100% behind my president .... trump 2020
4
"It must be about the expulsion of corruption, complicity, hypocrisy, deceit and fraud."
By voting Democrat, you will get a double dose of the above.
5
"No person enveloped by a cloud of corruption should be president."
You say that as if there was an alternative. In a perfect world perhaps. Unfortunately the world we inhabit offered no such alternative on which to vote. The options were nope and noper. Fortunately we got nope and not noper.
If I had a China shop and had to choose either to have a bull let loose or a semi driven full speed through the front door, I'll opt for the bull. Thankfully that's what we got and not the semi.
4
Bottom line, Trump is a traitor. All evidence indicates that. He used the presidency to resolve his son-in-law's real estate debacle by having Qatar step in. He works for Vladimir Putin. How many ways does he have to demonstrate that? He invited Russian spies to the Oval Office, where he ridiculed our own head of counter-intelligence as a lunatic whom he had to fire to "take the pressure off." He confided this to Russian spies in a meeting where the U.S. press was banned. When can we stop using weasel words like "colluded" and "meddled" and start using real words like "betrayed?"
37
Welcome back, Mr. Blow, and it is helpful to read your column at the end of a quiet spring day.
Some Americans are feeling tired and slightly in a rut after this extraordinary roller-coaster ride, causing us to simmer down and try to envision our Country as we recognize it.
It is beyond politics, and the fighting to come to an understanding between people, regardless of their affiliation if they have one, has felt far longer than nearly two years.
Perhaps it has taught some of us not to take Democracy for granted, to want to become more enlightened and responsible in making our choices.
On days of sunlight, this stolid citizen believes that America continues Great and that we will never give in to defeat. Wisdom will prevail if We care.
8
lol. "Moral Restoration" from the party that doesn't believe in objective morality. This article is precious.
4
Assume nothing democrats until November 7, 2018 and the votes are in. Letr's avoid the circular firing squad that democrats are famous for and focus on getting elected.
11
A blue Democratic wave needs a new dynamic.
The media must be tapped in new ways that are truly exciting.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trump knows how to drive the media with his noise, every day.
Democrats, please wake up the voters this time around...
America does not need a United States of Trump. Enough!
11
This hideous presidency must end.
15
If he survives to 2020 the smart way to debate Trump will be to speak truth to the voters as if Trump isn't in the room rather than to wrestle with a pig.
14
I’m absolutely sick of predictions. I believe polling is like a Trojan Horse- watch out folks! It’s major distraction and keeps us from working 24/7 to GOTV. Trump is a brutal political foe and he will do anything-ANYTHING-to keep Republicans in power- even securing help from Russia— think I’m kidding?
9
And no president who is "lawyered up" should be President.
8
Trump is supposed to be heading for the UK in July.
I am looking forward to the riots.
8
Moral restoration or simply the possibility of lowering our level of fear, that is, the possibility of sanity restoration? The fire and fury warmongering. hate speech, and ranting threats hurt even more than the dragged down virtues, much as those hurt too. Really terrible the way the flaws in our democracy have been put on display for Us the People to have to confront like so much dirty laundry, worse than anything a sleaze could say about grabbing crotches. The electoral college elected Trump, doing so literally on the bodies of enslaved people of the past, making their past servitude count in the present to invalidate everyone's freedom in a far greater act of corruption than any individual conman could achieve. If state legislatures were willing to stop the electoral college from ever doing this again it would outrank anything anyone could do for justice in this country. And a blue wave couldn't come too soon. The disenfranchised people who don't vote need to vote now in numbers never seen before, because, as everyone now knows, gerrymandering and voter suppression mean that many times more of us need to vote to make change happen and without those added numbers the destroyers will bring about more than just incivility and lack of fair play.
7
Trump is the Potentate of Projection. All his failings of corruption, ignorance, racism, greed, sloth and all the other seven deadly sins he projects to his followers as the sins and failings of his opposition. Though I have studied all the great political theorists, possibly the most effective strategy against this tactic can be summed up by the old play ground ditty regarding a bully's slander that "I am rubber and you are glue and everything you say sticks right back to you." And we have to make it stick.
4
Sadly for some no matter how reprehensible Trump is they would vote for him again. Like other would be autocrats as long the lights stay on and the trains run on time folks are willing to look the other way.
5
"Work your message, people like to be unemployed and collect welfare so just keep calm, all this prosperity will be gone, we can restrict the production of energy, we can share the bounty of American workers with nonproductive economies so we are all equally poor and miserable".
The above interpretation of Charles Blow latest quest for logic and reason in the age of Trump was brought to you by sanity and reason.
5
No-the reason no President can destroy the nation alone is because our government is a three legged stool. It is a bad form of seat but, as long as the three legs , at equidistant points maintain the weight of the country-they all act together to ensure no one leg of government can do more than make the seat wobble badly until either a new president is elected,(replacing the bad leg), or, the other legs act to balance the stool automatically. Three legs, makes an automatic balance enforced by the innate geometric strength of the equilateral triangle. Unless or until a president were able to remove all federal judges, end the federal system & constitution and, evade a mob like congress out for vengeance-an American President is limited to petty vengeance such as destroying anti pollution laws or ending laws designed to correct problems created by blind corporate greed. It needs more than 4 years , though. . .
1
democrats need a platform that people can believe in -- no more clintonian triangulating to the right. stand for something.
9
Democrats can win only if they actually show up to vote and especially in mid-term elections, they haven't. People who will wait in line to get into a club or hip bar or restaurant or hipster ice-cream parlor won't wait in line to vote.
And while the Parkland kids did an absolutely fantastic job of raising awareness of what we have to do, I'm afraid it's already been largely forgotten.
Hillary Clinton is not in the White House because Democrats in four states either couldn't get excited enough about her to bother to vote or because they were angry about the way Bernie Sanders was treated by the DNC and voted for Gary Johnson. By wasting their vote on someone who couldn't win (and whose stated policies weren't all that different from Trump's) they handed the White House to Trump. How did that work out?
We deserve what we get. If we show up to vote, we can begin to turn the tide. If we don't, not only will we not turn the House, but it's likely that Trump will be re-elected in 2020 no matter what Mueller finds because Republicans will choose not to believe a word of it and in spite of the fact that Trump doesn't really want to be President (he just wants to run).
7
The problem that Democrats will have in the next election is thy just don't get out much. Any of us who live outside of their bubble understand completely what is happening. Trump won 85% of the counties in the USA, it was not even close. While it is true that the 15% of the counties Hillary won were very populated, they are already in Democratic hands. Winning outside of their bubble is going to be a challenge given their most prominent spokespersons are nearly unversally scorned. As long as Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, and others of their ilk are kept in the forefront, the red counties will stay crimson.
6
Am I missing something, or is this merely a double-down on the deplorable idea? If Mr. Trump doesn't lose supporters, he wins again! Instead of better understanding and interpretation of the other side of the electorate, Charles plays the "moral high-ground" card. Good luck with that...
4
Reminds me of the NY Times' 95% odds that Hilary Clinton would win.
6
Yes, please keep that up but louder. It is exactly what will make a difference this time!
2
Clinton did win the election by 3 million votes. Times prediction was correct. They were not predicting the vote cast by 538 electors.
5
"A Blue Wave of Moral Restoration" ?
LOL
Like more Gina Haspels
5
Send a message - - - End the Hate
In November - - - Just vote straight
DEMOCRATIC
12
Let America's grotesque downfall be a lesson to the remaining progressives of the world on the fragility of decency.
5
Do you consider yourself the voice of “morality, righteousness and patriotism”?
4
the current president conned his way into office. many who were conned still drink the kool-aid or agree with his rape of the environment, pulling the health care rug out from under millions, creating a national debt beyond compare, enacting policy and law to punish anyone who isn't a white male, using the office to enrich the already rich including his family and cronies (after tax bill he told buddies at maralago that he just made them much richer)....LOOK at what he is doing and has done..NOT his repetitive autocratic propaganda. While you are at it, look at his tax returns.
10
The party that kept electing Ted Kennedy, LBJ and Bill Clinton need not attempt to lecture me on morals.
5
"If they have chosen to follow the forsaken down his path of destruction, so be it."
OMG! Where have you been, Charles?? I have missed you. I needed to read this column today. Thank you for returning. And for this, "but he is in fact destroying America’s fundamental ideals. On Election Day, America will once again have its say." OH YES. We will show up to vote in November. OH YES.
8
Democrats and moral restoration? Oh yes Charles, you did make my day. Thank you.
3
The left has been deconstructing morality for decades. The fact that you think you have the right to lecture anyone on morality (=whatever you deem it to be this week) shows how far down the rabbit hole you are.
3
Yes, let's have a 'Blue Wave' of moral restoration to the high values of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Libs moral outrage is quite selective based on politics. Oh, and of course you know the Legislature has a fund established to pay off sexual harassment claims. Ah, the good ole boys club.
2
What is required is positivity. A positive message of change. The anti-Trump thing was over before it began. It's not a winning strategy. Provide a positive agenda, one that really makes a huge difference and there'll be no problem swinging us back to sanity. Guaranteed.
5
Blaming Trump for "destroying America's fundamental ideals" and hoping that Democrats will be responsible for a moral restitution is spectacular in its banal generality. Mr. Blow, you write mostly about racism but now show yourself as an uncritical writer of the resistance. Paint us a picture of your hoped for future. Is it higher taxes, more social spending, less military spending, amnesty for illegals, sanctuary cities, and a crackdown on hate speech? These ideas have hardly reached the critical acclaim you imagine.
3
There is nothing "moral" about a brainwashing or an attitude that is impervious to fact and logic. This is nothing but pre-packaged cultural neurosis.
2
The reason President Trump is in the White House is not only because America's Ruling Class have become greedy warmongers; it is because the Ruling Class abuses power. The corruption and mendacity of President Trump are not even in the same ball park as the arrogance, thievery and thuggery of the Clinton oligarchy and their henchman in the FBI and CIA. The Hollywood and media elite may get a sadistic delight in ridiculing Trump's base as was showcased by Michelle Wolf's performance at the Correspondent's Dinner and perhaps enough social climbers will cheer this so-called humor. But Mr. Blow may be disappointed in 2018 and in 2020, as many Americans register their disgust with America's Ruling Class - even if it means keeping President Trump and the Republicans in power.
6
I think I read in this paper, an Italian activist mentioning how to beat Berlesconi. Don't get sucked into the daily media dramas or distracted by your outrage or by the salacious details of corruption. DON'T do it (although the media does often enable that time wasting habit).Stick to policies, programs, be issue-oriented. Be adults! Think, plan, strategize, collaborate, reach out, be a democratic citizen. After November comes 2020, and then the rest of your life. What could that look like with engaged citizens?
8
As per Charles Blow and this article: The reason to vote Democrat is to remove Trump from office.... Again, no reason to vote FOR a Democrat.
Prediction: There is no Blue Wave. There is no Blue Ripple. House and senate remain relatively unchanged. Democrats - especially Charles Blow - remain oblivious to voter sentiment.
3
November 2018 can not come fast enough and only wish it were 2020 instead. This miserable excuse for a human being can not go away fast enough.
4
Yes just vote against each and every incumbent politician collecting money to control your vote. Quit watching TV with advertisements of all kinds. Don't listen to news radio or listen to any radio with advertising. We need a reset and it is simple.
3
As long as Dems championing sanctuary cities and continue to blur the lines of the difference between legal and illegal immigration, i will continue to support Trump . Progs are big phonies if they are projecting to be anti neoliberalism but support a basic tenet of it with mass legal and illegal immigration. Bi partisan support can always be found in congress to benefit rich donors who want whats left of the American middle class to be reduced to the equivalent of third world peasants. The modern day confederates are those who want super cheap slave labor and under cut taxpayers and those employers who follow the law. Progs must love the 1 percent since they support neo liberal immigration policy and demigod the issue by calling people racists who want laws followed and hard fough work regulations kept in place.
2
"No person who has demonstrated himself to be a pathological liar should be president. No person enveloped by a cloud of corruption should be president." If Trump had not won, then Hilary would be President.
Is Hilary Clinton a pathological liar, or enveloped by a cloud of corruption?
3
Actively support impeachment, as a stepping stone to resignation (the only responsible and effective solution) or quit bellyaching.
1
So well said, Mr. Blow.
But please, Democrats, please, I beg you, resist the urge to make this another battle between enlightened progressives vs. America's last remaining retrograde bigots.
Reaction to that toxic message is how Trump won. Reaction to that insulting message is how the GOP could do well in 2018. Reaction to that divisive message is how - horror of horrors - Trump could win again in 2020.
Stop it!
Liberals must accept the fact that they won the culture wars years ago. Declare victory and move on. Stop looking for every opportunity to people as bigots as a way to prove your progressive bona fides. It's this lack of magnanimity in victory which keeps the culture wars unnecessarily hot, to the advantage of the GOP. You do realize that Republicans have the White House, House, Senate, the majority of governorships and state legislatures, right?
Move on to restoring the socio-economic pact with the broadest possible swath of Americans. It will do far more to help immigrants, people of color, women, LGBT and other minorities thrive than any hashtag or shaming of conservatives ever could. AND it will help the Bubba with a shot gun in his pick-up.
That's a really good thing if the Democrats are serious about being the dominant governing national party again, rather than just a club for people who want to look fashionable.
4
"No person enveloped by a cloud of corruption should be president."
Why not if he or she hasn't been found guilty? Just because you are accused of something, then you shouldn't be president. Well then no one will ever be POTUS since the other party will declare the president is corrupt!
2
So, there is a chance—and the operative word here is “chance”—that the Democrats, rooted in their innate “virtuousness” (according to Mr. Blow), may retake the House in 2018.
Then, it is almost certain that these Knights of Virtue will push to impeach President Trump.
Well, more power to them.
The likely odds that the Senate—which will almost certainly remain in Republican hands come 2018—will actually convict The Donald are virtually nil.
But the Oh-So-Virtuous-But-FAILED effort by the Democrats to impeach the Prez will spark a Trumpian backlash that will (IMHO) guarantee the re-election of Trump and the re-taking of the House by the Republicans in 2020.
So, by all means GO FOR IT, PRO-IMPEACHMENT Dems. The Republicans will be waiting for you come 2020.
I voted third-party in 2016; but I just might vote for Trump in 2020 as a sharp stick in the eye to smug Dems.
3
"Righteousness exalteth a nation, sin is a reproach to any people" Proverbs 14:34 We need to return to righteousness versus corruption, caring for the alien in our midst versus deporting them, speaking truth versus deception and outright lies, making our country 'of the people, by the people, for the people' once again.
4
This is so great. I am reading The Great Divide and this column tells me that the Democrats will be unprepared again and will fail again.
The more the elites and the liberal press tell people how moral the Democrats are and why they should despise Trump, the more secure Americans are in their support of Trump.
The Democrats have no platform. We hate Trump. Trump is evil. Give back your tax relief. Pay more for medical care. Hope N. Korea treaty fails. Too many of you are employed, quit..quit. Vote for me I'll get you everything free. No higher moral ground here.
Get back to me when you put Americans first.
I know a con when I see one and this is one....
3
"No person enveloped by a cloud of corruption should be president."
Exactly! And one reason also many are glad that Hillary is not President.
3
Corruption on a massive scale. Does Middle America care? We will learn that in the midterms. If enough Trump voters don't draw a line and switch to Democrats for Congress for no other reason but fundamental values, if enough seldom-voters aren't motivated to vote to clean out the moral and ethical rot, the country's decline is assured. Now is the time for all patriots to do the easiest of their duties.
3
If there's one thing this presidency & its base has proven beyond any doubt, it's that Republicans, in this particular incarnation, are Not Moral.
The Republicans in this incarnation are a monolithic neo-confederacy. Realigning the USA's political power is nothing less than a civil war.
How did Republicans achieve virtually total control of the USA? By systematically radicalizing their base with incendiary demagoguery & false ideology.
How would those who oppose the Republican agenda reorient the country?
I surely don't know. But I suggest that 'keep calm' is not remotely the right course.
Democrats, if that's who's going to ever defeat Redstatism, would need to be far, far more active, far more organized, & articulate a vision that actually energizes their base.
Whether you were a supporter of him or not, and while I risk being accused of Mr. Blow's neologism 'Berniesplaining', Bernie did motivate a vast base without the big money, & his platform was in line with democratic societies far ahead of the USA on the World Happiness Report.
No Bernie's not 'crazy', he's actually right on target. And he's Moral.
Democrats need to study his platform, consult with him regarding strategy & a battle-plan.
But above all, Democrats would need to get Very Busy, which from all appearances they're not, & generally don't.
In my humble estimation, Obama energized his base because he is Obama, not because of Democrats.
If Democrats wait for another star to make it happen, it won't.
3
The Democratic Party is what it is, a coalition of interests and passions. That's going to be messy and easy to trash. But it is real and has integrity.
The Democratic Party will never not be frustrating. But it is the one place to land a vote of consequence. It deserves it and will get mine every time while the GOP offers nothing but rot.
5
Most all polls from news organizations are controlled by Conservative bosses including New York Times ( moderate conservative), Washington Post ( Conservative), Fox News ( strong Conservatives); that's said, I don't buy the results of these Conservative- manipulated pollings, they had no credit. Let's look back the 2016 presidential election. the American media went for Republican Trump with covert, deception; denied they went for Republican Donald Trump. They can't be trusted with data presentation, its integrity. The way to trust and see is looking at the recent elelction results: real and true numbers of voters : 90 % of them rejected Republican party and Donald Trump.
2
I too have a (hopeful) vision for the upcoming election that's rooted in morality. It seems that for too many Republicans today, morality is a tool in the hand, not a foundation on which to stand. It's used as a cudgel against the bogeymen "liberals" when ground seems to be lost in a hyper-polarized, childish game of one-upsmanship. (Sometimes it's wedged into the tiniest of crannies and worked furiously.) But when they feel that the wind is at their backs, it's quietly, McConnell-istically put away for another time. That's apparently not the case among Democrats; witness for instance the principled, advantage-ceding stances of Democratic leaders regarding Al Franken and Eric Schneiderman.
Does that mean that Democrats and principles are destined to be losers in contemporary government, which the Republicans have painstakingly, over many years, reduced to a mud wrestling pit? I don't think so. Election results don't happen by themselves. On November 6 - a historically consequential and pivotal Election Day, much more so than 11-8-16 - every American who has felt sick since the Republicans' overwhelming swampification of our Legislative and now Executive branches has to take that feeling to the voting booth. I have a feeling that the Republican kick in the country's stomach is felt by most people practically every day now. So, if I may, the only wall that should reach across the country is the line of people waiting their turns to VOTE to make America honorable again.
2
Mr. Blow, I too am more optimistic and hopeful about the midterms - more so than many of the other commentators on your piece, apparently. As you said, we all need to take a deep breath and elect decent people to Congress this year. Not the perfect and non-existent saints many readers seem to demand, but certainly reasonable, clear-headed, honest, and ethical human beings. Yes, things are awful right now, but the only way to get ourselves out of the disaster is to find and vote for good Democratic candidates. And really, to get out of this endless crankiness! I mean....really people, that’s the best you can do?
3
Trump's is not only the presidency of immorality; it is the presidency of the lowest form of immorality there is: hate and cruelty. My heart breaks for immigrant children being separated from their parents. My heart also breaks for the terribly underserved people of Flint and of Puerto Rico.
Yes, it is our duty to vote the evil out.
Yes we can.
5
My thoughts put into words succinctly and precisely.
Loved the piece.
To paraphrase all of Charle's thoughts and words - you get what you vote for America!
So get out and vote your conscience.
BTW - I am not an American (Canadian) - but I feel your pain.
4
A paean to the importance of virtuous people in politics, from a Clinton supporter, no less. WJC's campaign started with denials of sexual improprieties as governor, many later confirmed , and ended with Marc Rich . On the Clinton scale of ten. Trump is about a five.
"America is not only too big to fail, it is too big to forsake." This is an arguable point; it might even be a slam dunk for a fleeting, rapidly closing moment. I would be more inclined to calm down about the 2018 mid-terms if I had a clue about what the Democratic Party proactively stands for.
I hear disconnected blips from this official or that, now and then. But the only unifying theme of the Democratic Party is Trump trashing, well deserved but hardly the visionary message of hope and change that will motivate masses of voters to vote D in November.
For voters under 60, the prospect of voting Democrat feels like voting G, for geriatric. There are lots of us, and we vote, but catering to us is no strategy for future political success.
When it comes to the President of the United States there is much success. And there is certainly no "ineptitude posing as competence."
The Economy is great.
Unemployment is way down.
Taxes are down.
Workers are receiving higher salaries and bigger bonuses.
Families have much lower taxes.
Thanks to our military, ISIS has been greatly reduced. At this point there are no worries about a caliphate.
Immigration will eventually improve, thanks to the president.
Etc............
2
You are so right, Mr. Blow. And I can think of no better leaders for the Moral Restoration than the unemployed Bill Clinton, Anthony Weiner, and Eric Schneiderman. All have plenty of time on their hands and all represent the very essence of the morality of the Democratic Party.
2
Charles - you are an untrammeled voice that helps us stay the course of resistance. I am grateful to you for your wonderful writing, which is what I read first thing on Mondays and Thursdays. I just want to remark on your assertion that 'no presidency is a complete failure', then the rest of the piece offers ample evidence that THIS presidency is a complete failure.
1
Trump and the Republican Congress, through craven venality and moral weakness, are holding a knife to the jugular of the values of the Constitution of the United States. Charles is right: voting this fall is a patriotic necessity, a "higher purpose."
3
"No person who has demonstrated himself to be a pathological liar should be president.
No person enveloped by a cloud of corruption should be president."
If Trump had not won, then Hilary would be President. Hilary has demonstrated herself to be a pathological liar, and is entirely enveloped by her cloud of corruption.
1
The United States is the World greatest economy. The States that embrace capitalism and a healthy business environment, are ones doing best. Conservatives business friendly -Progressives anti business. All segments of U. S. social make up are seeing and living the difference, depending on what state they live in.
Therefore, the progressives if they were elected, would return our economy to the disaster it was. I don't see the voting public doing that
Yes, Trump’s approval rating is rising, but the key metrics are that his approval rating among Republicans remains at about 84%-86%, and those polled who have no opinion are between 5%-7%. Trump can forget about attracting committed Democrats, who as a group only about 12% approve of him, but about 35% of Independents approve of him, and the Independent vote is key because they are more susceptible to changing conditions than to hard ideological convictions.
By November, our economy could be much stronger than now and almost certainly won’t be weaker, the North Korean issue could be resolved, the Iranian issue could be showing signs of moving to a productive path of resolution, we could be hammering out advantageous bilateral trade deals with partners and even China, to avoid tariffs, and Congress may have hammered out comprehensive immigration legislation (with significant Democratic participation). That would attract those “no opinions”, Independents, even more Republicans and, yes, maybe even a few more conservative Democrats.
So, Charles is right in advising that we stay the course. (Hehehe.)
1
But when I think of the predictions of a “blue-wave”, I can’t help but remember that graphic that the Times kept on its digital front page right through Election Night of 2016 that gave HRC some outlandishly high likelihood of winning the presidency. Didn’t quite turn out that way. If trends in Trump and Republican performances that are happening now and could quite easily intensify by November hold up, then there won’t be a “blue-wave”. It could be a “red-wave” that crashes on our left coast shore to make the residents there question again whether life really holds any promise of bluer times.
But Charles’s assurances that his partisanship isn’t actually partisan but driven by “a more profound sense of morality, righteousness and patriotism” made my entire day for its immense entertainment value. Not only is it predictable liberal “my burning bush is the REAL burning bush”, but, TRULY entertainingly, it’s basically what berserker conservatives say about trying to block voting rights and trying to destroy Roe v. Wade.
1
Democrat messaging has been atrocious so far this cycle. All we hear about is identity, and sometimes guns, if we are lucky enough to have actual ideas raised by this party.
Until Democrats realize this divides its forces and repels more people than it attracts, the nightmare will continue.
23
If by "all you hear about" you mean coming from the television networks, then you need to do some reading.
5
Charles Blow's entire raison d'etre IS identity politics, so I wouldn't look for sound, broad-based political thinking for the Democratic party in this quarter. Unless that is, you really think it's sound political strategy to advocate nothing, zilch, nada that is not 100% beneficial to black constituency and only black constituents.
4
After reading the comments I agree with many of them, in varying proportions. I don't care if they are called democrats, progressives, liberals, or various hyphenates. They all mention 'infrastructure' without many details.
But major infrastructure investment is sorely needed. The prosperity which built this country after ww2 was largely fueled by huge investment in infrastrucure; the interstate highway system also generated the auto industry and home construction.
Somewhere in the 70's or 80's we became complacent; we said 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' instead of 'hey, here's a new idea!' The oil, auto, and pharma industries controlled legislation thru lobbying. They effectively derailed any major investment in the future of renewable energy.
To create new industries at a major scale requires a financial investment which may not see results for 5, 10. 20 years.
Along with the control exerted by existing energy sources our present tax structure makes it unattractive to invest in the future.
Everything we do right now amounts to minor adjustments.
'Vision' seems limited to the next quarterly report.
Politicians need to scream and shout all sorts of versions of this message. It's never too late.
17
A slight tweak. In the 50s, government spending was focused on military and infrastructure. The great society and its rapid growth have crowded out much of that spending such that transfer payments and interest are, what 2/3rds of spending now.
Thank you Charles, especially for this:
"Donald Trump is the leader of this country, but also the enemy of it.
No person who treats women the way Trump does and brags on tape about sexually assaulting them should be president.
No person who has demonstrated himself to be a pathological liar should be president.
No person enveloped by a cloud of corruption should be president.
All that’s apart from whatever Robert Mueller and other investigators may discover.
Americans of good conscience know that Trump is a moral blight on this country, dragging down virtues and destroying conventions."
28
Bill Clinton fails your first test, Hillary fails the first and second. Yes, Trump has deep flaws. But look at the alternatives presented and you'll understand why more people voted against a candidate than for one.
I worry more about the rising tribalism on the left balkanizing our citizenry, underway for decades, than I do about a passing morally-challenged Trump, who will be gone in 3-7 years.
Larry
Another untrue statement from the left regarding the President of the United States.
Actually, I am liking Trump more as each day passes.
23
Why? Seriously, and with all due respect, would you please enumerate the reasons you are "liking Trump more as each day passes"?
Mr. Blow enumerates the reasons that many of us despise Trump. Larry reiterates the list in his comment above. If we as a country are to have any hope of finding common ground, we need to understand the reasons for this disparity of opinion.
3
Yeah, he's just wonderful. Doing so much for all of us.
1
Ok, I'll go first. What is likable about him? The fact he has made no effort to unite a politically, and racially, divided country? The fact he is lining his pockets at our expense?
The mysterious $500B from China, or Fredo's gift from Qatar?
How's that drain the swamp thingy working out for you?
What is your opinion of the Trump Wall, oh, I must not forget the grand health care plan that replaced Obama care and provides cheaper and better care than Obama care. How is those grand, buffoonish and bombastic claims working for you?
Yesiree. Each day many of us would like Trump-to retreat to his palace in Mar A Lago and never be seen in public again.
The Democratic candidates winning their primary in the past weeks need to be supported with money, volunteers to do door knocking, getting people registered to vote. The candidates job is to convey a clear message that front and center addresses their concerns. Everyone must remain focused on getting an historic Mid-term turnout that becomes the benchmark.
13
Mr. Blow, thank you, truly, for this article. It expresses more optimism about the Democratic party than I feel, but it sums up perfectly (and far more eloquently than I could ever express) my feelings about how dangerous this presidency has been to the American people and values. I'll be alluding to it in many future conversations.
21
Mik
The President is not dangerous for this country. He has done many great things for America.
I see danger for this country in the Left which has been constantly trying to destroy the President and his administration since day one of his presidency.
1
Charles has become the political and moral conscience of The Times and one of those of the nation. Thank you for your eloquence in defense of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
29
Charles, from your mouth to gods ears.
13
You took the words right outta my mouth.
1
Charles - Your party's moral authority expired a long time ago.
24
If so, it certainly hasn’t been replaced by the GOP’s.
1
Good luck. I still believe that the wave of ignorance, buoyed by Trump, will prevail. It's easier to sell fear than inclusion.
3
That's a sad commentary on the lack of moral compass among his supporters. That does not bode well for America's future.
7
But don't forget that back then...like right now, those who think like that are still in the minority -- and with new anti-gerrymandering legislation in existence, we've got a fighting chance....RESIST.
12
Vinson
I believe that the "wave of ignorance" buoyed by the Left will not prevail. The left sells tons of fear. And the right is not buying it.
"On Election Day, America will once again have its say."
this will happen only if machines aren't hacked and votes counted
As things stand at this moment, we have no way of ascertaining this to be the case.
VERIFIABLE PAPER BALLOTS NOW
32
I'm so confused how people can use a term like morality without an underpinning... It's amazing how the Left (and the Right) talk about "morality" with no basis other than the "I want" morality... ignoring the entire body of theology, philosophy, and wisdom the human race has accumulated to reach an understanding of transcendent morality... To take the words of the very wise Bishop Robert Barron: "It’s this idea that we invent our own value system. I think that’s the most abiding ideology today, is that my will determines what’s good and right. To give it its formal name, it’s voluntarism — the dominance of the will over the mind, or of my desire over truth. And see, what that does is then it brackets the essential dignity of the other. If I’m making up values as I go along, then as people get in the way of that, well, they become expendable. It becomes, as Nietzsche said, the will to power. I think that’s the abiding and underlying problem, is this sort of Nietzscheanism, this voluntarism — that I invent my own values. "
15
Thank you for this wonderfully coherent statement. Intellectual integrity is a rare thing on the internet, and it deserves to be praised.
1
The voters awoke on November 9th 2016 to realize their nightmare was reality. They have been recoiling in horror, disgust, and anger ever since. November 6th is the day they can finally start to put that nightmare to an end.
I believe that this will be the unifying issue that brings all sane Americans together, regardless of other agendas, because as long as Trump and the Republicans control everything we will see no progress, only more regression. No matter what your most passionate issue is, first you need to win.
29
Kingfish52
There has been much progress since the Trump presidency began:
The economy is great.
Taxes are a good deal lower.
Workers are receiving sizeable increases in salaries and bonuses.
Families are paying much lower taxes.
Thanks to our military, ISIS has greatly decreased in size.
Unemployment is down significantly.
Etc.........
"The voters awoke on November 9th 2016 to realize their nightmare was reality."
This wins the Pauline Kael comment of the day award.
"I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don't know. They're outside my ken. But sometimes when I'm in a theater I can feel them. "
Ahem. Voters elected Trump and everyone in congress and governorships. Sorry to burst your bubble that "the people" wanted something else. You may, but the people didn't.
Dems are winning because they know how to compromise and to reflect a moderate stance that their constituents can embrace. Far left positions will not help the democrats win, but win the dems must, before the country is dismantled to benefit only the rich. So, moderation, my friends, moderation, compromise, understanding of the opposition, and willingness to listen and compromise, but play hardball against liars and the Russians!
12
Are we giving another Reset button to the Russians?
"Stop hoping that Trump’s supporters will abandon him"
We never will, some of us younger people have waited for a lifetime to have a president do as he says.
If Trump is causing destruction it is everything Obama lacked. Good news economy booming, jobs are plentiful...bad news my landscaper can't find help this year.
9
See, the lying thing just permeates Trumpworld. Economy sorta good and has been for what 7 years? Why? Because a Democratic President pulled it out of the water after the Republican economic disaster of 2007--2009. Jobs ARE plentiful at about 4% unemployment but they HAVE BEEN for how many months? 60? Something like that. What a foolish exposition and through it all, not a word about the virtues of lying. Why not?
31
Nope. Business cycles pulled the economy out. Been happening since Babylonian times. Your god-king didn't do it.
1
I appreciate this spurt of optimism from you Charles. It has been a journey to get here but you have stated your truth and been on the mark.
I wish I shared the optimism about elections. It's true there is a fight out there and for all the points made but I am more troubled by Trump's support given all that is being revealed.
We have to question ourselves about what we are about. It's easy to be against something but what are we for?
A return to the values may mean that the ugliness exposed this last election goes underground again, ready to emerge and gaining strength. I find that scary because so much is now embedded in the DOJ, the courts, the dark money groups all those Trump has emboldened.
Democrats may get small victories in 2018 but they need to be for their values and not against Trump's and they need to build an army of like-minded voters.
We need to demand more as voters because the systematic destruction of democracy is firmly in place. Those who are not white and privileged are being marginalized and it appears to be normal. Immigrants are animals? Our frenemies have more sway than our allies. Cuts to the poor and kids but big raises for corporations.
Trump family syndicate enriches itself almost daily and where is the legal response. We already know of the outrage.
Yes, let's do this but do it right and until our voice can counteract the incompetence that is the Trump administration
7
The coalition of traditional GOP constituencies and nontraditional voters appears to be distributed geographically such that it could be an effective majority, or could at least damp down any "blue wave". The traditionalists support him because of his policies and in spite of his style. Many nontraditional voters support President Trump not in spite of his style but because of it. It seems unlikely that any Democratic strategy emerging in recent specials and primaries could split such a coalition.
4
Coalition? Old and white. If women and minorities and young people come out, republicans lose. They are not expanding their base.
2
There is no Democratic Party any more. To be more honest they should all just start calling themselves the "Not Republican" Party. Their appeal is not in some coherent platform of policies. It's simply that there are voters who would never ever vote Republican so someone needs to hold that place on the ballot. "Not Republican Placeholder for Congress". I can see the yard sign now.
12
I’ve voted for Republicans before, but they were the kind that Trump supporters like to call RINOs now - folks who viewed Democrats as fellow “real Americans” and didn’t think compromise was a dirty word.
Are there any Trump supporters out there who would not vote for this president, regardless of anything he does? Trump himself didn’t seem to think so when he commented that he could kill someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue and they would remain loyal.
1
If there were no political parties, what issues would we and should we be focused on? Would it not be focused on the environment--and would we able to see that all other issues and conflicts are coming out of that. As well, where is the leader with vision--the vision to uplift and raise the consciousness of our population. It seems that the case and cause of our lives have been brought to its lowest common denominator. Are we okay with that? Do we really believe that--that our being born is only to get what's 'ours' until the day we die?
2
Make sure Democrats you run for what you stand for and not against Trump:
1. Universal healthcare coverage, via expanding the ACA or Medicaid for All. Focus on the end, not the means.
2. Public funding through college or trade school.
3. Securing Social Security for 75 years.
4. Fund these through higher tax rates on the wealthy and fewer tax breaks, plus freezing or cutting defense spending.
Details on #4: Add 40% and 50% brackets for incomes of $500k and $1 million, respectively. Eliminate the $300 billion/year in tax breaks for the top 1% (incomes over $400,000). Remove the cap on Social Security (currently about $128,000) and increase the payroll tax by 1 percentage point. Add a 25% tax on stock buybacks.
20
Add a securities trade tax for volume day trading. All this, and more, are paid for then.
13
A few additions to your list, perhaps not achievable
immediately but with public awareness very realistic.
1 The electoral college - To remove it would require a constitutional amendment. Most states award all their electoral votes to a candidate, even if he/she has only won 51% of the popular vote. However, states may award electoral votes in direct proportion to the popular vote. This is decided by each state. A national movement to publicize this and assist local groups could achieve results. NOTE: In addition to Trump, Bush 2 was elected despite losing the popular vote. Makes you wonder how the past few decades might have been.
2 Public funding of elections. Presently we are ruled by big corporations and wealthy private people. Ain't it great?
11
...and a retroactive tax law to recuperate the $ steal by Trump and his minions, wih interest and penalties!
2
Why don't you be more specific and note that Democrats win when they field candidates who support and advocate clear Progressive-Left policies instead of the staid and worn out neoliberal "at least we're not Trump" narrative of Pelosi, Schumer, and DWS.
Dems have a major chance of taking back all of Congress this November if they finally cater to the enormous Left-wing movement that has discarded the liberal-centrist platform of party elites.
You know, those people who claim to be part of #TheResistance but ultimately vote for Trump-appointed nominees and blame Hamas for the carnage in the Middle East caused by Israeli bullets.
12
This is so true. Unfortunately there are far too many Democrats who waddle and waffle in the middle and don't really stand for anything that is significant to the people they are elected to serve. Here in Pennsylvania there has been a big win for women in the primary two days ago. These women, on the whole, were not middle-of-the-road swinging any which way: they are, on the whole, progressives.
61
Then why did Democrats nominate Hillary instead of Bernie?
Because they were in the pockets of the DNC and their corporate donors.
Keep up the delusion of being righteous, and more people might swing towards being labeled "deplorable."
13
Foolish to go on about Trump. The 2018 election is not so much about him as the Republicans in Congress.
Replace all the 24/7 Trump coverage with detailed investigations and coverage of the Congressional Republicans.
You don't hear any of the so-called Democrat leaders talking about this - they need to be purged or a Red Tidal Wave will swamp the Blue Ripple just like before.
Since Clinton and the Democrat leaders and the DNC gave us Trump, they've learned nothing at all. No leadership changes.
Guess they're all entitled.
Same with the Democrat voters. They're all still in bed with the corporations and blaming everyone but themselves for their historic loss.
5
I submit that trump's approval rating is rising, because the fence sitters--and many of them swear up and down to have been liberal Obama supporters or Bernie bros--feel safe to finally embrace and act on their racial animosity toward (mostly) black people. All those videos of white people calling the police on black people going about their normal lives have not created widespread embarrassment or second thoughts. I believe it's having the opposite effect. Call the police. Point the finger. Make the accusation. The police come. Detain the "violator." Harass. Humiliate. Shoot? Isn't that the underlying desire? trump is the pitch perfect president for our times.
9
Democrats, the new moral majority?
3
bayboat65
No, I think not. Why? The Democrats have posted many lies and exaggerations in their constant attempts to destroy the President of the United States.
2
If the Democrats hope to take the House they should better ignore moral outrage about Trump and focus on appealing to the voters concerns in their local districts. Your views are why the Democrats can't seem to win. Moral outrage plays virtually no role in elections. Trump's election proved that. Winning elections is about strategy and the strategy for the Democrats to win the House is as I stated above.
9
Amazingly, no Democrat seems to understand this. It's why I left the party. It has no message other than identity sermonizing. It stands for nothing, and the majority of its members think that's just fine.
The pain hasn't even begun for these types. They will keep losing until they tear each hair from their heads.
1
I hope it works-out as you suggest and inspire, but I fear that with each passing day, "normal" shifts a little bit more to the right, and is more willing to acquiesce the absurd.
The "center", I fear, is not a fixed block of the electorate. It's relative to two perceived poles; and it's inclined to go with what's in fashion. That's my fear of what's indicated by the slow upward movement in his approval ratings. If they were slowly drifting downward (toward where they should be, like 3 or 4%, vs. 43%), I'd be much more optimistic.
1
In a sane world the Republican Party would get trounced in midterms. I'm not optimistic. Why? Progressives.
Notice most progressives don't call themselves progressive Democrats or the progressive wing of the Democratic Party anymore: Just "progressives".
And that spells trouble. Remember what anti-Hillary Clinton actress Susan Sarandon said to Chris Hayes in 2016? "People feel Donald Trump will bring the revolution immediately; if he gets in then things will really explode."
Guess what? Voting booths are private. While many progressives will do the right thing for the country there's plenty of my-way-or-the-highway progressives who won't. Because what they want is a Progressives Party, but Bernie Sanders, etc. have clearly run the numbers: a virtually all white, more affluent than average, and not particularly welcoming to minorities party will never grow enough to overtake the Democrats. (If they believed they had the numbers, a Progressive Party would have formed last year under Sanders' leadership.)
While the Democrats should have progressive winners to represent progressive areas, not all areas of the US are progressive. But IMO some progressives are perfectly willing to vote 3rd party or even Republican to sink "corporate Democrats". They feel a Republican administration/Supreme Court, while not ideal, will never harm *them* personally; like Ms. Sarandon, they think they can sit back, popping popcorn, while Rome burns around them. I say again: that spells trouble.
11
"Progression" is step by careful step, with full awareness of the possibility of error, and the vigilance to correct it as soon as possible.
5
That's the definition of a moderate. That's not what these radicals are doing.
You are living in the Democrat's alternate reality, blaming everyone but yourselves. 80% of Bernie Bros and Sisters voted for Clinton. Without them she would not have come close to the popular vote, because she didn't really win it.
Although grassroots movements can be making a difference, most people are still influenced directly by the candidates.
The national Democratic Party is in the hands of establishment cowards who don't even support their own progressive candidates.
Without candidates who can convince people to vote for them, the Party is doomed to continued failure.
The US desperately needs a labor party, but both capitalist parties have successfully prevented the rise of third parties.
The Democrats had through its propaganda convinced the unions and independent workers that it represented them, until the 2016 elections, when the Democratic message rang false and many turned instead to the lies of Trump.
6
I think the Democratic Party needs to publish a lexicon of political language so that people have a common understanding of what these terms mean. "Freedom" is a profoundly vague concept.
4
Steve Bolger
"Freedom is a profoundly vague concept?"
Freedom is one of the major concepts our country is built on.
@sarah
Actually this country was built on slavery. And that includes the White House and the Capitol building. After slavery it took off because of cheap oil.
Yes, Amen! But add to that the moral bankruptcy inherent in: the Republican tax bill, their attempts to repeal healthcare, their apparent total capitulation to fossil fuel and other environment-destroying interests, their abandonment of real public education, their refusal to raise the minimum wage, their cowardice regarding gun laws, their wimpiness on incarceration issues, their obscenely lopsided budget favoring a pathological military buildup, and their resistance to democracy renewal via voting modernization. On all these positions and the others associated with "culture wars" (aka imposition of patriarchy), there really is no good moral justification. If Republicans and the current president are left in charge, then we as a country will have failed morally at an astounding level. I pray for the "better angels" of our collective nature to win!
8
We need to have a chance to vote directly on certain moral issues. We need to use Referendum voting more often in federal elections.
Some candidates are against abortion but also against gun control. Others are against illegal aliens but for legalizing all drugs.
While knowledge in deciding the minimum wages, building new highways is beyond most peoples ability, moral issues are not. For example I should be allowed to die with dignity if and when I choose it etc.
We have a Supreme Court that can decide if our votes for some of those issues are constitutional. Even if our votes get overturned at least it can be a good way to for us to express our opinion
2
Congress is constitutionally forbidden to enact faith based legislation. Such limitation of power is key to preservation of minority rights under constitutional law.
1
Morality doesn't merely come from religion. We all express and promote moral beliefs.
Let us live in hope.
And NO; Hillary Clinton is not corrupt. We should not let those statements go unchallenged. That belief (sometimes just a claim without belief) is the deepest most cynical refuge of the corrupt right.
14
It depends upon what the definition of "corrupt" is. Indeed, Hillary has never done anything *necessarily* illegal. It's the fact that she could legally put contributors to the Clinton Foundation at the head of the State Dept. line, and legally be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to give private speeches to bankers, which is so corrupt!
Given the populist mood of the country, the Democrats almost could not have invented a worse candidate than Hillary Clinton.
2
As someone astutely commented recently, we don't need to move toward Trump voters; Trump voters need to move toward us.
It's up to them. Anything else is a complete waste of time and energy.
5
Should the Democrats take back the majority in 2018 and 2020.....do you really believe Schumer, Pelosi, Feinstein and Hoyer will dismantle the GOP tax reform bill that was rushed through in January? Will they substantially raise taxes on corporations and the very wealthy and terminate the obscene loopholes in our tax code that overwhelmingly favor the wealthy? Will they go after the cartel of big Pharma? I gave an entire list of "to do's" here..... Don't hold your breath for the corporate Democrats to do anything meaningful. Both parties belong to the business party and that is why the blue wave means nothing.
6
Fundraising becomes an end in itself under a perpetual stalemate in US politics.
2
The Blue Wave is a myth born of wishful thinking. At least 40 percent of the potential voters in this nation now appear willing to tolerate Trump/Republican racism and hate of ideas generally construed as liberal. By the time election day arrives Trump and the extremists in the GOP hierarchy will have solidified a grip on the judiciary and will, with the help of Fox propaganda, hold enough votes to continue marching toward authoritarian rule. Liberals, and Democrats in particular, come across to the average voter as being uncertain and lacking a firm commitment to progressive ideals and leadership. Seeking accommodation with the Trump administration and/or the Republican leadership is counterproductive, at best. The average voter sees such accommodation as validation of extremist right-wing positions and repudiation of the liberal agenda. Resistance is not yet futile, but the way out of this box is quickly vanishing.
5
They see Trump's behavior as some kind of clever buffoonery, not the usual lulling of lambs to the slaughter.
1
To all this, I say as well: Calm down
EVEN WHEN Democrats take back the house ( and hopefully the Senate ) is when the REAL work will begin.
There might be talk of impeachment ( I meself have said it often) and the like, but I suspect there will be several Constitutional crises the like we have never seen. There will be a belligerent President standing off against anything that he sees as an affront to him.
I don't think Democrats will have super majorities to override veto after veto that will be coming. I also don't think that the President will follow any order against him.
What then ?
3
Maybe God will get bored with it all and throw His shoe at the TV.
the blue wave is a pipe dream. in just the same way the polls were wrong predicting a clinton win they are equally wrong in predicting a democratic take over of either house of congress. the democrats historic inability to motivate its members to vote let alone persuade sufficient numbers of independents to change their votes will once again manifest itself. the continued shift of the democrats to the left will not help them either. i voted for HRC but would i have voted for sanders or a like minded candidate - no. and neither will a majority of the rest of the country.
5
The continued shift of the Democrats to the "left" ? That is a mind blowing statement that couldn't be further from the truth. For the last 30 years, the Democratic Party has shifted further and further to the right. The facts really do matter.
2
Welcome back Charles. I always find it calming and inspiring to read the words, thoughts and vision you so eloquently share with readers.
When going to the polls in the coming elections, Americans in ALL STATES need to stop and deeply reflect on WHO WE ARE and WHO WE WANT TO BE and then demonstrate our desires by voting for candidates who we believe will work tirelessly to represent our hopes, desires and vision for this country. Our future as a nation depends on our ability engage in respectful conversations with our families, friends and neighbors and the action of VOTING for candidates who best represent WHO WE ARE and WHO WE WANT TO BE.
5
Thank you, Charles. Late Tuesday, after votes in 90% of the precincts in Pennsylvania had been counted, nearly 100,00 more registered democrats than republicans had voted.
I don't think it was that republicans stayed home, it was because so many democrats felt compelled to vote because of the horrific conditions in Washington DC and in our state house.
12
And THANK YOU, Pennsylvania!...
1
Charles, for someone who tried to shove a candidate as corrupt and dishonest as Hillary Clinton down the throats of Americans, you start with a credibility problem. As #MeToo amply demonstrates, Democrats still believe that abusers of women like Schneiderman should be protected because they are "good" on women's issues; that is hardly a moral position and more a position of rank opportunism.
When you continue to take the position that people who rejected Hillary's corruption and dishonesty are deplorable, you demonstrate the basic problem with American political society. Namely, the lack of civility and respect and morality you claim to want. Perhaps you should demand that candidates you support demonstrate an ample supply of civility, truth telling, fair play and respect. When you give a pass to Democrats who fail these tests, you are nothing more than a rank hypocrite. Hillary failed these tests, Eric Schneiderman failed these tests, and the fact that Democrats were willing to overlook these failures tells me something about the Democrats who supported these people. Just like the people who supported Trump.
Trump was made possible by Hillary Clinton, and the people who were all too willing to overlook the perception and aura of corruption and dishonesty in which Hillary blanketed herself. In defending Hillary, you indirectly acknowledged that the honorable and ethical do not matter, that the expulsion of corruption, deceit and fraud are not your priorities.
9
Donald Trump was made possible by people like you not Charles Blow. 60,000,000 people like you voted for this man. You bear responsibility - not me and not the majority of Americans that did not vote for Donald Trump. The same people that voted for George Bush and the Iraq War also voted for Donald Trump. The same people that voted for Richard Nixon and the opening of trade with China also voted for Trump. The same people that voted for the policies that Trump now rallies against voted for Trump. As so many Trump voters tell me to please get over the election and that Hillary lost, I will repeat to you - Hillary lost so own up to your own mistake of voting for Trump.
10
Nice try, Tony. This started with the horrible racism attacking Barack Obama, his wife and his children and the fact that few republicans had the courage to speak out against it.
Hillary had her flaws but so many of the accusations against her had been cooked up by the far right for over 30 years. Republican men had a big problem with an intelligent democratic woman who could perhaps be elected president. I don't hold Trump responsible. It was always possible that a mentally unstable, morally corrupt person could be elected president, but that required corrupt, biased, immoral people to vote for him.
10
Which version of a corrupt Hillary Clinton are you referring to? The Russian version, supplanted by lies and fake online ads designed to confuse those with minimal attention spans? Or do you refer to the legal proceedings, indictments and convictions which proved her guilt beyond any doubt? Those, by the way, do not exist. You have been had and you are being had now by your misbegotten President.
2
This is one of Blow's best humor pieces. It is rooted in his remarkable inability to connect with the citizenry of the greater United States of America, instead preferring to remain fully engaged, and entranced, with the statist-socialists of the cocktail-circuit elitist fishbowl.
The massive rejection of Democrats in the coming election, will not phase him. Ideology always trumps reason.
8
The Democratic Party is in much greater peril than its leaders or supporters recognize, and it has no plan to save itself.
What I’ve learned over the past 37 years of following and participating in American politics is that this country has a lot of mindless primitives who vote pro-evil (Republican), and I’ve watched them turn the country into a plutocracy. I would greatly enjoy seeing them be defeated this November, and through the grace of God they will be.
14
This is a perfect article of what I call - "Hammer or nail ?" Blow says that this is not about partisanship. "This, to me, is simply about the partisan reality of the mood of the country and the dictates of historical precedent." But is that sincere ?
He later says, "The objective must be greater than politics. It must be about the restoration of normalcy, civility, truth, fair play and respect." If this is the case - that it's not about partisanship but rather about personal qualities that he describes - "normalcy, civility, truth, etc", then does that mean Blow would have supported someone like Romney or McCain for President ? You can knock those guys all you want - but they are certainly honorable.
Of course Blow (and other liberals) wouldn't support someone like Romney/ McCain - because though they are civil and honest, they are Republicans. And liberals dislike conservative policies. But they choose not to say that there - because as Blow conceded, "partisan reality" dictates that there are a lot of conservatives in this country ... On the other hand, there is almost no one who will support lying or disrespect. So liberals focus on those personal qualities because they think it will drive more people to the liberal candidate - including (they hope) conservatives who dislike liberal policies but buy into Blow's personal accusations. It's a political strategy. Blow should at least admit it !!
5
Your whole litany reads to me as a projection of yourself.
What a bunch of hooey. The far left, "progressive" Democrats like you stand for everything that is traditionally immoral. The majority of Americans don't agree with them and that number is growing as proven by the latest polls. You tome is one of desperation. Trump has accomplished a lot. You just don't like it. Most of us do.
4
If the Democrats keep the immigration policies Donald Trump put forth, it will almost guarantee a crushing defeat of the Republicans. If they don't this awful man be reelected.
Find a competitive congressional district. Go there and register voters. Donate to congressional campaigns. The rest is hot air, since nobody's changing their mind.
5
I abhor Trump, and I'm a registered Democrat, but I'm staying home in November unless there's a change of command. Pelosi, Schumer and Clinton (all three of them and their acolytes) need to go.
6
1. Hilary Clinton is not running for any office.
2. There are a lot of offices and issues on the ballots besides the US Senate and House (if you choose not to vote in those elections). But a non-vote is a vote for the opposition.
3. Work within your local party for change.
14
Stop all this foolish talk of impeachment. It ain't goin' happen in congress. It never has and never will. So just shut up about it.
Here is what will happen.
1.Mueller will present detailed facts to Americans, either by a published or leaked report.
2. Minor characters will be fined and/or be jailed for a short time.
3. Trump remains president.
4. The House of Representatives may have a Democratic majority after after 2018 mid term elections. This will gum up some of Trump's plans but not stop his agenda. Trump will have amble time and authority to cause mayhem and international conflicts.
3. Come 2020 the American voters will decide whether to impeach Trump and his gang out of office. The outcome remains undetermined. Even monarchies had their core supporters to the very end. Expect and plan for opposition and dirty fighting. And put forth candidates with smarts and integrity.
6
So much wishful thinking. And what will the Democrats do with their Congressional majority, which we are assured will come to pass by the same pollsters who told us Hillary was a shoe-in in 2016? Will the Democrats continue to cater to the Wall Street-Hollywood- Silicon Valley elites, or will they actually try to do anything to help ordinary Americans- as they utterly failed to do during the Obama administration?
5
The big news amongst the storm of developments is that Senate republicans are now admitting that Russia attacked the US elections ("meddled") -- specifically to get trump into the White House.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Russia, America's enemy (let's not sugarcoat this) wanted trump to "win" the election.
I repeat: Russia, American's enemy wanted trump to "win" the election, steal the Presidency, occupy the White House.
That's really all that anyone needs to know about this whole thing.
Why do you think the Russians would want trump in the White House -- because he would be such a great President for America?!?!
(Hint: no, they wanted him in there because they knew he would destroy the US from within, and he is well on his way doing just that)
(Against this background it is almost irrelevant whether trump knew that the Russians were helping him or whether he even was actively conspiring with them -- which he surely did, and which is treason)
14
Obama was President when all this happened. Obama laughed it off, and told Trump to seek the votes of American voters. Obama did nothing to stop the Russians. Because Obama didn't think that the Russian meddling could move the needle in the election. Was Obama wrong?
2
Republicans and democrats are like different fruit picked off the same tree. Somebody needs to cut the tree down because its shadow has been keeping anything else from growing.
2
When you think that Repubs and Dems are the same think on this. Dems gone wild try to give everyone healthcare, and they raise taxes to pay for it. Repubs gone wild give money to the rich, crumbs to the rest of us and blow up the deficit in the process. These two things are not the same.
4
I personally guarantee that at least half the people yelling about "SANDERS 2020!" don't know that few if any of the people Sanders endorsed have won these special elections, and are not going to vote.
If you're under 30 and saying this, the most important things you could do are: a) stop yellng at the Times; b) stoping yelling at your own side; c) do something about that pathetic 30% turnout among the sub-30 crowd.
6
Can we steer some of this alleged moral restoration up Albany's way?
1
Replacing the president and his hate-filled dialogue is the first step to our nation’s healing. Thank you, Mr. Blow, for your clear and consistent message.
8
I have no illusions should the "blue wave" succeed in taking back power.....business as usual will continue with an existing Democratic Party that is joined at the hip with corporate funding, corporate special interests and corporate dominance above all else. The DNC, DCCC and the DSCC have been actively undermining real progressive candidates across the country in favor of "business friendly" centrist candidates. Stop holding your breath....the Democratic Party, just like the Republican Party.....DO NOT represent "the people".
4
Before writing off the Democratic Party, consider the alternative: eg. a Mitch McConnell who sabotages the Supreme Court and won't bring issues to a vote. Investigate the candidates: for example, those supported by Emily's List. There are various scientists running for office in opposition to Trump's policies.
1
I have always voted for the Democratic Party. Not once have I ever voted Republican including 2016. But I have finally had enough of a corporate Democratic Party for the last 30 years.
As much as I agree with Mr. Blow's call for a moral restoration, an even more crucial goal is bridging the polarization and divide in our current politics. We desperately need to get past liberal vs. conservative, Democrat vs. Republican, rich vs. poor, corporations vs. environmentalists, white vs. non-white, and on and on. Trumpism has successfully exploited our differences while enabling probably the most corrupt administration and presidency in our history. The solution to Trumpism is to ignore those that would divide us, and seek common ground. Turn off those that preach hate and division on cable TV, radio, and the internet. Listen to your neighbor instead of insulting him for his vote. Make thoughtful comments instead of spewing insults and hate. Recognize that Democrats (or Republicans or any other party) don't have a monopoly on morality or solutions for all of our country's problems. This may sound hopelessly naive -- but it beats the heck out of the current path this country is on.
2
Democrats need to keep it simple and get out the vote. Then, the House back in Democratic control Trump can be thwarted, ignored, hobbled and neutered until he can be replaced. The underlying goal is to restore morality, integrity and competence in government. It will be the first step towards making America great again...
6
President Trump is a racist demagogue, as well as a coarse and unstable personality, true. But how does that differ politically from President Nixon's Southern strategy or President Reagan attacking "welfare queens," or the Willie Horton ad that elected President Bush?
The error is to see the evil in an individual instead of the system.
Someday President Trump will no longer be President. But the evil economic system that produces Nixons and Reagans and Trumps will remain--and that is what must be changed.
6
At a recent movie outing, the trailer for the documentary on Mr Rogers, "Won't You Be My Neighbor" came on. During a Mr. Rogers' line in the trailer about treating all others with kindness, the audience started cheering. Ok, this is Austin and the audience was there to see the Ruth Bader Ginsburg doc., but it was a stirring moment. And I needed it.
6
There is hope - but if he manages to get us into a war, all bets are off.
1
Vote!
We need a newer analysis than CNN's on 27 April.
1
Trump's the wild card that throws everything out of balance in the political landscape. Few thought he would win in the primary let alone the general election. He had then and still has now tens of millions of supporters who still think he's suitable to remain in office. Not surprising, if they voted for him in 2016 after everything he said, why would they change their minds now? I try to put myself into that mindset - i.e. what if the Democratic candidate had won instead and then said - oh let's pick one - the remarks about the Nazi marchers in Charlottesville for example - how would that have affected me? Would I have changed my mind? I hope so - but that analogy doesn't work because a modern day Democrat wouldn't have said that in the first place. People rarely change sides no matter what. They've invested too much emotional energy defending their side. Trump will preserver and Republicans need something pivotal to happen to finally say enough.
3
The best nutshell since squirrels were invented:
"Donald Trump is the leader of this country, but also the enemy of it."
5
"Stop hoping that Trump’s supporters will abandon him."
In fact, assume they won't and act according.
Go vote and take someone like minded with you.
Even if it doesn't "change the outcome", the change in percent of voters voting will let them know you're paying attention- and coming for them. Relentlessly!
2
Charles, 1st you say the Dem advantage is vanishing? Then you quote CNN that the GOP is in trouble in midterms?
Charles, I have to say, your columns are getting to be a same note bore. They're set up to make us all feel moral outrage, anger, anxiety. Ok, we feel it. Now what?
What are a few specific policies you think the Dems should push, Charles? And why?
How would they work?
How do they differ from GOP/Trump?
Answer the GOP objections to them.
What about the policies that affect all our lives? On jobs, pay, SS, health care for all, education funding, retirement, gun safety. and big money in politics.
What's the function of a free press in a democracy? We need more than who is up or down this week, and how horrible are DT/GOP.
How about this --- columns with 1/3 outrage against Trump, 1/3 on how our political culture led up to Trump, and 1/3 on what the "party of opposition" should promise for our vote in 2018/20.
The US ranks below many countries in the economic equality per the Intl GINI Index. Compare and contrast.
We are still the only democracy without affordable health care for ALL.
The US is only 1 of 2 countries allowing pharma ads to consumers on TV.
We have voter suppression/gerrymandering.
Each party vies for big corporate money to run for the world's most expensive elections.
All such crucial topics, Charles.
When will you and other columnists and TV pundits start discussing them??
4
Virtually all commenters here would insist that 45 is but the symptom of our national disease: a mean-spirited citizenry. Not every American, of course, but way too many millions of us inhabit this vile category.
Therefore, if a political sea-change of attitudes and behavior is to happen in the American body politic, it will, unfortunately, not occur in 2018 or even 2020. Our disease is serious, widespread, and hard to cure. In fact, we may never get our heads above water. (Some might argue that we never did.)
So maybe it's for the best that America gives its crown to others: We are not the ideal candidate any longer. (The truth hurts, but it's always the better option) The crown has travelled west since the Middle Kingdom ruled long ago; now, full circle, it's back on China's doorstep. We've seen this movie before, eh?
"What goes up must come down/
spinnin' wheel got to go round."
-- Blood, Sweat & Tears
1
I'll have more confidence in blue wave of victory as soon as I start hearing Dems acknowledge the economic issues millions of Americans are facing. I don't like criticizing the party from the left, but in the past few years I've seen a very disconcerting rise in the "coastal elite" mentality. Even in these comments, you see an odd number of liberals pooh-poohing fiscally liberal policies.
In our eagerness to simplify and discredit "the enemy," countless op-eds and think pieces have denounced the idea that economic insecurity is a significant concern to voters. The fact is, we've got record low unemployment numbers in an economy where many people hold multiple jobs and earn less than a living wage. Many people who didn't vote in 2016 have the defeatist mindset that no politicians are actually going to improve their quality of life. It's time for Democrats to make a passionate case for how they intend to do just that.
10
I don't think us "coastal elites" are quite as bigoted and stubborn as somebody has persuaded you we are. We old-fashioned "libruls" are *not* neoliberals. We've always been in favor of "fiscally liberal policies", it's just that we are battle weary and tired of being blamed for what Republicans - the real perps - have done. It's not as simple as taking a stand and sticking to it, let alone yelling. Real public servants and pragmatists have been battering at the adamantine goalpost-moving right and the prejudiced, vote-cheating, kleptocratic Republican wing.
Time to stop letting anyone encourage you to indulge i arguing with your natural allies who, if they're anything like me, have been fighting the same battles for decades. Being blamed for being victims of a united and terrible inhumanity is a terrible waste of time and energy.
4
I don't disagree with you on anything in particular, and to be clear, I'm a Democrat who faithfully shows up to vote for whoever the party nominates, every time. As a Californian, I think my idea of "coastal elite" differs some from yours.
I'm surrounded by the tech world, in a place where secondary education is nearly mandatory for anyone hoping to rent an apartment. I frequently encounter a strain of liberalism that has great enthusiasm for social issues (which I share, and have personal stake in), yet on the topic of economic disadvantages, you're basically chatting with an audio book of "The Fountainhead." They don't understand or care much about the plight of the poor, and insist on discussing social ills with ten dollar words from academia (pedagogy, hegemony, intersectionalism) that naturally exclude and alienate a lot of people directly impacted by the issues in question.
I definitely believe that the left needs to stick together and resist infighting - I'm just concerned about who we are (or are not) linking arms with, or listening to.
1
I've got news for you, Susan: ever since the Clintonization of the Democratic Party, they've been just as busy gutting the middle class as the Reaganized GOP. The only difference is that the Democrats are more willing to hand out Band-Aids while the patient bleeds to death.
And I am certain of this: the elites who run the Democratic Party are just as happy to have the hoi polloi distracted by fights over gender pronouns, trans kids in bathrooms, the definition of an "assault rifle," bakers being sued for not baking gay wedding cakes and so on, as any member of the GOP elite.
It is because the difference on fundamental economic policy is so slim between the two sides, that the fights over petty cultural issues become so out-sized.
My observation is that most people don't think about the abstract concepts of things like "normalcy, civility, truth, fair play and respect". When I mentioned such things online, the answer I got back from a Trump supporter was I was being "vague" and I should be happy about tax cuts and the economy. We idealistic, educated coastal elites must realize that the natural state of most people is to accept authoritarian rule and take life as it comes. Very few of us studied the evolution of democracy, the incredible steps forward from Greece to the Magna Carta to the Enlightenment that led to our own founding shortly after the groundbreaking French Revolution. Americans can't lose what they never really knew they had. In reality, if we want to reduce Trump's power, we'll have to just slog it out on the ground, pull everyone we know to the polls, promising yes, maybe more honesty, which people get, but also social justice reform, replacing white male racists with men and women of color in Congress, strengthening Obamacare, getting corporations out of power in the EPA and other federal agencies. through control of Congressional committees and probably infinite hearings, and making sure we're addressing the needs of small businesses everywhere. That's where most Americans live. Fellow intellectuals and progressives, table your ideals for now, and just go knock on some doors for your favorite candidates.
7
I agree: human history is not all that nice. Thanks for the reminder.
An odd and unintentional moral exists within the Blue Wave marketing strategy...
In Newtonian physics (the world of apples, ignoring photons and quarks and the like), a wave doesn't actually do anything other than transfer energy along a medium: a rope, water, the crust of the Earth. Up and down, left and right, the energy forces the medium to oscillate. That energy is expelled, eventually, at the other side of the wave.
The thing is, once it's done, nothing in the middle actually ever moved. Once the wave has passed, the medium returns precisely to where it was initially.
There's a not so subtle lesson in there... I hope people can take it to heart.
7
Yes, the wave that elected Obama in 2008 had dissipated by the census year election of 2010, and consequently Republican gerrymandering neutered him for the rest of his term.
What you say is true but irrelevant. The "wave" Mr. Blow speaks of is accompanied by significant change.
Lots of times we use words to describe something where the original word and the something being described have characteristics that are different. That is the case here.
The Trump wave is likely to have the effect of a tsunami if not dissipated soon.
I think democrats can bring up Trump and not only what he stands for or against but what his administration has done to tear down rules and regulations that affect all Americans. But candidates know they must run on what is important to their constituents and those differ from region to region. I’m a big believer in having more women in legislatures we need their perspectives instead of always having a man’s.
17
Every one of the regulations that a Trump has rescinded or modified or declined to enforce followed a much longer period where that regulation did not exist. And the country did quite well without them. We build the railroads and turned millions of acres into fertile farms without labor laws and a minimum wage. We visited space and broke the sound barrier without occupational safety rules. We prospered for 156 years without Social Security and 189 without Welfare. The free market combined with the sweat of the brow determined the value of your labor, which, accordingly was sometimes little to nothing. Your height and weight determined when you entered the workforce (that was age 12 for my grandfather in a WV company town and the end of ninth grade for my own farmer father).
1
A FEW people prospered without these things you mention, and only a few. At least the poor in those eras could wander the forest for food, or grow some. My great uncle died an old man with missing fingers from Appalachian child labor in saw mills. He did not prosper.
18
From Where I Sit,
From where you sit you do not see the misery inflicted on working people during the years when "the country did quite well."
The most prosperous years for the American working class were when the unions were the strongest and federal taxes on corporations and the rich were at their highest.
1
The Democrats should compose a straightforward “Promise to America”, like the “Contract with America” that Newt Gingrich offered the GOP in 1994. Although very wrongheaded in principle, it worked to turn the House Republican. Opposing the horrible Trump is not enough. We need to know exactly what the Democrats intend to do in the form of a campaign "Promise to America"
— Reform our broken elections system, including a ban on partisan gerrymandering, overturn Citizens United, oppose voter suppression rules, etc.
— Re-commit our nation to environmental responsibility. Pledge to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement.
— Expand Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and CHIPS. Finance this by removing the cap on FICA taxes. Make FICA a flat tax with the same rate for all income levels, no ceiling.
— Overturn Trump’s reneging, and reinstate the Nuclear Agreement with Iran.
--- Support reasonable gun sales reform. Close gun show and other loopholes, and ban the sale of assault-style weapons.
And quit asking for more and more money. Give us a reason to support the Democratic Party again, other than just to oppose the horrible GOP and its cult of Trump. While we must oppose them, we need more on which to base our support for the Democrats.
Many other Democrats that I know feel the same way. Wake up, Democratic Party. You are about to snatch another defeat from the jaws of victory. The future of our world hangs in the balance.
Richard N, Vaughn, WA
62
Excellent idea, but make sure the things the national party is promising are things that can actually be done at the Federal level with legislation. And, if the Democrats would acquiesce to immigration reform that created a system similar to Canada's, they'd probably flip back a lot of Obama-to-Trump voters.
2
Everything you said makes total sense. However, nobody really knows what is the content of this Iran deal. I believe that all treaties should be published in their entirety so that we could have a clear understanding of what everybody's talking about. I am not sure if it's a good or bad deal without having read it.
Well said! Please write to Perez with this idea. Thank you.
The blue wave of moral restoration believes half the nation are racists and a basket of deplorables. They also undermined Bernie Sanders campaign and still have not investigated the issue.
I don't think the democratic party has a purpose to exist anymore. Ideally the republican party splits in two or three to form a new party landscape.
5
Two or three parties with no ideas except to cut taxes? Nah, I'll keep the Democrats!
1
I've always been confused by the way people took that turn of phrase and ran with it. Clinton said about half of Trump's supporters were sexist, racist, xenophobic, etc, and were drawn to his campaign because he espoused rhetoric that spoke to those views. She said in the same breath that the other half “feel that the government has let them down” and are “desperate for change ... Those are people we have to understand and empathize with." (Direct quote, via Time Magazine.)
What about that sentiment is wildly inaccurate or offensive? Anyone who wasn't drawn to his platform by bigotry should presumably identify with the latter group.
1
The good news is that the republicans are poised to lose a lot of seats.
The bad news? Mainstream democrats will replace them.
SANDERS 2020!
14
Why not vote for Eugene McCarthy?
"My vision of our forthcoming election is rooted not simply in partisan politics but in a more profound sense of morality, righteousness and patriotism. That is a higher purpose. And it doesn’t hinge on Trump’s absolute failure, his penchant for self-immolation or his ineptitude posing as competence."
say what? were you asleep that last election cycle? or did you have the chance to witness the birth of a nation and its media apparatus that put it's own financial needs and pursuit of ratings before the needs and best interests of the nation, chasing a bonified klown's rear end and a fake proggressive war hawk with a fake message of unity while a mixed up population would'nt stop to recognize which way the winds were even blowing,
that blue wave of moral does not exsist outside the breakfast table in a gimmee gimmee country that treats politics like the newest flavour of bacon flavored cornflakes, "the emptiest wagon makes the loudest noise" and the american's have spoken, good luck america you blew it with both parties last time
4
We need to both keep our eyes on the continuing crisis but, most importantly, look to the future and how to avoid such a deep, ugly mess.
Both political parties need better nominating processes. The Republican's "winner-takes-all" primaries made Trump the nominee because he "won" the early votes with victories in the 30+% range. We need to get rid of the worst parts of the Electoral College whereby rural states have more influence than highly populated ones. We need to ensure that all votes count and are not cancelled by the EC. We need to make room, somehow, for a third party that could act as a unifier and peacemaker and perhaps replace one of major parties eventually.
We need to smash the efforts to discourage people from voting and end gerrymandered, one party favored House districts. Used by Democrats and Republicans, it is wrong. We need to make voting easier for all, especially those who work in hourly jobs and have difficulty taking time off. Those strive to limit democracy should be exposed for what they are: unpatriotic citizens who would destroy one of our most important freedoms.
We need to carefully consider making the US Senate more democratic, more oriented toward representing citizen voters instead of states. Presently, every state gets two senators no matter how many, or how few, people live in there, a countervailing influence to rule by the people.
In short, we need to renew democracy both as a matter of national faith and as a functioning reality
12
Democracy at work! I'm pleased that Dems will recover some seats. So far the checks and balances are containing the worst Trump could unleash. Can you imagine? What I am really curious to know is who will be our next president.
1
In reply to Diana, Lee's Summit, NJ: Please add getting rid of the Electoral College, an outfit that allowed in the misfit, to your reform roster.
Imagine, the rationale for the existence of this useless group of deciders is based on the decision that a post reconstruction era individual falling under the description of "all other persons", is only worth 3/5th of a white male voter. Even today.
Outrageous. Must go.
8
The Electoral College didn't raise any ruckus when Kennedy, Clinton and Obama were declared President because they won a majority of the Electoral votes. And, y'all don't complain because California benefits from the 5 Million "undocumented" folks who swell the state's population.
1
No family who gets $500m loans from China and who knows how many from the Qatari and wanting the royal treatment should be in the White House either. But they are. The propaganda is real. But the Democrats also need new faces and less of the money that talks. The US needs to return to democracy.
9
America is in the midst of a realignment towards a post-establishment political reality. I don't know what it'll look like, but the wave of distrust from both sides towards their parties and government institutions isn't going away, despite Blow's hope for a blue wave.
I do hope that a moderate and sane surge from the heralded middle of America can forestall more upheaval, but there are too many moderate and sane people who know that our institutions are rotten and our purported world leadership, all the wars we've fought, our criminal justice system, our immigration policy, and literally everything we thought represented America's greatness has turned out to be rotten, cruel and oppressive. Who can support these institutions without a wholesale change? And how can a party like the Democrats escape its tortoise shell of complacency? Don't look to mainstream columnists for the answer.
3
The political make-up of what we call the establishment at any given point in time may change, but AN establishment always has and always will exist.
1
Thank you Mark. Agreed. We need a new establishment.
So, if we elect enough Democrats, what exactly have we won? Corporate rule with a bit more of a smiling face?
3
1. If you want a functioning, useful Republican Party, the ONLY way you will get it is if the current GOP suffers devastating losses at the voting booth. It is the only thing that will change them. So if you care about the GOP, vote them out! It is the only way they will recover any sort of moral compass or spine.
2. You will win the chance to have sustained change. Filling judicial openings with right wing judges ensures that even if you get your dream guy in the White House, he will be hamstrung by opponents using the courts to stymie his initiatives. This is what “protest votes” got us in 2016 - Gorsuch rather than Garland.
3. You will once again have the chance to have some fiscal prudence (the GOP believes in borrow and spend and just spend some more) in our government.
4. Yes, corporations and wealthy individuals will still have too much sway in government. What, you think this will get better under Republican Administrations? When the president refuses to remove himself from his business interests AND refuses to release his tax returns so at least the public can have a true assessment of his conflicts of interest? When the president openly goes soft on an adversarial country because said country gave the president’s companies huge loans for a real estate development? Bribe much? Yeah, even the most corporate Democrat is better than that!
5. Our public lands and environment are much less at risk when the GOP is out of power.
So, we elect whoever but still the range of policy choices are within the range of what the corporate overlords deem acceptable? Great. Voting in this country that has put its government up for sale is just a symbol in the maintenance of the illusion of agency. Or as it was better put a long time ago, "If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal" - Emma Goldman
Mr. Blow - I totally appreciate your casting the midterms as the chance for the honorable and civil amongst us to make their disgust manifest. But I am not so sanguine about taking back the House of Representatives. The example you gave was 2006, before the extreme gerrymandering the Republicans exacted upon our districts. It will be MUCH harder to take back the House this time, and it IS time to panic. I'm afraid that nothing short of superhuman effort will correct this situation.
3
It would be reassuring to know that our voting machines were not rigged, infiltrated, hacked or whatever. Makes voting seem like an act of futility if we are not guaranteed that they are not. I am not confident that our votes count anymore.
6
The fact that this man is still in the Oval Office is demoralizing.
But, you are right! Our hope is in the 2018 elections and the anticipated Blue Wave.
I, for one, am extremely discouraged by the presence of Trump and his cronies. But an article like yours, Mr. Blow, helps restore some optimism.
Trump is a blight on the country!
9
Charles Blow. Restore "morality?" Are you kidding me? What is the Democrat/liberal position on abortion?
What do the Democrats have to run on? Ya, we need higher taxes. We can't have too healthy of an economy. Borders? Who needs borders. Immigration? Why sure, everybody gets let in. Abortion? No problem. It's not a moral issue. And Democrat "leadership"? From who? Pelosi? Schumer? (Surely not Schumer.) And the Democrat 'wannabes' for 2020? So far, they are all--every one of them--'flash in the pans.'
So, Blue Wave? I could throw a pebble in the ocean and get a bigger wave.
I keep being haunted by a telling statistic.
After Richard Nixon's perfidy had been fully exposed and he resigned, a poll showed that a substantial minority, maybe as many as twenty percent, of Americans believed he had been "railroaded". It will take an awful lot of work to turn the ship of state around when some folks won't believe the truth that is laid out before them.
5
Deep down, I still have a hard time believing Trump was elected
President of the United States. I don't think I'm alone in that.
What we have to do is remember that he IS the President and
the Republicans who support him still run the Congress. The only thing ordinary citizens can do, in reality, is vote against it.
11
Most countries purporting to be democracies hold run-off elections when no candidate wins a popular majority in an election.
Does Eric Schneiderman count as part of the Blue Wave of Moral Restoration? I'm guessing there are plenty out there like him. They just hide it better.
2
Perhaps it would be more useful to lay out the precepts and the vision of progressives than to point out the faults with the current administration. My guess is there are many different definitions and visions. I would love to hear from some of the posters there definitions. Also, I suppose Mr Blow might devote a column to the subject.
3
Blow's point about the Russia investigation is important; namely, that there is ample reason to reject Trump without praying that Mueller finds some criminality.
This is similar to Roy Moore. Yes the matter of his possible sexual misconduct (or worse) deserves to be investigated. But even if those particular facts had never come to light, Roy Moore had already been found incompetent, biased and lawless in the eyes of his own fellow ALABAMA judges... TWICE! During his most recent campaign to represent Alabama in Congress, he regularly confirmed to anyone listening that he intended to take the same biased and unconstitutional behavior that got him twice-removed from the bench with him to Congress. Rather than making a moral stand, it was the surge of voter participation on the left that narrowly prevented Moore from doing so.
Being a private citizen, Trump never had an opportunity to have been removed from public office. Nevertheless, his biases against everyone from Mexicans to Muslims to women to the LGBTQ community is readily apparent. His own party (Paul Ryan) have taken note of his "textbook racism" as has the federal government in past suits against him. He regularly makes, and causes his staff to make, false and misleading statements to the public. He openly uses his office as a platform to settle personal scores and enrich himself. The list goes on.
Even without Russia, such things cannot be allowed to stand at the highest level of our government.
5
Democrats currently don’t vote in high enough numbers to win. More than half the country voted against Criminal Trump and yet it wasn’t enough to win. We need a blue tsunami, not a wave.
8
Part of the problem is that Democrats cannot win national elections merely by appealing to Democrats. In order to win, they must draw significant support fro independent or unaffiliated voters, who are the largest single voting bloc in the country these days. President Obama did that when he ran for office; Hillary did not. The party must begin to understand that irrespective of what they believe are a candidate's qualifications for office, nominating a presidential candidate whose unfavorability ratings among independent voters were as high as Hillary's led to an all too predictable result. And we will see the same result if Democrats continue to refuse to heed the lesson.
2
Voters who switch from Obama to Trump are unpredictable.
Thank you. I've been thinking that the next presidential candidates slogan should be "Restore Decency."
13
While I share your views regarding the impact "Trumpism" has had on our country at home and abroad, it is important that Americans realize that labeling people ("basket of deplorables"), or making comments that infer Trump supporters are not honorable or ethical is a contributing factor in how we got to our current state.
Trump found a way to take advantage of the anger and frustration of too many Americans who have suffered for decades under trickle down economics. Corporations prospered but failed to spread the wealth, leaving 40% of our country unable to sustain a middle class lifestyle.
Moderates, not those from the far left or far right, are the future leaders who must reach out to everyone in order to prevent a repeat of the 2016 election. A good start requires leaders to recognize that spreading the wealth a bit more is required if we are going to restore the American Dream. This is not a far left, socialist idea. It is what our success in the 20th century was based upon.
4
Trump validates conduct that is anything but honorable and ethical. Those are his people.
One comment "basket of deplorables" compared to the ceaseless bullying of the oppressed and disenfranchised at any opportunity. No comparison at all.
There is much more remember about the opposing to DjT in 2016! In focusing on just that one comment, you miss the point of the article completely.
We are going to vote decency, and morality back into the WH and the elected offices of this country! And one bad comment by one person who was campaigning is not going to be remembered nearly as long as the total victory over these criminals who are masquerading as our elected officials.
Vote. Get everyone you know to vote. Vote decency and respect for all!
Thanks for this article.
Thank you Mr. Blow. I, we, needed to read your message. There is hope for our country!
Hopefully, a Blue turnover on Capitol Hill will contain this Administration for the next two years and we can begin the process of healing.
But I also feel that an Impeachment of Trump would only enflame further his supporters so it may be for the greater good to allow him to serve out his term constrained by a Democratic controlled Congress and then let him fade away. This too shall pass ...
5
Democrats can chart a path back to political power by boosting turnout among Hispanic and black voters. The party does not need to replicate Obama's historic 2008 and 2012 turnout machines; it simply needs to come close in large urban centers in key states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida.
The Democrats must animate those two voting blocs which were absent at the ballot boxes in the 2014 midterms and the 2016 presidential election. They better get working fast to present a compelling platform and inspirational candidates for those voters.
Let's just acknowledge that there will never be another Barack Obama to get them to the polls and they don't have to be bombarded with an anti-Trump messages to do so. They already know who Trump is and what he stands for. Let these voters hear what the Democrats stand for to address their issues and find charismatic candidates to deliver their message.
4
Seriously, all the Democrats have to do is run on a strict anti-corruption agenda with a comprehensive, public legislative plan to achieve it.
So why don't they do that?
4
Maybe elements of the Democratic establishment are corrupt themselves?
2
Maybe,so it would be time for a fall clean up...
I want to see the Trump influence gone and usually vote Democratic but I would also like to know what the Democrats are planning for our future. My voting for a Bernie type of politician will only carry me so far as a Democrat just to get Trump out of office. I like politicians who are socially liberal and fiscally pragmatic.
11
Bernie isn't a Democrat. He's a prima donna playing Trump's appeal to nihilism from the left.
3
Yes, and here in the West, we do too. Socially liberal, environmentalist (we simply must conserve what we have left of our resources and natural beauty), but fiscally pragmatic. Waste not want not. And overwhelmingly upright, honest, and with integrity.
6
Well, I take my cues about candidates from the way they conduct themselves in the aftermath of a defeat. Hillary licked her wounds for a time, then wrote a book casting responsibility for her defeat everywhere but where it most belonged: with the candidate herself.
What did Bernie do? He went right back to work, fighting on the front lines for the issues he has been fighting for for decades. Apparently you have a different definition of "prima donna" than I do.
Fox News. Sinclair. Rush, Beck, Hannity, Jones. As long as the propaganda mouthpiece of the Republican party pervades homes, businesses, even places of worship... This fight can never be much more than a standstill.
I don't know how, but we need to loosen the grasp of right wing media on the minds of our countrymen. These outlets need to be made socially unacceptable, but it may be too late for that.
13
It is the message of these outlets that needs to become socially unacceptable, not the outlets themselves. If they can make more money, get more viewers with a different message, they'll do it.
3
I get what you are saying but if I was a Trump supporter what you are saying is that they are people who cannot think for themselves and I know what is best for them. Isn't that one of the main reasons why the Democrats lost the Presidency?
Last time around I voted against Trump with a vote for Hillary and I still don't think the Democratic Party gets it yet. There are 2 legislators in my district who voted to weaken Dodd-Frank on the basis that the community banks would suffer. Give me a break; the people suffered way more. Do I vote a straight Democrat ticket as the DNC would like me to do so I can't be held responsible for the country keeping a Republican majority? Both major parties have held their constituents hostage for the last 40 years - vote for me or else... I am seriously contemplating keeping those 2 Senators who voted against my interests blank. No one is going to hold me hostage any longer.
6
A blank ballot is a wasted opportunity. Non-voters don't scare incumbents as much as people who vote for their opponents.
yes but... democrats had better fix the built-in advantages republicans have erected to make sure they win more seats with fewer votes.
Democrats should also fix campaign financing to erase the advantage the super rich have over the super rest. the working class is not benefiting from republican economic policies, so dems better have a plan for that, too.
15
I don’t want to put a jinx on the Blue Wave but I share your optimism. Our local Indivisible chapter, called Courageous Resistance with the state’s black bear icon on our tee shirts, meets monthly with 60 to 80 resisters who work in teams on a number of initiatives from gun control, ICE raids, homelessness, registering voters and environmental protection to phone banking. I just started a book club devoted to reading history and political science. The group is mix of women, men, white hairs and buzz cuts. We feel empowered and maybe even a new era of Reform is dawning. If Courageous Resistance is like the thousands of other such groups around the country, the Republican Party may soon join the Dodo bird as a stuffed relic of the past!
13
Don't count on a Blue Wave. With gerrymandering and voter suppression the GOP has a large moat and wall around their fortress. Democrats may be up 13 points overall, but in many districts they were down more than that.
9
As Spike Lee says, Trump is "Agent Orange." A true statement with so many meanings.
11
Be very careful what you wish for ............
Trump would relish the chance to campaign against Pelosi led Congress in 2020.
4
Got an idea.
Keep Pelosi on the inside, as a fund-raiser, vote whipper, etc for her redoubtable abilities to marshal a fractious party.
Name a new chair for representing the party to the US, an aspirational role model, voicing the best of what brings us together, listening to America.
I nominate Oprah. No political experience? For Americans that's a plus.
3
Oprah has said she will not run. But we do need a true leader to rise up and inspire people to get out and vote! Not just for President, but for local, State and Federal representatives who will fight for the right. We need an eloquent leader who not only “gets us” and follows the crowd, but who will offer new answers and solutions to the myriad of problems faced by all Americans. Kennedy and Reagan did this, now we need a new leader to come forth ...
1
There is nothing moral about blue nor red politics in America.
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are both well too the partisan political right of FDR and LBJ as expected. But Ike and Nixon as well.
Clinton and Obama were both corrupt crony capitalist corporate plutocrat welfare masters of mass incarceration and war mongering. Obama was the master of deportation who talked down to black people while Vladimir Putin interfered and hacked in the 2016 Presidential campaign and election. Clinton was canoodling with Monica Lewinsky while there was genocide going on in Rwanda and Bosnia as 9/11/01 was being planned. Both Barack and Bill are off making millions 'earned' from their public service.
Moral judgments of others are beyond our flawed biological nature and nurture. This is all about the hard nosed practical politics of selecting and sifting among the comparative lesser of two evils while bending the arc of American history towards more humble humane empathetic progressive inclusive fair justice.
10
The illusion of democracy is vital to maintenance of the status quo, at least until the paymasters of our selected Congress realize that the people are nowhere near Frederick Douglass' observation to "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them" We appear to have a long way to go.
1
The Dems haven't even overcome their Hillary trauma, let alone closing ranks and forming an effective opposition strategy. All I see is disunity and headless statements speaking up against the latest leaks out of the WH sewer.
Yet we're sure to win the mid-terms in a landslide? My guesstimate is the coastal Dems are about 87% certain of taking the prize, right? About the same percentage the NYT clock was showing the morning of the Presidential Election...
I have family in the middle of the country: OK. And I can tell you, in the middle of the country nothing has changed since 2016. Nada! And the Dems haven't even started doing their homework. So I will not get lulled by their 'certainty' of the outcome. All I am sure is the Democratic Party certainly does not deserve a win at this point. They have yet to pull their... and start earning the public's votes!
10
Where's James Carville, when you need him?
Wasn't 2016 a hard enough lesson in chicken-counting?
12
When the Times wonders why America is deeply split, perhaps they should look to themselves. The headline of Mr. Blow's column says it all. Until Mr. Blow and his colleagues abandon their smug self-righteousness and accept that "Democrat" does not automatically equal "morality," his columns will only convince his fans.
10
I don't know of Democrat=morality, but what I do know is a lot of people who have some sense of morality, of ethics, are disgusted with Trump. Sadly, that doesn't apply to the GOP as a party or to its base, who have all, especially the religious right, despite claiming to be people of morality and faith, totally thrown that out the window with Trump. Republicans love to talk about Bill Clinton and what he did and how the Democrats supported him, but the Democrats never claimed to be the party of God or represent morality as the GOP has and especially the religious right.
The real hope is that people of good will, whatever their political leanings are, will recognize that Trump is beyond that, that while his base revels in Trump's deceit (claiming the liars are those who point out all the lies Trump throws out there), that people of good conscience, who voted for Trump and the GOP because they didn't trust Hillary or the Dems, will realize what a disaster Trump and the politicians who catered to him are. Whether it is voting for a third party, or voting for (hopefully) the GOP congressman willing to buck the GOP leadership sucking up to Trump, that is the real hope. I have no hope for Trump Nation (or roseanne nation), they love that he is a liar, they love that he makes people with some sense of conscience cringe, because he reflects a lot of their inner reality, that would rather believe lies and thrive on hate, then actually trying to fix things.
1
No Democrat I know is as presumptuous a claimant to sanctity as Trump.
1
Anyone who can vote for a Trump supporter is helping destroy this country.
If any Republicans had any morals or true patriotism, Trump would be gone by now.
Instead, the gross corruption and incompetence grows by the day.
19
Whew, then maybe we can get back to the important stuff like transgender bathrooms, micro-aggressions, gay wedding cakes, banning trans-fats, and the latent racism of jogging.
I'm sure these theoretical "Blue Wave Moral" Democrats will also continue to pump billions into the Never Ending War. And isn't that really what makes America great?
8
It's kinda ironic to listen to the rising level of DNC,Inc inspired rhetoric calling for Morality Based Politics!! I thought this was the main reason for hating, absolutely hating, the Republicans!! Once, not so long ago, it was the evil GOP Party that was foisting "morality" on everyone.....now this twisted, perversion of "true liberal values">......
5
Charles you are bang on. It is time for all Americans of good conscience to take an honest look at the state of the presidency.Trump has turned his presidency into a profit-making division of Trump enterprises.He has expanded the family business.He has infested the White House with his corrupt business practices and his sleazy cronies. Time to drain the swamp of Trump and his Trumpites.
7
So many ways to think about Trump. Is it the person, or the policies that we're most endangered by? Imagine, for instance, all his policies without him - say, in the form of Jeb Bush. Alternatively, what if his policies were far more to our liking, but he was the same. What would we do then? How many on the left would, like so many on the right, hold their noses and support the man? Finally, most importantly, what if we got his policies, but he wasn't simply genial about it (like a Jeb Bush would be), but competent, crafty and attractive as well? His approval ratings might be in the 60s by now and he'd be emboldened to do much more, and much worse. The fact that Trump is personally disgusting, stupid and narcissistic is our great good fortune. What about the fire next time?
115
The problem is his "policies" are much like the man, they are things blurted out with no thought, no compassion, his policies come from 240 character tweets. The problem is you can't seperate Trump the man from Trump the policies, they are one and the same. In one moment he proclaims that we are going to have a 20% import tariff, the next minute it disappears. Trump says he has a great plan for medical insurance, the next moment he is promoting a joke of a GOP "plan"; he announces stiff sanctions against ZTE for violating Iran sanctions, and says it is a good thing for American jobs, the next moment he is saying he wants to save chinese jobs at ZTE. He claimed the pacific trade pact was a stupid deal selling out the US, the next moment he is suddenly wanting back in. He has said his goal is brining jobs to the working and middle classes, yet so far anything he has done has benefitted basically the top .5%......The sad part is the man's personality would make even relatively good ideas bad, tainted by an immature, emotionally stunted (and like autistic) person, who doesn't seem to understand that the "Bully Pulpit" is not about bullying people, but pursuading them.
23
The fire next time? Please, EVERYBODY, fight each fire as it comes, not before. This is a lot like hurdle jumping in track and field, you don't jump the hurdle until you get to it. It's OK to look and see what's upcoming, but never jump a hurdle until you actually get there. For the moment, the oncoming hurdle is called the GOP Congress which is to be 'jumped' at this next Election Day. The next hurdle is called Donald J. Trump which is to be jumped on Election Day 2020 while the next hurdle is called the Supreme Court.
16
Sisko24:
You missed the whole point. Donald Trump means something and if we fail to grasp what that is then we're doomed not only to repeat the mistakes that allowed for him, but to pave the way for worse. Of course we have to focus on 2018, but not without giving some real thought to how we got there.
People carrying signs.....Mostly saying "Hurray for our side".
Allowing yourself to be controlled by narrow political agendas is not very good for America....volunteering to wear the label "liberal" or "conservative"...you have just surrendered a lot of freedom of choice. I recommend you participate in those stupid corporate political polls....and give deliberately outrageous and confusing answers.......Politicians heads need to explode. As Ralph Nader warned...."They all Laugh at you."
3
I don’t know Charles. I never thought Trump would vanquish 17 GOP primary contenders and Clinton. It was a horror show watching my fellow Americans embrace a bigoted, sexist, lying, cheating, mean, creepy, bankrupt fool throughout the campaign. I don’t think I will ever get over it. The polls were SO wrong in 2016 and I have no reason to believe anything regarding the polls has changed since then. I have lost faith in the USA - its citizens; its institutions. I don’t know my country anymore.
20
thank you JMM for putting into words exactly how I feel about what has happened to my country.
1
Don’t hold your breath CB. Lowest unemployment rate since 2000. Highest employment rate ever for black Americans and close for Hispanic Americans. Highest for women in 18 years. The end of the so-called Paris Climate Accord, fake Iran Deal and the end of ISIS in large parts of the Middle East. All accomplishments of President Trump and failures by the previous administration. A promise kept to our best friend in the Middle East, Israel, to move the embassy to Jerusalem. If President Trump cracked a joke 20 years ago with Billy Bush, I can live with it.
3
We will wait and see what happens, but like 'your man' much of what you write is a half truth at best. We were fighting ISIS long before Trump took office and it is a multi nation fight, Trump didn't 'beat ISIS' (and don't forget that it was under Obama that al qaeda was put on the ropes and we got bin laden, something Bush couldn't do in 8 years in office). As far as the Paris Climate accords go, yep he pulled us out but wait until people face the consequences of this, when crops fail, when people are exposed to Zika and Dengue fever and the like because of it, when all those people face massive storms and because we have had so many of them, there is no one to rebuild them......as far as the unemployment rate goes, yes it is low, but it also was coming down before Trump came into office..but more importantly, where are the good paying jobs? Are people finding good work that pays well with benefits, or getting jobs at Walmart? Trump promised to help working Americans, and if the only thing that came out of the tax cut was 20 bucks a week in extra pay, I don't think people are going to be happy, or the fact that thanks to Trump more and more people are losing health insurance each day.....
2
This reads like democratic optimism heading into the 2016 elections. Yes democrats are likely to make some gains as do most losing parties in the off year election. But that hardly suggests any real change in underlying facts. Most Americsns still see Washington as a corrupt cesspool or swamp. There is no increase in the trust if government or politicians. No evidence that Americans want more of such a corrupt system. No evidence that democrats have a winning idea. A demicratic call that “We are less dishonest and less corrupt than the other guy” within a den of thieves is hardly something to create a big swing. And remember that old farts drag themselves out to vote no matter what, and that is far more reliable for republicans than any group democrats may have. Better for democrats to act in full panic mode than to listen to anyone saying “calm down”. You’re about to get clobbered again
4
This poll was on the heels of the North Korea meeting being set up- and sickening whispers of a Nobel prize for Donald Trump.
But since then, Blow-It-Up Bolton got caught shooting his mouth off and humiliated North Korea by comparing it to Libya, and Trump's Stormy Daniels' bribe was documented, so those numbers will fall a bit! The tax cut-happy wealthy, evangelical armageddonists/church-building teen pregnancy promoters, and the formerly hidden happily out-of-the-closet racists won't budge, but some of the fence sitters will move toward reason.
To take advantage of Trump's failings, though, Democrats must stop spending the lion's share of their campaign money in the primaries battling each other - and stay focused on the battle against the Republicans!
8
Remember how we felt when we re-elected W? How could 53 million people be so stupid?, we cried — in what, at the time, we thought was great despair. These midterms may show us how little we truly knew about despair then. And the general election two years later? I shudder at the thought.
3
Well said!
It must be to never again covfefe.
Thank you Charles. I am ready to get out of this mucky sewer dump, his corrupt family and donors, angry hateful white racists and other goons have "elected" along with the help of a hostile foreign power. It is time for ALL of us to vote. So many young people that could have did not vote because they couldn't understand if they didn't this fake orange abomination might get elected. They didn't believe it then. Hope they do now and turn out in droves! Resist and persist! Throw dump and this spineless weak unethical Republican Congress out on their patooties!! We need to regain at least some standing in the world to again work with our allies to save the planet in this climate crisis, to help the vulnerable, and to try and be moral and welcoming once again.
3
When you elect people who claim that government is inherently incompetent, you get government that is worse than incompetent, it is psychopathological.
2
The response to MAGA should be "Restore America"
It should list all of the attributes for which America, at its best, stands:
starting with a healthy middle class, education as the engine for progress and opportunity, honesty and the honoring of commitments, and so on.
It is not nostalgia for a mythical time: it is a rallying cry to values that every generation must reaffirm.
Point by point, by affirming values that we identify as American, we give a positive message with clear policy implications and priorities, and at the same time identify the ways in which, in the first two years of this administration, America has lost its greatness, and seen its values destroyed.
That's something more than an anti-Donald vote. It is something to vote for.
Your article is all about Restoration, Mr. Blow. That is the answer to the party of trump.
Restore America.
2
When Democratic Senators like Mark Warner endorse admitted unrepentant torturer, Gina Haspel, to head the CIA they themselves are in need of "moral restoration." When Democratic Senators like Chuck Schumer applaud the decision to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem violating long-standing precedent (forget the phony 1995 Congressional action that Clinton never signed) and resulting in a massacre of Palestinians, they themselves are in need of "moral restoration." While Donald Trump's approval ratings are rising, those of the Democrats are falling into the immoral swamp he has brought to Washington. As a 77-year old, lifetime, Democrat and an American of Jewish background from a Holocaust family, the lack of moral backbone by these and other Congressional Democrats make me wonder if they will once again "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory" as they de-moralize their base.
1
The salient fact since 9/8/2016 is the millions upon millions of marchers who hit the streets, many of them for the first time. We were pooh-poohed: “what good did it do?” But we knew it didn’t “do” anything, but we did it anyway.
In 9/6/2018, we can finally, finally “do” something. Every marcher is going to the polls and grabbing ten other people to take along.
I can’t wait.
Those supporters of trump are isolated in a Faux News bubble, never hear the negative and truly believe that whatever is going on in this administration, it melds with their own goals.
Reporting on the horrendous activities in this White House is simply "liberal attacks" and part of the witch hunt.
Try penetrating that.
1
All of this is only true if:
People actually go to the polls and vote. People who lean progressive--particularly young people and people who are not white--have a distressing tendency to not show up at the polls in non-Presidential elections (and even sometimes in Presidential ones), while people who don't lean progressive go to the polls very consistently. That has to change. And yes, I am well aware of the many efforts to suppress the vote among such leaners. Doesn't matter. You've got to show up anyway, and make a big fuss if they try to keep you from voting--and record that fuss and plaster it all over the media.
People need to start to be psychologically honest with themselves, and distinguish fact from spin. There's no way anyone, evaluating honestly, can think that overall, Trump is good for the Presidency and the country as a whole. He may be good for certain narrow constituencies--including those who just want to raise a third finger to elites they feel look down on them--but no one can honestly say as a whole we're better off with the Orange one in the Oval Office than almost anyone else. And yes, I am aware of the ridiculous spin that passes as fact promulgated by Fox and Rush and Drudge et. al. But, remember, deplorables, these promulgaters don't believe a word of it, either--otherwise they wouldn't have college degrees and smartphones and breakwaters in front of their beach houses. Learn what hypocrisy really means.
2
If you don't vote, your intent may be "none of the above," but your impact is "any of the above."
Think about your impact.
1
I agree. STOP trying to have respectful agreements with Billy next door with the big Trump flag. They voted for the man as a symbolic gesture. Their hate for change and "the other side". JUST VOTE.
1
Mr. Blow - I will be saving this article until November 7, 2018. On that day, I surely hope I will delete the article, as what it portends would have come to pass. Sadly, I never underestimate the stupidity (and vapidness) of the American people - and I predict there will be no Blue Wave, the Republicans will maintain their (ill-gotten) majorities, and Donald Trump will be a two-term president. Television and FaceBook make people stupid, period, full stop. America is drowning in cable television and 'social media' - we are truly illiterate, so we have a truly illiterate President and a corrupted Congress.
2
As of 5/17/18, 173 days to November 6, 2018!
the radical right wing that calls itself the republican party is doomed. They know it and so they will be throwing hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars to influence mindless zombies to vote against their economic interests.
Too bad folks: too bad that the dollars spent do not equate to votes. For there are far more constituents with votes than Koch and evangelical dollars.
as Abe Lincoln said: you can't fool all the people all the time.
See you Nov 7th after your come uppance.
Morals are all over the scale these days. Generally, those on the left demean the morals of those on the right. Righties insist that abortion is immoral, lefties applaud abortion and support it. The validity of morals depends on the individual. Recall the "it is just sex" defense of the the clintons? We are getting what we want, just not on the day we want it.
2
It will all boil down to how successful the Republican propaganda and dirty tricks campaigns go this autumn. They have plenty of money and plenty of completely morally bankrupt people to stymie the Democrats yet again. Be on the lookout for hate campaigns against your favorite candidates. Be on the lookout for more shady and criminal behavior from the president and his allies. The GOP is fully capable of throwing out our democracy baby along with their hideously foul and fetid bathwater.
2
I have friends who are Trump supporters. Nothing Trump does will change their mind. I value their friendship more than I detest Trump and his administration. I don't fight this losing battle with them. All I can do is rest my hope in all the others who agree that Trump is an abomination and must be soundly defeated.
1
Make America moral again.
Make America a shining city on a hill again.
Make America generous again.
Make America kind again.
Make America thoughtful again.
Make America the land of opportunity again.
Make America a beacon of hope again.
Make America respected again.
201
Most of your make America wishes cost a lot of money. Money the working taxpayers don't have or have other uses for.
Let's make our country debt free again by stopping aid to everyone
Charity begins at home
2
Its a mistake to idealize the USA of "the past". We need to confront the country as it actually is and actually was. The destructive effects of capitalism, environmental pollution, imperialism, racism, homophobia, and sexism are nothing new. These have been going on since the first European immigrants landed. Our current vulgar and shameless situation is part of a continuum stretching way back.
10
MAGA. Got it.
1
So we Dems are now pro trade, anti deficit, and the moral party? Who would’ve thunk?
3
Well said, as usual. Trump's base must be willfully blind and deaf to accept his constant lies as the gospel truth; this is laziness to think for themselves, and to realize that ignoring the facts (based on empiric evidence) is like shooting their own feet, a grievous injury after all the insults uttered by big mouth irresponsible and malevolent Trump. This is a lose-lose proposition for the country and the world. Our democracy, since the assault of the presidency by the current vulgar bully in-chief, is suffering greatly, now that the governmental mafia has established, with the help of a billionaire inner circle of misfits, a pluto-kleptocracy. If justice is given a chance this coming Nov. 6, Congress ought to be in the hands of Democrats...to stop the bleeding, and restore some sense of decency, and restoration of trust in democratic institutions. As you said, being in the 'toilet' for too long, our sense of smell stinks already. We are not masochists, are we?
4
It’s awfully difficult for me, Mr. Blow, to “be cool” when the “enemy of our country” has a rising approval rating. When one factors in all the things that this sewer of an administration has done to ruin our environment and our prestige, it’s almost debilitating to think that we should “stay the course.”
The former SecState, Rex Tillerson, copped a plea at VMI in a commencement address to graduating cadets. He told them that “ethics and integrity” were the cornerstones of all we believe in as a nation. These hollow words should have been spoken when he had the power of his office to give them substance.
There may be some comfort in the knowledge that many people who cast a vote for Donald Trump now realize their folly but the damage is close to being irretrievable.
Consider the ongoing Republican Congressional insistence that the president is a “deep state” casualty of a leftist, elitist media? Who gets out the truthful narrative, Mr. Blow?
We have a president who describes immigrants as “animals” and his Cabinet barely manages a shrug. We have much work to do, sir. Can it be done in time to rescue us from complete irrelevance?
7
“ He told them that “ethics and integrity” were the cornerstones of all we believe in as a nation. These hollow words should have been spoken when he had the power of his office to give them substance.”
Exactly right. What was Tillerson and his former colleagues so fearful of? A swampy tweet? Tillerson didn’t need that job and predictably, he’s gone. His words are hollow as you said, so I don’t know what difference they could make now. Which is true: Tillerson’s prior actions or his current words? Were I in that graduating class that’s what I’d be thinking.
1
this BLUE wave has about as much relevance as that red line predicting an 89%chance of hillary winning. JUST STOP THIS noise
2
Amen! The whole country just can't wait to have their say at the ballot box come November. Impeachment won't happen because a president is almost an untouchable individual, and the Republican party will just not let it happen because it reflects badly on the party as a whole. But, we can flip Congress and take full control come November by going to the polls. That will effectively make trump a lame duck president with little or no authority to do much more damage.
5
Trump's "lies" are lightweight. They are the lies of a salesman. The big lies we should be worried about are from the liars that led us into the Iraq invasion. Those liars hid behind a cloak of virtue. They are currently infiltrating the Democratic party and trying to bring Trump down. This has been happening ever since Trump shamed them during the Republican primaries. The other lies we should be worried about are coming from the media, including the NYT. The media used to be counted on for providing the objective truth. Instead, today, all media is tainted with bias and half truths driven by political agenda. Yes, Fox started this twenty years ago. But today, the main stream media, including the Times, has perfected it. When people start talking about "moral restoration," that's a big red flag for people who are actual truth seekers.
2
I look forward to a blue wave, but if Haspel is appointed to head the CIA and there are Dems complicit in her appointment, it means there's still some moral outrage to go around.
3
This is your best column. Congrats!
2
I sure hope you're right about a major change in November. But the republicans have the Nazis, the KKK, evangelicals and gerrymandering. That's a strong arsenal.
4
Charles, I hate to be a 'wet blanket' raining on your supposed "Blue Wave", but the photo at the top of your column was like a splash of cold water reminding me that if the Blue Dems 'run to form' that the following 'revised sign' may well be a more realistic indicator of how the distaff "least worst voting" and 'D' Vichy Party of this Empire will perform if they win the Triple Crown and 'take office' on January 3rd of 2019:
"232 Days
Til They Take a Dive".
Of course, it would be totally appropriate if the above 'revised sign' included a nice image of our American flag with the stars replaced simply with the word EMPIRE.
2
Putting numbers in perspective, while 62 million people voted for Putin’s puppet and self proclaimed sexual predator, at least 150 million legally registered voters didn’t bother to vote.
That’s a conservative number because at there were at least 65 million Clinton votes that were counted.
Whether it was because they thought both candidates sucked, saw them both as the same old same old, and it didn’t make a difference so they didn’t bother to vote or voted Jill Stein. (LOL)
Then there are those of the 62 million who hated Hillary Clinton with a red hot passion more than they feared the unknown Putin’s puppet.
So when we are speaking of a BLUE WAVE this midterm, we need to get those 150+ million registered American voters and some of those 62 who voted for the puppet who finally woke up, to vote D on NOVEMBER 6, 2018.
(His millions of supporters will still love him even if he ever actually shoots someone in the middle of 5th Avenue.)
3
I always laugh when voting for Trump, to Dems, makes one racist, but supporting Farrakhan at a rally where he openly hates Jews does not make one an anti-Semite. It’s also funny how MeToo has shown how morally bankrupt the Democratic Party is. It’s hard to take the high road when your party is equally as bad
5
The MORAL thing to do : Never, Ever vote for a GOP Candidate. In any election, for any position. Always vote the Democratic Ticket, and always VOTE. It's that simple, that obvious and that necessary. Seriously.
5
Republicans are muddying the waters as they try to put lipstick on the Trump pig. They point to the economy which has been great for the rich, but whose growth has barely budged the struggles of the poor and middle class. They point to his blustering betrayal of the world with his dropping out of the Iranian nuclear deal and wobbly negotiations with North Korea as victories.
But Trump is no statesman and no amount of dressing him up as a friend of the people can ever change who he is and has been. Let's face it we are tired of this guy, his endless scandles, cons and lies, Trump fooled many during his election, and we can not afford to be fooled again. If we lose focus on winning this election and Congress this Fall we are lost in every way.
3
Used to be, "civility, truth, fair play and respect" were virtues that both political parties respected. We can't even get Republicans to pay lip service to those virtues anymore: more and more Republicans and conservatives are justifying their words and deeds with no better reason than self interest, or even worse, injuring the groups and states that they don't like.
How many times have you read or heard a conservative crowing about how something said or done is making liberals angry? That's all they need to hear.
What may be dawning on republican voters is that a politician who puts self interest above all other virtues is willing to lie to the voters about how a policy is in their self interest. How many Trump voters have figured out that Trump isn't just lying to independents, democrats and foreigners?
91
“Used to be . . . “ I have been reading this sentiment in its several forms more and more from us.
Rather than longing for our own version of “Make America Great Again,” Dems might begin to shape some new ideas about how to “legislate” morality, et al., as I believe the past—neither “theirs” nor “ours”—will survive this upheaval.
1
The "equal-opportunity-liar-in-chief." As a job title, it has a certain cachet, a particular aptness. It's what
we have as president.
5
Don’t look too much into midterms. Based on history, the Dems are guaranteed to do well. Don’t turn this into some statement about America- it would only be a surprise if the Dems didn’t take the House
2
Bravo. The Trump presidency is a moral blight on this country. I pray that the stain is not permanent.
1
Although Mueller according to Giuliani won't indict Trump, he will be by the court of public opinion. And after his term is over, he could be indicted by NY courts for his nefarious criminal activity. Also, I don't believe anything Rudy and Trump say. Rudy is just trying to influence Congress. These two pathetic, dementia ridden, selfish, and greedy represent the lowest common denominator of what an American is. Trump has disrespected our flag by his racist, xenophobic, anti women comments. And the silence of the Republicans is deafening. Their tacit support of a thug who has sold America out and blatantly exploited his position as president, will result in them losing the House in the next election. Voting blue will be cathartic for many due to their palpable anger at Trump. And even if Mueller's report doesn't recommend indictment, it can still have a positive effect at the polls. Giuliani may try to convince us that a sitting president cannot be indicted, but things are not that absolute. If it proves that Trump colluded with the Russians, obstructed justice, blatantly violated the emoluments clause, and laundered foreign money, all bets are off.
3
The Democrats better have a clear message to those angry white voters that elected the clown in the first place. If they rely on "moral or ethical" themes and "values" Trump and the republicans will win again and keep control. Hillary needs to be censured. Any talk of "white privilege" must cease. Can we remove "deplorables" from political vocabulary. Run on the issues. Run on Obamacare. Run on tax breaks for the rich. Do not run on impeach Trump.
4
Exactly. "Stay the course and don't panic." I will buy Post-It notes and wall paper my house with those words defying years of my tendency to "clean over the clean." This November is too important of a month for us to become so discouraged as to trigger a sense of hopelessness. Trump's utter lack of any decency, any ethics, defies the universal moral law. Yes, Trump's poll numbers are rising. But the basis of that popularity is resting on quick sand...bigotry, racism, nativism, and rabid hypocrisy within Christianity, all will sink from its own weight of perdition. Life has a way of balancing itself. But that means we have to tip the scales of justice through action. Prayers and words mean nothing unless we bring life to them.
2
Democrats should not run on “never trump”. That is a losing proposition. They must speak to everyone in their district about issues that matter to their constituents. That will be the key to a blue wave.
2
I have been disturbed by the efforts to normalize Trump and excuse Trump. People take Trump's spin and rationalize his actions. Oh, it's just locker room talk. Oh, it's such a witch hunt. Oh, it's lawyer client privilege. Oh, we shouldn't give credence to any leak. Oh, they are just enforcing the laws on the books. Oh, the 2nd Amendment. Oh, religious freedom. Oh, America first. Oh, no collusion. Oh, fake news. And on and on. Quick little throwaways that attempt to muffle analysis, dissection, evidence, facts, and truth. The Blue Wave will largely stem form an averse reaction to these throwaway spins that attempt to hide the facts and lie. We want the truth. We can handle the truth. We will vote to get honest, truthful people in office. No more catch phrases that attempt to dumb down. No more Orwellian press conferences answering absolutely no question asked. No more complete disrespect for the American people, the tax payers who fund the government, who pay the bills. No more blatant obstruction of justice, treasonous complicity, and conspiring to empower the oligarchy. The real "deep state" is the American people. And we deeply want our state back. And we will vote to get it back. Good bye swamp monsters. Hello functional, smart, respectful, educated, compassionate, fair, honest, diverse leadership.
4
"Donald Trump is the leader of this country, but also the enemy of it."
Despite calling Trump every name imaginable, Blow now declares Trump an enemy of the state. In most countries Blow's writing would result in himself being called an enemy of the state - or perhaps a comedic routine.
2
Don't let the moral turpitude win again. Let's remember the high democratic values this Country promotes. Don't let the charlatans maintain control. Don't let alternative facts and lies deceive you. Listen to all sources of bona fide information, right and left and think about what is good for the country as whole.
1
Most people vote with their wallets and find the “morals” under the left-wing if Democratic tent to be distasteful.
Hmmm. How could Democrats possibly figure a way around that jam?
Oh, actual policy, right.
1
It is fine for Charles Blow to keep saying that "no person" like Donald Trump should ever have been elected to office. Let me say that no journalist and no American newspaper, as the NYT did, should have remained quiet about the Russian investigation that was already well underway in August 2016. The NYT abdicated its responsibility and must accept its role in the election of Donald Trump.
Similarly, journalists daily are putting up absolute nonsense and obfuscation daily from the WH press office. Yesterday I saw journalists sitting meekly in the briefly room waiting to see if Sarah Huckabee Sanders would grace them with her presence. She did not. Why are journalists not fighting back?
Are you afraid of being denied access? You don't have any access anyway! When is the last time Trump had anything approaching a press conference?
Most Americans don't even know what Trump has done to immigrants, their health, their civil rights, the environment, their land, women's rights, voting rights and more. Where are the journalists? Following every word out of Rudy Guiliani's mouth.
Most NYT's journalists are not doing their jobs. When you are, tell me what Americans of good conscience should do.
2
I agree with everything that Charles Blow has said yet I still can't help feeling depressed that 40% of Americans apparently support Trump despite the fact that he and his family and henchmen are looting our treasury and passing the bill to the poor and middle class, destroying our relationship with our Allies, destroying our environment, ceding leadership to Russia and China and making it acceptable once again to attack and vilify women, minorities, other religions and LGBT citizens. I'm not proud of this country right now. I do hope we can take it back but what do we do about that 40%?
3
Mary, I agree with you. It is very troubling that 40% of our voters have abandoned those aspirational American values of fairness, equality, honor, honesty and empathy. We've never been perfect, but as patriots like John McCain remind us, we know the difference between right and wrong. We've lost our way, and there may be no path back.
1
I've been with you all the way through this but I think we compromise Civic principle and good faith so much in our everyday lives as a matter of expediency (e.g. laughing at a sexist joke, trying to figure out how to pay as little income tax as possible) that there's a profound cynical streak running through most of us. I don't know how many people are still raised with a sense of decorum and respect. Our outrage at this man's profound expressions of bad faith and degradation may not outweigh our fear of social change and potential loss of personal material wealth. It feels as if we are tasked with cleaning up an enormous garbage dump: cesspools of poor education, punctuated by blind pursuit of wealth despite income inequality, appealing morsels of us-versus-them humor, and a haze of unawareness as to what we are doing to the environment. Where to begin? Respect and decorum are more or less a cosmetic start, but we also need a contagious disposition to working through problems, tolerating opposition, seeing the big picture but also being willing to adjust when reality proves us wrong. I think we need National thinking day or something to that effect. Best wishes.
1
Not for nothing, but some policy goals might be a useful addition to this morality cockail. Since we're talking about a midterm election, let's leave Trump out of it for the moment. Congress is currently running amo. The need for liberal policymakers is urgent and practical, and it has nothing to do with righteous indignation.
You want to rally the decent Americans? Give them something decent to rally around. Take a hardline stance against these anti-poor bills and proposals that would make food stamps and housing assistance virtually impossible to obtain. Champion the dignity and rights of the working poor and the fledgling working class. Vow to enact legislation making it impossible for companies like Amazon to dodge worker's rights laws by pretending their delivery workers are "contracted" specialists.
That's what will get your elusive everyman to the polls. Righteous indignation, on the other hand, is a luxury most of us can't make time for.
1
Truer words were never spoken "Every day that Trump occupies the presidency, he diminishes it."
1
Yes, many of us will be relieved if Democrats gain a majority in the House, clamp some limits on an out-of-control administration, and register Americans' rejection of President Trump. But that will hardly solve America's myriad problems, and the same dissatisfactions, some of them justified and some not, will still exist. So, even if President Trump is reined in, the problems that contributed to his election will persist. Have Democrats in Congress really shown themselves to "resist" Donald Trump? With few exceptions, they have proved feckless. So, while I will breathe a sigh of relive if the Republicans' viselike grip on our government is broken, I will hardly consider it cause for celebration
56
Yes there will always be hard work to be done, stop your kvetching and simply enjoy putting the orange one a chain with his departure in 2020 or sooner.
5
Well said Charles. Remember 9/11? This feels worse to me. The damage is deeper. Our Democracy has been attacked. And this time, it IS an inside job. I am truley concerned that the Dem leadership will undermine any real progressive momentum to protect their moneyed benefactors and their positions of power. I have always considered myself a "centrist" but the corruption and unfair compromise forced on the people of this country by those who can pay "our" representatives to avoid such compromise, is egregious and now open and shamelessly, defended. The level of disdain for our democratic institutions and the ugly twisting of the truth by DT and Repubs and some Dems, show no bounds. That people do not see the need to demand honesty or defend those institutions concerns me greatly. We need real integrity in our civil servants and remove any opportunities for greed. "We the People" are being spit on by those who are abandoning us and those principles that they swore an oath to serve and protect, for money. The Repubs and the Dems have mastered the art of division to gain and keep power. They have used hate to divide us. Many of us have been convinced that there is no value in the truth and those who are different than them, can be seen not as equal human beings. I am angry at DT voters for putting us here but then I remember those who didn't vote, etc.. We need to establish real trust with transparency in government (It is our money) and TRUE integrity in our leadership.
1
I am not optimistic of a reclamation of the White House without an intellectually respectable nominee; and I do not find the ostensibly "progressive" uprisers capable of rising very high in that category. I especially do not expect the slightest whiff of irritability or indignation to be attractive to the vital white center. The sooner Biden declares his candidacy, the sooner he can and should establish the polar alternative to Trump without the smarminess of moral superiors to his Left.
2
Even in the supposedly liberal bastion of coastal Southern California I am surprised at how many people have simply turned off the constant barrage of sewage that flows from this administration and Congress.
This paper has reported that often people tend to vote against a person or policy rather than for it. Anger is indeed a more potent emotion than affinity.
Even Tillerson has raised the warning flag regarding the assault on the fundamental building blocks of this democracy: facts and the rule of law.
If that is not enough to motivate the citizens to take ownership of our democracy, then the American experiment has already ended.
2
The laws of morality are as unchanging as the laws of mathematics and physics.
Edmund Burke once wrote: "All who have ever written on government are unanimous, that among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist".
1
The entire Republican Party must be defeated in November by an enormous and historic landslide. If this doesn't happen, then the nation is receiving a lesson that dishonesty, immorality and outright criminality is fine as long as it is "your side" who is doing it. Likewise, those of us who claim to be Christians need to demonstrate in our votes and actions that real Christianity has nothing to do with the so-called "values" of right-wing Republicanism!
2
It may not happen instantly but, Trump has destroyed the Republican party as we know it. Unfortunately it has been moving toward an unfavorable trend for a while however, Trump has officially killed it. The truth about Trump and the depth of his treason and crimes will one day come to light, even if not while he is in office and we are forced to endure his entire term. The truth always comes out. History will not be kind to him.
1
I sincerely hope you are right, Charles. On a daily basis we as citizens are subjected to the worst demagoguery, the worst denigration of our national values, of who we are, all instigated by Trump and his fellow criminal associates. It is as if the mob took over the country, an insane godfather and his consiglieres, with the GOP congress as his hit-men. This nightmare cannot end too soon.
1
Democrats in Minnesota (here we call them DFL) are wrestling with whether to field a "centrist" candidate for governor. But what is a "centrist" in today's polarized political environment? A racist, but not one who doesn't use bad words? A gun rights advocate who thinks it's terrible when innocent people get shot? A plutocrat, but a plutocrat who feels our pain? A supporter of education who favors cuts to the budget for education? A supporter of mining that will destroy the northern waters, but who shows up for fishing opening day?
The center no longer holds. A conservative Democrat or a liberal Republican is an oxymoron. Time to take a stand.
The odds are high against Democrats taking the House in November, but the stakes are even higher.
The Trump base is being motivated by right-wing propaganda outlets to come out (from under rocks) to save Republican seats, to protect Trump from being held accountable.
(Yes, I said from under rocks. Trump supporters are Evangelical Christians who sold their souls to Trump; they cannot be reasoned with because their faith tells them Trump is God's agent to bring about End of Days and start their passage to paradise. That's the definition of faith. Also lunacy. So what gives Christians the right to dismiss out of hand, the Muslim martyr's 72 virgins?? Both post-death beliefs are man-made religious nonsense, which appeals to zombies desperately looking for meaning in life, opting to find it in death.)
Back to the point. Republicans have gerrymandered their districts to deny non-Republican voters a voice. Republicans have wealthy deep-pocket owners to finance their propaganda. And on that subject, Republicans have a vast right-wing propaganda network to fill their zombie audience's empty heads with anti-Democratic villainous thoughts, and get them to the polls.
And the stakes are extremely high. Morality is on the ballot in November. Our democratic republic is on the ballot in November. Decency is on the ballot in November. Law and order is on the ballot in November. Truth is on the ballot in November. Reality is on the ballot in November. Sanity is on the ballot in November.
1
I am, like many of you, incredibly anxious about our future. But apathy is the weapon they use against us. We have to keep working because we have no other choice unless you want to give up completely. I don't. Don't let them distract you with all the shiny numbers. Focus and keep working.
The next time I vote will be next month in California (June 5, 3018). I hope you're all registered. Your vote matters.
1
There is an ever-growing number of liberal media outlets that recite and repeat a laundry list of Trump's shortcomings as a leader, his moral failings and personality defects. Although we, news junkies on the political left, search the media for signs that the Trump era is coming to an end, please spare us yet another recital of Trump's faults, and tell us something we don't already know.
1
I'd put a lot more faith in current polls than a handful of special elections
1
I have missed you! You have been silent for too long; welcome back. I need you for my sanity.
1
"Every day that Trump occupies the presidency, he diminishes it.".
Indeed, Charles, indeed.
Trump, and his less than stellar courtiers, darken the door of the White House on a daily basis. The "president" and his staffers appear to hold contempt for many of us in lock step with their grifter boss.
Hopefully the voters will realize that a reality TV show star, bankruptcy king and grifter with no peers cannot be an effective president as he, or she, are always looking in the mirror as part if their vanity and the need to be praised and given shiny baubles.
And we can only hope we replace the groveling GOP legislators with those who refuse to heap high praise on the grifter and work for the country.
Lastly, we hope we can change the name of the office the president works in from the "Offal" office back to the "Oval" office.
1
So I know I'm not addressing this article's point, but the fact that the approval rating is rising (and at other times sinking) confuses me. Who are these people who are so on the fence that at a certain point in the year think he's doing a great job then feel the opposite at others? Haven't most bipeds pretty much formed a concrete opinion by now?
2
Twenty-one more Republicans have relinquished their seats in the House than Democrats. In only one other year since FDR have we seen such a lopsided rate of departure. That year was 1958 when the Democrats picked up 49 seats.
http://www.politicsbythenumbers.org/2018/02/01/republicans-continue-to-l...
I wish I shared the optimism. I trust polls just as much as Trump.
Our Savior-In-Chief is way too popular for my mind to believe in a Blue Wave actually happening.
Democrats have a GOP Cult to contend with that grows despite logic. Local Democratic wins seem to be happening without the "benefit" of a Democratic Party defined policy agenda. Is this the way to go? In the present up is down world of America, who knows? The assault on Truth is magnifying the considerable lack of American intelligence in favor of raw emotion.
Heck, even the Bernie Bros are still to upset and angry to come to the Democratic table. Herding cats and all.
At least in the Trumpian distortion of time, days seem like years and a lot could happen between now and election day which could blow up everything even more. At the least, keep working deliberately to get the vote registered and out.
1
The problem is that the democrats eat their own. A perfect example is in the 4th congressional district in California. 3 viable democratic women candidates against one trump sycophantic republican, Tom McKlintock. Two of the women that weren't endorsed by the democratic party refused to abide by their commitment to support the endorsee and will now split the vote, because they stayed on the ballot, assuring a victory for McKlintock. Way to go dems.
2
This only will happen if the Independent voter shows up and votes Democratic. This is definitely what it will take in the Red states. The DNC should do what the Russians did and Cambridge Anylitica did. A psychological evaluation of what makes Independents tick. And then convince them it is in their interest to vote Democratic.
1
Whatever you want to name it, the election of Trump and the demolition of all Obama managed to do (not exactly revolutionary but definitely on the progressive column) is outrageous. Articles like this obscure the fact that we as a nation are in trouble. The tiny minority that owns and runs the country manages to feed us with enough of "liberalism" typified by Charles Blow and his employer's editorial policy, to just keep us from expressing our outrage. When someone who wouldn't even qualify as a social democrat in most of Western Europe like Bernie Sanders comes out and runs for office, the tiny minority is wonderfully represented and protected by the leading newspaper of this country and its pundits like Blow and Krugman. People get the rulers they deserve over time. The people who don't agree are the ones who make changes happen.
29
It's exhausting listening to Bernie diehards extol the virtues of a public servant who has managed to accomplish next to nothing in the decades in the decades he's lived on the government dole. It would be interesting to see his supporters challenge him on his vote for the 1994 Crime Bill rather than attack a woman who never voted for it....But that's where the gender equality principles have been left out of the Bernie supporter socialism.
8
I don’t even know what you mean. The nation is going down the hill fast. Bernie is so much more than what you depicting him as, a public servant on the dole. No lies, no hidden agendas, no 650k for two irrelevant speeches to Goldman Sachs clients, no email scandals, no bailing out of adulterous husbands. I guess we as a nation don’t deserve such people.
Honestly really? Its just amazing to me that this is a thing still..
Its like people fighting over Trotsky and Lenin while Stalin is murdering everyone. We have bigger fish to fry don’t we?
I hope you're right. But I think the Democratic Party is hobbling the response that should and could be made to this human and political shame called "Trump." It's backing moderates when progressives are the answer.
why is Trump's approval rating rising? that is a frightening stat to consider----American voters must not make the same mistake they made in the last election by thinking the Dems are a shoo in as a referendum against Trump.
1
Thank you Mr. Blow.
Again you have bound together so many of our thoughts and hopes into powerful words.
I hope voters heed them.
Republican leaders helped frame themselves as the 'Moral Majority', but we clearly see them today as a immoral group.
Blow is always on point about our President: the worst. We tell kids not to lie or bully or be greedy. But then the Republicans, conservatives, evangelicals, right-wing, Russians elect the man that lives by those actions. The mask is off.
Democrats must talk real about guns and abortion and immigration. These are all important issues and and complex: not so easily answered away.
Let's outlaw semi-automatic weapons and let hunters know they're welcome to hunt. Don't let the lying NRA, with Russian help, too, say Democrats hate the 2nd amendment. That's not true. But, do talk about needing to help one another with mental health services & ending poverty. Our culture is suffering mightily from gun violence.
Abortion comes from unwanted pregnancies: let's reduce those. Education & contraception have done this. Don't let the rich keep using this issue to get the 'compassionate' workers from voting Republican. This is their go-to issue; then they can have their tax cuts.
Immigration needs to be reduced partly because we're not even caring for those already here. This is a big point in the issue. Poor people, working people with great struggles need more help & assistance. How does more immigration help them? Everyone in dire straits likes to have an 'enemy' to point at: the Republicans use this.
Go blue wave go, not just for Democrats but for America. For US.
Not only do we need to flip the House, we have to ensure that on Nov. 6, there are 67 Democrats in the Senate elected. Don't say it's impossible, that's self-defeating. We need to work to achieve these goals, always keeping in mind we're defending our rights and liberties under a democratic republic. We've seen enough evidence in China, Russia, and Turkey of what happens when tyranny reigns. Expose Trump for the fraud he is whether on social media, peaceful protests or other means. Put your Representative and Senators on speed dial, especially if they're Republicans. If they are, like Trump, remind them their days are numbered. We need a Congress who will do its constitutional duty and act on the oath they took- to uphold the Constitution. They have failed to keep a check on an abusive Executive Branch. Time to issue them a well-deserved pink slip. Fight for your rights and your life and values. Don't let tyranny win. The US can turn the tide against authoritarian rule that has propped up in much of the world(except Africa)>
1
Forever the party of LBJ, Carter and Clinton. Republicans should be in the majority for decades. Thanks Hill!
Drowning in a lake is no better than dying from thirst in the desert. Moral restoration cannot come from a "Blue Wave" because our duopolistic political system is fundamentally broken.
2
in November, the GOP will pull out all stops, fully funded and backed by the NRA, Trump, rich folk, and the Koch brothers. Does anyone think the campaigning will be ugly? The primaries are a good indjcator.
Here is Mr Blows best advice of you want to paint the house blue:
Not relax. Not rest easy. Not coast. But stay the course and don’t panic. Work hard, message well and bring your passion — and a few neighbors and friends — to the polls in November.
I would add - don't just tell your friends to vote. Round up all you can and take them to the polls.
4
Blue wave only happens if blue people vote. Can’t petulantly stay home or vote 3rd Party because you don’t think the successful blue candidate is quite perfect enough. Until we have a new system that isn’t designed for only two parties. It’s math.
170
“And a vast majority of the Republican Party — its voters, its officials and its apparatus — has chosen the path of accommodation, if not outright cheering, of Trumpism.”
One useful lesson has been learned by the Trump “presidency”. We now know with certainty that most GOP voters tolerate — or openly admire — corruption, racism, collusion with a hostile foreign power, incompetence, mendacity, ignorance, and mendacity if a Republican does it. Their religiosity and patriotism are skin deep.
4
No person should be president who hasn't shown his tax returns and is unwilling to shed his business interests.
5
America is too big to fail? Tell that to Rome. No, with a viscous, unstable lunatic like Trump at the helm, we are in dangerous, uncharted waters. The toxic mix of horrid qualities he and his crowd bring to the table make any predictions simply wild speculation. Unprecedented activism by democrats is the key. Secondly, the Trump base must be confronted on personal levels with rational explanations of the total fraud they have bought into. "Better, cheaper, health care" promises becomes NO health care. Tax cuts for the rich only help the rich. Good government is what intelligent people create - not NO government. Etc. etc. Beating them over the head is not the answer. Serious dialogue is needed.
3
Et tu, Paul? Don't drown in those dangerous, uncharted waters with all the other fools who hold on to the sinking ship of america.
#calexit - and NHexit, too.
The rise of Trump to the presidency is the fulfillment of a Republican dream, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in spending by third party groups and made possible by ground constantly seeded with anger and resentment by Fox Noise and hundreds of shouters on talk radio. It is also a Republican nightmare. They helped an untrained, unqualified, egomaniacal, Studio 54 superannuated playboy grab the most difficult job in the world and now they don't know what to do with him (except lick his boots).
Let the chips fall where they may. We need to both keep our eyes on the continuing crisis but, most importantly, look to the future and how to avoid such a deep, ugly mess.
Both political parties need better nominating processes. The Republican's "winner-takes-all" primaries made Trump the nominee because he "won" the early votes with victories in the 30+% range. We need to get rid of the worst parts of the Electoral College whereby rural states have more influence than highly populated ones. We need to ensure that all votes count and are not cancelled by the EC. We need to make room, somehow, for a third party that could act as a unifier and peacemaker and perhaps replace one of the dominant ones eventually.
We need to smash the efforts to discourage people from voting and end gerrymander, one party favored House districts. Used by Democrats and Republicans, it is wrong.
In short, we need to renew democracy both as a matter of national belief and as a functioning reality.
2
As all things Trump, he projects his own failures on to others. He is not going to make the America he trashed great again, the people are.
2
You're not alone... Many of us in the rest of the world are heartsick that the US is being led in such an awful way. It's up to the good people of your country to restore some sanity to your domestic situation and to global affairs.
2
Moral restoration will not get young democrats to vote. Anger might?
Here in Canada our most populous and US economy dependant province seems set on electing the most Trump like and least Canadian Premier. Ontario is prosperous and welcoming because Nafta and and its integration into the US economy. Fear has allowed a buffoon to possibly become the next Premier because the antipathy of the other parties jeopardises its relationship with the US and Doug Ford seems Donald Trump only less intelligent.
2
Message to the Democrats - don't assume you are winning (see 2016).
Message to the Progressives - don't throw your vote away on ideologically pure candidates (see Jill Stein) or not voting (see 2016).
Message to the non-voters - if you don't vote, don't complain about the results (see 2016).
The Trumpistas will, repeat will, turn out to oppose Nancy Pelosi and "impeachment", and, for the Senate, to work to repeal Roe v. Wade. The rest of us must also turn out.
End of message.
7
"The objective must be greater than politics. It must be about the restoration of normalcy, civility, truth, fair play and respect. It must be about the expulsion of corruption, complicity, hypocrisy, deceit and fraud."
I agree with you 100%.
However, the sad reality is that most Americans care more about how the economy is affecting them personally than about these loftier moral values.
(And the even sadder reality is that the Deplorables (who comprise 35% of the country) care more about tribalistic "winning" against us evil elitist coastal Libruls than about any kind of moral values. They're irredeemable.)
2
How fragile our democracy is: One lying, cheating, crooked man elected to the highest office and somehow the ‘moral/silent majority’ overlook all his shortcomings in a Pavlovian response to knee-jerk hot-button issues.
Yes, vote, and protest too, but keep in mind that we are on a slippery slope. Normality, as defined by ‘before Trump,’ may never return. And amping up activism and protest doesn’t necessarily lead to a satisfactory result either: Sometimes it leads to violence, more violence, and even civil war. The violence can devolve into wholesale and chronic bloodshed without resolution. The right wing believes it is divinely ordained to pursue this course. They’re not going to wilt, waver, or stop; they’re not going to play nice, or fair, because they never have. It’s only going to get worse.
Maybe there are some who voted for Trump silently abhor his obvious moral failings and, again without indicating such, vote to reject and remove him from office. That is my hope. But the residue of Trump’s policy depredations, and the ongoing assaults by the Republican Party will not be so easily swept away.
2
How did those polls turn work out for you in 2016? Don't get me wrong; I want your team to win, but the only sure thing in America's future - barring getting money out of politics - is rising authoritarianism.
I just finished Madeline Albright's book. Read it. The people of this nation are beginning to be so frustrated by no action politicians beholden only to money (because our democracy has been stolen by a slow moving corporate coup de ta; read Hedges), that authoritarianism begins to look attractive.
Mr. Blow - to save America the Democratic party needs to save itself first. It once had a wide tent that supported the majority of working folks. Now it represents the interests of identity politics and corporations. As a black man you may take offense; please do. I'm not saying restitution isn't owed. I'm saying let's be smart about it. Win elections and then secure the rights of minority identities, as a liberal democracy should protect non majority groups.
To win upcoming elections, the Democratic party must widen the tent. I suggest opening the doors of the Democratic Party to gun advocates and religious conservatives, who, by the way, won't vote against their economic interests if not forced to be single issue voters.
The D&C is just as bought as the GOP; they're just owned by different corporate interests, and often, both parties are now owned by the same corporate interests.
Win, and then get money out.
2
I blame the GOP Party for Trump’s dishonesty and corruption far more than Trump himself. Trump has been a flimflam man and liar all his life. The GOP which one
Cue proclaimed themselves the party of family values has now acquiesced in kicking people out of health care (leading to real citizens’s deaths), allowed our privacy rights to be sold commercially, watched as our electoral processes are assaulted by a foreign government (sure, no votes have been changed when you don’t look to see it they or the voter rolls have been manipulated), presided on a president who is illegally maintaining a hotel lease and profiting by foreign payments (ie, emoulements).
We have a corrupt profiteering president who has tested the GOP Congress for its oversight and found them desperate to hang onto his coattails thru the slime, profiting themselves off the taxpayer dollar and even watching silently as our foreign policy is directed apparently by this presidents personal profits.
If ever there was a reason to vote an entire party out of office, Trump and the colluding GOP Congress has given us every reason to do so.
3
I will do my best to support and promote Democratic candidates in the midterm. Perhaps it's a good thing that polls show Democrats slipping. Complacency led to the 2016 debacle. But it cannot happen again. The stakes are too high. It is of paramount importance that we provide a check to (or rejection of) Trumpism.
That said, the Democratic Party does not seem to have effective leadership or a message of what they hope to accomplish should they take the House (or Senate). Being anti Trump is not enough for many voters. Yet brace yourself: what I learned from 2004 and 2010 (and 2016) is that the American electorate does not make rational choices.
2
So very glad you are back! We need your voice! Thank you!!
1
good conscience america’s is the key and hopefully we have enough of them, that will not hide behind the facade of a political party to justify voting for this scammer who now occupies the white house. mark cuban said months ago the americans of good conscience has to stop wasting energy trying change the minds of the trumpettes. instead we need to focus on getting people out to vote come november and beyond. especially the voters that stayed home for the last presidental election and did not vote for either candidate. I know a ton of them.
1
Glad to see you are back Charles. I have missed reading your columns and thought, perhaps you had moved on. Glad that is not the case. We need to hear your reassuring voice!
I wish I had your confidence.
1
A moral correction from the party of Bill Clinton, Anthony Weiner, and Harvey Weinstein? Really? Democrats only hate sexism and corruption when it is Republicans doing it. Republicans only have scruples when Democrats are abusing their positions. I can hear the claims of botherism, already. But both parties really are not worthy of my vote. It isn't just that both parties abuse power, it is also that both parties sacrifice principle and with it the moral high ground. Neither can fairly and without hypocrisy address the abuses we see regularly. Next November only promises a change in majority in Congress, not a change in Congress or government in general.
35
No Democrat lies like Trump. Harvey Weinstein was not elected. The last time we had a balanced budget was the end of Clinton's second term. No Democrat has refused to hold a hearing for a Supreme Court nominee for almost a year. Sorry, but your false equivalences come straight out of the GOP playbook and lack credibility.
46
No one from the party stood behind and protected Weiner. Al Franken gave up his seat based on accusations that didn't even come close to actions and words by Trump. The point of the column is that this is a question of morality, not party. Although I notice you avoided comparing Trump with President Obama....
38
Are you familiar with the term "getting Borked"? Show hearings with a pre-determined outcome are effectually the same. Budgets are the constitutional responsibility of the House of Representatives. The House was majority Republican. I believe Democrats called their plan that got them the majority the Contract ON America. I bet you blame Republicans for us being in the post-fact era, too.
Sorry but I don't see the Dems as out of touch but rather justifiably horrified by Trump and Republican Party. How could anyone defend the indefensible?
For me at least, the most dangerous aspect of Trump is that character no longer matters. Character is the foundation upon which everything rests. Trump is an assault on our individual and collective character. November is not an election but the crossroads.
If
4
Welcome back, Charles.
When I flag, just a bit (impossible to occasionally avoid with each disaster de jour) you refuel my disgust and resistance.
I don't know the path back for this country. I do know it's unofficially begun.
The official start date? Tuesday, November 6th.
Trumps approval rating is going up, and this is true, the questions to be asked is why they are going up, and if the popularity of Trump automatically translates to approval for the republican party as a whole.
Trumps is up for many reasons. He's be in office long enough that he can rightly claim credit if the economy continues to do well. Trump is up because of blow back from all the negative media articles about him, overkill in the highest form, people are tuning out the negativity except for the hardcore cases who will never forgive Trump for defeating Hillary. Trump is up because he is standing up to all the world leaders who have been kicking us around and making chumps out of US. Now for the second question, it remains to be seen if Trumps popularity will transfer to republican candidates in the fall, voters still need health care, and tax cuts for the rich don't go down well with workers who are just barely making ends meet. I predict that democrats will do very well in November, and probably win back the house, that being said Trump may be a sure thing in for reelection in 2020
1
Trump's 43 % approval rating is still historically low – and a warning signal for Republicans. Remember, these results come from random polls of merely 1000 to 1500 people from May 10 -16.
Poll watchers note since May 5th, for 66 days, Trump’s approval rating was between 40.0 % and 42.1 %.
Even Fox hosts are more critical of his lies-- and the ridiculous statements of "lawyer" Giuliani.
Fox's Neil Cavuto had quite the priceless rant against Trump.
Despite the recent talk of a less hefty blue wave, the emergence of John Bolton (Bush administration) and Rudy Giuliani (Loose Lips) are hurting the GOP and what's left of Trump's "credibility."
2
Thanks for this well considered op ed. I have been thinking along the same lines--that we must stay the course, calmly, deliberately. I especially resonate with your words, "The objective must be greater than politics. It must be about the restoration of normalcy, civility, truth, fair play and respect. It must be about the expulsion of corruption, complicity, hypocrisy, deceit and fraud." Thank you for your passion and eloquence over these past months. You have made this horrific situation easier for me to bear.
2
We don't have any national leadership to speak of. Washington isn't stepping up for us. I believe from what I'm seeing in my district and primaries across the country, we are grass roots fueled. People are not clueless, although so called party leadership sure seems to be.
4
I like where this is going....
However I take exception to telling us that voters need to vote their conscience. Voting is a civic duty. You should vote for somebody that will do the best job for your country, state, city, etc. You should vote for somebody that can actually win instead of throwing your vote away on some kind of useless protest. You should vote with a view to the potential outcome. You should not vote as if this was a football game and you only want your team to win.
We now know exactly what we'd be getting with a Trump or a Trump supporter. Anybody who votes for that does not have a conscience.
3
I cringe when I think about the Democrats trying to turn the 2018 election, and potentially 2020 into a "moral argument." it's a losing approach, as clearly tried and demonstrated in 2016. Democrats need to talk about policies and issues, and they need to get on this FAST.
They have plenty of material to work with to attack the GOP on, i.e. poor domestic and foreign policy outcomes from Trump/The GOP. They also need to clearly articulate their policy alternatives, as they have too easily allowed themselves to be framed and defined by Trump/The GOP.
And please stop putting the cart ahead of the horse. The "blue wave" really is at risk, as Trump's approval rises and the Democrats lead in the generic ballot narrows as of late, once again because the Democrats have practically no messaging and no communication going on regarding policies and outcomes. In fact, the messaging and ability of democrats to campaign and talk about issues/policies has been so bad that I don't even think they'd take back the house, if the election were held today.
Stop talking about morals (most people don't care and instead vote with their wallets), and start talking about issues and policies, particularly people's struggles (how Trump won).
4
If the Democrats don't learn these lessons after the unprecedented debacle of 2016 then they don't deserve to continue as a major political party.
7
I disagree with Trump, but I can no longer blame him or be upset at his Presidency. We have rising income inequality, but the Democrats have been mute about it. A democratic president rescued Wall Street, but left home owners in the lurch. The ACA was a give away to the health insurance industry, but raised healthcare costs for the middle class. Then the Democratic Party decided that resurrecting the Clinton dynasty would be a good political idea. Message to average voter: If you're not a Clinton, you don't count.
While I'm confident that Republican overt corruption, overreach, and Trump's juvenile antics will give the Democrats a majority and the Presidency at some point in the future, it will not get them to stop being Republicans Lite, nor will it get us to reforming our broken political system. If the Democrats really want my vote, they should start by going back to the people whom they are supposed to represent and listening to their problems, then working towards constructive solutions. There are 20 lobbyists for every representative in DC, but there are tens of thousands of citizens for every representative. Those citizens need to remind their Representative of whom they really work for.
13
Can’t agree more. I used to vote Democrats all the time and voted for Barack Obama in 2008. After the debacle of the ‘Affordable’ Care Act, I ceased voting for the Democrats. There is no reason for optimism in seeing Democrats win majority control of any representative body or of the executive branch unless and until Democrats legislate and execute FOR the PEOPLE and stop catering to their big money donors.
2
At half way through the half-way mark of Trump's Presidential term, we have reasons to look backward and to look forward.
In the Watergate investigation, the President was declared an un-indicted co-conspirator, which was enough to trigger impeachment action in the House and such widespread popular outrage that Nixon resigned rather than risk conviction in the court of public opinion.
In 2006, Democratic made strong gains because President Bush angered voters with pre-emptive war in Iraq over non-existent WMDs, and Medicare Part D both off-budget, as well as a poor response to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Looking forward, there is no Electoral College effect in mid- term elections.
Mid term House elections often flip from the minority to a majority of members. We can expect Democrats to overtake Republicans in a 2018 Blue Wave if Democratic and independent voters are inspired by energetic, qualified candidates and actually do vote.
Can Trump can be indicted? He has broken through countless other norms in due process, Mueller's findings of clear and convincing proof of criminality may be yet another example.
2
The Godfather is considered one of the greatest movies of all times. It's about mobsters. Americans love mobsters: Watching these movies lets them vicariously skirt the law and get away with anything. So why should we be puzzled that we ended up with a "Don" in the White House, and that he continues to have high ratings among those who lead constrained lives?
8
I support Democratic policies in almost every area.
But I am afraid their chances will be sunk based on their positions in regards to immigration, refugees, and economic migration.
My primary concern is the environment and global warming. Bringing in millions of people with fake asylum claims is going to destroy any chance we have of slowing climate change.
I also care about the rule of law and its equal application. The Democratic position seems to be that anyone who touches a toe on our land can stay forever.
I am very concerned about our economic structure- a structure that requires ever larger numbers of people and greater extraction (and waste) of natural resources.
It is unsustainable and puts us all at risk on the long run.
Finally- I am opposed to the wars. The endless, wasteful, wars. But the Democratic Party has done nothing to stop them.
The Democratic Party has no serious policies- just positions. They deliver nothing- except slogans and rhetoric. They have no policies that help all citizens- just micro-targeted policies based on race.
For the first time in my life I will not be voting Democratic. They deliver nothing and their immigration policies actually hurt the things I care about.
5
Bill, I'm an immigrant. This is not how the extremely complicated process of immigration to America works. At all. Nor is it how asylum in America works. At all. Please do some research. All of your other comments are completely fact based. One fact: In 2016, the most recent year with available data, 20,455 individuals were granted asylum. (And they had to prove the reasons in a long, involved fact-based process.) This is the total number of people given asylum into the USA in 2016!
2
In your first sentence, you state, "I support Democratic policies in almost every area." Several hundred words later, you state, "The Democratic Party has no serious policies- just positions." What does this mean? That you yourself support only unserious policies?
One thing is clear. You are dissatisfied with how well Democrats are lately implementing their policies. Twice, you say that "They deliver nothing."
Well, there's one party that is delivering on its promises and policies: the Republicans. From tax cuts for the rich to cut-backs on environmental regulations, consumer protections, and healthcare, Republicans have been whittling away at the safeguards that keep us healthy and strong. It will take years to repair the politicization, dismantling, de-staffing, and other damage they've done to the agencies that protect us (e.g., EPA, FDA, CFPB, etc.).
So note: if you want Democratic policies enacted, Democrats have to be in power. That means they have to be in the majority in the House or Senate, preferably both.
If, on the other hand, the most important issue for you is preventing immigration to the US, then you're going to have to stick with the climate science denialist Republicans. Dems aren't going to build a Wall. And let's stop pretending that illegal immigrants are responsible for climate change: like us, whether they're living in Mexico, the US, or elsewhere, they're generating carbon. Immigration restriction has nothing to do with global warming.
2
@WillT26: thank you and god bless you for your insight.
1
I write this from the VA hospital, waiting for my Vietnam veteran husband, surrounded by wounded heroes of all political persuasions.
It has been decades since I voted for any Republican...as the party careened sharply right, it seemed to willingly abandoned its moral compass.
However, (we) liberals need to be mindful of claiming always the moral high ground, and, in doing so, alienating a swath of the electorate. If we judge conservatives harshly (so tempting), we, too, are guilty of wielding prejudice—the very thing we decry in their rhetoric.
11
Dems have squandered opportunities for generations, at least since the 70's. These days the only 'reasonable republican' is a Democrat. Currently the loudest and most passionate voices on the Left come from red-state teachers and 17-year-olds. Nice to have but that won't get it done. The media spends most of its time normalizing Trump and his deplorable supporters, while the Left spends much of its time expressing little more than moral outrage. We've been here many times before; history doesn't bode well.
5
I'm a liberal of a type, and a progressive of a kind, and a Trump supporter. I don't understand the way Charles views the Trump presidency. It's not that Trump is diminishing the US, he is changing the path we use to walk on, because he believes (as do I) the path is untenable. That takes courage. His supporters have a lot of courage, really. What is troubling is his opponents cannot even perceive what Trump supporters are actually supporting. They just talk past it. But much of it, I'd say all of it, rests on perfectly solid foundations.
4
The core item of support is anti-immigrant policies. The idea that all of the troubles suffered by a Trumpist would go away if we just got rid of brown people. Please explain how that rests on a perfectly solid foundation. I see it as pure and simple racism combined with not accepting personal responsibility.
3
Please, if you support Trump, you're not a liberal or a progressive, of any kind or any type. I won't try to characterize all Trump supporters, but Trump produces nothing. His skillset is promotion. He has no policies. As a man, what motivates him are two things: tearing down the work of his predecessors, especially Obama, and being admired or even worshipped.
Also, if the word "courage" is to mean anything, it is certainly not in application to a leader who regularly demeans people who are poor, weak, or powerless, e.g., the disabled, immigrants, women, minorities, etc., not to mention all of his political opponents. Billionaires with their own golf clubs aren't risking a lot by promoting policies that enrich them further.
So what's really troubling here is that his supporters are immune to the facts that he is corrupt, constantly lies, and is an incompetent president. What's troubling is that somehow these supporters have closed their eyes to the impacts of the big tax cut, tearing down of our healthcare and public education, and cutbacks to regulations and other protections. Unfortunately, it'll take reduction or elimination of their Social Security and Medicare checks, more crumbling bridges, more blight to our cities, more outbreaks of food-borne illness, etc., before the scales fall from his supporters eyes.
2
Pardon the correction Charles, but our European allies are abandoning us, and realistically so. Just yesterday, in this paper, European representatives remarkably stated, in effect, that they could no longer depend on this country and the enduring solidarity of the Atlantic alliance, built since WWII. I hope that a "restoration of normalcy", post-Trump, which you reference will include a return to and further strengthening of this absolutely core relationship.
8
Hear, Hear! I so hope you are right.
I do believe the large majority in this
country would reject the Trump administration -
if they vote.
4
True Liberal Values......I never thought I'd see the day when DNC,Inc would counter RNC,Inc on the cynical Morality Politics Tactic.
1
Fortunately, I don't have to worry about bringing neighbors to the polls. We have mail-in ballots. I actually just got mine for primary registration yesterday. We have open Democratic primaries but you have to register Republican to vote in their primary. They actually send you a letter asking for your preference. Postage paid. They will later send the primary ballot and eventually the general ballot. You don't have to do anything except mark your choice and put the return envelope in a mailbox. If you miss the postmark date, they still have polling locations.
What I do need to work on is registration drives. Most of the 18-to-20-somethings I meet don't even know if they're registered. Something tells me they are pretty lapse in updating their addresses with the postal service as well. Fortunately again, my state makes the whole process really easy. If you have a tablet with a data connection, you can register anyone, anywhere in under five minutes through the DMV. Name, address, licence number, done.
If they don't have a licence or are unwilling to provide such information, physical forms are freely available at the county office. Postage paid. Bring some with you. The other helpful tip is have anyone registered but recently moved update their address with USPS. This automatically re-registers the existing registration. Isn't democracy fun?
Got find those voters.
6
As a died-in-wool liberal, I can hope. I am not speaking solely of a huge Democratic backlash in 2018 and in 2020. I am speaking of the good Americans who call themselves Conservatives, of brothers and sisters on kind who have our country's best interests at heart to unite in spirit for pur collective betterment. Liberals need well-thinking, well- spoken Conservatives to balance some of our more extreme viewpoints. It is my hope that there are some any please!) Conservatives who see the need for balance. Polarization will not work. We can all vouch for its failure. Now, noe is the is that time for all good people to come to the aid of their country.
16
There is a danger is touting the 'Blue Wave'. People that need to vote to make the blue wave happen will assume that the blue wave will happen with or without their vote. Then they do not vote and the blue wave gets washed away.
In order to get the blue wave to happen there needs to be a grass roots get out and vote drive. I do not see or hear that happening.
20
You may not see it - but it's happening.
1
Well said, Charles. We are going to learn a lot about our country in November.
If the racist thugs, corporate pirates, and fossil fuel touts hold their own, we must think of new strategies. Example: encouraging Europe and Japan to boycott American products, as long as monsters like Koch and Adelson control the Republican Party.
29
"Focus instead on increasing the awareness, passion and turnout of the honorable and the ethical, and on fighting apathy and burnout."
I wiser sentence has not been spoken in a long time.
Speak the truth, stay calm, and VOTE.
37
I am so turned off by all the space devoted to what today's polls purport to say, and all the conclusions that those results are supposed to support. Have we not seen how wrong they can be, how seriously they can fail at revealing what people actually think and do in reality?
21
"Americans of good conscience," didn't vote for Trump. They're a majority, but the Electoral College is not about conscience.
58
A great number of Trump voters were voting against Hillary Clinton. Hillary is gone and this immoral Trump creates a new disaster every single day. If the Dems can stay on talk about Trump's decimation of healthcare coverage, tax cuts for the already filthy rich and Trump's most recent declaration to save jobs in CHINA!) Then push the need to restore integrity and dignity in the WH... the Dems should sweep.
2
"Every day that Trump occupies the presidency, he diminishes it. And a vast majority of the Republican Party — its voters, its officials and its apparatus — has chosen the path of accommodation, if not outright cheering, of Trumpism."
I think there is actually a distinction to be made between the support Trump receives from voters and the support he receives from GOP officials. Among voters, there is clearly a cohort of true believers who will never abandon him. But among those in Congress (who clearly have chosen accommodation... for now), many are political opportunists, willing to ride any tide that keeps them in office. They, to quote Bob Dylan, "just want to be on the side that's winning." Should Trump (and it's hard to believe it hasn't happened yet, but hope springs eternal) become a liability to their re-election efforts, they'll swear they never met the man.
As for Trump diminishing the presidency, yes, he's presently chiseling away at that institution. But if the country begins righting itself in the midterms, and continues that process in 2020, maybe when the Trump era ends he will have succeeded in diminishing only himself. Too optimistic? Perhaps. But I need something to keep me going...
Or to quote George Harrison, "All things must pass."
35
"The objective must be greater than politics. It must be about the restoration of normalcy, civility, truth, fair play and respect."
Agreed. But one must ask: "How could the country's basic nature have fallen so fast, with just the election of Trump?" I believe that he is a reflection of something that has existed in the United States for a long time. His election simply gave voice to it. The real job will be to address the portion of the country that truly feel that he speaks for them...and they like what he says and how he says it. On the one hand, it's good to know who these people are. On the other, it's caused personal pain to discover that some family and friends are in that category. The chasm that it has created will take a long time to heal.
76
And it may never heal, Etienne. But It is an opportunity to focus on one's own humanity and willingness to understand, if not quite forgive, and to hope they extend the same grace to you.
5
Mr. Moyer, good advice.
So, summarizing your comment, "You're right...everyone else is wrong."
"My vision of our forthcoming election is rooted not simply in partisan politics but in a more profound sense of morality, righteousness and patriotism."
Mine too. I also agree that requires "liberal" answers. I agree where Blow mentions, "Liberal anxiety about the fate of the midterms — and I would venture, the country itself — is rising."
However, then Blow goes on to conflate liberal and Democrats. Well, certainly there are no liberal Republicans. However, there are many Democrats who are not liberal, too many.
The first block in our system preventing liberal answers to our problems is right wing Democrats who won't even let liberal answers reach the ballot. They leave us with a choice of evils, none liberal.
Keep in mind that "liberal" is not one thing to all people, not one set of answers on which all liberals agree. Also keep in mind that many people are not purely liberal, they are liberal about some things, and not so much about other things.
That means that local elections must run candidates who are sort of liberal, on the things for which their voters would support liberal answers. That is not what I mean by right wing Democrats.
I mean the Democrats bought and paid for by donors, offering only those answers acceptable to the tiny donor elite.
While there are liberal donors, a good many are an odd version of Libertarian liberal, I've got mine types not so unlike Republicans, triangulating into Republican answers.
We must elect liberals, not just Democrats.
19
In 2016 the polls were in unanimous agreement that Hillary Clinton would defeat Donald Trump. They were wrong not because they didn't know what they were doing, but because polls of this nature are constructed on the basic assumption that people will actually turn out and vote. Republicans did; Democrats did not. Yes, Clinton won the popular vote, and when the popular vote becomes the metric by which we elect the president, that fact will be relevant. But as long as the electoral college remains in place, it is paramount that Democrats and progressives vote in historic numbers, especially in states that are marginal.
All this to say that polls showing a +13 swing towards the Democrats will once again be meaningless if the response is a 2016 style "We can't lose!" enthusiasm coupled with a lukewarm voter turnout.
The key to returning sanity and stability to our government is NOT convincing conservatives of the error of their ways. It is to get progressive candidates elected, in every district, in every state. This means carefully choosing candidates --- regardless of whether they pass some litmus test for liberal purity [see Lamb, Conor] --- and then getting people to the polls to vote for them.
If this does not happen we'll be back here in 9 months analyzing, once again, how it was that the polls got it so wrong.
30
Nah, the poll analysis was wrong because it was too national in scope. They didn’t drill down to the district level. Heard it from some authors (on NPR) who just wrote a book on what happened.
There may very well be a Blue Wave this November, and deservedly so. However, I am concerned that this will be yet another small back-and-forth movement of America's political pendulum, and by 2020 who knows what it will look like?
The Democratic Party is still our best/only hope for implementing policies with any common sense or progressive ideals, and yet the party is still in thrall to corporate interests, as it has been since the decision in the 1980s to drop economic justice and the interests of working people in favor of knee-jerk social issues.
One can only hope that in a lab somewhere there are Democrats working through the night coming up with a formula for a New New Deal that addresses essential fairness in economic matters while taking into account and actually understanding how modern developments (e.g. the Software Revolution, of which we've heard NOTHING) will change our lives in the next generation. Taking care of economic issues for us working stiffs would go a long way towards inoculating voters against the siren song of authoritarianism.
19
My heart sank when I read that Mueller has said he will not indict a sitting president, because certainly he has uncovered the basis of many plausible felonies. The only person who might have gone there was New York's attorney general, and now he is sidelined by his own reprehensible conduct.
Donald Trump has taken us so far off the mean in terms of moral and legal conduct that I hope our electoral system is adequate to restore order and a way forward that doesn't destroy our republic. I'll vote, of course, Mr. Blow, but something tells me that an election is only the first step toward setting things right.
25
My question was, why did his lawyers think of this question at all? Do they think that he is guilty of something? If the president was innocent and truthful, why would they even ask the question?
7
Because they think if there is a blue wave, Trump may not survive.
Mueller didn't say that. Giuliani did. So believe nothing.
Furthermore, even if our liar-in-chief can't be indicted (not settled yet) he can be subpoenaed and forced to testify. (And take the 5th if he chooses.)
And one can only imagine the charges he'll face once out of office. Everything in his self-made Trump Sewer will dog him until the day he dies, and his family as well. Couldn't happen to nicer people.
4
Charles is completely correct that "It must be about the restoration of normalcy, civility, truth, fair play and respect." Yet I worry -- when things are broken this badly, is it ever possible to put them back together? It will take -- at best -- a very, very long time to restore what Trump has damaged so severely.
50
It will take more than the restoration of decency to undo the harm Trump has done to our country. Clearly, "norms" must become actionable laws and laws must be able to be enforced regardless of the party in power. Our system didn't anticipate Trump and has failed us in dealing with him.
83
It breaks my heart to witness what has been happening to America. It also angers me greatly. One note of encouragement here in dark red Idaho - we just rejected Tea Party Raul Labrador for governor, and two Democrats ran in the primary - one establishment and one progressive - The progressive Paulette Jordan won the primary. And that is here in Idaho. It gives me hope.
160
From the NYT:
"In a state that Donald J. Trump won by more than 30 percentage points and has not elected a Democratic governor since 1990, the Republican primary is almost certainly where Mr. Otter’s successor will be chosen."
Way to provide even a glimmer of hope, from the pretend liberal NYT. With friends like this...
2
wishful thinking is the sworn enemy of reality, sir.
if Mr.Trump has a few more successes, whether
he himself is responsible for them or not and Nancy Pelosi keeps on calling for tax hikes,therefore making her the poster girl for
every Republican congressional candidate,
he may still do better than expected in November. I hope not,but I wouldn't bet on it.
10
People at the NYT like Blow are beyond wishful thinking. They are in the realm of magical thinking. They project their desires into the world as if they are facts, either oblivious to their own psychopathology or purposefully trolling for more regular readers who somehow still have a shred of rational thought, hoping to tip them over the edge into the magic land that is the mental deficit if liberalism so embedded in those who read all the news that's fit to print. As if!!
1
The Democratic Leadership stands with its corporate, elite donors. Steney Hoyer even admitted on tape when telling a progressive candidate to drop out that this is how it is done. They would rather have a Republican, than a progressive candidate make it through the primaries.
The Democrats need to stand for something. They have made it all about Russiagate so that they do not have to explain that they do not stand for progressive policies. They have voted for Trumps tax cuts for millionaires and for massive increases to the military. Democrats are even pushing Trump from the right using the military more such as in Syria. The people want Bernie Sanders policies but everything is being done to stop them.
15
And if you don't believe Charles Blow, because he may not be your cup of tea, then consider the words of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson - who had a front row seat to Donald's moral, intellectual and economic bankruptcy show - at yesterday's commencement address at the Virginia Military Institute.
“If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom”
“When we as people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth even on what may seem the most trivial matters, we go wobbly on America”
“If we do not as Americans confront the crisis of ethics and integrity in our society and among our leaders in both the public and private sector — and regrettably at times even the nonprofit sector — then American democracy as we know it is entering its twilight years”
“One of America’s great advantages is we have many allies. Our adversaries — China, Russia, Iran and the terrorist organizations — have few.”
“We must never take these long-held allies for granted. We must motivate and strengthen them — not just in our areas of complete agreement, but particularly in bridging our differences both in trading relations and in national security matters.”
Lying for a living is a socio-political cancer that the Liar-In-Chief and the Grand Old Prevaricators have injected into American democracy.
Reject it with force on November 6 2018.
499
Tillerson's statements would hold more weight if he addressed his concerns specifically as being caused by and the result of Donald Trump and the Republican party. Nuance is fine in some situations, but in these troubled times you have to tell it like it is.
69
I would agree if the venue were not a graduation ceremony. If Tillerson were any more specific, he would be behaving like Trump. It is proper that he condemned the actions, not the person by name.
1
Yes Socrates, Tillerson had a front seat to the horror show - but he did nothing about it.
36
Be warned, o my brothers (and sisters): there's a guy in New Jersey running for Bob Menendez' seat who's already telling you that he's "a different kind of Republican" who'll vote for your interests and not in a manner that toes the party line irrespective of which party occupies the Oval Office.. That kind of promise from a modern Republican isn't worth the time it takes you to listen to it. Menendez' "crimes" are as nothing compared to those of Agent Orange. The real crime would be to allow another prospective Trump-backer to litter the halls of Congress.
154
We must vote for democrats up and down the ballot; even those we might need to hold our noses about.
Democrats can be trained.
Republicans only bought.
18
They all Laugh at You.
DNC is a corporation, that exploits a natural resource....your vote.
RNC is a corporation that exploits a natural resource.....your fear.
This is exactly what republican voters figured: hold your nose and vote party line.
I share your vision of a Democratic politics based on "a more profound sense of morality, righteousness and patriotism." And let's be clear: this is a *progressive* vision of morality and patriotism. It is not centrism, not both-sides-ism, not selling out leftist principles to appease moderate Republicans.
We have a clear idea of what a moral, patriotic nation should look like: it should be inclusive and fair, it should be honest and decent, it should care for the unfortunate, and it should invest in the future. These principles are not something to show in the primary and hide in the general. These principles are not something we have to poll test and focus group. These principles are what define the progressive movement. Invite voters to share these principles, and the blue wave will indeed come crashing in.
42
I once dreaded the inevitable bad news and moral outrage committed by this administration with each passing day, now I welcome it in the hope that folks will finally wake up and realize what's happening to this country -- to us all, and do something about it come November.
Because what's happening now is far more than just a Republican or a Democrat problem, it is an attack on the very fiber the nation that somehow manages to hold us all together.
Of course, there was some of us who knew in advance what would happen if Donald Trump were to be elected as president, and unfortunately he has lived entirely up to, and exceeded each catastrophic act we imagined him was capable of, but that doesn't matter now.
What matters now is that a wave of all People, regardless of colour, political affilliation, religion and ethnicity to come together and VOTE! as though our lives depended on it.
Because, it does.
111
To me at least, the less hyped-up happy talk of the "coming blue wave:" the better. Those of us who, like Charles, are appalled and shaken by this president's degradation of objective truth, moral worth and common decency--and by his denigration of our country's Republican democracy and our global leadership--will just work that much harder to assure there is one.
69
I wish I could share your realistic, tempered optimism about this country's future election, but I can't stop thinking about the focus group held with Trump supporters and Democrats regarding the Russia investigation.
To watch Americans who look sane and sober spout the party line from FOX News about the "deep state," "witch hunts," and "Robert Mueller is a liar" felt like an out-of-body experience.
Many sounded as if they had been kidnapped and brainwashed by cult. Never mind Robert Mueller has not spoken a word in public since he was appointed a year ago; if the Great Leader says he's a liar, it must be true.
This group ain't small--whatever the competing figures say, 38 to 46 percent of voters still support a man who would have already been thrown out of office if this were 1958.
So Democrats not only face a "relatively" unpopular president, but a competing view of reality.
Yes, Charles, the battle is on to reclaim American ethics, restore the definition of right and wrong, and reclaim the ability to question what sounds strange.
In Novembers, voters will choose beyond local party platforms-- their votes will signal the importance they place on " normalcy, civility, truth, fair play and respect."
252
"a competing view of reality" is a subtle phrase to describe it. It's not just the Russian investigation either. Guns, transgender rights, healthcare access, the list goes on of concerns that otherwise sane-appearing people have accepted whatever smoke is blown out by the uber rich or Elmer Gantry evangelicals.
31
Several weeks ago, I watched a CNN reporter interview a group of Trump supporters, and their reactions and answers were exatly as you describe--blind faith, essentially--regurgitation of all of Trump's catch phrases and insinuations, regardless of voluminous evidence to the contrary.
The last statement in the interview is one that still haunts me. A man said, "....because Donald Trump is draining the swamp." The reporter looked as flummoxed as I felt. How can anyone possibly believe this absurdity?
38
"Many sounded as if they had been kidnapped and brainwashed by cult."
They have. Welcome to the United States of Jonestown.
Between now and November, lots of subtle games will be played to ensure the undermining of America's institutions will continue. If ever there was a moment for America's progressives to stand up and be counted, it is now.
30
Wish I were as sanguine as Mr. Blow, and maybe my angst is a function of where I live, surrounded as I am by a sea of red, a sea populated by people of all educational and socio-economic stripes, but most loyally Republican voters. My fear is that whereas the Democratic Party (rightly) focuses on technocratic issues - the long-term stability of Social Security, healthcare availability and affordability, equitable tax policy, measured and strategic foreign policy - the GOP has long since learned that emotional red meat wins, regardless of the foundation in fact. Race, immigration, abortion - all high temperature, emotional issues. The GOP appeals to (largely irrational) fear, and also to racism, whereas the Democratic Party necessarily appeals to reason, and a sense of fairness for all. Most of those who vote Republican do not know the millionaires who benefited most from the GOP tax cut, so don't realize that they will enjoy a permanent elimination of the estate tax while the middle class gets a temporary serving of peanuts. This is not the country of my birth in 1950 - not its media, not its leadership, and certainly not equality of opportunity. But, most of all, my sense is that it differs profoundly in the fact-based engagement of the average citizen in our democracy. Cronkite is dead, and I don't feel so good myself. Nevertheless, I fervently hope November brings a breath of fresh air, because right now things are more than a bit malodorous.
170
The old time Democrats who won national elections were completely comfortable using red meat to win elections. FDR based all his wins on fear and positioned himself as the only person who could make that fear go away. But instead of the fascist fear of immigrants that Trump uses, FDR used fear of job loss, of starvation and humiliation, fear of the true threats that fascism was then presenting to the country. That could be done again by a Democrat who understood politics and who hated fascism. If anyone ever finds such a Democrat please tell him to stop hiding.
8
I hope the election process has not been ruined by the Russian interference, gerrymandering and general corruption after the 2016 debacle. Low voter turnout was a contributing factor in 2016 hopefully will vote in the future.
20
I worry more about how the Republic party is ruining the election process for many citizens.
1
Get your surfboard. The Blue Wave's a coming.
.
CB has correctly repeated what the resistance likes to hear. Trump is bad, with 3 or 8 examples.
.
Now, what exactly are Dems running on? What new laws, what human rights, what vital correction needs to be applied to save the country? If the Conner Lamb way, is the strategy, there may be more Dems in the House, but, not necessarily sure votes for abortion or sensible gun confiscation. If Mr. Blue is from a carbon energy district, that's a NO vote for the Paris Climate hooey.
.
My personal thought is, Trump voters have not realized the promise of "tired of winning".
8
A "sure vote for abortion" doesn't exist. A sure vote for women's reproductive rights is what galvanizes those of us who believe that folks in the Republic of Texas (which also no longer exists) are seeking to curtail for the sake of religious convictions we don't all happen to share. As for Paris Climate hooey, the same such argument was posed when people like Galileo were telling people like you that the earth is round and revolves around the sun. Enjoy your guns, and please don't carry them into the saloon.
42
You could go online & read the Democrat party platform. It says exactly what they stand for. I question the need for new & shiny principles. Ideas such as equal treatment for all, stewardship of natural resources, taking care of the unfortunate, separation of church & state, and bodily autonomy are good enough for me.
3
"Paris climate hooey" ruined your confident take.
2
Rather than cast these elections in moral terms, we'd prefer to see them in terms of restoring legality - where no person is above the law (even the POTUS) as well as restoring 'norms', which John McCain and others have described with the Senatorial term of 'regular order'.
The restoring of legality also encompasses the Complicit GOP'ers who were supposed to keep someone as unqualified as the donald from ever coming close to a ballot - from ever performing his self-immolations Twittering on an official account which would have been deleted long ago were it anyone else.
But this was the logical next iteration of Complicit GOP'ers, from their governing philosophy of "we make our own reality" in the Dubya years:
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/faith-certainty-and-the-pres...
to Sarah Palin's selection, to Netanyahu's invitation to speak to a Joint Session of Congress on Obama's Iran Deal, to GOP'ers seditiously pretending a 2-term Dem POTUS has no SCOTUS appointment power past the 85th month of his 96 months in office.
For far far too long, what GOP'ers were about was not seen for the radicalism they embody, and thus the way was prepared for His Unhinged Unraveling Unfitness - the Useful Idiot that Grover Norquist pined for:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/norquist-romney-will-do-as-tolddavid-frum
What has been going on is not 'disruption'.
97
It is an evangelism of lies to make death a better place for themselves. Public psychopathology on steroids.
1
"... where no person is above the law (even the POTUS)..."
.
I know what you mean? When will we find out who was responsible for Hillary's secret server.
1
As is typical of progressives in general, I see many of the commenters here expressing some version of depression and despair about our chances of success in restoring any sense of decency to our country's governance. While I understand that the 2016 election caused many of us to question the basic decency and common sense of our fellow citizens, I for one have been heartened in the months since by countless demonstrations of said qualities in fighting the Trump agenda. From the Women's March to the protests against the Muslim Ban to the Parkland students, citizens have been willing to stand up and say: "enough." This doesn't even count the many less dramatic actions which are taking place in towns and districts all over the country every day to make sure we elect more Democrats to all offices in November. As Charles says, it's important to ignore the media noise, keep our eyes on the prize, and continue to take action in whatever way we can. As a mental health professional, I can tell you that despair destroys motivation and depletes the energy we need right now to fight for our country. Don't give in to it!
192
The liberals will make a lot of noise marching and protesting as they go down. They will never get that this is a democracy and it requires more than a few motivated groups to get things done, it requires the unwashed masses to go along. So the women and liberals can march and run for office in greater numbers than before and nothing will change. The masses are still out for blood, their blood it seems, and the masses always win. There is no Democrat who can reach the unwashed and the unwashed rule the day.
1
US public policy is conducted without regard to its affects on public mental health.
3
“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.” W. Churchill
A large swath of American voters became complacent prior to the 2016 election and did not bother to go to the polls. That alone arguably cost HRC the Electoral College. And the consequence has been a continual undermining of traditional American values by the current administration and the GOP in Congress. And yet…
The vast majority of Americans, on BOTH sides of the aisle, profoundly believe in those values (morality, being honest, treating others equally, etc.). So if we want those to be held in esteem by our political leaders again, there is only one thing to do: VOTE.
72
Never thought I'd see the day when someone tried to define "True Liberal Values".....and turn it into Morality Politics......but here we go.....
1
Billing Hillary as a shoo-in was another critical piece of disinformation in an election paved with lies.
3
The good news is that a “blue wave” is at this point a forgone conclusion.
Democrats will come to the voting booths in droves out of anger towards the Republican establishment.
But it is the abject failures and ineptitude of Trump that has made many Independents and occasional voters realize they also need to knock out the Republican majority that placate to the whims of our Dunce-in-Chief.
Yet, I am also fearful that the Democrats in 2018 will end up in a similar situation to the Republicans of 2016.
Our current Republican majority in Congress since 2008 has run on a platform of Anti-Obamaism and saying “NO” to anything even remotely rational politically.
It seems that many Democrats are now running campaigns based mainly on a hatred of Trump.
Going from a platform of Anti-Obamaism to Anti-Trumpism in 2018 will only make us end up in the same position we are in now.
We will have a Democratic majority without a clear message or agenda, which like our current Congress, only understands how to say “NO” and is unable to accomplish even the simplest of legislative goals.
26
Well I disagree, I believe this upcoming election will bring about permanent change. If the Democrats do win big they better listen to the disenfranchised republicans, independents, and progressive democrats who got them there ! Yes the national media and pundits have bombarded us about a national "blue wave" coming.
Fine, but its also about the many disenfranchised citizens in small towns and cities elected to positions never envisioned by themselves till this past year. We citizens bear a responsibility for common sense representative ideas and cooperation to move ourselves forward.
In many respects the fourth estate (Yes you media, in all its forms!) has done a terrible job of informing the citizenry of our responsibilities of being a citizen of this great country. You would rather make it a game of winners and losers....Sorry instead of making it a contest and lets provide entertainment, why not intercede & make it about CONTEXT for a change ! and please report the news w no bias....but that is probably asking to much.
I hope the next generation of citizens will better informed and more involved politically. This hopefully will result in better representation for themselves and their communities . "Enough is Enough!
The real political divide in the US lies between people who act on faith and people who act on reason.
1
Unlike so many Republicans, Democrats believe in good governance. I can see a Democratic majority willing to work with Trump on infrastructure and other issues. I can also see them standing firm against those things that will harm Americans. Democrats will govern where the Republicans have been treating this country as a carcass to be devoured.
Vote Blue.
1
Charles, the forest, not the trees. Trump got elected regardless of the character and moral flaws. Trump got elected by angry white, "middle class" folks who want immigration eliminated to save their economic standing and want the halt of the demographic shift toward minorities (Sorry folks. The only way to do that will be for you to increase the white population by having lots of children. And that will take a generation or more to accomplish). And the only current way to stay ahead of minorities is through voter suppression and gerrymandering. AKA cheating. Those aspects of Trump's victory will not change, no matter who runs. The absolutely only way to stop this is for as many Americans who can vote to do so. And run for office. Women have gotten it. Minorities need to as well. It may not have "mattered" in the past, but it does now. The thing that will absolutely, 100% terrify Republicans would be a very high turnout by women and minorities. You know, people exercising their constitutional rights. Republicans can't allow that to happen.
224
He got elected due to voter suppression and because a majority of voters didn't bother to vote. These non-actions have consequences which are so evident today.
21
Nixon focused on getting the vote of the silent majority. This is what Democrats need to be doing now. We've done our part with the Women's March, the candidates who are running for local and national office, and the ongoing protests against the extremism that has been rearing its ugly head. But we can only do so much. We need the Democrats to figure out what they stand for, to craft a message that's appealing to most Americans, and to get out there and sell their vision of a more inclusive country that works for everyone.
We can't make this a referendum on Trump. He's a symptom, we need to attack the disease. Right now the focus needs to be on how to improve the economy because low unemployment is misleading and the scars of the recession are still being felt by some Americans. Tell us how you're going to make our lives better and please don't focus on identity politics. Right now we need a message of inclusion and a reminder of what unites us.
As an independent I'll vote for a Democrat in this next election because I'm disgusted by what I'm seeing in Washington. But Trump won't always be our president and Democrats can't just skate by with an "I'm not Trump" campaign. I want to see a marshall plan for America and I will support whoever delivers.
131
The Republicans already delivered their "Marshall Plan," a giant tax cut that largely benefits the wealthy and whose debt financing will drive up interest rates and possibly cause another recession. Cutting taxes and raising defense spending are the only policies the Republicans have consistently supported for decades. If you're waiting for some other policy that helps the non-wealthy and those displaced by the last recession, you'll be waiting a very long time.
29
What you are waiting for is a “New Deal” Democrat to arise. He already has and his name is Bernie Sanders but Democratic leadership fears him more than they do Trump. A Democrat who can win national elections is a Democrat that will disturb the status quo of big business democrats and he will never be allowed on the ticket. The democrats would rather lose and continue to receive campaign money from corporations than win with New Deal populism and have to start working for a living.
5
Here you go again. The two parties are DIFFERENT. Republicans are for the very rich. Democrats want to share wealth. Being stuck in Political Science 101 with this "Independent" 1970s mush is what got us here in the first place.
9
Mr.Blow, you are cheerful and hopeful-please keep talking because I need more then this encouraging column to believe that Nov.2018 will be a date to celebrate.I hope it will be with all my heart but I am discouraged that even now after all the lies, chaos,and destruction of American values that 40 per cent of voters still support Trump.These voters are not the "forgotten"people.They are people who who cheer for lies, insults, and unacceptable language.They will vote for their flawed candidate.All the rest of us must work extra hard to support candidates who will take us back to the "sensible center" and make us proud of our government again.
32
The D's probably will win the House, but the Senate is an unlikely take. The exec will continue to off-gas the odoriferous miasma of the swamp and the Supremes will continue enabling ongoing plutocratic coups of democracy. Many of these anti-democratic structures are locked in place. Democracy has been crippled, its vascularity is sclerotic and its mind reduced of its prefrontal capacity for reason over tribal fear.
“Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide.” John Adams
Still, I will vote and defend it to the last.
32
The Senate is not out of reach either
http://www.politicsbythenumbers.org/2018/04/12/can-the-republicans-hold-...
1
Mr. Blow, your key phrase is “Americans of good conscience”. Do enough Americans care about the country to say “NO” to the Republican brand? Are tribalism, white nationalism, exclusion and a phobia of minorities and foreigners too much to overcome for Americans who see this president as a savior?
If this president continues to say and do out loud what many citizens feel deep down inside, this country is in big trouble. For the president’s base, this is the government they asked for. As for the indifferent and stay-at-home voters, this is the government they deserve.
22
@Lionel Hampton’s Silver Vibes: We’re both old enough to remember 1964–even though, at 20, we couldn’t vote—LBJ buried Barry Goldwater. Whether the high voter turnout was due to continued grief behind 11/22/1963 or a genuine backlash against Goldwater’s extremism, Americans showed up at the polls and made a definitive electoral statement. We’re in a far more desperate place now—54 years later—and if we don’t smash all previous voter turnout records in six months, Vladimir Putin wins. The jury is out on us. And 36-millions sent them into that room to deliberate.
3
It’s not enough to get rid of malevolent self-serving political opportunists. As long as so many American voters are unable to tell decent and honorable people from ignorant frauds we’ll suffer our democracy rather than be empowered by it.
The problem in our politics grows out of our inability to know where our own interests lie. A disturbingly high number of people would rather feed their resentment and vote to suppress minorities, immigrants, the sick and the poor than make the resources of government help those who need it. Many would rather saw off the branch they’re sitting on rather than give a hand up to their fellow travelers.
The result of all of this unjustified resentment is currently squatting in the Oval Office. Getting rid of him would only clear the way for some other miscreant to take his place. Pandering to the lowest common denominator diminishes us all, and until we can find a way to raise the quality of our voters there can be no chance that we will make America what we imagine it to be.
512
What if in the upcoming election cycles we Democrats change the national conversation (not the actions) from social concerns to infrastructure -- all that physical stuff even the excitably resentful can't fail to see? Everybody wants to make it to the other side of the bridge, not to plunge halfway. Innovate.
40
Education is the only way to raise the quality of our voters. It is a long road, for most of us that road runs from birth to death. A good teacher has a lesson plan and follows that plan, expanding on it as the student progresses. Some students prefer ignorance over enlightenment but we can`t let that stop us from engaging all and trying our best to advance the whole class.
25
Unfortunately when the Democrats nominated Clinton and the Republicans nominated Trump there were no major party "decent and honorable people" for Americans to vote for.
8
For too long, Americans have forgotten the grim truth about democratic republics, that their survival always faces obstacles. After more than two centuries of constitutional rule, through many challenges and the vicissitudes of our economy, most of us assumed that our system rested on unshakable foundations. We dismissed Trump's candidacy as a source of amusement during an otherwise boring, seemingly interminable, electoral campaign. No sentient being has any excuse for such complacency any longer.
Trump's name may not appear on the ballot, but his capacity to wreak havoc over the next two years will hinge to a large degree on which party controls Congress. But, as several readers have noted, Democrats will not succeed by merely stressing the president's unfitness for office; that approach did not work in 2016, when voters had a chance to reject him directly.
Candidates must focus on local issues vital to their constituents, especially jobs, as well as on national questions related to healthcare, the environment, America's role in the world and growing economic inequality. The GOP has demonstrated its intellectual bankruptcy on all these problems. Democrats cannot win unless they convince the electorate that they can do better.
49
Republicans have significant structural advantages and the Fox propaganda machine going for them. Flipping the House is not enough. It won't stop confirmation of right-wing judges. I wish I could be more optimistic but I see more damage to our democracy in the future and no clear way to prevent it. Of course determined resistance is still essential.
26
Democrats knew they were sure winners in 2016, they smell victory again in 2018; they may be right, but what if they're not? If they don't dislodge the Republicans in November what is their plan, more clever skits on 'Saturday Night Live'? What would it take for them to admit that they need to move more toward the political center? What segment of their voter base would they have to quietly jettison to do that? Just something to think about.
21
Political center established by who? The Republicans have been driving in the ditch for a long time so is just getting one wheel up on the pavement considered the center.
4
The Democrats have been moving right for FOUR DECADES. Wake up. There is no longer a center. Gingrich saw to that.
6
The office of the presidency has been elevated all out of proportion. In the minds of the voters a vote for president represents their will in all political matters. The positions the presidential candidates choose are the ones that fire the imagination of the populace. Candidates like Trump and Sanders used that and were rewarded accordingly, in Sanders case the Democratic Party refused to go with a populist.
I see nothing wrong with using extreme figureheads in order to win elections as long as they govern in a way that includes compromise. The problem with Democrats is that they compromise before they even get elected while the problem with Republicans is that they have forgotten the meaning of the word compromise.
12
I will be delighted if this wave comes.
It will be better than everything we have now.
And unfortunately, we will still have the Pelosis, Manchins and Schumers of out party to wreck the momentum and put us squarely in the center, arguing for gun rights, corporations, and businesses. Until they are gone, it is not yet time to celebrate.
13
the taskt is to get the conversation back to a sane platform of fact based argumernts. The only way to do that is to put the radical right in their rightful place: the toilet.
then let;s have a civilized debate and agree to disagree. Take that Hannity, you too smooth con man.
I'm sitting here trying to figure out how you have put Manchin, who is not a Dem at all, in the same box as Schumer and Pelosi.
1
Agreed. Pelosi and Schumer must be the first to go. Manchin isn’t even worth talking about.
2
Democrats need to say something! They need to talk about what they stand for in specific terms, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, a higher minimum wage, health care and the list goes on. They should talk about getting the money out of politics and overturning Citizen's United. These are just some of the things that people care about, but rarely do I hear them stand up for much of anything except for the one's that do not cost anything. I will continue to vote Democratic, but think they could win more votes on a different platform.
268
Sadly democrats are too busy thwarting off the chaos and acts of Mitch McChinless when he refused to allow a sitting president with 11 months left in his term to appoint a Supreme Court Justice.
The GOP has been throwing bombs into our democracy, and the Dems are too busy putting out those fires to bring in their own agenda.
14
Go to your State party's website and find the platform document. I'm certain it says something you would also endorse on all the issues you mention.
Unfortunately, the party can't control the media narrative. There is no Democratic equivalent to Faux News (MSNBC is NOT a liberal venue, but tends to do a better job reporting).
Talk to you local Demcratic elected officials. You will likely hear them echo your sentiments.
The Democratic message hasn't changed very much, but the reporting on it certainly has.
24
A platform is built with planks. Sometimes the design may call for National planks while other times regional native planks may be required to better suit the regions atmosphere.
9
People who live by the sea know the difference between tides and currents, in politics the two are often confused. So are their effects. Tides are temporary; they rise and fall. Trump rides tides, silent on their troughs, exaggerating their highs. He has set in powerful currents in motion, powerful trends whose invisible undertow and expanding ripples weaken liberty, the freedom and safety of citizens, our economic prosperity; our truth and morality are being swept out of public and private life, dashed as ruins from a storm.
The silence in our souls is screaming as we are caught in the currents of a human tempest; sharp pains jab our sides. We are struck by the fury of words and acts that project unbearable hurt, our peace finds no rest.
Politics is a living force, with its own currents, we should be reminded. The current political currents are intended to kill and steal, not preserve. We face not trade winds, but tempests, one after the other, another, another. The ship of state, battered, loaded with the ballast of corruption, is adrift. Its own weapons are turned to rake its rudder; its crew profligate.
And onshore: who shot live rounds that kill unarmed children and infants? Amputees with sling shots?
Physical death is horrific. But the currents have brought a new plague: a cloud of mortal death that blames victims and hides a deeper, more reprehensible death that deserves no grief--only an understanding of its depravity--its abject horror among the living.
139
Excellent Walter, just excellent!
7
Walter Rhett, never has the danger we are in at this time in America’s history been put more poetically. And that “profligate crew, “ that “abject horror.” You and Charles are reading my mind, explaining my despair, deepening my resolve. Dang, man!
7
Stay the course, take the moral high ground, one foot in front of the other, do the next right thing. These are suggestions of how to live in a program of recovery that I am involved with, suggestions that are wise words for all of how to survive and make positive change to our government and society.
I will continue ro work hard helping those patriots that have stepped up to the plate to be elected. I will work hard not be silent when injustices are thrust before me. I will work hard ro be a positive participating patriot and never give up.
It is now a way of life. May we all find the strength to lift each other up, join together, and be that blue wave of change.
270
Thank you for reminding us of the wisdom of "doing the next right thing." Something that works in every situation.
51
Thank you, Anne. You remind me that there is a way to battle my despair. I will now get to work doing the next right thing.
25
The Republicans are going to get out their vote. Congressional districts are currently gerrymandered in Republican favor as well. And there is the ever present inertia involved with unseating Congressional incumbents. The good news is there are still more Democrats than Republicans and the bad news is Democrats are not as faithful as Republicans in showing up on election day.
I personally have a fear that the national party will continue to try homogenizing the candidates and discouraging and ignoring those who may be perfect for a district even if they are not a perfect fit for the national mold. To me the better strategy would be to attack the status quo with a nationwide slogan such as: Is Donald Trump the kind of leader you want? Is this Republican Congress doing their best for America? You can change this. All you have to do is vote.
136
"I personally have a fear that the national party will continue to try homogenizing the candidates and discouraging and ignoring those who may be perfect for a district even if they are not a perfect fit for the national mold."
Yes, this. Look I am a more Leftist than liberal, but I recognize that in some districts (my own FL-06, for instance), nobody like that could win election in the current environment. I realize that the best bet here (for an open seat) is a moderate, maybe even a Blue Dog. I won't like it, but I'll vote for them.
But, there are some districts where a liberal, non-New Democrat, perhaps even a Berniecrat stands an excellent chance of winning, e.g. my old district WA-07. Tom Perez and the DCCC need to get out of their way and stop impeding them.
21
There is no national election this year. There are local elections to the Congress. The message that gets out the vote in your district may not work in another district. The national party wants to win the local elections and is giving the local candidate the support s/he needs to win IF the race is winnable and the candidate is doing the work needed to win.
The unifying message is "Government can work for you and your family." or "End government corruption."
Democrats will never move in lockstep. But that's OK, because they will move in the right direction.
12
Jerry: To strengthen your point in your second paragraph: Kara Eastman in Nebraska, the Progressive who won, ran on Medicare For All etc., was not backed by the DCCC, but won anyway!
9
There is nothing "moral" about the Democratic Establishment putting up "Centrist/Republican Lite" candidates again and again that the Bottom 90% of Americans can tell from a mile away are not interested in representing their interests or in fighting for their needs. Doing so only guarantees the failure by Democrats to retake Congress in 2018 and insures Trump’s re-election in 2020. Guarantees it. Similarly, there was nothing "moral" in running a candidate in 2016 who blithely proclaimed that "America is already great" when for the great majority of Americans, struggling to get by, their lives were clearly “not great.” For all but the blind or willfully self-deluding, there's been no recovery for 90% of Americans since the GFC of 2008. The Democratic Party’s ignoring this obvious fact is amoral. So, Mr. Blow, please speak to me of no moral restoration.
20
Exactly this. The DNC and its corporate-first candidates are complicit in the current state of affairs. Trump's ascent to the presidency is in no small part due to the backlash incurred by Democratic leadership in the primaries as it ensured its candidate's nomination.
The fight for the future of this nation is not just against the GOP, it is also against the Democratic establishment that is funded by the same big-business interests.
2
That candidate you criticize would not have had Gorsuch on the SC, undermined the ACA that Obama enacted, ditched the Iran nuclear deal, endangered the New Deal entitlements by a tax heist for the rich, turned back environmental and consumer protections, and put a lit match into the powder keg of the Middle East by moving the American embassy to Jerusalem. That candidate had well-laid out plans to improve on the economy, education, infrastructure, job creation and health care. Spare me your indignation. Charles Blow has it right!
12
The only way for progressives to defeat the Democratic establishment is to put it into power and then push it left. This will be difficult enough that it needs a political revolution in addition to Democratic control of government.
We have seen the other way of defeating the Democratic establishment, and so far it is much worse. And since the Democratic establishment is part of the establishment, Trump is not really a defeat; there is a different set of creatures at the top of the food chain, but the swamp remains.
3
Like a Pirate whose Ship’s full off booty
Whose demeanor's hardly of a cutie
Devoid of all charm
Harbinger of harm,
To top it off, his lawyer’s Rudy.
The Rudy-Meants change every day
In a fanciful ill-thought out way,
Donald paid the porn star
His rep not to mar,
To keep all the slander at bay.
Why is Treason so blithely ignored
This Putinphile by his Base adored?
A treacherous POTUS
Whose deeds escape notice
Proposed for a Nobel award.
VOTE!
303
Larry Eisenberg, thanks for the warm hug and kindly understanding. That's what I feel from your words.
15
Larry, you've outdone yourself!
15
Brilliant poem today, Mr. Eisenberg, especially the last lines: " A treasonous POTUS /whose deeds escape notice / Proposed for a Nobel award." You have captured the whole ridiculous scenario in just 12 words. Bravo!
8
As a liberal Democrat, I for one would like to see fewer prognostications predicting the "Blue Wave" in November. I am still angry at the Democrats, and liberal leaning independents, who stayed home in 2016 because they thought Clinton had a lock on the election. A few thousand votes in a few key states, and we would be living in a different world now.
"For world leaders, Trump is the representative of America..."
For almost half the country, that is true. Trump isn't the problem, he's the result. We can again pick up the work to overcome much of the problem if all Democrats vote in November.
We are the majority in this country, but we give it away when we don't vote.
668
@Ralph Averill...agreed, and at least 150 million registered American voters didn’t see the point in voting for Clinton or Putin’s puppet because they saw no difference. They felt that they were both equally bad choices.
Now let’s hope that those registered voters who sat out the last election come out and vote in force in the November midterms and hope they can see the consequence of their inaction to exercise their constitutional right to vote.
Most are democrats, you are correct.
We need to help motivate these registered voters and do our best to bypass GOP voter suppression tactics in play.
We need to restore balance in the house and senate.
VOTE THEM OUT! 2018.
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We need to bring back civics again, not just in classrooms but in everything we do as a society. The drumbeat of citizenship and it's responsibilities should be in everyone's awareness. What about a national campaign?
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It's a constitutional right, not a mandate to vote. Can you blame the 150 + million for their inaction? Arguable the two worst candidates in each party pitted against one another. And their respective parties.. undermining Bernie's campaign on the Democratic side to Russian ties on the Republican side.