To listen to the Spotify “CHC” playlist of songs related to the Compassionate Humanity Community (CHC) project, click here.

Excerpt from “Is Tim Walz the Midwestern Dad Democrats Need?” on The Ezra Klein Show

I’ve watched a lot of presidential campaigns, and I can’t remember one in which the contest for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination has played out quite so publicly. And that’s allowed for some voices and figures to break through who you might not have imagined before. Foremost among them is Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, because of one interview on “Morning Joe,” saying of Donald Trump and JD Vance, “These guys are just weird.”

That was the interview heard around the Democratic Party. I remember it hit me on social media. I saw that and thought, “Oh, that really connects.” And then all of a sudden, it was all you heard from Democrats. “Weird, weird, weird. These guys are weird.”

Why did this connect this way? And is there a risk of this falling into something that can bedevil Democrats, coming off as an insult to Trump’s supporters, like Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” comment in 2016?

I wanted to hear Walz go deeper on all of this. He grew up in a small town in the Midwest and repeatedly won a congressional seat that was quite red. So I also wanted to hear his thoughts on why the Democrats have been losing the types of voters he knows so well and how to win them back.

Walz joined me for a conversation on my podcast. This is an edited transcript of our conversation.

You’ve had a hell of a couple of weeks. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen any single person, including, for that matter, a president, change an entire party’s messaging the way your riff on “Morning Joe” — on the weirdness of Donald Trump and JD Vance and Republicans of their ilk — did. You’ve been using that word for a while when a lot of other Democrats are using “existential,” “terrifying,” “undemocratic.” I’m not saying you don’t believe those things. But why, for you, “weird”?

All those things are true about an existential threat to global peace, in my opinion, a desire to strip constitutional power and division. All of those things are true.

What I see is that that kind of stuff is overwhelming for people. It’s like other big issues like climate change. If you can’t tackle it one piece at a time, it just seems, why should I do anything about it?

It’s the emperor’s wearing no clothes, is all this story is — this guy’s weird stories and inability to connect like a human being. What happened was, the minute that spell came down, the minute everybody in the crowd realized the emperor wasn’t wearing any clothes, we can sweep in and say, “Who’s asking to ban birth control? Who’s asking to ban these books? Who’s asking to take veterans’ benefits away?”

And then we come in and say, “Look, Kamala Harris is talking about making sure that you have expanded health care, making sure there’s day care available, making sure that it’s easier to get free school lunches.”

And “weird” is specific to him. I’m certainly not talking about Republicans. I’m not talking about the people who are at those rallies. I’m hearing this from my Republican friends, because the people at those rallies, they’re the ones that can most benefit from the message we’re delivering.

I looked at him the other night in St. Cloud, Minn. Young women behind him. We’re going to provide reproductive care for them. I saw a group holding “Somalis for Trump.” We have a large Somali population. We’re very proud of that. Donald Trump has said, “We’re going to have a Muslim ban.” And he talked about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and the Somali community as being so detrimental rather than an asset to this. So we’re going to take care of those people, too.

He’s not going to do that. What do they have if they don’t have that fear? What do they have if there’s not a dystopian society? What do they have if only Dear Leader can come in and fix it?

If people are saying, “Actually, I’d like to have cheaper day care. I’d actually like them to quit talking about this. And I really don’t care who somebody’s married to” — because I believe the vast majority of people really don’t want to be in other people’s bedrooms.

And I use the thing of small town — this is where JD Vance doesn’t get it. You survive best by just minding your own damn business. Just stay out of people’s business.

I want to get at this distinction you’re making, between Trump or Vance and the crowds. Because one of the most dangerous emotions that Democrats sometimes let slip — the negative side of, I think, the liberal personality — can be a kind of contempt, a kind of smugness. This is why Hillary Clinton’s comment on deplorables was so damaging. How do you police that boundary?

This is where I take offense to JD Vance and “Hillbilly Elegy.” Those are my people. I come from a town of 400 — 24 kids in a class, 12 cousins, farming, those types of things. And I know they’re not weird. I know they’re not Donald Trump.

The thing is, we have to get them away from what he’s trying to sell because that’s not who they are. Just picture in your mind Donald Trump coming home after a day of work and picking up a Frisbee and throwing it. And his dog catches it, and the dog runs over, and he gives him a good belly rub because he’s a good boy. That’s what I do. And that’s what those rallygoers do. That is exactly who they are, and they’re going through the same things all of our families are.

He’s captured some of this. And fear is scary. I mean, the world is changing. We’re seeing, you know, conflict in the Middle East. We saw a global pandemic, which he did nothing to fix but seized upon.

And I think it’s kind of breaking that spell again of saying, “Look, he’s not offering you anything.” And then we dang sure better be ready to offer something.

Have you ever read “Hillbilly Elegy”?

I did, years ago.

I read it years ago, and I’ve been rereading it this week. I remember not thinking all that much of it then, but it feels like he’s predicting himself now. One of the big points early in the book is, he says: This is a story about people in a hard situation responding to it — and I’m paraphrasing — in the worst possible way. With anger, with resentment, with scapegoating of others without personal responsibility. A liberal would never talk about people and the places he’s from like that.

No, that’s why I take offense to it. Look, societal changes, you’re going to see a migration of population patterns. But you’re also going to see those that accelerated that, those that took advantage of that, those like Donald Trump and JD Vance, who are telling you, “We need to do school vouchers.” How are you going to get a private school in a town of 400? That’s not where the private school is going to be. The private school is going to be where it already is, giving tax breaks to the wealthiest.

The two things that are core to small communities: school and hospital. So I don’t know the irony or the masterful design of this. It’s guys just like him telling you that these people are just angry, bitter. That’s not who we are. That’s not who they are.

But I’ll tell you what. There are concerns. Economies have shifted. Young people leave those communities. My community felt thriving when I was there — two grocery stores, a couple of bars downtown and all that. Now it’s empty main streets. That vision of “Hillbilly Elegy” was true. But he doesn’t tell you the story why. And the bitterness, the cultural bitterness, whatever, that’s just not true. They’re just looking for “What are things to rejuvenate us? How do we get back?”

And I think about this: A town that small had services like that and had a public school with a government teacher that inspired me to be sitting where I’m at today. Those are real stories in small towns.

These guys, they talk about how evil the public schools are. For many of us, public schools were everything. That was our path. That’s the great American contribution.

You say there’s not a cultural bitterness, but there is a cultural frustration with the Democrats. If you looked at where people who didn’t go to college voted, they used to vote for Democrats. Now Democrats win college-educated voters nationally and lose non-college-educated voters. Those numbers are particularly stark among white voters. What do you make of that?

I think some of it is the alignment of economics. We’ve seen a migration to tech jobs, health care jobs in the cities. And then the cultural pieces — firearms start to get into that. You have long traditions that felt like they were being crushed.

We have got to figure out and see if we’re to some of the blame that we haven’t made the message clear enough. We haven’t delivered on those promises that people wanted to see.

The Affordable Care Act being one of those — it does a lot of great things, but people now have kind of forgotten that if we take away the A.C.A., you’re back to pre-existing conditions. And I don’t know if we built that into people’s thinking right now. So when Donald Trump says he’s going to get rid of the A.C.A., all right, that sounds good. I guarantee you those people at those rallies don’t want the A.C.A. to go away.

So I keep coming back to this: If they’re not voting for us, there’s not something wrong with them; there’s something that’s not quite clicking. So don’t assume they’re just not clever enough to understand what you’re selling them.

I do think that people don’t vote on policy as much as policy wonks would like to believe. That’s one thing. But the other thing is that we always think about whether or not voters like politicians. But my experience of voters is that they’re more sensitive to whether they think politicians like them. That’s a heuristic I think voters use a lot. Like, if you feel that a politician would like you, they’re probably going to look out for you. If you feel they would look past you, that they would look down on you, they’re probably not.

How do you explain Trump in that? You think they feel that he sees them?

I do. Look, I’m sure you have Trump voters in your family. I have Trump voters in my family.

I do.

And I think a lot about how unappealing he is to me and how appealing is to people I love.

Yeah, me, too. I spend a lot of time on that.

Well, what’s your theory of it?

I do think he’s entertaining to some. I think there is a sense, especially if you’re a little frustrated, that he’s not afraid to poke the bear. It feels like it’s empowering. And look, I think the world is complex. And if you don’t understand something, there’s a tendency that you might turn to the unexplainable, the conspiracy theories that caught on and things.

These aren’t stupid people. These are smart people. But there’s a frustration of: Why aren’t things working? Why are they so complex? So, I don’t know, I’m just theorizing on it.

But that district that I represented in 2016, I won that district six times. There’d been one other Democrat since 1890, but I won it in 2008 by 32 points. I sneak by in 2016. He wins by 17 points in that same district. They never see him. They knew me. I coached their kids. I was there. I delivered in Congress. I was a ranking member on the V.A. committee. Just six, eight years before, nearly 70 percent of them voted for me. I didn’t do any scandal or do anything to lose their support. But this guy came in and — even though I was of them or felt I was of them, that this was me, I was truly their representative — they identified with him. So I don’t know….

So I don’t know what it is. I think the Democrats’ way out of this is with optimism and a sense of grace toward folks. I want to be very careful. Like I said, those folks at those rallies, you insult them at great peril. Your neighbor is flying the flag, you insult them at great peril. Because they’re my relatives. They truly are, and I know them.

Read more (behind paywall)

Reader’s Comments

Re: Hypocrisy
Eva Paterson:
3/31 – It’s also tragic and disheartening 

4/4 – Looks like Biden may be finally standing up to the right-wing folks in Israel

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Re: [fromwade] Mutual Empowerment, April 2024

“Humans are torn between fear and anger on the one hand and trust and love on the other.”

Dan Brook:

It is easier to exploit fear and anger than to inspire trust and love. Authoritarian leaders, generals, advertisers, media, clergy, coaches, et al. know this well, whether they know about our negativity bias or not. Remember “if it bleeds, it leads”? If we miss the saber tooth tiger stalking us, we may lose our lives, but if we miss the juicy fruit tree, we’ll still survive that loss. Therefore, our evolutionary biology has taught us, perhaps even hardwired us, to react to fear more because it can be more practical on a basic existential level. Overcoming this negativity bias takes more energy and consciousness; it’s an uphill trek where we can hopefully get a better view, though probably with more sweat and sore feet.

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Re: Editor’s Report – 3/18/24

Kathy Labriola:

Hi Wade,

I have read your most recent post to the list, but I am not clear how it is in any way a response to my email or my comments. And I think it would be a terrible mistake for Biden to step aside now from running for re-election, since an incumbent always has an edge over a new candidate, and there are no other candidates that would have the level of support he has among Democrats and the potential for undecided voters to vote for him rather than Trump.+++++

Re: Americans Pay a High Price for the GOP’s Fiscal Irresponsibility, by Dan Brook:

Republicans keep wasting our money on their ideological boondoggles that are typically unsuccessful and do nothing to help real people.

A Personal and Social Change Survey

Some time ago, I circulated “A Personal and Social Change Survey” and recently posted a report on the responses.  Nine individuals responded helpfully, which I appreciate. 

Overall, the respondents appreciated the values affirmed on the Compassionate Humanity Community website and supported the general drift of the corrective actions presented. Receiving this support is heartening. 

The responses to the open-ended questions were rich. You may want to read them closely and absorb the insights you find helpful. The report is here. 

FromWade

Is This What Happens When You Build a Real Social Safety Net, Then Take It Away?
By Bryce Covert

It’s a riddle that economists have struggled to decipher. The U.S. economy seems robust on paper, yet Americans are dissatisfied with it. But hardly anyone seems to have paid much attention to the whirlwind experience we just lived through: We built a real social safety net in the United States and then abruptly ripped it apart.

Take unemployment insurance….

Many told Dr. Michener about having to hustle harder for work, and she told me that the word “struggle” comes up over and over again in the researchers’ interviews. Americans have less sense of security, she said, “that you’re going to be OK and you’re going to be taken care of should the worst-case scenario befall you.”

The disillusionment this creates is incredibly harmful. Yes, if people feel pessimistic about the economy, it may very well swing the election away from President Biden. But it’s bigger than just this election. Even if somehow the experience of losing benefits doesn’t diminish political participation, it’s a lost opportunity for the government to continue demonstrating to Americans that it can make their lives better. That draws people into democracy and strengthens it. The worst — and more likely — case is that it turns them off.

“There were a lot of things across many programs that changed and made people’s lives better, and so many of those things have been pulled back,” Dr. Michener said. “We’d have to think people are idiots not to notice that.”

[read more]

What he denies is that God exists as a being or intelligence separate from the rest of the universe…. Spinoza’s argument is disconcertingly simple. God is “a being absolutely infinite,” and the idea of infinity “involves no negation”: it would be contradictory to say that there is some quality an infinite being does not possess or some space it does not occupy…. If God exists, then he must be absolutely everywhere; not even our own bodies and minds can be separate from him.
Baruch Spinoza and the Art of Thinking in Dangerous Times

• How one school is centering social-emotional learning

  At Valor Collegiate Academy in Nashville, helping students thrive personally and academically through a weekly social-emotional learning practice called Circle is central to their values. The school encourages students to share what’s going on in their lives and to accept support, creating a community of care. According to one student, “It’s half-way between a group therapy session and an AA meeting.” (read more) [posted in Social/Education] On PBS Newshour here.

Larry Walker:
This group (Social Permaculture) seems to be aligned with what you are doing. [MY NOTE: “Social Permaculture” is the praxis of permaculture methodology applied to social relationships.] (Larry’s email included the following.)

 In India, pioneers from 16 countries — ranging from billionaires to folks whose life’s possessions fit into a backpack — flew in for our Gandhi 3.0 retreat, to nuance that throughline from me-centered transactions to we-centered relationships to us-centered emergence….  If, however, the personal, interpersonal and systemic designs start to harmonize, the laddership hypothesis is that the collective emergence of that ecosystem bends its arc towards greater compassion…. how do we differentiate inner voice from ego voice?… How, ultimately, do we throw a better party and build a new paradigm?  (read more)

Wade Lee Hudson:

Thanks for the heads up. I added “permaculture” and “social permaculture” to my website to-do list. I do see considerable alignment. However, this report says nothing about “domination” or “mutual support.”

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Re: “New Introduction”

Dan Brook:

One thing that the recent flare-up in the Middle East taught me, or rather reminded me, is that many people who want a fairer world, besides lacking nuance, also exhibit selective kindness, that is, being kind to one’s “us” and too often being unkind to one’s “them”. And it happens in our treatment of animals as much as in our treatment of fellow humans.

Wade: Indeed. Well put. Thanks.

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Dan Brook:

Re: “A Little Hole in the Global Left: Israel, Gaza, and Humanity, by Dan Brook. “I have been terribly disappointed in so much of the American and global Left that is so reflexively anti-Israel that they don’t care about [Hamas goals and violence]…”

Criticize Israel when appropriate, but in this case, start with criticizing Hamas for its homicidal desires and murderous rampage. This is not meant to excuse occupation, but to contextualize it…. I strongly oppose occupation and injustice — Israeli, American, Russian, Chinese, English, French, and otherwise

+++++

Yahya Abdal-Aziz:

Your essay “Does “the System” exist?“ is a very clear explication of your thinking.  I now have probably the clearest understanding of your concept that I’ve had in years.  Thank you for writing and sharing it!

As a once (and forever) systems analyst, I’ve been thinking in “system” terms for most of my life.  However, the use of the term “system” in philosophical, political and social theory can have quite different connotations than it does as a tool of business and information technology!  Somehow, I’ve come to feel that the former (“social science”) fields’ use is more laden with moral value judgments than the latter (“business engineering”), which is, on the contrary, more concerned with objective and measurable facts … and this is, doubtless, an unwarranted bias.

All that my experience really shows is this: that some things are easier to measure meaningfully than others …  Which of course I already understood, when during my studies and teaching, I encountered the fun task of devising appropriate measurement scales for psychological traits. (Including in the ’70s, a protracted, bemused and ultimately unsuccessful exploration of what kind of mathematics might support the concept of “latent variables”.)  Humility, it seems, is a lesson that I am doomed to repeat, until – one day, I hope – it sticks!

Meanwhile, I have your fruitful analysis of the existing Top-Down System – and its contra-positive, the fabulous Bottom-Up System – as tools to help guide my thinking toward better ways of living and thriving together.  Thanks again!

Wade: Especially considering your extensive experience with systems thinking, your comments hearten me considerably

Re: New Homepage and Preface

Yahya Abdal-Aziz:

More analytical questions, then – if you will:

1. Which form (structure, format) better supports collaboration?
2. Would some other structure work even better than either “book” or “encyclopaedia”?
3. Supposing we were to design such a structure (as if from scratch!), what would our design goals be?

Wade:

Good questions. Do you want to offer answers?

+++++

Yahya Abdal-Aziz:

This was worth the read, and a bit of thinking about. It also links other articles on aspects of anger, which I may spend some time exploring.

“Three Reasons Why You Need Anger.”

While anger gets a bad rap, studies suggest it can help us achieve difficult goals, if used wisely.

By Jill Suttie

Anger is not usually a pleasant feeling. When we feel we’ve been wronged—by, say, a slow driver or a boss or a noisy neighbor—our heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature go up, preparing us to confront the challenge. While releasing that tension may feel good in the moment, the aftereffects can be harsh….

Excellent article from a superb project, the Greater Good Science Center. I added it to Daily Reflections and my to-do list for addition to the CHC site.

+++++

Randy Thomas:

Remembering Mary’s MagnificatPoetry is one form of creative expression. In this our age, we need a diversity of creative words and inspiring images to change the current narrative. Poetry, prose, essays,plays, novels, rational analysis, dialogue and synthesis, art, music, Nature’s wisdom, astrophysics, cosmology, technology,

Ways of healing, integrating, and collaborative efforts of mutual empowerment to co-create more whole life affirming,sustaining  emerging and evolving relationships. I appreciate your essays as words and meaning to better relate and understand this creative movement and potential to manifest and transform ourselves , systems, structures ,processes, in our world.

Wade: Peace. And thanks for suggesting “Mutual Empowerment” as the title for the newsletter and sharing with me the distinction between embodied and disembodied spirituality. 

Rhonda Magee:

GOOD MORNING TO YOU

Rhonda sharing reflections – and a song! – onstage at “Wisdom and A.I,” hosted by Wisdom 2.0, October 30, 2023

Warm greetings to you. As we move into this new year, like many of you, I have been reflecting on how to make the most of this life, given all the challenges we face.

One thing seems certain: the times are calling – loudly – for greater capacity to hold together, as one, the things that appear to be separate, to make connections and common cause among things that appear different, or even seem to be opposed or opposite. Thinking of this, I am reminded that Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thich Nhat Hahn agreed that doing so is an aspect of what they each, from their very different cultures, religious commitments and social justice locations, referred to as “Beloved Community.” As I’ve discussed in prior presentations, being Beloved Community today is an invitation to each of us to make this ideal real in our own life and times.

Of course, doing so is hard. I lean into practices that support us in the moment-to-moment work of cultivating a kind of grounded hope. This year, I’m focusing on sharing ways of deepening the roots of our wellbeing in support of this work, offering practices for moving through shadow and light, joy and pain in our own and in others’ experiences. I’m exploring more ways of deepening our ability to hold space for complexity and change, both individually, and in our relationships with others.

I look forward to re-energizing our resources together and joining with you again in beloved community in the coming weeks.

Book Cover Order a copy of
THE INNER WORK OF RACIAL JUSTICE here.

Links:

Listen now and reflect with Rhonda on the theme of “Being Beloved Community in a Time of Polarization.” (Dharma talk delivered by Rhonda V. Magee at the San Francisco Zen Center on January 14, 2023.)

https://www.sfzc.org/teachings/dharma-talks/being-beloved-community-time-polarization

And make a plan now to join Rhonda on March 17, 2024 at 10 am Pacific Time/11 am Mountain Time for reflections on the theme, “Leading with Clarity, Courage and Compassion.” Hosted by the Upaya Zen Center. For information and registration, visit:

https://www.upaya.org/program/gathering-dharma-with-hoshi-rhonda-v-magee-online-2024/

Wade:
Thanks for sharing. Great work. Carry it on.

“Today’s future-positive writers critique our economies while largely seeming to ignore that anything might be amiss in our private lives,” writes Kristen Ghodsee. Even our most ambitious visions of utopia tend to focus on outcomes that can be achieved through public policy — things like abundant clean energy or liberation from employment — while ignoring many of the aspects of our lives that matter to us the most: how we live, raise our children, and tend to our most meaningful relationships.

Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life

January 15

Immigration: ChatGPT

Dear ChatGPT: Assuming widespread agreement, in 800 words or less, how can the U.S. best fix its immigration problem?

ChatGPT

Addressing the U.S. immigration system requires a multifaceted approach, balancing the need for security, economic growth, humanitarian responsibilities, and the preservation of America’s core values as a nation of immigrants. Here’s a comprehensive plan, within 800 words, to address the issue:

Read More