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Nancy Collins's avatar

Overall a good column.

But I have to raise at least one eyebrow at one of the last paragraphs. “How did we get into this mess? It was all very predictable…We…moved so far to the left that it was inevitable that one day we would move off the charts to the right, leaving the country ripe for a dictator. “

So, when we move too far to the left, that’s the fault of people on the left.

And also, when we move too far to the right, that is somehow ALSO the fault of people on the left.

Are folks on the right ever expected to take responsibility for their decisions?

The country did move a little bit to the left for a while. Not a lot. Not nearly as far as plenty of other successful democracies around the world.

Now the pendulum has swung ridiculously, dangerously far in the other direction, any and all progress has been erased and reversed.

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Mary B's avatar

Your piece has some excellent points, but I object to calling out women & minorities for not doing enough. For years I have been part of the local groups that work hard to counter 47's excesses and those groups are overwhelmingly middle aged (or older) women. In fact last night 40+ (almost all women) of us crowded into meeting rooms at the downtown CRRL to make signs for the April 5 protests happening all over the country. Both populations (women & minorities) have been at the front and center of numerous battles for equality and basic rights taken for granted by white men for centuries. If fewer are stepping forward now it may be due to justifiable fear of being targeted, or just plain exhaustion. You would do better to stir your fellow white men to help take up the charge than to scold those who have been in the fray for so very, very long.

Related to that, I am sincerely grateful whenever I see a white male stepping up to help, including in your piece, even with my other objection which is to your conclusion, that we " just sit by and watch as a man who declared bankruptcy six times leads us down the road to financial ruin, attempts to steal foreign lands and makes us an all-white, all-male America again."

Seriously? This is where you left us? I think you were being wry, I hope you were being wry. But I much prefer to take as my mantra and inspiration the 25+ hour speech from Senator Cory Booker who showed amazing skill, fortitude and love of country over that extended period. He reminds us that "The power of the people is greater than the people in power" and that is the message I wish you had concluded with.

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