Nick Coccoma
@nickcoccoma.bsky.social
Founder of AssembleAmerica.org. Using Citizen Assemblies to put power in the hands of everyday people. Join a movement for Democracy by Assembly! #DxA
What a grotesque insult to the Union dead who lie in a cemetery right on the battlefield. So much for not dying in vain.
November 15, 2025 at 9:22 PM
What a grotesque insult to the Union dead who lie in a cemetery right on the battlefield. So much for not dying in vain.
Best profile of Buttigieg and the danger he represents is @nathanjrobinson.bsky.social’s piece from 2019:
www.currentaffairs.org/news/2019/03...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/2019/03...
All About Pete
Only accept politicians who have proved they actually care about people other than themselves…
www.currentaffairs.org
November 15, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Best profile of Buttigieg and the danger he represents is @nathanjrobinson.bsky.social’s piece from 2019:
www.currentaffairs.org/news/2019/03...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/2019/03...
Buttigieg will do the same if he’s the nominee in ‘28, and, like Harris, he will lose. Or at best barely win and be another Biden (who considered Buttigieg his surrogate son.)
November 15, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Buttigieg will do the same if he’s the nominee in ‘28, and, like Harris, he will lose. Or at best barely win and be another Biden (who considered Buttigieg his surrogate son.)
Key to this is making it sound like the Dems ran on identity politics in 2024 and that’s what caused their loss. When it fact Harris lost because she ran precisely as another neoliberal in the Clinton mild. She couldn’t speak to the material conditions off voters in the most basic sense.
November 15, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Key to this is making it sound like the Dems ran on identity politics in 2024 and that’s what caused their loss. When it fact Harris lost because she ran precisely as another neoliberal in the Clinton mild. She couldn’t speak to the material conditions off voters in the most basic sense.
You have to understand, Buttigieg is a creature of neoliberalism, a Manchurian candidate for capital. He worked for McKinsey for God’s sake. His job is to seduce liberals away from the Sanders wing with his smooth talk and “intelligence.”
November 15, 2025 at 6:50 PM
You have to understand, Buttigieg is a creature of neoliberalism, a Manchurian candidate for capital. He worked for McKinsey for God’s sake. His job is to seduce liberals away from the Sanders wing with his smooth talk and “intelligence.”
The Constitution is very anti-democratic, as it uses elections—which all political philosophers have called an aristocratic practice
Democracy uses sortition, or lottery. Trump is being stopped by juries, which use sortition. Trial by jury is the only true democratic piece of the constitution
Democracy uses sortition, or lottery. Trump is being stopped by juries, which use sortition. Trial by jury is the only true democratic piece of the constitution
November 7, 2025 at 12:08 AM
The Constitution is very anti-democratic, as it uses elections—which all political philosophers have called an aristocratic practice
Democracy uses sortition, or lottery. Trump is being stopped by juries, which use sortition. Trial by jury is the only true democratic piece of the constitution
Democracy uses sortition, or lottery. Trump is being stopped by juries, which use sortition. Trial by jury is the only true democratic piece of the constitution
What? It’s one of the great political satires of our time. And the ending is fine.
November 5, 2025 at 9:35 PM
What? It’s one of the great political satires of our time. And the ending is fine.
And it might occur to Lofgren to consider that perhaps it’s the very antidemocratic nature of our political and economic system that contributed to so many people opting for a strongman who promised to make them rich and powerful.
August 24, 2025 at 6:13 PM
And it might occur to Lofgren to consider that perhaps it’s the very antidemocratic nature of our political and economic system that contributed to so many people opting for a strongman who promised to make them rich and powerful.
Didn’t say it’s not hugely concerning that he has so much support. Just that it’s wrong to blame democracy for his ascent to power.
August 24, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Didn’t say it’s not hugely concerning that he has so much support. Just that it’s wrong to blame democracy for his ascent to power.
THAT’S what liberal commentators have huge difficulty admitting: that the constitution gave us Trump, precisely because of its antidemocratic design. If you picked 600 Americans by lot and brought them together to deliberate, with expert information at their hands, we’d not be in this situation.
August 24, 2025 at 3:45 PM
THAT’S what liberal commentators have huge difficulty admitting: that the constitution gave us Trump, precisely because of its antidemocratic design. If you picked 600 Americans by lot and brought them together to deliberate, with expert information at their hands, we’d not be in this situation.
It’s the precisely the anti-democratic features of our system and constitution that allowed this: the Electoral College; the Senate, the Supreme Court; narcissistic elitist politicians; the party system; and elections themselves—which are and always have been aristocratic devices.
August 24, 2025 at 3:45 PM
It’s the precisely the anti-democratic features of our system and constitution that allowed this: the Electoral College; the Senate, the Supreme Court; narcissistic elitist politicians; the party system; and elections themselves—which are and always have been aristocratic devices.
Actually this is lazy and confused. How can you blame democracy for Trump when he lost the popular vote in 2016 by tens of millions of votes? And when a majority today is opposed to him and his policies?
August 24, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Actually this is lazy and confused. How can you blame democracy for Trump when he lost the popular vote in 2016 by tens of millions of votes? And when a majority today is opposed to him and his policies?
August 24, 2025 at 1:13 PM
So maybe it’s time to get rid of politicians and have a real democracy.
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Case for Abolishing Elections - Boston Review
They may seem the cornerstone of democracy, but in reality they do little to promote it. There’s a far better way to empower ordinary citizens: democracy by lottery.
www.bostonreview.net
August 12, 2025 at 1:43 AM
So maybe it’s time to get rid of politicians and have a real democracy.
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
Hmm it’s almost like electing politicians itself guarantees that manipulative, greedy, power-hungry narcissists govern us into the ground. Almost like elections are inherently oligarchic. Almost like picking citizens by lottery would be actual democracy…
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Case for Abolishing Elections - Boston Review
They may seem the cornerstone of democracy, but in reality they do little to promote it. There’s a far better way to empower ordinary citizens: democracy by lottery.
www.bostonreview.net
August 11, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Hmm it’s almost like electing politicians itself guarantees that manipulative, greedy, power-hungry narcissists govern us into the ground. Almost like elections are inherently oligarchic. Almost like picking citizens by lottery would be actual democracy…
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
Neither Packer nor @ositanwanevu.com understands the book’s real flaw: elections themselves are oligarchic. Everyone from antiquity through the Founders knew this. What is democracy? Sortition. Until we adopt jury democracy like Athens, we’ll remain an oligarchy
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Case for Abolishing Elections - Boston Review
They may seem the cornerstone of democracy, but in reality they do little to promote it. There’s a far better way to empower ordinary citizens: democracy by lottery.
www.bostonreview.net
August 11, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Neither Packer nor @ositanwanevu.com understands the book’s real flaw: elections themselves are oligarchic. Everyone from antiquity through the Founders knew this. What is democracy? Sortition. Until we adopt jury democracy like Athens, we’ll remain an oligarchy
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
Except that elections themselves are not democratic and will never truly let citizens come to informed majorities about anything. Only sortition can give us that.
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Case for Abolishing Elections - Boston Review
They may seem the cornerstone of democracy, but in reality they do little to promote it. There’s a far better way to empower ordinary citizens: democracy by lottery.
www.bostonreview.net
August 11, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Except that elections themselves are not democratic and will never truly let citizens come to informed majorities about anything. Only sortition can give us that.
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...