I agree that "entrenched power of the ruling duopoly" is a big problem, but "undermining the peaceable transfer of power" is a bigger problem, even if it's "from one branch of the duopoly to the other." How are we going to get rid of the duopoly without even that vestige of democratic process?
I certainly understand the central idea, which is that there is a glaring double-standard in Washington, but when it comes to Trump and his ilk, and their tactics, my desire for his indictment, by any prosecutor, doesn't mean I absolve the duopoly for its many crimes. In my view, Trump is of a different order because he honestly has no shame, unlike Nixon, who at least had the dignity to leave the stage for a time after being publicly humiliated. Trump is more dangerous because he has neither humility or the capacity for shame.
I am baffled by this column, especially this claim: "Once Nixon, like Trump, attacked the centers of power" That claim suffers major problems: 1) it is contradicted by all the acts that Hedges lists under "Why wasn't Trump prosecuted for..." each of which is evidence that Trump served and posed absolutely no risk to the "centers of power"; 2) False equivalence and revisionism: Nixon never "attacked the centers of power". Nixon may have attacked elites, but not the centers of power. Chomsky's po…
Appreciate your self-effacing reflecting. I find that there is a certain exhilaration in having a brilliant writer articulate, with no equivocation, no apologizing, the reasons for the malaise that afflicts our culture. Rather than ask what you are supposed to do, why not let yourself be inspired to share your perspective, or delve into related texts that connect some more of the infinite dots. If information is power, Chris’s writing is empowering, and this is as good as journalism gets, IMO.
Again... attempting to swim in the deep water of the pool while hanging onto the shallow end unwilling to let go.
I see progress though. I see the internal conflicts boiling and leading to the epiphanies of needed understanding to break out of the previous ideological identity programming that stands in the way.
The situation we are in is both complex and simple to understand. On the simple side it is the failure of globalism... that we have allowed The Elect to gut middle-class work opportunit…
You may be the disdainer-in-chief. You are perceptive, eloquent, and definitive. So now what?
I've put out my plea that you open that question for us, but I want to say something else here, which is how disaster contains the seed of renewal. The Hegelian dialectic describes a cyclical pattern where, when the current situation, the thesis, has so much going on that's contrary to its elemental nature (non-fitting elements are the antithesis), the center cannot hold and the system reconfigures int…
I think I can understand your reasons for always presenting such a bleak prognosis and I often feel just as despairing but I find myself wishing that you would devote more effort to seeking out and articulating the way forward - how we might transcend our present seemingly hopeless plight. You frequently lament the tendency to resort to magical thinking and yet you are a Christian priest. Does your faith suggest a way forward? I wish you would speak more of the ways we may discover faith and hope.