are right back here doing the same thing. We can no longer support these same operatives.
Bernie was part of it this time, though. He came to NH early in the primary and told all the progressives to vote for Biden. It was my campaign, not Biden's, that supported a Bernie-like agenda. He thought if Biden could hold the WH and the Dems could hold the Senate, then maybe they could get Build Back Better. Better they should have supported and trusted an actual democratic process, allowing the people to decide. That's what all this is about to me: MAKE IT FAIR AND LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE.
You know perfectly well that the DNC is there not to "MAKE IT FAIR AND LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE." They are there to protect the interests of their donors through perpetuating the status quo. That is literally their job. Which they do. With profound disregard for anything else. You, on the other hand, claim to be after fundamental change and disrupting the status quo. Which, basically, means the destruction of the system as it exists at the moment or the way in which it operates, at any rate. In other words, you have officially proclaimed yourself their mortal enemy. And yet, you expect them to treat you "fairly" and help you. Despite the fact that not only are your agendas diametrically opposed but you also have pretty much zero leverage of any kind. So they are supposed to essentially destroy themselves just for kicks. Just because you said so. How does it make sense? By the way, Bernie was very much "part of it" already in 2016. He has always been very careful not to let his grandstanding venture into the dangerous Ralph Nader territory. He was never going to actually challenge the system. Are you?
Uhhh.... Marianne DID challenge the system, so why are you even asking such a question? So did Bernie. Daily, so do a number of independent investigative journalists on this Substack media network.
Granting these 52 Democrats faith that they'll "watch my back" is like giving all 52 daggers and closing your eyes. Every site like this could be labeled as "supporting terrorism." That is not a system I willingly support. Openly recognizing what it is doing, articulating it, and refusing to be an active part of it is seen as threatening to those benefiting from it.
We need a name change of the party to "Democratic Labor Party" and actually be that. Talking about expanding the middle class is vague for most people. What does that mean anyway? Everybody who works for a paycheck is in the same class.
Please not The Squad, America is no where near ready for that! Thank you Marianne for being on target from the get go! The Democratic Party failed us 2x and let that beast win with “our diamonds.” Fool me once… I am Moving Forward ! Middle finger to them from me, not another dime!
I wish they would listen to you. Have you reached out to them? I don't have high hopes they will learn from this. Bernie Sanders has shared similar sentiments as you and has also expressed frustration at the DNC party leadership. He didn't sound too optimistic that they will change. :-(
I agree that for the most part, Dems have listened only to their wealthy donors. There are a handful that are not in this category. Of course, they are the ones most hated by party elites. They hate their pushing for universal healthcare. They hate hearing them say they don’t take corporate donations. While we’re on the subject of hate, the way the elites swooped in to tell everyone to leave the primaries in 2020 so Biden would be the only one against Bernie tells the story. Bernie won the first 3 primaries and instead of taking note and looking closely, the elites pulled their power card instead and ran over the people’s choice.
"The party’s power lay in its values, not its money, and any party leaders who didn’t get that have been destroying the party from within."
Would the Democrats need so much money to get their message out if they had a couple of simple messages popular with the working class like universal healthcare and guaranteed minimum income? Maybe subsidized childcare and family leave would have helped.
It’s a pretty easy formula. Nominate honest brokers, propose quality policy implementing it when possible and rewrite the platform with a goal of good governance serving only “we the people”…..
We need to get rid of the big dark money as well as the barriers to accessing the ballot there is no path to restoring this intended constitutional republic
You are sharing important perspectives on the DNC....but Kamala DID listen to the people, showing up at a downtown Philly barber shop, at cafes in small rural communities here and there. Her messaging was right on IMHO. She was up against an unprecedented situation....in a time crunch AND being a woman and a woman of color. My feeling is that she needed a more committed support system with the Dems in leadership, so that she could stand in her fullness without apology and without having to point out she was a better choice than the alternative.
Kamala and and Tim were up against a propaganda war that had nothing to do with the DNC, the Party leadership or anything else.
Bought and paid for media outlets see a financial bonanza in the chaos that Trump will bring to the country. And there is a nontraditional right wing media network so vast and so powerful that no one could overcome it. Not even an exceptional woman like Kamala Harris.
Lastly, Marianne is an amazing author and a dear spiritual teacher for me. But she does not have the right political or policy message for the American people. We are not going back to FDR (who her father revered, and I respect her relationship with her father) even if we're not going back to Dwight Eisenhower either.
Joe Biden was a stunningly effective president and Kamala Harris was an exceptional candidate for the American presidency. Anybody who doesn't recognize that does not understand the demands of the office or the gifts these two people gave to our country.
This election taught us all one thing. The presidency is actually decided by low information voters in a few swing states.
If we had the popular vote more people would be engaged but since so few states swing, only a handful out of 50 do the deciding.
Passionate people who know the issues decided early on. That showed.
Millions of others are ill informed. They care more about reality shows and social media and podcasts than newspapers.
Had Trump not been marketed as a business genius for a decade via his reality show, he would never have been president.
This is a distraction era.
Trump is a product of fame, great marketing, the psychological reality that people would like to be absolved of thinking and want a strong man to provide for them, are attracted to bullies because of their childhoods, and good old fashioned Christian exploitation by Republicans.
It wasn’t everything else.
But it was fear, and ignorance, and greed, and the basic fact that bigotry comes from fear of not having enough sustenance all the way back to tribal times.
As a species we are not nearly as smart as we ought to be by now, and we are far more ignorant than wise.
A detailed description is beyond the scope of a comment. But as a Platitude/ summary : Brown v Board of Ed created a big riff in the Race Based Democratic Party and Many think tanks, commercial coalitions, lawyers, State Judges &c., began organizing electoral means to re-establish The Old South - the heart of the Democratic Party. The Presidential election of 1960 was very close and between the time various decision(s) related to Brown came down and the 1960 election : the combination of the States Rights Party supporters for Strom Thurmond which was organized as a challenge to Truman (Thurmond having been a Southern Democrat back then) Truman having been the sponsor of the anti-lynching law resulted in a close election for Truman. So there were two major controversies (a) The anti-lynching law introduced during the time of Truman - which failed. LBJ had voted against it and (b) various cases argued by Thurgood Marshall i.a., Shelley v, Kraemer regarding protective covenants - Nixon had a protective covenant on his California home which he sold when Eisenhower chose him as VP. Thurgood Marshall also argued Brown v Board and related cases during these times ; and various foregoing electoral coalitions were expressed Nationally by Barry Goldwater's Challenge to LBJ who became President on JFK's death.
Goldwater's "The New Federalism" was thought to have been defeated at the ballot box in 1964 and the Democratics made a big deal out of it. There was even a motion picture with Burt Lancaster portraying a military Officer attempting a coup - the moral of the story you want a Fascist government do it thru The Ballot Box.
So for the Democratics, it was never about The Supreme Law of the Land it was and remains all about Race and war mongering, The Korean War the Viet Nam War, the Congo, Israel, Cuba, Latin America ; and then prior to the 1968 election LBJ announced he would not seek re-election and the Democratic Party essentially fell apart.
So their presumptions regarding the ballot box were erroneous but they never did anything about. Most of the Progress that was made which they try to take credit for was only made possible by the USSCt. Had the majority been what it is now, none of it would have ever happened.
And by 1980 The New Federalism became the de facto Supreme Law of the Land. Anytime the Democratics controlled Congress they never challenged "The New Federalism" they kept pursuing The Ballot Box by Race Based Policies instead of a General Government Policy which was Universal for all Citizens e.g., Gays in the military, transexual rights, immigration rights all policies designed with the intent to create Democratic voters and continued with their war mongering : Clinton wins the election 8 years of bombing the unaligned country of Yugoslavia, Obama wins kill Osama bin Laden, kill Qaddafi &c., &c. By now people my age and older know full well that the Democratics are the same old State Rights Racist War Party they always were and really don't do anything meaningful for the Citizenry when they control Congress. The last acts were the Civil Rights Act addressing protective covenants and voting rights. So when the lose at the ballot box for them they don't lose because republicans became the Democratic Party beginning with Barry Goldwater's The New Federalism.
But people keep religiously believing in them via The Ballot Box and keep losing and when or if they win there's nothing there that's any different from their republicans other than trying to add groups that will vote for them while neglecting the citizenry in General terms.
By now the results of the last election show that enough people are hip to it. Look at the history look at the comment I wrote here regarding the Cross of Gold Speech and the Scopes trial. Read my blog.
Perhaps a new strategy should be a revolution not just a new direction for the party but for the world. Is any of us happy with the system of living even at its best it is sinking so many other parts of the world specifically the environment and our use of resources. Our purpose in life has been prescribed for us on a gameboard of competition and survival of the fittest. When we finally realize that the capitalistic paradigm is what ales us and keeps us all down. It has siphoned us physically, mentally and spiritually. It encourages cut throat tactics and false fronts in order to sell more, have more, be more. We live as if on a treadmill and it is ever going faster and faster with no end in sight. We assume that the more we have the happier we will be and that we wonder why we feel a void and worthless vessel, a slave to money and yet we idolize those who have managed to squander the most . I think we have reached the end , the end of the ultimate extremes of money and power that are now going to envelope us and the world with the major countries all in this vex . We need to rebirth and awaken and shed the love of money and find a safe, sustainable and suitable collaboration with technology and nature. The priorities as the native Indians ideology with the earth as the first priority , then the animals and biodiverse system of life, and then humans and love and kindness, modest dwellings for shelter, more small farms and organic eating, health and education as a right and cooperative blend of naturopathic with recent medical advances, teaching and hands on skills and more emphasis on life long learning and not a litmus test that ends at 18. Yes there is defense that will always be necessary because of the unpredictability of humans but in a world where there is a new focus and maybe there would be less worry about war and tribal confrontations. When it comes down to it we all need the same things to live. Air, water, food, shelter, clothes, knowledge and love. Can we Re-Emerge as humanity and find our true purpose on this earth.
Thank you, Monique, for helping me to slow down enough, breathe deeply, and settle in. I keep returning to the word "sacred" for sustenance and meaning. Let us breathe deeply together and with the rest of the Uni-Verse (one poem). Guy
Thank you. I don't have all the answers but it just seems that in the system of things that have become our existence and day to day living we are always in a quest for money and means of survival. Is that the purpose and meaning of life? Capitalism is our prison camouflaged as freedom and free market competition. Why does life and survival have to be about competition. It was not ever meant to be but we have been conditioned to think that this is the only method so we have learned to play the game and become parts of its corruption and dirty side. Though it is vested in its ability to survive one must be as shrewd and powerful as possible on this battlefield. We can only break the spell when we agree to not participate , to journey forward into rediscover the ideology of nature and love. Not to forbade the progress of positive technology but to collaborate for the best of both paths. Please keep in tough. I would like to know of your thoughts and ideas.
Thousands of emails and giving on the part of regular citizens and we didn't even get a thank you note. We did get some invites to some fund raising dinner parties. When I showed up at the library to volunteer to canvass some neighborhoods, there were no materials and only one other person was there. I will accept some responsibility, but truthfully, I am just damn tired of the elitism and lack of reflection of the party.
A listening tour.. along with some major apologies for shutting down and shutting out anyone who questioned anything they did..
That's it
I don't agree all democratic voters thought the party knew what it was doing.. the DNC forced a forced choice.. then used fear, derision and contempt in their relentless fundraising, all while insisting they were running on "joy"..
During the campaign, before Joe dropped out, many knew what was being done to me, to RJK Jr, to Dean Phillips. That's what I was referring to.
Thanks, understood. I was following you and RFK Jr. from 2023. I totally agreed with Dean Phillips that Joe was too old to run from the get go.
I was deeply opposed to RFK's stance on Israel/Gaza though I came around to seeing the futility of a request for a cease fire, at least any time soon. Horrifying and heartbreaking but that's where we are at this point in history. I appreciated MW's call for a two-state solution and saw that she was ignored/shut out/etc. I realized that any attempt at a near-term solution wasn't in the cards because of the current administration's involvement there, with only a weak call for ending support by Kamala well after thousands (tens of thousands?) had already been killed. (Then Kamala said she wouldn't have done anything differently from what Biden and team (including herself) had done/ were doing?!) The reason to keep supporting Democrats was so the people on the front lines on all the other terrible burning issues could possibly have some room to fight another day. God help us all. 🙏
The person I blame the most for Biden staying in the race is Jill. I saw her prompting Joe before the Easter egg hunt on the lawn of the White House because he seemed oblivious. She knew he was losing his cognitive abilities, even if Biden didn't. What a tragedy. I have questions about why Biden kept Garland and about his embracing Bibi. What about his judgement in other areas?
I just can't put the blame on any one person, not even Joe. It was a wall of collusion and anyone who stepped out of the party line was threatened with losing any and all standing or credibility. MW wasn't even allowed to attend the convention because she had insisted on holding a primary.
It could be wishful thinking on my part but I think what GI Joe wanted to do was get re-elected fall sick and resign after two year let Kamala be President for two years and then do the LBJ thing and whoever runs the machine said no
The party leadership had been living in a bubble. In a country with rampant age discrimination for the general population, the Democrat leadership all embraced the notion that Joe was flat out entitled to a second term no matter his health or the grave risk this posed to the rest of us.
Ps. I very much appreciated what Michael Tronn had to say downthread from here.
M - I deleted my inital comment bc I think I needed to be more thoughtful before addressing you personally in your own writing home. I can be imperfect, but to be imperfect and thoughtful is useful, and even wise on occasion. Much love.
I think the problem is much deeper than not holding a primary. During the 2020 primary, I remember the moderators not asking enough questions of you or Andrew Yang, and sadly the older democrats watching with me dismissed me when I remarked on some of the ideas you, Yang and Elizabeth Warren had. In 2024, I supported you but knew deep in my heart that our country is still not sophisticated enough to have a white woman president. If that sounds racist oh well, I am just speaking from my experience. When Hillary Clinton ran against Obama I was told that we (America) need a black president. Well, I said we never had a woman president and Hillary is smart and experienced, let's keep Obama in the Senate until the next go around. Now in this cycle, you ran again and had your platform almost immediately up on your website with lots of good ideas, and I would tell everyone to check you out, they didn't because they don't want to read or watch debates. Trump didn't win because the Democrats didn't have a primary, the guy won the nomination without going on the Republican debates, I believe that a large portion of our country needs to hit rock bottom (which this is hopefully) before we admit we have a problem and try to climb out of the hole. I just pray that the violence and additional suffering will be minimal. May the Goddesses, Gods and all the Higher Spirits protect all the innocents.
I agree with you 100% in regards to the intellectual disability of the US voting population particularly in regard to women. I voted for Jill Stein. I would never vote for Hillary Clinton because of her war mongering and Goldwater affiliations.
I have heard that reason about war mongering so they couldn't vote for a woman. In that case, I suppose all wars have ended because we didn't have a female president. Jill Stein is friends with Putin.
"This does not compute" - Robbie the Robot.
Vlad the Man yes that's why I voted for her !!
Because she's friends with, a Man.
😋
Why did you vote for her and ignore that being friends with a particular man, Vladimir Putin, rendered her untrustworthy to the safety of our country. Just as Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk and Donald Trump, no American that calls Putin a friend should be in charge of our nation's security. Hope this clarifies it for Robbie:)
You heard about war mongering O then you must have heard about Madeleine Albright : common Billy let's bomb the non-aligned country of Yugoslavia !! Come on Billy, Hillary likes the idea !! she told me (aside) she'll forgive you for Monica. Common Billy use those bombs, you know you want to. O look it's Victoria Nuland !!
All the wars ended ? Seriously ? So like, what class are you thumb typing from ... Home Ec ?
The USA D-r is all about assimilation. And it works !! look at all of the crazy shit you're typing.
I know this will not be received well, but my belief is that the best way to save democracy and our country is to resign wholesale from the Democratic Party. What we need to make that a viable practical action is to have the Squad, what's left of it, declare independent status and start to form a progressive Democrat party that will enable us to do what the Republican Lite Party will continue to suppress and sabotage. I voted like Marianne did and for the same reasons. That was my LAST vote for "a lesser evil." I agree with most of the letter Bernie Sanders recently published that explained why we Americans should be mad as hell at the Democratic Party. They gave us Trump by giving no plan beyond "Trump is terrible. Now, hit the donor button and support us." Marianne, not going to do that any more, and, in four years, if there is a country left with semblance to the one we grew up in, the current Democratic Party operatives will make sure we are right back here doing the same thing. We can no longer support these same operatives.
Bernie was part of it this time, though. He came to NH early in the primary and told all the progressives to vote for Biden. It was my campaign, not Biden's, that supported a Bernie-like agenda. He thought if Biden could hold the WH and the Dems could hold the Senate, then maybe they could get Build Back Better. Better they should have supported and trusted an actual democratic process, allowing the people to decide. That's what all this is about to me: MAKE IT FAIR AND LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE.
You know perfectly well that the DNC is there not to "MAKE IT FAIR AND LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE." They are there to protect the interests of their donors through perpetuating the status quo. That is literally their job. Which they do. With profound disregard for anything else. You, on the other hand, claim to be after fundamental change and disrupting the status quo. Which, basically, means the destruction of the system as it exists at the moment or the way in which it operates, at any rate. In other words, you have officially proclaimed yourself their mortal enemy. And yet, you expect them to treat you "fairly" and help you. Despite the fact that not only are your agendas diametrically opposed but you also have pretty much zero leverage of any kind. So they are supposed to essentially destroy themselves just for kicks. Just because you said so. How does it make sense? By the way, Bernie was very much "part of it" already in 2016. He has always been very careful not to let his grandstanding venture into the dangerous Ralph Nader territory. He was never going to actually challenge the system. Are you?
Uhhh.... Marianne DID challenge the system, so why are you even asking such a question? So did Bernie. Daily, so do a number of independent investigative journalists on this Substack media network.
Granting these 52 Democrats faith that they'll "watch my back" is like giving all 52 daggers and closing your eyes. Every site like this could be labeled as "supporting terrorism." That is not a system I willingly support. Openly recognizing what it is doing, articulating it, and refusing to be an active part of it is seen as threatening to those benefiting from it.
https://commons.commondreams.org/t/no-thanks-to-these-52-dems-house-defeats-bill-enabling-trump-assault-on-nonprofits/198426/42
We need a name change of the party to "Democratic Labor Party" and actually be that. Talking about expanding the middle class is vague for most people. What does that mean anyway? Everybody who works for a paycheck is in the same class.
Forward party.com
Please not The Squad, America is no where near ready for that! Thank you Marianne for being on target from the get go! The Democratic Party failed us 2x and let that beast win with “our diamonds.” Fool me once… I am Moving Forward ! Middle finger to them from me, not another dime!
Wonderfully well said... they got 15 million less votes than in 2020.... worth pondering.
Blessing to you !
I wish they would listen to you. Have you reached out to them? I don't have high hopes they will learn from this. Bernie Sanders has shared similar sentiments as you and has also expressed frustration at the DNC party leadership. He didn't sound too optimistic that they will change. :-(
Great idea them taking a tour!
Yes, great idea. Last stop: Siberia
I agree that for the most part, Dems have listened only to their wealthy donors. There are a handful that are not in this category. Of course, they are the ones most hated by party elites. They hate their pushing for universal healthcare. They hate hearing them say they don’t take corporate donations. While we’re on the subject of hate, the way the elites swooped in to tell everyone to leave the primaries in 2020 so Biden would be the only one against Bernie tells the story. Bernie won the first 3 primaries and instead of taking note and looking closely, the elites pulled their power card instead and ran over the people’s choice.
"The party’s power lay in its values, not its money, and any party leaders who didn’t get that have been destroying the party from within."
Would the Democrats need so much money to get their message out if they had a couple of simple messages popular with the working class like universal healthcare and guaranteed minimum income? Maybe subsidized childcare and family leave would have helped.
The American people deserve so much more.
You are correct, Marianne, the American people do deserve so much more.
If there had been a true Democratic primary, perhaps you be our next President.
I pray that our Democracy survives the next 4 or 8 years of Trumpism.
With God's help and the efforts of you and others, it will.
God bless you now and forever.
It’s a pretty easy formula. Nominate honest brokers, propose quality policy implementing it when possible and rewrite the platform with a goal of good governance serving only “we the people”…..
We need to get rid of the big dark money as well as the barriers to accessing the ballot there is no path to restoring this intended constitutional republic
You are sharing important perspectives on the DNC....but Kamala DID listen to the people, showing up at a downtown Philly barber shop, at cafes in small rural communities here and there. Her messaging was right on IMHO. She was up against an unprecedented situation....in a time crunch AND being a woman and a woman of color. My feeling is that she needed a more committed support system with the Dems in leadership, so that she could stand in her fullness without apology and without having to point out she was a better choice than the alternative.
Kamala and and Tim were up against a propaganda war that had nothing to do with the DNC, the Party leadership or anything else.
Bought and paid for media outlets see a financial bonanza in the chaos that Trump will bring to the country. And there is a nontraditional right wing media network so vast and so powerful that no one could overcome it. Not even an exceptional woman like Kamala Harris.
Lastly, Marianne is an amazing author and a dear spiritual teacher for me. But she does not have the right political or policy message for the American people. We are not going back to FDR (who her father revered, and I respect her relationship with her father) even if we're not going back to Dwight Eisenhower either.
Joe Biden was a stunningly effective president and Kamala Harris was an exceptional candidate for the American presidency. Anybody who doesn't recognize that does not understand the demands of the office or the gifts these two people gave to our country.
This election taught us all one thing. The presidency is actually decided by low information voters in a few swing states.
If we had the popular vote more people would be engaged but since so few states swing, only a handful out of 50 do the deciding.
Passionate people who know the issues decided early on. That showed.
Millions of others are ill informed. They care more about reality shows and social media and podcasts than newspapers.
Had Trump not been marketed as a business genius for a decade via his reality show, he would never have been president.
This is a distraction era.
Trump is a product of fame, great marketing, the psychological reality that people would like to be absolved of thinking and want a strong man to provide for them, are attracted to bullies because of their childhoods, and good old fashioned Christian exploitation by Republicans.
It wasn’t everything else.
But it was fear, and ignorance, and greed, and the basic fact that bigotry comes from fear of not having enough sustenance all the way back to tribal times.
As a species we are not nearly as smart as we ought to be by now, and we are far more ignorant than wise.
You have the most objective and intelligent take on this situation this morning.
Thank you for posting it.
The Democratics made their choice for their eternity in 1964 live by the ballot box die by the ballot box.
I'd love to know what that means please.
A detailed description is beyond the scope of a comment. But as a Platitude/ summary : Brown v Board of Ed created a big riff in the Race Based Democratic Party and Many think tanks, commercial coalitions, lawyers, State Judges &c., began organizing electoral means to re-establish The Old South - the heart of the Democratic Party. The Presidential election of 1960 was very close and between the time various decision(s) related to Brown came down and the 1960 election : the combination of the States Rights Party supporters for Strom Thurmond which was organized as a challenge to Truman (Thurmond having been a Southern Democrat back then) Truman having been the sponsor of the anti-lynching law resulted in a close election for Truman. So there were two major controversies (a) The anti-lynching law introduced during the time of Truman - which failed. LBJ had voted against it and (b) various cases argued by Thurgood Marshall i.a., Shelley v, Kraemer regarding protective covenants - Nixon had a protective covenant on his California home which he sold when Eisenhower chose him as VP. Thurgood Marshall also argued Brown v Board and related cases during these times ; and various foregoing electoral coalitions were expressed Nationally by Barry Goldwater's Challenge to LBJ who became President on JFK's death.
Goldwater's "The New Federalism" was thought to have been defeated at the ballot box in 1964 and the Democratics made a big deal out of it. There was even a motion picture with Burt Lancaster portraying a military Officer attempting a coup - the moral of the story you want a Fascist government do it thru The Ballot Box.
So for the Democratics, it was never about The Supreme Law of the Land it was and remains all about Race and war mongering, The Korean War the Viet Nam War, the Congo, Israel, Cuba, Latin America ; and then prior to the 1968 election LBJ announced he would not seek re-election and the Democratic Party essentially fell apart.
So their presumptions regarding the ballot box were erroneous but they never did anything about. Most of the Progress that was made which they try to take credit for was only made possible by the USSCt. Had the majority been what it is now, none of it would have ever happened.
And by 1980 The New Federalism became the de facto Supreme Law of the Land. Anytime the Democratics controlled Congress they never challenged "The New Federalism" they kept pursuing The Ballot Box by Race Based Policies instead of a General Government Policy which was Universal for all Citizens e.g., Gays in the military, transexual rights, immigration rights all policies designed with the intent to create Democratic voters and continued with their war mongering : Clinton wins the election 8 years of bombing the unaligned country of Yugoslavia, Obama wins kill Osama bin Laden, kill Qaddafi &c., &c. By now people my age and older know full well that the Democratics are the same old State Rights Racist War Party they always were and really don't do anything meaningful for the Citizenry when they control Congress. The last acts were the Civil Rights Act addressing protective covenants and voting rights. So when the lose at the ballot box for them they don't lose because republicans became the Democratic Party beginning with Barry Goldwater's The New Federalism.
But people keep religiously believing in them via The Ballot Box and keep losing and when or if they win there's nothing there that's any different from their republicans other than trying to add groups that will vote for them while neglecting the citizenry in General terms.
By now the results of the last election show that enough people are hip to it. Look at the history look at the comment I wrote here regarding the Cross of Gold Speech and the Scopes trial. Read my blog.
Perhaps a new strategy should be a revolution not just a new direction for the party but for the world. Is any of us happy with the system of living even at its best it is sinking so many other parts of the world specifically the environment and our use of resources. Our purpose in life has been prescribed for us on a gameboard of competition and survival of the fittest. When we finally realize that the capitalistic paradigm is what ales us and keeps us all down. It has siphoned us physically, mentally and spiritually. It encourages cut throat tactics and false fronts in order to sell more, have more, be more. We live as if on a treadmill and it is ever going faster and faster with no end in sight. We assume that the more we have the happier we will be and that we wonder why we feel a void and worthless vessel, a slave to money and yet we idolize those who have managed to squander the most . I think we have reached the end , the end of the ultimate extremes of money and power that are now going to envelope us and the world with the major countries all in this vex . We need to rebirth and awaken and shed the love of money and find a safe, sustainable and suitable collaboration with technology and nature. The priorities as the native Indians ideology with the earth as the first priority , then the animals and biodiverse system of life, and then humans and love and kindness, modest dwellings for shelter, more small farms and organic eating, health and education as a right and cooperative blend of naturopathic with recent medical advances, teaching and hands on skills and more emphasis on life long learning and not a litmus test that ends at 18. Yes there is defense that will always be necessary because of the unpredictability of humans but in a world where there is a new focus and maybe there would be less worry about war and tribal confrontations. When it comes down to it we all need the same things to live. Air, water, food, shelter, clothes, knowledge and love. Can we Re-Emerge as humanity and find our true purpose on this earth.
Thank you, Monique, for helping me to slow down enough, breathe deeply, and settle in. I keep returning to the word "sacred" for sustenance and meaning. Let us breathe deeply together and with the rest of the Uni-Verse (one poem). Guy
Thank you. I don't have all the answers but it just seems that in the system of things that have become our existence and day to day living we are always in a quest for money and means of survival. Is that the purpose and meaning of life? Capitalism is our prison camouflaged as freedom and free market competition. Why does life and survival have to be about competition. It was not ever meant to be but we have been conditioned to think that this is the only method so we have learned to play the game and become parts of its corruption and dirty side. Though it is vested in its ability to survive one must be as shrewd and powerful as possible on this battlefield. We can only break the spell when we agree to not participate , to journey forward into rediscover the ideology of nature and love. Not to forbade the progress of positive technology but to collaborate for the best of both paths. Please keep in tough. I would like to know of your thoughts and ideas.
So much truth in your words.
Thousands of emails and giving on the part of regular citizens and we didn't even get a thank you note. We did get some invites to some fund raising dinner parties. When I showed up at the library to volunteer to canvass some neighborhoods, there were no materials and only one other person was there. I will accept some responsibility, but truthfully, I am just damn tired of the elitism and lack of reflection of the party.
Thanks, Lynn, for liking my comment.
God bless you and all those you love now and forever.
Surely you would agree that the American people do deserve so much more and that
If there had been a true Democratic primary, perhaps Marianne would be our next President.
I know that you, too will pray that our Democracy survives the next 4 or 8 years of Trumpism.
With God's help and the efforts of you and others, it will.
Be still and be you.
Be still and know.