I have spent much time on the Trump
path to dictatorship, and on the bold and tough responses required to stop and to reverse the Trump
Train being driven to the destruction of democracy. While Donald J. Trump is mentioned
illustratively today, I intend to concentrate on three strategies that speak to
reform, rejuvenation and renewal. So let us get right to consideration of:
A)
Caring about ourselves and others
B)
Investing in people and the future
C)
Leaving a legacy of liberty’s blessings
A) Caring about others begins at an unexpected
place: i.e., caring about oneself in a positive manner. That is, believing in oneself
as a worthwhile human being and a unique individual with potential for living
life to a good end is a necessary ingredient for caring about a world made up
of persons of equal value and uniqueness. So let us begin with our own health
and well-being.
It matters how we are nurtured and mentored – by parents, by
relatives, by neighbors and friends; by doctors and nurses, by schoolteachers
and pastors, by bosses and co-workers; by consumers and community
representatives -- by everyone with whom
we have authentic communication and contact. It is important because personal contact
with caring people Is not only how we develop and grow as individuals to
realize our own worth, but it is how we
learn to care and to nurture and to mentor others. No wonder then that the Hebrew
Law summary from Jesus the Teacher contained the concept “love your neighbor
just as you love yourself.” How you care
for and about yourself is integral to
how you should care for others. And the truth of that precept has been tested
and found to contain universal truths that are relevant to child development.
On the other hand, it is a tragedy when the basics of that
nurturing are missing, damaged or perverted in some way, for it can affect not
only one’s own life but the lives of
many others with whom we make contact. Sad as it is, we cannot proceed without
mentioning Donald J. Trump in this regard. His niece, Mary, has told us in no
uncertain terms that Donald is a victim of such missing and damaged nurturing. She
has described for us the negative parenting that she believes has had long-term
effects on his mental and emotional health and being. A missing mother because
of her illnesses and self-effacement, plus a father who dominated all aspects
of his business and his family’s life by manipulation, incredulity,
unreasonable demands and unempathetic responses that were always transactional
in nature (always expecting something in return for his attention).
The lack of healthy nurturing and caring from both parents
but especially from his father, according to Mary’s experience as a clinical psychologist, molded
Donald into a sociopathic narcissist; an unempathetic figure who lives life as
though everything revolves around him; as though every rival is a foe to be destroyed, every human
event is a contest to win or lose, every competitor is someone to defeat, and
every critic or acquaintance who is disloyal to him must face denigration or
destruction. His entire life is built
around his success and his well-being, not around the welfare of others. Here
are just a few of his niece’s quotes that tell the sad story of Donald’s
dangerous flaws:
“Donald is a narcissist. He meets all nine criteria in the
‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” – but the label gets us
only so far. A case could also be made that he meets the criteria for
antisocial personality disorder…generally considered sociopathy but can also
refer to chronic criminality, arrogance, and disregard for the rights of
others. Donald may also meet some of the criteria for dependent personality
disorder…which include an inability to make decisions or take responsibility,
discomfort with being alone, and going to excessive lengths
to obtain support from others. He may have a long undiagnosed learning
disability…that has interfered with his ability to process information. He is
inflicting his worst impulses on the country.”
“Donald’s initial
response to COVID 19 underscores his need to minimize negativity at all costs.”
“Fear – the
equivalent of weakness in our family –is …unacceptable to him… When Donald is in the most trouble…both the
situations and his reactions must be unique even if absurd or nonsensical such
as ‘Nobody could have predicted’ this pandemic…even though his own HHS was
running simulations just a few months before COVID 19 struck.”
“Donald is
fundamentally incapable of acknowledging the suffering of others. Acknowledging the
victims of COVID 19 would be to associate himself with their weakness, a trait
his father taught him to despise.”
“Perhaps most
crucially, for Donald there is no value in empathy; no tangible upside in
caring for other people. Everything is transactional. It is an epic tragedy of parental
failure that my uncle does not understand that he or anybody else has intrinsic
worth.”
The point begs to be
made that the neglect of people in any society is a flaw that must be mended
and overcome. It is imperative that society and its levels of government, plus private
sector industries, faith communities, and concerned individuals continually examine
and assess their provision of the very best in health, education, vocation,
opportunity and future well-being for its people, especially the children.
This is not a choice. It is a necessity. And
we must always act with that responsibility firmly entrenched in our words and
behaviors. There are those in positions of power who would like to disavow this social obligation to children, and we
cannot allow them to sway us from the paths of best practices and the valuing
of human worth and dignity.
We must not, for
instance, continue to allow 1 in 5 children to exist in poverty. Nor can we
dismiss the necessity of universal pre-natal care, of universal day care, and
universal pre-K . Nor can we ignore the
need of so many children in this nation for adequate food. Nor can we allow the
cutting back or termination of that Biden initiative of the Family Tax Credit
which is helping to lift so many families out of the corrosive grip of poverty. And when
do we stop such help for children? Do we leave out access to free higher
education? Or an adequate minimum wage? Or programs that increase access to
adequate and affordable health care?
No!
The nurturing of our children involves the welfare and well-being of all those
who have meaningful contact and interaction with them. It is, therefore,
short-sighted and antithetical to cut back or disavow any categories of social
support for society’s children that exist in the form of beneficial aid to adults
or families that will also benefit the
children. Thus, climate change, public health, racial justice,
non-discrimination in adequate housing and even limits imposed on the financial
markets and other industries such as ‘Big Pharm’ affect the care and nurture of
our children. As a matter of fact, there
are very few categories of governing or of social ordering in a fair and
equitable manner that do not rub up against the nurturing of our children. After
all, 31% of our total population is under age 25 which is around 103 million
persons and a sizeable 17% of our population is under the age of 18 totaling
72.8 million.
It
is way past time for us as a society to stop actlng as though we can simply
ignore or put off our obligation to our children, to their future, and to those
who raise and mentor them. It is past time to hold government representatives
responsible and accountable for the well-being of society’s children -- their
welfare and ours are inextricably bound together and we cannot enhance our
humanity by acting as though we have little or no responsibility for all those
young lives.
First,
we should broaden the definition of child abuse to include government leaders who
willfully obstruct or unduly delay the passage of laws and programs that touch
on the increased care and enhanced well-being of children. We should probably
hold them in contempt of Congress, but equally, we need to charge them with
criminal actions.
Second,
it would behoove us to place the rights of children as citizens into our
Constitution with the provision that citizenship is bestowed at birth (or at new
citizen oath-taking) and automatically includes the rights, privileges,
liberties and responsibilities of every citizen, with delayed voting and armed
service until age 18.
The
Ethics Committees of both Houses of Congress should be required to define the
“responsibilities” of members toward children, the meaning of willful neglect
and abuse as persons responsible for their oversight, and the possible results
of the same. Setting substantial penalties for the neglect or abuse of children
should help to ensure the enhancement of their well-being. Plus, to correct
past neglect, we must demand extraordinary responsibility and accountability
for children of color and children born here of undocumented immigrants.
B)
Investment in people is not as prevalent as investment in
property and financial offerings. In fact, our original Constitution tended to
protect property while eschewing some individual rights of citizens, feeling
they would be automatically protected by the new government. That mode of
thought brought forth a dedicated movement to bring about the addition of the
Bill of Rights as the first ten Amendments to the Constitution, but surprisingly
– half of those protected rights also had to do with protecting property (3, 4,
5, 7, and 8).
A
competition of investment in property versus investment in people has gone on
for the life of our nation, and according to some authors (see Thom Hartmann’s books
on the “Hidden History of the Supreme Court”) resulted in Supreme Court
decisions where property right protection has outweighed decisions that would protect
and defend people’s individual and civil rights. As Hartmann has said, “…the
Supreme Court –with a few exceptions – most frequently sided with great wealth
and the powers attendant to it.”
For
instance, the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1856 declared that African American slaves
everywhere in the United States were merely property -- a clear support for slave owners. Following the end of Reconstruction in 1877, virtually all African-Americans living in the South were stripped of
political power and voting rights, and were left economically disadvantaged. And, just 13 years after the decision to
overturn the Civil Rights Act of 1875, the Court in Plessy v. Ferguson of
1896 initiated a legal Apartheid system of ‘separate but equal’ giving
birth to the ‘Jim Crow Era’ and essentially preserving white supremacy and their
property.
Following
the Haymarket Square bombing in Chicago on May 4, 1886, the Court was also busy
attacking the Labor movement, as well as immigration and civil rights while
supporting the new crowd of industrialists, becoming an important ally of the elite
classes developing throughout the U.S. In Allgeyer v. Louisiana of 1897
– the Court unanimously ruled that the14th Amendment right to liberty included
an individual’s ‘right to contract’ thus delivering a “massive blow” to the
Labor Movement and collective bargaining, essentially rendering unions
powerless, but heightening the fortunes of wealthy industrialists.
While
all this was going on affecting mainly southern states, something else was
happening in the Northeast and the West that was to have a huge effect upon the
development of this country. It was a period of industrial advance sometimes
referred to as a second industrial revolution. Some say it began in 1869 with
the opening of the First Transcontinental Railroad in the West. Rapid growth of
Railroad track mileage linked formerly isolated areas with larger markets and
allowed for the rise of commercial farming, ranching, and mining, creating a
truly national marketplace. American steel production rose to surpass the
combined totals of Britain, Germany, and France. (Wikipedia)
Investors
in London and Paris poured money into the railroads through the
American financial market centered in Wall Street. By 1900, the process of economic concentration had extended
into most branches of industry—a few large corporations, called "trusts", dominated in steel, oil, sugar, meat, and farm machinery.
A concentrated elite of ownership of major industries and finance led to a
class of robber barons who
were on top and who wanted to remain there. These trusts or corporations began exerting
control over government actions in all three branches, including the Judiciary,
that would maintain their dominance.. (Wikipedia).
The
Supreme Court aided them by extending First Amendment rights to these trusts before
anyone ever heard of “Citizens United.” Starting
with Dartmouth College v. Woodward (New Hampshire really) in 1819 through the
1886 Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad and on to Citizens United
in 2010, plus the striking down of some of the individual election spending
limits in 2014 McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, the Court fundamentally
changed our political system and “opened up unlimited campaign spending by hidden
sources.” In fact, says Hartmann, it allowed “unlimited political bribery
reaching every level of government -- from the president all the way down to
local school boards.” ‘Personhood’ enabled these corporations and monopolies to
wield economic and political power over the peoples’ representatives in
Congress.
However, within this “Gilded Age” some things were amiss. Ordinary
people were suffering. Some farmers complained of lost Grange rights; factory line
workers and others complained about working conditions and hours; others, that
child labor was tolerated. Some complained that the Robber Barons were getting
rich from the labor of underpaid workers. Immigrants were discriminated
against, city housing was inadequate for the mass influx of workers; slums were
eyesores and breeders for crime, disease and vandalism; infrastructure had not
kept up with the developments and some were living with bad water, poor sewage
systems, inadequate street lighting and other unhealthy conditions. While
several of the wealthy industrialists were philanthropists, and new hospitals,
schools and libraries were being built, many workers felt exploited and
under-valued leading to union rejuvenation and expansion. There was a
significant human cost attached to this period of economic growth, as
American industry had the highest rate of accidents in the world. The U.S. was
also the only industrial power to have no workman's compensation program in
place to support injured workers.
Therein
is the rub that afflicts us when we talk about investment. The emphasis on
property as the most important investment has grown out of a theory of Social Darwinism, which justifies laissez-faire capitalism, free market competition
and social
stratification. The lesson should be apparent from our history
and from our uncritical acceptance of ideologies that leave out at least 90% of
society – over-emphasis on property rights is shortsighted. One cannot maintain
a democratic form of government and equal justice without considering the civil
rights of individuals of equal (and often greater) importance to
prosperity and success as the right to own property.
We
must learn to reject those politicians and industrialists who view the rights
of citizens as socialist, expendable, and too costly. They miss the point that success
begins with valuing every person above every stock, bond or profit maker. The
People are our assets and our resources, which brings us back to investment in
the children.
Investment
in our children’s education is perhaps the best possible investment we can make
because the returns on that investment are so very high. “Research shows that
children who attend high quality pre-kindergarten programs are “less
likely to be held back a grade, less likely to need special education and more
likely to graduate high school. They are less involved in crime and delinquency. They also earn higher salaries as adults and are less
likely to become dependent on welfare.
However,
as W. Steven Barnett, Director of the National Institute for Early Education
Research (NIEER) points out, the key words are "high quality." This
isn't about your average daycare or low-budget preschool. According to NIEER, a
good preschool program is one which "teach[es] children the skills they
need to learn to read, do math, make progress in science and other areas as
well as begin to understand the world and how it works." And that's not
all; ‘high quality’ programs are also supposed to help children develop
emotionally and socially, both important components of being ready to learn.
Barnett notes that "We [state and federal governments] now subsidize
programs that don't really make things better." (Education.com/magazine/article)
So, how come an extraordinary investment is not being made by
government and industry in our children’s education if the benefits are so
great?
We
must place upon our elected representatives the major responsibility for the
welfare of our youth and not just of our properties or our goods, or our
deficit or our leaders. There is a major question facing this society right now
and that is what is being proposed to prepare our youngest for meaningful
and fulfilling lives that benefit society? What are we bequeathing to
them? What is the legacy we propose to leave – a one man rule that will destroy
their equal worth and dignity or a democratic system dedicated to equality,
justice, fairness, fulfillment, equal protection and caring mentorship?
- 3)The Legacy we leave for the youth of our country could well be our primary contribution to the future. We must choose and cannot escape that fact. It is becoming more apparent every day that the choices we make in 2022 and 2024 may be the difference between life or death for our democracy. Therefore, consider the following very carefully.
Voting for Trump or his
sycophant Republicans will leave a legacy of
unredeemable negatives:
- restrictions of dictatorship or one-man rule –the “I know what is best for you” despotism
- greater divisions of caste or social stratification putting automatic limits on who you are and who you can become
- disinformation and misinformation as propaganda that seeks to control your mind and body; that leads to having to mistrust everything and everyone because there is no truth
- absence of empathy, care and investment in you, your loved ones, your friends and neighbors because pleasing the Leader is all that matters
- loss of participation in a system designed to give you a voice in decision-making for society’s welfare; being silenced
- being spied upon by strangers who will report your activities to authorities and receive a reward for their patriotic spying and snitching (already legally activated in Texas)
- a justice system designed to keep the Despot in power; not to protect you or counsel you or answer your need for help
- loss of government insurance like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, affordable health care
- Loss of special help like Worker’s Comp., FEMA, food subsidies, housing needs
- Loss of extraordinary help like broadband access, climate change amelioration bringing clean water, air and earth; the extinction of our planet is not out-of-the-question
- Loss of any standing as a citizen if you cannot prove your loyalty to “the Don” – maybe loss your house or job or family?
- An increase in intimidation, bullying, and violence constituting domestic terrorism as the tool for maintaining the established regime and its anti-democratic policies
- Continued takeover of state and local governments producing an imposed nationalistic character, symbols and loyalty to the Leader and his regime
- A new ban on books and writings, art and music -- on any product or creation that is not in line with the Leader’s ideology
- The disappearance of caring for neighbors, mentoring others, empathizing with persons in need or difficulty, investing in people for their wellbeing and for ours.
INSTEAD,
SUPPORT JOE BIDEN and VOTE FOR Democrats or progressive candidates
up and down your ballot to keep alive:
·
democracy dedicated to the ideals of EQUAL
WORTH, EQUAL JUSTICE, and EQUAL OPPORTUNITY for personal fulfillment;
·
democratic functions of voting, free and fair
elections, personal protections against enemies foreign and domestic, programs
that benefit the many rather than a chosen few (elite);
·
the availability of freedoms that are inalienable
like free speech and the right to peaceful protest , free press, freedom of
religious expression and freedom from state-ordered religious practice or
belief, speedy trial by jury, protection from self-incrimination, double
jeopardy and post-facto laws; protection of due process; the privacy of one’s
property and possessions and more like responsible
gun ownership;
·
the guarantee in the 9th and 10th
amendments that the Constitution protects all the rights people have and others
that may accrue to the states or to the people
·
the daily functions of government kept as
resources for the many rather than tools of control for the few; such as public
education, police functions, public health resources, first responders;
unemployment offices, veteran affairs and benefits, local schools, highway
maintenance, etc.;
·
the concept (principle) of government as public
service rather than public control;
·
government as a supportive, caring mentor, and
helpful resource intent on maintaining the rights, freedoms, and benefits
belonging to or needed by the people;
·
government of the people, by the people and for
the people – all the people without discrimination but with great determination
Wanting
to leave a positive legacy for children and grandchildren is a time-honored
tradition and principle of our society. This is not the time to erode, corrupt
and destroy that precept. Instead, it is the moment for reclaiming and
rejuvenating the concept of leaving the best we have to offer to a new
generation. In our case, we are on the brink of losing all the goodness and
justness, the hope and the promise of our experiment in representative
democracy dedicated to the wellbeing of all people without discrimination or manufactured divisions.
We
must soundly reject and defeat the anti-democratic forces; meaning any
candidate advocating overthrow of this duly elected government, or who favors
restrictions on certain voting blocs or who supports Donald Trump must be
defeated for public office.
We
must bring together members of different age groups to share concepts of
governing and to plan a united approach to defeat of anti-democratic forces
We
must instruct, prepare and mobilize progressives and positive democrats in local
areas across this nation for the elections of 2022 and 2024;
We
must encourage more young people to run for public office, and prepare under
18s to prepare for that eventuality;
We
must convince the younger cohort that they hold the power to influence the
outcome of elections at all levels, and that they must vote as well as turn out
scores of others to volunteer and to VOTE
We
need to convince candidates at all levels to seek the involvement and votes of
college students and young adults
LET’s GET STARTED. THERE
IS NO TIME TO WASTE!
