ELECTION REFLECTIONS AND AN OPEN LETTER TO DONALD TRUMP
Tue, 22 Nov 2016 05:30:00 PST
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From Foster Gamble
INTRODUCTION
Like many of you, I have grave concern over the seething fear, anger, hatred and violence in the U.S. right now, based on what I see as deep misunderstandings and overly simplistic “black or white” thinking. That Clinton vs. Trump was our “choice” is huge confirmation that we continue to participate in a system of grabbing for illegitimate power that is corrupt to its core. It is chillingly reminiscent of the era of the Spanish Civil War — that started with the social awkwardness of Left vs. Right arguments among family members, work associates and political groups and devolved quickly into civil war where brothers ended up shooting at or torturing one another. Each side’s self-righteous certainty that they were the ones who should have power over others was soon taking thousands of lives and sparking larger wars throughout Europe.
Many requests have come in asking for my take on the U.S. election. Because I am so deeply anti-political and anti-state, I have been silent publicly on the topic since my blog on DEFINING POLITICS — Knowing What We Are Talking About Could Save Our Lives, one year ago. But I now feel motivated to respond, given the opportunity, and the stakes.
The mainstream media is feeding our frenzied divide with one another, keeping the meaningful conversations and reconciliations at bay. I see the “divide and conquer” strategy in full swing, where conflicts between genders, races, classes or political parties are created and used by the few at the top to keep the masses fighting each other, weak, preoccupied and in support of authoritarianism. Our film, THRIVE, describes this in detail. It is the essence of the system in which we are mired.
So how do we move from here to an empowered relationship with ourselves and each other? It’s critical that we deepen the conversation and swim upstream into the assumptions, the contradictions and the moral basis of human relations, because as a species with weapons of mass destruction, we can’t afford not to get this clear and right, right now.
Most people share virtually the same values; the differences show up in how to achieve the better world we all want. Remembering this is an essential first step in communicating effectively and respectfully across the political divide. I will take that step here, with a trans-political view of Trump and an open letter to him to address the opportunity we face by looking through the lens of principles, not politics.
It’s an interesting exercise for me, because I do not subscribe to the belief that we need rulers to keep us from total breakdown. Indeed, I see principles, not politics, as the missing nucleus of this entire standoff between people, and from the election.
I see rules (protecting sovereign rights), not rulers, as the structure that will best allow for the realization of our true potential. I am a Voluntaryist who looks through the lens of the Non Aggression Principle(NAP), forbidding the initiation of force (except in true self-defense) or fraud and requiring universal equal rights. I am a firm believer that 1) a small group of people having control over the money supply and then 2) mandating taxation — the foundations of all governments — are both theft, and are therefore morally reprehensible.
Nonetheless, we have a new “ruler” at this stage, and I believe we can all benefit from up-leveling the conversation to see how his policies will impact on our lives, especially since we have an opportunity for it to be a very different ride than if we simply had the next corrupt establishment globalist taking power.
Trump’s obvious shortcomings made it more difficult for people all along the political spectrum to appreciate the fact that he is the only general election, major party Presidential candidate in at least 100 years to be outside of, and go up against, the Rockefeller/Rothschild/Clinton/Bush globalist machine. The reality we are in seems to be that Trump won, and I believe that it’s because he represented this overdue checkmate to the longstanding corruption. I feel relief that Hillary Clinton, with her decades-long documented trail of blood and tears (Whitewater, Iraq war, Libya, Benghazi, selling out U.S. uranium to Russia, clandestine and vulnerable classified emails, DNC voting manipulations, Mena drug running, suspicious deaths of potential scandal whistleblowers, etc.) is not in a position to take us headlong into a proxy war — potentially nuclear — with Russia in Syria.
That said, Trump’s proposed policies reflect a mind-boggling combination of repugnant misunderstanding and insightful leadership. His inability to articulate and defend policies effectively didn’t help. But the inconsistency is what presses us to move past politics to principles, and to guide Trump and his team to find the missing moral compass.
I object strongly to any of Trump’s proposals that are based in violations, such as:
- expanding Guantánamo
- reinstituting torture
- condoning carpet bombing
- threatening to kill the families of those trying to defend against imperialist attacks on their families, their cultures and/or the theft of their country’s gold
- supporting random “stop and frisk”
- punishing women for choosing what they do with their own bodies
- dividing immigrant families already here in the U.S.
- expanding nuclear, fracking, coal and other destructive and unnecessary energy technologies
I do, however, recognize Trump’s equally powerful proposals for non-violation that we can celebrate — and which demonstrate, by contrast, how the principle of non-violation is missing in the proposed policies above.
For example, I deeply appreciate Trump’s stated intentions:
- to make peace with Russia
- to audit (and hopefully shut down) the Federal Reserve
- to disband NATO, which I am convinced has become simply the emerging imperialist One World Army for the New World Order, and obligates countries to commit soldiers, weapons and taxpayer money to any member country that claims it is being threatened.
I admire his informed positions against:
- mandatory vaccination
- coercive globalization
- establishment politics
- the TPP — The Trans-Pacific Partnership and other coercive sovereignty destroying trade deals
- the bankers’ scheme of using false premises about global warming data to authorize a one world government structure, under their control, and the mandatory global taxes to fund it.
