One Year

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Some thoughts ending another  week full of breaking news….

Directly related post on the Feb. 1 Precinct Caucuses is here.  Ours will be virtual – I’m signed up.  More, after the caucus.

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Last week was the one-year anniversary of our outstanding President, Joe Biden.  Heather Cox Richardson summarized President Biden’s year here.   The column is well worth your reading time.  Here’s another from Richardson, Jan 27.

Then, yesterday, President Biden made this statement as part of his remarks on the upcoming retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer: “While I’ve been studying candidates’ backgrounds and writings, I’ve made no decisions except one: The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience, and integrity, and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court“.  More later from me on this.

President Biden is making his mark.  I’m thankful.

Of course, there are differences of opinion.  I don’t need to elaborate.  At the end of this post I’ll share some thoughts about the insanity and destructiveness of today’s brand of political ‘competition’, but first….

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Three doctors from Partners in Health (PIH) wrote recently about seven myths of Omicron.  What is Partners in Health?  A recent very interesting documentary, Bending the Arc, tells the story, available on Netflix.  Partners in Health website is here.  We visited the PIH flagship facility in Cange, Haiti, in 2006, as well as one of its rural clinics, and a women’s support group.    The film is long, nearly two engaging hours.  We watched it and it is very much reality based.  Succinctly, the average American cannot imagine what we take for granted in the area of health care.  Everyone deserves the same, for our mutual benefit.

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Thursday, Jan 27, was Holocaust Remembrance Day.  Never forget.  Here is what the the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. had to say.

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Apparently, another Netflix film is breaking records.  It is “Don’t Look Up“ (released 2021), described here.  I have not yet viewed the film, but plan to.  It is sci fi, but what I’ve heard so far is that it is very thought-provoking, generally focused on the tendency to deny reality.  The preview is available on YouTube.  Someone who’s seen it told me not to forget the two add-on scenes at the very end of the film.)

Post note 10:30 p.m. Friday: Watched the film including two end segments and found it very thought provoking.  (See John’s comment at the end of this post: Regarding “Don’t Look Up” – yes stay all the way through the credits. It’s incorrectly billed as a science-fiction drama – it’s more like a current events quasi comedic documentary“.)

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Louie Anderson, a true Minnesota treasure, died recently, and merited a tribute from Minneapolis Star Tribune movie critic Neal Justin.  Anderson grew up a few miles from where I type. He catapulted to stardom on Johnny Carson; the Nov. 20, 1984, clip is easily accessible on YouTube.  Here’s to Louie, from Neal:

Louie Anderson, Minneapolis Star Tribune Variety Section January 25, 2022

Neal Justin’s comments: Louie Anderson

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And Molly sent a delightful 33 second song about mid-continent winter, here.  She lives in another suburb of St. Paul, and I affirm what she said about weather, here, on Jan. 25: “…this 33-second piece was actually posted on our church’s web page today. The forecast says -20 for tonight (and that’s before the wind-chill factor…), & it was  -17 or so last night…”

Competition – some personal thoughts:

The American political system – probably democracy generally – has always been based on competition, often nasty.  We consider ourselves winners (“exceptional” among the nations), though we now are in the process of destroying ourselves from the inside – competition run amuck.

This is not a matter of “they’re all alike”.  Of the two major parties in this country, one is still attempting to work together – the Democratic Party; the other is absolutely committed to permanently disabling the other – a “fool’s errand” – another topic for another time….  Try thinking of the body politic – us – as a real body.  What is gained by permanently disabling one side, versus the other?  Nothing.  Most all of us can prove this by simply reviewing our own life experience.  We need each other.

As life happens, I spent 30 years of my work career – 27 of those full-time – representing school teachers in a state which had collective bargaining, and two competing teacher unions, which ultimately merged two years before I retired, 22 years ago.

Last year I spent some time recalling those work years.  In case you might be interested, you can find brief recollections here; the most relevant pages are in the reminiscences pp 12-14.

I was sometimes on the winning side, sometimes on the losing, more than fifteen of the years in places where my assigned locals were in both winner or loser “camps”.

Personal observation: it made not much difference whether the local was large, or tiny.  Division contributed more to weakness than to strength.

Both sides had leaders.  If you won, your local leaders had the responsibility to represent everyone; if you lost, your main right was to criticize – you had no accountability.  There was much investment in proving one side was better than the other, but in numerous experiences on both sides for many years, there really was no genuine difference.  Both sides, both organizations, their members and leaders, did the best they could under the existing circumstances.  In one way or another, each squandered their power by internal competition.  No, this wasn’t dramatic, but it was evident.

I noticed a dynamic back then, and it made no difference which union was in charge, mine or the other.  There was a certain luxury in being out of power.  All you needed to do was complain that the majority wasn’t doing this, that or the other.

Ultimately, the state organizations merged, starting with one single large local organization where the last bargaining election had been decided by a single vote out of perhaps 1,000.   I was closer than most to this merger.  The main dynamic which changed after merger, was there no longer was a reason/excuse for one side to go in combat with the other.  Both were responsible for outcomes.  Folks finally decided to sail in the same boat, and the only choice they made was to what extent they participated individually in the solutions for the entire group.  Qualitatively, the unity system worked better than the division. Of course, it was never perfect, but it was much better.

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On Activists and Activism: Some years after I retired, I went to an Awards program honoring a minister who was a great friend, and had been a campus minister during the turbulent times of the Vietnam War.

Verlyn mentioned something he had observed during those years as a Lutheran pastor on California campuses.  He estimated that perhaps 2% of the students he observed were what we have come to know as activists – shall we say, the ‘spear carriers’, the warriors, the leaders, in his case: peace (anti-war) activists.

The 2% was just a personal observation of his, but I have always resonated with it, from my working career, when I observed similar dynamics everywhere, including in my retired activist years.

It plays out in American national politics as well.  But this year, unlike any other in my long life experience, there is a stark choice to be made in November, and the sorting out begins, in my state, next Tuesday, Feb. 1.

One Party has decided to go for the kill – to render the other Party permanently impotent and thus irrelevant, by any and all means available.  This process began years ago, but has intensified.  The strategy may seem to work, but the success will be short lived, and everyone, including the so-called winners will suffer.

It’s up to you to be ‘on the court’ the coming months.  It’s your future….

We, not “they”, ARE “politics”, for good or ill.

COMMENTS (additional comments at end.)

from Joyce: I read this right after reading your latest email.

 

 

Grateful

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I particularly call your attention to yesterdays post, Precinct Caucuses (as they are referred to in Minnesota, but exist everywhere, this time of year).  It is easy to kick “politicians” around.  Just remember, we, the people, are solely responsible for who represents us in what so far has been a democracy.

(Precinct Caucus in Minnesota is February 1.)

I’d also recommend a quick look at the agenda for an on-line international conference on education on Monday Jan 24 here.  “The power of international exchange.”  At least take a look.  Open to anyone, anywhere.

There have been numerous comments to the Jan. 18 post: “C-word”

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Gratitude.  This week came a gift from the folks who produce Wikipedia.  It is very simple: wonderful photographs submitted by readers from around the world.  It is fabulous.  Take a look, here.

Wikipedia has been around the internet for many years now.  It is useful and ever-more credible source of information.  The last few years I’ve contributed to it, and this gallery is its thank you.

Yesterday came a guest essay in the New York Times from Amanda Gorman, the young poet who spoke at the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris a year ago.  Her Essay, “Why I Almost Didn’t Read My Poem At The Inauguration”, can be read here, (at least I hope it can – as a subscriber to NYT, I understand that this is one item I can forward as an open source.)  The column is very powerful.

Personally, I subscribe to NYT and WaPo and the local Minneapolis Star Tribune, mostly to support credible journalism.

Monday was Martin Luther King Day.  Jeff sent a comment from MLK: “Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance,” King wrote in his 1967 book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” “It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn.”

I am among millions of “whites” who do our best, imperfectly, to get it.  Our very substantial voice tends to be subordinated to other other members of the white persuasion less understanding than we.  Don’t forget or dismiss us.

Finally, Do attend your local Precinct Caucus, whatever it is called, wherever you live.  It is part of the dues all of us should pay for the privilege of living in our democracy.  Once again, here’s the link.   Be more than a passive voice in the conversation about our future as a nation and world.

COMMENTS:

from Peter: (suggestion in below has been incorporated above) [Your] paragraph [quoted below]seems ambiguous, if a reader didn’t know you:

“I am among millions of “whites” who do our best, imperfectly, to get it.  Our very substantial voice tends to be subordinated to other types less understanding than we.  Don’t forget or dismiss us.”

I suggest making it clear that by “other types less understanding than we” you mean other members of the white persuasion.

Unconscious bias is a thing, and a challenge for everyone, though some more than others. Only recently the former Senate Majority Leader was quoted saying something comparing Black people to Americans…

We still hear things like: “People are afraid of Blacks.”

Amy Goodman had a guest last week who did an amazing documentary on race.

Reporter: “What’s your message for voters of color who are concerned that without the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, they’re not going to be able to vote in the midterm?”

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: “Well, the concern is misplaced, because if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.”

Dick: This seems to be credible actual data.

Precinct Caucus

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Note especially the comments at the end of this post from Jodell and Fred, who are local activists who I asked to review my column and point out errors or additional information.  At the very end, I make a recommendation for a resolution and individual action by all of us, this year.

The Minnesota Precinct Caucuses are February 1.  I happen to be Democrat and I almost always go to the local caucus, which for the last 20 years or so has been somewhere in the Woodbury area.  If you’re in my area, and my political brand, here’s the local portal for my own Senate District.  [I asked the local folks to fact-check this post.  Comments from any of them are at the end of the post.]

This year our local caucus is ‘contactless’, as in virtual, pre-registration required.  I don’t know if this is general, or simply local.  I think it is prudent given the still omni-present Covid-19 and its variants.  By now, I’m a veteran of Zoom (not always enamored by it) but I think it’s going to be the future of meetings, generally, and best to get well acquainted with it.

My local Senate district succinctly describes the caucus: “The precinct is the smallest political unit in the country where its residents vote at one location.”   Every state has its own version, date, etc.  It is the starting block for the formal political process ultimately ending in the general election 2022.

This years caucus is the decennial one – the census year caucus.  This means redistricting, which will likely not be concluded in Minnesota till sometime in March.  So, after redistricting happens, any particular address may be in another precinct; perhaps might be in another legislative district; my district may have a different number.  Nobody knows that yet.  Here’s a primer for Minnesota.  (If you’re in another state, check first with Secretary of State’s website for information.)

It is my experience that citizens tend to dismiss the importance of Precinct Caucuses, however they are defined state by state.

This is very unfortunate.

Typically, the business of our precinct caucus has two essentials: 1) selecting delegates to represent at the next level convention; 2) consider resolutions submitted by persons in attendance at the caucus.  The Democrats are diligent in matters relating to fair treatment, such as gender.

Typically, anyone who wants to be a delegate can be – I don’t recall one where there were too many candidates, though I’m sure this happens on occasion in districts where there are hot issues.

Resolutions are ‘cooks choice’ – most anything can be proposed.  If passed, all resolutions are considered by a committee after the convention, solely to make sense of the variety of wordings on resolutions of the same topic from various people.

I have served on next level committees, and democracy is respected and cherished.

I subscribe to the position that our Democracy is in more peril than ever in our history.  Even in the Civil War, there was a United States of America, against which was the rebellious Confederate States.  Now the issue seems to be Democracy vs Autocracy, and the threat is real – witness the daily news, most everywhere.

We absent ourselves from participating in our democracy at our own ultimate peril.

(By far the largest caucus I ever attended was in February, 2008, in rural Lake Elmo MN.  I had to park at least a half mile from the caucus location in a junior high school.  There were so many people in attendance that informal balloting for presidential preference was slips of paper.   What led to the interest that year, of course, was the Iraq War, the increasing danger to the U.S. economy, and the contest for president primarily involving Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.)

A distressing feature of that caucus, and others more recent, is that many people showed up to do the straw poll for President and then left.  Those who chose to stay became the potential delegates to the succeeding conventions which led to the ultimate endorsed candidates for office.

Those who came and left early represent the danger to our Democracy.  While they were there for a time, and can be thawed for that, full participation is necessary.

It is customary to blame the Party(ies).  It is not the Parties fault, nor is it the Parties responsibility.  Ultimately it is we individual citizens who choose to vote or not; to vote informed or ignorant; to vote for one office, or for every office.

We choose our own fate….

Participate fully at every level.  There is no other choice.

Earlier relevant post, here.  Most recent update on the Jan. 6 situation is here.

COMMENTS to this post I requested from local representatives, as well as one from myself:

from Jodell:

1) Due to the Covid surge, each chair of each local Organizing of the MN DFL had about 4 days to choose by Jan 16 2022 either
a) In-person with Vax, Negative Covid test or Non-attendee form submitted
b) Contactless with Non-attendee form sent by USPS, email, or Drop-off box in-person
We called an Emergency meeting of the Central Committee and everyone spoke in favor of Contactless.
2) The MN Supreme Court will announce new Redistricting Maps on Feb. 15,
unless the MN Leg can agree before then, which is not likely given Mary Kiffmeyer’s position to let the courts do it.

https://www.sd53.org is doing a Zoom + Pie event on President’s Day, Feb. 21.

Drop off/Pick up Pie on Feb. 20; zoom call 5:30pm on Feb. 21. You can OPT OUT of pie.)
3)  Who can attend?
Ages 16+ can participate and offer proposed laws (Resolutions)
Ages 18+ by Nov. 8 can be a Delegate, vote, run for office

4) Here are the Resolutions passed in 2020 by 60% of the state convention Delegates.

The Headings are the MN Legislature Committees that would hear a bill on that topic.
A resolution has to be offered in 4 regions to make it to the state committee. So call 3 friends!

DFL Party Platform (Philosophy) https://dfl.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/DFL-Ongoing-Platform.pdf

5) Yes, it’s a Civic Duty to be an Informed Voter and participate. Invite a friend.
6) As we move to online formats, see if that makes it easier to get involved.
People can also get involved by re-posting on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, SnapChat, TikTok)
(at) sd53dfl
or subscribe to our newsletter.
7) Sen. Amy Klobuchar has specific instances of surgically targeted state Voter suppression laws.
8) Democracy has to be the answer.
Where you say “Participate at every level” can you add our www.sd53.org  – use the page with
-find your polling place
-candidates forum info (posted after Jan. 24)
-Register (Non-attendee form + optional resolution form)
-Donate online $50 PCR & get $50 back.
from Fred:
I think the state DFL pretty much set the course of action for the Contactless Precinct Caucuses. I think the local organizing units then made some choices within the structure the state provided.
I am not sure after redistricting if your precinct will change as much as the precinct you are in may end up in a different senate or congressional district.
As to being able to a delegate to the local organizing unit convention if there are contested races getting chosen as a delegate is important if you are trying to help your candidate get the endorsement.  So historically it important to show up and try to get selected as a delegate.  I believe this year delegate slots will be determined by lot.
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from Dick:  I’d really recommend a simple resolution at all precinct caucuses.  Wording can be as you wish, but the essence of it is as follows: take some time, soon, to thank everyone you know who has been willing to represent you and others in government elected positions at any level; and to workers at all levels and in all occupations who work with citizens every day, including but not limited to persons in the medical professions, in education, clerks in stores, and on and on.  These folks are the unsung heroes for us all.  Each of us know people in these front-line positions.  Do this in your own way, soon.

The C-word.

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Please note: Thursday, 1/20, Zoom conversation about the film “Until We Find Them”  with the filmmaker, Hunter Johnson.  Watch 31 minute film on-line beforehand.  These discussions are always very interesting.

Monday, 1/24 international talks on Education, details here.  “The power of international exchange.”  At least take a look.

My 1/17 post covered two topics: Supreme Court and Covid-19; and Voting Rights.

“My Angel Tree up 36 years now!”

My Christmas present delivered on December 27 after a colonoscopy was to the point: “Adenocarcinoma” in the sigmoid colon.  “Moderate in size”, the report said.  Endoscopy found no problems in esophagus, stomach, and Duodenum.  Remote film capsule was swallowed (went down easy!), went through, and apparently found nothing in small intestine.

Dec. 26 I spent preparing for the colonoscopy, Dec. 25 was Christmas….

Since Christmas, the train has been on the track.  Surgery is scheduled for Feb. 17 – there is a process [1/21, date changed to Feb 18]  This is serious business.  My doctor asked me Jan. 18: “are you anxious?”  I answered, honestly, “no”.

CT and MRI scans appear to show that the cancer has not spread, which is very good news.  Nobody guarantees anything – prudent.  But cancers warning shot for me, (in mid-October, 2021), was very helpful, and it was up to me to listen, and I did.

Enroute home from the Tuesday appointment, I met friend Kathy for breakfast and she showed me the above photograph she’d gotten from her friend, Ron, who was diagnosed with bone cancer in 1985.  The picture and the caption are his, from Christmas 2021.  This was his tree at the time of diagnosis in 1985, and its never come down.  His “Angel Tree”.

Life goes on.  I feel good.  I’ll keep you posted.

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I come from a family where one branch has a rather high incidence of colon cancer, so it’s a known.  Mom died of it at 72, and it afflicted a couple of brothers of hers.  A niece died at 35 of it.  Doubtless there are others in the family…

So, I’ve been doing the colonoscopies since my 40s, usually every five years.  There was seldom anything of interest; the last one was clear.  That was six years ago and I was 75 – the point where such procedures usually end.  Why bother getting another one of those disagreeable procedures? Another lesson learned, at 81.  Sometime after the last one, the cancer began. It didn’t follow the calendar…or maybe it did?

Lesson: Genetics does matter, likely a lot.  Somebody recommended genetic counseling, which seems to make lots of sense.  Just knowing your own family history is helpful.  Three years ago I had my first major operation, aortic valve replacement.  I first saw that with my Uncle Vince, who had the same procedure at age 81…and died 7 years ago at 90.  In 2006, I had no idea that the same malady was brewing in me.

Not everybody will get a predicted disease.  Disease isn’t a death sentence, either, though the fact of the matter is that every one of us will die of something…it’s inevitable.

Lesson 2: We live in an extraordinarily advanced society when it comes to medical care.  I am amazed at the kind of service that is available to me, as a long-term Medicare recipient who can afford the needed supplemental coverage.  There is no reasonable excuse for not having ‘national health’ for everyone.  We owe it to each other.

A few days ago I was privileged to learn of a new film, Bending the Arc (Netflix) which tells the story of Dr. Paul Farmer and Partners in Health, a health initiative which began in impoverished Haiti about 1983, and expanded to Peru and Rwanda.  We watched the film, which is very interesting (near two hours).  We’ve been to Farmer’s facility in Cange, Haiti.  For the ordinary Haitian, I suppose it might be said that if you get sick, you either get well, or not. We generally don’t experience this harsh either/or fact in our society. Health care is a luxury few can access.   Bending the Arc, will bend your arc.  Take the time to watch it.

COMMENTS (More at end of post)

from Carol:

I believe you will come through with flying colors.  You’re important, ya know…  And I have an omen that the year is going to be a good one (after January, that is…  January we could just remove from the calendar).  Our Christmas tree is growing!  (Yeah, our inside tree.)  This is the 4th Christmas tree we’ve had that started to grow after the New Year – shooting out new sprouts all over the place – but it hasn’t happened for a long time.  I think that tree knows something.
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response from Dick: there is something comforting about a Christmas tree…special kudos to a ‘real one’ that actually decides to sprout in the winter!
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from Barry: Sorry to hear about the cancer Dick. Wish you well on that one. Glad they found it early. Good you have a positive attitude.
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from Barbara: May the surgery be successful in getting you on your journey to be cancer free.
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from Jane: I remember when in Haiti I asked how
An individual had died. They shrugged their shoulders. No one knew, even family. We are far from that, and so should they be…
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Response from Dick: The second trip in 2006 we saw this kind of thing first hand.  I particularly remember a scene in a village in the interior.  While we we were there a group was carrying someone down the street, who was writhing in agony.  Medicine was basically inaccessible to them.  PIH, had just started a clinic in the area, but it was too late.  We also visited a TB hospital for younger people.  Really tragic place, the kind of memories that stick in ones mind.  We cannot imagine how good we have it, till we see the other side…
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from Richard (my college roommate 1958-61): I like your attitude. We’re at the place in life where heath situations are going to be happening. I’m praying for you…don’t know if Methodist prayers work that well on you guys, but I don’t think they will do any harm. I hope things work well for you…
response from Dick: Not sure about the Methodist thing – you know how THEY are (this wouldn’t have been a joke in the 50s.  Catholics were even worse, if such is possible!). When you  and I started at college in 1958 ecumenism had just begun to sprout, as you recall.  May it never die!  Another friend is not a believer in “prayer” but sent the best wishes, to which I responded: “There is no copyright on the word ‘prayer’ of course.  I don’t think there’d be any universal agreement on an alternative descriptor either.  We’re all connected somehow, and some of us, like you and I and [another mutual friend], for instance, are a bit more connected than most.”
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from Norm: Best wishes during your undercover review of the health care system, Dick!  (The polyp that they could not get out during a colonoscopy and had to be removed surgically along with a portion of my upper ascending was cancerous but was caught in time before it broke through the wall of the intestine looking for other areas to visit and become attached to. )
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from Kathy: Well, be assured of our family’s prayers as you go into surgery with a positive outlook and healthy life beyond.
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from Barbara: I’ll continue to follow you closely, at a respectful distance:

(1) You have cancer now.
(2) Some inconvenient stuff.
(3) Recovering.
(4) Recovery.
(5) Celebration

Here’s to best inconvenient stuff!!!

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from Dan: Sending best wishes as you head toward surgery.

Your post was timely: I had my first general checkup in seven years yesterday, together with husband John (who’s not nearly so blasé). The doc suggested we consider DNA mapping, for its predictive value among other things.
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from Larry: Thank you for sending BENDING THE ARC
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from Gail: Thanks for the update, Dick.  Have a quick recovery!
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from Lydia: I was sorry to hear of your cancer diagnosis. Your post was very indepth so, no need to ask questions about it.

My best friend of 30 years got a diagnosis 7 years ago , it keeps coming back but, he’s still here.
I hope your surgery goes VERY well. Early indicators (no spread) looks good.
You remain in my thoughts & (what passes for) prayers–asking the Creator to keep dear people in my life safe & asking to be a better person myself.
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from Paul and Barb: We are sorry to hear of your cancer diagnosis but encouraged by your description of the extent of it and good feeling going into surgery.  We wish you all the best possible outcome.  Please know that we will be thinking of you over the coming weeks.
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from Joyce: I will hold you in my thoughts, and in my heart; your friendship is very, very dear to me. The offer of assistance holds.
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from Christine in France:  Covid is a nightmare too here….

It is a disease but also a political issue and scientists are not always saying the same……how do you want people to feel secured between those three points of view fighting between themselves….????
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from John: Sending you love and good prayers for your health. I think you know that 6 or so years ago I was diagnosed with bladder cancer.  Caught it small
And early so it has been easy and things are clear now.  But it was a nudge.  A wake up call. A notice to use each day well.  I see that you already know that lesson.
Thanks, as always, for sharing your story and your wisdom.
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from Arthur: It sounds like you will beat this one Dick. so glad you caught it in time.  You will be healthy and well once they get it out!
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from Stephen: the best to you Dick
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from Laura: Many prayers, Dear friend Dick!… I am with you in spirit!
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from Judy: Thank you for the update.  I am sixteen years out from a double mastectomy and treatment for breast cancer. Modern medicine is wonderful.  I do hope you will do well and will stay in touch with your updates.
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from April: I will be sending positive thoughts your way!
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from Flo: Wishing you well and expecting to come down to visit while you’re in recovery from your colonoscopy. Yes, it’s a big deal.  Keep as active as you can, and find pleasure in each day. It’s the only one we can count on!
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from Dick:
Somebody(ies) surprised me with package delivered yesterday.  Thank you to whomever it was.

Jan. 19, 2022

Absurdity

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“Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can also make you commit atrocities.”  Voltaire

Several times I have seen the above teaser for an upcoming special about Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, in which he quotes Voltaire.  These days, when truth and fiction intentionally  are blended into whole cloth, skepticism is warranted.  So, while I have great respect for Raskin, I’m inclined to look for validation/refutation of most anything.  Thus  an analysis  from the Cato Institute (link at the beginning of this post).

(The translation is reasonable, says the analysis.)

We are in truly dangerous times, where those infamous “alternative facts” (Kelly Ann Conway) are substituted for reality…and we choose to believe them.  We risk becoming a nation of fools.

My friend, Joyce, has been very helpful over the years, discovering sources which reliably cut through the fog of gas-lighting.

For a long while, Just Above Sunset was a reliable go-to about varied opinions on national events.  Alan, a retiree in LA, had been doing yeoman work since 2003, almost daily.  In December, he retired from his retirement avocation, moving to occasional photo essays in his home area.  I have Joyce to thank for his many years of free analysis.

We’re a big country, and there are other experts out there, and this morning came two of these, forwarded also from Joyce, which shine light on the recent Covid-19 decision by the Supreme Court (which is besmirching its reputation by the day), and another about the current debate on Voting Rights in the United States of America, under active debate.

The Supremes versus Covid-19, from the blog ‘The Weekly Sift’, January 17.

Voting Rights, from Heather Cox Richardson, January 16.

Don’t count on me.  Subscribe to these services and let others know.  There is truth out there….

F(r)actions

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Yesterday a far right militia group, several members of the Oath Keepers, were formally charged with seditious actions related to Jan.6, 2021.  I expect this is just the beginning of the serious indictments, which will come over coming months.  At the same time is the crucial political decision making about voting rights for all of we citizens.  Two good summaries come from Heather Cox Richardson, and Digby.    UPDATE Jan. 15: an interesting commentary on yesterday’s Supreme Court decision throwing out the mandate regarding Covid-19 mandates. These are crucial issues for all of us.

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In my previous post, January 9, I spotlighted a Quiz I had seen in the New York Times last fall “If America Had Six Parties Which Would You Belong To?”.  You can read about the references here (note paras two and three).

I did the assessment, which has 20 very simple multiple choice questions, each with three to five options, and got an instant score, graphed (below, the green dot is me), and accompanied by several pages of text.

I show this not because I got the ‘right’ answers – there are none of these – but rather to indicate where I perceive myself to be on the survey makers idea of the American Political Spectrum.  The Instant Report notes that my answers were “closest to the New Liberal Party” which, it suggests, includes about 26 percent of the electorate, one-fourth of Americans.

The author describes my cohort as “the professional-class establishment wing of the Democratic Party.  Members are cosmopolitan in their social and racial views but more pro-business and more likely to see the wealthy as innovators.”

I think the survey read me basically correctly.

I did the assessment twice more, the first, answering every question in a wishy-washy (my term) way; the other in the position most in opposition to my own.

‘Wishy-washy’ came out closest to the Patriot Party, “the party of Donald T’s 2016 primary campaign”, best fitting about 14% of the electorate.

The most opposing position to my own went to the Christian Conservative party comprising about 20% of the electorate.

Of course, this is simply a model, and the names of the Parties are arbitrary, but these are real issues and real attitudes held by real people, including myself…often, seemingly, diametrically opposed.  But we have to live together in a common society….

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Reader, I propose a personal exercise for you.

You probably know me, at least from how I portray my priorities at this space.  You also have a pretty good idea of your own political philosophy.  

Can you come up with four other people who you actually know, who might fit in the other categories named in the above analysis.

Write the names down so you can personalize your reflections….

What if you were stuck, permanently, in a place where there were only the six (or seven) of you, each one from one of these groups, and you had no choice but to work everything out to simply survive?  Or to thrive, beyond just survival.

How would you do it?  How would it work?

What if the system was winner take all, and you weren’t on the winning side?  How does the winner benefit without the wisdom of the loser?

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We are a nation of 330,000,000 people, and it is a given that we cannot survive in a divided society where somebody wins, the others lose.  The question becomes how does our society survive, given a devotion to “winning” at any cost?

In a ‘win-lose’ system only one can win – witness the Super Bowl soon to bring the nation to its knees – at least attention wise.  The Game dominates everything on The Day of the Game.

The process is now in play, winnowing down the teams to a single Winner.  In the end, who really wins, anything, and for how long?  Fame is fleeting.  I pose this question, whether you can do the survey or not.

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The analysis above accounts for 100% of the electorate.  (The three groups I headline, total 60%).  No “side” has a plurality.

Our societies future is not a simple question with a simple answer.  We live in a real world, where none of us have the luxury of pretending others with differing priorities not only are wrong, but don’t exist.

Long and short, folks, we’re stuck with each other.  How do we proceed?

The U.S. presidents and the U.S. Capitol, ca 1905. All Presidents shown up to and including Theodore Roosevelt (second from right). Found in the basement of the North Dakota farmhouse of my grandparents, who came to North Dakota in 1905.

COMMENTS:

from Jane in rural Minnesota: Our county DFL [Democrats] and I are making comment signs to put along roadways.  Bits of shared understanding that underly DFL  positions.  This replaces the severely limited newspaper options we have here.

Secondly, I hope to help start a digital nonprofit newspaper, since all our village papers in the area were bought up and killed.  A long project, but important.  More on that in the future.
from Dick in response: That is a good comment!  It is difficult to communicate these days.  We no longer have a weekly newspaper in Woodbury, so the social network stuff is about the only option.  Yours is a great idea.

from Jane: Thanks.  It’s based on the MinnPost model.  And NO firewall!! They don’t.  I recommend their weekly email posts, and signing up for them.

There are starting to be grants out there for nonprofit newspapers. This is the future I think.
As we will have several villages represented on our  website it will have a section for each village’s news.  Then we do a weekly post for each village, to those who sign up for it. There is an example of this is Chicago, where each neighborhood has their own section and weekly post, but one umbrella media.
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from Brian in New York City:  As concerns division, I have my post, too, which I’ll share with you:

DIVISIVENESS

I listen to/read stuff both on the left and right.   Far left and far right sometimes.    What I find encouraging is both sides are acknowledging that the USA is going through a period of divisiveness and we need to stop this.     This is a good first step.

 

What I appreciate both about Trump and Biden is that neither was/is a warmonger.   That’s my first priority.

 

And now to go back in time some.  We have divisiveness now.   Well, my hero, Lindbergh, was an anti-Semite.  This forces me to be a fence-sitter.  It’s like our founding fathers, some were slave owners.  And?

 

Here’s an item about an influential priest from the 1930s—it shows we were divisive back then, too!:

 

“Father Charles Coughlin, was a Canadian-born Catholic priest assigned to a parish in Michigan. Coughlin was antisemitic, anti-Communist, and isolationist. Throughout the 1930s, he was one of the most influential men in the United States. A new post office was constructed in his Michigan town just to process the letters that he received each week—80,000 on average. The audience of his weekly radio broadcasts was in the tens of millions, and his journal Social Justice eventually reached one million subscribers.

 

By the mid-1930s, Coughlin had become a vocal critic of the Roosevelt administration, and he attacked Jews explicitly in his broadcasts. In the days and weeks after Kristallnacht, Coughlin defended the state-sponsored violence of the Nazi regime, arguing that Kristallnacht was justified as retaliation for Jewish persecution of Christians. He explained to his listeners on November 20, 1938, that the “communistic government of Russia,” “the Lenins and Trotskys,…atheistic Jews and Gentiles” had murdered more than 20 million Christians and had stolen “40 billion [dollars]…of Christian property.” Following this broadcast, several radio stations refused to broadcast his program without pre-approved scripts. A few stations in New York cancelled his programs.”

from Fred:  Dave and I were thinking we would be inside Caribou this Sunday. We can talk about your position on the Fractions graph—makes you look far more moderate than you really are.

from Jim:  Thanks for sending this.

 

Here’s where I came out:

 

 “You are closest to the American Labor Party”

 

I’m having a hard time getting the four-square to copy-and-paste, but my “dot” is far to the left, though not pasted against the left edge, and is about a quarter of the way from the horizontal axis to the upper edge.  So, right about where I expected it to be from other, similar exercises I have done.

 

Here’s my “issue” with this particular one, though.  They have chosen to “create” six mythical “parties”, which is fine, I guess, but they do not have any mythical party IN the upper left hand box. I find that beyond “odd”, since other research studies using the “four-square” model of the political spectrum routinely find that this box is the most highly populated of the four among the American population.  To be sure, all four are heavily populated, but to the extent that any one is more highly populated than the others, it’s upper left.  Maybe 30%  Now, if the point here is that there are very few OFFICE HOLDERS in upper left, that is absolutely true, and other research has made quite the big deal about that.  To summarize:  THE BOX THAT HAS THE LARGEST NUMBER OF VOTERS IN IT, HAS THE FEWEST OFFICE HOLDERS IN IT.  The lower right box has some, but few, office holders in it (these days), but at least it is also the one with the fewest voters (maybe 15%), in most studies.  The lower left and upper right boxes, of course, are the “stereotypical polarized and polarizing activist” boxes, and they have nearly equal numbers of voters in them, perhaps a few more in lower left than in upper right.  True “activists” tend to be in the far corners of those two boxes, and office holders are almost all in those two boxes, and though they are distributed throughout each box, they tend to clump near the corners, but not as close to the corners as the “activists”.

 

For decades, winning elections had been about politicians in the upper right or lower left boxes trying to win voters in the upper left and lower right boxes – Now many emphasize just getting more people in the top right or bottom left to show up at the polls.  The 2016 perplexing (to some) development of there being voters who were undecided between Trump and Bernie Sanders is actually well-explained here.  Both had appeal in that upper left box.  Trump’s appeal centered more to the top and the right within that box, and Bernie’s more to the left and lower areas of that box.  But there was some overlap, and they both appealed to voters who do not have a natural home in today’s American politics.  When some analysts refer to both many of Trump’s voters and many of Bernie’s voters being “populists”, this is really all they’re saying:  These are people that are part of a very large group (their opinions are “popular”), but have few or no “establishment” politicians (or office holders) who normally appeal to them.  Neither conservative on all things nor liberal on all things.  By the way, media almost never refer to top left box as “moderate” – they apply that almost exclusively to bottom right box.  I’ve never quite understood that, but it’s part of why I reject the label “moderate” for myself.  THe people and politicians who the media label “moderate” are actually diametrically opposed to me on many many things.  Don’t know that I like “populist”, because media tends to use it as a pejorative, but at least it applies to, and gets used for, the box I’m in…

from Dick:  Many thanks, Jim.   Of course, you and I know each other, a little, in person, so I have an advantage on most of the readers (most of whom I also know, in person.)

I don’t think the “box” proves anything, or was intended to perfectly define the mess that is the America in which we live.  It is an opening for conversations like this.  I keep thinking of an envelope down in my garage which is full of probably several hundred keys found in various places when I was closing down the North Dakota farm.  You can visualize it, I’m sure.  It probably included the key for the first car they ever owned (1924 Dodge, I think it was), tractors, miscellaneous motors, on and on and on.  I can’t throw them away, though they’re useless, unless somebody wants them for a work of art.  When my end comes, somebody will have to dispose of them.

At any rate, at this moment they symbolize the motley crew we truly are.  At least, they have to live together in that envelope, and however keys co-exist they are doing so. Better than ourselves!!!!!

Thanks for sharing.

from Tony: HA! Talk about moderate. I’m just below the intersection of the four boxes slightly in the bottom left box.

 

Politics, forward

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Personal opinion, hopefully leading to your own individual thinking about our future as a nation.  The purpose of this is to encourage conversation wherever you are.  Related, Jan. 6.

Two articles, one in the New York Times on Sep 8, 2021,  the the other  in The Washington Post on Jan. 9, deserve reading, though both would require you to be subscribers (which I recommend).

The NYT post is a very interesting opportunity to self-assess your own political philosophy as compared to a half-dozen ideologies, not Democrat or Republican, etc.  Not surprising to me is that I profile with “New Liberals”, which are about 26% of the population.  I filled out the questionnaire also as if I were most conservative in answering all questions.  This group is 20% and called “Christian Conservatives”.

The WaPo commentary is an analysis of what would be the hierarchy of leadership of the 1/6/2021 Insurrection.  I found this article to be very interesting.  The names, in order of appearance, are at the end of this post.  That commentary is also very interesting.

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Most of my life was and has been involved with organizations, mostly small.   I am by no means unique.  Human beings generally seem to arrange themselves into hierarchies, where someone is titled with being in charge.  I think this relates to other groups as well – human tend to sort of a herd mentality.

In the part of my career representing teachers, I was privileged to learn from a well known systems guy, Patrick Dolan.  His standard teaching tool is represented by this artistic newsprint about systems, basically bunches of pyramids.  If you’re reading this, you understand this.  (Clicking his name links to a very interesting 6 minute segment on his philosophy.  He made sense.)

My very simple personal spin on Politics is this.  Politics Is People, Period.  For good or ill, people select and then tolerate, or not, their leaders.  Pretenders to leadership understand Power, and how it works.  Carelessness (lack of care) in selecting leaders at any level in any democracy of any kind is very, very dangerous.

A Prudent Person pays very close attention to who he or she anoints to leadership, from the smallest to the largest unit of formal or informal government.

The Nazis and Hitler understood Power.  Presumably so did the German people, who numbered about 80 million at the time of the Third Reich.  The people made a monumental miscalculation, with ultimately dire consequences.  I wrote about this in the January 6 blog.  Power is fleeting

We live within a similar dynamic today.  The WaPo list is very illustrative.  There are nearly 40 people on the list of key actors before and after the 2020 election.  They nearly succeeded in overturning the government of our 330,000,000 population country.

I think the Nazi analogy is very appropriate and very timely for us in 2022.  Those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were little fish, duped into the attack by the cabal listed below.

After WWII, the little fish were of no particular interest to the prosecutors at Nuremberg.  They went home to try to rebuild their lives.  The targets at Nuremberg were the big fish, similar to the ones below.

There are many variables, unknown to myself or any of us at this point in time – things that mitigate for or against severe penalties for the offenders, especially high level.  This is a long-term process.  We are fools to pay the most attention to the devils who attempted to overrun the Capitol.  They were the symptoms of the real disease which was being nurtured by the people listed below.  They were the pawns for the real criminals.

In the end analysis, however, we the people are either the ones who will chose a better fate, or acquiesce to a divided, tribal  and authoritarian system.

Like Joni Mitchell’s iconic Big Yellow Taxi song,  “you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone.”

Personally the danger I see in the current political division in this country is the very clear intention of one ‘tribe’, the current Republican Party leadership, asserting its intention to dominate and control all aspects of society through the legislative and legal system.  The current Democratic party’s dilemma is that it needs to work with and understand numerous diverse perspectives.  The Pat Dolan segment linked above gives some good insights in its 6 minutes.  It is not about politics, rather about systems, generally.  It is an opportunity to learn.

The hierarchy of the Insurrection Jan. 6, 2021 per WaPo

The departing, now ex-President of the United States

Sens Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz

Rudy Guilani

John Eastman

Jeffrey Clark

Bernard Kerik

Ali Alexander, Reps Mo Brooks, Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar

Kayleigh McEnany, Stephen Miller

Roger Stone, Alex Jones

Sydney Powell, Mike Lindell

Jason Miller

Dan Scovino

Michael Flynn

Steve Bannon

Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Kimberley Guilfoyle

Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham

Christopher Miller

Mark Meadows

Sen. Tommy Tuberville; Reps. Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan

Oath Keepers, Proud Boys

V.P. Mike Pence

Send. Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell

Jan. 6, 2021: Alley

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Additional references at end of this post.

A year ago today, January 6, 2021, was the Pearl Harbor warning for the future of our democracy and our republic.  Pearl Harbor was far more than just a single day in December, 1941.  There was history preceding it, which few bother to learn; and WWII after….

I ask you to take the time to really get to know Jan. 6, 2021, what preceded and what followed, and not only from your own bias, and reflect on how you, personally, are a most integral part of your and our future as a nation and society.  Personal opinion: divided into ‘tribes’, as we are, we cannot survive….

Personally, I’ve always trended towards optimism about the future – it’s just my nature.  2022 forward is a big struggle.  We have been well taught to despise each other; to believe facts are fake and vice versa, on and on.  There truly are more ways to communicate less.  For just a single example: we no longer have a local newspaper, which was a forum for sharing opinions.  Now we can isolate into social media groups and pretend there is no other valid opinion.  I’ve begun lobbying for a community conversation about public schools, as we did in this school district in 1999.  It succeeded then; understandably, there is little interest at this moment.  I’ll keep suggesting this, as I can.  It worked.

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The two photos below were the first and last of 32 pictures I took while witnessing the Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.  You will note at the upper left in both photos the television time stamp of the photos: 2:59 and 4:06 p.m., Eastern time.  Personally, this is where my education began – about the unraveling of democracy in 2020.  Hindsight, there was plenty of evidence before, too, but it was easier to ignore.

January 6, 2021 2:59 p.m. 1st of 32 photos of Insurrection

I don’t recall any other year where I paid attention to Jan. 6.  Except for 2000, when the Supreme Court decided the election of President on Dec. 12 (Bush v Gore), once election week was over in November, life simply went on.  I was only vaguely aware of Jan. 6.  It was simply a procedural day.

Last year differed, and the insanity continues.  Here’s my post for January 6, 2021.  About noon that day, I decided to tune in, having little clue about what was about to transpire.  I spent much of the afternoon witnessing a national outrage and tragedy play out in front of my eyes.  Those photos burn Jan. 6 in my memory, as the explosion of the USS Arizona on Dec. 7 reminds me of my uncle Frank Bernard’s death on the ship.  Jan. 6, 2021, was Americans vs America.

I watched orchestrated unrest which turned out to have been planned and coordinated in my own and other states on that day and has continued nationwide ever since.  Jan. 6 will, in my opinion, live on in deserved infamy, as Pearl Harbor has all these years.  This time, though, our battered ships, our enemy, is the heavily documented invasion of our national Capitol.  The threat to our own democracy is now much greater than it was Dec. 7, 1941.  We will survive the pandemic.  Tribalism in all its manifestations is much more of a threat.

January 6, 2021, 4:06 p.m. last of 32 snapshots I took of the Insurrection

THE LOCAL COMPONENT: This post emphasizes  Alley.  Alley was a local insurrection leader from my town who I accidentally came to know in 2017.  To my knowledge she never went to D.C. but was a very active spear carrier here in Minnesota, a year ago, she apparently was an organizer of demonstrations at our own State Capitol on Jan. 6.

Her stage name was and I think remains “Alley Waterbury” and she was spotlighted in a long news article.  Here is the article, Alley, as printed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune Jan. 16, 2021.    It is worth your time.  Disclosure:  I know Alley, but I haven’t seen or heard from her since our brief acquaintance in 2017.

Back in 2017, Alley was an occasional visitor to the coffee shop I frequent.  I’d fix our very few conversations to about mid-2017.  She was probably in her 40s, grew up and lived in my town.  When she came in she visited with others who I didn’t know personally.

At one point, she expressed concern about sex trafficking anticipated at the 2018 Super Bowl, scheduled for Minneapolis.  It seemed a legitimate enough concern.  I did know a teen at risk of exploitation, so I paid attention.  That was Alley’s entree.

Politics entered.  I recall she was upset about some past demonstration which apparently had happened at a Republican Congressman’s home in our community of Woodbury.  I knew nothing about it.  I didn’t and don’t know the issue or the players.  To my knowledge the congressman lived and lives in Woodbury but represented another MN congressional district for a single term: 2017-19.

Apparently she knew him.  Her complaint triggered a very unpleasant memory for me.

I had her e-mail address.  I wrote her a single e-mail, pointing out to her an outrageous incident directed at me some years earlier at my home, after which I called the police. The incident was a late night ringing of our doorbell.   No one was at the door, but I  discovered fresh fecal matter on our doorstep.  A few hours before the incident a signed letter of mine, critical of the local Republican state legislator, had appeared in the local newspaper.  I don’t recall what the letter was even about.  It was just a criticism…that ended with that fresh s**t on my doorstep.

This was the last contact with Alley.

Apparently her activism increased resulting in her 15 minutes of notoriety in the Minneapolis paper a year ago.

Who is Alley, really?  I suspect I’ll never know.

I would guess there are plenty of similar stories out there.  The zealots, as Alley, are probably small in number, but committed.

She, and the other supporters of the insurrection and disinformation, and ultimately power and control, live as they will with the outcome they desired and facilitated a year ago.

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The leader of Alley’s pack, then President, was and remains a modern-day “snake oil salesman” of the very worst kind.  He benefitted by contemporary technology in a way that no old time snake-oil salesman could ever dream of.  He was and remains truthless.

Snake-oil is still and will always be, snake-oil.  It depends on suckers who’ll buy it, and there apparently are plenty of them still around.

My opinion: The  insurrection didn’t succeed a year ago, and the only way it will succeed going forward is the complacency of the rest of us.

Our job is to prevent the outrage of 2020-21 from ever happening again.

It’s in our court, totally, one person, one action, at a time.

AN ENDING NOTE:

PREDICTING OF THE FUTURE is, I think, a fools errand especially when it comes to assessment of others feelings and beliefs.  But looking forward, and back, is important, nonetheless.  Witness, for example, the well-dressed woman strategically seated at the coffee shop Tuesday morning, wearing a very stylish designer baseball cap with the words “Defend the Second” as its sole text.

Or the Christmas card, mailed Dec. 19, 2014, which I’ve kept all these years, from a lady my age living on a farm, some years deceased, “I pray for our country often.  It is in sad shape!”  I knew her well, thus what she meant.

The U.S.  a nation of unparalleled wealth.  Still, there are great numbers of impoverished and disadvantaged people, lots of them, but we too often pretend they are not our problem. We are such an immense nation, and so wedded to individual “responsibilitity” and “freedom” (for ourselves), that we are individually and collectively blind.

Yes, I see this in my own life, daily.  The temptation is to say bad things happening are not my problem.

We have been flirting with our own destruction for years.  We have chosen the course by our own demands.  We deceive ourselves.  We give meaning to the word “hubris”.

Last year was a horrible year, politically unprecedented.  (The NYT editorial for Jan 1, 2022, linked below, points out that 1891 was somewhat analogous. That was 131 years ago.)

The past provides learning opportunities.  Our years long friend, Annelee, now 95, spent her first 21 years growing up in Germany, from 1926-47.  She was a small town Catholic girl and saw the rise of Hitler and the Nazis first hand.

We have talked many times of her experiences there, and analogies to today.  She has truly “been there, done that”.  It can happen here.

The Nazis had a lot going for them in the Germany of the 1920s and 30s.  There are thousands of books and movies about that history.

Their leaders were brilliant.  Strategy and tactics and organization were strengths.  And belief.  They knew Power and how to exercise it in what was then an advanced society.

They freely talked of a 1,000 year Reich and believed it.  They took over everything; the ticket to success was to be a Nazi. And conveyed their belief to their people, amplifying grievance and resentment of clearly defined others.  They had lots of friends, including in our own United States.  (Personally, I’m 50% German nativity.)

But the 1,000 year dream unravelled quickly.  Nazi Germany had, essentially, a 10 year run, till about 1943.  May 8, 1945, it was all over.  Germany’s enemies helped it recover.  The Nazi leaders – those who lived – were subject to judgment. The soldiers and the others who survived went back to their ruined lives, to start over.

Yes, it was a short run – this pretension of glory.  We seem to be slow learners.

One of my relatives went back to visit one of our German family farms in 1954 and took a few photos.  Here are two.  Even with help, recovery from WWII was a long term process, even in rural areas which escaped the bombs and invasion.

Marie Schrup with Busch relatives in rural Germany 1954.  It is easy to overlook the fact that 1945 did not end the war for ordinary Germans.  Recovery took many years and lots of help through programs like the Marshall Plan.

Shrine at Busch farm in Germany 1954

I visited this same farm in 1998.  The grotto was still there.  It was a prosperous operation. Four of the sons of the farm were in WWII, all came home alive, none told their stories – so are the memories of war for those who get caught in it.  Our friend, Annelee, lost her Dad.  He refused to join the Nazi party and was drafted and it is believed he died in Russia near the end of the war.  So is the fruit of war….

Near 20 years ago, during the then-young war in Iraq, I saw a quotation attributed to Hermann Goring, second only to Hitler in the Third Reich.  The quotation (below) was so remarkable that I thought it must be fake, and set out to authenticate it, if possible.  Ultimately, I found the quote in the very book in which it had appeared in 1947, from the American psychologist who visited often with Goring in his prison cell at Nuremberg.

The quote is one pertinent for our present day.  Here it is:

“Why, of course, the people don’t want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece?

“Naturally, the common people don’t want war, neither in Russia, nor England, nor for that matter, Germany. That is understood, but after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simpler matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

(Quoted in Nuremberg Diary, p. 278, Gustave Gilbert, Farrar, Straus & Co., 1947. Gilbert was a psychologist assigned to the Nazi prisoners on trial at Nuremberg.  Goring later killed himself in his cell; the fate of the other power maniacs in Nazi Germany is well known.)

Our fate as Americans rests in our own actions.

Are we up to the challenge?

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES, IF YOU WISH:

New York Times Editorial Jan. 1, 2022 NYT Editorial Jan 1, 2022.  Highly recommended by our friend Annelee, who grew up in Nazi Germany is the new book “Midnight in Washington” by Adam Schiff.  Commentary by Heather Cox Richardson January 2, 2022.

My related post from Dec. 31 here.

Within the next few days, before Jan 20, I will be doing a post with individual thoughts about politics ahead in 2022.  Please check back.   Readers can easily subscribe to this blog (see below)

COMMENTS (more may be at the on-line section):

from Jeff: Excellent essay Dick.  I find the “opposition” very fragmented.  Discord and disunity and complacency amongst the wiser, truer side is sadly a weakness.  In my business career I found  Americans in my industry (logistics, farming, agribusiness) to be usually complacent.

New regulations regarding big rules for trucking,  ocean shipments, safety requirements in food and feed typically are not considered and planned for, they are always looming in the future…the Americans seem to think something will happen to free them of the need to change.
Perhaps this is human nature, I don’t know.  But I can hope that the “silent majority” would be appalled by what the extremist elite and Christianist rightist and crazies have in mind for America. Its just that it doesnt seem to affect them yet. Hope, I guess.
Another point on the local thing.  2 weeks ago I met with a couple who run the scholarship program for ISD 191 Foundation.  We talked in the end about some of the school board races, and the “group” candidates that ran, and of course the phenomena of outrage at board meetings from individuals ranting.
They said that didnt happen in [our town].  I think firstly because nearly 2/3 of our district is already diverse,  It seems to be happening in those districts where the affluent white community is already the majority and fears change.  In any case rather than giving individuals time at board meetings they developed a system of small group meetings sponsored by the board where individuals could make comments among small groups.  No hoo ra ra.  It removed the anonymity you get from being online, or even part of a big group at a large auditorium….interesting.
from Norm: A great and thought provoking blog, Dick.
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from Florence: I’ve relied on email communications re: the still active remnants of the Tea Party movement since the 1990’s. It’s surely alive and well here in [our rural Minnesota] area, including long-time friends and acquaintances. Expressing and owning my own views isn’t acceptable to them because I’m on the wrong side. It’s getting very lonesome but for [my husband’s] on-going support. Covid deniers have certainly made things worse! Too many days I long for the anonymity of big city living, but that’s not in the cards, and besides that traffic is overwhelming!
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from Rebecca:  Dick: I read your post-very interesting. I agree that 2022 is looking to be an unprecendentedly crucial year and I am vowing to bring my highest self to the task of being compassionate for those that I don’t agree with, as that is a spiritual task I have set for myself..
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from Joyce: “One Year Later” from The Weekly Sift, excellent distillation of a year.