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The Germans have made more progress in one lifetime than American society seems to have made since the 1880s.

The Civil War went underground, it just became a Cold War. 35-40% of the US adores Trump because he says and does what they can’t. Racist, sexist and homophobic values right out there in public.

The reason they created the myth that they won the election is because four years of Trump is their dream come true, and they want to keep living the dream. They want to live in their racist and sexist and homophobic bubble as long as possible, and the Capitol Riot was their attack on the democratic egalitarian society that is leaving them behind. The Big Lie is wishful thinking: “Can’t we always live openly as racists and sexists? We didn’t lose the election. Racism and sexism forever!!”

White supremacy does not mean loving the KKK. White supremacy is every Republican and every Trump voter who wants males to have it better than females, whites to have it better than everybody else, and straights to have it better than non-straights. Every Trump voter is racist, sexist, anti-gay, or anti-Jew or some combination.

It’s ugly, but that’s the Civil War we are in. A “civil war” is a war in society. The old civil society versus the new civil society. Red versus blue. Trump versus the future. That is a civil war. That is OUR civil war.

A more nuanced statement about Trump voters and Republicans

All my life I’ve wondered what’s the difference between the two parties. Silly me, being an intellectual, I thought that there was some ideological distinction.

Conservatives like the word tradition. When you want to do marketing and commercial outreach to conservatives, you use words like “heritage,“ “tradition,“ and “history.“

Now I understand why.

They prefer to live in the past, in the days of the old social order, maybe not back to slavery, but certainly back to when whites and men and straights had most of the authority.

Nobody is going to agree if you call them a racist or a sexist or a homophobe. Those are dirty words.

However, what draws those people together is what Prince Harry calls their “unconscious bias.“ American conservatives by and large are not very self-aware. They are not aware of their unconscious biases. A person who is unconsciously biased towards whites and males and straights might not even admit it to themselves. So obviously they would be incapable of admitting it to anybody else.

Maybe it sounds harsh when I say “every Trump voter is racist, sexist, anti-gay or anti-Jew or a combination.”

But like it or not, that’s what the January 6 Trump Rioters and Republican senators and Republican congressman and congresswomen and your average country club conservatives have in common: they are all biased in favor of whites, males, straights, and Christians and against the other groups and classes. That includes all those sicko Q people.

And that’s why I said white supremacy does not necessarily mean having a favorable opinion of the KKK. That’s the lame excuse that closet racists and sexists and homophobes use to justify and cover up the fact that they are social lepers. If you have a problem with the team of Stacey Plaskett, Jamie Raskin (a Jew), Nancy Pelosi who is 3rd in line for the presidency behind Kamala who is 2nd in line, et al, it’s because you are racist and sexist even if you can’t see it.

You get uncomfortable with women in their power. You get uncomfortable with non-Christians and non-whites. You don’t have the guts or the integrity to admit it to yourself, so you just go along with the Republican crowd and find words that are (pseudo) politically correct. Using a word like “nasty“ to describe a black or Latina woman in her power telling you to shove your racism and sexism up your ass. Questioning our black President’s heritage. Telling non-white congresswomen to go back where they came from. etc etc

If you vote for the person who says all that, it’s because you agree. You’re too much of a stinking wimp to come right out in public and say those things yourself, but you admire the man who does.

The Christians who are on the wrong side of history, like Mike Pence, are over there because they are attached to the pre-1960s model of one man one woman + children everyone straight man-has-more-power outdated Hallmark Channel family model. He is just as white supremacist and misogynistic as the sewer rats from January 6, he just puts a glossy coat of paint over it.

After reading this long argument, please reflect. Please don’t say Trump is going to go away. Please stop hoping that this problem will disappear. Please don’t put your head in the sand. The Christians who are attached to the old family model are not going to disappear. Racism and sexism and misogyny and homophobia and anti-Semitism are not disappearing, even if they are being slowly replaced. Ignorant people are subject to those illnesses. Stupid people continue to choose to believe them and act on them. Get used to it.

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And without hesitancy or a divisive comment, President Biden approved Texas’ emergency declaration. How wonderfully refreshing.

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Shivering in Texas ...

I sit here in my frigid home in the Texas Hill Country cursing our stupid politicians from every era. We are now in our third consecutive day of rolling power outages, one hour of power, and, if lucky, one hour without power. The periods without power have frequently stretched to several hours. With temperatures in the single digits still, even when the sun is out nothing is melting ... yet. Texas is the only continental state in the country with its own power grid. This idiocy by Texas is to exclude Texas from any power-sharing agreements with other states while also avoiding federal regulation of its power grid. In the last two days, my Congressional Representative and both of my Senators have been kind enough to send me lying emails about their intention "to get to the bottom of how this happened." Apparently, they have yet to discover their own idiocy is behind this and the root cause. I have also informed my moronic Senator Ted Cruz who had the lack of grace to criticize California for its left-wing, liberal policies only this last summer when it had some rolling power outages that being without power to run air conditioners in the summer is far less disastrous than being without heat in the midst of a very bitter winter cold spell that is actually resulting in deaths.

To make matters even more interesting for us, our local water utility is also experiencing difficulty with both frozen lines and power shortages affecting their ability to pump water into holding tanks to supply water pressure. So no water coming from the tap either. And, then they issued a boil-water alert. Brilliant! So, even with no water from the tap, it would be impossible to boil any, because the electric stove has no power. So we are pretty much up the creek and short on paddles. We have taken to shoveling snow into large buckets and filling the bathtubs with snow to melt indoors to provide water for flushing toilets. Fortunately our supply of wine and scotch is holding up for the moment.

Oh, and roads and streets are impassable and closed due to 1 to 2 inches of ice cover and the word from the Texas Department of Transportation is they are "beyond treatment capabilities until the temperatures rise above freezing."

So we are enduring a special forces winter survival test thanks to our short-sighted politicians and utility infrastructure managers. But we can look on the bright side ... "at least we don't have to comply with those pesky federal power grid regulations," he said while grinding his chattering teeth.

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Well. I thought I was done with being an existential cry-baby. Not so much, it turns out.

Reading through all of this letter, I was in my head, absorbing facts and analysis. Scowling about Mega-mess Central, aka Texas. About the crap governing decisions that state has made over time that made it so vulnerable to freaky weather. Ghost of winters yet to come, all y'all!

Saw Bennie Thompson on MSNBC yesterday and cheered him on (in my head) when I read Heather's commentary about the law suit. Yay!

And then this:

"But what stood out was an exchange between the president and the mother of a young man with health issues who cannot get on a list in Wisconsin to get the coronavirus vaccine. Biden told the woman that he could make recommendations to the states, but the order in which they chose to administer the vaccine was up to them. 'But here’s what I’d like to do,' he continued. 'If you’re willing, I’ll stay around after this is over and maybe we can talk a few minutes and see if I can get you some help.”

Pow! Right brain took charge. And yes, Old Weepy One teared up again.

OMG, people. There's a competent, compassionate human being in the White House. "...If you're willing, I'll stay around after this is over..." said POTUS to an anguished woman. He saw her. He heard her. He cared. So, yeah...POW!

That is all.

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What was it some Texas politician said back in the 1970's when OPEC sent oil prices through the roof causing winter hardship in many northern states while folks in the Texas "awl bidness" got rich?

Oh, yeah, I remember now, "Let 'em freeze in the dark." (If Molly Ivins was still with us she'd be telling us all about it. I so miss her!)

It would be easy to send that sentiment right back to Texas except that the people who are hurting, and dying, probably didn't have much to say about Texas energy infrastructure. Maybe they will now.

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With the NAACP lawsuit on behalf of Rep. Bennie Thompson (and others expected to join it), there is also perhaps an unintended consequence/punishment in addition to the prospect of a financial award and paving the way for other lawsuits against the Trumpists. Sure the Republicans have no shame, but it's hard to imagine any "I am not a racist" racist not being a bit nervous about the optics of being accused of violating the Ku Klux Klan Act!

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Thank you Heather. I can sleep w a smile on my face tonight. Joe Biden lifts my heart. And your report on the legal processes going forward to unfund various perpetrators of Jan 6 is deeply relieving.

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Hello from the North Norfolk coast in England. I am new to your Letters from an American, and I am already hooked. Your letters remind me of the broadcast letters of the Late Alistair Cooke all those years ago. Thank you very much. I am enjoying them immensely (and learning a lot too!)

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“In the exchange, Americans saw a president who cared, and a government that finally, after its previous leaders had told them to get out of a terrible catastrophe on their own, responded to their needs.” This is perhaps the biggest difference between Biden and not just Trump, but his followers as well.

You repeatedly see state and local Republicans justifying their numerous failures by telling constituents it’s “your fault” if you freeze because the power grid fails or get sick because we ignored the pandemic. The party of personal responsibility takes no responsibility.

And, the sad part is that many in these red states have bought into this myth. They’ve been trained to passively accept incompetent and governmental failure as the only reality.

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An ERCOT rep on the noon news said it wasn’t financially feasible to winterize power plants since we have such a small occurrence of winter weather. The best explanation I heard for our power grid is that it’s like Uber but for energy. You pay for it on the spot but don’t know if the equipment is kept in good working order before you purchase the electricity and you don’t know if equipment is maintained after you get your power. And you get gouged when the need goes up. Like Uber! A small hotel along the side of the freeway was charging $900 a night during the panic to find heated places. Warming stations are empty. Frozen roads, pandemic, connected to housing homeless. No one’s buying it!

My son has been without power with his girlfriend and her two kids. Areas of my neighborhood have been out. My energy company sent me a text saying my energy use was up and please conserve. I’m like, it’s a winter storm with below zero temps!

Loving Biden! So grateful for his quick response! Hope!

Stay Safe!

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Have you noticed how assiduously the media has avoided the term climate crisis in all their reporting despite the record winter storm moving across America? We need to educate everyone and fast that despite record low temperatures in Texas and other places this is a result of global warming. Warmer means more energy in the atmosphere which means more intense storms happening with greater frequency. I'm here in central Texas and was without electricity for 5 hours today -- obviously rotating outages to manage the overload. 58 degrees inside my house which was OK under the blankets reading a book by candle light. It felt very weird -- the stress of the storm very obviously part of the climate crisis on top of the stress of the pandemic crisis of COVID-19. But, I'm resilient and the storm has moved on and the lowest temperatures are past.

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The lawsuit by the NAACP is brilliant! That is all I can say about it. And how refreshing it is to have a President with a shepherd leader heart and not a wolf seeking to devour all those around him. Believe me I know a wolf when I see one as I live in Kentucky and our current GOP led legislature is doing its best to take down our governor. And I will not dwell on the power seeking senators that represent my state. I am, however, writing to Adam Kinzinger to thank him for his support of impeachment and to let him know that not all the Christian community has been taken over by Trumpism. I am sure he knows this but a letter of support will not hurt.

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Biden is the right person for these times.

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It is fascinating to see history repeat itself in those three different ways; the KKK act, the hubris of self-regulating energy, and a President who cares about the people he is representing. Thanks for your insight and ability to draw the historical comparisons for where we are today.

I also appreciate the comments from other readers; the depth of thought and eloquence is refreshing and educational. This community helps to ease my mind after a rough day yesterday jousting with my RWNJ friends who absolutely deny that there is any racism in this country other than what was "foisted" on us by Barak Obama or that there is any such thing as white privilege.

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Thank you, Professor Richardson. Today’s Letter is hopeful - illustrating the efforts of Representative Thompson to hold the ex-president and his followers accountable, and by the example of Dan Woodfin speaking truth to Texas Governor Abbott about the true nature of their energy crisis.

But this morning I would like to highlight something you spoke about last night in your Politics Chat – and that is, your perspective on the Republican Party of today, which is really a radical mutation of the Republican party of Eisenhower, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln.

Specifically, you discussed the importance of having two (or perhaps more) viable parties in order for Democracy to function – two parties that both hold true to the principles enshrined in the Constitution. Your comments made a powerful impression, not least because in recent years the Republican Party has become something that I, and I expect others, react to almost instinctively with revulsion and distrust.

After listening to your chat, I happened upon a video interview in the Washington Post with Evan McMullin, who ran for President as an Independent in 2016. He has formed a new group called Stand Up Republic.

The statement of purpose that follows is taken from the group’s website:

“WHAT WE DO Through media and grassroots campaigns, we fight for accountable government, electoral reform, healthy media, and pluralistic society.”

In the interview, he said his group would work to unseat Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others who have demonstrated their radicalism and that if there was not a suitable Republican candidate in a race, he would support the Democrat – as he did in the 2020 election when he supported President Biden.

Mr. McMullin seems to be describing the Republican Party you discussed last night. I’ve only begun to dig into the details of his positions, but it was encouraging to see that serious people on the center-right (as he describes himself) are pushing back.

Sources:

https://standuprepublic.com/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2021/02/16/transfer-power-fracture-or-faction-future-republican-party-with-evan-mcmullin/

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It does warm the cockles of my heart when you know the leader of the country shows true compassion.

Texans are screaming foul at Governor Abbott and rightfully so. As I understand it, the Repubs in that state did not want to invest in Green Energy to build up their infrastructure. Guess they’ll be thinking twice about that now. We, in CA., know all about grid power as our main source comes from Pacific Gas and Electric. We have suffered from horrendous fires and smoke dangers for the past three years due to down power lines or equipment that hadn’t been properly maintained. It’s catastrophic when the country is fighting Covid and unemployment.

Guess Fake 45 went off on McConnell and Kinzinger. I have no love for McMurderer, however, I have some faith in Kinzinger. Sleep tight, Professor.

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