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Reconciliation

11/23/2020

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By Richard Korts

Richard Korts is  a software developer & IT manager who develops specialized internet apps. He resides in Escondido, California.
Reconciliation
​
​Many years ago, President Abraham Lincoln, in a famous address, said “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” We are in that same situation now.

More than 75 million Americans voted for the Biden / Harris ticket in the 2020 election. But more than 71 million voted for Trump. So about 48.6 % of those who voted
were for Trump and about 51.4% were for Biden. We cannot just sweep that 48.6% under the rug.

The Republicans actually gained in the House and unless a miracle occurs in the two runoffs of the Georgia Senate races, the Republicans will still control the Senate. If both Dems in Georgia win and the two independents currently in the Senate side with them as expected, the Senate will have a 50-50 split.

I believe we as Americans must find a way to overcome the extreme polarization in this country and it needs to start NOW. Not just with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and other leading Democrats, but at the so-called grass roots level. But how do we do that?

I think it was in a broadcast of 60 Minutes in 2017 that Oprah Winfrey did a piece in which she led a discussion with 16 Michigan voters, eight of whom had voted for Trump and eight, for Hillary. Participants were able to avoid confrontation or anger by LISTENING to what the other side said, with no interruptions and no rebuttals, just listening. 
​
We need to try doing something like that now. We need to reach across the partisan divide and listen to each other. I’d like to suggest we try it. Try assembling small groups of people on both sides of the divide and listen to each other. What have we got to lose? 
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To the Creators of the Lincoln Project

11/8/2020

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By Bruce Thompson

Bruce is an adjunct instructor of philosophy at Palomar College. His Ph.D. is from the University of Colorado. His major emphasis in philosophy is critical thinking, formal logic, and American pragmatism. He is also a poet, violinist, and raiser of back yard chickens.
To the Creators of the Lincoln Project
An open letter to Steve Schmidt, Nicole Wallace, and to the many other Republicans and former Republicans whose opinions have served to educate and inform me:
 
It has been a pleasure. When the Lincoln Project was formed I believe I was among the first liberals to email you to ask, “How can I support you? Where can I send money?” I have since given more money to the Lincoln Project than I gave even to Democratic candidates that I supported. It was a small amount (because I am only an adjunct college teacher), but every dollar of it was heartfelt and given without regret.
 
I believe our destinies must now part ways. You are called to do important work, and to go where I cannot follow. You must rebuild an honest, patriotic, and sincere conservative party. I am a liberal, and that is not my work. I will work to see a liberal agenda enacted: universal public health care, strict environmental regulations, and high taxes on the rich to fund programs that benefit the poor. I do not expect you to follow me in those efforts.
 
But I wish you well. The country needs an opposition party. Sometimes that opposition will be the conservative party; sometimes it will be we liberals. But we cannot thrive without each other. The party of Trump was so venal, so corrupt, so out of alignment with the values that all Americans share, that honest Republicans could no longer be a part of it. It had to end. But I have seen this before: given enough years in power, Democrats are capable of becoming just as corrupt and authoritarian as Republicans have shown themselves to be. When that time comes (and may it be many years away) we will need each other again.
 
I don’t believe the “Republican” party can be saved. It is now too much the “party of Trump,” devoted to tinfoil-hat conspiracies, racism, misogyny, as well as the denial of science, facts, reality, and basic logic. We need a new conservative party. Perhaps it could be called “The Party of Lincoln,” or, simply, “The Lincoln Party.” Made up of centrist Democrats and disaffected former Republicans, such a party could quickly become a formidable force in American politics.
 
But forming such a party is not my job. It is yours, and I sincerely wish you the best of luck with it. I will be your opposition, but I will never question your victories, nor celebrate your defeats.
 
Bruce Thompson

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Adieu ...

11/8/2020

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By Jerry Franklin

Jerry is a retired high-school Government teacher residing in San Diego County, California. A major goal of his teaching was 
"to install in students a special inner ear capable of detecting either nonsense or unsubstantiated claims."
Adieu ...
In the immediate aftermath of most presidential elections we generally see either disappointment or satisfaction.  Today we see relief and joy! Watching the TV coverage reminds me of nothing so much as the end of World War II. There is a gigantic collective WHEW ! 
 
Trump is headed for the dust-bin of history and will join James Buchannan, Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson and Warren Harding in the basement apartments of ex-presidents.  With the exception of Johnson, most of those who live in that neighborhood were simply feckless. Trump, like Johnson, did actual harm to the government he was elected to lead. Besides being crude and boorish, his decisions (and his non-decisions), policies, lies and meddling misuse served to weaken the structure of most of the governmental agencies and international “understandings” he was nominally charged to support. His ignorance of both government and history buttressed his indifference to any coherent foreign policy. 
 
He did not read. According to many who worked in the White House, he had the attention span of a four-year old. He treated most of the agencies and departments of government with either scorn or indifference, allowing them to flounder without leadership or replacements in the face of departures. Chiefly, his decisions began and ended with one question: what will this do for me? If the matter did not affect him personally, he ignored it. 

Biden’s first task will be to aggressively focus on the pandemic currently holding the nation in its grip. Beyond that, his job will consist largely in the restitution of good order to the agency of government. It is reassuring to know the country will once again have a leader who accepts the judgment and the integrity of science as a guiding source in the establishment of policy. 

Further, we may also look forward in the coming year to a restoration of close relationships with our traditional friends and allies in the world. We will quickly rejoin the Paris Climate Accords, and I would not be surprised if we also rejoined the treaty established with Iran with such difficulty. 

Hopefully, with our allies, we will be able to overlook as a temporary aberration the last four years. It is likely this will be the case as it is in everyone’s best interest to do so. Donald Trump was a source of intemperate curiosity to the world just as he was to Americans. The demise of Trump will be of regret only to those countries in the grasp of undemocratic authoritarian regimes, those Americans whose politics begin and end with the words “profit” and “loss” and other Americans whose cultural sympathies are complemented most readily by those of the Silver Shirts of the 1930’s and the Know-Nothing Party of the 1800’s. 
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