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| Steve Benson, Az Republic |
It’s Thanksgiving weekend, and believe it or not, there’s much for all of us to be thankful for. This includes those of us who are not very happy with the results of the election. Here’s a list of some things I’m thankful for!
The Orange Guy himself! I’m a progressive independent, so you can safely assume I wasn’t too happy with Reagan or with Pappy and W. Bush. I voted against them, and griped to my legislators, and wrote the odd letter to the editor, but that was as far as it went. That’s because they had social skills and didn’t invite actual fascists into the government, didn’t publicly belittle handicapped folks, didn’t brag about groping women, didn’t get endorsed by the KKK, didn’t write off climate change as a Chinese plot, etc. To me, the empowering of such a person is a Pearl Harbor or 9/11 event. So now I’m all fired up, energized, and budgeting time and money weekly to work against fascism. Turns out I’m not alone. This is how real and enduring populist movements are born…from the seed-stock of hateful, dishonest, thin-skinned, dumb, dangerous and repressive people.
Minority Government! Not only did the orange guy lose the popular vote by a couple million voters, it turns out his support even among folks that did vote for him is thin. Anecdotally, I’ve had a dozen folks tell me they thought the 2016 choices for President were awful, and they “held their noses” and voted for the orange guy; hardly a ringing endorsement. The legislative majority he enjoys in both houses includes lots of people he insulted during the election, and many more who are appalled by his public behavior and afraid of his impulsiveness and immorality. The legislative minority, while justifiably engaged in angst and soul-searching, is unified in its disgust with the orange guy-elect. He’ll have to be a Kennedy/Reagan/Roosevelt to turn that around. I suspect he’s really not that kind of material. His non-fan club includes organized labor, virtually every minority community in the nation, the environmental community, the scientific and academic communities, the wealthiest and most successful states, and a number of relatively well-moneyed interests who view him as an existential threat. They’re probably not going to be helpful to him. There are people in the streets already, and he hasn’t actually done anything yet. Just wait till he does!
Sleaze/Corruption! Our boy has a track record. You can expect scandals both great (mixing private business with governing, extra and quasi-legal executive orders, manipulation of the press, encouraging violence and bigotry via 2:00 AM tweets, etc.) and small (lots of jiggling silicone, embarrassing diplomatic gaffes, public rows with theater people and comedians, unfortunate videos and images, etc.). He simply won’t be able to help himself and his gang of enablers won’t be able to stop him.
American Institutions! Given the high caliber of folks who seem to be appearing on the orange guy’s dream team, the federal courts, the military and the bureaucratic agencies won’t be very well led or well treated. This is a collection of very wealthy committed ideologues who will espouse and do dumb, cruel and unsuccessful stuff. You can expect the hateful crap that they will shove down the throats of their agencies to leak copiously and wind up on-line, in headlines, and in court in very short order.
Investigative Journalists and Attorneys! There will be lots to work with (see above).
These many festive gifts emanating from the spectacular election of 2016 are, of course, all potential tools to be used to begin the long, patient, and honorable process of building an actual representative democracy. That will take a lot of work from a lot of people, and a good deal of courage. More on that in another post. Happy Thanksgiving!
As this is written, the cabinet that will implement the orange guy elect’s policies is beginning to take shape. We are beginning to see what the incoming government will look like.