Two key declarations in the neoliberal surge of the eighties were made my Thatcher and Reagan

In '86 Reagan described the 9 most 'terrifying' words in the English language as "I'm from the government and I'm here to help"

I remember this being reported in Rolling Stone like it was some kind of counter-culture platitude, unworthy of serious analysis or consideration

In '87 Thatcher said "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families"

#neoliberalism #politicalEconomy #socialDemocracy #whereToFromHere

Bit of historical context by Reece Jones

'The tactics in Minneapolis have been used both on the border and beyond — against immigrants and citizens alike — during the Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden presidencies'

#borders #usPol #fascism #whereToFromHere

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/opinion/border-patrol-ice-minneapolis.html?unlocked_article_code=1.KFA.jh7B.OQhESeXwplwJ&smid=bs-share

Ned Resnikoff on Strategy, Bureaucracy and the Left

'On the one hand, the left needs a muscular state...to realize its vision. On the other hand, there exists a strain of leftist thought that is inclined to reject anything that smacks of hierarchy, centralization, formal rules, and decisions made through any process other than consensus'

#whereToFromHere #left #strategy #politics

https://dissentmagazine.org/article/the-left-needs-bureaucrats/

Cheery first post for the year

'had progressives not voted for Ralph Nader in Florida in 2000, Al Gore would have become president, and we never would have been lied into two illegal wars, given trillions in tax breaks to billionaires, or gotten John Roberts and Sam Alito on the Supreme Court...Had progressives in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin not voted for Jill Stein in 2016, Hillary Clinton would have become president and America would have been spared the trauma of 500,000 unnecessary Covid deaths; Barret, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch on the Court; another $5 trillion in tax breaks for billionaires; and the ongoing DOGE assault'

#usPol #historicalContext #democracy #whereToFromHere

https://hartmannreport.com/p/why-do-third-party-dreams-keep-turning-4d7

"Conventional wisdom does not break easily. But when it does, it breaks irreparably...There is a limit to the political effectiveness of rich men who have servants telling regular people that their lives cannot be better. We may have reached that limit. "

#DemocraticSocialism #Democracy #Mamdani #WhereToFromHere

https://inthesetimes.com/article/zohran-mamdani-nyc-mayor-cuomo-democratic-party