Almost everything you wrote about the Republicans in this article you can say about the Democrats as well. I agree, the Republicans are corrupt and evil. But Democrats are just as bad in many cases. This seems like a pretty biased analysis. You can watch long compilation videos of Democrats denying election results too. Does that make them a threat to democracy as well? The parties are two sides of the same coin as far as I am concerned. The only major difference is that the Democrats pretend to care about climate change.
Thanks for commenting! Let me know any specific item that you want to challenge. In some cases I might actually agree that the Democrats and the GOP aren't significantly different, but I'd have to see which issue you have in mind.
Yeah I think there is some common ground here for us. For starters, I think we can both agree that both parties are in the tank for the military industrial complex. Your writings on Ukraine to me are great because they highlight the corruption in both parties. A big point you raise at the start is that The GOP serves “extreme wealth and corporate power”. I would argue they both serve extreme wealth and power. What have the Democrats ever done to hold Wall Street, big corporations, the military industrial complex, big pharma, major health insurance companies and the hyper wealthy accountable? They don't raise taxes on them, they don't raise the minimum wage, they joined the GOP in bailing out Wall Street in 2008, the Affordable Care Act was a wet dream for health insurance companies, they voted for the Iraq war, they voted for the excessive Ukraine aid, they both vote for massive omnibus spending bills that covertly give all kinds of goodies to wealthy interests and they have done virtually nothing to combat climate change. The only difference is the Democrats pretend to care about stuff like this.
I would also add that from a democracy standpoint, Democrats claim to this day George Bush stole the election in 2000. They say Russia hacked the election and that Trump is #NotMyPresident. None of this mentions the election in Georgia in 2018 where Stacy Abrams refused to concede the election until she lost again in four years. Heck, John Oliver in 2019 did a whole thing about how corrupt our voting machines are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svEuG_ekNT0
I fail to see how either of these parties are different from one another. This all seems like theater to me to get people to turn against one another while ignoring the agenda of mega corporations. This is especially true with the election denial stuff. Yes, the GOP and Democrats both complain about election results, but what do they actually do from a legislative or procedural standpoint to undermine democracy? It seems like more of a case of sour grapes from political officials aimed to distract people from the agenda of mega corporations as opposed to a real systemic issue.
Can you just cite one specific thing from the piece? That would be helpful; it's all about specificity. It's crucial to be very specific because there are a lot of issues in politics and it would require a massive detailed Substack piece to try to compare the parties on an issue-by-issue basis.
I am specifically referring to this section of your article:
"The GOP serves “extreme wealth and corporate power”. But you “can’t get votes that way, so you have to do something else to get votes”, hence the crazy stuff about abortion and guns and everything else.
It disturbs me that these distractions—like abortion and guns—are used to mobilize votes for a harmful neoliberal legislative agenda."
Do Democrats not do the exact same thing but with different distraction issues like identity politics? Even the abortion and guns issues, the Democrats have had 50 years to codify Roe V. Wade and pass common sense gun control legislation. Why haven't they? Perhaps because they know they can use these as distraction issues to focus voters away from their servitude to extreme wealth and corporate power and from their harmful neoliberal legislative agenda?
They're two sides of the same coin.
On my point related to Democracy, I am specifically referring to the quote you made saying "Imagine a GOP where the base respected electoral outcomes, the GOP had no tolerance for politicians who didn’t respect electoral outcomes, and there was zero penalty for a GOP politician who said that they respected electoral outcomes—what would it take to get to that GOP?"
I'd pose the exact same questions about the Democrats.
The first thing isn't specific; it's a good issue to discuss but it would take a massive piece to go into that.
The second thing is much better; can you show me an article or essay or something written that I can look at that makes the case that there's something at all symmetrical on that front?
There is an entire section of the article which very precisely articulates what the crucial differences are between the parties. Would you not be inclined to say that the widespread republican endorsement of a coup is pretty anti-democratic? What is the democratic analog for that?
Well then that’s where the conversation ends. Read the Jan 6 report compiled by the committee that spent months investigating the causes of Jan. 6th. It was a massive Republican conspiracy. Beyond that even, you had 17 Republicans vote to deny the results of the election without any substantial evidence that it was fraudulent. You don’t need a court of law to see that, just look at the congressional record that day. You’re kidding yourself if you think that’s not by definition anti-democratic.
Do you know the best thing to look at to demonstrate that it was a coup attempt and a not a "protest gone wrong" or whatever? What would you show someone in order to demonstrate that point? Just the final report? Or is one of the hearings useful on that front?
Amazing article, thank you
Thanks!
Almost everything you wrote about the Republicans in this article you can say about the Democrats as well. I agree, the Republicans are corrupt and evil. But Democrats are just as bad in many cases. This seems like a pretty biased analysis. You can watch long compilation videos of Democrats denying election results too. Does that make them a threat to democracy as well? The parties are two sides of the same coin as far as I am concerned. The only major difference is that the Democrats pretend to care about climate change.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX2Ejqjz6TA
Thanks for commenting! Let me know any specific item that you want to challenge. In some cases I might actually agree that the Democrats and the GOP aren't significantly different, but I'd have to see which issue you have in mind.
Yeah I think there is some common ground here for us. For starters, I think we can both agree that both parties are in the tank for the military industrial complex. Your writings on Ukraine to me are great because they highlight the corruption in both parties. A big point you raise at the start is that The GOP serves “extreme wealth and corporate power”. I would argue they both serve extreme wealth and power. What have the Democrats ever done to hold Wall Street, big corporations, the military industrial complex, big pharma, major health insurance companies and the hyper wealthy accountable? They don't raise taxes on them, they don't raise the minimum wage, they joined the GOP in bailing out Wall Street in 2008, the Affordable Care Act was a wet dream for health insurance companies, they voted for the Iraq war, they voted for the excessive Ukraine aid, they both vote for massive omnibus spending bills that covertly give all kinds of goodies to wealthy interests and they have done virtually nothing to combat climate change. The only difference is the Democrats pretend to care about stuff like this.
I would also add that from a democracy standpoint, Democrats claim to this day George Bush stole the election in 2000. They say Russia hacked the election and that Trump is #NotMyPresident. None of this mentions the election in Georgia in 2018 where Stacy Abrams refused to concede the election until she lost again in four years. Heck, John Oliver in 2019 did a whole thing about how corrupt our voting machines are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svEuG_ekNT0
I fail to see how either of these parties are different from one another. This all seems like theater to me to get people to turn against one another while ignoring the agenda of mega corporations. This is especially true with the election denial stuff. Yes, the GOP and Democrats both complain about election results, but what do they actually do from a legislative or procedural standpoint to undermine democracy? It seems like more of a case of sour grapes from political officials aimed to distract people from the agenda of mega corporations as opposed to a real systemic issue.
Can you just cite one specific thing from the piece? That would be helpful; it's all about specificity. It's crucial to be very specific because there are a lot of issues in politics and it would require a massive detailed Substack piece to try to compare the parties on an issue-by-issue basis.
I am specifically referring to this section of your article:
"The GOP serves “extreme wealth and corporate power”. But you “can’t get votes that way, so you have to do something else to get votes”, hence the crazy stuff about abortion and guns and everything else.
It disturbs me that these distractions—like abortion and guns—are used to mobilize votes for a harmful neoliberal legislative agenda."
Do Democrats not do the exact same thing but with different distraction issues like identity politics? Even the abortion and guns issues, the Democrats have had 50 years to codify Roe V. Wade and pass common sense gun control legislation. Why haven't they? Perhaps because they know they can use these as distraction issues to focus voters away from their servitude to extreme wealth and corporate power and from their harmful neoliberal legislative agenda?
They're two sides of the same coin.
On my point related to Democracy, I am specifically referring to the quote you made saying "Imagine a GOP where the base respected electoral outcomes, the GOP had no tolerance for politicians who didn’t respect electoral outcomes, and there was zero penalty for a GOP politician who said that they respected electoral outcomes—what would it take to get to that GOP?"
I'd pose the exact same questions about the Democrats.
The first thing isn't specific; it's a good issue to discuss but it would take a massive piece to go into that.
The second thing is much better; can you show me an article or essay or something written that I can look at that makes the case that there's something at all symmetrical on that front?
The first thing I mentioned is a specific point you made in your piece.
Food for thought below.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2022-11-04/voters-agree-democracy-faces-a-crisis-they-disagree-vehemently-about-who-is-to-blame-essential-politics
https://thefederalist.com/2022/10/27/here-is-everything-democrats-claim-is-a-threat-to-democracy/
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/3707603-democrats-democracy-alarmism-flops-with-voters/
https://www.newsweek.com/more-adults-think-democratic-party-bigger-threat-democracy-republican-party-poll-1644720
https://www.christianpost.com/news/four-times-democrats-denied-election-results.html?page=2
https://thefederalist.com/2022/10/25/democrats-the-only-way-to-save-democracy-is-one-party-rule/
https://time.com/5947962/reform-american-democracy-marginalize-far-right/
https://gop.com/research/over-150-examples-of-democrats-denying-election-results-rsr/
https://gop.com/video/12-minutes-of-democrats-denying-election-results/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svEuG_ekNT0
There is an entire section of the article which very precisely articulates what the crucial differences are between the parties. Would you not be inclined to say that the widespread republican endorsement of a coup is pretty anti-democratic? What is the democratic analog for that?
It’s not been proven in a court of law or by the DOJ that this was in fact a coup initiated by Trump. Nor is there widespread endorsement of it.
Well then that’s where the conversation ends. Read the Jan 6 report compiled by the committee that spent months investigating the causes of Jan. 6th. It was a massive Republican conspiracy. Beyond that even, you had 17 Republicans vote to deny the results of the election without any substantial evidence that it was fraudulent. You don’t need a court of law to see that, just look at the congressional record that day. You’re kidding yourself if you think that’s not by definition anti-democratic.
If it’s a “massive Republican conspiracy” like you claim, the DOJ will indict them. They will be convicted.
Do you know the best thing to look at to demonstrate that it was a coup attempt and a not a "protest gone wrong" or whatever? What would you show someone in order to demonstrate that point? Just the final report? Or is one of the hearings useful on that front?
Thanks for commenting, but not sure why this is being said. I said exactly this myself in the conversation that I'm having in this comment section.