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9/24/24

9/24/2024

POSTCARDS:
To the voters who count

POSTCARD PLEA - One of the cards I've been sending to potential voters in swing states. The illustration is by Frank Gerardi, a Newport artist

ALL SUMMER, and now into Fall, I’ve been sending postcards to places I will never visit, writing to people I will never meet.
     Some of my hand-printed postcards have landed in exotic-sounding places like Fishtail, Montana; Surprise, Arizona; and Sparks, Nevada.
     A number of the recipients have terrific-sounding first names like Destiny, Freedom, and Zoica; and others are somewhat ironic, like “Brian,” meaning that the addressee and addresser have the same name (“Dear Brian,” . . . “Thanks, Brian”).
     The postcards are aimed at Democratic voters in the seven or so battleground or swing states, the ones that will determine whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will be president, and whether Democrats and Republicans control Congress.
     The recipients are thought to be folks who have voted previously, but who might not have followed the current campaign very closely and might not vote this time.
     The hope is that they can be nudged gently to the polls on Nov. 5, Election Day, and better still, prompted to vote ahead of time by mail or to drop by polls open for early, in-person voting.

I HAVE NO IDEA if postcards will do the job.
     The theory is that if many millions of cards are sent, some thousands of voters will indeed vote, and in close elections, those will be enough to make the difference.
     So far, I’ve mailed 315 cards, which may be a lot, or pathetic, depending on how you look at it. I’m hoping to mail 250 more before Nov. 5.
     It’s better than doing absolutely nothing while the cloud of a second and more destructive Trump presidency hangs over the nation.
     And in my best moments, I’m thinking that the cards will arrive at places I can’t go to; that they’ll end up in Apt. 3, North 102nd Blvd., and 36 Hacker Dr. – actual homes, with real people in them.

THE IDEA is pretty smart.
     Phone calls are annoying. And so are political (aka “junk”) letters that go directly to a wastebasket, unopened.
     But a postcard has a fair chance of at least being flipped over and possibly read, maybe in its entirety. In my wildest dreams, one or two get attached to refrigerators with red-white-and-blue magnets.
     The downside is that under the rules, I can’t write what’s really on my mind to people in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Fishtail, Billings, Surprise and Sun City West.
     I’ve been working with a group called Activate America, one of a number of voter-contact organizations, and its brain trust has rock solid instructions for its volunteers:
      Print, don’t use cursive handwriting, which no longer is taught in many schools; leave at last a half-inch below the address block in case the Post Office attaches a bar code sticker; sign your first name or initials; don’t include your return address. Oh, yeah - provide your own postcards and stamps.
     Most of all, volunteers MUST use Activate’s scripts. The messages, we’re told, have been vetted with local groups, have proven effective in past campaigns and are carefully worded to appeal to the potential voters, whose names and addresses have been culled from voter records and methodically sorted.
     Bland is too bland a description of many scripts:
     “Democratic Congressman So & So stands with union and workers. He’s brought millions of federal dollars to our state to fund construction of affordable housing.”
     I’m skeptical that’s compelling enough to inspire a maybe-voter to fill out a mail ballot, much less get him or her out of the house and to the polls.
    I once got into an e-mail argument over one script that I thought violated all sorts of communication rules. It began:
     “Dear _____: Your MAGA Republican Congressman puts his extremist agenda above the needs of our families.”
     It seemed to me that the first thing you should do is to catch a recipient’s eye with the the name of our candidate. Just as bad, the wording about “YOUR Maga Republican.” That seemed to blame the recipient for putting the MAGA Republican into the House seat.
     I suggested a brilliant rewrite, and to the credit of Activate’s postcard program director, I got back a long explanation of why the script read the way it did, a gracious way of saying “Our way or the highway.”
     Which makes sense: the Activate folks have done the work, analyzed and refined their approach, and of course, figured out to whom we should write. At the very least, we should respect the process.

BUT WHAT IF we could write from the heart?
     First of all, I’m pretty sure I would like a lot of the people I’ve been writing to if I met them – door-to-door canvassing being the best way to talk with potential voters.
     After all, they’re Democrats, meaning that, it’s likely most of us aren't bullies; we don’t look kindly at the Capitol insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021; we don’t support book bans; don’t want women dying in hospital parking lots; we’re worried about the collapsing environment; and we don’t teach our children to lie, cheat, swear or to call people insulting and cruel nicknames.

Dear Zoica,
   Your vote counts. I mean REALLY. You’re in one of those states that could elect the next president.
   Whereas, I live in Rhode Island, a state so ridiculously small it shouldn’t even be a state; and it's so Democratic, my vote is taken for granted.
   But you’re in a “battleground” state, where the outcome may be VERY close.
   Zoica, my vote barely counts. Yours can change history.
Thanks,
   Brian – a volunteer.
* * *

Dear Freedom,
   Every day, I wake up scared out of my mind. I have panic attacks at the supermarket and walking down the street.
    The reason is Donald Trump.
   He lies. He abuses women. Calls people names. He tried to overturn the election that he lost.
   You’re in a battleground state, where a few thousand votes may decide this year’s election.
    Freedom, you can stop this monster.
Thanks,
   Brian – A volunteer
* * *

Hello Destiny,
   We’ve never met. But I know the power of your vote.
   That’s because just a few states will decide this election. And you live in one.
   Will America continue as a democracy, led by Kamala Harris; or will it turn into a dictatorship, under Donald Trump?
   Destiny, your vote can save the country.
Thanks,
   Brian – A volunteer
* * *

Hey Brian,
   Let’s speak frankly, Brian to Brian.
   Brians are not stupid. Many are patriots.
   But some, like me, live in states where our votes barely count. Others, like you, are in swing states, where your vote, and a few thousand others, could decide who’ll be our next president.
    So, Brian, stick up for Brians everywhere; for our families, friends, neighbors and all of our fellow citizens. I’m pleading. Vote!
   Please, Please, PLEASE, P L E A S E!
Thanks,
   Brian - A Brian

5 Comments

9/12/24

9/12/2024

1 Comment

HER DEBATE SUCCESS PREVIEWS HOW SMARTLY HARRIS WOULD GOVERN

I DREADED TUESDAY NIGHT’S DEBATE. I'm not apologizing, since Democrats worry a lot - and we have our reasons.
     As it turned out, the debate was unquestionably a win for Kamala Harris. As for Donald Trump, except for of his loss to Joe Biden in 2020, the debate was his worst humiliation since his assault on our politics began nine years ago.
     Harris's debate triumph was followed by an endorsement by Taylor Swift, perhaps the world's most popular singer, whose potential influence is limited only by the fact that some of her fans are too young to vote.
     The irony of this double-header win is that it remains unclear whether Harris will carry the Nov. 5 election.
     In part, this is due to the tenacious, supernatural force with which Trump holds tens of millions of voters.
     And it's also because Trump has eluded the kind of justice found mainly in old comic books and Western movies, wherein the villain always gets what's coming to him - at least being sent directly to home confinement without passing Go.
       But Trump persists like Long Covid. The polls say the election, which is now just weeks - not months – away, is close. Maybe the polls are right. Or maybe they're missing the lurking landslide that favors one side or the other.
What's for sure is that if Harris hadn’t pulled off a spectacular performance - some observers called it unprecedented in the history of presidential debates - her campaign likely would have stalled and failed.
     Instead, she's holding her position in the race, and maybe has even increased the momentum that's defined her campaign since July 21, when she replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, quickly named Tim Walz as her folk-hero running mate and then stage-managed a joyous Democratic National Convention.

AS LAST NIGHT’S DEBATE ENDED, I, and maybe lots of other Worrier Democrats, realized our fears were unfounded: she hadn't fallen flat on her face or started speaking in tongues.
      But what had happened?
      If you’d asked me immediately what I thought, I would have been at a loss. That happens sometimes when I watch a sports event, go to a concert, see a movie. It takes time – a long time - to even remember what what happened.
     I did feel a tinge of disappointment that Harris had not delivered the “knockout” blow so many people yearn for. Of course, those single, defining moments are rare – Biden’s horrific failure in his June debate with Trump being one of the exceptions.
     But I knew after the Harris-Trump debate that something had happened - something big - as if a powerful hurricane had swept into America's living rooms and, just as suddenly disappeared.
     I like to think that when I witness something, I don’t need Big Media's analysts and pundits to tell me what I just experienced. But this time, the Know-It-Alls helped explain some of what happened.

     TAKE THE OPENING MOMENT. I didn’t make much of it when I saw Harris walk across the stage and force Trump to shake hands.
     But some pundits pointed out that was the moment Harris took charge. From the start, Harris forced Trump to say things and act in ways he shouldn't. From the start, she mostly controlled the proceedings.
     The Commentariate also pointed out how Harris repeatedly lured Trump into a variety of traps that forced his lizard-brain to show himself at his true worst.
     An example was when Harris suggested that voters drop into one of Trump's rallies. Here's what she said, according to the ABC News transcript:

I'm going to actually do something really unusual and I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies because it's a really interesting thing to watch.
     You will see during the course of his rallies he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about (how) windmills cause cancer.
     And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.
     And I will tell you the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you. You will not hear him talk about your needs, your dreams, and your, your desires. And I'll tell you, I believe you deserve a president who actually puts you first. And I pledge to you that I will.

For Trump, anyone, but especially a woman, moreover, a person of color, making fun of his rallies is probably the severest insult imaginable, worse than the cruel nicknames, profane and racial slurs in which he specializes. And it set off a torrent of boasts, exaggerations, lies and fantasies.
Trump said:

     First, let me respond as to the rallies. She said people start leaving. People don't go to her rallies. There's no reason to go. And the people that do go, she's busing them in and paying them to be there. And then showing them in a different light. So, she can't talk about that.
     People don't leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics. That's because people want to take their country back. Our country is being lost.
     We're a failing nation. And it happened three and a half years ago. And what, what's going on here, you're going to end up in World War III, just to go into another subject.
     What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country. And look at what's happening to the towns all over the United States.
     And a lot of towns don't want to talk -- not going to be Aurora or Springfield. A lot of towns don't want to talk about it because they're so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there.
     And this is what's happening in our country. And it's a shame. As far as rallies are concerned, as far -- the reason they go is they like what I say. They want to bring our country back. They want to make America great again. It's a very simple phrase. Make America great again. She's destroying this country. And if she becomes president, this country doesn't have a chance of success. Not only success. We'll end up being Venezuela on steroids.

     Really, if you had just dropped in from Mars and wanted to know what on Earth was causing so much fuss, that exchange was about all you needed to decide the differences between Harris and Trump.
      And, of course, what the visitors from outer space could see with their 16 eyes on the split TV screen was just as important as what they heard with their giant ears protruding from their foreheads:
      On their left, a scowling, menacing Trump; on their right,   a skeptical, sometimes radiant Harris.

ONE OF THE SEVERAL HUNDRED things I had worried about before the debate was whether Harris would show up over-prepared.
       I had read that she'd holed-up in a Pennsylvania hotel for days, practicing in a studio-like space, going through all the possible scenarios, so she wouldn’t be caught off guard by Trump’s insults and showmanship or by an actual surprise question from a debate moderator.
        Biden had over-prepared in June, and it’s reasonable to think that the sheer volume of materials muddled his already over-taxed mind.
        But Harris was once a prosecutor, comfortable with the advanced work that goes into knowing the facts and details of a case, as well as being prepared for the unexpected drama of the courtroom.
      So her methodical advance work paid off, and she arrived as a walking, talking, breathing briefing book.
     I doubt anything Kamala Harris said Tuesday night was spontaneous or unrehearsed.
       Did that make her “inauthentic?”
       Absolutely not.
     The presidency is an impossible job, almost as daunting as the challenges that a candidate faces in accomplishing the trillion or so things that the experts demand that she “must do” in a single 90-minute debate.
       The kind of person we want in the Oval Office is someone who will do everything that they humanly can to perform at their very best. And that’s what Kamala Harris demonstrated in Tuesday's debate.
      The debate may or may not change the course of the election.
     But surely the debate showcased the stark choices in this election:
     A terrifying, wacko and inept president.
     An inspiring, rational and capable president.

1 Comment

9.5.24

9/5/2024

1 Comment

Election Countdown
ANOTHER GOOD MAN WADES INTO THE TRUMP SEWER. WHY?

SPENCER COX, Utah governor. CREDIT: Cox campaign

  IT'S WORTH REMEMBERING that there are some really good Republicans, including those who saved democracy when Donald Trump sought to overthrow the 2020 election.
     Among the most admirable GOPers has been Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox, whose decency, compassion and willingness to defend the underdog set him apart from his party’s extremists, including Trump.
     Until last month.
     That’s when something terrible happened.

      It was sort of a miracle in reverse, if you think of miracles as astonishing, unexplainable events that change people and society for the better.
     What happened? On July 14, a day after an assassin attempted to kill Trump, Cox declared Trump’s survival a miracle, and that as a result, only Trump could unite the nation.
     “I will do my best to help and support you,” Cox wrote to the nation’s most dangerous and deranged politician.
     It gets worse.
    The following month, Spencer accompanied Trump on his infamous visit to Arlington National Cemetery, where 13 soldiers, one of them from Utah, were to be “honored” for losing their lives during the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
     Federal rules prohibit using the burial grounds as a backdrop for political purposes; nonetheless photos were taken of Trump and Cox; later, they were used in Cox reelection fundraising emails. The governor apologized, and seemed to blame staffers for using the materials.

TWO MONTHS UNTIL
NOV. 5 - ELECTION DAY
    Nothing is certain.
   Election outcomes in a divided nation are difficult - if not impossible - to predict.
   Are the polls accurate? If so, they show only that the race is "close."
   But a landslide is possible for either side.
   Clearly, Kamala Harris has improved the position of Democrats, since she replaced President Joe Biden as the party's nominee.
   Inconceivably, Donald Trump remains a strong contender, despite his record as an insurrectionist, a bigot, a liar, etc., etc.
   Catastrophe looms.
   But so does the chance for a newprogressive era in American history.
   Democracy continues at the cliff's edge.

Cox’s embrace of Trumpism was now complete. Not only did he endorse Trump, he was acting like him. The Salt Lake Tribune described Cox’s fall from grace in a scathing editorial:

… in a macabre sort of way, a photo of Trump and Cox in a cemetery is appropriate. It was where they came to bury Spencer Cox’s honor.

AT THE CEMETERY: Two photos of the Arlington incident. They are from the Axios news site.

WE ARE NOW JUST TWO MONTHS from Nov. 5, Election Day. And once more, we are confounded by the essential treachery of Donald Trump, a psychopath, liar, bigot and criminal who should not even be on the ballot: how does he attract and corrupt decent Americans like Spencer J. Cox?
   I became a Cox fan two years ago when he came to the defense of school athletes who had transitioned from their at-birth genders.
     The Utah legislature had passed a bill banning their participation. Cox personally explored the issue, then vetoed the bill – knowing that his move would be both unpopular and unsuccessful.
     Cox concluded that the proposed ban was a vast overreaction to a small group of young persons, whose struggles with gender identity left some open to suicide.
     Here’s what he said:

    Four kids and only one of them playing girls’ sports. That’s what all of this is about. Four kids who aren’t dominating or winning trophies or taking scholarships.
     Four kids who are just trying to find some friends and feel like they are part of something. Four kids trying to get through each day.
     Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few. I don’t understand what they are going through or why they feel the way they do. But I want them to live.

     Many people across the country were astounded by Cox’s courage and common sense. I wrote a blog piece about it, headlined:
                       We're betting that you'll
                       Wish to borrow this guy
                       To be your governor
      Here's a link to that essay:
     Cox was lionized nationally as one of the rare Republicans willing to stand up to the bullying of MAGA Trumpism. He did not vote for Trump in 2016 and 2020, and earlier in July, said he wouldn’t vote for Trump this year, based on Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection that attempted to overthrow Joe Biden’s election.
      Overall, Cox was concerned about the wide political and cultural divisions in the U.S., and as head of the National Governors Association last year, he backed a program called “Disagree Better.”
     But on July 13, a would-be assassin’s bullet struck Trump’s ear, and missed his skull. Donald Trump would go on being Trump, but Spencer Cox underwent a drastic change.
     Why? Was Cox’s U-turn just one more example of political opportunism? Had aliens taken over his being, as in the old horror movie, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers?”

I HAVE BEEN WARNED against spending even a millisecond worrying about Trump’s effect on his supporters, because defeating Trump and electing Kamala Harris are the only things that matter.
     Jody McPhillips, a friend who knows how to focus on the desperate stakes in the election, put this elegantly in a comment she made on one of my recent blog posts:

I don't care why so many continue to support Trump; it's like pondering why we all die or why dogs have such short lifespans when they are so much nicer than we are. If we all keep doing what we're doing to defeat him, we will. We can worry about understanding it all later.

     But I can’t help it. I’d even argue that understanding the Trump Effect may help determine the outcome of the election.
     Let’s deal first with the theory there's been mischief by aliens from outer space.
    When I read about Cox’s about-face, I was reminded of the 1978 science-fiction film, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” in which aliens drop down to earth and turn humans into scary pod-like replicas.
      It’s a nice metaphor, but of course it’s malarkey, as Joe Biden would say.
     Also fiction, but in a more serious way, is the assassination “miracle" theory. Lots of people believe that God intervened, so that the assassin’s bullet struck Trump’s ear, but spared his brain.
     Governor Cox buys Big Time into the "miracle." In his letter to Trump, Cox wrote:

I want you to know that I truly believe that God had a hand in saving you.
* * *
Your life was spared. Now, because of that miracle, you have the opportunity to do something that no other person on earth can do right now: unify and save America.”

     Why didn’t Cox look deeper into the miracle? If God wanted to spare Donald Trump, why did She allow the assassination attempt to happen in the first place? And how come God decided no miracle was needed for Corey Comperatore, the rally-goer, Army reservist and volunteer firefighter, who was killed by the assassin?
     The miracle theory is bunk. And for that matter, so is the secular theory that old-fashioned political opportunism was at work: that Cox, like so many other Republicans, was making nice with Trump to help his reelection bid.
     A number of news stories cast doubts on that, saying that after an unpleasant, but successful primary, Cox seems safely headed for reelection in November, without need of Trump’s blessing.
     Further, Cox’s letter declared it that he didn’t want any favors:

Mr. President, I know we have some differences and you probably don’t like me much. And that’s OK. I get it. I’m not writing this letter looking for a position in your Cabinet or a role on your team.

Instead, he later acknowledged that by supporting Trump, he had a better chance of his long-time goal of unifying the country – concluding that was something he couldn’t do as a Trump skeptic.
That’s what he told McKay Coppins, a writer for The Atlantic magazine, who rushed to Salt Lake City to find out why Cox had veered off course. Coppins talked with the governor for 90 minutes. He wrote:

… Cox was surprisingly transparent about the calculation he was making. He told me that the Never Trump movement had utterly failed, and said he’d come to realize that he couldn’t have any influence on the modern GOP “if I’m not on the team”—that is, Trump’s team. “It’s absolutely a litmus test. I don’t think it should be. I wish it wasn’t that way. But it is.”

JAMES COMEY

      Finally, we get to the crux of why otherwise rational people pledge allegiance to Donald Trump, and pay an awful price when they do.
     James Comey, the former FBI director, whom most people dislike, but who I believe has a cop’s insight into how the underworld works, outlined the process long ago, in a 2019 essay for the New York Times.
     Comey said that well-meaning people – generals, lawyers, fellow politicians - think that despite Trump’s flaws, they can steer him in the right direction. But he noted the risks involved:

   You can’t say this out loud — maybe not even to your family — but in a time of emergency, with the nation led by a deeply unethical person, this will be your contribution, your personal sacrifice for America.

    You are smarter than Donald Trump, and you are playing a long game for your country, so you can pull it off where lesser leaders have failed and gotten fired by tweet.

    Of course, to stay, you must be seen as on his team, so you make further compromises. You use his language, praise his leadership, tout his commitment to values.

   And then you are lost. He has eaten your soul.

     I hope that Spencer Cox, who has been a good citizen and an inspiring politician, finds a way to resurrect his honor and reclaim his soul.
     He surely has the personal resources and intellect to wake up tomorrow morning and say: “How silly of me. What was I thinking?”
    It’s not likely, of course. It’s hard to change one’s mind; and much harder change it again.
     That would amount to a miracle.
     But it would be the kind of real-life miracle a country needs on the eve of the most important election of our lifetime.

1 Comment

9/24/24

POSTCARDS:To the voters who count

9/12/24

HER DEBATE SUCCESS PREVIEWS HOW SMARTLY HARRIS WOULD GOVERN

9.5.24

Election CountdownANOTHER GOOD MAN WADES INTO THE TRUMP SEWER. WHY?

Categories

POSTCARDS:
To the voters who count

Election Countdown
ANOTHER GOOD MAN WADES INTO THE TRUMP SEWER. WHY?