Blog 18

February 19, 2017

Overloaded Overheated - Slow Down Reach Out

Every morning I read several sources of news. I check emails from  action groups and choose what I will do today.  Some days I can clear a path and take step-by-step action.  Other days I am paralyzed by the disturbing events and the many possibilities for response.  Okay.  So I am probably not alone in this.  My alway handy go-to solution is the list.  I’ve been making lists since I was a child.  Now my lists are in different categories, with  major political actions for today at the top of the list.  I calm myself by starting at number one and then with satisfaction check it off when I’ve taken one action for the day ,and then I head down to number 2.  Some days my lists are longer than others, but every check counts. I find that my equilibrium depends upon  political actions and on managing the rest of my life. I also reach out to my action work group Indivisible Euclid ,my sub group Immigration, family and friends.  Knowing that I am not alone is soothing.

The other dilemma for me if is how to understand and give meaning to what is happening in our country.  Many erudite analyses compare what is happening here to what happened in Germany during the rise of Hitler, particularly as  diatribes against the free press become more virulent.  Analyses of rife racism and sexism describe attitudes of marginalization that have  besieged our nation from its beginnings. Political analyses point to how not only our country, but the whole western world is shifting to the right as white majorities feel threatened and economic disparities increase.  When I go down these paths I become overwhelmed and hopeless since the forces of evil seem inevitable.  The whole red state/blue state, us/them narratives seem doomed

So how can we stand up against what is really going on here and at the same time, search for alternative narratives that point to individual stories of some politicians, even Republicans, acting from moral principles or  individual stories of people who decided to vote for Trump,but who do not want to build a wall or ban Moslems from our shores.   It is hard to keep up the momentum, keep abreast of the careening actions of our government and to refuse to be either an us or a them, to remember that we are individuals who can act from moral positions even if our chosen solutions seem to collide.  

We need conversations across differences, and  I mean  Red and Blue state voters sitting down to find areas of agreement, respect for differences and opportunities for collaborations.. There are connections between individuals who want what is best for themselves, their families and our country and who made different choices in the 2017 presidential election.

Wise words

From Jim Sparks Ph.D - a reader

Your references to empathy and multiple points of views raise for me the question of how best to orient toward Trump supporters. In recent months, the need to emphatically oppose has seemed much more urgent and necessary than the need to better understand views I find appalling. I’m not altogether happy staying there for the long-haul, however, especially as I think Trump himself won’t serve out his term, but the profound division in our country will endure. 

Recently I attended a training at a school in a rural area. Just down the street from the school stood a massive Trump sign. As the day went by, it became clear that participants shared a political viewpoint—we expressed dismay about what has happened, and many of us described engaging in active opposition to the Trump agenda. We also spoke about the tensions felt between many of us and Trump supporting friends or family. At one point in the day I related that I’d received such an offensive message from a Trump supporting Facebook “friend” from high school that I’d severed contact. 

Some attempts were made during the training to inhabit the viewpoint of the other side. However at the end of the training, one of the participants challenged us about not going far enough. She asked how we would have conducted ourselves if some of the training participants were actually Trump supporters. I’ve been wondering since then how the tone and casual speech during the workshop would have shifted. I’m guessing we would have weighed our words more carefully. Comments would likely have been more directly situated in our own experience. I’m also guessing we would have tried harder to engage in making some sense of what seems unfathomable. I’m not there yet, but when Trump himself leaves the White House, it reminds me we still desperately need conversations across the great divide. 

Be inclusive if you want to win

http://scripting.com/2017/02/15/davidFrumIsRightAboutTrump.html

One more thing Frum (David Frum neoconservative writer) says, and I totally agree, if you can't rally with people you disagree with on other issues, then Trump is not your biggest issue. 

His example. The Women's March on January 21 wouldn't admit pro-life speakers. Pro-life speakers who can't support Trump? Those are our people. (Note: I am pro-choice.)

That's probably why we should have had a more general protest, one that didn't have the conflicts that the Women's March brought to it. Getting past the Trump crisis is the most important thing right now as far as I'm concerned. We must work with everyone who agrees. 

Are Liberals Helping Trump?

by SABRINA TAVERNISE FEB. 18, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/18/opinion/sunday/are-liberals-helping-trump.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region

Excerpt:

Jeffrey Medford, a small-business owner in South Carolina, voted reluctantly for Donald Trump. As a conservative, he felt the need to choose the Republican. But some things are making him feel uncomfortable — parts of Mr. Trump’s travel ban, for example, and the recurring theme of his apparent affinity for Russia.

Mr. Medford should be a natural ally for liberals trying to convince the country that Mr. Trump was a bad choice. But it is not working out that way. Every time Mr. Medford dips into the political debate — either with strangers on Facebook or friends in New York and Los Angeles — he comes away feeling battered by contempt and an attitude of moral superiority.

“We’re backed into a corner,” said Mr. Medford, 46, whose business teaches people to be filmmakers. “There are at least some things about Trump I find to be defensible. But they are saying: ‘Agree with us 100 percent or you are morally bankrupt. You’re an idiot if you support any part of Trump.’ ”

He added: “I didn’t choose a side. They put me on one.”

Liberals may feel energized by a surge in political activism, and a unified stance against a president they see as irresponsible and even dangerous. But that momentum is provoking an equal and opposite reaction on the right. In recent interviews, conservative voters said they felt assaulted by what they said was a kind of moral Bolshevism — the belief that the liberal vision for the country was the only right one. Disagreeing meant being publicly shamed.

Protests and righteous indignation on social media and in Hollywood may seem to liberals to be about policy and persuasion. But moderate conservatives say they are having the opposite effect, chipping away at their middle ground and pushing them closer to Mr. Trump……….

“We are in a trust spiral,” said Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University. “My fear is that we have reached escape velocity where the actions of each side can produce such strong reactions on the other that things will continue to escalate.”

It is tempting to blame Mr. Trump for America’s toxic political state of mind. He has wreaked havoc on political civility and is putting American democratic institutions through the most robust stress test in decades. But many experts argue that he is a symptom, not a cause, and that the roots go deeper.

Many experts compare today with the 1960s and the Vietnam War protests. That period was far more violent but culminated in a landslide victory for Richard Nixon in 1972, after he famously appealed to the “silent majority,” who he believed resented what they saw as disrespect for American institutions. Others say that democracy was far healthier then and that you have to go farther back to find a historical parallel.

“There is really only one period that was analogous, and that is the Civil War and its immediate aftermath,” said Doug McAdam, a Stanford sociology professor. “I’m not suggesting we are there, but we are straining our institutions more than we really ever have before.”

Actions

Read guide to how to have conversations between red/blue state voters. http://www.whatisessential.org/red-blue

Strike up a conversation with someone who disagrees with you about the current political climate and see if/ where you can find agreement and how you can tolerate differences.

Write, email, call members of congress and implore them to stand by the arts and oppose administrations efforts to cut funding to the arts.

Attend any local town hall meetings near you during this Congressional recess.