Editorial,
The Week in Review – Analysis, Commentary, Opinion
11.26.2016
I guess we will get numb
to things.
A human being can get use
to anything, even the idea of a President Trump. Accepting it was easy, because
it is what it is. Understanding how it happened is another matter altogether.
Understanding the reactions of the media, the
newsmakers and the commentators, that is also baffling, but most of the things
they are saying (or not saying) can be understood in relation to their profit
motives. Those people are not public servants, no matter how much we would like
them to be, or how much they pretend to be, they are self-interested, self
serving reporters, producers, and CEOs of mega-corporations.
I am more baffled by the
great number of people in my personal network who continue to lash out at the
democratic party, and at Hillary Clinton for losing, suggesting that they lost
the election because they were not ideologically pure enough as liberals, or
too much in bed with bankers and big agriculture big oil, and the rest of the
military industrialized complex.
It was not a lack of
ideological purity that lost the election for the left, it was ideological
rigor that did the democratic agenda in.
Lefties, acting like
children, pretending that they are justified in vilifying Hillary Clinton, vilifying
her for being a war monger, a hawk, a neo-con, these are my friends, and it
saddens me to say that they live in such an insulated world that they have no
idea, that half of the voting population in the United States, actually believe
the things that Republicans talk about.
They believe that human
beings have no influence on climate change.
They believe that the
world is only 6,000 years old.
They believe that human
beings walked with dinosaurs.
They believe that
President Obama was out to get their guns, they do not believe that he reduced
the deficit, helped grow the stock market, helped ease the unemployment rate,
kept the economy rolling, saved the housing markets, saved the automotive
sector. They believe he is a Muslim, born in Kenya, illegitimate. They believe
it, and they were never going to vote against their standard bearer. They voted
for Donald Trump. They are half of the electorate. They believe that
Christianity is in danger of losing its prominence in the American way of life,
and that white people are an endangered minority. They believe it, and they
voted, and they were never going to be convinced of anything by Bernie Sanders,
or Jill Stein or anyone.
I have many friends who
know these things in the abstract, but despite that knowledge they cannot
fathom how to present a coordinated political response to the problems those
world views present. These friends of mine believe that the election could have
been won if the candidate from the left was ideologically pure, and not a
centrist like Hillary Clinton, who, in their own speech, they make out to be a
right wing extremist.
These friends of mine are
already busy sewing the seeds of dissent and disunity among their progressive
peers, instead of examining how we can work together to dig our way out of this
mess.
Cognitive dissonance is
not only for the right wing. Cognitive dissonance is a problem of the extremes.
If you want to see
progress in this country you cannot tear the system down, the electorate would
never afford you the time to rebuild it. Fear fills a vacuum, and the result we
get from that is the politics of paranoia which we have.
I ask my friends, those who
care about politics, and more important about public policy, I ask you to get
with it. Join the democratic party, work from within, accept the outcome of
policies debates when you are on the losing end, stick together and form a
critical mass. That is the only way we will move the country forward, and be content
if the progress we make appears slight. Do not quit.
To further this end, please
stop posting vulgarities. Stop expressing rage. Start planning, stick to it,
and motivate those around. Present the steadfast face, be a diplomat. Stat vetting
your news sources, set aside the splashy headlines because you like how the
read, or ring in your ears. Don’t give the critics on the right a reason to
dismiss your point of view. They will do it anyway, but let’s not lob any
softballs.
Stand up against
injustice, coordinate your actions with others and present a united face,
without that the country will continue to veer to the right.
Stop wading through the
miasma of misinformation. Demand clarity, and offer reason in return.
