'U.S. Blues'

The Fourth of July is an excellent time to stop and reflect on the state of our nation.

We’re quite obviously in a perilous moment.

Perhaps the most perilous of my lifetime in terms of politics.

Never before in recent memory has the quest for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness been so imperiled.

The march of angry men has delivered us to this moment.

One in which women have lost the right to determine their own health and well-being and minorities and LGBTQ communities are under constant attack from the violent rhetoric and punitive legislation of the so-called conservative Christian movement.

Led by a con man who is constitutionally incapable of thinking of anyone other than himself.

His venality and dysfunction as a human being is soaked into the marrow of his Diet Coke-rotted bones.

He has chemicals where most have calcium; a bubbling cauldron of filth and fat lumbering and lurching towards his next crime.

Painted orange and wrapped daily in girdles, diapers and ill-fitting Brioni suits cut to cover his sloth and auger the lie that a wealthy, white ‘business’ man in a jacket and tie must know what is best for the U.S.A.

He can only steal and he can only lie - and he has done so much of it that he has numbed out his victims and much of the media that seems to accept it as normal.

His act has dovetailed perfectly with the rage and ignorance fomented by Fox News and a thousand right-wing podcasters - aimed solely at the ignorant masses attracted to a man like Trump.

Hordes of mediocre, mostly white Americans who have been raised on Wonder Bread and racism.

Their myopic vision seeing only the plastic landscape of a future they themselves will have no say in.

They will hand over that power, gladly, to a man who will abuse it in ways their french-fried brains could never imagine.

The suckers always suffer first.

They’ve been showered in spit and bile and told it was music.

They happily clap along and dance to the tune, taking momentary pleasure in the pain they are clearly causing others.

For them this is manna.

Think of the progress we have lost as a republic in the nine long years since Donald Trump transitioned from game show host to president.

Then exited office in a cloud of fire and excrement, as he intoned his followers to attack our Capitol and hang his own vice president to stay in power.

A crime he has all but been absolved from thanks to a Supreme Court peopled with the most corrupt justices this country has ever known.

A man they have just anointed king - should he return to power.

A horrifying prospect made ever more likely in recent days.

The Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo/Federalist Society faction of the conservative movement has done more damage to the fabric of this nation than any foreign entity we have faced in our relatively short history.

A history that may close the chapter on democracy this November should we fail to elect a Democratic president.

Men like Charles Koch will have achieved their goal of turning our one time beacon of democracy into a rank kleptocracy led by the worst man this country has ever produced.

It’s enough to make Uncle Sam himself cry.

It feels as if the bad guys are winning - they seem to be but feelings aren’t always facts.

Compassion, love, equality and freedom are all elements that move beyond borders.

They are attributes carried in our hearts that no man or woman - no matter how corrupt can take away from us.

They speak to universal truths within us all; a desire to live free, to love and worship freely.

To escape the sutures of monarchy and chains of tyranny.

They are the things most worth fighting for, they buttress the spirit.

They do not deplete our spirits like the anger and vitriol our opponents aim at the other.

Granted, we seem to be facing a perfect storm of problems right now that all seem to benefit Donald Trump.

The disarray in the Democratic donor class.

The Pollyanna pundits and outright clowns like Bill Maher who believe, as he wrote in a NYT op-ed this week, that replacing Biden will ‘be fun, like a rose ceremony on The Bachelor’.

It won’t.

Not to mention, removing President Biden from the ballots will be held up by lawsuits already in the works by the Heritage Foundation which could lead to an electoral college disaster for the Democratic Party.

Ohio’s deadline, for example, is fast approaching and those who have called for Biden to step down and replaced in an open convention haven’t thought through the logistics.

If ever there was a time for seeing politics as a chess game and thinking three moves ahead it is now.

The mainstream media and pundit class however haven’t afforded us that luxury.

Trump lied with impunity during the catastrophic debate that President Biden clearly lost in the eyes of the American public.

I do not deny that.

I understand the optics - believe me - I spent twenty-five years working in live TV.

It was extremely painful to watch and will perhaps go down as one of the biggest blunders in modern political history.

Biden’s campaign staff asked for the debate and clearly did not think through how the format would benefit Trump.

The element of no real time fact-checking alone probably doomed Biden before his own obviously subpar performance turned it into a debacle.

Immediately of course the folks that had been feeding at the trough of anti-MAGA sentiment for years, many of the so-called ‘never-Trumpers’ turned on Biden and called for his replacement.

Actions that have spread well into the Democratic camp at this point.

As I write this it is hard to imagine we will still have Biden at the top of the ticket this time next week.

This Fourth of July may be the most consequential of our lifetimes.

A time to reflect on who we are as a people and where we want to go from here.

We already know what Project 2025 and a next Trump administration will bring us.

You can sense the anger in the eyes of his followers; men and women itching for a fight and ready to join the ranks of the world’s worst.

The fascists and Nazis that followed a madman through the gates of hell and brought untold suffering onto their fellow countrymen and the planet.

Men and women who act upon the orders of despots bring shame upon their countries for the ages.

We have learned to forgive the transgressions of the past but we must never forget.

All the evil we have seen happen overseas could in fact happen here and is most likely the wish of men like Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon.

We’re a nation founded on bloodshed and subjugation - a certain percentage of our population would be all too happy to return us to the darkest chapters of American history.

We must not allow them to drag us down.

Their ignorance and malice will live beyond Trump.

It is in fact a generational phenomena at this point but that must only serve to steel our resolve and force us to reach toward our better angels.

Joe Biden is a good man and has led with empathy and vision.

He has steadfastly proclaimed his intentions to stay in the race.

Whether he continues to lead his party is not up to me, or you, as individuals.

It is something that should be decided at the ballot box in November.

We may not get that chance: his fate as our party’s leader may be decided much sooner.

The media scrum already smells blood in the water and is clearly itching for the coverage the chaos of Biden stepping down would create.

I am a huge fan of Kamala Harris and believe she would make an excellent president.

If we choose another candidate it should only be the Vice President.

But make no mistake about what a DNC open convention would entail and how much chaos would be fomented by those looking to damage the Democratic party.

All Trump will need to do is point to the likely protests in the streets from ‘Free Palestine’ Tik Tok contingents who will have smoke bombs and flags tailor-made to make it look like anarchy and say, ‘Do you want more of that……or me?’

He already leads in the polls; an open convention and a bifurcated party at war with itself will only increase his lead.

A focused, invigorated repudiation of his myriad crimes and daily lies will eat into his lead.

I believe Vice President Harris would be an aggressive campaigner should President Biden step aside.

As I have said repeatedly since Trump left office: time is not on our side.

This was clear with the slow-rolling investigations at DOJ and now Trump’s complete lack of any trials for January 6th before the election.

Even Trump’s NYC case where he was found guilty on thirty-four counts now has his sentencing delayed until September, while the possibility of throwing out his convictions altogether is explored by his lawyers who were handed a gift by SCOTUS’s immunity ruling.

Trump has been afforded far too many easy lay-ups.

These are indeed dark days despite the golden glow of summer.

A lot of work lies ahead.

Just as it did on our first Independence Day.

It is time again for an inventory of where we stand as a nation.

An honest and sober appraisal of the best path forward.

I won’t pretend to have any easy answers.

If this fraught moment can teach us anything, it should be that this is all extremely complicated.

There is however, one imperative: vote blue, no matter who.

In the end, freedom and justice will prevail.

I believe this with all of my heart.

Be well and enjoy the holiday.