pat_k
pat_k's JournalWhy aren't we hearing this over, and over, and over?
The president promises to carry out the laws passed by Congress, whether they like them or not. If a president doesn't like a law, they work with congress to change it. It's a crime for a president or the people who work for him to single-handedly end a program Congress created. That's not how our government works.
Why aren't we hearing it said this simply?
Leave the erudite discussions of the balance of powers and how complicated the body of law that has evolved to deal with all sorts of grey areas has become for the experts. Within all that, the basic principles are sound and true.
I think perhaps the BIGGEST problem we have within the Democratic Party is a fear of making simple statements, either because we have in our heads a myriad of complicated exceptions or caveats and we lose track of the basic truth (or we fear there are little exceptions we don't know about).
Bottom line. Over and over, we lose people because we've lost sight of the forest for the trees.
We MUST stop making that mistake.
Looking for the right "message"? Just tell it simply. Assume no knowledge. Think about explaining to a 7 year old.
And if the message is challenged with "it's not that simple," great. Any exception they come up with always boils down to an attempt to deal with a grey area in a way that preserves the basic principle, so you've actually just been given the opportunity to bring it back to the basic principle.
Lobby Democrats in Congress to write a joint House/Senate "Letter to America"
The following is from a recent Hopium Chronicles entry from Simon Rosenberg. The entire post is, IMO, an absolute must read (link below), but I want to call out the part I think must be front and center of our efforts: Lobbying for a joint Democratic House/Senate Letter to America.
Excerpt from Simon's post:
This “letter to America” can become the rallying cry for all of our work together. It can become the amicus brief in every court challenge to Trump. It can become a clear statement to the world that American patriots are fighting this historical betrayal of our democracy but also of freedom loving people throughout the world. The people of America and the world need to hear from Democrats and other leaders of this pro-democracy movement that they understand the stakes of the fight we are in and are willing to leave it all on the line for the most important force for freedom humanity has ever seen. The absence of this clear, simple statement from our Congressional leaders is unacceptable and dangerous, and it is why I believe this “Letter to America” remains our very first ask of all of Congressional representatives.
In additional to your own Democratic members of the House and Senate (if you have any) lobby the Democratic Leadership in FAXes (if they accept faxes), emails, calls, and snail mail specifically directed at their title role. Not just asking them to do this but asking if specific steps are being taken and if so, what steps. And follow up, and follow up....
And if you have the wherewithal, work with groups you are involved with to get petitions going and pull together a few people, contact the elected's scheduler and try to set up a meeting. Ask to meet with the member. If not that, chief of staff or communications. If not that, take whoever the hell they are willing to give you a meeting with. And if you can't travel to an office, ask about doing a Zoom meeting.
If you don't have others to band with, try to set up a meeting on your own as a representative of yourself, or to deliver a petition, or to deliver letters you have collected from others. The kind of back and forth dialog that is only really possible face-to-face, where you can ask pointed questions about why this isn't in the works, or if it is in the works, why does there seem to be no sense of urgency, is incredibly powerful.
House
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (Dem Leader)
Rep. Joe Neguse (Dem Assistant Leader)
Rep. Katherine Clark (Dem Whip)
Rep. Pete Aguilar (Caucus Chair)
Senate
Sen. Chuck Schumer (Dem Leader)
Sen. Richard Durbin (Dem. Whip)
Sen. Cory Booker (Chair of Strategic Communications Committee)
Sen. Mark Warner and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Dem. Vice Chairs)
https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/old-dogs-and-new-tricks-a-letter
On "the radical difference of mental habit between the good character and the bad." (Schopenhauer )
People connected to our basic common humanity and compassion will always be the counterweight to those of "bad character." Compassion is a mighty force. Hold on to it.
Uncle Joe's post Human Empathy & Interconnectedness - Joseph Campbell - 1986, in which Joseph Campbell quotes Schopenhauer prompted me to go back and review bits of his writings.
The following from The Basis of Morality on the "radical difference of mental habit between the good character and the bad" really struck me.
Page 277
The latter feels everywhere that a thick wall of partition hedges him off from all others. For him the world is an absolute non-ego, and his relation to it an essentially hostile one; consequently, the key-note of his disposition is hatred, suspicion, envy, and pleasure in seeing distress.
The good character, on the other hand, lives in an external world homogeneous with his own being; the rest of mankind is not in his eyes a non-ego; he thinks of it rather as "myself once more." He therefore stands on an essentially amicable footing with every one: he is conscious of being, in his inmost nature, akin to the whole human race, takes direct interest in their weal and woe, and confidently assumes in their case the same interest in him. This is the source of his deep inward peace, and of that happy, calm, contented manner, which goes out on those around him, and is as the "presence of a good diffused."
Whereas the bad character in time of trouble has no trust in the help of his fellow-creatures. If he invokes aid, he does so without confidence: obtained, he feels no real gratitude for it; because he can hardly discern therein anything but the effect of others' folly. For he is simply incapable of recognising his own self in some one else; and this, even after it has furnished the most incontestible signs of existence in that other person: on which fact the repulsive nature of all unthankfulness in reality depends. The moral isolation, which thus naturally and inevitably encompasses the bad man, is often the cause of his becoming the victim of despair.
The good man, on the contrary, will appeal to his neighbours for assistance, with an assurance equal to the consciousness he has of being ready himself to help them. As I have said: to the one type, humanity is a non-ego; to the other, "myself once more." The magnanimous character, who forgives his enemy, and returns good for evil, rises to the sublime, and receives the highest meed of praise; because he recognises his real self even there where it is most conspicuously disowned.
As I read the following bit, DT's "suckers and losers" echoed in my head:
"he feels no real gratitude for it; because he can hardly discern therein anything but the effect of others' folly. "
Page 214
40 years of Fox News brainwashing accelerated by. . .
. . . algorithm created social media information bubbles that just keep getting more bizarre, and you have a serious social problem.
This isn't a political partisan divide of decades past. We are in a whole new place. Far right brainwashing is a serious social problem tearing apart communities and families and we need to figure out some sort of national "recovery program." Something like Exit Deutschland on a big scale. Showcase recovering MAGA folk. More attention to the heartbreak of losing loved ones to the brainwashing.
We need to move from the current us vs. them-ism where we write "them" off as evil people that deserve nothing but our condemnation, to a serious examination of the snowballing social problems the the multibillion dollar far right noise machine kicked off, which is being accelerated at an unbelievable pace by social media algorithms fomenting anger and hatred that are sending an unbelievable number of Americans into rabbit holes that just keep getting more and more and more bizarre.
We need to take on Christianism Nationalism, while being very, very, clear that we are not condemning Christian faith.
We need more documentaries like the 2016 Brainwashing of My Dad
More people from progressive faith communities speaking out on the cancer that is Christian Nationalism.
If you want to disarm trump, stop giving him the gift of our attention.
Roy Cohn taught trump well (link)
. . Cohn imparted an M.O. that’s been on searing display throughout Trump’s ascent, his divisive, captivating campaign, and his fraught, unprecedented presidency. Deflect and distract, never give in, never admit fault, lie and attack, lie and attack, publicity no matter what, win no matter what, all underpinned by a deep, prove-me-wrong belief in the power of chaos and fear.
. . .
Trump and his acolytes want us to be immersed in his horror show. And over, and over, and over, we oblige. If we break away, they do something more outrageous to drag us back.
And when we spend time "spreading the word" about how horrible he is, we are, once again, immersed in his shit.
Time spent denouncing him is NOT PRODUCTIVE. It crushes hope and joy and thus immobilizes. It suppresses the will to take positive action. When we are overwhelmed by his shit, we lose ourselves. When we feel like screaming "how can 'they' not see this?" we are on road to cynicism and hopelessness; we are on the road to feeling powerless. It saps us.
His people are his people. For now, just let them bask in their own horrible little world. He's basically at both his ceiling and his floor. Now it is all about turning out our voters. That's it. That's our job. We need all our hope, enthusiasm, and energy to get it done.
The most productive thing those who oppose trump can do is to ignore the man and his acolytes -- truly ignore them as the pathetic creatures they are. I would be happy if we didn't even put his mug in our ads.
Whatever the latest bit of insanity, dismiss it as the same old shit without comment. Only that way do we disarm him. Find a hopeful speech. Feed our own sense of our power through action or inspiring ourselves with books like "Lobbying for Change: Find Your Voice to Create a Better Society" by Alberto Alemanno. Find the things that inspire you -- simple things.
Resisting the efforts to turn our attention from hope and action to the horrors of the trump show is perhaps our most difficult, but important, task. Just as a meditator chooses, over and over again, to turn their attention back to the breath when attention is pulled elsewhere, we each need to find ways to turn our attention back to hope and action when we find ourselves pulled into the latest outrage.
There are Christians fighting the cancer that is Christian Nationalism
TX State Rep. James Talarico is a riveting speaker on the topic. I hope to see him on the national stage in the not too distant future. Some excerpts below. I highly recommend the entire sermon.
He told us we would know them by their fruits.
Jesus includes.
Christian Nationalism excludes.
Jesus liberates.
Christian Nationalism controls.
Jesus saves.
Christian Nationalism kills.
Jesus started a universal movement based on mutual love.
Christian Nationalism is a sectarian movement based on mutual hate.
Jesus came to transform the world.
Christian Nationalism is here to maintain the status quo.
They have co-opted the Son of God. They've turned this humble rabbi into a gun-toting, gay-bashing, science-denying, money-loving, fear-mongering fascist.
. . .
If this was truly a Christian nation, we would love all of our LGBTQ neighbors. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would make sure every child in this state and in this country was housed, fed, clothed, educated, and insured.
If this was truly a Christian nation, we would never make it a Christian nation because we know the table of fellowship is open to everybody, including our Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and atheist neighbors.
. . .
The closest thing we have to the kingdom of heaven is a multiracial, multicultural democracy where power is truly shared among all people. Something that's yet to exist in human history.
. . .
When someone asked Jesus to name his most important commandment, he cheats and gives two -- two that he says are related. The first is to love God. The second, he said, "Is like it: love they neighbor as thyself." It's like it because when I recognize the divine image in myself, I can't help but recognize it in my neighbor; whether they're Christian or not, whether they're religious or not. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus specifically defines neighbor as some different from us, racially, economically, politically, religiously. God loves diversity; God loves variety. Just look around this beautiful planet of ours.
. . .
God is so much bigger than our human categories. God is not a Presbyterian. God is not a Christian.
God it not a noun at all.
God is a verb.
God is not a being.
God is being itself.
God is love.
And that's why Jesus is against anything that gets in the way of that love between neighbors, including religion.
. . .
That's why he says sinners will get to the kingdom of heaven before religious people do. Sorry to everyone here. I know you came all this way.
. . .
The kingdom of God inverts the power dynamics of "all the kingdoms in the world."
True strength is vulnerability.
True status is equality.
True wealth is sharing.
And we as Christians are called to realize that kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven," not by force, but by faith.
Jesus asked us to have the faith of a mustard seed, trusting that by living and dying for love we give birth to a better world.
That's not easy to do.
. . .
Christian Nationalists are more committed to the love of power than the power of love.
And it exposes a lack of faith because the opposite of faith is not doubt. Doubt is a healthy part of any faith.
The opposite of faith is control. When we stop trusting God, when we stop trusting love, we start taking control for ourselves.
Christian Nationalists want to control what we read, who we marry, where we travel, when we have children. They want to control our minds and our bodies.
"O ye of little faith."
. . .
Still a toss up. As Simon Rosenberg and Joe Trippi pointed out
. . .in the latest Strategy Session, we have a long way to go. The country remains dangerously and evenly divided.
Trippi:
We gotta keep doing the work. No matter what this thing looks like, no matter what it is, we keep doing the work. They keep doing the crazy, we keep doing the work. And run it up everywhere we can. And fight everywhere, including Texas and Florida.
Rosenberg:
If I can say one last point. . . Everyone's gotta realize what Joe just said is so important. Right now, the people that I'm talking to who are canvassing and making phone calls -- so it's exciting, people are interested. You've got this new candidate, new dynamic. Imagine if you are a marginal voter and you kinda have this new excitement, and then the campaign calls you, or the campaign knocks on your door. Not only is this exciting, but they care about me!
What we are hearing anecdotally from people who are making calls and canvassing, and texting right now, is that the reception is unbelievable. And people are like "thank you for calling me," "I want to volunteer." People are volunteering to volunteer. They are not even having to be asked.
So I think there is this dynamic right now that this huge grassroots army that is already deployed is also moving the needle. It's turning people from potential voters, marginal voters into our supporters. And then that is creating what I call this virtuous cycle of participation. This virtuous cycle is now beginning to kick in in the election.
So anyone who is thinking of working, make your plan now. How are you going to close? Early voting starts in 38 days. What are you going to do? Don't wait. Be active now. It's an amazing time to be talking to voters right now. The response has been incredible. And early vote starts in 38 days. Have your plan now for how you're going to give, how you're going to volunteer, and how you're going to vote on day one. It 's important that everyone vote as early as they can in the early vote. If you do that our campaigns move on to lower propensity voters. It increases voter turn out
See https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219332188
It is a great panel!
"Unhumans" -- the far, far, far right dystopian vision of fascism saving the world:
Unhumans
Forward by Bannon,
Blurbed by J.D. Vance, Don Jr., and Tucker Carlson, among others.
Opinion
Michelle Goldberg
JD Vance Just Blurbed a Book Arguing That Progressives Are Subhuman
Aug. 5, 2024
Paywall free link to NYTimes
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/05/opinion/jd-vance-fascism-unhumans.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Bk4.xGes.1_ONuyrQ-M2p&smid=url-share
“Unhumans,” an anti-democratic screed that Posobiec co-wrote with the professional ghostwriter Joshua Lisec, comes with endorsements from some of the most influential people in Republican politics, including, most significantly, vice-presidential candidate JD Vance.
As they tell it, modern progressivism is just the latest incarnation of an ancient evil dating back to the late Roman Republic and continuing through the French Revolution and Communism to today. Often, they write, “great men of means” are required to crush this scourge. The contempt for democracy in “Unhumans” is not subtle. “Our study of history has brought us to this conclusion: Democracy has never worked to protect innocents from the unhumans,” write Posobiec and Lisec.
One of their book’s heroes is the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who overthrew the democratic Second Spanish Republic in the country’s 1930s civil war. The authors call him a “great man of history” and compare him to George Washington. They quote him on what doesn’t work against the unhuman threat: “We do not believe in government through the voting booth. The Spanish national will was never freely expressed through the ballot box.”
Nakedly authoritarian ideas like this one are not uncommon in the dank corners of the reactionary internet, or among the sort of groups that led the Jan. 6 insurrection. “Unhumans” lauds Augusto Pinochet, leader of the Chilean military junta who led a coup against Salvador Allende’s elected government in 1973, ushering in a reign of torture and repression that involved tossing political enemies from helicopters.
Pinochet-inspired helicopter memes have been common in the MAGA movement for years. And as the historian David Austin Walsh wrote last year, there’s long been a cult of Franco on the right. Nevertheless, it’s extremely unusual for a candidate for vice president of the United States to openly align himself with autocratic terror.
. . .
I am mystified that the title of this book and the author isn't being spread as far and wide as the danger of project 2025.
Unhumans goes so much farther down the dystopian authoritarian path.
By blurbing this book, Vance, Carlson, and Don Jr. are endorsing the glorification of the reign of murdering facists like Franco and Pinochet nd endorsing a vision of DT/Vance leading a similar purge.
We can keep the focus on the message of hope and joy, but we CANNOT ignore the implication of this book and how utterly horrifying the premise and "solutions" offered are.
Election Protection orgs -- give time or money
Can just mailing list here https://www.democracydefenseproject.org
Here are some other worthy organizations working to combat suppression and other nefarious activity.
https://www.fairfight.com/
https://allvotingislocal.org/
Efforts focused in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin
https://866ourvote.org/
Election Protection Administered by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
See in your state drop down here: https://866ourvote.org/partner/national-bar-association/
Rolling Stone article:
These Swing State Election Officials Are Pro-Trump Election Deniers
At least 70 pro-Trump conspiracists are election officials in key battleground counties — and they are poised to make a giant mess on Election Day
And film:
Suppressed and Sabotaged: The Fight to Vote
It's from 2020, but worth a look if you missed it (and the list of partners at the bottom of the main page includes a number of other organizations doing work to combat suppression).
Freedom of Speech is not Freedom of Reach
The "violating free speech" bullshit really angers me.
No one is silencing the speech, only limiting the avenues for spreading in an attempt to limit the damage it can do. (If you haven't seen it, check out the speech from Sasha Baron Cohen below)
To those concerned about the bans from certain social media platforms, publishers, or media outlets, I ask, would you have the NY Times forced to publish militant white supremacist or other loathsome speech because those people "have a right to be heard"? Obviously not. Does an outlet that has rules limiting content run the risk of being accused of being "unfair"? Sure. Outlets that limit content in ways that demonstrate what most would consider objectionable bias will get to be known for what they are. (Like Fox is known for what it is.) Calling rules governing unacceptable content "a violation of rights" is completely and utterly absurd.
Sure, within limits ("advocacy of the use of force" is unprotected when it is "directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action" ) everyone has a right to speak their minds, but no organization has an obligation to give them a megaphone. Simon and Shuster can't be forced to publish Hawley's claptrap any more than Regnery could be forced to publish a book by Bernie Sanders.
Any militant white supremacist or crazy conspiracy theorist can get a megaphone and shout their shit from a soapbox in the public square. Or raise funds to set up an internet host willing to host "anything goes" social media platforms.
Conservative social media sites are welcome to ban liberal voices as far as I'm concerned. The people occupying them have their minds closed anyway. Might as well make it explicit with rules that basically amount to "see no evil (social justice ideas), hear no evil (social justice ideas), speak no evil (social justice ideas)"
I am perfectly happy with outlets making their values clear in their rules. I am proud to participate in platforms that utterly reject right-wingnut insanity and hate speech. And if right-wingnut outlets want to make their rejection of sanity clear in their rules, fine. It would be up to us to find other avenues to try to reach those people (if we think we have a message that could possibly get through).
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