This was written a few days before the assassinations in Minnesota so I will post it lest we forget too soon. 

Two ways to accomplish change:  create a compelling vision with a plan, or simply engineer mass rage.  The second option is pretty much what the current stage masters of American history are working on.  Set off the unmanageable bomb of mass rage and see what settles to earth.  America has been a hot bed of ignored grief over much of its troubled history.  That unresolved much ignored grief has been recognized as a great political opportunity by gifted opportunists. And meanwhile the political party that was supposed to be the working people’s party got caught with their compassions down and wondering about with first world metro politics.  Unfortunately, rage unleashed is like that  wild born horse that throws the bit, saddle, and rider and refuses to go back into the corral.  

Yes, race, gender, diversity are critical issues for this country right now.  But the party that rules today has the control and they recognized they can easily exploit love’s brother grief by igniting ever more rage.  They also know they need not solve the causes for the grief because they are also experts in directly harvesting the chaos arising out of anger and rage.  Individual persons, towns, small cities, and post industrial cities don’t take their grief arising from the poverty of collapsed economy and culture and resign themselves to fall into the cracks or be a “flyover zone”.   If not rage than what?

A modest proposal for good:

The committed provision of compassion, human contact, resources and plans for displaced persons and communities carry a lot of hidden power.  Between now and the next elections there will continue to be displaced economies leaving populations stranded in this country. This grief runs concurrent with pulling down the safety nets for the vulnerable.  Possibly there will be entire professions ravaged by what DOGE is doing to science and public service.  Depending on what passes in the next budget, the next Appalachian Economy  could be a range of professions and trades suddenly defunded including medical professions.  Young people in college on career tracks could see nothing but a cliff following graduation.  Rage of course is going to be the most convenient low hanging fruit to harvest to regain the majority, but that sad strategy is likely to end in a violent draw if not a loss. The minority party can either spend the next three plus years gnashing their teeth waiting for the bell to ring or get out in the field right now and comb America interacting with and building a plan with the people they have fallen out of the habit of talking to. Good is repairing the broken human connections that can be repaired in this country severed in half by the masters of the art of rage. Connection and cooperation are two forms of ‘people power’ that can outlive the wild fires of rage.  But to gather that kind of coalition we have to make good decisions with true commitment. 

Check out the NYC early Mayoral election returns for affirmation.