America Has Changed. So Must Democrats.

“Failure is the pillar of success” goes the adage. There is wisdom in that, and hope. It’s good that Republicans have decisively defeated the Democrats. There is no excuse, no crying foul, no ambiguity. Donald Trump has won the White House, the Popular Vote, the Senate and most likely, the House. 

For Democrats to overcome this stunning and total defeat will require a deep and brutal reordering of priorities.

Our Hispanic and white women population helped win women’s reproductive rights in 7 out of 10 red states but also supported Trump, the anti-abortion commander-in-chief, in those states.

We are bending over backward trying to explain this contradiction by invoking economic hardship and anti-immigration sentiments when the only reason is a toxic combination of racism, sexism, misogyny and male chauvinism. For these voters, electing a female president, far less a female president of color, is worse than hell.

We will not progress unless we learn to call a spade a spade, which is that America will not elect a female president, and certainly not a female president of color, in the next hundred years. If we Democrats want to win back the White House, the Senate, Congress and the popular vote, we must field a relatively young, white male to contest for the presidency, starting in 2028, political correctness be damned.

So forget the pundits offering their earnest post-mortem analysis: Biden was too late to call it quits, Kamala Harris did not go through a trial by fire, and although she excelled in set pieces like the presidential debate, when it came to answering questions about American workers barely making rent, she completely botched it. Too many Americans were left in the dark about who she really was and what she stood for. We mistook shadow for substance, carried away by Republicans for Harris while ignoring ordinary Democrats clamoring for her attention. And on and on.

Make no mistake: If Harris won, this same chattering class would be riding their high horses to condescendingly tell us: “I told you so!”

So what now?

We must put our efforts into grassroots activism at the local, state and national levels. Some may counter this by saying, “But we were doing it!” To which I will respond, “Only as a show, that is, in a performative way in the spotlight, and not focusing on genuine performance on the ground, far from the limelight.”

Consider the endless parade of mega-rich celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, LeBron James and First Couples Michell and Barack Obama and Hillary and Bill Clinton giving their full-throated endorsement to Harris. After a while, though, it came across as hypocritical when these super-wealthy people claimed that their hearts were bleeding for us working stiffs.

While we must be generous and kind to our fellow Americans irrespective of their political affiliations, it is equally necessary that we fight injustice and any attempt to subvert the law of the land. Given his demagogic nature, Trump is likely to make such attempts on the very day he takes the helm. We must be prepared. Already Trump’s sycophant, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, has called for Republicans to secure Trump’s "third term" following her victory in Colorado's 4th District in the 2024 election. Even though the 22nd Amendment prohibits a third term, we must be prepared if Republicans, with Trump’s certain approval, try to break it. Overcoming the amendment will not succeed but with Trump and his pliant, blind followers, nothing is beyond the pale.

Here is the text of the 22^nd Amendment:

Section 1

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

The language is confusing for ordinary Americans like me but I only need to understand the first 14 words to know that Trump cannot run for a third term.

So, in a sense, as soon as Trump takes office, he also becomes a lame-duck president. Yes, he will preside over what are expected to be four tumultuous years from 2025 to 2028, but that will also be the permanent end of his presidency.

Who will represent the Democrats in the 2028 presidential election? I hope Democrats will not overlook the very real and ever-present Puritanical streak that runs through the hearts of a majority of Americans which will prevent the election of any female president. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer or Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is as capable as any male candidate, if not more, but they simply will not win even if either of them were to run against someone as unfit for the presidency as JD Vance.

Who then among the Democrats?

In my opinion, one of the safest choices we can make is Gavin Newsom, Governor of California.

Newsom, to his credit, has already made his move. On Wednesday, November 6, a day after Trump won the presidency, Newsom congratulated Trump but also wrote that “the freedom we hold dear in California are under attack, and we won’t sit idle. California has faced this challenge before, and we know how to respond. We are prepared, and we will do everything necessary to ensure Californians have the support and the resources they need to thrive.”

The Governor has called for a special session of California’s Legislature in December “to safeguard California values and fundamental rights in the face of an incoming Trump administration.”

California’s proactive Governor has begun his 2028 campaign for the presidency of the United States. It is not a moment too soon.

Let there be a contentious and bruising fight among Democratic aspirants for the presidency in 2028. A trial by fire is necessary but I am confident that Gavin Newsom will come through and return America to its rightful owners: to us Americans in all our maddening diversity and our hunger for a “shining city upon a hill.”

Washington Post Disgraces Itself

For the past 10+ years, I have been a digital subscriber to the Washington Post (WP). Numerous articles and opinion pieces I read in its pages challenged my perception, widened my horizon and deepened my understanding not only of world events but also what makes us tick as human beings.

It was thus with regret that I canceled my WP subscription after its Editorial Board, led by its publisher and CEO William Lewis, an obedient and spineless servant to his master and WP owner Jeff Bezos, chose not to endorse any presidential candidate in the November 2024 election.

That the Post and Lewis took this path only 10 days before this most consequential election in the nation’s history revealed its hypocrisy, cowardice and “kiss the ring” subservience to Bezos.

The Board bowed to power instead of speaking truth to it as a reputable newspaper is required to, permanently tarnishing its image.

In his 1946 essay titled “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell warned us of the danger of doublespeak, language that deliberately obscures, disguises and distorts. 

This is what the WP CEO wrote in justifying his and his master's
non-endorsement: “We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for and what we hope for in a leader: character and courage in service to the American ethic, veneration for the rule of law, and respect for human freedom in all its aspects. We also see it as a statement in support of our readers’ ability to make up their own minds on this, the most consequential of American decisions — whom to vote for as the next president.”

Can you hear Orwell turning in his grave? I can.

Lewis’s justification, echoing Bezo's, is as full of hypocrisy and, well, doublespeak, as asserting that slavery is freedom, racism is equality and immorality is a virtue.

What WP should have done, as the New York Times so boldly did, was to call out Donald Trump for what he is, a sleazy, ignorant, immoral and vindictive apology of a human being blatantly unfit to be the President of the United States.

Instead, by not endorsing any candidate, WP has indirectly, or maybe not so indirectly, endorsed Trump over Kamala Harris.

Regarding the pompous and self-righteous words of the British-born CEO Lewis, consider what WP, under a different CEO, wrote in its 28 September 2020 Editorial endorsing Joe Biden over Trump: “Trump is the worst president of modern times … Democracy is at risk, at home and in the world. The nation desperately needs a president who will respect its public servants; stand up for the rule of law; acknowledge Congress’s constitutional role; and work for the public good, not his private benefit.”

In selecting Lewis as the publisher and CEO of WP on 2 January 2024, this is what Jeff Bezos said on 4 November 2023: “Ten years ago, I made a commitment to the future of The Washington Post, inspired by its ambitious and consequential journalism. Today, I stand confident in that future knowing it is in the hands of Will, an exceptional, tenacious industry executive whose background in fierce, award-winning journalism makes him the right leader at the right time. I also want to thank Patty Stonesifer for stepping in to lead The Post so ably over the past several months.”

Fierce Lewis? How about a craven ass-kisser?

I will miss the enlightening and challenging articles and opinions of the Washington Post writers but where fundamental values are concerned, there can be no compromise. God willing, on the morning of November 6, we Americans will wake up to a new dawn in our history when we elect the first female President of the United States.

Afraid of another insurrection? Don’t be. There will be none, no matter the bluster from Trump and his cronies and sycophants. Law of the land will prevail because law-enforcement officials will be fully prepared to deal with any obstacle to the transfer of power since the ignominious event of 6 January 2021.

And WP writers? You are all blessed with a unique gift, the gift of persuasive and powerful writing. Quit WP and take your skills to other publications where they will value not only your writing but also your principles.

 

Making Our Votes Count for America

As the November 5 presidential election draws closer, reviewing our recent history, if only as a reminder, can give the perspective we need to cast our votes, not as Democrats or Republicans or belonging to Red, Blue, or Swing States, but as Americans.

In 2016, Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton to become the 45^th President of the United States, winning the Electoral College by 304 to 227, even though Clinton won the popular vote by almost 3 million.

In 2020, Joe Biden beat Donald Trump to become the 46^th President of the United States, winning the Electoral College by 306 to 232 and the popular vote by almost 7 million. Trump refused to accept the verdict of the American people and incited an insurrection on January 6, 2021, by his armed supporters at the U.S. Capitol, a date which will live in infamy alongside Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.

Four years on, and for the third time in a row, Donald Trump is running as the Republican nominee for the presidency of the United States, this time against the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. We are reliving the old saying: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Antisemitism, Islamophobia, dehumanization of immigrants and conspiracy theories continue to fester in our country. To the more than 67 million viewers watching the Harris-Trump debate on September 10, the former president asserted the debunked claim that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were eating their neighbors’ pets. At a news conference three days later, he threatened to enact the largest deportation of migrants in the nation’s history if elected. Mike DeWine, the Republican Governor of Ohio, said this about Haitians in his state: “Springfield is having a resurgence in manufacturing and job creation. Some of that is thanks to the dramatic influx of Haitian migrants who have arrived in the city over the past three years to fill jobs. They are there legally. They are there to work.”

America has rarely been as polarized as it is on the eve of the 2024 election. Partisan politics is crippling us. We are grappling with the same foundational values of our nation such as democracy, the rule of law, checks and balances, and the peaceful transfer of power as during Trump’s presidency. Add to these other issues like reproductive freedom (supporting legal abortion despite the moral reservations some of us may have about it), climate change, affordable healthcare, housing and clean energy, gun control and artificial intelligence-generated misinformation, and we understand why the 2024 presidential election may be among the most consequential elections in living memory.

The contrast between the views of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on these and other issues couldn’t be starker, available online and in print to discerning Americans weighing who to vote for, especially the undecided and the callously indifferent among us. As Taylor Swift wrote in her Instagram message endorsing Kamala Harris to her fans, “I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make.”

The presidency is not only about policies and procedures or tariffs and trade but also about civility and morality, honesty and integrity, among other character codes. We will do well to remember and act on Ronald Reagan’s vision for America: “We shall be as a city upon a hill.” We will do well to remember Abraham Lincoln’s words from his first inaugural address in 1861 as a Civil War loomed: “We are not enemies but friends … touched by the better angels of our nature.”

Lincoln’s words did not prevent a Civil War from erupting and dragging on for four ruinous years, with a death toll of over 600,000 Americans, about 2% of the U.S. population then. While a modern-day Civil War may be far-fetched, attempts by anyone to overturn the 2024 election if the results are contrary to expectations by inciting another insurrection can cause an unbreachable and permanent rift among us that can dangerously weaken our Republic.

So, when we vote on November 5 or earlier by mail, not just as a right but as a sacred obligation, we must summon the courage and the wisdom to place joy over anger, humility over hubris, compassion over cruelty, law over anarchy, science over ideology, democracy over authoritarianism and most of all, country over party.

Memorial Day 2024: Our Duties and Responsibilities

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/25/opinion-memorial-day-the-gettysburg-address-and-the-november-2024-election/

Gettysburg Address offers special significance for Memorial Day

In this fateful election year, Abraham Lincoln’s words of courage and compassion can transcend political divisions

By HASAN ZILLUR RAHIM

May 26, 2024

On Memorial Day, we remember our fallen soldiers.

For several years I have visited California’s oldest secular cemetery, the Oak Hill Memorial Park in San Jose, every Memorial Day to silently express my gratitude to those who sacrificed their lives so we can bask in the sunshine of freedom and democracy.

Veterans and politicians make moving speeches and observe a minute of silence on this hallowed day as the U.S. flag flutters in the breeze, rustling the surrounding sycamore trees. Doves are released as symbols of unity and peace. Small flags line rows and rows of headstones of 14,000 veterans with names that connect the living to the dead: Joseph Milligan of Tennessee (World War I), Charles Harding of Colorado (World War II), Andrew Montello of California (Korea), and on and on.

This year, I will do something different. I will carry a copy of the address President Abraham Lincoln delivered at Gettysburg, Penn., on Nov. 19, 1863, and read it as I walk alongside the graves at Oak Hill. More than 160 years later, Lincoln’s timeless words speak to us with an urgency we must heed.

In particular, two topics demand our attention in this fateful election year. First, as much as we would like our democracy to be strong, it is, in reality, a fragile entity, as the Jan. 6 insurrection showed. Unless we are vigilant about safeguarding it, democracy can succumb to autocracy. Second, the most powerful tool to ensure the flourishing of democracy is to exercise our sacred right to vote. Ignoring or neglecting this right can open the gate to tyranny. Complacency is the enemy of democracy and good governance.

As Lincoln saw it, the Civil War tested the very survival of the nation “conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Slavery, the antithesis of equality, was the evil of his time, and until it was eliminated, even at the horrific cost of a North-South war, Lincoln knew America would not endure.

We may not have slavery today, but the challenges are as daunting. Despite making modest progress in race relations since Lincoln’s time, the undercurrent of racism in many facets of our lives continues to undermine America. And political division over issues such as reproductive freedom, affordable health care, an unfair tax code, gun violence, volatile borders and climate change also threaten the integrity of the Constitution and the survival of our nation.

I request my fellow Americans on this Memorial Day to conscientiously read the Gettysburg Address. It comprises just 272 words and took Lincoln only two minutes to deliver to the gathering of 15,000, yet it has the power to evoke the noble and the transcendent in each of us, a nation of almost 335 million.

The courage, compassion and vision inherent in the Gettysburg Address should persuade us not to think North or South, Blue or Red, coastal or inland, or working class or elite when we vote in the November election but instead, to think America.

As in Lincoln’s time, “the great task remaining before us” today is keeping our nation whole. We can do it by resolving that those who “gave the last full measure of devotion … shall not have died in vain.”

So while we enjoy the biryani and the barbecue on this Memorial Day, let us set aside some time to reflect on the Gettysburg Address so we can dedicate ourselves to the “unfinished work” that our fallen soldiers and veterans “have thus far so nobly advanced.”

Lincoln concluded his address with the hope that democracy “shall not perish from the earth.” While that remains our goal too, we must first ensure with our votes in November that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish” from these United States.

Hasan Zillur Rahim is a mathematics professor at San Jose City College.