The Muslim Ban is the Policy of the Republican Party

Ronald Reagan pictured here with notable racist/traitor Richard Nixon and notable criminal Spiro Agnew in 1971.  Reagan kicked off his 1980 Presidential campaign at the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi, with a speech emphasizing "states rights" just a couple miles from where civil rights workers had been the victims of state-sanctioned murder.

Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are the leaders of the Republican Party and they endorse Trump's executive order on immigration and refugees.  The order is the policy of the mainstream Republican Party.  This is important to emphasize because many people including the Clinton campaign, have engaged in the habit of going after Trump personally, but at the same time letting Republicans off the hook.

Trump and the Republican Party are one in the same.  Trump is the perfect expression of the Republican id:  Racist, nationalistic, greedy, anti-intellectual, fear mongering, and worshipers of the prosperity gospel.  This white nationalism did not begin with Trump, nor will it end with him.  Watch the primary debates again, if you can stomach it; they all endorsed some iteration of the Muslim ban. Watch how many Republicans vote for Jeff Sessions.  This is why it is important to go after the whole party.

Trump is crazier than a generic Republican candidate is, but all the policies are the same.  The party will own everything Trump does until they decide to impeach him.

Get Ready

If the schedule of the confirmation hearings is any judge, expect a lot of bad legislation to come out of congress in coming days and weeks.  This legislation needs to be fought at every turn.  If the ACA's replacement (for example) is anything less than Medicare for all...oppose it.

Oppose all of Trump's cabinet appointments, but particularly Sessions, DeVos, Pruitt, Carson, and Price.  I may be missing some, the lightening speed of the hearings has my brain going in all directions (this is a deliberate effect), but the point is:  Universal opposition can work. 

Get ready to protest, boycott, and be disobedient.  Get ready to call your elected officials more often. 

The left is going to lose far more battles than it will win.  There is no preventing this, but we have to try.  Ultimately if we can tie the Republicans to Trump and vice-versa, and get people to show up to the polls, we will win. 

Go After the Money

One of many tools to fight the Trump Administration and the Republican power grab is to go after those who contribute material support to such endeavors.  By "go after" I don't want to be misinterpreted: I do not condone any kind of illegal or threatening behavior.  However, boycotts, protesting, and starting uncomfortable conversations, are not only legal but necessary.

So how do we find out who has been contributing to the party of insecure white resentment?  It turns out, there is a very easy online tool http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/?name=campaign%20contributions

Using my own arbitrary judgment, I'm choosing donors who've contributed more than $500.  Who are these people in Montpelier?

JOHNSTON, DARCIE
MONTPELIER, VT 05602

TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT, CONSULTANT, JOHNSTON CONSULTING INC.

$2,000 to Donald Trump

$295 to the Vermont Republican Federal Elections committee

HENEY, MARY M
MONTPELIER, VT 05602

W. J. HENEY & SON, INC.

$600 to the Vermont Republican Federal Elections committee

GRAYCK, DAVID
MONTPELIER, VT 05602

$500 to Tom Reed (R)

$1000 to Elise Stefanik (R)

$500 to Steven Wells (R)

$240  to John Faso (R)

SCOTT, PHILIP
MIDDLESEX, VT 05602

GOVERNOR

$500 to the Vermont Republican Federal Elections committee

LAMBERTON, WAYNE
MONTPELIER, VT 05602

LAMBERTON ELECTRIC

$2,500 to the Vermont Republican Federal Elections committee