Trump is not America
Freedom.
What does this word mean?
Perhaps the better question is: what should the word mean to an American?
What does freedom mean in the 21st century? What does American freedom mean?
Hillary Clinton offered an exceptional definition in her DNC speech last night:
I want to tell you what I see through all those cracks and why it matters for each and every one of us. What do I see? I see freedom. I see the freedom to make our own decisions about our health, our lives, our loves, our families. The freedom to work with dignity and prosper, to worship as we choose or not. To speak our minds freely and honestly. I see freedom from fear and intimidation, from violence and injustice, from chaos and corruption. I see the freedom to look our children in the eye and say, “In America, you can go as far as your hard work and talent will take you,” and mean it.
What is Donald Trump’s definition?
Donald Trump.
There is no cause higher than Trump. At the heart of his movement is his license to take as much as he wants, in league with a wack pack of religious and political extremists who get to control what happens in the private lives of Americans from cradle to grave.
The fascist movement is alive and thriving in the United States. President Biden described it perfectly when he talked about why he chose to run for president in 2020:
I ran for President in 2020 because of what I saw in Charlottesville in August of 2017. Extremists coming out of the woods, carrying torches, their veins bulging from their necks, carrying Nazi swastikas and chanting the same exact antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the early ’30s. Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the Ku Klux Klan, so emboldened by a President then in the White House that they saw as an ally. They didn’t even bother to wear their hoods.
Hate was on the march in America. Old ghosts in new garments, stirring up the oldest divisions, stoking the oldest fears, giving oxygen to the oldest forces that they long sought to tear apart America. In the process, a young woman was killed. When I contacted her mother, I asked about what happened. She told me. When the President was asked what he thought had happened, Donald Trump said, and I quote, “There are very fine people on both sides.” My God, that’s what he said. That is what he said and what he meant.
Nazis were marching in Tennessee a month ago. ProPublica has delivered another stunning investigative report about the post-January 6 American militia movement and its rapid growth. These people are manifestly dangerous and a grave danger to freedom. They should never be taken lightly. Among the greatest acts of arson performed by Trump against America is inspiring this insanity and invigorating it for a new generation. Shameful doesn’t begin to describe every single person who appeased and accommodated the rancidity of it all.
The American people who want to be left alone by their government to make decisions about their lives are threatened by Trump and his gang because they want to strip them of decision-making.
No. The answer must be “no.”
If you are sick of the lies, venom, delusions, idiocy and corruption now is the time to stand up and get involved.
If you are sick of the 10-year Trump era you have 76 days to go until you can vote to end it for good.
We can do it. Trump is not America, and he is not our destiny.
He is a lead weight, an anchor, a poison, a cancer. Soon it will all be voted into the dust bin, and then forgotten and denied.
We should always remember though. History will.
The fights in which democracy and freedom were preserved are always remembered, and always honored in America.
I got choked up multiple times last night watching passionate, patriotic Americans begin to make the case for Harris/Walz. When Joe Biden finally got to address the nation, his love for our country couldn’t have been more evident. Thanks, Steve, for your post today.
Thusfar, Trump's attempts to campaign with slurs, name-calling, and lies is a dismal failure. Most Americans are tired of this mindless, unsubstantive campaign style. As far as I can tell Trump feels he should be elected because:
He doesn't know where Kamala Harris comes from.
She is dumb.
She got where she is on her knees.
He is better looking.
Her father is a Marxist professor.
She only recently became Black.
She is the nominee as a result of a coup in the Democratic party.
It was unfair of Democrats to change their nominee and make it more difficult for him to win.