Yes, There Was An Election...

Who’s to blame for the surprising loss? And so begins the blame game.  You might notice an absence of blaming anyone on the Clinton campaign.  Nope, their campaign was perfection. Unfortunately,  it was the same campaign they ran in 2008, only with money. Word has it that the campaign has about $150 million left.  Who gets that money?  Probably not Gefilte Fish Chronicles the Musical — which is a musical show I wrote about the power of family. (More about that after I finish blurting about the campaign.)  If you haven’t seen it,  check out “The Beaverton,” - it’s  the Canadian SNL.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB1cP3IR_Fo) They did an Obit about the death of the US.  It is hilarious — remember you always have to maintain  a sense of humor about everything, especially politics.  (and i don’t minimize the impact of this election on everyone).

The night before last, David and I participated in a Post Mortem about the election, after which we ran directly into the Boston protest march.  It was a joy to see all those kids united in their dissatisfaction with election results.  David wondered how many of them actually voted. It doesn't matter, I was just delighted to see all those people expressing peaceful outrage about anything.  It took me back decades when we went out on the street for everything; the war, women’s rights, civil rights, human rights, and lamb chops (I just threw just lamb chops in for effect— we ate rather than marched for them).  BTW, to all my friends who are Veterans, thank you for your service.

Anyway, back to the election.  My good friend Kat, who is a fine, smart, person and a Republican, sent me an article to help me to understand one reason why Trump won the election.  It’s a good read you elitists might want to read and take to heart.  https://www.apnews.com/4277c96ac27443fd932da8e52e9ea0ce/For-many-supporters,-Trump-is-a-thing-called-hope?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP.  Whoa, I’m being much to serious. 

Another anyway, we will all survive.  There are checks and balances.  Here’s what I find amazing, The people who Trump calls lost and forgotten,  have elected two billionaires (Reagan, Trump) for many reasons.  Maybe, one of them is that people from all classes don’t aspire to be “middle class”, they see billionaires as a role model, and what they aspire to be.  Whoops, still too serious.  Is it possible that the same people who wanted Bernie Sanders voted for Donald Trump. How’s that for funny.

Just wanted to say, (as my last serious note) I love having geographic access to my children and grandchildren.  I lied, I have one more serious note. If you want to be inspired by the Hillary Clinton that we should have seen during the campaign, read her concession speech. Hre’s one place to find it.     http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/news/a40639/hillary-clinton-concession-speech-text-video/

Back to the blame game.  Never mind, here’s the most unfortunate, dangerous thing. Every name mentioned for the Trump administration is an old white male.  How will Trump supporters react to this not cleaning up the government but rather reinforcing the fact that change is impossible.  Time will reveal the truth.  In the meantime, “Let’s put on a show.”

We’re just sayin’… Iris

About That Election - 2016

This morning when I awoke I had a number of messages that asked, “What do we do now?  It was impossible for me to reply because my first thought was to get up and go teach.  Last night on my way to walk Tyrone, I had a terrible fall.  It’s all OK but my second thought was to take an Aleve.  At about 3:30 am, while the TV played and replayed the polling map. Here’s my real polling question.

Podesta made his speech and Hillary called Trump to concede, it was like watching “Theater of the Absurd”.  But when I went to class. with the sensational students— who always have incredibly millennial  insights,  and I felt better.  In addition, I have always said “if you don’t have a sense of humor, you don’t belong in politics”  — or any business.

We elected a President who appears to be a racist, a sexist, is vile in his rhetoric and awful in his beliefs., and has no moral core. We all need to make sure that Trump is called out on all the horrible things he intends to do.  Under no circumstances should we just let it go.  In his victory speech he reminded us that what he has done over the last year was, to create a movement, not a campaign. Trump touched something in the “Lost and Forgotten” electorate.   Hillary will win the popular vote, but Trump takes the Electoral College.  i’ll get back to that when I finish ranting.

In answer to the question what should we do now?  My first thought is to forgive all the pollsters for being wrong.  ALL the pollsters were wrong but with the exception of Wisconsin and Michigan, the Emerson  pollsters were within the margin of error.  That doesn’t make me feel any better, but given all the variables that impacted on the results of the election, they need to be forgiven.  The question is, were the Hillary pollsters not able to see what was happening.  Were they not able to predict a diminished electorate and an off track GOTV operation. Blame is pointless.

What were the variables about which i speak? The Bernie Sanders fans were still very angry.  The millennials  did not jump on the Hillary machine.  They didn’t like or trust her. They didn’t care that she would have been the first woman President. Older women cared, but it wasn’t enough of a reason to get out and vote. Generally, both Republicans and Democrats were exhausted from the campaigns, the commercials, the media, the telephone calls, and the arguments with their opponents, friends and family.  People just wanted the whole thing to go away. And it has, except for the damage to the stock market and my soul.  I don’t think that in my lifetime there will be a Woman in the White House. We learned that women can still be abused, physically and mentally.  There will still be men and women who work to take decisions about  control of our bodies, , we will not make as much money as our male counterparts, decisions about the people we love must have religious boundaries. And there is still a glass ceiling everywhere we look.

OK that’s the bad news.  The good news (and you need to consider these all together.)  Trump was a Democrat a few years ago.  He believed in choice and promoted women in business.  He never thought he was going to win, but being the most important person in the world appealed to his egomaniacal power hungry personality.  He has forced Democrats to to look at the Democratic party with new eyes , that are looking for a Party and Candidates who are young smart, determined, and as my friend Hillary said — look like America. She won the popular vote, so we know there are people who have a moral core.  The good people who say they will  leave the country should absolutely not consider that.  We need people who are morally outraged.

And the best news  — government is not a business. They don’t work the same way. Trump  knows nothing about the bureaucracy so he will have a hard time getting anything done.  The Republicans and Democrats in Congress are not happy about him.  They are afraid of his power and what will be his inability to get stuff done. They like the status quo.  We will all be OK, but  only if we are vigilant and active in monitoring what he does that will affect our lives.  And it doesn’t matter if it’s a wall, health care, immigration, racial bias or for that matter any bias.
There are nearly 10,000 politically appointed jobs in the government.  The new administration must place people in the jobs.  Trump didn’t run the kind of campaign where there were hundreds of talented people who could fill these positions.  He has no clue.  It will be a mess — but only in DC. You know how the US government shuts down for weather but it doesn’t matter to anyone else in this great nation. That’s what the chaotic government transition will be. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Anyway,  There are different categories of these 10,000 jobs:
-Senior Executive Service (SES) ''General'' positions;
-Senior Foreign Service positions;
-Schedule C positions excepted from the competitive service by the President, or by the Director, Office of Personnel Management, because of the confidential or policy-determining nature of the position duties;
-Other positions at the GS-14 and above level excepted from the competitive civil service by law because of the confidential or policy-determining nature of the position duties.

if you want to know what we are going to do listen to Hillary’s concession speech:
http://www.cbs8.com/story/33669908/hillary-clinton-gives-concession-speech-day-after-donald-trump-wins-presidential-election-never-stop-believing

That’s the kind of speech she should have been giving for the last year….We’re just sayin’… Iris

So Close, But Not Quite There...

Last night, when I checked the Emerson polls, it looked pretty good for a Hillary victory. And I thought, “it’s about time”.  My only regret being that Gerry, Bella, and Betty are not here to revel in this victory.  We all worked so hard to make this happen.  If not today than certainly over the past three of more decades.  Joyce says they are all watching  (including her mom, and mine…. but mine is watching game shows and Judge Judy), this victory and sharing our happiness.  It would be better if they were here, because they always have been.

The first time i realized that there were so few female elected officials was when Elaine Noble was elected the Massachusetts House of Representatives in January 1975. She was the first openly lesbian or gay candidate elected to any state legislature.  When there is no one and then there is someone, you do take notice.  She only ran for two terms because the legislature (in order to get rid of her) redistricted and combined her district with Barney Frank’s (also gay), and they determined not to do battle.

If you didn’t live in Boston you probably didn’t notice, except Warren Beatty with whom I had a bet during the release of “Reds.”   Warren said if I could guess who is favorite politician was, regardless of gender, he would contract my consulting firm to do the open of the film, in DC.  “Elaine Noble”, I said.  And as soon as he picked himself up off the floor, we signed the contract.

The early 70’s was a time when my interest in politics and justice started to emerge.  Along with Hillary and a few friends, we worked for McGovern, in his Presidential campaign, against the War.  We were activists in the civil rights movement, in the women’s rights movement and any other movement where there was injustice or an angry crowd — like when Louise Day Hicks ran against Kevin White and “Forced” busing.

But that’s not what I wanted to blog about. I wish I was with the “girls” who worked so hard for Title 9 like Judy and Marcia, choice, pay equity,  and so many other issues where we needed to fight a good and fair fight.  Our opponents did not fight fair, were usually men but there were and are scattered women who behaved like Donald Trump— never answering a question and never telling the truth — because their agenda was only to make money and noise —- you know who they are.

Whatever, this is a day to celebrate.  This is not a time to argue or be angry at people who do not feel as we do.  The fight is not over.  Really, it’s just beginning, because there will always be people who believe Hillary is a crook and should be in jail, the system is rigged, women can’t control their own bodies, and women should not make as much money as a man.  But who cares. Today is historic for so many reasons, and although there is sadness for the loss of our girlfriends who aren’t here to share the win, but victory is still so sweet.  We’re just sayin’…Iris