Category: One Man’s Truth

“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, here by a kindly word, always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”

– Saint Terese, The Little Flower.

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I believe in doing small acts of kindness. That’s what the Army of Good is all about. That’s what a good chunk of my life is about.

I am not a follower or soldier raging or fretting over the big things that rack our country every day. I see it as a trap and a cesspool, and I won’t step into it.

One of my heroes is St. Terese, who inspired me to commit small acts of great kindness as often as I can. Today, I’m sharing one of those stories to illustrate my point—first, some context.

I don’t believe that this awful escalating civil conflict – it’s not a war even with LA – will resolve much of anything, or bring the country together, or allow our leaders to work together for the common good rather than arguing about what it is.

Everyone has their agenda, and it never seems to be what is suitable for ordinary people.

No, our democracy is not in imminent danger of being destroyed, not by shipping thousands of soldiers back and forth to stand and look serious while the local police do the hard work all around them.

Nothing will come of it other than to puff up the egos of politicians and the hate and fear of the less powerful. I can’t help but think of the $138 million it has cost so far to send all those soldiers to Los Angeles to stand in doorways and feel manly.  I wonder how many young people could go to college on that.

To me, this is not the most dangerous thing that ever happened in our Republic (do you know about the American Civil War?). Our country is in trouble, but it is not Donald Trump’s doing. Just look in the mirror.

We got deaf and blind at the same time.

I don’t know how fierce they are in combat, but our soldiers are out in the open, and they certainly know how to dress in the best military merch and drive the latest, high-performance combat cars.

I have a hunch this isn’t what the Marines signed up for – guarding men and women in masks creeping around in the night and pulling moms right out of the arms of their babies and shipping them far away in the night.

There is so much to be angry at, I’ll pass.

It would be helpful to people’s nerves and to the truth if the media didn’t constantly announce the end of freedom and democracy, and an imminent constitutional collision, to be upon us daily.

You’d think they might know Donald Trump by now since they talk to him every day of their existence to their companies’ good fortune. Whatever else he is, President Trump is a gift from the heavens to news organizations and a source of significant income. He also defines the very idea of not knowing shit beyond entertaining.

It’s doubtful he’s ever glanced at the constitution or has the least Ben interest in it. He just goes around it the way, wealthy, famous, and successful men have a habit of doing with mortal things.

His mark is to threaten chaos and unleash it, and then be the hero who turns the lights off.

People also seem to have forgotten that billionaires and corporations now own our primary news organizations, and they do not wake up agonizing over truth and free speech. He is a wet dream come true for most of our most respected news organizations.

If you have thought about Trump rather than just railed about him, you would know that from his vantage point, the crisis in Los Angeles is long over, and he is, to his followers, already the victor.  Once he announced that he had triumphed and protected law and order, he won. It was all he needed, it was all he wanted.

 Now the reporters and pod casters will slobber him all the more. If you follow the heroes of Ancient Greece, you probably know the faith of those who fly too close to the sun and for too long. It never ends well.

Trump left the California leaders shocked and stymied, on the defensive and unsure. Trump has a very clear message, luck it or not. Then democrats don’t have one.

President Trump can now tell one of his whopper lies. He started immediately  – he saved Los Angeles from destruction by woke leaders and their naive and weak followers. He could order the best props in the world – soldiers-to fly to Los Angeles and look grim.

It’s like there is a script for this, and everyone on all sides follows it to the T.

Next, he’ll be blaming Joe Biden for reasons we can’t quite recall or grasp.

The last thing Donald Trump wants is a bloody civil war with California, and one of his favorite and most useful nemesis,  the governor of the state.

None of this will change anything but the Presidential Election in 3 years. That might have changed. I’m not biting this time. I know who Trump is and I know who his opponents are so far. I’m still struggling to tell the difference.

Hatred and conspiracy voices online are a permanent part of our cultural lives now. I  accept them all and wish them well. They have absolutely nothing to do with my life. I love my life and all the things in it, good or bad.

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I’m with Sister Terese, the Little Flower. Small acts of kindness will end this awful and endless conflict. It works. I have an example of an approach I’m trying. I live in an area where MAGA culture is predominant.

Here is an example of what I mean, of what I am trying to do

Last week, the oil company mechanics visited the farm to conduct its annual cleaning and inspection of the burner, ensuring it was ready for our brutal winters.

He said all was well.

A day or so later, we noticed water in the basement. The burner was leaking. Water in the basement of an old farmhouse is never a good thing.  We put down pans. The next morning, I called the company and reported what had happened. We’ll send somebody over, they said. In about half an hour, two workmen showed up, both friendly, courteous, and eager to get to work and fix the leak.

It took them an hour, but it was fixed, and yesterday the man who came to clean should have spotted it. They said we would only be charged for a piece they replaced, not for labor.

Two hours later, I realized this was an opportunity to employ my “small things” strategy – focusing on the small things and doing them well. I decided to call the heating oil office. An experienced, tough, and take-no-prisoners secretary answered the phone. I could almost feel her tense up, and I can only imagine the calls she gets all winter.

I told her that I just wanted to say thank you for sending a repair crew so quickly, and for fixing the leak. The two plumbers were a pleasure, courteous, friendly, honest, hard-working – we heard a lot of banging and sawing upstairs.

There was a long silence. “Are you there?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said, “I’m just shocked, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a call like this in the 12 years I’ve been working here.”

For a minute, I thought she was about to cry, and I asked if she was okay. “Yes, oh yes, I am so glad you called. I didn’t know what to say.” And we said goodbye and hung up. I was glad I wasn’t calling a corporate phone tree, you know the ones where they insist they are desperate for your feedback, but you know they’re not and that you’ll never hear from them again.

How simple a thing it was to call this woman on the telephone and thank her for treating us so well. It seemed to be a big thing to her; she was speechless, I could feel it. When I think of what my country needs, that is what my country needs: small acts of great kindness, every day, in every way.

Donald Trump is not important to me, and I don’t hate him or his angry followers. He and Governor Newsom seemed to be having a good time hurling insults and warnings at one another, up to their neck in posturing and drama. Everybody was feeling outrage and anger.

I had the feeling that both of them were launching their big agendas – Newsom to be president, and Trump to get his beautiful bill passed and draw attention away from his many not-so-beautiful tariffs, presidential orders, and blunders. Just wait until your children,  parents,  the veterans now in LA,  and grandparents try to get to a hospital or reach Social Security on the phone or get health care when they most need it.

He will not destroy our democracy; he will not destroy Harvard University (as he has proven, influential people with tons of money always survive, from lawyers to CEOs). He won’t destroy diversity either. It’s not embedded in the DNA.

What happened on the phone, let’s call her Donna, was important. That is the way to fight back that will matter to people. Talk to them. Get to know them.  Be nice to them. Look for people who have nowhere else to go and help them. That is my way: small acts of great kindness.

St. Terese brought a white Rose with her wherever she went. It was her badge of charity.

Yesterday was a significant day in American politics. Two men formally declared cultural and political war.

If you are into reading between the lines, there was big news of a surprising kind.

California Governor launched his now almost certain campaign for the Presidency. He showed himself to be the politician so many democrats eagerly want, just as Trump is the Republican so many in his party wanted.

President Trump has declared war on California for some time, a cultural, political assault on a political enemy and a state he sees as anathema to his plans for the country.

Newsom is ready to fight back.

Do Trump and his bloodthirsty supporters want to see U.S. Marines cordon off protesters in Los Angeles streets and shoot at them? That’s hard for me to believe.

This contempt for diversity and assault on political opponents is a lot trickier than the media seems to have figured out.

The states that contribute the most to federal taxes are those with the largest populations and higher incomes: California, New York, Texas, Florida, and Illinois. Newsom has already suggested withholding California tax payments to the government, as the state gives $80 billion more to the government than it receives back. You can bet Newsom, who speaks to other governors all the time, has brought it up.

These states also have higher federal income tax payments per household.  And higher average federal income tax payments per household.

Opposition states have not yet really even begun to fight back against Trump’s rampage seriously. Newsom is the first governor to do it without secrecy or apology.

He and Newsome are both about to make history.

It will be interesting to see whether the LA confrontation will spark more opposition or quell it further. Newsom and the firmness of the assault on Harvard University, along with the school’s fight back, make me think we are on the edge of seeing much more of that.

(Good lord, you can feel it if you turn off the news and listen and look. Backlash.)

That’s what it feels like, and as usual, the media, tied to laptops in Washington studios, would have no idea about it until it was on them.

Trump, the world’s most self-destructive politician, is overdoing it. And we haven’t gotten to the simmering economic mess unfolding, which may lead to a possible recession. Since there is no one around him to stop him, he is rushing right towards the cliff.

People who know Trump say this is his MRO: when he gets into trouble, he creates a crisis or distraction  – sometimes every day – so he can be a hero almost every day. That is what this confrontation feels like.

Trump is widely known as a bully and a coward. When the shooting starts, he usually hides or finds someone else to take the heat. California will give us a good look at the truth of that.

It’s easy to bluster and declare war. It’s much harder to fight it, a lesson America has never quite learned.

Sending the Marines into Los Angeles will rank, I believe, as a grievous miscalculation, just like his friend, Putin, to think he could take over Ukraine in a couple of days.

Trump has, I think, just created the leader the Democratic Party was desperately looking for.  I don’t know Newsom well, but my guess is they have their leader to fight the fight. I’m impressed. He’s handsome, articulate, open-minded, and ready to fight.

Sending the Marines into Los Angeles was a defining moment in the Trump Presidency and what it stands for, and also for the millions of people who oppose him.

At this point, it’s all theater. But it has great symbolism. It’s no accident his concern for Los Angeles comes just ahead of Republican votes he needs to pass his beautiful tax bill for the rich. Few senators will challenge a war leader.

I guess all the people reading this know by now that the protests turned into small riots at times, but were quickly quelled by a seasoned police force. The people of Los Angeles were not asking for any help. Neither was the Governor.

What is this confrontation really about?  Trump wanted it and has been preparing for it; it’s just the red meat he was wanting to throw to his followers on the eve of a critical vote and troubled economy.

His MAGA followers will love him for it; his many opponents will be both horrified, confused, and frightened.

And increasingly, angry.

The Democrats forgot that Trump has the support of half of the country. Trump is making the same mistake about the Democrats.

The Blue State governors are the hope of the future. I bet Newsom is already stirring them up. They run half the country.

It’s now apparent that Gavin Newsom is running for president.

JD Vance is preparing to campaign against Newsom, along with the structure and movement we call MAGA. Trump challenged California in a way he has not challenged any single political figure or “Blue” state.

The Republicans are delighted. This is a fight they have all been waiting for. California symbolizes almost everything they hate.

One bright spot for the opposition to Trump is Newsom, whether one likes him or not. He is an interesting candidate, charismatic and intelligent.

(Oh yes, and Elon Musk is weakening and praising the President for invading LA. Just what the country wants and needs, these two are friends again, of course.)

He challenged Trump in a way he had not yet been criticized, immediately filed a lawsuit against the military occupation, and defied the loudmouth head of ICE to come and get him, as he threatened to do if the Governor condemned the assault on the immigrants.

He also called Trump a liar, something the media knows well but rarely mentions.  Trump claimed victory before the soldiers he sent had even arrived.

Trump is a skilled producer of conspiracy and drama.  But not the truth. That will catch up to him one day. I believe in truth.  Get some popcorn, said one pundit.

The drama – and it is a drama – will certainly go quickly to the Supreme Court. It is unclear how the court will proceed or what it will decide.  We’ll find out.

I can’t speak for his moment, but I see that Trump is moving towards filling Joe Biden’s spot as the politician most Americans will love to hate. He’s giving too many interviews, clearly addicted to being interviewed and noticed. And change is exciting, but also exhausting.

He’s not just the news, but the only news; however, as he ages and continues to bar any criticism or challenge, it’s his time to provoke the change he was elected to bring. You can talk too much, and he is.

People who love him are tiring of him, and people who hate him have just bout had it with him, as California demonstrates. His party is already thinking about life after him, and he will be a tough act to follow.

So far, what we are seeing is a show, theater, or drama.  It is not yet a civil war, but the most serious of cultural and political divides.

It is thin, and is wearing thin. I don’t believe his followers are too blind to see through him as the harm he is doing to rural areas becomes more visible by the day –  veterans ignored, fired government workers, rural aid and health care abolished, food pantries struggling to survive, hard-working and popular immigrants furious and terrified, prices rising, rising.

Those stories of mothers and children being so roughly separated and masked men and women of the night pulling terrified people out of bed and factories and disappearing them are beginning ot take their toll.

Trump is getting old and showing it, just as his predecessor did. He has only so much hair to comb over his head.

Age is one thing; even he can’t blame it on the Democrats. It will have its way with him.

I can’t say I can predict what’s going to happen, but I’m not ready to panic, flee to Canada, or prepare for Armageddon. It’s a time to be steady, steadfast, and full of hope.

“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.

Yesterday, Donald Trump gave me a good laugh – this is unusual –  when he told his cult followers at one of his rallies that there would be no more “Mr. Nice Guy.”

He was taking the gloves off.

No more Mr. Nice Guy? I am sorry to have missed that. Nobody even laughed.

That did get my attention, and I noticed my draw dropping just a little bit.

I’ve often described myself as crazy, but as odd as it seems, I’m feeling saner by the day lately.

I was trying to imagine what it must be like to go to one of those Trump gatherings and listen to his  “niceness” for a few hours now that we will miss it.

Was it when he vowed to build the biggest concentration camp the world has ever known for illegal immigrant refugees?

Or when he promised to throw his political opponents in jail when he takes office? It may be time to build that bunker under the barn.

Will he come to speak near me? Mr. Trump will not come too close to the farm, but I might go and buy a ticket.

I’d love to catch Mr. Trump before he stops being nice and takes the gloves off.

I might also get a couple of those huge red hats for the donkeys—it would keep some flies off their ears.

It’s time to get the kids off to safety and the animals in their barns. The new non-nice Trump is coming, and maybe he will bring tea to some grandmothers and miserable cat ladies before he changes.

At the same time, Trump was tired of being friendly, President Biden gave his sad but finally honest reasons for giving up the ghost.

The softness of his message struck me and what I foolishly thought was the cruelty and rage of Trump’s two-hour rampage in North Carolina.

They are indeed different in their approaches, those fading old men. . Trump sells a lot more hats and sneakers than President Biden ever did.

I lost track of all the names Trump has called people, and I wondered if anyone who knew how to talk without anger and cruelty was left working for him or near him. Surprisingly, he has gotten boring.

Anyone who was “nice” was  either not hired or “dismissed quickly.”

I picture the job interview as beginning with someone foaming at the mouth or showing their Dracula joke teeth. Friendly people are tossed out into the road and blacklisted.

Perhaps he will one day talk about what he wants to do for the country rather than what he demands the government do for him.

He volunteered that he had nearly given his life to democracy and would like to do more. How about moving to South America?

I sincerely feel bad for those real people in those red caps who have been standing out in the heat and cold for hours  listening to him be nice. It’s like watching some songbirds fly into a glass window.

They come with open hearts but are about to get betrayed once more, which is why they loved Donald Trump so much in the first place. They deserve better.

I was interested, as a fellow author, to hear about JD  Vance’s early comments as a Candidate for the United States Senate, calling Democratic women without children “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices they’ve made so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.”

How nicely put. He can be nice, too.

Tucker Carlson, the Fox News  TV host JD was trying to impress, nearly wet himself laughing. Nice begets nice.

Wow, I could never have gotten away with being that nice on one of my book tours. ( I fantasized tossing one of my dog books at an older  childless audience member who loved her dogs and then spitting on him or her.)

I’d like to know if Vance has also stopped being nice. Imagine how pleasant it would be to listen to these two excellent candidates for four more years.

No wonder Mr. Trump chose Vance. He wanted somebody to counter his niceness.

 I have learned from this.

I am resolved to be nicer to people than I have been, although listening to the Trump Ex Nice Choir makes me feel good about myself. I gulp, wondering if I had become one of those men I keep hearing about.

I looked up the dictionary meaning of nice to see what the Trump I’ve missing has been like:

I found that “nice” is defined as “pleasing, agreeable, delightful,” while “kind” is defined as “having, showing, or proceeding from benevolence.”

This difference explains why we use “nice” but not “kind” to describe things other than people and how they treat each other. I’m texting this to Mr. Trump.

So far, Kamala Harris’s instincts are good. Donald Trump, who is never quite in control of his emotions, is coming unglued.

He is spending too much time at those grotesque rallies and too little time talking to friendly and kind people.

There are many of them, and I enjoy talking to them, having dinner with them, and listening to them.

The smart money says that Trump will fall apart under a skillful assault by a powerful woman; this is a new challenge for the older, meaner Donald Trump, who seems to get meaner day by day.

I can’t wait for his farewell speech.

When I meet someone new, I always ask myself if I could picture myself having lunch or dinner with them.

I don’t think I’d invite any of the grumpy white men Mr. Trump loves to surround himself with. I don’t think he would offer me a job. Whew.

If the “nice” Trump returns, we may have lunch at Jean’s Cafe in Hoosick Falls, New York. He has a lot of followers there.

I am convinced that Vice  President Kamala Karris, with her strategic prowess, has already set the stage for defeating Donald Trump. She accomplished this in just two days, outmaneuvering her opponent, perhaps the most incompetent political strategist of the century for all his bluster.

As always, he set out to defeat himself long before  Vice President Harris had a chance. He waltzed right into her trap.

President Biden never figured out how to handle Trump and his cadre of losers, hypocrites, cowards, racists, and thugs, the ones he made the core of his already doomed movement.  The working masses who believed in him will be betrayed once again.

Harris figured it out in a day, even as Trump and his followers can’t stop calling her stupid and mediocre. The very sight of her seems to terrify him.  He’s over the top. Joe Biden certainly did not.

Black women all over the country, especially in the Swing States that will determine the November election, have been slipping away from Joe Biden for many months, according to every poll taken by every respected polling group.

This was why Nancy Pelosi was so determined to get Biden to quit; she remembered what he seemed to forget:  He could never win the election without them. Black women have been the driving force behind every national Democratic Victory for decades, even as so many young and older white men and women were drifting towards the Republican Party in half of the 50 states.

They had lost faith in President Biden.

Pelosi saw what the media, as usual, missed – Biden could never win the race against Trump that way, even as the party has been hemorrhaging moderate and independent (as well as African-American women) for a couple of years now.

Pelosi, one of the most challenging and brilliant political strategists on the planet, was not intimidated by Biden’s myopic insistence that nothing was wrong with him, a lie eroding his support worldwide. She grew up with seven brothers and is tough as nails, even at 84. Nothing is wrong with her cognition.  Trump refers to her as “Crazy Nancy Pelosi.” She loves it.

Since Sunday, a score of Republican politicians, from Trump himself to various senators and congressmen and Trump’s newest slobbering puppy, J. D. Vance (who referred to Vice President Harris recently as  “one of the “childless cat ladies” who is “miserable” with her life and too dumb and incompetent to be President,”) have been calling her ugly names, turning off women of all colors along the way.

Trump has always been an awful campaigner; His genius is degrading and humiliating opponents and ruining their confidence, smearing them with insults and many lies. His “rallies” draw the faithful but nobody else. They are endless, dull, and incoherent. Harris may have to take his keys away.

All over America, Republican politicians, led by Trump and Vance, were calling Harris dumb, incompetent, and mediocre.

Of course, disagreeing with her or pointing out some of her mistakes (and she has made some, as I have) was not enough; they felt obliged to insult and trivialize her, call her a college graduate, trial lawyer, City Attorney, and Attorney General of California dumb, among other things, and show her no kind of respect or basic courtesy. They refuse even to call her Vice President Harris.

Every target of Trump becomes an evil spirit and enemy, and every politically enslaved person who signs up with him must go along and do. The vicious assault on one of America’s most admired black women was another awful Trump mistake.

For all the people he has trashed and beaten down, this is the very thing that will almost ensure his failure this year. It is a nearly sacred truth of modern politics: Don’t insult black women and call them incompetent and stupid. It’s an old, deep trigger that angers and drives them to the polls.

Politics aims to attract voters, not turn them into opposition warriors.

Yesterday,  in one day, 40,000 African American women and thousands of African American men called into the Harris campaign to sign up as volunteers for her campaign.

Tens of thousands of white women signed up as well.

As one black commentator said on CNN today, “Every one of those women, many of whom were not eager about voting at all, will walk across broken glass to get to the polls this year. It’s not about winning. It’s about Kamala….”

One local black official in North Carolina told a reporter there: “We have been called inferior, incompetent, stupid, and lazy for four hundred years. It stops now. We are all on fire with what they are saying about Kamala. It’s okay to disagree with her, but why disrespect her? Why call her names; she is a role model and shining star for us, the woman our daughters and granddaughters want to be. How stupid can a politician be to call us stupid?”

Well,  pretty stupid, it seems.

This is why Trump lost four years ago and will lose again. He is the master of insults, a disaster as a campaigner.  He feeds his followers hate and resentment but is just beginning to draw new followers.   Kamala Harris might be right or wrong about some things, I’m not the one to say, but one thing is already quite evident about her: she is anything but stupid or incompetent, and the best thing that has happened to her so far is that her opponent is calling her names while she smiles and bows to roars of approval. She makes some of those Trump rallies look like funeral memorials.

I covered many campaigns as a political writer, watched the news, and shook my head this week: Don’t Insult Black Women if they want to win a national election. They neither forgive nor forget, and they love to vote. Trump almost gave a powerful speech at the Republican Convention. He had to go off prompter and blow the other half. That’s Trump.

I am not one of those pseudo-progressives who trembles and is terrified to say there is so much more than politics happening here or that the good guys will win this time.

I don’t qualify my ideas or warn that they might be wrong. Until otherwise informed,  I speak my heart and am quite willing to be incorrect. That’s the price for being able to think. But I haven’t been wrong about Trump yet, and I don’t believe this is the year I will be.

The other nation, the quiet one and invisible one, the one the media does not seem to know exists away from Washington and New York, is on fire.

And on the march.

If even half of those insulted black women walk on that broken glass to get to those polls in the five states that will decide any American election this year. If I am right, Donald Trump just shot himself in the foot 48 hours after this campaign began.

He did it in 2020; he will do it again.