Worst President In History, Part 34
On Tuesday, Ari Melber had former Fox anchor and Trump ally Geraldo Rivera on his MSNBC show, where Rivera said he’s voting for Kamala, wishes that he “had bailed on the Trump train a lot sooner before he threatened the Constitution of the United States with its utter destruction” and is “disappointed” in his previous “blindness” toward Trump, “because when push came to shove, he was revealed by his own action to be exactly the person that his critics were saying that he was.” He also noted that Trump is “selfish” and had “stabbed the Constitution in the back.”
There are so many reasons to detest Trump and so more more reasons to hope he loses a week from Tuesday. Another one was added to the lists for me when, after the McDonald’s photo-op in Bucks County Sunday, he refused to say if he was for or against raising the minimum wage.
Things like that are important in the daily lives of millions of Americans but what has everyone on edge right now, it the MAGA threat to transform the country into a fascist state— and how so many millions of our fellow citizens are embracing the idea. Yesterday, John Pavlovitz wrote about the blatant bigotry inherent in the MAGA movement, emphasis on”blatant.” He noted that “Bigotry has always done its greatest damage in the shadows, below the surface, and beneath a disguise. It actually helps you when it shows itself: when it brazenly parades uncovered through your streets, when it announces itself in unapologetic social media rants; when it crowns itself in crimson and joyfully spews forth venom, when it adorns its lawn with the names of tyrants. Our nation's hatred used to hide behind white hoods, peering through tiny scissor-cut eye holes, obscuring its identity, and that made it difficult to identify and a challenge to confront. It stayed below the radar, cleverly concealing itself in decorum and civility and pretending, giving it access to people and places it should never have had.
You always knew it was in the neighborhood but you weren't sure of its actual address, you didn't know just how close to home it really was, you weren't aware it was sitting across the table from you.”
No more! Now it openly wear red MAGA baseball caps and stages boat parades with swastika and Trump flags flying side by side. “It’s all out in the open. Right now there is a rising disbelief for many of us, as we come to realize the proximity we all have to things we’d much rather get safe distance from. It's easy to grieve the days we find ourselves in: to see such visible evidence of how much hatred human hearts around us are still capable of manufacturing toward other human beings because of their pigmentation, orientation, religion, nation of origin. And yes, it is a near fatal blow to the working heart to discover that people we love and respected and considered among those who were essentially decent human beings— have steadfastly embraced something so repugnant. But this clarity is actually a gift: we know what we're dealing with here.”
Things are getting easier now that shame has become obsolete in America. There is no mistaking who we are and how deep this sickness runs in us; how close and how prevalent and how emboldened the bigots are; how committed to a movement of grievance and privilege so many remain. The bullies now have a savior and their religious fervor is stratospheric and undying as they attempt to usher in his second coming.
... And this person didn’t create prejudice, he simply uncovered it, invited it out into the light and gave it permission to publicly celebrate itself. He's encouraged it to plaster its enmity on campaign posters, to wear its contempt for its neighbor on its sleeve in partisan talk show monologues, to trumpet itself in verbal assaults on strangers, to pound its fist on vicious bully pulpits, to glory in its violence in midday Confederate flag/Nazi processions; to stick it in the ground in front of their homes, defining the hill they will allow their decency to die on.
We have white supremacists in Congress and running for GOP office— not covered in sheets, but willingly showing their faces and brandishing vitriol unapologetically, all because they have a former president’s seal of approval. And they are hoping he will be president again, to legislate their prejudices for all of us.
And yes, it's all fully sickening to those of us who can't comprehend how such fear can take root in people— but it's helpful to us, too. We have no more illusions about our shared coexistence or about the progress we thought we'd made as a nation or about the need to actively resist what has now been revealed.
…As sad as it is to see it all: the malice, the boldness, the blind hatred, seeing it all makes it easier to oppose it all.
The supremacists and the nationalists and the Nazis and the bigots have decided they aren't ashamed anymore.
This is the best news for the rest of us.
We can easily find them and we can remind them that we will not consent to the demolition of this place.
Be seen, good people. Be heard.
Around the same time, The Guardian’s American edition asked a straight-forward question: “Do we embrace a hopeful future or retreat to a reactionary past?” as a prelude to endorsing Kamala. Since the South African fascist billionaire— no, not that one, Patrick Soon-Shiong— who owns the L.A. Times has forbidden the editors to endorse Kamala, you might want to read this one instead. I found the endorsement especially… I don’t know… interesting? jarring? because I had just seen a piece above it about Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new book, The Message— ‘I don’t have much hope for a Harris preidency’: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Israeli apartheid and what the media gets wrong about Palestine. It includes an interview with Coates and you might want to read it (at the link above). The Guardian editors wrote that it would be hard for them “to imagine a worse candidate for the American presidency in 2024 than Trump. His history of dishonesty, hypocrisy and greed makes him wholly unfit for the office. A second Trump term would erode the rule of law, diminish America’s global standing and deepen racial and cultural divides. Even if he loses, Trump has shown that he will undermine the election process, with allies spreading unfounded conspiracy theories to delegitimise the results.”
“They warned, pretty starkly, that “Trump’s authoritarianism may finish US democracy. He has praised and promised to pardon those convicted in the January 6 insurrection. He has suggested bypassing legal norms to use potentially violent methods of repression, blurring the lines between vigilantism, law enforcement and military action, against groups— be they Democrats or undocumented immigrants— he views as enemies. His team has tried to distance itself from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and its extreme proposals— such as mass firings of civil servants and erasing women’s rights— that poll poorly. But it is likely that, in office, Trump would adopt many of these intolerant, patriarchal and discriminatory plans. He aims to dismantle the government to enrich himself and evade the law. If Republicans gain control of the Senate, House and White House, he would interpret it as a mandate to silence his critics and entrench his power.
Trump is a transactional and corrupting politician. His supporters see this as an advantage. Christian nationalists want an authoritarian regime to enforce religious edicts on Americans. Elon Musk wants to shape the future without regulatory oversight. Both put self-interest ahead of the American people. Democracy erodes slowly at first, then all at once. In office, Trump appointed three supreme court justices, who this summer blocked efforts to hold him accountable for trying to overturn the 2020 election: their immunity ruling renders the president “a king above the law,” in the words of the liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor.
…The Trump agenda threatens to dismantle voting rights, women’s rights and minority rights— not just reversing decades of social progress but burying it. Trump was behind the shredding of reproductive rights. The conservative forces rallying to him are now intent on imposing a national abortion ban, with— should he win— dire implications for IVF and birth control. Republicans have been hurt in the polls by being associated with such unpopular policies— a weak spot that Harris should keep exploiting.
…The US economy is stronger than it has been in decades, yet Trump consistently outpolls Harris on economic issues. This perhaps reflects decades of neoliberalism. Real wages for blue-collar workers have stagnated since the 1970s, while inflation-adjusted house prices have doubled. Polls show 70% of Americans feel significant political and economic reform is needed, putting Democrats at a disadvantage as they are linked to the status quo.
Political hope fades when we settle for what is, instead of fighting for what could be. Harris embodies the conviction that it’s better to believe in democracy’s potential than to surrender to its imperfections. The Republican agenda is clear: voter suppression, book bans and tax cuts for billionaires. Democrats seek global engagement; the GOP favours isolation. The Biden-Harris administration laid the groundwork for a net zero America. A Trumpian comeback would undo it. A Harris win, with a Democratic Congress, means a chance to restore good governance, create good jobs and lead the entire planet’s climate efforts. Defeating Trump protects democracy from oligarchy and dictatorship. There is too much at stake not to back Harris for president.
According to rumors, the L.A. Times was getting ready to run this poem when Soon-Shiong stepped in and had his hysterical little shit-fit:
Trump is a man of the deal,
Shaking hands with a devilish zeal.
Promises made? They’re up for trade—
A fair price is all that you need to appeal.
Policies shift with a wave of the hand,
Principles fall like castles of sand.
Give him your praise, and he’ll sing your tune,
But turn away? He’ll forget you soon.
Loyalty's currency, pay when you can,
Allegiances written in sleight-of-hand.
Today you’re a friend, tomorrow who knows?
His compass spins wherever the wind blows.
Bargains made beneath gold-tinted light,
His eyes set on what's in plain sight.
The future’s for sale, the past on return—
Just make an offer, watch his heart churn.
So Trump, the dealer, plays his role,
Selling out values to reach his goal.
But beware the cost of this political fare—
In the end, it’s your soul he’ll snare.
Worse than the slave owners and George W. Bush?
Dems were running on 3 planks this time:
1) Trump is a menace;
2) Support reproductive rights;
3) Brand loyalty.
Team Harris, however, has spent recent weeks doing their dead level best to weaken plank 3. Publicly, Harris seems to identify more easily with Liz Cheney than she identifies with Tim Walz--the member of the ticket who clearly has more popular appeal. There are really only 2 planks Dems are running on now.
While the Dem base is tearing its collective hair out over Genocide in Gaza, the only distinction Harris will make between herself and the current WH is that she will have a GOP member in her cabinet. Humprhey put some daylight between himself and LBJ on Vietna…