What are your future political plans? I very much hope you'll stay in politics and help lead us forward. Your postings on this Substack have been outstanding.
Why does it appear that the Democratic party--and especially the strategists and leaders--so totally ignored preparing counters to the Project 2025 plan that they knew about far in advance of Trump's inauguration? What can be done now? What effort of their own do party strategists and leaders have going? It does not seem like there is anything so comprehensive, strategic, and effective as Project 2025 on the Democrat side.
Hi Steve, thank you for the question! Unfortunately, while doing this period of active duty I am unable to engage with party politics, take part in strategy sessions, or any of that stuff, so I don't have the answers to these great questions! But if you want to ask something else I will take a swing at it! (or come back next time I do one of these)
I fear that it's because the elite of both parties are complicit in establishing or supporting the oligarchy. Why have democrats stood back so often when they could have stepped up? Think Al Gore; the dems playing dirty with Bernie Sanders over the convention and admitting in court that they could do so because they're a Private organization!
Was anyone else surprised that the entire presidential process is in the hands of 2 Private organizations that can't be held accountable to follow their own rules and bylaws? Just why did the party abandon the working class by the 80s? They went Full Wall Street...It's unbelievably hard to hold my nose and vote for them at the national level. Imagine how hard for the Maga crowd. That's largely how we got putin, trump, and musk running the world.
You once wrote about not receiving campaign support from the national democratic party when you ran for senate against Hawley. I find this an appalling! Democrats are now urged to run for something, leave no office uncontested. That's a great idea, except how can we let leaders recognize the importance of supporting rural candidates or those in 'non-swing' states?
Hi Ann, yes, that's the real conundrum. It takes a lot to run for office and to have no support while doing it is brutal. My honest opinion is that I think anyone running here in Missouri as a Democrat for what people consider "non-competitive" seats is going to be on their own for a long time, unless the party changes a lot.
Republicans in the Missouri legislature have just passed a budget that underfunds the public school formula by $300 million while allocating $50 million to private schools. Almost no one likes or wants this. Why can’t we democrats all get on the same page (I know, we’re not an organized political party) and elect representatives who will vote against this kind of nonsense?
Hi Anne, thank you for jumping in and breaking the ice! It's become clear over time that people aren't voting based on policy. Our legislature has attacked and overturned or attempted to overturn the will of the people repeatedly and they still get elected to the legislature. I think the problem is that most people don't have enough time to go into policies, or perhaps don't even care about them that much, and they vote on vibes. And the vibes just haven't been there for Democrats. I go into it in depth here:
I don't think the way out of this is money at all. Although I was outspent in my campaign and Democrats are outspent in Missouri, the party has a lot of money and a lot of people with a lot of money. I think rejecting certain types of money would actually make the party stronger at this point. More on that here:
l will be in Brentwood - in the rain! Will try to share my sign. It illustrates the MANY issues. There is a phenomenon in social psychology/behavioral economics called the Tyranny of Choice. Too many things can lead to crippling inaction. It is overwhelming! Can't paste the jpeg, but here's the Word file! HANDS OFF!!
Social Security
GLBTQ rights
Diversity-Equity-Inclusion
NATO
NIH/NIMH
Science
Our Future Scientists
American Universities
Medicaid & Medicare
Our Federal Workforce
Our National Park Service
Dump DOGE!!! [this is in all 4 corners]
The CDC
Our Department of Education
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
"Why can’t we democrats all get on the same page?" The answer is that we don't have enough money to buy votes. And some of us are not ready to pay the price of freedom from tyranny. But with each passing day some of us will fall to the point where we have to stop buying entertainment and need to pay attention to getting enough to eat. Hunger sharpens the mind.
Saturday, April 5 is a day away and I feel sad that I'm not in good enough physical shape to make a long walk and stay on my feet. So I will dedicate the day to making good noise through media like this. Writing has a way of sharpening the mind; and for me it is my best weapon.
I apologize, Mr. Weldon, but I am not sure I understand your point. We Democrats do not WANT to buy votes. And if we look at how much money Kamala raised, I am not sure I would agree that Democrats are not willing to put their money where their mouths are.
Kamala lost. That's the bitter pill we need to swallow. There was not enough money to buy her election. Whatever we spent to support her was spent on the wrong things. Votes needed to win are not cheap. Ask Mr. Musk about that. We all know the solution to that problem. We simply are not ready to follow the course.
Democrats don't want to buy votes? How else are we supposed to convince anyone outside our immediate circle of friends and family how to vote? I even have to send money to lucaskunce to comment on his web page. I'm not complaining about that. His efforts take time he could spend earning a living in another way. yada,yada,yada....
I think you hit the nail on the head: all that money was not well spent. Our messenging sucks. I have said this twice to Jeffries, as well as you several others on the Hill. So far, no joy. The best messenging from "our" side was, paradoxically by The Lincoln Project and Sarah Longwell's The Republican Accountability Project.
Got it. Long list. Every line will cost the criminal gang precious votes. Will that be enough?
We have a horribly outdated Constitution that is an open door to corruption. When the United States finally dies at the hands of some second level Chinese wind farmer it will be wrapped in what's left of that Constitution.
OK, I think I got back to everyone. Thank you so much for the questions and the engagement! You've given me a lot to think about and it's always good to be in touch. I'm looking forward to the next one!
Thank you so much! To be honest, I haven't tracked the South Korea situation closely, so I only have a topline understanding of it. But I think that one lesson learned, just like with Trump in 2020/21, is that when someone is already on their way out in a democratic nation it seems to be difficult for them to do something sketchy. Perhaps because folks have already mentally moved on. I would anticipate people who are looking to do nefarious things to understand that, too.
What is your next step politically, being an activist or running for office again? We need people like you and Jason Kander to keep fighting for us, Mr. Kunce.
I'm definitely staying engaged! Right now I am activated at the Pentagon so I can't do on the ground political organizing or running, but that will clear up soon and then I will continue to do everything I can to support working people and Missouri on this front.
We hear about all of the money that is donated in political races, and the story I hear is that whoever raises the most money wins. I get multiple texts daily telling me that if I really cared, I would donate more. It disgusts me that this is what the country has come to. It's basically the opposite of what our country was founded on, right? But what my question is, is how much DOES it cost? I understand that there are travel costs, TV ads, social media buys, mailings and yard signs, staff to help organize and run a campaign and much more, I'm sure. But what does all of that actually add up to, to run a legitimate campaign in Missouri or Nationally? Like, if we know it costs around $10 million, and we hear someone has raised $5 billion, where does that extra $4.99 billion go? I hope this isn't a dumb question. But I think campaign finance reform may be one of the most important issues we could take on to take the country back. That, and getting balanced reporting by the press. And addressing Christian Nationalism, but I digress.
I think you're right, many of the problems come back to money in politics and the extremely long campaign seasons that we really have. My campaign cost something like $20 million and my opponent, Josh Hawley, raised and spent a decent amount more than I did with both his campaign outraising me and also big spending by a Super PAC. We were only able to focus on 4 of Missouri's 10 media markets, and that that made it very hard for us. My campaign manager talks more about it here:
But here is one highlight on the numbers that shows the difference in places where we could spend (even though we were getting outspent) and places where we couldn't spend at all:
"Being outspent and getting less support meant making tough calls, but one thing it also showed us was how effective Lucas’ message was with voters. In the media markets where we could afford to effectively fund our advertising campaigns, we saw Lucas’ outperformance rise to even double-digit levels, including in working-class and rural areas like Jefferson, Iron, Carroll, and Linn counties.
That 10%+ overperformance stands in stark contrast to the outer markets where we didn’t have the resources to get Lucas’ story and message to voters. In those areas, the overperformance dipped to nearly 0%. In short, something worked! Where we could get the word out, we could close the gap with the Presidential ticket by around 10%, and where we couldn’t get the word out, the gap didn’t really close it at all."
So, unfortunately, the money matters, and there were many things we weren't able to communicate about me or Josh Hawley. One other big thing that is often overlooked is that it takes a lot of money in staff, equipment, and fees to raise money. So a lot of the eyepopping numbers that are spent are spent raising more money to finally get the message out. It's a very broken system.
Eve, you hit the 3 BIG ones in your summary: $ in politics, misinformation and sanewashing, and Chrstian nationalism, an oxymoron if ever there was one! Thank you!
I live in Kansas City in a blue bubble, plus my career & religious choices have surrounded me with liberals. Who vote and did not participate in any of the "Dems aren't doing anything special for people just like ME" or "We won't vote and that will show the Dems they need to do better on Gaza/Israel" nonsense. So I really never talk to a Republican. When we have statewide votes we can see that the majority of MO citizens do not want these crazy things like de-funding public schools and constantly finding ways to limit direct democracy, and overturning the will of the majority. I know that is a lot because of the rural-urban divide. Since you campaigned all over MO and talked to a lot of people, I am wondering if you have a feel for what it is that the rural MO Republican citizen is afraid the Democrats will do if they get in power? We on the Dem side were deathly afraid of...what's actually happening. Though most of us could not imagine the naked lawlessness and embrace of corruption, the total disregard not only for American citizens (we expected that) but for the US as a country, still, we were afraid and we were right. But it is clear to me that in the outstate, citizens who are NOT in favor of cruelty, carelessness, and stupidity, are afraid of Democrats. I'm wondering if you have any insight into what they are afraid of? I feel like we need to work on getting a message out into the rural areas--but what is the message that will resonate? Your work is inspiring, and I also hope to support you in anything you do next.
Thank you Barbara for the well thought out question, the concerns, and the support. Right now a lot of people outside of your circle think that the Democratic Party stands for Wall Street, Corrupt Institutions, the rich, corporate America, free trade, urban America, and forcing moral beliefs on people who don't want them. They also feel like their lives get worse when Democrats are in charge, that Democrats are weak, and that they never accomplish any of the things they promise to accomplish for everyday people but accomplish all the things that they never talk about for the rich.
So that's where people are, and the Democratic party is currently seen less favorably than it ever has been (as of earlier this month, that could be changing).
I also think splashy things need to happen that can flip the narrative, which I think people could be ready to embrace right now. Things like rejecting free trade and embracing some tariffs (that make sense), banning all members of Congress and their families from owning stock and have criminal penalties for breaking the law, ban all outside income for congress, and blanket reject political donations from all corporate PACs, federal lobbyists, and big healthcare and pharma CEOs.
Military officers swear their oath to the constitution, not to any person and not to the president. I think many high ranking officers take that oath very seriously. If any superior officer were to order military members en masse to clearly violate the constitution, I think it would be unlikely that the military as a whole would move in that direction.
Thank you for clearing that up for me. So if the President asked the military to move against peaceful protesters, they would not carry out his command. Correct?
I don't think we can ever know what is going to happen for sure, and the national guard is usually who would be called up in a situation with protesters (since posse comitatus restricts the use of the military for law enforcement), so it might be different with them. But I would be very surprised if the active duty military got deeply involved with blatantly unconstitutional actions.
A group of Vietnam Veterans have created a series of economic populist ideas to help America's middle/working classes. We would like your opinion on our strategy, so what address can we use to send it to you? Thanks.
Since the democrats don’t have majorities in the House or Senate what specific steps should our representatives be taking to stop this administration from destroying our nation as we know it? What actual things can they do?
I think there are a lot of ways members of Congress can speak out in the minority that both accept the need for change while rejecting the current method of change. Rather than just looking like they are resisting for the sake of resisting, they will look like the problem solvers. For example, we can accept that tariffs and investment are needed without accepting the current setup.
The tariffs go against everything I learned about economics in grad school. It’s more than a trade war that I worry about. It’s actually war that I am concerned about. I am very old and I went through ww2 as a child but I remember that “prosperity is just around the corner.” And the war followed the episode of the 30s. We are truly in crazyland.
Walton-- congrats on making it this far along! I hope I can say the same someday and that things don't fall down around us before then. Thank you for your support and for your comment, which I agree with.
Is it legal for Elon Musk to have active contracts with the government and at the same time work for the government? i.e. do we, the taxpayer, pay Elon Musk? If he is not getting a paycheck from Uncle Sam, maybe it's OK to also have contracts with Uncle Sam...Have we even been told whether Elon is getting paid? (no transparency) It seems to me that several laws about federal government employment are being violated by Trump/Musk.
Is it legal for Trump to have several Cryptocurrency businesses (it's more accurate to call them schemes) while he is an active employee of the Federal Government? Is it legal for him to charge big bucks for his Secret Service attendants and other federal employees to stay at Mar-a-lago and Bedminster? No other President has had rental properties, so the situation is new. This came up in Trump 1.0. It's unethical and unseemly, but is it ILLEGAL? If not, an important order of business for Congress in the coming years is to make sure no President can take advantage of his office in this way. No other federal servant would even try to get away with benefiting financially from their position.
We, the taxpayer, are directly paying Elon Musk as a special government employee (SGE). When I was a Marine working for the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering at the Defense Innovation Unit I helped with the ethics portfolio and we had a few SGEs. SGEs are employees who can only work 130 days a year for the government and they can either be paid or unpaid. The White House said they are not paying Musk, and I believe that.
In short, though, there are always ways around the rules for the rich and powerful and the best we can do is vote and advocate in a way that makes it clear we don't like things like this. Something they just did in Wisconsin.
I think that might actually be the cycle! Although I don't think most of the theft is direct these days. People buy off politicians so that they can legally steal money which helps them buy off more politicians so that they can steal more money and the cycle goes on. The stealing votes is more like buying votes with the stolen money (that they stole from the people who are voting from them). I do think that many people are aware of this and that if a party were willing to reject certain types of money it would be big for them. In fact, I think a lot of people voted for Trump because they felt like his purported wealth made him "independent" of that system
Oops. Thanks. You are not a liar but so many are. I saw this today. It’s 2 years old. Some people really do steal votes. https://youtu.be/UheOilps2zQ
EDIT I get not wanting to use a link. I added to OP early morning 4.5.25 Search - Revealed: the hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections - I use perplexity AI. Did you know a lot of AI is fed with Russian propaganda? The enemies are so sneaky. Why aren't we?
What are your future political plans? I very much hope you'll stay in politics and help lead us forward. Your postings on this Substack have been outstanding.
I definitely plan to stay engaged and this substack is a big part of that, so thank you for helping to make it possible!!
Same question. We need you to try again, Col. Kunce
Why does it appear that the Democratic party--and especially the strategists and leaders--so totally ignored preparing counters to the Project 2025 plan that they knew about far in advance of Trump's inauguration? What can be done now? What effort of their own do party strategists and leaders have going? It does not seem like there is anything so comprehensive, strategic, and effective as Project 2025 on the Democrat side.
Hi Steve, thank you for the question! Unfortunately, while doing this period of active duty I am unable to engage with party politics, take part in strategy sessions, or any of that stuff, so I don't have the answers to these great questions! But if you want to ask something else I will take a swing at it! (or come back next time I do one of these)
I fear that it's because the elite of both parties are complicit in establishing or supporting the oligarchy. Why have democrats stood back so often when they could have stepped up? Think Al Gore; the dems playing dirty with Bernie Sanders over the convention and admitting in court that they could do so because they're a Private organization!
Was anyone else surprised that the entire presidential process is in the hands of 2 Private organizations that can't be held accountable to follow their own rules and bylaws? Just why did the party abandon the working class by the 80s? They went Full Wall Street...It's unbelievably hard to hold my nose and vote for them at the national level. Imagine how hard for the Maga crowd. That's largely how we got putin, trump, and musk running the world.
You once wrote about not receiving campaign support from the national democratic party when you ran for senate against Hawley. I find this an appalling! Democrats are now urged to run for something, leave no office uncontested. That's a great idea, except how can we let leaders recognize the importance of supporting rural candidates or those in 'non-swing' states?
Hi Ann, yes, that's the real conundrum. It takes a lot to run for office and to have no support while doing it is brutal. My honest opinion is that I think anyone running here in Missouri as a Democrat for what people consider "non-competitive" seats is going to be on their own for a long time, unless the party changes a lot.
Such a shame.
Thanks for your reply!
Republicans in the Missouri legislature have just passed a budget that underfunds the public school formula by $300 million while allocating $50 million to private schools. Almost no one likes or wants this. Why can’t we democrats all get on the same page (I know, we’re not an organized political party) and elect representatives who will vote against this kind of nonsense?
Hi Anne, thank you for jumping in and breaking the ice! It's become clear over time that people aren't voting based on policy. Our legislature has attacked and overturned or attempted to overturn the will of the people repeatedly and they still get elected to the legislature. I think the problem is that most people don't have enough time to go into policies, or perhaps don't even care about them that much, and they vote on vibes. And the vibes just haven't been there for Democrats. I go into it in depth here:
https://lucaskunce.substack.com/p/why-do-people-keep-voting-against
I don't think the way out of this is money at all. Although I was outspent in my campaign and Democrats are outspent in Missouri, the party has a lot of money and a lot of people with a lot of money. I think rejecting certain types of money would actually make the party stronger at this point. More on that here:
https://lucaskunce.substack.com/p/time-to-start-breaking-things
l will be in Brentwood - in the rain! Will try to share my sign. It illustrates the MANY issues. There is a phenomenon in social psychology/behavioral economics called the Tyranny of Choice. Too many things can lead to crippling inaction. It is overwhelming! Can't paste the jpeg, but here's the Word file! HANDS OFF!!
Social Security
GLBTQ rights
Diversity-Equity-Inclusion
NATO
NIH/NIMH
Science
Our Future Scientists
American Universities
Medicaid & Medicare
Our Federal Workforce
Our National Park Service
Dump DOGE!!! [this is in all 4 corners]
The CDC
Our Department of Education
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
And Our National Weather Service
USAID
The Fourth Estate
Vaccines**Signed Scared Parents
And this is only a partial list! :(
SO MANY REASONS TO PROTEST!!
"Why can’t we democrats all get on the same page?" The answer is that we don't have enough money to buy votes. And some of us are not ready to pay the price of freedom from tyranny. But with each passing day some of us will fall to the point where we have to stop buying entertainment and need to pay attention to getting enough to eat. Hunger sharpens the mind.
Saturday, April 5 is a day away and I feel sad that I'm not in good enough physical shape to make a long walk and stay on my feet. So I will dedicate the day to making good noise through media like this. Writing has a way of sharpening the mind; and for me it is my best weapon.
I apologize, Mr. Weldon, but I am not sure I understand your point. We Democrats do not WANT to buy votes. And if we look at how much money Kamala raised, I am not sure I would agree that Democrats are not willing to put their money where their mouths are.
Kamala lost. That's the bitter pill we need to swallow. There was not enough money to buy her election. Whatever we spent to support her was spent on the wrong things. Votes needed to win are not cheap. Ask Mr. Musk about that. We all know the solution to that problem. We simply are not ready to follow the course.
Democrats don't want to buy votes? How else are we supposed to convince anyone outside our immediate circle of friends and family how to vote? I even have to send money to lucaskunce to comment on his web page. I'm not complaining about that. His efforts take time he could spend earning a living in another way. yada,yada,yada....
I think you hit the nail on the head: all that money was not well spent. Our messenging sucks. I have said this twice to Jeffries, as well as you several others on the Hill. So far, no joy. The best messenging from "our" side was, paradoxically by The Lincoln Project and Sarah Longwell's The Republican Accountability Project.
ooops I meant to reply to you - it is above
Got it. Long list. Every line will cost the criminal gang precious votes. Will that be enough?
We have a horribly outdated Constitution that is an open door to corruption. When the United States finally dies at the hands of some second level Chinese wind farmer it will be wrapped in what's left of that Constitution.
OK, I think I got back to everyone. Thank you so much for the questions and the engagement! You've given me a lot to think about and it's always good to be in touch. I'm looking forward to the next one!
Just became a paid subscriber.
Now you only need 71 more to hit your goal.
I've followed you and your efforts for a while now.
Thank you for your service to all of America and for your ongoing efforts to bring dignity to Missouri politics.
It's been a dumpster fire here for as long as I've lived in Missouri.
Sir, are there any lessons the American people can take from the ongoing situation in South Korea?
Thank you so much! To be honest, I haven't tracked the South Korea situation closely, so I only have a topline understanding of it. But I think that one lesson learned, just like with Trump in 2020/21, is that when someone is already on their way out in a democratic nation it seems to be difficult for them to do something sketchy. Perhaps because folks have already mentally moved on. I would anticipate people who are looking to do nefarious things to understand that, too.
What is your next step politically, being an activist or running for office again? We need people like you and Jason Kander to keep fighting for us, Mr. Kunce.
I'm definitely staying engaged! Right now I am activated at the Pentagon so I can't do on the ground political organizing or running, but that will clear up soon and then I will continue to do everything I can to support working people and Missouri on this front.
We hear about all of the money that is donated in political races, and the story I hear is that whoever raises the most money wins. I get multiple texts daily telling me that if I really cared, I would donate more. It disgusts me that this is what the country has come to. It's basically the opposite of what our country was founded on, right? But what my question is, is how much DOES it cost? I understand that there are travel costs, TV ads, social media buys, mailings and yard signs, staff to help organize and run a campaign and much more, I'm sure. But what does all of that actually add up to, to run a legitimate campaign in Missouri or Nationally? Like, if we know it costs around $10 million, and we hear someone has raised $5 billion, where does that extra $4.99 billion go? I hope this isn't a dumb question. But I think campaign finance reform may be one of the most important issues we could take on to take the country back. That, and getting balanced reporting by the press. And addressing Christian Nationalism, but I digress.
I think you're right, many of the problems come back to money in politics and the extremely long campaign seasons that we really have. My campaign cost something like $20 million and my opponent, Josh Hawley, raised and spent a decent amount more than I did with both his campaign outraising me and also big spending by a Super PAC. We were only able to focus on 4 of Missouri's 10 media markets, and that that made it very hard for us. My campaign manager talks more about it here:
https://lucaskunce.substack.com/p/against-the-wind
But here is one highlight on the numbers that shows the difference in places where we could spend (even though we were getting outspent) and places where we couldn't spend at all:
"Being outspent and getting less support meant making tough calls, but one thing it also showed us was how effective Lucas’ message was with voters. In the media markets where we could afford to effectively fund our advertising campaigns, we saw Lucas’ outperformance rise to even double-digit levels, including in working-class and rural areas like Jefferson, Iron, Carroll, and Linn counties.
That 10%+ overperformance stands in stark contrast to the outer markets where we didn’t have the resources to get Lucas’ story and message to voters. In those areas, the overperformance dipped to nearly 0%. In short, something worked! Where we could get the word out, we could close the gap with the Presidential ticket by around 10%, and where we couldn’t get the word out, the gap didn’t really close it at all."
So, unfortunately, the money matters, and there were many things we weren't able to communicate about me or Josh Hawley. One other big thing that is often overlooked is that it takes a lot of money in staff, equipment, and fees to raise money. So a lot of the eyepopping numbers that are spent are spent raising more money to finally get the message out. It's a very broken system.
Eve, you hit the 3 BIG ones in your summary: $ in politics, misinformation and sanewashing, and Chrstian nationalism, an oxymoron if ever there was one! Thank you!
I live in Kansas City in a blue bubble, plus my career & religious choices have surrounded me with liberals. Who vote and did not participate in any of the "Dems aren't doing anything special for people just like ME" or "We won't vote and that will show the Dems they need to do better on Gaza/Israel" nonsense. So I really never talk to a Republican. When we have statewide votes we can see that the majority of MO citizens do not want these crazy things like de-funding public schools and constantly finding ways to limit direct democracy, and overturning the will of the majority. I know that is a lot because of the rural-urban divide. Since you campaigned all over MO and talked to a lot of people, I am wondering if you have a feel for what it is that the rural MO Republican citizen is afraid the Democrats will do if they get in power? We on the Dem side were deathly afraid of...what's actually happening. Though most of us could not imagine the naked lawlessness and embrace of corruption, the total disregard not only for American citizens (we expected that) but for the US as a country, still, we were afraid and we were right. But it is clear to me that in the outstate, citizens who are NOT in favor of cruelty, carelessness, and stupidity, are afraid of Democrats. I'm wondering if you have any insight into what they are afraid of? I feel like we need to work on getting a message out into the rural areas--but what is the message that will resonate? Your work is inspiring, and I also hope to support you in anything you do next.
Thank you Barbara for the well thought out question, the concerns, and the support. Right now a lot of people outside of your circle think that the Democratic Party stands for Wall Street, Corrupt Institutions, the rich, corporate America, free trade, urban America, and forcing moral beliefs on people who don't want them. They also feel like their lives get worse when Democrats are in charge, that Democrats are weak, and that they never accomplish any of the things they promise to accomplish for everyday people but accomplish all the things that they never talk about for the rich.
I write more about that here: https://lucaskunce.substack.com/p/why-do-people-keep-voting-against
So that's where people are, and the Democratic party is currently seen less favorably than it ever has been (as of earlier this month, that could be changing).
I also think splashy things need to happen that can flip the narrative, which I think people could be ready to embrace right now. Things like rejecting free trade and embracing some tariffs (that make sense), banning all members of Congress and their families from owning stock and have criminal penalties for breaking the law, ban all outside income for congress, and blanket reject political donations from all corporate PACs, federal lobbyists, and big healthcare and pharma CEOs.
I’m just curious—what might cause the Armed Forces to become involved with a US president who violates the constitution?
Military officers swear their oath to the constitution, not to any person and not to the president. I think many high ranking officers take that oath very seriously. If any superior officer were to order military members en masse to clearly violate the constitution, I think it would be unlikely that the military as a whole would move in that direction.
Thank you for clearing that up for me. So if the President asked the military to move against peaceful protesters, they would not carry out his command. Correct?
I don't think we can ever know what is going to happen for sure, and the national guard is usually who would be called up in a situation with protesters (since posse comitatus restricts the use of the military for law enforcement), so it might be different with them. But I would be very surprised if the active duty military got deeply involved with blatantly unconstitutional actions.
What can the average person do to make any deferance? The quote, “all that evil need’s to triumph is for good men to do nothing” haunts me.
A group of Vietnam Veterans have created a series of economic populist ideas to help America's middle/working classes. We would like your opinion on our strategy, so what address can we use to send it to you? Thanks.
That sounds great, Ted!
Lucas Kunce
PO Box 1240
Independence, MO 64050
Although I will get it faster if you email me a pdf at lucas@lucaskunce.com
Thank you!
Since the democrats don’t have majorities in the House or Senate what specific steps should our representatives be taking to stop this administration from destroying our nation as we know it? What actual things can they do?
I think there are a lot of ways members of Congress can speak out in the minority that both accept the need for change while rejecting the current method of change. Rather than just looking like they are resisting for the sake of resisting, they will look like the problem solvers. For example, we can accept that tariffs and investment are needed without accepting the current setup.
The tariffs go against everything I learned about economics in grad school. It’s more than a trade war that I worry about. It’s actually war that I am concerned about. I am very old and I went through ww2 as a child but I remember that “prosperity is just around the corner.” And the war followed the episode of the 30s. We are truly in crazyland.
Walton-- congrats on making it this far along! I hope I can say the same someday and that things don't fall down around us before then. Thank you for your support and for your comment, which I agree with.
Is it legal for Elon Musk to have active contracts with the government and at the same time work for the government? i.e. do we, the taxpayer, pay Elon Musk? If he is not getting a paycheck from Uncle Sam, maybe it's OK to also have contracts with Uncle Sam...Have we even been told whether Elon is getting paid? (no transparency) It seems to me that several laws about federal government employment are being violated by Trump/Musk.
Is it legal for Trump to have several Cryptocurrency businesses (it's more accurate to call them schemes) while he is an active employee of the Federal Government? Is it legal for him to charge big bucks for his Secret Service attendants and other federal employees to stay at Mar-a-lago and Bedminster? No other President has had rental properties, so the situation is new. This came up in Trump 1.0. It's unethical and unseemly, but is it ILLEGAL? If not, an important order of business for Congress in the coming years is to make sure no President can take advantage of his office in this way. No other federal servant would even try to get away with benefiting financially from their position.
We, the taxpayer, are directly paying Elon Musk as a special government employee (SGE). When I was a Marine working for the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering at the Defense Innovation Unit I helped with the ethics portfolio and we had a few SGEs. SGEs are employees who can only work 130 days a year for the government and they can either be paid or unpaid. The White House said they are not paying Musk, and I believe that.
SGE's have much looser conflict of interest rules, which Public Citizen does a good job of outlining here: https://www.citizen.org/article/ethics-rules-or-lack-thereof-that-apply-to-special-government-employees-sge-and-elon-musk-in-particular/
In short, though, there are always ways around the rules for the rich and powerful and the best we can do is vote and advocate in a way that makes it clear we don't like things like this. Something they just did in Wisconsin.
What's worse in a democracy - if a party steals votes or steals money?
I think that might actually be the cycle! Although I don't think most of the theft is direct these days. People buy off politicians so that they can legally steal money which helps them buy off more politicians so that they can steal more money and the cycle goes on. The stealing votes is more like buying votes with the stolen money (that they stole from the people who are voting from them). I do think that many people are aware of this and that if a party were willing to reject certain types of money it would be big for them. In fact, I think a lot of people voted for Trump because they felt like his purported wealth made him "independent" of that system
I'm a subscriber but I guess you aren't willing to answer my question. Thanks Obama.
I'm not even late! I promised last night and this morning and it's this morning!!
Oops. Thanks. You are not a liar but so many are. I saw this today. It’s 2 years old. Some people really do steal votes. https://youtu.be/UheOilps2zQ
EDIT I get not wanting to use a link. I added to OP early morning 4.5.25 Search - Revealed: the hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections - I use perplexity AI. Did you know a lot of AI is fed with Russian propaganda? The enemies are so sneaky. Why aren't we?