“The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening.”

–  Rosa Luxemburg, champion of socialist democracy

INTRODUCTION

– Earth has finite resources –

– Infinite profit irreparably corrupts the environment – 

– Redistribute wealth to subsequent generations –

All jokes aside, democratic socialism isn’t about getting free stuff but guarding resources for our children and grandchildren before late-stage capitalism and a class of degenerate billionaires collapses their climate. Resources like food, water, air, shelter, medicine, stability, and safety. You know, stuff that any modern society should give freely to its people. It’s about shielding our children and grandchildren from the capitalist abuse and exploitation with which most of us are familiar. 

I wanted to write a companion piece to the eleventh episode of our podcast in case I could turn some readers into listeners. In our tenth episode, we discussed how both Republicans and Corporate Democrats pull their perverted power, personal profit, and private wish fulfillment from a dark money machine known as The Establishment. In episode eleven, we set out to talk about governing when free of The Establishment.

WHAT IS FREEDOM?

– Time is not money – 

– Modern work is inhumane – 

– Cooperation over competition – 

I’ve quit more jobs than I’ve even held in my life (it made sense in my head) because I never really feel free when working a job. That’s not to say I reject needing to work or contribute. I loved teaching K-12 classes, but I’ve always said having shorter days or Wednesdays off would do wonders for the mental health and energy of students and teachers. And of course, teachers should be properly compensated so they arrive to class thinking about their content and not dreading the next rent increase or unexpected car problem. Teaching and helping are my passions, but the brutal machinations that frequently turn my teaching and social work efforts (and my students’ experiences) into someone else’s profit get in the way.     

Work-life balance is a cute little phrase, but time is a person’s most precious resource. Think about it. You don’t exist for infinity years. Suddenly, you’re alive for maybe a high-quality 50 years (if you’re lucky). Then you don’t exist for another infinity years. Somewhere inside 40 of those 50 years, you sit down with an HR person who gives you an employee onboarding. You’re selling some of your time for money so you can buy back some of your… time. They tell you things like:

Be here at this time. Leave at this time. Sometimes you might stay longer. Call this person if you’re running late, but don’t be late because there’s discipline. No time off for your first 90 days. Request time off a month in advance. If you’re sick then bring a doctor’s note. The company offers benefits but you have to pay for them. So. Many. Rules. And nearly every expectation infringes on my time.  

To me, that always feels like signing away my life and my freedom. All the rigidity is on the company’s side. All the expected flexibility is my burden. I think that’s why I daydream about quitting as soon as I notice I saved enough money to pay rent at least once while unemployed. I know I’ll eventually panic and need another job, but at least I’ll experience four weeks of total freedom followed by a few more weeks of semi-freedom while job hunting. I don’t run from work, I run from capitalist abuse and exploitation. Billionaires don’t do any of the things we’re told make up work culture.

Billionaires enjoy freedom and we don’t.

DEMOCRACY IS HARD

– Workers’ rights are voting rights – 

– Voting is not a luxury –

– Elections should be transformative – 

We know. The billionaires know we know. We know the billionaires know we know. Still, we don’t do shit. Well, not Luigi. We need a national strike now! I digress, but we all know there is enough wealth in existence right now to chop the work week down to almost nothing with no reduction in pay. To hire enough people to always be fully staffed. To provide months and months of vacation, maternity leave, paternity leave, and all the other ways to return a person’s time being alive on this planet. All this starts with an imperceptible tax on degenerate billionaires (and ends with the dissolution of degenerate billionaires and a money-based economic engine, but we aren’t there yet). If you think about it, workers’ rights are voting rights.

One of my first jobs was the overnight staff position at a girls’ level-2 in-patient facility. Except, I was trained during the day at a ranch-style property for boys. This was a congregate care model with house parents. A couple and their own kids lived on the property in a house while the group home residents lived next door in another house on the same property with a rotating staff. On voting day, the house parents walked over and said because most of the boys were at school and the site was functioning smoothly, staff could take off for an hour to vote. I already woke up early to vote before work, but other staff used that opportunity to leave work and vote. They seriously wouldn’t have voted otherwise! Like, they didn’t even factor in a voting strategy because they assumed work would be in the way. That’s why the current GOP is so hellbent on eliminating mail-in voting. When Pima County introduced a permanent mail-in voting option, you better believe I immediately signed up for it. Voting in person on a fucking Tuesday ain’t easy.  

Corruption gets in the way, poverty gets in the way, malfeasance gets in the way. When Americans can vote, fascists lose. Obviously, voting day should be a national holiday. If we were truly free, there wouldn’t be any obstacles to casting a vote. Our votes could shape the response to income inequality and climate collapse.

[I should reaffirm that I’m an American who votes in America’s elections. When I speak of tackling global challenges, I choose to believe in a multinational community of like-minded optimists.] 

SPEED IS DEMOCRATIC

– Legislation should be transformative – 

– Shared sacrifice is unavoidable – 

– Patriotism in delayed gratification – 

When we had our most recent podcast meeting between episodes, Arlen threw out this gem: “Speed is more democratic.” And then Byron followed up with really good ideas for passing legislation more rapidly. To really grasp their point, let’s go back to climate collapse for a second.

I woke up and read an article about warmer oceans.  Fifty-five scientists concluded in the journal “Advances in Atmospheric Sciences” that in 2025, the ocean absorbed an amount of additional heat equivalent to 365 million atomic bombs. Holy shit! Rampaging storms, devastating floods, melting glaciers, destabilized marine ecosystems, and seas with diminishing amounts of oxygen are only a few exploding links in the catastrophic chain of events caused by our continued participation in late-stage capitalism. If scientists across the globe are screaming in unison that we have to stop what we’re doing then why aren’t we voting on the necessary shared sacrifices? Why aren’t we voting to permanently ground private jets and dismantle superyachts? Why aren’t we building into the ground to cool our spaces without air conditioning? Why aren’t we erecting enormous shade structures to cool our daily activities without air conditioning? Why is leisure vacation on cruise ships still a thing?

One of my political science professors defined “progress” as “change over time.” He expressed progress as this math formula that is constant. If progress is inevitable then you get liberals that expect progress to happen rapidly enough to buck the status quo, and conservatives that want to slow progress down as much as possible to preserve The Establishment. Historically, the founders favored a lot of checks and balances and possibly thought the gridlock was a way to keep the country from becoming too radical in any direction.

However the fuck, we now find ourselves on the precipice of death. Well, if you are an over-the-hill homeowner right now then chances are you’ll grow old and retire comfortably-ish, but 3.9 million U.S. students graduated high school in 2025. What happens to them? Or their future kids? Majority rule and passing legislation rapidly is now crucially important. Thirty percent of the country will always vote the same way because of misguided religious beliefs, tribalism, and the inability to think critically. That number could increase as education is unfunded. I’m not throwing shade, democracy affords those citizens a voice. Except, their voice can no longer drown out the majority. We need proportional representation. Nearly seventy percent of Americans agree with the scientific consensus on climate change, says the most recent Stanford University research study on trust in scientists. Regressive and harmful beliefs can no longer dictate the law of the land. We need to abolish the Electoral College. We need to expand the Supreme Court. Washington D.C. needs its two senators.

Prove me wrong! I fear that as long as the beer is cold and the streaming is hot, Americans won’t demand these changes. If you’re reading this and you give a damn, the least you could do is delete Facebook, cancel Amazon Prime, and unsubscribe from all the streaming services that enrich the degenerate billionaires that fund the MAGA movement. Divest yourself from the degenerate billionaires that build planet-destroying AI data centers. But, Jason, the Amazon delivery driver and the cameraperson on Euphoria need jobs! No, they need income. Let’s not conflate the two. And there will be a wellspring of green jobs after we achieve a post-Establishment utopia.   

UTOPIA

– Sustainability, not perfection –

– Dismantle The Establishment – 

– Always vote for our children and grandchildren –  

True story, I stood between two construction dudes in line to donate plasma around the start of the second Trump Administration. For real, it was awkward in that Construction Dude “A” was in front of me, and Construction Dude “B” was behind me, and they were having their conversation through me while I stared at my phone feeling uncomfortable. They were lamenting that all the Biden-era infrastructure projects vanished in the blink of an eye. “Bro, I was making so much money!” “Me, too! I was turning down jobs because there were just too many calls about fortifying this bridge or reinforcing that underpass!” “Suddenly, my skills were needed all over the place!” “My nephew walked out of his last welding class into an all-out bidding war over him!”

Measuring just how much we lost in that last general election remains an act of self-harm. Money meant to rebuild our country and secure our children and grandchildren’s future immediately reversed course and flowed back to the billionaires. Construction Dude “A” and Construction Dude “B” went from thriving to selling their plasma with a regular K-12 teacher like me. Doctors, engineers, and lawyers might shrug because they’re still doing OK, especially if they don’t have children, but when everybody else is in survival mode they’ll soon experience a sharp decline in their quality of life, too. Remember the two facts from 2025? The ocean absorbed an amount of additional heat equivalent to 365 million atomic bombs while 3.9 million U.S. students graduated high school. If we don’t move toward democratic socialism now then no amount of privilege outside of being a billionaire can insulate anyone from what’s coming: Horror, the likes of which humanity has never seen. And I realize my Western privilege in saying that, given humanity lives in places on Earth that are already disproportionately affected by climate collapse. I also realize there’s a good chance Construction Dude “A” and Construction Dude “B” happily voted against their best interests and haven’t connected the dots.   

In conclusion, perfection isn’t the goal! Sustainability is the goal. First, we dismantle The Establishment. No more corporate or foreign influence in our elections. We codify new constitutional rights that guarantee healthcare, income, housing, and education. We abolish the Electoral College and expand the Supreme Court. We reform representation so it is actually proportional to the population. We lift citizens out of survival mode so they can participate in democracy. Where machines, automation, and AI do work previously done by humans, that productivity is given back to the displaced humans. We recognize time is a person’s most precious resource and provide as much opportunity for them to enjoy it with their loved ones as possible. We put ourselves on a recovery path that could feel painful at first while we’re still addicted to convenience. We vote through tough challenges to find necessary solutions. How do we get personal vehicles off the road? How do we get carbon-absorbing trees on top of new architecture? How do we end the commercial cruise industry? How do we build enough water desalination plants? When do we offer the billionaires this really cool-ass deal called not Luigi-ing them? As soon as we delete, cancel, boycott, and unsubscribe from all the shit they use to control us.

How do we vote for our children and grandchildren?

We give them democratic socialism because our planet no longer supports late-stage capitalism and a class of degenerate billionaires.