I Have A Few Things To Say November 6, 2024November 7, 2024 First, my heartfelt thanks: > To two of you who gave millions of dollars to this effort (you know who you are). > To those whose crucial $25 or $250 or $2,500 helped create an even larger flood of money. > To so many of you who wrote post cards, sent texts, called friends, and knocked on doors. > To all of you who voted “the right way,” as I see it. > To Joe Biden for a competent, dignified, scandal-free administration that gave jobs to almost everyone who wanted one . . . who against all predictions managed to tame terrible COVID-caused inflation without a recession . . . who began the revitalization of America’s infrastructure — including rural broadband — that so many prior presidents had tried and failed to do . . . who walked a picket line and brought manufacturing jobs back to America . . . who brought health insurance to more people than ever and capped the cost of prescription drugs for seniors at $2,000 a year starting just weeks from now . . . who made a historic investment in confronting the climate crisis while, of short-term necessity, allowing for the production of more oil and gas than any country in the history of the world . . . who strengthened our Atlantic and Pacific alliances while standing up to Russia’s journalist-murdering dictator (now aided by North Korea’s murderous dictator). And for passing the torch. > To Kamala Harris and her team for running a near perfect campaign, heart and soul. Second, my hope that he will not, in fact, be a dictator on day one — or any other day. Heck, with the Senate, possibly the House, and the Supreme Court in his pocket, it will be close enough to unchecked dictatorship even without his having to flout the law. My hope that he will not impose broad tariffs that will spike inflation and interest rates . . . that he will not cut taxes on the rich and corporations that will spike the deficit and inflation and start a trade war . . . that he will sign the bipartisan border bill he killed, or something close to it, but not pull millions of productive tax-paying workers off the job and into deportation camps, which, apart from the human suffering, would cause economic disruption and inflation. Trump left office the first time with a historically low 34% approval rating. His economic record was . . . mixed. For the sake of the country, let’s hope he leaves office this time with a much higher approval rating, surprising on the upside. Or that, at the very least, he actually leaves. Third, my thanks, as always, for your feedback, two examples of which I offer here. > Tim L. writes: I am reminded today of a quote that I have used for over 20 years on Day 1 when I teach science classes, written by the so-prescient Carl Sagan in 1995, and truer today than ever before: << Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technical powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. — Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World (1995) >> (Less eloquent was a graphic one of you sent showing a map of the United States labeled, simply, “Dumbfuckistan.”) Tim concluded: “May the great Flying Spaghetti Monster help us all.” I had never heard of the Flying Spaghetti Monster; but clicking that link, I descended into an enjoyable rabbit hole. It turns out, Pastafarianism is a real thing. Tim is a member. He’s even attended a wedding. It began two decades ago with this letter. > Lew T. writes: I knew the Democrats were in deep trouble a few weeks ago. My highly educated son said “Dad I’m voting for Kamala but frankly I’m voting against my best interests. It won’t bother me if Trump wins because it will be financially better for me.” The Democrats have become the giveaway, redistribution, preachy, culturally overbearing, high-tax and anti-national-defense party. The catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the huge budget deficits have defined the Democrats for better or worse. And the immigration fiasco which Biden finally shut down after it was too late clearly cost the Democrats the election. So, at age eighty, I’m registering as an independent. I won’t use the word “we” any more when I talk about the Democrats. I won’t donate any more unless the party changes dramatically. What a mess! “What a mess, for sure,” I responded. But pushed back some: The huge budget deficits began with Reagan and have been made much worse (as a percentage of GDP) under Bush 43 and Trump than under Clinton, Obama, and Biden. And Goldman Sachs notes that the deficits — and inflation — will be worse under Trump’s announced policies than they would have been under Harris’s. The Afghanistan pull-out was Trump’s deal with the Taliban. Biden delayed it 4 months but (wrongly, with hindsight) honored it. Tragic that we lost those 13 soldiers and what’s happened to Afghanistan since. But this was Trump’s deal; and had we not honored it, the war would have reignited, costing us yet more money and lives, as it had been costing us for 20 years. Immigration took forever to get through Congress – but once it did, the problem would finally have been fixed — if Trump hadn’t killed it. Hard for me to blame Democrats for that. I just wish we had been able to drive home more forcefully what a horrible, selfish, anti-American thing Trump did by killing it. Much else above with which I’d quibble. We’re the “high tax” party only if you make more than $400,000 a year (and really only if you make a heck of a lot more than that). Most Americans favor giveaways and redistribution — Social Security, for example . . . the progressive income tax, for another . . . unemployment insurance and Medicare. And ironically, red states get more federal aid than they contribute in taxes; blue states, less. But I think it’s the preach, culturally overbearing piece where your criticism is spot on. For sure, in recent years, our extreme left has sometimes gone too far. Either on substance (e.g., if anyone literally wanted to defund the police, as almost no elected Democrat ever did) or, just as politically damaging, in allowing that perception to take hold. Another example is pronouns. Maybe just because I’m old, but at least for the next decade or two, if only for practical political purposes, I’d have liked to see our side say: “Hey! Not everybody identifies as a he or she! So whenever we see someone add ‘preferred pronouns’ to their signature line, we like to respect their wishes.” Instead, by making it the politically correct thing for everyone to specify their pronouns — not just the 2% who may wish to be called they/them/theirs (or the transitioning Chris or Pat who may rightly feel we need guidance on what to call them) — we seem crazy. Or preachy. Or culturally overbearing. Or, at the very least, out of touch with average Americans in the heartland. I so wish Joe and/or Kamala had had one or more Sister Souljah moments as regards woke, because our leadership and almost all our electeds (and voters) are NOT extreme left. “If by woke you mean trying to treat everyone fairly and respecting the feelings of others, I’m all in — and I think most Americans are, too. But if by woke you mean extreme positions that make everybody walk on eggshells . . . that stifle free speech and cancel people . . . that disparage friends and neighbors simply because their values are more traditional than yours . . . well, that gets into very sticky territory most Democrats don’t endorse.” Etc. It would be a longer speech than that, but you get the gist. It’s a speech we should have made long ago . . . often and in various ways . . . and still should. I concluded by telling Lew I think his registering as an Independent is fine! In a perfect world, everyone would come to every election with an open mind, untethered to party. The Founders, you will recall, hoped there would BE no parties! But they also hoped there would be no demagogues. Thanks, all, for your readership. I still have the happy gene. Every day is a gift. Together — and with the help of lots of good people who, for various reasons, voted “the wrong way” — we’ll get through this. I hope.