Sinister Balls

Nicholas Kristof wrote this opinion piece for The New York Times. "A 12-Step Program For Responding to President-elect Trump."

Number three really sticks in my craw.

3. I WILL avoid demonizing people who don’t agree with me about this election, recognizing that it’s as wrong to stereotype Trump supporters as anybody else. I will avoid Hitler metaphors, recognizing that they stop conversations and rarely persuade. I’ll remind myself that no side has a monopoly on truth and that many Trump supporters are good people who want the best for the country. The left already has gotten into trouble for condescending to working-class people, and insulting all Trump supporters as racists simply magnifies that problem.

I made this image on flickr so I could tweet him a longer message than they allow.

I guess I'm a little tired of the nicey niceness of liberals. Writer Martin Amis came up with "Sinister Balls" in a conversation with his friend Christopher Hitchens, who was in the habit of making overly left-wing statements just to irk people. I agree that making blanket statements is never a good idea, but I happen to feel in this case it is more or less true; I think people who voted for Trump are either racist, ignorant or so nihilistic that its mind-boggling. I'm tired of apologists for the uneducated white man (see my previous post for more about this and why I feel this way.) Certainly some kind of outreach on the part of Democrats is desperately needed (Bernie was pretty much doing that, but he is way too left for most 'Mericans). I think some anger is in order and justified.

Props to Will Self and his interview about Brexit- I borrowed from his comment that not everybody voting for Brexit is a racist, but all racists are voting for Brexit, and his quote of Yeats' poem "The Second Coming," which he mistakenly credited to Auden.

The Garden Of Earthly Delights—The Book That Never Was

About a year ago, I began working on a children's book. It was supposed to be a simple picture book, but I ignored Patricia Highsmith's good advice of plotting out the length and size in advance, and just began writing. The text soon spiraled out of control! It grew to fifty single spaced pages. I realized that I wasn't really enjoying the writing and I didn't feel it was up to the standards of what I would read, so painful, after a year, I gave up. Looking back on it recently, I realize I was right—it isn't really that good. It's not always a bad thing to "give up," especially if you are forcing something that isn't really working. I've always loved reading and feel in many ways I am a good writer, but I don't have the discipline or interest  to maintain a long-format work. And that's OK! It was a relief to give it up. It also allowed me to get back to something I enjoy more and am better at, the biographies and portraits for "Skeletons & Rainbows" and the large watercolors I love making. As I wrote the story, I also worked on the illustrations (the only part I really enjoyed), so here they are!

Garden Of Earthly Delights Artwork

The story was about the Green family who lived in Dirtytown. They were a hard working, but poor family who had a tough time making ends meet. They lived in a very urban city, surrounded by empty lots that were full of plants and wild life. Quite by accident, a potato plant (and other vegetables) grew magically in the lots surrounding their house. They end up with a huge, fruitful garden. BUT, the evil, greedy, criminal landlord gets wind of the garden and decides to evict them. In the balance are all the creatures who live in the Four Lots surrounding them, led by a wild rat. The ideas were good, the writing was not. I didn't live in that world, I didn't feel like Highsmith did, fully envisioning the complete lives of the characters. I am not a writer! At least not a writer like that. And that's OK, because Patricia Highsmith wasn't a very good artist!

Richard Durbin For President in 2020!

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor there see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires" -John Steinbeck

This is a really good Washington Post article. "How Trump Won: The Revenge Of Working Class Whites" 

(and aptly titled, because I do believe many voted for Trump to get "revenge" for eight years of good works and prosperity that Obama ushered in)

It reaffirms what Michael Moore and others have been saying all along, that there is a HUGE amount of sadness, frustration and anger among lower middle class white men. About a year ago the New York Times printed an article about how the death rate of this group has skyrocketed because of alcohol, drug and suicide death— every other group is living longer. Uneducated white men are dying faster; this indicates a profound problem among that group. Why wasn't this factor taken into consideration by Democrats? I think someone between Sanders and Clinton would have been a better choice, and sad to say, it would probably have had to be a man. BABY STEPS! People who were so gung-ho about Sanders don't seem to understand the give and take of politics. I'm as left wing as you can get- I don't have a car and haven't for years, I buy all my clothes at thrift stores and am a true believer in equality and fairness. But I know the reality that most Americans, even Democrats, are way more in the center. A lot of Democrats are living in a bubble (see how badly the New York Times underestimated Trump's ascendancy?) and an echo chamber. Having said all that, and in regards to this very well-written article about Trump's victory, I also want to say that America needs to change in the same way the Netherlands and Scandinavia have changed and are still changing—more focus on educating people and not relying on industrial jobs! Trump is barking up the wrong tree trying to bring us decades back in time. The only way ahead is to go forward: save what's left of the environment, make education affordable for everyone (when my mother went to college in the 1950's, she paid for it herself working part time in a bakery. Why can't that be done now? School should not be a racket! She had NO DEBT.) Once again Republicans have played their constituents to profoundly vote against their best interests, using pro working-man rhetoric. It worked once again—no surprise there. If a person doesn't read, educate themselves and think critically, they are easy prey for power-hungry politicians. This time there is a hell of a lot in the balance. I am currently reading "It Can't Happen Here," maybe to brace myself for the worst.

I understand the confusion, sadness, anger and frustration of the lower middle class white men. My family's roots are firmly planted there. My mother's parents immigrated from Holland in the 1920's and were not in favor of my mother going to college. Her father sold wholesale produce in Chicago and bought a house during the Depression. My mother's mother came from a family of poor fishermen. My father's family were farmers in rural LaSalle, Illinois. Both of my parents wanted to do more, learn more, be more. As I said, my mother put herself through college and so did my dad; he entered the Korean War so he could go to college on the G.I. Bill. This is why my sympathy only goes up to a point. I understand that there are a lot of very unhappy people in America who feel neglected and bitter, but their bitterness is so profoundly misplaced. They've allowed a buffoon like Trump to stir up bigotry, hatred and xenophobia so that he could live his dream of ultimate glory. They are endangered the environment in such a frightening way, based on ignorance, greed and indifference. They are allowing a goon to undo all the hard work of decades of civil rights advancement. There is an utter lack of understanding on everyone's part on the way progress occurs–it happens slowly and in stages, you are not suddenly prosperous over night. It's work, people.

As for the educated white men and women who voted for Trump, all I have to say to that is how nihilistic, how misanthropic to do such a vile thing. Cutting off your nose to spite your face is never a very good idea.

©2016 Alice DuBois

Not A Happy Camper

You stopped aging in 1959
and your heart and brain began to rot.

Eyes like a peacock's neck, no soft touch for this gentle soul—
nothing to quell increasing fear.
(not that a woman could have saved you,
though it didn't stop you from dreaming
of the perfect squaw)

You lost your looks
(which never did you much good anyway)
Thin-lipped, thin-skinned.

                 "He smelled like warm dirt and was so filthy that even his
                 eyelashes were caked with soot—above the bluest eyes I have
                 ever seen. He was missing a front tooth."

Each decade your frown got deeper.
no more light shone from those turquoise eyes.

Who to hate more— Mother, Father or biblical Brother?
It had to be Brother: back-stabber, turncoat.



In the end your gloating got you.
The tedious diatribe peppered with bitter rage.

The silly malapropism

You can't eat your cake, Ted, and have it too.

You lost the only love you'd ever known. You were Eurydice and he
had to look back.

Alone and alone and alone
in your mind
in the woods
in a cell

All you leave behind is pain.



©2016 Alice DuBois

( "warm dirt" quote by Candice Delong, FBI profiler)