If

If hate and anger fuel your acts you do not merit love.

If your greatness lies in your past then you doom your future.

If your mantra is me first, you will end up last.

Does your God set an example by loving everyone, or just the people who love him/her?

If your God does not love everyone, get a new God.

If your God does love everyone, get a new President.

Politics and Religion

I’ve read several fascinating studies recently that demonstrate the area of the brain where both religious and political beliefs reside.  Neuroscientists at USC were able to demonstrate via MRI that the same area of the brain went into defensive mode when either religious or political views were challenged.  Once such defenses are triggered, logic and reason are displaced by entrenchment.  (See https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161223115757.htm).

So that explains it!  I have oft wondered why when discussing politics with friends of differing perspectives they are likely to become hostile, vindictive, name-calling, Trump sycophants.  For liberals and conservatives alike, deeply held beliefs are just that, deeply held and not subject to reason and rational thought.  I have suffered from the belief that once my position is explained as a logical, rational position given what I value most many will agree with me.  No amount of reason will convict an atheist to become a Christian, a conservative to become a liberal, or a bigot to support civil liberties and civil rights.  The attempt to change someone’s mind in either of these arenas are likely a waste of time.  “Never wrestle with a pig.  You get dirty and the pig likes it.”  George Bernard Shaw

So, as a human being capable of reason and logic, why do thoughts about politics and religion become so deeply ingrained?  Why do we become instantly irrational when discussing these beliefs?  If I believe an aspirin a day helps me avoid strokes, and then read that taking a nap does so even better, I am likely to abandon the aspirin for a nap.  I am not upset.  I do not feel the need to defend the aspirin I once believed in, but now I have new data and believe differently.  Such rational thought does not exist in religion or politics.  It may be because it is in those two areas, perhaps more, that we define ourselves.  If our personal definition is grounded in falsehood we do not want to know it and will deny to the point of creating falsehoods or maintain our delusion.  If I see myself as a Christian Conservative any effort that uses facts to persuade me of an error in my positioning is attacking my very self-image.  I cannot allow that to happen.  So we have seemingly rational people walking around believing that giving millionaires more money somehow economically helps poor people, or they believe that the earth is 6,000 years old.  Both of those beliefs have been clearly debunked by knowledge and reason and science.  And yet, for some a challenge to belief based on fact remains grounds for verbal war.  Or worse.

We cannot agree on the most simple of facts because our belief blinders stand in our way and we cannot see.  Clinton received almost 3 million more votes than Trump.  That is a fact.  That fact cannot be swept away because we do not want to believe that fact or that fact is not aligned with what I believe or worse that I engage in fantasy about fraudulent votes are the only way that can be true.  Of 58 Presidential elections, Trump ranks 46^th in the number of Electoral College votes received. Any way you slice it, 46 lies on the number line closer to 58 than to 1^st.  He did not receive the most electoral votes ever, he did not win by a landslide.  He enters office with only a 42% approval rating, the lowest ever recorded.  Those are facts.  

But they are facts that Trumpeters do not believe or are not willing to believe when a fact is a fact is a fact whether one believes it or not.  The same is true for the crowd attending the Trump inauguration.  Yes, it was less than Obama’s crowd and even less than the women’s march the next day.  But for the believer, those facts cannot be right, someone must be to blame, someone must be attacking us for some reason, or somehow these facts are tainted and not valid.  If we believe Trump was elected overwhelmingly and enters the White House with a mandate supported by the largest cheering crowd in history we are denying facts to bolster our belief.  And that is scary.  Because if we cannot deal with facts we cannot lead.  If we cannot take one on the chin, we cannot lead.  If we have to have it our way despite the data, then we cannot lead.  I would go so far to say even using the term “alternative facts” hits a serious delusional position wherein the belief system must, absolutely must win no matter what the facts say.  Such a person should not lead.  They should not teach.  They should not serve in law enforcement or the justice system, they should not be employed in a position that handles a lot of money, or is responsible for a lot of weapons.  They should not be high school referees.  The thought of such a person as President is beyond belief.

The most interesting point in all the above discussion is that it does not matter.  Trump won.  Trump is President.  The crowd size, electoral votes, the mandate, the approval rating are all just extraneous facts as opposed to alternative facts.  It does not matter.  Trump won.  What matters is civil liberties, tariffs, pipelines, Mexico, China, Europe, etc.  We are not spending nearly enough time on those issues.

It also matters what the personal characteristics are of this person now our President   Do we really want a President who cannot let go of his belief system even when handed the facts?  Do we want a President who will spend millions on commissions to determine if the facts as he sees them are better than the facts we have, the facts we know, the facts that have already been verified?  Do we want a President whose skin is so thin that he will attack members of the media if he thinks they are putting him in a bad light?  Do we want a President who is not willing to be honest with us about his income taxes whether you care about it or not?  Do we want a President who issues policy, opinion and belief system tenets via Twitter?  Do we want a President whose mantra of “America First” really means “Me First”?  Do we want a President who only knows how to be a top-down boss and does not have a clue how to be a public servant?

And after we honestly answer those questions perhaps we can have a rational conversation about free trade versus tariffs, walls for borders, registry of alternative religious belief systems, rejection of people based on their belief systems and country of origin, more oil pipelines, etc.  Perhaps we can talk about his appointments and the fact that they either know absolutely nothing about the area they are to lead, or are out and out hostile to the department they are to lead.  It is as though the Pope is appointing non-church going atheists as cardinals.

And at last, will my friends who are so quick to vilify and spill vitriol be willing to sit and talk about the America they want to see.  What is your vision?  Do we really want to be known as the nation that built a wall?  Do we really want to be known as the nation that began to register people based on their religious belief?  Do we really want to put ourselves first to the degree that we harm other members of the international family?  What shall we stand for?  What shall we be known for?  In my heart of hearts I truly hope it is to stand for what is right regarding the treatment of any other human being regardless of sex or religious belief, or race, or ethnicity, or handicapping condition, or wealth, or sexual preference or sexual identify.  We should show the world how well diversity can work, not show the world how we are striving to reduce the degree of diversity.  If planet earth, the United States, the 50 states, the cities and towns all devolve to a sense of “me first” we have returned to a new dark age where it is OK to compete with others, it is OK to lie to win, it is OK to persecute those who are different from us, it is OK to continue to allow the billionaires to ride the backs of the middle class.  That is not my view.  I can discuss it rationally. 

I cannot rationally discuss my deep love for human beings, my deep love for education, my deep love for the equal treatment of all, and my deep love of these United States as defenders of liberty including civil liberties.  Those beliefs are tied to my religious beliefs.  I have real difficulty being rational in those areas and am much more likely to become emotional.  How can I possibly say I love God if I hate or fear or persecute my fellow man?  No one born on planet earth, by definition, can be an alien.

Well, perhaps with the exception of Trump.

The Bathroom Bill

State legislatures are proposing laws that would require human beings to use the bathroom (and locker rooms, etc.) based on the gender defined for them physically at birth.  For the vast majority of folks, self-included, this is not a personal issue.  I am both a male biologically and have a male sexual identity.  This is a huge problem for humans who have a gender identity that is in conflict with their biological gender.  These people are referred to as “Trans.”  I am absolutely flabbergasted that some humans propose legislative action to punish Trans for their condition.

The entire notion of civil liberties, individual rights and freedom is centered on protecting the minority from the will of the majority.  The folks who propose legislation that legalizes majority discrimination against the minority are making a public announcement that they do not support civil liberties, individual rights and freedom.  In other words, to propose such legislation promoting discrimination based on sexual identity is un-American and un-Constitutional by definition.  Such proponents, as is so typical of this low-level mental function, use fear to arose the majority to believe that they are somehow threatened by this minority and that the majority must clamp down on them.  It is this kind of thinking that promoted the laws requiring separate education based on race, separate bathrooms based on race, separate water fountains based on race, assigned seating in public places based on race, etc., etc.  It is also the kind of thinking that would deny women the right to vote, deny them the right to own property, etc.  This kind of thinking is tyranny of the majority and is by definition un-American.

And I cannot fathom the problem here.  What is the fear?  I guess if you are the kind of male who would look at another male’s sexual organs while you are in the bathroom this may scare you.  I guess if you are the kind of male who would be totally unhinged if a person who looks like a woman has a penis and you saw her penis.  Or, if you are a male and saw the vagina of someone who identifies as a male you would be equally harmed.  So, it seems to me those folks are sick and should not be writing laws.  I for one consciously avoid invading the privacy of my fellow urinal users, keeping my eyes down or up.  Evidently people like Dan Patrick do not do that.

I assume the opposite is true.  Women who enter a stall and shut the door are even less likely to see the genitals of another woman next door.  Why would they care if the ejection of waste comes from a penis or a vagina when both types of organs remain covered?  A female who does not have gender identity issues would not enter a men’s restroom anyway.  A female who has a male gender identity would not approach a urinal, but wait for the next available stall.  A male who has a female gender identity and is dressed as such would scare the likes of Dan Patrick if she walked into a men’s room dressed based on her identity not her genitals.  The opposite would be true if a female who identifies as a male and dresses like a male enters a woman’s restroom.  What is the deal?  Why not write a law making looking at another person’s genitals without mutual consent a misdemeanor, or a mrdemeanor.

Or, the fear that somehow children will be harmed.  So let’s protect little boys in the men’s room from other people, dressed like men, who enter the stall to do their business via female organs.  Let’s protect little girls from using a stall while the person in the stall next to them is using male organs to do their business.  I cannot fathom a biological male with a female sexual identity harming little boys or little girls.  I cannot imagine a biological female with a male sexual identity harming little boys or little girls.  I can readily imagine biological males harming little boys in the men’s room because that is the most frequent from of assault. 

I happen to think that anyone who supports such legislation based on fear of the genitals of another person and banning males who identify as females from the ladies room, and banning females who identify as males from the men’s room is so stupid as to be deemed unsafe.  We need a bedroom bill, no a bathroom bill:

Anyone who supports such blatant discrimination in our nation should be required to receive therapy regarding their sexual phobias and their apparent desire to see the genitals of others in inappropriate settings.  They should be required to pass a psychological exam prior to being issued a marriage license to discourage the reproduction of such fears.  It should become illegal for them to share a bedroom or the back seat of a car with anyone who is equipped with the genitals of the opposite sex.  Perhaps such a bedroom bill will end this nonsense about bathroom bills, or at least end it after one generation.  I believe the sexual dysfunction of such a person is akin to the sexual predators who may use bathrooms as a stalking ground.  We surely would not want sexual predators writing legislation.

It is the sickest of people who seek to persecute others they deem as sick using fear and ignorance as a tactic.  If they are not mentally ill, I suggest they grow up.  Last I heard, though I have not surveyed, every human is equipped with genitalia as well as hearts, minds, livers, lungs, etc.  I am not afraid of the organs of another person, though in most cases I choose not to view those organs.  If another person becomes sexually aggressive or exposes him/herself in appropriate ways we already have legislation to address those behaviors.  We cannot allow the sick to dictate (pun intended as most of the fear mongers and organ lookers are males) their own fears and insecurities into law that would punish minorities; or starts witch hunts, penis hunts or vagina hunts.  That is truly sick.  And though I believe the folks who think this way merit professional help, I do not believe they should be allowed to write laws revealing their phobias.  Let’s replace all the bathroom bills with bedroom bills and we can end this nonsense.  I believe Darwin would agree.

And I am humming one of my favorite Mamma and Pappas tunes, “Go Where You Wanna Go.”

I am the One and Only

I know, and only I know.

I know more than you know.

I know things you would not believe.

I may let you know what I know sometimes.

I know more than the facts

.

What I know is more accurate than the facts

.

I know about things I don’t even know about.

I know things and I do not have to share what I know.

Only I can do these things.

Only I can lead us where I think we need to go.

I have never lost.  I am not a loser.

I beat my enemies all the time.

If you disagree with me you will lose and are a loser.

If you disagree with me you are an enemy.

I gloat when I win.

I brag when I win.

I am always right, even if I change my mind tomorrow

.

I get things done.  I do not need a philosophy.

I can change anything I want.

I can do anything I want.

I have a mandate after a landslide.

What I want is more important than tradition.

What I want is more important than the law or the constitution.

I may not be loved by all, but I am always loved by me.

I am more important than anyone else.

I am the one and only.

Happy Circumcision Day!

January 1 is a weird day for the first day of the year.  It is not astrologically significant as in a solstice or equinox.  It is an arbitrary date rooted in other religions as in the worship of the Greek God Janus, and rooted in Christianity as the day Jesus was circumcised, 8 days after his birth.  Ugh.  Not a source of celebration as far as I am concerned.  Clearly sexist as women do not experience this ritual cutting, but last time I checked a New Year’s party is not really a party without both sexes present and no male is asked to verify circumcision at the door.  Regardless, by the mid 1700’s most western civilizations had adopted January 1 as the first day of the new year.  We just as easily could make it any other day.  If I had a vote it would always fall on the spring equinox somewhere around March 20^th, but I do not have a vote.

However the wizards and politicians selected this date, our tradition is to review the year just ending and make projections for the year to come.  Zealots will make resolutions regarding what individual accomplishments they seek to implement in the coming year.  From my point of view anyone who wants to make a change can do so and not have to wait until January 1 to start.  I see most resolutions as statements of future guilt trips.  I don’t do resolutions.  I do evolutions, as in what direction I want to grow, but that is fodder for another post.  I shall begin with observations of the year ending.

2016 was the year truth died at the hands of falsehoods.  Americans chose to believe falsehoods over truth.  I remain in shock and fear.  Trump did not win by a landslide.  He lost the popular vote and in terms of electoral votes he ranks 42^nd among all presidential candidates. This is the same man who said Obama was a Muslim and was not an American born citizen, both falsehoods.  The economy is not in bad shape.  It is in the best shape it has been in over 20 years and all the data support that.  It is the year when accusations of guilt equaled guilt.  Clinton was charged with a record number of legal infringements, millions were spent trying to prove there was evidence that merited prosecution and nothing was found.  And yet, most believe she lied and should be in prison.  I remain amazed that a lie can be told three times and forever be perceived as the truth.  This was the year a candidate for president promised the American people what he would do as president, and as soon as he was elected starting saying he wasn’t going to do those things.  This was a year when fossil fuel producers convinced a lot of people that there was not global warming caused by human behavior, an undisputed fact among scientists who are not on the payroll of fossil fuel companies.  This was the year the broadcast falsehoods of some media outlets that were constantly shown to be perpetrating lies were believed by the American people.  “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” Albert Einstein.

2016 was the year that bigotry overcame the goal of equality.  I believe that many Americans awoke in 2009 and realized we had elected our first Black President.  Few in this group would admit to bigotry, but on the other hand took joy in any little criticism of President Obama.  We saw the rise of the KKK in the election and the rise of the Alt-Right, both groups advocating for an America of the Anglos, by the Anglos and for the Anglos.  After years and years of progress in the arena of civil rights we have now elected a man who is clearly a bigot.  His talk of walls, immigrants, judges, etc. are laden with bigotry, hard for other bigots to hear.  He advocates making America great again, but when pressed to identify when America was great he points to the turn of the last century and the industrial revolution, and the 1940’s and 50’s.  He dreams of the Ozzie and Harriet Days, he longs for an Archie Bunker approach to life.  The days he cites as great in our history were in many ways terrible.  Those days were before we integrated public schools, segregation was the norm, women were not expected to work and if they did it would be in clerical, nursing or teaching.  No one could imagine a Black or female president in those days.  Workers were abused and the growth of unions stemmed from those days.  Children and adults with special needs were ignored and sent home, as were pregnant girls.  These may have been a wonderful time for the educated, prosperous Anglo males in American, but it was a terrible time for anyone else.  A return to those days does not advance our culture.  It is not a time when America was great.  It was the stone age of civil rights.  Even worse, our courts have now allowed discrimination based on the religious beliefs of the discriminator, the most twisted ruling in the court’s history as far as I can tell.  Tantamount to allowing people of one faith to kill people of another faith because it is their religious right.

2016 was the year that wealth became a protected class and poverty was attacked.  With the SCOTUS ruling by 5 to 4 in Citizens United that corporations were entitled to the same 1^st amendment free speech rights as individuals thereby opening the door for huge corporate donations to political campaigns.  Such donations were limited prior to Citizen’s United.  Such large donations continue to shape American election outcomes especially in favor of corporations, the wealthy, and opposed to civil liberties and labor unions.  The new President-elect has proposed revamping the tax code so that the wealthiest individuals receive a tax break with more of the taxation burden falling on the middle class.  Talk in Congress of reducing funding for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid out of proposed fear of insolvency would only benefit the wealthiest Americans.  The insolvency is not real in that it exists because Congress continually takes money from those funds to finance other projects, and because the wealthy to do not pay the same share of taxation for these programs as does the middle and lower class.  The rumors of welfare fraud are consistently debunked but not reported.  No study has found more than 1% fraudulent use of the funds, making welfare the least fraudulent of all federal programs, another fact not widely disseminated.  Programs that support the poor and lower middle class are under attack.  Labor Unions are under attack.  For the first time low income Americans have access to medical insurance and 20 million Americans have signed up.  But because conservatives are loath to give credit where credit is due the Affordable Care Act has been subject to conservative attack since its passage.  And the gap between our poor and our rich grows annually as the rich continue to benefit from protected status.

2016 was the year when winning meant more than integrity.  The notion that all is fair in love and war implies that winning means more than integrity.  We have consistently seen candidates boldly lie and gain in credence at the same time.  When Trump announced that John McCain was a loser because he was captured during the Viet Nam war my jaw dropped.  Trump has yet to reveal his tax returns.  We know he has not paid taxes for years.  Saying whatever it takes to get elected is an announcement that outcome means more than integrity.  Doing whatever it takes to win is an announcement that integrity takes a back seat.  Assuming people of wealth are somehow smarter, more deserving, more qualified to manage industries they know nothing about is another example of winning in one area and celebrating the victory across other areas.  If you lie, cheat, steal, or withhold information to win, there is no integrity.  If making money means more than protecting American citizens then winning means more than integrity.

2016 was the year that we ignored history in favor of delusions.  There has never been an effective wall erected between people to keep one group out and another group safe within.  There has never been a time when trickle-down, supply-side or “voodoo economics” has successfully improved our economy.  There has never been a time where discrimination by ethnicity, race, gender, or beliefs has improved the climate in a company or a country.  The notion that Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A can discriminate in their hiring practices because of their religious beliefs is unholy and delusional.  We have been though these times before.  They were not times when we were great.  They were times that we admit now were mistakes.  And yet, the delusional continue to want to return to those times ignorant or oblivious to history. 

And my hopes and projections for 2017?

My hopes: Truth will reign, bigotry will be replaced by efforts to increase civil liberties, wealthy people become engaged in supporting the US and withdraw from political ambitions, integrity means more than winning, and we review our past efforts in light of results and ethics. 

My projections:  I believe that Trump’s audacity and lack of global view will engage us in another military conflict.  I believe that Trump is better able to alienate than he is to ameliorate.  I believe the hostility between income groups, racial groups, gender groups and sexual preference groups will escalate.  I believe 2017 will be worse than 2016.

But as I prepare to celebrate Circumcision Day, rather than be totally depressed and very concerned about our nation, it occurs to me that it would be nice if I lost a few pounds next year.

Regardless, I hope your wishes and resolutions come to be and that yoiu feel OK when you wake up on Circumcision Day.

End of Public Education?

If you are a public school employee and you voted for Trump, this post is for you. 

First, some simple and verifiable facts.  Trump never attended a public school.  All his pre-college education was received in very expensive private schools.  Trump has vowed to end the public school monopoly of education.  He is pro school choice.  His choice for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, is an unashamed opponent of public education who has never worked in a public school or public school system.  She is a billionaire and believes that charter schools and vouchers are the way to improve education.  Both Trump and DeVos are billionaire “school reformers.”  Both are hostile to public education.  Both want to see money earmarked for public education re-directed to charter school operators and parents via vouchers.

If Trump and DeVos have their way, the dismantling of public schools will not only continue, it will accelerate.  Four years of such an effort will decimate public education.

I suppose that first each of us must decide whether the idea of educating every child in this nation is a good idea.  Should we do as many other nations do and simply give a test at the end of 8^th grade that determines who gets to continue their education and who is done?  Should we do as private schools and charter schools do and simply expel students who are low-performing or trouble makers or are in need of special services?  Should we as a nation accept the notion that not all kids will get a high school diploma?  Should we as a nation accept the notion of vouchers so that people of wealth will not have to pay school taxes and private school tuition?  Should we as a nation accept the notion that public dollars may be used to duplicate the public school system in a charter school system that operates with much more flexibility than public schools?  Should we accept the notion that after years and years of data collection it is obvious that charter schools do not outperform public schools and that they can serve as a new tool for segregation?  If your answers to these questions, or even some of these questions, are “yes” then you voted for the correct candidate in the election.

If, on the other hand, you answered “no” to these questions then I surely hope you did not vote for Trump.  A source of real anger and confusion for me is the perpetrated belief that lack of expertise, training, education, knowledge and experience means less in the governing of public schools than wealth.  It is as though one earns a billion dollars and becomes qualified to “fix” public schools.  It is as though one wins an election and becomes qualified to “fix” public schools.  Both theories are seriously flawed.  Neither the wealthy and/or the winning candidate is qualified by the nature of their victory or wealth to make rules governing the medical profession, engineering profession, legal profession, or even ship-building or airplane manufacture, carpentry, plumbing or welding.  And yet we continue to listen to uneducated billionaires who propose a gross array of improvement and reform strategies.  If this were not so ludicrous it would be hysterical.  It is for me a declaration of ignorance to declare I can fix something that I do not understand and admit I do not even know what I do not know and that I do not need to learn.  Why in the world would we listen to the ignorant in an effort to improve the educational system?

Most sad to me is that it looks like we are going to get more money siphoned away from public schools and placed in the hands of the CEO millionaire charter schools and the pockets of wealthy parents who currently still pay school taxes.  As money leaves public education the number of public school employees will also drop.  As money leaves public education the performance outcomes of the most challenging students will drop.  As money leaves public education to flow to charter and private schools we are robbing the poor to feed the wealthy.  Even if charter schools outperformed public schools, which they do not, the real ethical question for me is how are those students remaining in public schools performing after the money has flowed elsewhere?  If charter schools and vouchers were the savior they are lauded as being we should see an improvement in the performance of all kids, those in charters and in private schools and in public schools. But if we see what we continue to see is that public school students suffer when money flows elsewhere, then simply backing strategies that we know harm a majority of the kids in the US is, by definition, immoral.

Unless you are OK with a “yes” answer to the questions in the fourth paragraph.  If you are, then you really do not believe in public schools at all.  If you are an employee of a public school and do not believe in public schools you should probably resign, or do so before your job is cut as the money flows elsewhere.  This nonsense must stop.  I for one want to see every single child in this nation receive a top-notch education in ways that do not line the pockets of charter school CEO’s and wealthy parents.  Unless there were an equal number of seats in charter and private schools to serve all the public school kids there will never really be school choice.  Such a rally cry is just money-driven smoke and mirrors.

Please support public education.  You can do so by opposing more charter schools and vouchers. You can do so by not voting for people who do support charter schools and vouchers.  It is too late for now to cast your vote for President, but in the next two years you will vote for school board members, and state and national legislators.  If the 300,000 employees of public education in Texas voted with one mind they would determine the election outcome.  It is time we do so.

Trump is Not New

Just read an interview with Steve Bannon, Trump’s appointed Chief of Staff.  He went on and on about how Trump gets it, he is a nationalist, that the globalists eliminated America’s middle class and created an Asian middle class.  He claims this is new thinking.  He wants to re-shape the Republican Party to align with Trump’s view.  Bannon believes this is revolutionary, new and in the best interest of the USA.

Poppycock.

There is absolutely nothing new in such beliefs or in the strategies triggered by such beliefs.  In fact, they are the oldest beliefs in the U.S.  Isolationism, protective economic practices, nationalism have been with us from the very beginning.  Add to such thinking a dash of prejudice and the belief that somehow white males should rule, and you have the exact arguments made in the following settings: 

Prior to the Civil War such arguments were made by southern legislators regarding the economic impact of freeing the slaves.  Their sense of globalism was the entire US.  Their sense of nationalism was the southern states.  Read George Fitzhugh’s position in 1854 and it sounds like Trump.  They rebelled and they lost.  Human rights prevailed over provincial thinking.

In 1918 the Republicans in Congress voted against the Treaty of Versailles effectively rendering the League of Nations without power.  They were isolationists and nationalists and did not want any part of an international organization dedicated to resolving international conflicts.  Read Henry Cabot Lodge’s speeches in 1918 and he sounds just like Donald Trump.

In 1939 the US was very reluctant to enter World War II.  94% of the American public opposed such entry into foreign entanglements on the heels of World War I.  The height of this isolationism was embodied in the Neutrality Act.  Hitler attacked Poland in 1939.  America did not join the war until 1941 with the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Though Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, Republican opposition to entering the war in Europe was very vocal.  The America First organization espoused tenets of isolationism and protectionism that read just like a Trump stump speech.  This organization had 600 chapters and hundreds of thousands of members. 

And on and on.  Trump’s ideas are not new.  They are old.  And they have shown failure at every step of the way.  Plans grounded in nationalism and isolationism and scientific denial and the persecution of minorities have historically failed.  If we must endure another round of such efforts here and now let’s at least admit this is not new, this is not making America Great Again.  The Trump platform is returning to failed policies of the past.