Follow up to the Humainologie creative dialogue last night
- Arthur Clark
- Nov 4, 2021
- 2 min read
You may recall from the synopsis of Robert Reich’s book The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, his prediction “Democrats cannot defeat authoritarian populism without an agenda of radical democratic reform, a palpable anti-establishment movement. …Unless Democrats stand squarely on the side of democracy against oligarchy, much of America will continue to believe [Donald Trump or] any future politician who imitates Trump’s authoritarian demagoguery.” Reich had interviewed middle class voters in 2015, asked whom they preferred among presidential candidates for the next election, and heard only two names: Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. When he asked the reason for their preference, the answer was that they would shake up the "rigged" system. Reich also provided the following information: In 1964, a poll had found that close to two-thirds of Americans thought that “government was run for the benefit of all the people; by 2013, almost 80 percent believed the opposite – that government was run by and for a few big interests.”
The front page of the New York Times today (Thursday, November 4, 2021) carried the following headline for an article about extensive setbacks for the Democratic Party in the recent state elections: "Party officials say the White House and Congress must do more to address the electorate’s deep malaise or risk watching voters lurch back toward the G.O.P. by default." The article included the following statement:
“Responding to Tuesday’s results like an alarm bell in the night, Democrats on the ballot next year said that unless Mr. Biden and other party leaders addressed voters’ close-to-home frustrations, they were certain to lose their congressional majorities.”
Robert Reich had paid attention to trends in national polls, and had listened to a great many voters, and had then provided the insights in his 2020 book. It looks as if – unless the Democrats choose candidates like Bernie Sanders who are willing to “shake up the system” - the Democratic Party may become obsolete.
Here is a short video about ten tactics of fascism:
Tyranny could return. Living under a fascist regime would probably be worse than living under a pandemic. There will always be people who want to tyrannize others, and I think Donald Trump is one of them. We currently live under an oligarchy, and things are already bad enough. In my way of thinking we must relentlessly work to restore genuine democracy.
What do you think?
Arthur
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