Taking Stock During the Trump Transition

 

Core Values

Belief in Democratic Process

●       Non-Violent Resolution of Issues
Majority Rule
Minority Rights

●       The Trump supporters' positions strike me as anti-democratic in the following regards:

○       Excessive support for gun "rights" => violence

○       Do not support international agreements and cooperation

○       Excessively tribal => poor protection of minority rights

●       Republicans under Trump are not a threat because they are opposed by military intelligence corporate (MIC) leaders.

●       There are serious problems with the democratic process in the U.S.

○       CIA and other intelligence agencies

■       military coups and intervention around the world

■       involvement in domestic politics

●       feeding untrue stories to media

●       assassinating Kennedy

●       harassing liberals

●       working with government and large corporations to funnel money to support the empire and the status quo domestically

●       Voting machines are subject to tampering.  Best practice seems to be paper ballots counted in public.  Unnecessarily complex systems are used.

●       Green Party espouses policies consistent with my democratic values.

 

SUMMARY: The status quo is tolerable for most people due to enormous prosperity of our society.  However, democratic institutions have become corrupt and resistant to constructive change.  Pressures are building for a political earthquake.  Trump is a tremor in this regard.

A free and responsible search for truth and meaning

●       I do not trust mainstream media to report the truth.  Has become too partisan and reliant upon CIA and similar "intelligence" agents.

●       Family, friends, and acquaintainces consider tribal affiliation more important than truth.

 

SUMMARY:  As partisan cold warfare has heated up, the Democrats smell victory and will try to consolidate their gains.  The leadership is somewhat unified under the false propaganda of empire.  Miscalculation, more losing war efforts, and domestic disarray are probably as a result.

 

The Events of January 6 at the Capitol

Was this attempted coup?  My friend comments:

 

Trump truly is trying to overthrow the workings of our government so as to remain in power. To me that’s a coup. The minions he loosed on the Capitol while the election approval process was underway were either a distraction or an effort to stay approval of the election results.

 

1.     Whatever his motives, Trump is clearly failing.

2.     There are grounds for concern about the democratic process which denied the Trump presidency for 4 years on false claims of Russian collusion.

3.     Glenn Greenwald provides needed context:

There is a huge difference between, on the one hand, thousands of people shooting their way into the Capitol after a long-planned, coordinated plot with the goal of seizing permanent power, and, on the other, an impulsive and grievance-driven crowd more or less waltzing into the Capitol as the result of strength in numbers and then leaving a few hours later. That the only person shot was a protester killed by an armed agent of the state by itself makes clear how irresponsible these terms are. There are more adjectives besides “fascist treason” and “harmless protest,” enormous space between those two poles. One need not be forced to choose between the two.

 

The capitol protest was a skirmish in a war that Trump is losing.  Anti-Trump forces (Democrats) correctly see this as a victory for their side and are thus making a big deal about it.

Democrats Control the Executive and Legislative Branches

Of greater significance, the Democrats remarkably won the 2 Senate seats in Georgia and now have an effective majority in the Senate because VP Harris will have the tiebreaking vote.

●       This may be a manifestation of improved voting procedures in Georgia which has a long history of suppressing the black vote.  Republicans around the country have won elections by dubious means, with the result that their actual support has been smaller than their representation in Congress.

●       Dems had a similar situation in 2008 when Obama one the presidency and Dems had a large majority in the Senate as well as the House.  That did not go well as the Tea Party emerged and was not effectively countered by the Dems.  The Dems are now energized and ready for whatever the Trump supporters throw at them. 

●       It's likely that the Dems will be content to marginalize the Trumpers, and will not make any great progress otherwise in governing the nation.  They are overwhelming in favor of the status quo and have no significant platform other than defeating the Trumpers.

●       I'm glad that the Trumpers have been soundly defeated.  However, they may come back with more effective leadership.  As I write this, Republican strategists are plotting ways to reclaim power.  These will most likely involve ploys to sabotage the Biden presidency by manufacturing outrage.  Will the media bite?

 

SUMMARY:  The partisan dynamic and domination of the mainstream media by the Democrats should fade, but this tendency will be fought by the Democrats who will seek to keep the outrage going.  Republican outrage leaders will be contained to the fringes for the short term.  There is a leadership vacuum in both parties that will attract imperial wannabees such as Buttigieg and Rubio.  Eventually, the earthquake will arrive in the form of some disaster such as nuclear war or economic depression.  Then will there be room for constructive change.  The arc of the moral universe bends towards justice because politics based upon injustice eventually collapse and the truth wins out.