If you hoped the Lincoln Project would come up with something special for the last day of the campaign, well they have.
When I woke up my thought was ‘It’s the day before the Day After Tomorrow.’ Remember that movie? All that massive, swift change from a storm that had been set in motion by actions taken (or not) by people and governments over decades. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow once the vote counting is well underway, but no matter how it and the following days (it might again take two or three days to be sure who won) this election day, for me at least has a ‘Day After Tomorrow’ feel about it. Things will be very, perhaps even vastly different. It’s my fervent hope that the ‘election storm’ will have a cleansing effect instead of a destructive one.
That’s really what it comes down to. Are there enough Americans to produce a cleansing effect? I’m not talking about ‘just enough and in the right places to win the Electoral College’ win but a blowout in the popular vote. A margin of ten million or more votes in Harris’ favor. AND an Electoral College vote that has the Harris/Walz ticket with at least 350 votes – something significantly more than our last two Presidential elections. The alternative is, are there enough Americans to do what was done in 2016 and send Trump (back) to the WH. With all the chaos and destruction he wrought before turning out to be nothing compared with what he will do with the kind of truly unchecked power John Roberts (along with Thomas and Alito with the other Federalist Society groomed Justices going along) gave Presidents with that awful immunity decision.
Inspiration is something our entire country needs. The epic TV series West Wing depicted a White House where the President and staff had plenty of ups and downs. But through it all the plot each week was idealistic. A search to bring out the best of themselves, and work with others including opponents to do the same. Americans haven’t always voted for a government that would be that way, but we’ve done so often enough to slowly move us towards ideals like E Pluribus Unum (Out of many – one), and that phrase in the Preamble of our Constitution about ‘A more perfect Union.’ It’s a never ending process. And we only make progress when we expect the best of those in OUR White House. Starting with the President of course but also of all those working for the President.
Americans have as clear a choice as it can get. Someone who is idealistic, who sees us as a country that despite our flaws is made up of people who are fundamentally decent and believe we should work together to improve things for everyone? Or someone who thinks our country is made up of of two factions – the ‘right’ kind of people’ and the ‘other’ who have already turned this country into a third-world, dystopian hellscape and must be eradicated? I don’t have to tell anyone reading which candidate is which.
I eagerly awaited each episode of the West Wing. I’ve had conservative friends who enjoyed it almost as much as I did. Not that they liked the policies/ideals that tended to prevail but they DID appreciate the process and how there was genuine back and forth between the fictional President and their side. And how sometimes compromises got made. That’s how politics used to work. Many believe it can never be that way again, but you know what? THAT is exactly the kind of defeatist thinking Trump and the conservative forces guiding his run (I’m referring not to public figures but private people like Leonard Leo and others) want people to think.
Maybe it’s possible to get back to ‘old-school’ ways of doing things and maybe not. However it’s a certainty that it can’t/won’t happen if someone, in fact a series of people in the right position try. President Joe Biden believed it was possible and even when those in his own Party said not to bother he kept at it. Having spent decades working in that old-school system he wanted to reclaim the process from the crazies. Kamala Harris is much younger, and didn’t make it to the Senate until even the Senate was showing signs of “infection” of the kind of crazy the GOP had created on the other side of the Capitol in the House. However, it’s become apparent to me during this campaign that mentorship from Biden has converted Harris into a true believer.
That’s been her message especially here at the close. Kamal Harris is saying, almost literally ‘It’s ok to disagree and even to argue. That’s what’s supposed to happen but the important part is that we not only talk but LISTEN. And then roll up our sleeves and work something out. That’s what Americans say they want from us in Washington and I believe that’s what they deserve. A President who will insist on inviting those who disagree to the table to air their views. And we can talk, debate and even passionately argue but in the end work something out. I will be that kind of President and will expect the same from not just those in the WH but my Party.’
I turned on the TV after I got going and decided to take in some of Morning Joe and saw Rick Wilson on with the latest release from the Lincoln Project. I hope you will share this far and wide. I promise if you haven’t seen it you’ll be glad you watched it and will want everyone you know to watch it too:
I hope, I pray, I cry. We CANNOT, we WILL NOT GO BACK! Any of you who pray, to any thing, any deity, any body, PLEASE say a prayer for our country!! Or whatever you need to do but vote and pray!
Already poured a libation for the Irish deities. They wouldn’t lie Trump. He has no honor.
This is me , like a kid, the day before Christmas. I can’t WAIT for tomorrow!
VOTE BLUE! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Thank you, Denis. I am terrified that DonOld will win, because Elon crashing the economy, Kennedy Jr tanking vaccines and health care, and just DonOld with absolute immunity. Thank you for including the Lincoln Project piece. It made me cry yet was worth every tear. And thank you, just because.
Even with the hate that took over inside me after Trump was elected I can still be inspired sometimes. I often think of Lincoln who it was said to have during his most difficult times had a physical need for laughter. So his closest advisor Gov. Seward would start telling “stories” (long, long winded jokes and humorous tales) until Lincoln finally burst out in a full body laugh. The kind that makes your eyes water and your sides hurt. But a renewed Lincoln would carry on and do what he had to do.
We all need that at times. But inspiration is almost as good and just as necessary. We don’t see it often enough in politicians but at this moment in time we have it with Kamala Harris and yes, Tim Walz too. There have been plenty of endorsements from well-known people but sometimes it takes something like what LP has just put out to really grab people’s attention.
If it grabbed yours and other people’s I’m glad. I’d love to see this air on all the networks in prime time this evening.