I do think the NYT editorial about how there is a supermajority of US citizens who are united but ignored is well worth reading. This clip alone tells the tale:
About 75 percent of Americans favor higher taxes for the ultrawealthy. The idea of a federal law that would guarantee paid maternity leave attracts 67 percent support. Eighty-three percent favor strong net neutrality rules for broadband, and more than 60 percent want stronger privacy laws. Seventy-one percent think we should be able to buy drugs imported from Canada, and 92 percent want Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices. The list goes on.
I am glad someone at NYT noticed. It’s hardly a novel observation, nor is it something that just cropped up. Folks have been observing the same thing for the duration of this century. I will draw on memory for the moment, but around the turn of the 21st century Michael Moore published a book called, Dude, Where is My Country? He laid out results from a whole bunch of opinion polls that made a very consistent statement: a significant majority of Americans wanted a lot of the progressive changes that many of us here advocate. The problem is that those of us making up this supermajority were often ignored then, and are ignored now. Almost a decade ago, I blogged about some polling numbers showing that a solid majority of Americans wanted more stimulus money to go to job development. That’s the sort of thing that Pelosi’s House could deliver on, but would die in the Senate in early 2010. That we have a solid majority who want to see progressive changes now and are ignored is no surprise at all given the current White House occupant and the current make-up of the Senate.
Thing is, this is a situation that is not sustainable. It is the sort of situation – where the people as a general rule are ignored by legislators and other political leaders – that political scientists might use to determine if a nation is a failing or failed state. I don’t think we’re quite there yet, but we are sure staring into the abyss.
I am not sure of any great solutions here. What I will note is what does not work: a divided opposition. Look at the disconnect between current despots and the people they are supposed to represent (e.g., Maduro, Orban, etc.). Look at how fragmented the opposition has typically been in each of those nations. Those who are in power get away with ignoring the aspirations of their people in large part because the opposition cannot get it together. We have an opportunity to not only get it together, but to keep it together. Do that much, and I think 2018 will truly be viewed by historians as a prelude for 2020. I am cautiously optimistic on that front.
Be smart: assuming the Democratic Party can reclaim the Senate and the White House, while maintaining the House, they need to be prepared to act forcefully on whatever program they run on and act forcefully on those concerns that matter most to those of us scraping by. Let’s also be prepped to hold their feet to the proverbial fire if they succeed in 2020.
Be smart (part two): Tired – “the US is divided; the Democratic Party is in disarray.” Wired – “we have the untapped energy of a supermajority in the US that can give us yet another Blue Wave.”
always appreciated…gracias.
By the way: I basically agree with the columnist’s conclusion. Usually two thirds of the population should count on getting what they want. To add to that: thwarting our will on a consistent basis for too long is a recipe for chaos.
Absolutely!!!
I am very happy that you see this as true.
The only question that remains…and it is a serious question…is as follows:
Which one of all of the possible/probable Dem presidential candidates can best reach the (so-far) non-voting 40%+ (plus whatever percentage of the white working class that voted for Trump in 2016 but is fed up with Trump’s arrant criminality and rapidly increasing sheer insanity), and thus provide a coattail-induced, absolutely Congress-unopposable landslide?
I think that it is O’Rourke.
You?
AG
Warren.
That would be fine.
Only…I don’t believe that it is going to happen.
Why?
Not because she’s female.
Because she…regrettably…projects very little “charisma.”
Among many other things, the U.S.presidential elections since JFK/Nixon have largely been about “charisma.” Or, if you will…appearing well on the screen. Except for perhaps the Jimmy Carter/Gerry Ford election, any Artificial Intelligence with even an ounce of understanding about how humans work could pick almost all of the winners of every election since the JFK/Nixon thing by simply viewing about five minutes of one of the debates during each election…no sound necessary.
Just images.
I think that she would make a great president.
I just doubt that she could win.
AG
Does the white working class’ alleged disgust with Trump outweigh this demographic’s susceptibility to the usual appeals to white ethnic nationalism? What makes you think the answer is “yes”?
Personal experience.
Lots of it.
Sure…there’s a 30% or so of the voting electorate’s white working class (plus or minus whatever) that seems to be continuing to maintain a working relationship with der Trumper. We’ll see how “plus or minus” that may be.
Soon.
Do you really think that they are all “deplorables?” I don’t. I think many of them held their noses when the voted for Trump…and when they have answerws polls as well…because they thought (with plenty of evidence) that the Dems in 2016 absolutely ignored them!!!
Do you really think that the entire Trump vote was due to “white ethnic nationalism?”
Or was much of it due to falling wages in relationship to rising prices, no help for the rural small town and working class suburban dwellers, a feeling that the industrial might of this country had been sold down the river by both parties and a desperate…and ultimately mistaken… hope that Trump might pay some effective attention to their needs.
There’s also a 40%+ of the entire electorate that has been sitting out the vote for decades.
Reach the disgruntled Trump voters and some appreciable percentage of that 40% of non-voters, keep the Dem base…what’s left of it…and you have a landslide victory.
Miss either of those two groups by an HRC-like mile?
Hello another four years of Republican crap.
Not me!!!
You?
AG
At the moment, I need to hold off on that question – at least until I get a feel for how all of these candidates handle themselves once the proverbial rubber meets the road. We still have a little ways to go until then. There’s just not enough information for me to form what I would trust as an adequate impression until then. I’m looking for something, obviously. I want to see how each of these candidates handles the pressure of debating each other, how they deal with oppo research and the inevitable bad press that will generate, how well they interact with real people, how well they can articulate some big idea or ideas that they want to go to the mat for once in office, how well they shake off attempts to rattle them (especially important if Individual 1 is still occupying the White House). That sort of thing. First debates are later this summer? That should help sort some of that out.
Unfortunately, one could likely undertake this exercise across many decades of American history. Our supposedly “democratic” government for the most part simply does not deliver the (progressive) policies strong majorities of the people claim to favor.
While the byzantine and anti-democratic structure of the 1789 Constitution has much to do with this, the utter unresponsiveness finally reached crisis levels with Gravedigger McConnell’s intentional destruction of a two term popular majority Dem prez (and Dem Congress) in 2008-2016, together with the creation of Der Trumper’s democratically illegitimate 5 man Supreme Court majority in 2017-2018. The “conservative” movement’s nationwide vote suppression and gerrymandering schemes post-Bushco (as well as the anti-voter decisions of Roberts’ Repubs) also lent a hand in engineering the final collapse.
As a result, the US most certainly has a failed system of government, and is working diligently toward becoming a failed society/culture as well. We now have the spectacle of 2/3rds of poll respondents acknowledging that Der Trumper is an actual criminal, while fewer than 35% support impeaching him.
At bottom, this indicates that an enormous percentage of Americans are simply politically retarded–75% sensibly think taxes should rise on billionaires/plutocrats, yet about 40% of that cohort are resolutely committed to voting against the only party that would would produce such a result. Hell, they vote for the party that proudly and openly campaigns to OPPOSE (to the death) that very result. The same can be said for every other “supermajority” issue one can name. Those who say they “want” such a result continually vote for Repubs, and certainly do not politically punish Repubs (like McConnell) who frustrate the paralyzed supermajority at every turn.
As for sustainability of failure, it sustains until there is a national Gotterdammerung which unites the left and the hapless “independents” against the forces of plutocracy and their white supremacist and Christianist foot soldiers–which happened exactly once with the Great Depression. Perhaps when the Greenland ice sheet simply slides into the ocean one fine day the failed Constitution will once again fire into “democratic” operation…..