This is so well put! Count in the campus protesters whose entire theory of change, rested on the fact that they would be able to continue to protest, against financially viable universities, in a country where geopolitical decisions were made on sound rationale. Count in also people like suburban women I talked to who said “ I despise him, but I’ve always been a Republican.” So much of this was failure of imagination. But at the same time, I think some of it was just being willing to embrace some authoritarianism if it means being able to get shit done. As the abundance guys illuminate, government bureaucracy has so utterly shackled our ability to act in any meaningful way that it’s destroyed trust in the system. To defeat this scourge long term, Trump’s authoritarian project needs to fail, but also the Democratic project needs to streamline its ability to deliver.
This is so well put! Count in the campus protesters whose entire theory of change, rested on the fact that they would be able to continue to protest, against financially viable universities, in a country where geopolitical decisions were made on sound rationale. Count in also people like suburban women I talked to who said “ I despise him, but I’ve always been a Republican.” So much of this was failure of imagination. But at the same time, I think some of it was just being willing to embrace some authoritarianism if it means being able to get shit done. As the abundance guys illuminate, government bureaucracy has so utterly shackled our ability to act in any meaningful way that it’s destroyed trust in the system. To defeat this scourge long term, Trump’s authoritarian project needs to fail, but also the Democratic project needs to streamline its ability to deliver.