I'm not a prognosticator.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

I'm not a prognosticator. Anything but….

The previews of what will happen in tomorrow's US elections leave me cold. As a result, I feel there's little I'm inclined to share here today, from the many pieces I've read this morning.

I do note that both Heather Cox Richardson and Robert Reich point us towards our history for hope that we can overcome the current tide of fascism:

November 3, 2024

I’m home tonight to stay for a bit, after being on the road for thirteen months and traveling through 32 states.

(heathercoxrichardson.substack.com)

We the People will succeed

A note of reassurance on election eve.

(robertreich.substack.com)

#elections #hope #KamalaHarris #Trump
/1

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

Other commentators including Steven Beschloss and Noah Berlatsky stress the importance of soldarity, regardless of how the elections turn out.

And, of course, this is right: if there is hope to be found in our history, that hope lies in our ability to reach across the many lines that divide us and seek the common good together. A democratic society that doesn't aim at that isn't worth its salt.

The Necessity of Harris’ Victory and Trump’s Resounding Defeat

Repairing the body politic any time soon depends not just on the vice president winning, but the scale of her opponent's loss

(www.americaamerica.news)

If Trump Wins, We Will Need Solidarity, Not Blame

We need to be ready to help each other

(www.everythingishorrible.net)

#elections #hope #solidarity
/2

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

At the same time — and, admittedly, because I came of age in the American South watching my white fellow citizens fight tooth and nail to tear down any advance of democracy that made its way towards us in the 1950s and 1960s — I find it difficult to see unalloyed hope in our history. I know all too well that our history also shows our ability to choose darkness, to inaugurate Jim Crow for half a century.

The antithesis of solidarity….

#elections #hope #solidarity
/3

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

My experience living American history through half of one century now and over two decades of the next century tells me that one can never underestimate the depths of racism and misogyny in many Americans, particularly when they go to the polls and vote.

We shall see. And I do struggle to keep hope alive, since I firmly believe that to abdicate hope is to place myself in the hands of those who want to rob me of hope, and to dehumanize me.

#elections #hope #solidarity
/4

[blinxeto@mastodon.social]

@wdlindsy

Hard to “unify” with someone who doesn’t want to unify, who doesn’t think of anything but pleasing beloved leader and gets aroused at the thought of eradicating us. Impossibly hard if at all.

I hope we are able to come up with a “denazification program” and perhaps save some and hence ourselves.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Blinxeto Yes, you're right, hard to unify with someone who doesn't want that. My own experience growing up in the midst of colossal and often violent reaction by some fellow citizens against civil rights gains for Black citizens led me early on to see that some folks won't change. Some folks do not want solidarity and movement towards greater realization of democratic ideals. Early on, I realized you have to leave those people behind, where they want to be, and move forward.

/1

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Blinxeto You have to do that if you want a healthy and sane society. If you allow those folks to occupy the driver's seat — and that's what the Republican party has now done and wants for the entire nation — you have foreclosed the possibility of achieving a sane and healthy future.

/2

[mloxton@med-mastodon.com]

@wdlindsy
Just a point to consider - although the level of racism and sexism is huge, it is better than it was, and likely to get better still in time. There is progress

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

A salient reminder from Trump biographer Timothy O'Brien on why people like Trump have been part and parcel of American history for a very long time -- because they reflect who far too many Americans actually are:

"They’ve secured their place because they’re also a reflection of the people they court."

#elections #hope #solidarity
/5

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

(www.bloomberg.com)

[mikeob1@mastodonapp.uk]

@wdlindsy thanks for sharing. Great article

[npars01@mstdn.social]

@wdlindsy

Racism, homophobia, antisemitism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, misogyny - all the forms of bigotry used by the moneyed to divide & weaken us.

All used to enrich themselves at others expense.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-backing-billionaires-enabling-white-supremacy-rcna174186

nytimes.com

(www.nytimes.com)

Experts cringe at billionaire’s claim that MLK would have opposed DEI efforts

Billionaire Bill Ackman said the “DEI movement” went against the tenets of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. DEI consultants and experts say the assertion is insulting.

NBC News (www.nbcnews.com)

‘A bully’: the billionaire who led calls for Claudine Gay’s Harvard exit

US hedge fund manager Bill Ackman posts 4,000-word screed decrying ‘racism against white people’ after Gay’s departure

the Guardian (www.theguardian.com)

For a Racism-Free 22nd Century, We Need a Billionaire-Free 21st - Inequality.org

The dead hand of grand fortunes past is still poisoning our present.

Inequality.org (inequality.org)

Rich Thanks to Racism: How the Ultra-Wealthy Profit from Racial Injustice | Publications | Stone Inequality Initiative

Watson Institute Stone Inequality Initiative website.

(watson.brown.edu)

Billionaires—Musk, Cuban, Ackman—Clash Over DEI. Here's How It Became A Target.

Mark Cuban and Elon Musk quarreled on social media this week over the intent of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives following the controversial resignation of Harvard University’s first Black president.

Forbes (www.forbes.com)

It's even being weaponized by foreign enemies.
https://www.axios.com/2020/06/10/russian-interference-2020-election-racial-injustice

Just a moment...

(www.axios.com)

Just a moment...

(journals.sagepub.com)

[apostateenglishman@mastodon.world]

@wdlindsy Good article. A blue-voting American friend once told me, you can understand a lot more about the USA when you know that half of us are terrified of everything, including each other.

I understand better what he meant today than I did at the time.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@ApostateEnglishman I agree. I think it's a good statement. Built right into American culture from its foundations is that strong Puritan strand that never wants to see anyone else happy or prosperous, if that someone else is not -- like us -- righteous and chosen by God. As Mencken said so incisively, Puritanism is "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” We love, some of us, to see the world in terms of chosen and deserving and damned and undeserving.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Npars01 Thank you for this valuable statement and the good links. Excellent.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@MikeOB1 I agree! You're welcome.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@mloxton From where I stand, unfortunately, it has gotten worse in many ways. Trump and the Republican party have let some real evil out of the garbage bags in which it was formerly contained, and more and more people feel very proud to be open racists, misogynists, and homophobes.

[mloxton@med-mastodon.com]

@wdlindsy oh yah, THAT certainly has become worse. A lot of people who previously had social constraints on voicing or acting on their bigotry now feel like they have license to let it rip

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@mloxton And as that happens, there is, I'd argue, a strong rippling effect so that more and more people feel confident in being open bigots.

[apostateenglishman@mastodon.world]

@wdlindsy What you say ties in with Hofstadter's "paranoid style", and how demagogues from Goldwater to Trump have mined fear and social anxiety to sway voters toward their agendas. The faithful refuse to accept society as it is, and so seek to smash the current order under the guise of conspiracy theories about looming threats ("libruls", hippies, Blacks and the "woke", Jews, Muslims, Mexicans, LGBTQ people...)

American conservatives see themselves as permanently under seige.

#Trumpism #MAGA

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@ApostateEnglishman You're very right. And I'd maintain that a strong root of all of this is the Puritanism built into American culture at a formative level.