The Democratic Convention Part One: “Snippets”

“The Postal Service”  (Aug 15) has drawn to date 15 most interesting responses, including a most interesting photo from the 1930s.  Check back once in awhile.

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Register.  Vote.  I will vote by mail.  Every state has different rules.  Act early.  Don’t succumb to fear.

You can watch the Democratic convention on line here.  (C-Span).  There are other options as well, including YouTube.  The time is from 9-11 p.m. EDT (8-10 CDT).

In my tiny little corner of the web, I hope to do something related to our political universe each day of both Conventions at this space.  Today’s offering follows: “Snippets“.

My personal philosophy appears in every post, to the right.  My e-mail address is in the upper left corner of this site.

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“After/If: ” A family member asked, yesterday, in response to an e-mail I’d sent: “why do you emphasize AFTER/IF for Biden Harris…I thought that was a pretty sealed choice”.

I responded: “I know.  I have a very long respect for the formal endorsement process.  “The Party”, however reviled it can be, knows the system better than I. This has caused me small problems in the recent past.  We had a very successful governor here, Mark Dayton, [2009-2017] who was Democrat Senator from Minnesota before running for Governor in 2008.  The DFL party that year chose to back a party activist and good person, Margaret Anderson Kelliher…. Dayton skipped the formal process and ran in the primary against her and won.  At the time, I was active in the DFL Senior Caucus, and [a power person in] the Caucus backed Dayton, while I took…flack supporting the parties nominee.”

Politics is not simple.  It is a process of both offense and defense, and in our system, two major parties, one of which I prefer, and trust to know more than I do about the ins and outs.  Yes, it’s imperfect.  So is life.

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I have a bias some would call naive: a society works best if it finds ways to work together.  Recently we’ve been in very tough times on that score.  The emphasis is win-lose.  We are all at fault.  In 2012 I was at a panel at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum and Doug Tice, then and still commentary editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, said something that has stuck with me ever since: “The most powerful bias in the press is the story – the unholy trinity of trouble, scandal, conflict is what gets the news.”  Watch and read the news in this context.  It is true.  “If it bleeds, it leads” is another quote I remember from someone.

Even in my own tiny corner, I am always aware that the presenter is the one who creates his/her preferred ‘spin’, from the least to the mightiest.  Start with the premise that they know no more than you, consider the source, and make up your own mind.

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A Possibility:  If you have a ‘soft spot’ for Peace and Justice, I’d invite you to throw a few coins in the kettle for John Noltners indiegogo campaign which you can read here.  

I have followed John’s work since I first met him in 2009.  He follows through and his projects have been appreciated by many nationwide.  Covid-19 set him back on his heels, since his project was based in showings in institutions.  At minimum, please read what he’s about and consider donating some of your own money.  He’ll follow through on his commitments. I’m a financial supporter myself.  Questions?  Ask.  

COMMENTS:

from Mary:  Never underestimate the immense influence of the Trump Base.  I have made it a point to listen to and participate in radio and TV and conversations purporting Trumps immense value to the future of America and to me, much of this propaganda is believed to be very real and very true and as such it is very scary.  Just read Mary Trump’s book as well and (though the book tends towards clinical analysis) I believe she is very insightful-this is a man who suffers the lifelong effects of early abuse.  He is not capable of change.  He is capable of much more damage.  Hopefully the American Voter is capable of supporting change!

response from Dick:  This is an open list, and everything is archived, and I share with people I know as friends, who are of all sorts.  We have Mary Trumps book, and Cathy has read it, and when Michael Cohen’s book comes out we’ll get that too – I’m guessing his will be brutally honest which is to say it will be attacked viciously.  He was Trumps “Roy Cohen” (have you seen “Where is my Roy Cohen?”, the documentary.  We did, and it was blistering.

To your specific comment, I made a list of about 15 people who I know personally, who are Trumpers to the core, and they aren’t the stereotypical types you’d expect.  All I can do is stand for my principles.  I think the key commonality is that they are “me” (opposed to ‘community’) oriented, and addicted to “belief” – sort of an evangelical mindset – the savior is among us and will save us from “radical left wing socialist liberals” such as myself, I suppose.  They are nice about it, but that’s just how it is.  Anything longer than a tweet is too long.  They won’t change.  But they are a minority, they know it, and they’re scared of it.  Thus the effort to suppress the vote, etc.  I tried to describe this in my August 2 post, the T’s.  Take a look.

from Steve: Is the world just spinning too fast, Dick? What’s wrong? It seems as if a room full of TV writers are working as hard as they can to imagine and then conflate another crisis, foolishness or threat every 24 hours. I’m trying to keep up, but the tail is, indeed, wagging the dog. Fun to read your notes but the events are disheartening.