MY THOUGHTS ON THE DEBATE

I grew up in a Greek household.  We followed news and politics constantly.  And we argued about it constantly.  I was taught that that's how democracy works.  Everybody talks politics over every dinner, drink or coffee.  The argument with the most merit wins.  Even if it doesn't, or your side loses an election, everyone recognized that they'd had their say and maybe their system, policy, party, or candidate would win next time.  

In the last year and a half, I've discovered that all avenues for political steam letting are closing.  A close friend was asked, by another, who would win the next election.  The answer was Trump.  When the second friend expressed surprise, I started to put my two cents worth in as to why.  Friend One cut me off.  "It's because of the third parties."  Then he waved his hand and said, "I don't want to talk about it."  A close family member, in the last few weeks, announced that she did not want to discuss it.  "I don't want to hear it.  Biden is a good man."

Today, yet another friend posted a long essay on Facebook about why we shouldn't discuss seeking another candidate to oppose Trump and that if anyone disputed it, he'd block them.  OK, so many of my friends and family don't want to vigorously argue the case for a Biden candidacy.  At last night's debate, it appeared to the nation that the candidate couldn't very well make the case for himself either.  We'll be told that he did fine at an after debate rally and at one today.  Oh, good.  He's forceful in front of a crowd of friends and fans.  But, when it counted, standing next to the self declared wannabe dictator, he was meek as a mouse.  

I know one can be off their game if they have a cold.  But, it wasn't the sound of Biden's voice that was disturbing, it was his inability to make a clear, articulate, forceful argument that sounded like he understood or believed it.  Again, I get the cold thing.  But, Biden never got put through his paces in 2020.  COVID allowed him to communicate via recorded videos and avoid the press.  Once he won the presidency, he seemingly has had fewer press conferences than any president in my lifetime.  Why?  Is it because his policies won't stand up to scrutiny?  Or because he can't make the argument for them in an adversarial situation?  And, I think that's the difference between last night and today's rally.  

I can't be the only person in this country who has been saying (to anyone willing to listen) that Biden needs to 'do an LBJ' and withdraw from the race.  His polling has been consistently awful.  His stubborn, heartless (potentially criminal) insistence on giving weapons to Israel that he knows will intentionally be used on civilians has lost him any chance at Michigan.  I thought this last Halloween, when it was evident that he was on board with the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.  

This, at best. will be a close election.  For my entire life, the debates have been the premier, memorable events of presidential elections.  For those who don't follow politics much, it's all they have to remember, or visualize, a candidate by.  We're now told that a transcript would show Biden won the debate.  We're told the same about Nixon; but Kennedy won the election.  I can remember the air coming out of the balloon for Gerry Ford when he blew the answer on Eastern Europe. Reagan pointing to Jimmy Carter, "there he goes again!"  Reagan disarming the younger Mondale, with his joke.  Dukakis giving a professorial, bloodless, answer regarding the death penalty.  It may not be fair, but these debates are not college bowls, they are attempts to gain power.  Perception matters.  And last night, the guy who lied for 90 minutes straight, looked more "presidential".  

One of my nephews, a perceptive young man, pulled me aside at Easter.  "We're fucked, aren't we?"  Last night, a third of the way through, he texted me, "We're doomed."  There was no question mark this time.  

  

KENT STATE AND THE LACK OF AN OFF RAMP

I've never been comfortable with the simplistic idea that history repeats itself, but I've been squirming lately.  I feel like I'm watching the trailer for a horror movie we lived through, long ago.  

Once again, America is involved in a war where it uses the brutal leadership, and atrocities, of the other side to justify its continued involvement in the war, dehumanization of the civilian population and killing of women and children.  The residents of Gaza are enduring a man-made famine.  Their children are enduring amputations without anesthesia.  Thousands of extended families have been exterminated by bombings.  Once again, the culture, history and grievances of the natives of the battleground are widely unknown to the American public.  Once again, American politicians are lying from the podiums of the White House and State Department.  Once again, the only real outlet for opposition is in the streets and on college campuses.   In some ways, the media's participation in manufactured consent is worse than in the past.  

During the Vietnam War, that opposition would sometimes find sensational and, briefly, disruptive tactics.  Those invited to Presidential events, sometimes award recipients themselves, would turn and denounce the war.  They were hustled off the stage and shouted down.  More recently, when anti-war protesters have interrupted Joe Biden's speeches, his supporters have drowned out those calling for a cease fire, by chanting "Four More Years!", with all the fervor of the Nixon Youth.  Yes, that was the slogan of the Nixon/Agnew campaign.  That was their bumper sticker and that was their chant, at public gatherings, as they bellowed it, rapturous at the thought of four more years of Nixon, Agnew and Mitchell.  

On May 1, 1970, Richard Nixon referred to campus radicals who opposed his Vietnam policies as "bums".  Three days later, on May 4, 1970, National Guard troops, on the campus of Kent State University shot 13 unarmed college students and killed four of them.  On May 15, 1970, at Jackson State College, in Mississippi, police shot 14 students, killing two.  

Joe Biden, this week, condemned "antisemitic protests", leaving the implication that the protests themselves were antisemitic.  The House of Representatives promptly piled on by passing a bill that would create a definition of antisemitism that conflates certain criticisms of the State of Israel, or of its policies, as antisemitic.  It is in this atmosphere that militarized police forces have been sent onto college campuses across the country.  The corporate media and the duopoly of the Democratic and Republican parties have, for the most part, been cheer leaders in the state violence committed against peaceful protesters.  This has led to student outrage and a wildfire of protests across the country.  The kind of radicalization, that took years in the 60s and 70s, has now happened in the span of six months.  In the short term, we may be spared another Kent State this spring; the semester is almost over.  But, things are not going to get better. I've said most of what I can about Gaza and the rule of law, back on Human Rights Day, in December.  I relived Kent State here.

I'm still scared.  Students have been met with police violence at Columbia (as they were 50 years ago), at Washington University in St. Louis, and in Austin.  At UCLA, police stood by as pro-Israel counter protesters attacked the peaceful encampment of the Pro-Palestine/anti-war group, even shooting fireworks into their tents.  Four reporters for the student newspaper were also attacked.  

Six months in and the war drags on, universities in Gaza have been razed to the ground, hospitals destroyed, the entire population displaced, famine, malnutrition, disease, PTSD among children, orphans, a destroyed environment, no crops, nowhere to run.  Over here, there is no political will on the part of those in power to stop the horror. In fact, the U.S. government has actively encouraged it, giving political cover at the U.N., in the U.S. media and by supplying the very weapons being used on civilians.  All while claiming it sees no evidence of the war crimes that millions watch daily, live on their phones.

The last time a Democratic president presided over an unpopular war, in an election year, he knew he couldn't win reelection and withdrew in March.  This March, the Democrats doubled down, with Bill Clinton and Barak Obama hosting fat cats at a fundraiser for Joe Biden.  That last time I referred to was 1968.  Even with Johnson out, the nominee was to be his V.P., Hubert Humphrey, who had won zero primaries.  The result was mass demonstrations at the Democratic Convention in Chicago.  I doubt the demonstrations will be as large this year, because the anti-Vietnam War movement had a long standing infrastructure.  I could be fooled, though, at how fast protests can be organized this year and how fast thousands can be mobilized.  Things went badly then.  This year, in addition to an anti-protester news media, there will be Trump baying from the sidelines.  Which means we're screwed coming and going.  Biden's, and Netanyahu's, stubbornness will lead to more protests.  The cops will become more and more aggressive.  Somebody is going to get killed.  Well, in addition to the 35,000, over there, already killed.  But you know what I mean.  And that's before the election.  

Young people aren't going to look at a Democratic party peopled with the likes of Kathleen Hochul, John Fetterman, Antony Blinken and Joe Biden and say, "I better drive to the polls!"   Palestinian Americans, living in Michigan aren't going to grieve over their lost parents, grandparents, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends, all of whom were crushed under concrete apartment buildings, bombed by American supplied weapons, and say, "four more years!"