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I'm going to write about Trump's dangerous cooption of a famous quote, the wonderfulness of Doug Jones, and a bad idea Jones stated that I hope he can correct.
Giving up Liberty for Prosperity
I'm not a Twitter user and found my peace of mind easier to maintain when I stay away from media reports on Trump's feed, and just note the topic on which he spoke; was it racist, sexist, islamiphobic, etc. rather than reading for the quote.
But I read the speech Trump released yesterday and am stuck on his theft of Benjamin Franklin's phrasing to state, "Any nation that trades away its prosperity for security will end up losing both." This time, it's our liberty he's swindling from us with his paraphrase.
Further, it makes no sense in the context he is speaking because he makes no argument for national prosperity ever being sacrificed for the sake of security, so he's not using the phrase to further any argument in the speech. He's interjecting it because he's trying to get us used to the sound of the construction of the phrase to be referencing "prosperity" and not "liberty." He is coopting the phrase to replace the value of liberty with prosperity. This is every dictator's goal--to bribe the populace to give up our freedom.
Trump is priming his base here who he is hoping will forget Franklin's formulation and replace it with his own. He hopes we all will give up our liberty for the prosperity and security of the few, as this tax plan and cut back of regulations ensure. We can't let him corrupt the idea in how the Franklin quote has been traditionally deployed and must counter that the original phrase is about valuing liberty, and he's deliberately erasing this value every time he rephrases it. Pass it on.
A civil rights hero can also be a clueless white guy
Doug Jones, who just won the senate seat in Alabama over Roy Moore, took an important part in civil rights history. He successfully prosecuted the 1963 murder of 4 little black girls in the 16th St Baptist Church bombings when this case was reopened in the late 1990's. I did not know he was involved in that case until after the election because the so-called liberal press is not good at working historic accomplishments into headlines and bylines like it should be, and I didn't have time to sit down and read through the right articles. However, I knew a number of things about Moore's stands beyond the sensationalism of his sexual predation, because they were extreme, and our press is good at highlighting extreme views. Important, historic accomplishments are not less eye catching than the sensational and extreme view, but apparently the press has been directed to believe so. Despite media downplaying, Jones is a progressive with the historic cred to back it up.
However great Jones progressive credentials, he is unfortunately undermining the rights of women to be free of sexual harassment and have equal access to work and pay when he writes off the accusations against Trump for sexual predation as being a distraction. Jones stated that the charges against Trump should be dropped so that we can "get on with the real issues that are facing the people of this country right now." He may not have intended this statement to have impact on the entire #MeToo movement, but it does, and it takes a certain kind of self-absorbed chutzpah to devalue the women speaking up for their rights here with such a glib brush off.
Just because the exposure of sexual predation cases are sensational, does not mean they are not of prime importance to the liberty of at least half the population. Yes, of course a rape is a worse experience to go through than a butt slap. However, a butt slap can be just as effective to make a women drop out of a workspace where men are dominant by reminding her those dominant men consider her an object and toy, and will view her that way when she comes up for a raise or promotion.
And unfortunately, a survival strategy of many women in such an environment is to deny these messages and thus further internalize them so that they value themselves and other women less seriously than the men. This is why all forms of sexual harassment need to be taken as seriously as the the most gruesome cases of sexual abuse. If we had done more work on identifying and combating misogyny sooner, and had fought harder to get people of color to the polls, maybe we wouldn't be stuck with Trump for president and dealing with some of the extreme policy issues and human destruction we are now facing.
Liberty for All
We have to oppose Trump and the Republicans on multiple fronts. Devaluing sexual predation as a less serious issue than tax reform, or voting rights as less important than investing in our infrastructure, relieving Puerto Rico as less important than Houston will get us no where. We have to work on all these fronts together. They are all real issues affecting real people and are all of equal value and our undivided attention, in turns, as we can make them. Multitasking is damned hard, but it's what we need to do.
I hope Doug Jones can learn not to throw any of us under the bus in order for us all to move forward. He carries hopes and dreams of liberty for all of us.
To 2018 and more carriers of our hopes and dreams!
Giving up Liberty for Prosperity
I'm not a Twitter user and found my peace of mind easier to maintain when I stay away from media reports on Trump's feed, and just note the topic on which he spoke; was it racist, sexist, islamiphobic, etc. rather than reading for the quote.
But I read the speech Trump released yesterday and am stuck on his theft of Benjamin Franklin's phrasing to state, "Any nation that trades away its prosperity for security will end up losing both." This time, it's our liberty he's swindling from us with his paraphrase.
Further, it makes no sense in the context he is speaking because he makes no argument for national prosperity ever being sacrificed for the sake of security, so he's not using the phrase to further any argument in the speech. He's interjecting it because he's trying to get us used to the sound of the construction of the phrase to be referencing "prosperity" and not "liberty." He is coopting the phrase to replace the value of liberty with prosperity. This is every dictator's goal--to bribe the populace to give up our freedom.
Trump is priming his base here who he is hoping will forget Franklin's formulation and replace it with his own. He hopes we all will give up our liberty for the prosperity and security of the few, as this tax plan and cut back of regulations ensure. We can't let him corrupt the idea in how the Franklin quote has been traditionally deployed and must counter that the original phrase is about valuing liberty, and he's deliberately erasing this value every time he rephrases it. Pass it on.
A civil rights hero can also be a clueless white guy
Doug Jones, who just won the senate seat in Alabama over Roy Moore, took an important part in civil rights history. He successfully prosecuted the 1963 murder of 4 little black girls in the 16th St Baptist Church bombings when this case was reopened in the late 1990's. I did not know he was involved in that case until after the election because the so-called liberal press is not good at working historic accomplishments into headlines and bylines like it should be, and I didn't have time to sit down and read through the right articles. However, I knew a number of things about Moore's stands beyond the sensationalism of his sexual predation, because they were extreme, and our press is good at highlighting extreme views. Important, historic accomplishments are not less eye catching than the sensational and extreme view, but apparently the press has been directed to believe so. Despite media downplaying, Jones is a progressive with the historic cred to back it up.
However great Jones progressive credentials, he is unfortunately undermining the rights of women to be free of sexual harassment and have equal access to work and pay when he writes off the accusations against Trump for sexual predation as being a distraction. Jones stated that the charges against Trump should be dropped so that we can "get on with the real issues that are facing the people of this country right now." He may not have intended this statement to have impact on the entire #MeToo movement, but it does, and it takes a certain kind of self-absorbed chutzpah to devalue the women speaking up for their rights here with such a glib brush off.
Just because the exposure of sexual predation cases are sensational, does not mean they are not of prime importance to the liberty of at least half the population. Yes, of course a rape is a worse experience to go through than a butt slap. However, a butt slap can be just as effective to make a women drop out of a workspace where men are dominant by reminding her those dominant men consider her an object and toy, and will view her that way when she comes up for a raise or promotion.
And unfortunately, a survival strategy of many women in such an environment is to deny these messages and thus further internalize them so that they value themselves and other women less seriously than the men. This is why all forms of sexual harassment need to be taken as seriously as the the most gruesome cases of sexual abuse. If we had done more work on identifying and combating misogyny sooner, and had fought harder to get people of color to the polls, maybe we wouldn't be stuck with Trump for president and dealing with some of the extreme policy issues and human destruction we are now facing.
Liberty for All
We have to oppose Trump and the Republicans on multiple fronts. Devaluing sexual predation as a less serious issue than tax reform, or voting rights as less important than investing in our infrastructure, relieving Puerto Rico as less important than Houston will get us no where. We have to work on all these fronts together. They are all real issues affecting real people and are all of equal value and our undivided attention, in turns, as we can make them. Multitasking is damned hard, but it's what we need to do.
I hope Doug Jones can learn not to throw any of us under the bus in order for us all to move forward. He carries hopes and dreams of liberty for all of us.
To 2018 and more carriers of our hopes and dreams!
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