The election of Donald John Trump to the President of the United States is a grave danger to the safety and well-being of millions of Americans. I plan to resist this as strongly as is legally possible. I ask that you join me.
I have some suggestions, which I will post below. First some reflections on the election.
1. This is a national emergency and should be treated as such. We are already seeing racists emboldened to violent acts in America. This will get much worse. Trump today invited a successful racist to join his cabinet. There will be violence against other groups imagined by Trump supporters to be a threat to them and their legitimacy. Expect violence: it is one of their primary forms of communication.
2. There is no time for extended debate, though the topic needs it and we would benefit from it. I don’t have to time to write a position paper. I know my position. In this emergency, you should know yours.
3. The Clinton election team failed. Of course, Clinton failed to win the election, and pollers (wtf is a pollster?) failed to predict that. The consequences of this failure are not Clinton’s election team’s to bear, nor, perhaps, is the actual loss of the election — it may not have been winnable. But the failure to properly read the population and react lies with those who ran her campaign. Their planned victory party included a celebration of “Ada” — the computer program they used for targeted electioneering. Clinton paid millions of dollars for Ada and for her programmers. I have no way of knowing if this team did as well as they could have. It is clear they did not do as well as they should have.
4. This graphic from the NYT shows as well as anything I have seen where Clinton lost. She lost in the Rust Belt. Please keep in mind that these people have cause for their dissatisfaction with how America has treated them. Their reaction to their circumstances is valid and predictable, even as their vote for this particular interloper is counter-productive.
5. Losing an election is not the end. Elections are lost for many reasons. That Clinton lost should not be taken as evidence that Clinton was rejected, or that “Clintonism” was rejected, or that any single aspect of her candidacy was rejected (e.g.: Democracy, Feminism, Equality, Bodily Rights). It should not be taken, either, that any of these were approved. Clinton lost the Electoral College vote. The consequences to that are single: Donald John Trump is President-elect. Beyond accepting that fact, Americans have no other obligation to the results of the election.
Join me “around the bend” for suggestions on what we can do today.
The question today is: What can I do? What can we do?
I make the following suggestions. I will try to follow-up on each of them in the coming days.
1. Repurpose DKos.
Markos has forced Daily Kos to be dedicated to electing Democrats, and just vowed to redouble the fight for future elections. This is, imho, simply not up to the task we face today, and misdirected. The Democratic Party has failed Democrats. I suggest that Markos repurpose Daily Kos to the empowerment of the American Middle Class, independent of political party. Since 1970, moneyed interests have worked, both in partnership and independently, to disempower the Middle Class and to impoverish its members. They have succeeded: wealth distribution in America is at an all-time imbalance; the share of wealth held by the Middle Class has dropped 30% from what it was in 1971. Children of Middle Class families today have nowhere near the cash, education, or opportunities children of the Middle Class had from 1950 to 1980. (This is how we got to having a President-elect who is ignorant, stupid, mean, vulgar, infantile, and monstrous, but the lines of that story will have to wait for a more relaxed hour.) Middle Class values — providing for children, families, and the elderly through programs of public safety, public education, social mobility, and care for the elderly — are Daily Kos community values. (I have been here 12 years, iirc.) Middle Class values are good. Middle Class values are, I posit, what this community shares — and I think this community will function best when specifically charged with working to ensure that people who hold Middle Class values are empowered politically and financially.
America itself should be dedicated to its Middle Class. Daily Kos should be as well.
Daily Kos should start publishing a weekly “Middle Class Index” or the percentage of our country’s wealth held by our Middle Class. Fuck the DOW — after repurposing itself to the empowerment of the Middle Class, DKos should start publishing a weekly index of the percentage of the nation’s wealth held by the Middle Class. (I propose naming this the Weekly Kirby, reasons for which will have to wait.)
2. Accept the non-deplorable white Middle Class and Lower Middle Class
These people have a legitimate claim of persecution. Their method of registering it in the national consciousness may be counter-productive, and may lead to the downfall of America, but their gripe is right. Listen to them. They have been ill-treated by an America their sweat and blood helped create. We owe them better. Let them join us in empowering the Middle Class.
Have no truck with deplorable people of any political stripe. Racism is wrong. Physical control of others is wrong.
There are lots of angry, white, non-racist, Middle Class voters who did not vote for Clinton.
3. Shun Trump and all things Trump
Donald John Trump is patently and inarguably unfit for any public office.
I strongly suggest that all Americans, and without exception all Democrats, shun Donald John Trump and anyone who works for him. I don’t know how this will work within government, but I am in fact proposing simply shutting down every single branch and agency of government until Donald John Trump is no longer President-elect. The man is a clear violation of every social norm we have. Because of how he behaves, he deserves no respect whatsoever, and should be given none. Elected or un-elected, he deserves no audience, no time, and no attention, and he should be given none without exception. If Donald Trump or anyone who works for him enters a room you are in, leave. If Donald Trump or anyone who works for him speaks to you, walk away silently. We should do this, and our elected representatives should do this.
You do not honor the Office of the Presidency by giving someone like Donald John Trump the honor of that office. He won the election; he does not deserve the honor of the Presidency, and should not be given it.
This is a necessary act of civil disobedience. We must use it. We must use it as a group. That solidarity is a great strength.
I don’t know where that will lead. I suspect it will lead to legal and governmental crisis. It is meant to.
This should be extended to everything the Middle Class can do. Companies that support Donald John Trump should be boycotted (DKos should list them). We should immediately “slow walk” the economy. We should plan for a national strike. We should, today, limit purchases to necessities. We should make the financial burden of having Donald John Trump as President-elect as painful as possible to every moneyed interest in America.
4. Stay together. Work together. Be together.
I mentioned above a magic word. Solidarity. I propose we join together to defeat Trumpism. The threat is grave. We need to all work, together, in unison, to stop the imminent threat of Fascism, Nationalism, and Racism that has inflated Donald John Trump so far above his rightful place. It will not stop itself, and it will not be stopped by being asked to live up to its promises. There are no checks and balances on empowered Fascism. Part of what makes Donald John Trump completely, unquestionably, and irredeemably unfit for leadership of any civil kind is that he observes no social norms. He has no decency. His Presidency will have no decency. We cannot expect him to act in any way other than indecent, fraudulent, and in bad faith. He is untrustworthiness in the flesh. We must act with that in mind. We must not let the Presidency of Donald John Trump happen, even if it means national civil disobedience. We must, in fact, treat the Republican Party as it has treated the Obama administration for eight years. We have that power: no compromises, no working together, nothing, ever, at all, until you are rid of Donald John Trump. It is not for us to say how the Republican Party should do this; but do it they must, and they must be forced to.
Am I wrong?
Thank you for reading. I will respond to comments later tonight.
Tomorrow morning I will pin a black ribbon to my chest. As soon as I can, I will get one with the following words on it:
In Solidarity with Women, People of all Colors, and the Middle Class.
I will wear it in mourning until Donald John Trump is absent from public life.