Democrats are always banging on about gender and race, gender and race, race and gender. They used to talk about the poor and middle class. Micro-identity politics is in fact exclusionary and divisive. The right wing was never the "big tent" of Lee Atwater's fevered imagination, the left was. I repeat, was. I'm a lifetime liberal and far too liberal to accept any exclusion. But the new left is quite comfortable with it.
16
It's tiring to hear people like Friedman tells us ideas that have been mainstream in the rest of the world for decades are unattainable. Tell us the truth, that our priority has been to make the rich richer. What's hold us back from getting anything done isn't the fighting between Ds and Rs. It's the Ds and Rs together, fighting against us. The longer they keep winning the longer nothing gets done. They need to be thrown out.
14
People always whine about the "stuff" we can't afford to do... healthcare for example. Strange, the United States never passes up the chance to invade a country. I forgot, when US starts a war, she borrows money from China.
Rich
17
From editorial: "if we just keep taking turns having one party rule and the other obstruct "
There has been no taking turns. Mr Friedman should know by now who is doing the obstructing. Why is he confusing us?
11
Correction, the biggest threat to the United States is the haplessly destructive Republican Party. They have long since shown their colors as not caring a whit for the country if caring gets in the way of a laugingly small tax cut. The motto for the Republican Party, "ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for YOU!!!"
12
Have we as author of Pogo ; this stated by Pogo...
'We have met the enemy ;.....and he is us'.....yes he/she is
us...…
We fail ourselves; do we leave it to all others to decide our
present and future and to describe what our democracy
stands for....
Yes....we do let others decide....and it is the media as the
mess
anger….but we can object....and redefine what /who
we have been /who we are now/and what we intend to be.
So ...to you ….the media ...we will respond...hopefully in
a civil way....to continue the journey started by the founding
fathers....and we may respectfully ….yes with respect and
clear candor...disagree with some and maybe all of you.
None of your points matter in an age when people lack real comminication with each other because like ostriches they have their heads buried in the sand (cellphone). That is the new opium of the masses.
10
The Biggest threat to us all is Americans.
2
Democracy only works with an educated electorate. We ignored education for years and have a lot of stupid people in America. Thus, we get Trump.
Blacks, Latinos, Millenials--I don't see how Republicans reflect their interests. Yet these 150 million people--stupid because they don't show up to vote.
Thus, we get Trump.
Does not matter who is the Democrat of choice, unless the above issues change, we get Trump.
9
I agree that we (or, "us") are the biggest threat to America today. We have everything to gain, and nothing to lose, by staying the course of the last two plus centuries. We have much to lose if we veer off course into the weeds ("swamp"?) of partisan politics, forgetting our history, struggles, values, morals, ethics that got us to where we are.
There is an element of America that has forgotten how we got to where we are (or, perhaps were until two years ago). We are at serious risk of giving up or losing all of those values we as a nation have cherished since July 4,1776. We are not perfect. No country is. We all make mistakes. But until lately our track record has been far better than most. Why throw it way now?
Why, like lemmings, do many seem hell-bent on following a person with no moral compass, and a very fragile ego, into an abyss of has beens?
I think a part of it is that the world has changed, following our example in many ways. I believe that some mistake other countries and cultures becoming more like us by following our lead, with weakness on America's part. That logic fails.
We are all humans and we are all in this together. We need to put the interests of all humans ahead of personal or political gain.
Please hit "reset" and behave and act like proverbial adults.
2
We are lacking an educated leadership, both in our government and in our families. In the past, our country has been educated by Hollywood, advertising and the boob tube. Today, social media has taken over the reins. We are no longer the responsible global citizens we once were. We can't be. We are not smart enough. A poorly educated electorate will vote for a poorly educated government. Populism, found on both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle, is a result of an education and culture which is based on the empirical and not the analytical. This supertanker will take years to change course.
8
The problem is not "us". Only the members of one party are blind w/hatred of the other, oblivious to facts, and eager to lap up the fake news in their media ecosystem. That group is the members of the republican party. If our democracy fails it won't be the fault of the rest of us - it will be completely on their heads.
5
“if we just keep taking turns having one party rule and the other obstruct” The problem is that all of the obstruction is being done by a single political party. Now the GOP senate, thanks to rule changes by His Majesty Mitch McConnell, is simultaneously ruling AND obstructing. (And what about his wife’s family’s financial support?)
It’s not just “Trump’s lying, racist-tinged nationalism and divisiveness”, but those same behaviors by his congressional — now largely senatorial — enablers. You’d think they could FINALLY get over Benghazi and the Hillary email server situations. None of THOSE emails were hacked and stolen by the Russians. Yet they turn a blind eye to constitutional violations (e.g., the Emoluments Clause) and obstruction of justice by both Trump and his cabinet officers.
9
“If Democrats can choose a nominee who speaks to our impending challenges, but who doesn’t say irresponsible stuff about immigration or promise free stuff we can’t afford, who defines new ways to work with business and energize job-creators, who treats with dignity the frightened white working-class voters who abandoned them for Trump — and who understands that many, many Americans are worried that we’re on the verge of a political civil war and want someone to pull us together — I think he or she will find a new American majority waiting to be assembled and empowered.”
Biden / Klobuchar.
1
"We have met the enemy and he is us"... The big issue for the "left" (as though the educated middle class are raging communists) is diving into endless ideological minutiae while letting the big social and economic picture continue to rot away as it has been since Nixon.
Nobody talks practical issues any more. The sheer unsustainability of this extravagant failure on all fronts is still being ignored. You can talk health all you want, but if everybody's sick, how does that help? You can talk economics, but if only a very few people are prospering, does it matter?
You can talk right and left until the cows die of old age, and it achieves nothing n real terms. Facts don't have ideologies. The US has fallen for polarization at the expense of managing facts. Polarization all too obviously equates to going nowhere. This coming election will define whether America actually recognizes its real problems.
2
The biggest threat to our democracy is the Republican machine!
Republicans have trifectas in 22 states (224 Electoral College (EC) votes); Democrats, 14 states (179 EC votes). Those may forever be single party states. That leaves the Divided Government in 14 states (with 132 EC votes) as the battleground.
President McConnell has confirmed 2 Supreme Court and 123 conservative federal judges; pushing to fill the remaining 120+.
trump’s playing a long-game. Ignoring subpoenas and filing and appealing court cases, creates the needed time to appoint more federal justices.
trump runs over the rule-of-law (and congress), governing by obstruction, endless law suits and the federal courts where he believes he has better chances of winning.
Governing through the courts leaves Republican Senate & House members untouched by legislation; no record of controversial votes that might be used against them during political campaigns.
With the SCOTUS ruling, gerrymandering is left up to the states. States with trifecta party rule can now gerrymander their states to secure absolute party control spiked with voter suppression.
Republicans and trump are playing a no-holds-barred, break-all-the-rules, long-game. Their long-game is coming to fruition and soon, single party rule will become the norm in the US. They won't mind having trump in office over 8yrs.
Europe is already reporting on the demise of the U.S’s democracy as if it were a fait accompli.
7
On this July 3rd Americans should be reminded of how the USA became independant.
In 1781 the continental army refused to march to Yorktown to complete the French trap of De Grasse, because soldiers had not been paid since a long time.
So the French general Rochambeau offered to pay the army from his own pocket. But he could not gather the money from France in time, so he made a deal with spanish bankers in Cuba who lent the money in silver which actually came from the mines of Zacatecas in Mexico..
Then the army accepted to march to victory offered doubly by the French , behind 14 ox carriages with Rochambeau's silver on them.
1
Mr Friedman. Who are you going to endorse?
And by the way, as a Brit and a US citizen I'll take a public option or single payer any day over private insurance. And why in heavens name would we not want invest in higher education for all our population to spur the next generation of dreamers and leaders?
6
"The Biggest Threat to America Is Us". What an unexpected title to see in the NY Times, and a welcome change too. Until today, we have been systematically harangued, pummeled and bombarded by all the Op-Ed writers of our great paper that the biggest threat to America was Donald Trump. Suddenly the focus is diverted from its customary target and the drumbeat gives place to a different tune less strident and more relevant to the fundamental issues of the future of the US.
2
"if we don’t prevent the far left from pulling the Democrats over a cliff with reckless ideas like erasing the criminal distinction between those who enter America legally and those who don’t, and if we fail to forge what political analyst David Rothkopf described in a recent Daily Beast essay as “a new American majority.”
Get real.
Dear Thomas Friedman, where were you when the "Tea Party" pulled us far to the right? Where were the GOP moderates during that period other than shoveling all those tax breaks to the needy super rich?
Those of us advocating we go back to the New Deal type policies are not socialist, nor are we the "Left," as so many of you opinion makers claim.
We are the real center. We want our politicians to work for all of us not just a few of us. So get with the program or take a vacation till Nov 2020.
7
''The American dream — the core promise we’ve made to ourselves that each generation will do better than its parents.'' wrote the author.
I guess that's why so many lottery tickets, so much drugs and booze are sold. They want to leave the fallacious dream. Adress these folks, they're totally fed up with the scraps thrown at them.
4
The biggest threat to America is the endless histrionic cheerleading and obstructionism, ad nauseam, on behalf of the 20+ million strong illegal alien population residing in this country...along with the tens of thousands brazenly trespassing across our porous borders every month...at a cost to American taxpayers in the $Billions, year after year.
What....we don’t have enough cultural and ideological divisiveness, poverty, homelessness, and violence in this country that we have to import more chaos? Our hospitals, schools, infrastructure, social services, and environmental resources aren’t sufficiently burdened?
Unless you dream of living in an impoverished, overpopulated, environmentally degraded third world country without ever leaving home, you will immediately come to your senses and demand an end to the outrageous exploitation of our country’s sovereignty and citizenry by foreign nationals who are NOT entitled to be here.
4
Judging by many of the comments here, “progressives” are so hostile to anyone who cautions them about their extreme positions and their resistance to forming a “majority”, there is little hope of defeating Trump in 2020. Ad hominem insults, often tinged with racism or ageism, seems to be their answer. I wish they would read a little Russian history and they will find out that fascists on the left (Bolsheviks leading to Stalin) can do as much damage as Nazis and Rightwingers.
Left out of this opinion piece is the dead-end politics of reparations, surely a poison pill for most middle Americans, and the acceptance of anti-semitism in the halls of congress, a disgrace for the Democratic party.
2
Kamal Harris wants you to decide she's your pick now. A mistreated child that Joe Biden "hurt." She and her strategists know it is hard for people to change their minds once they declare. So when you find out the dreadful hurts she did people as a powerful adult in California, you'll find reasons not to listen. The tee shirts, all that. Strategy, as in all her rise. Don't be fooled. Now or later. Go online and learn.
4
To paraphrase a TV show “We have failed this planet.”
1
The irony is that it took so little to begin the demise of the USA. No cataclysmic event, no war, and no civil insurrection. Just tribalism and greed and spite run amok.
I can't say it bothers me much. All the hyperbole about it being the greatest country of all time was always so silly, so bombastic, and so untrue. Only Americans couldn't see it.
6
I recall seeing a placard during the Women’s March I attended here in Canada. It read, “We are who we've been waiting for”, and your piece confirms that Mr. Friedman. You cannot allow your nation to be dragged down by this current administration,
by this cheap tin-horn President, but time is running out. Your country, the world, cannot survive a second term of this vile man and his enablers. I pray the democrats figure this puzzle out and bring your country together, and fast!
2
I think that the biggest threat to America is the New York Times.
OK. Not just the Times. Also the other media.
Yes, Trump is terrible. By characterizing "some immigrants as rapists" he polarizes the issue of immigration and millions come to the defense of immigrants.
But aside from which in-group you belong to, there is a genuine problem that needs to be addressed. The US cannot simply accept all people who want to come here. So there are rules and the rules need to be enforced.
Yes, we can change the rules, but that is done in a democracy through negotiation, not shutting down the government and not characterizing those you disagree with as "racists" and "bigots" and therefore eliminating any possibility of rational discussion.
Yes, I voted for Trump. Why? Because Hillary Clinton appeared to favor open borders, although her campaign appearances made her appear to take both sides of the issue.
In short Hillary Clinton appeared to lie. Now we know that Trump lies even more egregiously. Yes, Trump was a terrible choice for president.
But why did the Democrats make such a terrible choice of candidate?
Can Democrats not understand that the US does not have unlimited resources.
A few miles from my home are homeless camps, here in the US. Why can we not provides resources for America's homeless BEFORE accepting unlimited immigration from Guaatemala?
And why can we not discuss that issue without politicians declaring that the DISCUSSION of issues is racist?
3
Right on the spot.
decriminalizing the border would cost the Dems the election, it's that simple.
2
When some one is ill the patient has to point out and express where it hurts and how it feels to the appropriate specialist who recommends the medicine and the patient again has to stick to the regimen.It is similar in societal, political, economic, climate,population movement,etc, matters.The US is most advanced in most areas of human endeavor has a lot to share to those who still lag a lot.When people through their effort and help from others try to elevate life in their respective surrounding they make organized movement and will hardly be disruptive to the environment and other societies.These all necessitates that authoritative figures + their recommendations have to be heard not their voice be drowned by self appointed "experts".In the climate challenge and in matters that tie people of different Nations personalities like this Columnist,VP Al-gore,Pres O.etc. were the seasoned voices from early on,Scientists properly state the problems and suggest the most prudent approach and if such entities r irresponsibly dismissed humanity will eventually b doomed.FB has a rare potential to remain great asset for forces of Good and fight evil.However,all sorts of Mediocres,loosers,misfits try to use it to exaggerate,incite and cause mass dislocation,glorify killers of innocents,etc..Serious people everywhere have to come together and make sure that experts, sources where facts are checked before being disseminated are heard mostly.Ignorants r putting promising lands at risk.TMD.
As pundits try to characterize the downfall of the United States, their visions of the future become more and more convoluted in an attempt to portray optimism.
The only thing that can foster the promise of a better future is a healthy democracy, and it is doubtful that we can ever have one of those again if the focus is on 'prosperity'.
The old thinking of the US has failed. China has learned from the US' experience, and China will become the new Empire. US citizens should not want the US to attempt to remain an Empire. It hasn't benefitted them at all. It has gotten them killed in battle, it has demoralized everyone average or less in inheritance, and it has put them on a neverending treadmill to hell.
Let China be the Empire and watch it crumble just like Britain's Empire crumbled, and just as the US' Empire is crumbling.
A former Empire can only hope to find a new footing with new ideals, and history has shown this almost impossible without war. I see no reason for optimism. We're reliant upon profiteers to provide vision, the masters of industry that are destroying our democratic rights are providing the vision.
I'm not optimistic. I think we're headed into a time of chaos, and eventually something might emerge that people think is worth preserving. The status quo in the US is not worth preserving.
1
Democrats need to narrow the field to the top four candidates today. They need to focus on the issues, make their positions very clear, and believe in what they say. They need to support each other and offer hope and common sense. Having said that, I doubt it's going to happen anytime soon, because until the 22 (23? I forget how many candidates there are) admit they have a ghost's chance in hell of getting the nomination, this dog and pony show will drag on to Trumps advantage. Shake it down today, sit in the same room and talk it through, then as a unit, go out there and convince America you are worth it.
2
Mr. Friedman, it's not a "political civil war" that's imminent in the United States, it's a real civil war. Whichever party wins in 2020, the two sides will end up in bloody clashes in the streets of America. States will secede from the union, violence will be everywhere, the USA that lasted since the 1787 constitutional convention will be no more.
Just as it's too late to stop global warming and climate change, it's too late to save the USA. On this July 4th, those Americans who want to avoid the coming catastrophe should start making plans for a post-USA life.
The lede reminds me of the Great Pogo of the last century. "We have meet the enemy and he is us."
So true, back in the 20th Cenrtury. So true in this 21st Century.
1
No matter how objectionable and ham-handed Trump may be, getting rid of him will not solve, or even materially change, the very real issues you have outlined. You conflate the Trump issue with systemic problems that must be solved by thinking outside the current political "dialogue", and that is dangerous and fractious. It will only lead to more obstruction and inaction. Both sides lack feasible and effective proposals for solving the problems you name.
6
The American Dream is indeed in our hands. And heads and hearts. I’ve finally realized just horribly fragile it is.
7
Warren, it has to be Warren. She is the candidate with the capacity to understand the challenges and create realistic solutions. Plus, she is a woman and boy-oh-boy, we need to get some of these men out of the driver's seat.
9
I see the crisis as one of leadership. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan partisans with little or no vision or willingness to lead. Trump valueless. While I am not thrilled with Pelosi and Schumer each has some vision and a willingness to engage even with a Trump.
With 20 plus candidates and no party platform the unaffordable giveaways likely to undergo surgery along with other policy solutions. The GOP killed at the roots by Trump, in less than two years is mind boggling to me. The conservative traditional GOP gone with no leader on the deep horizon to resurrect what has been lost.
The shape of the recovery from Trump may be uneven so complete the dismantling of institutions, meaningful regulations, respect for those working in all phases of government from the Fed to FBI. Nothing of value remains all trashed in a profane stream of lies. Like a rapidly moving cancer. The ministers of truth are Barr, Meadows, Jordan and Gaetz. Not Christopher Wray, not Jerome Powell, not Dan Coats and certainly not Robert Mueller.
We need a visionary transformational leader anchored by core principles tempered with a dose of humility. A Congress to do its job instead of running for microphone. Amatuer hour is over time to manage the country.
7
Mmmmmmmmmm! Let me ask this poignant question.
If you would be a member in any of these high-tech companies like Google, Facebook IBM, Apple or Twitter, interviewing new CEO - would you hire one who spent all his professional life in the Poultry or Meat Packing industries. A CEO who never used any digital device?
This exactly what we (at least 53m voting Americans) just did in November 2016. We hired trump.
6
My vote for the most serious problem facing us is public health.
Consider the following:
More people killed by the FDA and doctors than we lost in WW2.
Nationwide epidemic of obesity.
Laws that make it illegal to sell whole milk to school children.
Autism going from 1 in 5000 to 1 in 100.
Childhood cancer.
Diabetes that used to be adults only now affection children.
Alzheimers doubles every 10 years.
Lyme disease affects 100% of many communities.
Most importantly none of these ever appear on the front page. Washington does nothing. CDC does nothing. FDA does nothing. And we are fed a constant barrage of TRUMP.
9
Americans have stopped thinking for the most part. Americans denigrate education - including - philosophy, history, science, and math. Intellectual curiousness is a thing of past generations. Americans are proud to be American; without articulating any specific individual trait or virtue that they are proud of. Our culture is dying because there is little left of our culture beyond mantras and slogans. American exceptionalism should not imply exceptionally uninformed, exceptionally misinformed, exceptionally unmotivated, or exceptionally lazy.
Politicians aren't going to save America. Neither will a political party or ideology. Please stop suggesting that someone or something can come along and rekindle the fire that made Americans industrious, intellectually stimulated, and motivated to be the best human beings that we can be. We have to start with restoring a sense of community in the hearts and minds of young people from their childhoods. We have to provide real free universal education that teaches young people enough basics about science, culture, and our past so that they can continue to learn by teaching themselves in the future.
12
When approximately 4 in 10 citizens do not vote and while we allow ourselves to be divided into blindly partisan camps and not be fully informed and invested in our own governance, we will get the democracy, or lack thereof, we deserve. Conversely a well-informed, active populace would be able to effectively alter the system away from the more recent “entertainment “ version of politics.
9
The most applicable thing I've heard on the 2020 race is that Trump cannot win but Democrats can lose.
In short, Donald Trump who's never had a higher approval rating than approximately 44% cannot win without at least 4 or 5% of the electorate holding their noses and going, I don't like this guy, but I'd rather him than the other candidate. This is pretty remarkable given how strong the economy is and his status as an incumbent.
It also speaks to how little enthusiasm people have for the Democratic Party. As an another reference point in January 2019 just 38% of people approved of the job Democrats in Congress were doing (although Republicans were even lower at 31%). In other words, the usual talking points of identity politics and big government programs to help those poor oppressed identity groups, is even less popular than Trump.
What the country craves is 2016 - a time when we had international allies, our president and the media weren't at each other's throats, legal immigrants were welcomed and illegal ones were discouraged, and we were one nation of people with a variety of different views instead of two antagonistic tribes struggling for ideological control. Fewer people identify as liberal than either moderate or conservative. Trump has damaged America badly in his time in office, but not so much so that the whole thing must be blown up in favor of questionable socialist policies and sky-high taxes to give free healthcare to foreign nationals. Repair America.
3
Clearly the greatest threat is "Republicans." When Democrats had power, we got stimulus when we needed it, banking regulation, health insurance for 20 million more people, created regulations that Trump's own OMB said helped the economy, emission standards to help with climate change, and tax hikes on the rich to help the share of income going to the top 1% fall and deficits to be below historical average as % GDP by 2014.
Contrast that with Republicans under Trump, who did stimulus when we didn't need it in the form of tax cuts that made inequality and our deficit worse, tried to take healthcare away from 20+ million, de-regulated more out of spite for Obama than economic prudence, increased healthcare costs via ACA sabotage, and have turned back the clock on climate change.
There's really no comparison on the policy front. And that's before we even get to things like, oh, integrity and dignity.
12
Mr. Friedman. Thank you.
Whether I watch you on a TV panel, or having to read here on NYT, as I do now, you have one of the best perspectives and insights.
To quote a section from your Opinion here - "We have become the biggest threat to ourselves". We see this happening each day.
The American dream has no duration or a term limit. It will be there for ever. Because, that is our way of life, our culture and what we stand for as a country. We all work hard to preserve that. However, when we witness what is happening around us, concerns us all. To name some areas of concern - the growing income inequality, climate change, infrastructure issues, healthcare, education, immigration. technology. Not to forget foreign policy and trade. Preserving our democratic institutions.
Our problem is that we have run short of the right leadership to address these issues. We do not have anyone coming forward to say that these are problems that be best addressed, with both sides of the aisle getting together. They are a national problem. Like at time of war, to have the need for all sides to stand in unison. This is a tall expectation. Not seeing it happening, is where the crux of the problem is.
2
A lot to digest here. Firstly, governance as entertainment. Let the media lead the way in rejecting the "big show" Trump promises every week. Convince ordinary Americans that real decision making has nothing to do with ratings.
Yes, do not promise "free beer," but address problems (college debt, immigration) in a meaningful, pragmatic, compassionate way.
And stress honesty.
1
The only thing that is preventing us from moving forward right now, is the absolute lawlessness of the POTUS and even moreso, the utter lack of morals, ethics, honesty, and patriotism from the GOP. They have become the single biggest problem in this country, and until they are completely out of power, I'm afraid we will make no progress. Frankly, I think the entire country is on a downward slide to falling apart. We won't make another 100 years.
2
Well I guess we can't afford to pay for wars and tax breaks for the uber rich. But we can't afford healthcare and social security for the masses. How typical. And I thought our country was better than that. Sad. ( pun intended)
1
An old quote often misattributed to Mussolini holds that fascism is the perfect merger of corporation and state. We don't have that here, at least not yet. But we do have a nearly perfect merger of plutocracy and state. Formal institutions of government are subservient to it. The old Soviet Union had a democratic government not unlike ours, in form. It just did not function that way at all. Do not think that our Constitution can protect itself from those who seek to subvert it.
3
I was disappointed in what I heard in the debates the other night. I’m a registered Democrat and one of those dreaded “coastal elites” but please stop talking about reparations, taking away my health insurance plan, taking away union health insurance plans, abortions in the 9th month (I know there are medical reasons why), free health care (no co-pays and zero premiums!), me paying for Medicaid for illegal immigrants, $700 a day facilities for illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, catch and release, deportation orders being ignored, no penalties for illegal border crossings, 100000 illegal crossings every month with no remedy in sight. When you talk about breaking up Amazon, the one company who makes my life easier on a daily basis and almost always meets its commitments to me, I think—you can’t be serious—I’d like to let Amazon run more of the government, starting with the DMV. All of this is ammunition for the republicans to re-elect Donald Trump.
The Democrats are fully capable of a communication strategy that re-elects Donald Trump, the worst president of my lifetime.
The road to a Democratic President goes through Florida (just elected a Trump loving governor), Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia.
Progressive policies don’t have to be extreme, fiscally irresponsible, or fantasies. If the democrats are losing me, they are in real trouble.
The nation is divided; I see it only getting worse.
360
@Patricia Brown
My ticket would be Biden & Warren. Consider Biden "a place holder" and Warren the person who can move discussions forward toward a more equitable, compassionate society.
Our single goal in 2020 is to vote Trump out, and we absolutely need moderates, the very ones who helped Dems win the house back in 2018.
Yes, the progressive agenda is vital, but we need to play the long game --- as the Republicans have done since the Powell Manifesto in the 1970s.
For the short run? Let's not forget: Ruth Bader Ginsberg. How much longer can old out?
35
@Patricia Brown wonderful post!
14
@Patricia Brown
We Dems, by and large, are idealistic and moral to a political fault. We'd sink the ship in order to save one drowning person. We just can't ignore the sufferings of others and be happy; we lack that mental toughness, if that's the right word.
Republicans laugh at our bleeding hearts, but what can we do? We are who we are. And, yes, we may continue to lose elections: There are more stone hearts than bleeding ones.
12
Tom Friedman fails to focus on the fact that both moderate and progressive Democrats have the same goals, and there is a lot of evidence that the majority of Americans support these goals -- quality and affordable health care for all, affordable public colleges, less inequality and more pay for the working class through minimum wage laws and other means, affordable and available quality day care for all, good public schools, a focus on climate change, and much more. There are major differences among the candidates and the public at large as to how to achieve these goals, and democrats are in the middle of a raging debate about the means to achieve them. But a democracy is about debate and resolve, and the democrats are the ONLY party currently involved in a huge discussion of how to achieve a better society and solve these problems. Tom Friedman takes one side of the debate, others believe a more progressive approach will win over more people and contain better solutions. This current debate is a good thing, because the other party is bankrupt of ideas as to how to solve these pressing dilemmas. Let's see how the debate turns out. It's too hard to now predict who has the best chance of winning the next election and which ideas and personality will best attract voters. That's what debates and primaries are for.
Altogether too optimistic. Friedman doesn't live in an area where 75% of the people are uneducated and vote for Trump, as I have for 50 years. We're not going to change those people and there are just enough of them to take us down to ruin.
2
While I agree with the sentiment that we are our own worse enemy, I take issue with the leftist spin on the causes of the real issues facing the country.
I've been a Republican all my life and really could do without the Trumpian rhetoric and us vs them political battle lines. Dunno, I think I've become more of a centrist over the last 2 years.
I believe climate change is real. Further, I believe that the fixes outlined by the Green New Deal are not only unachievable, but also ineffective. Real climate change fixes? Work to combat deforestation in Brazil and sub-Saharan Africa with economic development initiatives. Provide affordable technologies to China and India to reduce their carbon emissions. All the blue bins in all the US suburbs won't help climate change unless you deal with those 2 issues.
Income inequality? Socialist income redistributionist policies never work. How about incentivizing/subsidizing colleges to make education more affordable and available? How about limiting illegal immigration to stop the downward wage pressure on low skill jobs? How about eliminating incentives to off-shore manufacturing and keep jobs in America?
Broken healthcare? Pure free market not effective. Must have regulated private providers with price caps and transparency. Middle ground between open market and Medicare for All is only shot, IMHO.
Bottom line is electing people that can focus on actual solutions. Not seeing that on left or right, really.
3
When I started reading these posts i initially thought I had missed reading a large portion of the article. I thought that it was about how poorly WE as Americans had come to utilizing, protecting and growing our country for all.
Every new generation has the responsibility and to add to the work of previous generations. Our current generations is well on the way to failing that sacred responsibility and all we can seem to do is blame everyone else.
We all have a simple but incredibly important responsibility in 2020 to support and vote for an electable presidential candidate AND lesser candidates that will support the new president.
3
Hopefully, whomever wins the Democrat nomination will minimize wild-eyed aspirational liberal dreams that have no chance of being implemented and turn off swing voters. Instead the nominee must focus on important issues affecting the whole Country including moderates and even conservatives. Don't get me wrong -- many progressive ideas are important for the future of humanity and the planet. But to get elected in 2020, it will be necessary to address issues important to constituencies other than the most left-leaning liberals.
3
It is reassuring to read mr Friedman's column about rebuilding consensus among Americans. Yet,it remains to be seen whether mr Trump and his sycophantic troops will allow anything but a second coronation to take place. It feels as if that segment of the electorate cannot accept the principle of alternance based on fair voting count.
Democrats are presenting themselves as a loose,uncomfortable alliance,ranging from don't rock the boat Biden followers to let's redesign America to redistribute wealth Sanders admirers.
Mr Friedman lists the issues which must be tackled by future administrations. Failing to address these urgently ,he fears that America may suffer irreparable damage.
So far no aspiring candidate has addressed the challenges ahead as lucidly as he has in this op-ed. In the mean time,the current WH occupant is busy demolishing the image of the country and introducing his daughter as his next secretary of foreign affairs.
Tomorrow Mr Trump will further defile the country with a celebration centered on himself and designed to further divide Americans. The prospects for reuniting Americans is dimmer by the day.
2
Agree 100%. If we decide our only interest in politics is for it's "entertainment value" then we are doomed to repeat the pattern of all previous empires.
POTUS is The Enemy of Democracy. This is not acceptable under any set of circumstances. Without his removal by election or impeachment we are in even more trouble than the current boiling pot.
1
For me, that candidate is clearly Amy Klobuchar.
1
The one reason, that going forward, we won't be great as a nation, is that for over 60 years, when members of Congress on both sides, should of decided that all the legislation they passed that needed funding should of been taxed for, thus giving the voter the ability to decide policy, whether foreign or domestic, but Congress thought they knew better, and began to borrow for more, and more of it, and $22 trillion in debt. The idea that the average voter is incapable of understanding that the rich, and even the educated, have been convinced that they know better how government, should be funded by borrowing, and what America's place in the world should be, is inaccurate. We had both the Vietnam War, and almost 20 years in the middle east because little of it was paid for. Those with partisan ideology, and money to be made had the upper hand, control, and decision making power, as long as the money was borrowed. Now, the real test of the fact that the rich, powerful, educated, and members of Congress for many decades, will have failed is the coming debt crisis this September.
3
The next Trump running for president in 2024 will not be Don Junior, who seems as clueless as his father, but Ivanka. Beneath the cover of the rightful anguish and anger engendered by Papa's bromance with Kim, the Saudis, and Putin, and the hellacious treatment of Central Americans at our southern border Trump has been quietly grooming Invanka for the future. Consider her presence at Trump's tea party with Queen Elizabeth, her presence on D Day, and now the Korean DMZ. Once I was a Republican, then an independent but now I belong to a group best described as ABT (Anyone But Trump.)
5
I believe we need a presidential ticket that partners the best of both the centrist and leftist blocs of the Democratic Party. I hope we do not have a repeat of 2016.
2
The Democratic Party needs the African American voters, Latino voters,other non-white voters, women voters, young people voters, LGBT voters, anti-gun voters, and anti-modern technology environmental voters to win. It also needs white voters, union voters, and moderate Republicans and independents. None of these groups are going to compromise about anything with any other groups. Either they get what they want or let Trump have another four years.
3
My problem is we are supposed to beg people to stop voting against their own interests. ALL of this basically started in 1980 with Reagan. Reagan was not a brilliant man. And he presented the option of entertainment. For all facets of our civic life.
Do we get off this wheel of fortune to hell? Maybe. Maybe not.
I was 22 in 1980. Most or all of the horror predicted by Reagan's presidency has come true. When does the country wake up to it?
7
Friedman preaches the same tired stuff over and over again - how wonderful globalism and technology are. Many commenters have pointed out the absurd statement about free stuff. Also, the statements about life expectancy in the past are simplistically skewed; many children died and that skews the average. Even in these past eras, many people lived to at least sixty and beyond.
7
Mr. Friedman, reading your column for over thirty years and most of your books. You have always been a voice of reason and of worldwide knowledge that is almost unequaled. What i don’t get is why we see 20 candidates in a debate that pander endlessly with dreams of utopia when we can’t keep our citizens fed and clothed. I have always been a liberal Democratic voter, but how many homeless citizens, tent cities, squalor, mentally ill and forgotten seniors listen to these pandering debates and turn off. I utterly despise and am truly sick of the border catastrophe, I can’t help thinking of the comparisons to Germany after the armistice of WW1, which led in a decade to Hitler and the nazis. We don’t have the money to have unlimited borders and health care for 11 million immigrants. The rise of antisemitism and the trump encouraging hatred of poor, frightened people fleeing violence brings visions of torment to dehumanize people in order to desensitize us to the barbaric torture at SRO cages today, like pre-war Germany.Trump has so manipulated his base that his supporters look the other way, much like the majority of go along German people back then. Even in coastal suburbia, politics is routinely discouraged at social events; to talk of it, is to face what is indefensible. I believe that until the democrats address its own citizens, it just sets the stage for far more trump depravity. Democratic candidates, please wise up or we lose again and it will get worse, much worse.
76
Actually, in a counter intuitive way, with some of the big issues facing America today (with the enemy being us) I say bring them on. Massive climate change with flooding, fires, and heat waves? A giant called China assaulting us in every market place and geopolitical sphere? Alright. Bring it on. Because it is only faced with a visible external threat that this country will ever reunite. Do we want Republicans to listen to Democrats and vice versa? We need a commonly shared problem for that to happen. Huge technological change coupled with widening income equality? Once this monster gets big enough so that it cannot be ignored, then we'll see action. I'd love to see it happen sooner, but just like back in 1941, when we entered WWII years after we could have, it is only when a problem becomes an existential threat will Americans move in the right direction, together.
6
It doesn't matter if you keep learning. No one wants you after 50 anyway, because we have too many people here and worldwide. It doesn't matter if you move to where the jobs are, because you can't afford housing there. It doesn't matter if against all reason you want to marry and have kids, because you can't afford that either.
3
Hard to hear but unfortunately more and more true.
4
The biggest threat to America right now are Democrats. They don't want to save America. They want to save the plant with environmental laws that make doing business more expensive in America. China, Russia, and Iran will burn as much fossil fuel as it takes to secure dominance in the world. If America fails, the world will suffer far greater consequences than any amount of fossil fuel we could ever burn.
3
Trump is already destroyed government and democracy! Don’t blame the Democrats!
3
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destrouyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln
6
July 3, 2019
Not that the elite political class has witness a jerk in power and what it will destroy -the grand design to topple Trump is with a great passion, rightfully true and for sure the Donald threat has ignited the blaze for reality public candidates to debate pragmatics and belief in the plan, so Mr Friedman does America right to state the cause, the plan and an new administration we will earn, deserve and offer to the world.
2
Gosh, an unexpected breath of 'fresh air' from Friedman and the nyt. I guess 'us' is meant to refer to Friedman and the nyt. "Admitting the problem" - on the road to recovery perhaps.
1
I am not sure what Tom wants, sounds like "the good old days".
2
Number one threat are people like Freedman who keep repeating the same things over and over without a speck of originality in their thoughts, people who freak out at the humanitarian proposals of the left and still think it's good for the country when presidents threaten foreign countries with total annihilation.
4
Americas biggest source of self-inflicted misery has always been the whack-job religious sector and it's bizarre impositions on civilized life. I refer to the hellfire and brimstone faction, not the nice Episcopalians, etc.
Any religion that is used to cast judgement on others in any way has no place in civil society.
12
The someone who I think can pull us together is Pete Buttigieg. He is handling the horrible situation in S. Bend as well as anyone can. Even though Mayor Pete is young, his wisdom is well beyond his years and he has an intellect that enables him to masterfully pull together complex problems and communicate back to us a reasonable and easily understood message. Whoever the eventual Democratic candidate is, we desperately need to defeat Trump, gain control of the Senate, remove McConnell from office so we can repair the damage that has taken place the past two years and begin to pull Americans together again.
8
AMEN! Plluueeeese, Democrat Politicians — read, study, discuss, and DO this. America is ours to lose. As unreal as it seems, I’m having a hard time standing up for you... We ARE listening! Why aren’t you?
8
PLEASE give the Democrats a break! They are in primary mode...there are twenty candidates! Once the dust settles, Democrats WILL have a concise clear message until then...it’s theatre!
1
Trump is so divisive that he actually divides me against myself. I do believe, as Mr. Friedman brought up, that there is a difference between legal and illegal immigration. Still, the way Trump goes about fixing such things is so repugnant to me that don't end up agreeing with him on anything outside the premise. I must vote against him even when his broken-clock hands are at one of their two daily positional correctness.
The other of the two correct hand locations comes in dealing hard with China. Most know that we should have done this many years ago but our leaders didn't lead, so we created the Chinese powerhouse in the world. Then again, the way he goes about his "negotiations" seems doomed to fail. The reason for this is that the Chinese are much more apt to stick together in avoiding buying American products, etc., than Americans are to avoid Chinese products. We are spoiled.
I also find myself somewhat dividing against myself as I watch the stocks in my retirement account going up, while wages stagnate, corporate taxes avoided, and regulations gutted. I, like many Americans, am a bit complicit in what's going on in American economics. But, like many other addictions (to stocks going up), one must first admit they have a problem. And we have a problem. Yes, it is Donald Trump, and what he stands for. But it is also, as Mr. Friedman mentions, ourselves. Long-term thinking in what's best for the country, must come back soon, or else.
6
With facial recognition on the increase, privacy (what privacy?) anymore being suspect, the ease of fabricating alternate versions of "truth," we are somewhere between Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner" and George Orwell's "1984." All served up in an environment akin to Orwell's "Animal Farm."
The champions of "democracy," so-called, would have it said "All people are equal." "Yes," the 1% retort, "but some are more equal than others." Friedman invokes Walt Kelly's "Pogo," "We have met the enemy, and he is us." That being said, we feel we have to do SOMETHING when the political reality present at the Democratic debates would have them "Send in the Clowns." "Don't bother, they're here," we can answer, just look who's in the White House. Top that? It won't be for a lack of trying.
3
I stopped reading at this fallacy that has been debunked time and time again:
"...if we don’t prevent the far left from pulling the Democrats over a cliff with reckless ideas like erasing the criminal distinction between those who enter America legally and those who don’t..."
---
I'll say it for the bazillionth time... no democrat is for open borders or against the rule of law regarding illegal immigration... what we are saying is that we can be orderly AND humane. They aren't mutually exclusive. What is happening at the border right now is a product of this administration intentionally sabotaging the asylum system. All numbers on illegal immigration were at 30 year lows... what we have at our border now is entirely self-inflicted, by one party only.
Don't even put our immigration problems on the democrats.
10
Thomas, would you please run for president? I think you would be the right political physician to help heal the country.
4
Thank you Thomas! This is a timely editorial. Would you please run for president?
5
Many Republicans believe a lie, that global warming is a hoax.
But Democrats tend to believe an even more grievous lie, that resources are unlimited.
The two lies are connected. Americans have been in denial about population growth for decades. And nobody is allowed to discuss this topic.
In fact, Democrats often characterize those who bring up the topic of overpopulation as "racists" or "bigots."
In 1972, the book Limits to Growth appeared which presented several quasi-mathematical models, several scenarios about what might happen if population growth continued.
One of these was environmental degradation. Global warming had not yet been noticed.
Since 1972, world population has approximately doubled. But still nobody is allowed to talk about population growth.
This in spite of the fact that population growth contributes to global warming which might ultimately bring an end to the human race!
Why is it that the NY Times and its pundits are so insistent that Americans remain ignorant of the scourge of population growth?
Gentle reader. Forget the NY Times. Take a trip to Cairo in Egypt, or Delhi in India, or Kinshasa in the Congo and see for yourselves.
Population growth is a killer. Hundreds of millions are dying prematurely because of population growth.
It is a CRIME for a woman to have more than two children in an overpopulated world.
After 50 years of denial, population growth is driving down living standards in the US through illegal immigration.
5
@Jake Wagner That's a very long-winded and factually incorrect way to express your dislike of "illegals". I don't dispute that population growth is a problem in many other parts of the world but not in the USA.
The facts:
"U.S. Census Bureau released its population change estimates for the year ending in July 2018. Their data show that the national rate of population growth is at its lowest since 1937"
US population is growing 0.7% per year. It is slow and getting slower.
Seems like Friedman would like to nominate Eisenhower to lead the Democrats to victory. He's not available.
1
Friedman is missing the boat- these are all big challenges but not compared to the real threat to our democratic society posed by Trump, his followers and enablers. Things that are real possibilities that weren't previously include no peaceful transfer of power following a presidential election, wholesale foreign hacking of voting results, incitement to violence of right wing militias and white nationalists, and a round up of journalists considered "enemies of the people." Concentration camps for immigrants are already here.
2
"if we don’t prevent the far left from pulling the Democrats over a cliff with reckless ideas like erasing the criminal distinction between those who enter America legally and those who don’t,"
ugh. i dont even want waste my time in reading the rest. YOU are part of the problem.
we wouldnt have people "illegally" entering our country if we DIDN'T INSIST ON REGIME CHANGE! who brought on the destruction in honduras?! THE UNITED STATES LED BY BARACK OBAMA AS PRESIDENT AND HILLARY CLINTON AS SECRETARY OF STATE! how, do you ask? by certifying election results in that country that were fraudulent, but the winner was friendly to american business interests. of course!!!! rinse and repeat, this has been our history in latin america for decades (they dont call them banana republics for nothing - the whole term is because of the american company Dole).
and then there's OUR regime change in the mideast, which led to a migration crisis in europe, one of the worst in history.
WHEN DO WE TAKE RESPONSIBILITY? we dont! we sweep it under the rug!
oh and for the record - those in AMERICAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS came here LEGALLY seeking ASYLUM.
SHAME. the only people i see addressing the root causes of this ongoing, decades long catastrophe are TULSI GABBARD and BERNIE SANDERS. they know right were to place the blame - on our military industrial complex and our thirst for regime change to suit american business interests around the world.
The centrist view is PATHETIC.
4
"If Democrats can choose a nominee who speaks to our impending challenges, but who doesn’t say irresponsible stuff about immigration or promise free stuff we can’t afford, who defines new ways to work with business and energize job-creators, who treats with dignity the frightened white working-class voters who abandoned them for Trump — and who understands that many, many Americans are worried that we’re on the verge of a political civil war and want someone to pull us together"
I believe there is at least one such candidate and her name is Elizabeth Warren. She may be a bit left of center but she understands, and has described a plan for bringing back income equality for the average working American and leveling the playing field that has favored the very rich. She understands, and also has a plan for fighting for the reduction of carbon emissions. She is not just another presidential candidate proposing whatever she things people want to her and will get her elected, she fervently believes in her agenda and will work intelligently and diligently to bring it all about.
If anyone is unfamiliar with her agenda, I recommend googling her and reading one of the books she has authored.
I believe she is the real deal.
878
@Richard Phelps. I agree. I think Warren is the real deal and she is passionate, inspiring and authentic. But she will never win on her policy proposals. All the Democrats look as if they’re for open borders. The solutions they propose must be framed as protecting our borders. Medicare for all must allow for private insurance. Otherwise we are dead in the water
75
Yes Warren is the real deal. She’s innovative, has deep understanding of the problems and comes up with proposals. I am sure she will not be rigid about them but will adapt as needed. She didn’t take an orchestrated cheap shot at another candidate. She is smart, courageous, and not motivated by ego.
111
@Richard Phelps but isn't it obvious that Mr. Friedman is aiming his criticism directly at Senator Warren. Just what Mr. Friedman thinks is some middle ground it is possible to inhabit with the nihilist Republicans is beyond me. And that too is something that Senator Warren understands well: if we are to be led even a few steps from certain doom, it's not going to be with any elected Republicans. And "Republicans" who vote for Democrats can't be called as much, can they? Friedman strikes me as pretty confused. But you, sir, are not in any of your assessments, including of Senator Warren.
38
The election of Barack Obama shook many in the electorate to the core. Suddenly a member of the minority was not merely a Senator or a Cabinet Officer or a General. Suddenly a minority man had the bully pulpit and was seen daily on TV leading the nation.
A backlash began. Those who could not accept this (consciously or unconsciously) blamed all their problems on Obama and his party. This culminatied in the election of Trump. For his part, Trump seems to recognize that keeping this base of supporters constantly agitated is his only means to hold on to power. There is no real improvement in the lives of his followers. But keeping them frothing at the mouth distracts them from this reality.
Until a leader emerges who can help Americans outgrow this infantile reaction to minorities, Trumpism is not going away.
7
It's one thing to hope for a unifying candidate from the Democratic Party--but the evidence is very, very thin that such a person has occupied the cattle-call "debates." They are drinking the Kool-Aid of the ultra-left's grievances by the gallon, each chug-a-lug of the elixir pushing them closer to la la land. Most have already arrived there.
Any attempt by the final survivor to scramble back into the middle will founder on the rocks of hands-raised, reckless statements just made for Willie Horton-style attack ads; not to mention the grudges that will be held by the failed wanna-bes, whose star-struck followers will probably sit on their hands--as Bernie's children's army did last time around.
Trump may be a lousy president, but he's a vicious, genius campaigner. He'll win.
4
I agree with much of what the writer says, but I am perplexed about how to implement his plea to treat with dignity the “frightened white working class voters” who voted for DJT. I have tried to do so, and continue to try - I truly do. But how is this accomplished when the thing that many of the aforementioned individuals fear is equal opportunity for people that they deem inferior to themselves, based on color, religion, sexual identity, or country of origin, to name a few. Why should one dignify the beliefs of individuals who believe that they are inherently better than another human being? If someone has an answer, please pass it along because I am struggling.
2
Mr. Friedman, until voters recognize the humanity of others, none of these problems -- immigration, climate change, education, etc -- will be fixed. selfishness is the new American food and we're obese with it.
1
This column should be reprinted in all newspapers in the nation. And a version on TV as local station editorials.
1
Respectfully disagree! Our biggest and continuing threat is our Congress Members & SCOTUS Justices who have violated the Public’s Trust to routinely honor and fulfill their official duties and obligations under the US CONSTITUTION as our Republics Supreme Law of Democratic governance and oversight.
They legally represent all of US!
1
With respect to most commenters here who try to have and share a balanced opinion, I am otherwise stunned at the tenor of this column and the echo-chamber comments that bounce back its sentiments. If you think that Trump is the problem, then you must acknowledge that YOU and YOUR ILK created him. Democrats ramrodded Hillary Clinton, an unelectable, unethical candidate with poor ideas, into the spotlight, and the only antidote was Trump, someone (by your standards Mr. Friedman) less electable, less ethical and with even poorer ideas. Crazy thing that America is more rapidly gaining ground on realizing the American dream under President Trump than any president so far this century. If you and your echo chamber don't admit THAT truth, the YOU people are the problem that will keep Trump in office until 2024.
You don't like him? Get some better ideas. Increasing taxes to cover free healthcare for immigrants, abortion to 9 months and beyond, forgiving student loans and free tuition for state schools are NOT examples of better ideas. These are things that even Democrats will shy away from as evidence by thoughtful Democrats in the comment section.
5
It would seem Thomas Friedman STILL fails himself to understand that the threat to America was(and is) actually a portion of American society to whom he has belonged, a rather elitist group who have continually believed the "status quo' was OK and should be maintained. We still see this attitude in his relentless criticism of the left of the democratic party, all because, this group represents a perceived threat to people of his stature. This, of course, proved to be the key point that Trump could pounce on ultimately, as unpredictable as it was, allowing him to be elected President. Trump is just a symptom of Friedman's and others of his ilk, forty years of denial of what has been gradually happening in America. A government consisting of members of BOTH parties who have been continually at odds with the voters who elected them.
The "corporate coup d'etat" is all but complete in America where money buys(and chooses) politicians who strictly serve the interests of those that gave them that money at the expense of everyone else. Friedman thought that was OK.
1
It is truly frightening to realize our democracy is so fragile. Being taught the role of Congress with checks and balances would keep one branch from overpowering the other. It is not working today.
The cliche' of "for the common good," has taken on by some a connotation of socialism. It is stunning to hear the voices so against making sure Americans of all types, income levels, are covered by some form of health care. Voices against 2-year public colleges enabling all qualified students a place with free tuition. (Educating our populace, preparing them for skilled employment is a good thing). Not everyone can or wants to go on to university. And, visiting again the corporate welfare system that enriches the CEOs but not the workers.
It is the consumer that generates our economy no matter what some try to tell us. Industry can "supply" all they want, but if the populace does not have money in their pockets that can't buy.
Our priorities are skewed. Focusing on investing in America and its people will make us great, not the other way around as this administration seems bent upon doing. This is not to decry capitalism. There has to be a more equitable and just compromise.
We, as a nation, must decide what kind of a society we want to live in. What do we really believe makes our country what it is. Trump will not get us where we need to go. Other nations will take over and leave us in the dark ages.
2
In case folks haven’t noticed, we have people losing their jobs because of unproven allegations, or for a flag, or a hat. Where’s that vaunted tolerance.
4
Just a few weeks ago you were in agreement with Steve Bannon on China's threat. Today is Trump.
I would agree with you except for the fact that dems are pushing for policies that will not improve our lives and would make the US fail like Greece in the best case or like Venezuela in the worst.
4
Showing your centrist colors by quoting Generals and investment managers will go a long way to turning off your message those who are clamoring for meaningful change. Reading between the lines it seems to me you are ready to shed your "never Trump" stripes for better Trump than a bad democrat. You call the current democrats presidential candidates irresponsible, lawless, divisive among other things while praising the "frightening white suburban voter." Are these the same 90% of Republicans that unconditionally support Trump? Are these the folks you think are worrying about a civil war? Are these the folks that would come together only if the Democrats select another neoliberal corporatist centrist? I will archive your column in my fiction folder.
1
Mr Friedman, Thank you for another great article. You have traveled widely and must see how other countries are doing so much more with so much less. Our Lobbyocracy won't even allow the obvious fixes to healthcare that all other western countries have made. Our system of government seems badly out of date to me and uniquely unable to make the tough decisions. We helped invent the middle class and now we are destroying it. Please suggest more solutions and reasons for optimism.
4
To be a lifelong learner requires asking questions, not only about the information coming at us from the world at large, but about the quality of our own ideas. Let me suggest an example of this for Mr. Friedman. His quote: "if we don’t prevent the far left from pulling the Democrats over a cliff with reckless ideas like erasing the criminal distinction between those who enter America legally and those who don’t." There is here a subtlety in what is really happening that he fails to assess. What happens to the concept of "legality" when someone is enticed to cross our border without official permission by a farmer, or food processor, or contractor, to do work that Americans won't/can't do for the same wages? When that Mexican worker lives here "illegally" for years, and pays into SS, and pays sales taxes, and provides products all of us use, who is really at fault? Maybe the person who hires them?
An opinion column is perhaps best understood as a starting point for discussion, rather than the prescription the writer might prefer it to be.
3
Despite Trumps many failings, he is the only person in this election cycle who can save this country from the madness of the left - free stuff for most (unless you're white especially of middle class level or above) and open borders. This route will end in total financial collapse and may well trigger the civil war that many fear we are on the verge of. I recently moved to a red state, Florida, to escape the galloping leftism of the northeast, and am currently renting a home with the ultimate aim of buying. However, if the dems win both houses of Congress and the presidency I plan to move to Europe as I have dual citizenship. Europe also has it locations of leftist madness but they are thankfully shrinking. Considering Switzerland, Austria and northern Italy.
6
What a shock you will find when you see that the social safety nets in place in Austria, Switzerland, and Italy are far more generous than what we have in the United States! You might think that liberal northeast proposals to strengthen ours to be timid by comparison.
Europe continues to struggle with how to deal with a constant influx of migrants that claim asylum as we do here.
2
@Nelson Medeiros
I created my own safety net with working and saving thank you. I don't want it taken away to pay for those who aren't willing to do the same. The three countries I mentioned are all severely restricting immigration and would never consider open borders as the democrats are now advocating.
5
Don’t move to Switzerland, Austria, and Italy then as you will be paying for the social safety net for others until you need it yourself.
Democrats are not for open borders and no one is advocating such a thing. It is also not right to ignore the humanitarian problem on our southern border and we need to deal with people in a humane way. I’m for effective solutions to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. We also need guest worker programs, etc.
3
Am I the only one in the country to lay the blame for a significant fraction of our problems on the infotainment media? The capitalist media, by design, fight each other for views and clicks. They achieve this by totally focusing on drama and conflict and whatever outrageous thing Trump said today that he will contradict tomorrow. The media control what information we get. Friedman is absolutely correct: the problem is the vast majority of people who are satisfied with being fed drivel by a TV personality or others who have zero understanding of economics.
6
It seems that there are other limits to our current system. We now have gerrymadering for ever. We also have the Senate, for ever. Finally we have the electoral college. These are simply undemocratic institutions. A vote on the coast is worth a fraction of what a vote in the middle is worth, and the coasts foot the bill.
Fundamentally the flaws in our system are too great for the system to work. Things aren't nearly as bad as at the start. Slavery is probably the worst institution ever conceived. Still this thing we call a democracy is not a democracy. The time for democracy has arrived. KY gets a fifth of it's budget as a wealth transfer from the successful states and then saddles decent people with McConnell. It's time to start over. This can't continue.
5
Make this anti-electoral college argument to Sen Bernie Sanders and his fellow Vermonters and see how far you get with it. Or to the good people of Vermont or Maine. Or Joe Biden’s Delaware. They may listen to you politely, but guaranteed, they won’t support it anytime anywhere. And that’s why this anti electoral argument isn’t going anywhere- the votes ( under our constitution) just aren’t there for it.
2
Mr. Friedman, I agree with many of your points. However, morally equivocating Republican and Democratic leadership and ethics is false. Democrats stand for positions, and people. They try and try to deliver on their promises of health care, racial and social justice, and economic equity. Republicans stand for nihilistic government obstruction, undermining of City, State, and Federal Democratic governmental structure, the very underpinnings of our society and elections. The time has come to speak out hard against a party that represents no one but the very rich. And loosen up a little, watching a debate at a bar means you're engaged and enjoy being engaged with others.
1
Until the non print news media returns to objective reporting, it will only get worse. I don’t watch News because as a moderate conservative, there is no channel which seems fair. Thomas and the rest of the people in print and non print media refuse to admit the inherent bias. Well, except they all hammer FOX for bias. The first problem is not Trump, it’s the media. 😉
2
Try PBS News Hour... often both sides of the coin and in-depth reporting.
3
What do you mean by us? The only thing I can do is vote. I didn't vote for the current clown show. I'm not rich, so I can't influence anybody. At this point I can only sit idly by while the ship goes down.
I believe that climate change is real and I supported the Paris Accord. I voted for the candidate who would keep us in it and progress environmental concerns. She lost. And you wouldn't be writing this column if she won. This is just one example.
I'm trying to figure out how Trump won. I wonder if it has to do with our educational system? Apparently, a large number of Americans lack the ability to critically think about issues. Any well-educated person who hears one of his speeches realizes he shouldn't be close to the Oval Office.
Or it could be the abysmal inequality we have in this country, which also heavily affects educational outcomes. IMO, this started with Reaganism and trickle down economics.
This piece seems to smack of false equivalency. One side has been taking us down the wrong road for decades. I will vote for whoever the Dem candidate is in 2020. And I fear we are doomed if he/she doesn't win.
6
The bottom 60% of earners also got hit hard in the subprime-mortgage crisis. Between 2007 and 2016 there were 7.8 million foreclosures. Even though the Fed lowered mortgage rates, people who had lost their jobs were not eligible to restructure their loans. Since the beginning of the recession, there has been a 5-point dip in the proportion of households that own their homes, from 69.2% in 2004 to 64.3% in 2018. Housing prices recovered quickly in pricey areas like San Francisco and Manhattan (if they were affected at all) but still have not bounced back in many parts of the country. Even if those earners in the bottom 60% who were homeowners managed to hold onto their homes, their prime asset, it may not be worth as much now as it was when they bought it. It's a double whammy for these unfortunate Americas: no real earnings increase and loss or devaluation of their principal savings.
3
The biggest threat? OK. I need two words: climate change. Whether the US or China is the world's largest economy, and who has the biggest military, is just arguing over who gets the best deck chair on the Titanic. Climate change is the problem that underlies so many others, and will ultimately make them all irrelevant.
That said, Mr. Friedman got it right until he, as usual, got it wrong in his idea of the remedy. Lifelong learning will solve nothing. The single biggest predictor of a child's success, educationally and otherwise, is family income. Full stop. We need to wake up to the fact that the economy cannot grow forever. We're already in secular low growth and approaching no growth, as we must in an ecological system with finite resources. The only way for people's standard of living at that point is redistribution, not education. Ask any college educated barista or graduate-degreed professional struggling in the gig economy what good education does when the jobs that pay well just aren't there. Mr. Friedman, like many elites (which he is), wants to pretend that individual effort will be enough to fix a rigged system. It won't be.
7
Tom has been predicting the need for universal lifelong learning for quite a while now. It's a worthy goal but much easier said than done. Continual learning is beyond the capacity of a large percentage of any human population. The rapid changes in work are already yielding shortening lifespans. THAT's what is driving the higher suicide and addiction figures among the less well off people in the parts of the country that have seen their industries disappear. I predict this trend will continue and proliferate across the entire country--actually the entire world--unless we accept and accommodate the fact that not everybody can be on the skinny righthand side of the bell curve. And with his gratuitous swipes at "free stuff" and invocation of "job creators" it is abundantly clear that Tom Friedman has no solutions to offer.
2
This op-ed touches on important points but fails to tie them together.
It also fails to cite a more fundamental threat that applies to all of humanity: our inability to handle/process the dominant phenomenon of our era: exponentially accelerating complexity, which includes exponentially accruing knowledge.
This still emerging phenomenon has generated unprecedented relationships / environs that we don't fit, both culturally & biologically.
eg
We consistently read about infrastructure decay. Yes; true.
But there's a more fundamental form infrastructure decay.
And that is the accelerating decay of our Relationship Infrastructure, i.e., our biological and cultural coding.
Complexity increases weaken the efficacy of code, whether genetic, religious, language, legal, monetary, software, etc.
In the transition from simple hunter-gatherer social structures to the exponentially more complex information architecture of cities, we added alphabet, legal, etiquette, & monetary coding structures (relationship infrastructure) to our cultural genome.
These invented coding structures were fundamental infrastructure for processing the exponential increase of relationship information generated by the newly complex environs called cities.
We need to do this again: quickly & globally.
We have a newly invented code: software code.
I doubt we have the time to get the myriad & necessary coding changes implemented ... to forestall a catastrophic collapse.
3
First, Friedman is absolutely right about what we need. I think this is the best, most on-target piece he has written in years. Every adaptation he endorses is worth implementing.
But, two quibbles: A) Trump has not yet told a single lie that compares remotely to "We know Saddam Hussein has WMD" or "You can keep your plan and your doctor; nothing will change except costs going down." Those were wildly damaging lies, because almost all Americans and American decision-makers believed them. Trump's partial saving grace is that his lies are not believable, maybe some aren't even intended to be believed.
B) Exactly where did Friedman find the old, practical Democrat who can echo the intense focus of a Franklin Roosevelt or even a Lyndon Johnson? The list of things Friedman gives for what Democrats can't afford to do is an almost perfect match of what they all say they want to do. Where is the party we grew up with?
It may be 'gone with the wind,' which would make a large prt of Friedman's otherwise-excellent argument a complete fantasy. I agree we need to do what he proposes. But, please who and how can we do it? Not with the donor-hypnotized corporate Dems, and not with the sincere but pragmatism-challenged new semi-socialist Dems.
That is a puzzlement.
1
I think the time has come to triage the Democratic Party. Have them cast off some of the issues that prevent them from being believed by the swing voters.
The first is gun control, unfortunately. Just put it away for a few years & start working locally to neutralize the NRA and the carry-at-all-costs weirdos.
The second is to run, not walk away from anything which can be construed as socialism. There are programs that need tweaking and don't have to be reinvented to please the radicals. Call it compassionate capitalism for all I care.
We need support from the middle - middle west, middle-of-the-road, mid-Atlantic, middle of the country. The radicals and reactionaries on both sides will not be convinced, so ignore them. We will be better off.
2
It would be interesting if any Democrat ( or future Republican) would run for President on the promise that they would veto any legislation that did not get 15% ( pick your number) of the minority vote in the House. This would send a message that the extremes on both ends are unwelcome and without power. It would prevent the one party votes on taxes, health care, etc that the next majority immediately tries to reverse. The candidate would either dominate the middle and win or we would find out that America is just extremes with little hope of solving real problems.
1
The Democrats need to push back hard on Trump hiring Illegal Immigrants for his businesses. This will show that rich and powerful want cheap labor to continue and is the cause of all the undocumented workers in the USA. Despite what Trump and Friedman say.
2
Mr. Friedman writes that technology is democratizing the tools for “deep fakes,” so that many more people can erode truth and trust. The gap between the speed of this technology and time it takes to govern it has to be closed to preserve our democracy.
“Deep fakes” pose a extraordinary threat. If it is not governed, we will not know if any picture or video of a person is real. We will learn to doubt all.
The intentional visual misrepresentation of a person ("deep fake") without permission should be a serious crime. Perhaps the most serious crime since it can destroy (murder) the victim's reputation (identity). It can exact extreme personal loss (embarrassment, shame) on a victim, predictably leading to depression and suicide. It definitely needs to be a campaign law violation if a candidate is so misrepresented.
Ending this gruesome application of technology should be a priority for everyone, without regard to ideology or political philosophy.
5
"The new American majority" That Friedman talks about sounds good, count me in, but every new movement needs a leader to hold it together and lead it in the right direction. We have a ready movement, now all we need is that leader. One man of destiny can change the courser of nations.
2
Finding the perfect Presidential candidate to take on all of these challenges is an impossible dream.
William F. Buckley, Jr. once said he’d rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston telephone directory than by the faculty of Harvard University.
I too would be willing to settle for that.
5
@A. Stanton
Well, Buckley's name did begin with B. I'll counter with the last 2,000 names in the phone book.
I absolutely agree with you, Mr. Friedman. Americans are the biggest threat to America -- albeit I see it from a slightly different angle than you do.
Especially now.
When we have a President who defines what being American is from a limited list of possibilities.
In short, If you're not white or conservative or Christian, don't apply.
In fact, the division along color lines in this country is now more pronounced than it has been in decades with a President and Republican Senate content to send us back to the days of Jim Crow in order to satisfy a disgruntled and "frightened white working-class" that has no desire to be displaced or deprived of the advantages they've had all along.
They also think that they deserve this power as some kind of God-given right, without recognizing who the real victims are in this biased and bigoted society.
How this is supposed to translate into equality for all, and those truths that are supposed to be self-evident, hasn't been figured out.
But it will take more than just a strong economy and growing wealth for the selected and hallowed few to solve the problem.
5
All this is true on the side of technology. But I think a deeper problem is making us our own worst enemy and it is one that James Baldwin pointed out - unless America overcomes its' racism it will destroy itself. How diabolical is it to cut aid to Central America, foster caravans of refugees, then employ psychological torture on them by separating parents and children and caging them like animals? - this is Baldwin's point in living illustration.
4
@1blueheron
You're right and I agree with you. But save your breath because as long as Americans fall under the spell of a strong economy and a President who continues to entertain them, they'll never realize just how right James Baldwin is.
And this country will go up in flames of it comes to a race war.
1
I am 70.
I have felt proud to be an American.
I have felt ashamed to be an American.
Now, I just feel filthy.
4
Amen. Selfish Americans are too blame for the disaster that is upon us. And there is none more selfish than Mitch McConnell and his traitorous wife. He has told us publicly he is proud of where we are at, living with a disaster, and that he has the power to prevent anything positive from being done about it.
3
The biggest threat is civil war.
We need to get back to:
We either hang together.
Or we hang apart.
1
Oh NO...it’s the attack of The Far Left... worse than Night of the Living Dead.... cue the tiny violins for Requiem for the Clueless Centrist Pundit. And on a serious note, we’ve likely blown pass the 2degrees C milestone, so we’re already late. It’s not a question of ‘if’ anymore.
1
Trump has brought out in the white male population in America something that lay hidden and lurking within us all the time. He has triggered a tolerance and an ultimately acceptance for racism, lying, and obvious corruption. Trump epitomizes the Ugly American of the 50s. who we foolishly thought was dead. That beast and its ideas was only dormant waiting to spring free when a creature like Trump took center stage. Now as the Democrats self destruct with a media that fans a lust for an ultra liberal agenda this virus will overcome the immune system that gave us our best values.
64
@Babel- Trump through his brash New Yorker demeanor was the only candidate who stood there who told it like it was and actually did what he said he was going to do. His true crime is that the truth did not match the leftist narrative. Racism and sexism existed in the 50s and they exist now. Now it is against white males. As a white male in his forties I can cite several career opportunities and college scholarships that i never received consideration for that would have met tens if not hundreds of thousands of income because I was not black or a women. Rascism is wrong and to invoke it on a current generation to make up for sins committed against other is wrong as well but as long as the Dems promote as a way to garner votes. Many will vote against them.
6
@Babel
No. White racism has never laid hidden and lurking in America.
It has been there all along.
In fact, it built this country from the ground up.
It's just that no one has wanted to acknowledge it for what it is because it's so much easier to deny it all and allow it to perpetuate, rather than actually do something about it.
4
@Babel
Racism in America has neither lay hidden or was lurking.
It's been there all along, and out in the open.
In fact, this country was built on racism.
Trump just hitched his star to it and rode it into the White House.
3
No, Tom, “The Biggest Threat to America Is This Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Empire” which is only nominally HQed in, and merely ‘posing’ as, our formerly promising and sometimes progressive country (PKA) America.
Of course, as one of the Democratic candidates said, it doesn’t help that our President and CIC (Criminal in Chief) is a narcissistic megalomaniac sociopathic EMPEROR, who is acting as if he is not only the Emperor of the U.S. — but the entire world — and thinks he can force and tell the EU, Japan, China, and all other countries what they should do.
3
I read that Trump"s re-election campaign has raised over $100,000,000. Like Butch Cassidy said to the Sundance Kid: "Who are those guys?" Well, I guess those are the people with real money, money to burn in the dumpster fire that is the Trump presidency. The NYT clearly has to do a better job at reaching Trump's biggest supporters. It is easy to explain nihilism of Trump's "low education" voters. What baffles me is the apparent nihilism of his wealthy supporters. Don't these people have grandchildren?
3
@Carl Feind The grandchildren are in a highly secure compound in Costa Rica, or perhaps New Zealand. They’ll be fine.
1
Forget it, Mr. Friedman. Americans will do none of this. You are too anaesthetized by Netflix and UberEats.
2
The panic over the direction of the Democratic Party after two debates conducted entirely too early is way overblown by the pundit class. Yes, we are our own worst enemy, but not because the Dems are some far left radical party, but because we continue to speak in terms of a binary political perspective of left and right.
1
@Paul Bonner I tend to speak in terms of “That won’t work” and “We can’t afford it”. I’m a business owner.
1
The biggest threat to America today?
Probably its own idealism and lack of methodology toward arriving at anything like its ideals. Roughly America at its most idealistic today imagines it can catapult itself beyond even its greatest accomplishments so far not to mention all other nations historically if only it can combine races, ethnic groups further, and increase separation of church and state even though it actually increases number of religions and spiritual leanings and its state is a vast conflict zone of assessing individuals and groups according to ever more strenuous and subtle education, psychology, and physical standards (the always increasing science of both nurture and nature).
All the conflicting races and ethnic groups and religions and ideas in America and their combination in some sort of higher entity, higher political economic engine, require the most profound intellectual effort, powerful artistic and intellectual genius, and tremendous character, but this of course runs up against the easy going American ideals of everybody just being equal, and we are here to pursue life and liberty and happiness, and everyone has a right to do what they want and to say what they want to say and so on.
It's a strange atmosphere of the most disturbing challenges evident, the most obvious tasks which need to be accomplished and which require tremendous integrity to achieve, coupled with the most blasé manner, that things just run and operate by themselves.
I like TF, I think he is smart and has the right idea.
I also think every single one of his articles these days says the exact same thing in slightly different formats. Would love to see something fresh from him.
1
The biggest threat to America, if not the world, is the Republican Party. The GOP represents all that is weak and regressive about America: crackpot religion, gun worship, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny, racism, contempt for nature and the environment, pathetic public education, adult illiteracy/ignorance, endemic unemployment, wage slavery and sleaze. It's the Fox News, NRA, Evangelical Church, Putin, Koch and Mercer project. And it's one stop shopping for anyone who wishes to undermine the country, offering useful fools by the million. It’s more than Trump, its time to reveal the truth, once and for all, that the Republican Part is a threat to the nation, a parade of lunacy and corruption.
6
If we fail, China, Russia and Iran won't be to blame. You and Brett Stephens will.
4
@Neptune Amen, brother.
2
Well said.
1
The threat IS us. (If you define “us” as all the Americans who sit idly by while the fascist takeover continues, and the concentration camps are built in the desert.)
3
so both sides then, that's what you're saying, Tom?
1
not all of us Tom, only those 45% who support the stupid theocratic, piratical, and cryto fascist policies. the remainder us are guilty only to the extent that we do not resist. it may ultimately require a revolt. the people of hong kong went meekly into the jaws of china under the temptations of nationalism. much of the US is doing something similar. tomorrows festivel in Trumpograd is the open sore of this infection.
4
Pleasantly surprised that Friedman recognizes the difference between people who enter this country legally and those who don't.
Trump is able to exploit this simply because Democrats have been AWOL on the issue.
4
The U S ideology of democracy is a marketplace of interests negotiating those interests (individual vs collective) and somehow it ‘raises all boats’. Gag.
Actual democracy takes in to account the whole needing regulation to set the boundaries. Otherwise you get intended chaos like Mitch McConnell, leader of the fascist wing of the Republican Party.
NB: the Democrats are Republican lite, the role, you sir, helped move them to. The Democrats need to become Democrats. Go Elizebeth Warren. There is nothing radical about health care and education. Ask the GI Bill people how the US changed with free education. A human society.
3
Tom Friedman shows again why he the smartest man in America.
True, we have met the enemy and it is us. The beigest threat to America today is the racism that we deny or discount. Trump is a racist, and he uses the racism in our society to stay in power.
While praising the intelligence of the American electorate, he secretly knows that they can be led around like bulls with nose rings - only instead of bull rings, he uses their beliefs and prejudices to lead them wherever he wants.
If DJT doesn't destroy our fragile democracy, he has published the blueprint and playbook for some other demagogue to do it later. If a democracy like America's is going to exist, there will have to be a paradigm shift in human thought throughout the world.
In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of us all. When we understand all this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
2
I thought Andrew yang might be the fresh face with Tom Friedman's outlook...but unfortunately not...PJS
Populist William Jennings Bryant (1896) was seen as a threat as he mobilized the worker class getting the short straw, such as workers today.
In America's haste to globalism, middle class wage manufacturing jobs were shed much too fast in the pursuit of cheap global labor. Ross Perot was right with his quip of the "sucking sound" of American jobs leaving the country.
Born in 1953, I spent my earning years in essentially a flat wage structure as the cost of living increased every year. I too saw my looming retirement as living on the cusp; with sufficient income to survive (as my working years were) but not enough to sight see and travel the world as I had envisioned as a younger man. I saved since my youth.
What saddens me is the pervasiveness of right-wing propaganda (read:lies) in the form of talk radio, whose mouthpieces possess neither educational degree, respect, nor conscience required for such a task. I don't know if people realize just how many workers across America have this "propaganda" droning on all day in the garages, crummies, repair shops, etc all across America. WW2 German Information minister P. Josef Goebbels would be proud of values shaped by right wing purveyors of opinion, void of any truths.
I am saddened by a "dumbed down" America since the 1970's. The facts of any given situation, that once held sway, are routinely discarded to perpetuate a belief born from no fact.
"A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest"
4
Many good points by Mr. Friedman here, who always makes me think even when I don't agree. I do need to bring up one idea which may have outlived its usefulness: "the core promise we’ve made to ourselves that each generation will do better than its parents." First, IS such a thing possible? Can such a thing continue infinitely? How much better off does my daughter need to be than me, who has a nice small house, a rewarding occupation for 30+ years, and the ability to live comfortably? This idea of the need to 'do better than the parents' becomes even more suspect when considering those in the category of...well, the Trumps, for example. Second, is such a thing universally desirable? 'Doing better' by and large has come to mean in a materialistic sense, which means 'consuming more.' This would appear to contradict the later warning about the dangers of climate change. To be sure, lots of people in this country and across the globe deserve to have their kids live better lives than they do, and they should have the opportunity, How about broadening the concept, so that those of us who are comfortable care whether one generation surpasses another in spirituality? In compassion?
3
Anyone that is dumb enough to believe any politician deserves what happens to them.
All politicians lie, it seems that Mr. Friedman only has a problem with it when Republicans do it.
1
I especially agree with the first two points, and I'm glad you raise them. On point #2, I saw a centrist pundit the other day downplaying the lack of income growth for ordinary Americans. His words were "most Americans have seen some income growth since 1980". While that slightly contradicts your statistics (I think yours are more accurate), he stated this as a good thing and that concerns over income growth were overblown! Uh, "some" income growth for "most" people over a 40-year period does not mean everyone is doing fine!
I would add something to point #2, as well. I often see these statistics, but I don't often see a corresponding list of the vast increases in average costs (in real dollars) of many of the big-ticket items in life: healthcare, education, housing, etc. Even items that might not be skyrocketing in cost are still increasing in real terms, such as childcare. So not only are people not making any more money, many of the things we need are more or much more expensive, stretching people to the breaking point.
3
One cannot help but surmise that Putin and Russia saw this possibility years ago and realized that by giving us an encouraging nudge via abetting getting our current President in office could accomplish what decades of the Cold War couldn't. Unfortunately for us, this approach seems to be working.
4
But under Trump, we've reduce our CO emissions by 30% simply by using natural gas as a fuel source . You party only offers more servant and dependency. Health Care isn't a right, but to choose to buy or sell health care insurance is a right. The path to making the next generation better isn't keeping them aware from the disappointments and mean words from others. It's teaching them values. MAGA
This is a very insightful article, rich in relevant information and historic wisdoms and our “not so brave but really new world.” I wish all Democratic Party candidates read this piece, ruminated on it alone, with staff and possibly among each other. There have been several week-known voices speaking/writing of the need for moderate progressive policies and platform in order to convince enough voters to ensure an electorate college with majority Democratic votes, like David Brooks et al. The image that emerges to me is that we Americans (as citizens, residents, immigrants) wish to be in a/that shining city on a hill in the world, but we have slid to the foothills and some think we can leap back to the top, but most think it’s truly a hike to higher and higher base camps before we can summit again. In this hike we can’t leave large numbers of our team behind intentionally and we also have to keep the vision clear for the striders among us.
I’m a strong progressive and I favor most of the ideas put forth in the green new deal and other proposals put forth by the progressive Democrats - but I’m also a pragmatist and I realize that there have to be incremental steps to get to where we need to be.
We CAN do most the things they’ve outlined, all it takes is the political will to do them, but we can’t do them overnight. Medicare for all is a great idea, but the way to get there is to introduce a public option.
The one thing we desperately need to address super aggressively. If we don’t make real progress on that NOW, then anything else we do now won’t matter in the slightest 15 - 20 years from now. The major stumbling blocks (besides the fossil fuel lobby) are that so much of our life is powered by fossil fuel: the electric grid, our cars and buses, aircraft, boats & ships, etc. We don’t have the capacity to replace these overnight. Plus, in the case of electric cars the recharge times are impractically long for any use but commuting.
There are so many more issues to be addressed, but again they can’t be done overnight and neither can the means to pay for them,
4
Excellent! "Learn, work, learn, work..." All institutions of higher education should offer a menu of afordable core work related courses and simplified registration process, access to child care and require some form of a service-learning component of all faculty.
Mr. Friedman: I liked the title of your column, but not sure I agree with your definition of "us". In my opinion, the biggest threat comes not from foreign powers, and not from a party, its elites or its politicians. It comes from the voters, collectively, who have the power to create change, but don't use that power responsibly or don't use it at all.
No voter will find a political nominee that they completely agree with. But when we collectively, and time after time, vote for the person or party that takes the country to the wrong general direction; you should put the first and foremost blame on us, the voters.
Sure, we were fooled by Fox News and so-called conservative pundits; Sure, the big money in our election system obfuscated right and wrong; And on and on.
But these didn't happen in a vacuum. It was us, the voters, who at the end of the day elected politicians that instituted these systems and kept supporting them. We, "the voters" keep tuning into Fox News based on our free will, no one is forcing us to be indoctrinated.
We, "the voters", are collectively the people who aren't adults in this game. No hero politician will ever emerge to save us from ourselves. It will always be like "Bush v. Gore" or "Trump v. Clinton". And if we keep failing to distinguish what actually matters and what doesn't, we will collectively be responsible for the failure of the American Experiment.
Democracy's power comes from voters. Its main weakness also comes from the voters.
5
Something must be done about the brain washing that comes from Fox. It should not be allowed to be called a "news" station.
5
@Marylee: Yes, perhaps the incoming Democrat President and Democrat Congress in 2020 can undertake a censorship program to eliminate all news outlets that do not meet you definition as "news". Certainly the New York Times meets that definition. Doesn't it?
1
TF has again provided excellent advice to us all.
A big "Amen" to this post, Mr. Friedman. Please let me add that there is a middle way between progressive ideals and workable solutions which should appeal to moderates and which will work if enbraced by the Democratic party.
Example: "free college" should not be "for all" but should cover all students of limited financial means who have the academic qualifications for college. It could also cover trade schools.
Another example: "Medicare for all" is a misnomer. There should be a floor that no one falls through, but also the option of having private insurance for those who can afford it. And, to administer the program, hire trained personnel from what will be a smaller labor pool at insurance companies. (Of course, they'll have to learn how to say "yes" first instead of "no"!)
We have local and state elections this year and the full slate in 2020 to get it right. I hope the Democrats figure themselves out long before then, rally around one or a few candidates who can sort it out without internal sniping, and then unite with the rest of Americans to save the country from its rampant radical Republicans who forget (or refuse to acknowledge) that they, a minority, are not the only Americans who care.
2
In the Jewish legend Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed not for the way they abused strangers but because they tried to justify the unjustifiable. The world is horrified not because many countries are far worse but you are the USA. The Saudis say this is who we are. America has always said this is not who we are.
Many of us knew who you were when you elected Reagan.
Maybe it is time to revisit Philadelphia Mississippi. Forty years of doublespeak is forty years too long.
4
I completely agree, except for your term "racist-tinged." There is no "tinge" to it.
3
Interesting piece.
What do you want from a planet made from a pile of space debris?
2
The greatest threat to the U.S. and the world is global warming and climate change. Robotics and AI will be the second major threat to modern countries throughout the world. The former threat, global warming, will require international cooperation and enforcement of limiting the use of fossil fuels and their emissions. The latter threat will require nation states to control the transition to the use of Robotics and AI to avoid uncontrolled displacement of workers, especially older workers who cannot be retrained and employed. Both threats can lead to massive population shifts and civil unrest unless addressed and planned for in the immediate future.
1
Poor Tom, not only have Bernie Sanders' ideas already won,
there is a new poll: "A fourth poll, released Wednesday morning as this story was published, found Sanders retaining his second place standing behind Biden. The ABC News-Washington Post poll found Biden in the lead at 29 percent, followed by Sanders at 23 percent and Harris and Warren lagging at 11 percent each." https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/451449-sanders-slips-in-polls-raising-doubts-about-campaign
I wonder if the NYT will print anything about this poll showing Sanders edging closer to Biden who retains his top position.
I notice that Establishment media refers to Sanders as little as possible. In debate coverage he was rarely mentioned.
They intend to freeze him out of the race... to much "free stuff" in the media's way too simplistic, manipulative reporting.
And yes Tom, that includes you.
A FiveThirtyEight survey conducted by Morning Consult found Sanders was the only candidate to tick upwards in support after both nights of the debate. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/democratic-debate-poll/
3
Is the media. Do you really believe cutting Medicare and Social Security is what moderate Americans want? Or cutting the cost of medical treatment is socialism? They split us left and right. Black and white. In this corner the beginning of the End is in twelve years. The challenger supports Israel because it's existence lays ground for what else but the End. When did we become so hysterical we cant think.
What would the sales of the nytimes look like if not for Trump. Moving from one idiocy like collusion and impeachment sells. Trying to fix the dysfunctions of the government in a rational and systematic manner isn't even considered here. Fixing the infrastructure means tearing it down to follow Greenpeace nihilistic beliefs that tehe human race is not worthy of life.
We're in trouble when we think what's fake is news and models are proof, and we are the only ones with answers.
4
Yes Tom. By virtue of geography, socioeconomics and just plain luck America has been fortunate in that respect. So noted Lincoln (Lyceum, Springfield 1838): ""Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never!....All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined.....could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years....If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." However, with the "election" of Trump we seem perilously close to "suicide". Putin-Trump-McConnell are the "axis of evil" that manifest the threat.
3
Terrible sub-title. The biggest threat is not us. It's the top 1% that controls the political mechanisms of our country, the media, the banks and the corporations. Mr. Friedman should direct his criticism at them, expose their corruption and thievery from the people of the US.
The "Us" is not the threat. It's those who have the voice but do not speak the truth.
6
The greatest threat to America today is Liberalism. The kind of liberalism that won't allow any discussion on college campuses that is not pro-liberal ideals. The silliness of political correctness is in fact Liberalism. The same Liberalism that owns and runs big tech companies like Google who according to their own manager, plan on meddling in the 2020 election. The worst type of Liberalism on display however is an extreme left wing news media who attack Trump on a daily basis and broadcasted 24/7 for 2 years about Trump Russia collusion when there never was any.
3
Thanks for sharing your opinion. It’s noted you don’t like liberals. Should we be prepared for detention camps?
3
Friedman, hard for me to believe that I once was in awe of your insights. Recall first seeing you on Meet the Press, eons ago, a thin young man who held the interviewers spell bound, hair the black as black could be.
So when did you become so indignant; so averse to reality.
Guess what? Not everyone is as smart as you, learning and more learning won't work for many. And they are the ones who are having the most kids. Why not, everyone else is working around the clock to provide for them.
You mentioned population explosion in one of your columns, and now it disappeared. It's no longer an issue?
here is one thing - since you seem out of real insight - that you might want to give some thought to.
QUOTAS are driving the dem. party off its tracks. Dems brag about having a 100 women in congress, while Reps only have 10.
But I live in the eye of political correctness and it seems to me that since women on average just aren't as interested in politics as men, you create a vacuum which affords the most virulent women an entrance into the arena with skewed views that are warping the party - along with all the other quota identity groups.
Many of the legislative women in my state MA are unabashedly gay. (i have no problem with that) i do have a problem with the anti white male hatred which they carry with them - and an agenda focused on that - that means destroying the very notion of america as a great country because of the incredible contributions yes of white men.
3
The pundits and opinionators in their urban bubbles still don't get it. The American people will not vote to put the interests of illegal aliens over US citizens, they will not vote for kooky leftist tropes like medicare for all, gun confiscation and open borders. We are sick of seeing the Democrats pander to the lunatic fringe left that seems to pull their strings and jerk them to and fro like marionettes, and sick of being harassed in restaurants and on the streets for merely voicing our opinions.
I'll be forever grateful that Barack Obama turned out to be so incompetent and lazy that even with supermajorities in both houses of congress all that remains of his sorry legacy are Obamacare, which is imploding under it's own weight, and a dwindling number of judicial appointments. We not only need four more years of President Trump, we need to punish Democrats so badly at the ballot box that they are forced to toss aside their dreams of a socialist utopia.
3
What are you talking about? You sound full of hate for all things even somewhat liberal.
2
@blushark how is medicare for all a problem for the flyover states exactly?
get a better education. youre being robbed blind by private insurance. we all are.
Again the climate change hoax just like the population bomb in the 60s. The only credible claim about the climate is that it is too complex to predict. We may be entering a new Ice Age because of lack of sunspot activity. Who knows? Nobody knows and that is a fact. Some things are to complex to predict or understand.
2
@jeff
SERIOUSLY - the population bomb was a hoax?
who and why do you think the hundreds of thousands of people are pouring into this country for - illegally - they have consumed all their resources, they are breathing down each others necks;
guess you don't know too much about animals in general - well - that won't be a problem for long, as we are wiping out one species after another -
the only thing i don't get is how someone can read the times and remain so unaware
"If Democrats can choose a nominee who speaks to our impending challenges, but who doesn’t say irresponsible stuff about immigration or promise free stuff we can’t afford.....who treats with dignity the frightened white working-class voters who abandoned them for Trump — ...."
You stopped me right here. "Saying irresponsible things" about immigration? Who started that trend? As for "giving away free stuff," that's pretty nervy given the one-sided Trump tax cuts.
But your kicker is "treating with dignity the frightened white working class voters who abandoned them for Trump." For every "frightened" working class voter there are 3 to 4 highly politicized far right conservatives like those hurling insults at Congressional Democrats visiting the border.
Aren't you asking Democrats to assemble a new American majority by sacrificing their values to win converts while the president spreads nonstop lies about them?
That's a tall order--and an unfair one. Yes, our biggest enemy is ourselves, but isn't it about time some moderate Republicans joined Democrats to assemble "a new American majority?"
3
@ChristineMcM A fine comment Christine!
You just wrote yourself into the candidate we want.
I don’t want that candidate.
I sure hear a lot about moderates. They always seem to end up being republicans bringing us closer to destruction.
Medical for all and education for all may bankrupt us but it doesn’t in anyway attack liberty and justice for all. I see zero solutions from moderates who typically are closer republicans.
Insurance denial kills how many Americans? Lack of insurance kills how many Americans? Under covered insurance bankrupts how many Americans? Lack of proper medical affects how many Americans who have medical? What are you going to do? Moderates do nothing except let republicans pull us further away from solutions.
2
The USA can be great again. We once saved the world from nazi domination.
We had companies that sought to earn customer appreciation by creating ever better products and services by loyal employees whose compensation and benefits grew along with profits.
We had federal and local governments that guided businesses through regulations that made our products safe and admired throughout the world, protected workers, consumers, finances, and competition in an honest market place.
We provided help for our needy, welcomed a reasonable inflow of hardworking grateful immigrants, and were confident in an ever brighter future for all.
In public schools, we pledged allegiance to our flag, and as adults we felt deep pride when we heard our national anthem.
We revealed the value of democracy to the world by our example of what could be.
We helped the world by supporting organizations whose initials were known by all: the UN, NATO, WTO, IMF.
What has the short sighted, anger inducing, right wing done to our nation?
May the voters in November, 2020, save us all.
5
Blame the media, then if that's your complaint about politics as entertainment. Or rather the GREED OF CORPORATE MEDIA OWNERS. News and information was considered a loss-leader until the 1970s, and even after, but pigs like Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch perverted the model for their own greed. Now it's just to make money, so people are not informed and everything is turned into a circus.
3
WARREN: No one that opposed Amazon and Google can win!
HARRIS: Attacking Biden about 50-year old decisions - No Win
America needs an American -- someone who understands US, not some heaped up hyphenated wannabe with a support group
1
a Democratic candidate "...who doesn’t ... promise free stuff we can’t afford..."
mmm...free stuff we can't afford...mmm...
oh yeah, now I remember, you mean likeRepublican's 2017 tax reform gifting of $2 trillion to occupants of corporate suites and the .01 percent [the same folks].
Republicans continue to prove Warren Buffet correct when he said, "There is a class war in this country and my class won."
5
well written for a change.
Why, oh why, can't the Democrats seem to focus on this: "as Ray Dalio, the founder of the Bridgewater hedge fund, recently pointed out, there has been 'little or no real income growth for most people for decades. … Prime-age workers in the bottom 60 percent have had no real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) income growth since 1980.'” Please, candidates, spell out clearly and simply, over and over, who has actually gained and who has lost, under GOP economic policies. It doesn't matter how well the stock market is doing if you don't own stock. It doesn't matter if unemployment is low, if those "jobs" don't come with insurance or pay a living wage. Focus, people, focus! Remember -- "It's the economy, stupid!"
2
They did. That’s the medical, education and minimum wage increase.
The progressive agenda is:
Medical for all.
Education.
Climate.
Fair wages.
End citizens united. End the corruption.
That’s it. That’s what progressives want. That’s the far extreme left!
1
"...many, many Americans are worried that we’re on the verge of a political civil war and want someone to pull us together..."
One of the most popular lectures online about this possibility is here: https://youtu.be/ebAQg6YG1nw.
The United States is at a very critical juncture in its history. So much could go right, but the current path is littered with dangerous landmines.
Pray for this nation.
2
Sorry Mr. Friedman, we've already arrived at "Idiocracy." Seen the movie? And please tell us where you and you cohorts fit in in the unequal income scale. So who pays for your visits to the Grand Mosques and the great halls of power, not the average Joe. Whether Trump gets reelected or not, is of no income consequences to you, so tell us what really drives you.
3
I doubt Thomas
I fear Trump
I Sad
2
I’m sad to see Tom veering farther to the left He hedges a bit by saying he’s looking for a Democrat that doesn’t support stupid stuff He goes on blaming America for climate change even though he knows that china and India will soon take over as the largest carbon polluters the Democrats offer nothing to the average WORKING American, other than self hatred Very sad! I’ve always wondered why millions want to come to a place the Democrats say is racist, unfair, cruel etc And nobody leaves!
2
It’s the confusion created in the public Spector by faulty spin-doctored news reporting and partial facts that undermine not only confidence but also mental health
2
"[F]ree stuff we can't afford". But if it's "free" why can't you "afford" it? Oh - you mean it's not free. So why didn't you say that? Was the Iraq war free? No? Well - could you afford it? No - so why did you fight it? Why can money be found to fight a war but not to "insure domestic Tranquility" and "ensure the general Welfare"? You criticise Trump's nationalism yet you pepper your article with references to the US. How can you not recognise the inconsistency of this? You decry to consequences of the reign of neoliberalism but promote more of the same without recognising its radically anti-nationalist (anti-statist, individualist) character. The greatest threat to the US is not "Us" it is "you" and your ilk Tom. Well - it was. The horse has long bolted.
3
If Friedman is referring to himself and the mainstream media, spot on.
5
I realized watching the Democratic presidential debate that there's no hope of a major party setting things aright. Republicans have closed ranks around Trump, in spite of his abhorrent character, in spite of the instability he brings to government and foreign relations.
And the Democrat response is to reach as deep as they can into the far left goodie bag and try to haul out as much as they can. They think Trump's repulsiveness gives them free license to push whatever agenda they want, because voters would rather have anything but him.
I think they will find they are wrong. Trump might be vile, but he's an incumbent president presiding over a strong economy, and the Democrats at the debate unanimously supported free healthcare for illegal aliens. There's not even any need to put a spin on this, all Trump has to do is show unedited footage of that debate to win in 2020.
It's only going to get worse, folks. Republicans no longer have any standards for behavior, and the Democrats are completely detached from reality.
1
You’re missing the reason which he hits but misses.
“Bridgewater hedge fund, recently pointed out, there has been “little or no real income growth for most people for decades. … Prime-age workers in the bottom 60 percent have had no real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) income growth since 1980.” In that same time frame, the “incomes for the top 10 percent have doubled and those of the top 1 percent have tripled. The percentage of children who grow up to earn more than their parents has fallen from 90 percent in 1970 to 50 percent today. That’s for the population as a whole. For most of those in the lower 60 percent, the prospects are worse.””
The generation 40 and under have been decimated. They have no medical or expensive unusable plans, they have extremely expensive education, they have no unions, no pensions, no retirement and are seriously upset and depressed.
Best you start paying attention because everything that the democrats talked about is core to this generations needs that have been neglected and treated with derision. The moderates and republicans have had 40 years to prove their policy and failed. Other nations have examples of how to do things that exist. Step up and get it done.
3
There are too many people walking around our country with dark hearts full of hate -- hate for anything they view as liberal. They are suicidal and will support someone like Trump just because they think he will "own the libs". They would rather see the country devolve into a shooting civil war than enact policies that look more like those in places like Sweden, Norway and Denmark -- which is all that the Democratic candidates are espousing.
2
trump and enabling republicans have fulfilled putin's dream of transforming us to the Divided States of America. trump and company plan to celebrate it on the 4th.
Sorry to say, but Trump will be reelected as well as the Republican hold in the Senate...why
Trump is charismatic , not not appealing to Mr Friedman, but he resonates with millions of voters.And if 100 million voters stay home( like in the last election) and there is a weak Democratic nominee, Trump will win.
Ideas do not count....morality does not matter.....decency is not relevant ....
Inertia and ignorance are Trump 's allies.
How many Democratic candidates can get 20,000 people , week after week, to hear them espouse their details plans ? Trump can. And he has no details.
What does that tell you ?
1
Trump is deeply unpopular even with the economy. He can only win through the electoral college favoring unpopulated states.
Thomas you and your many readers' eyes are wide shut. You don't seem to understand. The constitution is dead. We no longer live in a democratic republic. We now live in a dictatorship controlled by a megalomaniac. It is already too late. Trump and his enablers are not going anywhere regardless of the results of the 2020 election. He is dictator for life. And there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about a president who is above the law as declared by the attorney general. There is no precedent in American history for where we've arrived and the framers of our constitution could never have imagined in their wildest nightmares that a man like Trump would be given the absolute power he now possesses.
1
I want to say that trump is "the biggest threat to America" … but you're right, Mr. Friedman, that "we" are -- because "we" put the miscreant where he is, 'wherefrom' he threatens "us," all of "the Americas," all of the "Western Liberalism" he knows nothing of, and all of "the world."
"We" … thus and for equivalent reason … also get the 'prize' as "most shameful" -- for the shame of the stain on us and our presidency made by the shameless trump; a stain that can never be erased.
2
It happened to the Chinese, the Egyptians, the Persians, the Athenians, the Romans, the Spanish, the French, the Brits and even more quickly to the Germans. We won't be around as a great great power forever; God did not found this Republic nor does he look after it. Nothing to mourn. Nothing is forever. Least of all national power.
3
I hope you are right that we can somehow take back our country. Unfortunately the people who need to be persuaded are not reading the New York Times nor anything else that requires some ability to think. They are eagerly lapping up every word they hear on Fox News. And because we have to live in communities dominated by these people we are effectively unable to protest without fear of being harmed.
1
Not one word about the debt?
1
@Mark Robertson
Nah, our debt is only an existential threat to the country when there is a Democrat in the WH. That existential threat somehow vanishes when a Republican is sitting in the Oval Office.
Remember how ridiculous and dysfunctional the US Congress actually was, and for how many years? It's crucial to see that Trump's election did not come out of nowhere. Not only did Russia successfully interfere on his (their own) behalf, Russia's continued insinuation and influence have everything to do with our so-called divisions (a house divided that can't stand), with this new "Civil War" we sense between ourselves, and that the Trump's regime (this is not a presidency) foments and exploits...and counts (its money) on. American will never again be what it was. The world is too changed...WE are too changed. But we can reconstitute unity and strength and redeem decency. A good beginning is to call things by their true names: migrant detainees are indeed in concentration camps -- women and children once the first to be saved, are here being starved and tortured; Trump is fecklessly destroying the planet by gagging science and wrecking even existing environmental protections...these this most drastic of numerous other facile evasions truth naming. We have criminal in the White House. He is a borderline fascist whose slam dunk soullessness is THE prescription for catastrophe. Of all kinds. We need to stop lying to ourselves, qualifying what this is, need on the one hand, to stop thinking we're so great, and on the other hand, to stop being stunned that we're not. We don't need nostalgia or regret. But we do need a conscience, a grip on reality so we can fix this.
1
Well written and probably the vast majority who read the article are Democrats. They do not need to be convinced of the threat that the Liar and Chief is to the country. The article is too cerebral for many. The Liar and Chief has harnessed those who are one issue voters. Pro Birth ( they are not Pro Life) Pro gun, anti immigrants, anti same sex marriage, anti LGBTQ, anti equal rights etc etc.They will continue to drink the Republican Kool-Aid.
The Democrats need to "dumb down" their message or it will get lost. They need to take it totally local. Why is it that Alabama, Louisiana, West Virginia rank the lowest in public education? Take that message to those states. Go to the small towns and villages ask about their health care, internet, education for their kids, job opportunities etc.
Essentially go to the "heart of the beast".
3
Mr Friedman, what does "... like erasing the criminal distinction between those who enter America legally and those who don’t,..." mean? The Dems should use "Illegal Immigrant" instead of "Undocumented
Immigrant"? Seriously?
1
Illegal is a dog whistle to degrade people and justify treating them as animals.
It was changed in the DOJ code from undocumented to illegal Alien by Jeff Sessions. They saw this as a direct tool to justify ethnic attacks and is in line with their gerrymandering and census questions.
Imagine if they had spent all that energy on economics and inviting everyone to participate instead of just white people like them.
1
Of course it's US. Requesting Trump's Taxes Now? Horse kinda outta barn here. Why not exposed taxes before qualified to run? Ridiculous. I like debate question - who would candidates "reset" relationship with and none of them said Trump's Base. Naive to think Trump's Base will be voted out along with Trump
“How did you go bankrupt?"
Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
Ernst Hemingway
1
I think you meant to say the biggest threat to American is the Republicans, the party of the yacht class, the party of the 0.1 percent, the party of the aristocracy.
2
"...if we don’t prevent the far left from pulling the Democrats over a cliff with reckless ideas like erasing the criminal distinction between those who enter America legally and those who don’t..." Doesn't this sentence exhibit a flagrant example of BothSideism? No rhetorical exaggeration like the one cited above could ever be equivalent to the "president who daily undermines truth and trust." The most reckless Democrat imaginable knows that his/her ideas will get modified considerably as they pass through the legislative meat grinder. Better to start big. The current administration's abominations are on a different scale entirely.
1
Great piece Thomas!
The 90% need to get out of the Red verses Blue rut and get fully engaged in what is at stake for them and their progeny.
Trump 2 will take America to the garbage heap of great nations.
America is already at grave risk and is certainly not immune to self destruction.
This is so very crucially not the time for quiet desperation and resignation to the status quo.
66
Human history has something to say about this:
All great world powers eventually decay and collapse. Each in their own manner, and through unique internal forces.
Most often, it is from forces within that do almost all the damage to weaken said world power. A combination of social isolation and decline, persecution of minorities, and corruption within government and government staff.
Once weakened by internal forces... then external forces move in and "pick the bones clean" so to speak. External forces will do things to encourage and accelerate internal decline (Russia being a prime current example) by further encouraging destructive forces within.
The United States, unarguably one of the great world powers of all time.. is now following the internal decay pathways that effectively destroyed Rome nearly two millenia ago.
How long with it take, and how drastic the slope of decline... remains to be seen.. and can be mediated by effective reforms in both society and government... but the inevitable will come to pass.
I generally like Thomas Friedman's columns, but I somewhat disagree with his contention that the comments about immigration at the first Democratic debate were "irresponsible". Friedman is right that the candidates need to do a better job distinguishing between legal and illegal immigrants; after all, undocumented workers are breaking the law. But I was impressed, not upset, when every Democratic candidate said they opposed denying medical care for illegal immigrants who are sick. A humane, compassionate nation treats the sick, regardless of their status. This is being kind, not irresponsible. If such a stance is anathema to the Republicans, that is more evidence of the moral bankruptcy of the opposition party,
1
Alvin Toffler's prescient book, Future Shock, and Raymond Kurzweil's web article, The Law of Accelerating Returns, help us appreciate the world-wide transition phase we are currently experiencing. Life transforming technological changes are occurring at an increasingly rapid pace. The digital revolution has transformed the nature of life and work. Current high-school students, born into this world, accept the need to constantly adapt and are comfortable with diversity and globalization. Those of previous generations without college educations are not prepared for this world, resent it and find it threatening. It is probably a sad fact that it is too late to prepare those left behind for the future or to change their attitudes. Hopefully it is not too late for the coming generations to reverse the damage done.
1
I believe your thoughts today are spot on, pointing out the left plays a role, albeit a lesser one for this fissure in our society is important. I believe you have also hit on the catch phrase for our dilemma, "truth and trust".
Best roundup of our present dilemma that I've read in a long time. Thanks, Mr. Friedman, for elucidating the problems we face. We caused these issues, and only we can fix them.
I am one of those suburban moderate female voters who helped usher in Dems at the midterms. My game plan is as follows.
First step: Never vote for a politician who is obviously lying.
Second step: Repeat.
2
The United States does not need an imperial president be it Republican or Democrat
The United States needs a functioning government where legislative agendas are not frozen by Senate leader stopping all legislation if it is not first approved by the president.
To the goal of having a functioning government Democrats need to win the Senate and then open the debate in the Senate
We need more deliberative legislation and fewer executive orders from both Republican or Democratic presidents
2
The imperial president is deliberate. The minority control through the senate directly plays into this. Republicans only have to win senate and president to dominate the country.
The House of Representatives is affectively blocked by the Republican minority. This is why they continue to support increased powers to the executive branch.
Why can't we afford 'free stuff', like universal health care & post secondary education that other countries, less wealthy than ours can afford.
4
I am from Québec Canada. Our healthcare system is not perfect but generous enough and we do not pay when we need to use its services. We also have a public daycare system for children that cost 7$/day. Colleges & Universities are relatively cheap (compare to the USA anyway). Our life expectancy is a few years longer than yours. This said, excuse me, but it is not “free”, far from it. We pay for it all the time through taxes, which means not just when we use them, but all our life.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all this and would absolutely not trade our ways for yours. But “it is not free”. It is a societal choice.
2
There is no going back to the founding fathers for a future solution. The founding fathers were the think tank that provided the intellectual and philosophical underpinnings for the separation from England and the radical notion of independence. Mission accomplished, at the end of the 18th century, thanks to the expenditure of colonial blood and treasure.
In 2019 we have a totally different world. Technology allows both bloody and bloodless destruction—more horrific than we can understand. And the internet communicates lies as fast as, or faster than, it propagates truth.
You need truth and wisdom to create sound policy decisions.
Truth AND wisdom. Humans are always short on wisdom—that’s the human condition. So without a public agreement on truth (“The media is the enemy of the people!”), what are democracy’s chances?
We need real leaders—not entertainers or puppets—for enlightened action. So the lack of leaders— people who admit the science behind the crushing threat of climate change, and honestly face the unprecedented changes from artificial intelligence as it destroys more and more jobs humans used to do—is both diagnosis and prognosis for our demise.
Our demise just is not the concern of those who simply want power.
So, who is going to change our tragic trajectory? The unwashed masses, with their heads buried in their phones as they cross in front of moving cars?
It’s not just a horse race, even the jockeys are all lightweights.
1
Sounds like the story Amy Klobuchar has been telling. And, why is our goal to exceed the material success of the previous generation? Sounds like a prescription for an ever expanding materialist existence. No thanks!
I have thought about this for a long time, and couldn't agree more with the sentiment expressed in this article.
Trump will come and go, but we'll still have 40% or more of the population that watches Fox News and believes it is a credible news source.
Not saying Fox news is an itself a problem, (as there will always be a business to step in where a need is to be fulfilled), more so that there are so many people that allow themselves to be scared, riled up, lied to, and hoodwinked on a daily basis.
This problem is not going away, its going to get worse on our current trajectory with climate change, competition for resources, and over population.
7
Incorrectly framing the problem "if we don’t prevent the far left from pulling the Democrats over a cliff" skewing the everything to the right.
The problem
is the far right pulling Republicans over the cliff.
Center is skewed so far to the right that far left Democrats are probably closer to Russell Kirk than the far right Republicans
3
@Joe F
Have to give Republicans credit for successfully framing political debate on their terms. The Clinton and Obama admins essentially governed as Republican Lite, and yet the Republican party has moved so far to the right that now Republican Lite is considered "liberal". And anything a smidge to the left of Republican Lite is SOCIALISM. And if we dare consider any so called "socialist" policy prescriptions, then we are headed down the path of becoming just like Venezuela.
1
Thomas, what is the "free stuff we can't afford?" We have spent trillions of dollars on wars that should not have been fought and no one has been held accountable. That money should have gone to the American people to make their lives better. And trillions of dollars on tax cuts for the already rich. Cancel the tax cuts for the rich and raise their taxes by the same amount. Voila! McConnell and Trump have got to go.
6
I whole-heartedly agree. And, I am a loyal reader of this paper.
But I also see you "doing it again."
Following Trump's every move, not reiterating important facts as stories progress, editorializing, making snarky characterizations of Dem candidates, ageism, and as you pointed out...making news entertainment.
The purpose of the news media is to give us the "outside the box" perspective and the facts. And to remind us of the facts as information develops...
Everyone, including this publication (the Obama administration and Hillary's campaign) missed the most important "story" of the last election...that a huge swath of the country had never recovered from the crash.
Instead of proving how "woke" we all are, we need to focus on the facts...and we rely on you to deliver them in a mature, unbiased, genuinely balanced matter.
Contrary to popular belief (and magical thinking) there is such "a thing" as reality...and truth.
We need you now more than ever...
2
If by "us" you mean the GOP then you are correct.
The Republican Party, as an institution, is a danger to the rule of law and the integrity of our democracy.
The problem is not just Donald Trump; it is the Republican political apparatus collaborating with him.
Increasing wealth disparity? Republican's Laffer Curve fiscal policy.
Destruction of manufacturing sector?
Republican's NAFTA treaty conceived by Reagan Administration, Negotiated by GHW Bush and ratified in Congress on the back of GOP votes.
Humanitarian crisis on the southern border with waves of Central Americans seeking asylum?
Republican foreign policy's decade of illegal war on Central America.
Polarization of the body politic?
Gingrich's Speakership and Limbaugh's 30 years of well poisoning.
4
In 2020, both sides know that the only way to preserve the union is for their side to win unconditionally and impose its vision on the loser.
If the Democrats win big, the alt-Right and Trumpistas will revolt.
If Trump and his neo-Republicans win big, the blue states will resist, Washington will try to compel them to cooperate, and they will revolt.
If it's a split decision where the Democrats keep the House and gain in the Senate but Trump wins the presidency, nothing will get done.
I don't see any scenario where this ends well.
1
Bravo Thomas Friedman, for another good column.
Clearly, Friedman is afraid, like I am, that if the Democrats put up a far left candidate who is squishy on stopping illegal immigration, we could very well end up with four more years of Trump. As it is, we still have 572 more days left in his first and hopefully only term. It matters, what all those white people in all those red, agricultural states think, because they control the electoral college.The blue states can only win the popular vote. With climate change and global warming accellerating, we, Democrats and Independents, can not afford to lose the next election.
2
@David Lindsay Jr.
our politics have shifted so far to the right that today Nixon would be a Clintonian Democrat and Reagan would be a Biden Democrat.
Kaiser Health News has a link to Nixon's 1974 healthcare plan and it makes Hillary's failed 1994 attempt at reform as a gift to the insurance industry which Obamacare delivered on.
1
If it comes down to counting on ourselves, we’re screwed. In the aggregate, Americans are lazy, stupid and totally self-involved. We think we deserve everything, we take everything for granted, and we do little individually to make society better. The root of this failure is our schools, which by and large have failed at their core mission to produce citizens.
2
@Mark
I agree with you. We are so messed up, and getting more and more so every day.
Instead of promoting academic excellence so we can compete globally, we promote the reading to children by drag queens.
We have taken our eyes off the ball in many issues in order to make sure we can have 50 thousand gender choices and transsexuals using any bathroom they want.
In the meantime, we are becoming poorer and less competitive.
I despair over our future.
One comment looks forward to the book that will describe the baleful effects of Reagan presidency. It exists: The Man Who Sold the World; William Kleinknecht, 2009.
"...but who doesn’t promise free stuff we can’t afford..."
This is a talking point of the right.
In the 50s, the 1% was taxed at 90%. The 1% are far wealthier now. 70% could very well get you where we need to go.
If it isn't, then there is the proposal to tax currency speculation. It is estimated that the amount of money in the speculative economy is 11 times that invested in the productive economy. Tax EVERY bet that's placed on movements in the exchange rate, and "everyone will be able to afford a chocolate eclair".
1
@unreceivedogma: 40% would do as long as every cent you earn is taxable at that rate, unless you put it right back into your business. No exceptions.
We don't need an astronomical tax rate for the wealthy, we need to eliminate 90% of their deductions and exceptions.
One word: American political system.
With the partisanship firmly established,
the system of checks and balance
has created more checks and little
balance. Recall how the
republicans vowed to stymie president
Obama. Even if a progressive democrat
is elected president, republicans would
ensure that the major policy initiatives
don't get legislated. Major issues
will remain the issues for a long time.
President Trump has made clear to
other nations they can't depend on
America for leadership. The major
countries are going their own way
without America on trade agreements,
climate change and may eventually
create alternate financial system
diminishing the role of dollar based
system, source of our power and
influence.
2
Many commenters here seem to have the idea that there is a pot of money in the country that gets spent on the wrong stuff, thus taking money away from more important things. That pot of money will always be shrinking because the wealthy have first dibs. If we spend less on the military, there will be more for our favorite stuff. The economics of the government just doesn't work that way. $1.5K for a July 4th celebration is an amount that could help a lot of people but we don't have control of our own money after we send in a big check to IRS. The key is to have a government that is more interested in the average person than in the wealthy and the tacky displays that they love. Why do they get huge tax breaks while the rest of us pay through the nose?
It all comes down to a single question: do we, the people of the United States, primarily identify as members of a single national society, or rather are we simply a collection of individuals/groups/clans each with its own particular priorities, interests and concerns. Our diversity is both our greatest strength and biggest challenge. Can we find sufficient common ground? Or do we dissolve into either a police state or anarchy (or some combination thereof, which seems to be where we’re presently heading). If there’s any hope, it starts with a vast number of small *in-person* group conversations, each with representation of a wide range of viewpoints. Or maybe we’re all just too stubborn, ill-informed, hurt and/or scared.
5
I have always taken issue with the idea that the “American dream” is that each generation will do better than their parents’ generation. “Do better?” What does that even mean, really? I do not need or want to do better than my parents did, and at this point in my life – age 66 – I’m certain it’s not going to happen. But that’s all due to my own recklessness and irresponsibility and I have no one to blame but myself.
The American dream that I dream is written in the Preamble to the Constitution and in the words to Emma Lazarus’ “New Colossus” at the Statue of Liberty. It has nothing to do with material wealth and everything to do with liberty and justice for all. Unfortunately, too much of the dream has been riddled with the nightmares of slavery, genocide, rape of the land, mindless accumulation of more of everything at the cost of anyone, and the conviction that we have to be the biggest and most powerful and richest no matter what. I really don’t want to give up on the dream. As the Rolling Stones sang, lose your dreams and you will lose your mind. My fear though, is, have we already lost the dream, have we already completely lost our collective mind?
3
Would love to hear what specifically is the "false free stuff we can't afford." Is it good public education for all, health care access for all, a living wage for all, decent housing, equitable access to voting, humanitarian bottom line in international relations especially at our southern border. These are all not only affordable but essential for our economy not to bottom out from greed and excessive inequality. Look at where the gains in productivity have accumulated that are not being invested in improving the lives of all. There are some very accomplished and intelligent Democrats running. Please resist the lables and simplisitic classifications and consider their proposals. WE MUST DO THINGS FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT OR THERE WILL BE NO CHANGE AND WE WILL CONTINUE ON A COLLISION COURSE TO A FULL DECONSTRUCTION OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.
1
We need a new amendment to our constitution, that the servants of the people ( Congress,& Senate )must focus on what is good for America, not what is good for the Party. To accomplish this the terms for Congress & the Senate & President must be reduced to no longer than Two Years, The Supreme Court cannot be a Life time position, & every Two years they must be voted on. Most important, those that served cannot run for their past position again.This turn over will cleanse our institutions, and those that serve will be up to date & continue to progress.
1
I agree with much of what is said in this article, but if you believe this country is capable of turning things around, I think you are seriously wrong. The American Dream was always materialistic. The better life for my kids meant, for many, bigger house; bigger car; more bling, not a better world; a happier or more meaningful life. Lifelong Learning? Seriously? In a country that does not respect education; whose heroes are movie and sports stars. Where teachers are poorly paid and disrespected? Where unemployed coal miners refused reeducation because they just wanted to stay where they were doing what they always did? Where a post about places to visit in Ohio to celebrate our space history drew almost as many comments that we never landed on the moon. It was all faked and filmed in California! And as for climate change? The word is denial and listening to the denier-in-chief. We need to wait until it is too late, rather than take action. You said it, we have had two presidential elections that the winners were the losers and few people seem to care. We vote for idealists who work to improve our lives, then either don’t vote or vote into office craven crooks. Mr Friedman’s hopes seem to be misplaced.
There are candidates who can do these things but they are not in the top tier of popularity. It is necessary for the press to help bring these people to the fore. We can't lose this election, but winning at the cost of a majority ready to work together will be a short term victory and only lead to demagogery on the Left.
We are facing some major crises such as world immigration and starvation caused by climate change and poor governancee. We need a world filled with leaders who can sit down, discuss these issues rationally, write checks to fund the plan and put the world econimic order back on the right path. There are american Democrats that can lead, there are even some republicans like Mit Romney and John Kasich but we have to promote them before it is too late. America will not vote for a Socialist. We should not go there.
Hmm, Hillary was mostly the candidate that Freidman is supporting for the Democrats. Look how that worked. I'll vote for any Democrat, but what I've seen so far is not good. I like Warren and I hope she doesn't go for all in Medicare. Let's let people 50+ buy in and offer a public option for ACA. That will fix about 80% of the healthcare issues I think.
1
@RAH: Warren might be using a bargaining tactic that would have served Obama well... she's asking for the Moon but will settle for Low Earth Orbit. If Obama had insisted on Single Payer, he might have gotten the Public Option.
Warren's super power is that she know enough about financial shenanigans to put the screws to financial miscreants.
1
I would normally find grounds to chastise Friedman here. As a liberal, I often have. I disagree with a lot he says here. But I am feeling considerably less sure of everything today. And I am starting to think the biggest danger really is us. Those who judge without knowledge, who meet blindness with blindness. Who fall so easily for falsehoods and attack in vile personal terms the particular race, gender, or age we choose. A California DA and Attorney General who tormented black and poor and imprisoned people, who tried to revive the death penalty, who arrested truant kids' parents, who fought police body cameras, and more, and worse--recently held up a picture of herself at six years of age or so, and lied about a good (if old, yes I know) man. And my fellow liberals and progressives are in large part ready to elect her president. Without any knowledge of her, their eyes and angers directed at the man whom most black people want to be president. They don't need us to "educate them"--what a joke. They know. I am not going to hurl invective anymore. I'm not going to argue with Friedman for today (no promises about tomorrow.) I'm introspecting now. I'm going to try to judge by character, and learn who people are one by one. If not, we are going to be in dreadful trouble, even those who wish the best and who are falling into injustice in their own minds all unknowing.
1
Many commentators point out that today’s moderate liberal policies are yesterday’s Republican policies.
Regarding the elections: the real issue is that Trump will do anything to get re-elected, including last minute fake videos, foreign help, and illegal acts. He has demonstrated this, and the Democrats are in a different league: it has taken them months just to get around to issuing a subpoena for his taxes! He is a brilliant tactician, while they follow the rules. Good losers don't get to write history.
Regarding the future: US strength is built on running the world, and its power is "all men are created equal" which attracts the best and brightest. If Trump is re-elected, this will change and instead of a global meritocracy we will shrink to fit our share of global GDP. Expect chaos.
I am generally an optimist, but my foreboding is negative at the moment.
1
The biggest threat to America is Trump, and to put it more clearly, the biggest threat to America is the weak willed and ill educated people who support him.
This is a great country, a country born from heroic men, who stood up to the greatest military power of its time, there wasn't a bone spur in sight when brave men signed a declaration of independence, those men put their lives and fortunes on the line, and from those men a great experiment in Democracy was born which spread though out the world.
Four score years later even more brave men went to war to secure that democracy and freedom once and for all, and for all time and all people.
Four score after that the bravest of the brave took to the battlefields of Europe and the south Pacific to fight for that freedom and to keep it alive in its darkest hour.
What would all of these brave men think of America today. A country led by a draft dodger, elected by a base of narrow minded, ignorant people, who stain the legacy of this great country.
This nation was forged by heroes, forged by sacrifice and the belief that all men were created equal. That's what Democracy stands for: Everybody equal, no matter the color of their skin, or the money in their wallet.
The biggest threat to America is the ignorant and lazy among us. Freedom is never free. It will be up to the brave and vigilant among us to save America. The time is now. Tomorrow we salute the flag and greatness past. The day after tomorrow the work begins.
The biggest threat to America IS us...if the us you mean is the us that keeps the Senate in Republican majority hands and Mitch McConnell in power. He is the root cause of the majority of the obstructionism. If the voters that keep electing/re-electing Republican Senators can't intellectually comprehend the economic and planetary damage their votes are causing, then the American voting citizenry is THE source of the looming disaster.
1
Well enunciated.
The first priority of any government should be the well-being of its constituents. A balancing act to be sure, but one that is managed by other nations, why not ours?
Mr Friedman was doing fine until he got to:
"In that kind of world the new social contract has to be that government makes sure that the safety nets and all the tools for lifelong learning are available to every American — but it’s on each citizen to use them."
Why the detour through government? Wouldn't it be more straight-forward and efficient for the process to be:
"In that kind of world, it’s on each citizen to use the the tools of lifelong learning."
That detour, of course, is one of the major reasons that we're our own greatest threat: the Left's incessant insistence that government be involved in absolutely everything. Huge, clumsy, bureaucratic, wildly inefficient, government just slows things down and makes them a lot more expensive and, ultimately, serves no useful purpose that people can't accomplish on their own.
It's ever the Left's position that ordinary people are incompetent to manage their own lives and need "help" from their "betters" in government. Little could be more offensive--and, as Reagan said, "a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have."
If you've been obsoleted by technology, it's your job to learn something new--and in the "information age," that generally means little more than reading books and practising things on the computer you likely already have. Why do you need government for that?
@Henry Miller, Libertarian You said "...the Left's incessant insistence that government be involved in absolutely everything..." and that is just silly. Please tell me why is it the Right's incessant insistence that the government be involved in absolutely nothing?
Do you see how silly that sounds?
May you be blessed in this life to never need help from anyone; if you ever do, I know there are people from "the Left" who will help you - even if you are a Libertarian.
When I feel sick with Trump news, I imagine that I am a Russian businessman who was devastated by the break-up of the Soviet Union. Then, when I see Putin hacking America into Red States and Blue states, Putin is my hero. From that viewpoint, I can feel happy for a moment.
I recently reread the popular 1970 book "Future Shock" by Alvin Toffler about adapting to the ever increasing rate of change in our lives and I recommend it to Times readers.
2
"Free stuff" is just another blatant lie generated by people who propagate the falsehood that the multiplier effect of employment differs in the public and private sectors.
The US doesn't understand the timeless basics of government.
We already have a working majority to fix the country, it just isn't empowered. Hillary won 3 million more votes than Trump but 'lost' the election. More people vote for Democrats in the House and in the Senate than vote for Republicans, but a combination of gerrymandering and small state bias keeps the extremist right wing in power. The corrupt supreme court, selected by the well funded Federalist society (1/4 $billion spent!) keeps the minority in control.
We are ruled by a small, well funded, group of extremists. Trump is their leader, but he isn't alone, and his vision of low taxes for rich people, unleashed polluters and banks, and racism isn't new.
5
Tom Friedman: "Only we can ensure that the American dream — the core promise we’ve made to ourselves that each generation will do better than its parents." George Carlin: "They call it the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it." Americans may never wake up because we believe in celebrating the creation of a rich, white male ruling class based on the pursuit of property (“happiness” is the euphemism used in the Declaration of Independence) to replace the English monarchy. A ruling class that had no interest in democracy and dominates with the same undemocratic power today. And on this celebration of the founding of white America, a would-be dictator president has militarized the 4th of July as an initial test of how Americans would feel if his authoritarian rule was backed by the military. This is the Star-Spangled Banner, but America the Beautiful should replace it.
I have had several friends and co-workers who lived in the USSR. Their collapse wasn't Reagan's military build-up or external forces. They all say that the corruption from within and toxic culture of the communist party was to blame.
In the same way, our country has a case of root rot. If we are toppled, we can all point to a proximate cause, but strength from within is the real source of longevity.
We are feeding a class of corrupt, greedy, short-sighted ultra-wealthy that knows only unbridled consumption for themselves and care not a whit about anybody else's condition. In short, we have glorified a societal disease and incorporated it into our political fabric.
3
When Mr. Friedman talks about the media, it sounds as if he is saying both sides do it.
Not true.
There is no comparison to the misinformation coming from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and the others.
I have neighbors who still believe Obama was born in Kenya and the Clintons had Vince Foster murdered.
3
Its hard to disagree with anything in this column. Let me give you two other “cans that keep getting kicked down the road”.
1) according to the CDC 100million Americans are diabetic or pre-diabetic. For the first time in decades the life expectancy of our children will actually go down if we don’t solve this problem. Almost 40% of us are obese. Its a tidal wave that is building. (the data is incapable of fat shaming)
2) student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt and is totally strapping millions of young people just getting started. Its $1.5Trillion and growing! So far there’s been no solution put forward that has any chance of being signed into law.
Finally I agree we must find an alternative to Trump. So far we are still waiting.
I agree with the premise, but it doesn't appear the Democrats have a candidate better than Trump. Joe Biden is an establishment hack that will sell us out to China within a year and most of the rest are open border loonies.
Why must the distinction be criminal? Why when most individuals who overstay their visa, a common cause for becoming undocumented, have no criminal intent must they be incarcerated rather than lawfully deported?
Why does a columnist of Mr. Friedman's stature, fail to see the difference between criminal and civil offenses ad Julian Castro did during his appearance with other candidates?
And why when the radical right rears its racist, nationalistic, undemocratic head, do columnists always blame the left for proposing sensible social programs that other democracies have used to their advantage for decades?
We are utterly unprepared, as a nation, to deal with the tidal wave of propaganda screaming into our lives through the internet. It is packaged in ways that seems to make it official, especially to the casual observer looking to confirm prior beliefs. Just click "share" on Facebook and a rancid false rumor can fly around the world before breakfast.
What makes this especially bad is that like minded "friends" form circles on Facebook then happily and readily share disinformation as if it were authoritative, something wonderful. Everyone gets something daily, hourly, that confirms prior beliefs and pushes them farther to extremes. Hating the "enemy", anyone who disagrees, is part of the whole mess.
Note this: the 2020 Trump campaign is spending more on online advertising at this point that all the other campaigns combined, according to a reliable published report I have seen. The Russians were a major source of disinformation in 2016, next time around (cue Trump laughing) they might not be needed.
This threat to our democracy is dire, almost as dire as a war time threat. It is like a howling wind blowing outside our windows bringing a fearsome storm, except we can't hear it and we are nearly asleep to the threat compared to the actions that would be needed to push it back or moderate it. We are, indeed, being pushed toward a time of some sort of civil war, divided by hatred, constantly fed lies and assured that "the other side" is evil.
3
I have no sympathy for those “frightened white working class voters.” When I see their images captured on television at a Trump rally, I see a mob of losers: poorly-educated, intellectually limited, angry, disgruntled people blaming others for the choices they made. They even look alike: overweight, shorts, t-shirts, ball caps, athletic shoes, a sea of dull-normal faces. Life-long learning has always been an imperative. Today’s fast-changing world requires a workforce that is nimble and prepared to reinvent itself two, three and four times in order to be competitive. This is the 21st century world. They need to adapt.
The biggest threat to America today is Complacency, taking for granted the freedom that was fought for the WW2. More than half the population knows little about the events leading up to that horror, since education is not valued enough to pay teachers respectable salaries. Then there is Greed. Those who value material things at the expense of others' lives. Our country has become soft, selfish and lazy. I agree. The biggest threat is US.
I'm sure trump and his mob think it humorous that we are all so worried and stressed about his demolition derby administration, but it could be our strength. Stressed out like me? Join your local Indivisible group. Call the DNC and ask what you can do to support local and national democrats in future elections. It worked in the last election...
Let's take back the Senate and keep the House of Representatives!!
1
I don't see anything hopeful in your essay. In your description of the the current state and your imagined futures the people are powerless..".waiting to be assembled and empowered." I hate waiting.
There won't be any change of any benefit to more than a few until The People refuse to accept their current subjugation.
All what Mr Friedman says is totally applied to Argentina today and after the incoming elections we will be still a democracy or a country like Cuba or Venezuela.
A real problem when talking about immigration is when the majority of those coming to the US seeking asylum which is legal are lumped in with those who are actual criminals. This is what the Trump regime has done. It has criminalized asylum seekers. It has criminalized being an immigrant child. Thomas Friedman makes the same mistake in his fifth paragraph seeming to buy into the Trump definition of illegal immigrants (by ignoring it) and eliminating the nuance on immigration expressed by the Democratic candidates. The so called moderates at the Times need to get a grip and stop trying to paint the Democratic candidates as farther left than they actually are. We have three legislative bodies, the president is not a dictator, yet. Another four years of this criminal administration and the current complicit GOP majority in the Senate may change that.
Realizing that you are a citizen of South Africa and England, we Americans have always treated politics as entertainment.
And of course we all are wondering what you mean by "things we can't afford."
Do you mean the the 686.1 billion dollar military budget? I'll bet you don't mean that. 1000 military bases around the world. We have used force, pain and suffering around the world for decade after decade to control or invade countries and force them into submission and take their commonidies. See a review of that by Chomsky; you will cry.
But we can't afford to give everyone in this country medical care or a living wage; we have such an absurd and horrid disparity in wealth it is criminal (corruption is the word in the sense of our campaign funding as they call it). The elite get what they want.
So give us some details on what we can't afford when you have a chance.
This takes me back to my childhood and a line from Walt Kelly’s “Pogo”: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
1
"Fourth, technology is propelling social networks and cybertools deeper and deeper into our lives, our privacy and our politics — and democratizing the tools for “deep fakes,” so that many more people can erode truth and trust. But the gap between the speed at which these technologies are going deep and the ability of our analog politics to develop the rules, norms and laws to govern them is getting wider, not narrower. That gap has to be closed to preserve our democracy."
Friedman is on target with his fourth point. Some push back has finally begun against this Silicon Valley vision of the future but the gap does not seem to be closing. Not only are smart homes on the way but smart cities, smart schools, and smart cares.The term "smart" is a euphemism for personal data collection. And the vendors selling this stuff are smart. They know how to get people to buy in by selling security, convenience, status, optimization, efficiency, or whatever will make the sale.
The greed of making big profits by moving most of our manufacturing capacity to China and other countries made a few people very rich and a lot of us poor. Our livelihoods, and our self respect were turned into dust.
We fought unwise and unwinnable wars with borrowed money, greatly increasing our national debt.
Look at the mountain of debt most students acquire by the time they graduate. Look at the huge healthcare cost and millions of Americans having no access to it. They are forced to choose death instead.
Congress gives tax cuts to those who don't need them. Instead of using tax revenue to run the government, we borrow money to run it. American students borrow lots of money to get an education. I know a friend who went to Belgium and earned an MD without paying any tuition fee! He is not even Belgian. Belgium can provide free education, not us. How come?
Our tax structure is lop-sided. We need to make it fairer. We should use tax dollars to make education and healthcare affordable if not free. We should manufacture things right here even if we have to subsidize it. We can do a lot of things better if we stop treating the rich with extreme deference.
Of all the Democratic candidates that responded to the cattle
call, I wonder if any meet Tom's requirements. Well,
the party could always draft Mike Bloomberg.
The praise for preserving a distinction between "criminal" and legal immigration overlooks the historical reality that the ancestors of most white citizens could not enter the US illegally because the concept did not exist for them. If course, the change in policy in the early 20th century helped ensure a higher death toll from Fascism and Nazism.
Agree with every single word here... America and the world cannot afford four more years of Trump and the Democratic candidates are losing a winnable fight by adhering to orthodoxy from the left! Are we daft?!!!
The filibuster practice in the Senate prevents majority rule. If we are going to keep the filibuster then the Senators should be required to actually filibuster -- stand on their feet and talk until they drop. The problem with the current practice is that invocation of the filibuster simply kicks in the requirement of 60 votes to pass a bill. No speeches. No standing until they drop. The Senators can fly around the country collecting money from big donors and give speeches complaining about nothing getting done while filibustering to prevent anything from getting done. At the very least the filibuster rule should be changed to the way it was.
Better yet. It should be eliminated. Does that mean great harm could be done by simple majorities? Of course. But it also means that great good can be done. With the status quo we get little that is good and much harm as a result of inaction. If the Senate does not act, for example, on climate change we face disaster.
If the Senate will not do something about the filibuster, then we the people should take action to pass a constitutional amendment to prohibit the practice. Until the super majority rule is abolished, we can never form a governing majority.
All my Republican friends say people need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
But when they have children, they move to the best school district they can afford.
They have all taken tax deductions for home and children. Which is government subsidized housing and child care.
And I have never met a pro-life / evangelical who has not used birth control at some time.
The greed of making big profits by moving most of our manufacturing capacity to China and other countries made a few people very rich and a lot of us jobless. Our livelihoods, our self respect was lost. We fought unwise and unwinnable wars and we did that by borrowing money.
I remember the days when the dime was made of real silver, with which I could actually buy a cup of coffee, and with a lot of dimes I could buy a house, and for two dimes or less I could buy a gallon of gas. My tuition was affordable, and if I kept my grade point average above 2.5, I paid much less. Now, look at the mountain of debt most students acquire by the time they graduate. The hospital billed me a few dollars for treating a minor scratch, now I get a bill for $1400/- for the same thing.
Our Congress gives tax cuts to those who don't need it and instead of using tax revenue to run the government, we borrow money to run the government. Students borrow money to ger an education. I know a friend who went to Belgium and got an MD without paying any tuition fee! He is an American, not a Belgian.
Our tax structure is lop sided. We need to make it fair, we need tax dollars to make education and healthcare affordable if not free.
1
Worth repeating:
If Democrats can choose a nominee who speaks to our impending challenges, but who doesn’t say irresponsible stuff about immigration or promise free stuff we can’t afford, who defines new ways to work with business and energize job-creators, who treats with dignity the frightened white working-class voters who abandoned them for Trump — and who understands that many, many Americans are worried that we’re on the verge of a political civil war and want someone to pull us together — I think he or she will find a new American majority waiting to be assembled and empowered.
2
The current primary system favors the extremes in both parties, further dividing the country with each election. The electorate needs to be greatly increased to bring more centerist candidates to power, who can work together and bring real change. My personal predilection is for far left candidates, but I know a government of two extremes who can't even talk to each other will get nothing done. People like me will always vote, but most people never vote in general elections let alone the primaries. We need to get the entire country involved in the government of the county. We need to get students excited about participating in democracy.
2
The Democrat you are speaking of is Elizabeth Warren. The "free stuff" Republicans and right leaning Democrats keep crying about can be paid for...IF...the 1% are willing to live with 3 homes and 2 yachts in stead of 6 homes and 4 yachts.
2
"When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.” ― Winston S. Churchill
The last paragraph has its response, note for note, in the most consequential candidate we have seen in several years—perhaps longer—Pete Buttigieg.
2
@David I think your entire list is excellent and doable. I agree that free tuition at public colleges could be made to work and I would support helping students with loans in the ways you suggest. Your ideas are fair and make sense. What I cannot support that some Democrats want is to forgive all student loans across the board. It is patently unfair and unjust. What about the person who worked and went to a small college with a debt of, say 40K, and one who owes 200K for a degree at a posh school with all the benefits that entails? What about families who sacrificed and saved so their children would not incur this debt? And what about those who were not able to get to college at all? It smacks of another program to help the most advantaged...and why is this not discussed? I had hoped this might come up in the debates, but no one questioned it - this topic is about more than just can we afford it.
I don’t see the USA China relationship as a “zero-sum game”. Just as so many other aspects of the US economy, marketplace, and labor practices have changed over the last 100 years, some of which have been beneficial, and, especially now, some are problematic, the present, and more important, future, Sino American relationship must be examined and ways found to enhance the opportunities it can afford to all world inhabitants.
I don’t believe any quest for the destruction of one or the other’s country is, or at least should be, an objective. And, except for the warmongers we too often see in Trump’s coterie, I believe sounder minds prevail...at least over there.
Globalization is not limited to economies. It should also embrace the knowledge, appreciation, tolerance, and acceptance that differing visions of governance, religion, human rights, citizens’ duties and responsibilities exist.
Life on Earth has never been, and never will be, a “black and white”, "right and wrong" situation. Most of the world’s present problems result from this mistaken belief.
The "new American majority" certainly exists but who will represent it? Certainly not the candidates who spent the debates one-upping each other with extreme statements. Even if they moderate later, to appeal to a broader electorate, those statements will be taken out of context and used against them. Even worse, they will be used as ammunition by Republicans at every level, regardless of context.
Mr. Friedman, we are past having an adult conversation anymore. Recently, I invited my Trump supporting brother in law over for an afternoon of grilling and drinks. He is a college educated man but will only listen to Fox News. His perception of reality does not resemble anything that is happening in America. For example, he recently bragged about Trump's new plan to fix health care. I don't recall seeing or hearing about any new plan from Trump. When I told him that he proudly responded with "fake news." That usually is the end of the conversation.
1
@Sherlock
Exactly.
Maybe Mr. Friedman can tell us how to fix that.
History teaches us that when a once dominant hegemon declines, coalitions at home and abroad collapse. Could any strongman ethno-nationalist “dealmaker” form a new coalition to address the all too familiar litany of challenges enumerated here? The question answers itself. And this is why we all need to conduct a serious discussion not only of our staggering future challenges but an equally serious post mortem on past foreign and domestic policy errors. Trump’s simple argument is if you make me strong enough, I can reverse past policy and restore America’s “golden” age. For Trump and his followers this means the future doesn’t really exist. His “solutions” are for today, not the future. It’s why, for example, Trump has banished science and climate change from his court.
It is left then to the rest of us to combine a credible critique of the past with plausible solutions to our future, and to do this while not sacrificing our liberal democracy. This is a very tall order. But if ever there was a time for paradigmatic change, it is now.
1
Ah yes, a Democratic nominee who doesn't "promise free stuff we can’t afford." And what would that "free stuff" be in your eyes, Mr. Friedman? I know what the Republicans mean by it, but I'd like to know what is on your list of ideals we should not aspire toward before I can really understand the thrust of your column. Isn't it possible that our biggest threat is those who hate this "free stuff" thing?
1
The Biggest Threat to America Is Us
If by "Us" you mean the media...I wouldn't say it is the "biggest threat", but I would certainly say it's not helping any.
1
How delicious for a column in the Times to admonish those who treat politics like entertainment. This in the paper that publishes daily “winning percentages” for the horse races they cover. Which coverage surely depressed voter turnout (she doesn’t need my vote). Love reading Tom’s columns, but this focus on Trump won’t solve the problem. The Republican Party is hellbent on destroying our democracy and sees no problem in authoritarianism if it will keep the divides in this country widening to their financial advantage. An no, they don’t care about your kids and grandkids.
As long as politics comes to us through media, it will be entertainment...this equation is why we got Trump, and it may well give him to us again.
" ... if we just keep taking turns having one party rule and the other obstruct ..."
This is our future. I don't see any solution or resolution that will change it.
@AnejoDiego
I suggest that there is a huge majority of our citizens who favor a moderate approach toward running our government. Unfortunately these folks have tended to leave the selection of candidates to the more extreme portions of the electorate, and we are left with having to choose between candidates who reflect the views of these extremists. This results in the see-saw politics that you fear we is our inevitable future. As noted by Friedman, the moderates arose in the 2018 elections and returned the House of Representatives to a majority of moderates. This fact is obscured by the disproportionate attention given to the loud-mouths who our news media view as more interesting than the moderates. If the majority of our citizens will participate in the primary elections, we will nominate and elect moderate candidates. If the majority sits out the primaries. we may be stuck with another four years of Trump. Participation by the majority in all stages of the electoral process will lead us out of the dismal future that you fear.
Thank you Thomas Friedman for an analysis that speaks to our intelligence by understanding history and the power of working together. The division we are experiencing is unhealthy. The labels we use so casually are threatening. Just last night a very well-known and infamous football player objected to a shoe icon saying it was "offensive." This "knee-jerk" and one word reaction has now been blown out of proportion to erase and control our history and one major company's marketing plan in less than 24 hours. To me, the idea that one man's star power and one word can control history is a scary thought!
Tom, that's close to defining the real problem, but you still understate it. Trump voters fear and loathe the future because there's no place for them in it, and you can't say they're wrong about that. They can't adapt to it because they're just not fit. Nor are they suddenly going to get fit.
2
Mr Friedman, the concept of political discourse and entertainment discourse collapsed into each other has been around since the cultural critiques of Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag, John Berger, Pier Paoli Pasolini, the Frankfurt School, etc in the 1960s.
In the mid 1990s, I did a public art installation that - in part - sought to show how things are so bad with regard to this issue that institutionally, within public forum doctrine, commercial speech actually enjoys more legal protections than political speech. Judge Newman, on remand from SCOTUS, stated that I had a legitimate argument:
“Lebron might be correct that, to the extent that the defendant's policy purports to bar political ads, it is a viewpoint-based discrimination that violates the First Amendment. See Air Line Pilots Assn. v. Department of Aviation, 45 F.3d 1144 (7th Cir.1995). As Lebron contends, the defendants are willing to display an ad urging the public to buy Coor's beer but are unwilling to display his ad urging the public not to do so. He makes a substantial argument that viewpoint-based discrimination is occurring when government allows an ad promoting the sale of a product, but purports to prohibit an ad opposing a product because of the views of its manufacturer. Presumably, Amtrak would allow an ad opposing the sale of Coor's beer because of its alcoholic content or for any reason unrelated to the views of its manufacturer.”
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2nd-circuit/1014595.html
1
It is not that the so-called Elites (economic, political and religious) have all of the power- it is that they have manipulated the masses to cede power. They have dumbed them down- and having been successful they now both fear what the have wrought and see new opportunities. Authoritarians are filling in the gap- seizing power, further manipulating the masses and poised to take full advantage of catastrophe- including environmental collapse, the collapse of the food and water supply, disease and more. In response they will offer expansion and war- not unlike the Fascists of the 1930s whose answer to scarcity was militarism.
A democracy cannot thrive with a public that is easily manipulated, poorly educated, fearful, devoid of compassion and indifferent to the fate of their fellow man. Those that oppose this degradation of democracy rightly believe that truth-telling and sacrifice are the main antidotes to this state of affairs. An enlightened and empowered public might elect the right people who will craft legislation and bring reforms that will counter-balance elite interests that seek to keep them in subjugation. But sacrifice is a rare commodity in 21st century America and truth is masked with the Big Lie. But to give up is to cede even more power- to know one is being manipulated to work against one's own and the community's best interest- and to withdraw and accept- is to invite even greater peril.
American liberals are still so enamored with its exceptional ideology of democracy through universal suffrage that they cannot shake their blind spot. The problem is the democracy system itself.
While 2016 give the Congress back to the Democrats, the fact is they still cannot win back the Senate. Moreover, SCOTUS just ensured gerrymandering will persist, Citizens United decision guaranteed corporate personhood. Elections are still just popularity contests. Experience and merit of candidates are non-factor. The president's daughter plays high level diplomat. Voter turn out is a moot point when the voter pool is mostly clueless and irrational.
Thomas Kuhn is correct. Paradigm shift is hard.
1
Unfortunately the simple problem is that there are two halves of the country that don't live in the same reality. The cities and coasts live in a semblance of reality, and the middle lives in Fox News world of complete fabrication.
Until Fox News stops being the number one source of "news" for the middle, there can be no serious conversation because you can't reasonably debate with the ignorant and misguided. This is why middle of the US continues to vote for Republicans who take from the struggling and give to the rich...
1
To Mr. Friedman I would add, we need to get rid of Mitch McConnell.
2
Mr. Friedman puts his finger on the problem: It's us. And his solution is partially correct: We need to elect leaders - President AND a new Congress - that can work together. But that's not enough.
Our democracy is crumbling partly because tribal politicians are choosing to ignore the guardrails built into our democracy. They gerrymander districts. They suppress votes. They ignore congressional subpoenas. They steal Supreme Court seats. They thrive on the dark money that floods our political system.
Frankly I'm tired of electing different people and hoping for better results. A key issue in all 2020 races should be reforming democracy to fix these things. This will take several election cycles, but we have to start. The For The People Act, passed in the House in March, is a first step.
My #1 question for any candidate will be: What will you do to reform democracy?
OurImperfectUnion.blogspot.com
1
Change to rule allowing corporations to buy back their stock. Great for shareholders in short term "bigger earnings numbers." Resource to keep creating new products comes from corporate earnings. Downside is what international doing? Creating new products, creating employement, economic growth.
Whale in ocean need healthy cereal population.
Oligarchs need economical healthy working class. Buzy weakening working class, matter of time for collapse to happen.
The author's fear of what a Democrat would do with the immigration issue actually belongs to the Republicans also. Decades of indifference to redefining citizenship and racial overtones about immigration color the reality of a poor effort to maintain our nation . The last legislation to directly address the issue was Reagan's amnesty in 1986. We are now at a worse place than 1986.
"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
"If Democrats can choose a nominee..." That is one mountain of an "IF".
It is very unfortunate that most citizens of the USA seemingly refuse to see themselves as citizens of other western industrialized countries see them. The USA touts itself as the greatest country in the world in its pursuit of the "American Dream" but that dream is not about making your country better for all your citizens. What that dream is focused on is the individual and that individual's success which in the USA is based on how much money can I (the individual) make and more importantly, once it is made, keep. If your incumbent president wins re-election in 2020 it will be primarily be based on your good economy which is another way of saying "we're in the money, we're in the money".
2
Krugman is right: it is on us
to change and think – for once.
Look at the facts and then discuss
how to not vote for a dunce.
This whole article is more of the same nonsensical, liberal “we the resistance” dribble. What is the Democrat’s plan for America exactly? Free everything for everybody? Tax the rich? Reparations? Name a single policy proposal that one of the Dem candidates has put forth that is an improvement over the current policies that have brought all Americans a booming economy, historically low unemployment, or the rising GDP. Not a single candidate has presented an effective answer on foreign policy other than “Trump is doing it wrong”. The entire field is a joke at this point. Joe Biden is the frontrunner? Yeah, go ahead nominate him. Kamala Harris? She can be the President of California and New York, the only states where she’ll garner a majority of votes.
As an American first, a Conservative second, I’m open to voting for a Democrat as I’ve done many times in the past. So, show me a real world plan for our country. Not an “I’m here to buy your vote” platform.
2
Maybe an expert can save us. But in what?
Who is 'us'?
In the 2016 Presidential election among the 63 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump was 58% of the white voting majority including 62% of white men and 54% of white women.
While among the 66 million Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton was 92% of the black voting minority including 88% of black men and 95% of black women.
America is not and never was meant to be a democracy. America is and always has been a very peculiar kind of republic. A divided limited different power constitutional republic of united states where the people who are the ultimate sovereign over their elected and selected hired help.
Russia is an aging and shrinking nation of 143 million people with a below replacement level birthrate. America's annual GDP is 15x Russia's. America annually spends 10x Russia on it's military.
Iran has been the victim of decades of covert and overt regime change existential war by the American and British Empires and their Israeli and Saudi tools. Shia Muslim majority Persian Iran is the most effective motivated implacable foe of Sunni Muslim Wahhabi Arab extremists like al Qaeda and ISIS. Iran has never attacked nor threatened to attack the American homeland.
2
Yes, the media will most likely be the end of America, having long ago abandoned any sense of objectivity and instead has been pushing its collectivist agenda.
"Fact Checks" have become spin machines. Headlines have become propaganda. Articles have become thinly veiled libel that once exposed is simple washed away with faux "correction" leaving the damage intact.
The Media lament the "divisiveness" of individuals and then proceeds to call half of America racists, and other names they apparently feel will ameliorate the divisiveness.
The irony is that once the media achieves their desired goal, they will likely be one of the first freedoms to be sacrificed on the alter of Equity and Exclusivity.
@Larry
Please, one third of America (maybe) is deplorably racist, not half. Get your math straight. 60 million Trump votes is a big number, but definitely not half of America.
Reality Check this experitment in freedom depends on one thing the vote. Freedom isnt free for all people lives been lost by millions. In doing so we the people need to ensure freedoms we given handed down to next generation same or better then we received in life.Those who hold office know what needs to be done,manditory voting for starts. Next would make people acountable to the pledge they took in office,Means in good faith for the people all people.Period
@jerry lee True, but the "Vote" depends on an engaged, educated, well informed population. There was a illusion of this before the internet, there is no illusion any more.
When it comes to politics we are all woefully lacking. I include myself in this despite being very well read and highly educated. I simply do not have access to the data and resources I would need to make informed decisions across a broad spectrum of highly volatile issues.
“If Democrats can choose a nominee who speaks to our impending challenges, but who doesn’t say irresponsible stuff about immigration or promise free stuff we can’t afford,...”
Mr Friedman,
Do you mean we can’t afford to provide decent healthcare for the entire population? I guess we are not a wealthy country like Canada, France, the Netherlands, etc.
When I look at Elizabeth Warren’s proposals she discusses how to fund programs far better than Paul Ryan ever did. You just dismiss her methods out of hand, but you once acted like Paul Ryan was a serious thinker. You need to rebuild your credibility.
2
What a great column.
Bill Wilson, a co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, said that if AA is ever destroyed, it would be destroyed from within. He helped formulate twelve traditions to keep the most ego-driven selfish people on earth from infighting. (Not rules enforced by any "policing".) AA has survived for 84 years as drunks realized that if they don't hang together, they will surely hang separately. They "play nice" together because, at a gut level, they come to realize that their very lives depend on it.
Do Americans have enough desperation and clear-mindedness to see the mess we're in? Do we even care? If not, I hope that in 2024 President Kardashian and Vice president Adam Sandler will save our nation.
2
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
- Mark 3:25
- Matthew 12:25
- Saint Augustine
- Thomas Hobbes
- Thomas Paine
- Sam Houston
- Abraham Lincoln
“We have seen the enemy and he is us”
- Pogo
Choose your source. If the political/economic/cultural division continues to widen, fueled like gasoline by the media, the radical fringes will increase in size to the point that they could reach “critical mass”. Then something really bad could happen that isn’t just an “isolated incident”. We watched Fareed Zakaria’s special, “State of Hate”, and it is frightening. I would actually be scared to bring a child into the world as it is now. Better to take care of the ones we have and work to reduce ideological corrosion and environmental destruction.
2
Tom: Nobody is talking about free stuff in the literal sense of the word. Stop it! Informed readers of this newspaper know very well that taxes, particularly those paid by wealthy individuals and corporations that are profitable and pay NO TAXES, will have to be step up so that ALL citizens can benefit from a good public education, healthcare, and the "Blessings of liberty". Stop insulting my intelligence with "Free stuff". We all know nothing is "Free". Stop, already!
5
The biggest threat to America is Fox News. Fox News has indoctrinated millions of Americans into a poisonous ideology that protects the Rich from paying their fair share of taxes. Fox News attacks any positive Political movement to improve life for Americans as Socialism. Once a person is indoctrinated into the Fox Propaganda there is no going back. The change to the Brain is permanent. Just read their comments sections. These people are mentally gone.
1
There is a presidential candidate who can bridge the divide and his name is Andrew Yang.
@Zuzka Kurtz I like Andrew Yang, but I think he is about 8 years too early. He is 2 steps ahead of the voting public.
Of course the biggest threat to this country is us .
We , the majority, have been manipulated and abused by the GOP ( sycophants of the narcissistic toddler occupying the Oval Office) , by an approximately 35% of hard base trumpists , who are ignorant, poor , hopeless and most of them religious zealots.
We have to act swiftly next year elections, no excuses for not voting, we must reverse entirely the political platform , otherwise we have only ourselves to blame .
It’s senseless to complain and not react .
1
I couldn't agree more. "Pogo" character told us as much: "We found the enemy, and he is us". Our lack of involvement in this suffering democracy, thinking that the art of the possible, politics, is just a nuisance we must put up with, is a reflection of our ignorance (and giving rise to untold prejudices). As we gave up contributing to the livelihood of this democracy, we made it possible for an expert demagogue and ever-present liar, to take us to the slaughterhouse by our noses. So, unless we change for the better, a repeat fiasco may be in the offings. And if so, we shall fully deserve Trump's idiocy. Ouch!
2
If by "us" you mean Democrats, then yes, I concur.
1
Minimum wage is half what it used to be and healthcare and education cost ten times what they used to be. That is why workers are stagnant and CEOs are making bazillions. We must make big bold changes just to get workers out of the doldrums and back into the mainstream of success. We need strong Democratic programs just to regain the wages and healthcare and education that we have lost. These are not radical proposals; they are reasonable.
1
You last paragraph is a good definition of who needs to be the candidate. If progressives want to lead this country, they need to recognize the inner reality of “the other” and not demonize them as Trump has done.
I just finished reading a book called “Trump and a Post-World Truth” by Ken Wilber, in which he puts the blame for the mess we are in mainly on us progressives (or ‘greens” as he calls us). We really do have to look at how we got to this polarized state and our part in it. Only then, with understanding of the inner developmental stage of those who are angry and afraid (those who identify with their tribe) can progressives lead all of us and prevent hatred and division from getting even worse.
Friedman cites two fundamental reasons for supporting liberal--as opposed to far left--Democratic candidates in 2020. First, they stand a better chance of defeating Trump (and holding the House and winning the Senate)--all of which are crucial. Second, overall they advocate better policies. He is right on both counts.
It is not a matter of holding our noses on tepid policies in order to increase our chances of beating Trump. Rather it is the prospect of beating Trump but putting into power illusory programs that could bankrupt the nation and drive conservatives back into power in the following elections.
1
In the end Friedman says we can not promise what we can't afford. We live in the richest Nation that has ever been. To pretend that there is not enough money here to provide Education, Health Care, and Care for our Seniors is a bald face lie. For the last 70 years our Nation and our People have created more wealth that the World has ever seen. It is all still here or in a few off shore banks. If we found we needed to bring it back a very small force could knock off Monaco,Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands and we would be back counting our loot (I mean our Money) inside a week. Nope there is plenty of money we have just let is slip to the top 1% with Reagan's Voodoo Economics. It makes most young people sick when I tell them what it cost me to go to State College in California or what I paid for rent. We were a very prosperous Nation back in the seventies. LBJ told us we could have Guns and Butter we went to the Moon and threw Blood and Treasure at Vietnam. There is even more money here now we just have to take our money back.
5
Absolutely true, with exceptions.
It is the Pogo Principle At It's Most Powerful: "We have met the enemy and they are us."
Sure, Trump is the instrument of reverence for ignorance that has become the hallmark of his base. Large numbers of people, many saying they are Christians, blindly believe Trump "tells it like it is" when he tells it like it isn't.
One issue, not discussed, is how to make the scales fall from their eyes. Long haul, it's better education, so that people will not accept governmental decisions such as moving the agricultural department's scientists to Kansas City (where no building for them exists) "disappearing" scientists. A decision faces progressive billionaires, such as Buffet, Gates and Steyer.
One or more of these folks hould announce and fund, without delay, a new nonpartisan Institute for Ag Science, not far from DC, to hire the scientists(and others) forced to quit by Trump to work on the matters they know, relating to how American's farms may best cope with climate change.
My point here that Friedman's big decisions are multiple -- and often cannot be postponed til a new President enters office. Arguably, they require a massive exercise in making the intelligent states laboratories of federalism and mobilizing members of the monied class with a conscience to do what Trump prohibits.
Finally, Friedman argues against himself by calling for big things and then describing them as "free stuff". Change is not free.
2
Tom Friedman is against candidates promising "free stuff we can't afford".
The US is the richest country in the world, with the worst income/wealth inequality, mediocre education for most, very expensive healthcare for those who can afford to pay, the highest per capita rate of incarceration of any country in the world, lousy infrastructure and a democracy bought by the highest bidders, protecting the status quo.
Yet, Tom and many like him find wars worthwhile, but paid parental leave, free/affordable quality child care, free/affordable early childhood education, quality K through 12 education, tuition free continuing education, Medicare for all... those investments in citizens that would make the US a stronger, more thriving economy, they are too greedy and shortsighted to support.
But war... to them, war and the military are an endlessly wonderful investment.
Tom Friedman and David Brooks and their sort, are truly among the biggest threats to the future.
President Bernie Sanders 2020!
Integrity, courage, ideas and A Future To Believe In.
Tom, Bernie's ideas have already won.
"Sounds naïve? No, here’s what’s naïve. Thinking we’re going to be O.K. if we keep ignoring the big challenges barreling down on us, if we just keep taking turns having one party rule and the other obstruct — with the result that no big, long-term and well-thought-out adaptations get built."
This is yet another example of the "both sides do it" mentality. There is absolutely no comparison between Republican obstructionism and the behavior of the Democrats when they're in power. President Obama and the Senate Democrats tried their very best to work with Republicans on the ACA, and allowed them to water it down needlessly. The Republican "health plan" was conceived behind closed doors by an all-male group of Republican Senators. But for the courage of John McCain, this would now be the law of the land.
No doubt some sort of viable governing coalition must be achieved, but it's disingenuous to imply that the two parties have been "taking turns" in one-party rule. Get real, Mr. Friedman.
1
I noticed a significant political change when Republicans in Congress advocated cost-saving measures of eschewing homes in DC, or living in their offices. They could avoid the collegiality of social relationships with members of the other party.
Soon discussion and compromise were avoided as they gathered only in their own caucuses. The time of bipartisan poker games and cookouts ended, removing the danger of having to actually be friendly with political opponents.
Sad.
2
I'm one of these life-long learners you mention.
I have degrees and experience in science and IT applied to business. In 20+ years I have managed to always find work, reinventing myself every few years to remain relevant.
Despite all my re-education efforts, plus always saving what I can, I cannot find a way to pay for my kids college expenses, neither do I have enough to retire.
What am I doing wrong, Mr. Friedman?
4
I agree with most of what was said in the article, except two things were left out. One, "We need to learn how to listen" and two, "Stop the Hate". I see comments below with so much hate in it. How can we accuse the Right for all its hate, when there is as much on the Left also. Both sides has legitimate concerns, we need to take the time to listen to them. This country work well when we listen to each other and work together to find solutions.
I'm a moderate that is a registered Democrat in Florida. Like so many others I would like to see Trump out of office. But from what I see from the Democrats so far, he will not only win re-election, but this time with a majority. Understand this, any Democratic candidate will win California by a large majority. California will have a lot to say who the nominee is, but the election will not be decided in California. It will be decided in Florida, and the mid-west where this is a lot of concerns about immigration, economy and health care. I'm afraid the nominee will win the California primary and on the same day lose the general election.
Don't listen to the polls, a lot of people will say anyone but Trump, but on election day they'll vote for him. And don't believe the press, it't not only white uneducated males voting for him, he has strong support over many groups, they just won't admit it. I can only pray that our nation and world can survive another 4 years of this man.
3
The real problem is that one of the two major parties in America won't even acknowledge that the five problem areas Thomas Friedman outlines are, in fact, problems at all. One of the two major US parties lives in a post-truth world. Despite the fact that the leader of that party tells somewhere between 6 and 12 lies in the course of an average day, while continuing to receive the highest level of support from his party's base ever recorded, tells you all you need to know about American democracy: its days are numbered.
7
Trump has vision and have tackled issues as no other president has done. His re-election is paramount to keep America great again.
@ Lieberma
What would you say are Trump’s top three accomplishments that have already made or will make America great again?
The biggest threat to America today? Because of population growth patterns, our elected government no longer represents or serves a majority of Americans. In the last twenty years, we have elected two presidents with fewer votes than their opponent, and may do so again in 2020. If we elect a majority president, it's even more likely that the Senate, where a smaller minority of our population can command a majority, will thwart that president's initiatives -- up to and including, as we have seen, selection of a Supreme Court Justice.
Right now, if I had to answer Chuck Todd's question, I would truthfully reply "Our Constitution".
3
Free stuff we can't afford - you mean like tax cuts for the corporations and very wealthy? It's not just Trump, Tom. It's the whole GOP.
7
Friedman said this one thing that really resonates with me when he wrote that we need to"......prevent the far left from pulling the Democrats over a cliff with reckless ideas like erasing the criminal distinction between those who enter America legally and those who don’t...."
I believe that the Dems have an ideal opportunity to work with R's on comprehensive immigration reform. They will not get everything they want, for sure, but it is something that needs to be done, and done in a bi-partisan way. I believe it could be done before the 2020 election.
3
A well-reasoned argument, forcefully presented, based on a naive and impossible conception of "the American Dream"...
"— the core promise we’ve made to ourselves that each generation will do better than its parents —" as Mr. Friedman puts it
...especially as it refers not to better decision-making but to more material affluence. Especially as it implies infinite growth in a closed system. Exactly how many generations of increased material wealth does this "dream" propose? Hundreds? Thousands? How much more pampered and coddled and surrounded by luxuries and toys can Americans be?
As the most prosperous and richest nation in the history of mankind, using that wealth to amass and misuse history's most awesome killing machine, America is already responsible for the lion's share of environmental depredation, lack of freedom, and grinding poverty in the rest of the world.
Any formula that proposes to extend this folly is based less on enlightened self-interest than on short-sighted greed. The American Dream is the World's Worst Nightmare. Our greatest fear seems to be that some other country will have more stuff than we do.
8
@William Romp
If Democrats are forced/manipulated by the Powerful and the Establishment and its Media to nominate a status quo moderate, maybe a Trump second term will be best for the world, if not the US.
During four more dreadful years of Trump, the wiser countries of the world may realize that they need to lead the world towards a more peaceable, sustainable future.
The US will be left to wallow in super bling for the very few, and violence and poorer, more stressful living conditions for the many.
The US will be shamed, as the wiser countries work ferociously to protect the planet from extreme global warming.
@William Romp: "As the most prosperous and richest nation in the history of mankind, using that wealth to amass and misuse history's most awesome killing machine, America is already responsible for the lion's share of environmental depredation, lack of freedom, and grinding poverty in the rest of the world."
First...what made the USA the most prosperous and richest is the incentive to amass wealth on an individual level...why do you think these illegals aliens are trying to get in?
Second...explain how European imperialist expansion four to five hundred years ago is the fault of the USA today???? We certainly did not light that fire within our culture.
And finally, the American Dream is every single person on the face of this world's dream...in varying degrees...it is what makes us human.
@RobWi
What makes us human is not the drive to get rich.
But then, maybe capitalism has so perverted humanity that acquiring more stuff is what life in the US is all about.
In the early morning in November 2016, when I learned that T had won the electoral college, I was sad. But, I considered the biggest threat to the US to be this very division we now see. I don't like Trump but I rationalized that Clinton would have been more polarizing, pushing R's further away. So, I rationalized, maybe T, not a real Republican anyway, will find a way to be more unifying. So, how did that work out? Trump took everything personally, attacked Dems, poked everyone in the eye and instituted polices that were repugnant to the majority of people, but which were not fully rejected by his base. Whipping up those base feelings, which the mothers of the country had tried to tease out of their kids, allowed the equivalent of errant "Brown Shirt" thugs to become his steadfast fans, as he insulted the "liberal" snowflakes for insisting on decency. Sadly, one cannot hope for the best, one must work hard for the best. I would like the T base to gain their minds again. Listen to Mom: be good, don't fight, don't hit the girls, study, do your homework, don't cheat, make us proud.
3
To his point "Taylor Swift" dwarfs "climate change" in Google search volume.
I think many people recognize this problem. What I don't see here is a solution. Politicians bases are generally pretty happy with their local reps performance - I do not see Mitch McConnell's position being threatened despite the severe damage he's doing to the country. The press focuses on the crisis of the day - see the border - yet never do we hear a bigger discussion about a rationale immigration problem. Same with wealth disparity, health care, and infrastructure. The press need to do a better job of asking politicians how they're going to solve these problems - and not just the politicians running for office - these questions should be proposed to politicians IN office daily. What are they doing to solve these problems.
2
All other points made by Mr. Krugman are irrelevant if we do not defeat Trump in 2020. This is the tipping point not only for America, but perhaps for humanity.
2
"If Democrats can choose a nominee who speaks to our impending challenges, but who doesn’t say irresponsible stuff about immigration or promise free stuff we can’t afford, who defines new ways to work with business and energize job-creators, who treats with dignity the frightened white working-class voters who abandoned them for Trump — and who understands that many, many Americans are worried that we’re on the verge of a political civil war and want someone to pull us together — I think he or she will find a new American majority waiting to be assembled and empowered."
Exactly. But look what we have in the Democrats that are running for President. All spouting utopian dreams and canned rhetoric.
Their hatred for "the frightened white working class voters" is palatable. I mean, why not just call them "deplorables" and get it over with.
Open borders, free health care for illegal immigrants and outlawing private health insurance is not a winning ticket.
3
@Harlod Dichman: " I mean, why not just call them "deplorables" and get it over with"
They did, and they continue to call those not on the coasts that.
@Harlod Dichman: Every US political candidate is scored by how much money they raise. Nothing else counts.
I'm not sure just what a geophysical threat is, but I do know that global warming is the greatest threat to life on Planet Earth.
4
Questions for anyone seeking to lead us:
1. Do you believe America is a sovereign nation?
If so, how would you secure our borders and deal with those here illegally?
2. Is government responsible for health care?
If so, have you ever been in a VA hospital?
3. Define rich.
Exactly how much should the rich pay in taxes?
4. Define poor.
How much should the government redistribute to the poor? Do the poor have any obligations to society? Should the poor receive benefits even if they refuse to work, are addicted, or are convicted felons?
5. Define national defense in your own words.
6. Define law enforcement in your own words.
7. Explain your solution for racism.
8. Define ‘entitlements’ you believe are ‘rights.’
9. What limits, if any, would you place on government debt?
10. Should government pay for abortion? Yes or no.
Rather than the farcical ‘debate’ entertainment, each politician should answer these questions and then let the voters decide and hold them accountable.
36
@JDL:
1: Yes, without a doubt. We need massive, gated facilities at the border, and we need to allow refugees to stay there until their hearings. Unlike a prison, the South-facing gate should remain open, but they should not be allowed into the interior until we grant them access.
2: I've been in a VA hospital. It isn't that bad, and it's WAAY better than nothing. Also, many of the people they treat are much worse medically than average. They've had limbs blown off, and have unique mental problems caused by war. So the comparison is not apples-to-apples. And if the government is not responsible for health care, at least it is responsible for regulating the health care industry to keep it honest and affordable.
3: Fewer loopholes and exceptions. If you earned it and didn't put it back into your business, it is income. Also, take the rates back to where they were before Trump's tax cuts.
4: The government can make inroads on poverty by ensuring that there are adequate supplies of the necessities of life, and that no one can monopolize them. Decrease the price of housing and half of poverty would disappear tomorrow (oops, that would break the mortgage industry). But when people are desperate, they either starve, become criminals, or revolt, and the government is responsible for preventing that from happening.
4
@JDL To clarify, "entitlements" is the wrong label. Social Security and Medicare are rights, because employees pay for them. After paying 9.2% of every dollar earned to my State Teachers Retirement System, the pension I live on is a return on my investment. Unlike those who pay into Social Security, every penny is considered for teacher pensions. If the cap were lifted on Social Security contributions, those programs would be solvent. Calling them entitlements and arguing about whether or not they are a right is an insult to working Americans.
9
@JDL, why stop there?
11. Can elected leaders use the levers of government to enrich themselves? Why or why not?
12. How many family members placed in positions of political power are too many?
13. Are people always the same (addicts, convicts, and the unemployed, for example), or can they change over time? How much do their present circumstances inhibit or enable their ability to effect change in their lives?
14. Should the government be permitted to refuse to pay for any medical service it doesn't like? Why or why not?
15. Can the government compel people to do things with their bodies that they might otherwise choose not to do? Why or why not?
16. How much government debt heaped upon future generations is morally acceptable?
17. Why does the Veterans Administration and the Medicare system consistently receive high marks from its patient members? Why do private insurers receive comparatively lower marks? Can this tell us anything about the profit motive in healthcare?
18. The Declaration of Independence tells us that all Americans are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - is that true in every respect, or only in certain respects? To which aspects of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are Americans not entitled?
19. Who should be allowed to vote? How hard should it be for them to vote? Is it okay for governments to erect obstacles specific to certain demographics? Why or why not?
20. Is all of life black and white, or are there gray areas?
17
It's not as if we have had a long spate of incapable government leaders - we are only 2 1/2 years into the least prepared and most venal administration in nearly a century. It's only "us" to blame because "we" "elected" Trump. Bottom line: the GOP cannot win without cheating, and they are taking us all down with them.
3
If the new model is “learn, work, learn, work, learn, work” then education must be given top priority. K-12 is inadequately funded and teachers underpaid. Teaching STEM is important but so are are civics and collaborative thinking.
2
People get mad at Tom when he mentions free stuff. We can look at some data.
The federal government's public debt is rising by around $1,000 billion/year. Suppose we cut the military budget in half, saving $400 billion/year. This would mean that the debt would still be rising by $600 billion year.
The top 1% of income earners paid $522 billion in federal income taxes in 2017 (most recent year data is available), 25.9% of their income. If you doubled their income taxes to 51.8% of their income, you'd raise around $522 billion.
So, if you cut the defense budget in half and double income taxes on the top 1%, the government debt will still be rising by $78 billion/year. And--Social Security and Medicare are running out of money and need hundreds of billions of new revenue to maintain current benefit levels. So, where will we get the money for all of these other new programs democrats want?
1
Education and healthcare largely pay for themselves measured in terms of the increased income and thus taxes they will pay. That's not counting the other economic and non-economic benefits of increased health and wealth. Republican refusal to invest in people is crippling us. Yet another reason that they are our biggest threat.
3
@Sherry You missed my point. Someone needs to be taxed to pay for all of these new expenditures. You can tap out the 1% and it won't be enough. So, which candidate is telling us that they will raise OUR taxes (not someone else's taxes) to pay for their new programs.
And the idea that programs "pay for themselves" is perpetuated by the proponents of those programs. Show me some data. Each generation must be willing to pay for the benefits that accrue to successive generations and not pretend that someone else's money will pay. That's a mature, responsible electorate. But we live in a nation of spoiled children, led by our commander-in-chief.
@Sherry: "Education and healthcare largely pay for themselves measured in terms of the increased income and thus taxes they will pay."
Really? Those liberal art degrees pay for themselves? What wealth, what financial value do they create? Can you eat it? can you drink it? Does it keep you warm in winter and cool in summer? Does offer transportation? Do not thinks so...it just might make you feel good about something, but nothing that is tangible to surviving life.
Health care is a consumption industry, it is a zero sum industry with financial creation. It transfers capital from those that earn it to those that offer the service...that is it.
1
Who will be convincing the Republicans to abandon a strategy that has worked so well for them?
1
Non Adult behavior tolerated in universities and by courts seems all around. We need to grow up and remember where we came from. Shaming of people is new and seems fun and is reported daily by news outlets like this one. Adults where are you.
1
And that is nearly certain to happen if we don’t stop treating politics as entertainment, if we don’t get rid of a president who daily undermines truth and trust — the twin fuels needed to collaborate and adapt together —
Kamala Harris and Trump know how to manipulate the media, be loud and attack. The media said the first debate was boring. Boring doesn't produce ratings, entertainment does. Ratings produce money. You and Pogo have figured it out - "WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US"
The gatekeepers have abandoned their post!
3
Mr Friedman can start the healing by dropping the abject nonsense about 1.5 or 2 degrees. We are indeed stuck between the lunatic left and the lunatic right, and we need to somehow dispose of both, as both are trying to rule us through the incitement of fear. I am not terribly optimistic, having lived here for 35+ years now, but who cares about my mood anyway.
The reality is roughly this: rapid population growth in the XXth century, still continuing in places, means that present day industrial civilization cannot be cut and pasted on the whole world. There is not enough oil to go around. Not a hard calculation, can be done in five minutes of googling. This is putting downward pressure on living standards in the industrialized world. Fracking helps, but it is not enough and fracked oil is very expensive, a fact currently masked by wanton debt creation. Until the energy base is expanded, the world is stuck in slow growth and the west is stuck in decline as others seek to rise.
Debasing science through global warming fraud makes things worse, as it undermines public trust in science. We absolutely need that trust to survive. Science got us to 7+ billion people, and without science this number will have to shrink and shrinking will not be pretty. We got nukes.
So, let's drop the ideology of control through incitement of fear, and focus on the welfare of the people. On the left and on the right. Care to join us, mr Friedman?
2
Denying the reality of climate change means the end of life on this planet. This will take global leadership, something human beings have never pulled off.
But there is no way to even dent a problem when you refuse to face it.
1
@mf I propose a corollary to that. If Tom Friedman and others here truly believe that after 4 more years of Trump there will be unmanageable climate disasters fully baked (no pun intended) into the system, then can we all agree that if we re-elect Trump, people can finally shut up about the supposed apocalypse?
At that point, after all, if your faith informs you that there is an unavoidable apocalypse coming, you can build solar powered bunkers in your backyard, wait for the inevitable, and leave the rest of us alone to our well deserved doom from wet, dry, heat, cold, or whatever else it is that you believe will certainly kill us (maybe insufficient number of polar bears?).
If, on the other hand, if this prediction of environmental disaster turns out to be just as incorrect as all previous such predictions, and if the scientists giving us these predictions turn out to be a lot less correct than the scientists telling us the opposite, then the rest of us will try not to make you feel overly gullible, and we can all go back to living normal lives and focusing on other issues.
How about it?
1
Is that answer, "us", not true for any country at any point of time in modern history?
There was no one to blame when China retreated within itself around 1400 AD, during Ming dynasty.
India was far more prosperous and bestowed with some of greatest institutions of knowledge (e.g. Nalanda Univ.) during 1100 AD but never learned the importance to invest in weapons/wars. As a result, it was so easy for Muslim invaders from central Asia to establish its rule in Indian subcontinent for next 600 years followed by about 200 yrs of European, mainly British, rule. Ultimately, it was India and Indians who did not understand the basic reality of the world that we share the same world with people who might not be that educated, or peaceful, or resourceful. Even now, after more than 75 yrs of its freedom, almost all such former European Colonies like India are ruled by native/indigenous people but hardly prosper due to very high corruption and ineffective (democratic) institutions. The blame mostly goes to the people of the country, i.e. "us".
Now look at Europe, mainly former colonial powers in Western Europe including UK. Forget other Colonial powers there, once great, Britain, became a global laughing stock (thanks to Brexit) and a pale shadow of its mighty past.
Now, USA is facing the same great moment of truth.
5
Doesn’t the fact that we have a simpleton for a leader contribute? He is watching for the next shiny thing, and in his case, autocrats are very shiny.
The leaders of the countries you named set a fine example and tomorrow’s military parade and display of weaponry didn’t start in trump’s head.
The lemmings that elected him are headed for the precipice (yeah - a cliff from which they will fall to their deaths unlike the precipice ivanka described from the DMZ incorrectly) without regard as they see in him the better times they enjoyed decades ago.
We can’t go back to those times with racism, deference to billionaires, coal, dishonesty, absence of healthcare, and hate. Or military parades.
Hopefully, the edge of the precipice won’t crumble under the lemmings’ weight and cause us all to fall off the remains of the country.
3
Yes, the monsters we seek abroad are here at home. To paraphrase Lincoln, “all the armies of the world couldn’t take a drink from the Ohio river. If destruction be our lot, we will be it’s author and finisher. As a nation of free people we will live forever, or die by suicide.” Once again, he nails it.
6
I get it. Trump has been awful, but if the Democratics nominate anyone to the left of Tom Friedman, we are really doomed.
1
Good stuff in the column. Moderates of both parties need to reassert and highlight why nuance and flexibility is key. And messaging!
Less immigration because we are loving and want to help MORE framework for a legal immigration program to help businesses and small towns. Highlight how many businesses will suffer without these employees! Highlight how immigrants are keeping small towns economically viable. In my suburban area, businesses catering to various ethnic cuisines and services make up at least 70% of businesses opening up and thriving!!!
Less climate change in as for the economy and MORE the product and service revolution to stop catastrophic climate crisis could be the biggest boon to business and employees: everything needs to be redone!!
Most issues are like this. Trumpians are wrong but the Democrats and the mainstream media are messaging everything Wrong!!!
I find it amazing -
- for two years Trump was accused of being a traitor to his country, and whenever he denied being a traitor, he was called a liar!
- every time Trump said we have a worsening crisis at the southern border, he was called a liar (it’s a manufactured crisis)
- Trump is called a racist, and yet under his leadership, black and Hispanic unemployment is at an all time low, prison reform is finally happening (especially beneficial to blacks), and urban opportunity zones are being created (also very beneficial to blacks and Hispanics)
- Trump’s tax reforms are supposedly only helping the rich and yet workers wages are now finally going up faster than manager’s and the economy and stock market are roaring (following a president with the worst record of economic growth in modern times)
- Trump is destroying America’s international credibility, and yet NATO is finally paying their bills, China is being held to account, the “Korea’s are talking to each other, the ISIS caliphate is gone, and Iran is being treated like the international terrorist organization that they clearly are.
- Trump is anti-Semitic and yet he is the first president to visit “the wall” and have the courage to finally keep America’s promise to move our embassy to Jerusalem.
- Trump has given some truly inspiring speeches during visits to foreign countries, and yet somehow they were barely covered by the media
I believe that more and more Americans can see how biased the media has become
2
@GSB
Yes there's a crisis on the southern border. But there are humane ways to deal with it and inhumane ways. Trump has chosen the latter. One cannot see pictures of migrant children in cages and a drowned father and daughter in the Rio Grande without realizing that something is dreadfully wrong.
3
@GSB I find it very interesting that you can extol Trump when in fact he is demonstrably a serial adulterer, serial liar, draft dodger, tax cheat, unindicted co-conspirator, misogynist, bigot, xenophobe, and grifter. How cam anyone be proud of him?
As Lincoln said in 1838:
"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
3
As Walt Kelley had Pogo say in the mid-twentieth century, “We have met the enemy and he is us!”
3
Thomas Friedman borrows a few lines from Mitt Romney and worries that Democratic voters will be swayed by the promise of free stuff we can’t afford."
Not "free stuff," Mr. Friedman. Taxpayer-funded stuff.
2
Mr. Friedman blames the victim. "We" includes most naive Americans who have been fed a steady diet of bad information since they entered grammar school. "America is the best country in the world (e.g. Reagan's famous "City on a hill")." Bow to the corporate masters and all will be well.
Elite political and corporate leaders will protect their bounty rather than accept the immense changes that are necessary to avoid Armageddon. The elite media, wherein Mr. Friedman earns his 30 pieces of silver, perpetuates the myths that will insure our destruction and caters to the same elites.
No, it is not "we" that will push everyone off a cliff. It is the cream of the crop-let's say the top 10%-who have profited handsomely from the last 40 or so years of miserable social and economic policy who will own that legacy. Mr. Friedman has, for a long time, been carrying their water.
1
Quoting the mid-20th century Pogo cartoon by Walt Kelley, “We have met the enemy and he is us!”
1
Lincoln said it best ...
As a nation of free men it will only be by suicide if death becomes us.
2
A shorter version of this was written by Walt Kelly over 40 years ago when Pogo said, “we have met the enemy and he is us.”
2
"...if we don't prevent the far left from pulling the Democrats over a cliff......"
I hear this a dozen times a day, how the "far left", the "commies", the "socialists", etc., are dragging the howling and wailing Democrats over this cliff or that cliff.
On June 26, 2019, Sahil Chinoy wrote an opinion piece in this newspaper titled: "What Happened to America's Political Center of Gravity?"
I refer you to the first graph.
An upright line denotes the median party alignment.
A dark blue circle represents the Democratic Party.
A dark red circle denotes the Republican Party.
They are placed on a spectrum along with other European parties (paler circles), along the spectrum of extreme left to extreme right.
The dark blue circle of the Democratic circle is less than an inch away from the median on the left.
The dark red circle of the Republican circle is almost 3 inches to the right of that median line.
In short, the "Lefties" are only "moderates".
No one is dragging anyone anywhere.
The Democrats who are going all waily-waily are conservative Democrats who once would have joined the Republican Party, but the Republican Party has moved so far to the right that it is one silly millimeter from goose-stepping.
I suggest that you punch up that article, for it is one of the few graphs that I have found that accurately places the two parties on a spectrum, comparing both the 'left' and the 'right', and comparing us to Europe.
Yes, the problem IS us.
But not the way you state it.
3
Optimistically, 30% of the people think, 70% emote. The issues that Friedman identifies are obvious to the 30%. But, we're a democracy and the 70% win the vote. That's a big problem.
5
This moment reminds me of something as well:
“We have seen the enemy and he is us.”
Pogo
Thank you. Could not agree more. We are our own worse enemy.
Mary Kay Feely
2
Mr. Friedman, while all of your points are valid, the presidential candidates themselves have to shoulder some of the blame for elections becoming popularity contests. Their responses (if you can call them that) to questions often pander baldly to specific constituencies, or promise things that, in reality, presidents have little control over. And candidates are mostly afraid to weigh in on complicated issues for fear of having their comments picked over by critics with tweezers.
This is definitely a chicken-and-egg dilemma: candidates offer bromides they believe will appeal to the broadest audience; voters insist they want substance but vote for the candidate who appeals to their narrowest interests. Elections and voting have become exercises in selfishness. Hence, Trump.
3
What I understand is : the writer really don't like DJT but wants a lighter version. he complains about all those lefties on the other side. He is sure USA is a great country (as I am) but it is to poor to give the social securities (afordable health care, minimum wages, unemployment benefit, paid sick leave, paid holidays and pensions) other developed countries enjoy.
1
This is what forty years of supply side economics and neoliberalism has resulted in. We live in a plutocracy controlled by oligarchs and corporations. Both political parties are corrupt and legally bribed. Tens of trillions of dollars of wealth have been siphoned out of American public's productivity to fund the massive wealth transfer to the 0.1% and corporations. Endless trillion dollar wars and constant fear mongering used to keep the American people frightened, funding bloated military budgets, yet never bringing security. Prescription drugs prices so out of control people are dying, meanwhile the likes of Cory Booker are torpedoing a bipartisan bill to import cheaper medicines from Canada where they pay a fraction of what we pay. Mr. Freeman is gaslighting his readers into thinking single payer Medicare for All is "free stuff" when it will in fact actually save us money and be less expensive. Our Fed (us, the American tax payer) gives the banks our money at a low interest rate only to watch them jack up the rate to literally loan it back to us. Billions in profits go to them while our students (our kids, and us) are saddled with crushing loans, unable to purchase a home or start a family. It doesn't need to be this way. Republicans are corrupt and useless for sure, but if you think establishment Democrats are going to change anything, you will be disappointed. They are leaderless and the status quo is their only, and best, answer.
7
“At no time in our history have our national challenges been as complex and long-term as those we face today.” Huh?
Tell that to a Union soldier during the Civil War. Or a Black sharecropper in the Jim Crow South. Or a woman who not only couldn't vote but was treated as her husband's chattel. Or a closeted gay man or woman "married" to someone of the opposite sex because they didn't dare live who they were.
Or a Black man walking down a street with his eyes down to avoid ANY eye contact that might lead to death in the South then; but doing the same in the North now when he sees a cop.
Or the Black and White kids who rode buses. Or the Black women who didn't. Or America in 1968, MLK & RFK assassinated, Vietnam war, riots at the Democrat convention.
I could go on.
This Country has had national challenges that were as much, if not more, perilous than those we face today.
But acting as if American history has been a sweet journey until today falls into the new tradition of "Whitewashing" the past to give comfort or immediacy to today's challenges.
5
Thought-provoking indeed!
Look, like it or not, "sell-by" dates come stamped on every product, for a reason. Our national shelf life ended with the declaration of secession by South Carolina on December 20, 1860. The beginning of the end.
That hot war may have ended, but our cold war never did: We are a house divided: too many antithetical viewpoints by too many groups. We're suffering in a shotgun marriage.
But it looks like we'll go out with a whimper, not a bang, which sadly is preferrable.
Ya gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. We folded at the Battle of Fort Sumter, but are too blind to see it, or too stubborn or afraid to admit it.
Trump's appearance on stage signifies the last act of a very interesting morality play. It was both riveting and awful. It's time to turn off the lights and lock up the building.
3
Instead of voting for free stuff that we can't afford, let's all vote for more tanks, guns, missiles and bombs that we can't afford and will never use.
3
If we don't somehow put an end to the identity games / victimhood nonsense - this will be our demise. Left wing radicalism has taken a turn down the road of chaos.
2
@Brian in FL
But that "road to Chaos" was built with taxes on the poor and middle-class. And it is toll-free.
It's always the righties who demand a toll for their privately built roads that are paid for by taxes.
How does that go....?
"Socialize the cost,
Privatize the profits"?
Victimhood is a joke when your hand is in my wallet and my money will go to Trump's Sherman Tanks on my National Mall and SNAP/WIC is cut.
Ethical wasteland.
1
If only you could bring your pragmatism and common sense to the masses, Mr. Friedman.
Unfortunately they prefer 280 characters.
3
Several things are interesting and indicative: the left of the Democratic Party and illegal immigration are rebuked.
There much advice on what not to do. In general, it is still a negative agenda. As to what should be done, there is very little and it is mostly old stuff. There is a misguided oddity of lifelong learning. Learning is about applying what we know to what we do not know. One does not encounter radical novelty in learning. An overwhelming majority of Americans understand that solving the current problems will require new and creative solutions--that is, precisely the radical novelty one does not encounter in learning.
I also believe the biggest threat is our own folly -- but I believe the folly in particular is that many Americans have proudly turned their backs on God who has blessed us with this good land in the first place.
What first came into my head is a passage from the story of when the people of Israel finally were at the promised land In that passage of scripture, God tells His people that He is setting before them life and death, blessings and curses, and that they should choose life. That is, obeying Him will bring blessings and prosperity while rejecting His commands will bring all kinds of trouble.
Now, dear reader, have you already dismissed me because I mentioned the God of the Bible? If so, then it really confirms my concern that America has turned its back on God.
As a whole, and especially when it comes to making the laws that govern the land, can we say that God's expressed will and command is honored or even taken into consideration . . . or even shown something other than mocking?
Yet, here is what God's Word says:"When you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes." (Deuteronomy 30:2-3a)
1
That nominee Mr. Friedman calls for in the last paragraph is Andrew Yang. Look at his policies. His stated platform is entitled "Human-centered Capitalism." Mr. Friedman talks about the acceleration of change, and the advancement of technology, but never quite puts his finger on the reason Trump got elected: the elimination of millions of manufacturing jobs in the middle America swing states, due to automation. That is a process that is only going to continue and even increase. Automation and AI will eliminate jobs, leaving many unskilled and educated Americans with no meaningful work to do. The big winners from this new so-called "4th Industrial Revolution" will be the big tech companies -- Amazon and others who profit in the billions, while paying little to nothing in taxes. The easiest solution is to give every American a tiny slice of every Amazon sale, every Google search, every Uber mile, in the form of a VAT tax -- which will easily fund a Universal Basic Income, or 'Freedom Dividend,' for every American. This is not meant to be an income replacement but a cushion against disaster, as we transition to a new world in which machines do most of our work for us. It's not a question of "free stuff we can't afford" but rather a question of *how* we choose to spend our resources.
2
Lord, would you release love into these people? Would you release revelation to them? May you bring your light to dark hearts and allow them to experience the transformative power of your love, mercy, and grace. And, with you in their hearts, share the same love, mercy, and grace universally with others. That is our prayer to you oh Lord.
1
Trump just raised over 100 million dollars. Now I know many white Catholics and nearly all white Evangelicals absolutely love the man. But the vast majority of money i suspect is coming from corporate America and wealthy donors. Guess they have a different view of what America should be, certainly not a liberal democracy. There was one big problem with the world is flat hypothesis, you forgot to take into account the rise of ethno-fascism in the United States as backlash. From a flat world the only way is down.
4
I think Mr. Friedman makes some valid points. However, the folks he’s trying to win over don’t care about his reasoning. I suggest reading “Hillbilly Elegy” to gain some insight into the average Trump voter. A quick cliff note version: “We are proud rugged individualists and we don’t need no gubmint to tell us what to do!”. Mrs. Clinton truthfully tried to explain to coal workers that their jobs weren’t coming back but she supported training them for other work. How did that work out? The only way to beat Trump is to get more people to the polls to pull the D lever. I’m talking about all the protesters and others who thought that pulling the lever for a third party candidate was somehow righteous. How did that work out? I’m talking about all the people that stayed home because they didn’t think their vote would make a difference. How did that work out? When I was younger I thought that who you voted for didn’t make much difference. Boy was I wrong. Pull the D lever. Our democracy literally depends on it.
2
"The Democrats must stop talking about free stuff we cannot afford."
What Mr Friedman should be saying is that we should reverse the massive tax giveaways that we cannot afford to people who don't need it.
We give millions to farmers - mostly large corporations- in farm subsidies, we give billions to large companies in no bid contracts, we throw away billions in unjustified wars and we spend million attracting companies form one state to another. We give billions to banks to make risk free profits on student loans, and bail them out when they go bust. And so the list goes on and on.
Its all about priorities. If the richest country in the world can't afford to do it, maybe we should look how some of the smaller countries provide affordable healthcare, free higher education and decent social safety nets.
The USA is not on a sustainable track for the future, but that is not because some new politicians want to give free stuff to poor people, its because the old politicians already gave almost all the stuff to their GOP cronies who now want to keep it forever. But answer me this. Once the 0.1% have everything, what then?
7
Great piece. Many excellent points are made here.
3
"If Democrats can choose a nominee who speaks to our impending challenges, but who doesn’t say irresponsible stuff about immigration or promise free stuff we can’t afford, who defines new ways to work with business and energize job-creators, who treats with dignity the frightened white working-class voters who abandoned them for Trump — and who understands that many, many Americans are worried that we’re on the verge of a political civil war and want someone to pull us together — I think he or she will find a new American majority waiting to be assembled and empowered."
Please clarify: What is the irresponsible stuff about immigration? What free stuff is promised? ? Give examples of the "new ways to work"? Give examples of how Democrats running for office have failed to dignify the disgruntled white working class Trump supporter? You are so worried about the "extreme left" taking over and ruining things, but you are just scaring people without making your case with these examples. Open borders? Free public higher education? Is that that the free stuff? Or is it guaranteed income? What is it you are referring to? Bernie dignified the working classes and he almost won the primary. He successfully appealed to the forgotten workers, but just not enough to win a primary. You paint the "left" with a broad brush of "war" and non - cooperation. What party is more likely to cooperating across party lines? Really? Make your case, please. Make it, and I will buy it.
1
On a minor point - the stuff about average life expectancy being 37 or 40 at whatever time in the past may be technically true but is misleading. The main driver of those low rates was very high mortality in early childhood. For people who survived to working age the average was decades higher, though certainly not what it is today. So working generations lasted longer than Friedman implies.
3
The disruption of climate change will stop technological advancement in its tracks. Whether the electric grid goes down in unprecedented heat waves, or governments fail, the challenges of the future cannot include both climate change and progress. And since they deny the science of climate change and refuse to do anything about it, our biggest threat is Republicans.
3
“I think he or she will find a new American majority waiting to be assembled and empowered.”
Assembling a majority guarantees nothing when a minority can elect an American president.
4
Mr. Friedman, good stuff. 2020 will be our most momentous election and a frightening experiment to watch: will grievance and hatred, Trump's favorite toys, destroy our nation? Or, will people shake off their emotional comas and figure out saving the world IS up to them. This Is Our Country. This is our democracy. We're not giving it over to the GOP and their donor overlords.
The points about the pace of change, lifelong learning are also calls to reality. Look at it people. You're not going to be able to rely on coal jobs, or manufacturing or any other of the disappeared blue collar professions in the future. Greed unleashed global competition, and greed if fueling the leap to a non-human workforce. AI and machine learning are not designed to be a threat to human workers, but they are. Outcome? You have to be trained up in technology enough to stay relevant. It is up to us.
1
Candidates for the Republican and Democratic nominations for the Presidency and other offices can't take the kinds of positions Friedman espouses and expect to win the nominations of their respective parties: Those voting in primaries for each party are more extreme than those who vote in the general election. Candidates who move to the center after getting their respective party's nomination have to lie, get accused of lying, or thread an impossibly narrow needle. I am increasingly of the mindset that we need a third party that combines conservative and liberal viewpoints in some fashion. The devil, of course, is in the details. But what we have now is not working and we're headed toward social upheaval.
1
These were excellent points, but I felt it was a missed opportunity to discuss our ballooning national debt. I entered the workforce in 1985 when the debt was 1.7 trillion. It's now about 22 trillion. That means my contemporaries and I have received on the order of 20 trillion dollars in free government services throughout our career. No politician even touches this subject - my generation will receive no invoice. We'll just pass it on. We'll just aim a gun at the skull of the future United States.
1
Don’t you think people were saying the exact same thing in 1985? Decades of dire warnings of a catastrophe that never happens. The federal debt is nothing like your household debt. We need to solve real problems without getting distracted by this non-issue.
2
I have been a Democrat for years, but some of the statements made by the new candidates are frightening, mostly because they are fiscally impossible to achieve without increasing our current national debt (which most people would rather not think about). What is missing in this great debate is reader education, and it won't come from FOX news. The Democrat platform is filled with possible unexpected consequences, and until these are at least addressed, I'll vote for the person who seems to be the most intelligent and will be the least swayed by progressive party ideas.
3
I believe that Warren is the best candidate from a policy standpoint. However, the US public treats the election like it is a reality show. That is part of the reason why we are where we are today. It is easier to make decisions based on emotion generated by media hype than it is to stop and listen to policy. That harsh reality must be considered in choosing a candidate that can beat Trump. When I looked at the debates the first night and saw diminutive (meaning small in stature) Elizabeth Warren next to these towering 6 foot plus men and then considered our continued misogyny my heart sank. It pains me to paint our country as such a superficial culture but it is what it is. If we can at least get a qualified woman as Vice President we may eventually get a woman as President. But there is too much at stake this coming election year to gamble. Progressives need to focus on electabiity and a centrist agenda that focuses on economic issues.
2
If we have 4 more years of Trumpism, we will have squandered the blessings of liberty and justice for all bestowed on us by our founding fathers and the generations who sacrificed their lives for the ideals of this country.
If countries devastated by the Great War and then WWII can afford affordable medical care for all, we can too.
Given that China dwarfs our population, it is only a matter of time before they become the economic powerhouse. We had best figure out how to leverage our talents and resources and work with other countries. Just about the opposite of Trumpism.
3
One of the things that frustrates me is the "content free" nature of our election process lately. For every election (yes, every year), I look at the League of Women Voters website to try to get some idea of where the candidates - local and national - actually stand on issues. It is pathetic that most of the candidates do not bother to answer most of the questions. If I'm lucky, I get brief bios, complete with airbrushed photos of smiling family members, but very little in the way of coherent policy or vision for the direction of the city, county, state or country. The declared party affiliation, it seems, is the only thing you need to know. We have become a nation of followers, led by a group of followers who kowtow to a very small group of very wealthy, secretive kleptocrats, who just want everything to be just right for them.
I am blown away by Elizabeth Warren's policy factory! I don't think I really want her for President, but I love the idea that she is thinking big, formulating strategies and pathways that are aimed at improving everyone's lives, and she's willing to put them on full display for comment and critique. We need more people in our government who are willing to do this - and tell us not only what they want to do, but be fully transparent about why and how they came to construct their plans and policies.
4
You are correct about everything, Mr. Friedman. It terrifies me that so many Americans are more focused on their Facebook posts, or sports, than the very serious situation we are in and, like the frog in the pot, won't realize how bad it is until it's too late. I feel that most candidates are not talking about what really matters, except a couple like Biden and Bennet who both have stated the biggest problems-Trump, the Senate, and the dire fate of our democracy if Trump and McConnell win again. I do not want to hear about specific policies that will never be enacted if we lose the Senate. I want to hear every candidate tell all Americans why our democracy is at risk if Trump wins again, why our planet is at risk if Trump wins again and why they must vote, and vote only for Democrats down the ballot. They must all strive to a higher goal than putting forth their ideas to stand out in a crowd, they have to put the country first, not themselves. I will vote for the candidate that does that most clearly-the one who tells me why Trump must lose and tells me how he/she will beat him. If we don't win both the White House and the Senate, no policy debate will matter.
2
Tom, you should have been on the debate stage. But, the candidates didn't have enough uninterrupted time to even read your essay, much less extemporaneously deliver it. It's this "sound bite" world that has delivered us into the hands of our current chief executive. The chance that we'll do better is being sabotaged by the failure to deliver the information necessary for wise choices to the electorate. I am reminded of Patrick Henry's words: "It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope and pride. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it."
Those who listen and read with concern for our country have suffered this anguish lately. We too need to be willing to know the worst, and provide for it.
1
The biggest threat to America originated long ago with the founding fathers: creating a state in which commerce (business) was the chief raison d etre of its principles and actions, greed a prime motivator and government assigned the task of ensuring its success, by means fair or foul. It worked until the industrial revolution and the separation of Americans into haves and have-hots took the United out of the States. What is there now to hold us together? Religion? Nationalism? Identity politics? What, bigger than the self?
Come November 2020, we will see who has been most prescient, those like Friedman who issue a warning or those who assert that an immediate radical direction is the only victory path.
The most left-ward Democrats are embarking on a path that fits nicely with Republican skills at sowing fear. They ignore history of previous Democrats, also convinced that voters were ready for something that they were not, plunged forward unsuccessfully.
The only person who answered Chuck Todd's debate question correctly was Pete Buttigieg, who cited as threats to American democracy as our largest threat and issue he'd tackle the first day in office. The constant push and pull only makes starker the cultural divides present within the nation and come at a time where the SCOTUS is codifying partisanship. We need each other and the country needs us all to collaborate - the most important concept from Friedman's column.
1
Not like Americans have 16 different parties to choose from, Tom.
There are TWO and both do everything they can to squash dissent, silence the view of the other and govern accordingly.
That our nation cannot come up with a simple and IMMEDIATE way to make gerrymandering disappear, that we do not JAIL those who use their political power to prevent unjust convictions/executions to be overturned - as Rick Perry did when governor - is directly at the feet of ALL politicians.
But for us to take responsibility for the mess we're in - well, that's just not going to happen without serious bloodshed and the rabid right is hankerin' for a fight.
Maybe after a number of our sons and daughters have been killed.....
1
Americans would have to begin to treat others with differing political views with tolerance and respect. That goes against the very structure of so much of our political media, which is built on a dualism of us vs them, good vs bad, dare I say evil vs saintly. The MSNBC’s and Fox News, HuffPosts and Breitbarts of the world have the upper hand in our political discourse and it is overwhelming one sided, biased, intolerant and against compromise of any kind. It’s difficult for a representative democracy to properly function in such a toxic atmosphere.
1
Tom is right on the money about #5, because I have been feeling the whiplash of technological acceleration for my entire career.
When I applied for my undergraduate college in 2009, website development had made fortunes overnight, and I wanted a slice of that pie so I chose to major in computer science so I could make websites.
By the time I got on campus in 2010, mobile apps were minting millionaires, so I dove deep into iPhone app development.
Over the past decade, the advances in the practical uses of Artificial Intelligence have moved so rapidly, that even while I pursue a Masters in A.I., things I learned at the beginning of my graduate program have already been rendered woefully out of date.
The moment I am on top of a cutting-edge subject, the state of the art advances and I have to move along with it. This is fine for me, because I am used to it. But what will happen to the truck drivers, grocery clerks, fast food workers, and everyone else that engineers from Boston to Beijing are salivating to put out of work? Going to college over and over again is not a scalable solution for hundreds of millions of people.
The only sustainable solution I can imagine is a tax credit for apprenticeship programs, both to the employer for their additional expense of training workers and to the employee to be incentivized to develop their skills by leaving dead-end jobs that are going to be automated away anyway.
Reagan was right: "the best social program is a good job."
3
Now, USA is facing the same great moment of truth- eternal historical truth that many past great civilizations and colonial powers had to face and continue to face its consequences of failing to understand when it was powerful or "great", including once "Great" - Britain, just like many great ancient civilizations in India, China, Greece, Egypt, Iran-Iraq etc.
The importance of "us" in USA is now becoming more crucial in this society of "me alone" (not any "me too" or "we all") and "winners take it all" mentality.
3
Once there was a Republican president who led to build a network of freeways across our nation, who agreed veterans should get free university education and subsidized housing loans. He also warned against spending too much on defense and felt 75% marginal income tax rate was fine. His vice president later established the EPA and proposed a national health care program.
But something happened after another Republican president whose only brilliant idea was reduced taxes said the government is the problem, not the solution.
(You know their names: Ike, Dick and Ron.)
That was the beginning of the creaky crank-down of our country for when you cannot trust the government to make bold new moves, you have pretty much written your country off from the challenges of the 21st century.
It is time again to trust the government to rebuild our infrastructure, make available to more people both education and healthcare, and address the problem of widening income inequality.
Republicans used to espouse these ideas, now only Dems do. Yes, the Dems are fumbling their message; but the direction is clear. Republicans should read up on Eisenhower and join the Dems.
6
One item that the Democrats are way off base about is health care for illegal immigrants. At the same time that people are wondering how we can pay for Medicare for All, how can we even think about paying for the health insurance of illegal immigrants.
Obviously, emergency care must be provided for anyone. But, a majority of Democrats and Republicans are against covering illegal immigrants with subsidized medical insurance. Continued support for this very unpopular position by Democratic politicians may help hand Trump a second term.
1
As an immigrant kid, growing up with the instilled fear of nuclear war (1970s), I realized in my teens that the downfall of this country wouldn't be the outsiders we were always supposed to be paranoid about; it would be its self-righteous, uninformed citizenry (regardless of where on the political spectrum they might fall).
4
A person who is an experienced, competent and effective leader has not come forward for the Democrats. The candidates so far do not show the stability we need and the understanding of the world we all live in. There must be numerous people who would be better qualified yet they don’t step forward. I wish they would.
Is it too late?
1
@liza:
Sorry, I don't agree. Almost all of these candidates (some more so than others) have much more experience in the political arena (both domestic and internationally) and are better than what we have.
If you dislike all the candidates, why don't you run?
You don’t focus on the most important improvement. We have to become a people that believe in, understand and can use our democracy. This government doesn’t work for the people because the people have neglected to make it of and by the people.
2
Defining who we are, now that "Capitalism" and "Socialism" have essentially lost their meaning, is proving hard for people educated in a system that relied too heavily on one of the above catch all ideologies.
Take a look at Russia today and you may be looking at The USA tomorrow.
@GRAHAM ASHTON: The whole English Language has been made muck by right wing sociopathy.
Thank you for this. We need new leadership no question. Not seeing a solutions leader emerging from the Democratic side yet but still hopeful.
I live on the coast and travel through the Midwest for work. People are not as different as we are led to believe. We can find solutions if we just talk and not tweet.
Trump has to go. He has agitated for
Long enough. We need a common ground leader not a divider. Who is going to step up and take the role?
Happy Fourth of July and please don’t hate me because I have a Betsy Ross flag. Like today, at the time the flag was sewn, we were losing the war for independence badly and there was no guarantee that there would be a new country. We are there again, let’s rise to the occasion.
3
@Dante. Who exactly has led you to believe that people in flyover country are different than you are? How exactly are we to “find solutions” if you are not willing to name the people who gave misled you?
And is it these same people that have convinced you that Trump is evil?
1
Mr. Friedman is optimistic about the 2020 election outcomes. I am not.
Recently, at the G-20 meeting, Trump practically invited Putin to interfere in the election (wink, wink). In the 2018 election, voting machines were compromised in several states by suspected Russian interference. Last week on Facebook, millions of citizens were following fake Biden troll articles planted by the Republican Party. Also last week, the Supreme Court legalized gerrymandering which makes it increasingly difficult to have a representative democracy. (In Wisconsin the Republicans control 65% of the seats while getting 45% of the votes.)
The Democratic Party and the American people need to make it politically embarrassing not to correct these issues. It needs to be discussed in the debates and the campaign trail. The President and Facebook need to be continually confronted about reforming a badly broken system. This will be difficult because it is not currently in their interests to change anything.
Facebook,should suspend all political messenging two weeks before the election. Also, 23 democratic candidates could follow the lead of Elizabeth Warren, who has written a paper election reform. If, during the next debates, the candidates discuss proposals for safe elections and then raise their hands unanimously in support of reform, it could be a powerful moment.
If we cannot trust that our elections are fair, we are no longer a functional democracy-we are an autocracy.
3
With all hopes and the political wish list for the coming election the reality of fast trivialising modern politics and the elections turning a tricky social media sport prone to rigging and getting desired outcome too shouldn't be ignored.
In a companion article Thomas Edsall explores the psyche of the Trump supporter. That citizen is more inclined to hate the liberal changes in our society (and liberals) eg African American or LGBT rights. It seems they embrace illiberal partisanship, a Trump Republican partisanship, that disparages if not outright hates Democrat/Liberal ideology. This veil over their eyes makes them unable to see the litany of real problems enumerated in this essay. Liberal thought likely has similar dynamics, but I will not attempt to elucidate.
So, two things strike me.
- First, if we cannot come together to solve the general problems Mr. Friedman enumerated, because we are stuck in a partisan war, we will fail and decline like other great powers in history have.
- Second, why have we, a practical people, become fooled by the propaganda that blinds us? Postman wrote in 1990's that we are amusing our self, or entertaining ourselves (hence Trump), to death. Or, our advertising/influence peddling industry has become effective enough to poison our free thought, (Read "Thinking, Fast and Slow"). In either case are there external influences afoot, much like the Medieval Church, attempting to channel beliefs and behavior, for profit and power? Reason, enlightenment, Science overcame dogmatic superstitious beliefs. Are we drifting backward? From fear? distraction? need to be entertained? or clever psychology? Questions without clear answers.
Wow. I can't believe I just heard a liberal say there is a difference between legal and illegal immigration. What's next, deporting people who shouldn't be here? This could start a whole trend ending with democrats winning back voters they've abandoned to the republicans.
4
@Al: Population stabilization is a critical global survival issue. It is the multiplier of every impact and depletion humans make on the environment.
@Steve Bolger. The opportunity of population stabilization saving us disappeared decades ago. We live on a planet that might support 2 billion people sustainably, if you believe some scientists. We need a full court press to reduce human numbers by every humane method asap. Nothing else we do has any chance of saving us from the coming catastrophe.
And how do you propose we stop treating politics as entertainment when it is married to the media? It’s like telling people to solve the garbage problem the packaging industry has created. The media lives, exists, thrives on the profits from the eyeballs it sells; there is no fighting the inexorable logic of capital with a finger-wagging admonishment to ordinary citizens.
1
@Kryztoffer: Banning prescription drug advertising is a good place to start.
The problem is not the issues, but voters basing their vote not on issues, but on a “beat the enemy” basis.
Trump is just a nasty symptom of our electorate dysfunction.
If our nation is to become a working democracy that supports a good society, that has to change.
Since we don’t understand how to enable “our better selves” and don’t seem interested in studying how to do that, I am pessimistic about improvements, until things really fail for us.
2
As a retired man in Colorado I spend close to 20 hours a week on the phone dealing with corporate corruption and our shoddy health care "system". We pay and pay and pay then get punished for our efforts causing us to constantly call and contact our phony consumer protection offices to only find they are NOT allowed EVER to help a consumer thanks to the Reeps. Everyday people like me whose life was destroyed by the bankers back on 2008 have to fight all the time now just to get by. Companies in this country when they are not sending their business overseas KNOW they only have to bribe Congress instead of actually be a working business and we pay and pay for this. Our vile credit bureaus are allowed to to do anything they like causing millions a millions of people to pay more for almost everything because they get to play with your credit score and our gov't as always NEVER DOES ANYTHING EVER to rein in their greedy illegal ways. We no longer have any media we can trust so yes we are our own worst enemy mostly thanks to Faux Newz.
1
I am now reading a book entitled, "Dying of Whiteness" in which it describes -- in vivid detail-- how those who belong to Trump's base, vote against measures that are in their best interest, e.g., the idea of affordable medical care for all. Why do they do this? It's a selfish attitude that if we do something that will benefit the public good, all of THOSE OTHER PEOPLE will gain at our expenses. Those OTHER people might be migrants, the poor, the disadvantaged etc. In other words, there is the irrational feeling that "those who don't deserve it" will be getting all that "free stuff" at our expense. Unless we eliminate such self-centered resentment, we will never be a truly united and cohesive country, and the goals espoused in our constitution will be only a dream that will never be attained. We don't have much time before we lose all that we value -- if we have any thing that we value at all. If Trump is re-elected, that may just be the "nail in the coffin".
2
Why does technology have to dominate our everyday lives?
I can think of a few good reasons, and a few not so good ones.
I ask this because I feel technology is and has been forced upon me. Where in reality I would be just fine to do without most, if not all of it.
We can unplug, turn off and...
It's not too late, for there are still stars in the sky and a wildness in each and everyone of our hearts. As well as still being filthy animals.
Founding the concept of “the American Dream” on any economic measurement, especially one that compares results from generation to generation, is misguided and doomed to crumble. American greatness MUST NOT be founded on the love of money — the desire to do better than our daddies.
An American Dream that can be sustained is the one I believe this country started with: That All are created equal, and All have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, under equal protection and application of the law.
Only a standard of equal value under just law can endure. We may never attain it, but it is the only Dream worth dying for.
All generations of homo sapians have endured hardship and horrors. All our ancestors managed to survive, and even thrive, in circumstances that current Americans would consider abominable (not merely no Internet, but no electronics, no plastic, no hot water, OMG!).
What kind of hubris makes us America think that we should escape the hardest times? The way to survive them together is to maintain our founding Dream, and not throw it away for a false promise of greater and greater riches and wellbeing.
1
Yes, the Democrats did increase their ranks in the House. Those are local elections.
However, the presidential election is a national election. It is the Electoral College that selects the president, not the people.
So those small states will once again do their damage.
And the Democrats will help with their goofy proposals. And nominating a woman, African American, or Asian or a kid, will just help reelect trump. Those small rural states are NOT ready for a woman, African American, Asian or a kid. How many Democratic represented did they vote for in the 2018 election. Oh, Alabama elected a Democratic Senator. That won't happen again.
Is that answer, "us", not true for any country at any point of time in modern history?
There was no one to blame when China retreated within itself around 1400 AD (during Mind dynasty). India was far more prosperous and bestowed with some of greatest institutions of knowledge (e.g. Nalanda Univ.) during 1100 AD but never invested in war, mainly due to its rich & self-content nature (in terms of wealth) that led to total apathy for colonial expansion and need to invest in weapons and wars. As a result it was so easy for Muslim invaders from central Asia to rule Indian subcontinent for next 600 years followed by about 200 yrs of British rule. Ultimately, it was India and Indians who did not understand the basic reality of the world that we share the same world with people who might not be that educated or intelligent or peaceful. Even now, after more than 75 yrs such former European Colonies ruled by native/indigenous people hardly prosper as a nation due to very high corruption and ineffective (democcratic) institutions. The blame mostly goes to the people of the country, i.e. "us".
Rise of USA after WW2 was a great relief from European colonial dominance in the world that actually made two World Wars possible and far too many conflicts around the world. Despite of so many geopolitical conflicts around the world today, data indicate that World is much more peaceful and without any World War in last 75 odd years after WW2. Now, USA is facing the same great moment of truth.
1
Globalization didn't "provide peace and prosperity," it took away good union jobs and stable familes. And globalized capitalism won't remedy the situation because they fight against "rules, norms and laws."
The technological revolution has contributed to this destabilization by disseminating ideas in nanoseconds. Be it political propaganda or advertising (both based on constant repetition to shrewdly targeted audiences) we are being brainwashed against our best interests.
The progressive politicians like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren (who steer clear of big corporate money) are accused of promising "free stuff we can't afford." What a Big Lie! We can afford whatever we choose. Look at the tax giveaway to the wealthy and corporations. Look at the middle east wars.
What we can't afford is being ruled by an out-of-control oligarchy who break the rules at will to grab more and more profit at the expense of our environment (water, air and food.) They are like children playing a game of monopoly with the whole world and its inhabitants.
So rather than trying to accomodate the schemes of the autocrats, we must fight to regain the rights of the common people.
5
With all of the respect I can muster I must say that I am tired of reading columns like this. The job of the pundit, in my humble opinion, is not to write “That gap has to be closed to preserve our democracy,” but to offer concrete proposals, not as a politician running for office would, but in the spirit of scientific inquiry. Having a better American doesn’t start with the next election, it begins with better punditry that sees the possibilities and educates the reader.
3
"Political" civil war?
I think not. There are many of us watching from outside the US, who firmly believe that your two tribes are a hair trigger away from an actual Civil War Redux.
The powderkeg is sitting on the throne, and is waiting for the right moment to light a match.
Good luck to all decent Americans.
3
One more call to turn the Democratic Party into the GOP because the people who used to be in the GOP no longer control the monster they unleashed with Nixon's Southern Strategy and surrender of their party to kleptocratic corporate gangsters pushing opiods, gas-guzzlers and coal.
Give us a break, Friedman and Brooks. What terrifies you so about Denmark, Sweden and Norway? The horror, the horror ...
Is life in Westchester so pleasant that you can't bear to look at a world in which Wall Street actually had to work at something, instead of financial manipulation and speed-trading algorithms.
6
Hillary was lambasted for calling them "deplorable". She had a specific group in mind. Now Friedman call hem "Us".
What I have observed is that most advanced countries have their share of "deplorable" or "Us". What seem to makes us different was that we had lousy leaders who encouraged deplorability. Trump is a prime example. Europe seemed for a while to have better leaders who avoided demagoguery. Now Europe has many that throw red meat to the impressionable bust none yet that approach the level of Trump's.
We can only hope that 2020 will bring back some level of rationality, civility and a bit of compassion.
"Free stuff"? "Job creators"?
If the Republican playbook is to be the intellectual basis of the Democratic party campaign, maybe Dubya's still available?
2
Giving away "free stuff" only seems to annoy the centrist columnists at the NY Times when it involves education, environmental protections and health care (and maybe a minimum income in a volatile economy) for working and/or middle class people. When the "free stuff" involves major tax benefits to corporations and billionaires, crickets abound.
3
To the point about income inequality: until the 2020 elections, Republicans will try to terrorize us with the specter of of socialism. But we are now experiencing one dread effect of a socialist economy because of greedy capitalists and their electoral lapdogs. One knock on socialism is that it is an ideological apparatus that causes wages to stall and economic mobility to stagnate. Just like the Soviet leadership of old, our nomenclatura has rigged a system that benefits an elite. When the "Socialism!" accusations begin to fly, perhaps we should reach back to conspire with the ghost of Alexander Dubcek and answer, "Capitalism with a human face!"
63
@Independent
Well Said!
And to add on your point, where would Social Security's solvency be if the collection wasn't capped at $114,000.00 and instead had no cap, so that those making millions per year paid into Social Security based on the full amount of their yearly total pay?
Definitely much better than it is now.
56
@daltongn Oh, so you mean Elizabeth Warren then . . . .
@daltongn the ‘knock’ on socialism is that it universally fails.
2
You touched upon a key point when you mentioned that we must stop treating politics as entertainment.
That a reality TV star with zero - zero- experience in public service can become president and so effectively manipulate media for enhanced self-stardom is proof of how so many Americans can no longer discern reality from made-for-TV. Even Ronald Reagan served as head of the Screen Actor’s Guild and California’s governor, coming to the presidency with a healthy dose of public service under his belt. Not so Trump, who treats every tweet, stroll to the helicopter, and meeting with another head of state as a calculated production based not on good governance and leadership, but ratings impact.
We as a nation will fail, I am afraid, because we have come to treat the serious business of governing a society as little more than an ongoing television series where we can’t wait to tune in to see how the next crisis is resolved.
I am afraid we have become a very shallow nation, sitting in our recliners with beer in hand, mesmerized by the glow emanating from the tube, having become so comfortable and complacent that we cannot see that the strength of America we have long enjoyed is slipping from our hands.
7
The only party that promotes "free stuff we can't afford" is the GOP with their budget busting tax elimination for the wealthy.
3
The biggest threat is us.? Not to the many who still support trump’s policies and will proudly vote for him again. The biggest challenge for this country has is to convince these die hard supporters that nothing he has done or will do will benefit this countries future.
1
Here is the thing about Tom Friedman’s analysis. In his book, That Used To Be Us, Mr. Friedman describes his essential problem. At his subway stop the rapid transit authority could not get it together to fix an escalator. He contrasted this with the Chinese ability to clear homes, and residents, from an area and then they built and opened a convention center in a very short period of time. The missing piece of this analysis is how the Chinese forcing all these people to move. The residence had their communities destroyed and they had no input.
That is where Mr. Friedman looses me.
2
As in 2016, the Times's centrist and conservative columnists are all marching in lockstep to tell voters that the Democratic Party must nominate a centrist. I feel as though I have read dozens of columns inveighing against "the left" and "progressives" over the past few weeks. If I recall correctly, the Democrats did nominate a centrist in 2016. She lost.
3
We've been on a slow slide towards oligarchy and environmental catastrophe. We've been more focused on greed: me, me, me. We're sold the grail of personal gain, wealth, property and all that. We the People is really Me the Person.
We're all complicit. We see Gore beat Bush by a million votes but do nothing about the electoral college. So, Hillary beats Trump by three million. Eh, so what? Sickening.
We are good people and very bad citizens. We act like economics is beyond us. We are the short-sighted, short-term people. We want ours now. Forget the others and forget the future.
The young are figuring this out, and seeing that they have little chance in a rigid oligarchy. Their prospects are dim. Learn to code? What a joke. Leave the others in the swamp of slave wages and high rent and no health insurance, no savings, no hope.
Sure, lets set the record straight: we are poisoned by billionaires and that concentration of wealth, power, property, control. We must fight for a real democracy, a real community, and yes, real equality.
Wherefore art thou golden rule?
426
If the young are figuring this out, they need to vote, and vote, and vote. I’ll be gone in a decade or so as will millions of current voters. The big problems facing us belong to my children and grandchildren. The past provides scant evidence they will step up, but I’m hopeful that they’ve gotten the message this time around.
30
@Richard Frank
Yes, I agree with you, and we can still try and give some guidance.
8
@ttrumbo I agree that we are bad citizens. Watching our country over the past 5 years? I disagree that we are "good people."
15
If Trump wins again--it's game over. This country becomes a 2nd-rate banana republic with a huge military and thousands of billionaires. I'm going south to a beautiful country with a rich history, kind people, and incredible food. Not only that, but the dollar stretches twice as far there. Hasta la vista, baby.
The US has two huge millstones around its neck: hopelessly infantile religion, and a measurement system disused everywhere else in the world. We'll know it has begun to recover from its present slide when it drops its delusions of divinity and adopts the Metric System of measurements.
1
Complacency is our enemy. Low voter turn out will insure the continuing grip on power by the conservative oligarchy and the so-called Christian Right. It's that simple. Most Americans just don't care.
2
Globalists, like Obama, have demonstrated that they will allow these problems to arise and fester. I'll take someone trying to do something over anyone who holds a "one-world" view.
The so-called Democratic Debate the other day shows us just how crazy our planet really is. When you give anyone, be it a child or an adult too many choices, regardless of how good or bad those choices are, Chaos is going to follow!
Do you know why and how someone like Trump won? In reality, it’s actually pretty simple! He had ONE clear cut goal! To WIN! He would say anything, regardless of how bazaar or true it was just to get attention! He always stayed away from FACTS or TRUTH. People who could have stopped him immediately didn’t. The news media is probably the very biggest culprit. They treated him as entertainment. He was their CASH COW! In reality, He still is!
They have become the “Preachers” to our society!
Look at the stupid questions posed to the candidates during the debate! “Raise your hands if you believe or support FREE HEALTH CARE for Immigrants at the border.” Every Candidate raised their hands, although Joe tried not to.
I’m all for debates, between two or a maximum of 3 candidates with real questions that will determine the future of our planet and how they would get us there.
WE the PEOPLE of The United States of America can and have to form a more perfect union if we’re going to survive! 2020 might be our last chance to do that! Don’t just Vote. Become an Evangel for TRUTH, BEAUTY & GOODNESS in politics.
1
Someone worse than Trump Jr. would be any of the 25 Democrats. Harris will do gun control by executive order in 100 days, Booker will open the borders by executive order his first day. Warren will do away with student loans. Notice that none of these actions have appeal for the “deplorables”.
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@Rich Murphy " Someone worse than Trump Jr. would be any of the 25 Democrats. "
A good example of why there can never be agreement with deplorables.
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@Rich Murphy
Nope. None of the above.
17
@Rich Murphy
This is the definition of an intransigent position. "All 25 democrats would be worse than Trump."
43
Sort of like Pogo, right, "we have met the enemy and it is us"
A better quote comes from Thomas Jefferson:
"The information of the people at large can alone make them the safe as they are the sole depositary of our political and religious freedom." --Thomas Jefferson to William Duane, 1810. ME 12:417
If, indeed we are the biggest threat to us, it is only because so many or uninformed or worse, disinformed, which is different. Disinformation is what we used to do to other countries to skew their elections and make them come out a certain way. There is a science to it. Demagogues have used these techniques for centuries and now with social media, disinformation is the new frontier of political competition. Deep fakes, that is, the alteration of video to make people seem to say that which you wish them to say in order to harm themselves politically. If the politician is savvy enough not to self inflict wounds, then by deep fakes you can do it to the savvy ones.
Americans get their news and information by cable, or social media, rarely from the printed media, so the deep fake stuff will have a significant impact. Added to this is the failing electoral fortunes of the Republican Party and their willingness to engage in any practice to hold on to power and the people are being blinded.
The corollary to Jefferson's advice, of course is that if you blind the people, or disinform them, then the people lose the freedom which was entrusted to them by the Founders 230 years ago.
3
You could have saved some copy and focused attention on the real threat to the country and simply elaborated on Jay Inslee's response during the 1st Democratic debate. It isn't "us," but Donald Trump, the most corrupt, malevolent and incompetent US president ever and the Republicans whose nonsense during the Obama years created this monster and enliven him today, who are the greatest threat to this country. What other country or group of people has undermined the rule of law at every turn, welcomed campaign support from Russia, encouraged violence against journalists and protesters, turned immigrants into vessels in which to pour hate, welcomed racist support? As this country prepares to celebrate the 4th, it must not neglect to focus on the real and present danger to the ideals this celebration represents.
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@Christopher Mcclintick It is us- we elected him. No one like him should have ever made it out of the Republican primaries. Even though he got 3 Million less votes, he got enough.
17
@Christopher Mcclintick
Trump was elected by “us”. (Well, 62 million of us, a minority of the votes, with the help of an antiquated system that’s been around since votes were delivered by horseback.) Those 62 million voters knew who he was.
They heard what he said in his campaign. They heard the blatant lies, the misogyny, and dog-whistle racism. They heard the garbage truck load of insults he had for practically everyone. They saw him mock a disabled man for laughs. They saw this carnival barker with a 5th grade vocabulary. They knew who he was.
One would think that would have been political suicide, but all that stuff secretly resonated with those voters. They liked that obnoxious behavior and still do.
It’s us.
29
@Thomas We elected all of those people. We bear the responsibility of those terrible choices and have the opportunity to correct those mistakes. A country and an electorate get the leadership they deserve. So if you feel you deserve better, as I do, then get out and work hard to vote trump and all of his enablers in congress, state houses, municipal councils out of office. It is us and up to us to make the change.
6
In “one word", who or what is the biggest geopolitical threat to America today?
The fact that Chuck Todd believes that the most complex issues facing America can be boiled down to "one word" .
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@ExPDXer
Totally agree with your assessment,
However, I do think of “one word” that could sum up the complex issue facing the US and it appeared early in Mr. Friedman’s piece.
“Better.”
The nation is divided on what it means to for our children to “better” off than we were. For some, it means clean air, water, a good education, equality and justice for all, dignity in work and aging, while “better” for others means greed and amassing wealth and notoriety on the level of the Trumps or the Kardashians, robbing others of their right to choose, stockpiling as many guns as they like, trashing our water and air, and catering to oligarchs and dictators at the expense of human rights; basically denying equality and justice for all except themselves.
We need to agree on what the definition of “Better” is first and foremost.
10
@bonhomie
The funny thing about Todd's question is it took him fourteen word to ask it, and even two words to describe "one word".
I think the moderators should be limited to "one word", or at least limited to 30 secs or less, like they demand of the candidates.
4
@ExPDXer Problem is, Todd thinks he IS the news. He does not know how or when to ask a follow-up question. He is the personification of conduit stoppage. His happiest moment is a three-quarter profile shot. Less Toad, please, and more Tapper (as in, faucet).
So Thomas Friedman accepts absolutely no responsibility for promoting precisely those policies and that reordering of wealth and governance which gave us Trump.
No, it's all the fault of the American "far left" -- used in exactly the same sense as Republicans as it, to describe positions widely held in the rest of the industrialized world, including by "conservative" governments. For us, however, it might as well be Soviet communism.
And of course the "new American majority" will agree with -- well, Thomas Friedman!
Plastic olives and luxury cars assembled in non-union South Carolina with Chinese parts.... Worked out well, didn't it?
2
"If Democrats can choose a nominee who ... understands that many, many Americans ... want someone to pull us together ..."
I agree with the rest of Mr. Friedman's column, but the problem with his concluding paragraph is that it falls into the passive "we need a savior" mode of thinking.
Too few Americans understand how our government works: Congress writes legislation, & the president signs them into law or not. A president can take some independent actions through executive orders, but those are not permanent, as has been demonstrated with Trump trying to reverse every executive order Obama signed.
Thus, it is crucial that voters focus on the congressional races as well as the presidential campaign. They need to pay attention to which representatives and senators voted the rich a big tax break, & which did not. They need to take note of which representatives & senators voted to end the ACA, which would have deprived millions of health insurance, & which did not.
In short, voters need to realize that the Republican party leadership has betrayed all but the rich. They need to realize that the Republicans have been playing evangelicals & conservative Catholics over abortion & other religious-related issues, as if the GOP cared about anything other than making the rich richer and staying in power.
Yes, a Democrat president would be a great relief & could undo some of the damage Trump has done, but without a Democratic-controlled Congress to work with, nothing will get done.
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@JediProf We do need a savior.
Emotion not logic will be the controlling factor in 2020. "Yes We Can"
4
@JediProf Totally agree with you. Except that Dems pushed forward a horde of radicals that have nothing in common with the regular people.
2
“here’s what’s naïve. Thinking we’re going to be O.K. if we keep ignoring the big challenges barreling down on us”
Sorry, but if you’re referring to a challenge like climate change your mischaracterizing the problem. The American public is deeply concerned about climate change and that concern is only going to intensify. The real problem quite specifically is a Republican Party that refuses to even acknowledge that climate change exists or is caused by human activity. Why? Because the GOP is the toy of those who have a personal economic stake in maintaining the facade of climate denial.
Income inequality is a serious problem during the best of times, but it’s a disaster in the context of looming climate change. Our problems at the southern boarder should be taken as a warning that climate change will soon impact the health, safety, and security of millions of Americans if we fail to provide a living wage, healthcare that is independent of employment, and compassionate governance. We will also need a population that has been educated to address the problems barreling down on us, and that means significantly reducing a student debt burden that limits options for decades if not for a lifetime. The only impediment that I see holding us back is a GOP that has sold its soul to hatred and avarice and given up on democracy.
2
I'm not sure what "free stuff" Friedman is referring to. Nothing is free. It's just a matter of how it is paid for. Public education is not free. It is paid for by most of us through our taxes. We used to do the same for higher education until we didn't. Health care is not free but we don't have to pay for it through for profit insurance plans. We could pay for it through our collective taxes. As far as immigrants. I don't think anyone is saying that we have no enforceable immigration policy. It's just that our immigration policies should be humane and based on the value that immigrations brings to this country.
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@Sue Abrams Humane is not interpretable. What laws would you suggest to control or not control immigration? Either our border should be controlled or it is open. Either anyone should be allowed in or they need to be accounted for. It’s nice to use words like ‘humane’ and statements like ‘who we are’ but without definition, these are useless platitudes that just keep everyone arguing.
4
@Sue Abrams
But that's not what the Democratic candidates are saying. Warren and Sanders say all their health care and tuition programs will be "free" to everyone except the wealthy. Warren has a wealth tax and Sanders has a financial transactions tax. Neither taxes will raise anywhere near enough money.
Yes, go ahead and pay for these programs through the Federal government but not until every working American is OK with paying $20,000 more in taxes. That's how Europe does it.
As I type, the top headline in the Times is about the Inspector General's report wherein he describes the shameful and cruel way we are treating our fellow human beings at our southern border. This presents us with a sixth threat, the loss of America's collective soul. You're right that this won't be the blame of outside forces, who needs China, Russia or Iran when you have Americans whose political affiliation is more important than truth, our shared history and ethics or even our founding documents and ideals. The fish rots from the head down, I just thought it would take more than 2 1/2 years to destroy the very foundations of democracy. I agree with Nancy Pelosi about one thing, we need something bigger than an impeachment. We need an exorcism.
50
I’ll say it now, loud and proud. The hegemony Of White Males IS the Problem. Trump is the epitome of that simple fact.
Warren AND Harris, in that order. Imagine the possibilities and hope. I haven’t been this excited since a certain person with a very unusual name emerged in 2008. I miss you, President Obama. THOSE were the days.
171
@Phyliss Dalmatian PERFECT combo:)
7
@Jacquie
I don't think that Warren or Harris have a chance. Too much "free stuff" and not enough details on how they are going to deliver us to Shangri-La. Trump is going to have a field day with either of these two and that is sad for America. We need to get a candidate that can beat Trump and actually has a plan that doesn't border on socialism.
15
@Sean
How about defining what you mean by socialism.
With all due respect, you are forwarding a GOP talking point.
Socialism is bandied about like a monster, and it is equated with Communism in the average mindset in this country. It is not the same.
We already have many 'socialist' policies or structures.
Fire and police departments, and other emergency services.
Municipal trash service, sewer and water, and power grids.
Public schools.
Social Security.
Medicare and medicaid.
Federal grazing fees at fraction of private.
Federal farming subsidies.
Federal student loans and Pell Grants.
Federal and State highway systems.
Food and drug safety.
Federal and state research in many fields.
And on and on...and all for the public good.
Yes some are more efficient than others, and some do not cut evenly across the tax base, but in the case of schools for instance, a renter is indirectly paying property tax by paying rent to the property owner who pays the direct property tax.
Yes some of the Dems ideas are out there, but nothing is worse than Trump.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
9
Without even reading this piece I totally agree. On the other hand, it may always been thus with just a few exceptions like in WWII.
1
Oh Tom, I used to think you were a liberal.
Many commenters have pointed out the sophistry of your statement about promising free stuff we can't afford but none among those I've read has said anything about your statement that the Democratic nominee needs to define "new ways to work with business and energize job-creators."
The evidence is that too many "job-creators" in this country are more interested in increasing stock prices, and their compensation, by dividends and stock buy backs and exporting jobs to low wage countries, than they are in creating well-paying jobs for those who don't have them. In addition to being unsupported by the evidence, your prescription is terminally vague at best.
Things that could increase the disposable income of workers whose wages have been stagnant for so long are higher minimum wages, government funded health care without large holes in it, better education, traditional infrastructure programs, alternative energy development, advanced internet infrastructure such as 5G networks, more low income housing, and support for unions rather than continuing efforts to undermine them. It might also help if there were government programs, such as rehabilitation of rust belt cities, providing alternative employment and competing with private industry to raise wages.
All these alternatives depend on government. That's unfortunate, but merely exhorting private industry to do it, or even subsidizing it with tax cuts, won't get the job done.
6
Mr Friedman,
Thanks as always for asking us think deeply about our future. I agree that the main crisis we face is one of our own choosing, a failure of citizenship.
I would like to quarrel just a bit with the idea that the debate includes "free stuff" we can't afford. That seems to me to be a surface argument, not deep think about our future.
Tomorrow we will watch military aircraft fly over our capital at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars an hour.
Apparently we can afford the chance to feed our egos but not the chance to feed our minds and our souls.
1
Friedman thinks Americans need to get serious, and stop looking for unrealistic answers from the “far” left, as he calls progressive Democrats. He thinks we need to retrain to adapt to changing employment trends caused by new technologies.
Most of my friends are highly educated, with Masters degrees, PhDs, and JDs. We are in our 40s and 50s. We were professionals whose work was outsourced to part-time workers. We still work the same jobs we were fired from, but now we get no health care, retirement, or pensions. We are older women who will not be hired anywhere else because we are older, and women.
There are no jobs for us to retrain for. Full-time jobs with benefits and retirement plans are being eliminated in every field, as companies chase ever-higher profits. We live on the scraps that are left.
Women are always the first to get laid off, fired, downsized, denied tenure, denied partnerships. We do not need to get serious, or to learn more. We need fair wages, fair hiring practices, health insurance, student loan forgiveness, and jobs. We need a social safety net. We need fair employment. We need a government that makes corporations pay taxes. We need a government that supports unions and fair wages.
Don’t call us radicals, or the “far left.” We are smart. We work hard. We have more education than we need. What we don’t have is a country that cares about its working women, especially older ones. And that is why we are leaning left in ever larger numbers.
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@Jaime Hovey
You make a point, however it's not just working women your country doesn't care about. I think far more working men were/are being undermined by your system than women.
It seems to me that you think your credentials should exempt you from competitive reality. I disagree, if you have something to offer - offer it. Your reward(s) will either follow, or they will not. C'est la Vie. You and your friends have both earned, and probably also been privileged to have inherited a better start than most.
1
@Matthew
It is absolutely not true that this more-affects men than women - maybe just recently as men moved in increasing numbers into the pink-collar jobs this affected their overall employment stature in the hierarchy, but throughout history, it’s women who’ve been undermined consistently by an employment system that gives/gave more opportunity to men.
1
Jaime Hovey, you nailed it!
I feel depressed after reading this article. These daunting tasks to make us great again seem so hard to do except the number one item - cannot afford DJT to be the leader for another four years. But even this simple one requires that we have a good candidate who can survive the tough campaign trail and then defeat DJT in the final vote. Nonetheless, I will vote carefully this time not letting advertisement and other fancy stuff to distract my focus getting a good one for the country. Thank you, Mr. Friedman.
I agree with Mr. Friedman, particularly his final paragraph.
I have heard rumblings--no idea as to their accuracy--that if some Democrats do not get the candidate they want they will stay home. That is reprehensible, given the problems we face.
As for me, I will vote for whomever the Democrats nominate and hope that things get a little less chaotic and moderate as the field of candidates narrows. But I will not stay home.
265
@JSK
For the first time in my life I am considering not voting or voting for a third party candidate. I realize a third party vote is throwing my vote away. I am so disgusted with the whole bunch. I am a lifelong Democrat but some of them are so extreme they might do as much damage as Trump. Hopefully a moderate will be on the Democratic ticket but who would that be?
5
And I've heard "rumblings" that there are Martians in New Mexico. Hillary win by about 2,800,000 votes. The problem probably won't be the turnout as much as if Democratic candidates run a smart campaign. Since the "moderates'" favorite candidate can't even bother to prepare for a debate, I'm not hopeful.
6
@Suzie130 - It is a sad comment on any democracy when thoughtful, informed voters concluded that even voting for the least worst candidate is not a helpful alternative.
8
Please tell me how you have an "adult" conversation as you call it with the state of Kentucky, or the state of West Virginia, or the state of Alabama...all Trump bastions?
To have an adult conversation you need to have two "thinking" sides. If one side doesn't believe in global warming, women's rights, racial justice, etc., etc., there's no conversation to be had.
As your colleague Paul Krugman brilliantly pointed out today in his column, the state of Kentucky in 2017 received $40 billion more from the federal government than it paid in taxes...one fifth of the state's GDP. Adult states with diverse economies like New Jersey and California and Connecticut which pay far more in taxes than they receive from the government essentially fund Kentucky and West Virginia and Alabama because they are too backward in their thinking to move out of adolescence.
There's no adult conversation to be had until these places grow up!
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@History Guy
Dr. K's piece today is an example of the problem. Blaming the places where people raise children who often move to big cities in other states is, at best, misguided. Think about the costs of raising and educating a child, then having that child spend almost none of their working years in their home state - that is a significant cost. Since Dr. K is a very smart and educated thinker, I am tempted to think he knows better but writes such things anyway to advance his political views.
We suffer when there are failed states to the south of Mexico. We will suffer many times worse if we allow failed states within our borders.
14
@History Guy
I am a more here and now guy. We need a new kind of economy. Our economy is ill suited to the 21st century where capacity for production far exceeds demand.
The only two candidates who I find inspiring are Wang and Williamson they at least understand old answers to new problems just doesn't cut it. I am tired of US politics and figuring out who is least insane. Not only are there far more sellers than buyers there is many more dollars than there are things to buy.
13
@History Guy
Would it not be better to try and persuade those voters to vote Democratic, rather than to demonize them? You are writing them off by insulting them. Their natural reaction would be .. yeah, I think I won't vote for the Democrats, who insult me all the time. Democrats should be trying to win votes in those states. Putting down the voters of whole states practically guarantees a loss. This is why Democrats so often lose in so many states. Lessons from history: a critical state for JFK's narrow victory was West Virginia. Until Democrats stop insulting people, they (we) will only become president of your "adult states like New Jersey and California and Connecticut." Good luck with that. It's not a path to victory.
19
We are the cause of our own distinction because we have a major political party who believes and has indroctinated the public that government should do nothing for its citizens aside from national security.
The first step is to bury that party and ideology in the dust bin of history.
2
"— if we don’t prevent the far left from pulling the Democrats over a cliff with reckless ideas like erasing the criminal distinction between those who enter America legally and those who don’t…"
It is encouraging that so many rank-and-file Democrats understand that the Electoral College will be decided largely by non-college whites in half a dozen battle ground states. On the other hand, it is discouraging that so many liberal Democrats are still in denial of this reality. They want a world made in their image, they won’t let go of that idea, and keep making more and louder demands.
Impeachment, Medicare-for-all, free college, reparations, Green New Deal, pack the Supreme Court, abolish the Electoral College, abolish ICE, license guns, promote sanctuary cities, immigration and abortion—all are grist for their mill, even when it's explained to them that these non-economic issues so dear their their hearts are divisive, and may drive away the very swing voters and independents whom the Dems need to win the Electoral College.
But they will hear none of it. They even try to kneecap the one candidate who could appeal to that critical, non-college, white vote. It is the circular firing squad that Barack Obama warned against.
Keep it up folks, and you'll get Trump again! Stick to the economic, kitchen table issues that worked so well for the Democrats in 2018—jobs, health care and economic security generally—and you may get to realize your dream, or at least parts of it.
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@Ron Cohen
Agree 110%! Liberals’ pie-in-the-sky wishes are going to make us continue the waking nightmare of a Trump presidency, and probably also that of a Republican Senate.
Thanks for what you wrote.
34
@Ron Cohen and
@NM
Disagree 110%! Centrists' pie-in-the-sky wishes might might make us continue the waking nightmare of a Trump presidency and a Republican Senate.
And if they don't, they will make us continue the waking nightmare of a Democratic party that is right of center by international standards, a Democratic establishment that cares more about big donors than about the rest of us, and a Democratic leadership that keeps telling us that we're better off settling for Republican lite swill than fighting for what we need.
47
@Ron Cohen
@NM
Fascinating.
Apparently Democrats cannot even debate ideas or potential policies between themselves without people recoiling in horror. I guess there's too much risk in exploring new or different ideas.
By all means, defeat Trump - but don't actually stand for anything. Don't say anything provocative. Don't frighten anyone.
Let's cower in fear of the future.
41
Friedman is being especially tendentious when he describes “decriminalizing” illegal entry to the US as some far left stuff. He’s referring, of course, to the conversation among the Democratic candidates at last Wednesday’s debate. The issue here is that if you make illegal entry a civil offense, rather than criminal, then people cannot be legally separated from their families. As a civil offense, the punishment would be deportation; thus the Democrats were simply saying they prefer deportation to the cruelty of family separation. It would be helpful if journalists of Friedman’s stature would make this distinction clear, rather than engaging in Trump-like propaganda for the purpose of stirring up fiery emotions.
449
You must have missed the part when the debaters said clearly and repeatedly:”no deportations unless you were convicted of a criminal offense.”
16
I didn't miss anything. You're referring to a different issue, which is how to prioritize enforcement resources for illegal aliens who have been living and working inside the US for a long time. The Obama administration prioritized those with serious crimes. The Trump administration changed that to focus on deporting anyone in the US illegally (i.e., nannies and gardeners with no criminal record), thus de-prioritizing those with criminal offenses. In other words, yes, the Trump administration has put less emphasis on removing serious criminals than the Obama administration. The discussion in the debate related to how to deal with those who arrive at the border or cross the border between ports of entry.
40
@DF Paul
No, that's not what they were saying. Most of the Democrat candidates oppose all deportations and want illegal immigrants released into the country to await a court date they won't show up for. What we need and what none of them suggested was to significantly raise the bar for credible fear so that most illegal immigrants can be promptly deported and don't need to be held or wait for a court date and also streamline the process whereby they can apply for refugee status from their home country and skip the dangerous journey entirely.
10
I remember when Tom Friedman was gleefully praising Tesla and in favor of letting GM and Chrysler fail. I remember when he used a column to plug airbnb experiences.
Now we get some hand-waving around "helping people retrain and learn," but it seems to me like he's still singing the same tune: technocrats should rule by divine right, and the rest of us will work forever, continually chasing/trying to anticipate what skills will be adequately in-demand in the next decade. Some people will probably guess right and have continually successful careers, others will guess wrong and experience the misery of going from reasonably successful to winding up in a dead-end role. My unscientific prediction is that this will further exacerbate short-term thinking given the unpredictability of long-term outcomes. Here's an individual friendly alternative: More stringent rules around layoffs/mandatory one-year severance pay except with for-cause termination. At-will employment devastates vulnerable people (who apparently can't come up with $400) in the name of increasing profits; if the company's not going through bankruptcy and slashing executive compensation, it should be on the hook to find new jobs and train its "reorganized" employees. It has access to more resources and potential predictions around where its talent needs will be than the worker does.
2
Tom Friedman's cheery (but still preachy) neoliberalism is completely out of touch with the realities of America today. Our democracy is failing not because Americans are focused on the trivial, but for two much deeper reasons:
First, the economy is not working for far too many Americans. Too many are living paycheck to paycheck, deeply in debt, just a step away from bankruptcy, without the resources to cover a major illness or fund a retirement. All that "free stuff we can't afford" is exactly what people need to spare them from the persistent economic insecurity that infects the vast majority of the middle and lower classes.
Second, our democracy simply doesn't work anymore. We tend to think that the gridlock and dysfunction we've witnessed for the past 20 years is just an aberration that will disappear if only we elect better leaders. No, the problem is systemic. We are running a 21st century nation with an 18th century Constitution. It isn't working.
If America is going to be restored to health it needs to change in drastic ways. This means major structural reform of our government—reform that will require a significant rewrite of our Constitution—and a complete transformation of our economy to restore economic security, rebuild communities, and save the environment. This is not a time for moderation. It's a time for radicals—for men and women who share the same audacious spirit that moved our Founders to overthrow a king and create a society unlike any seen before.
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@617to416
I agree with with your comment. It would be a 100% by leaving out the labels: Neoliberalism? Radicals? How about just sane people doing sane things? Your remedies are on the mark.
15
@617to416
Why is America failing? Because liberals turned their backs on the rest of America, to pursue a pipe dream of ideological purity, leaving the field wide open for the Republicans. They made the perfect, as they saw it, the enemy of the good.
9
@Candlewick
Radical is definitely the term I wanted. But I didn't mean "radical leftism"—I simply meant radical in the sense of being willing to push for transformative changes that shatter conventional thinking.
As far as describing Friedman's worldview as neoliberal, I'd agree it's not the perfect label. "Futuristic pop-psychology pseudo-intellectual wealthy suburbanite neoliberal claptrap" might be better, but it didn't fit the character limit.
23
It doesn’t matter which democrat becomes president as long as Mitch McConnell is the majority leader in the Senate.
2
For many would-be Trump voters, as their very communities die a slow death around them, it is easier to blame the Democrats, the immigrants, and the coastal elites. I fear they do not want a life of education and re-education to keep up with the pace of change any more than those left behind by the other two seismic transitions in the lives of the inhabitants of this continent: the arrival of European settlers, and the Industrial Revolution. As Heraclitus observed, the only constant in our world is change. Not to put too fine a point on it, Tom is offering the same advice Brad Pitt's character Oakland A's GM Billy Beane delivered to the A's chief scout Grady Fuson representing the old order in professional baseball who was unwilling to come to grips with cyber metrics in the 2011 film Moneyball: "adapt or die". Like the version of Fuson portrayed in the movie, those on the losing end of the ongoing seismic event will most likely choose the latter. Ironically, Europeans would most surely be happier had they adapted to the order represented by the indigenous tribes they encountered much as the Vikings who remained in what became England did, but technology and the march of 'progress' will not be denied, and the "white man's burden" will be carried even unto crucifixion.
@G. James
Adapt or die - that is, indeed, what is necessary to thrive in the world today; however, if one - a Trump supporter, for example - yearns for the America circa 1950, one will not change save to vote for Trump in 2020 and either Don Jr. or Ivanka/Jared in 2024.
"For we as a people, we as a people, are strong enough, we are brave enough to be told the truth of where we stand. This country needs honesty and candor in its political life and from the President of the United States. But I don't want to run for the presidency - I don't want America to make the critical choice of direction and leadership this year without confronting that truth. I don't want to win support of votes by hiding the American condition in false hopes or illusions. I want us to find out the promise of the future, what we can accomplish here in the United States, what this country does stand for and what is expected of us in the years ahead. And I also want us to know and examine where we've gone wrong. And I want all of us, young and old, to have a chance to build a better country and change the direction of the United States of America." RFK- 1968
1
@USNA73 RFK would be the last Democrat I would quote. He was for the VN war before he was against it.
On immigration agreed. Democrats should combine their ‘humanitarian’ rhetoric with a reminder that we are not accepting or condoning any illegal immigration. The Democratic nominee cannot take donations from big money or corporations as Sanders and Warren have already stated. This is because the nominee will be running on a platform of income redistribution. Democrats need not worry about speaking strongly about progressive positions because those issues are not ‘left’ issues. A system that guarantees affordable health care, action on pollution and climate change, income redistribution. Everybody now just wants that and it does not need to be curbed to win ‘moderates’. I hope Mr. Friedman writes another op ed about how the media must not be dismissive when the nominee cries ‘make them pay’!
The main way we undercut ourselves is with the idea that certain Americans are undeserving of basic standards of living which the "free stuff" criticism suggest. We've all play a vital role in making the country work and we should find a healthy way to share in the progress.
1
Right on, Tom, the most complete, incisive summation of the challenges facing us I've read. Thank you. Hope it can help focus, bring together and mobilize us to make a difference in this critical moment facing all humankind.
6
promise free stuff we can’t afford,
Mr. Friedman:
What is the free stuff we can't afford.
Raising the salary cap on wages subject to the Social Security payroll tax would make SS perpetually solvent.
Letting Medicare negotiate drug prices [The VA can and pays much less for the same drugs.] would reduce Medicare expenditures.
Drug prices in general should be capped. Other countries do this. Most new drugs are developed in government labs or with government support. There is no justification for exorbitant drug prices.
Other countries pay about half per capita for health and have better infant mortality and longevity stats.
For many years the NYC colleges [CCNY, Queens Coll. Brooklyn Coll ] were tuition free.
They provided excellent education.
We could make public colleges tuition free again.
The problem is not free stuff we can't afford but that the income of certain fat cats like big Pharma will decrease.
We could deal with student debt by allowing students to refinance their loans at the Federal Funds rate of about 2.5% instead of paying about 8%.
The difference of about 5.5% on a 50K loan is about
$2750/ year.
Think of all the programs we could afford if we cut the bloated defense budget.
689
@david Note that you didn’t mention “Medicare for All” (and phasing out private health insurance within 4 years) nor student loan debt forgiveness— these are some of the ideas various candidates have suggested that we probably can’t afford.
13
I personally would allow those who want to keep their employer supplied health insurance to do so.
I would allow those under 65 to buy into Medicare by paying a premium.
I would ease student debt by allowing refinancing of loans.
55
Most new drugs are developed by private sector pharmaceutical companies. That’s not to say that NHS- funded research plays no role but private R&D is the far more dominant component of new therapy development.
8
"free stuff we cant afford" you say
You might be able to fool some of the people, and some of the people might know the truth although they have the money and are keeping it and wanting more. The news is out, you can't fool the Progressives.
We can't afford war, keeping kids in cages at 700$ a day, thousands of border patrol, and the list goes on and I am to frustrated to type any thing else.
Corporate America wins.
481
@s.whether
We can't afford open borders. Do you understand how much masses of illegal unskilled immigrants cost this country in terms of free schooling for their kids, free emergency room and other medical facility use, welfare benefits given to their offspring if not legally to themselves, etc., etc. Do you not see how they push down wages and hurt the legal residents of this country who they compete with. Then there are the hidden costs associated with disrespect for the rule of law in this country as well as costs associated with not be assimilated resulting in the balkanization of the US. Frankly in terms of numbers of people from anywhere, the US does not need more people. The environmental costs of the American lifestyle are immense and lead to crowding and traffic everywhere, destruction and paving over of the natural environment, and more pollution for a start.
4
@new conservative
Your city is thriving because of, not in spite of, immigration. New York's economy runs on immigrants and always have. The "costs" you cite are most certainty not supported by any rigorous economic studies. By almost any measure, immigrants add more to the economy than they cost. See Edsall's piece on anger today -- blaming immigrants is just lazy thinking. If you do not see that, its because you choose not to.
4
Given the realities of American society in the early 21st century, Republicans know only too well that free and fair elections, truth telling, avoiding gerrymandering, and playing by established rules will only accelerate their demise.
38
It's true that we stand on the brink of a ginormous avalanche, and Republicans seem to be happy to go with the flow, so to speak. The rich folks that support the Republican platform of dividing the population into served and servants seem to believe that having the cash will let them ride atop the avalanche and not get caught in it. (Good luck, y'all.) The regular folks that support the GOP, those that are slated to become servants in the rich folk's scenario, don't even realize what they're in for as they're in denial of the facts or simply can't distinguish facts from fiction. We can't even have a conversation with these folks, because we would just be talking in parallel; it's as if they live in a totally different dimension. I really hope that someone figures out how to talk to these people. That's how you win America.
15
I am always amazed when I hear columnist mention the "frightened white working class voter who abandoned them (Democrats) for Trump." I know the suggestion of treating them with dignity is reasonable, but it is hard when the white working class individuals I converse with put themselves in the position they and we are in because of their choices: a choice of no unions so I don’t have to pay fees for those protecting their jobs; a choice to not further their education; a choice to buy (rather expensive habit) and collect guns for protection from ??? ---black Presidents?; a choice to not change anything they’ve done since they were young adults. We treat each other with dignity, but their dignity for others (immigrants, people of color, people of different gender identity) is limited. How do we deal with that?
50
@Paul Kunz
You’ve described the attitudes of the white working class voters in our corner of the rural Mid-Atlantic states, too. Our neighbors don’t care about income inequality; that has nothing to do with why they support Trump - though Friedman says that “the anger over that is one of the things that surely propelled” them to vote Trump into office. They care about feeling disrespected, even if they refuse to earn respect or respect others.
For me, the best part of Friedman’s commentary is the last
paragraph, and I wish he made that point more directly. Some of his arguments getting there don’t stack up.
7
Prime age workers in the bottom 60 percent have had no real income growth since 1980. Hmmm...what happened that year? I await the book delineating all the myriad ways Reagan ruined the country and the lives of the middle and lower classes.
447
"Promise free stuff we can’t afford" – what do you mean, "we"?
Reversing the huge tax cut for the very wealthy and corporations would go a long way to support healthcare for all, shoring up Social Security, and rebuilding our infrastructure.
Let's try that before we talk about spending money to help those who have fallen behind.
686
@Howard We could conceivably do things like Medicare For All, free college, reparations, etc, but the price tag would be politically infeasible. Cancelling the tax cut for the rich would raise some of the money needed but not enough to do everything the candidates are promising. Democrats should think long and hard about the very tough choices they will need to make on climate, deficits, and infrastructure before they say the sky's the limit and anything is possible. Anything is not possible and if we con ourselves into thinking this, Trump will skate to a second term.
13
@Howard, your highlighted quotation of Friedman's quote made me wonder how many people go bankrupt from taxes compared to going bankrupt from healthcare expenses? Which one can "we" really not afford? Nor do I think higher taxes will actually kill anyone, but higher healthcare cost will.
52
@Howard
I hate to be the one to mention this. Capital is MOBILE friend, by the time the ink dries on a bill to raise taxes to those the capital will be out of the country soon followed by its owners. Has for taxing American? corporations ? all that will happen is they will book their profits in a country with a better tax deal. For all the talk of raising taxes to pay for all this stuff? IT WON'T work capital and corporations are entirely to fluid. If the US tries to raise taxes to level indicated ? All that will happen is companies their operations and titular country of residence to someplace that offers a better deal. You should look up many US? corporations are actually headquartered in 3rd world yax havens it makes interesting reading. But for all the talk of raising taxes to levels of the 50's - 60's. It didn't work when France tried it a few years ago it won't work here it's fantasy of the left.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/31/france-drops-75percent-supertax
https://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/gerard-depardieu-quits-france-because-high-taxes-173222852.html
No the whole will raise taxes on the rich and corporations to pay for everything is a bigger fantasy then the Lord of the Rings.
3
I'm not sure how far an American renewal can go unless every vote truly counts. Gerrymandering (especially on the GOP side) has warped the civic life of your nation. I fear America will devolve into larger city states surrounded by communities short of education, opportunity, even humanity.
103
And this too shall pass.
Anyone that thinks America is to great to fail, should look back in history and see just how many empires are still in existence today that thought they were invincible in days if yore.
The best thing our leaders could be doing today, but won't , is prepare us for a "soft landing" when we start to go down history's path to an also ran. Great Britton was the last empire to go down, but they had us to help them with billions of dollars of relief. No one will be there for us when our time comes.
Great article once again, might I also add that if a first strike happen here on US soil that sixty percent of our young men and women wouldn’t be able to defend us due to poor diet. You can’t build muscles on fat, according to a retired general and tooth decay is rampant. This politico mumble jumble has got to end we need to think of ourself first and vote as a block, not right or left, up or down, Republican or Democrat but finally for us the stalwarts of the nation.
2
"...who doesn’t say irresponsible stuff about immigration or promise free stuff we can’t afford..."
Mr. Friedman, how is it that most developed countries offer their citizens free, or virtually free, university eductions, medical care that costs a fraction of what it costs in America, and income transfers that essentially eliminate the grinding poverty that we see in every American city, but you claim that to do the same thing in America constitutes "irresponsible stuff"?
Mr Friedman, you just don't get it.
5
@Sean You are so right. And if you want to be able to afford almost all of that "irresponsible stuff" that provides big returns to the economy, all you need to do is reverse the irresponsible tax cut the 0.1% bought by supporting Trump for President (and appear to be supporting even more in 2020). Compared to Republicans, there is not one Democratic candidate who should be labeled irresponsible.
2
Biden seems the best candidate to get those former republican voters you write of who came together in the mid terms even though once in office not sure he is up to the huge challenge.
Thomas Friedman is spot on, and there is a candidate in the Democratic field that meets his description of what we need and also has the understanding of our meeting modern world issues that a good man like Joe Biden cannot entirely grasp. His name is Pete Buttiegieg. There are others I respect, like Kamala Harris, Michael Bennet, and Cory Booker, who I also think could be those kinds of leaders. But Pete — he gets it, and he could do it.
What troubles me is what I term the "lazy" feature in our culture---all the challenges posed in this piece--which are real and need to be addressed--require hard work. Whether legislating, creating, analyzing, collaborating, all involve some form of educating and implementing. I fear our America public prefers sitting, watching, cheering--but no doing. The locker room talk in my health club is all about batting averages, NBA trades, an upcoming cruise, purchase of a new car, and the repeating of several Trump lies---that's it. No mention of any of these challenges in this article---oh, sorry, some are upset that the amount of rain we have had has interfered with their golf game.
4
I'm sorry, but didn't we push a centrist Democrat in 2016? To many in the Democratic party, we are feeling that if we don't stand FOR something (i.e. healthcare for all) then we might as well give up hope. This article seems to be asking Democrats to stay in the center (which is actually center right now) in order to get rid of Trump. Our platform would be "Get rid of Trump: Vote Democrat". Many pundits keep saying that we will lose if we don't have a more meaningful platform. Certainly, Dems want to unseat Trump, but if we lose again due to middle of the road non-policies, then we will have shot ourselves in the foot again. To me, it is better to go ALL-IN with our hopes and desires for a better country.
4
Bravo! This Op Ed should be required reading for every American. It is not empty rhetoric, but a searing analysis of the existential peril that America (and Britain) faces today. And as Friedman states. Its not because of Russia or China or Europe, its a crisis that has emanated purely from within.
I have never been so worried as I am now of America losing it all. Mr. Friedman is PRECISELY right in his analysis, and he is PRECISELY right about the solutions to this crisis.
This is WORSE than 2007-2009 and could turn into worse than 1914, 1929, 1930s, 1939-1945.
4
Not everything in this is wrong, but I think it leaves out two key variables. First, there's a whole generation of voters, and a second generation of teens who will soon become voters, have NEVER known a world where it was safe to rely on a corporation for things like health care and education funding. Their parents may have... they have not. So there's no old system to go back to for them, and they're mentally free to imagine the system they want. And they seem to think, with some reason, that it's more rational to rely on the government for what used to be called "fringe benefits" than to depend on the fortunes and preferences of just one corporation.
Second, the groups whose concerns get dismissed as "identity politics" are no longer willing to be put off. That doesn't mean Democrats can't appeal to white working class voters. They can... but the deal has to be, we give you what you want and in exchange you accept feminism, racial equality, gay rights, and a humane immigration policy with a good deal of legalization built in. Those things aren't negotiable. Every "different opinion" on civil rights issues eventually leads to brutality, so such opinions have no place in our society.
6
I find it fascinating that so many Americans say that healthcare for all is "free stuff we can't afford". Here's the reality - we can't afford healthcare for some that costs twice what other countries pay for healthcare for all - the money is clearly there, how it is used, and for whom, is the issue. I see the same debate in the country to our north, Canada, now on drugs - half of their marketplace is private insurance. To create a national drug benefit they would have to subsume that. Sounds like they are track to do it. Overall the country will spend even less on drugs after, and all will have access. Why can they take this on and we can't?
14
@E Campbell
Hi, I'm not an expert on healthcare in either country however I have a few observations.
1) When universal healthcare was adopted in Canada it was the idea of the CCF or NDP party, implemented by the Liberal government under Prime Minister Pearson. The CCF/NDP is a left leaning party, the Liberals are a centrist party. In the USA it would have to be the Democrats who introduce it.
2) Universal healthcare was controversial in Canada, my parents had a record for a phonograph that was produced by the medical association warning of the evils of socialized medicine. This is analogous to the for profit insurance companies providing scare scenarios to dissuade Americans from going to a universal system. Don't fall for it, your present system is the scary expensive poorly performing one.
3) Unfortunately in America you've got the issue upside down, Government isn't the problem, it's the solution. Only Government can legislate to give you safety in food, products, the environment and of course can legislate universal healthcare that is less expensive than what you're paying now, and cover everyone. Private enterprise has no interest in your health, safety or well being, they are only interested in return on investment< that's why Government mandated and financed healthcare is the only solution that protects the citizens.
The fear of Government has been carefully cultivated by business interests that don't want you to enjoy what every other western country has.
2
> the American dream — the core promise we’ve made to ourselves that each generation will do better than its parents
Is this right? I think for many (most?) the American Dream is that this is a place where you can be successful if you are willing to work hard. Unfortunately, many have adopted as a corollary to this that if you are NOT successful, it must be because you are not working hard. The powerful and greedy have exploited this to tear down the institutions that used to help ensure a level playing field.
6
Your familiar themes, but filled with insight. If only you could seek the Presidency. Your last paragraph summarizes the qualities and policies the next President must have- but who is that person. I suggest that Biden is the candidate who most closely meets the description. We are on the verge of political civil war, perhaps something even worse, teetering on a precipice. The nation must realize that a complete collapse of our Republic is a real possibility. Vote, Vote, Vote.
5
It's interesting how commentators critique Democrats for making promises or laying out a vision, which includes universal health care, climate action, infrastructure, student loan relief, etc. All that free stuff! How can we afford it? We can't NOT afford it. Without action on these issues we are in big trouble. And by the way, Republicans have been promising us that major tax cuts for millionaires will benefit everyone. It's been generations and we have not seen it (though we have seen the debt explode). Wasn't it Trump who promised he could fix all of our problems. We just had to trust him because he "alone could fix it." And he got elected. Hillary told voters that their old jobs weren't coming back and she was punished for it. The obvious lesson is that voters want to hear that you'll take care of everything. They won't have to lift a finger. No worries, no sacrifices. Just "keep shopping" as W. once said. You get tax cuts AND Medicare, SS, and great schools! But the minute a Democrat proposes a sensible plan, it's "how can we afford that free stuff!"
13
@Chad
Feature, not bug. The machine will destroy all progress and promote all regress.
This:
"There will be a Chinese-controlled internet and technology sphere and American versions — and every other country will have to decide whose to join."
Ship has sailed already. Reason: IPv6. China, owing to its population was forced to fully adopt IPv6 for their Internet communications, rather than IPv4 as most of the rest of the world were using. By the time China was ready to become a real player on the Internet, the IPv4 address space was mostly all used up.
Businesses and countries looking to increase their presence on the Internet don't really have a choice. They can either try to stick with IPv4 and get stuck with network address translation, or wait for some other IPv4-using entity to go defunct and use the address pool that became available from that defunct entity, or they can simply use IPv6, perhaps maintaining one node with an IPv4 interface to use as a gateway to the IPv4 world. Most people would agree there is a whole lot more room in the IPv6 internet. That part of the Internet is primarily dominated by China, though.
5
@Robbie J.
And who allowed this to happen? Reagan, again?
1
@AACNY
Corporate inertia, really. America was, via its businesses, already well-established, and comfortable with an IPv4. IPv6 wasn't widely known until at least 1998. Nobody really wanted to have a protocol change if they didn't have to. So they settled on techniques like network address translation to carry on in the face of a depleting address pool. That is what the West has been willing to content itself with ever since.
@Robbie J.what is Ivp4 & Ivp6
Good luck finding a Democratic standard bearer who can lead America out of the morass we are in. The smallest group of Democrats are those NOT running for high office. When so large a group gets together there is a scramble to stake out the most liberal and most progressive positions. So we have Democrats opting for M4A and the removal of private insurance and Democrats explicitly endorsed health coverage for immigrants. Both of these positions are a poison pill for the 2020 election cycle.
It would be far better create a Medicare-for-Any plan allowing any who wished to jump ship to a federal plan. It would also be better to allow immigrants in a pipeline for citizenship access to health care in the interests of public health while limiting access to those awaiting a court decision of their ability to remain in this country. But these are nuanced positions which would not fit on a bumper sticker and would be overwhelmed in the vitriol of a Trump rally.
Batten down the hatches. We are in for heavy weather.
6
@Douglas McNeill The ACA would have evolved into the "Medicare for Any" plan over time - that was the stealth mission of the program. The GOP hijacked it. And would do so again in a second. Please don't waste time woerrying about the size of the Dem field - only one will run against Trump, and we better vote for them
@E Campbell My only fear about the size of the Dem field is how the aggregate mass might push the eventual nominee too far left to regain the center in the general election.
Democrats do indeed have to get heads out of sand on immigration. You cannot tell the center-right, center-left and true independents that “open borders” and “free stuff” for those that enter illegally is the grand plan and expect their full support. Trump and GOP will have field day with that. However, on healthcare Dems should stick to a plan for universal coverage and explain how most people “happy” with employer-sponsored insurance might come around if:
1) they understand how that “benefit” has depressed personal wage growth for decades
2) how when they use that insurance most will still be subject to copayment, deductibles, delays and denials and ALL will be submerged in indecipherable invoices more months after the simplest of encounters with the healthcare system.
3) and don’t threaten to eliminate optional additional private insurance for those who want it....just make the universal coverage meet most needs and allow the insurance companies to price themselves out of business.
9
Most folks know - if they are familiar with him at all - the Machiavelli of the Prince. The most common interpretation of this Machiavelli is that leaders should put conscience aside and do whatever it takes to gain and then stay in power.
There is, however, another Machiavelli that distrusts leaders. Found in his book entitled The Discourses, this latter Machiavelli asserts that the greatest danger a republic faces is that it will be destroyed from within by corruption.
2
I’m starting to appreciate more and more the admonition of JFK in his inaugural address, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
I feel now more than ever that we have to understand that we are in this together. And that a little personal sacrifice might be necessary to reestablish the promise and the reality of America. The American Dream is bigger than any one of us. Compromise and listening to each other is required.
I agree with Thomas Friedman. We are our worst enemy. But, we are also our best solution to the problems we face. National service, cooperation, decency, selflessness, caring for each other, working for the common good and trusting one another are some of the things we need to embrace to help us save America. The nation we all love.
Yelling at each other, trying to win our little petty arguments, picking sides, perpetuating lies, denigrating the “other” will continue to send us on the path of dysfunctional ruin that we’ve been on for too long now. Trump is the symptom, not the cause. We the people need to reassert our independence. We need to take back our basic goodness and generosity. We need to become America once again; land of the free and home of the brave.
6
David Brooks wrote a similar column yesterday at it was received just as poorly, maybe worse. If Democrats continue with Free college, Free Health care, Free borders or anything that can be characterized as such by the right we will get four more years of Trump. The national popular vote is not the Electoral college nor is it the House, district by gerrymandered district. The House flipped in 2018 not because Brooklyn went with AOC but because here in the Michigan 8th, Elissa Slotkin, a CIA analyst and business owner flipped a long standing Republican district.
13
Excellent op ed Mr. Friedman. This articulates what I was feeling while watching the debates. Most of the candidates are making these pie in the sky promises that sound prohibitively expensive. Its fine to have philosophical discussions about an ideal world, but we don't live in one. Comprehensive health care for illegal immigrants? Free education for all? We need to have adult conversations about what we can do, and what is too expensive. The democrats are in danger of losing moderates the same way that Trump and the republicans lost moderates.
8
@Puck,
"Its fine to have philosophical discussions about an ideal world, but we don't live in one."
And we never will.
But you can adopt two responses to that fact: accept it as immutable and unworthy of any effort, or you can consider that an ideal is something that can be a target towards which movement is possible.
The first option leaves you stuck; the second option gives you an opening to look for the path that would best lead closer to that target.
I sorta prefer the second option.
"The democrats are in danger of losing moderates the same way that Trump and the republicans lost moderates."
The "moderates" is likely the main part of the problem that precipitated the election of Mr. Trump.
1
It is always vital to test existing beliefs and structures through healthy and vigorous self-critique. But that process needs to be anchored in reality. Across the world, there simply is no country in as good a position as the United States to provide a good place for its citizens to live, work, play and enjoy protection of the rule of law. Are their problems and risks? Yes, of course. But compared to thuggery in Russia, computerized rape of individual rights and environmental poison in China, deadened economic opportunity in the splintering EU, the US continues to offer the best long term opportunity for individuals. We will get through the Trump years (our system has lived through many awful presidents), and as long as we continue to protect individual rights, we will be the best option for the future.
3
@Bill Bluefish - Yes the US is wonderful AND there are also many many countries where citizens can live work and play protected by the rule of law. They also ALL provide universal health care to their citizens. Peace.
8
@Bill Bluefish
There are any number of rankings that would disagree with you. Often, the USA does not even make the top 10: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/quality-of-life-rankings . That is just one example.
All great points, thank you. There is one thing I’d mention; the American workplace is a real nightmare for many people for myriad reasons. I’m not sure if there is a political solution, more like there needs to be new ideas that should be taught to people getting their MBAs (perhaps less MBAs should be handed out in general).
I’ve worked for Fortune 500 companies and I’ve worked for small companies (and everywhere in between). One major thing that I have noticed is that if a venture capital firm has a sizable stake in your company, your prospects are limited. With them in the mix, radical ideas are always afoot and those ideas tend to trample on any kind of organic growth process. “Great, that idea worked! This quarter, let’s try something else to see if we can make more money!” People kind of throw the baby out with the bathwater in the name of “disruption”. It’s A.D.D. as a guiding business principle. It’s hard to build a middle class life under those conditions, always asking yourself “what’s Grayson with Venture Partners gonna throw at me this week?”
9
Regarding the current political system where “one party” rules and the other “obstructs”, unless we completely ditch the current constitution which allows a vocal minority to select a president via the electoral college, this won’t happen. Voters should push their state legislators for a constitutional convention. A new constitution should allow for a “Canadian style” parliament which would guarantee that a chief executive was from a majority vote. The senate would be abolished which would mean that minority rural states could no longer force their will on the majority.
6
No question about the headline. Iran not a serious threat to the 48.Fellow Americans are. All 5 of your topics deserve attention. I comment only on climate.
Even if Elizabeth Warren becomes our next president, this will be too late. The markers of a commitment to fossil fuels were everywhere in Vermont.
The Burlington VT waterfront is lined with tank cars carrying fossil fuel and the same is true at Albany NY. Lake Champlain and the Hudson River just stones’ throws away from tanker disaster so too Albany and Burlington.
Natural gas pipelines are being laid where the proper alternatives would be heat pumps of all kinds, especially ground source geothermal since they heat and cool. Electricity could be generated by using the available resource, solid waste as fuel for advanced incineration.
Instead my early 20th century Greyhound bus took me by the giant Springfield MA landfill, generating methane, defacing the landscape, showing failure to advance.
Every natural gas pipeline marks a long-term commitment to fossil fuel. A new president won’t change that.
In VT and NY even individuals are responsible. Each new home or apartment building could be equipped with solar roof and heat pump. Saw few signs there. I see the right sings all around me in Linkoeping SE where I live, a city heated entirely by district heating based on incineration of solid waste. City buses run on biogas made from food and human waste.
Not yet in America. It is too late.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
17
As usual, Friedman tries to sound reasonable while spouting the typical GOP establishment doctrine, such as:
- Only Democrats say "irresponsible stuff about immigration" while ignoring how Trump helped create the crisis.
- Democrats promise "free stuff we can’t afford" like health care and education. But we can always afford giant military budgets and tax cuts for millionaires.
- Only Republicans can "energize job-creators," like they did with their massive tax cuts...oh right, the money was used to repurchase stock and inflate the markets.
- Only Democrats are to blame that "we’re on the verge of a political civil war" and must "pull us together." Republicans are never held accountable and never asked to reach out to Democrats, although nearly every political scientist has said that the GOP started the war.
40
@Dario Bernardini
Thanks. Since you already topped it, I won't repeat it.
Republicans will never make what they have been doing sounds normal, and acceptable. They have been on a drive to make this a one party government since well before Trump came along. Trump was just the catalyst.
7
@Dario Bernardini
Trump created the immigration crisis? Huh?
You can hate Trump but it is ridiculous to say the crisis is his doing. He inherited a problem and now immigrants and traffickers have learned to use asylum claims to game the system. Get a foot over the border and claim asylum, especially if you are or have a kid. You can’t be held long and a majority of claimants don’t show up for their hearings (and a majority of claims are denied). But too late, the asylum claimants are gone into the US.
Yet the Dems call for less enforcement—operationally open borders.
3
@1 bite at a time. Oh come on. The democrats don't want one party rule? Chicago, California? One party rule is the goal of every party whenever they can pull it off. Compromise and the common good went out the door decades ago.
Its not, as Mr. Friedman says, that "Americans" treat politics as entertainment.
In my opinion its the politicians who treat politics as entertainment.
Until the American people are presented with a candidate who speaks to them and does not aim for ratings on social media, we voters will be limited to what is available.
Remember, nature abhors a vacuum.
7
Mr. Friedman, I don't see the Democrats participating in forging a new American majority. They equate majority with tyranny.
I say "they" because, while I've been a reliable Democrat for decades, they don't want me. They think that people like me are everything wrong with this country; we white males, in their view, need to be removed from power to make way for everyone else. Never mind that this leaves them without the electoral strength to defeat Trump.
In other words, while they claim to want to save the world, they'd sacrifice it for the opportunity to proclaim their own virtue, and register their contempt for people like me.
I've nearly given up on this party; if the nominee is a divider like Harris, or Sanders, or Gillibrand, or Warren, then I won't see the point in voting for them.
9
@Patrick
Not sure what you're saying here. There are 25 Democrats running for president in 2020; 17 of them are white makes. No one is trying to remove white males from power. The problem is when rich white males rig the system is make it harder for average people, women and minorities to compete.
If white males (and I'm one) are so great, then why are they afraid of a little competition?
@Patrick. Then vote for Trump. The Dems are making it so easy for you.
1
@Patrick - Who is your first-choice candidate? And why do you think the Democratic Party doesn’t want you? Because you’re white and male? It sounds like you are saying “you didn’t call out my group” when the middle class is where all the solutions are aimed. If you work and think you aren’t getting ahead, you are getting the most attention. FOX News will tell you it’s trans/illegal/multicultural/women....but it’s not. Those are small examples that receive repetitive coverage out of context, the meat is the whole of us. The party is focused on everyone... if you switch, the Republicans are focused on the richest producers and corporations and still not you.
As usual, another thoughtful article by Thomas Friedman with great input from Colonel Mykleby's book.
As a retired liberal independent, I totally agree with the comments about Democratic candidates lurching to ridiculously liberal ideas. I am not saying that their ideas are necessarily bad, but it is too much, too soon. The objective for our country is to get rid of Trump and neutralize the Republican party. Someone in the middle of the road is far more likely to pull this off.
Many months ago, I read an article dealing with a political analysis which in essence said the best candidate to defeat Trump would be a white, middle aged, male. This was not meant to disparage a Harris or Warren, or Booker, but what I interpreted it was to neutralize the unspoken, but realistic biases (prejudices) that exist in our society. Old people matter, because they vote and - like it or not- resist change. The same goes for many moderate independents and even moderate Republicans. We need these votes to rid our country of Trump. Time and demographics favor a more liberal United States, but despite all the passion, it is too early for wholesale change. The ballot box is a private place where no one will ever know your true feelings, so don't gamble that passion will overcome human nature.
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@Harry F, Pennington,nj I agree that some things will take time, but as I sit here looking at crumbling cement, and polluted air, I don't think we can take everything slowly.
I think we need to rebuild our infrastructure, and do it with renewable energy in mind.
A sound infrastructure is a requirement of a sound economy.
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@1 bite at a time
Well said. We are in a place with many high priorities and issues that cannot all be addressed at once. We need a person that can unite and focus on things that ALL of us can support, like climate change, infrastructure, health care and education. There are no short-term solutions or easy fixes.
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@Harry F, Pennington,nj: Public sectors of mixed economies are inherently socialistic. They are organized to spread incomes over whole lifespans.
We value ingenuity in everything except our political parties. Friedman is correct on at least one key observation - the political landscape is shifting under our feet. The far right and far left run both of our major political parties and they are both incompetent and corrupt and have failed this country for the last 40 plus years. These facts, more than any other, yielded Trump. Trump must be defeated and we already know how - the mostly centrist Dems who won in 2018 by defeating Republicans in districts won by Trump. The vast majority of the country is modestly center right/left depending on the issue and if this group formed a new party it would crush both the GOP and the Dems. It’s the only way we save this country. Running hard left right now will only accelerate the fall
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@Rich
While I agree with much of your post, I disagree on a number of points:
-the far left is not that far left
-there was virtually no far left even three years ago
-plenty of what is considered left in the US is not at the extreme left edge of the political spectrum; in contrast, take away the far right from the right and you are left with a virtually empty set
-the “far left” certainly do not own the Democratic Party whereas trump’s bombastic extremism certainly owns the GOP
-most of what the “far left” is proposing is entirely affordable — certainly it would not balloon the budget deficit like trump’s feed-the-rich tax cuts.
All that said, the policies viewed by the Faux News crowd as radical (universal health care, etc) could be political suicide for the Dems. So given that dumping trump is an existential imperative, a centrist Democratic candidate would be my personal choice, even though I agree with virtually all the “far left” policies on the table.
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@Rich
Any group that believes Trump really didn't win the election and democratic losses stem from not being leftwing enough is not a group with which one can reason.
For a moment, after reading the headline, I thought that the "Us" to whom Mr. Friedman was referring was the American Media.
But that type of introspection seems to be beyond those who criticize and harp constantly.
I was in the US last week and am returning again this coming weekend to do a bike ride. I was met last week with welcoming and pleasant attitudes - toward me, toward others. Nothing is ever reported on Americans being nice - to outsiders and to each other.
Overdue.
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@Maurice Gatien: Americans were kind to each other during the Great Depression. Perhaps we share a sense of depression now.
The plot of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" was an alien culture threatens to extinguish life on the planet unless we learn to resolve our differences peacefully. In American history we came together only for the Great Depression and WWII. Even then we left out people of color and gays. We got lucky and survived.
Mr. Friedman lists numerous catastrophes that should unite us, preemptively. I have come to believe we won't react until we reach critical mass. I'm a leading edge Boomer. I blame my generation for the political indifference.
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Another good column from Mr. Friedman. I tend to agree that we have ourselves to blame. What is crazy is that Trump and the GOP are currently blamed for eroding democracy, but it is the US brand of electoral college democracy that got us here. Democracy was already broken down. The Bush 43 election and the Bush v. Gore decision was the big hit. We have allowed the uneducated and desperate minority to take the country down a path of destruction. Will the US cease to exist, probably not, but we are going to end up a state that is mismanaged and malfunctioning for a while. We will have to have legitimate Democratic Party leadership to pull us out of this hole filled with right-wing myth and then we will have to contend with climate change that is hitting the growing lower-income population the hardest. The GOP needs to disband and take the Trumpians out of the equation. The two-party system can work but not with a party that is insane.
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That nominee, Tom, will be a Republican. What your analysis does not cover is the misalignment in our political parties. There is no Republican party any longer; it has been subsumed by the Trump movement. If the Republicans who left the party had formed their own party of true Republicans, they could put up a nominee that would take those positions you support.
Democrats have been in a box since the Reagan era. Their one talented president, Clinton, was attacked and impeached for having sex with a WH intern. Their second talented president, Obama, was up against a Republican congress determined to stop his momentum and obstruct his visionary ideas. Now Democrats want to continue that momentum, to make all Americans equal and to reflect the demographics of this country.
We are up against white pride and nationalism. So, Democrats are not going to compromise, as Trump is
promoting dualism. Unless the Republicans reclaim their party and traditionalists create a home in the political arena, Trumpists will continue to cannibalize this Republic from within.
As for the accelerating pace of technology, I have a modest proposal: why not stop, think, and accept only what is helpful and positive about the tech revolution, and reject what is not.
Humans are supposed to be intelligent animals, but to be able to discern what is useful and what is harmful in innovations is the essence of intelligence.
Yes, we have met the enemy, and he is us, as Pogo said.
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A fine subject for thoughtful analysis here, critical...
It would be nice to be able to see action by this "new American majority" but we have all seen the polls that have proven, time and time again, that this majority is already here, but it has been bound and gagged by cynical Republican/Corporate political machinations.
And the challenges you detail are very real and very serious, but it seems to me that the last three of the five are detailing different faces of the same immediate demand for adaptation to our rocketing technology and the necessity of at least trying to keep up with it.
Is the poor human creature really capable of adjusting to all of these changes today?
To a world, which is bursting at the seams with digital tech advancement but caged in a rude, analogue political reality?
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@Bruce: The US has the world's lowest turnouts in national elections because this insult-to-intelligence system effectively discards the majority of votes cast for president.
Trump could have fixed this. I wrote about it here at the time. That he did not proves who he is: a very evil fellow.
A model of “learn, work, learn, work, learn, work.” This is an absurd premise given that half the population has below average intelligence or motivation. A more realistic idea to is face he fact that globalization is going to make a guaranteed minimum income necessary at some point in the future. And of course a guaranteed minimum income will have to be combined with serious border security to keep illegal immigrants from overwhelming such a safety net.
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The future is, indeed, very frightening. We act, though, like it's only threatening to us. Americans feel they 'deserve' all the spoils and anyone who gets in their way needs to be pushed aside. Lifting the rest of the world out of poverty was a mistake. Because America should not have to put part of its wealth into the global collection basket. And now all the 'side effects' of America's greed are knocking at the door. The immigrants, the worsening impact of global warming, the homelessness, the despair, the other nations who are 'cheating', but in reality are simply doing what America has done for centuries: taking advantage of others. So now we are faced with the 'what to do'. On the one side you have the Christian, concerned, caring approach. On the other the 'show them who is boss' approach. Which side will win out? Is compromise possible? Or do we continue a whole system of 'poor houses and prisons' for those seeking relief at our borders? Do we round up the homeless, as Trump seems to suggest, and do exactly what with them because they are an embarassment when other world leaders come a calling? "Can't have that". The slogan for the Trump 2020 campaign should be "EMBRACE BRUTALITY. AT HOME AND ABROAD". I agree the Democrats need to move more to the center. And they very well may come general election time. What is clearly happening, though, is we are reaching the point where the Lincoln or Roosevelt of our time needs to emerge.
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@Walking Man,
"I agree the Democrats need to move more to the center."
Actually, the Democrats (even the likes of Elizabeth Warren) are already pretty close to the center.
So, it turns out that Walt Kelly's famed cartoon character Pogo was correct, that "we have met the enemy and he is us."
Unfortunately, we are not living in a cartoon, even if our president, a cartoon character in his own right, is treating his office as if it were a reality show.
America has long replaced considered judgment with myopic, short-term thinking. It's the next election, this quarter's financial results, and today's evening news cycle that appear to govern our leaders' thinking, while kicking the can down the road has become the dominant strategy for dealing with the serious and increasingly intractable problems.
Whether, and when, we will wake up to this sorry state of affairs remains to be seen. In the meantime, we can only hope that Americans realize that we are not living in a fake-world reality show, that elections do, indeed, have consequences, and that barring a serious approach to dealing with the myriad challenges we face, we are capable of being our own worst enemies.
Then again, maybe Ivanka will save the day. Or, most certainly, not.
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… promise free stuff we can't afford".
Jessica Matthews, in the current issue of NYRB, describes in detail the obscenely bloated and anachronistic US "defense" budget, which now represents fully 60% of the entire federal budget, and exceeds the total of the next eight nations combined, four of which are (or until Trump were) our allies. This at a time when the GOP rammed through a huge tax cut for the wealthiest among us. So, it's not accurate to say that we can't afford universal healthcare or free education, it's that the oligarchs are determined not to pay for it. And I'm afraid you've drunk their Kool-Aid.
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The climate emergency - yes, emergency-is the biggest challenge the US and the world is facing. Nevertheless, unless we end our military actions in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa and rely on good faith but still hard headed diplomacy with Russia, China, Iran and North Korea rather than mindless and expensive military build ups, we will have no money to deal with the climate emergency, develop quality healthcare for all , address our outdated infrastructure or clean up our environment and make college or trade school accessible at very low cost or in many cases no cost to all who qualify. Only one Democratic candidate is telling this truth completely and that's Gabbard (although Bernie is now acknowledging this fact more than he did in the past). In short, you are correct: there is plenty of money but it is all being siphoned off by the amoral military industrial complex and for things that do not make us safer but in fact place us in peril and multiply our enemies. That will not change if we elect Harris or Mayor Pete or Joe Biden . So, yes , you are also correct that this column, like all of Friedman's columns , is just lots of fancy talk (a lot like Harris and Mayor Pete come to think of it).
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