Soon it will be 2017. Coming off the last election, mostly say" it can't get here soon enough"... meaning of course 2016 was horrible. 2017 may be much worse; it is under a full Republican trifecta: Executive, Legislative, Judicial. At least during 2016 we had Obama, who continues to this day to offer vignettes of brightness.
What do we do?
Reading posts here, and elsewhere, one gets an overall sense of deep frustration. People grounded in the real world are all over the place here with various solutions, or new breaking exposes of another bulwark falling... many offering good pieces of advice yet all are wide ranging or universal; one person cannot devote resources to fight them all. it is like a hydra pulling you apart by every extended appendage....
Surprising as this may sound, the first thing to do is relax. Our side is in a spot similar to the North in the Civil War, the Allies after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and the world of freedom against the former Soviet Union...
Big trends point that sooner or later, things have to work our way. Catastrophic climate change will practically insure we all unite at some future point to phase out fossil fuel use. Actuarial tables and demographic changes insure old racists will not live forever and skin color, gender preference, what name we call our God, will all one day be regarded no differently than eye color. Increasing economic inequality will cause untenable social strains and eventually flip, either electorally or through violence.
This election IS a Pearl Harbor moment. We realized we are at war; our entire world is at stake. No killing yet involved, but it is a war nevertheless to win hearts and minds and end the Conservative stifling of freedom now spreading across our globe.
In 1941, everyone raced out to sign up and enlist. So... have you done anything different? If so, great. But take to heart that if we want to minimize the damage to the great things we have done over the past 88 years, it will take our own bodily involvement.... Forget about sending money from here on. Instead, as did those in 1941, donate yourself....
To what?
Let's come back to that. Here is what we should expect. Having been blindsided and still in shock, we are probably all grasping at straws... Not confident after such a defeat we are in the process of reaching for anything that floats and passes by in the flood of emotions, to hang onto so we can breath and rest.
Our enemy will attack with strength emboldened by their success, and they will attack all over the map... Seriously, why wouldn't they? Every little thing they've hated and could do nothing about since Roosevelt, will come under their attack... And many of those attacks will succeed... We can't defend Planned Parenthood one day, the Arctic Zone the next, and Social Security the third, and the Obamacare the fourth, the Supreme Court the fifth.. These are like islands in the Pacific... A concentrated attack on any one will override their existing defenses.
Our goal needs to be long term and strategic. Each little island must fight the enemy tooth and nail the best they can over every inch of property, knowing they weaken him in the long run with every tenacious fight. Surrendering and turning the fort over without a shot, is actually the only thing that can hurt us and cause us to lose. They then shuffle all those attacking troops against the next target. Instead by intense fighting over every little thing, though we lose those battles we weaken their ability to overtake the next target.
It will look dark across the next year as onslaughts succeed after onslaughts... But, knowing we have the benefit of time on OUR side, our strategic goal will be to accurately determine when they have overextend themselves, or spread themselves too thin, and then hit them hard and start taking back what we've lost...
There will be some big battles... If we'd lost Britain or Australia in WWII, things would be very different today . WWII was a gigantic national undertaking... but compared to the wars we know, it was over relatively quickly. You realize US involvement in WWII was only 3 and a half years? If Pearl Harbor had happened the month after Romney lost big-time, this wee we’d be having our first Christmas with all soldiers home this year... Compare that to Iraq, Afghanistan, our war on "terror"...
Social Security and Medicare are our two causes that cannot fall. Both are something Hillary supporters and Trump voters need to live. It is a grand "uniter, not a divider." These are two issues we can win by drumming up local fervor and using that against our Congress person... Success at holding these two lines should give everyone a boost of confidence that an inevitable turn around is on its way. Imagine the confidence in 2012 Republicans if the Affordable Care Act had been voted down? How much damage would that have smeared on Obama? Well, it will be our turn to benefit if we null their attempt to kill Social Security.
But maybe you don't care about Social Security? ... You care about college loans... Or maybe you care about global climate change? Or maybe you care about boosting the economy by raising taxes on the top 1%...
You couldn't fight the Japanese in 1941 by splitting yourself between the Army, the Navy, and Marines... (Air Force didn't exist yet; it was part of the Army). You had to choose one. And you chose based on what you felt you wanted to do...
The same.. Pick one issue so you are not spread over the map... Pick just one thing and let that become your specialty. Become part of an organization of people who meet in your locality who too are passionate about that one same thing. Then together all of you must work as in a war, to accomplishing your end locally whatever it may be... It is more efficient to have an army of different specialists than to have everyone only able to shoot one rifle... If there were groups enthusiastic for each topic at town halls demanding answers in person from their Congress person on Social Security, on Medicare, on Global Warming, on voting rights, on prejudice, and there was no one willing to demand the opposite (cut benefits, increase fossil fuels, pro voter Id's, and less political correctness), then your Congress person will have to think hard whether he wants to piss on his district to support his party boss controlled by lobbyists.
As soldier of your private cause, you need to build your local fort, and constantly check and recheck it's defenses. You can't be worried about other forts falling down around you. Your sole duty is to provide the best fight you can... win or lose. Inflict as much damage to the enemy as is possible. You have no other objective.
The last thing we should be doing is re-reading the Daily Kos, perhaps nervously covering the entire list 3 or 4 times each 24 hour period... Psychologically we do it to gain a sense of perspective since our world's been shattered, but an attack is coming and reading anything more about how terrible things are, is ineffective now... It may fill an addictive need in you right now, but it won't do anything to change the future...
To change the future, you must pick one thing... learn about it. follow it, meet with other people about it, decide what you can do locally about it... write letters to your local paper, your free ad rag, and start changing minds... Not here, but in your own community. Your very own community...
You may have to be the first... Put a Craigslist ad saying: interested in meeting up with people near ___________ to do something about... _______________ .... you may hear nothing. No loss. You may get only one other person... if so, you just doubled your output potential and the intensity of your Congress-person’s future headache...
We really don't have to be afraid of a Trump presidency... Worst case, if America ends, it was a good run. Best case? it is shorter than WWII and we then find ourselves running the entire world with no fascists in sight... Being "afraid", I think, is our worst enemy. People yelling at you either virtually on social media or physically to try to intimidate you into stopping, won't hurt you. Those are just sound waves. Sound waves wash over us every day. Very few (one in 320 million will attempt violence) so dismiss all those scary news anchors wringing their hands to lull you into complacency based on fear. Violence won't happen to you unless you've already been hit 131 times by lighting... Then watch out!
We don’t have to be afraid. We won the popular vote. We lost by three slivers in three states. We know that if we fail our duty now by doing nothing, it is the whole world which will suffer. Seriously, isn't that something worth fighting for? The entire world?
Pick one thing.
Join up.
Do all you can...
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See you at the victory line somewhere... <3