Brian Leeland, a 79-year-old Democratic voter in Detroit, had enough. Frustrated by the way the US media covers this febrile political era, from Donald Trump’s Washington to political campaigns across the country, he contacted the Guardian.
“Your decision to frame the race here as a simple progressive versus establishment choice is overly simplistic verging on lazy,” he wrote to this reporter, after our coverage of progressive Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign in the Democratic US Senate primary in Michigan. “As an electorate, we are not binary for the convenience of the media.”
His was a complaint I heard often as I traveled across the midwest to cover a host of contested Democratic primaries. So I called him up.
Leeland’s list of frustrations is long: grifters, liars, the two-party system, money influencing elections, the US’s standing in the world, the growing national debt and a fixation on cultural issues, not just the larger problems that plague the country.
…
Billionaires and big tech rig the game with government money and tax loopholes. Sites use AI filters to actively block posts calling out the elite. Scrap income tax; tax wealth and land instead.
I only read the headline, but I think that’s fueled all of the elections.
I’d love to find a news article about an election that says “All is well, people head to polls to show their support for two excellent candidates. Either would be a fantastic choice for the nation.”
For real. I’m sick of having to choose between the less shitty of two shitty candidates.
That’s what happens when everything you hear about someone is from the slant of people who profit off making you angry. No one will ever be good enough, and everyone is always maximum evil.
I have no idea how things can or will improve. As an outsider, America is a strange place. Unfortunately, the world seems hell bent on copying everything it does.
It becomes less strange when you constantly ask “who benefits financially” because that is the prime mover here. Beyond that, there is little to consider given current evidence increasingly points to lack of meaningful representation regardless of vote.
Nah they’re definitely less insistent on copying us after this year. A huge chunk of the world has looked at Trump and went “that’s not an ally. We need to diversify our allegiances in case the US goes nuts again”
It’s part of the reason China is becoming so popular on the international stage. They want to trade, and they’re stable. Trump’s foot stamping and attempted “dick waving” power trips have absolutely buried our reputation and bargaining power in the global community.
Turns out, electing a corrupt man-child who ruins everyone’s economy and messes with the global oil supply tends to make a lot of people not like you.
I agree with all this except “in case…”.
Our allies know that authoritarians that get voted in, most of the time don’t get voted out. I’m confident they’re worried about when, not if.
I’m convinced that those in power put trump in the whitehouse so that they could basically pull a private equity buy-and-bankrupt on the entire country
I think the long-term damage is worse this time around, because the fact that he could lose and then win again signaled that it wasn’t a fluke.
As soon as the world cuts off the US currency as a reserve, we’re done. Stop trading with us. That’s what needs to happen. Pop the balloon.
Revolution to establish socialism.
Four legs good! Two legs bad!
?
Yes, most Americans are very upset with the establishment. They just can’t agree on who the establishment is.
Obviously Trump is currently the establishment since he’s the one in power right now, but the irony is a lot of the people who voted for him did so because they were angry with the establishment that preceded him. So, many Americans are angry at an establishment that was meant to take on a past establishment that many other Americans had been angry with.
my fear is that this trend will splinter only the ‘left half’ of the vote as a significant number vote third-party from ‘lack of options’ or as ‘punishment’; and that the ‘right’ will remain mostly united (as they usually do) in their hate and stupidity and greed, allowing republicants to actually gain as a result.
A large chunk of the population would rather throw out the baby with the bathwater and any attempt to tell them they’re insane for thinking so is an exercise in futility.
In fairness to them, even the best of our leaders are still operating in the framework that got us here.
It’s establishments all the way down. And what do they all have in common? Being servile to capital.
Obviously Trump is currently the establishment since he’s the one in power right now, …
Trump and maga are not the establishment. They are extreme radicals with a completely different agenda than the establishment. Their agenda is to do away with the Constitution and replace it with an authoritarian regime centered on christian nationalism and fascism–of that’s not radical, what is? The fact that they managed to take over the government doesn’t make them “the establishment” unless you accept that they will maintain power and thus become a new “establishment”.
Republican SCOTUS, courts, billionaires, major political donors, CEOs, bankers and investors, news company owners, entertainment company owners, etc…
He himself is from the real estate industry.
He’s the very embodiment and personification of the establishment.
What you call the “establishment” is old rules and cultural expectations which the actual establishment is trying to break to cement their power.
He is practically embedded into the capitalist oligarchy which are ruling the US. You don’t get more establishment than that.
Yes, he is not part of the professional politician gang which has been used to rule, but he is definitely part of the establishment which that gang also was subservient to.
Yeah, exactly. trump is part of the class who employ the “establishment” as it is usually understood. He is literally the boss of the establishment.
I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t entirely agree. Trump did win the presidential nomination of one of only two established major political parties. Many Republican politicians who had been part of the US political establishment for decades are now among Trump’s coalition. Trump also has the support of some established media organizations, like Fox News. I would also argue that the business establishment is largely the same as it was before Trump came into office.
It’s not radical, it’s reactionary
No, it’s radical, dude, totally
<not a serious comment, 100% a joke based on the 80s slang>
“The establishment” is a vague and nebulous term
It’s like when people say “they”. And I don’t mean the gender neutral pronoun, I mean when people say “they’re making a new law” or “they’re making a new movie” or “they’re using AI to design things”. The nebulous “they” that seems to encompass all governments and organizations that control things
There will be executions after the midterms. The only question is whether they will be orderly and for the people, or chaotic and by the people.
I mean, I’ll be optimistic with you, but there’s still a nonzero chance that it will be executions of the people.
We are so far removed from that prospect that it almost depresses me, because that’s what we need to do to the oligarchs.
Such things only occur when it’s an act of desperation. Reasonable people don’t rebel. People who’ve been pushed beyond the point of reason rebel.
Unfortunately, reason has never found a stable home in America.
To rebel is reasonable when the alternative is decay and starvation. Revolution has generally improved the lives of the people where it’s been had.
Exactly. And while they keep pushing us farther and farther, we are still far too comfortable.
A population is three meals away from revolution and with the current straining of supply lines due to diesel prices that threat is quite a bit close than most would assume.
When will they will figure out bOtH pArTiEs are “The Establishment”? Don’t hold your breath!
I vote, and you should, too. They are not the same. One party is “pro-LGBT” and the other is “pro-church” and they are bOtH pro-corporate, pro-billionaire, pro-war, anti-union and so on.
The differences are the bait. The commonalities are the establishment.
No, THIS is the people you need to be fighting
https://san.com/cc/why-super-pacs-with-gop-ties-are-donating-to-democratic-candidates/
The super PAC Lead Left has donated more than $1 million to at least three Democratic congressional primaries, according to The New York Times, which reported that the donations were an attempt by Republicans to keep control of the House of Representatives
“They’re going into Democratic primaries and literally trying to boost the most extreme candidates and oppose the Blue Dog-endorsed candidates that, if they win, are going to beat the Republicans in the general,” Gray told The Times.
“bOtH sIdEs” is only true for establishment Dems, and if you pay attention, progressives are gaining in power and prominence. DSA is not the only source, but it’s becoming a lightning rod.
Show me ANY good Republicans. I’ll wait.
The only hope for us is to support the actual progressives instead of lumping them in with the establishmen Democrats, because doing the latter is EXACTLY what the fascists want.
So it’s like you’re mostly right but critically wrong when you write off both parties. And yes, voting is critical, but what is even MOR critical is supporting progressive candidates before the primaries and into the primaries and THEN in the general. Always vote, and when you vote, always take the better - or less shitty - option. That’s where “vote blue no longer who” comes into play - in the general election, an establishment Dem is still less shitty than a fascist Republican.
The problem is that, through the electoral system, the limit to progressiveness is social democracy. Social democracy in the context of a dying imperialist power cannot save the empire from collapse, nor can it establish socialism, because you cannot replace the material base of society within the boundaries of a state set up to reinforce and protect the material base of society. Revolution remains necessary for socialism.
Only necessary if one believes heavily-regulated capitalism cannot work, sure.
That would be correct, heavily-regulated capitalism cannot work in the long-term for the same reasons capitalism in general cannot work in the long-term.
Seems to work fine in Scandinavia.
It really doesn’t. Scandinavian Social Democratic countries are seeing the same gradual decay in safety nets, because the imperialist system they depend on is gradually decaying. This is very predictable, however, because as capitalism goes on, and as its imperialist stage goes on, there are very understandable and gradual processes like the tendency for the rate of profit to fall. Capitalism cannot last forever, it systematically erodes its own basis. Imperialism as a stage in capitalism magnifies the problems with capitalism, temporarily reducing national-scale contradictions between workers and owners through safety nets while heightening contradictions on an international scale, between imperialist countries and the global south.
an establishment Dem is still less shitty than a fascist Republican.
I would have agreed with you before Biden neglected to properly go after Trump for J6 for reasons I still don’t understand. The establishment Dems don’t take the threat of fascist Republicans seriously, and still want to compromise with them.
The president isn’t supposed to go after anyone. His DOJ is supposed to enforce the law, and they had indicted thousands of J6ers in what seemed to be the lead-up to The Big One, where charges are brought against the ringleaders. You can say they did this too slowly, but it was literally the biggest case the FBI had ever prosecuted. Spare us this both sides crap.
Jared Golden is a halfway decent Republican
btw, someone else replied to me nd I saw my comment again (my reply to you) - just to clarify that while “cute” might have negative connotations… I didn’t mean it negatively. You probably got that but I still wanted to clarify. heh
Cute, but for anyone else who had to look him up - he is a Democrat.
Not everyone, that’s why establishment Democrats are fighting progressives in their own party harder than they are fighting Republicans. We need to vote in the progressives to actually represent us.
We need to stop even labeling them “progressive” or leftists, as is that is some kind of aberration from the norm. It needs to be the default. The establishment and the fascists are the weirdos who perpetuate evil in the name of money and private property.
“Leftists” just sane, moral folks who want their elected officials to serve the people, for capital to be subordinated to the will of the workers. For the workers to be the ruling class.
I like this Leeland person.
Yeah, realising your entire lineage’s lifelong earnings for generations amounts to sofa change to megalomaniacs who are also making sure your grandchildren will suffer even more than you are now is bound to make one testy.
e: all the while children are dying by genocide. The wrong people are being listened to.
79 years old.
Leeland’s list of frustrations is long: grifters, liars, the two-party system, money influencing elections, the US’s standing in the world, the growing national debt and a fixation on cultural issues, not just the larger problems that plague the country.
Come gather ‘round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You’ll be drenched to the bone If your time to you is worth savin’ Then you better start swimmin’ Or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’
Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide The chance won’t come again And don’t speak too soon For the wheel’s still in spin And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’ For the loser now Will be later to win For the times they are a-changin’
Hopefully it’s channeled productively for ounce.
Or pound
Americans: anything but metric ;-)
Every two or four year the socials are ablaze with the blue wave stuff. And every year it turns out to be a nothing burger.
Reddit, lemmy and other social media are piss poor ways of judging election out comes. Too much of an echo chamber.
And nothing I’ve seen or heard locally is changing maga into democrats. They are still 100% behind the great orange beast.
And every year it turns out to be a nothing burger.
Wait, what? We had a massive blue wave in '18 and '20.
And nothing I’ve seen or heard locally is changing maga into democrats.
More whether they decide to show up or not.
I also don’t like the framing of this being just trump and not the whole republican party and AIPAC dems
In 2020 congressional incumbents won 96% of their races. The “massive blue wave” flipped 2 senators to D and 13 representatives to R.
You’re ignoring that Congress people often resign before they can lose. You always get a wave of resignations preceding a wave year. Politicians see the writing on the wall and quit so they don’t have to suffer the career setback of losing a race. If you think you’re likely to lose, you’re better off resigning before the election to “focus on your family.” Then a few years later, if the political winds shift again, you can run again without the smell of a loser on you.
That’s why I included the seat flip, too. In the supposed “massive blue wave” of 2020, Democrats lost 13 seats in the House.
Something looked kooky about your numbers. I figured it out. You’re trying to analyze 2020 as a blue wave year! That was never a blue wave year. It was just a regular election that Democrats won. Biden was a milquetoast candidate that barely beat Trump, even with the pandemic helping him. It was absolutely not a blue wave year. The grandparent post was just wrong on that point.
For a blue wave year, see 2018. In that year Democrats gained 41 seats in the House. This is more likely to reflect what 2026 will look like. 2020 was not a blue wave year. It was a pretty balanced election. Both parties had unpopular old men at the top of the ticket.
Your argument about 2020 is with UnderpantsWeevil, not tburkhol.
The 2020 presidential election enjoyed the highest turnout rate for any national election since 1900. Democrats turnout out 8% more voters than Republicans overall. But, obviously, this matters less in a segmented wta election system.
Nevertheless, this was historic Dem turnout.
It was also historic GOP turnout.
Had either flagged, it would have been a landslide for the other party.
Exactly, I’ll believe it when I see it, Americans need to feel a hell of a lot more pain before they’ll vote responsibly.
