[P2P-F] Fwd: Michel, I noticed you didn't open my last note to you--please open this one with our strategy for the Trump years ahead.

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tikkun Magazine <magazine at tikkun.org>
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: Michelsub2004 at gmail.com


[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                   RabbiLerner.Tikkun at gmail.com

 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: magazine at tikkun.org Web: www.tikkun.org

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