August 2024

Drinking Liberally (August 2, 2024)

l3wis August 5, 2024 0Comments

In Politics: Nationally: Kamala Harris is exciting Democrats and invigorating the Obama/Biden coalition. She has overtaken “The Donald” Trump in polling averages and Republicans have been caught off-foot for a change. It may be a bit of a honeymoon phase but there is substance in the shifting political winds and, with hard work, Democrat may celebrate a victory this fall.

The word against “The Donald” these days is that he and MAGA Republicans are “weird” . “The Donald” has provided us with numerous examples during the last eight years, none weirder, more telling, and more uncomfortable than his interview with the Black Journalist Association. Here is a link to the full interview. Draw your own conclusion;

Mine? Weird!!! And he is the Republican Presidential  candidate.

The scary thing is that the election is very close and many of our fellow citizens take solace in “The Donald’s” candidacy.

 I play in a poker league of 30 to 40 mainly white males, 25 to 65 years old on Tuesday nights and this week, after Biden stepped down and it became apparent that Vice-President Harris would replace him as the Democratic Presidential nominee, I was taken aback by the aggressive political talk (there usually isn’t any) against Vice-President Harris from many of the people at the tables. It was as mean as anything you have heard publicly and it was expressed aggressively with certitude. I finally asked if they would choose a man convicted as a felon 34 times by a jury of his peers. This didn’t seem to have much effect. It is scary. There was even speculation of civil war if Trump loses. 

The New York Times has an article that tries to explain Trump’s appeal. I link it here for everyone’s edification: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/25/us/race-wealth-gap-economy.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20240725&instance_id=129691&nl=the-morning®i_id=15266483&segment_id=173089&te=1&user_id=bf7f68c027dbeeacc1307445a35ef609

The point here (IMHO) is that, as James Carvelle said, “It is the economy, stupid”.  Trump doesn’t present a solution to solve the economic angst of the working middle class but he does offer them scapegoats to excuse their economic frustration. His appeal is racist, misogynist, homophobic, and autocratic but it has been effective. Democrats need to call it what it is by appealing to our fellow citizens better natures but we also need to present an economic program that appeals to them and provides them hope for the future and their ability to partake in the “American Dream”. 

From what I have observed so far, Kamala Harris “gets it”.

In Politics: In South Dakota: I keep waiting for visible signs of campaigning by South Dakota Democratic candidates and The South Dakota Democratic Party (SDDP) without much success. The SDDP has a Communication person on staff but the SDDP has only produced five press releases in July.  Maybe I am blind to the normally frantic activity of campaign season because I am not a big user of Social Media.

Reviewing the SDDP’s voter registration efforts and its overall success we find that they made absolute progress, increasing their Statewide registration by 90 voters since the beginning of July. Unfortunately, for statewide, GOP voter registration increased by 1568 voters during the same period. `The SDDP received $70,000.00 several months ago to work on voter registration. Thankfully that money is showing some results though it is a work in progress at best.