My son Peter sent me this podcast from Ezra Klein.
https://youtu.be/K8QLgLfqh6s
Here is my response:
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I
agree, this is very good. Thanks for calling my attention to it. It's
a call to sanity, but I'm still fearful that Trump will have all these
powers. The fork in the road will come when the courts rule against him
and he disobeys, which is what he's setting up to do. I don't believe
for a moment that he won't defy the courts. Andrew Jackson did it
successfully, which led to the Trail of Tears. Eventually his party
petered out, but nowadays, I fear that won't happen. I fear that
partially because the Democrats are so weak and feckless. They need to
reorganize - I give one idea: https://buddshenkin.blogspot.
If
you have a firehose of issues coming down from Trump, you need to
respond in an organized way, and defend everything, speak up forcefully,
explain and persuade the populace. They should engage on Ukraine -
Trump is now changing sides, making us Russian allies -- Presidential
strength is greatest in foreign policy as you know. The Dems need to
address this, need to actively recruit Republicans - ask them if they
are ready to support Communists. This could be a real rift in the
Republican party, but because "voters don't care about foreign policy,"
the uninspired Dems will instead concentrate on egg prices.
I
find myself being frustrated with the Dems and even being angry at
them. I think it's because of team sports. I expect the Cowboys to
try to be strong; I don't criticize them for that. But if the Niners
don't mount a credible opposition, I'm frustrated with them for failing
us. Schumer and Jeffries have adopted a strategy of saying, "We have no
power!" They're planning to pin everything on the Republicans. That's
correct in a way, but the optics are awful - how do you inspire people
by declaring "We have no power?" That's why there needs to be a group
of excellent, aggressive, eloquent Dems who organize themselves and dare
the rest of the party to follow them.
I
don't expect anything from the congressional Republicans, actually.
They are less representatives than they are paid agents - they are
married to their jobs, their jobs depend on election funding, and with
SCOTUS vetoing any election funding reform (SCOTUS bought and paid for
by wealthy right wing), congressional Republicans are just paid agents.
But some of them might be embarrassed if they were held up as
supporting Russian communists. Try defending that one. Or maybe I'm
wrong and isolationism would prove to be more popular.
Will
the Trump revolution succeed? Are we really so soft that traditional
democracy will be lost? Will the increasing failures of government
under Musk and Trump make people value government more, or will they
take it as evidence that government sucks? There are many forks in the
road and that's hard to predict, but I tend to think about quality of
leadership. If strong and decisive leadership does not emerge on the
Dem side, then I think our culture can collapse back to the racist past,
at least to some extent. This team is bent on destruction, and
destruction is easy, it's building that is hard. Can the South African
apartheid metastasis that we're seeing now actually prove lasting in a
US that has come so far since the 60's? Is all that reversible? It's
hard to think that it is.
I
guess in the end I have to be hopeful, to believe that the evolved
culture of the US as we experience it where we live will prove durable.
I have to believe that there will be enormous pushback and that Trump
and Trumpism will die, sooner or later. I'm just hoping for sooner.
I'm hoping for leadership to emerge stronger than ever. I have to
believe that leadership will emerge from the states. If Trump & Co.
make the feds weak, then the states will become stronger, and
leadership will emerge from there.
But in the end, who knows?
What
do you think? You have a certain reasonableness of levelheadedness
that I always find bracing. I'm so glad you majored in poli-sci.
Budd Shenkin
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