rawstory--2020-01-18--Former GOP strategist Rick Wilson: ‘Hating’ Trump is the key to winning in 2020

Rick Wilson has helped countless Republicans win elections over the years as one of the most sought-after GOP media consultants .
His work , by his own admission , has contributed to the hyper-partisan , zero-sum political world that we live in today .
But that was all B.T.
, or “ Before Trump.
” Wilson is now using his mastery of the dark arts of politics to defeat the leader of the very party he helped build , as laid out in his new book , “ Running Against the Devil : A Plot to Save America from Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interview first appeared in Salon Wilson ’ s previous book , “ Everything Trump Touches Dies , ” reached No .
1 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2018 .
He recently visited Salon ’ s New York studio to shared his blunt , practical approach to beating Trump .
His book is not about ideology , he emphasized , It ’ s about how to defeat the racist , sexist , grifter who threatens the future of our nation .
It ’ s truly that simple .
Forget policy papers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
To beat Trump , make the entire election about his corruption , sexism , cruelty and bigotry .
Wilson believes that if the 2020 election is framed as a choice between four more years of toxic Trump or another person — virtually any person — Americans will pick the non-Trump on the ballot .
He advises Democrats to “ forget national polls ” and focus on winning the Electoral College , not the popular vote — meaning , essentially , that they must ignore the deep blue states on the coasts and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ swing states like Wisconsin , Pennsylvania , Michigan and Ohio .
Whether Wilson ’ s “ tough love ” approach ( as he puts it ) encourages you or enrages you , watch our Salon Talks episode or read a transcript of our conversation below , edited as usual for clarity and length .
I have to say with all sincerity , “ Running Against the Devil ” is a must-read book for progressives , moderates , anyone who wants a roadmap to defeat Donald Trump .
If that ’ s your focus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to read .
That ’ s my focus .
And the book isn ’ t about ideology .
It isn ’ t about policy .
It is about a practical , political approach to beating Donald Trump , which I think people on the left , the center , and the few of us on the right who held onto a shred of our principles believe is vital .
Was the Republican Party just looking for the white supremacist savior like Trump ?
Were they primed for this ?
Or did he really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was like a bunch of black swans landed at one time .
You have the confluence of reality TV , of Fox News , of Donald Trump with celebrity culture , of a field of Republicans who — none of them were superstars at the end of the day , no matter how much we wanted them to be .
You had Hillary Clinton as the [ Democratic ] nominee , who had this 30-year pre-existing condition where the Republicans had turned her into Satan incarnate with their voters .
So this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s moral failings and his racism and everything else about this guy led a party that had been told for years , the only thing you ’ re missing is somebody who will blow up everything .
You just want to destroy everything .
I mean , it ’ s the Joker candidacy .
And they got it .
Right now there are three categories of Republicans .
A fairly small fraction of them , like a third maybe , really believe in this crap .
Really believe that Trumpism is the new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ king .
A third of the Republicans are terrified of the guy .
They are so scared of a tweet that they hide under their covers every day .
And a third of them are like opportunists .
They want the judges , they want the regulations for their donors , that sort of crap .
The confluence of all those things that came together at one moment gave us this terrible , terrible thing .
And look , all of us who worked in the party for a long time , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the party .
I ’ ve never been a social conservative , I ’ m not an evangelical .
Everybody has given up in the Republican Party of today .
All of those predicates .
They don ’ t believe in anything .
They believe in Trump , whether they believe in his terror over them or their love of him .
It leads to a personality cult , not a political party .
As you worked as a political consultant doing the dark arts—and we talked about that with your first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contributed to the hyper-partisan climate .
This monster that you built , in a way , found the living manifestation that could lead it .
Yeah , unfortunately , there was always a dynamic pressure inside the party .
The fiscal people and the individual liberty people would keep the social conservatives from getting too out of control .
The social conservatives would keep the fiscal people from getting too out of control .
The foreign policy people , this tripartite internal , the three-legged stool they used to call it .
Well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It ’ s all gone .
It ’ s all id .
It ’ s everything that ’ s in their heads .
They ’ re told , “ You can have whatever you want , we ’ re going to burn it all down.
” And that ’ s what they ’ re doing .
Are you still a Republican ?
You ’ re out of the party ?
Look , I haven ’ t changed my voter registration yet , mainly because I want to vote against the son of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ m not a Republican in any political sense anymore .
Is the party gone ?
Yeah , the party ’ s dead .
The party ’ s gone .
I don ’ t see any pathway for it to come back .
There is nobody in this party who feels a need for reconciliation .
They don ’ t want to face their truth .
Calling me a former Republican is accurate in every meaningful way , but nobody in the party wants to look at what ’ s been created .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the expansion of government , the expansion of debt , the expansion of executive power , the expansion of mainstream abuse of people .
All those things are repugnant to a conservative .
I ’ m not doing the “ no true Scotsman.
” I ’ m doing the actual heart of Burkean conservatism , which is individual liberty and respect and dignity should be part of what you believe in .
This guy is the antithesis of all that .
He ’ s breeding a generation of people who believe abuse is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he enjoys it .
To me , one of his greatest sins is misleading otherwise good Americans to believe in this .
And be vicious and mean and be sexist and racist .
So look , is it naive for people who oppose Trump to go , “ Well , there ’ s people like you peeling off and other Republicans , so there ’ s no future for this GOP.
” Is it naive ?
Or are there enough younger people who will come in and embrace this white supremacy , racism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ call it , to fuel this party to go forward to win ?
I am hopeful that there ’ s a space in this country , eventually , for a party that is dedicated to individual liberty and constitutional adherence and limited government .
But it ’ s like St. Augustine , “ Lord , make me good , but not yet.
” We ’ re going to have to burn down this thing first .
And the Trump version of the Republican Party has to go .
I ’ m willing to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in individual liberty in the Constitution .
I ’ m willing to make sacrifices in the short term and do things that maybe aren ’ t my ideological cup of tea in order to ensure that this country , as an experiment , survives .
Because what ’ s the alternative ?
We ’ re going to slip into an authoritarian nationalism .
You know , the reason he ’ s able to activate some of this , Dean , is that there is a set of human cognitive behaviors that likes having @ @ @ @ @ @ @ OK .
Your hate is OK .
Your anxiety about brown people coming from Mexico is OK. ” And it ’ s not OK , but it ’ s there and he ’ s a master of demagoguery .
He ’ s a master at propaganda .
And so a few of us with , like , the Liam Neeson special set of skills — there may not be many of us , but we ’ re pretty good in a scrap .
Let ’ s focus now on the thesis of your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Let ’ s take everyone through a few of the themes .
One is make this election a referendum on Donald Trump .
Explain how you do that .
First off , every re-election is a referendum on the incumbent .
You ’ re asking a simple question , “ Do you want this guy , who does these things , for four more years ?
” When Barack Obama was the incumbent , we had a high hill to climb because most people were pretty content with Barack Obama .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , relatively speaking , with George W. Bush .
That ’ s why they made those election decisions .
Bill Clinton , same story .
My old boss , George Bush 41 , you know what ?
He did great ending the Cold War .
He did great getting Saddam out of Kuwait .
On the economy , not so much .
And people made a decision , we want a different thing .
So all presidential re-elections are a referendum on the incumbent .
People have a great opportunity here .
You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can choose something else .
And something else , it almost doesn ’ t matter what the alternative is , as long as it ’ s not another flavor of evil .
If the Democrats don ’ t make it a referendum on Trump , they will try to make it a referendum on policy .
And policy in the hands of the Republicans … I helped build this machine .
I helped do this a long time .
Lord , give me a Democratic policy briefing book because I will make a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be demagogic .
They will be terrifying .
They will be lies piled upon lies .
But the fundamental thing is that they will scare the crap out of the voters I want to scare the crap out of .
When you give a 600-page policy document , like Elizabeth Warren did , on her health care plan , whatever its merits , I will find one of my research nerds , who will go through that book line by line , because I ’ ll never read it .
They ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I can go out and say , “ Union members , your health care will be taken away from you under Elizabeth Warren ’ s plan.
” Policy is deadly .
Policy is a fallacy .
Like the Green New Deal .
I remember how that went through .
Planes are gone , cows will be slaughtered .
Right , you can ’ t fly on airplanes .
You can ’ t eat meat .
When we look back at 2016 , so many people said , “ Well , the campaign about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an affirmative message.
” And that ’ s unfair .
But that ’ s a summary for certain people .
In a re-election campaign though , that ’ s not a bad strategy , you ’ re saying ?
Right , because it is a referendum .
There is a four-year baseline now — you know how Trump behaves .
And I will also argue that Hillary Clinton didn ’ t particularly run an effective countervailing campaign to Trump .
She played defense constantly in that campaign .
In part , because the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quasi-impeachment scenario with Benghazi for the first half of her campaign .
And then Bernie kind of bled her through the summer .
James Comey after that .
You make a great point in your book about getting the Democratic base out .
I ’ m not going to curse , but you write , “ Democrats f**king hate Trump.
” I ’ m sure Republicans hated Hillary and Obama .
You ’ re a Republican , so I don ’ t know if you ’ ll deny this , but hate is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to animate their base .
I ’ m seeing hate among Democrats for Trump — and not even Democrats , women who are not active in politics .
Even centrist Republicans in Massachusetts who liked Romney , hate Trump .
They will crawl over broken glass to vote against this guy .
This is why ideological perfection is the enemy of victory in this .
You might not get every single thing you want , but my gosh , if you ’ ve got a group of Democrats , right , who say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our people out unless you ’ re going to do X or Y for us.
” Or , “ We won ’ t turn our people out unless you name our person as the nominee.
” They ’ re not really your people .
Democrats have proven to us in ’ 18 and in the off-year elections , they will come out and vote against this guy and his enablers in droves .
They will come out with passion .
That ’ s the easy part .
This election has a built in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As we ’ re talking , there ’ s a debate about to happen in Iowa , the last before the Iowa caucus on Feb. 3 .
If you were advising Democrats as a group , what would you tell them their message should be tonight in trying to not just win the primary , but defeat Donald Trump ?
That ’ s the key message .
You ’ ve got to tell Democratic voters , as the nominee , “ I am the best person to defeat Trump .
I can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be on the debate stage , I can look him in the eye , I can punch him in the mouth .
I will take this motherf**ker down.
” That ’ s what Democratic voters are looking for .
They want to see some fight in the dog , as they say down South .
They want to see somebody who is going to be a scrapper , a fighter , somebody who is passionate and who can articulate the case against Donald Trump and his corruption and his cruelty and his insanity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the way he demeans this country around the world and at home .
They want to see somebody who can do that .
Somebody who is absolutely going to be the fighter against Trump .
They ’ re not sitting there going , “ Well , I looked at page 611 of the health care plan for Biden .
And then Elizabeth Warren ’ s on 435.
” They ’ re not scoring on policy .
They ’ re looking for the fighter .
Performance matters and debates matter .
Hillary Clinton was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sort of politician .
She got on stage with Trump and he did this whole monkey act , walked around behind her , mugged , made faces and leaned over her .
She didn ’ t understand how to handle that .
So you want to see somebody with the physical presence too , who feels like they ’ re going to have an ability to post up against this guy on that debate stage .
Because that ’ s going to be the big show .
That ’ s the reality TV @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , instead of fighting over the nuances of Medicare for All , be slamming Trump on , say , his lie where he said “ I ’ m the one that saved coverage for preexisting health conditions.
” In unison going , “ Democrats gave you that .
We ’ re the ones saving it and you want to get rid of it with legislation .
John McCain saved it .
Now you ’ re in the courts trying to get rid of it.
” There is no bigger gaslighting on the domestic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seen from Trump .
I mean , you can make the case that the economy has been juiced along by tax cuts and by wild deficit spending and that the economy is strong .
You can make that case .
And you could pick it apart a little bit too , but you can not make a case that Trump did not enthusiastically embrace the bill that came out of the House in 2017 .
And they led with the dumbest political move of all time , which is to eliminate pre-existing conditions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extensively , since 2009 .
I ’ ve done dozens of focus groups about this .
Voters , Republican , Democrat , black , white , liberal , conservative , Catholic , Jewish , every single voter group in this country hates the fact that pre-existing condition coverage could be taken away .
They are terrified of it .
Leading with Donald Trump , being somebody who says he ’ s going to stand for you and then screws you over , that iterates across the trade war with farmers in Iowa and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ steelworkers in Ohio and Pennsylvania , coal miners who he promised all these new jobs to .
This guy is a lying liar who lies , and they need to call it out .
Remember he promised , “ Oh we ’ re going to have a great new health care plan .
It ’ s going to cover everybody .
It ’ s going to be free .
And there ’ ll be all the pre-existing coverage.
” There ’ s never been any such thing proposed .
So the fact that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ across all these different areas and it iterates across the corruption that voters believe he represents .
So , it ’ s a good opportunity .
And that ’ s a way to say it : “ I ’ m going to go up on the debate stage against Donald Trump and I ’ m going to tear his hide off on the following big lies.
” And pre-existing should be one of them .
It obviously troubles Trump because Bloomberg ’ s ads are focused on that .
That ’ s the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ I saved pre-existing conditions.
” Not only didn ’ t they save them , but after their vote , they put all the Republicans in a bus and took them to the Rose Garden to have a party to celebrate the end of pre-existing medical conditions .
And they ’ ve also been litigating it .
The Department of Justice , with all the power of the Department of Justice , is litigating to eliminate pre-existing conditions .
In the book you also talk about another key issue , the economy .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ you ’ ve got Bernie Sanders and Liz Warren talking about how it can be better .
I thought one of the big rules in politics is that you go after your opponent ’ s strength and that ’ s his strength is the economy .
Should they be prosecuting that more ?
We just had the jobs report last week .
It ’ s the lowest job growth in eight years , we ’ re sliding .
We ’ re sliding .
It ’ s weakening .
There is a recession coming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to come due .
And look , I ’ m a free market guy , but I thought the tax bill was an egregious crony capitalist giveaway .
I know the lobbyist who wrote the tax bill .
I know who they work for .
They work for a bunch of guys down on Wall Street for hedge funds and big banks .
And they were specifically engineering this thing to juice Wall Street .
A lot of these people out there in the country , the only thing they sort of understand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they hear on the news the market ’ s up , market ’ s down , and that ’ s the big signifier .
They ’ re hearing market up .
Well the market ’ s up because the Fed is still juicing money into the system .
The market ’ s up because this tax bill was an enormous benefit , a $ 2 trillion benefit to Wall Street and the hedge fund guys .
So , as a free market guy , I ’ m like , “ How is this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is the president juicing the system .
It ’ s just like the trade stuff .
We ’ re having enormous economic damage on the trade war , which is actually where I think the Democrats have their strongest economic message .
Because remember , we ’ ve got a few swing states to fight this battle with .
Pennsylvania , Ohio , Wisconsin , Michigan , those are states that have been screwed in the trade war .
And it hasn ’ t been fixed .
There is no deal with China @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a bag of chips .
This thing is a broken set of economic promises and they have an opportunity to fight on that .
I wouldn ’ t try to fight on “ the stock market ’ s not up as much this or that percentage.
” Voters don ’ t really do bank shots .
They do A to B , not A to Z .
If you were advising on the economy to these Democrats , what would you recommend ?
First off , I would talk about the stories @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ I ’ m farmer X , I am a soybean farmer in Iowa .
Donald Trump said that this trade war was going to help me .
My farm is in foreclosure now.
” And we do have record farm foreclosures in Wisconsin and Iowa right now .
“ I ’ m a steelworker in Pennsylvania .
Donald Trump promised his trade war was going to help me .
Instead , our plant is closed.
” There have been no new steel plants built .
He promised this .
This is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ real people .
You talk about people who are still living in a world where household debt is at record levels .
Home values are kind of flat right now .
People are starting to feel that 2007 , 2008 feeling in the wind , that we still haven ’ t solved the problem of college loan debt .
In fact , this administration is making it much more difficult .
There is no Bernie magic wand .
You ’ re not going to wash away $ 2 trillion of debt tomorrow .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ so that the country has a system that ’ s more market-driven and less punitive .
And that affects middle-class families less .
There are a lot of ways to get to this .
Real stories from real people .
So you ’ re saying those are better than statistics and numbers , which Democrats love to talk about .
Yeah , this is from a long time ago .
There ’ s a classic editorial cartoon from 1984 where Walter Mondale has this blackboard full of statistics and formulas and charts and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his blackboard .
That ’ s what voters get .
That ’ s what they understand .
You ’ re not a fan of Bernie Sanders in your book .
You like Liz Warren more .
What does it matter if it ’ s Bernie or Joe Biden or Buttigieg ?
Well , I think Warren or Biden or Buttigieg are all viable candidates .
Bernie Sanders is Donald Trump election insurance .
I honestly believe it .
He ’ s 300 years old .
He just had a heart attack .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ history of the free shit movement .
Republicans will turn Bernie into the worst caricature you ’ ve ever seen .
He is the scary old socialist figure of their nightmares .
But in this case , it ’ s not fake .
He ’ s actually that guy .
He ’ s got an unbelievably thick oppo file .
They ’ re salivating over this guy .
I still talk to guys in the mafia , in the Republican mafia .
They ’ re working their hardest to make sure Bernie ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be the nominee .
Bernie will lose every single state south of the Mason Dixon Line .
No questions asked , including Florida , which you can ’ t lose Florida .
What do you say about the people who were torn between Bernie and Trump in the 2016 primaries .
Then when Bernie didn ’ t get nomination , they went to Trump .
At first , I didn ’ t understand it , then I talked to them .
Trump was talking about jobs , that NAFTA wasn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ richer , the system is rigged and he was addressing that very issue .
There ’ s a horseshoe of populism .
And the left and right tines become very close together a lot of the time .
The problem with the Bernie analysis is that when you go out — and I go through this in the book , this is a secret that the Republicans have kept pretty quiet for a long time .
Most Democrats out in the country , outside of the coasts , are not hard , hard @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
They ’ re not burn-it-all-down guys .
Most Democrats out in the country are pretty moderate .
We ’ ve studied this for years and years and years .
We ’ ve drilled into this thing over and over again .
We ’ ve identified male and female Democratic voters in the suburbs who are mostly moderate .
They ’ re not hard progressives .
They ’ re JFK-style Democrats .
They ’ re Bill Clinton-style Democrats .
They ’ re Barack Obama Democrats .
As much as Republicans tried to make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , socialist , communist sleeper agent .
Barack Obama basically ran as a liberal suburban Republican .
He was not scary to people and we knew it .
That ’ s when we tried to turn him into this figure .
We could never get there .
But if you want to go and put Bernie at the top of the ticket … I ’ m getting like five billion tweets already about Bernie , so , why not make my life more of a living hell ?
But Bernie is going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump : “ I ’ m bad , but this guy is Castro from Vermont.
” Even if Joe Biden gets the nomination , Trump ’ s going to call him a socialist .
We know that .
Right , so are you saying there ’ s more potential traction and resonance with Bernie as a candidate than it would be for Biden because people know Biden ?
First off , Bernie is not a Democrat .
He ’ s got a party that he wants to use as a host vector into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Young voters love Bernie .
Yes , they do .
Young voters adore Bernie .
You know what young voters don ’ t do ?
They don ’ t vote .
Old people vote .
You know who really , really votes ?
Very old people .
You know who really votes in Florida , the No .
1 key swing state ?
Really goddamn old people , like people on respirators vote in Florida .
They ’ re old , old , old .
And they vote like a champ .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tend to like Warren or Biden a little more .
But , look , nobody ’ s perfect .
To quote , Donald Rumsfeld , “ You go to war with the army you have , not the one you want.
” None of these guys are perfect .
And there ’ s no generational superstar in this field .
There ’ s no Barack Obama or Bill Clinton or JFK in this field .
There ’ s such a debate in my head , I can hear it from my fellow progressives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Bernie ’ s going to get people out.
” Your argument to win is that you don ’ t need a Bernie .
You don ’ t need the machine to get people out .
They ’ re going to come out because of Trump on the other side .
Right , Trump ’ s going to get them out for you .
So , if it ’ s Joe Biden , a more centrist , you think it ’ s not a problem for turnout for Democrats ?
I don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for turnout .
And here ’ s the thing : Again , if somebody tells you , “ I won ’ t turn out versus Donald Trump , because I didn ’ t get who I wanted , ” fuck them .
They ’ re not on your team .
They ’ re in this for their own narrow interest .
This is a country over party thing .
And a country over ideological preference thing , or at least it should be in my opinion .
If you ’ re in any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enacted policies that discriminated against , this is very personal .
This isn ’ t political .
It is a referendum on this guy who ’ s a monster .
Last thing , you make a great point to focus on the Electoral College and key swing states .
Not national polls .
Why is it the key ?
Stay away from national polls .
They are always an illusion .
They will always trick you into stupid political behavior .
Focus on the key states .
As much as progressives hate the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its flaws all day long — in 2020 , the Electoral College is the only game in town .
There ’ s not going to be some miracle where it ’ s not the rule book .
The winner of the Electoral College is president .
Doesn ’ t matter how many popular votes you get .
We ’ re talking about maybe 15 states .
Realistically , six or seven of those states are going to be competitive , but you want to play a little chess .
You can roll up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offset somewhere else .
Those states are the only thing that matters .
You ’ ve got to be following the polls in those states .
And you ’ ve got to be rigorous in your approach to polling on this .
I mean , look , the polls in ’ 16 were not wrong .
They were not wrong , OK , but in the swing states , the Clinton people took their foot off the gas because they were watching the national polls .
Donald Trump is an idiot and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first order , but he is surrounded by a bunch of guys like me , who are ride-or-die for him .
They don ’ t love him ideologically , but they ’ re stuck .
And they ’ re very smart .
And they ’ re very determined and they will do anything to win .
And they will fight this in the swing states .
They ’ re not going to spend a dollar in Mississippi .
They know how Mississippi is going to go .
In your book , you outline @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The upbeat one and the horrific downtrodden one where many of us are looking at Canada , Mexico , whatever countries to live in .
If you ’ re giving one piece of advice to people , regardless of left , right , or center who want Nov. 3 to be a happy night and the defeat of Donald Trump , what ’ s that one piece of advice ?
Bust your ass in the swing states .
That ’ s it .
You got to go in the swing states .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ dime there .
You got to put the boots on the ground there .
I don ’ t care if you have one volunteer in California .
We know how California is going to vote .
Everybody in California wants to support the nominee .
Go to Michigan , go to Wisconsin , go to Pennsylvania , go to Ohio , go to Florida , go to North Carolina , go to Arizona .
Get to work on the ground .
Voter contact still matters more than almost any other thing .
A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ call , a personal outreach on social media .
That matters more than almost anything else you can do .
And fighting this battle in those swing states is vital .

Rick Wilson has helped countless Republicans win elections over the years as one of the most sought-after GOP media consultants. His work, by his own admission, has contributed to the hyper-partisan, zero-sum political world that we live in today. But that was all B.T., or "Before Trump." Wilson is now using his mastery of the dark arts of politics to defeat the leader of the very party he helped build, as laid out in his new book, "Running Against the Devil: A Plot to Save America from Trump — and Democrats from Themselves."
This interview first appeared in Salon
Wilson's previous book, "Everything Trump Touches Dies," reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2018. He recently visited Salon's New York studio to shared his blunt, practical approach to beating Trump. His book is not about ideology, he emphasized, It's about how to defeat the racist, sexist, grifter who threatens the future of our nation. It's truly that simple.
Forget policy papers and wonky policy discussions, Wilson says. To beat Trump, make the entire election about his corruption, sexism, cruelty and bigotry. Wilson believes that if the 2020 election is framed as a choice between four more years of toxic Trump or another person — virtually any person — Americans will pick the non-Trump on the ballot. He advises Democrats to "forget national polls" and focus on winning the Electoral College, not the popular vote — meaning, essentially, that they must ignore the deep blue states on the coasts and put all available resources into winning key swing states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio.
Whether Wilson's "tough love" approach (as he puts it) encourages you or enrages you, watch our Salon Talks episode or read a transcript of our conversation below, edited as usual for clarity and length.
I have to say with all sincerity, "Running Against the Devil" is a must-read book for progressives, moderates, anyone who wants a roadmap to defeat Donald Trump. If that's your focus, this is the book you have to read.
That's my focus. And the book isn't about ideology. It isn't about policy. It is about a practical, political approach to beating Donald Trump, which I think people on the left, the center, and the few of us on the right who held onto a shred of our principles believe is vital.
Was the Republican Party just looking for the white supremacist savior like Trump? Were they primed for this? Or did he really change the party?
You know, it was like a bunch of black swans landed at one time. You have the confluence of reality TV, of Fox News, of Donald Trump with celebrity culture, of a field of Republicans who — none of them were superstars at the end of the day, no matter how much we wanted them to be. You had Hillary Clinton as the [Democratic] nominee, who had this 30-year pre-existing condition where the Republicans had turned her into Satan incarnate with their voters.
So this moment happened, and Donald Trump's moral failings and his racism and everything else about this guy led a party that had been told for years, the only thing you're missing is somebody who will blow up everything. You just want to destroy everything. I mean, it's the Joker candidacy. And they got it.
Right now there are three categories of Republicans. A fairly small fraction of them, like a third maybe, really believe in this crap. Really believe that Trumpism is the new way. They treat him as a king. A third of the Republicans are terrified of the guy. They are so scared of a tweet that they hide under their covers every day. And a third of them are like opportunists. They want the judges, they want the regulations for their donors, that sort of crap.
The confluence of all those things that came together at one moment gave us this terrible, terrible thing. And look, all of us who worked in the party for a long time, we recognized there were different fractions and factions in the party. I've never been a social conservative, I'm not an evangelical. Everybody has given up in the Republican Party of today. All of those predicates. They don't believe in anything. They believe in Trump, whether they believe in his terror over them or their love of him. It leads to a personality cult, not a political party.
As you worked as a political consultant doing the dark arts—and we talked about that with your first book— you, on some level, contributed to the hyper-partisan climate.
Sure.
This monster that you built, in a way, found the living manifestation that could lead it.
Yeah, unfortunately, there was always a dynamic pressure inside the party. The fiscal people and the individual liberty people would keep the social conservatives from getting too out of control. The social conservatives would keep the fiscal people from getting too out of control. The foreign policy people, this tripartite internal, the three-legged stool they used to call it. Well with Trump, that all fell apart. It's all gone. It's all id. It's everything that's in their heads. They're told, "You can have whatever you want, we're going to burn it all down." And that's what they're doing.
Are you still a Republican?
I'm done.
You're out of the party?
Look, I haven't changed my voter registration yet, mainly because I want to vote against the son of a bitch twice. But I'm not a Republican in any political sense anymore.
Is the party gone?
Yeah, the party's dead. The party's gone. I don't see any pathway for it to come back. There is nobody in this party who feels a need for reconciliation. They don't want to face their truth. Calling me a former Republican is accurate in every meaningful way, but nobody in the party wants to look at what's been created.
They don't want to look at the expansion of government, the expansion of debt, the expansion of executive power, the expansion of mainstream abuse of people. All those things are repugnant to a conservative. I'm not doing the "no true Scotsman." I'm doing the actual heart of Burkean conservatism, which is individual liberty and respect and dignity should be part of what you believe in. This guy is the antithesis of all that. He's breeding a generation of people who believe abuse is beneficial.
Cruelty is his currency and he enjoys it. To me, one of his greatest sins is misleading otherwise good Americans to believe in this.
Sure, I think that's a good point.
And be vicious and mean and be sexist and racist. So look, is it naive for people who oppose Trump to go, "Well, there's people like you peeling off and other Republicans, so there's no future for this GOP." Is it naive? Or are there enough younger people who will come in and embrace this white supremacy, racism, sexism, whatever you want to call it, to fuel this party to go forward to win?
I am hopeful that there's a space in this country, eventually, for a party that is dedicated to individual liberty and constitutional adherence and limited government. But it's like St. Augustine, "Lord, make me good, but not yet."
We're going to have to burn down this thing first. And the Trump version of the Republican Party has to go. I'm willing to make sacrifices as a guy who believes in individual liberty in the Constitution. I'm willing to make sacrifices in the short term and do things that maybe aren't my ideological cup of tea in order to ensure that this country, as an experiment, survives. Because what's the alternative? We're going to slip into an authoritarian nationalism.
You know, the reason he's able to activate some of this, Dean, is that there is a set of human cognitive behaviors that likes having someone say, "Your fear is OK. Your hate is OK. Your anxiety about brown people coming from Mexico is OK." And it's not OK, but it's there and he's a master of demagoguery. He's a master at propaganda. And so a few of us with, like, the Liam Neeson special set of skills — there may not be many of us, but we're pretty good in a scrap.
Let's focus now on the thesis of your book, which is defeating Donald Trump. Let's take everyone through a few of the themes. One is make this election a referendum on Donald Trump. Explain how you do that.
First off, every re-election is a referendum on the incumbent. You're asking a simple question, "Do you want this guy, who does these things, for four more years?" When Barack Obama was the incumbent, we had a high hill to climb because most people were pretty content with Barack Obama. In 2004, most people felt pretty safe, relatively speaking, with George W. Bush. That's why they made those election decisions. Bill Clinton, same story. My old boss, George Bush 41, you know what? He did great ending the Cold War. He did great getting Saddam out of Kuwait. On the economy, not so much. And people made a decision, we want a different thing. So all presidential re-elections are a referendum on the incumbent.
People have a great opportunity here. You can choose cruelty and corruption or you can choose something else. And something else, it almost doesn't matter what the alternative is, as long as it's not another flavor of evil. If the Democrats don't make it a referendum on Trump, they will try to make it a referendum on policy. And policy in the hands of the Republicans …
I helped build this machine. I helped do this a long time. Lord, give me a Democratic policy briefing book because I will make a hundred ads out of it. They will be demagogic. They will be terrifying. They will be lies piled upon lies. But the fundamental thing is that they will scare the crap out of the voters I want to scare the crap out of. When you give a 600-page policy document, like Elizabeth Warren did, on her health care plan, whatever its merits, I will find one of my research nerds, who will go through that book line by line, because I'll never read it. They'll find three or four things so I can go out and say, "Union members, your health care will be taken away from you under Elizabeth Warren's plan." Policy is deadly. Policy is a fallacy.
Like the Green New Deal. I remember how that went through. Planes are gone, cows will be slaughtered.
Right, you can't fly on airplanes. You can't eat meat.
When we look back at 2016, so many people said, "Well, the campaign about Hillary was anti-Trump, anti-Trump, without an affirmative message." And that's unfair. But that's a summary for certain people. In a re-election campaign though, that's not a bad strategy, you're saying?
Right, because it is a referendum. There is a four-year baseline now — you know how Trump behaves. And I will also argue that Hillary Clinton didn't particularly run an effective countervailing campaign to Trump. She played defense constantly in that campaign. In part, because the Republicans had her pinned down in a quasi-impeachment scenario with Benghazi for the first half of her campaign. And then Bernie kind of bled her through the summer.
James Comey after that. You make a great point in your book about getting the Democratic base out. I'm not going to curse, but you write, "Democrats f**king hate Trump."
Yeah.
I'm sure Republicans hated Hillary and Obama. You're a Republican, so I don't know if you'll deny this, but hate is part of the currency the GOP used to animate their base.
Sure.
I'm seeing hate among Democrats for Trump — and not even Democrats, women who are not active in politics. Even centrist Republicans in Massachusetts who liked Romney, hate Trump.
They will crawl over broken glass to vote against this guy. This is why ideological perfection is the enemy of victory in this. You might not get every single thing you want, but my gosh, if you've got a group of Democrats, right, who say, "We won't turn our people out unless you're going to do X or Y for us." Or, "We won't turn our people out unless you name our person as the nominee." They're not really your people.
Democrats have proven to us in '18 and in the off-year elections, they will come out and vote against this guy and his enablers in droves. They will come out with passion. That's the easy part. This election has a built in turnout mechanism that's Donald Trump.
As we're talking, there's a debate about to happen in Iowa, the last before the Iowa caucus on Feb. 3. If you were advising Democrats as a group, what would you tell them their message should be tonight in trying to not just win the primary, but defeat Donald Trump?
That's the key message. You've got to tell Democratic voters, as the nominee, "I am the best person to defeat Trump. I can go toe-to-toe with Trump. I can be on the debate stage, I can look him in the eye, I can punch him in the mouth. I will take this motherf**ker down." That's what Democratic voters are looking for. They want to see some fight in the dog, as they say down South. They want to see somebody who is going to be a scrapper, a fighter, somebody who is passionate and who can articulate the case against Donald Trump and his corruption and his cruelty and his insanity and his unsuitability for this office and the way he demeans this country around the world and at home.
They want to see somebody who can do that. Somebody who is absolutely going to be the fighter against Trump. They're not sitting there going, "Well, I looked at page 611 of the health care plan for Biden. And then Elizabeth Warren's on 435." They're not scoring on policy. They're looking for the fighter. Performance matters and debates matter.
Hillary Clinton was a very smart, considered, professional sort of politician. She got on stage with Trump and he did this whole monkey act, walked around behind her, mugged, made faces and leaned over her. She didn't understand how to handle that. So you want to see somebody with the physical presence too, who feels like they're going to have an ability to post up against this guy on that debate stage. Because that's going to be the big show. That's the reality TV final contest.
So should the Democrats, instead of fighting over the nuances of Medicare for All, be slamming Trump on, say, his lie where he said "I'm the one that saved coverage for preexisting health conditions." In unison going, "Democrats gave you that. We're the ones saving it and you want to get rid of it with legislation. John McCain saved it. Now you're in the courts trying to get rid of it."
There is no bigger gaslighting on the domestic side that I think I've seen from Trump. I mean, you can make the case that the economy has been juiced along by tax cuts and by wild deficit spending and that the economy is strong. You can make that case. And you could pick it apart a little bit too, but you cannot make a case that Trump did not enthusiastically embrace the bill that came out of the House in 2017. And they led with the dumbest political move of all time, which is to eliminate pre-existing conditions. Because I have polled this matter extensively, since 2009. I've done dozens of focus groups about this. Voters, Republican, Democrat, black, white, liberal, conservative, Catholic, Jewish, every single voter group in this country hates the fact that pre-existing condition coverage could be taken away. They are terrified of it.
Leading with Donald Trump, being somebody who says he's going to stand for you and then screws you over, that iterates across the trade war with farmers in Iowa and Wisconsin and Michigan. That iterates across steelworkers in Ohio and Pennsylvania, coal miners who he promised all these new jobs to. This guy is a lying liar who lies, and they need to call it out.
Remember he promised, "Oh we're going to have a great new health care plan. It's going to cover everybody. It's going to be free. And there'll be all the pre-existing coverage." There's never been any such thing proposed. So the fact that he lies like a cheap rug iterates across all these different areas and it iterates across the corruption that voters believe he represents. So, it's a good opportunity. And that's a way to say it: "I'm going to go up on the debate stage against Donald Trump and I'm going to tear his hide off on the following big lies." And pre-existing should be one of them.
It obviously troubles Trump because Bloomberg's ads are focused on that. That's the thing that inspired the tweet yesterday, "I saved pre-existing conditions." Not only didn't they save them, but after their vote, they put all the Republicans in a bus and took them to the Rose Garden to have a party to celebrate the end of pre-existing medical conditions.
And they've also been litigating it. The Department of Justice, with all the power of the Department of Justice, is litigating to eliminate pre-existing conditions.
In the book you also talk about another key issue, the economy. Democrats are almost silent. Now, you've got Bernie Sanders and Liz Warren talking about how it can be better. I thought one of the big rules in politics is that you go after your opponent's strength and that's his strength is the economy. Should they be prosecuting that more? We just had the jobs report last week. It's the lowest job growth in eight years, we're sliding.
We're sliding. It's weakening. There is a recession coming and there's a bill going to come due. And look, I'm a free market guy, but I thought the tax bill was an egregious crony capitalist giveaway. I know the lobbyist who wrote the tax bill. I know who they work for. They work for a bunch of guys down on Wall Street for hedge funds and big banks. And they were specifically engineering this thing to juice Wall Street.
A lot of these people out there in the country, the only thing they sort of understand is job or no job. And they hear on the news the market's up, market's down, and that's the big signifier. They're hearing market up. Well the market's up because the Fed is still juicing money into the system. The market's up because this tax bill was an enormous benefit, a $2 trillion benefit to Wall Street and the hedge fund guys. So, as a free market guy, I'm like, "How is this the market at work?" This is the president juicing the system.
It's just like the trade stuff. We're having enormous economic damage on the trade war, which is actually where I think the Democrats have their strongest economic message. Because remember, we've got a few swing states to fight this battle with. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, those are states that have been screwed in the trade war. And it hasn't been fixed. There is no deal with China yet. USMCA is not all that and a bag of chips. This thing is a broken set of economic promises and they have an opportunity to fight on that. I wouldn't try to fight on "the stock market's not up as much this or that percentage." Voters don't really do bank shots. They do A to B, not A to Z.
If you were advising on the economy to these Democrats, what would you recommend?
First off, I would talk about the stories of real people in the swing states. "I'm farmer X, I am a soybean farmer in Iowa. Donald Trump said that this trade war was going to help me. My farm is in foreclosure now." And we do have record farm foreclosures in Wisconsin and Iowa right now. "I'm a steelworker in Pennsylvania. Donald Trump promised his trade war was going to help me. Instead, our plant is closed."
There have been no new steel plants built. He promised this. This is the reality. Tell real stories of real people. You talk about people who are still living in a world where household debt is at record levels. Home values are kind of flat right now. People are starting to feel that 2007, 2008 feeling in the wind, that we still haven't solved the problem of college loan debt. In fact, this administration is making it much more difficult.
There is no Bernie magic wand. You're not going to wash away $2 trillion of debt tomorrow. But there are ways to adjust this so that the country has a system that's more market-driven and less punitive. And that affects middle-class families less. There are a lot of ways to get to this. Real stories from real people.
So you're saying those are better than statistics and numbers, which Democrats love to talk about.
Yeah, this is from a long time ago. There's a classic editorial cartoon from 1984 where Walter Mondale has this blackboard full of statistics and formulas and charts and Ronald Reagan has a smiley face on his blackboard. That's what voters get. That's what they understand.
You're not a fan of Bernie Sanders in your book. You like Liz Warren more. What does it matter if it's Bernie or Joe Biden or Buttigieg?
Well, I think Warren or Biden or Buttigieg are all viable candidates. Bernie Sanders is Donald Trump election insurance. I honestly believe it.
Why?
He's 300 years old. He just had a heart attack. He is every cliché ever, in the history of the free shit movement. Republicans will turn Bernie into the worst caricature you've ever seen. He is the scary old socialist figure of their nightmares. But in this case, it's not fake. He's actually that guy. He's got an unbelievably thick oppo file. They're salivating over this guy. I still talk to guys in the mafia, in the Republican mafia. They're working their hardest to make sure Bernie's the nominee. They want Bernie to be the nominee. Bernie will lose every single state south of the Mason Dixon Line. No questions asked, including Florida, which you can't lose Florida.
What do you say about the people who were torn between Bernie and Trump in the 2016 primaries. Then when Bernie didn't get nomination, they went to Trump. At first, I didn't understand it, then I talked to them. Trump was talking about jobs, that NAFTA wasn't good, that the rich are getting richer, the system is rigged and he was addressing that very issue.
There's a horseshoe of populism. And the left and right tines become very close together a lot of the time. The problem with the Bernie analysis is that when you go out — and I go through this in the book, this is a secret that the Republicans have kept pretty quiet for a long time. Most Democrats out in the country, outside of the coasts, are not hard, hard progressives. They're not socialists. They're not burn-it-all-down guys.
Most Democrats out in the country are pretty moderate. We've studied this for years and years and years. We've drilled into this thing over and over again. We've identified male and female Democratic voters in the suburbs who are mostly moderate. They're not hard progressives. They're JFK-style Democrats. They're Bill Clinton-style Democrats. They're Barack Obama Democrats. As much as Republicans tried to make Barack Obama into this wild-eyed, leftist, socialist, communist sleeper agent.
Barack Obama basically ran as a liberal suburban Republican. He was not scary to people and we knew it. That's when we tried to turn him into this figure. We could never get there. But if you want to go and put Bernie at the top of the ticket ... I'm getting like five billion tweets already about Bernie, so, why not make my life more of a living hell? But Bernie is going to be absolutely the perfect foil for Donald Trump: "I'm bad, but this guy is Castro from Vermont."
Even if Joe Biden gets the nomination, Trump's going to call him a socialist. We know that.
But it's not true.
Right, so are you saying there's more potential traction and resonance with Bernie as a candidate than it would be for Biden because people know Biden?
First off, Bernie is not a Democrat. He's got a party that he wants to use as a host vector into the nomination. Who loves Bernie? Young voters love Bernie.
Yes, they do.
Young voters adore Bernie. You know what young voters don't do? They don't vote. Old people vote. You know who really, really votes? Very old people. You know who really votes in Florida, the No. 1 key swing state? Really goddamn old people, like people on respirators vote in Florida. They're old, old, old. And they vote like a champ. And that is not their demo. They tend to like Warren or Biden a little more. But, look, nobody's perfect. To quote, Donald Rumsfeld, "You go to war with the army you have, not the one you want." None of these guys are perfect. And there's no generational superstar in this field. There's no Barack Obama or Bill Clinton or JFK in this field.
There's such a debate in my head, I can hear it from my fellow progressives who will be saying, "Well, Bernie's going to get people out." Your argument to win is that you don't need a Bernie. You don't need the machine to get people out. They're going to come out because of Trump on the other side.
Right, Trump's going to get them out for you.
So, if it's Joe Biden, a more centrist, you think it's not a problem for turnout for Democrats?
I don't think it's a problem for turnout. And here's the thing: Again, if somebody tells you, "I won't turn out versus Donald Trump, because I didn't get who I wanted," fuck them. They're not on your team. They're in this for their own narrow interest. This is a country over party thing. And a country over ideological preference thing, or at least it should be in my opinion.
If you're in any community that Donald Trump has demonized or enacted policies that discriminated against, this is very personal. This isn't political. It is a referendum on this guy who's a monster. Last thing, you make a great point to focus on the Electoral College and key swing states.
Absolutely.
Not national polls. Why is it the key?
Stay away from national polls. They are always an illusion. They will always trick you into stupid political behavior. Focus on the key states. As much as progressives hate the Electoral College — and we can argue its flaws all day long — in 2020, the Electoral College is the only game in town. There's not going to be some miracle where it's not the rule book.
The winner of the Electoral College is president. Doesn't matter how many popular votes you get. We're talking about maybe 15 states. Realistically, six or seven of those states are going to be competitive, but you want to play a little chess. You can roll up a victory here or there if you offset somewhere else. Those states are the only thing that matters. You've got to be following the polls in those states. And you've got to be rigorous in your approach to polling on this. I mean, look, the polls in '16 were not wrong.
On a national level they weren't.
They were not wrong, OK, but in the swing states, the Clinton people took their foot off the gas because they were watching the national polls. Donald Trump is an idiot and a moron and just a kook of the first order, but he is surrounded by a bunch of guys like me, who are ride-or-die for him. They don't love him ideologically, but they're stuck. And they're very smart. And they're very determined and they will do anything to win. And they will fight this in the swing states. They're not going to spend a dollar in Mississippi. They know how Mississippi is going to go.
In your book, you outline two scenarios for election night in November. The upbeat one and the horrific downtrodden one where many of us are looking at Canada, Mexico, whatever countries to live in. If you're giving one piece of advice to people, regardless of left, right, or center who want Nov. 3 to be a happy night and the defeat of Donald Trump, what's that one piece of advice?
Bust your ass in the swing states. That's it. You got to go in the swing states. You've got to spend every dime there. You got to put the boots on the ground there. I don't care if you have one volunteer in California. We know how California is going to vote. Everybody in California wants to support the nominee. Go to Michigan, go to Wisconsin, go to Pennsylvania, go to Ohio, go to Florida, go to North Carolina, go to Arizona. Get to work on the ground. Voter contact still matters more than almost any other thing. A knock on the door, a phone call, a personal outreach on social media. That matters more than almost anything else you can do. And fighting this battle in those swing states is vital.


rawstory--2020-01-18--Pro-Trump network OAN facing lawsuit over white anchor’s alleged racial harassment of producer

According to The Daily Beast , the San Diego-based pro-Trump cable network One America News went on trial in California Superior Court this week , with a former employee suing the network for racial discrimination , retaliation , and “ intentional infliction of emotional distress.
” Jonathan Harris , a former booking producer for the political commentary program The Daily Ledger , alleged that during production meetings , the show ’ s host Graham Ledger “ would regularly berate , demean and verbally abuse Plaintiff on account of Plaintiff ’ s liberal political views , and Plaintiff ’ s opinions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ None of Plaintiff ’ s three fellow producers on The Daily Ledger were ever subjected to verbal abuse or harassment on the basis of their opinions .
Plaintiff was the sole African-American producer on the show.
” Furthermore , the complaint continued , “ In addition to constantly berating Plaintiff on the basis of his political opinions and racial identity , on at least 3 separate occasions , Ledger made blatantly racist comments about people of ‘ non-Caucasian ’ races , ” and that OAN ’ s CEO Robert Herring Sr. also confided @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to realize that he held racist beliefs and opinions about African-American people and other minority groups , ” and that Harris was transferred and shortly fired after he made his complaints .
OAN argues that Harris ’ poor treatment during the sets stemmed from his political views rather than his race , with attorney Patrick Nellies saying that he would disrupt meetings by arguing with the others about his liberal politics , despite several warnings to stop — and that while Ledger was a difficult person to work with , no one else @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Furthermore , Herring testified that Harris was fired following an incident in which he had caught him trying to delete files off of a company computer , at which point Herring tried to physically block him from the computer and a shoving match ensued .
One of Harris ’ attorneys , Britany Engelman , told the jury that his time working for Ledger was “ a nightmare he hasn ’ t woken up from , ” and lead attorney Rodney Diggs told The Daily Beast , “ Regardless of whether it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s in the workplace should not be treated differently because of one ’ s race .
”

And the Monsanto trade was just one of 136 stock and other financial transactions — totaling between $3.05 million and $8.56 million — that Allen failed to properly report, according to an exclusive Raw Story analysis of federal financial disclosures.
"The omissions are so extensive that I'm just in suspense for what the possible explanation could be,” said Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel and senior director of ethics for the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan government watchdog group. “I haven't seen anything like this before with it going back this far."
ALSO READ: Revealed: Marjorie Taylor Greene's post-divorce finances — from Trump to Disney
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act requires key government officials, including members of Congress, to publicly report within 45 days most purchases, sales and exchanges of stocks, bonds, commodity futures, securities and cryptocurrencies.
Passed by Congress in 2012, the STOCK Act is designed to stop insider trading, curb conflicts-of-interest and enhance transparency.
But many of the financial trades Allen reported earlier this month were at least three years past the STOCK Act’s reporting deadline. In response to a series of questions from Raw Story, Allen’s congressional office acknowledged in an emailed statement that the congressman experienced “reporting issues” and blamed them on a financial adviser who no longer works for the Georgia lawmaker.
“Congressman Allen’s investment decisions are handled by a financial adviser, who uses investment managers to implement trades at their own discretion, without consulting with or getting input from the Congressman,” said Carlton Norwood Jr., a spokesperson for Allen. “In May of this year, Congressman Allen became aware of some reporting issues and omissions that were caused by a compliance firm he had engaged. At that point, he hired counsel and a new compliance firm to start working with the House Ethics Committee to ensure all trades have been properly reported.”
Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA). Source: U.S. House of Representatives
Members of Congress are required to file what are known as “periodic transaction reports,” or PTRs, each time they make certain financial transactions worth more than $1,000.
The periodic transaction reports are due within 45 days of a trade being executed, whether by a member of Congress personally, or a financial adviser working on the member’s behalf. Lawmakers are only required by law to disclose the value of the trades in broad ranges.
“The [Aug. 10] PTR was filed as part of that process in consultation with House Ethics Committee counsel – who understands that it was the compliance firm, and not Congressman Allen, who was responsible for these errors and that additional action and amendments to his financial disclosure statements may be necessary,” Norwood said in a statement.
However, Payne says it’s ultimately up to the legislator to ensure that such reports are filed in a timely manner.
“It's always been clear that the member has the ultimate responsibility of filing the PTRs, and it cannot be simply blamed on any outside adviser,” Payne said.
The standard fine for violating the STOCK Act is $200. But the House Committee on Ethics and Senate Select Committee on Ethics have historically waived the fees for many violators.
"It's a black hole when it goes to the Ethics Committee, and we don't know if they will assess penalties, or they just don't do anything about it.” Payne said.
Tom Rust, staff director and chief counsel for the House Committee on Ethics, which is tasked with investigating alleged STOCK Act violations, said “no comment” when reached by Raw Story.
Asked by Raw Story whether Allen has paid a fine, Norwood did not respond.
ALSO READ: Sold! Wealthy N.Y. congressman dumps up to $37 million in stocks and bonds amid pressure to divest
Demian Brady, vice president of research for the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, said there should be more transparency from the congressional ethics committees “to see how they're enforcing the laws that they're responsible for administering.”
“It shouldn’t be so difficult to figure out whether a member’s getting fined or not for late compliance with these basic, it seems to me, fairly straightforward and simple reporting requirements,” Brady said.
Allen is appointed to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittees on Communications and Technology; Innovation, Data, and Commerce; and Environment, Manufacturing and Critical Materials. He is also appointed to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and its Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions.
Allen’s stock transactions span dozens of companies including energy companies like Dominion Energy, General Electric, ExxonMobil, NextEra Energy and Phillips 66, technology companies such as Microsoft and Verizon and mining company Freeport-McMo-Ran.
This is at least the third separate time Allen has violated the STOCK Act.
Raw Story reported in June that Allen was late in disclosing his spouse’s March 27 sale — valued between $100,001 to $250,000 — of stock in SouthState Corporation, a financial services company.
In 2021, Insider reported that Allen has several financial filing flubs related to his stock trade activity from 2019 and 2020.
Epidemic of violations
Dozens of members of Congress have failed to comply with the STOCK Act. During the 117th Congress from 2021 to 2022, at least 78 members of Congress — Democrats and Republicans alike — were found to have violated the STOCK Act's disclosure provisions, according to a tally maintained by Insider.
Raw Story has this year identified 19 members of the 118th Congress who have broken the federal conflicts of interest law.
In recent weeks, repeat violators like Allen have broken the federal disclosure law again — Rep. Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) violated the STOCK Act for the third time in 14 months, Rep. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.) became a two-time offender and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) was several months late disclosing a family stock sale — again.
The ongoing violations come at a time when a bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced several similar bills aimed at banning congressional stock trading.
"We see that the STOCK Act is not complied with the way it's intended to be, and if there are no consequences for the late filings, you continue to see that there probably will be less compliance with the law,” Payne said.
Campaign Legal Center supports legislation that would require members of Congress to divest of any stocks in individual companies, he said.
The most recent legislation introduced is the Ban Stock Trading for Government Officials Act, which would prohibit members of Congress, the president, the vice president, senior executive branch officials, their spouses and children from trading stocks and would require greater transparency with financial disclosures, The Hill reported.
Another two-party bill, the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act was introduced in May and is co-sponsored in part by political rivals in Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL).
Other materially similar bills include the Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act, the TRUST in Congress Act and the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act. In the decade since the STOCK Act’s passage, the push for a total ban on lawmakers trading stocks while in office gained but then lost momentum last year when the Democratic-led House, then led by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, decided not to conduct a hearing on any of the stock-ban bills and never brought it to the House floor for a vote.
News organizations including the New York Times, Insider, NPR and Sludge have documented rampant financial conflicts of interests among dozens of members of Congress, such as those who bought and sold defense contractor stock while occupying positions on congressional armed services committees or otherwise voting on measures to send such companies billions of federal dollars. The executive and judicial branches are riddled with similar financial conflict issues, too, as the Wall Street Journal hasreported.
The Wall Street Journal won a 2023 Pulitzer Prize for its investigation into financial conflicts among officials who work in federal agencies while Insider won the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sunshine Award for its reporting on congressional financial conflicts.


rawstory--2020-01-18--Impeachment trial senators swear an oath aimed at guarding ‘against malice, falsehood, and evasion’

The 100 United States senators who are jurors in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump have taken a special oath in order to take part in that proceeding .
As they enter the active phase of the trial on Tuesday , this oath is supposed to govern their behavior .
It ’ s not the first oath that the lawmakers have taken in their Senate careers .
Members of Congress , as well as federal judicial officers and members of state legislatures , must swear to “ support the Constitution.
” But the Constitution does not specify the form @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first Congress crafted an oath of office and – with minor modifications – that is the oath each member of Congress swears when he or she takes her seat in the House or the Senate .
There is a second oath that members of the Senate must take when conducting an impeachment trial .
The specific text for this oath was developed in 1868 for the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson .
The rules for impeachment were revised by the Senate in 1986 for the trial of President Clinton .
The words @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a signature remain substantially the same : “ I solemnly swear ( or affirm , as the case may be ) that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of ( the president ’ s name ) , President of the United States , now pending , I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws : so help me God.
” Senate rules also require that each senator taking the oath memorialize that action by signing an official register .
Justice Joseph Story , in his Commentaries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and 1853 , articulated the reason for the requirement of an oath in government : “ It results from the plain right of society to require some guaranty from every officer , that he will be conscientious in the discharge of his duty .
Oaths have a solemn obligation upon the minds of all reflecting men , and especially upon those , who feel a deep sense of accountability to a Supreme being.
” “ [ O ] aths are required of those , who try , as well as of those who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , falsehood , and evasion , surely like guards ought to be interposed in the administration of high public trusts , and especially in such , as may concern the welfare and safety of the whole community.
” Certainly , a decision made by the Senate on removing a president from office counts as a “ solemn obligation ” that affects the welfare of the United States .
The requirement that each senator attest to the oath to do impartial justice by signing an official record is meant to emphasize the gravity of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ daily .
Sign up for The Conversation ’ s newsletter . ]
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license .
Read the original article .

Trained in political science and the law, he has no formal education in disaster preparedness or response. And prior to his current role, he never held a full-time job dedicated to emergency management.
Instead, his main qualification was being chief of staff to then-mayor Alan Arakawa. But in that role, he told Civil Beat Tuesday, he assisted during emergency operations. And he said he participated in online FEMA trainings and workshops throughout the years.
In 2017, Andaya beat out 40 other applicants for the job, Maui Now reported at the time.
As the mayor’s administration was coming to a close, a panel of government officials – which said it was independent of the mayor – chose Andaya for the civil service role.
Civil Beat reviewed Andaya’s experience after historic Lahaina was swallowed by an inferno last week, killing scores of residents and visitors who never saw it coming.
The Maui Emergency Management Agency had the authority to issue siren warnings that might have alerted people. After Andaya’s agency decided not to sound them, many survivors reported they only became aware of the fire when they saw and smelled smoke.
Andaya said sounding the sirens wasn’t an option officials considered because they’re “mainly used for tsunamis.” That’s why they’re mostly located on the coast, he said.
But the state’s own website says the sirens are useful for many kinds of emergencies.
“The all-hazard siren system can be used for a variety of both natural and human-caused events; including tsunamis, hurricanes, dam breaches, flooding, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, terrorist threats, hazardous material incidents, and more,” the site states.
Andaya wasn’t on the island when the fires started, and he hasn’t made any appearances at press conferences since the disaster occurred.
Asked about Andaya’s resume, David Hafner, a retired telecommunications planner for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, questioned whether his relative inexperience affected his agency’s performance in a crisis.
“It’s a good ol’ boy network,” Hafner said. “This time it cost lives.”
Hafner said it’s “absolutely essential” for emergency management leaders to have experience in the field so they make the right decisions both before and after disasters strike.
Not having it, he said, “can lead to grave mistakes in judgment.”
Andaya’s hiring came at a time when Hawaii’s counties had just taken on increased responsibility for disaster response, according to Hafner. State emergency management officials used to be the designated authority to respond to emergencies, he said, but an update to the law in 2014 put the counties in the driver’s seat.
Asked about Andaya’s LinkedIn resume, Colin Moore, a political scientist at the University of Hawaii, said he was shocked by the emergency administrator’s lack of relevant experience. He said the public is owed an explanation.
“It’s a legitimate question to ask why the person leading the county emergency services agency has no clear background in fire, police, public health, the usual emergency services backgrounds,” he said.
“Having that on-the-ground experience, you develop the instincts and the connections to be able to perform a job like this. And if you just have general government experience, there is just no opportunity to have that kind of on-the-ground knowledge that often is really useful in a crisis.”
Andaya said as a former member of the mayor’s cabinet, he was qualified for the job.
“Whenever there was an activation in the emergency operations center, we were involved,” he said. “To say that I have no experience or no background in emergency management is not correct.”
‘Political Influence’ A Concern
Andaya, 52, is from Maui and graduated from HP Baldwin High School.
He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from the University of Hawaii Manoa. He also has a law degree from the UH Richardson School of Law, although he never became a licensed attorney, according to the Hawaii State Bar Association’s online database.
He began his career clerking for Maui Judge Artemio Baxa. He then worked for the law office of Lynn Araki-Regan, an attorney who is the wife of Arakawa’s managing director, Keith Regan.
When Andaya vacated his position as chief of staff, it was filled by Araki-Regan, who was by then the county budget director. Regan said he had no involvement in Andaya’s hiring.
From the early 2000s onward, Andaya has held leadership positions in Maui’s Department of Housing and Human Concerns and worked as the assistant to the chancellor of UH’s Maui College, according to his LinkedIn resume. He is married to Rowena Dagdag-Andaya, a former elementary school teacher who served as Maui’s public works director and now works in Maui’s Office on Aging.
Andaya was Arakawa’s chief of staff from 2011 through 2017. That year, the mayor appointed him acting administrator of MEMA, and he became permanent by the end of that year.
In contrast, Honolulu’s emergency management director, Hiro Toiya, has technical training in emergency response, worked for years as a preparedness planner for the Hawaii health department and rose up the ranks of Honolulu’s Department of Emergency Management. He worked there for more than seven years before becoming the director.
Asked how he stood out among a pool of 40 job candidates, Andaya said Maui doesn’t have a lot of emergency management professionals to begin with. He noted that he had to take an exam and based on his score was determined to be a finalist.
“You would have to question the civil service process if you can believe that politics was involved,” he said. “This is something that my predecessors have to go through as well.”
Before Andaya was hired, there were concerns in Maui’s political scene that the county was considering someone who wasn’t qualified.
“In the past, this position has sometimes been filled by individuals without the proper emergency response background.”
Former Maui County Council Chairman Mike White
In July 2017, the chair of the Maui County Council at the time, Mike White, took the unusual step of writing a Maui News column warning that the job of emergency management was too important to be “subject to political influence.”
“In the past, this position has sometimes been filled by individuals without the proper emergency response background,” White wrote.
“The administration must search for well-qualified candidates who can make a seamless transition in leading our Emergency Management Agency. The stakes are too high and our community has grown to a point where emergency coordination has become quite sophisticated in its implementation.”
In his column, White praised the outgoing emergency management chief, Anna Foust, who had previously worked for years leading the Maui branch of the Red Cross. White emphasized her expertise.
“During her tenure, she used her emergency response experience and training to help guide the county to keep citizens safe during hurricane warnings and watches, flooding events and tsunami warnings,” White wrote.
Civil Beat wasn’t able to reach White for comment.
Panel Of Specialists Chose Andaya
On Tuesday, Arakawa’s former managing director, Keith Regan, said that politics was not a factor in Andaya’s hiring. Asked why Andaya was the best candidate, Regan said he didn’t know because he wasn’t on the hiring committee. But he was adamant there was “zero” political influence in the process.
“This was a straightforward civil service process,” said Regan, who is now the state comptroller.
When Regan ran for Maui County Council in 2015, Andaya was his campaign manager. This year, Andaya wrote a letter of support of Regan’s nomination to state comptroller.
Regan noted that the hiring panel included numerous experts in the field. Maui Now identified them at the time as then-Maui Police Chief Tivoli Faaumu; then-Maui Fire Chief Jeff Murray; Elton Ushio, administrator of the Kauai Emergency Management Agency; and Vern Miyagi, then-administrator of the Hawaii State Emergency Management Agency.
At the time, Ushio was quoted by Maui Now as saying Andaya’s “proven leadership abilities, executive level experience, and impressive knowledge of emergency management” made him a great fit for the job. Murray cited Andaya’s familiarity with government processes, his “institutional knowledge of the various emergency incidents” in recent years, and his then-recent work as acting leader of the department.
“These are not people that, you know, are just political people,” Regan said. “They’re people who understand emergency management and are going to make the right choice for the community.”
In a statement, former HI-EMA director Miyagi said the public’s focus should be on working together on response and recovery.
“Herman Andaya and his staff at MEMA are really good people,” he said. “They carried Maui successfully through numerous hurricanes, floods, and other disasters.”
He said the public should wait for the attorney general’s investigation before drawing conclusions.
Civil Beat left messages with the other hiring committee members on Tuesday, but they were not returned. Former mayor Arakawa also did not respond to a request for comment.
“Herman is a very skilled, experienced, knowledgeable, professional individual,” Regan said. “I trust that is making the right decisions … There is no question in my mind that he cares about that community, and he’s going to do everything he can to keep that community safe.”


rawstory--2020-01-18--Black kids and suicide: Why are rates so high, and so ignored?

Teen suicide rates among black youth are increasing .
In 2016 and again in 2018 , national data revealed that among children age 5-11 , black children had the highest rate of death by suicide .
For the years 2008 to 2012 , 59 black youth died by suicide , up from 54 in the years 2003-2007 .
Also , the 2015 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ’ s biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey reported that , compared to non-Hispanic white boys , black high-school age boys are more likely to have made serious suicide attempts that require medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ psychology and also director of the culture , risk and resilience research laboratory at the University of Houston , and I recently co-authored a study that suggests that new risk profiles may be needed for better suicide prediction in African Americans in particular .
Suicide has become a leading cause of death in the U.S. among all age groups , but particularly in youth and young adults .
It is the second leading cause of death among 10- to 34-year-olds .
Parents , teachers and professionals must be able to both talk about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ children of any race .
But those of us who work with black youth may also need to address some myths about suicide in the African American community .
For example , one such myth has its start almost three decades ago , Kevin Early and Ronald Akers ’ interviews with African American pastors concluded that suicide is a “ white thing ” and that black people are accustomed to struggling through life challenges without succumbing to suicide .
those authors concluded that black people see suicide as a “ white thing ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people do not die by suicide .
Based on anecdotal conversations that many others and I have heard in day-to-day conversations and that sometimes emerge in popular media , this opinion about suicide in the black community has shifted relatively little .
More importantly , black youth at risk may even be more difficult to identify than non-black youth .
One study referred to college age racial/ethnic minority people , including African Americans , as “ hidden ideators ” who are less likely than other youth to disclose thoughts of suicide .
Because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ages , comprehensive efforts are needed to address this public health problem .
Studies suggest that stigma about mental illness and the feeling that one will be outcast further or ignored may keep black youth from sharing their thoughts .
Also , public health and mental health experts may be unaware that suicide risk factors could show up differently depending on ethnic group .
Simply put , a one-size-fits-all approach does not work for identifying suicide risk .
And little or no action has been taken to address the increasing crisis .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this frustrating when children ’ s lives are lost – lives that could be saved .
Most mental health services are not designed with cultural and social nuances in mind .
My research team has found consistently that the challenges that black kids face in navigating dual cultural contexts may increase their risk of suicidal thoughts .
In research on adults , we found that black men and women who used more Eurocentric or individualist approaches that was more self-focused rather than managing stress via the belief in a Higher Power were more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not true for those who used more culturally meaningful , spiritual coping .
When there are cultural differences , therapists must be willing to “ think outside of the box ” to fully evaluate risk for suicide .
As an example , the racism that black Americans encounter increases stress for many .
Thus , their stressors and mental health issues will need different solutions and approaches than treatments that work for white people .
In another study published in Comprehensive Psychiatry , we observed different patterns of risk for black adults compared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ psychiatric care .
We examined sleep-related problems , which are elevated among black Americans , and suicide because sleep issues are a serious but understudied risk factor for suicide crisis .
It turns out that inadequate sleep can escalate an emotional crisis .
Our research found that problems staying awake for activities such as driving or engaging in social activities , which reveal inadequate sleep , were associated with a four-fold greater risk for suicide crisis compared to non-suicide crisis in black adults who were admitted for psychiatric treatment .
We have also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thoughts about suicide for black youth and adults .
How to find help Caring adults are a child ’ s first line of defense .
If a child discloses that he is thinking about dying , it is important to ask him to share more about his ideas and if he knows he might die .
If a child has a suicide plan , it is time to get professional help .
The Crisis Text Line at 741741 could be an option for teens who need help to cool down in a crisis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mental health professional , parents need an expansive list of referral options , including university-affiliated mental health clinics that offer evidence-based services on a sliding scale and federally qualified health centers for the uninsured .
Regardless of the setting , a well-trained therapist may be of a different race .
Parents and caregivers must be willing to sit , listen and try to fully understand what is most upsetting for a child who is experiencing a difficult situation and a lot of emotions .
For those who believe that the alarming statistics will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this may be true .
In the meantime , saving one life is worth the effort .
Thoughts of suicide do not mean that a child or teen needs to be hospitalized .
It means they are in emotional pain and want the pain to end .
Adults can investigate the problem and remove it or help the child deal with it .
Online resources such as Stopbullying.gov include interactive videos that are useful to parents , educators and youth .
Suggesting to a child that she “ get over it ” is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is already in a vulnerable state can not problem-solve without meaningful support from the caring adults in charge .
If you are having thoughts of suicide , call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 ( TALK ) .
The website is National Suicide Prevention Lifeline .
[ Deep knowledge , daily .
Sign up for The Conversation ’ s newsletter . ]
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license .
Read the original article .

Teen suicide rates among black youth are increasing. In 2016 and again in 2018, national data revealed that among children age 5-11, black children had the highest rate of death by suicide. For the years 2008 to 2012, 59 black youth died by suicide, up from 54 in the years 2003-2007.
Also, the 2015 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey reported that, compared to non-Hispanic white boys, black high-school age boys are more likely to have made serious suicide attempts that require medical attention.
I am a professor of psychology and also director of the culture, risk and resilience research laboratory at the University of Houston, and I recently co-authored a study that suggests that new risk profiles may be needed
for better suicide prediction in African Americans in particular.
Comprehensive suicide awareness
Suicide has become a leading cause of death in the U.S. among all age groups, but particularly in youth and young adults. It is the second leading cause of death among 10- to 34-year-olds. Parents, teachers and professionals must be able to both talk about it and understand the risks for vulnerable children of any race. But those of us who work with black youth may also need to address some myths about suicide in the African American community.
For example, one such myth has its start almost three decades ago, Kevin Early and Ronald Akers’ interviews with African American pastors concluded that suicide is a “white thing” and that black people are accustomed to struggling through life challenges without succumbing to suicide. those authors concluded that black people see suicide as a “white thing” but it is a myth that black people do not die by suicide.
Based on anecdotal conversations that many others and I have heard in day-to-day conversations and that sometimes emerge in popular media, this opinion about suicide in the black community has shifted relatively little.
More importantly, black youth at risk may even be more difficult to identify than non-black youth. One study referred to college age racial/ethnic minority people, including African Americans, as “hidden ideators” who are less likely than other youth to disclose thoughts of suicide. Because suicide is occurring and at shockingly young ages, comprehensive efforts are needed to address this public health problem.
Studies suggest that stigma about mental illness and the feeling that one will be outcast further or ignored may keep black youth from sharing their thoughts. Also, public health and mental health experts may be unaware that suicide risk factors could show up differently depending on ethnic group.
Simply put, a one-size-fits-all approach does not work for identifying suicide risk. And little or no action has been taken to address the increasing crisis. As an African American psychologist, I find this frustrating when children’s lives are lost – lives that could be saved.
Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com
Unique needs in African American mental health
Most mental health services are not designed with cultural and social nuances in mind. My research team has found consistently that the challenges that black kids face in navigating dual cultural contexts may increase their risk of suicidal thoughts.
In research on adults, we found that black men and women who used more Eurocentric or individualist approaches that was more self-focused rather than managing stress via the belief in a Higher Power were more likely to consider suicide. This was not true for those who used more culturally meaningful, spiritual coping.
When there are cultural differences, therapists must be willing to “think outside of the box” to fully evaluate risk for suicide. As an example, the racism that black Americans encounter increases stress for many. Thus, their stressors and mental health issues will need different solutions and approaches than treatments that work for white people.
In another study published in Comprehensive Psychiatry, we observed different patterns of risk for black adults compared to white adults who were admitted for psychiatric care. We examined sleep-related problems, which are elevated among black Americans, and suicide because sleep issues are a serious but understudied risk factor for suicide crisis. It turns out that inadequate sleep can escalate an emotional crisis. Our research found that problems staying awake for activities such as driving or engaging in social activities, which reveal inadequate sleep, were associated with a four-fold greater risk for suicide crisis compared to non-suicide crisis in black adults who were admitted for psychiatric treatment.
We have also found that experiencing racism is associated with thoughts about suicide for black youth and adults.
fizkes/Shutterstock.com
How to find help
Caring adults are a child’s first line of defense. If a child discloses that he is thinking about dying, it is important to ask him to share more about his ideas and if he knows he might die. If a child has a suicide plan, it is time to get professional help.
The Crisis Text Line at 741741 could be an option for teens who need help to cool down in a crisis.
When it comes to finding a mental health professional, parents need an expansive list of referral options, including university-affiliated mental health clinics that offer evidence-based services on a sliding scale and federally qualified health centers for the uninsured. Regardless of the setting, a well-trained therapist may be of a different race.
Parents and caregivers must be willing to sit, listen and try to fully understand what is most upsetting for a child who is experiencing a difficult situation and a lot of emotions.
For those who believe that the alarming statistics will eventually reverse course without any action, this may be true. In the meantime, saving one life is worth the effort.
Thoughts of suicide do not mean that a child or teen needs to be hospitalized. It means they are in emotional pain and want the pain to end. Adults can investigate the problem and remove it or help the child deal with it. Online resources such as Stopbullying.gov include interactive videos that are useful to parents, educators and youth. Suggesting to a child that she “get over it” is less than helpful. A child who is already in a vulnerable state cannot problem-solve without meaningful support from the caring adults in charge.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). The website is National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
[ Deep knowledge, daily.Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter. ]
Rheeda Walker, Professor of Psychology, University of Houston
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.