The Party's Over; Time to DO Something!

 

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz accepted the nominations of their party at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Although the procedural aspects of the week's schedule followed usual norms, many others did not. And when compared with the almost funereal aspect and negative vibes from the Republican convention in Milwaukee a few weeks earlier, this event was raucous and hopeful. Obviously, I was not at either event, but you could see the differences in so many ways. While the Delegates in Milwaukee brandished signs calling for Mass Deportation, those in Chicago waved signs saying Freedom.

First, at the Democrats event, previous presidents spoke, and there was representation from the families of John Kennedy and Jimmy Carter. Previous officials and cabinet members addressed the gathering. Former Senator Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate in 2016 (who won the popular vote against DJT, but lost the Electoral College tally) proudly endorsed Kamala Harris, noting that the glass ceiling is becoming moot. Absent from the Republican Convention was DJT's former Vice-President, Mike Pence, (whom he almost got killed), and multiple former cabinet members-except for former trade official Peter Navarro, who was recently released from prison. Navarro was convicted of refusing to respond to a subpoena from the Congressional Select Committee.

The speakers before the Democrats were also diverse in age, ethnicity, and geography.

Hillary Clinton's speech was one of many given by women throughout the week, and was quoted in Time Magazine: 

 "It still takes a village to raise a family, heal a country, and win a campaign. And America needs every one of us, our energy, our talents, our dreams. We're not just electing a President. We are uplifting our nation. We're opening the promise of America wide enough for everyone. 

Together, we've put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling. And tonight, it is so close to breaking through once and for all. 

I want to tell you what I see through all those cracks and why it matters for each and every one of us. What do I see? I see freedom. I see the freedom to make our own decisions about our health, our lives, our loves, our families. The freedom to work with dignity and prosper, to worship as we choose or not. To speak our minds freely and honestly. I see freedom from fear and intimidation, from violence and injustice, from chaos and corruption. I see the freedom to look our children in the eye and say, "In America, you can go as far as your hard work and talent will take you," and mean it."

And Michelle Obama gave a speech (departing from the "When they go low, we go high" speech of 2020) that will long be remembered when she noted the effects of privilege and historic enmity toward others like herself:

You can find the entire speech or snippets here on YouTube. Some of the speech is quoted below.

"Look, Kamala knows, like we do, that regardless of where you come from, what you look like, who you love, how you worship, or what's in your bank account, we all deserve the opportunity to build a decent life. All of our contributions deserve to be accepted and valued. Because no one has a monopoly on what it means to be an American. No one. Kamala has shown her allegiance to this nation. Not by spewing anger and bitterness, but by living a life of service, and always pushing the doors of opportunity open to others.

She understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward. We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. If we bankrupt a business — if we bankrupt a business or choke in a crisis, we don't get a second, third, or fourth chance. If things don't go our way, we don't have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No. We don't get to change the rules, so we always win. If we see a mountain in front of us, we don't expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. No. We put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something.

For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us. See, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black. I want to know — I want to know — who's going to tell him, who's going to tell him, that the job he is currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?

Look, I don't care how you identify politically, whether you are a Democrat, Republican, independent, or none of the above. This is our time to stand up for what we know in our hearts is right. To stand up not just for our basic freedoms, but for decency and humanity. For basic respect, dignity, and empathy. For the values at the very foundation of this democracy. It's up to us to remember what Kamala's mother told her: Don't just sit around and complain, do something.

So if they lie about her, and they will, we've got to do something. If we see a bad poll, and we will, we've got to put down that phone, and do something. If we start feeling tired, if we start feeling that dread creeping back in, we've got to pick ourselves up, throw water on our face, and what? [Crowd chants back: "Do Something!"]

On the final night of the convention, Vice-president Kamala Harris accepted the party's nomination. Her speech was about 35 minutes in length (much shorter and more coherent than her opponents' previous remarks). A full transcript can be found here in the New York Times.

On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America.

But we never gave up. Because the future is always worth fighting for. And that's the fight we are in right now — a fight for America's future.Fellow Americans, this election is not only the most important of our lives, it is one of the most important in the life of our nation. In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences — but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.Consider — consider not only the chaos and calamity when he was in office, but also the gravity of what has happened since he lost the last election. Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes. When he failed, he sent an armed mob to the U.S. Capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers. When politicians in his own party begged him to call off the mob and send help, he did the opposite — he fanned the flames. 

And we know, and we know what a second Trump term would look like. It's all laid out in Project 2025, written by his closest advisers. And its sum total is to pull our country back to the past. But America, we are not going back. We are not going back. We are not going back.

We are not going back to when Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare. We are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions. We are not going to let him eliminate the Department of Education that funds our public schools. We are not going to let him end programs like Head Start that provide preschool and child care for our children. America, we are not going back.And we are charting — and we are charting a new way forward. Forward to a future with a strong and growing middle class because we know a strong middle class has always been critical to America's success, and building that middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.

So, fellow Americans. Fellow Americans. I — I love our country with all my heart. Everywhere I go — everywhere I go, in everyone I meet, I see a nation that is ready to move forward. Ready for the next step in the incredible journey that is America.I see an America where we hold fast to the fearless belief that built our nation and inspired the world. That here, in this country, anything is possible. That nothing is out of reach. An America where we care for one another, look out for one another, and recognize that we have so much more in common than what separates us. That none of us — none of us has to fail for all of us to succeed."

VP Harris concluded her remarks with:

"It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish, and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth: the privilege and pride of being an American. So let's get out there, let's fight for it. Let's get out there, let's vote for it, and together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.

Thank you. God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America. Thank you."

 

So the Democrats were given their mission to get out there, knock on doors, call voters, persuade voters, and VOTE!

 

Til next week-Peace!

Joe Took His Bow, Passed the Torch, & Made the Charge!

On the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, it was clear that the party had a message to send. The evening ended with an address from the president, that started at 11:30  pm, Eastern time, mostly because of delays in getting everyone inside at the program's beginning, multiple speakers, and many rounds of applause. President Biden spoke pretty well at that late hour, sending a powerful message, delivered with energy and emotion, although there were a few stumbles and missteps. Clearly, the president believed that he could still do the work, but also realized that he needed to pass the torch to a new younger generation. He poignantly mentioned that, when first elected to the Senate, he was too young, and now he is too old to serve as president. His wife, Jill, and his daughter, Ashley, lovingly introduced him. The audience, supplied with thank you Joe signs, waved them and cheered for almost four minutes before they quieted down. The speech, hitting the usual talking points and his accomplishments, is summarized in multiple places, so I will not repeat everything here. He endorsed Kamala, scorned the idea of his predecessor ever being elected again, and sent the charge to his listeners to make certain that never happens. He ended his words by quoting a verse, saying, “America, I gave my best to you,” which left many in tears, myself included.

CNN’s fact checker concluded there were some misstatements in his remarks which he often uses (where are the speechwriters and WH fact checkers?) but there was none of the name calling nor outright lies used regularly by DJT and seldom called out by the media. They also fact-checked the other speakers. Hyperbole is a part of political speech, expected by many, but none of these summarized below seemed particularly egregious to me, but, then I admit partisanship here.

These remarks are unlike the opponents, who are now calling the Hatri/Walz ticket a communist one, especially after learning that Walz taught in China and led study groups there.

“Democratic state and federal officeholders, including President Joe Biden, delivered some false, misleading or lacking-key-context claims on the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday.

Biden repeated misleading claims he has made in previous speeches about billionaires’ tax rates and foreign trade. He also overstated the extent to which his efforts to fight climate change are expected to reduce US carbon emissions in the next decade. He made an outdated claim about the number of Americans with health insurance. He omitted key context about his administration’s infrastructure-building efforts, framing distant goals as if they were already achievements.

Speaking earlier in the night, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois denounced former President Donald Trump for having presided over a loss of jobs without mentioning the critical context that the losses occurred because of the Covid-19 pandemic that caused a global economic crash. A video played at the convention similarly left out important context on the respective job-related records of the Trump and Biden-Harris administrations.

Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow falsely claimed that the Supreme Court has made Trump “completely immune from prosecution,” significantly overstating the court’s recent ruling.”

The tempo for the evening showcased many of the younger and newer stars in the party, another sign that the torches were being passed. Yes, Hillary Clinton is not new, but her appearance made a point about women candidates and made a point to mention Geraldine Ferraro and Shirley Chisholm.  Congresswoman Maxine Waters from California, also not new, and even older than the president spoke. The recently appointed senator from California, an old friend of Harris and a former head of Emily’s List who came from the Labor Movement, Laphonza Butler, spoke about changes to come as Harris represents the people.

Three speakers discussed abortion rights and the realities after Dobbs that threatened their lives when access to care was denied to mothers with problem pregnancies. Another young woman discussed the dilemmas that happened to her at 12 tears old when her stepfather raped and impregnated her. Especially after Dobbs, many states denied abortion care, even in cases of incest. Many women in the audience were openly moved and had tears streaming down their cheeks after they spoke. This group of speakers put human faces on the ramifications of this terrible SCOTUS decision.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC) had a major speaking role and brought her youth and stirring message about working people to the room. Chiding the Republicans who told her to go back to bartending, she noted that was an honorable position that helped her take care of her family when they were saddled with medical debt after her father’s unexpected death.

UAW President Sean Fein spoke proudly of union workers, praised the president for walking the picket line, and Harris for doing so previously. Mentioning DJT’s rambling “interview” on Twitter with Elon Musk and their discussion about union busting, he called the former president a scab.

There were so many excellent speeches, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, a representative, and lawyer from Texas, spoke of how VP Harris put her at ease when she was nervous about first meeting her then ripped into DJT saying Harris has a resume and he has a rap sheet. I won’t try to match her alliteration here, but it was priceless!

Mallory McMorrow, a state Senator from Michigan, brought out a giant copy of the 2025 plan and noted how it would take away so much from our current rights, especially after the immunity decision. Maryland’s Jamie Raskin, a former Constitutional Law professor and impeachment hearing leader in 2021, discussed the dangers these proposed plans would cause and how many of them were not constitutional.

Then there was Senator Raphael Warnock from Georgia, who came out in preacher mode calling “a vote a prayer for the kind of world we desire for ourselves and our children. We are stronger when we pray together. We need all children to be okay, no matter where they live, and he mentioned rich and poor, Israel and Gaza, and others across the world harmed by wars and famine.”Warning Democrats to be vigilant, he told of election law changes in Georgia by Republicans who were praised at a rally in Atlanta by the former president. Noting the scene at Lafayette Square during the BLM protests with an upside-down Bible, he suggested instead he should read it. Remembering January 6^th he called DJT a plague on America. He was not subtle.

And, folks, this was just Day One. I will have more to say later this week.

On the Campaign Trail

 

Maybe this introductory trek across America for the Harris-Walz team should be called "Make America Happy Again" because, to many pundits and the overflow crowds in attendance, these are joyous occasions. Watching on TV, one can feel the energy, see the smiles, and watch audiences laugh again. Not that these rallies are full of jokes, they have lots of serious content, but it is described without rancor and not at the expense of others.

Tim Walz was an excellent choice in my opinion. He is being described as America's Dad and is quite relatable. "Dad jokes" are proliferating across the Internet.

In the Atlantic, Charlie Warzel describes Walz as Dad-coded.

"All of the Internet posts celebrate and elevate a particular kind of person; a normal guy who is uncomplicated and decent. He isn't cool and he knows it - a self-awareness that brings a kind of liberation. From a strategic standpoint, the Harris campaign seems to understand that the Dad is exactly the right meme to counter the alienating and extremely online tendencies of the right wing. While good vibes online may not do all of the necessary work of drawing voters to Harris in November, optics do matter."

Warzel further describes the memes, (paraphrased here)

"Tim Walz is the dad an entire generation wishes they had instead of the one they lost to Fax News. Tim Walz is outside mowing my lawn or raking my leaves, or getting rid of that hornet's nest for me. He's the guy in the hardware store who explains hex bolts.

The trope of 'Dadness', as refined by the internet, is a cherished caricature. Dad fixes things, but he is also an anchoring presence, tethered not to the choose-your-own-reality of the Internet but to the solid ground of the physical world."

As reported by Axios, others have said:

"Tim Walz could teach me how to drive a stick shift without making me cry once."

It further noted that Walz's "Big Dad" energy was winning hearts across the internet.

Even before Vice President Kamala Harris officially picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, social media was replete with memes hailing him as "everyone's Midwestern dad."

Why it matters: The internet's embrace of Walz's affable nature and everyman appeal further highlights the contrast between the Republican and Democratic tickets in the 2024 race when it comes to appealing to young voters.

The big picture: In the weeks since Walz's stock began rising in the veepstakes, wholesome photos of him dancing, holding a sleeping piglet, and happily being hugged by a group of children have circulated on social media.

The Daily Show joked that Walz would change the oil on a drone to save the Pentagon money.

The campaign's ability to play into the social media deluge underscored the fact that a younger candidate — one more in touch with young voters online — had taken over the ticket.

On the other hand, former President Trump's running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) has already faced the internet's ire — and mockery — over his comments about "childless cat ladies"

Even the Style page of the Washington Post got on this topic as columnist Monica Hesse wrote:

Masculinity's check engine light is on. Let Tim Walz have a look.

Vice-presidential nominee Walz's "Midwestern dad vibe" comes with opportunities to rethink a whole tool kit of types.

"Tim Walz beeps at you at a red light, motions for you to put your window down, and tells you that your right rear tire could use some air," read another. Or: "Tim Walz has enough 10 mm sockets for everyone in the neighborhood." 

"But people are not fanboying and fangirling over Walz as a warm and loving person. They are praising him as, specifically, a man. A man who served in the National Guard, who identified as a proud hunter, who once strongly supported the NRA, and who coached a high school football team all the way to the state championships.

I'd been trying to think of a better descriptor than Midwestern Dad to get at the aura Walz projects. After all, not all good men are Midwestern or dads. Soon I realized the perfect term had already been coined. "Tim Walz has tonic masculinity."

Why does any of this matter? Voters like to find their elected officials relatable. That is why the meme of Walz mowing a neighbor's lawn or snow-blowing their driveway feels real. Certainly, few people would expect to find his opponent in that position. When I watch him give his stump speech, I believe he stands behind what he is saying; he is not just reading words someone wrote for him. He even had to get tutored on teleprompter use, as it was not his usual style. Walz got personal when he described the problems he and his wife had with conception and took his audience through the heartbreak that led them to IVF and, eventually, their daughter Hope. How many in his audience could identify with this? I expect there are many thousands.

I know such remarks will not solve inflation, poverty, famine, or the wars around the globe, but his demonstrated affability, big-heartedness, and openness give his audience confidence that he will get to work on whatever portfolios Kamala sends his way. After the school shooting at Parkland, he returned money donated to him by the NRA, which he previously supported. This shows that he is not stuck in the mud, or wedded to old ideas, such as his opponents are; new information or events can help him change his mind. Walz's description of JD Vance is priceless:

("Like all regular people I grew up with in the Heartland, he went to Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then went on to write a best-selling book trashing that community. Come on!")

And, unlike the former president, he does not change his mind when billionaire owners give him contributions, such as with Tik-Tok or Budweiser Beer.

The phrase 'we're not going back" repeated at every rally shows how much the audience wants not to return to the failed policies of the Maga crowd. They are looking for new ideas, which, as Kamala states, will not only allow them to get by but also to get ahead. Isn't this what we expect of our elected leaders? Do you remember how excited we were when President Obama first ran? When Hope and Change were in the air? Do you feel some of that excitement today?

The crowds have been amazing, with thousands standing in line under high temperatures. In Las Vegas, they had to end the lines, when people fell ill from the heat; still, over 12,000 were in the arena. Some lines at other venues stretched for miles, with people abandoning their cars along the way. (Walz apologized to the audience for their long walks.)

No wonder the Magas are claiming photos of these events were artificially created by AI programs. (They wish!) Truth Social posted the supposedly doctored photos – fakes themselves! In his recent rambling press conference where he answered only a few questions and did not allow the questioners to be heard, DJT claimed his crowds were larger than those at Dr. King's March on Washington, which was an absurd claim. Do you remember when he made his press secretary claim his inaugural crowds were larger than those for President Obama- also patently false!

Can you also recall when Senator John Kerry ran for President against George Bush and the scurrilous campaign waged against him which we now call "swift boating"? As reported by Raw Story, Harlan Crowe, the billionaire closely associated with Justice Clarence Thomas, funded that campaign in 2004; Chris LaCivita, now a spokesperson for DJT, managed that vicious effort. Of course, they are trying this again, by attacking Walz for his 24-year career in the National Guard and questioning whether his unit served in combat. Walz stated the unit supported the Afghanistan effort, but was based in Italy. Some have claimed that he only ran for Congress when there were rumors that the unit was going to be sent to the battlefield. Facts provided in this New York Times article show the dates don't match and are more detailed in this article from PBS. Even the Wall Street Journal called these allegations "thin gruel".

Oregon Public Broadcasting explores both the Swift boating episode and Vance's claim of "Stolen Valor" and debunks them both in the article linked above.

So, so much is happening; I've but only touched the surface here, but I hope it has made you get ready to start making phone calls, knocking on doors, or sending postcards to get out the vote. AP reported Harris raised $310 million in July after announcing, another 32 million came in after the Walz selection, and a Nancy Pelosi fundraiser yesterday collected another 12 million in contributions. There is a lot of money out there and a ton more to be spent. If you can give, please do so.

So that's it for today. News is moving fast these days, I'll try to keep up!

Til next week- Peace!

Stoking Fears & Promoting "Otherism"

 

The Republicans presented no major policy initiatives at their recent convention. Maga is running away from Project 2025 and even made a major player step down. So what could they run on? What is their vision for America?

Recently, the New York Times reported the former president (DJT), who has a history of using race to pit groups of Americans against each other, is again using these tactics.

"Attacks on Ms. Harris's racial background have circulated among right-wing figures and Mr. Trump's close allies for years.

In 2019, Donald Trump Jr. shared a social media post from an alt-right personality that falsely claimed Ms. Harris was not Black enough to be discussing the plight of Black Americans during a primary debate. Though Mr. Trump later deleted the post, it spread widely across conservative social media, prompting a wave of accounts to question her background, which was exactly the point of the effort, according to some far-right activists."

 

Appearing last week before a convention for the National Association of Black Journalists, he said:

"I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?" Mr. Trump said of Ms. Harris, whose mother was Indian American and whose father is Black.

The moment was shocking, but for those who have followed Mr. Trump's divisive language, it was hardly surprising. The former president has a history of using race to pit groups of Americans against one another, amplifying a strain of racial politics that has risen as a generation of Black politicians has ascended."

 

The Times further noted:

 

"Like many of Mr. Trump's more provocative statements, the comments conveyed several unsettling ideas at once, all of them somewhat open to interpretation: He implied Ms. Harris was deceiving voters and selecting an identity for political gain. He suggested to the predominantly Black audience that she was not one of them — and to Indian Americans listening that she abandoned them, an assertion echoed by the onetime Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday."

DJT used this platform to disrespect the women journalists who attempted to interview him. (He appeared on stage late because he objected to real-time fact-checking during the session.)  At first, he claimed they could not work their equipment, which messed up his schedule, he deflected their questions, calling them hostile, and challenged the concept of DEI. It was him, not the interviewers, who displayed hostility and aggression. Then, as they attempted to ask about the 2025 Project, his staff closed the scheduled hour-long interview after half an hour.

Astute readers will recognize these actions as tactics to disrupt and divide by implying that Harris is walking away from her Indian heritage when it was convenient and embracing it, instead of her black identity, at other times. Of course, this misses the fact that she attended Howard University, an HBUC, and pledged a Black Sorority. Instead, his campaign pointed to the TV appearance she made with actress Mindy Kahling, where they cooked Indian food. This is hardly an example of disowning one's identity!

His campaign in 2020 used identity politics when the Maga World, Fox TV, and others repeatedly referred to caravans of immigrants heading toward our borders. His announcement speech earlier in 2015 mentioned criminals being sent to our borders and committing crimes here. When he was inaugurated, he spoke of the carnage that could envelop our country, which only he could resolve. These tactics employ fear-stoking and imply that criminally inclined immigrants are coming here to rape our daughters, steal our valuables and murder us in our beds-even though most undocumented immigrants walk in the shadows, do not call attention to themselves, often using fake social security numbers, and pay money into a system they will not benefit from.

In the interview, he suggested these immigrants were taking "black jobs", a phrase he used in the earlier debate. When asked how he defined black jobs, he could not provide an example; he just wanted to use it as a wedge. Notably, Simone Biles, after winning gold at the Olympics, stated she loved her black job!

The issue of 'Birtherism', occurred when DJT claimed that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, because his father was Kenyan. With no authority, he demanded a copy of Obama's birth certificate. He again was creating a wedge, causing an instance of "them versus us." Obama first came to national attention when he made his awesome speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention for John Kerry and spoke of common ground between red states and blue states.

He spoke proudly of the diversity of his heritage and his hopes that America could meet its promises. He mentioned moving away from the politics of cynicism toward the politics of hope.

You can find the speech on YouTube here.

No wonder this was so threatening to those promoting the politics of doom. This can be seen in the descriptions and goals mentioned in the Project 2025 900 plus book. The writers of Project 2025 spoke of returning to an earlier America. The introduction to the Mandate for Leadership (*the official name) states in part:

Mandate for Leadership was published in January 1981—the same month Ronald Reagan was sworn into his presidency. By the end of that year, more than 60 percent of its recommendations had become policy—and Reagan was on his way to ending stagflation, reviving American confidence and prosperity, and winning the Cold War. The bad news today is that our political establishment and cultural elite have once again driven America toward decline. The good news is that we know the way out even though the challenges today are not what they were in the 1970s. Conservatives should be confident that we can rescue our kids, reclaim our culture, revive our economy, and defeat the anti-American Left—at home and abroad. We did it before and will do it again. As Ronald Reagan put it: Freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation[.]1 This is the duty history has put before us and the standard by which our generation of conservatives will be judged. And we should not want it any other way. The legacy of the Mandate for Leadership, and indeed of the entire Reagan Revolution, is that if conservatives want to save the country, we need a bold and courageous plan. This book is the first step in that plan.

THE CONSERVATIVE PROMISE.

PROMISE #1: RESTORE THE FAMILY AS THE CENTERPIECE OF AMERICAN LIFE AND PROTECT OUR CHILDREN.

PROMISE #2: DISMANTLE THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE AND RETURN SELF-GOVERNANCE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

PROMISE #3: DEFEND OUR NATION'S SOVEREIGNTY, BORDERS, AND BOUNTY AGAINST GLOBAL THREATS.

PROMISE #4 SECURE OUR GOD-GIVEN INDIVIDUAL RIGHT TO ENJOY "THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY."

What this document ignores in practice is that this country is no longer home to the mostly agrarian communities of the 20th Century. In 1950, the US population was over 151 million people; in 1980, that number rose to over 226 million. Today we have over 336 million Americans. Approximately 58% of the population is White, with 19% Hispanic or Latino, 12% are Black and 5% are Asian. Other groups make up a small additional percentage.

The Internet age moves quickly, societal expectations are more complex, and our world is more conflicted. Demographics have changed over these 50 years. 38 million Americans identify as mixed-race or multi-racial. So an insult thrown at Kamala Harris reverberates against millions of our friends, neighbors, and voters.

Religiosity also changed over the decades, with fewer Americans adhering to the tenets of organized religion and Sunday services. What Fox TV claimed was a War on Christmas or Christians was mostly a decrease in membership in organized and evangelical religions. Those who claim Christian Nationalism should be the norm, should look at Maryland where there are significant populations of Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus, to mention only a few other faiths. We can easily find nearby Buddhist Temples with prayer flags flying and mosques with attached minarets.

I mentioned “Othering” in my title. It is also a way of creating wedges. A recent article in Population Health noted that Othering should be considered a health inequity. (Pub Med-2022 Dec 20 # 101286.) It describes othering as a powerful process that goes beyond the concept of discrimination or categorization. It posits that it must be considered in a psycho-social context. Stereotyping, prejudice, or stigmatization, although used as synonyms, do not convey the same emphasis. Othering is a conscious construct using ideas that need to be deconstructed, rather than simply leveraged, to allow access to power or to exclude.

For example, immigrants fleeing tyranny, and who are at risk, can be charged with societal othering, which makes them the risk. Such emphasis on the differences in culture and languages further marginalizes their fragile identities. This concept applies to any person or group which is outside the majority norm. It benefits those who wish to promote an “us vs. them” life philosophy and can be detrimental to the mental health of those who are trying to integrate or assimilate. This shows the cruelty of those who promote such discrimination. Phrases such as they are not like us or I cannot pronounce your name, so I will just call you Joe. are insulting and demeaning.

Political pundits predict that if the election seems more competitive, attacks from the Maga world will increase. They were unprepared for a Kamala Harris campaign. Expect more fear- mongering, increasingly wild predictions, personal attacks, and attempts to marginalize voters. Election boards are already scrubbing the voter rolls, looking for duplicates or perhaps those with exotic names. Do you know how many Indians with the last name of Patel are in this country? Do you think they might survive a purge? (Answer: there are 500,000 Indians of that name outside India with approximately 150,000 people named Patel living in the US.) How many other ethnic names might eventually be challenged?

Today DJT backed out of his scheduled ABC debate on September 10^th and demanded that Harris appear on a Fox TV debate which would have friendly, to him, moderators and a friendly TV audience, instead of the stark studio seen in the first debate which both sides agreed upon earlier. Harris indicated she would appear for the already scheduled event and consider any additional scenarios after that. Do you suppose he is running scared?

Tomorrow Kamala Harris is going to name her vice president selection. The word on the street is that the contest is down to Governors Tim Waltz of Minnesota and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. While I favor Walz, I can live with Shapiro because I do not want dissension among Democrats. Support her choice, whomever it is! As the saying goes, we have bigger fish to fry! We have to get out there and win this election. The alternative is unacceptable.

Til next week – Peace!