Aaron Sorkin’s letter to his wife and daughter

Aaron Sorkin’s letter to his wife and daughter

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Sorkin Girls, Well the world changed late last night in a way I couldn’t protect us from. That’s a terrible feeling for a father. I won’t sugarcoat it—this is truly horrible. It’s hardly the first time my candidate didn’t win (in fact it’s the sixth time) but it is the first time that a thoroughly incompetent pig with dangerous ideas, a serious psychiatric disorder, no knowledge of the world and no curiosity to learn has. And it wasn’t just Donald Trump who won last night—it was his supporters too. The Klan won last night. White nationalists. Sexists, racists and buffoons. Angry young white men who think rap music and Cinco de Mayo are a threat to their way of life (or are the reason for their way of life) have been given cause to celebrate. Men who have no right to call themselves that and who think that women who aspire to more than looking hot are shrill, ugly, and otherwise worthy of our scorn rather than our admiration struck a blow for misogynistic shitheads everywhere. Hate was given hope. Abject dumbness was glamorized as being “the fresh voice of an outsider” who’s going to “shake things up.” (Did anyone bother to ask how? Is he going to re-arrange the chairs in the Roosevelt Room?) For the next four years, the President of the United States, the same office held by Washington and Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, F.D.R., J.F.K. and Barack Obama, will be held by a man-boy who’ll spend his hours exacting Twitter vengeance against all who criticize him (and those numbers will be legion). We’ve embarrassed ourselves in front of our children and the world. And the world took no time to react. The Dow futures dropped 7,000 points overnight. Economists are predicting a deep and prolonged recession. Our NATO allies are in a state of legitimate fear. And speaking of fear, Muslim-Americans, Mexican-Americans and African-Americans are shaking in their shoes. And we’d be right to note that many of Donald Trump’s fans are not fans of Jews. On the other hand, there is a party going on at ISIS headquarters. What wouldn’t we give to trade this small fraction of a man for Richard Nixon right now? So what do we do?

Thought Experiment: Is it time for all good Liberals and Progressives to flood into the Green Party?

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I know, I know. Just read this and hear me out below the fold...
"As the center shifts right, liberals press closer to the center in order (being practical and realistic) to forestall the calamity of finding themselves too far out. As they rush in this direction, the equilibrium of the system necessarily shifts right again--and the cycle repeats...The secret of the whole process is the political vacuum on the left. There is no left opposition in American politics. It is this vacuum which pulls the new Right out of the walls." --Hal Draper, "The Ultra Right and the Liberals" (1962)

The Daily Delawhere – November 10, 2016

7xa6Xb Graffiti on some of the doors to Old Swedes Church, at 7th & Church Streets in Wilmington, is almost 200 years old. Carvings may be almost 300 years old. At the bottom of this door, a date of 1839 can be seen with some of the graffiti.

Clinton Statement

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Thank you. Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all…

The Trump Agenda – Plainly Worded

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I'm already seeing some revisionist history about what this Trump win means. It is hard to fathom because Trump didn't run on some secret agenda. He was right out in the open. These are the things he ran on, and the things Trump voters voted for: 1) Build a wall with Mexico (invoice them) 2) Overturn Obamacare 3) Overturn the constitutional right to gay marriage 4) Ban Muslim travel to the U.S. until we know "what's going on" 5) Jail Hillary 6) Stop and frisk blacks 7) Strip first amendment protections from the press 8) "Bomb the shit out of" ISIS 9) Enact extreme abortion restrictions 10) Be unpredictable with nuclear weapons 11) Soft pull out of NATO And for what it is worth, I believe he can do all of these things. He has been underestimated all along and has always prevailed, so his track record points to his getting these things if he still wants them once he is sworn in.

Dems Take Statewides Easily

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As expected Carney (58.34%), Hall-Long (59.44%), Blunt-Rochester (55.52%), and Navarro (59.28%) swept effortlessly into office. Nobody cracked 60%, but neither did they break a sweat. With the national outcome, I…

What is a Democrat?

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I'm sure there will be a great deal of analysis around the question of what went wrong. Errors will be discussed. This or that group will be questioned. Villains will be identified. The staggering sums of money spent on negative ads in the Philadelphia media market will be traced back to the "Citizens United" decision. There will be, in short, a lot of forensics. For me, it comes down to Democrats not having a clear sense of who we are as a party, and why voters should vote for us. We've fallen into identifying ourselves, not as what we are, but as what we aren't. Democrats aren't racists. We aren't homophobes. We aren't religious bigots or xenophobic. We aren't misogynists. Those are all good things to not be, but we also aren't... good at politics. We haven't knitted those identifiers into a compelling case for Democratic governance. I'm old enough to remember when it was widely known and accepted that being a Democrat meant being on the side of the little guy. We've lost that brand identity. This election we ceded that ground to a wealthy charlatan. A one-dimensional cartoon version of a rich guy. I suppose the silver lining is that we can't fall lower than this. After the forensics will come the rebuilding. Eventually, I'll listen to the acceptance speeches of John Carney, and the other Delaware Democrats who won last night. I'll be searching to find some foundation for the rebuilding. Some acknowledgment that being a Democrat means being on the side of the little guy.