Written One Year Ago. "Where Do We Stand"?

I wrote this a year ago today. Starting in January of 2020, it was clear to me that Trump's response to losing the election would be to start a Civil War. This is why I began beating the drum for people to organize for a landslide. I knew that the key to forcing a transition would be an overwhelming vote. It did not happen. It was a significant margin, but not big enough to demoralize Trump's base.

I specifically warned about what the Biden campaign was doing wrong which would stand in the way of the needed landslide. Unfortunately, they did not shift gears. 

One year ago I was very hopeful at aspects of the changes underway with the American people. Today, that optimism of a year ago is tempered by many American's lack of urgency, and the fading effects of January 6, which has led to the shock wearing off and growing indifference. 

If you have a few minutes, read through what I wrote, see if it scans with how you saw things then and now. Let me know what you think.

 Where do we stand?

So, in line with my promise to write about those things which others for various reasons choose to avoid, and to provoke discussions which make us uncomfortable, I will bring up a couple of issues.

On one hand, there is an unprecedented level of activity by millions of people, who are donating, volunteering, doing grass roots work and raising awareness. For the first time in my memory, people who express a concern about the real threat of weaponized racism, Fascism, dictatorship, the end of Democracy, Martial Law, and a foreign hostile government controlling our President, are not considered candidates for straight jackets, shock therapy and Prozac but are being taken seriously and listened to. 

There is a level of discussion about politics, history, and culture which has vastly increased in response to the imminent potential demise of our political system, as people fight to keep alive or revive those ideals which are now threatened. The proof of this is highlighted by the fact that Heather Cox Richardson, a history professor, has 600,000 readers and viewers daily to hear her do what she has been doing for 35 years, which is teaching. 

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has a million or more following him, listening to him discussing economics and FDR. When in our lifetimes have we experienced anything like this? These are just examples of an incredible trend. 

Thoughtful and progressive Americans are legitimately inspired by Biden's choice of Kamala Harris for VP, which has been the main highlight of the Biden Campaign to this point. And not least, Black Lives Matter has become a powerful mass based political force, jogging the conscience of a majority of Americans.

Our movement, which is not a "resistance" against something as much as it is a movement FOR restoring certain core values, is growing in strength, number, and quality. It took a Pandemic, a brutal series of racist Police murders of unarmed Black citizens, mass demonstrations, rioting, police state oppression, and an economic collapse to begin to bring out the best in us. People in the midst of these awful events are still discussing art, culture, history, music, natural wonders and scientific discoveries, reaffirming our own humanity against the onslaught of hate, superstition and ignorance coming from the Trumpian mobs of Flagellants, Crusaders and Inquisitors.  This is good. Really good. 

But, I have to ask, is it enough? As of now, the answer to that question is no. 

To summarize:

1. We do not yet have the makings of the landslide we need to win, get the vote counted, and force Trump to leave.

2. As has been said correctly by Bernie Sanders, the Biden campaign has been too passive. They are hanging back and allowing Trump the latitude to expand his destructiveness and unhinged behavior, and been content to be "reactive", trying to capitalize on Trump's lies, incompetence, and negligence, assuming the role of critics and fact checkers, and avoiding direct combat as a strategy. I'm afraid Biden's team  believes that by reacting to Trump's failures, rather than going on the attack, that they can avoid alienating some of Trump's soft support and capture undecideds. In effect, Biden is running a campaign which is designed "not to lose". That is what will kill us.

3. Once again, too many are underestimating Trump. There is a shift in his campaign, which we need to take note of.  He has been advised to temporarily de-emphasize his threats to use military force in our cities, vitriolic speeches, and attacks on the Press. Instead of the "Stick", he is shifting to the "Carrot". He is going with payola, to start buying off people and constituencies. He needs the Latino vote, and is courting it aggressively. So, he just announced 13 billion in aid to Puerto Rico, a population which he despises. He needs to court the anti-war voters and the Jewish Seniors in Florida, which he desperately has to keep on board, so he cooks up a phoney Middle East peace deal to bring Netanyahu and a few Oil Sheikhs over for a photo op.  Don't be surprised if they pull a Taliban/ Afghan deal out of the hat so that Trump can announce troop withdrawals there. And, he is posturing in a big conflict with his own Party in the Senate, demanding they up their offer to the Dems for a covid relief Bill with a stimulus check and enhanced unemployment, so he can mail out checks to all of us with his name on it. 

Trump has the view that he can play us all for suckers based on racial division and/or greed. Is he wrong? Yes, but not entirely. He is doing what he did in 2016 to win, and unfortunately the Democratic leadership is repeating again what it did in 2016 to lose. Trump is promising to put money in people's pockets, while at the same time destroying the real economy. He is picking off large numbers of people who are financially desperate who are looking for short term pain relief. 

The stakes are infinitely higher than in 2016, for all the reasons we know. We cannot survive a second term of Trump, but unfortunately Biden is bringing a knife to a gunfight. He needs to pick up on what people like Robert Reich and HCR are doing, and win people over to a perspective of real economic growth. He needs to tell his fact checkers to stand aside, and be far more programmatic in his campaign so that people, especially younger ones can see some real leadership. Turn Kamala Harris loose, and let her lead, not just make appearances! This time, listen to Bernie Sanders, he is right!  We already know that Trump lies about everything, enough already. We need to hear more about what we are going to do concretely to recover from this crisis. 

And Joe needs to attack Trump more directly and brutally on his virtual agentry on behalf of Putin's Russia. He should escalate on this front, and disregard his advisers who are telling him to drop it, supposedly because people are tired of hearing about "the Russia thing". Those advisers don't know what they are doing. 

There are two ways to defeat an adversary. Either with overwhelming firepower, or a strategic flank in which you walk them into a trap for them to destroy themselves. You don't do it by staying in your barracks. Trump is predictable despite being crazy, and he has shifted into a different mode. He will escalate his personal and legal attacks on Joe in the next rwo weeks. He will devise more financial inducements, and buy offs to cut into the undecideds. Joe has to shift gears now, and go on the offensive instead of trying to run out the clock. We need him to be our FDR. 

Barely six weeks to go. Who thinks we have our landslide?