I was born in 1950. I remember watching the civil rights movement on television. Little Rock, Selma; the firehoses, the attack dogs; sheer, ugly hatred.
It took young men and women brave enough to confront that with nonviolence. Do we have those warriors today? Not the dumb rabble of January 6, 2020, but the good trouble of 1964. Brute force versus conscientious force…
Neither one of those are anything like the Civil Rights Movements. It took people who believed in nonviolence, ones who didn't, and ones who believed in violence to take this country by storm. You didn't see how quickly they put that thing in action, based on the murder of Emmett Till. That kind of courage no longer exists in young people, but I hope they find it. I'm only 7 years younger then David, and saw all of that, too. Plus I'm Black.
Naaaaa, those 2 fizzled out things are nothing like it. Only people who weren't there during the 60's think there are similarities. Not to rain on your parade, but we have to be realistic here and not see this through the lens of YouTube videos or TV. LOL
I take your point. I have to - I was very definitely not alive in the 1960s to dispute it!
I have to quibble about the Gaza protests though - they are ongoing. But it is disheartening how much momentum was lost after 2020 re: the BLM protests...
BTW, I said that what happened in 2020 would fizzle out, in one of my YouTube videos, when all that occurred. I just knew it, because I saw the lack of passion and it was one more thing people could tell their friends about. They weren't ready for the prolonged fight that was necessary like the 60's movements. As soon as the pandemic let up a little, they all dispersed and it was business as usual.
What was unique about the George Floyd murder was everybody was sitting at home in front of the idiot tube, because of the pandemic lock down, and that is the first time many people saw what was really happening to Black people in 'MuriKKKa. Other things were happening around the same time, and they did not show up for those murders. That's how I knew it was disingenuous at best and folks just hit the snooze button a few times before turning the alarm off.
White people can opt-out of seeing racism in their face. We cannot. If they couldn't, they would see what we see as an ongoing fight. When it gets too hard, they opt-out. They didn't during the 60's, but they did before. I was so happy to see so many whites involved, and that involvement was also fueled by the Vietnam War they were protesting. It all melted together nicely. It was an ugly time, but it was worth it.
Will people see what's going on in the U.S. before it's too late? I honestly don't know. They went back to sleep.
I'm not sure why/when this happened, but young people no longer respect their elders like I was taught to. They're not listening to us, don't want to believe us, and argue with us every chance they get. Therefore, wisdom isn't being handed down. In the information age, I'm amazed at how much this happens and how much people don't know cuz they're not talking with people who were there. Folks are way more fragile and if what we say doesn't jive with their upbringing, it gets ignored. Each older generation says they're tougher than the ones that came after, and it's true. I don't mind owning that, because it makes me stronger.
Yes, the Gaza protests endure until that head of Israel knocks it off, but that is not about THIS country. When it comes to us, nobody's doing anything but beating up Biden for supporting them. Yes, I was alive during the 60's and I don't agree with that part of our administration. We have no business in that fight, or whatever it is isn't being shared with Americans. No transparency. We need the money going to Israel to clean shit up here.
We have always had to do this. If my generation had a central failure, it was believing that someone else would do it for us, while we reached for the brass ring. We assumed that idiots could run the government, and allowed them to do so. We fell asleep.
This time in our nation's political life reminds me of England in 1940, and the dull aching realization that all battles were not fought, nor wars won, after all. The realization that it would all have to be fought out again, at exponential cost. The realization that mere walls-- or, for us, court decisions-- would not protect unless the free stood vigilant upon them.
I used to look at younger people, with their faces buried in cell phones, and think, they need a time and a cause to call forth the greatness in them. Maybe that time, that cause has arrived.
I concur with your observations. However, my belief is that we, the collective we who fell asleep, cannot abdicate our responsibilities to rectify our failures. We must actively work to ensure Trump is never allowed to return to office.
Later, if we are allowed into the discussions, perhaps the collective wisdom of the sleepers can assist and guide those younger people as they initiate the years long, perhaps decades long, process of restoring The People to their rightful Constitutional position of power.
We're are NOT RESPONSIBLE for the Democrats failure to stop the fascists. Oh, some Democrats are complicit. The GOP didn't do this without inside help, like the 31 Democratic who helped seat Alito and Thomas.
Not my responsibility. That's Biden's and the Democrats job. TO PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AGAINST ALL ENEMIES BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. They're failing and fund raising off the threat of fascism. We can't vote out fascism. Didn't work in 2020. Won't work now.
In other words, so you plan to pick up your toys and go... where? When the 3 am knock on the door comes, will you tell them that you weren't involved, so they should leave you alone?
I apologize for the double post. That's what I get for thinking about things in my sleep.
I'm assigning blame exactly where it belongs: ON BIDEN AND THE DEMOCRATS FROM NOT STOPPING THE FASCISTS IN THE LAST ALMOST 4 YEARS! It's LITERALLY THEIR JOB TO DO THAT! TO PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AGAINST ALL ENEMIES BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. They have no plans to stop Project 2025 but they're certainly raising a lot of money campaigning off of it.
I don't know about you, but that's incredibly sad. I feel this way a lot, because I don't have my whole life in front of me anymore. We never know, but people live like they do know. I'm not faulting anybody for that; I was young too and never through about my mortality. But, here we are, faced with something that's inconceivable to think of. A dictatorship in the United States? Guess they'll have to change the name of this country, or leave it to the fools who threaten to take over as if this is their country and theirs alone. SMFH
My focus is on winning. Biden isn't going to step down. It's a big risk IF he did.
The one-sided focus of multiple liberal publications and at least one major liberal blog I follow is nauseating. He has a bad debate (looks better on paper) and apparently, he's done. A bad debate made worse because failures of the moderators and audio/visual choices that made him look worse.
The NYT had piece after piece against him. Buried in one article we are told Trump has shown a variety of symptoms of not being able to do the job. And Biden before and after debate showed his ability, even if from time to time we are reminded he is 80 years old.
Democrats and any who want a sane tomorrow have to rally around Biden and focus on attacking Trump. That should have been the m.o. after the debate. That is what Republicans would have done. What is wrong with people? It amounts to a self-fulfilling prophecy. It helps Trump.
There was a lot of institutional failure but the biggest people at fault are Republicans and the Supreme Court. The Trump immunity ruling is garbage. The assholes (yes, I'm disgusted) didn't even show up or sign the insurrection opinion, which is a slipshod job. The liberals failed there too.
There's a lot of sincere disagreement about Biden, and I think it's important to note that for those people who disagree with you, it wasn't one bad debate but the straw that broke the camel's back. His polling has been consistently bad, and he consistently trails Trump. The Democratic party has been having great difficulty simultaneously arguing that this election is an existential threat (which I think it is), and putting forth this candidate. It's not passing the voters' smell test. It may be too late and we may be going to lose anyway, but I suspect Democrats need to at least have a vigorous debate about how we go down.
The reaction was questioning his ability to be POTUS. Before and after the debate, there was little actual evidence he was unable to do the job.
So, yes, the bad debate was an excuse.
The polls were mixed. The response was not helpful. It is doubtful he was going to step down. If he did, it would be a major risk. As likely to make things worse.
On a human level, I understand some reactions, but even then, the NYT and others had a one note response that was offensive. This candidate had a great presidency in multiple ways and already beat Trump in 2020. It's too late to "debate." He got the nomination.
The other side would support the candidate and focus on beating the competition. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. "See, even his voters don't like him." Instead of trying to beat Trump, we are having vigorous debates. That's charming, you know?
This country is full of right-wing propaganda machines in mainstream media. Polls are for fools who take that crap literally. They are frequently wrong, wrong, wrong. I've been watching that sort of thing for almost half a century. Trust me when I say people are trying to shoot their feet off with hysteria coming from the wrong place, looking at the wrong things.
Perhaps voters that insist anybody pass their smell test are smelling their own bullshit. If you and they don't get behind Pres. Biden, then yeah ... it'll be your own faults for being entitled enough to think anybody has to sing to your tune. That's the Dem problem in a nutshell. Bunch of whining pussies. I love that part of a woman, but when it's screaming in the minds of millions of men, I frown upon that. Where are their balls, guts, spines, and courage? Huh?
Your hope honesty and courage are stronger than ever. Thank you for the evidence supporting the failures by the Judicial and Legislative branches. I don't agree that the executive branch AG has or did fail us based on Jack Smith's appointment timeline to prosecute 45's criminality. You are well aware of the risks of opening a prosecution based on intuition before the evidence is gathered. We all survived 45's reign of terror. Unlocking the electronic devices that contain the evidence necessary to secure a criminal conviction for crimes committed during the reign takes time and resources and leadership. J6, is the largest, and most successful, criminal prosecution, in our countries history. Also it was begun during a worldwide viral pandemic, and continues as we speak. SCOTUS's majority opinion in US v Trump has just burned their oath to our constitution and created an executive monarch. So we can't prosecute 45 for all of his criminal acts. But we are all well aware of 45's criminal, civil, financial, felonious convictions and indictments to-date. SCOTUS has now granted immunity to him. So be it. Those around him are not immunized from criminal prosecution neither are those that were around him during his lone term. So indict the associates and give the courts and legal process, the opportunity, to justify their allegiance, to the rule of law. We are in this together.
To the extent that’s true, I think it’s a failure of the media to respond to the debate appropriately by addressing the concerns it raised about both candidates. (Which I said that night, and would maintain only got worse since.)
That said, it’s July. So, I don’t think Election Day reality is yet set in stone.
Biden’s performance was a disaster. There is no way to spin it. He’s done.
He should never have run and he should have dropped out last weekend—resigned the presidency to let Harris pick a VP and get to it.
I’ll vote for him if he’s the guy but many won’t. His numbers sucked before the debate and they’re worse now. We can’t have a guy cognitively unfit to handle pressure. Period.
Trump is a fascist monster. He can’t take power—and Democrats winning the election is necessary but not sufficient. What’s the plan when there’s a national 1/6? General strike? Are we arming up?
These fascists have been one step ahead for decades. They rely on our blinkered optimism—“Oh, it can’t get *that* bad.”
Yes, it can. All the way to the worst imaginable. But we are too weak to acknowledge that so we sleepwalk into disaster: with Trump, with carbon, with emergent diseases, with nuclear weapons, and on and on.
Protecting our beautiful minds while reality marches on.
It may only be July, but he’s cooked. He wasn’t able to make a coherent argument against Trump in front of 51 million people. He was losing or tied in the national vote (which is an EC loss), and it’s only gotten worse. But his own hubris won’t allow him to step aside (yet). I’m also not really interested in blaming the media when Biden and his advisors and family put him in this situation to fail. It was a complete catastrophe and he’s done nothing to alleviate any concerns.
Deciding to run negative and speculative opinions about Biden's fitness is a choice that comes across to me as reckless at best. I wish the major newspapers had not done that. I think they destroyed Biden's chances of reelection. But even if Biden is pushed out and replaced with an organ grinder's monkey, I will still vote Blue. What else is there? The Project 2025 agenda will outlive and outlast Trump. It's terrifying.
No, it’s not. You should prepare yourself now for a Trump victory. You might be less disappointed, angry, whatever. It’s hilarious you’re saying this because yes, it is pretty clear. Biden is the most unpopular president in modern US history. -20 net approval rating doesn’t win elections. Voters didn’t want him before the debate and now it’s worse.
I’m not finding humor in anything about this. You also cannot compare this election to 2016 or 2020. Every election is totally different. He’s pretty different than he was at the SOTU and, cool, he’s done a few rallies. Normal incumbent presidents would do 3-4 in a day in multiple states in July. One unscripted event - the ABC interview, which was also bad - since the debate is alarming.
Go look at what he said in SC the day after that ridiculous so-called debate. It wasn't a debate anyway. Moderators weren't prepared to moderate or deal with Frump's lies.
It's always too soon to be a defeatist. Good lord, where is your sense of duty? Anyway, I've been watching "polls" since 1975 and they're frequently wrong. I'm also not providing links; you have to do your own research for that. Sounding the alarm this soon is ridiculous, and to me, stats are for losers. People playing the numbers game usually aren't playing the people game. I refuse to side with a bunch of people who fell asleep, or have been asleep all their life; only popped up to whine. UGH
Don't care where you've worked. Obviously you believe more in what you think than you do actual facts. People who are like this ... defeatists ... are typically pretty young compared to me. Okay, then grow some balls. Let the process endure, not a bunch of hysterical people who are acting out of emotion and not their brains. Emotion blows smoke up in there, and then you're doomed and say a bunch of crazy things.
I'm glad you find humor in the situation. Humor is good.
The country is more divided than ever. No one these days will have great approval ratings. 30% or so will firmly oppose the other side. Another middle portion will be unhappy though it's a false consciousness on a basic level given the successes of the Biden Administration. We can just accept that or push back in the time remaining.
After a bad debate, with an aftermath worsened by such defeatism and other bs, I see Trump is ahead by a couple percentage points. That's 538. So, no, I'm not in July going to prepare myself quite yet. People in July 2016 was ASSURED everyone hated Trump. No chance he would win!
Biden did show the public what he can do. The SOTU. The response to the Trump immunity case. Multiple rallies. And more. He has a few more months to remind the American people why they voted for him in 2020.
The question is how we GOT to this point. It wasn't via age. It was by tearing out our own guts and IGNORING what how trump performed. The media could have just discussed concerns and considered what to look for in the future, noting that Harris is there if it gets worse after the election without jumping to conclusions that have torn the party apart. They could have pointed out that he DID answer the questions, however haltingly, and what his answers were--the transcript was up the next day.
The debate was a GOLDEN opportunity for the whole party to double down on trump's lies, to refute them in detail (not just a fact check, but an analysis of why he is DOING this). Now I doubt that anyone watching the debate retains anything other than the fact trump was lying, but not about what nor what the lies were trying to do--not to mention how he NEVER actually answered any policy questions and actually ignored the question before him to go on and on about immigration. The moderators admonished him ONCE about that.
If we get Project 2025 it will be because of the media. The REAL question is why they thought it was a good idea to go the way they did. Do they think they will PROSPER with trump as president? Prior restraint incoming and no way to stop it with an immune president and a court behind him. Remember that CONGRESS (and the states) are bound by the First and 14th Amendments. Neither says anything about the President, as I'm sure Thomas and Alito will intone.
If we get Project 2025 it’s cause Biden was a weak candidate who was incapable of making a coherent argument against Trump, a nominee who is very beatable. Blaming the media is so fucking dumb lol. Biden is extremely unpopular - and was before the debate! - but yes, it’s all on the media. Let’s not look inward at our own terrible candidate. I think he’s been a very good president and accomplished a lot, but he’s obviously NOT the right person for 2024.
Ah, the Bandwagon Sings. He made a very coherent argument, just had a bad delivery. Read the frickin transcript. Yeah, the optics were awful.
As far as arguments go “he accomplished a lot but was not popular” is kind of an oxymoron. Unless you count the media hounding his age for months and almost never analyzing trump’s lies and stressing that it has been those lies that hid the accomplishments in a pile of horse pucky
The big strategic error of the campaign was having a “debate” at all. “Debate” by its nature requires two rational people. There was only one rational person on the stage and he had a delivery issue.
By now the media has done its job so thoroughly that whether or not he continues the run, the party may be irrevocably damaged.
I agree the debate was a mistake. People make mistakes. If the response was a reasonable gut check about what the campaign had to do, fine, but the response was some over the top ridiculousness.
Others pointed out Trump was horrible too. Lies and more lies. He was unhinged and there is a lot of evidence he is mentally and physically unfit. This is hidden deep into the media coverage. OTOH, some people did push back, including certain substacks like Heather Cox Richardson. One newspaper even said (rightly so) Trump should step down.
Voters have a short attention span. There is still time. It is not like suddenly now the Democrats have no shot at winning the House or something.
People are afraid and some have always been defeatist. "Our country is gone" is a theme I have seen. It isn't gone. A bit of history there might help.
I’ve had thoughts about what the debate rules SHOULD have been.
I'm thinking that the only debate format really shouldn't have been measured in minutes. The QUESTIONS should all be about policy.
1) In response to a question, one statement and only if it addresses the specific question. The mike goes off if you change topics or don't answer the question. If the question is about Roe, mike is off at first comment about economy or immigration. Otherwise 2 minutes to make the statement.
2) in response to that statement, one statement refuting it. No changing to a general policy statement--that is the function of the original question. For rebuttals, it should be a debate about who is telling the truth about the question. 2 minutes if you stay on topic.
3. A rebuttal to the rebuttal. I minute to say anything on point.
4. Same policy question to the 2nd person, so they have a chance to address it, not just rebut. Same rules and series of rebuttals.
In other words, a limited number of policy questions--Roe, the economy, crime, gun control, culture wars stuff. All prefaced by "What is your position on." And the rebuttals would be only a place to REBUT. “I disagree because” and mike off if it doesn’t state the disagreement with the answer.
With that, even a bad cold would have been far less of a problem.
A real debate only works if both parties know HOW to debate. The art of debating has been lost on most people for a very long time. I've seen them in person, I've seen them on TV, I've seen them on YouTube, and THAT WAS NOT A DEBATE!!!
No one gives a fuck about the transcript dude. 51 million watched the debate and 99% won’t read the transcript. Debates are about optics, sound, delivery. And no, nothing he said was coherent. That’s delusional. He was meandering, didn’t stay on topic. He answered a question about abortion with talking about illegal immigration and an immigrant killing a woman. It was insane. You’re also wrong saying there shouldn’t have been a debate. He was losing before it and needed one to make the case against Trump and remind voters about his accomplishments and why Trump is a danger. He needed to change the narrative. Sadly he did not.
“no one cares about the transcript” is EXACTLY why this persecution symptomatic of the state the American people have come to. Nothing that isn’t “fun” and entertaining and above all that requires thinking is worth anything.
The comment about abortion/immigration was clearly aimed at how people go nutsy when one immigrant kills someone and no one blinks an eye about the women dying for lack of care that could save their lives when a pregnancy goes wrong. I caught that even before reading the transcript. We have no idea what trump was yelling at him off mike at that point.
Even if you believe the horse race polls, he wasn’t “losing.” At worst he was neck and neck and within the margin of error.
Tell me again what trump said that was coherent and stayed on topic?
Here is Bidens answer to the question "What do you say to voters who feel they are worse off under your presidency than they were under President Trump?" Show me what is incoherent.
"We had an economy that was in freefall. The pandemic are so badly handled, many people were dying. All he said was, it’s not that serious. Just inject a little bleach in your arm. It’d be all right.
The economy collapsed. There were no jobs. Unemployment rate rose to 15 percent. It was terrible.
And so, what we had to do is try to put things back together again. That’s exactly what we began to do. We created 15,000 new jobs. We brought on – in a position where we have 800,000 new manufacturing jobs.
But there’s more to be done. There’s more to be done. Working class people are still in trouble.
I come from Scranton, Pennsylvania. I come from a household where the kitchen table – if things weren’t able to be met during the month was a problem. Price of eggs, the price of gas, the price of housing, the price of a whole range of things.
That’s why I’m working so hard to make sure I deal with those problems. And we’re going to make sure that we reduce the price of housing. We’re going to make sure we build 2 million new units. We’re going to make sure we cap rents, so corporate greed can’t take over.
The combination of what I was left and then corporate greed are the reason why we’re in this problem right now.
In addition to that, we’re in a situation where if you had – take a look at all that was done in his administration, he didn’t do much at all. By the time he left, there’s – things had been in chaos. There was (ph) literally chaos.
And so, we put things back together. We created, as I said, those (ph) jobs. We made sure we had a situation where we now – we brought down the price of prescription drugs, which is a major issue for many people, to $15 for – for an insulin shot, as opposed to $400. No senior has to pay more than $200 for any drug – all the drugs they (inaudible) beginning next year.
And the situation is making – and we’re going to make that available to everybody, to all Americans. So we’re working to bring down the prices around the kitchen table. And that’s what we’re going to get done."
Here are the highlights of Trump's response
"We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. We had never done so well. Every – everybody was amazed by it. Other countries were copying us."
"The only jobs he created are for illegal immigrants and bounceback jobs; they’re bounced back from the COVID." [We passed "bounce back a long time ago]
"But other than that, we had – we had given them back a – a country where the stock market actually was higher than pre-COVID, and nobody thought that was even possible."
Here is the Dow on January 31, 2020: "The Dow
plummeted 603.41 points, or 2.09%, to close at 28,256.03"
Here is the Dow on Election day: 27,480.03 [in trumpworld, 28 is bigger than 27]
Here is the Dow today (last Friday, of course) 39,375.87
Yes, they believe they'll prosper. It's turned into one big fat propaganda machine for clicks & views. They don't care what will happen if the orange man gets back in there, because they will be on his side. I've seen this coming for a while, and saw it start to switch probably 6-7 years ago. They aren't journalists anymore and are singing to the tune of owners who are probably either cult members, in bed with cult members, listening to cult members, or are far-right leaning. It's obvious to me.
Being on his side isn’t the same thing as being fawning and obsequious and without that, their freedom to keep going is endangered. I agree they don’t care—some of the reporters may, very well, but they are required to spout the party line far too often. Or simply have what they are actually saying obliterated by a headline that contradicts what they are actually saying. But the honchos—yes.
I just think they are really stupid to think ANYONE can be “enough” on Trump’s side to survive.
If they bend to his will, they'll survive. Well, only if he wins in November. If not, then yes, they are endangered because the people's will can weed them out. Not sure when, because corporations have great power/control in this country right now. The writers are being told what they can and cannot write about, which makes them flunkies. I've seen some really good ones forced out of their corporation because they wouldn't do what boss-man said. SMFH
We don't need to see another debate to know what to do. Personally, I don't care to see a lying man lie over & over again. Biden isn't a great orator anyway. Bump that. Forget that. Just focus on what needs to be done to get Pres. Biden over the finish line.
Don't know what brought this column on for you but thanks for writing it. I too was thinking broad thoughts this morning on my daily health walk. I was thinking about these right wing justices who at this point have become completely radicalized and how it's lost on them that as Supreme Court Justices they have immense power over peoples' lives, especially marginalized people, and that they do not seem capable of contemplating the gravity of that and the fact that they are there to serve and protect not only their partisans but also a whole lot of people they don't like or approve of. Maybe I'm naive but I think past justices had a greater sense of being mindful of how their decisions would affect people who were "not on their side" politically and culturally. These guys today are now just hacks and people see them for that. And it's corrosive.
If I thought that a new candidate would actually be able to beat trump, I would hope Biden would resign for his own sake. My greatest fear that the whole party has lost credibility over this internecine bickering. Our biggest task is no longer just "getting out the vote" but being sure every voter understands Project 2025.
I just read the section of the Project on Education. While a lot of trump supporters are religious zealots, not all are. What do THEY think of taxpayer dollars going to religious schools carte-blanche? Have they thought about them going to MUSLIM religious schools? And the section bashes accreditation. Trump Universities and all sorts of frauds unleashed.
The section on trans people are atrocious and can easily be extended to any sexual preference. To show one absurdity, no teacher would be able to call you by any name not on your birth certificate without WRITTEN parental consent--so if you get a nickname that both kids and teachers use, without that written consent you can be SUED by the parent. Even if an Elizabeth decides she likes Betty better.
And it claims that Parental Rights should have the same "high" status as freedom of speech and religion (they call it "religious freedom" which is code for ignoring laws), despite the fact that "parental" is no more in the Constitution than "abortion" is.
READ the damn thing. In chunks, as you'll never get through 900 pages in one sitting. Don't just take the "bullet points" analyses--only with examples of absurdity from the verbiage will it become real. And start TALKING about the absurdities you find, to anyone, in any forum, within sound of your voice or keyboard.
Related but on a more humorous note (these are dark times, yes, but we still need to laugh) -
I saw a video recently where a trump supporter was asked about project 2025. She was informed that the writers want to ban porn. She responded with something like "I'm in porn!"
What are the Democrats doing to stop it? Oh yeah, nothing. That's on them, not us! How dare they not uphold their oath of office to PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AGAINST ALL ENEMIES BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC.
You have made the same argument several times now. Honest question: what do you think the Democrats should or could be doing? They voted to impeach Trump twice, they have pursued investigations and prosecutions of Trump and many of his henchmen, arrested and prosecuted over a thousand people involved in Jan 6, and have strongly backed his policy agenda. It is unclear what you expect "the democrats" or Biden administration to be doing..
All of this shows me how wrong I was when I thought Nixon scraped the bottom of the barrel. Ollie North came close. Trump couldn't come close to fulfilling his oath of office--the oath should be the yardstick for evaluating his acts.
I'd like to retire but I can't afford it and besides, I enjoy public service. Now, more than ever with Trump showing us all what he thinks of public service--which is not at all. The public is that inconvenient piece of gum on the bottom of his shoe.
Just ask the hapless families trying to rent a space in he and his dad's apartment buildings. Or the hapless contractors in Atlantic City. Or those poor kids otherwise known as the Central Park Five. Yep, he's built himself quite a house on sand.
"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." Matthew 7:24-27
I think it’s best to forget about hope and just do the right thing, and try to get others to as well, whether we have hope or not. I’m going down right, that is, if we are going down. And I think we are, politically, ecologically. Between rising fascism, carbon, and nukes, to name three things that are not wholly unrelated by a long shot, I doubt we’ll make it out of this century with any kind of decent organized existence. Functional or even literal extinction is a real possibility.
Do the right thing, anyway. Embrace some “un-American” existentialism. It helps.
Chris, I think most of us agree on the failure of our government as you laid out. However, it's the question, "what should we do next," where we seem to splinter apart.
I love Joe Biden! I'm 75 years old and he is the first president in my life time who is a true liberal who has fought for the working class. But I also have eyes and ears. I watched the entire debate. When it was over I and every person in the room watching it with me, said, "He must stop running. There's something wrong."
In my gut I felt such pain because I always laughed at the MAGA crowd and how they would believe anything. But that debate showed me that there is something wrong with the President. That wasn't a cold, it wasn't being tired from a European trip 11 days earlier, and it wasn't normal ageing. No one can tell me not to believe my lying eyes. My eyes didn't lie.
It hurts even more as his inner circle circled the wagons and demanded that we not ask questions, that we take them at their word: Joe is fine, no problem here. Where is Jill Biden, where is Obama? Is there a single person in that inner circle who will tell Biden that for THE SAKE OF THE COUNTRY, he must bow out of the race? We absolutely need an open convention, no two ways about it.
Lastly, and this is difficult to say, no one is talking about the elephant in the room. But I'm going to say it because it's nothing to be ashamed of or afraid of, and because it is in my room, too. I have Parkinsons, and I believe Joe Biden does, too. His body screams it. He and his inner circle have to tell us the truth and open up the presidential race to a younger generation.
I actually said the same thing while watching it with a bunch of people on RMU. Something was wrong. Pres. Biden is a proud man right now, and won't step down this close to an election. If he's forced down, then Kamala can take over. But, someone better get their ass in gear and campaign if she takes over before November 4, 2024. I do not believe there's enough time left for anybody to campaign & win against the monster felon.
My wife distilled it pretty well by saying that this feels like the car dealership scene in Fargo and we’re all the customer who buys the car from Jerry Lundegard. We’re grudgingly signing the contract, but there’s no question who the bamboozler is in this dichotomy.
I hate to say it, Chris, but the quiet part has been said aloud by the party’s chosen mouthpiece at the debate: it’s plain that he isn’t fit and that the Democratic Party are nothing but inept salespeople. The onslaught of emails I have been getting from the Biden campaign have sounded at turns both desperate and pedantic. I think they cynically understand that most of us will vote blue anyway because Trump is an immoral grotesque, but it’s not inspiring to understand that this is the last strategy they are banking on.
What I think everyone wants to know is “Who’s in charge here?” If voting is our job, we’ve been doing it. If, in the meantime being critical of something worthy of critique is considered a threat to something purportedly worthy of support, then those in charge HAVE FAILED TO INSPIRE THE REQUISITE SUPPORT; the rest of the campaign after that is preemptively scolding us for not doing our part.
Maybe someone should have seen what was plain: that RBG would not live forever. But apparently no one was in charge at that point either.
Also, Chris, please let me say that I sincerely respect your passion, I’m grateful to have you on our side and I’m proud to say that we were classmates (even though you once made fun of me for mispronouncing a word during a drama club read-through, ha ha.) No matter what the Democrats do, I truly hope Trump loses or dies on the toilet beforehand. I don’t know if my words help, but keep up the good work.
Hi there! And thanks for the kind words. (And, oops, sorry?!)
But, as to your larger part, yes, it's clearly not ideal, and not where I would want us to be right now. I definitely agree with that. As for the "who's in charge" question, I think the ultimate answer keeps coming back to us — as dissatisfying as that can feel.
Then, with us being here, I guess I'm trying to think about how we move forward and what that looks like.
I do wonder how much of the problem is structural, and how much would have happened anyway. Single-member constituencies with first-past-the-post voting tends to lead to a two-party system. And that means both parties need to plausibly be able to govern a democracy. Because voters always need an alternative to the governing party. When one of the parties chooses to go forward on a path that doesn't include human rights, civil liberties, and democratic principles, then either the voters have no choice, which is bad, or, even worse and what appears to be happening now, the voters have no choice but behave as if they do.
Besides that weakness, there are a lot of other biases in our constitution that favor upholding traditional power structures, which at their core are deeply illiberal. The party that's gone bad is also the party that has needed far fewer actual voter ballots cast in its favor to gain those powers.
So if I blame our predicament on a rotten constitution, that's what I mean. I don't know how much a better system would have kept the demons at bay, and how much instead is down to our country's rotten people. We might find that out by what happens next.
It's the people. Rotten to their core, and I bet most of them complaining right now don't even vote. If they do, I bet they don't vote locally. Also being incredibly disingenuous. People are lazy these days and want to be entertained more then they want to be knowledgeable. Their attention spans are like fleas and the quiet part they're not saying is, "Research? What's that?"
I'm telling you, there's millions of ignorant people in this country and now I'm seeing this full-force. Yikes!
Let's assume most of the public has no idea how the legal system works, how the government works, how to find out, or where to find reliable and accurate information. What are you going to do about it? Rather than berate and denounce people who don't know things, why not use that energy to find ways to inform them?
Because I'm doing enough for "people", I've been telling people these things, and they need not be so useless. I write, I'm a content creator, international mentor, leader who refuses to be targeted by white racists, and it's not all on me. I learned civics in school, and was a self-taught software consultant. I figured it out with nobody's help. So, not knowing is no excuse. Too much out there to learn from.
I'm also a veteran who says what people won't say ... out loud, in public, in private, online, and boldly.
What do YOU do? Make comments to comments? Hmmm. I am the tough love type; ask my sons. LOL
What I do is try to educate myself, avoid certainty, and make confrontational art. I did not learn civics or U.S. history in school. I had to teach myself all of that stuff and am still working on it in my 60s. It is impossible to know everything.
I think not knowing IS an excuse. Maybe I've met more isolated, insular, and marginally functional people than you have. Some people are intimidated and afraid to admit what they don't know. Plus, if they don't know what they don't know, and nothing challenges them to ask questions, why would they? Seems like most are just trying to get through the day. Environment matters. Social influences matter. You never know what someone is dealing with or what led them to where they are now.... Until you find out.
If your situation is as you describe, and you've spent all kinds of time trying to teach people, I can appreciate how that could be frustrating. I'd probably be pissed off, too.
Maybe I'm just naive. That's possible. Do I make comments to comments? Not usually, although it's a fair question. I do wish people didn't feel the need to constantly treat each other like shit without provocation, but that is entirely my own issue.
You misunderstand my emotions, and I bet you haven't met more disenfranchised people than I have. I've been rich, poor, and in between. I've been homeless several times in my life, and I'm in my 60's too.
Listen, people are willfully ignorant. I'm not pissed-off about that. I'm pissed-off of things I've had to endure because of people's attitudes about everything that goes on in life in AmeriKKKa. Yeah, I'm frustrated that folks don't just go out and learn the basics of civics. You don't have to be an expert to know how to vote, find out who rules over your district, and ask questions. You just don't. All you have to do is care and have a duty to do so. I don't know everything ... not even close. But, I'm compassionate and justice is high on my list. I do more for people than most do sitting at home. You just don't know.
You have no idea about my story, so don't assume. Having to deal with racism 24x7, 365 puts a certain edge on a guy who is as real as I am. Same with transphobia and homophobia for many decades before I began my transition. I'm not taking your head off, but I felt like you were questioning my integrity, so I'm questioning yours. What you see is what you get with me, and despite my nervousness about what goes on in this country, I have a huge sense of humor and am fun to be around. Folks just don't get to see a lot of that on a publication like this.
I speak for SAGE sometimes, do private talks with various organizations around the country, was part of the diversity training at the VA for interns, have had articles written about me, and so on. I'm trying to push into the media, then I will unleash what's really on my mind.
I am tough on everybody, because that's part of my purpose of waking them up. I'm not all about me, myself, and I. You have your thing as a mom, and I have mine as a father & leader. I refuse to cross-over and am not afraid. That's why the dynamic of men & women in the family works. Don't expect men to become women to be effective. The gender wars need to end, and everybody needs to respect how they are in the world. Yin & yang are necessary energy forces in this world.
Black folks are less naive because of what we deal with, without opt-out cards ... always. Anyway, it's been real. Peace!
I was born in 1950. I remember watching the civil rights movement on television. Little Rock, Selma; the firehoses, the attack dogs; sheer, ugly hatred.
It took young men and women brave enough to confront that with nonviolence. Do we have those warriors today? Not the dumb rabble of January 6, 2020, but the good trouble of 1964. Brute force versus conscientious force…
They stood up—can we? Will we?
I'd like to think, based on the BLM marches in 2020 and current mobilizations for Gaza, that the answer is yes.
Neither one of those are anything like the Civil Rights Movements. It took people who believed in nonviolence, ones who didn't, and ones who believed in violence to take this country by storm. You didn't see how quickly they put that thing in action, based on the murder of Emmett Till. That kind of courage no longer exists in young people, but I hope they find it. I'm only 7 years younger then David, and saw all of that, too. Plus I'm Black.
Naaaaa, those 2 fizzled out things are nothing like it. Only people who weren't there during the 60's think there are similarities. Not to rain on your parade, but we have to be realistic here and not see this through the lens of YouTube videos or TV. LOL
I take your point. I have to - I was very definitely not alive in the 1960s to dispute it!
I have to quibble about the Gaza protests though - they are ongoing. But it is disheartening how much momentum was lost after 2020 re: the BLM protests...
BTW, I said that what happened in 2020 would fizzle out, in one of my YouTube videos, when all that occurred. I just knew it, because I saw the lack of passion and it was one more thing people could tell their friends about. They weren't ready for the prolonged fight that was necessary like the 60's movements. As soon as the pandemic let up a little, they all dispersed and it was business as usual.
What was unique about the George Floyd murder was everybody was sitting at home in front of the idiot tube, because of the pandemic lock down, and that is the first time many people saw what was really happening to Black people in 'MuriKKKa. Other things were happening around the same time, and they did not show up for those murders. That's how I knew it was disingenuous at best and folks just hit the snooze button a few times before turning the alarm off.
White people can opt-out of seeing racism in their face. We cannot. If they couldn't, they would see what we see as an ongoing fight. When it gets too hard, they opt-out. They didn't during the 60's, but they did before. I was so happy to see so many whites involved, and that involvement was also fueled by the Vietnam War they were protesting. It all melted together nicely. It was an ugly time, but it was worth it.
Will people see what's going on in the U.S. before it's too late? I honestly don't know. They went back to sleep.
I'm not sure why/when this happened, but young people no longer respect their elders like I was taught to. They're not listening to us, don't want to believe us, and argue with us every chance they get. Therefore, wisdom isn't being handed down. In the information age, I'm amazed at how much this happens and how much people don't know cuz they're not talking with people who were there. Folks are way more fragile and if what we say doesn't jive with their upbringing, it gets ignored. Each older generation says they're tougher than the ones that came after, and it's true. I don't mind owning that, because it makes me stronger.
Yes, the Gaza protests endure until that head of Israel knocks it off, but that is not about THIS country. When it comes to us, nobody's doing anything but beating up Biden for supporting them. Yes, I was alive during the 60's and I don't agree with that part of our administration. We have no business in that fight, or whatever it is isn't being shared with Americans. No transparency. We need the money going to Israel to clean shit up here.
We have always had to do this. If my generation had a central failure, it was believing that someone else would do it for us, while we reached for the brass ring. We assumed that idiots could run the government, and allowed them to do so. We fell asleep.
This time in our nation's political life reminds me of England in 1940, and the dull aching realization that all battles were not fought, nor wars won, after all. The realization that it would all have to be fought out again, at exponential cost. The realization that mere walls-- or, for us, court decisions-- would not protect unless the free stood vigilant upon them.
I used to look at younger people, with their faces buried in cell phones, and think, they need a time and a cause to call forth the greatness in them. Maybe that time, that cause has arrived.
I concur with your observations. However, my belief is that we, the collective we who fell asleep, cannot abdicate our responsibilities to rectify our failures. We must actively work to ensure Trump is never allowed to return to office.
Later, if we are allowed into the discussions, perhaps the collective wisdom of the sleepers can assist and guide those younger people as they initiate the years long, perhaps decades long, process of restoring The People to their rightful Constitutional position of power.
We're are NOT RESPONSIBLE for the Democrats failure to stop the fascists. Oh, some Democrats are complicit. The GOP didn't do this without inside help, like the 31 Democratic who helped seat Alito and Thomas.
Will you share in the responsibility to stop Trump?
Not my responsibility. That's Biden's and the Democrats job. TO PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AGAINST ALL ENEMIES BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. They're failing and fund raising off the threat of fascism. We can't vote out fascism. Didn't work in 2020. Won't work now.
In other words, so you plan to pick up your toys and go... where? When the 3 am knock on the door comes, will you tell them that you weren't involved, so they should leave you alone?
I apologize for the double post. That's what I get for thinking about things in my sleep.
Yup. Engagement is required. Hoping everyone is pushing every eligible person to vote. It’s all we have left in the toolbox to dump Trump.
So, do you plan to do anything, besides assigning blame to others?
I'm assigning blame exactly where it belongs: ON BIDEN AND THE DEMOCRATS FROM NOT STOPPING THE FASCISTS IN THE LAST ALMOST 4 YEARS! It's LITERALLY THEIR JOB TO DO THAT! TO PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AGAINST ALL ENEMIES BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. They have no plans to stop Project 2025 but they're certainly raising a lot of money campaigning off of it.
Agreed; and maybe the penance for our failures will be that the goal of restoration will not be reached in our remaining lifetimes.
I don't know about you, but that's incredibly sad. I feel this way a lot, because I don't have my whole life in front of me anymore. We never know, but people live like they do know. I'm not faulting anybody for that; I was young too and never through about my mortality. But, here we are, faced with something that's inconceivable to think of. A dictatorship in the United States? Guess they'll have to change the name of this country, or leave it to the fools who threaten to take over as if this is their country and theirs alone. SMFH
My focus is on winning. Biden isn't going to step down. It's a big risk IF he did.
The one-sided focus of multiple liberal publications and at least one major liberal blog I follow is nauseating. He has a bad debate (looks better on paper) and apparently, he's done. A bad debate made worse because failures of the moderators and audio/visual choices that made him look worse.
The NYT had piece after piece against him. Buried in one article we are told Trump has shown a variety of symptoms of not being able to do the job. And Biden before and after debate showed his ability, even if from time to time we are reminded he is 80 years old.
Democrats and any who want a sane tomorrow have to rally around Biden and focus on attacking Trump. That should have been the m.o. after the debate. That is what Republicans would have done. What is wrong with people? It amounts to a self-fulfilling prophecy. It helps Trump.
There was a lot of institutional failure but the biggest people at fault are Republicans and the Supreme Court. The Trump immunity ruling is garbage. The assholes (yes, I'm disgusted) didn't even show up or sign the insurrection opinion, which is a slipshod job. The liberals failed there too.
There's a lot of sincere disagreement about Biden, and I think it's important to note that for those people who disagree with you, it wasn't one bad debate but the straw that broke the camel's back. His polling has been consistently bad, and he consistently trails Trump. The Democratic party has been having great difficulty simultaneously arguing that this election is an existential threat (which I think it is), and putting forth this candidate. It's not passing the voters' smell test. It may be too late and we may be going to lose anyway, but I suspect Democrats need to at least have a vigorous debate about how we go down.
The reaction was questioning his ability to be POTUS. Before and after the debate, there was little actual evidence he was unable to do the job.
So, yes, the bad debate was an excuse.
The polls were mixed. The response was not helpful. It is doubtful he was going to step down. If he did, it would be a major risk. As likely to make things worse.
On a human level, I understand some reactions, but even then, the NYT and others had a one note response that was offensive. This candidate had a great presidency in multiple ways and already beat Trump in 2020. It's too late to "debate." He got the nomination.
The other side would support the candidate and focus on beating the competition. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. "See, even his voters don't like him." Instead of trying to beat Trump, we are having vigorous debates. That's charming, you know?
Man, SAY THIS AGAIN & AGAIN, for the ones in the back who are hard of hearing or flat-out hard headed. LOL
This country is full of right-wing propaganda machines in mainstream media. Polls are for fools who take that crap literally. They are frequently wrong, wrong, wrong. I've been watching that sort of thing for almost half a century. Trust me when I say people are trying to shoot their feet off with hysteria coming from the wrong place, looking at the wrong things.
Perhaps voters that insist anybody pass their smell test are smelling their own bullshit. If you and they don't get behind Pres. Biden, then yeah ... it'll be your own faults for being entitled enough to think anybody has to sing to your tune. That's the Dem problem in a nutshell. Bunch of whining pussies. I love that part of a woman, but when it's screaming in the minds of millions of men, I frown upon that. Where are their balls, guts, spines, and courage? Huh?
The Democrats are complicit.
Chris,
Your hope honesty and courage are stronger than ever. Thank you for the evidence supporting the failures by the Judicial and Legislative branches. I don't agree that the executive branch AG has or did fail us based on Jack Smith's appointment timeline to prosecute 45's criminality. You are well aware of the risks of opening a prosecution based on intuition before the evidence is gathered. We all survived 45's reign of terror. Unlocking the electronic devices that contain the evidence necessary to secure a criminal conviction for crimes committed during the reign takes time and resources and leadership. J6, is the largest, and most successful, criminal prosecution, in our countries history. Also it was begun during a worldwide viral pandemic, and continues as we speak. SCOTUS's majority opinion in US v Trump has just burned their oath to our constitution and created an executive monarch. So we can't prosecute 45 for all of his criminal acts. But we are all well aware of 45's criminal, civil, financial, felonious convictions and indictments to-date. SCOTUS has now granted immunity to him. So be it. Those around him are not immunized from criminal prosecution neither are those that were around him during his lone term. So indict the associates and give the courts and legal process, the opportunity, to justify their allegiance, to the rule of law. We are in this together.
I appreciate the thoughtful remarks and your optimism but it’s clear at this juncture Biden is incapable of defeating Trump again.
To the extent that’s true, I think it’s a failure of the media to respond to the debate appropriately by addressing the concerns it raised about both candidates. (Which I said that night, and would maintain only got worse since.)
That said, it’s July. So, I don’t think Election Day reality is yet set in stone.
Biden’s performance was a disaster. There is no way to spin it. He’s done.
He should never have run and he should have dropped out last weekend—resigned the presidency to let Harris pick a VP and get to it.
I’ll vote for him if he’s the guy but many won’t. His numbers sucked before the debate and they’re worse now. We can’t have a guy cognitively unfit to handle pressure. Period.
Trump is a fascist monster. He can’t take power—and Democrats winning the election is necessary but not sufficient. What’s the plan when there’s a national 1/6? General strike? Are we arming up?
These fascists have been one step ahead for decades. They rely on our blinkered optimism—“Oh, it can’t get *that* bad.”
Yes, it can. All the way to the worst imaginable. But we are too weak to acknowledge that so we sleepwalk into disaster: with Trump, with carbon, with emergent diseases, with nuclear weapons, and on and on.
Protecting our beautiful minds while reality marches on.
It may only be July, but he’s cooked. He wasn’t able to make a coherent argument against Trump in front of 51 million people. He was losing or tied in the national vote (which is an EC loss), and it’s only gotten worse. But his own hubris won’t allow him to step aside (yet). I’m also not really interested in blaming the media when Biden and his advisors and family put him in this situation to fail. It was a complete catastrophe and he’s done nothing to alleviate any concerns.
Deciding to run negative and speculative opinions about Biden's fitness is a choice that comes across to me as reckless at best. I wish the major newspapers had not done that. I think they destroyed Biden's chances of reelection. But even if Biden is pushed out and replaced with an organ grinder's monkey, I will still vote Blue. What else is there? The Project 2025 agenda will outlive and outlast Trump. It's terrifying.
Just like it was "clear" to many Trump would lose in 2016?
It's too soon to be defeatist.
No, it’s not. You should prepare yourself now for a Trump victory. You might be less disappointed, angry, whatever. It’s hilarious you’re saying this because yes, it is pretty clear. Biden is the most unpopular president in modern US history. -20 net approval rating doesn’t win elections. Voters didn’t want him before the debate and now it’s worse.
I’m not finding humor in anything about this. You also cannot compare this election to 2016 or 2020. Every election is totally different. He’s pretty different than he was at the SOTU and, cool, he’s done a few rallies. Normal incumbent presidents would do 3-4 in a day in multiple states in July. One unscripted event - the ABC interview, which was also bad - since the debate is alarming.
Go look at what he said in SC the day after that ridiculous so-called debate. It wasn't a debate anyway. Moderators weren't prepared to moderate or deal with Frump's lies.
It's always too soon to be a defeatist. Good lord, where is your sense of duty? Anyway, I've been watching "polls" since 1975 and they're frequently wrong. I'm also not providing links; you have to do your own research for that. Sounding the alarm this soon is ridiculous, and to me, stats are for losers. People playing the numbers game usually aren't playing the people game. I refuse to side with a bunch of people who fell asleep, or have been asleep all their life; only popped up to whine. UGH
I’m good. I don’t need to do any research. I worked at a polling firm and understand how public opinion surveys work.
Don't care where you've worked. Obviously you believe more in what you think than you do actual facts. People who are like this ... defeatists ... are typically pretty young compared to me. Okay, then grow some balls. Let the process endure, not a bunch of hysterical people who are acting out of emotion and not their brains. Emotion blows smoke up in there, and then you're doomed and say a bunch of crazy things.
Lol
I'm glad you find humor in the situation. Humor is good.
The country is more divided than ever. No one these days will have great approval ratings. 30% or so will firmly oppose the other side. Another middle portion will be unhappy though it's a false consciousness on a basic level given the successes of the Biden Administration. We can just accept that or push back in the time remaining.
After a bad debate, with an aftermath worsened by such defeatism and other bs, I see Trump is ahead by a couple percentage points. That's 538. So, no, I'm not in July going to prepare myself quite yet. People in July 2016 was ASSURED everyone hated Trump. No chance he would win!
Biden did show the public what he can do. The SOTU. The response to the Trump immunity case. Multiple rallies. And more. He has a few more months to remind the American people why they voted for him in 2020.
The question is how we GOT to this point. It wasn't via age. It was by tearing out our own guts and IGNORING what how trump performed. The media could have just discussed concerns and considered what to look for in the future, noting that Harris is there if it gets worse after the election without jumping to conclusions that have torn the party apart. They could have pointed out that he DID answer the questions, however haltingly, and what his answers were--the transcript was up the next day.
The debate was a GOLDEN opportunity for the whole party to double down on trump's lies, to refute them in detail (not just a fact check, but an analysis of why he is DOING this). Now I doubt that anyone watching the debate retains anything other than the fact trump was lying, but not about what nor what the lies were trying to do--not to mention how he NEVER actually answered any policy questions and actually ignored the question before him to go on and on about immigration. The moderators admonished him ONCE about that.
If we get Project 2025 it will be because of the media. The REAL question is why they thought it was a good idea to go the way they did. Do they think they will PROSPER with trump as president? Prior restraint incoming and no way to stop it with an immune president and a court behind him. Remember that CONGRESS (and the states) are bound by the First and 14th Amendments. Neither says anything about the President, as I'm sure Thomas and Alito will intone.
If we get Project 2025 it’s cause Biden was a weak candidate who was incapable of making a coherent argument against Trump, a nominee who is very beatable. Blaming the media is so fucking dumb lol. Biden is extremely unpopular - and was before the debate! - but yes, it’s all on the media. Let’s not look inward at our own terrible candidate. I think he’s been a very good president and accomplished a lot, but he’s obviously NOT the right person for 2024.
Ah, the Bandwagon Sings. He made a very coherent argument, just had a bad delivery. Read the frickin transcript. Yeah, the optics were awful.
As far as arguments go “he accomplished a lot but was not popular” is kind of an oxymoron. Unless you count the media hounding his age for months and almost never analyzing trump’s lies and stressing that it has been those lies that hid the accomplishments in a pile of horse pucky
The big strategic error of the campaign was having a “debate” at all. “Debate” by its nature requires two rational people. There was only one rational person on the stage and he had a delivery issue.
By now the media has done its job so thoroughly that whether or not he continues the run, the party may be irrevocably damaged.
I agree the debate was a mistake. People make mistakes. If the response was a reasonable gut check about what the campaign had to do, fine, but the response was some over the top ridiculousness.
Others pointed out Trump was horrible too. Lies and more lies. He was unhinged and there is a lot of evidence he is mentally and physically unfit. This is hidden deep into the media coverage. OTOH, some people did push back, including certain substacks like Heather Cox Richardson. One newspaper even said (rightly so) Trump should step down.
Voters have a short attention span. There is still time. It is not like suddenly now the Democrats have no shot at winning the House or something.
People are afraid and some have always been defeatist. "Our country is gone" is a theme I have seen. It isn't gone. A bit of history there might help.
I’ve had thoughts about what the debate rules SHOULD have been.
I'm thinking that the only debate format really shouldn't have been measured in minutes. The QUESTIONS should all be about policy.
1) In response to a question, one statement and only if it addresses the specific question. The mike goes off if you change topics or don't answer the question. If the question is about Roe, mike is off at first comment about economy or immigration. Otherwise 2 minutes to make the statement.
2) in response to that statement, one statement refuting it. No changing to a general policy statement--that is the function of the original question. For rebuttals, it should be a debate about who is telling the truth about the question. 2 minutes if you stay on topic.
3. A rebuttal to the rebuttal. I minute to say anything on point.
4. Same policy question to the 2nd person, so they have a chance to address it, not just rebut. Same rules and series of rebuttals.
In other words, a limited number of policy questions--Roe, the economy, crime, gun control, culture wars stuff. All prefaced by "What is your position on." And the rebuttals would be only a place to REBUT. “I disagree because” and mike off if it doesn’t state the disagreement with the answer.
With that, even a bad cold would have been far less of a problem.
A real debate only works if both parties know HOW to debate. The art of debating has been lost on most people for a very long time. I've seen them in person, I've seen them on TV, I've seen them on YouTube, and THAT WAS NOT A DEBATE!!!
No one gives a fuck about the transcript dude. 51 million watched the debate and 99% won’t read the transcript. Debates are about optics, sound, delivery. And no, nothing he said was coherent. That’s delusional. He was meandering, didn’t stay on topic. He answered a question about abortion with talking about illegal immigration and an immigrant killing a woman. It was insane. You’re also wrong saying there shouldn’t have been a debate. He was losing before it and needed one to make the case against Trump and remind voters about his accomplishments and why Trump is a danger. He needed to change the narrative. Sadly he did not.
“no one cares about the transcript” is EXACTLY why this persecution symptomatic of the state the American people have come to. Nothing that isn’t “fun” and entertaining and above all that requires thinking is worth anything.
The comment about abortion/immigration was clearly aimed at how people go nutsy when one immigrant kills someone and no one blinks an eye about the women dying for lack of care that could save their lives when a pregnancy goes wrong. I caught that even before reading the transcript. We have no idea what trump was yelling at him off mike at that point.
Even if you believe the horse race polls, he wasn’t “losing.” At worst he was neck and neck and within the margin of error.
Tell me again what trump said that was coherent and stayed on topic?
Here is Bidens answer to the question "What do you say to voters who feel they are worse off under your presidency than they were under President Trump?" Show me what is incoherent.
"We had an economy that was in freefall. The pandemic are so badly handled, many people were dying. All he said was, it’s not that serious. Just inject a little bleach in your arm. It’d be all right.
The economy collapsed. There were no jobs. Unemployment rate rose to 15 percent. It was terrible.
And so, what we had to do is try to put things back together again. That’s exactly what we began to do. We created 15,000 new jobs. We brought on – in a position where we have 800,000 new manufacturing jobs.
But there’s more to be done. There’s more to be done. Working class people are still in trouble.
I come from Scranton, Pennsylvania. I come from a household where the kitchen table – if things weren’t able to be met during the month was a problem. Price of eggs, the price of gas, the price of housing, the price of a whole range of things.
That’s why I’m working so hard to make sure I deal with those problems. And we’re going to make sure that we reduce the price of housing. We’re going to make sure we build 2 million new units. We’re going to make sure we cap rents, so corporate greed can’t take over.
The combination of what I was left and then corporate greed are the reason why we’re in this problem right now.
In addition to that, we’re in a situation where if you had – take a look at all that was done in his administration, he didn’t do much at all. By the time he left, there’s – things had been in chaos. There was (ph) literally chaos.
And so, we put things back together. We created, as I said, those (ph) jobs. We made sure we had a situation where we now – we brought down the price of prescription drugs, which is a major issue for many people, to $15 for – for an insulin shot, as opposed to $400. No senior has to pay more than $200 for any drug – all the drugs they (inaudible) beginning next year.
And the situation is making – and we’re going to make that available to everybody, to all Americans. So we’re working to bring down the prices around the kitchen table. And that’s what we’re going to get done."
Here are the highlights of Trump's response
"We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. We had never done so well. Every – everybody was amazed by it. Other countries were copying us."
"The only jobs he created are for illegal immigrants and bounceback jobs; they’re bounced back from the COVID." [We passed "bounce back a long time ago]
"But other than that, we had – we had given them back a – a country where the stock market actually was higher than pre-COVID, and nobody thought that was even possible."
Here is the Dow on January 31, 2020: "The Dow
plummeted 603.41 points, or 2.09%, to close at 28,256.03"
Here is the Dow on Election day: 27,480.03 [in trumpworld, 28 is bigger than 27]
Here is the Dow today (last Friday, of course) 39,375.87
Please analyze the statements above for coherence.
Yes, they believe they'll prosper. It's turned into one big fat propaganda machine for clicks & views. They don't care what will happen if the orange man gets back in there, because they will be on his side. I've seen this coming for a while, and saw it start to switch probably 6-7 years ago. They aren't journalists anymore and are singing to the tune of owners who are probably either cult members, in bed with cult members, listening to cult members, or are far-right leaning. It's obvious to me.
Being on his side isn’t the same thing as being fawning and obsequious and without that, their freedom to keep going is endangered. I agree they don’t care—some of the reporters may, very well, but they are required to spout the party line far too often. Or simply have what they are actually saying obliterated by a headline that contradicts what they are actually saying. But the honchos—yes.
I just think they are really stupid to think ANYONE can be “enough” on Trump’s side to survive.
If they bend to his will, they'll survive. Well, only if he wins in November. If not, then yes, they are endangered because the people's will can weed them out. Not sure when, because corporations have great power/control in this country right now. The writers are being told what they can and cannot write about, which makes them flunkies. I've seen some really good ones forced out of their corporation because they wouldn't do what boss-man said. SMFH
We don't need to see another debate to know what to do. Personally, I don't care to see a lying man lie over & over again. Biden isn't a great orator anyway. Bump that. Forget that. Just focus on what needs to be done to get Pres. Biden over the finish line.
Don't know what brought this column on for you but thanks for writing it. I too was thinking broad thoughts this morning on my daily health walk. I was thinking about these right wing justices who at this point have become completely radicalized and how it's lost on them that as Supreme Court Justices they have immense power over peoples' lives, especially marginalized people, and that they do not seem capable of contemplating the gravity of that and the fact that they are there to serve and protect not only their partisans but also a whole lot of people they don't like or approve of. Maybe I'm naive but I think past justices had a greater sense of being mindful of how their decisions would affect people who were "not on their side" politically and culturally. These guys today are now just hacks and people see them for that. And it's corrosive.
If I thought that a new candidate would actually be able to beat trump, I would hope Biden would resign for his own sake. My greatest fear that the whole party has lost credibility over this internecine bickering. Our biggest task is no longer just "getting out the vote" but being sure every voter understands Project 2025.
I just read the section of the Project on Education. While a lot of trump supporters are religious zealots, not all are. What do THEY think of taxpayer dollars going to religious schools carte-blanche? Have they thought about them going to MUSLIM religious schools? And the section bashes accreditation. Trump Universities and all sorts of frauds unleashed.
The section on trans people are atrocious and can easily be extended to any sexual preference. To show one absurdity, no teacher would be able to call you by any name not on your birth certificate without WRITTEN parental consent--so if you get a nickname that both kids and teachers use, without that written consent you can be SUED by the parent. Even if an Elizabeth decides she likes Betty better.
And it claims that Parental Rights should have the same "high" status as freedom of speech and religion (they call it "religious freedom" which is code for ignoring laws), despite the fact that "parental" is no more in the Constitution than "abortion" is.
READ the damn thing. In chunks, as you'll never get through 900 pages in one sitting. Don't just take the "bullet points" analyses--only with examples of absurdity from the verbiage will it become real. And start TALKING about the absurdities you find, to anyone, in any forum, within sound of your voice or keyboard.
Related but on a more humorous note (these are dark times, yes, but we still need to laugh) -
I saw a video recently where a trump supporter was asked about project 2025. She was informed that the writers want to ban porn. She responded with something like "I'm in porn!"
Leopards, faces, etc.
What are the Democrats doing to stop it? Oh yeah, nothing. That's on them, not us! How dare they not uphold their oath of office to PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AGAINST ALL ENEMIES BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC.
You have made the same argument several times now. Honest question: what do you think the Democrats should or could be doing? They voted to impeach Trump twice, they have pursued investigations and prosecutions of Trump and many of his henchmen, arrested and prosecuted over a thousand people involved in Jan 6, and have strongly backed his policy agenda. It is unclear what you expect "the democrats" or Biden administration to be doing..
I don't care 🤣 THEIR JOBS🤦♀️ You know PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AGAINST ALL ENEMIES BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. It's what we PAY THEM TO DO.
Blaming again, eh? You really do need to stop that. It looks as weak as the people you're saying this about.
All of this shows me how wrong I was when I thought Nixon scraped the bottom of the barrel. Ollie North came close. Trump couldn't come close to fulfilling his oath of office--the oath should be the yardstick for evaluating his acts.
I'd like to retire but I can't afford it and besides, I enjoy public service. Now, more than ever with Trump showing us all what he thinks of public service--which is not at all. The public is that inconvenient piece of gum on the bottom of his shoe.
Just ask the hapless families trying to rent a space in he and his dad's apartment buildings. Or the hapless contractors in Atlantic City. Or those poor kids otherwise known as the Central Park Five. Yep, he's built himself quite a house on sand.
"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." Matthew 7:24-27
I'm looking for that great fall of Trumpety Dumpty that can't be put back together again. Trump has 0 capacity for redemption.
He's certainly cracked. Read up on his dad and grandfather. Fascinating stuff. Whorehouses are part of the story.
Thank you Chris.
We must move forward.
Secure our democracy
from Trump and Project 2025.
We must have a blue trifecta
in November to bring about
the changes that are
imperative. We, the people,
can bring a lot of pressure to
bear on our congress and
senate to bring about better
change.
These are indeed times to try
ones soul.
I think it’s best to forget about hope and just do the right thing, and try to get others to as well, whether we have hope or not. I’m going down right, that is, if we are going down. And I think we are, politically, ecologically. Between rising fascism, carbon, and nukes, to name three things that are not wholly unrelated by a long shot, I doubt we’ll make it out of this century with any kind of decent organized existence. Functional or even literal extinction is a real possibility.
Do the right thing, anyway. Embrace some “un-American” existentialism. It helps.
Very well said.
Chris, I think most of us agree on the failure of our government as you laid out. However, it's the question, "what should we do next," where we seem to splinter apart.
I love Joe Biden! I'm 75 years old and he is the first president in my life time who is a true liberal who has fought for the working class. But I also have eyes and ears. I watched the entire debate. When it was over I and every person in the room watching it with me, said, "He must stop running. There's something wrong."
In my gut I felt such pain because I always laughed at the MAGA crowd and how they would believe anything. But that debate showed me that there is something wrong with the President. That wasn't a cold, it wasn't being tired from a European trip 11 days earlier, and it wasn't normal ageing. No one can tell me not to believe my lying eyes. My eyes didn't lie.
It hurts even more as his inner circle circled the wagons and demanded that we not ask questions, that we take them at their word: Joe is fine, no problem here. Where is Jill Biden, where is Obama? Is there a single person in that inner circle who will tell Biden that for THE SAKE OF THE COUNTRY, he must bow out of the race? We absolutely need an open convention, no two ways about it.
Lastly, and this is difficult to say, no one is talking about the elephant in the room. But I'm going to say it because it's nothing to be ashamed of or afraid of, and because it is in my room, too. I have Parkinsons, and I believe Joe Biden does, too. His body screams it. He and his inner circle have to tell us the truth and open up the presidential race to a younger generation.
I actually said the same thing while watching it with a bunch of people on RMU. Something was wrong. Pres. Biden is a proud man right now, and won't step down this close to an election. If he's forced down, then Kamala can take over. But, someone better get their ass in gear and campaign if she takes over before November 4, 2024. I do not believe there's enough time left for anybody to campaign & win against the monster felon.
My wife distilled it pretty well by saying that this feels like the car dealership scene in Fargo and we’re all the customer who buys the car from Jerry Lundegard. We’re grudgingly signing the contract, but there’s no question who the bamboozler is in this dichotomy.
I hate to say it, Chris, but the quiet part has been said aloud by the party’s chosen mouthpiece at the debate: it’s plain that he isn’t fit and that the Democratic Party are nothing but inept salespeople. The onslaught of emails I have been getting from the Biden campaign have sounded at turns both desperate and pedantic. I think they cynically understand that most of us will vote blue anyway because Trump is an immoral grotesque, but it’s not inspiring to understand that this is the last strategy they are banking on.
What I think everyone wants to know is “Who’s in charge here?” If voting is our job, we’ve been doing it. If, in the meantime being critical of something worthy of critique is considered a threat to something purportedly worthy of support, then those in charge HAVE FAILED TO INSPIRE THE REQUISITE SUPPORT; the rest of the campaign after that is preemptively scolding us for not doing our part.
Maybe someone should have seen what was plain: that RBG would not live forever. But apparently no one was in charge at that point either.
Also, Chris, please let me say that I sincerely respect your passion, I’m grateful to have you on our side and I’m proud to say that we were classmates (even though you once made fun of me for mispronouncing a word during a drama club read-through, ha ha.) No matter what the Democrats do, I truly hope Trump loses or dies on the toilet beforehand. I don’t know if my words help, but keep up the good work.
Hi there! And thanks for the kind words. (And, oops, sorry?!)
But, as to your larger part, yes, it's clearly not ideal, and not where I would want us to be right now. I definitely agree with that. As for the "who's in charge" question, I think the ultimate answer keeps coming back to us — as dissatisfying as that can feel.
Then, with us being here, I guess I'm trying to think about how we move forward and what that looks like.
At least in the case of SCOTUS and the GOP, is it failure or complicity? And does it really matter?
I do wonder how much of the problem is structural, and how much would have happened anyway. Single-member constituencies with first-past-the-post voting tends to lead to a two-party system. And that means both parties need to plausibly be able to govern a democracy. Because voters always need an alternative to the governing party. When one of the parties chooses to go forward on a path that doesn't include human rights, civil liberties, and democratic principles, then either the voters have no choice, which is bad, or, even worse and what appears to be happening now, the voters have no choice but behave as if they do.
Besides that weakness, there are a lot of other biases in our constitution that favor upholding traditional power structures, which at their core are deeply illiberal. The party that's gone bad is also the party that has needed far fewer actual voter ballots cast in its favor to gain those powers.
So if I blame our predicament on a rotten constitution, that's what I mean. I don't know how much a better system would have kept the demons at bay, and how much instead is down to our country's rotten people. We might find that out by what happens next.
It's the people. Rotten to their core, and I bet most of them complaining right now don't even vote. If they do, I bet they don't vote locally. Also being incredibly disingenuous. People are lazy these days and want to be entertained more then they want to be knowledgeable. Their attention spans are like fleas and the quiet part they're not saying is, "Research? What's that?"
I'm telling you, there's millions of ignorant people in this country and now I'm seeing this full-force. Yikes!
Let's assume most of the public has no idea how the legal system works, how the government works, how to find out, or where to find reliable and accurate information. What are you going to do about it? Rather than berate and denounce people who don't know things, why not use that energy to find ways to inform them?
Because I'm doing enough for "people", I've been telling people these things, and they need not be so useless. I write, I'm a content creator, international mentor, leader who refuses to be targeted by white racists, and it's not all on me. I learned civics in school, and was a self-taught software consultant. I figured it out with nobody's help. So, not knowing is no excuse. Too much out there to learn from.
I'm also a veteran who says what people won't say ... out loud, in public, in private, online, and boldly.
What do YOU do? Make comments to comments? Hmmm. I am the tough love type; ask my sons. LOL
What I do is try to educate myself, avoid certainty, and make confrontational art. I did not learn civics or U.S. history in school. I had to teach myself all of that stuff and am still working on it in my 60s. It is impossible to know everything.
I think not knowing IS an excuse. Maybe I've met more isolated, insular, and marginally functional people than you have. Some people are intimidated and afraid to admit what they don't know. Plus, if they don't know what they don't know, and nothing challenges them to ask questions, why would they? Seems like most are just trying to get through the day. Environment matters. Social influences matter. You never know what someone is dealing with or what led them to where they are now.... Until you find out.
If your situation is as you describe, and you've spent all kinds of time trying to teach people, I can appreciate how that could be frustrating. I'd probably be pissed off, too.
Maybe I'm just naive. That's possible. Do I make comments to comments? Not usually, although it's a fair question. I do wish people didn't feel the need to constantly treat each other like shit without provocation, but that is entirely my own issue.
I'm the soft touch type. Ask MY sons.
You misunderstand my emotions, and I bet you haven't met more disenfranchised people than I have. I've been rich, poor, and in between. I've been homeless several times in my life, and I'm in my 60's too.
Listen, people are willfully ignorant. I'm not pissed-off about that. I'm pissed-off of things I've had to endure because of people's attitudes about everything that goes on in life in AmeriKKKa. Yeah, I'm frustrated that folks don't just go out and learn the basics of civics. You don't have to be an expert to know how to vote, find out who rules over your district, and ask questions. You just don't. All you have to do is care and have a duty to do so. I don't know everything ... not even close. But, I'm compassionate and justice is high on my list. I do more for people than most do sitting at home. You just don't know.
You have no idea about my story, so don't assume. Having to deal with racism 24x7, 365 puts a certain edge on a guy who is as real as I am. Same with transphobia and homophobia for many decades before I began my transition. I'm not taking your head off, but I felt like you were questioning my integrity, so I'm questioning yours. What you see is what you get with me, and despite my nervousness about what goes on in this country, I have a huge sense of humor and am fun to be around. Folks just don't get to see a lot of that on a publication like this.
I speak for SAGE sometimes, do private talks with various organizations around the country, was part of the diversity training at the VA for interns, have had articles written about me, and so on. I'm trying to push into the media, then I will unleash what's really on my mind.
I am tough on everybody, because that's part of my purpose of waking them up. I'm not all about me, myself, and I. You have your thing as a mom, and I have mine as a father & leader. I refuse to cross-over and am not afraid. That's why the dynamic of men & women in the family works. Don't expect men to become women to be effective. The gender wars need to end, and everybody needs to respect how they are in the world. Yin & yang are necessary energy forces in this world.
Black folks are less naive because of what we deal with, without opt-out cards ... always. Anyway, it's been real. Peace!
The DNC have been letting local seats go uncontested in rural America. Both state and local.
I don't want to hear from you, Chicken Little Jasmine. Let me make sure you're the one with the bleeding heart around here.
Chris, it would be hard to overstate my appreciation for this blog (or whatever you call it) today. On so many levels.
Mick T
Thanks for this piece. It was what I needed.