Danger and Possibilities

View From Here
By David Mark Greaves
Now that the dust has settled from that raucous, rocking, space-shot-ready convention the Democrats held in Chicago last week, we cannot overlook what South Carolina’s Congressman Jim Clyburn said what he sees in Project 2025, is a plan devised by ultra-right-wing Republicans at the Heritage Foundation to transform the United States to align with their wishes and creating a “Jim Crow 2.0.”

And he’s right. There is a gut understanding, based on the words and actions of the MAGA Republicans, that this time, the mean-spirited consciousness, which has been a part of the nation’s history since slavery, is not just intent on controlling the lives of Black people, but everyone who’s not a White Christian Nationalist will have to obey their rules.

This is why Freedom’s Cry is the symbol of Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign and why this is felt as a unique and deeply dangerous time. People who are eager and capable of depriving rights and putting others in bondage are capable of anything. And they are already showing us that they will do anything to win. The louder they yell that Democrats are cheaters and coup plotters, the more they tell you the tactics they’re willing to use to win.

MAGA believers are permeating institutions from the Supreme Court to local election boards, as in Georgia, where they passed rules to disrupt the vote-certifying process. And now, as rightwing ideologues see their champion faltering, there is nothing they won’t do to save him and put themselves in power and nothing Trump won’t do to stay out of jail. And for that matter, there is nothing Vladimir Putin won’t do to help the guy who’ll help him win the war he started in Ukraine.

This is why there must be an overwhelmingly large vote for Harris/Walz. Even here in New York, although reliably Democratic in Electoral College votes, we need to be a part of running up the popular vote numbers to put an exclamation point on the election.

And the election’s outcome is far from certain. Harris/Walz may get millions more in popular votes, but the Electoral College tally of 270 may turn on less than 50,000 votes across multiple “battleground” states, just like it did last time. Staying mindful of that reality, and only after a historic amount of work, is the possibility that 270 will be easily passed on the way to 313, give or take.

The good news is the character of the Republican opponent. With the conventions over and the last ten weeks of campaigning beginning, Trump’s advisors and everyone in the Republican party have been begging him not to behave like a “provocateur” and start talking about policy.
The problem with that advice is it faces Donald Trump’s arrogant stupidity, narcissism, and self-delusion. And on September 10th, he’ll have to stand on a debate stage facing Vice President Kamala Harris, the prosecutor, versus the delusional, sex-abusing, multiple-felon, and congenital liar.

Donald Trump does not want to debate Kamala Harris. But if he doesn’t show up, he’ll be labeled a coward, if he does, he risks being eviscerated by a Black woman in front of the biggest audience of his life and will have to publicly endure Harris’s coup de grâce that then sends him mercifully on his way.