FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020
Andrew Sullivan "If humans cannot control their tribal instincts and the primal emotions that are triggered by tribalism, then conflict, rather than any form of common ground, can spiral into a grinding, cold civil war. Politically, what we are seeing today is the long-delayed backlash to the social justice movement of the 1960s."
I have been mixing and matching over 20 Democratic presidential candidates, moving them around like the magnetized words of a refrigerator poetry kit. What I am looking for is the Democratic ticket that is, without reservation, a YES.
Months ago, after the first debate, I thought a winning ticket might be Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Later, I stepped outside the box and, at the future fantasy-league Democratic convention, I brokered a Gavin Newsom and Michelle Obama ticket. Recently, a Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar ticket felt like it might have a chance. But, do we really want the 2020 election to be a cage match between democratic socialism and authoritarian fascism? This week I am considering Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City. But, do we really want the 2020 election to be a cage match between two billionaires? Round and round and round she goes, and where she stops, nobody knows.
The trick for the next few months, until the Democratic convention, is to stay sane, stay cool, and not allow myself to get caught up in the daily onslaught of media chain-jerking, fighting off words like panic, crisis, disaster, nightmare and doomsday, the spicy mix in an “already ugly stew of racial resentment, nativist paranoia and violent militarism.”
After Democratic debate #9, one thing is clear: the reactions are all over the place... Bernie Sanders won... Elizabeth Warren won... Michael Bloomberg stumbled… Biden is toast... Pete Buttigieg needs a shave... Amy Klobuchar for VP. Elizabeth Warren needs to stop spouting anecdotes that start with, "I met a man last week who can't afford his insulin..."
Frank Bruni “Bloomberg was his own worst enemy. You can’t buy a debate performance. Dear God, how they went after Bloomberg. I've seen chum treated with more delicacy by great white sharks. I don’t know how Democrats escape the ugly chaos of their contest, but I do know that this is not the ideal run-up to November, and Bloomberg’s billions aren’t magically going to make it all better."
David Brooks "Successful presidential candidates are myth-makers. They tell a story that helps people make meaning out of the current moment. They identify the central challenge and explain why they are the perfect person to meet that challenge."
Trump's myth: "The coastal elites are greedy, stupid people who have mismanaged the country, undermined our values and changed the face of our society."
Sanders' myth: "The corporate and Wall Street elites are rapacious monsters who hoard the nation's wealth and oppress working families."
"Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Biden and Klobuchar all make good arguments, but they haven't organized their worldview into a simple compelling myth. We don't see the world through their eyes. Warren inhabits Sanders' myth. She sees the world through the Bernie lens. She reinforces Bernie's worldview rather than establishing one of her own. The other candidates don't have a mythic platform from which to launch an attack on Sanders."
The coronavirus is the unforeseen event that can foil thousands upon thousands of best-laid plans. The coronavirus has the potential to cause the cancellation of the rest of 2020, including the baseball season, the Olympics, the political conventions and the November election itself. But never fear... our Stable Genius has put Mike Pence in charge of lying about the extent of the coronavirus threat. It turns out that the real hoax is not Covid-19 but the Trump presidency.
Inside the right-wing bubble, political enthusiasm is high. The Republican base loves the outlaw Donald Trump. Inside the left-wing bubble, the enthusiasm is the highest for Bernie Sanders. Why? Because we on the left are die-hard idealists. In the 2016 Washington State primary, I voted for Bernie Sanders. I find myself thinking about the 2020 Democratic ticket in wishful categories: practical (Joe Biden and Amy Klobuchar); fantasy (Michelle Obama and Sherrod Brown); revolutionary (Bernie Sanders and Stacey Abrams); from the grave (Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King). Win or lose, all Bernie is saying is give idealism a chance.
I am keeping a low profile, though I have been grocery shopping four times in the last two weeks. Now I know at least one emotion felt by a crime scene investigator. Sunday at 6:45 AM, I parked at Safeway, masked up and pulled on a new pair of disposable latex gloves. I stretched my fingers to get a tight fit and suddenly I felt the gravity of the situation. With only ten customers in the store at that hour, we all naturally stayed one aisle apart.
In Washington State, all bars and restaurants are closed, but some restaurants are allowed to offer take-out. The sun is shining, the neighborhood is quiet, the buses are empty, pollution is down, people are out walking their dogs, maintaining social distance. There are many sad stories coming out of this chapter of "America the Beautiful," but there are also signs that lift the spirit. Yesterday evening on the street one block down, there was a small impromptu street party, where two couples wearing coats and hats enjoyed sundown cocktail hour, each couple standing on their own grassy parking strip, the street separating the foursome.
“The lockdown has created a wicked weave of vulnerability, helplessness, and the inability to guess what's next."
I am staying inside the house today, sipping a quarantini and binge-watching Quentin Quarantino movies. In the opening scene of "Blunder Road," an epidemiologist explains to his son how a guy eating a bowl of bat soup in Wuhan, China, led to a toilet paper shortage in America. I've started my quarantunes playlist: "The End" (The Doors); "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" (Bruce Cockburn)... I love it when Leonard Cohen sings, "...everybody knows that the boat is leaking, everybody knows that the captain lied..."
Early in the first round of this wrestle-mania smackdown, unknown upstart China Virus pinned the lumbering Trumpty-Dumpty to the mat and exposed his irrelevance. Now WE must write the narrative, the story of how, once again, the Democrats have to clean up the mess the Republicans will leave in their wake.
The Republicans want a corporate bailout.
The Democrats want to help small businesses and workers.
"Tokyo Olympics Postponed"
"America is about to become the next Trump bankruptcy."
“Will Trump sue the coronavirus?”
"Trump knows that if he loses in November, the rest of his life will be spent in court."
"As the crisis deteriorates and becomes unmanageable and more horrible, so will Trump's behavior. His mental illness now contaminates his cult members. Trump may use the pandemic to inflame violence."
"It didn't take long for some right-wing billionaire to go on TV and start quacking about getting the country going again. He argued that low-risk low-wage workers should go back to work and just let the virus burn through their ranks."
Michael Kruse "Trump may not be a Mensa candidate, but he is shrewd. He is uniquely pathological and uniquely remorseless. It gives him the reptilian energy to consciously deny, spin, and move on. Anger, anxiety, and the onslaught of misinformation... these are the weapons of Trump's ascent, and our disjointed election is being shaped by all three."
Trump has never experienced life outside monster-child mode. And lo, here comes the coronavirus pandemic, a plague that is tailor-made for his redemption. By refusing to even attempt to be the hero, Trump cheats his own soul and the entire country. Caution... If Trump can't go out as the self-proclaimed savior, then he will go out as the whining martyr.
Looks like I picked the wrong pandemic to quit drinking.
Greg, THIS, this is why I have hung in there from your initial post last year maybe 2 years ago. This is the type of sarcasm, humor, righteous-religious commentary that I've been waiting for from you!
I came close to giving up on you a couple times, quick scanned a couple of your articles, but your back where you belong. I got to give you two attaboys for this performance. Keep them coming, bud!