Moving forward

Donald Trump is rapidly becoming irrelevant, but is grasping for ways to stay relevant.  He lost the election and is focused on keeping his base, saving face. Our best way forward is to relegate him to history by making his rhetoric meaningless.

The people who voted for him are not irrelevant. And those in the Republican party who want to hold on to the base without holding on to him are maneuvering - that's relevant. We need to work to help bring in difficult conversations. We cannot approach everything as right and wrong. We are in a conversation to work for peace.

I feel sorry for some of his supporters. They believed/believe the propaganda and have put their credibility on the line for him, which puts each of them in the situation of having to backpedal when confronted with the reality of his horrendous humanitarian record, with his push for self gratification and the real criminal charges he could face when out of office.

We need to offer these folks a way back to sanity. And while it’s important for people to understand what an atrocity they voted for, it’s our job to educate, not punish, not shame. The only meaningful shame is that which people feel when they come to realization that they pushed for something that was wrong. Not from someone telling them they don’t count. Because they do count, as humans and people. That doesn’t mean I or many of us are not a long way from their set of beliefs. But we have to address these.

For ourselves we need to forgive  - forgiving is not about someone else when that individual believes something, even if we consider it wrong. If you sit down someone who feels they're viewpoint is right and tell them you forgive them, they get incredulous - and they're not looking for forgiveness. And they haven't done wrong. They followed their beliefs. Forgiveness in this case is for you - so you can move to the more productive path of changing what is in your sphere of control and advocacy for those things you cannot do alone). 

Having said that, if an individual holds beliefs that include prejudice of any kind, if they involve subverting someone else's rights, if they involve choices that are harmful to others, they're in the wrong. They don't want forgiveness and don't deserve it. But they do deserve to know how others feel about those choices and the impact of those choices. And that’s not shaming. That’s the only way we grow and change. That’s accountability.  

There will always be a contingent of people that are only interested in themselves.  There will always be a contingent of greed. But the only way we help change is to engage one-on-one. For loved ones or friends this means hard conversations about real things.Sometimes this ends friendship. Sometimes it deepens divides, but sometimes, your humanity helps them see their humanity. Because when you boil it down, most people do not want to wrong others. Sometimes they don’t see that. Sometimes they don’t feel that until it is brought directly to their attention.

It is possible for folks to get caught up in celebrity politics and not even understand policy pushes or understand real root causes as opposed to misdirection. 

For instance, if you are told that immigrants are coming to steal your jobs and you have worked in semi-rural america where there has been an influx of migrant workers, you might believe this. If you were laid off as your company outsourced to a lower cost country, you might believe this.  Because your personal negative experience has been used and pulled together with a root cause that's not accurate. These people did not steal your jobs.

1. Jobs don't belong to anyone in the US. Our lawmakers made sure of it - companies have no obligation to you in a right to work country. These laws were  passed to reduce the power of unions )and collective bargaining in general), to the point where your company doesn't actually owe you the pension they promised or paying you any kind of severance if you are laid off. You literally have to take them to court if you are wrongfully dismissed. 
2. In the case of migrant workers - people have always changed their lives by going to where the work is. It's survival. If companies uphold hiring standards, illegals don't get hired and all things being equal, you compete on a level playing field. If our government passes good legislation for immigration, people are given a path to citizenship and folks that are in this country illegally are given a mechanism to get on the right track (they are people, even though your conservatives have demonized them - they're just looking for a way to eat too).
3. In the case of the outsource, the immigrant did not make the choice to outsource - your company did. Because laws have been manipulated by your federal and state politicians to allow those jobs to easily be subverted.  Constant lobbying by businesses and use of  multi-national organizations (where job movement is not subject to much in terms of law in any country) allow companies to move work to the least expensive alternatives.  There are smart people in every country. We need to improve education systems so we can compete with them and we need laws that mandate employment for our people, for companies that wish to participate in our markets (we have 25% of the wealth of the world).

The immigrants and the outsourcers are only filling a void that's been made to facilitate the cheapening of labor. It's the people that have made the void that are responsible for this. And it is you that is responsible for keeping yourself competitive, when the field is level.

But that understanding doesn't fit into the MAGA narrative, created by the very people that brought you the situation in the first place. They point at foreigners and immigrants and demonize them and tell you they will not only take your job but they are baby eating devils. That they will turn your neighborhoods into gang warzones.

It is our job to expose these narratives. Once you break down these arguments to their reality, where is there to go? What can Donald Trump or any like him offer that removes the issue? They cannot. The way to address these issues are through legislation that makes employment fairer, that helps raise immigrant workers to legal employment and raises education and training for all Americans to help them compete. It provides safety nets for those that cannot or fail (how we learn).  It means we invest in ourselves as a country. 

and at the very same time, we invest in the rest of the world, sharing our technology to relieve famine, hunger, global climate change, disease and social evolution - because we control so much wealth we have a responsibility to help lead and bring the rest of the world with us. Because their success is our success.

Demonization is win/lose and is how Donald and many politicians have captured their voters attention. We need to debunk it.

The path forward must be win/win. No need for losers. We can help our own and help others at the same time. We can help each other - it’s the basis of community. It’s the basis of society and the basis of most religions (organized or otherwise). We need to extend a hand to help people up. We need to lead by example. Peacefully, in the way of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. 

There is no way to peace, peace is the way. (A.J. Muste). I believe this. We cannot force people to collaborate. We can invite them. We can show and we can educate (even when this is hard) - and in that process we also change ourselves and understand the struggles that brought them to their decisions and find creative win/win ways to solve problems.