The woman in the cartoon here is actually author National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
She makes an interesting point.
At this point in history, most enlightened minds would like to see the United States move in the direction of the form of government found in most of the other developed countries, e.g., the “social democracies” Europe and Scandinavia.
This is a long way from Marxism, but it’s not completely deregulated capitalism either. If you live in Denmark and want to get filthy rich, you’ll run into the same marginal tax rates that we had here in the U.S. from the 1930s through the 1970s: around 90%. It doesn’t mean that you can’t be an Elon Musk or a Jeff Bezos, but it does mean that you won’t be able to get there without paying your fair share of taxes.
It’s no coincidence that these folks are the mentally and, in many cases, physically healthiest people on Earth; they have achieved that position largely by virtue of their political philosophy, which may be summarized as follows: We live in a human society. If it costs me a few extra Euros to eradicate homelessness, the death of relatively poor people with treatable diseases, and the ignorance of those without means to afford an education, that’s 100% OK with me.
In a better world, the International Criminal Court would have much greater power to prosecute war crimes.
Today, winding up at The Hague requires terrible luck, and it’s virtually impossible to happen to a Donald Trump or a Pete Hegseth, given the enormous military might that the United States possesses.
Contrast this to what happened to Slobodan Milošević, who was arrested when his countries, Yugoslavia and Serbia, were overthrown.
The prediction made here is nearly certain to come true.
The question is what happens at the point. E.g., how long does it take to rebuild trade deals and relationships with allies?
Keep in mind that regardless of the manner in which Trump loses power, there will always be “news” outlets like Fox and Newsmax, trying their best to convince the idiots that Trump was hounded and persecuted by the communists who hate America.
All I can say about the me here is that personally I refused, against considerable pressure from my family, to indoctrinate my children into something I myself could not accept.
Is it actually “psychological abuse” to indoctrinate children into monotheistic religion? Whether to take it that far is an open question.
My parents, both atheists, sent my brother and me to Sunday School, as they thought it wrong to cut us off from a modality of growing up in America in the early 1960s. I don’t blame them, but again, it’s not something I was willing to replicate with my own children.
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