We Have a Winner Here

American politics can be volatile, unpredictable, cruel and vicious, and crazy all at the same time.  We've had three weeks of all of that rolled into one and it has been emotionally draining for those of us who, for the most part, watched it through the stained, distorted lens of a biased media.  I cannot imagine how it felt, for President Biden in particular, along with his advisors and close associates and his family, along with all of the other Democratic party leaders who were engaged in that drama.  

Personally, I remain unconvinced that President Biden would have lost the election.  It very likely would have been closer than it was in 2020, because the media kept the issue of the President's age right up in front of the news cycle.  Had he gone into that debate and delivered the kind of performance he did during the 2020 campaign, I wonder if things would be different now?  There's still the issue of the polling data, and thresholds they appeared to be monitoring in their internal data that apparently were not convincing.  Democrats have raised the stakes on this election to a very high level, considering Trump as an existential threat to American democracy.  I believe he is.  And I think the pressure of that belief has a lot to do with the panic and chaos that was the response to the President's debate performance. 

Maybe I'm more naive than I think, but I have difficulty imagining that enough of the American people would vote for this potential despot to elect him to office, after seeing his anti-patriotic outbursts which included instigating and orchestrating a violent attack on the Capitol during a joint session of Congress for the purpose of counting electoral votes that he had lost.  And if his election is even remotely possible, then I'm fearful for the future of the country, a good portion of which has lost not only its common sense, but its understanding of American idealism and the blessings and benefits provided by constitutional democracy.  

Joe Biden will go down in history as one of the best, most effective Presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt.  We've had some giants during this time, so that's saying a lot.  He did not deserve the manner in which this was handled, and the past three weeks of chaos and confusion must have been horrible for him.  The party must find a way, during the Convention, not only to apologize, but to make up for it.  I'm sure that will happen.  

We Are Ready for Kamala Harris

Back in 2020, the Democratic party provided its nominee with one of the strongest "benches" from which to choose a Vice-President that I can remember in a long, long time.  I thought then that Senator Harris, along with Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, would have been excellent nominees, and that we might be successful with an all-woman ticket.  It didn't turn out that way, but when President Biden chose her as his Vice-President, I remember posting on social media, much to the dismay of some of my friends, that this could well make her America's first female President.  

That possibility has moved much closer to being reality over the past few days.  I have been around for a while, and I have never seen the Democratic party fall into such confusion and chaos as I saw the past three weeks.  We have a knack for this kind of thing, don't we?  

I have also never seen it get its act together, clear up the confusion and chaos, and pull itself back together, uniting behind a candidate, in such a short period of time.  This all happened Sunday, and now it's Tuesday.  There are already polls out showing Harris leading Trump, she has already secured more than enough delegate support to win the nomination, which she will have before the convention, the process for vetting the next VP nominee is already underway.  

There was some concern that the ugliness of the politics of the past three weeks, associated with the donor class and its apparent manipulation of the party's nomination process, might continue on into a fight over who they wanted to be the nominee as opposed to who the party's grassroots members wanted.  That cleared up really quickly.  I'm not happy with donors who want to control processes because of the influence of their money, as opposed to those of us who volunteer, work on behalf of the party, and contribute, even though it is a small amount, but it is a sacrifice.  And I'm in favor of solid legislation that puts everyone on an equal playing field.  But we seem to be past that now.  

Yes, She Can Win This 

The presence of Trump, and all of the baggage he brings into the campaign, makes this a winnable election, in terms used in the past, "for a yellow dog."  Joe Biden in a coma would be a better President than Donald Trump.  His failed presidency, along with his criminal record, his friendship with dictators who hate our country, his Supreme Court justice nominees and his association with, and intention to implement the draconian Project 2025, engineered by the fascist, extremist Heritage Foundation, all contribute to the ceiling that hangs over this three-time Republican nominee who has never won the popular vote.  If not for the quirks of electoral college politics, I would not be worried about this election at all.  

But, with Vice President Harris as the nominee, I think our odds of winning go way up.  I think the potential voters were already out there, but the Vice President has already brought a level of energy to this campaign that we had not seen before now.  Turnout wins elections.  The Democratic base is energized like it hasn't been since before the mid-term elections.  

One of my favorite books recently is On Tyranny:  Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder, Levin Professor of History at Yale University.  Here's one of my favorite quotes: 

Stand out.  Someone has to.  It is easy to follow along.  It can feel strange to do or say something different.  But without that unease, there is no freedom.  Remember Rosa Parks.  The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.  

Kamala Harris broke the spell of the status quo.  Others are following.  We have a winner here.  

Let's make sure we turn out, bring our independent and third party neighbors with us to this table, and elect the first woman President of the United States.  It is long past time.