POSTNOTE July 7: Previous directly related posts June 27, 28, July 1, 4, 6.   The U.S. road ahead is politics, and I am going to try to restrain myself.  Absent some legitimate ‘crisis’, my next politics centered post will be the day before the ‘Republican’ convention (July 14); the next the day before the Democratic Convention (August 18 ); the next perhaps the week after the Democratic Convention (August 22,  before September 1).

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Some random thoughts a week after the debate.  First, mark and visit and share this website: VOTE.GOV.

I watched the interview of Joe Biden with George Stephanopoulis on Friday evening.  Mostly I ignored the analysis, which is as valid or invalid as my own.

As with the debate a week ago, I am glad that this interview was held, and that it was pretty no-holds barred.  It is good that we the people, who are the ultimate judges could watch.

The real value, I think, is that we, the people, are being forced to confront our own role in the future of our own country.   The the ball is in our court.  Ours is not a frivolous or optional task. There is no one-size fits all resolution even within the political parties.

The politicians, as has always been true in our democracy, ultimately are responsible for the tough question of who will actually be on the ballot Nov. 5.  Theirs is and has always been a crucial and immensely difficult job.  The first of the two national conventions begins in about a week.  Watch, listen and learn….

Personally, I am not enthusiastic about a second ‘debate’.  I don’t see it as constructive.

There is no question in my mind that the coming months will be brutal, just judging by history.  ‘m guessing it will be even worse than “normal” past years, with more and more sophisticated misinformation and disinformation.  I hope I’m wrong.  One absolute truth in my opinion: Dirty Tricks and the like will be sown to disrupt and confuse.  Resist.  This is why I repost the below Draft which gives you at least some real data to begin to refresh your own memory of past presidential campaigns.

My one judgement is that the two candidates represent remarkably contrasting philosophies  with a drastically different view of our future.  As I’ve said before, I will not comment more about this until after the Democratic Convention in August.

A summary of the past:

 

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A brief reflection: The Bananas and Despicable ME 4….

The Stephanopoulos interview was sandwiched between two other duties the last 24 hours.  Right before the interview, I went to the store to pick up my daily essential: bananas.  Then, today, I took my daughter to a movie she wanted to see, Despicable ME 4.  In perhaps a weird way, the three events make a good sandwich about us, we, the people.

The bananas I found at the supermarket were uniformly ripe, which made them a poor choice for a household which consumes two bananas a day.  On the other hand, I have yet to see a variety of bananas that matures one each day.  Just doesn’t happen.  Some times they’re too green, sometimes too ripe, sometimes just right – at least for day or two.

Yesterday a lady was ragging on a stock boy who happened to be refiling the banana shelf with bananas.  The product was unacceptable to her.  He tried to explain that that was all they had at the moment – he was the one who had brought them from the stockroom.  She was on a roll, wouldn’t let go.  I picked up a bunch, and when I left he was still her target.

I thought to myself, this was nutty behavior.  When I was a kid I don’t recall ever seeing a banana, much less a full service super market with thousands of choices.  We need to get a grip.  We are, mostly, hugely privileged.

Today, daughter Heather wanted to go to Despicable Me 4, so we went to the 10 a.m. show.  I was aware of the Despicable series, from having taken her to one another time.

Despicable 4 was an entertaining film, basically a French production.  It reminded me a bit of the old Roadrunner cartoons, and others of the same genre, though much higher tech.

The good folks win in the end of the kid films, and probably it is all good clean fun for the kids, and even some morals of the story for the adult supervision in the theater with the little kids.  We are in a different time in history, that is for sure.

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It is hard, these days, to get some kind of perspective.  In between, before and after, every day there are lots of things to observe, some good, some not so good, that are useful to assess as we cast judgement on the present, past and future.  What we all have to be is engaged in seeking those who are best fit to lead our complicated nation in tomorrows complicated times.  This requires wisdom of all of us.

COMMENTS (more at end):

from Tony: Thank you.  I really like Joe Biden. This is so hard..  We cannot allow Trump to win.  It’s so painful but I think Joe needs to retire. Kamala, rightly or wrongly, must retire as well. She is too unpopular.   I feel terrible about this, but Trump must be stopped!

from SAK:  Many thanks for the post – I agree with so much of it including the banana bit & Tony’s comment.

France has voted & Tony would be pleased that many groups got together to block a party similar to the one Trump is leading – is there really a Republican party worthy of the name in the US anymore!? There are a few individuals but why have so many Republicans in Congress become so obsequious to Trump?

I received this link from a friend who tries to be objective & usually votes Democrat.

Jared Golden might indeed be considering his own future (election prospects). Do politicians these days actually believe J. F. Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”? Here is the man himself proclaiming that.

Jared Golden should become a turncoat & follow Trump who certainly thinks more of what the country has done & will do for him & his ilk.

In the same inaugural address Kennedy also said: “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.”

Now is Trump a threat to US democracy? Seems like it – of course the Supreme Court will vote 6-3 against such a hypothesis! And there are those, like Jared Golden, who will say the US has survived a civil war . . . what an argument!? Would he welcome a civil war? What if that civil war had gone the other way, say after some foreign powers intervened on the side of the confederacy? Trump has already proven that he is a threat to democracy & not just on January 6^th but by constantly attacking most of US’ institutions & by nominating Supreme Court judges who ignore the will of the majority – I’ll be brief & not get into the abortion issue, the immunity puzzle & even worse the Chevron ruling which basically gave the finger to experts on behalf of corporate profiteering.

There are others who are tired of good old Biden & will work for an alternative although it’s late in the day – they should have started the day Biden was elected & he should have led the search for a successor but power is magnetic – as your draft detailing how many vice presidents went on to become presidents shows as well. Jared Golden is not honestly & benevolently seeking for a good alternative but others are. They might still be able to convince Biden to abandon the quest. The problem with liberals is they do not have the will to power, almost by definition, unlike the Republicans who will sacrifice even the country to attain power – surely many in that party do not approve of Trump & yet they campaign for him all the way. The Democrats made a similar mistake in nominating Hilary Clinton against Trump. At the risk of irritating some who accuse me of bringing up UK politics too often, the Labour party there has acted in a similar manner while the Conservatives have sacrificed the good of the country on the altar of power. This time though Labour coordinated their campaign with the Liberal Democrats to make sure they get a majority. In France as well this time various shades of left & center coordinated their campaigns & withdrew candidates in favour of others to block the far right. The left-leaning liberals are learning.

As J.F.K. said in that same address, history will be the judge . . .

All the best.

overnight from Heather Cox Richardson: here