tell me how white my shirts can be

"People are tired of working longer hours for lower wages, of seeing decent paying jobs go to China and other low-wage countries, of billionaires not paying any federal income taxes and of not being able to afford a college education for their kids -- all while the very rich become much richer."


~~ U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders






If President-Elect Donald Trump said to me, "In the run-up to my inauguration, I want to treat myself to some books -- what should I read?" I would answer, "Democracy, by Henry Adams; All The King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren; and Lone Star Rising, by Robert Dallek."





And then I wouldn't be able to resist adding one more -- Fear And Loathing:  On The Campaign Trail '72, by Hunter Thompson!





An op-ed piece in the NYTimes written by David Brooks is titled, "The View From Trump Tower."  He called Tuesday's election outcome "the greatest political shock of our lifetimes."


A Reader Comment from New Haven told Mr. Brooks, "Just as people were not motivated to vote by race-prejudicial fury, they also were not motivated to vote by bottomless despair.  The...correct understanding is this, and this alone:  Trump won because people believed in the policies he promoted.  Period.


Voters wanted a candidate who was a political outsider, tough on immigration, tough on foreign businesses, and willing to redistribute.  Trump checked the boxes.  They voted for him.


Brooks, don't strip these people of their agency by turning them into tormented, anguished hillbillies casting protest votes.  They are rational Americans who cast votes for what they believed in, even if you believe the opposite."




Another Commenter told the columnist, "Trump is so flawed an individual....  He is the wrong messenger for the right message.  Clinton was the right messenger for the wrong message."




A Bozeman, Montana reader wrote in, "There should...be a way to elect representatives state-wide as opposed to district-wide, so that those whose votes don't make the majority in Gerrymandered districts will have some voice.  The winner-takes-all approach may not be the best way to govern a pluralistic country like ours since there is little incentive to work on compromises....




And a Texas reader weighed in:  "Brooks says, 'Finally, it seems important to be humbled and taught by this horrific election result.'


The voters chose Hillary -- the electoral college vote on December 19 is what will produce a horrific election result.


That college being a rigged system where Wyoming has 3 votes while California has 55, instead of the 175+ votes it would have, if California and Wyoming citizens had proportional electoral college representation.


The rigged system the president-elect so loudly reviled is indeed our problem."




Another Reader commented, "Labor prospered between 1940 and 1970, and became comfortable with the gains that were made.  In their comfort they allowed capital to reverse those gains, and we are now in the most unequal time between capital and labor that this country has ever been in."





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