Recently, I took a trip with my elderly father. What stood out to me was the kindness, generosity and decency of everyone we encountered. This contrasts with the general discourse highlighted every day online, or in politics. This seems to say that in person we are better. Somehow we need to get our true selves engaged more and our online avatars less. If we don’t things are going to go to shit.
“I’m inspired by the people I meet in my travels–hearing their stories, seeing the hardships they overcome, their fundamental optimism and decency.” ― Barack Obama
Common Decency
Recently, I took a trip with my dad. We flew from Albuquerque to Minneapolis via a connection in Denver. The purpose was a visit to the Mayo Clinic for treatment. My brother and his wife both work at Mayo and have access to care there for my dad. It was an extremely difficult trip because of my dad’s condition. He is 87, and has multiple medical issues including near blindness. He is quite weak and needs a wheelchair in the airport. Just for reference, I am 61 and while I am fit, strong, and vibrant; I’m not a young man. This was one of the hardest flights I’ve ever taken. By the time I handed my dad off to my brother, I was exhausted emotionally and tired physically.
When I reflected upon the day traveling, one thing stood out to me. Everyone we encountered was great. People were helpful. People were generous. People were kind. At every juncture, the airport employees, the airline employees, and our fellow passengers treated us wonderfully. People observed the situation and gave my dad deference and care. People helped us and stepped aside. Flight attendants were so helpful, ingenious, and kind. I saw lots of extra effort to help us and make the best of a very difficult situation. What I saw was Americans being the best versions of themselves and it was phenomenal. It was a tonic after the recent months of horror.
With everything else going on in the USA, it also made me say “What the fuck?”
Uncommon Indecency
“A saint is a person who behaves decently in a shockingly indecent society.” ― Kurt Vonnegut
The entire experience of this flight is in direct conflict with what we see elsewhere in American society. All the evidence would point to Americans being mean, cruel, and thoughtless. We see anger and ignorance everywhere. We just elected a petty, cruel, and selfish man as President. The incoming President displays these characteristics all the time. Somehow Americans overlooked his obvious shortcomings, and appalling character when voting. We are about to be led by someone who is the worst of us.
In person, I saw Americans who were the complete opposite. I saw people who exemplified the care and love of their common man. I saw something that gave me pride and hope. Yet in the engagement and discourse we see every day in the news and online, Americans are horrendous to others. We can all ask why? and examine the causes for this dissonance. One would think we want to be our best selves rather than our worst.
So WTF?
I think the key difference is the prevalence of our online self and remote discourse. The online world seems to encourage a level of vitriol and negativity commonly called trolling. Social media platforms like X (Twitter) and FaceBook thrive on this sort of awful dialog. We all say and talk to people in ways that we’d never do in person. Somehow society has transformed into a reflection of this dynamic more broadly. Our politics has become like social media and unremittingly ugly. We have decided to elect the trolls to run the country. Instead of the common decency I saw in person, we see ugliness and hate. A government is the reflection of its people. Rather than good and decency like we are in person, we have chosen evil and indecency.
In every respect our lives would be better off if Americans treated each other better. Having seen what is possible on this trip this much is obvious. People can be good to each other. They can act with kindness, love, and respect to their fellow man. This stands in stark and genuine contrast to the dynamic seen every day in the news and online. People have it in them to be better. I fear that we need to be led to do good. Right now, we are being led to be the opposite. I hope we do not lose sight of what is possible.
“For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.” ― Noam Chomsky,
In debates around almost anything today, extremes rule. When extreme views are taken it always favors the conservative/status quo side. The progressive’s more extreme views are a loser. To provide progressive views that will win the day, nuance and subtlety need to be embraced. This means letting go of dogmatic ideology and making compromises. Simple extreme views are rarely fit for progress only playing into the conservative’s hands. Reasonable and moderate positions can offer progress in a manner that more people are comfortable with. This is the path to genuine progress.
“Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance” ― Albert Maysles
The extremes are ruining today
We are witnessing the broad consequences of extremes ruling the political dynamic. The conversations nationally are dominated by extreme views on the left and the right. One of the prevailing issues is that conservative extremes are more acceptable to broad swaths of the population. Why? Conservative ideas are familiar while progressive ideas are not. Thus progressive ideas carry a burden conservative ideas are free of. This is especially true of cultural topics but carries over to economics and foreign affairs. I’ve also seen this apply in the scientific and technical realms.
In my professional life I work with computer codes that simulate things in the national security world. I am paid to work on things that are very energetic and either lead to or cause explosions. These problems are extremely challenging and always push the limits of technology. Nonetheless, these problems have been successfully solved. Moreover, the codes solving them have been around for decades. At Los Alamos, the first calculations started during the Manhattan Project. At Sandia, the calculations began in the late 1960’s. As such in either place there is a successful status quo. At every juncture, smart people got the job done and successfully simulated stuff. This utility preserved the continued use of simulation and its support institutionally.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ― Clare Boothe Luce
The rub is that the first way to do things is crude and clumsy. This produces a status quo that many practical people hold onto. Once simulation became commonplace and powerful, the way it is done became entrenched. The users of the results started to become invested in maintaining the status quo. They would resist changes to how things were done. This produced what was called legacy codes. Through huge efforts, the legacy codes were replaced with modern codes on modern computers. Now the replacement codes are the status quo. Improving or changing them is resisted as were the original legacy codes.
The same thing happens in politics and culture. Change requires massive effort, and once the change sets in, resistance builds as it becomes the status quo. The way to see the 2024 election is through the lens of resistance to change. Conservative politics is driven by resistance and reaction to change. They are the counter to progress and the discomfort with it. The same thing happens in science and technology. The key is that the status quo always has the advantage of simplicity. Change is always really hard and resisted by those who believe things are good enough..
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
We need real answers
In science, we have Occam’s razor where the simplest solution is favored. Invariably, the existing practice or solution is seen as simple. It exists and works for all, but the most keen observers. This is true for public policy or science. In my life, we see this with computer codes and simulation. The status quo says “The current stuff is getting the job done, why change? plus it’s expensive and difficult, it could fail too.” All of this forms the natural resistance to change. It’s easier to simply stick with the status quo. I’ve seen this time and time again at work. Right now, the status quo is winning. Like our political world, science where I am is conservative and progress is resisted.
“It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.” ― Isaac Asimov,Foundation
With little modification, this dynamic applies to politics. The basic principles I’ve seen at work apply broadly to policy. Take economic policy where unbridled capitalism is status quo. The issues it causes are profound, but change is scary. Plus capitalism has immense power available to maintain itself through propaganda. In cultural affairs, traditional relationships are the most common and have the advantage. The simple message of two biological sexes or a simple monogamous marriage of a man and woman is seen as settled. Any change feels uncomfortable for a majority of people and even downright scary. All of this powers the conservatives to use this fear to their advantage.
“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” ― Albert Einstein
When doing scientific work, the arguments for changing status quo practices are deep and nuanced. The status quo already works and always has the advantage. Any progress is difficult and has an uphill battle. In science, we have the scientific method to level the playing field. Even then the status quo has an advantage over better solutions. The spirit of science is very much focused on progress. In engineering the balance is far more tilted toward conservatism.
Sometimes the advantage of progress needs to be so strong that the improvement is obvious. Progress happens only when it is demonstrated. This looks like a revolution, but really it is a long process where someone takes a chance and shows the status quo what it is missing. This process is behind the time lag between discovery and broad acceptance of new ideas. There is a large bit of chance to this. This is also incredibly frustrating to us scientific progressives.
To look at this in public policy there are many examples. No single example may be more instructive than marriage equality. In a very short time, the idea of gay people marrying moved from unthinkable to broad acceptance. How did this happen?
“It was a defeat, resorting to crude threats in a game of subtlety, but sometimes one must sacrifice a battle to win the war.” ― Mark Lawrence,Prince of Thorns
I think the reasons for success go back to tragedy. The plague of AIDS struck the gay community hard ravaging and killing broadly. On the one hand, it galvanized the gay community toward action. Their activism fell short of moving the public until the illness began to appear in the broader public. Ryan White was a child who got AIDS through the blood supply. Suddenly AIDS was more than just a gay disease. The tide turned with treatments and medicine coming eventually to subdue the disease.
The activism left a deeper mark on society. The gay community was drawn together and part of their activism was “coming out”. All of a sudden many gay people were known to broad swaths of society. They were present as coworkers, neighbors, and friends. Someone being gay suddenly became normal and commonplace. This created the necessary empathy and compassion to make marriage equality sensible. It went from unthinkable to the law of the land in a flash.
“When you dig just the tiniest bit beneath the surface, everyone’s love life is original and interesting and nuanced and defies any easy definition.” ― Taylor Jenkins Reid,The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
In my opinion, this should be the model for the progressives. The way marriage equality went from unthinkable to acceptable should be studied and deconstructed. Progressives need to apply these lessons to their causes. This requires a level of nuance and subtle action rather than what is seen as extreme and fear-causing. Simplicity always favors the status quo. Progressives, however right they are about a subject should avoid simplicity and embrace nuance.
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” ― Leo Tolstoy
“You’re overthinking it.’ ‘I have anxiety. I have no other type of thinking available.” ― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library
tl;dr
The anxiety is sky-high everywhere you look. The uncertainty is huge and palpable. The upcoming election feels like a doom or a massive relief. This is true no matter who you support. In the meantime, everything seems perpetually frozen. We are all waiting to see what kind of World will greet us in 2025. Will we have hope, or enter into an apocalyptic hellscape? The likely outcome will be something in-between no matter who wins.
“Maturity, one discovers, has everything to do with the acceptance of ‘not knowing.” ― Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves
What I see?
The Nation seems like it is in a purgatory. It matters little who you support to feel this way. Both sides are running on fear of the other. The stakes of the election seem impossibly high and this is paralyzing everyone. All decisions and actions stemming from our governance have ground to a halt. I see it at work where nothing is happening. Everything seems to be frozen in place, waiting for the resolution. That resolution could be swift on November 5th, and that would be kind and merciful. That resolution could take all the way into December and even to January 6th. This would be brutal and the freeze would only deepen.
“Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths.” ― C. H. Spurgeon
On the one hand, the society we know is being described in terms of doom and horror. For some people this feels true, and they crave change. It seems to me that they simply want to elect a destroyer who will sweep aside the reality that isn’t working for them. They care little about the nature of the destruction. The system we have today is not working for them. This is not entirely true of course. Others (Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, …) see a system that stands in the way of their greed and domination. In Trump, they see their savior, or their ally, or their dupe, and the path toward annihilation of society’s order. I see the problems too, but want someone to fix them.
On the other side, we have normalcy. Ironically this normalcy is the problem and the strength. Part of the normal is the multiple factions comprising the Democratic party. There are many entrenched interests. We have the people who want progress and acceptance socially for women and LBGTQ people. The biggest block of people is the educated and succeeding part of America. These people are generally okay and doing alright in the current system. They see tearing the current system apart as dangerous. They don’t like the system and often see imperfections, but don’t want to destroy it. They would get on board to fix it. The key is that many people benefit from the current system.
“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
What is the reality?
Somewhere between the nihilism of the Trump faction and the normies is truth. Our system is a fucking mess. We have profoundly great inequality in society. We see those losing, the poor and blue-collar folks and the ultra-rich teaming up to take on the educated and reasonably well-off. Social and work life is incredibly uncomfortable. This is due to political, social, and sexual dynamics that are a powderkeg. We all walk around on eggshells almost everywhere. The homeless population is exploding. They are the sign that many are falling off the edge of society. We are not taking care of our citizens and throwing them to the wolves. The government over-regulates and is incredibly inefficient. Everything is getting worse and nothing is getting fixed (systems, roads, etc,…). From where I sit I can see multiple National security programs floundering under the weight of all of this.
At the forefront of our woes as a society are young men. Current society is not working for them. I see it in the young men I know personally and at work. Many of them are flocking toward Trump. His fake masculinity and toughness appeal to them. He puts on an MMA/WWE version of masculinity that is cartoonish. The problem for the Democrats is a lack of response. Tim Walz is part of the reaction. He represents a better more modern form of masculinity, but his impact is dimming. The whole thing has taken gender politics to new dysfunctional highs. Women are under siege from the right, and the type of men they promote is truly toxic. The problem is that the Democrats do not offer something in return. They support movements that seemingly oppose men. This may cost them the election.
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
What I fear?
So you reader might be wondering that with all the problems I see why would I support the normie point-of-view. I really don’t. The issue is the Trump-MAGA won’t fix any problems. They only destroy and only work to make our problems worse. Trump will surely make the inequality worse and do nothing for the common man. He will give them “red meat” in attacking their enemies and doing various cruel things. At the same time, he will enable people like Elon Musk to get even richer. They will continue to exist in a world that 99.99% of Americans can’t fathom. Trump won’t make political corruption leave. He will weaponize it for himself and shift the corruption to help him. Putting a criminal and corrupt man in charge will only supercharge the problem.
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” ― Frank Herbert
My real fear is that none of our problems as a Nation will be addressed for many more years. All the problems will just get worse while Americans continue to be divided into warring tribes. I fear bigotry and hatred will be legitimized and supercharged. Progress for women and LBGTQ people will be erased. The American evangelical movement will rule like an American Taliban imposing their morality on everyone. Homeless people will grow and be criminalized rather than helped. Regulation will be destroyed and greed will be pursued absent any morality or ethics. Those with money can escape law, morality, and justice with even greater ease. If you support Trump you are not necessarily a bigot, but you are okay with being ruled by one.
The worst thing I can imagine is myself dying with an epitaph: “born into a democracy; died under a dictator.” America will be swept aside and cast into the dustbin. Worse yet, we could descend into war or simply be auctioned off. If the level of incompetence is allowed to continue unabated our Nation cannot survive. We will fall into incompetence and corruption fueled purely by greed and malice.
Were it the malice of a foreign invaded, it wouldn’t hurt so much. This is the worst case, but little doubt that Trump 2.0 would be a giant shit show. Trump 1.0 was a shit show, but at least some adults with actual ethics were there to limit it. The adults are all gone now.
“An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.” ― Victor Frankl
How to Cope?
The thing to remember most of all is that none of us can control what is going to happen. This is the result of forces and events beyond any of our control We are taking part, but only in the smallest way. We are for the most part observers. We will react to the events and our lives will be shaped by them. The shape of the future will be drawn by what is about to occur. This is a big deal. Not knowing what this future holds is the source of the anxiety.
I think the first thing to put your arms around is that things will be bad no matter what. It is a matter of degree. History in the long run is on the side of all of this shit working out. The USA has survived many horrible events and eras. We have continued to exist and even thrive through it all. We will most likely muddle our way through this disaster. In a sense, this is the answer of tragic optimism. Nonetheless, this is a moment of peril for the USA not experienced since the Civil War. Even the fascist threat of World War two didn’t feature this level of threat. Now the fascist threat is inside our Nation. About half the voters seem okay with being led by that fascist.
“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.” ― Victor Frankl
Nonetheless, we should probably be OK, eventually. We’ve been alright before and weathered storms. The biggest question in that statement is how much blood will be shed to get us there. Can we navigate this crisis without killing a lot of our fellow citizens? Can we break the fever and start solving our very real problems in a rational, constructive way? The alternative is a rampant destruction of our institutions and governance followed by a reconstruction. At best, this will be a near-death experience. It will be a truly shitty way to exist.
Americans are fond of saying they hate the government. The thing is that our government is us, and not some separate entity. The lesson is that we hate ourselves. The choice is ours, but I’m not confident we have wisdom. It would be far better to rectify problems and create a government we can love and be proud of. A government that reflects the best of our people and our legacy. In about a week, the future will begin to show itself.
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” ― Albert Einstein
By any account, the upcoming November election should not be close, yet it is. On one side stands an incompetent, criminal grifter without a hint of personal integrity. On the other, the sitting vice president with a record of achievement. Yet we teeter on the knife’s edge of re-electing the person widely regarded as the worst president to ever serve. His track record alone should be disqualifying. Something more profound must be at stake to enable this paradox. The answer lies in a deep, long-standing sense of broad-based dysfunction permeating society. The country feels in crisis and in desperate need of a new direction. Americans are poised to change course, even if that change proves suicidal. It is essential to chart a new path that leads to a better future.
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
Why the Question?
Every morning for the past couple of months, I’ve awakened to the genuine terror that Donald Trump might be re-elected president. Trump was an atrocious president before, judged by many historians as the worst in American history. He is a man devoid of morality, capable of constant lies and criminal conduct. His money and political power have been the only barriers between him and prison. Still, he has been adjudged a felon for covering up his misdeeds, lying to avoid taxes and secure credit, and committing sexual assault. He is the very definition of a grifter. In addition to his mendacity, he is a committed anti-intellectual.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'” ― Isaac Asimov
If the prospect of this king of morons being president wasn’t enough, we have Project 2025 to terrify us further. Trump is allied with people who envision a future America as a neofascist state ruled theocratically. All of this should make Trump unelectable. Choosing Trump as president is tantamount to societal suicide. Indeed, many of his followers see Trump as the man who crashes the plane, like Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. They literally view Trump as the figure who will destroy the system of government. To me, this sounds like treason. Trump has even acted treasonously, fawning over dictators like Putin. Again, he should be unelectable; yet he is not, and he may very well win.
With all of this said, there is even more to oppose Trump. His entire movement is predicated on minority rule. It goes beyond the structural elements built into the Constitution (electoral college, Senate, gerrymandering, etc.). The movement is devoted to voter suppression and denying people access to the ballot. To top all of this off, Trump’s direct actions exceed these factors. We have January 6th and the attempt to overturn the result of an already minority-skewed election. It was criminal and treasonous. All the while, half the electorate ignores this. Trump’s disregard for protecting national secrets further damns him. It is criminal and irresponsible. As someone with more than 30 years of experience working with national secrets, I am disgusted. If I had done a tenth of what Trump did, I would expect to be in prison for most of my remaining life. Yet he receives no punishment from the law or the electorate.
On the topic of the law, one can look at the courts. Chiefly, you have the Supreme Court stacked by the GOP. They are corrupt and horribly out of touch with the public and any rational reading of the Constitution. They started by flooding the political environment with money through the appalling Citizens United ruling. Lately, the awful decisions have continued with multiple murderous rulings allowing guns to permeate society. Citizens and children are slaughtered in the wake. The Dobbs decision removed the right to abortion from women and returned the matter to the states. It is notable that states’ rights are only used by the GOP to deny people’s rights, never to expand them. People should shudder at the thought of what comes next. Finally, we have the presidential immunity decision. This may well be the worst Supreme Court ruling in more than a century. Trumpism is marked by an incompetent, corrupt, and out-of-control judiciary.
This is a phenomenon that must be understood.
How Can Anyone Vote for This Monster?
It’s crucial to comprehend what motivates Trump voters. The initial reaction is one of disbelief: How can anyone vote for such a horrible man? Even if you’re a hardcore conservative, it’s obvious that he is a vile, despicable person. Yet somehow, he exudes a charisma that charms these people. There is a core of Trump voters who are themselves despicable racists, sexists, and violent, awful people. This group comprises something like 20-30% of the population. They are the true deplorables Hilary mentioned.
The real key is understanding what animates the rest of his support. I strongly believe this stems from a core of anti-establishment sentiment. My neighbor, a rabid Trump supporter, seems to be a genuinely good person. Thus, it feels curious that he can support someone so atrocious. In conversation, a clue emerged: a deep hatred of the establishment. This idea is grounded in a lot of reality. The issue is that Trump won’t fix the establishment; he will just destroy it. It is this anti-establishment sentiment that the left needs to harness.
One of the real problems is the force that animates politics. In the last five elections, two people have defined the outcomes. In 2008 and 2012, Obama dominated the election. He was charismatic and a once-in-a-generation talent. Being a biracial Black man drove insanity on the right against him. That racism is the same force that pulled Trump into politics. His birtherism lie was founded in racism and began his voyage to the center of politics. Once you strip away the political talent and identity, Obama becomes quite ordinary. He was a center-right president who accomplished a fair amount. In the view of the right, he was a Black man and, as such, a socialist. Seeing him as anything other than middle-of-the-road and a force of the establishment is fiction.
“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.” ― John F. Kennedy
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a daily press briefing with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at The White House in Washington, U.S., October 4, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
The last three Democratic candidates have not been inspiring. The energy in voting for all of them is largely grounded in fear and revulsion of Donald Trump. The Democratic message is not compelling. It is largely pro-establishment. So we have had three elections driven by the character of Trump. There are the people who are Trump fans, who are mostly hopeless, lost, angry people. There are those attracted to his anti-establishment message. Then there are the hardcore Democrats combined with those disgusted by Trump.
The Bernie Sanders movement was the Democrats’ chance to grasp an anti-establishment message. Sanders lost to Hillary in 2016, and the Democrats became the establishment party. This became the moment when the stasis of American politics ossified. The ability to end Trump and MAGA’s stranglehold on reality could have been found if the Democrats had embraced some anti-establishment message. This is the path forward for a better future. My core belief is that the right wing cannot fix our problems. Their solutions are grounded in accelerating the forces undergirding our dysfunction. Many of these are associated with the way business and corporate governance are oriented.
The View from My Life
I am someone who sees huge problems within the nation. Our institutions are in distress. The establishment is failing the nation. The issue with Trump is that he won’t fix any of this; he will only make things worse. Trump will trash institutions and destroy or enable many of the forces that are already creating havoc. For example, Trump will only exacerbate the inequality in the nation. He will institute cruelty and hate as vehicles for change. He will enable the worst elements in society to find new depths of depravity. This will not make America great, it will only diminish the Nation.
I have worked for leading scientific institutions my entire professional life. Over the course of my career, these institutions have consistently declined into shells of their former glory. I have watched the edge the USA has in science and technology fade away. Today, it is arguable that we have lost our advantage. If we haven’t lost it, we will very soon. Our government and leaders have been the vehicles of this destruction. The destruction is quite bipartisan. In different ways, the trust my labs were granted by the nation is gone. Part of it is lack of funding and general suspicion of science from the right. There is a continual stream of investigations into efforts that makes the labs risk-averse and incapable of the failures needed for progress. Both the left and the right have contributed to this. From the left, we have lots of regulation and focus on things unrelated to science. They also have their own suspicions of certain areas of science.
People hold placards during a protest in support of Amazon workers in Union Square, New York on February 20, 2021. – New York state’s attorney general on February 17, 2021 sued Amazon, claiming the e-commerce giant failed to adequately protect its warehouse workers from risks during the Covid-19 pandemic. The move comes days after Amazon filed its own legal action seeking to block New York state Attorney General Letitia James from taking steps to enforce federal workplace safety regulations. (Photo by Kena Betancur / AFP)
The end result is the hollowing out of competence and the destruction of science. This has become a huge threat to our national security. We have also seen a rather perverse belief that the labs should be run like businesses. The right has been quite eager to do this, and the left has assisted. This is patently absurd. The principles that work for business are absolutely not the way to run a research lab. The new corporate governance has been a catastrophic failure. All it has done is accelerate the decline of the labs. As I will note later, the corporate approach has other issues too. These have also led to the Lab’s decline.
“You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.” ― Malcolm X
We Have Big Problems
The key to capturing the anti-establishment vote is to appeal to the desire to fix things. In the absence of a fix, people move toward destruction. These days, the prospects for fixing anything seem remote. This is especially true given our divided government and structural blocks. The start toward solutions begins with admission that the problems exist. Virtually every American sees the problems as obvious and profound. Most of the problems are not amenable to half measures.
The key difference is whether one sees Trump as a solution or simply as making everything worse. In my view, he will make things much worse. The foundation of our problems is our corporate environment and vast inequality. We are approaching a level of disparity close to that of the gilded age, which is socially unsustainable. Trump will exacerbate this with tax cuts and policies that increase corporate greed. Our regulatory overreach is a direct result of the lack of corporate responsibility. A corporation will poison its own children to make a buck. They are regulated because they have no morals or ethics. Fixing this imbalance will not happen under Trump. He is the definition of greed and corporate graft. Corporations will be unleashed to gut the Nation and abuse the population.
Another cornerstone of our societal issues is the lack of trust. How can someone who lies reflexively, is selfish, and is a career criminal going to improve that? He won’t! The acceptance of Trump is based on the lack of trust and only amplifies it. His voters simply accept his rampant corruption as the norm. Trump has normalized a whole raft of behaviors that used to destroy any politician. He is a misogynist who generally treats women as sex objects. This includes his own daughter! He has been judged as a rapist. Many other women have accused him of sexual assault. He even admitted to touching women without consent on tape. Trump is the destruction of trust where the country needs repair.
“A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on.” ― William S. Burroughs
Finally, the country needs to recover competence. Trump was an incompetent President. He was constantly embarrassing. He sucked up to dictators, groveling in Putin’s presence. He does not read and has a minimal attention span. He utterly and completely lacks curiosity. All of these things are the hallmarks of incompetence as an executive, much less the top executive. Someone like this will not instill the competence in governance that the country badly needs. He will only further accelerate our decline into a shell of our former glory.
The Republicans are Trying to Hold onto a Past That is Gone
“I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. … These two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.” ― George Carlin
The greatest argument against Trump is found in their slogan “Make America Great Again.” They are looking to a past where America was the leading light in the world. This greatness was largely founded on our intact industrial base in a World destroyed by World War 2. The USA ruled because the rest of the World was in ruin. The MAGA people also fail to note that this era was racist with Jim Crow alive and well. Women had a shadow of their current rights. LBGTQ people were all in the closet. The greatness was largely enjoyed by white men, and the rest of the population was discriminated against. Thus the greatness was quite tarnished.
The key thing to realize is that there is truth in the USA’s decline. We are less than we were. I can see the decline clearly where I work. I’ve worked at two of the USA’s greatest government labs: Los Alamos and Sandia. Both labs are shadows of their former greatness. I have seen this decline throughout my entire career. It is also clear that the decline started back in the late 1970s. If you look at what triggered the American decline, one person stands out: Ronald Reagan.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.” ― Dwight D. Eisenhower
The “Reagan revolution” was the start of America’s decline. It was largely a reaction to the changes of the 1960s and the embrace of the evangelical movement by the right. In addition, we saw the embrace of the current corporate culture combined with animosity toward workers. Reagan accelerated the attack on the worker and laid the foundation of the homeless crisis. The neoliberal view of corporate greed took hold, and the engine of vast inequality went into overdrive. Reagan also marked the beginnings of a racist backlash and the culture wars. All of these elements have metastasized in MAGA. Trump is greed, culture wars, and racism personified. Reagan didn’t make America great; he began to dismantle greatness.
“Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.” ― Frank Herbert
The path to greatness lies in moving forward. MAGA simply looks backward. It also looks backward through a lens that is quite distorted. Technology isn’t going away. We need to learn to deal with it. We need a corporate culture that cares about the impact on society as much as profits. We need a corporate culture that cares about the well-being of its employees. The harms of unbridled greed are everywhere in society. We need a more equal society where care and compassion rule. Today we have an unequal society where cruelty is tolerated. Reagan started the march toward inequality and the acceptance of cruelty. Trump simply takes this to a new level. It is time for a different trend to take root.
The Democrats Aren’t Trying to Solve Things
“Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
How do we get out of the electoral impasse?
The Democrats (or more properly the liberal progressives) need to start looking to solve the obvious national problems. This means they need to stop simply being the anti-MAGA, anti-Trump party. They need to stop supporting our failing institutions and approach to governance. If you are liberal, you believe that we need to be governed. We also need to be governed well. Being governed well means an efficient government. It means a competent government that is a good value for the money. Today we do not have that.
A big part of our inefficient government is the regulatory state. As noted above, the foundation of regulation is the overreach of corporate greed. Rather than run businesses in a way that is good for society, corporations only look to profit. They will do all manner of damage to society for profit. It is in how they are managed; they are only about maximizing shareholder value. Regulation is the societal response to this. Instead, we need corporations that regulate themselves for the good of society.
This requires new laws and new governance. We need to change the accounting of corporations to make them responsible to their communities and workers too. Take the way Meta’s products harm society and especially children. In the name of maximizing value, they have created platforms that harm politics, children, and society. Nothing except bad press stands in the way. Instead of holding back a little for the good of society, they maximize profit and damage. Right now, regulation is the only answer. Regulation is horribly inefficient. Efficiency comes from the corporation doing the right thing and removing the need for regulation.
I will just note that the GOP’s answer is just removing regulation from the picture. This will enable profit. It will also enable corporations to further damage society. They will be allowed to pollute. They will be allowed to treat workers poorly. It will just fuel more inequality and all the problems we already have. The Democrats need to offer something better; something better than ex-post-facto regulation. A legal framework that rewards and encourages corporate social and societal responsibility.
We need to build trust across society. Empathy and compassion are key building blocks for trust. We need to tear down inequality. Trust comes from people relating to each other. Inequality makes people desperate and divided. We need to bring people together. GOP policies generate cruelty and meanness that undermine trust. Their tax and corporate policies generate more inequality. This generates lack of trust. As long as we can buy our way out of justice, people will not trust the law. Trump has used money to buy his way out of justice and accountability for his whole life. He is an unrepentant criminal as a result. He epitomizes the reasons no one trusts.
“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.” ― Mark Twain
Finally, the Democrats need to fully embrace competence. This means turning away from bureaucracy. Nothing is less competent than a bureaucrat. We need to reinvigorate science and education. Trump is fueled by the lack of education. His popularity is a continual indictment of our educational system. This means adding robust vocational education. Colleges and universities need to become affordable. Right now, higher education is simply a vehicle for debt and a way for corporations to prey on people.
We need great laboratories. Over the past 40 years, we have allowed our great science labs to be destroyed. First the DoD labs, then NASA, and now the DOE labs are falling. They need to be built up. Bureaucracy needs to be removed. The current incompetent corporate-minded governance of the labs needs to go. It needs to be replaced by excellence in science. We need to empower scientists to fail, learn, and innovate. Today, none of these are really allowed. We have lots of rhetoric about these things, but the management really does the opposite.
“If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal”, then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.”
The Regularized Singularity 