The Pursuit of Happiness

The Republican Party has been screwing poor people and working people every day since 1929. But this year, working folks turned out in significant numbers to vote up and down ballot to support the GOP. They didn’t drain the swamp, they gave the ‘gators second helpings. What’s going on?

Well, let me annoy you again: the Democratic Party has, for nearly 30 years now, passed legislation – from dismantling an effective social welfare system to encouraging corporations to swap employee pension plans for 401K plans – that has left many workers without savings, over-leveraged, and with no clear pathway to economic security. These are only two of its myriad direct policy hits on poor and working class Americans. Bottom line, the deafness of party elites toward progressive policy analysts has cost it the White House and the Supreme Court.

Similarly, Democrats failed to resolve its on-going Tammy Wynette problem with Bill Clinton. Behaving like a pig is either okay or not okay: Democrats, make up your minds. If it’s okay, get off Trump’s back for the same if less nuanced predation of women that Bill more suavely routinized. Evangelical churches will learn that their schizoid morality about Trump has cost them a generation of new members. Democrats should take note.

To Trump voters – yes, you – you now own Trump and the Republican Party and everything that it does. Thanks to you, Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress. Blaming the black guy in the White House for all your problems won’t cut it anymore. Shouting Benghazi! and E-mails! over and over again won’t change a thing. Stop it. You got what you wanted. You are responsible for what happens next. And oh, please have your guy pay some taxes, okay? It’s all on you now.

Liberals, take Mrs. Obama’s advice and “go high” when they go low. Although it has spoken in Pig Latin, democracy has spoken, and We the People must listen. Have a glass of wine, read a little Annie Proulx, listen to Leonard Cohen, and send money to the Southern Poverty Law Center and Planned Parenthood. Hemingway defined courage as “grace under pressure.” Be graceful, and have courage.