CATOCTIN MOUNTAINS, Md. —- I heard the Marine One helicopter landing at Camp David on Friday, Aug. 16, after flying overhead. President Joe Biden was there for another weekend preparing his speech for Monday night, Aug. 19, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
It was a sad speech in a way marking the end of an era.
“It’s been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your president,” he said in a 52-minute speech capping the first night of a convention. “I love the job, but I love my country more. I love my country more. And all this talk about how I’m angry at all the people who said I should step down — it’s not true.”
“We love Joe! We love Joe!” the crowd chanted,
“I love my country more,” Biden repeated, “and we need to preserve our democracy.”
The rest of the week was a joyful lovefest for Kamala Harris, an event with much hope for a better future for women, minorities and young people, as well as poor people and the working middle class. That is if the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign can find a way to beat Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in November.
It's still touch and go, although Harris grabbed the momentum and the news cycle right away when Biden agreed to step aside for the good of the country. She ramped it up even more by picking Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. What a winning combination? The crowd sizes, man, put Trump's and Vance's to shame.
The polls reflected the changing tide, showing Harris pulling even with and then leading Trump in key battleground states, first Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, then Arizona, Nevada and even Georgia and North Carolina. She even hit 50%, with rounding, in a national Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, that had Trump with only 45% support. That was two points outside the margin of error. The last time a Democrat hit 50% in a national poll was Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries of 2016.
This should give people a clue about where the electorate stands on the issues. Some still believe Sanders was on the right campaign track to beat Trump in 2016, even though the Democratic Party establishment was not going to allow an independent, Democratic Socialist from the small state of Vermont to win the primaries and become the nominee.
But the Harris-Walz campaign was beginning to look very good leaning in that policy direction, even though the Georgia Election Board is now stuffed with MAGA supporters, which could cause big problems in that state on election night. How many days and how many recount demands and lawsuits will we have to endure this time if this is not a massive landslide blowout?
Then a story came out about ongoing plans by the Three Percenters, the radical, far right militia group that is planning much more than the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, if their White nationalist dictator does not regain power in Washington. Talk of another civil war made the rounds one more time, as I took a day to tour Gettysburg again, just as a reminder of the losses that happened back then.
Meanwhile, after narrowly dodging an assassin's bullet, Donald Trump seemed to lose it even more than usual, spouting more personal insults and selfish, hateful bile and nonsense, while Republican Party leaders tried to get him to focus on the issues. It didn't take. He can't do it. It's just not in him.
Millions of people watched a conversation on video between Harris and Walz about how to treat other people, with an emphasis on not letting anyone fall through the economic cracks because of a lack of money or education. Many people are already falling through the cracks, and this would get much worse if the Heritage Foundation and the Catholic cult Opus Dei have their way with a new Trump administration implementing Project 2025.
The United States of America will no longer be a democratic republic if that comes about. I wish they would just come out and say what they want: A theocracy, not a government of, by and for the people. Let the American people in on the plan, so we can have an open debate.
Even in his address to the nation upon announcing he would not seek a second term, in addition to talking about Trump being supported by an un-hooded Ku Klux Klan, President Biden quoted Benjamin Franklin.
I told this story best after a visit to Independence Hall in 2018, right before the Democrats seized control of the House under Speaker Nancy Pelosi. You know the famous true story of what Dr. Benjamin Franklin said at the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 as he left Independence Hall on the final day of the deliberations of the Continental Congress before heading over to City Tavern for a cool ale.
“Well, Doctor, what have we got?” a woman asked. “A Republic or a Monarchy?”
“A Republic,” Franklin replied. “If you can keep it.”
We will see how much sway Trump and his MAGA movement still have on the mostly uneducated, rural masses come Nov. 5 (and the days fighting over the vote count afterward).
Can the joyful movement of Harris and Walz overcome all the negativity and hate and sweep enough people in this country off their feet?
Dog damn I hope so. Otherwise I will be joining the massive RV caravan headed north toward Canada.
Glynn Wilson is editor and publisher of New American Journal (NewAmericanJournal.net).
From The Progressive Populist, September 15, 2024
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