Politics ⁽⁴⁾

A long winter lies ahead. Trump has won the US presidency, in what appears to be a fair and mostly by-the-books election. It's a mess. I fear the foundations of the country are so rotted that our long-held institutions will not recover. I have a lot of thoughts, but they're not well organized this morning. For now, Terry Pratchett sums it up pretty well: "People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found…

Notes for discussion of the Obama/Springsteen podcast (and book) "Renegades: Born in the USA". Obama and Springsteen talk a lot about the American Experiment. In an ideal state, America is a melting pot of people from all nationalities, all cultures. Each person has a voice and a vote, and one vote isn't more valuable than another. In their view, this is why other countries are so interested in America. It's what it stands for. However, we are drifting away from…

The Political Compass has been around on the internet since 2001. Their essential point is that Right and Left politically are mostly a measure of economics, and that people's politics is better measured by adding a second dimension (Authoritarian vs. Libertarian). https://www.politicalcompass.org One of my friends from college nudged me to do this via Facebook message. Distinct from the garbage heap of "how do you score on this quiz" that swirls around Facebook, this is well-crafted, timeless, and supported by…

My Facebook feed is on fire this week. The anti-Trump posts, ever present, seem to have reached a boiling point. Several people I know wrote posts requesting that any Trump supporters in their network defriend them immediately, be they acquaintance or blood relative. Lots of calls for Nazi punching. Normally I get a giggle out of the funny or ironic posts, but the stuff I'm seeing this week is alarming. America isn't getting less divided. It's going the other way…