#it is not that i do not understand the fear of republicans winning its that i fear dems winning too

[foxpunk]

unfriendly reminder that "trump" camps IN MY HOMETOWN are still operating under biden, and that i still get just as many ICE surveillance balloons IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD under biden, and laws protecting lgbt and reproductive rights IN MY STATE are at the scariest low they've been at in literal decades under biden, and my disability application which would get me a financial boost to help me AFFORD MEDICAL CARE is still being denied under biden, and--

[batboyblog]

So... How do we live now.

good question, and one I'm not sure I have an answer to,

I mean one we have to hope that the next Trump term is largely like the first one, incompetent. That Trump won't have the skills or the patience to actually try to turn the US into a dictatorship, that his ego will be soothed by having finally won the popular vote and he'll be less interested in revenge against all his many enemies. That his corruption of our systems will be like during his first term around the edges and the damage to our systems of justice will largely be limited to around the person of Trump himself.

assuming that we still have largely free and fair elections (big if there) in 2 years and in 4 years Trump, having pardoned himself federally and used the powers of his office to shut down any state level cases, agrees to step down in line with the Constitution (he'll be 83 so hopefully tired enough to just go)

assuming that all Democrats aren't in jail or whatever, we need to not let perfect be the enemy of better, our failure last night means the Democratic Party will be more conservative not less, because they're trying to net voters, that fucking sucks particularly for LGBT people, but we need to do what we need to do, we need to deal with whatever humiliations we have to, I voted for Obama when he was talking about how his religion taught him marriage was between one man and one woman and thats how God liked it.

I fear that the general American public is really stupid, like REALLY dumb, that they don't understand ideas past a 2nd or 3rd grade level, So our Democratic ideas, not that hard to get, but at like a high school level, are way past what they can get and are willing to listen to. Trump and Republicans went all vibes and very basic ideas all the time, its who he is, finally the President who's as dumb as the public. idk what to do about that pre-say, but cancel anyone who isn't pulling on our side, don't watch people who shit on Democrats endlessly only to sometimes say "but you know Trump is worse" nope, done gone, out. Be mean to Trump on-line and never ever stop, maybe we can win the vibe war that he's a poopy pants old man, idk its just an idea, no more big ideas though, no big changes, no asking anyone to change how they live at all, Americans are just not able to handle it at all, we're a nation of the lazy, selfish and dumb, fight accordingly because the better angels have left the fucking building.

[rongzhi]

genuine question, what other option is there other than to vote harris? because third party votes aren’t going to be able to overtake both democrat and republicans out of nowhere and the only other person to vote for is trump, who wants to completely dismantle democracy

I feel like I’ve seen this question get asked all over the place and there is no good answer to satisfy the person asking, because when you say “What other option is there” and then immediately discount the idea of third party voting, then you’ve already made it clear that all your faith is in the popular vote to prevent Trump from attaining office again, which is all that matters to you, presumably.

And before the accusations fly from anyone else, obviously no, I don’t want Trump in office any more than the next guy, however I do not think he will dismantle democracy even if he was because he would be incapable. The idea of project 2025 and Trump as some ultimate ender of democracy is ridiculous if you beat down the hysteria for long enough to think about: first, project 2025 is nothing new, just everything the likes of the Heritage Foundation and conservative lawmakers have already been pushing for years (ie turning the U.S into a Christian theocracy more or less), written out in a way to get liberals dizzy with fear. It is alarming but no more alarming than the slow slide in this direction that I personally think we have already been taking for several decades. And it is insane. People can see that it is insane and extremist and as much as people who are terminally online like to wring their hands about it, I think that the average voter that we don’t hear from is going to be put off by it. It is offputting to liberals/Democrats obviously, it is offputting to centrists, and it is offputting to many moderate conservatives/(mainstream) Republicans. It is fringe and unpopular enough that even Trump himself doesn’t want to be directly tied to the whole thing. Like, I feel like people are not grasping just how fringe true MAGA and extremist Christian Nationalists are in the broad scheme of things. I think the cable news is getting a lot of mileage out of the current election cycle in their usual gleeful way, but for all the 24 hour coverage and charts and panels and panic, I don’t think Trump is going to win. Of course, feel free to come back in a couple months and wag a finger at me if that turns out not to be true.

Either way, by asking “what other option is there?”, I feel you overestimate the power of your individual vote. You are not voting for the president anyway. You are voting for electoral delegates, and to put it broadly, those guys don’t have to listen to you. Or have we all just forgotten about that too?

And I’m not saying “don’t vote”, either. I just think you should be voting for something and not against something else, and I don’t subscribe to the way of thinking that a third party vote is somehow less of a vote (see previous paragraph for the irony). I think voting has its uses, especially in local elections where council members, etc, have the power to more directly effect your life. As to the matter of Harris, look, as I said, if you’re already planning to vote Democrat, I’m not going to persuade you to not do so—I can understand people feeling the need to do so, especially if they live in a swing state, and that’s their prerogative. Of course, I think that should also be done recognising what that means in terms of what foreign policy decisions you are voting for when voting for Harris. And that being the case, I think Harris voters have no ground to turn around votescold (not saying you are doing that, anon, but simply speaking to the broader trend I’ve seen online over the past months), especially toward any single-issue voters voting third party or abstaining over the very serious single issue of supporting genocide. Me personally, I voted uncommitted in the primaries and will likely vote for Jill Stein or Claudia de la Cruz, depending on who gets ballot access in my state, as Cornel West didn't get ballot access.

So, those are my approximate thoughts on the matter and sorry for any typos or unclear thoughts. Probably forgot to say some things, but I don’t think I’m saying anything new, either, and I will not be answering any additional asks about voting or the U.S elections, including the ones that have come in after this one, as it’s not really my wheelhouse. There's been enough discourse on the matter that I feel like at this point, you should know what you're going to do one way or the other.

EDIT: bolded a few areas that some of you could afford to reread!

[morablackbird]

I’ve had time to think, and I want to make something clear to all.

Now more than ever we should go out and vote, not just for who’s gonna run this bitch but for seats and for government. Look into your local polling places to see what the next election is on and vote

Because it was never democrats vs republicans, it had always been democracy vs autocracy, freedom vs fascism. I’m not mad about republicans voting in their best interests, or hell if their had been just about any other sensible republican candidate, nor am I upset about those who question our democracy and its ability to give us the representation we want.

My hope is that democracy lives on past these four years, even if we the people lose our rights and our freedoms, we must never give up and never give in to hate and lies. Because if democracy survives we can always bring it back.

Do not lie down and die, do not let them win. It is time we come together as American citizens both Democrat and true republicans cause I know you are still out there, to fight like hell. Do not hurt yourselves that is what they want, if you are so beyond the point of no return then keep living, do not die because they won, die because you fought back, die gloriously! Die with purpose! Fight what battles you can at home and do what you must beyond the home, protect each other, especially our children who shall suffer the most.

And speaking of which, if you are a woman, cis or otherwise, non-binary born female, or a trans male that has yet to fully transition. It’s time to use their tactics against them. They want a nation of Christian ideals? This whole ‘your body my choice?’ Then it’s time to be maliciously compliant. Let us all take up a oath to never lie with another cis male. Let us become saints of virtue and celibacy. Let us be pure and free of the ‘sin’ that is sex then.

No more sex, no more babies, no more shall we give them factory workers and no more shall we give our bodies to them. We are choosing to be pure in the eyes of ‘their’ god then.

I don’t know about you but irl cis men are really unattractive to me right now, and if I really want kids I can adopt.

And for those of you who are LGBTQ and so on. Fear not for I believe in the promise of a better tomorrow. I believe in it, and we have fought for many years to get this far. If you are a adult you understand these hardships and hiding has never been easy but we managed. The kids however need us more than ever, they need to know we are there for them and we should protect them even at the cost of our own personal freedoms.

To all my friends with immigrant parents, who were born here and raised up under the ideal of freedom of choice. We have failed you and we shall never forgive ourselves for it. This nation was built by immigrants for immigrants, and it should continue to be so. Yet we choose to blame you for our problems.

My grandpa used to tell a joke, that was less of a joke and more of a upsetting truth.

There is a room in which three men live

In this room is a feast fit for several

One man is a businessman

One is you

One is a immigrant

The businessman looks at the feast and scoots the majority of it to his side of the table and begins to eat while the other two starve

But being ‘generous’ he tosses you a leg of the smallest fowl and says

‘Better grab it quick, lest the enemy take it from you’

As he point to the immigrant with none.

So you hold on to your scraps in fear of having none when in reality it’s not the enemy coming from elsewhere, but the liars who tell you it is so.

Immigrants were never your enemy and they never should’ve been, because unless you are 100% purely Native American I don’t want to hear it, cause not even I am.

I come from a long line of preachers and speakers, I come from a ancestry of natives and pilgrims, I come from two sides of the same coin when it comes to the civil war, I come from many Puritans, Catholics, Christians, and so on, and no matter what their stance was in our government there was one thing they all clearly desired.

Freedom

Liberty

The pursuits of happiness

Democracy

Do not let them win, do not give up, do not lie down and die because they say you should.

Fight to live another day, keep going even when shit sucks, don’t give them what they desire,

never give up!

Do you hear me?

NEVER GIVE UP!!

Sincerely

Dove

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Same anon that's something the supreme Court question. Why do you say it like they are defending it when I have seen multiple people say they don't care about the Constitution either? Like aren't they the ones that overturning roe v wade and there's a possibility they will make same-sex marriages illegal again with all this project 2025 stuff that's going up?

speaking about that, is Biden actually accomplishing those goals? And please make this very clear with facts. This may require you to write up a longer post about this but I think I really want to understand if that is a fear monitoring thing or if this is another "Dems are bad, gop good" shit

First of all, Roe v Wade was always bad law. The idea that the right to privacy means a right to legal abortions never made sense, morally or constitutionally, and it never should have been in place at all, let alone for as long as it was. The Supreme Court overturning unconstitutional laws and reversing unconstitutional decisions is literally why it exists. The Constitution empowers the court for that very reason. If you want other examples of the court protecting the constitution, just look at the Heller decision, or any of the other decisions rolling back unconstitutional gun laws in the past few years. Look also at Matal v Tam, in which the court unanimously ruled that the government can't ban speech just because it's offensive. Which means that there can be no laws against so-called hate speech in the US, and the Orwellian tyranny you see all over Europe under the guise of combating "hate speech" can never legally happen here. Which is a massive win for free speech and the entire reason the 1st Amendment was written.

As for gay marriage getting overturned, it's incredibly unlikely, since there are zero court cases about gay marriage going on right now and the Supreme Court can't just make rulings out of nothing (much to the frustration of more than a few people, I'm sure) it's basically a non-issue. If you're referring to what Clarence Thomas said about gay marriage in his majority opinion overturning Roe, he specifically said that this ruling shouldn't be used as justification to overturn the Obergefell v. Hodges decision on its own, though he did say that those decisions deserve another look. And he's right. Obergefell is another case of an activist court inventing rights out of thin air. There is no such thing as the right to marriage, for gay or straight people. It should be overturned, and the issue of defining legal marriage should be left up to individual states, as the Constitution intended (see the 10th Amendment).

I've been asked about Project 2025 before, and I'll tell you what I told the last anon, as far as I can tell, it's a pile of nothing. It's a group of policy proposals made by a bunch of conservative political commenters I've never heard of, who, as far as I know, have no connection to any Republican political campaign or the RNC. No one on the right is talking about the project. No politicians have come out in support of it. No campaigns have said they're going to implement those policies. Project 2025 is a left-wing boogeyman, and not even one that's getting a lot of traction in left wing circles since the only time I've ever seen anyone talking about it has been in my ask box and a few fringe far left conspiracy sites that came up when I originally tried to figure out what it was. It's the left attempt to have their own Agenda 2030 to be scared and angry about, except there aren't any international organizations trying to get the governments of the world to adopt their policies.

speaking about that, is Biden actually accomplishing those goals?

So, I really don't know what you mean by this. What goals?

[odinsblog]

Gosh, im so captivated by the russian election. like, who will win?

what happens if anti-putin voters stage protests at polling places? or what if reporters write negative unflattering news stories about putin, like they are totally allowed to do, since russia is such a free country, right? its not like the political opposition and putins detractors will be punished or jailed or defenestrated or disappeared or anything, right? im just soo curious about who will win the russian election tomorrow. who will the next president of russia possibly be? so much suspense. its really a nail biter.

im kinda new at this, so maybe a tankie could help me understand how the (lol) fair, free and democratic (definitely not authoritarian nor dictatorial) state of russia works.

but in all seriousness, i am genuinely and deeply saddened for any of the russian people who may actually want to vote against putin, and who are against the “special operation” in ukraine, but cannot voice even the slightest dissent for fear of reprisals by the state. that is not freedom. that is not the better world that is possible.

i will pay very close attention to how tankies, putin apologists and republicans try to spin this though. how they try to explain away the fact that russia is such a “great” “communist” country, and its just a big coincidence that their beloved thug, putin the war criminal ☭ will have somehow managed to stay in absolute power for almost three decades.

oh well, ides of march 🗡️🗡️🗡️

[renniejoy]

By Sen. Elizabeth Warren

November 7, 2024 3:34 PM EST

To everyone who feels like their heart has been ripped out of their chest, I feel the same. To everyone who is afraid of what happens next, I share your fears. But what we do next is important, and I need you in this fight with me.

As we confront a second Donald Trump presidency, we have two tasks ahead. First, try to learn from what happened. And then, make a plan.

Many political experts and D.C. insiders are already blaming President Joe Biden’s economic agenda for Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss. This does not stand up to scrutiny. Even though the Biden economy produced strong economic growth while reining in inflation, incumbent parties across the globe have been tossed out by voters after the pandemic. American voters also showed support for Democratic economic policies, for example, approving ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage in Alaska and to guarantee paid sick leave in Missouri.

...

What comes next? Trump won the election, but more than 67 million people voted for Democrats and they don’t expect us to roll over and play dead. We will have a peaceful transition of power, followed by a vigorous challenge from the party out of power, because that’s how democracy works. Here’s a path forward.

First, fight every fight in Congress.

We won’t always win, but we can slow or sometimes limit Trump’s destruction. With every fight, we can build political power to put more checks on his administration and build the foundation for future wins. Remember that during the first Trump term, mass mobilization—including some of the largest peaceful protests in world history—was the battery that charged the resistance. There is power in solidarity, and we can’t win if we don’t get in the fight.

During the Trump years, Congress stepped up its oversight of his unprecedented corruption and abuses of power. In the Senate, Democrats gave no quarter to radical Trump nominees; we asked tough questions and held the Senate floor for hours to slow down confirmation and expose Republican extremism. These tactics doomed some nominations entirely, laid the groundwork for other cabinet officials to later resign in disgrace, and brought scrutiny that somewhat constrained Trump’s efforts.

When all this work came together, we won some of the toughest fights. Remember Republicans’ attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act? Democrats did not have the votes to stop the repeal. Nevertheless, we fought on. Patients kept up a relentless rotation of meetings in Congress, activists in wheelchairs performed civil disobedience, and lawmakers used every tactic possible—late night speeches, forums highlighting patient stories, committee reports, and procedural tactics—to draw attention to the Republican repeal effort. This sustained resistance ultimately shifted the politics of health care repeal. The final vote was a squeaker, but Republicans lost and the ACA survived.

Democrats should also acknowledge that seeking a middle ground with a man who calls immigrants “animals” and says he will “protect” women “whether the women like it or not” is unlikely to land in a good place. Uniting against Trump’s legislative agenda is good politics because it is good policy. It was Democratic opposition to Trump’s tax bill that drove Trump’s approval ratings to what was then the lowest levels of his administration, forcing Republicans to scrap all mention of the law ahead of the 2018 midterm election and helping spark one of the largest blue waves in recent history.

Second, fight Trump in the courts.

Yes, extremist courts, including a Supreme Court stocked with MAGA loyalists, are poised to rubber-stamp Trump’s lawlessness. But litigation can slow Trump down, give us time to prepare and help the vulnerable, and deliver some victories.

Third, focus on what each of us can do.

I understand my assignment in the Senate, but we all have a part to play. During the first Trump administration, Democrats vigorously contested every special election and laid the groundwork to take back the House in the 2018 midterms, creating a powerful check on Trump and breaking the Republican trifecta. Whether it’s stepping up to run for office, supporting a neighbor’s campaign, or getting involved in an organization taking action, we all have to continue to make investments in our democracy—including in states that are passed over as “too red.” The political position we’re in is not permanent, and we have the power to make change if we fight for it.

Finally, Democrats currently in office must work with urgency.

While still in charge of the Senate and the White House, we must do all we can to safeguard our democracy. To resist Trump’s threats to abuse state power against what he calls “the enemy within,” Pentagon leaders should issue a directive now reiterating that the military’s oath is to the Constitution. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer must use every minute of the end-of-year legislative session to confirm federal judges and key regulators—none of whom can be removed by the next President.

To those feeling despair: I understand. But remember, every step toward progress in American history came after the darkness of defeat. Abolitionists, suffragettes, Dreamers, and marchers for civil rights and marriage equality all faced impossible odds, but they persisted. Now it is our turn to pull up our socks and get back in the fight. (x)

[mythica-ithaca]

this "vote blue no matter who" mantra is not working this time around and its because centrist dems genuinely don't seem to get that hope is stronger than fear. it always has been. and their main strategy is fear mongering about trumps second term and they can't fathom why its not going well. I was a couple months shy of voting in the general back in 2016, but that was the year that Bernie Sanders got myself and a lot of other young people involved in politics for the first time. Because he came onto the scene and gave a lot of people hope that things could even begin to start changing. And unfortunately Trump did the same for his base. And even more unfortunately, Hillary and the other centrists in the DNC decided to stomp this out and make sure everyone got back in line. The wave of hope and motivation that got Bernie as far as he did in the primary was gone, replaced with an extremely unpopular candidate that many people could not be guilt-tripped into voting for. And she lost.

And then in 2020, they decided once again to push an extremely unpopular centrist candidate and he only barely won because there was a glimmer of hope that at least he couldn't be worse than the last four years. He then proceeded to let Roe die in front of him and be complicit in the Palestinian genocide. I don't think you guys understand what the young people could have been capable of, supporting a candidate that they actually cared about if they weren't too busy scrolling through timelines of dead and dying children, that BOTH candidates openly support 100%.

What hope do they have this time around that ANYTHING would change for the better? You can't keep saying "But things will get worse" to people who have been watching kids get torn apart everyday for almost a year. You can't fear monger about fascism being on the ballot to people watching college protesters get beaten by police for opposing genocide under the same candidate you are pushing on them to 'save democracy'.

This is the least i have ever seen anyone care about an election in the last 12 years. Because literally you 'vote blue no matter who' people have given them nothing to actually care about. People feel hopeless. At Bidens recent rally he made these promises that in his first 100 days in office the would get this done- - Make Roe law of the land - Sign John Lewis Voting Rights Act - Expand Social Security and Medicare - End medical debt - Raise federal minimum wage - Renew ban on assault weapons - Make child tax cut permanent and you know what all the comments are saying? "He's president right now! Why didn't he do these things his first term?! Why is he not doing them now before he loses?!"

and they're right. And genocide being a hard red line for people to not vote for someone is not a fucking bad thing. general consensus seems to be that hey, at least when trumps president again, the dems will suddenly remember that genocide is an inexcusable evil.

I am BEGGING you people to stop with the "vote blue no matter who" shit. That is what has gotten us this far right in the first place. Republicans would never vote for a candidate that is as far left as Biden is right, and thats why they keep winning.

You HAVE to give people something to actually believe in, to hope for. Not just something to oppose and fear.

[anarchypumpkincowboy]

If every single one of you fucks that are so committed to furthering the two party system and yelling at folks to vote for Biden would just vote for a good third party candidate we’d actually fucking have a third party candidate

Biden’s not winning the election sorry but too many of us actually fucking have morals and can understand how Biden’s done fuck all to actually stop fascism because news flash it’s already fucking here

Like y’all are the reason trumps gonna get in and while yes that terrifies me it is absolutely the fault of all of you “vote blue no matter who” fucks. Because y’all are completely fine living under a fascist rule as long as there’s a D by their name. Y’all only ever give a shit about the folks who are suffering if a republican is in office

And don’t try to fear monger me I live in a rural state so trust me I know what it’s like living in a state with barely to no rights. “Oh but project 2025” FUCK OFF ITS ALREADY BEEN HAPPENING IN RURAL STATES AND HE AINT DONE SHIT TO STOP IT! HIS POLICIES HAVE IN FACT BEEN FOLLOWING ALONG WITH IT

Go vote, make sure you’re also voting for your local elections too, but don’t try to fucking act like voting for Biden is gonna do shit for this country because it’s not

[ridenwithbiden]

THE REPUBLICON PARTY IS OVER

"While this Summer of Indictments may stoke the hopes that our long national nightmare might be ended through judicial means, we should be realistic: The pathway to moving on from America’s MAGA mistake can, and must, be realized through democratic means. We shouldn’t pretend, in any event, that Trumpism and MAGA will might be blinked from existence, but discrediting its political future will take resounding losses to Democrat candidates in 2024. Voters of differing political beliefs must form unlikely, but necessary, alliances, to ensure that Republicans suffer vast defeats at the polls next year, up and down the ballot.

Is this a daunting task? Not unduly; numerous such alliances have occurred in our youthful 243-year-old republic. But the doing-so won’t just be critical for our short-term electoral circumstances: It is the necessary first step in our nation’s healing and reconciliation. And just as the Union did in the aftermath of Appomattox, those on the winning side—who’ve gathered on the correct side of history—will need to lead civic and communal renewals.   

I realize, and respect, that a not-small number of Democrats, Trump-disdaining Republicans, and purple-leaning voters might recoil at such a message, especially given the fact I’ve already renounced Trump and MAGA myself. But if a great nation deserves the truth, the truthtellers should have the necessary courage to pursue reconciliation.

This will take some forbearance. MAGA voters need to be shown that the vast majority of the elected officials and pundits they’ve followed have failed them, lied to them, mocked them privately, incessantly insulted their intelligence. Most of all, however, they’ve been traumatized in believing in parallel existences full of hysteria, phobias and paranoia. But these voters aren’t beyond redemption—for the most part, they are good and decent people who didn’t deserve to be dehumanized at the hands of the GOP. 

National reconciliation means that we can’t just leave MAGA voters to fend for themselves. That they’ve fended for themselves for years—generations, for some—is the biggest reason a corrupted GOP was able to prey on their concerns and fears—some of which had some valid, such as economic worries; and, some in dreadful abeyance of reality, such as the misbegotten fears of a tyrannical, hostile Democrat takeover of their lives, livelihoods, rights and families. I may not be able to offer a blanket endorsement of Democrat policies, but I credit the Democratic Party for not trafficking in the kinds of nefarious mythologies the Republican Party promulgates.

But we should be clear about one thing: It’s the voters who might be redeemed. The Republican Party is, in its current form, beyond redemption. If we hope to bring about the end of our MAGA madness, reconcile as a nation, and move on with our lives, we have to give up on the popular idea that we have to “save the Republican Party.” Giving up on this fruitless pursuit might be the best first step toward healing. Here’s a secret: If you scratch the surface of a dedicated MAGA voter, more often than not, you’ll find someone who already who already, deep down, loathes the GOP. Let’s make use of this.

Much of our national, centrist/center-left press tend to express that they have something different in mind. Whether or not, they want to acknowledge this, they clearly believe that MAGA voters are uneducated and uncouth. They think this because they haven’t lived this life, as I once did—politically traumatized and fully convinced that the Democratic Party posed an existential threat to our country. Yes, the press may understand MAGA voters in the abstract, but they aren’t hip to the ethos that’s been beaten into them at the hands of the Republican Party—or they’re embarrassed to admit they missed the story. 

There is a pretty obvious tell, by the way: Not a day goes by in which I don’t read a tweet, editorial, column or pontification yearning for someone to save the GOP. However well-intended, this is counterproductive and delusional. The Republican Party cannot be saved; the media needs to accept that a mercy-killing of the GOP is necessary for a valid and responsible conservative party to rise in its place. Perhaps it’s too much to ask the press to relentlessly editorialize in that direction. Make no mistake, however: The Republican Party that so many want to save is relentless in their aims. 

It often seems as if MAGA voters are adept at choosing party over country. But the good news is that I don’t think it would take much to cleave these voters from the GOP—for most Trump voters, party affiliation isn’t what is driving their fealty. As one who was once deep down the Trump/MAGA rabbit hole, I can tell you that Trump voters actually despise the GOP nearly as much as they do the Democratic Party. They only believe that Republicans were always preferable to Democrats because they were, sadly, paralyzed by blind partisanship—not because they think the GOP offers innovative solutions to complex challenges. 

I often congregated with affluent, financially comfortable Trump voters who lived those age-old Thoreauvian lives of quiet desperation. In between their Biblical quotes on social media and their myriad pursuits of pleasure, they saw a less White, less Christian, less heterosexual, less-zealous-about-the-Second-Amendment nation as one in decline. The quietly desperate often want a quasi-dictatorial party to emerge on the right because they’ve been made to believe that this is what Democrats are. The GOP, in pursuit of raw power, stokes little beyond these vindictive impulses. And so while voters from the left and right might reasonably agree that the government cannot ameliorate every ill in our country, what MAGA voters have come to want is a retaliatory government—mirroring what they think the Democrats are. 

There’s no better example of this phenomenon than what’s happening here in Florida, at the hands of Governor Ron DeSantis. His reign is all-revenge-all-the-time—and it’s in many ways unrecognizable from what previous political generations understood to be conservative. But as the shadow primary season has wended on, DeSantis has largely failed to catch fire as a Trump successor. It is to be hoped that this is a sign of vulnerability.  

I am loath to offer prognostications, but I’ve started to wonder if GOP officials aren’t in some way anticipating a round of massive federal, state, and local defeats to the Democrats next year, thanks, in no small part, to a record number of single-issue voters. Voter apathy is driven by the lack of a compelling reason to go to the polls; this election is shaping up to have several substantial motivators. And whether it’s abortion, firearms, education, voting rights, climate change, or the U.S. Supreme Court, it all lines up well for Democratic candidates. 

And a nation of conservatives is likely to further splinter into the factions that began to take shape during the past presidential election cycle: MAGA Republicans, centrist conservatives of the Mitt Romney vein, and “liberal” Republicans—whose policy commitments will be a redder shade of purple (if only because they actually have a bona fide interest in policy). I cannot support the GOP in its current form. Irrespective of my reservations about the Democratic Party, I cannot—I will not—support a party that formally declared the January 6 insurrection as “legitimate political discourse.” That’s just one more lie that no member of the Republican Party elite believes but which they force upon their base, much like the many similar myths about the encroach of socialism and Marxism that they use to traumatize their own at the expense of millions of Americans.

Having recently visited Gettysburg, what came into focus was Lincoln’s insistence that Americans appeal to the better and braver angels of our nature, and put behind them a war that remains the deadliest in our history. It is one of history’s saddest twists that Lincoln did not live to see the fruits of his impassioned advocacy and efforts to mend civic bonds. Just as the Confederacy needed to be defeated, so, too, does the GOP; calls to “save” this Republican Party should cease in favor of saving something that’s actually worth preserving.

It is to be lamented that our current epoch mandates sides be taken. I am, admittedly, reticent about an “us versus them” message of mercy-killing the GOP; us versus them, in perpetuity, is unhealthy—perhaps fatal—for any democracy. “Democracy,” as John Adams wrote in 1814, “never lasts long. It soon wastes exhausts and murders itself.” My personal and political journey out of MAGA is living proof that while healing is not painless, it is possible—and liberating. For the MAGA supporters in your life, be patient. Remember that MAGA has made many forget that our nation is a forgiving one. It is astoundingly easy to fall prey to right-wing mythologies; let us not forget this when engaging with the MAGA voters in our lives. And have faith that the effort is true to our history: The never-ending, regularly frustrating toil of perfecting our Union mandates unlikely, but necessary, alliances."

[fromtheashescamehope]

The fact that you are annoyed he's not dead speaks volumes on your morality, and humanity. I am not a trump supporter... but i also recognize he isn't Hitler. He isnt, and never will be. He never made conversion camps. he never killed thousands upon thousands of people... he has not betrayed us. He has however set forth many laws in which benefitted the lgbtqia+ and counting.... I would not have a conversation with the man over tea, and biscuits, we may not agree on everything, but he. is. a. human being. a person who happened to see everything that can happen in office. a person who... 'knows too much'/ Demonizing him will do what? start wars, turn people against each other despite us all wanting the same thing.... Peace. The ability to live among each other with love and acceptance. We are in a digital battleground right now, and children, teens, young adults, are losing their abilities to have their own opinions, being taken by storm either out of fear or by joining the hoard. You gotta be afraid of offending somebody... even though you just want to respect and love them as they are, as who they will be. is THIS the world that you want people? a world where people celebrate the death of another person just to be right? Why has the fight been lost on so many people because someone is afraid or reclusive to being wrong. Can we not see beyond Republican and Democrat? Race? Religion? I've been here before... i know your pain, i know your fight. as harsh as this could sound, 'winning' doesn't matter, because is it really winning when in the end you still feel as empty as you did before? Would you rather be 'right' or be free? Would you rather be 'politically correct' or live in harmony? Together despite difference, peace for all human beings. People of tumblr, i understand your anger, and hatred... but this is not the answer. Its never the answer and slowly but surely we are losing our empathy, letting rage consume us... was the lgbt not built on love? Now its only built on hate, and sufferage, and hurt. Its built on a sick sense of justice to fill the void that is our lives. Is anyone not in the deathnote fandom? Are we not acting like light in this situation, or are we? We are the people.... and we have to be the ones to decide our humanity... not let the crowd decide for us. Not let the loudest of our inner demons puncture and wound the little voice in our head screaming to us in guilt and shame.

-Pheonix

Yes yes, I too am very sad and annoyed that Trump is not dead, I got all breathlessly excited and queued up "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead" to be ready for a great announcement, and then I didn't even get to play it. It's a huge bummer.

However, step two of this huge bummer is NOT "Oh no and now his fandom will be EVEN MORE ANNOYING, we have basically already lost :((((" That is the devil speaking. Step two is to say "Ah heck, his fandom is going to be even more annoying, better FUCKING VOTE AND MAKE SURE EVERYONE I KNOW ALSO VOTES" Stop your worthless defeatism, stop your stupid pessimism, stop trying to GIVE UP AND SURRENDER just cause one weird thing happened.

GO VOTE, IDIOTS

[batboyblog]

How concerned do you think we should be about election officials who are election deniers refusing to certify results? I’m trying not to be anxious about it but it is a challenge.

well this was a worrying moment

my understanding is that Mr. Richer will oversee this election before his term is done, it's super duper VERY VERY important that any Arizona voters who see this make sure to vote all the way down to the Democrat Tim Stringham to make sure ALL Americans get free and fair elections.

ANY WAYS, how worried should you be? well, I think its always important to not let fear and worry paralyze you, its important to remember that in 2020 election deniers did try, but Joe Biden had won too many states, they had to try to overturn Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada, too many state courts, too many election officials, too many moving parts. So our best hope of frustrating them again is to win big. Many of them will lose their nerve and not want to be on the "losing side" which again happened in 2020 with most Republicans going along with the election. In 2024 Trump will be an old-old man, to try to run again for President he'd be 82 years old, everyone says his public appearances have slipped from the past, his legal battles drag on, he could be sentenced to jail in 2025, all to say if I'm a scummy Republican Congressman in January 2025 and Trump has lost every swing state commandingly I'm not sticking my neck out for him.

SO! you want to feel better? you want to not feel worried, get involved, its the only cure, I swear to god it is, I know no one believes me when I say that but its true, want to not have election anxiety? Volunteer, the anxiety comes from a sense of a huge out of control event looming over you, if you take action your brain won't feel out of control, you will feel better.

look for an event to volunteer with here, if you live somewhere super red or blue without an important Senate/House race, I recommend checking Run for Something they support young progressive candidates running for lower profile offices. If you're super stressed about the federal thing Democrats do Phone Banking a group called Field Team 6 is doing Text Banking to help register likely Democrats in key states, Swing Left is writing letters and Progressive Turnout is doing Postcards starting on the 5th

EVERYONE! can do SOMETHING! even from their own home, but trust me, door knocking is the easiest, most satisfying, and most cathartic thing you can do. And it's all any of us can do about Republicans plotting, win, and win big.

[the-physicality]

ok long election post incoming

it wasn't one thing. it was every thing. and it starts at the top. when democrats don't govern, thy don't give anyone a reason to vote for them. and when they only cater towards specific groups [for example the college educated] they may end up losing other groups

campaigning against something but for nothing is not a persuasive strategy. especially when people have experienced it before and came out on the other side.

governing you can blame on joe. you can blame the administration for not taking enough credit for its accomplishments. you can blame them for only bragging about it to people who aren't listening. you can blame the administration for writing a blank check to israel.

campaigning you split the blame. joe dropped out too late and not having a primary*. and harris lost momentum when she started listening to the consultant class. she didn't distance herself from the things that got joe a 38% approval rating. you can blame biden for not building a campaign.

But. she started listening to the consultant class i'm sure because they were showing her numbers like people think you're too liberal. and that only happens when you lose the culture war. [the culture war says Black people and women want to take away everything good in the poor little white man's life [and anyone who aligns themselves with the white man] which started in like 2008, and has only grown exponentially with the strengthening of the conservative media empire, the 2016 election, the 2020 protests. not just podcasts but sinclair media and fox news.

democrats are so proud of their ground game and their volunteer numbers and their donations but no one ever stops to think why they need all of this, especially after trump wins with basically none of it.

it's their media empire but it's also because democrats aren't doing enough in office. I also want to say that the premise behind all liberal aligned outreach is horrendous. they put your number on 150 different lists and everyone wants to make sure you vote and you're registered. because they don't have a large enough loyal base. because they don't do enough in office to earn people's support.

and the people who are their strongest base, the ones who turn out - Black voters, are far more likely to be subject to voter suppression- be that too few polling locations in a region or voter id laws or Bomb Threats or Ballots Getting Burned.

fundamentally the party also doesn't understand its broader base, mostly because of the consultant class. therefore , they don't know who they're supposed to govern for, and they would rather keep donors happy [because again, see the outreach problem]

Democrats should look to push popular policies** and focus on the economy [in an inclusive way]. returning to the running against vs running for point- if your opponent only sees you as running against something, that is a huge hole that they can fill with whatever they want. and for them, it's culture wars.

if democrats are only seen as the party that is socially liberal with no economic policy [because they do not talk about it] then republicans [who have no morals] will fear monger uninformed voters with lies.

and how do these lies get reinforced? how do they gain traction? how did republicans grow their base and maintain turnout? they created a media infrastructure outside of the mainstream media. this is through podcasts and streamers and alt right pipelines on youtube and elon buying twitter. inundating people with fear tactics about how diversity will create a zero sum game that you. will. lose.

if you look at the map of voter swing [all the red arrows] people at first said that's insurmountable there's nothing she could have done. then they said well she is underperforming 2020 numbers and he is holding. 2020 had abnormally high turnout because of the pandemic. many people for the first time in their lives had access to ways to vote other than in person on election day.

2020 was in a sense a perfect storm. trump was bungling a pandemic that everybody still acknowledged was happening, deeply unpopular, and joe biden was able to unite the party after [amid] a messy primary enough to come in and play hero.

and then they arbitrarily decided the pandemic [and public health] was over. that it was too taxing on the public. too unpopular. when in actuality people are begging their governments to lead them. They never sent out checks they promised in the name of fiscal responsibility.

they passed the inflation reduction act but didn't know how to publicize it enough. they decided the only way to get back on track was to raise interest rates, which increased the cost of borrowing money, which limited things like building housing.

meanwhile if you look at exit polls, people said they voted republican because their cost of living was too high.

harris did start running on affordable housing. but it was too late. the party didn't have a strong enough platform. they REMOVED mention of being against the death penalty. they take no human rights stance on palestine. they alienate people who wanted so badly to lib out.

now, why would a presidential candidate have to run on something like building more homes? because the states aren't building enough. the big blue democratic trifectas don't govern as they should. their schools are funded by property tax and property tax is based on the value of a home and if you add more homes or more people [people who are not the same as you] the homes may lose their value. and of course school funding isn't why homes aren't being build in cities [cities that need to run up their D votes to offset more conservative areas in the state]. it's because people were raised with the idea that real estate is an investment. it's a way to make money. and with the basic principles of supply and demand, if you have less, demand will increase, and if demand increases, you can sell for more.

so now you have red states building lots of housing for cheap, not getting fucked over in the census, and gaining population and therefore congressional seats and electoral votes. these people do not vote out republicans. they agree with them or the state democratic party isn't strong enough or they don't vote at all. meanwhile blue states won't ban single family zoning until it is too late and because of their high taxes [to pay for social services] and wages [because of the cost of living] the cost to build is higher, and less gets built. so these states lose population, they undercount in the census, they lose representation. now their representatives have to cover more ground. which leads us into the second biggest problem the democrats have:

after /during trump, they don't know what their identity is. they don't like their base. many of the democrats in leadership positions are overly intellectual and aim for a kennedy vibe. they like their consultants and they really don't mind the old republican party either. they've grown used to the reagan republicans like frenemies. because as many really wealthy people will show [with their votes], they won't be affected by a rollback of the social net, of healthcare, of abortion. they'll find a way. after all, money can get you a lot of things in life.

because of this they open the tent. they say anyone who is not a trumpie can come in. we want all the help we can get to go against this guy. show the country that there is one sane option. [but what is it that they say ? the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. hmmm.] they invite the cheneys in. they say we will govern for everyone. and this means doing things like not playing hardball in nominations and appointments, not doing enough to push things through. mitt romney was right when he said 49 percent of voters don't matter.

the best way to govern as the head of your party is to be strong. let your members carve their own path, but people like politicians who have a backbone. who stand for something. who fight for something. not people who say " when we win, we'll codify roe v wade!" that's bullshit and everyone knows it. moreover, it's not even a sound legal decision. you're still letting five lawyers set healthcare policy for the nation and enshrine it as a constitutional right. literally what? [not to mention the trimester shit .. when does life begin blah blah blah]

**and now, the biggest problem of the democratic party: nobody likes them. the party as a whole is DEEPLY unpopular. it does not make sense that candidates up and down the ballot are outperforming a persidential candidate like this. it doesn't make sense for progressive policies [ballot measures] to outperform candidateS like this in red states.

but post LBJ [into nixon, reagan-present] the party fell apart and never got back. they've had flashes of charisma [W Clinton, Obama] to get them through, but we are living in a republican era. in the same way people who lived FDR-LBJ lived through a democrat era. [my apologies to jimmy carter]

nixon awoke the modern republican base and reagan made it mainstream. his minion bush kept it moving and then bush's son brought it into the new millennium. many thought there was a new era with obama, that we wouldn't look back. but it turns out it was just enough for one of the greatest conservative backlashes in politics. and just because republican insiders were new to the trump ways didn't mean they didn't pounce on the opportunity to regain power.

all this to say, since LBJ democrats have been clinging to scraps with every democrat in office, just enough to keep the country functioning. which means, once again, that they do not govern enough to be likeable. they do not campaign to be likeable. because they value policy, but they cannot communicate it. Republicans are great communicators because they lie. and their base doesn't care.

every once in a while there will be a great communicator from the democrats- FDR, JFK, Obama. but so often the party, at all levels, will shun this talent. because it's not their time yet. because someone else was here first. because that's not the message the party wants, now or ever. they like their consultant class, they don't mind being republican lite, especially when the alternative is trump.

the name democrat is bad vibes and we lose elections because of it. that's a branding problem, it's a policy problem, it's a candidate problem.

*the primary. people say well there should have been a primary. okay. and who would have won that? after forcing biden out for age? do you think gavin newsom would have won? do you think the party would have let sanders or warren get it? shapiro [who I don't like but obviously has aspirations] had one year in the Pennsylvania executive. AOC isn't old enough.

the democrats have no bench. why do they have no bench? because they are constantly getting wiped out by the red wave. i mean, they have a supermajority and don't govern. they let republicans dictate policy. they cede whole arguments to republicans [see "balancing the budget" and the culture wars]. republicans put effort and money into recruiting every race. they bankroll new candidates and they send them to seminars to get all the talking points they need. they create a whole judicial ecosystem with clerks from their supreme court nominees.

meanwhile democrats are too worried about getting beat by republicans, about making sure everyone in line gets to die in office. they don't invest in the infrastructure to build and coordinated campaigns and recruit strong candidates. in fact, some of the strongest candidates have come from primary challengers, people who were at one point shunned from the party because they didn't wait their turn.

.

the democrats need to take a good long look in the mirror and then smash it with a hammer. they need to break it all down and start from scratch. they need to exile the consultants and work to create an independent media infrastructure to get young minds on the pipeline to progressive ideals. they have fucked up royally a few too many times for it to be coincidence. they froth at the mouth to run against trump and they blow it most of the time. they wouldn't know how to run against a "regular" republican if a campaign plan hit them in the face. they need to create a coalition, they need to create state party infrastructure, they need to campaign on the things that are popular and use persuasive messaging. if they can do a better job if they can understand actually what needs to happen maybe they'll have a chance. i'd like to see it, but I won't bet on them.

[dig-jules]

what do you want people to do, not vote for her? you get harris or trump. it sucks but that's reality. the american experiment will keep breathing no matter who is steering the ship, and i don't think it's impossible that many people in the global south - who do not have the privilege of american citizenship, and who do not have the privilege of getting to vote in the american election, but will STILL be affected by its outcome - would prefer harris to trump. a trump presidency is not gonna usher in some great revolution and it's not gonna topple the empire, not while rich people have profit at stake. it's gonna make people exhausted and disenfranchised and POWERLESS, incapable of rallying and effecting change. people around the world are counting on american citizens to keep that guy out of office. do you really think kamala harris is gonna be worse for ukraine or palestine than donald trump? it sucks, i know it sucks, but people asking americans to vote for kamala harris aren't being pro-genocide or short-sighted, they're thinking of the long run and the bigger picture. it may not FEEL good to vote harris - it doesn't FEEL good to donate to palestinians when you know your cash is gonna end up in the pockets of the people at the border who are exploiting them - but part of being an adult and a responsible citizen is sucking it up and doing what you have to do even when you don't want to, because other people need you to. i am aware that as an american with the right to sway the election results i have a HUGE amount of privilege over the people that the american empire oppresses - why would anyone throw that power away? if our vote - for kamala harris - didn't matter SO much, republicans and facists wouldn't be trying so hard to convince us not to cast it. please don't be fooled by propaganda, and please don't forget perfect is the enemy of good. by turning people off from harris as a candidate, you're practically doing the republican party's work for them.

When did I say don’t vote for harris? I made an observation that this country is so fascistic that we are forced to gleefully vote for someone who is carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign, and your response was… don’t criticize Harris lest Trump wins. Do you see where the problem is? Do you see where we’ve lost?

Does me pointing out that every American president in the past 3 decades has overseen a mass slaughter really offend you? Or is it just that I’m pointing out we should see that as a problem, and not just another “cost” of “freedom”?

This isn’t a 2024 issue. This is a “we are actively carrying out the evils we were warned of in the history books, and this forsaken nation is now marching towards its bitter end” issue. Project 2025 doesn’t magically go away in 2026. No, what we must reckon with are that half of this country are willing to support those policies, and the other half will decry them while systematically exploiting and slaughtering entire populations abroad- populations who they have taught the governed are worth less than 2 dollars off their groceries.

Do you understand that Kamala has changed her platform to be pro-fracking, that she believes trans people should follow the “rule of law” regarding access to necessary care, that she has platformed herself with the same law and order rhetoric that liberals decried Trump for? Because she knows she can get away with it. Because people so fear Trump that they do not care- will not speak up. Because she is too busy promising to add republicans to her cabinet, parading around Liz Cheney, and drafting her plan to fortify the border wall. Because she takes liberal votes as a given, thus she now panders her policies to those she isn’t sure of. But not the “left”. Never the “left”.

You cannot blame the Palestinian-Americans whose families have been murdered by this woman that they refuse to write her name on a ballot. You can only blame her unwillingness to promise a full arms embargo on Israel and materially support the Palestinian right to self determination. She has not earned their vote. That is how democracy works. And if you believe otherwise, well, take a look around at the system we have been forced into and reread my initial post. That is the problem.

And we are told that criticism is dangerous. We are told to applaud from in front of our TVs as our democratic representatives give Netanyahu his 18th standing ovation- and take it. We are told by Harris herself that the fate of the Palestinian people must be sealed in the name of American grocery prices.

[didanawisgi]

Martin Luther King Jr., Guns, and a Book Everyone Should Read

BY JEREMY S. | JAN 15, 2018

“Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 89 years old today, were he not assassinated in 1968. On the third Monday in January we observe MLK Jr. Day and celebrate his achievements in advancing civil rights for African Americans and others. While Dr. King was a big advocate of peaceful assembly and protest, he wasn’t, at least for most of his life, against the use of firearms for self-defense. In fact, he employed them . . .

If it wasn’t for African Americans in the South, primarily, taking up arms almost without exception during the post-Civil War reconstruction and well into the civil rights movement, this country wouldn’t be what it is today.

By force and threat of arms African Americans protected themselves, their families, their homes, and their rights and won the attention and respect of the powers that be. In a lawless, post-Civil War South they stayed alive while faced with, at best, an indifferent government and, at worst, state-sponsored violence against them.

We know the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision of 1857 refused to recognize black people as citizens. Heck, they were deemed just three-fifths a person. Not often mentioned in school: some of that was due to gun rights. Namely, not wanting to give gun rights to blacks. Because if they were to recognize blacks as citizens, it…

“…would give to persons of the negro race . . . the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, . . . and it would give them the full liberty of speech . . . ; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went.”

Ahha! So the Second Amendment was considered an individual right, protecting a citizen’s natural, inalienable right to keep and carry arms wherever they go. Then as now, gun control is rooted in racism.

During reconstruction, African Americans were legally citizens but were not always treated as such. Practically every African American home had a shotgun — or shotguns — and they needed it, too. Forget police protection, as those same officials were often in white robes during their time off.

Fast forward to the American civil rights movement and we learn, but again not at school, that Martin Luther King Jr. applied for a concealed carry permit. He (an upstanding minister, mind you) was denied.

Then as in many cases even now, especially in blue states uniquely and ironically so concerned about “fairness,” permitting was subjective (“may issue” rather than “shall issue”). The wealthy and politically connected receive their rights, but the poor, the uneducated, the undesired masses, not so much.

Up until late in his life, MLK Jr. chose to be protected by the Deacons for Defense. Though his home was also apparently a bit of an arsenal.

African Americans won their rights and protected their lives with pervasive firearms ownership. But we don’t learn about this. We don’t know about this. It has been unfortunately whitewashed from our history classes and our discourse.

Hidden, apparently, as part of an agreement (or at least an understanding) reached upon the conclusion of the civil rights movement.

Sure, the government is going to protect you now and help you and give you all of the rights you want, but you have to give up your guns. Turn them in. Create a culture of deference to the government. Be peaceable and non-threatening and harmless. And arm-less, as it were (and vote Democrat). African Americans did turn them in, physically and culturally.

That, at least, is an argument made late in Negroes and the Gun: the Black Tradition of Arms. It’s a fantastic book, teaching primarily through anecdotes of particular African American figures throughout history just how important firearms were to them. I learned so-freaking-much from this novel, and couldn’t recommend it more. If you have any interest in gun rights, civil rights, and/or African American history, it’s an absolute must-read.

Some text I highlighted on my Kindle Paperwhite when I read it in 2014:

But Southern blacks had to navigate the first generation of American arms-control laws, explicitly racist statutes starting as early as Virginia’s 1680 law, barring clubs, guns, or swords to both slaves and free blacks.

“…he who would be free, himself must strike the blow.”

In 1846, white abolitionist congressman Joshua Giddings of Ohio gave a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, advocating distribution of arms to fugitive slaves.

Civil-rights activist James Forman would comment in the 1960s that blacks in the movement were widely armed and that there was hardly a black home in the South without its shotgun or rifle.

A letter from a teacher at a freedmen’s school in Maryland demonstrates one set of concerns. The letter contains the standard complaints about racist attacks on the school and then describes one strand of the local response. “Both the Mayor and the sheriff have warned the colored people to go armed to school, (which they do) [and] the superintendent of schools came down and brought me a revolver.”

Low black turnout resulted in a Democratic victory in the majority black Republican congressional district.

Other political violence of the Reconstruction era centered on official Negro state militias operating under radical Republican administrations.

“The Winchester rifle deserves a place of honor in every Black home.” So said Ida B. Wells.

Fortune responded with an essay titled “The Stand and Be Shot or Shoot and Stand Policy”: “We have no disposition to fan the coals of race discord,” Thomas explained, “but when colored men are assailed they have a perfect right to stand their ground. If they run away like cowards they will be regarded as inferior and worthy to be shot; but if they stand their ground manfully, and do their own a share of the shooting they will be respected and by doing so they will lessen the propensity of white roughs to incite to riot.”

He used state funds to provide guns and ammunition to people who were under threat of attack.

“Medgar was nonviolent, but he had six guns in the kitchen and living room.”

“The weapons that you have are not to kill people with — killing is wrong. Your guns are to protect your families — to stop them from being killed. Let the Klan ride, but if they try to do wrong against you, stop them. If we’re ever going to win this fight we got to have a clean record. Stay here, my friends, you are needed most here, stay and protect your homes.”

In 2008 and 2010, the NAACP filed amicus briefs to the United States Supreme Court, supporting blanket gun bans in Washington, DC, and Chicago. Losing those arguments, one of the association’s lawyers wrote in a prominent journal that recrafting the constitutional right to arms to allow targeted gun prohibition in black enclaves should be a core plank of the modern civil-rights agenda.

Wilkins viewed the failure to pursue black criminals as overt state malevolence and evidence of an attitude that “there’s one more Negro killed — the more of ’em dead, the less to bother us. Don’t spend too much money running down the killer — he may kill another.”

But it puts things in perspective to note that swimming pool accidents account for more deaths of minors than all forms of death by firearm (accident, homicide, and suicide).

The correlation of very high murder rates with low gun ownership in African American communities simply does not bear out the notion that disarming the populace as a whole will disarm and prevent murder by potential murderers.

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated 1,900,000 annual episodes where someone in the home retrieved a firearm in response to a suspected illegal entry. There were roughly half a million instances where the armed householder confronted and chased off the intruder.

A study of active burglars found that one of the greatest risks faced by residential burglars is being injured or killed by occupants of a targeted dwelling. Many reported that this was their greatest fear and a far greater worry than being caught by police.48 The data bear out the instinct. Home invaders in the United States are more at risk of being shot in the act than of going to prison.49 Because burglars do not know which homes have a gun, people who do not own guns enjoy free-rider benefits because of the deterrent effect of others owning guns. In a survey of convicted felons conducted for the National Institute of Justice, 34 percent of them reported being “scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim.” Nearly 40 percent had refrained from attempting a crime because they worried the target was armed. Fifty-six percent said that they would not attack someone they knew was armed and 74 percent agreed that “one reason burglars avoid houses where people are at home is that they fear being shot.”

In the period before Florida adopted its “shall issue” concealed-carry laws, the Orlando Police Department conducted a widely advertised program of firearms training for women. The program was started in response to reports that women in the city were buying guns at an increased rate after an uptick in sexual assaults. The program aimed to help women gun owners become safe and proficient. Over the next year, rape declined by 88 percent. Burglary fell by 25 percent. Nationally these rates were increasing and no other city with a population over 100,000 experienced similar decreases during the period.55 Rape increased by 7 percent nationally and by 5 percent elsewhere in Florida.

As you can see, Negroes and the Gun progresses more or less chronologically, spending the last portion of the book discussing modern-day gun control. It’s an invaluable source of ammunition (if you’ll pardon the expression) against the fallacies of the pro-gun-control platform. It sheds light on a little-known (if not purposefully obfuscated), critical factor in the history of African Americans: firearms.

On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I highly recommend you — yes, you — read Negroes and the Gun: the Black Tradition of Arms.

And I’ll wrap this up with a quote in a Huffington Post article given by Maj Toure of Black Guns Matter: 

https://cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/huffpo-maj-toure.jpg”

[slapmeagain-blog]

Five years ago...

11 November 2021

Trump won. And I posted the following on Facebook. Excuse me, is it Meta, or Facebook now? I see one thing on TV and another online. Does it matter?

Quoting myself, from five years ago, only because now, after having lived through his presidency and looking at what I wrote then, I don't feel the need to change a word of what I said. The words ring true still, and if anything, it's even worse than we had feared then:

"I'm still angry, almost 72 hours after it became apparent Trump would win.  I'm angry at the people who's vision of America is so radically different from mine.  People voted for Trump for many different reasons.  But there was one reason why no one should have voted for him: he finds it too easy to promote hate.  Put aside for the moment the he finds it too easy to disrespect and denigrate people of color, people who may worship differently or not at all, or have a different sexual orientation.  Put aside that with the same seed capital he was given by his family, a mutual fund would now be worth 10 times what he's worth.  Put aside that he was quoted in a national TV interview (I saw it) as saying that if he were to run, he would run as a Republican because .."They're the dumbest group of voters in the country."  That they, "..believe anything on Fox News.  I could lie and they'd eat it up."  (and they did.).

As a New Yorker, I have watched Donald Trump for over 30 years.  To 90% of us, he is as he has always been, 'the local billionaire buffoon,' an attention-starved narcissist, and a tasteless characterization of all that is wrong with American culture; its hedonism, materialism, its excess, just one more deviant from our core values.  I would never have believed in a million years that a nation of people who, as a whole, have more to be thankful for, more freedom, and more economic and social opportunity than any nation on earth or any nation in the history of man, would be completely fooled by a man who appeals to our basest natures, who lives a life in direct opposition to Christian ethics conservatives so passionately claim directs their lives (where were they hiding during this election).

As this juncture, I fear for my freedom, I fear for the freedom of all of us, not just Muslims, gays and lesbians, Latinos, women, for the sick, for the poor, for our immigrant communities, all of whom should be treated with respect and dignity, and shown that we believe they, too, are just as American as anyone of us, and that we are valued for the things we can contribute to our society.  I am afraid for the environment.  I am afraid for the planet as those engaged in 'willful denialism' feel vindicated about global warming because a charlatan is now president of the United States.

I am afraid for my grandchildren, for the message that this election sends to them.  That bullying is ok, that it's ok to hate blacks, that it's ok to treat girls as objects, transgender or gays as if they aren't human.  I fear they will lose respect for the office of the President, and the government he represents, our government, that they will cease to believe that they can make a difference in the lives of their neighbors, family members and their community, that they will become more insular and less community-oriented because what they are trying to achieve is not valued by our leaders or a majority of the members of society.

Many people I know and respect voted for Donald Trump.  I can understand that some people have problems with Hillary Clinton, and with Bill Clinton.  I do too.  I am angry with Hillary as well, for not being as open or as likeable as she needed to be so that people could get past her flaws to see that she was obviously the best qualified person to be our next President, on all counts.  But, to vote for a man who is so clearly unqualified, who has so many personality disorders as to make him dangerous, who lives a life that, if it were a movie, you would walk out of the theater either laughing or sick to your stomach, leaves me thinking that I have been sucked through a vortex into some dystopian alternate reality, and landed in zero-star SciFi film.

Leaving the outright red necks, neo-Nazis, KKK types, and schizophrenics aside, I am trying to figure out what motivated people who, in all other respects seem to me to be rational, well-educated, friendly, kind and well-meaning family types, step into a voting booth and do something so contrary to everything we hold dear as a nation and a people. Ignorance? Greed? Fear of 'the other'?

This is why I don't feel like I want to be in the same room with you.  I'm disappointed in you, and I'm tried of trying to understand why you did what you did, and why you felt it was ok to do it."