Welcome to the first post on the Midwest Moderate.
This is a call to arms, and a response to the tragedy of our most recent national election.
The milk is spilled, wipe away the tears, prepare to respond.
But let’s respond wisely.
Yes, it appears that bad conduct was rewarded this year. But no, that doesn’t mean we need to respond in kind.
It appears that foul language, prurient actions and demagoguery have been rewarded with the presidency.
It appears that while abject opposition by Republicans in Congress to Obama demeaned the institution, they ended up winning this most recent battle.
We cannot just imitate their style and actions.
We must use our personal abilities. (yes, yours as well as mine) to begin the new battle. We must become the Somewhat Disloyal Opposition.
First, we must stand up to the abjectly evil aspects of the presumptive policies of the new regime. Religious intolerance cannot be tolerated, for example.
That said, we must work to ameliorate the policies of the new administration, wherever possible.
To do so, we must each step forward to take action. Small but meaningful action.
But we must be wise about this.
There are so many things we disagree with Trump on, we must avoid being too diffuse, lest our impact be diluted.
Instead, I call upon you to find a single cause that motivates you and become a local expert on that topic.
In my case, I plan on using this vehicle to primarily deal with climate change. You may want to focus on health care, or immigration rights, or the economy, or education, or, and, and, and… Your choice.
The key is to develop expertise in at least one area, while not necessarily abandoning all others.
You can become your neighborhood’s expert in Mideast policy, or what ever you choose. An expert is merely someone who knows more than 95% of the people in their sphere. Within your social group(s), you can do that.
And now the important part, in my opinion.
We need to think like Republicans, and/or one or more of the “groups” that voted Trump.
We need to find the common area of agreement they may have to our arguments and then we need to make that case.
For example.
My sense of righteousness about climate change is not going to change a deniers opinion. But within the Republican (and others) sense of proper investment policy is the need for diversification in the stock market.
So, my approach to coal, is not just to bemoan it, but to advocate for a diversified energy policy that still invests in wind and solar.
I do not expect to convince Trump to abandon his pledge to Coal, as wrong headed as I think it was. Instead, I will promote something he could conceivably buy into.
Another example.
Gun policy is not likely to change the way Hillary would have proposed. The issue remains, and I do not think Trump’s tenure will be without the tragedy’s we have seen in recent years.
This is a rural urban divide issue – although there are also many urban gun enthusiasts as well.
An approach to rural voters that will ring true is the need for some sort of urban gun restrictions that exempts them. I confess that I am not sure what form that might take. But an effort to find something that makes sense along the urban rural divide would permit communication on the issue that would be less threatening to the rural element. Could we prohibit guns in the metro area. Maybe not, but such a proposal would make more sense outstate and could be used as a bridge to a more meaningful discussion.
Bottom Line
The time is now to evolve our angst to action.
Individually we can and should take action.
We cannot do it all, or deal with all the myriad issues.
So we need to focus on one (or a few at most) and become expert.
We need to find leverage, we are on the outside looking in. Thus our arguments need to be those of constructive engagement on terms that resonate with those who opposed us.
Final thought
In my past, I monitored SIC Codes and employment numbers during a recession. I noticed that when the economy sank, the number of employees in the construction industries dropped. There was no work.
At the same time the number of individual businesses in the construction SIC codes grew. Laid off workers, started their own businesses.
We are all effectively laid off workers, active or not in the Democratic party, and it is time for us to start our own little policy construction companies.
I look forward to hearing about yours.