And fourth, if the US has become the world's bully, throwing its bombs and dollars around to manipulate foreign governments and steal from their people, then the Nobel Peace laureate Barack Obama was an incongruous mask for that presence to be wearing. It was confusing to many around the world. With Trump's bombastic face on these policies, the world community is unlikely to be fooled, and this will hasten the day when countries around the world -- China and Russia and Brazil, not to mention England, France and Germany -- stand up to the American giant and say, collectively, "No - your imperialism is not acceptable to us."
"What can we all be doing?" I'll give you my personal response:
First, stay informed about what's really going on by getting your news from a diversity of sources, thinking critically about what powerful people want you to believe and what is actually true. It is well worth the effort to read foreign newspapers, commie rags, conservative commentators, libertarians, European and Asian and Arabic news services--they're all online and easy to find.
Second, ruthlessly question the New York Times and NPR among our own trusted circles. Each one of us should come out to our friends and relatives when we find ourselves talking to someone who tacitly assumes the truth of reports they have heard, let them know that this is not your reality. Let them know it's not their opinions that we disagree with, but the factual premise of those opinions--for example, that the Russians hacked into Democratic Party websites, or that Sanders is too far left of of the American mainstream to be elected.
Third, organize protests of the media's abdication of their Fourth Estate responsibilities, instead of protesting the government. I'd like to see picketing at the New York Times building and major broadcast stations--especially those that pretend to be liberal in their politics while reporting "facts" based on uncorroborated news releases from the government.
There are so many good and necessary causes that we're all fighting for: human rights, peace, economic justice, saving ecosystems, to name a few. We are in the habit of galvanizing voters, organizing lobbying days and protest marches and letter-writing campaigns, because these are the vehicles of democratic change. These methods have ceased to work for us because we no longer live in a democracy. We have been slow to realize that nothing can be accomplished until we restore the basic elements of a free society: transparency in government, robust diversity of news reporting, open and fair elections that are counted in broad daylight.
Our "elected" officials are not excited about changing the system that keeps them in power. We will have to make them pretty uncomfortable before they consent to a change. But one way or another, we will get our democracy back.
Somebody who has a birthday this weekend once said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."
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