“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard” – H.L. Mencken.
The bottom line, I think, is that women, African-Americans and many young people are just tired of old and nasty white men trying to take over their lives, dominate them, tell them who to marry, what to learn and read, make voting difficult, and above all, how and when to have children, perhaps the most private of all the rights in the world.
This is their chance to make a stand that will not ever be forgotten.
Donald Trump, who was known for being in the right places at the right time, is way out of touch with the modern world, politically and culturally.
He is now both boring, predictable and unstable. And nasty. He sounds more and more like Al Capone than a President.
His time is over, he looks a wreck.
(Photo: The Coconut Tree.)
As an older white man, I have committed myself to stepping out of the way and supporting women like my amazing wife, who has been free to build on and support her own life.
This is something women are demanding, and as I see it, are now powerful enough to get it. The nasty old men are tired, ugly and unpleasant. They have nothing to offer but yesterday, darkness, complaint, hatred and fear.
I don’t listen to what people say, I watch for what people do, and what people are doing right now is going to get Kamela Harris elected, if the first critical week is worth anything. And it always is.
Here are some figures – not mostly useless polls or media pundits – that suggest what is really happening in the election and is likely to happen in the future months..
In July of 2024, the most important indicator is not in any poll. It is culture and communication.
Just go on TikTok with a teenager or cousin or grandchild as I did this morning, and you will see an extraordinary explosion on the world’s most popular website around Kamala Harris’s week old campaign.
Within six hours of launching her website on TikTok, Harris had drawn one million visitors, including Taylor Swift and all of her music. Pro-Harris memes have mushroomed not only on TikTok but across the entird platforms of social media which is, where you may know, that young people go to get their news (hint: that is not the New York Times or Fox News or MSNBC).
A wildly popular (in the U.S.) British pop singer named Charli XCX gave Harris a name – “BRAT” – which is both the title of her sixth studio album with its bright colored cover and now a Gen Z summer soundtrack.
This set off a massive and rapidly growing series of TikTok memes featuring the same shade of green with a video of Harris. They are becoming the official colors of the Harris campaign.
This is not your grandfather’s election story.
Then came the coconut memes, revisiting a May 2023 speech in which Harris spoke about “a difference between equality and equity.” In that speech, Harris quoted her stern mother criticizing young people: “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the contest of all in which you live and what came before you.”
While Donald Trump was calling the vice president “dumb as a rock”, hundreds of thousands of young followers were embracing her and her symbols and memes and taking her into their lives, sending her money and volunteering for her campaign.
Harris launched her arrival on TikTok with a video, read 5.8 million times in two days.
Kids are sloppy followers in politics but reliable leaders. They are, after all, the future. Donald Trump is very proud of being the past. This is what makes him such an awful politician.
The smear machine just doesn’t have time to massacre this candidate, she is young and sharp and tough. Four months gives her the time she needs to win and not enough to destroy her.
Here’s another stat for anxious Democrats and progressives to ponder as they wring their hands in worry and uncertainty: Harris raised $126 million dollars between Sunday afternoon and Tuesday evening last week. That is a record for all of American political history.
More than 100,000 people signed up to volunteer for Harris’s campaign last week, (many of them young people who were not planning to vote for President Biden or Donald Trump and were disgusted by the choices) and more than 2,000 applied for campaign positions.
Many were women who were not excited about President Biden. And still more were black women who were beginning to drift away from the Democratic Party. Lots were young people drifting away.
These are the most important votes for the Democratic Party, the young, women, black women, suburban women, moderate women, independent women, angry women (about abortion rights), older women, and women women.
You can check each one, Harris is what they want, not Biden or Trump.
Unlike Trump, who is coming apart at the seams – he called Harris 12 different ugly names in two days of ranting and can’t come up with the right insulting name yet – Harris is keeping her stuff together, looking cheerful, happy and smart.
The other thing to understand Trump’s frantic hysteria and name-calling, is that it will only get worse, mostly to his detriment. For pundits and those of your out there hoping for civility and Greek philosophical discourse, give it up and suck it up.
What I tell myself is that it will get worse before it gets better, but it will get better. No trembling here.
It it is important to remember that if he loses, Trump could lose his business, freedom, and control of the Republican Party. He might not even be left with Mar-a-Largo, his precious winter home. And perhaps even much of his family (and those golf courses, too.)
If the Democrats win, at least three serious federal and state charges and trials will continue in one form or another. Contrary to media hysterity, the Supreme Court did not give complete immunity to this or future presidents. Judges can make numerous exceptions.
If he wins the election, he can cancel all of his hopes to gain power, throw his enemies in jail, and take apart the federal government (and don’t forget the Department of Education and the FBI). So, the stakes for him are incredibly serious, especially for a man nearing 80 years old with obvious cognitive problems similiar to President Biden’s.
This accounts for the very grim ferocity, ugliness and cruelty of the race, which will worsen as Trump panics and loses control of the narrative. Going to jail, say reporters who cover him, terrifies him more than anything. And being a loser is the next worse.
For him, everything depends on winning. Kamala Harris has already won to a degree and can go on with her future even if she loses.
If you believe that our democracy will be threatened or destroyed with a Trump victory, then for you, the stakes will also be intense and very high. You will be anxious. Be prepared.
The potential consequences of a Trump victory are significant, and it’s crucial to stay informed and engaged. Learn to meditate.
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“Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.” – H.L. Mencken.
