Sometimes it is hard to articulate why you believe the things you believe, especially long held views. They become a part of who you are and the inflection points that led you to adopt those stances can be difficult to recall.
Take politics, for example. People our age have likely held the same views, or some version of a core set of opinions, for over 30 years now. Do we remember what it was that triggered our beliefs on how government should or should not behave? And do we generally vote for one party or the other based on habit without considering the decades-old reasoning behind it?
That got me thinking about how I feel government should function. In general, I believe that unchecked capitalism is evil. Pure capitalism insists that profit is more important than anything else. The best way to maximize profit is to reduce labor costs to the lowest possible level, to eliminate and/or ignore rules that add expense to manufacturing/providing a service, and so on. Ruthlessly trimming costs while selling at the highest price the market will allow, no matter the damage done to the workers or communities where companies are located or the environment.
Making money and accumulating wealth is fine. Doing so in a manner that intentionally splits society into Haves and Have Nots and prevents the Have Nots from changing the system so it isn’t aligned against them is not in the best interest of a healthy nation.
I believe one of the government’s main roles is to apply guardrails to the economy to keep unadulterated capitalism from trampling all over society. When companies get too big and control too much of the economy, they should be reigned in. When business owners jeopardize the health and safety of their workers as they seek higher profits, the government should be there to protect labor. Even when checked, capitalism will still chew up and spit out portions of the population who can’t keep up. The government should be there to support those who are left behind and aid them in their efforts to get back on track.
While I believe in the respect of the rights of the individual that is core to what makes America different, I also believe that in order to have a healthy, functioning society, we often need to take into account the collective over the individual. Especially in a nation of 350 million people. Not always, but often. Government should be the entity that cautiously herds a wide range of competiting interests into a logical collective that solves problems for as many people as possible. Even if sometimes that progress is not the most graceful of efforts.
Obviously I could spend paragraphs breaking down why I support this cause or am against that policy, but I feel like these are the bedrock principles most of what I believe in are built upon.
With that in mind, it should be no surprise that I loved Nilay Patel’s endorsement of Kamala Harris on The Verge this week. So many endorsements are about policy or personality. Patel mirrors my view on what the purpose of government in a modern society is – guiding collective action – and the candidate best suited to ensuring that continues to happen.
The bummer about the age we live in is that Patel’s piece is much more a takedown of the Trump campaign than a glowing endorsement of Harris. To be sure, he is a fan of Harris, even if he has some critiques of her campaign. It’s just the force she is up against is so overwhelmingly toxic that he spends the bulk of his time attacking it.
I especially liked Patel’s thoughts on how Trump and his supporters view collective action. Basically, the movement doesn’t believe that collective action events exist, or if they do, argue they are actually good things that should be left alone rather than threats that need to be addressed.
Trump doesn’t give a shit about any of this because he only cares about himself. He generally does not care to solve problems unless it benefits him personally, and the intellectual foundation of the MAGA movement that’s built up around him is the complete denial that collective action problems exist at all.
Trump simply cannot use the tools of democracy to run the country on our behalf. His brain does not work that way, even when it appears to be working. He is too selfish, too stupid, too cognitively impaired, too fucked in the head by social media — too whatever. He just can’t do it.
Patel goes on to explore how Trump fails the collective action test specifically on gun violence and vaccinations.
The Verge being a tech site, Patel also dives into the uncomfortable relationship between leaders in the tech industry and Trump. Specifically how these Tech Bros believe supporting Trump will allow them to race into the AI era without having to face consequences for whatever evils their experiments conjure up.
They would prefer to remake our country into a broken oligarchy where they have finally ended the free market and privatized our lives into an overlapping series of enshittified subscription monopolies, and they have taken to openly wishcasting what they would do with unchecked power.
I’ve tried not to read too much about this year’s election, as it tends to increase my blood pressure, make my heart beat funny, and generally make me feel bad. But I read Patel’s piece multiple times. I wish more people would.
A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for school shootings and measles