“There is a cavernous void to be filled in American politics: No one has offered a vision for a future that a decisive majority of Americans can believe in. Before Democrats (leaders and led) can change America, they must first change themselves.” The New York Times, September 8, 2026.
In recent decades, non-white Americans have accounted for nearly 80% of the increase in the electorate — primarily Blacks, women, Hispanics, and Asians. This electoral growth and composition should be America’s greatest weapon against the advocates of Fascism since they lean primarily toward the Democratic Party, but it is not because the grouping is an even greater threat to the status quo.
Political Newbies are more likely to be Socratic Gadflies than traditional politicians, and, thus, are serious threats to the existing state of affairs that has been predicated, perpetrated, and perpetuated on outmoded realities of bygone eras — and therein lies their gall.
Professional politicians lay claim to their value by the number of years they have served, irrespective of their effectiveness. They don’t want politically unexperienced newbies at all, but if strapped with them, they want them to sit in the back of the chambers and keep silent until they can be sufficiently socialized, and have their passion dampened, so that they will help maintain the status quo, which, driven by the Incumbent Reelection Syndrome, keeps 95+% of the incumbents in congress.
New leaders are more likely than traditionalists to connect with and inspire voting participation by the 52 million 18-30 year-old consistent non-voters who made up nearly half of the 110 million 2024 self-disenfranchisers. Understanding and engaging with this diverse population is crucial for the design of political strategies for the salvation of Democracy, but the power of this mass has not been consolidated and positively weaponized. Neither the politicians nor the voters who keep them are inclined toward new leaders who look like the 80%. The 2016 and 2024 election outcomes were driven principally by racism and misogyny. In 2024, more than 187 million Americans either “voted” for Trump or “nobody,” e.g., self-disenfranchised, rather than vote for a Black woman.
The demography of congress does not resemble the demography of America, which creates a values-disconnect. Although women make up over 51 percent of the population, they hold only about 11 percent of decision-making and policy-setting positions in media, government, and education, only 25% of the Senate and only 28% of Congress.
When there is a values-disconnect between lawmakers and their nation, they fail to achieve the promises they make during their campaigns. Presidents have not led America to the accomplishment of government’s primary responsibility to all Americans.
Before Trump 1– 2016, there had been forty-four presidents. In today’s terms, there were 25 “Republicans” and 19 “Democrats;” many served two terms.
Subsequent to the Civil Rights Laws of the mid-sixties, there have been six Republicans and five Democrats.
Since the 1968 Kerner Report that cited white racism as the driver of pervasive anti-Black discrimination, there have been 12 presidents – seven Republicans and five Democrats.
The most perplexing quandary I have ever had about anything is why Trump has been much more competent in using governmental tools to advance Fascism and Theocracy than his opponents have been in thwarting him.
“I can conceive of no better service than boldly exposing the weakness, liabilities and infinite corruptions of democracy.” Walt Whitman
Leaders must take personal responsibility for the salvation of American Democracy. Timid people always worried about “fitting in” or getting reelected cannot help bring about meaningful change.
The maniacal political partisanship of loyalists in both major parties – both leaders and followers — seems to be imbedded in their lowest-level minds, their unconscious minds, which makes their political mindsets obdurate. They are party loyalists first and American patriots second, if at all. Implicit bias resides in the unconscious mind and triggers perceptions and actions for or against people of a particular ethnicity, gender, social group, or political party.
The unconscious mind retains socially unacceptable ideas, traumatic experiences, and learned biases inculcated in the past and “forgotten,” as well as defense mechanisms. The unconscious mind operates autonomously and automatically, stimulating antiquated responses to current emotional “assaults.” Remember: 2.3 million Black men and women chose Trump in 2024, an avowed racist and misogynist. What past offenses by Blacks have made them proxy-racists and hate their brothers and sisters just as Trump does?
We are responsible for what we know. Human beings should know what they do, why they do what they do, and what they do does. Although difficult, people who become aware of the awesome power of their unconscious minds, can access the content, gain control, build better minds and become the most civilized of all earthly creatures.
