Joe Biden did the right thing. It took longer than it should have, but he got there. I don’t blame him solely for that. The people surrounding him worked hard to insulate his decline from the American people.
His staff and confidants knew he was diminished, but thought they could get him through it, even though the polls said he would lose. I understand loyalty. I understand how difficult it would be for a man who spent his entire life wanting to be president to give up his dream. But their shenanigans deprived us of an open primary where the public could determine the candidate.
If The Don was presented with clear evidence that he would lose the election, do you think he would abdicate his position to another? Do I even have to ask that question? After all, the Republicans are okay with Don the rapist, Don the convicted felon, Don the insurrectionist, Don the racist, Don the tax cheat and fraudster and Don the dictator wannabe. Given his takeover of the party, his elevation to a false deity, a movement against him would be squashed quickly; it would be an act of political suicide. Just ask Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
So let’s celebrate the party that had the courage to voice dissent and discontent with their candidate. It was a true lesson in democracy. Rather than bow to power, the American people, and many lawmakers, rang forth: “Power to the people!”. That’s called democracy.
It’s important, as we move forward, that what transpired be funneled into a movement that inspires. After all, isn’t this race about preserving our democracy? Draw the contrast between the autocracy they want us to become and the democracy we are. Sounds corny, but compare Joe Biden to George Washington, who relinquished power to move democracy forward. Even MAGA people probably have fondness for the father of our country.
Democrats, who were in a state of high anxiety waiting for the denial and delusion to break, have been released from the dread of the purgatory they were living in. There is a sense of renewal.
Though there is part of me that wished for more candidates to jump in and vie for the nomination, the overwhelming support and excitement for Kamala Harris has been impressive. In 24 hours (as of the writing of this), she raised $89 million. She has already secured the pledges of enough delegates to be officially nominated.
Of course people have their doubts about her candidacy: she has high unfavorables as a VP, ran a bad presidential campaign in 2020, etc, etc, etc. I think people underestimate her. Given a chance to shine, I think she will impress.
In her first public appearance in front of the campaign committee in Delaware she went right after The Don:
“In those roles as a prosecutor I took on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type.”
The Democrats have been waiting for someone to emerge who can be laser-like in their focus to prosecute the case against The Don. They have found her in Kamala Harris.
Framing this as a battle of prosecutor vs felon fits right into The Don’s world of the WWF. Ladies and gentlemen: In this corner, we have a woman who has successfully prosecuted rapists; in the other corner, we have a convicted rapist. Who’s your money on?
The Republican Party has gone from the cocky belief that they will win this election decisively to dazed and confused. Already the Don has announced he wants to change the agreed venue of the debate to Fox News! That certainly doesn’t sound like someone who feels he is invincible.
The Don posted this on Truth Social:
“So, we are forced to spend time and money on fighting Crooked Joe Biden, he polls badly after the debate and quits the race. Shouldn’t the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud in that everybody around Joe, including his doctors and the Fake News Media, knew he was not capable of running for, or being, President? Just askin’?”
Poor Don wants a refund. He has been defrauded by the Democrats. You know what I say Don: Shit happens. Stop your whining.
You can tell The Republicans are running scared. They have lost their advantage on the “age” issue in a blink of an eye. Now the cognitive decline issue will focus on him. He now has to deal with a confident, black, South Asian woman who represents everything he and his party revile.
Here’s Speaker Mike Johnson: “Having invalidated the votes of more than 14 million Americans who selected Joe Biden to be the Democratic nominee for president, the self-proclaimed ‘party of democracy,’ has proven exactly the opposite.”
As for Mitch McConnell, Democrats were “trying to upend the expressed will” of primary voters.
This is rich given their support of a man who tried to disenfranchise 80 million people by denying the results of the 2020 election. This is Republican hypocrisy at its zenith. Mike Johnson was intimately involved in the attempt to overturn the election; Mitch McConnell had his chance to put his foot down after January 6th but decided not to convict The Don after he was impeached. It literally makes me want to puke.
The Republicans desperation is fueling racist and misogynist attacks. Harris’s presence in the race is a direct assault on their White Supremacist vision.
Publicly, The Don has described Harris as “nasty,” “crazy” and “disrespectful,” mocked her laugh, He also promoted a false claim that Ms. Harris is constitutionally ineligible to serve as vice president, echoing his racist “birther” campaign against Barack Obama.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) on Monday doubled down on previous claims that Vice President Kamala Harris is a diversity choice.
“What about white females? What about any other group?” When you go down that route, you take mediocrity and that’s what they have right now as a vice president.” To that I say: If she is so mediocre, why are you freaking out?
Trump White House veteran Kellyanne Conway blasted Harris on Fox News as lazy (“doesn’t work hard”) and inarticulate (“she does not speak well”).
Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump administration deputy who remains a star in the MAGA orbit, went back to the 1950s with his appraisal of Harris, referring to her with a word that would have been posted on segregated facilities in the Deep South: “She’s a DEI hire, right? She’s a woman. She’s colored. Therefore, she’s got to be good.”
Jackson Lahmeyer, the head of Pastors for Trump and a former GOP candidate for U.S. Senate in Oklahoma posted on July 3 on X that “Both Joe + the Ho gotta go.” He responded to critics of his sexist attack with rejoinders like: “The biblical term is whore if you feel safer with that word,” adding that “harlot is also another option haha.”
Lance Wallnau — a Christian nationalist who is tight with the MAGA movement — jumbled up both race and sexuality to blast Harris for embodying “the spirit of Jezebel”.
The Democrats have rewritten the narrative on this race. They are getting all the media attention and that drives The Don batty.
The race and gender assault has gotten out of control and necessitated Speaker Mike Johnson saying: “This is not personal with regard to Kamala Harris and her ethnicity or her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever.”
In other words will you just keep racist, sexist shit to yourself? I think that genie is out of the bottle. Kamala Harris has faced this vitriol her entire career. She knows what to expect. She needs to take them to task for it, instead of the dystopian vision of the Republicans, and inject hope. Americans desperately need hope. When you see her laugh you see joy and hope. Hopefully she will have the last laugh!
The Grand Offal Party 