I wanna be...

Curious not Condescending

Listening not Lecturing 

Finger-beckoning not Finger-wagging

Pulling not Pushing

Patient, not my usual self.

Given that Blacks, Latinos and women voted more heavily for Trump in 2024 than they did for Biden in 2020, and that White men voted more for Harris than they did for the Trump in 2020, can it be said that all four demographics voted against their own self-interests?

Only true if you believe it is in White males' best interest to preserve the White patriarchy.

That said, my overall conclusion is that people generally voted for the person who was best going to help them personally and not for the greater good, which would have meant more votes for Democrats.

2024 Election disaster review...and if you act now, you too can win future elections!

 Biden: “Told ya I shouldn’t have dropped out.”

Us: “Told ya you should have dropped out earlier.” 

Some observations about the recent disaster of an election: A political earthquake on a level with (and hopefully not the impact of) the 1980 Presidential election.

And then I’ll give my suggestions of what we Ds need to do better going forward.

Things I probably see a little, or even a lot, differently from what I’m seeing written anywhere else:

1 – They say the Biden administration didn’t pay enough attention to the working class. 

The Biden administration:

-            Tried to increase the minimum wage but was stymied by the Republicans’ filibuster

-            Supported strikes by walking union picket line

-            Created blue-collar jobs with the CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act with major investments in manufacturing, infrastructure, semiconductors, and non-fossil fuels

-            Helped secure union pensions that were underfunded

-            Tried to help low-income folks who were burdened with student loans with outrageous interest rates

-            Supported more vigorous antitrust enforcement to inhibit giant corporations from driving up prices further

-            Supported stronger enforcement of labor laws

-            Fought to crack down on junk fees across industries and ban fees for essential bank services

Doesn’t sound like Biden and Harris "abandoned working class people" to me.

2 -The Dems emphasis on subgroups (I’m not going to call them minorities because that implies race and I am referring to gender issues and gender identities as well) was extremely counter-productive. Those campaign obsessions alienate more people than they bring in. Once we are in power, we can and should focus on helping those communities, but they should not be the focus of our speeches or campaigns. (I’ll write more about this in the suggestions section below.)

3 –More specifically to that point, supporting trans males participating in girls or women’s sports is a losing issue. According to exit polls, the single biggest reason given by swing voters who voted for Trump was that they agreed with the statement that Kamala was "focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues than helping the middle class." Eek! 

4 – We missed the opportunity to tell people that fewer people are now crossing the border than when Trump left office (steps it took them waaay too long to implement) and to tell people that inflation the last 6 months has been less than the last 6 months of the Trump presidency.

5 – Many people are afraid that this election proved that America is not ready or willing to elect a female President and I disagree. I think this proves that the first woman to be President will be a Republican. Or a woman who speaks as infrequently about perceived women-centered issues as Kamala did race-related issues. She will need to make men at least as much a focus of her campaign as women, if not more so, to make men comfortable voting for her.

6 – The Trump campaign constantly focused on the importance of, and support for, men. The Harris campaign never once spoke to that but never missed a chance to emphasize their support for women and women’s issues. It seems clear based on the voting results that a surprising number of women are more comfortable living in a society that emphasizes the old school, traditional roles for men and women. We already know many men feel that way for obvious, if unfortunate, reasons.

So What Now What

Well, not really “So what”, because what just happened will take a long, long time to forget, or at least shake off. (Unfortunately, I think we’ll get over it psychologically faster than the country, and possibly the world, will recover from the negative impacts.) But in the spirit of moving on, and trying to not let this ever, ever happen again, here are the steps I think Dems need to make:

1 - In the disaster, I find one positive: With more subgroups voting for Republicans, I’m desperately hoping it will lead to a complete removal of our party’s obsession with identity politics. I just don’t see the political advantage of any even slight reference to helping any subgroup. Every policy should benefit ALL working class – middle income and low income – people.

 It’s clear that we Dems will support women and gays and trans kids but I’ve heard no mention of men, especially husbands and fathers…and potential fathers-to-be. And heck – boys too. I know – “wah”, right? We’ve had most of the power for the entire history of our civilization. But males die by suicide three to four times more often than do women. Far fewer males are now going to college than women. I’m not saying men have it tougher, but we have issues that need to be spoken to and validated too. Or better, just leave specific reference to either out of the campaigns. No need to pander to anyone based on gender, race or sexual identity.

2 - This would make many of my friends’ heads explode, but abortion is not purely a women’s issue! God bless Michelle Obama for being the first person I’ve heard, public or private, well, besides me, to acknowledge this.

But she didn’t even go far enough. This is particularly an issue for low-income people, both men and women. And if abortion is taken off the table, so to speak, and women are forced to give birth, that will impact both parents for the rest of their lives. Preferably equally, but at minimum, substantially.

3 - Admit that NAFTA was a mistake.  And now we need to show that we will do everything in our power to reverse the impact of that infamous bipartisan trade agreement.

4 - People love lists. Give it to them and don’t be vague.  Use more easily understood charts and graphs to show clearly how our policies increase the deficit at a far slower rate than the Republican plans that benefit the wealthy. Identify the wealthy and corporations as the Republican favorite special interest groups. Charts and graphs show how statistically, so many areas have been better under a Dem Presidency than under Rs: crime, the deficit, the stock market, oil production and especially job creation, manufacturing jobs in particular.

Here, I’ll help.

Democrats will:

1 –Aid and protect you with:

- better access to health care

- job-training

- adult education of any kind, including

    - free classes on job-related computer skills, from spreadsheets to coding

    - free classes at community colleges or job-training-related adult evening classes at your local high school.

2 - Reduce the strangulating power that corporations have over our lives that keep all of us from a better life.

3- Reject corporate welfare (subsidies and tax credits to particular companies and industries unrelated to the common good).

4 - Incentivize corporations to share their profits with their workers.

5 - Cut off the limit on employer contributions to your personal Social Security fund and reinstate the social security tax for earners over $400,000

6 - Put American citizens’ needs ahead of anyone entering our country illegally

7 - Limit the power of investment houses to buy up houses and hold them from the market in order to force an increase in housing sale costs

8 - Pass a law requiring term limits for all federal and state level politicians

9 - Institute age-limits for Supreme Court justices

10 - Nominate justices who will overturn Citizens United reducing the role of money from billionaires in politics

11 - Only involve our military to fight wars that have an impact on our national security

12 – Reduce unnecessary overseas military installations and use the money to strengthen our factory towns

13 – Commit to a full audit of the nation’s drinking water systems and make repairs a top priority, giving everyone access to clean water

14 - Commit to oppose any hate speech against people who have different political opinions from ours. Our fellow American citizens are not the enemy within.

15 - Will do everything we can to keep the government out of your life…unless you actually need or want its help. If the private sector can do it better and for less cost, the government shouldn’t be doing it at all. 

16 –Will give special attention to supporting small businesses, which create more jobs than all the Fortune 500 companies combined. This includes removing burdensome regulations and unnecessary government-imposed requirements.

17 – Will make sure all spending on our national defense is spent efficiently and is only directed toward the most up-to-date weaponry

18 – Make sure our veterans have access to free mental healthcare for life

19 – Give incentives to corporations of any size to provide free onsite childcare

And lastly, never forget to remind people how wonderful they are. The best of what makes America great isn’t based on who we vote for. It’s what we do every day regardless of our party affiliation: getting our kids off to school, shopping, making dinner, going to religious services, volunteering at the food bank, cutting the grass for a sick friend or neighbor regardless of what their voter registration card says, caring for our elderly parents, and yes, maybe even running for public office.  

As Nicholas Kristof wrote, “If Democrats can keep the conversation on minimum wages, child care, unions, jobs, tax increases on the rich and access to health care, they can compete for working-class voters of all complexions. But the first step may be the most difficult: Democrats will have to swallow their pride and show more respect toward working-class voters who just rejected them and elected their nemesis.”

And finally, as James Brown said, “People feel you before they hear you.” I have plenty of people in my life whom I love and respect, who are thoughtful, loving, supportive people…who vote straight Republican, yes, even including for Donald Trump. We need to validate and try to understand their feelings and beliefs, just as we’d ask that they do the same of us. 

Thanks for making it all the way through. Now...what did I get wrong or...right?

Probe this

Not sure if I ever posted a link to this column published in the Daily Local that I wrote back in August of 2021 titled "Probing the complexities of race and racism", but I just came across it, so I thought I'd add it here. 

Hats off to those with hats on!

 Weird article in the Times about why men keep wearing baseball caps, missing the actual reasons. 

Is There Anywhere You Can’t Wear a Baseball Cap?

A reader reflects on the proliferation of baseball caps in men’s fashion. Our critic offers an explanation.

She writes: "As to how all this happened, Noah Johnson, the global style director of GQ, attributes it to a combination of three factors: “a more casual atmosphere, an engaged men’s fashion market and a moment of heightened individuality.” Hats, he said, are the male equivalent of handbags, “an easy entry point at the designer level.”

I don't know if this shows how out of touch the Times and/or this writer is or the extent to which New York City is out of touch with the rest of the country.

Top two reasons I think men continue to wear them:

- receding/vacated hairlines

- men trying to still look like boys

Oddly, I remember the first time I saw a man wearing a random baseball cap as an accessory. It was in Kansas in 1982 on my bike trip. I was eating breakfast in a little diner, sitting in a booth next to a table full of farmers (who'd probably already been up for 3-4 hours), and one of the younger guys was wearing a John Deere hat. Not sure why it stuck with me, or even stood out in the first place, but there ya go.

I'll expect a correction to the article the moment they see this post. Actually, I'll guarantee it, since I know they will never do either.

Funny-ish story. The only time I'd ever seen Josh Shapiro in person was when Sherry and I went to a fundraising dinner at the Desmond in Malvern. At some point, I left the table to go down the hotel hall to use the bathroom. As I went to enter, there were 2 big burly guards standing outside the entrance to the bathroom so I asked if it was okay if I went in and they nodded Yes. So, I went in and the only person in there, standing at the urinal was...Governor Shapiro.

Last night, after the rally, Cheryl had to use the bathroom in the arena (I'll bet you can see where this is going) before we started our long trek back to the car. The line to get in went down a hallway where there were entrances to both the men's and women's bathrooms. Just as she got close to getting in, guess whose small entourage came in behind her. (He was able to go right in because of course it turned out the line was for the women's room and the men's room was a walk right in situation.)

Yeah, I know - TMI, but still, just funny enough, I couldn't resist.

All that aside, I thought his was the best speech of the night, though all three were really great. He sure has a great future. How about a Josh Shapiro - Chrissy Houlahan ticket in 2032?!

Insert Twilight Zone music here

Every once in a while, I look at the blogger.com "stats" page to see how many people are viewing this blog. Let's just say that I have a very hard time believing their numbers. 

No, actually let's just say, I do not believe their numbers.

Tonight it says that 294 people have been here in the last 7 days. And 107 of them live in Sweden. 

So maybe they gather around at dinner and read my posts while they eat their meatballs?  

(A request - PLEASE! If anyone in Sweden actually sees this, please comment below). 

And another 54 have read it in Singapore? And overall they list 8 countries with residents who have viewed it at least once in the last week:

Sweden 100

Singapore 54

United States 13

Hong Kong 12

Germany 3

France 2

United Kingdom 1

Russia 1

Other 108

But there's the kicker. After listing the 8 countries, it then says "Other - 108"! 

Other what?!