you've got that charm, that subtle charm

"We've got to revitalize American democracy."


~~  Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator, Vermont






"The past is never dead.  It's not even past."


~~  William Faulkner, American novelist
________________________





Two things, wherein I see it one way and Everyone Else Online on my Tablet seems to see it other ways....  So, my theories might be wrong...


1) Some critics of President Trump say he wants all this power.  My theory:  he did not want to be president in the first place; he ran as a sideshow to help Hillary Clinton win; and now, while some believe -- or say -- that Mr. Trump has a long-term goal of bringing down democracy and setting up a fascist dictatorship in the United States of America, to me, it appears he has only short-term goals of planning the next "act" in his "show" that he puts on.


He just enjoys putting on a show -- on Twitter, at times, and better yet live in front of a crowd.  When I say this, I'm not "plus-ing or minus-ing" Pres. Trump, not praising or criticizing, am only saying that's how it looks to me.  Putting On A Show is what he wants to do.




2) I don't notice many people discussing this -- the reason Trump got elected in the Electoral College (because of the specific states he carried) is because American working people in general have suffered destabilized income and opportunities, & the reason they've experienced this is because when the political class -- the decision-makers and policy-drivers in Washington D.C. and other places around the world -- planned Globalization, they in effect "sent the entire bill" to the working people.


I.e., "We're going to share the jobs across the globe.  Um -- well -- your jobs, not ours...."


________________________
Globalization is probably going to be good for Mankind, but the economic sacrifices up front should have been shared by all Americans, not dumped upon one segment.  That segment voted their dissatisfaction in 2016.


___________________
On the op-ed page of the New York Times:


"The Past Week Proves That Trump is Destroying Our Democracy"


~ one of those headlines where you really hope it isn't literally true...





Three Reader Comments


Cormac   
NYC
---------- Excellent and urgent commentary from one of the most important scholars of the day.  Yesterday, the Guardian published an essay by journalist Paul Mason pointing out the coordinated, global scope of the anti-democracy movement that is worth a look as well.


Many of us were brought up in a world that believed the great ideological struggle for the principles of liberty were behind us.  We had defeated feudalism, clerical power, fascism, communism, and other authoritarian and totalitarian ideas.  What remained was the hard, vexatious, but less existentially threatening work of making our principles as real as is practical for every person and group.


We were wrong.  We now face a struggle every bit as dangerous as those of our forebears to "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."  It is one of the great struggles of our time.




NY
----------- The Trump circus will leave town and our country will still be standing.


What has been killing our democracy is the money that special interests lavish on our elected officials so that they do their bidding instead of their constituents'.


Trump's election was the canary in the coal mine that should be warning us about how many people have lost faith in our democratically elected officials to do the people's business.




Joe Hirsch
New York
...The greater danger this country faces is from money in politics and Republicans not playing by our democratic rules and values.


____________________


{paintings by Robert Rauschenberg}


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