Finally Friday Reads: Say Hello to the Blue Wave!

“The Democratic National Convention ran late last night, so you might have missed President Biden’s Hulk Hogan moment.” John Buss, @Repeat1968

Good Day, Sky Dancers!

The sound you heard this morning was the majority of the country waking up with a sigh of sweet relief.  The minority was left to grumble and mumble.  Lady Peggy Noonington was among the many Republicans claiming they’d been taken down by a strong dose of righteousness but insisted it was theft!  Donald Trump, well, there must be a shortage of Ketchup in Florida.

Historian Michael Beschloss reported that the Former Guy’s social media was quite weird today. The ex-President has just pledged on social media, “I WILL KEEP WOMEN SAFE!” The only way to do that is to send him off-planet.  Remember, when you’re a star, women let you grab them by the pussy.

I don’t read the WSJ Op-Eds because the writers there live in the world of rich white people who see nothing else. But my neighbor posted AlterNet’s takedown of the Pegster, who still pines for the Reagan years when black women were put in the category of ‘welfare queens’ and housekeepers most likely to take your sterling silver.  “The DNC was a celebration of American values. Peggy Noonan is accusing Democrats of theft.”  These folks will never change. The pearl-clutching never ends for her.

The four-night Democratic National Convention concluded Thursday with Kamala Harris’s speech accepting her party’s nomination for President and a massive balloon drop, as the polls show the Vice President continuing to beat and increase her lead against her Republican opponent, Donald Trump.

After Monday night’s four-minute standing ovation of President Joe Biden, with Chicago’s United Center arena filled with thousands of cheering supporters shouting “We love Joe,” Los Angeles Times‘ columnist LZ Granderson wrote those “deafening chants” really meant, “We love American values.”

Vice presidential nominee Governor Tim Walz “sought to turn Republican arguments on their head while making an appeal for common sense rooted in his Midwestern values,” the Associated Press wrote after the third night. “’When they were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,’ he jabbed.”

“The differences between Harris’ speech in Chicago and the one Trump delivered last month at the Republican convention in Milwaukee could not have been more stark — and set the stage for the sprint to the November 5 election, with head-to-head confrontations in debates yet to come,” CNN reported Friday. “Vice President Kamala Harris capped one of the most extraordinary months in modern political history Thursday night with a speech that rallied Democrats around themes of patriotism — and cast Donald Trump as the enemy of classic American principles.”

But over at The Wall Street Journal, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Peggy Noonan, the former President Ronald Reagan speechwriter, had a different take.

“Kamala Harris’s speech was fine, and delivered with assurance. I prefer ‘Ask not what your country can do for you’ to ‘Never do anything half-assed,’ but tastes vary,” was Noonan’s opening salvo, criticizing the Vice President for sharing a direct quote from her late beloved mother, whom she and her sister had paid homage to on stage during the convention.

To her credit, Noonan’s piece is titled, “Kamala Harris Gets Off to a Strong Start,” and she offered up this comparison of Democrats vs. Republicans, or at least their parties:

“The Democratic Party has more substantial characters of recent American history to parade around on stage. The Clintons, the Obamas, Jesse Jackson, who, whatever your view of him, was there, on the balcony at the Lorraine Motel, when Martin Luther King was shot. This conveyed a party with a storied past, and if you join it you’re joining something real. The Republican Party, in its great toppling, has rejected its past. You lose something when you cast your history aside, and all you’ve got for prime time is Trump sons.”

But Noonan is being resoundingly chastised for this allegation: Democrats “stole traditional Republican themes (faith, patriotism) and claimed them as their own.”

The Washington Post‘s Mariana Alfaro on Tuesday had reported: “The Democratic Party is presenting a message that there is ‘nothing more American than freedom,’ Democratic National Committee spokesman Abhi Rahman said.”

“’There’s no reason for us to be afraid of using those symbols, because those symbols are our symbols and there’s nobody that’s more proud to be American than we are,’ Rahman said.”

Mother Jones’ D.C. bureau chief David Corn responded to Noonan:”Stole? No one has an exclusive claim to patriotism.”

Former political science professor and attorney Carol Schultz Vento wrote: “My WW paratrooper dad was a patriot and person of faith and a Democrat before Peggy Noonan was born. The Republicans can no longer hijack those values from the rest of us.”

Sour grapes is the new Republican Election Theme, and it’s not even Labor Day yet.

Yesterday, JJ shared the Republican response to Tim Walz’s Neurodivergent son, who got all kinds of adults picking on him for having the audacity to love his dad, be proud of him, and show it. Bullying is a Republic Value. Here’s yesterday’s headline from USA Today. Gus Walz broke the internet with his tearful love for his dad. Then the bullying began.”  This was definitely reminiscent of DonOld mocked a reporter with a disability.

A tearful, unscripted moment between Tim Walz and his 17-year-old son, Gus, has unleashed a flood of praise and admiration – but also prompted ugly online bullying.

Gus Walz, who has a nonverbal learning disorder as well as anxiety and ADHD, watched excitedly from the front row of Chicago’s United Center and sobbed openly Wednesday night as his father, the Democratic nominee for vice president, delivered his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.

The Minnesota governor was recounting the difficult fertility treatment he and his wife, Gwen, went through to conceive their daughter, Hope.

Walz followed up by expressing his love for his family from the stage, saying, “Hope, Gus and Gwen, you are my entire world. And I love you.”

Gus Walz jumped up from his seat, tears on his face, pointed his index finger and said, “I love you, Dad,” followed soon after with, “That’s my dad!”

Toxic Masculinity is a Republican Value, and it comes coupled with White Christian Nationalism.  It’s a toxic cocktail, and the majority of us wish it would go out of style.  But there was none of this at the DNC this week. I was a great big patchwork quilt of American people and values.  We’re a tribe of many colors and traditions, and it was on display for 4 days. We shouted we’re not going back for four solid days. It’s now a chant to remind us of the goodness we can do as a country when we put ourselves to the task.

Some headlines today via Memeorandum.

• William Kristol / The Bulwark:  Is That—Is That—Optimism We Feel?
• Dan Balz / Washington Post: Kamala Harris has put Trump in a box, and he’s struggling to break out
• Michael Starr Hopkins / The Hill: Trump’s spectacle is no match for Harris’s substance.
• Noah Berlatsky / Public Notice: Why “we’re not going back” is the perfect theme for 2024

One of my favorites this morning is in The Daily Beast, written by William Vaillancourt. “Fox Cuts Off Ranting Trump Then Mocks: ‘He’s Still Talking!’”

Fox News unceremoniously dumped out of an interview with Donald Trump while the former president was mid-rant Thursday following the Democratic National Convention.

He immediately called into the network after his rival Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech, and after about 10 minutes of studiously listening to his complaints and exclamations, the hosts wrapped things up rather abruptly with the former president in order to transition to live reaction elsewhere.

Trump, after raising his voice while speaking about an “invasion” not only at the U.S.-Mexico border, but the border with Canada as well, neared the end of his phone-in by praising Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and—in an about-face—Brian Kemp, Georgia’s Republican governor.

Kennedy “was treated very unfairly by the Democrats,” said Trump, who is reportedly set to receive Kennedy’s endorsement Friday in Arizona.

Trump’s discussion of the Democratic primary was punctuated frequently by anchor Bret Baier chiming in with words of affirmation—a common signal given by interviewers that time is running low.

Trump just cannot take not being the center of attention.  This headline in the Washington Post says a lot about that. “Trump deflects, misleads in real-time reaction to Harris speech. Trump posted a series of comments as the Democratic nominee spoke, creating the unusual spectacle of simultaneous commentary by a nominee’s rival.”  I happily knew nothing about this as I ate, drank, and enjoyed the entire DNC. This analysis is written by Marianne LeVine and Isaac Arnsdorf.

Former president Donald Trump did not hold back as Democratic nominee Kamala Harris delivered her acceptance speech Thursday night, firing off a series of scathing, insulting and sometimes unrelated comments while Harris was speaking.

Trump took to his Truth Social account to make a variety of comments, from accusing Harris of falsehoods to defending his record to making extraneous remarks, such as demanding “WHERE’S HUNTER?” in reference to President Joe Biden’s son.

At the outset of Harris’s speech, Trump took exception to how she thanked the crowd for cheering her onstage at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Trump also complained that Democrats referred to Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as “coach,” pointing out that he was an assistant coach of a high school football team.

While Harris recounted her upbringing, Trump urged her to address his three main issues: “Border, Inflation, and Crime!”

Trump tanked the bipartisan Border Bill. Inflation is back to its pre-COVID levels and well under control, although we do have to deal with price-gouging, which Harris has done before as California’s AG and Crime, well, Crime is down.  He’s just not relevant anymore except to those beholden to white patriarchy. They all live in the past and in their warped minds.

Jonathan Chait describes her speech this way: “Kamala Harris Gave the Best Acceptance Speech I’ve Ever Seen. A perfectly targeted message.” The headline is from New York Magazine.

Kamala Harris rose to the occasion with a perfect nominating acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. I’ve never seen a nominee target their political objectives so precisely. The text was ideally suited to the electoral challenge she faces, and her delivery exuded strength and inspiration.

I have not hesitated to criticize either the substantive merits or the political shrewdness of Harris’s choices. I could find nothing to criticize in this speech.

Harris entered the convention tied, or perhaps ever-so-slightly ahead. But she faces serious challenges. Many undecided voters know little about her, or worry she is too liberal. Every word of the speech was aimed directly at resolving those concerns.

Harris told a story of herself in her biography as the striving child of strict immigrant parents growing up in a working-class neighborhood. She explained her inspiration to become a prosecutor as a desire to protect, growing from seeing a friend confide to her that she was being sexually abused at home.

Then she recounted her history as a prosecutor, where she fought big banks and the “cartels who traffic in drugs and guns and human beings, who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities.”

Harris explicitly promised to represent Republicans as well as Democrats. “I know there are people of various political views watching tonight,” she said, “And I want you to know: I promise to be a President for all Americans.” That may seem like easy rhetoric, but it stands in contrast to Trump’s naked partisanship as president, routinely and openly favoring politicians and areas that supported him.

More significantly, Harris relentlessly depicted herself as the sane, moderate candidate in the race. She labeled herself a candidate “who is realistic, practical, and has common sense.”

Her issue focus reflected that idea. Harris emphasized popular elements of her program: protecting abortion rights and promising to sign into law the border bill negotiated with “conservative Republicans.”

Harris labeled her economic goal “an opportunity economy where everyone has a chance to compete and a chance to succeed.” The notion of opportunity, with its implication that people should control their own economic destiny, has long been a conservative one. Harris stole it.

In addition to the obvious call to defend Medicare and Social Security, Harris promised, “I will bring together labor and workers, small-business owners and entrepreneurs, and American companies.” That, again, is a pointed identifier of herself with moderation.

Gee, Jonathan, did you let the black lady get too close to your silver chest? Beware of black women bearing pies!   Controlling your own destiny is a universal American ideal.  Conservatives have never owned it.

Our idea of opportunity does not lie with generational wealth, biology, and skin color. This means we recognize that not everyone starts life with bootstraps.  Public education provides bootstraps. Public health provides bootstraps. Ridding our policies from the past that served racists, sexists, and xenophobes provides a source of bootstraps.  Providing start-up loans to small businesses started by women, people of color, and immigrants is also a way to provide bootstraps, and it has positive spillover benefits: more jobs, more taxpayers, and more goods and services available, which lowers prices.  This is what Harris means when she says we want an opportunity economy.  The military has always given folks bootstraps. So do unions, but how better would it be to let folks be students or business owners to get their bootstraps?

Our week ends on a high note. I feel better and more hopeful than I have in a long time.  Even though a lot of things have improved, we still need some changes, and I think this team is the one that can do it.  We also have to remember the local races because ignoring them just lets more MAGA detritus into our system.  U.S. News and World Report covers an AP story we must read.  ‘The Fever Is Breaking’: DeSantis-Backed School Board Candidates Fall Short in Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign to expand his conservative education agenda in Florida schools hit a stumbling block on Tuesday.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign to expand his conservative education agenda in Florida schools didn’t quite go the way he wanted on Tuesday.

Of the 23 school board candidates that DeSantis endorsed this cycle, preliminary results show more of them appeared to lose their election races than win them.

Unofficial vote tallies show 11 candidates backed by the governor lost on Tuesday, including some incumbents in conservative-leaning counties. Meanwhile, six of DeSantis’ preferred candidates won their races and six were poised to advance to a November runoff after no one in their contests cleared 50% of the vote. Those runoffs could still go in DeSantis’ favor.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, DeSantis acknowledged that efforts to make school boards more conservative were more successful two years ago, but said progress is still being made.

“Some of them that came up short, that’s going to be something they can build on for future election cycles,” DeSantis said. “If you look at where we were four or five years ago versus where we are now, there’s much more interest on these school boards in protecting the rights of parents.”

But critics of the Republican governor argued the results are a rebuke of his education agenda.

Every race matters.  This is exactly how White Christian Nationalists got in and took over the Republican party.  Research and vote on the entire ticket.   Remember, the crazy son of Robert F Kennedy is endorsing Trump.  Do not assume anything. Get your local League of Women Voters November 2024 election issue.  Call a friend who knows what’s going on in the party,

I get back to phone banking this week. But still, if you can’t do that, you can write postcards or do tweets to swing states. Just make sure your circle of friends and family know the plan and make sure they vote.  Everything helps!

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?