Commonly referred to as “cognitive biases” (“tendencies to
think in certain ways that can lead to systematic deviations from a standard of
rationality or good judgment”), the
following may be examples of some biases that pertain to being unable to deal
with future consequences (many of which have been on display of late in Cleveland):
1) “Confirmation” bias -- a “tendency
to interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions – but it
often limits the ability to take in new data and thereby change old opinions.”
2) “Anchoring” or “focalism” – the
predilection for relying too heavily on one piece of information when making
decisions: people with this kind of bias often cannot discern or imagine any
other solutions.
3) “Bandwagon effect” – the
tendency to do or believe things because others do; related to group-think and
herd behavior
4) “Availability cascade” - A
self-reinforcing process in which a collective belief gains more and more
plausibility through its increasing repetition in public discourse ("repeat
something long enough and it will become true").
5) “Conservatism” - The tendency to
revise one's belief insufficiently when presented with new evidence, thus being
satisfied with the “status quo”
Just to
give you a taste of some of the consequences with which we find ourselves
living, that evolved from conservative Republican administrations, let’s start
with a military man, very conservative in many ways; a hero to many who
proclaimed: “I Like Ike.”
| Dwight D. Eisenhower: Even this moderately conservative Republican gave us some long-term results that linger. His administration allowed the CIA to function as a ‘shadow’ government, disrupting regimes in other countries, e.g. Indonesia, Cambodia, Cuba, the Congo, and most of all, in Iran where Prime Minister Mosaddegh was overthrown (with CIA help) and the Shah was placed in power. Although the CIA today is somewhat more controlled, we inherited both the enmity of certain countries, such as Iran, and the allowance of secretive exploits by the CIA; such as current monitoring of personal phone calls, emails, other communications (and let us not forget the use of water-boarding under George W. Bush-Dick Cheney). Internal spying on countries both friendly and not so friendly are all extensions of the extra-curricular activities of the CIA and other intelligence branches in this and subsequent administrations. |
| Beware those who live
and die by total warfare against others, including unchecked covert
operations – the consequences always come back to haunt us both at home and
abroad.
|
We still
live with Nixon’s ‘southern strategy’ that changed voting patterns in our South
for future decades. His campaign ‘dirty tricks’ also changed voter trust for
government into a distrust still exploited today by Right-wing candidates. National Government has been made into an
enemy and that produces the Right-wing push for states’ rights and state
takeover of national programs. One
long-term consequence: Medicaid returned to the states will result in current health-directed
dollars being re-directed toward state administrative costs, simply because the
national administrative structure will be eliminated.
Beware
those who see states as the be-all and end-all for governing ourselves. We have tried it more than once and failed
each time, e.g. the early Articles of Confederation had to be abandoned in
light of the Confederation’s inability to supply our Revolutionary War troops. Beware
the Party that declares the evilness of a central government, without
mentioning the inability or failure of states to provide their own citizens
with adequate health care, retirement benefits, jobs or education, a clean
environment, or a thoroughly modern infrastructure adequate for large
corporations that are themselves multi-national. We must maintain a strong national government
to produce outcomes that will address national problems, needs and issues like those
just mentioned.
Ronald Reagan:
We also
live with the consequences of Ronald Reagan having fired striking air traffic
controllers thereby emboldening future conservative leaders toward ‘Right to
Work’ laws, constant attacks on union activities and the abrogation of employee
rights and benefits, such as an adequate health care plan or retirement plan
for every worker.
Beware
the Trump backers who tout the businessman image and who say that he loves his
workers and learns much from them. Why
then does he oppose unions, a minimum wage (the concept itself), and equal pay
for women?
Trump, and many of his
supporters, have inherited or acquired the false assumption that organized Labor
is bad for Business. ORGANIZED LABOR IS
NOT BAD FOR BUSINESS; it’s a check on
business practices that exploit
workers and consumers and a boon to businesses that treat workers with
dignity and respect.
Is
organized Labor the reason for losing manufacturing firms to other countries –
no, that happened because Business decided to exploit the workers in other
countries and because a certain Republican
administration set up some favorable conditions under which businesses could
leave our shores, make a pile of profit and protect those profits in off-shore
non-taxable accounts.
Is
organized Labor the reason why so many employees of private businesses are being
summarily fired or laid-off without a procedure in place to protest their forced
exit? Hardly. Are Labor unions responsible for employee losses
of healthcare, pension, and pay check?
No; businesses are taking advantage of the non-union shops and
exploiting workers every chance they get, even in the non-profit sector.
These
are just a few examples of negative enduring consequences of voting for
Right-wing conservative candidates for President. There are more actual examples; check
them all out at: http://killian.com/earl/presidents.html
(from which was gathered some of the material above).
Now striding upon the scene comes Donald J.
Trump… who unfortunately embodies every far Right doctrinaire policy and idea
that has gone before him, to which he has added more by asserting fascist-like
rhetoric and actions that have no place in United States politics. However, there are enough
frighteningly-biased voters and moneyed sponsors behind him that he is now the actual Republican nominee for President
of these United States.
The enduring nightmarish consequences of his possible
election are many, but we will mention just a few for your consideration.
- One or more Supreme Court nominees that will lean the Court to the Right for several generations, thus preventing all progressive values and programs from seeing the light of day. Meaning specifically, the loss of Roe vs. Wade and the right to a legal abortion. But that’s not all: it relegates women to criminal status, causes deaths from botched illegal abortions, and relegates women to a less competitive status.
- An
opposition to: bargaining rights, the minimum wage (not just a raise but
the concept itself), equal pay for equal work, paid family leave, promises
to devastate our work force and their families for many years. All those white working men who believe
Trump will take care of them will be toiling for peanuts. Trump will betray you just like Reagan
betrayed the unions and workers who supported him.
- And guess what? Under Trump there will be a reduction in unemployment benefits, and no special programs for out-of-work or poverty-level wage earners.
- Other
Government Benefits will not be readily available, like Social Security,
Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, CHIPs, transportation aid, rent subsidies,
public housing units, retirement pensions, or social services. Low-wage earners are going to be out-of-luck. It would not be surprising to see the
return of tent cities, work crews beholden to industry moguls; control of
every aspect of the lives of those living mouth-to-mouth in the hands of
the privileged bankers, financiers, manufacturers and industrialists. If you thought government hand-outs to
those in poverty were reprehensible; wait until you see what the Trump
crowd will be handing out, or not handing out, as the case may be.
- Just
what do you expect will happen when the military and weapons of
destruction are allowed to build up to enormous proportions in order to
make America feel great again?
Well, it won’t be to keep the peace. Trump has already threatened to use
atomic weapons against ISIS, and some countries like North Korea and Libya
and Syria are not on his all-time favorites list either. Anybody who messes with Trump will
experience war as a first response.
But war brings consequences that last for decades. We are still paying off war debt that
has accumulated since WWII, and still dealing with the competition and
enmity of former enemies.
- If the last week is any indication, we will have Mr. Trump to thank for a division of groups of people along lines that are designated by his government. His animosity toward Muslims, Mexicans, Syrians, and people of color, plus a few more categories like women and young protestors, tends to make the Wall he wants to build on our southern border a sinister image of walling off or segregating certain portions of our population. Perhaps internal walling-off will be less by physical walls then by means of restrictive policies, laws, regulations, rules and lack of opportunities. Why not? several of his Governor colleagues like Christie and Pence (V-P nominee) have already done so!
- Watch out for Trump trying to please Evangelicals by signing legislation that allows religious objections to health care provisions – birth control specifically. And, watch out for the creeping menace of religion inside government and vice versa (already begun under George W. Bush) to be continued under Donald Trump who wants immediately to remove any restrictions on churches regarding tax exemptions, private school support from tax dollars and eligibility for government grants.
- What about his commitment to “Law and Order?” Does that mean the police will be more militarized and more at war with their neighborhoods and communities rather than fulfilling their role as protectors of the populace? Does it mean riots in the streets will be controlled by murdering and wounding everyone who “looks like a criminal?” No one that I know wants to live under such conditions, because it will affect all of society, not just protestors or poor people or racial minorities. We are in for a dismal future dedicated to law and order rather than to liberty and justice for all.
Just what constitutes “Law &
Order”? Some people say it is the “Rule
of Law” in contrast to rule by despots or tyrants, or by the mobs in the
streets who believe that they are above the Law. Broadly speaking, “Law and Order” is
basically the condition of a society brought about by the observance of certain
legislated rules and laws under strict control by police who have the power to
act to prevent crime, to detain and arrest, to bring charges (sometimes of
dubious validity), and to bring violators into a court of law. But, it is strange how ‘Law & Order’ in
radical Republican words and phrases keeps sounding like a war on certain folks
in certain categories or circumstances.
Just like the “War on Drugs” and
the “Southern Strategy” -- and now the Republican call to “Support the Long
Blue Line” of police officers – Trump’s “Law and Order” is nothing more than a dog
whistle meant to be heard essentially by white citizens only. These various nefarious strategies represent
Republican attempts to discriminate against people of color and refugees (particularly
those with darker skin). Movements or
organizations that protest society’s treatment of these groups, and the
protestors themselves who disrupt the order of things with their demands for
change, reform and revolutionary actions, will be under constant scrutiny and
harassment. Just like ACORN and Planned
Parenthood, they will feel the long arm of the Law and Order police as they
swoop down and make arrests on newly “TRUMPED-UP” charges.
“Law & Order” has little to
do with protecting the vulnerable in our society, or those who have no money to
spread around, or those who face economic and social challenges every day of
their lives. “Law & Order” has little to do with equal justice for all and in
fact is code for unequal
justice needing to be meted out to those who don’t conform to the white establishment’s
rules and standards.
Remember please, that our
Constitution does not contain the phrase “Law & Order.” It prefers justice, tranquility, common defense,
general welfare and the blessings of liberty for all, not just a few. It does provide for calling forth the
‘militia’ to “suppress insurrections and repel invasions” but it does not
define protesting in a non-violent manner as equivalent to “insurrection,” nor
does the Supreme Court.
“Law & Order” remains a dog
whistle invented by conservatives to warn the white and privileged citizens of
this nation that one or another group needs to be “put in its place.” That is its essence, its flaw and its
preferred outcome. Anyone who mistakes
it for an appropriate ideal to pursue has swallowed a radical Right-wing line
that leads us right back to the horrors of slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynching’s, police
shootings, forced segregation and subjugation, and the unjust incarceration of
minority men and women.
Donald Trump takes pleasure in being the “Law and Order”
candidate. Why? Because it fits with his bullying persona,
his business values of cut-throat competition where only the strong survive,
and his view of the world which is seen from a Tower bearing his name. From that Tower, he gets to look down on everyone below, and from
that Tower he can pursue whatever he pleases, no matter who it hurts or to whom
it is offensive and damaging.
In spite of the rosy words surrounding him from other convention
speakers, Donald
Trump has been named
in at least 169 federal lawsuits, according to a LawNewz.com investigation.
“They read like a history of Trump’s business failures, successes, and
bombastic personality. The federal
lawsuits… date back to 1983 and involve everything from business disputes,
antitrust claims and, more recently, accusations that Trump’s campaign
statements are discriminatory against minorities. He’s been sued by
celebrities, personal assistants, prisoners, people in mental hospitals,
unions, and wealthy businessmen.”
The White House and the Oval Office are meant to be different
– the ‘Peoples House’ it has been called, where some earlier-day Presidents
used to welcome crowds of people who were looking for help, redress of
grievances, or maybe a special government hand-out. In modern terms it is meant to be the place
where the People’s business is transacted in ways that will benefit them, bring
justice, and solve problems, dependent to a great extent on the attitudes and
beliefs of the one who holds the Office and on those he/she appoints to play a
key role in the mission and purposes of the administration.
In view of the useless, negative and meaningless rhetoric of Trump
family members, politicos and others, on the campaign trail and in the
convention hall in Cleveland, it all comes down to this: Donald Trump has
demonstrated that he is not fit to be President of the United States. The directions he has proposed are contrary
to our cherished ideals of liberty and justice for all; of providing
opportunities for the vulnerable; of protecting all people equally; of meeting
the legitimate needs of our people, and of providing for the General Welfare of
all of the people within our borders (not just citizens), plus honoring treaty provisions
of common defense for the nations of NATO.
The fact that his acceptance speech contained just one ‘concrete’
proposal for change -- building that wall on our southern border – is demonstration
enough that he is unqualified for this office. Rather than propose specific steps to be taken
to change policy or regulations (beyond Obamacare repeal and two treaties
re-negotiated) he made it abundantly clear that everything depends on him as the change Agent, as the Facilitator,
as the Negotiator. That is equivalent to
authoritarian leadership -- the strongman who has charge of everything and
everybody.
Beware the meaning of Trump leadership – being the Champion,
the Voice, the ‘Only One’ who can make something happen. Democracy does not work that way, and Donald
Trump is spouting fascist ideology of the cult of ‘der Fuhrer.’ The continuing consequences of putting such
a cult leader in charge of our government are found in the histories of many
nations across our globe. Democracy is “messy”
but authoritarian leadership is brutal and lethal.
In conclusion, let me share with you a comment from Newsvine (dated June 20, 2016 by someone who identifies himself as "jim32780") that sums up some of the reasons why, despite the
lies and innuendos heaped upon Hillary Clinton during these last few days by
Republican attack-dogs, we must vote for Hillary Clinton for President. It tells exactly what we are voting about:
not personalities, but progressive issues, values and actions.
If Trump is elected, all that is gone. It’s not about Clinton. It’s about over 80 years of the Progressive Movement that we’re in danger of losing because we’re not looking at the bigger picture.”
