Looking forward to Democratic Party Convention. Just saw the lineup of speakers over four days and nights. Looks good. I’m sure it will positively impact the elections. It’s interesting, but not surprising when you think about it, that Michelle Obama will likely draw the biggest audience over the 4 days. Her speech will undoubtedly be inspiring and energizing for millions. By convention’s end, probably before that, the changing political dynamics in the Democratic Party, as it tacks in a progressive direction, will become evident. It’s never good to be hostage to old ideological constructions that resist new realities. I know that from my own experience.
President Obama’s speech yesterday, three months before the elections and on the same day that Trump tweeted that we may have to postpone the elections, was a much needed intervention in our national conversation and politics. There were other speakers memorializing Lewis, none better than Reverend James Lawson, but no one in politics today commands the same respect and audience as President Obama does.
The dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki was more the first shot of the Cold War than a necessary action to compel Japan to lay down its arms and surrender in the final days of WW II. It is a big and unremovable stain on the bloody resume of U.S. imperialism and its ruling circles. We shouldn’t allow ‘ole’ Harry from Fulton Missouri to escape responsibility for this horrific and singularly unique atrocity. It happened on his watch and he made the final decision, even if he was’t the only decision maker.
To say that Trump is a product of longer terms trends in our society is true, but not necessarily helpful if it occludes in the slightest way the particular uniqueness of Trump’s ascendancy to power, the immense dangers of his presidency, and the existential urgency of defeating him in November.
Maneuvering in politics is a critical skill. We see it today in the struggle around a stimulus package. Trump’s announcement of of a series of executive actions to break the impasse in the Senate over the passage of a second stimulus bill is an attempt to make himself the champion of working America and worthy of a second term, while casting the Democrats as indifferent to the pressing needs of millions at this moment. Democrats and the larger anti-Trump movement should greet this maneuver with a full throated response that is heard across the county. And on the substance (not so much their constitutionality) of Trump’s proposals as compared to the Democratic stimulus package. They can’t allow Trump to outmaneuver them, which is what he is hoping to do. It’s nowhere near enough to have NY Senator Schumer on a few talk shows. Democrats should use their deep bench to blast Trump’s executive actions and remind voters of their much better alternative.
