Category Archives: Bad Democrats

Most Voters Too Young To Remember

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This post first appeared at Government Cheese – Chronicling the collapse of democracy.

I was thinking about how most voters out there have no memory of all kinds of things people who are older remember.

Tax Cuts Will Pay For Themselves

They don’t remember Reagan promising that tax cuts for the rich will cause them to invest in the economy and bring all kinds of great things that meant the tax cuts “will pay for themselves.” They didn’t watch the resulting shift from government taxing the rich and doing things for people, into “borrowing” FROM the rich, doing nothing for the people, and paying massive amounts of interest TO the rich. AND the resulting massive inequality. They don’t remember that there weren’t billionaires. Now it’s billionaires with all the money vs people in food lines, etc.

Deregulating Corporations Will Unleash Growth And Bring Prices Down

They don’t remember Reagan promising that deregulation of corporations will “unleash” growth, causing them to provide more great things so we would all be so much better off. Now they pollute at will and scam everyone. They don’t remember the promise that getting rid of antitrust regulations would force prices down and make everything better. They didn’t watch as merger after merger transformed the economy into a few giant monopolies that charge whatever they want and make you pay monthly to use products you already paid for.

Elections Were Competitive

They don’t remember competitive elections before campaign finance was undone. Regular people could run for office. Now a few oligarchs decide elections with “dark money” so no one knows who pays for the ads and bots and propaganda.

They don’t remember the Democratic Party standing up and fighting for working people.

Before The Propaganda

They don’t remember that TV news used to have rules about serving the public interest. They don’t remember that commercials were not allowed to lie. They don’t remember when the benefits of belonging to unions was allowed to be discussed on the air. They don’t remember that “markets are better at making decisions than government (i.e. “democracy”)” was laughed at. They don’t remember that there was a fight to allow non-whites to vote. They don’t remember that women couldn’t get bank accounts or credit cards without their husband’s permission. They don’t remember that government existed to make people’s lives better.

There are all kinds of things they know nothing about…

For a lot of them ALL they are old enough to remember is Trump coming down an escalator and saying immigrants are all criminals who rape and murder, etc…

Abolish ICE — Stop Dehumanizing People

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If you give them an inch … And look, now they’re taking their mile.

Crossing the border without authorization is a misdemeanor. It only became a crime at all thanks to white supremacist eugenics arguments in the 1920s. They said “they” are “invading” and we have to keep “them” out. So they passed laws to keep them out.

Have a read: CNN, When Americans tried to breed a better race: How a genetic fitness ‘crusade’ marches on,

They started swarming across America’s border, millions of desperate families fleeing poverty or seeking political asylum.

But many people were repelled by their presence. Some warned that the country was facing a “genetic invasion” and that whites were “losing the demographic game.” Another said, “There will no longer be an America for Americans.”

One leader even thought of a radical way to keep them out.

“Can we build a wall high enough around this country so as to keep out these cheaper races?” he asked.

It sounds like a Republican Party campaign ad.

This idea that the border exists to keep “us” safe from being “invaded” by “the other” is so ingrained now that the public accepts the concept – and the far right can use it. So instead of acknowledging that immigrants are human beings, Democrats are adapting the Third Way argument that some lesser people are “illegal” – less than human. ICE is showing “excess,” we still need to “remove” them.

You can’t fight racist bullies by appeasing them. Spain’s government understands that and is showing the way. Go read this whole thing.

Why Spain is offering amnesty to 500,000 undocumented migrants,

Foreign nationals with clean criminal records who arrived before the end of 2025, and who can prove they’ve lived in Spain for at least five months, will soon be eligible for renewable one-year residence permits. People who applied for asylum in the country before December 31 will also be able to apply. Migration Minister Elma Saiz said Tuesday that she expects applications to open April through June.

This extraordinary mass regularisation – the first in Spain in more than 20 years – was born from a citizen-backed proposal signed by some 700,000 people and supported by hundreds of civil society groups, including the Catholic Church.

While most immigrants in Spain have legal status, the country’s booming economy has also drawn hundreds of thousands of largely working-age people from across the world to work in the country’s underground economy. Undocumented migrants work on construction sites, on farms, in shops and restaurants or in people’s homes, cooking and cleaning and caring for children.

Don’t put borders around your humanity.

China Didn’t Take American Jobs

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Trump says other countries took advantage of the US. He says they “took” manufacturing and jobs from the US. This is just not what happened.

American Companies Did This

American democracy gave workers good wages and protections. It passed laws restricting the ability of companies to pollute.

“Investors” and executives running Amereican companies wanted more money. They wanted bigger profits, and saw America’s unions and resulting good wages and benefits as obstacles to greater profits – for themselves. They saw democracy’s protections and regulations and pollution controls as obstacles to greater profits – for themselves.

American investors and exeucites found a way around the borders of American democracy. The companies moved manufacturing to lowest-common-denominator places: lowest wages, minimal protection of workers, low regulation, allowing pollution etc. American companies did this, not evil foreign plots to take American jobs and companies.

The weaknesses of American democracy allowed American companies to move jobs out of the US. Those companies used this as a lever to force wages, taxes and regulations down INSIDE the US. This is a lot of what led to the inequality the US has now.

And they used the great profits to buy politicians who moved American democracy out of their way.

Foreigners didn’t do this to the US, American companies were allowed to do this.

THAT is what needs fixing. The weakness of American democracy, allowing government to be controlled by wealthy interests did this. The only way to undo this is to fully restore American democracy.

Healthcare CEO Killed

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United Healthcare apparently was the worst of the insurance companies for profiting from systematically denying claims. You pay an insurance company to cover you if you get sick, then when you get sick they refuse to cover you. As Bernie said about Wall Street, the business model is fraud. Except Wall Street takes away your house and life savings. Health insurance companies take away your health and sometimes your life.

These companies continue to be allowed, even encouraged to operate this way. Everyone knows this is because they pay politicians to do nothing that might keep the profits rolling in. Everyone knows this.

Top executives who pay politicians have impunity. Everyone saw this with Wall Street, when not one Wall Street executive was prosecuted after financial fraud caused the 2008 crash. (The ‘W’ administration got more than 2600 convictions of bankers for the S&L Crisis and 1706 bankers went to prison.)

Even when government is obviously and visibly absolutely corrupted, and refuses to prosecute the most horrific, egregious crimes, giving citizens no justice and no recourse, it remains wrong to “take the law into your own hands.” 

Even when the entire system is corrupted and everyone sees executives enriching themselves at the expense of the public and the planet, and “public servants” refusing to do anything about it and then when they leave “public services” they get lavishly compensated “jobs” or “consulting fees” “speaking fees” or “book advances” or other methods of payoff, it still is wrong to “take the law into your own hands.”

HOWEVER,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

PS Trump SAID he was that, but he ain’t that.

How Dem Betrayal Brought Us Trump

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Of all people, David Brooks, in a confession, does a good job or explaining Trumpism in Voters to Elites: Do You See Me Now? Read it all, but this about moving manufacturing out of the country,

We embraced a free trade policy that moved industrial jobs to low-cost countries overseas so that we could focus our energies on knowledge economy enterprises run by people with advanced degrees. The financial and consulting sector mushroomed while manufacturing employment shriveled.

In a word, “NAFTA,” which is the shorthand codeword for “markets over democracy” neoliberal policies that drove everything upward to the wealthy. Jobs went away, social services dried up and people were left on their own, infrastructure crumbled, entire regions were devastated.

I wrote this in 2010, and I think it describes why we have Trumpism:

As you drive from town to town in Michigan and Ohio you see one after another a ring of the “big box” stores and national chain stores around each city. You also see the “brownfields” of rusted-out, closed factories, empty, falling-down buildings. Then you go to the downtown and you see boarded up houses, empty storefronts, deteriorating and deteriorated communities, idle people standing on corners. As you drive into these towns you can just see what is happening in a nutshell.

You used to hear about how Wal-Mart was predatory, how it would show up in an area and after a while the downtowns would dry up, local business-owners would go broke, local business employees would be laid off, and the local people would have to work for low wages at Wal-Mart, while the region’s spending money would go off to the wealthy few who run these things.

Well a juicy story of devastation like that one gets around, and there are those who hear it and say, “Hey, that’s a great idea, I wanna get me some of that.” So the Wal-Mart business model has taken off and now there are any number of these vultures, ringing the cities and towns around the country, so often private-equity owned. They are draining away the lifeblood of the downtowns, fighting off the unions to keep wages down, even demanding tax breaks to move in and “create jobs.” You see all the same stores circling every town now, running all of the local and regional businesses unto the ground.

Here are some pictures from the inner Lorain area but you see it all around: (click for large)
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Democracy Was Lost Decades Ago

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1) Trump got 2 million fewer votes than 2020. This election turned on the 12 million who voted for Biden in 2020 but not Harris. I guess there’s historical value in finding out why they didn’t vote. Gaza was clearly one factor in this. I’m not saying it was all Gaza but Michigan would have gone to Harris except for Gaza. This is very clear when you look at Michigan’s vote count, Fewer than 100,000 votes would have given Michigan to Harris. But this doesn’t account for the 12 million nationwide.

2) As I wrote, this was inevitable Dems have been fighting a holding action for decades, and the dam broke. I wrote about how this loss is the culmination of the long-term, strategic, billionaire/corporate-funded “Conservative Movement” plan that has played out since the 70s. The Master Plan podcast does an excellent job of showing how this played out. If you want to know what has happened, please listen to this podcast. You can’t fight that with short-term efforts at election time. The country was lost long before this election.

3) I think if there is a root of this loss during the Biden admin it was that big Build Back Better bill was split in half, with the social spending split from the infrastructure part. The Chamber of Commerce wanted the infrastructure part. Biden promised not to allow that part to pass without the other part. They passed the first part. Manchin/Sinema worked with the right to kill the social spending. Progressives refused to vote for one but not the other, then corporate Dems used that as a cudgel to defeat progressives.

That social spending was what would have made people FEEL that the economy was working for them. That’s why the Chamber got it knocked out of the bill.

4) But really it is #2, which many of us “dirty hippies” have been warning about since the early 2000s at least, trying to get ANYONE to set up a counter-effort. Democracy Alliance was an attempt…

5) I do not see a way to overcome this. The world has entered a new era of oligarchal control. Democracy was defeated some time ago. Just look at all the studies showing that literally nothing has been passed in the US without the support of the wealthy, regardless of population support.

6) If it is as bad as we think the “blue” states will have to decide their own way forward apart from the rest of the country. California and others should become countries and try to fight off what is happening.

The Debate And The Election

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This post first appeared at Government Cheese (Chronicling the collapse of democracy)

The way I look at the election and in particular this debate is, “how the fuck is Trump even or ahead in the polls, and how does the voting public see things?” Not, “how do I see things?” How in the world does the voting public see their lives under Dems and Biden as worse than Trump?

So you look at the information environment that regular people are in. And you try to see what they see.

I know what the public saw in the first 15 minutes of the debate – which is all that matters. Impressions are set and no one cares after that.

I am of the belief that you have to vote for Biden anyway because of the existential threat of Trump or at this point any Republican. (I wavered because of Gaza but am still there.) And I was shaken by what I saw, wondering even if Biden can even stay alive until November, never mind another 4 years. And the brain was not functioning. I see no future in a Biden vote. No hope for more of what we saw that last four years, only a Harris ascension quite soon. But I still will vote Biden – only because of Trump.

Will the debate change things? The right-wing-dominated information environment regular people live in already had Biden as old and demented, so all that happened is that was confirmed. For people outside of that information environment, Trump is clearly understood as extremely dangerous, and that was confirmed if you could stomach even watching him which I could not and did not except for a bit.

Anyway what matters now is are the polls going to change? I think maybe not. I think enough people already had it in their mind that Biden is too old but Trump is too dangerous.

If we can change the information environment America could come back. At this point that means overcoming Murdoch, Sinclair, private equity, billionaires etc. Musk and his cohorts did not buy Twitter to make a profit.

What Biden And Dems Should Say About The Economy

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Biden and Democrats should be explaining to the public that, “The economy is starting to turn around.”

Polling vs The Reality

Polling shows that people feel “the economy” is doing really poorly right now. Every poll. “Grim” numbers.

Lots of top Democrats are reacting to this by saying that all the “numbers” show that the economy is actually doing really, really well. It seems like these voices are declaring that the voters are wrong, which is politically a terrible approach.

What To Say?

Telling the voters they are wrong is a recipe for electoral disaster. What should Democrats be telling the public when the numbers are great but the public says they’re feeling terrible about the economy? Here is how this was successfully handled in the past.

When Obama was running for reelection people were in a sour mood and a “businessman” (Mitt Romney) was running against him. Republicans were telling the public that government should be “run like a business” (Strip the government and harvest the public for profit?) and this meant they should elect a businessman.

The “Explainer-in-Chief” Speaks

Along came Bill Clinton to speak at the 2012 Democratic Convention. Whatever you might think of his policies, Clinton had amazing spot-on political instincts. He said Obama feels the country’s pain. He said things have been bleak for a long time. He said we’ve taken hit after hit, faced problem after problem. But now we’re turning the corner. Everything is in place thanks to Obama and things are starting to get better. You will feel it, just give it a little more time.

He explained things so well he was labelled “Explainer-in-Chief.”

Here is more of what Clinton said in the 2012 speech that I think re-elected Obama

He inherited a deeply damaged economy. He put a floor under the crash. He began the long, hard road to recovery and laid the foundation for a modern, more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good new jobs, vibrant new businesses and lots of new wealth for innovators. (Cheers, applause.)

Now, are we where we want to be today? No.

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Is the president satisfied? Of course not.

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!

PRESIDENT CLINTON: But are we better off than we were when he took office? (Cheers, applause.)

And listen to this. Listen to this. Everybody — (inaudible) — when President Barack Obama took office, the economy was in free fall. It had just shrunk 9 full percent of GDP. We were losing 750,000 jobs a month.

Are we doing better than that today?

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Yes! (Applause.)

PRESIDENT CLINTON: The answer is yes.

Now, look. Here’s the challenge he faces and the challenge all of you who support him face. I get it. I know it. I’ve been there. A lot of Americans are still angry and frustrated about this economy. If you look at the numbers, you know employment is growing, banks are beginning to lend again. And in a lot of places, housing prices are even beginning to pick up.

But too many people do not feel it yet.

Read the rest here. It’s actually a fun read.

My Point

Clinton single-handedly reelected Obama with that speech. My point is, Biden & Dems need to be saying, “We understand how hard it has been and we’ve been working on it. It is starting to turn around.” Not what they’ve been saying, “Shut up stupid voters, things are great, stop whining about the economy.”

I have spoken.

Biden Needs A Primary Opponent

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There’s a lot of indication/speculation that Biden is negotiating over the debt ceiling after all. Biden wouldn’t do this if he had a primary opponent.

By talking AT ALL he’s validating Republicans threatening the world. Validating this long-term strategy to cut taxes to force democracy to yield.

The correct “negotiating” position is to say we need to restore the pre-Reagan tax rates on the rich and corporations! That was the beginning of this Republican game of ratcheting taxes down and then demanding austerity because “deficits.”

They SAID SO over and over again. Reagan’s budget director named it “strategic deficits.” Reagan said it was “cutting the government’s allowance.”

W Bush said it was “extremely positive news” when the budget went into deficit after Clinton’s surpluses (which caused recession) because it meant they could force more budget cuts.

The ONLY :negotiating’ position on deficits and debt is restoring the top tax rates from before Republicans started this game.

From 2012, Deficits Were On Purpose To Cause This “Crisis”

It was the plan. They forced these deficits on us on purpose. Reagan called it “strategic deficits.” It was a “shock doctrine” tactic, to get us to panic, and then move in with their “solutions.” So we are arguing about how much to cut out of the things We, the People do for our benefit, which the wealthy and their corporations get vastly wealthier and more powerful.

It was the plan.

Mint The Coin!

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It is argued that the way around the “debt ceiling” argument is for the government to mint $1 trillion platinum coins and deposit them with the Federal Reserve. This would then reduce the “national debt” by $1 trillion for each coin minted.

The problem people have with this is people just don’t understand what money -IS-.

Money Is Created Not Mined Or “Raised”

I hope everyone reading this understands where banks get the money they loan out from. The answer is they “create” it. They are not loaning out deposits. They create the money out of thin air. If you don’t believe this, go look it up and come back when you understand it.

Like banks, the US CREATES money; it doesn’t get money from taxes or borrowing. The US does not round up gold to trade for armies anymore. The government doesn’t have to “borrow” money or get it by taxing. It just doesn’t. It creates it.

Our “money” says right on it that it is “legal tender for all debts public and private.” It doesn’t say you can trade it in for gold or something, it says it IS the money.

The US govt “appropriates” spending. Money is CREATED to use as the intermediary – the token – of that appropriation. The money the government spends minus the money it taxes bak is the amount of money in circulation. (Think about what “paying off the debt” would mean – it would require taking $30 trillion out of circulation.) Stephanie Kelton does a good job explaining all this in her book about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT).

Republicans Understand Money

Republicans understand money and know that Democrats and the public do not. This is why they ALWAYS use deficit spending and then beat Democrats over the head for “borrowing.” They do this so they can deliver things to the public and keep Democrats from doing the same. They do this every time, and Democrats respond by being “responsible” and imposing austerity on the public.

MMT and Inflation

One last important point. MMT does NOT say we can just print all the money we need. It explains that our govt needs to analyze spending for inflationary effect BEFORE spending. Like how China built tens of thousands of miles of HS rail – they ramped up steel plants etc first. What we do now is superstition – don’t spend “too much” or you “might trigger” inflation. And then you “fight” inflation by putting people out of work.

So Why Can’t Leaders Admit This?

Thinking about WHY Biden and Yellen and all Republicans and Wall Street types maintain this illusion that it would be “irresponsible” to mint the coin or get rid of the “debt limit.” It seems that maintaining the public’s “kitchen table” misunderstanding that the US gets money from taxes and borrows the rest, is the underpinning of the neoliberal order.

If the powers-that-be ever admitted that the US creates money through appropriation, and can control inflation by planning, (and therefore give everyone a job with good pay,) that would undercut the ideology that “markets” are superior to public planning, that capital is better at allocating resources than the public.

The website We CAN Have Nice Things explains MMT and links to many sources, articles, videos, etc.

Math Degree Needed To Understand Medicare

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You’re going to need a Math degree to follow this, as with everything about Medicare. Actually I HAVE a Math degree and have trouble following it.

Before I Start

(You can skip this section. I wish I could have. You’ll wish that when you’re turning 65.)

I’m old enough that I am on Medicare. Figuring out what to sign up for was AMAZINGLY difficult. Part A, Part B, Part D (privatized) and then you need a private “Medigap” Supplemental plan. You can get Plan A or B or C or D or E or F or G. I think. See if you can understand this from Medicare.

Note: Medigap plans sold to people new to Medicare can no longer cover the Part B deductible. Because of this, Plans C and F are no longer available to people new to Medicare on or after January 1, 2020. However, if you were eligible for Medicare before January 1, 2020, but not yet enrolled, you may be able to buy one of these plans that cover the Part B deductible (Plan C or F). If you already have or were covered by Plan C or F (or the Plan F high deductible version) before January 1, 2020, you can keep your plan.

Or you can get Medicare Advantage, which are really almost all privatized scams. And then there are private supplements for vision & dental (both absolute scams worthy of another post!!!) Payments for these all come out of my Social Security.

Fortunately where I live we have Kaiser, which is NOT a for-profit corporation so it isn’t a scam and actually is pretty good. I was already on Kaiser so I stayed on Kaiser’s Medicare Advantage.

Now I’ll Start

ANYway… That’s not what this post is about.
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Biden’s Problems Go Back To 2009

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This post is in honor of Seeing the Forest’s 20th Anniversary.

As the country dissolves into fascist turmoil, it’s useful to look back at How We Got Here. 2009 was The Year Democrats Could Have Done Something, but chose not to.

The W Bush Years

‘W’ Bush lost the 2000 election but was appointed president by the Republican Supreme Court. The Bush years were terrible for the country and ended in absolute disaster. He oversaw an administration of lies, corruption, enrichment of the rich, scams targeting the poor… The Bush administration ignored warnings so we were attacked on 9/11 Republicans used the attack to polarize the public into an illegal war for oil.

Remember this?

“People like you are still living in what we call the reality-based community. You believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality. That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you are studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors, and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

THAT was how the nation was “governed.” The Bush response to Hurricane Katrina and the financial collapse showed the public how that sort of “governance” works out for them.

And the voters knew it.

2008 Election – The Public DEMANDED Change
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