New Orleans Decisions, decisions, decisions. It’s so hard these days for so many people to make up their minds. Do they fight the next war over where Trump and his partners are trying to take the country or do they fight the last war over the results of the election?
I interviewed a political activist on Wade’s World the other day named Gary Krane who was advocating a series of steps to attempt to overturn the recent election. Clinton supporters in some of the battleground states have been calling for a challenge and recount in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, though Clinton and her campaign have expressed no support for these efforts, even as her vote lead has surpassed two million over Trump. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for President who polled a little over 1% of the vote, has a claim of standing in asking for a recount, and says that she has raised $5 million to fund the effort. People are asking whether or not this is where they should put their energy.
Nasty women are planning a huge march in Washington on January 21st, the day after the inauguration to send a message about how they hope to be heard and heeded in a Trump administration. Busses are already filling up. Plans are being made. Numbers should be high. This would seem to be an entry in the “let’s fight the next war, not the last war” campaign.
The Wall Street Journal and some of its columnists, like former presidential speechwriter, Peggy Noonan, are arguing that Trump should totally divest himself of all of his business interests in order to guarantee that the Oval Office will not be wheel-and-deal central for Trump’s brand and interests. There is no liberalism in their position. They don’t want a classic blind trust, they want him to liquidate all of his holdings and take the losses. Noonan says his career as a businessman is over, and now it is time for him to be a patriot. Trump on the other hand claims he could run his business from the White House, and it would be legal since there is no statute determining a conflict-of-interest by a President. Perhaps there should be. Or, he argues, that his children could somehow handle it all without his say so. His buddy, Ruddy Giuliani, while taking time out from his horrific campaign to be Secretary of State, says that would be fine, because he can’t put his children out of work. This is an interesting campaign from the right. We have to wonder if it has traction, and if it could use a push.
Speaker Ryan and the conservatives in Congress are already moving towards their own version of a coup in order to try and capture a Trump presidency for their anti-people programs of privatizing Medicare, decimating what is left of any safety net, cashing out food stamps, and one draconian measure after another. That seems like a battle worth engaging as well. Add environmental issues to the list, holding onto the Affordable Care Act, the Consumer Finance Protection Board, labor unions, banking regulations and more, and it would seem we have more than enough coming fights that we need to be ready and able to suit up to wage.
I don’t want to seem like a ninny, but I don’t know how to drive forward with my eyes on the rear view mirror.