Most of us with significant life experience understand that all we hold dear can totally change 180 degrees for good, bad, better or worse in the twinkling of an eye. That concept also applies to worldly events and the fate of nations as any student of history will vouch for such dates as July 4th, 1776, Black Monday October 28th, 1929, December 7th, 1941, or anyone who can remember September 11th, 2001 will attest. Speaking of events and happenings of fateful nature, Sunday, July 21st of 2024 may very well be remembered for when chances of furthering the grand American Experiment quadrupled. With the summer temperature rising commensurate with that of the Presidential campaign cycle, Democratic operatives and influencers correctly read the writing on the wall after the President’s abysmal showing at the debate in late June. Understanding and accepting that his overt cognitive decline due to age was playing heavily into the GOP nominee’s message such that he was trailing in most polls and despite garnering more than enough primary votes to be the Democratic nominee, President Joseph R. Biden put country first and announced he would not seek reelection. He then stepped aside and allowed Vice President Kamala Harris to assume the status as the de facto Democratic nominee. History may very well record that action as the right call at the right time as the effect of it was virtually instantaneous and sustained. The traditional Democratic base particularly the younger demographic of voters, which prior to this announcement from the White House had been for whatever reason(s) disaffected and uninspired by the prospect of carrying President Biden’s water in another bland and lackluster election campaign, immediately came to life in support of the Vice President. Setting new fundraising and volunteer records, the Harris Campaign raised over $310 million in July alone mostly in small donations and has mustered some 360,000 campaign volunteers since the VP became the presumptive nominee. Enthusiasm for the Harris candidacy has yet to show any real signs of plateauing.
On the GOP side, all was going well for the former President all year as he usually held leads within margin of error in most polls in critical battleground states and nationally overall. This seemingly unearned favor flew in the face of his legal woes up until the June 24 debate with President Biden. After the debate his favorability rating rose a bit, which was likely less because he was honest and factual about any policy point and more because of Biden’s age-related mental stumbling. On July 13th the nation collectively held its breath in stunned horror and amazement as the 45th President and GOP nominee was nearly assassinated at a campaign rally in Butler, PA by a 20-year-old lone sniper with an assault weapon who, as it turned out, was a registered Republican. Sadly, a rally attendee was killed when he took a bullet intended for the former President. Although Candidate Trump sustained a minor wound to his right ear, it stood to reason to expect that his overall popularity would be boosted because of it. Indeed, at least according to his most ardent supporters on social media, surviving being shot was proof he was their God’s candidate and therefore bulletproof. The following week throughout the Republican National Convention, all speakers drove home the point of it being a foregone conclusion that Trump and his new running mate, Ohio Senator and purported “man of the people of Appalachia” J.D. Vance would emerge as the team that would divide, conquer and dominate “Sleepy Joe” Biden at the polls in November. For all the blather, rhetoric and recycling of overused tropes, accusations and assertions of how awful America is due to terrible leadership, it netted the Trump/Vance ticket a less than moderate disappointing poll bounce that amounted to under 1%.
Since the third Sunday of July, the once seemingly confident and resolute albeit slightly retooled GOP ticket has found itself in a lingering state of disarray. Through most of 2023 and all of this year until July 21, the Trump campaign was dead set on going head-to-head in a rematch with President Biden. Indeed, Team Trump’s main focus of strategy was making the case to the voters that a dottering, tired and increasingly senile 81-year-old is not fit to hold office. In one fell swoop, that script was flipped on them. Biden stepping aside sent them scrambling to revise the “elderly card” for their 78-year-old forgetful, mumbling, gaffe-making candidate with a growing tendency for mistaking fiction for fact. It remains to be seen if their efforts to dismiss the age issue for their guy has worked well enough to garner him the number of votes he needs to win in critical swing states. So much for any message of unity the GOP candidate spoke of following the assassination attempt a mere eight days before. As was expected following the President’s announcement, all manner of name calling and ad hominem attacks on the Vice President began immediately and has yet to relent. Still using their mainstay go-to tactic of stoking grievance and fear that served them so well in 2016, they are finding it increasingly harder to generate the same level of outrage that drove so many undecided voters to support them over Hillary Clinton. When it comes down to brass tacks, the Trump/Vance ticket can reliably count on 32% of the voting public to support them regardless. What was a tall order for Team Trump just became a great deal steeper for them this week with the VP’s announcement of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Walz, a retired Army National Guardsman and former school teacher, served as the MN CD 1 Congressman from 2007 to 2019, is a product of rural America who can relate to that critical segment of voters. A centrist Democrat, he has been governor since 2019 and known for common sense policies. When Team Trump/Vance and MAGA nation spew forth claims about their Democratic opponents being “the most radical leftist ticket with the most extreme socialist agenda in the history of the country” it truly reveals how far out on the far-right fringe they are standing. Too bad, so sad for the Red Team. Many of the Blue Team’s policies and much of the ideas on their governing agenda are quite popular. As it turns out, things like women’s bodily autonomy and a nationally codified version of Roe v Wade, common sense gun laws including universal background checks, increasing use of renewable energy, preserving the environment and improving public education at all levels are popular with a majority of the electorate. Boasting about overturning Roe v Wade has not won Trump enough new voters to make a difference. Polling data is beginning to indicate that the popularity of the Harris/Walz ticket is proving to be more than a “flash-in-the-pan sugar high,” and the Democrats have yet to hold their convention.
All the happenings of the past month of this election cycle have been a roller coaster of emotions for America. From paralyzing terror, to wonder and amazement, to hope and unity to finally arriving at an unexpectedly marked contrast between candidates on the ballot, Summer 2024 has given us a wild and exhilarating ride. That is not even the most entertaining part of the respective campaigns. Watching the GOP candidate attempt to distance himself from a governing plan largely written by members of his own administration and backed by a rightwing think tank has been the tap dance act of the summer.
Prior to the month of June, very few Americans outside the Heritage Foundation had ever so much as heard of Project 2025. Once it became news, all mainstream media circulated what was tagged as the core of Agenda 47. Project 2025 is an ultra-rightwing agenda to transform the nation into a dystopian dictatorship for most of the people living in it. Long story short, it is a governing guide to installing and perpetuating an authoritarian Christian theocracy. Select elements of it have been forced upon us here in Oklahoma like putting the Ten Commandments and prayer in all public school classrooms. Suffice to say it is not a healthy direction in which to take a U.S. state much less the entire nation. If you have never taken anything away from reading this blog, please take this: Donald Trump had no plan for governing when he won the election in 2016, and the chaos that followed showed it. He has a plan now and he should be taken at his word that he will implement it regardless of what he will say to separate himself from it as it sinks him. As the Democratic ticket takes off and climbs in popularity, expect Trump and his team to become ever more desperate. It is 100% factual that convict Donald J. Trump is running for President this year to keep himself out of prison. He will resort to anything to avoid that fate. Please be familiar with Project 2025 and why you should be alarmed by it. It is one toxic tube of toothpaste the contents of which, now that they had been discovered and squeezed out, will not be going back in the tube despite best efforts of Team Trump. Also know that those who state upfront and publicly that “Democracy is on the ballot” are not joking. Please understand what the many and mostly negative ramifications of another Trump presidency will be and please pass on to all voting friends and family the intention of Project 2025. Speaking for myself, I sincerely hope that my gut feeling of a bright future and soothed expectations of a Democratic victory in November are not merely a product of my own wishful thinking. With an enthusiastic, excited and reinvigorated voter base led by the 18 to 35-year-olds and around 100 million pissed off women, my anxiety over the outcome of Election Day 2024 is dissipating by the minute. Here’s to a message of hope and joy and keeping America that bright, shining city on the hill!
Thank you for reading!
Not so much a rollercoaster, and more a barefoot slog through the valley of despair, to be suddenly given a pair of leaky hip waders to finish the ordeal.
If Harris is able to defeat the Orange Anus and his moronic Luddite cultists, no one will be better pleased than myself.
That said, she’s still a hack politician whose chief advantage lies in being a full generation younger than her opponent and FAR more telegenic.
We still won’t have a balanced budget Amendment, term limits (especially for the Federal judiciary), a coherent foreign policy, any clue to the immigration mess, a prayer of resolving our deficit or the looming mismatch between entitlements and discretionary imperatives, and ZERO campaign finance reform.
It’s not nearly half-a-loaf, but I’ll take it.
Paraplegia is infinitely preferable to a glioblastoma.
Hey people!!!!!
Good mood and good luck to everyone!!!!!
Not to be a downer, but don’t forget that the Republican political strategy for the past 50+ years has always been: “If we can’t win fair & square, then we’ll lie, cheat & steal in order to gain power.” 2024 is not going to be any different… 🙁
Carl, that has in fact occurred to me. Packing the state election boards with election deniers is a story that is still evolving. We’ll talk about that at the appropriate time.
What you have written is pure gold, my dear friend. Never have I felt so much raw hope, gratitude and anticipation as I have felt since reading about the “18- to 35-year-old voters and 100 million pissed women” you mention. I join the rest of us who will never take freedom for granted and who celebrate it happily with normalized blood pressure readings and hope for the future. Thank you for the excellent work, Stan, you steadfast water-carrier, you!
It has been a Rollercoaster, emotionally for many. Feeling hopeful now. Thanks, Stan
Excellent summation. I, too, am allowing the clouds of doom and gloom to dissipate into a sunshiny view.
Much easier on my serenity.