Fill in the Blanks on Election Night

October 27, 2026
strategy, elections, history, civil rights, economy, politics, chauvinism, democracy
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What do we look for when we watch election returns? The progressive anti-Trump candidate just won the vote in Brazil. People around the world are celebrating, but are they through watching?

The last time, the fascists tried to overthrow the election. They’re still the same people. Will they try again?

More importantly, what will the Trumpsters in the U.S. do? They were accused of interfering in the election, and Trump himself made it clear he wanted the fascists to win. What will they do?

Keep an eye on Brazil, because it’s not over. Elections are just a step on a long stairway.

FILL IN THE BLANKS

Elections provide the most hard data about our political situation. It is hard to argue with numbers. Here are some of the things you might be able to figure out by watching returns on election night:

MEASURING NATIONAL CONCERN

Turnout figures give us the best information about whether people are concerned about this country. A big turnout would indicate that people care, a low turnout means they don’t.

How many eligible voters in the U.S.? 236M.

How many people registered to vote? 174M What percent of eligible voters registered? 73.6% How many people voted for one of the two choices? 154M What percent? 65.3%. The Democrat Presidential candidate got 48%, Republicans 50%

In Texas, Republicans won 56-42%.

IDEALISTS VERSUS MATERIALISTS

In the 2026 elections, it is tempting to categorize Democratic voters as “good” or “smart” and Republicans as ignorant or evil. One might also want to say that the Democrats are “for the people” and the Republican voters are for a reactionary system that serves only the rich. Such convenient pigeonholes may be misleading.

Marketing professors agree that people often, if not usually, make decisions on imaginary bases. In other words, voters may not be considering their material circumstances and the likelihood of improving with this or that party or candidate.  They may be deciding because of any number of “push button” emotional issues. Religious people are especially susceptible, because they can talk themselves into anything.

Republicans in general are counting on racism to motivate voters. In Texas, Islamophobia and homophobia are central to many campaigns. Probably the best example in Texas is Bo French, Republican candidate for Railroad Commissioner, who has based his entire campaign on hate messages.

As election returns come in, the numbers do not reveal exactly what voters were thinking or feeling, but it would be a big mistake to think that voters have made their choices based on material circumstances or expectations.  Exit polls may be the best source of information.

What indications are there that people voted on a material basis? What percent of them did?

VOTING BLOCS

How did Black voters vote? What about Hispanics? What about union members? Youth? Seniors? Most important, what about the working class as opposed to the owners and employers?

Except for exit polls, there is practically no official data by age groups. Texas seniors who vote by mail for each party can be found.

During the period leading up to November 3, 2026, we have seen strong efforts by unions, civil rights organizations, and leaders of various voting blocs. Some of them have numbers indicating the strength of their effort. How many calls were made? How many doors were knocked on? How many texts? How much money was spent by people’s organizations? How much was spent by the owners and employers?

Who voted Democrat in 2024? Male: 41%, Female,54%; White, 41%, Blacks 86%; Hispanic 54%

The New York Times says from 2020 to 2024, almost all groups shifted toward Trump.

Republicans took the senior vote in Texas 58-41%.

Youngest category of voters voted Democrat in 2024 by 53%, oldest category 49%. In general, the older the voter the more likely they were to vote Republican, BUT there’s an anomaly here because the second oldest category, 45-64, voted only 45% Democrat . In Texas, same anomaly: the 45-64 group voted Republican 59-39% while the oldest category vote was 41% Democrat.

INTEGRATION OF PROGRESSIVE FORCES

During the election period, alliances were made. How can we measure the extent to which the working class integrated itself into a single fighting force? What important alliances occurred?

As a long-time observer, I note that American unions made a turn in 1995 and became much more open to working with faith, community, and civil rights organizations. If we are to stand up to fascism, we will have to do it together; consequently, these alliances are critical.

The class division in the election is made apparent from the money raised and spent. Both of the capitalist parties have multi-million dollar donors, but the Republican campaigns exist on more billionaire money and fewer small contributions. Election laws require some disclosure of total amounts raised and total number of donors. James Talarico’s latest revelations show an average donation of about $100, while his opponent is getting his millions primarily from one person, Elon Musk. It’s a stark contrast!

How much was raised? How many donors were there?

CNN says $16B had been raised for the 2026 elections by 10/26/26. Republicans raised the most and got it from a limited number of big donors. Elon Musk has donated $400M that we know of to Republicans.

END OF THE TWO-PARTY YOKE?

Throughout the polling leading up to November 3, we have found voters saying that they are frustrated with the two choices that have held back American politics for generations. Is the mandatory 2-party system so bound to capitalism that the only way to end it is to end capitalism? How can we assess the possibilities of getting rid of the two party system?

How can we guess the number of people who no longer consider themselves a member of one of the two capitalist parties?

People who spoil their ballot or throw their vote away on hopeless parties have a category to themselves. They may not care what happens and are aggressive about it! Those numbers don’t tell us what we need to know.

How can we assess the possibilities of going beyond capitalism? Election night information may give us the help we need!

–Gene Lantz

I’m on knon.org and 89.3 FM in Dallas every Saturday at 9 AM Central. I publish on a number of platforms. Some of my most personal opinions are on http://lilleskole.us

Are We Going Fascist? Why?

October 14, 2026
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Let’s consult some of the experts who co-wrote their opinions in the New York Times on 10/12/26.

By David Broder, Caroline de Gruyter, Mattia Ferraresi and Tim Schneider

Mr. Broder is the author of “Mussolini’s Grandchildren.” Ms. de Gruyter is a columnist for the Dutch newspaper NRC. Mr. Ferraresi is a writer for the Italian newspaper QN. Mr. Schneider is an editor in Times Opinion.

They begin: “For the first time in Germany’s postwar history, a far-right party stands on the brink of power. The AfD joins a legion of others, not least Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France, either in office or perilously close to it.”

What Are They Attempting to Explain?

What the pundits are trying to do is explain the upsurge of reactionary parties in Europe. It’s possible that some of their observations might also help us understand the triumphant reactionaries in South America, where reaction has made much more progress.

We have to have a caveat before we can even talk about their ideas: they are talking about parliamentary situations where different political parties can have shades of differences; it’s not the highly contrasting two-party system that Americans are yoked with.

Before I’m done, I’m going to say that they are wrong about almost everything. But let’s take advantage of their intelligence and point of view, which is far superior, on their subject, to ours, and see what things they got right.

What Do They Say That We Can Use?

They agree that 2008’s economic crisis was the beginning of the political period being examined. At that point, they say, traditional governing parties were exposed as unable to provide good standards of living. Everything went to saving the corporations; almost nothing sent to helping the people. Austerity measures became common. It’s as good a place to start as any.

“Caroline de Gruyter: The world is changing fast. Governments can’t keep pace, are incompetent or, for various reasons, don’t meet voters’ demands. Far-right parties jump into the void.”

What Issues Are Causing Change?

Certainly, immigration has been very useful for reactionaries. Can there be any question that basic racism and national chauvinism are at the heart of the anti-immigrant drives? It’s likely true in other countries, and it’s certainly true here in the U.S.

“Broder: Often these parties are called “welfare-chauvinist,” in that they seek to protect social services by barring new arrivals. I think this is simplistic.”

Maybe it’s not all that simple, but it does seem to be universal

What Is the Trump Effect?

“Schneider: We clearly need to talk about Mr. Trump. Let’s start with his administration’s support for these far-right parties, especially the AfD: How significant is that?”

“Ferraresi: It’s hard to prove or measure, but I think the AfD benefited very much from the Trumpian endorsement.”

I’d like to add that the Trump effect seems much more powerful in South America.

“De Gruyter: Well, it doesn’t always work: When the United States went all in for Viktor Orban in Hungary, he lost! Mr. Trump is incredibly unpopular in Europe, including with far-right voters.”

She also summarized the discussion very well:

“De Gruyter: What you see in America is exactly what you saw in Poland and Hungary during the reign of the far right. Most people did not vote for [reactionaries] Law and Justice or Fidesz because they wanted to abolish democracy. They voted for them because of gasoline prices or other dissatisfactions with the performance of the previous government. When the parties started to attack democracy, voters turned away from them. That’s why, in the end, they lost.”

Nearly Hit Gold

I think I like Ms. De Gruyter more than the other pundits. At one point in the article, she shifts the conversation away from all the poli-sci majors and stops speculating about voting blocks and changing attitudes.

“De Gruyter: I think it is a myth that voters are shifting to the right. Parties are shifting to the right!”

What Do They Think We Can Do About It?

“So the last question is simple: How can they be stopped?… De Gruyter: By other parties. The far right needs other parties to get into government. So if center-right parties stay the course and make clear they will not work with the far right, many unhappy voters will not go for the far right — because that would make their vote pointless.”

That may be a good recipe for Europe, but it’s no help in America where one of the two parties has already gone fascist. For us in America, it’s stop the reactionaries in November or go under.

Where They Went Wrong

Political pundits and poli-sci majors, even the best of them, are in a dark rainstorm of sociological information about individuals and voting blocs. They invariably lose sight of the underlying forces that determine history – the conflict of classes.

We should clear away a lot of uncertain terminology. Forget “left,” “right,” “conservative,” “liberal” and things that can’t really be defined. “Progressive” is an adequate term for those who would like a better future world, and “reactionary” is a good way to tag those who want to go backward toward suffering and slavery.

If you start with the two important classes, the billionaires and their employees, history and current developments become more clear.

The pundits chose 2008 as their reference point for political change, and we could do the same.

The Real Reason for the Changes

Since 2008, it has become more clear that the people running the so-called western democracies can no longer provide improvements in living standards for the working class. While they tried to resolve their crises, they began to awaken the opposition of the workers, they also observed a rising economic force and world influence in the East. China, with its mixture of corporate and state-owned industries, was overtaking the white men who had been ruling the world for the last four centuries.

In their desperation, some of those rich white men decided to take desperate measures to maintain their power over the world. They probably had a lot of misgivings about it, but they settled on Donald Trump as spokesperson. The German elite had the same misgivings about Hitler.

The American fascists schemed and distorted the political turf. Most of all, they poured their billions of dollars into shoving aside the less-desperate billionaires and asserting full control over their governments. To the extent that they could, they used the same methods to take over governments elsewhere.

It isn’t the people who are shifting. It isn’t political blocs or even political parties. It is an intentional change in strategies from the billionaires. They are using their money to create the illusion of a shift, but the origin and cause of the shifting being done is coming from the shifty billionaire class.

And What Can We Do About It?

Explaining helps, but only action will make a difference. A landslide vote against the Trumpsters on November 3 will help, and it will lend credibility to the anti-reactionary side in future struggles. If the Trumpster reactionaries continue to take extra-legal measures, and they almost certainly will, then our solutions are on the streets. Strikes and boycotts will stop the billionaires. Remember, there are only a few of them!

–Gene Lantz

You can hear me on KNON.org or 89.3FM in Dallas at 9:03 Central Time every Saturday morning. I’m on various platforms, including Substack, all the time. My darkest secrets are on https://lilleskole.us

What If Trump Makes Sense?

October 3, 2026
chauvinism, civil rights, democracy, elections, politics, strategy
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Progressives as well as everyday “neutral” reporters can’t make sense out of what Donald Trump says and does. They write it off as stupidity or chronic character deformation. I wish it were true.

A good example came when Trump had his entire Dallas audience pledge to “cheat like hell” in the election. His polling numbers were already in a deep dive and dropped further.

The pundits, and even the progressives, can’t reconcile his statements and behavior with any intention to win the coming election. Even some of the Republicans, including Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton, have said that Trump is dragging them backward.

What If Trump Were Making Sense?

When someone throws away their chance of winning an election, and if you assume they are rational, what conclusion would you draw? It has to be obvious: the Trumpsters aren’t prioritizing getting the most votes on November 3! They must have something else in mind to keep and increase their power.

Look at other news. Last week, Trump’s clone who runs the military announced further firings of top generals and admirals. They have been removing military leaders and replacing them with loyalists all through this administration.

Also, the most loyal of the domestic coercive forces – specifically ICE – are getting gross amounts of funding at the expense of programs for the general population, especially children.

Lastly, the administration has pushed every possible form of chauvinistic division onto us. Racism is at its core, but it includes transphobia, islamophobia, homophobia, fanatic religious discrimination and anything else that might serve to disunite us.

The Trumpsters intend to get what they want from us by force. What other conclusion can you draw?

Their Scenario

If you assume that the Trumpsters are acting rationally, and you cannot afford to assume otherwise, then they must be intending to maintain and extend their power by force. In the international arena, they have fully exposed their plan. They intend the same in domestic policy.

Certainly they will participate in the November 3 elections. But to establish credibility for what they do afterward. When they lose, they will claim “fraud,” as they have before, and then use extralegal methods to overthrow the elections, just as they did in 2020. Only this time, they intend to use their control over all the coercive forces that they can command.

What Do You Do About It?

Ultimately, the American people hold the power. If we are informed and organized, no one can force us into slavery. Informing and organizing, then, are the key. But only action will make a difference.

We need the biggest possible mobilization at the polls. If critical elections are close, then the cry of “fraud” may make more sense to some. Landslide elections are harder to contest. But if the Trumpsters use force, then November 4 and afterward will be more important than November 3.

Join the organizations capable of mobilizing. Progressive political organizations and the union movement are priorities. Civil rights and civil liberties organizations will also be important. Those who tell us to rely completely on the legal system are incorrect. We are going to need the full power of mass mobilization in strikes and boycotts to win.

The organizations that can win are seeking new members. Strikes and boycotts are already underway. Don’t wait.

–Gene Lantz

I’m on KNON.org and 89.3FM every Saturday at 9AM Central Time. I post all around the internet and have a personal site at https://lilleskole.us

ADHD And Me

October 1, 2026
chauvinism, civil rights, education, history, Uncategorized
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KNON radio posted my 8 minute podcast on Attention Deficit disorder. https://on.soundcloud.com/FeMl5V5wPqtjLp1MQO

I had already put on Spotify and posted it here and there. It was extremely personal for me.

You wouldn’t know it to look at this old man now, but at one time I had a daughter that I treasured more than I thought I could treasure anything. Her name was Laura.

At the same time, I was in the upper levels of graduate school for a Doctorate of Education. In the theoretical part of education, I was as well versed as just about anybody, and I was sure I knew as much or more.

The main arguments I was involved in had to do with the nature of schooling. My heroes were the reformers. Schools, we had decided, had a lot more in common with prisons than they did with any honest effort to help children learn what they would need to lead happy and fulfilled lives.

Our ideas weren’t new, I discovered. They were older than the entire idea of public education. More recently, there had been a significant progressive movement among teachers in the 1920s, but everything that they said and did was hidden from us.

At the root of the argument was coercion. Should school children be coerced into learning? More importantly, should they be coerced into behaving as society demanded? Certainly, they were being coerced. School whipping was standard procedure in the 1960s. Children were whipped in their classrooms, in the hallways, in wood shop spaces, and, above all, in the principal’s office.

I was against whipping children to make them behave. I was also against drugging them.

Among school reformers, there was a raging argument about ADHD. Thousands, millions of children were being forced to take Ritalin or other stimulants after their teachers demanded “do something about your unruly child” to the parents. The parents sought medical help, and the prescription was Ritalin. Doctors told the parents that drugs that stimulated adults had the opposite effect on children. Stimulants calmed them.

Stimulants, we argued, do not really calm children. They confuse them. In an addled state, they are more open to the demands of their teachers. They may not be thinking clearly or learning much of anything, but they sat quietly in the classrooms, and that was all the teachers required.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, some young people were analyzing their situations and trying to figure out how to make a better world. Others found it safer to cling to convention. I was one of the former, Laura’s mother chose the latter. A split was almost inevitable.

She took legally my little girl. That was horrible enough for me, but I played the part of weekend parent as well as I could. But one day, when I picked up Laura, her mother handed me a pill along with instructions as to when I was to have Laura take it.

It was Ritalin. Laura, I learned, was not quiet enough in her first grade classes. The psychiatrist who saw her had the easy prescription. I argued, but lost. The psychiatrist and the ex-wife explained to me that they were doing the best thing for Laura and that my wild ideas of liberation were destructive to the child. Their sanctimony was impervious.

That was long ago. Laura lives in another state and is old enough to be thinking about retiring soon. We haven’t discussed it in all these years because I didn’t want to create an unnecessary rift between her and her mother.

The arguments about ADHD continue. I read a long article in the New York Times this week. It also mentioned a BBC documentary against doping children. I sent the URL to Laura along with my hopes that the troubles of her childhood weren’t troubles today. I told her that I hoped she could forgive the people who, in the name of fitting in with society, had drugged her through her early youth.

But I also told her that I never will.

–Gene Lantz

I’m on KNON.org and 89.3FM in North Texas every Saturday at 9. I publish and post everywhere I can, but some of my more personal stuff is on https://lilleskole.us

Having a Watch Party? Don’t Be Crazy!

September 30, 2026
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If these were normal times, and the 2026 mid-terms were normal elections, then we’d start planning our watch parties by now.

But the time for watching is over.

This is do-or-die time for America against fascism. If anybody is planning anything for the evening of November 3, it should be a Plan Party for November 4th!

All elections have outcomes, and we will know some of them on the evening of November 3. At the end of the evening, win or lose, we’ll be wondering what to do. That is, unless we’ve already started planning…

Here are some outcomes beginning with “most likely.”

  1. The Trumpsters will lose the vote, but not substantially. In that case, we will go on resisting fascism and building our progressive forces
  2. The Trumpsters will lose substantially. They will use illegal means to try to overturn the elections they lost (as they have before). We will have to brace ourselves for fighting outside the electoral arena. Lawsuits will be needed, but boycotts and strikes are key. Taking the offensive becomes a real option.
  3. The Trumpsters will win the vote and fascism’s teeth will sink deeper. Our tactics will be the defensive tactics of forces in retreat.

Strategies and tactics are peculiar to their time and place. What might work in a section of Ohio might not work as well in California. The best tactics will be those that work best in a particular area, but combine well with the national and international situation.

One thing that we can say with certainty is that our strategies and tactics will work better if more of us understand them and have taken part in developing them.

In other words: Don’t hold a watch party on the evening of November 3. Hold a Plan Party for November 4.

–Gene Lantz

I’m on KNON.org and 89.3FM in North Texas every Saturday at 9AM Central Time. I podcast on Spotify and post on Facebook, Instagram, X, and Bluesky. For my personal views, check out https://lilleskole.us

Cornered Rats Hold an Extravaganza

September 12, 2026
democracy, economy, elections, history, politics, strategy
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When Trump invented a fake “mid-term convention” and pointed it toward our town Dallas, we fought back.

There were at least 3 street protests. The Dallas Democrats took the unusual tactic of organizing one of them. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Democrats organize street rallies, but they did a bang-up job of putting together a coalition and carrying through.

I also took an unusual tactic. I tried to organize a counter-convention on-line. From the time the Trumpsters announced their invasion until the last night of it, I pushed the truth on several platforms under the name “People’s Convention.”

I’m not claiming my livestreaming was a success in terms of viewers. It wasn’t that. But it reached a lot of people and made a pretty good video record of what happened. It’s all on my YouTube channel.

There, you will find:

  • An original statement from AFT President Randi Weingarten
  • An original interview with Alliance/AFT President Rena Honea of Dallas
  • Some of the Trumpsters talking while Rosie Curts and I commented
  • A whole bunch of promos that I published over several weeks

I had a string of anti-Trumpster testimonials from Dallasites. I also published a long list from CNN on Trump’s lies. Here are some of the sentences I took from the CNN article:

Trump is the Trumpsters Worst Enemy

“Trump makes numerous false claims in Republican convention speech”

“Trump repeated his false claim that there has been “over $20 trillion” invested in the US during his second term so far.” “…he also said, “Food prices and almost every other item are rapidly going down.” That is not even close to true; prices keep going up.” “The most recent available inflation rate, for July, showed a 3.4% year-over-year increase – higher than the 2.9% rate in President Joe Biden’s last full month in office, December 2024, and the 3.0% rate in January 2025.”

“Trump repeated his usual false claim that he achieved “no tax on Social Security” for seniors, as other speakers did earlier Wednesday night.”

“Trump claimed, as he has on numerous previous occasions, that gas prices were just “$1.85” per gallon in Iowa before he launched the war against Iran in late February. There is no apparent basis for this claim.”

“Trump repeated his frequent claim that the US now has the lowest drug prices in the world.” Trump said there are more Americans working than ever before, and that is true, but CNN says it is because of population increase.

“Trump repeated his usual false claim that “25 million” migrants entered the country during the Biden administration. The “25 million” figure is false; even Trump’s previous “21 million” figure was a wild exaggeration.” “Trump claimed that Democrats allowed “11,888 murderers” to enter the country. It’s not true that the Biden administration in particular or Democrats in general allowed in all these murderers; as he has on numerous prior occasions, Trump was inaccurately describing federal data.”

“Trump lied, “We won the presidency three times,” then repeated the false claim late in the speech by invoking his “three great victories” in “2016, 2020, and 2024.” He won twice, in 2016 and 2024, and lost once, fair and square, in 2020.”

“Trump repeated long-debunked lies about elections and immigration. He delivered a whopper on the critical subject of inflation, wrongly saying “almost every item” is getting cheaper even as prices continue to rise. He falsely claimed to have kept “every single promise” he made on the campaign trail.”

“Trump claimed, ‘Every single promise I made you as a candidate, I’ve delivered on. I’ve delivered on everything.’”

“Trump certainly hasn’t kept every promise he made as a candidate.” “Some of the other speakers at the Wednesday convention also made false or misleading claims.”

I also reminded viewers that Trump had claimed he would end war, and specifically the war in Ukraine. He also claimed he would lower the national debt, which just skyrocketed over $40 trillion!

Trump may be the Trumpsters own worst enemy. He said “I want you to pretend that I am on the ballot.” So, instead of voting for the struggling Republicans who are running, Americans are asked to vote for Trump himself. Latest polls showed his approval rating at an all-time low of 32%. I’m sure that Democrats joined in the “amens” and applause after Trump directed voters’ attention to himself.

The best was when Trump spoke on the second night and pledged his followers to “cheat like hell” and “vote even if you’re not registered!

No matter how hard we in the anti-Trumpster front tried, we couldn’t have wrought as much damage to the Republican cause as Trump himself brought down on them!

In general terms, the entire event came about because Republicans are losing in the polls. One particular Republican who is losing is Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton. That’s why Trump made up the “mid-term convention.” Cornered rats are dangerous, but they are still cornered rats.

Will It Work?

There was no way for anti-Trumpsters to stop the money spigots flowing to Paxton and others of Trump’s suck-ups. But the battle for us was over their images. Even though much of the lamestream media has already knuckled under to Trump and provided countless $millions$ in free publicity, it is not likely that they looked any better after the circus in Dallas.

–Gene Lantz

I’m on KNON.org and 89.3 FM radio every Saturday at 9 AM. My podcasts are on Soundcloud under the name “Workers Beat Extra” or on Spotify under “genelantz.” You can find me on several social media platforms, including YouTube. I put my personal stuff on https://lilleskole.us

How Do People Find the Monster?

August 16, 2026
education, politics, strategy
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If you feel only one tentacle, how do you find the monster?
Which tentacle do you feel?

Privileged Americans may not be aware of the entire monster that operates each tentacle. We usually find only one tentacle. It might be anything:

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

AFRICAN AMERICANS RIGHTS

LATINO’S RIGHTS

GAY RIGHTS

ECONOMIC LOSS

POLITICAL PERSECUTION

This could go on and on. For me personally, my first tentacle was the mistreatment of children in schools. When I first became a teacher, I reacted strongly to the corporal punishment that was common in those days. I’m glad to say that the “good guys” largely won that battle, at least in major metropolitan schools.

I went so far as to start a private school dedicated to non-coercion. They were called “free schools” in those days. When I learned that Danish schools already eschewed corporal punishment, I named mine “Lille Skole.”

But even before I started the school, the Houston police murdered civil rights activist Carl Hampton. I was forced to learn a lot from that. Then there was the war in Vietnam, which I had been trying hard to ignore. I remember thinking that even if my idealistic notion of raising better children came true, America would have to stop me because they still needed young people to go to Vietnam and my students, obviously, wouldn’t do it.

Lille Skole nearly killed me. After nearly 3 years of constant hassle with parents, finances, and government rules, I was a wreck. But I didn’t quit. I found other ways, many of them just as ill-advised as Lille Skole, to go on trying to make a better world. I’m 85 now, and still trying.

That’s the Trick

Those who stay in the fight, even against their one tentacle, will eventually find the monster. It’s the same one. Only the tentacles are different.

A lot of people experience their one tentacle. Millions of young people, for example, opposed the war in Vietnam. But that was as far as many of them ever went. They didn’t inquire successfully into the causes of war, or of racism, or of homophobia, or of any of the other tentacles.

But people get distracted. They get burnt out. One way or another, they get discouraged. What is more pathetic than hearing some old dude say, “I used to be full of vinegar, but I learned.” What they learned was defeat.

I think it’s true that we’ll never argue our way into solidarity. At the same time, I think that history is teaching all of us. Those willing to stay in the fight will eventually recognize the monster and then embark on the greatest intellectual challenge of anybody’s life: how do we defeat the monster?

–Gene Lantz

You can hear me every Saturday at 9 on knon.org or 89.3FM in Dallas. I’ve put my more personal thoughts on http://lilleskole.us

When Did Capitalism Go Bad?

August 16, 2026
democracy, economy, history, politics, strategy
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I’ve been starting arguments about when capitalism went bad. I haven’t won any.

One reply is “When was it ever good?” Using common sense, which is the accumulation of our personal experiences, the conclusion is obvious: “capitalism is no danged good and never was.” But common sense, while nearly always correct, isn’t always adequate for analysis.

Another interesting reply was “It depends on your point of view.” I think that person was saying that things have always been bad for people of color and that the particular stages of economic circumstances haven’t made any difference. There’s a lot of truth there, but it’s a subjective and ahistorical view. Also, it’s easily disproved because “people of color” ruled vast empires in some periods.

I suppose I realized that capitalism used to be a good thing while reading Frederick Engels’ Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State. He relied on the work of another anthropologist to show that capitalism ended serfdom. The so-called “free” workers under capitalism had better lives than they did when they were serfs.

Some of the people I talked to were confused about chattel slavery in the American South. One guy said that it was the “heyday of slavery.” I had to interrupt this one, because the heyday of slavery was clearly in olden times when slaves were captives instead of chattel property. The Romans had so many slaves that they lived in terror of a slave takeover, and Spartacus nearly gave them one.

It’s true that the Southern slaveholders were capitalists, but it’s also true that the productive power of Northern capitalists was the main factor in winning that war. One could make a good argument that Southern slaves freed themselves, but it would still be true that they were better off afterward as so-called “free” workers.

I never argued that capitalists were good people. As far as I’m concerned they have about the same morality as the Tsar, Hitler, or any autocrat. That’s not the point. The point is that quality of life improved for those who had been serfs and became laborers under capitalism. They could quit their jobs and serfs couldn’t.

The reason that capitalists conquered everybody else was their productive power. They could produce more commodities and make them cheaper. Maybe they didn’t have any intention of improving anybody’s quality of life, but they did all the same.

When Did Capitalism Change?

So far, I’ve found only one person who agreed that capitalism improved standards of living at one time, but doesn’t do it now. He thought the change came at the beginning of the 19th century. I asked if he was basing his guess on the slave uprising in Haiti, but he said that wasn’t it. I think his guess was somehow based on military changes, not the economic changes I was looking for.

I believe that capitalism generally improved its subjects’ standards of living until the 20th century. At that time, they had pretty well completed their takeover of all the world’s territories. There were still plenty of kings and emperors, but the power had gone to the capitalists. Their problem was that they had nowhere else to expand, and they have to expand.

So they started their first world war. I think that having millions die or get crippled in war, and having even more die from the so-called “Spanish” flu, put a big dent in the overall standard of living. Afterward, the winners had big improvements in their standards of living, but the losers certainly didn’t.

Also, World War I didn’t offer any long term economic solution. Even the winners were in crisis soon enough, and another world war, this one originated by capitalists desperate enough to turn to fascism, resulted. These awful wars and the resultant inequality were a real drag on standards of living.

Americans were winners in both wars. Winning distorted our understanding of the historical process. Also, Americans don’t know much honest international history. If we did, we would know that war has been almost perpetual for the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries. We would also know that a general worldwide economic crisis has been evident.

If we understood our history and its underlying economic causes a little better, maybe we could avoid the coming fascist dictatorship and perpetual war that is trending now, in 2026.

–Gene Lantz

I’m on KNON.org 89.3FM in Dallas every Saturday at 9AM. I speak every where I’m allowed. I put my personal stuff on http://lilleskole.us.