We should be able to argue against bad ideas without trying to shut the conversation down as simply a matter of a person being racist.
Exactly.
I 100% concede that being racist ought to disqualify you as a candidate. I would also posit that being under investigation by the FBI for mishandling classified information should disqualify you. While I completely understand the sentiment that it was abuse of power designed to subvert the political process, the whole point of the tactic is that it is going to work. You don't nominate that person with that kind of baggage. You lament the lost opportunity. You decry the system that makes it possible for such tactics to work. You work to change them. Making the decision to flaunt, to flagrantly display your disdain in whatever the hell that campaign can be described as, I understand why it happened but it shouldn't have happened.
The stakes are too high.
And it is incredibly important to move off the character attack on the constituency because there's important fights happening right now. The biggest mistake the republicans made the past 8 years was taking a position that compromise was impossible. It cost them opportunity and the country went further left than ever. If the democrats dig in their heels to try the same shit, the country is going to go right in a hurry.
There's a whole bunch of appointees coming up, all across government, many of them Senate confirmable.
And here's the kicker, Trump isn't a Republican. There's going to be a decent chunk of Republicans who don't want to confirm his nominees.
For the first time since I can remember, both parties are likely to get a say in policy from here on out. Only those party members in tight districts have to worry about keeping their seats. But we have to empower them to actually govern.
Send this letter to your congressperson,
Dear Old White Man (if GOP) or Dear Unqualified Minority AA Apointee (if Dem),
Please represent my interests in the upcoming congressional session. I want the government to function. I want you to advise and consent on Presidential nominees to various vacancies. He's going to need your help, as he is not up to this task. Please remember that YOU won, you were sent there to do a job. I understand there will be compromise. I understand that some people I don't want to help will be helped, and some I want to help won't be. I also understand that Things cost Money and that has to come from somewhere. Please try to spend less. Please don't spend anything on my account, I'm doing OK. Make more things legal. Don't make any more things illegal. Do your best, and always remember it is more important to do well while you are there than to be there for longer.
Ideally you'd get everything done that ever needs to be done in one session, and we can all just live our lives.
Thank you,
-A blithering racist idiot (if you didn't love HRC apparently) or an over-educated under-contributing commie (if you didn't love Trump apparently)
Here's the last bit I will say. This is a monumental opportunity to reign in the power of the executive branch folks. Part of what made the right so furious about BHO was the circumvention of congress. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that precedent was set by GWB. Congress can absolutely pass legislation limiting the authority of executive orders, or at least, completely defunding the various agencies the executive is using to abuse that power and reaffirming those agencies' ties to the legislature.
This is a once in a generation opportunity. Neither party likes the president. With veto-override margins, congress despises Trump. The majority of the country voted for someone else. Both caucuses could work together to get some populist shit passed in a hurry and beef up the public opinion of congress, make the executive largely irrelevant (just in time) and move us towards a pre-9/11 level of government.
Or dismiss the legitimate grievances of the other side as just hand-wringing anxieties of a bunch of racist white folk.