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These books can help us better understand Trump's rise and more effectively resist his agenda. (Photo: Christopher/Flickr/cc)
If you're part of the Trump resistance, here are four books you should add to your summer reading list.
Strangers in Their Own Land (2016): Most of us are perplexed by Trump voters. My first two suggestions clarify the underlying psycho-political dynamics. In Strangers in Their Own Land, U.C. Berkeley Professor Arlie Hochschild elaborates the "deep story" of Louisiana Trump voters:
You are standing in a long line leading up a hill, as in a pilgrimage. You are situated in the middle of this line, along with others who are also white, older, Christian, and predominantly male... Just over the brow of the hill is the American Dream, the goal of everyone waiting in line. Most in the back of the line are people of color... Look! You see people cutting in line ahead of you! You're following the rules. They aren't. As they cut in, it feels like you are being moved back... Who are they? Women, immigrants, refugees, public sector workers -- where will it end?
Hochschild wrote, "the far right felt... there was a false PC over-up of [their] story... So it was with joyous belief that many heard a Donald Trump who seemed to be wildly, omnipotently, magically free of all PC constraint." The interviewees believe Trump, and big business in general, will provide the solutions to their (many) problems.
Moral Politics (2016, Third Edition): Reading Hochschild's book, it's natural to ask, "Why do these voters buy Trump's lies?" That question is addressed by the research of U.C. Berkeley Professor George Lakoff:
Political values tend to arise from the fact that we are all first governed in our families, and so the way that your ideal family is governed is a model for the ideal form of government... conservative moral values arise from the values of the strict father family.
Lakoff writes that conservatives typically subscribe to a "strict father" morality, while liberals operate with a "nurturant parent" morality.
In the strict father family, father knows best. He knows right from wrong and has the ultimate authority to make sure his children and his spouse do what he says... They are supposed to become disciplined, internally strong, and able to prosper in the external world. This reasoning shows up in conservative politics in which the poor are seen as lazy and undeserving, and the rich as deserving their wealth. Responsibility is thus taken to be personal responsibility not social responsibility. What you become is only up to you... You are responsible for yourself, not for others.
Hochschild's interviewees are living in a monolithic strict father family culture. They see their failures as their own fault. They look to a strict father, Trump, to improve their lives.
Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda (2016): If you're wondering what to do about Trump, here are two books with practical suggestions. Written at the end of 2016, The Indivisible Guide has become a cultural phenomenon. (https://www.indivisibleguide.com/guide/)
We believe that protecting our values, our neighbors, and ourselves will require mounting... resistance to the Trump agenda... a resistance built on the values of inclusion, tolerance, and fairness. To this end, the following chapters offer a step-by-step guide for individuals, groups, and organizations looking to replicate the Tea Party's success in getting Congress to listen to a small, vocal, dedicated group of constituents. The guide is intended to be equally useful for stiffening Democratic spines and weakening pro-Trump Republican resolve.
The Indivisible Guide spurred the formation of approximately 6000 Indivisible Groups -- at least two in every Congressional district. (If after reading The Indivisible Guide, you decide to form your own group, I recommend that you watch the Marshall Ganz video: How to Structure and Build Capacity for Action:[ https://www.resistanceschool.com/session-three-1/]. )
No is Not Enough (2017): The Indivisible Guide is has been criticized because it focuses on resistance to the Trump Administration; it does not spell out what the resistance is fighting for. In this regard, Canadian journalist Naomi Klein has written the perfect companion piece. No is Not Enough contains both an erudite analysis of how we got here, why Trump won, and a prescription for what to do next: The Leap Manifesto.
Klein sees Trump as the logical consequence of the rise of the dominant economic philosophy, Neoliberalism:
If there is a single, overarching lesson to be drawn from the foul mood rising around the world, it may be this: we should never, ever underestimate the power of hate... Especially during times of economic hardship, when a great many people have reason to fear that the jobs that can support a decent life are disappearing for good. Trump speaks directly to that economic panic, and, simultaneously, to the resentment felt by a large segment of white America about the changing face of their country.. So many of the crises we are facing are symptoms of the same underlying sickness: a dominance-based logic that treats so many people, and the earth itself, as disposable.
Klein's answer is The Leap Manifesto (https://leapmanifesto.org/en/the-leap-manifesto/#manifesto-content), a document created to deal with the 2015 Canadian economic crises, but a manifesto that is applicable to the current situation in the United States: "An attempt... to show how to replace an economy built on destruction with an economy built on love."
Klein's book encourages us to move beyond resistance.
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If you're part of the Trump resistance, here are four books you should add to your summer reading list.
Strangers in Their Own Land (2016): Most of us are perplexed by Trump voters. My first two suggestions clarify the underlying psycho-political dynamics. In Strangers in Their Own Land, U.C. Berkeley Professor Arlie Hochschild elaborates the "deep story" of Louisiana Trump voters:
You are standing in a long line leading up a hill, as in a pilgrimage. You are situated in the middle of this line, along with others who are also white, older, Christian, and predominantly male... Just over the brow of the hill is the American Dream, the goal of everyone waiting in line. Most in the back of the line are people of color... Look! You see people cutting in line ahead of you! You're following the rules. They aren't. As they cut in, it feels like you are being moved back... Who are they? Women, immigrants, refugees, public sector workers -- where will it end?
Hochschild wrote, "the far right felt... there was a false PC over-up of [their] story... So it was with joyous belief that many heard a Donald Trump who seemed to be wildly, omnipotently, magically free of all PC constraint." The interviewees believe Trump, and big business in general, will provide the solutions to their (many) problems.
Moral Politics (2016, Third Edition): Reading Hochschild's book, it's natural to ask, "Why do these voters buy Trump's lies?" That question is addressed by the research of U.C. Berkeley Professor George Lakoff:
Political values tend to arise from the fact that we are all first governed in our families, and so the way that your ideal family is governed is a model for the ideal form of government... conservative moral values arise from the values of the strict father family.
Lakoff writes that conservatives typically subscribe to a "strict father" morality, while liberals operate with a "nurturant parent" morality.
In the strict father family, father knows best. He knows right from wrong and has the ultimate authority to make sure his children and his spouse do what he says... They are supposed to become disciplined, internally strong, and able to prosper in the external world. This reasoning shows up in conservative politics in which the poor are seen as lazy and undeserving, and the rich as deserving their wealth. Responsibility is thus taken to be personal responsibility not social responsibility. What you become is only up to you... You are responsible for yourself, not for others.
Hochschild's interviewees are living in a monolithic strict father family culture. They see their failures as their own fault. They look to a strict father, Trump, to improve their lives.
Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda (2016): If you're wondering what to do about Trump, here are two books with practical suggestions. Written at the end of 2016, The Indivisible Guide has become a cultural phenomenon. (https://www.indivisibleguide.com/guide/)
We believe that protecting our values, our neighbors, and ourselves will require mounting... resistance to the Trump agenda... a resistance built on the values of inclusion, tolerance, and fairness. To this end, the following chapters offer a step-by-step guide for individuals, groups, and organizations looking to replicate the Tea Party's success in getting Congress to listen to a small, vocal, dedicated group of constituents. The guide is intended to be equally useful for stiffening Democratic spines and weakening pro-Trump Republican resolve.
The Indivisible Guide spurred the formation of approximately 6000 Indivisible Groups -- at least two in every Congressional district. (If after reading The Indivisible Guide, you decide to form your own group, I recommend that you watch the Marshall Ganz video: How to Structure and Build Capacity for Action:[ https://www.resistanceschool.com/session-three-1/]. )
No is Not Enough (2017): The Indivisible Guide is has been criticized because it focuses on resistance to the Trump Administration; it does not spell out what the resistance is fighting for. In this regard, Canadian journalist Naomi Klein has written the perfect companion piece. No is Not Enough contains both an erudite analysis of how we got here, why Trump won, and a prescription for what to do next: The Leap Manifesto.
Klein sees Trump as the logical consequence of the rise of the dominant economic philosophy, Neoliberalism:
If there is a single, overarching lesson to be drawn from the foul mood rising around the world, it may be this: we should never, ever underestimate the power of hate... Especially during times of economic hardship, when a great many people have reason to fear that the jobs that can support a decent life are disappearing for good. Trump speaks directly to that economic panic, and, simultaneously, to the resentment felt by a large segment of white America about the changing face of their country.. So many of the crises we are facing are symptoms of the same underlying sickness: a dominance-based logic that treats so many people, and the earth itself, as disposable.
Klein's answer is The Leap Manifesto (https://leapmanifesto.org/en/the-leap-manifesto/#manifesto-content), a document created to deal with the 2015 Canadian economic crises, but a manifesto that is applicable to the current situation in the United States: "An attempt... to show how to replace an economy built on destruction with an economy built on love."
Klein's book encourages us to move beyond resistance.
If you're part of the Trump resistance, here are four books you should add to your summer reading list.
Strangers in Their Own Land (2016): Most of us are perplexed by Trump voters. My first two suggestions clarify the underlying psycho-political dynamics. In Strangers in Their Own Land, U.C. Berkeley Professor Arlie Hochschild elaborates the "deep story" of Louisiana Trump voters:
You are standing in a long line leading up a hill, as in a pilgrimage. You are situated in the middle of this line, along with others who are also white, older, Christian, and predominantly male... Just over the brow of the hill is the American Dream, the goal of everyone waiting in line. Most in the back of the line are people of color... Look! You see people cutting in line ahead of you! You're following the rules. They aren't. As they cut in, it feels like you are being moved back... Who are they? Women, immigrants, refugees, public sector workers -- where will it end?
Hochschild wrote, "the far right felt... there was a false PC over-up of [their] story... So it was with joyous belief that many heard a Donald Trump who seemed to be wildly, omnipotently, magically free of all PC constraint." The interviewees believe Trump, and big business in general, will provide the solutions to their (many) problems.
Moral Politics (2016, Third Edition): Reading Hochschild's book, it's natural to ask, "Why do these voters buy Trump's lies?" That question is addressed by the research of U.C. Berkeley Professor George Lakoff:
Political values tend to arise from the fact that we are all first governed in our families, and so the way that your ideal family is governed is a model for the ideal form of government... conservative moral values arise from the values of the strict father family.
Lakoff writes that conservatives typically subscribe to a "strict father" morality, while liberals operate with a "nurturant parent" morality.
In the strict father family, father knows best. He knows right from wrong and has the ultimate authority to make sure his children and his spouse do what he says... They are supposed to become disciplined, internally strong, and able to prosper in the external world. This reasoning shows up in conservative politics in which the poor are seen as lazy and undeserving, and the rich as deserving their wealth. Responsibility is thus taken to be personal responsibility not social responsibility. What you become is only up to you... You are responsible for yourself, not for others.
Hochschild's interviewees are living in a monolithic strict father family culture. They see their failures as their own fault. They look to a strict father, Trump, to improve their lives.
Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda (2016): If you're wondering what to do about Trump, here are two books with practical suggestions. Written at the end of 2016, The Indivisible Guide has become a cultural phenomenon. (https://www.indivisibleguide.com/guide/)
We believe that protecting our values, our neighbors, and ourselves will require mounting... resistance to the Trump agenda... a resistance built on the values of inclusion, tolerance, and fairness. To this end, the following chapters offer a step-by-step guide for individuals, groups, and organizations looking to replicate the Tea Party's success in getting Congress to listen to a small, vocal, dedicated group of constituents. The guide is intended to be equally useful for stiffening Democratic spines and weakening pro-Trump Republican resolve.
The Indivisible Guide spurred the formation of approximately 6000 Indivisible Groups -- at least two in every Congressional district. (If after reading The Indivisible Guide, you decide to form your own group, I recommend that you watch the Marshall Ganz video: How to Structure and Build Capacity for Action:[ https://www.resistanceschool.com/session-three-1/]. )
No is Not Enough (2017): The Indivisible Guide is has been criticized because it focuses on resistance to the Trump Administration; it does not spell out what the resistance is fighting for. In this regard, Canadian journalist Naomi Klein has written the perfect companion piece. No is Not Enough contains both an erudite analysis of how we got here, why Trump won, and a prescription for what to do next: The Leap Manifesto.
Klein sees Trump as the logical consequence of the rise of the dominant economic philosophy, Neoliberalism:
If there is a single, overarching lesson to be drawn from the foul mood rising around the world, it may be this: we should never, ever underestimate the power of hate... Especially during times of economic hardship, when a great many people have reason to fear that the jobs that can support a decent life are disappearing for good. Trump speaks directly to that economic panic, and, simultaneously, to the resentment felt by a large segment of white America about the changing face of their country.. So many of the crises we are facing are symptoms of the same underlying sickness: a dominance-based logic that treats so many people, and the earth itself, as disposable.
Klein's answer is The Leap Manifesto (https://leapmanifesto.org/en/the-leap-manifesto/#manifesto-content), a document created to deal with the 2015 Canadian economic crises, but a manifesto that is applicable to the current situation in the United States: "An attempt... to show how to replace an economy built on destruction with an economy built on love."
Klein's book encourages us to move beyond resistance.
"We're supportive of what the president is trying to do. But the reality of it is our industry has to have the Hispanic immigrant-based workers in it," said the CEO of an Alabama construction firm.
After months of national protests over U.S. President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda, even some of his supporters—including an Alabama man who runs day-to-day operations at construction sites—have come to the conclusion that workplace raids aimed at rounding up undocumented immigrants are the wrong way to go.
In an interview with Reuters published Monday, construction site superintendent Robby Robertson expressed frustration at the way the Trump administration's hard-line immigration policies have impacted his business.
He said that trouble at his site began in late May shortly after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on a construction site in Tallahassee, Florida, which he said scared off nearly his entire workforce for several days afterward. Even though nearly two months have passed since then, he said a little more than half of his workforce has come back.
This is negatively impacting his current project, which he said was projected to be finished already but which has been slow to complete now that his initial 22-person roofing team has dwindled down to just a dozen workers. As if that weren't enough, Reuters wrote that Robertson's company "is facing potentially $84,000 in extra costs for the delays under a 'liquidated damages' clause of $4,000 for every day the project runs beyond" its deadline.
"I'm a Trump supporter," Robertson told Reuters. "But I just don't think the raids are the answer."
Robertson added that the raids aren't just intimidating undocumented immigrant workers but also Latino workers who are in the country legally but who don't want to get swept up in raids "because of their skin color."
"They are scared they look the part," Robertson explained.
Tim Harrison, the CEO of the construction firm that is building the project being overseen by Robertson, told Reuters that finding native-born American workers to do the kind of work he needs is extremely difficult, especially since Alabama already has a low unemployment rate that makes trying to attract workers to a physically demanding industry difficult.
"The contractor world is full of Republicans," explained Harrison in an interview with Reuters. "I'm not anti-ICE. We're supportive of what the president is trying to do. But the reality of it is our industry has to have the Hispanic immigrant-based workers in it."
A report issued earlier this month by the progressive Economic Policy Institute (EPI) projected that the construction industry could take a severe hit from Trump's mass deportation plan given how many undocumented immigrants work in that industry.
"Employment in the construction sector will drop sharply: U.S.-born construction employment will fall by 861,000, and immigrant employment will fall by 1.4 million," wrote EPI senior economist Ben Zipperer, who added that the Trump administration's plans risked "squandering the full employment... inherited from the Biden administration and also causing immense pain to the millions of U.S.-born and immigrant workers who may lose their jobs."
"We're holding these members of Congress accountable for voting for the Republican tax law that strips health care away from millions of Texas families," said Unrig Our Economy campaign director Leor Tal.
The progressive advocacy group Unrig Our Economy launched a new $2 million advertising campaign Monday against four Texas Republicans who voted for the massive Medicaid cuts in this month's GOP megabill.
At the behest of President Donald Trump, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is mounting an unusual mid-decade effort to redraw Texas' congressional map to keep control of the U.S. House of Representatives come 2026.
The plan is expected to net the GOP five seats. But the flipside is that some seats that were once GOP locks may become more vulnerable to Democratic challengers.
Those include the ones held by Republican Reps. Lance Gooden (5), Monica De La Cruz (15), Beth Van Duyne (24), and Dan Crenshaw (2)—all of whom voted for the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."
Put together, these four congresspeople alone represent around 450,000 Medicaid recipients, according to data from KFF.
The law remains dismally unpopular, with the majority of Americans believing that it benefits the rich, while providing little to ordinary Americans. According to a Navigator survey conducted last week, 7 in 10 Americans said they were concerned about its cuts to Medicaid.
The Congressional Budget Office projects that 10 million Americans will lose health insurance as a result of the law's Medicaid cuts.
Around 200,000 of them are in Texas according to KFF. In total, up to 1.7 million people in the state may lose their insurance as a result of other subsidies that were also cut.
Those are the people Unrig Our Economy hopes to reach with its new ad blitz.
One ad hits Crenshaw—whose district has nearly 92,000 Medicaid recipients—for making false promises to protect the program.
(Video: Unrig Our Economy)
It shows a video of the congressman from May 14 assuring Texans: "You have nothing to worry about. Your Medicaid is not going anywhere," less than two months before voting for "the largest Medicaid and healthcare cuts in history."
Another singles out De La Cruz—who represents over 181,000 Medicaid recipients—for her vote for the bill after warning that the cuts "would have serious consequences, particularly in rural and predominantly Hispanic communities where hospitals and nursing homes are already struggling to keep their doors open."
Among hundreds at risk across the country, 15 rural hospitals in Texas are in danger of closing because of the cuts, according to a study by the health services research arm of the University of North Carolina.
The ads targeting Gooden and Van Duyne, meanwhile, draw more attention to the effects of their cuts on Texan families: "Medicaid covers a third of all children, half of all pregnant women, the elderly in long-term care, and the disabled."
(Video: Unrig Our Economy)
Gooden's district contains more than 120,000 Medicaid recipients—over half of whom are children. In Van Duyne's district, children make up close to two-thirds of the more than 57,000 enrollees.
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the bill cuts more than $930 billion in total from Medicaid over the next ten years. Over that same ten-year period, the wealthiest 1% of Americans will receive over $1 trillion worth of tax breaks.
All the ads hammer home the fact that these devastating cuts were passed "to fund tax breaks for billionaires."
Unrig Our Economy's ad blitz is the first salvo of a $20-million effort by the House Majority PAC—the largest national PAC supporting Democrats—to beat back the effects of the Republican gerrymandering effort.
"We're holding these members of Congress accountable for voting for the Republican tax law that strips healthcare away from millions of Texas families," said Unrig Our Economy campaign director Leor Tal.
Unrig Our Economy has launched similar ads against vulnerable Republicans across the country, such as first-term Rep. Rob Bresnahan, whose northeast Pennsylvania constituency is made up of more than one-fourth Medicaid recipients.
"These ads," Tal said, "are just the latest in our nationwide campaign to show the horrible impacts of this law, which benefits the superwealthy at working families' expense."
"I cannot defend the indefensible," said Sen. Angus King.
A longtime supporter of military aid to Israel in the U.S. Senate is drawing a red line amid the ongoing starvation crisis in Gaza.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) on Monday released a statement saying he would not vote to support any more aid to Israel unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government drastically reversed course to allow more food and other life-saving supplies to enter Gaza.
In a statement flagged on X by Dylan Williams, the vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, King delivered a harsh rebuke to the Israeli government for its role in the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding under its watch.
"I cannot defend the indefensible," King's statement began. "Israel's actions in the conduct of the war in Gaza, especially its failure to address the unimaginable humanitarian crisis now unfolding, is an affront to human decency. What appears to be a deliberately-induced famine among a civilian population—including tens of thousands of starving children—can never be an acceptable military strategy."
King emphasized that he supported Israel's right to retaliate after the October 7, 2023 attacks on the country by Hamas, but then said "that tragic event cannot in turn justify the enormous toll on Palestinian civilians caused by Israel's relentless bombing campaign and its indifference to the current plight of those trapped in what's left of Gaza."
The Maine senator then vowed to back up his words with actions.
"I am through supporting the actions of the current Israeli government and will advocate—and vote—for an end to any United States support whatsoever until there is a demonstrable change in the direction of Israeli policy," he said. "My litmus test will be simple: No aid of any kind as long as there are starving children in Gaza due to the action or inaction of the Israeli government."
Israel has come under increased international pressure as images and video footage of starving children has been pouring out of Gaza in recent weeks. The Israeli government over the weekend announced a tactical "pause" in its Gaza military campaign to allow more humanitarian assistance into the area, although critics such as Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam policy lead for the occupied Palestinian territory, described the Israeli measures as woefully inadequate in the face of mass starvation.
"Deadly airdrops and a trickle of trucks won't undo months of engineered starvation in Gaza," said Khalidi on Sunday. "What's needed is the immediate opening of all crossings for full, unhindered, and safe aid delivery across all of Gaza and a permanent cease-fire. Anything less risks being little more than a tactical gesture."