Reflecting on a lifetime of presidential elections today. My first, as a 20 year old college student, was 1972. Viet Nam was heavy on all of our minds as our friends and brothers were getting drafted, some not coming back. Protests everywhere. Richard Nixon won. I feel for the young people who are new voters and now feel like I did in 1972. My track record is not great (6/14). I have lived in blue and red areas of red states, in blue and red areas of blue states and overseas. Even with deep disappointments, I have never felt as devastated as 2016, and did not want to feel that way again. Which is why I did not watch returns, and locked up the whiskey. Oh well, here we are, gut punched again by a felon who has no business running for president of anything. My sparkling wine is still in the fridge.

In earlier times, people all sat down to watch the nightly news with Walter Cronkite, and I think we were all better aware of reality. Decades of misinformation from too many sources have taken a toll on the electorate. Our education system is under attack. Our justice system is no longer just. Separation of church and state has been blurred. Our national empathy and understanding of people who are not like us is disappearing. Too many people caring about only themselves.

I don’t know what the answer is. You can’t stop people from watching/reading poor ‘news’ sources and believing them, no matter how many facts you counter with. You can’t undo racism and misogyny. I’m so afraid that until the consequences of hate touch the haters personally, nothing will change. It will take a shooting at your kids’/grandkids’ school, a loved one dying of sepsis when they can’t get a D&C, suffering shortages of fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy, when all the harvesters and processors are rounded up and put in camps to deport. When they can’t find any elder care or day care providers. When their imported cheap products at Walmart and the Dollar store become unaffordable due to tariffs. We will all suffer, but those who can least afford it will suffer most. The wealthy oligarchs are calling the shots.

I will keep trying to understand, and be thankful I live in a state that fits me. That my daughters live in states that will take care of their reproductive health. And I will move forward, as soon as I’m done grieving. It might be a while.

After 9 years of incendiary rhetoric, inciting actual violence, and personally threatening dozens of perceived enemies, TFG has certainly demonstrated that he can dish it out, but sure can’t take it.  He has spent years vilifiying everyone from Haitian immigrants to Dems to Taylor Swift, but when someone starts shooting at him, he’s shocked and appalled when the tables are turned.

Let’s be clear – violence is NEVER appropriate in any instance, political or otherwise.  But this monster of escalating violence has been wholy created by TFG and his sycophants repeating his vicious lies about everything from “the deep state”, to immigrants, and to anyone who happens to disagree with him.  He’s even inciting violence against schoolkids in Springfield, Ohio, FFS.  His social media accounts drip with hate, authoritarian declarations, threats, and lies against millions of people and entire classes of society, fabricated from whole cloth.  He even incited thousands of knuckleheads to attack the US Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the US government.

I find it pretty rich that TFG and Vance are now denouncing the very violence they’ve been inciting, but only because that violence has been turned on him.  If they want a reduction in violence they need to start that at home and turn down the heat, but I’m not expecting any of that.  A little self-awareness would be useful right now.

We all know the truth about TFG and his enablers – cruel, hateful, criminal, liars, threat to democracy, and more.  But no real descriptor has stuck, at least until now.  The term that stuck?  Weird. That’s right, weird and it’s derivative, weirdo, is sticking like glue and it’s pissing them off.  Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, got the party kicked off last week on MSNBC calling TFG and Fauxbilly “weird people.”  Hillary picked it up on Twitter X with this little jewel: 

Let’s go through the weird list: People without children restricted from voting; people with children get an extra vote per child; government control of women’s menstrual cycle information; a nationwide abortion ban; short of a nationwide ban, pregnant women’s out of state travel should be monitored; jail sentences for doctors who provide reproductive care; jail sentences for women who get abortions; privatize schools; ban and burn “unacceptable books”; end marriage equality; ban medical treatment of transexual individuals; repeal Obamacare; impose Christianity on all Americans; ban Muslims from the country; mass deportations of immigrants; organize a private militia for the president; fire half of the federal employees, put loyalists in charge of all departments; politicize and weaponize the DOJ.  It goes on and on, but this is a representative sample.

Republicans have weaponized language for decades, from “you hate the troops” to “death panels”, “death tax”, “pro life”, and many others.  It’s nice that Dems have finally been able to turn at least a little of that back on them.  The great thing about calling them weird?  It’s because they are.

In a oped piece in the Washington Post this morning, Joe Biden proposed common sense reforms to the SCOTUS.  It would have been really nice had he proposed those 3 1/2 years ago rather than as a lame duck president, but it’s a badly needed proposal.  In those years of dawdling, an obviously corrupted court has taken a hatchet to the Constitution and almost 250 years of settled law.  The radical majority has been rapidly disassembling longstanding administrative law, voting rights, women’s rights to choose their own reproductive healthcare, gun safety laws, bribery laws, and longstanding understanding of Constitutional principles such as immunity.  They’ve also actually invited parties to bring lawsuits to the court to speed up their destruction (see US v. Trump).

The problem with the court, though, is not just the last few years.  The current crisis has been building since  Reagan nominated Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia and GHWB nominated Clarence Thomas.  Bork was the original originalist, believing the Constitution should only be interpreted through the Founders’ eyes, ignoring what happened between 1789 and current day.  It’s idiotic. The concept is radical and has brought us some of the worst SCOTUS decisions since the disastrous Dred Scott decision in 1857 that ruled that the Constitution did not protect enslaved Americans.

Chief Justice John Roberts has presided over this abortion (pun intended) and has inexplicably defended not only the court’s decisions, but has steadfastly resisted oversite from the Legislative branch and reforming itself.  He has allowed Thomas to flout both the law and common sense, ignoring the fact that he (as well as Alito) have been bought and paid for by partisan and corporate interests.

Even while acknowledging the crisis at the SCOTUS, Biden has been reluctant to step in.  He started a commission to study the court and make recommendations, but three years later, he’s done nothing.  Only now, after he became a lame duck, is he proposing long needed change.  Beyond waiting WAY too long to propose changes to the court, there’s no chance that they’ll get a fair hearing in the legislature.  The Insurrectionist Party, which clings to a tiny majority in the House, has no interest in doing anything beyond putting its collective nose up TFG’s diapered ass, so reform bills will no nowhere for now.  They LOVE the Court as it is, and only a change in November will make reform of the Court possible.

What can we do?  Vote.  Every single incumbent and candidate who supports TFG or this court must be defeated.  That, of course, is not going to happen in one election, but it’s a start.  And that’s the only chance we have of pulling us back from the brink.

Here are a few bumper sticker ideas for the 2024 campaign.  I’m taking suggestions.