In the wake of the election, a number of commenters to this blog—here and on Facebook—have asked a simple question: what can we do? How can Americans of good will mount an effective resistance to Trump and the Congressional Republicans?
It’s a question that has been asked on a number of other venues as well.
There is a big difference between sharing concern and disapproval on social media with friends who are likely to agree with us, and actually engaging in productive activism. A decision to make a genuine difference, deciding how to do that and actually following through is where the rubber meets the road, as the old saying goes. So it will be interesting to see who steps up to engage with the forthcoming “Activism Engine.”
Regular readers of this blog know that one of my sons lives in Manhattan, where he is a free-lance web designer and developer. Since the election, he has spent countless hours creating a website geared to people who want to make a difference, but have no idea how to start—people who are not “web savvy,” who have not necessarily been politically involved before.
The site is very simple to use: you can choose your state (or entire country, and eventually, your city), choose what most concerns you from a relatively short list of issues (the environment, reproductive rights, elections and voting rights, etc.), and see what legislation is pending in Congress and/or your state and what direct actions—marches, petitions, protests– are being planned by organizations focused on those issues. There is a place to keep track of your involvement, and even share it on social media if you are so inclined.
Perhaps the most impressive—and useful—part of the site allows you to effortlessly contact your elected officials. Put in your address, and a list comes up of everyone who represents you from your City-County Councilor to the President, with contact information including telephone numbers. No need to go elsewhere to find out who your congressman or state legislator is, no need to look up address or phone number.
My son plans to roll out a beta test in Indiana later this month. BUT—and this is a big BUT—the usefulness of the tool he has worked so hard to create absolutely depends upon the information it will contain. In Indiana, that means that people who are knowledgeable about bills filed in the General Assembly need to insure that information is included and current; people aware of upcoming “direct actions” need to convey that information via the site.
This tool is free to use. The site will never have advertising, it is not an “organization” that will fundraise. It will never share private information about its users. It is meant to be an added “outreach” mechanism for organizations like Hoosier Environmental Council, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU—among many others. We hope–and expect–that those organizations will share information through the Activism Engine as well as their own websites.
As I mentioned, the plan is to “beta test” the site in Indiana, to see how it works, solicit feedback, and to fix any bugs before taking it national.
If this “one-stop-shop” for activism is to work, however, it needs dedicated volunteers who will post the necessary information. If you are interested in being one of those volunteers, or at least finding out what is involved, Please go to this url and fill out the form: https://ae.stephensuess.com/
Be the rubber that meets the road.
Excellent!
Can’t. Wait.
Signed up to be a beta-tester.
I’ll do it too. Baby steps for me while I go through this sorting of our life back to the US. Gawd, what a mess I have made today. Way to go Stephen!
Signed on and saved Stephen’s web site to return to.
Trying to keep up with the fast-paced conversations via closed captioning on Rachel Maddow last night, I did miss some important factors. Stephen’s site sounds in keeping with the discussion she had with Bernie Sanders regarding taking action against the incoming Trump administration on our home ground. She also interviewed a young man who helped author a publication, “Indivisible”, which I believe is similar to Stephen’s web site. Bernie and Rachel fully support the marches and protests in Washington, D.C., while encouraging strong grassroots actions at home. We are late “taking up arms” but we are many in number and we are ready to fight.
I have a personal interest in immigration. Sheila; I did forget to list Women 4 Change Indiana and PantSuit Nation with other organizations I am connected to when I signed on. A big mea culpa on that! Manhattan is a good place for your son to work from; he can provide an on-site perspective we can trust to be factual. Please thank him.
I’m in awe of your son’s talents and will be completing the form shortly. By the way, I plan to list my state as Kentucky since I believe my home state actually needs more help than Indiana. Thanks, Stephen, for teaming up with your Mom.
Excellent! I just signed up.
Yesterday I called Mike Delph’s office to ask a couple questions about his proposed Ethics Reform bill. His legislative assistant could not answer any questions and told me the best way to contact Delph is via his email.
Right! I emailed him and within an hour or so received an auto-reply email. Here it is:
“Thank you for your e-mail. I appreciate you taking the time to contact me on state-related issues. Due to the magnitude of e-mails I receive, I may not have the chance to respond to all of them. However, I will read and consider all emails. If you need immediate assistance please call my office. Indiana Senate: 1-800-382-9467.
Again, thank you for contacting me.”
Sincerely,
Mike Delph
State Senator
I am going to stick with calling legislators. I have found email to be an absolute joke.
If anyone else is interested in pushing through Ethics Reform in our legislature please call both Delph and the legislators for your district. It is way past time to put some teeth into ethics reform in our state and demand that they eliminate the loopholes that always leave in the rules that allow them to work around any ethical conflicts.
Indivisible: a practical guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda is a 24 page document. Search indivisible-resisting-trump-agenda.pdf.
Re Mike Delph: go to his web site to find the dates, time and place of his meet-ups. I went to one. Only 5 constituents were there. I had a twenty minute discussion, one-on-one. It was delightful. Accomplishment? – he listened and asked questions, no dithering. Try it. You’ll like it.
I completely agree with Nancy. I have had that same experience locally. Phone contact is by far the most effective method of pressure to apply. When we get responses like Delph’s, it tells you that he is completely committed to his handlers and money men, (I think we already know this) and is paying lip service to those he is supposed to represent.
Another action to consider is boycotting the businesses whose backing provides the means of ignoring constituents concerns by filling the trough from which the compromised politicians feed. Spread the word about those businesses and institutions who support the rights of all, not just the privileged few and patronize them regularly. It would be very helpful to have a list of businesses/institutions/PACs, etc., to boycott and contact information for their administrators, home offices or corporate owners.
It sounds daunting when written out like this.
It is hard – at BEST- to understand why any person of “good will” would talk down to Mr. Trump. I guess those cry bullies still haven’t gotten over it. The Clinton’s and Bush’s and Ben-Laden’s are LITURALY partners in crime. Cocaine , Operation fast and furious ,the server issue , Hillary giving a very large amount of Uranium to Russia in exchange for a 450, 000,000 dollar donation to the CLINTON FOUNDATION.
What do all you so – called Americans of ” good will ” plan on doing about bringing the Clinton s to justice ?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ?
Stephen & Sheila,
Congratulations! This is a vital step toward creating an effective countervailing force against the MISOGYNISTIC MONSTER.
I’m signing up right now.
Thank you and thanks to your son.
I hope the beta test goes well and that this is soon available to people residing in any state. I feel strongly that we must work from the grass roots to begin to make changes and that we must all be involved in the 2018 mid term elections. Congratulations to your son for developing what is sure to be an important tool in helping to restore equality and common sense .
Nice try, Mark, but the election is over. We will not be discussing your diversionary propaganda of yesteryear in re the supposed misdeeds of Hillary and Obama. We will instead be discussing what lies before us and only what lies behind us as it relates to your king’s penchant for grabbing women, doing business with the Mafia in New York City, buddying up with Putin, ignoring or down-putting his own intelligence agencies’ findings that conflict with his narcissistic preconceptions (or which may unmask his knowing participation with Putin in interfering with the last election which could lead to his imprisonment) etc. The list is long. We will not be diverted from the cause of saving our democracy by the likes of those, including you, who want to undercut our mission to save our country from fascism. I spent some time in the South Pacific in WW II on such a noble mission, and am ready to fight again against fascism from without or within to preserve our most important national asset, our democracy, something your draft-dodging king chose not to do with his multiple deferments. Write what you please, but I for one will ignore the substance of your offerings.
Gerald,
“Nice try Mark, but the election is over.”
Terrific. You still have my vote.
Thanks Gerald and Marv,
Mine too!!! I’m concerned that if I listen to or read comments like Mark’s much longer my brain will literally catch on fire.
Thanks guys!!!
mark has obviously been drinking far too much of the tea party koolaid. He is the perfect example of how those like him are so easily fooled and sucked into the lies of the gop propaganda machine.
Sadly, those of us who aren’t sucked into that machine are forced to also suffer the consequences the ignorance of those that have fallen for their BS.
Thanks to Stephen for his important project! I just signed up to be a beta tester. Let’s get to work!
Your son’s work is excellent for meeting the “constant urgency of now,” which we must do, and all the more so in the wake of Trump’s election. But we also need a long-term strategy for moving the ground beneath the political tug-o-war, for fighting the political battle in the cultural arena, in the arena of our zeitgeist, which is the ultimate political battleground.
I have a proposal for doing so, that I have been developing for six years. It has a Facebook group with over 3000 members on it, a number of essays explaining both the underlying philosophy and the nuts and bolts of the movement, and a pre-nascent organization of a handful of people who have met a handful of times in the flesh and dozens more who have carried on ongoing discussions online.
I will be bearing the lion’s share of the burden, in time, effort, personal and emotional investment, and money, but, like all nonprofit organizations, this one does require a revenue stream. At this point, I’m relying on crowd funding, a campaign I just began a few days ago. Every contribution helps, even a tiny amount, and sharing the link, on social media or elsewhere, helps as well.
Following is one of my various introductions to the link that I’ve used on Facebook. The link takes you to a more detailed description of the movement and organizational mission and vision. If nothing else, they both make for a good read! I hope I can inspire you to become a part of this movement, which is the other side of the coin, not the response to “the constant urgency of now,” but rather to the importance of laying a structurally deeper groundwork for the future.
Transcendental Politics: A New Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th Centuries, beginning largely in Great Britain and culminating largely in France, was a time when the philosophy of reason, particularly the notion that we can govern ourselves rationally and humanely, was ascendant. One of the practical products of that philosophical school was the first “encyclopedia,” and another was the American Constitution.
Adam Smith, a moral philosopher who essentially invented the modern discipline of economics, gave us “The Wealth of Nations.” Jeremy Bentham gave us Utilitarianism. Montesquieu gave us much of the design of the future US government. Thomas Hobbes gave us a precursor of game theory and Thomas Malthus gave us a precursor of evolutionary theory. John Locke gave us a theory of government, and the phrase, slightly modified by Thomas Jefferson, “Life, Liberty, and Property.”
The need to govern ourselves with a similar commitment to reason and to our shared humanity has not abated, but the will to do so arguably has. Indeed, we seem to have arrived at a moment in our history at which the commitment to reason and the commitment to our shared humanity are both at a low point, a moment dominated by bigotries and hostilities rather than by reason and humanity.
There is no simple cure to this cultural disease, but there is a simple need that it highlights: The need to promote rational discourse, rational analysis, and a belief in our shared humanity, at home and abroad, transcending the categories into which we have divided ourselves. This is not a project that is rendered moot or impossible by virtue of modern cognitive science insights into how the mind functions, and the realization that people are not fundamentally rational, but rather is informed by that, as it is informed by all knowledge.
This commitment to reason, to imagination, to consciousness, all in service to humanity, is a long-term project, but it should be an intentional one, a conscious one, one that we dedicate ourselves to with the same passion and determination that we dedicate ourselves to any goal or any ideal, because this is the essence of the human endeavor: To be wise, to be imaginative, to be empathetic, to be humble to be conscious, to be cooperative, and to be generous.
How to rally people to this cause, how to inspire people to strive to be reasonable and strive to be humane, how to encourage all such people to seek out and join together all others similarly inclined, is a challenge we must meet by designing ways of meeting it, by seeking out strategies and structures and procedures and organizations that facilitate it, by creating and joining such organizations and movement, by contributing to that which is good and hopeful rather than to that which is small-minded and mean-spirited.
And, as with all such things, the lathe of history needs material with which to work. Inventors invent; innovators innovate; and the organic cultural and political and economic and technological history we are a moment of selects from among those experiments. But it is by experimenting that we provide that evolutionary lathe with material from which to select, expediting mindless trial-and-error with imaginative and creative enterprise.
We are called upon to be political and cultural entrepreneurs, establishing organizations with which to mobilize and channel human genius and human effort, in service to our shared humanity. And I am engaged in just such an enterprise, a vision for how we can improve the human condition, intentionally, humbly, by focusing on establishing robust procedures and a fundamental commitment to humanity rather than dogmatic positions and arbitrary false certainties. The lessons of history, the relative and relatively enduring successes of scientific methodology and legal procedure and democratic and constitutional processes, point the way.
So, please, join me in this effort. Contribute a small amount to the financing of it, and your participation to the realization of it. Join me in the effort to cut through the ideological noise and the chaotic belligerence, to augment and privilege the rational and imaginative and insightful signal that is drowned out by that noise, and to rediscover and more fully realize our humanity.
Let’s create a movement together, a movement that is long overdue, a movement whose time has come. The human mind remains our most precious and powerful of resources, one that is underdeveloped and underutilized. If we can’t fight to remedy that most essential and consequential of errors, then we are stumbling around blindfolded, full of urgency but lacking the patience and foresight to remove the blindfold first.
https://www.gofundme.com/transcendentalpolitics
Steven H.
It sounds good. But right now we ALL need to worry about the 21st of January. You’re not addressing that problem.
I just signed up to be a beta tester and a beta content provider. Good show!
We all should look into joining our local chapter of Progressive Democrats of America. It is a forward-leaning, activist group dedicated to re-framing the political debate and re-writing the narrative for the Democratic Party.
Look for more of my summaries as I am now on the board for the Austin, TX chapter of PDA. Get involved. Get busy. We may not have much more time to save our country and our democracy from the ravages of fascism.
Sheila,
“As I mentioned, the plan is to “beta test” the site in Indiana, to see how it works, solicit feedback, and to fix any bugs before taking it national.”
I for one, believe we need to keep in focus the development of ACTIVISM ENGINE and help all we can in its development. Positioning is going to be very, very difficult with everyone vying for a piece of the action. Sheila is the best person to lead us at this time. “Time is of the essence.”
Marv, there is no mutual exclusivity involved. We do all need to deal with the urgency of the present, as I said, and, to varying degrees, we always do. And I do invest a great deal of time and effort addressing that, lobbying my state legislators, running for office, writing analyses of issues, keeping abreast of pending legislation at both the state and federal levels, and so on. But there is a managerial doctrine that is important to keep in mind: Don’t let the urgent displace the important. It is urgent that we deal with our current political landscape on the superficial level (e.g., the Trump administration, the Republican Congress, the Republican state legislatures and governors’ offices, local school boards and county and municipal governments, and so on), but it’s important that we continue, always, in the background, to work to change the context within which those urgencies are unravelling. Otherwise, we will remained trapped in perpetuity in a cultural milieu that is not conducive to the implementation of rational and humane policies, and failing to address that ground beneath our feet is a mistake we have been making forever, and one that it is never too soon to stop making.
I am all for rational discourse, Steven, but I must first have rational people with whom to have such discourse. A large segment of the Republican Party has rightly deduced that rational discourse (among other things) does not win elections in these days of post-Lewis Powell memoranda and libertarian excess fueled by Citizens United and McCuthcheon. It takes far less effort to simply put down government, cause internal chaos, inflame the masses with propaganda, pick up the Koch checks, and go from there. I liked your thumbnail sketch of our latest Enlightenment thinking, but I fear we have a very different environment these days in which to superimpose such noble ideas, one I would describe as “the tyranny of the minority.”
Let me add this: If you don’t recognize that the deeper problem illustrated by Trump’s election is the fact that enough people in this country would vote for him to get him elected (even if not the majority), and that enough other people would behave in other ways that created a perfect storm through which he waltzed into office, then you’re missing the big picture. The thing about getting, and addressing, the big picture is that it doesn’t prevent you from dealing with immediate challenges and concerns; it both improves your ability to do so, and also continually moves the center of gravity in which that occurs so that the issue fault-lines of the future are skewed ever-more in the direction of that which is recommended by rational and empirical analysis in service to our shared humanity.
Gerald, please read the proposal. it is far more substantive than you realize. In fact, it is about how to make marginal shifts in how many people, to what degree, either engage in or defer to rational analysis and a globally humane rather than tribalistic orientation. As a current or former sociologist, lawyer, public policy consultant, teacher and author who has been researching and analyzing the “anthrosphere” for decades, through multiple lenses, using a synthesis of social scientific and cognitive scientific theories, superficial dismissals on the basis of presumptive critiques are not likely to be tracking the actual complexity and subtlety of thought and analysis invested in the proposal.
Now, I get that there is a tendency to have a knee-jerk aversion to ‘big ideas.” But, please, if you feel such an aversion, don’t invest your time and effort in the endeavor of undermining other people’s efforts to think bigger, reach deeper, and include a longer time horizon. Don’t participate if you are uninspired; but leave your insistence that it is impossible to do more than scramble in the mud forever aside, and let those who are willing to aspire to more do so without others trying valiantly to dissuade them. Thanks.
Steven,
The “immediate challenge and concerns “should be that a neo-fascist movement will be in place on the 21st of January. Meaning: we better do something “on the ground” quicker than a “New York minute.”
That’s a new ballgame. Not only will Trump/Pence have control of the military to include the Army, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard along with the Justice Department and FBI but also the full support of the “white power” forces.
You need to wake up.
Gerald, Marv, Tom and Nancy; you have me at a disadvantage regarding Mark’s comments. You apparently understand what he said AND what he meant; I am still trying to understand why he didn’t use a dollar sign rather than spelling out the word “dollar”. The end of his comment appears to indicate he doesn’t understand what Sheila’s blog is about today or what our comments referred to regarding an answer to our oft repeated question; “what can we do now?”
Steven Harvey; it is in poor taste to post your competitive Facebook site on Sheila’s blog against her son’s very timely and much needed web site. To copy and paste your response to Marv, “It is urgent that we deal with our current political landscape on the superficial level (e.g., the Trump administration, the Republican Congress, the Republican state legislatures and governors’ offices, local school boards and county and municipal governments, and so on)…” I MUST take issue with your use of the term “superficial level” when dealing with Trump’s campaign as being “superficial” (he didn’t mean anything ugly he said) is what brought us to where we are today. There is nothing in your list of elected officials following the term “superficial level” that isn’t of vital importance as their intent is to destroy democracy and this country. It is because the Democrats and liberals have continued to work in the background that brought us here. You are promoting “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” regarding Trump and the GOP when we are striving to come out fighting. Sheila and her son are providing strong leadership.
Marv, I’m very awake, thanks. And, as I’ve tried to explain, the two endeavors are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. In fact, Trump won, neo-fascism won, as the result of a perfect storm of centrifugal political ideological forces fueled by precisely the same zealous hubris you are exhibiting now: No other notion but the one you are monolithically focused on, even if not incompatible with that notion that you are monolithically focused on, even if supportive and reinforcing of it, is acceptable, because you have your ideological zealotry front and center, and there is nothing else to discuss, nothing else to do, nothing else to be aware of. And THAT is part of what contributed to Trump winning the presidency. You don’t get that, and that’s fine. But, whatever you do or don’t get, let others be a voice for advocacy that perhaps you don’t fully understand without you feeling the need to silence them so that they don’t consume any of the air that she be devoted to your own zealotry. Okay?
“should be devoted,” that is.
JoAnn, we’re all on the same side, trying to create a more rational and humane world. I applaud Sheila’s son’s efforts, and will participate in them. On my blog and Facebook pages, I applaud other efforts as well as my own. This is not about our egos or about some need to limit discourse to one strategy or endeavor. Sheila reviewed and posted my comment, at her discretion, so she did not appear as offended by it as you. I’m sorry that something that simple and inoffensive would incite so much anger and disdain, but, again, I do believe that that reaction is a part of the problem rather than a part of the solution to it. We do need many efforts, on many levels, aimed at many time horizons and at many different dimensions of the human endeavor to correct the course we’re on, not and into the future, and to do so as effectively and enduringly as possible. Let’s stop squabbling over nothing, and simply continue to engage in that shared enterprise, with good humor, goodwill, and determination. I know that I will.
“now and into the future,” that is. (My taping gets worse as I get more emotional!)
TYPING!!!
Now, I’m not going to read any more comments, because I don’t want to get drawn further into a whirlpool of pointless animosity. If that’s what some of you feel is what is needed, I leave that choice to you. I think what’s needed is more imagination, more rationality, more empathy, more determination, more vision, and less noise busily jamming the signal. And I’ll keep urging others to share that objective with me, because it would be wise for more of us to do so. Cheers, and good bye.
Steve,
“Marv…But, whatever you do or don’t get, let others be a voice for advocacy that perhaps you don’t fully understand without you feeling the need to silence them so that they don’t consume any of the air that she be devoted to your own zealotry. Okay?”
No. Where have you been the last 25 years? This blog is not a place for fools, especially these days. No one is stopping your advocacy. You’re just going to have to learn to compete. Maybe the hard way.
Steve,
Good Luck! I mean it.
I concede and agree with the idea that we must not ignore structural reforms of tomorrow with everyday rough and tumble brawls, but I will not give up on what we face today in some limp response to the superiority of thinking of only tomorrow. Both are important, and I suppose somewhere there is a spectrum upon which we could most efficiently measure our devotion of our time to one or the other, but I don’t know where it is or whether any such measurement would not be negated as new problems arise. I think theory is fine but that someday, like rubber, it must meet the road unless we are just going to be some liberal society of largely think-alikes devoted to academic debate over solutions to problems, and I think Marv’s citation of January 20 is illustrative of my thesis.
Mark is a troll.
>> I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. Huckabee copied me. 8:38 AM – 7 May 2015 Donald J. Trump <<
Bernie Sanders said in an earlier press conference (Jan 4, 2017) with Democrats that there were two possible realities for the president-elect: either Trump should be considered a liar or the real estate mogul must proclaim clearly that he will veto any legislation that would cut any of the three entitlement programs that he mentioned.
Just as an aside: Senator Sanders is organizing a national day of action on Sunday, January 15th. Rallies will be held around the country demanding that Trump keep his promise and pledge to veto all cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. I have no details on this.
Awareness and Vigilance, will be a key here, the Republicans will try to bury their plans to dismantle, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security in mounds of paper and glittering generalities and yes, even lies. We cannot let this happen. We must let our elected officials know we are watching them.
Gerald and Marv; January 20, 2017…another day in this country that will live in infamy!
Let’s get back to ACTIVISM ENGINE.
JoAnn,
When I read marc’s comment all I could see was craziness. He believes all of the propaganda that has been spewed on right wing tv and radio and he is still so upset about it that he doesn’t care about the future of our country. He is focused on punishing the Clintons for crimes that they never committed. This is a prime example of the sad lack of intelligence that has brought our country to the terrible situation that we are in. It has been brewing and building for years and the Koch’s have finally met their goal of taking over control of our government and country.
“United We Stand, Divided We Fall” — adopted in 1792 as the Commonwealth’s motto and inscribed on the official Seal of the Commonwealth
The Democrat Party is scattered in its focus, lacks a single driving purpose, and is beset by the many noisy clamorous single identity coalitions vying for their individual aims. The ‘Party of the People’ should be just that, the party for all the people. Remember James Carville’s singular rallying call, “The economy, stupid”?
Six days after the 2016 election, the NY Times remembered…
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/us/politics/democrats-economy.html
One thing that this election made real is what the founders must have felt when they considered the government they had vs the government they could have and what it would probably cost to either fix or not fix.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
On the evening of the 2016 election, James Carville summed it up, yet again, with his clear concise statement that Trump has the validation of the people. Simple plain talk that ‘all’ the people understand. CNN captured Carville in this memorable, to me, video clip. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/11/08/carville_trump_has_the_validation_of_the_people.html
BSH,
From the link you provided: “On the evening of the 2016 election James Carvile stated: “He [Trump] said what he was running on. It was pretty clear what he was offering. You know, obviously…”
I don’t think he was talking about the ECONOMY back then. I didn’t see where he mentioned the economy in the link. Maybe I missed something.
Are we going to go the route of the political opportunist James Carvile and The New York Times again.? I hope not.
James Carvile and The New York Times are both a very good reason why we need to implement the ACTIVISM ENGINE, as soon as possible, so that we might possibly be able to sort out the “bull shit” before it’s too late.
After reading all of this all I can say is wow. It is a delight to see such passion amount the commentators and of course Shelia’s daily discourse of intellectual ideas. I have just recently gotten involved in political dealings after the appalling results of the last election. Having lived in Indiana for almost my entire life I had given up on believing that our state government could be anything but backward. But with the National debacles I can no longer be silent.
So, I will look into the website that is being built, I am getting involved with my local Democratic parties and will be attending any political meetings where our so called public officials will be.
One more thing, I was watching TV last night and in an episode of American Dad, sorry a guilty pleasure of mine, the family was going to a place in Ohio and at the state line there was a sign that read ” Welcome to Ohio, at least we are not Indiana”. This coupled with several jokes on SNL about my state makes me want to affect change even more.