this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
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Brian Leeland, a 79-year-old Democratic voter in Detroit, had enough. Frustrated by the way the US media covers this febrile political era, from Donald Trump’s Washington to political campaigns across the country, he contacted the Guardian.

“Your decision to frame the race here as a simple progressive versus establishment choice is overly simplistic verging on lazy,” he wrote to this reporter, after our coverage of progressive Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign in the Democratic US Senate primary in Michigan. “As an electorate, we are not binary for the convenience of the media.”

His was a complaint I heard often as I traveled across the midwest to cover a host of contested Democratic primaries. So I called him up.

Leeland’s list of frustrations is long: grifters, liars, the two-party system, money influencing elections, the US’s standing in the world, the growing national debt and a fixation on cultural issues, not just the larger problems that plague the country.

...

top 34 comments
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[–] pamparana@lemmy.world 9 points 8 hours ago

I have no idea how things can or will improve. As an outsider, America is a strange place. Unfortunately, the world seems hell bent on copying everything it does.

[–] Fishnoodle@lemmy.world 15 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

There will be executions after the midterms. The only question is whether they will be orderly and for the people, or chaotic and by the people.

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 10 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

We are so far removed from that prospect that it almost depresses me, because that's what we need to do to the oligarchs.

[–] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 8 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Such things only occur when it's an act of desperation. Reasonable people don't rebel. People who've been pushed beyond the point of reason rebel.

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Exactly. And while they keep pushing us farther and farther, we are still far too comfortable.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 minutes ago

A population is three meals away from revolution and with the current straining of supply lines due to diesel prices that threat is quite a bit close than most would assume.

[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 48 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Yes, most Americans are very upset with the establishment. They just can't agree on who the establishment is.

Obviously Trump is currently the establishment since he's the one in power right now, but the irony is a lot of the people who voted for him did so because they were angry with the establishment that preceded him. So, many Americans are angry at an establishment that was meant to take on a past establishment that many other Americans had been angry with.

[–] BooBees@fedinsfw.app 15 points 13 hours ago

It’s establishments all the way down. And what do they all have in common? Being servile to capital.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 7 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (4 children)

Obviously Trump is currently the establishment since he’s the one in power right now, ...

Trump and maga are not the establishment. They are extreme radicals with a completely different agenda than the establishment. Their agenda is to do away with the Constitution and replace it with an authoritarian regime centered on christian nationalism and fascism--of that's not radical, what is? The fact that they managed to take over the government doesn't make them "the establishment" unless you accept that they will maintain power and thus become a new "establishment".

[–] Rothe@piefed.social 2 points 28 minutes ago

He is practically embedded into the capitalist oligarchy which are ruling the US. You don't get more establishment than that.

Yes, he is not part of the professional politician gang which has been used to rule, but he is definitely part of the establishment which that gang also was subservient to.

[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

I understand what you're saying, but I don't entirely agree. Trump did win the presidential nomination of one of only two established major political parties. Many Republican politicians who had been part of the US political establishment for decades are now among Trump's coalition. Trump also has the support of some established media organizations, like Fox News. I would also argue that the business establishment is largely the same as it was before Trump came into office.

[–] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

It's not radical, it's reactionary

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

No, it's radical, dude, totally

<not a serious comment, 100% a joke based on the 80s slang>

[–] im_fine_sandy@nord.pub 2 points 11 hours ago

"The establishment" is a vague and nebulous term

[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 20 points 14 hours ago

I like this Leeland person.

[–] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 22 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (2 children)

When will they will figure out bOtH pArTiEs are "The Establishment"? Don't hold your breath!

I vote, and you should, too. They are not the same. One party is "pro-LGBT" and the other is "pro-church" and they are bOtH pro-corporate, pro-billionaire, pro-war, anti-union and so on.

The differences are the bait. The commonalities are the establishment.

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 9 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

"bOtH sIdEs" is only true for establishment Dems, and if you pay attention, progressives are gaining in power and prominence. DSA is not the only source, but it's becoming a lightning rod.

Show me ANY good Republicans. I'll wait.

The only hope for us is to support the actual progressives instead of lumping them in with the establishmen Democrats, because doing the latter is EXACTLY what the fascists want.

So it's like you're mostly right but critically wrong when you write off both parties. And yes, voting is critical, but what is even MOR critical is supporting progressive candidates before the primaries and into the primaries and THEN in the general. Always vote, and when you vote, always take the better - or less shitty - option. That's where "vote blue no longer who" comes into play - in the general election, an establishment Dem is still less shitty than a fascist Republican.

[–] JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Jared Golden is a halfway decent Republican

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago

Cute, but for anyone else who had to look him up - he is a Democrat.

[–] femtek@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 15 hours ago

Not everyone, that's why establishment Democrats are fighting progressives in their own party harder than they are fighting Republicans. We need to vote in the progressives to actually represent us.

[–] LillyPip@lemmy.ca 10 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Yeah, realising your entire lineage’s lifelong earnings for generations amounts to sofa change to megalomaniacs who are also making sure your grandchildren will suffer even more than you are now is bound to make one testy.

e: all the while children are dying by genocide. The wrong people are being listened to.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 5 points 15 hours ago

79 years old.

Leeland’s list of frustrations is long: grifters, liars, the two-party system, money influencing elections, the US’s standing in the world, the growing national debt and a fixation on cultural issues, not just the larger problems that plague the country.

Come gather 'round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You'll be drenched to the bone If your time to you is worth savin' Then you better start swimmin' Or you'll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin'

Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide The chance won't come again And don't speak too soon For the wheel's still in spin And there's no tellin' who that it's namin' For the loser now Will be later to win For the times they are a-changin'

[–] theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Hopefully it's channeled productively for ounce.

[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 6 points 14 hours ago (1 children)
[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

Americans: anything but metric ;-)