After the 2024 election, I miss my country, and I really want it back.
I believe there are six vital steps toward getting to a better place.
Buck Up, Toughen Up, and Embrace the Right Mindset
Get over your grief, your despair, your anger, and your fear. Lay aside your wishful thinking. Try as hard as you can to suppress your cognitive biases.
Think like Sunzi: “Know your side, know the other side, after a hundred battles, you will not be disappointed.”
Think like Confucius: know the difference between an established fact, a good working hypothesis, and a mere plausible speculation.
Think like Rabbi Jesus and keep in mind his startling mixed metaphor: “Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Yes, think strategically. Yes, employ effective messaging and clever tactics. But don’t forget your empathy, either.
Situational Awareness
Face the facts.
Those would be the facts you like as well as the facts you don’t like.
The facts that make sense to you, and the facts that don’t make sense to you, but are, nevertheless, facts.
The facts that show how our side misjudged the electorate; didn’t listen to real working class people; didn’t form a winning coalition; abandoned vital information space to the wingnuts, the plutocrats’ mouthpieces, and the Russian propagandists; and how we wound up with an electorate that cannot reason accurately about its own economic interests.
Rule of Law: The Right Hill to Die On
We should do well in the 2026 election—assuming there will in fact be a 2026 election. In the meantime, we need to preserve the rule of law, as best we can. Trump’s nominees for Attorney General and FBI Director have promised to prosecute the prosecutors—the ones who prosecuted Trump for his crimes. The new AG and FBI director may even produce some martyrs for the cause of justice. Let’s give our money and our time, and let’s employ our best strategic thinking, to prevent this from happening.
New Coalition, New Thinking, New Strategy
The Democrats’ old way of doing things just isn’t working. The Democratic Party needs to transform itself into a true coalition of the working class and of the educated professional class. It needs to shake off slavish devotion to market worshipping neoliberalism. It needs to rebalance the interests of producers versus the interests of consumers. In so doing, the party will find some elements of the business community who will embrace its program. As for the Elon Musks, they can go pound sand.
New Tactics and New Messaging
We must, as Rabbi Jesus said, be “wise as serpents.” That means lots of things. Chief among them is finding new ways to talk to low information voters.
Our side must study the other side’s bamboozlement methods—and then relentlessly counterattack the merchants of disinformation.
Take Some Soul Food for the Journey
As time permits and as the mood strikes, I’ll be putting up some posts that are entertaining or inspirational. It’s essential to keep our spirits fed. And, from time to time, we need a little Schadenfreude to replace the anger that we feel toward Trump voters.
Facing MAGA 