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Today, as Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, widespread condemnation will proliferate throughout United States, Britain, and across the world as it should.

Trumpscampaign was defined by xenophobia and misogyny. If his inauguration didnt provoke a response, the silence would reveal something deeply wrong with the state of humanity.

However, the condemnation that we will see today, tomorrow at the Womens March on Washington, and over the coming weeks and months, is not enough. Whether its wearing a Not This White Woman T-shirt, designating yourself an ally of people of colour by wearing a safety pin, or writing long social media posts about your experiences as a male feminist, these virtue-signalling actions mean very little if they arent followed up by consistent actions in your everyday life especially if youre a straight white man.

It is all too easy to criticise Trump. In many circles, particularly among liberals, to do so is not deemed problematic or controversial. Rather, it is a display of ones liberal and progressive credentials. And thats where the problems start.

Anti-Trump protesters gather in downtown Washington

For so many white liberals, whether conscious or not, criticising Trump serves an important purpose: it helps to maintain a faade of progressive liberalism that provides reassurance and comfort. It can make one appear to be, and perhaps even feel as though they are, doing the right thing.

However, to engage meaningfully in the kind of feminist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist work needed to bring about change is a task infinitely more difficult. This kind of engagement would reveal Trump to be more symptom than cause. It would encourage us to look at the wider factors that would give rise to such a demagogic figure. To abhor one man may be comforting, but, unless it is supplemented by a critique of structural white supremacy, it will always miss the mark.

In Britain, where liberals (and pseudo-liberals) are able to criticise in abstraction from context and lived reality, their words start to ring hollow. Many British liberal criticisms mark Britain as different from, perhaps even morally superior to, the United States. In Britain, the rush to deplore Trump may be taken as a sign that we live in the kind of tolerant society that would never elect such a hateful figure.

This is certainly a misnomer. Through the Brexit vote in the summer, the British electorate demonstrated that concerns over perpetuating racism matter very little when faced with a populist call to take back control. As much as we may be in denial about it, if a Trump-like figure were to run in the next UK election, they would gain far more support than we would care to admit. We need only look at the recent successes of Nigel Farage, or the latest in Boris Johnsons long history of Trump-like comments, for proof of that.

The recent political upheavals have seen us enter into a new era, a time in which the post-racial myth has been shattered. Through Trump and Brexit, the white supremacist power structure has lifted its disguise and revealed itself to us: it is now time for real and meaningful resistance.

Today, anti-Trump rhetoric will certainly be widespread among white liberals, in the UK and the US. But how many of those same white liberals will show up to the next Black Lives Matter protest or any of the marches being held tomorrow in solidarity with the Womens March on Washington? How many will condemn the police next time they callously murder a Black man or woman? How many will reflect on their own complicity in the systems and structures that maintain and reproduce white supremacy? These are the questions we should be asking and the answers many white people should be hoping to provide.

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The white liberals protesting against Trump today will fail to challenge racism in their communities tomorrow - The Independent

Its tempting to boycott the inauguration and change the channel whenever Trumps on TV. But we cant afford to look away any more.

Humans naturally have an aversion to pain. Sometimes this is helpful. A child learns that sticking their finger in the dogs food bowl results in a nip. A teenager tries to weasel out of a missed curfew only to learn that their parents have many years more experience lying than they do. An adult learns that spending a day shopping for Ikea furniture with a new lover will result in strife.

Other avoidant behavior isnt as useful. Not checking ones bank account balance after a blockbuster weekend, for example, could result in an embarrassing surprise when ones card is declined. Not visiting your nursing home-bound grandfather out of fear that facing his failing health will shake you could lead to the sort of regret that eats you alive on the inside. Not paying attention to the exact way a creepy used car dealer is trying to screw you over could lead to a whole universe of stress headaches.

On Friday, Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. Hell make history in a number of wayshe has no public service experience, he lost the popular vote by 3 million, and hes got the lowest approval rating of any president-elect ever. And, while I dont have the official stats on this, Im pretty sure hell be the first president with a piss-related sexual scandal before he even takes office. At least in my lifetime.

Donald Trump rose to fame on a reputation as being a guy who screws, in the literal and figurative sense. He screwed his way through Manhattan, if the New York City tabloids of the 1980s are to be believed. He screwed his first wife, figuratively, by screwing his second wife, literally. He would go on to screw his second wife, figuratively, and the child they had together, whom he seems to forget exists from time to time. In the meantime, he was screwing his casino employees, his contractors, his business partners. He was bragging about how adept a screwer he was to Howard Stern, to Billy Bush, to the cast and crew of The Apprentice. Nothing hes done since declaring himself a candidate for president, save for the face he made when he walked onstage at Trump Tower after election night, hasnt been screwy.

Trumps managed to offend or upset nearly every non-fat-white-guy demographic during his nascent political career. Mexicans, the press, Muslims, women, Meryl Streep, black people, Buzzfeed employees, Megyn Kelly, deaf people, Nevadans. His brand of nationalist barking is both noisy and intellectually incoherent, offensive to the ears and brain. It makes sense that people who prefer to surround themselves with that which is beautiful and joyful would turn away from Trump. It makes sense that a person would reach for the remote when he appears on the nightly news. Its perfectly normal to want to flip past the front page of the paper or scroll past a news story about what the new President is up to.

Turns out, liberals and progressives have been changing the channel when political unpleasantness reared its head for years. While this countrys liberals were busy .gifing the POTUS pretending to brush his shoulders off, an alarming number of statehouses and governors mansions went to Republicans. A Republican congress gerrymandered the House out of contention until at least 2020, maybe longer. Democrats lost the Senate. While some were rolling their eyes at Trump tweets, smugly confident that Hillary would glide into the Oval Office, Trump voters were sharing bogus news stories and viral talking-head Facebook rants and heading to the polls, riled up.

It seems that liberals didnt grasp until it was too late that being funnier, or cooler, or smarter, or having more famous friends isnt taken into account in tabulating the electoral college totals. Votes dont count more or less depending on whether or not the person casting it did so for a terrible reason. A woman in Michigan who dutifully learned the positions of both candidates and cast her ballot carefully can have her vote canceled out by a man who just doesnt like Hillary Clintons face. An acrid comeback on Twitter doesnt cancel any votes. Lena Dunham doesnt need to star in any more outreach videos about abortion.

If liberals are so smart, then why were the people some would deride as denizens of flyover country able to outsmart us, over and over? Why have they been able to use that power to disenfranchise voters, making it even more difficult for the left to regain lost territory? Were pretty damn smug for people who keep losing.

In the years leading up to Trump Year Zero, those who were empowered to put a stop to the events already in motion were not paying attention. Or, at least, they werent paying attention to the right things. While banishing bad thoughts is a relief in the short-term, problems dont go away if you pretend they dont exist. An illness, for example, wont get better if you just ignore it. Bills dont get smaller if you simply dont pay them. Leaving on vacation and never checking in on your house isnt a good way to keep it from being robbed. Unless we start paying attention en masse to the ugly, unpleasant aspects of Donald Trump, its only going to get worse. We no longer have the luxury of avoidance. From this point forward, its a dissenters patriotic duty to face whatever pain Trumps words and actions cause. Do not retreat into comfort. Those who oppose Trump need to know enough about what is going on to speak up against it when it crosses a line.

Trumps power comes from being able to pull a fast one on the public by disappearing into a cloud of bullshit every time something singularly damaging surfaces. Dont let the volume of distractions minimize their severity. Russian influence in American politics, the new Justice Department, the deficit, access to health care, and Trumps nominees for cabinet posts are all issues that deserve unrelenting attention from the general public. It doesnt matter if he was pretending to write a speech at a reception desk at Mar-a-Lago. Its funny, but weve spent the last 8 years laughing when we should have been listening.

Dont get overwhelmed. Dont change the channel. Trumps lack of palatability was an asset, and it will continue to be an asset as long as it can convince people who should be working against him to stop keeping abreast to the facts. Dont let him force you to stop listening. Dont let a person who has spent a career screwing business and personal contacts screw the whole country.

If the next four years are going to be a fight, you cant depend on anybody to fight for you but you. Watch the entire inauguration. And watch the hearings of Trumps cabinet nominees. And read the newspaper. And call your representative. And talk to your neighbors. And run for office. And dont forget why you care. Force yourself. Dont let the pain of the way Donald Trump pronounces China distract you. The time to look away has ended.

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Pay Attention, Liberals. Heres How You Fight Back Under Trump. - Daily Beast

Tylor, a gay man who works in the banking industry, spelled it out at the very start of a short documentary titled, Traitors: The Minorities Who Support Donald Trump.

Ive had more Christian Republicans accept me for being gay than Ive had left-wing people accept me for being a gay conservative, the 32-year-old said.

Tylor was joined on camera by three other millennials who also fall squarely in minority camps. But because their politics dont fall in line with liberal thinking and especially because of their support for the Republican president-elect they said theyve faced bouts of harassment and intolerance from the so-called tolerant left.

They say that theyre for women, gays, people of color, Tylor continued. But what theyre really for is women, gays, people of color who vote Democrat. He added that some liberals who disagree with his beliefs would scream and call you racist sexist homophobic, bigot, transphobic.

Tina, 26, is the the daughter of a former Vietnamese refugee and saw the same kind of intolerance from the left that Tylor did.

It came down to the point of like, Oh, I support your First Amendment right to free speech unless it doesnt apply to my opinion, then youre wrong and youre a disgrace and youre a bigot and youre a racist,' she said on camera. And you cant just openly say, Hey, Im supporting Donald Trump.'

A 21-year-old Portland State University student who called himself Neil and had his face blurred on the video told documentary director Andy Ngo that its difficult to hold conservative views as a black mixed-race person.

You get kind of like excommunicated, you get harassed, your racial identity gets delegitimized, he noted. Theyll say, Oh, youre not a real black person. And theyll say things like, Youre an Uncle Tom, almost as if they subconsciously believe that theyre on some plantation.

But amid all the noise, he said he sees Trump as actually caring about the downtrodden communities that Democrats long ago abandoned.

Adrian a 20-year-old business major at PSU who is bisexual and comes from a Middle Eastern background said he sees it as ignorant and somewhat racist to assume a person of color wouldnt vote conservative or Libertarian.

He added with a smile during his interview that he cant wait to see what Trump will do.

Tylor who said his big political issues are the economy and immigration added that the gay rights movement is just like an arm of the Democratic Party.

All the things that the gay rights leaders promote are things that dont affect us directly, he continued. Their whole careers are invested in this culture of victimhood. So when theres no one being victimized anymore, they have to keep it going and make people think theyre victimized so they can remain relevant or keep getting money or funding or whatever it is.

(H/T: Red Alert Politics)

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Minorities, gay man who support Trump describe getting 'excommunicated' by liberals over their views - TheBlaze.com

By Staff The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fields questions at a town hall meeting during a visit to the Cultural Centre in Fredericton on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017.

The federal Liberal party says its debt-free, roughly 14 months after sweeping to power in 2015, thanks largely to new members who signed on as supporters during an aggressive fundraising campaign.

In a letter to the partys national board, party president Anna Gainey says the Liberals paid off the remaining $1.9 million it still owed from the election campaign that put Justin Trudeau in the prime ministers chair.

READ MORE: Tories call for investigation into Liberal cash-for-access fundraisers

The letter, sent to board members late today, says the debt was paid off as of last month, and also notes that the party has enlisted an additional 50,000 members since opting in May to waive membership fees.

The Liberals spent a little more than $40 million during the campaign, Liberal national director Jeremy Broadhurst estimated shortly after it was over.

Since then, the party has been emailing supporters and potential donors at every turn, encouraging them to out-donate the Conservatives, who had shown they were adept at garnering grassroots support.

Gainey says the fundraising paid off, with the Liberals surpassing the Tories with individual donations from 35,000 people through six consecutive quarters, averaging $43.26 each.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a town hall in Sherbrooke, Que. on Tuesday, January 17, 2017.

Our strong grassroots fundraising efforts, the elimination of our campaign debt in 2016, and the 50,000 Canadians who have joined us as new registered Liberals are all important milestones that ensure we are starting off 2017 as a fast-growing and ever more inclusive political movement, she writes.

Gainey attributed the sharp increase in party memberships to a decision taken at the Liberal biennial convention in Winnipeg to eliminate fees.

READ MORE: Liberal fundraisers being investigated by lobbying watchdog

The Conservatives revealed last May that they spent $42 million during the 2015 campaign, but had already paid off a $28-million loan by then, using a combination of tax and Elections Canada rebates and party fundraising.

Elections Canada had capped spending by the major national parties for the 11-week campaign at just under $55 million each.

2017The Canadian Press

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The federal Liberals say they're debt-free, 14 months after the election - Globalnews.ca

Politics Two RSS ideologues, who have no works of literature to their name, are set totake the stage at the Jaipur Literature Festival. But why is no one speaking up against it?

File photo of the audience during a session at the Jaipur Literature Festival. Credit: PTI

In 1985, the great Pakistani singer Iqbal Bano appeared in a black sari at a Lahore stadium before a crowd of 50,000 people. The sari had been banned by the countrys military dictator, General Zia ul Haqin his efforts at Islamising Pakistani society. He had been in power for seven years, his regime flush with money coming in from the Gulf and the United States as Pakistani-backed mujahideen fought the Soviets in Afghanistan. All voices of opposition had been silenced. One of those was of the communist and revolutionary poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Although by 1985 Faiz was dead, his words were so scary to the military dictatorship that they were forbiddentoo.

None of this stopped Iqbal Bano. Defying Zia in both her choice of dress and her words, as the huge crowd marvelled at her defiance, she sang a ghazal of Faizs composition:

Hum dekhengeLaazim hai ke hum bhi dekhengeHum dekhengeWoh din ke jis kaa waada haiHum dekhengeJo lauh-e-azal mein likhaa haiHum dekhenge

We will seeSurely we will seeWe will seeThat day which has been promisedWe will seeWhich has been written in the divine tabletWe will see

More than anything else, the words of the song mocked the power of the powerful. A day of justice would come, it said, when those wrongfully denied their rights would have recourse, atlong last.

For that act of defiance Iqbal Bano was banished from public life and public performance. But her voice, the words she recited, this act of a woman alone on a stage against the most powerful man in the country, was an inspiration that liberals clung to, and have held close to their heart ever since.

Unlike in Pakistan, there will be no such acts of defiance in India. In its place, Indianliberals champion cowardice, compromise and collaboration.

On January 20, the Jaipur Literature Festival will debase itself as it offers its stage to Manmohan Vaidya and Dattatreya Hosabale, two members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), who have no works of literature to their name.

Manmohan Vaidya. Credit: JLF

Dattatreya Hosbale. Credit: JLF

In conversation with them will be Pragya Tiwari, who, at least is writing a book on the Sangh Parivar, but these men have nothing to them except their membership in the cultural organisation that seeks to run our lives. They are not writers, editors, publishers, critics, artists, scientists, scholars or anything remotely to do with the literary world. They are merely cultural ideologues, apparatchiks, the PR men of a fascist cult whose core texts reject democracy, reject literary and cultural freedom and liberalism, and whose leaders on a daily basis question the very foundations of the Indian constitution.

Speaking in favour of their participation are luminaries such as Shekhar Gupta, who has saidthat opposing the RSS being onstage will lead to the shrinkage of liberalism. But liberalism is notwhat Gupta thinks it is. As Mukul Kesavanwrote so clearlyafter Gupta swung from condemning Nitish Kumar to appreciating him on live television as the Bihar election result trends turned, to find the centre and call it moderation is a matter of taste; to mistake such triangulation for a new liberalism is just wrong.

The writerApoorvanand recently made an easy but misleading comparison between the participation of the RSS ideologues at JLF and of Communist leader Sitaram Yechury. But Yechury has written nine books and edited three. Exactly 12more than Vaidya and Hosabale have been involved with combined.

At stake is not just the arithmetic of authorship. If we omit the contribution to literature, what exactly is the reason that we should engage with the RSS at a forgive me if I emphasise this literaryfestival? For Apoorvanand the answer is simple: power. He writes:

It is the Right Wing, now in the ascendant, that is in the position to choose whether Liberals should be allowed access to prestigious forums. Keeping in mind the sensitivity of the Right-Wing masters of the day, even people who previously championed liberal democratic values have started to examine what they say. We see it being done in the universities where positions should actually depend on the recognition of an individuals work by their peers in academia. But increasingly, heads of academic institutions are creating occasions to give platform to the so-called intellectuals of the RSS. So one should not be surprised or upset that the JLF is inviting intellectuals belonging to the RSS.

Not being surprised bythe displayof power is one thing, not objecting to it, especially at a literary event,is another.

In Iqbal Banos day, Zia was in the ascendant. Bano objected, to her credit, and to her cost.

But I am being too harsh. The Sangh parivarhas engaged with literature by opposing it. Whether it is asking for books by Wendy Doniger to be pulped, the browbeating of Perumal Murugan, the boycott of Pakistani artists, the harassment and murder of rationalists, all of these lead back to the Right Wing, the one that is ascendant, that we are being asked to engage with at an occasion dedicated to discussing literature. What are we then discussing? How literature can be pruned and neutered to fit the RSSs cultural views?

Hum dekhenge, Laazim hai ke hum dekhenge, Kayar bhi, buzdil bhi, Usul bikte dekhenge, Hum dekhenge

We will see, Surely we will see, Cowards too, the faint-hearted too, The principles being sold, We will see

Oh, and if you were planning on protesting in front of that other RSS man, our sainted prime minister, it might be difficult. Apparently he is so scared of black flags and protests that his security does not let a black dupatta through, much less a black sari.

Categories: Politics

Tagged as: Apoorvanand, Dattatreya Hosabale, Jaipur Lit Fest, Jaipur Literature Festival, JLF, Manmohan Vaidya, Mukul Kesavan, Narendra Modi, Pragya Tiwari, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, RSS, Shekhar Gupta

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The Flight of the Liberals - The Wire