One of the newsletters I get is In the Public Interest. The most recent one considered the lessons the Los Angeles fires ought to teach us. Don Cohen wrote something so compelling–and so true–that I am quoting it verbatim and at length:
The fires put into stark relief the principles that underlie our work: There are things that government must do and which only government can do. It is the public acting in the public interest.
The more than 7,500 fire fighters and emergency personnel from across the country who have been working around the clock battling these blazes are public employees. They are the ones heading toward the flames when everyone is fleeing. More than 1,000 incarcerated individuals who have volunteered to join emergency crews for 24-hour shifts for about $26 a day are also fighting the fires—our gratitude for their efforts shouldn’t dismiss the deep concerns we have about the program and policies that lead to it.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is, as its title states, a federal agency. It’s what we created that shows that we are all equally invested in handling the aftermath of emergencies, whether we live in hurricane alley, or the path of wildfires. FEMA is already helping, providing the wide range of emergency services that no private, for-profit entity can afford to do. And yet it’s been the subject of constant criticism and misinformation from the right. FEMA currently covers 75 percent of the cost of a national emergency; Project 2025 proposes reducing that to 25 percent.
And, yes, climate change is part of the reason for the severity and spread of the fire, and scrubbing the phrase from the statements of federal agencies, as conservatives have advocated, or calling it a hoax, won’t change the facts.
The fires underscore that land development and water management are not concerns that can be simply left to the market. The market maximizes profit in the shortest time frame. That is not what will build a sustainable Los Angeles of the 21st Century. The future of cities and the entire nation shouldn’t be left up to billionaires, like the one who hired private firefighters to keep his own shopping center safe, and then launched his mayoral campaign.
To say these things doesn’t “politicize” the crisis—the politics are already there. We are always in a fight for what we believe our responsibility is to one another in our communities and in society at large. That fight will get harder, no doubt, as conservatives pledge to drain government of its ability to act broadly for the common good. But we also have faith that more and more people will come to understand the importance of a government that works for us all, not just the very wealthy.
One of the saddest aspects of America’s current political divide is the widespread lack of understanding of the role–the purpose–of government. (I used to ask my undergraduate Law and Policy students to define “government” and its purpose. Most could not do so.)
A proper definition is critical, because political philosophy defines legitimacy as government acting in a manner consistent with its proper purposes.
There’s widespread agreement that government is supposed to prevent the strong from taking advantage of the weak, although the extent of that task is contested. Americans mostly agree, for example, that government should prevent obvious harms–theft, battery, murder, rape, etc. etc.–but that agreement dissipates when corporate activities harm smaller enterprises through monopolies or harm communities through improper disposal of toxic waste materials or other unfair commercial practices.
There is even less agreement when it comes to government’s role in the economy. Ideally–as the cited material suggests–government is our instrument for providing services the market cannot supply or cannot supply in a cost-effective manner. We socialize those services: police and fire departments, provision of roads and bridges and street lights, etc. There are large parts of our common lives that markets are simply unsuited to serve– and situations where leaving a service to the market is unnecessarily expensive and wildly unfair (health) or undermines national cohesion and civic unity (education).
The basic economic questions all societies must answer are: what sorts of tasks should be done collectively, by the mechanism called government, and which tasks are better left to the marketplace? How much authority should government have to monitor and regulate that marketplace, and for what purposes?
These days, to the dismay of citizens and political scientists alike, we must grapple instead with a different question: what should citizens do when those in power refuse to debate those questions in good faith, and simply use government to empower and enrich themselves?
But, as it stands at this crucial and chaotic time, government can no longer protect us from government. There appears to be nothing written in the Constitution or the Amendments that requires action to force elected officials to perform the duties and responsibilities they took an Oath of Office to perform. Had someone taken that action years ago against Mitch McConnell alone; we would not be living under Fascism today. That “One Monkey DID Stop This Show”!!!
Trump did NOT get where he is alone; without Mitch McConnell he would have had to return to his previous source of livelihood of ripping off smaller businesses and the public and using the services of porn stars at cheaper rates with only his current wife to complain.
“A proper definition is critical, because political philosophy defines legitimacy as government acting in a manner consistent with its proper purposes.”
1. Recognize the systemic/ historic nature of the issues including that it is both simple and complex
2. Build personal support/ community- it’s going to probably take more than us older people’s lifetimes for systemic answers
3. Look for the Truths- not one simple truth
4. Have hope while recognizing much of what currently seems hopeless to many of us
5. Have both urgency and patience
6. Don’t become infested with the hatred which fuels on Fear- caring love necessary
7. Sing alone and in community- the arts- heart based knowledge adds to intellect and book learning
8. Where we have capacity— share our “wealth”- money helps but we can give in non-monetary ways
9. Radical change is necessary and we need caring people- not only those as radical or not as each of us
10.We may be only a small percentage of the people but the majority are on the surface apathetic or just worn out and disempowered
11. Look at those Doing The Work- already- often they are among The Oppressed- Black Queer and Gender Non-Binary Women for example who CNN won’t point you to
12. Risk making mistakes while trying to minimize harm to others and ourselves
Yep, they divide and conquer. They mislead and lie, they manipulate and dominate. They prey on ignorance, and unsurprisingly, coerce people to work against their own self interests.
People believe that they are working in a movement for their own self-interest, but they are actually building their own prisons, and, working for the interests of the wealthy. They are working to ensconce the wealthy and powerful into positions that allow unfettered access to the power of government because they control it.
By time it’s realized, by time some, not all, but some figure it out, it’s too late. And then you have a whole bunch of bandwagon jumpers who are trying to save their own skins and will do whatever they need to do to carve out some sort of survival. And it’s always a negative. Usually, it’s controlling your fellow citizens, or, actively helping to imprison them.
The most recent, 1930s Germany. No one saw the pure evil until soldiers rolled through the concentration camps. Not that Germany had the only concentration camps, after all, the United States imprisoned the Japanese immigrants and citizens by the thousands. And others were imprisoned, because of religious or political beliefs. So, manifest destiny shows what the United States really was. Not a democracy, but fascist autocratic nationalism!
This is who and what United States was manifestly destined to be. Autocratic oligarchs controlling populations around the country in servitude. This time it is going to be brutal. If you can imagine more brutality than what we have seen in this country’s history.
There is no American exceptionalism, unless you are referring to cruelty! Unless you’re referring to division and brainwashing! Unless you’re referring to imprisonment and slavery! Then, America is very exceptional. You already see the raids, you see the mass deportations and splitting of families, and it’s a warning to everyone, be loyal to what we are or pay the consequences.
From day one, the US has had a mixed economy that depends on socialism and capitalism to function.
Part of the cultural dysfunction that has spread into government dysfunction is an aversion to socialism. Real men love profit, and the opportunity to rise above others in accumulated excess income, AKA wealth, is compelling to them. Socialism gets in the way because taxes limit wealth. We have been convinced we would be happier with more wealth because advertising programs make us to want more. We call wanting ever more ambition. That’s BS.
Without that plank in our eyes, we would understand that life is a combination of me serving I and we serving we in an organized way.
We depend on shared infrastructure daily, and visitors’ impressions of the country depend mainly on their experiences using it. We also use some infrastructure sometimes, like if we are caught in a fire, need medical attention, fly in a plane, or a foreign enemy rattles his saber in our direction.
The design of governments must divide their responsibility into scopes of responsibility by areas and functions; thus, schools have local, statewide, and federal components working together, each with elected oversight and career positions.
M.T.V. hates anything that doesn’t raise their lofty income further above expenses, and paying taxes limits it. They use much more infrastructure than we do but want it for free. They believe their responsibility is always to cut costs rather than please informed consumers.
On the other hand, displeased consumers believe it is their responsibility to live free of many things. The four freedoms that FDR and Norman Rockwell made famous are freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. They all take taxes. Who can afford to live without them?
JoAnn – the oath of office, and as such the Constitution itself, has become a joke to the GOP.
Their constituents demand that in a choice between Trump and the Constitution, they must choose Trump or face their wrath and a primary challenge.
I once attended a Spartz town hall meeting and during open Q&A politely asked about the conflict between her oath and Trump’s call to terminate the Constitution. I was shouted down by my fellow citizens (including “Communist!”, I kid you not) and needless to say did not get a coherent answer from my representative. It was surreal, and alarming.
One of the heroes emerging that history will honor is Michael Bloomberg. Trump can’t touch him.
when the drought started to take affect in calif central valley,(i went to HSchool there,1970/71) in 2013 I was hauling bees to the almond orchards,from Mn.in
early spring. every well drilling truck no matter how small was working. in that year, the central valley floor dropped 3 inches according to the geo people for the state. the following year, decree, central valley is the salad and fruit bowl of America. the gov passed that the water from the reservouirs to the canals that support this area, be used for continue growth of vines and trees, row crops etc get axed. since then the republicans like mccarthy (bakerspatch) became a lobbies best friend of local producers,with no regard for the actual needs. these republicans with trump behind them has led a march for water rites. this is just a takeover by private enterprises, ( and possible venture caps) of the water in calif. the fact is, the water that Southern Calif gets, is piped down and over the wheeeler ridge thru to castaic to So,Cal. they the capitolists want control of this. trumps blah blah is just a flack for what the republicans are supporting there in Calif. the water rites are for the people and farming. but when one can not get it$ way, we’ll now we see how trumps regard for the devistation in L.A. is just a hint of who hes really backing. hes into real estate along with his litter of self imposing snarls.
BTW. Excellent post George Marx.
I hear ya, John Sorg!
Where did the oligarch who paid private firefighters to protect his investment get the water? 😉
As we’ve learned, water has become a valuable commodity, but most is polluted beyond drinking due to industry dumping. Every waterway in Indiana is now contaminated due to the thousands of industrial farms—CAFOs. What would happen to food costs (meat and eggs) if our government (we the people) stopped subsidizing corporations by not forcing them to clean up the toxic waste they produce?
When I traced the blue-green algae in the Wabash River, I tracked it to Celina, Ohio. The beautiful lake was completely dead due to runoff from corporate farms. Through ditches and canals, the contaminated water made its way into Indiana. A group of Celina residents who’ve watched their property values decline dramatically know the problem but told me, “The government won’t force the corporate farmers to pay for the clean up because it would drive them out of business.”
So, not only do Ohioans and Hoosiers subsidize these corporate farms, but we also willingly go to the store and buy bottled water, which further pollutes our waterways. And we still complain about the price of a dozen eggs!!
I know who works on those corporate farms as well. The crops, eggs, meat, etc., aren’t being harvested because their migrant farmers aren’t showing up to work since Trump is raiding workplaces and deporting illegals. What do you think will happen to food prices? And Republicans applaud Trump’s grand plans to deport brown people.
As a collective, we aren’t very bright!
We could also delve into the energy market because when Trump unleashes the AI distribution centers and Crypto-miners on the landscape, we will have an energy shortage. These massive tech plants consume vast amounts of energy, and they want to connect directly to energy plants. The utility companies are complaining, but what will the Republicans do?
A large Amazon Cloud storage center in Pennsylvania is currently idle due to a dispute between Bezos and the local nuclear energy plant. What will Trump and the Republicans do?
Forty years of neoliberal capitalism have destroyed the US, and Europeans are waking up to the fact that being controlled by the US was a bad mistake. NATO and the EU are going to find themselves under severe pressure. Keep an eye on Argentina for clues of what’s coming in Trump’s USA. 😉
My Geology professor son, then an undergrad, told us that wars of the future would be fought over water not fossil fuels.
When visiting the CA central valley several years ago, we encountered a sign showing how the valley floor had dropped over 20 feet since measurements began, all due to the continuous pumping out of the aquifer beneath it.
Unfettered business interests have shown over and over that they cannot and will not self-regulate.
Locally, we can point to Franklin, IN and the children with brain cancer after exposure to toxic waste buried in metal barrels that corroded over time and leaked into the soil and water. The corporation was no longer in business and the EPA is now in charge of the cleanup.
Toxic waste was still being dumped into Lake Michigan by US Steel 2 years ago. They were fined $3M, chump change for a billion dollar corporation.
There are so many other examples not just here but in almost every state where profits to the passive investors and upper management meant criminal dumping to enhance profits.
The saddest part is that those actually doing the work required to dump are not those upper management individuals but the working class employees “just following orders.”
Planes are flying from the U.S. into Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Columbia, to name a few, with immigrant men, women and children in shackles, characterized as dangerous criminals. Many of those countries have refused to allow the planes to land or are struggling to accommodate the cargo.
My questions are, who is supplying the planes, who is flying the planes, who is maintaining the craft, who is guarding the passengers? It is not any politician. It is us, Americans all, who are doing the dirty work, often with enthusiasm.
I want to know who these enablers are. No journalist or publication makes any effort that I can find about who these individuals are. Yet, all of these actions are done in our collective name.
The Guardian published an article about the Koch’s network to ensure the tax cuts are extended, which saved them over $1 billion. They attached the actual AFP-Koch document that went out to all their supporters. I’ve linked the document so you can see the fantastic amount of propaganda used to make Americans think the $5 trillion added to our deficit is worth it:
“Simultaneous with the drive to win the national narrative, AFP will engage in one of its most aggressive “Under the Dome” education and lobbying efforts. AFP brings a unique and powerful mixture of perspectives and capabilities to our “Under the Dome” lobbying efforts. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are already hearing from a vast array of Washington lobbyists who are seeking benefits for special interests with niche tax provisions. They seek to exploit the expiration of the tax cuts as an opportunity to use the tax code to further pick winners and losers.”
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25501768-americans-for-prosperity-2025-investment-prospectus-copy/
The oath of office was intended to be taken by honorable men. We no longer have them in government as elected officials. And no, on day 1 we were almost purely capitalist; slavery was the law of the land. There were no income taxes, or review boards.
Find things that matter to most to ordinary people
Social security, medical insurance shortage of DRs NURSES????
AND beat on them 200 times a day every day. kinda like how the Trumpsters
grabbed the vote.
with the eggs & sexual stuff
Vern, there was a navy and a post office, so not a total capitalist system.
I would bet that only a handful of Americans can define the common good. Most who can have given some time to the service of the common good . Common good isn’t just about service by all of us to benefit all of us. It’s also seen in sacrifice by a few to benefit all of us.
I think a lack of certain kinds of education has led us to where we are today in America. I didn’t have mock government until my junior year of college! And the only reason I had the class was because I changed my major from Oil Painting to Public Affairs. Another deficit I have found is not educating parents on child development. I worked briefly at a nursery school and was able to see the vast difference between parenting styles, teaching styles, and children’s behavior. What do these things all have in common? Communication and Psychology/Therapy. How you communicate with your peers. How you communicate with a parent or a child. How children communicate with each other.
The common good would be human rights! And that would be in conjunction with civil rights. Every single individual is not going to be wealthy or healthy, but, folks need to know that they are not going to live in a tent on lower Wacker drive in Chicago, or, under the railroad track bridges in Knoxville Tennessee.
When they demolished health care for the mentally ill, they opened up facilities and let all of those folks walk out. They had no ability for the most part to provide for themselves. Now the Germans in the ’30s, executed all of the mentally ill. They also executed others a day deemed a drag on the economy. The elderly were a big target, and, orphaned children. Is there compassion and empathy anywhere in this country we see today? There is none, so human rights, the right to food, water, healthcare, education, shelter, and a peaceful existence, is nowhere to be found! Because as we are told, all of these issues are the result of leeches sucking a living out of the public dole trough. Of course, they won’t indict the Musks, of the world, or the Bezos clans, because they are doing nothing but making their wallets heavier, off of the public dole. But, I suppose it’s there inherent right to be on that public dole, because of their genetic makeup. And of course more money than anyone could spend.
While people starve, while people bleed out, while children are murdered in thestreetss, while mothers are carrying their dead children and weeping, while people are treated worse than cattle at a slaughterhouse, everyone can sure spend billions on war,!. Why? Has war ever stopped anything? Really? You have to have a compassionate and empathetic tack in your sails to change. Unfortunately, this country wasn’t based on that, because as mentioned above, it’s not a democracy, and, no one is willing to be their brother’s keeper. So there you go, now you see why the Nazis executed so many, not just the Holocaust, but many others reached the showers and ovens. The proud boys are going to have a part in government? Well, the brown shirts will be very active as time moves forward.
“To preserve their lives through the greatest tribulation of all human history men will run for cover. Hence, they will turn to human, political governments and commercial organizations, which dominate the earth like lofty mountains, as backbones of the present time…..”
https://youtu.be/69thYD-0Hlc?si=_X4ORLX-ocy14qAJ
We need MORE of what this guy is Marshall Rosenberg is saying.
Hey, John, American exceptionalism lives own the degree of bigotry and stupidity!
“…lives in the degree….”
I do not think the United States of America is the private property of the Republican Party.
The Republicans and Christian Nationalists are promoting the idea that personhood is established at fertilization, but refuse to acknowledge that their society thereby incurs any responsibility for ensuring that the resulting person has a place in the society even though we all know that a person is not capable of individual survival until they are several years old and educated. Deny the new mother necessary healthcare (including nourishment), necessary shelter, necessary education, etc. And brand the resulting individuals as leeches on society.
This is why Vernon uses the phrase “everything Republicans touch dies. ”
Beyond stupid! Just plain cruel!