This past Saturday, I attended the No Kings protest in a Midwestern college town. I walked in with a spring in my step, yet left early with a frown on my face.

In this 5-minute episode of How My View Grew, I explain why.

It's a good-news, bad-news tale.

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In this episode of How My View Grew, Greg Thomas describes how jazz saved him from hating so-called "white people" and how he learned to see the Black American experience as a hero's journey that is central to American history and culture.

**Key takeaways**

• 3:00 Early-life learning about rabid southern racists
• 9:00 "I gotta pick up an instrument"
• 13:30 The pathologizing of Black Americans by "white" liberals
• 16:00 The depth and wisdom of Albert Murray, Ralph Ellison, and Stanley Crouch
• 19:00 "This history has got my back" and the artificiality of "whiteness"
• 22:00 The hero's journey
• 23:30 Amiel's reflections

**Resources**

• Jazz Leadership Project
• Omni-American Future Project
• “King of Cats,” Henry Louis Gates Jr’s long profile of Murray in The New Yorker
• The Omni-Americans: Some Alternatives to the Folklore of White Supremacy by Albert Murray

**Subscribe to the podcast**

To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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When right-wingers in the United States were in the wilderness for decades, they didn't just sit on their hands. They envisioned bold ways to change the country. When they came to power, they were ready to act.

Setting aside whether you like those ideas, ask yourself this: if Republicans could do this, why can't Democrats? Are liberals and progressives incapable of imagining what they'll do when back in power? Or have they simply not yet grown this potential?

Maybe it's time for all of us to not just play defense against the current mayhem but also to envision a better offense. If your party were to regain power, what would you want it to do?

In this episode, I invite you to think audaciously and notice not only what you come up with, but also how this improves your mood for dealing with the current presidency and its agents of sycophancy.

Imagine tomorrow so you have more power to act today.

To get you started, I propose two audacious ideas for a post-Trump America.

**Subscribe to the podcast**

To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

**Share the love**

Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.