---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tikkun Magazine <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Dec 14, 2016 at 8:17 AM Subject: Michel, I noticed you didn't open my last note to you--please open this one with our strategy for the Trump years ahead. To: [email protected] [image: Tikkun Banner] Dear Michel, I promise if you read this letter through to the end you'll hear the outlines of an analysis that you'll never get in the mainstream media--and a strategy you won't hear from most people in the liberal or progressive world whose focus on resisting Trump is valuable, but not deep enough to keep the society from moving further to the right in the Trump years. But first let me share with you some more personal feelings. Watching the appointments being made by Trump to lead his administration, I'm in double mourning. First for the earth and all the human beings who are going to be deeply hurt by the policies these people and Trump himself pursue, probably the most right wing extremist-filled government we've had in the past hundred years, determined to dismantle programs for those most in need, bring back a vicious form of "law and order," weaken efforts to protect women's rights and efforts to undue racism, demonize Muslims, and destroy programs that seek to slow down the environmental crisis. Second I'm mourning for the failure of supposedly liberal Democrats when they get into office to actually fight for what they say they believe in, typically appointing to their administration's highest positions people who are centrist and some who are holdovers from Republican administration, presumably to show how "fair" they are trying to be to the people who didn't vote for them, but actually being unfair to thsoe who did vote for them. I can understand this about the appeal of people on the Right--they stand up for what they believe in and fight for it, not pretending that they are going to use their time in power to mollify those who don't agree with them. The bad news, of course, is that in so doing they have placed into power people with racist, homophobic and/or "serve the 1% and screw all the rest" proclivities that we have to resist. It’s important to celebrate each victory, so please remember that over two million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than voted for Donald Trump, and that had Democrats (after a similar popular vote victory for Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 election was similarly cancelled by the undemocratic mechanism of the Electoral College) begun the process of amending the Constitution to create direct democratic election of the President when they held the presidency and both houses of Congress in 2009, Hillary would have been President and her victory might have been described as “a landslide.” Even now, President Obama could be saying that Hillary won the popular vote, is actually real President of the U.S. that the majority chose, and should appoint a Shadow Cabinet so that they could from time to time present the policies that the majority would have gotten had this been a true democracy (thereby pushing the media to not allow only the voices of Trump's forces to dominate public discourse because they supposedly "won" the right to do so). But don't hold your breath, because the liberals are too often liberal about their liberalism, and that is one of the many reasons that people don't feel they can really trust them. *Tikkun magazine is needed now, and in the coming Trump years, more than ever*. And while our readers of our magazine and website share with millions of other Americans upset and fear about a presidential administration which already seems to be top-heavy with racists, sexists, anti-Semites and true reactionaries, and while we will fully support demonstrations like the Women’s March on Washington, D.C. scheduled for January 21st, the day after the Trump Inauguration, *Tikkun brings something that the Democrats and most of the liberal and progressive organizations don’t have: an actual strategy to make sure that these four years are not the prelude to a more general slide of the whole society in reactary directions. * But we can only be doing this work if YOU, Michel, can help us by making a tax-deductible contribution now. We really need your help. *Any donation would be deeply appreciated--$5 a month, $10 a month, whatever it is, it will help us greatly*. Go to www.tikkun.org/donate to see how easy it is to donate. For those who can afford more, we’ve received *a challenge grant* from a generous donor who will match any $1,000 donation (yes, all tax-deductible) with an equal amount if that happens before January 5, 2017. You don’t have to have that amount yourself—you can ask friends to donate and “bundle” their donation till you reach $1,000 or more, and then send that to us in checks or in a donation online at www.tikkun.org/donate <http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Xc2XoUZsD3ebq8Xgrcr0ZqZ%2BxoLVLVFJ>. (If you sent this letter to your friends and put it on your Facebook or other social media, you might find that 20 of them are excited enough by our strategy below to give $50 each to Tikkun, and then you'd have the $1,000 to get matched--and if you only got 5 or 10 of them do send you their checks for Tikkun, you'd still have done a wonderful deed--we call it a 'mitzvah' in Hebrew). But whether or not you help us with that matching grant, please donate as much as you possibly can—and then maybe just stretch a little beyond that. More info at the end of this letter. *Now, lets talk strategy!!!* The strategy for the Trump years ahead is multi-dimensional and is presented in the Winter 2017 issue of Tikkun magazine (which you get by donating $50 or more to Tikkun, or by joining the Network of Spiritual Progressives <http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2FoH78sGnCEt%2BuxNfV9HeWaZ%2BxoLVLVFJ> at the $50 level, or by subscribing directly to the magazine at www.tikkun.org/subscribe <http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=waPY5goCmwP%2BbSspQLkD76Z%2BxoLVLVFJ> ). What I can present in this letter is only one part of it. One dimension of that strategy is this: *the progressive forces need to split the Right, challenging the racists, sexists, homphobes, Islamophobes, antiSemites, and bullies on the one hand, while empathizing and speaking to the pain of the other section of the Trump constituency that was responding to real pain in their lives and who do not necessarily agree with the bullies, racists, sexists, etc. *These may only represent 30% of the Right, but they are enough to make a huge difference in national and state politics. As Tikkun has been saying since we started thirty years ago, based on the lessons I learned as principal investigator of an NIMH-sponsored research project in which my team uncovered central aspects of the psychodynamics of the lives of many Americans, the pain that makes them susceptible to Right-wing demagoguery has multiple sources: 1. The corrosive and destructive ethos of materialism and selfishness and "looking out for number one" fostered by the competitve marketplace and reinforced by the mainstream media, its sitcoms, its “reality t.v.” shows that made Trump famous, and the ongoing message that force, violence, and bullying is ok if you are doing for "the right cause" (hence all the shows about police triumphing over bad guys (often represented as people of color). This valuing of "looking out for number one" is a central factor in the breakdown of families, friendships and a sense of loneliness and alienation that is part of the daily experience of many Americans. 2, The major self-justification of massive inequality produced by the competitivet marketplace: the claim that we live in a meritocracy which rewards merit—internalized by many as self-blame if they haven’t made it economically or in their personal relationships, and uinintentionally reinforced by a pop-psychology and pop-spirituality which preaches "you make your own reality" as though there was no class structure, no wildly unequal distribution of wealth and power in this society 3. The demeaning way the Left deals with people who are not yet with us, assuming them to be stupid or evil--just read the way that message has pervaded Facebook and Twitter and the internet since Trump was elected, but it has been heard over and over again by many people who are not yet with us, and they feel shamed, humiliated, and then, angry at that message 4. The demenaing on the Left of religious or spiritual people which makes many Americans feel that the Left has contempt for them. And these points are just headlines—I could easily understand if you don’t agree with all this until you read the more nuanced presentation of these ideas in the 2017 issue of Tikkun. So here is another element Tikkun brings that the Left needs so badly: *a positive vision of the world we are for, not just what we are against!! You can read it at www.tikkun.org/covenant <http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=gGT%2FPfZpBxggFM8xVLBdgqZ%2BxoLVLVFJ>. * The important point is, Tikkun has a strategy that goes beyond the “resist” the Trump Administration’s worst acts, affirming a resistance strategy but going beyond to open the conversation about how to* build a broader liberal and progressive constituency which begins with how we change ourselves so that people feel us affirming rather than shaming and blaming them*! And doing that *without for a moment relaxing our struggle against racism, sexism, etc. * This is one of many reasons why it is so important to keep Tikkun going—and that, sadly enough, depends on your willingness to help us out with a tax-deductible donation. You can send a check to Tikkun, 2342 Shattuck Ave, #1200 , Berkeley, Ca. 94704. Your can pay by credit card either by going to www.tikkun.org/donate <http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Z8qrFaIOR0JePYPwqYVFVKZ%2BxoLVLVFJ> or by giivng your credit card info by calling our office between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, Monday to Friday 510-644 1200. You can arrange a monthly donation plan at whatever level feels comfortable to you by speaking to Staci at that number!! You might also consider giving a subscription to Tikkun magazine as a holiday gift ($29 for the first gift and $18 for each subsequent gift). Send us your list of people and their home address where they would receive the print magazine and email address where they would receive an email from us notifying them of your generous and sophisticated gift—and tell us whether you prefer referencing this as a gift for Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or simply “because they care about you.” Or simply buy subscriptions on line at www.tikkun.org/subscribe <http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=udBvTa6SiKYXTtrtsbwqYaZ%2BxoLVLVFJ> (but then *you *have to tell them personally that the reason they are getting this gift is because you bought it for them). Meanwhile, many blessings to you for a wonderful holiday season ahead, and for a year in which social and economic justice, environmental sanity, kindness, generosity of spirit, an end to violence, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islasmophobia, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and a triump of caring for each other and for everyone on the planet make a powerful comeback despite everything that works in the opposite direction!! And much love to you!! Michael Rabbi Michael Lerner Editor, Tikkun [email protected] P.S. *Please act now to give us the support Tikkun so badly needs!!!* And don’t forget the matching grant—if you can give or raise $1,000 by Jan. 5 it will be matched by our donor. But whatever you give will be deeply appreciated. Copyright 2016 Tikkun Magazine 2342 Shattuck Ave. #1200, Berkeley , CA 94704 Phone: (510)-644-1200 Email: [email protected] Web: www.tikkun.org Click here to unsubscribe <http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=sEBBv5%2Bmk5S8IppH2Tjx4qZ%2BxoLVLVFJ> [image: empowered by Salsa] <http://www.salsalabs.com/?email> -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens