Bad Boys II

[Dill]

(06-04-2020, 10:43 AM)hollodero Wrote: I didn't say nothing can be done. I am pessimiistic regarding the current situation though. I have to say, one reason for that for me is that it is not really clear what specifically should be achieved. As of now, this seems like an "we're pissed" outrage, and while I can totally understand that, it's usually too slim. It would take some organization, maybe even a charismatic leader in the likes of a MLK, which you do not have now; as you don't seem to sport too many tangible demands as basis for debate and negotiations.

I hope you're right, and if Trump loses reelection I might agree. But as of now, I don't quite know how you can say that. As long as 90% of republicans think Trump is a genius and the swellest guy, as long as the votes he brings are enough to pocket all but one republican senator (and possibly the whole republican house), I think the Breitbart wing is particularly influential. Not Breitbart per se maybe, but Trump and FOX breitbarted the whole conservative wing and this is who the other sides is consisting of right now, of Breitbarts and Trumps and the more radical FOX news figures that shape US policy at this moment. You don't get to solve problems with negotiators like bfine, you get to solve problems with negotiators like Lucie. And that's the current forlom reality of things, isn't it.

This is a process.  No one should be thinking there is some one thing to fix a nationwide problem and someone should be out there hawking it now. "Tangible demands" come, as Obama pointed out, from the local level.  But there have to be municipal, state and federal administrations in place which can receive and implement, not block them.

Some priorities for now:

1. Vote Trump out; then clear the foxes out of the hen houses--especially in the DOJ. (Otherwise we don't have the fore-mentioned receptive municipal administrations etc.)

2. Protect the chickens by reinstating Consent decrees in places where already existing, and prepare one for Minneapolis.

3. Start the process of local review with community participation in places like Minneapolis, Atlanta, DC etc. Local leaders are already doing this.

You are still making too much of the  90% Republicans number, but Republicans are fewer now than in 2012 or 2016. And I remind you, again, that we may leave it to Trump himself to diminish these numbers, a fraction this week (e.g., elderly upset about his coronavirus response), a percentage next (more military members who recognize he does not understand the Constitution).  Have you read Conservative leader George Will's recent call for a "time out" for the Republican party, or Military national figure "Maddog" Mattis' unprecedented call for Trump to go?  As the Trump core hardens, it also grows smaller.  As Will points out, Biden leads now in the all important swing states. We are picking them off as we did the British retreating from Concord!

Conservative Columnist George Will Thinks It's Time For GOP Reboot
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/04/869282843/conservative-columnist-george-will-thinks-its-time-for-gop-reboot

James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/james-mattis-denounces-trump-protests-militarization/612640/

I don't think your read on Bfine and Lucy is quite right. Bfine will not likely vote for Biden, but I don't think he will vote for Trump either. His defenses of Trump are really more attempts to prevent any cultural or political capital accruing to Democrats.  Other "independents" will do the same.  Not Lucy though. I expect him vote for Trump. (Wish he were still here! His voice enriched the mix.)