The Generalist

One's identity is far more than one's profession.

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The Power of Fear

Fear has been a major component in the 2016 political campaign and continues to be a tactic of the Trump team as they prepare for him to take office.  All of us need to understand how fear can cause us to make bad choices. But we also need to learn how to combat it. What follows is an excellent video that demonstrates how fear was used as a tactic in the campaign.  The remainder of this post is remarks about Fear and Faith shared by Marguerite Chandler, my spouse, at the Newtown Friends Meeting this morning. [Read more…] about The Power of Fear

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Can Chaos be a Blessing?

Each passing day brings headlines that foretell looming chaos and troubles sure to arise from Donald Trump’s White House tenure.  His supporters commonly say that they ignored all his faults and voted for him because he would shake up the Washington Elite.

Be careful what you ask for, I say, but I’m open to the chaos producing something new if we all stay engaged. Renowned economist Tim Harford explains that embracing chaos and mess is the only way to be truly creative, innovative and resilient. Listen and see what your think. (Click for 1 hour Audio Talk) [Read more…] about Can Chaos be a Blessing?

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Political Satire After the Election

This is offered without comment.  Here are links to a selection of the television political satirists reacting to the election results and the first week of the transition. There are other items of interest as well – just whatever I was moved to watch as I processed the tragedy of our democracy making a grave mistake. Should I say enjoy, or just grit your teeth and deal with it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coIKUVJuRY8 sam harris  Clown car of incompetents and idiologs.
https://youtu.be/f0KLJoh5-Os Trevor Noah on Cabinet
https://youtu.be/5tKOV0KqPlg Trevor Noah Trump – Zuma
https://youtu.be/yve_oz-D5nI Samantha Bee Trump Cabinet
https://youtu.be/pKDBAgTBsOA Steven Colbert – Don’t be Afraid

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A prayer for Our Adversaries – and for ourselves.

Father of us all, we ask forgiveness for the sins that we and our brothers and sisters commit in your name.  We pray for those among us who presume to interpret your will, and pass judgment without compassion. We ask that you imbue each of us with the humility and wonder that opens us to seek to know you, all the while accepting the ultimate impossibility of knowing you completely.  May we never be so arrogant as to believe that in our journey of faith we have finally arrived at the ultimate truth or discovered the absolute unerring interpretation of you.

Give us grace, in our human frailty, to avoid self-righteous certainty.  Let us not think that acts of violence and hate are committed with your blessing or justified in your eyes.  They are, at best, a manifestation of our mortal imperfection; surely they are not your will.  Help us to humbly discern the actions that will preserve and strengthen us in service to you. When threatened, let us be compassionate and forbearing.  When we act to defend ourselves, let not narrow self-interest, nor political ambition, nor rage, nor vengeance blind us to you.  Let us seek strength only so that we may be gentle and kind while preserving liberty and justice.  Make us, as a nation, exemplary – the hope of the peoples of the world.

Let us open ourselves and respect the many and varied traditions in which you have manifested yourself to our brothers and sisters.  Bless each and every one, regardless of belief, to know your love and be uplifted to a more perfect life of faith and wonder.

 

Richmond Shreve

This was originally written and published August 30, 2005. My wife Marguerite remembered it and suggested republishing it as appropriate for the troubled days that lie ahead of us.

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Safety Pin

The common safety pin has become an emblem in Europe to signify compassion and caring for immigrants and minorities. There, as here since the election, angry insults and harassment have terrorized people singled out because of their cultural and ethnic origins.Safety Pin Meme

Safety Pin Meme

One aspect of the political divide in the US is tolerance vs. intolerance. It shows up among liberals as the quest to foster diversity and multiculturalism.  On the right it shows up as a demand for other cultures to assimilate, to adopt the norms and values of “regular people” in the community. Unfortunately sometimes it also shows up as bigotry and verbal abuse.

In the best of Bucks County schools there have been incidents. Teachers I know report that students are afraid. Kids are sensitive to the moods of their parents, and they hear more in adult conversation than we think. Even when too young to understand fully, they get and internalize the fear, or anger, or resentment or the hate.

They have seen the TV coverage and ads during the campaign. The man who will soon be President has been modeling behavior and values that nobody wants their kids to emulate.  A great many adults are angry, frightened, and grieving.

The safety pin is an emblem for compassion and solidarity with enlightened citizenship. Its very name “safety” embodies the message. Its function, to link things together, is an apolitical statement of human unity.

I’m promoting the wearing of the pin as a symbol of unification and solidarity behind common principles that transcend nationality and religion and, yes, even political affiliation. Empathy, mutual support, and loving one’s neighbor without exceptions are core values shared by the great faiths and nations.  Cultures that don’t uphold them perish.

The antidote for fear is love and faith. The vehicle for reconciliation is civil discourse. For America to be great we must respect all people, challenge ideas, and denounce hatred.

 

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We Still Don’t See It Coming!

Many of the pundits are saying, “nobody saw this coming.” They go on to describe the revolt of the less educated white working-class male, or some other demographic that has been marginalized by globalization, or income inequality.

There is no denying that they are at least partly right. But I know that I personally missed something that’s context for Trump’s win – it’s political gaming of the system that’s been a GOP strategy for decades and was happening big time in this election.

As I was puzzling out loud over the fact that Hillary won the popular vote, and Trump won the Electoral College.  Marguerite said, “It’s gerrymandering.” I scoffed at her interpretation. I think of gerrymandering as a way to guarantee seats in the House of Representatives by, in effect, picking your voters by demographic mapping.

How Gerrymandering Works
How Gerrymandering Works

However the reality is much subtler. Gerrymandering  helps a party that does not have a majority of voters support at the congressional level. The “red” minority (see chart) can get three of the five districts (60%) by clever carving. The “blue” majority can draw districts to give themselves all five (100%).

This simple example illustrates how the US political system can be modeled like any other complicated set of interdependent rules and variables. Consider that each state makes the rules about how it runs its elections. It is the governor and the legislature that also define political boundaries.  So if a political party can optimize boundaries to get the most seats in congress, it can lock in some districts without having majority of the votes. In addition, it can target the campaign money on districts where there is no such lock.

Another gambit is voter suppression. Voter ID rules, polling hours, polling locations, number of voting machines, early voting, absentee ballot rules — all the many aspects that are controlled at the state level can be played to the advantage of one party over another.

Those tactics will be reflected in not just the House of Representatives, but also the Electoral College.

The GOP figured out how to game the system long ago. The book “Rat F**ked” explains how it happened.  The title is a vulgar expression for political sabotage.

The process is ongoing. When the smart money in the GOP campaign pulled back from supporting Trump, it refocused on supporting GOP candidates for state legislatures and governorship. Already the GOP has a lock on the US House.  They are working on voter supression strategies to gain wider control.

If you believe in democracy you should be concerned.  But even if you are concerned you may not be able to change it.  It will take a super motivated electorate to reverse the many ways our political system is being corrupted.

The Citizens United decision is another element of the strategy.  Now that huge amounts of money can be targeted at particular state and even local races, it has become possible to hammer any candidate that opposes your interests.  The NRA is perhaps the least subtle. It wants politicians to think that taking a stand on gun regulation is just not worth it. But the tactic can work to defeat a popular candidate who opposes any moneyed interest.

Partisan news networks are another facet. Fox News learned how to game the system and President Elect Donald Trump became a master at playing the system to his advantage. Propaganda does not need to be grounded in truth to have devastating effect.

One of the tragedies of public education is the evident lack of discernment and critical thinking exercised by massive numbers of people. Another is the dumbfounding ignorance of basic civics – most people don’t know how our government works, don’t know who the current leadership is, and don’t understand their role as a citizen and voter.

When most of us are indifferent and ignorant to civic processes, the field is wide open to those who want to game the system at our expense.

God Bless Save America!

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“They Don’t Care” – Terry Madonna, Pollster

For his followers Donald J. Trump is “a sharp stick in the eye” of the political establishment according to Franklin and Marshall Professor Terry Madonna, who has been studying political attitudes for more than two decades. When asked why mounting evidence of the GOP candidate’s mendacity doesn’t repel his followers, Madonna said, “They don’t care.”

It seems that all else about Trump is irrelevant to his followers because he is seen as the only candidate who is not part of a system that they quite literally hate, and want to destroy.  This burn-the-f**ker-down mentality is refractory to reason, facts, and all forms of persuasion. It’s anti-intellectual and fired by a seething rage at both blue and red establishment politics.

Recently historian Ken Burns broke with his long established practice of political neutrality to speak about the threat this represents to the American political system.

The ever perceptive Gary Trudeau expanded on one of Burn’s metaphors:

(Click to view web page)
(Click to view web page)

The Doonsbury strip likens the folly of electing DJT to the presidency to having DJT pilot a jet with no training or experience. It’s funny in a macabre way, but really folks can we let this happen?

What can we do if they just don’t care about the facts?

There is another dimension to this, it the disaffection of the rest of the voters with Hillary Clinton as the only viable alternative.  Whether or not you feel that it is justified, it is real. The consequence is apathy on the part of many who would otherwise rally to be sure DJT is not elected. Political professionals know that candidates must generate enthusiasm to motivate voters to get out and vote. So the fact that voters don’t like HRC works for DJT and he is exploiting and amplifying it.

The very most persuasive force in politics is personal relationships.  Our most cherished attitudes and beliefs derive largely form what we perceive to be congruent with our friendships.  Friends do, in fact, discuss politics and religion over dinner.  What you can do, if you want to influence the election is take a personal stand against what you see happening.

As for myself, I write posts like this one. I will also be writing my “Christmas Letter” in October this year, and it will express my deep concern for what I see as a threat to my children and grandchildren … what Ken Burns so passionately decried.