Mike GravelVerified account

How long will we continue to deny that the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination is simply a racist?https://twitter.com/lyftrs/status/1125894701117267973 …

Voters' flaws should mean MORE democracy, not less. As C.S. Lewis said: "I am a democrat because I believe in the Fall of Man…Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters."

People's discovery of just how flawed some voters are may lead them to question democracy. Hobbes was right (“homo homini lupus”), but people do not need to be held in check by a de Maistre-type executioner figure. They really need freedom from shackles of poverty and oppression.

So many trends in American life today—the economic royalism and private tyrannies discussed by Elizabeth Anderson, the obsession with "experts" who "know what they're doing" (they don't!), the quick dismissal of "dumb voters"—augur poorly for democracy.

These times are parlous ones for democracy—not just because of Trump’s authoritarianism, but also because of the elitism represented in the technocratic "move beyond politics" approaches of Buttigieg, Schultz, et al. (Democracy = politics. Limiting politics = limiting democracy.)

There are Democrats who are hardly democrats and many democrats who opt not to be Democrats. But Mike Gravel is a proud democrat who also happens to be a Democrat. And that, sadly, is increasingly rare.

The first step in smashing American imperialism is radical honesty with ourselves. We don't "intervene" - we invade. That's not collateral damage" - those are the corpses of parents and children. Ours is not a Department of Defense - it's a Department of War.

This nation and our political system do not exist in some vacuum - we live on a planet which is rapidly becoming uninhabitable by our own hands. The fate of everything which lives and breathes is at stake - to say "we don't have the votes" is unforgivable.https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1125639613350129665 …

All evidence points to Sandra Bland being a victim of state-sponsored murder, and every corrupt officer - supposed to "protect and defend" - responsible for her death should be arrested and charged. For too long the police have been pitted against POC - those days must end.

We are putting together the speaking tour and are planning to begin in New York, the city that doesn't sleep - if you're attending college in NYC, or are a member of a DSA or other local group, please email speaking@mikegravel.org!

The most obvious thing in the world to most people is that Trump is a racist, a liar, a thief, a war criminal, a rapist, a con man. Why the need to spend years thinking about this byzantine Russia plot? Is all that not enough? He should have been impeached and removed on Day 1.

Voting for Iraq - that would be enough to oppose Biden! Fighting busing - that would be enough! Helping the big banks - that would be enough! Befriending racists and war criminals - that would be enough! Building mass incarceration - that would be enough! The list goes on.

"systeem" oof

The elite Democratic Party - the party of Tsongas, Hart, the Clintons - sells a watered-down Reaganism where the exploitation isn't so obvious. The tragic gift of the past few years is a heightening of the contradictions such that many more have seen the systeem's intrinsic evil