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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

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

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.

How Deep in Dictatorship Are We?

August 6, 2026
civil rights, democracy, economy, history, politics, Uncategorized
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How Deep in Dictatorship Have We Sunk? Can we still get out of this?

Why Are the Billionaires Choosing Dictatorship?

Wouldn’t they rather continue the way they did things 1945-present? The fact is that they can’t. Economic pressures have become too strong. Their competitors, who were devastated in World War II, are back in serious competition. Nations that were never competitors, especially China and India, are a big problem for America’s billionaires now. Nations who have oil or other important resources are trying to hold on to them. Worst of all for the billionaires, the U.S. dollar is being undermined.

The capitalists of each nation have to keep their profits up, and the only way to do that is to expand. They reached a similar situation in 1914 and again in 1939. Both of those situations resulted in world wars. The billionaires prefer another world war, even with nuclear weapons, rather than continuing to see their power diminish.

There are really only two choices before us: destructive wars and ecological suicide on the one hand and a new cooperative spirit among people. The wealthy people who are on top today don’t like that “cooperative spirit” idea at all. So the Trumpsters are taking the only road they consider open to them: fascism.

FASCISM IS INTERNATIONAL

This week, Trump strengthened ties with kings in Sandi Arabia and Morocco while his relationships with western democracies withers. Secy of state Marco Rubio gathered 60 countries for an anti-communist convention. Elon Musk dishes out money and encouragement to fascist parties around the world.

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE: OBSTACLE TO FASCISM

Judge Barbara Lynn wrote an excellent op-ed in the Dallas newspaper. Her title was “Beware of how President Trump is gathering power.” The Supreme Court gave Trump unprecedented power and unprecedented immunity. He’s also taken a lot of power with various Executive Orders such as “National Security Presidential Memorandum 7” which intends to give him the power to arrest anybody who disagrees with him.

Lynn also talks about Presidential Emergency Action Documents (PEADS) which can be written in advance and implemented quickly. Neither Congress nor anybody outside the Trumpsters knows what’s in the current PEADS. Lynn says, “They are widely thought to include the authority to detail dangerous persons, impose martial law, seize property, censor the news, suspend the writ of habeas corpus and establish areas for confinement of persons by the military.”

Impose martial law? Isn’t that exactly what the Trumpsters are likely to do if they lose the November elections? Is there any other possibility?

I wrote a letter to the editor, even though I have no expectation that it will be published: “Thanks to Judge Lynn for summarizing some of the ways that the Trumpsters are imposing dictatorship on America. If they lose the November elections, as is widely expected, then it is a certainty that they will try to overthrow whatever restraints are left on them. The people will beat them by organizing, and we have no better opportunity than by joining the protest organizations when the Trumpsters are in Dallas September 9-10.”

If Judge Lynn had wanted to write book-length, she could have also talked about the way that the Trumpsters are taking over information sources. How they have undermined elections and are undermining them still. She could talk about the obvious comparisons between the legions of ICE operatives on our street and state police from earlier fascist governments. She could talk about the way that resistance in the upper echelons of the military have been removed. She could possibly write two books on the Trumpster’s wars and hostile takeovers around the world.

At least several chapters could be devoted to the way that the Trumpsters have restored the racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, and other divisive techniques from earlier centuries and other fascist regimes.

Unprecedented Surveillance

And Judge Lynn could talk about surveillance of American citizens. This brings me to the scandal of this week. We are just beginning to find out about Automated License Plate Readers, ALPRs. Mostly, people call them Flock cameras because a corporation misnamed Flock Safety has produced and sold the biggest bunch of the more than 125,000 of them operating in our cities today.

I probably wouldn’t have even thought about them if the Dallas newspaper hadn’t run an article about somebody who apparently used a pipe cutter to bring 6 or 7 of them down. I immediately thought of the 1960s movie hero “Cool Hand Luke.” In the beginning scene of the film, Luke used a pipe cutter to cut the heads off a series of parking meters. Parking meters were a symbol of government oppression back in those days. How I wish they were all we had to deal with now.

Most of the cameras are on poles strategically placed in high-traffic areas. They read license plates and distinguishing features of automobiles. The excuse given is that they help deter crimes, but the information they gather is shared with any number of government agencies, including the dreaded ICE.

Old timers from the Vietnam war days can tell you that FBI agents regularly walked around in parking lots near anti-war meetings. They were jotting down the license numbers. That’s how important a few license numbers are to the government’s repressive forces.

The cameras aren’t restricted to poles. They mount them on drones so they can snoop around everywhere. And what do they do with the information? Well, individual police can use the info for personal vendettas. According to the Dallas newspaper, they tracked a woman to the Colorado border in order to charge her with leaving Texas to get an abortion. When the scandal broke, they didn’t file the charges, but they could have because they had the information.

The Dallas paper said, “Dallas police conducted more than 800,000 searches of its Flock Safety data in 2025…. In 2025, almost 5,000 other agencies nationwide tapped into Dallas’ network of Flock cameras 10.3 million times… There are 670 Flock cameras across the city.”

The makers of surveillance cameras assert that they are not using facial recognition. But it is obvious that they could. Some of them already detect any Bluetooth activity that passes by them, and Bluetooth devices such as hearing aids or cell phones have personal identifiers.

Deflock.org says there are over 125,000 surveillance cameras operating in the nation. Their web site can show you where. In my area, deflockdfw.org lists city council and other local government meetings where people can protest against government surveillance.

How Deep?

We are very deep in dictatorship indeed. Assuming that the Trumpsters lose the November, 2026, elections, then unprecedented things will happen in American politics. One can understand what will happen, but not from American history. You have to look at Nazi Germany.

–gene lantz

I’m on KNON radio 89.3FM at 9AM Central Time every Saturday. If you are interested in my more personal observations, you might look at https://lilleskole.us

High Noon in Dallas

July 29, 2026
civil rights, democracy, elections, history, politics, strategy, unions
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I’ve always liked the movie “High Noon” from 1954. It seems like a pretty good analogy for Dallas on September 9-10, 2026. In both cases, a very bad guy has announced that he’s coming to town to do his bad business. The local people scurry around to protect themselves.

At first Mr Trump announced that they were holding the Republican Party’s first ever “Mid-Term Convention.” But later they admitted that there won’t be any convention, it’s just a fund raiser and a Trump extravaganza. In fact, most news reports include the idea that they are only doing it because Ken Paxton is losing his race for Texas Senate. They need something to buoy the boy.

Apparently, their big plans for fund raising were a little too big. A week or so after the announcement, they cut the price for a Trumpster ticket by 50%. In the electoral arena, nothing is going very well for the Trumpsters.

The movie was supposed to be a typical cowboy shoot-em-up, but things went wrong and they turned out one of the greatest movies of all time. The screenwriter had been blacklisted, so arch anti-communist John Wayne did all he could to destroy ticket sales. In fact, the real-life story of the production and eventual success of the movie is very parallel to the story in the movie: Values of courage and communal spirit are pitted against pure evil. In the movie, the local law enforcement personifies every cowboy hero in every cowboy story ever told.

As soon as the Marshall finds out that Mr Evil and his gang are coming, the Marshall’s bride-to-be tells him to run. In fact, she says she will leave him if he doesn’t. No pressure.

His loyal deputy, a total opportunist, tries to make a deal before agreeing to help, then he defaults completely. The old judge would like to help, he says, but his hands are too shaky nowadays. The Marshall’s old sweetheart, once the consort of Mr Pure Evil and more lately the deputy’s squeeze, is packing her bags to run. Katy Jurado was magnificent in this role.

As a teenager, I was proud to copy and sing the Frankie Lane popular version of the Title Song, but the Tex Ritter version on the original sound track, while not very accessible, was far better.

Now, I hear that tune when I think about the Trumpsters coming to Dallas.

“Oh to be torn twixt love and duty,

S’posing I lose my fair hair beauty?

Look at that big hand move!

Nearin’ High Noon…”

The townspeople here aren’t scurrying around in fear the way they did in the movie. We’re organizing.

Who, What, is “Working Class?”

July 20, 2026
democracy, economy, history, politics, strategy
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I wouldn’t have thought there was any confusion about the working class had it not been for a headline I saw today from the VOX news service, “Who Counts as Working Class?” You have to subscribe to read it, but just knowing that a news service has to ask tips us off about the confusion.

I also recently attended a class on “Marxism” by one of the leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America. He said “working class” is “anybody who works.” I suppose his definition was okay for his presentation, but it could lead to a lot of trouble.

For example, Donald Trump works. He has to get up in the morning, go to meetings, talk to people, practice speeches, sign stuff and all manner of “work.” But could you by any stretch of the imagination call him “working class?”

Farmers are famous for working harder than anybody. Sun to sun, they are plowing, seeding, harvesting, repairing and everything else. Under “everything else” they also administrate their farms, do accounting, banking, and supervise whatever “hired hands” or farm workers they may have at any given time of the year. Are they in the “working class?”

What about Jalen Brunson, the star basketballer of the Champion New York Knicks? I understand that he makes $37 million/year. Is he working class?

It Was a Trick Question

Brunson fits the definition of “working class” because he makes his living primarily from selling his labor power. Trump doesn’t because he piles up the money from sources other than his daily labors. (Probably not best to go into where he actually does get his money). Farmers own their farms, and that’s the main way they make their living. Some farmers and ranchers don’t work at all, they just hire a foreman or a bunch of forepersons and go live in cities.

The working class is defined by their primary source of existence — selling their labor power. The bosses get their living by owning stuff. That’s all the definitions you need, but you could split hairs all day arguing over whether lawyers, professors, small businesspersons, police, union officers, union staffers, and many others are “working class,” “capitalist class,” or just in the uncertain area of “middle class.”

I put a pretty good treatment of the theoretical side of this “class” business on line, if you really want to get into it.

Why Does It Matter?

The reason it matters is that being determines consciousness. We like to think that we’re independent examiners of everything in life and that we decide what’s “right” or “wrong” based on evidence. But it isn’t so. Our attitudes about this or that come mostly from our material situation.

For example, almost all workers are for increasing the minimum wage. Almost all bosses are against it. Almost all workers are for health care. Almost all bosses are against it. Etc.

Another good way to understand it is to look at promotions in your shop. Your good buddy who agreed with you about everything has a real change when he makes foreman. He puts on that necktie and suddenly realizes that his old friends are a bunch of lazy bums that have to be forced to do the “right thing” and work harder for the company.

Cops are another great example. Before joining the force, they related closely to their families and communities. Afterward, they have few reservations about clubbing or even shooting them.

What About the Middle Class?

In politics, the middle class barely matters. It’s just a place for leftovers who don’t fit into “bosses” or “workers.” As a group, they can’t make up their minds about anything and are liable to jump either way on any given question. Usually, they “decide” to ally with whatever class is in power.

I don’t mean to denigrate them as individuals. Some of our greatest thinkers and leaders came from the middle class. Fidel was a lawyer, so was Lincoln, and so was Lenin. W.E.B. DuBois was a professor. Trotsky came from prosperous farmers. MLK was a preacher. But it wasn’t coming from the middle class that made them great. It was their commitment, later on, to the working class.

Which Side Are You On?

The words of the great labor song explain everything and why it all matters. There are only two sides in the modern world: workers and bosses. Pick one.

–Gene Lantz

I’m on KNON.org and 89.3 FM every Saturday at noon in Dallas. I reach out everywhere possible on the internet. My background and most personal opinions are on https://lilleskole.us