We must actually deliver on making people's lives better

Back in 1966 when Ronald Reagan was a candidate for governor of California the personal attacks from fellow Republicans were heavy. He started saying what has become the GOP 11th commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Mark Sumner of Daily Kos discussed what that has meant in the 55 years since then. For a long time Republicans looked united and Democrats divided, a party full of squabbles. But a party that refuses to speak ill of fellow party members refuses to speak ill of the fascists and insurrectionists that began to fill its ranks. That has continued as the fascists have pushed the moderates out. In contrast, the Democrats have achieved a sense of unity around ideas, rather than a person. Sumner wrote:

It’s a party where the meanings of equality, opportunity, and justice have been continually challenged, continually fought about, and continually redefined. It’s been messy. It’s been exasperating. It’s cost the party elections, caused candidates to quit in disgust, and made would-be supporters turn away. It’s left behind a squabbling, messy, uneasy alliance of people pushing toward similar, though not identical goals. Which is a pretty good definition of a healthy political party.

Kerry Eleveld of Kos listed the ways in which the GOP politicians (not just the nasty guy) have supported the white supremacy militias that attacked the Capitol. Then the discussion turned to what we can do about it.

In brief, we need a dual short-term and long-term approach. In the short term, Democrats need to keep winning elections. Period. But on top of that, we must actually deliver on making people's lives better and more stable through providing decent jobs, dependable health care, and particularly right now, immediate economic relief. As [Timothy] Snyder noted [in his podcast The Anatomy of Tyranny], chaos and instability only feed the beast by making people feel more helpless and resentful. In order for people to have the bandwidth to listen to each other in a democracy, they must have some measure of stability and the prospect of opportunity in their lives. Longer term, we absolutely must hold Trump accountable in order to knock him down from his demigod status among Trumpers and also keep him from creating a shadow presidency (for which he is clearly already in the process of consolidating power). The FBI must rigorously be monitoring extremists and prosecuting them, which sounds obvious. But the people who attacked the Capitol must be clearly marked as having participated in a crime against the state. And more federal resources must be devoted to the effort to root out domestic terrorism. But the bigger goal here is to do everything we possibly can to keep Trump's "Big Lie" about election fraud and, more broadly, disenfranchisement, from living on unchallenged in such a way that it gains steam over a period of years.

The most popular program implemented by Franklin Roosevelt was the Civilian Conservation Corps. It eventually three million young single men from urban areas. As Meteor Blades of Kos described it:

They planted 3.5 billion trees, developed national and state parks, cut trails and built park shelters, fought forest fires, improved game-fish streams, conducted groundwater surveys, engaged in wildlife projects including building a wildlife refuge in Michigan, and participated in operations to control floods and soil erosion. For this they were fed, sheltered, and paid $30 a month, $25 of which had to sent home to their families, most of whom were on local relief. Given the still-high illiteracy levels in parts of America 90 years ago, many of them were taught how to read through a CCC education program.

The original CCC is getting a lot of attention because Biden has announced a new CCC, a Civilian Climate Corps. It is to be a part of his work to slow climate change. Unlike the original it will avoid racism and will recruit women. It will tackle climate and environmental justice projects and include an education component. It will pay a $15 minimum wage so that it doesn’t undercut local labor. Sounds like this could be a great effort. I didn’t post last night because I watched the documentary The Reason I Jump. It tries to give an idea what is going on in the heads of autistic youth. The title is from a book of that name by Nauki Higashida, who was 13 when he wrote it, describing a childhood when he did not speak. A narrator reads passages an English translation of the book to highlight certain ideas. Detractors claim either Higashida wasn’t really autistic or someone else wrote the book. Parents of autistic youth see the book as a great resource to understand what their children are going through. The movie spends time with five youth. First is Amrit of India. We normally see an object as a whole, then notice the details. An autistic person sees the details first and has to work back to the whole. Much of the movie was images of details, of things close up, before showing the whole object. Amrit doesn’t talk, instead she draws pictures. It took her mother a while to realize Amrit wasn’t drawing just to draw something pretty, but using it as a way to explain her world. Amrit has become an artist selling her work and having a show in a gallery. Joss is a teenager in England who can speak. He’s fascinated by water, light, and sound – such as the hum put out by electric transformers. The brain of a neurotypical person stores memory images somewhat in sequence. We can tell the difference between something happening now, something that happened recently, and something that happened long ago. An autistic person’s memory images are more scattered and something from long ago can feel immediate. When that something is unpleasant it can cause a meltdown. Repetitive actions can calm them, things like being on a swing or jumping on a trampoline. Ben and Emma in Virginia are friends. They are both autistic and both communicate by poking at letters on a board. Given a chance they can express deep thoughts. Ben wrote that the conversation about people with autism can expand to include the people with autism. Jestina is in Sierra Leone. Because children with autism have meltdowns they are stigmatized as the devil’s child. That’s a lot for her parents to overcome, though they are working on it. They are beginning to get the government involved and helping organize a school for autistic children. Joss’ parents think a lot about how autistic people, like their son, will be cared for after they are gone.