[Update after Trump assassination attempt 2024-07-14T20:26:54-0700]
You can see my post the day of for my take on not shooting people, including candidates and elected office holders. Here, I want to respond to the President’s brief remarks of July 14, 2024 regarding the incident, specifically in the light of the title of this post.
First, he’s absolutely right, and has the right concerns, and we should take heed as a nation. I note that Trump (to date) is saying something similar, if more brief, and that too is the right thing and the right thing to do. This is a sober moment in American history, and in the current Presidential campaign, and the current Presidency.
Second, I stand by this post’s title, and the content and exhortation. The original post here is about:
- The dangers of a renewed Trump presidency, whose evil would be banal and pervasive and chaotic
- The failure of the media to shift from selling clicks to reporting
- How the solution is voting and only voting
That said, I will consider that I have my own very teeny part to play here given that I’m speaking out at all, and I will heed the exhortation of the current and even former President on this matter and tone it down some.
We can speak heatedly, and clearly and inclusive of the nuances, without setting up snap impressions that give rise to violent thoughts in our audience. And we have to, as long as we can.
=== Original post below ===
[Edited for clarity 2024-07-07T13:46:19-0700]
Instead of reading this, you should probably go read this much better opinion piece in The Guardian, “Why is the pundit class so desperate to push Biden out of the race?” , by Rebecca Solnit , which I was linked to after I’d decided to write this post and after I was a good way into it, drafting it in bits ranted at my friends in our #politics Slack channel (we ensure that you have affirmatively selected into this sort of thing; keep your political angst out of #general and #random, thank you).
Anyway.
Do I think Biden should have run for a second term? Maybe not. He said he’d be transitional and you can take one or two terms to do that, depending. But the moment arm of the incumbency looks great on the flywheel of a campaign, if I may say. But in the context of That Debate, then sad to say, seems like if he doesn’t get voter confidence back fast he’s gonna lose and that cannot happen. Trump cannot be allowed to return to the White House with a bunch of now-experienced goons and the unstinting backing of all elected Rs.
Not that I wasn’t already mad at the media, but I’m currently extra angry the media is focusing on “oh no he’s old!” instead of “…but THIS guy is a twice-impeached, popular vote losing, ticket poisoning, larcenous, fascist, racist, adjudicated rapist, and real live actual felon what the fuck is the R party doing nominating him” every hour of every day. It’s not like he doesn’t give them material to put it into a framework of context.
I was definitely in the “voters rejecting the malignancy of Trump will win Biden the presidency again” camp but over the weekend I’m falling out of that camp. Because that was before I’d read of this opinion of Clyburn’s (and he’s the D-SC Rep who is why Biden got the nom in ‘20) and seen reporting of the Data for Progress poll that puts the nail in the coffin of the “malignancy > old argument”.
So what do Democrats do now? We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t:
- If we don’t replace the candidate and lose, it will then only be about how we didn’t replace the candidate
- If we do replace the candidate and lose, there will be a morass of second-guessing that poisons the party
- In either case the lesson will be learned that if enough noise gets made, the candidate at the top of the ticket will be replaced. This will be weaponized. Right now the Republican Party can mostly sit back and let Democrats and the media do it all on their own, but don’t think it won’t be a tool in the box for next cycle.
But speaking of the media, back to speaking of centrist media journalism. New York Times, we have the fucking receipts, folks.
If we lose the current form of our democracy - and make no mistake if Trump wins we will lose the American democratic system as we know it, as it relies heavily on behavioral norms of elected officials and the professionalism of career personnel in the Administration, and they are coming for all of that with an army of chainsaw-handed fiends , and this doesn’t even rely on them winning the Senate nor the House - I absolutely blame the media. Well, first. Second I blame voters for not seeing through the media bias and also almost every minute of public Trump. It’s not like he’s subtle. But definitely the media first.
Because, as mentioned above but bears repeating, they are posting literally hundreds of articles about how Dems are worried our candidate is too old instead of covering the existential threat represented by one of the two major political parties. Not the Dems! No, I mean the one that - fully ironically at this point claims - to be the party of law and order and requiring that candidates be of shining personal characteristics in an Anglo-Christian mold, is nominating for the most powerful office on the planet - and again it bears repeating - a person of low character who spent the current administration downgrading to a Top Secret-waving, convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, and self-avowed fascist on Day One.
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, MEDIA? If you like the 1st Amendment, maybe get in the fucking trenches and challenge these goons?! American media specifically is getting the patriotism on this wrong by framing the false equivalency of The Democratic Party and the Republican Party as each having some normal ones. But they are not! No, indeed! One of them has demonstrably given up democracy and republicanism, and the other hasn’t, even if our candidate is kinda old and showing it. So pull those scales from your eyes, actually look at the actual scale comparing the two major parties, and maybe while you’re at it stop being the pro bono propaganda arm of that party, too? This is not hard.
Anyway. The supposedly-journalistic arm of the centrist media is going to keep writing whatever passes as the most sensationalist bullshit that they think moves the most clicks through to eyeballs on ads, so if you take away one thing from this post please let it be this: Go vote for whoever the Dem nominee is in November, as it’s literally the simplest, most effective thing you can do to be a patriot. As Biden has several times said, America is a great nation that has never lived up to our high ideals. And you can be damn sure if the Republican Party wins the government in the 2024 General, this country will race back into the past and worse, carving an even larger canyon to cross to get to our lived society realizing our founding ideals of pursing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as fully equal citizens.
Our friends at Vote Save America are here to hype you and help you out.
I also encourage the center-right Republicans bite the bullet and start a new party and build a real identity for folks to rally around of a party that’s for something and believes this country is pretty good already and that we can make it even better. You’re going to have to invent something new, and I get that’s hard, but the old thing is on fire, has fallen over, and is sinking into the swamp.