Author: A.T.

Ellen — And Thanks

A site to monitor the national popular vote — here.  Hillary now leads by more than 2 million.

I wish there were captions, but you may enjoy some of these.  Click on the photo or press the space bar to move to the next.  (Thanks, Mel!)

And don’t miss this two-minute tribute President Obama paid Ellen DeGeneres yesterday as he awarded her and 20 others the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

How far we’ve come.

Oh!  And Happy Thanksgiving!  We have hot water! And Barack Obama! And Advil! And all the world’s knowledge and music in our pocket!  (Plus: it’s a flashlight!) (And an alarm clock!) (And a computer and a tweet machine and an instant messenger and a GPS navigator!) (And a video phone!)

And we have each other. And all that our parents and ancestors did to get us to this point, where most of us live better, in most respects, than any king, czar or emperor ever did before us. (So, please — let’s not f— it up.)

Thanks for your readership.

Don’t eat too much.

 

Why We Lost The Rust Belt

Are you still reading the links from Monday (posted Sunday to give you extra time)?

Here’s one more: “Rust Belt Dems broke for Trump because they thought Clinton cared more about bathrooms than jobs.”

It has the ring of truth — though if you read to the end, you’ll see we really did try.

We just needed to do it better.

We got a couple million more votes than he did — always important to remember.

And so many stayed home it was barely a quarter of the voting-age population who put him in power.

But in power he is.

So those of us among the 75% who didn’t vote for him . . . or among the 25% who did, but with trepidation . . . need to stay engaged to help get America through this, applauding anything good Trump might do and passionately resisting the rest.

A huge voter turn-out in 2018 to sweep Congress and state legislatures blue may be unlikely but is absolutely possible — it’s legal to vote in mid-term elections! — and what, I would argue, we all need to work for.

I promise something lighter tomorrow.

 

Listening — Really LISTENING — To The Opposition

But first you have to look at this cartoon.

And read Aaron Sorkin’s letter to his daughter.

And follow Think Progress.

My friend Paul Abrams writes:

You may recall my article during the campaign about Trump seeking to become America’s Putin and how easy it will be.

Here it begins. [“Donald Trump is leveraging his new position as president-elect to empower his business empire — and he’s doing it publicly.”]

Gentlemen, our democracy is lost.   We need to understand how to form an effective political opposition in a dictatorship.

Mark my words:  Trump will have his picture and name on every infrastructure project the Congress funds.  Obama was forbidden to do that.  No photo. No name.  Trump may also be forbidden.  He won’t care.  He will just do it.  Who is going to stop him?

Here’s the near term picture: family brought into WH, informally if necessary. Pictures of Trump all over the place associated w work and improvements in your community.  Continuous rallies.  Constant attacks on whatever is left of the legitimate press.  An AG hostile to civil rights.  All US attorneys replaced by sycophants.

Within a year, fascism will become our new way of life.

If that leaves you even more eager to take to the streets, read this first — “The Right Way To Resist Trump” — in case you missed it in the Times.

The protests, argues the author, are counterproductive.

. . . There will be plenty of reasons to complain during the Trump presidency, when really awful decisions are made. Why complain now, when no decision has been made? It delegitimizes the future protests and exposes the bias of the opposition. . . .

Meanwhile, my friend Nathaniel Frank posted this very thoughtful piece: “Bridging the Divide: Thoughts from a Conversation with a Trump Voter.”

. . . I took the opportunity to listen—really listen—to what Conservative Stranger had to say. . . .

“All we’d ask,” he pleaded, “is that you don’t thumb your nose at us, don’t make snide remarks about how we like our guns and our bibles, don’t congregate with your college-educated peers about how out of touch and insignificant we are just because we don’t possess those same higher degrees.” . . .

In this context, Hillary Clinton’s dismissal of half of Trump’s supporters as “deplorables” was potentially disastrous to her campaign. Liberals will do no better in bringing about the world they want to see if they continue to convey the kind of contempt that helped derail her win.

. . . Too many progressives fail to engage with the people they most need to persuade, opting instead for the comforting but counterproductive narrative that conservative voters are irredeemable. . . .

It Could Be Worse, argues Ron Elving, at NPR.com.

Yet the one bright spot a lot of us see — a chance finally to begin a major infrastructure revitalization — is a trap.  It sounds like what we’ve all been wanting for so long, that President Obama called on a joint session of Congress to pass “right away” in 2011.  But in Trump’s version, it’s “a tax-cut plan for [wealthy] investors, and a massive corporate welfare plan for contractors.”  Read it here in the Washington Post.

And then subscribe, to help keep it strong.

And to the New York Times, as well.

We’re going to need them.

 

Three Donor Emails

Most of you are not DNC “major donors” and as such are not subjected to my annoying emails.  (You get my annoying columns instead — and the perhaps even more annoying emails asking for $3.)

Well: your luck just ran out.

Herewith two sent hours before and after the election . . . and one ridiculously long one sent yesterday.

Free emails being worth what you pay for them, don’t feel bad stopping right here and watching John Oliver again instead.

THE FIRST:

Sent: Monday, November 7, 2016 6:51 PM
Subject: ok, kids . . .

However tomorrow turns out, I wanted to say thanks.

So many of you on this list have done all you reasonably could to save mankind . . .

(well: one thing leads to another when you have a thin-skinned nut job with nuclear weapons)

. . . and to tilt the Court toward progress

(my own hope: a 5-4 +female+ majority for a decade or two, after 236 years skewed almost entirely male)

. . . and to put Americans back to work revitalizing our crumbling infrastructure; raise wages for the least among us; enact the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform the Senate passed 68-32, allow refinancing of federal student debt at today’s low rates; confront climate change – all measures economists agree would boost our economy

(and thereby help at least a LITTLE to diminish the – justified! – frustration and anger so many feel toward a government the Republicans have purposely kept from solving their problems)

. . . and to advance equal rights on every front, but especially for LGBT Americans

(an effort begun at the Presidential level by the Clintons — resisted every step of the way by Republicans — and now 80% of the way home thanks to the Obamas and Democrats up and down the ticket).

THANK YOU FOR THE INDISPENSABLE ROLE SO MANY OF YOU HAVE PLAYED.

And now I will commence to hold my breath.

Good luck to us all.  The whole world is watching.  Only the National Enquirer, the Ku Klux Klan Crusader, and the Russian press are hoping for anything other than a good night for us Dems.

Andy

THE SECOND:

Sent: Wednesday, November 9, 2016 6:56 PM
Subject: now what?

I assumed we were going to win last night so decided to wear my Charles Nolan suit.  I thought he should be at the Javits Center, never mind that this hand-tailored suit cost literally 20 times as much as the Zara suit I bought off the rack that – inexplicably — fits me better.  Charles would have been so happy to see Hillary win.

And while I was feeling sentimental, it occurred to me what last night would have meant to my mom, born the year before women got the vote, who loved Hillary and was very much part of the project to see a woman in the White House – and whose birthday would have been today – and I realized, Hey!  This is the perfect way to zero out the last few dollars remaining in her estate: write a check to the Inauguration.  The perfect final act in her name.

So around 7pm, Charles Nolan suit on my back and check in hand, I was feeling pretty good.

Needless to say, not for long.

At 4am I posted a brief column, titled, simply, Ugh, wherein I quoted Ted Kennedy’s appropriate dictum* (and predicted a market crash).  A few hours later: Ways He Could Surprise On The Upside, wherein I linked to the magnificent way Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama conducted themselves today (and acknowledged the spectacular inaccuracy of my market prediction).

Better than either of mine is this one, from Garrison Keillor: Trump Voters Will Not Like What Happens Next.

Some of you have written or texted to ask what DOES happen next.

The short answer, simply is Ted Kennedy’s from 1980, or Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s from today.

We keep at it.

Thanks one more time to all of you who did so much this cycle – and to all of you committed to keep at it.  You’ll be hearing a lot more from us in the next few weeks as we regroup.  All suggestions welcome.

Andy

* “Circumstances may change, but the work of compassion must continue. It is surely correct that we cannot solve problems by throwing money at them, but it is also correct that we dare not throw out our national problems onto a scrap heap of inattention and indifference. . . . For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on. The work continues, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.”

THE THIRD, ENDLESSLY LONG ONE:

Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2016 11:27 AM
Subject: NOW what?

Executive summary:

  1. We got more votes.

This despite Putin’s interference, Comey’s interference, and a whole lot else taken straight from a book of speeches Trump kept by his bedside.

Also: more than half the country views our current Democratic president favorably.

In other words:  There’s been no wholesale repudiation of what most of us believe.

  1. Even so, obviously, it’s horrible.
  1. We need to put tremendous effort and resources into driving presidential-scale turn-out in 2018 to take back Congress, state legislative chambers, and governors’ mansions.  Instead of the 36% or so who turned out in 2014, what if we got more like the 58% who turned out in 2012?  These folks know how to vote; we just need them to do it every two years instead of every four.  That’s a huge “just” – but we have an equally huge incentive to plan and build toward that.  Or as close to it as we can come.  If our 2018 turn-out could exceed Republican turn out by 5 percentage points (45% to 40%, say), the whole world would change.
  1. In the meantime, we should applaud when he does something good and fight and scream like crazy when he is poised to do something awful. Which looks to be more or less non-stop.
  1. I so admire the way President Obama and Secretary Clinton fulfilled their roles in wishing Trump success.  And a good cop, bad cop strategy may work best.  If he’s smart, Trump will quietly call on President Obama (the good cop) every few minutes to find out what the hell he should do – as he obviously has no clue.
  1. The DNC needs new leadership and to step up its game.  Much healthy, urgent discussion is underway.  But the party itself does not have to change that much.

There ends the executive summary.  For those with an interest in elaboration on that last point – #6 – here’s what I told a delegation of Chinese Communist Party officials Monday morning as part of a regular dialog they have with Republican and Democratic Party officials.

It is an honor to be here with you.  My visit to China three years ago — what I learned and the hospitality you afforded us — were extraordinary.  Please let me take this opportunity to thank you again.

Last week, more than 61 million Americans voted to elect the most qualified person ever to run for President.  A million fewer voted to elect the LEAST qualified person ever to run.

Given the quirks of our system – and just as happened 16 years ago — the candidate with fewer votes will soon be sworn in as our President.

I was proud of the exceptionally thoughtful way Secretary Clinton and President Obama congratulated the President-Elect and urged us all to keep an open mind and root for his success.  I share those views.

But like all Democrats, I also share the world’s deep concern.

That is not the light-hearted way I had planned to lead off today when I began drafting these thoughts a week ago.  I had planned to playfully rib my friend, college classmate, and counterpart Tony Parker, Treasurer of the Republican National Committee . . . and offer to cede my time to him, because I am very interested to hear his thoughts on the future of the Republican Party.

And still am.  Even though it will soon control both houses of Congress and the White House, I think the future of the Republican Party is not entirely clear.

The future of the Democratic Party, I think, is.

We will remain the party of the people, where we’ve been for a long time, one click left of center.  Some of our members will be two or three clicks left of center and some dead center or a click to the right.  But broadly speaking, we’ve been the party of labor — and will continue to be.

We’ve been the party fighting for the rights of those who lack full equality . . . be they women, African Americans, LGBT Americans, the disabled or others — and will continue to be.

When I was first elected Treasurer in 1999, our then Chairman said the same thing wherever he went.  He said:  “We don’t care whether you’re white or black or brown or purple – you are welcome in the Democratic Party. We don’t care what religion you are or how big your bank account is – you are welcome in the Democratic Party. We don’t care whether you walked in here or rolled in here, what gender you are or what gender you like to hold hands with. So long as you like to hold hands, you are welcome in the Democratic Party.”

That’s the party I think we will continue to be.  And on that last issue alone – who you like to hold hands with – there’s been amazing progress at absolutely no cost.

It cost nothing for Secretary Clinton to declare in Geneva in 2011 that “gay rights are human rights” or for President Obama to say in his Second Inaugural Address that “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law” or for the Supreme Court to grant people like me the right to marry the person we love.  But to millions of us seeking to lead happy, constructive lives, it has made all the difference in the world.

That’s the kind of progress the Democratic Party believes in and will continue to strive for.*

We’ve been the party trying to shift the balance of wealth and power, now so tilted to the wealthy and powerful, back toward the middle class.  And will continue to be.

When I was growing up, the top tax the wealthy paid on their last few million dollars of dividends was 90% until John Kennedy lowered it to 70%.  That was still too high, in my view; but George W. Bush brought it down to 15%, which – again, in my view – was too low.

Their party wants to cut the tax on the wealth that billionaires like the President Elect leave to their children from 45% to zero.

We are the party that typically puts bold investment in the future ahead of tax cuts and budget cutting.  And will continue to be.

I am heartened to think that the President Elect may persuade the Republican Congress to put millions of Americans to work revitalizing our crumbling national infrastructure – something President Obama urgently proposed in September 2011 that the Republican Congress blocked.

We’ve been the party that seeks to protect the environment – and will continue to be.

We’ve been the party that tries to make voting easier, not harder – and will continue to be.

We’ve been the party that, over the last few decades, typically wins the popular vote in presidential elections.  I think that will continue as well.

So what will change?

For starters, obviously, the formal party leadership will change in February, as it does every four years.

There will be a new chair – possibly Keith Ellison, possibly Howard Dean, possibly Martin O’Malley, possibly a vibrant young Hispanic leader – there are a great many exciting possibilities.  And there will likely be changes among the other nine elected officers as well (all of whom, by the way, are unpaid for their work).

Whoever the new chair and officers may be, they will continue to promote the party’s progressive platform, and look to do better in two broad areas:

First, to better connect with tens of millions of fine working class Americans who vote Republican even though we believe their personal prosperity would improve if they voted with us.

Second, to better use our resources in turning out voters in both mid-term and presidential years.

There will also be a look at how the primary process might be improved.  For this purpose, a Unity Commission has been established, with 6 members named by Secretary Clinton, 5 by Senator Sanders, and 3 by the DNC chair.  My own guess is that whatever changes are recommended to the Rules Committee will be fairly minor.

Three larger electoral changes I’d like to see are outside the purview of either party, but perhaps worth mention.

One is so-called Instant Run-Off Voting, where voters get to vote for both their first-choice, who might be a third-party candidate like Ralph Nader or Ross Perot, but also their second-choice, who might be Al Gore or George H.W. Bush.  That could inspire more people to engage in the political process – while also better reflecting the preference of the electorate.

Second is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which has been adopted by 10 states and the District of Columbia, accounting for 165 of the necessary 270 electoral votes.  In the somewhat unlikely event enough other states joined, pledging to cast their electoral votes in accordance with the national popular vote, the candidate with the votes would always become president. What a concept.

The third are movements like Florida’s “Fair Districts” initiative.  Florida is a state that leans slightly Democratic but whose state legislature and whose Congressional delegation, because the way voting districts have been drawn, has been overwhelmingly Republican.  A few years ago, more than 60% of Florida voters approved a referendum mandating that districts be drawn more fairly.  Republicans fought it in court and the legislature, but it has now finally gone into effect.  The result, I hope – in Florida and wherever else this sort of reform can succeed – will be not only to more fairly represent the voters, but also to make districts more competitive.  Meaning that moderate candidates will stand a better chance against extreme hardliners than they do now.

In my view, America NEEDS more moderate Republicans like my friend Tony Parker and [his Republican colleagues there with us Monday, a former Bush cabinet secretary, and a former RNC chair].

We disagree on a great many things, but in a good-humored and constructive way.

I look forward to hearing what he has to say, and to finding common ground wherever possible.

If any of you are still with me after all that: thank you for your passion, your commitment, your resources, your suggestions, and your continued help, all of which we need and greatly value.

Andy

*Later in the day I got to remind them that 3 of our 9 DNC officers are openly LGBT, that there are probably 100 million or so LGBT Chinese (I asked gently and respectfully whether they knew how many of their 88 million party members were LGBT; they did not), and that religion – such a motivator of our opposition here – is not an issue in China. And that the Old Testament basis for condemning us probably stemmed from the need for population growth – again, not something China currently needs to promote.  (In short: I had fun.)

Can you imagine having to read endless stuff like this and give the DNC $10,000 or $100,000?  That’s patriotism.

Have a great weekend.

 

MUST Must Read

Everybody’s reading Masha Gessen’s Six Rules For Surviving An Autocracy.  I hope she’s over-reacting — I remember meeting her in Moscow nearly 25 years ago; she was brilliant and majorly intense even then. But what if she’s not?

. . . I have lived in autocracies most of my life, and have spent much of my career writing about Vladimir Putin’s Russia. I have learned a few rules for surviving in an autocracy and salvaging your sanity and self-respect. It might be worth considering them now:

Rule #1: Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. Whenever you find yourself thinking, or hear others claiming, that he is exaggerating, that is our innate tendency to reach for a rationalization. This will happen often: humans seem to have evolved to practice denial when confronted publicly with the unacceptable. Back in the 1930s, The New York Times assured its readers that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was all posture. More recently, the same newspaper made a telling choice between two statements made by Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov following a police crackdown on protesters . . .

If that’s not upsetting enough — you have to read the whole thing — watch or read my friend Paul Solman’s interview with Adam Tooze.

In part:

. . . SOLMAN: So much of president-elect Trump’s economic policy is focused on unfair competition from China. Is he not right to say that the competition has been unfair . . . ?

TOOZE: Viewing that complex relationship one-sidedly from the aspect of manufacturing and the impact of Chinese imports on the United States makes sense from the point of view of the Rust Belt of the United States. It may even make sense as a political strategy for a candidate running for office.

But a dramatic unwinding of that relationship, by way of an aggressive trade policy, is one of the nightmare scenarios for the global economy as a whole, because it would result in a spiraling depreciation of the dollar, a surge in American interests rates, a collapse in the market for American government debt. It would be terrible both for the United States and China. . . .

Have a nice day?

 

Time To Exit Stocks?

David Remnick writes, in the New Yorker:

The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy. On January 20, 2017, we will bid farewell to the first African-American President—a man of integrity, dignity, and generous spirit—and witness the inauguration of a con who did little to spurn endorsement by forces of xenophobia and white supremacy. It is impossible to react to this moment with anything less than revulsion and profound anxiety.

Read the rest here.

Hillary got more votes than Trump, but Trump “won” — just as Bush “won.”  Laurence O’Donnell puts Alexander Hamilton’s unintended consequences into high relief.

Powerful!

Watch!

(And read about the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, that would solve this problem, here.)

Gray Chang:  “As you’ve mentioned many times, stock markets tend to fall during Republican administrations. With the market at an all-time high and a very uncertain future, might this be an occasion where ‘market timing’ is advisable? Like moving a large portion of one’s portfolio into cash for a few years?”

☞ Great question, of course.

Actually, the market doesn’t tend to fall under Republican administrations — it just does much less well.

I have no clue whether that will be the case now.

Well — I do have a clue.  No way the market could more than triple under Trump as it did under Clinton — or nearly triple again as it did under Obama.

But it wouldn’t have under Hillary either.  It’s just too high now to triple any time soon; and odds are interest rates will eventually rise, which acts as a further headwind.  Higher interest rates damp down profits and economic growth and make bonds incrementally more attractive as an investment alternative.

That said it ordinarily is a mistake to “time the market” — especially if you incur taxes as you jump in and out.

But would this be a good time to lighten up if you’re heavily invested?  Especially if you’re nearing retirement?  A time to set aside some cash in case there’s an opportunity in the next few months or years to buy back in at 20% or 40% off?

For many, I think that could make sense.

For those who invest in specific stocks rather than — generally preferable — index funds, there is some chance your favorite stocks will rise in a falling market.  But the best most stocks can manage in a bear market is to fall less than average and then to recover in a big way once the market rebounds.  That’s what I’m hoping of mine, almost all of which I will continue to hold.

And who knows?  Unlike most Republican administrations, which tend to be conservative, Trump might be able to enact the massive infrastructure revitalization Obama proposed but the Republican Congress blocked.  That alone could throw the economy and wages and corporate profits into higher gear and buoy stocks.

Or he might ignite a trade war that led the world into global depression.

Or cut taxes for the rich, ballooning the deficit and shaking faith in the dollar, igniting a vicious cycle of rising interest rates and falling home prices (how much would your home be worth if your prospective buyer faced a monthly mortgage payment double what we’re paying now?) that depressed consumer confidence, economic activity, profits, and stock prices.

Or, facing multiple lawsuits and perhaps the release of hours more “locker-room-talk” type tapes — or some revelation of active collusion with Putin’s team to rig the election, not just routine contact — maybe something entirely unexpected will happen. (Probably not.)

I sure don’t know.

But that’s the point.  With stocks near record highs and so much uncertainty, it seems to me that anyone with a lifetime of asset-accumulation to protect (as opposed to a 26-yearold just beginning to build her 401k) would not want to be 100% in stocks right now.

Have a great weekend.  Or at least as good a weekend as you can, under the circumstances.

 

Ways He Could Surprise On The Upside

So a few thoughts.

1.  I am so proud of the way Tim Kaine and Hillary Clinton and President Obama conducted themselves earlier today.  So, so proud.

2.  It is largely but perhaps not entirely irrelevant that — at least as of this writing/counting — Hillary got more votes than Trump, just as Gore got more votes than Bush.  Bush is widely seen to have done more damage to America than any president in history; Trump clearly has the potential to leave Bush in the dust on that score.  But —

3.  He could surprise on the upside, and — having inherited the happy gene, and wishing the best for our country and world — I sure hope he does.

Most of the things he promised will be impossible for him to deliver — even with a Republican Congress.  And some, of course — like deporting 11 million undocumented aliens — we hope he will quietly abandon.

But some other things one can imagine his doing:

  • Put millions to work at good jobs revitalizing the national infrastructure.  This is something we should have been doing for the last 30 years: just a tad more public consumption each year and a tad less personal consumption (but that would have required of the best-off a little more in taxes to fund it, so Republicans blocked it).  Now we must do it in earnest.  The Republican Congress blocked President Obama’s American Jobs Act because it was his, but might well approve something very like it coming from Trump.  This would be great for the country and the economy.
  • Negotiate prescription drug prices.  It would be nuts to repeal Obamacare; and they have no clue what to replace it with. But perhaps they can find some face-saving way to transition to something that fixes its admitted flaws and call it Trump-care . . . with special emphasis on allowing Medicare/Medicaid to negotiate lower prescription drug prices.  Not so low as to stifle research and innovation, but at least somewhat more closely in line with what other first-world nations pay.
  • Allow refinancing of federal student loans.  Why on earth not?  And if you’re looking for a way to pay for it, maybe forgo the $4 billion estate-tax break Trump is planning for his kids (if he’s really worth $10 billion), and billions more to the kids of other alleged billionaires?
  • Repatriate profits.  There is a deal to be made here, as there is in closing loopholes to cut tax rates — it would be so tragic to cut tax rates in a way that’s not revenue neutral: taxes are required to rebuild our infrastructure; taxes are required to fund the social safety net; we’ve tried super-low tax rates on the best-off.  The huge real world experiment has proven conclusively it benefits only the best-off.
  • Appoint really good people.  Carl Icahn is not, in my view, a really good person.  Giuliani and Christie are not really good people.  Nor Corey Lewandowski and Paul Manafort — or the late Roy Cohn — or the all too present Breitbart News executive Steve Bannon. But the President-Elect knows lots of really good people; perhaps some of them, if asked, will be willing to serve.

4.  I was spectacularly wrong about the reaction of the financial markets to Trump’s election — as I was about the impossibility its happening in the first place. The Dow is up as I write this. Let’s hope I prove equally wrong about what a deeply — deeply — unfortunate choice I believe the electorate made yesterday.

 

Ugh.

Against all reason, we elected “a national disgrace” (Colin Powell) and defeated a woman Trump himself described this way.

It is at horrible times like this we want to crawl into a hole but, at our best, do not.

Instead, we recall the words of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, conceding defeat in 1980:  “Circumstances may change, but the work of compassion must continue. It is surely correct that we cannot solve problems by throwing money at them, but it is also correct that we dare not throw out our national problems onto a scrap heap of inattention and indifference. . . . For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on. The work continues, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.”

The dream shall not ever die — the arc of the moral universe is long but does bend toward justice.

Still, I went to bed thinking expectations of an 800-point drop in the Dow are most likely understated.  I think the sell-off over the next few days, as investors worldwide process what’s just happened, could be much worse.

With luck, I will be as wrong about that as I was about the impossibility of his being elected in the first place.