Robert Reich on how to get rid of Citizens Unite…state by state. Get it on the ballet in 2026
“Every corporation operating under the laws of this state has all the corporate powers it held previously, except that nothing in this statute grants or recognizes any power to engage in election activity or ballot-issue activity.”
I knocked on many doors over the past 2 months and nearly daily in the last 2 weeks. I came to understand as others probably had, that when asked what issues were most priority to voters, if they said "Immigrants, border and or economy" they were likely trumpers. In the last week, I still had people at doors say they were "undecided" as to who to vote for in the presidential race. SERIOUSLY?? Because they saw my lit, I think they did not want to say the would vote for Trump so they said "undecided" and then did not want to discuss issues. This was in rural and some other parts of West Central Wisconsin. In poll observing for 8 hours, many white men of various ages came out that were new registrants. And VERY upsetting to me. white women did not take their golden opportunity to vote for Kamala Harris/Tim Walz in the numbers they should have!!!
Who has seen Bad Faith? People I trust have been encouraging me for several months to watch it and I haven’t. Now my MD is telling me to watch it - so I will.
Steve and I are neighbors, Robert. Can we come and look out for you and Jill? You have an invitation for dinner at our home whenever you're free. We're in Burbank near Toluca Lake. It would be an honor to be with you.
Thank you for giving me permission to name the reasons for Kamala’s loss, and for letting me sleep more than the 4 hours which has been my customary over the past 3 nights.
Last night’s video from you and Jess was just want I needed to somewhat re-center myself. After Kamala’s loss, I also immediately knew one of the driving factors was racism and white supremacy. However, as a Black person, when I engaged in texts with my white and Black friends, I did not name what I knew was true. I know that’s because I have been conditioned to care for the comfort of white people and was hesitant to start naming racism even to my Black friends.
However, after watching last night’s video and reading today’s newsletter, I had the courage to name these reasons. When I did so, all my friends agreed. Thank you.
As I struggled to understand what happened in this country, I found myself questioning why some Hispanics, Blacks, and other people of color voted for a racist, white supremacist. As for white women, I found myself questioning their embrace of a misogynist. I was then reminded of a metaphor from the author Kamilah Majied, PhD who wrote a book called Joyfully Just: Black Wisdom and Buddhist Insights for Liberated Living. She said we should think about racism as we did at the height of the COVID pandemic. When we went out into the world, we had to protect ourselves by assuming everyone we met might have it. So we had to get vaccinated, wear a mask, etc. There was a mixture of what people were willing to do so as not to become infected; and even today, it’s an ongoing process with vaccinations.
Majied uses this as an example of what people need to do to avoid or minimize the infection of racism and white supremacy, which were the building blocks of our country. That kind of vaccination requires learning how we got to where we are as a country, engaging with our fellow humans, examining our own privileges, and more.
So, when I look at the teachings from Majied and authors like Isabel Wilkerson, who wrote the book Caste, I am able to place these voting decisions in context: some people have never had any vaccinations against racism or white supremacy; and others don’t want to be relegated to the bottom rung of the Caste ladder where we Black people are situated.
Like others in this community, I am feeling disheartened, afraid, and more. I am feeling especially fearful for my Black brothers and sisters who will have limited protection from a government that will be intent on denying and retracting their gains, as well as the gains of other marginalized and vulnerable groups.
I have been asking myself where do I go from here in terms of my monthly subscriptions to groups? Who do I continue to work with after having spent the last 6 months calling, texting, post carding, etc.?
Right now, I truly believe the conservative faction of this country will be in power for at least the next 8 years. So, my potential answer to this question is clouded by this doomsday outlook.
What I do know is that I will continue to have my guideposts be this newsletter, Jess Piper’s newsletter, and Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter. These are the only sources I am using for news these days.
I also know that I am not willing to support organizations that are trying to normalize (as Robert says) this election. As such, I have canceled my monthly donation to one group that said: we lost because we needed a change-candidate, and we did not have one.
Finally, I will end this long post with an election-day experience with a Trump voter. I contracted with a company to have a bed frame assembled, and I knew based on where I live that I might get a Trump supporter to do the job. I had already decided that if he showed up with a MAGA hat or Trump shirt, I would not let him do the job. So, I was relieved when he was not wearing this attire. However, after he organized his equipment and began assembling the frame, he started blasting the Sean Hannity show. This went on for 3 hours. He definitely had not gotten his vaccination!
Robert, I don't pretend to be nearly as well read on the campaign and the election as you; I agree that mysogony, racism, and white supremacy played a role in Trump's win, and I definitely do not have all (any?) of the answers. However (there's always a "however:, based on a very unscientific sample comprised of Democratic and Independent registered voters living in a lower-middle income apartment complex in Gilbert, Arizona who actually answered the door when I door-knocked on Monday, I would not be so quick to dismiss issues like the economy as driving forces behind Kamala's loss. For example, a 61 year-old African-American woman who had moved to AZ from San Jose within the last year said she was undecided as between Harris and Trump. She said she reads the news, was aware of the pros and cons of each candidate, and knew exactly "what Trump is and isn't." Nevertheless, she was worried about the economy. After I explained to her why Trump would not improve the financial standing of people in her position while Kamala would (and reminding her about Trump's racisim, reproductive health, etc.), she agreed with my points, but said she still needed to devote the evening to reading "all the material" before voting Tuesday. A Latina woman, who was home-schooling her autistic daughter, was worried about voting for Democrats because they want to do away with "school choice" (ie vouchers) that allow parents to use State money to send their kids to public, private, or parochial schools, or for home schooling. She said she'd "probably" vote for Harris since the vouchers were a state issue, but wasn't sure. And then there was the young African-American woman who was undecided becasue Harris "just went round and round during the debate, and didn't say what she would do to help people." That said, I've been trying to avoid reading the punditry that began before the body was even cold. I think the dust needs to settle a whole lot more than it has before we can fully understand what went wrong. In the meantime, we live to fight another day!
Donald Trump is a small-minded demagogue and voluptuary surrounded by sycophantic treason-weasels who will attempt anything he wants but are incapable of the insights and policy corrections of normal elective politics. If he and his minions can take our freedoms away this easily we won't deserve them. We will not go back to the times when our black and brown citizens were denigrated socially and legally. Nor will we go back to the times when gay people were expected to stay in the closet, never to be themselves and love who they love. We are not going back! Trump's most redeeming feature, as Michelle Goldberg put it in the NY Times today, is his incompetence. Count on it!* The Christian Nationalist White Supremacists on the Court will not prevail in driving the unchurched into their version of piety, but only in inciting us to further resistance, reminding us of what we hated about abusive priests and groomer pastors. I truly look forward to the idiocies of the second Trump administration, the 20% sales tax on imports they promise in their planned worldwide replay of Smoot-Hawley, leading to another Great Depression, deepened by the fall in productivity deporting ten million workers will cause. Elon even anticipates a period of significant suffering for the non-rich in the name of efficiency. I expect a mid-term rebellion in 2026, with defeat of all 20 Republican Senators up for election and a Democratic supermajority in both Houses of Congress. Finally an impeachment will be followed by conviction! Third time's the charm! The Supremacists on SCOTUS should be next in line!
*Here's a reminder of Trump's greatest hits in his first term, condensed from a friend's FB Post:
-Trump mismanaged a pandemic that killed over a million Americans
-He separated children from their emigrant parents, then lost them in the bureaucracy
-He ordered peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square tear-gassed for a Bible photo op in front of a church
-got impeached
-got impeached again
-Posted the worse jobs record of any modern US president
-Went full gangsta on Ukraine digging for dirt on Joe Biden
-Fired the Director of the FBI for investigating his ties to Russia
-Took Vladimir Putin's word over the assessments of the US intelligence community
-Caused the longest government shutdown in US history
-Called the "Black Lives Matter" slogan a "symbol of hate."
-Banned trans people from military service
-Lied publicly more than 40,000 times
-Vetoed a defense budget because it removed the names of insurgent Confederate Generals from military bases
-Refused to release his tax returns
-Posted the three highest annual trade deficits in US history
-Increased the national debt by $8 trillion
-Called veterans and soldiers who died in combat "Suckers and losers."
-Coddled the murderous leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismemberment of a US-based journalist
-Hired his unqualified daughter and son in law to work in the White House, overriding security concerns
-called Neo-Nazis "Very fine people."
-Recommended injections of bleach to treat COVID
-Withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Accords
-Withdrew the US from the Iran Nuclear deal
-Failed to confirm the US commitment to defend NATO
-Called Haiti and African nations "Shithole countries."
-Mused on trading Puerto Rico for Greenland
-Violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution
-Nominated corrupt leaders of Interior, EPA, USDA, and HHS
-Blocked the Presidential transition
-Reinforced racist stereotypes by calling COVID "the China Virus."
-Charged the Secret Service jacked up rates while they stayed at his properties to protect his life.
-Lost a tariff war with China which forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers and declared "Victory"
-Forced his staff to dumb-down daily intelligence briefings then ignored them anyway
-Got played by Kim Jung Um's "love letters."
-Botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, then threw paper towels at victims in a photo op
-Promised Mexico would pay for his "Wall." Not.
-Threatened to withhold aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders
-Believed that there were airports during the American Revolution
-Claimed the Constitution's Article Two gave him "Absolute Power."
-Revealed intelligence sources and methods to Russian officials
-Fired the head of election cyber security after the director said the 2020 election was secure
-Held a COVID super-spreader event in the Rose Garden
-Appeared to believe that Frederick Douglass was a contemporary
-Appeared not to know that Abe Lincoln was a Republican
-Claimed Andrew Jackson could have stopped the Civil War though he died 16 years before Fort Sumter
-Claimed other countries were laughing at us before his presidency when world leaders literally laughed at him in public
-Claimed the US Military was out of ammo before his presidency
-Claimed that US COVID rates should be lowered by not counting rates in Blue states
-Habitually insulted national leaders including those of Canada, France, Britain, Germany and Sweden
Reaching out to this community for help with this question: Do you think the Dems ground game helped at all? Does canvassing help? In 2020, we didn't canvass because of the pandemic, but Biden won. This year, Trump had no ground game, and he won. Canvassing is very dear to me - but does it move the needle?
Saying that Kamala lost because of racism, misogyny and white supremacy is not wrong, but I have a “yes, and” reaction. Americans of all political persuasions are anxious about many facets of modern life, including the necessary adaptations to the changes that come when the arc of history bends toward justice. Just look at what I see here in a deep blue county in California: housing prices are insane, schools are struggling, kids are failing and many districts are about to fall off a fiscal cliff, traffic is ridiculous, the cost of recreation and entertainment is through the roof, everywhere we go feels more and more crowded all the time and even local government is struggling with capacity and competence issues. Or think about an example from the world of cultural issues, like trans kids & adults. Say you’re a parent and a trans girl shows up to play against your daughter’s sports team; I think a lot of otherwise well-meaning parents will see that and ask themselves the question, “what do I make of that?” It’s a change, something new that they haven’t encountered before. They don’t wonder about it with malice or prejudice, but a lot of them are going to recognize something has changed and ask themselves, “am I okay with this?” It’s a natural reaction and one that really challenges some people. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that ANY of this justifies choosing Trump. Absolutely not. However, when people are anxious about their lives and coping with changes that they don’t really understand, that situation is ripe for exploitation by narcissistic strongmen who dishonestly amplify and catastrophize that anxiety and instill fear around any sort of change. It turns out that this is the one thing that Trump and his enablers are actually good at. Disastrously good at it. So then, when we mix in the racism, misogyny and white supremacy that lurks just below the surface (or above, in some cases) in American society, it is a disturbingly powerful combination. If we could somehow wipe away the racism, misogyny and white supremacy I agree that Kamala would have won. But until we can find a way to counteract the dishonesty and find related ways speak to and calm that anxiety, and help people manage the changes that a more just society requires, we will continue to see conflict and division.
Occurs to me Trump & Co. have no way of discriminating between Democrats and Republicans in society; he/ they cannot bless one group in gratutude and and harm the other group in revenge. When Trump/ Musk/ Kennedy harm society all suffer equally. That is how (color and gender blind) society is structured and should be structured. Female Trump supporters are going to suffer from denied reproductive health care no differently than female Harris supporters are going suffer from denied reproductive health care. Mutual tragedy unites. Just a thought.
Wishing that we would move away from using the word "FIGHTING" in our political conversations, an expression that Kamala Harris uses often, as in the quote you shared:
"On the campaign, I would often say when we fight, we win. But here's the thing, sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn't mean we won't win. The important thing is don't ever give up. Don't ever give up." That militaristic language only adds to the fire of the division we are experiencing and seeing the "OTHER" in an adversarial manner. Can we find better language, like "I stand for this . . . as opposed to this . . . . ", or "my VISION/DESIRE is for this", or "Let us work toward this till it becomes a reality." I am sick and tired of division, rancor, and what feels like after this election "WARRING MADNESS!" I know there is a lot of disagreement and a struggle to reach common ground, or compromise (which is after all the definition of politics). But "FIGHTING" and "WINNING" focuses on the COMPETITION and where there are 'winners' there are also 'losers.' And being the 'losing end' this presidential election, I've chosen to work more with the Braver Angels organization than the Democratic Party over these next 4 years. I believe we desperately need to find a "different" way to do politics. BTW, thank you and your wife for coming to spend the last weekend in NC! We did at least elect a good Governor, Lt Governor, and Attorney General.
Now that the elections are over, I am proud to be living on the west coast where democracy mostly prevailed. And instead of donating to political campaigns, my dollars will be going even more frequently to groups fighting injustice SPLC, ACLU, and fighting for climate preservation EDF, NRDC, NWF and Nature Conservancy.
Robert Reich on how to get rid of Citizens Unite…state by state. Get it on the ballet in 2026
“Every corporation operating under the laws of this state has all the corporate powers it held previously, except that nothing in this statute grants or recognizes any power to engage in election activity or ballot-issue activity.”
Thanks, Robert.
I knocked on many doors over the past 2 months and nearly daily in the last 2 weeks. I came to understand as others probably had, that when asked what issues were most priority to voters, if they said "Immigrants, border and or economy" they were likely trumpers. In the last week, I still had people at doors say they were "undecided" as to who to vote for in the presidential race. SERIOUSLY?? Because they saw my lit, I think they did not want to say the would vote for Trump so they said "undecided" and then did not want to discuss issues. This was in rural and some other parts of West Central Wisconsin. In poll observing for 8 hours, many white men of various ages came out that were new registrants. And VERY upsetting to me. white women did not take their golden opportunity to vote for Kamala Harris/Tim Walz in the numbers they should have!!!
Who has seen Bad Faith? People I trust have been encouraging me for several months to watch it and I haven’t. Now my MD is telling me to watch it - so I will.
"Make a special effort to reach out to the women in your life—mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, coworkers, friends, and more.
"Reach out to the LGBTQ people in your life who are the targets of hate and bigotry by the far right and Christian nationalists.
"Reach out to immigrants and their family members who fear that they may be the subject of extrajudicial arrests and deportation.
"And if you are a member of a grassroots organization, take care of your leaders!"
As always, your wisdom and compassion touch me deeply, Robert. What you wrote makes me think of Jesus and the Beatitudes.
Steve and I are neighbors, Robert. Can we come and look out for you and Jill? You have an invitation for dinner at our home whenever you're free. We're in Burbank near Toluca Lake. It would be an honor to be with you.
Robert,
Thank you for giving me permission to name the reasons for Kamala’s loss, and for letting me sleep more than the 4 hours which has been my customary over the past 3 nights.
Last night’s video from you and Jess was just want I needed to somewhat re-center myself. After Kamala’s loss, I also immediately knew one of the driving factors was racism and white supremacy. However, as a Black person, when I engaged in texts with my white and Black friends, I did not name what I knew was true. I know that’s because I have been conditioned to care for the comfort of white people and was hesitant to start naming racism even to my Black friends.
However, after watching last night’s video and reading today’s newsletter, I had the courage to name these reasons. When I did so, all my friends agreed. Thank you.
As I struggled to understand what happened in this country, I found myself questioning why some Hispanics, Blacks, and other people of color voted for a racist, white supremacist. As for white women, I found myself questioning their embrace of a misogynist. I was then reminded of a metaphor from the author Kamilah Majied, PhD who wrote a book called Joyfully Just: Black Wisdom and Buddhist Insights for Liberated Living. She said we should think about racism as we did at the height of the COVID pandemic. When we went out into the world, we had to protect ourselves by assuming everyone we met might have it. So we had to get vaccinated, wear a mask, etc. There was a mixture of what people were willing to do so as not to become infected; and even today, it’s an ongoing process with vaccinations.
Majied uses this as an example of what people need to do to avoid or minimize the infection of racism and white supremacy, which were the building blocks of our country. That kind of vaccination requires learning how we got to where we are as a country, engaging with our fellow humans, examining our own privileges, and more.
So, when I look at the teachings from Majied and authors like Isabel Wilkerson, who wrote the book Caste, I am able to place these voting decisions in context: some people have never had any vaccinations against racism or white supremacy; and others don’t want to be relegated to the bottom rung of the Caste ladder where we Black people are situated.
Like others in this community, I am feeling disheartened, afraid, and more. I am feeling especially fearful for my Black brothers and sisters who will have limited protection from a government that will be intent on denying and retracting their gains, as well as the gains of other marginalized and vulnerable groups.
I have been asking myself where do I go from here in terms of my monthly subscriptions to groups? Who do I continue to work with after having spent the last 6 months calling, texting, post carding, etc.?
Right now, I truly believe the conservative faction of this country will be in power for at least the next 8 years. So, my potential answer to this question is clouded by this doomsday outlook.
What I do know is that I will continue to have my guideposts be this newsletter, Jess Piper’s newsletter, and Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter. These are the only sources I am using for news these days.
I also know that I am not willing to support organizations that are trying to normalize (as Robert says) this election. As such, I have canceled my monthly donation to one group that said: we lost because we needed a change-candidate, and we did not have one.
Finally, I will end this long post with an election-day experience with a Trump voter. I contracted with a company to have a bed frame assembled, and I knew based on where I live that I might get a Trump supporter to do the job. I had already decided that if he showed up with a MAGA hat or Trump shirt, I would not let him do the job. So, I was relieved when he was not wearing this attire. However, after he organized his equipment and began assembling the frame, he started blasting the Sean Hannity show. This went on for 3 hours. He definitely had not gotten his vaccination!
Evidently there are not currently enough of “us”. Standing together didn’t do it. Trump killed the Republican Party and perhaps the Democratic also.
Robert, I don't pretend to be nearly as well read on the campaign and the election as you; I agree that mysogony, racism, and white supremacy played a role in Trump's win, and I definitely do not have all (any?) of the answers. However (there's always a "however:, based on a very unscientific sample comprised of Democratic and Independent registered voters living in a lower-middle income apartment complex in Gilbert, Arizona who actually answered the door when I door-knocked on Monday, I would not be so quick to dismiss issues like the economy as driving forces behind Kamala's loss. For example, a 61 year-old African-American woman who had moved to AZ from San Jose within the last year said she was undecided as between Harris and Trump. She said she reads the news, was aware of the pros and cons of each candidate, and knew exactly "what Trump is and isn't." Nevertheless, she was worried about the economy. After I explained to her why Trump would not improve the financial standing of people in her position while Kamala would (and reminding her about Trump's racisim, reproductive health, etc.), she agreed with my points, but said she still needed to devote the evening to reading "all the material" before voting Tuesday. A Latina woman, who was home-schooling her autistic daughter, was worried about voting for Democrats because they want to do away with "school choice" (ie vouchers) that allow parents to use State money to send their kids to public, private, or parochial schools, or for home schooling. She said she'd "probably" vote for Harris since the vouchers were a state issue, but wasn't sure. And then there was the young African-American woman who was undecided becasue Harris "just went round and round during the debate, and didn't say what she would do to help people." That said, I've been trying to avoid reading the punditry that began before the body was even cold. I think the dust needs to settle a whole lot more than it has before we can fully understand what went wrong. In the meantime, we live to fight another day!
Donald Trump is a small-minded demagogue and voluptuary surrounded by sycophantic treason-weasels who will attempt anything he wants but are incapable of the insights and policy corrections of normal elective politics. If he and his minions can take our freedoms away this easily we won't deserve them. We will not go back to the times when our black and brown citizens were denigrated socially and legally. Nor will we go back to the times when gay people were expected to stay in the closet, never to be themselves and love who they love. We are not going back! Trump's most redeeming feature, as Michelle Goldberg put it in the NY Times today, is his incompetence. Count on it!* The Christian Nationalist White Supremacists on the Court will not prevail in driving the unchurched into their version of piety, but only in inciting us to further resistance, reminding us of what we hated about abusive priests and groomer pastors. I truly look forward to the idiocies of the second Trump administration, the 20% sales tax on imports they promise in their planned worldwide replay of Smoot-Hawley, leading to another Great Depression, deepened by the fall in productivity deporting ten million workers will cause. Elon even anticipates a period of significant suffering for the non-rich in the name of efficiency. I expect a mid-term rebellion in 2026, with defeat of all 20 Republican Senators up for election and a Democratic supermajority in both Houses of Congress. Finally an impeachment will be followed by conviction! Third time's the charm! The Supremacists on SCOTUS should be next in line!
*Here's a reminder of Trump's greatest hits in his first term, condensed from a friend's FB Post:
-Trump mismanaged a pandemic that killed over a million Americans
-He separated children from their emigrant parents, then lost them in the bureaucracy
-He ordered peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square tear-gassed for a Bible photo op in front of a church
-got impeached
-got impeached again
-Posted the worse jobs record of any modern US president
-Went full gangsta on Ukraine digging for dirt on Joe Biden
-Fired the Director of the FBI for investigating his ties to Russia
-Took Vladimir Putin's word over the assessments of the US intelligence community
-Caused the longest government shutdown in US history
-Called the "Black Lives Matter" slogan a "symbol of hate."
-Banned trans people from military service
-Lied publicly more than 40,000 times
-Vetoed a defense budget because it removed the names of insurgent Confederate Generals from military bases
-Refused to release his tax returns
-Posted the three highest annual trade deficits in US history
-Increased the national debt by $8 trillion
-Called veterans and soldiers who died in combat "Suckers and losers."
-Coddled the murderous leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismemberment of a US-based journalist
-Hired his unqualified daughter and son in law to work in the White House, overriding security concerns
-called Neo-Nazis "Very fine people."
-Recommended injections of bleach to treat COVID
-Withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Accords
-Withdrew the US from the Iran Nuclear deal
-Failed to confirm the US commitment to defend NATO
-Called Haiti and African nations "Shithole countries."
-Mused on trading Puerto Rico for Greenland
-Violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution
-Nominated corrupt leaders of Interior, EPA, USDA, and HHS
-Blocked the Presidential transition
-Reinforced racist stereotypes by calling COVID "the China Virus."
-Charged the Secret Service jacked up rates while they stayed at his properties to protect his life.
-Lost a tariff war with China which forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers and declared "Victory"
-Forced his staff to dumb-down daily intelligence briefings then ignored them anyway
-Got played by Kim Jung Um's "love letters."
-Botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, then threw paper towels at victims in a photo op
-Promised Mexico would pay for his "Wall." Not.
-Threatened to withhold aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders
-Believed that there were airports during the American Revolution
-Claimed the Constitution's Article Two gave him "Absolute Power."
-Revealed intelligence sources and methods to Russian officials
-Fired the head of election cyber security after the director said the 2020 election was secure
-Held a COVID super-spreader event in the Rose Garden
-Appeared to believe that Frederick Douglass was a contemporary
-Appeared not to know that Abe Lincoln was a Republican
-Claimed Andrew Jackson could have stopped the Civil War though he died 16 years before Fort Sumter
-Claimed other countries were laughing at us before his presidency when world leaders literally laughed at him in public
-Claimed the US Military was out of ammo before his presidency
-Claimed that US COVID rates should be lowered by not counting rates in Blue states
-Habitually insulted national leaders including those of Canada, France, Britain, Germany and Sweden
-
-
-
Reaching out to this community for help with this question: Do you think the Dems ground game helped at all? Does canvassing help? In 2020, we didn't canvass because of the pandemic, but Biden won. This year, Trump had no ground game, and he won. Canvassing is very dear to me - but does it move the needle?
Saying that Kamala lost because of racism, misogyny and white supremacy is not wrong, but I have a “yes, and” reaction. Americans of all political persuasions are anxious about many facets of modern life, including the necessary adaptations to the changes that come when the arc of history bends toward justice. Just look at what I see here in a deep blue county in California: housing prices are insane, schools are struggling, kids are failing and many districts are about to fall off a fiscal cliff, traffic is ridiculous, the cost of recreation and entertainment is through the roof, everywhere we go feels more and more crowded all the time and even local government is struggling with capacity and competence issues. Or think about an example from the world of cultural issues, like trans kids & adults. Say you’re a parent and a trans girl shows up to play against your daughter’s sports team; I think a lot of otherwise well-meaning parents will see that and ask themselves the question, “what do I make of that?” It’s a change, something new that they haven’t encountered before. They don’t wonder about it with malice or prejudice, but a lot of them are going to recognize something has changed and ask themselves, “am I okay with this?” It’s a natural reaction and one that really challenges some people. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that ANY of this justifies choosing Trump. Absolutely not. However, when people are anxious about their lives and coping with changes that they don’t really understand, that situation is ripe for exploitation by narcissistic strongmen who dishonestly amplify and catastrophize that anxiety and instill fear around any sort of change. It turns out that this is the one thing that Trump and his enablers are actually good at. Disastrously good at it. So then, when we mix in the racism, misogyny and white supremacy that lurks just below the surface (or above, in some cases) in American society, it is a disturbingly powerful combination. If we could somehow wipe away the racism, misogyny and white supremacy I agree that Kamala would have won. But until we can find a way to counteract the dishonesty and find related ways speak to and calm that anxiety, and help people manage the changes that a more just society requires, we will continue to see conflict and division.
Occurs to me Trump & Co. have no way of discriminating between Democrats and Republicans in society; he/ they cannot bless one group in gratutude and and harm the other group in revenge. When Trump/ Musk/ Kennedy harm society all suffer equally. That is how (color and gender blind) society is structured and should be structured. Female Trump supporters are going to suffer from denied reproductive health care no differently than female Harris supporters are going suffer from denied reproductive health care. Mutual tragedy unites. Just a thought.
Wishing that we would move away from using the word "FIGHTING" in our political conversations, an expression that Kamala Harris uses often, as in the quote you shared:
"On the campaign, I would often say when we fight, we win. But here's the thing, sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn't mean we won't win. The important thing is don't ever give up. Don't ever give up." That militaristic language only adds to the fire of the division we are experiencing and seeing the "OTHER" in an adversarial manner. Can we find better language, like "I stand for this . . . as opposed to this . . . . ", or "my VISION/DESIRE is for this", or "Let us work toward this till it becomes a reality." I am sick and tired of division, rancor, and what feels like after this election "WARRING MADNESS!" I know there is a lot of disagreement and a struggle to reach common ground, or compromise (which is after all the definition of politics). But "FIGHTING" and "WINNING" focuses on the COMPETITION and where there are 'winners' there are also 'losers.' And being the 'losing end' this presidential election, I've chosen to work more with the Braver Angels organization than the Democratic Party over these next 4 years. I believe we desperately need to find a "different" way to do politics. BTW, thank you and your wife for coming to spend the last weekend in NC! We did at least elect a good Governor, Lt Governor, and Attorney General.
Richard Little
Matthews, NC
Just learned from the League of Women Voters about the ERA and how President Biden has an opportunity to add support before the end of his tenure. This is the link that asks us to get engaged asap. https://www.lwv.org/newsroom/press-releases/league-women-voters-issues-nation-wide-call-urgent-action-equality
Now that the elections are over, I am proud to be living on the west coast where democracy mostly prevailed. And instead of donating to political campaigns, my dollars will be going even more frequently to groups fighting injustice SPLC, ACLU, and fighting for climate preservation EDF, NRDC, NWF and Nature Conservancy.