Less than two weeks before doomsday. How did we get here? What does it mean? Where do we go from here?

How We Got Here

Donald Trump will sworn in at high noon on January 20, 2017. Few people including most of the Trump team dreamed that this would happen. Many of us Democrats and progressives are still in a recovery mode. Some, like Embry, are still not able to talk about it. The closest feeling she says as to how she now feels is how she felt after President Kennedy was assassinated. It is more than just about Hillary’s loosing. It is about the loss of something very dear and special about the America we have known and loved, perhaps a kind of loss of innocence.

In my view three things came together in a perfect storm to put us where we are now:

• The reemergence of global, nativist populism. When the Brexit vote happened last spring, I saw it then it as an ominous sign. People were sending a message to the establishment: They were fed up and ready for a change, even a change that was fundamentally against their best interests. This happened in the UK and is happening–or is on the cusp of happening–in many liberal democracies. Poland now has a right wing strongman running the country. Austria came close. France is in play, and Merkel is facing a tough fight from the right. Many liberal democracies are affected to one degree or another. The pushback is due largely to the disruptions caused by the global economy and the fact that new winners and losers have emerged. The losers are angry.

In addition, Europe and the United States are experiencing massive migrations, often from poor, war-torn countries, further creating disruption and fear of the future. Cultures and ways of life are changing in ways that many find uncomfortable. How do these new people with different religions, languages, customs and skin colors fit in? The answer for some is simply to keep them out or throw them out if they have already settled in. Trump picked up on this trend, exploited it, and rode it to the finish line. For figuring this out when no one else did, I suppose he deserves some credit.

• Forgetting about the white working class. Keep this in mind: Trump did not win the popular vote. He lost by almost three million votes, the largest gap between the Electoral College vote and the popular vote in U.S. history. But he did win the Electoral College vote, and therefore by the rules he won. This happened because three states–Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin–that have traditionally voted for Democrats switched to Trump. While these were “battleground states,” all appeared to be in the Clinton camp. The white, working class vote in those states made the difference. The Hillary campaign must be asking what more could have been done in those three states and perhaps in others like Florida and North Carolina.

I believe they missed what Trump picked up on, the alienation of the white working class. This alienation is not due to Hillary so much as to the Democratic Party (excepting the Bernie movement), which many working people, mainly white men, believe has tended to favor other identity groups like women, African Americans, Latinos, immigrants, and LBTGQs. In other words, we Democrats took the white working class for granted. After all they have been the base of the party for generations. Not also focusing on them and understanding that for some time they have not been happy campers cost the Democrats big time and probably the election. They sent the same message the Brexit voters sent in the UK: Enough, time for a change.

There are also many who point to Hillary’s difficulty in connecting with some voters and her being a symbol of the Democratic liberal establishment, which many working class people believe disrespects them. There is probably a bit of truth to this, but I do not see how anyone could have asked her to do more. She gave it a Herculean effort, all that she had. She could not pretend she was someone she wasn’t.

• Russian meddling. We probably will never know to what extent Russian hacking and mischief cost Hillary the election. Without question it made a difference. Remember Hillary won the popular vote by a substantial margin and the votes in the battleground states were very close. It would only have taken a relatively few people, tired of hearing about the emails, who showed their disgust by voting for Trump. For many the Comey incident at the end was the nail in the coffin. The relatively small number of fed up voters put off by the email controversy and the fake news could have tipped the balance in the battleground states. My guess is that they did.

In other words the historic election of 2016 was in fact a perfect storm. It was not a mandate for radical change to the right. It was not an embracing of Trump. It was not a rejection of Obama’s accomplishments or the Democratic Party. It was a fluke. Had any one of the three factors just described been different, so would have the results. But it happened. We have to deal with it.

What It Means

This is the big question. Will Trump’s election mean the end of the democratic republic as we have known it—moving toward a strong man, nativist, rightwing country similar in some ways to what Germany and Italy experienced in the 1930s or will it be something completely different with some good things and some bad things? After all Trump is hardly a doctrinaire idealist like Ted Cruise. He is a deal guy and a marketer. Style is his calling card, not substance. It is not even apparent that he has any particular values other than what is good for Trump is good for the country. The populism façade was simply a sham to exploit the anti establishment mood that he picked up on and his opponents missed. Trump is not even a traditional conservative. He is for big spending on infrastructure, and for keeping some safety net programs in place. He is dubious of free trade and does not seem to care about deficits or social hot button issues like abortion and gay marriage. Some progressives are saying his presidency won’t be anywhere near as bad as we might think.

It is too early to tell for certain, but here are the indicators, which we should be monitoring carefully and what they mean so far:

• Trump’s Cabinet and close advisors.

This is the first early indicator. Someone who is interested in pulling together a divided country would reach out to moderates, even some in the other party. I have already graded several of the early appointees resulting in an average grade of D. What we are looking at in Trump’s cabinet and inner circle of advisors is an extreme, inexperienced and openly hostile-to-government group. It is an in-your-face statement that Trump plans to stick by his scorched earth, take-no-prisoners threats made during the campaign. Though there is some overlap, his choices seem to fall into four categories: political hacks and insiders who appear to be relatively harmless though without experience in the positions they are nominated for; billionaires and Wall Street tycoons; generals; and foxes in the hen house. A few words on principle nominations in each category:

The hacks and insiders. This includes Reince Priebus (chief of staff), Nikki Haley (UN), Elaine Chao (Transportation) and Ben Carson (HUD) though one could make a case that Carson actually belongs in the fox category since he is against “handouts for the poor.” Rick Perry could also fall into the hack category except that he is clearly a fox. In any event these appointments are sort of what you would expect from a typical president-elect and appear at first blush to be relatively harmless. So we may be safe with regard to three or four out of 28 top level appointments.

The billionaires and tycoons. These appointments would appear to be a nod to Wall Street and the traditional Republican establishment. They include Rex Tillerson (head of Exxon to State), Linda McMahon (professional wrestling magnate to Small Business), Betsy DeVois (Amway heiress to Education), Wilbur Ross (leverage buyout tycoon to Commerce), and Steve Mnuchin (Goldman Sachs to Treasury). There are a bunch of others like Carson, Chao, Andy Pudzer (Labor), Tom Price (HHS), Jeff Sessions (Attorney General) and Stephen Bannon (Chief Strategist) who are also billionaires or multi millionaires though I put them in another category because except for the possible exception of Carson, they are foxes. CBS reported that the net worth of the Trump cabinet and high-level nominees exceeds $14 billion. There has never been a cabinet with so much wealth. So much for throwing a bone to the white working class that got him elected.

Though conflicts of interests may be an issue for people with this kind of wealth, the fact that they are billionaires and multi millionaires would not necessarily disqualify them. Several, however, also have an ax to grind or come with an agenda. Devois in Education is opposed to traditional public school and a champion of vouchers and charter schools. Ross in Commerce is anti China and a proponent of high tariffs to level the playing field. Tillerson in the State Department has very close ties to Putin.

The generals. There will be three of them, the highest in U.S.history. Michael Flynn, National Security Advisor, is the wild card. He got fired for being a loose cannon in the military and has expressed strong anti Muslim views. I gave him an F in a previous blog post. The other two do not appear to be too bad. John Kelly will head up Homeland Security and James Mattis will be the Secretary of Defense. Bad things may come out in the hearings, but for now I will give them both passing grades. It is instructive that probably Trump’s strongest candidate for a Cabinet position, James Mattis, has the nick name “Mad Dog.”

The foxes in the hen house. Here is where it starts to get scary. These are the nominees who are hostile to the departments where they will be in charge. In short judging from their past actions and statements, they want to burn the places down. Starting off with the scariest and moving down the list: Stephen Bannon, candidate for Chief Strategist, is a alt right apologist, fake news propagator, and neo Nazi sympathizer. Attorney General nominee, Jeff Sessions, has a long history of opposing civil rights and was turned down for a federal judgeship by the Senate Judiciary Committee several years ago for his racist comments and actions. The HHS Secretary nominee, Tom Price, is a tea party radical who has been obsessed with killing Obamacare. Rick Perry, who will head up Energy, is on the record for wanting to eliminate the agency and favors Big Oil over sustainable energy. Ryan Zinke, who will head up Interior, is a climate change denier, supports the oil and gas industry, has voted against most environmental legislation, and referred to Hillary Clinton as the “Anti-Christ.” Scott Pruitt, who will head up the EPA, is another climate change denier and big supporter of the fossil fuel industry. Andrew Pudzer, another multi millionaire and fast food mogul, will head up Labor. He is against increasing the minimum wage, is anti union, and has a record of treating his Hardee’s and Carl’s Junior employees unfairly. CIA nominee is Mike Pompano, another leader of the tea party, who has been obsessed with the Benghazi attack and is a right wing fanatic.

Heard enough? When you have people in charge who are anti-government and who want to destroy the agencies they lead, it is not what you would call a promising sign.

• Trump’s Temperament.

After winning the Electoral College vote, Trump immediately tweeted that he had also won the popular vote by a landslide due to all the illegal votes cast by minorities and illegal immigrants and has not backed off this even though there is no evidence to support it. While he made a couple of promising statements saying that he wanted to bring the country together and that he would not jail Hillary, these have been few and far between. He continues to tweet into the wee hours, his latest targets being Arnold Schwarzenegger and Meryl Streep. He took a victory lap in the key states he won and did not modify his fire-and-brimstone ranting. He has not produced tax returns or financial information and shows no interest in ever doing so, has appointed his son-in-law as senior advisor, and continues to stick by his support for Putin, denying that the email hacking had any impact on the election. It is not yet clear how he will deal with all the conflicts of interest with his myriad businesses. In other words he has shown no change from the outrageous and bombastic personality that he revealed on the campaign trail. It is not clear that he could change even if he wanted to. In short if you are looking for Trump to mellow out or move to the center, do not hold your breath.

• Trump’s Actions.

Beware of the first 100 Days and expect the worst. Trump is a showman, knows he has to perform by throwing red meat to his base, and has a limited period to make his presidential debut. Here are the initiatives and where they now stand. Unless Democrats in Congress can figure out some way to stop or slow down the process, it appears almost certain that three initiatives will happen very early in Trump’s presidency:

The Wall will be started and the “budget conscious” Republicans will go along with him. Cost estimates range from $20-$40 billion; and though he still maintains that Mexico will end up paying for it, few believe him or even seem to care. This is a very expensive symbolic and unnecessary act since more Mexicans are leaving the United States than entering it illegally, and many will find other ways of getting into the U.S. and remaining here like overstaying visas.

Tax breaks for the super rich. This initiative is coming more from the House than from Trump though there is nothing to indicate that Trump won’t go along with it. This is trickle down economics in spades with a devastating impact on future deficits unless drastic cuts to social and domestic programs accompany it. All working class white voters who put him in office take notice.

The repeal of Obama Care. The only question is whether the repeal will happen with or without a replacement. While the majority of Americans still say they do not like Obama Care, by strong majorities they like virtually all parts of it except the individual mandate. Of course, you can’t do all the other stuff like prohibit exclusion for pre-existing conditions, not permit maximum lifetime limits and allow young adults to remain on their parents’ policies without an individual mandate. People will wait until they are sick to sign up. The Republicans have not come up with a replacement after seven years and more than 50 votes to kill the law because there is no alternative other than something very close to Obama Care or a single payer system that will achieve the goal of universal coverage. If Obama Care is reversed without a viable replacement plan, as many as 30 million could find themselves without health insurance. Working class white voters– the majority of those who have benefitted from Obama Care—will suffer the most.

There is a whole lot of other stuff that we do not know about yet. Chief among these is the deportation initiative. How many illegal immigrants will deported? When will this happen? Will Trump go after the American Dreamers? Will storm troopers be used, forcing entries to homes in the middle of the night and taking people to makeshift prisons before shipping them off? Some nightmare scenarios sound awfully close to what happened in Germany in the 1930s though, granted, no death camps are envisioned.

There are many other actions like getting out of the Paris Environmental accord and gutting environmental regulations, comprehensive tax reform, business deregulation, gutting safety net social programs, tariffs and trade restrictions against China and Mexico, supreme court appointments and the future of Roe v. Wade, limiting LBGTQ rights, voter restrictions, Muslim registrations, assaults on Labor Unions and public education, and challenges to freedom of speech and the free press. The list goes on. What is especially troubling is that the direction that is likely to be taken by Trump and the Republican Party is exactly the opposite of what we progressives would like to see happen. It is terrifying. And I haven’t mentioned international issues, which could be the scariest of all.

What Are We To Do?

The first line of defense are our elected Democrats in the House and Senate. They need to use the same kind of obstructionist tactics that the Republicans used against them and to fight them at every move.

But it is not only our elected representatives. It is also us. Do not forget that Trump did not win the popular vote. We are in the majority.

I know that I may sound like an alarmist. I suppose that is the primary reason that I have written this blog post. I am alarmed. I truly believe that possible scenarios that await us could threaten the republic like nothing else we have experienced in our lifetimes. I hope that I am wrong, that the inevitable Trump overreach will bring the American public to our senses, and that public opinion will force the administration to back off and follow a more centrist approach. But there is no guarantee, and surely it will not happen if progressives and others do not organize and resist Trump’s hostile actions through massive demonstrations, civil disobedience, voter registrations, get out the vote campaigns, and relentless ongoing protests and speaking out. We also need to reach out to the working class voters who supported Trump and bring them back into the fold. Surely at some point they will realize they have been sold a bill of goods. We also need to work and get involved locally—in both local and state elections. We are entering a new period where the rules are changing and the stakes have never been higher. This is no time to remain on the sidelines.

At this moment we are in a period of speculation. In just over a week it will become real. The warning signals are clearly out there. What are we going to do about it?

 

 

 

 

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Our Founding Fathers were not stupid. They knew that it was entirely possible, perhaps even likely, that voters at some point would put a person in the White House who was totally unsuited to lead the country. (In 2016 , not even a majority of voters voted for the winning candidate.) That is why they came up with the idea of an Electoral College, which was set up to be a deliberative body to review the election results and approve the winner if the president-elect did not present a serious and dire threat to the United States.

That time has now arrived. The president-elect is totally unsuited to hold this office and represents a serious and dire threat to our country and to the world.

There were many who admitted that Trump was outrageous and irresponsible during the campaign but argued that he would mellow if he were elected and would make an effort to be presidential. He would move toward the center. Some of my Republican friends have suggested he would turn out to be another Eisenhower. Aside from a comment or two here and there about not locking up Hillary, Obama being an ok guy, and wanting to bring our country back together again, he has confirmed–even exceeded–the fears of many, if not most, of the voters who did not vote for him. He is a disaster. Let’s review what he has done since the election:

1. His cabinet appointments–with one or two exceptions–are the worst in history. For the most part they are extremists and people with an agenda centered on rolling back anything and everything even remotely progressive.
   • His Chief Strategist is a Nazi sympathizer and a champion of the alt-right.
   • His Labor Secretary is fiercely anti labor and anti worker, notorious for taking advantage of his workers at Hardees.
   • His Commerce Secretary has an ax to grind with China and has promised tariffs, which according to economists would  lead to higher prices at Walmart (and most everywhere else) and trade wars.
   • His Homeland Security appointee is anti immigrant and supposedly wants all the eleven million illegal immigrants out including the children protected under Obama’s American Dream action.
   • His National Security Advisor is avidly anti Muslim and makes little distinction between ordinary Muslims and extremists. It is akin to saying members of the Ku Klux Klan are legitimate Christians. He is also one of the perpetrators of the Pizzagate, the fake news story that motivated the maverick vigilante who armed with an assault weapon entered Comet Ping Pong Pizza in search of a non-existent, child sex ring run by Hillary.
   • His Attorney General has been a lifelong opponent of civil rights.
   • His Secretary of Education is anti public schools who advocates  taking massive amounts of money away from traditional public schools to be used for vouchers and charter schools.
   • His Secretary of HUD is anti “handouts” and is already threatening to roll back these programs, which could include public housing and Housing Choice Vouchers, the two principle programs standing between the very poor and homelessness.
   • He has already appointed two Goldman Sachs executives to major positions. Their mantra is likely to be more tax breaks for the rich and a roll back of regulations affecting big business.
   • Several of his appointees are multi billionaires, hardly the kind of people who are going to stand up for the little guy.
   • He has appointed three generals, all with distinguished military records but all apparently leaning toward guns over butter, suggesting we could be inching closer to another Cold War–this time with China. At least one general wants to revoke the Iran nuclear deal.
   • The Secretary of Human Services is fanatically anti Obama Care and has promised to kill it without articulating an alternative that makes any sense.
   • His EPA head is a climate denier who has pledged to roll back environmental regulations and get the U.S. out of the Paris climate deal.
   • His anticipated Secretary of State, the head of Exxon Mobile, has a long history of doing business in Russia and is described by The Washington Post as  a friend of Putin.
2. He continues to tweet and say all sorts of outlandish things such as that he really would have won the popular vote were it not for massive voter fraud, that his win is unprecedented, and that he has a mandate to do whatever he wants.
3. He continues to be a bully, last week tweeting against a local labor leader in Indiana who had the gall to question how many jobs were actually saved at Carrier.
4. He has upset Asian relations by talking to the president of Taiwan.
5. He continues to take victory laps in states that he won using the same inflammatory rhetoric that got him elected.
6. According to the Washington Post, the Energy Department has been ordered to provide the names of all officials who have attended conferences on global warming or climate control. A friend of mine at the Energy Department confirmed this and said that everyone was terrified with many looking for new jobs in the private sector.
7. He has refused to give up his business interests and stated that he will stay on as executive producer of The Apprentice.
8. And last and hardly least, Trump has aggressively denied that Russia had any connection with interfering with the election. He has ridiculed the CIA and doubled down on his support for Putin, including his likely nomination for Secretary of State, a Putin apologist.

Is this enough to cause concern? If it isn’t, then the Electoral College is a sham and irrelevant. It should be abolished.

So Electoral College, suck it up. Show some courage. Save us from the looming catastrophe. Save the Republic!

The only plausible, but chilling, argument that I have heard against the Electoral College dumping Trump  is that if the Electoral College were to do this, his most avid supporters would rise up in armed rebellion, and  we would find ourselves in another civil war. Sounds extreme to me, but then I think of Pizzagate and the Comet Ping Pong Pizza incident.

However, I am not holding my breath for a reprieve by the Electoral College.

Looks like we are in for some very trying and terrifying times. What are we to do? Any ideas?

***

This is my last post of 2016. I am giving you a break. Get some rest. Enjoy the holidays. Try not to think about Trump.

The holiday season  is a special time of the year. We now refer to the Winter Solstice timeout as simply “The Holidays,” because the U.S. is now multicultural, and a lot of people who are not Christian celebrate other religious holidays this time of year. This is the way it should be. But those of us who call ourselves Christian should not forget how the holiday began and what it is all about. It is not all about parties and having fun. It is about remembering that at a certain time and place on the Planet Earth, a child was born who led a life that many people believe gave us a glimpse of the nature of the Divine. It is all about love and acceptance and our relationship with our fellow man and the illusive spirituality that we hard-wired humans long for but experience too infrequently. It is a time for thanksgiving and celebration and reflection as to what it means to be human on our planet at this time in human history.

Best wishes to all for a blessed holiday season!

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Reader Alert: This is fake news.

 

The second Trump press conference was held on December 9, 2016, in the auditorium of Liberty University where journalists from the various religious evangelical publications were invited. Here is how it went:

Trump: Great to be here at Liberty, the greatest university in the world! I will be having most of my press conferences here in the future along with invitations to the best journalists—those representing evangelical Christian newspapers. You surely aren’t going to see representatives of those fake news organizations like the New York Times or the Washington Post at one of my press conferences.

I first would like to thank you for supporting me. I understand that some 80% of you voted for me, and many think that I am the Second Coming of Jesus himself, so I say thank you. And I am not going to deny that your opinion is correct. I have so much respect for you. I will not let you down and will keep doing what I have been doing, which is why you voted for me. I won’t let you down or my working class supporters down, who voted for me overwhelmingly. Beautiful, just beautiful and really, really big. Unprecedented and a mandate, a mandate for change, and believe me, you are going to see some changes. I am draining the swamp. Day One, 12.01 pm, January 20.

Now the first question.

George, Salvation Press, Lubbock, Texas: Mr. President Elect. Tell us how your Cabinet appointees will promote Christian values.

Trump: Well, I have selected a lot of good Christians, who can and will kick ass, excuse me, bring Jesus to the masses. I’ve got three generals, and they do not fool around, let me tell you. You will be able to sleep at night for a change. Those no good, infidel Muslims. They will be history– at least in the U.S. and we will track them down wherever they are. Very fast. Flynn, National Security Advisor, he can’t stand these people and will head this up. This will happen very fast. Starting 12:01 on January 20. Now if they want to become Christian and behave themselves, then we might be talking another story.

Trump: Next Question.

Bill, Good News Radio, Gunther, SC: What about them other immigrants, the illegal ones?

Trump: Same story. Gone, starting Day 1. Big, really big. Unprecedented. My Homeland Security guy hates these people. Eleven million, can you believe it? All the jobs they have stolen from hard working Americans—house cleaning, car washing, landscaping, grape picking, baby sitting, bus boys, janitors, dish washers, house painters, delivery boys.

Sally, Praise Jesus Radio, Dog Ear, Alabama: What about your Supreme Court appointee?

Trump: Haven’t got there yet but don’t worry. I know why you voted for me.

Jim: Holiness News, Akron, OH.: Is it true that half your cabinet members are multi billionaires, like you?

Trump: Absolutely and you know why? God helps his special people and these people are special, believe me, really special. There is a reason they are rich, and there is a reason I am rich. We are all rich because we started with nothing and showed what we can do. God is impressed. Believe me, he is. That is why we are so rich and I mean really, rich. Some fake news reporters have said I am not worth $11 billion, only five or six billion, but I tell you I am worth a lot more than $11 billion and I did it all by myself.

George, Salvation Daily News, Geezer’s Gulch, Idaho: Could you describe your church experience and current spiritual life?

Trump: Next question.

Billy, Sanctimonious Press, Cloudy, Arkansas. And what about your working class supporters?

Trump: Love ‘em. Without them I would not be president, and believe me, they will get their reward. First, my Treasury guy, who is worth several billion, I don’t know exactly, maybe five or six billion, not anywhere near as much as I am worth, he is going to cut taxes big time. Day one. 12.01pm January 20, and it will be great. Now the tax breaks will go mainly to the billionaires like me and him–and that is good and will help my loyal, working class followers. The billionaires are the job creators. These tax  breaks will create jobs for janitors and housekeepers and car washers. But that is only the beginning. My Labor guy, Mr. Fast Food, he is going to kill the minimum wage and get rid of job protections. Those are job killers. America is going to be free again. And my Commerce guy, hey, he hates China and is going to kill Chinese imports. That will bring American factory jobs back, Day One. Maybe you will pay a buck or two more at Walmart, but it is all junk anyway, and this is nothing compared to what you get in return. Big, really big. More jobs. And the EPA guy, well, he is going to kill clean energy and bring back all the coal and mining jobs, and all this nonsense about global warming? That is in God’s hands. If he wants to warm it up, let him do it. Hey, it’s his planet, right? So what I am really going to be known for is what I will do for working people. You think they love me now, just wait a few years.

Fred, Prayerful News, Paducah, KY. What about civil rights and that sort of thing.?

Trump: I told you America is gonna be great again, and all these politically correct things and hoops you have got to jump through to satisfy some dimwit judge? Well, Day One that is over. My buddy, Jeff Sessions the Attorney General, has been working against this his whole life. We love minorities in the U.S.– the few who work hard and earn a decent living, but welfare has ruined them. And Ben Carson at HUD, he hates all these giveaway programs as much as I do. Public Housing, Vouchers? Gone. Day One.

Final Question.

Jennifer, Praise the Lord Press, Grinders Switch, Tennessee: But can you really do all this on Day One?

Trump: Don’t know. Really have not had time to look at the Constitution. Thank you all for coming and God bless my evangelical and working class friends.

 

 

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Picture this: You are alone in a canoe, gently drifting down a wide river. The sky is blue with white cloud puffs. Kingfishers dip into the water, and egrets, and ospreys soar overhead. Towering oaks and sycamores on shore hang out over the sparkling water. It could not be more beautiful.

Then you notice that the river starts to narrow, and the current begins to pick up. In the distance you hear the muffled sound of what could be a very big rapid or even a waterfall. You don’t think too much about it, then suddenly your paddle slips into the water. By this time the current is actually getting pretty strong, and the muffled noise is becoming louder. You lunge for the paddle, which is swept away out of reach. There is no way now to steer the canoe.

Then on shore to your left you see a large crowd, some of whom you recognize as friends. They are very much aware of what is happening to you and holler and scream for you to get closer to shore. They seem to sense that disaster is about to happen. Many are waving American flags. You are lucky that an eddy has allowed the canoe to move closer to shore, perhaps even within swimming distance.

The river has continued to narrow considerably, and you notice on the opposite shore another large crowd, also waving American flags. This crowd is angry and upset about something and is shouting obscenities and shaking their fists. You notice a few posters but can’t make out what they say. “Stay the course,” this crowd is yelling, “Stay the course!” Some have guns and are shaking them in the air.

You can’t figure out what to do or what is going on. The sound you hear now is a deafening thunder, and you know it is a waterfall. You have got to make a decision. Someone shouts from the opposite shore . “Stay the course! We own that canoe now. It belongs to us!”

“Jump now,” your friends are yelling. “This is your last chance!”

You have no choice. You jump. You are a pretty good swimmer and are making headway toward the shore where the friendly crowd is beckoning and cheering, “You can do it! You can make it!”

Then you hear something pelting the water like rain drops. Could it be bullets falling from the sky from guns fired from the angry crowd on the opposite shore? You begin to tire and struggle. You sense your life depends on making it to shore but feel like you are in limbo, swimming hard but stalled out. You struggle and fear you aren’t going to make it as you begin to feel yourself being dragged slowly by the current toward the waterfall….

And then you wake up. In a cold sweat.

You breathe a long sigh. “Thank God,” you say out loud, “just a nightmare, a really, really bad dream.”

At breakfast you read the news headlines, and you understand. You know.

 

 

 

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Having been accused of being a perpetrator of fake news (Hey, the title “Fantasy Tale” should have been a tip off that the Trump press conference was not real.), I am calling your attention to the story below, which is true, as anyone who lives in the Washington area will confirm.

At 3:00 pm yesterday, Sunday, December 4, a 28-year old man from Salisbury, NC, armed with an assault weapon entered a popular pizza restaurant called Comet Ping Pong, few blocks from where we live. He pointed the weapon at an employee, who fled out the front door and called the police. At that time of day the restaurant was not crowded, and customers managed to flee before he started shooting up the place. It was a miracle that no one was shot. The owner of the restaurant had received hundreds of death threats during the preceding few weeks and had alerted the FBI and police. The owners of at least two other restaurants in that retail complex had received similar threats as had the owners of Politics and Prose, a popular independent book store.

Police arrived on the scene in minutes and arrested the guy. Additional weapons were found in the restaurant and in the suspect’s car.

The reason for the incident? He was merely following up on a widely viewed “news story” on the internet which documented that Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager were operating a child sex ring in the back room of the restaurant and in the underground tunnels connecting the various business establishments. He was doing his duty to investigate and bring justice. For the record, Michael Flynn, Trump’s nominee for national security advisor, and who earned an F on the Trump scorecard, has posted similar stories of Hillary being involved in pedophilia.

As whacky as this is, this is not an isolated incident. A couple of weeks ago a multi cultural Episcopal Church in the Washington area was vandalized with swastikas painted on the walls along with anti immigrant and racist slogans. Similar incidents have been reported throughout the Washington region since the election. Others we know who have lived and worked in the Washington region for many years, but are not documented, live in fear that come January 21, an armed deportation force will haul them off in the middle of the night.

Our 13 year-old goddaughter, who lives in Iowa, a few days ago returned home from school in tears because her classmates told her she was going to be deported now that Trump had been elected. She is adopted from China and a full American citizen.

The Southern Poverty Law Center documents these “hate incidents” and ten days following the election posted that 867 incidents had been reported, a much higher figure than would have been normal. That translates to almost 90 hate incidents a day, and the number appears to be on the rise. Take a look at their website for current information: splcenter.org.

Folks, these are early and frightening warning signs. Things could very quickly get out of hand. Our democracy and our civility are fragile. We tend to take both for granted. Trump with his tirades against “political correctness” and his anti immigrant and anti Muslim harangues has created an atmosphere where acting out in anti social and dangerous ways no longer carries the stigma that it should. We humans are herd animals. We tend to follow our leaders. We tend to do what is permissible within societal norms. When those norms change, behavior changes. We are entering unchartered waters in dangerous and very frightening times.

 

 

 

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Just what you have been waiting for—a surefire way to evaluate how our president-elect is doing. As new information becomes available, it will be updated and revised periodically ; and best of all, you will have a chance to weigh in with your own comments and evaluation in the comments section. For those who are interested in this amusing and, more likely, alarming exercise, and do not already follow the blog as a subscriber, I urge you to do so now by clicking the tab on the left where it says “enter your name to subscribe by email.” This way you won’t miss a thing, and it is looking like it is going to be quite a ride.

So here is the way the score card will work. There will be five possible grades and an overall average as noted below:

 

1. A  Score   5 “Great, Keep it up!”
2. B Score     4   “Not bad, but you can do a little better, keep trying.”
3. C Score     3  “Not too good , but try  harder and change course.”
4. D   Score     2   “ Pretty bad. Red alert. Change now before it is too late.”
5. F   Score     0     “Catastrophe.”

 

It is permitted to give an extra .5 when this makes sense. The total scores will be added up to see where The Donald stands at the time of the analysis. For our purposes, scores that average 3 or “C” are considered a passing grade, probably where the majority of presidents have ended up. I would give W. a “D” and Obama an “A” though I am sure there will be lots of disagreement here. But we are not rating past presidents. We are rating Trump.

Now let’s get started. We don’t have a whole lot of information so far since almost two months remain before the nuclear code is handed over. So we will start with the appointments and the demeanor issue, which basically are the only things we have to work with. The way we will determine how well he is doing is rate his major appointments so far, add up the scores and see where Trump stands. Here are the appointments so far :

• Chief Strategist: Stephen Bannon. This may be the scariest appointment of all. The guy ran Breitbart News, the Alt-Right media company specializing in racist and anti Muslim propaganda and sympathizing with Neo Nazis. Grade: F.We all know that Trump is influenced by whomever he talked to last. If he spends any significant time with this guy, we are doomed.

• Chief of Staff: Prince Preibus. An early concession to the Establishment Republicans and his reward for sticking with Trump during hard times when the Establishment were not saying nice things. He will be Trump’s lap dog. Don’t expect him to say “No, Donald, this would not be a good time to use the nuclear code. “ Given the other options available, Prince is not as bad as he could be. I will give Trump a C.
• National Security Advisor: Michael Flynn. Retired general with a distinguished career of 33 years in the army and also a former Democrat. The problem is he appears to be a nut case. He has a reputation for being a loose cannon and was forced to retire early for verbally  abusing staff. The real problem , however, is that he sees the Muslim faith as the fundamental enemy, not radical Islam, and has said a bunch of outlandish and untrue things about Islam. It appears he sees the current conflicts in the Middle East as a sort of holy war between Christianity and Islam. He is generally pro Putin and has advocated for working more closely with Russia in Syria. For appointing someone with these views Trump gets another F.
• Defense Secretary: Steven “Mad Dog” Mattis. Would anyone with the nick name “Mad Dog” be somebody you would invite over for a dinner party? But this appointment may be the big surprise. He actually gets high marks from pundits and experts for a distinguished military career as a Marine General and head of the U.S. Central Command. Though he is outspoken and says politically incorrect things such as enjoying killing bad guys, he is described as a smart, strategic thinker, tough, and independent. He may be the one Cabinet person who will stand up to Trump and keep him from pressing the nuclear button. He has said he is against waterboarding and against tearing up the Iran nuclear treaty. He is the best hope that we have right now that a contrary, strong voice might save us from the worst. I will give Trump an A on Mad Dog.
• Health and Human Services: Tom Price. Price is a six term Republican congressman from Georgia, who is an orthopedic doctor, whose only contribution in the House seems to have been leading the charge to repeal Obama Care. His alternative is described as a windfall for doctors, which will result in most of the 22 million who have gained health care insurance being left with little or nothing. He is another fanatic with an agenda. Trump gets another F.
• Treasury Secretary: Steven Mnuchin, not to be confused with “Munchkin.” The guy is one of several billionaires on the Trump Cabinet and a Wall Street hack, the son of a Wall Street hack, and the last person in the world who would  stick it to the big banks. The only thing good you can say about him is that he does know his way around Wall Street and knows what he is doing. But so much for championing the little guy. Unlike other appointees, it does not appear that he necessarily has an ax to grind or an agenda he wants to accomplish except more tax cuts for the rich. Trump gets a very low C on this one.
• Transportation Secretary: Elaine Chao, the wife of Mitch McConnell and another tip of the hat to the Establishment. How much damage can she do? Trump gets another C.
• Commerce Secretary: Wilbur Ross. Another multi billionaire with an agenda—heavy tariffs on Chinese imports resulting, according to most economists, in a likely trade war, which would be a disaster. Another F.
• Education Secretary: Betsy DeVoss. Yet another multi billionaire, with no actual teaching experience but an obsession with school vouchers and charter schools. Married to the heir of the Amway fortune, and a Republican activist, this is another concession to the Establishment. I would give Trump a D.
• UN Ambassador: Nikki Haley. She is the governor of South Carolina and has been more moderate than she could have been—at least with regard to the Confederate Flag incident, and she is an American of Indian (as in India, the country) heritage. He could have done worse. Trump gets a B.
• CIA Director: Mike Pompeo. Pompeo is a congressman from Kansas and a leader of the tea party movement, who brings with him a dark agenda. He was obsessed with Benghazi and went after Hillary relentlessly. Right wing fanatic with a cause, not who you want running the CIA. Trump gets a F.
• Probable Department of Housing an Urban Development Secretary: Doctor Ben Carson. Hey, the guy is weird but seems nice enough, and this is what he gets for coming around to support Trump at the end. How much damage can he—or anybody for that matter—do at HUD? I will give Trump the benefit of the doubt and give him a B.

While there are more appointments to come, most positions do not fall into categories that will make a huge difference except for Secretary of State, and this one will say a lot about where the Cabinet may be headed. The Director of National Intelligence is probably next in importance. Labor, Interior, Agriculture are also still open, and I will keep you posted.

So how well did Trump do on our exercise? Well, he got one A, two Bs, three Cs, one D, and five Fs. His total score was 24, divided by 12 positions, which equals an average of exactly 2 or a solid D. Sounds about right to me.

And now for the temperament part. The question is how presidential is Trump starting to look? He did say on more than one occasion that he wants to pull the country together and that he won’t lock up Hillary day one, but, alas, he is still tweeting in the wee hours of the morning and talking about how the popular vote was rigged against him, how he really won the poplar vote by a landslide, all the illegal immigrants voting in states that he lost in, and such things. And naturally he is opposing the recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. It is unclear what he is going to do about all his real estate and conflicts of interest. And about the phone conversation with the President of Taiwan? Who knows? Maybe it was a wrong number. Maybe he did not know what Taiwan is or symbolizes. In any event The Donald does not sound presidential to me. Solid D. When he hits F, it is time to panic.

We are just beginning, folks. Who knows what we are in for?

What do you think?

Post Script:

My nephew, Alex, in his comment noted I left out Jeff Sessions for Attorney General. How could I have forgotten him? It must have been late last night when I put the blog post to bed. Sessions, of course, Sessions. He is the worst. He has spent most of his legal and political career fighting against civil rights and is a ghost from the days of Jim Crow. An F for sure, which brings the Trump score down to a D-. 

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Okay, I admit, I am obsessed by the current political situation as, I imagine, many of you are. Some friends have expressed concern that I am taking the election results way too seriously. Just because Trump has chosen a Neo Nazi sympathizer as his chief strategist, a racist (or at least strongly anti civil rights)  as his attorney general, an Islam hater as his national security adviser, a fanatical doctor, obsessed with killing Obama Care, to head up Health and Human Services, and a climate change denier as the head of EPA does not necessarily mean that terrible things are going to happen. Look on the bright side. Chill out, as they say.

Good advice. On Saturday of last week when in NYC—where we attended the infamous, imaginary Trump press conference—we decided we did need a break; so Embry and I went to the Museum of Modern Art, with children and grandchildren in tow, before boarding our bus home. Think about it: The Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA as it is called by New Yorkers, is the greatest contemporary art museum in the world. You can imagine our excitement. At last a breather from the dismal headlines and ominous signals coming from Trump Tower.

The museum was packed as you might expect on Thanksgiving weekend. Due to the large crowds we decided to visit Floor 4 after breezing through the museum’s main, permanent collection on Floor 5,which was jammed , and where you find all the famous Impressionists, Post Impressionists, and abstract painters.

We had never been to Floor 4, which this day was devoted exclusively to the 1960s, the decade when we came of age, the decade of civil rights, and the Peace Movement. What would we find that would give us a better perspective on what is going on now in our country, which would provide a lift, hope, and a chance to recharge our worn out batteries?

The first work of art was a pile of sand by the entry door that partly resembled a sand dune. Who would ever have thought to create such a thing? Interesting, I thought. Then there were the glass wastebaskets, maybe about 15, all clustered together. We could not get too close to see if they contained trash because so many people were gaping. Near it were three clusters of building blocks like you find at a day care center. Across from it was an old sports car and to the side in the hallway a real helicopter hanging from the ceiling. Then a Warhol painting of Marilyn Monroe–at last something we recognized– and in the next room three, large, white, blank canvasses in a row. In the room after that was another blank canvass. Then a large sculpture consisting of a mound of white male body parts made out of alabaster (I think) and in another room a large mat on the floor with metal pipes and construction equipment scattered all around it. The room next to it contained bright red, yellow and blue plastic chairs and tables, which could have fitted in nicely at any McDonald’s play station. The exhibit was crowded with people mulling around, some appearing puzzled. I asked Embry where the fake dog poop in the corner might be, and she insisted it was in another modern art museum we went to once, maybe the one in Chicago.

There were a few highlights—a few photos by Cartier-Bresson, my idol, and Gordon Parks and some others, but I could not help asking myself, what am I missing here. What happened in the 1960s that produced this outrageous stuff that has found its way into the greatest modern art museum in the world? Who convinced the curators that these objects belong here, only a floor below Picasso, Renoir, Gauguin, Calder, and Van Gogh?

Mercifully on this day there was no exhibit at MoMA on any decade beyond the 1960s. God only knows what those galleries would have had in store for us. There is great art being produced in the United States like that of Mike Martin, my brother-in-law, who has been unable to get the attention of any art gallery or museum. I also think of my friend, Dickson Carroll. His sculptures surely belong in MoMA. Bill Christenberry, another artist friend, who just passed away at age 80, has gotten his share of recognition; but his art is not in MoMA. Great contemporary art exists, but most of it has not made it to MoMA or, for that matter, to other museums of modern art. I know, anyone who is an expert in such things will label me a hopeless Philistine, who does not have a clue, and they may be right though it is a remote possibility that the emperor has no clothes.

So much for art as an answer for the Trump blues. I guess I have to admit that it depends on what art you are talking about. Sadly art on Floor 3 of MoMA is no cure. On the other hand perhaps it provides some clues as to why we elected Trump in the first place.

 

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You may not have seen or heard about this because no major news organizations, except the newly established Trump News, were invited to Trump’s first press conference, which was held in the lobby of Trump Tower appropriately on Black Friday. Embry and I were in New York City on that day and happened to be walking by, saw the vast crowds and police, and after passing the multiple vendors selling Make America Great hats, Trump jewelry, Trump cosmetics and Trump campaign memorabilia, managed to squeeze our way close enough to hear what he was saying. I had my handy recording device and captured every word. Here is the transcript verbatim:

Trump: I am having my first post election press conference as President-Elect because I just learned of the recount being conducted in Wisconsin. This is a dumb and stupid idea, which is a waste of money and will prove nothing. I won by a landslide. This is a mandate. Unprecedented. I will be the new president. Period. Plus I have Vladi’s—that is what Putin told me to call him this morning when we had our regular check in—Vladi’s word that Russia had nothing to do with any hacking of election machines or for that matter with hacking and leaking any emails. It is just a feeble excuse by sore losers. Get over it Democrats. I won. Suck it up and move on. Now first question:

Mr. President-Elect , Mr. President-Elect, …[shouts from the audience]

Trump: All right third row, John, from The Tribune-Phonograph, Abbotsford, Wisconsin.

John from the Tribune-Phonograph: What will be your first action the day after you are sworn in?

Trump: Naturally to repeal Obama Care and replace it with Trump Care. Ivanka and Jared are finishing up the planning as I speak. It will involve using reverse engineered savings accounts and introducing more players into the insurance business including Trump Health Inc., which was formed two days ago and is now available for investment opportunities. Donald Junior will head this up. The company will be big, really big and will totally and completely change health care delivery and insurance as we know it. Great investment opportunity. Really great! Next question. Sarah from the Baraboo News Republic, Baraboo, Wisconsin, in the back.

Sarah from The Baraboo New Republic: Sir, what about the wall?

Trump: Going up Day Two. I have already formed two companies to get this done quickly and cheaply. Everybody knows the government is inept so I had no choice. Trump Rock Inc. will provide the concrete and barbed wire and Trump Works Inc. will construct the wall. Half the people you saw entering Trump Tower this week were interviewing for these positions, not for some lousy government job. Trump Wall will happen fast, and it will be big and beautiful. People will love it who live on both sides of it. Freddy, from the Kenosha News, Kenosha, Wisconsin, front row on the left, you are next. What is your question?

Freddy from Kenosha News: What about massive deportations?

Trump. Going to happen soon but same problem as with the Wall. Government can’t do it. Too incompetent. My children, Tiffany and Eric, are working on this. Trump Deport Security Inc. will sniff ‘em out, handcuff ‘em, and Trump Wheels will take them to Trump Hostelries, which will be like mini hotels with bars on the windows and without the amenities of a Trump hotel, of course. They won’t want to leave, it will be so nice, so you bleeding heart Democrats don’t have to shed any tears over these no good illegals, who don’t belong here, and who will be thrown out of the country. Probably flown out on Trump Airlines, which I am now reviving. Melania will run this. My son, Barron, will be vice president when he turns twelve. Great airline by the way! George, in the back, from Adrian, Michigan, The Michigan Christian Advocate.

George from the Michigan Christian Advocate: What will you do for the working class, which was the key to your getting elected?

Trump: Everything. I am going to cut taxes across the board. Of course, the major cuts go to the Winners, not the Losers. That is the way it should be. But the Winners will spend money, and create jobs for my supporters, who I am sorry to say and I really mean this when I say I am sorry–are Losers. Plus I have plans for a whole bunch of new golf courses, and do you have any idea how much caddies get from tips at my exclusive golf courses and resorts? A lot more than you journalists make, that is for sure. Horace, from The Record Herald, Waynesboro, Pennsylvania on the right near the aisle.

Horace from the Record Herald: What about the Paris climate change deal?

Trump: I did say the other day that I would give that a second look and I will. In fact I have decided to set up Trump Labs Inc., which will do the research and render a non biased opinion. The government , of course, will pay for the research. If Trump Labs Inc. says climate change is happening, I may decide to stay in the deal, but I will renegotiate it so we get a sweeter deal and everyone else pretty much gets screwed– which means that the Chinese will end up footing the bill. You are next–Sammy from the Battle Creek Enquirer, Battle Creek, Michigan, front row.

Sammy from The Battle Creek Enquirer : What about the Chinese? Are you really going to put in tariffs?

Trump: Damn right I will. I will show ‘em. What is the guy’s name who heads up that country? Can’t remember right now and even if I could I couldn’t pronounce it, but he will find out real fast who I am and what it means to be a winner.

Sammy: And if they try to retaliate by putting tariffs on our exports?

Trump. Well, I don’t know about you, Sammy, but that sounds like an act of war to me. George, from The Herald-Standard, Union Town, Pennsylvania, you get the last question.

George from the Herald-Standard: Do you think that Russia will go along with all that you want to do?

Trump: Well, Vladi and I talk almost every day, and he is pretty much on board. We understand each other, two of a kind so to speak, both winners with shared mutual interests. Besides, he is one of my main investors and has as much to lose as I do. And we have plans for new Trump hotels to go up in cities all over Russia. Great investment opportunities.

Mr. President–Elect! Mr. President-Elect! [shouts from the crowd]

Trump: Okay one final question. Roger from Trump News.

Roger from Trump News: Do you have any regrets so far?

Trump: My only regret is how hard it is to fill all these important positions. And once I do that, then I have to start on the Cabinet appointments and other government jobs. That could take forever.

So that there  is no mistake, please note that the above event is a figment of my imagination and did not happen BUT IT COULD HAVE!

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I get the message. You voted for Obama twice. In fact, you do not recall ever voting for a Republican before, but these times are different. You voted for Trump. You sent a message: You are fed up.

There are a whole bunch of reasons why Hillary lost the electoral college vote, but surely none is more important than you and others like you crossing over the line to vote for Trump. You voted for him, not because Trump is a Republican but because he is an outsider, someone who is new to politics, who is not beholden to the elite who control both parties, who seems to understand your predicament, who “tells it like it is,” and who will shake up Washington.

You are right. We Progressives have let you down. Under our watch despite gains in a number of areas, over the past eight years, your life has not gotten better. Your job is shaky. Many of your friends have lost theirs, and your income has stagnated. You no longer have a old fashioned pension and have borrowed against your 401K to help get your kids through school. The thought of maintaining even a modest standard of living after retiring is quickly vanishing. One kid has graduated from college and the other from a community college, but they have taken on debt and are having trouble finding openings for career jobs. You are watching them struggle as they marry, have kids and can’t afford decent child care or even a nice house. You do not have enough money for you and your wife to go out more than one night a week to a chain restaurant and an occasional movie; and vacation travel is out of the question. You have health care at work, but many of your friends and relatives don’t; and those who signed up for Obama Care are watching their premiums sky rocket. Then there is the opioid epidemic. The list goes on.

You look at Progressives like me and conclude—justifiably in many ways—that we just do not get it. We talk about equality and diversity; but when it comes to helping the backbone of America, you argue that the folks like you who really were responsible for making America great in the first place, the white working class, have been left hanging out on the line to dry. We Democrats have taken you for granted and given you very little in return. You are mad as hell, and it does not mean that you are a racist or a sexist or intolerant of Muslims and immigrants.

You don’t ask for much—just to have a decent life with some security and reason to believe that the future will be better for your children and grandchildren. You do not think that has happened during the last eight years ( and before that too), and you have had enough: you voted for the long shot. What did you have to lose?

Were I in your shoes I would probably have done the same thing. But here is the problem: you have been duped. Trump is a sham, who has never given a twit about the working class or for that matter about anyone else except himself and his immediate family. He is a fraud. But let’s leave aside his personality and past history of exploiting workers and contractors. Let’s look at what he says he is going to do and then what he actually does do and its impact on you and your family.

The first thing he is likely to do (with help from his Republican Congress) is drastically cut taxes for the rich. Yes, there will be some across-the-board cuts and crumbs for those toward the bottom, but the bulk of the cuts will go to the rich. We have seen this movie before. Trickle down economics does not benefit working people like you. That is why the trickle down policies in the past–championed by Republicans by the way, not Democrats—are in part responsible for the disparities in income we see today. And if he does get a big tax cut through Congress, it will create huge deficits and dampen chances for job creation, paid family leave, infrastructure development and other things he has talked about.

His argument is that tax cuts and deregulation will stimulate the economy and create jobs. But will the jobs be in the U.S. and will they be the kind of jobs that will benefit you and your family? More jobs have been lost due to technology than off-shoring. Most economists agree that the job train that we used to know has done left the station and will never return.

The question of jobs coming back to the U.S from around the world is important because another item high on Trump’s list is to sharply reduce Chinese and Mexican imports. Trump will impose tariffs of up to 45% on goods shipped to the U.S. from these countries. You don’t have to be an economist to figure this one out. The goods you buy at Walmart and Dollar General will cost more. Plus, do you think the Chinese—which have a whole bunch of problems themselves—will roll over on this? They will impose tariffs on our products. The main problem with tariffs is that a   lot of economists believe they are likely to start a trade war, which could cause a global recession. It would not be a pretty picture for you and your family.

I know that you probably think that free trade has been a disaster. You are wrong. It is responsible for most of the extraordinary gains in incomes and living standards around the world. But you are also right. There are winners and losers in international trade; and many working people –especially in Mid Western industrial states—have gotten the short end of the stick. People like Bernie Sanders think we should have done a much better job. This is another way we Progressives have let you down. We have not been able to protect many American jobs or provide the retooling for the new global economy that is necessary to get you in the right job.

(For the record, Trump is also strongly against having any minimum wage at all, let alone establishing a national living wage minimum. There is a long list which if you look at it carefully, you will come away wondering what is in it for you. The answer: very little.)

But what about infrastructure? Trump has said he wants to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure. That should create jobs. Spending money on roads, mass transit and bridges was a big part of Hillary’s platform as well. This could be one item on Trump’s otherwise worker-hostile agenda that Progressives could support if handled properly so that the money goes to job creators and workers, not tax breaks for wealthy investors as appears to be the case now. So it could be a start and a silver lining in what otherwise is a dark cloud with few benefits for you and your family. This is something to pull for.

And what about Obama Care? According to Trump, this will also be among the first to go. We are talking about 20 million people who for the first time have affordable health insurance. Many are working class families. Yes, premiums are going up, but 85% of the people using Obama Care receive government subsidies. What will replace it? We have no idea.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But the facts are what they are. Who knows? It is theoretically possible that Trump could move toward a more worker-friendly agenda, but there is no sign of it happening yet.

So what are you to do? First, listen to what Trump says and figure out how it will affect you and your family. Second, watch very closely what he and the Republican-controlled Congress actually do. If they pursue the bait-and-switch scam which now appears to be unfolding, you have friends who want you back in the Democratic fold. We are going to fight Trump, and we need your help. I know, we have let you down in the past—not, I might add, because we wanted to but because we were not able to get progressive laws passed in a Republican-controlled Congress. But I also know you are not looking for excuses. You are looking for answers. The answers are that we need a progressive agenda which supports job growth, provides for job retraining, affordable child care and affordable public college, higher taxes on the rich to pay for it, universal health care, and a minimum living wage.

Watch what he does. If Trump does not deliver, we want you back. Together we shall overcome.

Your friend,

Joe

 

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Admittedly I don’t have a huge number of Republican friends, but I have some. If you are one, this is what I have to say: You are a good person. My hunch is that you probably did not vote for Trump but for a third party candidate. Much of what he said and his personality was as disturbing to you as it was to me and most Democrats and many Independents. But now that he is president-elect, you are having second thoughts. After all, he was elected fairly even though he did not win the popular vote. Besides he could move more to the center. He could soften his position on immigration and on free trade. He could move toward the Republican ideals of smaller government, reduced spending and balanced budgets. Let’s give him a chance. Paul Ryan is supporting him and Lindsay Graham is mellowing a bit as well. You think that he might actually be ok.

Not so fast. All indications as judged by his early appointments show he is moving in the direction of what I call the Dark Side. Think again about what he said he was going to do during the campaign and what it appears he actually will try to do and ask yourself, is this the kind of person who represents my values and is this the kind of country I want to live in.

This is what he has told us he is going to do:

1. Build a wall, which few experts think makes any sense.
2. Deport at least six million undocumented immigrants, many of them who have lived here for years and many who are allowed to work because they came here as children and are part of the American Dream Act.
3. Curtail open trade by imposing 35-45% tariffs on Mexican and Chinese imports, which would result in higher prices and probably cause a global recession.
4. Appoint a climate change denier as head of the EPA, get out of the Paris climate accord, kill all of Obama’s environmental initiatives and drastically shrink the EPA.
5. Get out of the Iran nuclear deal.
6. Put through massive tax cuts for the rich with no off setting budget cuts. 
7. Ignore the need for deficit neutral budgets and entitlement reform.
8. Build massive infrastructure projects, with no dollars to pay for them.
9. Cozy up with Putin and pull back from NATO.
10. Put a ban on Muslims entering the country and institute surveillance at mosques.

My question to you is this: which of these initiatives (and many others) do you agree with. How do they square with your traditional Republican values of small government and responsible spending? How do they gibe with your human values of kindness and mercy and fairness? My hope is that you support few if any of these initiatives. Trump is not a Republican. He is a populist with the temperament of a strongman, who if he gets his way would move the country in a very dangerous direction.

So what should you do? You should not support these un-Republican initiatives and let your elected officials know this. Republicans now hold the majorities in both the House and the Senate and will continue to do so. Republicans are the first line of defense. Responsible Republicans should put the brakes on Trump’s actions which could lead to disaster. Democrats will join the fight. If Trump does in fact move forward on his Dark Agenda, the country and the planet Earth are in deep trouble. What will you tell your grandchildren you did to keep the worst from happening? Never have the stakes been higher.

Sincerely,

Joe Howell

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