I might as well face it: We can’t do much to reform government unless we can reform American culture. In a culture where the people tend to support one another, “universal healthcare” and “welfare state” are not dirty words — they are expected obligations from the government. Progressive values have to be passed on from generation to generation; it cannot just be a passing phase. If America is not capable of having a good culture, then I hope to get a country with a culture that is more welcoming for me.
You are exactly right - we need our government to have more progressive values. And the people need to quit being afraid to embraced those values. There is a working solution; it's too bad Bernie Sanders isn't listened to more closely. He is training some who are listening, and that's good.
Please keep writing these thoughtful pieces, Matt. We need the perspective of history to understand what is happening right now, and what may be possible in the future, which gives us hope and a reason to persist, to not give up on our country.
Your analysis omits a crucial factor in Democrats’ failures: timidity and a lack of vision. The voters gave Democrats a trifecta and the Ds bet a dollar. If they ever get there again (I shudder at the thought of how much destruction we will have to endure to get there), we need a playbook that roots out every anti democratic factor in our system. No more 435 cap. Multi-member districts and ranked choice voting. No Hastert Rule. No filibuster. Term limits for an expanded Supreme Court. Take a page from Trump and put it all in one Big Democracy Bill. Think big, swing for the fences, and ignore incremental thinking.
I would take issue a bit with your timidity comment, Lawrence. Not that there haven't been timid Democrats, but as I try to demonstrate here, the dynamics of Reagan-era politics made it risky and difficult for Democrats to go big (fun fact: Republicans were in the same position for the same reason--and faced the same criticism from their base--during the New Deal era). I do agree with your point about going all in for institutional reform, and I will address this in the second half of the Project 2029 series.
I think too many of the Democrats are still in that timid state of mind. I love when Jasmine Crockett, Hakeem Jeffries, Jamie Raskin, Gavin Newsom, Chris Murphy, & others come out swinging and calling BS on the AFP & felon47!
Swinging for the fences... yes. Here goes. It's time for a new Constitution. The Guardian has an article from 2024 (*before* the election) covering a book just published by Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berekely Law, that puts forth an argument for just such. (The title is 'No Democracy Lasts Forever, so you can Google it. I wish I could embed the link, but I guess that's not possible right here.) And there is at least one proposal I know of that presents a good starting point. (You can find it with the Google prompt 'site:democracyjournal.org summer 2021 number 61'.) So I'm a little unconvinced by the worry by Democrats at the prospect of petitions calling for a Constitutional Convention 'running away' with the right-wing folks that want it to happen creating a new Gilead. They wouldn't be the only ones to show up to such an event, and we'd all have to vote to ratify it in any case. At any rate, the Wikipedia article 'Second Constitutional Convention of the United States' is an interesting read.
Thank you. I will share this with my family who are struggling as most of us are. We know enough to understand that other democracies offer universal health care, that poverty and major income inequities in the culture/economy are not healthy, that climate action worldwide is essential and the US should be leading. Destroying long time alliances makes us less safe. Failing to recognize that America is a richly multicultural nation, failing to make Americans' lives better, all the damage Trump is creating, will I hope bring Americans to conclude that we need to keep democracy, and Trumpism must be rejected.
I might as well face it: We can’t do much to reform government unless we can reform American culture. In a culture where the people tend to support one another, “universal healthcare” and “welfare state” are not dirty words — they are expected obligations from the government. Progressive values have to be passed on from generation to generation; it cannot just be a passing phase. If America is not capable of having a good culture, then I hope to get a country with a culture that is more welcoming for me.
You are exactly right - we need our government to have more progressive values. And the people need to quit being afraid to embraced those values. There is a working solution; it's too bad Bernie Sanders isn't listened to more closely. He is training some who are listening, and that's good.
Maybe there's some hope for us.
Please keep writing these thoughtful pieces, Matt. We need the perspective of history to understand what is happening right now, and what may be possible in the future, which gives us hope and a reason to persist, to not give up on our country.
Your analysis omits a crucial factor in Democrats’ failures: timidity and a lack of vision. The voters gave Democrats a trifecta and the Ds bet a dollar. If they ever get there again (I shudder at the thought of how much destruction we will have to endure to get there), we need a playbook that roots out every anti democratic factor in our system. No more 435 cap. Multi-member districts and ranked choice voting. No Hastert Rule. No filibuster. Term limits for an expanded Supreme Court. Take a page from Trump and put it all in one Big Democracy Bill. Think big, swing for the fences, and ignore incremental thinking.
I would take issue a bit with your timidity comment, Lawrence. Not that there haven't been timid Democrats, but as I try to demonstrate here, the dynamics of Reagan-era politics made it risky and difficult for Democrats to go big (fun fact: Republicans were in the same position for the same reason--and faced the same criticism from their base--during the New Deal era). I do agree with your point about going all in for institutional reform, and I will address this in the second half of the Project 2029 series.
I think too many of the Democrats are still in that timid state of mind. I love when Jasmine Crockett, Hakeem Jeffries, Jamie Raskin, Gavin Newsom, Chris Murphy, & others come out swinging and calling BS on the AFP & felon47!
Swinging for the fences... yes. Here goes. It's time for a new Constitution. The Guardian has an article from 2024 (*before* the election) covering a book just published by Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berekely Law, that puts forth an argument for just such. (The title is 'No Democracy Lasts Forever, so you can Google it. I wish I could embed the link, but I guess that's not possible right here.) And there is at least one proposal I know of that presents a good starting point. (You can find it with the Google prompt 'site:democracyjournal.org summer 2021 number 61'.) So I'm a little unconvinced by the worry by Democrats at the prospect of petitions calling for a Constitutional Convention 'running away' with the right-wing folks that want it to happen creating a new Gilead. They wouldn't be the only ones to show up to such an event, and we'd all have to vote to ratify it in any case. At any rate, the Wikipedia article 'Second Constitutional Convention of the United States' is an interesting read.
Thank you. I will share this with my family who are struggling as most of us are. We know enough to understand that other democracies offer universal health care, that poverty and major income inequities in the culture/economy are not healthy, that climate action worldwide is essential and the US should be leading. Destroying long time alliances makes us less safe. Failing to recognize that America is a richly multicultural nation, failing to make Americans' lives better, all the damage Trump is creating, will I hope bring Americans to conclude that we need to keep democracy, and Trumpism must be rejected.