A Ray of Sunshine

0925/2024

What is happening?

We are weeks away from the presidential election, it’s literally down to the wire, polls are close, swing states are showing Vice President Harris in the lead but disturbingly there are still some states where Trump is leading. Wait, what? Trump is leading? I mean, I’ve already come to the conclusion that Trump supporters will support him despite the rhetoric, lies and nonsensical speeches he iterates at his rallies. That’s his base. They will take a crazy rant and sane wash it, giving the illusion that Trump is some kind of lyrical genius. They are, in all respects, a lost cause. There is, however, a contingent of “undecideds” who continue to ride the fence. Stating that they don’t know enough about Harris to decide. It isn’t that hard to find out what her policy plans are (she’s literally been crisscrossing the nation stating in her rallies what her plans are for her presidency.) One can simply get on the internet and Google the VP. When there are two candidates that are polar opposites, one can’t help but wonder, what’s going on in the minds of the nation’s voters?

This goes beyond Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives or the left and the right. This is about a faction of the Republican party that broke off into its own subset. A group who decided years ago that Donald Trump was their new messiah. His words taken biblically (yes and that includes the insults and bullying,) his past misdeeds being overlooked or forgiven (sexual misconduct, fraud, election interference) for reasons Trump himself has explained as being the victim of his enemies and, his lackluster first presidency, was somehow a blockbuster presidency. These supporters overlooked a myriad of EO’s and policies that didn’t go well for the country. A White House that was held hostage by a petty man who enjoyed pitting his staff against each other and fired people in his administration with impunity. A man who most sane Americans were metaphorically in a bad marriage with. When we finally divorced him, we felt like we could breathe again. When he decided to run again, we felt that grip over our throats slowly start tightening again.

Then came Kamala. Unexpectedly and very last minute. I honestly wasn’t sure how the public would react to the VP throwing her hat in the election ring in the eleventh hour. It was tense but the tension didn’t last long. The American people embraced her with the warmth of an abused child refusing to return to their abuser. And she reciprocated that warmth. Her campaign wasn’t so much about grievance. It wasn’t about who to hate, who to blame or how bad “others” have made our country. It was about oneness, about women, about freedom, about going forward and not looking back. It was about us. She was positive and instead of groaning about how terrible the United States had become as a nation; she gave us the feeling that we were already great, and we could continue being great. She gave us a glimpse of some of her policies…a $25, 000 credit for first time home buyers, $50,000 tax credit for small businesses, a ban on price gouging, restore Roe vs Wade – not too shabby. And she smiled. Often. Continuously. Unyielding in her positivity. Something the Trump team criticized. My guess is that joy, in any fashion, is in short supply in MAGA world.

Which brings me back to the tightness of the race. Are we as a nation, mired in an imaginary world where Donald Trump ruled the country for 4 years in a blissful nirvana? Were we suddenly thrown into a whirlwind of hopelessness and despair when Biden took office? The right wing like to ask the same inane question hoping to get the response that will bring Trump back to the White House; are you better today than you were 4 years ago? The answer is almost painfully obvious. When you’ve taken insanity out of the oval office and replace it with mature sanity, life is definitely better.

Let’s not make the same mistake that we made nine years ago. VP Harris is the only path forward.