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So much for unity not that it was ever a probability after the unprecedented election of Donald Trump.

Trump did his share to undermine it, of course. Before he took office this week, he managed to get into a pointless battle with U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the civil rights icon; alarm European allies; and irritate adversaries like China.

It was enough to give dozens of Democrats an excuse, as if they needed one, to refuse to attend the inaugural. But Trump is not the only reason for the toxic divisions at the launch of his presidency.

Why Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election is still being hotly debated. But to those of us who arent in the Washington bubble or members of the media or government elite, it continues to become clearer with every week that passes.

Let us count the ways.

Start with the absurd claim that liberals are big supporters of diversity and thats why they have to attack conservative Trump voters. No, theyre not. Liberals are enemies of diversity.

Sure, they practically demand quotas on things like gender, gender identity, race, sexual preference and ethnic background. But that kind of surface diversity is the only kind they will tolerate. Alleged liberals or progressives (their preferred term) are both contemptuous and hostile to a diversity of thought or belief.

Before the election, Clinton famously called half of Trump supporters a basket of deplorables. Not the best line for somebody who claimed she was going to campaign for every vote.

But she was only reflecting how her supporters feel, that those who dont pledge allegiance to the Democratic agenda are essentially knuckle-draggers.

The litany of insults became so common that it became a badge of honor for Clinton opponents. They turned it into an acronym: SIXHIRB - sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist and bigoted.

As Clinton and President Obama said a number of times, those who disagree with them are not who we are as Americans.

Got that? You dont even belong in America. No wonder the heartland was willing to vote for anybody but Hillary.

Then there is arrogance. Obama campaigned - and got wall-to-wall media coverage - for Hillary on the theme that I will not be on the ballot, but everything weve done is going to be on the ballot.

Then, after Trump won, he said, I believe that we have better ideas. But I also believe that good ideas dont matter if people dont hear them.

Didnt hear them? When they were on the news every night? The reality is that, in his view, its impossible for anyone with a brain to disagree with him if they listen to him.

I witnessed that mindset multiple times at the local government level. People would come before a city council seeking something a policy change, rejection of a proposed development and if they didnt get their way they would insist that the council members didnt listen to us.

In Obamaworld and Clintonworld, the thinking is the same. They dont believe it is possible to hear what they are saying, consider it, then reject it.

Perhaps it is Obama, Clinton and their supporters who are not listening.

Progressives view cultural conservatives not as people with valid political opinions but as an unenlightened, exotic alien species who need to be told how to vote or not allowed to vote.

That arrogance trickles down to social media. Liberals forever talk about how divisive conservatives are, but more of them unfriend their Facebook friends who defend Trump than the other way around.

There is incivility. They complain that Trump is not civil, and most of the time theyre right. But then they are as ugly or worse than he is.

There is a saying, backed up by vast evidence, that conservatives think liberals are wrong. Liberals think conservatives are evil.

Slate columnist and CBS analyst Jamelle Boule wrote, there is no such thing as a good Trump voter. People voted for a racist who promised racist outcomes. They dont deserve your empathy.

Check out the video of the woman who threw a toddler-level tantrum when members of Wisconsins Electoral College delegation met to certify the results for Trump.

You sold out our country, the woman screamed. Every one of you, youre pathetic. You dont deserve to be in America. This is my America! This is MY America!

I hope those two, and thousands of others, remembered to pick up their Love Trumps Hate signs after expressing themselves with the kind of dignity and compassion they claim to be all about.

And then there is hypocrisy: Recall how Clinton supporters, confident that she would win, worried aloud that the loser would contest the results and undermine not just confidence in the system but democracy itself? They were right. It just wasnt Trump.

Film propagandist Michael Moore, cinemas most successful purveyor of fake news, offered to pay the $1,000 fine for any faithless Republican elector who would vote against the will of the majority in his or her state. Moore is worth an estimated $50 million.

Imagine the reverse that Clinton lost the popular vote but won on electoral votes, and a conservative multi-millionaire offered to cover the fines of any electors who voted against her.

Remember how ferocious they were about how the Supreme Court needed a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia? Now they say they are prepared to block any high court nominees for perhaps all of the Trump presidency.

There is more, but you get the idea. America is divided deeply divided. But it is not all the fault of Trump or his supporters.

Taylor Armerding is an independent columnist. Contact him at t.armerding@verizon.net.

Read more from the original source:
Liberals deserve blame for toxic divide - Weatherford Democrat

Too many liberals are gloomy these days. True, they have been knocked on their heels by the election of Donald Trump. Also true, since Gallup began such polls in 1992, those who self-identify as liberals have always constituted a smaller share of Americans than those calling themselves conservatives. True as well that they have now lost not only the House, Senate and White House but control of both houses of the legislature in 25 states and governorships in 33. So, rejected and dejected, they have reason to wonder if people no longer resonate with their message. They bemoan the fact that so many people "just don't understand." But they need to get over it - because it is holding them back and they have something important to say to a nation that needs to hear it.

Conservative ascendancy and liberal retreat are neither permanent nor permanently desirable paths for a vibrant America. The same was true in the 1960s, when liberals were celebrating their "permanent majority" and conservatives were fighting not just for the future of the Republican Party but the future of conservatism. This yin and yang of liberalism and conservatism is just another derivative of the federalist vs. anti-federalist argument that dominated the Federal Convention in 1787 and has continued under various labels and parties ever since. America needs this dualism. It is a vaccine against the dangerous extremes of democracy.

Liberals should celebrate their contributions not bemoan their fate - for Americans need to be reminded of what liberalism has given them. In the last half century, the liberal agenda expanded the franchise to eighteen-year-olds and abolished the poll tax. It began the removal of discrimination against blacks with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. The civil rights movement reminded America of its founding values, and began the slow, still-unfinished work of redressing the ravages of slavery and segregation. The women's movement began to address disparate treatment based on sex in jobs, pay and education, and the gay rights and marriage equality movements brought millions the civil equality and respect that is their American birthright. Americans with disabilities also gained the dignity and services they need as a result of liberalism, beginning with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1975. Liberalism pushed to address the health care needs of the elderly and poor through Medicare and Medicaid and helped launch the environmental movement with the Clean Air Act of 1973, the creation of EPA in 1972, and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. These changes are now an accepted part of American life.

Not all liberal reforms have been successful or devoid of negative, unintended consequences, of course. Liberal misjudgments and over-reach (just like conservative ones) are by-products of their values, limited viewpoints, and electoral over-confidence. The balance that conservative values and ideas bring to the public square serves as a set of needed, contrasting views. Just as surely, liberalism will need to serve as a corrective for the excesses of the coming wave of conservative legislation and leadership.

So, the first message to liberals: stop acting as if you are unappreciated and misunderstood. The fact that people take your accomplishments for granted is a sign of success, not ingratitude. Second, communicate better what you have accomplished. Don't be reluctant to remind Americans of how their lives are better. It is not self-evident to them. Third, find an uplifting agenda for the twenty-first century. It will most likely differ from the past, even as the concern for those left out of society's benefits remains the same. The top-down, federal approach to solving social problems, which has characterized liberalism for so long, needs to be rethought. Liberals will still find some areas that require national solutions, including the need to preserve past gains, but they should focus more on state and local efforts. They must listen to and become active and relevant again in rural counties, small towns, and to many who feel abandoned by them.

Forth, liberals must organize better - and vote more. The Tea Party and the Occupy Movement both demanded change, but the former channeled that energy into the electoral process, first at the local and state level, and the latter largely dissipated as a political force. Aiming for turnout in national elections and mostly in urban and traditionally blue-state America is not enough.

Finally, liberals must not shrink from their dedication to social and environmental justice. That commitment is neither outdated nor naive. They are at their best when they are passionate and positive - America does not need a campaign of nastiness and negativity. Liberalism, as conservatism, is central to the American experiment. It provides emotional energy and ideas essential to hope and progress. Without that, America is a poorer place.

This Blogger's Books and Other Items from...

Reflections on America: Civic Virtue, Character, and the Pursuit of Happiness

by Terry Newell

To Serve with Honor: Doing the Right Thing in Government

by Terry Newell

Excerpt from:
Liberals and the Road Ahead - Huffington Post

By Wang Lixiong By Wang Lixiong January 19

Chinese like me pro-democracy liberals have been pushing for years to end the one-party dictatorship in our country. Most of us long regarded the U.S. political system as a model. Now, with the presidential election of Donald Trump, a man whose grasp of both democratic concepts and ethical norms is questionable, we have been forced to ask some hard new questions.

Our first reaction to the unsettling news was to shift our gaze to aspects of the U.S. system other than its presidential elections. We comforted ourselves by noting that the constitutional separation of powers can buffer the effects of an erratic president, that U.S. civil society remains strong and independent, and that another election will come along in four years.

But just as we were trying to adjust, Trump surprised us. He accepted a phone call from Tsai Ing-wen, the president of democratic Taiwan, and rejected Chinese government complaints about doing so. He brought in advisers who seem ready to take a harder line with Beijing. All of this suddenly made it seem that Trump might be good for Chinese democracy. Some of my fellow liberals have gone so far as to hope that Trumps flirtation with Russian President Vladimir Putin might signal that he is thinking about aligning with Russia in opposition to Chinas rulers rather as President Richard Nixon, four decades ago, sided with Mao Zedong against the Kremlin. These friends hope that such pressure might contribute to a collapse of Chinas authoritarian rule, just as the Soviet regime collapsed.

Personally, I am agnostic about Trumps private thoughts, and I feel that my liberal friends in China make a mistake when they invest their hopes in the unseen motives of a leader-in-waiting. In recent decades, we watched several times as new strongmen rose in Beijing; in each case we hoped they would loosen the system, and each time we were disappointed.

There is, moreover, the deeper question of what kind of democracy China might adopt, should that become possible. In the case of the Soviet Union, the transition from communist rule was made easier by a provision in the Soviet constitution that allowed constituent republics to secede. As long as the Soviets were in power, that provision was mere window dressing, but when the regime collapsed it provided the legitimacy under which Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other former Soviet republics could go their separate ways. Chinas constitution, by contrast, insists on national unity, and within that unity the communist regime has annihilated every conceivable rival source of national organization. People fear that if the regime falls, society might collapse as well. The rulers are, in effect, saying, Keep us, or all hell will break loose. The claim has a certain plausibility, and the Communist Party uses it to take daily life hostage.

Chinese liberals who hope Trump might assist in bringing down communist rule in China do not want national dissolution or societal collapse. Such results would be disastrous not just for China but for the rest of the world. The crucial problem, therefore, is to find a way to rescue the hostage, as we say to keep society on its feet during a democratic transition.

Here, too, worries over the rise of Trump become relevant. If the United States, a model for democracy in the world, can elect a Trump, why wouldnt such a result be even more likely in China, where popular education in civic values and in the nations history is much weaker? Fifty years ago, Mao brought immeasurable disaster to China, but today, after years of Communist Party work to erase history and stimulate nationalism, Mao, in the popular Chinese imagination, is regarded as a hero. If Mao were to stand for election in China today, he would win in a landslide.

In the United States, Trump will have to work within a mature system of checks and balances and will have to step down in either four years or eight. A Chinese Trump, on the other hand, would almost certainly turn into a Chinese Putin. It would not be surprising to see the Han Chinese, who make up more than 90percent of the population, use democracy to suppress ethnic minorities, to launch an attack on Taiwan, or to bully Hong Kong. It is not beyond imagination that a Trump-style stimulation of popular passions in China could lead by democratic vote to support for launching a war on the United States.

The main question that the U.S. election leaves with Chinese liberals is how to build a system that can avoid a Chinese version of the Trump phenomenon.

Wang Lixiong is the author of the novel Yellow Peril.

Translated from Chinese by Perry Link.

Read the original here:
How China's liberals are feeling the Trump Effect - Washington Post

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.

Read the rest here:
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.

Read this article:
Pay Attention, Liberals. Heres How You Fight Back Under Trump. - Daily Beast