The US had to come to this point. We couldn’t go on as we were, even under Democratic presidents. For 40 years, a narrow economic elite has been siphoning off ever more wealth and power.
Over the last 40 years, starting with Ronald Reagan, the US went off the rails: deregulation, privatization, free trade, wild gambling by Wall Street, union-busting, monopolization, record levels of inequality, stagnant wages for most, staggering wealth for a few, big money taking over our politics.
America’s so-called “leadership class” is a sham. Most of them do not care a whit for the rest of the US. They are out for themselves.
The “fucking nightmare” is not over by any stretch. It’s likely to get worse in 2026 as Trump and his sycophants, and many of America’s “leaders”, realize 2026 may be their last unrestrained year to inflict damage and siphon off the spoils.
Remember: we’ve heard this before
I still think the Sarah Palin floor - the 20-30-some percent of dead-enders that support Republicans no matter what they do - will likely never wake up.
He’s right, but (and this is a huge but) it will get worse before it gets better.
Like others have said in here, there’s a hard 30% that will always side with Trump, the Republicans, fascism, etc. That won’t change. And in 2024, there was a swath of voters who just wanted change and voted for Trump (without realizing that the change would be bad and already attempted), and an even larger group was just apathetic.
The “change” people are the first to start to wake up. How many posts on Twitter, etc. can be summed up as “I didn’t vote for this”? Eventually, as things get worse, the apathetic will start to care. That’s when things will start turning but not a minute before. Trump and company are trying to consolidate power and can’t help but be incredibly cruel, brazen, and stupid in the process.
They will cause an economic crisis, hurt untold numbers in all communities, and more. That’s their undoing, though. If they left it to simple corruption, isolationism, pro-Russia, anti-trans etc. policies that only hurt small pockets of the country where it’s easy enough to stick your head in the sand, then the apathetic will stay that way. But this administration can’t help but generally immiserate everyone in pursuit of their fascist goals. When general immiseration arrives, that’s when we’ll see the reckoning. For now, it’s still too easy to ignore what’s happening if you want.
Like the apocryphal Churchill quote says, “Americans will always do the right thing, when they’ve exhausted all other options.” We still haven’t exhausted all other options, but we’re getting there.
the top 10% are still doing fine, and the top 20% are more or less still seeing improvements and are relative stable lives.
nothing will change until the top 10% start being affected. because they account for over half of all consumer spending and are all the mangers, decision makers, business owners, etc. most of these people trend democratic actually, but they are Biden style democrats who want things to keep going as they are above all else.
it’s about economics really, not politics.
Americans are waking up.
If they put as much effort into waking up as they do into protesting then all the rest of the world will hear is snoring.
Yeah, but you can imagine what it would be like if they were.
Well, hurry up
This would be nice if true, but I’m very hesitant to believe that this time is different since we’re on year 9 of centrist Democrats claiming that “the fever is about to break.”
I feel like people using this analogy are forgetting that fevers don’t always break. Sometimes they kill you.
Sometimes fevers break. Sometimes they break you.
Were it not for that painful national exposure to racist brutality, we wouldn’t have gotten the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act.
Yeah so how those holding up nowadays? Gains should not be able to be ripped back, as Donnie is doing now. We shouldn’t have to fight AGAIN for that which has been won.
But if those are the rules, Dems need to grind this Republican trash into the dirt to the point that even if take backs are allowed there are none of them left to do it.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. That which can be gained can always be lost if we grow complacent, which we did.
Wishful thinking. Polls still show 30 to 40 percent support Trump and his awful policies. Those people actuallyvote R no matter what. Another thirty percent can’t be bothered to get off their asses to go to the polls. Nothing will change until the “I can’t be bothered” crowd is swayed to actually vote for their interests.
Nothing will change until we start asking why people don’t bother to vote, instead of fruitlessly balling our fists, shitting our diapers, and whining that it’s not fair that so many people choose not to vote.
You can moan all you want about non voters, but brow beating people will only drive them away from your side faster. The truth is non voters don’t vote for real reasons, primarily because they don’t think either side represents them. You can whine and moan that people need to think more strategically, but no amount of crying will change the fact that a good chunk of the electorate simply doesn’t share your values and approach to voting. Some people vote strategically, some only when they feel they can truly support a candidate. Screaming at people, “you simply have to approach voting the way I do!!!” won’t convince anyone.
People have different values and priors, and they do not owe you their votes. In a democracy, saying “I can’t stand either of these monsters. I don’t care what happens, I’m not participating, a pox on both your houses!” is a perfectly valid choice. A core principle of democracy is that we’re allowed to believe different things, and brow beating people will not get them to support you.
Don’t blame non voters. It’s intellectually lazy and a cop out meant to prevent Democrats from making the hard changes necessary to actually appeal to this population of non voters. Trump managed to mobilize millions of non voters. He didn’t do so by whining at them and telling them to vote strategy. He did it by inspiring them and convincing them he was looking out for them. It was all lies, but it worked. If you want to mobilize non voters, you need to find ways and policies that actually appeal to them. Simply complaining about non voters will not work, just as it hasn’t worked for the last 40 years.
And while I’m sure you’re already typing a comment telling me it’s my fault Trump got elected because I didn’t vote, you’re wrong. I did hold my nose and fruitlessly vote for the Cheney lover, for all the good that did. I just have enough humility to realize that those who don’t vote have very good reasons for doing so.
All I see is sullen acquiescence, as the Republicans have gone full fascist and the Democrats (at least 90% of them) are AWOL or pretending it’s still business as usual. And the people are still taking orders, not taking over.
Give it some time. Whether intentional or unintentional, Trump has been teeing up economic collapse, and things are likely to come unglued in late 2026. Right-wingers have been harping on “the deficit” for decades, while doing nothing but increasing it. You can maintain a 2% budget deficit indefinitely so long as your economy grows by 3%. However, Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” boosts the budget deficit to ~6%, and ~1/3 of U.S. debt matures in 2026 and will have to be rolled-over into new, higher rate bonds. However, notwithstanding the rapidly approaching massive growth in the cost of debt service, Trump’s policies are shrinking the economy.
It is well known that population growth = economic growth, as each additional person contributes their labor and needs to buy food, housing, clothing, transportation, etc., etc. Conversely, shrinking the population by kicking out people contributing to the economy causes it to shrink, and Trump is kicking out people that help produce food and work in construction, not only shrinking the economy but also boosting the costs of production, contributing to inflation.
In addition, tariffs shrink foreign trade, and levying outrageous tariffs on other countries invites retaliation. Look at what has happened to soybean farmers with respect to China’s purchase of soybeans and alcohol distillers with respect to Canadian purchases of alcohol.
While all of this sets the stage for a future financial crisis, in the same that a household maxing out its credit card debt, rolling it over each month on new credit sets up a personal financial crisis, as eventually you run out of credit cards willing to underwrite your risk, there is reason to believe that the crisis will come sooner rather than later. This is because Jerome Powell’s term as Fed Chairman is up in May of 2026, and Trump will definitely put in a lackey that will do whatever Trump wants, rather than what is prudent for the U.S., and Trump has made it crystal clear that he wants the Fed to lower interest rates to juice the economy.
So what is going to happen is that there will be low demand for U.S. government bonds to refinance the debt, forcing higher rates to compensate for the risky financial position the U.S. is in and also forcing the Fed to buy them, effectively printing money. Add in the fact that the world no longer sees the U.S. as a reliable partner, and it will destroy the dollar, further reducing it’s demand and causing a massive inflation spike, and a financial crisis at a level not seen since the Great Depression, with bank runs, etc. There is a reason that gold is in the greatest bull market of all time, and continues to make new all-time highs. It’s because central banks are shifting away from dollar assets (central banks now hold more gold than U.S. treasuries), and individuals are looking to protect their assets. We will likely have a “melt up” (massive stock market spike) as people scramble to get out of dollars and into harder assets, and then a collapse. I expect gold to top $8K in 2026. Buckle up, because we’re living in interesting times!
Give it some time.
Americans have been like this for generations, steadily getting worse. Time’s up.
This has literally never happened and its not happening now.
Tell that to my MAGA shithead coworker who still thinks Trump walks on water
No they aren’t. They would’ve woken up those 40 years ago.
Ha, nope. A headline like this is not even worth clicking.
It’s Robert Reich, he’s worth paying some attention to.
He usually has sensible takes, but this one feels like he’s lost in wishful thinking.
I agree with him, I just think that the reckoning is going to be far bloodier than he does.
Ha, nope. A headline like this is not even worth clicking.
They just said they don’t want to wake up. Too busy writing comments to pay attention.
