StressPoint 2024.07.19
19 July 2024: As I said in the previous post, I’m making a real effort, once more, to force myself to keep an annotated political stress journal.
It’s a good time to do it, right now, with 109 days till the election (actually 108, since I didn't get around to posting this till the next day, 20 July).
Trump just proclaimed his fascist plans last night on the last night of the Republican Convention. (God, how I’m glad to get THAT over with. What an orgy of hate and blather and Robespierre-ish rhetoric!). He apparently went into detail with a history of how he deserved not only the Purple Heart, but the Presidential and Congression medals of honor. I have no doubt he’ll give himself one, and arrange for Congress to give him the other. Assuming he gets elected, which ….
… unfortunately seems like a pretty safe assumption, because we still have the huge barrier of fading octogenarian Joe Biden, who as he’s fond of pointing out has 14 million primary votes and IS the presumptive candidate of the Democratic Party. With their suspicions that Joe has some sort of episodic disabling infirmity confirmed, a large percentage of Dems and other Americans are confident in their belief that his advancing age and apparent symptomology of … something … something more serious than merely being 81 … made him incapable of 1) beating Trump, 2) remaining competent through 2028, or 3) surviving his term.
I was among the majority of Democrats watching the spectacle who were startled and horrified at his profoundly cringeworthy debate performance. In fact, I thought merely his appearance was cadaverous, with his hollow cheeks and glazed-eye stare, presumably at Trump (although later press commentarysuggested that his terrible appearance and the direction of his stare were maximized by the angle of the camera … the result of a bad choice by his advisers, who were allowed to pick which podium Biden got). The disabling overstimulation going on in his brain was obvious to me … there was just too much for him to process and respond to, and he couldn’t reflexively land on a strategy or find the words to make an appropriate retort. He was prepared with factual retorts and litanies of his accomplishments. But paralyzed with over-stimulation, he couldn’t come up with the needed response of repeatedly belittling Trump in some cute but snarky and cutting way, telling him and audiences around the world that the bilious orange jerk was the most astonishingly full-of-shit and critically dangerous candidate to stand at a podium since at least Adolf Hitler.
Anyway, the irreparable damage was done. I made a FB post even before the end of the debate that there would be calls for him to step away from the candidacy. And there were. Loud calls by the middle of the next day. With peaks and crescendos and decrescendos in the clamor for him to give up the candidacy. I myself have been on the edge of the abyss since … solidly at stress level 9 or even 10 … but even at the best of moments finding myself among those who thought he couldn’t beat Trump.
But albeit with a heavy sense of doomerism, I hung in … changing my mind every few hours, or at least every two or three days about whether to support him or call for him to stand down. There is no doubt that it has been one of the more painful two and a half weeks of my life, as I changed my mind with just about every well-written op-ed I read, self-consciously, if unconfidently, supporting Biden fully for a day or two, then falling off that wagon and cursing him for his hubris, and telling myself and others that for the good of the nation, the party, and me, he should find a time very soon to get out of the way.
And NOW … judging from reporting by all the publishers … WSJ, NYT, WaPo, etc., it appears about to happen.
As a parenthetical but relevant comment, I am writing this comment on the front porch of our house in Waterford Village, on a lovely, cool July 19 morning. And just now, a neighbor from up the street … a friend and fellow member of the local Democratic Committee, walked by, and we chatted for about 15 minutes about what’s going on. I confessed to her that I have never been so wishy-washy in all my life. Deeply conflicted and torn about the appropriate level of loyalty I should feel for Biden, who has been, in my view, the most effective president of my lifetime … and my obligation to supporting the most likely way to fend off the real threat of authoritarian government that Trump represents.
As I told her, this has in some respects really been the most stressful and challenging period of my life.
So … for my stress evaluation.
As I have already said, I have been running day in and day out at a level 9 on average, with a few periods of brighter and more hopeful mood for some short period of time (after Biden made his great appearance at a union rally in Detroit, I was maybe down to a 7 for a few hours!), but then back up.
But now, this morning, I feel more hopeful that we can move past Biden’s recalcitrance to abandon his campaign, and get on with electing … Kamala?
I wish I were more confident that Kamala can overcome the resistance to her, which comes not only from the racists and wacko trumpeteers, but the yadda yadda peanut gallery of the Dem Party who might want somebody more progressive, or more conservative, or more charismatic, whatever it is, with no recognition of how difficult it’s going to be to maintain the Black Caucus, which has supported and to my knowledge still does support Biden strongly.
My hope is that we can get past our party’s perennial tendency to shoot ourselves in the head. In this case, however, I really am hopeful, because I think … and hope … that the process will go quickly once the appropriate donors and elites shove Biden out of the nest.
I also hope that despite the clear recognition that Kamala is the only pragmatic choice, that she can and will rise to the occasion … and I confess to being a little less confident in that respect.
But still … I give my stress level a 7 this morning. Uncomfortable, but manageable.
As a last comment, at this point if I were able to unilaterally choose a VP for Kamala, I would choose Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona. I think he would bring a nice mix of centrist Real American Hero to the race.