President Joe Biden bit the bullet for democracy. Donald Trump got a flesh wound.
Biden wisely and heroically decided Americans want a president who is not a president he can be. His real job is being president not running for president.
Kamala Harris is running like she means it. And the Republicans
must know it because they are calling her names. They can’t use the
unseemly N-word so they use “DEI hire.” It’s the N-word. Trump
mispronounces her name and says he is not going to be “nice.” Name-
calling won’t stop her.
Harris knows Trump is not bulletproof. It was only a flesh wound: an
oops, an owie, a boo-boo. Now he is the official Republican Party pick to
run, a convicted felon with mangy morals, a confirmed liar and instigator of an attempt to overthrow the U.S. government on Jan. 6. It’s a FLESH
WOUND. So give him a band-aid, send thoughts and prayers
(Republicans like thoughts and prayers) and get on with it. Trump got a
photo-op with a bullet. He got lucky, not because the bullet missed him but because it came close.
Biden’s
response to Trump’s shooting? “This is not who we are.” He had a
thermostat moment in the Oval Office and said the political
temperature should be “lowered.” He spoke apologetically, seriously,
words of kindness, conciliation, unity and peace. He responded like the
fine old liberal he is – and like a visitor from another time and place.
Harris and the Democrats have nothing to apologize for.
There was absolutely no need for Biden to kiss Trump’s boo-boo,
no need to take those campaign ads off the air for a couple of days. Biden should have used that moment to go from hoping to be the un-Trump savior of democracy to becoming the man who intended to be President again. He understands what it means to govern; he understands that the world is a complicated and nuanced place to live. But good governance, a strong record, quiet diplomacy, and let’s-get-together moments will not defeat Trump.
We are who we are. We cannot help ourselves. This IS who we are:
a nation of citizens in camo outfits with itchy trigger fingers. The violent
dimensions of the battlefield were established openly by Trump on Jan. 6, 2020, when he filled the Capitol building with his own camo-and-ammo boys with ready access to weapons, sweaty trigger fingers, blind hatred of Nancy Pelosi, a noose for Mike Pence, and a little poop to spread on the walls. They are Trump’s heroes and martyrs and he likes the way they sing. He insists these jailhouse canaries are patriots but many of them are simply his fellow felons.
Since the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and the Constitution there
have been acts and threats of violence against various elected officials,
election officials, their families and others. There was a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; Peolsi’s husband was smashed with a hammer; a Georgia election official and her daughter faced physical threats from election deniers. There have been hints and innuendos of violence from Trump himself. He likes to make people believe his followers are armed to the teeth and ready to save him. And that he must be saved. Will he accept the election results? Well, yes, if he wins. And if he loses? His followers agree that them’s fightin’ words. Trump encourages it. And a state senator in Ohio said it out loud at a recent J.D. Vance rally: “I’m afraid if we lose this one, it’s going to take a civil war to save the country.” He added it’s great to have “Bikers for Trump on our side.”
He said later he was sorry, but we all know threats of civil war mean never having to say you are sorry. Not these days.
But in the windmill of Trump’s mind bullets fly only one way. It’s
how a man who spent lots of his life staying as far from combat as
possible sees it. The truth: People shoot and other people shoot back.
Even a slightly wounded warrior should know that.
Donald Trump intends to be president again.
If he is elected it’s a problem; if he is not elected it’s another kind of
problem. But he has made his intentions clear. However it happens there
will be no logic in it. No one will come to their senses. The Trump faithful
are true believers and true believers do not come to their senses. Trump
fills up their senses. Some even believe he has been ordained by the-
God-who-fits-their-needs-these-days to be president.
Trump is a convicted felon with squalid values. Some of his followers have taken to proudly wearing t-shirts reading: “I’m Voting for the Convicted Felon.” They don’t care about his values or squalidness. He has made threats and alluded to the possibility of violence. He praises the Jan. 6 insurrectionists as heroes. Immigration and the Mexican border are a problem that needs resolution. Yes. But he has chosen to turn immigrants into a dark menace and at least twice in recent days he has warned that those dark masses are showing up to take away the jobs of black Americans. He claims to know many black people, yet he always makes sure white people (especially armed, Bibled-up white people) know that he and God are on their side. He has mentioned his fear and belief that the next election will be snatched away from him, stolen in 2024 as he has convinced followers it was stolen in 2020. He has warned that such an effort already is under way already. And if that happens? One gray-haired Christian said ominously in a recent television interview, “It won’t be like last time.” And who’s to say the Supreme Court won’t back a Trump power grab? It’s his court. Are the cops his as well? And how deeply are his loyalists embedded in the military? He says there is a conspiracy afoot. Conspiracy is lurking. Everywhere. All the time.
In a July 24 speech Trump said he’s “not going to be nice.” Harris
believes he’s not the nicest sort of felon to begin with. She intends to be
president. She has hit the campaign trail running hard and ready to
rumble. It’s clear Biden was running low on rumble. And that’s what it will
take. Harris needs to rumble toward the nomination and the presidency.
And leave the dithering and doddering to the septuagenarian candidate.
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