Thursday, December 1, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)
Trump, Clinton, Obama and even Sanders are appealing for unity and finding common ground, but the protests against Trump started almost immediately after he won the election. Most agree that had Clinton won, Trump's supporters would have done the same against her. We had a problem no matter who won.
HERE is a TED Talk by Jonathan Haidt about how this election is tearing the nation apart. We listen to a previous TED Talk by Haidt two years ago in our meeting on
Political Asteroids. Things were bad then, but have gotten worse.
Haidt encourages us to empathize with the other side, and you may have the perfect opportunity at your family gatherings over Thanksgiving. For our next meeting, we will discuss any attempts made to follow Haidt's advice, and then we will continue with our discussion on the transition to the Trump presidency.
----------- Update 12/1/16 ---------------------------------------
Here is the other video shown at the meeting
------------ Update 11/20/16 : Here is a commentary of the election by Ken --------------------
What I call the 3 prongs of Republican conservatism (bigots of all kinds, fanatically religious authoritarians, and the selfish rich) were not enough for a Trump victory. He won by adding those who lack the education or skills essential to compete in today's employment world and who foolishly blamed Obama and Democrats for their plight instead of the do-nothing obstructionist Republicans.
States won by Trump that were so close that they could easily have gone for Clinton include:
- Florida 49-48% 29 electoral votes
- Pennsylvania 49-48% 20 electoral votes
- Michigan 48-47% 16 electoral votes
- Wisconsin 48-47% 10 electoral votes
If Clinton had won any two of the above, she would have won the election.
Then there were the non-voters (who were especially important in the above battleground states). These people always get the government they deserve and shouldn't complain after the fact. But it could have been worse.
The 5 closest House races were won by Democrats:
- MN-8 Rick Nolan (incumbent) 50.28%
- MN-1 Tim Walz (incumbent) 50.38%
- CA-7 Ami Bera (incumbent) 50.59%
- NV-3 Jacky Rosen (new) 50.68%
- NH-1 Carol Shea-Porter (back again) 50.76%
The closest Senate race was won by a Democrat, NH Maggie Hassan (new) 50.05% (or just over 1000 votes). The other close Senate races were won by newcomer Catherine Cortez Masto (replacing Harry Reid) in Nevada, Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet in Colorado, and four Republican incumbents in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. If Democrats had won all of these races, they'd have a 52-48 majority(instead of the reverse).
If there's a flood of revulsion against Trump in 2018, Democrats could finally retake the House, but there are only two Senate Republicans (Dean Heller in Nevada and JeffFlake in Arizona) in any kind of danger that year. They won in 2012with 46% and 49% of the vote respectively. But there are five Senate Democrats who won then with less than 52% of the vote. They are JonTester of Montana, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of NorthDakota, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Of these, Baldwin and Brown are the most progressive (and will receive substantial campaign contributions from me). Accidental Senators Donnelly and Heitkamp are the least progressive and, in my view, aren't worthy of support. Then, there is a likely Democratic retiree (Dianne Feinstein, who will be 85, from the safe blue state of California) and a possible Democratic retiree (Ben Cardin of safeDemocratic Maryland, who will be 75). GOP Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, although he'll be 84, is making sounds about running again. Other oldsters in the Democratic ranks are Florida's Bill Nelson (76) and Delaware's Tom Carper (71). Independents who line up with Democrats (Vermont's Bernie Sanders, who'll be 77, and Maine's Angus King, who'll be 74) could conceivably retire in 2018.
By the way, Maine adopted a new ranked-choice voting system that is scheduled to begin in that year. The fact of the matter is that it's aimed at assuring that extreme right-wingers (like Maine's current Governor Paul LePage) never again get elected to high federal or state public office there. In the past, Democrats and Independents have sufficiently split the vote to elect LePage twice.
2020 is the year that Democrats must sweep at state levels if they are to overcome Republican gerrymandering that leads to the kind of House of Representatives we have now.
