I NEED to know what to do now because I’m NOT leaving. Too many calendar pages, too many times in the U.S.A. Prepping for exit holds no interest for me. Today’s memo is the first time I have actually considered a paid subscription. I’ll keep watching and learning. Next memo may do it.
Ok, I’m not a paying subscriber but I have earned the right to be a reader and a citizen. I’ve voted in every presidential election since the sixties-always democratic. I thought I was exercising my right to express an opinion: but it was only a voice in the dark, the dark of government machinations. There were scandals from both sides of the aisle. Government grew too heavy and didn’t hear the people’s anguish about so many issues. How many young people went to war and didn’t come back, how many have been crushed by indifference to social conditions, how many forgot what was carved into the base of the Stature of liberty. We all got fat and lazy and focused on stuff, greed and laziness. It was seductive. And now we face the results of being self indulgent and under educated. Leadership is corrupted, money buys votes and the little people who trusted others to make decisions are tired of it, and the rule of law became a political football.
I’m not yelling, I’m over 80 and I don’t have the energy and I don’t have the solution to our ennui. I’m waiting for someone, someone who doesn’t want to be a dictator to rally the citizenry and make a change. Will it happen? The odds aren’t good.
Danny: thanks for your comment. As far as turning politics around, I think we need to mobilize. The Democratic Party needs a coherent and practical program ready for the election cycle. No more arguing. Maybe even run Bernie and AOC as national candidates. We need to reveal how the Constitution and amendment have been abandoned because of Frumps program of appointing judges with political loyalty. Media must proclaim this injustice. I feel like this is the moment to “get real” about what we need. To allow a small cadre of MAGA operatives is to allow our country to fail and abandon the guiding principles of generations of principled citizens.
I look forward to what you contribute to the question of what to do now. Like you, I feel like I've been seeing steps ahead, but now because my formal education is in politics; it's because of my politics, which I learned and developed from books and discussion and on the ground action beginning in my third year of college around 1990. My politics often sit back from the details of forces vying this way and that to see history at work with variation. That said, what I think we should do now isn't possible, at least in more than an explosive, disorganized way. As you said, we're not ready. The organization and structures and institutional knowledge and popular access to ideas that would facilitate effective fight back to this have been systematically deccimated by the right for 50 years. Thank you for your efforts; can't wait to hear more.
I want you to know that I passed your post about the Trump-Pope meme to the people in the office I share space with (all lawyers) and two of them thanked me genuinely for sending it. Both went through parochial school and Jesuit college and law school together. Neither of them devout but definitely culturally Catholic of the unique kind you get growing up in San Francisco. Your piece hit a nerve. It is the kind of meta narrative sorely missing in the discourse about what we’re experiencing. I think you and Mike Brock are the two most important writers on Substack that I’ve stumbled upon. I’m very appreciative of both of your contributions and I feel like I’ve got a couple of very valuable guides for traversing this weird shit. As the first guide I’ve followed once said: “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Words to live by.
You need not apologize, my friend. None of us can see everything, if for nothing else that the storm approaching is so huge that it's hard to see it all. I'm a subscriber and I'm not going anywhere. Your insights are very valuable to me, and I hope to others.
Frightening times are here. We must read the tea leaves every day. Please don't hold back. Give it straight with no sugar coating.
We're not leaving the country. We have kids and grandkids here and we will not abandon them. They will need us.
I'm sticking as a paid subscriber for now, you have written well about interesting ideas.
What I don't understand is the idea that one *can* escape. If the possible collapse comes, it won't be just one country. There are eight thousand million people on this planet, armed to the teeth with clubs, knives, guns, hypersonic missiles, thermonuclear weapons - where realistically is one to hide?
Is the idea of a sanctuary another avoidance mechanism?
[NB: Substack is becoming more broken. It took considerable effort and two browsers to get logged in to comment.]
I loathed the Dubya administration so much that whilst living overseas during his tenure, my car bore a bumper sticker that read: “Nous sommes desolés que notre president soit un idiot; nous n’avons pas voté pour lui!”👿
Never would have anticipated turning to a Dubya-admin vet for guidance on surviving the breakdown of U.S. political and economic norms as we know them, but here are😈 (I’m aware that your cv features more than Dubya’s admin, so please forgive my sass!😉)
Thank you for sharing with us your expertise, acumen, and uncanny signal perception😌
I would just point out, who would have guessed we (W veterans) would turn out to be the smart ones.
BTW, there are considerably more of us in the Democrat ranks than you might realize. You can spot us because we're the ones who don't run when shit goes slightly wrong or at the first sign of trouble. :P
I hear ya!🤠 I’ve learned a lot in two decades, most importantly that I don’t know what I don’t know. I shared the bumper sticker anecdote not to criticize Dubya’s admin from today’s perspective but rather to illustrate my trajectory over time from rabid youthful lefty to pragmatic non-dogmatic seeker of insight and guidance from smart sources such as you, sir!🫡
Thanks Violet, great point. I’ll add that while I despised many of the actions they took, and the callousness with which they did things sometimes (Rove, Valerie Plame, for 2 examples), I NEVER thought Dubya was a traitor, intent on burning our democracy to the ground.
In any case, for me, we’re way past which side of the aisle we’ve been on. We have to stand together or there won’t be anything left anyway. It’s sad that too many people still don’t get that.
I've been thinking many of these same thoughts for the past few months--mourning the inevitable decline of the US, thinking about getting out. But my concern isn't so much for me as for those around me:
--My daughter, who is entering law school this fall. Should she invest Big Dollars in legal education in a country where the rule of law is tottering? She'll have the debt, but will she have a meaningful career path? Or should she give that up now on the chance that her dad who worries about these things is right?
--My elderly parents and in-laws. They can't reasonably leave the country and they depend on my wife and me for support.
I'm not asking for your personal advice on these specific situations. I post them because they are common and are the type of concerns your readers could use help thinking through.
I look forward to your thoughts as they develop in the coming days and weeks.
I like the pivot. What to do rather than the apocalyptic doomscape is helpful to keep us sane and forward thinking. If you deliver on your mission I can see becoming a paid subscriber, I'm very selective since there is so much substack meth to choose from.
"What Comes Next Isn’t a Debate. It’s a Test." really isn't very clear. The fact that substack has invaded the media in beneficial ways was a fine statement. What you decided to do based on what you said you have done and have talent for and what you've been thinking about takes several readings before finding it doesn't mean much. Not yet, anyway.
I NEED to know what to do now because I’m NOT leaving. Too many calendar pages, too many times in the U.S.A. Prepping for exit holds no interest for me. Today’s memo is the first time I have actually considered a paid subscription. I’ll keep watching and learning. Next memo may do it.
Looking forward to the what the person behind William A. Finnegan will do next ... especially how he addresses the question ... And what do I do now?
AND what do "we" do now.
All the best in this endeavor.
We need voices like yours!
Ok, I’m not a paying subscriber but I have earned the right to be a reader and a citizen. I’ve voted in every presidential election since the sixties-always democratic. I thought I was exercising my right to express an opinion: but it was only a voice in the dark, the dark of government machinations. There were scandals from both sides of the aisle. Government grew too heavy and didn’t hear the people’s anguish about so many issues. How many young people went to war and didn’t come back, how many have been crushed by indifference to social conditions, how many forgot what was carved into the base of the Stature of liberty. We all got fat and lazy and focused on stuff, greed and laziness. It was seductive. And now we face the results of being self indulgent and under educated. Leadership is corrupted, money buys votes and the little people who trusted others to make decisions are tired of it, and the rule of law became a political football.
I’m not yelling, I’m over 80 and I don’t have the energy and I don’t have the solution to our ennui. I’m waiting for someone, someone who doesn’t want to be a dictator to rally the citizenry and make a change. Will it happen? The odds aren’t good.
Paul Gilbert, you hit it spot on. Let’s share
Danny: thanks for your comment. As far as turning politics around, I think we need to mobilize. The Democratic Party needs a coherent and practical program ready for the election cycle. No more arguing. Maybe even run Bernie and AOC as national candidates. We need to reveal how the Constitution and amendment have been abandoned because of Frumps program of appointing judges with political loyalty. Media must proclaim this injustice. I feel like this is the moment to “get real” about what we need. To allow a small cadre of MAGA operatives is to allow our country to fail and abandon the guiding principles of generations of principled citizens.
Looking forward to whatever you write because it's always thought provoking.
I look forward to what you contribute to the question of what to do now. Like you, I feel like I've been seeing steps ahead, but now because my formal education is in politics; it's because of my politics, which I learned and developed from books and discussion and on the ground action beginning in my third year of college around 1990. My politics often sit back from the details of forces vying this way and that to see history at work with variation. That said, what I think we should do now isn't possible, at least in more than an explosive, disorganized way. As you said, we're not ready. The organization and structures and institutional knowledge and popular access to ideas that would facilitate effective fight back to this have been systematically deccimated by the right for 50 years. Thank you for your efforts; can't wait to hear more.
but NOT* because my formal education...
Ok, I like this “pivot”
You almost lost me with the article on teaching us how to survive by adapting the psyche of a slave..
But go on.
And you may think you are anonymous.
I want you to know that I passed your post about the Trump-Pope meme to the people in the office I share space with (all lawyers) and two of them thanked me genuinely for sending it. Both went through parochial school and Jesuit college and law school together. Neither of them devout but definitely culturally Catholic of the unique kind you get growing up in San Francisco. Your piece hit a nerve. It is the kind of meta narrative sorely missing in the discourse about what we’re experiencing. I think you and Mike Brock are the two most important writers on Substack that I’ve stumbled upon. I’m very appreciative of both of your contributions and I feel like I’ve got a couple of very valuable guides for traversing this weird shit. As the first guide I’ve followed once said: “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Words to live by.
Thank you.
You need not apologize, my friend. None of us can see everything, if for nothing else that the storm approaching is so huge that it's hard to see it all. I'm a subscriber and I'm not going anywhere. Your insights are very valuable to me, and I hope to others.
Frightening times are here. We must read the tea leaves every day. Please don't hold back. Give it straight with no sugar coating.
We're not leaving the country. We have kids and grandkids here and we will not abandon them. They will need us.
I'm sticking as a paid subscriber for now, you have written well about interesting ideas.
What I don't understand is the idea that one *can* escape. If the possible collapse comes, it won't be just one country. There are eight thousand million people on this planet, armed to the teeth with clubs, knives, guns, hypersonic missiles, thermonuclear weapons - where realistically is one to hide?
Is the idea of a sanctuary another avoidance mechanism?
[NB: Substack is becoming more broken. It took considerable effort and two browsers to get logged in to comment.]
Another terrific piece, yes, we need the truth. As I’ve commented before, I hate the reason you have to do it but I am glad that you do!
I loathed the Dubya administration so much that whilst living overseas during his tenure, my car bore a bumper sticker that read: “Nous sommes desolés que notre president soit un idiot; nous n’avons pas voté pour lui!”👿
Never would have anticipated turning to a Dubya-admin vet for guidance on surviving the breakdown of U.S. political and economic norms as we know them, but here are😈 (I’m aware that your cv features more than Dubya’s admin, so please forgive my sass!😉)
Thank you for sharing with us your expertise, acumen, and uncanny signal perception😌
I would just point out, who would have guessed we (W veterans) would turn out to be the smart ones.
BTW, there are considerably more of us in the Democrat ranks than you might realize. You can spot us because we're the ones who don't run when shit goes slightly wrong or at the first sign of trouble. :P
I hear ya!🤠 I’ve learned a lot in two decades, most importantly that I don’t know what I don’t know. I shared the bumper sticker anecdote not to criticize Dubya’s admin from today’s perspective but rather to illustrate my trajectory over time from rabid youthful lefty to pragmatic non-dogmatic seeker of insight and guidance from smart sources such as you, sir!🫡
Thanks Violet, great point. I’ll add that while I despised many of the actions they took, and the callousness with which they did things sometimes (Rove, Valerie Plame, for 2 examples), I NEVER thought Dubya was a traitor, intent on burning our democracy to the ground.
In any case, for me, we’re way past which side of the aisle we’ve been on. We have to stand together or there won’t be anything left anyway. It’s sad that too many people still don’t get that.
“…we’re way past which side of the aisle we’ve been on. We have to stand together or there won’t be anything left” <— PREACH!🙌
I've been thinking many of these same thoughts for the past few months--mourning the inevitable decline of the US, thinking about getting out. But my concern isn't so much for me as for those around me:
--My daughter, who is entering law school this fall. Should she invest Big Dollars in legal education in a country where the rule of law is tottering? She'll have the debt, but will she have a meaningful career path? Or should she give that up now on the chance that her dad who worries about these things is right?
--My elderly parents and in-laws. They can't reasonably leave the country and they depend on my wife and me for support.
I'm not asking for your personal advice on these specific situations. I post them because they are common and are the type of concerns your readers could use help thinking through.
I look forward to your thoughts as they develop in the coming days and weeks.
AEP
I like the pivot. What to do rather than the apocalyptic doomscape is helpful to keep us sane and forward thinking. If you deliver on your mission I can see becoming a paid subscriber, I'm very selective since there is so much substack meth to choose from.
"What Comes Next Isn’t a Debate. It’s a Test." really isn't very clear. The fact that substack has invaded the media in beneficial ways was a fine statement. What you decided to do based on what you said you have done and have talent for and what you've been thinking about takes several readings before finding it doesn't mean much. Not yet, anyway.
My wife and I really like your writing, Cleary better formed and thought out than most daily grind posts.
Thank you for any & all suggestions, indirect guidance, etc...when it gets really much worse. Later.