Project 2025, the lengthy document spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation to lay out plans for the “conservative president” they expect to be elected this year and which mirrors Trump’s Agenda 47 and the Republican party platform, would weaken child labor protections, allowing youths to do dangerous jobs (p. 595).
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a changed landscape
(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)
There has been a torrent of presidential election news since I posted Vote for Democracy #12 the day after the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. For those who may not follow United States election news, this post will try to fill you in on what has happened to change the presidential election so massively since then.
The Republican party held their convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 15th-18th. While it had been billed as being unifying in the wake of the assassination attempt, the message seemed to be welcoming only to those ready to believe the lies about the 2020 election being “stolen” and a lot of other lies about crime rates, immigration, the economy, and a host of other issues. Ohio Senator JD Vance became the vice-presidential nominee. At age 39, he is literally half Donald Trump’s age. He has only served in office for a year and a half and is better known as an author and venture capitalist. Trump gave the longest televised nomination acceptance speech ever at about 92 minutes. He started by recounting the assassination attempt but then veered off the prepared remarks into a version of his rally speech with a lot of rambling.
Meanwhile, President Biden was under increasing pressure to step aside from the presidential campaign, which he did on July 21st, putting his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris for the nomination. It is unusual for a US president to decide not to seek an additional term, especially this close to an election and there are reams of commentary about it.
Like Joe Biden, I’m Catholic and think about his decision to step aside as an example of servant leadership, a model that is exemplified by Christ. Too often, leadership in the Church has been dominated by clericalism and in government by authoritarianism, oligarchy, or other forms of being power- or wealth-hungry. Biden did what he thought would be best for the country, not seeking re-election to concentrate on his presidential duties for this last six months of his term or one-eighth of his presidency.
About half an hour after announcing his decision, President Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the nomination. He asked the delegates pledged to him for the Democratic party’s convention to vote for her, although they were no obligated to do so. Harris declared her candidacy shortly thereafter. Because the campaign had previously been the Biden-Harris campaign, she was entitled to use the resources, including funds, on hand.
There was a groundswell of support for her candidacy. In the first 24 hours, her campaign raised $81 million. Within the first week, there was $200 million, 66% of it from first-time donors. Over 170,000 people had volunteered to help the campaign. Tens of thousands had registered to vote. Funds have also poured into political action committees to support her candidacy.
Meanwhile, Harris has gained endorsements from leading political figures, unions, and organizations. Importantly, the convention delegates have been meeting online to pursue a virtual role call for the nomination. This was the procedure they used last time due to the pandemic; they are using it this year because their convention isn’t until Aug. 19-22 due to the timing of the Republican convention and the Olympics. Some states have deadlines for ballot access earlier in August, so the nomination is being finalized online before the physical gathering in Chicago. In order to be placed into nomination, a candidate needed to have 300 delegates pledged to them. Harris is the only candidate to meet that threshold. She hasn’t yet chosen a running mate, but we expect that announcement soon.
While Harris has been joyfully and skillfully doing numerous speeches, fundraisers, and official appearances, such as greeting the American hostages returning from Russia, the Trump campaign has been confounded. They had apparently centered their strategy around attacking Joe Biden, which is now moot. The Trump campaign and Republicans have engaged in attacks on Harris that come across as misogynistic, racist, and anti-immigrant. They fault Harris for not having given birth, although she is an actively engaged stepmom to Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s two children. They mock her laugh. The daughter of a Jamaican immigrant father and Indian immigrant mother, Kamala Harris has always celebrated both her Black and Asian roots. Somehow, Trump can’t seem to wrap his head around that fact, which is bizarre to most of us who are or have family and friends who are multi-racial/ethnic. Trump has even tried to characterize Harris as anti-Semitic, although she is married to a Jewish man.
I appreciate Harris’s political savvy in being able to briefly address the lies about her but then carry on with her own skills, history, and policy provisions, defining herself for the public rather than letting her opponents put her in a box.
The contrasts between her and the Trump/Vance ticket are stark. Trump and Vance have 5 1/2 years of public service in elected office between them. Harris has held elected office since 2004 as San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general, United States senator, and vice president, giving her twenty years of experience across three branches of government. Harris is an experienced prosecutor who brought cases against fraud and sexual abuse while Trump is a convicted felon who has also been found libel for financial fraud and sexual abuse. If elected, Harris would make history as the first woman and the first person of South Asian descent to hold the US presidency. If Trump is elected, he would be the oldest president at the time of election and the first convicted criminal in the office. Harris is committed to the Constitution and the rule of law and wants to uphold democracy at home and among our allies. Trump has espoused authoritarian ideas, tried to stay in office after he lost the 2020 election, fomented an insurrection, stolen classified documents and other presidential papers, and admires autocrats.
Trump uses lies and manipulation to spread a message of fear and grievance. Harris uses her experience and intelligence to bring a message of hope and strength.
She has earned my support.
I urge all eligible Americans to make sure they are registered and look at the facts and the positions of the candidates for president, Congress, and any other elections and propositions that may be on their ballots in November.
Vote for democracy ’24!
Project 2025, the lengthy document spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation to lay out plans for the “conservative president” they expect to be elected this year, calls for disbanding NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration), the United States’ premier agency for weather, ocean, and climate data and research. (p. 664)
This public service message is brought to you through Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday series. Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/07/31/one-liner-wednesday-particularly-pretty/
Project 2025, the lengthy document spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation to lay out plans for the “conservative president” they expect to be elected this year, would gut the Environmental Protection Agency, sending most of those responsibilities to state and local governments who could then ignore the impacts of their industries on the public and the planet, starting with a Day One Executive Order and political appointees (pp. 422-3).
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/07/24/one-liner-wednesday-why-did-my-chicken-explode/
Project 2025, the lengthy document spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation to lay out plans for the “conservative president” they expect to be elected this year, would gut the civil service by reclassifying many policy and technical expert positions so that they could be fired without cause, giving the president the power to fire them at will, something that Trump did by executive order a few weeks before the 2020 election but which President Biden immediately rescinded when he took office, again protecting government employees from being fired for political reasons. (pp.43-44 and following)
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a mass shooting with a difference
(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)
Yesterday evening, there was another mass shooting in the US.
As I have done in previous posts, I use the Gun Violence Archive’s definition of mass shooting, four or more victims injured or killed, not including the shooter.
The shooter used an AR-15-type semiautomatic weapon. He was 20 years old and was shot and killed.
One victim died immediately at the scene, two were critically injured, and one was injured but able to be treated and released from a nearby hospital.
The difference, of course, is that the one who was injured but not critically is former president and current candidate Donald Trump, making this mass shooting an assassination attempt. The shooter was shot and killed so quickly because the Secret Service had expert marksmen on hand overseeing the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooter was on a rooftop, about 150 yards from the platform where Trump was making a speech. He was killed before he could exact a large death toll, like the largest mass killing to date in the US, the Las Vegas, Nevada, music festival shooting in 2017, where a gunman killed 58 and injured 546 shooting from the 32nd floor of a hotel.
At this point, the shooter’s motive and mental health status are not known. An investigation is underway and will probably take months to complete. The Secret Service did an admirable job getting Trump covered, off the stage, and into a vehicle to bring him to the hospital.
As I wrote about here, Trump has a long history of violent rhetoric. It’s ironic that he is now himself a victim of what is most likely political violence. He, along with many Republican lawmakers, also has long opposed most gun safety measures.
President Biden very quickly condemned the shooting and all political violence. He has repeatedly called for a ban on military-style assault weapons, such as the one used in this shooting, renewing a measure that he helped pass as a senator in 1994 and which was in effect for ten years before it expired.
When choosing for whom to vote, whether for president, Congress, or state and local officials, look at their positions on firearm policies, such as registration, background checks, magazine size, red-flag laws, and what weapons should be available for ownership by the general public.
Are they prioritizing protecting public health, as our current Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, has?
It’s sad that, if yesterday’s mass shooting had not been at a Trump rally, it would have been a local news story, with perhaps a short segment reaching national news broadcasts. One person shot dead is so sadly common that most people don’t notice. Most gun deaths in the US are self-inflicted, a fact that escapes most people’s notice.
I wish I could say that I thought this shooting would bring the country together against gun violence when so many other horrific shootings have not, but I can’t muster that hope.
Please, America, prove me wrong.
Project 2025, the lengthy document spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation to lay out plans for the “conservative president” they expect to be elected this year, calls for the elimination of the Department of Education and limitations on federally supported services such as special education, school meals, Title IX, and student loans. (pp. 319-361)
This information is provided to assist US voters as they make decisions for this year’s election as part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday series, which you may learn more about here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/07/10/one-liner-wednesday-i-love-my-neighbourhood-2/. (#1linerWeds are usually fun and/or inspirational. I’m just in serious political mode these days…)
a week after the first debate
(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)
I watched the first presidential debate on June 27 with my family.
To me, the clear loser in the debate was Donald Trump because he told dozens of easily identifiable lies and didn’t answer many of the questions. He also tried to take credit for some accomplishments of President Biden.
As soon as President Biden started speaking, it was obvious to me that he was ill. He also was rushing his answers, probably in an attempt to pack as much information as possible into the two-minute allowed response time. As Trump threw around lies and accusations, Biden tried to respond to those plus answering the given question and his well-known, long-standing problems with stuttering kicked in, making some of his answers a jumble.
Since then, there has been a large-scale, public freak-out about whether Biden is too old to seek another term, even though Trump is only three years younger and doesn’t lead a healthy lifestyle. Biden’s latest annual physical exam report, dated Feb. 28, 2024, shows that he has no major neurological conditions and that his gait issues are from arthritis in his back and hip, along with some neuropathy in his feet. There is no comparably detailed health report from Trump.
Some of the criticism of Biden makes me wonder if those voicing it spend time with elders. For example, collagen levels decrease with age and this makes one’s face look older. So, yes, at 81 and a healthy weight, Biden’s face looks like he’s 81. It doesn’t mean he is cognitively impaired. Yes, he moves more slowly, as you would expect from someone with that level of arthritis. The presidency is not a footrace. If it were, Franklin Roosevelt would never have been elected.
I appreciate Biden’s wisdom, experience in government, decency, empathy, and compassion. His life journey has been long and he has faced more than the usual share of personal tragedy. He has assembled a very good team of advisors and Cabinet officials. It’s true that his debate performance was terrible but, as President, one is always surrounded by policy experts, advisors, and research documents and doesn’t have to answer questions with a time limit and no notes while trying to rebut lies.
I don’t know what will happen at this point. Biden is determined today to stay in the race but, if he does step aside, Vice-president Harris or whomever the Democrats nominate will have my support and vote.
It will be a vote for democracy.
I won’t vote for Trump because he is an immoral, lying, convicted felon who doesn’t care about our country and its laws. I also won’t vote for anyone who supports him or puts their political party above the laws and the people of the United States. This is especially important after recent decisions by a corrupted Supreme Court. That’s a post for another day.
Today, as we celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, let’s renew our commitment to each other, to democracy, to our Constitution and laws, and to our highest ideals. Let’s resolve to vote only for candidates who share those ideals and seek to serve the country, not those who seek only to enhance their own power and wealth and that of their rich cronies.
Together, we can keep our democracy vibrant and ready to add more centuries to the 248 years the United States celebrates today.
One of the substacks I read regularly is Joyce Vance.
She is a lawyer and legal scholar whose commentary I hear often on television. She writes long and thoughtful posts about the current legal issues in the United States, of which there are many.
To lighten things, she also posts about her hobbies.
She will show us what her latest knitting project is, for example.
The thing other than law about which she posts most, though, is her chickens.
She and her family keep a coop with several varieties of chickens. She posts about what she is feeding them. Their interactions with the family’s dog and cat. Their new coop. What they are doing around the yard. How they hop up into her lap sometimes.
She will also occasionally post photos of their eggs. Because there are different breeds, the eggs are various colors and sizes.
The chickens bring Joyce comfort and joy, which she shares with her readers.
I admit that I have no desire to care for chickens myself, but I appreciate Joyce’s sharing her love with all of us.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “chicken or egg.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/06/28/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-29-2024/
This non-partisan checklist (from NETWORK, based on Catholic social justice principles which are shared by many people of faith, as well as totally secular people) will assist viewers of the US presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump tomorrow (Thursday, June 27 at 9 PM EDT) in tracking the candidates’ views on a range of issues.
This public service announcement comes to you as part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday series. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/06/26/one-liner-wednesday-have-you-ever/
Joanne Corey 