Fox Cities Progressive is on Vacation

 There will be no post on Fox Cities Progressive this week or next week because Fox Cities Progressive is on Vacation.

Trump's Fakery: An Opportunity for Democrats

 People Are Noticing that Trump Is a Fake

Trump’s supporters are finally noticing what has been obvious to most of us all along: his populism is fake. The fact that his own supporters are noticing that his populism is fake provides an opening that can be exploited in next year’ elections and in 2028.

 Mr. Trump is a billionaire real estate developer from New York, and he has a mansion in a part of Florida where he is surrounded by the same people he associates with in New York. Why would anyone expect him to know or care about people outside of his very narrow circle?

However, he is a very good salesman, and like any good salesman, he is able to project empathy when it will help him to make a sale. So, he has been able to persuade millions of people that he cares for them and works for them in spite of the fact that the biggest achievements of his first and second administrations have been tax cuts for himself and his wealthy friends.

Within the Republican Party, the role of Trump and his MAGA movement has always been to provide a smoke screen behind which the traditional, business Republicans can enact tax cuts and roll back environmental and financial regulations.

Spectacular Corruption

Trump is also spectacularly corrupt. He uses his presidential prestige and power to promote deals for his companies. As the New York Times reports,

The Trump Organization is in talks that could bring a Trump-branded property to one of Saudi Arabia’s largest government-owned real estate developments, according to the chief executive of the Saudi company leading the development.

The negotiations are the latest example of Mr. Trump blending governance and family business, particularly in Persian Gulf countries. Since returning to office, the president’s family and businesses have announced new ventures abroad involving billions of dollars, made hundreds of millions from cryptocurrency, and sold tickets to a private dinner hosted by Mr. Trump.

His Supporter Are Waking Up

However, his supporters are beginning to wake up. As Abraham Lincoln said, “You cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” People know that their grocery bills are rising. So, when he says that the price of food has gone down, they know that he is lying. People know that the cost of their health insurance is unaffordable, and that unaffordability makes them angry. So, cracks are appearing in the Republican coalition.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Mr. Trump’s strongest supporters, now thinks that he is on the wrong track. The Hill quotes her as saying,

“I never thought that fighting to release the Epstein files, defending women who were victims of rape, and fighting to expose the web of rich powerful elites would have caused this, but here we are,” the Georgia Republican wrote in the post. “And it truly speaks for itself. There needs to be a new way forward.”

She added that “toxic political industrial complex thrives on ripping us all apart but never delivers anything good for the American people, whom I love.”

Meanwhile, American farmers and rural communities are suffering from the effects of the Trump tariffs and other policies, and they know the source of their suffering. The Trump coalition is falling apart.

Can Democrats Seize This Opportunity?

All of this provides an opening that Democrats can exploit in next year’s elections, but to exploit this opening effectively, they will need to understand that today’s elections are not just about interests. They are about identities. Voting Republican or Democratic has become an expression of a voter’s identity, and Democrats cannot gain many votes from Republicans merely by appealing to what appears to be their interest. Instead, Democrats must find ways to appeal to voters’ identities.

There are many ways to do this, but one example might be a TV ad in which we see a white, middle-class husband and wife at their kitchen table. He is an electrician, and we see the name of his firm on his shirt. She is a nurse still in her scrubs. They talk about how they feel betrayed by the policies of the Trump administration, but hat they say is not the sole focus of the ad. It also makes the audience see that these people – white, small-town working people – are expressing their sense of betrayal. People who see themselves as “like” the couple in the ad may identify with them and with their feelings. Their shared sense of betrayal may then override their Republican identity, especially if the couple say that they have never voted for a Democrat, but now they are thinking about doing just that. Showing the ad once won’t have much effect, but showing it over and over again would be a different matter.

Here is another possibility. In a TV ad, three handsome young men on a ship are taking a break from their work. They are commercial divers – underwater construction workers – and they talk about how glad they are to have the work and what a difference the construction of offshore wind farms is making in their lives. Again, the things they say are only a part of the message. The other part is that they are saying these things, and they are people with whom many Trump supporters can identify.

These are only a couple of possibilities. There are lots more. Let's get to work.

Drifting Toward Another Long and Pointless War

A Path to War

Pres. Trump is taking us down a path to a long, costly and pointless war. We have seen our navy blowing up ships in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific. The administration claims that the boats were running drugs, but it has presented no evidence to support that claim. The administration also claims that blowing up the ships is legal because the drug runners are ”narco-terrorists” and “enemy combatants” who present a security risk to the United States. The president says that he is not going to ask for a declaration of war. Instead, we are just going to kill the people who are bringing drugs into the United States. 

We Have Been Here Before

We have undertaken costly and pointless wars before on the basis of questionable intelligence.  Do you remember the Tongkin Gulf Incident that triggered the Vietnam War? How about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction that were the excuse for the Iraq War? Do we really want to do this again?

The actions of our navy may be another of Trump’s theatrical efforts to portray himself as a tough leader and to divert attention from his efforts to promote oligarchy and serve the interests of the ultra-wealthy. Trump may also be trying to divert attention from his domestic problems on the eve of a midterm election. He would not be the first leader in the world to do that. Unfortunately, playing this kind of game on the international stage can have tragic consequences. People get killed.

Trump may talk himself into a position where he has to overthrow the government of Venezuela just as Pres. Bush talked himself into a position where he had made such a good case (based on lies as it turned out) for invading Iraq that he had to do it. In Iraq, our military was able to defeat the Iraqi military easily, and our military will also be able to defeat the Venezuelan military within a few weeks at most.

How Many Americans Will Die?

But what will happen after we overthrow Venezuela's government? Do we think that the drug trade will disappear, and our country will become free of drugs miraculously? Or will the cartels find new ways to transport the drugs? In Iraq, we found that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein meant only that all of Iraq’s problems became our problems, and the defeat of the Iraqi army was just the beginning of a ten-year war. Many Americans died, and we gained nothing.

Do we think that Venezuela will be different? If we overthrow Venezuela's government, will we be able to declare victory and go home, or will we become involved in a long guerrilla war? In neighboring Colombia recently, there was a guerilla war that went on for decades. Do we think that the drug cartels will just disappear, or will they fight to defend their extremely profitable business? 

How many Americans will die?

Cancel Your Subscription to Spotify Today

Last week, I cancelled my subscription to Spotify because the company is running recruitment advertisements for ICE. I told the company that I was doing it to protest against the ads and that when they stopped running the ads, I would reinstate my subscription. I cancelled my subscription as a part of a national movement to boycott Spotify in protest against the running of the ads.

Why did I feel that I had to do that?

We Must Use the Weapons We Have

Our democracy is in danger, and ICE has become the symbol of the drive toward oligarchy. In our fight to preserve our democracy, we must use all of the weapons at our disposal. The Trump administration is doing everything that it can to turn our country into an oligarchy, and raids by masked ICE thugs are one of the means that the administration is using to increase its power and to make us afraid to oppose it.

The normal political weapons to oppose Trump's effort appear to be ineffective. His party has full control of the legislative branch, and the party’s members fear to oppose him even when he damages the interests of their constituents and even when he claims powers that belong rightfully to the legislative branch. Thus, for example, he has been able to impose tariffs on imports without Congress’s approval by faking a national emergency. The judicial branch also seems to be under the president’s control at least partially. The Supreme Court has regularly overturned rulings by lower courts in order to facilitate the drive toward oligarchy.

We may be able to take control of Congress away from the president in the 2026 elections, but that outcome is far from guaranteed. In any case, we cannot afford to wait another full year to begin to oppose the administration’s disastrous policies. We must do what we can do now with the weapons that we have.

The would-be oligarchs have rallied to Mr. Trump’s support as we can see from their donations to his project of building a newballroom at the White House. However, the would-be oligarchs are vulnerable to pressure from their customers. We can make it expensive for the oligarchs to support Mr. Trump, and we can use that power today.

We Must Stick Together

We should stick together and follow the leadership of progressive organizations. The boycott of Spotify is a national movement that is being promoted by strong national organizations including No Kings and Indivisible. Many of us joined them recently in the largest, peaceful, political demonstrations in our country’s history, but if we want to win in the struggle against oligarchy, our commitment must extend beyond a single day's protest. We must continue to stick together in solidarity with such organizations. We will not agree with them on every issue, but progressive forces cannot win by fighting among themselves. If the boycott is effective, it will show the would-be oligarchs that the people have power and that we are prepared to use it. However, the boycott cannot be successful unless we stick together to support it.

We Must Focus Our Efforts

You may ask why we are focusing our efforts on Spotify. After all, several companies are supporting the drive toward oligarchy. Why do we attack Spotify and not those other companies. The answer is that we cannot do everything at once. We have limited resources, and we must focus our efforts if we are to be effective. The boycott of Spotify is not the only possible action, but it is a real national action that we can support now. If allow ourselves to be immobilized because we can see that other actions are possible, we will never do anything, and we will never win. The boycott will fail without our support.

We Should Do An Easy Thing Today To Avoid Big Sacrifices Tomorrow

A day may come when we have to make big sacrifices to save our democracy. That day is not yet, and perhaps, if we act now, that day may never come. So, let us act now and hope that we will succeed.  Cancelling a subscription to Spotify is easy, and if we do enough such easy things before it is too late, perhaps we will not need to make big sacrifices later. 

So, I urge you to cancel your subscription to Spotify. We must stick together; we must use the weapons that we have; and we must focus our efforts to be successful. Resist!

Political Theater to Promote Oligarchy

Is Promoting Oligarchy the Real Goal? 

What if promoting oligarchy is Trump's real goal, and his other policies are just political theater that he uses to build and maintain his power? I have said in past posts that Trump’s populism is fake and that his real goal is promoting an oligarchy in order to reduce taxes and reduce regulation of business. He works primarily to strengthen the control of our country by the rich. 

However, Trump does many things that do not appear to have any relation to his desire to build an oligarchy. What is the point of those actions? Perhaps, they are theatrical performances designed to keep his MAGA voters happy and to justify limiting freedom of speech and of the press.  

Keeping the MAGA voters happy is important to Mr. Trump because his power depends on them, but he does not want to do anything of real substance for them that might damage the interests of his oligarchic supporters. He solves this problem by doing dramatic things that the MAGA folks love, and he thereby strengthens his hold on power. Thus, the actions that appear to be unrelated to the promotion of oligarchy are in fact important parts of the drive toward it.

A Performative Effort to Deport Immigrants

Consider for example his program of arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants. In another post on this blog, I showed that the methods he is using will not allow him to deport more than a small fraction of our undocumented immigrants, and I warned that we should expect him to resort to methods that are more violent and oppressive. 

But what if the point is not really to deport the immigrants at all but instead only to give the impression that he is deporting them and to promote protests that will justify the use of troops on American streets? Millions of MAGA voters voted for Trump because he promised to rid the country of undocumented immigrants. To maintain the loyalty of those voters, he must have a deportation program. On the other hand, some of the profits earned by his oligarchic supporters depend on the labor of undocumented immigrants. How can he please both groups in his coalition? 

He can do so by having a theatrical but limited program of deportation. He appears to be very tough on immigrants, but he actually deports only a small fraction of them. Thus, he keeps both his MAGA supporters and his oligarchic supporters happy. 

In addition, his theatrical use of masked thugs outrages his opponents and promotes resistance that justifies the restriction of freedom of speech along with use of military forces in places like Chicago or Los Angeles. Thus, the oligarchy is strengthened while relatively few immigrants are deported. All of Trump's supporters are pleased, and the oligarchy is strengthened.

We saw a great example of a performative raid recently in New York. According to the New York Times, 

More than 50 federal agents fanned out in the heart of Lower Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, brushing past confused tourists and pedestrians to detain several men near Canal Street and quickly drawing dozens of protesters to the streets.

The article went on to say, 

The operation appeared to lead to at least four detentions, according to witnesses, with the sight of dozens of masked agents descending on the edge of TriBeCa making for a visible display of force by the Trump administration in the streets of Manhattan.

Yes, it took 50 agents to arrest four people! This does not look like a part of a real attempt to deport our millions of undocumented immigrants. It looks more like a public display of force designed to make our president look tough in order to please his MAGA voters.

Sinking Boats in the Caribbean

Consider also his recent program of sinking Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean Sea. He says that the reason he is doing it is to combat what he calls narco-terrorists and to stop the flow into our country of the drugs that are killing Americans. However, that explanation does not really make sense. The drugs that are killing Americans are mainly methamphetamines that do not come from Venezuela. They are manufactured in Mexico, which means that his actions cannot achieve what he says he wants to achieve.

On the other hand, if his real goal is to give the impression of fighting the drug trade, to please the MAGA folks and to provide a smoke screen for his oligarchic program, his theatrical and flamboyant actions in the Caribbean make sense. They strengthen his contention that we are in a state of national emergency that justifies his use of troops on American streets as well as his limiting freedom of speech.

Peace-Making as Theater

Then there is the cease fire that he managed to arrange in Gaza. He and his supporters claim that he has brought peace to the Middle East, but anyone who knows a little of the history of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians can see that is nonsense.  At best, he has brought about a brief pause in the conflict. However, his action in the Middle East works well as political theater. His MAGA supporters are thrilled, and members of the oligarchy may get opportunities to make profitable real estate investments in Gaza. Thus, Trump's drive toward oligarchy is strengthened.

Theater as a Political Tool

Mr. Trump is a master of the use of theater as a political tool. It has allowed him to hold together his fragile coalition of the business Republicans and the MAGA Republicans. He has also used theater very effectively to trap American liberals into protesting against his theatrical presentations instead of protesting against his efforts to help the rich and entrench an oligarchy. Fortunately, the current budget fight gives liberals a chance to focus their efforts on preserving affordable healthcare, which is something that really matters to millions of American voters. Let's keep our eyes on the ball.

Taking Back Our Country: the Next Steps

The Next Step

The No Kings rallies across the country were inspiring, and if you attended one as I did, you probably feel energized and ready to do what you can to take back our country. At the same time, you may wonder what you can do. Can you really make a difference and if so, how? The answer is a definite and unequivocal “Yes!” You can make difference, and the time to do it is coming up fast!

Elections Are Coming Up Soon

The Grifter in Chief's ability to do the awful things that he does depends on his control of both houses of Congress, and that control rests on razor-thin majorities. According to an article written in January of this year,

 If all members of the House are present and voting, and if the Democratic minority is unified, then Republicans can afford to lose two defectors and still win an otherwise party-line vote, 218-217. 

There are elections coming up in 2026, and if the Democrats can flip only 3 of the Republicans’ 220 seats, the Democrats may gain control of the House. It is likely that this will happen. Historically, the president’s party almost always loses congressional seats in midterm elections. In addition, Trump’s tariffs and his immigration policies have caused considerable harm to farmers and rural businesses and have upset a lot of people. Finally, there are many swing districts. So, winning a few seats for Democrats is very do-able, but it won’t happen unless Democrats work to make it happen.

What You Can Do

Here is what you should do:

• Go on line and learn all you can about Democrats who are running to unseat Republican representatives.
• Pick a few candidates whom you want to support. Go to their websites and donate money to their campaigns. Give what you can. Even small gifts can make a big difference.  Think of AOC’s trademark requests for $3 donations.
• Go the office of the Democratic Party in your county and offer to volunteer to help. There is work to do in the office; there are envelopes to stuff; there are phone calls to make; there is canvassing to do.
• Visit the website of at least one candidate who is running in your home district or a nearby district.  Donate money to his/her campaign. Offer to volunteer.
• Spread the word. Help to build a movement.
• Share this blog post on your favorite social media to spread the word to as many people as possible.
• Email or text a link to this blog post to your friends.
• If you live in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, where I live, you should attend a meeting on October 28 at the office of the local Democratic Party to learn more about how you can help. Details about the meeting are available on the WisDems website.

Act Now

Don’t sit and fret. Do some of the things listed here. Act now! You have an opportunity make a real difference, and you should not miss that opportunity. We can take back our country. Let’s get busy!

Using the Constitution to Frame Progressive Values and Political Proposals

Reclaiming the Constitution For Social Justice

A few weeks ago, in a post on this blog, I said that we who work for social justice in the United States should use basic long-standing, America values to frame our goals. In this post, I want to go further and say that we should root our values explicitly in our country's Constitution. Struggles for social justice in the United States have always been struggles over the meaning of our Constitution. Americans have argued about what the Constitution permits our government to do, and more importantly, they have argued about what the Constitution requires our government to do. In recent decades, we progressives have forgotten how to use the Constitution to argue for social justice, but The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution by Fishkin and Forbath tells us how to reclaim that knowledge and how to use it in the political battles of our time.

Fishkin and Forbath show us that the Constitution is not merely – as most liberals now see it - a set of limits on the powers of government. The Constitution also sets out affirmative duties for the Federal Government and especially for its elected branches. The big conflicts of the past including those of the Populist era or those of the New Deal were seen by the people of those times as conflicts over the meaning of the Constitution and were fought out on those grounds in the political arena and not just in the courts.

We must reclaim the tradition of framing political goals like universal healthcare or affordable childcare in terms of values that are rooted in an interpretation of the affirmative duties of the federal government and especially of Congress. We should claim that the policies we recommend ought to be supported by all patriotic Americans because those policies flow from and are required by the basic principles of our Constitution. There are two approaches that we can use: the textual approach and the structural approach.

The Textual Approach to Framing Policy Proposals

The textual approach consists of interpreting the text of the Constitution in a way that stresses underlying values. The affirmative duties of the Federal Government come from several sources. First, the Constitution’s Preamble tells us that it was established in order to “…promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” The powers enumerated in the body of the Constitution should thus be interpreted in a way that is consistent with its purpose of promoting the general welfare. For example, Congress might establish a national healthcare system on the grounds that it promotes the general welfare. 

The Preamble is not the only source of affirmative duties. Section 4 of Article IV says, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government ….” This clearly means that Congress has a duty to make sure through appropriate legislation that no state turns its democratic government into an oligarchy through restrictions on voting rights or through corruption.  But Congress's duty may extend much farther. For example, Congress may have a duty to prevent our current administration from using the threat of invasion to bypass a state's democratic procedures and guarantees.

The Structural Approach to Framing Policy Proposals

The structural approach relies on the idea that the democratic political system established by our Constitution can survive only if certain structural conditions are met. The founders of our republic believed that democracy requires a broad, stable and secure middle class and an economy that gives members of the middle class opportunities to improve their condition. The founders also believed that democracy is incompatible with the concentration of wealth in an oligarchy that can use its wealth to control the legislative process and generally to subvert democracy. 

Throughout American history, progressive reformers have argued that for these reasons, Congress has a duty to enact legislation to prevent the rise of an oligarchy and to provide security and opportunity to the middle class. The protection of voting rights and campaign finance reform may obviously be justified in this way, but Congress’s responsibility to maintain a broad middle class and to prevent the rise of an oligarchy could also provide a basis for enacting a wealth tax or for expanding Social Security. 

The same logic may be used as a part of the justification for a national healthcare system. Today, healthcare emergencies are the most common cause of personal bankruptcies in the United States, and even in the absence of bankruptcies, the cost of health insurance weighs heavily on our middle class and limits the ability of middle-class people to take advantage of opportunities to get ahead. Thus, the lack of a national healthcare system threatens the structural foundations of our political system, and therefore, our government must provide a national healthcare system in order to preserve the structural conditions without which the democratic political system established by our Constitution cannot survive.

The Constitution and Inclusion

Both the textual and the structural approaches may be used to support policies of inclusion. The general welfare should be seen to include the welfare of women and of racial and religious minorities, and we must see that if oligarchy is incompatible with democracy, an oligarchy of white men is unacceptable.

American Patriots Should Join Us

Thus, progressive values and progressive social and economic policies may be linked explicitly to the affirmative duties placed on Congress and the President by the Constitution. That is the way that fights for social justice were conducted in the Progressive Era and in the New Deal Era, and we can use the Constitution in today’s fights, too. If we do that, we will strengthen the appeal of our demands, and we will be able to say that supporters of our Constitution and all patriotic Americans should join us in making those demands.