Why We’ll Win June 21, 2023June 21, 2023 Sorry — I’ve been off fundraising. Not for the Amazon Conservation Team, though it’s one of my favorites, but — surprise, surprise — to help fund the huge blue wave we need to save democracy. Have you seen Leopoldstadt? I think we’re someplace between Act III and Act IV — but with the opportunity to give it a HAPPY ending. Certainly, their candidate won’t win the POPULAR vote. They’ve only done that ONCE in the last eight elections (yet control two-thirds of the Court). We’ll win because WOMEN will turn out; MEN who love women will turn out; MEN who have daughters will turn out; MEN who don’t want to wear condoms will turn out; YOUNG PEOPLE who care about climate and gun safety will turn out; LGBT people will turn out; WORKERS who’d like a higher-than-$7.25 minimum wage will turn out; DIABETICS under 65 who’d like $35 insulin will turn out; JEWISH voters and VOTERS OF COLOR who don’t share the G.O.P.’s increasingly white Christian nationalist vision for America – who don’t think there WERE “some very fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville – will turn out; Ukrainian Americans will turn out; and THOSE WHO THINK DEMOCRACY AND THE PEACEFUL TRANSFER OF POWER ARE WORTH PRESERVING will turn out. Yet facilitating all that, and – insofar as possible – fending off the voter suppression tactics and dirty tricks we always face, takes our help. (Click here, in case you can.) Ultimately, the solution to our country’s toxic polarization is a combination of open primaries, ranked-choice voting, and easy voting-by-mail. Candidates will no longer be able to win their party’s nomination by appealing to the most ardent on the right or left. Instead, they’ll have to appeal, also, to the broad, often-more-sensible center. Over time, compromise and comity could once again become the norm. Getting there . . . and depoliticizing the Court and so much else . . . can only happen if we fund that huge blue wave. To those who wish Joe were younger, I’m with you. I wish — and I assume he wishes — he were younger. But in re-electing him, we retain not only his decency and depth of experience, but also his 1,200 young appointees who, under his guidance, have been doing a terrific job. Yes, he tripped over a badly-placed sandbag after giving a great speech at the Air Force Academy. Giant national news. But he also got the bi-partisan CHIPS Act passed; got the bi-partisan infrastructure bill, with its huge climate component, passed; restored dignity to the office of the presidency; reinvigorated our global alliances; averted a depression – stuff like that Oh, and guess what! SUMMER begins today!!! Here’s wishing you, whatever your political leanings, a great one.