Letter Fom Red Country

Women's March January 21, 2016, Coos Bay, Oregon

I’m an Oregonian who had just moved from the Portland Area back to the rural County in which I was born just in time to see trump receive nearly 60% of the vote in that County in the 2016 presidential election. Every Democrat, save one, was trounced.

I awoke the next morning feeling as if I’d been fist run over by railroad train and then backed over by the same train.

Once my body and mind stopped aching, I thought, “well, if I’m down here in the heart of Trump country, I might as well take a stand here.” And it turns out that many other people have had the same feelings and thoughts as I’ve had. It has been an energizing moment. We realize that we in reddest Oregon have a key role to play.

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo is right about this If stopping Trump happens,

“it will happen because of grassroots organizing in red states and the red parts of blue states. The cities are already overwhelmingly Democratic. The fight is really outside the major cities. Nor is it just geographical. Trump's power will be broken most on issues like health care - some mix of Medicare, Obamacare repeal, etc. These are issues that cut across the urban/rural divide.

So, a few questions. Who is starting to crisscross the country now recruiting candidates? Are they candidates that can win marginal districts? What people or groups in the political realm are creating databases of people likely to be affected by Obamacare repeal for political mobilization? What is the message?”

The national upsurge against Trump we’re now seeing in our cities is great and necessary to stopping Trump, but it will not be enough without a rising of progressive voices in these areas where we have lately been subdued. We must make ourselves known where we’ve been unknown, visible where invisible.  We in the red counties of Oregon and in all the red counties across this country can be the crucial fighters in this battle. It will be won or lost here.

Get a hold of Yourselves

It seems that some of us have been so psychologically traumatized by Trump’s election that we are letting pessimism and reverse magical thinking get the better of us.

We ascribe super human powers to Trump.

For example, I’ve read more than a few commenters assert, completely unironically, something to the effect that “if the economy is good under trump, then that will be good for Trump, but if the economy is bad under Trump, why then that will play into his hands, too.

So, no matter what happens, good, bad or indifferent, if it rains or shines, freezes or burns, it’s all just a part of Trump’s unstoppably brilliant, grand master plan!

We need to snap out of this. No American president has ever not been blamed for the economy tanking under his watch, and Trump isn’t going to miraculously be the exception to that rule. And that goes for all the other scenarios of endlessly unfolding doom we can think of in our darkest hours. It’s O.K. to not be complacent. It’s definitely smart to avoid underestimating somebody like Trump. But, Jesus. Get a hold of yourselves, and let’s fight.

Easier to Oppose Than to Defend

Of course, being in the opposition is bad, because we're basically powerless. But in some ways it almost feels like a better life. Admit it. it's all mixed together; more fear, more terror, more anxiety, more sleeplessness. But there's also more righteous anger, more intensity, more camaraderie, more humor, more intensity, more joy of battle.

The Frog That Won't Change Into a Prince

It should be pretty clear by now that a great American is not going to suddenly come bursting out of Trump’s body like a stripper from a birthday cake and reveal himself to the world as a great statesman rather than the vacuum cleaner salesman he appears to be. This is what’s it’s going to be from now on out. Just a steady trickle of scandal and sleaze and bullshit. Sometimes a steady stream, but mostly a trickle.

Bucking the Tide

Every single legislative session, Susan Collins is touted as an independent minded republican who will "buck to tide." She always makes noises, too, like she has qualms about what they are doing. And yet every single legislative session she votes straight down the line with Republicans, no matter how vicious, hard core and reactionary that legislation is. And in the next legislative session, the media will once again tout her as an independent moderate Republican who will "buck the Republican tide." I mean, it just makes you want to crawl toward the bathroom and start vomiting.

Hear We Are Now. Entertain Us.

As the GOP stands poised knife in hand over the ACA and hesitating because they are unsure what the political consequences might be should they go through with the deed, now might be a good time to take stock of how we got here. 

Back before there was even an Affordable Care Act, insurance premiums were skyrocketing, and had been for years. Hardly a few months would pass before employers would have to change insurance companies because the rates and deductibles were always fluctuating upwards.

Everybody, including Republicans, acknowledged the need for Health Care reform. A Republican think tank came up with a plan. The Republican Governor Mitt Romney instituted the plan in Massachusetts.  President Obama introduced this same plan to congress in large part because he felt that the Republicans would work with him on passing their own plan. At that moment, the Republicans could have said, “Ok, let’s do this. But we want to be involved so that the final product comports as closely as possible with our conservative values.” Instead, they chose a path of total obstruction with racially tinged personal attacks on Obama, questioning his citizenship, etc.  

Now they want to repeal the plan, but they don’t have a better plan, either. They just want no plan. Nothing. But they can’t have just nothing now, because to repeal it without replacing it would cause widespread economic problems and would put us right back on the situation we were in before when everybody agreed we needed a plan.  They are trying to cast the blame. But they are the ones to blame, because their attitude has been that if they can’t dictate terms in all things, they will knock over the table. But now they are responsible for the table. So here we are.