He begins his article as follows: Emphasis mine
By now countless journalists, academics, and luminaries have expressed serious concern over the election of Donald Trump. To put it simply, the only ones celebrating his victory are the KKK, Russia, ISIS, and American conservatives.
This fact alone should disturb anyone who voted for him, but the magnitude of this election, and its inevitable repercussions, are not registering with the populace.
Make no mistake, the Trump presidency is a national tragedy. < this is a link to an excellent article by Neil Gabler
It’s not just because he’s racist and sexist and xenophobic. It’s not just because the country seems more racist and sexist and xenophobic than ever before.
It’s not because the first female candidate for president lost the election, even though she won the popular vote by more than 2 million, a number larger than anyone in history who did not go on to become president.
It’s not because a political party who has campaigned for half a century on family values compromised them all by supporting Trump.
Trump’s election to the presidency is tragic because it marks a turning point in world politics. November 8, 2016 is the day that proved Americans could no longer differentiate between fact and fiction. Continued
This is a long well crafted article. I admire the work he put into it. I don’t have the patience for that kind of writing.
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I react to reading the best articles written for the progressive websites by wondering who their audience is. They essentially are writing for an audience largely consisting of people who are also in agreement. The other readers, at least those who comment, are far right trolls.
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At least when Bernie and Hillary were competing in the primaries the arguments presented on the liberal websites like Daily Kos may have swayed some opinions. Here on Kos the Democratic primary sure provide some spirited debate, to put it mildly.
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Since I can only stand to watch MSNBC I don’t know what the Fox-washed minds are hearing over at “Fair and Balanced.” If I was really dedicated to my foray into amateur political science I’d looked up the channel Fox News is broadcast on and watch it regularly. I found it for some of the debates but repressed the number on the Portland XFinity list.
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Spitale writes: “for those who think people are overreacting, for those who think Trump can improve this country, and for those who think this is merely a political disagreement: this is for you.”
The problem is that the “for you” people won’t read his article. The only way I can see to get our viewpoints, our warnings, out to the people who voted for Trump, is to be on Fox News. The only way this can happen is for things to get so bad that Fox has to report them.
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We can describe the election of Trump and impending Trumpist administration bolstered by a the Republican Congress is a national tragedy, but it’s worse. It will be a worldwide crisis. Consider how Spitale ends his article:
We lost when you refused to see Fox News as a modern-day equivalent to Nazi propaganda, indoctrinating a public into voting against its self-interest.
Just this week, The Oxford Dictionary sealed our fate by naming “post-truth” the word of the year, defining it as:
“Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”
The greatest problem of our future is not political; it is not economic; it is not even rational. It’s the battle of fact versus fiction.
Sadly, a Trump victory illustrates that we are no longer able to distinguish between the two.
I would call it a cluster fuck for the world (although I admit I wondered whether I should use military slang and call it a Charlie Foxtrot when I wrote this for Daily Kos…. I guess you have the answer).
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So what do we do? Those of us who publish stories on Daily Kos already are writing, although this is usually personal venting and brainstorming with people who agree with each other. It is important. We also suggest courses of action and report on the resistance movement across the country. For example, here’s the latest news from the Portland (Oregon) resistance:
www.kgw.com/…
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We fight in large and small ways. Yesterday in the supermarket I complemented an elderly lady for her baseball cap with the logo “Make Congress Blue Again” and explained why I was wearing a safety pin.