In endeavours to improve our situation, we should never despair Thomas Jefferson, 1819
“Hey, how ‘bout them voters?”
Former President Donald Trump was re-elected on November 5, 2024. Now what?
Naturally there will be time spend on reactions such as fierce accusations, or drawing one’s dark curtains to go on a beer binge. That’s fine.
Of course there will be time spent on dissecting, in minute tedious detail, the mechanics of the Democratic Party’s campaign. Fine.
But what comes after emotions have cooled? How do we strengthen democracy?
Bill Maher said something like, “OK, Hate Trump, but don’t hate his followers: They are half the country.”
Maher also said, in effect, “Get to know them, but not by talking politics. How ‘bout them red sox?” (Boston baseball)
Every new coach of a losing team, and every new college president brought in to a dysfunctional campus, despite having eagerness to insert their “exciting new improved” ideas, knows to “STOP and work on the fundamentals first.”
To me, the fundamentals are what all Americans can agree on.
(An aside for reporters, as in my August 9 Human Blind Spot essay, next time please don’t “sane wash”)
As for rebuilding, before we attack, or argue, or “educate you for your own good…” lets STOP and then, as the coach says, “Play our own game.” To coin a metaphor, “Don’t practise yelling at the opposing batter to throw him off his swing, practise your own swing.” Forget using your mouth against MAGA voters, do your own right action.
Pondering examples of right action…
On the first day of President Trump’s inaugural, if his press secretary claims Trump had a better turnout that President X, and the photographs in black and white prove otherwise, don’t let Trump’s guy get away with claiming “alternative facts.” State your truth. As Solzhenitsyn said, “One man who speaks truth can bring down a tyranny.”
If he claims social media, such as reported the “stolen election,” is true, and traditional media is “fake news,” STOP and say, “Many times social media is fake, just as many times as there are people who don’t practise traditional true journalism ethics. Or don’t care to.” (My own quote)
My favourite quotation from the Canadian Airborne Regiment, and part of why they were elite, is “Never pass a fault.” Today I would add, “Never pass a falsehood.”
Thomas Jefferson has some quotes, “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” (1819)
“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” (1800)
On the size of government, “We are now vibrating between too much and too little government, and the pendulum will rest finally in the middle.”
Jefferson, said the expert Coy Barefoot, was “ever the advocate of moderation.”
What else might a patriot do—or be—for taking personal action on the long road to becoming fit for democracy, before the next election?
In his book ThomasJefferson on Leadership Barefoot wrote (due to having suppers with three great men) “—he began to appreciate the inestimable value of genteel behaviour, politeness, and civility as a guest at the governor’s table. He admired the graciousness and the hospitality of Fauquier that made such pleasant evenings possible. It was an example he later sought to emulate, both as a host at his home, Monticello, and as president in the White House.
Dictators, from Kahn to Hitler, don’t desire a civil society…
It seems to me Americans —and we know from Iraq that Americans lack patience for the long haul, as we watched them learning in Iraq, the hard way, what they should have easily learned from their State Department: “you can’t “instil democracy” (their goal) merely with a nice easy soundbite.” It seems that now, in the good old US of A, they will face long years of trying to build a culture of “doing the right thing” if they don’t lose patience and give up. One may take hope from Steve Jobs being hired to come back and then tirelessly, successfully, building his corporation’s new culture of excellence.
In seasons to come, wiser heads than mine will explain various things like how to achieve “eternal vigilance” and “an educated citizenry” and— I’d love to watch as US leaders follow Finland’s lead for organizing against fake social media, starting by helping Americans become willing to admit there is a problem. Right now, Americans seem to have a vested interest in denial: They are surely not Finns.
In the meantime, I can only focus on the particulates of our vast society: the individual citizens, who play an important, but not easy, role in any democracy. If citizenship was easy, the Russians would have stopped dying in Ukraine and dumped Putin. Russians vote, but they are not free between their ears.
I won’t tell anyone what to do—OK, I will advocate to vote—but instead I will share a vision from Barefoot’s book (and then it’s up to you) about being something within my poor power, about being a living, democratic person, not too freaky left, and not too extremist right wing… a way of life sustainable during the long years ahead:
Each time you enter a room, attend a practice or a meeting—in fact, every time you involve yourself in the life of another human being—you have an opportunity to leave a positive token of your own legacy behind.
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Sean Crawford
On the great plains
November
2024
I get the impression that MAGA types, but not average people, are hung up, these days, on whether America is a democracy or a republic. Who cares? Can’t it be a republic with democracy and liberty? Here are Jefferson’s words as he and others in Virginia were crafting laws for independence:
An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.
Small world: Yesterday I sat at Open Mic (music) beside a 25 year old business major who had worked with Seth Godin, that successful businessman and New York Times best selling author: Wow, I myself had corresponded twice with Godin! (not socially)
The young man had asked me about keeping one’s values when in love, which, percolating in my mind, has led to today’s blog post.
I answered by showing him a recent Godin blog post about the three laws of robotics “… unless it conflicts with the second law…” Godin’s message is that “principles have a priority” therefore “If one of your principles is “win at all costs” then you have no other principles.”
Godin posted November 4. Hey, maybe this means Godin’s piece is a metaphor for values within the Republican Party.
Link https://seths.blog/
