“A Republic, if you can keep it.”
- Of all the seemingly countless arguments–domestic to global–that can be summoned to summarily vote Trump out of office, nothing should matter more than this: Fewer Americans would be dead had it not been for Trump’s utter incompetence in handling a pandemic.
- Imagine, Trump’s version of a pandemic relief project does not include emergency money for the U.S. Postal Service. More than ever, Americans, including this president, will be voting by mail. For many Americans, it’s a pandemic safety measure. There’s no masking the worst health-risk reality in a century. Not to help an already underfunded, understaffed USPS is to further fray a lifeline that America’s democracy must have in this hour of utter peril. No, this isn’t your basic Republican voter-suppression gambit; this is the democracy-damning, narcissistic Trump version.
- “I want to make the post office great again.”—Donald Trump, trying out another hat theme.
- $3 trillion: the expected deficit for this fiscal year, according to the Treasury Department.
- “You inspired me to run and fight to Save America and Stop Socialism!!”—That was Marjorie Taylor Greene, responding to President Trump’s congratulatory tweet for her win in the Georgia Congressional Republican primary. It’s noteworthy, so to speak, because Greene is an outspoken, (anti-Muslim, anti-black, anti-Semitic) video-posting supporter of QAnon. Yes, that QAnon,the one that is centered on the belief that Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and a—no, you can’t make this up—child sex-trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals. What’s not to congratulate?
- “George Washington would’ve had a hard time beating me before the plague.” Who knew that plagues could have an upside?
- Among Trump’s economic advisers: Arthur Laffer—of “Laffer Curve” renown. Indeed, we’re seeing ripple effects on the economy.
- “I have every reason to believe Trump will not go quietly into the night if he loses.”—Hillary Clinton.
- Again, how did we get here? There have always been populists and nationalists and racists, some less nuanced than others. They’re well chronicled throughout America’s eclectic, democratic history. But contemporary times brought us an inflection point in 2008. Republicans putting the manifestly uninformed, reality-TV wannabe Sarah Palin on the ticket was the outrageous precursor to a charlatan such as Trump. When the bar for a presidential ticket is that subterranean, anything can happen. And it did eight years later. Then add the other perfect-storm elements: a less-than-involved electorate, one that could be inordinately influenced by rapidly morphing social media—domestic- and foreign-based—and a pop-culture, media savant who only reads tabloids and authoritarian playbooks. The regrettable result: demeaning the media; playing up white nationalism; scapegoating elites and liberals; and getting Donald Trump elected. Once.
- “(Trump) is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment.”—Michelle Obama, at the virtual Democratic convention.
- “Compassionate conservative.” Remember that? Maybe George W. Bush still does.