Has anyone red this article by Mary Trump? I’m wondering what folks think given the predictions many have stated for this year and next.
https://newrepublic.com/article/163115/donald-trump-plot-against-america
Excellent share - thank you!
I very much enjoyed her book, too.
@tybin thanks for posting that Mary Trump article on the insurrection. Powerful. I hadn’t realized what a good writer she is too even though I read her first book on T. I share her sentiments, as I believe, do most people in this community, that the insurrection and the days following it were the most dangerous moments in the history of our democracy. Even though the insurrectionists didn't get away with it, the overall reaction to the insurrection has been too mild given what they tried to do and given that they could have toppled our democracy for good. I can no longer be mute when someone says it was just a protest and overblown by liberals. (I tend to avoid engaging with right wing neighbors and friends on political subjects because I find their thinking too toxic for me, but on the issue of the insurrection, I push back hard and follow with "End of discussion. Period.") Mary Trump's article sets the record straight for anyone who wants to respond to those spurious ill-informed right wing arguments.
@dannyboy The answer to that laddie.. is... it is no longer wired.. the motherboard circuit has fried.
@lynnventura I was a Republican before Ronald Reagan took office. The racist policies of Reagan and North Carolina’s Jesse Helms awakened me to the fact that I no longer wanted to be associated with that party. I’ve never looked back or regretted it, much like I’ve never regretted leaving Facebook. The toxicity has been there for a long, long time.
He was toxic, and in many ways we're still living in his world. Here's a link to an interesting article that discusses Reagan's dog-whistle politics:
https://www.salon.com/2014/01/11/the_racism_at_the_heart_of_the_reagan_presidency/
Reagan's campaign was given a huge assist by the vile Lee Atwater, who renounced his ways on his deathbed. Atwater had a consulting firm with Paul Manafort and Roger Stone. Together these four men are responsible for a lot of what we're seeing and living today.
Stone, btw, is a huge Trump buddy, and Trump because famous in the 80's. It feels like we're still living that decade. I'm ready for it to be over.
I am a registered independent and I vote almost exclusively blue (I'll vote green on occasion if the race dictates it).
I was a Democrat for a long time, but I find the "rah team" dynamics of party membership abhorrent, even when one team is clearly right and one is clearly wrong. January 6th happened because of the "rah team" dynamic grown cancerous. I want nothing to do with that.
So, I'll continue to vote blue without being blue, and putting the Dems on notice that I'll abandon them at the first sign of putting party over principle.
@walden-ponderer I think that is important to remember. We need to be voting for the individual and not just the party. I know many who vote for the party even when they do not fully support that candidate or realize the agenda of that candidate.
Hey community! Can you believe what the progressives have accomplished in seven months? Now Don’t turn away and look for some dark news instead of what I’m saying here.
I know that we tend to focus on what isn’t working, what we/they are doing wrong because we were born to make things better. But let’s look at what has been accompanied in just seven months.
Look at the infrastructure bill.
This is from this morning’s Washington post and it is worth a read: “Here we are. Nineteen Republicans — including McConnell — joined every Senate Democrat in approving $1 trillion worth of desperately needed infrastructure spending. Included are not just funds to fix roads and bridges, but also big money to provide broadband Internet to Americans who can’t afford it; upgrade the power grid in ways that facilitate the switch to renewable energy; and create a coast-to-coast network of electric-vehicle charging.”
Damn. A coast to coast network of electric vehicle charging. I am so ready for electric so this is excellent news. And the switch to renewable energy. How’d they get that past the Republicans?
We are going to need our positive energy to keep moving forward. If we only look at the mess we could become too discouraged to clean up the house. If in 2019 we had believed our predictions that the President and the Congress would have turned back so many Trumpian policies in just seven months. if we’d imagined that the state of Georgia would turn blue; and that the senate, the Senate! would pass a trillion dollar bill with real money for sustainability, well then we can now believe that we are going to see much more good news ahead.
If you hit a paywall let me know and I’ll share more of this article: it’s today’s WAPO and it’s entitled “hey democrats, your team is doing a great job!”
Also please know that as the climate , the pandemic and the Repubs get worse then the progressives come out of the woodwork. It’s physics. It’s the change we are now going through. The great unraveling charges the great turning.
@lynnventura, @lovendures @bluebelle
I've mentioned before on this forum that I'm an immigration lawyer (public interest). The 45 years were dark times. The cruelty was astounding. I've practiced law for over 30 years, during good and bad administrations, but nothing could have prepared me for what the past administration did to the rule of law as it applied to immigration. Something as simple as leaving a line blank on an immigration form instead of writing N/A resulted in a rejected application and sometimes blowing a filing deadline. Those kind of mind-games, not to mention that larger changes that took place, were hard to absorb. It was like a daily firehouse in your face. It was not only changes in law and policy, but psy-ops meant to demoralize immigrants and their advocates. Knowing it was intentional (it couldn't have been anything else) was sickening.
Well, well, well, what a difference a few months can make! As methodical as the past administration was in its cruelty, the Biden administration has been equally as methodical in restoring what was lost. So I completely agree with Jeanne. The gains have been many, and there are probably many more we don't know about because so much of it is inside-baseball stuff.
I'm on "team blue" because, at least for for the foreseeable future, it is team democracy, team rule of law, team decency. It's doing pretty well. So much reason to hope.
On a sadder note, many prayers for our friends in Afghanistan. Their plight is dire. Let's all send them love and light.