Where Do We Go From Here?

This has always been a country that harbored and accommodated a large diversity of thought,  But while there were many fringe elements, the core of the populace, even those who had ample reason to be distrustful of people with power, believed in our democracy and the basic sanctity of the process.   There was respect.   That even though you weren't always, or even often, going to be in the majority, that even though government didn't do what you wanted it to, you could always depend on our leaders and government being reasonable if failed men and women. 

The underlying feeling of belonging, despite all the diversity, all the inequality, all the discrimination, all the disenfranchisement has been dealt a blow by the past four years of the Trump administration.   While every other president, regardless of which party, sought to be a unifier and lead the people, Trump was the great divider.   

He saw his power in his ability to divide people and bring half the people under his unquestioning control.   To be an authoritarian, demagogue, dictator in style and even in fact, to the extent that our democracy and his party gave him that obeisance.  And that they did,

His final days are very much in the dictator mode.   His refusal to say in the run-up to the election that he was committed to the peaceful transfer of power, to put in his supporters' mind the conviction that if he didn't win it would be because it was stolen by fraud, and then to refuse to accept the results of the election all speak to his deranged state. 

That is not much of a surprise.   What is a surprise, however, is the response of the American people.   That 70 million people saw fit to vote for the man despite his catastrophic mishandling of the pandemic, forget about all his other failures, is hard enough to fathom.   But that they believed his lies that the pandemic is all a hoax, when we have almost 250,000 dead from the virus.   And now they believe his claims that he won but that the election was stolen from him by fraud.   It truly boggles the mind.   

We have a large portion of the population whose mind has been taken over by a web of unreality.   In a recent Monmouth University survey, 77% of Trump supporters said that Biden won the election because of fraud.   

Despite no evidence, despite court after court, Republican as well as Democratic judges, throwing out his attacks on the election, this huge mass of people still believe Trump just because of his word.   As indeed they believe every thing he says, whether it's about the virus, or climate change, or white supremacists, or whatever. 

Regardless whether the Senate is controlled by Democrats or Republicans, where does the country go from here?  How do we return our populace to a state of reason, of fact.   How do we return to the feeling that although we may strongly disagree, we all at heart want the best for our country and whether one side wins or the other, the country, our democracy, our well-being will not be damaged?

It we look to history, there is no easy answer.   After the toppling of a demagogue leader, much of the country has remained loyal to him for many years.   If has often taken a generation to free the country from the grasp of his legacy.  Plus, in every other case, the demagogue was gone from the scene; in our case, Trump will be, or at least he intends to be, very much with us in the future, attempting to control the Republican Party and perhaps even run for president again in 2024.

We cannot afford to have our country torn apart for a generation.   While all of Biden's policy initiatives are in the right direction and of critical importance, this issue, which is basically divorced from any policy success he may have, is of great importance to the future of our country. 

So the question remains, what does soon-to-be President Biden do to bring our country back to a state of normalcy?  I don't think he can count on his genuineness, his decency, his talk of unity to move the country substantially back to normalcy.   I don't think his policies will have much of an impact in this regard either. 

One has to understand that the one thing that people loved about Trump more than anything else was that he was fiercely anti-establishment.   And yes, he was in the pocket of the evangelicals.   There is possibly nothing that anyone that is part of the establishment, or even working with it, can do to change their attitude.    They won't even listen to the "moderate" former leaders of their own party.   

This anti-establishment feeling had been brewing for decades and Trump finally gave it a voice, an outlet.   You can't shut back Pandora's box once it's been opened. 

Even if Trump ends up in jail, convicted of tax fraud or whatever, it won't make a difference to his minions.   Indeed, they will just think he was unjustly convicted; a victim of the very establishment that he fought against. 

I fear that only Trump himself could change the dynamic.  And that is truly to dream the impossible dream.   And so i think we, Biden, must settle for just making small inroads, slightly reducing the millions that supported Trump through a variety of positive approaches that they feel are in their best interest.  Those are the facts

But we can nevertheless rejoice that we soon will have a President, a cabinet, and a government that will get this country back on track from a policy perspective.   If a large minority of the people continue in their blind trust and distrust, that will impact their lives and possibly the next election, but this country will move forward.   And we can take comfort in that they did lose the election and next time around, their numbers should be reduced, so that they will lose again. 

What Does The 2020 Election Say About Our Country?

We just had a presidential election.   The result, Biden won.   It was a decisive win, both regarding the popular vote and the electoral college, even with some states still not decided.   

But, 70 million people voted for Trump, only 4 million less than voted for Biden. 70 million Americans voted for a man who is a narcissistic bully.   Who, because of his inability to think beyond himself, allowed the coronavirus to devastate our country and kill more than 200,000 people, which has in turn ruined the financial well-being of millions and weakened the economy.   A man who has no morals, no ethics. 

What does this election result say about our country?  There is good news and bad news. 

First the good news.  This country is peopled for the most part with good people, across the board.   People who, like everyone, have their own problems and their own perspective on things, but who have some understanding of right and wrong.   People who are often silent; who mind their own business.   Thankfully, the majority is not so wounded that they are open to the pandering illusions and lies of a demagogue. 

Against this backdrop, a higher percentage of Americans voted in this election than in the past 120 years.   Millions of people who normally don't vote cast a vote, understanding what was at stake.   They knew that this election was not about whether a Republican or Democrat lives in the White House.   It was not about whether Republicans or Democrats control the Senate.   This election was about saving this country from the grip of a madman, saving the country's soul as well as its health and financial well-being.

The normally-silent majority has spoken, and as Kamala Harris said in her victory speech, they have saved us.  Tuesday, after the election was called for Biden, when I drove downtown in this small village in the Massachusetts Berkshires, there was an older woman standing on a corner holding a sign high which simply said, "Free."  Well put.   I feel like alternating between MLK's famous, "Free at last.  Thank God Almighty we are free at last." and the song from the Wizard of Oz, "Ding, dong, the witch is dead. "

Biden will have many challenges facing him.   But I have faith that he will develop effective policies and through the force of his decency, personality, and history will be able to elicit cooperation from enough Republicans that he will be able to govern with bipartisan support.   Hard to imagine after the past 12 years. 

But now for the bad news.   70 million Americans voted for Trump.   Given his mishandling of the pandemic, the economy, and his personality, that's a lot more than one would have expected.   

Trump's base is usually stated as a third of the electorate, so around 50 million voters.   Half of that base is made up of evangelical Christians.   We know from APVoteCast, that about 25 million evangelical Christians (8 in 10 evangelical voters) continued to support him.   Why?   Because he had changed the makeup of the Federal judicial bench and the Supreme Court to an extent that they never in their wildest dreams felt was possible.   The culture wars were of singular importance to them.   His failures as a person, his lack of morals, his treatment of women were not even of secondary concern.

The other 25 million of his base are people who have been so wounded that they were ripe for his pandering to their hurt and their fears, and the force of his charisma.  They cheered the gusto with which he stuck his finger in the eyes of the intellectual elite and the Democratic Party, who they view as responsible for their suffering.  Like all followers of demagogues, they see no truth other than his truth.  His enemy is their enemy. 

Why is this?  Trump is in style if not in fact a dictator demagogue.   And such leaders have historically received huge support, even in the face of disaster.   This occurs because in each case, the demagogue speaks out against something that greatly harmed the people.   

In this instance, the fervor of Trump's support mirrors the depths of despair and betrayal middle-class whites felt and feel towards the Democratic Party.  And towards the Establishment and government in general.   We, the Democratic Party, have failed our own people.   Despite warnings, we were not attuned to it.  I think Biden is very aware of this.

But what about the other 20 million people who voted for Trump?   From accounts I've read, many of these were people, traditional Republicans, who had only one concern . . .  the economy and their financial well-being.   And they felt, as Republicans always do, that a Republican will handle the economy better than a Democrat.   No matter who this Republican was.   No matter that scores of traditional Republican political leaders, military men, and public servants said that for the good of the country Trump must be defeated. 

If you look at Trump's support, these were all single-issue groups whose only concern was their own well-being.   Evangelical Christians were only concerned that they win the culture wars: that abortion would be prohibited and the LGBT community be deprived of any rights.   The white working-class just felt aggrieved and supported someone who spoke for them.   And financial conservatives just don't trust Democrats with the economy. 

The job facing the Biden administration is huge.   Not only does he have to free us from the pandemic and restore the economic health of millions . . .  and that's just to get us back to baseline.   He has to deal with the issues of income inequality, racial injustice, climate change, and the list goes on. 

But he also has to restore the faith of most Americans in the American social contract.  Simply stated, that we are all Americans, that we as citizens have rights but also have responsibilities to our fellow citizens, and that because so many lack opportunity because of the circumstances they are born into and have little control over, government has a role in leveling the playing field to insure that all Americans have the opportunity to fully engage in '"the pursuit of happiness."

And he has to give meaning to our oath that we are "one nation, under God."  Has anyone thought what that implies?   This is not about going to church.   The main implications center, I believe, on how we treat our fellow man. 

This was the aspiration the founders stated in the Declaration of Independence, "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."  It means that we treat people humanely, with respect.   It means that everyone deserves  an equal opportunity to make a life for themselves; what they make of that opportunity is then their responsibility.   And it is government that is tasked to "secure those rights," securing equal opportunity, as stated again in the Declaration of Independence. 

Whether we as a nation pull together over the next four years, or whether we continue the internecine fights of the Trump years, will determine our future.   We will either thrive or we will destroy ourselves.

 

The Shamelessness of Republicans Knows No Bounds

The election is over.   Putting aside the recount in Georgia and the undecided status of North Carolina, and for some media outlets, Arizona, Biden clearly has won the election.   Even if Trump ended up winning all the remaining states, which he won't, Biden still wins.   And the margin of victory in the swing states is such that whatever Trump tries to do in the courts will not change the result.   Come December 14 when the electoral college votes, Biden will officially be President-Elect and that will be that.

So how to account for the vast majority of congressional Republicans refusing to acknowledge Biden's victory?  By historical standards, this was not a particularly close election.  This defiant posture is unheard of. 

There is only one answer.   Despite the fact that Trump lost, he didn't lose big.   He still obviously has the devotion of almost half the U.S. electorate, and so he still has a lot of power.   Power to decide future political races if he so chooses, and it looks like he wants to remain a force.  And every Republican in Congress wants to be reelected.

And so just as during the past four years, Republican officials bow to Trump and do nothing to cross him  And this could well be the scenario for the next four years. 

What does this mean for Biden's presidency?  It means that he can't count on his personal relationship with Republican senators making any difference to their actions.   It means he cannot figure on even a modest level of  bi-partisan support for his programs.   

It means that if the two run-offs in Georgia do not result in two Democratic senators and a tied Senate with the Vice President breaking the tie, Biden will not be able to get his programs through Congress.   So the importance of these run-offs cannot be overstated. 

Even defeated, out of office, Trump will continue to wreak havoc on our country.   It is beyond depressing. 

Democrats Must Vote in Person November 3, or earlier

There is substantial concern about what might happen on election night, assuming that a huge number of voters cast their ballots by mail and that they won’t be counted for days after the election.

The fears cited are that Trump voters are more likely to vote in person since they as a group seem to have little fear of the virus, don’t wear masks, don’t bother with social distancing, etc.  Thus the results available from election day voting could very likely favor Trump and show him leading.

If that is the case, the assumption many journalists are making is that Trump will declare victory that night.  And that as mail ballots are counted over the next few days and his lead shrinks or disappears, he will declare fraud and will refuse to abide by the election results.

This scenario does not seem far-fetched given the President’s personality.  Also, note that these articles are not written by left-wing activists.  Even David Brooks wrote an op-ed fearing this result.

There is only one practical way to avoid this nightmare scenario.  People should be urged to vote in person, being assured that if they wear a mask and social distance, they can vote in person, in safety.  This advice is in keeping with testimony recently presented by CDC Director Dr. Redmond.  As many people as possible must vote on election day to avoid the imagined catastrophe.

Weeks ago, I wrote this same basic post, sent it to the DNC, and sent an op-ed submission to the New York Times.  But no one gave my thought any notice.

There is still time.  While many people have already mailed in their ballots, many haven't.  The Democratic party needs to flood the airwaves and print media immediately with the positive message that if you wear a mask and social distance you will be safe voting in person, even if you are older.  And making the point that if you do not vote in person, there’s a good chance that the nightmare scenario will occur.

Democrats have only a week or two to make this appeal.  They need to start now. 

What Should the Democratic Party Stance Be Regarding the Police?

At the start of the Democratic convention, The New York Times reported that Biden made a statement during a discussion that “most cops are good; the bad ones need to be identified and prosecuted.”  It that quote is complete and not taken out of context, it shows an unfortunate lack of understanding by Biden of the policing problem.

This is not primarily a matter of good cops or bad cops.  Of course, as Biden said, most cops are good and the bad ones must be identified and prosecuted.

But the problem goes further.  It goes to the institutional racism present in many police departments.  It goes to methodologies of subduing a possible suspect that go beyond reasonable force.  It goes to the virtual free rein given police officers as they go about their jobs.

I would not argue for defunding or even reduced funding for police departments.  They have a valid function to perform and they need the dollars and manpower to do it.  But how they go about that function must be cleansed of all racism and toleration of excessive force.

There is a valid reason why the police are often considered the enemy by people of color.  The police must serve and protect all citizens equally so that this conflict between the police and those they are sworn to serve and protect ceases to be.

If Biden has gotten boxed into defending the police status quo because of progressive calls to defund, that shows a lack of analytic thinking on his part and his staff.  There is a middle ground.  As I stated above, I am not for defunding the police, but I insist on effective, practical police reform. 

Making America Great Again? Trump Fails His Own Test

We of course are familiar with the Trump slogan and the red MAGA caps.  Trump certainly claims that he has.  But has anyone in print or otherwise bothered to systematically ask the question, “Has Trump made America great again?”  Not to my knowledge.  And so that is what this post will assess.

In doing so, I am not going to get into the philosophical discussion about what made America great or whether it was no longer great, as Trump claims, under Obama.  That’s another article.  This is just taking the phrase at its most simple, straight-forward Trumpian meaning.

Has America become stronger militarily?  Have we become stronger economically?  Have we become more respected among the world’s nations?  Have we become stronger geopolitically.  Has the average American citizen become better off financially, more secure?  Is the average American citizen closer to obtaining the Rights due him under the Constitution?  Is the average American citizen more physically secure now?

These are all stated components of Trump’s goal of making America great again.  Sadly, both for the country and for his followers, just the opposite has occurred in almost every area.  Trump has failed his own test.

Weaker Militarily:  While Trump has increased the Defense Department budget, military strength is only partly a numbers game.  It has more to do with effectively being able to deploy troops as needed and defeating the enemy.  While troops have been deployed effectively, though no better than before, our record of defeating the enemy has actually gotten worse.  Whether in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, or Iran, our position vis a vis the enemy has either weakened under Trump or stayed pretty much the same.  Trump’s bluster aside, we are not stronger militarily.

Weaker Economically:  Even before the pandemic we were not stronger economically.  The stock market may have been going gang-busters, but the economy was growing at a slow pace and the average American had not felt much of an improvement.  Yes, unemployment was down, but most of the new jobs created were lower paying than the ones that were lost.  And of course because of Trump’s disastrous handling of the coronavirus, his total lack of leadership, the American economy is now, despite the once-again soaring stock market, in a very weakened state.

Certainly on the world scene, we were even before the pandemic not stronger economically;  China is the big bully, and while Trump stood up to China, America lost more than it gained in the trade wars.  Since the pandemic, we are way behind other countries in economic recovery. 

Less Respected:  America has probably never been so little respected among the world’s nations as under Trump.  He is a laughing stock to most of the world, and by association, so is the country.  We are not even respected by our allies.  Trump’s failed response to the pandemic has made matters worse; the greatest nation in the world with its great health system and capacity is at it’s knees, the virus is winning.  It’s probably safe to say that we aren’t even feared by anyone, except in the sense that Trump is so unpredictable that he capable of doing almost anything if his ire is aroused.

Weaker Geopolitically:  Our strength and respect in the world militarily, economically, and politically is has made America strong geopolitically.  Under Trump, there can be no question that America is less strong geopolitically.  In addition to the factors already discussed above, Trump’s “America First” perspective has resulted in a shrinking of our presence and impact around the world, which has in turn made us weaker geopolitically.  We are no longer either in actuality or perception the leader of the “free” world.

Average American Weaker Financially:  Trump in his Inaugural address talked of the forgotten men and women who suffered greater economic inequality.  Yet as mentioned before, despite the lower unemployment rate before the pandemic hit, the average American was not stronger financially, was not more secure financially.  The huge increase in wealth resulting from the stock market boom and the bulk of benefit from Trump’s tax cuts went to the top layer of American society.  And now the pandemic has resulted in a huge downturn in the economy and with it the financial status of millions of unemployed American workers.

Average American’s Physical Security Not Improved:  Trump made a major issue out of what he saw as the crumbling physical security of the average American from crime, especially in our cities, and the threat to our physical security from illegal immigrants.  Again in his Inaugural address, he said that “this American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”  

While he has sent more money to the police, our security is pretty much as it was before Trump.  While Trump has enacted draconian measures against illegal and other immigrants, that has not improved our physical security.   The reason why nothing has really changed is that Trump does not understand and so has not addressed the real factors that continue to make crime a major issue in the inner city.

Average American Not Benefiting More From His Rights:  Despite all the fuss about the 2nd Amendment Right to bear arms and the Right to Life, and in general talking about Rights in connection with the pandemic, we are further from our basic Rights now than previously.  The most essential element of our Constitutional rights is to be free from government intrusion, except when necessary to protect the greater good.  

But under Trump, an even greater percentage of our citizenry and many in the halls of government seem to have no concept of the greater good, of the American social contract.  It’s all about me, my rights.  And they’re angry about it.  There is a lack of understanding that no right, even the 1st Amendment, is absolute; the exercise of one’s Right can never damage the greater good and in certain cases cannot negatively impact another’s Rights.  And with regard to the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness noted in the Declaration of Independence, we are far from protecting that Right, certainly for people of color and the poor.

So even judged on Trump’s own terms, how he would define what would make America great again, he has failed miserably.  Worse, he has taken a large portion of Americans and Republican politicians down his dark path and so damaged, perhaps irretrievably, our democracy.  Ironically, in his Inaugural, he spoke of “ignorance stifled dreams.”  Truly, ignorance has never had a higher place of honor in our country than at the present moment.

The Universality of Spiritual Truth

I have been a practicing Buddhist for 25+ years.  During that time, my practice has deepened, I am one with the true Buddha nature inside me (well, almost), and I share my faith and knowledge with others through my Buddhist blog, www.thepracticalbuddhist.com, and through the several books I have written.

It has been reaffirming for my faith to learn that the mystical traditions of all three Abrahamic faiths and great religious thinkers all basically teach the same thing as Buddhism: that suffering is universal and that we suffer because we have fallen away, out of touch, with the divinity that is within each of us; consumed instead with the ways of the world and the lessons it has taught us.  And that is is our responsibility, and possibility, to reconnect with that divinity and thus end our suffering.

Most recently, I found that reaffirmation in reading an article in The New Yorker, about Søren Kierkegaard, the 19th century Danish anti-establishment Christian thinker.  The article notes that he said that everyone is in despair and that if someone thinks they are not, they are lying to themselves.  Interestingly, in a recent video of mine, “The Mind - Suffering Connection,” I begin by noting that many viewers will say that they don’t suffer.  After asking them some questions, I say, “You may be in denial, but you suffer.”

Kierkegaard says that only by acknowledging our suffering can we begin to understand that suffering is “defiance of God,” or in modern theology, defiance of the divinity that is within each of us.  And that we can be freed from that despair or suffering only by giving ourselves over entirely to God.  The Zen monks who taught me put the same point this way, “by surrendering your ego-mind to your true Buddha nature,” or in the language of 12-step, “by turning your will and your life over to the care of your true Buddha nature/higher power.”

He wrote, as the monks taught, that the responsibility of choice - to believe or not believe, to act or not act - is always individual.  This is beyond difficult: to overcome our training, our life experience.  But it is possible and the responsibility is ours to do so.

He also said that life can only be understood backward, but it has to be lived forward.  In Buddhism, we learn that we do what we do because of our learned experience: the emotions, judgments, cravings, and attachments that form our ego-mind.  This is the past that for most people not only explains their current lives but controls their future.  Only if one frees oneself from the past, from the intervention of the ego-mind, can one move forward in a way which is one’s best interest, free of the burden of the past.

The last point I will make in this comparison is that Kierkegaard says that as one begins the spiritual path it is complex and then becomes more and more simple.  That is the experience I have found in my Buddhist practice.  As the practice deepens, as my connection with my true Buddha nature deepens, life becomes more simple because I am not pulled this way and that by the past, by my ego-mind.  Instead, I know that life is just the way it is. There is no obsession with future; only the present moment is real.  And I know I will be safe regardless what life throws my way because I have returned home, and will always return home, to my true Buddha nature.

And so how sad, how proof-positive of the fallen nature of man (including the men of organized religion) that instead of focusing on these universal truths and the fact that all religions at their core teach the same thing … and that we thus are all one … man and organized religion has used religion as a divisive instrument, a way to control their followers and gain and maintain power by creating an us v them world view.  How opposite of true spirituality is this!  How perverse and dark.  Our religious leaders are an obstacle to our spiritual growth, not the light they should be.