Have you ever thought about the role guilt has played in our national life? It’s not omnipresent, it’s certainly not felt by everyone, most especially those sinned against, but I would say guilt rivals pride as the thing that has most motivated us. Think about it for a moment. The founding of this country wasn’t an immaculate birth – for one thing, there wasn’t a Founding Mother among all those long-heralded Founding Fathers, and one of the two greatest mistakes they made the day they came to an agreement on our founding document was what they left out. They didn’t award women full citizenship, and they failed to deal in any way with the sin of slavery.
I sure hope you’re right with this sober-minded but optimistic post.
But I still am dumbfounded on a daily basis that nearly half the electorate is still blindly following this buffoonish grifter like Konrad Lorenz’s ducks.
Having spent 6 1/2 decades watching presidential candidates get derailed by utterly trivial BS -- think of Gary Hart and his relatively tame philandering scandal, or Ed Muskie “crying“ when he got snow in his eyes, or Dukakis looking foolish driving a tank -- and then seeing on a near daily basis this vile creature committing political sins that would make Richard Nixon blanch, while his base grows ever more fervently devoted to him -- it just leaves one speechless with rage and incomprehension.
incomprehension? well, I'm beginning to comprehend a little better.
these guys (of all genders) have been around 4ever.
now, because of the technology we embraced as tightly as possible without spending twenty minutes trying to anticipate how that technology could hurt us, we are being hurt by it.
can anyone explain to me what the actual benefits are of this 24-hour news cycle? or who's hurt by the likes of Fox News?
in any event, Lucian, I sure hope you're right. but if the election were held next week, would we be ready for the fallout we're being promised on a daily basis? I honestly don't know. I THINK (and of course WANT to think) that TFF's pathetic excuse for a mind on his best day won't pass muster with the voting public, but...
I've been wondering what it could look like if (god forbid) TFF wins and immediately sends out all the armed forces to "keep order" by doing all kinds of illegal shit. what happens? do the armed forces just fall in behind the Commander-in-Chief? aren't soldiers supposed to disobey illegal orders? what if orders are given which are intended to subvert the Constitution, to which all who serve have taken an oath to protect?
I assume there are lots of people in the various services who are gaming this shit out...
do the armed forces just fall in behind the Commander-in-Chief? aren't soldiers supposed to disobey illegal orders? When I raised my right hand looking in the eyes of the commander and repeated his words, and took the aoth to"preserve and protect" that was the very questiion that crossed my mind.
During this past week as news about plans for a dictatorship broke through, the 2025 project began to gain traction in the media, and Liz Cheney started her book tour, I began to have hope. Rachel's interview with Liz drew a record setting number of viewers, Liz's book sold out and clips from the Hannity failed rescue of the wannabe king hit the airwaves, shifting the narrative from hand wringing to a full throated response from many who haven't been brave enough to speak up. I hope this continues.
She has been a brave woman and I appreciate her willingness to stand fast against Trump and the majority of her party, but I really hope she doesn't make a third party run.
Excellent! Just excellent, Lucian! I wouldn’t change one word. I want to just say that without a woman birthing these undignified white Christian nationalists, their asses wouldn’t exist! Time for women to shut their doors, if you know what I mean.
What dawned on me as I read this is that the Republican Party has become the party of NO: No to people of color, no to women, no to poor people, no to Native people, no to people with disabilities, no to lesbians and gay men, no to migrants, no no no no no. Thing is, NO is like brakes: they can stop forward motion, but they can't get you anywhere. And that, when it comes down to it, is why I believe that forward motion will win in the end, as long as we keep working to make it happen.
I just started a rejoinder to your 1619 reply, Susanna, then decided not to post it. But you've written one here yourself in odd parallel to what I scrapped, to wit:
"Yes but. Although we've been dragging anchor all this time and have gone aground at times, the drift has been away from the rocks. We've gone and are still going the right direction."
Yes indeed! And it's what we consider the "right direction" -- toward more inclusiveness, justice for *all*, more democracy -- that they're saying NO to. Or, as MLK said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." Former acting attorney general Sally Yates -- one of the earliest victims of the Trump administration -- quoted that in her Harvard Law commencement address that spring. Being reminded of it then gave me hope, along with remembering that the arc doesn't bend by itself.
Sally Yates was such a shero—what the heck has become of her? … Latest example of the one step forward-two steps back pattern: judge ok's a medically necessary abortion, Texas AG Darth Vadar hastily threatens to prosecute the designated MD for complying w/ the temporary court order. Darth has proven to be as far beyond accountability as P01135809—so far. My money's on the arc bending three steps forward anyway..
She's back at the Atlanta law firm King & Spalding, where she worked before joining the Justice Department. I didn't realize she was diagnosed with breast cancer right around the time she was testifying before Congress about Russian interference in elections. I just found this October 2021 story about her: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sally-yates-breast-cancer-russia-investigation/.
Thanks for the update. I knew she was from ATL and figured she had gone back home, but hadn’t heard about the cancer diagnosis. I hope she’s doing well.
Exactly, but they don't stop there. No to truth, no to integrity, no to honor, no to compassion, no to scruples, no to having a backbone, and definitely no to standing strong in your principles and calling a fraud a fraud, if doing so might cost you your cushy, powerful job. They shrink in stature every day.
"The Emperor's New Clothes" keeps occurring to me, less because of the poor emperor parading in his skivvies and more because of the crowds who couldn't see it.
That is probably the most accurate--if a bit vulgar--way to characterize the MAGA party repubbies that I have yet heard. And as for the vulgarity...?
Well, as a party they themselves are as vulgar (or worse) as anything I have ever heard. After all, their orange object of worship is probably the most vulgar creature to ever head up a political party--and his execrable example has given his cult base permission to emulate him.
I realized this quite a few years ago when doing opposition research on a Republican candidate from my area. He had made a name for himself, but he never accomplished anything positive--everything he did was against something or stopping something.
a few days ago, Sidney Blumenthal had a nice piece in "The Guardian" in which he stated, quite convincingly, that the entire Contemporary Republican Party was one big "political" or "cultural" or "philosophical" Potemkin Village insofar as there's this "promise" that, after the TFF-promised "dictatorial" beginning, there's a "plan."
we know there's no such thing. I'm pretty sure THEY know there's no such thing, but I've learned by now NEVER to overestimate them; sometimes, we've all so painfully discovered, stupid is just stupid.
it just seemed like it would be easier to handle...
I like the Potemkin Village image -- gotta find Blumenthal's piece. For a while there I was comparing Trump to the Wizard of Oz, but Trump can't even put on a good show.
Stupid is just stupid, and lies are just lies. But I still have a hard time believing that people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Ron Johnson, James Comer, et al. ever got elected -- and re-elected -- to Congress. High school students in Model Congresses are more persuasive, and better prepared, than the real thing.
Gerrymandering often helps. But the GOP bench is worse than shallow. My state, Massachusetts, historically likes Republican governors, and whether you agree with their politics or not, they're generally decent and competent. But the last one, Charlie Baker, decided against running for a third term, and political punditry suggested that part of the reason was that he might get primaried. The Republicans running for statewide office in fall 2022 ranged from mediocre to pathetic.
The whining of white Christian males is a bit too much for me.I read a comment someone made earlier on something that I read earlier from Heather Cox Richardson’s “ Letters” (can’t remember the persons name)and it is this-the accusations from Rs are really confessions. I think a lot of this drama from white males is in the form of smokescreens designed to deflect attention away from the wrongs that they are doing and bringing attention to some false narrative.I look at them as predators.I am a white woman who has worked her whole life with my paycheck not being quite up to par with my male counterparts.I am not trying to be a cry baby here but it is past time that we in the minority catch up.I think the young people are going to save us.Lord knows, it will not be my Boomer generation who started out so glorifying with peace and love and then fizzled out(or was it sold out?).What happened to us?
I am one of your generation and I think there are more of us than maybe is visible. Those I know are working quietly behind the scenes without calling much attention to our efforts. We are today's underground...the resistance. Have hope!
A lot of us are right here on all of these different substack’s where we bump into each other. Sure some of us may have sold out because economically it made sense, but even among those who did, many found their way back through groups like the Lincoln Project. We are here, maybe not taking part in vast marches, but voting still and without fail. I know I just described myself, I am a man with flaws, who has made his share of mistakes, but I’m working very hard to put in corrections that will negate all of them. 🙏
Very inspiring post. A true democracy is not based on skin color, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or any other identity. A true democracy values all its members and encourages participation of all citizens.
The U.S. has taken great strides toward being a true democracy that represents all, and, as you note, we’ve been working on redressing our nation’s original shortcomings and its original sins. We’re not there yet, but we’re continuing on the path. I’m hopeful that we can overcome the latest challenge of homegrown authoritarianism and move forward.
Thank you all your writings, and thank you especially for today’s post.
Very moved by these words, not only because I agree with your thesis Lucien but because it rises from a long view natural to you and your easy eloquence. And because I heard it stated very similarly only in imperfect English by an immigrant from a country where chaos caused him to seek a larger life.
You're right, of course, but we as a nation have become a nation of sniveling cowards who play morality games with people who should expect better from us.
The stains of the past are still being washed out, and there are still some who refuse to acknowledge them at all.
They're the regressive party of our country-they're not always Republican, but they are always against women having rights to bodily autonomy, POC having voting rights, children having rights to not be slaves in a factory before they're 12, and other horrors.
They're the fans of the Civil War, who refuse to concede defeat then or in the Reconstruction, or even in the Civil rights movement.
They're the whiny bitches of our country personified in Congress, as in Mike Johnson and George Santos, who adore their leader Donald Trump for his ability to pin the blame of his crimes on everyone else.
Sure, we do outnumber them, but the media is not helping by fueling the fire with their slanted representations of Trump as the de facto winner of the race already.
That;'s called defeatism and it's a insidious disease. Trump loves it because it makes him powerful in the eyes of his followers-by calling out their racism, and hatred of the rest of us.
I'm tired of being called a snowflake lib for caring about other people. It would be great if the other side who hate everyone who isn't them would for once stop being such assholes and join the human race.
But as long as Trump is alive, they won't. We're going to have to fight our way through this shit once again..and again until the orange menace is finally defeated.
Because as the old saying goes, "Freedom isn't free" and Trump would like to take it away from us.
Thanks Lucian! Times are dark, things look bleak, and we all need a call to arms.
When this nightmare started, back in 2016, I thought Trump is a little man and America is too big for him. I've been starting to wonder if that's true. But it is, or by end of this struggle it will prove to be.
For white middle-class-and-up people, especially those of the straight and/or male persuasion, the nightmare might have started in 2016, but for many it was ongoing for decades before then -- and, in the case of people of color, pretty much since 1619.
It feels to me as if P01135890 is running his own shadow presidency as if he is still president in absentia off on Devil's Island (appropriate) or something. Every day, there he is along with Bannon, Cash Patel, Steven Miller et al on tv and radio just as if they are waiting to be reinstated. So sick of seeing all these clowns acting like they've been elected to something, they are nothing and nobody!! And I don't see why anyone is giving these insanes any air time!
Yes - I understand that point for sure! And I agree. I just get furious that they haven't been as marginalized as they deserve to be. I want them to be hoisted on their own petards and transparency is the only way, it's true. The more they blab, the scarier it gets. I guess I need a mental health day!!
Taking breaks from it is absolutely necessary. But print media are alarmed enough to take it on without both-sides pretense. Witness the much-publicized new issue of the Atlantic. Too bad the paywall will turn away readers who need the info most.
Yep. He is a useless excuse for a human being. I saw by mistake a post from one of his supporters alleging he is playing 24 dimension chess while Biden is in “his basement.” We will run all over that crowd and when we get finished they’ll be happy Joe remains in office. It is time for all of them to sit down and STFU. Besides being dumber than a box of old hair, they are about as interesting.
A TFG supporter seriously thinks he's playing "24-dimension chess"? Wow, just wow. That's only because he is a stupid person's idea of a smart person. These people personify the Dunning-Kruger Effect. For a succinct and hilarious explanation, look up "John Cleese on stupidity" on YouTube. Back in 2017, in a nearby town, I saw this bumper sticker on a pickup truck, no less:
Trump very likely couldn't even play a simple game of checkers without cheating, let alone have the ability to play a chess game in 24 dimensions. They are deluding themselves about Trump's abilities--they are making the huge mistake of believing his bullshittery and not looking at the meagre list of actual trumpian "accomplishments".
I think they can't tell the difference. I think a lot of Trump supporters do not have the ability to accurately gauge how limited his abilities are. You're familiar with the Dunning-Kruger Effect, I assume.
That stupid people have no idea just how much they don't know (in other words, stupid people don't realize just how stupid they are?)
Oh yes, very familiar.
You are quite correct in that many of the orange idjit's true believers do not have the chops to figure out how enormous are the deceptions that they being fed. They swallow all of his lies willingly--eagerly, even. In large part many thanks to Reagan and his embrace of neoliberalism and dismantling of governmental regulations, including the funding of public schools and the conservatives 'stealing' those dollars to fund their for-profit charter schools with their abbreviated curriculum and absent accreditation.
I think Germany has done a much better job than America, and faster, of endeavoring to fix its mistakes; it did not take 100 years to adddress the nightmare of the Holocaust, and it is kept alive; talk about national guilt, but no students in Germany are allowed to forget it. Unlike here, where most young people never heard of it. What was done to Jews and other marginalized groups was never sidestepped, or allowed to fade. Which is all the more dire considering the appalling wave of anti-semitism that's been revealed in the US that did not begin at elite college campuses on Oct 8. Watching the president of MIT unable to hide her distaste for Jews is a moment not soon forgotten.
And I believe you are correct that Donnie Boy will not prevail and destroy our democracy, his autocratic ravings will be seen as pathetic, but he couldn't have made it this far without the white supremacy major dollars that have fueled his rise. He is too lazy, and stupid. And they have infiltrated all levels of government, most distressingly the judiciary. The Supreme Court is a sick joke. Congress is a circus; they are going to impeach Biden and waste everyone's time and money at the wrong time. He has left a legacy of untruth, violence, polarization that will not be stilled when he is put away (please). Nor will Blacks, or any lower classes, find equity; in fact, the middle class is a dream squashed under the imbalance of pay of CEOs, and how workers can no longer survive oon what they are paid. There is much to repair to find our way back to a solid democracy, and we can only hope the shitshow that will be 2024 finally causes people to begin to vote out the people standing in its way.
I sure hope you’re right with this sober-minded but optimistic post.
But I still am dumbfounded on a daily basis that nearly half the electorate is still blindly following this buffoonish grifter like Konrad Lorenz’s ducks.
Having spent 6 1/2 decades watching presidential candidates get derailed by utterly trivial BS -- think of Gary Hart and his relatively tame philandering scandal, or Ed Muskie “crying“ when he got snow in his eyes, or Dukakis looking foolish driving a tank -- and then seeing on a near daily basis this vile creature committing political sins that would make Richard Nixon blanch, while his base grows ever more fervently devoted to him -- it just leaves one speechless with rage and incomprehension.
I think he's right. We have it within us. We have to act on our beliefs., be vocal, That will inspire others who are feeling defeated.
Read (Conservative, sane, decent) David French in the NY Times about Christian fundamentalists and their reverence for Deranged, Despicable Trump.
They don't seem to realize that Trump is the Golden Calf of our era, and that they're massively, monstrously failing the test.
rage, absolutely.
incomprehension? well, I'm beginning to comprehend a little better.
these guys (of all genders) have been around 4ever.
now, because of the technology we embraced as tightly as possible without spending twenty minutes trying to anticipate how that technology could hurt us, we are being hurt by it.
can anyone explain to me what the actual benefits are of this 24-hour news cycle? or who's hurt by the likes of Fox News?
in any event, Lucian, I sure hope you're right. but if the election were held next week, would we be ready for the fallout we're being promised on a daily basis? I honestly don't know. I THINK (and of course WANT to think) that TFF's pathetic excuse for a mind on his best day won't pass muster with the voting public, but...
I've been wondering what it could look like if (god forbid) TFF wins and immediately sends out all the armed forces to "keep order" by doing all kinds of illegal shit. what happens? do the armed forces just fall in behind the Commander-in-Chief? aren't soldiers supposed to disobey illegal orders? what if orders are given which are intended to subvert the Constitution, to which all who serve have taken an oath to protect?
I assume there are lots of people in the various services who are gaming this shit out...
do the armed forces just fall in behind the Commander-in-Chief? aren't soldiers supposed to disobey illegal orders? When I raised my right hand looking in the eyes of the commander and repeated his words, and took the aoth to"preserve and protect" that was the very questiion that crossed my mind.
As retired General Milley instructed the armed forces, " we are loyal to The Constitution. Not the president."
I don't know why this is being mentioned more often.
then, after about two minutes, I find myself glad not to be hearing about it...the whole old "loose lips..." thing.
During this past week as news about plans for a dictatorship broke through, the 2025 project began to gain traction in the media, and Liz Cheney started her book tour, I began to have hope. Rachel's interview with Liz drew a record setting number of viewers, Liz's book sold out and clips from the Hannity failed rescue of the wannabe king hit the airwaves, shifting the narrative from hand wringing to a full throated response from many who haven't been brave enough to speak up. I hope this continues.
A strange time indeed, when Liz Cheney is the voice of sanity and Democracy. But she is smart, and in this time, she is so right about so many things.
She has been a brave woman and I appreciate her willingness to stand fast against Trump and the majority of her party, but I really hope she doesn't make a third party run.
is it even do-able now? I think she's too smart to do something so stupid.
and I admire her as much as anybody. but I'd never actually VOTE for her.
Liz Cheney is a real patriot, I watched a lot of the 1/6 committee...the one Gym Jordan was afraid to respond to...another GOP coward.
And what was it LBJ said when he signed the Civil Rights Act... “I’ve just lost the south.”
(He signed it anyway.) 🇺🇸🇺🇸🗳
He added. "For a generation"
yeah, and he was wrong about that. it was forever. but who the fuck wants them?
Excellent! Just excellent, Lucian! I wouldn’t change one word. I want to just say that without a woman birthing these undignified white Christian nationalists, their asses wouldn’t exist! Time for women to shut their doors, if you know what I mean.
Lysistrata :-)
I had her in mind, definitely!
That was exactly what I was going say in reply Elizabeth 👍
:D
👋🏼
What dawned on me as I read this is that the Republican Party has become the party of NO: No to people of color, no to women, no to poor people, no to Native people, no to people with disabilities, no to lesbians and gay men, no to migrants, no no no no no. Thing is, NO is like brakes: they can stop forward motion, but they can't get you anywhere. And that, when it comes down to it, is why I believe that forward motion will win in the end, as long as we keep working to make it happen.
I just started a rejoinder to your 1619 reply, Susanna, then decided not to post it. But you've written one here yourself in odd parallel to what I scrapped, to wit:
"Yes but. Although we've been dragging anchor all this time and have gone aground at times, the drift has been away from the rocks. We've gone and are still going the right direction."
Yes indeed! And it's what we consider the "right direction" -- toward more inclusiveness, justice for *all*, more democracy -- that they're saying NO to. Or, as MLK said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." Former acting attorney general Sally Yates -- one of the earliest victims of the Trump administration -- quoted that in her Harvard Law commencement address that spring. Being reminded of it then gave me hope, along with remembering that the arc doesn't bend by itself.
Sally Yates was such a shero—what the heck has become of her? … Latest example of the one step forward-two steps back pattern: judge ok's a medically necessary abortion, Texas AG Darth Vadar hastily threatens to prosecute the designated MD for complying w/ the temporary court order. Darth has proven to be as far beyond accountability as P01135809—so far. My money's on the arc bending three steps forward anyway..
She's back at the Atlanta law firm King & Spalding, where she worked before joining the Justice Department. I didn't realize she was diagnosed with breast cancer right around the time she was testifying before Congress about Russian interference in elections. I just found this October 2021 story about her: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sally-yates-breast-cancer-russia-investigation/.
Thanks for the update. I knew she was from ATL and figured she had gone back home, but hadn’t heard about the cancer diagnosis. I hope she’s doing well.
Yates must have felt doubly cursed—the trump DoJ, then cancer. No wonder she retreated. Hope she's ok now. TY for info and link.
Exactly, but they don't stop there. No to truth, no to integrity, no to honor, no to compassion, no to scruples, no to having a backbone, and definitely no to standing strong in your principles and calling a fraud a fraud, if doing so might cost you your cushy, powerful job. They shrink in stature every day.
"The Emperor's New Clothes" keeps occurring to me, less because of the poor emperor parading in his skivvies and more because of the crowds who couldn't see it.
Sorry to lower the diction but I think of Republicans as the “Fuck You Party.”
That is probably the most accurate--if a bit vulgar--way to characterize the MAGA party repubbies that I have yet heard. And as for the vulgarity...?
Well, as a party they themselves are as vulgar (or worse) as anything I have ever heard. After all, their orange object of worship is probably the most vulgar creature to ever head up a political party--and his execrable example has given his cult base permission to emulate him.
Spot on
I realized this quite a few years ago when doing opposition research on a Republican candidate from my area. He had made a name for himself, but he never accomplished anything positive--everything he did was against something or stopping something.
Off the top of my head I can think of a few Republican candidates in my region to whom that applies!
a few days ago, Sidney Blumenthal had a nice piece in "The Guardian" in which he stated, quite convincingly, that the entire Contemporary Republican Party was one big "political" or "cultural" or "philosophical" Potemkin Village insofar as there's this "promise" that, after the TFF-promised "dictatorial" beginning, there's a "plan."
we know there's no such thing. I'm pretty sure THEY know there's no such thing, but I've learned by now NEVER to overestimate them; sometimes, we've all so painfully discovered, stupid is just stupid.
it just seemed like it would be easier to handle...
I like the Potemkin Village image -- gotta find Blumenthal's piece. For a while there I was comparing Trump to the Wizard of Oz, but Trump can't even put on a good show.
Stupid is just stupid, and lies are just lies. But I still have a hard time believing that people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Ron Johnson, James Comer, et al. ever got elected -- and re-elected -- to Congress. High school students in Model Congresses are more persuasive, and better prepared, than the real thing.
at least a couple of the names you mention are there because they're representing districts in which ANY Repug who runs is going to win.
Gerrymandering often helps. But the GOP bench is worse than shallow. My state, Massachusetts, historically likes Republican governors, and whether you agree with their politics or not, they're generally decent and competent. But the last one, Charlie Baker, decided against running for a third term, and political punditry suggested that part of the reason was that he might get primaried. The Republicans running for statewide office in fall 2022 ranged from mediocre to pathetic.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
The whining of white Christian males is a bit too much for me.I read a comment someone made earlier on something that I read earlier from Heather Cox Richardson’s “ Letters” (can’t remember the persons name)and it is this-the accusations from Rs are really confessions. I think a lot of this drama from white males is in the form of smokescreens designed to deflect attention away from the wrongs that they are doing and bringing attention to some false narrative.I look at them as predators.I am a white woman who has worked her whole life with my paycheck not being quite up to par with my male counterparts.I am not trying to be a cry baby here but it is past time that we in the minority catch up.I think the young people are going to save us.Lord knows, it will not be my Boomer generation who started out so glorifying with peace and love and then fizzled out(or was it sold out?).What happened to us?
I am one of your generation and I think there are more of us than maybe is visible. Those I know are working quietly behind the scenes without calling much attention to our efforts. We are today's underground...the resistance. Have hope!
Women, especially women over 50, have been the backbone of the resistance since Trump was elected. :-)
And, they will Blue Wave the anti- abortionists...BIGLY!
Thanks!I needed that.
A lot of us are right here on all of these different substack’s where we bump into each other. Sure some of us may have sold out because economically it made sense, but even among those who did, many found their way back through groups like the Lincoln Project. We are here, maybe not taking part in vast marches, but voting still and without fail. I know I just described myself, I am a man with flaws, who has made his share of mistakes, but I’m working very hard to put in corrections that will negate all of them. 🙏
We women are actually in the majority!
Women are not a minority!!! Gender Ratio in the United States in 2023 is 98.016 males per 100 females.
This is the speech that every Democrat, from Biden on down, should be giving every single day from now until next November.
Yes!!!
Very inspiring post. A true democracy is not based on skin color, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or any other identity. A true democracy values all its members and encourages participation of all citizens.
The U.S. has taken great strides toward being a true democracy that represents all, and, as you note, we’ve been working on redressing our nation’s original shortcomings and its original sins. We’re not there yet, but we’re continuing on the path. I’m hopeful that we can overcome the latest challenge of homegrown authoritarianism and move forward.
Thank you all your writings, and thank you especially for today’s post.
Very moved by these words, not only because I agree with your thesis Lucien but because it rises from a long view natural to you and your easy eloquence. And because I heard it stated very similarly only in imperfect English by an immigrant from a country where chaos caused him to seek a larger life.
It s about time we started letting them know there are more of us.
You're right, of course, but we as a nation have become a nation of sniveling cowards who play morality games with people who should expect better from us.
The stains of the past are still being washed out, and there are still some who refuse to acknowledge them at all.
They're the regressive party of our country-they're not always Republican, but they are always against women having rights to bodily autonomy, POC having voting rights, children having rights to not be slaves in a factory before they're 12, and other horrors.
They're the fans of the Civil War, who refuse to concede defeat then or in the Reconstruction, or even in the Civil rights movement.
They're the whiny bitches of our country personified in Congress, as in Mike Johnson and George Santos, who adore their leader Donald Trump for his ability to pin the blame of his crimes on everyone else.
Sure, we do outnumber them, but the media is not helping by fueling the fire with their slanted representations of Trump as the de facto winner of the race already.
That;'s called defeatism and it's a insidious disease. Trump loves it because it makes him powerful in the eyes of his followers-by calling out their racism, and hatred of the rest of us.
I'm tired of being called a snowflake lib for caring about other people. It would be great if the other side who hate everyone who isn't them would for once stop being such assholes and join the human race.
But as long as Trump is alive, they won't. We're going to have to fight our way through this shit once again..and again until the orange menace is finally defeated.
Because as the old saying goes, "Freedom isn't free" and Trump would like to take it away from us.
Thanks Lucian! Times are dark, things look bleak, and we all need a call to arms.
When this nightmare started, back in 2016, I thought Trump is a little man and America is too big for him. I've been starting to wonder if that's true. But it is, or by end of this struggle it will prove to be.
For white middle-class-and-up people, especially those of the straight and/or male persuasion, the nightmare might have started in 2016, but for many it was ongoing for decades before then -- and, in the case of people of color, pretty much since 1619.
It feels to me as if P01135890 is running his own shadow presidency as if he is still president in absentia off on Devil's Island (appropriate) or something. Every day, there he is along with Bannon, Cash Patel, Steven Miller et al on tv and radio just as if they are waiting to be reinstated. So sick of seeing all these clowns acting like they've been elected to something, they are nothing and nobody!! And I don't see why anyone is giving these insanes any air time!
How else would we be aware of their fascist plans?
Aye, there's the rub!
I quit another substack forum largely because of nonstop complaints that the media deliver news. The alternative? Suppress unwelcome news. No thanks.
Yes - I understand that point for sure! And I agree. I just get furious that they haven't been as marginalized as they deserve to be. I want them to be hoisted on their own petards and transparency is the only way, it's true. The more they blab, the scarier it gets. I guess I need a mental health day!!
Taking breaks from it is absolutely necessary. But print media are alarmed enough to take it on without both-sides pretense. Witness the much-publicized new issue of the Atlantic. Too bad the paywall will turn away readers who need the info most.
Yes and Hooray for the Atlantic. And really about time we get down to brass tacks with the situation.
Yep. He is a useless excuse for a human being. I saw by mistake a post from one of his supporters alleging he is playing 24 dimension chess while Biden is in “his basement.” We will run all over that crowd and when we get finished they’ll be happy Joe remains in office. It is time for all of them to sit down and STFU. Besides being dumber than a box of old hair, they are about as interesting.
A TFG supporter seriously thinks he's playing "24-dimension chess"? Wow, just wow. That's only because he is a stupid person's idea of a smart person. These people personify the Dunning-Kruger Effect. For a succinct and hilarious explanation, look up "John Cleese on stupidity" on YouTube. Back in 2017, in a nearby town, I saw this bumper sticker on a pickup truck, no less:
Does Your Trump Sticker Make You Feel Stupid Yet?
Love it!!!
Perfect 😂
Trump very likely couldn't even play a simple game of checkers without cheating, let alone have the ability to play a chess game in 24 dimensions. They are deluding themselves about Trump's abilities--they are making the huge mistake of believing his bullshittery and not looking at the meagre list of actual trumpian "accomplishments".
I think they can't tell the difference. I think a lot of Trump supporters do not have the ability to accurately gauge how limited his abilities are. You're familiar with the Dunning-Kruger Effect, I assume.
That stupid people have no idea just how much they don't know (in other words, stupid people don't realize just how stupid they are?)
Oh yes, very familiar.
You are quite correct in that many of the orange idjit's true believers do not have the chops to figure out how enormous are the deceptions that they being fed. They swallow all of his lies willingly--eagerly, even. In large part many thanks to Reagan and his embrace of neoliberalism and dismantling of governmental regulations, including the funding of public schools and the conservatives 'stealing' those dollars to fund their for-profit charter schools with their abbreviated curriculum and absent accreditation.
Exactly. Everything you said, T L.
As it is written, so mote it be.
I think Germany has done a much better job than America, and faster, of endeavoring to fix its mistakes; it did not take 100 years to adddress the nightmare of the Holocaust, and it is kept alive; talk about national guilt, but no students in Germany are allowed to forget it. Unlike here, where most young people never heard of it. What was done to Jews and other marginalized groups was never sidestepped, or allowed to fade. Which is all the more dire considering the appalling wave of anti-semitism that's been revealed in the US that did not begin at elite college campuses on Oct 8. Watching the president of MIT unable to hide her distaste for Jews is a moment not soon forgotten.
And I believe you are correct that Donnie Boy will not prevail and destroy our democracy, his autocratic ravings will be seen as pathetic, but he couldn't have made it this far without the white supremacy major dollars that have fueled his rise. He is too lazy, and stupid. And they have infiltrated all levels of government, most distressingly the judiciary. The Supreme Court is a sick joke. Congress is a circus; they are going to impeach Biden and waste everyone's time and money at the wrong time. He has left a legacy of untruth, violence, polarization that will not be stilled when he is put away (please). Nor will Blacks, or any lower classes, find equity; in fact, the middle class is a dream squashed under the imbalance of pay of CEOs, and how workers can no longer survive oon what they are paid. There is much to repair to find our way back to a solid democracy, and we can only hope the shitshow that will be 2024 finally causes people to begin to vote out the people standing in its way.