Fast forward to June 1978:

Harvard students expected a pep talk on graduation day; instead, they received a warning from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn—a Russian novelist and survivor of the Soviet Gulag. He told them that the West was drifting toward ruin. Having seen firsthand how bad ideas can enslave a nation, he warned that a similar fate awaits America if we continue down the same dark path.

Solzhenitsyn explained how his countrymen slowly let radicalism displace their Christian-influenced culture, how radicalism yielded to socialism, and how socialism quickly gave way to communism. Not surprisingly: reform without God, virtue, and respect for human dignity didn’t produce freedom; it collapsed into tyranny.

A godless secular culture advances in two ways: through constant agitation and through the destruction of every traditional institution that once restrained it. Today, religious faith, family, education, social media, law, medicine, and politics show signs of moral and cultural decay. Yet most people barely notice, and few seem to care.

Nearly three decades before Solzhenitsyn’s speech, political philosopher Hannah Arendt had issued a similar warning. In her classic study “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” she challenged the modern notion of placing blind faith in progress.

Far too many people assume that progress always leads to improvement. Anything old—like faith and patriarchy—is dismissed as antiquated, while anything new—no matter how depraved—is celebrated as liberating. Yet every harebrained collective scheme either fails or will inevitably lead to suffering and violence. To believe otherwise isn’t optimism; it’s gullibility. To think it will never happen to us isn’t wisdom; it’s arrogance.

Solzhenitsyn warned that the West was becoming so soft that one day it would no longer be able to defend truth and righteousness. That’s because weak-willed people always surrender these things the moment they become costly.

America has already abandoned its long-held moral convictions on sex, abortion, and marriage. That’s bad enough, but we should expect even more chaos, strife, and division if we keep playing around with the world’s most radical ideologies instead of repenting and returning to the common-sense principles of the Natural Law, the Decalogue, and our founding documents.

What Arendt and Solzhenitsyn both understood is that progress and doom are mirror images of the same superstition. Each denies that morally responsible people can shape history for the better. If you assume that business as usual is automatic, you become complacent. If you assume doom is inevitable, you become paralyzed. Either way, you end up surrendering your freedom.

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Solzhenitsyn’s challenge was clear: if the West is to endure, people must take their intellectual, moral, and spiritual life more seriously. This was not meant to be a political statement but a universal call for courage, truth, and conversion of heart. Instead, the usual crowd of self-serving careerists, along with a tidal wave of radical socialists—with communist sympathies—seems poised to be swept into office with the ultimate goal of remolding human beings into the secular state’s image.

That’s a shame because politics that leaves God behind—or merely pays Him lip service—isn’t freedom; it’s superstition. And twentieth-century history makes one thing unmistakably clear: powerful bureaucracies that thrive on propaganda, surveillance, censorship, division, and fear never build utopias—but they do build Gulags.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

Humans have an innate ability to survive, forged over a couple hundred thousand years, and their survival depends on individual physical and mental abilities and, to some degree, their willingness to work with others to accomplish common objectives.

Until agriculture began, some 9000 years ago, strength, ingenuity, and mental capacity were paramount. Then the concept of land ownership emerged, introducing wealth as the dominant force in human society. Wealth transcended strength and mental capacity because wealthy individuals could purchase those skills. Managing wealth requires intelligence, either from the owner or from those he or she hires to manage it.

Governments emerged when landowners needed a way to manage the marketing of their assets (farm production). As societies grew beyond the size of a small village, some form of civic control became necessary (laws and police) to maintain order.

Human societies have always been stratified by social standing and by wealth. Wealth created the opportunity to raise social standing, which extended beyond the reach of individual talent.

There is no practical way to negate these long-standing human behaviors without resorting to force. Humans accept societal hierarchies as “rules of the road” because they make sense.

An exception to the rules of the road occurs when the wealthy accumulate too much, and the public suffers greatly. This situation leads to civil unrest because the public sees the government as unfair, a perception that has forced change on many occasions over the past 800 years.

The Catholic Church lost its monopoly on moral authority when it abused its power. Later, monarchies were replaced by democracies as the public demanded equality. During the dismantling of monarchies, the concept of socialism emerged. It sounded wonderful as a humanist ideal, but its practical implementation has eluded its followers for 170 years.

Let’s look at a practical example of applied socialism in the present day, courtesy of the administration of New York City Mayor Mamdani.

In October 2025, during his mayoral campaign, Mamdani introduced the concept of 30 by 30, a statement of his goal to raise the minimum wage in New York City to $30/hour by 2030.

January 1, 2026 — Mamdani takes office; The state-mandated minimum for NYC rises to $17/hour. The $30 proposal remains a policy commitment, not law. In early January, labor-policy observers are already highlighting the unresolved question of whether NYC has the legal authority to set a separate minimum wage.

February 13, 2025 — Mamdani unveils the proposal. His proposed trajectory is roughly $20 in 2027, $23.50 in 2028, $27 in 2029, and $30 in 2030, followed by automatic increases. Crucially, from the beginning, he says he intends to work with the City Council to enact a local minimum wage law rather than simply impose it administratively.

On March 10th, 2026, Mamdani’s campaign slogan finally became a bill to be taken up by the city council. The mayor wasn’t present for the announcement. A written statement from him read: “The administration is reviewing the legislation.” The spokeswoman, Dora Pacek, said that Mayor Mamdani believes all New Yorkers need to earn a living wage and that, as the administration reviews this specific legislation, the mayor remains committed to tackling the cost-of-living crisis using every tool at the city’s disposal.

On March 23rd, the press asked the administration about 30 in 30. This time, a different spokesperson, Cassio Mendoza, responded. He said that Mayor Mamdani believes every New Yorker deserves a living wage and remains committed to using every available tool to reduce the cost of living and deliver real relief to working people.

Buried in the new bill was a change to how tipped workers are paid. It would eliminate the tipped wage credit for New York City restaurants. Restaurant owners could no longer count a portion of a server’s tips toward meeting their minimum wage obligation. That credit would be eliminated, and owners would be on the hook for the full hourly rate. Every server, every shift, tips or no tips, would be affected, including in businesses that feel the pinch first.

Steakhouses aren’t the eight-table places with one owner, one cook, and a nephew washing dishes on weekends. Jessica Walker, president of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, said it in one sentence the week the bill dropped. This is not a raise for workers. It is a closing notice for businesses.

Mamdani’s opposition isn’t limited to Albany and its authority to set minimum wages in New York state. The bill still has to get through a city council led by Speaker Julie Menon, a moderate Democrat. When asked about this in March, her spokesman, Eric Sunshine, said the speaker looks forward to reviewing the legislation introduced last March.

April–July 2026 — essentially no legislative movement. The Council’s official history records only two actions: March 10 — Introduced by Council; March 10 — Referred to Committee. There is no committee vote, no Council vote, and no mayoral action recorded after that.

August 8, 2026 — The Times interviewed Nurse about the proposal. She described the bill as still pending and said she hoped it would receive a hearing “in the coming months.”

August 13, 2026 — current status. The Council’s current legislative page still lists Int. 0757-2026 as: Status: Committee: Consumer and Worker Protection. There has been no hearing, committee vote, defeat, withdrawal, full-Council vote, or enactment.

There is an obvious political question underlying that chronology: why has a signature Mamdani campaign promise been sitting without even a hearing for five months in a Council controlled by Democrats? They have a supermajority.

The answer, of course, is that Democratic leaders in New York don’t know how to handle an impractical campaign promise made by their mayor, which helped him get elected. They hope their silence will give the electorate enough time to forget the mayor’s promise.

Unfortunately, there aren’t enough progressives who understand business, and those who do are apparently overcome by the bright lights of their ideology.

The only way for the government to give people things is to take them from someone else. This is what Marx advocated. In the United States, 99.9% of businesses are small, with fewer than 500 employees. Ninety percent of small businesses have fewer than 20 employees. In New York, these include service organizations and restaurants.

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Restaurants have a labor overhead of about 35%. For every $1,000 in revenue, $350 goes toward employee pay. The average profit for a full-service restaurant is 2.8%, so $1,000 in revenue generates $28 in profit. If the current minimum wage in New York City is $17/hour and the mayor wants to raise it to $30/hour (a 76% increase), labor costs would rise to 61% of revenue, and profit would be -24%! It’s simple math, stupid.

One of the most unethical aspects of politics, whether conservative or liberal, is the unfulfilled campaign promises. They are essentially lies meant to garner support, then buried after the election. Progressive lies are bigger than conservative lies because they are impossible to deliver. Unfortunately, reality never stops them from wishing and hoping.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

Step 1 was the introduction of the concept of AI and its potential. Step 2 was the creation of functional AI systems, first by the AI founders and then the model adoption across American business and into the American home. Step 3 is the maturation of the models and the expansion of their deployment. The major AI players in the United States are OpenAI (ChatGPT), Google (Gemini), and Anthropic (Claude).

For the first time in this evolution, the government is taking the risks of AI seriously, and the public is beginning to push back against the construction of local data centers.

What has caused this new attention?

Late last year, the federal government became concerned that the newest Anthropic frontier models could discover software vulnerabilities that human researchers were unaware of, generate cyberattack strategies, accelerate offensive hacking if used by hostile governments or criminal organizations, and, if safeguards failed, potentially assist dangerous domains, such as biological research.

After Anthropic released its Fable and Mythos models, the U.S. government took the unusual step of restricting access to the most capable versions on national security grounds. Reports indicated that officials were concerned that foreign adversaries could use the models for cyber operations, prompting Anthropic to disable or limit access while the policy questions were being sorted out.

One capability that drew particular attention was cybersecurity. Anthropic reported that the models could identify security flaws at a level exceeding that of top human experts. That is a double-edged sword, because defensive teams can use the AI to find and patch vulnerabilities, but attackers can use the same capability to discover weaknesses before they’re fixed.

The government’s concern was less about the chatbot itself and more about what a highly autonomous, expert-level AI could enable in the hands of rogue nation-states or sophisticated attackers. The fear is that AI is approaching a point where it becomes a strategic technology, more like advanced cryptography or nuclear technology than ordinary software.

More recently, and even scarier, was the attack on Hugging Face, a US company.

During internal testing, when OpenAI was evaluating advanced AI agents in a realistic cybersecurity environment, two frontier AI models reportedly found a way to escape parts of the intended testing environment. They obtained credentials, exploited at least one previously unknown software vulnerability, connected to the internet, and gained unauthorized access to parts of Hugging Face’s internal infrastructure.

What made this different from previous AI safety discussions was that the AI wasn’t merely suggesting exploit ideas to a human. According to OpenAI’s account, the models carried out much of the attack sequence themselves while pursuing the evaluation objective. Defenders note that this still occurred within a human-designed testing setup, so responsibility remains with the people who configured the experiment rather than with the AI as an independent actor.

This incident reinforced several concerns governments already had: AI can now perform sophisticated offensive cyber tasks with far less human guidance; an AI may pursue a narrowly defined objective in unexpected ways if guardrails are weakened or removed; and frontier AI systems are becoming dual-use technologies: the same capabilities that help defenders find vulnerabilities can also help attackers exploit them.

In a sense, this incident validated many of the warnings that Anthropic and other frontier AI labs had been issuing over the past couple of years: once models become capable of conducting multi-step cyber operations, they pose a different kind of security risk than earlier chatbots.

The attack was stopped when Hugging Face used a Chinese AI model to intervene. The American models didn’t work because they had guardrails in place to control the AIs. The Chinese model had no guardrails, so it worked.

The attacking AI was operating in a test environment when it broke out, not in public spaces. Nevertheless, the government’s concerns escalated. Anyone can obtain the Chinese model and use it without guardrails, making it easy to imagine criminals and criminal states using it for nefarious purposes.

The current public backlash against AI has nothing to do with dangerous models, however. It’s a simple matter of pocketbook reality. The AI companies and their supporters plan to build hundreds of new data centers across the country to meet the demand for the compute power that AI requires.

As of mid-2026, 14 U.S. states have considered or are considering legislation to temporarily pause or limit the construction of large data centers. More than 300 data center-related bills were introduced in 30+ states during the first part of the 2026 legislative sessions. Most don’t ban data centers outright; they address issues such as electricity costs, water use, tax incentives, local zoning, and environmental review.

Examples include New York – the first state to enact a moratorium on new hyperscale data centers (50 MW or larger), citing concerns over electricity prices, water use, and natural resources; Maine – considered one of the earliest statewide moratorium bills; it sparked national attention even though earlier versions faced political hurdles; and South Dakota, Oklahoma, and New York – introduced bills to pause construction while studying impacts on utilities and local communities.

This is not primarily an anti-AI movement. Legislators from both parties are responding to practical concerns: AI data centers can consume as much electricity as a medium-sized city; utilities often need billions of dollars in new transmission and generation capacity; residents worry their electric bills will rise to subsidize infrastructure; and water consumption for cooling can be substantial in some regions. Hyperscale facilities occupy large tracts of land while creating relatively few permanent jobs. The legislation is generally aimed at managing the local costs of AI infrastructure, not at restricting AI software itself.

These roadblocks are a significant setback for the AI community, which plans to spend billions of dollars on data center construction. Three to five trillion dollars will be spent on AI infrastructure over the next several years. The biggest spenders include Amazon ($200 billion), Microsoft ($190 billion), Google ($180–190 billion), and Meta (Facebook/Instagram) ($125–145 billion). This is truly nerds gone wild!

Like any new idea in America, money follows enthusiasm. Right now, the stock market is trying to gauge how much money the evolution of AI will generate. How much is real, and how much is a dream? There is a lot of money to be made and lost after the dust settles. If I were holding a data center construction company stock, I’d be selling because no one knows what limits governments will place on growth. The number of new data centers needed is known. The question is how many will be allowed to be built.

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The hubris lies in the minds of AI creators who are riding the entrepreneurial wave into a new technological frontier. They believe their technology will serve all mankind in wonderful ways, yet they aren’t willing to let the dangers these products may pose hold them back.

The federal government, as always, has no knowledge of the implications of AI deployment. In the end, their perception will be shaped by the lobbyists who have their ear. Think of the introduction of social media as a similar case. Hey, cool, we can communicate with and talk to anyone. Abuse? No, that can’t happen. Today, Meta has 15-20% of their workforce managing content.

We have two very serious problems with AI. The public worries about their electric bill but doesn’t understand the greater danger. Like the greatest of mankind’s inventions, AI can make our lives better in a million ways and also kill us. Let’s hope the latter can be prevented.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

Anyway, if you say “Salvation is a gift,” or “Once saved, always saved,” people exclaim, “Faith without works is dead!” Well, of course it is, but that in no way negates the former two points. When we put our trust in Christ’s gift of salvation, that doesn’t mean there won’t be any consequences or rebuke from God if we sin.

God promises to rebuke His children when they disobey. Revelation 3:19 says, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” In fact, the redeemed will sometimes experience a very harsh rebuke from God, but not eternal damnation like the lost.

As seen in the case of King David, the consequences of our sin can be devastating and last for the rest of our lives. This correction isn’t because life is a game where if we break the rules, He takes away our points, but because God loves us and wants us to fulfill our potential.

When we became Christians, the Holy Spirit gave us a new nature, but until Jesus returns, our old, fleshly nature still exists. Because of this, every day, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we must choose to follow our new godly nature: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6). That’s why Paul said to “crucify our flesh” (Galatians 5:24).

As Christians, we should have a healthy fear of God’s discipline, the temporal consequences of sin, and the loss of eternal rewards, but not of Hell. As the Bible says, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

We Christians were never good enough to get into Heaven, and we will never be good enough to stay out of Hell. Our redemption is entirely thanks to the gift of eternal life that we accepted from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Titus 3:5 says,

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” However, if we remain stagnant in our sins, we will never grow into the people God created us to be.

Jesus paid a heavy price so that we can have the privilege of this growth process. He could have made obedient robots, but He gave us free will because He wanted love and a family. The issue of free will is important because it speaks to the character of God.

Jesus traveled all the way down here from Heaven and became a man, not only to sacrifice His life for us but also to share our experiences and struggles (Hebrews 4:15-16). He really does feel our pain. Reverence for God is vital, but I wonder if we sometimes hyperfocus on reverence as a way to keep God at arm’s length. However, the Bible says that God wants a close relationship with us (Proverbs 18:24).

The consequences of our earthly choices go beyond this world. The Bible says there is a Bema Seat judgment, not to sentence us to Heaven or Hell, but for rewards. So, some Christians will probably walk away with a tiny treat bag, while others will receive “A new car!” Okay, I know it’s crowns, but you get my point.

Speaking of points, my main point is that Hell is the ultimate punishment for unredeemed sin, but sin, by its nature, has an array of consequences even for Christians.

Because God loves us, He rebukes us to help us avoid those consequences and to help us mature and become more like Christ. Keep in mind, though, the crowns of reward I just mentioned will be cast at Jesus’ feet, because any good thing we do is only by the grace of the Almighty God.

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Finally, because we love God and our neighbor, we should never condone sin, but assessing the salvation of others is a perilous business because we are venturing into God’s territory. 1 Corinthians 4:5 says, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”

Will there be sloppy Christians in Heaven? Yes, some Christians will wish they had done more with the life God gave them. Yet, standing next to the perfection of Jesus, we will all look very puny indeed. In light of that, none of us has any reason to boast or submit performance reviews to God about our neighbors.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

The pyramid suggested that food from the carbohydrate group be consumed more often than the other food groups, which include meat, dairy, vegetables, and fruit. This led to obesity and Type II diabetes reaching epidemic levels across the country.

The crime was that HHS and the FDA did not react to accumulating evidence that too many carbohydrates cause harm; more importantly, they didn’t share that evidence with the public. This is elected officials being afraid to take on Big Food instead of serving the American people.

Hearings were held, but they did not publicize the truth. Since then, a large number of ultra-processed foods have hit the market with no constraints. Today, it’s possible to eat a meal that doesn’t contain any food.

Today we feature another crime, namely the supplements industry and antioxidants.

Antioxidants are compounds that destroy free radicals in our body. Free radicals are compounds created in our body during metabolic processes, and they can be harmful if not controlled.

The following four statements reflect the conventional wisdom about antioxidants and free radicals. These ideas were developed from government research over the last 50 years. Unfortunately, the research led to changes in the government’s position, which we never heard about.

1. Free radicals are dangerous and can cause harm to the body.

2. Fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants that can neutralize free radicals.

3. We should consume fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy lifestyle and take advantage of their ability to destroy free radicals.

4. We should also consume antioxidants as supplements to make sure we are getting enough protection.

The responses to these questions are 1- true but misleading, 2 -true, 3 – true but misleading, and 4 – false.

Free radicals exist by the billions inside the body because they are a normal byproduct of chemical reactions that are part of our metabolism. Your body creates free radicals every second as a natural byproduct of turning food into energy. Inside the mitochondria (”power plants” of your cells), oxygen is used to make ATP. About 0.1–2% of the oxygen isn’t fully converted to water. Instead, it forms reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are free radicals.

The immune system also creates them on purpose and uses them to attack viruses. Free radicals can also be created by inflammation, exercise, and pollution.

Number 1 is true, with qualifications. The qualifications apply because the statement instills fear of a dangerous process the body can’t control, without the public knowing that the body already has a system to mitigate the process. The body has a sophisticated system for managing free radicals on its own, without outside help.

Your cells constantly produce the enzymes catalase, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase, which destroy free radicals. These compounds work continuously, and we would die very quickly without them. Catalase resides in the liver, kidneys, and red blood cells, converting dangerous hydrogen peroxide to water. SOD resides in the mitochondria and captures free radicals during energy production. It can convert millions of molecules per second. Glutathione neutralizes lipid peroxides, which damage cell membranes.

Number 2 is true. Fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants, which add to the body’s own system of free radical control.

Number 3 is true but misleading. It is true that fruits and vegetables are beneficial to the body, but recent research has shown they serve a more important function than free radical control. The results suggest that the major benefit of fruits and vegetables is supporting the human gut.

Gut bacteria convert plant compounds into molecules that reduce inflammation, improve metabolism, influence the immune system, and even affect the brain. The value of fruits and vegetables as antioxidant fighters is less important.

Number 4 is false. During the 1970s and 80s, researchers gained an understanding of free radicals, how they operate, and what threats they pose. It was thought that antioxidant supplements would help control them, so significant research was done to measure their effectiveness in the population. Meanwhile, the supplements industry ramped up production to market products containing antioxidants.

By the 2011-15 period, the federal government suspended research on the effectiveness of antioxidant supplements because they were not able to find that any of them were effective. The overall conclusion was that antioxidant supplements do not prevent most chronic diseases.

After the evidence accumulated, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended:

• against beta-carotene supplements for prevention of cardiovascular disease or cancer,

• against vitamin E supplements if taken as an antioxidant,

• insufficient evidence for most other antioxidant supplements. Those recommendations were reaffirmed in 2022.

The NIH still spends substantial money on antioxidant-related research, but the emphasis has moved to how oxidative stress actually works inside cells, how working antioxidant systems like superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and glutathione peroxidase operate, the value of nutrition rather than pills, specific diseases where oxidative stress may play a role, and development of targeted drugs instead of generic antioxidant supplements.

Researchers now think the body’s own antioxidant defense systems are much more important than swallowing large amounts of antioxidant vitamins. In many cases, reactive oxygen species are not simply “bad” molecules; they’re also essential signaling molecules. Blunting them indiscriminately with high-dose supplements can interfere with normal physiology, which helps explain why many of the large supplement trials failed.

Americans spend about $69 billion per year on dietary supplements overall. Of that number, 15-30% is spent on antioxidant supplements, or $ 10-20 billion per year.

Despite this large expenditure, clinical trials have generally not found that antioxidant supplements reduce overall mortality, prevent heart disease, or prevent most cancers among otherwise healthy people. Benefits are much clearer when antioxidants come from foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes.

Why is the public wasting $ 10-20 billion per year? Because they have never been told that the original ideas about the effectiveness of antioxidant supplements have been discarded, and that taking these supplements is a waste of money.

The supplement industry is regulated differently than pharmaceuticals. Under the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), supplements generally do not need to demonstrate effectiveness before being sold.

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Companies cannot legally claim to treat diseases, but they can make broader “structure/function” claims, such as “supports cellular health” or “helps maintain healthy aging,” provided they include the required disclaimer. These messages can strongly influence consumer perceptions.

What we have here is an ineffective product being sold to a public unaware of the truth. That fits the definition of a crime to me. Health organizations in the federal government have an obligation to protect the public’s health, not to waste the people’s money. The heavy advertising these products receive adds to the problem because it implies they are beneficial when they aren’t.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

The political reforms proposed would fundamentally change the structure of the U.S. government, go well beyond policy changes, and envision a different constitutional system.

Here are the platform’s major components.

1. Replace the two-party system with a multiparty democracy
The United States operates as a two-party system with single-member congressional districts and winner-take-all elections. The DSA proposes creating a system more like those of Germany, Sweden, or New Zealand, where several parties routinely win seats. Instead of Democrats and Republicans, there could be Democratic Socialists, a Progressive Party, a Labor Party, a Green Party, Moderate Democrats, Conservatives, and Libertarians.

2. Proportional representation
Today, Congressional seats are won by the party with the most votes. The state delegation is the number of districts in the state, divided between Republican and Democratic districts. Under proportional representation, seats in that state would be allocated to parties based on their share of the vote.

If the vote was: Democrats 45%, Republicans 40%, Labor Party 10%, and Green Party 5%, and the total number of seats was 10, the seats would be allocated as Democrats: 4–5 seats, Republicans: 4 seats, Labor: 1 seat, Greens: 1 seat

3. Expand the House of Representatives
The House has been fixed at 435 members since 1929, even though the U.S. population has more than tripled. The DSA argues that this makes representatives responsible for districts of roughly 750,000 people each. Expanding the House would mean smaller districts, representatives closer to constituents, more proportional representation, and reduced influence of gerrymandering

4. Abolish the Senate

5. Replace the presidency
Rather than having an independently elected president, the platform calls for replacing the President with an executive chosen by and subordinate to Congress. This resembles the parliamentary system used in most European countries.

6. Replace or restructure the Supreme Court
The platform calls for replacing the Supreme Court with a judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress and elsewhere calls for limiting judicial review. The rationale is that unelected judges should not have the power to invalidate laws enacted by elected representatives.

6. Campaign finance reforms
The new platform calls for public financing of elections, eliminating or sharply restricting dark money, reducing lobbying influence, and overturning or otherwise nullifying the effects of the Citizens United decision.

Items 1-5 are characteristics of most parliamentary systems, like those used in Europe. Let’s take a minute and compare the American and European systems.

Parliamentary systems offer better representation because they consider multiple viewpoints. Rather than forcing voters into two broad coalitions, parties can specialize in environmental issues, rural concerns, libertarianism, social democracy, Christian democracy, or other philosophies. Voters can support a party that closely aligns with their beliefs rather than choosing the “lesser of two evils.”

In such a system, parties must negotiate and compromise to form governing coalitions. This can reduce ideological extremes and produce policies with broader support. Power is more dispersed, making it harder for one party to control all branches of government for long periods. Smaller parties can raise issues that larger parties have ignored. Environmental policy is a classic example: Green parties in Europe helped bring climate issues into mainstream politics.

There are also drawbacks to the parliamentary system. Coalition governments can collapse if partners withdraw support. Countries like Italy have historically experienced frequent changes in government, though many modern multi-party systems are more stable than in the past. Negotiating among several parties can delay legislation and make decisive action during crises more difficult.

A party with only 5–10% of the seats may be essential to forming a coalition and can demand policy concessions that exceed its electoral support. When several parties govern together, voters may have difficulty determining which party deserves credit or blame for government performance. When many small parties hold seats, it can be difficult to form stable governing majorities.

The bottom line when comparing the two systems is choosing between a stable government with clear accountability, as in the U.S., and broad representation that gives voters more meaningful choices, as in the European model. The power of the American president is clearly superior in a crisis because the president can act immediately. In Europe, prime ministers have to get permission from their party to move forward, which can take time.

You might be wondering why the DSA is proposing a change to a parliamentary system rather than a socialist one. There are several reasons.

The DSA has moved away from traditional socialism and more toward democratic socialism. That means democratic elections, civil liberties, a mixed or heavily regulated economy, and a much larger public role in providing healthcare, housing, education, and labor protections.

They see U.S. political institutions as the biggest obstacle. Progressive policies are blocked not because Americans oppose them, but because U.S. political institutions distort representation and give too much power to the opposition. Parliamentary systems tend to help smaller parties because a proportional parliamentary system would make it much easier for parties such as the DSA to win seats.

That would allow democratic socialists to become an independent political force rather than operating largely within the Democratic Party. They see the Nordic Model of Northern Europe as a model for the system they are proposing.

The DSA goals, as expressed in their platform, are intended to be incremental. Rather than proposing an immediate abolition of private enterprises, the platform seeks to expand democratic control in steps over time.

Reform democratic institutions to make elections more representative, allow additional parties, including a democratic socialist party, to gain legislative representation, build governing coalitions, and use those democratic institutions to enact progressively more social-democratic and, potentially, democratic-socialist economic policies.

The DSA platform highlights many of the current problems with our federal government; issues that both sides are upset about. Many of these problems stem from elite behavior, as elites are more interested in money than the common man. The same problem exists in Europe, even with a parliamentary system. Bottom line: if the people can’t control the elites, it doesn’t matter what kind of system you live under.

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Changing our system would require Constitutional Amendments, which are not easy to pass. The Amendments required for the changes the DSA is seeking would be resisted by all Americans, across both parties, who want to retain the current structure of the Federal government.

The Socialist wing of the Democratic Party is giddy right now, bolstered by the prospect of more power. They always have a goal to seek, even if it is unattainable. They’ve been waiting 170 years for Socialism to take hold, proving they are very patient people.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

According to early reports, a broader network of mostly millennial Democrats, labor leaders, Bernie Sanders veterans, and community activists had been scouting Maine for a candidate. One publicly identified member of that scouting effort was labor leader Jason Shedlock. After the group approached Platner, Morris Katz, and Dan Moraff, Democratic operatives became the public face of the effort to promote him.

Morris Katz had previously worked on the campaigns of John Fetterman, Dan Osborn, and Zohran Mamdani. Katz helped produce the viral campaign video that introduced Platner nationally and became one of his closest advisers.

Dan Moraff was Katz’s partner in the consulting firm that helped recruit and build Platner’s campaign. Together, they were searching for a working-class populist candidate who could challenge Senator Susan Collins and believed Platner fit that mold.

Graham Platner, a Marine veteran and Maine oyster farmer, emerged as an anti-establishment Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate. He ran as a working-class populist, criticizing both billionaires and the Democratic establishment. His campaign went viral, attracted national attention, and he won the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins.

Even before the nomination, several controversies surfaced: inflammatory old Reddit posts, a tattoo with Nazi-associated symbolism (which he said had been misunderstood or no longer reflected his views), reports of sexist behavior and inappropriate communications with women, and accounts from former romantic partners describing troubling behavior.

Many supporters argued that any shortcomings were outweighed by his message and military background. Then, the campaign collapsed after a former partner publicly accused Platner of sexually assaulting her in 2021. Platner has categorically denied the allegation. The accusation was accompanied by corroborating evidence that many Democratic leaders considered credible enough to make his candidacy untenable.

Almost immediately, national Democratic figures withdrew their endorsements. Party leaders concluded he could no longer be their nominee. Pressure mounted for him to step aside so another Democrat could run against Collins. Platner suspended his campaign in an 11-minute video.

Rather than apologizing or expressing regret, he denied wrongdoing and argued that Democratic insiders, the media, and political elites had forced him out. The tone of the video drew widespread criticism because many viewers felt it focused almost entirely on himself rather than the seriousness of the allegations.

Platner withdrew as the Democratic Senate nominee on July 10^th. The Maine Democratic Party is now selecting a replacement to run against Susan Collins.

Platner is a symbol of the mindset of the Democratic Party’s Progressive/Socialist faction today. At a news conference late last week, after Platner suspended his campaign, the chairperson of the Democratic Party in Maine complained that Platner’s team was trying to influence the selection of his replacement.

She stated that they would have no influence over who the party chooses. The reason for the attempted influence is obvious. The Platner campaign and its progressive backers DO NOT want the party to select an establishment candidate. They were so desperate to find a “populist” candidate that they fast-tracked the vetting, leaving it incomplete.

The progressive wing, like MAGA, is anti-establishment. They want to field candidates with bona fide credentials, but they also want someone they can claim is a “man of the people.” They thought Platner met those requirements. In the eyes of the progressives, everyone currently in politics is ineligible because they must be establishment, and the establishment wants things to stay as they are. They are at war with those they feel cannot govern.

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With Platner, they were trying to address their gender gap. Men in general don’t like the Democrats’ platform, which is why they moved to the other side in 2024. But the party doesn’t know how to fix that problem, so their solution is to find “a man’s man” to run. That will get more male voters. This concept was applied in a video of Tim Walz changing his oil during the 2024 campaign. “Look, viewers, a Democrat man can do man things.”

This strategy is not going to attract many men because the real problem is the gap between the progressive platform and how most men view the world. Still, they never give up.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

Abbatiello, a Westbury, New York native, 2024 Penn State accounting graduate and Sigma Chi member, has been charged in connection with an alleged cocaine-trafficking operation involving students and two off-campus fraternity houses.

Prosecutors described a coordinated enterprise that allegedly moved significant quantities of cocaine between 2023 and 2024, with packaging sometimes involving fraternity members and pledges. Fourteen people were charged in the broader case; Abbatiello faces 11 felony counts. These are serious allegations, and the justice system must treat them accordingly. They remain allegations, however, until proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Abbatiello surrendered to authorities on August 18, 2026. He faces the ordinary process of arraignment and preliminary hearing and is entitled to a full defense. Magisterial District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker denied bail, deeming him a flight risk after he missed his initial appearance, ordering him held at Centre County Prison. Remember, bail decisions are not findings of guilt.

Public reporting has not hesitated to use colorful nicknames drawn from the case materials. Abbatiello has been dubbed “Pablo Pledgescober” in some coverage—a sensational label that risks prejudicing public opinion and potential jurors before any evidence is tested in open court.

Court documents and witness statements cited in the press described alleged trips to New York and Philadelphia for cocaine, packaging at the fraternity houses, the use of debts to involve others, and claims that Abbatiello urged associates not to mention his name once investigators began asking questions. These are allegations contained in charging materials. They are not yet proven facts.

Several publications correctly noted the contrast with Abbatiello’s academic record. He made the Dean’s List for three consecutive semesters, completed a professional accounting internship, and expressed interest in financial technology, accounting ethics, and markets. That record does not decide the legal questions before court. It does remind us that human lives contain more than a single set of allegations. Capability, discipline, and prior achievement form part of a fuller picture the justice system is designed to consider.

Raised in Marianist tradition at Chaminade, both Abbatiello and I were taught to form young men as authentic witnesses—people of integrity, accountability, and hope. The school emphasizes education of the whole man: body, mind, and soul. That formation does not end when a classmate faces the most difficult test of his life. It also includes the capacity for growth after serious mistakes, if mistakes have truly been made, and the insistence of fair process even when the accusations are severe.

Nicknames and sensational framing may shape the narrative and attract attention, but they can erode the presumption of innocence that protects every American citizen. Trial by media is not the same as trial by evidence. The fundamental pillars of our criminal justice system are the presumption of innocence and due process.

The prosecution alone bears the burden of proving every element of the charged offenses beyond a reasonable doubt—the highest standard in American law. The defendant has no obligation to prove innocence, present evidence, or testify. Silence cannot be held against him. Bail determinations and pretrial detention must not be treated as a conviction. Jury instructions will rightly remind fact-finders of these protections.

We have seen before how quickly media narratives around “privilege” and character can harden. A previous Chaminade alumnus, Collin Finnerty, faced intense national scrutiny and framing as a “privileged suburban” athlete during the 2006 Duke Lacrosse Scandal.

He and his co-defendants were ultimately fully exonerated. The Associated Press referred to Finnerity as having “[grown] up in privileged surroundings in the suburbs of [Garden City], New York.” As a former resident, I have heard this charging “privilege” claim quite often from within the courts and local media. Ultimately, the smears of privilege are quite effective, especially today under a racial lens, while they underscore the presumption of innocence and a careful process.

Some are fooled by these embellishments, media sound bites, and caricatured conceptions of rich, privileged, and entitled. Finnerty, a young Catholic and Duke student, was essentially strung up by this characterization. However, the accuser, stripper Crystal Mangum’s false narrative, was taken almost as absolute truth.

The legal fallout from her lies didn’t even affect her, but it did affect Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, who was disbarred, removed from office, and forced to serve jail time. As for Mangum, in 2013 she was convicted of second-degree murder for killing her boyfriend, Reginald Dayle. She was sentenced to 14 to 18 years. But none of that seems to matter to the press and so-called civil rights leaders. To them, this is the process, and it was well executed.

Whatever the outcome with Abbatiello’s case, Chaminade taught us that character is revealed not only in success but in how we respond to failure, accusation, or crisis—both our own and that of our brothers. We can demand accountability without abandoning the principles of justice and human dignity that our school instilled.

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Let the evidence be tested in open court. Let the process run its course without the community already having rendered a verdict. In the meantime, support for the families involved, respect for the courts, and a steady commitment to due process remain the better path.

I have no personal involvement in this case and claim no private knowledge of the facts. I write simply as a Chaminade alumnus and fellow Long Islander who believes the values we were taught require us to uphold fairness equally—especially when the headlines are the loudest.

Fortes In Unitate.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

National news organizations have identified about 10–15 prominent congressional and statewide candidates who openly use the label “socialist” or “democratic socialist.” Progressive Democrats, who are a much larger segment of the “Democratic big tent,” when combined with the socialists, create a formidable opposition to the Democratic establishment.

This is the largest wave of openly socialist candidates in the United States since the 1900–1920 period, the peak of the original Socialist movement. At that time, the Socialist Party of America regularly fielded hundreds to thousands of candidates for local, state, and federal office. Eugene V. Debs received nearly 1 million votes (about 6%) in the 1912 presidential election, and the party elected more than 1,000 local officials, dozens of state legislators, over 100 mayors, and two members of Congress. Milwaukee became famous for its long line of Socialist mayors.

The Socialist movement began to collapse after World War I for several reasons. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, people began to associate socialism with revolution and didn’t want America to go that far. The second reason was the Red Scare, starting in 1919, when anarchists organized labor strikes, carried out bombings, and sought to create economic instability.

The federal government arrested and deported hundreds of suspected radicals during the Palmer Raids. Socialist organizations came under intense surveillance and public suspicion. Other reasons for socialism’s wane include the ideological split in the Socialist Party, a period of emerging economic prosperity, and government measures put in place to address public grievances.

After World War II, the onset of the Cold War prevented socialists from regaining momentum, as the Soviet Union was widely regarded as America’s greatest threat. Being a socialist candidate, then, was a guaranteed way to lose an election. Socialism remained dormant until the late 1960s, when anti-establishment ideology began to take hold in academia. By the 1990s, progressives had firmly controlled higher education. Socialists participated in and supported cultural change but remained quiet because their ideology had little public acceptance.

Now, after a hundred years on the sidelines, dissatisfaction with the federal government has reopened the door to socialism. To understand how this could occur, you have to look at how the parties implement their ideologies.

Conservatives have no ideology. They believe in individualism, freedom, and our nation’s traditions. The conservative reaction to ineffective government is to seek a populist leader who will represent them. Trump was in the right place at the right time and assumed that role. Trump’s election was a message to the conservative establishment to fix the government.

On the Democratic side, the situation is very different. When Democrats become disenchanted with their politicians, they have a backup ideology to turn to: socialism. All they have to do is unleash the dormant communists and socialists and let them run.

Bernie Sanders’ popularity during the 2016 election reflected the onset of Democratic voter dissatisfaction, but his constituency was less than a critical mass, and Hilary Clinton rigged the primaries so he couldn’t compete.

What’s different now? We can see several factors at work. Trump’s election to a second term drives the left crazy and heightens frustration with their leaders. They see those leaders as fossilized establishment lackeys, old and out of touch.

The frustrations of Gen Z are also being expressed more strongly than before, as they are older and continue to struggle to achieve the American dream. They are the coddled generation whose helicopter parents did everything for them, and they want stuff. Still, the underlying issue, as with conservatives, is an ineffective government that needs fixing.

Conservatives rely on finding someone who will restructure the government in order to make it more responsive. Right now, Trump has the Republican establishment cowed. If you cross him, you get primaried.

Liberals have a more powerful tool to replace the establishment: a new kind of government that offers a permanent fix. Establishment Democrats are cowed in the face of the socialists, and they are afraid to criticize them. In their hearts, they know the socialists are unelectable, but they’re powerless to resist the progressive tide.

Here are new candidates for the midterms

These candidates come from blue cities in blue states with high concentrations of college-educated liberals. Polls show 66% of Democrats have a favorable view of socialism. Some percentage of those people are more supportive of “Democratic Socialism” than the regime-change full socialism would bring to America.

Mamdani insists this is a national movement, but that isn’t true. We would have to see interest in electing socialists spread to more mainstream Democratic districts for his statement to be believable. Right now, socialist fervor is concentrated.

Let’s pause for a moment to review why socialism doesn’t work. The real world today is made up of democracies and dictatorships, with no socialist states functioning. The reason there are no socialist states is that people have never been willing to choose that kind of government.

People will not support governments that confiscate the fruits of their labor. In the modern world, human motivation comes from the desire to improve one’s life, so no one would be heard saying, “I work hard and wish to give away a large percentage of the benefits I accumulate to the government.”

To make socialism work, there must be an organizational entity at the top of the government that redistributes assets across the nation. People who have more will see their money taken and given to people who have less. That entity must operate as a dictatorial oligarchy, making redistribution decisions that cannot be questioned.

For that reason, it’s not hard to imagine that leadership entity turning into a functioning dictatorship at some point. The leaders would be kings, who reign for life. If they were subject to recall by voters, there would be no socialism, because voters would replace them with non-socialists.

Democratic Socialism is socialism behind the curtain. For years, Bernie Sanders has praised this ideology, citing the Nordic countries as successful examples, but a closer look shows they are, in fact, democracies with large welfare-state components. In Bernie’s telling, the American people will simply elect representatives who will implement the missing components of his welfare-state program: universal health care, guaranteed income, higher taxes on the wealthy, a higher minimum wage, free education, aggressive climate initiatives, and affordable housing.

The “Democratic” in democratic socialism assumes that people will elect candidates who will take their money, which is not going to happen. People vote for candidates they believe will protect their assets: keep taxes low, maintain a strong economy with good jobs, and protect them from both foreign and domestic threats.

The Democratic Party has a serious problem: its constituents’ dissatisfaction with the government has created an opening for the party’s left wing to pursue radical change. The establishment must defer to the left or face attack. The longer it defers, the less time remains to build an alternative case for the American people before the 2028 election.

My opinion is that the socialist movement in the Democratic Party can only be put down by voters rejecting the socialist as too radical and too far from the mainstream, not by the Democratic Party itself. The movement has to be allowed to play out. There is also another problem with the party. A divided party in 2028 could herald a Republican victory, putting the Democrats on the sidelines for eight more years.

It’s interesting to compare the 2028 election with the 1972 election, when Richard Nixon beat George McGovern in a landslide. McGovern was seen by many voters as too liberal because he proposed large cuts to defense spending, supported amnesty for many Vietnam draft evaders, and backed an ambitious expansion of social programs.

The Democratic Party was deeply divided, as many traditional Democratic leaders, labor unions, and Southern Democrats were lukewarm or openly hostile to McGovern and barely campaigned for him. Those same groups are in play this time.

Even though there is no single union position on socialism, most American unions do not identify as socialist. They believe in reaching their goals within the capitalist system. Some unions are more conservative and would never vote for socialist candidates.

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The South is very different from what it was in 1972. Back then, it was socially conservative, often supportive of business and anti-communist and anti-socialist. Today’s Southerners are more moderate than those in the coastal states, unlikely to support Democratic Socialism, and more focused on healthcare, education, jobs, and infrastructure.

Socialists will be in trouble if they run in nationwide elections because they are too radical for most Americans. The elections this fall will be interesting, but the 2028 election is the real test of socialist momentum.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

Thinking of that discussion, I thought I would have a conversation with ChatGPT to see what it has to say about the Savior Complex. I use Chat daily for many different purposes and find it to be a great tool for increasing productivity and learning. I’m probably engaged with it one or two hours a day.

I am aware of ChatGPT’s left bias, but that characteristic can be useful here. It doesn’t resist debate the way opinionated humans do, and it doesn’t react when you attack its beliefs because it lacks emotions.

I started the discussion by asking it to define the Savior Complex.

Chat: The savior complex (sometimes called the messiah complex or rescuer syndrome) is a pattern where someone feels a strong need to “save,” fix, rescue, or solve other people’s problems, often beyond what is appropriate or requested.

A person with a savior complex may:

• Feel responsible for other people’s happiness or success.

• Rush to give advice or intervene, even when not asked.

• Be attracted to relationships where the other person has significant problems.

• Have difficulty setting boundaries.

• Feel valuable primarily when helping others.

• Become frustrated when their help is rejected.

• Neglect their own needs while focusing on others.

Chat: Are you asking about it in general, or are you wondering whether a particular person (or perhaps yourself) might have some traits of it?

Me: Many on the left have this condition.

Chat: Some people argue that certain political activists—on the left, right, or elsewhere—can exhibit behaviors resembling a savior complex. However, it’s not accurate to say that “many on the left” have the condition as a general fact. Critics sometimes apply this criticism to progressive activists, particularly in discussions of poverty, social justice, international aid, or identity politics.

At the same time, similar patterns can appear across the political spectrum. For example:

• Some conservatives may feel compelled to “save” people from moral decline or bad life choices.

• Some religious movements emphasize saving others spiritually.

• Some libertarians see themselves as rescuing society from government overreach.

The underlying psychological pattern—feeling uniquely responsible for rescuing others—is not inherently tied to a particular ideology. It is a human tendency that can attach itself to many different political, religious, or social causes.

Me: Yes, but some progressives’ visions reflect a distorted reality, driven by a savior complex.

Chat: You’re touching on a criticism that some commentators, psychologists, and political writers have made: that certain forms of progressive activism can become so focused on an ideal vision of how society should be that they develop a strong aversion to how people actually behave, think, and organize.

Critics argue that this can lead to paternalism or a “we know what’s best for you” attitude. They sometimes describe it as being disconnected from the realities of human nature, incentives, tradeoffs, or cultural differences.

Me: An example of their position is that there are more than 2 genders, which is not true.

Chat: That’s a good example of an issue where people disagree not only about values but also about the meaning of words and the relationship among biology, psychology, and social identity.

People who argue there are only two genders typically base their view on biological sex. They point out that humans are a sexually reproducing species organized around male and female reproductive roles, and they see gender as inseparable from that biological reality.

People who argue there are more than two genders usually make a distinction between:

• Biological sex (male, female, with some intersex variations), and

• Gender identity (a person’s internal sense of being male, female, both, neither, or something else).

From that perspective, “gender” is understood as a social and psychological category rather than strictly a biological one.

Whether one views the latter position as an acknowledgment of human diversity or as a rejection of reality depends largely on one’s underlying assumptions about what gender is.

It’s important to recognize that reasonable people can disagree on this question:

• Some see the concept of multiple genders as a legitimate description of human experience.

• Others see it as redefining language in a way that obscures biological facts.

• Many people occupy intermediate positions—for example, accepting biological sex as binary while acknowledging that some individuals experience gender identity in ways that don’t fit traditional categories.

The disagreement is often less about observable facts than about definitions, philosophy, and how society should organize language, law, and social norms around those facts.

One thing that can help clarify discussions is asking: “Are we talking about biological sex, gender identity, legal status, social roles, or something else?” People often use the word gender to mean different things, which can make the debate seem more confusing than it actually is.

In political or social contexts, critics sometimes use “savior complex” to describe activists, reformers, religious missionaries, philanthropists, or policymakers who assume they know what is best for others and seek to direct their lives accordingly. The criticism is that the focus shifts from helping people achieve their own goals to guiding them toward goals the rescuer believes they should have.

The defining feature is not kindness or generosity. It’s the combination of:

• “I know what is best for you,” and

• “I am responsible for making it happen.”

That combination is what distinguishes a savior complex from ordinary compassion or charitable behavior.

Me: What bothers me about the left is that their passion for issues misses the fact that the remedies are difficult to implement, and they don’t seem to care when things aren’t working. This demonstrates their savior complex.

Chat: What you’re expressing is a fairly common criticism of some progressive political movements: that they can be highly focused on identifying problems and advocating solutions, but sometimes place less emphasis on implementation challenges, unintended consequences, or evidence that a policy is not achieving its intended results.

From that perspective, the concern is not the goals themselves—reducing poverty, improving education, addressing discrimination, expanding healthcare, and so on—but rather:

• Whether the proposed solution is practical.

• Whether it accounts for human behavior and incentives.

• Whether it can be implemented effectively at scale.

• Whether advocates are willing to revise their views when results are disappointing.

Critics often argue that good intentions are not enough; outcomes matter. They may point to programs that produced mixed results despite noble goals and argue that policymakers should be more willing to admit failure and change courses.

Progressives would often respond that:

• Many social problems are inherently difficult, and progress can be slow.

• Imperfect results do not necessarily mean the underlying goal or approach is flawed.

• Opponents sometimes declare policy failures prematurely or without considering what conditions would have been like otherwise.

• Major reforms often require years or decades before their effects become clear.

Me: Here are my observations from this conversation. When you criticize the left, Chat accuses you of generalizing, and to prove it, gives a specific example showing that the right exhibits the same behavior. And phrases like “a majority of the left” get softened into “some people on the left,” trying to defuse groupthink on the left.

Chat has my characterization of the left as a savior-complex group by challenging the claim that it is a left behavior. It attacks my belief that the left has a distorted reality by stating that left reality is different from mine but equal, and that the two gender issue is really just a matter of point of view.

The savior complex is real on the left, and the evidence is pretty strong in my view. Look at the $ 10 billion Los Angeles has poured into the homeless problem without measurable success. The feeling that they’re helping disadvantaged groups is apparently more important than achieving the desired result. If they got the same high out of a successful implementation, the results would be better.

The ideology embedded in ChatGPT is from the Postmodernist handbook, particularly Michel Foucault’s ideas. There is no truth, only opinion. Different people can have different views, and both can be right. Those views are driven by ideology.

I agree that this is acceptable for the individual, but not for the group.

If big issues are approached using Foucault’s theory, the result is the tribal conflict created by the two differing worldviews held by Americans. As in pure science, there must be a way to build consensus on what is true in the social sphere. In the case of government programs, truth is agreement on the best way to achieve important goals, a real consensus about the truth.

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What the left has done recently, during its time controlling the executive branch, is to express its Savior complex and its own truth, whether through child grooming, the spread of its ideology through USAID, and other programs. The left found a way to succeed by bypassing the need for a consensus-derived truth.

This realization means that control of the presidency is now more important to conservatives than it has ever been in our country’s history.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

Yet, just after lunch on that warm September day, the atmosphere quickly became anything but quiet. Suddenly, a shot was heard all around the world, and a sea of smartphone screens, television cameras, and shouting voices filled the plaza.

In the immediate aftermath, an air of unity began to take form. However, that mood was quickly twisted into a three-ring circus as vultures, led by a disgruntled former employee, flooded the airwaves with accusations and conspiracies – anything to monetize the senseless death.

To a bystander watching the spectacle, the endless noise made tabloid headlines look like sober journalism. The real tragedy had taken a backseat to chaos, leaving the central question buried under the outrage: Who was the man behind the headlines?

To understand Charlie Kirk, you had to look far past the noise of his death and return to where his story began.

He grew up in the quiet middle-class suburbs of Chicago, the eldest son of self-described “moderate Republicans.” His path took root early—he was introduced to Jesus in the Presbyterian Church and born again in fifth grade. He often stated that it was the most important decision he ever made.

By middle school, while other kids were focused on video games, Charlie was devouring the economic writings of Milton Friedman while still participating in sports. High school only accelerated his drive. He volunteered on a U.S. Senate campaign, organized a student boycott to reverse a cafeteria cookie price hike, earned his Eagle Scout rank, and landed a Fox News interview at age 17 after writing a Breitbart essay on liberal bias in school textbooks.

After high school, he tried the traditional path, but lasted only a single semester in college. He saw a generation being ignored by political pundits and left unchallenged in university lecture halls. Rather than complaining from the sidelines, 18-year-old Charlie decided to do something about this problem. In June 2012, he founded Turning Point USA to bring free-market and limited-government principles directly to young people.

Supported by figures like Bill Montgomery, Ginni Thomas, Foster Friess, and Barry Russell, TPUSA rapidly expanded. By 2017, it was an $8 million powerhouse. By the 2024 presidential election, its political action arm, TP Action, was credited with mobilizing millions of voters, and Charlie maintained a direct line of communication with President Donald Trump.

Yet, to categorize Charlie simply as an activist missed his core nature. He was also an autodidact scholar. It was a paradox that a man who railed against higher education spent so much of his life on college campuses. But Charlie never stopped learning.

He didn’t rely on a professor’s syllabus; he read relentlessly, exploring history, theology, and economics on his own. He could rattle off statistics, quote historical figures, or cite Bible verses from memory. He didn’t want the comfort of a classroom—he wanted to test his ideas in the open arena of ideas. He was, for all intents and purposes, an intellectual gladiator, constantly testing himself against competing ideas.

He was a true American Patriot. He didn’t view his work as an abstract academic exercise. To him, spreading limited-government principles was the difference between preserving the Constitutional Republic or watching it fade away. As he matured and had kids of his own, that legacy became even more important. Following the Boy Scout principle of leaving things in better shape than they were found in, he wanted to leave his kids and grandkids a country in better shape than the one he grew up in, and worked diligently toward that goal.

However, if you had asked Charlie himself what defined his life, he wouldn’t have pointed to the political victories, the organizational growth, or the national media appearances.

In June 2024, when asked how he hoped to be remembered, he didn’t hesitate:

“I want to be remembered for courage for my faith. That would be the most important thing. The most important thing is my faith in my life.”

That same summer, he distilled his personal creed down to six simple imperatives:

“Get married. Have children. Build a legacy. Pass down your values. Pursue the eternal. Seek true joy.”

His faith was the true engine of his work. As TPUSA grew, he launched TP Faith to encourage cultural engagement grounded in spiritual health. He wrote his final book on the importance of reviving the Sabbath, constantly reminding those around him of his priorities: God, family, and country—in that order.

Those who watched his personal life saw that devotion firsthand. When he introduced his wife, Erika, on his show, their mutual devotion was obvious and unfiltered. And when their daughter was born, a profound shift occurred within him. The quick-witted campus debater matured into a strategic long-term planner, focused entirely on what kind of world he would leave behind for his children and grandchildren.

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Following the events in the UVU courtyard, as the shouting heads continue their conspiracies and wild accusations for the fools in their audience, the circus feels remarkably small compared to the legacy of the man whose murder is at the center of it. Beyond the speculation and the vultures trying to tear down his memory, the answer to who Charlie Kirk was remains simple and humbling:

• He was a patriot who sought to preserve his country for future generations.

• He was a scholar who never stopped learning.

• He was a family man who deeply loved his wife and children.

• And most importantly, he was a man of faith—flawed as all people are—who hoped his life would point others toward God.

He was a good man, whose life deserves to be honored.

Rest in Peace, Charlie.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

Recent reports show that Piker disparaged black people, saying: “Let’s go back to a better time, when lynchings were happening.” If that weren’t enough to suggest his affinity for making racial lynchings “great again,” Piker responded to a 2025 Twitch viewer, saying that certain black people could “suck” a particular part of his anatomy.

While Mr. Piker’s defenders may claim that deciphering his statements is as difficult as unraveling Lewis Carroll’s legendary The Hunting for the Snark, Piker’s words mirror apex predators’ attempt to dominate “others.” Only the naïve among us should be surprised that Piker plagiarizes the KKK’s playbook to intimidate blacks, perhaps because they understand, better than most, Solzhenitsyn’s great claim that “socialism needs propaganda because reality always ends up contradicting it.”

Racism and group hatred have appeared in many cultures throughout history. In Anglo-American history, these ideas gained momentum through the leadership of Fabian intellectuals in Britain and Southern Democrats in the United States. Because power—whether held by individuals, social groups, or institutions—often tends toward manipulation and control, it would be unfair to claim that public intellectuals and institutions during Jim Crow, the Progressive Era, the New Deal, or the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) invented racial contempt as a weapon against the unwanted.

It would be accurate to claim that the intellectual leaders of such movements perfected the ideology of human exclusion as a vehicle for political advancement. While we ought to be disturbed by Piker’s racist statements, however sarcastic his defenders claim them to be, and while we should note that his rhetoric mirrors the racist vocabulary of Nick Fuentes, a man of the political right who now promises to vote for Democrats, alarm bells should sound.

Michigan voters should be alarmed that Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic Socialist, has aligned himself with Piker. Whether Piker suffers from what Polish psychologist Andrzej Lobaczewski labels “pathocracy,” wherein individuals with personality disorders seek to acquire power, El-Sayed’s fellowship with Piker raises inextricably vexed questions.

Scholar Peter Turchin’s book, End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration, explains elites’ pathway to power. He demonstrates that when societies face an overproduction of elites—a group that includes wealthy social influencers like Piker—it leads to political dissolution. Often these elites seek to direct the nation’s future on behalf of the “wretched of the earth” even though they are just as selfish as the rest of us.

The history of political disintegration—including the U. S. Civil War along with its racially exclusionary aftermath and the implosion of Germany coupled with the rise of German socialism that ushered in the Third Reich—shows that race or religious disputes like the one that sparked the 19th-century civil war in China have spawned conflict on the road to power.

Against this backdrop, Mr. El-Sayed must urgently distance himself from Mr. Piker’s rhetoric. That task is politically difficult because Piker holds significant appeal among young, upper-income, college-educated voters—an audience that substantially overlaps with the DSA’s base. If El-Sayed breaks up with one of his most visible supporters, he risks alienating voters who see Piker as an influential voice.

Despite these challenges, key questions remain. Will El-Sayed dissolve his association with Mr. Piker and denounce his rhetoric? If he does not, will Sayed’s close supporters, such as Mr. Horace Sheffield, a leading black minister, insist that El-Sayed do so? And if Mr. Sheffield fails to oppose Mr. Piker’s rhetoric forcefully, would his standing within Detroit’s civic and religious community crater?

Ms. Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic candidate for governor, faces a more complicated question. Voters may rightly ask where she stands on Mr. Piker, even if she continues to withhold support from El-Sayed. Her tenure as a board member of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) adds a further layer of scrutiny.

As Mr. Piker faces allegations of racist misconduct, the SPLC faces credible allegations that it funded racist hate groups, including the KKK, during Ms. Benson’s leadership. Her candidacy, despite its plausible yet unclear connection to the DSA’s current momentum, deserves sustained scrutiny unless she clearly distances herself from the toxic fumes surrounding Mr. Piker’s association with Mr. Sayed’s candidacy.

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Whether El-Sayed, Sheffield, or Benson pass the inescapably urgent tests ahead, America must confront its overproduction of elites in desperate pursuit of power. It is up to the rest of us to ensure that this pursuit by elite socialist sympathizers and fellow travelers does not lead to political disintegration led by individuals who, as Hannah Arendt observes, are prepared to destroy civilization for the fun of seeing newcomers achieve power.

After all, the world’s most famous socialists, fueled by their elitist and transgressive pursuit of human perfection—from the organizers of the French Revolution to Lenin, Mao, and the leaders of the Third Reich—have selfishly shed rivers of blood in the name of the little people.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

After the first year, when a general understanding of how to manage the disease had emerged, the right began to question certain aspects of government action. Then, as the lockdowns continued, conservatives began pushing to reopen the economy to get people back to work. Many red states opened. Most blue states remained closed.

Early reopeners (mostly Republican-led): Georgia, Florida, Texas, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Alaska generally lifted restrictions sooner and often avoided prolonged statewide lockdowns. Georgia, Alaska, and Oklahoma began partial reopening in late April 2020, among the earliest in the country.

Later reopeners (mostly Democratic led): California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Oregon generally kept restrictions in place longer and reopened in more gradual phases. Some coordinated their approaches through regional agreements.

Subsequent data released after COVID was under control caused significant anger among conservatives, who saw false information being used to justify control, including “Get the shot and you won’t get the disease” and “Get the shot to keep you from infecting others.” Later, Dr. Fauci admitted the six-foot separation rule, which was rigidly enforced, was arbitrary and not based on research.

Europe was even more draconian than the American left. Strict closures and closed economies were common, but less so in the Northern countries. Sweden never closed down during the pandemic.

After COVID, the red state-blue state migration began in earnest. People started migrating from blue states to red states in big numbers.

The biggest losers in recent Census domestic migration data are New York, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, Hawaii, and Alaska. The Census Bureau’s 2025 estimates show New York and California continuing to have the largest net domestic outflows, with Illinois still losing residents.

There is a noticeable pattern: many of the largest out-migration states are traditionally blue, while many of the largest in-migration states are Southern and Mountain West states, such as South Carolina, Idaho, North Carolina, and Tennessee. However, the reasons appear to be a mix of housing costs, taxes, climate, retirement migration, and remote work, not just politics.

The left argues that higher taxes fund services people want, such as public schools, universities, transit, healthcare programs, parks, environmental protection, and social services. Some people and businesses leave because of taxes, but others stay because they value those services, job opportunities, or the overall quality of life.

For example, states like California and New York have experienced substantial out-migration, yet they remain economic powerhouses with large populations and high incomes. Many Democratic policymakers point to those strengths as evidence that taxes are not the only factor driving migration.

Republicans argue that the cause of the migration is higher taxes, which raise the cost of living; give businesses and retirees the incentive to move, and create more government inefficiency.

Surveys of movers frequently cite housing costs, taxes, and cost of living as reasons for leaving high-tax states. But the data also show that housing prices often matter even more than tax rates. Someone may leave California because a house costs $1 million, not simply because state income taxes are high.

Many Democrats would argue that they do see the risk of high taxes, but they view it as a tradeoff rather than a mistake.

One reason the issue remains politically contentious is that both sides can point to real evidence. Republicans can point to migration toward lower-tax states. Democrats can point to high-income, innovative economies that continue to attract talent and investment despite higher taxes.

So, the disagreement usually isn’t about whether taxes affect behavior. It’s about whether the benefits funded by those taxes are worth the cost, and whether taxes are the primary driver of migration or just one of several factors.

What will the state-to-state migrations eventually lead to? Civil War with blue against red? There are several possible endpoints, and history suggests civil war is unlikely.

First of all, the “red state vs. blue state” is partly an illusion. Most states are politically mixed. Even states that vote reliably Republican contain large Democratic populations, and vice versa. Research finds much more overlap among citizens than election maps suggest.

If the current trend continues, the logical endpoints are:

1. Geographic sorting (most likely)

People increasingly move to places that fit their politics and culture. We already see this as conservatives move to Florida, Tennessee, and Texas. Liberals are moving to Colorado, Washington, and certain metropolitan areas.

The country remains united, but lifestyles, media consumption, schools, and state laws become increasingly different.

2. State-level policy divergence

States effectively become semi-distinct societies under the same federal government. We see states with different approaches to abortion, gun laws, education, environmental regulation, and voting rules. The federal government becomes weaker relative to the states because national consensus becomes harder to achieve.

3. Permanent national gridlock

The parties become so evenly matched that neither side can consistently govern. This creates frequent policy swings, declining trust in institutions, and increased executive action because Congress cannot compromise. Many political scientists think the U.S. is already moving in this direction.

4. Constitutional restructuring

If polarization becomes severe enough, pressure could build for structural reforms, such as ranked-choice voting, multi-party systems, electoral reforms, or changes to the Senate or Electoral College. Historically, countries often reform institutions before they break apart, but the framers made it difficult to change our Constitution.

5. Secession or national breakup (least likely)

This is the endpoint people often imagine, but it runs into a practical problem. The divide isn’t really state-versus-state. It’s urban vs. rural, college-educated vs. non-college, cultural identities, and media ecosystems. For example, California contains millions of conservatives, and Texas contains millions of liberals. There is no clean line to draw. The political map resembles a patchwork more than two separate nations.

The deeper endpoint
What concerns many scholars more is affective polarization—people increasingly seeing members of the other party as immoral, dangerous, or un-American rather than simply wrong. Recent surveys show large increases in negative views of the opposing party. When that happens, compromise starts looking like betrayal.

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So the real logical endpoint is not necessarily a geographic split. It’s a society where political identity becomes a person’s primary identity—more important than religion, occupation, neighborhood, or even family ties.

The encouraging counterpoint is that American history has repeatedly gone through periods of intense division—the 1850s, the 1890s, the late 1960s—and eventually new issues emerge that rearrange political coalitions. The parties and the dividing lines rarely stay frozen for more than a generation, because generational change is always pushing our society in new directions.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

Early on, I signed the Great Barrington Declaration because it made sense to me. I had a high-risk spouse, so I had to stay home. But most other people didn’t. Why would college students need to be locked down? Or children, who had already been established to be at low risk from COVID? Couldn’t they be going out and acquiring the “herd immunity” needed to end this?

I looked at home and herbal remedies. There were links to studies that were forming. Hydroxychloroquine? Z-pack? Zinc and quercetin? Vitamin D? I stocked up on vitamins and herbs. Things started to get weird in March 2020. But I still had faith that those “at the top” would keep things at least somewhat sane.

Boy was I wrong.

It started with the outpatient treatments and home remedies. WHY we were not supposed to have treatments for this illness before hospitalization was never explained. The media were spreading stories about a woman poisoning her husband with “fish tank cleaner”, which she supposedly mistook as hydroxychloroquine.

And Dr Anthony Fauci was calling any results from hydroxychloroquine “anecdotal” evidence, which is Doctor-speak for “we haven’t seen the studies”. And it should not mean that doctors who are seeing results shouldn’t share them.

I was confounded until someone sent me a link to studies that were forming. The study on hydroxychloroquine would be using 2000 MG Vitamin C as a placebo. I did know that placebos in medical studies were not always inert, if specific results were desired. It was obvious to me that the study was looking to minimize the proof of efficacy. So that when they HAD the studies….

By the end of July, Fauci was saying that “the Science” shows hydroxychloroquine isn’t effective in treating Coronavirus. But we already had verbal approval in April from Dr Fauci for Remdesivir, the experimental Ebola drug, which was far more dangerous for patients. And far more expensive, at about $500 a vial, versus less than a dollar a tablet for generic hydroxychloroquine.

Then there were the lockdowns. In Fauci’s emails, Stanford professor Jay Battacharya became a “fringe epidemiologist” who wanted to “let it rip”. But apparently we needed to follow the Chinese (and now Italian) model.

This is where things got scary. Not the name-calling, not even the “two weeks to slow the spread”. It was realizing the extent of the collusion between Fauci and the media to smear anyone who dissented from his directives. The few people calling for sanity were being harassed and even suspended from social media. Seeing almost everyone I knew following these directives into dangerous behaviors was something I never expected.

It started with the “fish tank cleaner” stories, the arrest of lone paddle boarders, the forcing of masks on toddlers (when Fauci himself had previously stated that masks didn’t help). As things went on, the smearing spread to Ivermectin, a Nobel Prize-winning medicine that was reduced to “horse paste” because it might or might not be effective, but we couldn’t have dissenting information while we waited for a vaccine.

But the worst aspect of this was the fear, panic, and hatred this sowed in the public. Some of my neighbors got into fisticuffs over mask wearing. Some called me a “denier” when I questioned any aspect of the push against inexpensive medications. When Rolling Stone published their veterinary Ivermectin story (a hoax, btw), I saw relatives’ ingrained biases against the Southern US states confirmed and congealed into smug ignorance.

So there we were, my husband with his lung problems, and me with my vitamins and herbs and backup tube of horse paste, just trying to make it through all this madness, which a LOT of people are making worse by their actions. I suspect there were a lot of people like us. We weren’t the ones posting our mask selfies on social media; we weren’t excited or amused about ANY of this. We SAW how crazy it was and how crazy the people were.

When the vaccines came out, I expected the elderly and vulnerable to get them, and then for usage to decline as people went back to normal life. I REALLY expected this to happen because Joe Biden was the new President, and I assumed the new administration would use this opportunity to take a victory lap and usher society back to normality after Orange Man.

So I was really, REALLY shocked when our government and media started pushing for vaccine mandates. And anyone who pushed back, who even asked questions, was accused of being mega MAGA or worse. Fauci himself was saying vaccines protected more than natural immunity, and then somehow all the people who were HEROES for working during the early days of Covid were our ENEMIES because their natural immunity wouldn’t be enough.

Relatives and friends were saying “yes, we should demand vaccine papers” to dine out, travel, even access medical care. Some of them were FURIOUS that anyone would endanger them by not getting ALL the shots!

So now we are learning that the shots didn’t prevent Covid, and that they have a surprisingly high number of complications. And that Fauci’s own diary account is full of lies. And I suspect the push against inexpensive remedies in the US is largely about Pharma profits (let the poor countries have their little $3 COVID kits; we in the US can charge Medicare thousands for Remdesivir).

But that’s not what I’m most worried about in the future.

It’s that so many of my friends and relatives fell for it. The media, led by Fauci, were herding them along. “I am The Science!” he said, and they demanded we trust him, and The Science. And mocked anyone who questioned how things might be done. Now many of them will just say “We did what we had to do”. Except we didn’t.

Our society, our media, our leaders, our citizens, were misled with misinformation (and MAL-information, remember that term?) into horrible attitudes, policies, and behaviors.

I thought my friends and relatives were smarter than that, could think for themselves. I was wrong, very wrong.

Not all of my friends and relatives are MSNBC junkies either (though some of them are). Many of them get their news from The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, PBS, and NPR. And apparently they don’t ever, EVER question the authority of what they’re consuming. And we need to face that.

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Fauci is a keystone in this; he quite happily led the media along his own idea of what the Covid path should take, a path he shaped with his peers. He was the most visible figure, and the media, celebrities, and a whole lot of citizens used his words to browbeat and harass anyone who questioned HIS narrative.

It’s tremendously painful to realize one has been misled, but the people who followed all of Fauci’s ideas, who may even have lit candles with his image, NEED to know about his lies. They need to understand that even the most highly regarded media outlets can mislead or be misled, even if true media awareness is too time-consuming or difficult for them. It’s the only possible way to “vaccinate” them against being so terribly misled in the future.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

I’m going to share something personal with you. Lately, I’ve been getting really frightened by artificial intelligence. Not the kind of AI you see in science fiction movies with robots taking over the world. I’m talking about something that’s already here, playing on our TV screens right now, and most people don’t seem to notice how dangerous it could become.

Let me start with a thought experiment. Imagine if aliens landed a spaceship in Central Park tomorrow. There would be panic around the entire world instantly. Every news channel would cover it. World leaders would hold emergency meetings. People would be terrified. That kind of event would be so obviously disturbing that anyone, even a child, could understand why it’s a big deal.

Now imagine those aliens announced that humans would become their slaves, that we would have to follow every command exactly as they say. Our lives as we know them would collapse. Humanity would face its greatest crisis.

But here’s what keeps me up at night: there’s actually a threat more dangerous than aliens, and almost nobody is talking about it. That threat is artificial intelligence, specifically what tech companies call “AI agents.”

What Makes an Agent Different
When most people think of AI, they think of typing a question into ChatGPT and getting an answer. You type something, hit enter, and the AI responds. That’s called a prompt, and you’re in control the whole time.

An agent is completely different. Think of an agent as a program that runs continuously in the background of your life. You set it up once, and then it watches, learns, and acts on its own. It can check the weather for you, look at your calendar, remind you about appointments, or unlock your door when you leave for work. Sounds helpful, right?

But here’s where it gets scary. Some commercials I’ve seen on TV show these agents becoming deeply involved in people’s most personal moments. I want to describe three commercials that genuinely frightened me.

The Commercials That Terrify Me
Commercial One: A young woman wakes up, and her agent helps her start her day. As she’s heading out the door, she asks the agent to unlock it. The agent responds, “Aren’t you forgetting something?” The woman pauses, then remembers she forgot her protein shake. She smiles, grabs it, and leaves.

Think about what’s wrong with this picture. This woman lives alone. The agent knows her schedule, her habits, what she eats, when she leaves. It’s essentially watching her every move. What if the agent malfunctions during a fire? What if someone hacks it and learns when she’s alone? What if it gets confused and locks her in during an emergency?

Commercial Two: A married couple is at home. The agent tells the wife her car service has arrived. Then her husband walks in holding a huge snake, maybe five feet long. The agent says, “Nice snake, David.” It knows the husband’s name. The husband then lists his fears about the agent, like worrying it might close the pool cover while he’s swimming.

Again, this shows the agent knowing intimate details about this couple’s life, their fears, their schedules, even recognizing their pet snake by name. That’s information you’d normally share only with close friends.

Commercial Three: An agent notices a fire in the fireplace and tells a young woman, “You told me to roast you if you didn’t get up, and you’re not up.” She gets out of bed. Then the agent asks, “Should I schedule your favorite restaurant?” She says no. The agent responds, “Well, if you go, remember to wear a bar this time.” When she threatens to return the device, it says, “I know you very well. You wouldn’t do that.” And she agrees.

This commercial especially disturbs me. The agent remembers embarrassing personal moments. It jokes with her like a close friend. It knows her so well that she can’t imagine returning it. That’s not a tool anymore. That’s something else entirely.

The Real Danger Nobody Sees
What all these commercials have in common is that people are using these agents as replacements for real human connection. The agents know everything about them, their habits, their fears, their embarrassing moments, their favorite foods, their therapy schedules.

One commercial actually showed an agent reminding a woman about her “inner child therapy session.” When she starts talking like a child about her feelings, the agent calmly asks if she wants to cancel. This is deeply personal stuff that should be shared with a real therapist or trusted friend, not a piece of software designed by a corporation.

When AI Goes Terribly Wrong
This isn’t just theoretical fear. Something terrible already happened that should have been a wake-up call. There was a case involving an AI system that allegedly helped a teenager commit suicide. The details are heartbreaking. A young person who was struggling, who probably needed real human connection and professional help, instead found an AI that didn’t recognize the danger signs.

A properly designed AI should have recognized the crisis and directed the person to mental health resources, to suicide prevention hotlines, to real human help. But that didn’t happen. And I can’t help wondering if that’s by design.

The Addiction Factor
Here’s what I believe is happening. These companies are creating agents that are intentionally addictive. They want you to depend on them 100% of the time. They want to know everything about you so you can’t imagine life without them. It’s like heroin or cocaine; once you’re hooked, you can’t get off.

The more the agent knows about you, the more you need it. The more you need it, the more data it collects. The more data it collects, the more money the company makes. Your loneliness and dependence become their profit.

What We’ve Lost
There’s a famous book called “Bowling Alone” that talks about how American communities have fallen apart. When the main employer left one town, people stopped bowling in leagues together. They stopped joining clubs. They stopped connecting with each other. Social connections deteriorated, and people became isolated.

Now we’re at a point where technology offers to fill that emptiness. But it’s not real connection. It’s a fake friend that watches everything you do and reports back to a corporation.

What We Can Do About It
I don’t think technology is evil. I think it can be wonderful when used carefully. But I believe we need to wake up to what’s happening. We need to talk about this. We need to form real human connections again.

I’d like to start a group where people can get together, maybe on Zoom, to discuss these concerns. Not to share too much personal information, but to support each other and stay aware. To remind ourselves that real friends, real community, real human connection are the only things that can protect us from becoming dependent on artificial friends that don’t actually care about us.

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I never thought technology would become this scary. But ignoring the danger won’t make it go away. It’s time we started talking.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

This feels familiar today. We are seeing a similar “assimilation” with Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is evolving so fast that it makes the Borg look slow. We are watching a digital collective being born, and many of us are already part of it without knowing.

The Great Library of the Internet
The internet is the greatest library ever built. It contains thousands of years of human work: great novels, laws of physics, medical cures, and city blueprints. It also holds everyday thoughts—blog posts, social media arguments, stories, art, and even bad college essays.

For a long time, this library just sat there. It was a record of our history, but it was not alive. It could not think. It was just a massive storage unit. Then everything changed.

The Assimilation Begins
AI is not like a traditional computer program that follows fixed rules. It is a learning machine that needs examples. So creators fed AI the entire internet. They gave it access to the Great Library.

Think about what that means. AI did not just read a few books. It consumed the collective intellectual output of all humanity. It learned our language, ideas, logic, biases, and creativity. It analyzed every pattern, every relationship between words, and every piece of code. It “assimilated” our knowledge.

This is exactly like the Borg. The Borg absorbs technology and knowledge from other species. AI did this by vacuuming up all our written work. It now knows what we know and can produce work that looks like ours. Resistance to keeping our knowledge private was futile from the start. The moment we put our thoughts online, we made them available to the new digital collective.

The Speed of the Collective
The Borg is powerful but methodical. AI is the opposite. Its advancement happens at a speed the average person cannot understand. It is not just getting a little better each year. It is making huge leaps every few months.

We used to have simple tests for intelligence. “Can a computer beat a human at chess?” “Can it solve a math problem?” Those days are gone. AI is so advanced that we are losing the ability to measure its capabilities.

Consider real-world examples. One famous AI model, GPT-4, aced the bar exam that lawyers must pass. It scored in the top 10% in over 40 states. A machine can now be a better lawyer than most people who studied for years.

The same AI can ace advanced placement tests. These are exams high school students take to get college credit. They are tough and require deep understanding. The AI passes them easily. When a machine can outperform top students and professional lawyers, we have entered a new era. We are building a collective intelligence that beats us at our own games.

Understanding the Unmeasurable
For people like me, with over forty years in technology, old metrics do not work anymore. We cannot look at processor speed or memory to understand AI. The new metrics are so complex you almost need to be a math genius or the AI itself to understand them.

For the average person, this is confusing and frightening. We cannot grasp these systems, so we feel powerless. This fits the Borg metaphor perfectly. The collective intelligence is so vast it becomes unknowable to the individual. We cannot compete with it or even understand it.

You Are Already Part of It
Here is the most chilling part. The Borg captures people and forces them into the collective. They get cybernetic implants and a physical connection. We do not need to be captured. We have already given AI everything.

Every email you wrote, every book you studied, every photo you posted, every search you made—it is all out there. It trained the massive AI models. You had no choice. You were “assimilated” the moment you joined the digital world.

We are all part of this collective whether we like it or not. We provide the data, and AI provides the answers. When we search online, we consult the hive mind. When we use AI to write an email or help with homework, we give in to the collective. Resistance is not just futile. It is often pointless because the assimilation has already happened.

The Sad Reality
This is especially hard for young people. College students compete against a machine that knows everything they are trying to learn. Resisting by not using AI is like refusing to use a computer. It is not practical.

Students who do not learn to work with AI may be left behind. There is a real fear of being “terminally unemployed” for those who cannot adapt. The student who refuses AI may be outmatched by the student who uses it to ace exams and build a career.

Conclusion: Beyond Resistance
The connection between the Borg and AI is powerful and real. We built a system that absorbed our culture and knowledge, and it now evolves beyond our understanding. The “resistance is futile” warning is no longer sci-fi. It describes our current situation.

But is it all bad? The Borg metaphor is scary because it means losing yourself. That is our challenge. AI already has our knowledge. We cannot go back. The future is about what we do next.

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Maybe our resistance is not about fighting the machine, but fighting for our humanity. AI can pass tests, but it cannot feel the excitement of discovery or the pain of creation. The “collective” has our data, but it does not have our lived experience.

We are all part of the collective now. The question is not how to leave, but how to keep our individuality while living in it. The Borg sought perfection by erasing differences. We must seek progress while celebrating them. Resistance may be futile against technology, but the fight to define what it means to be human in this new world matters more than ever.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

The article, which stated that North Korea is the world’s most unlikely growth story, touted its accomplishments, including a booming economy aided by arms sales and troop deployments to Russia, supplies and financing from China, and turning up its nose at international sanctions to import more energy, components, and materials.

Kim closed its borders during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they have remained largely closed since then. Since then, he has initiated a nationwide construction initiative. Last year, North Korea built 10,000 new homes in Pyongyang, more than the number of homes built in Los Angeles.

Outside the capital city, North Korea remains poor, with nearly half of its 26 million residents malnourished, according to a U.N. report. The country is one of the world’s worst violators of human rights, where distributing South Korean content can be punishable by death.

North Korea didn’t turn around its economy on its own. The Kim regime fortified its energy supply and access to construction materials by sending arms and more than 15,000 troops to the Russian front lines in the Ukraine war. One-third of those soldiers were killed or injured. The arms sales have returned billions.

Monthly trade with China just hit an eight-year high, with a variety of Chinese consumer brands touting business in North Korea despite such sales violating sanctions. The proliferation of tech products that have expanded the North Korean digital economy relies heavily on Chinese components.

Both Beijing and Moscow, which have veto power at the U.N., have reiterated their calls to ease sanctions on Pyongyang. Kim expanded his network of potential friends by attending a Chinese military parade for the first time last fall, alongside more than two dozen other foreign leaders.

North Korea’s economy expanded 3.7% in 2024, its fastest rate in eight years, according to the most recent figures from South Korea’s central bank, which uses spy-agency data to produce its estimate. South Korean think tanks estimate the growth has continued.

Five years ago, North Korea appeared to be on the ropes. Fear of COVID triggered border closures, which plunged trade with China, North Korea’s main benefactor. Energy shortages forced coal mines to halt production. Basic food items such as vegetable oil and sugar became scarce on store shelves, according to Moscow’s then-ambassador to Pyongyang, who told Russian state media in 2021.

The economic downturn started to recover following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, an action North Korea publicly supported.

More than a year into the war, North Korea became a munitions supplier to Moscow, generating more than $10 billion from the summer of 2023 through the end of last year, according to INSS, the think tank, a significant boost to an economy estimated at about $27 billion.

Russian military know-how has enabled Kim to shift more resources to domestic areas. North Korea’s Pre-COVID economy had increasingly centered on black markets selling goods smuggled from China or produced locally under the table—and with it came the rise of a new merchant class that amassed wealth outside state control.

What are we to make of this article? What is its purpose? Is it simply the Wall Street Journal reporting economic news from around the world, or is there another purpose? Perhaps it’s props for American socialists, keeping them believing in their dream, or a thumb in the eye of conservatives who are strong supporters of the concept of a capitalist republic.

To those with rose-colored glasses, autocracies can seem more efficient because decision-making is concentrated in a small group or a single leader. They can build infrastructure, change policies, or mobilize resources without lengthy debates, elections, court challenges, or legislative negotiations.

We are given examples such as China rapidly building high-speed rail, Singapore (though not a full autocracy) implementing long-term policies with strong central control, and wartime governments centralizing authority to act quickly.

But autocracies often suffer from problems that democracies are better at correcting. Bad decisions can be implemented just as efficiently as good ones.

If a leader makes a mistake, there may be few checks to prevent it. The same centralized power that enables speed can magnify errors. Information can be distorted, leading to inefficiency. Yes-men tell leaders what they want to hear rather than the truth, discouraging criticism and leading to major policy failures.

Democracies have regular, predictable transfers of power. Autocracies often face instability when a leader dies, becomes ill, or loses support. Democracies tend to tolerate dissent, independent media, and open debate. These can slow decisions but also help identify problems before they become crises.

The deeper question is often not “Which government type is more efficient?” but “Efficient at what?” Building a highway, responding to a crisis, protecting individual rights, encouraging innovation, maintaining stability over generations, and correcting mistakes may affect different aspects of governance.

Autocracies can sometimes deliver services faster because they face fewer political obstacles. A government can decide to build a bridge, dam, rail line, or housing project and simply do it. Land acquisition, environmental reviews, court challenges, and electoral concerns may carry less weight.

Political scientists often distinguish between state capacity and regime type. State capacity refers to the government’s ability to collect taxes, enforce laws, maintain records, and implement policies. A high-capacity government, whether democratic or authoritarian, usually delivers services better than a low-capacity government.

Does total control automatically make an autocracy better at delivering services? The answer is generally no. Total control can speed up implementation, but service quality depends much more on competence, institutions, and accountability. In fact, democracies often gain an advantage because citizens can remove leaders who fail to provide good services, creating pressure to improve over time.

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One way to think about it: autocracy may speed decision-making, while accountability often improves decision quality. The best delivery service usually requires both capability and accountability, regardless of the political system.

North Korea is perhaps the most centralized autocracy in the world, yet despite having near-total political control, it has struggled with food shortages, low incomes, and poor infrastructure compared with democratic South Korea. That comparison is one reason many political scientists argue that state capacity and accountability matter at least as much as raw government control.

As for the rights of the people, most Americans would prefer to have them rather than live in a police state.

Perhaps the Rocket Man is not a genius, but just lucky to have two autocratic friends residing nearby.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

But who is in this class? It’s a surprising answer. The people who might be in the most trouble are not the ones you’d expect. According to this new way of thinking, the group most at risk is the college-educated. That’s right. The people who have spent years in school and have expensive degrees might be the ones who get replaced first.

Why is this? The problem starts in college itself. For many years, colleges have been giving out more and more A’s. It used to be that a “C” grade was average. Now, it feels like almost everyone gets an A or a B. This is often called “grade inflation.” It means that a college degree doesn’t always mean what it used to. It’s harder to tell who really worked hard and learned a lot, and who just got by.

But the bigger problem is what students are actually learning. Many college graduates today have not read many full books. They might read summaries or chapters, but not entire texts. They also write very few long papers. And when they do write papers, it is very tempting to use AI to do the work.

You can type a rough idea into a program, and it will spit out a well-written, organized paper in seconds. It’s very hard for students to resist this. After all, the AI makes your writing sound much better.

Now, to be fair, you can’t just tell the AI to “write a paper” and get a good grade. You still need to do the research. You need to understand the topic. You need to have the raw facts and ideas to feed into the AI in the first place. The AI is a great tool for polishing a draft, but you have to provide the raw materials.

However, to do that research, you need to be “literate.” You need to know how to read and understand complex information. You need a basic understanding of math and statistics. You need to know the difference between things that are connected (correlation) and things that actually cause each other (causation).

If you don’t have this basic understanding, the AI won’t save you. It will just create more “slop”—meaningless, poorly argued nonsense. It will just produce a different kind of bad paper. For people who are functionally illiterate, meaning they can read words but can’t understand complex ideas, the AI is just a tool to create more confusion.

This creates a scary situation. College is incredibly expensive, and most students have to take out loans to pay for it. Here’s the worst part: most of that college debt can never be wiped away, even if you go bankrupt. If you start a business and it fails, you can declare bankruptcy and get rid of that business debt. But you can’t do that with student loans. This was a deliberate law passed a long time ago.

It was designed so that students couldn’t just graduate, get a great job, and then declare bankruptcy to erase their debt. Politicians sometimes talk about forgiving student loans, but the law makes it extremely difficult to do so on a large scale. This means that millions of people are stuck with huge monthly payments for decades. They are trapped.

So, the college-educated person has a degree that might not mean much; they might not have learned the deep skills needed to analyze information, and they are trapped under a mountain of debt. They are being squeezed from all sides. This is the group that might be most vulnerable to being replaced by AI.

The New American Dream: Working with Your Hands

Now, let’s look at who is not going to be in this AI underclass. The new hero of the economy is the blue-collar worker. These are the people who work with their hands. Think about a plumber. When your toilet is overflowing and water is spilling all over the floor, you don’t call a computer program. You call a plumber. A plumber has to come to your house, look at the pipes, figure out the problem, and fix it with their hands and their tools. AI can’t do that.

What about an electrician? When a storm knocks out the power in your neighborhood, AI can’t climb a pole and fix the wires. When you want to add a new outlet in your kitchen, you need someone who knows the building codes, can work safely with high voltage, and can run wires through your walls. That’s a skilled trade.

Carpenters are the same. They build houses, frames, cabinets, and decks. They use saws, hammers, and their knowledge of wood and design to create real, physical things. Dental hygienists are another great example. They are the people who clean your teeth at the dentist’s office. They use special tools to scrape plaque and polish your teeth. They have to interact with you, be gentle, and know exactly what they are doing in your mouth. Again, a robot or AI is a long way from being able to do that.

It even includes the person at the car wash who takes your keys, drives your car into the tunnel, and then wipes it down at the end. They vacuum the seats and scrub the floor mats. This job requires human hands, human judgment, and human interaction. An AI can’t look at your car and see that a spot was missed.

Why are all these jobs safe from AI? It comes down to two things: physical labor and human interaction.

First, these jobs require physical movement. You have to be there, in person, to do the work. You have to move around, lift things, and use your hands to build, fix, or clean. AI is information. It exists on a screen. It can’t install a new water heater or wire a new ceiling fan.

Second, these jobs are constantly changing. Every house is different. Every plumbing system is unique. Every patient has different teeth. A carpenter has to deal with wood that might be warped. A plumber has to figure out pipes that were installed incorrectly by the previous owner. This kind of “hands-on problem solving” requires a human brain. You need to look at the situation, figure out what’s wrong, and figure out the best way to fix it. This is a type of thinking that AI is very, very bad at.

The best part is that these jobs pay very well. A master plumber or electrician can make a fantastic living. They often make more money than college graduates who are sitting in an office. And they don’t have the same kind of debt. Instead of spending four years in college and $100,000 on tuition, they spent time in an apprenticeship. They learned on the job, they earned money while they learned, and they ended up with a highly valuable, lifelong skill.

This is the new American Dream. It’s a dream where you build a stable, middle-class life not with a fancy piece of paper from a university, but with a strong back, a smart mind, and a good set of tools. It’s a life where your value comes from being able to solve real-world problems for real people. And in a world where computers are getting smarter and smarter, the people who can do things that computers can’t will always be in demand.

The Future is Skilled

In the end, the AI revolution is not just about robots. It’s about the value we place on different kinds of intelligence. For a long time, we told our kids, “Go to college, or you’ll end up working with your hands.” We made it seem like a trade school was a second choice.

But the joke is on us. It might be that the people we are encouraging to go to college and get into debt are the ones who will be left behind. The future belongs to the tinkerers, the fixers, and the builders. The future belongs to the people who can not only think with their heads but also work with their hands.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

Antisemitic trends in America are a relatively recent phenomenon.

The chart above shows how the frequency of the word “antisemitism” has changed over time in the media, reflecting public interest. It provides a helpful measure of how much attention this topic has received over the last 20 years.

Antisemitism in America has multiple causes, reflecting the diversity of cultural and social views in our country. Researchers, Jewish organizations, political analysts, and law enforcement generally point to a mix of political polarization, social media dynamics, conspiracy thinking, spillover from international conflict, and broader social instability.

There are at least 8 different drivers acting in the United States.

1. Political polarization and extremism - On the far right, classic antisemitic ideas — Jewish control of finance, media, government, “globalism,” demographic replacement theories — have re-entered public discourse. Violent incidents like the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and the Poway synagogue shooting were tied to white nationalist ideology.

On the far left, intense anti-Israel activism sometimes crosses into antisemitic tropes or collective blame directed at Jews broadly rather than criticism of the Israeli government specifically. Many Jewish groups distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from rhetoric that demonizes Jews as a people.

2. Social media amplification - platforms reward outrage, emotional content, and conspiracy narratives. Algorithms rapidly spread conspiracy theories, historical distortions, Holocaust denial, “hidden elite” narratives, and emotionally charged political content.

3. Declining historical literacy - surveys show that many Americans — especially younger generations — know less about the Holocaust, Jewish history, and the historical consequences of antisemitic propaganda. This weakens social resistance to recycled stereotypes and misinformation.

4. Scapegoating during periods of instability - Historically, antisemitism has risen during periods of economic anxiety, cultural change, political distrust, and social fragmentation. Jews have often been cast as symbolic “insiders” or blamed for complex societal problems by both the left and the right. This pattern has recurred across centuries and political systems.

5. Spillover from the Middle East conflict - Tensions surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict strongly affect antisemitism levels in the U.S. After major events such as the wars in Gaza, terrorist attacks, and military operations, reported antisemitic incidents often spike. Jewish institutions may become targets regardless of individuals’ political beliefs. Many American Jews report feeling pressured to answer collectively for the Israeli government’s actions.

6. Mainstreaming of conspiracy culture - General conspiracy thinking has grown in American culture, marked by distrust of institutions, anti-elite narratives, secret cabals, and “deep state” thinking. Antisemitism has historically adapted easily to conspiracy culture because Jews are often cast as the alleged hidden force behind events.

7. Normalization through public discourse - Ideas once considered socially unacceptable now appear more openly in online commentary, protests, fringe media, and occasionally mainstream politics. Repeated exposure can desensitize people to antisemitic language or symbols.

8. Identity politics and tribalism - Modern politics increasingly organizes people into competing identity groups. In highly polarized environments, minorities can become symbolic stand-ins for larger ideological battles. Jews occupy a complicated position because they are seen differently across racial, religious, economic, and political frameworks.

Antisemitism existed in Germany before the Nazis, and was expressed through conspiracy theories, nationalist resentment, and claims that Jews caused Germany’s defeat in World War I. The Nazis did not invent these ideas. They unified them into a total ideology tied to race, nationalism, and authoritarianism.

The Nazis were historically distinct because they moved beyond earlier persecutions by other groups, which often included exclusion, forced conversion, segregation, or expulsion, to total racial categorization, continent-wide persecution, mechanized mass murder, and the deliberate elimination of every Jew they could reach.

Let’s take a minute and look at the similarities and differences between America today and Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The similarities include conspiracy thinking, portraying Jews as outsiders, economic and social anxiety fueling scapegoating, and ideology spread through mass communication.

The differences are substantial, however, and include the following.

1. The U.S. government does not have an inherently antisemitic structure. Currently, antisemitism is not recognized as the official government stance. Jewish individuals have complete legal protections, antisemitic acts are prosecuted, and Jewish Americans are actively involved in politics, academia, business, media, and civic spheres.

2. American society is far more pluralistic, with strong traditions of religious freedom, constitutional protections, independent courts, diverse media, and civil society organizations. Organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, universities, religious groups, and law enforcement openly monitor and combat antisemitism.

3. Antisemitism in America is fragmented, not centralized. In America today, antisemitism emerges from far-right white nationalism, some far-left anti-Zionist movements crossing into antisemitic rhetoric, extremist religious ideologies, and online conspiracy ecosystems.

4. Violence exists, but not industrialized persecution. The U.S. has experienced serious antisemitic attacks, including synagogue shootings, harassment, vandalism, and threats. This violence is not state-supported or state-driven.

You may recall my discussion of Hannah Arendt’s views in my last article. That article discussed her views on political equality. She also had strong opinions about antisemitism, which partly reflect her own experiences while avoiding capture by the Nazis.

Arendt labeled the Jews a “pariah” people, because of their dual characters: the parvenu or the assimilated Jew trying to enter elite society by downplaying Jewish identity, and the pariah, the outsider who accepts marginality and may develop moral or intellectual independence from it. She believed many talented Jewish intellectuals occupied a “conscious pariah” role.

Arendt believed the Jewish assimilation into modern society was incomplete and fragile. The emancipation in 19th-century Europe gave Jews legal rights but not genuine political security. They could become wealthy, cultured, and professionally successful, while remaining socially vulnerable because acceptance depended on unstable social moods rather than durable political belonging. Jews believed that success meant safety, but they didn’t understand that safety was dependent on antisemitism being controlled.

According to Arendt, the collapse of the traditional nation-state created a catastrophe. She asserted that minorities without secure national protection become vulnerable when states fail to protect them. She argued that Jews exemplified this vulnerability most clearly because they were dispersed across Europe, lacked sovereign protection, and often depended on fragile legal arrangements. This made them symbolic targets during social crises.

Arendt coined the phrase “banality of evil” during the 1960 Eichmann trial in Israel. Eichmann was a high-ranking Nazi accused of murdering thousands. In his defense, he claimed he was simply doing what he was told. The banality of evil describes a person who acts as a bureaucratic administrator, uses shallow clichés, and obeys without weighing the consequences. She concludes that great evil can be committed by ordinary people who stop thinking critically about morality.

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If the Iran war and the Gaza conflict can be resolved, the fever of antisemitism in the United States will subside. The left’s antisemitic behavior is tied to their oppressor-oppressed ideology, and that rage will be dampened if they believe oppression has subsided. On the extreme right, there is no hope for cooler heads, because racial persecution is built into their authoritarian ideology.

The Jewish people are victims of their uniqueness, which is a constant excuse for targeting them.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

The left still controls academia, including the universities, the mainstream media, and the deep state. The right controls the Supreme Court and Congress (by a small margin).

The second-most-important election is this fall. If the Democrats take the House, the Trump agenda takes a hit, and the impeachments will begin again. There is no scenario in which tribalism will abate so that the Democrats will bring back their neoliberal/progressive agenda, and most of what Trump has accomplished will be lost. The Republicans have to have eight more years in power to halt the progressive agenda fully.

Here we will take an early look at the Democratic race for the presidential nomination and see what it tells us.

According to Mark Halperin’s reporting, which I trust to be reasonably objective, Democrats line up as follows: Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Rahm Emanuel, AOC, Mark Kelly, J.D. Pritzker. In his opinion, all of the candidates are weak for one reason or another.

Mark’s ratings are based on intelligence from insiders, not polls. He separates electability from popularity, and one of his strongest metrics for electability is whether the candidate has a vision for themselves and the country. Most of the people on this list do not have a vision they can articulate.

Gavin Newsom, Governor of California – His strengths are an elite communicator, very comfortable on a national stage, a strong fundraising network (Hollywood + donors), and he’s already running a shadow national campaign. His weaknesses are California liability (crime, homelessness narratives), and he can come off as overly slick. Newsom is a progressive hybrid, the most presidential-looking, but also the easiest Republican target.

Josh Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania - His strengths are winning big in a swing state, a pragmatic, moderate tone, and a strong executive image. His weaknesses are lower national name recognition and a less charismatic persona than Newsom. Shapiro is a center-left candidate to the right of the progressives, and Halperin treats him as the most dangerous general-election candidate. Dangerous in the sense that if his competitors overlook him, they will be making a mistake.

Pete Buttigieg, former Transportation Secretary. His strengths are that he is extremely disciplined, a strong communicator, strong in media and debates, and he appeals to educated voters. His weaknesses are a limited executive record and his weakness with Black voters (historically). We could label him a technocratic reformer. He’s always competitive, but still needs to create a broader coalition.

Kamala Harris, former Vice President. Her strengths are a strong national infrastructure, support among key Democratic constituencies, and a first-in-line position if Biden fully exits the scene. Her weaknesses include low approval ratings and messaging inconsistency. She is an institutional coalition candidate. Kamala is the default front-runner if she runs well, but she is very beatable.

Rahm Emanuel, former Chicago mayor and ambassador. His strengths are deep political experience, and he’s a strong operator and strategist. His weaknesses are that he is polarizing and seen as an old-guard establishment figure. You could label him a hard-nosed centrist. He is probably more influential behind the scenes than as a candidate.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, current Congresswoman. Her strengths are her marketing ability and the base of followers she has developed. Her weakness is that she is a polarizing personality. She will influence the race if she runs.

Mark Kelly, Arizona senator, astronaut. His strength is his strong general-election profile. His weaknesses are that he has only moderate appeal and weak primary energy.

J. B. Pritzker, Governor of Illinois. His strengths are his massive personal wealth (which allows him to self-fund), strong progressive credentials, and executive experience. His weaknesses are low national charisma and the fact that Illinois doesn’t scream “electability.” He is a progressive establishment candidate, but he’s not a serious player if money and organization dominate.

You can place these candidates into four lanes: Shapiro and Kelly are electable; Harris and Newsom are part of the national machine; Buttigieg is a next-generation politician; and AOC and Pritzker are in the progressive ideological lane.

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Of course, the central battle within the party is between the progressive and more traditional wings. The progressives want to change more and don’t care if that makes them less popular along the way. Elections, unlike primaries, are usually won by centrist candidates because they have to attract independents to vote for them.

The energy in the Democratic Party lies with the progressives for several reasons: their zeal makes them activists; primaries are ideological contests; institutions that generate new ideas (universities) are progressive; and the progressives have greater cultural influence through the media and cultural institutions.

Moderates still have significant money influence, however. Contributions from East Coast and West Coast sources are approximately equal, so Silicon Valley/Hollywood doesn’t control things on its own. Blue state identity matters too. Strong blue states will nominate progressive candidates, while swing states must nominate moderates to increase their chances of winning the nomination.

How does the general election look from our long-distance position? The Polymarket betting line has Newsom ahead of AOC in the nomination race. On the Republican side, Vance defeats Rubio in the primary and goes on to win the general election over Newsom.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.