A New Possibility--- Harris Offers the Alternative to Ignite a New Electorate

Harris rides in with an enthusiasm and possibility that we have not seen since Obama in '08. Had she gone through a grueling primary or if she were facing, say, Nicky Haley the contrast would still be important but this situation is noteworthy.

A few weeks ago she was not thinking of running for president. To take up this task now must be emotionally and intellectually challenging. Her honest loyalty and commitment to the Biden Administration made her one of his most stalwart and committed supporters. She was doing her job. Now her job is to rally the base and, quite possibily, bring new voters into this debate and conversation. She'll need help from those who can reach into that world---our media is siloed and sequestered as it has never been before. And she will need to help herself.

So far she has, at least in my humble opinion, been nothing short of brilliant. What we need to see the same maturity, thoughtfulness, and seriousness that she's so clearly shown since President Biden passed the torch. This will demonstrate vividly, unambiguously the kind of difference that will win Republican women, Never Trumpers, and others whose tribal loyalties influence their choices. But at the same time there is the opportunity to reach a generation of younger voters who have been disaffected and lamenting their choices. Well, the choice now could not be clearer. Keep dancing, laughing, being yourself, Ms Vice President: it's fetching, authentic, and convincing across the electorate.

We must not underestimate the vicious, shameless vitriol that will come from MAGA world. Those voters are, at least as I see it, unreachable. But they are also unnecessary to create a viable path to convincing victory. Harris simply will not appeal to the majority of those voters whose grievance entitlements, anger, latent and shameless racism are plain for all to see. The good news is that there are fewer of these voters than ever. How does Trump win new voters when Harris offers a serious, inviting alternative? I would expect the vaunted surge in minority men turning MAGA to flail.

Trump represents the past, both in the worst ways we have ever been Americans and in the more tangible and recent iterations. The current issues that Harris will highlight will not be lost on all voters but especially women who understand the threat that MAGA poses to their rights and the future---shall we add climate change, foreign policy, civil rights? Wherever we look the contrast in choices could not be more palpable or more stark.

The task is reach the majority, the solid 53+ or more percent of Americans who do not want the chaos and madness of another Trump Administration. Every day VP Harris and her cohort need to remind Americans of that derangement and delusion, the violence and incoherence of Trump. Do people really want to wake up everyday worrying what he will do next? What the next obscenity, stupidity, or impulse will create in our lives? VP Harris can be vital, a vision of the future that is at once stable, substantial, and reliable.

It is also possible to make this, as Obama did, a referendum on the future. We need a future emerging from a coherent present, an America that embraces change and offers perdurable truth and decency. This will appeal to those voters we must rally in the swing States. The message must draw out this contrast.

Do we really want to continue the ugly, pointless, mendacious, and chaotic conversations of the recent past? More about the phony stolen election? More about COVID and vaccines and injecting bleach? "Good people on both sides" when that means Nazi-esque nationalists?

VP Harris has a real opportunity not only to take us from this ugly past but to chart a future, a vision for all and for the middle class who she must champion to win.

I am admittedly surprised by the D establishment's solid, sober collective effort to unite and commit to a winning process. If VP Harris's performance continues as we just saw in Milwaukee and if she continues to win the battle of memes that will energize young voters, then there is a real chance. We must expect MAGA to be energized to answer to their cult leader. They will vote. Will we?

The election results could be decisive should a broad coalition of voters commit to the future and turn out. (Call me skeptical still because I prefer working the streets to wishful thinking.) We could really use such a decisive, unambiguous result. We know that the MAGA cult will accept no result but their victory, which is why a clear result for Harris in those Blue Wall States would be vital for our nation and our future.

With Biden in office, Harris the President-Elect, the next Jan 6th will be far harder to pull off---and that is not inconsequential. I think we can expect MAGA to incite violence every step of the way because that is what they have done in the past and have said they will do should they not be handed power.

But that is the future, albeit near and to be taken seriously. What is immediate is raising this threshold of enthusiasm to new levels. It is to take away the dread and despair that has, at least for me, been palpable and disabling. I confess that in recent weeks I simply could not stand the news. My tangible dread wore into my soul. I don't think I was alone in those feelings. Now, with real possibility and work to do, there is time to turn things around.

We need to put our collective best foot forward and do the right thing, day after day for the next hundred and some days. We will find out what America is about and even if that result is disaster, we will know something important, honest, real. We must rally to goodness, each of us, no matter how small it may seem. What we can do together is not small, it is a call to greatness and to a real future. To be frank, we know the alternative is ruinous, and that must not be allowed to happen. It is time to rally.

The Choice Before Us Made Clear

It's amazing what a pause and some paws can do for an aching heart. I had a long day and a longer night following Sunday afternoon's announcement that Biden was stepping down. I felt wearied, despairing, relieved too but wondering what comes next. I dove into pictures of the pup when all seemed lost.  But even that was not enough.  When feeling disconcerted, balled up, and woolly, I do my best to reengage reason. I think we need to be discerning.  Ask the hard questions.   This is no time to clutch pearls or form the circular firing squad.

We humans often need rage and the entire complexity of emotion to find our core but we always need calm to reveal its meaning. Let me be clear, I'm deeply, genuinely worried about our collective fate as a nation. I think there is also a plan unfolding for Democrats.

 

Since the debate I have not believed President Biden was in position to win reelection despite my belief that his presidency has been among the most effective and beneficial terms in our history. Not the least of his accomplishments has been to keep, as far as possible, the barbarians at the gate. This is no ordinary political opposition we face but instead a dangerous, likely existential threat to democracy and decency itself. 

 

But now is the time to draw out the important real differences and choices that people need to understand. As usual, I need write to clarify in my own head what the heart feels when the turmoil is real. Sometimes a dark night of the soul and the very early morning need to meet for a good conversation.

 

By deciding not to run for his office in 2024, Joe Biden joins the most honorable politicians of our history. He has put country before himself and before party as a clear and unambiguous choice. This is not merely because he has been facing the very real prospect of a loss. Rather, it is because the president sees Donald Trump as a threat to American democracy.  He has not been wrong about this.

I think we all agree to the latter point: I have been nothing less than distraught for our future. Biden did what he could to make his case, to recover but he has always been a savvy politician. Now all will know beyond any doubt he is both a wise and decent person. Republican responses will be as predictable as they are disingenuous but the facts speak plainly: Biden has done what is right thing, not the politically expedient or self-aggrandizing thing.

 

Republican responses will be as predictable as they are disingenuous but the facts speak plainly: Biden has done what is right thing, not the politically expedient or self-aggrandizing thing. 

 

If the political calculation was that we were facing 2016 again, this time we know none of the supposed adults in the room who guided Trump during his tenure would be present. A next Trump administration would be staffed as such by the worst opportunists, cranks, and extremists. This possibility has not diminished one bit in the last 24 hours nor will it unless Trump is defeated. The courts are well-positioned to support a new, worse Trumpism. The corrupt conservative majority on the Supreme Court has already invited Trump to rule as king---or worse as dictator. This is what is directly before us. 

Biden faced with this nightmare scenario, which he understood plainly in 2020, did the most courageous thing he could have done again. But this time he ended his candidacy rather than decided to begin it. How hard must that have been for him?

 

Faced with what he sees as a nightmare scenario both for his party and his nation, President Biden decided to end his candidacy.

 

I too hope never to become a defensive, brittle old man who cannot hear the concerned and rational voices of those around him. But I have no such burden as Joe Biden. We all must come to grips with the facts and in Biden's case that was the fact that he was the Democrat least likely to defeat Trump. Understanding this hard truth, he listened, understood, and made what is certainly a personally painful decision. (When my time comes, I hope too to hear the voices of reason and love coincide to reach the best choice.) 

 

I don't know whether Biden’s replacement will fare better in November.  But I do think there is now an actual replacement.  That unknowing her fate is not mere cynicism but rather I think another fact. Having given this a lot more thought, I think Biden again made the best and wisest political choice. Rather than a repeat of 1968 he quickly and unequivocally endorsed his vice president. Democrats must coalesce to have a chance to win and Vice President Harris is not only the logical political choice but eminently qualified for the office.

 

What we need is a fighting chance, not a fight amongst ourselves that will leave us further fractured and incapable of rallying when our time to decide is short and requires communication and comity.

 

Recently, Biden said he was eager to get back to the campaign trail but now with Harris leading the ticket this kind of barnstorming and the vital messaging of policy and fact can be undertaken wholly, entirely. We know she can do this. So much will depend on how well she does over these next 100 or so days. She must project the clarity, stability, and competence we know she possesses as an experienced politician and as a person. She must be keenly aware that any stumble or gaffe will be used to declare her unfit while Trump bungles and speaks with typical incoherence. I do not underestimate her task because misogyny, racism, and history also speak plainly in America.

We should expect Republicans not only to go into culture-war overdrive but to exploit every fear, anxiety, and grievance their voters harbor. They will couch much of their criticism in typical rhetoric saying she is too Californian, too liberal while simultaneously claiming that as a former prosecutor, she is too conservative. In every breath they will imply that she is too female and too Black though they won't say that out loud---or maybe they will. Nothing is beneath them. 

 

But be prepared for all of the dog whistles and gratuitous fakes that amp up to 11. Their constituencies will lap this up and Harris will need both to address them directly and allow important surrogates get out the message that these are wanton, indefensible attacks without merit. We're not facing anything like an ordinary election's usual vitriol. This one will be different because Kamala Harris is different in ways America must address as a feature of our history. The fate of the country is before us. Biden understood this. Harris does too and will have the determination to make clear the stakes.

 

Trump knows only narcissism and a personal vanity that makes him incapable of making such choices. What he does possess is an animal instinct to prey upon fear, anger, and hatred. It will take keen political skills in communication to break through such veils of delusion and disinformation. Trump has whole propoganda networks and billionaire support to shore up his base and amplify the lies. 

 

But from today the difference between Democrats and Republicans could not be clearer. Biden's age is no longer a factor. Instead, it is unmasking Trump's increasing disabilities. Further Democrats must make clear that their younger, more vibrant, capable, and coherent candidate is not a party of one. Democrats are not a cult of personality driven by a bellowing, muddled raving lunatic. Only one political party has brought the adults to the room while the other proposes a would-be dictator. This message can reach voters in key swing states if it is presented plainly and honestly.

 

 

Virtually no Republicans called out Trump when he insulted veterans repeatedly or called the nation's war dead "losers." He has been found liable for sexual abuse, which according to a federal judge was tantamount to rape. He has been convicted of business fraud and has hoarded government secrets when he wasn't offering them up to our enemies. When he lost the election, he sent a mob to attempt a coup. Show those pictures again and again and again.

 

Trump is a pestilence, not a candidate for the nation's highest office. There is nothing "normal" here and that must not be understated. With Biden stepping down all false equivalency can end. Biden is not only a good man but has a record of accomplishment. That record can and must be run on, voiced with conviction for all the genuine good that it has produced. The contrast could not be plainer: Trump's presidency was an incompetent disaster led by an ignorant and selfish man---one who cost the country millions of lives when faced with pandemic. What would Trump do next time? Matters at home must be attended to before it is too late. 

 

The choice is now between a 78-year-old habitual liar whose life offers records of shame and failure and a 59-year-old woman who has served honorably as an effective attorney general of the country's most populous State, a senator, and now vice president of the United States. The contrast could not be clearer.

I see Harris as vulnerable for reasons Americans do not like to discuss openly or honestly. But I would also not refrain from assessing her record with sober skepticism, as we must of any other politician. She may be the "natural" next in line---as of this morning nearly every one of her serious opponents has thrown their support to her---but in the end she a candidate that must rise to the occasion to win. She can draw the contrast between one who understands the gravity of the presidency and all it entails and Trump who simply does not. Let us hope for several debates. 

Anyone who has been flustered or despaired an election between two old white men now has no excuses for indecision. Vice President Harris will be an experienced and capable candidate. Republicans in a fever-dream of delusions are fielding Trump. Will young people, women, veterans, people of color, all citizens of America understand the difference and the choice? That is the task of the 106 days before our election. The task is mighty and so much can happen. Let us make this happen.

 

The Cliches of Hope and Faith in Our Slow Walk to Catastrophe

When a cliche is true it's not mere repetition that makes it so. It's said Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line. The new "falling in line" is a cultic sycophancy that threatens democracy itself. The pursuit of power and radical ideology has brought the former R-Party to surrender to a criminal, a liar whose shamelessness is matched only by his incompetence and idiocy.

I think the vast majority of Not Trump voters know the danger we face as a nation. That there are people undecided, both-sides-ing, making equivalence, or indifferent tells us how much peril we face should he gain power. I think the nation as we know it will not survive more Trump, to say nothing of the nihilism and religious fanaticism of Project 2025. Trump is their dupe even as his dupes and the clueless American public hide inside their vacant souls.

Our problem is that Joe's decline is manifest and to deny makes the future even more precarious. We who love and admire him are in a quandary because we neither want to humiliate nor demean his good work. I have not fallen out of love, to use the cliche. I have awoken to the fact that there are no good choices before us, that the path to victory which was always narrow looks to be closing down.

In this media environment (siloed, tribal, bothsides-ism, etc.) with its inattentive and civicly illiterate electorate locked into a system that favors minority rule, I think we see no easy way through and no clear alternatives. We cannot coronate VP Harris and there are no clear or well-recognized candidates, all seem to have electoral liabilities.

The real politick lies in this question: who can sustain the Blue Wall, win enough "swing states" to prevent the catastrophe that awaits us if we do not. This is not Reagan or W or some other R with bad ideas. This is the end of democracy, handing power to a fool so inept and dangerous that we know national survival is at stake.

I think Democrats do have a way forward if Joe steps down. And that is to engage a full on media blitz as candidates come forward. Then the convention becomes the will of the people. What is more likely is internecine warfare, a party that is hopelessly driven into corners, interest groups lost in ideological contests that stand no chance of winning those swing states. But I think we have no choice and there may be a chance.

The chance lies in the fact that Americans love new, shiny things. They love drama more than content. They prefer contest to conversation and the superficial to the serious. We must play on exactly those traits: Americans may be unfit for the real tasks of democracy but IF you can get their attention, you can get out a message.

Who has the chops, the charisma, who is the shiny object candidate with just enough gravitas to get this electorate's attention and convince them of their competence? Running against Trump to save democracy will provide 98% of the 47% needed to win. Someone has to grab those last few points in WI, MI, PA, and somewheres else. Who has that kind of presence?

That we don't see that person among the potential candidates, the ones mentioned again as real contenders makes me shudder. and vainly conceal my despair. This can't be a pipe dream or a delusion of ideological grandeur. It has to be someone who can win the midwest and the suburbs: that has to be the plain objective of the D-party. Will that be clear when every candidate ambitious enough to be president is surrounded by people who want to be near power?

I'm not just worried about these facts. I'm downright distraught. And Joe, as far as I can tell, has mistaken being stalwart and steady with stubborn and unaware. It's not fair but Ruth Bader Ginsburg did the same thing: she stayed so long that we could not act before it was too late. And now look where we are.

Hope is what you have when you have nothing else, no real options. Hope is desperation's consoling fantasy. I dislike and distrust hope as much as "have faith"---and saying that wins me fewer friends and is frankly bad for business. But we're going to need hope because we are at an end of sane choices and we're going to have to have faith that those voters who will decide for the majority come to their senses. Fat chance. But it's what you have when your chances are dimmer by the day. Time for someone to step up. Maybe Obama and the wise can mobilize this America? If we lose, we will live to see our end and with that much of the world too will fall to chaos and authoritarianism.

Sally Forth