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Bummer Numbers

Rodney Clough
6 min readNov 16, 2024

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The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, linking the boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island. completed 1964. Photo taken in 2009, courtesy wikipedia.com

How liberals ignored people and lost the election.

We know what’s in store for us. Trump does not disappoint. But what do we do; where do we go?

While pundits and Monday morning quarterbacks are still mired in the aftermath of reckoning a loss of majority and trust in governing, what’s the ‘rest of us’ to do?

As philosophers have noted, little progress is made without common goals of processing change. (1) Change — not outcome — is the order of business. It’s not that America has lost the guardrails of restraint, rather whose guardrails and for what purpose are less evident now than before November 5.

So here we are. What’s next?

To buttress our journey, I sampled pre-election political observations from a post-election perspective. (2) I wanted to remind myself what I voted for. I suspect I am not alone in this endeavor.

What can we learn?

Foremost, there are no shortcuts for instilling democracy.

Start with a ranking of what we share as common concern. Learn from our constituents’ mistrust. Focus on what they are saying, rather on who they are. Voting is not an explanation. Voting is an expression of the kind of government and governing we prefer. To whom we give over power. It’s not who they are rather it’s who we are to them.

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Rodney Clough
Rodney Clough

Written by Rodney Clough

Refuses to nap. Septuagenarian. Cliche’ raker. Writes weekly.

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