In a daily email entitled “Letters from an American”, Historian Heather Cox Richardson is writing the history of the destruction of American democracy in real time. It is the first thing I read each morning.
If Trump is re-elected our democracy will be gone permanently. We cannot let that happen.
This election, like the last one, is going to be about the lesser of two evils. Demonizing Obama and Biden is going to be a lot harder than demonizing Hillary was. But the effort is underway and in full swing. Do not underestimate the combination of FOX news and talk radio running a continuous stream of outrageous lies emanating from the President and reinforced by the Republican Senate. The enormous amount of money being poured into equally misleading social media is frightening. We must fight back.
Penny reminded me recently that as a teacher she learned negativity carries ten times the weight of positive reinforcement. Hitler’s constant blaming of the Jews for every dissatisfaction Germans had, like Trump and the Republicans with the help of FOX and talk radio constantly blaming Obama as they did Hillary, works. Especially for people already convinced that the Democrats are as bad as they claim. Proof of the power of negativity is the impact recently of one woman claiming, without any real evidence, that Joe Biden violently sexually assaulted her 27 years ago in a Capitol corridor. It has negatively impacted the polls after being endlessly covered by CNN and MSNBC as well as the Republican media. Biden is not the Messiah. But after forty years in public service, everyone knows him and knows he is honest to a fault. It is much harder to pin the lies on him than it would be on any other Democratic candidate. And this election is going to be about lies and indecency vs truth and basic honesty and decency. Given the choice, most sentient people we know are incredulous that 45% of the public somehow can continue to support our total creep and lying incompetent President.
Between now and November a lot of people are going to die, and jobs and the economy will remain on life support. The government is in shambles with the Republicans proposing to cut what little is left of the federal budget to give another round of money to the wealthy and permanently cripple funding for Medicare and Social Security.
We cannot stand by watching the impossible happen again.
I urge you to read Heather Cox Richardson and to send money to down ballot Democrats running for the House and Senate especially in those states where it matters. Their campaigns will boost Biden’s, a reverse coattail effect. It is going to be all about turnout and the Electoral College. We must win the Senate no matter what. As Penny and I have been saying for three years, Democrats must vote and vote for a team not for or against the individual at the top of the ticket. Fortunately, for this election Democrats are united and smarter.
If we stay that way, work, and give. We will win and save this country for the future.
