Doonesbury captures another moment in our national consciousness: the one where President Bannon won’t let us live the rest of our lives in peace…
Thanks to Doonesbury and The Washington Post
Category Effective Communication
Follow the Misleader
In many parliamentary systems of government there is an official “shadow government” composed of members of the parties not currently in power who are assigned to keep a close eye on the government ministries: it’s done to maintain a watch on the activities of their political opponents and to keep the “outs” ready to assume official roles in case they win the next election. The United States hasn’t had anything quite so formal.
Today I ran across the informal and unofficial shadow government in the U.S. of A., and so can you: @ShadowingTrump is the Twitter home of the Shadow Cabinet that has launched to try to keep America accurately informed in the face of the disinformation, shall we call it, that’s been coming out of the Trump White House and Trump Twitter account, etc.
The first tweet is a fun kickoff…
https://twitter.com/ShadowingTrump/status/835944419656413188
…the second explains what this group is trying to do…
https://twitter.com/ShadowingTrump/status/836214219397824513
…and the third announces who they are:
https://twitter.com/ShadowingTrump/status/836214467193094145
This part answered my first question about them: this is not going to be a home for anonymous sniping at the new president and his government, but one for considered rebuttals from some pretty prestigious folks (assuming you’re into reasonable and verifiable information and opinion, that sort of thing).
There are already a half a dozen posts from members of the advisory board that can give you a taste of what might be found here in the future. I’m going to follow it, and hope it will prove to be worth my time and theirs.
President Bannon
Despite the serious nature of some (most?) of the actions taken by our new president in his first week in office, I’ve been pleased to see that everyone hasn’t lost their sense of humor, and of the absurd. I particularly liked this photo, reportedly from an anti-Trump protest in Cardiff, Wales, because of the sign on the far right:
What would move a group of Welsh women to make signs to protest an action of the American president? Well, now we know the answer to that one.
Another I very much enjoyed was this short, simple statement to remind us all just who, perhaps, is really behind what’s coming out of the White House (be sure to check out some of the comments on this one):
https://twitter.com/openculture/status/825842283685695488
And remembering what we’ve learned about the maturity and patience of our narcissistic chief executive, I had an idea:
https://twitter.com/patryan12/status/825855230545899520
So whaddya say–how about let’s see if enough social media references to “President Bannon” will have an impact. If you agree that this social science experiment is worth a little effort, try to work the phrase in as much as possible when you post and let’s see if it catches on. This one here should be considered an instant classic of the genre:
"I have a dream"
This was my post in August 2013 on the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, including a YouTube clip of the entire speech; I repost it to honor the holiday is his memory and to remind us of his call to a virtuous future…I think some of us could use the reminder about now.
Fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., took the podium at the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; it is still one of the most profound and moving speeches in the history of American rhetoric, on top of what it meant to the civil rights movement. King did not dream that his children would one day be able to watch the speech on their desktop computer or smartphone, but they can, and so can we.
The whole thing is remarkable, including the peek you get at what a slice of America looked like in the early 1960s; go to the 12:00 mark to catch the dreams, and then on through to the end for the ad-libbed “let freedom ring”s and the promise of ultimate freedom which still stir my emotions.
“…let freedom ring. And when this happens…and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Out of the coverage leading up to this week’s anniversary I’ve pulled a couple of gems: from Brian Naylor at NPR, a look at the little segregated southern town that was Washington, D.C. 50 years ago; and from Robert G. Kaiser in The Washington Post, a reporter’s remembrance of the event he covered 50 years earlier, with a quite remarkable admission—that the local paper blew it when it all but overlooked King’s speech in its coverage of the march!
The Airing of Grievances, 2016 election edition
When Thomas Jefferson was noodling around for a device to explain the British colonies’ reasons for declaring independence, he settled on the direct approach: yes, he got all fancy with his language, but that was scattered around a simple recitation of “the causes which impel them to the separation.” He went with the straightforward airing of grievances, a tactic later employed by the founders of Festivus and now by a prominent Republican political pro in making the case against Donald Trump.
Mark Salter’s essay in Real Clear Politics is the piece I wish I had written: a string of declarative sentences which plainly and damningly gather the indictment against the man who is about to win the Republican Party’s nomination for president. Read the whole thing, and then try to excuse your way to voting for Trump…especially you, Paul Ryan and other Republican leaders who condemn Trump’s actions but still profess support for the nominee of your party. What kind of party unites behind this:
He’s an ignoramus whose knowledge of public issues is more superficial than an occasional newspaper reader’s. He casts his intellectual laziness as a choice, a deliberate avoidance of expert views that might contaminate his ill-informed opinions.
(snip)
He’s a charlatan, preposterously posing as a business genius while cheating investors, subcontractors, and his own customers. He’s rich because his father left him a great deal of money. He couldn’t turn a profit with a casino, for crying out loud.
(snip)
He possesses the emotional maturity of a 6-year-old. He can’t let go of any slight, real or imagined, from taunts about the length of his fingers to skepticism about his portfolio.
(snip)
He doesn’t appeal to a single honorable quality or instinct in our society. He exploits fear and incites hatred. They are the emotions that impel him. He wants us to make our way in the world as he does: selfish, insecure, angry, scapegoating, small.
There’s more; please read it. On issues both foreign and domestic, on the economy and national defense, from personal to professional, Salter reminds us of things we should consider when choosing a candidate to support and to vote for, and notes how Trump fails to meet the standard.
None of this makes it easier to vote for the deeply flawed candidate of the Democrats, but Salter notes of Hillary Clinton “she’s not ignorant or hateful or a nut. She acts like an adult, and understands the responsibilities of an American president.” Well, it’s a place to start.
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