‘Nixon: The American Dream does not come to those who fall asleep.’ Rich Halls’ Working for the American Dream, BBC 2018
The American Dream: What does that phrase even mean? ’Cos it’s wildly open to interpretation. But I think to a lot of Americans it feeds in with a the chance to do your work with dignity. ibid.
It’s the cement that unifies Americans. ibid.
Most of the captain’s of American industry have at one point or other had their workers shot. ibid.
History tell us that this particular decade is difficult but not unique. The forces that are shaping the worst parts of us right now are forces that are part of the American character. The Soul of America, John Meacham reporting, Sky Documentarieis 2020
So we’re living in an era of politics as entertainment, politics as an unfolding and insistent drama. ibid.
100 years ago: The governor of Georgia announced that he wanted to build a wall of steel as high as heaven to keep immigrants out. ibid.
White Supremacy replaced slavery as the communing concern of white southerners. ibid.
100 years ago more than half the population couldn’t vote. ibid.
The Suffrage Prisoners Were Arrested for a Political Offense. We Demand That They Be Treated as Political Prisoners. ibid. protest banner at false feeding of prisoners
‘So shall we win through to a better day?’ ibid. F D Roosevelt
A hundred years from the end of the Civil War through the Civil Rights Movement is a vivid case study in the struggle between our worst instincts and our better angels. ibid.
‘This is not a struggle for ourselves alone, it is a struggle to save the soul of America.’ ibid. Martin Luther King
If America wants to do some big things about education, about climate, about economic inequality, you can do a lot worse than to look at 1964 and 1965 and see how even in a complicated, ultimately fallen universe you can make progress. ibid.
If we can’t find a way to admit that we’ve changed our mind, we’re not going to make progress. ibid.
No, I'm not an American. I’m one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, I’m not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver — no, not I. I’m speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare. Malcolm X, speech Cleveland, Ohio, 3rd April 1964
However, there is nothing left of the American dream. Social mobility in the US today is far lower than it is in Europe. Anyone born into a poor family in the US is very likely to remain poor, and can only watch the story of going from rags to riches in movie theaters or on Netflix. Daniele Ganser, USA: The Ruthless Empire
It is the heart of US policy, Ladies & Gentlemen, to use fascism to preserve capitalism while claiming to be saving democracy from communism. Michael Parenti
The expanding social inequality and capture of our democratic institutions, including the media, the Congress, organised labour, academia, and the courts by corporations and oligarchs, would inevitably lead to an authoritarian and finally Christian fascist state. Chris Hedges, lecture Workers Fight Back Conference 2025, Youtube 36.16
A serious impassioned plea to take the decay seriously. ibid.
This despair, this loss of hope, this denial of a future, leads the desperate into the arms of those who promise miracles and dreams of apocalyptic glory. Donald Trump does not herald the collapse of democracy. He heralds the ripping away of the veneer that masked the rot wihin the ruling structures and their pretence of democracy. ibid.
The Democrats are as guilty as the Republicans. ibid.
They embody the moral decay unleashed by unfettered capitalism. ibid.
Now we are shifting to totalitarian’s more recognisable form, one dominated by a demagogue and an ideology grounded in our homegrown Christian fascism. ibid.
The utopian ideology of neoliberalism and global capitalism is a vast con, a mechanism to funnel wealth upwards to the billionaire class. ibid.
The labels liberal and conservative are meaningless, evidenced by a Democratic presidential candidate who turned to Wall Street bankers to formulate her economic policies, and bragged about an endorsement from Dick Cheney, a war criminal who left office with a 13% approval rating. ibid.
Trump lies like he breathes, but the lies told by the two establishment parties caused far more pain and did far more damage than the lies told by Trump. ibid.
We are a culture awash with lies. ibid.
Empty mind-numbing chiches and slogans most of which are absurd and contradictory replace political discourse. ibid.
The cult of the self dominates our cultural landscape. ibid.
These are the debauched revels of a dying civilisation. The system is not reformable. ibid.
They know when you fight for the oppressed, you get treated like the oppressed. ibid.
Hope comes when we physically defy those in power. ibid.
They cannot see that the suffering of a child in Gaza or a child in the blighted pockets of Washington DC diminishes and impoverishes us all. They are deaf, dumb and blind to hope. ibid.
Our strength comes from our steadfastness to Justice and Truth. ibid.
The more we make compromises with those who serve privilege and power, the more we diminish our own strength. ibid.
If we cannot make the elites scared of us, we fail. ibid.
We must organise and organise fast. ibid.
And we must end the genocide in Gaza. ibid.
The mafia state will be brutal. ibid.
We may not succeed. So be it. At least those who come after us, and I speak as a father, will say we tried. ibid.