The reason Trump is able to do what he's doing is that he's paralysed the Democratic Party, who live in fear of advocating for equity, compassion and empathy, for fear of being seen as weak.
The following excerpt is from a Washington Post Op-ed from 2020 regarding the Pandemic, but the lessons apply perfectly to opposing the current fascist takeover.
“Sacrifice is not easy and natural, but it can happen. And yet, the language of sacrifice faded in the aftermath of a more popular, more total and more demanding conflict for Americans. Following World War II, the “good war,” politicians, business leaders, unions and many Americans embraced the idea that mass consumption would drive economic prosperity. Even in the midst of the burgeoning Cold War, such a notion supplanted more collectivist notions of community and sacrifice, in part because those were increasingly stigmatized as “socialist” or “communist.” This offered an individualist reaffirmation of the nation’s democratic values and became central to American identity. Mass consumption and participation in the economy, not sacrifice, increasingly came to signal one’s patriotism.
The last military draft in the United States ended in 1973, and since then, service and sacrifice have been voluntary and borne unevenly. The fractures of national unity that came at the end of the Vietnam War and the distrust of government in the wake of Watergate helped to propel these changes. In their wake, collective sacrifice has been extolled by politicians but never urged, much less required. Instead, market logics and consumer-citizenship has been the default setting for how to practice engaged models of citizenship.
Shopping, traveling and showing confidence in the economy have come to define American citizenship and even responses to collective existential threats such as terrorism and emergencies, including deadly viral outbreaks.
The challenges the nation now faces are dire and require sacrifice, not consumption. The problem is that Americans have been actively discouraged by their leaders from making sacrifices in support of larger efforts — including wars, fossil fuel consumption, global warming, the Great Recession and the current pandemic. Confronting the looming public health, economic and climate challenges today requires a wholesale change in how citizens and the state conceive and construct a rhetoric as well as a practice of collective sacrifice.”
Christopher McKnight Nichols is professor of history and Woody Hayes Chair in national security studies at The Ohio State University. He is author of "Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age" and editor and author of "Rethinking American Grand Strategy" and "Ideology in U.S. Foreign Relations: New Histories” (Columbia UP, 2022).
Defeating the fascists in WWII did not happen without sacrifice from the citizens of the Allied countries. We will have to sacrifice to stop and reverse the fascist takeover of our country. We can sacrifice a little now or a much greater amount later. What kind of world will our children and grandchildren live in if we allow this to continue?
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.
Greedy Bastards own most of the politicians of both major parties. GBs start losing money, then they tell the politicians to change course and do what We, the People want.
Spending Strike, Spending Freeze, Spending Suspension, Spending Pause, Economic Disengagement, Economic Warfare, Stop Spending!, even Boycott. Choose your favorite but Do It, and Spread the Word!
If a single dollar doubles every day for 30 days, it reaches a total of over $536 million ($536,870,912) at the end of the 30th day.
So, would it follow, that a single voice that doubled everyday would become 536 million voices after 30 days? That seems doable.
From Mark Mansour:
Sacrifice has always been the price of renewal. Democracy, if it is to survive, cannot be the cheap luxury item of a populace too comfortable to fight for it. The Trump regime can be resisted through civic courage, legal challenge, and organization. But it can also be starved—one deliberate, withheld dollar at a time.
Great work Martin … immigrants are the life blood of all emerging nations. They work the hardest for less because they are at the bottom of the labor totem pole but they sacrifice themselves to make a better life for their children . This is the American Dream … being an immigrant is about hope … hope for a better future.
Isn’t it ironic that Trumps first wife was an immigrant , his current wife is an immigrant, his in laws were immigrants, his grandparents were immigrants…. And yet he’s attacking all immigrants…. WRONG !!! He’s not opposed to Norwegians , Dutch , Scandinavians …. No , he only opposes immigrants from shithole counties . So let’s tell it like it is ….. this is RACISM.
Racism camouflaged as immigration policy . It’s just that simply . 🍊rump has been racist all his life , as was his father and grandfather. He as many others could not handle an Obama presidency… so his revenge war was hatched … and his racist followers gathered in great mass . It’s HATE . That is his policy motivation. And it has spread across generations… toxic hate . A cancer that is endemic. Hate is a powerful emotion…. And 🍊… works it masterfully.
Great post. I hadn't considered the data gathering being done by this paramilitary to feed their AI machines, as well as the comparison to IDF. I wish more people read your work!
I am for a sane immigration policy. No one should be in the US as "undocumented". Employers should not be allowed to hire people who are here "undocumented". Those people are then set up for exploitation. It's wrong. There's a reason we don't have a sane immigration policy and I believe it comes down to greed. It's the Walmart mentality in this country. It's truly a form of slavery. Anything to save a penny. If this country had a robust safety net, the fear of not being able to survive, even though you are working, would be gone.
This is a whole different argument. My post is about mass deportation which is an act of economic self harm.
Nobody thinks open borders are the acceptable. First close the door, then crate comprehensive immigration reform to include as part of the negotiations on the bill a path to citizenship. And address those already here. It’s cheaper more humane and less economically disruptive.
I think it is more than their fear of being seen weak, they get money from the corporations, same greedy corporations that keep the republicans in power. Their sensibility to not be perceived as “weak” is a very romanticized view, they are much more perverse than we think. Some of them have the nerve to vote with the republicans, they must all go to hell and a new generation should replace the idiots. They are outdated and work against the country, with a filthy hypocrisy.
I do every event in my area, also belong to the democratic club, democratic club for women, Vocices of Justice the KFTC. Sorry you thought I wasn’t involved, I am but I also know this world is becoming something that isn’t nice and becoming worse no matter what I fight and stand for. I won’t be here probably to see the final injustice done but can only imagine. I have children, grand children and great grandchildren and a new great great grand child that my heart bleeds for. I worry and am so fearful for them. People ask me why do I protest at my age, I say it’s for them and for you!
I also belong to 50501, can’t leave this one out….strong support there.
You are amazing. I’m tired and still fighting, too. But even at “just 68,” it’s challenging to keep taking all the actions that might help. We all need to encourage and support each other.
Ditto!! I was at an anti-KKK protest in Boston in 1983(?) and I can’t believe I am getting ready to go to my third No Kings Protest in March!! Back in ‘83, the cops charged around on horseback bashing the heads of protesters but at least the KKK did NOT get to rally that day!! Unfortunately, now they are all in the WH, admin & ICE.
I’m no longer interacting much on FB, however I do scroll occasionally and an sickened by the number of posts looking to find a new nail tech, or the best place to hold the kids’ birthday parties, etc. Like the world isn’t on fire. So much for lack of sacrifice 😥
Except to people like Stephen Miller, only acting upon racism matters. Racists--especially white "Christian" nationalist racists--don't care about economic truth. They don't care about facts. They don't care about history. They don't care about objective reality. They will happily destroy the United States altogether if it furthers what they see as their cause: to rid the country of anyone who doesn't look, feel, think, or act like them. The US has always been a racist country. We've just never before in recent history had a president who encouraged its growth and rewarded its immorality.
Sacrifice is not easy
The following excerpt is from a Washington Post Op-ed from 2020 regarding the Pandemic, but the lessons apply perfectly to opposing the current fascist takeover.
“Sacrifice is not easy and natural, but it can happen. And yet, the language of sacrifice faded in the aftermath of a more popular, more total and more demanding conflict for Americans. Following World War II, the “good war,” politicians, business leaders, unions and many Americans embraced the idea that mass consumption would drive economic prosperity. Even in the midst of the burgeoning Cold War, such a notion supplanted more collectivist notions of community and sacrifice, in part because those were increasingly stigmatized as “socialist” or “communist.” This offered an individualist reaffirmation of the nation’s democratic values and became central to American identity. Mass consumption and participation in the economy, not sacrifice, increasingly came to signal one’s patriotism.
The last military draft in the United States ended in 1973, and since then, service and sacrifice have been voluntary and borne unevenly. The fractures of national unity that came at the end of the Vietnam War and the distrust of government in the wake of Watergate helped to propel these changes. In their wake, collective sacrifice has been extolled by politicians but never urged, much less required. Instead, market logics and consumer-citizenship has been the default setting for how to practice engaged models of citizenship.
Shopping, traveling and showing confidence in the economy have come to define American citizenship and even responses to collective existential threats such as terrorism and emergencies, including deadly viral outbreaks.
The challenges the nation now faces are dire and require sacrifice, not consumption. The problem is that Americans have been actively discouraged by their leaders from making sacrifices in support of larger efforts — including wars, fossil fuel consumption, global warming, the Great Recession and the current pandemic. Confronting the looming public health, economic and climate challenges today requires a wholesale change in how citizens and the state conceive and construct a rhetoric as well as a practice of collective sacrifice.”
Christopher McKnight Nichols is professor of history and Woody Hayes Chair in national security studies at The Ohio State University. He is author of "Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age" and editor and author of "Rethinking American Grand Strategy" and "Ideology in U.S. Foreign Relations: New Histories” (Columbia UP, 2022).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/12/07/americans-used-sacrifice-public-good-what-happened/
Sacrifice is Necessary
Defeating the fascists in WWII did not happen without sacrifice from the citizens of the Allied countries. We will have to sacrifice to stop and reverse the fascist takeover of our country. We can sacrifice a little now or a much greater amount later. What kind of world will our children and grandchildren live in if we allow this to continue?
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.
Greedy Bastards own most of the politicians of both major parties. GBs start losing money, then they tell the politicians to change course and do what We, the People want.
Spending Strike, Spending Freeze, Spending Suspension, Spending Pause, Economic Disengagement, Economic Warfare, Stop Spending!, even Boycott. Choose your favorite but Do It, and Spread the Word!
If a single dollar doubles every day for 30 days, it reaches a total of over $536 million ($536,870,912) at the end of the 30th day.
So, would it follow, that a single voice that doubled everyday would become 536 million voices after 30 days? That seems doable.
From Mark Mansour:
Sacrifice has always been the price of renewal. Democracy, if it is to survive, cannot be the cheap luxury item of a populace too comfortable to fight for it. The Trump regime can be resisted through civic courage, legal challenge, and organization. But it can also be starved—one deliberate, withheld dollar at a time.
https://open.substack.com/pub/mmansour/p/its-time-to-recognize-that-this-ordeal?r=5f62tm&utm_medium=ios
I would rather die with HOPE than die HOPELESS!!
Great work Martin … immigrants are the life blood of all emerging nations. They work the hardest for less because they are at the bottom of the labor totem pole but they sacrifice themselves to make a better life for their children . This is the American Dream … being an immigrant is about hope … hope for a better future.
Isn’t it ironic that Trumps first wife was an immigrant , his current wife is an immigrant, his in laws were immigrants, his grandparents were immigrants…. And yet he’s attacking all immigrants…. WRONG !!! He’s not opposed to Norwegians , Dutch , Scandinavians …. No , he only opposes immigrants from shithole counties . So let’s tell it like it is ….. this is RACISM.
Racism camouflaged as immigration policy . It’s just that simply . 🍊rump has been racist all his life , as was his father and grandfather. He as many others could not handle an Obama presidency… so his revenge war was hatched … and his racist followers gathered in great mass . It’s HATE . That is his policy motivation. And it has spread across generations… toxic hate . A cancer that is endemic. Hate is a powerful emotion…. And 🍊… works it masterfully.
An outstanding post
Thank you Thomas, you’re very kind.
Great post. I hadn't considered the data gathering being done by this paramilitary to feed their AI machines, as well as the comparison to IDF. I wish more people read your work!
You can take a horse to water Manda but you can’t make it drink!
I am for a sane immigration policy. No one should be in the US as "undocumented". Employers should not be allowed to hire people who are here "undocumented". Those people are then set up for exploitation. It's wrong. There's a reason we don't have a sane immigration policy and I believe it comes down to greed. It's the Walmart mentality in this country. It's truly a form of slavery. Anything to save a penny. If this country had a robust safety net, the fear of not being able to survive, even though you are working, would be gone.
This is a whole different argument. My post is about mass deportation which is an act of economic self harm.
Nobody thinks open borders are the acceptable. First close the door, then crate comprehensive immigration reform to include as part of the negotiations on the bill a path to citizenship. And address those already here. It’s cheaper more humane and less economically disruptive.
I wholly agree with you Martin.
I think it is more than their fear of being seen weak, they get money from the corporations, same greedy corporations that keep the republicans in power. Their sensibility to not be perceived as “weak” is a very romanticized view, they are much more perverse than we think. Some of them have the nerve to vote with the republicans, they must all go to hell and a new generation should replace the idiots. They are outdated and work against the country, with a filthy hypocrisy.
These imbeciles voted to fund ICE:
Tom Souzzi, New York;
Laura Gillen, New York;
Henry Cuellar, Texas;
Don Davis, North Carolina;
Jared Golden, Maine;
Vicente Gonzales, Texas;
Marie Glusenkamp Perez, Washington.
Glad to be old, what is happening to this world is scary and harmful.
Glad to have your SocSec & Medicare in jeopardy? Glad that our country is being terrorized? Glad that your grandchildren live in fear? Fight for them!
I do every event in my area, also belong to the democratic club, democratic club for women, Vocices of Justice the KFTC. Sorry you thought I wasn’t involved, I am but I also know this world is becoming something that isn’t nice and becoming worse no matter what I fight and stand for. I won’t be here probably to see the final injustice done but can only imagine. I have children, grand children and great grandchildren and a new great great grand child that my heart bleeds for. I worry and am so fearful for them. People ask me why do I protest at my age, I say it’s for them and for you!
I also belong to 50501, can’t leave this one out….strong support there.
You are amazing. I’m tired and still fighting, too. But even at “just 68,” it’s challenging to keep taking all the actions that might help. We all need to encourage and support each other.
Ditto!! I was at an anti-KKK protest in Boston in 1983(?) and I can’t believe I am getting ready to go to my third No Kings Protest in March!! Back in ‘83, the cops charged around on horseback bashing the heads of protesters but at least the KKK did NOT get to rally that day!! Unfortunately, now they are all in the WH, admin & ICE.
Stop!! Funding them!! Your tax dollars at work
Please name the democrats in the house who voted to fund ICE on this last vote. I think you said there were 7. They need to be named
These are the 7 Democrats in the House that voted to fund ICE :
Tom Souzzi, New York;
Henry Cuellar, Texas;
Don Davis, North Carolina;
Laura Gillen, New York;
Jared Golden, Maine;
Vicente Gonzales, Texas;
Marie Glusenkamp Perez, Washington.
Powerful writing
I never said to wait them out!
This was such a good and necessary "read."
Thank you!
I’m no longer interacting much on FB, however I do scroll occasionally and an sickened by the number of posts looking to find a new nail tech, or the best place to hold the kids’ birthday parties, etc. Like the world isn’t on fire. So much for lack of sacrifice 😥
https://open.substack.com/pub/bobmackin/p/jim-pattison-grocery-packaging-warehouse?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Hmm Carney spoke strongly then this happened!
Except to people like Stephen Miller, only acting upon racism matters. Racists--especially white "Christian" nationalist racists--don't care about economic truth. They don't care about facts. They don't care about history. They don't care about objective reality. They will happily destroy the United States altogether if it furthers what they see as their cause: to rid the country of anyone who doesn't look, feel, think, or act like them. The US has always been a racist country. We've just never before in recent history had a president who encouraged its growth and rewarded its immorality.
https://youtu.be/psC3YOKHLH8?si=K6KkrUayXxfsafx6
Path forward. No, really…
Historical receipts provided.