Could 2024 be our Last Election?

This was a question I heard posed by a pundit last week. It made me stop and think. Could our democracy disappear so quickly? But, as I look back at the last election, I never thought that a defeated president would lead a mob to circumvent the will of the people and create false sets of electors. Never, in our 234 years of electoral politics, had a president not agreed to cede power; such a move was unthinkable. But we all saw it, didn't we? Several books written about the election noted that weeks before the voting even began, plans were in place to claim the election was stolen. Once the Maga team determined they might not win, their efforts became focused on denying the legitimacy of their rival's win, despite the overwhelming truth of both the electoral college count and the actual vote tally.

Their attempts to do this resulted in 60 court challenges, most of which failed, thousands of social media posts, and false claims from a noisy partisan faction. Fortunately, the country survived all of this and limped to Inauguration Day, where Joe Biden was sworn in as the new leader. We can expect a more knowledgeable attempt next time, as many of the same people who were involved in the schemes then (at least those who have not yet been arrested, charged, or convicted) continue to surround DJT.

His stump speeches recently are more erratic, wildly echoing those given by Hitler a century ago.  

The Biden campaign posted this on X recently:

Sorry couldn't get the graphic to load, but the words are correct

Concerned Americans need to speak up and condemn such speech. It is deliberate and stirs the worst feelings of the electorate. Democrats, Independents, and Republicans should speak up now and call out these hateful speeches for the divisive tactics they are. These words are against our stated American values. They are against the oaths we take to defend our country – all of our country, not just a few.

The New York Times has done a series of articles over the years about Viktor Orban and his authoritarian rule in Hungary. Tucker Carlson interviewed Orban and the Conservative Political Action Conference held a recent convention there.

Some of Orbans' remarks, at that event, as noted by NPR, are below:

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — "Hungary's populist prime minister likened liberalism to a "virus" in an opening speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in the Hungarian capital on Thursday, painting a picture of a global right-wing movement mobilizing to defeat "progressive elites."

Viktor Orban's speech at CPAC Hungary  centered around battling what he frequently described as "woke culture," and delved primarily into hot-button cultural topics such as transgender and LGBTQ+ rights, migration and the content of education for children.

The two-day conference, the second in Hungary in as many years, featured segments titled "Make Kids Not War" and "No Country for Woke Men." A sign over the entrance to the venue, a conference hall on the Danube River, read, "No Woke Zone."

After receiving a standing ovation, Orban said Hungary had become "world-famous" for its hard-line migration and cultural policies, and offered those in attendance a recipe for implementing a similar right-wing agenda at home.

"No migration, no gender, no war," Orban said, urging his international audience to focus on these issues in their own countries.}"

But if you read what he has done since 2018, you will see the blueprint, I believe, for what DJT and his anti-democracy forces are planning to implement. Just as Orban is anti-immigrant, they are as well. Just as he initially won by portraying his enemies as corrupt and George Soros as directing evil forces against set government, the Maga groups are doing so too. If you read the articles I have linked and quoted from below, you can read the game plans. Why is DJT quoting Hitler? Because he is trying to build the need for a strong man–the "only I can save you" theory- just as Hitler and Orban promised. Besides being anti-immigrant, he has acted against the LBGTQ community and many of its members are leaving the country while they can do so. Can you see parallels with anti-gay and anti-trans campaigns here?

April 29 2018 Election in Hungary

Mr. Karacsony said that Mr. Orban had already largely "destroyed the constitutional order" and, in an interview before the election, he said he feared what an Orban victory would mean for the country.

Mr. Orban has cast himself as the only person capable of defending Hungary from threats seen and unseen. He has also tapped nationalistic sentiments by portraying officials in Brussels as meddling bureaucrats who are a threat to Hungary's sovereignty.

 

 

Another essay in the Times in 2018

The Russian invasion pushed to center stage the question of whether Hungary is leaning toward the East or the West and the question of how reliable the country is as a member of the European Union and NATO. Yet Mr. Orban refused to let the opposition's East vs. West narrative be seen by the whole of Hungarian society as a way of understanding the war issue. He instead transformed himself into a guarantor of peace and security, while accusing the opposition of trying to drag the country into war — a message trumpeted by public media, hundreds of pro-government media outlets and thousands of billboards across the country.

 

And on to his reelection in 2022, where he disallowed valid opponents, sent out false information, and won overwhelmingly.

March 31, 2022 -Budapest —" During the dark winter of the 2020 coronavirus wave, the Hungarian government set up a website so anxious residents could sign up for the news on the pandemic. For months, the system sent out updates about the virus, testing and where to get vaccinated.

But last month, long after the vaccination drive had peaked, the system blasted out a very different type of alert: an email claiming, falsely, that opponents of Prime Minister Viktor Orban were agitating to drag Hungary into the war in Ukraine.

"This is cheating," said Klara Dobrev, a Hungarian member of the European Parliament and one of those accused in the email. "Using public money for obviously party propaganda? This is obviously election fraud."

In more than a decade in power, Mr. Orban has not hesitated to use the levers of government power to erode democratic norms and cement one-party rule. He has rewritten the Constitution, remade the courts and used state-run and privately owned television stations — even school textbooks — to advance his agenda or push misinformation about his rivals.

He has always justified his brand of what he calls "illiberal democracy" by pointing out that, like other European leaders, he has won free and fair elections. Now, though, as he stands on Sunday for re-election against an unexpectedly organized opposition, Mr. Orban is using the power of his office to shape the contours of the election more to his liking."

 

Radio Free Europe also commented in a detailed article.

I've just quoted from the opening below.

 

"Hungary's opposition finally joined forces. But even a unified opposition proved little match for a champion of "illiberal" government sitting on three consecutive terms of total dominance since 2010.

In that time, Orban has rewritten the constitution and key aspects of electoral laws, and consolidated allies' control of nearly every major media outlet in the country.

By almost all accounts before the voting, the opposition was better organized than in any other elections of recent years.

Under the banner United For Hungary, it managed to pull off a primary last year that chose Peter Marki-Zay, a little-known mayor whose conservative roots helped deflect Orban's efforts at a culture war. But by election night, Marki-Zay was flanked only by his family delivering a concession speech.

There were no opposition allies in sight."

Just thought I'd share tonight. I would love to hear your thoughts. Free and fair elections are now endangered.

Til next week–Peace!

Winter, Weather & Warnings

The weather has been dismal today, gray, rainy, dank, and dreary. Despite the Holiday lights and busy shoppers, this day’s message is not communicating Greetings of the Season. I watched a bit of news this week and heard lots of warnings about the former president making noise about what he might do should they re-elect him. Some say that, unlike Taylor Swift (Time’s Person of the Year) and her Eras Tour, if DJT gets re-elected, he will unfurl his Revenge Tour. The minions who would destroy the Civil Service are already flexing their muscles and readying their loyalty tests. Even Nikki Haley is jumping on board, claiming that no government job should last over five years. Has this woman never heard of institutional knowledge, scientific research, or the wisdom that comes from years of experience? Can you imagine what might happen if Ford operated its business with no understanding of models that were tried before and failed? Perhaps the Edsel comes to mind?

Even though people consider winter to be the cruel season, it still holds possibilities. If these dreary raindrops turn into snow, then the world seems new, sparkling, and fresh again. So, what can we do to turn this situation around? Okay, we cannot make it snow, but we can work to change attitudes, by not repeating the lies and negativity being described in right-wing media and on the trail with the Republican candidates. Each of us can call out what we see as un-American and not reflective of our values and position in the world as a multiethnic, diverse society where we believe each person has value. We can speak up when we hear racist or hateful comments. It is important to remind others that freedom of religion is in our Constitution, and Christian Nationalism is not. We are a nation of many religious communities and even those who are not religious can and should live together with respect. Remember these points and speak up. This is how we fight back, not with confrontations, but with actions and words. Isn’t this what the holiday season tries to teach?

I advise everyone reading this page today to also read an important opinion piece that recently appeared in the Washington Post by Robert Kagan “How to Stop the Trump Dictatorship”

I’ll review a bit about two candidates below since it is one month until the Iowa caucuses.

Current polls show DJT leads with 50%. That sorta says it all. His voters, his fanatics, will turn out. I can only hope that Independents, who did not break for him last time, will do so again.

Look at Ron DeSantis, today his campaign is going nowhere. A year ago, he was riding high in the polls, his PAC was well-funded, and he seemed to be in his groove. In Florida, he made moves such as threatening Disney, restructuring a progressive college, packing school boards with his candidates, challenging AP Black studies, and supporting moves against gays and trans people. He was determined to out-Maga the Maga devotees, to claim that nobody in the race could be more conservative than he.

That is where he lost his way. The Republican Party, if it exists as a true entity, no longer reflects those values. Well, I guess there are still fragments of the storied Country Club Republicans, those who had tea with Patricia Nixon during the 1950s, the suburban wives who stuffed envelopes and said We Like Ike. But, if one follows the rhetoric being broadcast these days, conservatism is out, and extremism is in. The former president is on the campaign trail throwing out verbal bombs that sound a lot like authoritarianism, or maybe fascism-lite. He seems more eager to shock than convince.

No one knows whether he is being provocative, a la Steve Bannon, or if he really means what he says. However, voters who are not fanatics, would do well to investigate his words as he quotes Nazi catchphrases, repeats his anti-immigrant rhetoric from 2016, and panders to the Christian Nationalists movements. He recently informed an interviewer that he would be a “dictator”, but only on “Day One!” He said that he would close the border and drill, baby, drill!

Remember when, right after the inauguration in 2016, he instituted the Muslim ban? It stranded families on separate continents. College students could not get back from their winter break, and foreign workers with special visas could not appear for their jobs. Chaos resulted on multiple fronts. Courts, lawyers, and regular people all stepped up to stop this.

Many pundits claim that actions such as these are again being contemplated, but now that he has learned what can work, and who can make change happen, he will double down on these excesses. When someone claims, “I was only joking,” there is often some truth concealed within that statement. Look at the people surrounding him, the Heritage Foundation, Stephen Miller (of immigrant cage and family separations infamy), and others of his ilk who are already preparing to stop immigration as we now know it, destroy the Civil Service System, gut the Justice Department and control the Military.

The Court System is standing as perhaps the last bulwark against his proposed machinations. With his appointments of federal judges such as Eileen Cannon and that Amarillo, Texas zealot, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, we see what can happen with ill-qualified appointees with agendas. Who knows how many more are out there lurking and considering their loyalties to DJT more important than their sworn oaths to uphold the Constitution?

The rains today are not washing away the rhetoric, not diluting the hateful speeches. Sadly, at least, for today, there will be no snow to cover this madness; it is now up to us to be proactive.

“Til next week-Peace!

Three Deaths

Most of us have heard the sayings that deaths come in threes and most of us pass this off as a superstition. But these old wives’ tales and such beliefs die hard when three famous people die in a brief time span. We can find a more scientific discussion here.

I look at Ms. Carter, Justice O’Connor, and Henry Kissinger tonight

I recently discussed the life of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. Tonight, I will briefly discuss her funeral. Reports are that it was like her life, full of family and friends, no thundering national speakers, but rather words from people who knew and loved her. Her 99-year-old spouse, Jimmy, looking frail and sad, was in attendance.

Yet the famous turned out. All the living First Ladies and their more famous husbands attended the funeral. What a tribute that was to this woman of Georgia who spent a lifetime getting things done. She started when she was the wife of the Governor of her state and she never looked back. She could hold a Ladies' Tea and wield a hammer for Habitat, meet with princes and paupers, and write a position paper in the evening, all without pretension. Quite a lady; she will be missed.

Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor who died this week at 93, was a contemporary of Ms. Carter. Although she graduated from Stanford Law, was an editor of the Law Review there, and was third in her class, she could not get a job as a lawyer after graduation in 1952. They offered her only secretarial jobs at the Law firms she interviewed with. She grew up on a ranch and learned self-sufficiency on a vast property that encompassed 198,000 acres. When she was selected by President Reagan in 1981 to be the first woman justice, she noted she enjoyed being the first but did not want to be the last, and now, some forty years later, four women justices serve on the Supreme Court. 

A portion of her time on the court coincided with that of Justice Thurgood Marshall. Unlike some of those serving on the court today, Marshall and O’Connor both previously worked in the “real world’ before being selected to serve. O’Connor was a state legislator, Marshall was in the Civil Rights trenches. Each had faced intolerance and racial or gender discrimination. They understood justice with a capital J. Today’s Court members seem to think they are there to serve corporate interests when they should serve as the voice for the voiceless and right the wrongs of society. Unfortunately, they do not see that as their mission and seem to care little for the regulations that have kept our food and medicine safe, our air, and water clean, and our transportation system effective.

 O’Connor was a Republican and supported conservative values, but she was pragmatic and compromised as necessary, eventually becoming a designated moderate on the court. She was not a feminist but understood and upheld women’s causes. O'Connor supported Casey even as she diminished some of it. Many of her key rulings can be found here. She bemoaned some of the rulings the Roberts Court has championed that reversed many of the rulings she supported, undoing her decisions. After retirement, she established the Sandra Day Oconnor Institute. The Core Values of the Institute were listed as: “Non-partisan, objective, fact-based, centrist, inclusive, collaborative, civil. “

She worried about changes in society that showed support for such values declining in recent years. I certainly share those concerns, do you?

Henry Kissinger died this week. He lived to be 100 years old and was active until the end of his life with his international consulting business.

Love him, hate him; Love him and hate him, few people view Kissinger either benignly or serenely. Lauded for creating the ‘opening up” of China, castigated for secret bombings in Cambodia, praised by winning the Nobel Peace Prize for actions in Vietnam, condemned by many for toppling a democratic government Chile, few actions here are neutral in the world of public opinion. As the simultaneous Secretary of State and National Security Advisor to President Nixon, he served as the only person to do so. This made him less transparent, and answerable to few. 

Many Vietnam vets believed his sabotage of Johnson’s peace plan prolonged the war and caused more American deaths. Others blamed him for genocide in Bangladesh since the US supported West Pakistan in that conflict where hundreds of thousands perished. Some admired his intellect; others claimed thousands of deaths stained his reputation. He stabilized some relations in the Middle East, which resulted in peace over many years, but cared little about the Palestinians.

His Jewish family escaped Hitler’s Germany before the Second World War and came to America. This is the typical American success story; an immigrant comes, learns, and does well, except when it is not. He eventually achieved a PhD and taught before becoming the confidant of presidents, kings, and dictators. As for my opinion, my generation distrusted him, his motivations, and his means to an end solutions.

“Til next week-Peace.

Giving Thanks

This is the time of year when families and friends gather to share memories, favorite foods and think about the upcoming holidays and the new year. Many also look back and see what they can be thankful for, in keeping with the spirit of the holiday. Of course, I have many reasons personally to be grateful, but I think I also have some thanks to say to others in the public eye.

In writing this, I am so not ignoring the fact that some in the world are starving, homeless, or otherwise destitute. However, this is a column about Thanks, sorta.

This week Israel and Hamas agreed to a four-day truce, hostage and prisoner release. It has taken six weeks for diplomats from many nations to make this happen, as there are a lot of moving pieces. However, during these six weeks, far too many additional casualties occurred. I am thankful the bombing is stopped for now.

Tonight, I learned that the terrorist group Hamas released an American hostage they had captured. She was a little girl who just turned four and was just slightly older than my granddaughter. They killed her father, who was shielding her when she was captured. I cannot imagine the grief her family experienced, nor understand the horrors she endured. I do not know how, as a three-year-old, she could possibly process this atrocity.

Yet, I give thanks, she is now safe. Thanks to that, for a few days at least, diplomats did what they do best. Talk, compromise, concede, argue, and eventually broker a truce. A truce, however tenuous, that might save some lives. Yet, there is cruelty here also, as only women and children are being released. Mothers of teenage sons have little joy. There was deliberate cruelty in the raid, as most of those killed and captured were civilians, celebrating a holiday, not military personnel. Again, society long ago set up some allowable criteria, some Rules of War, so to speak, that demand that civilian populations not be targets.

It is just a tiny thanks, that this is now being considered.

I am thankful that the truce has allowed food, fuel, and medicines to again get into Gaza. I fear that in many cases it is too little, too late. Too often civilians are collateral damage in war. Since the population of Gaza skews quite young, the young are especially vulnerable. I note that the world is speaking out against this style of warfare; that non-combatants caught during a war, they neither allowed nor took part in, should not be targets because they just have nowhere to go. Gaza is not like Ukraine, where civilians were also targeted, but there, at least, most had some way to fee the violence.

I worry that disease will follow in the upcoming weeks, as winter approaches without clean water or safe sewage, and the inability to create the necessary public infrastructure that could fix this. I hear some are encouraging the oil rich Gulf states to pledge to address these concerns in the absence of a government in Gaza. This would be good news, if accurate. Repairs could take decades in the absence of an organized ruling authority. For far too long, people said “two-state solution”, but did nothing to make it happen. This long-delayed resolution cannot happen overnight. But if these horrors can make it start to move toward a just resolution, I will be thankful.

-----

And, in moving on from discussions of War to Politics, I can thank the Economist for an exceptionally clear-eyed view of the GOP front-runner in the 2024 Presidential race in their annual outlook (November 18-24^th issue) for the upcoming year. I paraphrase below.

“But a second term would be different (for DJT), because the world has changed…. No wonder the thought of a second DJT term fills the world's parliaments and boardrooms with despair; but despair is not a plan. It is past time to impose order on anxiety.

The greatest threat Trump poses is to his own country. In pursuing his enemies, Trump will wage war on any institution that stands in his way, including the courts and the Department of Justice.

However, his lust for a deal and his sense of American interests are unconstrained by reality and unanchored by values.

A second Trump term would be a watershed in a way the first was not. Victory would confirm his most destructive instincts about power….his plans would encounter less resistance. Because America elected him, its moral authority would decline.”

I am thankful that this challenge to the voters of America has been issued. The question is still outstanding – will Americans vote either for President Biden or against DJT? Will voters stay away on Election Day or show up to preserve our democracy? Do we really wish to elect an aggrieved and petulant child-man, now inundated with 91 indictments who surrounds himself with sycophants and conspiracy theorists, with power grabbers who embrace authoritarianism? Do we really want to elect a president who borrows from Nazi speakers when choosing his stump speeches – or is it his speech writers who are trying to channel them? Don’t know, don’t care; either way, the ideas are harmful and dangerous, chosen to divide and conquer, and need to be dispensed with ASAP.

What are you thankful for?

“Til next week-Peace!

Rosalynn Carter Dies at 96

 

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, who had dementia, died today at the age of 96. She and former President Jimmy Carter were married in 1946 and were the longest married presidential couple. They were indeed a team as they campaigned together, strategized together, and shared his presidency. She took her role on as a First Lady seriously, walking from her residence to her office with a briefcase of projects. Although criticized for doing so, she frequently attended Cabinet meetings, where she sometimes picked upon subtleties missed by her more trusting husband. She was fiercely loyal and her husband's friend and companion for over 70 years.

Sometimes people today forget that Carter was an underdog in his presidential campaign; some people laughed at the idea of a Southern peanut farmer, even though he was an elected governor of Georgia, running for that high office. Rosalyn made over 40 campaign stops on his behalf during that improbable, but ultimately successful, quest for office. His race was close against Gerald Ford as he won with 51% of the vote to Ford's 48% and gathered 297 Electoral College votes.

Once her husband was in office, Rosalyn took on mental health issues and advocated for insurance coverage of mental health diagnoses, which at that time were often minimal or excluded. Mental health care in was abysmal in many state institutions, and better care in private hospitals was often only for the wealthy. She served as an unofficial member of the Presidents Commission on Mental Health and lobbied for the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980, which was eventually shelved by his successor, Reagan. Even after they left office, she continued her advocacy, working to de-stigmatize mental health issues so patients would free it safe to seek treatment. As she aged herself, she became an advocate for those who had dementia or Alzheimer’s. She wrote a book in 2010, Within Our Reach, Ending the Mental Health Crisis. (Over her long career, she wrote and published over 25 books.) In this book she described a failed mental health system with many of the same failures she had noted when attending hearings back in the late 1970s. And, although acknowledging that improvements with medications and other treatments have happened, there is much work still to be done. Around that time, I was lucky enough to attend a speech she made about the findings in this book. She was quiet, forceful, and precise in the ideas she presented. Rosalynn wanted to demand action, but she was not one to stamp her foot or pound the podium on stage. She quietly asserted what she knew should be done. A few short years later, she celebrated some small victories with several mental health changes included in the ACA or Obamacare legislation.

She was a quiet southern style feminist, but had a steel core to her person. She worked tirelessly for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, but that option failed to gather enough state votes to pass.

They credit her with the suggestion to President Carter that he invite Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt to Camp David, where they eventually signed a Peace Treaty in 1978.

After their election loss in a landslide by Ronald Reagan, the Carters reinvented their role in life, as builders for Habitat for Humanity, election watchers, and health campaigns against Guinea Worm in Africa, to mention only a few. They also established the Carter Center, whose mission is stated as a Non-governmental Organization (NGO that helps to improve lives by resolving conflicts, advancing democracy, and preventing diseases.

Tributes have been pouring in all day to celebrate the life of Rosalynn Carter. I can only agree with all of them as they celebrate a woman of quiet resolve and service to her country, her husband, and the world.

Thanks, Rosalynn.

“Til next week – Peace!

The Voters Speak!

 

One of the best things about a democracy is when we listen to what the voters say, freely and fairly without coercion in election after election. In autocracies, voters may have a chance to vote, but no one really cares as the results are preordained.

That is why I was so happy to see the results this week from a special election in Ohio and a statewide contest in Virginia. True to form, Republicans in both states tried to place their thumbs on the theoretical scales as they purged voters from allowable lists close to election day. Ohio went even further. Once citizens had petitioned the abortion measure onto the ballot, they tried to change the rules, and in the middle of a hot summer called a special election to change acceptance from a simple majority to 60%. An extraordinary effort by women’s groups and others, along with millions of dollars, defeated this measure in that election by 57% to 43%. But - wait- just like those bad TV commercials, wait there are more dirty tricks to be played. The Ohio Secretary of State experimented with the wording of the ballot measure to make it read opposite to what it should have said. The Governor of Ohio, and his wife, cut an ad against the constitutional measure claiming that it would allow abortion up to the time of birth, a blatant falsehood.

Although I tend toward being an idealist, I would like to believe that issues such as ballot measures enhance our democracy. Some states are now trying to curtail these measures.

Despite all the dirty tricks, bad wording, and lies, the voters saw right through them and approved the Constitutional issue this past week with a margin (56.6%) similar to that from the summer. No matter what some politicians think, voters are not dumb. They do not live in a Wonderland where ‘up’ means ‘down’ and ‘no’ means ‘yes’!

Virginia was a different story. Two years ago. then Candidate Glenn Youngkin propelled himself into the Governor's office with a campaign of demagogues, parents' rights, anti CRT and more. He stayed away from the MAGA crowd, presenting himself as a gentler, kinder candidate. He also stayed away from the abortion issue, until he was caught on an open mike saying he could not go public on that until after the election.

Once elected, he was no longer the gentle giant, but a leader who set up a hotline to rat out teachers, supported book banning, replacing elected school boards, and attacked trans policy. The legislative election this year was the first time he had a chance to redo the state legislature. He had a divided power structure and wanted both houses under his Republican Party so he could enact his proposed 15-week abortion ban. (Virginia is the last state in the South with abortion rights.)

The two parties ran ads from parallel universes. Republicans emphasized rampant crime in the streets, claimed Democrats wanted to defund the police (So last year!) and would not prosecute crime.

Democrats claimed Republicans would take away a woman's ’right to choose’

Once the voters had their say, Democrats controlled both Houses of the State Legislature and abortion rights again seemed safe in the state. Rumors that were murmured about Youngkin stepping into the 2024 race as a consensus candidate, as soon as his victory was complete, disappeared.

Elsewhere in the US, Moms for Liberty ran for office; all but one lost their contests.

Tuesday was a good day for Democracy.

Do you Remember

Fifteen years ago, this weekend? In November 2008, Americans elected Barack Obama as our President. I stood with friends and laughed and cried and hugged others. Many of us had worked so hard for months to see this day. We had endured abuse when we made phone calls and sometimes found others who agreed with us. We were ready for hope and change and were eager to see a new era of politics on the horizon.

As the young family stood on that stage in Chicago, we, along with millions of others, applauded the words we heard that night and those we listened to during the campaign.

For many of us, the journey started on a stage in Boston at the Democratic Convention in 2004 when a young orator took to the stage and spoke of his views for America. How there was no red America or blue America but a red white and blue America that brought together all of us as the United States of America.

Here is an excerpt from that frequently quoted speech:

“Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.”

Many did not accept those words, true as they were, even those who claimed to be patriots. Some, because they were spoken by a young black man, even as he noted, with a funny name. Others would use that “funny name” later to question his citizenship and deride his leadership.

But for many, those words brought them to his campaign when he announced on a wintry day in Illinois years later. Volunteers came; young and old, women, and men, black, white, Hispanic. Asian, and more. Immigrants who were first generation saw someone who knew them. Gay, straight, bi, and trans members were welcomed into the fold. We did everything campaigns usually do and more. Even now, fifteen years later, I still have friends from those days.

We wanted to make America better. And, if you looked at our cross-section of America, you knew we believed we could do so. We wanted a leader who could inspire, who could call us to our better selves, who could bring us together. I won’t recap the 8 years of Obamas’ presidency. We were there. Some critics say the actions did not match the rhetoric. But we have the Affordable Care Act, imperfect as it was, which pulled millions into the healthcare networks, despite years of lies and lobbying against it. Remember Sarah Palin and her Death Panels? Remember also Mitch McConnell, on the day of Obama's inauguration, pulling together a coalition of Republican forces to fight everything he tried to accomplish? And, of course, we cannot forget the idiocy of the birther campaigns or the savagery of the Tea Party movement, all based on lies.

Now, 15 years later, we are looking at a presidential year in 2024. We have candidates who do not inspire, but try to instill fear. Fear of the other, the foreigner, the immigrant, “the gays”.  There is a former president who vows to take names and punish enemies and presents himself both as a martyr and a retribution for all wrongs. We have a new Speaker in the House of Representatives who claims we do not have a democracy but a Christian republic.

Heather Cox Richardson describes his thinking in part: <heathercoxrichardson@substack.com>

“Johnson rejects the separation of church and state in our government, saying that the framers’ idea “clearly did not mean…to keep religion from influencing issues of civil government. To the contrary, it was meant to keep the federal government from impeding the religious practice of citizens. The Founders wanted to protect the church from an encroaching state, not the other way around.”

America is a country with many religions. According to Statistica, 26% of the country is affiliated with no religion. If one adds all of the members of Christian religions together, about half of the country identifies as Christian. The remaining groups include Hindu, Mormon, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, and others. So, for me, Christian nationalism just won’t fit this country.

Polls today claim that DJT, a man facing 91 indictments, is leading President Biden in several swing states. I certainly hope these stats change soon.

There is a ton of news this weekend, but I wanted to remind people of where we once were. Maybe our nation can again find hope and a belief in each other.

“Til next week, Peace!