I Just Can't Today

Yesterday was Redemption Day or some dipshittery from the White House, and a bunch of reciprocal tariffs went into affect. The graph above is Restoration Hardware's stock price ($RH), but it was everyone. Almost $2 trillion evaporated yesterday, for no reason at all, except the man with tiny hands wants to watch people grovel.

Jeff Cook, a truly amazing and humane man, suggested yesterday that "Strange but the tariffs may be the only thing that could save our country..." And, I hope, but I am unsure. Anyway, if you're on Threads, follow Jeff (his username is "jeffcook"). But, I digress...

I read, just after the election, that large parts of the nation, especially, the MAGA base and their legislators - and their Orange Messiah - are behaving like drug addicts on a bender, and other large parts of the nation - the Democrats - are behaving like co-dependent parents, shielding their addicts from the consequences of their behavior. I think it's a pretty good metaphor, though my father might tell me it's a simile.

That article - I think it was James Carville in The Atlantic, but I can't find it - echoes this piece in the Chicago Sun-Times, and while I like and make my living with tech gadgets, and I like giving my daughter the things she wants in addition to the things she needs, a big part of me is watching the way the Bronzed Felon sets fire to everything in a fit of... I dunno... rage, with rapt attention, thinking "fuck around and find out, you dipshits."

And they are going to find out. 45/7, however, is going to blame Biden or Obama or Clinton for this national suicide attempt, and the people on both sides of the aisle are going to retreat into their dopamine-addicted doom scrolling, with the Internet telling them who to blame. The Internet won't blame the people who deserve it, though.

Obviously, a lot of people who can ill-afford to find out fucked around and voted for Trump for one reason or other. Some bought his lies. Some didn't believe Democrats when they told them what would happen. Some were racist. Some were sexist. They deserve some blame, but we need to help them understand the mistake. We need to explain that while we might disagree with conservative policies, what His Majestic Combover is doing is profoundly progressive, just in insane directions. We need to encourage them to reject the lies and open their eyes, and then we need to welcome them back to rational political discourse.

But, we also have to look at ourselves. in this story, we shoulder more blame than MAGA does. We have Trump, not because he over-performed his vote totals after losing to Biden, but because ~9 million Biden-year voters didn't vote. We have Gabe Evans and Ryan Gonzalez because we didn't vote, and we didn't do the work - for 20 years - to make a district that a Democrat has held since 2004 a reliably liberal seat. That's a generation, and the only outreach we did is the Get Out The Vote work in the fall before even years, and maybe an occasional town hall. We haven't organized in precincts. Hell, my precinct doesn't even have a committee-person.

I remember Ray Peterson encouraging us to find 50 votes per precinct as a way to turn Weld County blue. in 2003. And Angie Paccone telling us at lunch at Golden Corral that if we could engage the non-voting people like us in HD-50, that we could turn the tide of the County, and (then) CD-4. That was in 2007. But, have we found those 50 votes? Jim Riesberg tried. Dave Young tried. Mary Young tried. And the Party and the democrats (little-d) watched and hoped.

And then, the outgoing chair of the Party told a parable at this spring's reorganization meeting that distills to "we can't make change, but we can feel good in the fire, while we wait for someone to save us."

We are part of the problem, as much as nitwits voting for their own ruin are. We are the "good men looking on and doing nothing" while evil triumphs. Pardon the sexism, I like the Mill quotation.

So, for the love of all that made America great, stop hoping to be saved. Stop hoping that someone with power will stop these madmen.

Do something tomorrow. And the next day. And the next day after than.

What Can You Do?

The self-serving plug here is that I've grown tired of waiting for the local party to build a community of liberals in this county. That's why I started this. We need to put in the work to identify those of us who want to make a better world. We need to connect with each other. We need to engage each other. We need this work at the macro-level, with organizations like the Democratic Party, Indivisible, Move On, etc. But we need to do it within precincts in Weld County. We need to be listening and sympathizing with our neighbors. We need to be having conversations about the imperfect pictures of their news media (and ours), and we need to be making the ground fertile for a candidates running across our homes. And, we need to call them on their bullshit, too.

Momentum Colorado is trying to do this. But, we cannot if you don't support us. Take a minute and imagine what it would look like if a non-candidate committee was knocking doors and building bridges with neighborly concern, identifying and encouraging votes, bringing them to our side, a year before a hypothetical candidate started their campaign. How much impact could we have, hosting house parties to pay for polling to understand our neighbors concerns? Could we have impact on our communities if we supported and nurtured independent local journalism?

None of that is free, and we need your help. Please help.

What Else Can You Do?

I'm working on this, but for sure, you can go make sure you're seen at tomorrow's protest at the courthouse downtown.

10 am - 4pm

Weld County Courthouse

901 9th Avenue

Greeley, CO 80631

This is sponsored by a ton of organizations, and you can learn more here. But, go brave the weather, find your pussy-hat or something else, and go make sure even the Greeley Tribune sees you there.

Stop by Spotlight Cafe (under the Moxi) for a drink. Drop into Luna's for some lunch or a postgame drink, or the Kress. Those places are owned by great people who care about the community. Personally, I'd avoid 477, The Penalty Box, Jager, and Gentry's for anecdotal right-wing reasons.

You might also support The Greeley Gadfly for some great journalism in Weld County.