Retiring Nevada Senator Harry Reid released a statement this morning that says, finally, exactly what needs to be said (emphasis mine):
“I have personally been on the ballot in Nevada for 26 elections and I have never seen anything like the reaction to the election completed last Tuesday. The election of Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America.
“White nationalists, Vladimir Putin and ISIS are celebrating Donald Trump’s victory, while innocent, law-abiding Americans are wracked with fear – especially African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, LGBT Americans and Asian Americans. Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America.
“I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics. Hispanic Americans who fear their families will be torn apart, African Americans being heckled on the street, Muslim Americans afraid to wear a headscarf, gay and lesbian couples having slurs hurled at them and feeling afraid to walk down the street holding hands. American children waking up in the middle of the night crying, terrified that Trump will take their parents away. Young girls unable to understand why a man who brags about sexually assaulting women has been elected president.
“I have a large family. I have one daughter and twelve granddaughters. The texts, emails and phone calls I have received from them have been filled with fear – fear for themselves, fear for their Hispanic and African American friends, for their Muslim and Jewish friends, for their LBGT friends, for their Asian friends. I’ve felt their tears and I’ve felt their fear.
“We as a nation must find a way to move forward without consigning those who Trump has threatened to the shadows. Their fear is entirely rational, because Donald Trump has talked openly about doing terrible things to them. Every news piece that breathlessly obsesses over inauguration preparations compounds their fear by normalizing a man who has threatened to tear families apart, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women and who has directed crowds of thousands to intimidate reporters and assault African Americans. Their fear is legitimate and we must refuse to let it fall through the cracks between the fluff pieces.
“If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate. Winning the electoral college does not absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of Americans. Donald Trump may not possess the capacity to assuage those fears, but he owes it to this nation to try.
“If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.”
Bingo.
Let’s just see an instant replay on the key parts of this:
1. “I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics. Hispanic Americans who fear their families will be torn apart, African Americans being heckled on the street, Muslim Americans afraid to wear a headscarf, gay and lesbian couples having slurs hurled at them and feeling afraid to walk down the street holding hands. American children waking up in the middle of the night crying, terrified that Trump will take their parents away. Young girls unable to understand why a man who brags about sexually assaulting women has been elected president.”
2. “We as a nation must find a way to move forward without consigning those who Trump has threatened to the shadows. Their fear is entirely rational, because Donald Trump has talked openly about doing terrible things to them. Every news piece that breathlessly obsesses over inauguration preparations compounds their fear by normalizing a man who has threatened to tear families apart, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women and who has directed crowds of thousands to intimidate reporters and assault African Americans. Their fear is legitimate and we must refuse to let it fall through the cracks between the fluff pieces.”
3. “If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate. Winning the electoral college does not absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of Americans. Donald Trump may not possess the capacity to assuage those fears, but he owes it to this nation to try.”
4. “If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.”
“Their fear is legitimate, and we must refuse to let it fall through the cracks between the fluff pieces.”
Exactly. Finally.
If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate.
Again, exactly. Finally.
If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.
Amen
I am heartened that Harry Reid released this statement. I am disappointed that neither Bernie Sanders nor Elizabeth Warren nor any other prominent Democrat said anything similar. I share Mr. Reid’s revulsion to the media fluff pieces about inauguration preparations. Our elevation of this serial sexual predator and bigot has set back social progress in America decades.
This goes far beyond politics and parties. This is about who we are. I am physically nauseated by Donald Trump’s America.
The growing inequality of wealth, falling wages, repossessed homes, shut down factories…..rescued banks & bailed out bankers, growing fortunes of the 1%, , doesn’t he?
Why?
By this standard, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and the rest of the Democrats “walk past” racism, sexism, and general misanthropy. I think the objection is bullshit.
The people Harry Reid is, thankfully, reminding us about are the people who have been feeling the pain of “growing inequality of wealth, falling wages, repossessed homes, shut down factories…..rescued banks & bailed out bankers, growing fortunes of the 1%” for decades and generations. While they were the only victims, some of us were listening to Rush Limbaugh.
Now that white men are the victims, some of us argue that none those groups count. Some of us argue that only the pain white men is worth responding to or even mentioning.
The pain and suffering Mr. Reid so succinctly describes is real and is here and now. Nobody is talking about deporting middle-class white men. Nobody is threatening to stop and frisk middle class white men on the street. Middle class white men had SOME chance to adjust their career and lifestyle planning over the past few years — the people Mr. Reid is describing are suffering from things they cannot control, such as the color of their skin, their national origin, and their gender.
The attitude you present in this commentary was racist and sexist then and it is racist and sexist now. It is racist and sexist by omission. Not talking about this after the campaign we’ve just been through is tacitly approving it.
“If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate.”
If America wants to roll back the tide of hate Donald Trump unleashed, America has a tremendous amount of work to do and we must begin immediately.
We might as well fold the tent and end this thing.
We need to end the massive chasm of income inequality. That’s the number one issue for this movement. You both agree on this. You disagreed on which candidate was best equipped to do that-and guess what? Neither of them will be on a primary ballot again. Let’s move on from this disaster and remember what we have in common.
Two facts remain:
1) Bigotry elected Trump
2) Income Inequality elected Trump
These aren’t mutually exclusive! Some voters are hurting economically and lashed out a system unresponsive to their needs. Some voters are mad we had a black president and really mad about having a woman president. Some voters hate he system and are racist misogynistic. I’ve consistently said there is Venn diagram of deplorables, the hopeless and the in between.
The deplorables are a lost cause. The in betweeners will require decades of work we don’t have time for. The hopeless aren’t a lost cause, if we give them hope they will come. Time to focus on that while condemning the truly deplorable elements of the next Presidents agenda.
Tom, you have no empathy for the factory worker who lost their job to outsourcing and automation and have worldviews different from yours. John, you have no empathy for the Jose’s of the world (a true life example of a conworker) terrified of losing their protected status abandoned going back to countries where they will be killed. More empathy not condemnation is our way out of this. Let’s work together for crissakes!
Misogyny defeated Clinton
n/t
I’m just thinking that saying Trump was elected because some people like bigots and others dislike women doesn’t move the conversation much.
Clearly, it doesn’t move the conversation much.
Who cares if the President brags about sexually assaulting women. Who cares if his rallies feature tens of thousands of white men cheering calls to “build that wall” or “deport them” or “lock her up”.
You’re right. It’s not going to move the conversation much. Such bigotry and hatred is apparently endemic to humanity. It appears that although America moved the needle a bit from, say, 1939 to 1979, we’ve now returned to “normal”.
Please, let’s not say anything that doesn’t move the conversation.
All of them racists, bigot lovers, misogynists?
All three branches under Republican control.
Governorships and state houses in record numbers of Republican hands.
All this when the conventional wisdom was that the GOP was dead.
I don’t really understand what is going on, but a racist tide stimulated by a black president is not the reason.
Nobody thought they’d lose the House and it was about even betting on the Senate. CW did say they would not get the WH, but given how, shall we say, “different” Trump is that may still be true in a sense. Of course, let’s never forget that HRC came out with about 200K more votes.
and that’s come up a number of times since Tuesday.
It’s not how the game is played. It’s about points scored, not yards gained.
If it was about running up the raw vote, then campaigns would act differently – right not there’s no point in the GOP doing anything in CA, NY, IL for example.
In 2012 I had one of the few Romney signs in MA. Their office here had none and the NH offices had instructions not to give them to people from MA.
I agree.
For the record, because of mail-in and absentee ballots in several key blue states, the total will be more like two million votes.
While we agree that the rules of the game are what they are, I also think it bears repeating that the majority does NOT rule. Donald Trump was NOT elected by a majority of American voters, he does not have a mandate from a majority of American voters.
A minority (nationwide) of overwhelmingly white “heartland” voters put Mr. Trump in office.
We’ll see.
Let me know when you see any of those Republican governorships, state houses, representatives, senators, or anybody in the White House take steps to reverse racism or help minorities. Let me know when any significant number of those 59.6 million people who voted for Donald Trump speak out in any significant way to reverse racism or help minorities.
So far, they’ve proudly made blocking such measures and attacking minorities the centerpiece of their message.
In my view, we will know this tree by its fruit.
When you said, “Here’s an interesting take I read” I was expecting the words “Misogyny defeated Clinton” to be hyperlinked to an article you read making that point.
So many things here at BMG are pretty much accepted as natural truths.
It’s just the way you worded your comment made me think you intended to hyperlink and either forgot or thought you did, but it didn’t take.
Sure, I have not argued that there was not a measure of bigotry but to put that equal to those who voted on economics is to miss the point entirely. Why was black turnout low? Tell me why 90,000 voters in Michigan left the presidential slot “Blank”? And I object to your assertion that I have no empathy for the terrified workers. If you knew where I worked, who I worked with, and met a few of my neighbors, you’d change that statement. I know them. They are friends, co-workers, and neighbors and we, the Democratic Party, let them down, in two ways, economically and now this,
Once again you paint me with far too broad a brush, offering a false equivalence between me and others here.
I have enormous empathy for the millions of factory workers who voted for Hillary Clinton. My antipathy for those factory workers who voted for Donald Trump is not a lack of empathy, it is instead a profound disagreement.
Factory workers who celebrate the misogyny of the “bus tape” or the Howard Stern tapes certainly do have worldview different from mine. You or johntmay are welcome to embrace them — I will not. We all saw the same tapes. There is no reasonable way to not conclude that Mr. Trump is a sexual predator. Some voted for him anyway — some voted for him because of those attitudes. I have no truck with either. That’s not “lack of empathy”, it’s insisting on a minimum threshold of human decency.
There are men who work in terrible, toxic, depressing jobs and who come home and beat their pets, beat their children, and beat their wives. Such abuse DOES exist. When we learn of that behavior, we do not show a lack of empathy by demanding that the perpetrator be prosecuted and punished. We do not, until now, knowingly put that perpetrator in public office.
Every reasonable reading of the facts on the table shows that their vote will make their own lives far worse. This is compounded by their complicity with (if not outright embrace of) the nauseating wave of bigotry that will follow this election as night follows day.
I suggest that a huge issue with our political system and society today is the belief that emotions — like empathy or anger — should triumph over facts. I don’t LIKE the reality that increasing atmospheric CO2 causes warming to increase. That doesn’t matter, it’s still a fact.
My children yelled and screamed when they were toddlers and didn’t get whatever it is they wanted and didn’t have. I had great empathy and love for them. I still didn’t give them the extra serving of ice cream.
I have said, repeatedly, that I’m eager to work to change this awful reality. I join Harry Reid, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren in saying that I am not willing to countenance the misanthropic policies that the Donald Trump campaign promised, nor am I willing to work with those who celebrate and enable that misanthropy.
That is not a lack of empathy. It is, instead, a commitment to human dignity.
Johns that you’re either with the worker or with Wall Streer and you’d yet you’re either with Hillary or a bigot. Plenty of Wall Street people were with rrump, including most of his incoming team and we have to hold his feet to the fire on those appointments too! Plenty of non-bigoted workers were with Trukonsnd felt Hillary wasn’t for them, a majority? No, but enough who voted D twice who voted R on Tuesday that it’s a problem.
And we did next to nothing to stop Walker and Snyder from deunionizing their states and turning their legislatures deep red. Kasich was stopped by a bipartisan coalition we let atrophy after that campaign. The writings been on the wall those states were in trouble since 2010 and 2014. It’s time to reclaim them, and OH and PA. We won’t do it by running the same campaign we just did.
Agreed, for the most part. Let’s be clear what we’re talking about. As a matter of moral accountability, Trump voters are, at least in part, responsible for the bad things that are happening now and will happen over the next 4 years. I would say, though, that as a matter of policy, we should not continue to hammer them with that. Instead, we should attempt to understand why the non-bigots voted for Trump, and as you say, figure out what to do differently next time. I think the answer to that lies in the statements Sanders and Warren have made–hold the line firm against bigotry and keep pushing it back, while also working together across party lines for our common interests of bettering the lives of working people. [This is the realignment that’s coming, I believe.] We can’t assume Trump voters are all bigots. What good does that do, except make us feel righteous? Bigotry was one part of what got Trump elected, but economic inequality was also an important part, as you stated earlier in the thread. Let’s look at the salvageable group and make common cause with them. The first step is to distinguish them from the real bigots. Does that make those people any less responsible for what happened? No. It’s what we do now that counts.
I sort of agree with you. Here’s the rub though, and we see it right here.
The fact is that the ninety-nine percent will be competing for crumbs for at least the next four years, and very likely much longer than that. So the inequality that drives whatever bigotry, racism, and sexism is only going to get worse. Working-class whites are likely to be more, not less, angry as the Donald Trump administration unfolds.
We already have people here, who self-identify as “Democrat” (albeit temporarily and well-hedged) arguing against our equal pay for equal work law. Their primary objection is that women will get raises before them. I think that the question of whether or not we call those voters “sexist” nearly meaningless. The question on the table is do we support or oppose outlawing wage discrimination against women.
I think the same stark questions are on the table against blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, the disabled, and the long list of other groups targeted by Donald Trump’s America.
Here’s what Donald Trump’s America is going to do. It’s going to do all in its power to “make America great again” for white men, especially uneducated white men. The EPA and climate change regulations will be savaged. Women will lose the right to choose what they do with their bodies. Blacks are going to start rioting in the inner cities, and Donald Trump’s America is going to ABSOLUTELY CRUSH THEM. Black blood will flow in rivers, and Donald Trump’s America will loudly cheer. Don’t believe me? Look what happened when police were killed in Dallas.
Angry white men have put a misanthropic bully in the Oval Office. I hear the argument that we can somehow appease them and everything will be fine. I think such appeasement changes absolutely nothing.
If we are passing and promoted bigoted and sexist laws and policies, how is it helpful to punish those of us who stand up and loudly object?
I think Warren and Sanders would both say that they would object to those laws and policies too, and that’s what they’re talking about. But they’re also talking about the possibility of aligning strange bedfellows against the wall street interests–holding Trump to his campaign promises of doing good things for working people and working against the big money interests. I think it should be possible to do that (and make some forward motion) without throwing anyone under the bus.
I did not say “you’re either with Hillary or a bigot”.
I said, instead, that if you voted for Donald Trump you either actively celebrated or passively enabled misanthropy. I have not attacked those voted for third parties, those who wrote in various names, or those who left the office blank on the ballot.
Nor am I arguing that we should run the same campaign we just did.
I see the same red tide as you, and that red tide is EXACTLY what I am talking about. Like it or not, the reality is that TODAY, that red tide is promoting or enabling misanthropy. When we oppose laws that require equal pay for equal work, we enable discrimination against women. I refuse to demand that women, blacks, and minorities continue to suffer so that our precious angry white men can feel better in their lily-white suburban homes. If that means that we lose elections for the next few cycles, then losing those elections is exactly what I think we should do.
I reject those who, for example, argued right here against the equal pay law that just passed here in Massachusetts, because that law means that women — who have been the victims of wage discrimination for an eternity — will likely see pay increases before men.
I insist that we acknowledge and address the misanthropic reality of today’s Red America, whatever we do about economic inequality.
Many Trump voters who didnt blank or vote third party did so by rejecting Clinton and her ties to a political and economic system they have felt alienated from for awhile. They voted for Obama twice and reject Bush Republicanism as strongly as they rejected Clintonism this cycle. They openly say Trump is crazy, a bigot and an asshole and they trusted him more than her to fix their problems. I don’t know why- it maybe reaching out and finding out is better than losing election after election. The country and the climate can’t afford four more years of Trump beyond the four we are looking at. I’d rather change my tone and pitch than lose another election by emphasizing identity politics over economic equality.
I disagree that we have to choose between advocating for minorities and working to fight income inequality. If anything, universal programs that benefit all Americans will still disproportionately benefit minorities more simply because they are disproportionately worse off than whites are on aggregate due to structural racism
If you start as Bernie did with a message of creating a system where it’s not just millionaire and billionaire but ordinary people who can access the American dream-you win. You don’t need to mention identity politics since the the universal economic programs end up benefitting minorities more anyway.
This was why Bayard Rustin endorsed basic income over reparations. One is politically untenable and divisive, even if historically justified, while the other does the same thing using universal means support by a broad based coalition of Americans. It’s what Jesse Jackson did with the Rainbow Coalition-people forget he mentored Bernie and won the white farm vote in the 84′ and 88′ primaries by bothering to campaign and listen to those communities instead of righting them off. If Jesse Jackson can reach out to white workers with empathy so can you.
Social security, Medicare, and single payer are supported by a supermajority of Americans while affirmative action, trade relocation deals, and the Kafka-esque and misunderstood ACA are not. Doesn’t mean we vote against every trade deal, eliminate affirmative action or kill Obamacare. It just means we stop talking about them and start talking about plans relevant to ordinary Americans across all walks of life. Am I contradicting what I said before the election? A little bit, since parties adapt or lose.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/07/the-unsung-heroism-of-jesse-jackson.html
I’ve come to believe the urban/rural split which is how I saw the country evolving is more a urban/inner-city/rural split. Blacks in inner-city Baltimore have more in common with West Virginia coal miners than they might think. Distrust of Washington and federal authority. If someone could just get them to talk together.
scott12mass @ Oct 13, 2016 at 08:24 EST :
I’m just wondering what all of the Trump-bashers will say when he creates federal tax-free enterprise zones in the inner cities and jobs flood into the black inner cities. Blacks will be better off in 4 years and even though Donald won’t run again the Dems will have lost a constituency they have counted on.
Donald Trump is not going to do that alone. I’ll believe it when I see it.
It seems both supporters and detractors claimed for better or worse, they are largely cut from the same cloth. Seems to me that, 2008 primary in which we could/had to choose between them notwithstanding, compared to the real alternative you would either like both or dislike both.
The last time we had such extremes of inequality, repossessed homes, shutdown factories and, indeed, starving people, we faced our problems and elected Franklin D Roosevelt.
It kinda seems like your response would have been to say if anger led to another four years of Herbert Hoover, then that’d be justified. Because anger.
Yup, and HRC was no FDR. Not even close.
…Even FDR was no FDR. And Lincoln was not Lincoln until events forged him.
That’s what it means to “rise to the challenge.”
We’ll never actually know, now, whether HRC could have met those standards, will we?
…while not sharing your disappointment about Sanders and Warren. They are focused on what it will mean to govern during a Trump administration. They are sending messages of hope not only to the people who are potential targets of bigotry and worse, but also to people who may have supported Trump because they were desperately seeking an answer to economic inequality (misguided though they were as to who would provide a solution).
The fear and anxiety and vulnerability are real and legitimate. We’ve had an election night party every four years since 1984, and while some years have been disappointing, this is the first time people have cried. But the practical points Sanders and Warren raise have an important purpose too. Reid is quite rightly holding Trump accountable for the hateful messages he sent. Warren and Sanders are also quite rightly holding Trump accountable for the economic promises he made to downtrodden supporters.
I’m not that unhappy with either, I’m just glad to see a prominent Democrat saying what I think needs to be said.
I think it’s easier for Mr. Reid because he is a few weeks away from retirement. Mr. Sanders and Ms. Warren have much more difficult row to hoe and I respect that.
bigots you and your emotional followers here will be losers. No one who is called a “deplorable” is going to think that you are being rational. And I would like to point out a factor that has not been mentioned here (at least I have not yet seen it): Like Martha Coakley, Hillary was a very unlikeable candidate. She inspired contempt among many people. Joe Biden, Bernie, Obama, these are all “likeable” people; and as silly as it may sound, this makes a difference. “Ding-dong, the wicked witch is dead!”))))))))))
Really, what is with this “likability” nonsense? What is it about Clinton that makes her so unlikable, and why is that such a factor anyway? We’re supposed to be choosing a President for crying out loud, not our best friend! That said, she actually seems to come off as likable to just about anyone who actually knows her or has worked with her.
1) Racism / bigotry isn’t binary. It occurs over a spectrum. Everything from someone’s discomfort when in a certain neighborhood all the way to those advocating genocide. It’s all racism, but it isn’t equal in my eyes. I can work with the former group. Honestly, I’ve never met a person who is 100% non-racist and I’m not sure they exist – we all have the prejudices that our experiences have given us. Myself included.
2) If there is a lesson to be learned by recent elections, it may be the one inferred by the tail-end of Edgar’s comment. I’ve never been one to worry about “electability” during the primaries, but this experience has shown me that someone with high recognition numbers combined with high negatives is awful hard to get elected. It immediately shrinks your universe of potential supporters to ID. Both candidates in this election had this problem and Trump won because, well, one of them had to win. So I will be taking that factor into account in the future.
… I’ll gladly lose a thousand times before I step away from the truth. Between the bigots who voted for him and the remainder for whom BIGOTRY was not a absolute disqualification the amoral and feckless nature of Trump voters is laid out for all to see. Sign me up for the other side of that fight everytime.
And in neither case was that dislike merited or even rational. Nor is the altogether sickening notion you posit that it’s ok to use ‘unlikeable’ as a reason for withholding a vote, but embrace the notion that it’s ok to overlook hatred and bigotry. Ye olde double standard. Alive and, well… there it is you feckless dumb fuck.
I’d rather not lose a thousand times since the commonwealth and the country deserve a good government. I’d rather question my wrong assumptions and adjust my message around new information rather than forcing bland, soulless uninspiring candidates and insisting they are somehow more electable than the people actually connecting to workers and their issues.
We kept making the Clinton and Coakley comparison and were laughed at. None of us are laughing now, but like Martha you double down on blaming the little people outside of Fenway Park rather than working to actually win campaigns. Unlike Martha, Hillary is honorable enough to go gently into that good night. Her family had their time to serve and it’s time for fresh faces whose politics aren’t twenty years behind the times.
… your ‘analysis’ comes so much quicker than others and always falls in neatly with the sexists.
You’re being laughed at because you’re laughable.
Again, I spent an hour talking to a guy I’ve campaigned with side by side for weeks who couldn’t vote and might not be able to stay here despite being a pillar of his community. Deport Jose isn’t a fucking joke, since I know two Joses who are awesome organizers and Americans who are stuck in the same boat as refugees from an unstable country who’s instability we caused with our reckless foreign policy. It fucking blows.
But, but, Jose is an optimist and he made me one too. This shows that ordinary people want revolutionary change, and the market is there for a message of revolutionary change that is inclusive and actually gets the job done.
Trump made two false promises. That he would keep America white, and that he would drain the swamp. He will fail at both of these promises, and it is up to us to call out the first as the vile fascism it is, and to call out the second as soon as he hires Icahan, Dimon, and other corporate avatars to positions in government. That first point is where Reid is coming from and the second point is where Sanders and Warren are coming from.
it is no call to action.
That gives all the power to Trump. It leaves nothing for us to do.
Lest that sound too cranky, I add that he is absolutely right to put the moral onus on Trump. Voices like his help to give us and others resisting racism a place to stand.
“The texts, emails and phone calls I have received from them have been filled with fear…”
It has now been revealed that the outgoing Senate Democratic leader uses email. Was it on a secure server? Have we been able to read all of them? We all know we can’t trust a prominent Democrat with electronic communication. It’s a scandal I tell you. Congress must investigate such suspicious behavior immediately!:)
The KGB must investigate it and have Wikileaks tell our media what he might have done wrong.
The GRU still maintains its old name, thoug.