"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Friday, November 11, 2016

Get Ready for a Trump Policy Blitzkrieg

Because Trump knows that he lost the citizen vote and that he will likely lose the Senate and maybe the House in 2018, every non-fascist should be ready for a policy blitzkrieg during the first two years of Trump's term to consolidate authoritarian rule, quash diversity, and destroy any plans for planetary sustainability. Trump will seek to placate his bases of support with crumbs and to further enrage and isolate them against the majority.

The coming onslaught will require unblinking courage, massive resistance, and civil disobedience within and outside every democratic institution and association here and around the world.  What Trump can't control, he will try to eradicate.  Be ready.  Organize.  Know that confrontation is inevitable. Courage.

The FB post below is by Ira David Socol, educator, former NYC cop, and all-round good guy:
For those who want me (us) to "get over it," allow me to explain. 
I could not call myself an educator if I accepted this man as President without protest. We, who work in schools, have a sacred trust to support, to love, every child in our care. And it is our job to promote the values by which society operates. If I do not protest how could I ever say I'm against bullying, or humiliation, or physical violence?  
I could not call myselt a husband if I accepted this man as President without protest. Or a brother. Or a son. Or a colleague. Or a friend. I would never tolerate anyone treating a woman the way he has. And listen, I've spent my share of time in locker rooms, I've heard lots of s***, but I've never heard anything like admissions of sexual assault. If I had, I would have called the police.  
I could not call myself a parent if I accepted this man as President without protest. Our son is a grown man who, I'm proud to say, has stood up to bullies all his life and who has tried to protect the vulnerable. I hope that is what I modelled for him, that is, after all, essentially the oath I took with the NYPD long ago. And this is no time to disappoint him by not standing up now.  
I could not call myself a person of faith if I accepted this man as President without protest. The religions that I understand demand that we reject the kind of leadership Trump has shown. Whether you say you are a Jewish, a Catholic, a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu, whatever, your articles of faith explicitly tell you to reject this man.   
And lastly, I could not call myself an American if I accepted this man as President without protest. I have watched him demean people for a year, the poor, the African American, the Latino, the disabled, the Jewish, the Muslim, and all women. And over the last two days I have seen the fruits, and it is already a nightmare. That is not American. That is not the nation that liberated the world in WWII.   
That is not the nation that freed the South and Midwest from poverty in FDR's time, and that saved Appalachia in LBJ's time. That's not the nation where New York and California paid for the New Deal and the Great Society. That's not the nation that rushes aid around the globe, or around the nation wherever disaster strikes. That's not the nation of the Roosevelts, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, or even Ronald Reagan. That's not my nation.  
So we will protest, and block, and disrupt, and of course filibuster - blocking this President as Republicans have blocked Obama. And we will sue and argue and boycott. Because people with no thought for others, with no charity, and no Christianity have unleashed an evil into the world, and we owe it to the future not to let America today look like Germany Italy and Spain in the mid 1930s.  
So if you tell me to get over it, I'll unfriend you for now because it's clear we live in different moral universes. And I'm sorry about that, but this is essential to me, and my energy must be used to protect people from those who voted for Donald Trump. I can't waste it arguing with people who have abandoned decency.

1 comment:

  1. My long time comrades from Tierra y Libertad - Union del Barrio Los Angeles have organized this marcha contra fascista Trump. Although I have finals next week, I will be at this demonstration. Please join me in being #unitedagainsthate

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