I sure hope I make it to November–not because I’m old (although I am), but because I spend my days obsessively following politics–both national and local– and vacillating between hope and despair. Indiana is scary enough, but as I noted yesterday, the national election will pose an existential challenge: America will either go forward or far, far back.
The source of my angst about the Presidential election was recently summarized in one of Robert Hubbell’s daily Substack newsletters. As he wrote:
The election will be decided by hundreds of millions of Americans taking democracy seriously by voting in tens of thousands of elections at a moment in history when one party wants to deny women full citizenship and personhood, deny Black Americans the right to vote, deny LGBTQ Americans their dignity and equality, deny children safe schools, deny all Americans a future free of man-made climate catastrophes, deny workers of a living wage, and deny the peaceful transfer of power every four years.
When I look at the threat posed by that party–once (in a very different world) my own party–I fear for the futures of my grandchildren and the others of their generation. I get bitter when I think about a reversal of the social progress made by activists of my own and previous generations who worked hard to bring the American “body politic” closer to our founding aspirations of liberty and equality.
But most of all, I mourn the death of my long-held belief that the great majority of my fellow Americans are sensible, good-hearted and fair-minded. Until very recently–actually, 2016–although I knew that there were angry, disturbed and hate-filled people “out there”–I estimated their percentage of the population at something between 10%-15%. I have been rudely disabused of that estimate, given the grim recognition that millions of my fellow-citizens continue to support a man who is defiantly ignorant, hateful and very obviously deeply mentally-ill–presumably, because he gives them permission to revel in and voice their own bigotries and grievances.
And then there’s the Electoral College, which scholars estimate gives Republicans a 3% advantage….
But then I get hopeful. (I have emotional whiplash..)
The Harris/Walz ticket is so normal, and the enthusiasm they’ve generated is so encouraging. Not only do the Democrats have better candidates, former Republicans–including very conservative ones like Liz Cheney– are coming out of the woodwork daily to endorse them. They’ve raised much more money, which–in addition to powering their campaign–is another sign of support and enthusiasm. They have a widespread “ground game” with far more field offices than the Republicans. New registrations are up, especially among groups that tilt Democratic, calling the “likely voter” screens employed by pollsters into question.
In the wake of 2016, there has also been an explosion of grass-roots organizing. According to a 2019 report from the American Community Project, those post-2016 grassroots groups — sometimes labeled “Resistance” groups — have become an electoral force to be reckoned with.
Reporters and academics have established certain baseline facts: The new groups are disproportionately composed of middle-aged to retirement-age college-educated women.
They are especially prominent in America’s “suburbs.”
Their hands-on campaigning formed part of the “Blue Wave” that flipped suburban seats to the Democrats in November 2018.
Since 2019, those groups have continued to grow and multiply, in significant part thanks to Dobbs, the Supreme Court’s reversal of a constitutional right to reproductive liberty which continues to motivate voters, especially but not exclusively women voters.
I can’t shake my belief that if Americans of good will and good sense turn out to vote, Democrats will not only win, but win big, that November could really be a “Blue Wave” election, a turning point that could revive my previous faith in the American public.
MAGA is, after all, a reaction to the broad cultural changes in this country–changes that include widespread acceptance of the growing equality of women, LGBTQ+ Americans and people of color. Large numbers of families now include same-sex couples and/or religious and racial intermarriages. Fewer Americans report memberships in fundamentalist Churches. Workplaces are increasingly diverse, and Americans from a variety of backgrounds now work together and get to know each other. All of those cultural changes have lessened fears of the “Other” that were once more widespread.
I remained convinced that MAGA Republicanism is a panicked reaction to those cultural changes by people who feel threatened by them. Social change is destabilizing, especially for people who lack the personal or communal resources to adapt–but surely, that doesn’t describe a majority of Americans.
In November, we’ll see which of these contending analyses is correct, and we’ll know what kind of world my grandchildren will inhabit.
I hope we Democrats have reached a level once attributed to Republicans; that we would vote for Mickey Mouse, or Minnie Mouse, if they had a “D” by their name. Republicans have a much better understanding of what “united” means; they are strongly united in their effort to be in the position to bring down the Constitution and end the UNITED States of America. Their infighting has been put aside to “get out the vote”. What will be their national anthem now that the list of top musicians have used legal means to end the MAGAs from using their hit songs at rallies?
We need to face the fact of life that we will never always agree on every issue before us or solutions to the disagreements. No one is ever always right or always wrong; look how “right” the Republicans are in their strong unity to join the dictators of the world as our allies. Rachel Maddow reminded us last night of Trump’s “love affair” with Kim Jong Un and his continuing attachment to all things Russian oriented in dictatorship. But…we will never understand the attachment of American voters to the Donald Trump supporters of this nation which has been “outed” since 2015; we do NOT need to understand why they are wrong. Just accept the fact that they are wrong and vote them out.
VOTE BLUE, WE NOW KNOW WHO! We have always known why.
The leaders of the MAGA world can only succeed when their lies are believed and their true objectives are either secret or ignored. Now their lies are constantly being called out by main stream media. That was not happening when the movement was gaining steam about a decade ago. The airing of Project 2025 has revealed their true aims in a way that has finally awakened the general public to the danger of ignoring them. Just as Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor turned the public against the American followers of Hitler some 80 years ago, Project 2025 is shaping up to be the downfall of today’s American fascists.
America had to fight a bloody war then. Today we can win the war with ballots instead of bullets. GOTV
With the energy that erupted when Kamala took on the mantle of the candidacy and grew with her selection of Walz as her running mate—energy fueled in part by the exposure of Project 2025, as Sharon noted, I’m feeling cautiously optimistic. Emphasis on the word “cautiously.” I will remain so through November, until ALL the votes are counted and we know which way the Electoral College goes. I remember going to sleep on that Tuesday night in November 2016, smugly secure that we had it in the bag, only to awake the next morning to the despair that what was seemingly impossible had actually happened.
Meanwhile, I limit my politics time and reading simply because it’s literally damaging my health by distracting myself with cooking sites and articles and videos about puppies and kitties. But it’s always on my radar, and I will pursue the course of doing my bit to make not only a Harris/Walz administration a reality, but phasing out the super majority lunacy that exists here in Indiana.
GOTV BLUE!!!
Don’t worry because the famed historian predictor of presidential races, Dr. Lichtman, has called the race for Democrats. His winning percentage is 100%.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/05/opinion/allan-lichtman-trump-harris-prediction/
However, Sheila’s other worry about the makeup of the US population will exist despite what happens in November. Sharon thinks the Democrats can win “with ballots, not bullets,” which may be wishful thinking considering who exists under the looney toon characters on the far right. Project 2025 will not go away in November if they lose.
Have you all watched the documentary “Bad Faith?” From their website:
“BAD FAITH reveals how Christian Nationalist leaders have spread fear and anger for decades, distorting political issues into Biblical battles between good and evil.”
The Democrats are the “evil ones.” For these folks, the fairy tale bible usurps the US Constitution. They want Trump to destroy the federal government institutions because the government is evil. “It’s full of Marxists and communists.” You get a fair taste of these loons just watching the 3-minute trailer of the documentary.
If they lose the election, it will only strengthen their resolve – their hate against the government because the “evil communists” can only win by cheating: ahh, the self-righteous followers of Christian Nationalism.
Stream it and watch the documentary if you haven’t already done so:
https://www.badfaithdocumentary.com/
What keeps me up at night is the prospect that the wishes of the majority will not matter, because of Trumpist agents from the county level up to the Supreme Court manipulating the electoral process to seize power in defiance of the vote.
The posturing, MAGA-hat-wearing rubes in their blinkered enclaves where no one watches anything but Fox News may think they are the only voters in the country, but the smarter ones running the show behind the scenes know that their racist, religiously,-bigoted base is a shrinking demographic minority, and to seize and keep power they need to get rid of meaningful democracy once and for all.
I note that the bump in enthusiasm, money, and volunteers for Harris/Walz has only marginally shown up in the polls. I’ll watch the debate tonight knowing that there’s a double standard in play. Harris has to tell the voters who she is and be forceful in her presentation of her policies and call out tfg’s lies. Tfg only needs to not be crazy. We’ll see how it goes.
I have worked on and for the boards to global entities with overseas relationships established over decades. I trust many of the regulars on this blog have global friends as well. The debate tonight will draw probably one of the largest ever audiences abroad who live in the question: will American voters do the right thing and vote for Harris and not the wannabe bully in the playground.
Our most profound salute to the Constitution was achieved from 2009 to 2017 with the Obama Presidency. The future of a successful liberal democracy, we thought, was preserved.
But Trump + Putin believed our success was a threat to oligarchy (it was) and introduced us to mass chaos in order to put the ball back in play. They believe that from chaos in liberal democracy the emergence of a new world order ruled by the tyranny of wealth is always a possibility.
They are making a concerted effort this year to go for their dream, a world ruled by a handful of people so ruthless that they control everyone who makes for a living. Let the workers of the world revolt, takers will replace them with robots, and kill them off in wars. The world of Russia today.
Want to come over and throw paint—maybe create your own masterpiece. And have wine? And automatically mute Voldemort whenever he speaks?
I recently watched a documentary on the beginnings of Christianity. The basic premise was that the Roman Catholic church and the Roman leaders chosen by the Pope(s) held extreme power over a large territory. They were ruthless and willing to kill people to keep that power.
It reminded me of how current oligarchs and dictatorships use religion to maintain their power by using religion to control people. Putin and Kim Jong Un don’t use religion, but they certainly do kill anyone that attempts to reduce their power. It seems that humans will continue repeating history until we eventually destroy our planet.
I spent Sunday evening watching the Netflix series “The Family” and I have seen it recommended over and over and finally had an evening to watch. Goodness gracious, it explains the lean to IQ45 from the conservatives and religious folks and how they want to make this far right extremism worldwide. They’ve nearly succeeded in Hungry, Poland and Russia. The other one I want to watch is Bad Faith so thanks for the link Todd. Maybe I’ll find some time today before the debate.
Another Netflix series worth watching is “The Comey Rule” about how trump tried to corrupt FBI for his own protection and bidding. The actor playing trump makes him appear disgusting, bringing his desultory and corrupt inward character out. The movie shows how Sally Yates the then assistant Attorney General reports to the white house counsel, that head of national security, Michael Flynn is compromised by the Russians. Flynn resigns due to the exposure and trump has yates fired. It’s a reminder and a preview of how trump if he wins will continue his devastating corruption.
What I find stunning and most concerning is that Trump even has any chance of winning. He is clearly unhinged. He has proven his incompetence and lack of leadership. He never stops lying–one glaring example: “Mexico will pay to build the wall”. Why haven’t his fans held him to account for this lie?
Trump has established the fact that he is a sociopath–if you ignore everything else–the misogyny, the xenophobia, the pathological lying, the insults to our military and childish name-calling– think about him sitting at our White House, mesmerized, while his fans who believed the Big Lie were battering police officers, smashing doors and windows at the Capitol, hunting for Pence and Pelosi, intent on killing both of them. All the while, staff and family were begging him to call off the crowd, but he demurred. He only called them off when it was clear that they could not succeed in scaring Pence away until he finished the job he came to do. The Secret Service could not persuade Pence to leave the Capitol complex. Only then, after more than 3 hours, did Trump call them off, telling them he “loved” them. He calls them “patriots” and promises to pardon them, even those who have pleaded guilty and/or were found guilty. He has never, to this day, owned up to responsibility for the death of Ashli Babbitt or the 5 Capitol Police officers who died as a result of his Big Lie.
That episode, alone, should disqualify Trump from ever serving in any public office–and yet, he is competitive. What is wrong with people? Seriously. Is it the effect of MAGA media, group gullibility, or non college educated whites, mainly men, who feel threatened by educated minorities and women displacing them from what they perceived as their position of superiority? Isn’t that what “Make America Great Again” really means? I think this really got started when Obama was not only elected President, but was wildly successful. That started the fear and resentment. It’s exactly that kind of fear and resentment that Hitler used to turn the German people against Jews–blaming them for the poverty and want after it lost WW I. Trump is using the same playbook, and, it appears to be working. THAT’S what keeps me awake at night.
MAGA mavens are literally immune to the truth. MAGA media have convinced them that mainstream media cannot be trusted, that non-MAGA newspapers lie all of the time, that polls are not to be believed, and that Democrats have “weaponized” the FBI and DOJ against Trump, their hero. When Trump says that America is in “decline”, they believe it, even though the stock market is up 40% since Biden took office, unemployment is at record low levels, Biden got COVID under control, got schools, businesses, restaurants and churches open again, and leisure travel is at record levels. GDP is up and inflation is cooling. Biden mended relations with our NATO and EU allies, and NATO is stronger than ever. When you tell them these facts, they call you a liar.
Tonight’s debate will be a challenge for Harris because she not only has to out-perform Trump, but she will be hit with a firehose of lies and personal attacks, refutation of which will be overwhelming. Trump will just trot out is usual vaudeville schtick of lies and bluster. I just hope there are enough sensible people out there who realize what’s at stake–this isn’t an episode of “The Apprentice”–it’s life and death for American democracy.