There was a time, in the 70's, when I could always find a job that paid a living wage, with health benefits, vacation, retirement. Then corrupt Nixon got canned which led to narcissistic but pure-of-heart Jimmy Carter, an ineffectual president, fucked over by OPEC, embarrassed by Iran, wearing a sweater and telling us to turn down the heat. We remember the gas lines and the cost-of-living skyrocketing. That scared us so much that we let corporations steal our unions out from under us, giving up guarantees and hard-won benefits in order to keep our jobs, which we ended up losing anyway -- sound familiar?
Turns out the republican brain trust had been waiting in the wings, or under their rocks, all along; they knew we would tire of honor over promises of the good life. And they gave us plenty of empty promises, and an actor to make them convincing. Ronald Reagan told us it was morning in America, but what he really meant was "mourning in America," and that is what we got. Mortgage rates up to 16% with scams a-plenty to make our mortgages affordable. A tax cut that he promised would trickle down -- a promise that never seems to get old, a con that works every time, and never, ever trickles down.
After the trickle down free-for-all of the Dubya years, when we nearly fell over the cliff, we at least recognized Sarah Palin as an idiot and rejected her hate (back then we still rejected overt bigotry). What still puzzles us is that we had eight years of an economy improving despite every republican trick in the books (and some that weren't), and we still elected a bloviating con artist.
Today I struggle to get by spending most of my meager savings on insurance -- home, car, health -- and repairs on old stuff I can't afford to replace. We keep hearing that most of us don't have $400 for an emergency, but billionaires convinced us that their families should not have to give up a penny in inheritance tax, making it sound like we were taking food out of the mouths of their children while they in fact were cutting food stamps and Medicaid to those who were truly in need. The further irony being that the reason so many of us today are in need of basic services is that the wealthy fixed the system decades ago.
Our children live in financial insecurity like many of us have never known. It was our fear that allowed us to compromise and give up the rights we grew up with. It was anger over having lost those rights that allowed us to swallow and even bigger con.
Unless things change, my children will never know financial security. They will work hard and never have time for their families, even though they won't be able to afford good quality child care. They will never be able to take their eyes off the ball that is their next paycheck. They will see their children receive education that offers less than I had back in the 50's and 60's, when fear of Russian exploration led to a surge in funding for better schools, better teacher training and salary, critical and creative thinking, sports, music and science. In other words, quality of life. They will worry about health care because the wealthy continue to work to snatch it away. The cost of necessities will continue to skyrocket, the poor will be taxed so the rich can get richer. And the rich will scorn the struggling middle class while learning bigger and better ways to con us with flattery and fear.
Our Democratic politicians have tried everything to turn this tide. Everything, that is, but the hard stuff. But that is about to change... if we let it. We have for the first time in decades people standing up who aren't afraid to fight to right those economic wrongs, and they now control the House of Representatives. Proof that Americans aren't afraid to vote for dramatic change. It was the young generation who saw how bad things continued to get under the whispered lies that compromise will keep them safe.
My generation was once fearless. Some of us still are. But we have been lulled into complacency by the battles that we won long ago. We have been the frog in the pot of water that doesn't see that he is incrementally being cooked to death. We keep hoping that if we don't rock the boat we won't get our lives stolen away.
What is utterly ironic is that it was the bright-eyed fearlessness of young women that won us the House in 2018, and now, facing 2020, we are hearing the mantra of the need for "safe" candidates. That is indeed the sign of insanity, or maybe just of desperation, when we keep insisting on doing what hasn't worked before.
Women in the House, women of color, Muslims, LGBTQ, people we thought were unelectable. And yet I am hearing the sighs and watching the wringing of hands over who is electable. You know who isn't electable? Donald fucking Trump. And yet because he was fearless we let him lie his way into the White House. I'm hearing qualms over being too extreme. You know what is too extreme? The republican party under Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump.
It's time to stop being afraid. It's definitely time we stopped allowing the enemies of the people to define us and frighten us. Proposals to clean our atmosphere and give health care to all are not extreme. Plans to fund and improve education are not extreme. A living wage is not extreme. Building bridges that don't collapse and hospitals in rural towns, that is not extreme. Protecting the rights of people of color, and making women's health care private is not extreme.
The opposite of all of the above is what is extreme. What the next election is about is protecting us from the extremists. It is about democracy.
Showing posts with label 2018 Election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2018 Election. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Monday, March 19, 2018
Deciding Who to Throw Under the Bus
We know who republicans are fighting for: the wealthy and the Christian right-wing. That unholy alliance was formed to help Reagan get elected and was such a resounding success that despite seeming to be totally at odds, the two groups have gone on to be famous lovers.
On the Democratic side, we try to do the right thing, but we get so damned confused. We want to win -- not for our own gratification of course, but because that's the only way we can do good. It is easy to manipulate us by accusing us of, gee, almost anything; just toss out an attack and watch us scurry around in confused agitation, like a disturbed ant hill.
It is with some amusement that I have been observing David Brooks, who of late has determined to advise Dems on how to best succeed. In a recent column he suggests that on gun control we blue people should be more empathetic towards those red folks, and let them take the lead. In another special piece of mansplaining entitled "The Abortion Memo", he tells us that if we don't do some compromising on abortion restrictions, then we are letting Donald Trump win. And, after all, going along with something like the twenty week abortion ban doesn't affect all that many women.
Democrat Conor Lamb just won a special election in a district that had belonged to Trump not too long ago. In the wake of which, as described in a brilliant article by Charlie Pierce, David Brooks obfuscates into a win as a result of a move toward the center. Pierce says, "This attempt to drag Conor Lamb into David Brooks' Cloud Cuckoo Land of Responsible Centrism is simply a load."
From the White House we have the brute-in-chief, who is always happy to tell "Schumer and Pelosi" what they need to do to make their party happy.
Enough from the republican chorus. It takes second guessing from our own party and candidates' advisors to really put a damper on that whole liberty and justice for all thing. If you plan on running for office on a truly progressive agenda, you are going to be facing a whole lot of squishy Democratic opinions about why you can't do that and win. You are just going to have to hide those lefty beliefs, embrace those on the other side, and make some compromises.
What it all comes down to, this compromise business, is who we Democrats agree to throw under the bus in our race to the finish line. And there are so very many Americans and issues to choose from.
For example, we might support Dreamers. In fact, Dreamers are very popular. But we might just want to be a little more agreeable about closing that Mexican border. We could beef up security, spend more money on patrol agents and build just a little bit of a wall. (And let's not make a big deal out of all those families being deported, and especially about the children being separated from their parents. Oh, and let's not get into defending sanctuary cities; that's just too messy.)
How about that Muslim ban? We know it's a bad idea to close our borders, and it's not just the melting pot, "give me your tired, your poor" thing. It's bad for business. But the courts are fighting it out. (And if our candidates make too big a deal out of it, it is just going to scare those Christians on the other side.)
Teachers. We have heard our democratic candidates say all the same safe words about teachers. It is so important that we praise teachers for their important hard work that there is even a website with "Words to Thank a Teacher." (But we don't want to get into what it would cost to pay a teacher what they are worth, or provide them the environment and supplies and support that they need to do their jobs better and with less stress.) In fact, one of our own SC Democratic candidates for governor is these days saying we should get rid of 1/3 of our teachers.
Which brings us to an even more explosive four-letter-word: Unions. (Oh, please don't let anyone ask about unions, please, please, please, please. Because then I'll have to say I support unions, but people who don't "believe in them" shouldn't have to pay for them, and then union members will get angry at me and then...)
Taxes. The republicans have long ago taken ownership of the phrase "lower taxes and better government services." The fact that republicans that lower taxes invariably cut needed services doesn't seem to dispel the magic of the promise. But does it? Maybe candidates that fearlessly talk about the cost of inadequate taxation... (If I talk about taxes, I'll be called a tax and spend Democrat, so maybe I just won't say anything.)
Women's health care. Health care. Abortion. If you recall, back during the Obamacare "debate," big republican donors paid for a huge astroturf campaign, much like the Russian trolls spurred in 2016, revving up the American people with fears that the government was going to kill their grandmas with their death panels, and the government was going to spy on their doctor appointments. They even gave them bag lunches and put them on buses en route to protests. Well, women are dying from inadequate access to health care, and our government wants to tell our doctors what they can say to us about our reproductive health and dictate and monitor our care. Texas has closed so many clinics that over recent years the maternal mortality rate has been likened to that of a third world country. The highest in the nation, they had no recourse but to... re-interpret the data. Still the highest mortality rate in the country, but not as high as they thought. (But I'll be very careful not to sound as though I'm "pro-abortion." And make sure that I agree with the sanctity of life, and just get back to saying mothers and babies need better health care. And hope nobody notices.)
AND guns. Maybe our Democratic politicians could stop prefacing every statement on gun control with, "I believe in the Second Amendment" or by telling us how old they were when they first went hunting with their daddy. The numbers of shootings in this country, mass and otherwise, is obscene. We can all agree that we have to do something about it. We can take a tough stand against the NRA when it comes to bump stocks and AR-15's and background checks, because poll after poll has shown that this is supported by the vast majority of Americans. (But stay away from registering guns, or making laws about safe use; we sure don't want anyone to think we are planning on restricting their God-given -- I mean constitutional -- right to carry a gun.)
Oh, I could go on. There are so many minefields, and so much opportunity for republican opponents to attack us Democrats for taking a stand. And so much potential for in-fighting. But there are minority rights and individual rights and constitutional rights being eroded, and we are the ones who must turn that tide.
If we don't stand up for every single one who is affected by those issues, if we are willing to sell out one woman who may at some future time need a third-trimester abortion, or ignore one immigrant whose family is being torn apart, if we allow our unions to be undermined and our workers underpaid and unprotected, we are not who we claim to be.
A smart candidate in Trump's failed America should be able to explain why it is good for us all to welcome immigrants, support women's reproductive rights, and restrict access to guns. We should also be able to explain the difference between responsible taxation and burdening the middle class.
Yes, voters are often tempted to follow the shiny object: the biggest mouth, the most brazen promises. But we have had special elections this year where fearless candidates fought against the lies and the fearmongering, and they have won.
Don't let anyone convince you that the way to victory is through caution. Let us not throw anyone or any group under the bus in the cause of victory. Not this year.
On the Democratic side, we try to do the right thing, but we get so damned confused. We want to win -- not for our own gratification of course, but because that's the only way we can do good. It is easy to manipulate us by accusing us of, gee, almost anything; just toss out an attack and watch us scurry around in confused agitation, like a disturbed ant hill.
It is with some amusement that I have been observing David Brooks, who of late has determined to advise Dems on how to best succeed. In a recent column he suggests that on gun control we blue people should be more empathetic towards those red folks, and let them take the lead. In another special piece of mansplaining entitled "The Abortion Memo", he tells us that if we don't do some compromising on abortion restrictions, then we are letting Donald Trump win. And, after all, going along with something like the twenty week abortion ban doesn't affect all that many women.
Democrat Conor Lamb just won a special election in a district that had belonged to Trump not too long ago. In the wake of which, as described in a brilliant article by Charlie Pierce, David Brooks obfuscates into a win as a result of a move toward the center. Pierce says, "This attempt to drag Conor Lamb into David Brooks' Cloud Cuckoo Land of Responsible Centrism is simply a load."
From the White House we have the brute-in-chief, who is always happy to tell "Schumer and Pelosi" what they need to do to make their party happy.
Enough from the republican chorus. It takes second guessing from our own party and candidates' advisors to really put a damper on that whole liberty and justice for all thing. If you plan on running for office on a truly progressive agenda, you are going to be facing a whole lot of squishy Democratic opinions about why you can't do that and win. You are just going to have to hide those lefty beliefs, embrace those on the other side, and make some compromises.
What it all comes down to, this compromise business, is who we Democrats agree to throw under the bus in our race to the finish line. And there are so very many Americans and issues to choose from.
For example, we might support Dreamers. In fact, Dreamers are very popular. But we might just want to be a little more agreeable about closing that Mexican border. We could beef up security, spend more money on patrol agents and build just a little bit of a wall. (And let's not make a big deal out of all those families being deported, and especially about the children being separated from their parents. Oh, and let's not get into defending sanctuary cities; that's just too messy.)
How about that Muslim ban? We know it's a bad idea to close our borders, and it's not just the melting pot, "give me your tired, your poor" thing. It's bad for business. But the courts are fighting it out. (And if our candidates make too big a deal out of it, it is just going to scare those Christians on the other side.)
Teachers. We have heard our democratic candidates say all the same safe words about teachers. It is so important that we praise teachers for their important hard work that there is even a website with "Words to Thank a Teacher." (But we don't want to get into what it would cost to pay a teacher what they are worth, or provide them the environment and supplies and support that they need to do their jobs better and with less stress.) In fact, one of our own SC Democratic candidates for governor is these days saying we should get rid of 1/3 of our teachers.
Which brings us to an even more explosive four-letter-word: Unions. (Oh, please don't let anyone ask about unions, please, please, please, please. Because then I'll have to say I support unions, but people who don't "believe in them" shouldn't have to pay for them, and then union members will get angry at me and then...)
Taxes. The republicans have long ago taken ownership of the phrase "lower taxes and better government services." The fact that republicans that lower taxes invariably cut needed services doesn't seem to dispel the magic of the promise. But does it? Maybe candidates that fearlessly talk about the cost of inadequate taxation... (If I talk about taxes, I'll be called a tax and spend Democrat, so maybe I just won't say anything.)
Women's health care. Health care. Abortion. If you recall, back during the Obamacare "debate," big republican donors paid for a huge astroturf campaign, much like the Russian trolls spurred in 2016, revving up the American people with fears that the government was going to kill their grandmas with their death panels, and the government was going to spy on their doctor appointments. They even gave them bag lunches and put them on buses en route to protests. Well, women are dying from inadequate access to health care, and our government wants to tell our doctors what they can say to us about our reproductive health and dictate and monitor our care. Texas has closed so many clinics that over recent years the maternal mortality rate has been likened to that of a third world country. The highest in the nation, they had no recourse but to... re-interpret the data. Still the highest mortality rate in the country, but not as high as they thought. (But I'll be very careful not to sound as though I'm "pro-abortion." And make sure that I agree with the sanctity of life, and just get back to saying mothers and babies need better health care. And hope nobody notices.)
AND guns. Maybe our Democratic politicians could stop prefacing every statement on gun control with, "I believe in the Second Amendment" or by telling us how old they were when they first went hunting with their daddy. The numbers of shootings in this country, mass and otherwise, is obscene. We can all agree that we have to do something about it. We can take a tough stand against the NRA when it comes to bump stocks and AR-15's and background checks, because poll after poll has shown that this is supported by the vast majority of Americans. (But stay away from registering guns, or making laws about safe use; we sure don't want anyone to think we are planning on restricting their God-given -- I mean constitutional -- right to carry a gun.)
Oh, I could go on. There are so many minefields, and so much opportunity for republican opponents to attack us Democrats for taking a stand. And so much potential for in-fighting. But there are minority rights and individual rights and constitutional rights being eroded, and we are the ones who must turn that tide.
If we don't stand up for every single one who is affected by those issues, if we are willing to sell out one woman who may at some future time need a third-trimester abortion, or ignore one immigrant whose family is being torn apart, if we allow our unions to be undermined and our workers underpaid and unprotected, we are not who we claim to be.
A smart candidate in Trump's failed America should be able to explain why it is good for us all to welcome immigrants, support women's reproductive rights, and restrict access to guns. We should also be able to explain the difference between responsible taxation and burdening the middle class.
Yes, voters are often tempted to follow the shiny object: the biggest mouth, the most brazen promises. But we have had special elections this year where fearless candidates fought against the lies and the fearmongering, and they have won.
Don't let anyone convince you that the way to victory is through caution. Let us not throw anyone or any group under the bus in the cause of victory. Not this year.
Sunday, March 11, 2018
Gullibility
I turned on the TV last night, and there was that crazed, ugly man screeching. "And more people like me now than they did before the election." Or some such bullshit. I turned him off. But I knew that, even though all the polls say otherwise, his lie about his popularity had its impact. The ugly crowd loved it. And because of that, it chilled the rest of us.
Oh, yes, we have laughed at the stupidity of those who believed his lies. But they voted for him, and there he is. Which makes us feel really vulnerable. And when Dems feel vulnerable, we just might do some dumb things.
Yes, the Trump base is easily manipulated; his right-wing fans, led by their fear and envy will follow child molesters and indeed, continue to love Trump if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue. But we liberals are also easily manipulated, by using our values and our guilt against us. We don't have to look farther than the Clintons to see the truth to that.
Way back when Bill was governor and running for president, the right wing tried to nail him on his obfuscations and infidelities. When that didn't work, they shifted just a tad to his wife. And they hit the jackpot. Not because she was guilty of a damned thing, but because she was a woman, and a strong one who fought for the ideals the right wing hated. They couldn't win on the sex stuff, or the not-inhaling business, but they scored with Hillary's legal career and business dealings. And they took down as many people close to her as they could.
Again, not because she was found guilty of anything. The attacks and innuendos worked every time, for thirty years. Was she the smartest crook for getting away with the crimes they had been accusing her of all these years? Or was she just the nerviest criminal, getting away with dirty dealings in plain sight? The result of thirty years of accusations is that we Dems forgot who Hillary actually is and felt uneasy about her; we couldn't tell you why, but we just didn't trust her. Or we remembered that we heard something about something she did that was shady.
Instead of remembering her lifelong battle for children's health and her fight to bring independence to women in third world countries, we remember that we laughed at her pantsuits and changing hairstyles. We criticized her for staying with Bill, and you know we would have criticized her for leaving him. But the fact that she had financial dealings made it so much easier to accuse her of crimes, to question her honesty in every sphere of her life. To walk away feeling that there was just... something... we didn't trust about her.
And during the 2016 election season, instead of listening to her speeches, we listened to every damn pundit talk about how she was as unpopular as Donald Trump, and we watched as the media flooded us with Trump's campaign rants and Hillary's email investigation. Remember when CNN and MSNBC carried Hillary's stump speech live? No, you don't, because it didn't happen. It didn't take a bot or a troll to turn our heads; whatever possessed James Comey to publicly carry water for the republican email witch hunt (and we have yet to find out what exactly motivated him to go so far against his principles and the law), the media was happy to spread the bad news.
A few years ago, there was a guy who was beginning a campaign to run against Lindsey Graham. He was smart, he was funny, he was unafraid. And you know that he had to go. It didn't take much. Rumor had it that he wasn't even from here, and that he had had some shady financial dealings, and -- oh my god -- he had pranked some republican or other.
In the same circumstances, republicans would have ignored the "accusations," or laughed at them, or defended them. But we Dems wouldn't let our guy run. We couldn't stop him, but we damned sure wouldn't help him. To the point, I am still embarrassed to say, that he was not allowed to come and introduce himself to a group where candidates had always been invited to stop by.
A few days ago, I was talking to a friend about the candidate who is running against Joe Wilson. You remember Joe Wilson, the ignorant piece of work that shouted "You lie!" at president Obama during a speech to Congress. He is being opposed by the most wonderful woman you could imagine: smart, strong, activist, and someone who stands up for our values and our lives. My friend's problem was that she had heard that she was once a republican.
If that is all it takes to back off from supporting a Democratic candidate, we can honestly say that we are doing the work of our opponents for them.
I can't get very excited about the bots and trolls crawling around Facebook. The Russians aren't doing any more to us than actual republicans have been doing to us since Reagan's handlers brought together big business and the moral majority, the latter of which was neither moral nor a majority of anything other than bigots.
We could use a good dash of cynicism, and a lot more intelligence as we approach the 2018 election.
We have so much information at our fingertips, there is no reason we should be spreading rumors. And when we run across something that sounds suspect, it takes seconds to go to Google and look for confirmation. We know the major media outlets and, yes they have biases and make mistakes, but they are the fastest way to discount a blatant lie. And when media gets a detail wrong, let them know it.
Candidates have Facebook pages and websites. They are often on Youtube. If you hear something about a candidate that makes you wonder, check it out, don't just spread it around.
And most important, we need to remind ourselves what we are doing here. We are voting for candidates that will work to promote issues we believe are important. We are not voting for the candidate with the least controversial college years, or the one who has never made a mistake. We are voting for people who will go to county council or the statehouse or congress and fight for all of us. And should our candidate lose the primary, we need to fight just as hard for second best, because second best is going to be a whole lot better than what the other party is offering.
The republicans know they could lose their power in November. What republicans do when they are afraid they are going to lose is, they double down. They fight with more viciousness and greater lies. And because we are a country being ruled by billionaires, there is lots of money being funneled into the coffers of anyone willing to do their bidding.
We need look no further than the ridiculous and ugly ads that were run against Jon Ossof last year, when republicans realized the seat wasn't going to be easily won. And, for those of us who weren't so easily manipulated by videos of college parties, they horrified us by pointing out that Ossof lived just outside the district in which he was running!
Archie Parnell's special election campaign ran pretty much under the radar, and to our delight, he lost by only 3 points. He is running again in November, and now he has the attention of the republican party. And they will throw everything they've got at him. I imagine they will start with attacking him for being a Goldman Sachs elite. Oh, the irony, but it works every time. Just like accusing someone of having been a republican works just as well as accusing someone of being a liberal.
Much as the right wing has promoted the fiction that Hillary is crooked, they have spent years frightening republican voters with the image of Nancy Pelosi and her liberal -- read, evil -- agenda. Mark Sanford did it when he had to run against a smart woman a few years ago. Couldn't have possibly beaten her on the issues, so he ran against Pelosi. And NOT the issues Pelosi represents. He ran against a woman that the republican party had invented over the years as a symbol of the devil. You know, like they do with Hillary and Elizabeth Warren.
I recently watched supporters of accused pedophile Roy Moore state proudly that they would support him over a Democrat, the word spoken in a tone that clearly implied sins far worse that pedophilia. I see that we have tried to move away from the word "liberal" and we on the left are preferring to call ourselves progressives. Until the right-wing focuses their laser linguistic experts on it at least.
We have let the right wing control our message through their attacks and innuendos. Yes, those repeated attacks make their supporters more unthinkingly and rabidly loyal. And they make us on the receiving end defensive and queasy. We find ourselves backing away from Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi, two of the strongest defenders of Democratic values. We also lost Congress because candidates backed off from Obama, believing the hype that the Affordable Care Act fight had rendered him toxic.
We don't need to convert Trump supporters to win in 2018. We need to find candidates that will fight for all of us and throw our support behind them. That means we need to know where they stand on the issues, and not be manipulated by the rumor mills, whether they come from Russian trolls or republican trolls.
We need to encourage debate throughout the primary season, because here in South Carolina, that is the way we Dems will be heard. We need to cheer on the candidates who have the courage to step up to run knowing that they will have to fight rumors and lies, and knowing how hard it will be to even be heard. And after the primaries, dammit, we need to get together and fight for the winner.
Hone your instincts. If you hear something that doesn't sound right, check it out. And keep going back to the reason we are doing this. We aren't voting for best looking or best personality. This is about our values. This is about rights that have been decimated, and about taking them back. This is too important for us to allow ourselves to be manipulated. And we are better than that.
Oh, yes, we have laughed at the stupidity of those who believed his lies. But they voted for him, and there he is. Which makes us feel really vulnerable. And when Dems feel vulnerable, we just might do some dumb things.
Yes, the Trump base is easily manipulated; his right-wing fans, led by their fear and envy will follow child molesters and indeed, continue to love Trump if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue. But we liberals are also easily manipulated, by using our values and our guilt against us. We don't have to look farther than the Clintons to see the truth to that.
Way back when Bill was governor and running for president, the right wing tried to nail him on his obfuscations and infidelities. When that didn't work, they shifted just a tad to his wife. And they hit the jackpot. Not because she was guilty of a damned thing, but because she was a woman, and a strong one who fought for the ideals the right wing hated. They couldn't win on the sex stuff, or the not-inhaling business, but they scored with Hillary's legal career and business dealings. And they took down as many people close to her as they could.
Again, not because she was found guilty of anything. The attacks and innuendos worked every time, for thirty years. Was she the smartest crook for getting away with the crimes they had been accusing her of all these years? Or was she just the nerviest criminal, getting away with dirty dealings in plain sight? The result of thirty years of accusations is that we Dems forgot who Hillary actually is and felt uneasy about her; we couldn't tell you why, but we just didn't trust her. Or we remembered that we heard something about something she did that was shady.
Instead of remembering her lifelong battle for children's health and her fight to bring independence to women in third world countries, we remember that we laughed at her pantsuits and changing hairstyles. We criticized her for staying with Bill, and you know we would have criticized her for leaving him. But the fact that she had financial dealings made it so much easier to accuse her of crimes, to question her honesty in every sphere of her life. To walk away feeling that there was just... something... we didn't trust about her.
And during the 2016 election season, instead of listening to her speeches, we listened to every damn pundit talk about how she was as unpopular as Donald Trump, and we watched as the media flooded us with Trump's campaign rants and Hillary's email investigation. Remember when CNN and MSNBC carried Hillary's stump speech live? No, you don't, because it didn't happen. It didn't take a bot or a troll to turn our heads; whatever possessed James Comey to publicly carry water for the republican email witch hunt (and we have yet to find out what exactly motivated him to go so far against his principles and the law), the media was happy to spread the bad news.
A few years ago, there was a guy who was beginning a campaign to run against Lindsey Graham. He was smart, he was funny, he was unafraid. And you know that he had to go. It didn't take much. Rumor had it that he wasn't even from here, and that he had had some shady financial dealings, and -- oh my god -- he had pranked some republican or other.
In the same circumstances, republicans would have ignored the "accusations," or laughed at them, or defended them. But we Dems wouldn't let our guy run. We couldn't stop him, but we damned sure wouldn't help him. To the point, I am still embarrassed to say, that he was not allowed to come and introduce himself to a group where candidates had always been invited to stop by.
A few days ago, I was talking to a friend about the candidate who is running against Joe Wilson. You remember Joe Wilson, the ignorant piece of work that shouted "You lie!" at president Obama during a speech to Congress. He is being opposed by the most wonderful woman you could imagine: smart, strong, activist, and someone who stands up for our values and our lives. My friend's problem was that she had heard that she was once a republican.
If that is all it takes to back off from supporting a Democratic candidate, we can honestly say that we are doing the work of our opponents for them.
I can't get very excited about the bots and trolls crawling around Facebook. The Russians aren't doing any more to us than actual republicans have been doing to us since Reagan's handlers brought together big business and the moral majority, the latter of which was neither moral nor a majority of anything other than bigots.
We could use a good dash of cynicism, and a lot more intelligence as we approach the 2018 election.
We have so much information at our fingertips, there is no reason we should be spreading rumors. And when we run across something that sounds suspect, it takes seconds to go to Google and look for confirmation. We know the major media outlets and, yes they have biases and make mistakes, but they are the fastest way to discount a blatant lie. And when media gets a detail wrong, let them know it.
Candidates have Facebook pages and websites. They are often on Youtube. If you hear something about a candidate that makes you wonder, check it out, don't just spread it around.
And most important, we need to remind ourselves what we are doing here. We are voting for candidates that will work to promote issues we believe are important. We are not voting for the candidate with the least controversial college years, or the one who has never made a mistake. We are voting for people who will go to county council or the statehouse or congress and fight for all of us. And should our candidate lose the primary, we need to fight just as hard for second best, because second best is going to be a whole lot better than what the other party is offering.
The republicans know they could lose their power in November. What republicans do when they are afraid they are going to lose is, they double down. They fight with more viciousness and greater lies. And because we are a country being ruled by billionaires, there is lots of money being funneled into the coffers of anyone willing to do their bidding.
We need look no further than the ridiculous and ugly ads that were run against Jon Ossof last year, when republicans realized the seat wasn't going to be easily won. And, for those of us who weren't so easily manipulated by videos of college parties, they horrified us by pointing out that Ossof lived just outside the district in which he was running!
Archie Parnell's special election campaign ran pretty much under the radar, and to our delight, he lost by only 3 points. He is running again in November, and now he has the attention of the republican party. And they will throw everything they've got at him. I imagine they will start with attacking him for being a Goldman Sachs elite. Oh, the irony, but it works every time. Just like accusing someone of having been a republican works just as well as accusing someone of being a liberal.
Much as the right wing has promoted the fiction that Hillary is crooked, they have spent years frightening republican voters with the image of Nancy Pelosi and her liberal -- read, evil -- agenda. Mark Sanford did it when he had to run against a smart woman a few years ago. Couldn't have possibly beaten her on the issues, so he ran against Pelosi. And NOT the issues Pelosi represents. He ran against a woman that the republican party had invented over the years as a symbol of the devil. You know, like they do with Hillary and Elizabeth Warren.
I recently watched supporters of accused pedophile Roy Moore state proudly that they would support him over a Democrat, the word spoken in a tone that clearly implied sins far worse that pedophilia. I see that we have tried to move away from the word "liberal" and we on the left are preferring to call ourselves progressives. Until the right-wing focuses their laser linguistic experts on it at least.
We have let the right wing control our message through their attacks and innuendos. Yes, those repeated attacks make their supporters more unthinkingly and rabidly loyal. And they make us on the receiving end defensive and queasy. We find ourselves backing away from Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi, two of the strongest defenders of Democratic values. We also lost Congress because candidates backed off from Obama, believing the hype that the Affordable Care Act fight had rendered him toxic.
We don't need to convert Trump supporters to win in 2018. We need to find candidates that will fight for all of us and throw our support behind them. That means we need to know where they stand on the issues, and not be manipulated by the rumor mills, whether they come from Russian trolls or republican trolls.
We need to encourage debate throughout the primary season, because here in South Carolina, that is the way we Dems will be heard. We need to cheer on the candidates who have the courage to step up to run knowing that they will have to fight rumors and lies, and knowing how hard it will be to even be heard. And after the primaries, dammit, we need to get together and fight for the winner.
Hone your instincts. If you hear something that doesn't sound right, check it out. And keep going back to the reason we are doing this. We aren't voting for best looking or best personality. This is about our values. This is about rights that have been decimated, and about taking them back. This is too important for us to allow ourselves to be manipulated. And we are better than that.
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Bigger Than Yours
Yesterday and today the twitter world, as well as major media like The New York Times, is all abuzz with the words of a really stupid, sexually inadequate bully. The fact that those words have the power of the presidency of the United States behind it is shameful.
Despite the media's vows after the 2016 election to be more responsible in their reporting, it is impossible to tune into any media outlet, social or otherwise, without be overwhelmed with the obsession with Donald Trump. And it's not that they are uncovering anything new. It is the same crap with different names, the same strutting with different symbols for the same miniscule body part.
Yesterday he was demanding an investigation of Huma Abedin. He continues to insist on investigating James Comey and Hillary Clinton, just as shortly after being sworn in he insisted that Barack Obama be investigated for wiretapping White House phones. These insane accusations are not just the rants of an insane world leader -- which they are. They are also the kind of attacks a bully makes when he is most afraid of being caught.
Sadly, this bullshit has had the effect of capturing headlines and focusing editorials and panels on the absurd tweets and ruminations on what this all means. We have spent hours going over whether Donald Trump has deep motives and intentions, whether there is something going on in the big head that houses that tiny reptilian brain other than diverting attention away from his own crimes and the fear of being caught.
Donald Trump did not start attacking innocent people with ridiculous accusations when he took that escalator on June 16, 2015. He has spent his entire life deflecting questions about his own adequacy by attacking others, at times seemingly at random. This year we have seen it in all its absurdity as he has flattered, then attacked allies like Michael Flynn and Jefferson Sessions, and attacked, then flattered opponents like Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney. People like James Comey and Robert Mueller have been in and out the swinging door of Donald Trump's good graces so many times they must have to check the headlines on a daily basis to see where they stand.
Anyone who has the power to come close to exposing him gets the full force of his abuse of presidential power, beginning with Sally Yates and currently with Robert Mueller. He has used the legal system in this country to threaten lawsuits to keep at bay prosecution of his own illegal activity, from dirty business dealings to sexual harassment.
I am feeling like I have already fed into his narcissism by going on about what we have been witnessing for far too long. The fact is that people like Steve Bannon and Paul Ryan have been steering this presidency and the course of our country while we have been watching Trump have tantrums. We have a judiciary that is being taken over by radical right-wing extremists. We have environmental safeguards and worker rights being dismantled by deregulation. And we have the rich getting richer on the backs of the rest of us, who were already struggling as health care and education deteriorated.
The man who is incapable of telling the truth has led us to a state of exhaustion. The kind of exhaustion that leads us to want to escape or to attack. Where the leader lies non-stop by indiscriminately calling others liars, we may wonder why we should be so concerned with facts. In 2018, election season may see us attacking each other rather than those who are truly the enemies of our democracy. Where emails and Facebook posts may come from white nationalists or Russian trolls, where republicans determined to push through their long dreamed of right wing agenda send sincerely deceptive messages, we may end up slugging each other and spreading misinformation.
My hope for 2018 is that those of us who hunger for a return to democratic government stay true to our values. That we think before we tweet. That we debate our opponents with passion, but also with facts and that we argue issues rather than fire off attacks on personality or innuendo. That we don't hide behind safe positions that in the end will hurt the weaker among us.
Let us not pit those of us with democratic values one against the other with cruel and meaningless argument. Let us support candidates who will fight for us all. The fascism of the Trump administration has brought us together in ways we did not think possible a year ago. We have seen it happen with elections in Alabama and Virginia. If we can continue to fight together against greed and tyranny, we can win back our democracy.
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Women Hauling Off
At my tennis clinic, the instructor told a relatively new player to just haul off, hit the ball as hard as you can. Then she explained that men and boys had no problem doing that; she never had to tell them to let go and hit it as hard as they can. Women and girls were more tentative, so she would tell us not to worry about getting it right, but to just wallop it. It worked. The young woman hit some amazing shots after that advice.
I recently went to the Charleston launch party for Emerge America, a wonderful group created to encourage and assist women to step up and run for office. I was told that whereas men will get involved confident that they can do a better job than others, extremely competent women all too often hold back because they don't feel competent enough to run for office.
I admire women who have great confidence. I grew up in a blue collar family with an immigrant father. As the oldest, even as a girl, my parents had high hopes for me. They thought, as smart as I was, I should become a teacher. They didn't tell me about it, but I heard that they were proud of me for going to college, but it was rough going. And yet, I did make it through, and ended up getting all the way through to a Ph.D. My father's reaction when I told him I was going back to school for a doctorate could best be described as confused derision. "You already went to school. Why do you have to go back?"
In a nutshell, my relationship with my father began with him telling me, as a child, how smart I was. And then, when I began to have opinions that were different from his, I became someone who "thought I was so smart." So, no confidence building there.
Hillary Rodham Clinton had a father who could not imagine her not being able to do anything a man could do, and do it better. Same for Elizabeth Warren. Women who grew up with fathers who saw them as equal to men, and able to compete and excel tend to do that. Here in my later years, when I catch myself criticizing myself or worrying over some social anxiety or other nonsense, I mutter, "Thanks, Dad," and then get on with it.
But those insecurities that most women incorporate from childhood are reinforced in society: lower pay, sexual stereotypes and harassment, lower expectations despite greater responsibility, and so many more subtle social forces. The attack on reproductive rights is one of the more critical fronts intended to keep women from having the same control over their lives as have men.
The good news is, the backlash is here.
I am thrilled at the generation of younger women who are moving women forward today. They have been, over the years, more visible in the arts, in the media, in finance and in politics. But the Women's March on January 21 was the explosion that caused us to look around and see that we were the ones that would change the sad course that history had been taking. We were the ones that weren't getting tangled up in questionable arguments and slippery slopes. United, we stood for everyone.
So, as the 2018 midterms approach, thousands of women across the country are stepping up. And groups like Emerge America and WREN -- Women's Rights and Empowerment Network -- are there to help. Because we know what the country needs, but may not have the tools to get through the man-made maze of red tape to get there.
You won't be surprised to hear that women attempting to run for office experience a bias that excludes, ignores or minimizes their candidacy. In a South Carolina special election primary a few short months ago, an older white businessman ran against a young black woman. People from in and out of state eagerly signed up to help in his campaign, some fairly big names with the national party, bombarding Facebook and email in-boxes. The State ran an article headlined: "In SC Congress Race, Goldman Sachs Executive Faces Student." The "student" was a woman who had spent six years in the military, working as a paralegal in an Army JAG legal affairs office. Hard to imagine a headline written for a man that did not include "military veteran."
And yet, with little to no help from state or national party, she ended the primary with 22 percent of the vote.
I am also discerning a subtle and dangerous pattern as people enter 2018 races. A woman enters a race. Then, seeing no great risk, a man jumps in. And then more well-known men jump in to support him. And then the woman gets ignored or minimized.
Gods, I hope I am wrong. But I am writing today to alert all you women and the men who are strong and confident enough to support us, because we will need to be aware of the biases and fight harder to be heard as we run for office. When we see something like that ridiculous headline in The State, or a primary being held as though the male candidate's win was a given, we need to not just speak up, but yell. We need to support the great and talented women that have stepped up with all we've got.
We need to "haul off."
I recently went to the Charleston launch party for Emerge America, a wonderful group created to encourage and assist women to step up and run for office. I was told that whereas men will get involved confident that they can do a better job than others, extremely competent women all too often hold back because they don't feel competent enough to run for office.
I admire women who have great confidence. I grew up in a blue collar family with an immigrant father. As the oldest, even as a girl, my parents had high hopes for me. They thought, as smart as I was, I should become a teacher. They didn't tell me about it, but I heard that they were proud of me for going to college, but it was rough going. And yet, I did make it through, and ended up getting all the way through to a Ph.D. My father's reaction when I told him I was going back to school for a doctorate could best be described as confused derision. "You already went to school. Why do you have to go back?"
In a nutshell, my relationship with my father began with him telling me, as a child, how smart I was. And then, when I began to have opinions that were different from his, I became someone who "thought I was so smart." So, no confidence building there.
Hillary Rodham Clinton had a father who could not imagine her not being able to do anything a man could do, and do it better. Same for Elizabeth Warren. Women who grew up with fathers who saw them as equal to men, and able to compete and excel tend to do that. Here in my later years, when I catch myself criticizing myself or worrying over some social anxiety or other nonsense, I mutter, "Thanks, Dad," and then get on with it.
But those insecurities that most women incorporate from childhood are reinforced in society: lower pay, sexual stereotypes and harassment, lower expectations despite greater responsibility, and so many more subtle social forces. The attack on reproductive rights is one of the more critical fronts intended to keep women from having the same control over their lives as have men.
The good news is, the backlash is here.
I am thrilled at the generation of younger women who are moving women forward today. They have been, over the years, more visible in the arts, in the media, in finance and in politics. But the Women's March on January 21 was the explosion that caused us to look around and see that we were the ones that would change the sad course that history had been taking. We were the ones that weren't getting tangled up in questionable arguments and slippery slopes. United, we stood for everyone.
So, as the 2018 midterms approach, thousands of women across the country are stepping up. And groups like Emerge America and WREN -- Women's Rights and Empowerment Network -- are there to help. Because we know what the country needs, but may not have the tools to get through the man-made maze of red tape to get there.
You won't be surprised to hear that women attempting to run for office experience a bias that excludes, ignores or minimizes their candidacy. In a South Carolina special election primary a few short months ago, an older white businessman ran against a young black woman. People from in and out of state eagerly signed up to help in his campaign, some fairly big names with the national party, bombarding Facebook and email in-boxes. The State ran an article headlined: "In SC Congress Race, Goldman Sachs Executive Faces Student." The "student" was a woman who had spent six years in the military, working as a paralegal in an Army JAG legal affairs office. Hard to imagine a headline written for a man that did not include "military veteran."
And yet, with little to no help from state or national party, she ended the primary with 22 percent of the vote.
I am also discerning a subtle and dangerous pattern as people enter 2018 races. A woman enters a race. Then, seeing no great risk, a man jumps in. And then more well-known men jump in to support him. And then the woman gets ignored or minimized.
Gods, I hope I am wrong. But I am writing today to alert all you women and the men who are strong and confident enough to support us, because we will need to be aware of the biases and fight harder to be heard as we run for office. When we see something like that ridiculous headline in The State, or a primary being held as though the male candidate's win was a given, we need to not just speak up, but yell. We need to support the great and talented women that have stepped up with all we've got.
We need to "haul off."
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Trump Fatigue
Fewer people are reading my blog these days. And I am signing fewer online petitions, and sending more political appeals to trash without opening them. After all, how many $3 donations can one person make?
We have been overwhelmed since the day Donald Trump paid people to watch him ride down an escalator and begin to spew his bigotry and ignorance with an aim to becoming president. We laughed at his ignorance, but we were also appalled, and like a car crash, the media couldn't stop filming and we couldn't take our eyes off him.
I can't watch him speak anymore. I now assume it is totally unnecessary and a waste of whatever hours I have left of my life. I safely assume that there will be far too much coverage of what he says, hours and hours of rerunning the same quotes and then analyzing those bon mots -- whose thoughts David Brooks has notably said amount to "six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar." It is beyond disturbing that overnight we went from a president of strong values and intelligence as well as a great orator to a president with no moral compass, who is unable to face the nation without a teleprompter, whose words can be so obviously categorized as being ghost written or spewing from his own small and petty mind. A president who chooses to communicate with the world through the safety of 140 characters. A president who for-gods-sake "tweets."
His stupid phrases echo throughout our lives. He faces world leaders who are intelligent and thoughtful with the same inane compliments, and shouts the same lame and angry promises -- and threats -- at his rallies. A president who lives for his rallies, because his staunch supporters haven't noticed that it is not Mexico that will pay for his wall, but they themselves.
I was happy to hear that he is using the funds from his 2020 campaign to pay for his lawyers, lawyers who appear to be as stupid as he is, or maybe are just taking his money while not putting a lot of energy into a losing battle. On the other hand, we seem to have tired of getting angry at the theft of America by the Trump family business; for the moment we are shocked that his cabinet members are following his lead by literally and figuratively flying first class on America's dime. Eventually there will be a new horror uncovered and the excesses will continue. Meanwhile, the ironically named "Department of Justice" and the excitable Attorney General Jefferson Sessions goes about the business of dismantling our individual rights. Too many distractions, 24/7.
And then there is Congress. We are tired of having to yell at republicans for their slimy attempts to placate their wealthy donors with bills that will take away the safety nets of most Americans. They keep saying that their truly ugly bills to repeal Obamacare are really a need to fill campaign promises; what has become clear is that those promises were to their wealthy donors who are threatening to throw them out of office if they don't repeal. Which explains why town halls and ground level approval ratings have been ignored.
And I am exhausted whenever I hear a Democrat or someone in the media refer to the latest planned heist as "tax reform." There is nothing reformative about tearing down our social institutions in order to add more billions to the billionaire class. Maybe we need to put David Brooks on the job to find a more fitting phrase, one that would alert Americans to what is really behind the tax cut plan that has Mick Mulvaney and Paul Ryan salivating.
I worry that we are so tired of fighting this unfair fight that we have turned back to the day-to-day things that really matter: our families and our homes. We made time to march, and to call out legislators at town halls, but we have jobs to go to. And this is what Paul Ryan and Lindsey Graham count on. This is why they continue to try to pass the noxious bill that would destroy health care for millions. Donald Trump is not a brilliant thinker, but he has wealth and a lifetime of being a successful con artist. He knows that government can be manipulated, and he has a cabinet that has spent their careers doing it with great success.
Will we be able to bring forth the energy and outrage we had in January to fill our statehouses and Congress with people who represent us and not the wealthy and powerful? Will we be able to spread the word to those who barely have time to care for their children and get to work on time? Will we get out to vote and be able to convince those even more exhausted than we are to do the same?
I call it PTTD: Post Traumatic Trump Disorder. The trauma was the election, but the effects are the aftershocks that never stop. Trump fatigue, Trump anxiety. We feel discouraged; we don't believe we can win against the tsunami of hate and corruption.
But we have won an amazing number of victories. We have won local elections across the country in once red districts. We have stopped, and stopped again, the repeal of Obamacare. We have turned the tide on the repeal of DACA and the Muslim ban. We have, by our numbers of peaceful counter-protesters, halted the march of the white supremacists.
We are allowed our exhaustion. We need our time with our families and we need our time to laugh as well as to cry. We need to keep talking to each other.
We can't make all the phone calls or fight all the battles, but when we feel that spark of outrage we can use it to fight, and we can support those who are fighting other battles. If we do this, we can reach inside and find the energy to drain the swamp -- no, the sewer -- that Donald Trump has brought to our government. More important, we can clean out the Congress that since the election of Barack Obama has eroded the integrity of the legislature and the trust of the American people. It took a dirty Congress to create the atmosphere that spewed forth a Donald Trump, but we the people can clean it out. We have done it before.
Yes, our country has survived ugly times before. We will do it again. I believe that Trump fatigue is a treatable disease.
George W. Bush didn't last forever. Even Hitler didn't last forever. And our democracy is strong, with millions fighting all in our own way. When we come back from this, we will come back stronger still.
We have been overwhelmed since the day Donald Trump paid people to watch him ride down an escalator and begin to spew his bigotry and ignorance with an aim to becoming president. We laughed at his ignorance, but we were also appalled, and like a car crash, the media couldn't stop filming and we couldn't take our eyes off him.
I can't watch him speak anymore. I now assume it is totally unnecessary and a waste of whatever hours I have left of my life. I safely assume that there will be far too much coverage of what he says, hours and hours of rerunning the same quotes and then analyzing those bon mots -- whose thoughts David Brooks has notably said amount to "six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar." It is beyond disturbing that overnight we went from a president of strong values and intelligence as well as a great orator to a president with no moral compass, who is unable to face the nation without a teleprompter, whose words can be so obviously categorized as being ghost written or spewing from his own small and petty mind. A president who chooses to communicate with the world through the safety of 140 characters. A president who for-gods-sake "tweets."
His stupid phrases echo throughout our lives. He faces world leaders who are intelligent and thoughtful with the same inane compliments, and shouts the same lame and angry promises -- and threats -- at his rallies. A president who lives for his rallies, because his staunch supporters haven't noticed that it is not Mexico that will pay for his wall, but they themselves.
I was happy to hear that he is using the funds from his 2020 campaign to pay for his lawyers, lawyers who appear to be as stupid as he is, or maybe are just taking his money while not putting a lot of energy into a losing battle. On the other hand, we seem to have tired of getting angry at the theft of America by the Trump family business; for the moment we are shocked that his cabinet members are following his lead by literally and figuratively flying first class on America's dime. Eventually there will be a new horror uncovered and the excesses will continue. Meanwhile, the ironically named "Department of Justice" and the excitable Attorney General Jefferson Sessions goes about the business of dismantling our individual rights. Too many distractions, 24/7.
And then there is Congress. We are tired of having to yell at republicans for their slimy attempts to placate their wealthy donors with bills that will take away the safety nets of most Americans. They keep saying that their truly ugly bills to repeal Obamacare are really a need to fill campaign promises; what has become clear is that those promises were to their wealthy donors who are threatening to throw them out of office if they don't repeal. Which explains why town halls and ground level approval ratings have been ignored.
And I am exhausted whenever I hear a Democrat or someone in the media refer to the latest planned heist as "tax reform." There is nothing reformative about tearing down our social institutions in order to add more billions to the billionaire class. Maybe we need to put David Brooks on the job to find a more fitting phrase, one that would alert Americans to what is really behind the tax cut plan that has Mick Mulvaney and Paul Ryan salivating.
I worry that we are so tired of fighting this unfair fight that we have turned back to the day-to-day things that really matter: our families and our homes. We made time to march, and to call out legislators at town halls, but we have jobs to go to. And this is what Paul Ryan and Lindsey Graham count on. This is why they continue to try to pass the noxious bill that would destroy health care for millions. Donald Trump is not a brilliant thinker, but he has wealth and a lifetime of being a successful con artist. He knows that government can be manipulated, and he has a cabinet that has spent their careers doing it with great success.
Will we be able to bring forth the energy and outrage we had in January to fill our statehouses and Congress with people who represent us and not the wealthy and powerful? Will we be able to spread the word to those who barely have time to care for their children and get to work on time? Will we get out to vote and be able to convince those even more exhausted than we are to do the same?
I call it PTTD: Post Traumatic Trump Disorder. The trauma was the election, but the effects are the aftershocks that never stop. Trump fatigue, Trump anxiety. We feel discouraged; we don't believe we can win against the tsunami of hate and corruption.
But we have won an amazing number of victories. We have won local elections across the country in once red districts. We have stopped, and stopped again, the repeal of Obamacare. We have turned the tide on the repeal of DACA and the Muslim ban. We have, by our numbers of peaceful counter-protesters, halted the march of the white supremacists.
We are allowed our exhaustion. We need our time with our families and we need our time to laugh as well as to cry. We need to keep talking to each other.
We can't make all the phone calls or fight all the battles, but when we feel that spark of outrage we can use it to fight, and we can support those who are fighting other battles. If we do this, we can reach inside and find the energy to drain the swamp -- no, the sewer -- that Donald Trump has brought to our government. More important, we can clean out the Congress that since the election of Barack Obama has eroded the integrity of the legislature and the trust of the American people. It took a dirty Congress to create the atmosphere that spewed forth a Donald Trump, but we the people can clean it out. We have done it before.
Yes, our country has survived ugly times before. We will do it again. I believe that Trump fatigue is a treatable disease.
George W. Bush didn't last forever. Even Hitler didn't last forever. And our democracy is strong, with millions fighting all in our own way. When we come back from this, we will come back stronger still.
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