Trump’s Blue Collar Posturing

Alfred Lubrano’s father was a bricklayer in Brooklyn. As an adult, Lubrano became a newsman and author. In his book, Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams (John Wiley & Sons, 2004), Lubrano comments that in the blue collar world, “… there was no such thing as an unexpressed thought.” In the blue-collar world, it’s common to call each other names, to use strongly disparaging language, to describe ideas one dislikes as stupid or idiotic. There are three acceptable responses – suck it up, throw insults back or a punch in the nose. What is not acceptable is weakness. One acts; one does not complain.

It’s clear that much of the blue-collar world recognizes that behavior in Donald Trump and it makes them feel that they are on familiar ground, as if Trump is one of them. Trump has insulted virtually everyone – women, gays, Muslims, the press – and there’s nothing mild about his language. To a blue-collar family, he calls it like he sees it, perhaps because there is no apparent filter in his language, or even any delay. So it sounds like honesty. His language certainly does not convey any sense of sober second thought. He just comes out with stuff or seems to. And that combination of unfiltered strong language seems very comfortable in the blue-collar world.

So it seems very surprising to realize that Donald is also a wimp. Listen to him objecting to criticism: “no politician in history — and I say this with great surety — has been treated worse or more unfairly.” Interesting, that no politician, from Julius Ceaser to Abe Lincoln or John F. Kennedy, all of whom were assassinated, were treated worse, or from Andrew Johnson to Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton, all of whom faced impeachment were not treated worse. But what is more interesting, is that Donald Trump is a wimp. Poor Donald. He has been criticized. People disagree with him. The other party wants to defeat him at the next election. Nobody else has been treated so badly. And Donald wants us to feel bad for him. He wants to be a victim.

In the white collar world, where it is expected that one behave tactfully, speak accurately and show mutual respect, politics feels very rough and tumble. One has to handle criticism that would never be uttered in office politics. One’s statements are constantly twisted and taken out of context. A single procedural vote becomes a proxy for a carefully thought out policy and the bargaining that is part and parcel of the legislative process. But politicians rarely complain about how badly they are being treated – except Donald Trump. “No politician … has been treated worse or more unfairly.” Wow. Joe McCarthy kept charging the Truman Administration with disloyalty, but Donald has been treated worse. Reagan had to deal with charges of delaying the return of the hostages and hearings about his deal with Iran to fund the Contras in Nicaragua in order to get around a congressional ban. But Donald has been treated worse. Bill Clinton had to deal with a lengthy investigation of a clearly consensual sexual act and then an impeachment trial that was the result of a dismissed lawsuit brought against him so that he could be forced to answer wide-ranging questions. But Donald has been treated worse.

Poor Donald. May he find some place much more private than the White House to lick his wounds.

— This commentary was broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, May 23, 2017.

Justice Kennedy has added some suspense regarding the future of gerrymandering, and therefore the future of Republican domination of state and federal legislatures. For my discussion on The Hill.com, click on Will the Supreme Court Draw the Line on Gerrymandering.

What’s to blame for our divided nation? The cause can also be the cure

Woops! Because the original post was illegible and the link broken, I’m reposting this link to my description of the law’s contribution the polarization of America. Here, I hope, is a working link :

“What’s to blame for our divided nation? The cause can also be the cure” [click here] which appeared on TheHill.com. Enjoy.

Freedom for the Boss; Drudgery for the Rest of Us

I keep looking for ways to talk with supporters of the Administration. President Carter started the deregulation frenzy. That has become half of the Republican cut-and-deregulate refrain ever since, consistently repeated by the current White House and the Republicans in Congress. I’d like to focus on the things that will affect those of us who are, financially speaking, ordinary, middle-class Americans.

Here are changes the Administration and congressional Republicans are considering that affect working conditions:

• The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs has been postponing and considering cutting down a Labor Department rule that limits “workers’ exposure [to] toxic material, which can cause a deadly lung disease.”
• The same White House Office is also “considering a proposal to roll back protections for workers in construction and shipbuilding.”
  • Those rules allow our employers to save cash by risking our health.

• “The Working Families Flexibility Act … would give employees a choice between taking time off or being paid time-and-a-half when they work more than 40 hours in a week.”
• Either way, Republicans oppose changing overtime rules to raise eligibility for overtime above the current $23,660 per year.
  • Those rules allow our employers to save cash by shortchanging us.

Here are some that affect the health of financially ordinary Americans:

• The Administraton has already taken steps to “roll back healthy school lunch standards”
• The new head of the FDA “has invested in or consulted for dozens of healthcare companies” which suggests that the Food and Drug Administration won’t be much help in preventing unnecessary complications and expenses.
• The House health care bill would eliminate Obamacare requirements that insurance plans cover prescriptions drugs and mental healthcare. Like all insurance, drug and mental health care coverage are intended to protect people from unplanned changes in the costs of survival.
• Senate Republicans narrowly lost an effort to roll back a regulation that “limit[s] methane emissions from oil and natural gas drilling.” Methane is even more damaging to the climate than carbon.
  • Those rules risk our health for the sake of other people’s profits.

On savings for retirement:

• “Trump’s Labor Department delayed the so-called fiduciary rule, ordering financial advisers to act in … [your] best interest[s] … [if you] are saving for retirement.”
• The CHOICE Act would allow the banks that brought us the crash of 2008 to opt out of regulations adopted after the crash and intended to prevent another. And the bill renames the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and “reduces its power to enforce pre-existing consumer protection laws.”
  • Those rules risk our financial security for the sake of other people’s profits.

Meanwhile, Republicans on the Supreme Court show little respect for working men and women.

• With Breyer’s help they have blessed “Professional debt collectors … [who] built a business out of buying stale debt, filing claims in bankruptcy proceedings to collect it, and hoping that no one notices that the debt is too old to be enforced by the courts.”
• The Court continues to apply a 1925 statute intended for interstate business transactions to consumer contracts and the Court bars state regulation entirely.

What Republicans continue to give us is freedom for the boss and drudgery for the rest of us. As the old folk song has it, “same song, second verse, could get better but it’s gonna get worse.”

— This commentary was broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, May 16, 2017.

Should We Just “Get Over it”?

Trump’s supporters claim liberals should “get over it.” Trump was elected so we should “get over it.” Really? What should we “get over”? We should certainly “get over” losing a popularity contest – a high school election or selection of a beauty queen. But getting over real damage is shallow and heartless. It may be our privilege to “get over” our own losses, but we don’t have the moral privilege of “getting over” impending death, damage and destruction to others that we could have stopped?

Trump’s opposition to environmental rules will poison the air and water. Should we get over it before or after people sicken and die? Before or after children are poisoned, injured or permanently damaged?

Trump’s abandonment of green power and his promotion of fossil fuels and fracking will boil our world, flood our coasts, smash our homes with violent storms, unleash new infections on us, and parch our lands and lips with drought. Should we get over it or try to prevent it? Should we celebrate while we’re spared or should we cry for family, friends, and neighbors?

Vive la France! But Trump’s attack on European unity emboldens the world’s dictators and masks his own desire to join them. Should we celebrate unraveling the European union that put a stop to the most deadly wars in the earth’s history and nearly destroyed our closest allies? Or should we try to keep it strong?

Trump’s attacks on regulation threaten to crush the vulnerable. Should we celebrate their misfortune? Trump removed brokers’ obligations to protect their clients’ interests. Shall we thank him for encouraging fraud? For trumping decency.

Perhaps we can get over our own losses, but should we “get over” the consequences to other hard-working and decent people all over the country? Should we get over the decency in our own hearts? Is it weakness to care about others? Or are we strong enough to care?

Trump keeps talking about making the country great again, while selling it out and most of it’s people for the selfishness of a few. Should we reward him for it?

What should we respect in ourselves and each other? That our so-called “Second Amendment rights” threaten others’ lives whenever anyone loses their tempers, becomes frustrated or jumps to conclusions? Are we on the way to becoming a nation of barroom brawlers congratulating whoever is strong or fast enough to kill everyone else? Is that the great new America?

Trump has called off investigations into police killings. Should we respect people we call “lawmen” who are so scared of a man putting his key in his door that they have to shoot him instantly? Do America’s “bravest” shoot men in the back, on the ground or with their hands up? Or is cowardice the new bravery? Is Trump encouraging chaos so that he can step in with dictatorial powers claiming that it’s necessary for our own safety to shoot men in the back?

There is nothing in the White House to get over. There is everything to stop, control, limit, prevent. The imposter-president is a threat to meet, not a bet to get over.

Trumpistas have saddled us all with a doozy. Let them “get over it.”

— This commentary was broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, May 9, 2017.

What’s to blame for our divided nation? The cause can also be the cure

My views of the legal contribution to American polarization and what can be done about it have now come out as

“What’s to blame for our divided nation? The cause can also be the cure” [click here] on TheHill.com. Enjoy.

Organize to Vote

All of those who took part in recent demonstrations – the women’s marches, Black Lives Matter and others aimed at protecting civil liberties, immigrants, the vulnerable and the less advantaged – we are not a minority.

But demonstrations aren’t enough. This country is ruled by ballots. Protests matter when ballots threaten. Nonvoters are routinely discounted. So the next step is to organize to vote.

That’s where demonstrations become a major opportunity. Those who marched can be helped to register or they can help others register and vote.

Marchers need to be asked: whether they are registered to vote; whether they are registered at their current address; whether they are registered to vote in the primaries; whether they have been getting to the polls and voting; and whether they know others, in this or any other state, who need help or encouragement to register and vote. Would you get registration forms for others?

Demonstrations can lead to votes in other ways.

Demonstrate at the Board of Elections to make a difference by showing we want to vote, we’re signing up to vote, we’re ready to vote. Let’s show up where it matters.

Demonstrate outside the 100 foot or other state defined zone where electioneering is prohibited, showing and sharing the fact and the joy that we voted, and you voted, and we performed our civic duty for each other and we did it together and we’re celebrating – those are demonstrations that can make a difference.

What’s crucial about the demonstrations we all took part in doesn’t end with the message. That’s the beginning; that’s what got us fired up and brought us together; that’s what made clear our commitment and our shared sense that acting as a people is empowering. But what matters is converting that commitment – the joy, the fire in our hearts and the messages we marched for – into votes.

Democracy depends on what happens at the voting machines. It’s run by votes and the threat of votes. Even campaign contributions are ultimately about votes. Voices are most powerful when they lead to votes. If we vote, we count. If we stay home in disdain because we’re not satisfied, we’re politically irrelevant. Vote. Count. Take back our democracy – for us, for all of us, for the people. Don’t let the moneychangers and the slick talkers take the forms of democracy for their own benefit. We vote; we count; and we celebrate.

Why look at that now? Because the organization that makes voting happen, the organization that makes the voices of the people matter at the polls and on the ballots, all that organization starts way in advance. Because every state has its deadlines. And back before the deadlines, organization is not instantaneous. Let’s create our political snowball. Let’s terrify the politicians with our strength so that they’ll actually have to behave democratically, according to the rules, principles and methods of democratic government.

Wouldn’t that be refreshing!

— This commentary was broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, May 2, 2017.