I have not posted in about a month. The reason escaped me for the weeks since, but I think I have finally figured it out.
My mind is stuttering.
I have been deeply involved in politics for 25 years now. Most of that time on the radio, but certainly as an activist, a surrogate for many candidates, and a guest speaker at many groups and Union meetings. I have spoken to literally thousands of people over those 25 years and mostly to great success. That was until this year.
This year my prognostication skills have been not just tested or bent, but shattered into small pieces. I have been so wrong about national politics and the events that surround them that it has made me a little gun-shy, and please excuse that pun.
My ability to clearly see paths for success or troubles for passage have been so clouded by Donald Trump’s candidacy that I began to question my leadership as a pundit and as a Progressive.
And, I repeat, I finally figured that my mind was stuttering, badly.
What I mean by that is that once I thought I had an idea for a post, something else would crowd my mind. Once I had arrived on what I thought would be a profound point or an arrow to truth, something else would crowd my mind. Oh, once I thought that we had a major blow to the Trump campaign and the candidate himself, well, something else would come along and surpass even my incredulity of the madness that has become the 2016 election cycle.
And then I also had to mentally deal with the Bernie mess, or whatever you want to identify as, but in my stuttering mind, it is a mess.
The Democrats seemingly had a clear path to electing Hillary Clinton to the highest office in the land and the most powerful office in the world. That path, now marred by e-mail scandals by both the candidate herself and now the Democratic National Committee is not helpful, to say the least. Can Democrats get beyond all this mess?
Time will tell…
OK, so my stuttering mind has slowed enough for me to share with you three points of reality:
- Donald Trump is a real and present danger to everything democracy holds dear. Never in the history of this great country have we seen such a racist, fascist and narcissistic candidate for the presidency. His talk, his actions, and his ignorance should make him a disgrace to any voter and yet he continues to stick around and be relevant. When I read this morning that 75% of the people who were polled LIKED his nomination speech, my stuttering mind actually stuttered quicker. Imagine!
His campaign staff is an embarrassment and spews such lies that it boggles the mind in many ways. Even with the mainstream media calling them out, proving them wrong, and doing their best to use their soapboxes to educate and inform, it doesn’t seem to matter. They are really just preaching to the choir.
Again, my stuttering mind repeats: Donald Trump IS a clear and present danger.
- Bernie Sanders and his supporters should be and are very proud of what they accomplished this year and their agenda has been, I believe, addressed by the platform committee. It will be a part of future decisions and will reshape the way the Democratic Party does things in the future. They were also very influential in moving Hillary Clinton to the left of where she once was and, when she is electe, we all must make sure she stays to the left of center. It is incumbent on us to do that and do that with diligence.
But these ardent supporters act like they are entitled to something that they are not entitled to. It’s politics, not a job where you negotiate your benefits and salary. If you can’t get behind Hillary Clinton, so be it. But stop forcing people to Trump, and you are doing that, like it or not.
Tonight Bernie Sanders addresses the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, where thousands of pro-Bernie activists have gathered to protest the nomination process and are planning disruptions and disturbances both inside and outside of the convention arena. He alone can help to calm that movement, to give a full-throated endorsement of Hillary Clinton, address his supporters directly, ask them to stop this madness, and accept what WAS a legitimate primary process, in spite of what they conspiratorially believe.
- Hillary Clinton must, must, and must give the political performance of her life. She must address all of the shortcomings that have been expressed by the voting public, and I am not convinced that she can do that in one speech, but she best try to give us reasons as to how she is the anti-Trump and why that matters. And it does matter.
She must also explain why Sen. Tim Kaine was her best choice for VP. I don’t have a problem with him, per se, but I would like to know her thinking. I am told that President Obama was a big fan of this choice and Kaine was under consideration eight years ago when Obama won. He is an asset in some parts of the country and certainly has the chops to be both VP and the president if need be.
Philadelphia, the birthplace of democracy, is now front and center, and what happens this week can go a long way toward quieting my stuttering mind. But I can no longer wait for the noise to stop, so I have decided to just try to stay focused, try to get out a post a few times a week, and try as hard as I can to make sure Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States of America.
If your mind is stuttering too, you are not alone. If you are committed to democracy then let’s all work together to make sure democracy, as we mostly understand it, stays intact and stop believing that Hillary Clinton is the lesser of two evils. There is only one evil in this campaign and his name is Donald Trump.
