Screw 2029–we won’t last that long. We need a Project 2026.
And for those who are not old-movie fans, almost 84 years ago Katharine Hepburn listed the points of Project 2025 as a warning. Did we listen? No, because Keeper of the Flame was “just a movie” (…from 1942 (during WWII, when we were fighting the Nazis…)).
There certainly are enough of us who want a new vision. And the ideas Jim suggest are rational, smart, viable, appealing. What would it take to GALVANIZE people? I think at the center there has to be a story about why we stayed asleep so long and why we are awake now.
This is a great, great piece. All through reading it, I’m thinking: are the Democrats READING this?! Here’s a blueprint! Hire him for Heavens sake!
But more to the point, you articulate so clearly what a lot of us are feeling, a growing inchoate desperation: this can’t be, these ugly puny greedy nobodies taking over our great country! With our great heart and our great history and our great dreams— but it seems those dreams and heart are scattered in little pockets — for too long we’ve let other interests besides morality take over— we can’t find ourselves and we want to, so badly.
Great list, you can add kill Citizens' United, reform Supreme Court tenure, and the Electoral College. Unfortunately, our social well-being has a much lower priority when you are dealing with power, unfettered capitalism and the enabling institutions. We need a new vision and we have to rise up. :)
I appreciate the boldness and the clarity of your plan. Refreshing! I think the very first thing we need to do is to rename the Dems “the Democracy Party”. Can’t be more clear than that… and they’d have to stop calling us “the Democrat Party” which some Republican suggested bc it rhymed with beaurocrat. ” I’m sick of hearing it. And the Democracy party should refer to the other side as the Authoritarian Party. We need to re engineer our language to more truthfully represent our reality.
Yes, this. Also, Corporations are legal entities, not people. And money is not speech. Disallow any/all corporate money in politics. Tax corporations equitably - the bigger they are the higher the rate. End institutionalized bribery couched as inauguration and ballroom funds, etc. Ban dark money. Every ad and opinion piece links back to clearly identified human beings. Regulate business. Make the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as powerful as the DoD.
I think the stories need an overarching theme that resonates with large numbers of voters. Something like screw the greedy billionaires and foreign lobbyists and spies corrupting our country and stealing from average Americans. Fighting corruption and leveling the playing field will make America affordable again and give everyday Americans a shot at the American dream. Let’s start with universal healthcare as a right for all American citizens.
Those are all fabulous ideas, but first we should do stuff like get dark money out of politics and perhaps even go all the way to make elections publicly funded. If we the people want to own government, we need to pay for it. Big money corrupts too easily. We also have to fix the news media with regulations too, as well as regulate social media. We can not operate on lies. I think news media and journalists should have to be licensed and pledge integrity, which is similar to what we do with lawyers and doctors. A professional journalist is under strict rules of integrity, but you still have to let the nuts talk, so we would have to make the title professional journalist mean something. So damned many things. I bet if we knew everything guys like Musk, Zuck, and Thiel etc., have done, we would demand their heads.
We should demand their heads. That’s one thing that’s wrong: we demand murderers’ heads, easy as pie. Yet those individuals have murdered-or tried very hard to kill- things like truth. Decency. Empathy.
It would be difficult to quantify the damage, but no doubt it's enormous. We can hope. The liars and ruthless SOBs keep the truth about themselves well hidden. Historically, high-level propaganda peddlers have been executed for treason. ie Lord Haw Haw.
It's about the stories! Great essay, Jim. Nobody wants to hear a politician speak and there's no reason our story can't be as outrageous, better yet audacious, on the good side as theirs is on the bad side.
If somebody wants to understand the economics of capitalism and billionaires better go check out Grace Blakely, a brilliant British economist who's also unsubstack.
Yes, tax billionaires to death. But remember. The money they are sitting on is money paid by every person who ever lived. They are holding the national debt, every penny of it. We gave it to them in dollars and labor. So it's OUR money we recover through taxation, not theirs. Remember that when you talk about taxes. Unless people understand this, we will get nowhere.
Thank you for your efforts to alert us; your highlighting of the need for a vision is absolutely on target.
Screw 2029–we won’t last that long. We need a Project 2026.
And for those who are not old-movie fans, almost 84 years ago Katharine Hepburn listed the points of Project 2025 as a warning. Did we listen? No, because Keeper of the Flame was “just a movie” (…from 1942 (during WWII, when we were fighting the Nazis…)).
I vote for an updated version of Dr Strangelove film with depictions of the current cast of insane characters holding political power now
End of film shows US constitution on washboard about to be destroyed totally
It’s the one structure people can rally around and it needs to be changed radically. It’s 2025 not 1789. 17 new amendments added to Bill of Rights.
But I repeat myself…
There certainly are enough of us who want a new vision. And the ideas Jim suggest are rational, smart, viable, appealing. What would it take to GALVANIZE people? I think at the center there has to be a story about why we stayed asleep so long and why we are awake now.
I think your suggestions are spot on.
This is a great, great piece. All through reading it, I’m thinking: are the Democrats READING this?! Here’s a blueprint! Hire him for Heavens sake!
But more to the point, you articulate so clearly what a lot of us are feeling, a growing inchoate desperation: this can’t be, these ugly puny greedy nobodies taking over our great country! With our great heart and our great history and our great dreams— but it seems those dreams and heart are scattered in little pockets — for too long we’ve let other interests besides morality take over— we can’t find ourselves and we want to, so badly.
Awesome article! And a lot of great suggestions from the comments below. Our time is now.
Great list, you can add kill Citizens' United, reform Supreme Court tenure, and the Electoral College. Unfortunately, our social well-being has a much lower priority when you are dealing with power, unfettered capitalism and the enabling institutions. We need a new vision and we have to rise up. :)
Jim, absolutely. We need to tell the Big Story of our time. Unify the cognitive field.
I appreciate the boldness and the clarity of your plan. Refreshing! I think the very first thing we need to do is to rename the Dems “the Democracy Party”. Can’t be more clear than that… and they’d have to stop calling us “the Democrat Party” which some Republican suggested bc it rhymed with beaurocrat. ” I’m sick of hearing it. And the Democracy party should refer to the other side as the Authoritarian Party. We need to re engineer our language to more truthfully represent our reality.
All. Of. This. Jim.
Yes, this. Also, Corporations are legal entities, not people. And money is not speech. Disallow any/all corporate money in politics. Tax corporations equitably - the bigger they are the higher the rate. End institutionalized bribery couched as inauguration and ballroom funds, etc. Ban dark money. Every ad and opinion piece links back to clearly identified human beings. Regulate business. Make the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as powerful as the DoD.
I think the stories need an overarching theme that resonates with large numbers of voters. Something like screw the greedy billionaires and foreign lobbyists and spies corrupting our country and stealing from average Americans. Fighting corruption and leveling the playing field will make America affordable again and give everyday Americans a shot at the American dream. Let’s start with universal healthcare as a right for all American citizens.
Those are all fabulous ideas, but first we should do stuff like get dark money out of politics and perhaps even go all the way to make elections publicly funded. If we the people want to own government, we need to pay for it. Big money corrupts too easily. We also have to fix the news media with regulations too, as well as regulate social media. We can not operate on lies. I think news media and journalists should have to be licensed and pledge integrity, which is similar to what we do with lawyers and doctors. A professional journalist is under strict rules of integrity, but you still have to let the nuts talk, so we would have to make the title professional journalist mean something. So damned many things. I bet if we knew everything guys like Musk, Zuck, and Thiel etc., have done, we would demand their heads.
We should demand their heads. That’s one thing that’s wrong: we demand murderers’ heads, easy as pie. Yet those individuals have murdered-or tried very hard to kill- things like truth. Decency. Empathy.
It would be difficult to quantify the damage, but no doubt it's enormous. We can hope. The liars and ruthless SOBs keep the truth about themselves well hidden. Historically, high-level propaganda peddlers have been executed for treason. ie Lord Haw Haw.
It's about the stories! Great essay, Jim. Nobody wants to hear a politician speak and there's no reason our story can't be as outrageous, better yet audacious, on the good side as theirs is on the bad side.
If somebody wants to understand the economics of capitalism and billionaires better go check out Grace Blakely, a brilliant British economist who's also unsubstack.
Yes, tax billionaires to death. But remember. The money they are sitting on is money paid by every person who ever lived. They are holding the national debt, every penny of it. We gave it to them in dollars and labor. So it's OUR money we recover through taxation, not theirs. Remember that when you talk about taxes. Unless people understand this, we will get nowhere.
In fact, that fact is/was not clear to me. You are right we should make it clear as day.