Mourning in America - Trump Year One: November '16 to

If we can step back from the "trees" to the "forest" of the whole direction of the party debate, I think it's important to look at not just how do democrats win, but what is the purpose of the democratic party, and what is its vision. I think the GOP has a pretty clear vision: be the party of captial and the wealthy. Of course that alone doesn't give you much of an electoral base, which is where social and religious conservatism come in -- appeal to the non-economic motivations of people with personalities that tend to prefer order, structure, authority. And this, of course, suits the GOP vision very well -- they generally believe in a hierarchical and ordered society ruled by the wealthy.

I don't find the contemporary democratic vision as coherent, and I think that's reflected in this debate. It doesn't feel so much like a party of labor as counterbalancing force against capital, as a party of certain niches of the wealthy, buttressed by vulnerable groups who vote in part out of fear of the other option being worse. It's the party of the creative professional and the tech entrepreneur (sometimes), and of tolerance, but I feel like it has drifted away from a coherent vision of society and the role of government. The party is schizophrenic on public schools, and on unions (once a stronghold of its own power!). It pushes all kinds of confusing public-private solutions and nibble-around-the-edges programs. Parts of the party feel like GOP lite, or GOP policy in NPR language.

It's not that I specifically want the Democratic party to go after "white working class men" it's that I want it to return to coherently and clearly representing the working class of all races, because I want it to be the party of labor and of the 99%, because that's what's right and because that's the logical role for it to play -- a counterweight to the party of capital, not a smartened-up, urban version of the same thing with more diversity.

if you have ears and any kind of bullshit detector, you were always able to tell that Hillary Clinton p much didn't believe a fucking word she ever said in public.

I want it to return to coherently and clearly representing the working class of all races, because I want it to be the party of labor and of the 99%

i think the political party you're looking for exists, but as a faction within the democratic party, which seems to me more like a coalition rather than a distinct party with internally coherent views. it's the sanders/warren wing, right? the GOP has nailed down the desires of socially conservative religious rich assholes, but that leaves a huge political space. in our two-party system, the democrats try to address all the people and issues that the GOP doesn't care about, but sacrifice a consistent message.

Yeah, that's true. But I feel like that's a relatively new phenomenon and still underrepresented in the party. And there's still so much underhandedly ANTI-labor stuff in the party, like widespread support for charter schools.

Also there are still clearly factions of the party that don't just disagree with that wing but want to squelch it.

I want someone to run for Congress in one of these midwestern Trump districts with "kill all rich people" as their campaign slogan as a kind of test balloon.If anti elitism is what the people crave the Left shouldn't have a problem leveraging that. They invented it.

A crudely anti-elitist party that correctly identifies who the elites actually are might be able to make inroads in these places. Rush Limbaugh's talking points shouldn't be hard to overturn with a loud enough megaphone. I think the Democrats are too polite and they never really engage in the muck of this right wing propaganda --- they should try to force their way into these markets and shout, loudly and clearly, that the right wing's radical antigovernment agenda only benefits elites. Coastal elites even if you'd like. Breaking public unions hurts all workers. Etc

It shouldn't just be the party either. Efforts need to be made to break the spell of the right wing media machine. The danger of accepting hyperpartisanship is it means we are resigned to having half the population breathing in that filth.

I want someone to run for Congress in one of these midwestern Trump districts with "kill all rich people" as their campaign slogan as a kind of test balloon.If anti elitism is what the people crave the Left shouldn't have a problem leveraging that. They invented it.

― Treeship, Sunday, December 18, 2016 10:36 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

have had half a mind to register to run for the state rep seat in my v conservative district (in tx) which went unopposed to do just this. but then i remembered that my govt name is on ilx from years back and i get too embarrassed by my 18 year old self.

I've often thought of making a thread 'does your ilx posting history ensure that you can never run for public office'

I'd say an ILX publishing history is exactly what you need to win.

I used to worry about this but everyone has twitter accounts and participated in other social media nonsense now.

oh -- good mourning!

Yeah, you just gotta own that shit nowadays. Include your dick pic with all your mailings.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-security-force-232797

cool

Aside from the obvious downsides (to protesters and the general public), I honestly do think it's kinda cool that Trump seems determined to make it difficult for the Secret Service to protect him.

really?

Yeah! I'm all for Trump being the first president to win a Darwin Award.

I'm pretty sure that he's smart enough that this is the one group of employees he doesn't try to trick and cheat.

Well, pretty sure...

I'm pretty sure that he's smart enough to feed himself without choking to death but that's about as far as I'd go.

That story is one of the scariest I've seen btw

It makes me simultaneously very scared and kinda hopeful, tbh. He's so determined to be a maverick wrt being president and incurious enough to never wonder why certain systems are in place that it's likely that he winds up doing at least as much harm to himself as he does to the country-at-large.

But then he Mr. Magoos his way through all kinds of shit that would definitively end most people's careers or livelihoods so who even fuckin knows with this guy.

Eh, I think if you asked me to fill out the headline "Firefight at..." "...Trump rally" would be the least worst option.

yeah why is that scary idgi. dude's an idiot and for once his idiocy mostly results in harm to himself

just keeps taking the dead zone parallels further. private security force has all kinds of potential for abuse - imagining them beating up protestors or cheering on/standing by as a larger force of trump-fan brownshirts does worse, and trump trying to shroud them all under some presidential immunity bullshit. versions of that basically happened all year, so it's not SO farfetched especially as he has done nothing else to suggest that "oh, those were just campaign shenanigans, now i'm gonna act like a grownup" or whatever.

i continue to hope trump chokes on a Hardees cheeseburger before inauguration day. i really don't go around wishing death on people but this fascist fuck is pure evil. someone assassinating him would not necessarily lead us to a safer calmer healed nation.

the scariest part to me is if local police forces were to basically side with/work with all the 'minutemen' gun nut ppl. they kinda exist on the same spectrum as it is

I don't get how this doesn't come off as scary. The guys with guns surrounding the President at public events are supposed to be officers of the law. These guys are loyal to Trump -- not as the holder of an office, but as a person -- and they're accountable to no one. Who's going to stop these guys from beating down a protestor and saying "he made a move towards the President?"

^^^

xxp And other people, some of whom may not be appalling and some of whom might definitely be there to protest. But least worst.

The line about his private bodyman approaching the stage 3 seconds too late through the space that the secret service would have used to evacuate Trump produced some dark lols - there hasn't been a properly slapstick world leader death since I guess Franz Ferdinand.

Assault is still illegal, right? Of the two groups, it's not the security force that's actually able to go "It was necessary" and that's that.

the scariest part to me is if local police forces were to basically side with/work with all the 'minutemen' gun nut ppl. they kinda exist on the same spectrum as it is

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/heres-what-biggest-police-union-wants-trump-his-first-100-days

The policy ideas, released through the union's official website with little fanfare, includes more than a dozen proposals. Many involve aggressively dismantling the modest reforms suggested by the Obama administration in a 2015 plan called President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, such as increasing the use of body cameras nationwide and implementing a national database on police use of force. The FOP also wants Trump to bring back racial profiling in federal agencies by lifting or changing the 2003 ban put in place by the Bush administration. The union suggests he should cut off some or all federal aid to "sanctuary cities" and bring an end to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), using its database to deport the individuals who had been protected by being included in it. Using police officers to participate in the deportation of undocumented immigrants was an idea Trump suggested in his immigration speech in Phoenix, Arizona, last August. Several large cities have indicated they will not use police officers or relinquish their status as sanctuary cities to help deport immigrants.

Yeah, I don't mean to underplay the extent to which this is terrifying. It's kind of a race at this point to see whether Trump or any semblance of democracy in the US dies first.

Very proud to live in a city that just strengthened its sanctuary city ordinance.

The police union thing was reported incorrectly -- the police union circulated a memo listing what the trump campaign had proposed. It was not a list of requests.

The fact that it includes cops participating in deportations should underscore that -- most cops do NOT want to do that.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/22/donald-trump-national-fraternal-order-of-police-at/

I assume one reason he's loyal to his personal security is that they've signed NDAs. Does Secret Service sign NDAs?

I wonder what the liability of personal security is, vs secret service. I assume secret service shooting someone vs. private security doing it would offer distinct legal challenges.

Yeah, I'm sure I'm overstating their ability to just shoot someone - as you say they're just very different contexts.

Now, secret service shooting one of his private security goons ...

Don't know if I'm just being overly-cynical, but every time someone brings up some legal obstacle that would prevent Trump from doing whatever he wants, I wonder why anyone assumes he gives a shit about 'laws'.

Where we're going, we don't need ... laws.

I don't get how this doesn't come off as scary. The guys with guns surrounding the President at public events are supposed to be officers of the law. These guys are loyal to Trump -- not as the holder of an office, but as a person -- and they're accountable to no one. Who's going to stop these guys from beating down a protestor and saying "he made a move towards the President?"

x1000

I assume secret service shooting someone vs. private security doing it would offer distinct legal challenges.

And now you hit on the main point. Trump's attitude towards the law is "make me." Ask yourself this: if Trump's guys beat the hell out of a peaceful protestor in public, and the city cops try to arrest them, and Trump's people refuse to comply, who backs down?

‏@nytimes
Sylvester Stallone suggested that he was not interested in taking an arts-related job in the Trump administration

@DougHenwood
Maybe Ted Nugent is available

This is his opportunity to cross the aisle and see if Tipper's interested.

It's not too late
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/81/BruceWillis_-_ReturnOfBruno.jpg

Inching toward an Archduke Ferdinand moment:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/gunfire-wounds-russian-ambassador-in-turkey-reports-say/2016/12/19/ae32d1c8-c608-11e6-85b5-76616a33048d_story.html

Today's electoral college vote is forcing me to recognize that I perhaps quite seriously have some PTSD from election night that is now being triggered. Feeling flashes of that same intense dread.

I was going to post about the shooting in Turkey. the photos are ... striking

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/19/europe/turkey-russian-ambassador-shot/index.html