The Witness Chronicles, 3/26/25

It’s my birthday!

Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash

We Desperately Need More Politicians Like AOC and Pete Buttigieg

They are not afraid to speak truth to power

Buttigieg and Alexandra Ocasio Cortez are the model for new political talent that is not cast in the old white guy molds and that feels no debt to the old school, which has completely failed us to the point where our democracy teeters on the edge of failure.

A host of racist and mysognist white men have swarmed in to try and hold off change for more generations. Fortunately they are turning out to be dangerously incompetent bumbling fools who believe arrogance substitutes for capability.

It seems the country is in a kind of stunned paralysis in response to the devastation being wreaked upon us by Trump, Musk, and their incompetent cronies. But AOC is touring with old school liberal Bernie Sanders and drawing huge crowds in red states. And Pete is going on television and destroying right wing myths with his ability to sound reasonable and logical in the face of almost hysteric fanaticism. He is simply unanswerable.

The facts that he is gay and she is Latino are relevant but not to these political issues. The fact that they are not the old white guy paradigm of what politicians always looked like, is the key to their ability to speak out. And sheer intelligence.

It is apparent to me that Buttigieg has his eyes on the Presidency and AOC on leadership in Congress, but that is not why they are leading the fight right now. Future plans are not of any value if there is no democratic future, and that is what we face right now.

This is important. The future is not the issue to focus on in the face of Trumpism. Trump won’t be in it regardless of how things turn out. Musk will but he does not share Trump’s popularity, popularity which may plunge as his actions hit Americans of every political bent, hurting people where they feel it- in their pocketbooks and their belief in the future.

There is a fundamental fact here. Trump has no personal interest in the future. His own people are scrambling to pretend that is not the case, but without his inexplicable charisma their house of cards will collapse. That is because they do not represent the majority of Americans. They are evangelical fanatics. Their religion is power. There is no sign of a Trump political heir.

If there is hope, it lies in that reality. Trump has no vision of the future and he avoids surrounding himself with competence, not wanting to find himself in the shadow of someone he has promoted. Musk is the bizarre exception but Musk is so weird and inhuman that he really represents no threat to Trump, who respects popularity over anything else, and then resents it.

So, in my mind, this thing falls to pieces but how it falls to pieces will determine our future. If these lunatics cement their future with a dictatorship, rebuilding will be difficult. But if we rally behind a new model, not defined by hardcore partisanship and led by younger leaders who do not fear the truth, we can undo and rebuild a better future.

I’d be remiss to not bring up climate change if I’m going to talk about the future. The nationwide denial of this life changing reality is the major barrier to progress in the world. Climate change is the single most important issue we face, one that will change the lives of our descendants.

By the way, this year will see the largest high school graduating class in decades, nearly four million. And they will be reaching voting age and climate is on their minds, along with equality, human rights, and whether they will be able to afford the future. They need leaders they can relate to, who do not deny the reality of catastrophic warming.

That’s a legacy issue, the legacy issue. The current leadership in the White House and Congress are bought and paid for and old enough that the long term consequences do not concern them. Not only that but they see their mission as religion and proof that mankind has the right to do anything we want because God will bail us out.

That is, if they believe anything.

I do not assume that is the case. I think they love power for its own sake and are besotted with it. That is addiction, not politics. Trump opened the door for these nutcases but that door was wedged open by Ronald Reagan and his crusade against big government, which became an almost religious Republican gospel.

I realize this sounds like classic progressive thinking but I consider myself a liberal capitalist. I was a business person, a software executive, but also an artist, first as a musician and now as a writer. Hence the liberal, and the capitalist leanings. But we are in an environment that eclipses those ideals, an environment that looks apocalyptic.

I turn seventy today, a number that seems extremely strange right now, but it is my reality. It means I have been a witness to a lot of change in the America and the world. And we have survived and largely thrived. But this all feels different. I have less stake in the game these days but, oddly, I feel more engaged. I did not have kids but I am astounded that those who have kids and grandkids seem so ambivalent about what is going on.

When did you give up? And, if you didn’t, how far will you go to protect their futures?

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Thank you,

Martin Edic