Institutions matter
Recalling a warning from October
A thread on X this weekend by John Stoehr revived a memory. In October of last year, which was approximately 157 years ago, according to math, I tried to give my final warning to wavering Americans about the election’s stakes.
It was about our institutions, and how, working in the background, they enable so much of life that we don’t even think about. And about how, in their absence, chaos would engulf us.
But I could never have imagined just how much chaos would ensue under Trump II.
Today, the below warning hits different. I’m sharing because if there are people in your life who still like Trump a little, or hate everyone in politics equally, or whatever, consider sending this passage to them as a reminder of all that Trump’s chaotic reign is costing everyone.
Politics will eat your dreams
What's really important now is for people across this country who may not be diehard for Kamala Harris or diehard for Donald Trump, but who love the country, who have been blessed by the many gifts of this country to say this country is what it is.
It has given you whatever it's given you because of institutions, institutions you take for granted, prospects of a peaceful transfer of power that you take for granted so you can go live your life. You can go start that restaurant. You can go do that job. You can go drive your kid to that college.
You can do all those things in a way that you cannot in Somalia because the institutions are just working in the background. You don't even have to think about them very often. You have to vote every so often and then they work.
And what is at stake now is you possibly not being able to do all those things you've done all your life, not be able to chase your dreams, not be able to make your plans, because what works in the background is not going to be working in the background in a Trump administration politics, government persecution would become your life. This would become the the full drama of our country.
That's what happens in these countries that go in that illiberal, unconstitutional direction, and what they are proposing is not just you know an abstraction of fascism it is a kind of political project where politics would eat our dreams, eat your plans, and I don't think most Americans want that.
FULL POST:
Love your work. Listened to you on Meidas Touch yesterday too and think "Free America" apparel would be great!
Our side has to work on messaging. I attended a seminar in February around messaging. And one thing they talked about that I think is powerful is using language like Raising Revenue. We shouldn't be cutting government programs. We haven't increased the government workforce in ages while our population has increased.
I also heard Gov. Moore on Meidas yesterday and can't say I valued his language as it mimicked republican talking points around tax cuts etc. Dems should be talking about raising revenue.
Dems need to be more aggressive and present a message that says what we could have instead.
This document is one my daughter and I created around the reframing messaging we need to start using.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bAn6p3k6Zh5SBJj6zqHHzivNnYQx_roTt7wwE1YxN-w/edit?usp=sharing
I'm now off to a local protest and will continue to talk to people as you talked about yesterday in your podcast with Meidas Touch.
He hit the nail!