Trump gave us a preview of his campaign themes in his two speeches July 4 weekend. Nothing surprising in either one. Both were all about grievance and resentment (especially white), reality was turned on its head, historical analogies were false, the coronavirus barely appeared, racial justice was a no show, and lies filled the texts. In other words, Trump was Trump.

Trump gave us a preview of his campaign themes in his two speeches July 4 weekend. Nothing surprising in either one. Both were about grievance and resentment (especially white), reality was turned on its head, historical analogies were false, the coronavirus barely appeared, racial justice was a no show, and lies filled the texts. In other words, Trump was Trump.

If somebody broke into your house and killed some family members would you allow someone to erect a stature on your front lawn to honor them. I wouldn’t. An if someone tried, I would tear it down. That’s sort of what I think about statues honoring confederate generals and politicians. They killed members of the family as well as defended an inhuman system of racial exploitation and oppression. Shouldn’t honor them in any way, let alone put up statures for their treason and bloodletting.

The reduction of the Democratic Party to neoliberals on one side and progressives and left people on the other is a mistake of a high order. If persisted in, it will result in strategic and tactical blunders. And who needs such blunders as we head into what is, at least, the most important election in our lifetimes.

Quite a long, but interesting article. Upon finishing it, I began thinking about my own silences and complicity during my years in the communist party. Whenever I shake the dust off my mini memoir (maybe that makes it sound more than it is) and resume writing, I will have to give this dynamic more attention than I perhaps would have. Silences and complicity happen in many settings. Some are big and consequential like the ones the writer in the article describes, some not so much. Mine (and most people’s) comfortably fit into the latter.