It’s my page and I’ll post what I want to, post what I want to… Lots of people seem to read the things that show up here when I’m in need of a brain dump and I’d like to remind them that everything that appears here is colored by my thought processes, lived life experiences, inherent biases, educational background, and the phases of the moon. None of it should be taken as the revealed word from on high. I am frequently wrong, am perfectly OK with counter arguments which present ideas or thoughts that I might not have taken into account or of which I might be unaware, and I have been known to change my mind on subjects, especially political ones, over time. When I first became aware of national politics and how our system operates in the 1970s, I would have described myself as a moderate Republican of a type that has been drummed out of the party starting with the ascendancy of Ronald Reagan. I now cannot think of a single Republican policy on a national level which I can support.
I remain an individual who believes in rationality, expertise, the scientific method, consensus, inclusivity, stewardship of resources for future generations, and strategic use of finances to jump start the solving of problems. I believe that tradition has a place in holding a society together but that tradition should adapt itself to new realities rather than we try to alter reality to fit tradition. I believe that religion is important in grappling with the mysteries of life where science may not yet have the ability to provide answers, but I do not think that dogma should override science or set public policy. There are 330 million of us sharing this country each with our own interior lives and understandings and none of our religious conceptions or beliefs is more correct than any other.
I am saddened to think that a majority of my fellow citizens do not think the way I do, or at least did not cast votes last week suggesting that they think the way I do. But I’m used to being in a minority class. This country has been pulling away of Enlightenment liberal values toward a more authoritarian form of social organization my entire adult life, fueled by a rise in unbridled capitalism that had allowed an enormous percentage of the wealth of the richest society this planet has ever seen becoming more and more concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. I voted for the first time in 1980. There was huge social shift at the time which I could see in my peers. As a freshman in college, when I looked at the upper classmen, they were using their educations to explore, to develop themselves, to figure out how they could use their skills and their privileges for better. As a senior, when I looked at the incoming freshmen, their motivation was how to use their educational opportunities solely to improve their personal financial position and make more money. Perhaps it was the influence of the economic conditions of the 70s and early 80s. Perhaps it was the skyrocketing cost of an education which really started to take off in that period. But I find it unsurprising that it’s my generation (45-65) that really broke for Trump while the Boomers and Silent Generation (65+) did not.
The breakdown in social order of the late 60s fueled the rise of a more conservative Republicanism under Richard Nixon which completely crushed the Democrats by 1972. Nixon, however, overreached in what we now call Watergate and, as the press and the American public of the time still cared about corruption and criminal activity in high office, the Democrats were able to temporarily rebound with Carter in the late 70s. The malaise of that time, in terms of the economy and foreign policy doomed his reelection and in 1980, the Reagan Republicans rode into town.
Reagan and Bush I (pretty much a third Reagan term) would likely have held on to power had not Ross Perot run his independent campaign in 1992 which shifted enough of the Republican vote away to allow Clinton to squeak through. His administration turned out to be well run and the 90s were an economically stable time and he won reelection. He should have been able to hand power over to Gore in the election of 2000 but a combination of an emboldened Supreme Court deciding that the separation of powers no longer really mattered plus some dirty tricks with vote counting in Florida doomed that. Bush II used war mongering to stay in power through two terms but the great recession of 2008 led to enough economic desperation for voters to want to try something else allowing for Obama to win. The Republican machine felt cheated and, starting with the TEA party and the reaction of Obamacare, built the current leviathan that will be very difficult to combat, giving us Trump. A pandemic limited Trump to one term but that was a wounding, not a mortal blow. Reagan/Bush II/Trump is a natural arc towards very specific ends. It’s been designed and executed by the Heritage Foundation and any number of other right wing, well funded civic groups, aided and abetted by a media machine with little respect for objectivity or truth. The left has had no similar infrastructure on a national level. The well organized and financed progressive groups also spend way too much of their time infighting or expending all of their resources on unimportant short term wins rather than working on long term strategy. Clinton/Obama/Biden were helped by specific events that coincided with their initial elections, not by a long term plan. Reaction rather than action.
What now? I may be grieving on some level but I’m not withdrawing with Edward under the office supply shelves and licking my wounds for the next four years. There’s work to be done. I can’t undo the election but I can get up, get dressed, go out, and do good in the world. And that’s what I am planning on for the foreseeable future. There are people who are likely to be hurt by new policies and laws. I can help care for them, one at a time. (That’s always been my motto for my medical career – save the world one patient at a time). I can shine a light on injustice and make sure it is seen for what it is. I can contribute my skills together with others to help create alternative ideas and ideals. I can take inspiration from the wonderful African-American community among whom I live and who have been repeatedly denied full participation in our society for four hundred years now and still live, love, create and have lives filled with joy. I can keep on writing now that I’ve figured out how to do it. Given that my books and essays have been critical of the incoming administration in the past, I shan’t be in the least surprised if I am eventually suppressed or deplatformed and, if I am, I’ll take it as a badge of honor.
I’ll probably write a bunch about politics the next few months as it’s occupying my mind. That doesn’t mean I’ve stopped working on my other projects. I’ve just found it healthy these last few years to do these brain dumps. I would start writing a Politically Incorrect Cabaret but I’ve gotten too dang old. Any twenty or thirty somethings out there want to pick up that torch? The moment is right.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 