VOICES FROM THE WILDERNESS...... HOW LONG WILL THE WINTER LAST?

We should join in celebrating the power of peaceful protest that was demonstrated earlier this month in North Dakota. After months of effort, the Army Corps of Engineers announced that they would not issue a permit to the pipeline company to construct an oil pipeline on significant tribal lands and under a pure water lake - Lake Oahe - that is a water supply source and houses sacred Sioux sites. This victory of people over corporate greed should be a source of pride and encourage all of us to know that taking a stand is more than worth the effort. It is notable that this victory comes at the very same time that 2000-3000 veterans chose to join the protest to protect those who had peaceably assembled to protest the construction of the pipeline under the lake. They faced "militarized" local law enforcement attempting to "encourage" the protesters to abandon their camp through the use of water cannon, flash-bang grenades, spotlights, and constant flyovers - day and night - to harass the protesters. The threat of forcible removal after the December 5th deadline to evacuate, evaporated on December 4th with the Army Corps announcement. March on......

Yet, the proponents of the pipeline, including the incoming President, have said that the pipeline will be built.  Will a President Trump simply order the Army Corps of Engineers to reverse their decision to deny the necessary permits for the project to proceed to violate the pristine waters that the Native Americans had protected?  Or, will the Army Corp prevail and develop an alternative route for the pipeline?  Only time will tell.  Meanwhile, the pipeline issue remains frozen in time - just like the freezing temperatures in North Dakota that were endured by the members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe protesters and the thousands of military vets who stood with them in the days before the Army Corps announcement.

Other protests across the nation took place in a variety of cities and towns, protesting the election of Donald Trump.  Large in some city venues and smaller in other towns and villages, most were peaceful protest marches that appeared more like funeral processions than street activism.  Nonetheless, the point was made that a good segment of the electorate was concerned regarding the outcome of the 2016 election and felt the need to communicate that to a broader audience.  After all, the President-elect had said so many hateful things and taken a variety of positions with which a majority of Americans disagree, that demonstrations were predictable.  And, after all of the focus and commentary regarding women's issues, including considerable misogyny by Trump, and the now-famous Trump Tapes with Billy Bush, it should be no surprise that planning for a "Woman's March on Washington" began in earnest in the days after the election.  Feeling at risk and abused by Trump's testosterone-fueled attitude toward women, many wanted to take a stand rather than quietly roll over and accept the notion that decades of progress might be lost overnight with the Trump ascendancy.  In fact, this writer has joined in the fray as well.  As a member of the NJ Legislature in the late 70s, I was a co-sponsor of the state version of the Woman's ERA and a supporter of the ERA constitutional amendment.  The ERA passed in NJ but failed to garner the support of enough states across the nation to become a part of the US Constitution. The March will take place on January 21st - one day after the Donald is sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. 500,000 women and their supporters are expected to descend on the nation's capital on that day, not to protest the Trump election, but to stand for equality and women's rights.

So far, the National Park Service and the Trump Transition Team has yet to release a permit for a public site in DC for this demonstration of women's solidarity.  You can bet, however, that the march will happen.  What is unclear is how the Trump crowd will respond.  Will they really try to deny the women the "right peaceably to assemble"?  Are water cannon in our future as they were for the the Standing Rock Sioux tribe protesters?  Are there enough police vans to arrest thousands of women on that day? Or, will the permits be issued, hundreds of thousands of women arrive and assemble for their march and peaceful demonstration, raise their issues, make their point, and return home to their families and children on a cold January day?  We will know the answer to these question in a few weeks.  And, just maybe, how this event is handled will foretell much about the new Trump administration... 

DEMOCRATIC "DRIFT", THE "BASKET OF DEPLORABLES" AND THE "DUMB VOTE."

Many of us are still in shock and cannot understand how Donald Trump, with all of his failings - from business bankruptcies to misogynist "p%**Y- grabbing" statements to wall building and his insults regarding Latinos, Mexicans, Muslims, and others - could win the presidency WHILE losing the popular vote by 2.9 million votes.  We wonder... how could all of those folks, including many former Democrats, union members, blue collar folks, women, and minorities, cast enough of their votes for Trump in historically blue states (carried by Obama twice), that Hillary lost this historic opportunity to become the first US woman president?  Why did these voters cast their votes against their own interests and help to elect someone who is plainly supporting policies and positions that they oppose?  Now, I am not a pollster - but, then again, they were all wrong.  I am not a pundit - but, they were all wrong too. I am a Progressive Democrat and I am rightly and mightily concerned that in about one month Donald Trump will take the oath and become president of the United States!  Along with his cabinet appointments, he is moving toward the day of reckoning and I felt sort of like a resident of Tatooine in Star Wars watching the skies as the Death Star, the Imperial Emperor, and Darth Vader slowly approach for the final showdown with the resistance.  "How did we get here?" seems to be the question.  So, let me add my view on this question, right or wrong.

1.  THE DEMOCRATIC DRIFT.  Early on in the primary season, I had the uncomfortable feeling that somehow, we as Democrats just were not connecting with our brethren in the mid-west.  With the Sanders campaign in full battle mode, they scored with working families - especially in the mid-west states of Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania - on issues related to job loss and economic opportunity.  Senator Sanders placed the blame on NAFTA and other free-trade proposals, notable the Trans Pacific Partnership that President Obama was pressing hard for at that time and Secretary Clinton had described as the "gold standard of trade agreements."   Although Hillary had reversed field on the TPP, most skeptical voters assumed that candidates say whatever is necessary to win and that she simply felt some heat from the left and flip-flopped on the issue.  Meanwhile, the Trump camp specifically and the Republican Party generally, who had all along expected to run against Clinton, was spending months attempting to embed in the minds of the voters that Hillary was not "trustworthy."

In the end, many blue-collar workers, especially in the mid-west, felt that they had been abandoned by the Democratic party - and by Hillary Clinton in particular.  After all, Democrats had "sold them out" with "bad trade deals." They came to believe that Bill Clinton did it with his support of NAFTA. And, Barak Obama was now doing the same thing with TPP.  In spite of Hillary's protestations that she opposed TPP (after she supported it), she was "sandwiched" between her husband and her President on the issue, and that was that.  The laid-off factory workers and those who lost their jobs to off-shore operations as companies moved their factories to low-labor-cost locations south of the border, and corporations moved their cash off-shore to foreign tax havens, saw this as Hillary fudging the truth.  In any case, working families felt abused, abandoned, and sacrificed to the profit motivations of large companies, millionaire CEOs, and the corporate elite. Even worse, they concluded that the political class - the DC elite - K Street lobbyists and the Beltway denizens - was not a part of the solution, but that they had also sold out to corporate interests, and were a part of the problem - Democrats included. The "Democratic Drift" was becoming a deluge. 

After all, didn't Hillary just get paid $500,000 for a speech to Goldman Sachs?  Isn't Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation taking millions of dollars in donations from US corporations and foreign interests and governments too?  Doesn't that mean that they are also in the pockets of the wealthy business interests? So...  who does Hillary listen too?  No wonder the banks got bailed out when the recession hit....  and, the rest of us lost homes to foreclosure...  No wonder that the stock market DOUBLED AND MORE over the last 8 years and the pay of CEOs went through the roof while pay for working folks is falling further and further behind. And, what about Whitewater??? And, Benghazi???  And, who killed Vince Foster anyway??? Do you realty think that Hillary now sees the mistakes she made and the painful job losses resulting from these international trade deals that benefit wealthy corporations or is she just saying that now so she gets to be elected?  And, after all, after all of these investigations over years, with all that smoke there must be some fire too, right?

The goal of this insidious and continuous right-wing strategy to discredit the Clintons and drive mistrust of Hillary worked.  Poll after poll showed that most voters felt that Hillary was competent and experienced but, not trustworthy enough to be president. So, if both Democrats and Republicans are in the deep pockets of millionaires, billionaires, and big corporate interests including Wall Street, then who can save us?  Who can we trust to feel our pain and to carry our banner?  Perhaps it is someone who isn't part of the political class, not from inside the beltway, not a part of the merry-go-round of pay-to-play politics that has poisoned our democracy.  The conclusion was that an outsider was needed - someone who didn't take big donations, was not "politically correct", would speak the truth, and would clearly take up our cause for a better future with more economic opportunity, better health care options, and more security in the future.  And, that person.... was and is Donald J. Trump. Nativism, misogyny, and isolationism, aside, Trump seemed up front and strong.  Naming Mexicans and Muslims as the problem provided the scapegoats necessary, and the seemingly-stalled Obama Administration (blocked at every turn by Republicans in the House and Senate), looked ineffective at addressing these issues and a boatload of other challenges. President Obama, as he continued to campaign for the TPP well into the Primary Election season, seemed out of touch with working folks. Trump, on the other hand, promised to sink the trade deals proposed, re-negotiate NAFTA, stop the flow of illegals into the US, and prevent the entry of "dangerous" Muslims into our country.  Expanding job opportunity, bringing back corporate profits from their off-shore locations, and preventing American jobs from leaving the country was the snake oil that was needed to ignite a large number of voters who had tuned out over the years and to bring along some Democratic voters who felt abandoned and set a drift by their own party.  Both groups "drifted" over to Trump in sufficient numbers in the industrial mid-west to turn the tide in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to name a few, and that gave Trump the Electoral votes necessary to win the Presidency.

2. "DEPLORABLES AND THE DUMB VOTE"  As I watched Hillary speak at a LBGT fund-raising event in New York, I winced when she delivered the line describing Trump supporters as being a "basket of deplorables." The line got a rousing round of applause and was much the topic discussion and blow-back from the Trump campaign and a broad number of commentators in the days that followed.  I am sure that the comment was meant to describe racists, misogynists, Islamophobic and homophobic folks as "deplorable", and not apply it to every person who felt that Trump was the answer.  In my opinion, those beliefs - and the people who espouse them are, in fact, deplorable - especially in a democratic system where all are "created equal" and freedom of religion is embedded in our founding document, the US Constitution. Still, the comment was made and those Trump supporters who believed that Hillary had insulted them as throw-away Americans, took offense at this apparent insult.  Shirts reading, "I am not deplorable", or just "DEPLORABLE" appeared and underscored the sting of the comment that Hillary made at that event.  She paid dearly for that statement on election day, having inflamed Trump supporters with this perceived insult.

Throughout the campaign, and especially in connection with the ever-present incremental polling reports, a distinction was constantly made between "college educated voters" and those "without a degree."  It seemed that the level of education variable had a distinct data impact on who the voter was attracted to as a candidate. It looked as though the "college educated" leaned to Clinton and those "without a college education" toward Trump.  The dialogue was quickly transformed into short-hand comments that sounded like a distinction between the "smart vote" and the "dumb vote" or, in the alternative, the "educated vote" and the "uneducated vote."  No matter how you slice it, these descriptions mutated into yet another insult leveled at Trump voters by the "lyin' media" and the "DC elites in the beltway" supported by those wealthy Wall Street folks and the liberal coastals in NY and LA. It was the rest of the country - the great middle and working folks - who felt abandoned, lied to, and abused by that crowd who now called them "dumb", "stupid", and "uneducated" for finding themselves in economic distress. More of the same just was not an attraction for these "dumb" voters. The alternative choice was someone who was one of them and who publicly defended them in rally after rally - Donald Trump. In fact, at one rally, Trump even announced that he "loved uneducated voters" after  an earlier polling report showed that he was narrowing the gap between he and Hillary in one state. As the rage of these "deplorable, dumb, and uneducated" voters seethed with insult after insult heaped upon them by people, pollsters, politicians, and Democrats who they had supported for decades, their anger grew as did their commitment to Trump.  Their frustration and anger would be evident on election day - revenge would be theirs on November 8th.  After all, their hero - Trump - would never actually DO any of those outlandish things that he said during rallies...... right?

The truth is that the system - Democrats and Republicans alike - had failed working families over the last 20 years.  From the mid-90s through 2016, too much money in politics - in fact, an obscene amount of money, including "dark money" - that has polluted our political system; too much abuse of redistricting of congressional districts making our "representative democracy" less than representative and more of a manipulation; too much gridlock and too little responsiveness in the Beltway; and too much disconnect from every-day real people and the problems that they face every day has sewn the seeds of suspicion and distrust in our governmental institutions and those who lead them.  The "deplorable, dumb, and uneducated" voters sought out - and found - an outside "disruptor" to "drain the swamp" and "blow up the system."  And, the person they chose was Donald Trump. Trump first beat the Republican establishment and then laid waste the Democratic establishment as well. The question remains, what will a President Trump do and how will he do it?  In a few weeks, the next chapter will begin.

In the days ahead, I will explore the Trump cabinet nominees and the seeds of the resistance being sown even now.  

 

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE BOYS, WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? A REPUBLICAN TRAIN WRECK?

In 1917, Howard Johnson and Percy Wenrich wrote a song entitled, "Where do we go from here?"  The ditty became a popular refrain - especially the chorus - "Oh joy, oh boy, where do we go from here? - during the First World War. The United States had entered the "War to End All Wars" as then-President Woodrow Wilson described the conflict, and American spirit was high.  After all, we had yet to experience the horrors of trench warfare on the Western Front.  Young men by the thousands volunteered to join the ranks of our troops, eager to score a quick victory for the Allied effort. As they marched, songs were sung like this one and the famous "Over There" (1918).

Though I am up in years, I am not old enough to have been one of those marching volunteers in WWI.  But, as a teacher of American History decades later, I came across these tunes and they stuck.  I had not thought about them for decades - until now.  And, given the surprise (at least for me) victory of Donald Trump in the race for the presidency, I thought it was an appropriate question to ask - "where do we go from here?"  Whether Democrats, Progressives, Republicans, Liberals, Environmentalists, Independents, think tanks, union members, business owners, corporate types, or Republicans.... the same question applies and begs for an answer - "where do we go from here boys?"

REPUBLICANS:  Traditional Republicans, fully captured by the Conservative Party 20 years ago and re-enforced by the Tea Party, find that their "deficit hawk" theme, has been abandoned by the Trump juggernaut along with balanced budgets, and their want to dismantle government "activism". With Speaker Ryan - again - talking about privatizing Social Security, transforming Medicare into a voucher program with medical savings accounts, and making medicaid a state block grant (all resurrected from a decade and more ago), it appears that the House is on a collision course with soon-to-be-President Trump.  The Donald stated over and over during the course of the campaign that he seeks an INCREASE in Social Security, an EXPANSION of Medicare and opposes any suggestion that cuts to these social programs would be in order.  And, while Trump supports the repeal of Obamacare, his clear message is that it needs to be replaced with a BIGGER AND BETTER plan that includes "everyone."  Ryan's announced plan is to repeal Obamacare, eliminate the expansion of Medicaid, and replace it with NOTHING.  In other words, remove health care access to millions of Americans that have it today due to Obamacare and the subsidies that support it.  The Ryan plan and the Trump plan are polar opposites heading for a Trump Train wreck.  One might ask Speaker Ryan whether or not he has boarded the Trump Train yet.  You will recall that his ticket was barely "punched." Ryan is attempting to ignore facts or simply does not understand that the primary and general election victory of Donald Trump has transformed the Republican Party into a more activist and populist party and not the conservative, deficit-hawk posture that they have advocated for years.  And, just maybe, that is why Ryan is delighted that Mike Pence is heading the Transition Team..... Perhaps we are witnessing the very first policy coup as President Trump's agenda is undermined from within by his "allies" on the Hill.  So, lets take a look at some other the Ryan agenda:

1. Cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and any other "entitlement" social programs. Save cash.
2. Opposes increased spending on infrastructure projects as "boondoggles" that add to the deficit.
3. Supports increased spending, however, for military "build-up." This, of course, is in spite of the
    fact  that the US military is larger than the next largest 13 national military forces ADDED
    TOGETHER.  One can only speculate that military spending has no impact on the deficit?
    (Trump supports this position, largely because he is not a deficit-sensitive person.) 
4. Repeal Obamacare and replace it with nothing or with some yet-to-be determined scaled back
    program of medical savings accounts, tax credits for buying your own health care policy, and more
    of, "you-are-on-your-own" thinking.

With the exception of the military build-up, Trump is on the opposite side of all of these.  

These are just a few "flash points" that could start the fireworks between the Republican Presidency and the Republican Congress - the Ryan wing of the Party and the new Trump Republican brand.  So far, Mike Pence has succeeded in salting the new administration with Ryan/Pence congressional allies in top administration positions - a sort of "infiltration" of the more expansive populist Trump philosophy with the deficit-hawk slash and burn attitude.  Both sides are gathering up speed.  But, instead of traveling in the same policy direction, they appear to be on a collision course.  What happens when the sparks fly and the crash happens is anyone's guess at this point.  We may very well find out who the real President is - Trump or Ryan.  But, if I were a betting man, my money would be on the Trumpster.  Stay tuned. 

By the way, have you noticed that Mitch McConnell has been silent as these obvious differences inflate as we near January 20th?  Maybe he doesn't want to be standing on the tracks when these two engines collide.   

AN ELECTION IS A CHOICE. AND, VOTERS SENT A MESSAGE. WHAT IS IT?

As has often been said over the past two weeks or so, elections have consequences.  By this time we all know - and have accepted the fact - that Donald Trump won the presidential election of 2016.  Now that some time has slipped by, what does that really mean?  What did the American electorate really say with their votes on election day (well... we know that the majority of voters - by more than 2.000.000 - selected Hillary, but we are beyond that now)?  So, lets take a look using the 11/21/16 issue comparison that appeared in The Nation magazine's opening commentary.

1. Trump promised more tax cuts for the rich (and corporations, ed.) and deregulation.  Clinton pledges tax hikes for the rich to invest in rebuilding America.  Did the voters support tax cuts for the wealthy and oppose rebuilding America?
2. Trump said that he opposes raising the minimum wage; Clinton favors it. Are voters against increasing the minimum wage that would lift thousands of families out of poverty?
3. Trump thinks that global warming is a hoax invented by the Chinese; Clinton sees it as a clear and present danger.  Do voters think that global warming is a hoax?
4. Trump has no clue about student debt; Clinton pledges debt-free public college. Do voters want their kids in deeper and deeper debt or priced right out of the opportunity to go to college?
5. Trump promises to build a wall and ship millions of migrants out of the country; Clinton wants comprehensive immigration reform that will bring the undocumented out of the shadows.  Do voters want 11,000,000 people - men, women, and children - some here as much as 30 years, law-abiding and paying taxes - all rounded up in camps and shipped out of the country?
6. Trump wants Supreme Court judges that will protect the Second Amendment and repeal a woman's right to choose; Clinton wants justices that will overturn "Citizens United", curbing the role of secret corporate money in our elections.  Do voters want "secret corporate bags of cash" influencing elections?  Do voters want women to be compelled to carry a pregnancy to term that resulted from incest or rape or is a threat to the mother's health?

When we say that Trump "won" the election or carried this state or that state, are we saying that the American electorate supports guns, tax cuts for wealthy people and corporations, big debt for students, and "dark money" in politics?  Do we really mean that the voters oppose increasing the minimum wage, oppose a woman's right to choose what happens to her own body, and wants 11,000,000 people shipped out of the country before the Great American Wall is built across our southern border? If so, I don't recognize those voters.  I don't see them as Americans.  Yet, it seems that is what they are saying with their feet and with their votes.  And, what of those who did not vote - near 50% of the electorate.  Does that mean that half of voting Americans really don't care about any of those issues or actions?  I doubt that too.

So, what do those election results tell us?  If it isn't a reflection on a choice between the issue positions taken by the candidates, then, what is it?  Emails?  Nationalism and isolationism?  Sexism or gender discrimination?  FBI announcements?  Feelings of frustration and being "left behind, left out, and forgotten?"  At this writing, I am not certain of the answers to these questions.  What I am certain of is that, in spite of Republicans repeating the line that Trump "received a mandate" in the election, he certainly did not.  He lost the popular vote by nearly three million votes, but won the electoral vote 306-232 with 270 required to win election - a mixed message and a narrow win among electors.  A 37 vote turn-around would deny the presidency to the Donald - certainly not a "mandate." And, it would seem, in a similar vein,Trump's election as our next President is a mixed message sent by the voters as well. Just what they meant to say is still shrouded in mystery. I am sure it will be a topic of endless research and debate in the weeks ahead.  So, join the fun and leave a comment.  What do you think? 

"THESE ARE THE TIMES THAT TRY MEN'S SOULS": VALLEY FORGE AND THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT.

This famous Thomas Paine quote dating back to the American Revolution reflected the frustrations and disappointments experienced by colonial patriots when everything that they had witnessed suggested that the Revolution against King George was failing.  Losses on the battlefield against the world's strongest military power in that day, feuding between the various colonies over the plans for the future, arguments between military leaders who questioned George Washington's skills as a military leader, and wintering over at Valley Forge Pennsylvania all added up to grim prospects for the future of the fight for independence.  The fledgling Second Continental Congress, assembled in Philadelphia, abandoned that city as British General Howe and 15,000 troops captured the Rebel "capital" in the fall of 1777.  Meeting in York, PA, Congress could not agree on how to pay for supplies, equipment, and pay for the army, barely surviving in nearby Valley Forge. This was indeed the low point of the American Revolution. The future of the United States teetered on the brink of collapse. And, to those "rebel" leaders who pledged "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor" to the effort and had affixed their signatures to the "Declaration of Independence", it must have seemed that the hangman's noose was drawing near. Chaos.  Despair.

Right now - 240 years after the Second Continental Congress was "removed" from Philadelphia and Washington's troops retreated to Valley Forge for a winter of  recovery and re-grouping - progressives are at a similar crossroads.  We have lost on every important battlefield in the election. We are feuding and arguing over who is at fault and what direction to take in the future. As Democrats, we question our choice of leadership - Hillary Clinton, and wonder where we lost our way.  Right now are "wintering over" in this period between the election and the Inauguration of Donald Trump as the nation's 45th President, and conjuring up nightmares of the long, cold night that will begin on that day.  And, while there will not be a "hangman" in our future, many will face painful changes in their lives which may include registries based on religious preference, mass deportation of immigrant families, including citizen-children born in this country, and continued disproportionate incarceration of Black and Latino citizens. Women rightly fear the loss of Roe v. Wade and control over their own bodies, diminished equality in the workplace, and a return to the days of "Mad Men."  Working families, long frustrated with a lack of attention from the Beltway, are now voicing concern regarding a potential loss of health care, high cost of housing, continued low wages, and the lack of jobs.  Students see no debt relief in sight and seniors are now worried about the future of Social Securing and Medicare as Republican Speaker Paul Ryan gleefully speaks about privatizing these systems  and reducing benefits. And, minorities - Blacks, Latinos - and especially Muslims - have suffered a substantial increase of "hate" incidents across the country and fear that the forces of intolerance and racism have been unleashed during this campaign and have taken up residence in the White House with the appointment of Alt. Right leader Steve Bannon of Breitbart as "Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor" to the President.

As we winter over in this 2016-2017 Progressive/Liberal "Valley Forge", we can mourn.  And, we can wallow in recriminations.  We can argue over what might have been.  We can cast blame on one another and point fingers at each other.  Truth is - we should point the finger at ourselves and ask the question, what can we do to prepare to defend our democracy against the coming assault.  How can we - together - resist the easy temptation to close up shop and stew in our own juices and, instead, get prepared for the fight ahead.  As Hillary Clinton said in her first remarks delivered before a convention of the Children's Defense Fund the week after the election loss, she admonished her audience to continue their fight for the future saying, "because America is worth it. Our children are worth it. Believe in our country, fight for our values and never, never, ever give up...".  Now is not the time to look back or to surrender to an uncertain future.  Now is the time to take heart, to stand for our values, to talk truth to power, to speak out, rise up, and resist injustice wherever it may be found.  Join a group. March for justice. Write a letter to your representatives - in city hall, at the state capital, in congress or to the president himself.  As the winter at Valley Forge in 1777-1778 demonstrated, if we keep our resolve and commit to each other in defense of liberty, we can survive a terrible winter secure in the knowledge that we are all in this together and that the sun will rise and Spring will surely arrive. Instead of coming apart, we need to come together with a deepened resolve to freedom and equality for all. 

Our democracy is resilient.  But we need to be vigilant, committed to a better future, and willing to pledge our "fortunes and sacred honor" through supporting organizations that defend and advocate a progressive agenda and being personally ready to march for justice for all people. Valley Forge gave Washington's commanders the time to organize, train, and get ready for the coming battles. Let us use our "winter" to organize, train, and get ready to resist, to march, to peacefully demonstrate, and to engage in the fights ahead.  In the end, we can... and we will... shape a better nation for our children and for their children.  

JUST SAY "NO"!

Nancy Reagan led an anti-drug-use campaign 30 years ago with the slogan, "Just say no!"  The inference was that someone tempted to use drugs (judged a bad thing), could simply avoid taking them altogether - it was easy!  And, if enough young folks just said "no", then the problem of drug addiction would disappear.  Today, dozens or marches opposing the Trump election have taken place across America chanting, "not my president."  But, no amount of chanting, marching, sloganeering, sign-waving, and shouting will make President-Elect Trump go away.  No matter how loud or frequent the chant - "not my president" - becomes, it's not like the Trumpworld show will be cancelled due to bad ratings. The time for active opposition crested on election day and the wave of opposition turned out not to be quite enough - we lost.  Well... sort of.  Hillary won the popular vote by more than a million votes but lost the electoral vote to Donald Trump (290 to 232) by losing virtually every "must-win" states on the board.  Still, Donald Trump will take the oath of office on January 20th, 2017 at high noon as the nation's 45th President.

For those who were too busy to vote, and those who now march but didn't exercise their franchise on election day, and those who thought that Hillary would certainly win and didn't send in their absentee ballot, I feel for your loss.  So, while you can feel the sting of disappointment, there is no denying that Donald Trump won the election.  For better or worse, Trump is the president of ALL OF US.  And, as such, he has the burden to govern.  Does that mean that we have no right to stand up and be counted?  That we should simply lay down and surrender?  That we should abandon the battlements of policy, progressive issues, fairness, and equity for all Americans?  Of course not.  In fact, I have taken some steps to keep the drum beat going - and you can too.  Letters to the editor in your local press and/or on social media, calling out the Trump machine on social media when they threaten the rights of yourself, your family, or others, opposing the Republicans in their mad dash to a conservative Supreme Court intent on a repeal of Roe v. Wade and protecting the role of big, dark money in campaigns.  The US Constitution's First Amendment protects your right to free speech and "peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The time for mourning is coming to a close.  The time to organize, scrutinize, speak out, and resist has just begun...

IT'S A TRUMPWORLD AFTERALL..... AND, WHO IS THAT MAN BEHIND THE CURTIN?

Sorry for the delay in posting... I am just recovering from the shock of election night.  Now, at E-Day plus 2 I am still numb....  and, having a difficult time envisioning a Trump presidency.  With just 70+ days until the Donald is crowned as the leader of the free world, I think about what to do with the time left until that day arrives.  Part of me wants to begin to pack up to head for somewhere else - say, Canada, or some Caribbean Island far off the beaten path....  And, the optimistic side of me sees the protest marches that took place across America last night (at E-Day plus 1), and I think that there is still hope and that I should stay around for the good fight in defense of our democracy.  For me, this is still an open question.

I heard the very gracious concession speech delivered by Hillary yesterday - a true moment of calm in the face of the coming storm, and I heard the President deliver his transition cooperation statement as well.  Both President Obama and Hillary Clinton were generous and uplifting. They conveyed just the right theme in a continuous thread in US history of the peaceful hand-over of power following a vigorous campaign and election process.  To his credit, Donald Trump, now the President-elect, also delivered a reasonable victory speech, measured and conciliatory.  This election, somewhat like the Gore/Bush election, ended in a split decision, with one candidate winning the majority of the popular vote and the other winning the presidency courtesy of the mechanics of the electoral vote.  However, unlike Gore/Bush, the broader governmental picture reflects total Republican control of all of the levers of power in Washington with their control of the House, the Senate, the Presidency, and - soon to become - control of the US Supreme Court through Trump appointments to that body.  What comes next will be quite the ride - or will it?

In the closing scene of the 1972 film, "The Candidate", Robert Redford's character, Bill McKay, after winning a narrow victory for a California US Senate seat, asks his campaign manager, "what do we do now?"  In 2016, Trump might ask the very same question of his campaign staff. Or, the question might be, "who is that man behind the curtain?" Given that the Trump campaign had few specific policy positions or proposals and, insofar as the entire Trump ascendancy throughout the primaries and the general election was more a reflection of a populist, nationalistic, xenophobic, anti-trade- deals campaign and not a typical conservative orthodoxy of budget cuts, tax cuts (though there is that), decreasing the deficit, cutting social programs and privatizing Social Security to name a few. In fact, if the Trump "program" as alluded to during the campaign - replacing Obamacare with a better system, expanding and increasing Social Security and other social supports, a dramatic expansion of military and infrastructure spending, and building a multi-billion dollar southern border wall were to become his initial policy agenda, the traditional conservative Republicans in the Congress will have their hair on fire.  And - just maybe - should that occur, a new coalition might be formed - between a mix of Republicans who recognize that the "old" Republican party policy prescriptions were eclipsed by Donald Trump and that the 2016 Trump Republican Party is a populist version of uplifting the downtrodden and abandoned working families who felt left behind by the Beltway, and a bunch of liberal Democrats who see a path for progress that had previously been blocked by the Tea Party and their allies.

Right now, Paul Ryan and his conservative allies are positioning themselves as though their slash and burn Tea Party agenda will sail through Congress and will be quickly signed by President Trump. Maybe they are right.... but, perhaps not.  I guess that I will stick around to find out the answer to that question.  After all, there is always Canada......   

TRICK OR TWEET: THE GHOSTS, GOBLINS, AND GHOULIANIS OF ELECTION 2016

Every adult and child in the USA well knows the "creatures" of Halloween - Ghost and Goblins, witches and monsters, gargoyles and ghouls.  Of course, there is always the traditional "trick or treat" door-to-door parades featuring costumed children and buckets of candy.  For the most part, this annual pre-thanksgiving tradition on October 31st, launches the Month of November and announces the arrival of the winter season.  2016, with its deplorables, Russian hackers, and mean-spirits engaged in the presidential race, features our political set of "scary" folks.  Perhaps the most frightening "ghouls" to be engaged this year is former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (or Ghouliani).  While Donald Trump has played "trick or tweet" all these many months, behind the scenes Rudy has been devolving into a paranoid psychotic spewing conspiracy theories from the alt.right and casting blame on Hillary Clinton including everything from the Big Bang forward.  With an attitude, bearing, posturing, and threatening presence that was last seen in the person of Bela Lugosi in the original "Dracula", Giuliani (the Ghoul) has stalked Hillary on behalf of Donald Trump since the start of this year.

Just last week, in an appearing on FOX News, Ghouliani, responded to a question about the status of the Trump campaign, given that Hillary's polling was 7+ points ahead of the Donald.  Rudy folded his arms and with a smug snarl on his face announced "don't worry, we have some surprises up our sleeve."  When pressed to explain his comment, he declined saying simply, "in the next few days, wait and see."  He was smiling, smug, self-satisfied, and confident that whatever was going to happen, would have a major impact on the election.  Trick or Tweet?

Within a few days FBI Director Jim Comey sent a letter to several Congressional Committee Chairs containing three paragraphs informing the House Members that he had authorized a review of additional e-mails on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Although the letter did not allege any wrong-doing by anyone, but merely said that a review was in order, his announcement was like throwing a 5 gallon bucket of gasoline onto a dying ember. In fact, at the time of Comey's announcement, investigators had not seen one e-mail and could not say whether Hillary has sent or received any of the subject messages or if any of them were duplicates of e-mails already reviewed, or had any official business information on them at all, much less any indication that anyone had any intent to violate any law whatsoever.  Nevertheless, within 48 hours Rudy Giuliani in interviews - and Donald Trump at rallies - were pounding away at Hillary and suggesting that she was within days of being INDICTED according to "FBI sources."  In fact, FOX TV reported that a Hillary indictment was a fact and was imminent - a statement that they later had to retract and issue an apology. Giuliani clearly said that he had inside information from "FBI sources" that this was coming in the days before the Comey announcement and that it would have a material effect on the election.  Whether he did or not, I cannot say. Giuliani has denied his original statement saying that what he really meant that he got the information from some vague "retired FBI agents" who were dissatisfied with Director Comey's July statements clearing Hillary of any wrong-doing beyond being "sloppy."  Others have inferred that Comey was "forced" to make his recent statement because of rogue agents who were about to "leak" the news of the newly-discovered e-mails (again, without any knowledge of what they contained).  Of course, all of this was both a tempest in a tea pot and, more significantly, a clear violation of FBI policy and practice.

Whether this announcement was pre-planned, shared with the Trump campaign by the FBI Director or by FBI agents before it was announced makes little difference in the impact of the statement. The new letter had a significant impact on the election because it came while early voting was underway, and, this information, unclear as it was, came within 10 days of the election. During this past week, polling data on the race showed that Trump closed the poll gap as Hillary lost some marginal support.  But, in a close race such as this one, that could have a material impact on the outcome - no small matter.  And, since the announcement, some Republicans in the House and Senate have threatened to "impeach", investigate, and otherwise harass President Clinton, tying her up in investigation after investigation to cripple her new administration, deny her appointments to the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, and, even worse, denying the millions of American citizens whose votes made her the president in the first place. Further, the impact on down-ballot Democratic candidates for US Senate and House certainly isn't helpful.  The suspicion is, however, that Comey may very well have tilted the majority in the Senate toward the Republican candidates, intentionally or not. 

US Department of Justice and FBI policy holds that silence is the rule during the course of investigations up to the point that an indictment is secured against someone.  All of us have heard the "no comment in connection with on-going investigations" response to questions of the FBI as to the status of some case or other.  In this case, at the time of the Director's announcement, the FBI had not even sought or secured a search warrant to read the e-mails on the Abedin computer, shared with her husband, Anthony Weiner. In other words, they had no idea what e-mail messages were on the laptop and whether or not they had any bearing at all on Secretary Clinton.  This was clearly a case calling for "no comment."  In fact, there was no "investigation" related to Hillary on these messages because they had not read a single message at that point! Nevertheless, Director Comey announced through his written communication that a review of the emails was in order, tying Hillary into the issue WITHOUT ONE SHRED OF EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER.  So, maybe the "no comment" rule doesn't apply to non-investigations with no evidence of wrong-doing at all, or in reviews of someone else's e-mails?  What is really behind all of this?  Trick or tweet! Are these things that go "bump" in the night?  Perhaps, these are just scary ghosts, goblins, and ghoulianis from the dark side? Time and election day will tell. 

I have no explanation for Comey's announcement.  What I do know is that, on its face, he violated FBI and Department of Justice "no comment" policy, and that his violation has had a material impact on the election.  Whether that was what he intended that outcome or not, remains to be discovered.  And, just as the FBI - Comey included - in July concluded that Hillary did not have the requisite intent to violate the law in her use of a personal e-mail server after a 10 month investigation, perhaps someone should investigate Director Comey, Rudy Ghouliani, and the rumored "rogue" FBI Agents who were leaking information to damage a presidential candidate.  And, should "intent" to impact the election be found, then a prosecution may be in order.  Perhaps the chant "lock her up" will morph into a close variation - "lock HIM up."

In my view, our democracy really cannot survive if we do not prevent the finger of political motivation to invade the institutions that we rely on to save us from ourselves - the dual agencies that we count on to make us a nation of law and not men.  Justice needs to be even-handed in reality as well as in theory.  And, that means no politics in the judicial system, no favoritism from judges based on your political views, and certainly no locking up people based on political party membership.  These things happen in other backwater countries, in dictatorships, in autocratic governments where all of the judges are appointed by the winner and all of the law enforcement leaders are all from the same political party.  Lock up opponents, prosecute the press that dares to disagree, clamp down on dissent or on voters who are of a different religion.  This is not our tradition.  In fact, those behaviors are what drove many refugees of the 17th and 18th century to these shores to seek a new way and to escape the oppression and prosecution that they suffered in the old world.  And, the success of those early settlements and sentiments was the source of celebration at those early Thanksgivings, having left the horrors of the old world behind.  Ghouliani, Trump, Breitbart, the alt. right, racists, xenophobics, anti-immigrant thinking, banning one religion or ethnic group from participation, all represent throwbacks to places that we have been in the past and beliefs that we have abandoned long ago.  This election should be a celebration of democracy.  Instead, it has become a battle for the survival of our civic life, our civility, and our ability to accept one another as Americans.  Will we choose the dark side and return to the brutal past with torches and pitchforks or will we turn to a hopeful future and find a way to work together in the common interest and for the common good as the founders hoped? Your votes will tell the tale next Tuesday.  The question is, trick or tweet?

At the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 in Philadelphia, Ben Franklin was asked what form of government the Convention gave the nation.  Franklin responded, "a republic, if you can keep it." I am hoping that Philadelphia as well as many other places in our nation will stand with me and rescue our republic and our democracy from the greatest political threat that it has faced in a very long time, the election of a psycho, know-nothing, autocratic Donald Trump. The election of Hillary Clinton can save us from the seething anger that turns us against one another and, instead, encourages us toward a more hopeful effort of solving the problems that we face as a nation together and returns us to the art of compromise rather than dividing us based on fear and hate.  The Clinton slogan reads, "Stronger Together", and, we surely are.  I hope that we will once again be, in fact, stronger together come Tuesday.  Good Luck and Good Night.

RIG-O-NOMICS: THE DONALD AS DEMOLITION MAN

As a builder, Donald well knows that each “build” begins with demolition.  No surprise that he does the same in the election – demolition of “the establishment” – the press and the “corrupt media”, Democrats and Republicans, office holders like Paul Ryan and John McCain, and anyone else who does not tow the Trump line.  Like a speeding train, he castigates his opponents and runs over groups who do not display fealty to the Trump brand – political, racial, gender, economic, or academic and polling organizations.  He is always right, never wrong, and those who disagree must be demolished. This behavior is a very real danger to our democracy.

            Trump, the master of conspiracies and always the “outsider” working to take down “the establishment”, constantly attacks “the system” and describes the electoral process as “rigged.” He refers to legitimate polling (even Fox and the Wall Street Journal) as “rigged” to show him in a bad light. In Trumpworld, all of the “corrupt media” has “ganged-up” on him to deny him the presidency. And, since August, Trump has insisted that the entire national election has been “rigged” as well.

            Forgetting that the majority of states in 2016 are governed by Republicans, and that the national election is no more than a series of state-based elections with state rules, state oversight, and state reporting, Donald somehow thinks that a nation-wide conspiracy exists with a singular goal – to deny him the presidency. If he wins, then the election would be “legitimate.”  If Hillary wins, it’s rigged and a President Clinton would not be “legitimate.”  Perhaps he believes that Hillary is conspiring with Ted Cruz, the Bush family, John Kasich, Mitt Romney, supported by the “corrupt media” and others to “rig” the election and elect Hillary.  In that case, maybe “the Second Amendment people could take care of that”, as he has previously suggested. And, if not, then what?  Think Trump would go on vacation?  Or, would he continue to tear down and de-legitimize the government that we elect this fall?  Will there be a Trump “call to arms”? Would that simply be a Hillary resistance movement?  Or, would the “arms” be actual weaponry as we have heard some of the Trump supporters suggest? Are we really this close to a national nightmare? “Oh”, you say, “that cannot happen here.” Those things happen in distant places like Latin America or some backwater in the Middle East – like the Arab Spring, or in the streets of some less stable European countries.  Do you mean all of those places that do not have armed-to-the-teeth, right-wing militias drilling in the woods? Places that do not have more guns than people in their neighborhoods? These behaviors would be merely amusing if Trump was some third party whack-job out in space who missed his daily dose of Thorazine. But, he is one Election Day away from the nuclear football.

            Donald Trump has created chaos this election year.  First, in the Republican Party and, next, by unleashing electoral violence at his rallies.  Now, he is undermining the very pillars of our 200+ years of political stability – the election process itself – in an attempt to dismiss Clinton’s election and cripple her presidency. Demolition Donald will be working on his biggest tower take-down ever – the tower of hope and freedom that has been the envy of the world since the US Constitution was adopted in 1789 – the American democratic process and the peaceful transfer of power that occurs here every four or eight years. Should he succeed in that effort, may God save us all, and the United States of America.