Silver Lining Trump

There is a true and real silver lining to the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States. It will become a playbook for the left and those of the center who feel betrayed. It will subtly shift the way politics have played out since the “Silent Majority” emerged in the late 60’s. It will change the failed state of “trickle down economics” and it will galvanize a populace that for too long has been on the sidelines sipping lattes and chatting it up to no avail.

The election of Donald Trump to the office of President of the United States, leader of the free world and most powerful man in that world bodes well for the Democratic process in the United States. The Trump ascendency has galvanized the left and this will have a significant and lasting affect on the state of electoral politics and democracy in America.

Democracy as practiced in the United States works best and is at its fullest when citizens participate. When the minority/majority speaks out to the injustices and wrongful actions of those in power. For, By and Of are small words that become a huge idea when you add People to them.

There has never been a time when so many feel that something is wrong and that that something is BIG. There has never been a time when so many have been so disgusted with the politics of the day. There has never been a time when so many want something right instead of something wrong.

There has never been a time when 2,500,000 votes meant nothing in the democratic process

Many have tried to get their heads around this abysmal election choice and to no avail. I for one thought, “Ok he was once a Democrat how bad can he be?” It turns out, bad beyond my wildest imagination. As I watch his cabinet selections I can only come to the conclusion that the world will be swindled clean by this administration. I can only come to the conclusion that our commons will be scraped clean of every possible economic resource, from water to soil to lumber to oil. Frack and extract will be the one of the calling card of this administration.

We have an administration run by an extremely wealthy and manipulative businessman appointing a cabinet that will be the wealthiest and most self interested in the history of the United States. Is there any hope for the common man or woman, is there any ability of this administration to even understand the concerns of the majority that did not elect him?

In the 80’s the GOP gave us The Gipper now they give us the Groper. I never liked Reagan’s politics and hated his view on the environment and the appointment of James Watt to the EPA. I doubt I am going to like much our Groper in Chief does for the planet much less inequality and injustice. I doubt I will like anything Scott Pruitt does at the EPA during this administration.

We have a lot to do on the left and Groper Trump is the catalyst that will bring us together as we realize that all movements are our movement and weather it be Black Lives Matter, environmental degradation, Women’s Rights, social inequality, educational inequality, inner city collapse, spousal abuse, LGBT rights, voting rights, prison reform or any other issue dear and near to you we all need to band together and support each other.

If for instance LGBT rights isn’t your thing, and an action is taking place close to your home, get out there and support it. If someone is organizing for voting rights, get out there and support it. Everything and anything you can do will help. With the noise we make about our dissatisfaction the more hope we can have of blocking some of the coming avalanche of misguided and self serving legislation.

Issues and the agenda of the left have one huge thing in common; they all try to make life better for everyone. These are not issues of the privileged few but issues of the many, issues of the common hard working individual trying to scratch out a living for self and family. These are issues that have to do with the state of the commons as in, education, clean air, living wages, clean water, sacred land, justice, social equality and freedom. The agenda of the left is the agenda of a true democratic society not of an oligarchy, plutocracy or aristocracy. It is the agenda of the commons owned and cared for by all.

Sometimes it takes a real enemy to galvanize and spur people to action, we have never had a better one than the one that will sit in the White House for the next 4 years.

Its time to put down our Lattes and pick up our Pitchforks.

4nOut…