This is something that I have been desperately trying to convey to everyone I know. Communication, a little comprehension of human nature, and a dash of reverse psychology, are vital to changing minds and hearts. We need to work smarter, not harder.
Right now, we are so appalled by the people embracing the early (or, possibly middle) stages of fascism that we are allowing them to bounce around in their own echo chamber. By railing against anyone who has fallen for it, we are actively playing a part in this downward spiral. I can’t tell you how many times I have been outright attacked for having a more moderate opinion about, or suggesting a more moderate approach to, a social issue. I am very progressively minded, but I still find myself alienated and pushed away by some progressives. We are damaging our cause when we do that.
Tremendous. Let me please add: A movement that listens to the world and its allies in particular. Canada is already a true multiracial democracy so you wouldn’t be the first. A little humility is good for patriotism. It makes it truly authentic.
I love the way you think and express your vision. My only problem is I don’t want to limit myself to American patriotism; I feel called to be a citizen of the world. (But we have to start somewhere….)
This is a great sentiment, and I think you are 100% right, but it’s also just words. Who are you talking to? Someone has to actually step up and start organizing this. It’s not enough to just say it needs to be done. If you have the vision, the organizer could be you, but maybe that’s contradictory to your journalism role?
I don’t think it is, by the way—mainstream journalism is pretty much dead at this point anyway, so I mostly get my news from primary sources anyway. Like, what, am I going to read the clickbait in the New York Times for trustworthy info? Not likely.
But without a bandwagon for us to jump on, nobody is going to jump. I occasionally fantasize about doing this myself, but (a) I don’t think I’m the right person and (b) my life circumstances aren’t very conducive. But that’s probably what’s stopping a lot of us.
This is very nice, but there is no reason we can’t – and indeed we must – hold criminal, fascist, insurrectionist former presidents accountable at the same time that we create an open, inclusive, progressive movement for a bold and beautiful future. I’m not sure what you mean by a “ban” (maybe you are referring to social media bans), but if you are referring to the effort to exclude Trump from the ballot in 2024, that most certainly is a “plan” – a plan to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment’s Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause which disqualifies from public office any public official, who, like Trump, took an oath to defend the Constitution, and then engaged in insurrection against the United States. https://freespeechforpeople.org/the-14point3-campaign/ As the January 6 Commission report (along with lots of other publicly available evidence) demonstrates, Donald Trump was the single most important person in facilitating, promoting, and causing the insurrectionist attack on our Capital, in which Trump’s violent mob sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, succeeded (temporarily) in obstructing Congress from performing the essential constitutional function of certifying the presidential vote, nearly assassinated Vice President Pence, and left multiple police officers dead. If we hope to prevent a renewed resurgence of Trumpian authoritarianism and waves of future anti-democratic insurrectionists, we must enforce Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment now and exclude Trump and other insurrectionists from the ballot. More than 150 years later, we are still paying dearly for our nation’s failure to adequately enforce the Fourteenth Amendment and fully hold to account the original Confederate insurrectionists who prompted the original enactment of the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause. Let’s not repeat that mistake with today’s insurrectionists. And if we want to take back the mantle of patriotism from those who have so thoroughly sullied it in recent times, what better place to start than by vigorously enforcing one of our most vital constitutional protections?
The essential fact here is that we bind ourselves to stories that inspire us to participate in fulfilling a promise/vision of a world we hope to live within. We had such a story from our founding until the Reagan years when a handful of wealthy “Libertarians” decided that greed was good and our story hampered their quest for power. They have spent the last 4 decades learning the power of propaganda to tear holes in our story while we failed to strengthen our own story telling craft. The vacuum has left the country vulnerable to a dismantling of the essential guardrails of an open, just, functioning democracy.
Man, that was so succinct, so spot-on! All my life I've told people (anyone who wants to listen), "where else could a Vietnamese orphan get a good education and move up the social ladder in just one generation?" I love this country fiercely, but I do see our past mistakes too. Somehow we have to get people to feel ok with seeing and repairing those mistakes and at the same time, exult in their patriotism.
One more time (and I am not sure it’s fixed. Looks like there is an old AMEX card and I can’t seem to change it. I grew up in Philadelphia and then moved to Vermont. Folks inb my family were in Brooklyn primarily with my mother from Manhattan. I went to UofPenn and Wharton School with majors in literature and community. The move to Vermont was a big surprise. I was coming from a multiethnic/-multicultural cultural, multiracial life in the “big city”. That wasn’t Vermont then and still hasn’t finished its metamorphosis. The change in Vermont was largely triggered by “Hippys” and new folks coming to make a new life and a new world. The old Republican world of farmers and Christians evolved, not completely, but it bent more and more especially in the Burlington area. There were almost new Jews and even less people of color. Things have changed, more on the western side of the state than the eastern side but all move slowly forward.
So I accidentally, my comment. Basically, my background is different not from all but from many Vermonters primarily living now on the Western side of VT. My Dad grew up in Brooklyn and his my family were a good and large Jewish Brooklyn collection, early members were from Eastern Europe and the many cousins and grand cousins or their parents had came through Ellis Island. My mother grew up in Manhattan. I grew up in Philadelphia (which I refer to as a Quaker Mecca) and lived there until I was in my early 30s and moved to Vermont. Wow! What a change and not exactly what I expected. So, I went from a multi-religious, multicultural home of 40 years to communities that were largely white, largely Christian and didn’t have much more interest in Jews than they had in African Americans. Things have changed significantly in those 40 years but there are still real challenges. The area of Burlington and the Western part of the state are the basis of the story folks know through the “Hippies”. And while there still are “Hippies” throughout Vermont, many on farms, it has changed dramatically from “Christian” to not much religion generally (like the rest of the country), although there are more Blacks, more Latinas and others from South America, etc. and some Jews. I don’t mean to tell an unattractive story, it’s the melting pot that moved on from New York, Chicago, and all places north, south, east and west, it just isn’t the story folks generally hear Vermont. (One thing I forgot - we changed dramatically as a state from R to Dem.)
This is something that I have been desperately trying to convey to everyone I know. Communication, a little comprehension of human nature, and a dash of reverse psychology, are vital to changing minds and hearts. We need to work smarter, not harder.
Right now, we are so appalled by the people embracing the early (or, possibly middle) stages of fascism that we are allowing them to bounce around in their own echo chamber. By railing against anyone who has fallen for it, we are actively playing a part in this downward spiral. I can’t tell you how many times I have been outright attacked for having a more moderate opinion about, or suggesting a more moderate approach to, a social issue. I am very progressively minded, but I still find myself alienated and pushed away by some progressives. We are damaging our cause when we do that.
Work smarter, not harder.
Tremendous. Let me please add: A movement that listens to the world and its allies in particular. Canada is already a true multiracial democracy so you wouldn’t be the first. A little humility is good for patriotism. It makes it truly authentic.
I love the way you think and express your vision. My only problem is I don’t want to limit myself to American patriotism; I feel called to be a citizen of the world. (But we have to start somewhere….)
This is a great sentiment, and I think you are 100% right, but it’s also just words. Who are you talking to? Someone has to actually step up and start organizing this. It’s not enough to just say it needs to be done. If you have the vision, the organizer could be you, but maybe that’s contradictory to your journalism role?
I don’t think it is, by the way—mainstream journalism is pretty much dead at this point anyway, so I mostly get my news from primary sources anyway. Like, what, am I going to read the clickbait in the New York Times for trustworthy info? Not likely.
But without a bandwagon for us to jump on, nobody is going to jump. I occasionally fantasize about doing this myself, but (a) I don’t think I’m the right person and (b) my life circumstances aren’t very conducive. But that’s probably what’s stopping a lot of us.
How do we get out of this trap?
This is very nice, but there is no reason we can’t – and indeed we must – hold criminal, fascist, insurrectionist former presidents accountable at the same time that we create an open, inclusive, progressive movement for a bold and beautiful future. I’m not sure what you mean by a “ban” (maybe you are referring to social media bans), but if you are referring to the effort to exclude Trump from the ballot in 2024, that most certainly is a “plan” – a plan to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment’s Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause which disqualifies from public office any public official, who, like Trump, took an oath to defend the Constitution, and then engaged in insurrection against the United States. https://freespeechforpeople.org/the-14point3-campaign/ As the January 6 Commission report (along with lots of other publicly available evidence) demonstrates, Donald Trump was the single most important person in facilitating, promoting, and causing the insurrectionist attack on our Capital, in which Trump’s violent mob sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, succeeded (temporarily) in obstructing Congress from performing the essential constitutional function of certifying the presidential vote, nearly assassinated Vice President Pence, and left multiple police officers dead. If we hope to prevent a renewed resurgence of Trumpian authoritarianism and waves of future anti-democratic insurrectionists, we must enforce Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment now and exclude Trump and other insurrectionists from the ballot. More than 150 years later, we are still paying dearly for our nation’s failure to adequately enforce the Fourteenth Amendment and fully hold to account the original Confederate insurrectionists who prompted the original enactment of the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause. Let’s not repeat that mistake with today’s insurrectionists. And if we want to take back the mantle of patriotism from those who have so thoroughly sullied it in recent times, what better place to start than by vigorously enforcing one of our most vital constitutional protections?
The essential fact here is that we bind ourselves to stories that inspire us to participate in fulfilling a promise/vision of a world we hope to live within. We had such a story from our founding until the Reagan years when a handful of wealthy “Libertarians” decided that greed was good and our story hampered their quest for power. They have spent the last 4 decades learning the power of propaganda to tear holes in our story while we failed to strengthen our own story telling craft. The vacuum has left the country vulnerable to a dismantling of the essential guardrails of an open, just, functioning democracy.
Man, that was so succinct, so spot-on! All my life I've told people (anyone who wants to listen), "where else could a Vietnamese orphan get a good education and move up the social ladder in just one generation?" I love this country fiercely, but I do see our past mistakes too. Somehow we have to get people to feel ok with seeing and repairing those mistakes and at the same time, exult in their patriotism.
Applause for starting the conversation. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Wow so beautifully said . . . 100% and Thank you . . .
So well said. Thank you.
Just getting started
One more time (and I am not sure it’s fixed. Looks like there is an old AMEX card and I can’t seem to change it. I grew up in Philadelphia and then moved to Vermont. Folks inb my family were in Brooklyn primarily with my mother from Manhattan. I went to UofPenn and Wharton School with majors in literature and community. The move to Vermont was a big surprise. I was coming from a multiethnic/-multicultural cultural, multiracial life in the “big city”. That wasn’t Vermont then and still hasn’t finished its metamorphosis. The change in Vermont was largely triggered by “Hippys” and new folks coming to make a new life and a new world. The old Republican world of farmers and Christians evolved, not completely, but it bent more and more especially in the Burlington area. There were almost new Jews and even less people of color. Things have changed, more on the western side of the state than the eastern side but all move slowly forward.
Thanks Ed. For now I am going to go read New Yorker which just came. Let’s see if this is erased.
It ran away again. Am I doing something wrong?
So I accidentally, my comment. Basically, my background is different not from all but from many Vermonters primarily living now on the Western side of VT. My Dad grew up in Brooklyn and his my family were a good and large Jewish Brooklyn collection, early members were from Eastern Europe and the many cousins and grand cousins or their parents had came through Ellis Island. My mother grew up in Manhattan. I grew up in Philadelphia (which I refer to as a Quaker Mecca) and lived there until I was in my early 30s and moved to Vermont. Wow! What a change and not exactly what I expected. So, I went from a multi-religious, multicultural home of 40 years to communities that were largely white, largely Christian and didn’t have much more interest in Jews than they had in African Americans. Things have changed significantly in those 40 years but there are still real challenges. The area of Burlington and the Western part of the state are the basis of the story folks know through the “Hippies”. And while there still are “Hippies” throughout Vermont, many on farms, it has changed dramatically from “Christian” to not much religion generally (like the rest of the country), although there are more Blacks, more Latinas and others from South America, etc. and some Jews. I don’t mean to tell an unattractive story, it’s the melting pot that moved on from New York, Chicago, and all places north, south, east and west, it just isn’t the story folks generally hear Vermont. (One thing I forgot - we changed dramatically as a state from R to Dem.)
In think my comments disappeared somehow. Slipped finger most likely. If anyone runs across it let me know.