We are seeing a lot of momentum and hope in this less-than-a-month before the election. I’m putting together a quick diary extracted from a comment I made a few minutes ago. This is really critical because ballots are already going out, and not only do we need to encourage Blue America about this, but much more critically we need to convince all of Red America which will not be voting for Trump, that they must make a break with their past and vote straight blue this time. Certainly in the federal elections, and perhaps more critically, in their states as well.
This is the one element that’s missing from the campaign, although this might be the best time to bring it up. We need to convince conservative America to make an impulse ‘purchase’ as it were, quickly.
In so many other ways, the Harris campaign is making inspirational promises. Great promises that are engaging people on the right, younger people who are still finding their political feet. The apathetic. There are promises that, in great contrast to Trump’s blathering about his personal grievances and retributional dreams, are aimed at all kinds of voters. These are attracting women who want to have reproductive autonomy. Attracting home buyers and renters, people tired of price gouging. Reassuring people worried about the democracy and the future of America itself.
It is time to make clear to all the American public that, if they want these things, they have to give her a Democratic Congress. There is no there there without it. Nothing gets done. Want changes to the Supreme Court? Without it, nothing gets done.
Again, furthermore, this is critical to the conservative and Independent Never-Trumpers. Or, the less than never, but those still tired or worried enough about Trump this time, to vote against him. They must understand that voting for “balance” between the parties does not exist anymore. Only nothing getting done. We need this message aimed at them. It’s an illusion; it has only brought gridlock for 30 years. A Republican or even split Congress only opens the gate for Trump 2.0. Maybe a smarter Vance on steroids next time. And makes a Harris administration largely powerless to deliver.
Because Trump, as much as he seems to be a cancer on the body politic and a threat to democracy and decency, is not the disease. He is merely a symptom. He would not be in place if there were no Republican congressional majorities for the last several years. We need, they need, a Democratic Congress. Even if they’re dreaming about going back to the days of Reagan. That’s a 40-year lift that needs to be undone. There is no “balance” anymore. Those days are gone. They need to slap their party back to its senses. So much needs to be undone and unless the GOP are forced for a couple of election cycles to recalibrate, it will be more of the same. Between us, it would take more than a 4-year period for that self-reflection to even begin, much less their strategizing for it. But still, mostly gridlock to boot, where nothing ever happens. Which they complain about as much as anyone. But they need to be convinced they are causing the problem.
And for those of us who dream of Republican irrelevance, we must take the message everywhere that Harris / Walz is not enough. FDR got the Democratic congress he needed in the 1934 elections and after that Democrats controlled DC and many of the states for 2 generations; the Congress until the 1980s, because they were able to build on an aggressive progressive philosophy. And I think since Joe Biden, that’s the road we’re on again.
There is no Green New Deal, or renewed Great Society, or laws against restricting voter rights without it. There will be no Pro act to make unions what they used to be back in the days of FDR through Johnson. When eventually 1 paycheck, for some majority of Americans, a majority we dream of being a much larger if we can rebuild it, covered all the needs of a family month to month into retirement. Mortgages, cars, savings, appliances, college for the kids, vacations. Imagine that with two working adults. Antitrust breaking down the Googles and Amazons, and Walmarts and Microsoft and Apple cartels. The big Media cartels, the billionaires and financiers who largely own our political system.
Encourage the Harris / Walz campaign and all of our punditry that there is no more time to delay on this. This is the moment. All of America’s greatest hopes, even a reality that MAGA pines for but doesn’t grasp, relies on having a Blue government in November. And again in 2026, and 2028 and beyond. We must convince those opposed that it is for their benefit. They are voting against because they haven’t taken a chance to give themselves something to vote for.
If they don’t like the way things have been in this country for a long time, to try something new. At the end of the day, it’s up to them.
