Scott and Emily, you had an interesting conversation. Full disclosure I am a Democrat. However I do hear your pain and issues with the party as a whole. I refuse to apologize for the lack of action. I do want to point out a couple of things. Lack of action can be from not having good faith opposition party (Republicans) or not controlling all levers of power. For instance in the US Senate it requires 60 votes to break the filibuster. The democrats didn't have enough for that. If you want to see some of what could happen look at here in Minnesota. We finally got a trifecta. The first thing we got was the right to Reproductive choice. And they are working hard to get many other progressive policies through. So I will suggest patience in terms of what is possible or not. Another thing that I think is more important is we cannot rely on the Democrat party to save us. We must start building the bonds of friendship, start talking about what and how we can and must do better. Start building a movement with others. Big enough to force our representatives to listen to our demands. Remember it took the suffrage movement over a 100 years and the last progressive age to get the right to vote. I am trying to do this here in Minnesota and across the nation not for myself, but for my children's generation. I think this perspective will help.
John, first of all, thank you so much for reading and listening and taking the time to comment. This is the stuff that sustains and feeds me as I'm trying to build this thing. And you totally nail it when you talk about building the bonds of friendship and solidarity. Between the changing jobs, and then the pandemic, I was really missing human connection. I personally find myself awkward socially and am much more comfortable looking at politics from 30,000 feet, but books and podcasts and all that mental and emotional labor is useless if not shared on the ground. You're right when you say the party can't save us. We have to become the party. And use that infrastructure to fight the authoritarians. It's almost structurally impossible to achieve anything outside the party system. But we have to. We don't have 100 years this time.
Ooh! And I'm about three chapters in to Stephanie Kelton's "The Deficit Myth" and I'm already like, "why aren't all the Democrats talking like this right now?"
100 percent. So have you had that light bulb moment where you realize that everything we have been told about the debt/deficit is completely false? And how all we have to do is get everyone to realize all the progressive things we want to do are only a matter of choice not "can we afford it ." Let me know when you are done and if you have any questions.
She's a very good writer. Economics is usually pretty heavy and dry, but she makes it very concise. So, I'm already like, "YES! YES! YES!" but the upcoming chapter explains it like a balance sheet and I'm looking forward to that one.
Scott and Emily, you had an interesting conversation. Full disclosure I am a Democrat. However I do hear your pain and issues with the party as a whole. I refuse to apologize for the lack of action. I do want to point out a couple of things. Lack of action can be from not having good faith opposition party (Republicans) or not controlling all levers of power. For instance in the US Senate it requires 60 votes to break the filibuster. The democrats didn't have enough for that. If you want to see some of what could happen look at here in Minnesota. We finally got a trifecta. The first thing we got was the right to Reproductive choice. And they are working hard to get many other progressive policies through. So I will suggest patience in terms of what is possible or not. Another thing that I think is more important is we cannot rely on the Democrat party to save us. We must start building the bonds of friendship, start talking about what and how we can and must do better. Start building a movement with others. Big enough to force our representatives to listen to our demands. Remember it took the suffrage movement over a 100 years and the last progressive age to get the right to vote. I am trying to do this here in Minnesota and across the nation not for myself, but for my children's generation. I think this perspective will help.
Ps look up MMT
John, first of all, thank you so much for reading and listening and taking the time to comment. This is the stuff that sustains and feeds me as I'm trying to build this thing. And you totally nail it when you talk about building the bonds of friendship and solidarity. Between the changing jobs, and then the pandemic, I was really missing human connection. I personally find myself awkward socially and am much more comfortable looking at politics from 30,000 feet, but books and podcasts and all that mental and emotional labor is useless if not shared on the ground. You're right when you say the party can't save us. We have to become the party. And use that infrastructure to fight the authoritarians. It's almost structurally impossible to achieve anything outside the party system. But we have to. We don't have 100 years this time.
Ooh! And I'm about three chapters in to Stephanie Kelton's "The Deficit Myth" and I'm already like, "why aren't all the Democrats talking like this right now?"
100 percent. So have you had that light bulb moment where you realize that everything we have been told about the debt/deficit is completely false? And how all we have to do is get everyone to realize all the progressive things we want to do are only a matter of choice not "can we afford it ." Let me know when you are done and if you have any questions.
She's a very good writer. Economics is usually pretty heavy and dry, but she makes it very concise. So, I'm already like, "YES! YES! YES!" but the upcoming chapter explains it like a balance sheet and I'm looking forward to that one.