THE COUNTERFACTUAL SERIES, PART I: An alternative history of an America that never was — and why it would have been better, richer, calmer, and differently flawed
1. 1954: Public education is fully funded equally per Brown v Board of Education. The tier system that relegates most urban and rural children to permanent immiseration and fast tracks suburban children to upward mobility is replaced with equal access to good facilities, teachers, in-school breakfasts and lunches, social workers, and teacher to pupil ratios. Students are taught critical thinking and social responsibility K-12. Textbooks and lesson plans tell the Howard Zinn People's History of the United States, not the whitewashed versions. Students receive K-12 education in ecology, music, art, literature, dance. (In Montgomery County Maryland public schools, we were taught to sing Confederate songs but we were not taught that the inspiration for Harriett Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was 5 miles up the road in Bethesda. Josiah Henson's cabin is now a county park.) Students grow up as good citizens with critical thinking, who will be skilled in recognizing evasions and falsehoods from people running for office and from elected officials.
2. 1955-1968: Lamar Smith is not murdered in Brookhaven, Mississippi for political organizing; Emmett Till is not kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in Mississippi. The ignorance, racism, sadism, and anti-intellectualism of Mississippi in particular but most of the USA in general, is gone with the wind. The CIA stops its campaign of overthrowing elected governments around the world. Jack Kennedy is not murdered; neither is Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., nor Bobby Kennedy. The United States does not prosecute a war of white colonialism and anticommunism in Viet Nam.
3. 1972-1979: Every state ratifies the Equal Rights Amendment, as passed by Congress in 1972.
4. 1976. The Supreme Court rules in Buckley v. Valeo that with respect to campaign expenditures, money is not speech. The onslaught of PACS, SuperPACs, and purchase of Congress by money does not happen.
So sad that the forces of fascism never really went away - it's like a Ludlum novel, except there's no Bourne to save the day and the conspiracy rises.
I think Citizen's Utd. is perhaps the most damaging Supreme Court decision ever - it unleashed unbridled, unmanageable corruption that will be impossible to unravel.
Maybe past Republicans should still be lauded. Definitely Lincoln. Then T. Roosevelt. Probably Eisenhower. After them one action was taken by the Republicans after them; a hollowing out of the middle class that favored the rich, and an explosion of the National Debt, which is being used to reduce any program that will help the poor and middle class because “We can’t pay for those programs, we have to reduce our debt.” Which Republicans don’t because the military must be feed, and rich Republican donors must get another tax cut. Voters keep voting against their own self interests.
Great article. Not enough discussion amongst the chattering classes about what a poorer country we are without Kamala as president. All those murdered kids in Palestine and Iraq, the US military KIA, the folks murdered by ICE, the innocents locked up in the ICE camps, none of this happens under President Kamala.
I disagree with the suggestion that more hostages would have been returned alive. It’s absolutely clear the democrats provided cover for holding hostages and there was no meaningful movement until trump was elected
First of all--wonderful literary reference in your handle. Second...you could be right that the timeline would not have accelerated but I think our contention is that a President Harris would have brought tremendous pressure to bear to end the war earlier. We would not agree that Democrats provided cover for holding hostages--we do agree that some DSA lunatics embraced and lionized Hamas and those people are insane. But again, end of the day, our calculus is that under Harris there would have been a negotiated end faster hence more hostages would have survived. But that could be wrong.
Moishe, compare the Biden plan to the current agreement. See if you can spot any differences. It was on the table and largely agreed to by Hamas 2 years before the end of the war. But that's not what Israel's criminal leaders wanted - nor want now, they are desperate to scuttle this deal and restart formal operations. I say formal because little known fact, the IDF kills 10, 20 people a day in Gaza in ongoing operations. If the current government stays in power past October, expect Lebanon, Gaza, Iran and especially the West Bank, which they are trying their best to incite and drive to explosion, to become intense battlefields.
Of course, not battlefields with many religious soldiers, because they extend service for secular soldiers and exempt draft-dodging, uneducated and non-working Haredi men and instead give them tons of money to do nothing. But that's another story for another article.
In any case yes, hundreds of living hostages and tens of thousands of living Palestinians and about 10 percentage points more support for Israel among the US and global public.
Matt, a young boy was rooting for the New York Giants when Bobby Thompson hit the home run against the Dodgers, the shot heard round the world. He ran to the upstairs apartment to tell his grandfather and yelled with joy: the Giants won pennant,the Giants won the pennant.
His grandfather replied in Yiddish: “ Is better for the Jews.”
Look around, my friend, and answer the question for yourself.
If you're still fooling yourself that this ends well for us now, both ends of the political spectrum hate Israeli policy. I will point out that the Left hates Istaeli policy and would love us if we moved to peacemaking while the extreme right are rabid antisemites who would take your money and put you in a camp. And the part on the left that still loves us loves us for the right reason, not because the apocalypse will come and we'll soon be forced to convert or die, so it's all right to work with us.
Even most of the people saying globalize the intifada would fade away if israel and the palestiniains signed an agreement that can lead to two states and the arab states in the region made peace with Israel. People on the left "like" and "dislike" (and are often misguided), while people on the right actually hate. That's the fundamental difference.
I definitely have some forebears who thought along those lines 🙂. It's honestly a fair question. I don't know. I think like many American Jews this has been a really hard two years for me to grapple with. I don't know that everything that Donald Trump has done in this regard is wrong. Nor can I prove that everything that a President Harris would have done would have been been better. I do defer to Dan Perry's expertise on this. He is literally a lot closer to the situation. He thinks it would've been a very mixed bag indeed. All I can say is that in the reality that we live in, I'm really really worried about the place we are at.
As a foreigner this is a fascinating piece but it is difficult to comprehend why any liberal would support the modern American Democrat Party. Those who do have an enormous, immediate and very ugly problem to engage and, unfortunately, I'm not optimistic they're up to it.
If we are rewriting history, let's start here:
1. 1954: Public education is fully funded equally per Brown v Board of Education. The tier system that relegates most urban and rural children to permanent immiseration and fast tracks suburban children to upward mobility is replaced with equal access to good facilities, teachers, in-school breakfasts and lunches, social workers, and teacher to pupil ratios. Students are taught critical thinking and social responsibility K-12. Textbooks and lesson plans tell the Howard Zinn People's History of the United States, not the whitewashed versions. Students receive K-12 education in ecology, music, art, literature, dance. (In Montgomery County Maryland public schools, we were taught to sing Confederate songs but we were not taught that the inspiration for Harriett Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was 5 miles up the road in Bethesda. Josiah Henson's cabin is now a county park.) Students grow up as good citizens with critical thinking, who will be skilled in recognizing evasions and falsehoods from people running for office and from elected officials.
2. 1955-1968: Lamar Smith is not murdered in Brookhaven, Mississippi for political organizing; Emmett Till is not kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in Mississippi. The ignorance, racism, sadism, and anti-intellectualism of Mississippi in particular but most of the USA in general, is gone with the wind. The CIA stops its campaign of overthrowing elected governments around the world. Jack Kennedy is not murdered; neither is Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., nor Bobby Kennedy. The United States does not prosecute a war of white colonialism and anticommunism in Viet Nam.
3. 1972-1979: Every state ratifies the Equal Rights Amendment, as passed by Congress in 1972.
4. 1976. The Supreme Court rules in Buckley v. Valeo that with respect to campaign expenditures, money is not speech. The onslaught of PACS, SuperPACs, and purchase of Congress by money does not happen.
So sad that the forces of fascism never really went away - it's like a Ludlum novel, except there's no Bourne to save the day and the conspiracy rises.
I think Citizen's Utd. is perhaps the most damaging Supreme Court decision ever - it unleashed unbridled, unmanageable corruption that will be impossible to unravel.
Maybe past Republicans should still be lauded. Definitely Lincoln. Then T. Roosevelt. Probably Eisenhower. After them one action was taken by the Republicans after them; a hollowing out of the middle class that favored the rich, and an explosion of the National Debt, which is being used to reduce any program that will help the poor and middle class because “We can’t pay for those programs, we have to reduce our debt.” Which Republicans don’t because the military must be feed, and rich Republican donors must get another tax cut. Voters keep voting against their own self interests.
Great article. Not enough discussion amongst the chattering classes about what a poorer country we are without Kamala as president. All those murdered kids in Palestine and Iraq, the US military KIA, the folks murdered by ICE, the innocents locked up in the ICE camps, none of this happens under President Kamala.
Iran, not Iraq.
I disagree with the suggestion that more hostages would have been returned alive. It’s absolutely clear the democrats provided cover for holding hostages and there was no meaningful movement until trump was elected
First of all--wonderful literary reference in your handle. Second...you could be right that the timeline would not have accelerated but I think our contention is that a President Harris would have brought tremendous pressure to bear to end the war earlier. We would not agree that Democrats provided cover for holding hostages--we do agree that some DSA lunatics embraced and lionized Hamas and those people are insane. But again, end of the day, our calculus is that under Harris there would have been a negotiated end faster hence more hostages would have survived. But that could be wrong.
Moishe, compare the Biden plan to the current agreement. See if you can spot any differences. It was on the table and largely agreed to by Hamas 2 years before the end of the war. But that's not what Israel's criminal leaders wanted - nor want now, they are desperate to scuttle this deal and restart formal operations. I say formal because little known fact, the IDF kills 10, 20 people a day in Gaza in ongoing operations. If the current government stays in power past October, expect Lebanon, Gaza, Iran and especially the West Bank, which they are trying their best to incite and drive to explosion, to become intense battlefields.
Of course, not battlefields with many religious soldiers, because they extend service for secular soldiers and exempt draft-dodging, uneducated and non-working Haredi men and instead give them tons of money to do nothing. But that's another story for another article.
In any case yes, hundreds of living hostages and tens of thousands of living Palestinians and about 10 percentage points more support for Israel among the US and global public.
Matt, a young boy was rooting for the New York Giants when Bobby Thompson hit the home run against the Dodgers, the shot heard round the world. He ran to the upstairs apartment to tell his grandfather and yelled with joy: the Giants won pennant,the Giants won the pennant.
His grandfather replied in Yiddish: “ Is better for the Jews.”
That is my question to you: in your alt
2024 election, is it better for the Jews?
Look around, my friend, and answer the question for yourself.
If you're still fooling yourself that this ends well for us now, both ends of the political spectrum hate Israeli policy. I will point out that the Left hates Istaeli policy and would love us if we moved to peacemaking while the extreme right are rabid antisemites who would take your money and put you in a camp. And the part on the left that still loves us loves us for the right reason, not because the apocalypse will come and we'll soon be forced to convert or die, so it's all right to work with us.
I am looking around. Globalize the intifada is not a movement for peace making.
Even most of the people saying globalize the intifada would fade away if israel and the palestiniains signed an agreement that can lead to two states and the arab states in the region made peace with Israel. People on the left "like" and "dislike" (and are often misguided), while people on the right actually hate. That's the fundamental difference.
I definitely have some forebears who thought along those lines 🙂. It's honestly a fair question. I don't know. I think like many American Jews this has been a really hard two years for me to grapple with. I don't know that everything that Donald Trump has done in this regard is wrong. Nor can I prove that everything that a President Harris would have done would have been been better. I do defer to Dan Perry's expertise on this. He is literally a lot closer to the situation. He thinks it would've been a very mixed bag indeed. All I can say is that in the reality that we live in, I'm really really worried about the place we are at.
I agree
I can’t agree with that statement. Hamas and its supporters will not fade away with a two state solution.
Excellent foresight.
Dan or Clare for President
I agree
As a foreigner this is a fascinating piece but it is difficult to comprehend why any liberal would support the modern American Democrat Party. Those who do have an enormous, immediate and very ugly problem to engage and, unfortunately, I'm not optimistic they're up to it.
Would there still be ARTIC FRIST like subversion of rights? Would the Second Amendment go up in smoke?
Regards — Cliff
I actually think the second amendment does not forbid reasonable gun control. don't you? a well-regulated militia and all that.
I am so old I remember when the Feds had a marksmanship program and you could by a military rifle. Reasonable controls, yes.