Just around the corner

Looks like Spring in Albuquerque.

I put some lettuce plants in a bed beside the south side of the house a few days ago.  They survived the last of the cool nights we'll have for a while, and they look healthy.  The pots on my desk are lettuce and zucchini.  The lettuce sprouted in a couple days.  Amazing.

The Enablers

Not yet a month into the Trump era and it is not at all clear if The Donald will continue to play the clown or get past that to become the authoritarian despot he aspires to be.  He faces a steep challenge as he is so ignorant of techniques of governance and diplomacy, and seems to have no fundamental understanding of important social and economic issues.

In the meantime, it is all too obvious that Trump is disruptive and dangerous.  His rants and crude bullying are causing consternation in capitals around the world and there is a growing fear that he will push the wrong button, either inadvertently or on purpose.  That said, while Trump may be unique in his unsuitability as a sitting President, he is probably not that unlike other historical despots.  Hitler and Mussolini also exhibited a lot of clown-like behavior that was fodder for satirists.  However, that did not ultimately prevent them from causing death and destruction on a massive scale.

Of course, the accomplishments of the great despots were not theirs alone.  They relied on the acquiescence of millions and the skilled manipulations of an inner circle.  Stalin had Malenkov and Beriia.  Hitler leaned on Speer, Hess, Goebbels and many other skilled propagandists like Leni Riefenstahl.

Regardless of the arc of his personal development, Trump's path through history will be largely guided by those around him who have the skills he lacks.  The rigors of the political process will weed out many of the sycophants and incompetents like Flynn, but political and constitutional processes will not prevent the ascension to power of the enablers like Tillerson, Sessions, Mnuchin, Ross, Coats, Perry, Carson, Zinke, Perdue, Shulkin, Mattis, Kelly, DeVos, Puzder, Chao and Price.

UPDATE:

The good news:  Puzder is out as Labor Secretary.
Not so good:  The guy who nominated Puzder is still (sometimes) in the White House.

The reasons for the withdrawal included the likelihood of four Republican senators voting against confirmation.  The reasons for that and other factors are dissected in a post at 538.

More Resistancce Resources

Carolyn Carlson at the Weekly Alibi authored a good article on current resistance activity which included the following list of national and local New Mexico resources:

www.Moveon.org

https://www.indivisibleguide.com

https://www.womensmarch.com

http://workingfamilies.org

https://dailyaction.org

https://www.runforsomething.net

https://5calls.org

https://www.resistancemanual.org/Resistance_Manual_Home

https://www.aclu.org

Local resources include:

http://progressnownm.org

http://abqpeaceandjustice.org

http://www.abqresistance.com

Time for a reminder

Following orders is not a valid defense for human rights abuse.

No Exceptions

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Seeking an explanation

One of the blogs I follow regularly is No Caption Needed.  As the "About" page there says: "No Caption Needed is a blog dedicated to public discussion of the role that photojournalism and other visual practices play in a vital democratic society." The posts at the blog deliver thoughful ideas about photography, something that is seldom accomplished eslewhere.  The last installment takes up the question of what photographs of the election period made a significant contribution to the largely unexpected Trump win.  The conclusion reached by the blog authors was that the role of photography and photojournalism was insignificant compared to an over-all failure based on language and logic.

I don't disagree with the No Caption Needed take on the question posed, but explaining something that did not happen is not in the end very revealing.  It seems to me that it might have been more useful to point out that the failure of photojournalism to come to grips with Trump and his followers was part of a larger failure of journalism in general.  Also overlooked was the fact that photojournalism is inextricably intertwined with words, unlike photography that is conducted for more purely aesthetic ends.  And, finally, some respect needs to be given to the well-known fact that people hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see.

I also think it is possible to move a step closer to an explanation of the role of images in the political process with the thought that both supporters and opponents of Trump are seeing essentially the same thing when they look at either still or moving images of the guy, and that they are actually arriving at many of the same conclusions regarding Trump's character.  I don't think it requires  a college degree to perceive that Trump is an ignorant, arrogant narcissist.  I do think many, perhaps most, Trump supporters see Trump as exactly that kind of person.  What differentiates the supporters from the opponents is that the former believes it is ok to have such a flawed personality in the Presidency.  It is a cynical and desperate viewpoint, for sure, and it overlooks a lot of potential fallout, but it don't think it is a question of misjudging character.

There is a useful analogy available which I think supports the foregoing analysis.  Consider for a moment the TV ads promoting the sleazy, ambulance-chasing lawyers who promise to aggressively represent people who have been the victims of accidents, bad luck and general powerlessness.  While the personalities are repellent and the message implies no particular adherence to real principles of justice, those characteristics clearly have some appeal for people confronting a desperate reality.  I think a lot of Trump supporters see themselves in a similar position regarding the possibilities of their individual futures.  Which is not to say that such a world view is representative of all of Trump's backers.  In fact, Trump supporters have been shown to be doing better economically than the average.  But, that is another piece of the story, the details of which need to be teased out by other means.

So, in the end there is no single magic key to explaining the Trump phenomenon.  My own view is that the media focus on Presidential politics has tended to obscure underlying causes of the current disaster.  I think the real answer to Trumpism is more likely to be found in local, grassroots organizing which can effectively combat hopeless and desperation.  Whether there is time now for that process to take place before disaster overwhelms us all is an open question.

Resources

Well, this is actually a post about politics.  I know, I know; you're sick of the subject.  But, hey, we've got to find a way to evict that squatter from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, and I did give you a nice cat picture.

The first step is to find reliable information sources about local politics.  So, here is my short list:

The New Mexico Legislature Web Site:
Info on current bills, legislators, and web casts of the sessions.

NMPolitics.net:
On line news about what's going on in Santa Fe and around the State.

New Mexico in Depth:
Trip Jennings is Executive Director of this on line political news site.

The Santa Fe New Mexican:
Santa Fe's daily newspaper gets a lot closer to reality than the right-tilt Albuquerque Journal.

New Mexico Politics with Joe Monahan:
A daily dose of political gossip.  Monahan is a gun-for-hire, but he often gets the story right.

Democratic Party Town Hall Meetings:
I went to the recent one in Albuquerque at The Hotel Blue which provided a report on the beginning of the Legislative session.  Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino always does a great job as moderator.  Click the link to send a message to get the date for the end-of-session meeting.