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A few thoughts on that piece in the NYT today about America's decline over the past decade-plus. In typical NYT fashion, it notes that the decline has come under "leadership of both parties," but that's just a tad disingenuous. 1/
It's true that Obama was president for four of the years since the measure was first taken in 2011. But since the article notes that our education system is shit, we might want to teach a bit of history here...2/
Class, what happened in 2010, immediately before they started taking these measures of social progress? Why, the far left abandoned Obama over single-payer, and the Tea Party took over Congress. 3/
At that point, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell began the process of blocking all progress in Congress, and eroding many of the gains America had made in the past half-century. 4/
There was a chance to put a stop to this in 2016, but thanks to the erosion of the voting rights act, Republican malfeasance on the state level, and another lefty tantrum, we got 2 years of total GOP control of the federal government, which quickened the pace of our decline 5/
Democrats were finally able to wrest control of the House back from the GOP in 2018, which has helped slow the decline. But all attempts at reversing it are still blocked in the Senate. And the problem is, of course, immeasurably increased by an unchecked and unhinged POTUS 6/
Despite glossing over this history lesson, the article does reach the proper conclusion. The only way to stop the decline and hope to reverse it is by electing Democrats across the board in November. Everything from local dogcatcher to the Senate and POTUS 7/
But electing them IS NOT ENOUGH. We can't sit back and pat ourselves on the back and/or act out because we haven't gotten everything we want in 2 years and let the GOP pull another "Tea Party Revolution" in 2022. 8/
It is always easier to destroy than to create, and coming back from this is going to take longer than it did to tear it down. It requires patience and an eye to the future. It will be frustrating. Sometimes maddeningly so. 9/
But we have to get Democrats in office and then do everything we can to keep them there. Push them when we think they aren't doing enough. Replace useless ones...and you know we'll have some. But if we really want to fix this, we cannot repeat the mistakes of 2010. 10/10
