War Consumes Everything Else

[applegrove]

War Consumes Everything Else

March 9, 2026 at 10:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 161 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2026/03/09/war-consumes-everything-else/

A big part of the authoritarian playbook is war. War takes over the news. War blots out criticism. War divides a nation’s people, subjecting those against it to being called unpatriotic. War grants leaders all sorts of emergency powers. War consumes everything else.

We mustn’t let this war do so.

— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) 2026-03-01T23:01:10.396902Z" target="_blank">Robert Reich: “A big part of the authoritarian playbook is war. War takes over the news. War blots out criticism. War divides a nation’s people, subjecting those against it to being called unpatriotic. War grants leaders all sorts of emergency powers. War consumes everything else. We mustn’t let this war do so.”

[Wounded Bear]

1. Been true since the beginning...nt

[leftstreet]

2. I don't know many real world people talking about it

I think all those things he says are true EXCEPT "war divides a nation's peoples."

Maybe at one time it did, but not so much now

[snot]

4. It does (finally) seem to be uniting Americans against war.

Probably the only positive outcome.

[snot]

3. We've also spent trillions on war during my lifetime,

killing millions, leaving countries we purported to want to help worse off than they were before, and decimating our own material welfare.

[Skittles]

6. if all that money had been spent on cancer research

we'd have a cure by now

[snot]

7. Exactly.

Or on genuinely helping the countries we said we wanted to help, building up our soft power instead of blasting what was left of it to smithereens. Or on public education, infrastructure, health care, etc. etc. etc.

For anyone who isn't aware of the National Priorities Project, their site can be very helpful in thinking about this; see, e.g., https://www.nationalpriorities.org/interactive-data/trade-offs/ :

{In this year's budget alone,} taxpayers in the United States are paying $1.02 trillion [for the military}. Here's what those tax dollars could have paid for instead:

7.63 million Registered Nurses for 1 Year, or
116.49 million Public Housing Units for 1 Year, or
9.57 million Livable Wage Jobs for a Single Parent with Two Children for 1 Year, or
448.95 million People Receiving SNAP Benefits for 1 Year, or
10.84 million Elementary School Teachers for 1 Year, or
12.32 million Firefighter Positions for 1 Year, or
59.34 million Head Start Slots for Children for 1 Year, or
55.67 million Military Veterans Receiving VA Medical Care for 1 Year, or
24.92 million Scholarships for University Students for 4 Years, or
27.29 million Borrowers Receiving Federal Student Loan Forgiveness for 1 Year, or
292.65 million Children Receiving Medicaid for 1 Year, or
61.05 million People Receiving Paid Parental Leave for 1 Year, or
189.78 million Adults Receiving Medicaid for 1 Year, or
1.92 billion Households with Solar Electricity for 1 Year

[Skittles]

5. it certainly is part of the repuke playbook