{"id":6950,"date":"2026-06-28T17:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T00:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blackcap.name\/blog\/new\/?p=6950"},"modified":"2026-06-28T17:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T00:37:15","slug":"on-the-promise-to-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackcap.name\/blog\/new\/?p=6950","title":{"rendered":"On the Promise to America"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of centrist Democrats just released their manifesto<\/a> of sorts.<\/p>\n

Upon hearing that news, I set out to judge its relevance to the moment we find ourselves in. I did not set out to either condemn or endorse the manifesto, merely to judge it on its own merits.<\/p>\n

The issue of paramount importance in today’s USA is to first arrest the process of democratic decline, then to reverse that process. No other policy is remotely so important. Yes, that goes for pet lefty issues like single-payer health care: not as important as arresting the democratic decline (Japan and many Western European countries have universal health care without strictly following the single payer model; by most reasonable measures, their systems work).<\/p>\n

Therefore, I set out to judge the manifesto on this basis: does it list democratic decline, and the imperative to turn it around, as at least a prominent issue of concern? This I determined before I laid eyes on it. It must address this issue. It must address it explicitly. It must address it prominently. Being able to tease it out from a list of other priorities is not good enough. There is an elephant in America’s civic living room and that elephant must be openly and explicitly discussed as a major priority. (Ideally, it should be discussed as the paramount priority, but I do not demand perfection. I merely wish for a degree of basic awareness that lays a foundation by which the centre and the left might be able to unite against the right.)<\/p>\n

I did the above to insulate, as much as possible, my own political bias from affecting my analysis.<\/p>\n

How did the manifesto hold up to the resulting analysis? Not very well. There are nods to concepts like “honest government,” “public institutions” that should be “accountable,” taking a stand against “lawlessness,” and “national renerwal.” Arresting, then reversing, democratic decline can be teased out from these principles, since it is basically a prerequisite for truly honouring any of them. But that is not enough. The problem, and taking a stand against it, must be stated explicitly. Sadly, it is not.<\/p>\n

By contrast, an entire section \u2014 the first section, the most prominent one \u2014 is spent on defending capitalism and taking a stand in favour of it. Here is the list of titles and subtitles in that document, in order, just to give an idea of the priorities of its authors:<\/p>\n