Storm und Frum

A tweetstorm’s tweetstorm from David Frum:

Slicing away one’s memory lobes an excellent basis for decision-making, so sure (he said with heavy sarcasm). [A Fresh Start for Trump!]

Let’s have a fresh start and forget that the president-elect owes his victory in large part to aid by a hostile foreign intelligence agency

Let’s have a fresh start and pretend that the president-elect didn’t alert allies and enemies that America may ignore its NATO pledges

Let’s have a fresh start and forget that the president-elect remains committed to a religious test for the rights of citizenship

Let’s have a fresh start and never mind that the president elect is a confessed serial sexual assailant

Let’s have a fresh start and who cares that the new administration is already developing fraternal ties to fascist parties in Europe

Let’s have a fresh start and believe that it doesn’t matter that the president-elect owes hundreds of millions to the Bank of China

Let’s have a fresh start, because who is bothered that black, brown, & Muslim fellow citizens have been demeaned and feel terrified?

Let’s have a fresh start, and hope that pro-Trump trolls will cease bullying women into silencing themselves on social media

Let’s have a fresh start, because it will take time to learn how the president-elect has prostituted his office for personal gain

Let’s have a fresh start, because 70 year old men afflicted by narcissistic personality disorder often suddenly become better people

Lets have a fresh start, because it’s only fair play to give would-be kleptocrats a 6-month head start before we act to stop them

Let’s have a fresh start, because Trump’s contemptuous assumption of media gullibility is fully justified.

On Trump’s Final Argument for America: “Corruption”

Lessig lays down what I think are the key take-aways for the Democratic party. Read the whole thing, but I think he nails the “barring disaster, here’s the way forward:

"Trump is not going to “drain the swamp.” He is not going to reform the system. In two years, if the Democrats finally learn to speak the language of America, there will be an endless list of examples of just how the Republicans once again sold out. 2018 could be a shot for the Democrats to gain control of Congress. And if it gains control with the right commitments, it could then enact the reform that would begin to convince America that it might—finally—have a democracy.”

Yep. Not going to come easily, but assuming the institutions survive, this is how we do it.

On Trump’s Final Argument for America: “Corruption”