Thank you for having the stomach for Trump's antics. I have barely been able to listen to a Republican president since Reagan openly expressed his disdain for those dying of AIDS by blaming them for the situation in which they found themselves: often alone, abandoned by judgmental families and scared friends, with only medical staff accompanying them on their death beds.
There is so much about our situation that reminds me of the beginning of the AIDS crisis, despite the fact that the virus that causes COVID is affecting even "decent men and women", to recall one of Reagan's favorite phrases for voicing a deeply exclusionary vision for this country. That this vision has become narrower and narrower, to the point where only those who can be pulled into the cruel alternative reality of a sadistic con man, does not surprise me nearly as much as it does many other white folks my age.
But in Trump I see and hear only a repetition and intensification of a dominant culture that has been brutal and self-aggrandizing from the time it set foot on this continent, assuming that divine providence had given it the power and authority to brush aside the claims of those who already lived here. The "empty wilderness", just waiting for the hand of European men to bring it under civilized order, is no less a fanciful narrative than any that Trump has cooked up: it was a cruel fiction into which many well-intentioned people enthusiastically threw themselves and took up their parts as tamers of wild lands and peoples. The ruthlessness of the ensuing drama is the other half of our original sin as a country, and the necessary counterpart of slavery in nation-building.
And now we who descend from colonialists and settlers are finally beginning to understand what it means to live under this kind of arrogance and arbitrary rejection of the complexity of life on earth. It occurred to me last week that Trump's aptitude for twisting reality to the point that many of us are left nearly paralyzed with anxiety about what might happen next is just another echo of the interpersonal abuse that is rampant in our culture, and that the only way to neutralize this kind of violence is to step out of the narrative and find a way not to be pulled into its immobilizing spell of extreme uncertainty.
Which is no easy feat for anyone who is living under domestic violence or familial abuse, but is at least somewhat easier if the person who would control our reality is on the opposite coast and has no access to us that we do not ourselves grant him. And so I decided to kick him out of my head and let the events tell me how I needed to respond as they unfolded.
Which is why one reason why I thank you for taking on the task of reassembling the narrative for your readers. I know I am not the only survivor of abuse watching in horror as this man attempts to pull an entire nation into his psychodrama; we have been rehearsing this moment all our lives. And I am certainly not alone in belonging to a number of groups that he and many other conservatives have repeatedly targeted as being deserving of quite nearly nothing that sustains life, but plenty that beats it out of us, sometimes quickly (as though merciful!), and sometimes as one tiny slice of flesh, over and over and over and over.
I have begun to think a bit more about the possible cultural links between a deniable--and usually denied--proclivity for private, familial abuse and a potential for publicly embraced fascism. I have often wondered what it would take for the US to begin to understand what Europe was forced to come to grips with after World War II: that white culture is not exceptional, that it is capable of and has already committed grotesque violence in a number of founding political and even philosophical gestures, and that it will destroy itself if it does not recognize the realities underwriting its current existence.
If this seems a rather dark vision and a sobering way of registering my gratitude, it is only because I see this moment as a moment in which we may have begun to turn around, but it seems glaringly clear to me that we must keep walking in some other direction than the one that brought us here. Otherwise we will be back much sooner than many might expect. That the vote has been closer than many of us were hoping seems to me a good thing, for even if we are able to get this one example of USian fascist domination out of the executive office, it seems clear that we have much more work to do to cure ourselves of ills that allowed him to gain that office to begin with.
Perhaps later on I can say more about what it seems to me we have to do. It is far from simple or even all that clear to me, but certain parts of Euro-American culture have long been placed into critical questioning by those of us who think about such things. One difficult part is disappointing the faith of so many who still think of the US as the shining city on the hill. And there are many and much deeper faiths that I doubt will be even as easy to address as that one.
But later for that. As a disabled academic, I am in fact deeply grateful to you for doing this work that I myself only wish I had the energy for. When this is over (will we know when it is over..? Maybe when there is a lull?), please do take a nice long refreshing rest. One thing we USians often forget is that caretaking is essential: for ourselves, yes, but also as a service to each other.
Whoever you are, this is really helpful. Not that I would have been able to write so brilliantly in a million years, but it’s what I’ve been edging toward. It’s a galvanizing moment when all sorts of national fictions have been blown away from my eyes. The hard work lies ahead, but real change may now be possible.
Love that you feel so comfortable with this group to express your heartfelt thoughts which, by the way, have helped all of us. And the fact that an adorable kittie is your avatar says everything to us cat lovers!
The picture is perfect - as was the entire comment. How "sad" is it that its such a gift to read these "Letters" AND the comments to them - intelligent, unbiased comments - not like some sites that start out with news & end up with shouting (in writing) at each other. I think there has to come a time - dont know how - that people on different "sides" can actually talk TO each other rather than AT each other - when? Or how? That part I dont know!
We have to see each other as "people," not enemies. Try to understand their points of view, their concerns. Former Ohio Governor John Kasich made that point yesterday morning on CNN.
I came here this morning, as always, for Heather (and, as long as she writes, I will always come back)...but Erik. You have managed to put on the ethereal glowing "paper" a cogent narrative of the jumbled thoughts in my head. Do, please - continue.
Thank you, Erik, for describing so well the ever more evident stain(s) from our colonial and post-colonial past. Now that the systemic wrongs have been made so much more visible to all of us — and not only those who have suffered from them from the beginning of this national enterprise — it’s clear that we must change. We can’t go backwards to right those wrongs, and going the way of the conservative-right/authoritarian crowd (beheading? Really?!?) is absolutely the wrong direction. Somehow we need to make a more perfect union, one that includes everyone, preserves the earth, air, and water that sustain us, and expands rather than contracts the possibilities for decency, humanity, generosity, and compassion in our society.
Thank you all for reading and responding. I am always working on speaking up more often and I do appreciate that there are many who would like to be able to express what I have learned to express over the course of recovering from trauma (sort of--it's not really a process that ever ends as it is a retraining of neurological circuits to be a little less reactive, a little less prone to panic, a little more disposed to compassion for oneself).
And language only gets one so far, but it can do remarkable things nonetheless. Still, I was planning on making music today, so that is what I am going to do now. I haven't found substack to be the most conducive to long conversations, but I will try to respond more a little later on.
Making music is a great place to go at this point - I'm not a music "maker" but listening certainly does take us all to a different place! Your "speaking up" adds much to these conversations.
Brilliant, Erik. Thank you. I think often about the resilience of the African American community, who have kept pushing and pushing and not given up, and also not lost love for our country. It looks to me like they have, once again, pulled us back from the brink. We MUST address inequity, and do it now, if only in gratitude.
Kathy, what a beautiful, gracious way of expressing what black and brown people have given us. Yes, in gratitude. Thank you- another window just opened in my mind.
Well said, sir. America is great; but until we learn that we are not exceptional, and that humility is often the truest sign of greatness, we will remain what we have always been, too often, a brutal and self-aggrandizing culture.
Thank you for writing this. Relatively few people have seen abuse before. The 2016 Republican opponents who turned into respectful worshippers are shining examples of what bullying does. The media — all media— were fascinated by the bad boy and never headlined the fact that voter turnout was abysmally low in the primaries. If Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz had stopped his creepy stalking in the second Clinton “debate,” would he have apologized? He has never said I am sorry to my knowledge. There is a community standard of behavior, call it the Golden Rule, he Ignores. But we cannot play coulda-shoulda-woulda right now. If🤞🏼🙏🏼 he loses, what then? He has militia and an unbelievable number of supporters. He is early Hitler.
Such sly self-deprecation. But remember, a little goes a long way.
You don’t want to become like those in Shia Islam, where self-flagellation is considered an important spiritual virtue. I think it demeans that beautiful Faith.
I say this because I sometimes fall victim to excessive put-downs of self. We are noble beings, if we would just recognize that and live life to its fullest.
I’ll work on it if you will.
P.S. I somehow missed most of this day’s letters and am just getting back to them. Stay well and stay joyous!
Erik, I read this post, and then read it again. It moved me, but I could not respond just then. Needed to physically move to free my mind to think, so I set your essay aside, went out and moved another little bit of my woodpile into the barn (this is how I do everything these days- a bit at a time until it's done). Now I am back. Read again, cherished the beauty of your writing, remarkable for it's rich succinctness. What I wish I could do is sit down with you face to face and just talk, find the links in our thinking. I looked you up to see what else you might have written and discovered some beautiful, delicate fragments. Through those fragments I learned a little about you, and how you came to be where you are. Not only is your writing remarkable, so are you.
I agree with you that the closeness of the vote is a good thing (wrote about it elsewhere). Otherwise, I'm afraid we will become either complacent and think we have dealt with the underlying problem. Or allow our exhaustion to overtake our ability to see it as it is. As you described it: "... we have much more work to do to cure ourselves of ills that allowed him to gain that office to begin with."
Many, many of us are refusing to allow ourselves to fall into that trap. We are taking a few days or weeks to recover, but we have already begun the process of reclaiming our democracy. I too am a disabled semi-academic and elderly to boot, but I've found a welcome in several organizations who welcome the skills I can bring, and I am at home. I expect to spend the rest of my life on this, and to pass it on to the young people with whom I am associated. I celebrate this. Nothing is altogether clear to me either, except that we have to make clear that we are all citizens, and it is we who make the decisions. Then we figure out which things are getting in the way and how to fix them. Together, inclusively. We just proved that our system WORKS! And that even in the midst of what seems like chaos, we see progress as more black and brown and indigenous and gender-non-conforming people have been elected by their peers, who are all of us. Even the votes against them is part of this amazing process, because the fact that those votes were cast means that those folks believe in the validity of our system too. We must honor them for that, I think, because someday we may be voting together with them as allies.
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and observations. We are of like mind, and your words affirm me, and all of us who've refused to give up. Please post more as you can. You help open my mind to new ways of thinking.
Annie. You, too, are a gifted writer and your thoughts and probing questions are pearls that we all can admire and gain humanity from.
Your are a clear and independent thinker and your musings offer this not-so-little community valuable perspectives on life and living. Together we form a composite of the progressive thought of the day.
I apparently missed most of this day’s responses to HCR’s Letter, so I’m just catching up. I look forward to your contributions daily. Please don’t disappoint me.
I have begun reading the tome The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan in hope of getting a different perspective on World History. His preface quotes Eric Wolf about the lazy history that starts with ancient Greece and moves west completely ignoring a large part of the world. I'm hoping for an interesting & educational read because we have such a slanted view. I believe we have to know ourselves before we can make meaningful change. It sounds like you are already on that path, Erik.
One of the best pieces of writing that I have ever read in this forum. Sir, your deft treatment of the tortured conscience and self immolations of USians (as you put it) living one part of our lives to fulfill the mission of The Manifest Destiny and yet reject with the other half its very existence at all, is worth a full book in my opinion.
Bravo, Erik. Thank you for putting your words out here. Many hands make light work. And many words make thoughts and vision more clear. Well done, sir.
Heather - You encapsulated so well this morning the pitiful President we have endured for the last four years. As a licensed clinical psychologist in Massachusetts for 40 years now, I regret that our media does not call Trump out for what he is – a mentally ill person who continues to show us how utterly delusional and dangerous his rants have become. Last night, he went to a whole new level that approached a full blown psychosis.
But even more striking to me in this election has been to face the reality that over 69 million Americans voted for him. As Nicholas Kristof in the NYT yesterday said, "How is it that so many millions of Americans watched Trump for four years, suffered the pain of his bungling of Covid-19, listened to his stream of lies, observed his attacks on American institutions — and then voted for him in greater numbers than before?"
What has taken place in this country with Trump and Trumpism has so stained America's Experiment in Democracy, that I find myself feeling hopeless and traumatized about our future and recovery . . . .
Indeed! Where is people’s moral outrage over the things this president has done? But we can’t forget, even with some states still counting, Biden’s winning the largest popular vote in history. The EC MUST be reconsidered.
Racism and sexism are both powerful goads to people who see their own troubles not as part of a community of the also-struggling but as the result of "others" getting what they "deserve." White fragility is real. And toxic masculinity (which can drive some BIPOC males and some women to choose tin-pot dictators like the Cheeto) is also real.
That is exactly why I am in such a state of disbelief and despair. As Tara Setmeyer said, 70 million Americans voted for a sociopath. How could this have happened?
I could not agree more ! Our public educational system in America has failed miserably, and that began with Richard Nixon in the early 1970s. My despair "index" is rising constantly. We must face, once and for all, that we are indeed a country founded on Slavery and genocide of the American indian, and that reality is with us today.
It's not the first time. For generations Americans have tolerated some pretty ugly stuff and acted as if it had nothing to do with them. We finally stand up and refuse to accept it and people are surprised there is pushback from people who somehow have the idea that all this time they benefited from the status quo? What about this do you not get? Our entire history is about sociopathic behavior. We just chose not to recognize it for what it was. After all, there is all that empty land, all those resources going to waste, all those savages (ie brown people, indiginous people) who are our burden. Um, do you get it now?
I too am aghast at the number of people voting for Trump, but then I thought about it in the framework Erik JM Schneider so beautifully articulated. As abused children often protect and seem to defend their accusers, perhaps many of those voting for him are doing the same. Some only choose to see what he projects and somehow can work what he says and does into their narrative as appropriate. I read a NY Times article which was a profile of women voting. They stated who they were voting for, how they chose to vote and why. All those for Trump chose to overlook, or could not see the horrible consequences of his words and deeds, and interestingly enough, were voting in person. Otherwise seemed like normal Americans to me. We need to reconcile with them or remain a divided country no matter who is in the WH
I, as well as some friends and neighbors, cannot believe the number of people that voted for Trump. What does it take to see that a person is in over his head and unacceptable? In my opinion the answer and solution is education and teaching critical thinking. Everyone on this page knows what critical thinking is but I'm not sure any of the people who voted for Trump even know what critical thinking is.
Laura, I was thinking about that too this morning as I caught up with the election results. I skipped yesterday, and was stunned to learn how close it is. Then, like you, I remembered when I was a volunteer for an organization who helped abused women and children. Many of the women, even as they sought shelter, made excuses for their abusers, and those women almost all ended up going back into the relationship. And I heard children cry out for comfort from parents who'd literally broken their bones- and their spirits. It was what they knew, and that kind of bond is not easy to sever. Those kids often go through life feeling disjointed and seeking relationships like the one they'd been removed from. There are ways to get through, but they require the willingness of others to work with them to help them learn real trust to replace the illusory emotional dependence. That, I think, applies to the people who follow Trump as well. Eventually, they will feel abandoned by him and by us, unless we are willing to make room for them in our world.
Annie, exactly! I cannot pretend to understand why anyone would support Trump, but I do not want to discount them completely as humans. We have all been emotionally abused by his actions and rhetoric, and some of us react very differently. This is one of the hardest "agree to disagree" topics I've ever encountered.
Yes I wonder myself whether something like a public traumatic attachment to authoritarian figures might play out, and have played out previously, in EuroAmerican cultures that have slidden dangerously close to or right into fascism. I don't wish to universalize my own experience, which begins in a fundamentalist Christian family, one side of which is rife with a long long history of child abuse. And yet I have talked to so many other survivors and read enough about how abuse has been covered up in Anglo USian culture in particular as well as in its antecedents in Germany, France, England, and other parts of Europe to have developed a very strong hunch that domestic abuse of all sorts--anything that happens in what is thought of as the private domicile--cannot be looked at as a separate cultural phenomenon from what we call domestic terrorism, authoritarianism, and fascism.
There are many long stories to be told here, but I'll just point out a couple. In Freud's rather infamous repudiation of his discovery that many of his first patients had experienced sexual abuse as children at the hands of adults in their families, he decided that his patients instead had unconscious sexual desires for their parents and other caregivers and that these incidences were fantasies rather than actual events. But this came only after he quite nearly lost his career before it had really begun. He gave a presentation on his early findings in the mid 1890s (1895 or 96 I think) in Vienna, and his colleagues-to-be immediate shunned him, not least because many of them were implicated in what he was recounting, since he was treating their young relatives: daughters and sons, nieces and nephews.
The rest is psychoanalytic history. Jeffrey Masson published The Assault on Truth in the early 1980's detailing Freud's struggle with how to salvage his career and his ultimate decision to betray his patients' trust. Masson did meticulous research in Freud's archived papers, but his conclusions were rejected by psychoanalysts in the US and pretty much ignored in the wider field of mental health care.
This is a repeat of many other cycles. Ambrose Tardieu was a French physician who worked in forensic medicine in Paris in the mid-1800s. He wrote several journal articles detailing his surprising, to him, discovery of widespread evidence of children being fatally injured by their parents and other caregivers after years of a wide array of physical abuse. His articles have been recently rediscovered by mostly North American professionals trying to understand the history and extent of this kind of trauma and how to address it. But at the time it was written, almost nobody, including Jean-Martin Charcot, who would have been a bit younger but was doing similar work in Paris and would later became an inspiration to an even younger Freud, seemed to want to notice what he was writing about.
And so it goes. There is so much more to be said, especially about the strict separation of private and public life in what is often called "Western" culture that has enabled us to compartmentalize this knowledge, often to the point of denial, but at the vary least in order to disavow any connection between the private and the political spheres of our culture. This has been a longstanding tradition within academia as well as in popular culture, but in the last twenty years or so, the distinction has come in for much criticism.
And, interestingly to me, this seems almost certain to be one effect of the gender diversification of university faculty: women and other non-men, as happens so often, have taken on the task of revealing and, with some hope and luck, cleaning up after patriarchal excesses. But of course denial and traumatic attachment can keep anyone from being able to see any of this clearly. We are complex animals, trying mostly to survive. I am both hopeful and somewhat resigned to seeing results from this and other improvements in understanding our relation to each other to take longer than what is left of my own lifetime. As Angela Davis has pointed out, we have to look beyond our own time and put our work in for those who will come after us.
I agree that change and improvement in understanding is a long process. I am hopeful that more and more confrontation of things that have been compartmentalized will lead to a change in attitude and behavior. #metoo, Black Lives Matter and other movements that decry systemic abuse have brought some of this to the public eye. I appreciate your perspective and knowledge.
Two of my relatives, who are good people and active Christians, wear masks, dislike the war on immigrants - nevertheless voted for Trump again. Pressure from their pastor played a strong role. Also the repeated claims about abortion and guns. A friend of mine, who spends much of his life doing stuff to help other people, is pro Trump because he grew up in Russia and identifies the American "left" with the flaws of the former Soviet Union. Then there is the relative who has signed onto to Fox-pushed craziness. I really don't know how to convince any of them, any more than they can convince me. It seems more useful, given a choice, to work against voter suppression.
I for one cannot fathom how 70 million Americans including some of the brightest erudite minds that I have known voted for a sick degenerate like him. Its something I haven't yet understood about human nature and its needs. It is something that will fester in my mind for years until I get some answers...
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America....."
The preamble to the Constitution does not say Peoples in the plural, nor does it say "We the majority formed by coalitions of different groups, interests and tendencies. It says that the people are one whole and not just a sum of some parts no matter how much they might dominate those not included and how they achieve that domination. To be a Nation, a people must have a common vision of who they are, why they are together and where they want to go; a common vision of what it means to be American. Without that common vision, that people's solidarity and commonality of purpose, a slow but inevitable decline awaits.
Recreating the Vision that will provide a becon for reconciliation and advancement towards common goals must now start.
A lofty goal that could be embraced by all the intelligent, critical-thinking, decent ppl on this forum, but how to deprogram all of those hateful, ignorant tRump cultists that made this election too close to call for 3 days & counting?
But unfortunately....or perhaps fortunately rather...the "thinking" people on the other side are asking themselves how they can de-program the supporters of Biden. As long as the question is asked by both sides there is room for hope, room to talk and room to build a consensus on the parts on which all can agree.
I don't agree with "good ppl on both sides" when one side believes in racism, misogynism, xenophobia, homophobia, bigoted hatred, blatant lying & cheating.
I am one of 7 siblings, many over 65 years old. We all grew up in rural USA and some of us still do and work in Agriculture. Of those four ranchers and farmers, three are moderate Dems and one, our brother, is a fervent Republican. All six of his siblings ask ourselves how he can compromise his "moral floor" by supporting such a cruel cheat and liar as a President who would make our Republican parents and grandparents turn over in their graves. My brother is a generous and loving family man. He is not homophobic. He loves me, his brother, and adores my husband. His son, of whom he is very proud is married to a man.
My brother and his daughter hate what they view as many stupid govt. regulations. (don't we all?) They hate seeing govt. waste (Don't we all?) He is more phobic about taxes than I am but I don't have children. I do know that he is following a very different narrative than the one that informs me. He is a man of many contradictions as am I, I suppose. Its not easy to get through his Fox informed wall. But worse is the narrative of his regional peers on the Californian/Oregon/Nevada border. They call that Jefferson State. Should be Jackson State on my opinion. There are times that he makes me as angry as can be and I don't want to visit with him but somehow love wins out. Inevitably, he'll tell me some funny story about the trials and tribulations of the ranching life with his wry, dark humor and I just accept that we'll stumble along as will the rest of my brothers and sisters. I do wonder what he'll do if SCOTUS rules against the Affordable Care Act and many of us with pre existing conditions (Dont we all?) loose our health insurance. I am sure there is a way to have a conversation with most of the 70,000,000 Trump voters, especially if we could all agree on the truth.
I truly admire your effort to try to stay close to your Republican brother and find a way to understand his point of view. I hope you are successful. I think it's much harder to find common ground with family members and friends. Best wishes. Be safe.
Trump voters live in areas with horrible spikes of covid, fueled by Trump-inspired carelessness and Trump spreader events. But they don't see it that way. They don't blame him. Instead, they bought his story that he did a great job under difficult conditions.
I too wonder what anyone - trumpists or not - will do if we lose the ACA - without it, yes, loss of protection against pre-existing conditions, we (retired) lose our Medicare Advantage plans, social security - hes been pushing on that for a while. The thing is, that will affect ALL of us in one way or another. Do these people not comprehend that?? It boggles the mind. Every time I hear him brag that he will get rid of the "payroll tax" - I did payroll for years - FICA is NOT a tax! Its withholding - for social security & medicare. It used to be .0765 of our gross pay - it may bea different percentage now. We pay half - employers pay half. I'm sure that many people dont understand that and I'll tell you - Numnuts definitely has no clue nor does he care! Well we all know he doesnt CARE about anything except his own welfare. I apologize for rambling on but every time I read or hear someone who truly DOES understand how much we could lose by losing the ACA & fears it happening just makes me sick.
Perhaps not all of them...nearly half of the people is a lot to discard with total disdain. They discard those voting Democrat in the same way and tone as do you and with just as much "gusto". A modus vivendi will have to be found.
Interesting that you reference Diogenes as an example; the archetypal cynic who seemed more at home disrupting others thought than searching for a way to the " absolute".
These days he is better known for the syndrome that is named after him!
"The Diogenes syndrome is a disorder characterized by self-neglect, domestic squalor, apathy, compulsive hoarding of garbage and more importantly lack of shame. The syndrome does not refer to the intelligence or the philosophies of Diogenes but rather refers to the way Diogenes lived" (Wikipedia)
I thought that tolerance was a virtue for the Democrats and perhaps also a benevolent consideration for the other!. Before criticizing the thinking or lack thereof, of the other let's be certain that we are irreproachable.
I’m sorry, Stuart, but tolerance by the Democrats is what has gotten us into this mess. For far too long the Dems have played nice while the Republicans have used dirty tricks to dominate the political landscape. My tolerance has run out.
The Democrats are actually a coalition of groups with some common elements, but quite a bit of variation. It is not a monolith. I do see a whole lot more judgmental name-calling among a certain wing of the Dems than I am comfortable with. Sometimes it is so extreme it makes me feel ill. But I don't judge other Dems based on those people. If they are being ugly, I'll call them on it, but I try also to acknowledge the source of their frustration. And I try to find ways to open a window to a different way of defining the problem they have with seeing people who they fear. I don't think we have to be "certain we are irreproachable". All of us? Good luck with that. Sometimes being nice isn't the right response. And I can't say that I feel that I am responsible for other people's actions and speech. What is tolerance? Am I to be "benevolent" when I see someone bullying someone else. Very nice words, Stuart, but let's see if you can get beyond the platitudes.
This is so hard for the big umbrella Democrats. The republicans get laser focused (I.e. on the judiciary) and are very good at messaging, even if they simply lie.
Of course, you're welcome. My view of the current counting is not just that the Democrats with Binden will have won, but also that they will have lost a great deal of the population. Bringing the 2 halves together again of their free will is essential for the Nation's survival beyond simply the Biden years. Europe is a very good example of the failure to do so.
The Democratic Party leaders and others, like even the storied Robert Mueller, failed to take a stand at crucial moments over the past 4 years. Failure of imagination. Inability to be eloquent. Fear of losing their jobs. Someone needs to emerge and provide real vision and leadership. ❤️🤍💙
Isn't it unrealistic to expect any president to unite this country? We all need to lean into this and its very helpful if the president isn't pushing the wedge deeper.
Biden will start from the top but the people must start from the bottom...to meet in the middle perhaps where we once again can agree to disagree without insulting the other or ressorting to violence.
Is there a way that Steve Bannon can be charged, in a court of law, for making threats to commit violence/bodily harm on federal employees? It's beyond belief that someone could claim a "freedom of speech" defense for statements like the ones he made yesterday.
That f****r is currently out on bail for federal felony fraud charges in a case where it appears his only hope of victory is a pardon. I devoutly hope that some bright young federal attorney is on his way to Court as I write with a motion to revoke that bail.
That was more like incitement to violence than freedom of speech. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read what Steve Bannon said! These people make outrageous statements for the base and then say they were joking! Unfortunately there are enough uncheckd crazed people with machetes and guns who could take him at his word. I can't believe what I'm saying as I write this... the country has become unrecognizable to me. Thank you Heather, and Erik, and others who bring some sanity and clarity into my daily reading.
Now if only Twitter had had the gumption, at the very beginning, to shut Fake 45’s rampant tweets down...but alas, they kept his rants and lies up. Where were their balls earlier?
Thanks Heather for the recap. I think Trumps press conference last night was by far the most telling regarding his mental, moral decline. I've been around since Eisenhower, but I honestly can't remember seeing the news outlets calling him out for lying and brushing him off quite that way. I happened to be watching NBC and kudos to Lester Holt for drawing the line in the sand. A friend of mine said that the media should have done this long ago. I agree. I also wonder if they did 4 years ago, how this Presidency may have evolved. Without the media attention he craves, would he have been a different person, much like redirecting the narrative for an unruly child ? Finer point being , it was glaringly obvious from that presser that he was the wrong person for the job and we suffered for it. Hopefully, today will prove to be a good day. I fear until January, but the end justifies the means. Be well, be safe.
I should have been more patient. Within a minute of tRumps lies, I turned off the "news" wondering why the broadcast channels still give him a platform. Now I see even they redeemed themselves for once. It would be nice not to hear this nutcase on TV again, ever. But with his cult following, you know he might end up with some crappy reality show somewhere - but I have managed to avoid all of them. I hear the Kardashians had a TV show which I have never seen.
I wouldn’t recognize a single kardashian if I passed one on the street. I’d like the Trumps to slide into obscurity too. Well, I’d like them to be imprisoned really. But being famous, and being important, are not the same thing.
Will Fearless Leader have a mental breakdown before he can acknowledge his election loss? The ghost of his scowling father, who hates losers, is eight feet tall in Trump’s mind right now. That, plus a multi-hundred million dollar debt coming due and multiple indictments for tax evasion and every kind of banking/business fraud there is making the inside of Trump’s brain a not happy place to be right now.
The stable genius is likely becoming less so by the hour.
BTW, what is AG Barr been doing these last few days. He’s been real quiet, which should make all of us real suspicious.
Also silent: Ivanka (I still think she got COVID - she has been totally AWOL up until the election night press conference) and Pompeo . . . Don’t let the door hit you in the a$$ on the way out folks.
She may be getting less MSM coverage these days but Ivanka was giving a ton of campaign speeches in the weeks before the election. And Pompeo was in Asia for 5 days.
Oh, Heather! I know I’ve never called you by your first name before, but I just woke up after staying up far too late last night waiting for the returns to come in and I saw you Letter and had to read it - what a powerfully righteous missive!
I haven’t even checked the news to see if anything has changed from last night, but your Letter gives me hope. I’ll wash up now, have a coffee and see if we have a new President.
Whatever happens, I can’t thank you enough for being here each day – your words have meant everything.
There is a saying here in Germany: Du bist der Hammer! And you are.
My husband is a recent immigrant from Italy and during the last 4 years has become one of the stunned and awed spectators of Donald Trump's reign of terror. He is full of questions in regard to our constitution, law and political process. Since finding out about you and now having read several of your books and watched your videos I have realized that he might find your voice a helpful one. He tends to glean most of his news from NPR or You Tube and sometimes gets quite anxious and riled up. I introduced him to you about 4 week ago by just reading to him parts of your daily letter. He was immediately struck by the clarity of your language. Next we watched some of your history videos which he really liked because he could understand and follow your thoughts quite easily. Anyway, like me he thinks you are brilliant and is now listening to you read your wonderful How the South Won the Civil War and wonders how your voice is so communicative. Im so relieved that when he is in his You Tube induced tither there is you to calm the waters with your wisdom and love of our country that he has come to share. I am grateful to see the USA through his eyes as I can be a pretty harsh critic. But he always reminds me of the oxygen he found on these shores as a middle aged man starting out all over again, getting back up on his feet and finding a land fertile for his "reinvention' and new life. Many thanks from the both of us.
PS Its the 60 million semi automatic weapons floating around out there that scare him the most. We lived through the Anni di Piombo and its violence in Rome but our militias scare him more.
My husband is likewise an Italian immigrant, although not recent. Heather helped me enormously in my explanation to my brother in law about the electoral college yesterday!
At first I was disappointed that the Republicans did better than expected in the Senate and House races. When an MSNBC commentator last night explained that this meant that Republicans felt comfortable voting against DT but not let it affect their down ballot voting. They were saying to their Republican representatives that DT was irrelevant to them. And, it looks like the Republican down-ballot have gotten the message. So now it feels good. Now, the battle for flipping the Senate begins with the two Georgia Senate races going to run-offs to be held the first week of January. And, Alaska Senate race is in play and may go Democratic. I made donations to John Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock's campaigns last night. I encourage everyone to do so. We need to take the authoritarian power away from McConnell. No one in a democracy should have and have the temerity use that power to cripple our Constitutional government the unilateral power he wields. Let's take this major step to return the Congress to Constitutional governing.
We ALL must find a way to support voters in Georgia for the run off election in January. Please post if you know programs that help TRANSPORT voters to voting sites. We can't let lack of transportation and accessibility to sites prevent people from getting out to vote in January
votefwd.org will be organizing sending of letters to encourage run-off voters. Stacey Abrams' organization Fair Fight bears much of the credit for the turnout in Georgia. https://fairfight.com/fair-fight-2020/
We need both. I try very hard not to be petty, but I have to admit I like the prospect of McConnell still being in the Senate but not having access to the power he is used to. Watch him get really old really fast. (Ok, I slipped and got really petty. I'm going to go hang out on the Association of Bad Quakers now (aka "badasses")
You write so beautifully: so clear, so penetrating, so succinct, so informative. It is as if we had Barbara Tuchman on the bridge of the battlecruiser Goeben in August 1914, telling us how events were actually unfolding at the moment. It is brave to write history as it happens, much more authortitativley than journalism. We pray that you are right.
“The unraveling of Trump’s plan to claim victory has been mesmerizing.” I have to add the word ‘horrifying’. I listened to most of your talk yesterday...we need to reinstate something like the Fairness Doctrine. These lies being spread by social media, news stations, (Fox), etc. need to be stopped! At least make these people accountable for their words. Thank God that Twitter banned Bannon. What a horrid, disgusting person.
As always, thank you for your letters and talks HCR.
My judge friend posted on Facebook last night that Tarrant Co (Ft Worth) and Dallas Co actually went Blue! Small margin but amazing in very Republican Texas. Trump flags are coming down. Racing trucks with enormous flags have disappeared. Sirens at night started to remind me of LA riots recently, have calmed down too. I’m not sure I’m built for living in historic times but it feels so hopeful to feel the change back towards civility! Even my elementary students are talking about the election. A 4th grade girl asked why is it taking so long? I said imagine the days before electricity when it took months to find out who won? We just need to be patient.
Thank you, Heather, for guiding us through this and holding our wringing hands! For giving us reason and hope!
I love that it is the people of Georgia formerly represented by the late John Lewis that are giving their votes to Biden and now have handed Georgia's electoral votes to Biden.
Indeed. Her loss to Brian Kemp was due to his voter suppression before and during the election. She didn't go home to cry; she founded Fair Fight, whose actions resulted in some hundreds of thousands of people registering to vote.
Clarification, as per Stacey Abrams herself: "I created an organization about six years ago called the New Georgia Project. That has focused exclusively on voter registration. And New Georgia Project is part of a consortium of organizations that have been working hard to register voters of color and voters who are unlikely voters. We also have had easier voting processes made possible because of the Motor Voter Act being really fully implemented in the state of Georgia. And so 800,000 new voters are an incredible number, but the credit should be shared."
We ALL must find a way to support voters in Georgia for the run off election in January. Please post if you know programs that help TRANSPORT voters to voting sites. We can't let lack of transportation and accessibility to sites prevent people from getting out to vote in January.
Now there is a race that has surprised me. I grew up 20 miles from Atlanta, and watched the Southern Strategy and the politicization of the Bible Belt with fear and loathing. Maybe the metro area has finally grown big enough to take on the rest of the state?
"...create a narrative that makes his supporters believe something that is not true." That is it in a nutshell. I wish I could get my friends to get this. I live in city where over 50% (this is a conservative estimate, it is probably higher) of the adult population has at least a B.S. degree. I also believe per capita we have the highest percentage of Ph.Ds in the United States. However, it a conservative Christian community and they buy his bullshit. It baffles me. My Dad who was a Democrat (50 year member of IBEW) would ask me how I could live in a Republican community. My comeback was I could compartmentalize people from their politics. However, HCR pointed out in yesterday's talk or the one before that is getting harder to do when they support someone who is willing to lie and cheat to get what he wants. It is heartbreaking and cause for deep reflection.
When and where I grew up, no one wore their religion or their politics on their sleeve, as I see all around me here in central North Carolina. Forty-some years ago, when I first moved to this state, I was astounded when people would ask, immediately after meeting me, "Where do you go to church?" WHAT?? At that time, I believe, North Carolina was pretty much under Democratic control at the state level, but they were still the old Southern Conservative Democrats, for the most part. In other words, still plenty segregationist, church-going, etc.
But the county I now live in is solidly Republican, and has been, I'm told, for over 70 years. And these are the ones HCR spoke of in her recent video, that have melded their politics and their religious views, so that they are now a seamless marker of their identity. The old mainline Protestant churches have largely been replaced by Southern Baptist, independent Baptist and Pentecostal churches and they are all VERY conservative. The idea of even being friends with a Democrat, let alone compromising with them politically, is practically a sin. They have drunk the Kool Aid that Democrats are spawns of the devil and murder babies and eat them. They believed that even before QAnon, (well, maybe not the eating part).
I grew up in your city. My dad was head of environmental quality for Dow, always between a rock and a hard place. I know exactly what you are going through. Who knows, maybe with your insights and compassion, and my knowledge we could make a little difference.
Wow, I worked in Dow Corning HES for almost 30 years. I had all my points (If you worked at DCC and Dow you know what that means) just before the merger, so I was able to retire with nice package. That said one of my local Facebook friends posted a pro-Trump meme that just made me want to shake my head. She was part of Senior Management in her group at Dow. I just don't know how she can divorce herself for reality.
I am trying to be patient, awaiting the final counts. Failing miserably. There is so much hatred coming from Trump supporters, I pray the Secret Service will be able to keep Joe Biden and Kamala Harris safe! Thank you for being a voice of calm in these turbulent times.
Thank you for having the stomach for Trump's antics. I have barely been able to listen to a Republican president since Reagan openly expressed his disdain for those dying of AIDS by blaming them for the situation in which they found themselves: often alone, abandoned by judgmental families and scared friends, with only medical staff accompanying them on their death beds.
There is so much about our situation that reminds me of the beginning of the AIDS crisis, despite the fact that the virus that causes COVID is affecting even "decent men and women", to recall one of Reagan's favorite phrases for voicing a deeply exclusionary vision for this country. That this vision has become narrower and narrower, to the point where only those who can be pulled into the cruel alternative reality of a sadistic con man, does not surprise me nearly as much as it does many other white folks my age.
But in Trump I see and hear only a repetition and intensification of a dominant culture that has been brutal and self-aggrandizing from the time it set foot on this continent, assuming that divine providence had given it the power and authority to brush aside the claims of those who already lived here. The "empty wilderness", just waiting for the hand of European men to bring it under civilized order, is no less a fanciful narrative than any that Trump has cooked up: it was a cruel fiction into which many well-intentioned people enthusiastically threw themselves and took up their parts as tamers of wild lands and peoples. The ruthlessness of the ensuing drama is the other half of our original sin as a country, and the necessary counterpart of slavery in nation-building.
And now we who descend from colonialists and settlers are finally beginning to understand what it means to live under this kind of arrogance and arbitrary rejection of the complexity of life on earth. It occurred to me last week that Trump's aptitude for twisting reality to the point that many of us are left nearly paralyzed with anxiety about what might happen next is just another echo of the interpersonal abuse that is rampant in our culture, and that the only way to neutralize this kind of violence is to step out of the narrative and find a way not to be pulled into its immobilizing spell of extreme uncertainty.
Which is no easy feat for anyone who is living under domestic violence or familial abuse, but is at least somewhat easier if the person who would control our reality is on the opposite coast and has no access to us that we do not ourselves grant him. And so I decided to kick him out of my head and let the events tell me how I needed to respond as they unfolded.
Which is why one reason why I thank you for taking on the task of reassembling the narrative for your readers. I know I am not the only survivor of abuse watching in horror as this man attempts to pull an entire nation into his psychodrama; we have been rehearsing this moment all our lives. And I am certainly not alone in belonging to a number of groups that he and many other conservatives have repeatedly targeted as being deserving of quite nearly nothing that sustains life, but plenty that beats it out of us, sometimes quickly (as though merciful!), and sometimes as one tiny slice of flesh, over and over and over and over.
I have begun to think a bit more about the possible cultural links between a deniable--and usually denied--proclivity for private, familial abuse and a potential for publicly embraced fascism. I have often wondered what it would take for the US to begin to understand what Europe was forced to come to grips with after World War II: that white culture is not exceptional, that it is capable of and has already committed grotesque violence in a number of founding political and even philosophical gestures, and that it will destroy itself if it does not recognize the realities underwriting its current existence.
If this seems a rather dark vision and a sobering way of registering my gratitude, it is only because I see this moment as a moment in which we may have begun to turn around, but it seems glaringly clear to me that we must keep walking in some other direction than the one that brought us here. Otherwise we will be back much sooner than many might expect. That the vote has been closer than many of us were hoping seems to me a good thing, for even if we are able to get this one example of USian fascist domination out of the executive office, it seems clear that we have much more work to do to cure ourselves of ills that allowed him to gain that office to begin with.
Perhaps later on I can say more about what it seems to me we have to do. It is far from simple or even all that clear to me, but certain parts of Euro-American culture have long been placed into critical questioning by those of us who think about such things. One difficult part is disappointing the faith of so many who still think of the US as the shining city on the hill. And there are many and much deeper faiths that I doubt will be even as easy to address as that one.
But later for that. As a disabled academic, I am in fact deeply grateful to you for doing this work that I myself only wish I had the energy for. When this is over (will we know when it is over..? Maybe when there is a lull?), please do take a nice long refreshing rest. One thing we USians often forget is that caretaking is essential: for ourselves, yes, but also as a service to each other.
Whoever you are, this is really helpful. Not that I would have been able to write so brilliantly in a million years, but it’s what I’ve been edging toward. It’s a galvanizing moment when all sorts of national fictions have been blown away from my eyes. The hard work lies ahead, but real change may now be possible.
Glad to be of help. I wish I had the resolve to write more publicly more often. Thanks for the encouragement!
I maybe should put a picture in my little icon, yes? Not that it will make it any clearer who I am. I haven't much of a clue either, in any case. :)
A photo of your tuxedo cat is fine, Erik.
We'd love you to keep writing and sharing your insights.
Love that you feel so comfortable with this group to express your heartfelt thoughts which, by the way, have helped all of us. And the fact that an adorable kittie is your avatar says everything to us cat lovers!
The picture is perfect - as was the entire comment. How "sad" is it that its such a gift to read these "Letters" AND the comments to them - intelligent, unbiased comments - not like some sites that start out with news & end up with shouting (in writing) at each other. I think there has to come a time - dont know how - that people on different "sides" can actually talk TO each other rather than AT each other - when? Or how? That part I dont know!
We have to see each other as "people," not enemies. Try to understand their points of view, their concerns. Former Ohio Governor John Kasich made that point yesterday morning on CNN.
Love Kasich!!
brothers and sisters
We need to stop thinking of each other as idiots and start listening, truly listening.
I came here this morning, as always, for Heather (and, as long as she writes, I will always come back)...but Erik. You have managed to put on the ethereal glowing "paper" a cogent narrative of the jumbled thoughts in my head. Do, please - continue.
Thank you, Erik, for describing so well the ever more evident stain(s) from our colonial and post-colonial past. Now that the systemic wrongs have been made so much more visible to all of us — and not only those who have suffered from them from the beginning of this national enterprise — it’s clear that we must change. We can’t go backwards to right those wrongs, and going the way of the conservative-right/authoritarian crowd (beheading? Really?!?) is absolutely the wrong direction. Somehow we need to make a more perfect union, one that includes everyone, preserves the earth, air, and water that sustain us, and expands rather than contracts the possibilities for decency, humanity, generosity, and compassion in our society.
Thank you all for reading and responding. I am always working on speaking up more often and I do appreciate that there are many who would like to be able to express what I have learned to express over the course of recovering from trauma (sort of--it's not really a process that ever ends as it is a retraining of neurological circuits to be a little less reactive, a little less prone to panic, a little more disposed to compassion for oneself).
And language only gets one so far, but it can do remarkable things nonetheless. Still, I was planning on making music today, so that is what I am going to do now. I haven't found substack to be the most conducive to long conversations, but I will try to respond more a little later on.
Making music is a great place to go at this point - I'm not a music "maker" but listening certainly does take us all to a different place! Your "speaking up" adds much to these conversations.
Brilliant, Erik. Thank you. I think often about the resilience of the African American community, who have kept pushing and pushing and not given up, and also not lost love for our country. It looks to me like they have, once again, pulled us back from the brink. We MUST address inequity, and do it now, if only in gratitude.
Kathy, what a beautiful, gracious way of expressing what black and brown people have given us. Yes, in gratitude. Thank you- another window just opened in my mind.
Well said, sir. America is great; but until we learn that we are not exceptional, and that humility is often the truest sign of greatness, we will remain what we have always been, too often, a brutal and self-aggrandizing culture.
Keep writing, keep writing! Brilliant writers like you who capture emotion are in demand, always.
Thank you for writing this. Relatively few people have seen abuse before. The 2016 Republican opponents who turned into respectful worshippers are shining examples of what bullying does. The media — all media— were fascinated by the bad boy and never headlined the fact that voter turnout was abysmally low in the primaries. If Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz had stopped his creepy stalking in the second Clinton “debate,” would he have apologized? He has never said I am sorry to my knowledge. There is a community standard of behavior, call it the Golden Rule, he Ignores. But we cannot play coulda-shoulda-woulda right now. If🤞🏼🙏🏼 he loses, what then? He has militia and an unbelievable number of supporters. He is early Hitler.
And if you think I am exaggerating, remember what happened when he made COVID-19 political. We will be at the quarter million dead very soon.
You are brilliant and I thank you for putting into eloquent words what many of us have been grappling with for months. Keep writing, please.
Dang. An "edit" button would be nice. Oh well. *Most* of my sentences express a complete thought.
Heh. Whatever that is. :)
All of us bemoan that this platform doesn't allow self-edits.
Yeah, I just realized I have part of a sentence dangling at the end of my post above, and no idea what I had in mind. <sigh> Typical...
<Shared sigh and empathetic chuckle.>
Such sly self-deprecation. But remember, a little goes a long way.
You don’t want to become like those in Shia Islam, where self-flagellation is considered an important spiritual virtue. I think it demeans that beautiful Faith.
I say this because I sometimes fall victim to excessive put-downs of self. We are noble beings, if we would just recognize that and live life to its fullest.
I’ll work on it if you will.
P.S. I somehow missed most of this day’s letters and am just getting back to them. Stay well and stay joyous!
Thank you, Erik. And thank you, too, to all of you who have commented. You are becoming my much needed community.
Thank you for so eloquently putting into words the jumbled and terrified thoughts in my head.
Erik, I read this post, and then read it again. It moved me, but I could not respond just then. Needed to physically move to free my mind to think, so I set your essay aside, went out and moved another little bit of my woodpile into the barn (this is how I do everything these days- a bit at a time until it's done). Now I am back. Read again, cherished the beauty of your writing, remarkable for it's rich succinctness. What I wish I could do is sit down with you face to face and just talk, find the links in our thinking. I looked you up to see what else you might have written and discovered some beautiful, delicate fragments. Through those fragments I learned a little about you, and how you came to be where you are. Not only is your writing remarkable, so are you.
I agree with you that the closeness of the vote is a good thing (wrote about it elsewhere). Otherwise, I'm afraid we will become either complacent and think we have dealt with the underlying problem. Or allow our exhaustion to overtake our ability to see it as it is. As you described it: "... we have much more work to do to cure ourselves of ills that allowed him to gain that office to begin with."
Many, many of us are refusing to allow ourselves to fall into that trap. We are taking a few days or weeks to recover, but we have already begun the process of reclaiming our democracy. I too am a disabled semi-academic and elderly to boot, but I've found a welcome in several organizations who welcome the skills I can bring, and I am at home. I expect to spend the rest of my life on this, and to pass it on to the young people with whom I am associated. I celebrate this. Nothing is altogether clear to me either, except that we have to make clear that we are all citizens, and it is we who make the decisions. Then we figure out which things are getting in the way and how to fix them. Together, inclusively. We just proved that our system WORKS! And that even in the midst of what seems like chaos, we see progress as more black and brown and indigenous and gender-non-conforming people have been elected by their peers, who are all of us. Even the votes against them is part of this amazing process, because the fact that those votes were cast means that those folks believe in the validity of our system too. We must honor them for that, I think, because someday we may be voting together with them as allies.
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and observations. We are of like mind, and your words affirm me, and all of us who've refused to give up. Please post more as you can. You help open my mind to new ways of thinking.
What you wrote is a
Annie. You, too, are a gifted writer and your thoughts and probing questions are pearls that we all can admire and gain humanity from.
Your are a clear and independent thinker and your musings offer this not-so-little community valuable perspectives on life and living. Together we form a composite of the progressive thought of the day.
I apparently missed most of this day’s responses to HCR’s Letter, so I’m just catching up. I look forward to your contributions daily. Please don’t disappoint me.
I have begun reading the tome The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan in hope of getting a different perspective on World History. His preface quotes Eric Wolf about the lazy history that starts with ancient Greece and moves west completely ignoring a large part of the world. I'm hoping for an interesting & educational read because we have such a slanted view. I believe we have to know ourselves before we can make meaningful change. It sounds like you are already on that path, Erik.
One of the best pieces of writing that I have ever read in this forum. Sir, your deft treatment of the tortured conscience and self immolations of USians (as you put it) living one part of our lives to fulfill the mission of The Manifest Destiny and yet reject with the other half its very existence at all, is worth a full book in my opinion.
Bravo, Erik. Thank you for putting your words out here. Many hands make light work. And many words make thoughts and vision more clear. Well done, sir.
Heather - You encapsulated so well this morning the pitiful President we have endured for the last four years. As a licensed clinical psychologist in Massachusetts for 40 years now, I regret that our media does not call Trump out for what he is – a mentally ill person who continues to show us how utterly delusional and dangerous his rants have become. Last night, he went to a whole new level that approached a full blown psychosis.
But even more striking to me in this election has been to face the reality that over 69 million Americans voted for him. As Nicholas Kristof in the NYT yesterday said, "How is it that so many millions of Americans watched Trump for four years, suffered the pain of his bungling of Covid-19, listened to his stream of lies, observed his attacks on American institutions — and then voted for him in greater numbers than before?"
What has taken place in this country with Trump and Trumpism has so stained America's Experiment in Democracy, that I find myself feeling hopeless and traumatized about our future and recovery . . . .
Indeed! Where is people’s moral outrage over the things this president has done? But we can’t forget, even with some states still counting, Biden’s winning the largest popular vote in history. The EC MUST be reconsidered.
Racism and sexism are both powerful goads to people who see their own troubles not as part of a community of the also-struggling but as the result of "others" getting what they "deserve." White fragility is real. And toxic masculinity (which can drive some BIPOC males and some women to choose tin-pot dictators like the Cheeto) is also real.
That is exactly why I am in such a state of disbelief and despair. As Tara Setmeyer said, 70 million Americans voted for a sociopath. How could this have happened?
I could not agree more ! Our public educational system in America has failed miserably, and that began with Richard Nixon in the early 1970s. My despair "index" is rising constantly. We must face, once and for all, that we are indeed a country founded on Slavery and genocide of the American indian, and that reality is with us today.
It's not the first time. For generations Americans have tolerated some pretty ugly stuff and acted as if it had nothing to do with them. We finally stand up and refuse to accept it and people are surprised there is pushback from people who somehow have the idea that all this time they benefited from the status quo? What about this do you not get? Our entire history is about sociopathic behavior. We just chose not to recognize it for what it was. After all, there is all that empty land, all those resources going to waste, all those savages (ie brown people, indiginous people) who are our burden. Um, do you get it now?
I too am aghast at the number of people voting for Trump, but then I thought about it in the framework Erik JM Schneider so beautifully articulated. As abused children often protect and seem to defend their accusers, perhaps many of those voting for him are doing the same. Some only choose to see what he projects and somehow can work what he says and does into their narrative as appropriate. I read a NY Times article which was a profile of women voting. They stated who they were voting for, how they chose to vote and why. All those for Trump chose to overlook, or could not see the horrible consequences of his words and deeds, and interestingly enough, were voting in person. Otherwise seemed like normal Americans to me. We need to reconcile with them or remain a divided country no matter who is in the WH
I, as well as some friends and neighbors, cannot believe the number of people that voted for Trump. What does it take to see that a person is in over his head and unacceptable? In my opinion the answer and solution is education and teaching critical thinking. Everyone on this page knows what critical thinking is but I'm not sure any of the people who voted for Trump even know what critical thinking is.
Laura, I was thinking about that too this morning as I caught up with the election results. I skipped yesterday, and was stunned to learn how close it is. Then, like you, I remembered when I was a volunteer for an organization who helped abused women and children. Many of the women, even as they sought shelter, made excuses for their abusers, and those women almost all ended up going back into the relationship. And I heard children cry out for comfort from parents who'd literally broken their bones- and their spirits. It was what they knew, and that kind of bond is not easy to sever. Those kids often go through life feeling disjointed and seeking relationships like the one they'd been removed from. There are ways to get through, but they require the willingness of others to work with them to help them learn real trust to replace the illusory emotional dependence. That, I think, applies to the people who follow Trump as well. Eventually, they will feel abandoned by him and by us, unless we are willing to make room for them in our world.
Annie, exactly! I cannot pretend to understand why anyone would support Trump, but I do not want to discount them completely as humans. We have all been emotionally abused by his actions and rhetoric, and some of us react very differently. This is one of the hardest "agree to disagree" topics I've ever encountered.
Yes I wonder myself whether something like a public traumatic attachment to authoritarian figures might play out, and have played out previously, in EuroAmerican cultures that have slidden dangerously close to or right into fascism. I don't wish to universalize my own experience, which begins in a fundamentalist Christian family, one side of which is rife with a long long history of child abuse. And yet I have talked to so many other survivors and read enough about how abuse has been covered up in Anglo USian culture in particular as well as in its antecedents in Germany, France, England, and other parts of Europe to have developed a very strong hunch that domestic abuse of all sorts--anything that happens in what is thought of as the private domicile--cannot be looked at as a separate cultural phenomenon from what we call domestic terrorism, authoritarianism, and fascism.
There are many long stories to be told here, but I'll just point out a couple. In Freud's rather infamous repudiation of his discovery that many of his first patients had experienced sexual abuse as children at the hands of adults in their families, he decided that his patients instead had unconscious sexual desires for their parents and other caregivers and that these incidences were fantasies rather than actual events. But this came only after he quite nearly lost his career before it had really begun. He gave a presentation on his early findings in the mid 1890s (1895 or 96 I think) in Vienna, and his colleagues-to-be immediate shunned him, not least because many of them were implicated in what he was recounting, since he was treating their young relatives: daughters and sons, nieces and nephews.
The rest is psychoanalytic history. Jeffrey Masson published The Assault on Truth in the early 1980's detailing Freud's struggle with how to salvage his career and his ultimate decision to betray his patients' trust. Masson did meticulous research in Freud's archived papers, but his conclusions were rejected by psychoanalysts in the US and pretty much ignored in the wider field of mental health care.
This is a repeat of many other cycles. Ambrose Tardieu was a French physician who worked in forensic medicine in Paris in the mid-1800s. He wrote several journal articles detailing his surprising, to him, discovery of widespread evidence of children being fatally injured by their parents and other caregivers after years of a wide array of physical abuse. His articles have been recently rediscovered by mostly North American professionals trying to understand the history and extent of this kind of trauma and how to address it. But at the time it was written, almost nobody, including Jean-Martin Charcot, who would have been a bit younger but was doing similar work in Paris and would later became an inspiration to an even younger Freud, seemed to want to notice what he was writing about.
And so it goes. There is so much more to be said, especially about the strict separation of private and public life in what is often called "Western" culture that has enabled us to compartmentalize this knowledge, often to the point of denial, but at the vary least in order to disavow any connection between the private and the political spheres of our culture. This has been a longstanding tradition within academia as well as in popular culture, but in the last twenty years or so, the distinction has come in for much criticism.
And, interestingly to me, this seems almost certain to be one effect of the gender diversification of university faculty: women and other non-men, as happens so often, have taken on the task of revealing and, with some hope and luck, cleaning up after patriarchal excesses. But of course denial and traumatic attachment can keep anyone from being able to see any of this clearly. We are complex animals, trying mostly to survive. I am both hopeful and somewhat resigned to seeing results from this and other improvements in understanding our relation to each other to take longer than what is left of my own lifetime. As Angela Davis has pointed out, we have to look beyond our own time and put our work in for those who will come after us.
I agree that change and improvement in understanding is a long process. I am hopeful that more and more confrontation of things that have been compartmentalized will lead to a change in attitude and behavior. #metoo, Black Lives Matter and other movements that decry systemic abuse have brought some of this to the public eye. I appreciate your perspective and knowledge.
Two of my relatives, who are good people and active Christians, wear masks, dislike the war on immigrants - nevertheless voted for Trump again. Pressure from their pastor played a strong role. Also the repeated claims about abortion and guns. A friend of mine, who spends much of his life doing stuff to help other people, is pro Trump because he grew up in Russia and identifies the American "left" with the flaws of the former Soviet Union. Then there is the relative who has signed onto to Fox-pushed craziness. I really don't know how to convince any of them, any more than they can convince me. It seems more useful, given a choice, to work against voter suppression.
I for one cannot fathom how 70 million Americans including some of the brightest erudite minds that I have known voted for a sick degenerate like him. Its something I haven't yet understood about human nature and its needs. It is something that will fester in my mind for years until I get some answers...
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America....."
The preamble to the Constitution does not say Peoples in the plural, nor does it say "We the majority formed by coalitions of different groups, interests and tendencies. It says that the people are one whole and not just a sum of some parts no matter how much they might dominate those not included and how they achieve that domination. To be a Nation, a people must have a common vision of who they are, why they are together and where they want to go; a common vision of what it means to be American. Without that common vision, that people's solidarity and commonality of purpose, a slow but inevitable decline awaits.
Recreating the Vision that will provide a becon for reconciliation and advancement towards common goals must now start.
A lofty goal that could be embraced by all the intelligent, critical-thinking, decent ppl on this forum, but how to deprogram all of those hateful, ignorant tRump cultists that made this election too close to call for 3 days & counting?
But unfortunately....or perhaps fortunately rather...the "thinking" people on the other side are asking themselves how they can de-program the supporters of Biden. As long as the question is asked by both sides there is room for hope, room to talk and room to build a consensus on the parts on which all can agree.
I don't agree with "good ppl on both sides" when one side believes in racism, misogynism, xenophobia, homophobia, bigoted hatred, blatant lying & cheating.
I am one of 7 siblings, many over 65 years old. We all grew up in rural USA and some of us still do and work in Agriculture. Of those four ranchers and farmers, three are moderate Dems and one, our brother, is a fervent Republican. All six of his siblings ask ourselves how he can compromise his "moral floor" by supporting such a cruel cheat and liar as a President who would make our Republican parents and grandparents turn over in their graves. My brother is a generous and loving family man. He is not homophobic. He loves me, his brother, and adores my husband. His son, of whom he is very proud is married to a man.
My brother and his daughter hate what they view as many stupid govt. regulations. (don't we all?) They hate seeing govt. waste (Don't we all?) He is more phobic about taxes than I am but I don't have children. I do know that he is following a very different narrative than the one that informs me. He is a man of many contradictions as am I, I suppose. Its not easy to get through his Fox informed wall. But worse is the narrative of his regional peers on the Californian/Oregon/Nevada border. They call that Jefferson State. Should be Jackson State on my opinion. There are times that he makes me as angry as can be and I don't want to visit with him but somehow love wins out. Inevitably, he'll tell me some funny story about the trials and tribulations of the ranching life with his wry, dark humor and I just accept that we'll stumble along as will the rest of my brothers and sisters. I do wonder what he'll do if SCOTUS rules against the Affordable Care Act and many of us with pre existing conditions (Dont we all?) loose our health insurance. I am sure there is a way to have a conversation with most of the 70,000,000 Trump voters, especially if we could all agree on the truth.
I truly admire your effort to try to stay close to your Republican brother and find a way to understand his point of view. I hope you are successful. I think it's much harder to find common ground with family members and friends. Best wishes. Be safe.
Trump voters live in areas with horrible spikes of covid, fueled by Trump-inspired carelessness and Trump spreader events. But they don't see it that way. They don't blame him. Instead, they bought his story that he did a great job under difficult conditions.
I too wonder what anyone - trumpists or not - will do if we lose the ACA - without it, yes, loss of protection against pre-existing conditions, we (retired) lose our Medicare Advantage plans, social security - hes been pushing on that for a while. The thing is, that will affect ALL of us in one way or another. Do these people not comprehend that?? It boggles the mind. Every time I hear him brag that he will get rid of the "payroll tax" - I did payroll for years - FICA is NOT a tax! Its withholding - for social security & medicare. It used to be .0765 of our gross pay - it may bea different percentage now. We pay half - employers pay half. I'm sure that many people dont understand that and I'll tell you - Numnuts definitely has no clue nor does he care! Well we all know he doesnt CARE about anything except his own welfare. I apologize for rambling on but every time I read or hear someone who truly DOES understand how much we could lose by losing the ACA & fears it happening just makes me sick.
Perhaps not all of them...nearly half of the people is a lot to discard with total disdain. They discard those voting Democrat in the same way and tone as do you and with just as much "gusto". A modus vivendi will have to be found.
What? Stuart, it's not clear who or what exactly you are replying to? Could you clarify?
I was responding to Rob Boyte's last comment.
Now, centuries later, do we learn what Diogenes was really looking for, an honest Republican.
Interesting that you reference Diogenes as an example; the archetypal cynic who seemed more at home disrupting others thought than searching for a way to the " absolute".
These days he is better known for the syndrome that is named after him!
"The Diogenes syndrome is a disorder characterized by self-neglect, domestic squalor, apathy, compulsive hoarding of garbage and more importantly lack of shame. The syndrome does not refer to the intelligence or the philosophies of Diogenes but rather refers to the way Diogenes lived" (Wikipedia)
If they are asking themselves how to de-program Biden supporters, they are not thinking.
I thought that tolerance was a virtue for the Democrats and perhaps also a benevolent consideration for the other!. Before criticizing the thinking or lack thereof, of the other let's be certain that we are irreproachable.
I’m sorry, Stuart, but tolerance by the Democrats is what has gotten us into this mess. For far too long the Dems have played nice while the Republicans have used dirty tricks to dominate the political landscape. My tolerance has run out.
Youre right, Annette - it time for the Dems to "straighten up & fly right" as my grandmother used to say!
The Democrats are actually a coalition of groups with some common elements, but quite a bit of variation. It is not a monolith. I do see a whole lot more judgmental name-calling among a certain wing of the Dems than I am comfortable with. Sometimes it is so extreme it makes me feel ill. But I don't judge other Dems based on those people. If they are being ugly, I'll call them on it, but I try also to acknowledge the source of their frustration. And I try to find ways to open a window to a different way of defining the problem they have with seeing people who they fear. I don't think we have to be "certain we are irreproachable". All of us? Good luck with that. Sometimes being nice isn't the right response. And I can't say that I feel that I am responsible for other people's actions and speech. What is tolerance? Am I to be "benevolent" when I see someone bullying someone else. Very nice words, Stuart, but let's see if you can get beyond the platitudes.
Irony is not always an easy concept to get one's mind around or to recognize when it is used by those we don't know!
Hire those who deprogram cult members! Show them “the light”, the evil of their ways.
This is absolutely what BidenHarris need to figure out and start to message. ❤️🤍💙
This is so hard for the big umbrella Democrats. The republicans get laser focused (I.e. on the judiciary) and are very good at messaging, even if they simply lie.
Thank You. May I copy & share (with your name)?
Of course, you're welcome. My view of the current counting is not just that the Democrats with Binden will have won, but also that they will have lost a great deal of the population. Bringing the 2 halves together again of their free will is essential for the Nation's survival beyond simply the Biden years. Europe is a very good example of the failure to do so.
The Democratic Party leaders and others, like even the storied Robert Mueller, failed to take a stand at crucial moments over the past 4 years. Failure of imagination. Inability to be eloquent. Fear of losing their jobs. Someone needs to emerge and provide real vision and leadership. ❤️🤍💙
Isn't it unrealistic to expect any president to unite this country? We all need to lean into this and its very helpful if the president isn't pushing the wedge deeper.
Biden will start from the top but the people must start from the bottom...to meet in the middle perhaps where we once again can agree to disagree without insulting the other or ressorting to violence.
All hands on deck...We the people....
Is there a way that Steve Bannon can be charged, in a court of law, for making threats to commit violence/bodily harm on federal employees? It's beyond belief that someone could claim a "freedom of speech" defense for statements like the ones he made yesterday.
That f****r is currently out on bail for federal felony fraud charges in a case where it appears his only hope of victory is a pardon. I devoutly hope that some bright young federal attorney is on his way to Court as I write with a motion to revoke that bail.
That was more like incitement to violence than freedom of speech. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read what Steve Bannon said! These people make outrageous statements for the base and then say they were joking! Unfortunately there are enough uncheckd crazed people with machetes and guns who could take him at his word. I can't believe what I'm saying as I write this... the country has become unrecognizable to me. Thank you Heather, and Erik, and others who bring some sanity and clarity into my daily reading.
I agree. I did read that Twitter has permanently shut him down.
Now if only Twitter had had the gumption, at the very beginning, to shut Fake 45’s rampant tweets down...but alas, they kept his rants and lies up. Where were their balls earlier?
Actually, yes. Threats to do harm to anyone are criminal.
His bail should be revoked and he should be rearrested. Quite frankly, Dr. Fauci could sue him for defamation and for threats against his life.
Thanks Heather for the recap. I think Trumps press conference last night was by far the most telling regarding his mental, moral decline. I've been around since Eisenhower, but I honestly can't remember seeing the news outlets calling him out for lying and brushing him off quite that way. I happened to be watching NBC and kudos to Lester Holt for drawing the line in the sand. A friend of mine said that the media should have done this long ago. I agree. I also wonder if they did 4 years ago, how this Presidency may have evolved. Without the media attention he craves, would he have been a different person, much like redirecting the narrative for an unruly child ? Finer point being , it was glaringly obvious from that presser that he was the wrong person for the job and we suffered for it. Hopefully, today will prove to be a good day. I fear until January, but the end justifies the means. Be well, be safe.
I should have been more patient. Within a minute of tRumps lies, I turned off the "news" wondering why the broadcast channels still give him a platform. Now I see even they redeemed themselves for once. It would be nice not to hear this nutcase on TV again, ever. But with his cult following, you know he might end up with some crappy reality show somewhere - but I have managed to avoid all of them. I hear the Kardashians had a TV show which I have never seen.
I wouldn’t recognize a single kardashian if I passed one on the street. I’d like the Trumps to slide into obscurity too. Well, I’d like them to be imprisoned really. But being famous, and being important, are not the same thing.
I saw a pic of one who appeared to have steatopygia, not something to base celebrity on.
I had to look that up! Funny.
Unless you are Sarah Baartman.
Rob, all I can say is, it was a doozy. 🤭
Will Fearless Leader have a mental breakdown before he can acknowledge his election loss? The ghost of his scowling father, who hates losers, is eight feet tall in Trump’s mind right now. That, plus a multi-hundred million dollar debt coming due and multiple indictments for tax evasion and every kind of banking/business fraud there is making the inside of Trump’s brain a not happy place to be right now.
The stable genius is likely becoming less so by the hour.
BTW, what is AG Barr been doing these last few days. He’s been real quiet, which should make all of us real suspicious.
Also silent: Ivanka (I still think she got COVID - she has been totally AWOL up until the election night press conference) and Pompeo . . . Don’t let the door hit you in the a$$ on the way out folks.
She may be getting less MSM coverage these days but Ivanka was giving a ton of campaign speeches in the weeks before the election. And Pompeo was in Asia for 5 days.
Yes, where is Barr? When did we last see him--before Trump's covid diagnosis?
I’ve been worried about what Barr is up to also.
If Barr could do anything it’d have been done by now. He’s laying low. He’s done and done.
I hope you are right about the second "done". I hope he rots with many of the other swamp rats.
Yes, where is Barr? That’s my second real worry. Don’t want to be lulled to sleep by counting votes. He’s in the background planning what?
and Trump etc are even more suspicious than you are!
Oh, Heather! I know I’ve never called you by your first name before, but I just woke up after staying up far too late last night waiting for the returns to come in and I saw you Letter and had to read it - what a powerfully righteous missive!
I haven’t even checked the news to see if anything has changed from last night, but your Letter gives me hope. I’ll wash up now, have a coffee and see if we have a new President.
Whatever happens, I can’t thank you enough for being here each day – your words have meant everything.
There is a saying here in Germany: Du bist der Hammer! And you are.
My husband is a recent immigrant from Italy and during the last 4 years has become one of the stunned and awed spectators of Donald Trump's reign of terror. He is full of questions in regard to our constitution, law and political process. Since finding out about you and now having read several of your books and watched your videos I have realized that he might find your voice a helpful one. He tends to glean most of his news from NPR or You Tube and sometimes gets quite anxious and riled up. I introduced him to you about 4 week ago by just reading to him parts of your daily letter. He was immediately struck by the clarity of your language. Next we watched some of your history videos which he really liked because he could understand and follow your thoughts quite easily. Anyway, like me he thinks you are brilliant and is now listening to you read your wonderful How the South Won the Civil War and wonders how your voice is so communicative. Im so relieved that when he is in his You Tube induced tither there is you to calm the waters with your wisdom and love of our country that he has come to share. I am grateful to see the USA through his eyes as I can be a pretty harsh critic. But he always reminds me of the oxygen he found on these shores as a middle aged man starting out all over again, getting back up on his feet and finding a land fertile for his "reinvention' and new life. Many thanks from the both of us.
PS Its the 60 million semi automatic weapons floating around out there that scare him the most. We lived through the Anni di Piombo and its violence in Rome but our militias scare him more.
"...the oxygen he found on these shores..." Thank you for the reminder!
My husband is likewise an Italian immigrant, although not recent. Heather helped me enormously in my explanation to my brother in law about the electoral college yesterday!
At first I was disappointed that the Republicans did better than expected in the Senate and House races. When an MSNBC commentator last night explained that this meant that Republicans felt comfortable voting against DT but not let it affect their down ballot voting. They were saying to their Republican representatives that DT was irrelevant to them. And, it looks like the Republican down-ballot have gotten the message. So now it feels good. Now, the battle for flipping the Senate begins with the two Georgia Senate races going to run-offs to be held the first week of January. And, Alaska Senate race is in play and may go Democratic. I made donations to John Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock's campaigns last night. I encourage everyone to do so. We need to take the authoritarian power away from McConnell. No one in a democracy should have and have the temerity use that power to cripple our Constitutional government the unilateral power he wields. Let's take this major step to return the Congress to Constitutional governing.
We ALL must find a way to support voters in Georgia for the run off election in January. Please post if you know programs that help TRANSPORT voters to voting sites. We can't let lack of transportation and accessibility to sites prevent people from getting out to vote in January
votefwd.org will be organizing sending of letters to encourage run-off voters. Stacey Abrams' organization Fair Fight bears much of the credit for the turnout in Georgia. https://fairfight.com/fair-fight-2020/
Wholeheartedly agree ... and the two Georgia run-offs may, politically, be more important than Biden's imminent victory.
We need both. I try very hard not to be petty, but I have to admit I like the prospect of McConnell still being in the Senate but not having access to the power he is used to. Watch him get really old really fast. (Ok, I slipped and got really petty. I'm going to go hang out on the Association of Bad Quakers now (aka "badasses")
Good idea! Will donate!
You write so beautifully: so clear, so penetrating, so succinct, so informative. It is as if we had Barbara Tuchman on the bridge of the battlecruiser Goeben in August 1914, telling us how events were actually unfolding at the moment. It is brave to write history as it happens, much more authortitativley than journalism. We pray that you are right.
“It is brave to write history as it happens” I couldn’t agree more!
Bob Phillips: This is perfectly stated. I agree with you.
“The unraveling of Trump’s plan to claim victory has been mesmerizing.” I have to add the word ‘horrifying’. I listened to most of your talk yesterday...we need to reinstate something like the Fairness Doctrine. These lies being spread by social media, news stations, (Fox), etc. need to be stopped! At least make these people accountable for their words. Thank God that Twitter banned Bannon. What a horrid, disgusting person.
As always, thank you for your letters and talks HCR.
Bannon is also trying his brand of “organizing” in the Catholic Church.
I liked this table: https://networkadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/EquallySacredScorecard.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3518S6PcB_bcHl9XdA7WxkJxKJuZffgOeF5jC5-cduQF68wQgXDm_QtkE
Interested to see these:
https://faith2020.medium.com/catholics-cannot-vote-for-trump-cd349c09c15a
https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/40803
I am learning on this front.
Thank you.
🤨
Thanks to you, too!
Thank you for your succinct summation of a day that felt like a week. See you on the flip side my fellow Letter-Heads.
My judge friend posted on Facebook last night that Tarrant Co (Ft Worth) and Dallas Co actually went Blue! Small margin but amazing in very Republican Texas. Trump flags are coming down. Racing trucks with enormous flags have disappeared. Sirens at night started to remind me of LA riots recently, have calmed down too. I’m not sure I’m built for living in historic times but it feels so hopeful to feel the change back towards civility! Even my elementary students are talking about the election. A 4th grade girl asked why is it taking so long? I said imagine the days before electricity when it took months to find out who won? We just need to be patient.
Thank you, Heather, for guiding us through this and holding our wringing hands! For giving us reason and hope!
Biden just moved into the lead in Georgia.
I love that it is the people of Georgia formerly represented by the late John Lewis that are giving their votes to Biden and now have handed Georgia's electoral votes to Biden.
Please give many huzzahs to Stacey Abrams.
Indeed. Her loss to Brian Kemp was due to his voter suppression before and during the election. She didn't go home to cry; she founded Fair Fight, whose actions resulted in some hundreds of thousands of people registering to vote.
And she will go "up" in history for her phenomenal accomplishment for Democracy!
Clarification, as per Stacey Abrams herself: "I created an organization about six years ago called the New Georgia Project. That has focused exclusively on voter registration. And New Georgia Project is part of a consortium of organizations that have been working hard to register voters of color and voters who are unlikely voters. We also have had easier voting processes made possible because of the Motor Voter Act being really fully implemented in the state of Georgia. And so 800,000 new voters are an incredible number, but the credit should be shared."
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/02/930504055/former-georgia-gubernatorial-candidate-on-a-push-for-voter-turnout
She should be given the Congressional Medal of Honor.
We ALL must find a way to support voters in Georgia for the run off election in January. Please post if you know programs that help TRANSPORT voters to voting sites. We can't let lack of transportation and accessibility to sites prevent people from getting out to vote in January.
Now there is a race that has surprised me. I grew up 20 miles from Atlanta, and watched the Southern Strategy and the politicization of the Bible Belt with fear and loathing. Maybe the metro area has finally grown big enough to take on the rest of the state?
Along with Savannah and other urban areas.
Ah yes. I have been away for a long time and forget that there *are* other urban areas now. My bad.
Stacy Abrams and her group, over a 6 year span, spent time educating and signing up over 800,000 people.
"...create a narrative that makes his supporters believe something that is not true." That is it in a nutshell. I wish I could get my friends to get this. I live in city where over 50% (this is a conservative estimate, it is probably higher) of the adult population has at least a B.S. degree. I also believe per capita we have the highest percentage of Ph.Ds in the United States. However, it a conservative Christian community and they buy his bullshit. It baffles me. My Dad who was a Democrat (50 year member of IBEW) would ask me how I could live in a Republican community. My comeback was I could compartmentalize people from their politics. However, HCR pointed out in yesterday's talk or the one before that is getting harder to do when they support someone who is willing to lie and cheat to get what he wants. It is heartbreaking and cause for deep reflection.
Yes! You live surrounded by my PA birth family. Multiple degrees, and they supported Trump. Help me figure this out. ❤️🤍💙
I am Midland, MI
Portage/Kalamazoo here !
Didn't that area turn blue
yes! But is was TOO close!
And I can't figure it out
When and where I grew up, no one wore their religion or their politics on their sleeve, as I see all around me here in central North Carolina. Forty-some years ago, when I first moved to this state, I was astounded when people would ask, immediately after meeting me, "Where do you go to church?" WHAT?? At that time, I believe, North Carolina was pretty much under Democratic control at the state level, but they were still the old Southern Conservative Democrats, for the most part. In other words, still plenty segregationist, church-going, etc.
But the county I now live in is solidly Republican, and has been, I'm told, for over 70 years. And these are the ones HCR spoke of in her recent video, that have melded their politics and their religious views, so that they are now a seamless marker of their identity. The old mainline Protestant churches have largely been replaced by Southern Baptist, independent Baptist and Pentecostal churches and they are all VERY conservative. The idea of even being friends with a Democrat, let alone compromising with them politically, is practically a sin. They have drunk the Kool Aid that Democrats are spawns of the devil and murder babies and eat them. They believed that even before QAnon, (well, maybe not the eating part).
I grew up in your city. My dad was head of environmental quality for Dow, always between a rock and a hard place. I know exactly what you are going through. Who knows, maybe with your insights and compassion, and my knowledge we could make a little difference.
Wow, I worked in Dow Corning HES for almost 30 years. I had all my points (If you worked at DCC and Dow you know what that means) just before the merger, so I was able to retire with nice package. That said one of my local Facebook friends posted a pro-Trump meme that just made me want to shake my head. She was part of Senior Management in her group at Dow. I just don't know how she can divorce herself for reality.
The reality of Dow-Town is Heritage Foundation, The Family, National Prayer Breakfast... Congrats on having all your points!
Yes, i consider it to be a major accomplishment.
... from reality
I am trying to be patient, awaiting the final counts. Failing miserably. There is so much hatred coming from Trump supporters, I pray the Secret Service will be able to keep Joe Biden and Kamala Harris safe! Thank you for being a voice of calm in these turbulent times.