Weirdly Hopeful

 

I’m trying to measure this feeling of hope and enthusiasm against the reality that it’s an uphill battle for a woman to become president; especially one who’s not white. But there’s no denying the excitement among voters who’d been feeling a heavy sense of – can I say it, Jimmy? – malaise.

Joe Biden’s presidential accomplishments are legion. Freed now from having to promote himself, he’s diving into needed reforms of our out-of-control, Constitution-rewriting Supreme Court. But it had become clear that if he remained in the race he was likely to lose to an increasingly deranged, dangerous, and – let’s say it together -- weird man, demonstrably the greatest threat to democracy of any former or potential “president” in our history. Stepping aside only magnified President Biden’s greatness.

Contrary to Trump’s flop-sweaty attacks on Kamala Harris’ laugh, I find it refreshing. She’s having fun! After years of Trumpic nastiness and gloom, peddling fear and hate, lying, tearing down our country despite its thriving economy, record employment, burgeoning small businesses, she’s making America fun again.

Has anyone ever seen Trump do it? A full-throated, joyous laugh? Derisive sneers and mockery don’t count. How embittered must one be never to laugh? How hollowed-out, how devoid of feeling for fellow human beings; how unsuited to hold the reins of a government for the people. He doesn’t like her dancing, either. 

Observing Trump flailing for a foothold proofs the pudding. “I’m running against a low-IQ individual,” he told agreeable rally attendees. We don’t need Alan Turing to crack that code. He’s used it before, on at least one other Black woman. 

People who love his inhumanity won’t change, any more than the coming attacks on VP Harris will change minds on her side. But MAGA Republicans don’t represent all previous Trump voters, nor the re-energized young voters and marginalized communities who’d begun to despair of voting. Social media are full of former Trumpers announcing their intent to vote for Kamala Harris, including the mayor of a very red Arizona city. Have there ever been so many appointees and family members raising the alarm about reelecting a “president”? As tides rise and turn, a win by Kamala Harris begins to feel possible.

Promises of vengeance and retribution appeal to Trump’s weird cult. For some, that may suffice to distract from the lack of a positive agenda. We know what he’s against: equal access to voting, taxes on the wealthy, environmental regulations, addressing climate change, immigration. But what is he for? Banning abortion and lying about Democrats’ position on it. Gifting Putin with a weakened NATO, handing him Ukraine. Detention camps. Replacing competent government employees with unqualified, compliant loyalists. Enacting Project 2025, of which he pretends ignorance. He and the Christo-fascists behind the Project are denying they have anything to do with each other, but we know the Project is an instruction manual for constructing the autocracy Trump craves. 

It’s looking likely that Donald Ducks debating VP Harris. If he ever faces actual journalists (of which there aren’t many remaining) as opposed to Fox “news” sycophants and other mouthpiece media, someone should ask him to specify, as he’s claimed, which parts of Project 2025 he finds objectionable. And not let him quack his way out of answering.

Gaslighting, he and MAGA Republicans say theirs is the “party of freedom.” To which Pete Buttigieg recently had this to say: “If you’re talking about military tribunals for political opponents, you have no business talking about freedom. If you’re into banning books, you have no business letting a word like liberty escape your lips.” Not to mention taking away women’s healthcare autonomy or granting full immunity to a lawbreaking “president.” In his SCOTUS reform proposals, Joe Biden made it clear he’d not avail himself of that power. But Trump? Or JD Vance, his clone?

Secretary Pete is brilliant. Regularly, with razor-sharp gentleness, leaving Fox “news” hosts babbling, he’s the most gifted spokesperson for the Biden/Harris agenda and now for Harris. He speaks seven languages, including those of nearly all our allies. He’s ex-military. He has government experience at high levels. He would, in other words, be a perfect choice for Vice President. Except for... you know. Is America ready for a twofer?

Increasingly worried about facing Kamala Harris, Trump is prepping for another coup attempt. “If they don’t cheat,” he says, “We win.” Yet, around the country it’s Republicans who are readying the cheating. In swing states, they’ve installed officials who’ll refuse to certify elections if Kamala wins. Georgia’s honorable-for-a-minute Secretary of State just launched a website for voters to deregister. It’s easy to imagine malicious hacking. 

As MAGA evangelicals see Biden-endorsed Olympic Satanism or Trump promises so much electricity you’ll beg him to stop (the link is NSFW), the newly-hatched “weird” meme is accurate and fun. Indeed, they are very weird people. Thing is, they’re also horrifying. No joke.

Sanctuary Much

My upcoming newspaper column:

William Barr chose to lie, blatantly, about the Mueller report. Taking time to digest that, let’s change the subject. 

Donald Trump’s idea of transporting refugees to “liberal sanctuary cities” and releasing them onto the streets fills all the squares we need to understand him and his most unwavering enthusiasts. It shows he views those desperate people as pawns, cruelty to whom he counts on to please his supporters; it explains his obsession with our southern border, not as an immigration issue, but as a reliable arouser of his flock. 

After all, if his aim is to keep refugees out because they’re rapists and murderers whom liberals would turn into voters using the kind of dark magic only liberals know, setting them loose in our cities exposes the lie for what it is. 

In addition, it shows his vengeful attitude toward those who disagree with him; and it confirms a theory posited by many writers, including this one, about why the most devoted among Trumpists love him: they have in common their hatreds. In this case, immigrants and liberals. 

It’s immaterial whether the hauling away and dumping of refugees was Trump’s idea or, as has been said, came from Stephen Miller, the most evil inhabitant of Trump’s lowest circle of Hell. That it’s seriously considered is all one needs to know. And it follows a well-worn pattern of ill-conceived policies that have, or would have, the opposite of intended consequences. Like tariffs and trade wars, shutting down the government, closing the border, cutting or eliminating taxes on corporations.  

It’s easy to imagine a conversation in the White House that followed the proposal: “That’ll stick it to those treasonous liberals. Hah. Hah. Low five.” We can be sure Trumpists of the rally-attending sort love the idea, for exactly that reason. Imagining refugees wandering the streets, getting what they deserve for huddling beside the golden door, yearning to breathe free. While liberals shrink away, their hypocrisy exposed. 

In fact, it’s certain that people in those cities, and their governments, would scramble to do right by the refugees. Governors and mayors have already said so. It’s equally certain that Trump would fail to recognize such empathy and traditional Americanism for what it’d be. Not his oeuvre.  

That we have a “president” who thinks like this and who has followers who love him for it, shows how deep is our decline as a nation, and how sharp is the inflection point at which we find ourselves, on which we must act come November 2020. If, among Trumpists who take offense at having their motives questioned, there are people who like this dumping idea or find it amusing, they need to stop pretending they’re not something they are.  

As there’s no bottom to this “president’s” intentional cruelty, it’s unsurprising that he’s also unloading poisonous attacks on US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, nor that they’re resulting in death threats against her. About which he said he’s “not at all” concerned. Whatever one thinks of her comments or how they’ve been characterized, one ought to expect better from a “president.” The last person to hold the office without quotation marks also failed in uniting us; yet, notwithstanding a few easily-misconstrued remarks, he spoke of our commonality. But he said a murdered black youth could have been his own son. How divisive! 

That’s in stark contrast to Trump, who calls for jailing opponents, considers Constitutionally required oversight treasonous, and threatens the free press; who can’t be trusted to be truthful about anything; who claims Democrats hate America. Raucous agreement from those who, were they actual conservatives, would know better is alarming. Silence from those who, under other circumstances, would speak out, is disappointing. Are we, finally, irreparably fractured?  

Among Americans who see refugees differently is Pete Buttigieg, whose candidacy-announcing speech ought to be seen by everyone, especially those who assume they wouldn’t like it. Confuting the right’s standard characterization of Democrats, he shares his Christianity unhesitatingly. Unlike Trump’s multimillionaire megachurch preachers and their followers, he advocates policies that don’t ignore the least among us. Freedom, he reminds us, derives not only from military power, but from health and economic security. And equality.  

In times unremembered, Republicans would have agreed with much in Mayor Pete’s speech. In the era of “alternative facts,” though, having forsworn Christian values by embracing the politics of greed and exclusion, Trumpists are claiming it’s Buttigieg who’s not a real Christian. Which reveals their own apostasy. Were they capable of it, they’d feel ashamed.