Washington is burning. This is America.
The mercury soars to 100 F, and people are sheltering in place. Death by heat wave or dehydration? No, that couldn’t happen here.
And yet, consider the wild things that have happened here lately, turning the presidential race upside down since the end of June.
The shocking attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life, a bullet whizzing by his ear, was a wakeup call that political violence is still “a war within” ever since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Meanwhile, weakened in the eyes of his party, President Joe Biden stands on shaky ground after an abysmal debate with Trump. Wealthy donors like actor George Clooney and fine Democrats like Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) have called on Biden, begging him to step aside for fresh blood.
It’s a Greek tragedy when a leader, an aging warrior, can’t call it a day after a good long run, like 50 years in politics.
It’s what the ancients called “hubris,” a streak of stubborn ego that brings it all down around him. In this case, the House and the Senate are at stake too.
This is America.
Biden is hanging on long enough to quiet the critics and stay on the ticket. This is not about the country anymore. This is about his personal pride.
Back to Trump, the man of the hour as the Republican National Convention went on in Milwaukee. He is looking hale, hearty, stronger than before. For good reason: The wind is blowing his way.
We’ve never seen such a string of remarkably lucky wins for a presidential candidate, ever.
On July 11, remember, Trump was scheduled to be sentenced for the 34 felonies he committed in New York. But the Supreme Court just gave him a pass and a measure of presidential “immunity.”
So the New York judge, Juan Merchan, postponed sentencing Trump until September.
If the John Roberts Supreme Court had not decided to place a president above the law, Trump might have spent July 12 behind bars, or at least under house arrest.
It was going to be a day for the history books, when a president actually pays for his misdeeds in crime and punishment.
Instead, Trump went to Pennsylvania country for a huge rally on Saturday, July 13. We all witnessed that he narrowly escaped with his life and minor injuries from a blast of gunfire.
This is America in the ragin’ summer of 2024.
Somehow it reminds me of the Rolling Stones playing at Altamont, when they lost control of the crowd while the Hells Angels only made things worse, and a fan was fatally stabbed.
But this is not a rock concert. This is our public square, where the temperature is sky-high.
To make matters worse, a Trump-appointed Florida federal judge actually dismissed the stolen state secrets and classified documents case Monday. The timing is truly amazing.
You might be thinking, Judge Aileen Cannon can’t do that, can she? (She was confirmed late in Trump’s term in 2020.) Didn’t we see pictures of boxes piled up at Mar-a-Lago as evidence of the purloined files?
Well, yes, Cannon can delay and dismiss the case, just as she did. Senior judges advised her not to take the case at all, given her inexperience. From the start, she made questionable moves and decisions that raised suspicions of political motives.
Now, the unkindest cut of all: Trump named J.D. Vance, the clever and biting senator from Ohio, as his running mate.
That’s a shrewd pick, for Vance will try to make mincemeat out of Biden — and Vice President Kamala Harris. A former critic of Trump, he’s like a Greek sophist.
A Yale Law school graduate and author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance has a way with words and brings a fresh face to Trumpland.
Vance will act as a vicious junior attack dog. In fact, he started his job before being officially named, in this statement: “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist. ... That rhetoric led directly to Trump’s attempted assassination.”
That language is loaded in a long hot summer. And this is America.
Jamie Stiehm is a former assignment editor at CBS News in London, reporter at The Hill, metro reporter at the Baltimore Sun and public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She is author of a new play, “Across the River,” on Aaron Burr. See JamieStiehm.com.
From The Progressive Populist, August 15, 2024
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