Thanks, Robert! We must keep showing up for each other. Good news in Oregon: new Indivisible groups are forming, and new people are attending our local Indivisible group. I hope this is true everywhere. The new Indivisible Guide is a valuable tool for people wanting to bring resisters together - it's at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o1gSdFWIUpw41O5zbaxedVsr6Xik5XpPd9FwqvXYu40/preview?tab=t.0
Each of us can make a difference, if only by encouraging people to come together to resist.
Laurie, Thank you for referencing Indivisible. As someone who recently launched a local Indivisible chapter, I write to note that the updated Guide, as part of a nationwide effort, offers a most astute play-by-play that shows how groups can develop action plans to use their constituent powers to resist infiltration of MAGA thinking into their states and communities.
For many of us, the “infiltration of MAGA thinking in their states and communities” is a done deal.So we must keep telling those stories in our own communities as we realize short term gains are not likely.Shout it out that 😡just said he can’t guarantee lower prices with tariffs and very possible GOP won’t extend ACA premium subsidies.
I’m not giving up! Action,and not sticking my head in the stand like so many in my community,works best for me.(Physical activity,humor and adult beverages also help😏)
As the saying going, this is a marathon, not a sprint…especially in MAGAville,Fl.
Kathy, I agree with you. At some point Republican legislators are going to start pushing back as they realize the effects of the cuts in Medicaid, Education, and other federal aid programs in their states (Here's looking at you New Mexico, WVa, Alabama etc.) And the threat of birthright citizenship would require a constitutional amendment...a long, slow process. Yes, we need to continue our efforts to organize and push back. We also need to recognize Trump's continuing efforts to roil the nation. Talk is cheap. At some point there is going to be a reality check on all of his threatening language...whether in Senate background hearings, from members of his own party caught between the needs of their voters and Trumps's threats, or his oligarchs and the financial markets. It can't come too soon.
Kathy, Clearly, you are employing mighty effective strategies. I would just note that you could maximize your impact by either joining or starting an Indivisible chapter, wherein your voice would be amplified. I also would note that the Manual includes guidelines for those whose Republican representatives are either safe or vulnerable. Moreover, Indivisible’s co-Founders continue to provide updated tools as warranted.
Stephen, I would note Indivisible’s updated Guide is a two-year plan. Quoting its co-authors, they write, “Our best chance to get through this era with some amount of democracy intact is to hang on until 2026 and win big in the midterms—breaking Trump’s hold on Congress and making sure election deniers and saboteurs aren’t in charge of the 2028 election.” They continue, “We’ve boiled it down to three plays….”
Barbara I respect and admire your dedication to Invisible but all I am saying is Invisible is one of the pieces we need to win but we need much more and we can’t deceive ourselves in believing what we did to try and get Harris elected will be successful next time.
Absolutely agree! The DNC needs to be brought into the future. I'm very disappointed that the Senate is doing nothing to change its leadership, and the House, almost nothing. Our best resource is young leaders, and we need to trust and empower them.
Stephen, If memory serves, a day or two ago I replied to you by granting, while grassroots organizers like Indivisible, in my view, are necessary, they’re not sufficient.
I think we're in violent agreement. Barbara, Stephen, what are the other avenues you each believe we need to pursue, in addition to what Invisible plans to do?
Stephen, I agree that Indivisible (which seems excellent) is just one piece of many needed. I'm impressed that knowledgeable (anonymous?) people have come together to write a (very wordy!) plan. We need similar initiatives, IMO, on 1) messaging; 2) a delivery method (TV station?); 3) a charismatic spokesperson who posts daily, aggressively, graphically, and persuasively on social media; 4) hardening our internal systems against more Russian election interference (it's only getting more pervasive); 5) other? At a minimum. Relying solely on the rule of law and governmental process (elections and effective congresspeople) is not gonna work in 2025 (of course, it has a role, however damaged each may be by Trump). Heather Cox Richardson wrote recently on Obama's championing of forming plurality groups (with members that don't agree on everything) to work on issues of common concern, convening and disbanding them as issues are resolved. Maybe that's a way to move forward, too.
Christina you are so right and the DNC must take a hard look at everything and ask themselves who are the voters we want to represent and what are we going to do for all of them
Barbara thinking a little bit more about Invisible and others and I have come to the conclusion that many voters don’t share our view of the world and whose rights should be protected and frankly the Democratic Party has accomplished a lot but not for everybody and they have spoken.
Stephen, While I agree about the election outcome, given who’s been voted into office, we must prepare to resist at every turn freedoms and rights that are in peril,
I agree. I want to focus on state races, especially the supreme courts. Wisconsin is a great example of how we can win. Indivisible isn't for everyone, and after looking at it, I decided it's not for me. Each of us has a place in the opposition, and there will be many ways to engage. The important thing is to do something, and do it regularly. The easiest is to be informed, and talk to the people around you. Keep in mind that misinformation got Trump elected.
I only disagree that it's misinformation that got Trump elected. We progressives firmly believe we are in possession of the facts and the Trumpers aren't. Yet they have totally bought into the thick tissue of lies that Fox has laid down for them for 30 years. So I think it's messaging that got Trump elected, not misinformation. Democrats need to disabuse ourselves of the idea that facts have anything to do with what's happening. We have to address and engage the emotions that rule Trumpers, with memes and tropes and cartoons (the only thing Trumpers understand) that undermine their clutching to Trumpisms. We need to provide them with another, more compassionate, fantasy that they can transfer their clutching grasp to. We need to provide them with a superior kind of Kool-Aid to drink. Facts, goodness, and equality can underlie it. But today's people have moved far away from being able to parse and analyze any situation based on reason or fact. They need something they find attractive to drink. How do you make altruism and equality attractive to an angry, vicious, unthinking individual? There must be a way.
Yes, the Indivisible guide is excellent. Everyone here should read it. Showing up for a protest tonight at the State House with the Moral Monday folk (Republicans are trying strip power from the incoming Democratic Governor and Attorney General). Not giving up. We need to be as relentless as they are.
hi Dan Stipe - I quoted you in our Indivisible newsletter this week. What you wrote is worth repeating: "Here's my idea for today: rather than continue to wallow in our despair, rejoice in the fact that we are living in one of the most consequential times in our nation's history since its founding. We have the opportunity in this moment to move the idea of America significantly further toward its ideal -- equality, freedom and justice. What a blessing!"
-- Dan Stipe, Reader's Comment, Today's Edition, December 4, 2024
Reminds me of the movie PT-109 when Kennedy and crew are shipwrecked on a small island in the pacific surrounded by the Japanese. And he said to his crew 'we have the advantage'. Perspective and attitude are tools we must use. Look at all the set backs that trump has faced and still he kept fighting. His strategy is to wear people down. So we. must recognize that and not let it happen.
B Evans, I think it's brilliant you say we have to use perspective and attitude to seize the advantage. I would add to that, perception. You showed how JFK successfully reframed a dire situation by telling his crew, "We have the advantage." He completely re-set the perception of his situation. We need to reframe our dire situation by telling ourselves--and believing--"We have the advantage." Then act on that. I need to see that movie to figure out how JFK perceived his having the advantage, so I can translate that onto today's mess.
Yes, Laurie! Our Indivisible group in Skagit County, WA is having lots of new members join in. Our people do express deep grief about the election, but also remarkable fortitude. We’re reminding ourselves that we have been here before, but this time we are not starting from scratch.
Along with our reading of Robert's newsletter, my wife and I read daily this quote from Rebecca Solnit's 2020 book Hope in the Dark:
“They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything, and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is."
She goes on to say,
"Take care of yourself and remember that taking care of something else is an important part of taking care of yourself, because you are interwoven with the ten trillion things in this single garment of destiny that has been stained and torn, but is still being woven and mended and washed.”
Do not obey in advance saying there will be no more elections for midterms or presidential election in 26 and 28! Seriously over my dead body. My ancestors did not die fighting for the creation of this country for me to just roll over and give up.
Pamsy, I think the point Eileen is making is that 2026 elections will be as free and as fair as we have the guts to make them, starting now. They will be free and fair if we fight to make them so. Not Congress, not the courts, not somebody else. Us.
Thank you Robert for your unwavering willingness to fight for this important cause, and for encouraging us all to do the same. What other productive choice do we have indeed…. The guidance and clarity you offer is invaluable to me and so many and I am so grateful.
Reading this in Australia, where I live and vote, I just need to point out that we have compulsory voting here. Our citizens tend to more informed than yours are.
I was amazed to read that many US voters who voted for Trump had no idea what his policies were and are and how they would and will negatively affect them.
I am reminded of the Jimmy Kimmel segment where people in the streets of NYC were shown a photo of VP and Candidate Harris and asked if they could say who it was. Shocking.
They will lose their healthcare. Pay more for all imported goods and women’s heath will be taken away.
Know there are millions and millions of Americans who are aware of and crushingly frustrated by this phenomenon and are constantly working to find a way to eradicate this harmful ignorance. So many unknowingly vote against their own interests, world wide. Education education education….
Education is and has been available since forever and that fact hasn’t made a difference. How do propose it will be different now going forward? Also, consider that our education doesn’t begin or end in the classroom but rather is ongoing every moment we are awake.
Michael, agree. The content of the education, and the attractiveness and ease of accessing it. Sad but true. You can't educate people who have no questions, and who only react to social media memes. That dictates how they "feel" about everything. And how they vote.
In America, Public Education has been under attack from the Right for many decades. They don't want an educated populace. The way to fix public education in the U.S. is to decouple it's funding from property taxes. The funding of public education via property tax levies is the single thing that has made public education so unequal, contributing to the ignorance of a large portion of the population.
The right wing and white supremacists have worked for 70+ years to sabotage public education in the US, ever since the Supreme Court struck down so-called “separate but equal.” And the Reagan Administration eliminated the Fairness Doctrine that required broadcast media to present balanced coverage as a condition of their license. That’s allowed propaganda outlets like Rupert Murdoch’s Fox network ( he’s Australian, by the way) to spread clever lies and keep people ignorant of the truth. So from childhood through adulthood, many Americans are poorly educated and badly informed. Shameful, and a huge problem we need to fix if we are to remain a democracy!
Murdoch controls 84% of legacy media here but is still not able to be enough of a difference in elections. I fear that we may go down a right wing path as we have a cost of living crisis that is the legacy of Covid and supply chain disruptions but the electorate votes with their bills in mind.
Not that the conservatives have a solution.
The election is in six months and we will see then.
We Americans have gotten very lazy and very stupid over the last few decades. Our educational system is the pits; we don't teach civics; we don't teach ethics. One third of the voters were so lazy and/or so disaffected they didn't vote. The one-third of voters who voted for Trump voted as much for his "pretty orange hair" as for anything else. They are like five-year-olds with a gun, the way they deploy their votes. Don't let it happen in Australia!
Heather Cox Richardson pointed out in her newsletter yesterday there are reasons for hope in the world:
‘In contrast to Trump’s focus on Russia, journalist Anne Applebaum, a scholar of autocracy, took a much broader view of the meaning of Assad’s fall. In dictatorships, she wrote in The Atlantic, “cold, deliberate, well-planned cruelty” like Assad’s “is meant to inspire hopelessness. Ludicrous lies and cynical propaganda campaigns are meant to create apathy and nihilism.” Random arrests create destabilizing waves of refugees that leave those who remain in despair.
Authoritarian regimes seek “to rob people of any ability to plan for a different future, to convince people that their dictatorships are eternal. ‘Our leader forever’” she points out, was the slogan of the Assad dynasty. But soldiers and police officers have relatives who suffer under the regime, and their loyalty is not assured, as Assad has now learned.
The future of Syria is entirely unclear, Applebaum writes, but there is no doubt that “the end of the Assad regime creates something new, and not only in Syria. There is nothing worse than hopelessness, nothing more soul-destroying than pessimism, grief, and despair. The fall of a Russian- and Iranian-backed regime offers, suddenly, the possibility of change. The future might be different. And that possibility will inspire hope all around the world.”’
Lest you be overwhelmed with only naysayers too much simply because they are the ones who feel prompted to respond more, here I am to tell you “I” haven't given up but am definitely trying to moderate my outrage such that I don’t have an aneurysm! I need to care for and protect my mental health better than I did the first four years, esp knowing this time will be worse. Even so, I do think there will be elections, I don’t think we are that far gone, but I’m ready to change my mind given better evidence as time goes by. It’s rough out there right now. I give grace to those who are extra pessimistic, but also hope they don’t drag you down. I rely on you to give me hope. I appreciate you very much.
I quit reading all the negative comments. I don't like feeling helpless, hopeless, or terrified. For sure, there seems to be more out there to encourage those negative emotions than inspire positive emotions and thoughts. Thats what they want. I read that mass sociopathy is contagious....but so is kindness. On the list for tomorrow--and every day--practice kindness. And call my senators.
The fall of Bashar al-Assad of Syria and the prevention of Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea from installing Martial Law, and reading from Lucian Truscott that Russia is very weakened and for the losses they are incurring in Ukraine they are not gaining very much land all makes me feel hopeful. It is a counter to what is going on in the US. We can draw inspiration from these other countries, just as once they may have drawn it from us.
Thanks, Robert. LIke others who have commented here, I also take hope from Indivisible and the 200 organizations that are resisting Trump. My Indivisible group in NYC has just finished a series of three meetings to recruit more members and to start setting a plan of action. It's exhiliarating to see how many people are ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work.
To start with -- put your electeds' (at every level of government) phone numbers into your phone and call them everyday, urging them to act. Check here for latest call to action on the national level https://indivisible.org/take-action-now The local issues will vary of course. This is a first step that anyone can take! The calls have made a difference!
Consider taking part in the People's March on January 18 -- there will be a big march in DC and satellite marches in other big cities. This is a chance to show the world -- and ourselves -- that we are ready to resist. https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/742704/ In NYC there will be free buses to take us to the march and return home the same -- long -- day.
Wherever you live -- even in DC -- there is something to do. You won't be alone.
Thanks, Carolyn. Good catch. I also rely on Snopes, but as this came from another reputable source, I submitted it. In any case, I think the message still fits well with those of Robert.
Thanks, Robert for encouraging me and other members to stay the course in the next months and years. I urge everyone to get a copy of Timothy Snyder's brief book, "ON TYRANNY, Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century". The first lesson is: Do not obey in advance. The other 19 lessons are clearly laid out as well. Snyder's book is written so well that I think it is easy for most people to understand. I bought copies for my friends to help them understand what is taxing our resolve now and in the near future.
I refuse to abdicate my rights as an American citizen to anyone. And I refuse to be an accomplice to others losing their rights -- free speech, freedom to pursue opportunity, freedom of choice, freedom to engage in religion, and freedom of movement. One of the history insights I cherish is that we in the United States are fortunate that leaders emerge in troubled times to chart our path through those times; Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt certainly come to mind. For me, I also think about the astonishing collection of generals and admirals who strategized and won a massive two-front war during World War II; several of those men were middle-of-the-pack students in the military academies, but their subsequent experience and perspective saved the day. I know that new voices and leadership will emerge to bring us through our current troubles. None of this is quick or easy, but we must maintain our resolve in the face of national peril.
Thank you for this tonight. We must resist and carry our sisters and brothers with us when they are tired and think they can’t go on. The way out and through lies in persistence, in building the beloved community and never giving up.
Next year is the first time where all I can afford is catastrophic health insurance which is still expensive. And people wonder why the public has no sympathy for a horrible person who has harmed and killed so many, being targeted. I don’t condone murder. But the life years I’ve lost having to beg for insurance companies and PBMs to do their job, well, I’ve lost count. Life is a pre-existing condition. They want us to go away and die.
our priorities are wrong. Providing for the basic needs of people would be signs of a "civilized" society. It baffles me why this version of the GOP is staunchly against making sure people don't go hungry and die prematurely. The I recognize it's because they are counting their money instead of seeing actual people's faces. The rich apparently never have "enough."
It’s not just the rich who never have enough. There is no end to more as more of something that isn’t satisfying never satisfies.
It’s like drinking seawater. It slackens your thirst for a moment but leaves you even more thirsty later.
While unfortunately it sounds like an attack and of course people will attack back even when you don’t mean it as an attack but rather intend it as an opportunity, the truth is that we really don’t know who we are.
We (note that includes me) are all pretty arrogant in thinking we know who we are and get prickly if it is suggested differently.
My thesis is that it is the fundamental ground of being from which gives rise to who we think we are that is where we need to be inquiring. This grounding is rarely questioned and can usually only be successfully engaged with in an environment designed for such encounters with self. This is like only doing open heart surgery in a room and with people and equipment and training specifically for such things. It’s very tough to impossible in a comment forum.
We all need to be at work with this with ourselves and not taking the easy expedient superficial everyday approach of merely pointing fingers and blaming everything and one while not recognizing our own cause in the matter.
I'm avoiding the news, but I haven't stopped thinking. I haven't had much to write about that doesn't sound like a rant, so I'm taking my time to develop some ideas, and am participating here and on several other Substacks.
Thanks, Robert! We must keep showing up for each other. Good news in Oregon: new Indivisible groups are forming, and new people are attending our local Indivisible group. I hope this is true everywhere. The new Indivisible Guide is a valuable tool for people wanting to bring resisters together - it's at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o1gSdFWIUpw41O5zbaxedVsr6Xik5XpPd9FwqvXYu40/preview?tab=t.0
Each of us can make a difference, if only by encouraging people to come together to resist.
Laurie, Thank you for referencing Indivisible. As someone who recently launched a local Indivisible chapter, I write to note that the updated Guide, as part of a nationwide effort, offers a most astute play-by-play that shows how groups can develop action plans to use their constituent powers to resist infiltration of MAGA thinking into their states and communities.
For many of us, the “infiltration of MAGA thinking in their states and communities” is a done deal.So we must keep telling those stories in our own communities as we realize short term gains are not likely.Shout it out that 😡just said he can’t guarantee lower prices with tariffs and very possible GOP won’t extend ACA premium subsidies.
I’m not giving up! Action,and not sticking my head in the stand like so many in my community,works best for me.(Physical activity,humor and adult beverages also help😏)
As the saying going, this is a marathon, not a sprint…especially in MAGAville,Fl.
Kathy, I agree with you. At some point Republican legislators are going to start pushing back as they realize the effects of the cuts in Medicaid, Education, and other federal aid programs in their states (Here's looking at you New Mexico, WVa, Alabama etc.) And the threat of birthright citizenship would require a constitutional amendment...a long, slow process. Yes, we need to continue our efforts to organize and push back. We also need to recognize Trump's continuing efforts to roil the nation. Talk is cheap. At some point there is going to be a reality check on all of his threatening language...whether in Senate background hearings, from members of his own party caught between the needs of their voters and Trumps's threats, or his oligarchs and the financial markets. It can't come too soon.
Kathy, Clearly, you are employing mighty effective strategies. I would just note that you could maximize your impact by either joining or starting an Indivisible chapter, wherein your voice would be amplified. I also would note that the Manual includes guidelines for those whose Republican representatives are either safe or vulnerable. Moreover, Indivisible’s co-Founders continue to provide updated tools as warranted.
But at the end of the day we need to win elections up and down the ballot.
Stephen, I would note Indivisible’s updated Guide is a two-year plan. Quoting its co-authors, they write, “Our best chance to get through this era with some amount of democracy intact is to hang on until 2026 and win big in the midterms—breaking Trump’s hold on Congress and making sure election deniers and saboteurs aren’t in charge of the 2028 election.” They continue, “We’ve boiled it down to three plays….”
Barbara I respect and admire your dedication to Invisible but all I am saying is Invisible is one of the pieces we need to win but we need much more and we can’t deceive ourselves in believing what we did to try and get Harris elected will be successful next time.
Absolutely agree! The DNC needs to be brought into the future. I'm very disappointed that the Senate is doing nothing to change its leadership, and the House, almost nothing. Our best resource is young leaders, and we need to trust and empower them.
Stephen, If memory serves, a day or two ago I replied to you by granting, while grassroots organizers like Indivisible, in my view, are necessary, they’re not sufficient.
I think we're in violent agreement. Barbara, Stephen, what are the other avenues you each believe we need to pursue, in addition to what Invisible plans to do?
Stephen, I agree that Indivisible (which seems excellent) is just one piece of many needed. I'm impressed that knowledgeable (anonymous?) people have come together to write a (very wordy!) plan. We need similar initiatives, IMO, on 1) messaging; 2) a delivery method (TV station?); 3) a charismatic spokesperson who posts daily, aggressively, graphically, and persuasively on social media; 4) hardening our internal systems against more Russian election interference (it's only getting more pervasive); 5) other? At a minimum. Relying solely on the rule of law and governmental process (elections and effective congresspeople) is not gonna work in 2025 (of course, it has a role, however damaged each may be by Trump). Heather Cox Richardson wrote recently on Obama's championing of forming plurality groups (with members that don't agree on everything) to work on issues of common concern, convening and disbanding them as issues are resolved. Maybe that's a way to move forward, too.
Christina you are so right and the DNC must take a hard look at everything and ask themselves who are the voters we want to represent and what are we going to do for all of them
Barbara thinking a little bit more about Invisible and others and I have come to the conclusion that many voters don’t share our view of the world and whose rights should be protected and frankly the Democratic Party has accomplished a lot but not for everybody and they have spoken.
Stephen, While I agree about the election outcome, given who’s been voted into office, we must prepare to resist at every turn freedoms and rights that are in peril,
We are in agreement.
Stephen, are you writing “invisible” instead of “Individable” intentionally?
Jocelyn, I believe Stephen meant Indivisible.
Jocelyn, I don't think it's "Individable," either. LOL. "What's in a name?"
I agree. I want to focus on state races, especially the supreme courts. Wisconsin is a great example of how we can win. Indivisible isn't for everyone, and after looking at it, I decided it's not for me. Each of us has a place in the opposition, and there will be many ways to engage. The important thing is to do something, and do it regularly. The easiest is to be informed, and talk to the people around you. Keep in mind that misinformation got Trump elected.
I only disagree that it's misinformation that got Trump elected. We progressives firmly believe we are in possession of the facts and the Trumpers aren't. Yet they have totally bought into the thick tissue of lies that Fox has laid down for them for 30 years. So I think it's messaging that got Trump elected, not misinformation. Democrats need to disabuse ourselves of the idea that facts have anything to do with what's happening. We have to address and engage the emotions that rule Trumpers, with memes and tropes and cartoons (the only thing Trumpers understand) that undermine their clutching to Trumpisms. We need to provide them with another, more compassionate, fantasy that they can transfer their clutching grasp to. We need to provide them with a superior kind of Kool-Aid to drink. Facts, goodness, and equality can underlie it. But today's people have moved far away from being able to parse and analyze any situation based on reason or fact. They need something they find attractive to drink. How do you make altruism and equality attractive to an angry, vicious, unthinking individual? There must be a way.
Yes, the Indivisible guide is excellent. Everyone here should read it. Showing up for a protest tonight at the State House with the Moral Monday folk (Republicans are trying strip power from the incoming Democratic Governor and Attorney General). Not giving up. We need to be as relentless as they are.
hi Dan Stipe - I quoted you in our Indivisible newsletter this week. What you wrote is worth repeating: "Here's my idea for today: rather than continue to wallow in our despair, rejoice in the fact that we are living in one of the most consequential times in our nation's history since its founding. We have the opportunity in this moment to move the idea of America significantly further toward its ideal -- equality, freedom and justice. What a blessing!"
-- Dan Stipe, Reader's Comment, Today's Edition, December 4, 2024
Reminds me of the movie PT-109 when Kennedy and crew are shipwrecked on a small island in the pacific surrounded by the Japanese. And he said to his crew 'we have the advantage'. Perspective and attitude are tools we must use. Look at all the set backs that trump has faced and still he kept fighting. His strategy is to wear people down. So we. must recognize that and not let it happen.
B Evans, I think it's brilliant you say we have to use perspective and attitude to seize the advantage. I would add to that, perception. You showed how JFK successfully reframed a dire situation by telling his crew, "We have the advantage." He completely re-set the perception of his situation. We need to reframe our dire situation by telling ourselves--and believing--"We have the advantage." Then act on that. I need to see that movie to figure out how JFK perceived his having the advantage, so I can translate that onto today's mess.
Good news! I am in Portland.
Yes, Laurie! Our Indivisible group in Skagit County, WA is having lots of new members join in. Our people do express deep grief about the election, but also remarkable fortitude. We’re reminding ourselves that we have been here before, but this time we are not starting from scratch.
I’m not giving up. My children and grandchildren deserve better than what is about to happen to our country.
Thanks Monica. I continue to be with Robert, Jill, you, and the countless others.
We have to all stick together and do our part.
Along with our reading of Robert's newsletter, my wife and I read daily this quote from Rebecca Solnit's 2020 book Hope in the Dark:
“They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything, and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is."
She goes on to say,
"Take care of yourself and remember that taking care of something else is an important part of taking care of yourself, because you are interwoven with the ten trillion things in this single garment of destiny that has been stained and torn, but is still being woven and mended and washed.”
It helps.
Excellent quote!
Beautiful!
Do not obey in advance saying there will be no more elections for midterms or presidential election in 26 and 28! Seriously over my dead body. My ancestors did not die fighting for the creation of this country for me to just roll over and give up.
Amen sister!
There may be elections but will they be free and fair?
We have to press to do everything we can so that future elections are free and fair. Fight back against voter suppression efforts, for instance.
Pamsy, I think the point Eileen is making is that 2026 elections will be as free and as fair as we have the guts to make them, starting now. They will be free and fair if we fight to make them so. Not Congress, not the courts, not somebody else. Us.
Thank you Robert for your unwavering willingness to fight for this important cause, and for encouraging us all to do the same. What other productive choice do we have indeed…. The guidance and clarity you offer is invaluable to me and so many and I am so grateful.
concur
Reading this in Australia, where I live and vote, I just need to point out that we have compulsory voting here. Our citizens tend to more informed than yours are.
I was amazed to read that many US voters who voted for Trump had no idea what his policies were and are and how they would and will negatively affect them.
I am reminded of the Jimmy Kimmel segment where people in the streets of NYC were shown a photo of VP and Candidate Harris and asked if they could say who it was. Shocking.
They will lose their healthcare. Pay more for all imported goods and women’s heath will be taken away.
Well you get what you asked for.
Know there are millions and millions of Americans who are aware of and crushingly frustrated by this phenomenon and are constantly working to find a way to eradicate this harmful ignorance. So many unknowingly vote against their own interests, world wide. Education education education….
Brenda,
Education is and has been available since forever and that fact hasn’t made a difference. How do propose it will be different now going forward? Also, consider that our education doesn’t begin or end in the classroom but rather is ongoing every moment we are awake.
“Education” has become a mindless liberal incantation.
The key issue is, and always has been, the *content* of the “education”.
Michael, agree. The content of the education, and the attractiveness and ease of accessing it. Sad but true. You can't educate people who have no questions, and who only react to social media memes. That dictates how they "feel" about everything. And how they vote.
In America, Public Education has been under attack from the Right for many decades. They don't want an educated populace. The way to fix public education in the U.S. is to decouple it's funding from property taxes. The funding of public education via property tax levies is the single thing that has made public education so unequal, contributing to the ignorance of a large portion of the population.
What sort or source of funding would work?
The right wing and white supremacists have worked for 70+ years to sabotage public education in the US, ever since the Supreme Court struck down so-called “separate but equal.” And the Reagan Administration eliminated the Fairness Doctrine that required broadcast media to present balanced coverage as a condition of their license. That’s allowed propaganda outlets like Rupert Murdoch’s Fox network ( he’s Australian, by the way) to spread clever lies and keep people ignorant of the truth. So from childhood through adulthood, many Americans are poorly educated and badly informed. Shameful, and a huge problem we need to fix if we are to remain a democracy!
Exactly! The Republican Party has systematically set out to undermine education for the poor to lower middle classes.
And now they don't want "education." You couldn't educate them if you paid them, I don't think.
Correct !
Yes!
believe me, it is NOT what we asked for...
FAFO
How is Australia able to fight against right wing media and such? Are you worried about the rise of the right wing in Australia?
Sadly, I think if we had a white man instead of our truly amazing black indian woman candidate, it’s possible we would have won.
I guess they can fight against right wing media 'cos they exported Rupert Murdoch.
Maybe we should deport him and divest him of all American business holdings and ability to influence.
Murdoch controls 84% of legacy media here but is still not able to be enough of a difference in elections. I fear that we may go down a right wing path as we have a cost of living crisis that is the legacy of Covid and supply chain disruptions but the electorate votes with their bills in mind.
Not that the conservatives have a solution.
The election is in six months and we will see then.
Yes I am worried but optimistic- Murdoch has lost influence here as people tend to see the bias or just don’t read, listen or watch what he produces.
compulsory voting ✅
This is one big reason I am feeling so disillusioned about what I thought was my country and my fellow Americans.
We Americans have gotten very lazy and very stupid over the last few decades. Our educational system is the pits; we don't teach civics; we don't teach ethics. One third of the voters were so lazy and/or so disaffected they didn't vote. The one-third of voters who voted for Trump voted as much for his "pretty orange hair" as for anything else. They are like five-year-olds with a gun, the way they deploy their votes. Don't let it happen in Australia!
Compulsory voting - what a concept!! Love it!!
Heather Cox Richardson pointed out in her newsletter yesterday there are reasons for hope in the world:
‘In contrast to Trump’s focus on Russia, journalist Anne Applebaum, a scholar of autocracy, took a much broader view of the meaning of Assad’s fall. In dictatorships, she wrote in The Atlantic, “cold, deliberate, well-planned cruelty” like Assad’s “is meant to inspire hopelessness. Ludicrous lies and cynical propaganda campaigns are meant to create apathy and nihilism.” Random arrests create destabilizing waves of refugees that leave those who remain in despair.
Authoritarian regimes seek “to rob people of any ability to plan for a different future, to convince people that their dictatorships are eternal. ‘Our leader forever’” she points out, was the slogan of the Assad dynasty. But soldiers and police officers have relatives who suffer under the regime, and their loyalty is not assured, as Assad has now learned.
The future of Syria is entirely unclear, Applebaum writes, but there is no doubt that “the end of the Assad regime creates something new, and not only in Syria. There is nothing worse than hopelessness, nothing more soul-destroying than pessimism, grief, and despair. The fall of a Russian- and Iranian-backed regime offers, suddenly, the possibility of change. The future might be different. And that possibility will inspire hope all around the world.”’
I am not giving up either. And I appreciate your making room for those who are not yet ready to know what is next for them.
Lest you be overwhelmed with only naysayers too much simply because they are the ones who feel prompted to respond more, here I am to tell you “I” haven't given up but am definitely trying to moderate my outrage such that I don’t have an aneurysm! I need to care for and protect my mental health better than I did the first four years, esp knowing this time will be worse. Even so, I do think there will be elections, I don’t think we are that far gone, but I’m ready to change my mind given better evidence as time goes by. It’s rough out there right now. I give grace to those who are extra pessimistic, but also hope they don’t drag you down. I rely on you to give me hope. I appreciate you very much.
I love "Moderate my outrage so I don't have an aneurysm"! Best advice ever.
I quit reading all the negative comments. I don't like feeling helpless, hopeless, or terrified. For sure, there seems to be more out there to encourage those negative emotions than inspire positive emotions and thoughts. Thats what they want. I read that mass sociopathy is contagious....but so is kindness. On the list for tomorrow--and every day--practice kindness. And call my senators.
The fall of Bashar al-Assad of Syria and the prevention of Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea from installing Martial Law, and reading from Lucian Truscott that Russia is very weakened and for the losses they are incurring in Ukraine they are not gaining very much land all makes me feel hopeful. It is a counter to what is going on in the US. We can draw inspiration from these other countries, just as once they may have drawn it from us.
Thank you. Every day, thank you.
Thanks, Robert. LIke others who have commented here, I also take hope from Indivisible and the 200 organizations that are resisting Trump. My Indivisible group in NYC has just finished a series of three meetings to recruit more members and to start setting a plan of action. It's exhiliarating to see how many people are ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work.
To start with -- put your electeds' (at every level of government) phone numbers into your phone and call them everyday, urging them to act. Check here for latest call to action on the national level https://indivisible.org/take-action-now The local issues will vary of course. This is a first step that anyone can take! The calls have made a difference!
Consider taking part in the People's March on January 18 -- there will be a big march in DC and satellite marches in other big cities. This is a chance to show the world -- and ourselves -- that we are ready to resist. https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/742704/ In NYC there will be free buses to take us to the march and return home the same -- long -- day.
Wherever you live -- even in DC -- there is something to do. You won't be alone.
This could be a powerful day. Hoping to march here in MN.
The "Thought of the Day" from the Refdesk Daily Edition:
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." — Winston Churchill
Good thought. But there is no evidence to connect this quote to Winston Churchill. In fact, its origin is unclear. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/winston-churchill-quote-success-failure/
Thanks, Carolyn. Good catch. I also rely on Snopes, but as this came from another reputable source, I submitted it. In any case, I think the message still fits well with those of Robert.
Well said.
Thanks, Robert for encouraging me and other members to stay the course in the next months and years. I urge everyone to get a copy of Timothy Snyder's brief book, "ON TYRANNY, Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century". The first lesson is: Do not obey in advance. The other 19 lessons are clearly laid out as well. Snyder's book is written so well that I think it is easy for most people to understand. I bought copies for my friends to help them understand what is taxing our resolve now and in the near future.
I refuse to abdicate my rights as an American citizen to anyone. And I refuse to be an accomplice to others losing their rights -- free speech, freedom to pursue opportunity, freedom of choice, freedom to engage in religion, and freedom of movement. One of the history insights I cherish is that we in the United States are fortunate that leaders emerge in troubled times to chart our path through those times; Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt certainly come to mind. For me, I also think about the astonishing collection of generals and admirals who strategized and won a massive two-front war during World War II; several of those men were middle-of-the-pack students in the military academies, but their subsequent experience and perspective saved the day. I know that new voices and leadership will emerge to bring us through our current troubles. None of this is quick or easy, but we must maintain our resolve in the face of national peril.
Thank you for this tonight. We must resist and carry our sisters and brothers with us when they are tired and think they can’t go on. The way out and through lies in persistence, in building the beloved community and never giving up.
Next year is the first time where all I can afford is catastrophic health insurance which is still expensive. And people wonder why the public has no sympathy for a horrible person who has harmed and killed so many, being targeted. I don’t condone murder. But the life years I’ve lost having to beg for insurance companies and PBMs to do their job, well, I’ve lost count. Life is a pre-existing condition. They want us to go away and die.
our priorities are wrong. Providing for the basic needs of people would be signs of a "civilized" society. It baffles me why this version of the GOP is staunchly against making sure people don't go hungry and die prematurely. The I recognize it's because they are counting their money instead of seeing actual people's faces. The rich apparently never have "enough."
It’s not just the rich who never have enough. There is no end to more as more of something that isn’t satisfying never satisfies.
It’s like drinking seawater. It slackens your thirst for a moment but leaves you even more thirsty later.
While unfortunately it sounds like an attack and of course people will attack back even when you don’t mean it as an attack but rather intend it as an opportunity, the truth is that we really don’t know who we are.
We (note that includes me) are all pretty arrogant in thinking we know who we are and get prickly if it is suggested differently.
My thesis is that it is the fundamental ground of being from which gives rise to who we think we are that is where we need to be inquiring. This grounding is rarely questioned and can usually only be successfully engaged with in an environment designed for such encounters with self. This is like only doing open heart surgery in a room and with people and equipment and training specifically for such things. It’s very tough to impossible in a comment forum.
We all need to be at work with this with ourselves and not taking the easy expedient superficial everyday approach of merely pointing fingers and blaming everything and one while not recognizing our own cause in the matter.
That's the 1%. They will do whatever they can to stay there.
I'm not giving up, no matter what.
I'm avoiding the news, but I haven't stopped thinking. I haven't had much to write about that doesn't sound like a rant, so I'm taking my time to develop some ideas, and am participating here and on several other Substacks.
I'm not giving up, no matter what.