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Politics of the Next 4 Years – Part 3 (What’s an Independent to Do?)

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Before we get started, it’s important for me to clarify where I’m coming from politically. First, here’s what I’m not, as described in last year’s piece, Thank You and Welcome New Readers – A Liberty Blitzkrieg Mission Statement:

I am not a Democrat or a Republican. I do not consider myself a libertarian, progressive, socialist, anarchist, conservative, neoconservative or neoliberal. I’m just a 38 year old guy trying to figure it all out. Naturally, this doesn’t imply that there aren’t things which I hold dear. I have a strong belief system based on key principles. It’s just that I don’t think it makes sense for me to self-label and become part of a tribe. The moment you self-label, is the moment you stop thinking for yourself. It’s also the moment you stop listening. When you think you have all the answers, anyone who doesn’t think exactly as you do on all topics is either stupid or “paid opposition.”  I don’t subscribe to this way of thinking.

If I had to describe my politics at the most macro level, I guess you could call me a decentralist. I believe the primary threat to human liberty, happiness and evolution is the concentration of power, whether it manifests in government or business.

In today’s America we’ve seen the worst of both these things come together, as oligarchs and large corporations have used their money and influence to transform the country into an undemocratic, neo-feudal cesspool. The grotesque amount of centralized power that resides in Washington D.C. proved a very tempting and easily controlled target for modern day robber barons. The major threat we face today shouldn’t be simplified into a soundbite that consists of simply attacking “business” or “government” in isolation. We need to understand and accept that concentrated power in both these areas has morphed into a unified attack force against the general public.

Two tweets I sent out yesterday summarized how I see our current situation:

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Politics of the Next 4 Years – Part 2 (Last Chance for the Democrats)

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In yesterday’s post, Politics of the Next 4 Years – Part 1 (Rise of the ‘Dirtbag Left’), I discussed the fact that a very potent grassroots movement has emerged to the left of corporate, neoliberal Democrats. This self-described “Dirtbag Left” and its allies have the potential to not just drive the Democratic Party into extinction, but also ultimately challenge Trump on the national stage. Although I’m not a Democrat or a leftist (I’m not a Republican or conservative either), I welcome this development for a number of reasons.

First, if economic populism becomes aggressively embraced by those who lean left, it will force Trump to become genuinely populist on at least some issues in order to compete in 2020, as opposed to the fake populism he has enthusiastically embraced since the election. Second, it will present corporate Democrats with a choice, either “bend the knee” as the folks at Chapo suggested, or die. Nobody believes in neoliberal ideology other than donors and their corporate media spokespeople. The entire thing is a discredited failure and isn’t coming back. As such, today’s post will explain why this is the last chance for the Democratic Party.

The political world was abuzz yesterday with chatter related to Charles “Chucky” Schumer’s op-ed in The New York Times in which he suddenly proclaims himself an economic populist, and disingenuously claims the Democratic Party has somehow changed. It consisted of many comforting phrases, but I wouldn’t believe a single line of it until I see actual action on the ground. It’s easy to talk a big game when you have zero power, but talk is cheap, as we all should have learned from both Barrack Obama and Donald Trump.

Before I get into some specifics about what I think all of this means, let’s take a look at some excerpts.

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Politics of the Next 4 Years – Part 1 (Rise of the ‘Dirtbag Left’)

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A lot of people remain in denial about the current political environment. Whether it’s a neocon Never Trumper, or a manic Hillary dead-ender, what these people all have in common is they firmly and passionately think their world is somehow coming back. They still don’t understand that the party’s over.

In our foolish apathy, we entrusted the country to these “very smart people” and they handed the entire thing over to crooked oligarchs, while simultaneously cheerleading us into a never-ending stream of reckless, inhumane imperial wars. They hollowed out and feasted on the entire nation and now, incredibly enough, have rebranded themselves as leaders of a toothless resistance to the mess they created. Delusional doesn’t even begin to describe these people. They genuinely think Trump’s rise represents some bizarre historical blip, and once the hideous blemish is removed, things can carry on as they were. That’s not going to happen.

Before I get into the thick of it, I want to revisit something I wrote a couple of weeks ago in the post, The Center Cannot Hold – Decentralize or Die:

In order to understand the long-term implications of these emails on the future of the nation, you need a good understanding of the primary warring factions in American politics today. We have Donald Trump supporters/voters, Hillary Clinton supporters/voters, and a resurgent left inspired and energized by the principles and ideals espoused by Bernie Sanders. The first two have absolutely zero overlap and pretty much hate each other, while the third group can sometimes identify with either camp depending on the issue, but pretty much think they’re both crazy and dangerous. The key point I’m trying to make is that there is no “center” in American politics anymore, and any discussion of this is pure fantasy. Moreover, any remaining center that still exists, is unlikely to exist at all in a year or so as more and more people feel forced to choose sides. When you create an environment as charged as this one where everyone is accusing their political opponents of treason, this is what you get; and it’s only going to get worse. A lot worse…

If what I wrote above rings true to you on any level, it has dire implications for the future of these United States. The first two groups, Trump supporters and Hillary supporters have absolutely nothing in common and that’s not going to change. In fact, it’s probably going to get much, much worse. Trump supporters think the Democrats and the media have been gunning for a way to remove him from office since the day he was elected, while Hillary supporters think he’s a treasonous puppet of Vladimir Putin. How can these two warring factions come to any sort of agreement on anything? The answer is, they can’t and they won’t. Meanwhile, Bernie supporters are likely to largely stay on the sidelines hoping these two sides destroy each other in their madness.

In a gross oversimplification, the above implies that the political environment going forward will be defined by a vicious battle between the Trump faction and the Hillary faction. While I think this will probably be true for much of the rest of 2017, there’s a good chance that a year from now, the union of Hillary donors, Never Trump neocons and the corporate media will find themselves increasingly irrelevant, on their way to being wiped off the political landscape forever. In its place, a more genuine opposition political movement will take form and face off against Trump on real issues.

This movement was first really seen on the national level with the candidacy of Bernie Sanders, but it takes on many different forms. The one aspect I want to discuss today due to its growing influence and potential for explosive growth, is a faction that has become known as the “Dirtbag Left.”

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Wall St. Moves to Consolidate Power Over Democrats as the DNC Posts Disastrous Fundraising Numbers

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Poor fundraising by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has been a reality for much of this year, and the trend continued in June. The Hill reports:

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) added $200,000 to their now $3.3 million debt in June, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission report, falling further behind Republican fundraising efforts.  

The Republican National Committee (RNC) outpaced the Democrats in fundraising in June by over $8 million, raising a staggering $13.5 million compared to the DNC’s $5.5 million. 

Unlike the Republican debt-free committee, the DNC typically goes into debt during election seasons, but it currently remains far behind the GOP financially. 

The DNC has only $7.5 million on hand, after a string of losses to Republicans in special congressional elections, including the race for Georgia’s Sixth District, which broke fundraising records to become the most expensive congressional race of all time. The RNC has $44.7 million in cash on-hand, according to the filings. 

Of course, this shouldn’t come as a surprise given the sleazy way the DNC handled last year’s Democratic primary, in which key players including head Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, stacked the deck against Bernie Sanders in order to promote one of the worst Presidential candidates in U.S. history.

Moreover, the Democrats’ Russia obsession isn’t doing them any favors amongst the public, which rightly cares more about issues that affect their every day lives versus what Vladimir Putin ate for breakfast.

Indeed, the following graphic sums it up perfectly:

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Idaho Embraces Neofeudalism with Its “Noncompete” Legislation

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Before I begin, I want to mention that my only experience with Idaho (unfortunately), was driving through the southeastern part of the state during my six-week cross country road trip in 2010. It was some of the most majestic and peaceful scenery I had ever seen, and I’d love to return and explore more of the state in the future. I’ve also heard Boise is a pretty cool city. It’s unfortunate that a state with so much potential passed the anti-freedom legislation described below, but I have faith the people will figure it out and reverse course.

Much of my recent writing has been focused on the need for political decentralization, meaning that states and local communities need to start experimenting more and making decisions for themselves on a wider range of important policy questions. This naturally will lead to some really good outcomes, but also some genuine disasters. Idaho’s noncompete law falls into the latter category.

Many of you may not be familiar with what I’m talking about, so I’ll start with some excerpts from a very good New York Times article on the subject, and then get into some detailed commentary at the end.

Here’s a brief overview of the situation from the piece, Noncompete Pacts, Under Siege, Find Haven in Idaho:

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Jeff Sessions Moves to Make it Easier for Government to Steal Property of Innocent American Citizens

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Civil asset forfeiture has been a key topic here at Liberty Blitzkrieg over the years for one very obvious reason. The practice has absolutely no place in any halfway humane and decent civilization. The fact that this barbaric, authoritarian practice somehow has legal protection in these United States says so much about the state of the nation and the level of thuggishness we’re willing to put up with as a people.

For new readers who aren’t familiar with the subject, here’s a quick refresher:

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The Democratic Party Remains on the Verge of Collapse

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You don’t need to be a genius to see that the Democratic Party doesn’t really stand for anything when it comes to the issues that matter most to U.S. voters. This is a topic I’ve written about incessantly since last year’s embarrassing loss by status quo, corporate media, donor-favorite Hillary Clinton, and it was highlighted once again in a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll with the response to the following question.


Despite the dire implications of the above, the brain-surgeons leading the party remain committed to running on “Trump works for Putin, let’s start a war with Russia” while ignoring the multitude of very important issues people really care about — you know, like oligarchy and increasing economic insecurity.

To give you a sense of the degree of cluelessness, read the following excerpts from a CBS News article titled, Democrats Split Over Core Message to Voters as 2018 Midterms Loom:

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New Washington Post-ABC News Poll Provides Some Fascinating Data Points

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I get that any corporate media poll needs to be taken with a giant grain of salt, but upon looking at some of the questions and answers from the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, I founds some interesting nuggets that help explain a lot of what’s going on in our increasingly demented political environment. Let’s begin with the Trump stuff.

First, the poll found that 36% of Americans approve of Trump, which seems consistent with where things have stood for a while now. What I found far more interesting were the reasons given by the larger group of people who expressed disapproval.

Here’s some of what we learned:

Americans who disapprove of Trump — 58 percent in the Post-ABC poll — offered a different range of responses focusing more heavily on his personal and character traits. Topping the list of non-policy criticism is the way Trump talks and acts (13 percent), laments about him not being informed or knowledgeable (12 percent), while an additional 12 percent mentioned concerns about lies, false statements or general dishonesty. Among disapprovers who named issues as their biggest criticism, the most common were immigration (8 percent) and health care (7 percent), the travel ban at 3 percent and others at 2 percent or less.

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How to Build a Creative Renaissance – Decentralize or Die (Part 4)

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Man cannot do without beauty, and this is what our era pretends to want to disregard. It steels itself to attain the absolute and authority; it wants to transfigure the world before having exhausted it, to set it to rights before having understood it. Whatever it may say, our era is deserting this world.

– Albert Camus

The first three parts of this series largely focused on how decentralization is necessary in the political realm and should be applied more aggressively to governing structures. I believe moving to such a model is no longer just a quaint option, but absolutely required if we want to expand human liberty and build more voluntary, ethical and sane communities. That being said, decentralization can and should be applied to as many aspects of life as possible.

Most humans live completely unfree lives. Whether its parents, schools, religion or ultimately employers, far too many of us are told from birth what to think and what we can and cannot say. Interestingly enough, the older we get, the more restricted our speech seems to become. Ironically, while we have more mediums for expression than ever before with the internet and social media, increasing numbers of people are too afraid that their bosses might see what they wrote to actually express themselves publicly. This is one reason why anonymity is so incredibly important online, and must be preserved at all costs, but that’s another topic.

I am of the view that we are enriched as a society if people are empowered to speak their minds freely in the public square without fear of dire consequences, such as being fired and not being able to feed your family. If you’ve been reading me over the past couple of weeks, you’ll be familiar with my push to move Liberty Blitzkrieg into a reader-supported project in the coming years, but I want to explain my thought process a bit more and how it relates to decentralization.

From day one, I was very hesitant about launching a donation drive on this website. In fact, it wasn’t until three and a half years of writing (at the very end of 2015), that I officially sent out a post detailing contribution options and created a support page. There are many reasons for this, but at the root of it were my own hangups. I consider myself a fortunate person and am far from being in dire straights, so the idea that someone would sacrifice money they might really need to support my work made me feel very uncomfortable. Nevertheless, in the past year and a half, hundreds of you have voluntarily donated to the site, which led to a direct shift in my attitude and impacted the direction of my work in many important and, in my view, beneficial ways.

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A Better Future Requires Higher Levels of Consciousness – Decentralize or Die (Part 3)

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The first two posts in this series focused on what the current political environment looks like, and why it provides a perfect opportunity for experimentation and decentralization. Today’s post will examine what it will take to get there. While I think the future can be a very bright one, this is by no means written in stone and will take a herculean effort by millions of globally enlightened and motivated humans to achieve it.

In order to properly frame today’s post, I will be relying heavily on information discussed in my five-part series on Spiral Dynamics published back in February. While I will try to provide context, it might be helpful to check out those older posts before continuing if things start to get confusing.

Let’s begin by me quoting Ken Wilber in the post, What is Spiral Dynamics and Why Have I Become So Interested in It?

So it is that the leading edge of consciousness evolution stands today on the brink of an integral millennium—or at least the possibility of an integral millennium, where the sum total of extant human knowledge, wisdom, and technology is available to all. But there are several obstacles to that integral embrace, even in the most developed populations. Moreover, there is the more typical or average mode of consciousness, which is far from integral anything, and is in desperate need of its own tending. 

I have, in numerous previous publications (especially Integral Psychology) given the details of many of those researchers. Here I will simply use one of them as an example. The model is called Spiral Dynamics, based on the pioneering work of Clare Graves. Graves proposed a profound and elegant system of human development, which subsequent research has refined and validated, not refuted. “Briefly, what I am proposing is that the psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating spiralling process marked by progressive subordination of older, lower-order behavior systems to newer, higher-order systems as an individual’s existential problems change. Each successive stage, wave, or level of existence is a state through which people pass on their way to other states of being. When the human is centralized in one state of existence” —as I would put it, when the self’s center of gravity hovers around a particular wave of consciousness— “he or she has a psychology which is particular to that state. His or her feelings, motivations, ethics and values, biochemistry, degree of neurological activation, learning system, belief systems, conception of mental health, ideas as to what mental illness is and how it should be treated, conceptions of and preferences for management, education, economics, and political theory and practice are all appropriate to that state.”

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