Dear John,
We can’t let the cacophony surrounding the Iowa caucus distract us from the big picture:
An impeached president who is on trial and up for re-election will be delivering a State of the Union address to the most divided nation in living memory.
This begs the question: why are we so divided?
We’re not fighting a hugely unpopular war on the scale of Vietnam. We’re not in a deep economic crisis like the Great Depression. Yes, we disagree about guns, abortion, and immigration, but we’ve disagreed about them for decades.
So why are we so divided now?
Part of the answer is Trump himself.
The Great Divider knows how to pit native-born Americans against immigrants, the working class against the poor, whites against blacks and Latinos, evangelicals against secularists — keeping everyone stirred up by vilifying, disparaging, denouncing, defaming, and accusing others of the worst.
Trump thrives off disruption and division.
But that begs another question: Why have we been so ready to be divided by Trump? Our latest video explores this critical question and more as we enter the primaries.
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Our nation has never been so divided.
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The most powerful force in American politics today continues to be anti-establishment fury at a rigged system.
Trump is not the cause of our divided nation; he is the symptom of a rigged system that was already dividing us.
Yes, we must defeat him. But we must also reform the system that got us here in the first place to ensure that no future politician will ever again imitate Trump’s authoritarian demagoguery.
For now, let’s boycott the State of the Union and show the ratings-obsessed demagogue that the American people refuse to watch an impeached president continue to divide us.
Thanks for watching,
Robert Reich
P.S. I went live this morning to discuss what happened in Iowa, and what to make of it all. Give it a watch, but don’t forget to focus on the big picture: defeating Trump in November.
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