The Mueller report is out: No further indictments have been recommended. The full contents of the report aren’t yet known, but we know at a minimum that the most fanciful conspiracies about Donald Trump and Russia were without merit. Donald Trump did not knowingly collude with the Russians.

That is the result we should’ve hoped for. There is no situation in which American democracy is better off because our President is the Manchurian candidate. So why aren’t liberals happy? Why does the Morning Joe and Pod Save America crowd continue waiting for this other shoe to drop that seems to have never been hanging in the first place? Well, it’s complicated.

Liberals really wanted the Russia collusion story to be true. It’s not as if some element of it wasn’t true, there still are dozens of indictments, and a lot of Trump associates are going to jail. There are still ongoing investigations in the DOJ and the Southern district of New York. and of course we still haven’t seen the full Mueller report. But liberals were waiting to find out that Donald Trump plotted with a foreign power and successfully upended the democratic process. Liberals got sucked into this fantasy where we were a part of this spy novel, that we could connect the dots and solve this giant mystery. If we just watched enough Maddow and read enough Washington Post write-ups, we would get the smoking gun. Some of us even branded ourselves members of “The Resistance” as we sat in our cafes as if we didn’t look like members of some bourgeois rebellion.

The election of Donald Trump was a traumatic event for liberals that lead many of us to an extended period of denialism. Many of us still have not accepted that Donald Trump was elected President, and we are stuck in the hysteria of election night, still waiting for a recount in Michigan that is never coming. The Russia collusion story allowed us the comfort of believing that America didn’t actually change. If Trump conspired with Russia, then that meant that the country actually didn’t reject Hillary Clinton and the last eight years of Barack Obama. If Trump colluded with Russia, then our friends, relatives, and neighbors weren’t actually complicit in Trump’s white supremacy: They were just tricked and could be forgiven. If Trump colluded with Russia, then the country would unite together and restore us to normalcy.

What has happened to many liberals since 2016 is almost identical to what happened to many conservatives after 2008. Conservatives could not believe that their America had elected a black man, and not only was he black, but he was well liked and defied every stereotype they’d had about minorities. Conservatives were aghast that their America, the America of Ronald Reagan and John Wayne had been ceded to those people. So we were introduced to Glenn Beck and his conspiracy chalkboards. Suddenly, Barack Obama wasn’t born in America, therefore his election was illegitimate, and we could take to the streets to oppose him. Barack Obama was a secret Muslim; he hated America, and ACORN and everyone else were conspiring to enact some Marxist agenda.

This time, liberals could not believe their America had been turned over to those people. Liberals could not believe that people they’d assumed lost the culture war and not so subtly looked down on, had elected the manifestation of everything we don’t like about America. It felt personal, and we couldn’t process it, and many of us still can’t understand it. So we fell into conspiracies, we didn’t question the Steele dossier or why we’d only referenced it, but there didn’t appear to be a credible counterpart from an actual intelligence agency. We raved about pee tapes and compramat and Moscow and used terms we’d only seen in Tom Clancy novels. We didn’t check back in on those scandalous stories from the New York Times or the Washington Post, or perhaps we’d have seen the dozens of corrections on their Russia reporting which turned out to be dubiously sourced. We, without any irony, became die-hard supporters of the FBI and CIA in spite of the long record of those institutions not being exactly friendly to our causes (see Martin Luther King Jr.).

It’s not that Trump isn’t cartoonishly corrupt: He is clearly an amoral individual who seems to have not a had a year where he was not breaking the law. We’ve got Trump University, we’ve got tax fraud, we’ve got Stormy Daniels, we’ve got hiring undocumented labor, and probably crimes we’ve already forgotten about. But none of those things explained his victory or absolved America, so liberals didn’t lean into them. So now we are left in a not unfamiliar situation, undefended by a detached Democratic leadership, informed by an elitist media, and lead by a government without competence.

In 2003, we were readying ourselves to defeat George W. Bush after losing the electoral college in the last election. The facts were on our side, the people were on our side, and the international community was on our side, yet we did not rise to the occasion. We lost focus and thus we lost the presidency. This time can be different, and we should let history be our teacher. It will not be enough to run against Donald Trump and copy the spirit of his rhetoric, just as it was not enough to run against George Bush and unconvincingly wrap ourselves in the flag, as the Republicans had shamelessly done.

It is without doubt that the Russians interfered in our election on behalf of Donald Trump, and the effect of their efforts are incalculable. There should be no dispute that there was and continues to be a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy. However, the Mueller report has stated there was no collusion. There are almost certainly other behaviors worthy of impeachment that should be investigated, but if Mueller couldn’t find collusion then there likely is none. We are going to have to defeat this President through the electoral process. The cavalry isn’t coming, and the Republicans were never going to save us. This isn’t 1974. Howard Baker and his party are dead. It’s time for liberals to come together and provide a real alternative to four more years of…whatever the hell this has been. Mueller was never going to make the argument for us, so we’re going to have to make the argument ourselves.

The post Liberals Put Too Many Eggs in the Mueller Basket appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Former President George W. Bush gave a speech last week that could be summed up as “racism is bad” and “democracy is good”. The New York Times called it a “pointed rebuke” and the Huffington Post described it as “[speaking] truth to power”. Just how low has the bar fallen when condemning racism and defending democracy can be called acts of bravery? Simply because we’ve grown accustomed to our current President’s dismissiveness towards white supremacists does not mean that it’s abnormal or commendatory for any public figure to…I don’t know…not be a racist with authoritarian tendencies?

Have we been so starved of decency that even the most mundane platitudes like “people of every race, religion, and ethnicity can be fully and equally American” make us forget who George W. Bush is? Because I guarantee the people of Iraq have not forgotten, or at least the ones who weren’t one of the 600,000 casualties of the fruitless war that Bush started haven’t forgotten. Or have we forgotten Iraq because George Bush repeated some mean words about Donald Trump from a speech somebody else wrote?

Maybe you have been caught up in Bush-mania, with all of his painting, getting trapped in ponchos, and talk show appearances. Perhaps that southern drawl and his rather “limited” command of the English language has made you nostalgic for the Bush Presidency. On occasion, you might even turn on the television and say to yourself “Oh what a man he was”, pinning for a time when “things just made sense” Stop doing that.

Liberals so often want to hold the Democratic establishment, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and others to account for their actions (which is what we should be doing). But if we can’t even resolve to hold to account the man who lied us into the most reckless foreign policy disaster ever (President Trump, there’s still time), who deregulated the agencies responsible for federal oversight which would contribute to the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression (again President Trump, there’s still time), and stoked the flames of white resentment that would eventually lead to the ascendancy of Trump…then how can we expect to be taken seriously?

George Bush wants to imply that Donald Trump, members of his cabinet, and the supporters of Trumpism are bigots. I wouldn’t disagree with that assessment. However, George Bush surely isn’t going to pretend that he’s above playing the bigot for political gain? Because when he was a candidate for President in 2000, Bush didn’t seem to have any reservations about giving a speech at Bob Jones University (which at the time banned interracial dating). Bush’s allies also didn’t seem to have a problem spreading the slander that John McCain’s adopted daughter from Bangladesh was actually a love child from an affair with a black prostitute. Then there was the debacle over “family values” which lead to Bush campaigning for reelection in 2004 on the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would’ve prevented gay couples from receiving any legal recognition.

George Bush also just casually drops that democracies across the world are becoming unstable and for reasons beyond our understanding, America has lost it’s moral authority internationally. He says “Our security and prosperity are only found in wise, sustained, global engagement:…In the confrontation of security challenges before they fully materialize and arrive on our shores…In serving as a shining hope for refugees and a voice for dissidents, human rights defenders, and the oppressed.” First of all, if confronting security challenges before they “fully materialize” sounds familiar it’s because that’s basically the justification Bush used for a preemptive invasion of Iraq in 2003. Back then he said “Instead of drifting along toward tragedy, we will set a course toward safety. Before the day of horror can come, before it is too late to act, this danger will be removed.” Which leads me to my second point, many of the “refugees” Bush says America should embrace exist because of his policy decisions. ISIS would not exist if it were not for the power vacuum created by the Iraq War. As we now know, many of the leaders of ISIS got their start as bureaucrats and insurgency fighters in Iraq. The Civil War in Syria, which has many combatants including ISIS, has created by some estimates at least 6,000,000 refugees.

But perhaps all of that could’ve been forgiven, obviously it shouldn’t be but it’s not hard to imagine a scenario where this praise might’ve been more appropriate. There was a time to give this speech, and it was literally at any point before November 8th, 2016. It literally only adds insult to injury that Bush had his come to Jesus moment a full 11 months after it would’ve been the most useful. We know George Bush didn’t vote for Trump, and he didn’t have kind words for him at the inauguration. So with all this pontificating about his concern for the future of democracy and the threat posed by unbridled nationalism, one has to wonder…what the hell took so long?

Forget the Obama-Trump voters and Bernie-Trump voters, because George Bush was unlikely to sway those people when it really mattered. Instead, remember the Romney-Trump, McCain-Trump, but more importantly, Bush-Trump voters who constituted the overwhelming majority of Trump’s support. Those people might’ve cared what George W. Bush had to say about the dangers of nativist and isolationist politics. It’s almost like this entire speech was political theater because in the grand scheme of things it did nothing but reinforce ideas held by everyone whose name is not Donald Trump.

So, let’s not be so quick to heap praise on Republicans with destructive pasts simply because they did the not at all courageous thing of criticizing the most unpopular President in history. Will there come a day 10 years from now when we’re applauding former President Donald Trump for delivering a speech on the dangers of President Ted Cruz’s fundamentalist ideas? Will we forget again and initiate Donald Trump as a member of the resistance for doing the bare minimum as some have attempted to with George Bush? Let’s hope not.

The post Liberals, Stop Fawning over George W. Bush appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Dear White liberals: I’ve heard that this 2016 election really hit you hard. That it was a “wake-up call.” You’ve told me “I never knew there was so much racism in this country.” or “I didn’t realize that so many Americans were so prejudiced.” or “Before this election, I just—- I just didn’t know.”

White liberals in particular are suddenly being forced to engage with the racist underbelly of the U.S. and realize that it’s not nearly as remote or difficult to find as we wanted to delude ourselves. We just didn’t want to peel back the flimsy translucent layer that was hiding it and check. But it’s always been there, poised to oppress and destroy.

White liberals who consider themselves to be entirely non-racist now have to suffer through stunted conversations over the turkey at Thanksgiving and sit rigidly straight-backed on the edge of their chairs during the awkward lulls of silence over Christmas dinner. My racist uncle voted for Trump? My uncle? Oh. Well. Um. What do we even talk about now? I have Black/Brown friends! How can I engage with a Trump supporter? Do I educate him? Do I try to explain privilege and oppression to him? But it’s just so darn exhausting to beat yourself against a brick wall of bigotry! I’m just so tired of trying to point out racism to racists, y’know? They don’t get it, and all it does is make me sad and frustrated. Y’know what, no, I can’t keep doing this to myself; we’re just going to ban politics talk. We’re just not going to talk about Trump.

It sounds terrible, but when I hear scores of people tell me that story, I just can’t help but laugh. Welcome to my life. To me, that story sounds like it is a tiny soundbite from the life of a person of color (PoC), but still very clearly retold by a White person. Let me explain.

After Trump’s election, White liberal teachers are being forced to teach their racist students, and stomach listening to that virulence in the face of their beliefs because “First Amendment rights!” White liberal neighbors are reconsidering the idle chitchat they make with the parents down the street who carpool to take their kids to school because “but they have a Trump sign in their lawn.” White liberals whose coworkers have “All Lives Matter” on their Facebook wall now have to look across the row of cubicles and wonder if their coworker is a rabid Trump-level racist or just a diet racist (and “what are the conversations in the break room going to sound like now?”).

White liberals are being forced to engage in political conversations that aren’t just contentious, but that actively doubt the intellect and humanity of the participants. And even more painfully, White liberals have to make the decision between whether they are going to call out their family/friends/neighbors/coworkers on their bigotry and potentially burn that bridge through an arduous and mentally/emotionally demanding dialogue, or if they have to value that relationship “in spite of” the racism and xenophobia and just overlook it.

What I need you to know, my White liberal friends, is that the struggle you’re experiencing right now? That struggle to confront bigotry amongst your friends and coworkers? That indecision between educating them and just saving your own piece of mind? That regret at unearthing the fact that your longtime friend is actually a Trump supporter even though you would have been much happier not knowing? That, my friends? That is just a tiny bit of the internal monologue that flows through the mind of a PoC on a daily basis.

From the time we get up in the morning to the moment we fall asleep, we struggle with the weight of the knowledge that there are racists in the world who don’t believe in our complete humanity, and we can’t cut ourselves off from those people. They will always be part of our life. PoC every single day from birth on have been living that struggle. And now you get to live a tiny bit of it.

Except you can disengage. That’s privilege. When it’s too much for you to handle— and we all get to that point when we just need to take care of ourselves first and foremost (and that’s 100% valid and absolutely crucial)— you have the ability to decide you don’t want to have these conversations anymore. You can decide this isn’t the time, and stop.

But I can’t abandon my skin. I can’t just leave it at home today. Short of isolating myself in my room and cutting myself off from the entire world, I can’t turn that part of my life off when I want to.

I will always, without reprieve, be forced to wonder if that off-color remark was racist or just a poorly thought out joke that wasn’t ill-intentioned. And then I will always have to wonder how poorly thought out a joke has to be to qualify as needing to be confronted. I will always, when faced with the umpteenth stupid remark of the day, have to decide if I can really mentally and physically afford to confront it— if I have the emotional energy in me to paste on a happy face over my furious indignation and educate someone who appears to have little to no desire to be educated— or if I’m just too exhausted to do it today again. I will always have to reconsider if it is safe for me to speak and share my opinions in a space, not because it might lose me Facebook friends, but because literal harm might come of it.

And it never ends. Ever.

So this struggle you’re facing is difficult, I know, but it’s only a small portion— a heavily diluted portion— of what PoC experience daily. And you can suspend it at any point in time.

It’s difficult— no, it’s absolutely do-I-have-to-get-out-of-bed-today crippling sometimes— to confront bigotry like that on a daily basis. And many White liberals don’t exactly have a lot of experience with that so, I understand, it’s even more mind-bendingly difficult. I understand. And I am not in any way discounting the level of pain that sort of uphill battle causes.

But what I need you to understand is that if the 2016 presidential election has complicated your life, it has made the life of many PoC treacherous. This is not a time we can indulge in fragility. If you’re feeling inconvenienced by the results of the election, I’m sorry, but get over it.

Now, more than ever, PoC need you to stand up for what you believe in, even when it’s difficult. Especially when it’s difficult. Because a conversation that is difficult for you to have may be dangerous for your Black/Brown friend to have. Hate crimes are up, terrifyingly so, and that means situations that are uncomfortable for White liberals are potentially threatening for PoC.

And I also need you to understand that we can’t afford to just cut Trump supporters out of our lives, anyway. They are still a massive chunk of American society. Ignoring and silencing them is what got us to this position to begin with. Clearly, it’s not working. These are conversations we have to be having. If we aren’t engaging with White working class America and the message they’re getting from the news media and politics is that their problems aren’t being addressed because of Black and Brown Americans, then we haven’t solved a single problem. Not a single one. Actually, we’ve made it worse. We’ve handed Trump and his cronies that base of supporters on a silver platter. If you’re really worried about your Black/Brown friends, this is how you do it. Engage.

For you this was a wake-up call that the U.S. is still seethingly and unapologetically racist, but PoC never managed to forget.

If you consider yourself a non-racist, this is the time to show it. This is the time to live it.

P.S. If you want to hear this sort of message a little more comedically, enjoy this video from Late Night with Seth Myers:

The post Dear white liberals freaked out by the election: Welcome to my world appeared first on Occasional Planet.