Dems need to run on Freedom, Fairness, and Reform. Republicans want to take your personal freedoms; Dems want to protect them. Republicans want to rig the system for the rich and well-connected; Dems want everyone to have a fair shot. Republicans want to cheat in elections to pursue their own corrupt ends; Dems want to reform democracy and hold the powerful accountable.
Instead of trying to shift the course of the river, why don't we take lessons from the world of challenger brands and recognize how liberating that can be? Challengers succeed based on three attributes: uniqueness (versus the market and the market leader), value (to the audience), and the ability to prove both of the above. Hit the Venn intersection of the above, and you're in the sweet spot.
To your point, Carville's meme is evergreen and remains so. But a challenger doesn't try to persuade people to reject their pre-existing biases: it gives them a reason to reconsider what they think they already know — in a context they can accept. Working inside the territory you outline, instead of arguing "democracy is as important as the economy," we pivot to "democracy is the single most successful economic model in history" — and that's critical to you in recovering the spending power you've lost over the past 5 decades.
This is anything but a weak hand and it offers a highly salient door into everything from entitlements (huge economic value) to the value of a strong public health system (see, also, COVID and the consequences of demolished trust) to tariffs (a regressive tax on the bottom 90% that effectively further redistributes the economic burden) of global trade).
If we can get out of our own way and actually focus the damn messaging where it needs to be, we can and will find the path forward that leads us out of the current unnecessary wilderness.
Wish I could agree — and Democrats are certainly of your mindset — but that’s not how you win as a challenger brand. As a challenger, you pick your narrow focus, either a leveragable point of superiority (in the mind of the audience) or a leveragable point of market leader weakness (again in the mind of the persuadable).
Once we have some ability to affect change, we can deal with the laundry list of issues.
For the moment, it’s focus, focus, focus or prepare to make the present reality even more permanent.
But what do we do about the sizable chunk of the country that only receives information from right wing outlets and just will not listen when a Democrat speaks? Are the Bernie/AOC, Tim Walz, Chris Murphy, Corey Booker,y engagements around the country breaking through? Is there a way we’re measuring that?
This is the first time I’ve agreed with you since the election. Years ago I was a flight attendant. If there was a fire on board, our training told us to “fight the fire, then notify the flight crew”. Our country is on fire. We’ll burn to the ground if we wait for the focus groups to weigh in. It’s time to act from our guts. We don’t have time to do it any other way.
110%. I came into the Comments section to offer a similar take. We as Dems and progressives need to do less focus-group analysis and more simply saying and standing for what we believe is right.
Project 2025 had an accompanying document that was not public. Media Matters got a look at it. It called for reorganizing the entire federal government to the goals of Project 2025 in 180 days. They are well on their way half way to 180. What we did not expect was the help of the nuts at Doge breaking things from the inside. I was in DC last week walking by empty buildings of agencies that are now shut down. the plan is to sell the buildings to equity firms.
The commercial real estate market is terrible right now so equity firms will tear them down and build whatever or ... and here is what is likely to happen... lease them back to the Federal government.
If I hear one more Dem say... we need to look at waste and fraud... I might throw a shoe at the television. Dems need to stop using GOP framing for everything that they talk about. Instead of using their framing talk about human beings. Talk about how far from normal this stuff is.
Chris Murphy is great at calling this out and using the moment to warn.
To be honest... I stopped listening to the pods in November. I still subscribe to support progressive media outlets like yours... but the blame and shame game was way too much to suffer through.
Democrats have always been afraid of their own shadow. It’s the Democratic brand. No matter what the issue is, we’re so afraid of insulting some special interest group or some demographic that we go on defense even when we are on offense. Democrats simply “teach to the lowest common denominator” as it were.
It’s literally as simple as this.
From an outsiders perspective (I’m an ER doc that has always lived in liberal 1st and 2nd tier cities but has worked a large percentage of my career in small rural working class often quite red towns) as much as I have true admiration for you guys, I oftentimes think you have it all wrong even though I agree with everything you say.
It’s simple. Obama was successful and is such an inspiration because he feels genuine. Maybe it was curated but he instinctually feels genuine. He never felt like he was talking to the lowest common denominator. He was intelligent. He spoke intellectually and was unapologetic about it.
Finally my point. Democrats need to be genuine. Unfortunately it’s not in the DNA of 99% of Democrats. Democrats in office are often successful because they contorted themselves into whatever persona fit the moment. Normal people can see right through this.
Here is my take (I mean it this time). Democrats need to run on themselves. Are we educated, yes. Do we believe in our world class universities? Yes. Did many of us go to an elite university? Yes. And you know what? We’re not ashamed to say we are educated and elite. We all worked hard to get into those elite universities. We should support them. Are there issues with admission rates and tuition and many other issues? Of course. But fuck all of you who think we are elites because we worked hard, got as good an education as we could and talk and act as an educated class.
The basket of deplorables? Yes, there is a giant basket of deplorables in this country and they can go shove their heads back up their asses. We don’t want them. In fact, we don’t need them. Call them out for what they are. Show some fucking spine. If you’re a racist, a misogynist, a bigot…..we don’t want you. The Republicans can have you. We want people in our party that believe in a common society.
Lastly, crime. I can tell you that hard core Trump republicans see the crime going on. White collar crime. Democrats need to run on prosecuting every single person in the Trump administration that committed a crime. We are gonna put in place Justice Department officials with a spine. No more Garland-esq lowest common denominator. We are gonna throw every single official in jail that committed a crime. The law is going to be equally executed. White collar crime? Financial crime? Going to jail and they can see their lawyers in jail. This needs to be the Democratic platform. A spine. People want to support someone with convictions and a spine. Democrats have no spine and rarely ever have had one. That’s why Democrats always lose.
"How do we tell a bigger story that speaks to Trump’s dangerous actions but avoids defending broken institutions when the public has a ferocious appetite for change?" That's a great question, Dan! I think you already kind of made this point, but I'm thinking that the American people need to be helped to understand that once Democracy is gone, their needs and even values don't matter anymore. In other words, tie the corruption and loss of Democracy directly to the pain that ordinary people will face -- not just higher prices, but a loss of any voice about things they urgently care about. I also think Dems need to be talking A LOT MORE about what RFK, Jr. is doing. We can approve of some of his ideas (especially re: the American diet) while still sounding the alarm. We are losing our healthcare infrastructure, with one man who is practicing medicine without a license in charge. We need to be talking about what life will be like, especially for children and older folks, without vaccines and without the ongoing medical research that has already saved so many lives. Maybe some cancer survivors -- and I am one of them -- need to speak out about how we would not be alive today if it weren't for medical research.
Hi Dan, I’m a former advertising executive with a suggestion on how to deliver the shaper, more differentiating messaging you rightly conclude we Democrats very much need. A comment first on my background: I was involved with some of the nation’s biggest, most sophisticated marketers, including, Kraft, Colgate, Campbell Soup, M&M/Mars, Pfizer. Importantly, we tested and retested many, many executions before spending millions in media. We learned that one executional format was almost always hard to beat, and that’s a simple talking head. With the right “talent,” talking heads are effective and cost little to produce. Here for example is a highly successful talking head that helped state senator Marylin Lands win in deep red Alabama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG8-batu7UE. This spot could not have cost more than a few thousand dollars. Please pass it on to the powers-that-be and let them know I’m happy to help!
Dan - great post. I really respect your opinion, and am inspired and heartened to see your change of mind. Once there is a will, prople will find a way. LE
I actually wrote to Chuck Schumer this morning (my senator) to make this point. I don't understand why every elected Democrat is not spending every hour of every day talking to anyone who will listen about this issue specifically. I've heard that some Dems are reluctant to talk about immigration because they think Republicans are winning on it, but a) sometimes it has to be the job of elected officials to persuade people, something Republicans do all the time but Dems almost never do, and b) the messaging here is a layup. Trump is disappearing people and putting them in a horrible prison in another country with zero due process. They're putting tourists in immigration prisons. You could be next. Boom.
Talk about tariffs, too, obviously, because that's a clear message that will affect everyone. And then, I agree, tie it together with a larger message about corruption. But I don't understand why this is not a presidency-ending scandal. I mean, I do, because Trump, but in any other era of American history, this would be a huge deal and now it just... isn't, and I'm convinced a big reason why is that the checked-out people don't know about it. It should be on Dems to make them care.
I mean, one thing that haunts me: An author I'm a huge fan of canceled an overseas book tour because she was born outside of the US and worried she wouldn't be able to get back in, and when she announced this, there were A LOT of comments on her posts that were like, "Why? What's going on?" People don't know! I'm just one goober with Internet access, but people with actual platforms should be shouting about this nonstop.
I appreciate your admitting that we are observing you change your mind in real time because I was ready to call you on it. My sad truth is that it was clear to me how little Americans seem to care about democracy the night of the election. I can’t pinpoint when Americans changed. Sometimes I blame it on the introduction of reality tv. While you are changing your mind, most of them are not. As a young distant cousin of mine said, if it doesn’t affect me directly, I don’t care. We haven’t quite hit bottom yet. Maybe then . . .
This is good, and after listening to the pods that featured Ezra Klein and Michael Lewis, I feel like there is, as Jon Stewart frames it, an opportunity for a bureaucratic moonshot. This probably involves Pete Buttigeig, Elizabeth Warren, in addition to other peoples standing up like Bernie and AOC.
There is an opportunity to showcase the critical work that a functional government does, as Micheal Lewis and the authors in his new book point out. Millions of Americans are finding this out right now as we face tax season, interruptions in Social Security payments and Medicare, VA, and other key services. And summer is fast approaching, so tourism is going to take a hit from the lack of support at federal, state, and county parks as well as from less tourism from international travelers who fear what might happen to them here.
Trying to put my finger on what is happening here.
We are being bombarded with horrors and terror and the rampant, reckless, immoral dismantling of our nation’s institutions, laws, rights, our credibility, our democracy, our security.
Batman villains are replacing serious leaders throughout the federal government.
It is a break the glass moment…we need Commissioner Gordon to pick up the bat phone and call for help.
But, unfortunately, the Commissioner Gordons across the federal government have been replaced with kooks, cons, flim flam artists, whack jobs…basically the inmates are running the asylum that is our federal government.
We are living in and through the darkest of dark Batman episodes with no apparent escape.
The horrors and destruction and terror campaign being perpetrated and prosecuted in our name are coming down from inside the house…the White House, that is.
A two bit conman has brought a vapid, Vichy Republican Party to heal and is knocking down institutions and agencies, law and order, not one by one, but rather in cluster f’s, batches too rapid in succession to even understand before another cluster f is laid down.
Awareness….we are being flooded with serial traumatic action to destroy us and our nation. The institutions and individuals meant to protect us are folding, one after the other.
We are in a bind because the order of succession leaves us with one batman villain after another if we were to depose the chief perpetrator of this madness.
Feeling “what’s the point”, is the point.
Powerless, helpless, hopeless, terrified is just where this campaign against America and the American people is meant to lead us.
Acceptance: And so here we are. Every action, every word we think to employ feels woefully inadequate, misdirected, pointless, hopeless.
This multifocal, relentless assault on America is happening in real time. The terror is real. The destruction is real. The danger is real. The harm is real and immigrants are at the tip of the spear after a propaganda campaign against them that would make Goebbels blush.
Breathing through the awareness and acceptance of our current reality is essential. Acceptance dies not mean approval. It just means allowing in the fact that these things are going on and they are real.
Action: Breathe. Find a place of calm. Keep finding calm as the triggers will keep coming. Do not give up on ourselves snd our quest to breathe out the stress and anxiety being marketed by this regime.
From a place of awareness and acceptance, we need to find a place of calm. Not because things are “gonna be ok” but rather because we need to be calm and get our emotions in check if we are going to have a chance to think clearly and find a way forward.
This rampage is already destroying the lives of immigrants, students, parents, children, deprived of due process, snatched off sidewalks, from their cars and sent off to El Salvadorian prison to be tortured and terrorized, or to Louisiana or Texas where their rights will be trampled.
Immigrants are vulnerable and cannot fight back. That is why they are being used for “proof of concept” and the chief is already floating the idea of targeting citizens for extraordinary rendition and prosecution and has executed another funny money executive order to target two of his former staff who told the truth and exposed his lies and deceptions….
No one is safe from this madman and his evil, micromanaging minions.
It is time to pull out all the stops…to take clearly thought out, positive, concerted action….it is time to get courageous and use our imagination as to how to turn this flight to oblivion into something good…something that galvanizes us, unites us and turns our commitment to our Constitution, our laws, our well being and our connection to ourselves and one another, our commitment to decency, reason and humanity, to our planet, our allies, our neighbors, our future and our children’s future, into a force to be reckoned with.
Addendum: in talking to a family member about crisis training:
The first thing first responders are told to do, when faced with an emergency, is to stop and think (which aligns with my comment above).
So in the event of an earthquake, for example:
Stop and think:
Where are you? Are you safe?
Make sure your family is ok.
Report back to work.
So let’s all stop and think. Where are we? Are we safe? Is our family safe? We need to fortify our safety and that if our family’s first.
Only then, with a clear heart and mind can we begin to imagine how to begin to address the monumental challenges we face under siege from these malicious domestic actors.
"You can have big, democratic, government...or you can have Elon Musk and tariffs on penguins. Don't believe their bullshit, that's the actual choice."
With you on broken institutions..they have proved too sclerotic, too corrupt, and too fastiditious as to form and norm, to even defend themselves, let alone us.
Dems need to run on Freedom, Fairness, and Reform. Republicans want to take your personal freedoms; Dems want to protect them. Republicans want to rig the system for the rich and well-connected; Dems want everyone to have a fair shot. Republicans want to cheat in elections to pursue their own corrupt ends; Dems want to reform democracy and hold the powerful accountable.
Instead of trying to shift the course of the river, why don't we take lessons from the world of challenger brands and recognize how liberating that can be? Challengers succeed based on three attributes: uniqueness (versus the market and the market leader), value (to the audience), and the ability to prove both of the above. Hit the Venn intersection of the above, and you're in the sweet spot.
To your point, Carville's meme is evergreen and remains so. But a challenger doesn't try to persuade people to reject their pre-existing biases: it gives them a reason to reconsider what they think they already know — in a context they can accept. Working inside the territory you outline, instead of arguing "democracy is as important as the economy," we pivot to "democracy is the single most successful economic model in history" — and that's critical to you in recovering the spending power you've lost over the past 5 decades.
This is anything but a weak hand and it offers a highly salient door into everything from entitlements (huge economic value) to the value of a strong public health system (see, also, COVID and the consequences of demolished trust) to tariffs (a regressive tax on the bottom 90% that effectively further redistributes the economic burden) of global trade).
If we can get out of our own way and actually focus the damn messaging where it needs to be, we can and will find the path forward that leads us out of the current unnecessary wilderness.
Great post.
And this..."Democracy is as important as the economy," we pivot to "democracy is the single most successful economic model in history"
That epitomizes what is wrong with the vast majority of what Dems say, and the power of what we can say.
The first leads with comparison, doesn't convey any direction or vision, and almost sounds wheedling. The second is bold and declarative.
As Anat Sheker-Osorio says, say what you're for, say what you're for, say what your'e for.
Yes. Democracy is the soil in which the world’s most successful economy was planted. Irradiate the soil, lose that economy.
I think it’s crucial though to emphasize that the economy is just one of the many things you lose when you lose democracy.
Wish I could agree — and Democrats are certainly of your mindset — but that’s not how you win as a challenger brand. As a challenger, you pick your narrow focus, either a leveragable point of superiority (in the mind of the audience) or a leveragable point of market leader weakness (again in the mind of the persuadable).
Once we have some ability to affect change, we can deal with the laundry list of issues.
For the moment, it’s focus, focus, focus or prepare to make the present reality even more permanent.
But what do we do about the sizable chunk of the country that only receives information from right wing outlets and just will not listen when a Democrat speaks? Are the Bernie/AOC, Tim Walz, Chris Murphy, Corey Booker,y engagements around the country breaking through? Is there a way we’re measuring that?
Jessica Tarlov is doing great work on Fox News bringing some sanity to The Five. Hopefully people watching don’t just write her off.
Yes she is but many of the others on Fox 5 literally talk over her and I am unsure of how much of her message actually gets through.
She’s a token and viewers probably treat her like one. "Oh, there she goes again.”
This is the first time I’ve agreed with you since the election. Years ago I was a flight attendant. If there was a fire on board, our training told us to “fight the fire, then notify the flight crew”. Our country is on fire. We’ll burn to the ground if we wait for the focus groups to weigh in. It’s time to act from our guts. We don’t have time to do it any other way.
110%. I came into the Comments section to offer a similar take. We as Dems and progressives need to do less focus-group analysis and more simply saying and standing for what we believe is right.
yes. and isn't one of our challenges finding WHO we can make our audience? Or rather, by what mode?
Project 2025 had an accompanying document that was not public. Media Matters got a look at it. It called for reorganizing the entire federal government to the goals of Project 2025 in 180 days. They are well on their way half way to 180. What we did not expect was the help of the nuts at Doge breaking things from the inside. I was in DC last week walking by empty buildings of agencies that are now shut down. the plan is to sell the buildings to equity firms.
The commercial real estate market is terrible right now so equity firms will tear them down and build whatever or ... and here is what is likely to happen... lease them back to the Federal government.
If I hear one more Dem say... we need to look at waste and fraud... I might throw a shoe at the television. Dems need to stop using GOP framing for everything that they talk about. Instead of using their framing talk about human beings. Talk about how far from normal this stuff is.
Chris Murphy is great at calling this out and using the moment to warn.
To be honest... I stopped listening to the pods in November. I still subscribe to support progressive media outlets like yours... but the blame and shame game was way too much to suffer through.
One can walk, chew gum, and resuscitate democracy at the same time.
Here is my take.
Democrats have always been afraid of their own shadow. It’s the Democratic brand. No matter what the issue is, we’re so afraid of insulting some special interest group or some demographic that we go on defense even when we are on offense. Democrats simply “teach to the lowest common denominator” as it were.
It’s literally as simple as this.
From an outsiders perspective (I’m an ER doc that has always lived in liberal 1st and 2nd tier cities but has worked a large percentage of my career in small rural working class often quite red towns) as much as I have true admiration for you guys, I oftentimes think you have it all wrong even though I agree with everything you say.
It’s simple. Obama was successful and is such an inspiration because he feels genuine. Maybe it was curated but he instinctually feels genuine. He never felt like he was talking to the lowest common denominator. He was intelligent. He spoke intellectually and was unapologetic about it.
Finally my point. Democrats need to be genuine. Unfortunately it’s not in the DNA of 99% of Democrats. Democrats in office are often successful because they contorted themselves into whatever persona fit the moment. Normal people can see right through this.
Here is my take (I mean it this time). Democrats need to run on themselves. Are we educated, yes. Do we believe in our world class universities? Yes. Did many of us go to an elite university? Yes. And you know what? We’re not ashamed to say we are educated and elite. We all worked hard to get into those elite universities. We should support them. Are there issues with admission rates and tuition and many other issues? Of course. But fuck all of you who think we are elites because we worked hard, got as good an education as we could and talk and act as an educated class.
The basket of deplorables? Yes, there is a giant basket of deplorables in this country and they can go shove their heads back up their asses. We don’t want them. In fact, we don’t need them. Call them out for what they are. Show some fucking spine. If you’re a racist, a misogynist, a bigot…..we don’t want you. The Republicans can have you. We want people in our party that believe in a common society.
Lastly, crime. I can tell you that hard core Trump republicans see the crime going on. White collar crime. Democrats need to run on prosecuting every single person in the Trump administration that committed a crime. We are gonna put in place Justice Department officials with a spine. No more Garland-esq lowest common denominator. We are gonna throw every single official in jail that committed a crime. The law is going to be equally executed. White collar crime? Financial crime? Going to jail and they can see their lawyers in jail. This needs to be the Democratic platform. A spine. People want to support someone with convictions and a spine. Democrats have no spine and rarely ever have had one. That’s why Democrats always lose.
"How do we tell a bigger story that speaks to Trump’s dangerous actions but avoids defending broken institutions when the public has a ferocious appetite for change?" That's a great question, Dan! I think you already kind of made this point, but I'm thinking that the American people need to be helped to understand that once Democracy is gone, their needs and even values don't matter anymore. In other words, tie the corruption and loss of Democracy directly to the pain that ordinary people will face -- not just higher prices, but a loss of any voice about things they urgently care about. I also think Dems need to be talking A LOT MORE about what RFK, Jr. is doing. We can approve of some of his ideas (especially re: the American diet) while still sounding the alarm. We are losing our healthcare infrastructure, with one man who is practicing medicine without a license in charge. We need to be talking about what life will be like, especially for children and older folks, without vaccines and without the ongoing medical research that has already saved so many lives. Maybe some cancer survivors -- and I am one of them -- need to speak out about how we would not be alive today if it weren't for medical research.
Hi Dan, I’m a former advertising executive with a suggestion on how to deliver the shaper, more differentiating messaging you rightly conclude we Democrats very much need. A comment first on my background: I was involved with some of the nation’s biggest, most sophisticated marketers, including, Kraft, Colgate, Campbell Soup, M&M/Mars, Pfizer. Importantly, we tested and retested many, many executions before spending millions in media. We learned that one executional format was almost always hard to beat, and that’s a simple talking head. With the right “talent,” talking heads are effective and cost little to produce. Here for example is a highly successful talking head that helped state senator Marylin Lands win in deep red Alabama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG8-batu7UE. This spot could not have cost more than a few thousand dollars. Please pass it on to the powers-that-be and let them know I’m happy to help!
Dan - great post. I really respect your opinion, and am inspired and heartened to see your change of mind. Once there is a will, prople will find a way. LE
I actually wrote to Chuck Schumer this morning (my senator) to make this point. I don't understand why every elected Democrat is not spending every hour of every day talking to anyone who will listen about this issue specifically. I've heard that some Dems are reluctant to talk about immigration because they think Republicans are winning on it, but a) sometimes it has to be the job of elected officials to persuade people, something Republicans do all the time but Dems almost never do, and b) the messaging here is a layup. Trump is disappearing people and putting them in a horrible prison in another country with zero due process. They're putting tourists in immigration prisons. You could be next. Boom.
Talk about tariffs, too, obviously, because that's a clear message that will affect everyone. And then, I agree, tie it together with a larger message about corruption. But I don't understand why this is not a presidency-ending scandal. I mean, I do, because Trump, but in any other era of American history, this would be a huge deal and now it just... isn't, and I'm convinced a big reason why is that the checked-out people don't know about it. It should be on Dems to make them care.
I mean, one thing that haunts me: An author I'm a huge fan of canceled an overseas book tour because she was born outside of the US and worried she wouldn't be able to get back in, and when she announced this, there were A LOT of comments on her posts that were like, "Why? What's going on?" People don't know! I'm just one goober with Internet access, but people with actual platforms should be shouting about this nonstop.
Exactly right. We need leadership. Leadership tells people what’s important. It doesn’t pander. This is a moral issue.
I appreciate your admitting that we are observing you change your mind in real time because I was ready to call you on it. My sad truth is that it was clear to me how little Americans seem to care about democracy the night of the election. I can’t pinpoint when Americans changed. Sometimes I blame it on the introduction of reality tv. While you are changing your mind, most of them are not. As a young distant cousin of mine said, if it doesn’t affect me directly, I don’t care. We haven’t quite hit bottom yet. Maybe then . . .
This is good, and after listening to the pods that featured Ezra Klein and Michael Lewis, I feel like there is, as Jon Stewart frames it, an opportunity for a bureaucratic moonshot. This probably involves Pete Buttigeig, Elizabeth Warren, in addition to other peoples standing up like Bernie and AOC.
There is an opportunity to showcase the critical work that a functional government does, as Micheal Lewis and the authors in his new book point out. Millions of Americans are finding this out right now as we face tax season, interruptions in Social Security payments and Medicare, VA, and other key services. And summer is fast approaching, so tourism is going to take a hit from the lack of support at federal, state, and county parks as well as from less tourism from international travelers who fear what might happen to them here.
Trying to put my finger on what is happening here.
We are being bombarded with horrors and terror and the rampant, reckless, immoral dismantling of our nation’s institutions, laws, rights, our credibility, our democracy, our security.
Batman villains are replacing serious leaders throughout the federal government.
It is a break the glass moment…we need Commissioner Gordon to pick up the bat phone and call for help.
But, unfortunately, the Commissioner Gordons across the federal government have been replaced with kooks, cons, flim flam artists, whack jobs…basically the inmates are running the asylum that is our federal government.
We are living in and through the darkest of dark Batman episodes with no apparent escape.
The horrors and destruction and terror campaign being perpetrated and prosecuted in our name are coming down from inside the house…the White House, that is.
A two bit conman has brought a vapid, Vichy Republican Party to heal and is knocking down institutions and agencies, law and order, not one by one, but rather in cluster f’s, batches too rapid in succession to even understand before another cluster f is laid down.
Awareness….we are being flooded with serial traumatic action to destroy us and our nation. The institutions and individuals meant to protect us are folding, one after the other.
We are in a bind because the order of succession leaves us with one batman villain after another if we were to depose the chief perpetrator of this madness.
Feeling “what’s the point”, is the point.
Powerless, helpless, hopeless, terrified is just where this campaign against America and the American people is meant to lead us.
Acceptance: And so here we are. Every action, every word we think to employ feels woefully inadequate, misdirected, pointless, hopeless.
This multifocal, relentless assault on America is happening in real time. The terror is real. The destruction is real. The danger is real. The harm is real and immigrants are at the tip of the spear after a propaganda campaign against them that would make Goebbels blush.
Breathing through the awareness and acceptance of our current reality is essential. Acceptance dies not mean approval. It just means allowing in the fact that these things are going on and they are real.
Action: Breathe. Find a place of calm. Keep finding calm as the triggers will keep coming. Do not give up on ourselves snd our quest to breathe out the stress and anxiety being marketed by this regime.
From a place of awareness and acceptance, we need to find a place of calm. Not because things are “gonna be ok” but rather because we need to be calm and get our emotions in check if we are going to have a chance to think clearly and find a way forward.
This rampage is already destroying the lives of immigrants, students, parents, children, deprived of due process, snatched off sidewalks, from their cars and sent off to El Salvadorian prison to be tortured and terrorized, or to Louisiana or Texas where their rights will be trampled.
Immigrants are vulnerable and cannot fight back. That is why they are being used for “proof of concept” and the chief is already floating the idea of targeting citizens for extraordinary rendition and prosecution and has executed another funny money executive order to target two of his former staff who told the truth and exposed his lies and deceptions….
No one is safe from this madman and his evil, micromanaging minions.
It is time to pull out all the stops…to take clearly thought out, positive, concerted action….it is time to get courageous and use our imagination as to how to turn this flight to oblivion into something good…something that galvanizes us, unites us and turns our commitment to our Constitution, our laws, our well being and our connection to ourselves and one another, our commitment to decency, reason and humanity, to our planet, our allies, our neighbors, our future and our children’s future, into a force to be reckoned with.
Addendum: in talking to a family member about crisis training:
The first thing first responders are told to do, when faced with an emergency, is to stop and think (which aligns with my comment above).
So in the event of an earthquake, for example:
Stop and think:
Where are you? Are you safe?
Make sure your family is ok.
Report back to work.
So let’s all stop and think. Where are we? Are we safe? Is our family safe? We need to fortify our safety and that if our family’s first.
Only then, with a clear heart and mind can we begin to imagine how to begin to address the monumental challenges we face under siege from these malicious domestic actors.
"You can have big, democratic, government...or you can have Elon Musk and tariffs on penguins. Don't believe their bullshit, that's the actual choice."
With you on broken institutions..they have proved too sclerotic, too corrupt, and too fastiditious as to form and norm, to even defend themselves, let alone us.