Posted on 11/09/2016 3:43:20 AM PST by a fool in paradise
Secretary Clinton has conceded. It is now official.
Well the polls were wrong - very wrong, most journalists were wrong - and the earth has been shaken with an earthquake of a magnitude many didn't see coming. This is Brexit on steroids. We are entering into uncharted territory as a nation with a now president-elect who has run roughshod over the norms of American presidential campaigns. Clearly a silent but vocal majority has poured forth and pulled down the status quo in Washington with an energy that is echoing not just across the United States but around the world.
America is divided, not along geography as it used to be, but within states between races, educational levels, and urban vs. rural. This is a county by county map and clearly there were many voters who felt overlooked by a new world order who have roared with vengeance. They will not be by forgotten any longer.
No doubt many will disagree but I do not believe Hillary Clinton lost because she is a woman. My analysis is that a majority of voting Americans ached for change, especially structural changes in the economic system. They believe the American middle economic class has been mostly lost and they want it back.
There is sure to be deep despair amongst Clinton supporters who seemed to be tasting the sweetness of victory for most of the campaign. I have heard from many who feel like they are staring into an abyss. Many of you have posted on this page, there is palpable fear about the future of the nation, of the world. But this is the verdict of the American people and we must accept it. We also must work on the process of hope, healing and a re-dedication to unity.
It may be unbelievable to think now, but we cannot fogo our values. Flush with victory, will Trump change his tune at all? He has always been a mercurial man who has shown very little of a policy compass. His supporters will allow him to do anything. And perhaps he can build a bridge we never saw coming. Hope is father to the thought, I grant you. But it is a hope.
I have seen dark days - after Pearl Harbor, during Vietnam, in the depths of the Civil Rights Movement. I still believe that most Americans are kind and decent people, including--overwhelmingly--those who voted for Trump.
I still believe we can work together. If Donald Trump does indeed win, I pray for him tonight to be a wise and magnanimous leader. I pray that he is not bound by the limits of party. I pray that he can prove his critics wrong. I pray for my country. I pray for its leaders of all political parties. I pray for my country and my countrymen. I pray for the future.
As Trump took the podium for his first speech, not as a party candidate but as the president-elect of the entire United States, his tone was of the utmost importance. He seemed to be reading off a prompter carefully prepared words. But he started with a statement of magnanimity for HIllary Clinton. He spoke of binding the wounds of division. He promised to be president of all Americans. He spoke of a great public works project and protecting veterans.
He was optimistic in speaking of the future. Notably missing was any talk of some the drastically contentious hallmarks of his campaign - building a wall, a Muslim ban, the NATO allies - just to name a few.
You can be deeply skeptical of his motives and refuse to forget all that he has said and that has transpired. There is a looming verdict for history to level and it is a story still to be written. There is also a real question with Trump’s ascension whether the ends justify the means - whether the truth matters. Be all that as it may, we need to have a peaceful transition of power. That is an unmoveable hallmark of the stability of our democracy.
Trump said that campaigning was difficult. Well, governing is much more so and that is now in his hands. He has made a lot of promises. We will see what he keeps. He said their work is just beginning. That is an understatement.
The world is on edge. The country is deeply divided. The markets have gone off a cliff. World capitals are erupting in anxiety. Huge segments of the American public are in panic - going through the shock of grief. This is the world that is now Trump’s to contend with. Do we really know what we have wrought?
This is a conversation that I need you to be a part of. Do not opt out. Your voice matters now more than ever. I will continue to be here in the days and weeks ahead. And we shall endeavor, together, to find a path forward in the best of America’s ideals.
Courage.
Dan Rather has no sense of irony whatsoever, to have written that with a straight face.
JINOs, Journalists in name only.
The Leftist establishment pulled out all stops to sway this election. False news, false scandals, ignoring corruption, biasing the 'trends' on facebook, yahoo, google, on and on.
The MSM is on the ropes, can they afford to see their circulation and viewing ratings drop any further? More people dropping cable? More people tuning out on the NFL?
Shillary can only blame herself.
“I have seen dark days”
Hey Danno, this isn’t a dark day, not in the least.
Electing Hillary Clinton would’ve been like electing Pat Nixon in 1992 knowing what we knew about Richard Nixon.
Courage, Dan.
I remember well how Gunga Dan gave similar advice to a young Barack Obama after he won a contentious presidential race back in 2008...
...yeah, right.
Dan Rather can kiss my ass.
Values??? Chopping up babies in late term abortions? Having men use women bathrooms? Yeah, some values.
Dan Rather?
Rather and his fellow practitioners of... uh... ummm... writing stuff, still believe they’re the smartest people on the planet, and that We the People have made a mistake.
They will be no less arrogant going forward. They will continue to treat We the People as ignorant dolts who just don’t understand how the world works.
The joke’s on them. We the People DO understand how the world works.
And, at the moment, it ain’t working.
But Rather and his ilk will never acknowledge that.
The polls weren’t just wrong, Dan. They were rigged in an attempt to discourage Trump voters. The plot failed.
What’s the frequency?
As I have been saying all along the polls were manipulated to make it appear like she was ahead. She was not ahead ever. Just look at the rally numbers. The Criminal News Network needs to have it’s license canceled for helping her to cheat. They should never host another debate. It’s time to drain the swamp.
Now wait a minute ol' Dan ol' pal - your hero Obama was going to heal the divide! He promised!
You're saying we're STILL divided?
So true. Here is an important article about this very point:
An Important Post-Election Message About Media Polling…
Better than erupting in ISIS led terror and bloodshed. That's Hillary and Obunghole's legacy.
Dan, Dan... the kind and decent people voted for Trump. The people who supported Hillary are alien in their thoughts--they have little in common with the people who built this country, and they would destroy everything the kind and decent people created. The American people rejected them.
All I want to know is when Trump will get his Nobel Peace Prize!
“Clearly a silent but vocal majority has poured forth and pulled down the status quo in Washington with an energy that is echoing not just across the United States but around the world.”
Silent majority? Disenfranchised majority. Denounced majority.
Those who are blacklisted from jobs in the media and academia, and he’s right it’s a global trend AGAINST the liberal socialist progressive globalists.
Somewhere today (seated next to Satan himself?) Walter Cronkite is a little sadder.
Walter Cronkite honored at the World Federalist Foundation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oFS-KT377M
(from the transcription at: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3190358/posts)
I am greatly honored, quite obviously by the Norman Cousins Global Government, uh, Governance award. I’ll try to get it right, since I will be referring to it frequently of course, from now on. First, well there are two reasons really why I’m particularly grateful and honored by this award. The first, I believe as Norman Cousins did, that the first priority of humankind in this difficult era is to establish an effective system of world law that will assure peace with justice among the peoples of all the world. Second, I feel rather sentimental about this award and this organization because half a century ago, Norman Cousins offered me a job as the spokesman and a Washington lobbyist for the really nascent organization called World Federalist. I was honored. He and Oscar Hammerstein met me in the Waldorf, and twisted my arm quite vigorously, to get me to take the job to take the place of Ted Waller, who was the first lobbyist and a noted supporter of the world federalist movement.
I chose instead, it turned out, to continue in the world of journalism. For many years, I did my best to report on the issues of the day with as much fairness as I possibly could and in objective of a manner as possible to achieve. When I had my own strong opinions, I tried to put them aside for the moment in the interest of fairness. I didn’t communicate them, I hoped, to my audience. Now however, now however, my circumstances are considerably different. I’m in a position to speak my mind, and by God, I’m gonna do it.
You know, those of us who are living today can truly influence the future of civilization. We can influence whether our planet is going to live or die. Whether it’s going to drift into chaos and violence, or whether through a monumental educational and political effort, a monumental effort, we will achieve a world of peace under a system of law where individual violators of that law are brought to justice.
(video skip)For most of this fairly long life I have been an optimist harboring a belief that as our globe shrank, as our communication miracles brought us closer together, we would begin to appreciate the commonality of our universal desire to live in peace and that we would do something to satisfy that yearning of all peoples. Today I find it harder to cling to that hope. (video resume)
For how many thousands of years now have we humans been what we insist on calling ‘civilized’? And yet, in total contradiction, we also persist in the savage belief that we must occasionally, at least, settle our arguments by killing each another.
While we spend much of our time and a great deal of our treasure in preparing for war, we see no comparable effort in establishing peace. Meanwhile, emphasizing the sloth in this regard, those advocates who work for world peace by urging a system of world law and order, a world government if you please, are called impractical dreamers. Those ‘impractical dreamers’ are entitled, it seems to me, to ask their critics, ‘what is so darn practical about war?’
(video skip)It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace. To do that, of course, (video resume) First, we Americans are goingto have to yield up some of our sovereignty. That’s going to be to many a bitter pill. It would take a lot of courage, a lot of faith, a lot of persuasion for them to come along with us on this necessity. (video skip)But the American colonies did it once and brought forth one of the most nearly perfect unions the world has ever seen. The circumstances were vastly different, obviously. Yet just because the task appears forbiddingly hard, we should not shirk it. We cannot defer this responsibility to posterity. Democracy, civilization itself, is at stake. Within the next few years we must change the basic structure of our global community from the present anarchic system of war and ever more destructive weaponry to a new system governed by a democratic U.N. federation.
Let’s focus on a few specifics of what the leadership of the World Federalist movement believe must be done now to advance the rule of world law. For starters, we can draw on the wisdom of the Framers of the U.S. Constitution of 1787. The differences among the American states then were as bitter as differences among nation-states in the world today. In their almost miraculous insight, the Founders of our country invented ‘federalism,’ a concept that is rooted in the rights of the individual. Our federal system guarantees a maximum of freedom but provides it in a framework of law and justice. (video resume) Our forefathers believed that the closer the laws are to the people, the better. Cities legislate on local matters, of course; states make decisions on matters within their borders; and the national government deals with issues that transcend the states, such as interstate commerce, foreign relations. That’s what we mean by federalism.
Today we must develop federal structures on a global level to deal with world problems. We need a system of enforceable world law, a democratic federal world government You know, what Alexander Hamilton wrote about the need for law among the 13 states applies today to the approximately 200 sovereignties in our global village: all of which are going have to be convinced to give up some of that sovereignty to the better, greater union. Hamilton said, and it’s not going to be easy. Hamilton said, ‘To look for a continuation of harmony between a number of independent, unconnected sovereignties in the same neighborhood, would be to disregard the uniform course of human events, and to set at defiance the accumulated experience of ages.’
Today the notion of unlimited national sovereignty means international anarchy. We must replace the anarchic law of force with a civilized force of law.
Ours is never going to be a perfect world for heaven’s sake, we all know that. There can’t be a world without some disagreement, probably occasional violence. But it will be a world where the overwhelming majority of national leaders will consistently abide by the rule of world law, if we have our way, and can sell our program. And those who won’t obey the law, the international law with which will be governed, are going to be dealt with effectively, and with due process of the structures of that same world law. You know, we’re never going to have a city without crime, we certainly would never want to live in a city without law, a law to deal with the criminals who are always among us.
The three suggestions with which I’ve been furnished for immediate action that would move us in the direction firmly in the American tradition of law and democracy are these.
First, keep our promises, for heaven’s sakes. We helped create the United Nations of course. We helped develop the U.N. assessment formula, by which it is financed. Americans overwhelmingly, I think every poll shows it, wants us to pay our U.N. dues. Wants us to pay them with none of these crippling limitations that we, with our arrogance seem to want to impose. We owe it to the world. In fact, we owe it not only to the world, we owe it as well to our national self-esteem. How embarrassing it is to go among the peoples of the world, knowing what they know about our niggardliness, please get that word right if anybody quotes me, at the United Nations.
And second, ratify the treaty, ratify several treaties. Ratify the treaty, for goodness sakes, to ban land mines. Why can’t we understand that? Our representatives worked hard and long to get The Law of the Sea Treaty, and we haven’t ratified it even. Selfish interests that dictate not the national interest or the international interest. These are other treaties we haven’t ratified, The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. A treaty with a catchy phrase, a catchy title, The Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The title may not be catchy, but the idea certainly is. And The Convention on the Rights of the Child. We haven’t even done that. Most important, we should sign and ratify the treaty for a permanent international criminal court. That is now at the core of the world federalist movement’s drive. That court will enable the world to hold individuals accountable for their crimes against humanity.
And the third point, just consider, if you will, after 55 years, the possibility of a more representative and democratic system of decision making at the U.N. This should include both revision of the veto in the Security Council, and adoption of a weighted voting system in the General Assembly. Our organization, The World Federalists have endorsed Richard Hudson’s Binding Triad proposal. George Soros, in his recent book, The Crisis of Global Capitalism, has given serious attention to this concept, which would be based upon not only the one-nation-one-vote, but also on population and contributions to the U.N. budget. Resolutions adopted by majorities in each of these three areas would then be binding, enforceable law. Within the powers given it in the Charter, the U.N. could then deal with matters of reliable financing, a standing U.N. peace force, development, the environment, and of course, human rights.
Some of you may ask, although I think most of you know the answer, why the Senate is not ratifying these important treaties, and why the Congress is not even paying our U.N. dues? Even as with the American rejection, so many years ago now, of the League of Nations after World War I, our failure to live up to our obligations to the U.N. is led by a handful of willful senators who choose to pursue their narrow, selfish political objectives at the cost of our nation’s conscience. They pander to and are supported by the Christian Coalition and the rest of the religious right wing. Their leader, Pat Robertson, has written in a book, a few years ago, that ‘we should have a world government, but only when the messiah arrives.’ He wrote, and literally, ‘any attempt to achieve world order before that time must be the work of the devil!’ Well join me. I’m glad to sit here at the right hand of Satan. (video skip) This small but well-organized group has intimidated both the Republican Party and the Clinton administration. It has attacked presidents since F.D.R. for supporting the U.N. Robertson explains that these presidents are the unwitting agents of Lucifer.(video resume)
The only way we can do it is to organize a strong educational counteroffensive, stretching from the most publicly visible people in all fields to the humblest individuals in each of our communities. That’s the vision and the program of the World Federalist Association. It begins with education, and it ends with success and hope. (video skip) The strength of the World Federalist program would serve an important auxiliary purpose at this particular point in our history. There would be immediate diplomatic advantages if the world knew that this country was even beginning to explore the prospect of strengthening the U.N. We would appear before the peoples of the world as the champion of peace for all by the equitable sharing of power. This in sharp contrast to the growing concern that we intend to use our current dominant military power to enforce a sort of pax Americana.
Our country today is at a stage in our foreign policy similar to that crucial point in our nation’s early history when our Constitution was produced in Philadelphia. (video resume)Let us hear the peal of a new international liberty bell that calls us all to the creation of a system of enforceable world law in which the universal desire for peace can place its hope and its prayers. As Carl Van Doren has written, ‘History is now choosing the founders of the World Federation.’ That was back there at the beginning. And he said, ‘Any person who can be among that number and fails to do so has lost the noblest opportunity of a lifetime.’
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