<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div></div><div>I think the first step is to respect the 'will of the people', rather than respond with this wholesale mourning, as though the election of Hilary Clinton would have been a win for progressives. We knew there was little to choose between them. But the reaction this morning is of tears of frustration and people stunned that they 'lost'. That anyone could stand up to the official machinery of media campaigns and accusations should give us some hope, that the people can think for themselves. But then they choose something we don't like. And all hell breaks loose. At least among 'progressives'. </div><div><br></div><div>Anna</div><div><br>On 10 Nov 2016, at 08:02, Denis Postle <<a href="mailto:denis.postle@gmail.com">denis.postle@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
  
    <meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
  
  
    Yes, and...<br>
    “If it is a sudden change in status to a once dominant group that
    drives electorates to the far right, as political scientist Roger
    Petersen has argued – then we have to start with the biggest change
    in status of all time. That is the reproductive shock that began 50
    years ago, with the pill, which has put women into boardrooms,
    frontline combat roles and, more relevantly, control over who they
    have sex with, and when, and how.” <a href="https://gu.com/p/5b5ee/sbl">https://gu.com/p/5b5ee/sbl</a><br>
    from Paul Mason Guardian today<br>
    <br>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/10/2016 8:18 AM, Michel Bauwens
      wrote:<br>
    </div>
    <blockquote cite="mid:CAK_2xiKmQO+Sg5PGAsnoTaU_1ZYhP99XgeuW+tVwmYk9WXY7Zw@mail.gmail.com" type="cite">
      <div dir="ltr">I strongly agree with Michael Lerner's approach
        here:
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div>"<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/opinion/election-night-2016/stop-shaming-trump-supporters">http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/opinion/election-night-2016/stop-shaming-trump-supporters</a></div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div>"<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14pt">The right
            has been very successful at persuading working people that
            they are vulnerable not because they themselves have failed,
            but because of the selfishness of some other villain
            (African-Americans, feminists, immigrants, Muslims, Jews,
            liberals, progressives; the list keeps growing).</span></div>
        <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;font-size:12.8px;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Instead of
            challenging this ideology of shame, the left has buttressed
            it by blaming white people as a whole for slavery, genocide
            of the Native Americans and a host of other sins, as though
            whiteness itself was something about which people ought to
            be ashamed. The rage many white working-class people feel in
            response is rooted in the sense that once again, as has
            happened to them throughout their lives, they are being
            misunderstood.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;font-size:12.8px;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">So please
            understand what is happening here. Many Trump supporters
            very legitimately feel that it is they who have been facing
            an unfair reality. The upper 20 percent of income earners,
            many of them quite liberal and rightly committed to the
            defense of minorities and immigrants, also believe in the
            economic meritocracy and their own right to have so much
            more than those who are less fortunate. So while they may be
            progressive on issues of discrimination against the obvious
            victims of racism and sexism, they are blind to their own
            class privilege and to the hidden injuries of class that are
            internalized by much of the country as self-blame.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;font-size:12.8px;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">The right’s
            ability to portray liberals as elitists is further
            strengthened by the phobia toward religion that prevails in
            the left. Many religious people are drawn by the teachings
            of their tradition to humane values and caring about the
            oppressed. Yet they often find that liberal culture is
            hostile to religion of any sort, believing it is irrational
            and filled with hate. People on the left rarely open
            themselves to the possibility that there could be a
            spiritual crisis in society that plays a role in the lives
            of many who feel misunderstood and denigrated by the fancy
            intellectuals and radical activists.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;font-size:12.8px;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">The left needs to
            stop ignoring people’s inner pain and fear. The racism,
            sexism and xenophobia used by Mr. Trump to advance his
            candidacy does not reveal an inherent malice in the majority
            of Americans. If the left could abandon all this shaming, it
            could rebuild its political base by helping Americans see
            that much of people’s suffering is rooted in the hidden
            injuries of class and in the spiritual crisis that the
            global competitive marketplace generates.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;font-size:12.8px;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Democrats need to
            become as conscious and articulate about the suffering
            caused by classism as we are about other forms of suffering.
            We need to reach out to Trump voters in a spirit of empathy
            and contrition,"</span></p>
        <div><br>
          <div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message
            ----------<br>
            From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Rabbi Michael Lerner and
              Peter Gabel at Tikkun magazine and the Network of
              Spiritual Progressives</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:cat@spiritualprogressives.org">cat@spiritualprogressives.org</a>></span><br>
            Date: Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 7:07 AM<br>
            Subject: Trump's Victory - Mourning and Analysis<br>
            To: <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:Michelsub2004@gmail.com">Michelsub2004@gmail.com</a><br>
            <br>
            <br>
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              <p> </p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)">I too am
                  mourning and grieving the election results. This is a
                  sad and scary time for our country. Like many of you,
                  I am stunned at the results. We need to take time to
                  grieve and mourn, to express our shock and even our
                  rage in community where we are held.</span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)">And we need
                  to mobilize now more than ever. If ever there was a
                  time when Tikkun's voice is needed, now is that time.
                  Please read the analyses below by Rabbi Lerner and
                  Peter Gabel to hear a perspective not available
                  elsewhere. </span><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)">We need
                  your support, please make a super generous
                  tax-deductible donation at <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2F3xThjHgex%2BnmBORQywVD40bZ2Z1n%2Bij" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">www.tikkun.org/donate</span></a>.
                  We are also holding a conference this weekend to
                  explore - What's Next - please consider joining us. To
                  register go to: <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=M0%2FH5zIqKsHIlcRTzcOjyI0bZ2Z1n%2Bij" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">www.tikkun.org/<wbr>30thcelebration</span></a>.</span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)">~ Cat Zavis</span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:22.5pt"><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=BarlpsSO6HUMDFyhVg08AI0bZ2Z1n%2Bij" target="_blank">Click here to share this on Twitter</a></p>
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              <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:22.5pt">---</p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:22.5pt"><b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:rgb(0,51,102)">Stop
                    Shaming Trump Supporters</span></b></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">By Rabbi
                  Michael Lerner</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">[<i>This
                    article originally appeared in The New York Times.
                    You can read it online </i><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=VoYZD9t540fVX7rvXlzkHo0bZ2Z1n%2Bij" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a><i>. Below  the
                    article, Rabbi Lerner adds some of the ideas that
                    the N.Y. Times took out in order to make it fit for
                    their blog space.</i>]</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">It turns
                  out that shaming the supporters of Donald J. Trump is
                  not a good political strategy.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Though job
                  loss and economic stagnation played a role in his
                  victory, so did shame. As the principal investigator
                  on a study of the middle class for the National
                  Institute of Mental Health, I found that working
                  people’s stress is often intensified by shame at their
                  failure to “make it” in what they are taught is a
                  meritocratic American economy.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">The right
                  has been very successful at persuading working people
                  that they are vulnerable not because they themselves
                  have failed, but because of the selfishness of some
                  other villain (African-Americans, feminists,
                  immigrants, Muslims, Jews, liberals, progressives; the
                  list keeps growing).</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Instead of
                  challenging this ideology of shame, the left has
                  buttressed it by blaming white people as a whole for
                  slavery, genocide of the Native Americans and a host
                  of other sins, as though whiteness itself was
                  something about which people ought to be ashamed. The
                  rage many white working-class people feel in response
                  is rooted in the sense that once again, as has
                  happened to them throughout their lives, they are
                  being misunderstood.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">So please
                  understand what is happening here. Many Trump
                  supporters very legitimately feel that it is they who
                  have been facing an unfair reality. The upper 20
                  percent of income earners, many of them quite liberal
                  and rightly committed to the defense of minorities and
                  immigrants, also believe in the economic meritocracy
                  and their own right to have so much more than those
                  who are less fortunate. So while they may be
                  progressive on issues of discrimination against the
                  obvious victims of racism and sexism, they are blind
                  to their own class privilege and to the hidden
                  injuries of class that are internalized by much of the
                  country as self-blame.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">The right’s
                  ability to portray liberals as elitists is further
                  strengthened by the phobia toward religion that
                  prevails in the left. Many religious people are drawn
                  by the teachings of their tradition to humane values
                  and caring about the oppressed. Yet they often find
                  that liberal culture is hostile to religion of any
                  sort, believing it is irrational and filled with hate.
                  People on the left rarely open themselves to the
                  possibility that there could be a spiritual crisis in
                  society that plays a role in the lives of many who
                  feel misunderstood and denigrated by the fancy
                  intellectuals and radical activists.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">The left
                  needs to stop ignoring people’s inner pain and fear.
                  The racism, sexism and xenophobia used by Mr. Trump to
                  advance his candidacy does not reveal an inherent
                  malice in the majority of Americans. If the left could
                  abandon all this shaming, it could rebuild its
                  political base by helping Americans see that much of
                  people’s suffering is rooted in the hidden injuries of
                  class and in the spiritual crisis that the global
                  competitive marketplace generates.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Democrats
                  need to become as conscious and articulate about the
                  suffering caused by classism as we are about other
                  forms of suffering. We need to reach out to Trump
                  voters in a spirit of empathy and contrition. Only
                  then can we help working people understand that they
                  do not live in a meritocracy, that their intuition
                  that the system is rigged is correct (but it is not by
                  those whom they had been taught to blame) and that
                  their pain and rage is legitimate.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Michael
                  Lerner, the rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in
                  Berkeley, Calif., is the editor of Tikkun magazine and
                  chairman of the Network of Spiritual Progressives.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">[<i>Up to
                    here is what the NY Times printed in their blog.
                    Lerner adds a bit more below, so as to deepen one's
                    understanding.</i>]</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">We need to
                  retool the discourse on the Left and train hundreds of
                  thousands of people to become part of an "Empathy
                  Tribe" that can reach out to Trump supporters to
                  apologize to them for the ways they've felt "dissed"
                  by the liberal and progressive world and to help
                  people understand that what the actual causes of their
                  suffering are the perverse spiritual distortions and
                  twisted psychodynamics of a global competitive
                  marketplace. We can and must help people understand
                  that the inequalities in this society are not a
                  function of who is or is not talented, smart, or works
                  hard, but instead are a function of the class
                  structure which will only allocate economic security
                  and jobs that feel fulfilling to a small percentage of
                  the population while the rest of the population is
                  scrappling for the leftovers. </span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">What we do
                  not want to do is deny or lessen the importance of the
                  struggles against racism, sexism, homophobia,
                  Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia. Rather,
                  what we want to do is insist that those struggles must
                  be carried out in ways that do not negate but rather
                  affirm the pain and suffering caused by classism and
                  the internalization of the materialism, selfishness
                  and "looking out for number one" consciousness of our
                  society. We want to avoid the kind of discourse that
                  we so often hear in liberal and progressive societies
                  in which one identity politics group fights with
                  another over who is most oppressed while
                  simultaneously demanding that others defer to their
                  will on question a, b, or c. Please read Peter Gabel's
                  piece below to get a fuller sense of what we are
                  talking about here. </span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">In fact, if
                  we could learn to listen to the life experiences and
                  work experiences of middle income working people and
                  the working and unemployed poor, empathically validate
                  their experiences, and really hear their grievances,
                  we would be in a much better inner place to build a
                  transformative movement that included people who
                  yesterday voted for Trump. In part, this means
                  compassionately challenging those in the liberal and
                  progressive world who are now talking as though
                  everyone who voted for Trump is racist, sexist,
                  homophobic, stupid and/or evil. Some fit into that
                  description but many do not, and when they hear
                  themselves described by liberals or progressives
                  reacting to the 2016 election by demeaning or shaming
                  everyone who voted for Trump, they become even more
                  attached to the Right, and even more outraged at what
                  they perceive to be the arrogance and elitism of the
                  Left. </span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">What I'm
                  describing here is a massive project, but one which is
                  absolutely necessary if the movements for
                  environmental sustainability and a slowing of global
                  climate change, human rights, anti-racism, peace and
                  nonviolence are to have any chance of achieving the
                  political power they need to actually change our
                  society. And the first step is one that YOU can be
                  personally involved in by circulating this analysis
                  and Peter Gabel's analysis, bringing your friends
                  together to talk about it, and then becoming an
                  activist with us in Tikkun's interfaith and
                  secular-humanist-and-atheist-<wbr>welcoming NSP--
                  Network of Spiritual Progressives. So if you are not
                  able to come to our conference this weekend, at least
                  join the NSP <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=RTR%2FLuBVi94TkNodlu8IhY0bZ2Z1n%2Bij" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">www.spiritualprogressives.<wbr>org/join</span></a>,
                  and help us create a group in your local area to help
                  promote this consciousness!</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Rabbi
                  Michael Lerner   <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:rabbilerner.tikkun@gmail.com" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">rabbilerner.tikkun@gmail.com</span></a></span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">*****</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
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                  <br>
                </span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black">Coercive
                    Deference and Double Bind Politics on the Left </span></b></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black">by <b>Peter Gabel</b></span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black"></span></p>
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              <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Many white
                  working -class communities feel robbed of much of
                  their sense of worth and recognition by the impact of
                  the global economy on the conditions of their life and
                  on their culture. They see elites...millionaires,
                  billionaires, tech wizards, bi-coastal cultural
                  sophistocates...benefiting from an economy that their
                  prior economic communities have been eviscerated by
                  (in the rust-belt states of Michigan, Ohio,
                  Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, for example, all of whom
                  voted in large numbers for Trump). And they feel this
                  marginalization and cast-asideness not just because of
                  its material or economic aspect, but also and in some
                  ways more importantly because of its denigration of
                  their own sense of worthiness, recognition, and sense
                  of communal belonging and value. In this latter sense,
                  they feel spiritual suffering and the loss of human
                  solidarity and love. </span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(255,255,255)">..</span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Instead of
                  responding to this with compassion and concern, the
                  liberal world has communicated to this community that
                  the world is or would be fine if  these whites had
                  exercised their "equality of opportunity" to pursue
                  their god-given right to fulfill their dreams through
                  successfully competing in the marketplace... except
                  for minorities, women, the LGBT community, disabled
                  people, and other designated groups who must be given
                  "special benefits" due to past discrimination so that
                  they can gain the same "equality of opportunity" that
                  the so-called "white" community already has. This
                  liberal attitude reflected in the mainstream of the
                  Democratic Party not only denies the spiritual pain of
                  the white working class...it also blames the white
                  working-class for failing to succeed themselves and
                  for somehow contributing to the oppression of
                  African-Americans, women, and all the other groups
                  whom the liberal world (correctly) wants to extend
                  more rights to and more benefits to.</span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Thus the
                  liberal world in effect flaunts their own success as
                  elites, blames the working class for their own
                  failures, and then holds them responsible as "whites"
                  for the oppression of other oppressed groups,
                  requiring them to deny their own sense of
                  marginalization and spiritual pain, their own
                  invisibility, and to defer to the orthodoxy that it is
                  the other oppressed groups who are deserving of
                  concern and recognition. And even more, the white
                  working-class communities are not allowed to comment
                  upon this whole process because that would be racist,
                  or sexist, or otherwise not politically correct for
                  them to do. Understandably this makes these white
                  working class communities feel they are simultaneously
                  in pain and silenced from commenting on their pain, an
                  untenable and explosive hurt that Donald Trump
                  perfectly spoke to in his campaign.</span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)">What we saw
                  in the election results, furthermore, was that this
                  dynamic was not limited to to the white working-class,
                  but also to white college-educated men<i> and women </i>who
                  voted for Trump in large numbers, in spite of his
                  derogatory comments about women. While these "whites"
                  don't face the identical socio-economic conditions of
                  the white working-class, they also suffer the
                  spiritual pain of not being affirmed in a loving and
                  valuing way within our alienated culture, and they
                  also are expected to direct all their concern to
                  designated oppressed others and deny the pain of their
                  own spiritual isolation. And they too are not allowed
                  to comment upon this because they are supposed to be
                  guilty about the pain of others rather than crying out
                  themselves.</span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:14pt;background-color:white">This
                  is the coercive deference, the double-bind, that has
                  undermined the Left's appeal for the last forty or so
                  years since the Left abandoned a universalist view of
                  human liberation in favor of an exclusive focus on the
                  extension of liberal rights to previously
                  discriminated-against groups, and on identity politics
                  based on the past and continuing injuries to each
                  victimized identity group for which a designated
                  oppressor group ("whites") are responsible.</span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(255,255,255)">.</span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)">The
                  solution to this is a new spiritual politics that sees
                  all of us as suffering from a capitalist social world
                  that fails to affirm all of us as worthy of love,
                  respect, and recognition, and seeks to build an
                  economy and a culture that carries forward that loving
                  affirmation to all human beings. Of course this must
                  include compassion for the historical and continuing
                  particular suffering inflicted on African-Americans,
                  women, the LGBT community and others who have been
                  harmed, demeaned, and unrecognized, but it must also
                  extend a loving solidarity to the "whites"--that is
                  to <i>all of us</i> as universal beings with
                  particular histories and circumstances who long for a
                  world based on love, care and the embrace of truly
                  being supported and valued.</span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="color:rgb(255,255,255)">.</span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Bernie
                  Sanders did a great job of showing such a politics is
                  possible right now, even though he focused only on
                  economic issues as carriers of spiritual care and
                  concern rather than on a fuller truly
                  spiritual-progressive program that would have
                  addressed a broader array of spiritual and communal
                  needs. Until we move our politics in this universalist
                  healing direction, others like Donald Trump will
                  continue to succeed with messages that speak to
                  "white" people's pain in distorted ways with likely
                  harmful consequences.</span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="color:rgb(255,255,255)">.</span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-color:white"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Peter Gabel
                  is Editor-at-Large of Tikkun magazine, co-founder of
                  the Project for Integrating Spirituality, Law, and
                  Politics, and the author most recently of<u> Another
                    Way of Seeing: Essays on Transforming Law, Politics,
                    and Culture.</u></span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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              <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
              <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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