After many dreary months of the relentless, pounding negativity, insults, accusations, lies, deflections, racism, and rage-farming of a convicted felon, tax cheat, and serial liar Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, we now have a significant counterbalance to give us — including those of us outside the USA — hope for America’s political and social future: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Wow. What a change.
Instead of the vituperative MAGA firehose of lies, insults, slurred and mispronounced words, cognitive slips, more lies, racist and misogynist insults, sleazy sexual innuendo, meandering and incoherent segues, praising far-right dictators, abject narcissism, more lies, egregious self-promotion, tawdry sales grifts, puerile grievances, whining, vague promises, threats, slander, violent rhetoric, culture wars, pointless nostalgia for Joe Biden his former opponent, and blatant fake Christianity we have had from felon Trump, we now hear clear, calm statements of policy and platform, believable claims, actual facts, worthwhile goals, a hopeful vision for the future, and shared aspirations.
And joy. Harris and Walz are happy, uplifting, positive, friendly, and funny. They laugh, they smile, they tell jokes while they offer serious and significant policies. They promote the greater good, they support unions and the middle class, and want to expand fundamental rights to everyone. They come across as human, reachable, compassionate, likeable, and vulnerable. Trump always comes across as angry, aloof, supercilious, and unapproachable (except on your knees).
Compare the Harris-Walz messaging to the sepulchral “sky is falling; everything is shit except me” and darkly threatening messaging from Trump’s MAGA campaign. Harris/Walz rallies are full of energy and excitement, Trump rallies are like a puppy being beaten with wet, rolled-up newspaper while being forced to listen to the lie-dense, grievance-filled, meandering whining “I’m always the victim” complaint of felon Trump for 90-120 excruciating minutes. The relentless, aggressive lying negativity of the Trump campaign for the past year has been like unending heartburn. Harris and Walz are like an antacid tablet followed by a cool, sweet drink.
The vast majority of donors to the Harris/Walz campaign are average, working-class, tax-paying Americans, many donating for the first time in any campaign, not the tax-avoiding billionaires pushing their feudal libertarian causes and anti-worker ideologies who back Trump in their expectation that he will empower them to dismantle workers’ rights and health-and-safety laws, ban unions and overtime pay, enable child labour, remove minimum wage and overtime requirements, and allow child labour as promised to them in Trump’s fascist Project 2025.
I understand not everyone is thrilled: none of Trump’s misogynist, racist base will vote for a black woman. It goes against their basic Talibangelism. Fox Newz (the American arm of Russian state TV) is apoplectic in its collective rage. But people outside the cult can clearly see the differences between the campaigns. They can see the differences between the tired, old, insulting liar in serious cognitive decline and the upbeat, intelligent, well-spoken woman. And surprise: Harris and Walz care about ordinary people, about the working class, about parents and families. That’s inspiring. Trump cares only about himself. And, of course, his crowd sizes, his poll numbers, his popularity, his fawning media.
Then there’s Trump’s uber-fascist Project 2025: his plan to disassemble then destroy American democracy and its bureaucracy, in order to turn the USA into a pseudo-Christian oligarchy with Trump at the top and only his loyalists employed below him (anyone not willing to take the Trump loyalty pledge will be fired, according to Project 2025). But it’s not limited to the government: it plans to extend Trump’s control into all aspects of American life, from the bedroom to the doctor’s office to the classroom. It makes the Nazis seem like amateurs when it comes to controlling the state.
The only way to stop Trump’s planned destruction of the US state via Project 2025 is to vote for Harris/Walz. And, given the surging popularity of Harris and Walz, it is looking more and more like Trump will be utterly defeated in the November election b y the popular vote. But, of course, Trump’s MAGA conspiracists have been working to install loyal MAGA election-deniers into the system to help Trump deny the results and then start his next coup. And that is a real threat: he tried it before, and is much better prepared to make sure he accomplishes his coup this time. Trump is already laying the groundwork for him to win regardless of the vote.
And, of course, Trump will be able to appeal to his sycophantic, deeply corrupt MAGA Supreme Court judges who will overturn the popular vote regardless of how large is was for Harris, and appoint Trump. And that will see the end of the USA, its democracy, and its role as a world superpower.
So while there is hope and joy in the Harris/Walz campaign, there is still a need for work to prevent a second Trump insurrection attempt in the fall.
Words: 836
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Exe_QakHc
Attorney issues WARNING to officials who refuse to certify election results. Democracy Watch episode 161: Marc Elias discusses election officials who refuse to certify the election based on bogus fraud claims.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3khH9ih2XJg
Bob Seeger’s song Turn the Page seems an entirely appropriate theme tune for convicted felon Trump and his tired grievance, name-calling, empty boasting shtick…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTcvkODLl6s
How Project 2025 is planning to control YOUR life. #shorts from Fight For Progress
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB4d9DpqaPI
Top Trump advisers in turmoil after campaign’s worst month of 2024: Report.
Convicted felon and serial liar in serious cognitive decline Donald Trump was set to deliver an economic-focused speech in Asheville but minutes after taking the stage he questioned the significance of the economy and veered into incoherent rambling and boasts. Trump also packed his speech with personal attacks. The Morning Joe panel discusses Trump’s remarks and a new Guardian report on turmoil in the Trump campaign.
Does this sound like someone you know?
Clinging to this stupid belief,
drawn into cruelty and malice,
they become lost souls and, at last,
enemies of the whole world.
Driven by insatiable lusts,
drunk on the arrogance of power,
hypocritical, deluded,
their actions foul with self-seeking,
tormented by a vast anxiety
that continues until their death,
convinced that the gratification
of desire is life’s sole aim,
bound by a hundred shackles
of hope, enslaved by their greed,
they squander their time dishonestly
piling up mountains of wealth.
The Bhagavad Gita Chap. 16: 9-12
trans. Stephen Mitchell, Harmony Books, New York, 2000