Samain Thanksgiving Moon
As the sky begins to brighten over Black Mountain, this spinning Earth reminds me that after night comes the day. The gradual ratcheting down of temperature reminds me that spring follows the fallow time. The spiral nature of the days and months as they peel away from yesterday yet follow the path of the Great Wheel as they do, reminds me that mother earth preaches patience. Wait, and the season will change. Wait, and dark will become light. It is the message of the Tao. Follow the watercourse way.
It is sound counsel. No good thing lasts forever, neither does any bad thing. We could just wait and history will turn the tide against the Donald and his band of wreckers and exploders. Yet.
Not the way I’m made, however. As I said in an earlier post, I’m more of a take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them sort of guy. It’s still early days in this sea and the waters have only begun to roil. The seas will get worse, heavier, more dangerous. It will be tempting to recruit fingers for every dike, to follow every insult with a counter move.
That would be a mistake. We have to choose which dikes must be defended. Must be. I think it’s possible to make those decisions and, if we concentrate our resources, to win some real victories. Won’t happen if we are in reactive mode all the time.
As a preliminary thought, I have two foci to recommend for our attention. This may change as circumstances arise, but right now they seem the most urgent to me.
Two articles in today’s NYT set them up. Bernie Sanders: Where Do the Democrats Go From Here and Trump’s Climate Contrarian Myron Ebell Takes on the EPA.
These two foci have very different implications, but share a these must happen now exigency.
Foci 1 Climate Change
This is a long term survivability issue for the human race. Unfortunately, the time frame for action to alter climate warming’s long term trajectory is now. Between 2016 and 2050 drastic reductions in carbon emissions must take place. Even more drastic ones by 2100. Without efforts more ambitious than the recent Paris Accords the human race will suffer for millennia and this planet may become too hot for us. Literally. And Trump has just appointed a climate change skeptic to head the EPA.
Foci 2 Economic Justice
This is a short term survivability issue for our nation. Democrats used to have economic justice as a key rationale for the party. Unions. Affordable Housing. Unemployment benefits. Job retraining. Financial and health resources for the elderly, the disabled and the poor. Restraints on the financial sector. Support for local economic development. Infrastructure maintenance.
More than any single cause this election laid bare the casual disregard both parties have given to these issues over the last 30 to 40 years. Clinton’s third-way moved the party farther from these bedrock issues. Obama tried, but after his first two years, the GOP became the party of obstruction, the party of no.
The narrower focus within Economic Justice must be jobs, healthcare, housing and good education for the working class. Many of the fissures in our common life root themselves in hopelessness borne of economic dislocation. Creating a solid working class for all, people of color and non-college educated whites alike, will soothe some of the most fractious.
No, I’m not saying that we ignore the very real dangers posed by racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, homophobic, cisgendered bigotry. I’m saying that there are two policy areas that rise to the top of a political program for the near term future, say through 2075.
Yes, another emphasis must be on rapid reaction teams that can respond to gay bashing, race baiting, rape culture and general disregard for those who are other. These teams must be ready to defend recent hard won victories like samesex marriage, the organizing of Black Lives Matter, the coalescing of women’s groups against the pussy-grabber in chief. But in my opinion this is a time for defense on these issues.
Again IMHO the policy focus for the next few years should be: climate change and economic justice.
