MAGA's Republican triumph, unleashed by Donald Trump's return to the White House, has unsurprisingly expanded for many of my most antagonistic correspondents. They ask me to bow to the president and accept his victory as a mandate against everything they despise about the progressive left: his insistence that centuries of racial and gender discrimination will not magically disappear without intervention that women can should be to control their own corpses, that all Americans should have health insurance, that the rich should pay their fair share of taxes, and that we are – proudly – a nation of immigrants.
You want me to look like we have an alien invasion on the southern border and those who are here illegally are making everyone else's lives better, rather than imposing a reign of terror and raising the cost of goods and services. You want me to agree that keeping Russian aggression at bay by helping defend Ukraine is a waste of American treasure. They want me to believe that climate change is not an existential threat.
They often accuse me of spending democratic talking points. I am a registered Democrat, but that is the extent of my relationship with the party. I have also been accused of being a “socialist,” which I assume is when they mean that I avidly support Medicare and Social Security. Even the short-lived “Tea Party” comically misguided slogan “Get your government hands off my Medicare!”
Essentially, my critics want me to admit that I was wrong to oppose Trump and his policies because he won.
I will never do it. And at least half the country, including most of California, feels the same way.
“There is no mandate,” UCLA political scientist Lynn Vavreck said Thursday during a Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior seminar on “Hate and Politics.” (The Institute “Open Mind” program Offers free, remote hourly seminars that explore a wide range of mental health issues with experts in various fields.)
The last presidential election, Vavreck said, showed that the electorate is “calcified” and there is “rough parity” between the number of Democrats and Republicans. This means that a relatively small number of voters who do not identify with either party have become central.
“The 'Out' party appears to be an attractive option for these voters who are unhappy about the state of the country, Vavreck said. So Joe Biden probably won in 2020 largely because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Trump won probably in 2024, mainly because of inflation. In any case, Vavreck reiterated: “There is no mandate.”
My political views and deepest ideals change to marry when women couldn't serve in battle And if the United States could behave as if the rest of the world didn't really exist. My parents – one religious and the other an atheist – taught me better.
I will never stop criticizing the cruel, crazy policies of a president who cannot bear to be publicly admonished by a woman of God to show mercy to the powerless without throwing a tantrum more fit for a toddler as 78 years old is as a 78 year old as a 78 year old as a toddler as a toddler is as 78 year old as a 78 year old man. Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Buddes Plea to Trump During a prayer service at Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday, he recalled his criminal “silent money” in New York last spring, when he was forced to remain silent as witnesses testified against him and a jury convicted him of 34 felonies. He wore the same disgusted face on both occasions.
Trump is rarely a captive audience; Budde courageously seized the opportunity to demonstrate what true spiritual leadership looks like.
“I didn't demand anything from him,” Budde later said told the New York Times. “I asked myself, like, can you see the humanity of these people? Can you acknowledge that… people in this country are afraid? “
Reaction of the MAGA world? With her head off!
“She was nasty in tone and not convincing or smart,” Trump wrote on Social Truth. “You and your church owe the public an apology!”
The bishop refused To commit and say, “I will not apologize for what I said.”
In the next four years I will stand with everything “evil women” (And men and non-binary people who long for a country whose leaders, like Rev. Budde, embody empathy, compassion and grace.
Bluesky: @Rabcarian.bsky.social. Topics: @Rabcarian