I'm Loyal to Nothing Except the Dream

Wonderfully written, giving my thoughts a word. For me and my wife, the USA, despite all their shortcomings, are a country we really want to live in. It stands for many good things. It is not a country you want to mess with, and we are fine with that. We embrace American culture, we love American companies, we so far respected American politicians. For stuff we as individuals are interested in (which might not be what everyone is interested in), the USA is perfect. So far, we live in Germany, but to prove our love, we tried to find ways to at least spend some years in the country we like to visit so much. Until Friday. Now we are banned. My wife is Iranian. This is always a burden because of some extensive visa requirements, but we accepted the fact. With a bit of planning, we could go anywhere we wanted, go visit NYC, enjoy the plains of Texas, visit houses to buy in Dallas. All gone. We already are "extreme vetted". But now, our trust is broken. We wanted to tour Miami and Washington with our little daughter in April. Thank god we had not yet booked. This situation feels very strange. Empty.

&gt; As of 2017, the United States, through a sequence of highly improbable events, managed to elect an extremely controversial president.<p>I think it a mistake to see this as a random fluke and chuck it up to chance. It seems like chance to those who were asleep or were watching news from their own bubble.<p>Trump is a symptom of something that was already there probably decades in the making. If we ignore the conditions which created Trump, if we only pay attention to what is in our own Facebook feed we&#x27;ll end up with another Trump, and another. Every time assuming it was random or an act of God or Russians or whatever.<p>Also where were all these prominent tech people and CEOs when Obama was Hillary were busy destabilizing the region, bombing civilians and arming rebels in that part of the world. I find a bit hypocritical everyone being upset about a travel ban and not upset about much worse stuff. But this is about waking up so it is a good first step.<p>&gt; And he signed an executive order that literally, not figuratively, banned Muslims from entering the US<p>It was a list created by the Obama administration for largely the same purpose. And was even used for a while to actually ban people from a Muslim country. Was there any outrage, how many tech leaders pledged to oppose the unfair blocking of refugees then? Also why didn&#x27;t Trump block Indonesia instead if this this infamous Muslim ban. If this was a general Muslim ban it doesn&#x27;t seem very effective just based on the countries it covers.<p>Let&#x27;s criticize Trump and his politcies but is this the main and most serious thing to expend all the effort on? We should be paying attention to his cabinet picks, trade deals, economic and military policies.<p>And also, to be effective it is important to have well defined and realistic goal. Goals such as &quot;removing Trump&quot; are probably not realistic for the next 4 years. But in this case maybe trying to remove some countries from the ban like Iran for ex., or lobbying and campaigning to allow green card holders to be unaffected by it is better.

Nice post, though there are some caveats. As a Pole (as some of you know, we do have some issues here too, though many would disagree) I feel at least a bit competent to give you a bit of advice, so you can get out of it better than we did.<p>1. Donald Trump is not your enemy, nor a problem. He is a manifestation of the problem, which is current state of your society and problems you have. Do not believe that you can just impeach a guy and call it a day.<p>2. Don&#x27;t even try to just get back to status quo. That&#x27;s basically what happened in Poland in 2007 and problems came back after 8 years, worse than ever. The status quo you had created the Donald Trump and would continue to promote similar politicians.<p>3. Do not hate Trump supporters, do not be mean to them, do not laugh them off. They are people who live in different US than you do. As far as I can tell, most people on HN could retire in their 40s if they wanted to. This is not the reality of average American, as are your salaries and life opportunities. You live in a bubble and you need to accept it and reach out to learn what the world looks like for an average Joe.<p>4. You have a lot of power now, do not lend it to random politicians, as they will try to capitalize on your emotions. Hillary Clinton was not some heavenly figure, she had her bunch of issues too. Those issues were just of lesser importance to you. It is quite likely, that if Democrats nominated Sanders, he would win with Trump. They did not nominate him for the reason - he also wanted to change quite a lot, just in different direction than Trump. No matter what your political views are, his popularity showed that what your people expect is change and they will fight for it, because they have much less to loose than you. Acknowledge that and find a way to deal with it.<p>5. Do not expect the situation to just calm down. It won&#x27;t. It is not some kind of mistake that can be solved by moving to popular vote. Life ain&#x27;t that simple. You have people working full-time who cannot afford the living. You have one of the most expensive and unreachable for many healthcare systems. You do have degressive taxing systems. You have much smaller middle class that you are used too. Those problems need attention, you cannot just swipe it under the rag and pretend it&#x27;s just some kind of national outrage. It isn&#x27;t.<p>What you&#x27;re seeing is your society stopping to work as it used too. It won&#x27;t bounce back until you decide to do something with it and it might not be pleasant to you. It may mean higher taxes for example. Or some other change you will not be happy about. Trust me, the alternative is much worse.<p>Good luck!

You know what a lot of people consider worse than Donald Trump? The status quo.<p>That&#x27;s what I feel is missing in all this indignation - where were you before? The political system has been deeply broken for decades, with the same unjust policies being pursued regardless of which public face was on it - imperialist militaristic foreign policies abroad, economic inequality at home. All sold to the public with glib marketing campaigns through a monopolized mass media. The whole democracy road show feeling like a sham for the gullible to eat up.<p>There&#x27;s a lot not to like about Donald Trump, but for one thing he is an outsider to the established system (I believe in this because of how hard the mainstream media is bent on pulling him down). It is hard for me to see that as anything but an improvement.

Addressing the concerns of the Trump supporters is the only way forward. Why are they angry?<p>Silicon Valley - one of the richest sectors of society, is up in arms because the disenfranchised &quot;have nots&quot; are expressing their anger about being &quot;have nots&quot; by just tearing the whole damn thing down. The &quot;have nots&quot; say - through Trump and his actions - &quot;OK, you got everything, we got nothing, here&#x27;s the payback&quot;.<p>The have nots are angry and simply want to smash everything. The process is only just starting.<p>The ONLY solution is to bring the &quot;have nots&quot; back to being &quot;haves&quot;. When you fight Trump, you simply fight the &quot;have nots&quot;. You cannot fight them, you must take away Trumps support base by winning them over, not opposing them.

&gt; We lead the free world<p>i sincerely hate when people from anywhere say that. During the second half of the 20th century, the american government was directly or indirectly responsible for at least half of the conflicts on that planet. Americans need to wake up, they are as much the beacon of tyranny than they are the beacon of the &quot;free world&quot;. It&#x27;s just that most Americans don&#x27;t care about what their own government does abroad. And it didn&#x27;t start with Bush II.<p>&gt; And we do it by taking the higher moral ground,<p>I absolutely hate that too, this is so arrogant. There is really a disconnect between how some Americans view themselves and how the rest of the world see them for what their government actually is: playing war-games on a constant basis and selling the PAX AMERICANA as something just.<p>I&#x27;m sorry but i&#x27;m extremely disappointed by Jeff here, this is just wrong and insulting for the rest of the world.<p>For all the bad that Trump does, I hope that at least it will tone down this sense of superiority coming from Americans, because that&#x27;s the source of many problems.<p>&gt; how negligent and dangerous Trump is as the leader of the free world.<p>You&#x27;re not the leader of the free world, not according to most of the rest of the world, because of your foreign policy post WWII. You supported dictatorships, rigged democratic elections, trained death squads in south america, killed millions in Vietnam, spoiled their land with agent orange, invaded countries like Iraq that did nothing to you, all in the name of &quot;freedom&quot; ... freedom for whom?

One thing that might be missing from this action plan is &quot;get into local action&quot;.<p>If you vote Democrat, there were <i>many</i> uncontested republican seats that voted Clinton. The Democratic party has had its foundation fall out, and its mostly because the local-level stuff has fallen completely by the wayside.<p>Hell, you can even just run for office in 2018. All the DNC chair candidates agree that there are not enough people offering to run on the Dem ticket for congress (hence uncontested seats).<p>If you want to be third party, start trying to win local elections. There too, maybe you can present yourself. If 5 people from a third party got into congress through the house, that&#x27;d be a big deal. Best way to do that? Concentrated local efforts.<p>Also, state legislatures are important! Look at California<p>Just like gov&#x27;t is more than once every 4 years, government is not just the presidency, or just federal. Every level matters.

&gt; And he signed an executive order that literally, not figuratively, banned Muslims from entering the US.<p>Isn&#x27;t &quot;banned muslims&quot; the wrong choice of words here? You could enter US as a muslim from e.g. Malaysia still.

Bombing predominately Muslim countries, overthrowing governments and covert black sites where Muslims get tortured. These are things that are acceptable, but a 90-day ban on immigrants coming from war-torn countries, that&#x27;s a step too far? Has everyone seriously lost their mind?

I&#x27;m encouraged by those who realize that they have a responsibility to our country. Freedoms are not only fought for with guns and tanks. Nor is voting our only responsibility.<p>And beyond the politics and policy, we all have a role in developing our culture. I hope we will all choose patience and education of one another rather than condemnation and divisiveness.

&quot;We lead the free world. And we do it by taking the higher moral ground, doing what is right before doing what is expedient.&quot;<p>It&#x27;s at this point that you know for sure Jeff is ignorant of American government policy.<p>His heart seems in the right place and he&#x27;s taking some important steps. But along with it I think he needs to educate himself. Can&#x27;t fix problems you don&#x27;t even believe exist.

I wholeheartedly agree with this post. We may regret that the wakeup call didn&#x27;t come through earlier, but late is better than never.

Having the luxury of time and money like the OP has allows for an extensive checklist like this. Kudos for putting it out there and for fighting a good fight. However, many people don&#x27;t have the bandwidth or financial stability to divert activity away from non-stability generating activities.<p>Sadly the more I thought about this, the more I&#x27;m finding it difficult to see any internet posts as anything other than contributing to a constant stream of agenda pushing and&#x2F;or humble bragging. FB started it and I fear now we a stuck with everything (including of course these comments) washing away in a sea of noise.

I look fondly back on George W Bush, that clever, subtle, wise and compassionate President.

&gt;Mexican culture is ingrained deeply into America and we are all better for it.<p>How is this the case? Multiculturalism is not necessarily a good thing.<p>I&#x27;m reminded of Thiel&#x27;s <i>The Diversity Myth</i>. We no longer question whether some of these statements are true. Diversity is not necessarily a good thing and sometimes it can actually be detrimental by allowing for the tolerance of mediocre standards in a society.

I wrote this today from a similar place. I&#x27;ve never been more furious at my government than now. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;@moultano&#x2F;they-tried-to-ban-green-card-holders-1eede6976f65#.v0j1jx4fz" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;@moultano&#x2F;they-tried-to-ban-green-card-ho...</a>

The reality is that nothing was achieved in helping the poor and those suffering. Empty words and promises. Now that the shit has hit the fan, the well off are actually talking about politics and getting mobilized, because their own interests are on the line.

A very well-reasoned and well-written piece. Thank you.

I have high respect for CodingHorror, which is why I am confused about some of his claims.<p>Perhaps HN can help me understand a few things:<p>- why do people claim it is a muslim ban, when really it seems to be a ban on countries that the US is fighting a war with (except Iran)? Whether there is a causality between &quot;at war with the US&quot; and &quot;Muslim&quot; seems to be another question?<p>- what is the proper US stance on Immigration? Is the &quot;good&quot; line that there should be no borders at all, and everybody should be able to enter at will? Because the wall, crazy as it sounds, seems to be aimed at illegal immigration. So why not fight for better immigration laws, rather than against the wall?<p>I have read the memes about Jews who were denied entry to the US and then died in the Holocaust. Fair enough, and as a German, I am actually extra concerned about that. I was always very pro asylum laws, because I thought what if one day there is no US to flee to, if shit hits the fan? Still, the examples also show that immigration to the US was never as open as people seem to think.<p>I am not sure if the temporary ban or the wall are useful measures - I am not a fan of Trump&#x27;s politics as such (not all of it anyway). But I still think criticism should be reasonable. It seems reasonable for example to ban people from a country you are at war with from entering. Maybe people are just in denial about being at war? It is only droning, not real war? To be honest it reminds me a bit of Bill Clinton not having sex.<p>I am not sure illegal immigrants from Mexico are hurting the US - maybe they benefit everyone by providing cheap labor. But then, why not change the immigration laws, rather than pound on an arbitrary measure for enforcing the existing laws?

&gt; how negligent and dangerous Trump is as the leader of the free world.<p>A torture-endorsing leader of the free world is like the meat-eating leader of vegetarians. Trump is simply not part of the free world, and therefore not it&#x27;s leader.

Jeff makes the point that we are on the verge of a Nuclear DOOMSDAY - Common be serious. Don&#x27;t make such extraordinary claims without providing extraordinary evidence. Ridiculous.

1) it&#x27;s a temporary ban.<p>2) it doesn&#x27;t target muslims, it targets people from failed states<p>3) it is a continuation and more intense version of previous travel bans passed by the Obama administration<p>4) isis has repeatedly said that they are actively sending sleeper agents to Europe and America posing as refugees

Beautiful post, thank you.

While I agree with most everything Jeff says and it&#x27;s really well written, I&#x27;m always a bit irked when I see the the president of the US being called &quot;Leader of the Free World&quot;.<p>Especially when it&#x27;s stated in those terms: &quot;We lead the free world. And we do it by taking the higher moral ground, doing what is right before doing what is expedient.&quot;<p>I&#x27;m not sure the US can still qualify as leading the free world under those terms. Ask people who were tortured by Pinochet, look at the coup in Haiti in 1991, look at what happened in Iraq and the lie around the Weapon of Mass Destructions, look at Gitmo. Are those the actions of &quot;leaders of the free world&quot;?<p>I do wish that the US could become worthy of being called leaders of the free world but they&#x27;re not there yet and with Trump, they&#x27;re not going in the right direction.

This is the second political post I&#x27;ve seen sky rocket on HN this morning. I assume a mod intervened on the last one since it disappeared rather quickly.<p>Do we really want to start political discussions in HN? Politics creates enough friction between people in real life let alone discussions with strangers over the internet.

This is hysteria.<p>&quot;he signed an executive order that literally, not figuratively, banned Muslims from entering the US&quot;<p>Of the 10 countries with the largest Muslim populations, only one - Iran - has been restricted: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pewforum.org&#x2F;2015&#x2F;04&#x2F;02&#x2F;muslims&#x2F;pf_15-04-02_projectionstables74&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pewforum.org&#x2F;2015&#x2F;04&#x2F;02&#x2F;muslims&#x2F;pf_15-04-02_proje...</a><p>The list of countries was previously drawn up by the Obama administration. I&#x27;m not in favor of the restrictions, but there is no need to make things up.