“Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
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Charles M. Blow: Trump’s Rural White America
As I watched last week as protesters took to the streets in big cities, what struck me was the vast and growing divide between America’s rural and urban populations and their politics and sensibilities.
One look at county maps of this year’s election results and you see what looks like a handful of blueberries sprinkled on an endless spread of red sauce (between the blue coasts). And yet, it is likely that the final result will be that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, although Donald Trump won the electoral vote and therefore the election. [..]
Earlier this year a working paper published by the Gallup senior economist Jonathan Rothwell found: “This analysis provides clear evidence that those who view Trump favorably are disproportionately living in racially and culturally isolated ZIP codes and commuting zones. Holding other factors, constant support for Trump is highly elevated in areas with few college graduates, far from the Mexican border, and in neighborhoods that stand out within the commuting zone for being white, segregated enclaves, with little exposure to blacks, Asians, and Hispanics.”
We are living in two diverging Americas at odds and at battle. Trump’s America won this round.
Suzanne Moore: With Steve Bannon, Trump’s signed up the meme-makers of misogyny
It’s hardly a revelation that women’s rights over their own bodies are not of much concern to Donald Trump. He has over the years flip-flopped on abortion rights, at some stages describing himself as pro-choice. Once he began seeking office, in an appeal to certain Republican elements he started making increasingly anti-abortion statements. I say statements because his beliefs seem to have no core aside from the servicing of his own ego. During the campaign he promised to ban abortion: “I am pro-life”. At one point he suggested women should be punished for having abortions. He said during the third presidential debate that third trimester abortions are legal and supported by Hillary Clinton. Neither of these things were true. [..]
It’s hardly a revelation that women’s rights over their own bodies are not of much concern to Donald Trump. He has over the years flip-flopped on abortion rights, at some stages describing himself as pro-choice. Once he began seeking office, in an appeal to certain Republican elements he started making increasingly anti-abortion statements. I say statements because his beliefs seem to have no core aside from the servicing of his own ego. During the campaign he promised to ban abortion: “I am pro-life”. At one point he suggested women should be punished for having abortions. He said during the third presidential debate that third trimester abortions are legal and supported by Hillary Clinton. Neither of these things were true.
Gloria Steinem: After the election of Donald Trump, we will not mourn. We will organize
The truth has been revealed. The next few years are going to be hell. However, we know from family violence – the paradigm of all violence that isn’t in self-defense – that the most dangerous time is the moment just before or just after escape. This is when a person is most likely to be beaten or killed because she or he is escaping control.
I think this country is in a time of danger because most of us are escaping control by some of us. Just as we would never tell a woman, man or child to stay in a violent household, we will never go back to the old hierarchy. Despite ongoing threats, at home and in other countries, including a very racialized and gendered terrorism, we have many leaders who inspire democracy, who model it, and who know we are linked, not ranked.
Luckily, real change, like a tree, grows from the bottom up, not the top down. We have Hillary, Barack and Michelle to guide us. We will not mourn, we will organize. Maybe we are about to be free.
Paul Krugman; Trump Slump Coming?
Let’s be clear: Installing Donald Trump in the White House is an epic mistake. In the long run, its consequences may well be apocalyptic, if only because we have probably lost our last, best chance to rein in runaway climate change.
But will the extent of the disaster become apparent right away? It’s natural and, one must admit, tempting to predict a quick comeuppance — and I myself gave in to that temptation, briefly, on that horrible election night, suggesting that a global recession was imminent. But I quickly retracted that call. Trumpism will have dire effects, but they will take time to become manifest.
In fact, don’t be surprised if economic growth actually accelerates for a couple of years.
Why am I, on reflection, relatively sanguine about the short-term effects of putting such a terrible man, with such a terrible team, in power? The answer is a mix of general principles and the specifics of our current economic situation.
Robert Reich: Why we need a new Democratic Party now
It is time for a new Democratic Party.
The old Democratic Party has become a giant fundraising machine, too often reflecting the goals and values of the moneyed interests.
It has been taken over by Washington-based fundraisers, bundlers, analysts and pollsters who have focused on raising campaign money from corporate and Wall Street executives, and getting votes from upper middle-class households in “swing” suburbs.
The election of 2016 has repudiated the old Democratic Party.
We need a new Democratic Party capable of organizing and mobilizing Americans in opposition to Donald Trump’s Republican party, which is about to take over all three branches of the U.S. government.
A new Democratic Party that will turn millions of people into an activist army to peacefully resist what is about to happen — providing them with daily explanations of what is occurring in Trump’s administration, along with tasks that individuals and groups can do to stop or mitigate their harmful effects.
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