What do scolds like yours truly mean when we bemoan low levels of civic literacy ? Rather obviously, it’s an accusation of lack of knowledge of America’s legal/philosophical framework–the Constitution and Bill of Rights, an understanding of what is meant by the “rule of law.” But it’s also, increasingly, a reference to citizens’ lack of historical knowledge and worrisome ignorance of the realities of the governing and economic environment they inhabit.
Civic ignorance isn’t all the fault of individuals who simply don’t care or don’t pay attention. For many years, high schools have neglected civics instruction and whitewashed America’s history. And the fragmented nature of our information environment positively encourages misunderstanding –or often, offers politically-motivated mythology–about the performance of Presidential administrations.
We’ve just emerged from an election in which Trump benefited handsomely from that latter ignorance, as voters blamed Biden for an inflation that was worldwide, even though, under his administration, the U.S. brought it under control far more quickly than other nations managed to do.
Trump’s narrow win points to a major problem posed by Americans’ low levels of civic literacy–the erroneous assignment of credit and blame.
Simon Rosenberg recently considered that problem.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris inherited one of the worst first days an American Presidential Administration in our history. Trump left us a dadly bungled pandemic response that caused hundreds of thousands of Americans to die unnecessarily, an economy in deep recession and a global economy teetering, a Capital City and our democracy that had just been attacked by Trump and his mobs. What Joe Biden and Kamala Harris walked into on January 20th was without doubt one of the worst first days an American Administration has ever faced.
Trump and Vance will inherit one of the best. The Biden-Harris job market has been the best since the 1960s. Wage growth, new business formation and the # of job openings per unemployed persons have been at historically elevated levels. Inflation has been beaten, gas prices are low, interest rates are coming down and our recovery from COVID has been the best of any advanced nation in the world. The dollar is strong. GDP growth has hovered around 3% for all four years of Biden’s Presidency and the stock market keeps booming. The uninsured rate is the lowest on record. Through historic levels of domestic production of renewables, oil and gas America is more energy independent today than we’ve been in decades. Crime, overdose rates, the flows to the border and the deficit have come way down. Biden’s big three investment bills are creating jobs and opportunities for American workers today and will keep doing so for decades if Trump doesn’t gut them. We’ve begun stripping away the requirement of a four year college degree for government employment and other jobs too. We’ve lowered the price of prescription drugs, capped insulin at $35 and this year all seniors will enjoy a $2,000 Rx price cap. The Iranian-Russian-Hezbollah-Hamas axis in the Middle East has been deeply degraded. The Western alliance has been rejuvenated…..
Rosenberg morosely itemizes what we know is coming: Trump will take credit for Biden’s accomplishments. If he doesn’t manage to tank the stock market, its health will be due to him.
The economy will be strong due to him. Crime will be down due to him. Seniors will have their prescriptions capped at $2,000 due to him. Bridges will be built due to him. Record domestic gas and oil production will happen due to him. Gas prices will be low due to him. Iran and Russia will be weakened in the Middle East due to him…….
Rosenberg writes that Americans need to engage in a “long and deep conversation” about why the story of the Biden-Harris administration failed to resonate with the public–why so many Americans simply failed to understand its really remarkable performance–and dramatically mis-remembered the chaos and ineptitude of the prior Trump administration. As Rosenberg writes,
There has been one big story in American politics since 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell – Democrats have made things better for the American people, Republicans have made them worse. We’ve repeatedly brought growth, lower deficits, rising wages, American progress. Republicans have brought 3 recessions in a row, higher deficits, American decline and now unfathomable MAGA ugliness and extremism.
Americans’ confusion of celebrity with actual accomplishment is responsible for some of the phenomena I lump under “civic illiteracy.” If Joe Biden had the glamour and oratorical skills of a Barack Obama, perhaps the successes of his administration would have been more widely understood.
Trump will take credit for Biden’s accomplishments. Those of us who know better need to be loud and persistent truth tellers.
Rather than saying “President X did this” or “President Y did that,” we should get accustomed to saying “during President X’s term, Congress passed these bills into law” etc
MTV (Musk, Trump, Vance) have no regard for national, global, or local politics. They have adopted the mantle of “conservative,” which used to mean one thing and now means another entirely.
They represent the new conservative politicians, celebrity influencers, and entertainers. Taylor Swift, without the music, dance, lyrics, costuming and arrangements
Now, it means buying every good and service anyone needs from people who profit from selling them. It means reducing the size of government until, as Grover Norquist put it, it is small enough to take home and drown in the bathtub. The goal is to eliminate countries in favor of corporations so that the free market economy is the only thing left.
Instead of the United States of America, they represent a global cabal of CEOs who own and profit from the consumption of the earth.
In 2017, I was counsel on 2 petitions for writ of mandamus before SCOTUS in which folks sought to challenge the 2016 election. The petitions cited Russia’s cyber invasion (violation of the Invasion clause Art IV, sec 4), in the 2016 election and trump’s acts of treason in obtaining office as bases to declare that election’s results void. In one interview I was asked (I’m trying to be as accurate as I can about the interview): why did I view as void an election that had been deemed legal by the 3 branches of gov’t (drum roll ending with a left flam): The President, the House and the Senate. Last evening I watched “Shindler’s List.” Previously, I’d only seen out-takes from it. I still believe Pres Biden should invoke emergency powers and declare 2024’s election results void. Otherwise, we’ll have a dictatorship. How soon will trump’s Reichstag fire occur?
Let’s see, so we are going to force Denmark to relinquish Greenland, we’re going to make Canada part of the United States, and, we are going to take back the Panama canal? And possibly even invade Mexico and Central America? (Immigration, drugs, and the Panama canal)
It’s not so much the complete imbasilic perception that people have concerning what’s happening, it’s the loudness of this imbecilec reality drowning out actual reality. There is going to be some really bad crap going on after January 20th, and folks can run but they can’t hide! What does anyone think about the repercussions DT’s blathering will produce? People are flocking to Central America, and Mexico. They think it’s going to be a panacea away from all of the insanity here! All these folks heading out of this country, are going to reap the whirlwind of anti-Americanism! And that ain’t going to be good!
There are enough gifted orators to point out the actual truth of the matter, what’s actually happening and who is actually responsible for the bad and the good. But for some reason, you don’t hear anything, maybe some crickets!
Positive action should always be backed up by very loud braggadocio. That seems to be the only way folks can get the message, they’ve been so used to that style, since Reagan really, when he was the one that started gutting social security and replacing it with IOUs. He also was responsible for the massive drug imports in this country, basically, using it to build clandestine slush funds for clandestine conflicts, and probably someone’s bank accounts.
Reagan’s FEMA Chief was the one that wrote about building facilities and getting Rex 84 on the books to handle so-called insurrections and mass deportations. Rex 84 or, readiness exercise 1984 was designed to handle those from the south of the Mexican border, and the war on drugs which allowed this country to butcher black consolidations of power, influence and wealth with a pandemic of crack cocaine and heroin! What’s happening today is just the fermentation of the sewage that has been accumulating since the beginning of the 1980s. And if you’ve ever noticed how a cesspool or septic tank functions, the worst of the worst is always floating at the top!
A lack of common sense and too lazy to look beyond the headlines for facts is a simple explanation for much of our chaos and deep fear of our future as America. I don’t know where to start looking for answers to questions regarding any president of the United States having the authority to buy other nations or rename an ocean for themselves. Or if he can imprison those he simply does not like them, their skin color, their sexual orientation, their religion or their politics. Can he actually take away anyone’s birthright citizenship? The Constitution tells us what they can do and what they should be doing but doesn’t appear to provide limitations on their actions. Does the current Catholic Republican Supreme Court actually have the power to bestow unlimited actions and protections from stopping their powers at certain points.
Loopholes in all laws have been a problem throughout this country since laws were printed for people to study and decide even life or death for others using a questionable word or phrase of misplaced punctuation. We began this country by fighting the Revolution to free us from the United Kingdom’s powers over us and now Trump want us to help citizens of the United Kingdom to free them from the powers over themselves.
Much is commented on regarding how wrong the Republican party has become; every word is true, but the Democratic party was not loyal to its own President, vicitimized the Vice President as a replacement candidate then blamed her for losing the election. If the sitting Democratic party is disloyal to the President and Vice President; why in God’s name should I believe they will be loyal to me if I send them MORE money? We have come through four years of a massive boondoggle and come out the other side empty-handed.
It is time Democrats in office started “Taking Credit” for their lack of unity and their disloyalty to all of us which is what lost the election and put all of our lives in jeopardy.
I don’t understand why it’s such a mystery why a black mixed race woman with a Jewish family didn’t win the election, during the height of a war. For as much as everyone says we need to get along with maga ts, I have spent my whole life staying away from racists and I don’t have any intentions of starting now.
I live in a tiny blue park neighborhood surrounded by the working poor and some of the nicest racists.
For most of these people civics wouldn’t matter, their hatred is their driving force. The only thing maga bros hate more than black, brown and immigrant people is women. Maga bros and bras were never going to support a immigrant Indian Jamaican woman. Sadly I have personally had these conversations, it is the last conversation I have with that individual. These people will laugh and smirk when you ask if it was the economy.
Racism may not seem to be rampant in the upper educated cohorts, but it is running wild in maga world.
id like to agree with the economys overall boom. but as a still working class, the cost of living by the earned bucks to live in it has been less than substantial to save anything. since im in this working class status, ive seen what a lack of price controls and just overall greed by the small sect that now controls the majority of the living standards. food,energy etc. no mention of the shelved proposals in DC to control wall streets,take over. instead we see how one side and most of the other isle in DC has been taken over by wall street and doesnt give a rats ass who suffers as long as it is not their sow in the silo. we have given free reign to a few to con us,without truth and fact. they have turned mainstream media into a joe goebbels propaganda machine. they all are complacent in our takeover by the rich. this isnt a free country anymore. it has become a game of loyalty to a few who have used capitalism to undermine the very goverment who polished thier shoes. instead of people for the people. thier con game has become for us only,let all others eat cake. sure Joe has done well, but like previous admins for the last 50 some years,it went to the top. if $50 trillion was funneled to a few, then obviously America isnt a dream anymore, its a black eye given to the people,the majority who made them rich while the rich raped us for their own needs.no matter how its said, we who worked to preserve our democracy and keep this nation number 1,we have become the slush of the rich peoples contempt. your main street has died, our education system lacks merit and America on jan 20 will be a sham goverment for wall streets elite.
I agree with Helen. No matter what people say, Kamala Harris lost because she is a black mixed race woman with a Jewish family. In addition to racism, there is no denying the misogyny behind the most unqualified incompetent man being elected TWICE but only when running against a far more qualified, competent, and experienced woman. Too many Black, Hispanic, and Muslim Americans that voted for Biden in 2020 were not willing to vote for a woman in 2016 or 2024.
John S, I’m Canadian. Trump’s imbecilic comments make my blood boil. I’m a very peaceful person, but–to paraphrase an American “hero”–you’ll take my country when you pry it from my cold dead hands.
I always think I couldn’t detest Trump more, and every day, he proves me wrong.
What MAGA/DOGE is doing is right out of the authoritarian playbook. They will “flood the zone” with bullsh*t” until people will not know what to believe, or will believe in nothing. They must control the narrative.
Podcasts and newsletters like this one will be very important to maintain any semblance of a fact-based media environment.
Jack Smith, we have largely escaped the economic situation you wrote about because I have been lucky in life. However, my overactive brain constantly looks for connections and explanations for everything under the sun and beyond.
The world is changing at warp speed, and everything seems to change continuously. The changes seem to favor some humans but also leave many behind. One aspect of the current change is that we moved on from the Industrial Revolution into the information age. Now, AI is another great reshuffle underway.
You have to wonder how to understand almost anything because change obsoletes it as soon as learning occurs.
John Sorg; apparently the Canadian Premiere has offered to buy Alaska, his way of politely refusing Trump’s offer of statehood for Canada.
We have become the political version of SNL before the world…and all prior to Trump’s inauguration. Will he storm up the steps of the White House to takeover and leave Melania in the back seat of the limo as he did when the Obama/Trump transition happened?
How fast will Trump be “Taking Credit” for winning the election and leave the MAGAs and others in his dust? How many of those he promised high level positions to will he “walk back” his promises to replace them with a wealthier nominee? LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!
But, today let’s continue honoring a good man who has left this world, President Jimmy Carter, who deserves the honor and accolades which includes all American flags flying at half-staff on inauguration day.
Yes, John Sorg. Yes, JoAnn. Yes, yes, yes. The cumulative ignorance has finally shown its rotten fruits. And to the point of today’s blog:
Yesterday, I had to visit the local emergency room for a very high fever. While waiting to be called, I sat next to an Hispanic woman who told me of her ills. She also commented that she was worried that her Medicaid wouldn’t cover all the expenses. It somehow came to who she voted for. “Oh, I voted for Trump … because I wanted to see change.” Me: “And what change would that be?” She: “Well, just to move in a different direction.” Me: Do you have people who might be subjected to deportation?” She: “Yes.” Me: “Is that the change you mean?” She: “Well, no. Who did you vote for?” Me: “I voted for Harris … because I wanted change too.” She: “Oh.” Me: “I wish you well. I’ve just been called. Good luck.”
Then, in a fever dream I had a vision of Elon Musk offering Donald Trump $10 Billion for the nuclear code football so he could terrorize the entire world … you know like an old black and white sci-fi serial from the 1930s. Then I woke up and saw the “news” conference from the Florida septic tank…
John, “it’s the loudness of this imbecilec (sic) reality drowning out actual reality,” makes good sense.
Helen, I’m sure you are right about the fools and their bigotry/misogyny.
I believe that trump’s noise about taking over other countries is all just meant to be spectacle, a shiny object to wave in people’s faces as he dismantles the constitution, and Democracy.
And, yes, had Biden, or Harris gone out and talked/boasted about the economic wins of his admin. the result may still have been different.
A lot died with Covid including many brain cells—too many people are exhausted still and just don’t wanna tune into civics cuz it’s too HARD!
Keep scolding, dear heart and consider getting a Bluesky account to spread your message.
Sometimes it seems as if the world is becoming the world of “Robocop”. Where, instead of government, five corporations have divided the world amongst themselves. In the next four years no merger will be questioned, antitrust actions will be a thing of the past, the regulatory system will be on the trash heap.
Although I don’t think we’re going to be down to five major corporations, there will be significantly fewer than we have today. We’ll be well on the way to being a dystopian state. Can we come back from that? Who knows?
I’ve never heard of Simon Rosenberg, but he sounds like a democratic party loyalist. He probably told everybody that GenocideJoe was the “sharpest he had ever been” until the debate with Trump. Good lord, anybody not mesmerized by their TVs could see that Joe has declined for the past four years and should have passed the torch to Kamala about two years into his presidency.
The GDP and NYSE translate to nothing for the average American. #NADA
More people became homeless under Biden than any POTUS before. Why is that when an “economy” is doing so well? What’s the disconnect between the numbers and reality?
The average working-class stiff did not experience a net wage increase because higher costs exceeded their income. The problem is not inflation in the natural sense of the economic word; it’s price gouging. AI, for instance, has cost renters billions of dollars. The top rental companies used AI programs to adjust their rental rates, and all other landlords followed suit.
As Whitney Webb pointed out yesterday, “Either you want to expand America’s imperialist march into Mexico, Canada, and Greenland, or you want to shrink government – but you can’t have both.”
John Sorg mentioned the clandestine illegal drug operations under Reagan being used to fund off-the-book CIA programs. If you do a little digging, some of that money ended up in the CIA’s In-Q-Tel joint venture fund that provided seed money for Silicon Valley. I don’t know of any high-tech outfit that didn’t get seed money from the CIA. They don’t call them the “PayPal Mafia” for nothing.
Our systems are created to extract money from the working class and funnel it up to the oligarchs. If you look at the founders’ work, you will see that they intentionally avoided a Central Bank. They didn’t want the money changers to take over the US like they did the UK via London City. Jefferson and Madison were vehemently opposed to letting the few wealthy bankers run the show. Hamilton won out, and so it goes. As Bernie Sanders always says, but nobody pays him any attention, “The system is rigged and corrupt.”
Well, this rigged system controls the uniparty. Trump pretends to be a populist or an outsider and has told the working-class stiffs that he’s going to blow it all up. Even God Elon tells his followers that he is the “Champion of the Little People,” and they believe him. LOL
There are so many ulterior motives among this new crowd that Sheila could write 3-4 posts daily and still not keep up with current events. 😉
Todd, as soon as you start name-calling, I stop reading.
Harris/Walz lost because of the race, gender and misogyny. Period. Sad to say, many who wanted change will see it come, fast and furious, but not in any way that will benefit themselves.
World leaders have to be looking to solidify alliances with anyone other than the U.S. TDump’s kid flies to Greenland on his father’s private plane to let the people of that country know how well they will be treated. These are mob tactics. Intimidation, spoken softly, is still threatening. How many of those who voted for him are going to be willing to be drafted into his service in order to invade all of our neighbors? Is this what they voted for? No? They did not voted FOR anything. They voted against a woman of color with a Jewish family.
We all will suffer from their hate writ large. He is mentally ill and so easily manipulated. Does anyone believe that the shiny objects are the real issues? The manipulators are moving fast to take over all of the resources they need to control the wealth and exercise authoritarian power.
Is that why the DNC and the Democratic establishment stomped Bernie Sanders run for president, because of his ethnicity?
How has the Gaza genocide and Ukraine War been degraded as Rosenberg suggests?
Simon Rosenberg is most likely a Zionist supremacist–as many seem to be among this forum’s commentariat.
JD, you give permission for the DP to keep running on social issues, which is a complete waste of time. Nobody pays rent with their race cards. I know so many people who demand social, racial, and LGBTQ+ equality, yet have no problems with capitalism run amok, that it’s as bad MAGAts supporting “billionaire outsiders.”
Both are ignorant of the problem and are subjects of the red/blue propaganda used by the oligarchy to keep us divided. It’s pretty laughable.
While the lower classes fight over social issues, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. Our community in East Central Indiana has homeless encampments all over the place – in woods, abandoned homes, along our river banks, etc. One homeless man just died because he froze to death. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I can’t understand why a BOOMING GDP and stock market didn’t “trickle down” to help shelter suffering American citizens.
Why in the world would Canada and Greenland want to join the USA? LOL
Now a days it’s so easy to focus on all that is going wrong but truly our strength as people is to keep faith with our hopes, dreams, and to follow through on what we think makes the world a better place to be in. I have been supporting a nonprofit that plants trees, restores watersheds, and empowers women. I supported a veteran’s cause that provides therapy and gives memorial plaques to families of veterans. I have been knitting shawls and scarfs to give away to the homeless and nursing homes. I would like to support the children in IPS schools but I don’t know how yet… maybe I can find a way. I understand everyone’s fears here in Sheila’s blog and beyond but we can’t let it paralyze us in fear… We got to keep moving closer to the great solutions/environment we want. As Gandhi said “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Todd, you make the same mistakes you rant about by conflating data points that have no relationship to one another. A booming economy in the United States has ALWAYS exposed those who lack the skills, abilities or drive to join that parade. ALWAYS. Even during the worst days of the Great Depression, “only” 1/3 of the workforce was chronically unemployed. Hoovervilles popped up across the country. Throw in the great migrations from the dust bowl and you see a shift of an entire demographic from one lifestyle to a completely different one in two completely different environments. Despite the efforts of Democrats, our capitalistic system is still a “tough shit” system that, with Republicans removing guardrails yearly, is accelerating toward that magical place when it all collapses inward because not enough people have enough money to consume the greed-driven prices on EVERYTHING.
Todd,
As I recall, Trump promised, promised! That evangelicals would never have to vote again. Now, looking at it but not analyzing it, you would think that means no more elections?!? But I think it could mean something much different. That some of these Evangelical groups might attempt their own insurrection, because they would not agree with DT’s agenda. Some of them probably want to focus on the third rebuilding of the temple, lol! Except the temple is already been rebuilt three times. But that detail is just a little glitch in the artificial reality of the unfounded dogma that allows them to believe DT is the son of God!
If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they. Ecclesiastes 5:8
Years ago they used to call this reaping the whirlwind. In other words there is always repercussions. Like Martin Luther King quoted, “the moral ark of the universe is long and cumbersome, but it eventually bends towards justice” (Abolitionist, Theodore Parker) unfortunately, there’s a lot of great pain and misery before any repercussions are enacted. Humans never learn lessons from history! And yet, you have those that worry about public opinion concerning what has happened in the past. If those that occupy civilization today, have not felt the lash of the whip, so to speak, themselves, reading about it never brings forth the actual fact of the matter. It’s painful! It’s brutal! It’s immoral! And it’s what humans do to other humans!
Hang in there JoAnn, Just like Hitler and Mussolini, there are those that will receive their comeuppance. But that Cosmic Arc of Justice sure is slow.
I’m sorry, Vern, but I don’t believe your data about the unemployed being left behind because they “lacked skills or initiative” is accurate. Much of our unemployment was caused by employees of banks and other financial industries, not to mention the number of farmers who were bankrupted. As with capitalism, the financial speculators always cause economic downturns, and then they trickle down through the class system.
My point was that homelessness has ballooned during an economic boon, so apparently, the upside is only experienced by the financial speculators and the upper 10%, or maybe 1%.
Muncie, Indiana, has been referred to as Middletown, America, since the Lynds studied it in the 30s. Muncie has become a MAGA Mecca now because the country has left us behind. We are flyover country. We have more people suffering while the Democratic Party brags about their accomplishments over the past four years. Maybe the East Coast players are flourishing, but it’s NOT trickling down or lifting all boats due to the system being rigged and corrupted.
For those who use data to inform themselves, I found a useful website that details growth or lack thereof in Indiana. I suspect there’s a similar site for every state. What’s clear is that level of education is a much more important component in determining financial opportunities and success. Mostly rural counties are losing population and jobs.
The divide between urban and rural has grown considerably, and it’s unlikely to change in the short-term.
https://www.hoosierdata.in.gov/
Todd, Muncie has been losing population and jobs since 1970. It’s the poster child of cities which were heavily manufacturing-oriented and dependent on Detroit carmakers.
Sorry, Todd, but the data supports the shift of job skills away from those who are inflexible enough to keep employed in the same craft/skill set/vocation. If, for example, a hospital upgrades its IT system and the clerks aren’t versed on the subject, cannot for some reason get educated to the changes for personal or other factors, ZIP, they’re out of work. During the Great Depression, with so much of industry simply shutting down, factory workers – like my father – were left hanging and ended up digging ditches after FDR started saving the working classes from the vagaries of the oligarchs (We agree there). Read my novel, “The Immigrant’s Grandson” to get a view of that time. Also, my most recent novel “Jurita’s Song” addresses the dust bowl nightmare.
As a resident of Indiana – and I from Ohio – we observed the disappearance of the auto industry in the 70s and 80s that displaced millions of workers in our states who knew nothing else but the machine shops and assembly lines that served the big 4. Poof! Gone. I left Cleveland in 1968 when its population was just at 900,000 people. Today, the city still struggles to recover from the great exodus of the auto industry with a population just under 400,000. Old neighborhoods are boarded up. Crime is a horror show. I’m sure something similar is happening in your town.
But you’re right. Nothing will change the trend lines except an outright revolution by the working classes once they realize that the Republicans forgot to supply the Vaseline.