There has always been common sense in much of the country, but progressives need to have full agreement with their every utterance in order to avoid their disdain. Do you really think KANSAS, long the butt of progressive ire, has suddenenly turned blue, or is it just that much of America simply is more adult than progressives choose to believe. Having voted both for Medicaid expansion and Romney, I can tell you there are lots of reasonable and good-hearted folks out here who remain repulsed by the sanctimonious caterwauling of Democrats.
12
Thank you, Mr Egan, for your refreshing and positive take on the ramifications of the results of our recent midterm elections. While some of your colleagues are talking about what Democrats need to do to save our country (rather than what all of us need to do), you show us a more unified and inclusive vision of where we are heading.
To be sure, there are cultural forces that will take time and education to overcome such as the very ugly racism of the Trumpist brand of Republicanism. The economic recovery started by Obama has still to catch up in providing a good living wage for many Americans. With the House being controlled by the Democrats, I feel a little less negative about the future even though I know Trump will raise holy hell between now and 2020.
11
Trump, so the story goes, doesn't read a thing except "tweets" and very short sentences as simple as those in the "Dick and Jane" books read to us long ago. However ......
Trump's connection with the truth, I suspect, occurs when his accountant tells him that $211 is less than $233. Or that the British Pound or Euro has risen (or fallen) on the exchange. But, who lately, has heard of book he's actually read? What could "reading" mean to him?
Trump appears to have no reasoning powers beyond the most elementary. Any basic logic book would be a foreign language to a mind like his, and to a large percentage of those in "his base." The screamers at his rallies? What really could they think? We know the answers, sadly, to such questions. They live on the fears Trump copies from other monsters in history. Is it possible, even, to process this tyrant's thoughtlessness and naked meanness? Perhaps Duterte is Trump's model.
4
". . . .after his car was totaled by a deer."
That made me smile. I thought of Mr. Trump and the rhetorical fireworks he would set off:
"DEER! TAMPERING WITH THE SACRED VOTING RIGHTS OF ALL AMERICANS! SAD! VERY SAD!"
But he'd deal with the problem.
The military would be called out. Special rifles would be issued. Instructions to young recruits telling them just where they should aim. . . . . ..
Sorry, New York Times. Couldn't resist.
Thank you, Mr. Egan. If I may say so, that was a feel-good column. And not just that. You marshaled a host of facts, data that MADE me feel good. No sir. It's NOT--midnight in America. (To quote your own telling phrase.) Not yet.
That about lying--as opposed to lying INTENTIONALLY! Into what bizarre Never-never-land is this country turning? Unbelievable.
And the Trump supporter not withholding his trust and adherence from--a proven liar! The head spins.
Oh Mr. Egan--I could go on. Thank you. So encouraging. But--
--the monsters are not gone. David Duke is still--alive and kicking. The KKK--they're still there. The haters. The bigots.
And I think of those two elderly guys grinning broadly and flaunting their T shirts--"I'd rather be Russian than a Democrat." How to say this, Mr. Egan?
The guys whose heads are not quite screwed on tight. Boy, did I stare when I saw THAT photo for the first time! Who ARE those guys? Where'd they come from?
Enough!
Thanks for your piece.
Made my day.
9
"Trump did his Mussolini-lite thing "
Yeah, but Mussolini had better hair. (Take you time, think it through...)
This is SCARY, though... "“I can’t really say that anything he says is true,” a Wyoming Trump supporter told us a few days ago, “but I trust him.”"
She TRUSTS him? Even though she admits he's a total LIAR?
With people like her voting, it's no wonder our country is in the ditch. It may take another election cycle for Democrats to win the Senate and White House, but you can't fix stupid, no matter who's in power.
15
I didn't pay to close attention my psych 101 but what category would a person fall into that believes the Democratic party is the Green Party, Europe is utopia and a blue eyed Irishman isn't white? Delusional?
For the past 50 years working class white people have been driven into and soon will drive hispanics and blacks to the Republican party. In your world you can demand more women CEO's while viewing statistics saying there's even less blacks? Think they don't notice. How's that? Equality will trickle down from white women but they have to receive justice first. The idea woman CEO's would be less greedy than males is beyond ridiculous but like everything else in the progressive DNA it doesn't stand up to serious examination.
No you won't make America whole you'll only divide the country. Why can't college educated people think?
3
“I can’t really say that anything he says is true,” a Wyoming Trump supporter told us a few days ago, “but I trust him.”
Can somebody explain to me how you trust somebody who you know says things (anything!!!) that aren't true ??? God help America.
8
Oh dear lord... you lose one election and it’s the end of democracy. Grow up. Not everyone agrees with your version of “progress,” and that’s ok in this country.
6
Thank you, Mr. Egan, thank you.
That last sentence and the Ben Franklin quote was used in the 2010 movie “Fair Game” I was lucky enough to watch before this election cycle. Based on two books by former ambassador Joe Wilson (the Politics of Truth) and by his wife Valerie Plame (Fair Game) with Sean Pen and Naomi Watts as the outed undercover CIA operative.
Towards the end, Joe Wilson is teaching a college class and asks why does everyone know his wife’s name, but doesn’t know the sixteen words that became the impetus to attack and invade Iraq?
“When did the question move from ‘why are we going to war?’ To ‘who is this man’s wife?’ “I asked the first question, but somebody else asked the second. And it worked, because none of us know the truth.”
“The offense that was committed was not committed against me of against my wife, it was committed against you, all of you. Now if that makes you angry or feel misrepresented, do something about it...!”
It continues with the Franklin quote and puts a fine point on it in the end.
We need to keep track of all the lies from 45* and his stooges for the record, to address the worst ones immediately, and to follow the lesser ones that grow up to be W-H-O-P-P-E-R-S...!
2
It's important for us to be optimistic about America's future, but we must also be realists. Trump's main goal as president has always been to stay out of jail. He knows that his freedom will be in serious jeopardy once a Democrat controlled House Judiciary Committee exposes his treason and sundry criminal acts. Democrats must start preparing for the looming showdown, which could come as soon as Christmas.
Herman Kahn, the nuclear war strategist from the 1950's, would assembl a group of lawmakers and say: "Moscow has just dropped a 10 megaton bomb on New York City. It's gone. Retaliate and you initiate an all out nuclear holocaust. That seems pretty dumb. So what's your course of action?" Gulp.
It would behoove Democrats to begin "thinking about the unthinkable." What if we wake up tomorrow to learn that Trump has ordered troops to shut down the NYTimes, the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC and all the other broadcast networks save FOX? What if he puts a padlock on the Capitol building and has Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer arrested for high treason because they have opposed his policies which are, after all, intended to benefit the American people?
We've assumed "it can't happen here" because our military would never obey these orders. Really? Our armed forces have dueling loyalties. On the one hand they have pledged to protect and defend our constitution, but as soldiers they have been trained to obey their commander-in-chief. Which obligation will win out?
3
When Sharice Davids wins big, you know you're not in Kansas anymore.
4
It must be that pixels on the Times OpEd page are very expensive. Otherwise, the editors and their page compositors would display the names of their writers. Why do I always have to search for authors on a regular basis?
1
Now, for God's sake, let's take back the White House.
2
Florida isn't over, Georgia isn'y over, you are losing the thread. That lets Trump cheat more.
Great piece but I wish he had mentioned the Muslims who raised so much money for the victims of the shooting.
1
This article shows exactly what's wrong with are country. Zealots on both sides fail to see the log in there eye will looking at the spec in the other person eye. Way is it one party rule in New York and California if controlled by the Democrats is ok but if by the Republicans is not. Hint one party rule is never ok. It's called communism
2
In California, voters had a choice between a far left Democrat and a farther left Democrat for Senate. And you love that.
3
As bizarre as it may seem, Trump is a blessing in one respect: he got people mobilized and voting. The irony is that an educated, critical thinking populace is his worst nightmare.
3
don't lets get ahead of ourselves, mr egan - the work is just beginning....
1
Was democracy’s pulse in danger during the first two years of the Obama administration? I mean, what with the one-party rule and all ...
6
Not dead, but profusely bleeding.
1
Don’t kid yourself, Mr. Egan—it’s hardly “sunrise in America,” and it wouldn’t be even if the Democrats held not only the House, but the Senate and Presidency as well.
The Dems are as much in the pockets of Big Pharma, Big Insurance, Wall Street, trial lawyers and any number of other sources of Big Money as the Republicans.
Why do you imagine that during the first two years of the Obama administration, when Dems controlled ALL the levers of power, the best that they could deliver was Obamacare, a complete “cave” to Big Insurance and Big Pharma and a big lie to the American people.
Only the languages that Dems and Repubs use to describe themselves differ; but the outcomes are always pretty much the same.
Why do you think that, together, they are described as “The Duopoly?” Heads, they win—tails, you lose
7
Nothing will change as long as nearly half of the voters in this country would vote for a toilet seat if it had an “R” after its name on the ballot. Case in point: the dead Republican candidate who was elected in Nevada this week.
3
I've learned about altruism (is it a movement... ). Regarding, "Sadly, fear of 'others' was probably the deciding factor in governor’s races in Florida and Georgia. ..." I heard on NPR that the midwest is the cake and Georgia is the icing. It makes sense. I think the buzz words have been overplayed, and I can be a compassionate person.
1
To quote W. Churchill, speaking at an even darker hour, it is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
“I can’t really say that anything he says is true,” a Wyoming Trump supporter told us a few days ago, “but I trust him.”
This is a perfect synopsis of the last two years of the Trump TV Show. Social experiments have shown that primates are capable of emotional bonds that are harmful to their personal and rational interests.
Slaves, peasants and serfs labored and died in faithful service to their Pharaoh, Pope and Czar, who they revered as gods on Earth.
Trump supporters in rural America stand before soaring piles of rotting soybeans to proclaim their faith in the Trump trade wars, which will destroy their primary export market in order to benefit wealthy tech companies in Silicon Valley.
Good luck with those soybeans, and US manufacturers using steel and aluminum, and all of those Red State exporters whose products have been targeted by the rest of the world with retaliatory tariffs.
10
We are going to have to do something about our courts. A constitutional amendment that corporations are not people might find support in red as well as blue states. Or maybe an amendment that advertising is not speech but rather something that looks like speech (which is concerned with truth and goodness) but isnt, being just concerned with persuasion and impervious to truth or goodness. If the law cannot tell the difference between speech and persuasion, then the law is useless for building a better society. But we rely on the law to tell the difference between guilty and innocent, admissible and inadmissible evidence, and so on; if there is no difference between speech and persuasion, this is all illusory and we are trapped in a cave (Plato's) and there is no way out. Good government depends on the definition of good and the power to enforce that definition.
7
While democracy showed some signs of life as indicated by the midterm results and in T. Egan, OPINION, we still cower in corners to avoid gunfire. The difference between truth and falsehood continues to be confounded. The country is as divided as it was before the midterms and the deep socio/economic division between us is not closing. Perhaps, the 'good news' is that Trump is sinking. As his fear increases and the resistance strengthens more Americans may, finally, see him in the raw.
14
The midterms were never going to rid of us of the scourge of Trumpism. The GOP needs to right their own ship for that day to take place. The turnout and progressive, not liberal shift a sign of better times. More participation among young, women and minorities as candidates brought a change in the composition of the electorate.
We need to mature to the point that party labels not inhibit policy decidedly in favor of the common good. Congress should not keep the public in the dark about any facts bearing on the safety and security of our elections or the conduct of those elected to conduct the people's business.
5
Magnificent, Mr. Egan! My question to you is this: “Are Americans worth it?”
Your Trump supporter acknowledges that his dear president (certainly not mine!) lies but “I trust him.” How to make any sense of this? You continue to pull the lever for someone that you know who is justly and essentially untrustworthy, but “I trust him”? Is this red state mental paralysis or is this the way that some people actually think? Would a bank dispense with security because it “trusts” people not to rob it? Or is it just me?
And, Mr. Egan, I think you’re underestimating Donald Trump; he’s far more sinister than “Mussolini-lite;” he’s a Hitlerian menace of the first water. His choice of Matthew Whitaker is proof enough of that. While no progressive individual lost sleep over the fate of Jefferson Davis Beauregard Sessions III, his tenure as AG was one long rearguard retreat from the scaly dragon Trump, breathing smoke and fire because of “the recusal.” Neither Trump nor Whitaker has any patience for law; we’ll have consigned them to the basement of history after their evils have been vanquished.
Keep writing.
48
I wish to correct an obvious error in this article. The deer did not total the car, the driver of the car crashed the car into the deer. The deer is probably dead. The car has been totaled as a result of the crash. The deer is not at fault. The man is. Nevertheless, I am glad the man voted.
3
@Chesson5
Normally, neither is at fault. The deer is just being a deer, and at some point the deer's behavior will be modified by natural selection so they no longer linger on roads or go on roads at all when autos are audible. And generally the deer appears out of nowhere and is unavoidable; I say this as a generalization from two personal experiences. Someday soon, cars may be equipped with deer (large animate object) sensors, similar to the blind spot warnings and automatic braking we have now.
4
Don't celebrate too soon. Packing the federal courts, gutting politcal finance laws and civil rights laws, and voter suppression techniques are all inter-related and have been in the works for decades. There are still very wealthy and powerful forces trying to put a brake on democracy, and they play a long game. They never got over the New Deal or Civil Rights.
115
How ironic, Mr. Egan. When Barack Obama had 60 senators, and control of the house during his first term, I don't remember hearing protests from Liberals that democracy was in crisis. But if it was....he got shellacked enough in the midterms, and balance was restored.
3
@Jesse The Conservative
So, democracy is in balance now, when the majority of Americans by vote count wanted a Democratic President, Democratic Representatives, and Democratic Senators, but have none of these.
6
@Jesse The Conservative
Obama believed in democracy. His shellackers didnt, and neither does Trump.
Most conservatives distrust the people and support rule by elites; they think the people are easily fooled and roused and support elites that fool and rouse them (rather than elites that try to advance the interests of the people, or educate the people on how to figure out their own interests and press for them). Conservatives think that the people are incapable of figuring out their own interests and are therefore doomed to be manipulated by someone, generally either local elites our outside agitators (such as MLK, for example).
2
So I'm guessing it's now midnight in New York, where one-party rule has just been established? Or does that only apply when Republicans are in control?
4
@rkanyok
It is different when one party wants to at least try to govern and the other party insists that any governing is bad and all governing should be totally defunded.
1
was democracy dead 2009-2011 when democrats held a large majority in the house, a filibuster-proof majority in the senate and the presidency? the premise of the piece is flawed from the outset and only serves to betray the author's biases. So democracy only thrives when your team wins? That's weak.
3
@DK
There is a difference. When the Democrats had the majority, they also had the majority of Americans wanting them to try to govern. Today, the majority of Americans do NOT want the GOP in any part of government.
Democracy is better when the majority gets to elect the representatives they want. And that is not today.
11
@DK
You position conservatives as morally equal to liberals, which is a mistake. Most Americans want to raise taxes on the rich, want reasonable gun control, want health care coverage for all Americans, want comprehensive immigration reform, want action against global warming, etc., all liberal policies.
Until American conservatives comprehend that, and start to understand what is really good for our future, no real compromise is possible.
6
@DK The Democrats did NOT have a filibuster proof majority until 2011. It was only until Scott Brown was elected - about a year. And no, it wasn't dead because it reflected the will of the people (the majority).
You could argue for the tyranny of the majority, but not for the death of democracy. Right now we have the tyranny of the minority.
3
"...only half have faith in our system of government". This is what happens when you put people in charge who want to break government, namely republicans. Their intentional dismantling of our institutions; and to what end?
Elect Democrats and others who know the value of good governance and public service and this will not be an issue.
7
@caljn . . . and above all, choose candidates of either party, who are not self-serving. Being picked to lead a country means you completely divest your self-interest, and choose what serves the citizens of the country. After you are out of office, you may start looking at yourself as an equal member of the pack.
1
In the end what is going to change things I suspect is when people don't see what they have been promised. By the 2020 cycle, now 2 years away, Trump and the GOP will have had 4 years to have really changed things; ask people, as Reagan did, if they are doing better than they were 4 years ago, run ads showing Trump blustering about how he was going to create all these great jobs that pay well, bring medical care so bright it will blind them, an d ask them "so how are you doing? Are you truly better off than you were 4 years ago?" or put out ads showing how the top .5% thanks to the GOP tax cut have had their after tax income shoot up 30%, and ask them if their wages have done up at all, are they living better?
7
We don't live in a democracy. We live in a representative republic. Civics 101.
8
@netprophet Representative Republic is redundant. A republic is a representative democracy.
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." -- Mark Twain
"The reports of my resuscitation are greatly exaggerated." -- American Democracy
4
@Ronald Aaronson—
Truer words have never been spoken.
A Republic which really is a chimera. And we've kept it long after it should have been kept.
This whole obsolete, antiquated thing of a Senate which has Senators representing 1/2 million empty minds and lots of empty space sitting side by side with Senators who were elected to represent 40 million people is neither representative nor a Republic. It's a compromise with slave states now with empty Red States, where lone cowpokes who graze their cattle on land they do not own and complain bitterly about having to pay for it, or good ol' Southern boys who are all about being rugged independent self reliant men but who have been educated in the arm forces and now work for defense plants having lived their whole lives on the federal government teats.
This is a structural flaw in our government from the origin.
15
It's all here: the self-delusion that the Democrats won the election (they didn't); the effort to call Trump a fascist (he's not); the easy prediction that "history is always on my side.” Unfortunately, it's not what happened.
8
@Mike Livingston Ah, perhaps you failed to notice the Democrats won the house and seven governorships. Yes, by that definition they won. They also won on health care, which consensus even in red states shows people want. I don’t know your definition of a fascist, but if it involves scapegoating other groups as the cause of one’s own ills, under-cutting the free media (altering video!), advancing racist rhetoric and embracing totalitarian regimes, all while placing migrant children in camps—then yes, he’s a fascist. The predictions? Sadly, not so easy, but if there are more men like the rabbi’s son, and less who hold your views, then we can have hope. We can hope the racially motivated killings stop, the rallies with their chants and jeers die out, and those Americans remember that those that have a different idea about taxes or healthcare or a safety net for the poor are not “evil criminals” but fellow Americans who want the best for everyone.
We have a president who used a doctored video to revoke a journalist's credentials. And half of America thinks this type of pathological behavior is acceptable?
It has answered the question, again, of how and why countries so easily slide into draconian dictatorships. The moronic, insular, uneducated, bitter, self-absorbed public create it, and a timely politician comes along to exploit it.
Half of America! (Almost) What a hateful country this is now seen to be across the world. There was an excuse first time around, in 2016: blind ignorance. There is no longer ignorance, just abject callousness and stupidity for not paying attention to the world. Half of Americans want to step back -- regress -- to whatever time they were most happy. What utter delusion.
And that's why we now have a president using a doctored video to revoke a journalist's credentials. More lies on top of lies. And half of America thinks this is acceptable?
There's nothing right with this picture.
65
Guess it all depends on who is listening. I didn't find Acosta hostile at all. Trump, on the other hand, was bristling at what appeared to me to be the very notion that he might be questioned.
As for Obama? Two words, my friend: "You lie." Never have I seen a President of the United States treated with such disrespect, and we have had some doozies.
16
@netprophet A journalist or anyone can tell the President he is wrong. We don't live in a monarchy or dictatorship. And yes, that video was doctored.
The purpose of a free press is to be critical of power. That is one of its functions inside of a democracy. So I'm sorry, but YOUR President doesn't get a free ride. If he misbehaves and abuses power, which is all the time, we will call him on it.
I would try very hard if I were you to ensure the Republicans stay in power. When we return to power, we are going to ensure that the Law is applied to each and every lie and corrupt act that has occurred. No one who is guilty will escape.
11
@netprophet, I cannot speak for television news organizations, but, as a former newspaper copy editor, I CAN tell you that it doesn't matter how we feel about anyone; we cover the news as it is, and it is our job to hold the president's feet to the fire. And Obama did not have a buddy-buddy relationship with the media. "During his first days in the White House, President Barack Obama promised to usher in an era of openness in government, stating that a new commitment to transparency would only serve to 'strengthen our democracy.' But now, some seven years later (2015), a new study conducted by the Columbia Journalism Review suggests that relations between the White House and the media have never been so closed off. "
3
Thank you for stating the simple fact that the election was a clear win for progressives, anti-racists, healthcare advocates, and the Dems. Many of my far-too-gloomy fellow progressives do not get that. Even the Senate picture is much better than it appears because of the lopsided number of blue seats up for re-election. And if we flip Arizona, which is looking likely, we cut the Republican gains to 1. A substantial win considering the odds. We need to celebrate big time, but it's no time to sit back and rest either.
4
I wish I could be as sang froid as Mr. Egan is in this piece. The house of representatives is more the people's house, that even despite the gerrymandering the GOP has used to retain power there, they ultimately lost (in part because a lot of the suburban, traditional GOP voters were both scared of Trump nation, but also because they got tired of being screwed by the GOP with things like the SALT limitiation in the GOP tax bill, not to mention being angry over the GOP obsession with the evangelical Christians).
The real problem is the Senate and yes, the Presidential elections, as well as Scotus. FDR spent a good part of the 1930's battling a Supreme Court that was 180 degrees away from the will of the people with the New Deal. The Senate, that approves of judges, is dominated by a minority of the population, the rural, mostly white, small states, who are radically more conservative socially and also to be blunt get a ton more from the government then they give in, while having others foot the bill. They live in places where guns can be argued to be a necessity, like people living with real threat of wildlife attacks, but want to export their loose gun culture to where guns are a problem. It is one thing to protect the minority from the majority, it is another to make the minority more powerful than the majority. The pre civil war US was very much like this, the slaveholding states were a majority of the states in the Senate but a small minority of the population.
12
..."what we want is a republic...if we can keep it", said Ben Franklin. He also warned us about demagogues offering us sweet-appearing nasty lies to 'guarantee' freedom: "those willing to give up liberty for a transient security deserves neither". Trump's assault of the presidency did happen because of his superb ability to cheat on us via persistent lies and insults and exaggerations and finding scapegoats to hide his own imcompetence (except his expertise, demagogy); and, lest we forget, our credulity and it's inherent bias to be afraid, even hate, 'the other', as instructed by Trump and his minions. A true democracy demands we stay involved, and voting is showing the salutary effects already. But further, it demands we educate ourselves of what's going on; welcome discussions about our political system to improve our lot in life...but it must be based on the evidence and the truth, not in confusing facts with fiction and trying to screw our neighbors 'a la Trump'. And that is the rub.
3
Thanks for this uplifting piece. However we are all doomed...
2
While there is light at the end of the tunnel, it is no time to relax.
This is exactly what happened in 2010. People got all excited about Barack Obama and swept him and Democrats into power in 2008. They figured it was all done and relaxed. Whereupon, the angry right wing was able to seize back power in 2010 and gerrymander and obstruct for the next eight years. That's why we have minority rule and Neil Gorsuch.
Lesson. Never relax because the right wing doesn't.
12
Mr. Egan, deer don’t total cars. Cars total deer.
5
Maybe your Arizonan deer can't total cars, but I assure you, our Missouri deer can. Or if not total them, then render them undriveable while the deer just limp away.
Egan's optimism... may not be warranted at this point!
The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism, to shield ourselves from the horrors of an uncertain future. Deep in the human mind there is an instinctive desire for order, for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always a step beyond logic...
We've just encountered a paradigm shift in communications technologies, one which is shaking the foundations of the Earth. In less than a decade it drove the Arab Spring, ethnic, religious and cultural violence on every continent, and is a proximate cause of at least one Genocide. Every democratic nation on earth is seeing the death of established political parties and the rise of alterity (reactionary movements). Authoritarians are advancing on all fronts... Yuval Harari may be right: the technologies of this coming age favor autocracies and tribalism the same way last centuries favored democracy and pluralism.
I hate to sound pessimistic, but it always seems darkest just before it goes pitch black... Oh, and everyone we love will eventually forsake us or die...
3
It is a very faint hope but the "governor’s races in Florida and Georgia" aren't over yet. Perhaps we of the 21st Century shall lead Benjamin Franklin's advice. A guy can dream, can't he?
2
The House victory puts Trump's insanity in focus.
Think of Murphy's Law: "anything that can go wrong, will."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The reality is that the press (including the NYTimes) loves the crazy Trump mistakes, because he generates daily interest.
Maybe we need political leaders are constantly interesting.
But Trump takes it to extreme, threatening democracy...
My sense is that with a Democratic House, Trump will likely be unable to continue for the next 2 years and he may resign...
1
Great insights! Obama said Tues was the start. Ball is rolling.
3
@Scott Thompson Yes, toward more progress in forcing totalitarianism on the public and more progress in declaring that our rights come from government and are not natural and secured by government.
1
Thank you, Timothy, for this realistic encouragement of collective humanity. We have no reason to doubt that adolescent selfishness, overcome by the maturing individual, will not also be overcome by the collective adolescence of our time.
We can see it in one another's eyes.
2
Mr. Egan, I am with you. We can never forget that the truth will always come out in the end, and if doesn't, it is not the end.
3
I'm cautious in concluding as confidently as Mr. Egan that we're really going to get out of the morass as quickly as he claims, but there is no doubt that by winning back the House a major check was put on the current administration. I like to say that "gridlock is better than no lock" and that goes double when referring to the mendacious nature of Trump.
If I may also be permitted to comment on the overall style of this analysis, I found it utterly refreshing! I don't know the last time I heard the word "vainglorious" used in a sentence but if ever there was an example of whom the word should apply to, then "Mussolini-lite" as Trump surely is, would be the one! Likewise, the last time I heard anyone other than the author (and myself, above) use the word "mendacity" was the film CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, when Burl Ives repeated it about 100 times, mostly in reference to "Sister-Woman" and her outrageous lies about her in-laws, who no doubt would have cheered Trump onward. Let's not limit it's application to just a person but the entire Trump Administration - mendacious to the core! Thankfully, there are still many who find the statement "I can't really say that anything he says is true but I trust him", as a Trump supporter was quoted as saying, more laughable than anything else, now that we CAN start to laugh as much as worry when we open the paper everyday.
11
I had tears in my eyes when I became sure we had taken the House; I'd had slim hopes that the same would be said for the Senate, so that result was no great surprise. But boy, we came close. Next time for sure!
Finally we have the chance to correct, or at least curtail some of the corruption that has sickened our government over the past two years; at last the Trump administration will have to answer to the people; at last we'll see some justice done
More than anything, I'm looking forward to seeing what the new Representatives will do; particularly, all those young women of diversity who will get to use their voices, and make some needed changes to our outworn, weary politics that left so many out.
I haven't been this encouraged in a very long time.
12
@woodswoman Perfectly said. You echo my sentiments.
5
"I can't really say that anything he says is true but I trust him."
That Wyoming man's vote is worth 60 college educated votes in Seattle.
And that my friends is the crux of the problem.
77
@Jenifer You wrote:
"'I can't really say that anything he says is true but I trust him.'
"That Wyoming man's vote is worth 60 college educated votes in Seattle.
"And that my friends is the crux of the problem."
Thank you for saying succinctly and powerfully what badly needs to be said. It's time for us "Coastal Elites" to reclaim the high ground, even if our God-given Constitution (or so the Ralph Reed types would have is believe) diminishes our voice. Education is good. Ignorance is bad. Logic is a positive. Doublethink is a negative. Blind faith, whatever form it takes, leads us astray. And experts who devote their lives to studying the physical world--they're called scientists--are more to be trusted on matters like climate change than bloviating politicians or the "heartland" folks who think their uninformed opinions are equally valid.
9
@Jenifer. It’s clear that the Electoral College needs to be a abolished in favor of the popular vote. I live in a Iowa, a rural state that enjoys ridiculous influence over the presidential elections. There is no way that my vote is worth 60 or 100 times that of a resident of New York or California. The need for the Electoral College was real at the birth of our country but progress and population have made it obsolete.
4
@Jenifer
The real crux of the problem is that voters in Wyoming -the state to give women the vote, a state that voted for Democrats Bryan, Wilson, FDR (3 times), Truman and LBJ cannot muster in 2016 so much as 1/3 of its voters to oppose an utterly shameful, thoroughly unqualified con artist, tax cheat, and pathological liar for president.
It takes a special degree of blind political incompetence to lose so many voters to such a horrific candidate. And a special kind of tragic cluelessness to so unquestioningly accept the kind of party which so epitomizes why our country's founders tried to warn us against them:
"Let me…warn you against the baneful effects of the spirit of party...The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it...They are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government."
George Washington
"There is nothing I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, concerting measures in opposition to each other. This...is...the greatest political evil."
John Adams
"I never submitted...my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever...The happiness of society depends...on preventing party spirit from infecting the common intercourse of life..."
Thomas Jefferson
3
Thanks Mr. Egan. A voice out of the darkness. You made my day!
There is still hope in America yet, and it rests with the brave, courageous women who are running and winning elections for the Democrats. Now...we just have to stop the war machine and invest money into the heartland of America.
Let's make America really great next election by ousting that Mussolini wannabe, Trump.
18
Really? Seems like 50% of the country still votes for angry, deluded candidates.
3
@JP
Nope. Not even close. Even if one man's vote in Wyoming is worth 60 votes in Portland he is still just one deluded man. 16.6 million more people voted for Democrats on Tuesday.
10
I wish Mr. Egan would cite where he got his stat for the 7 point advantage Democrats allegedly enjoyed in the "popular vote." Voters don't vote for a 'party' so it's objectively silly to suggest there was a popular vote in that category.
If the state is constructed based on total votes cast for Democratic candidates vs. Republican, then in this cycle it will substantially low-ball Republican support. That's because virtually every Rep. incumbent had a Dem. opponent, but not the other way around.
Cg. Eddie B Johnson in Dallas got 166,102 votes, but had no Rep. opponent. The despicable Republican Louie Gohmert of Tyler Texas got 167,134, but he had a Dem. opponent who got 60,937. Both districts are about the same partisan-wise, but the voters in Johnson's district who would have voted for a Republican candidate weren't counted in Mr. Egan's stat, but the Dems in Gohmert's were.
I've seen a representation made elsewhere based on Mr. Egan's stat that there was in fact a "massive blue wave." Nonsense. The trouble is that propagandistic stats like these distort political judgments and only serve the interests of the paid consultants who keep producing anemic results.
Democrats are not the majority party in this country and therefore have to be make liberalism relevant to non-traditional constituencies. Beto did and that's why he was the second highest performing statewide Dem in Texas sine 1994. Heitkamp ran as Republican-Lite and finished with a miserable 43% of the vote.
1
@Gary F.S., Democrats have gotten more votes than Republicans in 6 of the last 7 presidential races since HW Bush won. I believe Mr. Egan is just adding up the votes by all Democratic candidates and comparing them to the aggregate for all Republican candidates. For Dems to win the House they have to get substantially more votes aggregately due to gerrymandering. That is a fact.
5
I'm with you, Mr. Timothy Egan. You're a thinker and you teach us how to think clearly. We need to remember history and you remind us of that when you mention Mussolini. Perhaps this election has helped to bring us back from the brink, but we have a lot of work to do in the next several years to stay on the path to safety and democracy
7
I love the positive outlook of this column, especially from an Irish guy like Timothy Egan.
A side note: the picture for the column is of supporters of Abigail Spanberger, who defeated the incumbent David Brat for Congress. We live in the next district to that one and this seems to be an example of the candidate (Ms. Spanberger) being a good fit for the district. It's also an example of how personal likability matters a lot. Ms. Spanberger seems likable; on the other hand, if one looked up pompous know-it-all in the dictionary, you could well see a picture of Brat accompanying the definition.
9
Great column, as usual, Mr. Egan. I always look forward to your outlook.
4
Who can take seriously those who remain convinced they are the only ones who know what’s good for the country and keep reminding the rest of us that they would be happy to show us the way to righteousness? How did that smug, self-assured arrogance work for you in 2016? It won’t work any better in 2020.
2
@Larry because there is a moral good, and it's not relative. Among the virtues that we should espouse to are truth, equality under God, and representative government, free from tyranny and oppression. These moral imperatives were laid out by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and reiterated by Lincoln with the famous "of the people, by the people, and for the people" cadence in the Gettysburg address. Trumpism is anathema to all of these ideals, clothed in nationalist, nativist, false patriotism, and its only goal is absolute power--the tyranny our founders fought so hard to rid themselves of. So yes, I would advise that you take the resistance against our wannabe dictator seriously.
25
@Larry - A healthy, educated populace who are treated equally and fairly is good for the country. That's pretty hard to dispute.
10
@, who is more arrogant than Trump, Larry? And who has more contempt for his voters than Trump? No one. How do I know? Because he tells them lies and fails to actually follow through on many of the promises important to them. How's that "getting Mexico to pay for the wall" , going?
6
I needed a dose of sanity and optimism this week, and this well-crafted column delivered. Thank you, Mr. Egan.
13
I have been skeptical that the election results were very meaningful but thanks for some analysis showing possible hope.
It all depends on whether the elites who run the country can be "controlled." It is well known of course that we have an oligarchy and plutocracy; a country run by the few wealthy and powerful. They buy extra votes and studies show that the policy changes made by our government reps are mostly those those wanted by these upper 10%.
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer received large donations from the same elites and hence the working class, average person get little attention and get little of what they need and want from their government. Higher wages, good medical care, better education for them and their children, etc. They want medicare for all and they need unions but listen to Pelosi and Schumer and you hear nothing of that. Pelosi, after this election, made no statements of dem party goals; she could have spoken of a mandate with the take over of the house but said absolutely nothing in regard to policies the people want, as above. She gave a pile of garbage on "unification, freedom, change, etc. Absolutely nothing specific. She is bought and payed for. I have been a democrat all my life but we need either to wave goodbye to Pelosi and Schumer or we need a new party. And millions of us are working on both of these ideas. And millions are moving away from the dem party. Wake up folks!
3
Trump will milk playing to his base right through the 2020 election. And that will lead to his downfall. His obsession and compulsion to bathe in the adulation of his admirers supersedes everything else. He declared victory from Tuesday's results because he lives in denial. Let him continue to pander to his base while the GOP burns. His arch enemy, the media, would be wise to not televise his circus-like rallies, and even wiser to stop attending his bogus press conferences, which only serve as a launching pad for his vitriolic blustering. If there's one thing Trump hates more than the "liberal" media, it would be "liberal"media ignoring him. When Trump attacked CNN's Jim Acosta, every reporter in that audience should have walked out. That would have been far more powerful than continuing to ask questions and predictably be rebuffed and scorned.
13
@nzierler
It may be related to vanity, or it may be strategic. A con man's most important decision (other than the bad choice of becoming a con man) is choosing his audience.
1
This column is such a welcome bit of optimism and hope. It seems that Wednesday was dominated by conservative members of the “chattering class” trying their best to stick a thumb in the eye of democrats, whose gains, in the House and across state legislatures, were very impressive. Now we shall see if the House can reassert itself as the muscular branch of government the founders created. New Democratic members, study Sam Rayburn! Excelsior!
4
You are way too optimistic. But I'd like to believe you.
4
Well, Timothy breathes a sigh of relief and optimistically looks to future forward steps.
However, there are major obstacles that will be very hard to overcome. The Oligarchs that run and elect the GOP: the Mercers the Adelsons the Kochs the Uihleins the Wilks the Spencers, also run most State Legislatures, and Fox News, numerous disinformation web sites and blogs, hugely popular fake news and scurrilous innuendo sites manipulating folks through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram; CREATING reality for about 40% of voters.
This pervasive fog of brainwashing propaganda has to be arrested before sanity can reassert itself. How will that happen?
6
Democracy may yet survive, but the battle is far from over.
13
The sunrise is there, but the struggle is a long way from over. This amoral man is still the president and willing to go to almost any lengths to enforce his will. And he is backed up by a Republican Senate that is just as extreme, led by the unscrupulous Mitch McConnell, easily his equal in mendacity. The next two years will be a battle of wills, and, as Lincoln put it, we must rise to the occasion and then we will save our nation.
12
His car was totaled by a deer? What an incredible lack of empathy for a dead deer hit by a human man in his car. I realize this article isn't remotely about that, but if a society is judged by how we treat our animals, we're failing, despite what this article says.
@myasara
I feel sorry for the deer, too, but...hitting a deer in WI is not evidence of animal cruelty, it's an accident.
Just FYI - a deer can easily total a car without dying; and if you have ever been in a car outside Brooklyn, you might be aware that deer driven out of the woods by hunters frequently jump unavoidably in front of cars, and through storefronts. They're hard to avoid, even for the safest, most vigilant drivers. In WI, a deer carcass felled by a vehicle could be processed as meat and donated to a nonprofit at one time. That's probably a long gone but sensible option for roadkill. Also, some use "whistling" devices on vehicles that ostensibly can warn wildlife away from traffic.
The biggest problem is humans infringing on habitat. Because we can't resist reproducing, building excessively and occupying more and more land. And therein lies the failure. Deer seem to have the problem of overpopulation, as well. They thrive despite our encroachment. They can't really be held responsible for this situation; but we can.
7
@myasara
My wife, myself, and several other family members have had our vehicles “totaled by deer”. It’s a hazard to all who live in Weatern PA. In most of those cases it was the deer that ran into our vehicles.
It has absolutely nothing to do with “how we treat our animals”.
1
@myasara
Not sure what you expected an 83yo to do about the deer. In the West it happens, whether you have empathy or not. The measure of this man was walking to the polls to vote. And he did that.
3
I, too, found solace in Tuesday’s election results in terms of reclaiming the House and an impressive number of governor races and state houses. But let’s not forget what damage Trump will continue do to our institutions for as long as he is in office: denigrating our system of justice while at the same time using it to wreak havoc in support of pre-existing conditions and other atrocities, trashing the new Congress and its most high-profile leaders in an effort to tamp down their credibility and effectiveness, and continue appointing corrupt judges to lifetime appointments. While I understand that these dark impulses have been part of our body politic since its inception, I still do not truly understand how such a wide swath of our voting popoluation can choose to remain so ignorant. Are the good people of Tennessee, for example, devoid of good social studies or lit teachers so much so that people there do not learn an appreciation for our system of justice and want to protect it? Do they not learn that bullying—fellow Americans, the free press, and our allies—is antithetical to a functioning system of government? It boggles the mind to think Trump voters do not realize that they support a man who is the antithesis to everything special about our country. It may go without saying I hold these deliberately uninformed people in contempt.
5
Actually, it's not halfway whole, it's 3.5 to 0.5. The Executive Branch, and Supreme Court is controlled by Republicans, and 1/2 of Congress. While Congress is 1/2 controlled by the majority of Americans (Democrats), the Supreme Court is essentially permanently (for a lifetime) controlled by Republicans, and it could be a 6-3 majority particularly of Trump is re-elected. I did have a day of exultation, but all we can do is stop some of the insanity and cruelty toward America. Better than nothing, I guess.
3
Before 11/06 we were in a wheel chair and now we are using crutches. We are still crippled. We might be like that for a life time and beyond. Moderate Republicans are out and fanatical Tee Party members are in. The resurgence of the fire right is not over. We are living through a dark red wave, globally. The blue wave might be over. See Brexit, the rise of nationalists in the EU, the brutally nationalistic governing parties in Brasilia, India and Turkey. A vocal and brutal minority took hold of power in large parts of the civilized world. Decency and liberal democracy had lost ground worldwide. At first glance globalization led to rising unemployment in the western democracies. The economic collapse in the west led to more unemployment and wrecked lives. Religious zealots started wars in far away lands that resulted in enormous misery and destruction and pushed millions of refugees north all the way to Europe. On Tuesday we made a step forward, but after stepping back a mile in 2016. I see no light in the tunnel as long as 40% of our fellow Americans are supporting DJT. When we get to 10% I will become more optimistic. It is ironic that the daughter of a nationally known pastor is the face and voice of DJT and defends his lies and had the audacity to falsely accuse a journalist of mistreating a woman while defending the *-grabber in chief . The mass murder two days ago was committed by a veteran on the War on Terror. He simply turned into a home grown terrorist. Have faith!
A "Victory-in-Defeat" for Trump, and a genuine victory for sanity!
Music has the power to change a sour mood, but every so often, so do words--as is the case with this column. This is more than a routine column; it is an essay that is gloriously well written, quietly celebratory, and uplifting.
The Democrats' win of the House provided the light at the end of Trump's Tunnel of Darkness and Despair. But I felt I was still standing near the opening at the end of the tunnel, all twisted up about the completely inappropriate appointment of a Trump thug to be the interim Attorney-General. As if Session wasn't bad enough, but at least he recused himself from the Mueller's Russian investigation, so at least Sessions had a few moral synapses firing.
But, this optimistic essay put me back out into the sunshine--okay, a lot of dark clouds hovering overhead, but with some sun peaking through.
We had a few breakthroughs here in Utah, where we moved a couple of years ago. There is a slim chance 1 Democrat may have cracked through the red Republican glass ceiling and beaten Republican Mia Love (who refused to let Trump campaign for her). We narrowly approved medical marijuana, ended gerrymandering (not that it makes a big difference in an all red state, but it is a step in the right direction), and Utah finally signed on to expand Medicaid.
The other good Utah News is: Hatch is no longer our senator, and Utahans don't like Trump, whose disapproval rating is now higher than his approval--as is the case in AZ & NM.
Trump is exhausting & tiresome
9
Yes, we need one more election cycle. And like comments elsewhere in today's NYT, the rural areas need attention and help. A key to Beto's success was his visit to the vast, empty areas of Texas. It wasn't unusual for a "crowd" of 50 people to show up in a tiny, wind-blown town with no doctor and/or a closed hospital, struggling schools and abandoned main street. These voters need one more cycle to fully support the value of Democrat and democratic principles.
6
Dream on. Civility has been lost in this country. America has no common cultural roots. How is this supposed to fix itself???
I don't trust the Brian Kemps trying to suppress the vote but I trust the local officials trying to count all the votes. I love that I got an email on Monday saying that my absentee ballot had made it to Michigan to support the blue wave there. And thanks Mr. Egan for seeing the positive in this. I hope.
2
"I cant really say that anything he says is true" says a Trump Supporter, "but I trust him".
This is our political reality we are stuck with right now: Some people WANT to be lied to by Trump- it makes them feel better for whatever twisted reasons. He is telling people they are drowning and throwing them an anchor and they love him for it. Unless you have a Trump-shaped hole in your soul that is not going to work.
We don't need to figure out more than that- just require more reality of the actual people in office, leave the creepy Trump defeatism that demands hating any political opposition in America as "evil" behind, and just move on.
9
“I can’t really say that anything he says is true,” a Wyoming Trump supporter told us a few days ago, “but I trust him.”
This is the voice of Trumps America. More and more it is proven that the party of intelligence, and the party of the future is the democratic party, and the party of the closed mind is republican.
9
'A Republic', says Ben Franklin , but you despise republics Timothy and castigate them with every breathe...as in this column. Please, sir, look beyond your small circle of friends & colleagues. It's like Professor Teachout - also on the op-Ed page today - saying NO to jobs for Queens. Incredible, the blithe utopian callousness of today's American progressives...PJS
The telling of lies by Trump and his minions has become so normalized, so egregious, push did come to shove this past election cycle and you saw the results.
The beginning of the end of this horrific chapter in the history of this United State is now underway. And the 2020 election cycle will bring the end to the Trump Family in the White House. And if Mueller isn't removed heads will roll.
4
Good piece. Thank you.
5
“I can’t really say that anything he says is true,” a Wyoming Trump supporter told us a few days ago, “but I trust him.” Please remind me to avoid Wyoming.
6
Depends n what you mean by that ambiguous term "progressive". It could mean single payer health care or attention to global warming. Or it could mean fetus killing and denial of free speech to visitors of campus or denial of presumption of innocence to accused parties.
Are you in favor of free speech? Then you are not wholly progressive.
Let us please not use an ambiguous term "progressive", part good and part bad, as if it is wholly good and the more of it the better.
FDR: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
GOP: "The only thing we have to sell is fear itself."
And three cheers to the 83 year old who walked to the poll! Hope you're right, Tim.
9
Better say good government, rule of law and due process have a pulse. "Democracy" is easily confused with majority rule--notoriously known as a form of tyranny-- compatible with rule by ignorant prejudiced phobic God story deluded masses. Compatible with theocracy, autocracy, thugocracy and kakistocracy.
Majorities play a small part in good government AFTER due process-- research, review, appeal.
Electoral campaigns are supposed to be an investigation and education process. They have degenerated into marketing campaigns-- hoopla jingles and now competitions of aspersion and spittle-- more popularly known as another sort of fluid expulsion. Trump confuses that talent with intelligence.
Mr. Egan: my 81 years do not allow me much credence, but my 50 plus years as Licensed Family Therapist and Lutheran pastor, allow me the Gaul to label our “President” with a basic term commonly shared by two of your chronic readers, Gemli and
Socrates. Trump is successfully “Rulling” our Beautiiful Land From His Throne with an active mind, clearly diagnosable as
Sociopathic Personality Disorder. This “presence of mind” even
allows him the privilege of “never being Wrong”. We, the People,
Have a diagnosable President: meanwhile, we The People, seem
In Need of Treatment! Please check Trump’s Symptomatology.
5
Please display the picture of the 83 year old Wisconsinite on your next column. One such picture will be worth ten Trump photos.
5
If government is the brains of democracy then voters are the lifeblood
1
Nice thought. I thought the same thing after Obama was elected and, well, here we are.
2
Our democracy has a pulse! A roaring one in some places.
I was glad to see more people of all political persuasions cast a vote in these midterms. Fingers cross that it's not too late. A climate change initiative went down in Washington state. Today, wildfires are raging in California. Not too long ago, it was news if 3 houses burned down. Now, whole communities are threatened or destroyed with distressing frequency.
We passed a strong gun control initiative, but the will of the people is threatened by legal action to get the initiative results thrown out. This as more people died, this time in Thousand Oaks.
There is a racial divide. There is a strong rural versus urban divide. I believe an emphasis on helping people who struggle financially would help bring more of us together. I have a lot in common with people I grew up with in a small town. We want the best for ourselves, our families, and our friends. As a Democrat running for office in Colorado said, about every door he knocked on that had a Republican on the other side of it told him or her that Democrats viewed them as stupid. That has to stop.
I couldn't understand how the climate change initiative went down in Washington state till I view this map:
https://projects.seattletimes.com/2018/election-results/#Statewide
It helped me understand the depth of the divide that still holds back urgently needed progress on fronts like climate change.
2
@kathyb, the racial divide you allude to has been fostered by this current permutation of the GOP, starting with Obama, birtherism, and the shameful put down of his presidency, him and his family. (and I am not his fan). There is NO racial divide in progressive states like CA-- with 40MM of us, there simply cannot be. There surely is an urban v rural divide. Not only has it festered like a cancer, it has had the effect of granting far too much power to far too few people, instead of political power being allowed to organically adjust for changes in our world. The republican meme that "democrats think we are stupid," has no basis in fact. It has been stoked by right-wing pundits and politicians, and become the faith of their voters via the state run propaganda machine that is Fox news. It's just about the only arrow in the quiver of a party that in truth does nothing that actually benefits We the People. This is what the dems are up against--- an epic divide of belief versus thought.
4
The issue is not so much that Hillary Clinton lost to Donald in a very close and possibly tainted election, or that the races in GA and FL seem to be favoring Republicans but are essentially toss ups.
The lesson from all of these results is that they were essentially draws, or ties, or pushes, whichever term you prefer. Building a narrative around winning several key coin flips is not especially likely to age well.
The Democrats failed in 2016 because they allowed the presidential race to be a coin flip when there were lots of reasons to believe that it could have been a runaway. They did not fail because they happened to lose the coin flip.
I'm an independent voter. I vote for decency. While we have a president who is temperamentally out of touch with accepted political reality, it doesn't necessarily mean that voters on the right are not capable of governing. The left should get over its condescending, paternalistic attitude that they are right and what doesn't fit their narrative is wrong or wrong for the country. That said: BETO O'ROURKE in 2020!
1
Hope for a recession that peaks in August 2020. Nothing short of that is likely to dislodge Donald Trump given the big advantage Republicans enjoy in the Electoral College.
2
We know fear is a powerful motivator.
But I wonder if Trump has yet figured out that while he employed massive, unrealistic doses of fear of that scary caravan of immigrants (women, children, young people, old people) headed to the U.S. in order to get his frightened base to vote GOP, the most frightening thing that motivated many of the Democrats, progressives, women, nonwhites, young people, and Independents to vote Democratic in the mid-terms was Fear of Trump.
7
I see lots of comments mentioning "optimism."
There's a difference between optimism and hope. Optimism is a habit of mind that assumes things will work out, kind of by themselves. "Look on the bright side" ... "glass half full." Its inherent risks are laziness and complacency.
Hope is different. It looks hard to find something good to build on, and calls on us to give our utmost to make the most of it.
This column is about hope, not optimism.
10
I would encourage the Democrats in the House to waste no time and send a populist Healthcare bill, either a single payer for all or reduce the Medicare age limit to 55. Let the Senate Republicans reject it and deal with their voters. Keep sending such bills as a mirror opposite of the Republican House which kept trying to repeal Obamacare.
60
And I would encourage you tend to your own knitting, and get to work on stopping Brexit.
@Jay293the House should send these kinds of fatalistic bills to the senate where they will be rendered still borne by the adults. Everyone will be happy because the house is doing something
@Jay293 I love that suggestion. Let them come up with as many bills as they can to deal with real problems, as opposed to Trumpian delusions. Why stop with healthcare? They can propose bills on the dreamers, infrastructure, the opioid crisis, etc.
1
Beautifully said. And reassuring that not everyone is sleepwalking through life.
27
The pre-existing conditions argument is over? Not while Trump's Justice Department is still attempting to strip Obamacare protections in the courts. Republicans lost the argument in Congress. Trump however is still fighting his same old battle against Obama. He's simply lying to the public about it more. You wouldn't think that's possible but it's true.
36
We are engaged in a seemingly endless tug of war between progressive and regressive forces.
Oh, there will be a forward-looking political movement in the wake of Trump and a Republican Congress. Tuesday was just a hint.
But it's also true that the Trump phenomenon was itself a reaction to two terms of President Obama and to Hillary Clinton's candidacy (popular vote notwithstanding). President Obama was a foil to George W. Bush. And so on.
It's also no coincidence that Congress is usually shaken up during midterms, either.
No political or social vision, for better or worse, is forever.
2
Yes, Mr. Egan, WE THE PEOPLE are finally waking up to the danger OUR United States of America is in and are taking massive action to stop The Con Don and his Robber Baron friends.
There were over 1000 demonstrations to Stop The Con Don and protect the Mueller investigation last night. Fortunately the march/demonstration in Seattle was large enough that it messed up rush hour traffic and got quite a bit of television coverage.
It is past time for the media - especially newspapers - to stop kowtowing to the Robber Barons and cover what average citizens - WE THE PEOPLE - are doing to protect/preserve/restore true democracy in OUR United States of America - Social and Economic Justice for ALL citizens.
Thanks to everyone who showed up to protest the corrupt and unconstitutional actions of The Con Don and his Robber Baron brethren. WE THE PEOPLE are the only ones who can/will stop them and NOW is the time.
42
@njglea I'm glad you mentioned the thousands of people across major and small cities of the US who peacefully demonstrated last night to protect Mueller's investigation.
Haven't seen a word of this important news reported in the NYT today. Did I miss it? If indeed it was not reported, shame on you NYT, you talk out of both sides of your mouth! This news was all over the main networks last night who showed clips of the power of the people coming together to protest this president's continuous attempts to subvert the constitution (most recently, his putting in place his new puppet Matrthew Whitaker to head the DOJ).
1
Mr. Trump commands an army of zealots, who follow Him, rather than following any ideas or sustainable ideology.
Huge numbers are committed to his cult of personality and can't see past that.
But any who do not fit this category have had and will continue to have doubts about this failure of a president, and things will shift.
"I can't really say that anything he says is true, but I trust him"
That pretty much says it all about the cult followers.
24
Right, it is the 1850s that the trump cultists want back, not the 1950s. We have just tapped the brakes on that regression, in 2020 we come full stop, turn around and continue forward again. It can't come soon enough.
16
Tim, I’m encouraged because in my State we passed Prop 2 which puts an end to gerrymandering. I’m encouraged because more than 100 women are headed to congress.
I’m encouraged because Mueller’s report must be close to being released.
I’m encouraged because regardless of Trump’s stream of hate and lies, the check and balances established by our forefathers will finally expose his corruption.
Finally, I’m encouraged because my fellow citizens have said with their votes, enough is enough. We’re better than this and the world will soon see how democracy works.
53
“A republic, if you can keep it,” indeed. And a democracy, too, Mr. Franklin. Yes, our democracy spoke with a strong heart and pulse on Tuesday. After two years of fear, angst, utter disbelief in the hateful capability of an unhinged egomaniac and his abetting Congress, we Americans said, “Enough!” Enough to rabid misogyny and sexual exploitation and to the Kavanaugh’s of our country. Enough to the suppression of Native Americans, the brown and black skinned, Muslims, and the LGBT. And so many, many women are now gloriously representative of our beautiful tapestry of diversity and tolerance and justice rewoven after a nightmarish attempt to rip it apart. Oh, how proud I am of us Americans! But as this may be the beginning of a Trumpian end, we can not let it be the end of a beginning. Our rebirth is still young. We need to nurture it and make it stronger and healthier. But I learned on Tiesday that we are up to the task, with passion and enthusiasm, and, yes, love for each other.
37
Mr. Egan provides a way to see some blue sky among the dark clouds. Yet reading the comments here from some of the most prominent posters here is quite deflating. Of all the things Trump and his squalid band have tried to take away from us, we need to refuse to give up the ability to hope for their day of reckoning to come soon.
7
How republicans get people to vote for them:
After analyzing hours of republican ads from across the country I figured it out. Republicans brand their democratic opponents as Tax and spend liberals, and the key word is Tax. As selfish as it sounds, that's the reason most people vote republican, they don't want their taxes to go up, especially their property taxes.
It leads to putting yourself on a fast track to nowhere, as nothing can get fixed, or improved, it's literally the dumbest way to look at the future of your country, State or city. The ultimate zero-sum game. It leads to teachers having to go on strike to get even the slightest pay raise, and whole assortment of other problems.
The good news it can't last. As more and more young people literally flee the red states for more upward and futuristic blue states, the sinking feeling that what is being lost by voting republican is way more significant then any temporary gain will sink in. The democratic party is the party that embraces the future and it's no coincidence that just about every tech company is run by a democrat, and every cool athlete, singer and star urges their fans to vote democrat. People are going to see the difference between the two parties, as one being a cool, look to the future, embrace new technologies, inclusive and optimistic and the other as a grim, angry, mistrusting stuck in the past bunch of nowhere men.
The future waits for no man. The future is definitely blue.
11
@artfuldodger, given that you appear to live in NY and may be able to closely observe NJ, how can you call the “tax and spend” label anything but true? In fact, it should be “tax and steal” because it is getting increasingly difficult to see what they are spending the money on. I live in one of the most highly taxed towns in one of the most highly taxed states in the country, that’s been under Democrat control for generations. The streets are barely paved, law enforcement is virtually non-existent but the school has no lack of teachers and administrators making in excess of $100K annually. Not a coincidence.
This is a far better reading of the election than from some of your colleagues. You paid attention to the campaigns that weren't on the front burner and aren't wringing your hands over the loss of Beto in Texas.
We want and need a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people". We are sick and tired of a government for the corporate class. We are awake and we must stay this way because this is the beginning of the end for the corporate funded political class. The GOP has reached its high-water mark and is on the way back down.
17
I was fearful, now jubuliant. As you said Tim our democracy has been given another chance. Let's hope we continue to exercise our only chance for change, the vote.
We all should have the same sense of responsibilty as that 83 year old man.
We need to take back our country.
10
Always to the point, Timothy Egan, and uplifting even if served with bare truths. Let's all keep it up.
7
Finally a liberal commentator that sees victory in victory. The self-loathing liberals the day after the election were bemoaning the capturing of 35 seats in the house as if it were a loss. Getting the house was big, 7% popular love advantage was huge and the turnout was enormous. I proud to be a wobbly kneed Democrat, but we can't fall into our old ways of self doubt and equivocation. We are facing a true threat and it is time to take a side and advocate for it without restraint. We can go back to fighting with ourselves after this threat is gone.
15
Donald Trump eventually got his 'sea legs', meaning acting more confident and is how we saw him for the past several months, in his role as president, but for Mr. President, those days are over.
Already you can sense he's looking over his shoulder, for he knows- The Dems are coming, no matter all the bluster coming from him and his handlers.
And they don't have the fingers they'll need to plug the holes the Dems are creating.
And for those of us who have had to witness this greedy, destructive cabal assault what our parents and grandparents carved away and placed before us to benefit from, fought and died for, and for what our forefathers knew could rise up some day and bite us, finally, it's 'show time'.
And as Nancy Pelosi, and few others have been stating, and in the face of those wanting her to step down, 2020 is an election cycle that will have way more blue states than red states with Senate seats up for grab.
We will win back the Senate in 2020.
14
The optimism of Timothy Egan is healthy, and he tempers by recognizing the one factor which makes such a positive attitude realistic: preserving our democracy is hard work.
More and more Americans of all ages and backgrounds are showing a willingness to make sacrifices to stop the selfish, racist nativism of Donald Trump and his base of followers.
15
"Trump did his Mussolini-lite thing — the vainglorious tilt of the chin, the boasts and lies for the cult of personality that follows his Red State One plane from bubble to bubble, the authoritarian swipes at an independent press and judiciary."
Let's just remember that it took World War II to take down the real Mussolini.
"But let’s not forget what happened afterward. Ari Mahler, a nurse and the son of a rabbi, cared for the shooter. “I wanted him to feel compassion,” he wrote on Facebook. “I chose to show him empathy.”
With all due respect, a nurse at a hospital receiving a wounded patient does not have the privilege of deciding for whom to feel empathy or not. Mr. Mahler had a job to do; he did it. With or without empathy, and he would have had to do that job for Jack the Ripper if he were brought to the hospital.
The emotional state of a medical professional is irrelevant and should not be feted even in today's feeling-saturated world.
1
'Pundits' from across the country have taken the GOP bait and have been trying since Tuesday to down play and disparage the Democratic victory. The Democrats DID have a Blue Wave and a look at the picture of diversity of candidates elected is wonderful.
Women! finally getting into the game to represent the 54% majority! And people of all races and creeds. The Democrats are not perfect but the party represents the society in which most of us live which is diverse and complex as opposed to the GOP old white men fossils who stand in the Rose Garden with their Dear Leader.
So, womb womp to Mr. Stephens 'meh'. Democrats did do a good job and yes we have to get to work but make no mistake, the Democrats have put a stop to the Trump train. It is idling at the station and may run out of gas.
13
That woman in your story -- who said she is unsure whether Trump is telling the truth any time he speaks -- but still "trusts" him -- was created not by Trump, but by years of hate radio propaganda about "liberals" and the Democratic Party. The people who are nourished daily on hateful propaganda view fellow Americans as the true enemy of the U.S. because this is what they are told day in and day out. Whatever idiotic statements or deeds by Republicans are forgiven because "Democrats are worse". When people lose their critical thinking faculties they become gullible in a frightening way and that is what we have today in the U.S.
Most people probably are wondering why all of a sudden truth and facts do not matter in American political discourse. We are paying a heavy price for scrapping the Fairness Doctrine in broadcasting because it was a check on propaganda based purely on falsehoods. It was scrapped by Republicans at the end of Reagan's second term.....Months after it was gone, Rush Limbaugh begun his "Show" in California. The rest, as they say, is history....
81
@Alfred Yul Thank you for bringing up the terrible loss of the Fairness Doctrine and how our democracy has been weakened by the lie- and hate-mongering that has risen up since then. I've seen its effects in the parts of small-town rural America I and my family have lived in over the years -- the steady toxic drip of FOX "News", Rush Limbaugh and other hate radio always on at work sites, newspapers that once carried AP articles carrying far-right tropes and falsehoods. I hope we as a country find a way to bring the Fairness Doctrine back. I'm not sure we can retain a healthy democracy or ever unite as a country without such a step.
36
@Alfred Yul It's not just faux news. In central New York, the SINCLAIR network feeds constant propaganda. They control CBS and NBC.They are usually more subtle than faux, but they have their ways. One, is to block out parts of the Stephen Colbert show and run up to 6 straight minutes of commercials to avoid showing what some of his guests have to say. Also, whenever his guest is a Muslim man named Hasan Minhaj, they almost completely cover what he has to say. One night, they ran commercials until the show was over and only showed Colbert saying goodnight to the audience. On the day after the elections, they ran one of the republican "hate" commercials against Dana Baltar to use up time. They must be stopped.
16
We would have a different government if everyone felt the civic duty to vote. Apathy is how we got Trump. Apathy will get us Trump again in 2020. You can't change ignorance. You can't change blind faith -- i.e. trusting a liar. Don't try to convert. I am not as optimistic as Mr. Egan.
3
Having been forced to acknowledge Trump's noxious presence for years due to proximity, I've been waiting for what I presumed to be an inevitable backlash given his trajectory in Manhattan and the business world from "boy wonder" to persona non grata, unable to get financing in the states and ending with just before his election, the imposed settlement he was forced to reward to the thousands of people he conned with his phony university.
When, I wondered, would Trump's legion of "gullibles" realize they voted for a chimera, a "hugely successful billionaire boss" invented by the producers of "The Apprentice" and received instead the lazy, spoiled, bully and brat who made their lives miserable in second grade?
More to the point, when would the leaders of the party the noxious parasite pierced and infected find their courage and conscience and begin to separate themselves from the scourge?
As it turns out, it was up to the voters, accurately reflecting not the electoral college map, but the real census, to inject the first vaccination of an antidote into the body politic. It turns out that the "people" are a lot more complicated than their representatives assume them to be in a country that is a lot more diverse than the deceptive red/blue map portrays it. And thank goodness that is case.
21
Beautiful.
2
Thanks Tim Egan for your words....We need to keep marching and writing and VOTING in order to rid this country of Trump and his cohorts.
Signed: A white educated woman from Arizona!
9
Gov. Bullock, a progressive for 2020. Democracy never looked better.
4
This Is Us, Halfway Whole, Soon To Be Made Whole In 2020 By A Republican Sweep
1
For someone to say “I can’t really say that anything he says is true,” a Wyoming Trump supporter told us a few days ago, “but I trust him.” is astounding in its self-delusion. How can this voter trust someone they KNOW and admit lies all the time!!
11
Mr. Eagan,
Thank you for filling my cup past half full again today.
7
"Medicaid was expanded by vote of the people in Idaho, Nebraska and Utah. These deep-red states will now join 33 others in the forward march of Obamacare."
Barack Obama, you can be proud, very proud!
16
In Missouri polls told us that the biggest issue, especially in rural Mo, was health care. Yet the poorest county in the state voted 66-31 in favor of the Republican Senate candidate who is a signed party to a lawsuit to remove care for pre-existing conditions. Democrats need to seriously understand why, if they ever hope to regain a Senate majority nationwide.
And the answer is not rural ignorance, as these same voters also favored several statewide progressive measures. The answer lies in the image of Democrats rural voters hold in they minds, not the substance of their beliefs. These voters would rather vote in a Republican who will take away their health care, than a Democrat who cares about the health and care of both black and white voters.
113
@Frank
Thank you for displaying your prejudice and stereotypes about MO voters and their motivations. I'm chagrined so many commentators seem to agree with your simplistic (and simple-minded) Othering of Josh Hawley voters.
I'm a Missouri citizen; I split my ticket, voting for Hawley over McCaskill, precisely to punish Claire for the part she played in the attempted borking of Justice Kavanaugh.
In many cases, the Left and Right can become indistinguishable, but I assume most Americans retain a basic distinction between right and wrong. Its one thing to disdain a judicial nominee for his political philosophy, its quite another to seize on unsubstantiated accusations produced Gawker-style on Twitter, and use them to stain a man's reputation.
Means are as important as ends when it comes to securing political 'victories' in a democratic republic. Claire McCaskill preferred a politicians role, rather than act as a statesman. IMO, she was unworthy of serving another term as Senator, and I'm glad the majority of my fellow Missourians agreed.
2
@Frank
The white working class has been voting it's color aka race caste interests over and above it's socioeconomic class interests for decades. Thanks to Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan. Trump's press conference performance was a tour de force staging of the Herman Melville classic with Donald Trump playing Captain Ahab and Moby Dick.
See " Dog-Whistle Politics : How Coded Racial Appeals Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class " Ian Haney Lopez
6
@Frank
That is indeed the mystery.
But when brilliant logic like, “I can’t really say that anything he says is true,” a Wyoming Trump supporter told us a few days ago, “but I trust him.” exists, there may not be a good answer.
Don't know about you Frank, but I don't trust people who lie. That's what not saying anything true means.
That's why his followers are often referred to as a cult. Cult followers believe lies that make no sense because they have trust in the liar. Also known as blindness.
10
If we're really honest, the election was a draw. Which means - for a first term Presidential midterm - a small victory for the President. The House went Democratic and the Senate increased Republican membership simply because the math was so favored. The House, for example, did nothing close to the 60+ member pickup the Republicans gained for a comparable Obama midterm offyear election.
To me, this presages a Trump re-election in 2020. To which I would add, there doesn't seem to be a viable Democratic opponent on the horizon - at this moment, at least. This only strengthens Trump's chances in two years.
Gaining the House as a check on the Republicans is a good thing. Two years of investigations, name calling, battles between the branches, Senate confirmations of other Supreme Court nominees during this time = frightful time in America. Good time for a Sabbatical somewhere far away.
1
@Michael Lindsay, not quite a draw. Trump essentially won the presidency by just 80,000 votes across three states - Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Those electoral votes pushed him over the top.
All three states re-elected Democratic senators, One already had a Democrat as governor (PA) while Wisconsin and Michigan took governorships away from Republicans and gave them to Democrats. In addition, Dems flipped several House seats in both states, many going to women for the first time.
That, plus Beto O-Rourke's near-win in Texas (Ted Cruz was expected to win handily), plus Stacey Abrams' close race in Georgia and the close senate race in Florida, PLUS a huge advantage in the popular vote for Dems across all House races, tells me Trump is going to be a one-term president.
Large voter turnout historically favors Democrats. This was a historically large turnout, largely driven by women organizing, knocking on doors, and running for office. They will not sit on their laurels in 2020. The momentum is just building.
Remember that tsunamis are often preceded by smaller waves...
7
Yes, we can take heart from Tuesday and all the work that led up to it, but Trump's attacks on America are not going to stop. So, people of good faith need to keep pressing for many things politically, but foremost among them has to be election reform and voter empowerment.
It is fantastic to see Stacy Abrams pursuing the count of every vote. She is exactly the breed of new Democrat that we need - think of the comparison with Al Gore, who pre-folded his hand when confronted with hanging chads. Instead of taking his course of least resistance, think if he had taken the Abrams route, insisting that every vote must be counted. Every vote. He might have won the Presidency; he certainly would have reassured voters that their every vote mattered. He wound up sending the opposite message, instead.
It's great to have a new generation of champions for decency, honesty, and ensuring that every vote counts.
46
" And democracy has a pulse."
Perfect.
And the fact that Kris Kobach lost in Kansas is one of the sweetest stories of this election.
Mr. Voter Suppression himself goes down hard in deep red Kansas of all places.
I still can't believe it.
I need to hear what Thomas Frank has to say about that!
44
I appreciate your optimism, Mr. Egan. America sure needs it: I sure need it. We have a long way to go to return to a semblance of the United States that I so respect but let's get the return started
35
@Cone
Democrats have almost zero chance of winning the Senate in 2020, so for them a lot will depend on whom they select as their candidate for president. Whether the anti-Trump surge this time that brought them the House will re-emerge next time depends in large part on how Trump and the economy behave over the next two years. That and how the House conducts itself in terms of subpoenas and other partisanship will as well (not excusing the same in the Senate).
If RBG resigns in the next two years and Democrats act the same way in the confirmation of her replacement as they did with Kavanaugh, then the Republican turnout will be reliably robust next time as well.
In my view, a candidate like Hickenlooper or Klobuchar will win easily over Trump, but Warren or Booker not so easily.
3
So you want people like Hillary Clinton to run again? Seems like there is a flaw in the logic.
@Typical Ohio Liberal Absolutely not Hillary. I like kwb's suggestion of Hickenlooper or maybe even Klobuchar. Getting a Democratic challenger who could interest red states is very important.
2
I had worked years ago with a man older than me and he would always say to me "Never say never". We need to keep working at recovering our country. There is good news as you have pointed out but good news is no reason for complacency. We need to be intentional in our efforts and desires for a better country. It isn't for somebody else to do something. We are that somebody.
14
What is happening in America today is historic - a single race country transitioning to a multi ethnic pluralistic country and at the same time social inequality is being challenged by this multiethnic force. It never happened in American history. American minority groups were not electorally strong enough to challenge the majority white class. This equation was changed by the young women of America - they joined the multiethnic group. This force will change America - no longer single pointed economic message will be winner - no longer tax cut and less regulation verses minimum wage and healthcare fight will win election. The new message will be economic message in addition to diversity, inequality and a future vision of a world where all races and genders can live with honor and peace. It is a very different America this group is dreaming, this is the dream of Beto, this is the dream of Georgia and Florida and a cross the country of democratic candidates, and this dream can not be sacrificed. This is the shinning place on hill that Reagan talked about.
14
Taking back the House and making inroads into Republican control of the state Houses were necessary, but not sufficient steps, to turn this country from the path of Oligarchy.
Yes, the House has to pass legislation to serve directly the people’s interest. Government by and of the People need to prove that it is also Government for the People.
But reading what the Wyoming man said instructs us that uncovering the truth about Trump and his minions is also critical.
The Wyoming man is paradoxical. How do you trust someone who you know lies all of the time?
The most plausible explanation is that Wyoming Man believes that Trump, like the medicine man of old, has the magic tonics and is only concerrned about the welfare of Wyoming man and the country.
The only way to stop the Medicine Man from fleecing the Wyoming Man and the People, is to expose the fraud. Everyone has to understand that the Elixir of Prosperity is really just very expensive Kool Aid. And the Medicine Man is laughing at his marks.
So legislate, but investigate, too. And support those American institutions devoted to the truth - law and science.
24
Thank you for this article. If there is any good to come out of the past two years is that many of us will no longer be complacent and take our country and democracy for granted. My husband and I voted in this midterm election for the first time, having only voted in presidential elections in the past. Our 19 year old daughter and her boyfriend also voted for the first time in their lives. We the people are taking back our country.
35
Reversion to the mean. When Democrats have fallen out of all seats of power, the only possible direction to go is up. By pretending that standing up off the floor is a sign of a trend, we avoid doing what really needs to be done to recover real power: a vision that includes rural Americans and can be expressed in a sound bite, not an Ivy League-style lecture.
4
An excellent and hopeful piece. America has voted to stop Trump in his place. It will be a difficult two years, and there is little we can do to stop his appointment of far right extremists to the courts or administrative acts. However, in 2020 America can elect a legitimate president (who wins both the electoral college and the popular vote), and together with the Democratic Congress can reverse Trump’s harm to courts and administrative agencies, rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, and regain sense and empathy in our policies.
Know hope.
18
This editorial is a tonic for many weary, but optimistic Americans. This country is being saved by regular Americans who are FINALLY leaving the house to work on campaigns and volunteer to help their local Democratic Party. Many of us are first time activists. I am, and I regret that I did not do more prior to the 2016 election. But, it is never too late to join the movement to save the country. We are canvassing neighborhoods, phone banking, registering new voters and fighting voter suppression at the local level. We are personalizing and localizing. During this cycle, regular Texans worked hard on behalf of the many incredible candidates (BETO and others) who stepped up to the plate to run for office, either statewide or at the local level.
There is much more to do, and we will do it. Our spines are stiffened now. We will not stop. AND...Success is a motivator. My county, Harris County in Houston, is a formally red county that went blue again.
And....If a Trump supporter in my circle of family, friends, or acquaintances tries to defend him and/or the Republican Party, he or she gets an earful from me! I am not going to change their minds, but I will not stay quiet because it plays into their normalizing of DJT and the Republican Party, which has been gradually killing off their better angels for decades.
62
"Independents, our fastest-growing segment of voters, broke big for the Dems as well. They may not love the party, but they want a check on the runaway presidency."
At least in Michigan, that is not why we broke Democratic this time.
The campaign message that won, and the voter message when talking in the lines at the polls, was that people are fed up with State government that is failing us.
The winner's motto was, "fix the damn roads." That was a symbol of it all, not the sole problem. It is water, it is jobs, it is lots of things.
Democrats now have two years to show they are better. If they do, they'll keep office, and expand their margins. If they don't, then they'll lose.
It isn't about Trump or Russia, it is about "the damn roads." Do the job, or we'll find someone else who will.
There are too many among Democrats who want to do a four year long hissy fit over Hillary losing to Trump. We are not interested in that. We voted for Bernie, then we voted for Trump. We don't want Her, and we don't want her histrionics either.
Just do the job. "Fix the damn roads."
27
@Mark Thomason
Isn't fixing the roads a problem for local (state, county, town) government? What does that have to do with congressional elections?
7
@Mark Thomason
AMEN!
Do the job you are being paid to do. Work FOR the people. No histrionics, no never-ending re-election campaigns,
No Trump said this or if only Hilary.
Clean air, clean water, good schools, good roads, and mass transit.
That's what I want.
5
@Butterfly
Fine, if you can get the message across.
But when achieving those very good things (clean air, clean water, good schools, good roads, and mass transit) depends, as it probably does, on raising taxes, that tends to draw the demagogic Republicans who start in with the histrionics about "tax-and-spend Democrats."
A strategy which has too often been quite successful. Just look at Kansas. Or Wisconsin ... or Michigan.
Glad to see you might be turning it around, but it takes (guess what) campaigning. Hard campaigning.
4
I am hopeful, the tide is finally turning. But in no way should anyone who opposes the rise of Trump's fascism and the racism it employs, back off one inch. This country was built upon racism. The institution of racism, through slavery, was woven into our culture from the very beginning as it was woven into the Constitution. We fought a civil war over it and are still fighting it today. Trump has essentially used racism as a political platform and he got elected because of it, not in spite of it.
Many groups have been targeted over time. The Italians, the Irish, the Catholics, the Jews (always the Jews), the blacks (always the blacks) and now the hispanics, the Syrians, the Somalis and basically anyone darker than a Norwegian. They call it white nationalism but leave off the word white.
The mean old whites are dying off. The young don't buy it. They have friends of many persuasions, colors, and histories. They all look like people to them, not enemies. Big cities breed diversification. Global commerce allows people to move around to the world new jobs. The world is shrinking.
Trump wants to reestablish Mayberry R.F.D. The idyllic, quaint small town where everything is like one big happy family. Those places are dying because they cannot compete in the modern global economy. Trump cannot bring them back.
The battle will be fully won when these people realize that Trump cannot restore the past. They have been conned.
115
@Bruce Rozenblit of course, during the time of Mayberry R.F.D. the top tax rate was 90%, so Republicans better watch out what they wish for...
24
@Bruce Rozenblit
Hey watch it! I'm Norwegian. We're excellent people.
Second, you're wrong. Trump doesn't want Mayberry. He wouldn't make any money there. He wants Beverly Hills 90210.
28
@Bruce Rozenblit Mayberry? No. Fifth Avenue lined with Trump towers where he can redline anyone that's not a wasp. Just like good old bigoted dad.
2
Kudos, Mr. Egan! I am often not a glass half-full kind of guy—or, as Justice Kavanaugh would say, a keg half-full—but, notwithstanding some disappointments in Texas and Kentucky, as well as Florida and Georgia, where glasses and votes are still being counted, I believe your tempered optimism is well-justified.
To paraphrase Charles deGaulle, patriots place love of their people first while nationalists place hatred of others first. Like you, I see lots of evidence of the former beginning to stir, rise up, and regain the reigns of government. From winning some three dozen seats in the House and retaking control of it to a hundred women in Congress, a half dozen or more Senate seats and more than a dozen state trifectas, we may not be at the “Happy-days-are-here-again, the-skies-above-are-clear (and blue) again....” stage, but these results, others, and your hopeful column provide me with some measure of solace during these dark and desperate times. Thank you for making this morning’s awakening something brighter and more than a rude one.
25
The nation has seen this movie several times before. Whether the 1850's and the reconstruction politics later, the "know-nothings", the Jim Crow South. It all leads to backlash. All the attempts to fortify or resurrect the rural agrarian ( killing Native Americans along the trail) "we are a white Christian nation" mentality seems to never go away. The electoral college system has served a bulwark and you can't legislate conscience.We may have a "pulse" as a democratic republic, but we will never realize the promise that this great experiment in America, until after some next catastrophic event(s). Divided government just means a slow leak and continued looting of the Treasury led by McConnell and the Senate. Trust me, the 1% have us just where they want us. Load up and keep shooting one another. A plan for dominance that is slow and messy. Those in power throughout history have never given it up peacefully. America is no exception.
16
I too love the optimism expressed in this piece and must hope that most of the people appointed to the federal courts are decent professionals who do not intend to besmirch their reputations by following the lead of this most disgraceful administration. We are definitely, more than 160 years later, in a new "American Know Nothing Movement" and when I see the screaming MAGA hat wearers standing behind a frothing demagogue I know that the force of the majority of Americans must stand firm and return us to the decent, truth-seeking people we that are.
23
@fg
Trump is the priest and his followers are a cult. They love the attention. It is so heady.
I wish Pelosi, who absolutely should be given the gavel again, would have a series of tweets ready so that every time Trump posts something inflammatory to get attention, the Dems would post something great to take the attention away from him. First, it would lessen the impact of his lies. Second, it would cause him to melt down entirely.
Control is all Trump is about: control the narrative, control the media, control the Congress, control the GOP, control the oxygen in the room, control everything but himself - the one thing that truly needs controlling, and the one thing he is incapable of doing. Stealing his attention would be like cutting Samson's hair.
8
I agree with the commenters who share their pessimism that we are but one more electoral cycle away from removing the toxic waste.
Why? Geography.
As long as vastly underpopulated states wield enormous power in terms of the Senate and the Electoral College, the math of overturning the Trump cult just isn't there.
It takes a lot for someone to be disenfranchised from a con man, and Trump has a long history as a successful con man. Why else would folks overpay for everything from real estate to steaks, just because they have five gold letters on them.
As Trump has no ideology other than Trumpism, he will do or say anything to persuade enough of his electorate to continue to buy his con. And they will continue to vote in the vapid, hypocritical GOP politicians who abandoned any conservative bona fides to ride on Trump's coattails.
18
@HN -- As long as vastly overpopulated states think their interests are the only ones that matter, we won't get to a solution they like.
Compromise. Everybody's interests matter.
When the Constitution was written, the concern was to prevent New York and Virginia from running the Federal government for themselves alone. Now it is California and New York. You still can't have it all. We get some too. It is our government too.
6
@HN
Trump is not a president; he is a reality show. They last about five seasons before the public looses interest. At his "burn rate", it may only take four. He is completing season two, heading into season three. I think by the time he gets to the next election, all that will be left of his cult will be those who are willfully blinded by Fox News. They were there for W. and they were defeated. We can do this. Don't bother to impeach him unless it is iron-clad. Hem him in instead. Besides, it drives him crazy!
7
@Mark Thomason
Hey, we pay for the whole country. The Republican areas are sucking out tax dollars. Hence they are the socialist states.
The farmers of wheat, corn and soy are big on the government tit along with the dairy farmers who just asked for another billion in subsidies.
1
Given the fickle nature of the American voter, the Republican Party's near-unanimous support of Donald Trump, and the role of disinformation in today's politics, no one should get overly optimistic about a mid-term election that in many ways followed a typical pattern. Mid-terms ordinarily go against the party in the White House anyway.
In 2020, especially if Trump is replaced by a "kinder and gentler" candidate, don't be surprised if Republicans maintain power. The Trump style may be a passing fad, but the Republican platform of bogus economics, routine cruelty, huge budget deficits, racism and xenophobia remains effective. It's just a matter of how it gets wrapped. The next cycle could well feature Mike Pence and a thin veil of theocracy covering the usual sins. Watch it happen.
9
@Eric Caine -- Democrats have two years. If they waste those two years, then yes, they'll lose. And they'll deserve to lose.
5
I wish I felt this optimism, I truly do. But I am worried about what Trump and his minions will do between now and the new Congress being sworn in. Trump is angry, cornered and completely unpredictable at this point. It's going to be a bumpy couple of months. Beyond that, I do not underestimate his ability (or the ability of someone else of his mindset) to appeal to the worst instincts of enough people to win the White House, Senate and maybe the House in 2020. I will work to make sure that does not happen, but events can spin far out of our control.
11
Each Friday I look for Mr Egan’s column. I am never disappointed! His hopeful view is always encouraging- I cite his final anecdote today.
12
Lovely, uplifting - yet...I am still chilled and fearful of the damage that will happen before the next election, based on all the hits journalists, immigration policy, the. civil rights rollback Sessions decreed as his parting gift, and a fake AG...and that’s just 48 hours!
And, another slaughter of innocents-some outrageously victims of TWO mass shootings.
I pray that we can have the strength to survive and resist another 2 years.
10
Once again Egan nails it...a fresh clear voice from the fresh clear Northwest. More opinion and social leadership from other parts of the country. The Northeast is ossified.
5
America is bitterly divided, no question. But as observers like Tim Egan explain the reasons for this schism, they need not go back two centuries; one of the most divisive issues separating the citizenry is that a majority believe Donald Trump is a lying crook, and a significant minority don’t care that he is.
Put another way, most Americans still believe in the idea that we are a nation of laws, not autocratic bullies. They want that America, not the one proffered by the current regime in its desperate attempt to avoid criminal indictments for treasonous actions and self-dealing corruption.
12
ABIGAIL Spanberger. Learn the name. She's got a rare talent, and isn't going to stay in central Virginia forever.
10
I’m trying to square how voters in the red states you can approve ballot initiatives that are clearly progressive (anti-gerrymandering, increased minimum wage, restoring voting rights to felons) and yet persist in voting for Republicans. Either the Democrats have a serious messaging problem or some Americans are very comfortable being deliberately obtuse.
And as to the results of the governors race here in Georgia, you fail to mention the widespread, pervasive and systematic voter suppression efforts and frankly outright cheating that has been happening: Missing voting machines, missing power cords for the voting machines that were supplied, voter rolls purged, provisional and absentee ballots tossed for failing “exact match” requirements. Conveniently, these conditions seemed more pervasive among minority communities. And yet, Stacey Abrams remains close to the margin required for a recount. Imagine how she’d have performed in a fair election?
33
@EWood -- "I’m trying to square how voters in the red states you can approve ballot initiatives that are clearly progressive (anti-gerrymandering, increased minimum wage, restoring voting rights to felons) and yet persist in voting for Republicans."
You're not listening to them. You don't understand what they are doing because you impose your understanding on it, instead of listening to them.
2
@Mark Thomason
Then please, tell us what they are saying.
2
But what happens if Democrats don't get another election cycle? Newton's third law states for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Decades ago Democrats in an effort to appease the the party's left wing made a conscious decision to abandon white working class voters in favor of identity politics. Mind you these were people who had been the cornerstone of the party for almost 200 years. But it wasn't enough for coastal elites to stab them in the back by no longer taking their concerns, like job loss from outsourcing, seriously. They felt entitled to endlessly mock them. You're bad for eating factory-farmed meat, owning a rifle, & driving an SUV. You're bad for speaking the language of micro-aggressions, patriarchy, & cultural appropriation. This is and was politically disastrous. Democrats can't win over working class swing voters by ridiculing their cultural values. And they can't govern effectively without them. Trump and nation wide polarization is the reaction to this hypocrisy. Democrats were fine with the current system when it worked in their favor. But now it isn't. They've lost the majority of state legislatures, the Senate and the courts. Dems have discovered belatedly that liberal democracy (with its focus on individual liberties) & identity politics (with its focus on group rights) are incompatible. The 62 million people who voted for Trump are still here. What is the Democrats plan to address their concerns when these voters despise you?
4
May I remind you who it is who has been busting Unions starting with Ronald Reagan. And who it is who outsources those jobs overseas. It ain't the Dems, sir.
11
@LeeBee We're here because the working class feels like the Democrats have abandoned them. And lets be honest. They have. In ways both large & small. Take NAFTA for example. At the 1993 NAFTA signing President Clinton said “NAFTA means jobs. American jobs, & good-paying American jobs...I believe that NAFTA will create a million jobs in the first five years ...” Looking back over the past 25 years, all of the shiny forecasts about NAFTA, every premise of every policy, all of it, has been lies. First, it caused the loss of some 700,000 jobs as companies moved their production to Mexico, where labor was cheaper. Second, NAFTA strengthened the ability of U.S. employers to force workers to accept lower wages and benefits.Third, NAFTA drove several million Mexican workers and their families out of the agriculture and small business sectors, which could not compete with the flood of products — often subsidized — from U.S. producers. This dislocation was a major cause of the dramatic increase of illegal immigration in the United States. Fourth, and ultimately most importantly, NAFTA created a template for the rules of the emerging global economy, in which all the benefits would flow to corporations & all the costs to workers. As I said before the DP can't win over working class swing voters if they can't address their concerns. And they won't be able to govern without them.
1
I loved Barack Obama's response to hecklers in Chicago last week: in effect,'I keep wondering why these folks are so angry. They won the last election'.
They are angry because Trump has done nothing positive for them.
They are angry because they can never admit that fact to themselves.
They will stay angry because Trump will continue to convince them that it is the fault of Democrats.
98
Thank you Mr Egan for trying to make me feel better,unfortunately I believe trump and his thugs have more "trouble" up their sleeves.
2
Who is "us"? My us has always been whole.
My earliest known white European ancestor was born in London in 1613 married in Lancaster County the Virginia colony in 1640 where he died in 1670.
My earliest known free person of color ancestors were living in South Carolina and Virginia from the American Revolution.
My earliest known enslaved black African American ancestors were living in Georgia in 1830/35 where they were owned by and mated with my white European ancestors.
My earliest known brown Native American ancestors were living in Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia from 1830/35 where they mated and married with my black and white ancestors.
DNA testing uncovered a Northern Han Chinese heritage and a Central Mexican Native heritage.
This heritage makes me all and only black African American by historical convention. And I was born and bred blsck and poor on the South Side of Chicago. I am a product of the Chicago Public Schools K -12. And my single parent black mother along with my extended black family told and trained me to expect to always achieve exellence. My race is human. My native home origin is Earth.
112
@Blackmamba
Love You!
1
@Blackmamba RIGHT YOU ARE WE ARE ALL HUMAN BEINGS
1
Encouraging news. Now we have some very obvious political corruption to deal with, especially in TX, FL, and GA.
Voter suppression, votes not counted, and recounts attacked by nonsense ("the D's actually want all votes to count, how absurd. R's are supposed to win")
The R's arrogance is so obvious and certainly criminal. Who will hold them accountable? We will.
9
The American media is still independent, Tim Egan. President Trump has revved up his base to keep the Senate red. America isn't "Halfway Whole" -- you see America through Western rose-coloured glasses. The glass is halfway empty, and we in Florida (far from your western empyrean) are locked in a post-Midterms totentanz between Trump's Gubernatorial and Senatorial "winners", and the people's winners, Andrew Gillium and Bill Nelson, who are now heading for an automatic recount of Florida's Midterm elections votes. We'll consider America's glass "Halfway Whole" if the Democratic candidates (including Stacey Abrams in Georgia's also contested election) win through!
3
Well written, but listen up Democrats, as Lincoln taught us how to paint slavery (in our case the ego, maniac, rabble rouser Trump) into a corner and ultimate extinction, here is what to do.
1-The next four yrs. call out Trump for being a ego maniac, demagogue, amoral, rabble rousing bigot but don't dwell on it and don't accuse the 90% of people who voted for him for being the same.
2-Offer up common sense progressive bills that a majority of Americans can agree upon, like national health care, no corporate welfare, reigning in Wall Street, first term abortion etc. etc.
3-Don't concentrate on extreme liberal, identity obsessed, social engineering issues like 50% of CEO's being women, women getting 50% of everything because they are women, The LGBT group being totally accepted in rural America etc. etc. The country is not yet ready for it and by stressing it you do more harm than good for these groups. Concentrate and consolidate on the gains won.
4-Last but not least, outside of extreme liberal districts, run moderate, progressive candidates in 2020 that can appeal to independents and even some republicans.
12
@Paul -- No, it is not just calling out, and who you run next time.
It is doing the job for the next two years. Show us. Even if you can't get it passed and signed, show us what we'd get if you could.
7
@Mark Thomason- thank you for your reply, agreed, I believe I covered it in points two and three.
6
Your column and election results make recall the words of Robert Frost that ought to inspire our new Democratic majority in the House.
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep."
6
"And our petulant president on Wednesday sneered at the Republicans who refused to embrace his dark vision and lost. He didn’t mention the many who did wrap their arms around him — in the Senate races in Montana and Nevada — and were shown the door."
That is what irks Trump, the man whose only goal in life is winning, even if it ultimately brings him down.
The man has no better angels, only lesser devils.
I'm still fearing for our future with the president's wholesale hijacking of the Department of Justice. Surely that cannot stand after that fine editorial in this paper yesterday--but it's one thing to write an action is unconstitutional, and quite another to find a person or group willing to challenge it in court.
I was struck too, by the woman quoted by Timothy Egan here that, "I know he lies but I trust him" him comment.
At least Tuesday showed that there are significant cracks in the cult of personality known as Trumpism.
I think the next two years are going to be hellish legislatively and morally, but at least some of those better angels are going to put up more of a fight in Congress and statehouses.
58
@ChristineMcM
The quote about support for Trump by the woman to Mr. Egan, "I know he lies, but I trust him" stands out as the mantra for Trump's base. It is chilling. These supporters appear to be brainwashed and it is truly mind boggling to watch his televised rallies to observe such fervent devotion to a false prophet. Why is he still beloved by his supporters despite his destruction of democratic principles, the trashing of environmental concerns, the dangerous and violent rhetoric toward immigrants and our media?
8
We may very well lose the Governor race here in Georgia, but Stacey Abrams brought the voters out, and we desperately needed that. In my State district just two years ago it was Republican, now both my State Senator and Representative are Democrats, and both women. That's what get out the vote can do.
I am elated at the Democrats successes from sea to shining sea. Republican gerrymandering was rampant, but that was overcome too. There's more Democrats than Republicans, so if we all vote, we win. Im looking for to the next 2 years, my batteries are all charged up and rearing to go.
Thank you Timothy, positive articles like this are so important.
49
"Medicaid was expanded by vote of the people in Idaho, Nebraska and Utah. These deep-red states will now join 33 others in the forward march of Obamacare...a boost in the minimum wage in Arkansas and Missouri....pragmatic restrictions on guns in Washington State — passed handily, once they got past the gatekeepers and were put to voters."
This illustrates how the loss of the House (and subsequent gerrymandering) in 2010 was due to the press parroting Republican lies about health care as "he said, she said": Death panels!! As Nancy Pelosi said, and was widely mocked for saying, people will find out what is in it once it has passed and is in place: she was right, they have, and they voted for, eg Medicaid expansion and for the protection of people with pre-existing conditions.
This also shows that if the political reporters were less infatuated with personalities, campaign strategy, gaffes and polls, and instead presented the issues and facts, as Egan does, the Democrats would win overwhelmingly.
112
Egan offers a hopeful (and accurate) way to view the dim sky. Sometimes the sun is setting and sometimes it is rising. I'm with Egan. Dawn is just over the horizon.
But there is danger in the pre-dawn darkness. Trump's efforts to eviscerate the rule of law have to be stopped now, not in the next election. His appointment of Matthew Whitaker is arguably illegal. His treatment of the press is unconscionable and dangerous.
I believe that Trump will become more unhinged as the horizon grows brighter. Restraining him until the sun shines is the duty of the newly elected House majority and of every citizen.
Protest, march, write, create art. As corny (and Reaganesque) as it may be, we have work to do if we hope to witness morning in America.
74
@Barking Doggerel
According to Icelandic lore, trolls turn to stone when the morning light hits them.
5
"But I’m here to bring you some good news, folks: It will take at least one more election cycle, but the enemies of progress are headed back to history’s basement. And democracy, after a surge of voters who had checked out of their role in the governing part, has a pulse."
Thank you, Mr. Egan, for this much-needed column, especially for this lonesome Democrat here in Tennessee. It will take much more than "at least one more election cycle" to overcome criminally unfair gerrymandering and a criminally=stacked Supreme Court and a bad faith Senate and president, but yes, progress has been made and a dose of rose colored glasses doesn't hurt. Celebrate little victories, any victories.
In the meantime I'm praying for a quick and complete recovery for the amazing, notorious RBG...
168
Trump likes to say things are "rigged." It's true, but not in the way he thinks.
We are having elections where the votes for Democrats far exceed votes for Republicans, but Republicans win. That's because our system of government favors the red places and disadvantages the growing urban centers.
It's ironic that those urban centers are where the economy is most robust. Red states and red counties are not really sharing in the "boom" that has driven unemployment to new lows. That will mean that the population shift will continue as young people leave rural towns and villages.
People like progressive ideas, even some forms of gun control. What will happen as these policies are rejected by our national government? Will it be possible for a new federalism to raise minimum wages and strengthen the safety net?
We ought to be asking ourselves why it's so hard to get a Democratic majority in the Senate. And why the Republicans who cling to power seem to reject the will of the people and get reelected.
134
@Betsy S
I have a thought. Young voters who are Democrats need to move to a red state rural area six months before the next election to establish residency and register to vote. It wouldn't take that many of them to swing those elections. Some of the "towns" out in the heartland are not much bigger than an extended family. I remember driving through one in Wyoming that had a population of 24, some of them no doubt too young to vote. Move in a dozen dems and you've won the election.
14
@Betsy
California has 40 million people and gets only 2 Senators
10 Western States, such as WY,MT,NV,ID,The Dakotas, Nebraska,ect..... have less than 20 mill population and get a total of 20 votes. That is the root of the problem.
31
@nora m Probably those hamlets you drove through were unincorporated and governed by a county government. Our county covers a landscape twice the size of Connecticut but with about 12,000 people. Maybe you read about it in the news, since we had the only federally monitored election in the nation. We owe that to the Navajo, who have been disenfranchised for years; no more. Rural people aren't usually forced to rub shoulders with people unlike ourselves, but hyped-up rugged individualism has serious limits when it comes to the common good.
6
Yes, this is us all right. We’re taken in by fools. We hand over our lives to liars. We elect a classless bully who would sell out our country to bolster his monstrous ego. The president can’t help himself, but we should have heeded the blaring warnings that were too obvious to miss.
It took every ounce of our outrage to barely break even. We won back the House, but the president, his cabinet, the Supreme Court and the Senate are his. Halfway whole may not be enough to heal the country.
When Americans forget what it took to win the freedoms that we have, we’re sure to lose them. When we try to make America great by electing vulgar scam artists, greatness is no longer an option.
We had a decent, sensible and honorable president for the previous eight years, but many people thought we needed the opposite. They thought a narcissist would care about them. They thought a crook would treat them honestly. They thought a crass, tasteless man who bragged about groping crotches would restore our dignity.
What were they thinking?
Now we’ve got to scramble and fight against our own citizens to make them realize we’re fighting for them. But if two years of embarrassments, near-treasonous acts and promises to destroy medical care don’t bring them around, they’re not coming around. They're part of the problem.
We may win in the end. But we may not recognize the country we’re left with.
346
@gemli, well said. I printed and have on my wall.
9
@gemli
Your comments are invariably brilliant, and no more so than today. Thank you.
16
@gemli
"We may win in the end. But we may not recognize the country we’re left with."
I see you are in Boston. I too an in New England, and of course many readers of this paper are in New York.
Things are pretty good up here. I would say that Vermont is better than ever with our Democratic Super majorities in the Vermont House and Senate and Democrats and Progressives (that is a strong third party up here) winning every single statewide office - except for Governor.
We re-elected a nice, calm, liberal Republican as Governor, just to remind Republicans that if they are reasonable they do have a place at the table.
10
I know something about that Wyoming adherent of Donald Trump. I'm not sure Mr Egan is right, but I have learned to trust my optimism if he can give me reasons.
9
There is a measure of wishful thinking in this column. Are we really one more electoral cycle away from sending the toxic waste where it belongs? Maybe not. The president has already appointed two Supremes and a raft of ultra-right-wing federal judges, and his party has the majority in the Senate to appoint more. We have only two parties, and one of them openly disdains democracy, disdains the rule of law, spits on the Constitution every chance it gets, to the applause of its base. The woods are not configured the way Mr. Egan imagines they are, and despite some good outcomes last Tuesday we are not close, certainly not an electoral cycle´s distance from the clearing.
68
Thank you Mr. Egan for your insightful opinion piece. I had been feeling bittersweet about the election, but after reading your article, I feel more optimistic. The darkness seems to have descended for so long, but you give me hope of a new dawn. I am so grateful.
120
I love optimism in a time of darkness.
Still, I live with the fear that America is heading the way of Russia, with a few hidden super rich oligarchs running the show, all along keeping their puppets strutting about in control of their military and government.
I am proud of our independent media, it is our first line of defense. I do fear for our court system, as the Republicans have been busy stacking the courts.
And as long as money is speech, and corporations are people, we are on a path to...Russia.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
256
@Hugh Massengill I, too, am proud of our free press, which the founding fathers thought worthy of protecting and defending. As for the courts, this just in: a Federal judge just blocked construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Another score for the earth and the good guys—and another reason to be optimistic.
25
@Hugh Massengill Yes--Russia or Rome. We seem to be headed toward a time when ignorance, superstition and greed are honored over knowledge, curiosity and honesty. If ignorance prevails, the planet loses.
Our planet is on fire, the most active flames right now are here in the west, and a significant part of our population has chosen to see this as a sign of the Second Coming rather than the consequence of our own planetary degradation, and have adopted the world view being sold by a false prophet--Trump.
9
@Hugh Massengill
Black women voted 95% not Trump. Black men voted 88% not Trump.
3