Democrats and Republicans run the same two-column con: fake promises, hidden agendas, zero results. A nonpartisan breakdown of America's two-party system.
I agree with your post. I've felt for years, since 1972, that something isn't "right". The American citizens are being manipulated and bamboozled. The left says this, the right says that. And neither comes into fruition. Same play, same plot, same results.
Question: How far back does this really go? Has our "democracy" always been a poorly run restaurant serving poisoned food?
I'm 43. I've been particularly upset that my entire adult life is seemed exactly like you've said. I've actually done a lot of work on the topic so naturally I was very interested in where it began nobody could tell me I had to decide myself i kept asking people that if it was always accepted that the government was so corrupt… not was it corrupt not do people know. Is it accepted?! The confusion at that question has bothered me forever. It reminds me of when I would ask people why all of the movies growing up had Russians as the enemy and they would tell me the cold war. I would ask what that was and they would say that it's a fight against communism. And I would ask what that is and their explanation seems benign but also seems like a difference of ideas not something to go to war over… now as an adult when I look back that feeling that you're talking about and that I'm talking about is the reason I write.
I write bluntly and truthfully because I believe that an informed citizenry… can't be manipulated easily… if at all. @Rxan Smith
This is one of the more honest structural comparisons I've read, and I say that as someone who writes in this exact lane. Your barrier vs. guardrail test is the single most useful regulatory frame in circulation, and your "program-pipe capture" section names something most left-leaning writers refuse to touch.
One place I'd push: I think the party is the wrong unit of analysis. Both failure modes you describe (rule-changing for private power, insider-managed pipes) are the same underlying phenomenon, aligned incentives producing extraction, just wearing different uniforms. Frame it as power vs. people rather than R vs. D and the "which party is worse" question becomes less important than "which mechanisms survive no matter who wins."
Either way, the shared corruption machine section should be required reading. Raise the money, reward access, call it democracy. That's the whole racket in one sentence. Awesome
I’ve been considering your suggestions and not convinced change is needed. Yes the ending result is the same. Both rip off the American people but knowledge of the primary methods used could help us stay more vigilant.
It’s sad but if the Republican plutocracy achieves its goal then they will no longer really need to appease the electorate and both party members will suffer equally. We seem to be quickly running out of time!
Fair pushback, and I don't think we disagree as much as it looks. Knowing the specific playbook each party runs has real tactical value. My "power vs. people" point was about diagnosis, not defense. If you're naming the disease, aligned incentives producing extraction is the diagnosis regardless of party. But you're right that the specific symptoms look different day to day. Gerrymandering doesn't look like grant capture, and knowing which one you're watching for is what lets you actually act in the moment. Different tools, same patient.
Your last point worries me more than the vigilance question, though. A plutocracy that no longer needs to appease anyone isn't a hypothetical... it's the actual endgame.
There's a real difference between a party that has to buy your vote and a system that doesn't need your vote at all.
Once that threshold gets crossed, party-specific tactics stop mattering, because there's no electorate left to apply them to.
That's the part of the clock I'd be watching closest.
We don’t disagree in principle at all. And everywhere there’s power against the people. I think it’s obvious one party’s grab is much more dangerous and damaging AND urgent than the other.
It’s time to prepare for a “clean up”. I believe we’re close to a tipping point. Things will be so bad one way or another that the public may have the will, strength and energy to insist on a clean up and fix the corruption and loopholes that have developed overtime. Besides the corruption there also have been so many incredible changes in our world and lives over the 250 years that the framers of the Constitution could not have imagined.
I’m thinking of possibly trying to prepare people for such an overhaul. Have you been thinking along these lines also?
Rxan--I call the kinds of principles you describe disposiples, principles you discard whenever they become inconvenient. On the right, fiscal responsibility. On the left, the First Amendment. Or is the other way around?
Oh my God you are so dead on with that Tom. I'm 43 so for my whole life I've been confused at the fiscal responsibility of the right being that they took over with a balanced budget and immediately deregulated and ran up the debt.. and on the left free Speech as long as it's our speech is what I have seen
This might sound stupid…but I think the reason why nothing has changed for the last 50/60 years is because the same fn senators and congressmen have been in there since the 60’s or 70’s! We have 70-80 year old senators (one dead one that nobody will admit to), 70 year old congress members an 80 year old president and we just had an 80 year old president….how much CHANGE do you really think is going to happen? Oh wait we did get Roe v Wade overturned so we went backwards yay… even if some young people get voted in they’re overruled by old geezers. And last but not least let’s not forget the old fuckers in the Supreme Court who get to stay there until they die too. That’s just my opinion though.
You're not wrong… He's really like me and some of my friends who've never considered probably politics or having these discussions now, just because it's so obvious that we can do better, and I guess need to because somebody has to do it.And the fact that they are in the same position for thirty and forty years at a time runs counter to everything to constitution , says about what civil servant is supposed to be
From the outside (UK) it seems to me much of this is ‘stating the bleedin’ obvious!’) as John Cleese would say, but it IS important that more Americans recognise the futility of their so-called ‘democracy’ and their responsibility for addressing the problem and their part in it.
Most won’t accept the level to which they are being hoodwinked by their favourite political party - in fact they’ll just point at the other side and feel empowered to do even more to firm up their commitment to THEIR team, ignoring the fact that they are just cannon fodder in the bigger battles for dominance of the fiscal pie.
It’s no different here but at least we don’t have a narcissistic meglomaniac in the chair (a man who would be as bad for the other side if he had even looser morals and principles than he clearly has).
No other president in my 66 year life time has made being the leader of the ‘Free world’ an opportunity to make himself look and feel like a King or even a divine messiah and tell the people exactly how he plans to destroy the status quo simply to make himself and his enablers richer than anyone else who has been in that position.
I sincerely hope that your words help America get back on the ‘right’ path but that cannot happen under the current regime so more effort must be made to convince the MAGA millions that their loyalty to the big orange grifter/snoozer will not lead them to the ‘promised land’.
Thank god he’s already 80 because the sooner he exits the stage the sooner the game can be restarted and we can get back to ‘normal’!
I do appreciate that the rules of the game need changing but EVERYONE needs to know what those rules are and how they need to be managed for the good of the country.
I agree with your post. I've felt for years, since 1972, that something isn't "right". The American citizens are being manipulated and bamboozled. The left says this, the right says that. And neither comes into fruition. Same play, same plot, same results.
Question: How far back does this really go? Has our "democracy" always been a poorly run restaurant serving poisoned food?
You said it! make sure you subscribe… my publication is unlike any I've seen:
https://uncomfortable.rxansmithmedia.com
I'm 43. I've been particularly upset that my entire adult life is seemed exactly like you've said. I've actually done a lot of work on the topic so naturally I was very interested in where it began nobody could tell me I had to decide myself i kept asking people that if it was always accepted that the government was so corrupt… not was it corrupt not do people know. Is it accepted?! The confusion at that question has bothered me forever. It reminds me of when I would ask people why all of the movies growing up had Russians as the enemy and they would tell me the cold war. I would ask what that was and they would say that it's a fight against communism. And I would ask what that is and their explanation seems benign but also seems like a difference of ideas not something to go to war over… now as an adult when I look back that feeling that you're talking about and that I'm talking about is the reason I write.
I write bluntly and truthfully because I believe that an informed citizenry… can't be manipulated easily… if at all. @Rxan Smith
Secrets, influencers, shifting coalitions, corruption or what we call politics. The good the bad and the ugly truth.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ngdu90a9r95167nlekzg0/Is_your_party_still_the_party_you_think_it_is_Full_Report_with_Chris_Tuttle.pdf?rlkey=kvwdfdodc5kkb6b5q0kloxn7x&st=tql5jtvb&dl=0
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This is one of the more honest structural comparisons I've read, and I say that as someone who writes in this exact lane. Your barrier vs. guardrail test is the single most useful regulatory frame in circulation, and your "program-pipe capture" section names something most left-leaning writers refuse to touch.
One place I'd push: I think the party is the wrong unit of analysis. Both failure modes you describe (rule-changing for private power, insider-managed pipes) are the same underlying phenomenon, aligned incentives producing extraction, just wearing different uniforms. Frame it as power vs. people rather than R vs. D and the "which party is worse" question becomes less important than "which mechanisms survive no matter who wins."
Either way, the shared corruption machine section should be required reading. Raise the money, reward access, call it democracy. That's the whole racket in one sentence. Awesome
I’ve been considering your suggestions and not convinced change is needed. Yes the ending result is the same. Both rip off the American people but knowledge of the primary methods used could help us stay more vigilant.
It’s sad but if the Republican plutocracy achieves its goal then they will no longer really need to appease the electorate and both party members will suffer equally. We seem to be quickly running out of time!
Fair pushback, and I don't think we disagree as much as it looks. Knowing the specific playbook each party runs has real tactical value. My "power vs. people" point was about diagnosis, not defense. If you're naming the disease, aligned incentives producing extraction is the diagnosis regardless of party. But you're right that the specific symptoms look different day to day. Gerrymandering doesn't look like grant capture, and knowing which one you're watching for is what lets you actually act in the moment. Different tools, same patient.
Your last point worries me more than the vigilance question, though. A plutocracy that no longer needs to appease anyone isn't a hypothetical... it's the actual endgame.
There's a real difference between a party that has to buy your vote and a system that doesn't need your vote at all.
Once that threshold gets crossed, party-specific tactics stop mattering, because there's no electorate left to apply them to.
That's the part of the clock I'd be watching closest.
We don’t disagree in principle at all. And everywhere there’s power against the people. I think it’s obvious one party’s grab is much more dangerous and damaging AND urgent than the other.
It’s time to prepare for a “clean up”. I believe we’re close to a tipping point. Things will be so bad one way or another that the public may have the will, strength and energy to insist on a clean up and fix the corruption and loopholes that have developed overtime. Besides the corruption there also have been so many incredible changes in our world and lives over the 250 years that the framers of the Constitution could not have imagined.
I’m thinking of possibly trying to prepare people for such an overhaul. Have you been thinking along these lines also?
Rxan--I call the kinds of principles you describe disposiples, principles you discard whenever they become inconvenient. On the right, fiscal responsibility. On the left, the First Amendment. Or is the other way around?
Oh my God you are so dead on with that Tom. I'm 43 so for my whole life I've been confused at the fiscal responsibility of the right being that they took over with a balanced budget and immediately deregulated and ran up the debt.. and on the left free Speech as long as it's our speech is what I have seen
Thanks for your helpful comments, I’ll see what I can do!
That was fast what did you think?
Still reading
This might sound stupid…but I think the reason why nothing has changed for the last 50/60 years is because the same fn senators and congressmen have been in there since the 60’s or 70’s! We have 70-80 year old senators (one dead one that nobody will admit to), 70 year old congress members an 80 year old president and we just had an 80 year old president….how much CHANGE do you really think is going to happen? Oh wait we did get Roe v Wade overturned so we went backwards yay… even if some young people get voted in they’re overruled by old geezers. And last but not least let’s not forget the old fuckers in the Supreme Court who get to stay there until they die too. That’s just my opinion though.
You're not wrong… He's really like me and some of my friends who've never considered probably politics or having these discussions now, just because it's so obvious that we can do better, and I guess need to because somebody has to do it.And the fact that they are in the same position for thirty and forty years at a time runs counter to everything to constitution , says about what civil servant is supposed to be
Great piece Rxan,
From the outside (UK) it seems to me much of this is ‘stating the bleedin’ obvious!’) as John Cleese would say, but it IS important that more Americans recognise the futility of their so-called ‘democracy’ and their responsibility for addressing the problem and their part in it.
Most won’t accept the level to which they are being hoodwinked by their favourite political party - in fact they’ll just point at the other side and feel empowered to do even more to firm up their commitment to THEIR team, ignoring the fact that they are just cannon fodder in the bigger battles for dominance of the fiscal pie.
It’s no different here but at least we don’t have a narcissistic meglomaniac in the chair (a man who would be as bad for the other side if he had even looser morals and principles than he clearly has).
No other president in my 66 year life time has made being the leader of the ‘Free world’ an opportunity to make himself look and feel like a King or even a divine messiah and tell the people exactly how he plans to destroy the status quo simply to make himself and his enablers richer than anyone else who has been in that position.
I sincerely hope that your words help America get back on the ‘right’ path but that cannot happen under the current regime so more effort must be made to convince the MAGA millions that their loyalty to the big orange grifter/snoozer will not lead them to the ‘promised land’.
Thank god he’s already 80 because the sooner he exits the stage the sooner the game can be restarted and we can get back to ‘normal’!
I do appreciate that the rules of the game need changing but EVERYONE needs to know what those rules are and how they need to be managed for the good of the country.
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