Category Archives: Politics

Complex Problems: Part 5 – Urban/Rural Divide

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Let me begin by stating that I was raised on a farm. For the first 18 years of my life, farming was the only life I knew. Indeed, I fully expected to, one day, take over the family farm. It was only 160 acres in size, but it provided a reasonable living. Then I went to the state university where I was exposed to people from around the world and a vast array of other possible professions, which eventually led me to a degree in journalism and life in the city. After retiring, I returned to rural communities for several years.

All of this is to say that I believe I understand the unique issues facing people in both environments. And though the lifestyles are vastly different, the political views are worlds apart.

Reduced to stereotypes and generalities, people in the cities tend to think of their rural counterparts as uneducated country bumpkins. And people in rural communities tend to think of city dwellers as soft, overeducated, and overpaid elitists.

Of course, neither stereotype is true.

Today, many farms are large corporations with the family farmer operating as a combination farmhand, heavy equipment operator, veterinarian, mechanic, accountant, investment manager and CEO. And those living in small, rural communities are heavily entrepreneurial. Many have college degrees. They may own and operate a store, restaurant, hair salon, bank, car dealership or some other independent business. Many, like some of their big city counterparts, work in a big box store or manufacturing plant. And some drive many miles to the city to work in an office.

As for the city dwellers, many are office workers or work in warehouses and manufacturing plants. Others operate small businesses. Some drive delivery trucks. Indeed, there are a myriad of jobs. Percentage wise, very few are corporate executives. And because the costs are higher, most are hard-working people trying to eke out a comfortable living for their families.

So, as you can see, rural and urban people have more in common than they have differences. But when it comes to politics…

For one thing, in rural farming and ranching areas, guns and hunting are part of life. Many of the residents resent attempts to limit sales of guns and ammunition to solve what they consider big city crime. They falsely believe that they are overtaxed to subsidize big cities. (Actually, the reverse is true.) And, in rural areas, residents are more likely to belong to traditional churches which are central to many of life’s events: Weddings, funerals, fundraisers for neighbors down on their luck, holiday celebrations, etc.

In addition, the socioeconomic problems in rural areas are more extreme than in the city. It begins with consolidation. Today, Midwestern farms are upwards of 10 times larger than when I lived on the farm. That means there are roughly one-tenth of the number of jobs in rural towns. Their Main Streets are being hollowed out by Walmart, which based its growth model on competing with locally owned stores in small towns. Adding to the problem is our increased mobility. Rural consumers are often willing to drive long distances to shop in big cities for lower prices and greater selection.

Far too often, jobs in the few remaining rural manufacturing plants are exported to the cities, or worse…to foreign countries. There’s also the brain drain caused by many high school and college graduates leaving home for what they perceive as greater opportunities in cities.

All of this has led to the ongoing shrinkage of small towns. That is, unless they happen to be located within 30 or 40 miles of a large city. In those cases, they often become exurbs overwhelmed by development. As a result, the lifestyle they chose – the only lifestyle they know – is changing or dying. Their houses are declining in value. They feel trapped.

These problems are amplified by rightwing radio hosts and Fox News Channel. Almost all plumbers, carpenters, tradesmen and laborers take radios to their worksite. And, almost inevitably, those radios are tuned to the Mark Levins and the Alex Jones of the broadcast world who tell listeners their problems are caused by government, undocumented immigrants, DEI, city elites, and “libtards.” You’ll also hear radios in trucks and tractors tuned to the same hate-based “news” and “entertainment.” Likewise, local bars and cafes often have TVs permanently set to Fox News.

In other words, these people have become victims of propaganda. And extremists in the Republican Party (Are there any others?) are right there to take advantage.

So, where are the Democrats? They’re seldom anywhere to be seen…until election season. You see, nearly 20 years ago, the Democratic Party made the decision to invest its money where the most people are…in the cities. They pulled funding from rural counties. And they all but disappeared. The result was all too predictable.

That was evidenced when a couple of years ago, I volunteered to help with a Democratic booth at a couple of county fairs in reliably blue Minnesota. We were scoffed at, yelled at, labeled baby killers, and threatened by what I am sure are otherwise good people.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

We actually agree on most policies when they are not attached to party labels. We can have reasonable, albeit intense conversations with each other without threats and name-calling. All that’s required is respect for one another as fellow human beings. And for Democrats to be visible and available all year and every year. Not just preceding an election.

I believe the Democratic Party – in fact, both parties – would get far greater returns on their investments by operating and maintaining local offices, by holding meetings with constituents, by creating an ongoing dialogue with voters, than by spending billions on TV commercials.

A Return To The Gilded Age.

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During his second inaugural speech, Donald J. Trump, he of the golden toilets, announced that he would lead America into a “Golden Age.” What does that mean? Well, based on his executive orders to date and his roadmap called Project 2025, it appears that he wants to return the U.S. to the Gilded Age of the late 1800s when our economy was controlled by a small group of ruthless men who eventually became labeled Robber Barons.

In other words, the Gilded Age was a time when all the nation’s wealth trickled upward to the likes of Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Jay Gould, Jim Fisk and others. Through a combination of inspiration, luck, and insatiable greed, these people created monopolies based on unfettered access to the continent’s natural resources. By 1890, one percent of American families controlled as much as 51 percent of the nation’s wealth. Most of the rest of the nation’s citizens, especially people of color and women, were relegated to a life of hardships and poverty.

That era only came to an end because of economic depression, exposure of corruption by courageous journalists, a populist movement that instituted regulations and antitrust laws, and the Second Industrial Age.

Trump’s so-called Golden Age promises to be worse.

To begin, in 2014 an extensive study determined that the United States could no longer be called a democracy, but an oligarchy – a government controlled by a few wealthy elites. And they have gained even more power under the new Trump administration. Indeed, his campaign was financed by billionaires such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, all of whom were front and center at the inauguration.

Once in power, Trump appointed at least seven billionaires to powerful government positions. And who was the ally given the most power? Elon Musk, the world’s richest man with more than $400 billion in mostly government and Chinese money, who (coincidentally?) also donated the most to Trump’s campaign.

These unelected people are the ones who will benefit the most from Trump’s promise to cut taxes. These are the people who will reap the most rewards from a hollowed-out federal government that repeals regulations. These are the people who will benefit most from Project 2025’s planned attack on labor unions. These are the people who will remain unharmed by Trump’s trade war. And these people will almost certainly be among the very few who will benefit from the economic recession that almost certainly will result from Trump’s actions – actions that will lead to even more wealth disparity between billionaires and ordinary working people. (In 2023, the top one percent already controlled 30 percent of American wealth. And fifty percent of Americans controlled 97.5 percent of the wealth.)

Musk, aided and abetted by Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson and other congressional Republicans, is also the one given unparalleled power by the Felon-in-Chief to lead the ongoing coup against our government and the Constitution through the newly formed and unofficial agency called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk claims his agency should be pronounced “doej”, but it would be more aptly pronounced “douche”. And, without constitutional Article I authority, the lead douchebag has taken control of multiple agencies that are created and funded by Congress.

In just 14 days, Musk has taken control of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and unconstitutionally shuttered the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He has also blocked communications between government agencies and the American citizenry – all without congressional approval.

Of course, there are precedents for these kinds of actions. We have seen them executed by dictators and fascists the world over. But they have never before been seen in the United States of America where we are now watching our once proud democracy circle down the drain of one of Trump’s golden toilets.

Complex Problems: Part 4 – News Versus Propaganda

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I regret to inform you that you are being misinformed on a daily basis.

For many years, Americans depended on TV networks, newspapers and radio to bring them the news in an unbiased manner. The news gatherers were mostly graduates of journalism schools that instilled in their students the need to be thorough, objective, and professional. It was during this time that we came to rely upon such journalistic giants as Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, Chet Huntley and many more. These people were among the most trusted in the nation.

Even local radio and TV stations were to be trusted as they were bound by the Fairness Doctrine which demanded that, since the stations were operating on public airwaves, they had to operate in the public interest. That meant they needed to tell the truth and clearly separate news from opinion. A failure to do so would result in the suspension of their broadcast license.

Then along came cable TV. Since cable didn’t rely on public airwaves, it was argued that the Fairness Doctrine could not be applied to them. And, at the urging of conservatives and President Reagan, the Federal Communications Commission rescinded the doctrine altogether. That paved the way for Fox News Channel and rightwing radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh. They began with news stories with a biased conservative slant. But, over time, they filled their schedules with anti-government lies and rightwing propaganda that evolved into conspiracy theories and fantasies completely untethered to the truth. By contrast, liberal shows never gained traction because they tended to be less hateful, less emotional and focused on presenting the unexciting, often boring, truth.

A couple of decades after the repeal, social media added to the cacophony of lies and deceit to which anyone with a political agenda could add their voice. Indeed, more people now get their news from social media than legacy media. You know, the networks, newspapers and magazines that are, for the most part, staffed by real journalists – the journalists who often risk their lives in war zones to inform you about current events.

Unfortunately, MAGA loyalists spearheaded by Donald J. Trump deemed the journalists’ reports to be fake news. They would have you believe that only partisan pundits, anti-regulation billionaires, couch potatoes and conspiracy theorists can give you the “truth.”

As if that’s not bad enough, most of the legacy media are now owned by 6 corporations managed by multimillionaires and billionaires whose personal greed outweighs the public interest. They continue to slash budgets for their news departments and intercede in editorial decisions, sometimes causing staff to resign in disgust. (The departures of Ann Telnaes and Jennifer Rubin from The Washington Post and Jim Acosta from CNN are the most recent examples of the trend.)

Given the rise of propaganda combined with the ongoing destruction of legacy media, is it any wonder that our population is so misinformed and divided? Indeed, many Americans have tuned out news altogether. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that many voters make their choices based almost entirely on emotions and gut feelings rather than facts and evidence.

It certainly does not bode well for our nation’s future that the most frequent questions for search engines following the 2024 presidential election were: Why wasn’t Biden on the ballot? And what is a tariff?

Our nation’s founders believed that an informed citizenry is necessary for our democracy. But given the complexity of today’s society, it’s unlikely to expect most Americans to seek out the truth, to search for trustworthy and reliable news sources. Far too many Americans are more interested in who their favorite celebrity is dating than who is running for office…more interested in a major leaguer’s batting average than in the nation’s latest unemployment statistics.

Finding a potential solution for this problem is daunting.

Our populace is so divided and entrenched in their beliefs, almost certainly there can be no agreement as to which sources to believe and what constitutes the truth. Further, the Republican Party, in particular, has long depended on telling lies, distorting the truth and creating scapegoats to gain power.

One possible solution is for the news industry to police itself. After all, the mass of misinformation and disinformation has not only destroyed media credibility. It is dragging down readership and ratings.

Perhaps all of the major news outlets could agree to clearly identify which stories are factual news and which are opinion. Maybe they could even agree to hold themselves to the long-held journalistic standard of reporting, requiring a news story to be based on multiple credible sources. (It happened before, in the early 1900s, after attention-grabbing headlines and sensational stories were blamed for the beginning of the Spanish-American War.) Or the maybe the major news media could create an elected board of news editors given the power to hold all news outlets accountable.

Failing that, the only other possible way out of this conundrum is some form of government regulation – to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine and enforce it against all news platforms. Of course, that or any other attempt by the government to hold media accountable for telling the truth will immediately be labeled censorship. But there must be a way for the leaders of both political parties to come to terms. If not, I fear that our nearly 250-year-old experiment with democracy will almost certainly fail.

Complex Problems: Part 3 – The National Debt

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According to the National Debt Clock, our national debt is currently $36 trillion and counting. That’s because the government is currently spending more than $1.6 trillion than it receives from federal taxes. This is despite the fact that the annual deficit is currently $1 trillion less than when President Biden took office.

Of course, there are many who will say that the way to reduce the debt is to simply cut spending. Others will say that we need to raise taxes to increase revenue. But it’s not that simple. To understand why, you need to look at how we got here.

Since the end of World War II, we have endured two banking crises and 13 recessions. Many of those events resulted in the necessity of corporate bailouts, tax cuts, and increased spending to induce economic recovery. During that time, we have also fought in four costly wars, not including the estimated $26 trillion in today’s dollars spent on defense during the Cold War. More recently, the failed response to the Covid Pandemic resulted in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and the $1.2 trillion Inflation Recovery Act, which were necessary to stave off a second Great Depression and lower runaway inflation. Without those expenditures, we would have seen unemployment and inflation continue to skyrocket with many millions of Americans in soup lines and/or begging in the streets.

The point is, in a civilized society, there are certain events and economic conditions that require government to outspend its revenue.

Not the least of these are the climate-related disasters that annually cost billions of dollars to help victims and rebuild infrastructure. The National Centers for Environmental Information estimate that over the last five years those costs have totaled $764.9 billion! Do we turn our backs on the Americans ravaged by wildfires, droughts, hailstorms, tornados and hurricane victims to avoid budget deficits? Of course not.

And there are still more issues that have contributed to our debt, including self-inflicted problems such as trade wars, battles over the debt ceiling, and political shutdowns of the government which have cost many billions of dollars.

Taking all of this into consideration, you can see why, in modern times, our government has experienced a budget surplus only once. That was accomplished by the Clinton administration.

Now, you may say that I have overlooked one of the largest contributors to our annual deficits – the rising costs of “entitlements.” Certainly, it is true that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payments comprise about 61 percent of the annual federal budget. But before you call for cutbacks to these programs, consider this: In reality, these programs should be entirely separate from the federal budget. That’s because the retired workers who benefit from them have paid for them over a lifetime of work through FICA (the Federal Insurance Contributions Act).

That’s right, these programs are not “entitlements” at all. They are, in fact, insurance – nonprofit retirement insurance for which you pay premiums that are deducted from your paycheck.

Since the founding of the programs, the premiums collected have gone into a trust fund where the money is invested in federal securities. And because these programs are insurance, they should be treated like all other forms of insurance by following the principles of actuarial tables, which match premiums to expenditures. (When the costs of your casualty and accident auto insurance go up, so do your premiums.) Unfortunately, Congress has refused to consistently and equitably raise premiums, which has placed the programs in some degree of jeopardy.

That leads us to the politics of deficits and debt.

Since the Citizens United v FEC decision of 2010, political campaigns are funded in large part by billionaires, lobbying groups, and large corporations. Of course, these groups all expect a return on their investments. For example, despite the impact on our climate caused by the burning of fossil fuels, the fossil fuel industry received more than $1 trillion in subsidies in 2023. Many others have similarly cashed in. And all of these paybacks contribute to the deficit.

Further, politicians love to promise tax cuts even when they know those tax cuts will lead to larger deficits. Perhaps that’s why the highest federal income tax rate has been cut from 91 percent in 1950 to 40.8 percent today. Indeed, we have seen at least five major tax cuts since WWII. And since many of those same politicians like to campaign on a platform of fear – fear of immigrants, fear of other religions, fear of terrorism, and fear of other nations – they routinely vote to increase our defense budget.

The requested Pentagon budget for 2025 is nearly $850 billion dollars. That’s more than the next nine countries combined! And, if you separate Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid from the annual budget as is justified, it represents roughly 34 percent of the remaining (discretionary) budget. Add another $103.2 billion for Homeland Security, plus $303.8 billion for Veterans Affairs, and you’ll see that we’re spending an incredible amount for defense and the consequences of war – an annual total of more than $1.2 trillion that is nearly equal to our deficit.

And that doesn’t even include the $21 trillion in previous spending that the Pentagon couldn’t account for in a recent audit.

So, where do you cut? How do you raise more revenue? If you’re serious about reducing the debt, you absolutely have to do both. But if you do too much of either, you risk damaging the economy which will further add to the debt.

The planned tax cuts, inflation-inducing tariffs, and mass deportations of undocumented workers certainly isn’t the answer.

Our Problems Are Too Big For Simple-Minded Solutions.

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Or simple-minded politicians.

The US and the world are facing a growing and complex set of interrelated problems. But few people have the time and patience to understand them. Many politicians know this all too well. So, instead of being honest with voters, they lie. They offer simplistic “solutions.” They create easy targets for voters to blame. Targets who have already been victimized, such as migrants and transexuals.

These people, they say, are the reason low to middle income voters are struggling. They tell voters that migrants are taking our jobs, filling our housing stock, and driving up prices when, in fact, the only jobs they are taking are those that no American citizens want. They also falsely claim that migrants are driving up crime rates.

The same politicians claim that transexuals are defying God and destroying our nation’s morals. They want you to believe that aspiring young male athletes are willing to permanently change their bodies, to undergo extensive hormonal therapies and to have their genitals removed, so that they can invade girls’ locker rooms and unfairly compete with the so-called weaker sex.

Seriously? How stupid do they think voters are? Never mind. We already know the answer to that question.

Now let’s take a look at the real problems we face: Climate change, human rights violations, mass shootings, religious conflicts and wars, poverty and food insecurity, wealth disparity and greed, corrupt and repressive governments, corporate consolidation of markets and resources, corporate treatment of workers as mere commodities, propagandist media, overcrowded urban areas, and hollowed-out rural areas.

There are no quick and simple answers for any of these problems. The issues are complex, and, in most cases, one drives the others.

For example, mass migration is the result of many factors. Very few people on the planet would leave their homeland, uproot their families, and, in many cases, walk thousands of miles through a gauntlet of hardships, violence, and obstacles just to take a poverty-level, back-breaking job elsewhere. That is, they wouldn’t unless the conditions in their homeland were much worse.

These migrants are leaving their homelands under threat of death – from wars, violent gangs, drug cartels, vicious dictators, greedy oligarchs, religious and political persecution, ethnic cleansing, and climate-caused droughts. They aren’t just looking for the promise of a better life. These men, women, and children are escaping almost certain death.

What happens when we deport them? In all likelihood, they will die. And their deaths should be forever burned into our collective conscious. Of course, many of those in prosperous countries will simply shrug their shoulders, offer thoughts and prayers, and claim their deaths are God’s will.

In fact, the anti-immigrant crowd is more likely to be concerned about the possible economic consequences of mass deportations. Deporting up to 12 million undocumented workers from the US could be catastrophic to our economy. After all, these are the workers who pick our fruit and vegetables, who process our meat, who cook our food, who clean our offices and hotel rooms, who repair our roofs, who do our landscaping, and nanny our children. Many have become friends and neighbors. And the plain fact is, we need these people.

But they should have entered the country the right way, you say. They should have stood in line to apply for immigration. The unfortunate truth is that it takes approximately three years to enter “the right way.” Most of those escaping their homelands would be dead by the time they received approval.

So, if walls, razor sharp concertina wire, and the threats of deportation are not the answer to migration, what is?

Clearly, a big part of the answer is to deal with the causes of migration. Of course, addressing climate change is a multi-generational task. So, there needs to be some interim way to humanely house and feed its victims. That only takes a willingness to help and money – likely less than we’re spending on walls. The other factors driving migration require governmental fixes – deposing dictators, ending persecution, and jailing gangs.

That all seems very daunting. But, in many cases, we – the world’s most prosperous nations and empires – created these problems and supported corrupt governments. We absolutely should be part of the solution.

Of course, that takes an honest, caring and sensible government at home. One run by politicians that are willing to level with voters, to understand the complexities and explain them to voters, to address the issues, to inspire, and to lead.

Unfortunately, such a government is nowhere to be seen on our horizon.

Good People Who Unintentionally Damaged Our Democracy.

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In recent years, there have been numerous officials and powerful figures who have done great harm to our nation. To name just a few: Nixon authorized a break-in to undermine the integrity of our elections. Ronald Reagan created distrust in our federal government and formed a shadow government that led to the Iran–Contra scandal. George W. Bush and his V.P. Dick Cheney lied about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Bush’s brother, Jeb, undermined the presidential election in 2000. The Koch brothers bombarded our elections with billions to help destroy our government. Australian national Rupert Murdoch enriched himself by creating the rightwing propaganda network known as Fox News Channel. And Donald J. Trump fomented racial division, promoted false claims of election fraud, and incited a violent insurrection.

There are many, many others – mostly Republicans.

However, there are three well-intentioned Democrats who have caused lasting damage to our democracy in other ways. They are, in no particular order, Ruth Bader-Ginsberg (the notorious RBG), President Biden, and Merrick Garland.

The one trait these people shared is caution.

To wit, RBG, even while battling cancer, refused to resign her seat on the Supreme Court of the United States in the hope that the first woman president (Hillary Clinton) could name her replacement. Of course, though Clinton won the popular vote, she lost the election which allowed Trump to choose a young, partisan right-winger to succeed her.

President Biden won a mandate in 2020 in which Democrats controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. They immediately stabilized the government following Trump’s failed coup d’etat, improved our standing in the international community, and expertly ended the pandemic. But, though Biden, along with Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer accomplished many other great things including passing the long-awaited bipartisan infrastructure bill, the CHIPs Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden failed to articulate the benefits of those accomplishments to the voting public.

Worse, instead of clearly announcing that he would not seek re-election at the age of 82, he decided to run again. By waiting too long, he gave V.P. Harris just a little more than 100 days to campaign for the office, making her task exceedingly difficult, if not impossible.

The third, and I believe the most damaging person on this list is Garland. Though he was highly qualified as a judge and would have made a fine member of SCOTUS. His judicial caution made him a pathetic Attorney General.

Despite warnings that justice delayed is justice denied, Garland failed to quickly investigate and prosecute Trump for his many obvious crimes. He waited nearly two years to name a special counsel, apparently hoping to avoid the appearance of partisanship. Not surprisingly, the delay played directly into the hands of the man who had been schooled by the attorney to the Mob. Not only did Trump and his cronies label Garland’s actions a partisan witch hunt anyway. The delay permitted Trump to use an avalanche of court filings and aid from those he appointed to the bench to avoid justice.

As a result, we now have a convicted felon as President-Elect who can claim immunity for almost any crime that he and his nominees commit. Almost certainly, there will be many.

Democratic Branding.

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During my many years of working in the advertising industry at a high level (I helped create brands for hundreds of well-known products and services), I learned that, if an organization fails to create a positive brand image for itself, its competitors will create one for it. And the competitors’ version will not be flattering.

That’s exactly what Republicans have done to the Democratic Party.

Upon doing a bit of informal research, I learned that most registered Democrats and independents, cannot, in a few words, describe what the Party stands for. If you ask a hundred people, you’ll likely get a hundred different answers. Indeed, many Democratic leaders take pride in quoting Will Rogers: “I’m not a member of an organized political party. I’m a Democrat.”

Yet most can state the GOP’s preferred brand message: “Smaller government and lower taxes.” (Of course, MAGA has turned that into outright hatred of government and ‘The Libs.'”)

Democrats, having failed themselves to clearly articulate a brand message, have permitted Republicans to do it for them. They have labeled Democrats as “tax and spend liberals.”

It should come as no surprise that the label is wholly inaccurate. In recent decades, Republicans have run up far larger deficits. And their tax cuts have mostly benefited large corporations and the wealthy. In fact, Reagan, W, and Trump have all broken our economy leaving their Democratic successors tasked with fixing it.

It should also be no surprise that, given the Republican version of the brand, so many people of low- and middle-income vote Republican against their own self-interest.

In addition, the Democratic Party’s failure to properly brand itself has resulted in a lack of loyalty. Too many of the “Big Tent” Party’s supporters are single issue voters. In the recent election, they consisted of those who are pro-Palestinian, angry at Biden’s unwavering support for Israel and seemingly unaware of Trump’s willingness to abandon Palestinian dreams of freedom. There were others frustrated that Biden had not done more to relieve student debt or frustrated that he had failed to expand the Supreme Court.

There were dozens of issues that lowered Democratic voter turnout. The biggest of which was inflation. Too many voters didn’t understand the true causes of inflation – that it began as a result of Trump’s failure to properly address the pandemic, which disrupted supply chains that have taken years to repair. Why would they? Biden and the Party never explained it to them.

I also think the Democratic Party’s failed messaging has permitted Republicans, conservative pundits, Russian operatives, and QAnon conspiracy theorists to inaccurately portray Democratic initiatives – to mislead and to misinform voters.

For years, I have begged the Party to improve its communications with voters and to create an accurate brand description that clearly states its support for working-class people of all incomes, colors and backgrounds. One of the very few to listen is Ken Martin, Chair of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota. With his help, candidates like Governor Tim Walz, Senators Amy Klobuchar, Tina Smith and the late Paul Wellstone have enjoyed widespread support of voters even in staunchly Republican districts.

Fortunately, at a time when the Democratic National Committee is still licking its wounds following the stunning outcome of the election, Mr. Martin has declared his interest in leading the committee. I know that many in Washington will look unfavorably at a leader from “flyover country”. But it is the Party’s failures in most of the “flyover” counties and states that have led to the recent MAGA success.

The Democratic Party is unnecessarily suffering from a long-standing urban-rural divide. The sentiment that led to the term “City Slicker” largely still exists in rural America. And even though modern-day farming consists of running a huge business, few Democratic leaders in Washington and elsewhere have come to recognize that.

I hope most Democrats ignore the post-election circular firing squad and blame game and address what I believe is at the root of our problems. We need to focus on creating an accurate brand message and combine that with an aggressive and ongoing outreach effort aimed at all Americans.

Ken Martin is the best person to lead that effort.

Kakistocracy Returns.

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And this time, it’s a real sh*storm!

Kakistocracy, of course, is defined as a government run by the least acceptable and least competent officials. How else could you describe a government led by a thuggish narcissistic sociopath and administered by his unhinged and unqualified sycophants?

Think that assessment too harsh?

Not when an unqualified Fox News host is nominated to lead the world’s most powerful military. Not when a brain worm-infected anti-vaxxer is put in charge of the nation’s health services. Not when a Putin-loving conspiracy theorist is nominated as the nation’s top intelligence officer. And especially not when a former congressman who is the subject of a House investigation and credibly accused of illegal drug use and trafficking underage women for sex is nominated to lead the justice department.

In the words of Trump’s former attorney, Ty Cobb, that is “a f**k you to America.”
Indeed, the election of Trump is clearly a f**k you to our constitution, democracy and decency.

Trump has used a combination of lies, hateful rhetoric, and threats of violence to so enrage his followers against his political opponents, recent immigrants, transsexuals, and other minorities that they’re willing to destroy everything good that our nation has stood for.

For these insurrectionists, nothing is sacred.

After previously attacking police and defacing the halls of democracy on January 6th, they now seem ready to abandon our most hallowed principles and institutions, including the rule of law that our nation was founded upon.

In addition, they seem intent on ending all efforts to mitigate the climate crisis and abandoning relationships with our long-standing allies. They talk of rewriting our constitution; of consolidating power in the executive branch; of mass deportations; of eliminating protections for the LGBTQ community and other minorities; of deregulating large corporations and lowering their taxes; of imposing tariffs that will put our economy at risk; of privatizing our schools; of banning abortion and contraception; of banning books and history; of diminishing the power of labor unions; of eliminating the Federal Reserve; and of replacing the U.S. dollar with crypto currency.

Given their control of the Oval Office, the Senate, the House and SCOTUS, they now have the power to burn it all down. And they won’t stop there. I believe the goal is to bring the entire world to its knees with orders to kiss the ring of Trump and his fellow autocrats.

Instead, they can kiss my ass!

Trump Has Already Irreversibly Damaged Our Nation.

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Forget his plans for a second term. Pay no attention to the impending execution of Project 2025. Disregard his planned revenge against political opponents. Try to ignore the coming mass deportations, the threats to leave NATO, the refusal to address climate change, and his pandering to the obscenely wealthy and large corporations. Those are only symptoms of his impact on a nation that was once proud to be a beacon for the poor and the oppressed.

Trump long ago set the United States on an unprecedented path of hate, cruelty and injustice.

Following a decade of his rhetoric, our political theater has evolved from a time when word of an extramarital affair was disqualifying to a point where a majority of our citizens voted for a man who previously would have been a model for the most evil and the most dastardly cartoon villain ever.

Despite his constant lies, his bragging, his blatant cruelty, his obvious racism, the dozens of credible accusations of sexual assault, his felony convictions and multiple grand jury indictments, his fraudulent use of taxpayer funds, his failed response to the pandemic that killed many thousands of Americans and crashed our economy, his cavalier handling of our nation’s most guarded secrets, and his attempt to overthrow our government, a plurality of Americans chose him to be their leader.

How could that happen?

It’s not as if voters were unfamiliar with Trump’s darkest tendencies. They had four years to observe his unethical, immoral and incompetent actions during his first term as president. Journalists exposed his more than 30,000 lies while in office. They reported that he was schooled in racism and eugenics by his father, that he was mentored by a lawyer for the Mafia, that his company was found guilty of defrauding the government of taxes, and that he created phony “charities” to further avoid paying his fair share.

It has been revealed that Trump’s best friend was a sexual predator. And that he gleefully bragged of sexually assaulting young women himself. But millions of Americans marked their ballots for him anyway.

Why?

I believe that Trump, unfortunately, represents the values of a large segment of our population, including many Americans who claim to be devout Christians.

Regardless of what happens over the next 4 years, the damage has already been done. He has coarsened our public conversations. He has further divided our population. He has encouraged Americans to distrust journalists and scientists, to ignore evidence and facts. He has further politicized the courts and the churches. He has modeled hate, cruelty, greed and corruption for the next generation of American leaders. He has even led them to question the value of democracy.

From here I fear there is no turning back. All we can hope for is that the outcome of future elections will result in the restoration of our Constitution and our nation’s most essential institutions. Even then, America will never be the same.

It has been made clear that our claim of American exceptionalism based on “freedom, justice and dignity for all” is little more than a myth. And the vision of a shining city on the hill has been forever dimmed.

What Your Support Of Trump Says About You:

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If you are a multi-millionaire, a billionaire or an executive of a large, multinational corporation, your MAGA support is likely a matter of greed. Trump’s previous tax cuts and promised further cuts make you willing to ignore his boorish and bullying behavior. It shows that you are greedy and self-focused – able to ignore the prospects of our nation turning from democracy to autocracy. It also shows that you have little to no compassion for your fellow human beings.

If you’re poor, a first-generation immigrant, a member of a minority, or a military veteran, it implies that you are a masochist. Why else would you support someone who has such a long history of referring to you as lazy, criminals, unintelligent, or suckers and losers?

If you’re an evangelical who believes Trump has been chosen by God to “save” you and your religious brethren, it shows that you have eschewed the tenets of your religion to worship a cult leader who is the polar opposite of your Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, and most other historical religious leaders. Trump is clearly a sociopath who knows nothing about compassion – the foundation of most religions. He cares only about himself.

If you’re a male 18-65, it says you are afflicted with toxic masculinity. You are likely angry, cruel, and entitled – perhaps an incel who sees women, immigrants, the poor, and the LGBTQ+ community as subjects who exist only to satiate your overwhelming need for dominance. In your perverse mind, they are to be controlled, ridiculed, used, and abused.

If you’re a young female of child-bearing age, it shows that you are likely either naïve or delusional. You unquestionably have a low self-image – willing to forgo the right to control your own body in service of a cult controlled by outsized male egos.

If you’re a senior, it shows that you have simply given up on the future. You no longer care about democracy, our government, or most of the other inhabitants of our planet. You are willing to ignore climate change and the extinction of millions of species. And you are willing to accept autocracy as long as your Social Security checks keep coming and you can rely on Medicare to help you enjoy a bit more time with your grandchildren.

And if you’re a child under the age of 18, it shows that you have either been indoctrinated by your MAGA parents, or you are acting out as part of a rebellion against polite society.

Almost certainly, most of you will disagree. And you certainly have a right to do so. But seriously, I can see no other reasons for anyone to support such a hateful, cruel, lying, womanizing, self-centered, sociopathic, treacherous and greedy excuse for a human being. One whose celebrity, fortune, and claimed success is based entirely on the labor of others.