Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Post-election world

My head is reeling from all the various links people have sent me and I want to share some quick thoughts-to-myself as I try to process it all:

Staying positive. A lot of negative post-election analysis out there, important for understanding perhaps; also a lot of positive organizing/momentum to focus energy on.

Staying connected. For me one smile, hug, or phone call is worth a million internet articles.

Remembering human goodness. A lot of good and suffering people on both sides cast their ballots in hopes of a better future, and we are all in this together.

Remembering the big picture. I keep coming back to “350”…we’ve surged past 350ppm CO2 and only concerted action will slow climate change, and climate change will exacerbate the fate of the less fortunate in a world where CEOs currently make (on average for Fortune-500 Co’s) 350x the salaries of their lowest-paid workers.

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Here are some links I’ve found helpful:

“House of Straw: How Washington’s tax system undermines our economic future—and how to fix it”—a very readable primer on WA’s highly regressive tax structure (worst in the 50 States!)
http://www.eoionline.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/tax-reform/house-of-straw-wa-tax-structure-oct12-web.pdf

The L-curve: a graphic representation of wealth distribution in the US:
http://www.lcurve.org,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woIkIph5xcU

The Spiritual Grandmothers on a helpful framework in which to place our president-elect
https://www.facebook.com/mare.cromwell/posts/10155097776934796

An article I found OUTSTANDING, from a friend, understanding the reasons why many Trump voters cast their ballot for him:
http://www.nationofchange.org/2016/11/22/we-are-all-deplorables/
(and the first link therein explains the “deplorables” comment Clinton made…)

And this much, much longer article really gets to the heart of value-based voting (and what we can do)--
http://www.nationofchange.org/2016/11/26/minority-president-polls-failed-majority-can/


Classim.org has some good articles on neoliberalism and its endorsement of a winner/loser world, and a related article (sent to me by the same site) stresses the need for reaching out across ideologic lines:
http://www.classism.org/the-demise-of-neoliberalism/
https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/george-lakey/without-empathy-for-trump-voters-movements-can-t-succeed

Finally, for anyone interested in supporting what I characterize as a “climate-and-how-it-hurts-the-most-vulnerable” group, 350.org, which is very active in the Standing Rock movement, here’s their link:
https://350.org