You might remember I’m from Chicago, so I stand up and take note when that’s part of a conversation. This weekend I saw ICE gassing and arresting CITIZENS in a near northwest side neighborhood.. It’s a blue collar, working class, soul-of-America type of locale, traditionally heavily Polish and inhabited by plumbers, electrical workers, bakers and small restaurant owners. And so we’re gassing them.
It nearly brought tears to my eyes watching the neighbors resist. More of that, please.
Johnson’s engaging in nothing more than performative, neo populism here. Just like Booker and Merkley taking to the Senate floor and rambling for 22 hours, accomplishing exactly nothing. Who remembers anything they said?
This is where my party fails us. Although you and I are being critical of Johnson, at least he’s calling for action. Not writing memos like our national leaders.
Last point: There’s something going on on the left side of the media that’s unhelpful: I’ll call it ‘aspirational journalism’.
Writing articles and talking about things that one ASPIRES to be true. “His campaign is falling apart”; “Late deciders are breaking for Kamala”; “farmers will turn on him”. Stuff like that, and I see it from some of our best writers and voices, like Rick Wilson, who I love. (Not Heather). We tell ourselves these things because it’s what we WANT to be true; because in it’s what SHOULD be true.
Now it’s “when he’s gone things will revert to normal”. All of these things are aspirational and devoid of cold hard realities. We are in deeper trouble than most ppl want to realize.
BTW, a great book recommendation: “Strongmen” by Ruth ben Ghiat. It examines 20th century autocrats from Mussolini to Hitler to Pinochet to Khadafy to Trump and more. This administration is using the EXACT same playbook, to a T. I could write another 5 pages on it.
For the love of GOD, can a JFK or RFK (Sr), or some inspirational figure please come forward?
Steve,
You might remember I’m from Chicago, so I stand up and take note when that’s part of a conversation. This weekend I saw ICE gassing and arresting CITIZENS in a near northwest side neighborhood.. It’s a blue collar, working class, soul-of-America type of locale, traditionally heavily Polish and inhabited by plumbers, electrical workers, bakers and small restaurant owners. And so we’re gassing them.
It nearly brought tears to my eyes watching the neighbors resist. More of that, please.
Johnson’s engaging in nothing more than performative, neo populism here. Just like Booker and Merkley taking to the Senate floor and rambling for 22 hours, accomplishing exactly nothing. Who remembers anything they said?
This is where my party fails us. Although you and I are being critical of Johnson, at least he’s calling for action. Not writing memos like our national leaders.
Last point: There’s something going on on the left side of the media that’s unhelpful: I’ll call it ‘aspirational journalism’.
Writing articles and talking about things that one ASPIRES to be true. “His campaign is falling apart”; “Late deciders are breaking for Kamala”; “farmers will turn on him”. Stuff like that, and I see it from some of our best writers and voices, like Rick Wilson, who I love. (Not Heather). We tell ourselves these things because it’s what we WANT to be true; because in it’s what SHOULD be true.
Now it’s “when he’s gone things will revert to normal”. All of these things are aspirational and devoid of cold hard realities. We are in deeper trouble than most ppl want to realize.
BTW, a great book recommendation: “Strongmen” by Ruth ben Ghiat. It examines 20th century autocrats from Mussolini to Hitler to Pinochet to Khadafy to Trump and more. This administration is using the EXACT same playbook, to a T. I could write another 5 pages on it.
For the love of GOD, can a JFK or RFK (Sr), or some inspirational figure please come forward?
Mike - thanks for these thoughts. I also really enjoyed your post on “Aspirational Journalism.”
Others - Mike’s great article is here. https://open.substack.com/pub/mjwalsh54/p/aspirational-journalism?r=490wha&utm_medium=ios