Targeting Corporate Democrats Part of Fighting Trump - Mark Engler in Common Dreams

The only hope for minimizing the damage of Trump's agenda will be to fight his hate-mongering and right-wing faux populism with a progressive vision.

At a time when Donald Trump has risen to the presidency by railing against the Washington establishment and upending the traditional rules of politics, the Democratic Party’s propensity for compromise and triangulation only plays into his hands.

The only hope for unseating Trump and minimizing the damage of his agenda will be to fight his hate-mongering and right-wing faux populism with a progressive vision. This vision must express a genuine criticism of Washington politics, but be devoted to eliminating the corrupting power of the wealthiest one percent, rather than scapegoating immigrants and people of color.

In the short run, this will require pressuring fickle and opportunist politicians to stubbornly oppose and filibuster White House extremism, even at the risk of being labeled obstructionist by critics.

If the incoming president was truly anti-establishment, seriously willing to take on Wall Street, end the rule of the rich over our democracy, and uphold Constitutional values of equal rights, religious tolerance and free speech, there might be grounds for such cooperation. Instead, Trump has given every indication that he will fill his administration with corporate lobbyists and advocates of hate.

In the longer term, it will involve creating an effective opposition in the Democratic Party to ensure that Trump’s next opponent will not be another establishment candidate, deeply compromised by ties to corporate America. Rather, this opponent must be someone who can genuinely speak to the disenfranchisement and frustration that many in this country feel.

The full article is available here

Breitbart Meme

Evangelicals Proud of Trump After Years of Judging People's Lifestyles - Kerry Eleveld

"White evangelicals, your moral credibility is zero. When you elevate someone like Trump, you’ve sacrificed your integrity. In totality. There’s just no recovering from that. And the next time you claim something is immoral, all we’ll have to say is: Trump."

The full article is available here

With Fact-Checking vs Without Fact-Checking - Viralgranskaren

How hate is ginned up and how those predisposed to fear the "other" spread it like a virus.

What The 2016 Election Revealed - Jeff Wiersma

We need a shared vision which rejects Religious Nationalism, Hate Speech Demagoguery, and Economic Darwinism - showing the way instead to expressions of social justice, compassion, empathy, and radical solidarity.  

The 2016 Election was not your run-of-the-mill Presidential Election.

As Andy Borowitz said, "Trump wasn’t created in a vacuum; he is the inevitable product of a coarsened culture that rewards bullying over kindness, humiliation over respect, hatred over love."

Meanwhile, his opponent was the 2nd member of Clinton Political Machine (preceded by Al Gore in 2000) to run a campaign that only compounded their likability problems and ultimately resulted in the election of an inferior Republican candidate.

Sociologically, this election has revealed the following:

• Technological changes combined with corporate global bottom-feeding, 36 years of voodoo economics, and hyper-capitalist financialization have left working people behind, who feel betrayed, unrecognized, and angry.

• Rhetoric about progressive social policy - policy that aims to help working people recover from the scorched-earth class war being waged against them by the 1% - falls on deaf ears when the Democratic candidate is the ultimate crony capitalist. 

•  The false lure of a conservative Supreme Court and single-issue voting still holds many Evangelicals hostage.  They have voted Republican for this one reason - all the while supporting wars, environmental destruction, the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor - and not gotten one bit closer to overturning Roe v Wade, which was made law by a Republican-nominated Supreme Court.  (And even if they did overturn it, abortion wouldn't go away without a culture that supports life).

• The entrenched attitudes of racial bigotry in American society have been shamelessly exposed.

• The decades-long pattern of manipulating racial fears, employed by the GOP beginning with their Southern strategy, now boiled over in an ugly political movement driven by resentment of those who are different. That their candidate was manifestly and dangerously unqualified didn't trump the affection that the President-elect's supporters lavished on him because he spewed hate speech at the same "other" that they've been told to hate.

• Fears and biases have clouded attention to facts. An entire self-reinforcing network of right wing media have captured an audience by playing to fears and biases, all while using the time-tested cult tactic of warning it's adherents that they are the only source of truth and that all other media sources are lying to them and biased.

• The white, largely male majority which controlled political power since America’s founding is losing its dominant power, provoking anxiety and political desperation among its adherents.

Within this setting, the need for public discernment and a resonant vision is paramount.

We need a shared vision which rejects the idolatry of Religious Nationalism, Demagoguery, and Economic Darwinism - showing the way instead to expressions of social justice, compassion, empathy, and radical solidarity.

Trump Is Maintaining The Swamp

Trump’s Conflicts of Interest Without Precedent - Drew Harwell in The Washington Post

Trump has so far resisted the long-standing presidential tradition of giving his holdings to an independent manager. 

Donald Trump’s victory will force the United States to confront a series of never-before-seen entanglements over the president’s private business, debts and rocky financial history.

No laws prohibit Trump from involving himself in his private company, the Trump Organization, while serving in the highest public office.

And Trump has so far resisted the long-standing presidential tradition of giving his holdings to an independent manager, stoking worries of conflicts of interests over his businesses’ many financial and foreign ties.

Trump’s business empire of hotels, golf courses and licensing deals in the U.S. and abroad, some of which have benefited from tax breaks or government subsidies, represents an ethical minefield for a commander in chief who would oversee the U.S. budget and foreign relations, some analysts say.

The full article is available here

It's Not That Hillary Lost - Jeff Wiersma

Those who deride the protests of people who are targeted by hate-mongers are privileged enough to do so because it doesn't personally effect them.

It isn't that Hillary lost. I didn't vote for her, nor have I ever voted for a Clinton.

It's that the candidate that the KKK, neo nazis and white supremacists endorsed won.

It's that the candidate whose demagoguery painted entire demographic groups as "other" and therefore necessarily to be feared, won. It's that the candidate who retweeted posts from White Supremacists won.

I'm not under any delusion that Trump can control who supports him, but it isn't like these people are fans of his because Trump lent them flour one time when they were baking or watered their plants while they were on vacation in July. They are fans because his rhetoric often echoes and amplifies their message.

Those who deride the protests of people who are targeted by hate-mongers are privileged enough to do so because it doesn't personally effect them.

Solidarity

Get Through Today - Ryan Stegink-Simes

An inspiring and uplifting reflection from my friend Ryan Stegnik-Simes:

"Make it your goal to get through today. Show up to work, be kind, allow yourself to grieve but don't give in to your anger and frustration. 

I want nothing more than to dig a hole, crawl in, and sob, and I imagine you might want to do the same thing, but your family, your kids, your parents, your friends, your neighbors and your nation need you today. 

Start thinking about solutions."