Two Weeks….

Postnote Oct 26:  Joyce Vance, today.  Note especially the last paragraph and the tweet following. Heather Cox Richardson October 25.

Two weeks from today it will all be over, but the counting.  I make no predictions.  There are too many variables that are unknowable, from the veracity of those responding to polls, to kinds of samples surveyed, to the spin of those who report on the mood, data and on and on and on.  They butter someone’s bread, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on them….

Vote by or on Nov. 8, and step a tiny bit out of your comfort zone and ask one other to vote as well.  You know the drill.  Vote.

Gov. Tim Walz, Vice-President Kamala Harris, Lt. Gov Peggy Flanagan Oct 22, 2022, Minneapolis. photo by Dick Bernard

Saturday I went to downtown Minneapolis in support of Vice-President Kamala Harris, MN Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.  It was an excellent gathering; and a demonstration of the diversity of the Democratic Party, in turn reflecting the diversity of the United States of America.  A colleague, also there, wrote a note later: “it was a great event. I thought it was maybe the best speech I have heard the Governor make. Terrific.”  I concur.  We have much to be proud of.

Those three folks on stage well represent the diversity of this nation of ours.  Tim Walz is a school teachers kid from rural America, and was a public school teacher himself.  From small town Nebraska, 25 years in National Guard, 12 years a Congressman representing a rural district, the last four years Governor of Minnesota, he’s walked the talk of leadership.  Vice-President Kamala Harris is a national figure, so needs no introduction.  Peggy Flanagan, Lieutenant Governor, is Native American and  highly accomplished.

Of course, nothing is ever easy, particularly in these days of smelly attack ads which infest television.

I’ve lived in the large Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area of over 3 million for more than half my life, 50 years in all, including the last 32, and were I to believe the attack ads, we’re crime sodden here, a haven for casual abortion seekers, on and on and on.  We’re basically a progressive (Democrat) area, and, of course, it is people like me, Democrats, who must be responsible for the not so creative fiction on television.

The lies must work, otherwise why spend millions on them?

The gathering I attended Saturday was in the heart of downtown Minneapolis.  It could have been in any town in this state.  I walked three blocks on downtown Hennepin Avenue and not even a single nervous moment.

This past summer someone I know was mugged in the city, and was injured.  I learned about it quite a while after the fact.  As I’ve said to others, it was the first time in my 82 years that I could say that I actually knew somebody victimized by a crime.  (The assailant was a juvenile, a passenger in a stolen car driven by another juvenile.  He and his accomplice were caught and brought to justice.  I don’t think any of this made the press.)  So it goes.

Last summer the Wall Street Journal carried a letter from someone who had left my town because of car-jackings.  There was a ring who’d caused some problems, but as always, it was a problem magnified far beyond reality: it took time and effort to find out what the real story was, nonetheless reported as typical in a major newspaper out east.

Sure, all of us, including myself, sometime or other have had uncomfortable moments sometime or other, not only in the “city”…but mostly the space that we occupy is safe.

Nobel Prize recipient Paul Krugman made an excellent case in a column in a recent NYTimes about the gap between perception and reality: Krugman Facts Feeling and Rural Politics.   I come from a very rural state, so I also know the reality of the surrounding rural country.

Two weeks from now we’ll know the direction this country is taking.  Those who actually vote will be the accountable ones.

My vote will be for the Democrats.

Two weeks.

POSTNOTE:

Here is the portal for Election Information, again: Information for a Minnesota voter can be seen here  (early voting continues).  National information here.  NBC has a Plan Your Vote site as well.

For folks who live in the same community I do: SD 47.  (The link is the local Democrat website.)

Segment Four of Rachel Maddow’s Ultra podcast is now available.  Sunday night we watched “Shouting Down Midnight”, about Wendy Davis and the Texas legislature. Check it out to see when it again comes available.  It is brand new and very worthwhile watching.

COMMENTS (more at end of post)

from Marsh: In our    world here in the southernmost part of California, it is astonishing that the elections that we see here are so brutal. A lot of the politicians have hit pieces either in written form or on television about how corrupt the other candidates are. It’s hard to figure as to who the good guys are. A big issue here is gambling and every Indian tribe has an opinion about to vote yes or no. You can’t really tell who the good Indians are to do a sensible vote. So in the end, I just voted no on everything.

from Chuck: Voting is the minimum for civic responsibility.  It’s what we do regarding our legislatures the hundreds of day between elections.

And, no matter who wins…you still have a monstrous influence if you work with others to prod them with loving persistence.

Unfortunately, our governing system is functionally flawed.  The Constitution has three valves for change…but we rarely use them.
Change is happening so fast…our brains can’t keep up with it.  And our government is essentially flatlined.

Read the preamble to the Constitution and give its seven intentions a grade.

from Len: AMEN. If we all remind our friends to go to the polls and remind them to remind their like -minded friends to follow suit, it could be good.  My friend, who was in the State Senate, was visiting the day after the election in 2002, with her neighbor. Her neighbor broke the news that she had forgotten to vote on Election Day. She would have voted for her neighbor.