From a Google Image Search - AP News
Democrats are receiving injections of anxiety from everywhere. They are coming from the Republicans (especially in interviews with potential voters) who are basking in their adoration of Trump. Anxiety is kept front of mind with the media printing articles that mention Biden's age and his "low energy" while making fistfuls of money from articles about a crazy ex-president who fomented an insurrection to avoid a peaceful transfer of power. (This might be secret information: Trump should not even be running in this election. He is old and probably not sane. He isn't a king. A mad king like George III inherited power by birth, not through voting.)
Still, another source of voter anxiety is the pundits who like to show that they know America's election traditions by heart, a political voting scaffolding that includes BBQs, county/state fairs, party meetings, caucuses, the power of the early primary states to predict a party's choice. It would be fine to show off your insider props if this election were not so existential, but normalizing this election as traditional is helping Trump stay in the race.
Political polls are also being produced in their inevitable order even though we know polling samples are small and we have no idea which voters are being polled. The polls have nothing good to say about Joe Biden, but they certainly tout the popularity of Trump. Everyone says they don't believe polls. If polls are not good predictors media should stop making such a big deal of them. The reasoning makes no sense - 'this poll tells us these rankings, but now that we have spent 15 expensive minutes on these poll results we will spend a few minutes saying that polls are nonsense.' The lawyers called in as experts on Trump's legal cases are no comfort either.
One of the anxiety-producing messages we frequently hear or read says that Black voters are either contemplating voting for Trump (or a Republican) or thinking about not voting at all because (others say on their behalf), President Biden has not made their lives better. We also hear that young voters are saying that they will most likely skip voting because both parties are terrible. Democrat pundits and the lawyers and politicians they interview pass on their anxiety to Democratic voters. Democrats are lashing Biden to get out and do rallies and speeches. Do we really expect Biden, who believes in keeping things steady and calm, to match the nutty rants of Donald Trump with some other kind of verbal magic? Aren't there any Democrats with the charisma to help him out and provide the pizazz voters seem to crave?
Today Joe Biden gave a campaign speech from the pulpit of the Mother Emmanuel AME Church. This is a church where a man, subjected to extremist propaganda, some kind of new-wave Southern Strategy that made him think he would be helping the right-wing cause by killing black folks and using a semi-automatic gun to do it, did what he had been programmed to do. There were nine innocent Black people in that church, Christians studying the Bible in a small group. Roof joined them for a while, accepted the welcome of the participants, and then shot them dead. My mind still boggles at the cold heart of this young man and my heart adds this to all the burdens of this world. This is the same place where Obama sang Amazing Grace at the funeral of the pastor Dylan Roof executed.
What Biden is saying is that he still cares about the needs and concerns of Black Americans, just as he does for all Americans, and that he understands the needs and concerns of Black Americans have gone unaddressed for too long.
There are certain political realities that I assume Black citizens well understand. Surprisingly it's about the math. While the Republicans hardly have a mandate in the House of Representatives, they are discarding bills before they even come to the floor by challenging the Speaker they elected if he is not extreme enough. There is a budget bill that needs a vote to avoid a government shutdown, but extreme Republicans (more extreme than Mike Johnson?) are refusing to pass the bill in time to meet the shutdown deadline. Republicans may not have the votes in the House, but they can kill a bill by refusing to vote for anything Democrats will vote for, by accusing their House Speaker of being a traitor, or by getting rid of the Speaker. The Senate will most likely pass the budget bill if it gets there but it must pass both houses of Congress. If Democrats can't pass a budget to stop a government shutdown it is hard to imagine that they can pass any other legislation that we know Republicans will not support. If we understand this math, then surely, we understand that electing Democrats at all levels of government will be necessary to make sure Republican racism ends. Black folks are too smart to elect Trump in 2024 and I would like to see the propaganda campaign they would use to try to change their minds.
I think young people know in their hearts that there is no perfect government, but some are more perfect than others. (With a nod to George Orwell.)
Here is a summary of some of the things Biden said in his speech on 1.8.2024 at the Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charlestown, South Carolina (an early voting state):
"In his first visit to an early voting state this year, President Joe Biden on Monday in Charleston, South Carolina, warned MAGA Republicans led by former President Donald Trump 'tried to steal an election' and 'now they're trying to steal history.'
He also called 'white supremacy' a 'poison' that continues to haunt the nation during a campaign speech at the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church, where nine Black Americans were murdered by a white supremacist in a 2015 mass shooting."
"'On June 17, 2015, the beautiful souls ... five survivors invited a stranger into this church to pray with them,' Biden said. 'The Word of God was pierced by bullets and hate, rage -- propelled by, not just gunpowder, but by a poison. Poison [h]as for too long haunted this nation. What is that poison? White supremacy. It's a poison. Throughout our history, it's ripped this nation apart. There's no place in America. Not today. Tomorrow. Or ever.'"
"After Trump said Saturday in Iowa that Civil War bloodshed could have been avoided through negotiation -- and after former South Carolina GOP Gov. Nikki Haley didn't acknowledge slavery as the root cause of the Civil War -- Biden talked about how the Confederacy embraced 'what's known as the lost cause,' comparing that to Trump and his allies refusing to accept defeat in the 2020 election."
"'Let me be clear for those who don't seem to know, slavery was the cause of the Civil War. There is no negotiation about that,' he said."
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-speak-site-white-supremacist-murders-claim-trump/story
Of course, there is not just the math of Congress, there is the math of the Electoral College, tainted by the machinations of Republicans on behalf of Donald Trump. If Trump wins all of us can kiss progress to address loopholes in our Constitution goodbye. (See my review of The Tyranny of the Minority at
You can be sure that the needs of Americans in the bottom 90% will be ignored. Do the math. You must vote for Democrats, even if only in this one election. Trump does not plan a peaceful transition of power in 2028 (read my book 2028: The Rebellion) Trump believes he is immortal. Yikes!