We are heading into an authoritarian dictatorship. The sooner the Democrats realize that the Trumpians do not fight fair, the better. Remember, these Trumpians are thugs, do not care about civility, and are essentially street-wise crooks. These are not people who embrace a civil approach to problem solving. The time for playing nice is long over.
What should we do? Well, very recently there have been revealing elections that have defied conventional wisdom. Three women who were not politicians and were affiliated with or shared the Social Democrats of America values have had resounding (and unpredicted) victories. Why? because they are able to speak the truth against these thugs. I am fairly certain that if the Democratic Party had not derailed Bernie Sanders, Trump would have lost and we would not be suffering now. The Democratic Party has, and seems to still be, dominated by “conventional” Democrats who seem more like neoliberals than liberals. They do not believe in “rocking the boat”. Well, the boat is sinking and it is full of rats, so what’s the harm?
Where should we go from here? Learn from our mistakes and stop trying to be “reasonable” with these people. They do not respond to reason. They play by very different rules. The Resist Movement has been an effort in this direction, but needs to be done with our gloves off. I am convinced that many Trump supporters are are disillusioned with the system but mistakenly chose the wrong person to change it. They, for some reasons, did not realize that Trump IS the “swamp.”
The Russian assault on our democracy, aided and abetted by Trump, is scandalous. We are being way too passive with our responses. Our elections are being stolen on so many levels: voter suppression; gerrymandering to benefit certain candidates and parties; and Russian interventions
In conclusion, let’s promote genuine candidates who are willing to fight hard and do not care about being“reasonable. Hillary Clinton was exactly not the candidate we should be promoting. She is a neoliberal through and through and “played it safe” to the point of being dishonest. This is exactly what we do not need! Playing it “safe” is not the solution.
— Joe Lieber, Sonoma
Was it too small to see, or did the local Republican Party not have a booth on the Plaza at this year’s 4th festivities out of an abundance of caution?
Although I agree with much of what Joe Lieber said about the dilemma of the Democratic Party there was no “Russian assault on our democracy.” The alleged “hack” on the DNC server was proven to be a leak by the VIPS(Veteran Intelligence Professionals). This can be verified by checking the website of the late Robert Parry whose reporting exposed the Iran-Contra scheme(consortiumnews.com). The myth of Russiagate has been perpetuated by mainstream media and if you consider who the owners of these conglomerates are you will better understand why.