Once again, the horseshoe theory explains it well. The left wants to punish the rich. The right wants to punish the brown. Both ends of the spectrum are more eager to punish than to make the world better!
Some are--indeed, the loudest ones. And what you are talking about is most definitely not socialism...and only angry fools would call themselves socialists at this point. The more elections they win, the greater the chance that Republicans will remain in power.
Sternhell, I am a MAGA Republican. When you state that you know what I think you make yourself sound even more stupid. You aren’t intelligent enough to understand what I think.
In college, was taking political science course on political thinkers. They had the usual crowd, Lenin, Marx, Mao, Jefferson, Hamilton, Paine, all of whom I knew. There was one other guy who had never heard of, Edmund Burke. So did my paper on him, read most of his "Reflections on the French Revolution". My take was that Burke knew the average working man or farmer was not the sharpest knife in the draw, but they also were not dumb. They were well aware of when they were being taken advantage of. That has not changed, Burke's brand of conservatism works and produces real advancement.
Are you kidding me? Farmers are the smartest people on the planet; First off they are high risk entrepreneurs who have to predict markets, borrow operating capital at risk of their success every season and time their release to the market based upon uncertain market forces. There are no political science or humanities professors circle jerking their abstract theories in the faculty lounge who are capable of that complex level of strategy. In addition farmers must master the science of planting, fertilizing, cultivating and harvesting and the mechanics of maintaining all of the equipment, all the while liberal arts professors are contemplating what electrical vehicle to buy because they blindly believe the doomsday climate change hoax.
Do not disagree with the overall view of farmers you present. As stated, pointed out that farmers are not dumb, yes, they have a lot to keep track of, and try to figure out the best time to start, with no idea of how it will actually turn out. Most though, do not get into the level of working out what might need to be done in a new way, they are known for being stubborn. What you are praising is their ability to manage a very difficult job, many people can do that, and not be overly bright, but have a strong aptitude for it. figuring out economic policies, diplomatic missions, making changes in government, is usually beyond them, and for that matter, most people. The great artists, politician, scientists, engineers, etc. were the group that Burke was contrasting with the average farmer. That still holds up.
His intention was to show that the average person, farmers included, were not all bright bulbs, but neither were they dumb, in my view he succeeded.
I don't think you know any farmers. They are absolutely the most creative people on the planet and are always innovating and are entirely pragmatic, as much so if not more than any of the Engineers I've worked with. I find that people who can be innovative to be in the minority. I also find economists and public policy makers and many scientists to be the least innovative and most impractical. I haven't read Burke, and I haven't studied political science/sociology since I was forced to in college to "round out" my STEM education. Frankly, I found those professors to be some of the dumbest people on the planet and they offered nothing other than worthless, unsubstantiated opinions. By contrast, I've always been impressed by the farmers that I've met.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge, wisdom, and erudition on this Substack.
Nor can you complain enough about how we are educating our children.
On this topic, there was an eye-opening briefing that recently appeared in The Economist ("Students are doing worse than you think," June 25, 2026).
According to this briefing, a very large percentage of young students now arrive at university without the basic literacy or numeracy previously expected of ten-year-olds.
This trend, apparently, has been occurring across the OECD (basically, the developed economies of the world). But the US ranks very high on the list of the poor performers, along with Israel, Poland, and Italy, as I was surprised to learn.
In the United States and several other countries, the principal cause appears to have been Covid-era closures of schools and related restrictions, but the causes run much deeper and began long before the Covid pandemic. Other likely causes have been (1) the arrival of uneducated immigrants in large numbers; (2) the "watering down" of educational standards; (3) the abandonment of standard tests and exams; and (4) the lower expectations and requirements that have accompanied these developments.
Also, college professors apparently lack proper incentives to grade students reasonably and instead face various pressures to give excellent grades to too many students. This "grade-inflation" has rendered university grades almost meaningless.
(The Economist dismisses alarms over the use of modern screens and the internet. What matters is not the use of computer or phone screens, but what a person chooses to read or view while looking at them.)
These are issues that I had foremost in mind when I left the Democratic Party in 2021. By then, educators aligned with the Democrats in my home state, California, had become just about hostile to "merit," individual accomplishment, scholarly accomplishment, elite high schools, calculus, math, using phonics to teach children how to read, and like matters.
Yes, a few Republicans really wish to restore classical education, and they have done wonders in the public schools of various southern states. But too many Republicans, it seems, merely wish to impose a different ideology and lack any tolerance of dissent.
Indeed, the current Administration is out and away the most censorious of my lifetime, misusing its vast powers to place private media under the control of its cronies, intimidate its critics, and punish speakers for the content of their speech. (Punters like me, whose views have little influence on anyone, can freely express ourselves, but then again I do not operate a broadcast network.)
All of this is unacceptable for me. Free speech above all means one's right to express views on politics, governance, economics, and social issues, even when those views are disfavored or critical of our leaders or their public policies.
Nothing is more American than our tradition of free speech, despite its tarnishment at different times in our history (e.g., during WWI under Woodrow Wilson, then again during the McCarthy era, or once again during the peak-woke era, and now to an alarming extent under the present Administration).
That is why J.D. Vance was the last person to lecture, say, Germans on respecting free speech, as he did during his historic speech there. He was right on the merits, but a hypocrite to make the case, given his own Administration's appalling track record and his own, highly visible support for illiberal authoritarians across the European continent.
At all events, poor education and our discouragement of well-educated immigrants must be principal causes of the complete breakdown of our politics, which has led us to have only the following choices:
Behind Curtin No. 1 is a revanchist movement of know-nothing nativists, who, it seems, have contempt for our republican democracy and civil liberties, as well as openly avowed designs on Greenland, Canada, the Gulf that lies between the US and Mexico, various Latin American countries, and competing centers of power in the United States.
Behind Curtin No. 2 we have radicalized Democrats, whose many intolerable failings and evils have been well-chronicled on this Substack and elsewhere. (As for me, I could not object more strongly to their reverse-racism, bash-the-rich populism, hostility to AI, stifling regulation, and misgovernance of their local communities.)
Faced with such a choice, what is a miscast political orphan like me supposed to do? Should I vote for the corrupt authoritarians behind the first curtain or the wealth-destroying, facile populists behind the second? Why, I prefer neither. Most Americans, I believe, feel the same way, or perhaps prefer not to think about these kinds of matters.
Surely, the poor education of our children must have played a large role in bringing us to this point. So I hope that Mr. Klein will continue to write about education in the United States. It is a theme that he understands expertly and explains very colorfully.
Lastly, I am no fan of Edmund Burke. My political economy is above all derived from the teachings of Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill and from the wise precepts of the authors of our Constitution.
I agree with you that "the poor education of our children must have played a large role in bringing us to this point." But I don't understand some of your other points:
1. How does J.D. Vance and the Trump administration have an "appalling track record and his own, highly visible support for illiberal authoritarians across the European continent"?
2. I am a MAGA republican. How do I "have contempt for our republican democracy and civil liberties"?
3. I:
a. Support President Trump's forceful imposition of American interests in Greenland
b. Laugh when he trolled Canada's Justin Castro Trudeau
c. And was surprised that I didn't think outside of the box like President Trump did that we should rename our southern gulf the Gulf of America.
d. I am so proud that President Trump had the gonads to free the people of Venezuela.
So what exactly is your problem with these bold actions?
Joe, you may be the only sane ‘Democrat’ left in the country. It would be fun to know in which direction your children and grandchildren lean. Mine have forsaken their conservative upbringing and would identify with the socialist wing of your party. IMHO, in the long run, socialism wins because the siren song of ‘free stuff’ becomes irresistible.
Rusty, you call it ‘taxes’, which is socialist doublespeak for ‘forced wealth redistribution’. Are you not aware of what’s going on in NYC and Seattle?!
Head--We need taxes to pay for national defense. We also need taxes to pay for the entitlements that have become integral to the national weave--Medicare and Social Security. We need higher taxes to pay for those things. We do need to further trim the social engineering programs directed at the poor--and the Democrats who manage them so foolishly. I'm looking for an honest liberal who acknowledges that social engineering doesn't work, and for an honest conservative who acknowledges the things we all want are going to require higher taxes.
Rusty--I don't know what "boomerang phrase" means, but I have seen plenty of attempts by government to change culture and they almost always fail--and real people are hurt by it. That is my definition of social engineering.
Most MAGA supporters think Northern European countries are communist. The Democrats are certainly not Socialists, they are more conservative than a lot of right leaning European political parties!
I live amongst many Trump supporters and do not know a one that believes Scandinavian countries are Communist. I have encountered more than a few Dems confounded as to why the US, a melting pot of 360 million, is not Scandinavia.
Dems seem woefully unaware all of Scandinavia is far smaller in population than Texas, and until very recently, was nearly as homogeneous as Korea or Japan.
Many Dems also seem to fail to understand it is the one section of the earth, that is Lutheran to their core, even if they no longer go to church. Most citizens seem genetically programed to be both industrious and well behaved.
On our first visit to Stockholm in the 90s, it wasn't unusual to see babies in prams enjoying a fresh air nap, unattended outside a cafe, while Mom and Dad had a cup of coffee inside. Americans cannot conceive of a society that functions with that much trust.
Nor do they grasp Norway has an entire population smaller than the Dallas metro area, that floats on an ocean of North Sea oil. Norwegians talk a good Climate game, but they have no qualms about pumping every barrel possible. That has produced a sovereign wealth fund that exceeds Dubai's.
Dems also seem unaware the Danes, for all practical purposes, closed their borders roughly a 1/2 decade ago. Far Left leaders stating, without apology, neither Danish culture nor their economic safety net, could endure more mass migration, until they had successfully integrated or removed those currently dwelling with them.
Considering the results of NY and Colorado recent primaries, and their seeming effect on Dem Senate candidates in contested states, Dems should worry less about Conservative voters being confused regarding Northern Europe, and consider the Left could use more information on the subject.
U.S. citizens of the MAGA sort abhor the fact that most Northern Europeans get free health care, albeit they are prepared to pay a little more tax to ensure that all citizens (not just the well to do) get health care.
We should be so lucky, for the problem to be mean Reps seeking to deny healthcare to the poor.
Unfortunately our problem is Math. The issue is not tax payers paying a little more , but the percentage of working Americans that pay no taxes. In Scandinavia roughly 2.5% of adult workers do not pay income tax. In the US it is north of 30%, headed to 1/3 do not pay any federal income taxes. Nor is that the only problem.
Compensation for healthcare professionals, especially MDs is another massive hurdle. US MDs are, generally speaking, paid roughly 2-3X more, than most of their Western counterparts That pay disparity trickles down to everyone in healthcare from the people pushing brooms to nurses and brain surgeons and everyone in between.
Perhaps your doctor is up for a 50% pay cut, mine is not. It would spark mass early retirements, as medical school enrollment plunged. The US system would then endure not only an affordability problem, but a horrific shortage of healthcare professionals, worse than the one we face now.
Now, toss in insurance company profits that soared under Obamacare.
The US medical system needs reform, but the "Medicare for All will be easy, if the rich just paid a little more ", is a fantasy on par with a Diet Coke off setting the calories of a large pizza, chased with a 1/2 gallon of ice cream.
CA attempted to implement statewide Medicare for All. As Newsom repeatedly reminds us, CA is the wealthiest US state by far, with the most Progressive state tax code. CA politicians found the annual cost of Medicare for All, just for Californians, would exceed the entire annual CA budget. No state welfare, no schools, no cops no roads . . .
The US Medical system needs reform, but the issue stems for an increasing poverty problem. It has been created by the perfect storm of 30 years of offshoring, and wages that have not kept pace with inflation for a larges section of US workers.
Add in the arrival of a US caste system comprised of huge numbers of people lacking fluent English , education and other skills to be self supporting in an expensive US knowledge economy. Many earn less annually, than just the cost of their healthcare insurance, let alone food and shelter, no matter how hard they are willing to toil.
But sure, healthcare would be easy to solve, but for those meanie MAGAs . . .
As always, Mr. Klein has written what I wish I had been able to define for myself. I started reading his columns when he wrote for New York Magazine. A few times, he moved and I lost him for a while.
My life was poorer for it. I always thought he should put a forwarding address on his final columns, right? Now, the latest columns have a dreaded hint of finality to them. Mr. Klein, if you are leaving us to retire—please accept my thanks. However, if you are going to keep writing, please accept my eternal gratitude.
I was 14 when family friend Ken Graf, just back from Viet Nam, recruited me to leaflet for McGovern when the day shift at the Corning factory got out. And I got a strong whiff of just how deep the hostility of the working class was to the anti-war movement and the counter culture generally. In the '80s and '90s, heading up a political club in Brooklyn, I kept lecturing the burgeoning leftists, already feeling their oats, that we needed to bring at least some of the working class with us - Farrell's Bar in Winsor Terrace was just as important as the Park Slope Food Coop. When I moved to Westchester, exhausted by the infighting in NYC, I had a feeling the party was going to get out of balance. I have seen this train coming down the tracks for decades now, still searching for ways to stop it.
Perhaps the most important single thing for the immediate future is for New York to change its primary date from late June to its old date in September (let us remember, the death toll on September 11th was possibly one half of what it might have been because it was Primary Day). The races that have provided the DSA with its base have been driven by a tiny slice of voters, mostly college educated Anglo kids imposing their will on working class families. By June, families are often out of town, struggling to set up their kids for the summer, engaged in real life rather than the political carnival. Then the media, tantalized by the sexy/hip revolution in their backyard, huffs and puffs and declares a movement that is wildly put of step with the majority of Americans.
Just as in these World Cup games (did I mention I'm an old soccer player?), you can do little about the goals already scored. You CAN decide the damage ends here. Many of the cities have been lost to left wing ideologues, but few of the states have. It would be useful to find someone to take on and dislodge this Cavalier woman two years from now (as Bowman was defenestrated two years ago. We need to confront the illiberal left and the illiberal right simultaneously, explaining to the persuadable few that their anger and resentment, however justified, only make things worse. This is not where I wanted this nation to be in 2026, but two front wars are kind of my thing. One last campaign, If it takes all summer . . .
I’m with you, voices even better I can, my world view, which in part is generational, I’m 76, and like one of my incredible mentors, the late Alice Rivlin, i’m radical moderate, which today is a position that floats somewhere in the middle — which has the unfortunate attribute of not motivating people. Passion (and stupidity/ignorance of history and a rejection of expertise) lies at the extremes. Joe you are the very best voice out there for common sense and I hope you have another 80 years to give it to us (and the country receptive enough to read or listen)
I thought about responding to your any ideas comment with “Rahm Emanuel?” But I didn’t do it! I was thrilled to read your post today!! I’m still with you!
Klein, you had me right up to your Trump Derangement Syndrome burst of your mental illness.
In terms of racism, the democrats, not the republicans have always been the purveyors; from slavery, to Jim Crow, to segregation, to today’s anti-white Christian racism.
Granted that Dick Cheney was a corrupt neocon, but he is the posterchild of who President Trump, the best president in our lifetime, is going after to drain the swamp. Thank God for President Trump!
In terms of illegal immigration, you democrats created this problem. The disastrous Biden administrated invited 12 to 20 million unvetted illegal aliens into the country and lied that it wasn’t happening. We know their motive was to create new voters to outvote US citizens who reject the democrats’ Marxist/Woke policies. The democrats are trying to destroy the sovereignty of America because they want power. The democrats care only about themselves and don’t care about the best interests of the majority of American citizens, nor do they care about the illegal immigrants who they are using as pawns in their quest for power.
The results of this atrocity to our country have been disastrous:
• Known criminals that the Biden administration admitted unvetted have committed violent crimes against innocent US citizens including murder and rape.
• Blue states issue CDLs to illegal aliens who can’t read English and are terrible drivers and who have killed hundreds of US citizens on our roads.
• The country can’t remain solvent with open borders and a welfare state. Over 60% of all immigrants are on some form of public assistance paid for by US taxpayers.
• Illegal aliens and legal immigrants have stolen $billions from the welfare state
• Wages of US citizens have been depressed and housing costs have soared
• Emergency rooms have been overwhelmed with uninsured illegal aliens
• School systems have had to cut back on scholar programs and extracurricular programs to implement ESL programs.
• Etc., etc., etc.
The Biden administration lost track of over 350k unaccompanied immigrant children, many of whom have been forced into slave labor and sex trafficking. ICE has recovered 160k of these children, many of whom have said they have been raped 300 to 600 times.
Why are the democrats not ashamed?
President Trump promised mass deportations and the majority of the country voted for them. You caused and are responsible for all of this.
Klein, I am a MAGA Republican. When you state that you know what I think you make yourself sound even more stupid. You aren’t intelligent enough to understand what I think.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Klein. You’re one of my favorite journalists. 80 years says a lot about the long journey you’ve been on. Thank you for sharing your stories and journeys with me and I am sure everyone else. Happy Fourth of July 🇺🇸.
Joe, as another radical centrist, I resonated to many of your points. One small correction: the poverty rate falls to 2.5 % not 6 under the success sequence. That was my empirical finding and has been validated by both AEI (Wilcox and wang) and the urban institute.
Well said!
Once again, the horseshoe theory explains it well. The left wants to punish the rich. The right wants to punish the brown. Both ends of the spectrum are more eager to punish than to make the world better!
People are not trying to punish the rich by asking them to pay their fair share of taxes and ensuring the right to health care.
Some are--indeed, the loudest ones. And what you are talking about is most definitely not socialism...and only angry fools would call themselves socialists at this point. The more elections they win, the greater the chance that Republicans will remain in power.
Sternhell, I am a MAGA Republican. When you state that you know what I think you make yourself sound even more stupid. You aren’t intelligent enough to understand what I think.
In college, was taking political science course on political thinkers. They had the usual crowd, Lenin, Marx, Mao, Jefferson, Hamilton, Paine, all of whom I knew. There was one other guy who had never heard of, Edmund Burke. So did my paper on him, read most of his "Reflections on the French Revolution". My take was that Burke knew the average working man or farmer was not the sharpest knife in the draw, but they also were not dumb. They were well aware of when they were being taken advantage of. That has not changed, Burke's brand of conservatism works and produces real advancement.
Are you kidding me? Farmers are the smartest people on the planet; First off they are high risk entrepreneurs who have to predict markets, borrow operating capital at risk of their success every season and time their release to the market based upon uncertain market forces. There are no political science or humanities professors circle jerking their abstract theories in the faculty lounge who are capable of that complex level of strategy. In addition farmers must master the science of planting, fertilizing, cultivating and harvesting and the mechanics of maintaining all of the equipment, all the while liberal arts professors are contemplating what electrical vehicle to buy because they blindly believe the doomsday climate change hoax.
Do not disagree with the overall view of farmers you present. As stated, pointed out that farmers are not dumb, yes, they have a lot to keep track of, and try to figure out the best time to start, with no idea of how it will actually turn out. Most though, do not get into the level of working out what might need to be done in a new way, they are known for being stubborn. What you are praising is their ability to manage a very difficult job, many people can do that, and not be overly bright, but have a strong aptitude for it. figuring out economic policies, diplomatic missions, making changes in government, is usually beyond them, and for that matter, most people. The great artists, politician, scientists, engineers, etc. were the group that Burke was contrasting with the average farmer. That still holds up.
His intention was to show that the average person, farmers included, were not all bright bulbs, but neither were they dumb, in my view he succeeded.
I don't think you know any farmers. They are absolutely the most creative people on the planet and are always innovating and are entirely pragmatic, as much so if not more than any of the Engineers I've worked with. I find that people who can be innovative to be in the minority. I also find economists and public policy makers and many scientists to be the least innovative and most impractical. I haven't read Burke, and I haven't studied political science/sociology since I was forced to in college to "round out" my STEM education. Frankly, I found those professors to be some of the dumbest people on the planet and they offered nothing other than worthless, unsubstantiated opinions. By contrast, I've always been impressed by the farmers that I've met.
Dear Joe, you realize that age age 80 (me, too) you have been alive for 1/3 of the entire span of the history of the United States!
Oy.
Yeah.
Mr. Klein,
Thank you for sharing your knowledge, wisdom, and erudition on this Substack.
Nor can you complain enough about how we are educating our children.
On this topic, there was an eye-opening briefing that recently appeared in The Economist ("Students are doing worse than you think," June 25, 2026).
According to this briefing, a very large percentage of young students now arrive at university without the basic literacy or numeracy previously expected of ten-year-olds.
This trend, apparently, has been occurring across the OECD (basically, the developed economies of the world). But the US ranks very high on the list of the poor performers, along with Israel, Poland, and Italy, as I was surprised to learn.
In the United States and several other countries, the principal cause appears to have been Covid-era closures of schools and related restrictions, but the causes run much deeper and began long before the Covid pandemic. Other likely causes have been (1) the arrival of uneducated immigrants in large numbers; (2) the "watering down" of educational standards; (3) the abandonment of standard tests and exams; and (4) the lower expectations and requirements that have accompanied these developments.
Also, college professors apparently lack proper incentives to grade students reasonably and instead face various pressures to give excellent grades to too many students. This "grade-inflation" has rendered university grades almost meaningless.
(The Economist dismisses alarms over the use of modern screens and the internet. What matters is not the use of computer or phone screens, but what a person chooses to read or view while looking at them.)
These are issues that I had foremost in mind when I left the Democratic Party in 2021. By then, educators aligned with the Democrats in my home state, California, had become just about hostile to "merit," individual accomplishment, scholarly accomplishment, elite high schools, calculus, math, using phonics to teach children how to read, and like matters.
Yes, a few Republicans really wish to restore classical education, and they have done wonders in the public schools of various southern states. But too many Republicans, it seems, merely wish to impose a different ideology and lack any tolerance of dissent.
Indeed, the current Administration is out and away the most censorious of my lifetime, misusing its vast powers to place private media under the control of its cronies, intimidate its critics, and punish speakers for the content of their speech. (Punters like me, whose views have little influence on anyone, can freely express ourselves, but then again I do not operate a broadcast network.)
All of this is unacceptable for me. Free speech above all means one's right to express views on politics, governance, economics, and social issues, even when those views are disfavored or critical of our leaders or their public policies.
Nothing is more American than our tradition of free speech, despite its tarnishment at different times in our history (e.g., during WWI under Woodrow Wilson, then again during the McCarthy era, or once again during the peak-woke era, and now to an alarming extent under the present Administration).
That is why J.D. Vance was the last person to lecture, say, Germans on respecting free speech, as he did during his historic speech there. He was right on the merits, but a hypocrite to make the case, given his own Administration's appalling track record and his own, highly visible support for illiberal authoritarians across the European continent.
At all events, poor education and our discouragement of well-educated immigrants must be principal causes of the complete breakdown of our politics, which has led us to have only the following choices:
Behind Curtin No. 1 is a revanchist movement of know-nothing nativists, who, it seems, have contempt for our republican democracy and civil liberties, as well as openly avowed designs on Greenland, Canada, the Gulf that lies between the US and Mexico, various Latin American countries, and competing centers of power in the United States.
Behind Curtin No. 2 we have radicalized Democrats, whose many intolerable failings and evils have been well-chronicled on this Substack and elsewhere. (As for me, I could not object more strongly to their reverse-racism, bash-the-rich populism, hostility to AI, stifling regulation, and misgovernance of their local communities.)
Faced with such a choice, what is a miscast political orphan like me supposed to do? Should I vote for the corrupt authoritarians behind the first curtain or the wealth-destroying, facile populists behind the second? Why, I prefer neither. Most Americans, I believe, feel the same way, or perhaps prefer not to think about these kinds of matters.
Surely, the poor education of our children must have played a large role in bringing us to this point. So I hope that Mr. Klein will continue to write about education in the United States. It is a theme that he understands expertly and explains very colorfully.
Lastly, I am no fan of Edmund Burke. My political economy is above all derived from the teachings of Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill and from the wise precepts of the authors of our Constitution.
Happy July 4th to everyone!
I agree with you that "the poor education of our children must have played a large role in bringing us to this point." But I don't understand some of your other points:
1. How does J.D. Vance and the Trump administration have an "appalling track record and his own, highly visible support for illiberal authoritarians across the European continent"?
2. I am a MAGA republican. How do I "have contempt for our republican democracy and civil liberties"?
3. I:
a. Support President Trump's forceful imposition of American interests in Greenland
b. Laugh when he trolled Canada's Justin Castro Trudeau
c. And was surprised that I didn't think outside of the box like President Trump did that we should rename our southern gulf the Gulf of America.
d. I am so proud that President Trump had the gonads to free the people of Venezuela.
So what exactly is your problem with these bold actions?
Joe, you may be the only sane ‘Democrat’ left in the country. It would be fun to know in which direction your children and grandchildren lean. Mine have forsaken their conservative upbringing and would identify with the socialist wing of your party. IMHO, in the long run, socialism wins because the siren song of ‘free stuff’ becomes irresistible.
Socialism does not ask for free stuff. Countries with socialist economic policies make their citizens pay for it in taxes.
Rusty, you call it ‘taxes’, which is socialist doublespeak for ‘forced wealth redistribution’. Are you not aware of what’s going on in NYC and Seattle?!
Head--We need taxes to pay for national defense. We also need taxes to pay for the entitlements that have become integral to the national weave--Medicare and Social Security. We need higher taxes to pay for those things. We do need to further trim the social engineering programs directed at the poor--and the Democrats who manage them so foolishly. I'm looking for an honest liberal who acknowledges that social engineering doesn't work, and for an honest conservative who acknowledges the things we all want are going to require higher taxes.
Can't believe you use that boomerang phrase "social engineering."
Rusty--I don't know what "boomerang phrase" means, but I have seen plenty of attempts by government to change culture and they almost always fail--and real people are hurt by it. That is my definition of social engineering.
Just didn’t understand why you seemed to be aiming that dark phrase towards liberals.
Most MAGA supporters think Northern European countries are communist. The Democrats are certainly not Socialists, they are more conservative than a lot of right leaning European political parties!
I live amongst many Trump supporters and do not know a one that believes Scandinavian countries are Communist. I have encountered more than a few Dems confounded as to why the US, a melting pot of 360 million, is not Scandinavia.
Dems seem woefully unaware all of Scandinavia is far smaller in population than Texas, and until very recently, was nearly as homogeneous as Korea or Japan.
Many Dems also seem to fail to understand it is the one section of the earth, that is Lutheran to their core, even if they no longer go to church. Most citizens seem genetically programed to be both industrious and well behaved.
On our first visit to Stockholm in the 90s, it wasn't unusual to see babies in prams enjoying a fresh air nap, unattended outside a cafe, while Mom and Dad had a cup of coffee inside. Americans cannot conceive of a society that functions with that much trust.
Nor do they grasp Norway has an entire population smaller than the Dallas metro area, that floats on an ocean of North Sea oil. Norwegians talk a good Climate game, but they have no qualms about pumping every barrel possible. That has produced a sovereign wealth fund that exceeds Dubai's.
Dems also seem unaware the Danes, for all practical purposes, closed their borders roughly a 1/2 decade ago. Far Left leaders stating, without apology, neither Danish culture nor their economic safety net, could endure more mass migration, until they had successfully integrated or removed those currently dwelling with them.
Considering the results of NY and Colorado recent primaries, and their seeming effect on Dem Senate candidates in contested states, Dems should worry less about Conservative voters being confused regarding Northern Europe, and consider the Left could use more information on the subject.
U.S. citizens of the MAGA sort abhor the fact that most Northern Europeans get free health care, albeit they are prepared to pay a little more tax to ensure that all citizens (not just the well to do) get health care.
I don't understand your comment.
In the first place, I don't "abhor" the benefits that anyone else gets as long as I don't have to pay for it.
So it is absolutely contrary that i am "prepared to pay a little more tax to ensure that all citizens (not just the well to do) get health care"
What are you talking about?
We should be so lucky, for the problem to be mean Reps seeking to deny healthcare to the poor.
Unfortunately our problem is Math. The issue is not tax payers paying a little more , but the percentage of working Americans that pay no taxes. In Scandinavia roughly 2.5% of adult workers do not pay income tax. In the US it is north of 30%, headed to 1/3 do not pay any federal income taxes. Nor is that the only problem.
Compensation for healthcare professionals, especially MDs is another massive hurdle. US MDs are, generally speaking, paid roughly 2-3X more, than most of their Western counterparts That pay disparity trickles down to everyone in healthcare from the people pushing brooms to nurses and brain surgeons and everyone in between.
Perhaps your doctor is up for a 50% pay cut, mine is not. It would spark mass early retirements, as medical school enrollment plunged. The US system would then endure not only an affordability problem, but a horrific shortage of healthcare professionals, worse than the one we face now.
Now, toss in insurance company profits that soared under Obamacare.
The US medical system needs reform, but the "Medicare for All will be easy, if the rich just paid a little more ", is a fantasy on par with a Diet Coke off setting the calories of a large pizza, chased with a 1/2 gallon of ice cream.
CA attempted to implement statewide Medicare for All. As Newsom repeatedly reminds us, CA is the wealthiest US state by far, with the most Progressive state tax code. CA politicians found the annual cost of Medicare for All, just for Californians, would exceed the entire annual CA budget. No state welfare, no schools, no cops no roads . . .
The US Medical system needs reform, but the issue stems for an increasing poverty problem. It has been created by the perfect storm of 30 years of offshoring, and wages that have not kept pace with inflation for a larges section of US workers.
Add in the arrival of a US caste system comprised of huge numbers of people lacking fluent English , education and other skills to be self supporting in an expensive US knowledge economy. Many earn less annually, than just the cost of their healthcare insurance, let alone food and shelter, no matter how hard they are willing to toil.
But sure, healthcare would be easy to solve, but for those meanie MAGAs . . .
I agree with all you said, other than that I'm mean;-)
Good one.
As always, Mr. Klein has written what I wish I had been able to define for myself. I started reading his columns when he wrote for New York Magazine. A few times, he moved and I lost him for a while.
My life was poorer for it. I always thought he should put a forwarding address on his final columns, right? Now, the latest columns have a dreaded hint of finality to them. Mr. Klein, if you are leaving us to retire—please accept my thanks. However, if you are going to keep writing, please accept my eternal gratitude.
Thank you. I'll keep on doing this, so long as the words and ideas keep coming.
Hurray! My eternal gratitude is with you.
I was 14 when family friend Ken Graf, just back from Viet Nam, recruited me to leaflet for McGovern when the day shift at the Corning factory got out. And I got a strong whiff of just how deep the hostility of the working class was to the anti-war movement and the counter culture generally. In the '80s and '90s, heading up a political club in Brooklyn, I kept lecturing the burgeoning leftists, already feeling their oats, that we needed to bring at least some of the working class with us - Farrell's Bar in Winsor Terrace was just as important as the Park Slope Food Coop. When I moved to Westchester, exhausted by the infighting in NYC, I had a feeling the party was going to get out of balance. I have seen this train coming down the tracks for decades now, still searching for ways to stop it.
Perhaps the most important single thing for the immediate future is for New York to change its primary date from late June to its old date in September (let us remember, the death toll on September 11th was possibly one half of what it might have been because it was Primary Day). The races that have provided the DSA with its base have been driven by a tiny slice of voters, mostly college educated Anglo kids imposing their will on working class families. By June, families are often out of town, struggling to set up their kids for the summer, engaged in real life rather than the political carnival. Then the media, tantalized by the sexy/hip revolution in their backyard, huffs and puffs and declares a movement that is wildly put of step with the majority of Americans.
Just as in these World Cup games (did I mention I'm an old soccer player?), you can do little about the goals already scored. You CAN decide the damage ends here. Many of the cities have been lost to left wing ideologues, but few of the states have. It would be useful to find someone to take on and dislodge this Cavalier woman two years from now (as Bowman was defenestrated two years ago. We need to confront the illiberal left and the illiberal right simultaneously, explaining to the persuadable few that their anger and resentment, however justified, only make things worse. This is not where I wanted this nation to be in 2026, but two front wars are kind of my thing. One last campaign, If it takes all summer . . .
I’m with you, voices even better I can, my world view, which in part is generational, I’m 76, and like one of my incredible mentors, the late Alice Rivlin, i’m radical moderate, which today is a position that floats somewhere in the middle — which has the unfortunate attribute of not motivating people. Passion (and stupidity/ignorance of history and a rejection of expertise) lies at the extremes. Joe you are the very best voice out there for common sense and I hope you have another 80 years to give it to us (and the country receptive enough to read or listen)
I’m with you! Where do we turn with both political parties unworthy of support?
If you have any ideas, let me know.
I thought about responding to your any ideas comment with “Rahm Emanuel?” But I didn’t do it! I was thrilled to read your post today!! I’m still with you!
Klein, you had me right up to your Trump Derangement Syndrome burst of your mental illness.
In terms of racism, the democrats, not the republicans have always been the purveyors; from slavery, to Jim Crow, to segregation, to today’s anti-white Christian racism.
Granted that Dick Cheney was a corrupt neocon, but he is the posterchild of who President Trump, the best president in our lifetime, is going after to drain the swamp. Thank God for President Trump!
In terms of illegal immigration, you democrats created this problem. The disastrous Biden administrated invited 12 to 20 million unvetted illegal aliens into the country and lied that it wasn’t happening. We know their motive was to create new voters to outvote US citizens who reject the democrats’ Marxist/Woke policies. The democrats are trying to destroy the sovereignty of America because they want power. The democrats care only about themselves and don’t care about the best interests of the majority of American citizens, nor do they care about the illegal immigrants who they are using as pawns in their quest for power.
The results of this atrocity to our country have been disastrous:
• Known criminals that the Biden administration admitted unvetted have committed violent crimes against innocent US citizens including murder and rape.
• Blue states issue CDLs to illegal aliens who can’t read English and are terrible drivers and who have killed hundreds of US citizens on our roads.
• The country can’t remain solvent with open borders and a welfare state. Over 60% of all immigrants are on some form of public assistance paid for by US taxpayers.
• Illegal aliens and legal immigrants have stolen $billions from the welfare state
• Wages of US citizens have been depressed and housing costs have soared
• Emergency rooms have been overwhelmed with uninsured illegal aliens
• School systems have had to cut back on scholar programs and extracurricular programs to implement ESL programs.
• Etc., etc., etc.
The Biden administration lost track of over 350k unaccompanied immigrant children, many of whom have been forced into slave labor and sex trafficking. ICE has recovered 160k of these children, many of whom have said they have been raped 300 to 600 times.
Why are the democrats not ashamed?
President Trump promised mass deportations and the majority of the country voted for them. You caused and are responsible for all of this.
Klein, I am a MAGA Republican. When you state that you know what I think you make yourself sound even more stupid. You aren’t intelligent enough to understand what I think.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Klein. You’re one of my favorite journalists. 80 years says a lot about the long journey you’ve been on. Thank you for sharing your stories and journeys with me and I am sure everyone else. Happy Fourth of July 🇺🇸.
Now I know why I liked and respected you so much when we met and shared a mess of White Castles in St. Louis in 1978. Great column!
"[A]sk Claude?" Ask a chatbot over an LLM? Joe. [Folds arms and tsks.]
Joe, as another radical centrist, I resonated to many of your points. One small correction: the poverty rate falls to 2.5 % not 6 under the success sequence. That was my empirical finding and has been validated by both AEI (Wilcox and wang) and the urban institute.
Belle! I done you wrong. Sorry, but immense gratitude for your work, which I've cited many times.