The daily headlines confirm the utter incompetence of the MAGA Republicans Trump has selected to run the federal government, and it understandable that rational people are experiencing varieties of depression. At least in the short-to-medium term, millions of people will be hurt. Badly. Assuming Trump gets his tariffs and his appointees, there will be dramatic inflation and domestic chaos; worse still, the chances of triggering World War three will be higher than they’ve been in a long time.
Not exactly the sort of situation to inspire hope. So how would a Pollyanna approach what promises to be a very dark time?
The answer to that question lies in the “what comes after.” There is no doubt that, barring a miracle, the next few years will see significant destruction of federal governance. We have already experienced the erosion of longstanding norms of democratic behavior in Congress; the narrowness of GOP victory (and the return of several congressional lunatics) will undoubtedly keep the House dysfunctional. Trump’s Supreme Court has already demonstrated its willingness to abandon the rule of law. With the guardrails gone, it will get very ugly very quickly, and a lot of people will suffer.
But the thing about ugly is: it engenders anger and resistance. And it ultimately collapses.
Over the past two hundred plus years, American law and policy have changed–often for the better, but also for the worse. Our electoral system has ossified, becoming less representative and less democratic. Our economic system has morphed from capitalism to a corporatism/crony capitalism that heavily favors the haves. Our social safety net is unwieldy, unnecessarily bureaucratic and underinclusive. Our citizens no longer trust the government or each other.
The underappreciated Biden Administration moved to correct much of the economic damage–and those moves were widely successful. Had Harris been elected, it is likely that she would have continued along that path of incremental improvement–but she couldn’t have dislodged the moneyed interest groups or repaired the the baked-in electoral dysfunctions–the Electoral College, the bloated version of the filibuster, the widespread gerrymandering and other structural mechanisms distorting the “voice of the people.”
The term “creative destruction” was first coined by Marx, who applied it to capitalism, but it has subsequently taken on a variety of other meanings. Here, I’m using it to describe a process in which widespread destruction of existing systems facilitates the birth of a better replacement. As we watch the Trumpers’ purposeful destruction of a governing framework that has developed over 200+ years, we need to consider what we will create to replace it. Any such consideration requires that we be clear-eyed about the nature of our structural, economic, legal and educational failures and inequities.
It will also require a national conversation on a basic topic: what is government for?
In coming posts, I will lay out my own argument, which is essentially that government is the mechanism through which a society provides two necessary infrastructures: one physical and one social. There is very little disagreement about responsibility for the physical infrastructure, although the pro-privatization movement made some (largely unsuccessful) inroads. Instead, our political disputes have largely centered on the contours of the social infrastructure.
America’s obsessive focus on individual responsibility and achievement has obscured recognition of the equally important role played by the governing institutions within which we are embedded. Elizabeth Warren summed it up in a much-cited comment.
“There is nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody. You built a factory out there – good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory… Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea – God bless! Keep a hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”
We Americans too often fail to recognize the extent to which individual success is dependent upon government’s ability to provide a physical, legal and cultural environment within which success can occur.
Bottom line: We absolutely need to resist the illegal and inhumane actions of the incoming administration. But we also need to think long and hard about the repair job–the dimensions of an improved social contract– that will be needed when this eruption of corruption and bigotry has run its course.
The crushing of real American’s trust, hope and faith in our government and the destruction of our economic system as we try to keep today’s bills paid while waiting for Trump’s tariffs to hit us as our rights dwindle away, will be lost for those of us who helped build this country to be a global leader. Our generations will die out; leaving behind new generations who will know no better than what Trump has to offer. We are trying to deal with what was termed a “transition” in the past political transfers of power to a takeover by a mentally incompetent Dictator who will switch this nation’s loyalties to Russia, North Korea, China, Iran and other Dictatorships and will crush all allies who will die fighting to save democracy.
Ignore Pollyanna and throw away your rose-colored glasses and face the fact that we lost democracy; it was bought and paid for by the wealthy who own the corporations which have escalated prices to levels where putting decent meals on our tables is a thing of the past. Our medical care will become more cost-prohibitive till we die out due to lack of decent medical care. Our younger generations will have no choice in education but will be brainwashed by the creation generation; all science will be disallowed and probably become illegal in the eyes of the MAGA leaders.
I can’t leave this world soon enough to suit me and the longer I stick around here the more of a burden I become to my family and the government which I worked and paid for for years.
“Bottom line: We absolutely need to resist the illegal and inhumane actions of the incoming administration. But we also need to think long and hard about the repair job–the dimensions of an improved social contract– that will be needed when this eruption of corruption and bigotry has run its course.”
We missed our chance to stop it; is there really any chance we can or will survive it to see it “run its course”?
I think one reason that people no longer trust the government is because it cannot perform many of its basic functions.
Many people are making predictions about what will happen when the new folks take over, and I am going to make mine here. I believe that since the GOP will have a majority in the Senate they will do away with the filibuster in its present form. they warned the Dems that “you will be sorry if you mess with it now”, and they could prevent and delay meaningful reform by using it or threatening to use it. But now that they are in power they will not allow the Dems to use it against them. Let the record show…
My version of Pollyanna is that this collection of dolts will screw up the destruction of our government. Why? Because their entire beings are incompetent. Most of the creatures dredged from the black lagoon of Republican politics are so self/me oriented that even reaching out to their “employees” will expose their laughably bad skill sets. The more clever of those employees will make the selected “leader” look even worse.
And we know how important image – especially TV imagery – is to the orange hairball. McMahon for SecEd? Please.
I learned a new word yesterday: Kakistocracy—government by the worst, least qualified, and/or most unscrupulous. That’s what we have to look forward to; they’re a pack of jackals who are willing to burn the house down because they don’t like the paint color.
I’m looking forward to going to Chicago next week to celebrate Thanksgiving with our daughter and her family. It may be the last happy Thanksgiving for years, or ever, because my husband and I are no longer spring chickens. Like JoAnn, I’m sometimes overwhelmed by a sense of doom that is too exhausting to cope with. But for the sake of not only my own grandchildren, but those of others, I’ll slog on, and do my best to help inform those who weren’t fortunate enough to learn about government and civics in school.
Absolutely. Right now we can protest with calls to our elected representatives in Congress, nationally and locally. But we have to be prepared for the four years after this administration. Thank you.
This note is for Connie Haas Zuber regarding her recommendation for ACRES Land Trust in yesterday’s comments section (I hope she reads this): Connie, thank you for mentioning them. I was not aware of ACRES until I read your comment today, and when I looked them up I was impressed enough to become a member! Then I signed up for an event in February! Many thanks,
James
I do not disagree with what Sheila or JoAnn stated, it’s a dismal future indeed, but I also believe the Trump Administration will collapse under the weight of its own greed and ignorance,
The democrats who I have supported as an independent has allowed the MAGA and so called Christian Nationalist take control of Patriotism, Christian Religion, Economy and The American Flag as theirs alone, along with all of the symbols of our nation, with little or no pushback, they have focused on social and cultural issues and not the “Economy Stupid” that effects every American from witch makes all other issues possible.
They have not tried very hard to point out the inequities that the trickle down economy promised with on one pointed out that while waiting for their trickle the people at the top was sucking every drop of trickle with the straws of entitlements.
My concerns is that by the time the American people finally realize what’s happened to them the systems of our governing structures will be out of their reach to change. And living in the Deep South for the last 12 years I have seen where their religious beliefs have actually convinced them that the Trump movement is god sent to them and to go against Trump is to go against god. And they are very serious about their beliefs, and yet even the suggestion that the man of sin they believe is may well be the very Antichrist that have feared for generations, could get you burned at the stake if they could get away with it.
And yet if their is such an Antichrist what better place in the world to woo the unexpected souls to follow him knowing that by capturing Americas religious followers first the rest of the world will be easy as they willfully march into hell on earth created by their own ignorance to follow blindly.
But as I stated I have to believe the Trump administration will collapse in 3 years, by trump over reach but a bigger threat may be lurking in the shadow named Vance, odds are Trump my very well not last more than a short time due to physical or mental health and we call all see that, but Vance stepping in could be even more dangerous but may not be electable in 28 due to his widely held dislike by everyone on both sides and my try but would not command the bulling power of Trump. We shall see !
We do not know our own future much less the future of any big we, much less the biggest we. They are not ours to know.
What seems likely to me is that all of those futures will be subject to rapid and ground breaking change. Even over my brief eight decades, I have experienced it first hand.
We all have capabilities limited by our past choices and histories and none can expect to alter the course of history. It takes we to do that.
By showing up here, and other placetimes we each show up in, we are part of a movement to maintain the Cognitive Revolution and make some of the changes coming up. The bigger the we, the more profound the changes we become part of.
Life is about adapting to environment. The environment is change. Adaptation has to keep up with change and the fittest will survive.
Thank you, James!
One correction to Sheila’s post and the comments above: it is the Democrats and Biden who have brought us to the brink of WW3. His permission to launch our missiles deep into Russia was very stupid, just like his surrounding Taiwan with our military. The MIC controls Washington, but they have more cooperation with the Democrats. This is one of the DNC’s downfalls.
Also, Trump is aligned with Israel – not Iran. He’s made many promises to AIPAC due to his major donor, Miriam Adelson. To reiterate, Trump is a nationalist and wants to bring the military back into the States and retreat from being the world’s police. I actually support this idea. Ukraine was and has been a debacle. And, at least the ICC pulled the trigger on the Fascist war criminal, Netanyahu, yesterday.
While many Democrats are sighing relief over Gaetz’s withdrawal to avoid scrutiny against the Republican/Democrat parties for not filing charges against Matt, take a look at Pam Bondi’s Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pam_Bondi
She might be worse than Gaetz if that’s possible. Her entire history is plagued with ethics violations, including a bribe from Trump himself while she was Florida’s AG. She makes Todd Rokita look sane and angelic.
Unlike in 2016, when Trump chose loyal Republican guards to run his administration, he is choosing loyalists to him. One interesting note from yesterday: Ole’ MTG said that Washington is full of secrets, and it shouldn’t stop Matt from being AG. That was before he withdrew. I hope she shares those secrets now!! 😉
I’m with Vern on this one. On a leadership scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the strongest and 1 being extremely weak, Trump gets a 3. He surrounds himself with 1s and 2s because he lacks self-awareness and is narcissistic. His ego is so fragile that he cannot handle people being smarter than him, so he surrounds himself with yes men and women. This is a fatal flaw in leadership theory. It will be an utter disaster because our country is too large for one person to manage—especially an incompetent person who is in a state of decline due to his age. If he is already clashing with Elon Musk, I expect them to start eating each other in late January. And don’t forget that Vance is owned by Peter Thiel, who thinks he is brilliant like Musk and Trump.
This is shaping up to be a clusterf**k!!
It’s obvious a lot of MAGA voters made bad choices, but I am convinced a significant number of those choices were sensibly made based on the low-quality, deliberately misleading and purposely limited information they had available to them. People do not have good sources of information now. There are too many options, and they’ve gravitated away from the dwindling legacy news and information sources (which have their own serious problems!) into the welcoming arms of the right wing information sphere that has been carefully and purposefully built up over decades to capture them. The center and left let this happen! We need to catch up to what was the future and is now the present. The is blog is a small part of the kind of new center-left information sphere I’m talking about, as is a lot of Substack, where I spend a lot of time, and possibly Bluesky, which I need to explore. The word needs to get out using today’s methods.
The biggest question I have is: How do we get the message out to all who need to see or hear it? Social media might work, if it didn’t have algorithms that keep people in their silos. Podcasts might work, but they are self selected. Newspapers and magazines are great for the older people, but we know that people under thirty eschew them.
Can we get a big enough cadre of individuals to monitor social media and write op-eds and get them placed where the people who need to see it, do precisely that?
Kakistocracy is exactly what we will have, and i do hope that it collapses under the weight of its own shit.
We are approaching a point of massive change in the tenor of our form of gov’t, and I do not think we will have enough of a consensus to build a healthy, caring one out of its ruins, or not for a long time after many of us are gone, as evidenced by the tens of millions of people who could be so ignorant to have voted for the orange bozo.
As Vernon is won’t to write, I’m glad I’m old.
I dare to question the optimism expressed here today. Four key “legs” of the (perhaps imaginary) stool of “American Democracy” have been shredded, likely beyond repair: public education which teaches critical thinking and 21st century literacies (media, visual, data), strong local journalism, a common culture right/wrong, decency/indecency, objective rule of law for all.
I am being faced with a serious health issue that must be addressed quickly. There is a sense of urgency not only of my own but of my care team. With luck and insurance still affordable and effective, the matter should be settled before he is sworn in. That being said, how many competent medical personnel are seeing the future and getting out now? Letters alerting me of my own medical providers leaving the profession come almost every week now.
My family member who voted for him is a vet with health issues. Apparently, if a vet has any condition that s/he cannot directly relate to military service, the VA will not cover it. At least that is the plan according to DOGE. How does s/he proved direct cause decades after the fact? Think Agent Orange.
Locally, I am appalled at the usual good-old-boy reaction to the allegations of sex abuse that is being given tepid reaction among the Dem caucus in the General Assembly. The Repubs are more than happy to drag out the issue, watching their opponents hoisted by their own petard. I am more than ever convinced that the deepest and most ingrained bias in this country is misogyny combined with racism. Unfortunately, there are plenty of women who seem to be happy with that condition and, in fact, may be its most consistent purveyors of that bias to future generations of all sexes.
Watching the destruction and the complicity of those who not only direct but enthusiastically participate in the collapse, makes me so very fearful and angry for the future generations, my own included. To quote that Wicked Witch, “Oh, what a world!”
Sheila, this is at least a significant article that you have growing here, and hopefully a book coming out of that. Go for it!
You have been gifted with the vision, the career record, and the network of connections to make that possible, and the country needs to hear what you have to say. This is a calling… Do it!
From The Guardian today: “While marches, encampments and various forms of civil disobedience are great at commanding attention, they rarely succeed on their own. Strikes, walkouts and boycotts, on the other hand, can cripple an economy – a reliable pain point for the elite class.
In recent decades, the strength of the US economy – and the relative comfort it has afforded many of us – seems to have acted as a pressure valve, dampening the fervor of domestic protest movements. As much as progressives might wish for a better world, few Americans have so far been willing to take real personal risks to challenge the status quo. (And tweeting doesn’t count.)
The biggest question I have is: How do we get the message out to all who need to see or hear it? – Peggy:
1.) Get personal support/encouragement – “close in” – others who will be your allies through the coming days, months, and years – also good advice givers (may be girlfriends, a life partner, children, neighbors, co-workers – online group(s) etc.),
2.) Strategize/Think – where/with whom/ how to focus your energy outward: local, state, issue(s) – who you wish to reach,
3.) Start or try to Increase – your work/focus – related to 2.) above – recognizing you are in it for the long-haul – avoid burnout
4.) Learn from your mistakes – and honor – the grief, anger, fears you may have – recognize and support your own humanity
5.) Hope = for the best – or least “bad” – and accept that you are one – caring – committed individual – while building Community – Meaning – Caring etc.
Personal Example – me – George: 1.) White Men for Racial Justice (WMRJ), Aware-LA, Reckon With, JVP-BA – Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area + more including my life partner Brenda, 2.) Trying to work with Fellow Privileged white men – particularly nationally – Now Moving Outward – into trying to work towards reaching – YOUNG white men – who may have voted for DT, 3.) Started several new Groups – recently – leaning on Paul, Greg, Scott, Ryan (a woman), looking for ties with other individuals – on multiple efforts, etc, 4.) – Abigail my (fellow autistic) personal therapist helps a lot for me here, reflect – while cuddling Aziz – our littleist, newest, sweetest dog – really experience my fears and hurts – deeply in multiple ways, 5.) – So many things – so many thoughts etc.
I think of Black Americans who fought for generations to achieve their full rights and their fight continues. I think of Ukrainians who voted out a Russian puppet and are now fighting to preserve their independence. Let’s show some sense of backbone and get to work. The election didn’t decide our future; what we do in the next few years will.
Issues – not parties or candidates?
“People want a government that works for them. Center an issue you care about, ask who is responsible for solving it, find allies and and move forward with intention. Not only will this approach bring results for you and those you care about, it will also provide an opportunity to dull the political polarization that feeds Trump’s power. You may not be able to lessen Trump’s rage or his desire for retribution, but you will be able to get something done – and that’s the most important step to creating the world you want to live in.” Aaron Glantz
Taxes on the wealthy should be viewed as a service charge for maintaining the system that allowed them to accumulate their wealth.
The threatening nature of trump’s looming administration is burdensome in itself. The picks for his cabinet indicate the chaos and destruction he intends to cause. IMO it’s smokescreen for what’s going on behind the scenes. The “eruption of corruption” and all the back channels of dark monies from who trump takes his orders from.
Recognizing and resisting injustice and speaking out as long as we can is vital. My plan is to support family who are the first lines in immigration and Justice department. Second line of bureaucracy is going to be pummeled and will need backing and support.
Just hoping they are unable to change our currency to crypto and our dollars don’t count anymore. I wouldn’t put it past them.
Correction: from whom trump takes his orders!
Harris would have done what Trump is getting ready to do when he’s inaugurated! Declare a national emergency. And with that, he can pretty much do anything he pleases when he wishes and how he wishes. This presidential power was always thought to be used by someone rational. Now we’ll get to see how the Germans did it! It’s going to be a hot time in the old town tonight.
John, In NAZI Germany, it was the burning of the Riechstag that initiated a state of emergency. Imagine the shock of seeing the capital building burn.
With a cabinet of sycophants and a spineless Congress, combined with a hand picked supreme court, all guardrails are down, and it’s hard to say what to expect.
I can see a possible summer of mass demonstrations. It might happen in the first year instead of the 4th year, like last time.
Paula Cardoza-Jones – Exactly!
Sheila – your quote from Senator Warren is spot on and points to one to the long-standing issues that I believe also separated “liberals” from “conservatives” in past, more rational, generations. Businesses, and many pro-business Republicans of days past, drew narrow boundaries around the system they considered. They neither counted the roads, police, etc. as part of the system, nor did they count the pollutants as part. Before the EPA, Reserve Mining thought that their tailing were “output” and it wasn’t their concern if it poisoned the west end of Lake Superior. We also have to be aware (and should have been), that our pollution not only affects things locally, but globally as well. MAGA Republicans think like it is 1760 and what they do on their farm or in their factory is their own business and doesn’t affect anyone else. I won’t even go into their penny wise, pound foolish notions on the social safety net.
Peggy – While George makes some good suggestions, I still think that money should poured into “truth bots” that deliver curated messages to MAGA sites. There are no algorithms that can’t be overcome. I believe that is was the 4th Dr. Who who said “Just because the fix is in doesn’t mean it can’t be broken.” (quote from memory). We have to reach the poorly informed voter where they are. Left and center-left sites will appeal to those who actually seek out information, most of whom did not vote for our future “Esposito” [semi-obscure reference to “Bananas” – compare to Trump]