This is bad. I’m not going to tell you it isn’t. America just committed a stunning unforced error. Last night’s election result is downright traumatic for those of us raised on post-war, triumphant patriotism. Twenty years ago we were on top of the world, or so we thought. Turns out we were just living in a gap between histories.
We are not special. It can happen here.
I wrote a lot of things over the years that proved to be wrong. I owe it to you to revisit those mistakes and try to understand them. I promise to do that. It’s going to take some time.
If you want it, I can offer this comfort: This will all become ‘normal’ soon. We will get used to it. That’s what human beings do.
Let me suggest, however, that we resist the temptation to normalcy. Regardless what we may have done to fight this menace, we all own what happened here. I live in an affluent suburb, insulated from much of what was wrong about the world yesterday. I will still be insulated tomorrow and next week. I have a choice to make about whether to continue that isolation, whether to rest, whether to accept comfort.
I will not be comfortable. I hope you will not either. We all have to make this choice for ourselves.
Those who reject the temptation to a comfortable withdrawal will face another threat – creeping hatred. We face this threat because anger in this case is justified, natural, the only sane response. We should be angry, both at the people who chose this and at ourselves. Anger is necessary and appropriate. Hate is not necessary, but it is a common side-effect of anger. As any parent understands, anger does not preclude empathy, but anger, mishandled, can burn through our empathy. No good can come of actions driven by hate.
We are all human beings. We are doing what we can, as best we can, to make our way in the world. People make mistakes. People commit terrible acts. We are suffering through a general, national crisis of empathy. We must not add to the problem in furious pursuit of some imagined goal. Empathy and understanding are the forces that will allow us to harness anger, to handle it with wisdom and care as a motor rather than a fire.
My religion places great emphasis on the power of love. Through faith and hope we find the power to rise beyond ourselves, to feel, and dream and accomplish what would have been impossible alone. Love subverts the natural order of the universe, an order based on exploitation and greed, where the strong feed on the weak. Through love we find understanding, we become something more than just ourselves, alone, grubbing for an existence. It is on love that we build strong families. On love we build healthy communities. And through love we can build a force more powerful, and more good, than ourselves.
Love is not passive. Love does not tolerate complicity. Love is sometimes fierce and potent and tough and uncompromising. We need that kind of love to keep us focused through what lies ahead.
Do your best to recover. Reject fear and shun hatred. Find time with the people you love. Be good to your family and friends. Do things that restore a sense of hope and strength. There are trying times ahead. This is how we discover what we are made of.
Also, Love is a verb.
Here is an interesting development Heatstreet.com UPDATE:FBI granted FISA warrant to investigate trump aides
Do you have a link to the article James?
Here is something no one wants to talk about! The environment! Trump has never respected the environment and Republicans in general are the same. Life in 100 years could be and probably will be very different, all for the worse, than it is today!
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-climate-policies-game-planet-article-1.2867242
It’s going to be drill baby drill, unless someone can come up with a big renewables breakthrough, given that energy storage is a sticking point.
Fly,
You could come up with some great renewable idea, cheap, works great, it would not go anywhere. The oil companies would just up their political contributions and squash it, just like they have on the idea of global warming!
Actually some of the big energy companies are doing R&D on renewables and carbon sequestration. A big breakthrough would make tons of $, plus all the great PR.
I have never advocated for “no” fossil fuel exploration and production, only “responsible” E & P. Renewable energy will continue its march to dominance. We have major parts of our national economy still pinned to fossil fuels and we can make a combination approach work as long as environmental issues are safeguarded….which the GOP track record and the fossil fuel industry have not given us much confidence will happen.
Fossil fuel proponents can talk all day about their future and how Obama has suppressed the industry, but the truth is, advance of alternative energy is unstoppable and necessary, whether the industry wants it or not. If they fail to understand and prepare for this, all the GOP control in the world won’t help them. It’s progress, it’s science, it’s going to happen.
Another look at what a Pres. Trump’s action on the environment might be. Keep in mind, you have full throttle total majority Republican control of all branches of government. It is highly conceivable that this GOP which considers global warming a hoax, will make every effort to dismantle what “is” in place.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/planetpolicy/2016/11/09/what-a-trump-presidency-means-for-u-s-and-global-climate-policy/?utm_campaign=Brookings+Brief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=37382109
Another opinion, all bad:
http://www.vox.com/2016/11/9/13571318/donald-trump-disaster-climate
I see little brightness in the foreseeable future. Universal humanism and liberal democracy is about to be squeezed out from both ends, the corrupt authoritarian right who now controls our government and will abuse any group that looks even a little differently than them and the illiberal left that has found the perfect recruitment tool in the form of every negative stereotype about America in the one man who controls the White House, the man who “proves” US elections are a fraud and that only their revolution will set right what’s gone wrong, and they will create ineffectual radicals out of segments of the same population that would need to unite against him to stop this madness.
It’s about to get far, far worse, and I’m not sure how battered humanism, liberalism, and empathy will be by the end of it.
I remain far more worried about what the GOPe is planning than Trump.
Garrison Keillor has a terrific message to all the Trumpistas – YOU OWN THIS ELECTION!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-voters-will-not-like-what-happens-next/2016/11/09/e346ffc2-a67f-11e6-8fc0-7be8f848c492_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1
“To all the patronizing B.S. we’ve read about Trump expressing the white working-class’s displacement and loss of the American Dream, I say, “Feh!” — go put your head under cold water. Resentment is no excuse for bald-faced stupidity. America is still the land where the waitress’s kids can grow up to become physicists and novelists and pediatricians, but it helps a lot if the waitress and her husband encourage good habits and the ambition to use your God-given talents and the kids aren’t plugged into electronics day and night. Whooping it up for the candidate of cruelty and ignorance does less than nothing for your kids.”
“We liberal elitists are now completely in the clear. The government is in Republican hands. Let them deal with him. Democrats can spend four years raising heirloom tomatoes, meditating, reading Jane Austen, traveling around the country, tasting artisan beers, and let the Republicans build the wall and carry on the trade war with China and deport the undocumented and deal with opioids, and we Democrats can go for a long , brisk walk and smell the roses.”
I’m not quite as sanguine as Keiller because my concerns have always been dominated by equality issues and because I never felt Trump would be able to advance his “agenda”….The posse to worry about are the Republicans who are ecstatic to have total control of all branches of government. This is the group I will be watching more than Trump, for whom my expectations can only improve, not get any worse. Watch the folks on the right, the ones with budgetary, legislative and soon to be judicial power. That’s where the danger lies. For the first time in decades, the Republican Party will have free rein to put its agenda in motion. Elections have consequences.
The GOP will over reach. They always do..
I think that will have consequences in future elections.
One powerful special interest seniors are going to be reamed. They are not going to like it. Millions of people will lose their health care. They are not going to be happy campers and blaming Obama will not work. And the GOP demographic problem is relentless. You have the rich donors at odds with old under educated whites. Trump shows a maker fault line in their coalition. They still are in major trouble.
I had not notice this article back in October, but it seems to have been very relevant http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about/
Admittedly, this has gotten a bit lost in all the furor over President-elect Trump (…ugh), but it’s worth remembering that he is actually set to go on trial for Trump University on November 28th. And setting aside the absolute nightmare that jury selection will be, this raises a critical question because, as unsurprising as it should be in a year where every norm in American political life has been thrown out the freakin’ window, we once again have to contend with something that has never happened before.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-university-court_us_5823d830e4b0d9ce6fc0cac8
Now, technically speaking, it is possible that Trump could just try to settle the case, but that’s only if his accusers are so inclined to accept any settlement. In the worst-case scenario for him, he could be convicted of felony fraud and be sent to jail. As of this moment, that is a very real possibility.
Holy. Crap.
If anything happens to force Trump out of office, you will have pence as President. Pence is a certified right wing whacko!
He is, but even with Trump in office he’s likely setting a lot of the agenda anyway. If Trump is kicked out at least you don’t have an unstable personality as CIC. I hope the plaintiffs don’t settle. This filthy laundry needs airing badly.
Ah yes, but Hillary is the crooked one.
I believe that this GOP is going to have its own agenda and it may not comport with Trump’s agenda. Given their unilateral control, why would anyone think Trump’s agenda will dominate?
Oh I’m not saying that Trump going to jail would make things all sunshine and rainbows again, not even close. Pence is one of those so-called “Christian conservatives” and would be an absolute nightmare for equality rights here in America. Policy-wise, Trump has taken every position on every issue and so it’s honestly a headache to even try and sort out what the man really believes, if he really believes in anything at all. Pence would effectively just roll out the Paul Ryan agenda as his own and slap his label on it.
…At least he wouldn’t have such an itchy trigger finger when it comes to the nuclear codes? Maybe?
I don’t agree with you about Pence. Yes, he’s a right-wing extremist of little talent, but I don’t think he’s a whacko. I see him as a follower, not a leader, and a worker, not an entrepreneur. And most particularly, I think he holds no delusions of grandeur.
I could be wrong, but I think a Pence presidency would put real control of the country in the Congress. And surprisingly, I think Congress is where we still see some Republicans in the lead who have some idea of how politics is supposed to work, and how deals get done, and how we have to actually govern this stampede of cats we call USA.
I think if we find ourselves in that position Ryan described so grandiosely, with Republicans in charge of everything, we will see some serious setbacks to the social progress we’ve made in my lifetime, but I also think we will see a government that will govern (often differently than I would wish), not abdicate responsibility.
o We’ll have no government shutdown.
o We’ll have some big fiscal stimulus to combat the next recession.
o We’ll probably have some more big fiscal stimulus even when the recession is over. (remember Reagan, the closet Keynesian?)
o We’ll have some serious attention to our crumbling infrastructure. (After all, it’s OK for Republicans to spend money, so long as it’s not some Democrat’s idea.)
So yes, I think it would be just fine for President-elect Drumph to find himself in an orange jump-suit, while Governor Pence finds himself even more under-qualified for his next job than he was for his last.
All the things Obama wanted to do to help our nation will be slicked up with a new name and sail through Congress unimpeded. That’s a good thing? I don’t think so!
I want government to function but not for the benefit of a few. That will probably be the case but I don’t have to thank the Republican Party for no shutdown, no stimulus for infrastructure repair, removing gay rights, eliminating women’s choice, more tax cuts for the wealthy and elimination of health care for millions of uninsurable, poor Americans.
Nope. Not a fan. Trump Bros wanted change, and they will have change but I don’t have to like it or thank Republicans for a functioning government when it is achieved on the back of everything I hold dear.
The ultimate irony would be that Mike Pence would be elevated to POTUS…Don’t think this will happen…Trump will pay whatever is necessary to avoid this…same with rape case. The deck is now completely stacked. Move on.
I’m sure there will be ups and downs, but I feel I am coming back to life.
Right now I am not represented by our Federal government at any level, but we are in the majority and we must keep remembering that. And reminding Trump and the GOPers of that.
This is not sour grapes, or questioning the fact that they won. But they need to know that they are starting with a majority against them, and need to govern accordingly if they don’t want to feel the wave in 2020.
It’s like in sports, winning by one point puts the team in the win column, and that’s really all that counts. Popular vote win is important to validate the effort that was made but more critical is that Dems understand why it wasn’t enough. Agenda was stability, not change, and that will require a paradigm shift in Dem thinking. Ryan is correct that Millennials will drive much of the agenda in 2020. It’s time for new blood. As EJ said, “organize”. Dem values are correct. Build on that with new voices and a different approach to governing.
Wow! Five people have been shot who were participating in the anti-trump march in Seattle, WA. Marches are occurring across the U.S. in major cities to protest the election outcome.
Welcome to governing, Mr. President-Elect.
Here we go. This is only the beginning.
How many if those protestors bothered to vote, I wonder? Because anyone who didn’t vote has no standing to complain.
Saw a protest gathering at UH this evening.
OK I think I may have figured out something here. We’re sitting here in our own little bubble of sorts, (i really don’t think I’d have the stomach for Breitbart) having for the most part intelligent conversation about the political process, but I think we (and the Democratic party leaders) really missed the big picture.
Yes racism is certainly involved to some extent, but I think there may have been something else just as big. This thing with Trump didn’t just start when he announced his campaign. This actually started back in 2008 when Obama was elected. Yes the economy was crashing and Bush was unpopular, but I think what many may have missed wasn’t the rejection of the Republican party, rather it was a rejection of the insiders; Obama was seen as a relative outsider. Same thing in 2012, Republicans ran the insider Mitt Romney and lost.
Now here we are in 2016 and we are again assuming the Democrats will outperform their polling, but we ignore the fact that this time it’s the Democrat who is the insider and Trump is seen as the outsider. The stiggin it people (the white ones) were on our side in 2008 and 2012, but have shifted sides this time.
That’s how we managed to elect a black man, not because we were so over our collective racism but because he happened to be a relative outsider.
This would mean that Clinton was doomed from the start. It may also explain why Bernie Sanders was showing up in the primary polls as being more likely to beat the Republican nominee; he was also seen as an outsider. Too bad some of the higher ups in the Democratic party couldn’t have realized this; I’d much rather be sitting here reading about President-elect Sanders, even though he’s probably a bit too liberal for my tastes, at least we wouldn’t be sitting here in fear with the rest of the world wondering if we’d lost our collective minds.
Feel free to criticize or correct.
Also it wouldn’t matter if Clinton was totally exonerated on Benghazi and emails, because the Republicans wouldn’t believe it and the Democrats wouldn’t care ( meaning the white stiggin it ones – we simply had no one on our side they were interested in). Nor would it have mattered if some dirt had been dug up on Bernie along the way, it wouldn’t have made any difference.
Per Nate Silver, 538, he suggests that since Clinton won the popular vote, if she had just improved her vote tally by 1-2 percent (about 2-4 million people – roughly the Libertarian vote total – she would have won the EC. Turn out – wasn’t there across the board for Dems to counter the exceptional turnout of the Trump vote. Call it lack of enthusiasm, call it the Comey factor or emialitis, the number of people coming out to vote for Clinton was not sufficient. Plus, we kept talking about the increased votes from the Hispanic community and it happened, but split between the candidates. The thinking here is that Trump’s economic simplistic message resonated more with this group than Clinton’s appeal. Women also split between the candidates with Clinton picking up more college educated but others going for Trump. We’ll learn more in days ahead but that’s what I am hearing and reading now.
I’m still feeling a bit too humbled to be making my usual assurances, but it’s empirical fact that Trump received less votes than Romney did four years ago when he lost. Clinton prevailed in the popular vote (cold comfort and a slap in the face that we’ve gotten a pseudo Al Gore all over again), so regardless as to what white nationalists and racists may say, Trump did NOT come out of this election with a mandate. Turnout fell off a cliff from BOTH Republicans and especially Democrats, and even with that more Americans voted against Trump and his approval rating will likely reflect that.
I’m sure you and a lot of others here have already heard about High School students coming out in protest across the country. Good for them. We need Millennials to get engaged now more than ever before. This is the absolute last way I would’ve wished for my generation to step into the world, but this is the challenge we’re faced with and now we have to rise to meet it.
I have always felt that millennials would save the Democratic Party. They will never be candidates en masse for Republicans due to the hard line they draw on social issues….Like others, I am tired and discouraged but gradually coming out of my funk while trying to prepare myself for the “worst” to come. I simply cannot envision one party control of government in America. No checks and balances due to the majorities and no presidency veto backstop. And I am not even thinking about SCOTUS….Lots to worry about. I feel for Obama who has to finish his presidency knowing Republicans have pledged to dismantle everything he had to scrap for.
Same for myself. Last night was just like a sucker punch right to the solar plexus and I’ve been trying to catch my breath for the most of the day. Slept for a little while and I’ve started to get some of my energy back. I should be back to my usual cocky self by tomorrow, hopefully. 🙂
I still don’t have any words that I feel would do appropriate justice for President Obama, but all I can say is that I believe historians and my generation will look back kindly on him. These are trying times and there’s likely to be a lot of pain and suffering in the years ahead, but I hope he’ll still be there to watch. Our fight is only just beginning.
I feel a bit better after this evening’s rehearsal and a nice strong beer (14%!) with friends afterwards. That at least killed the knot in my stomach. I’ve been commiserating with various students throughout the day. I feel especially bad for the foreign grad students; they’ve got cause to wonder how welcome they are here.
This Guardian opinion writer agrees with you and takes it a step farther, saying that a far left response to Trump’s populism is the only answer.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/09/rise-of-the-davos-class-sealed-americas-fate
One race I had missed that made me feel good was that incumbent Republican Gov. McCrory, NC, lost to Democrat Cooper. NC is the state that did all it could to suppress voter turnout with the full endorsement of Gov. McCrory. As with Sheriff Arpaio’s loss, sometimes karma happens…….
Too many incumbents generally lost. And, the Libertarian Party helped Republicans win Senate seats in many states. Maybe Dems & Libs should join forces…….
Correction: too many incumbents “won”….thank you gerrymandering…….
Another correction, perhaps just temporary:
It’s now 45 hours after the polls closed, and McCrory hasn’t lost yet. We will have to wait and see.
Thanks, Ken, I didn’t know it was that close until late last night when I read he hadn’t conceded to Cooper.
Also Hassan beat Ayotte in NH.
Yes, saw that. That brings the number of women in the Senate to 6….out of 100 (-;…progress is measured in such baby steps….Hard fought race – There is still a long shot possibility of picking up another Senate seat in LA if Foster Campbell can upset the repub leader in the Dec. 6 election. Looong shot…but, that’s where it’s at, right?
Hey, look at it this way – at least the Dems have the filibuster to fall back on (barring McConnell doesn’t remove it) for a measly two years.
Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin are all up in 2018 and currently have Dem Senators. That will give the Pubs a filibuster-proof majority in just two years.
If the GOP can keep the house, elect Trump, and keep the Senate in a presidential election year, they’ll very likely dominate in the mid-terms.
It’s gonna be a fun four years.
That was discussed tonight (elimination of the filibuster). The thinking was, “why not”? Dems have as many seats to defend in ’18 as Repubs did this year, meaning they are likely to lose seats just as well. I keep trying to find something to smile about Rulezero and the only thing is picturing Trump and Melania having to fit all their clothes in the WH closets……..
I’d wager that moving into the White House will be considered moving down in lifestyle to them. They’ll disdainfully occupy the White House because the Secret Service can’t fortify Trump tower.
It will be interesting. Given Trump’s unconventional nature, who knows?
Only thing to maybe smile about is 2020. Could be 2010 in reverse, but bigger. Many IFs of course. Dems need to find a good (and “outsider”) candidate. And lots of good downballot candidates for legislatures. Better messaging. Much work to do.
But as you point out, Trump already came w/in a percent of losing this time. Yes, he will have Breitbart working for him, and incumbant benefit. But he will also be 76, people will be very sick of his schtick, and now he can be positioned as the most corrupt of all insiders. More millennials will be voting and some older Trumpians moved on to greener pastures. Demographics will continue its very slow grind.
If, at the same time, Trump has also inflamed more terrorism and tension abroad, millions have lost insurance, Ryan gutted SNAP, the big tax cut comes and only 1% see any reduction, debt goes WAY up, etc. etc. Could be the wave election of all time. We’ll see…
I would not wish the next four years on my country, but we’ve just seen how quickly things can turn. Maybe the basis could be built to make positive changes that can stick this time.
If Ryan’s Better Way is implemented, it stipulates a balanced budget. In order to give even larger tax cuts to the rich (than ever before) while small cuts down the line – thereby reducing the revenue stream into government, all while meeting the “balanced budget requirement”, severe cuts will have to be made, as pointed out in the Atlantic story on how the poor will bear the brunt of the change in power.
Fred-
I don’t know if that will happen. George Bush took a budget surplus, booming economy, and an amazingly peaceful world, and after trashing that, including his own economic scandal (enron), two wars, and the worst national security lapse since pearl harbor, he still got re- elected. By portraying his draft dodging self as a war hero and his silver star, purple heart winning opponent as a traitorous coward, no less.
Republicans have been masterful at controlling their message. Dems have not. There is a great deal that I do not like about the policies of the GOP, but they do know how to organize. There are lessons there for the Dem Party but they will need leadership change to bring these about. The Old Guard is only capable on GOTV in presidential years (and failed this year in both messenger and numbers given the Trump win). I stand with the values represented by the Dem Party but the mechanics are poor in terms of delivery and the team needs to be changed.
FWIW, here is Donald Trump’s “First 100 DAys” list. There are worth items on the list and there are many changes with which I disagree. However, Donald Trump will be our POTUS and it is important that each of us supports the best of his plans. I have no doubt the GOPe will make progress – after all, they will have full control – but all I can do at this point is hope for the best and hope the Dem Party gets its shit together to defend the most egregious efforts surely to be levied by the GOP. Many we will be unable to stop (SCOTUS appointments) but I hope Schumer is up for the fight. Moreover, I want our nation to work, not only for those at the top, but all its citizens.
http://www.npr.org/2016/11/09/501451368/here-is-what-donald-trump-wants-to-do-in-his-first-100-days
@Fred: >] “Only thing to maybe smile about is 2020. Could be 2010 in reverse, but bigger. Many IFs of course. Dems need to find a good (and “outsider”) candidate. And lots of good downballot candidates for legislatures. Better messaging. Much work to do.”
If there’s one thing we can put a fair bit of faith in, it’s that Millennials WILL get their nominee next time around. I wouldn’t even begin to imagine the frustration and anger that’s building over what might’ve been today. They won’t take no for an answer next time.
>] “I don’t know if that will happen. George Bush took a budget surplus, booming economy, and an amazingly peaceful world, and after trashing that, including his own economic scandal (enron), two wars, and the worst national security lapse since pearl harbor, he still got re- elected. By portraying his draft dodging self as a war hero and his silver star, purple heart winning opponent as a traitorous coward, no less.”
That’s true and it’s certainly a lesson to take to heart. Optimism and strength have to go hand in hand with a charismatic voice to prevail in 2020. For all the horror that it entails, Trump presents an opportunity, but only if it’s taken advantage of.
I don’t find Greenwald’s Intercept article very convincing
“While elite circles gorged themselves on globalism, free trade, Wall Street casino gambling, and endless wars (wars that enriched the perpetrators and sent the poorest and most marginalized to bear all their burdens), they completely ignored the victims of their gluttony, except when those victims piped up a bit too much — when they caused a ruckus — and were then scornfully condemned as troglodytes who were the deserved losers in the glorious, global game of meritocracy.”
That seems to describe the modern GOP in some ways, but the Dems? OK, I know Greenwald hates the drones and NSA, but I don’t think the deplorables care. Obama has tried to reverse the course of military interventions. I do tend to think that more should have been done to rein in Wall Street, and of course Clinton’s optics were very bad on that count. But both she and Obama pursued policy to increase regulation and consumer protection, whereas GOPers are the opposite. Clinton & Obama are pretty open to immigration, more as a cultural value than an economic one I believe, but also trying to help people whose livelihoods have been impacted. Obamacare was nothing but an effort to help those struggling economically.
The issues are cultural, and spring out of media pathology, political demagoguery, racism and short attention spans. You can say Dems misread the tea leaves, or that Clinton was definitely a flawed vessel, or that there are elitist attitude issues on the left. But the idea that economic is at the heart of it, and Dems just threw half the population overboard as Greenwald suggests, does not ring true. Reality is closer to the old “What’s Wrong With Kansas” cultural puzzle that the Dems have never been able to figure out
Look how many years and how much political capital Obama spent to raise the top-line tax rate from 36 to 39.6% over GOP stonewall !!!
As always seems to be the case, the poor will take the brunt of the losses springing from this election.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/11/things-are-about-to-get-much-worse-for-poor-americans/507143/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-daily-110916
Referenced in this Atlantic article about how the poor will take the brunt of the new REpublican majority, is once again, Paul Ryan’s A Better Way Blueprint. I’ve linked it here for those who like to plan ahead.
https://abetterway.speaker.gov/_assets/pdf/ABetterWay-Poverty-PolicyPaper.pdf
Mary,
I would say that if the poor bear the brunt of the budget cuts, then they should vote. But they did vote. They voted for trump!
Then, let us hope that the majority party and the new POTUS will deserve their affirmation.
Some numbers for those that criticized my willingness to assign some of the blame for Hillary’s loss on minority voters.
Florida 35% Hispanic vote
Texas 34% Hispanic vote
North Carolina 38% Hispanic vote
Nevada 27% Hispanic vote
New Mexico 32% Hispanic vote
So yes, minorities did help put Trump in office. He did better than Romney by two percentage point and Trump won eight percent of the Black vote. These people supported an overt racist and bigot.
Don’t even get me started on the 6.5MM decrease in Democratic voters.
BTW: I am still PO’ed
Or the women who supported a man who openly admitted to being a sexual predator, cheated on all his wives while married, and used incredibly ugly language to describe women.
Thank you and women.
Question: Who leads the Democratic Party going forward? Who do we have on the bench for 2018 and 2020?
Whoever can fix the economy.
Dems have not done a good job building a back up team. Their leaders are mostly old. The candidate Kander and Warren (she’s not young but is young at heart and feisty as hell), and there are others but too few. Might need to find some millennials from Bernie’s campaign that have promise…..otherwise, don’t know.
Maybe the west coast would be a good place to recruit for the future but the bull pen is pretty sparse.
Here’s one view. Note the absence of names in waiting.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/democratic-party-in-crisis-trump-president-231134
538 sums up things pretty well for the two parties.
“The Democrats’ supposed “blue wall” — always a dubious proposition — has crumbled. Indeed, with Hillary Clinton’s defeat, Democrats may have to rebuild their party from the ground up.”
” the Republican Party is also forever changed. The GOP has learned that there’s a bigger market for populism, and a far smaller one for movement conservatism, than many of us imagined. The Party of Reagan has been supplanted by the Party of Trump.”
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-a-difference-2-percentage-points-makes/
While race certainly played some role, I’m convinced that anti-establishment anger explains the results far more.
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/09/democrats-trump-and-the-ongoing-dangerous-refusal-to-learn-the-lesson-of-brexit/
Sorry, didn’t see that the article was posted below.
Hey Everyone – long time lurker, first time poster.
As the initial anger, shock and horror last night starts to (very slowly) wane, I find myself starting to grapple with the reality of a Trump administration and GOP controlled Congress. As I see it, the GOP’s coalition right now seems inherently unstable. How does one reconcile the populist, Alt-Right/Breitbart crowd pushing for deportation, walls, and nationalism, with the big business/donor class (including Trump’s businesses themselves) that wants and relies on cheap labor and trade protections for their bottom lines? How will his supporters react when the jobs aren’t coming back and they’ve once again been duped for a wealthy agenda?
I also can’t see Trump having the attention span or desire to handle the day-to-day duties of the Presidency and handing much off to Pence, making him the most powerful VP since Cheney. If that happens, expect an even bigger green light for the Ryan/donor class agenda.
Bottom line, we are in for a roller coaster four years. By manipulating racial fears and economic anxiety to pass their agenda, the GOP has opened up Pandora’s Box. And though I think in the long run it will come back to haunt them, it will not be before they take the rest of the country down with them.
How will his supporters react when the jobs aren’t coming back and they’ve once again been duped for a wealthy agenda?
Easy, blame the liberal, Blacks, and the messicans. There are no issues too big that cannot be resolved by more STIGGINIT.
Michael Moore predicted this outcome and I ignored him. I will not make that mistake again. Here is a facebook post he made today:
Morning After To-Do List:
1. Take over the Democratic Party and return it to the people. They have failed us miserably.
2. Fire all pundits, predictors, pollsters and anyone else in the media who had a narrative they wouldn’t let go of and refused to listen to or acknowledge what was really going on. Those same bloviators will now tell us we must “heal the divide” and “come together.” They will pull more hooey like that out of their ass in the days to come. Turn them off.
3. Any Democratic member of Congress who didn’t wake up this morning ready to fight, resist and obstruct in the way Republicans did against President Obama every day for eight full years must step out of the way and let those of us who know the score lead the way in stopping the meanness and the madness that’s about to begin.
4. Everyone must stop saying they are “stunned” and “shocked”. What you mean to say is that you were in a bubble and weren’t paying attention to your fellow Americans and their despair. YEARS of being neglected by both parties, the anger and the need for revenge against the system only grew. Along came a TV star they liked whose plan was to destroy both parties and tell them all “You’re fired!” Trump’s victory is no surprise. He was never a joke. Treating him as one only strengthened him. He is both a creature and a creation of the media and the media will never own that.
5. You must say this sentence to everyone you meet today: “HILLARY CLINTON WON THE POPULAR VOTE!” The MAJORITY of our fellow Americans preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Period. Fact. If you woke up this morning thinking you live in an effed-up country, you don’t. The majority of your fellow Americans wanted Hillary, not Trump. The only reason he’s president is because of an arcane, insane 18th-century idea called the Electoral College. Until we change that, we’ll continue to have presidents we didn’t elect and didn’t want. You live in a country where a majority of its citizens have said they believe there’s climate change, they believe women should be paid the same as men, they want a debt-free college education, they don’t want us invading countries, they want a raise in the minimum wage and they want a single-payer true universal health care system. None of that has changed. We live in a country where the majority agree with the “liberal” position. We just lack the liberal leadership to make that happen (see: #1 above).
Let’s try to get this all done by noon today.
— Michael Moore
https://www.facebook.com/mmflint/posts/10153913074756857
Michael Moore indeed gained a ton of credibility. He clearly has his finger on the pulse of this.
And I think they should pick their battles. If Trump wants to pass an infrastructure bill, they should do it. If they try to pass tax cuts, they should obstruct.
That said, I don’t think it would be all that crazy if the Republicans find Trump much less pliable then they think. They think he’ll rubber stamp everything they put on his desk.
Maybe he will. But he’s not beholden to them in any way, really, and I think his hard core supporters despise the GoP establishment just as much as the Dem establishment.
And, just how are Dems supposed to block pay cuts having picked up only 6 seats in the House – not to mention having the president in their pocket? Republicans will be able to pass just about anything they want. They will be little to stop them in the House and they don’t have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate but they might decide, “what the hell” and just change the rules.
The big problem with Michael Moore’s plan is that the Dems aren’t going to be in charge – anywhere – House/Senate/Presidency. Big problem. If Moore or anyone thinks Republicans are gonna “play nice”, read this threat with the election defeat not 24 hours old:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/09/top-house-republican-says-hell-continue-probe-of-hillary-clintons-private-email-server/?wpisrc=fl_powerpost
While we’re all searching for answers, this piece from Glen Greenwald is the best thing I’ve read so far.
Who knows what the actual truth is, but this feels right to me.
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/09/democrats-trump-and-the-ongoing-dangerous-refusal-to-learn-the-lesson-of-brexit/
Money quote
“both Brexit and Trumpism are the very, very wrong answers to legitimate questions that urban elites have refused to ask for 30 years.”
As he says in the article, you can’t separate race from economics in the US, given its history.
It seems that the answer to the question “is it economic pain or racial animus that motivates Trump supporters” the answer is: yes.
It’s like the Weimer Republic (in kind, not in scale). The anti semitism was always there. But it took the economic pain of overly punitive war reparations to make the ppl open to the demagogic message (note, I’m not comparing Trump supporters to nazis in any way, just pointing out the similarities in motivations, not similarities in actions).
The sad thing is, Trump supporters actually believe he cares about them. There is no way their anger is in any way sated during this administration. Say what you will about Sanders politics, he was at least a genuine man of the people who truly cared for and believes in the cause, as evidenced by his entire career.
I agree and I think Bernie’s millennials did some “payback” on this score.
The main objection I have with this article is the use of the word “elite”. From the article’s description, these are people who are way above the pay grade of ordinary Americans, yet the Clinton campaign was perceived as unacceptably elite and Trump acceptably elite because he spoke to people in common language. Now that was politically smart but does anyone here think Trump really cares about or will fight for the middle and lower classes AGAINST the wishes and control of the Republican majority?
The only humor I can find right now is the vision of the Trump family having to downsize to White House quarters….I’ll bet Trump will turn this building into a public facility and will seek more elaborate digs that are consistent with his lifestyle….all at taxpayer expense, btw.
Mime, I don’t think he uses the term “elite” in reference to income. I tjink he means it in reference to “class”.
In that context, the “elites” are the political class, the decision makers who pursue policies and goals that hurt the middle class and just leave them to their own devices. He basically means corruption, and I think that i
if you followed down all these loose threads, they’d all lead to the same place: money in politics.
“Money in politics” as well as “influence”…..but even though Clinton seemed to out-raise Trump et al, we’ll never really know because of all the secret Repub PACs.
It’s kind of odd pairing the terms “money” and “class” since the two seem to frequently be at odds in politics – but I know what you meant.
“both Brexit and Trumpism are the very, very wrong answers to legitimate questions that urban elites have refused to ask for 30 years.”
I get the issues with the satus quo, but they have picked someone who not only won’t address these issues, but make them worse. You really think Trump is going to take on finance reform and hold banks accountable? I want some of whatever you’re drinking/snorting. You think he’s going to dismantle the military-industrial complex? Ha! He’s promised to expand it. You think that protection, trade wars, and tax cuts for the rich are going to provide good paying jobs that require minimal education/skills? Dream on suckers.
Fear the GOP, Trump is a side show in comparison to what they have planned.
Hi Guys
What happens now?
Trump is due in court in December(?) – for rape of a 13 year old – and also for fraud about his “University”
What happens if he is found guilty??
Hillary lost to Trump –
I believe that means she would have lost to any of the other GOP clowns
Which means that even a stronger DEM candidate would have lost to a slightly stronger GOP candidate
Is this just because “It was their turn”?? – we have had two lots of Obama – it was time for the other side??
I console myself with the belief that the Donald will still be better than any of the other clowns – even if they have the same awful aims he will be less competent about achieving them
Hell – he is in power now – maybe he will sell the Supreme Court vacancy to the highest bidder?
“Hillary lost to Trump –
I believe that means she would have lost to any of the other GOP clowns”
I don’t think that’s necessarily so. This election was, without doubt, insider vs outsider. Change vs status quo.
I dont think the voters cared who they voted for so much as it wasnt a “professional politician”.
Not many ppl voted “Republican”. They voted “change”. If Trump had of ran for the Dems (which he could have done with just a few policy tweaks if he’d so chosen) he would have beaten any Republican.
I think Hillary would have beaten most establishment GOP’ers, the Jeb Bush’s and Marco Rubio’s.
Man, can you believe just over a year and a half ago, it was “inevitable” that Bush vs Clinton was going to be the big race. Talk about misreading the tea leaves lol
First of all, congratulations to the Democrats for getting out so many new voters. It was a close election and in no way should constitute a mandate for Republicans or give them an excuse to disregard all the good people who voted for the opposing side. I hope that Trump has learned some lessons from his campaign. Many of his comments directed toward women and minorities were offensive. I hope that he learns to moderate what he says. A president needs to listen and be just to all.
I haven’t come back to gloat. Hillary was a horribly flawed candidate. She brought about her own defeat by her carelessness and greed. Trump would not have been my choice but he is president. He scares me and many of my fellow Republicans almost as much as he scares you all. 🙂
Classy post obvj.
Your side won. Time to show us what you can do.
Sen. Mitch McConnell just announced that one of the first orders of business will be to repeal Obamacare. Note – repeal, not repeal and replace.
It is starting.
I am not a fan of Obamacare. I don’t like the idea of everyone being forced to deal with the bloated bureaucracy that is the insurance industry for their healthcare. Coverage does not necessarily translate into actual health care. Too many hoops to jump through.
I don’t have a perfect replacement in mind, but I would have liked to see government-sponsored health care expanded to include more people who cannot afford care, and to leave the rest of the system as it was.
I had to sign up through the government marketplace in 2016, and I had 7 insurance companies from which to choose, and for 2017 my options are drastically reduced, with only 3 insurance companies participating, the premiums increasing, and the deductibles increasing as well. I honestly don’t see how this is going to work, if insurance companies keep dropping out. Who will be left to cover us?
Ask Paul Ryan or Donald Trump. Think Obamacare is bad? Bloated? Try nothing.
Even Bill Clinton let it slip recently that he thinks Obamacare is flawed.
That was stupid even though true. The fact is Hillary first went with the Single Payer concept under Bill, and it was soundly defeated. Then Dems tried to work out a better plan but Repubs fought them at every step. They got the best they could get and it has helped many people who I know must be worried about if they will have coverage again. Note that Sen. McConnell has promised to repeal it but nothing about replacing it. And if they do offer a replacement plan, you can bank on the fact that it will be worse coverage for more money. HSA work for healthy people. Try managing a chronic illness or cancer, or heart surgery on a HSA. The bottom line Tutta is that Republicans really don’t care about health coverage for the masses.
We are way too reliant on the insurance industry as the gatekeeper to our health care. It’s been the default way of thinking for too long.
On several occasions I have found that paying for a procedure out of pocket is actually cheaper than the insurance copay.
I like the idea of taking the money we would pay in premiums and putting it into a personal savings account for medical emergencies.
The writing is on the wall for O’care. Now, the question is, what will the political costs be to Republicans if they strip 20 million ppl from affordable health care (and remember, for almost all of those ppl, the poorest, it really IS affordable)?
Ppl will suffer, no doubt. But perhaps the quickest way to see the progressive change we want waiting for the GoP to destroy it all, and then pick up the pieces.
Remember: there is NOTHING in the Republican platform that will address what the voters are clamoring for. These ppl are hurting. Tax cuts for the rich and stripping them of health care and polluting their air and water is not going to cut it.
Whatever anger there is at establishment politicians right now, I can’t see how it won’t be worse 4 years from now. Only now that anger will be directed squarely at Republicans, if they can’t start offering solutions to help these ppl.
I would have to confirm the numbers, but I know some people whose health care premiums are subsidized by the government, and the government pays itself back by reducing their tax refund. So, these people are still paying premiums, even though they are lower for low-income people.
I would daresay that anyone who is receiving subsidized health care and an income tax debit (I’d need more info to understand what is going on here), is still coming out way ahead. They will have their opportunity to try the private health insurance market. My prediction? IF they can pass medical underwriting, and IF they can afford the premiums, their coverage will be far less with greater cost to them. Some things people simply have to experience to appreciate what they had.
Tut – If you don’t mind, my thoughts on health insurance. (Not heathcare)
“We are way too reliant on the insurance industry as the gatekeeper to our health care. It’s been the default way of thinking for too long.” Actually, insurance companies do stand between us and the healthcare providers and bargain to lower costs and then pass those savings to us. Not that they are doing good deeds but just trying to maximize their profits. An alternative would be a government agency?
“On several occasions I have found that paying for a procedure out of pocket is actually cheaper than the insurance copay.”
It makes sense to pay for smaller charges like visits to the Dr’s office out of pocket. If the insurance company pays then you pay in premiums to the ins co, with an added profit margin. A high deductible plan is smarter. But most people haven’t figured that out. They want their plan to pay everything.
“I like the idea of taking the money we would pay in premiums and putting it into a personal savings account for medical emergencies.”
This sounds reasonable and I don’t see any great harm in this, but it seems to me that those who suggest it, think most of us would be sick all the time if we had insurance, especially if it was low cost or “free”.
Since we won’t allow uninsured to die in hospital parking lots, we need the individual mandate. And pre-existing conditions clauses cause all kinds of problems, they must go. Also, yearly and lifetime caps on coverage compound tragedies.
So, that leaves you with the hodgepodge of ObamaCare or you hand it all to the government at some level.
Unarmed, I do like high deductibles. I think health insurance should be for catastrophic events, not for routine visits to the doctor and the occasional medical exam. However, the current premiums strike me as too high.
Tutta, I am assuming you don’t have children and are in good health, which is great because when Paul Ryan gets through with Medicare reform, it won’t be there for you when your retire.
Mime, you are half right. I have no children, but I could be in better health. I just tend to avoid going to the doctor and I shun treatment, and I see no reason to insure my well-being if I don’t want to, probably BECAUSE I don’t have kids. I guess I just don’t place a very high “premium” on my life. That’s what insurance is all about, isn’t it? You should get to choose what value you place on yourself. It’s assumed I will want to go all out for treatment, but that is not necessarily the case.
True, Tutta, but the entire concept of insurance depends upon shared cost through large group memberships, whether it’s home insurance, auto or health. Of the 3 categories, I submit that health is the most important. Evidently your health though not perfect is quite good enough to avoid insuring. But, say you go in for a check up and find out you have breast cancer. What will you do? In TX, if you earn more than $3600/(family of 3…you would be family of one so not sure of single rate), you don’t qualify for medicaid, you feel you can’t justify premiums for individual insurance, so how do you handle this? Health care costs are not a luxury for most people, it is a necessity. That’s all. You’ve worked out a plan that takes care of you now, but as you age, your health can change as well. Have you thought about how you will deal with this? Again, having no children allows you to focus on only your personal care.
Tutt, here’s what Weekly Sift said recently about health care.
“The basic vision of ObamaCare — private health insurance made universal through a system of government mandates and subsidies — was created by conservatives who wanted an alternative to a single-payer system. More than 20 years later, those are still the only two viable ideas out there. If you really want to replace ObamaCare, single-payer is your only choice. If that’s not what you want, then you should help fix ObamaCare.”
https://weeklysift.com/2016/10/31/whats-up-with-obamacare-other-than-premiums/
Trump today said, and I think I heard this right, was “replace and repeal.” Let’s see if he means what he said, or whether he lets Congress repeal without replacing.
Interesting….Trump said replace and repeal….with what? Sen. McConnell said: repeal. Period.
Avik Roy, Forbes contributor and health care expert, offers this observation about the difficulty for Trump or the Republicans to repeal Obamacare. Verrry tricky, and even more politically risky without a viable alternative…which, the GOP doesn’t have, never have had.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2016/11/09/under-president-trump-repealing-replacing-obamacare-will-be-harder-than-it-looks/?utm_source=followingimmediate&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20161109#701ea55f7d24
And wrong I was. It’s said that “misery loves company”, and in that I suppose I could take [great] solace. But I’m not a joiner. I won’t knit my hands and retreat to some ‘safe space’ with an unintelligible symbol on the door. Nor shall I threaten to leave permanently the country of my birth in shallow solidarity with the rest of the aggrieved. I noted with mild surprise that the sun beamed in my window this morning, though waking to a cloudy, dreary drizzle seemed more fitting. Interesting times these are indeed.
A recap here of recent events and the personalities is without purpose. There are however a few things of which we can and should take notice. First, the polls are broken. However more rigorous and ‘representative’, bulging with big data, and subjected to subtle statistical analysis they may be, they are, on perhaps the most important questions at least, unreliable. They are like a rubber crutch – giving the appearance of significance, but when put to use, are worse than if never seen in the first place. In a broader sense, Political Science itself is broken. And Economics, and Psychology too, for my morning news brief showed the market futures crash of the very early morning hours had evaporated into thin air. While I have always maintained that the ‘soft sciences’ are pretty much useless all, this election brings the notion into stark relief. Henceforth, politicians who rely on polls in preference to sound policy will do so at their peril.
Finally, we should never underestimate the cultural and political inertia of the United States. While it is true that inertia impedes agility, it is also the foundation of stability. The headlong dash toward European-style leftism is, for the time at least, hobbled. We won’t be seeing interviews with $17.00 an hour fast food workers, struggling slavishly with seven hour work days, beseeching the public to forgive accumulated $40,000 tuition debts from those degrees in Native American Studies, any time soon. Made up pronouns will also have a more arduous path into the lexicon. The SJWs are going to have to tone it down. The Left in America over-reached to bad effect. The Right, now basking in their new found hegemony, should take heed too. Careening wildly into the wall of 60’s and 70’s Supreme Court decisions will not end well. That wall is made of bedrock, and not blue papier mâché.
“Careening wildly into the wall of 60’s and 70’s Supreme Court decisions will not end well. That wall is made of bedrock, and not blue papier mâché.”
My $ is on they’ll try it.
They could well do. And the result will be predictable. (I think…)
“First, the polls are broken.”
My theory for a while now has been that with all the demonizing of Trump and Trumpsters, many people were embarrassed to admit that they would vote for him. Apparently that was the case. Here’s an interesting article of how one pollster got it right.
http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/poll-shows-neighbor-going-trump/
Heh. “Are you voting for Trump” is akin to the question, “Do you watch internet porn?”
I think this idea of Leftist overreach is mainly made up on the right to stoke anger, fear and resentment.
I live in a blue state, going back to school so on campus all the time, etc., and I really don’t the alleged abuses of PC and SJWs. Of course if you hunt for crazy on the web you can find it. But I don’t think most people are affected by it in any meaningful way. And, honestly, most of it is just showing a basic level of respect and courtesy. If that seems intolerable, then how defensive are you?
Honestly, I would not want to live on minimum wage of $7 or $8 in most places. I don’t know if $15 is right, but so far it hasn’t crippled the places that have tried it.
An awful lot of the student loan problems are very poor, totally unqualified people who took on $5000 debt from exploitive for-profit companies and the degree was worthless. Are they, at some level, responsible? Sure, but as a society we could do better, and why shouldn’t we try? Because there are some entitled millennials whose whining gets annoying? Not a good enough reason.
It seems to me that at the national level, the “overreach” was stuff like trying to make sure more people had health care, regulations for basic consumer-protections and trying to reduce the risk of another financial meltdown, trying to reduce campus rapes, taking small steps to reduce lead and arsenic poisoning and slow the rate of climate change and mitigate its worst risks, etc. This is crazy stuff? It saddens me that one major party thinks that none of these are goals worthy of any degree of collective action.
The Consumer Protection Bureau has paid for itself several times over, yet it will be one of the first to go. After Republicans finish impeaching everyone they can, they will design government they can drown in the tub….but come a weather disaster, they will want FEMA or the Coast Guard, and all the money and services those two entities provide.
Fred – Your perception of ‘overreach’ is yours and yours alone. Regardless of the source of the Right’s perception, denial of its existence was one of the factors in this election.
Maybe so, Fifty, but so was obstruction. The nation’s business has to be done.
Anecdotally, the transgender fracas earlier this year really helped cement the evangelical support for Trump. That could be what is meant by overreach.
Nah, it was all about SCOTUS and Roe v Wade for evangelicals…the transgender thing was motivational but the Life issue is the real issue.
Well, SCOTUS and Roe didn’t seem to do it in the last two elections, did they?
And, why do you think that was, Fifty?
Fred’s take on so-called lefty overreach is very similar to mine. All the whining on the right about “PC culture” is a combination of stuff-they-mostly-made-up and being upset because they might actually get some pushback when they say something really bigoted. And yeah, the actual legislative agenda of elected Dems was basic “protect people from exploitation” stuff. You think the Wells Fargo case would see the light of day under full Republican control? I don’t think the next one will.
Yep, Wells Fargo was a Consumer Protection Bureau case….and, not only will this agency be toast under the Repubs, so will white collar accountability.
Greg – I guess I’m just too old to believe the motivations of any political party are so pure of heart.
To the Wells issue, I hope you’re wrong. They stole from the public, and got hacked in the nutz with a $100M hammer. Justice was served.
The only program that has higher repeal potential than the Consumer Protection Bureau is Obama care.
Good post 50.
The PC police need to pack up and go. The world is a scary place and you need to be able to deal with words, no matter how heinous they are.
Actual harrasment and assault, of course, is non negotiable. But words are words. Ppl need to stop trying to police speech and thoughts.
RobA – As a matter of fact, it was inspired by an email I received this morning from a dear leftist friend of mine in London, Ontario asking wtf happened, and reminding me I essentially ‘promised’ her it wouldn’t! Own what ya say…
To your point earlier, Fifty, about moving, as well as Ryan….
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/11/09/don_t_move_to_canada_liberals_move_to_a_swing_state.html?wpsrc=newsletter_slatest&sid=5388d1a3dd52b8417a011bf1
Mime – Well, Slate is Slate. I love Canada, but they wouldn’t have me as a citizen. You see, I’m not from some oppressed, or Arab place. Seriously – this is the fact. Formally immigrating for me is essentially impossible. But I don’t need to. They accept my taxes, and tolerate my company, six months of each year, and I’m fine with that. Add to that my downtown digs in Houston in the winter time – best of both, I’d say.
BTW: I wonder which country the president elect would figure to be our largest trading partner, (by far)? I figure he’d be out in left field.
Given the paucity of specifics from Trump’s economic plan, who knows?
The Hill outlines what Republicans are jubilantly anticipating accomplishing:
“The conservative base now gazes over a political landscape that seemed unimaginable 24 hours ago. From January, the Republican Party will control the House, Senate, and the White House. Finally, they believe, they might get everything they want.
Movement leaders want their agenda and they want it now. Their wish list includes repealing ObamaCare, defunding Planned Parenthood, cutting tax cuts and reforming the regulatory system. Oh, and swiftly appointing Supreme Court justices who’ll overturn rulings on gay marriage and abortion rights.”
In addition, House Oversight Committee Chairman Chaffetz wants Hillary Clinton’s hide via impeachment. Seems he couldn’t let the first 24 hours pass without issuing that challenge.
Now mime, let’s settle down here. “Swiftly overturning Supreme Court rulings” is hyperbole. His stance on Planned Parenthood is as muddy as everything else. Calm down, will ya? He’s gonna be the POTUS, not a god.
Like I said in the parent post, slamming into the wall of SCOTUS decisions will not go well.
Fifty, I said the Republicans intend to do those things, not Trump. I heard this affirmed tonight on television. Remove the Iran Agreement, Defund PP, Repeal Obamacare & Dodd Frank. This is from Congress, not Trump. I know what is in Paul Ryan’s “A Better Way” Blueprint. I’ve read it. I suggest that more here do so as well. This plan unanimously passed the House Republicans – and they didn’t need any Dem votes to help them. It’s been held up waiting for the outcome of this election but it’s sitting there in finished form.
In retrospect, it seems the Clinton campaign was undone by hubris. That she didn’t need to visit WI or MI or NH (she hit MI and NH, bit way too late), that she didn’t need to court the progressive wing with her VP pick (I thinkjink millenials would’ve been happy with a Sanders or Warren as VP). She didn’t think she really needed to tackle millenial issues hard. “Affordable college” alone isn’t nearly enough. Where was climate change ffs? Probably THE most important issue of the day, one that would have surely galvanized Millenials, and which there was tons of room to hit Trump witb. She should have talked about that as much as she could.
Surely with all their data capabilities they must have seen this. They didnt see that they were losing WI? MI? PA?
Clinton did visit in NH and MI! WI, no, and that was a strategic error. I believe no one was more surprised than Trump that he did so well. Giving credit where it’s due, he seized upon the deep unrest and issues motivating same, and spun it to make the “establishment” the villain. HRC is definitely establishment and the Comey announcement was a timing disaster. If it had happened earlier in the campaign so that her team had time to counter the backlash, it wouldn’t have been as significant. The wikileaks – which we will never know why team Clinton was targeted, provided a continuous drip of trouble that was difficult to anticipate or defend against. As for global warming – Clinton always spoke of global warming in all her speeches but it did not ever come up in debate questions….I do think she tried to reach out to the millennials but I also believe Bernie had so thoroughly discredited her that she was anathema to his followers.
I’m not nearly smart enough to figure out the “whys” of this election but I am smart enough to know that what is coming is going to be very bad for people who hold our values. More significant is the fact that we now know for certain that so many Americans feel this way and always have and were willing to look the other way and support a man who was much, much worse than HRC.
Clinton was done in the moment she was nominated and all the info came out of the DNC putting its thumb on the scale (whether it made a difference or not). She was going to have a difficult time appealing to Joe SixPack as it was, then she called them deplorables (whether some of them deserved it or not). Everything else just fed into the out-of-touch elite stereotype. I think some of them (particularly in Michigan and Wisconsin) waited to see if she would make her case for how she would help these families, but instead her campaign just focused on parroting whatever Trump said that day.
There were many reasons to oppose Trump, layer upon layer, but the thing that has really made the radical-conservative movement suspect to me for a long time now–the thing about them that clicked with Trump’s withered soul and made him their perfect banner-carrier–is the emotions that lie underneath. Fear, hate, greed, a desperate clutching for a few marbles in what is perceived as a zero-sum game.
Life tends to make one cynical, but here in middle-age the emotional position of fear and hate still goes against all my beliefs, personal and religious. I am not pie-in-the-sky, I recognize that there are bad people, and that one cannot just wish and think happy thoughts and everything will be ok. But even so, one must strive to bend the curve a little toward generosity, open-heartedness, confidence, optimism, love. I have to try to extend those even towards those who voted Trump in last night. Last night I called them stupid, and I don’t repudiate that, but let me express it differently: they–most of them–know not what they do.
It is up to each of us to keep working to make the world a little better, in whatever ways we are capable of, in whatever ways will be most effective under the circumstances we encounter.
That doesn’t mean everything will end up happily. But it is all we have to offer. And if we do offer our best, then it is enough.
BUMMER!!!!!!
The only good thing that I can say is that in Washington state things went fairly well. An initiative to strengthen gun control measures passed, as did an initiative instructing our legislature and congress people to support a constitutional amendment overturning the Citizens United decision and making corporations accountable, a statewide minimum wage of $13.50 and the carbon tax initiative was not approved. I previously discussed that measure. Democrats took all the major statewide offices. The public wanted to stay the course on the State Supreme Court drive to reform education funding by re-electing the incumbent justices. Locally, we supported a huge expansion of light rail and public transit.
Nationally and internationally it is a BUMMER. Domestically, Obamacare is history. A few tidbits such as pre-existing conditions insurance might remain, but that is about all. We’ll probably get a major expansion of health savings accounts, etc., but millions will lose health insurance. Trade pacts will be torn up. The tax code will continue to be structured to favor the wealthy. Taxes for the wealthy will be slashed, and deficits will soar. Immigration will be severely curtailed, except for the “right people”. There will be an attempt to deport all undocumented people- that will not work, it was tried during the Eisenhower administration. Progress on climate change and use of renewable power will essentially cease. Ryan will likely get a large portion of his A Better Way program through, essentially completely shredding what remains of the safety net. I could go, but that is enough.
On foreign affairs, it appears as if Trump’s modern America First program, which is really American Hegemony, will be implemented. In Syria a massive bombardment of ISIS will be launched. The US will have to eventually put regular
American combat forces in or allow Russia to convert Syria into a satellite. Putin will be allowed a free rein in Europe. He will first consolidate his gains in Ukraine and then move towards the Baltic States. Trump will not seriously oppose that. NATO will become history. The European Union will dissolve, after France Marine Le Pen is elected President, and pulls France out of the Union. Germany may well seek an accommodation with Russia. Ultimately, I expect a major conflict to emerge in Europe that will pull the US in.
In Asia, China will feel they will feel free to do settle their territorial grievances and emerge as a regional hegemon. The other nations in Asia will accommodate themselves. Eventually free navigation in the South Asia Sea will be restricted. If the US places trade sanctions on China, that will aggravate the issues, as China will be forced into an aggressive stance so the Communist Party can maintain power.
I suspect the global internationalist order put together after WWII will be sundered. A global depression could result. This could eventually lead to another global conflict.
This all seems like the early part of the depression years. It appears as if a huge mess is going to be left. I am sorry to say that the millennial generation and the post millennials will have to pay a huge price. But then to paraphrase Churchill, you can always count on the Americans to do the easy but wrong thing, until finally they bite the bullet and do the hard but right thing.
Sorry to be so negative, but I see a crisis coming.
After rereading this I realized that my phraseology makes it appear that the minimum wage failed in Washington. IT PASSED overwhelmingly.
By all means, pray. When you’re done praying, organise.
Today has given the Republican party a free rein. There are no longer any checks and balances. The Senate, House, Presidency and Supreme Court are all in the hands of the same people. Ryan and Cruz are going to behave like children in a chocolate shop, except that their behaviour is going to kill innocent people.
Come January 2017, everyone who is not actively one of Trump’s people needs to be ready to do whatever they can to prevent this. So organise.
” Ryan and Cruz are going to behave like children in a chocolate shop, except that their behaviour is going to kill innocent people.”
Unfortunately that’s probably the only thing that’s going to galvanize enough people.
It hasn’t yet, Fly. How much more violence and death is necessary? Or, maybe, who has to be affected to provoke cognition in the masses?
Fly,
A lot of the innocent people you mention voted for Trump and the Republicans down the line! If they die, whose fault is that? And if they did not vote, well, what can I say?
In my county, a very well respected state legislator, a Democrat, lost to the Republican, a 20 year old college student with no experience!
we missed a depression in 2009 only because that black guy so many people hated pushed through a stimulation package the entire Republican party voted against. The Republicans, including Romney, wanted more tax cuts for billionaires and letting the market place save Detroit. If that same thinking prevails the next time we have a big problem, you can kiss it all goodbye!
The important thing is not to lose faith, or cower, or God forbid, leave the country. Don’t give anyone the satisfaction.
Work with the new administration, or be part of the anti-Trump coalition, as the need arises.
I’m not leaving. But count me as in the anti-Trump coalition from this day forward, because I knew what he was many years ago. He will not change for the better.
Ugh, what a night. Well, looks like I should give up prognosticating. I was profoundly wrong about this election, and I’m suffering from some cognitive dissonance right now. Crow doesn’t taste good.
The question now is, what now? My opinion (which I don’t hold in high regard right now) is give Trump a chance . Dont be like the GoP whose first order if business was ensuring Obama (and thus, the country) failed. There is some evidence to suggest Trump wouldn’t be as terrible as even, say, a Jeb or a Rubio. Certainly a Cruz.
There’s no way he feels beholden to the GoP establishment. That’s what this whole thing was about. He tore through the GoP establishment first, then the Democratic one second. This was by no means an affirmation of GoP values.
A silver lining is this: Trump tore through the Dem establishment and probably delivered a fatal blow. Thia clears the path for the Sanders/Warren progressive wing to ascend, which was always the desired result anyways, I just figured it would be safest to get there incrementally. Ironically, we probably get there quicker now because as Kansas has shown us, the beat way to repudiate GoP ideas is to allow them to implement them.
Honestly Rob, I don’t think we know what plan Trump will pursue. My hope is that he can rise above his petty, shallow self and learn to serve the country that has given him this opportunity. The reality is that the Republican Party has majority control of all branches of government and with this control will come many changes Democrats have fought against for years: Roe V Wade; universal health care; equality and so much more. As difficult as it will be to pick ourselves up off the mat, there is work to do.
I just heard on MSNBC that on the floor of the WSJ this morning, during interviews about the impact of Trump’s election and Clinton’s loss, that there were audible shouts from the traders – “lock her up”. How incredibly sad and inappropriate. This is the type of vitriol that we can expect to hear more of.
This guy couldn’t rise above petty and shallow BEFORE he won. I have zero expectations that he will change.
Honestly, I less afraid of a Pres. Trump (which is not to say I don’t fear his actions), than I am of total control of Congress, POTUS and SCOTUS by the party that has different values and visions for our country. Zero checks and balance. Wrap your head around that as much as possible. The Republican Party is now in total control.
The last day or two of the polls actually showed a substantial movement to Trump. On the TPM chart, she fell below 270 EV as a result. I dismissed it as a fluke or poll skewing at the time but now I realize it might reflect a genuine move to Trump at the end – in which case the polls might not have been as far off as we thought.
At least in my opinion, if your takeaway from this is that Sanders-ish candidates are the future of the Democrat party, you are going to wandering in the desert for a while.
Speaking of Kansas, the GOP Senator won 62% to 32%, and Trump won 57% to 36%.
That is what repudiation of GOP ideas gets you. More people voting for the GOP.
Agree to disagree.
Yes, I believe Dems need to be more progressive, not less so. Trump got 1.5 million LESS votes then Romney, and Clinton 6.5 million less then Obama.
This wasn’t some new white constituency that Trump found. It’s progressives who stayed home.
Plus, there’s that whole Clinton winning the most votes thing.
I understand that doesn’t mean she should be president. But it does mean, factually, more ppl voted for her then voted for Trump.
Imagine if she had been a true Progressive without the baggage and got the 8% of millenials who votes 3rd party? It wouldn’t have been close.
Baggage didn’t seem to hurt Trump, and, IMO, his was far worse than Clinton’s.
Yep, add ice to the poisoned koolaid for greater enjoyment. I agree about the Bernie wing. I can’t really get my head around this outcome yet to do much analysis except to say that those who supported Trump either by omission (3rd party vote or not voting) or commission (voting for him) OWN him. Unfortunately, with Republicans in control of everything, our world is going to look much different than we ever could imagine. No checks and balance to be found.
HT, I tend to agree with Rob. The current mood of the country is anti-establishment, and just as Trump brought out his malcontents, so Sanders brought out his own, but with Sanders out of the picture, his people saw no reason to support Hillary.
The Hillarys and the Romneys seem to garner only tepid support.
So, who is to blame? The voters who stayed home, or Hillary, the candidate who lacked the fire and the vision to inspire them?
A Sanders-type candidate may be the only one who can lift the Democratic Party in the near future.
Tutta, With Republicans controlling all branches of government, gerrymandering will be expanded – further securing “red” seats not only for Congress but also for the state legislature. The S.C. will overturn whatever little bits the majority Repub Congress can’t achieve through normal means, and there will be no potential presidential veto nor blockage potential in the Senate. Democrats chances for doing much of anything are toast for the foreseeable future. About all we can do is live under this new order and try to maintain our individual values as best we can. We can’t know just what this is going to look like yet but I think it is accurate to state that we won’t like it.
Respectfully, we don’t yet fully know how the vote broke down. Too early. There will be plenty of analysis that will explore voter turnout. I maintain that the Comey announcement as early voting began was a watershed event. 40 million votes were cast during this 9 day period. Unless there is some deep exit polling on this specific issue, I don’t think we can dismiss the influence this had on Clinton’s campaign….given how close the vote was. She was up almost 7 points when he dropped his bomb and made a small recovery but it had to be a major contributing factor to the undecided vote which was sizable in this election.
Of course, I could be dead wrong. I was wrong about Trump becoming a nomnee, wrong about him beating Clinton. Why not everything else?
Homer, please explain how “me, too” is a competitive position.
If the Ds follow in the footsteps of the Rs, and the Rs trip and fall, there goes the Ds, too. By default.
The Ds have been lucky to get away with merely not being crazy Rs in many cases. But it’s not a competitive position for the long haul, for a nation so large and so varied its special interests compete with one another.
Marketeers realize you have to develop a distinct brand in order to be picked out of a crowd. Perhaps they could help answer this question: What’s the difference between ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’ and ‘populism’?
How Democrats Killed Their Populist Soul
In the 1970s, a new wave of post-Watergate liberals stopped fighting monopoly power. The result is an increasingly dangerous political system.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/how-democrats-killed-their-populist-soul/504710/
(sorry for the re-post of a link but it’s a very good article)
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It disturbs me greatly that in 2000 the supreme court got involved in the electoral process and that in 2016 the FBI got involved in the electoral process. While I doubt any reforms are possible with the Rs holding all the cards, these two interferences are not good news for our nation.
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Yes, my stomach aches, too. and my heart is heavy.
From Bill moyers:
“Taking stock of the damage: If Trump delivers on his campaign promises, we could be facing the end of Obamacare and a repeal of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms that sought to check the banks following the financial crisis. But the biggest casualty of his presidency could be the planet. The Paris Agreement, an insufficient but important first step hammered out after years of negotiations by the countries responsible for the majority of the world’s climate change-causing pollution, will become largely impotent without American participation. But Trump’s advisors have a plan to pull us out of it during his first 100 days in office.”
My way of coping with the election results:
First we must see what the new administration truly has in store for us. It may not be as bad as it seems.
If it turns out that the new administration is a disaster, we need to be less complacent and resigned and more proactive. We need to take matters into our own hands and work for what is right on a direct, personal, local level. We need to stop looking toward government to set the tone of our daily lives. It is up to us. It is what we make of it. Together we can unite to fight against evil and to promote good.
I was ok at first, but now my heart is heavy, literally. I feel this pain right in the center of my chest, and I am having trouble breathing.
My stomach has been in a knot since about 8:30 last evening. I feel your pain.
Fly, that’s why I declared a personal media blackout yesterday — no live media at all. I knew I couldn’t bear to witness the results as they crept in. I went to bed about 8:30pm with no clue about the returns and just happened to wake up just in time to hear the announcement on BBC Radio at the stroke of midnight.
It’s not normal. Today I took down the American flag that I’ve proudly flown for 31 years. I’ve never been ashamed to be an American or ashamed of America, despite living through assassinations, Vietnam, Watergate and Iraq. I’m ashamed now. We’re an ugly people and I’m afraid we’re about to do ugly things. I’m certain that violence, physical, verbal, legal and moral, will occur, targeting anyone non-white, non-male, non-straight, non-fundy and non-citizen. I’m certain that we’ll have 30 years of a Supreme Court that gleefully rolls back voting rights, women’s rights, gay rights and pretty much anything else that doesn’t benefit rich white males.
My wife and I are 60 and were on track for a modest retirement at 70. We now cannot count on Social Security and Medicaid. Jobs are probably going to become even more insecure. We’ve cancelled all holiday travel. No gifts. We’re stopping any unnecessary expenditures. We’re cancelling cable and the land line. Stock funds are shifted to bond funds. I suspect that we’re pretty damn typical and America’s new greatness will become quite apparent by Black Friday.
Folks wanted “change” and they apparently didn’t give a shit about the details. Some people only learn through pain. And we shall have it. In abundance. I don’t hate them. I despise them.
Thanks for the site and the great articles Chris.
“I wrote a lot of things over the years that proved to be wrong.”
Chris, I quit posting on your previous blog when you celebrated the death of a Supreme Court justice. I won’t come back permanently, but just had to post today to celebrate your wrongness. Sorry that I can’t be as gracious in winning (or at least not losing) as Trump was in his acceptance speech.
A year an a half ago, I stated that Hillary could not be elected. I had faith that enough people in this great country would stand against the corruption that Hillary represents. Had I been wrong, I would be feeling a lot worse than you and your regulars today, because it would mean that the majority of the country was willing to accept corruption as long as they won. That should never happen, regardless of party. Hillary should never have been in the running, and I’m ecstatic that she lost.
I’ll leave you with this tip as you revisit your mistakes: Not everything is about race. If you continue to believe that racism drives the majority of white people or decided the election, you will continue to be wrong.
You rail about Hillary’s corruption when Trump is even worse??? This guy wouldn’t release his taxes, and he’s got some fraud lawsuits about to begin. Spare us your false equivalences.
One of Putin’s advisors just coyly said “well, maybe we helped with Wikileaks a LITTLE”
But yeah, Hillary used an email server.
The reason Putin wants Trump is not because he’s a strong leader. But because he’s a weak leader, which only the gullible don’t realize.
Hillary’s “corruption,” as viewed by Trump supporters, regards the corruption that permeates the whole system. Any corruption by Trump would be limited to himself and his family. There’s a difference.
You have to give it to Republicans, they have really vilified HRC. Totally toxic. One wonders how her own daughter can stand her.
Not everything is about race. If you continue to believe that racism drives the majority of white people or decided the election, you will continue to be wrong.
Let’s see you claim Hillary is corrupt but have no issue with Trump’s upcoming trail on racketeering and the 4,000+ lawsuits he is facing. He has pretty much lied about everything under the sun.
Hillary has never been found to actually be corrupt but hey she is obviously the bad guy here.
Lets not forget his admission of actually sexually assaulting women.
But hey bigotry had nothing to do with Trump’s support. Never mind those endorsements by the KKK and the American Nazi Party. Those racist comments he made, his birtherism, his promise to remove the 4th amendment rights of minorities across the nation, we can just ignore those because you say so…….
Doug,
Thanks for coming back. Your presence here offers an opportunity to revisit some old notions, some outdated thinking. You’re right. I was wrong and I have a lot to reconsider.
In particular, this comment rings true:
**I’ll leave you with this tip as you revisit your mistakes: Not everything is about race.**
Clearly, it was a mistake to make this race, and the issues around it, so squarely focused on race. By doing that, I and millions of other people missed the misogyny, religious bigotry, and pure unadulterated bile that moves so many people so deeply. We misunderstood how incredibly foul some people are, and made the mistake of wasting energy engaging them.
This provides an opportunity to mark a new direction. Love is not passivity. Love does not compel us to ignore injustice, dismiss evil, condone abuse. Your post is a critical reminder that some people are just awful and they aren’t going to get better. The compassion that accompanies love leads to understanding of others and rising above the base impulse of hatred to keep a focus on a higher goal. Sometimes understanding means understanding that some people have to be defeated, no matter what that takes, no matter what sacrifice it demands. Love is power.
Welcome back.
Yeah, this election was not only about race, it was about all those other ugly things people do to one another. Cherry pick it if you will, any one of these problems is sufficient cause to criticize. We’ll all have to be more comprehensive in our blanket list of deplorable actions for those who can’t figure it out on their own.
>] “A year an a half ago, I stated that Hillary could not be elected. I had faith that enough people in this great country would stand against the corruption that Hillary represents. Had I been wrong, I would be feeling a lot worse than you and your regulars today, because it would mean that the majority of the country was willing to accept corruption as long as they won. That should never happen, regardless of party. Hillary should never have been in the running, and I’m ecstatic that she lost.”
Tell me, Doug, are you still going to cry “but Hillary!” when these next four years are over and whatever irreparable damage Trump has done to this country and the world is beyond defense? Or perhaps you honestly believe that he’s going to make this country and economy thrive? Either way, yours is nothing but the mindset of a self-serving fool.
To be fair, I’m guilty of no small measure of foolishness myself. Even through all this, a part of me still believed that Trump supporters might have some legitimate concerns to be heard, deplorable as their solution was and is. To say I was wrong would be an understatement. I underestimated just how truly unrepentant and foolish so many in this country are. I really should’ve known better.
Rest assured though that that mistake won’t be made again. For all the pain, suffering and unrepentant destruction that this decision that you and others have made will bring, you’ve earned nothing less than no measure of forgiveness nor mercy. Whatever hardships are required, the future will be ours.
Congratulations, Doug. On the old GOPLifer site, you made no secret of your unhappiness that America, for the first time in 220 years, had the temerity to elect someone who did not look like you as president. This year we barely escaped the fate of electing someone who doesn’t even have the same genitals as you. Instead we elected someone exactly like you, a white male who makes no secret of his disdain for everyone not a white male and whose world view ends at the tips of their shortest fingers.
Maybe Doug will be happy to hear this bit of news. They’re not even bothering to hide it. Guess Assange will come out soon….Who’s next to flaunt their behind the scenes involvement? The FBI?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/11/10/russian-officials-were-in-contact-with-trump-during-campaign.html?via=desktop&source=copyurl
Not being a religious person, I can only reach deep within myself to heal my hurt and disappointment with the decision millions of Americans have made. The harm from this choice will live beyond my lifetime. RBG, take care – you are needed still.
I wanted Clinton to win because I knew she would be competent and caring. Trump does not have the capacity to acquire the empathy and depth of understanding we should expect for our nation’s leader and that we need as a people. I worry about how our S.C. will reshape our country’s laws, values, and treatment of the least among us. No gated community nor secure lifestyle can protect us from the consequences of this choice.
Yet, the nation will survive. I feel pain for what could have been and concern for what is ahead. I don’t know that I am ready or willing to accept the will of the majority of our nation. I feel for the Obamas who have given so much to our nation, a nation which has rejected them time and again. I hurt for Hillary Clinton – for all she hoped to do for our country, for the effort she committed to share her message with all of America, even those who rejected it, and I hurt for all who labored to help her win this election. This is going to be harder for them than for those of us who supported her from afar. We are in shock and more than anger or hate, I am incredibly disappointed and concerned for our country and its values. Trump has won the election and I accept this but I do not accept the changes his election will mean for our country. It does not change who I am, what I stand for, and what I want for all of America. It does change who is in charge and how things will be done, and for that, I am profoundly, deeply worried. This is not right, it is not good, and I can accept the reality without accepting the reasons behind it.
Hard times.
I’m sorry Chris, I disagree. We’ve been trying to love and understand these people ever since the time of the Reagan Democrats. We’ve received nothing but hatred back.
You of all people don’t need to understand them any further. You understand them quite well already, and have helped people like me understand them better too. There’s a time when you understand enough and must conclude that they are simply wrong.
I don’t hate them. I’m not going to place a burning cross on their lawn or fire bomb their churches. But as Eli wiesel said, the opposite of love isn’t hate. It’s apathy. I simply don’t care about them.
I used to care. I advocated tax increases, trade policies, etc
that would hurt me because I felt bad for my fellow citizens stuck in dying rural towns and backward 1950s thinking. Now I simply don’t care. If cheeto Jesus actually makes Garbutt, NY great again, more power to him and them. But if it withers and dies, I no longer care. They’ve had forty years of our love and understanding and all they’ve done is regressed.
Now, I fully understand there are good people there as well. And to them, I say: move. Flee the wasteland and I’ll welcome you to my city with open arms. I realize that’s not a great option but after 40 years of trying to do more, that’s the best I can offer.
Jesusland today called in an air strike on their own territory in hopes that the collateral damage will hit me. Good luck with that. As always their math skills were lacking and they miscalculated the blast radius. I’ll be enjoying my tax cuts and watching the bombs drop from a safe distance.
Some perspective. Myself and several other leaders of my church worked our hearts out to prevent a Trump victory. Many people of faith did the same. We simply were out voted. But demographic change is relentless. This was a very close election. The old are dying off being replaced by young voters with different world views. Be patience a little while longer and don’t waste the time, mentor some of the up coming generation.
I’m curious about what the final tally will be for millennial turnout. I’m not in the mood to research it right now, but I’ll bet it was low. I can only hope that the upcoming 2 years of regressive policy sinks in for them. If you disenfranchise yourself, people who don’t have your best interests will happily take the opportunity.
A silver lining- that racist asshole Arpaio lost in AZ.
And that’s why I don’t tar everyone who fits trump’s voter profile with the same brush. I know lots of evangelicals who sincerely try to live by the principles of Christ. But I don’t know what else I can do for them except offer them refuge in my part of the country.
I admit I’m retreating. But after 40 years, maybe that’s the best option. I’m going to focus my efforts on my local community and city and region. That’s all I can do, and quite frankly, all I care to do.
The parts of this country that voted for trump can go hang. They haven’t changed since the civil rights Era, and I’m done wasting my time trying to change them. Let them live and die by their own policy choices. As the old Chinese curse goes: may all their wishes come true.
“I’m going to focus my efforts on my local community and city and region. ”
That’s going to be how we get through the next few years- finding worthy causes that mitigate the damage we know is coming.
That sounds like a thread to start in the forum, if it isn’t already there.
Who are you talking about here, WX Wall? Black people? Hispanics? There is so much more to this election than these two groups, as important as they are. Women’s rights, LGBT people, voting equality, equal rights of all kinds. It appears that you think this is all about Black people, if I am understanding what you didn’t say. Say it. Own it.
Please, this is not a time for spite. Our democratic process has worked even if I disagree with the result. I am prepared to honor that and build upon it, not castigate those who “won”. There aren’t any winners in this election when all we come away with is “I told you so”. This race was about more than race, it was about the values we hold individually and as a nation. Try to focus on this while not forgetting that HRC won the popular vote, and lost the EC. Our nation is divided but democracy worked. Then, take time to listen to Clinton’s concession speech. That was class and dignity personified. Now is not the time to gloat or point fingers.
No, it’s not about black people. I should have been more explicit. For me, It’s urban vs rural, with all the sub-divisions that entails: educated vs non-educated, diverse vs non-diverse, belief in competent govt services vs “govt is the problem” nonsense, science vs pseudoscience, etc.
There is quite literally a geographic divide in this country between blue cities and red rural areas. My country, where I live, where everyone I care about lives, where I at least have some common ground with people even when we disagree, is in the cities.
I spent decades of my political awareness trying to understand and empathize with rural areas. They were obviously hurting and as a fellow American I considered it my duty to help, to share any sacrifice that may be required. But after this election, I know them as well as I ever care to. As Chris pointed out in a previous article, they could have had 90% of trump’s economic plan from a far more credible figure with Bernie. He even wanted to restrict immigration on economic grounds. Everything they wanted they could have had in Sanders only without the hate. They chose the hate. As they’ve been doing since at least the civil rights Era if not from our country’s founding. I can’t change that. We’ve tried for years. So, I’m retreating to the cities and the people that live there. They will be my concern going forward.
I feel Chris is a little like those people trying to convince themselves that the civil war was about economics. Yes, the vast majority of whites who died in the south didn’t own slaves and had more in common economically with slaves than with white slave owners. But they still fought the War to preserve slavery. Economics had nothing to do with it.
I feel the same way about the rural south now. They’re fighting a battle based on hatred (not just racial). They won today. In the same way a suicide bomber “wins” by killing himself and hoping he takes a few people he hates with him. You can’t negotiate with a suicide bomber because he values his hate more than his life or his loved ones.
There is only one small opportunity for outreach: hillary underperformed in the Midwest, and I’m willing to believe at least part of trump’s support there was economic. Even so, they made a poor choice today. But they’re worth engaging with in 2020. The rest of the trump coalition just needs to be defeated, not understood or empathized with.
Beautifully said, Chris. I know some Trumplings and they are basically decent people in spite of what they’ve just voted for. A lot of them could come around by the next election. It’s going to be important to forge an alliance of pro-democracy people across some policy divisions that have been barriers in the past.
I too know many kind, decent people who voted for Trump yesterday. I don’t understand it, but maybe by staying engaged with them I can try to effect some change before the next election.
I don’t know, though. Right now it all feels pretty hopeless. Maybe in a few days I’ll regain my optimism & will.
Some bitter irony after a night of bad sleep. NPR reports that Clinton has a slight lead in the popular vote. So it may be that yet again a system that was supposed to be in place as a check on popular passions run wild and uninformed voters has screwed us over yet again.
The vote estimator were saying Clinton would probably end up with a 1 million vote lead in the popular vote. So, yes, Trump is an illegitimate president elected only because of antidemocratic quirks in our vote counting.
That’s like saying the other football team’s win is illegitimate because your team ran up more yardage. The rules is the rules. This country was founded as a federation of states, and the states will elect Trump in January. Overall popular vote count means nothing, nor should it.
Nor should it? That’s a ridiculous statement in 2016.
No, Trump won by a traditional, constitutional process. Until that is changed, it is the law of the land whether the popular vote differs or not. Donald Trump represents the worst of America’s elite but he is our president and I accept that result.
Yes, it’s legal, but it’s still illegitimate. The two categories are not incompatible.
Was going to post that. It is a small comfort that a slight majority of us did not make this choice. Soon Republicans wiĺl have total control of the Federal government. A lot of seniors that vote for Trump are going to discover only president Trump stands between them and Ryan’s plans to gut Medicare and Social Security. What will he do? There is no way Trump can fulfill even half of his campaign promises. A lot of people will I think have buyers remorse before Trump leaves office.
Better read up on Ryan’s Better Way plan for America, because there’s nothing to stop it now.
I suspect that Trump doesn’t really have any policies he cares about, aside from maybe cutting the estate tax and scrapping the TPP. He’ll let Ryan and McConnell do all the heavy lifting.
White people aren’t any more a monolithic group than Black people are. How should you or I or anyone else feel about any other person? Depends on judging what they are as an individual person- that’s all we’ve got.
White people have been committing terrible acts here since the 17th century.
White Americans don’t love minorities. You never have.
So tell me Chris what do you expect minorities to think or feel about the white people around them this morning?
I’m being dead serious I want an answer because all this love one another talk only sounds good if you’re not the ones getting kicked in the teeth AGAIN!
“White Americans don’t love minorities. You never have.”
What an ironically racist statement. And besides, white people elected a black man in the last two elections. Can’t tell you how you should feel, but you may feel better if you let the 18th century go and look at people as individuals.
Seems to me that many white ppl aren’t racist at all as long as The Blacks stay in their place and don’t demand change. Could Obama have been elected in 2008 if BLM existed and if black ppl started demanding they don’t get shot by cops? Doubtful.
Besides, Obama was elected in spite of white people, not because of them (and I say this as a white man). He lost them by 12 points in 2008 and by 20 points in 2012.
There’s not much I can say. My family is going to be excused from much of the worst of what’s coming because we’re white, I have a corporate job, and we have a little money. There is no justice in this. My peers, my family, brought this on us and we will mostly get a pass.
As we sit here right now, I do not have a response for you. I don’t know what to do. I’m not quitting and I hope you will continue to participate here. We need your voice.
Is it impertinent of me to say that at least you’ve had a black man in the presidency? I’m not black, but I am a woman, and this loss carries a special sting.
I won’t pretend to know what it feels like to be discriminated against because of my skin color, but I do care deeply that it still happens. It is a national shame.
Still, here we are in 2016, apparently having progressed far enough to elect a minority, so long as he’s male.
We elected a black man………but he was never accorded the respect he deserved, nor the cooperation in trying to manage our country’s business. I am not a vindictive person, but it has angered me to see how Barack Obama (and his family) have been treated. It angers me to see how poor and minorities are treated by an unequal justice system. It angers me to see how women and gay people are treated. And it angers me that for so many, it is done in the name of faith. That, to me, is the greatest crime of all, despite the fact that these people still do not see this in themselves. Are they this ignorant or simply blind to their motivations? Either way, innocent people are hurt by those professing to be Christians. I don’t understand faith that hurts others who are innocents.