Mean Bullies vs Honorable Servants

A very interesting set of articles in The Atlantic of Nov 2025 “The Unfinished Revolution,” commemorating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.  

Importantly, also contrasting the origins of our country to our current unfortunate administration…  

No, the founders were not without their faults, and these are also highlighted…

In one article I heavily underlined passages, that written by David Brooks, “The Rising,” subtitled “The country needs a mass social movement – now – to save itself from autocracy.”  

He writes that we Americans, do not understand the risk of the Drumph administration…  

Brooks writes, on page 140:  “Populists and Progressives need each other - and still do.  Without populists, progressives can turn into a bunch of affluent, out-of-touch urbanites who have little in common with regular Americans.  Without progressives, populists can turn into anti-intellectual, paranoid bigots.  The progressive valorizing of cultural diversity is balanced by populists’ emphasis on cultural cohesion.”   

He argues, since Americans have a 2-week attention span, we “need to stage a series of two-week mini-dramas, each with high-stakes confrontations and surprises.”   And, citing Alinsky’s 13 “Rules for Radicals” adds, “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”  

I won’t outline his whole article; you can read it if you have access…  

I am not sure Americans have a taste for sustained repeated protests…  

And the protests seem to be arising from the college-educated elite, not from the working-class people most affected by the erosions of healthcare and economic growth, with the clear transfer of wealth from the lower classes to the upper classes…  

Have we as a nation stagnated, losing ourselves in sycophantic and addictive social media and AI “black holes,” sucking away our attention…  

The progressives have written that they want to highlight “Kindness,” as an alternative to the Meanness of this administration.  

What came up for me in reading this article was the lack of Honor in this administration, I keep a quote from a fantasy novel, Kagen the Damned, page 154, where he lists characteristics for warriors to have:  Honor, Compassion, Loyalty, Honesty, Benevolence.    

My view of the trickle-down values from this Administration is we all should be Mean Bullies… 

Bullying may arise from:  Emotional trauma, insecurity, have been bullied, poor social skills, feel anonymous, lack empathy…  

https://www.verywellmind.com/common-reasons-why-people-bully-5496259

Wow, wonder who that describes?  

Seems to me to be the exact opposite of Servant Leadership… 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbooksauthors/2025/12/02/is-servant-leadership-dead/

When I Google “Honorable Servants,” I get a lot of Christian junk…  

I am hoping that enough of the working class will realize this country is being run by Mean Bullies who do not have their best interests in mind…  

What I would like to see is a return of Honorable Servants to lead our country…  

They are out there, these Honorable Servants, and they need to tie together both Populist and Progressive ideas, and sell these to the people of all classes…  

We shall see if our country will continue a stagnated downslide into authoritarianism versus a return to Democratic Republican values…  

The midterm elections are arriving soon…