Oh yes he is
Nov. 10th, 2016 04:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwexDear #notmypresident people: oh, yes he is. Just like Barack Obama was president for all the people who voted against him (twice, some of them) and all the people who were scared of a black man in the White House. Obama is (was, will have been) their president. And soon Donald J Trump will be our president. Yours. And mine.
That is not to say that we have to be happy about President Pussygrabber, nor do we have to accept whatever racist, isolationist, sexist, anti-scientific, homophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-woman policies and statements emanate from him or his administration. But this is our country, right and wrong, and building mental and social walls between ourselves and that nearly-50% of voters who chose hatred and white supremacy is not going to get us anywhere. It certainly won't make the next four (or eight) years any more tolerable. [1]
So by all means protest but if you're going to go around putting arm's length or more between yourself and the result of the election then you're going to be setting yourself up for failure again. I continue to believe that the "older white male" demographic is going to change, but that doesn't excuse ignoring the concerns of the millions - the majority of whom are still white - who've been discarded by the system.
I've been struggling for a couple days to put this post together and this afternoon I got an email from Senator Elizabeth Warren. She says things I've been trying to formulate and I hope nobody will mind if I block-quote her here:
That. If you're trying to understand how anyone could want President Pussygrabber, if you're stuck in the mindset that his supporters are all a basket of deplorables, then you are on the road to handing him a second term already. These problems are, as Warren says, the issues that we should be addressing. Ms Clinton was promising more of the same to a group of people who've felt screwed over, left out, and taken advantage of. Mr Trump was promising them he could change things. You can rationalize all you want - Trump isn't going to fix these things, isn't going to build walls, isn't going to be able to revitalize manufacturing - but it makes no sense to me to applaud people voting for hope eight years ago when Candidate Obama promised it and then condemn them voting for hope this time.
Yes, a large chunk of Trump's supporters are indeed deplorables, some of the worst sort. The KKK endorsed him. The Putin administration has come out and admitted they worked with his people. His transition team is headed by a giant slimeball and I expect we'll see further really vile characters emerge in the transition. None of the preceding means that Trump ought to get a free pass, nor should any of the above be read as an excuse for bigotry and hatred. The fact that people can't get relief from crushing debt isn't an excuse for demonizing refugees and immigrants; the reduction of vast swaths of middle America to abandoned wastelands is not an excuse for further victimization of brown and black people. But if you believe our mission is to come back from this defeat, to limit President Pussygrabber to one term you cannot do better than starting to understand the pain and fear and actual disadvantages that caused nearly half the voters to cast their ballots the way they did.
So by all means protest. By all means name the bigotry, sexism, racism and intolerance for what it is - un-American hatred. But don't claim this isn't your president. And mine.
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[1] If you don't want it to be eight years then the mission for the next four years has to be building up a better Democratic alternative. The Republicans managed to field 17 candidates and while each of them had some measure of flaw and 16 of them got brutalized out of the race it still remains true that there were multiple viable candidates on that side. The Democrats had Ms Clinton and... um, yeah. An aging socialist who more or less got shanghaied into running against her. Where are the real successors to Obama? Where are the 40-something and 50-something Democrats who can carry forward the ideals that the party says it stands for and for which Ms Clinton did so poor a job campaigning despite being dragged around by Bernie? Who's going to train these 2020 candidates into the kind of sharp debaters that will let them stand on a stage with President Trump and make themselves look better?
[2] Warren doesn't say it here but I think it should be said: when you call a deal like TPP "free trade" when in fact it enforces and extends protectionist regimes like supra-national intellectual property courts you are lying. When a "trade deal" is not in fact about trade but in fact is about secret negotiations to set up corporate privilege structures you are on the wrong side. I don't know if Trump has the savvy to realize this; we'll see soon.
That is not to say that we have to be happy about President Pussygrabber, nor do we have to accept whatever racist, isolationist, sexist, anti-scientific, homophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-woman policies and statements emanate from him or his administration. But this is our country, right and wrong, and building mental and social walls between ourselves and that nearly-50% of voters who chose hatred and white supremacy is not going to get us anywhere. It certainly won't make the next four (or eight) years any more tolerable. [1]
So by all means protest but if you're going to go around putting arm's length or more between yourself and the result of the election then you're going to be setting yourself up for failure again. I continue to believe that the "older white male" demographic is going to change, but that doesn't excuse ignoring the concerns of the millions - the majority of whom are still white - who've been discarded by the system.
I've been struggling for a couple days to put this post together and this afternoon I got an email from Senator Elizabeth Warren. She says things I've been trying to formulate and I hope nobody will mind if I block-quote her here:
[T]here are many millions of people who did not vote for Donald Trump because of the bigotry and hate that fueled his campaign rallies. They voted for him despite the hate. They voted for him out of frustration and anger – and also out of hope that he would bring change.
Working families across this country are deeply frustrated about an economy and a government that doesn’t work for them. Exit polling on Tuesday found that 72 percent of voters – Democrats and Republicans - believe that "the American economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful." Americans are angry about a federal government that works for the rich and powerful and that leaves everyone else in the dirt.
The truth is that people are right to be angry. Angry that wages have been stagnant for a generation, while basic costs like housing, health care, and child care have skyrocketed. Angry that our political system is awash in barely legalized campaign bribery. Angry that Washington eagerly protects tax breaks for billionaires while it refuses to raise the minimum wage, or help the millions of Americans struggling with student loans, or enforce the law when the millionaire CEOs who fund our political campaigns break it. Angry that Washington pushes big corporate interests in trade deals[2], but won’t make the investments in infrastructure to create good jobs right here in America. Angry that Washington tilts the playing field for giant corporations – giving them special privileges, letting them amass enormous economic and political power.
Angry that while Washington dithers and spins and does the backstroke in an ocean of money, while the American Dream moves further and further out of reach for too many families. Angry that working people are in debt. Angry that seniors can’t stretch a Social Security check to cover the basics.
President-Elect Trump spoke to these issues. Republican elites hated him for it. He criticized Wall Street and big money’s dominance in Washington – straight up. He supported a new Glass-Steagall. He spoke of the need to reform our trade deals so they aren’t raw deals for the American people. He said he will not cut Social Security benefits. He talked about the need to address the rising cost of college and about helping working parents struggling with the high cost of child care. He spoke of the urgency of rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and putting people back to work. He spoke to the very real sense of millions of Americans that their government and their economy has abandoned them. And he promised to rebuild our economy for working people.
The deep worry that people feel over an America that does not work for them is not liberal or conservative worry. It is not Democratic or Republican worry. It is the deep worry that led even Americans with very deep reservations about Donald Trump’s temperament and fitness to vote for him anyway.
That. If you're trying to understand how anyone could want President Pussygrabber, if you're stuck in the mindset that his supporters are all a basket of deplorables, then you are on the road to handing him a second term already. These problems are, as Warren says, the issues that we should be addressing. Ms Clinton was promising more of the same to a group of people who've felt screwed over, left out, and taken advantage of. Mr Trump was promising them he could change things. You can rationalize all you want - Trump isn't going to fix these things, isn't going to build walls, isn't going to be able to revitalize manufacturing - but it makes no sense to me to applaud people voting for hope eight years ago when Candidate Obama promised it and then condemn them voting for hope this time.
Yes, a large chunk of Trump's supporters are indeed deplorables, some of the worst sort. The KKK endorsed him. The Putin administration has come out and admitted they worked with his people. His transition team is headed by a giant slimeball and I expect we'll see further really vile characters emerge in the transition. None of the preceding means that Trump ought to get a free pass, nor should any of the above be read as an excuse for bigotry and hatred. The fact that people can't get relief from crushing debt isn't an excuse for demonizing refugees and immigrants; the reduction of vast swaths of middle America to abandoned wastelands is not an excuse for further victimization of brown and black people. But if you believe our mission is to come back from this defeat, to limit President Pussygrabber to one term you cannot do better than starting to understand the pain and fear and actual disadvantages that caused nearly half the voters to cast their ballots the way they did.
So by all means protest. By all means name the bigotry, sexism, racism and intolerance for what it is - un-American hatred. But don't claim this isn't your president. And mine.
---------
[1] If you don't want it to be eight years then the mission for the next four years has to be building up a better Democratic alternative. The Republicans managed to field 17 candidates and while each of them had some measure of flaw and 16 of them got brutalized out of the race it still remains true that there were multiple viable candidates on that side. The Democrats had Ms Clinton and... um, yeah. An aging socialist who more or less got shanghaied into running against her. Where are the real successors to Obama? Where are the 40-something and 50-something Democrats who can carry forward the ideals that the party says it stands for and for which Ms Clinton did so poor a job campaigning despite being dragged around by Bernie? Who's going to train these 2020 candidates into the kind of sharp debaters that will let them stand on a stage with President Trump and make themselves look better?
[2] Warren doesn't say it here but I think it should be said: when you call a deal like TPP "free trade" when in fact it enforces and extends protectionist regimes like supra-national intellectual property courts you are lying. When a "trade deal" is not in fact about trade but in fact is about secret negotiations to set up corporate privilege structures you are on the wrong side. I don't know if Trump has the savvy to realize this; we'll see soon.
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no subject
Date: 2016-11-10 10:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-10 11:00 pm (UTC)This.
Yes.
OMFG yes exactly. 1000x this.
I voted for Bernie in the primary. He could've won because he spoke to these issues and he doesn't have that Hillary phony-facade problem. But I understand that on paper Hillary looked like the safer choice to many people. If there had been 17 candidates then surely someone amongst them would've not had either Hillary's major flaws nor Bernie's major flaws. It would've been interesting to see who floated to the top amongst the Democratic party's 17 most interesting people. DEFINITELY NOT HILLARY, she would've been short-lived as Jeb Bush was in a big field of candidates.
Big huge resentment here against the DNC for forcing Hillary on us.
no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 01:12 am (UTC)There are some Obama administration officials who could grow into good candidates, but good governors also make good presidential candidates. We need more of those, too.
no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 02:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 01:59 am (UTC)The people he has given a voice to are the worst of the worst -- people who believe that only white men deserve a seat at the table, and everyone else best shut up and know their place. They're already hard at work -- the news is littered with reports of white men accosting non-white people and assaulting and/or verbally assaulting them in public in broad daylight. These folks aren't subtle. The best I can do is prepare to defend those less able to defend themselves than I am, and band together with those of my friends who feel the same. Shelter in place, folks, and don't let the bastards grind you down.
I wonder if Elizabeth Warren will have seen enough in those 4 years that she will run for president in 2020? I wonder if she will be *able* to after 4 years of the shitgibbon?
no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 02:16 am (UTC)To get the things I want I have to find a way past rejection and Other-ing. Senator Warren's letter spoke powerfully to me as I believe she is fundamentally correct. I recognize that 48% of my fellow voters chose hatred, bigotry, racism, and white supremacy; if I do not understand why they made that choice then I have no hope ever of swaying them. Polls and interviews show that a large number of people who voted for Trump this time voted for Obama last time; I'm going on the fundamental belief that these people did not go from being able to vote for a black man to being irredeemable deplorables in four year.
I could be wrong, but I hope I'm not. (I also selfishly hope Warren doesn't run because damn I like having her for my Senator.)
no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 02:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 04:54 pm (UTC)I can't control what others do; I can't even influence the ones that are far away. I can control what I do. It's going to be hard, and I may utter the words "Sorry guys, I was wrong" a few times in the coming days. But I have to feel like *I* am doing something.
no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 02:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 02:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 09:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 10:57 pm (UTC)1, some people are really at risk.
You and I? No. But two White-ish straight cis guys in software don't really have much to say to people who are at risk of their marriages being annulled, their family being deported, etc. ACA being unrolled will put people in medical risk. So, not gonna lie: part of my response to you is "shh, you're talking, stop that".
2, some people in our camp are really anger/afraid
Okay, they gotta work through that; I think you acknowledge that, yes.
3, dude, we gotta be good losers.
Agreed - in concept. But this is where I go slightly off the rails and into Wild Speculation Mode:
4, Trump may be way worse than Bush.
Bush, I figured, ugh okay, fine, if the SCOTUS progressive justices can just hang on, we'll be fine. We won't make any progress, but we won't backslide that much.
Oh shit, 9/11 and Iraq. Well, fuck.
But I really do wonder about a few things:
4A, are the reports of White power groups as reported on social media actually true? (I don't have any reason to believe any story as related on soc media is true, so generally, I neither believe nor disbelieve, or at least try to do so.) If so, that is, to me, different: in my local community, where all politics is local, I need to be ready to step up and draw a line in the sand. No, this behavior is not okay; no, we're not going to tolerate it.
4B, and then we crank this knob all the way from Local to National, and I seriously wonder if Trump is going to lob one (1) nuke at someone, just to show that he can.
Normally? I'd eyeroll and consider that ludicrous hyperbole. Now? I... don't.
There's a jump I made here, which is that "not allowing White supremacists free rein" is not the same as #notmypresident. I do agree that #notmypresident is a stupid tag (well, maybe you didn't say that; I will).
---
So of the above 4 points, I don't think any one of them is dominant.
I agree with Sen Warren.
I think you're largely in #3.
I think you may be shooting yourself in the foot, if, right now, you're trying to pushback on people in #1. If they're in #2, okay fine, we'll wait. And #4, I think it's actually fairly reasonable to be very vigilant about that, and at least for deeply blue communities, to come out and say "hey, groups that are targeted, we have your back". "Are" and not "will be" targeted - we already know what Trump has been saying all campaign long, and it's on the rest of us to step up. (I just wish that the rallying cry for that kind of support group/protest were different.)
no subject
Date: 2016-11-11 11:00 pm (UTC)Much thanks for sharing Warren's email, otherwise I never would have seen it. I shared it with my family members and they found it very helpful as well.
no subject
Date: 2016-11-12 12:58 am (UTC)I fear Trump '20 is only going to be better at this game and we cannot lose it to him.
no subject
Date: 2016-11-12 02:07 am (UTC)She showed her true colors as early as her first appearances, when she inauspiciously had her aides rope her off from the very constituents she purported to represent. What was she thinking?
The DNC's best chance to connect with this segment of the electorate died the day it came to light that they intentionally kneecapped Bernie Sanders's campaign. I was never able to see Clinton as more than aloof, and incapable of grokking the plight of the lower classes the way Bernie seemed to do with ease. They only have themselves to blame.
no subject
Date: 2016-11-12 06:22 pm (UTC)