The liberal establishment is not the left's biggest obstacle, and the left is not the liberal establishment's biggest obstacle. The biggest obstacle to both is a rigged political system.
I had a comment over on SB the other day where I’m trying to come to a similar detente in this factional war.
Because I simply don’t see it as a war that either side can actually “win”. We need to embrace liberalism and pluralism within our own party, dammit! And that should be one of the biggest DUH things out there.
I would also beg you not to treat Substack as a serious place. It (and Matt’s comment section) is a small bubble occupied by a kind of militant almost-Bush-era-Republican form of centrism that has very little influence on the broader party. Last year those people backed the Dem Senate’s decision not to block Trump, and that proved to be a hugely bad bet. This year the centrist loss of ground has become so obvious that most of the commentariat had finally begun acknowledging they’re losing the voters. (Not in a “we made mistakes and want to reconsider our strategy” way, unfortunately, which might be useful.)
I think the voters at large are much more amenable to just about anyone who says they’ll change things. If you’re firing inward, you’re not making that pitch and you’re going to lose seats.
@Brian, the big part for me is this (paraphrasing):
“There is no true victory for either side of this factional war. There will never be a day when the other faction is forced to kneel before us and accept the truth and wisdom of our opinions about what’s best for our party.”
I think the biggest internal enemy of our party right now is the mindset that clings to this fantasy that either faction can be defeated and some singular vision installed as dogma.
Moreover, the obsession with electoral strategy belies generations of neglect of our party’s logistical apparatus. Our two factions are like the Germans and Japanese, single-mindedly deluded that seizing this or that oil field or ore deposit is a sufficient substitute for having the monstrous economy that actually won that war.
Defeating the delusion and establishing a common pluralistic, cooperative vision for a new liberal political machine is the ONLY way this factional war ends well for us. We HAVE to embrace mutually beneficial kayfabe.
I'd suggest three steps are necessary to create enduring Democratic power: 1) Redirect grievance from immigrants and minorities to the "economic royalists" (borrowed from FDR) in power who are skewing the political system toward the rich and leaving everybody else fighting over the scraps that are left; 2) impose actual accountability on these royalists, many of whom were also a part of this administration involved in looting American society (my model here is the Pecora Commission from FDR's time); and 3) use the energy developed by bringing accountability to create new, big things that benefit the working class.
All three of these steps are exactly what FDR used during the Depression. The Pecora Commission brought accountability to Wall Street and gave FDR the political capital to create the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Labor Relations Board. The latter caused a boom in union membership that was essential for giving the Democratic coalition a durable base. The destruction of the FDR coalition was precisely the goal that Republicans implemented when they went after unions.
Contrast this with Obama: none of the people responsible for the 2008 crash were ever held accountable. Because of that, the energy demanding accountability was able to be captured by the Republican Party through scapegoating immigrants and minorities.
Thank you for this history lesson! It is a real roadmap and the one thing you didn't mention was that Roosevelt was HATED by the monied class - And as he famously said, he welcomed their hatred. Of course Roosevelt didn't have to deal with Citizen's United, or Fox News, Newsmax and their ilk. But he did have entire newspapers running articles about him and calling WWII "Roosevelt's War." I have always believed that the thirty percent of people still clinging to Trump are descended from the people who refused to call FDR by name, but referred to him as "That man in the White House."
“which is guided by the assumption that manifesting outrage at the GOP loses the center.”
This assumption should have never existed in the first place but the fact it didn’t get blown up during the lead up to the 2016 election is pathetic. This assumption is why the GOP has been able inflict so much damage on this country over the last few decades.
I can certainly understand why so many younger (& older) voters are moving towards the Mamdani’s and Wilson’s, they see younger, authentic candidates who want to fight for them. At this point, that’s more than enough for them and they can overlook some of the negatives.
It’s difficult to get behind established Dems who keep claiming they’ll fight fascism, corruption, big business, this regime and its enablers when there’s very little proof they have the backbone to follow through.
That said, the factions do need to find a way to call a truce so they can build real power which is the only way to stop the the country from spiraling.
I agree. If the Dem establishment were to stop partaking from the same donors of the GOP and actually stand for something, we’d feel otherwise about them. But the money is too good for them. Over 40 years of a neoliberalism orgy, it’s hard to let that go for Dem electeds.
I'm not sure how claiming COVID originated in France (?) should be considered a "far left" view. For that matter, how is accusing Joe Biden of "rape" in any sense "far left"? These things seem to suggest the candidate is just a plain old nut, regardless of where she falls on the left-right axis. It's deeply troubling to see that Mamdani may be willing to overlook these things if a candidate is "aligned with" his agenda vis-a-vis Israel and/or redistribution. A big uh-oh.
The silence is deafening! Why aren’t we talking out loud and directly about this threat Trump is making to our country? Are we all afraid that we’ll look stupid, or foolish or alarmists? What if we’re wrong? What are our representative in DC doing?
OK I’ll just come out and say it. I have serious concerns about the future of this country and by November tit could be either too late of a much bigger fight.
I suggest we band together in developing an organized resistance now and get prepared.
I had ChatGPT to do a deep dive into Trumps actions which can be seen as a threat to our democracy. You can find the full results on My Substack.
It’s conclusion was:
Taken individually, many of President Trump’s actions can be defended as aggressive uses of presidential authority, efforts to make the executive branch accountable to an elected president, or attempts to combat alleged corruption, illegal immigration, antisemitism, bureaucratic resistance and election fraud.
Taken together, however, they form a coherent structure of presidential power consolidation. That structure could be used during a disputed election to pressure state officials, control federal law enforcement, remove resistant employees, weaken independent oversight, punish institutional opposition and deploy federal forces.
I see this as a way of saying that piece by piece fundamental checks and balances and internal governmental watchdogs are being chipped away or fired.
Listed below are some specific points noted:
- [ ] The 2020 attempt to overturn an election remains the most important evidence
- [ ] The January 6 pardons
- [ ] Attempting to bring election administration under presidential influence (and away from the states)
- [ ] Attempting to bring election administration under presidential influence (firing government employees who might stand in the way)
- [ ] Subordinating independent agencies to the White House
- [ ] Removing inspectors general and weakening internal oversight
- [ ] Politicization or selective use of the Justice Department
- [ ] Weakening Congress’s control of spending and government structure
- [ ] Retaliatory measures against law firms
- [ ] Pressure on the press and control of access
- [ ] Using federal funding to compel universities and civil society
- [ ] Broad emergency powers and uncertain compliance with courts
- [ ] Domestic deployment of the military and federal forces
- [ ] Reshaping military and intelligence leadership
- [ ] Centralizing government information and personal data
How these powers could operate together
The danger is not best understood as Trump issuing a single order declaring himself dictator. Modern democratic breakdown usually occurs through an accumulation of formally plausible actions.
A hypothetical disputed transfer could proceed as follows:
1. Trump declares that the result is fraudulent, relying on mailed ballots, noncitizen voting or irregularities.
2. Federal databases produce lists questioning voter eligibility, while the Justice Department investigates election officials.
3. State officials are pressured through subpoenas, grant threats, criminal investigations or public attacks.
4. Career employees who reject unsupported claims are removed or bypassed.
5. Inspectors general and independent agencies have reduced ability to expose internal misconduct.
6. Federal forces are deployed around protests or government facilities, officially for public safety or federal protection.
7. Law firms, media organizations and universities face financial or regulatory pressure, reducing organized resistance.
8. Emergency appeals allow contested measures to remain temporarily effective, delaying a final judicial resolution.
9. Congress is asked to reject, delay or reinterpret state certifications amid manufactured uncertainty.
Thank you Brian. If Mayor Mamdani were able to run for President, he would move to the head of the pack. I like what Buttigieg said nimble and muscular. Have a wonderful vacation. Best regards
Instead of court EXPANSION look at Yale constitutional scholar Akhil Amar's plan for 18-year terms (without needing a constitutional amendment) by putting those after 18 years on "senior status" with other duties -- still paid, so they haven't lost their position -- but no longer making decisions. 18-year terms means that there would be two nominations every presidential administration.
My fear is that Mamdani is a Trumpian figure with leftist politics as his dog-whistle. He can promise all kinds of left-wing reforms and play dirty chess to get his people in power; but what he's actually accomplishing, what he can actually accomplish, what he truly cares about accomplishing, all remain to be seen
I had a comment over on SB the other day where I’m trying to come to a similar detente in this factional war.
Because I simply don’t see it as a war that either side can actually “win”. We need to embrace liberalism and pluralism within our own party, dammit! And that should be one of the biggest DUH things out there.
https://substack.com/@thebattleline/note/c-282278161?r=e9tr3&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
I would also beg you not to treat Substack as a serious place. It (and Matt’s comment section) is a small bubble occupied by a kind of militant almost-Bush-era-Republican form of centrism that has very little influence on the broader party. Last year those people backed the Dem Senate’s decision not to block Trump, and that proved to be a hugely bad bet. This year the centrist loss of ground has become so obvious that most of the commentariat had finally begun acknowledging they’re losing the voters. (Not in a “we made mistakes and want to reconsider our strategy” way, unfortunately, which might be useful.)
I think the voters at large are much more amenable to just about anyone who says they’ll change things. If you’re firing inward, you’re not making that pitch and you’re going to lose seats.
@Brian, the big part for me is this (paraphrasing):
“There is no true victory for either side of this factional war. There will never be a day when the other faction is forced to kneel before us and accept the truth and wisdom of our opinions about what’s best for our party.”
I think the biggest internal enemy of our party right now is the mindset that clings to this fantasy that either faction can be defeated and some singular vision installed as dogma.
Moreover, the obsession with electoral strategy belies generations of neglect of our party’s logistical apparatus. Our two factions are like the Germans and Japanese, single-mindedly deluded that seizing this or that oil field or ore deposit is a sufficient substitute for having the monstrous economy that actually won that war.
Defeating the delusion and establishing a common pluralistic, cooperative vision for a new liberal political machine is the ONLY way this factional war ends well for us. We HAVE to embrace mutually beneficial kayfabe.
I'd suggest three steps are necessary to create enduring Democratic power: 1) Redirect grievance from immigrants and minorities to the "economic royalists" (borrowed from FDR) in power who are skewing the political system toward the rich and leaving everybody else fighting over the scraps that are left; 2) impose actual accountability on these royalists, many of whom were also a part of this administration involved in looting American society (my model here is the Pecora Commission from FDR's time); and 3) use the energy developed by bringing accountability to create new, big things that benefit the working class.
All three of these steps are exactly what FDR used during the Depression. The Pecora Commission brought accountability to Wall Street and gave FDR the political capital to create the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Labor Relations Board. The latter caused a boom in union membership that was essential for giving the Democratic coalition a durable base. The destruction of the FDR coalition was precisely the goal that Republicans implemented when they went after unions.
Contrast this with Obama: none of the people responsible for the 2008 crash were ever held accountable. Because of that, the energy demanding accountability was able to be captured by the Republican Party through scapegoating immigrants and minorities.
Thank you for this history lesson! It is a real roadmap and the one thing you didn't mention was that Roosevelt was HATED by the monied class - And as he famously said, he welcomed their hatred. Of course Roosevelt didn't have to deal with Citizen's United, or Fox News, Newsmax and their ilk. But he did have entire newspapers running articles about him and calling WWII "Roosevelt's War." I have always believed that the thirty percent of people still clinging to Trump are descended from the people who refused to call FDR by name, but referred to him as "That man in the White House."
“which is guided by the assumption that manifesting outrage at the GOP loses the center.”
This assumption should have never existed in the first place but the fact it didn’t get blown up during the lead up to the 2016 election is pathetic. This assumption is why the GOP has been able inflict so much damage on this country over the last few decades.
I can certainly understand why so many younger (& older) voters are moving towards the Mamdani’s and Wilson’s, they see younger, authentic candidates who want to fight for them. At this point, that’s more than enough for them and they can overlook some of the negatives.
It’s difficult to get behind established Dems who keep claiming they’ll fight fascism, corruption, big business, this regime and its enablers when there’s very little proof they have the backbone to follow through.
That said, the factions do need to find a way to call a truce so they can build real power which is the only way to stop the the country from spiraling.
I agree. If the Dem establishment were to stop partaking from the same donors of the GOP and actually stand for something, we’d feel otherwise about them. But the money is too good for them. Over 40 years of a neoliberalism orgy, it’s hard to let that go for Dem electeds.
I'm not sure how claiming COVID originated in France (?) should be considered a "far left" view. For that matter, how is accusing Joe Biden of "rape" in any sense "far left"? These things seem to suggest the candidate is just a plain old nut, regardless of where she falls on the left-right axis. It's deeply troubling to see that Mamdani may be willing to overlook these things if a candidate is "aligned with" his agenda vis-a-vis Israel and/or redistribution. A big uh-oh.
The elephant in the country!
Or where were you when democracy died.
The silence is deafening! Why aren’t we talking out loud and directly about this threat Trump is making to our country? Are we all afraid that we’ll look stupid, or foolish or alarmists? What if we’re wrong? What are our representative in DC doing?
OK I’ll just come out and say it. I have serious concerns about the future of this country and by November tit could be either too late of a much bigger fight.
I suggest we band together in developing an organized resistance now and get prepared.
I had ChatGPT to do a deep dive into Trumps actions which can be seen as a threat to our democracy. You can find the full results on My Substack.
It’s conclusion was:
Taken individually, many of President Trump’s actions can be defended as aggressive uses of presidential authority, efforts to make the executive branch accountable to an elected president, or attempts to combat alleged corruption, illegal immigration, antisemitism, bureaucratic resistance and election fraud.
Taken together, however, they form a coherent structure of presidential power consolidation. That structure could be used during a disputed election to pressure state officials, control federal law enforcement, remove resistant employees, weaken independent oversight, punish institutional opposition and deploy federal forces.
I see this as a way of saying that piece by piece fundamental checks and balances and internal governmental watchdogs are being chipped away or fired.
Listed below are some specific points noted:
- [ ] The 2020 attempt to overturn an election remains the most important evidence
- [ ] The January 6 pardons
- [ ] Attempting to bring election administration under presidential influence (and away from the states)
- [ ] Attempting to bring election administration under presidential influence (firing government employees who might stand in the way)
- [ ] Subordinating independent agencies to the White House
- [ ] Removing inspectors general and weakening internal oversight
- [ ] Politicization or selective use of the Justice Department
- [ ] Weakening Congress’s control of spending and government structure
- [ ] Retaliatory measures against law firms
- [ ] Pressure on the press and control of access
- [ ] Using federal funding to compel universities and civil society
- [ ] Broad emergency powers and uncertain compliance with courts
- [ ] Domestic deployment of the military and federal forces
- [ ] Reshaping military and intelligence leadership
- [ ] Centralizing government information and personal data
How these powers could operate together
The danger is not best understood as Trump issuing a single order declaring himself dictator. Modern democratic breakdown usually occurs through an accumulation of formally plausible actions.
A hypothetical disputed transfer could proceed as follows:
1. Trump declares that the result is fraudulent, relying on mailed ballots, noncitizen voting or irregularities.
2. Federal databases produce lists questioning voter eligibility, while the Justice Department investigates election officials.
3. State officials are pressured through subpoenas, grant threats, criminal investigations or public attacks.
4. Career employees who reject unsupported claims are removed or bypassed.
5. Inspectors general and independent agencies have reduced ability to expose internal misconduct.
6. Federal forces are deployed around protests or government facilities, officially for public safety or federal protection.
7. Law firms, media organizations and universities face financial or regulatory pressure, reducing organized resistance.
8. Emergency appeals allow contested measures to remain temporarily effective, delaying a final judicial resolution.
9. Congress is asked to reject, delay or reinterpret state certifications amid manufactured uncertainty.
It does state that all is not lost yet.
He’s a link to the full report.
https://2tuttlechris.substack.com/p/the-elephant-in-the-country-128
Thank you Brian. If Mayor Mamdani were able to run for President, he would move to the head of the pack. I like what Buttigieg said nimble and muscular. Have a wonderful vacation. Best regards
Instead of court EXPANSION look at Yale constitutional scholar Akhil Amar's plan for 18-year terms (without needing a constitutional amendment) by putting those after 18 years on "senior status" with other duties -- still paid, so they haven't lost their position -- but no longer making decisions. 18-year terms means that there would be two nominations every presidential administration.
My fear is that Mamdani is a Trumpian figure with leftist politics as his dog-whistle. He can promise all kinds of left-wing reforms and play dirty chess to get his people in power; but what he's actually accomplishing, what he can actually accomplish, what he truly cares about accomplishing, all remain to be seen