_____
From: robert=citizen.org@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:robert=citizen.org@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Robert Weissman,
Public Citizen
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2016 3:51 PM
To: miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: something truly terrible has happened
Update from Public Citizen
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Miriam,
This is a sickening day in America, and around the world.
Like you, I'm trying to process feelings of shock and horror at the election
results.
You should know this: No matter what it feels like right now, our country
will survive. Our institutions and values are too deeply rooted to be
upended by a single election.
But there's no question, something truly terrible has happened. We are
facing some very troubling times ahead and will have to confront massive
challenges.
How do we proceed? We're going to continue to work together, build our
numbers, grow our numbers and mobilize for love and justice.
It's going to take quite a while to sort out what happened in the election,
to assess what the impact will be on the country and to reorient our work.
But l wanted to share with you some immediate reflections on the election,
and some guesses about what things look like ahead.
* A Rejectionist Election. The Trump vote represented a rejection of
establishment politics, a rejection of insider deal-making and fury over the
working of an unjust economy. It may seem upside down to us that Trump was
the vehicle to express those sentiments, but he plainly did stand for a
radical rejection of business as usual and a contempt for elite-driven
politics.
* Clinton's Miscalculation. The Clinton campaign made a decision to
run as not-Trump, rather than on her surprisingly progressive agenda. In
retrospect, at least, that clearly was an error. One consequence of the
campaign's decision about how to run the race was that, while run well from
a technical competence point of view, it was utterly devoid of passion,
inspiration and grassroots energy. In a populist moment, that proved a fatal
flaw.
* Voter Suppression. It wasn't just Clinton's failure to generate
enthusiasm that depressed turnout. It was an explicit part of the Trump
campaign and, more importantly, was the product of a decade's worth of
Republican efforts to limit ballot access for people of color and students.
We may never know the exact impact of voter suppression efforts, but in a
very close election, it was very likely decisive.
* Money Still Matters. As a candidate, Trump was in a class by
himself. He was able to garner unprecedented free media attention and he
disdained normal fundraising strategies. So, the presidential election
results cannot be described as the triumph of Big Money donors, even if
Trump is likely to serve their interests. However - and in spite of Trump
not playing the regular big-money game - this was the most expensive
election in history. Outside spending had a decisive role in U.S. Senate
elections, dwarfing candidate spending in closely contested races, and
taking control from the candidates. More than $160 million was spent on the
Pennsylvania Senate race alone ($118 million by outside groups), more than
$120 million in tiny New Hampshire ($90 million by outside groups).
* A Proto-Fascist Movement. Donald Trump generated massive enthusiasm
for his campaign, in no small part by generating a proto-fascist movement
built around vicious anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-Latino sentiments,
and drawing on deep wells of racism and sexism. We have to address this head
on, because history demonstrates how such sentiments can spin out of control
and lead to the most horrific results.
What should we expect and do in the days, weeks and months ahead?
ZERO POLICY COHERENCE
There's huge uncertainty about what policies a Trump administration will
pursue. Trump proposed contradictory policy measures, barely sketching out
details even of his topline proposals. But above all, he just didn't
demonstrate interest at all in policy. So, there's just no way really to
predict what we should expect in the way we could with a more traditional
candidate.
OPPORTUNITIES
We have to convert widespread populist sentiment into real
progressive-populist policy. With a Trump administration, there may be some
opportunities to do this in particular cases - trade, drug pricing, domestic
infrastructure investment and money-in-politics.
BLOCKING THE CORPORATE AGENDA
But the overwhelming bulk of the Trump agenda, to the extent it is
discernible, aims to free corporations to engage in reckless activity and
mass predation without any restraint - to rip off consumers, pollute the
environment, threaten the planet with catastrophic climate change, strip
health insurance coverage from those who can't pay, restart the Wall Street
schemes that led to the Great Recession. And the Republican leadership in
Congress may be establishment, but it favors an extremist corporate agenda
that, if anything, goes further than Trump has proposed.
And to this agenda, it's crystal clear what we must do: Resist it with
everything we've got. That means suing to block unconstitutional maneuvers.
It means demanding that the Democratic minority in the Senate use its power
to block the corporate extremist agenda. It means calling out that agenda
for what it is. And it means speaking up and defending the rights of
immigrants and any other group that Trump may target.
Above all, it means mobilizing like never before and taking to the streets
to demonstrate our people power, our refusal to defer to corporate hegemony
or to permit the spread of fascist sentiment, and our insistence on the
progressive agenda that has overwhelming support from the American people.
What we can't permit is for a protest vote - and a call for a populist
uprising against establishment politics and narrow elite control of the
economy - to be coopted into a victory for the very corporate establishment
and political elites against which the revolt is directed.
LOVE AND SOLIDARITY
For all the hard fighting that is going to come in the years ahead, we must
assert the central importance of love and solidarity, kindness and decency
to who we are as a country and a people.
These are the times that try men's (and women's) souls, wrote Tom Paine. As
Paine instructed, it's our duty not to shrink from service to the country,
but to stand by it.
Together,
Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen
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