Dave Stewart,
My fellow lefties, Trump 2.0 is upon us.

Yes citizens, it’s happening. America has failed it’s IQ test, but so have we.

Our disbelief that someone of such low character can win an election says more about us than it does about the American people.

Where are we going wrong and what can we do now?

We’re all guilty of making the mistake of thinking everyone thinks the same way we do.

We see Trump’s ugliness and that’s the end of it.

We ignore that some people agree with what he says and when they do, we call them morons, and worse.

Someone living in a mobile home city because the American economy is wrecked by a financial system that is designed to make a few people rich and the rest poor, poorer, extremely poor and bigly poor isn't listening to us.

The poor have been divided up into further ever more elite and non-elite sections and conventional politicians work THAT room.

They will probably always win THAT room.

Instead of competing for this, at best, vacillating division of labour, we should probably start talking to those other rooms.

That’s what Trump does.

The parties we on the left are expected to like are all flawed by design, where they just want us to support the rich either a lot, or a lot more.

So, our parties policies will always hurt the not rich every time, and at this time, it’s absolutely giving it to them.

We went after the middle, again.

And lost.

Again.

Both the GOP and Democrats support Israel's policy in the Middle East and there is no doubt that voters with that as a priority punished the incumbent party for, and who can really blame them?

The Biden administration’s support for Israel is a stain on all humanity.

The best thing that can happen for the left is to galvanise itself for the struggle that lies ahead of us.

And we will have many allies. In time that will include 2024 Trump voters amongst them as ‘The Golden Age of America’ means more wealth for the billionaires that is paid for by the rest.

There’s a lot for us to think about in the way we move forward.

Most importantly, after a respectful period of mourning, we need to stop thinking about ourselves and how terrible we feel.

We need to think about what this means for the people who are Americans who have good values, who are not racist, who have decent character, and what will they have to do to resist the kind of reactionary hateful regime Trump will deliver.

These people, our people, will have to resist a government that will work against the values of a civilised country and become instead like countries that are struggling to achieve democratic values and bring a more authoritarian and repressive regime to their country.

Remember also how divided the ‘United” States has become since 2016. The Republican Party we knew from the horrible Bush V1 and Bush V2 years is dead and buried, replaced by a MAGA Cult. But as a party in a post-election era they are even more divided and the very basic principles of a democracy and several, perhaps a not insignificant number, will resist the extremes the MAGA within The GOP.

Yes, we have to deal with a Trumpist America, but so does a Trumpist America.

It’s our job to find ways to connect with the people who are so badly hurt by this broken financial system that they've been Trumped and begin to have some meaningful dialogue.

I’m not talking about singing Kumbaya to axe wielding mobs of MAGAroids coming to punish their political opposition, and no doubt we will see some of that.

I’m talking about the people of character.

The political parties that woo us need to do some major ideological surgery as well.

Trying to appeal to people who are forever swinging red or blue to win an election to run an economy based on a broken financial model means we aren’t working to get people to organise in sufficient numbers on the ground for things that will actually be delivered.

Politics is all about delivery in the end.

We need to stop thinking about finding popular leaders and concentrate on stronger action on the ground.

Popular leaders look like Trump.

The real leaders will reveal themselves soon enough.

We need to do a fair bit of self-criticism here and be honest about the way we connect with the broader community and if part of the problem is us.

Now is the time for us to use the energy that is driving our anger and frustration and use it to drive our enthusiasm for a real meaningful period of activism and change by connecting with as many people as we can who can be brought into the struggle ahead.

We don't need to beat ourselves, or others, up.

He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata he tangata he tangata!

What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people.