I was in DC when I was young. Historical monuments and artefacts take on different meanings as you experience more in life. Witnessing the ebb and flow of government and the people who deem themselves worthy to serve us as public servants.
As for the Declaration of Independence, I can’t read it without feeling as if bolts of hypocritical lightning might strike me. Only a small percentage of adults have read the entirety of the document. Read it again if you have a few minutes and tell me that you don’t feel massive cognitive dissonance upon doing so. Regardless of your political affiliation, you will feel twinges of recognition in light of current events.
Most of us were taught that the document embodied the ideals of those who assembled around it. But then we independently learned about the struggles of women and minorities wanting their place at the table along the white men who kept a straight face while signing a document indicating that we are all equal.
Two and a half centuries later, we’re struggling with the consequences of corrupted capitalism, oligarchy, and white christian nationalism, all of which now boil in the crucible focused by someone who has no substantive interest in treating the Constitution as sacred.
It’s strange to me that as individuals we mostly want to be left alone, yet so quickly join forces with movements and groups that collectively seek to accentuate inequality and promote favoritism toward their particular cause.
I’m a liberal and as such, I relish the days when we actually return to following the concepts of the Constitution. That we stop saying words like equality if we are going to behave as if the term applies only to our cohort. If we continue down this road toward marginalization or reduction in freedoms while simultaneously imposing a particular religious viewpoint or worldview, it is a certainty how this great experiment will end.
Earlier today, someone shouted an old Spanish nickname of mine. It was an odd place to hear an old nickname. I remembered him immediately because he had the same smile, although it was hidden behind twenty additional years of hard-earned wrinkles. I will call him Sonrisa.
He told me he works with my old friend Carlos. After joking about the unlikelihood of Carlos working much and sharing a laugh, Sonrisa told me that Carlos was giving up on getting the citizenship that he had been promised for years. Both Carlos and Sonrisa are incredibly hard workers. Sonrisa told me a version of the same story I’ve been hearing repeatedly over the last few months: most of their cohort has given up on the United States being the promised land it once was.
They’ll probably return to El Salvador. It will be a loss for everyone. Not only are they hard workers, but they’re funny even in English.
They didn’t used to be prone to cynicism. Sonrisa remembered that I was one of the few gringos who actively stood out in the crowd in recognition of the contribution of Latinos.
He wasn’t surprised when I told him that there was not much hope in sight to feel respected as long as the current crowd of political idiots get their way.
I’m paraphrasing, but Sonrisa added, “You know he’s an idiot when he starts a fight with a friendly white country like Canada. I know if we go back to El Salvador we’ll experience similar authoritarian BS like we do here. But at least it won’t be based on prejudice.” He added, “I remember years ago when you said it was better for people to curse you directly to your face because then at least you knew who they were. We had a few great years here where the racists mostly kept to theirselves. We always knew it was there. But now? He gave them permission and gasoline to act openly.”
There’s no need to explain what people mean when they use the word ‘HE.”
I waved goodbye to Sonrisa and asked him to tell Carlos hello for me.
I silently hoped that 47 and the people who support him don’t get their way. But on the other hand, as always, a little part of me also hoped that they would continue to f*** around and find out.
Not only about the absence of a sufficient workforce to prop up our economy, but also the unavoidable consequences of believing that you can denigrate one group of people without harming the respect threshold for everyone else
Hate breeds hate, and distrust contaminates everyone.
There is no “them.” They are us and vice versa. You’ve simply avoided being targeted. Yet.
Authoritarians and those who believe they have the right of superiority are never content. Fear-mongering is an appetite that never lessens.
47 himself said any president who presides over a 1,000 point drop on the DOW should be impeached immediately. We owe it to a man of such high honor to be held accountable to his own words. Unless they were just one in a million examples of the fatuous bullsh*t he’ll say to dupe enough people to be king.
He’ll offer his hateful brand of politics at the State of the Union address. Countless people who know better but feel like they have no choice will line up behind him to defend the nonsense he manages to enunciate.
Meanwhile, the country is in disarray. It certainly was not perfect prior to the second coming of 47, but it was manageable and subject to the terms and conditions of rationality and sometimes broken cooperation.
The carnage he creates will continue. The water will grow hotter and he will continue to create divides among those of us who would otherwise disagree passionately but still proceed about the business of living our lives in this country.
Donald, as Justin Trudeau correctly named him today, will destabilize our government sufficiently to render it unrecognizable. Even to those who support him. He’s already managed to destroy decades of relationships with our allies. Mathematically speaking, two points are sufficient to draw an infinite line. Likewise, the arc and trajectory of what he’s doing can only end in one place.
I catch myself wishing he would just get it over with and succeed in his ultimate goal to destroy the history and authority of the government we’ve all enjoyed until this point. So that in this manner, we would have no choice but to turn our eyes towards survival instead of feeding our souls with the foolish hope that the people we elected will stand up and demand that the Constitution be followed and to tell him that no man has the authority to circumvent the political process.
If we continue on this course, 47 will be the last president of the United States as we know it.
Chicken Little no longer has the energy to run amok and squawk that the sky is falling.
For all his supporters, I hope you get what you wish and deserve in your choices. That this paragraph sounds like a warning should itself be a worthy indicator of what you’ve chosen.
People are discussing the complexity of the human capacity for collective evil. Whether one section of the population likes to acknowledge it or not, Germany’s example constantly pops up.
How can so many people stand by and watch the country descend into madness?
The best way to visualize this capacity is to watch the movie The Stanford Experiment. If you’re even slightly interested in the psychology of collective misbehavior, this is the easiest shortcut to benchmark how things go astray so deeply, even with intelligent and otherwise kind people.
The same effect applies to police, the military, or even people making decisions in business.
Anyone who’s never experienced the environment of a production line might not understand it. Each employee is present to earn a living and mostly do a good job. Those who own the production line want to profit while providing a living for those who work there. An interesting thing often happens, especially in poultry and similar industries.
The need for profit puts those in charge of the environment, the efficiency, and the speed of the production line often blurs the line of humanity by increasing the demands on those working it. It becomes hard to perform the job safely over time. People suffer the indignity of sometimes being able to exit the line long enough to take care of their basic bodily needs. For some, it becomes easier to dehumanize those who perform the jobs in order to be profitable and efficient.
The above can’t be explained to someone who hasn’t experienced it.
The same effect applies throughout our society. We justify less than a living wage, even though we know these jobs are necessary and that our collective decision to fail to pay sufficiently to live even a basic life is causing misery. All of this is based on economic concerns rather than the primary focus of human happiness and dignity. It is a them problem rather than an us problem.
We don’t provide universal health insurance, even though doing so would cost less than our current system. But this does not stop us from passively watching as millions of people suffer from a lack of health care or go bankrupt.
We put on our hats of authority and often forget the results of callousness. It’s our job, we think. Society apparently wants it to be that way, or we would have intervened to change it. We make decisions without consideration for how they impact people, or we are put in a position to be powerless to change things.
We marginalize certain groups. Over time, this gives us a silent yet undeniable tendency to view others as lesser. This justifies our collective behavior that often results in denigration or harm to the people in those groups.
My upbringing gave me an unholy understanding of the possibility of violence inside people. Even the pious in my family found ways to justify turning a blind eye toward what can only be called evil. Family who could observe a child being hurt and find ways in their minds, especially based on the societal norms around them, to fail to act to protect them, were they evil? Or were they just the product of their environment? Several of them held dear their holy books – and did not react well when I grew up and became confrontational about the disparity between their alleged message of love and kindness. That message had justified their deliberate choice to do nothing.
People in history are no different from us, even if we want to think they were. This gives us a pass and carte blanche to continue to behave inhumanely, even if we are technically just doing our job or fulfilling our role as citizens.
I’m not Chicken Little, nor am I crying wolf. The wolf that some of you chose has eaten the chicken and now sits in our living room.
You’re wasting time focusing on daily firings, closings, and executive orders. One of his latest orders indicating that he and the attorney general are the sole arbiters of the law and its application needs no further examination to see how dangerous he is to the concept of democracy and governance.
He and his people have said the goal out loud – and I don’t understand why you’re not acknowledging it.
The federal government is being systematically dismantled.
What will take its place?
Several labels are applicable. Each with Trump in charge, absent accountability, court review, or congressional oversight. This sort of governance is never benign, nor is it accountable to or concerned with the will of its populace.
Your right to religious freedom will be upheld only if it aligns with the predominant one – and only if it’s convenient. They’ve repeatedly told us that the government must be deleted and replaced with political religion. (Their description – not mine.)
Civil rights? Gone. Workplace rights:? Vanished. Freedom of Speech? Eliminated.
You don’t have to guess whether I’m right. Our closest allies are saying it unilaterally. I consume a mountain of foreign news. Every country which stood with us is ringing the bell of alarm.
All the people driving these changes are saying it out loud.
It can happen here. And it is.
There will be no safeguards, protections, or system to stop him.
The only solution is to do as much as possible to remove Trump from office by any legal means available. Sometime in the future, a warning post like this will be deemed treasonous, even though my intent is to preserve our democracy, as flawed as it may be.
Anything short of legally removing him from office is a waste of time and effort. Even his removal will inevitably result in a rift that might still break our union. Continuing on this current path certainly will.
I held out judgment. Not long ago, it crystallized.
Courts can’t stop him. Congress won’t.
The Presidency isn’t about one man.
It’s about our collective system of laws. They mean nothing with someone like Trump in charge.
Those who support him will read this and think I’ve lost my mind. That’s expected. They mostly ingest the superficial explanation for what’s happening. The rest do like most of us and ignore politics.
I am not reading between the lines. His people have said the quiet part out loud, and the incremental dissolution of our federal government as we know it can only be explained through the alignment of their stated goals and the daily reality of what is happening.
When our democracy fails, I will fall silent, as people must do once safeguards and the checks and balances of presidential power have fallen.
I’ll be the obedient and angry citizen of whatever comes next.
It is the office itself that yields the honor and respect, rather than the person temporarily assuming its duties.
The expectation of someone behaving in a presidential manner is one that’s been shattered. For some, this is a welcome change. For others, it’s a chaotic and devastating reality.
We have demonstratively proven that anyone can become president.
Growing up most of us were superficially exposed to the civil war. Almost all we learned was of dates and places and broad themes. We did not then viscerally understand how a nation could become so irreparably shattered.
We go about our lives because that’s what we can do.
Regardless of your political affiliation, those of us paying attention now unfortunately feel it in our bones. Whether you’re excited about the upheaval recently brought to Washington or you’re onvinced that our government is in jeopardy, I don’t think people will generally deny that this is something much different.
We are united on paper much in the same way that Jefferson’s hollow words about all men being equal applied only to white wealthy men.
The intelligent people I trust are saying the same thing. Countries who were once allies are unilaterally warning one another and the world. People have shouted that the sky is falling and cried wolf before. It feels different this time because it is.
This isn’t Clinton refusing to resign even though he should have. Or Bush demonstrating incompetence.
I will be surprised if the end of February has not brought us to cataclysm.
People need stability, as does the economy, and society in general.
The struggle through the generations to create a reality in which all people, regardless of belief, religion, skin color, or their sexual identity could coexist in peace now resembles a dystopian fantasy.
Power and progress are both unstable. The problem with authority and authoritarianism is that they both fall into chaos.
Chaos is inevitable. Entropy governs the universe.
Those who currently seek to redefine America will learn the lesson.
The Social Security income threshold is about $176,000. In simpler terms, no income above this amount is subject to Social Security taxes. Anyone fretting about the future of available funds should take note of the billions of dollars we could raise by removing the cap entirely. That there is a threshold cap is one of those things that most people paying into Social Security don’t know about. For most of the people I know, this means you’re paying 6.2% of your total income, compared to those who make a staggering amount more. You’re paying 6.2% of every dollar you earn while the wealthier contributors are not. And of course since I recognize that no system is without complexity, there are issues inherent in raising the threshold. {Such as dropping the additional burden on the employer.} I have this weird feeling that if the average person had this explained to them one on one, their attitudes about the lack of equity regarding Social Security pay-ins would be quite different.
Francisco looked at me before he ran. Had he not, the immigration officials never would have looked twice. He came back to work later under another name. When he came to the United States, he worked hard. He rode a bicycle everywhere. I learned a lot of culture and language from Francisco.
After he ran, I went to the back docks were immigration officials were zip-tying people I knew in a refrigerated trailer. I had left my identification in my locker and diligently tried to be detained with the rest of my coworkers. I demanded in Spanish that the people I knew be moved out of the cold trailer. I refused to identify myself or provide identification. While I was not eloquent, I had to remind immigration that these were people being needlessly scared and put in discomfort for no reason.
I watched some of the agents half-heartedly perform their duties. They knew that the problem wasn’t the immigrants. It was the system and companies that relied on their labor. There were also agents who relished doing their jobs.
Later, I looked out at the back acres adjacent to Bethel Heights. At the work smocks hanging from the fence, left there by human beings fleeing.
It’s impossible to describe the people who didn’t experience it. Or to those who don’t speak the language and understand the need and drive to have a better life.
What a f mess.
I forget these experiences until I am required to remember. Every person rounded up or diminished by political grandstanding is still a person. And needed by the demands of our economy.
I did countless interviews and I-9 forms. The law required me to take a cursory look at identification prior to employment. If their identification was rectangular, it was good enough for me. Because anyone who wanted a job could have one. We constantly had unlimited positions available.
As immigrants become targeted, you can of course nod or applaud. But in so doing, you’re ignoring the bigger problem of economic necessity. Removing workers is a harsh solution that does not address the shadow economy or why we need so many additional workers.
Each time I see raids, I see Francisco. He was a hard-working man brought here by the fact that countless companies need workers. I think of that look of desperation on his face as he stood there zip-tied, knowing he faced a trip to Brownsville.
The raids were pointless. One man came to work with his suitcase. Instead of fleeing from immigration, he came to work ready for a free trip back to Mexico. He understood the economic reality that a job would be waiting for him when he came back across the border. And that it would likely always be this way.
Raids don’t address the problem.
They amplify it.
Companies who need labor anywhere they can get it will continue to do so.
Even if only 10% of undocumented immigrants disappear, it will have a devastating impact to our economy. Even if you’re unconcerned about the fact that these are people just like us, you probably won’t consider it to be an issue until prices rise and the reality of your choices results in discomfort for you.
We are not a nation of laws. We’re a nation of economics. Current events consistently prove this to be true.
You’re wrong. It should be written this way: “Innocent people DIDN’T need a pardon.”
When a convicted felon with a penchant for felonious misconduct threatens you, you protect the innocent ones around you. Doubly so if the felon in question actively attempted to violently overthrow the government – and proceed to threaten anyone trying to hold him accountable.
Trump is the embodiment of what’s wrong with politics. He’s broken so many of the expectations and requirements of a President.
He’s the only president who wanted to pardon himself.
But I digress.
Using the logic of the above quote, Trump pardoned 1600+ people. If “innocent people don’t need a pardon,” it follows that these 1600+ people were guilty. Anyone citing the quote suffers from massive cognitive dissonance.
You can’t have it both ways.
Let’s not forget that 47 insists that the Central Park 5 were guilty, even after DNA and a confession freed them. Trump wanted them to be executed. They are suing him for defamation; Trump tells so many lies that it’s hard to hold him accountable for it. These same lies and disinformation erode our collective confidence in our government. It benefits him, but we will suffer the consequences long after he’s gone from the world stage.
Trump himself declares that he’s always innocent. Even though juries, grand juries, and judges said otherwise. Afterward, he argues that although he’s guilty, it was protected behavior.
Trump is a convicted felon with a long history of fraud, bankruptcies, and legal issues – not to mention the issue of sexual misbehavior.
In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined that people would look to him for moral guidance, much less directions to Walmart. That the Bibles he touches don’t burst into flames is sufficient evidence that God is no interventionist.
I don’t have a problem with a convicted felon holding office, as shocking as that may be for some people. I believe felons should retain the right to vote. Even Trump. I do have a serious problem with so many overlooking Trump’s ridiculously long list of misdeeds, both personal and political.
He is an embarrassment and a literal threat to our system of governance.
Assuming our democracy survives this experiment with lunacy, history will not be kind to those who enabled it.
I would ask anyone who agrees with me to raise their hands, but Elon ruined that gesture for all of us.
Innocent people do need preemptive pardons. It’s not been a necessity prior to the arrival of 47.
I’m shaking my head at people defending salutes, insurrection, and rebukes toward people such as Reverend Mariann Budde. She spoke the essence of the message Christians claim to follow. When adorational politics lead people to demonize spiritual voices such as hers, the warning bells should be sounding universally.
Trump is a masterful showman and has played multiple groups to rise to power, none more so that Evangelicals and the lower class.
He’s not a ‘good’ person or one I look to for insight, inspiration, or authority. The bulk of his words reek of threats, bullying, and authoritarianism. It’s particularly telling that he rarely displays a positive attitude, acknowledges his own mistakes, and seeks to use political power to insult, harm, or threaten those who don’t agree with his words or behavior.
That he’s my President is beyond my control.
I, of course, hope that our deomcracy can erase this craziness at some point. I didn’t put in my quarters for this circus.
Our government runs at all is due to power being disbursed among the branches and entities of government. While the system is corrupt, it used to protect us from any group or person from subverting the collective mess of groups and interests within it. Trump has broken this compact we share among ourselves.
Trump is the four-year root canal surgery that the rest of us must endure.
The FAFO stage will affect all of us.
I legitimately have a concern that the Gulf of Mexico won’t be the last large part of our current United States to have a new name.
I’m a big believer in expressing myself directly. If I share a meme, I made it. Disinformation converts my brain to cottage cheese. Ad hominem attacks or personal derision, especially on social media, is not my cup of tea. It convinces no one and just bounces around in the echo chambers of the people who follow such content. I’m not sharing my thoughts because I expect anyone’s opinion to change. I’m sharing them because it exposes the things I believe and the frustration I see all around me.
It’s interesting that when most of us grew up, family members would warn us not to hang out with people who misbehaved. They would admonish us that it invited danger. And that people would judge us based on the people around us. Personally, this isn’t true in my case. My parents and some of the people they associated with tended to be the actual bad example I’ve struggled to unlearn my entire life.
Being in a group of people in no way automatically defines you. If you are in a crowd of people and all of them have a top hat on except you, people will assume you forgot your hat, not that you’re the odd man out.
This is one of the things that people struggle with regarding their family and friends. You might be kind. You might be open to diversity. Your views on sexual identity might be universal.
If you are under an orange flag, the tendency to fairly or unfairly attribute affiliation with those holding the orange flag increases.
It’s why people who might normally otherwise vote Republican usually react with silence when they watch Mr. Orange. He is the embodiment of what’s wrong with living a good life and suitability for the office of president. He did not serve as a beacon of reason and inclusiveness. Objective observers can only conclude that he oafishly and cleverly co-opted a specific brand of religion while simultaneously hijacking a political party to gain office. Politics and religion don’t mix well precisely because such systems invariably become autocratic and blur the line that is required for large groups of competing ideas and interests to coexist. Religion is personal and should not be favored or codified into our law. If you think otherwise, I’ll wager your opinion will shift if you find yourself in a particular religious group that loses favor to another.
Politics is never a question of intelligence. There are extraordinary intellects along the entire spectrum of politics. The same is true for those who succumb to the allure of tribalism with their respective ideologies, parties, and candidates. It is supremely difficult to argue someone out of a position they did not argue themselves into. One of the basic truths is that overwhelmingly people choose an idea and then avidly search for evidence to support it. Once entrenched, it is miraculous that someone will fundamentally shift their ideologies.
Fair or not, some watch their family and friends avidly support someone who has proven that he is not a man of character in his personal life. Sometimes, we draw erroneous conclusions. You might be a fan of disruption or economic issues. There could be myriad reasons for you to support such a candidate. But we can’t shy away from the fact that people around you are recoiling. They recoil because voting for such a candidate is a package deal. In his case, you can’t separate the consequences of your choice, regardless of the main reason he will be getting your vote. By endorsing him for a particular reason, you’re also dragging the rest of his damaging type of politics into power.
The problem comes because Mr Orange marginalizes and demeans groups. They just want to live their lives without interference. When we see support for a person demeaning us, our interests, or the people we are close to, some of us cannot find the right words to explain to his supporters that they are inadvertently or purposefully endorsing some of his ideas. Mr. Orange is a failed businessman who doesn’t attempt to conceal his contempt and prejudice. Bullies empower other bullies.
Good people don’t want to attack those around them. But so many wince in silence because they are personally insulted by your endorsement of such a candidate. Good people also eventually stand up. Part of the reason is that people they love or respect are being harmed or marginalized. The other realization is that if we remain silent long enough, it could easily be us in the bullseye in the future.
Things that people explain away as “just politics” aren’t politics at all. Politics is running the government efficiently with core principles. We all get an equal voice regarding the collective rules we are supposed to live by. Prejudice and discrimination of any kind are among the things which have no place in politics. Furthering the interests of a particular group in such a manner that they receive special privilege through law counters one of our most basic principles.
It’s not my job to ridicule Mr. Orange. His record of fraud, coercion of women, and obvious attempts to avoid accountability for his actions speak louder than any condemnation I could utter. Even absent all the other behaviors in his business and personal life, he actively encouraged literal insurrection after the last election.
And of course, we wouldn’t be dealing with him if our antiquated system of presidential selection wasn’t based on an anachronism resulting from the power struggle of those who wanted to preserve slavery. A popular vote such as that which governs every other candidacy historically would have resulted in several different presidents in the last few decades. The Constitution is a living document, one which is supposed to embody our collective goals and ideas. Abusing one of the branches of government in such a way as to skew the balance of the separate branches will lead to ruin because people will lose even more faith in the fair process of elections and decision-making.
It is a shame that we do not have several political parties. Or even none. That the best idea and plan will overcome, but all of us know that this is a daydream. People across the spectrum, unfortunately, strive to exert power when they should instead focus on governance for the collective mismatch of people and groups that we are.
In so many ways, we are still that same nation of divided priorities. And we always will be. One thing we could count on was that even though we were not happy about the person occupying the presidency, we at least maintained the illusion that they were qualified for the office. That any party would put forward a convicted felon for a race in which said candidate could not even legally vote, we have a serious problem. I’m conflicted because I have believed for years that a felony record should not take away your essential right to vote. Fomenting rebellion or insurrection to destabilize a government or overturn an election is one of the unforgivable acts of a citizen.
The premise of this post was supposed to be a reminder that the candidate you enthusiastically endorse also comes with the perceived reputation and behavior to whom it is attached. Your alliance with particularly pernicious candidates comes with a raised eyebrow and a profound feeling of disappointment. Each time your candidate disparages women, minorities, and people of different religious groups, people are watching, expecting you to acknowledge that some people are a danger to democracy.
I don’t say these things because I question your intelligence.
I say them because some supporters say they don’t understand why they are arguing with their loved ones over politics. These are not political arguments. They are attacks not only on people but also on our entire process.
When you encourage authoritarianism, you place yourself in the future invisible line of being the target and losing freedoms that you take for granted. Each country that has succumbed to it couldn’t fathom that it could happen to them. The riots of January 6th should have been an obvious wake-up call that a certain faction of our citizenry was willing to upend the entire political process.
Joe Biden stepped aside because it was the best thing to do to further his political ideology. Who among us could imagine Mr. Orange swallowing his ego to further his political party’s goals? A party is not one person and a single party is not a government. We require competing and conflicting interests to maintain balance.
As damaged and erratic as the process sometimes is, you need to stop and realize that the entire system was constructed with checks and balances to prevent the subversion of the goal of collective politics.
Mr. Orange co-opted religion, a party, and populism.
We’d be wise to be done with him so that the Republican party of old might regain its stability and reason.
P.S. Parenthetically Speaking 