“I tell you one thing,” (Rafael) Nadal, the great Spanish player, said, “It’s very clear that Novak Djokovic is one of the best players of the history, without a doubt. But there is no one player in history that’s more important than the event, no? The player stays and then goes, and other players are coming. Even Roger, Novak, myself, Bjorn Borg, who was amazing at his times, tennis keeps going,” he said, referring to Roger Federer. “Australian Open is more important than any player. If he’s playing finally, OK. If he’s not playing, the Australian Open will be a great Australian Open.” (NYT)
I don’t know where in the universe my dear friend Armando Ramirez is – miss ya, but I do know for sure, he would exclaim on the controversary surrounding Djokoivic, something like this, “Bravo Rafa (who is vaccinated and at an earlier press conference suggested that Nadal should do the same). If Novak wants to play in the Open then get the damn shot.” Armando regularly played tennis into his eighth decade – one of the advantages, along with the warm climate (he hated the cold) and his nearby family, of living in the San Diego area.
The evangelical church gives the Trumpist movement a nationwide organizatonal and political anchor, especially outside the big urban centers. Our side has no equivalent, but both the labor movement and Democratic Party have the potential to extend and deepen their reach and connections to regions, states, counties, and cities where the right wing and evangelical church holds political sway.
Moreover, what better time to realize that potential than now, only months before a crucial election.
While it is hard to quantify how much damage that Manchin and Sinema have wrought and how duplicitous they are, we should bear in mind that their power to make and break the Biden agenda rests on a solid, immovable block of Republican opposition in the Senate.
Thus an immediate challenge is to flip one or two or whatever Senate seats this fall.
Lurking behind the ruling overturning vaccine mandates for businesses with 100 or more employees is the unconcealed desire of the court’s right wing majority to dismantle the “regulatory or administrative state.” Such a “state” is, in its view, an unwanted obstacle to the unchecked freedom of private property or capital to exploit its workforce and exercise its absolute control over the worlplace environment.
If you don’t believe me, read the incomparable court watcher, Linda Greenhouse for an explanation of the ruling that I can only wish I could write.
Here’s a case for some optimism as we look to the fall elections. If Covid loses some of its deadly and disruptive punch, if the hiccups in the supply chains dissipate, if inflation proves to be temporary and eases, if the Russian-Urkranian standoff finds some sort of resolution short of war, if a modest version of Build Back Better and a voting rights-election protection bill make their way through Congress, if the Biden administration makes no big mistakes, and if all this happens by the summer, even late summer, the election prospects of Democrats will break in a better direction than many analysts presently predict.
There’s a lot of “Ifs” here and events could break in another direction, but still the scenario above isn’t pure invention. It as likely as unlikely. It’s reasoned, not wishful thinking.
I should add though that the outcome of any election, even in the most propitious of circumstances, depends on the the energy and skills of both candidates and their supporters. Election victories aren’t served on a plate.
