In thinking about the arc of the Black Freedom movement, we tend to focus on those moments when the bells of freedom ring the loudest and the promise of freedom seems within reach — the Reconstruction years, the Civil Rights movement in the sixties, and the current anti-racist uprising that caught most of us by surprise. This is understandable and not a problem as long as we appreciate the other bells of resistance that ring on a lower register at other moments in time. Without them, the clamorous moments that herald the promise of a new day would be impossible.

Like everybody else I worry about the outcome of the elections in November, but I’m also mindful that 2020 isn’t 2016. The differences overwhelm the similarities. If anything is likely, it is the possibility of a Biden and Democratic Party landslide.

Of course, it won’t happen on its own. A full mobilization of every possible voter, regardless of party affiliation, is imperative. But I got to believe that the widespread enthusiasm to defeat Trump will make that doable.

On its face Trump appears to be doing everything he can to lose this fall’s elections. He seems like his worst enemy. But if we think about it a bit, there is some method to his madness. What he is doing is shamelessly appealing to his base and to hell with everybody else. He figures that there is little he can do to win the majority of voters at this point. Their attitudes and votes are already baked in and unchangeable, except a few here and there. So his path to a second term lies with activating every last person in his base to vote, with a special appeal to white workers without a college education.

He figures if he can do that, while suppressing the vote for Biden, he can win on the thinnest of margins and once again prove the pollsters wrong. It’s a steep climb in my opinion.

I see that Trump is making a new assault on the ACA. It’s not surprising that he would. It’s of a piece with his manic fixation on eliminating any trace of Obama’s presidency. So far he has had some success. But, try as he might, what he will never do is make tens of millions — many of whom, in a shift in their views, expressed support for anti-racist actions in recent weeks — forget the stark and profound contrast on so many levels between him and his predecessor, Barack Hussein Obama.

Thought Biden gave a thoughtful speech on his approach to the coronavirus.