message to my old friend under whom I served as a cub reporter for the campus newspaper (The Targum) fifty years ago, who knew better but now finds himself disappointed after having worked hard for Harris

We both knew this at Rutgers at age 20:

The United States is the most dominant imperial power in history. Its wealth/power elites maintain its position (and their position) acting through two political parties and a duopolistic electoral system. Among those elites there are differing ideas about the most effective orientation. The two parties reflect that. A conservative wing of the bourgeoisie advocates for implementing policies that are straightforwardly nationalistic, pro-market, and pro-wealth accumulation. The Republican Party is their vehicle. A liberal wing thinks it’s wiser to foster stability through geopolitical alliance relations and, domestically, through placation of the masses via the welfare-statist policies of the Democratic Party.

There are continual debates “at the top” about these differing orientations. The elites compete in trying to disseminate more appealing messaging to the masses. Neither seems to “win out” long-term. For over 150 years the Republicans and Democrats have traded place in regard to presidential administrations. For over 150 years our national legislature has been about evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. So those parties obviously are responsible for the state of things . . . the obscene levels of inequality, the militarism, inadequate housing and healthcare coverage, the unfair taxation system, political dominance by the mega-corporations, destruction of ecological habitat, the climate chaos, the withering of local community life. That’s the essential status quo and it doesn’t change all so much under the jurisdiction of one party or the other. They are both creatures of hypermodern industrial capitalism. That extant status quo is unsatisfactory for the masses of people; they express dissatisfaction by voting out the incumbents on a regular basis, so we see oscillating administration of the system. At one time the Republicans were a little better. Nowadays the Democrats are a little better. Sure, Nixon, Reagan, Bush, and Trump were “the greater evil,” but, really, not by all so much relatively, in regard to the systemic essentials.

I’ll bet you wrote editorial after editorial for The Targum that conveyed the message of the above paragraphs. I have to wonder if your current disappointment is a function of having forgotten what we knew at Rutgers at age 20.