First, eyes on the prize here: Donald Trump is not just another annoying Republican. He and the MAGA movement are an existential threat to Democracy.
I cannot stress enough, how unhappy to see this version of the Democratic Party emerge at the absolutely wrong moment. Culturally and historically, inside our party, lack of discipline and chaos reigns supreme. Genetically, we are not the good soldiers the Republicans are, who stay disciplined in terms of unity and coalition building inside their own party even if it’s morally corrupt (“Hello Neo-Nazies, y’all are welcome to today’s GOP.”).
I know this unhappy version of the Democratic Party — navel-gazing, panicked, filled with circular firings squads, arguments that turn increasingly personal, individual Machiavelli’s, and — worst of all — disunity. It was the Democratic party of my childhood — fomenting losing campaigns locally, statewide, and nationally throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s, and even later than that (thanks a lot, Ralph Nader).
I’m really sorry President Biden had such a horrible debate. He might be too old to continue or he might not. We might replace him with Vice President Harris or we might not. We might have a mini-primary, or we might not.
Here though is the most important thing. MAGA, not just Donald Trump, needs to be driven out of the mainstream of our politics. The country, as we know it, cannot survive with these fascists in charge. They already have the Supreme Court and — barely — the House of Representatives. That was really the Republican Party’s job, but they are too craven and immoral to do it.
So, it’s up to us. And here’s what that means:
This is not the moment to “make the Democrats” pay for support for Israel, or for being too capitalist, or what ever your grievance is. You need to get behind the Democratic nominee and win the election.
It’s time to develop merciless Democratic talking points and truly nationalize this election: Donald Trump and the Republicans are responsible for the downfall of a woman’s right to control their own bodies. They are bigots, racists, and unapologetic grifters who don’t care about the individual freedom for the average American, campaigning in a party led by a twice-impeached, convicted felon who has also been found liable for sexually assaulting a woman in public, and legally indicted for stealing top-secret documents, and for trying to steal an election and start an insurrection. Trump lies just about every time he speaks, doesn’t really know anything, was rated the worst president in US history, and is controlled by a bunch of right-wing lunatics who have created the 2025 project, a blue print for turning our democracy into a religious dictatorship.
This will not work if Democrats leave their convention unmotivated, angry at anything else but Trump, and fragmented. It cannot be effective unless everybody is on the same page. Then the momentum picks up, the anti-Trump Republicans and independents get swept up in the excitement and we can win convincingly.
And hopefully, we can win the whole thing, and by a wide margin.
Will Rogers’ Democrat party will not win us this election. Let’s not go down this old, tired and losing road. The cost is just too great.