Martin Eden
Martin Eden's JournalWe are indeed in a war. To win it, we need allies.
The Democratic Party must not normalize or compromise with the fascists in our government.
But for each of us in our personal relationships, I offer this advice:
Don't burn bridges with family, friends, and associates.
They, along with everyone else (except perhaps the oligarchs) will be hurt by what's coming in the next four years. There will be opportunities to swing the pendulum back our way.
There is nothing to be gained by alienating potential allies. I've been very tempted to send an email to family members who voted for Trump, excoriating them for their stupidity. But that would help nothing, and ruin what once was and possibly could be again.
Many if not most Trump voters don't realize they voted against their own best interests, but they're going to find out. The hard way. I understand the desire to rub their faces in it.
Shall we ruin the holidays and formerly good relationships?
That would only bring more pain, and regrets.
Everything stems from his gigantic but fragile ego
He has the emotional maturity of a child, lashing out at anyone who opposed or criticised him. Wielding power gives him pleasure, especially when it makes not only specific people suffer but entire demographics he hates based on race and culture.
He is a sociopathic malignant narcissist whose cognitive capacity is degenerating with age, which is eating away at him on at least a subconscious level. This will increase his impulse for cruelty and spite. On top of that he is woefully ignorant of how government and the military function. His intent is not to serve or govern, but to rule like a mob boss -- but a real mob boss is more competent and subtle, serving his own interests without attracting attention.
He craves the attention and adulation that feed the insatiable need to keep filling the bottomless pit of his ego. If people are destroyed in the process, all the better. In his world, there are only winners and losers. He HAS to be perceived as the biggest winner, but his mental pathologies are such that he is more widely hated than loved. Deep down he knows this, and that increases his desire to make others suffer.
"Joe Biden stayed too long"
Among the reasons we lost that were within the control of Democrats, the BIGGEST was Joe Biden running for a 2nd term at the end of which he would be 86 years old.
Joe Biden deserves our thanks for his decades of public service, saving our democracy in 2020, and the accomplishments of his administration. But he should NOT have run again.
Kamala Harris also deserves our thanks for stepping up the way she did. I wasn't impressed with her as a candidate in 2020, but I grew to respect and admire her during the campaign that just ended. I think she could have done a better job extolling the success of the Biden economy, but overall she was brilliant.
But Kamala was not popular at all nationally, and she was not selected by Democratic voters as our nominee. I think we would have had a much greater chance in this election if there was an open primary with the next generation of Democratic leaders contending for the nomination, from which an election tested candidate with broader appeal would emerge.
We could not control post pandemic global inflation, or Russia invading Ukraine, or the war in Gaza, or the influence of rightwing propaganda thru talk radio, Fox News, OAN, Sinclair, X, TikTok, Russian Bots, etc.
But we could have had an open primary which may have produced a different result in the general election. Despite the wonderful Harris campaign, we know how that turned out.
And one More thing:
Merrick Garland should have had The Fascist Grifter's ass in prison before the primaries even started.
First of all, I know it's a huge assumption
Obviously, the text of my post addressed a scenario in which elections are still legitimate. Can you state with absolute certainty the death of democracy four years from now is a forgone conclusion?
I can't, so we have to prepare and strategize for two scenarios:
1. Winning elections four years from now, in which case we need millions of voters who cast their ballot for Trump in 2024. Given the margin in 2020, some of those same voters cast their ballot for Biden in that election. I have no doubt some also voted for Obama. What, exactly, is to be gained by alienating those voters.
2. Trump/Vance/Rethug grip on civic institutions and media has succeeded in turning the USA into something like Orban's Hungary. This is certainly a more bleak scenario. One thing in our favor is the stupidy and consequences of the policies Trump has promised to carry out. Tariffs will increase inflation. Retaliatory tariffs will spark trade wars. Jobs will be lost. Putting a large chunk of our low wage work force in concentration camps will further drive up prices. Recession will almost certainly result, probably a major one. Slashing public services, earned benefits, and healthcare will cause further hardship on those who can least afford it.
Tens of millions of Trump voters who were conned into believing the Biden economy was awful and Trump will be much better will be hit hard, very hard, by Trump/Vance/Rethug actions.
How many former friends, neighbors, and relatives you've known for years prior to the rise of Trumpism were always awful people who wished you harm?
Without a doubt, a sizeable chunk of the MAGA crowd are irredeemable deplorables too blind to recognize their own best interests. But their numbers are less than the margin of victory in the last election.
Our oppressors who actually hold the reins of power are gearing up to hoist themselves on their own petard, economically.
At which point, in any scenario, we (tje voting minority in 2024) will need all hands on deck to begin rebuilding our country into something better.
I assert their is nothing to be gained by venting our anger at former friends neighbors family members who we may have formerly regarded as normal decent human beings.
I believe it would be a terrible mistake to make them hate us to the point where they refuse to join the hands on deck necessary to pull America out of this nighter.
A great president once said "a house divided against itself cannot stand." That was true then, and it's true now.
In his first inauguration he appealed to the better angels of our nature, but a cataclysmic tragic war followed, ravaging our nation during 4 years of killing each other followed.
After the war ended, Abraham Lincoln wanted us to rebuild our nation "with malice towards none, charity for all."
His assassination did not change the truth and wisdom in his words.
I will embrace that truth, because embracing our bitterness and anger is likely to doom any effort to rebuild our nation.
Peace,
Martin
What, exactly, COULD have been done to hold GW Bush accountable?
Impeachment would have certainly failed in the Senate.
Hell, Bush was re-elected in 2004 AFTER no WMD were found in Iraq. Perhaps if Democratic leaders like John Kerry, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton had staunchly opposed the war before was launched, Kerry might have beat Bush in 2004. Instead, all three and many others in Oct 2004 voted for the Iraq War Resolution giving GW Bush authority to invade Iraq. The Democratic Party was complicit.
Obama took office 6 years after Bush invaded Iraq, so I'll ask the question again:
What, exactly, could Democrats have done to hold GW Bush accountable for his war crimes?
I believe Bush and others in his cabal deserved to be brought before The Hague, and sentenced to prison.
But I can't tell you how that would have been possible.
The consequences of another Trump presidency will have a much greater influence on those who voted for him...
Than any of us will have through kindness and gentle persuasion.
If the Dictator on Day One does what he promised, the economic consequences will hit both them and us hard. Very hard.
Tariffs will cause inflation to escalate beyond what they blame on Joe Biden.
The ensuing trade war will hurt our exports. Jobs will be lost.
Putting a huge chunk of our low wage workforce in concentration camps will drive up prices even more, and cause scarcities as vegetables rot in the fields with no one to pick them.
This will cause an economic recession, possibly a major one.
Slashing huge chunks of government services and benefits will hurt millions of people, including Trump voters.
Many will lose their health insurance or be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions.
More women will die for lack of urgent healthcare when pregnancies turn fatal.
For the time being, Trump voters will revel in the alternate universe constructed for them in the rightwing propaganda media landscape.
But REALITY doesn't reside there. It resides in the real world of natural consequences, cause and effect. They are going to be slapped in the face, hard.
And so will we, by the choice THEY made.
Shall we rub their faces in it, slapping our former friends and neighbors and family members with all the anxiety and grief and anger we'll build up over the next four years added to the Trumpism we've already endured?
No.
Not if we want to rebuild America into something better. A house divided against itself cannot stand. We need as many hands on deck as can be mustered. Unrepentant racists won't contribute to the effort, but many of our friends and neighbors and familiy members slapped hard in the face not by us but by Trump will feel the consequences and hopefully act in their own best interests -- which happily coincides with ours.
Our emotions right now want to lash out in anger. Calmer reflection with critical thought about what's necessary to rebuild America's great experiment in democracy will guide us to a more productive course of action.
Kareem Abdul Jabar is right.
Showing them some grace is in our own best interests.
He was a con man before he became a fascist. Now he's both.
Is his vile rhetoric calculated, pathological, or both?
Breaking all bounds and norms of civil discourse with streams of bald-faced lies and vulgar insults was a big part in gaining a huge cult of devoted followers who propelled him to the White House.
In the closing weeks of this campaign his rhetoric has grown even more vile, insulting a wider swath of the electorate.
Is that calculated to gain more support from undecided voters, or is it a manifestation of mental pathologies in the declining brain of a malignant narcissist sensing his impending defeat?
I think the latter is more likely.
Trump is an orange shit stain on the Republican Party -- a stench that will linger long after he's gone
They saw him for what he was, and tried to prevent him from crashing their party. Lindsay Graham called him a kook, unfit for office. Ted Cruz said Trump lies all the time.
But they all fell in line when he beat them at their own game by winning over the voters that rightwing propaganda had been indoctrinating for decades. The groundwork had been laid for a reality show con man unconstrained by norms, boundaries, or actual reality.
The Republican establishment had its opportunity in the 2nd impeachment trial to rid itself of this vile creature once and for all. Those who still had a shred of fealty to the US Constitution were horrified by the violent insurrection incited by Trump. McConnell and McCarthy both blamed him for the assault and desecration of our nation's Capitol.
But they lacked the courage to hold him accountable -- because they would then be held accountable by their voters who believed the lies of a stolen election and were still enthralled by their orange idol.
This will be the last election for the orange shit stain whose foul odor hangs over all of our country. Either he will be rejected next week or will die in office.
They forfeit their "People of conscience" moniker if their actions tip the balance for Trump's election
By their own actions they will have made things worse for Palestinians suffering in Gaza, and for the world.
That's not a matter of principle; it's a measure of stupidity.
Especially since the decisions were not in the hands of Kamala Harris. In terms of what she says during this election campaign, it's a no-win situation. She's not going to throw Joe Biden under the bus -- but if she did by saying we should have stopped sending bombs to Israel, the political backlash from Jewish groups and "terrorist sympathizer" rhetoric from R's would have have been more damaging.
I'm shocked -- shocked I tell you -- to learn there is political calculation going on in the Biden/Harris administration! Unfortunately, political reality must be taken into account in order to govern effectively and to win elections.
Does the AbandonHarris group think the disaster of a 2nd Trump term will shake things up so much that when the dust settles Palestinians will somehow be better off?
I don't think they've thought things through that far.
I understand the justifiable anger and grief at the horrible carnage being wrought upon civilians in Gaza with bombs made in the USA. As the numbers rose beyond 100, 200, 300 times the death toll of Oct 7, I concur witholding those bombs was the right thing to do.
But punishing Kamala Harris and helping to put a deranged fascist who hates Muslims back in office is the wrong thing to do.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely
Our nation's Founders had the wisdom to understand this aspect of human nature, which is why they created our Constitution with checks & balances and bestowed upon citizens the right to vote for their representatives in Congress.
Of course the Founders were not without flaws and had to make compromises to stitch our fledgling nation together. Long struggles were required before slavery was ended and women could vote, and fulfilling the highest ideals embodied in our Constitution is still a work in progress -- but it has proven more durable and successful in upholding the "inalienable rights" of The People than any other system of government.
It was indeed an uncertain experiment. Would George Washington rule as a king? He set the precedent by stepping down with a peaceful transfer of power, which every president thereafter has followed -- until Donald Trump in 2020.
Now the former president who attempted a coup seeks power again, with a much younger ambitious vice president who postulates the idea that a deliberate lie which illustrates a greater "truth" is justified.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.
Every idea, in practice, requeries context. Donald Trump's attempted coup and current quest for regaining power are both predicated on the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. All his other lies, big and small, are too numerous to list here.
The tangled web of deceit being further woven by JD Vance can only be the practice of those who believe (or need others to believe) that their ends are justified by any means.
The greater truth here is they reject one of the most sacred ideals in our Constitution -- informed consent of the governed. When the path to power is of necessity paved by deliberate lies, neither they nor their purported ends can be trusted.
Unless We The People see this clearly and vote accordingly, our great experiment in Constitutional government is very likely to end.
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Gender: MaleHometown: Chicagoland
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