I have been thoroughly convinced that the unthinking fanatic devotees to Trump actually represent a political cult, the definition of which was described many years ago as follows:

”Although we live in a democracy, cult behavior manifests itself in an unwillingness to question the judgment of leaders and the tendency to devalue outsiders.”

I did some research and found a number of characteristics of cults and their followers which are chillingly descriptive of this dangerous, destructive sheep like following:

·        Opposing news is ridiculed and misrepresented.

·        Claims of special exalted status for leaders.

·        The ends justify whatever means are necessary.

·        Unwillingness to question judgment of leaders.

·        Outsiders are devalued.

·        Critical thinking is opposed.

·        Seeking inappropriate loyalty.

·        Dishonoring the family unit.

·        Unreasonable fear about the outside world.

·        No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.

·        Belief that the leader is always right.

·        If the leader is questioned, it is characterized as persecution (i.e., witch hunt).

·        Anything the leader does can be justified, no matter how harmful.

·        One standard for the followers and another for the leader.

·        An “Us against them” attitude and philosophy.

·        Focus on an imagined enemy.

·        No meaningful financial disclosures.

·        Documented abuses of the leader.

·        Pathological fear of dissent and demonizing dissenters.

It’s not just our imagination.  These people really are robotic members of the cult of Trump.

Many states are having primary elections, including here in Colorado.  And, of course, midterms will be coming in November.  I am actively participating in the election campaign of Jason Crow for Congress in the 6^th District.  I know there are many who feel that their vote won’t count for much or that voting itself is unimportant.  Both of those positions are inaccurate.  Here’s a bit of a history lesson.

George W. Bush won the Presidency in 2000 over Al Gore (who actually had 543,000 more total popular votes) by a disputed 537 Florida votes.  Trump won the Presidency in 2016 by carrying Wisconsin by 22,748 votes, Pennsylvania by 44,292 votes and Michigan by 13,225 votes – a total of around 80,000 votes, and over 90 million eligible voters didn’t vote.  Hillary Clinton had a popular vote margin of nearly 2.9 million votes.  In 1960, John Kennedy won the Presidency by a margin of approximately 100,000 votes.  In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes won the popular vote by approximately 250,000 votes.  And, of course, more recently, Doug Jones defeated Roy Moore in the Alabama special election to fill Jeff Sessions’ Senate seat by around 20,000 votes, and a Virginia House of Delegates election came down to 1 vote.  There are many instances of elections being won or lost by very small margins, so it is really true that every vote counts.

And, voting truly is a privilege.  African American men were unable to vote legally until the 15^th Amendment passed in 1870 but were powerless to exercise the right freely until the Civil Rights laws of 1966.  Women did not receive the vote until the 19^th Amendment was passed in 1920.  Native Americans were not considered U.S. citizens until 1924 and many states prohibited them from voting until 1957.  Residents of U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico, are only allowed to vote in primaries, not general elections.

The Nuremberg Laws passed in Germany in 1935 disenfranchised Jews from the right to vote.  Women were not granted the right to vote in Qatar until 2003, in Kuwait until 2005 and in Saudi Arabia until 2015.  Severely restricted racial voting rights were prevalent in the Apartheid years of South Africa.  In fact, South African black women didn’t receive the right to vote until 1994.

Interestingly, 22 nations, with an estimated 744 million people, make voting mandatory.  Should we have this in the United States?  Probably not.  But we should encourage this right and privilege.  If you do not vote, you bear an even greater responsibility for the election’s outcome.

I’m pissed off, but we’re all being pissed on.

A United States Senator said, “Shall we first take care of our own children, our citizens, our country, or shall we bestow our charity on children imported from abroad?”  No, this wasn’t last year or last month but in March, 1939, in response to efforts to bring Jewish children to America to save them from the Nazis.

If you are unfamiliar with the anti-Semitic and anti-immigration position of a majority of Americans in the 1930’s, read the book or watch the HBO documentary entitled 50 Children: One Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany, by Steven Pressman, from which the above quote is taken.  Another excellent reference which illuminates the complicity of the German public with Nazi anti-Semitism and the ensuing Holocaust is the book entitled Hitler’s Willing Executioners by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen.

Until the past few years, when I was researching my ancestral roots, I was unaware of my familial connection to the Holocaust.  My maternal grandfather and his siblings immigrated to the United States in the late 1800’s from a small town in what was then Austria but through most of history has been part of Poland.  Much of the rest of his extended family remained in the town in which Jews had been forbidden to live during the 16^th to 18^th century.  During Austrian rule in the 19^th century, the Jewish population grew but was at best a poor community and eventually began to decline.  My family, however, represented over 10% of the Jewish population of the town in the 1930’s.  Those who were left continued to live there under German occupation, until August 13, 1942.  On that day, the Jews were ordered to assemble in the city square.  The children, the old and the sick, including at least 25 members of my family, were taken to a forest and shot.  The few who were able to work were used as slave labor until they were eventually exterminated at the Belzec Concentration Camp.  I have in my possession the Holocaust Center records of my family victims.

Had my grandfather not been an immigrant, I would not be here to write this.

And so, until my last breath, I will continue to fight the creeping intolerance, racism, fear-mongering and fascism of Trumpism.  The lives of my children and grandchildren depend on it.

They’re deciding where to hold the 10 year reunion of Trump Administration departures, and there seems to be a consensus on meeting in Trump’s prison gym.

There are currently boycotts against sponsors of Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity.  Some say economic boycotts don’t work, but let’s take a look at the impact of a few of them:

·        In the late 19^th century in Ireland, Captain Charles Boycott was shunned after refusing to negotiate with tenants.  He was driven out of town.  Hence, the terminology.

·        As a result of the British Stamp Act of 1765 taxing the colonies, American colonists began boycotting British goods.  The Stamp Act was repealed in 1766.

·        In 1791, there was a boycott in England of sugar produced by slaves.  Sales of sugar dropped by 1/3 to 1/2, rallying abolitionists in a common cause.  Slavery in England was abolished in the mid-1800s.

·        The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 to 1956, after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, caused severe economic distress, and the city relented and passed an ordinance allowing black passengers to sit anywhere they chose on buses.

·        The United Farm Workers 1965 to 1970 grape boycott educated middle class families about poor farm workers, and millions stopped eating grapes.  In 1970 grape growers signed their first union contracts.

·        The Johnson & Johnson boycott was initiated over harmful chemicals in baby shampoo.  As a result, Johnson & Johnson reformulated all of its baby products.

·        In 1986, the International Marine Mammal Project organized a consumer boycott of tuna to end tuna fishing practices which were killing dolphins by tuna companies.  Today 90% of these companies don’t harm dolphins.

So, voting with your wallet can work!

WE MARCHED.

I knew why we were going.  To paraphrase Lawrence O’Donnell, whom I had watched the evening before:  The NRA has made it possible for American mass murderers to be the best equipped in the world.

This wasn’t our first rodeo, so to speak, since we had joined a march and rally last year, but I still wasn’t certain how many would be joining us.  When we reached the Park N Ride to take the light rail train to downtown Denver, I immediately knew that this was different.  We were the first stop on a train ride that is normally sparsely populated on a Saturday afternoon, but there were lines waiting to purchase tickets.  Mind you, this was in the middle of an affluent, highly conservative area.  I might have guessed there was another event happening downtown, except that everyone was carrying signs.  We purchased our tickets in the nick of time and hurried to the train that was just arriving. It had to deviate off schedule to allow the massive boarding, and by the time it departed, there was no sitting or standing room left with many still outside waiting for the next train.

We sat across from a nurse and like everyone else on the train struck up a conversation.  Her family were gun owners, but this was different.  Her middle schooler and high school student were with her and told us of their active shooter drills.  Her daughter would be voting in the next election.  Yes, we were on the right track.

At the Convention Center stop, the train disgorged and we began the several block walk to Civic Center Park where the rally was to be held.  Because the students had gathered first, we were nowhere near the speaker platform, but that was the purposeful intent.  I took note of some of my favorite signs:  “Respect existence or expect resistance,” “Our leaders are acting like children, so the children must act like leaders,” “School shooters are not a regulated militia,” “When your peers are being murdered, you become an adult by default,” “Read books, not obituaries,” “Actually, guns do kill people,” “I signed up to be a teacher, not a first responder,” “I suggest we put a teacher in every gun store,” “I should be writing my college essay, not my obituary,” “Betsy DeVos is the only thing that should be fired inside a school,” “The children almost broken by the world will become the adults most likely to change it,” and on the back of a dog, “NRA, why did you kill my best friend?”  Our signs must have struck a note, because they were photographed dozens of times – “Grandparents Marching to Save Lives,” and “Grandparents Can Be Tigers If the Cubs are Threatened.”  There were many young people there, but quite a few oldies but goodies like ourselves.  There also seemed to be numerous teachers present, with a very large contingent of Montessori staff.

The speakers began.  I will not go into detail because the media will have covered them well, but they were both survivors of massacres and relatives of victims.  During the speeches, which lasted close to two hours, a plane flew overhead, trailing a banner which criticized one of our Senators who has taken almost $4 million from the NRA.  At one point, it was announced that we had completely filled Civic Center Park.  We cheered.  We knew that what began as an idea and turned into a rally had now become a movement.

Then the march began.  The most interesting thing to me is that it seemed that virtually everyone in downtown Denver was part of this.  People were even leaning out of parking structures.  I had wondered beforehand if there might be any counter demonstrations, but not a single one was visible.  We marched for almost an hour and returned to the park, where it was almost as if those present were somewhat reluctant to end this statement of principle.  We walked back to the train stop, and apparently the crowds had disrupted the schedule so that we waited for a very long time for our train to arrive.  If we thought the trip down was crowded, this one was bulging at the seams.  We had to stand at a door well and watched as at each stop, people were disappointed that no more could get on.

Those were the mechanics of yesterday but now I will add my thoughts.  You must remember that these demonstrations were planned, organized and executed by young people.  There are those who say that teenagers couldn’t have done this.  I beg to differ.  Yes, the students from Stoneman Douglas are amazing.  But the over 800 worldwide marches were conceived and executed by other students, equally competent, articulate and committed.  Perhaps those who doubt these students’ abilities were exceptionally underperforming teenagers.  I remember being 17 years old and in charge of arranging housing and transportation to hundreds of students coming into Denver for a convention.  Our teenagers are our future.  As I watched some national coverage last evening, I was struck by something one of the interviewers said.  When he asked a volunteer who was stationed in Washington, D.C. to register new voters (there were many of those in Denver, as well) if he had had a successful day, the volunteer replied that he hadn’t signed up the numbers he had expected, because so many he asked responded that they had already registered.  The tide is turning.

To end, there are a lot of adjectives and adverbs that were engendered yesterday:  admiration, excitement, involvement, inspirational, hopeful, determined, aware, proud, powerful, passionate, grief, commitment, and yes, exhaustion.

On the short drive home from the train stop, I said these words, “I hope we did some good.”  I think maybe we did.

Dear Stoneman Douglas Students:

It is with a heavy heart of an almost 70 year old grandfather that I write to you today.  When I was an elementary school child during the height of the Cold War, we too had practice drills.  Ours were called “civil defense” exercises, during which we were rehearsing responses to a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union.  Depending on the predicted imminence of the attack, we were to follow a specified procedure.  If the strike was suspected to be immediate, we were to “duck and cover” under our desks.  If the warning gave us an additional minute or so, we were to go into the hallway, lean against the wall and clasp our hands behind our necks.  A bit more advance warning meant that we could gather in the windowless basement of the school building.  If a few hours were expected, the planned response was practiced one time only – designated parents were to come to the school, load their vehicles with children and drive them into the mountains to presumed safety.  The impossible logistics of this option led to its elimination.

Once the dangers of the fifties passed, I hoped that my children would never have to experience the unnerving drills, let alone the horror of an actual event, and for quite some time it looked as if that were to be the case.  Then came Columbine.  My children attended a high school very close to Columbine and were deeply affected.  We attended a memorial service for the fallen, at which time somewhat meaningless platitudes were provided by a politician and a clergyman.  I was not satisfied but hoped this was a one off event.  I was wrong.  One after another horrific day occurred – years later even at the precise school my children had attended.  And now it has unbearably descended upon you.

And so, my young heroes, I write to you not only with thoughts and prayers but with some advice from the elderly.  Do not stand for it.  Do not allow anyone to tell you that you are too young and don’t know what you are doing.  Do not accept any rationale given for what has happened.  Do not stay silent when they say someone is putting you up to it.  Ask them to find the checks if they claim you are being paid.  Do not let any self-serving politicians or television personalities impede you.  Organize, march, protest, register, vote.  Most importantly, let no one ignore you.  You are the survivors, not they.

You have the power and have already proven the strength of your resolve.  Continue and you will gather thousands to your side.  You are the hope of my grandchildren’s future, and I have much grandfatherly pride in you, even though I have never met a single one of you.

Nazi runs as Republican for Illinois Congressional seat.  He must be one of Trump’s “very fine people.”

Here’s a very partial list of those whom Trump has insulted:

John McCain, George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Anderson Cooper, Lindsay Graham, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, President Obama, Bernie Sanders, Chuck Todd, George Will, Lisa Murkowski, Jeff Sessions, James Comey, Robert Mueller, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Snoop Dog, Democrats, Dick Durbin, Chicago, Dianne Feinstein, Jeff Flake, New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, Robert Gates, Meryl Streep, Kirsten Gillibrand, Whoopi Goldberg, Chuck Todd, Nikki Haley, The Justice Department, Hamilton, Mexico, Obamacare, Doug Jones, Nancy Pelosi, Kim Jong Un, George Papadopoulos, Michael Wolff, protestors, George Will, Amazon, Bill Kristol, Megyn Kelly, Dreamers, Rand Paul, Colin Kaepernick, Tim Kaine, Obamacare, Iran, Congress, United States, Today Show, Hollywood, Al Franken, Bill Clinton, Chris Christie, F.B.I., Chicago, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Facebook, Emmy Awards, People’s Choice Awards, Meet the Press, Megyn Kelly, LaVar Ball, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Paul Ryan, Saturday Night Live, Cory Booker, Donna Brazile, Joy Behar, Richard Blumenthal, Steve Bannon, Rod Rosenstein, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Alec Baldwin, Macy’s, Michael Bloomberg, NATO, United Nations, Wall Street Journal, the disabled, Muslims, African Americans, Asians, Michelle Obama, Hispanics, Jews, women, the White House, Khizr Khan, Carly Fiorina, Pope Francis, Haiti, El Salvador, Africa, Michael Wolff, Heidi Klum, journalists, late night hosts, Rosie O’Donnell, Robert DeNiro, Mark Cuban, Rick Perry, John Kasich, Elizabeth Warren, the media, U.S. Post Office, Bob Corker, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Irish Americans, Charles Krauthammer, Academy Awards, Brian Williams, Chris Matthews, immigrants, television networks, Arianna Huffington, Puerto Rico, U.S. military, Air Force One, Native Americans, gays and lesbians, widow of a Green Beret, holocaust survivors, voters, Harvard, Australia, Sweden, etc., etc., etc.

Notably absent:  Russia, Vladimir Putin, NRA, Ivanka, Jared, Don Jr., Eric, Stormy Daniels, Melania, his ex-wives who were paid off, Fox News, tanning spray, Norway.