Well, Trump never claimed to have read the Constitution, and he obviously has NO understanding of it. The same is true of most people in this country. The Senators who failed to vote to impeach Trump did so primarily out of fear for their lives, the lives of their families, and their likely loss of power. Mitt Romney verified this abject…
Well, Trump never claimed to have read the Constitution, and he obviously has NO understanding of it. The same is true of most people in this country. The Senators who failed to vote to impeach Trump did so primarily out of fear for their lives, the lives of their families, and their likely loss of power. Mitt Romney verified this abject fear of some of his Republican colleagues in his book. We saw what happened to Republicans in the House who voted to impeach--all lost their Congressional seats, and worst, their lives and those of their families were threatened multiple times. This is the MAGA way.
Regardless of the fact DT has not read the Constitution, he believes it does not apply to him. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, “Mandate for Leadership - The Conservative Promise” is his north star.
Further to your point about understanding the basic contents of the Constitution, I will assert that a majority of MAGA idiots have not, nor even have read the Constitution. At this point they only recite what Alina Habba has said and they hold that as truth. We're doomed.
We are doomed if we decide we are doomed. In state after state maga has lost key battles. Plus it destroyed some of its own key infrastructure. It ran the MI GOP into the ground where it is in deep debt; gave up its headquarters building & embroiled in internal warfare. In LA the state defied Speaker Johnson, redrew the congressional map to conform with a court order which creates a 2nd majority Black district. (I could go on but I’ll spare ya. 😊)
Do "go on" because these are important happenings. Overall, "MAGA" and Trump have prevailed in both the House and Senate, and now in Davos Jamie Dimon has argued in favor of speaking respectfully about MAGA and seeing how Trump was right about many things including NATO! Money is like life blood to too many of those in power.
B. Take action! Join the hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens who have been catalyzed to civic engagement since 2016. Get out the vote by writing postcards, letters, phone banking, and other evidence-based actions. These actions work: Dems have overperformed in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023. "Action is the antidote to anxiety"!
(And yes, if you're skeptical, Simon is ALL data-driven and evidence-based. For example, he started predicting ONE YEAR before the November 2022 midterms that there would be no "Red Wave" -- and he was right. I thankfully learned about his work shortly before that election, and he cured me of a bad case of RWF -- Red Wave Fatalism.)
For ‘TV commentators’ I recommend MSNBC. There is a reason Donnie put it on his retribution list. Also, it is the Senate rules that foil some of what the Dems want to do & when they pass legislation the House rebels.
Personally, I believe A. The GOP did not prevail in the Senate as much as they exposed themselves. B. We are reaping the benefits of Biden legislation the Dem House & Senate managed to pass before the House fell into total chaos. C. Most of the GOP knows it. McConnell for one is worried. His playbook is to stop everything an Dem president does & here he is railing on the House for acting crazy. (It has always been considered BAD for the party of one chamber to criticize its members in the other. Something he avoided like the plague - until now.)
Changes of behavior have meaning. For ex: Here in the land of Mitch you could tell the GOPers were concerned a 2 yrs ahead of the governor’s race. Our Dem gov was too popular & they started moving his authority to other offices. Mitch had them change the rules on how he (or any) Senator would be replaced if they left during their term. Things they would never do if they believed they were about to take back the mansion. (They were correct, Beshear won a 2nd term.)
Now we have the Senate GOP clamoring to pass the compromise on immigration. Lindsey Graham says it is the best deal they will ever get while DJT tells his folks to pass nothing. We also hear zip from the House after a group of GOPers voted with Dems to stymie the Mayorkas impeachment process. Makes no sense if they believe they are poised for a big win.
Redistricting is still up in the air in NY. The last map for 2022 was enough to give us the GOP the House (and George Santos). Redrawing the map is now the chore of a ‘neutral’ commission & will need to be approved by the Dem controlled legislature. Although the Dems have not won all the redistricting battles from the last election, the big GOP advantage is being whittle down. Important when the House margin is 2-3 votes.
Last but not least, the good news of the economy is breaking through. A ‘soft landing’ is becoming reality. The GOP is working hard to turn attention away from it. Donnie advocates government shutdown and hopes for collapse.
On immigration the House wackadoodles are in the position of being unable to take ‘yes’ for an answer again as the Senate GOP blasts them. The Mayorkas impeachment has stalled when a group of GOP members voted with Dems. The WH has what I call the GOP ‘refusal’ list, trying to cut funding for border patrol, refusing a funding supplement for border security & now basically admitting DJT doesn’t want a bill. Then there is Troy Nehls, TX, who spells it out. He’s not voting for anything that will improve Biden’s approval rating.
The headwinds are still there, though: the rise of inequality, instability, violence all over the world. With them, the rise of populism, authoritarianism, far right, fringe politics, discontent, and con men like Trump capitalizing on all that.
Few understood the threat in 2016, and it seems we're still focusing on Trump - and not trumpism or the headwinds. Trump will hopefully end up in jail - yet someone much smarter (and cleaner, and polished - yet with the same talent and penchant to capitalize on the discontent and rile up the "deplorables") will take his place, and then what? Brownshirts marching on Times Square, Kristallnachts in Brooklyn and on La Brea, ethnic cleansings, and most certainly, a world war? Is it as far-fetched as someone like Trump winning in 2016? Germany is protesting the rise of far right, and in the US? "Gas prices out of control!"? Let's take a good look at who we are and what we are in this country. It's not a good look. So maybe focus on getting better, vs. thinking Trump is the sole source of ultimate evil and once he is in jail, all is peachy?
Then there's the whole economic outlook. We're literally painting ourselves in the corner thinking the economy can continue growing unhindered given the climate change when it's the economy that brought us there. We keep thinking we'll come up with a magic bullet when the only viable option is degrowth. I am not even touching on thoroughly and irreversibly trashing (and killing) the planet, and not having the will or the mind to consume less, to trash less.
Can we humans get wise enough in time for the future inhabitants of the planet to look back and say, "at least they made an effort"? We sure aren't making one now, instead galloping towards the abyss and taking the entire planet with us.
Back to rosy outlooks: I am all for optimism when it's paired with a level-headed assessment of where we are and what needs to be done. Is there a party or civic movement focusing on wisdom, humility, and degrowth? I'd like to join one.
I don’t deny the headwinds. There is a lot of room between having headwinds and believing we are doomed. When people believe they are doomed many give up. It is an effective form of suppression where we suppress ourselves. We’ve never had a “good look” unless we close at least one eye to reality. Definitely easier if we wipe transgressions from our memories - and I don’t mean ancient memories. I remember 1967, when a group of us (about 30) commemorated our friend who died in Vietnam with a Christmas Eve totally silent candlelight walk to the cemetery, led by a pastor. The “auxiliary” police patrolled with their shotguns aimed out the car windows at us. (I take some pleasure remembering it was so cold the snow squeaked. The breeze through their car windows made them give up.) Other things like the Weatherman organization of the late 1960s and through the 1970s; the bombing in the city of “love” & home of the Liberty Bell, by the Philadelphia PD to rid themselves of the very annoying “MOVE” members - wiped away even though it happened in 1985. https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/saying-her-name
I live in maga world. I remember before maga the rising christian right & some of their antics. Their allies who began stirring up violence. The day a phone call came in objecting to an endorsement the organization I worked for made. Hearing one of our directors tell a caller when our CEO (also a state legislator) would be in the office. The caller wanted to show our CEO how the 2nd amendment works. I gave him “what for” about that. He waved his hand & said “He’s 70 miles away and isn’t going to bother coming here.” True then, maybe not today.
I know what it’s like to have your governor hung in effigy not so long ago (outside the mansion where his children’s bedrooms are); calls for “patriots” with their guns to monitor the polls & way back before the hanging chad election the KY GOP put out a call for volunteers to be challengers at the polls. The challenger thing was a forerunner to what we see now. (It fell apart because of overwhelming bad P/R. The precincts they chose were black &/or low income places where the GOP was failing to provide poll workers as required by state law. Only poll workers have authority at the polls.) The Brooks Brothers Riot was more successful and also resurfaced in a more menacing form in 2020.
I remember a lot of other things too. Like when Reagan took Carter’s solar panels off the WH and Obama put them back. Obviously, narcissists and others who live for power in the moment are not going to go away or care about the planet when trump is not on the scene. All these things & many more, tell me the headwinds are always here to be capitalized on for dark desires of bad people. Periodically we must to beat them back so we can move forward. To succeed we need the ability to see what holds hope to avoid getting lost.
And we need optimism to counter the doomsayers. I believe that optimism can be a self fulfilling prophecy, and that it is necessary to keep us moving forward. Beautiful post, Ann.
Thank you. (Yes, I believe self fulfilling prophecy works both ways. Especially online where whatever you “engage with” is reinforced by more appearing in your ‘feed’ or recommendations (algorithms).)
And we need optimism to counter the doomsayers. I believe that optimism can be a self fulfilling prophecy, and that it is necessary to keep us moving forward. Beautiful post, Ann.
Well, Trump never claimed to have read the Constitution, and he obviously has NO understanding of it. The same is true of most people in this country. The Senators who failed to vote to impeach Trump did so primarily out of fear for their lives, the lives of their families, and their likely loss of power. Mitt Romney verified this abject fear of some of his Republican colleagues in his book. We saw what happened to Republicans in the House who voted to impeach--all lost their Congressional seats, and worst, their lives and those of their families were threatened multiple times. This is the MAGA way.
Regardless of the fact DT has not read the Constitution, he believes it does not apply to him. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, “Mandate for Leadership - The Conservative Promise” is his north star.
Mob tactics. Mob boss. Jail him.
Further to your point about understanding the basic contents of the Constitution, I will assert that a majority of MAGA idiots have not, nor even have read the Constitution. At this point they only recite what Alina Habba has said and they hold that as truth. We're doomed.
We are doomed if we decide we are doomed. In state after state maga has lost key battles. Plus it destroyed some of its own key infrastructure. It ran the MI GOP into the ground where it is in deep debt; gave up its headquarters building & embroiled in internal warfare. In LA the state defied Speaker Johnson, redrew the congressional map to conform with a court order which creates a 2nd majority Black district. (I could go on but I’ll spare ya. 😊)
Do "go on" because these are important happenings. Overall, "MAGA" and Trump have prevailed in both the House and Senate, and now in Davos Jamie Dimon has argued in favor of speaking respectfully about MAGA and seeing how Trump was right about many things including NATO! Money is like life blood to too many of those in power.
For Valerie, and to "go on" from where I think Ann was heading:
A. Read, study, listen, watch to get that there are solid grounds for optimism for Dems and democracy. My highest recommendation is Simon Rosenberg, for example this morning's post: https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/republicans-are-taking-an-enormous?r=ktt63&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
B. Take action! Join the hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens who have been catalyzed to civic engagement since 2016. Get out the vote by writing postcards, letters, phone banking, and other evidence-based actions. These actions work: Dems have overperformed in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023. "Action is the antidote to anxiety"!
One-stop source for taking action: Jess Craven's work, for example https://open.substack.com/pub/chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions/p/chop-wood-carry-water-119-62f?r=ktt63&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Simon Rosenberg is also constantly posting actions anyone can take.
I guarantee you will feel at least somewhat better watching this overview of how 2023 was a good year for Dems and how 2024 can be even better: https://youtu.be/Je3RlaLD6Ng (5 min.) (Source: https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/as-2024-voting-begins-democrats-should?r=ktt63&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web )
(And yes, if you're skeptical, Simon is ALL data-driven and evidence-based. For example, he started predicting ONE YEAR before the November 2022 midterms that there would be no "Red Wave" -- and he was right. I thankfully learned about his work shortly before that election, and he cured me of a bad case of RWF -- Red Wave Fatalism.)
For ‘TV commentators’ I recommend MSNBC. There is a reason Donnie put it on his retribution list. Also, it is the Senate rules that foil some of what the Dems want to do & when they pass legislation the House rebels.
Personally, I believe A. The GOP did not prevail in the Senate as much as they exposed themselves. B. We are reaping the benefits of Biden legislation the Dem House & Senate managed to pass before the House fell into total chaos. C. Most of the GOP knows it. McConnell for one is worried. His playbook is to stop everything an Dem president does & here he is railing on the House for acting crazy. (It has always been considered BAD for the party of one chamber to criticize its members in the other. Something he avoided like the plague - until now.)
Changes of behavior have meaning. For ex: Here in the land of Mitch you could tell the GOPers were concerned a 2 yrs ahead of the governor’s race. Our Dem gov was too popular & they started moving his authority to other offices. Mitch had them change the rules on how he (or any) Senator would be replaced if they left during their term. Things they would never do if they believed they were about to take back the mansion. (They were correct, Beshear won a 2nd term.)
Now we have the Senate GOP clamoring to pass the compromise on immigration. Lindsey Graham says it is the best deal they will ever get while DJT tells his folks to pass nothing. We also hear zip from the House after a group of GOPers voted with Dems to stymie the Mayorkas impeachment process. Makes no sense if they believe they are poised for a big win.
Yes, “but” … Davos has a very very bad track record on US political predictions.
Here is a take on the multiple important states and the internal problems in the GOP there: https://michiganadvance.com/2024/01/13/troubled-state-gop-operations-extend-far-beyond-michigan/
Redistricting is still up in the air in NY. The last map for 2022 was enough to give us the GOP the House (and George Santos). Redrawing the map is now the chore of a ‘neutral’ commission & will need to be approved by the Dem controlled legislature. Although the Dems have not won all the redistricting battles from the last election, the big GOP advantage is being whittle down. Important when the House margin is 2-3 votes.
Last but not least, the good news of the economy is breaking through. A ‘soft landing’ is becoming reality. The GOP is working hard to turn attention away from it. Donnie advocates government shutdown and hopes for collapse.
Recent headlines: Wall Street Journal (not a bastion of liberals), “Consumer Sentiment Logs Biggest Jump in Decades”. CNBC reports today: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/22/no-economic-collapse-top-citi-strategist-says-healthier-economic-growth-is-coming.html — and interest rates are still predicted to be going down in 2024.
On immigration the House wackadoodles are in the position of being unable to take ‘yes’ for an answer again as the Senate GOP blasts them. The Mayorkas impeachment has stalled when a group of GOP members voted with Dems. The WH has what I call the GOP ‘refusal’ list, trying to cut funding for border patrol, refusing a funding supplement for border security & now basically admitting DJT doesn’t want a bill. Then there is Troy Nehls, TX, who spells it out. He’s not voting for anything that will improve Biden’s approval rating.
Thank you for a glimpse of hope.
The headwinds are still there, though: the rise of inequality, instability, violence all over the world. With them, the rise of populism, authoritarianism, far right, fringe politics, discontent, and con men like Trump capitalizing on all that.
Few understood the threat in 2016, and it seems we're still focusing on Trump - and not trumpism or the headwinds. Trump will hopefully end up in jail - yet someone much smarter (and cleaner, and polished - yet with the same talent and penchant to capitalize on the discontent and rile up the "deplorables") will take his place, and then what? Brownshirts marching on Times Square, Kristallnachts in Brooklyn and on La Brea, ethnic cleansings, and most certainly, a world war? Is it as far-fetched as someone like Trump winning in 2016? Germany is protesting the rise of far right, and in the US? "Gas prices out of control!"? Let's take a good look at who we are and what we are in this country. It's not a good look. So maybe focus on getting better, vs. thinking Trump is the sole source of ultimate evil and once he is in jail, all is peachy?
Then there's the whole economic outlook. We're literally painting ourselves in the corner thinking the economy can continue growing unhindered given the climate change when it's the economy that brought us there. We keep thinking we'll come up with a magic bullet when the only viable option is degrowth. I am not even touching on thoroughly and irreversibly trashing (and killing) the planet, and not having the will or the mind to consume less, to trash less.
Can we humans get wise enough in time for the future inhabitants of the planet to look back and say, "at least they made an effort"? We sure aren't making one now, instead galloping towards the abyss and taking the entire planet with us.
Back to rosy outlooks: I am all for optimism when it's paired with a level-headed assessment of where we are and what needs to be done. Is there a party or civic movement focusing on wisdom, humility, and degrowth? I'd like to join one.
I don’t deny the headwinds. There is a lot of room between having headwinds and believing we are doomed. When people believe they are doomed many give up. It is an effective form of suppression where we suppress ourselves. We’ve never had a “good look” unless we close at least one eye to reality. Definitely easier if we wipe transgressions from our memories - and I don’t mean ancient memories. I remember 1967, when a group of us (about 30) commemorated our friend who died in Vietnam with a Christmas Eve totally silent candlelight walk to the cemetery, led by a pastor. The “auxiliary” police patrolled with their shotguns aimed out the car windows at us. (I take some pleasure remembering it was so cold the snow squeaked. The breeze through their car windows made them give up.) Other things like the Weatherman organization of the late 1960s and through the 1970s; the bombing in the city of “love” & home of the Liberty Bell, by the Philadelphia PD to rid themselves of the very annoying “MOVE” members - wiped away even though it happened in 1985. https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/saying-her-name
I live in maga world. I remember before maga the rising christian right & some of their antics. Their allies who began stirring up violence. The day a phone call came in objecting to an endorsement the organization I worked for made. Hearing one of our directors tell a caller when our CEO (also a state legislator) would be in the office. The caller wanted to show our CEO how the 2nd amendment works. I gave him “what for” about that. He waved his hand & said “He’s 70 miles away and isn’t going to bother coming here.” True then, maybe not today.
I know what it’s like to have your governor hung in effigy not so long ago (outside the mansion where his children’s bedrooms are); calls for “patriots” with their guns to monitor the polls & way back before the hanging chad election the KY GOP put out a call for volunteers to be challengers at the polls. The challenger thing was a forerunner to what we see now. (It fell apart because of overwhelming bad P/R. The precincts they chose were black &/or low income places where the GOP was failing to provide poll workers as required by state law. Only poll workers have authority at the polls.) The Brooks Brothers Riot was more successful and also resurfaced in a more menacing form in 2020.
I remember a lot of other things too. Like when Reagan took Carter’s solar panels off the WH and Obama put them back. Obviously, narcissists and others who live for power in the moment are not going to go away or care about the planet when trump is not on the scene. All these things & many more, tell me the headwinds are always here to be capitalized on for dark desires of bad people. Periodically we must to beat them back so we can move forward. To succeed we need the ability to see what holds hope to avoid getting lost.
And we need optimism to counter the doomsayers. I believe that optimism can be a self fulfilling prophecy, and that it is necessary to keep us moving forward. Beautiful post, Ann.
Thank you. (Yes, I believe self fulfilling prophecy works both ways. Especially online where whatever you “engage with” is reinforced by more appearing in your ‘feed’ or recommendations (algorithms).)
And we need optimism to counter the doomsayers. I believe that optimism can be a self fulfilling prophecy, and that it is necessary to keep us moving forward. Beautiful post, Ann.