September 25, 2025
Don't Kick a Base When It's Down

In his latest article on Substack, Jaime Harrison is talking to me when he admonishes Democrats to curb their frustration and anger and support their party.

The problem is, he never lands on what I think is the crux of the problem with our party: that our endorsed candidates emerge from a small pool of insider, "golden" people, many of whom do not have the chops to run an effective campaign in these populist times.

I like that Harrison gave props to the most loyal demographic in the Democratic party, Black women. I wish he had given props to Black men as well, 78% of whom voted for Kamala Harris. But Harrison's main thesis—that Democrats don't revel in and build on their successes, they bulldoze them—is off target. Had Democrats delivered what voters wanted, an economy which made it easier to prosper, the revelry would be ongoing. Instead, Biden gave the country a number of very worthwhile public programs and subsidies, the impact of which was masked by high inflation and delays in the start of work. Layer on the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, and Republican appeals to xenophobia and anti-transgender sentiment. The outcome in 2024 was inevitable.

Should a charismatic presidential candidate with a compelling, populist economic message be allowed to emerge organically from within the Democratic party, its fortunes would reverse overnight. Until then, chiding Democrats for their lack of enthusiasm will earn only a single-finger salute from the base.

Don't Kick a Party When It's Down, by Jaime Harrison, Substack.

September 16, 2025
Without Economic Justice, Freedom Dies

Last time, I gave a crash course on Milton Friedman and how his philosophy of the economy has been exploited and corrupted by government and private actors for their own gain, to the detriment of the general population.

In Friedman's limited government scheme, not even tender mercies remain for those who, through no fault of their own, struggle to produce things other people want to buy, or are able to buy. Determination of a person's worth based only on how others value their productivity in the present is nonsensical on its face. How much human genius was only recognized after the death of its author? What about the dynamic mismatch between supply and demand in the job market? And what's to become of those suffering from disabling injury or mental illness which prevent them from producing anything at all? While the free market is a highly effective wealth engine, we've seen time and again that it is profoundly incapable of addressing human problems most of us care about.

A private economy—the free exchange of value for value—is necessary in a free society, but insufficient to meet all of its needs. (That there is debate around whether food, clean air and water, inexpensive transportation, housing and medical care are genuine needs, and that self-identified Christians are refuting that they are, shocks the conscience.) Organizations that render essential services at below-market prices, services essential to the wellbeing of poor Americans, cannot survive in Friedman's scheme. Suffering and premature death are features of laissez faire capitalism, not bugs. Government must fill the gaps. Nothing else will, certainly not private charity.

~ ~ ~

Coming at an apex of economic justice in America, a triumph centuries in the making, Friedman's manifesto told us to throw it all away.

We had vanquished slavery and child labor, invented retirement without poverty and disease, ended Jim Crow and its destruction of Black Americans' generational wealth, expanded access to medical care for seniors and the poor, earned the right to unionize, and spawned the middle class. We were on the road to eliminating the military draft and its discriminatory focus on poor and uneducated men. The feminist movement had started the process of moving toward gender equality in the economy.

All of these gains, earned through the blood, sweat and tears of soldiers, laborers and protesters, were codified through legislative action: the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th amendments, the New Deal, the Civil Rights Act, along with many lesser known pieces of legislation.

Then, in the 1970s, everything changed. Economic and cultural upheaval ripped asunder the coalition of left-wing activists and blue-collar workers comprising the Democratic base. Republicans sensed an opportunity to cleave White working class Democrats from their party. They characterized left-wing activists as anti-American lunatics and abortion as murder. Invoking Friedman, they claimed that entitlements make people lazy and diminish the value of hard work.

The strategy succeeded. White working-class Democrats with moderate or conservative social viewpoints switched to the Republican party in droves.

As Republicans have built their new coalition, Friedman has continued to serve them in multiple ways. The limited role for government he envisioned provides justification for ending any economic or social program Republicans don't like, no further discussion needed. Meantime, Republicans attack liberty delivered by the courts, in the form of Roe v. Wade, Obergefell v. Hodges, or stays to unconstitutional administrative orders, as judicial activism.

Once the Republican Party's simple message of small government, low taxes, and patriotism was internalized by the electorate, it became easier and easier to ignore that Friedman had argued, above all, for personal freedom. As Republicans have chased the support of various interest groups, their guiding principles have morphed from laissez faire individualism to Christian theocracy, nativism, authoritarian power housed in the executive branch, partisan law enforcement and prosecution, denial of science, denial of election outcomes, and more—all the bad things the Founders had attempted to shield us against.

And, as it would not serve their objectives to do so, Republicans have never reduced the size of government, only redirected it in detrimental ways.

~ ~ ~

Consider the admonitions of libertarians that we cannot and should not wish away debilitating scarcity by clicking our heels three times (or by establishing a government program).

This flavor of libertarianism is horseshit. Occasionally, an existential threat appears to remind us that ideological purity is 100% aspiration and 0% practicality. When such a crisis flares up, we stop what we're doing, start shoveling, and keep it up until the fire is out. In a recent example, public-private partnerships developed COVID-19 vaccines and brought a brutal pandemic to heel. Should we listen to the crazies and not develop a vaccine the next time around? RFK Jr. wants us to do exactly that.

No doubt, government made deadly mistakes in its response to COVID-19. In the aggregate though, the response saved millions more lives than it cost.

It's no accident that the MAGA propaganda engine is firing on all cylinders to paint the entirety of our COVID-19 mitigations, including vaccines, as left-wing overreach. Community, regional, and federal co-operation distributes power Trump and his enablers want to consolidate in the Oval Office. Trump burns so intensely for power, he is willing to toss his greatest accomplishment in public life, facilitating the development of COVID-19 vaccines, into the bonfire.

Libertarians think taxation is theft. Sometimes, it is. But a robust private economy depends upon public projects which the private economy is often not interested in pursuing: Roads, bridges, railroads, power infrastructure, and electronic networks required to make commerce possible, and wide distribution of water, food, housing and healthcare required to keep workers healthy.

~ ~ ~

It's the nature of individual liberties to bump into each other. Civil jurisprudence comprises adjudications, healing of the literal or figurative bruises formed whenever freedoms and rights collide. In other words, no right is absolute. But rights ought not be tossed out because conditions apply to them. For example, if we can design a healthcare system with fewer unnecessary deaths, at a cost society can bear, shouldn't we do it? As we aspire to let free markets solve all our problems, should we not step in, by altering the legal framework of the private economy and with public service programs, when markets fail and people are dying?

Instead, we witness first-hand the dangers of economic and theocratic ideology twisted to serve the powerful at the expense of the general population. Enabled by the lie that government is universally wasteful and ineffective and the bizarre claim that mercy is "woke," essential supports, reliefs, and safeguards are being stripped away: consumer and environment protection, Medicaid, USAID, vaccine research, public broadcasting, voting rights, the Posse Comitatus Act, neutral courtroom justice, due process, disaster response and more, all weakened or eliminated. As right-wing violence escalates, Trump decries "radical left-wing lunatics" as pretext to "root them out" in dictatorial fashion. And Trump is just getting started.

It can seem as hopeless as trying to stop the rain, but we must rise up to diffuse this particular storm or it will drown us.

September 4, 2025
Our Predatory POTUS

By his own admission, Trump is a sexual predator. Victims and the courts agree. There is a preponderance of evidence that minors are among the victims. That a majority of voters have ignored this fact for a decade speaks to how far off course we are as a country.

[This story was updated on September 10 to include recent developments.]

What voters knew, or should have known, prior to electing Trump in 2016:

What voters knew, or should have known, prior to electing Trump in 2024:

What voters know, or should know, in September 2025:

Let's connect the dots. Donald Trump is a convicted felon and an adjudicated rapist. Trump said he walked into a dressing room where pageant contestants were naked. Miss USA Teen contestants say he walked into a dressing room full of girls as young as 15. Trump says he feels entitled to touch and violate women when and how he wishes with impunity. Over 20 women say he has done exactly that.

The one remaining question is whether Trump would draw a distinction between a 19-year-old and a 15-year-old object of his depravity.

Trump's sexual misconduct, his grave fear of the Epstein files becoming public, and his tyrannical mindset have yielded direct threats to members of Congress who insist that the the files be released. The White House has called their actions a "hostile act." The DOJ has attempted to give Republican members of Congress cover by releasing a small amount of heavily redacted material.

Of special note is Marjorie Taylor Greene's complete break with the White House on the Epstein matter. Heretofore a passionate supporter of everything Trump, Greene may have done such a good job of selling the notion of a vast network of sexual predators running the world that her constituents will not be quieted by pushback, even when it comes from Trump himself.

One thing is clear. On the issue of sexual predation alone, no one with a working brain and heart can possibly think Trump is qualified to lead our democratic republic. That he won in 2024, and that he continues as president without mass protest, is a testament to the skill of Trump's propagandists, the aversion to or inability of US voters to gather information, and the capacity of the human mind to hold contradictory beliefs without discomfort.

Sources:

Wikipedia, Donald Trump sexual misconduct allegations

Rolling Stone, A Timeline of Donald Trump's Creepiness While He Owned Miss Universe

People, Teen Beauty Queens Say Donald Trump Walked in on Them Changing When They Were as Young as 15

BBC, US election: Full transcript of Donald Trump's obscene videotape

PBS, Trump shames former beauty pageant winner on social media

Politico, 11 witnesses testified in Donald Trump’s rape trial. Here’s what they said.

ABC News, 3rd accuser testifies Trump started 'kissing me' during 2005 visit to Mar-a-Lago

MSNBC, Trump insults attorney, confuses E. Jean Carroll for ex-wife in deposition video

Wikipedia, Criminal trial of Donald Trump in New York

NPR, Jeffrey Epstein files: Tracing the legal cases that led to sex-trafficking charges

US Department of Justice, Ghislaine Maxwell Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison For Conspiring With Jeffrey Epstein To Sexually Abuse Minors

NY Times, Attorney General Told Trump His Name Appeared in Epstein Files

PBS, How Trump spent years stoking dark theories, and why he’s facing Epstein case blowback now

BBC, 'We know their names': Epstein victims say they are making their own list

BBC, Trump says Epstein 'stole' young women from his Mar-a-Lago spa

CNN, The Trump administration’s elaborate mirage of transparency on Epstein

CBS News, Jeffrey Epstein survivors call for full files to be released: "We matter now"

NY Times, On Epstein Files, Women Lead the G.O.P. Resistance to Trump

The Hill, White House: Trump was not an FBI informant on Epstein

Reuters, Trump sues Wall Street Journal over Epstein report, seeks $10 billion

CBS News, House panel releases more records from Jeffrey Epstein's estate, including letter allegedly written by Trump

CBS News, Trump makes questionable comments about young girls in 1992 video

CNN, Donald Trump to Howard Stern: It’s okay to call my daughter a ‘piece of ass’

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