In less than an hour the polls will open. Americans nationwide will join together with Americans around the world. And you will be launching the largest voting effort in the history of Americankind. We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interest. Perhaps it is fate that today is the day to elect Hillary Clinton. And that once again you will be fighting the forces of fascism. Fighting tyranny, oppression, and persecution. Fighting annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. As gay, straight, black, Asian, white, woman, transgender, immigrant or native born. For today is the day that America declared in nearly one voice “We will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We are going to live on. We are going to survive. And we are going to defeat the Orange Menace!“
—Elizabeth Rogers
Parody from Independence Day
Shit, Hillary should use this speech! She needs to remind voters what an exciting moment this is; that the U.S. is close to becoming the 71st nation to have a female head of state. Meaning it only took us 28 years to catch up with Pakistan. Among large countries, it’s us, China and Russia as the holdouts. And the other two are not known for having fair elections. (Although if the GOP has its way, neither will we.)
That’s going to be a hell of a party when it happens this November. And afterwards, we can all get back to the work of making this a fairer country. And unlike her opponent, Clinton will not go after the candidate she beat. Even though he’s probably guilty as sin. I can’t imagine any legitimate investor gives him a dime at this point. It’s probably all gangsters and people he swindles. Six months from now, Trump will still be calling Hillary Satan, while privately being damn grateful she’s got infinitely more class. Bullies thrive on their targets being less able to behave badly.
Fun thing today. Warren Buffet released all his tax returns. Included was this brilliant, subtle jab. He donated almost $3 billion to charity last year. Yes, billion. That’s “I give away every year more than your entire net worth, Donald.” He didn’t spell it out like that, but it’s a clear shot at an utter fraud.
Buffet doesn’t have to worry given that he is ridiculously wealthy. As David Cay Johnston pointed out in his book, Trump’s lifestyle doesn’t come close to require even having a billion dollars. I suspect that Trump is about as wealthy as Mitt Romney. If Trump were as wealthy as he claims, nothing would stop him from releasing his tax returns. There could be a line item in there “Blackmail payment to Putin” and he would release his returns if it said, effectively, “Donald Trump has a big dick.”
A point I’ve made to many squishy liberals is that it is going to be great to fight with Hillary. It is going to be depressing to fight with Trump. I expect to agree with her most of the time. It will be like Obama. I’ve cycled three Obama images throughout his presidency to gauge what I was writing at that moment: hope, cope, and nope. I didn’t use “hope” that much because it is hard to get an article out of, “Obama is right!” But I used “nope” even less. The big one was “cope” because I wrote a lot about him doing his best against the Republicans. I suspect a Clinton presidency will be a lot of “cope.” But who knows? The GOP looks like it could go down big time.
“The Nation” had a good article on the Green Party. Basically stating that reform movements focused on national attention are doing it backwards, they need to start with local races. And some movement parties (like Working Families”) are doing just that.
The Democratic Party can be pushed left. We’ve seen it. Action pushed Obama to delay Keystone, Hillary to back off from TPP. The pushes just can’t stop with an election win, though. I suspect activists are starting to relearn that. It’ll take a while, but it’s not impossible. And we need vets like Elizabeth to keep supporting the politicos who know how to do it!
Right. And where is the local organizing? I understand that there are pockets of active Green Party involvement. But mostly, nothing. I also have a problem with it because I really don’t see how it doesn’t already fit nicely inside the Democratic Party. Other than having no power and so never having to compromise, how is it that Sherrod Brown or Elizabeth Warren couldn’t be running on the Green Party ticket? I could see if the Green Party really were radical, but it isn’t. Finally, let’s suppose that the Green Party did really well. Imagine that Jill Stein got 100 electoral votes. That would mean that no one got a majority of the Electoral College and that the Republican House would elect the president. The Green Party has no path to power without enormous pain for many election cycles for the very people it claims to represent. Jill Stein didn’t push Clinton to the left; Bernie Sanders did by running as a Democrat.