Winning

I've heard it said that there are two main ways America's political parties campaign. 

The first strategy is to tell voters that monsters hide under their beds. The monster might be Fascism, Communism, etc. It might be a school system so wealthy it can transport your child to a hospital and pay surgeons to change his sex. The monster might be an odd nation that for no reason empties its prisons and insane asylums and sends them to pillage and rape in Wisconsin. The monster might even be something as usual as assertive women or non-white men. 

The second strategy is to study the voters and find out what they want; then offer to meet their needs. 

Both strategies work at times. The second strategy kept the New Deal in power for decades. But the New Deal's secret was they actually tried to help ordinary people. They were credible.

Gerry

I thought that Trump's Gerrymandering would backfire (not the first time Gerrymandering has backfired). If you Gerrymander a state that already has been Gerrymandered three times, you really thin out your forces.  

The Daoists like to say that we should listen to ourselves and trust ourselves and do the right thing. No to Gerrymandering. 

 

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Reconstruction

After the Civil War, President Grant enforced civil rights laws in the South. 

As long as Grant was in charge, he made sure Black men could vote, hold office and own property. 

In 1877 Grant was termed out. Both political parties shifted from reconstructing a nation to Jim Crowing a minority, which lasted until Tuesday, when Black voters in the South gained great traction. In Georgia there were eight state officers elected. The eight winners were Black women. 

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Future

Without Texas, MAGA  is not a party that can control the House, Senate and presidency.  

The South is no longer a chunk of country where only white men count.  

We have a new, influential swing vote, which we call the Latinos.

Trump can barely keep himself upright and tottering toward a bed.

Reality has changed!

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Avarice

The worst crime against reality may be avarice. Elon Musk hordes billions of dollars for himself while children starve. Our civilization makes Musk possible. We should change that. 

Warhounds

Colossal Bioservices and others are using tech genetics to develop more useful war dogs, called "warhounds." These reshaped creatures will experience "augmented reality," perhaps connecting them more closely with the Dao.

I'm uneasy about dragging other species into our ethnic cleansings and genocides.   

The War Department already owns more than 2,000 regular K9 dogs. 

The new super-dogs have the support of the American Humane Society. 

Yes, they do. 

Warhounds will have a somewhat android appearance, embedded with communication devices, wearing bulletproof armor and so on. 

Bioservices swears that the new dogs will not be fitted out with extra teeth, sharp claws, bombs, blowpipes, grenades, bayonets, bioweapons or poison gas. 

Of course, in a war you do what you must to win. 

Coercion

In the past I listened to novelists and artists defend hierarchies in their creative fields. We believe in democracy, but we don't award the Pulitzer prize by asking the general public to take a vote. 

It seemed to me that a contradiction existed between "all people are created equal" and the hierarchies we create inside our families, in our churches, at the places we work, etc. 

I see now that the ancient Chinese addressed some of this. 

Because people are different, the Chinese wrote, there will be hierarchies. Some hierarchies are natural. Talent can rise to the top. The worst hierarchies are those that depend on coercion. 

President Trump would disagree, of course. A coward, he has wasted his life trying to coerce reality. 

Elizabeth, Who Knew My Daughter

Elizabeth Bennett died recently. A good person. I am noting this for a few people who may have lost track over the years.

Heaven and earth are not kind. Or unkind.

A Proper Diet

For breakfast I had an open-faced, peanut butter sandwich, three prunes and a glass of milk. I'm too old to get hungry, so for lunch I ate a black-and-white cookie and drank tea. In the evening I dined on See's candy and drank more tea. And I feel great.  

I don't recommend this approach to eating for other people. I'm a few weeks short of 92. I attribute my longevity to luck, which is unlikely to last. 

I smoked until I was 80, and by then I was really tired of smoking and stopped. It was easy. 

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