Tag Archives: US Presidental Election 2024

The Voting Booth is Gen Z’s Normandy

After the presidential debate last night between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the choice of who should be the next President of the United States couldn’t be clearer.

Unfortunately, nearly 40 percent of Americans will continue to disregard Trump’s incompetence, petulance, and insatiable desire for power and vote for him this November.

In the 1940’s, the greatest generation stormed the beaches of Normandy to stop fascism from spreading across Europe.  This November, Gen Z Americans need to storm the polls in massive numbers to stop the spread of fascism here at home.

Gen Z voters are not facing machine gun fire, land minds, or snipers. Still, they are up against concerted voter suppression efforts, deep cynicism and apathy, and an information landscape of lies from far-right, anti-democratic, pro-Russian sources.

Voting this November to stop fascism here at home is far less dangerous and requires none of the bravery that young Americans faced on June 6th, 1944, on the beaches of Normandy – but it is no less critical in terms of what is at stake.

Kamala Harris did her job last night. She demonstrated a calm, cool, and collected understanding of the issues and exposed Donald Trump for the political and personal fraud that he is.

Now it’s up to the voters – it’s on us and (in large part the youth of America) to do their part on Election Day to keep Donald Trump from ending democracy and killing the great American experiment.

Reproductive Freedom and the Happenstance of Geography

I listened to JD Vance this morning on Meet the Press state forcefully that Donald Trump believes abortion is a state’s rights issue – not a federal issue. Vance went on to say he understands that California’s abortion laws will be different than Ohio’s – “and that’s OK.”

Either way, both Trump and Vance believe it’s appropriate for the state to decide what kinds of reproductive health options are available to women. So, suppose you’re a woman who happens to live in a state with a total abortion ban, and you’re a victim of rape. In that case, you have no right to terminate the pregnancy – and Republican lawmakers also want to criminalize crossing state lines to get an abortion.

In a Trump / Vance America, your geography determines whether or not you have rights around reproductive care.  

The Republican party used to be the party of limited government and individual freedom. That changed when religious groups became players in American politics, wielding influence by promising votes and converting religious lecterns into political pulpits. As soon as Republicans saw votes in those church pews, they began crafting legislation and policies catering to religious groups (so much for individual freedom and limited government).

Harris and Walz and the democratic party believe reproductive health decisions should always be up to the woman, regardless of the fate of geography.

If you care about individual freedom and don’t want to live in a country that says your state determines what women can and cannot do in terms of abortion care, then vote blue in November.

Clueless Joe?

At sixty-one, I’m not as mentally agile as I used to be, and I’m sure this natural decline will continue as I age.

I suppose what I’ve lost in mental acuity is somewhat offset by the wisdom I’ve gained through experience (personally and professionally) – but I’m not burdened by the need to prove this to anyone – Joe Biden is.

It doesn’t matter if Joe Biden believes he can be a successful President for the next four years.

In fact, it doesn’t matter if Joe Biden can objectively be a successful president—what matters is whether Democratic and independent voters believe he can—and most of them do not.

I’m one of many who think Joe Biden should bow out of the 2024 presidential race.

Does that mean I won’t vote for him?

HELL NO!

I’d vote for the moldy-unrecognizable-saran-wrapped mystery in the back of my refrigerator before I vote for that fat-orange-traitorous-fuck, Donald Trump.

That said, a second Trump Presidency is not something we should leave to chance (the stakes are too high). With Joe Biden as Trump’s opponent, there is a greater chance Trump will win than if the Democrats run a younger candidate with some vitality and vigor.

Joe Biden needs to put the country he professes to love above himself.

He needs to recognize that this race is not about whether his age is a disqualifier but whether he’s able to effectively, aggressively, and convincingly prosecute the case against a second Trump presidency. That should be a relatively easy task, given all the negatives Trump brings.

President Biden had the opportunity to prosecute the case against Trump in the debate, and he failed miserably.

There’s no shortage of capable Democrats (Kamala Harris, Gretchen Whitmer, Wes Moore, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg) who can stand toe-to-toe with Trump and cut him down to size – but the longer Joe Biden dawdles, the more logistically challenging it becomes for the party to pivot to an alternative.