The Wizard of America
Well, the frontman Trump is an undisputed amoral buffoon … however, he is the leader in name only. The biggest problem in America is the machine behind him pulling the levers. That scares me more than the buffoon. They are intelligent people with ulterior motives that are intent on preserving the wealth and influence they have acquired over the last 200+ years.
Despite the blue ripple of the Mid-term election ( I can’t call it a wave), American democracy is seriously under threat by the proponents, and their followers, of segregation. All legally enforced public segregation (segregation de jure) was abolished by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But today all people that are not WASPs are socially segregated.
The only weapon available to counter that is the vote but as America has the best politicians that money can buy it will be a hard fight unless the good recognise the tactics of the bad and fight fire with fire.
I’m not suggesting to use all exactly the same tactics but, as I learned long ago, success is won by knowing your audience — and the audience in a democratic society are ALL the voters. So you have to sell to them as our community does with everything from toothpaste to luxury yachts — with simple messages repeated often.
Leave the intellectual stuff until you have power.
If the two-party system continues, as I believe it will for the foreseeable future, the people who wanted to vote against the present incarnation of Republicans have to revise their strategy.
First, they have to come up with a charismatic leader who sticks to simple talking points that will engage the most people, e.g. healthcare, jobs, housing, pay, in simple, understandable terms and forget the legacy of tax and spend, corruption etc.
Secondly, they ought to redefine party names too because the current names bring too much baggage with them, in the form of preconceived ideas, but that may be a bridge too far.