3/5/24

Election countdown: 8 months to go
THE POLLS, PAPERS AND POLS ARE BEATING ON BIDEN. WE CAN WORK HARDER TO BEAT TRUMP

JOE BIDEN -- CREDIT: Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons license

 IF YOU WANT MY GUESS about the outcome of the election – which as of today is only eight months away – I can’t tell you how Joe Biden is going to defeat Donald Trump.
     Day after day, it feels like nothing is going President Biden’s way, while the momentum for The Defendant’s attempted return to the White House seems to be accelerating.
     The polls are awful, and some are getting worse. More people are saying Biden should drop out as a candidate. Bibi Netanyahu, Trump’s Israeli clone, is making a fool of Biden’s pleas to stop killing Gaza civilians. A handful of Republican crazies in the House are undermining Biden’s vow to defend Ukraine.
     Voters think immigration is the most important concern in their lives, and that it's Biden’s fault. Rents are exorbitant, and that’s Biden’s fault, too. Buying a house is out of reach for ordinary families, and it’s Biden’s fault.
     Gas prices at the moment are lower than they have been. Unemployment is low; there’s no recession; crime is going down; and in general for lots of Americans, life is good. None of this is to Biden's credit.
     The big one is that Biden is old. Too old. He looks old, talks old, walks old. Even worse, Joe  gets older every day. It’s relentless, and it's Biden's fault.
     I’m sure that I’m not alone. Millions of people care deeply about America, but  at the moment see little that’s reassuring about Biden’s – and democracy’s – prospects on Nov. 5.
     The question is: What to do about it?
     The answer is that The Defendant - as Donald Trump is known in Jack Smith's election conspiracy indictment  of last August - is too dangerous, too vile to be president of the United States. So he can't.
     Like most people, I haven't the slightest idea of how to turn the current dynamics around, only that is what must happen. The Defendant is unacceptable. America – and perhaps the world – will be destroyed if he is put in charge.
     So, while my brain is telling me in that The Defendant could very well be on his way back to the White House, my heart is saying that cannot happen.
     I never liked my brain, so  I’m listening these days to my heart.

IN ACKNOWLEDGING MY DESPAIR, I will not tolerate anyone lecturing me and my fellow Despair-Pals that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Trump is real; so is the peril he represents; fear is justified.
     Don’t instruct us about the pitfalls of bad attitudes, that, just by admitting despair, we set off a self-fulfilling prophecy producing its predictable terrible outcome.  That’s malarkey, to use a Biden word.
     So, don't blame the worried, the sleepless, the frightened, the discouraged for what could  be a terrible election outcome.
     If you are not scared of The Defendant, then you are not paying attention, nor are you taking seriously Liz Cheney’s warning that the nation is sleepwalking into dictatorship.
     My heart is telling me that we should not mistake despair for helplessness. Just because it seems that today, March 5, we feel doomed, that doesn’t mean that we are doomed.
     Instead, we should use our despair as a source of energy and inspiration to work harder – much harder - to elect Joe Biden.
     As individuals, all of us have to work as diligently and smartly as possible – and all the harder and smarter than we would  if we were comforted by the belief that Biden was sure to win.
     Mainly, we have to do what voters do best: vote.
     We also  need to persuade others to vote. We must beg our families to vote (or at least select family members). We can search out groups that organize letter-writing  and postcard-sending and annoying telephone calling and which give us the addresses of doors to pound on. We must give money  to the candidates and groups that can use it best, as much money as possible.
    What we cannot do is quit , disappear, fade, hide or stop.

SOME OF OUR DESPAIR is news-generated.
     We should recognize that the media does not exist to cheer us up. Pep talks are not how journalism works. More often than not, credible media lets us know what’s happening, and leaves the rest to us.
    I know that many of my fellow Despair-Pals are furious at the New  York Times, because the world’s greatest remaining newspaper seems determined to publish stories that make Biden look weak, while ignoring or downplaying The Defendant's alarming and dangerous flaws.
     Makes me wonder whether the Times has established a  "Democrats In Despair Desk," whose mission is to come up with at least one story a day to break Biden supporters' hearts.   
     Over the last weekend, the Times couldn’t seem to get enough of its recent poll showing Trump beating Biden, and Biden’s own supporters dissing him for being “old.”

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    The Times can argue that it’s just following the news, not making it, which is sort of correct.
     But for our purposes, turning our anger on the Times and other media is a waste of time and energy, because the news folks are the wrong targets.
     Defendant Trump is the villain of our shared nightmare. Defendant Donald is planning to turn America into a hellscape of hatred, injustice and vengeance. 
     We need to stay focused.

WHAT WOULD A COACH tell his team when it is behind at halftime?
     Stay in the game.
     Yes, things look bleak right now, because they are.
     We can play better, harder, smarter, longer.
     Circumstances change. We can help make them change.
      And we can  be ready when things go wrong for the other team - which they will.
      Maybe Trump will do something that will shock even his most devoted cultists. Maybe he’ll start walking backwards. Or take to wearing women’s panties – on his head.
     Maybe he’ll ridicule ardent supporters in ways that they’ll finally recognize how little he cares about them.
     Maybe he’ll walk into a Washington courtroom and plead guilty to trying to overturn an election and throw his repulsive body on the mercy of the court.
     As I mentioned, I’ve quit listening to my brain.
     When I need cheering up, I’ll check in with Democratic optimists, whose track records give them credibility.
     One upbeat expert is Simon Rosenberg, who puts out a website called the “Hopium Chronicles,” in which he calls for Democrats to stay hopeful, but more importantly, to work hard, really hard, to make their hopes come true.
     Simon’s  meditations have headings like this:    

      Humor helps.
     Like this piece in The Atlantic magazine, by Jonathan Last, editor of The Bulwark, an anti-Trump online site. Last was responding to people wanting Biden replaced by a younger Democrat:

       As the political strategist Mike Murphy said many moons ago, Biden’s age is like a gigantic pair of antlers he wears on his head, all day every day. Even when he does something exceptional—like visit a war zone in Ukraine, or whip inflation—the people applauding him are thinking, Can’t. Stop. Staring. At. The antlers.
     Biden can’t shed these antlers. He’s going to wear them from now until November 5. If anything, they’ll probably grow.

      IT'S OKAY to feel despair, fear, worry and anxiety and the other common sense emotions that bubble up when faced by a psychopath like The Defendant.  We’d be crazy to do otherwise.
     We should pledge to do the very best we can to keep him away from the Oval Office.
     We should get as much sleep as possible. Eat sensibly. Exercise responsibly.
     Occasionally, we should laugh at ourselves and, more often, at our critics
     And maybe,  in solidarity with Joe Biden, we should get our own set of antlers.