It is hard to know what to do at my age - (pre WWII baby) and I live in the very blue part of NH - and neither senator is up for election this year. In my retirement community we are not supposed to talk about devisive things like politics - but most of us know who leans what way. Having to deal with 4 years of dRump is depressing (assuming I live another 4 years) I will make donations to causes I want to support - but I do not have world changing money so I will focus on donating to charities that support causes that I believe in. I may break a life long rule and put a political sticker on the bumper of my car. Small steps small steps - but better than covering my eyes and ears and pretending all is well. All is not well - our democracy is in danger of destruction by idiots and traitors.
I was about to add a post when I read your comments. I'm only 75 but live in a retirement community in SW FL where my husband and I stick out like two left thumbs in an angry red fist. We also broke our pattern and put Harris signs on our car which were vandalized over and over. After the election someone put a nasty Tucker Carlson-inspired "Trump is your daddy" note on our windshield. That took some time to get over. We are fervent students of the Bible and see current events unfolding as predicted as people call evil good and good evil. I lament churchianity rejoicing over crooks and liars. The most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament is from Isaiah 6: they have eyes to see and ears to hear, but do neither. I'm holding on as the ship sinks, grateful I know how to swim.
I believe it was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC where Joan Baez sang the anthem of the civil rights movement “We shall overcome.”The situation of people of color at that time and the racism they had to overcome was overwhelming. When looking at that situation I feel that the situation I am in now is much less Dire. I take great inspiration from the work of Martin Luther King and the others in the civil rights movement. It took bravery, hard work, but also the faith that they would overcome, and they did.
This situation is a bit different. The problem is not simply that Donald Trump is elected and has brought a gang of incompetent numbskulls to advise him on the cabinet, but the system that allowed him to be elected and that allowed MAGA to arise is the problem. My point of view is that as Trump and the idiots that he listens to, finishes dismantling what used to be a progressive democracy, it is time for us to envision and put into effect a more effective system. My own conclusion is that the next level of economy and governance is called “Economic Democracy.“ This is summarized in Wikipedia and also you can ask ChatGPT some questions and there is some good information there. Finally , you will find some very forward, thinking individuals, posting essays on the “CRISIS AND TRANSITION” Substack. https://crisistransition.substack.com/
Personally, I expect a very tumultuous time ahead and then a very bright future.
I'm a remote federal worker living in MA. My plan is to go back to DC if called back. I refuse to quit/retire. I love my job and want to hold my position for the next worker and retire on my own terms/timeline.
It seems to me that to continue fighting against the wrongness in TrumpWorld is to ignore the wrongness of the current stance of liberal democracy. I might even say a continued fight is just another way to say, "NO! We were the right ones. They just don't understand." (They being the slightly skewed Latino voter, the Bro-voter, the non-voter; take your pick.)
That stance did not turn out to be accurate. It is we who don't understand what went wrong. To push the idea even further: if all we do is count up which votes we think "went wrong" then we are still missing the point. Our liberal democracy does not understand how to support and speak to those who feel disenfranchised. Dragging a few million more votes back to our side won't fix it.
Hell, we can't even say who is disenfranchised because we missed the boat. We were all so excited to have a joyful, hopeful ticket marching straight into the oval office that we didn't have the bandwidth to understand those who were not so excited about how things were going.
It is a good lesson, a hard lesson, a ruler-rap on the knuckles, a throbbing, bare-nerve tooth pain from a cavity we ignored. Maybe now we will learn something.
I am sorry to say that I am not that person. I'm hoping someone smarter than me can see a way to lift up and serve our Latino-Bro-No neighbors so that we can all get the Liberal Democracy that I hope to leave to my kids, my kids' kids, and even the world.
Along with Fusspot (below), I was born in 1940, was politically active throughout the '60's, and also live in a blue part of NH just across the river from the Peoples' Republic of VT. Fortunately, our retirement community is firmly Liberal, and we are active in a lot of ways. Every dinner together seethes with talk of what we can, or cannot, do. My take, after years of climate activism, is that we need to be prepared for anything, but to be very discerning about when to take decisive action(s). Clearly the new Administration will make a number of outrageous acts, but what we need to do most is watch, learn, and organize strategically. At some point, a truly focused resistance will emerge, and that's when we need to lean into it, to support it. But is far better to let the resistance emerge and to follow that energy than to try to make something happen without clear cause. What we don't want is for the Powers to be able to see us as the problem, rather than for the people to see them as the problem.
My posture - perhaps/surely not a healthy one - is implacable resistance and outrage at this human derelict soon to preside over the nation with his farcically unqualified cabinet.
I'm keeping my powder dry, in the small hope that much of Trump's bombast will turn out to be bluster. Much of what he has proposed would backfire on him if implemented, and I think he may lose enough Republican votes in Congress on any given topic to thwart him, apart from the nauseating extension of his tax breaks for billionaires. I worry most about executive action, especially on immigration / deportation, which Stephen Miller probably hopes will lead to martial law in blue cities. Meanwhile I'm refocusing on what can be done locally in the blue state of MD - e.g., accelerated adoption of solar, EVs, etc.
Last time I was an active member of the #resistance. This time, I'm unsure of how best to proceed. But, one thing seems important...surviving the next however long this nightmare goes on. To this end, I've organized a gathering of ppl of shared values in a support group. I'm not sure what, if anything, we will actually 'do' other than support and nourish each other. For me, keeping calm and trying not to despair will be my focus. I can only do with in the environment of ppl who share my values so, for now, that is who I'm hoping to join and support. I'll let you know how it goes.
Overseas Americans like me don't have as many pro-active options as those in the U.S. so we concentrate on getting out the vote for federal elections, recruiting as many Americans to register to vote as we can locate, and maintaining an ongoing program of social and cultural activities to maintain as much social cohesion as possible in our country of residence. We also keep an eye on state elections and occasionally alert members of elections that could be of interest to support the Democratic candidates in their home states.
One thing I’m not doing is giving another second of my attention to cable news-I’m sorry that you are and will continue to follow you here. I will be doing some of the things you mention-building community, maintaining health and well being as long as possible and withholding attention from the chaos machine-more of us did not choose this and collectively we have power to thrive
I’m interested in better democracy. The pro-democracy effort was just a scare tactic to appeal to voters. Where were the proposals to improve democracy? As Anand mentioned in his article and discussion on Morning Joe, we have to look for “root” causes of our dissatisfactions. I’m looking at reforms of our political systems that gives greater voice to people, not the wealthy, not to corporations, not to the political parties that offer us only a menu of options that’s already been approved by their donors. What do you believe would be the results if we had a national referendums on healthcare, education and housing? Our options are limited intentionally. How do we change this scenario? Thank you Anand! Happy New Year and Pace e bene.
Whooboy. I'm 70, and depressed about what is happening. Tonight, here in freezing Vermont, I am going to my local UU church where we have opened up the vestry so people can get out of the cold and sleep. Even in this deep blue state, cruelty abounds. They shut down the program to house homeless people/families in motels. Now half the motel rooms are empty and people are forced to look for shelter. The homeless shelters are turning people away. All I can do is help where I can, donate where I can, feed whom I can, and fight in my tiny little way, but I am beside myself with fury and sadness.
The shock of the first election of Trump caused in me and most of my friends some kind of inner need to follow his every move and every statement, and it got worse by the day. Then I had to post my righteous indignation along with correcting everything he said and did. People couldn't believe that he got away with everything, but he did, and he does. Man, am I tired of Trump taking up my life, and I simply don't want to think about him any more. Like a divorce, the anger will probably persist awhile for Judge Cannon or the rioters of January 6, but I intend to show whoever is around that community, fixing roads and schools, and kindness is the path to reconstructing our democracy.
We, collectively, get the government that we, collectively, deserve. If we want better government, we, collectively, need to deserve it.
How do we do that? In my opinion we begin -- and end -- with education.
“Monticello Jan. 6. [18]16.
if a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be. the functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty & property of their constituents. there is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”
-- Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey
Making improvements to our system of education is difficult even in the best of times and in the best of political environments; improving it while laboring under authoritarian rule might prove impossible, but if we really want better government, we'd better focus much of our attention on better education of our citizens, with special attention on civics and critical thinking skills.
If we want better government, we need to deserve it and earn it. Unfortunately, this offers no instant gratification or the quick fix everyone is looking for. We're paying the price now for decades of neglect of education. Do we have the will and wherewithal to turn it around now?
Bingo! I, a childless cat lady, have a niece and nephew in education. We're operating under a system that worked in 1800 -- states and counties and towns fund and control their own education, and there is no place for the federal government. The fight at the federal level has been the other side's attempt to privatize, and fund religious or other offbeat schools. I say, look at the Japanese methods and get to work. A lot of the attitudes that wound up as Trump votes were from adults who as kids lived under school boards who forced religious doctrines and authoritarian ideas. It's time for us to take over school boards and do much more than simply adopting texts and materials developed in Texas.
I am contributing monthly to the ACLU, Democracy Forward, and Democracy 2025, an association of 280 legal firms in communication with each other that are able to assign the law firm with the most expertise in a particular area of law in order to meet the various challenges that the 2nd Trump administration presents to the nation. This is the best I can do at age 86.
Please visit my website, us-sos.info, "Make America Great for Everyone"
It's a problem solving website dedicated to Dick Feynman and starts out with Thom Hartman's analysis of what's been done to us. Gives gives the correct solution to the abortion problem and how Christians can accept it. Looks at a whole lot of problems including a truly infuriating view of health care.
It is hard to know what to do at my age - (pre WWII baby) and I live in the very blue part of NH - and neither senator is up for election this year. In my retirement community we are not supposed to talk about devisive things like politics - but most of us know who leans what way. Having to deal with 4 years of dRump is depressing (assuming I live another 4 years) I will make donations to causes I want to support - but I do not have world changing money so I will focus on donating to charities that support causes that I believe in. I may break a life long rule and put a political sticker on the bumper of my car. Small steps small steps - but better than covering my eyes and ears and pretending all is well. All is not well - our democracy is in danger of destruction by idiots and traitors.
I was about to add a post when I read your comments. I'm only 75 but live in a retirement community in SW FL where my husband and I stick out like two left thumbs in an angry red fist. We also broke our pattern and put Harris signs on our car which were vandalized over and over. After the election someone put a nasty Tucker Carlson-inspired "Trump is your daddy" note on our windshield. That took some time to get over. We are fervent students of the Bible and see current events unfolding as predicted as people call evil good and good evil. I lament churchianity rejoicing over crooks and liars. The most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament is from Isaiah 6: they have eyes to see and ears to hear, but do neither. I'm holding on as the ship sinks, grateful I know how to swim.
I believe it was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC where Joan Baez sang the anthem of the civil rights movement “We shall overcome.”The situation of people of color at that time and the racism they had to overcome was overwhelming. When looking at that situation I feel that the situation I am in now is much less Dire. I take great inspiration from the work of Martin Luther King and the others in the civil rights movement. It took bravery, hard work, but also the faith that they would overcome, and they did.
This situation is a bit different. The problem is not simply that Donald Trump is elected and has brought a gang of incompetent numbskulls to advise him on the cabinet, but the system that allowed him to be elected and that allowed MAGA to arise is the problem. My point of view is that as Trump and the idiots that he listens to, finishes dismantling what used to be a progressive democracy, it is time for us to envision and put into effect a more effective system. My own conclusion is that the next level of economy and governance is called “Economic Democracy.“ This is summarized in Wikipedia and also you can ask ChatGPT some questions and there is some good information there. Finally , you will find some very forward, thinking individuals, posting essays on the “CRISIS AND TRANSITION” Substack. https://crisistransition.substack.com/
Personally, I expect a very tumultuous time ahead and then a very bright future.
I'm a remote federal worker living in MA. My plan is to go back to DC if called back. I refuse to quit/retire. I love my job and want to hold my position for the next worker and retire on my own terms/timeline.
I can never do all the good the world needs, yet the world needs all the good I can do.
That quote is going on my fridge, on neon green paper. Thanks.
It seems to me that to continue fighting against the wrongness in TrumpWorld is to ignore the wrongness of the current stance of liberal democracy. I might even say a continued fight is just another way to say, "NO! We were the right ones. They just don't understand." (They being the slightly skewed Latino voter, the Bro-voter, the non-voter; take your pick.)
That stance did not turn out to be accurate. It is we who don't understand what went wrong. To push the idea even further: if all we do is count up which votes we think "went wrong" then we are still missing the point. Our liberal democracy does not understand how to support and speak to those who feel disenfranchised. Dragging a few million more votes back to our side won't fix it.
Hell, we can't even say who is disenfranchised because we missed the boat. We were all so excited to have a joyful, hopeful ticket marching straight into the oval office that we didn't have the bandwidth to understand those who were not so excited about how things were going.
It is a good lesson, a hard lesson, a ruler-rap on the knuckles, a throbbing, bare-nerve tooth pain from a cavity we ignored. Maybe now we will learn something.
I am sorry to say that I am not that person. I'm hoping someone smarter than me can see a way to lift up and serve our Latino-Bro-No neighbors so that we can all get the Liberal Democracy that I hope to leave to my kids, my kids' kids, and even the world.
Along with Fusspot (below), I was born in 1940, was politically active throughout the '60's, and also live in a blue part of NH just across the river from the Peoples' Republic of VT. Fortunately, our retirement community is firmly Liberal, and we are active in a lot of ways. Every dinner together seethes with talk of what we can, or cannot, do. My take, after years of climate activism, is that we need to be prepared for anything, but to be very discerning about when to take decisive action(s). Clearly the new Administration will make a number of outrageous acts, but what we need to do most is watch, learn, and organize strategically. At some point, a truly focused resistance will emerge, and that's when we need to lean into it, to support it. But is far better to let the resistance emerge and to follow that energy than to try to make something happen without clear cause. What we don't want is for the Powers to be able to see us as the problem, rather than for the people to see them as the problem.
My posture - perhaps/surely not a healthy one - is implacable resistance and outrage at this human derelict soon to preside over the nation with his farcically unqualified cabinet.
I'm keeping my powder dry, in the small hope that much of Trump's bombast will turn out to be bluster. Much of what he has proposed would backfire on him if implemented, and I think he may lose enough Republican votes in Congress on any given topic to thwart him, apart from the nauseating extension of his tax breaks for billionaires. I worry most about executive action, especially on immigration / deportation, which Stephen Miller probably hopes will lead to martial law in blue cities. Meanwhile I'm refocusing on what can be done locally in the blue state of MD - e.g., accelerated adoption of solar, EVs, etc.
Last time I was an active member of the #resistance. This time, I'm unsure of how best to proceed. But, one thing seems important...surviving the next however long this nightmare goes on. To this end, I've organized a gathering of ppl of shared values in a support group. I'm not sure what, if anything, we will actually 'do' other than support and nourish each other. For me, keeping calm and trying not to despair will be my focus. I can only do with in the environment of ppl who share my values so, for now, that is who I'm hoping to join and support. I'll let you know how it goes.
Overseas Americans like me don't have as many pro-active options as those in the U.S. so we concentrate on getting out the vote for federal elections, recruiting as many Americans to register to vote as we can locate, and maintaining an ongoing program of social and cultural activities to maintain as much social cohesion as possible in our country of residence. We also keep an eye on state elections and occasionally alert members of elections that could be of interest to support the Democratic candidates in their home states.
One thing I’m not doing is giving another second of my attention to cable news-I’m sorry that you are and will continue to follow you here. I will be doing some of the things you mention-building community, maintaining health and well being as long as possible and withholding attention from the chaos machine-more of us did not choose this and collectively we have power to thrive
I’m interested in better democracy. The pro-democracy effort was just a scare tactic to appeal to voters. Where were the proposals to improve democracy? As Anand mentioned in his article and discussion on Morning Joe, we have to look for “root” causes of our dissatisfactions. I’m looking at reforms of our political systems that gives greater voice to people, not the wealthy, not to corporations, not to the political parties that offer us only a menu of options that’s already been approved by their donors. What do you believe would be the results if we had a national referendums on healthcare, education and housing? Our options are limited intentionally. How do we change this scenario? Thank you Anand! Happy New Year and Pace e bene.
Whooboy. I'm 70, and depressed about what is happening. Tonight, here in freezing Vermont, I am going to my local UU church where we have opened up the vestry so people can get out of the cold and sleep. Even in this deep blue state, cruelty abounds. They shut down the program to house homeless people/families in motels. Now half the motel rooms are empty and people are forced to look for shelter. The homeless shelters are turning people away. All I can do is help where I can, donate where I can, feed whom I can, and fight in my tiny little way, but I am beside myself with fury and sadness.
The shock of the first election of Trump caused in me and most of my friends some kind of inner need to follow his every move and every statement, and it got worse by the day. Then I had to post my righteous indignation along with correcting everything he said and did. People couldn't believe that he got away with everything, but he did, and he does. Man, am I tired of Trump taking up my life, and I simply don't want to think about him any more. Like a divorce, the anger will probably persist awhile for Judge Cannon or the rioters of January 6, but I intend to show whoever is around that community, fixing roads and schools, and kindness is the path to reconstructing our democracy.
We, collectively, get the government that we, collectively, deserve. If we want better government, we, collectively, need to deserve it.
How do we do that? In my opinion we begin -- and end -- with education.
“Monticello Jan. 6. [18]16.
if a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be. the functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty & property of their constituents. there is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”
-- Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey
Now, please read the 1983 report 'A Nation at Risk' ( https://www.reaganfoundation.org/media/130020/a-nation-at-risk-report.pdf ). It was a damning indictment of our educational system, and it highlighted the national security implications of a failing educational system. A "report card" on improvement we'd made since 1983, published 35 years later in the Washington Post, was another damning report ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2018/04/26/the-landmark-a-nation-at-risk-called-for-education-reform-35-years-ago-heres-how-it-was-bungled/ ). Virtually none of the recommendations made in the 1983 study had been implemented. Rather, they'd been mired in red tape and political squabbling.
Making improvements to our system of education is difficult even in the best of times and in the best of political environments; improving it while laboring under authoritarian rule might prove impossible, but if we really want better government, we'd better focus much of our attention on better education of our citizens, with special attention on civics and critical thinking skills.
If we want better government, we need to deserve it and earn it. Unfortunately, this offers no instant gratification or the quick fix everyone is looking for. We're paying the price now for decades of neglect of education. Do we have the will and wherewithal to turn it around now?
Bingo! I, a childless cat lady, have a niece and nephew in education. We're operating under a system that worked in 1800 -- states and counties and towns fund and control their own education, and there is no place for the federal government. The fight at the federal level has been the other side's attempt to privatize, and fund religious or other offbeat schools. I say, look at the Japanese methods and get to work. A lot of the attitudes that wound up as Trump votes were from adults who as kids lived under school boards who forced religious doctrines and authoritarian ideas. It's time for us to take over school boards and do much more than simply adopting texts and materials developed in Texas.
I am contributing monthly to the ACLU, Democracy Forward, and Democracy 2025, an association of 280 legal firms in communication with each other that are able to assign the law firm with the most expertise in a particular area of law in order to meet the various challenges that the 2nd Trump administration presents to the nation. This is the best I can do at age 86.
Please visit my website, us-sos.info, "Make America Great for Everyone"
It's a problem solving website dedicated to Dick Feynman and starts out with Thom Hartman's analysis of what's been done to us. Gives gives the correct solution to the abortion problem and how Christians can accept it. Looks at a whole lot of problems including a truly infuriating view of health care.