Election Stakes

Events of the last 644 days….

With the pace of events, it’s hard to keep track of all that’s happened so far during the Trump administration. This bullet list is a summary of how our country has changed since the inauguration. Please use the comments section to suggest additions to the list.

• The loss of political decency

• Discourse that can best be described as incendiary, crude, divisive, aggressive, misogynistic, racist, and with a fleeting relationship to the truth

• An embrace of white privilege

• The surfacing of white supremacy

• Routine bullying in the political discourse, leading it to spread to the general population, affecting a third of American children

• Anti-intellectualism that disparages science, scientists, and scientific findings

• Violations of the Emoluments clause

• Presidential embrace of autocrats and oligarchs

• Reverse Robin Hood tax reform that is setting the stage for cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid

• New voting restrictions in Georgia, North Dakota, Kansas, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas, Nebraska, Arkansas, Alabama, Wisconsin, and Arizona aimed primarily at making it harder for black and brown people to vote

• Federal courts packed with rightist judges

• Ascendance to the Supreme Court of an unfit, partisan nominee railroaded through the confirmation process

• Trade wars

• Families separated at the southern border and children retained in makeshift cages

• Repeated attempts to repeal or undo the ACA

• Dramatic reduction in environmental protections through disbanding the panel to review air pollution; reversing regulations for carbon emissions from coal-based power plants; expanding drilling for gas and oil in Alaska and along the coastline; increasing carbon emissions by almost 15 million metric tons; relaxing the requirement that oil and gas companies monitor and reduce the release of methane gas; weakening fuel economy rules; rolling back car emission standards; censoring to delete or restrict mention of climate change on the EPA website; eliminating climate change from the list of national security threats

• Proposal to change the legal definition of sex to “a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth,” bringing the administration into conflict with the medical community, the transgender community, and concepts of equal protection

• Acts of violence against political leaders and innocent individuals

• Forty percent increase in immigration arrests

These changes go to the heart of who we are as a nation. Some of them are easily reversed by Executive Order. Others will take years — perhaps decades — to reverse, if it’s possible at all.

Make no mistake. This election and the next are contests for the soul of America.

__________________

Days families have been separated at the border as of 10/26/18: 190