I have always been a very optimistic person...until trump was elected. During the 2016 election process, every time something unbelievable came out about trump, we'd say "ok, that should take care of him"! But nothing he did changed a thing with his cult. Instead, the republican party grouped in behind him. We found out just how many…
I have always been a very optimistic person...until trump was elected. During the 2016 election process, every time something unbelievable came out about trump, we'd say "ok, that should take care of him"! But nothing he did changed a thing with his cult. Instead, the republican party grouped in behind him. We found out just how many believed as he professed. My feelings have been through all this that there are reasonable republicans and after he lost the election, they would come forth and say, we didn't mean it, let's get all this stuff straightened out. Instead, they're fighting even harder. I love what you said and hope like hell that you are right but the optimist in me has taken a hit and it's just hard for her to believe anything will change these people now.
Yes, but there are more of us than there are of them. In American elections, we rarely get greater than a turnout number greater than 65% of eligible voters in elections. If we can turn out even 25% of those non-voters, there is nowhere in America we cannot win elections. It is far easier to turn a non-voter into a voter than to turn a conservative into a progressive. We need to be sure we are speaking to the concerns of non-voters who feel they are ignored, forgotten, and that the issues they are concerned about and face in their everyday lives are not addressed by politicians. They need to see those issues and concerns are addressed by candidates and when those candidates are elected they get something done about them.
What good does it do to win elections when Republican state legislators give themselves or their party's appointees the power to overturn those elections?
That's the way I feel and have felt, Pam. I kept waiting for the Trump nightmare to be over. I'm still trying to understand how such ugliness could could have become so powerful. HCR has helped me to understand that today's flames are from old, smoldering fires. Things were never as good as I thought. I understand now the extreme importance of a good education, honest media, and active involvement in community and politics. I had taken good things for granted, and we must not.
People are motivated by fears and needs. The more our officials tell us all what there is to fear, the more fearful people become. The more chaotic the world appears. When you are fearful, you look for someone to ameliorate that fear. When you perceive chaos (because you have been told about it repeatedly -- covid, immigrants, the borders, the shrinking White population-- you want someone to bring order. When you are afraid of the future, you nestle into your belief about the afterlife or the ability of the divine to intervene, and you accept plans officials make to make the future more certain.
We are a country of fearful people. We want order. Strongmen provide that so we vote for them. They stir up more chaos and fear, and we retrench, get angry, get violent, exclude, exact retribution, and worse. This is the big picture here.
I have always been a very optimistic person...until trump was elected. During the 2016 election process, every time something unbelievable came out about trump, we'd say "ok, that should take care of him"! But nothing he did changed a thing with his cult. Instead, the republican party grouped in behind him. We found out just how many believed as he professed. My feelings have been through all this that there are reasonable republicans and after he lost the election, they would come forth and say, we didn't mean it, let's get all this stuff straightened out. Instead, they're fighting even harder. I love what you said and hope like hell that you are right but the optimist in me has taken a hit and it's just hard for her to believe anything will change these people now.
Yes, but there are more of us than there are of them. In American elections, we rarely get greater than a turnout number greater than 65% of eligible voters in elections. If we can turn out even 25% of those non-voters, there is nowhere in America we cannot win elections. It is far easier to turn a non-voter into a voter than to turn a conservative into a progressive. We need to be sure we are speaking to the concerns of non-voters who feel they are ignored, forgotten, and that the issues they are concerned about and face in their everyday lives are not addressed by politicians. They need to see those issues and concerns are addressed by candidates and when those candidates are elected they get something done about them.
What good does it do to win elections when Republican state legislators give themselves or their party's appointees the power to overturn those elections?
That's the way I feel and have felt, Pam. I kept waiting for the Trump nightmare to be over. I'm still trying to understand how such ugliness could could have become so powerful. HCR has helped me to understand that today's flames are from old, smoldering fires. Things were never as good as I thought. I understand now the extreme importance of a good education, honest media, and active involvement in community and politics. I had taken good things for granted, and we must not.
People are motivated by fears and needs. The more our officials tell us all what there is to fear, the more fearful people become. The more chaotic the world appears. When you are fearful, you look for someone to ameliorate that fear. When you perceive chaos (because you have been told about it repeatedly -- covid, immigrants, the borders, the shrinking White population-- you want someone to bring order. When you are afraid of the future, you nestle into your belief about the afterlife or the ability of the divine to intervene, and you accept plans officials make to make the future more certain.
We are a country of fearful people. We want order. Strongmen provide that so we vote for them. They stir up more chaos and fear, and we retrench, get angry, get violent, exclude, exact retribution, and worse. This is the big picture here.