A New Jersey Farmer Blog: Where Democracy Lives

And You Thought the Election Was About Inflation

2025-01-19T11:30:00.003-05:00

Before we get to anything else, please do not ever forget that Donald Trump only won 49% of the popular vote in the election. He is supported by a minority of the country. He is not broadly popular. Opposing his policies puts in you good company. And as a white guy who firmly believes that he is entitled to the presidency despite not being even remotely qualified or the best person for the job, he is the living, breathing reminder of why we need programs to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in this country.

Remember when the country was talking about Project 2025 and Donald Trump said he never read it and didn't support it? To be honest, I believed the first part because the Project 2025 document is over 900 pages, and I have a serious doubt that President 49% has read a cumulative 900 pages in his entire life, much less a policy document of that size. As for the second part, the answer is that Project 2025 was the guiding document it claimed to be, and the administration is committed to implementing it in its entirety over the next four years.

But as we know, it's one thing to have a plan, and it's quite another to think it through, and President-Less-Than-50% has, unsurprisingly, done little thinking about how these policy changes will affect the American people. His executive orders have upended people's lives by giving them a scant two weeks to decide whether they want to leave their jobs or possibly get fired, interrupted Medicaid and other government obligations that Americans rely upon to live and work, and threatened the rule of law by firing or demoting anyone in the government who had the audacity to follow the law as it related to the president's illegal and unconstitutional actions the last time he was in power. And, of course, he pardoned everyone who took part in his attempted January 6 coup, even those who were responsible for the deaths of police officers.

In just two weeks, President 49% has proven to be the same president he was during his first term. There is no softer, more responsible version. He still believes in the most noxious lies about the election of 2020, where he was legitimately beaten by a very wide margin, and he still, in spite of the scientific evidence that even other Republicans deem credible, believes that climate change is a hoax, which puts our air, water, and national security in danger. And his victimization of transgender Americans, legal immigrants, and people who are in this country under the terms of legal statutes is a disgrace. Imagine a president who blames a tragedy in which scores of people are killed on the fact that the female, Black, and Hispanic employees are responsible for it, and that it wouldn't have happened if white men were in charge. Oh, wait. We don't have to imagine that.

Vile.

And if you really thought the election was really about inflation, then get ready for the increasing likelihood that there will be more of it. New tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China will raise prices if they stick. Just what we need.

But remember that if you didn’t vote for the president, then you are in the majority.

The Fun Begins

2024-11-18T21:52:00.001-05:00

Republicans always hated Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) when it came to hiring.

It looks like they've replaced it with Incompetent, Unqualified, and Dangerous (IUD).

Yes, those cabinet picks, and the ones to come, will stock the federal government with a host of people with absolutely no qualifications for the jobs they've been nominated for.

And that's the point. Because while you were worrying about grocery prices and immigration policy, and rightly so, the real winner in this election was the idea that the federal government should be chopped up and flushed down the drain. That's been the guiding principle of the conservative movement since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, and now we've come to the point where we have a shameless president who is committed to slashing programs and rewarding his rich donors with tax breaks that will starve the government of its ability to serve the people.

If Donald Trump and his cabinet get their way, they will eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency, because it makes it more expensive to do business, what with all of those pesky regulations having to do with clean air and water, the Department of Education, because public schools are a cesspool of liberal ideas, never mind the billions that the department gives to states to finance special education, nutrition, and civil rights programs, weaken Social Security by not taxing tips, overtime, and a portion of Social Security payments, which will deprive the system of the funds it needs to pay retirees, all the while turning it into a 401(k) system that will endanger your retirement when the market slides, rather tahn keeping it a solid, guaranteed income you can rely on in your golden years.

In addition, done poorly, and with this group of undistinguished sycophants I don't see how they do their jobs well, there are other dangers afoot: Higher inflation because of high tariffs, massive deportations causing a labor shortage, major cuts to social programs that regular people use to survive in an unpredictable economy, cuts to health care, and, perhaps most tragically, a turn towards drilling for more oil and gas, more carbon emissions, a rollback of tax credits for buying cars and household appliances that pollute less, dirtier air and water, and a rise in chronic childhood diseases.

Forget about this not ending well. This isn't even starting well. And if you listen to the gibberish emanating from Trump's transition team about his having a mandate from the people, you're likely to forget that he only won this election with 50.1% of the popular vote.

This is not a mandate.

But this is where we are, so we'll have to wait and hope for the best. In the meantime, I'll be looking forward to the stories that uncover the unsavory doings of Trump's nominees, how their business dealings create conflicts of interests, their contributions to fringe/racist groups, how many undocumented immigrants they've hired (and a bonus if they didn't pay them fairly or at all), and their dismissal of all previous instances where they've called Donald Trump unfit for office.

Yes, the fun begins. And it isn't even Thanksgiving.

On Immigration: The Fear and Loathing Takes Its Toll

2024-10-20T09:46:00.001-04:00

Is this really the way we're going on immigration? Are we really going to base our policies on xenophobia, intolerance, ignorance and hatred? Is the nation that is utterly defined by the immigrant experience going to follow someone who brings out the very worst in us?

Because what Donald Trump has said about immigrants, from the time he began running for President in 2015, is absolutely vile. And yet people cheer his hatred and threaten people who are here under the law. Instead of trying to fix the problem, he has stoked it and demanded that Republicans in Congress vote against an immigration bill that they helped negotiate, because it would hurt...Donald Trump.

What's worse is that here we have a candidate for president of the United States who has demonized and victimized people who are here legally. He has created a climate of fear in Ohio and Colorado so extreme that Haitian immigrants, who have done nothing except work hard, educate their children and contribute to their community, fear going outside or socializing with their neighbors.

This is someone who wants to be president again. It's outrageous. And unbelievable. Unconscionable. But people support it. And believe his wild tales.

Even more, I've seen posts on social media that ask why we don't spend more money and resources on American citizens. Why are we giving money to immigrants and foreign governments when we should be keeping that money here in the US.

You want to know why? Because Republicans have voted down most bills that would provide more money and support for Americans. Republicans have opposed every bill having to do with providing health care, child care, parental leave, raising the minimum wage, expanding Medicare and Medicaid.

Opposed. Every. One.

That's why many Americans are falling behind. It's not that we give an inordinate amount of money to immigrants, it's that we don't have programs that support our citizens. And it's the Republicans who are responsible for this denial of help.

But who is stoking the fires of inequality? Who is telling people that immigrants are a threat? The very same Republicans who are voting against every law that would help, including an immigration bill negotiated by conservatives and liberals alike that would begin to address the border. Why? Because Donaled Trump believed the bill would be bad for his campaign. Never mind that the bill would go a long way towards helping the situation at the border. Helping Americans is not Donald Trump's concern. The bill would be bad for him. So he told Republicans, even those legislators who agreed to the negotiations, to vote against it. And they did.

Oh, the humiliation.

The problem is not immigrants. These are people who want to escape violence, have a well-founded fear that their political views will get them jailed or killed, or who live in countries where they belong to the wrong social, ethnic or religious group.

The problem is the victimization of people the Republicans have deemed as not worthy of becoming Americans. It's also the stoking of hatred against any group of people for political gain. And the man who has no trouble with that hatred, the man actually leading the charge, wants to be president again.

Madness.

What's At Stake in November

2024-10-13T08:28:00.006-04:00

We're getting to the end of the campaign, but that hasn't stopped Donald Trump and the Republicans from piling up the lies in an attempt to frighten people into voting for them. I'm not sure why Trump doesn't like the country, but he sure isn't shy about painting the United States in deep, dark shades. It's a far cry from the Harris smile and laugh, which says to me that she's got a far more accurate sense of what's happening in the country today.

And just in case you're waffling, or you don't think your vote will count much, here are some reminders about what's at stake in November.

We can now count JD Vance as an election denier, which means it doesn't matter what the votes say, if Kamala Harris wins the presidency, Vance and Trump will stop at nothing to get the results overturned. In that sense, January 6th will be remembered as a mere rehearsal for the mayhem I'm sure the Republicans are planning. It's a scary proposition, but, as opposed to Trump's dark musings, this is one terrible event that he has promised will happen. Every Harris supporter, and those who see the consequences of a palace coup, needs to vote Democratic on election day.

There's also the issue of climate change. Trump believes that it's a hoax and has committed himself to unleashing more fracking and drilling for oil if he's elected. This would be a disaster for the country and the world. Other countries are making great strides in their transition to sustainable sources of energy. We would instantly lose not only credibility in the world, but would also sacrifice our ability to attract investments to new energy technologies. And of course, we would be polluting the air and water and making more people sick because the president is ignorant of the facts.

And all you need to know about what Trump and the Republicans believe about the climate is in the misinformation and outright conspiracy theories concerning the two hurricanes that hit the country in the past two weeks. It's as if the conspiracies are now the news, and the real news is a minor point of contention that people can dismiss without concern. And even more moderate Republicans who try to get the truth out are being hammered down and ignored.

It doesn't stop with the climate. The continued conspiracies about immigrants--legal and undocumented--are the fuel to Trump's fire. He's now blaming immigrants for all of the country's problems from the economy to why people of color will outnumber whites within 20 years. What's really terrible about this is that he's creating victims who now face angry residents in their own towns for doing nothing more than moving there, getting a good job, sending their children to school, and contributing to their communities. They didn't take anybody's jobs; they filled in where the local population could not fill those jobs. And they buy goods from local merchants, which helps the town.

But to Donald Trump, these are horrible people. From a moral perspective, any presidential candidate who creates a situation where decent, law-abiding people are not safe in their communities because they've been singled out, is not qualified to be president. Yet people join in, or, worse, continue to support a man whose default is vile, xenophobic, nativist hatred.

He's done the same thing with the trans population, singling them out in a national advertising blitz as enemies of all that's decent in this country. Reasonable people can discuss the issue of gender and sports, or sexual orientation, or whether prison rehabilitation includes helping a person live the life they were meant to live, but to victimize another group of Americans, or to question whether someone who wants to transition to the gender they are meant to be, is reprehensible.

But wait! There's more!

Do you want more of your rights taken away? Want more justices who will take away your health care or ability to marry the person you love? Then by all means, elect Donald Trump and a Republican Senate. But if you care about justice and protecting ordinary citizens rather than the wealthy, then your only choice is Kamala Harris and the Democratic Senatorial candidate in your state (not all states are electing Senators). The last thing I want is for Donald Trump to be allowed to appoint more backward-thinking judges who believe that the law only protects ideas and types of people who were part of the country in 1789.

This is critical, and not an issue that you hear a great deal about, but conservative justices could change this country to reflect their views on marriage, religion in schools and the public square, and a narrow morality that, sadly, mirrors the amorality of Donald Trump.

As for foreign policy, a Trump presidency would be a most welcome gift for dictators everywhere, but especially for Vladimir Putin. Trump believes that Ukraine, not Russia, was actually behind the spying on his campaign in 2016, and of course he was impeached for trying to lean on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zalensky to get dirt on the Bidens. Trump’s plan to end the war between Russia and Ukraine is very simple: Give Putin everything he wants, including the land that Russia has stolen, and disqualify Ukraine from joining NATO. It would be the most brazen act of appeasement since Munich in 1938. And Putin would certainly see it that way.

And then there’s Israel. In the end, my view is that the only way there will be security for Israel and peace in the region is for the Palestinians to have their own state without any influence from Hamas or Hezbollah. Otherwise, Israel will be forced to continue to fight wars to defend itself and the Palestinians will continue to live in unconscionable conditions. Kamala Harris has already said that she supports a two-state solution. Trump does not. His position is a recipe for more deaths and more violence.

This November, the stakes are incredibly high. Search for the facts and leave the conspiracy theories, the blame, the hatred, the victimization, the xenophobia, and the lies where they belong; out of the ballot box.

About That Election

2024-10-04T18:37:00.001-04:00

You're tired of reading about the election?

Then let's talk about the election. What's happening?

Oh, yes, Team Trump-Vance has decided that hard-working legal immigrants are taking jobs from American citizens, even when they are not actually taking jobs from American citizens, but are filling a void left by American citizens. Here we have legal immigrants who are working hard, sending their children to be educated, and contributing to their community, but are being victimized, to the point where these Haitians now need to worry about their safety, because Trump and Vance need to bathe in conspiracy theories.

Business owners know the type of workers they need. Springfield, Ohio clearly did not have enough of them. Haitian immigrants were motivated to work. They moved. They got jobs. They are exactly what we want in an immigrant group. And for that, candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States threaten their safety and question their motives. It's a disgrace.

And then Trump-Vance has the gall to say that they support workers. As if they've said anything supportive of the dock workers or other union workers, or raising the minimum wage. They say they want to bring back jobs to this country, but nowhere do they say anything about issues that employees are concerned about. In his first term, Donald Trump tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. He says he wants to improve it, but the Republicans have had 10 years to tell voters how they would do that. Not a peep. The concept of a plan. In reality, nothing.

And then, of course, there's the lie of lies, that the election of 2020 was stolen from Donald Trump by...how? I'm still not sure. And really, there are no real reasons. As the Smith Report says, Donald Trump didn't care what the facts were. He just figured he'd fight and hope that a court or governor somewhere would support him and find him the necessary votes.

This is the most destructive conspiracy theory we've had to endure since the Kennedy assassination. Donald Trump has somehow been able to convince far too many people that he's got a point, when he absolutely does not. It's a lie, and I don't know why Joe Biden didn't come right out and incessantly call Trump a sore loser and a cry baby and Donald Chump. Too many people were willing to believe a liar.

Kamala Harris has been running a fairly traditional campaign, and her debate win has helped her a great deal with fund-raising and proving that she can stand up to a toothless bully. She certainly has her weaknesses, such as not being comfortable in interviews and not getting to the point quickly enough when she speaks, but otherwise, she is running the type of campaign that will help her win. She's going to places in swing states where Democrats are a distinct minority, but votes are votes no matter where you get them.

She also waited before releasing policy details because I suspect she didn't really have details in July or August or early September. Now she does, and they make far more sense than engaging in a tariff war with friends and foes alike. Her policies also mirror Joe Biden's signature accomplishments that support more manufacturing, computer chip security, and a move to more sustainable energy sources. Because climate change is real. And always remember that Donald Trump doesn't think it is.

In any case, Biden's policies are helping, especially in Republican states. Getting rid of them will hurt the economy. Raising tariffs will reignite inflation. So might more tax cuts. And if you really want more inflation, and a labor shortage, by all means let's have Donald Trump deport 8 million immigrants. Should many be told to leave? Yes. Prosecute the criminals.

But the vast majority are hard-working people who want a better life. And anyone who took their children on a thousands mile trek through harsh jungle and made it alive, then asked for work, deserves to stay here. They are exactly the type of people we want as Americans.

The economy is on the mend. Prices are too high, but many are stabilizing and some are even going down. As are interest rates. And the border is more secure. We are headed in the right direction. Let's keep it that way.

And We're Back

2024-01-02T20:16:00.003-05:00

Been a while, no?

Let's get to it with a hearty rant.

Here we are in the 21st century, supposedly living in the freest nation in the world, backed by the biggest, most diverse economy the world has ever seen, and with a history of being a beacon of hope and refuge for those who are persecuted abroad, yet we are being besieged by censorship on the right and left, are living in the most unequal era in our history, and are seriously knotted when it comes to immigration policy that many want to use to insulate us from a world we did much to create, while starving our workforce of the workers we need to grow and thrive. And all the while we fantasize about a warming world whose problems can be mitagted without much sacrifice from, well, anyone.

This is where we find ourselves under the full weighted blanket of conservative political and social influence. Did you really believe that control over your own body would extend to your pregnancy? Don't be so foolish. Woman are merley vessels who carry the more important life. The assumption is that any woman who wants control over their body must have done something wrong. Or is selfish. Or wants to live. Or is immoral. The assumption on the right is that there is always something more important than you. And in Texas, your neighbor can arrest you and the Uber driver you rode in with if you dare to express your opposition.

What about parental rights? Evidently, parental rights only means that you support banning books from all libraries because you're afraid that your child might read something that makes them think differently or that leads to questions you'd rather not answer. Parental rights don't extend to that sweet child who has known since birth that they are not going to confrom to your reality and is gay. Or knows that they are not in the correct body. Or knows that they are not on a spectrum, they are on a continuum that enables them to express their individuality in a way that, wait for it...makes them happy. And seen. And heard. But if you want to support your child, the state will stop you.

And, oh Israel and free speech. Here is where the left joins the ugly shouting match. The speech codes that rule the modern college campus are the product of fear and the inability of the adults to impart the most important lessons of a college education; that you will find opposition to your ideas, that you need to find the intelligence and moral clarity to argue from a set of evidence-based ideas, and that you need to be tolerant, understanding, and sympathetic to someone who is on the other side of an issue from you.

On the right is perhaps the greater hypocrisy. The very movement that tolerates and encourages antisemitism and racism in its ranks is in no position to lecture anyone about antisemitism in other parts of society. And the right wing has been utterly devoid of humanity when it comes to Palestinians who want self-determination. I watched the horrors of October 7 from a Jewish perspective and cursed the Hamas terrorists for their utter depravity and inhumanity. But as a world citizen, an unabashed supporter of human rights, and someone who has followed Middle Eastern politics and society since the Six Day War, I also looked at how Palestinians were forced to live and I asked the most relevant question:

What did you expect?

You simply cannot treat people with such disdain and expect them to accept that treatment decade after decade and not expect an explosion. We propogated that type of treatment of marginalized people in the United States, then ignored their pleas. And what did we get? An explosion.

What did you expect?

No, there is no room for racism, sexism, elitism or any other manner of thinking or speaking that denigrates another human being. There is not room for marginalizing or silencing or ridiculing another person for whatever reason. None. Ever. The problem is that we've tolerated and even encouraged those behaviors over the course of our history. We've taught that it's fine to see another person as inferior because of an attribute that we've assigned to them that is less than acceptable. If there is good news on this, it's that the younger people, you know, the ones who get ridiculed because of all the avocado toast they eat, are leading us through the difficult process of recognizing our demons, confronting them, and perhaps becoming a more equitable, accepting country. We can, and will, do better.

I still have enough optimism to believe that we can overcome our differences and create a more equal and just society. It looks bleak now, what with a country that has more guns than people, but things will turn because there are enough people who believe that it will turn and will do what they need to make that happen. Many states, even conservtive ones, have seen their citizens reject limits on abortion. Libraries and librarians are fighting back against censorship. And new laws that are planting the seeds of a new, cleaner, more resourceful energy system will take root. It's been slow and uneven, but like all new technology, we will reach a tipping point that will see an acceleration of the new. It happened with cras, radios, televisions, computers, and phones. It will happen with new technologies that will make this country, and the world, a greener place.

I do have hope. I do have energy. I do smile when I think about the future. How about you?

Thank you for reading. It's good to be back.

Back to School 2021

2021-09-07T19:04:00.001-04:00

This is one of those years when the public school system has been singled out as a bastion of liberal teachers who are corrupting the minds of youngsters by telling them that they are indeed responsible for protecting our democratic institutions, ensuring that all citizens get justice, and reminding the country that we have a horrible racist past that continues to infect housing, education, employment, athletics, politics, economics, social interaction, religion, police departments, the military, and the media.

Please remind me if I've left anyone out.

But we also need to be particularly careful that we make sure students know, and are given the tools to address, how we can overcome these historical patterns and ensure that we break this cycle of ignorance and fear that those who see a danger in the changing American demographic landscape continue to promote.

Yes, my friends and colleagues, teaching is, has always been, and will always be a political act, a subversive act, an act that challenges the foundations of society while also reinforcing the idea that questioning our basic beliefs and putting them to the test is in the best interests of the system. Teaching is based on the idea that in order to create a just system, we must conserve ideas that support all Americans while introducing new ideas that move us forward. Teaching requires that we truly challenge our students by asking them to question what they know, rather than repeating anodyne phrases and tenets that have long since lost their relevance and resonance. Education is not safe. It is stressful for the teacher and the learner.

If certain segments of society are going to push against teachers, then we must push back with the certainty that facts and data provide us. The United States does not have one historical story. It has many, and we must tell all of them. We need to demand that textbook companies and those who produce content for schools provide perspectives that reflect the experiences of those who were previously unheard, unrecognized, and marginalized. And we need to go to Board of Education meetings to counter those people who promote misinformation and fear.

Perhaps you went into teaching because it seemed safe, predictable, assured, and reflective of a point of view with which you agreed. Things have now changed. Are you ready to change with them?

Have a marvelous year.

In Which I Say Farewell to Donald Trump

2021-02-14T11:30:00.001-05:00

No.

Donald Trump will not be a major force in Republican politics for the next four years. He still has his fans, and they number in the tens of millions, but he's done. The rest of the country has moved on to solving some of our most pressing problems.

The Biden Administration will be focusing on cleaning up the environment and transitioning the country from one based on fossil fuels to one that increasingly uses renewable energy. It will create programs that address the terrible consequences of poverty, especially on children. The Affordable Care Act will get major upgrades, most of which will focus on affordability, access, and preventive care. Taxes on the wealthy will increase, mostly to fund infrastructure projects including making sure that all Americans have access to affordable broadband Internet service, reliable public transportation, and bridges, tunnels and roads that, well, function appropriately. Our allies will begin to trust us again, though that will take some time. Joe Biden will not proclaim his love for dictators.

Donald Trump would run against every one of those policies. He's done.

And, of course, we haven't even mentioned the insurrection at the Capitol, which was predicated on a lie. Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. By a lot. But, of course, he couldn't lose, so he created a lie and millions of people believe it still.

Americans, including police officers, died because of the lie. Some were injured. Others were traumatized. But it was a lie. Told by a liar. Whose political career is over.

Donald Trump might still have some influence in conservative and fringe-right circles, and we know he's uber-popular with the white supremacists, fascists, racists, and anti-Semites. This might translate into victories in Senate and House races in some states, but Democrats will run commercials using the attack on the Capitol to remind Americans that it was all the result of the lie that Donald Trump just cannot let go.

Yes, he was acquitted in the Senate, but the fact that ten Republican Representatives and seven Republican Senators voted against him is a beginning. The trial laid bare what President Trump did as the mob began its attack. Nothing, for almost two hours. Yes, he did mention that he wanted his followers to be peaceful, but a responsible president would have said it immediately and would have repeated it. He did not do that. And did I mention that it was all based on a lie? I want to make sure I mention that.

I'm sure the press will continue to publish stories about Donald Trump's influence in the GOP and how he will support candidates who support his lie, and who label the Russia investigation a witch hunt and fake news (Have you noticed that we haven't heard these words much lately? Refreshing.), and I'm not against reporters and others having jobs and being paid, but Donald Trump's political career is over.

And I am done writing about him.

Here's to better days ahead.

We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

2021-01-20T13:17:00.000-05:00

Our apologies for the four year descent into the Emergency Broadcast System.

Every president has an opportunity to be great. Donald Trump had that opportunity, and he did change our political culture for good and (mostly) for ill. but instead of trying to unify the country around an issue that both Republicans and Democrats could enthusiastically agree, such as rebuilding our infrastructure, he went straight for the Muslim ban, building the wall, and repealing Obamacare. His response to Covid was to hope it went away. And then there were all of those tweets. He also wallowed, and continues to wallow, in baseless conspiracy theories.

History does not treat wallowers kindly. Especially those wallowers who incite insurrections.

He's ended his tenure with a graceless exit, refusing both to acknowledge his defeat and the importance of the traditional passing of power from one administration to the next.

History similarly does not look kindly on unacknowledgers. See Adams, John; Adams, John Quincy and Johnson, Andrew. Add in two impeachments. Stir.

Joe Biden can also be a great president, and he's set an ambitious agenda to tackle not just Covid, but immigration, the climate, economic opportunity, paid family leave, and social justice. He will have a slim majority in Congress, and the hope is that a couple of Republicans will vote for bills that will move the country forward. There is much he can do with executive orders, but especially with immigration and climate, it would be best to pass some legislation. We'll see if that happens.

My hope is that enough Americans see the insurrection of January 6 as a turning point in American history that ends some of the animosity we've built up over the years. Many Republicans are not in the mood to compromise. This will not be easy, but it will be necessary.

Biden will at least speak the words of unity and patriotism, but it's up to all of us as Americans to welcome them in the national interest. I understand that Democrats did not do this in 2017, and my expectations are such that I don't see Republicans doing it willingly in 2021. Time, though, has a habit of chipping away at the jagged stone of obstruction until it becomes, if not smooth, at least less perilous. Donald Trump did not try to unify the country, nor did he speak words that soothed or tempered the emotions of the moment. Joe Biden will do that. And words have meanings.

As always, I remain optimistic that we will become a more inclusive, more united, more compassionate country than we've been recently and that we will work to right the wrongs we've inflicted upon ourselves and others.

Godspeed to President Biden and all who serve this nation.

January 20 Can't Get Here Soon Enough

2021-01-02T20:14:00.002-05:00

And here I was planning on writing a hopeful piece based on the new year and the Biden Administration taking over on January 20th. I was even willing to dismiss Senator Josh Hawley's stunt, in which he was going to formally object to the Electoral Vote count on January 6.

Then this happened. Eleven Republican Senators, with the Vice President's blessing, will also formally object to the vote count, and will further call for the formation of a commission to audit the vote in states that flipped from Trump to Biden.

It seems they are concerned that despite the fact that no credible evidence exists of voter fraud, suppression of votes, or illegal activity on the part of states regarding absentee, mail-in, or voting machine votes, and despite the fact that the U.S. Attorney General, Attorneys General and Governors of states that switched from Trump to Biden, State Court, Federal Appellate Court, and U.S. Supreme Court Justices have found either no credible evidence to support overturning the will of the people or that, well, states can't sue other states and force them to overturn the will of their voters because they don't like the outcome, the election might be tainted. Why? Because Donald Trump says so.

Please understand that this attempted coup will go nowhere because both the House and the Senate would have to approve it and that won't happen. But also understand that if the House and the Senate were both controlled by Republicans and enough of them decided that losing the support of Trump's voters was too difficult to bear, then they could have stopped the process of counting Electoral Votes and possibly reversed the results of the election. Why? Because Donald Trump says so.

And that's the key here. The only reason why these officials are trying to subvert a fair and free democratic election is that Donald Trump cannot lose. He's been squawking about mail-in ballots since the spring, making unfounded accusations about voter fraud. Then he lost, which evidently can never happen, and he continued to make unfounded, unsupported, specious accusations about the vote and filed scores of lawsuits that essentially said that the election was unfair because...Donald Trump says so.

That's it. There's no evidence, but these Senators, and 126 Republican Representatives, believe they must investigate a non- issue that's been investigated and adjudicated multiple times.

It's a disgrace.

The president lost the election because of his terrible response to the pandemic, his vile tweets, his disregard for democratic institutions, his belief that he had powers beyond the constitution, his policies, his lack of political knowledge about how to get things done, his demeanor, his impeachment, and the general fact that both Democrats and moderate Republicans voted for Joe Biden.

He lost the popular vote in 2016 and 2020 and his approval ratings were stuck in the mid-40s for almost his entire presidency. He was never broadly popular, and in Joe Biden, 81 million people saw a leader who would restore our pride, place in the world, faith in democratic institutions, and reliance on facts and science.

That, obviously, is not enough for the president or the Republicans who've decided to try and upend the election. There is no fraud. There was no cheating. There was only a free and fair election that saw a resounding rejection of a president that a majority of Americans did not want to serve another term.

Trump's graceless response to his loss was to ignore the pandemic and the legislative process that might have resulted in more money being given to needy Americans until it was too late, and the rejection of a bill that funds the military because he wanted to keep Confederate names on military bases. For the latter, his veto was resoundingly overridden. He has not, nor will he ever, concede that he lost the election, and he will likely not attend President-elect Biden's inauguration or formally transition the presidency to him, which has been the foremost symbol of democracy after voting, that we have in this country.

Make no mistake: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in as our next President and Vice President on January 20th. Americans can then decide whether they want to be part of the problem or part of the solution. The president and those Republican legislators who are plotting against the duly elected government have apparently made their choice.

President Snowflake

2020-12-13T10:56:00.001-05:00

All you need to know about Donald Trump has been on display since the presidential election. Yes, I know that the previous three years plus have been pretty bad, but he's gone above himself since November. It's obvious that he doesn't at all understand how our elections work and why, given the characteristics of the vote this year, he could be winning in the PM, but losing come the AM.

And I'm not saying that this is some political ploy by a savvy operator who'e just trying to rile up his supporters. It's clear he's just oblivious to how our system works, how votes are counted, how a democracy operates, why even Republican politicians don't support his lawsuits, and, most important, to the fact that he's just not that popular. Polls consistently put his approval ratings under 50% for almost every day of his presidency. He won 46% of the vote in 2016 and 47% in 2020. So mush has been made of the fact that he's won 74 million votes so far. Joe Biden's won 81 million. He wins.

Even more than that, though, is Trump's sense that all Republicans and conservative judges must be on his side rather than on the side of the Constitution. This is obviously the most dangerous aspect of his actions. It's one thing to be transnational about policy; it's quite another to fervently believe that since you appointed a judge, that the judge will side with you simply because you...appointed them. I was heartened when the Supreme Court ruled rather curtly that Texas had no standing or evidence to prove anything other than the president thinks he's entitled to win. I was also not surprised that the two justices who said the case could go forward were Alito and Thomas. They've been out of the mainstream for as long as they've been on the court.

Then there are the Republican legislators and governors who also backed the president. I understand party unity and making sure you win your next election, but supporting what is essentially a coup by trying to enable state legislatures to appoint Trump electors despite having no evidence of fraud or chicanery, is madness. And dangerous.

If you need to upend an election in order to sate the Republican base, then the problem is the base and all people who believe that Republicans and Democrats, legislators and governors, election workers, all media outlets except the ones you determine to be truthful, technology companies, foreign agents, and government workers worked night and day to deny Donald Trump what he, in fact, lost. The election. The popular vote. Enough states for Joe Biden to win 306 electoral votes.

I am still hoping that the president will invite Joe Biden to the White House sometime next week, after the Electoral College has made Biden's win official, but of course I would not be surprised if it didn't happen. Most likely, Donald Trump will make a graceless exit, not attend the Inauguration, and continue to complain endlessly about how unfairly he was treated. As the ultimate snowflake, who couldn't handle the judgement of the people, he will go down in history as just another impeached one-term president. Let's move on to brighter days.

The Larger Transition Is Upon Us

2020-11-29T10:01:00.002-05:00

For Democrats, it could have been worse. The Senate seats that seemed within reach probably never were, despite what the polling said. The expanded House majority did not materialize as Republican candidates ran hard on painting Democrats as socialists and soft on support of the police. State legislatures that started to move leftward in 2018 snapped back to the right, which means that Republicans will draw gerrymandered maps in many of the states that stand to gain representatives and electoral votes in 2022 and 2024. And the Supreme Court? Well...you know.

Why, then, am I feeling pretty good about the direction of the country?

Because the biggest loser was Donald Trump, who lost because he alienated enough suburban women and moderate Republicans that they voted for Joe Biden for president and, it seems, their local and state Republicans because they are...wait for it...Republicans. And Donald Trump is no Republican. He belongs to his own reality, and that reality was too dangerous or anti-science or anti-democratic or racist or misogynist or all of the above for the mainstream GOP. Add in many voters, especially white men who came back to the Democrats in the upper Midwest and Pennsylvania, and there's Biden's victory. Georgia and Arizona were added bonuses that were on the cusp of becoming bluer in past elections. This year, it happened.

The biggest slap in the president's face was that he might have given wavering conservatives and moderate Republicans enough reason to switch to the Democrats this year. After all, conservatives have a solid majority on the court, and the Senate will likely stay Republican, but even if it doesn't, Republicans can filibuster and block progressive legislation. Also, Democrats like Joe Manchin are not voting for tax hikes on the wealthy or court packing. Further, taxes will stay low and the economy will probably rebound once there's a vaccine. We don't need the drama anymore. It's the perfect environment for gridlock and stability.

We have, though, taken the first step toward the political center and are on our way leftward, no matter what other pundits will say. Democrats who believed that there would be a blue wave and a landslide this year were fooling themselves. First of all, Donald Trump is far more popular than many Democrats wanted to give him credit for. His approval ratings since he took office were around 45-47%. He won 47% of the popular vote. It shouldn't have been a surprise. And in the United States, we do not generally swing wildly from one political extreme to another. We are in a conservative era that took 40 years to mature. We will eventually be in a more liberal era, but that will take time and hard political ground work.

Still, the election of 2020 is an improvement over what could have been, and it should serve as one building block toward a more inclusive, prosperous future. Most important is that the climate will finally be at the top of the policy agenda. Coal is dead. Oil and natural gas are the fuels of the present, but Joe Biden was absolutely correct when he said they were bridge fuels to the future. The decision by Mary Barra, the CEO of GM, to abandon the Justice Department's case meant to force California to give up its more stringent environmental laws is a huge win for climate policy. Electric cars and cleaner energy are in our future. If the oil and fracking companies want to be a part of that, then they better change their direction now, or they will be in the Kodak, U.S. Steel, Compaq, Blockbuster, and Pan Am wing of the Bankruptcy Hall of Fame.

Democrats have a tough road ahead trying to cement a new coalition, given that many more Latinos and Black men voted Republican than in past elections. They need to make the case that government can work if given proper resources, and that they can enable people to get affordable health care, child care, better roads, airports and schools, and support when things get bad. If Republicans get in the way, then Democrats need to play hardball, and blame when necessary, Joe Biden wants to be a healer and a uniter, but he also needs to send a message that is clear and unambiguous for those who will stand in the way.

Donald Trump has demonstrated since the election, that he cares only about himself and is uninterested in helping the country through the pandemic. It's time to move on from him.

To a brighter future.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

The Real Fraud

2020-11-22T11:23:00.001-05:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't know why anyone, and I mean anyone, listens to anything, and I mean anything, Donald Trump says.

He won the election? No.

He's going to get states to appoint alternate electoral college voters who will undo the will of the people? No.

He's the best Republican president since Lincoln? No.

It's clear that he doesn't care at all about the country or democracy or unity, but only about himself and how history will see him as a minor, failed, one term president who lost because he couldn't adequately meet the most serious challenge of his presidency. In fact, history will remember him as the president who refused to wear a mask, told the country to take unproven medicine and bleach to fight Covid, and victimized responsible politicians who followed science and common sense rather than worrying about how the pandemic was going to effect Donald Trump.

He's also going to be remembered as the president who couldn't even consider that he might lose the election to a more qualified, less hyperactive candidate who spoke sensibly and genuinely to the American people. Donald Trump could have easily won this election, but his strategy in the first debate was a debacle, and his reliance on conspiracy theories regarding Joe Biden's son and mail-in ballots, and that darn virus likely did him in.

And it's not like Donald Trump is in any way a popular president. He lost the popular vote in 2016 with 46% of people voting for him and 48% for Hillary Clinton. During his presidency, his approval ratings rarely rose above 46% and only in the pandemic's early days did it rise above 50% before moving back down into the 40s. In the 2020 election he improved his share of the vote from 46% to...47%. In an election where more Americans than ever took part. In every case, he claimed fraud, illegal voters, and other plots robbed him of his rightful majority. The only thing he didn't claim was the truth; that he didn't, never did, and doesn't now, have the approval of a majority of this country.

Joe Biden has so far won 51% of the popular vote, and more votes are being counted. Joe Biden got more votes than any other presidential candidate in the history of this country. Joe Biden won the election. I just don't see where Donald Trump can claim anything other than he lost the election. Period.

But rather than show any grace or respect for the country, its democratic institutions, and its people, Donald Trump has to drag us through a process that has seen him lose in court after court because he has no case and no facts. He certainly has his supporters and spineless Republican officeholders who fear that if they tell him the truth he'll have them defeated in primaries, but, again, there's no case for anything other than helping to transition the country from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration.

Anything else does damage to the country.

The Return of Hope Runs Into the Reality of Politics

2020-11-08T10:49:00.001-05:00

Well, that was exciting. And in the end, most gratifying. Joe Biden will be the next president and Kamala Harris will be the first female vice president in the nation's history. The Democrats will hold the House of Representatives and have two chances to take nominal control of the Senate, if they can win both runoff elections in Georgia. Which all of a sudden seems eminently achievable.

I know that many Democrats were surprised and rather annoyed that this was not a landslide election and that Republicans won back some House seats and held off Democratic challenges in the Senate. Most of all, they wonder why Biden didn't win with 58% of the popular vote, given how they feel about Donald Trump. The reason is that this country is divided by party, and that most Republicans voted...Republican, just as most Democrats voted for their party, and it was naive to think that 10 or 20% of Republican voters would vote Democratic when they had a president who gave them pretty much all they wanted in terms of ideology. The tweets? We ignore them. The outbursts and personal affronts? No politician is perfect. The Supreme Court? Ours. For years.

The truth is that Joe Biden won this election because enough voters, including a swath of Republicans, rejected Donald Trump. His tweets and speeches were just too vile. His grasp of basic facts was too loose. His undermining of basic and cherished American values and norms was too deep. His uncompromising ignorance on the issues was too great. His inability to make deals the result of his being politically inept. I understand that to a great number of Americans, these were actually his strengths, and they supported him because he promised to shake the system to its core so it finally served those who thought the country was becoming untethered from its rightful course.

Those people are in the minority, and have been since 2016, and you can't have a functioning democracy when a minority of voters determine who wins the highest office in the land. Further, Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential elections. And now the Supreme Court reflects that minority's view. It's no wonder that the country is angry. The will of the majority has been thwarted. Again; that's no way to run a democracy.

What really defeated Donald Trump, though, was Covid-19. Last January, I truly believed that Trump would be reelected because the economy was in great shape. People had jobs, the poverty rate was falling, and in a presidential election year, it is the economy that generally determines the fate of the incumbent. Then came February, and the beginning of the end. The president decided that he was going to fight the virus on his terms. Bad decision.

Yes, Trump tried to seal the border, but he also tried to minimize the virus, and worse, tried to manage the number of reported cases so the numbers looked better than they were. He dismissed the science, sidelined the country's experts on infectious diseases, and promoted dubious, and deadly, remedies.

And of course, there was the issue of masks. Right wing groups who believed their fundamental rights were being denied because governors and mayors wanted to keep people healthy and alive became prominent. Those who actually believed a real estate developer when he said they should go shopping and dining, as opposed to the scientists who said these were bad ideas, spread the disease. The vaccine he promised was never going to be ready on his political schedule.

To be blunt; most things the president said about the virus and its effects were incorrect or untrue, and most everything the scientists said turned out, at some point in the argument, to be accurate. The more the virus spread, the more the president tried to ignore it. Then, he just ignored it. Now the virus breaks records day by day, and the winter hasn't even begun. Both Trump and Mike Pence said during the debates that the prediction was that if we did nothing, over 2 million people would die. We're on course for about 500,000. Does that make anyone feel good about the administration's response? So far, about 70 million people have said no.

For many Democrats and Independents, the virus was just one more excuse to vote against Donald Trump. He wallowed in conspiracy theories, didn't condemn right wing terrorists loudly enough, if at all, and made it clear from the beginning of his term that he was not going to make any effort to widen his appeal or attempt to govern for the good of all the people of this country.

He had no health care plan, and his administration is arguing to end the protection for people who have preexisting medical conditions before the Supreme Court in a few weeks. He has eviscerated environmental laws in favor of placating the coal, oil, and gas industries that pollute and warm the planet. His administration's policy was to actually separate children from their parents at the southern border. He is using his Justice Department as a personal attorney service to investigate his enemies and those who have not been sufficiently supportive of his policies. He did nothing to address the deep seated racism woven into the fabric of American society. He tried, and was impeached for, leaning on the President of Ukraine to find dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

And in what I found to be one of the more confounding practices of the Trump Administration, he never really used his office to promote his policies by speaking to the American people. Yes, he tweeted, but there is nothing like the president speaking to the country through television. In many instances, Trump stepped on his own good news by constantly using social media to comment on events as they unfolded, rather than using the media to tell a coherent story and to promote legislation. I get that he wanted to be a disruptive president, but rather than constantly calling the media fake, he should have copied the Reagan and Clinton playbooks and used the media for his own ends and forced them to report on what he wanted. Too many stories per day just muddied the waters.

Now Joe Biden is asking the country to unite and put aside its vast differences, but that will be almost impossible in the short term and difficult in the long term. We are too divided. We sometimes believe in two wildly different realities. We rely on separate systems of fact. We blame the other side for being dangerous. Many Democrats hashtagged NotMyPresident onto their social media identities in 2017. The president is doing the same thing now by questioning the legitimacy of the election and of Joe Biden's presidency.

Trump's supporters love what he's done on immigration and taxes and the courts and political correctness and trade and foreign affairs. They are afraid of the disturbances and riots in the cities and are repelled by the ideas that were a major part of the far left wing of the Democratic party. I'm fairly sure an analysis of voting will show that many Republicans and Independents voted Biden for president, but voted Republican for Congress and state/local offices. This is not uncommon, and quite honestly, I understand this sentiment. Trump was too much, but giving free reign to the Democrats was beyond what many people wanted to happen. That's why there was no landslide.

The next few days and weeks will be rocky. Donald Trump cried fraud when he won in 2016, and he spent the majority of his campaign saying that the only way he could lose was because of voter fraud. Unfortunately, many people believed him. What did you think was going to happen when he's losing? He will eventually have to concede, but this is a man who believes firmly in his own propaganda. Perhaps the best we can hope for is that he goes away mad, but that he does go away.

The Republicans spent the past four years playing hardball politics. It's time for the Democrats to do the same for the next four. That means promoting their agenda and reminding people why they voted for Joe Biden. This will not be a progressive's dream, and many Democrats will be frustrated by the slow, perhaps glacial, pace of change. Joe Biden's election will slow the train, but it will not reverse it. It took the conservatives 40 years to get to this point. Democrats have to understand that this election represents the beginning of the process.

The Campaign's Final Days

2020-11-01T09:58:00.002-05:00

Presidential campaigns always last too long. I think we can nominate, debate, scare, insult, propagandize, and raise obscene amounts of cash in two months and then be done with it. Start in September. Done by November.

Of course, this campaign is different from most others because of the virus and because of the candidates and because of the virus. President Trump did not help himself by catching Covid-19 by flouting every bit of science we have about how the virus spreads, and then telling the country not to be afraid of it. I've been trying to find some rationality in the man, but I can only conclude that he really doesn't have a whole lot of empathy in his personality and that he is tone deaf to the fact that we're on the way to 250,000 dead and countless millions affected by this scourge.

And Joe Biden? Solid debate performances, but nothing really special, but then again, he doesn't need to do much other than act presidential and appeal to the more rational among us who see the value in not gathering with thousands of other unmasked people at a political rally, football game, biker confab, or mass pig roast. In addition, this is exactly the type of campaign that Biden needed; no big rallies, few occasions to say something mystifying, odd, offensive or wrong, and against an opponent who wallows in conspiracy theories and personal vendettas.

The Trump Administration can say all it wants about how it handled the initial outbreak of the virus, but the fundamental error was the president's decision to fight the numbers associated with Covid-19. By trying to minimize the number of people infected and to control how many cases were reported, the administration missed an opportunity. What they should have done was embrace what was going to happen and set up the president as leading the fight against it. I know he said he was trying to calm the situation, but he only ended up telling us that it would be over soon, which is something that he never should have said because he couldn't make it happen. Banking on a vaccine is not a bad idea, but again, hyping a vaccine every few weeks when clearly we weren't going to get one for at least six to eight months does not enhance his credibility.

Yes, I know that the millions of Americans who support President Trump have assigned him a credibility that has a wide, no, yawning gap in it that's enough for two or three jumbo jets to pass through, so his saying that the virus is nothing to fear and that a cure is just around the corner are comforting rather than irresponsible. What troubles me is that so many people are willing to listen to him over experienced, professional scientists. This is why we are in the midst of a terrible new wave of the virus in exactly the states and localities where the president has so much support. Thankfully, not as many people are dying, but they still getting sick. Wear a mask. Please.

As for the issues, well, we certainly haven't had a robust debate over health care and taxes and foreign affairs and anything else related to how we should be moving forward as a country. That's a shame, but if the president wants to rehash conspiracy theories and falsehoods about how terrible the country will be if the Democrats win, then that's his choice. I prefer facts and science. Call me naive.

The president has tried to question the validity of the vote, which is a shame. Instead of creating problems, he should be working to solve them by making voting more accessible and fair. Undermining democracy is no way to run a...democracy. Of course, when your party has lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, I can see where you might question allowing more people to vote. Perhaps the Republicans could change their message to, let's see, expanding health care, protecting Dreamers, making wealthy corporations pay their fair share of taxes, allowing women to make choices regarding their own bodies, and other issues upon which most of the country agrees.

Just a suggestion.

If you waited until Tuesday to vote, please make sure you do.

Finally Leading...The Second Wave

2020-10-04T09:27:00.004-04:00

Every day, children as young as three years old wear masks. For hours at a time. Teenagers, who are famous for being oppositional, confrontational and irrational, wear masks and wipe down school desks to ward off Covid-19.

Why is it, then, that national leaders from the president to his advisors, senators, former governors, even Supreme Court nominees, can't see the value in wearing a mask and social distancing?

Why, indeed.

The media universe is full of people, including me, who say that they hope the president recovers, and that they're praying for him and the other leaders who have tested positive for the virus to return to their jobs quickly.

But we shouldn't have to be doing this. We as a nation should not have to worry about grown adults who have ignored, ridiculed, and undermined every scientific and medical argument and all of the evidence we have about this virus that points crystal clearly in one direction: Wear a mask. Stay six feet apart from other people. Respect the virus. Be safe and smart.

In other words, if you're going to play in traffic, eventually the odds say you're going to get hit.

It's unconscionable for the President of the United States to mock those of us who see the danger, and want him to be a role model for the country. There is no shame in wearing a mask or doing other things that keep you distanced from the virus unless, as is clear from his behavior, you either want the virus to stop infecting people and making you look bad for not doing more to mitigate its spread, or you see yourself as weak by succumbing to common sense.

And the manner in which these government officials and advisors caught the virus is just as irresponsible. The president held large campaign rallies in Minnesota and New Jersey where attendees went unmasked, and the president's entourage was completely mask-free during the debate last Tuesday when the president might have spread the disease even more. Perhaps his overactive performance was a result of his not feeling well.

Even Chris Christie finds new ways to lose our trust and respect. Here is a man who I believed respected science, when in fact he was also unmasked when prepping the president for the debate. Now Christie is going to have to quarantine in his chair alone on the beach with his family. Finally, that photograph makes sense.

There really is no other way to look at this administration's response to the virus than anything other than an abject failure. Over 207,000 Americans have died of it. My sense is that the president is terrified that he's contracted it. The more the fever rises and the symptoms escalate, the greater the sense of panic. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had a bad case, and those around him say that he's still not back to his physically normal self. This thing kills overweight men. And there's no cure.

At least he has his government-funded health care to help him with what will now be a pre-existing condition. Remember, when he gets better, he and his administration will resume trying to take that away from others.

Perhaps this will finally lead those who actually believe the president when he says that the virus will miraculously go away to take it more seriously. Meanwhile, the second wave of the virus is beginning to gain some momentum. Two NFL games have been postponed because of outbreaks. Many state cases are beginning to rise. More people will begin to be inside with others as the weather cools. At the very least, all governors must issue orders for all citizens to wear a mask. It's not a violation of your rights. It's what will keep you alive so you can exercise them.

Need More Motivation? Be Like RBG.

2020-09-20T10:14:00.002-04:00

We live in a strange political world where liberals are now clinging even more tightly to Chief Justice John Roberts as the last, best hope for common sense on the Supreme Court. With the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the days seem dark indeed. It doesn't even matter that Mitch McConnell shows absolutely no shame in saying that of course we're going to seat another justice in an election year just four terribly long years after the exact same scenario prompted him to defer to the good judgement of the American people and wait until after the presidential election.

That's politics.

It goes without saying that the president's pick will be absolutely unacceptable to the left. What gives me hope, though, is that the court can only do so much damage before it damages itself. This court reflects the rightward movement of the country and will very quickly be out of step with the emerging Democratic majority that will soon be in power. The court might strike down some laws, but Congress will eventually win out. We will have a health insurance program that works. We will have climate legislation. We will have higher taxes on the wealthy. We will have affordable housing. We will have more social justice.

Naive? No, realistic. because if we don't get these things over the next five years, then we will be in worse shape as a country than we are now, and I don't believe that the American people will stand for that. There's really no place for the conservative movement to go except to do nothing with more vigor than ever.

And it starts with you voting for Democrats. It's clear that the Republicans have run out of ideas and only have political games to while away their time in Washington. They've won some significant victories, or at least prevented the Democrats from winning some of their own. This will only stop with a change in government.

Supreme Court fights remind us that elections do matter. In fact, they're critical. And this next one is more critical than others. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a great jurist and she demands to be a catalyst for change. We have that power.

Use it.

Back to School 2020

2020-09-06T11:30:00.002-04:00

Most New Jersey public schools are scheduled to open this week, and like much of the rest of the country, districts are generally hoping that cases don't spike and that students follow the health guidelines that the adults have set for them.

In reality, this is all one big science experiment.

To our credit, and to Governor Phil Murphy's, New Jersey is in fairly good shape as far as the virus is concerned. Our transmission rate is low, cases numbers are dropping, and although we are tragically seeing deaths from Covid-19, we are in an environment that is far different from the carnage of March and April. Much of this occurred because we distanced ourselves, wore masks, and generally stayed home. Now that's going to change.

There has been copious and wide-ranging news coverage of the debate between those who called for opening schools for student and faculty attendance, and those who wanted them closed and for education to be delivered remotely. Each district has made their own call. Now we'll see what happens.

It's inevitable that we will see more cases in districts where students attend schools, either as a cohort on certain days or five days per week. The major issue will be the number of cases a district will tolerate before they go to all remote teaching. I'm thinking that we'll get through September, but with a 14 day lag time between virus and symptoms, the end of the month and the beginning of October will guide us.

For teachers, this has been nothing less than a summer filled with anxiety and stress. News reports citing research that showed that students need to be in school for their own learning, and for parents to be able to go back to work, minimized arguments that it is the teachers, the adults, who will be more negatively impacted by the virus. We were told to be like the medical workers who put their lives on the line for their patients. We were told, finally, that we are essential, but far many wrong reasons. Add in a national administration tilted heavily against public schools and a president who wants normalcy but does nothing to support it, and even threatens to withhold funds in the face of rising cases in many states if schools don't fully open, and you are guaranteed to have a school opening that is both chaotic and dangerous. And education becomes null and void when conditions are chaotic and dangerous.

What to do? In a word, teach. Do your best. Engage students in the curriculum. Keep in touch with parents. Be available for extra help. But more important, be safe, and if you believe you are not safe, say something. New Jersey, among too few states, has a robust association in the NJEA and its local affiliates. If you are not safe, then you need to say something to your local leadership, and they need to either address the issue or escalate it to the county or state level.

If you believe that the district is not following the health protocols or if students are not wearing masks or distancing or coming to school sick, then you must say something. If you have been denied an accommodation because of your health or the potential for you infecting a vulnerable member of your family, then say something. Get a doctor's note. Push the district on health grounds. There is no other way.

I understand that teachers without tenure are fearful that they will lose their jobs if they push too hard. Speak with your leadership and find the most effective strategy to overcome that. Unfortunately, some districts are more punitive than others.

This pandemic has shone a bright light on the failings of the nation's education system. We need more money to implement new teaching and learning techniques. Every child should have a computer and a functioning Internet connection. Every school building should have adequate ventilation and physical supports. If teachers are being asked to put our lives on the line like medical professionals, then we must have the same up-to-date equipment that they do. New technology. Modern facilities. Desks that are comfortable. Air conditioning (!). Books. Training. Respect from the political system.

And that leads us to the more disgraceful of the reasons to reopen schools. Schools should not be the last refuge for children needing food, shelter, protection from physical harm, health care, and emotional support. Those should come from a society that values children and families rather than one that blames them or discriminates against them or demonizes them based on their ethnicity, gender, race, beliefs, economic status or any other metric.

Perhaps this pandemic will be the catalyst for change. I hope so. That change, though, is going to have to come from teachers. We will need to speak out, and to agitate, agitate, agitate. No, this will not be an easy year or even a year that is kind to personal fulfillment. It will be a year of difficult choices, imperfect solutions, improvisation, and mistakes made twice. It will also be another year where the country's teachers again lead the way, educating our students, advocating for children, and fighting for social justice.

After all, that's what we really signed up for.

Have the best year you can.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

The Trump Riots

2020-08-28T11:37:00.001-04:00

Let's face facts: Americans are protesting because, in part, the Trump administration and the president himself refuse to acknowledge the racial problems that are wracking the country. Even worse, the president continues to make baldly racial appeals to suburban voters by opposing and demonizing affordable housing plans. This is in addition to his dismissive attitude towards Blacks, and the Black Lives Matter movement, who have been killed or wounded by police officers and calls for racial justice from all corners of American society.

The resulting responses are what we have now: The Trump Riots. He owns them. He owns the response. He owns the neglect. He owns the feeble response. He owns the divisiveness.

Of course, the president is not one to see the reality of what's going on, so he's trying to say that terrible things will happen if Joe Biden is elected president. The problem is that terrible things are happening because Donald Trump is president and because of Donald Trump's racist domestic policies. Worse, the disorder and divisiveness will continue as long as Donald Trump is in the White House. The president is uninterested in actually solving the racial problems, which means that things might get worse before they get better.

The best action this country can make is to elect Joe Biden as president, because he will actually do something to address the concerns of those who are protesting, making it less likely that we will have more violence. Make sure you register and vote.

The Real Voter Fraud

2020-08-15T12:08:00.000-04:00

We have come to the point in the conservative movement that began in 1980, where all of the mainstream ideas have been exhausted. Only the fringe ideas are left. That's why we're seeing slavish adulation of tax cuts that mainly benefit the wealthy and the administration slashing government regulations simply because they are government regulations. This is why it's now easier for companies to pollute, require anyone with a dispute to endure arbitration, which is administered by the companies themselves, instead of being able to go to court, and for huge corporations to essentially pay zero income tax.

And now come the conspiracy theories, the biggest one being the amount of voter fraud that takes place during elections. The real fact is that there is no voter fraud problem, only a problem of those who are afraid of losing power to non-whites or who see that a majority of Americans do not support the Republican agenda, so they need to protect their tiny Electoral College advantage in presidential elections.

Add in a president who only understands issues that relate directly to him and who is still freakishly focused on the idea that he did not win the popular vote because of illegal voting, and whose policies, or lack thereof, are responsible for the country's chaotic and deadly approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, and what you get is a big smelly mess.

It would be really nice if the president would work toward a solution to the challenges of voting by mail. Making sure that all voters have access to their ballot, perhaps asking states to allow voting to begin two weeks prior to election day, funding the post office and stations where people can drop off their ballots rather than mailing them would be a wonderful start. But the president is actively working against those improvements even as he and his family continue to vote by mail. The upside down world must be a beautiful place, because so many people are willing to live there.

In the end, it's up to people to require changes in their local communities and states, because that's who has jurisdiction over elections. Organize with other voters and make sure that your town or county has a plan that will enable people to vote in a manner that safeguards their health and safety. The federal government can't tell states how to run elections or that they can't send out mail-in ballots to all voters.

But above all, make sure that you are registered to vote and that you do so. That's the only way we can safeguard our democracy.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

The Education Revolution Will Not Be Zoomed

2020-07-26T10:21:00.001-04:00

So much of the debate about how to open K-12 schools next month is based on the effects that having remote school will have on children.

The newest C.D.C. guidance, released on Friday is, quite honestly, another example of this country thinking small, thinking politically, thinking that teachers will somehow avoid the virus, and thinking that it can get back to some semblance of normal, when it is clear that we need new thinking and new ideas. Of course, none of that will come from either the president or the Secretary of Education, so we're on our own here.

What's so disappointing about what the C.D.C. said was that it assumes that very little will change about American society and education before school opens. Indeed, much of the assumptions that other writers have discussed say that children need to go back to school because they might not have food or computers or the Internet or parental support or emotional and physical safety if they are home. And that, in and of itself, is the indictment of where we are as a country right now.

The decision to open schools full-time, then, must put adults and older students in jeopardy for their lives and force defunded school districts and devastated state budgets to endure more pressure in order to mitigate, not solve, this immoral dilemma that four decades of blame have produced. The simple fact that conservative members of Congress are actually against an economic package that might begin to help schools and states tells you everything you need to know about why we're facing this peril. And it's exactly why many teachers are considering retiring or asking to teach remotely or taking bold actions against their state legislators and governors rather than putting their lives at risk so that we can open the economy.

What the CDC and every other person in this country should be doing is agitating for Congress to make Internet access a regulated utility like the lights and heat so that everybody in this country has access to it. All students should also be given a computer they can use at home. They should make sure that we are spending our money wisely on community programs, public schools, health care, food security, and effective counseling, and stop spending money on military grade weapons to local police forces. That will create instances where the police are protecting more literate, more secure, more educated, more healthy, and more politically and socially involved communities which will be of tremendous help because those are the communities that have the lowest crime rates.

Much of the guidance the CDC recommends is also predicated on the idea that distance learning will look the same as it did in the spring. Much of that was considered a failure, but this lack of imagination is disturbing. Where is Betsy DeVos when we need her to mobilize the country's educational establishment to address the deficiencies of remote instruction? Where is the training and experimenting and exchange of ideas that will lead to more effective classroom methods? Where is the emergency money to support the children that all Americans see as desperately needing to learn? Where is the support for areas of this country--urban, suburban and rural--that are not wealthy enough to obtain these resources?

Where indeed?

Unfortunately, the answers we are getting are full of threats to withhold the very funds schools need if they don't open, which will result in even more desperate conditions for the children the administration and its supporters says they care so much about. Teachers are also being blamed for not carrying their weight as heroes in the same way that medical professionals have been lauded. I applaud and support our medical professionals, but nowhere in my training was there anything about giving my life for my profession. It's unconscionable that every teacher has to withstand Code Blue drills where students have to hide in a classroom as preparation in case someone wants to shoot up the school, then go back to the supportive, protective learning environment when the principal announces the end of the drill. Two years ago, proposals for arming teachers were actually taken seriously by a wide swath of the public. As if there was money to buy guns for teachers while school lunch programs and technology were seemingly intractable political problems.

This pandemic has uncovered what has always been hidden in plain sight about American society and its education system. It is underfunded, it is in many ways ineffectual, it excludes not only based on finances but also in the curricular choices communities make, focusing on an America that exists for Whites, but not for Blacks, it is the last refuge for many children who are starved nutritionally and emotionally, and it is not reflective of the promise and opportunity that form the bedrock of what it should mean to be an American.

We need change and we need it now. For the C.D.C. to base its recommendations on the notion that the country will not change is nearsighted and dangerous. Let's use this opportunity to make our education system responsive to all people.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

Reopening School

2020-07-12T11:29:00.001-04:00

What to make of the debate on how to open schools?

On the one hand, we have the president and Betsy DeVos, who seem to be ignoring most of the health information contained in a report, which was marked "For Internal Use Only", that had more sensible guidance for schools and even urged districts in communities where the virus was spreading more rapidly to have classes conducted entirely online, who are urging all schools to open five days per week with all students in the building.

On the other hand, we have education and health professionals who are urging caution because,well, we are still in the midst of the first wave of a global pandemic and conditions in the United States are getting worse, much worse, by the day.

Every teacher in this country understands that students need to be in school. It is key for a child's social, educational and emotional development. We all know that. The issue is not that we need to open, but how to open safely and create an environment where every child can learn. The evidence does suggest that younger people are not impacted to the same degree as older people and that they don't spread it at the same rate. We get that too.

What we also know, though, is that enclosed, poorly-ventilated spaces in which people are talking are prime breeding grounds for the virus. Yes, the guidelines call for students to wear masks, but students do not always do what they are told to do, and since they won't be mandatory for the children, there's little a teacher can do if a child refuses to wear one or puts the mask below their nose or chews a hole in it where their mouth is. And parents who need to work might give their feverish child a fever reducer and send them on their way so the parent can go to work. Hallways are crowded places. Teenagers like to hug, and more, in various areas of school buildings.

This is why teachers are pushing back against reopening plans that do not take into account their concerns about workplace safety. Many teachers have complicated health issues or are worried about bringing the virus back to their homes where their children, elderly parents or other adults with health concerns live. Teachers are also concerned that cash-strapped school districts will not be able to fully meet the guidelines that are meant to insure that schools open safely, or to invest in distance-learning software or protocols that will enable all students to thrive whether they are in the classroom or at home. Federal and state governments have been defunding education for decades. We are now seeing a literal struggle over the life and death of schools and their staff.

In short, this is a far more complicated answer than what the president and Secretary DeVos want to hear. The president is concerned about his reelection prospects given that adults can't go back to work if they have to stay home and take care of children who are on alternate day schedules or have decided that their child will stay home rather than go into schools where the danger is real. Secretary DeVos is supporting the president's proposal to strip already cash-starved public school districts of federal funds if they don't fully open, despite the health risks.

America's public school teachers already know that they are not as valued as they should be, are not paid commensurate with their educational levels and value to society, and are seen as union saps who slavishly toe the NEA/UFT line. The president went so far as saying that history teachers especially seek to propagandize students and teach them to hate America. None of this is in any way accurate
but, there is a sizable chunk of people in this country who believe it.

The difference now is that teachers are being asked to put their health and lives at risk. Even in districts that will have students alternate days or weeks, teachers are expected to be in classrooms every day. The best science we have now says that the virus thrives in poorly ventilated, enclosed rooms where people are exposed to each other for lengthy periods of time while talking, coughing, sneezing, or singing. In short, your child's classroom. This is the part of the discussion that the president and Secretary DeVos have ignored or minimized. Yes, school is about student learning, but it's also about teachers who make sure that the classroom is safe and secure.

For all of the planning, my sense is that schools will be shut down again because this virus is not going away. Students will test positive. Teachers will test positive (is this the point at which the lawsuits begin?). Communities will be justifiably angry and scared. Maybe this happens in October or maybe it happens when the flu starts to mingle in around November or December.

We have one chance to get this reopening right. Let's make sure we do just that.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

Reopening NJ Schools

2020-06-28T13:39:00.001-04:00

New Jersey has finally released its long-awaited school reopening plan and the reaction has been...mixed at best.

The main takeaway is that all school buildings must be open for at least some in-person instruction, but since students will be required to be at least six feet apart in classrooms, the cafeteria and on buses, and if they can't then they have to wear a mask, this new plan will require some serious reconfiguration of people and materials. The main question is whether opening buildings and requiring stringent rules will result in greater educational outcomes than the remote learning experiment most of the nation conducted in the spring.

Perhaps.

Releasing the new guidelines was necessary now because school districts and parents will need time to adjust their procedures in time for the late August/early September resumption of the education calendar. Schools will be required to buy barriers for between desks and maybe cafeteria tables. They will need to buy sanitizer and dispensers and enact a plan to disinfect bathrooms, playgrounds and classrooms after almost every use. Parents will need to plan their schedules around schools that will require students to be in school on some days/weeks and at home on others.

But all of this will be dependent on the least predictable variable of all: how the spread of Covid-19 will affect us. Right now, New Jersey is seeing a great, and welcome, reduction in cases, hospitalizations and fatalities. As we reopen, will we see a spike in cases, as other states have seen? My guess is that we will. And we haven't even opened indoor dining and businesses to the extent that we will in coming weeks. I just hope that everyone wears a mask, but that's unrealistic.

The most pressing problem, though, is the continued education of our students. The state budget is bound to be depleted by the economic downturn and, the expected loss of tax revenue, and the federal government doesn't seem keen to offer help. How will districts pay for the virus mitigation protocols listed in the state guidance? And what will they have to give up in order to do so? How will they also pay for the computers and software we'll need if (when) we experience a second wave of infections in October or November and we need to shut down again?

New schedules might allow for more social distancing, but it will still require students to alternate in-class instruction with remote learning. This will mean that teachers in middle and high schools will be teaching to two audiences daily, which will require that students have computers and reliable Internet access. How are we supposed to schedule tests, writing, labs? Some of this can be done on the web, but students at home will have access to materials that might give them an advantage on an assignment. This we call cheating. What of the health issues for both students and staff? Teachers will be required to wear masks all day, while students will be "guided" to do so. There's also a section in the guidance that says that teachers with health concerns will not be penalized if they can't return to the buildings. If a teacher needs to teach remotely, will the district hire a substitute to sit with the in-school class? All of these will doubtless affect the quality of instruction.

So many concerns and questions. Districts will have until the beginning of August to work out the details, which will then change as conditions change. The result will be a school year unlike any other.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

Re-Imagining the Country Begins With Education

2020-06-14T11:56:00.002-04:00

Is this the it's-about-time-moment? I am working as best I can to make it happen, but it will take sustained effort and pressure on all parts of our society--the economic, political and social systems--to ensure that real, meaningful, practical, and positive change sticks, and becomes the future of this country.

I find it truly amazing that the Black Lives Matter movement went from being associated with the fringe that all calls for inclusive justice are treated by the white power structure and white society, to being the vanguard of the latest move to once again (!) try and convince society that black people have been treated unjustly and have been killed for no good reason, or for no reason at all. So far, this call seems to be sticking. Protests include faces of all hues, ages, and economic realities, and have continued unabated for almost three weeks. Cities and towns are being forced to recognize that they are supporting systemic racism with many of their actions, and to account for them. Corporations and sports leagues are, at least for now, professing their shortcomings and are promising to do better.

We have seen this before, but public support seems to truly be behind the movement.

But if we are to make real change to American society, it must begin with education. Education is families. Education is economics. Education is morality. Education is our best defense against those who believe that violence and more guns will solve our problems. And, of course, education is our best chance at bringing political change to this country.

Just as systemic racism has always existed, but was uncovered, again, by the killing of George Floyd, so the monstrous inequities in education were uncovered by the Covid-19 lockdowns and the move to virtual schooling. And, as always, black students, and their parents, were the losers. Many schools shut down their school years in March and April, while others maintained educational programs until June, but you didn't have to be a researcher to see that students living in less affluent areas of the country could not get an education, which is their right, because of a lack of Internet access, computer hardware, or physical spaces in which they could study. Add the fact that black workers were more likely to have to physically go to their job during the pandemic, and therefore leave children in a situation that did not readily support learning, and you have the double tragedy that has laid bare the systemic racism that's always been there.

And then there's the issue of policing. It is true that the majority of police officers are good and true and committed and hate bad colleagues. The problem is not what police officers do to earn our respect, as in a social media post that's making its way around extolling the virtue of the officers who gave their efforts and lives in tragedies such as September 11 or Oklahoma City, or during natural disasters. The issue we must address is why, perhaps in the days before and after those heroic deeds, we have examples of officer after officer telling us that it was "Guiliani time," or firing 41 shots into someone in an apartment house vestibule armed with nothing more than a wallet, or shooting a black man in the back while they were running away from the officer. And on and on.

Let me make myself crystal clear: I support a policing department when they do their jobs, support community programs, and, like umpires, are barely visible when they are making sure that citizens follow the law. But I also support the Black Lives Matter movement because too many black people have been killed, maimed, stopped and frisked, and otherwise harassed in numbers and manners that white people are not. We can all do both. In fact, it's essential that we all do both. Because this is not a matter of a few isolated bad ones. It's a culture that must be changed. An attitude that must be eliminated. A racism that must be uprooted.

That's why we have calls to focus on education, community programs, drug treatment and rehabilitation. If we as a society can help people before they turn, or are forced to turn, to crime, then we will have turned a wide corner towards a more civil society.

And it will take money. The problem, as it's accumulated since the 1980s, is that public agencies and institutions have been made, by deliberate political design, to compete against each other for the ever-more-scarce public dollar. Tax cuts that slathered money on the already-affluent, while middle and working class incomes stagnated worsened the problem. This must stop. We need a massive redistribution of how we spend public money in this country. On the revenue side, taxes on the wealthy must go up, and the unconscionable blasphemy that is the carried interest rule for hedge funds must be repealed. We have for too long acquiesced in the fiction that corporations or wealthy people can't be taxed because they will leave their state or move to another country.

Go.

If you are so craven that the prospect of fully funding public institutions to the extent that they can fully meet their mandates and improve our society is prompting you to move, then go. And if you are a corporation that continues to use the tax system to pay no income taxes, then those laws need to be changed. Capitalism has its advantages. Rapacious capitalism, while as American as racism, must go. We need to spend money where it will effect the most public good, not in military hardware for police or walls that shrink our country, or ever more jails to house people who could have a different life if they'd had a chance when they were younger. It's time that we all thought more about the common good.

As for politics, I know that many black citizens are not thrilled by the choices we have for president, and that Joe Biden's support for the 1994 Crime Bill is especially odious. We know, though, what will happen if the president is reelected with a GOP majority in the Senate. More conservative judges and more support for a militarized police force. More racist voices and a backlash against any gains that will have occurred between now and next January. For me, the choice is clear. I hope it will be for you.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

Another Virus Is Spreading

2020-05-31T12:28:00.003-04:00

Covid-19 has killed hundreds of thousands.

Racism has killed millions.

Only one of them is presently curable, but it looks like we're spending more time and money on the one that isn't, despite the fact that it's only been around for a few months. We are now in the middle of both a pandemic and an epidemic, and there's no national leadership to get us through either one of them.

The death of George Floyd is far more than a reminder of how deeply racism infects the United States. It's an indictment of how some police officers act when allowed and enabled to abuse their power, and how many citizens express their frustrations and anger. I don't want to see any violence or rioting, but when the courts and the police and the power structure and the economy and now the virus clearly demonstrate how prejudiced they are against African-Americans, it's no wonder that many see violence as the only way to get the attention of those who have been willfully and culturally ignorant of their discrimination.

The key will be what happens when the violence ends. Right now it's easy to focus on the immediate events and the terrible images we see hour by hour, but that will eventually stop. That's when the real work begins, and if history is any guide, we are in for a long struggle. The president has spoken to the Floyd family, but at the same time he's sent threatening Twitter messages that hearken back to the bad old days of white resistance to civil rights laws. His past messages and actions have done very little to send a message that he can lead on this issue.

And Joe Biden will need to be more forceful, more specific, and more responsible with his responses and proposed solutions. His record on racial issues is far better than the president's, but Biden has to provide workable policies that move beyond community outreach or complaint review boards, which have shown to be effective when they are given the power they need, but otherwise are forgotten after the tempers cool.

But of course the best solution is for all people who oppose the president's policies to register and vote this November. The first step is to march and let people know that these actions are unacceptable. The second step is to vote. There is no excuse not to.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest