That’s what a Democratic friend of mine wrote in an email exchange about tomorrow’s election. Many of us who believe that the future of our country is on the ballot this year tend to feel that way. And it’s not just Democrats. What’s interesting to progressives like me is that many Trump supporters are equally convinced that the soul of the nation is at stake tomorrow. . . .
Category: Politics
Will We Learn the Lessons of Trump’s Presidency?
The Sunday Review in today’s New York Times features essays by all the paper’s op-ed columnists on the subject of “What We’ve Lost” over the course of Donald Trump’s presidency. The answers range from “Frayed Connections” between the left and the right (Nicholas Kristof) and “Faith in One Another” (David Brooks) to “Our Allies” (Thomas Friedman) and “Principled Conservatism” (Brett Stephens). But while I found each piece insightful and well-articulated, the one that struck me as most prescient was the one by the right-of-center never-Trumper, Ross Douthat . . .
How Many Battleground States Can Trump Afford to Lose?
I saw an interesting analysis by Steve Kornacki on MSNBC this past Friday. He displayed a chart listing ten battleground states that Trump won in 2016 that showed which candidate is favored to win each state and by how much. Then he demonstrated what would happen if Trump lost one or more of those states this year. . . .
The Final Debate
I’m not sure I have anything to say about last night’s debate between Donald Trump and Joseph Biden that other commentators haven’t said, but here’s my take. The winner of the debate was clearly . . .
Biden’s Going to Win
Okay, I think we can risk saying it. Barring some horrible screw-up on Joe Biden’s part over the next two weeks, he’s going to win the November 3rd election. We Democrats are terribly gun-shy about expressing any confidence in a Biden victory because we were confident four years ago that Hillary Clinton was going to win, and look how that turned out. . . .
The Big Send
Yesterday was the day everyone who had written letters to Democratic voters under the auspices of Vote Forward, encouraging them to vote in the November 3rd election, mailed their letters. The timing was intended to have the letters arrive close enough to Election Day to have the maximum impact. . . .
My Preferred Candidate vs. My Preferred President
I realized the other day that my preferred candidate for president in 2020 and my preferred president starting in 2021 are two different people. . . .
Could Trump Succeed at Undermining the Election?
As everyone knows, Donald Trump has repeatedly refused to commit to honoring the results of the November 3rd election or to ensuring a peaceful transfer of power if he loses. I wrote in August about concluding that I might need to go to Washington to participate in street protests if he tries to subvert the election. In the past few days I’ve seen two very different perspectives on that possibility. . . .
Trumpty Dumpty
I’m enjoying John Lithgow’s new book, Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age, a sequel to his 2019 book, Dumpty: The Age of Trump in Verse. Lithgow did both the writing and the illustrations, including the one shown here. Here’s the title verse . . .
What Worries Me Most about Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court
Most of the buzz about Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court (aside from the fact that Mitch McConnell refused to consider Merrick Garland’s nomination but wants to rush to confirm Barrett) is that she could vote with the other conservative justices on the court to overturn Roe v. Wade. But that’s not what concerns me most about the prospect of a 6–3 conservative majority on the court. . . .