Sunday thought: How the Hell Did We Get to This Point?

Sunday thought: How the Hell Did We Get to This Point?

And how do we change course?

Robert Reich - April 12, 2026

Friends,

The past terrifying week has caused me to wonder: How did America ever get to a point where one man, backed by the military might of the United States, could credibly threaten death to an entire civilization?

I’m also wondering how 19 super-rich American households could have added $1.8 trillion to their wealth in just the last 24 months — roughly the size of the economy of Australia — while the rate of child poverty in the U.S. has more than doubled, from a low of 5.2 percent in 2021 to over 13 percent now?

How have we come so perilously close to climate catastrophe, with spring temperatures in the Western United States already shattering records — and yet governments are spending over a trillion dollars a year subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and banks have channeled over $3 trillion to fossil fuel companies since the Paris Agreement, while there are almost no funds to protect living ecosystems?

How have we allowed artificial intelligence, the most powerful technology the world has ever seen, to threaten millions of jobs; make vulnerable the software that runs our financial, energy, and defense systems; and potentially destroy the human race — while allowing it to amass so much political power that it eludes all guardrails and regulations?

I have served at the highest levels of the U.S. government. I’ve watched our political and economic systems grow and change over the last 50 years, and I’ve spent much of that time writing about their evolution. I’ve never been reluctant to accuse those in power of abusing their authority.

While I have some ideas about how and why our system has sacrificed democracy and critical thought to the false gods of greed and growth (anyone interested in my tentative thoughts is more than welcome to read my recent Coming Up Short), I cannot state with certainty how we arrived at this point.

Yet notwithstanding how we got here, how do we change course? I refuse to accept that we cannot, or that it’s too late.

On Friday, I taught students who are seeking degrees in public policy. They wanted to know why — given all this — I remain optimistic.

I told them that I have faith in the goodness and reasonableness of the American people when they become aware of huge problems that threaten our and the world’s existence. And that the problems I’ve mentioned have now reached such size and dangerousness that the public can no longer ignore them.

We are, I think, coming to a tipping point in how we understand the challenges to our continued existence.

As author Jeremy Lent has written:

“A civilization built on a different foundation would start from an acknowledgment that the deep interconnectedness of all life is not romantic aspiration but scientific fact — confirmed by complexity science, systems biology, and Earth science, and affirmed by wisdom traditions of cultures that never lost that understanding.

From this recognition, different goals follow: not perpetual growth but setting the conditions for all people to flourish on a regenerated Earth. Not maximization of returns on capital but the kind of reciprocal, mutualistic relationship with living systems that makes long-term human wellbeing possible.

There is no blueprint that will save us. No one person or group can design in advance what such a civilization will look like in its particulars. But a framework of core principles can orient us — the way a distant horizon orients a traveler moving through unmarked terrain.

You may not yet see the exact path, but knowing the general direction changes everything about which opportunities you embrace and which you recognize as alluring detours.

The trance that keeps us from seeing this is powerful. But it has been broken before. Every paradigm that once seemed like reality itself — the divine right of kings, the natural inferiority of women, the Earth at the center of the universe — turned out to be a myth that was shattered.”

I agree with Lent. It’s time to eschew the myths that contributed to the reelection of the most dangerous person ever to occupy the White House, myths that continue to limit our beliefs and imaginations: that widening inequality and an ever-larger military are necessary and inevitable, that we need a billionaire oligarchy to guide our economy and a “strongman” to lead our government, that a political revolution founded on returning American democracy to the ideal of self-government would be too destabilizing, that continued growth of the Gross Domestic Product is an unmitigated good, and that more “productivity” and “efficiency” are always beneficial.

The most dangerous myth of all is that there is no alternative to the path we’re on, that we have no control over our destiny, and that, just as it was inevitable that we came to where are, our unraveling is similarly inevitable.

I refuse to accept this deterministic myth. The first act of genuine systemic change is to stop believing it.

It’s been a terrifying week, but one that is awakening millions of people.

Thank you for being an ally in seeking a better world.

Robert Reich

Reich asks: How did America ever get to a point where one man, backed by the military might of the United States, could credibly threaten death to an entire civilization?

SituationPolitics.Com - Thank you Robert for asking the right questions.

Here's the correct answers.

SituationPolitics.Com - We got to this point where one man could threaten death to an entire civilization by Democrats and Republicans making a very bad decision to toss the War Powers Act in the trash and replace it with the 2001 and 2002 AUMF.

Under the Constitution, authority concerning the use of the military is divided between Congress and the President.

In the wake of the Vietnam War, concern increased in Congress about presidential use of U.S. Armed Forces without congressional authorization.

On November 7, 1973, Congress enacted the War Powers Resolution (WPR; P.L. 93-148; 50 U.S.C. Ch. 33) over the veto of President Nixon, creating a structure for Congress to respond to the introduction of U.S. Armed Forces into situations that involve or might lead to hostilities.

In 2001 and 2002, after the September 11, 2021 attacks, AIPAC-funded Senators and Congresspersons passed the 2001 (and 2002) AUMF to give President George W. Bush Congressional authority to launch military attacks and missions WITHOUT consulting or notifying Congress.

Democrats and Republicans repealed the 2002 AUMF but Democrats and Republicans never did repeal the 2001 AUMF despite Senate Majority leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell repeatedly promising the American people that Congress would repeal the 2001 AUMF.

For over 20 years now both Democrat and Republican Senators have repeatedly publicly promised to repeal the 2001 AUMF, but each year incumbent Senate Majority leaders McConnell and Schumer issued excuses as to why the Senate didn't have time to vote on the repeal of the 2001 AUMF.

Democrats and Republicans have been kicking the can down the road for over 20 years, skillfully avoiding a long-promised, bi-partisan repeal of the 2001 AUMF.

AIPAC instructed AIPAC-funded Senators (virtually all Dems and Repubs) DO NOT REPEAL THE 2001 AUMF.

How come AIPAC - a notoriously illegal, unregistered, foreign lobby group - directed U.S. Senators NOT TO REPEAL the 2001 AUMF?

Precisely because of Israel's desire for an AIPAC-funded, warmongering President to enjoy the unilateral ability to launch unconstitutional, illegal U.S. military actions against Israel's perceived enemies at will - without having to go through Congress, that's why.

el Presidente Donald Trumpino's legal counsel relied upon the 2001 AUMF to inform Trump that Trump could legally launch unilateral U.S. military actions at will WITHOUT consulting Congress.

Lately Democrats and Republicans came together to give the public the appearance that legitimate action was being voted on via War Powers resolutions, WITHOUT EVEN MENTIONING their longstanding bi-partisan public promise to repeal the 2001 AUMF.

The 2001 AUMF remains in place and apparently neither Democrats nor Republicans will ever repeal the 2001 AUMF, much to the delight of AIPAC.

Reich: I’m also wondering how 19 super-rich American households could have added $1.8 trillion to their wealth in just the last 24 months — roughly the size of the economy of Australia — while the rate of child poverty in the U.S. has more than doubled, from a low of 5.2 percent in 2021 to over 13 percent now?

SituationPolitics.Com - The answer is both Democrats and Republicans satisfied their billionaire-funded SUPERPACS and think tanks by avoiding legislation that would sufficiently tax billionaires and corporations; and by avoiding legislation that would increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour, where it remains today - not to mention failing to pass legislation that improve workers rights, employee/union bargaining power, fully-paid federally-funded daycare and tax breaks for families.

Reich: How have we come so perilously close to climate catastrophe, with spring temperatures in the Western United States already shattering records — and yet governments are spending over a trillion dollars a year subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and banks have channeled over $3 trillion to fossil fuel companies since the Paris Agreement, while there are almost no funds to protect living ecosystems?

SituationPolitics.Com - Again the answer is both Democrats and Republicans succumb to BIG DONATIONS FROM SUPERPACS and the will and agenda of corporate-funded think tanks who instruct Senators how to vote and write legislation in favor of BIG POLLUTERS.

Reich: How have we allowed artificial intelligence, the most powerful technology the world has ever seen, to threaten millions of jobs; make vulnerable the software that runs our financial, energy, and defense systems; and potentially destroy the human race — while allowing it to amass so much political power that it eludes all guardrails and regulations?

SituationPolitics.Com - Again the answer is both Democrats and Republicans succumb to BIG DONATIONS FROM SUPERPACS and the will and agenda of corporate-funded think tanks who instruct Senators how to vote and write legislation in favor of TECH BILLIONAIRES.

Reich: What can we do about it?

SituationPolitics.Com - The answer is young Americans need to run for office and replace establishment Democrats and Republicans who view public service as their GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY TO ENRICH THEMSELVES by adhering to the bi-partisan, Capitol Hill self-enrichment program:

*shut the fuck up;

*vote as your BIG DONORS tell you to vote;

*protect the status quo;

*don't rock the boat too hard and you will continue to receive hot stock tips from committee members that will double and triple your net worth every 12-18 months or so.

That's how and why We The People suffer Congresspersons and Senators who enjoy net worths in the millions of dollars on a $174,000 a year guvmint salary.

Reich: What can we do about the economy?

SituationPolitics.Com - What We The People need to do is implement an AMERICA FIRST economy that truly does put Americans first, not last. How do we do that?

We do that by STOP selling US paper and start DEPOSITING US paper. What?

Instead of Congressional bills being funded by a central bank lending money to the U.S. government by selling U.S. Savings Bonds to foreign and private investors, and having to pay interest payments on that needless debt, Congress could skip the Federal Reserve Chairman altogether and direct deposit U.S. Currency Instruments directly into U.S. goverment bank accounts at the U.S. Treasury Dept.

By the way, our Founding Fathers loaded up on wooden ships and sailed away from central banking to establish a new government independent of any central bank and bankers.

The U.S. Government is over $37 trillion in debt. Implementation of austerity measures and belt-tightening will NEVER pay off the national debt, nor will these kind of measures resolve what put us in such debt in the first place.

THE SOLUTION is to completely eliminate and replace debt-based government spending with debt-free government spending.

There is no need to fund U.S. government operations, programs and obligations by SELLING US PAPER using the Rube Goldberg arrangement of servicing debt and debit and credit accounting that we have been suffering since the implementation of the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve Act.

Our Founding Fathers gave Congress the constitutional authority to create US currency at will, without borrowing money from anyone and without hocking our government to foreign and private investors via the sale of U.S. Savings Bonds.

An "America First" economic program would feature Congress issuing what I call a "US Currency Instrument" in an amount large enough to pay off the national debt and fund US government operations, obligations and programs for the next four years.

For example, Congress could issue two (2) US Currency Instruments: one to pay off the $37 trillion national debt; and one to fund US government operations, obligations and programs for the next four years.

Such Congressional action would permanently END our debt crisis, END hocking our country to foreign and private investors; END the negative impact of global financial market forces; END government borrowing and END paying huge interest payments on a national debt.

The problem is the current set of incumbent, aging Democrats and Republicans engage in a "BIG DONORS FIRST" economic program instead of an "America First economy."