Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

We thought there would be a Great Reckoning!
It didn’t happen…

What happened America? We thought you would “clap back” at Donald Trump. We waited… you didn’t!

The four (4) years of the Trump Administration was a “circus and he proved to be a clown”; there was one infraction after another; consider just this short sample:

• Muslim Ban
• Declines in Tourism and Trade with certain countries
• Ending Paris Accords to abate Climate Change
• Climate of Hate – White Supremacy – Conspiracy Theories thrive
• Disrespecting Puerto Rico during/after the emergency of Hurricane Maria
• Calling Haiti, Central America and Africa “Shit Hole” countries
• Doubling-down on failed Gun Control policies / School shootings
• Impeachment for Abuse of Power
• Bad Leadership on COVID-19 Pandemic

Trump’s a Clown, but the GOP’s a Circus

So finally the country got the opportunity to voice their discontent of Trump’s character and policies, with the 2020 General Election; we were waiting … and waiting.

Boink! Splatt!
It didn’t happen.

The election results are in and the headlines on America has emerged:

It is what it is; ‘we are who we are’.

The summary of the election analysis is that Americans didn’t change during the 4 years of Donald Trump:

“They doubled-down!” The Deep Blue states remained Blue; the Deep Red states remained Red.

The challenge of the election was not whether people would change their minds or opinions, but rather “would they show up to vote”. See this theme as presented in this news analysis/article by NBC News:

Title: In battleground states, few counties flipped even when states did
Sub-title: Turnout was up in 99 percent of the counties in battleground states, while 97 percent voted the same way they voted in 2016.
By: Kanwal Syed, Elliott Ramos, Ellie Frymire and Naitian Zhou

Voter turnout rose sharply during last week’s election in battleground states across the country.

Nearly every county in the 13 major battleground states had more voter turnout than in the 2016 election, according to an analysis of NBC News election results. Of those thousand-plus counties, only 12 had lower turnouts than in the last election, as of the latest results.

While Joe Biden was able to flip four of the 13 states from President Donald Trump and win three more states than Hillary Clinton won in 2016, the picture remains largely unchanged within the states themselves.

Out of 1,118 counties in battleground states, only 37 flipped, or 3.3 percent, which meant control of the states rested largely on parties’ turning out votes within counties they had won before.

Michigan
More than 70 percent of Michigan voters turned out, an increase of almost 10 percentage points over 2016. The state, part of the so-called blue wall, went to Biden after having flipped for Trump in 2016.

Jake Berlin, a first-time voter from Oakland County, teetered on the fence about his decision this year all the way up until he reached his polling place.

“I felt I could be tipping the scale one way or another and felt like I had a good amount of power,” Berlin said. “That was exciting.”

Berlin did not vote in 2016. He said he had a change of heart because of Michigan’s role as a swing state.

“You’ve kind of got to make sure your voice is heard, otherwise it’s just going to be everyone else’s voice heard,” he said.

Berlin said he voted for Trump. His county went for Biden.

Florida
Florida, a decisive state in many presidential elections, had a turnout of 64 percent, up from 57 percent in 2016.

A precinct within the University of Central Florida in Orange County even exceeded 100 percent voter turnout, which The New York Times attributed to a few voters who switched their addresses on Election Day and moved into the area.

Danaë Rivera-Marasco, a spokesperson for the Orange County Elections Commission, said the commission worked closely with the UCF student government association to encourage young voters to vote.

“It’s great to see young engagement and that they took responsibility,” Rivera-Marasco said. “We haven’t seen anything like that in past elections.”

Arizona
Arizona was one of the states with the greatest increases in voter turnout, up by 10 percentage points from 2016. Only four counties went to Clinton in 2016, and according to the latest results five have gone to Biden.

This year, 300,000 more Democratic voters turned out in Maricopa County than in 2016, flipping it to Biden, who holds a lead over Trump in the state. The region, which includes Phoenix, is the state’s most populous county.

North Carolina
Turnout in North Carolina, another such swing state, rose by 7 percentage points over 2016. Scotland County is one of three counties in the state to have flipped this year, having voted for Clinton in 2016 and switching to Trump this year.

Dell Parker, elections director of the Scotland County Board of Elections, said that even with the popularity of mail-in and absentee ballots, the board expected a larger outcome on Election Day.

“We had heard a lot of people talking about the election, so we kind of prepared for a big turnout,” Parker said. “We were actually a little disappointed that more people did not come.”

The state’s final vote count is expected Tuesday.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/graphic-battleground-state-turnout-2020-election-n1247337?icid=election_nav posted November 13, 2020; retrieved November 14, 2020.

Did you notice this summary excerpt?

Out of 1,118 counties in battleground states, only 37 flipped, or 3.3 percent, which meant control of the states rested largely on parties’ turning out votes within counties they had won before.

America has not changed! The 2020 Decision for the President of the United States (POTUS) has not led to any reformation or transformation – it is what it was. American has doubled-down on being America.

This is a Cautionary Tale for Caribbean people, in the homeland and in the Diaspora. Many Caribbean people look to the US as a “city on the hill”, a role model for advanced democracies.

Yet the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean has always maintained that America should not be considered as some land of refuge for Caribbean people – the grass is not necessarily greener on the American side. America should not be the destination. Rather than fleeing in search of refuge, we need to do the work to reform and transform our communities:

2017 Review – Mr. Trump shows the ‘Wrong Way’ – December 21, 2017
Surely, fleeing to the US must be likened to “jumping out of the frying pan into the fire”. Remember, this country was not built for the Caribbean’s Black-and-Brown. They continue to experience racial discriminations, despite a recent Black President. …

Surely, it is the conclusion of most people that 2017 has proven that America is not working for Caribbean priorities …

… they are not even working for their own priorities, as the country under Trump seems more and more divided with the President only supported by 33 percent of the people, the other 67% are outraged … i.e. the majority of the population are middle class, yet yesterday’s passage of the Tax Reform bill only benefits the rich.

Proudly, we say that for our societal elevation efforts, the quest of the Go Lean … Caribbean movement: we do not want to be America, we want to be better.

————

Better than America? Yes, We Can! – June 20, 2015
… building a multi-cultural society is not easy. The book Go Lean … Caribbean describes the challenge as heavy-lifting. America has failed at this challenge, hands-down. In previous blog- commentaries, many defects of American life were detailed, (including the propensity for Crony-Capitalism). See the list of defects here: Housing, education, job hunting, prisons, drug crime prosecutions, and racial profiling.

But despite this list and the reality of this subject, America tries …

This is an important consideration for the planners of Caribbean empowerment. The Caribbean, a region where unfortunately, we have NOT … tried.

The social science of Anthropology teaches that communities have two choices when confronted with endangering crises: fight or flight. The unfortunate reality is that we have chosen the option of flight; (we have no ethos for fighting for our homeland). …

We can apply these models and lessons from these [other] societies to obtain success. This vision is conceivable, believable and achievable!

Yes we can … make the Caribbean region a better place to live, work and play.

The election is over: Joe Biden defeated the incumbent Donald Trump at the November 3^rd polling. He won, not by changing the hearts and minds of undecided people, but rather doubling-down on his base to get their electoral support; (Trump did likewise; this time with an even greater turnout than 2016). The people in this country are still entrenched in their ideologies. So now the question becomes: “Can Joe Biden bridge the huge divide between Blue and Red in America?” See this portrayal in this VIDEO here:

VIDEO – US Election 2020: Can Joe Biden heal America’s political divisions? – https://youtu.be/uEGDigc2kU8

Sky News
Posted November 7, 2020 – Joe Biden is set to become US president – but with the country in political gridlock, the Democratic former VP may have a tough task ahead.

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The election is over but still, the analysis continues.

This commentary is such an analysis; it is a continuation of the monthly Teaching Series from the Go Lean movement on Decision 2020. The Teaching Series always addresses issues germane to Caribbean life and culture.  This one is no different. We presented 5 entries in October 2020, plus two subsequent ones in November – this is the third. All of these entries are relevant for Decision 2020 as they relate to the impact of the Caribbean on America’s politics … and the impact and lessons of America’s politics on the Caribbean. See the full catalog of this multi-part, multi-month Decision 2020 Teaching Series here as follows:

1. Decision 2020: Puerto Rico claps back at Trump
2. Decision 2020: Haiti’s Agenda 2016 ==> 2020 – Trump never cared
3. Decision 2020: Latino Gender Gap – More Toxic Masculinity
4. Decision 2020: More Immigration or Less
5. Decision 2020: What’s Next for Cuba & Venezuela
   ——– After the Vote:
6. Decision 2020: Hasta La Vista Mr. Trump
7. Decision 2020: Voices From the ‘Peanut Gallery’
8. Decision 2020: It is what it is; ‘we are who we are’

The take-away from all of these considerations is that American politics have a bearing on our Caribbean ecosystem; their domestic policy affects our Foreign Policy. It would be nice to just mind our own business; but whether we have a vote or not in Decision 2020, we are affected. It is our business too and so, we must use our voices.

This actuality of Foreign Policy have a bearing on our interaction with other countries as well; think French Departments, Netherlands Antilles, British Overseas Territories.

This is a familiar theme – our Foreign Policy and disposition with the rest of the world – for the Go Lean movement; we have repeatedly blogged on this subject; consider this sample of previous submissions:

America is what it is … they may not learn or apply any lessons from the failed Trump experiment. 🙁

From a Caribbean perspective, it is not our homeland, it is their homeland. They are not changing for us; we cannot make them change. We can only change ourselves, individually and collectively. If we were to change (reform and transform) then maybe our people would not need to flee in the first place … as they have done in the past, so many times in the past.

That would be a good change. Donald Trump cannot do it for us; neither can Joe Biden. We must do “it” ourselves.

Let’s get busy with doing the changes, doing the heavy-lifting to reform and transform our society. We can and should work to make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

About the Book
The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

• Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
• Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
• Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Who We Are
The movement behind the Go Lean book – a non-partisan, apolitical, religiously-neutral Community Development Foundation chartered for the purpose of empowering and re-booting economic engines – stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.