Politics - Merrily Dancing Ape

The Liberal Path Forward

Nov 122024

Dear friend (my fellow liberal),

Okay… That election sucked.

The pundits immediately got to work on the autopsy. They say we lost because Kamala Harris did not listen to their advice about <–insert pundit’s opinion here–>. That includes:

Inflation and the price of eggs.
The crisis at the border with asylum seekers.
Global backlash against incumbents, who we blame for the economic aftermath of the pandemic whether it’s their fault or not.
The resentment of anti-woke young men. Trump did a better job of reaching bros via the Joe Rogan show and other similar bro-oriented podcasts.
The partisan weaponization of the justice system. The trials backfired as political theatre, and they have not so far resulted in any semblance of justice either.
The assassination attempts bolstered an image of Trump as heroic.
Harris relied on ground game and traditional media, whereas Trump focused on newer media. And with Trump reaching his base directly with Truth Social, and Elon Musk converting the liberal-leaning Twitter to conservative-leaning X, the information ecosphere now favors their ideological bent.
The country just wasn’t ready for a non-white female president. And it was probably misogyny more than sexism that hurt Harris.
It’s Joe Biden’s fault. He should not have run for reelection. Kamala Harris didn’t have enough time to persuade voters after he backed out.

Some pundits blame Joe Biden. Some blame Kamala Harris. Some blame the American people. But I have not heard any yet blame themselves.

Allan Lichtman, Michael Moore, and James Carville all confidently predicted a Harris victory. The same thing happened with Hillary Clinton in 2016, though with different pundits (for that election, Lichtman and Moore actually correctly predicted Trump would win). We need to consider whether predictions like these are a death sentence for more centrist candidates, who tend to be less exciting. How many voters saw the predictions and then decided, It looks like she has this in the bag, and I’m not that excited about Harris anyway, so I won’t bother voting?

Polls have proven time and again to be a huge waste of time and energy.

If you are liberal, from this day forward, if a pollster calls you, lie to them. Or if that feels wrong to you, just refuse to answer.

And can we just throw out all the pundits? All the talking heads on cable news channels, all the NY Times and Washington Post opinion columnists, all the podcasters, all the YouTubers — all of them?

Turn them all off. What was the use of listening to any of them? They were wrong about everything and then they blamed other people for their failures.

Anyone who has monetized liberal attention needs to go. Their profit motive is not aligned with seeing progressive policies actually come to fruition; it is aligned with keeping us constantly angry and upset. They make money selling us false hope and then they make money off our despair when those hopes are dashed.

I also haven’t heard anyone say “we should have stuck with Biden” yet, but I wonder if he could have pulled out a victory here. Biden had a bad debate, but maybe he could have made a comeback. He couldn’t have done any worse than Harris. I like Harris and I voted for her, but switching the candidate without going through a proper primary process was a phenomenally risky move. This was not the time to experiment. And the celebrities and so-called experts who pushed this idea need to think about how much blame they own here. A better strategy would have been to let Biden win reelection and then he could leave office during his second term. This loss was engineered by people I like, people like George Clooney, Nancy Pelosi, and my beloved Barack Obama, and I’m disappointed in them. You thought you knew better than voters and you were wrong.

So now, yet again we’re in a “brace for impact” situation. But this time is different.

There is a segment of the MAGA movement that is driven by pure contempt. They relish knowing that liberals suffer when Trump wins. They get a real charge out of that. They believe that their fellow citizens are the source of the problems in their own life, and Trump is an instrument of their revenge. Last time, in 2016, the MAGA Republicans reveled in drinking liberal tears. But this time, I do not see a flood of liberal tears for them to drink.

They don’t get that we were crying for them as much as for ourselves. And now we are done crying.

It helps, perhaps perversely, that Trump won the popular vote. Depending on your interpretation of why people voted for Trump, it may not reflect well upon the electorate. But it’s just easier to stomach a loss when you know at least the loss was fair and square. I can accept that the country doesn’t agree with me.

Although I’ve condemned pundits for their wrong predictions, I can’t help making a few of my own. There is a piece of wisdom that comes from a beloved old sage:

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

~Dr. Phil

Here is my guess of what is to come in Trump’s next term in office, based upon his last term:

He will pass record tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. In the short term, this will indeed provide a boost to the economy. But it will also add to the debt and exacerbate wealth inequality.
He will roll back environmental regulations particularly around climate change, encouraging corporations to pass their externalities on to the American people, who will have to foot the bill for the damage. In the short term, again, this too might provide some economic boost, but in the long term it will have consequences for public health and of course the environment.
Once again, members of the next Trump administration will turn on him when they realize he is terrible. There will be defections, including high-profile members of his inner circle. But fewer this time than last, because Trump will select people based on loyalty over competence.
Because Trump is choosing people based upon loyalty over competence, his administration will be dangerously incompetent.
When a crisis strikes, like another pandemic, the Trump administration will once again respond with chaos, blame, conspiracy theories, and fecklessness. Let us not forget that under Trump’s leadership, the USA at one point had 25% of the world’s coronavirus cases, in spite of the fact we only have 4% of the world’s population. Once again, people will die in America unnecessarily because of the venality, ineptitude, and narcissism of Donald Trump.
To the degree that the Trump administration dismantles structures that have protected public health in agencies like the FDA and the EPA, public health will obviously suffer. If RFK deregulates raw milk, America will have to contend with preventable cases of bird flu. If RFK smooths the path for charlatans to sell stem cell therapies for macular degeneration that actually damage eyes instead of helping them, more Americans will be hurt. However, I have a feeling Trump isn’t this stupid to allow this to happen. If his administration ends up allowing the murder of autistic children by chelation of heavy metals in their blood, a potentially dangerous process that has no beneficial impact on autism, people won’t like it. And RFK might also back down on some of his crazier ideas when he is exposed to top scientists in the field bringing him up to speed on the science. But we will see. This one could go either way. I suspect the end outcome will be that Trump’s changes to the FDA will hurt, not help, public health, but the damage won’t be as significant as we might fear.
Trump’s administration will take credit for the economy handed to him by the Biden administration. The investment in America’s infrastructure will pay dividends, and Trump will receive the thanks, even though his first administration failed to do anything at all with infrastructure, and it was actually Biden who is to thank. If America is made great again under Trump, it will not be because of Trump, but because of Democrats.
This will put JD Vance in a strong position to run for President in 2028, as he will be free to distance himself from Trump’s worst qualities at the same time he takes credit for Biden’s economy. To defeat him, the Democrats must make some dramatic changes — not in our core values, but in our messaging and our messengers.

Bad news! But there is good news, too. The good news is always the same:

The better angels of the human spirit–love, empathy, compassion, and the light of reason–will always prevail. In spite of mighty resistance, in small steps, slowly but surely, despite a million setbacks and delays, they will prevail.

How this will be expressed over the next few years, I do not know. The bad news is easier to predict than the good news.

But I think I know a path forward for liberal people in a time of darkness.

I am reminded of this quote from Shakespeare:

That light we see is burning in my hall.
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

You are that little candle.

Don’t worry about fighting the MAGA ugliness right now. If you step outside of the arena, after a time — after they are tired of gloating and bragging and peacocking — they will turn on each other and begin to self-destruct. This is their nature.

Some of our American family have fallen for the seduction of hatred. They are forming a group identity around the dehumanization of other people. The surest sign of that to me is their vitriol toward transgender people, but we also see it in their fear of immigrants, their suspicion of “the enemy within” (us), their disregard for the autonomy of women over their own bodies, their distrust of democratic institutions, and their bizarre and unpatriotic love for dictators around the world. Hatred like this is a form of suffering. It is a cancer that weakens them. Sadly, we cannot help them right now.

In a couple of years we will reemerge with renewed energy. But for now…

If you are a painter, paint something new. If you are a writer, write something beautiful. If you are an artist, turn to your art, and if you are not an artist, make your regular life a piece of artwork. That is your job right now.

It’s time to go quiet. Hide from politics. Focus on living — put your energy there. Let your little candle shine in your kindness and your creativity. Put aside your fear and anger. Let that flicker of goodness pervade all aspects of your daily expression of your identity.

And gradually we will find each other in the darkness. We will follow the other little lights we see. We will gather an army of little candles and fill the world with our light.

When we return, it will be with a new vision. Something beautiful. Something for everyone. Something we’re able to articulate better than ever before.

Until then…

I remain ever yours,

William Bloom

Relax. We won.

Politics

Nov 212020

How come after we’ve won the 2020 Presidential election, we’re even now worrying about Trump? How is Trump, the loser, still dominating the news cycle?

One of the selling points for voting for Biden was that we would stop hearing that horrible name, Trump. The news media was supposed to stop reporting on his inane tweets. We were promised we’d stop seeing his despicable face on our TVs.

And while we’re talking about the bitter after-taste to our sweet victory…

How is it that 74 million of our fellow Americans voted to keep Trump in office, even in the light of his epic failure to protect the country against this pandemic (not to mention his countless other failures and crimes)?

And what about these ridiculous right-wing conspiracy theories we keep hearing about? How can so many people believe this stuff? And how come GOP leaders aren’t putting a stop to it? Have they no shame?

And isn’t the balkanization of the media leading us toward a civil war?

Relaaaaax. It’s not as bad as all that. Let’s put this moment in perspective…

(Continued below the fold…)

Oahu Mayor: Hanabusa!

Hawaii, Politics

Jul 242020

I wrote to Colleen Hanabusa with questions about her campaign. I wasn’t sure she’d respond. To my surprise, she replied within a couple of days and gave thoughtful answers to each and every question. And her answers are good!

I do wish her statement on Climate Change went further. She intends to protect infrastructure, which is good and necessary. But what about offering an aggressive plan to get the city to zero emissions? And currently her website literally fails to even mention “climate change” once.

But I’ve decided to vote for her. Here’s her letter:

Dear Mr. Bloom,

Thank you for your questions.

My answers to your questions are below, and you can also go to my website for additional information: https://www.colleenhanabusa.com/.

Do you believe that climate change is real? If so, what will you do about it.

Yes. In 2017, I hosted a Climate Change round table with climate change experts, including Dr. Chip Fletcher from UH, to discuss the impacts climate change will have on Hawaii. The goal was to bring general awareness to the issue and focus attention on the steps Hawaii must take to prepare for climate change: https://climateadaptation.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/SLR-Report_Dec2017.pdf

As Mayor, I will use all the resources of my office, including the Office of Climate Change, Resiliency and Sustainability (Resiliency Office), to responsibly combat climate change and continue to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, during my first term, my highest priorities would be to: 1) finalize an assessment of the most vulnerable City and County infrastructure and a list prioritizing (ranking) City projects, and 2) develop a capital plan to begin implementation during my first term. The projected project implementation costs are significant and I will draw upon my state and federal experience to bring in state and federal resources to partner with and assist the City and County of Honolulu in implementing Honolulu’s resilience strategy.

Do you believe in listening to science and following the recommendations of public health officials? If so, how will that impact your approach to COVID-19?

Yes, I believe in science-based decision making when it comes to public health matters. It is important that we rely on facts and evidence when carrying out our duties as elected officials.

Do you believe that black lives matter? If so, how will that be reflected in your administration?

Yes. As a former member of the Democratic Caucus Leadership in the US House of Representatives, I have a strong record on equal rights. I was saddened this week by the passing of my dear friend, John Lewis. It is important that government leaders continue to educate our electorate on the issues and promote equality in all we do. There are important initiatives underway in Hawaii including, but not limited to, The Popolo Project. There are also local organizations with relevant information for those who desire to take an active role in eliminating racism in Hawaii: African Diversity Cultural Center Hawaiʻi, the Honolulu African American Film Festival, NAACP Honolulu Branch and the Hawaii Community Bail Fund. My goal as Mayor would be to help the NAACP: Eliminate disparate treatment of minorities in all aspects of law enforcement and criminal justice systems; Accelerate economic growth in our communities and eliminate existing racial and ethnic economic disparities; Ensure all students have access to an equal and high-quality education by eliminating education-related racial and ethnic disparities; Increase access to quality healthcare for all citizens and promote policies and practices to reduce health-related disparities for minorities; Increase minorities’ participation in the democratic process by removing roadblocks and disincentives and Promote fair and equitable human rights and economic justice for people of color across the globe.

Do you believe in food sustainability? If so, what will you do to preserve the island’s ag land? Do you have any plans to fight over-development?

Yes. I was Senate President when the “Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Plan” was published (2008), which included the following goal: Local foods and products: 30% of food consumed can be grown locally, 85% of fruits and vegetables we consume can be grown locally. When the plan was rolled out, my biggest concern then was that the plan would generate a significant buzz followed by the plan ending up on a bookshelf with little to no implementation.

In 2018, the Hawai‘i State Auditor issued a report entitled “Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Plan – Ten Year Measurement Update” (March 7, 2018), which found that many of the state’s sustainability efforts lacked coordination and the report called on the state to focus on implementation. While I always support good, robust, community-based planning, I prioritize implementation and I have a long history of working with Hawaii’s food and agricultural industry to provide the necessary resources to encourage and facilitate locally grown sustainable agriculture. I also support responsible development.

Do you believe that gun control is imperative to protect the lives of school children? If so, how do you intend for Honolulu to lead the nation in stopping guns from being used to take innocent lives?

Yes. I have been a strong advocate for reasonable, responsible, and constitutional gun control at both the state and federal levels. While the Second Amendment confers an individual right to bear arms, that right is not unlimited. For example, the Second Amendment does not bar States from adopting reasonable measures to reduce firearm violence. In fact, the Second Amendment preserves States’ authority to enact firearm restrictions in furtherance of public safety. States have primary responsibility for ensuring public safety, which includes a duty to reduce preventable firearm violence and to minimize fatalities and injuries. See United States v. Morrison, 529 US 598, 618 (2000) (“[W]e can think of no better example of the police power . . . reposed in the States [] than the suppression of violent crime and vindication of its victims.”). As Mayor, I will continue to advocate for policies at the local, state and federal levels which constitutionally protect our citizens, including our keiki, from gun violence.

Aloha,

Colleen Hanabusa

Who to vote for, Honolulu Mayor election 2020?

Hawaii, Politics

Jul 202020

The bad news: Most of the candidates are duds. Here’s my analysis of each one.

Mufi Hanneman is qualified. And I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Mufi for TheBoat, which was a wonderful innovation, even though it ultimately failed. Gotta give him credit for trying. But Mufi is too pro-tourism. I don’t believe that the health of our elders can be trusted to him. Of course, he gives lip service to remaining vigilant in the fight against COVID-19. But he won’t protect our elders from COVID-19 if their well-being gets in the way of profits for the hotel industry. And wasn’t Mufi responsible for the huge mountains of garbage that rose up on the streets in my neighborhood? It took years to get that problem under control. And I can’t get over the fact that he was against gay rights (he opposed gay marriage). Boo!

Kym Pine is probably qualified. She has been accused in the past of being a gun-toting member of the Tea Party, but I can’t determine if this was true. It’s true that she was a Republican until 2016, and one must assume that she changed party affiliation in order to improve her prospects of winning elections in Hawaii. But since then she seems to have largely governed like a Democrat. She has done some impressive stuff on the City Council, some of it genuinely good. It’s hard, though, to find an ideological through-line in her legislative record. What does she stand for? And then there’s this: According to Civil Beat, in 2015 Pine approved Ho’opili after accepting $160,000 in campaign contributions from people connected with the project. Ho’opili is a huge housing project in Kapolei that required paving over some of the best farmland in the world. The developer made big bucks by convincing (bribing?) politicians to rezone agriculture land. SUPER YUCKY!

Rick Blangiardi was a football coach and TV executive. Sorry, that doesn’t qualify you to run a city of 980,000 people. Also, on his website he says on the subject of development, “I will streamline the planning and permitting process to save time and money for builders, and get construction underway faster.” Um… no thank you. That ain’t what we need right now. Politically, Blandiardi is an Independent. This might mean that he’s able to take the best ideas from both the Left and the Right. Or, it might mean he doesn’t have a coherent philosophy of his own, just a big bag of platitudes.

John Carroll is a conservative Republican in favor of deregulation. Nooooo! Interestingly, Carroll advocates a restoration of agriculture, which I like. And it doesn’t bother me that he’s 90 years old, either. But, we just can’t allow a Republican in office right now, ruining everything with their dumb theories. With the fiasco of the disastrous mismanagement of the pandemic by Republicans at all levels of government nation-wide, their party needs to be barred from power, until such time that they pull their heads out of their posterior noggin depositories. (The only Republican I might support right now is Djou, just because I believe he is competent and has genuine integrity. But he isn’t running.)

Ho Yin (Jason) Wong isn’t qualified and sounds a little nutty. He’s a relatively new transplant to Hawaii, which also counts against him. He wants to discontinue the rail project, and he has interesting ideas of what to do with the elevated tracks we’ve already built. What are those ideas, you ask? Put homeless people up there. Or prisoners. Or a technology institute. One of his other ideas it to give honeymooners money when they arrive on the island to spend here.

William “Bud” Stonebraker is a Trump Republican, it would appear. He doesn’t believe climate change is a problem for Hawaii. And he thinks that COVID-19 isn’t a big deal. Oy!

Audrey Keesing is hard to find info about. In the Civil Beat Q&A she gave some decent answers. The closest thing to a campaign website I can find is her Facebook page, which reveals that she’s a stand-up comedian and a former dancer. Sounds like an interesting person. But… not qualified for the job. At this point, though, I’m actually tempted to vote for her, only because the other choices are so dismal. If she has a background in Theatre, she’s probably cool.

Choon James has something going for her: an endorsement from Kioni Dudley. That counts for a lot in my book. But she just isn’t remotely qualified for the job. And while the platform on her website mentions a couple of good ideas, like capping property taxes for elderly owner-occupants, it leaves many vital questions unanswered.

Keith Amemiya‘s experience is a little better than some of the others: He was Senior VP of Island Holdings, whatever that is, and he has served on various boards and commissions; so at least he’s familiar with the way government works, and he has some experience running an organization. But does that make you ready to run a big city? Idunno. As for his priorities, I like what his website says about climate change. But his “Housing For All” plan sounds like the same horse poop we always hear from pro-development politicians, who keep giving sweetheart deals to developers under the guise of promoting affordable housing — the very developers who help fund their campaigns. YUCK. This article at Civil Beat is full of helpful info about Amemiya. The story about the condo he bought in Kakaako is super fishy and makes him sound sleazy as hell. It sounds like he helped the developer build in Kakaako, and then he was given the chance to buy one of the units for cheap. Ugh. That stinks of corruption. On that basis, I can’t vote for him.

Last but not least is Colleen Hanabusa. She’s qualified. There’s no question that she has the experience needed to understand the complexities of government. Where does she stand on the issues? It’s hard to know! Her website is wordy without being informative, and it isn’t clear or user-friendly. In the Civil Beat Q&A with her, she was asked a direct question about how Honolulu should prepare for a climate change. Her answer demonstrated knowledge about the topic, but she wasn’t able to articulate her vision. When asked how she would alleviate traffic congestion, she said only, “there must also be a reduction in the flow to downtown Honolulu.” Umm… DUH. That was assumed in the question. HOW will you reduce the flow? My main concerns with Hanabusa are: 1) that the lack of clarity in her answers might betray the lack of a clear vision, and this will translate into a weak administration that makes little progress on anything important; and 2) that the one area where she is clear is “affordable housing.” I’m cynical about so-called “affordable housing,” because I think in truth it translates to over-development, without solving any problems for poor people.

So, that’s all of the candidates. Notice how almost all them are conservatives?

How come we can’t have a candidate who’s a true-blue progressive liberal Democrat, with strong values, big ideas, a bold plan, and enough backbone to see it through?

The Pro-Death Republicans

Politics

Jun 292020

This isn’t rocket science.

We’re in the middle of a global pandemic. If we care about saving human lives, it’s pretty clear what we need to do:

Follow the advice of public health officials.

The fact that this turned into a conservative-vs-liberal thing is beyond bizarre. And the fact that the self-styled “Pro-Life” side is so vehemently against taking even modest steps to save lives, like wearing masks and social distancing, is maddening. And it shows who they really are.

Masks work. You should wear one when you’re near others in public. It’s basic human decency to ensure you don’t spread your germs onto them, possibly murdering them. If you don’t get that, you’re an ass hat.

The war against masks is a war against science, against truth, and against giving a crap about other people.

As for Trump, this quote from Russell Crowe in The Gladiator says it all:

The time for honoring yourself will soon be at an end.

Related reading: Zompist’s blog.

Obama!

Politics

Oct 272018

I’ll say it again… Oh, how I love him…

Obama!

Politics

Sep 082018

Oh, how I love him…

Why Trump Will Be Around For Eight Years, Thanks to HuffPo

Environmentalism, Politics

Aug 182017

I’ve held off on posting about Trump’s presidency, but it’s time to wade into the muck.

If you haven’t seen this yet, there’s a fun video where Brooke Baldwin at CNN sums up Trumps presidency so far:

We’re starting to get a pretty good picture of what kind of President Donald Trump is. For a guy who claims to be a political outsider, Trump has all the markings of your stereotypical scumbag politician. He has it all, the whole package:

Lying
Rampant hypocrisy
Breaking promises
Scandals
Taking credit for accomplishments that aren’t really his

He is on track to being remembered as the worst president in our country’s history. The only thing potentially stopping him from winning that title is that his rancorous personality and political ineptitude actually make him (thankfully!) fairly ineffectual at enacting the worst elements of his policy agenda, at least so far.

The problem, though, is that the people on my side, the Left, the “Liberal Elite,” somehow think Trump’s apparent downward spiral means we’re winning. We’re not.

Trump is winning and we’re losing.

The current moral outrage at Trump’s remarks about Charlottesville will disappear like chaff in the wind by the time the next election rolls around.

In fact, I have a prediction:

Donald Trump will win re-election in 2020 and serve two full terms.

HuffPo has been promising Donald Trump’s imminent resignation. Their headline the other day was “The Descent.” They’re trying to make us believe that somehow some miracle will happen and Trump will disappear. That’s delusional.

The exact same thing that happened during the campaign is happening again. HuffPo told us Hillary Clinton had a 98% chance of winning, which was of course a major contributor to her loss. People voted for other candidates or simply didn’t vote, because they assumed Hillary would win.

The liberal echo-chamber is undermining us. Again. We’re so desperate for hope that we’re not able to confront reality. We’re deluding ourselves, lying to ourselves.

We need to stop being so damn positive. False optimism is killing us. We need a healthy dose of pessimism right now. And we need to focus our attention on the right things.

Understand this: TWEETS ARE NOT NEWS.

Quietly, while the media focuses on his inflammatory tweets, Trump has been a busy beaver signing evil little bills passed by the Republican congress, and make no mistake: bad things are happening in our country under this president, bad things having nothing to do with the alt-right. Here’s just one small example. He signed H.J.Res.38, a bill repealing the Stream Protection Rule, an Obama administration rule that barred the dumping of surface mining waste into streams. This is just one part of Trump’s attack on clean water.

He is stacking up a list of such “accomplishments.” These initiatives will stimulate the economy in the short term, but at great cost to the environment and human health. Besides being morally repugnant, these choices will end up being economically disastrous. Someday, someone is going to have to clean up those streams, and that’s going to cost much more money than we stand to gain by polluting them.

But in the short term the deregulation will boost the economy and that, together with Trump unabashedly taking credit for economic momentum from the Obama years, gives him an economic message to sell to voters. And it’s going to work.

Additionally, Trump has a couple of other genuine accomplishments that progressives aren’t acknowledging, but voters will:

Illegal immigration from Mexico appears to be way down. This is something even Democrats have said should be a goal.
Trump’s tough talk on North Korea may actually work. At least it’s something new. Everything we’ve tried before has failed.

And we shouldn’t celebrate the resiliency of the ACA just yet, either. Trump has failed to repeal it so far, but he still has time.

Trump is the troll-in-chief. He says the most maddening things, and he knows what he’s doing. He thrills on frustrating Liberals. His base thrills on it, too. They post on their forums how they love to drink the tears of weeping liberals. And liberals who express their frustration through violence are falling right into Trump’s hands.

We keep underestimating this dude. We haven’t grasped that his power lies in his appeal to the national id. We don’t know how to counter that. We haven’t yet learned how to fight Trump. Whenever we think we’re outsmarting him, he is outsmarting us. Whenever it looks like we have him on his knees, ready to submit, he’s actually planting a grenade in our back pocket.

Donald Trump’s presidency is a disaster. The harm being caused is immense. But we’re not close to stopping him. America is losing, but Trump is winning.

How do we turn it around?

Democrats need new blood. We need new leadership, new voices. We need someone like Britain’s Jeremy Corbyn, who can make a strong case for an investment-economy. But this economic message needs to be matched with a political message of non-violence, humility, and love. Like MLK or Gandhi. Also add grace and humor.

And don’t even mention Trump’s name. You don’t have to attack Trump. Everybody already knows Trump is a blowhard, a liar, a jerk, an ignoramus, a racist, a fascist, and so on. Even Trump’s most ardent supporters kind-of know it. Trump wins when the story is about Trump, even if it seems like a negative story.

Make the story a positive one, about a new political movement based upon love. Refuse to talk about Trump.

But what about when Trump insults you with one of his famous tweets?

How you respond is of utmost important. If you get hot under the collar, if you let Trump ruffle your feathers, if you become hateful to match his hatefulness, if you get ugly to match his ugliness, you’ve played right into his hands. Trump doesn’t care if people think he’s a petty a**hole as long as he can get his opponents to look like petty a**holes, too. He’s a born mud-wrestler, and he knows if he can turn a contest into mud-wrestling match, he’ll win. He knows when to go on the assault, when to play the victim, when to feign moral outrage, when to be a lovable rogue, when to boast about his intelligence, when to play dumb. You can’t win that fight.

But you also can’t ignore it. If you refuse to answer you let Trump define you.

Whether you like it or not, a nasty Trump tweet about you will become the story of the day. If your response is boring, Trump’s tweet will get the attention rather than your response, and you’ll lose. Your job is to make your response the better story.

This may seem counter-intuitive, but I think it would work: When Trump insults you, hold a big press conference, and smile and admit all the ways that those insults might be right, and then say, with genuine humility, what you’re doing to try to improve yourself. Don’t insult him back. It’s a disarming technique that is supremely humble, and yet keeps the spotlight on you rather than transferring it back to Trump. Turn Trump’s nasty tweets into little gifts. Respond to every one, in person, on camera, telling jokes and being self-deprecating. Don’t be bitter. Use them as chances to speak from your heart about your policy agenda and how it will help people.

Joe Biden could pull it off.

Election Consolation… From Gandalf

Politics, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Nov 092016

We find ourselves in a surreal nightmare. This was a stupid, unnecessary loss, caused by misinformation and carelessness and apathy, and the consequences will be dire. Now we must watch helplessly as our new ignoramus-in-chief dismantles all the progress made over Obama’s presidency. It’s tragic, it’s heartbreaking, it’s maddening. I’m still processing it. And I need more time for that.

But I’m ready to start looking for hope within the gloom. I was reminded today that Gandalf can be a good source of positivity in dark times.

“There are other forces at work in this world besides the will of evil.”

That’s a pretty good quote. And here’s another one, a quote from the abolitionist Theodore Parker:

I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.

Martin Luther King paraphrased Parker in a line in his “Where Do We Go From Here?” speech, which Obama likes to quote: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

I believe in this. Not in any supernatural force bending the arc of the moral universe, but that it bends. We bend it. Eventually, love and reason triumph over fear and ignorance.

Brace for Impact

Politics

Nov 092016

Like most liberals, I’m having a really hard time with Hillary Clinton’s loss. I’m feeling shock, horror, dread, anger, and immense disappointment. And most of all I’m very, very sad.

But let’s get back to the anger.

I’m angry that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and that liberals outnumber conservatives in this country, and yet Republicans now control the presidency, the House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court. Every branch of government at the federal level. That doesn’t seem fair.

I’m angry at Susan Sarandon endorsing Jill Stein and saying, “I feel even those in swing states have the opportunity to vote their conscience.” It only took 16 years to completely forget the lessons of the 2000 election. Ms. Sarandon, stop patting yourself on the back for your purity. You aren’t more progressive than Clinton supporters, not one jot more progressive, you’re just less realistic. Your irrational form of idealism may feel good to you but it comes at a steep price. (But I love your acting.)

I’m angry at Huffington Post for claiming Clinton had a 98% chance of winning. Such rosy prognostications from HuffPo and others encouraged liberals to just stay home yesterday or vote for third parties, even in swing states (see above), which really helped Trump. Irresponsible.

I’m angry at evangelical Christians for their cynicism and hypocrisy. Even if you don’t believe he raped that 13 year old girl at Wexner Mansion with his buddy and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the evidence of Trump’s womanizing is hard to refute. Evangelicals, after all your holier-than-thou bullcrap when Bill Clinton stood accused, how can you possibly support a guy like Donald Trump? How can you support a guy who is so cruel to immigrants? You are liars without any genuine decency. I’ve never much agreed with you on policy issues but at least I respected your convictions. You never deserved that respect. Your fine talk about morality was always a farce. I see that now.

I’m angry that Vladimir Putin and Julian Assange meddled in our democracy and we let them get away with it. And I’m angry that the Republican Congress refused to confirm a Supreme Court nominee until after the election and we let them get away with it.

I’m angry at anybody intellectually lazy enough to conclude that Trump and Clinton were equally flawed candidates.

I’m angry that our country, by rejecting Clinton, has rejected the current administration’s economic policies, which have been successful by any reasonable measure and have led to our nation’s recovery, in favor of Trump’s vague promises to make things “great,” especially considering that most of Trump’s ideas are the very sort of ideas that caused the recession in the first place.

I’m angry at people whining about Obamacare and what a disaster it is. They’re wrong and they’ll miss it when it’s gone.

I’m angry that a clearly qualified female candidate lost to a clearly unqualified male one. I don’t believe this election would’ve gone the same way if the democratic candidate were male. I’m angry that so much of our country is so deeply sexist.

I’m angry that I’m going to have to look at Trump’s smug, pampered, ignorant, self-absorbed family on TV, with their obnoxious sense of entitlement. How did we let these creeps bamboozle us? How did our nation’s outrage at the 1% fuel the rise to power of people so emblematic of the 1%?

I’m angry that our next president will be a chauvinist, a sexual assaulter, a racist, a demagogue, an erratic narcissist, a pathological liar, a tax evader, a science denier, an NRA crackpot, and a religious bigot.

meteor impact All of the progress of the past eight years–the Paris Agreement, the Affordable Care Act, Dodd-Frank, America’s repaired image abroad, the reversal of Bush-era torture policies, the fuel efficiency standards, the EPA restrictions on coal plants, the Iran nuclear deal–it’s all in jeopardy. But not only will Trump walk us backwards, not only will he rewind the progress we’ve made, he’ll walk us in an ugly new direction, giving our country new problems we could have avoided, problems that will plague us for years to come. There’s a reason he’s so beloved by KKK-types like David Duke. Trump’s election has breathed life into the alt-right, a new movement of nationalistic, white-supremacist fascists.

So that’s where we’re at, and that’s why I’m angry.

I know we’ll be okay. I know there’s reason for hope somewhere, somehow. But it’s hard to see today.

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